Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

Vang Viang, Laos
We awoke early yesterday morning to do what happens every morning in cities and villages in Laos and is known as the morning alms.  This is an offering of food to the monks for their daily food and is also to help with your good fortune and health.  We awoke at 5:15 and had to unlock the hotel front door and gate which took much effort in our early sleepy state. Walked to the road near the temple the monks emerged from and were promptly greeted by a local woman who supplied us with sticky rice, banana leaves filled with something and bananas placed us in a good spot on a rattan matt and showed us how to offer the alms. At 6am around fifty or more monks aged from about 70 to 8 carrying brass containers walked by us as we handed out our offerings. This was finished in the matter of minutes and after paying the woman for our offerings( probably enough to feed her family for the month) we sat and had some delicious Lao coffee along wig our baguette and fried eggs. 
After this we packed and got ready for our departure of luang Prabang, and boarded into two minivans and set out onto our 167km drive.  Now you you are all thinking, that downtown sound very far...and well you are right it isn't in canada withhold amazing big well designed roads.  But this trek they told us would take around 6 hrs. We soon found out why, this highway was actually closed for many years as it was deemed too dangerous for travel...it had a 'curve ahead' sigh about every 200 meters ( it would have been easier to have a sign for 'straight section ahead' as there were almost none), went straight up and over mountain ranges, was not very wide, it was shared by rather large transport trucks and buses and it drove through at least 100 small villages like no other I have seen. We stopped to walk through one of these villages and saw their daily lives in action, they survived by growing or raising their own food. Chickens, pigs, cows, dogs, ducks, geese and cats all roamed around in harmony.  As well did the children who from a small age were left to run around the village with speeding vehicles zipping passed them and all the animals, children and villagers would abruptly step aside as horns honked at the in warning of impending death by auto.  There homes are made by nothing more than thin bamboo walls and were only feet away from roadway.  There was tobacco being cut and dried, brooms being made, gardens being tended to, Ginger root being turned into tea, clothing drying on trees... All of which again gave me a feeling of great appreciation for our fortunate lives. Don't get me wrong they adorned smiles and all would say hello as we walked by and they seemed happy but they had very little and utilized every square inch of land in a resourceful way and it seemed they are all working to keep the village sustainable.
After a few more full 180 degree turns, close calls on passing attempts by our focused driver, along with a lunch break and another pitstop we made it to vang Viang...it is a complete contrast from where we just came and we soon realized we were in a true back packers world. Everywhere you looked there were shirtless drunk and stoned travelers in their twenties, hooting and hollering with spray painted backs and faces. Vang Viang is known as a place you will both love and hate and although I didn't have any hate I understand why this is not a place for everyone. The love part however, is quite obvious, if you can look past the mayhem of the  party goers the stunning beautiful into which we are surround is mind blowing. The mountains are tall with flat faces covered in trees and vines top to bottom. The rivers are clean and blue and there are many outdoor activities to keep everyone occupied.  The mountains offer many mountain climbing routes, many of these are multi-pitch, also deep within lies some of Laos biggest caves. We did a light hike up to one which had stairs to approximately half way up a mountain.  Inside the cave stretched for hundreds of feet twisting and turning amongst stalactites and stalagmites the size of volkswagens  that sparkled as light struck them.  At some points they were around 50 feet from the bottom to the top but have been made easy to tour in the past 8 years due to a large tourist interest. Concrete pathways and lighting was set up within and you could see they had future expansion planned. 
Our afternoon than turned to the water activity of a much more relaxed fashion.  We rented tubes and a tuk tuk that dropped us off up river in the most private commercialized part of Laos We had seen.  Actually it would be the equivalent of floating down the elbow river, with bamboo bars all along the banks. And each bar has the loudest music competing with the neighbors and each had either a Tarzan swing or zip line to dump you back In. There were guys in these bars that would throw everyone a rope n hopes to fish them I to their bar for drinks. Most of them offered a free joint or hash brownie or magic mushrooms with the purchase of a whiskey bucket and all served free shots for the ladies.  Needless to say this may have been the day I drank less than any other in order to keep my wits about me.  Although it was chaos it was incredible to see and a lot of fun. The best part is where you actually are... The most amazing mountains all towered around us while we floated down the warm clean water for close to four hours.   
We finished off our day at a river side bungalow restaurant, watching the night sky turn dark and than went for a foot and leg massage.  
Right now we are on a public bus traveling south to our final destination I Laos, the Capitol city of Vientiane.  This road isn't half as twisty and we are now out of the steep mountain ranges but the bus is slow and the driver us honking continually for both warnings to the small children and dogs playing on the highway but also for letting them know the bus is coming so get ready to jump on as there are no real stops.
Also, we had our two youngest travelers in our group leave us this mourning. Amy and Liam both decided that the fun filled town was made for them and are staying on there for a full week. We also had 3 other in our group were I'll yesterday and spent the day either in bed or trying to release the  alien inside them. This is an area that unbeknownst  to me I have for the first time ever in my life not suffered any issues??? But again we are thankful for our good fortunes and maybe our good karma is paying off at the right times. 
Until next time - Sabaidee 

Luang Prabang is known as the jewel of south east Asia - after staying here for three full days this has proven true to us in so many ways.  It is a small town of 50000 people nestled in the himalayan mountains where the Mekong and nam kang rivers meet.  The entire town was deemed a UNESCO site in dec of 1995 due to it's 32 temples and lengthy history of the previous Capitol city of Laos. When we first arrived here by slow boat it was just creeping up to dusk and we were immediately greeted by a magnificent sunset and soon noticed this town is cleaner and well maintained much more than any previous village we had visited in this country. We all pored into two small trucks with toppers  (i think they are known as jumbos) and headed off to our majestic looking lodging; sabadee guest lodge. We soon joined up to head out for some traditional Laos food and of course a few bottles of beerloa, which big bottles have been well received by our group.  Laos food is delicious! Their main meals hot noodle soups, lap ( minced meat with mint and cilantro, BBQ meets on bamboo skewers and all breakfasts consist of wonderful coffee and baguettes (france's previous control of this area are wide spread in the architecture as well as in some food).  
Our next day started in a wet mist which is cool yet refreshing, and added a new feel of eeriness to our drive into the jungle where we parked in a tiny hill village, hired a local guide and went on a trek through the jungle

It has been since the first day our tour started that I have made a new posting and although I am behind in regards to this journal I have been so involved, amazed and busy from all the incredible sights and adventures we have been on that I truly have not had the chance to get it all jotted down.  But now I am on day six of our tour; second day in Laos and we are presently floating down the Mekong river in our private slow boat.  

Yesterday morning we began on our first day of slow boat travel and we quickly learned two things...this mode of travel on a private boat is as close to first class travel as you can get.  Floating on a hundred foot boat equipped with reclining mini van seats, dinning table enough for 18, a full bar, washroom, retractable roof for only our group of 16 and the driver and his family who cook meals and cater to our needs is quite a luxury.  The second thing we learned is the temperature is cooler than many anticipated in the mornings and many ( including ourselves) are wearing all the warm clothing we own and are either wrapped in blankets or sleeping bags to prevent the wet cool air from sinking in too far. It's the first time I've put on socks and I'm considering finding my toque on once I remove my hoodie.  

Obviously I have skipped posting many days prior to today but I am going to attempt to do a quick synopsis to give you an idea if what our lives have been like. And let you all know we are still alive...

Day 1 of our tour group.

We began our day making our way to our new hotel via tuk Tuk where we soon learned it was a 'very special day, today is buddha day' ( sound familiar?). Arriving, eventually, at the hotel we checked into our room, and than spent the better part of the day shopping in the crazy 'outlet markets'.  These are seriously large multiple story towers with at least a thousand different shops where you can find nearly anything you'd want filled with what appeared to be at least a million people. 
We had enough after some key required purchases and many not so needed and went back to the hotel common area for some cold beers and a frozen juicy.
We stayed in the same spot until 6pm and were soon greeted to many new faces. This was the introduction to our group for our gecko's tour. The group consisted of us two canadiens, simal and dhaval from the U.K. And 12 others from Australia; a few traveling solo consisting of patrick, kiristyn, Allison and Sally. One set of good friends, Cherie & Elise and the rest either married or long term dating; lance & ngaere, Michael & Alex, and Liam & Amy. This has become our new family and our Thai leader is a charismatic guy who proclaimed his name as sex and that we would be with sex for the next four days!  
Upon our introductions we went for our first dinner together where all the rules and some of the itinerary was laid out for us. Basically sex gave us various options that anyone can do on that would be an additional activity above and beyond what the tour provides.  We were the only two that opted to go to a show called calypso ( transvestite cabaret) but before this we took in our first Thai massage, for 200 bhat we were twisted, pulled and poked and we both came out feeling wonderful. Although I wouldn't suggest doing this prior to a cabaret show as we were fairly sleepy after this experience.  But the show was super fun and we were confused and at time unsuccessful at determining which was male or female even while dancing in fairly revealing costumes.  This was the end to our first day with the tour and we needed a big sleep for our planned tomorrow...

Well I am going to sign out for now but we are heading for a cave that is supposedly filled with 10000 buddha and than to the UNESCO site Luang Prabang, a small town with 32 temples alone...Laos is already been a beautiful experience and we cannot wait to see more.
Stay tuned for ( luang prabang along with trying to catch up back to day 2 of our tour ) 
Sabaai-dii ( sahbaee). 

Ok I have some things to admit too before my next blog entry.  After rereading some of my previous blog postings i noticed there are quite a few sentences that do not make sense and a lot of grammar errors.  Now I have never stated prior that i hold any writing skills or even posses a solid mind for good spelling but for the record all of my typing has been done on my itouch which a) has a small screen slightly larger than 3" by 2" and b) the letters are about the size of the tips of my fingers and finally c) this little machine has a mind of it's own as the 'autofill' setting is on and it creates words that I had no intention of scripting. So for all the errors I apologize on advance and I hope they are few and far between. 
Now back to bangkok...
The previous entry Amanda and I were topping off our fast paced day sitting on the roof top lounging in the hot sun. Immediately after that we both succumbed to our lack of sleep and crashed for a much needed late afternoon nap. After quickly freshening up we headed back towards koh San road as we walked past some interesting restaurants that we thought smelled wonderful when we walked past them earlier in the day.  So we walked and we walked and walked some more throughout the crazy backpackers area filled with life and excitement.  It is an area of Bangkok that never sleeps and the numerous bars stay open all night and nearly all auto traffic fades out and gives way to street vendors of all types of food options. Some of the things of Sold varry from Fresh fruit, curry dishes, crickets a stick, alcohol, mystery meets and type of retail item imagined is sold be it by vendors walking around as a shop with legs to the constant and never ending make shift stores that seem to expand and grow as the vehicle traffic disappear. We finally decided on a small restaurant called "oh hungry's", we were soon sold by the buy 3 beer and get one free along with some green curry and basil and pepper chicken.  It was noticeable that there was a constant flow of newly arriving tourists wheedling their back packs along with confused and culture shocked faces wandering the street. But not us, we had been there almost 16 hrs now; complete novices and totally aware of our surroundings (cough). With this newly found enlightenment we decided it was time we put our money where our feet are...so we we t for what else? A 30 min foot massage for 100 bhat ($3) each we sat side by each while two women did their magic on our barking dogs.  This was a realization that we MUST do this as often as we can at least once a day as it was heaven.  We headed back to our hotel as we truly felt our first day on our trip and introduction to Bangkok was well spent and the jet lag was still trying to creep out if our system.  Upon arrival to our hotel we checked to see if our promised delivery had arrived fro the tailor we had been to earlier in the day, sadly it was not and a slight edge of suspicion if we had been duped had been exposed.  Regardless we both managed to pull off the sleeps of babes and awoke to another hit morning sky.  
I began my day with thoughts about how to get our  undelivered package, so I busily armed myself with all the paper i was going to require to take to the reception to assess the issue at hand. This included the receipt for the tailored shirts, the address of our current hotel and the hotel we were soon to be checking into. However, once again I was educated in not wasting negative energy as the package had been successfully delivered and I gingerly ran up the 5 flights to show off our victory. Of course we both had to try our newly custom made garments and we were both completely satisfied and impressed it all happened without added complication.  
After yet another delicious breakfast by the pool we packed our bags and heads out into the world to catch a tuk tuk to our new hotel...

Oh crap... I am so behind it us now 24 hrs since I've had internet, we are just about to jump on a bus out of Bangkok and and I want to post this blog entry before I get too far behind.  Stay tuned for our next submission for a full two day report on Bangkok city... Sorry for cutting that story short.

Bangkok ...

Wow, what an incredible start for us here in the Capitol of thailand. Amanda and I landed into the airport from hong kong at midnight and we both managed to pull off sleeping in the airport and on the plane, this helped make the final leg of our 24 hour travel day much less painful.  Although our taxi driver from the airport was a nice fella he really was not great at knowing where he was going and this was with a printed map and directions in Thai that we gave him.  He did phone a few people along the way and continued to talk to us in Thai for confirmation even though we just smiled like dumb whities and agreed  with everything he said.  He eventually got us to a spot he thought was close enough and that we should be able to figure the rest out and dropped us off on a small back road at 1am for something that we calculated around $16, not bad considering it was about 25 kms however after traveling for 24 hrs, sleepy, in 26 degrees celsius and completely without knowledge of the language to be left in the middle of Bangkok in the middle of the night it managed to give Amanda a slight anxiety. I promptly asked two nice toothless fellas sitting on the side of the road if they heard of the place we were staying...and as we have learned quickly about the people here, they happily and helpfully pointed us to the right direction.  Amanda's uncertainty of our unknown location was soon alleviated in the matter of minutes and soon we had checked in and were in room 518 of the lamphu tree house hotel.  In mere minutes more we were both in our king size bed complete with much needed a/c and out for the count.  Surprisingly we both awoke around 630am excited and ready to ease our way into the culture shock called bangkok.  Our hotel has a balcony that has a great view of downtown and scattered temples and an amazing sunrise.  After a quick warmish shower we pulled out a couple maps, had a delicious breakfast and planned our morning to be a simple day of walking around just to acclimatize ourselves slowly, you know just ease into our surroundings and take it easy to gain some strength from all the burnt energy we just went through - Sounds simple right?  
Being that I have just finished my second 'singha' beer and am lounging on the roof top patio in perfect 30 degree weather after a swim it does sound simple. But let me back up a little bit...back to the embarking of our day at 8 am after our wee breakfast.  It all started out innocent with the mandatory tourist pictures of us posing infront of our hotel sign...some crazy things floating in the canal right outside the front door and then walking down along the canal to immediately find a market complete with roosters in baskets, full deep fried fish, unknown mysteries and an extremely friendly elder who lived along the canal.  Did I mention. The people are friendly? This is an understatement!
So, ten minutes from our front door we are heading towards some cool buildings when mr happy local pants comments on my new camera and soon from that we have learned his father works in the royal york hotel in toronto and is a history teacher in bangkok.   After asking us what we are going to do today and asks if we have a map he talks about our incredible luck as today is a statutory holiday in Thailand and there are a few temples that are open one one day a year.  Go figure that would be on buddha day' and yup that happens to be on dec 28th...so our new best friend sits down with us and promptly begins to write down our days itinerary on our free tourist map that grabbed in the airport hours ago.  Next thing he does is walks us to the main road we are sitting near by and flags down a tuk tuk and explains timbue driver about our new set out plans and reminds the driver that being buddha day it is only 10 bhat to go anywhere (about 33 cents).  Suddenly our new best friend is a sudden memory as we wheel off in our three wheeling super cycle dodging in and out of traffic like we are in a high speed police chase.  So, as our teacher friend had planned we started at the standing buddha temple, a 100 ft gold buddha that monks were adorning with a massive gold robe by some crazy engineered pulley and wire system that they probably have used for hundreds of years. 
Our next stop was at the blue buddha temple ( really he was black) but this shrine was only open today and there was not another tourist around other than us.  It also was smaller and kinda hidden which instantly made us stand out trying to find it hidden behind a school filled with bustling children in their concrete playground. Another fellow notice our lostness and walked us to the buddha and politely showed us how to properly lay the rattan mat down, kneel and pray to Buddha.  After the formalities he was at ease and asked us about us and bid us happy travels. Our next stop was something I have now realized is what bangkokians feel is what tourists really come for- tailored suits! We were now dropped off at some high end tailor shop where after a kind salesman informed us a high quality suit would cost us about 8500 bhat ($250) we politely disappointed him and left for our next scheduled stop both because we are cheep and were not ready to lug a full suit around wih me for the next month or so. Our tuk tuk driver now took us too the marble temple which is another beautiful temple that was even full of chanting monks and was home to the boadhi tree, a spiritual tree Buddha sat under for weeks to help him discovery his own enlightenment.
Next stop was another tailor shop where we both decided to go for it and got sized for some tailored dress shirts ( not a full suit) from fabric we choose. These were much more affordable and also supposed to be delivered to our hotel later this evening.  After our purchase we were now driven to our final stop; the golden mountain temple. This was where said goodbye to our tuk tuk driver for the past two hours and although he said his day was paid for due to the coupon he was granted because of the statutory hotel combined with delivering us to a certain tailor we paid him 200 bhat which he was more than grateful for...$6 goes a long way here. Anyways back to the golden mountain temple, which happens to be the tallest
temple visible from our hotel room and that we woke up in the sunrise hours before.  This temple built in the mid 1700's is famous for it's 400 steps
to the top, Which is well worth the complete 360 degree vistas.
From here we decided that we could walk on down to a familiar area that Amanda had stayed at years prior. Khao San road is a bustling tourist zone filled with cheep souvenirs, t shirts, food, beer and whities from all corners of the world.  We decided to stop for a bite to eat and a beer... My first real Thai food...Tom yummy is right! And than walk around the plentiful markets of food and retail before stopping yet again in one more temple before sauntering our way back to our hotel.  We, without second thought jumped into our swim gear for a quick swim in the refreshing ( damn cold at first ) pool and this brings us back to full circle back to the roof top patio, lounging, hot sun, odd bird chirpings and the occasional waft of sewer smell that seems common to all over grown metropolis' that are hundreds of years old. Also, you may remember I said our hotel is right off a canal which I'm fairly certain is just part of a confused sanitary system.  Did I mention we saw a 4 foot lizard/crocodile creature swimming in it today?
Anyways, that was our calm, unplanned and easing into it gracefully first few hours in bangkok.  We could not have asked for a better start and we just know it is the sign if how special our days ahead will be.  

Can't wait for our evenings adventures. 
Stay tuned...

Oh also stay tuned for pictures...we are new to this blogging stuff and we are not quite there yet.