We’ve been in a place called Pai for the last couple of days.  We weren’t sure if we were going to come or not.  We had heard some people say what a wonderful place it was and the book described it as a place that people never leave.  The problem was that the road to Pai didn’t really go in the direction we are going meaning we’d go and then have to come back again.  And to give you an idea of the journey, it takes four hours to go 130km.  I think what made the decision for us was that Pai is in the mountains (hence 130km in four windy hilly hours).  The good thing about Pai being in the mountains is that it was supposed to be cooler.  By some miracle, when the rest of Thailand is sweltering, Pai isn’t.

As I’ve already mentioned, the road to Pai is somewhat arduous.  We took the ‘ordinary’ bus which means it’s the cheap bus that the locals take.  For the most part it wasn’t too bad.  There’s no air conditioning but all the windows (and doors) were open meaning that there was always a good cross wind.  The bus was full, but no one had to stand.  Well no one except for some hill people that got on half way through the trip, but they didn’t have to stand for long.  It was kind of interesting because they were real hill people, costumes, bad teeth and all.  The bus was also very safe.  There were railings to keep you from falling out the open doors and every time we stopped the ticket collector man would quickly jump out and put a wheel chalk under the back wheel so that the bus wouldn’t roll away.  The only problem was that the school bus style bench seats were Thai spaced.  What I mean by that is only someone of Thai stature (meaning five feet and a bit) would possibly have enough leg room.  Unfortunately I do not fit (figuratively and literally) into this category meaning I sort of had to sit sideways in the seat with my legs in the aisle.  I could also sit in the seat with my legs spread apart but that didn’t leave Bry with much room.  Anyways we made it safely through the mountains, we only saw one truck that had rolled over.  I assumed, from the large number of calm looking people standing around the flipped truck on the highway, that there hadn’t been any injuries or deaths.  Or maybe there had been deaths but it was too late for them and everyone was just in shock?

We arrived in Pai and I was pleasantly surprised that there were no tuk tuk drivers assaulting us as soon as we stepped off of the bus.  Actually thinking about it now I’m almost a little hurt…almost.  Instead of being attacked by hoards of people wanting our money, we were given some advertising which included a very descent map of town, so far so good.  Using our newly acquired map we started looking for our hotel.  We wanted something tranquil by the water.  Unfortunately most of the accommodations we saw were thatched bungalows; a thatched bungalow being a little standalone cabin that looks really cute, something you might see on Gilligins’ Island.  The trouble with thatch however is that bugs love it.  Also, because the walls aren’t really solid, it’s common that a thatched bungalow won’t have proper windows or screens meaning…you guessed it…more bugs.  Of course it doesn’t really matter if bugs get in through the windows because they’re probably breeding in the walls already.  After getting to the river and not really finding anything we started our way back.  We had passed some really nice chalet type accommodations that we had skipped because they looked too expensive.  We decided to enquire about their price and thanks to it being low season, they were in our price range.

As we were checking in I noticed that the thermometer hanging on the wall read 40C.   Now I know what you’re thinking, wasn’t Pai supposed to be cooler because of its mountain locale?  And this is exactly what I asked the man at reception.  He explained to us that during the winter Pai can go down to 4C but right now it’s only going down to 30C at night.  There went our reason to come to Pai.  We then enquired what there was to do in Pai.  We were hoping to do a bit of light hiking, maybe see a waterfall or cave or something.  The guy told us that there were a couple of things we could walk to, although he certainly wouldn’t go in this heat.  He explained that the best way to see stuff was by motorcycle.

We decided that the 100cc motorbike at the rental place wasn’t quite big enough for the two of us.  For only an extra 20baht or 66cents we could get another 25cc and it had an electric starter.  I was sold.  The motorbike was only $3 for 30hours plus gas and then optional insurance; and after our run in with the kangaroo in Australia we found ourselves more inclined to get the optional insurance.  And then there were the optional helmets.  Most people around here don’t use helmets but we thought it would be prudent.  I thought at the very least the visor would keep the bugs out of my eyes.

We now had our motorbike, helmets, a map and a full tank of gas (fortunately the gas attendant knew where the gas filler was because I couldn’t find it to save my life).  We started off through town.  Now this is the part of the story where Bryana wants me to explain that I was going so slow that everyone was passing us.  She also wants me to explain that not only were the fast teenage hot shot boys on souped up choppers passing us but we also got passed by a couple of school girls wearing pink backpacks on a cutesy motorbike.  Now it may be true that we were passed by a couple of school girls but they weren’t ordinary school girls.  I could swear that they had black leather jackets and tattoos under their pink backpacks.  Bryana disagrees.

There’s actually not much more to tell.  We rode our motorbike around for the last couple of days and had a really good time.  We didn’t get injured except when I tried to kick start our motorbike and my foot slipped off of the kick start lever and I managed to bruise myself.  The scariest part for me was when Bryana wanted to drive.  Just for the record, Bryana is a very good driver.  It’s true that she likes to go way too fast but today she was very good.  And also for the record, I am a very bad passenger.  I kept telling her how to drive and I think she saw more of the country side while she was driving than I did (I was too busy watching the road).  We were able to drive all over the fantastic country side of Pai.  We saw waterfalls, and villages and crazy mountain roads and had a great time doing it all.  Our favorite stop was at an elephant camp where the owner let us touch the elephant. She had very course skin (we’re talking about the elephant here) and whiskers and we really fell in love. She was eating huge stalks from a banana tree and she spit on Bryana (probably not intentionally). You can ride the elephants, but we weren’t really into it.

There were huge thunderstorms through here last night and the temperature actually dropped to 25 overnight which was a nice treat – we used a blanket! (well, not the whole blanket for the whole night, but a bit chilly for an hour at least).

Tomorrow we’re leaving Pai…but not on the ordinary bus, this time we

sprung for air conditioning and leg room.

We’re now in Chiang Mai and it’s proved to be a sort of ho hum experience.  Our biggest problem has nothing to do with Chiang Mai itself but rather the weather, it’s hot.  I mean very hot.  Highs around 40C and lows around 30C.  I know all of you back home, desperately waiting for spring, would like me to quit whining already but it’s really hot.  It’s so hot that you can’t really stand to walk around during mid day…and mid day, heat wise, starts around ten in the morning and goes until around four in the afternoon.  We’ve tried a few different strategies to work around this.  Today for example we were up at dawn, partially thanks to the damn roosters that kept on crowing.  Did you know that roosters crow before dawn, when it’s still dark, and just keep crowing all day?  I didn’t.  Dumb birds.  Anyways, back to the heat.  We did a bunch of walking in the morning but nothing opens until nine or so.  Something that also helps beat the heat is to take a cold shower.  Unfortunately the ‘cold’ water in our room during mid day is hot.  It’s not steaming hot but it’s definitely not cold or even cool. In fact, I actually thought the water was heated intentionally, but it’s not, it’s usually quite cool at dawn.  Another of our heat beating strategies is to find somewhere air conditioned to hang out during the middle of the day.  Yesterday we went to the mall and watched a movie.  I know it’s pretty sad when you go half way around the world to hang out at a mall and watch a bad Hollywood shoot ‘em up movie but that’s what we did.  Today we were a bit more cultural and decided to hang out at the air conditioned museum.  It was a bit of a trek to get there but we knew it would be worth it; until we got there and I noticed that the front doors were wide open.  Hmmm, they rarely keep the doors open to an air conditioned building.  Of course it wasn’t air conditioned and the museum wasn’t all that exciting.  The best thing on display was a temporary exhibit showing contemporary Japanese pottery.  After the museum we decided to see a temple.  Chiang Mai must have more temples per square km than Calgary has Tim Horton’s.  It seems that there is a temple no matter which way you turn.  The temple we were going to was about 1km from the museum.  Not too far to walk unless it’s in the blazing heat down a busy shadeless road.  As we were walking along we ducked into a gas station mini mart, air conditioned of course, and came up with an ingenious way to keep cool; at the mini mart they sold cheap bags of ice and ice is cold, so we figured that we could use that to our advantage somehow.  We bought a bag and found all sorts of places to stick ice cubes.  I stuck them in my shirt pockets and Bryana stuck them in her hat.  She also got a bit more creative.  Let’s just say I wish I had been wearing a bra this afternoon too!

I’ve heard Chiang Mai referred to as the jewel of Northern Thailand.  It’s Thailand’s second (or third, mixed reports) largest city and was originally built as a walled city complete with a moat and of course a wall.  Neither the moat nor walls exist anymore in its entirety which makes sense since the city is over seven hundred years old.  There are however many places you can see the wall, moat and gates leading into the old part of the city which are all very interesting to see.  We were told that the city was very touristy and it is but I’ve definitely seen worse.  It’s true that you can just as easily grab a burger here as you can a plate of Pad Thai or silk worms for that matter, but the place isn’t over run with tourists.

We’ve only been in Chiang Mai for a couple of days and we’re running out of stuff to do.  Part of the problem is that a lot of the things to be done are outside of the city in every direction and we don’t want to spend a fortune hiring a tuk tuk (scary).  We don’t know if there is public transport but it would be difficult at any rate since we don’t speak Thai.  We’ve seriously considered renting a motor bike, that’s how the locals get around.  However I haven’t quite worked up the courage after observing how people drive around here.  They’re crazy!  We have seen and done some interesting things however.  One of the big things in Chiang Mai is shopping.  There are markets and stores and malls and just about everyone is willing to sell you anything.  That in itself isn’t too unusual but we had the good fortune of arriving here on Sunday.  Why is that fortunate you ask?  Because Sunday is the day of the big night market.  They close down several kilometers of road and vendors selling all sorts of stuff setup their wares.  We’ve seen a lot of markets on our trip but this one was especially good because everyone seemed to have unique stuff to sell rather than just selling what the guy beside him was selling.  There were also a lot of singers, dancers and musicians at the market.

We’ve also visited temples, a lot of temples.  In fact if I see another temple I’ll…Some of them are really good – and very old. But it’s not just the architecture that’s interesting.  You see, temples generally come with monks.  Usually the monks keep to themselves, maybe smile or say hi but they’re sort of in the background and kind of mysterious.  Well, at one of the temples there was a big sign that said ‘Monk Chat’.  The sign went on to say that the monks want to talk to the visitors.  So we looked around a bit and very quickly found a monk sitting all by himself and got invited to talk to him.  It was a very interesting talk.  He told us how he’s been a monk for seven years and he has three more years to complete his education.  He’s majoring in english as well as taking Buddhist studies, I guess that makes sense since he’s a monk.  He told us that you can be a monk for as long or short a time as you want.  He seemed pretty sure he didn’t want to be a monk his whole life.  One of the first things he wants to do after leaving the monastery is to go to the beach.  We all thought that was quite funny.

Bryana would like me to add that she had a bird poop on her head twice in the last two days. There is still some daylight left, but we are hopeful that today we will see a change in that trend.

Tomorrow we’re going to Pai.  We weren’t sure we should go to Pai since it’s sort of out of the way and we’ll have to retrace our steps.  Not only that, it’s apparently a very slow twisty mountain road to endure.  The good thing however is that Pai has a relatively high elevation and is supposed to be significantly cooler.  I guess we’ll see.

We didn’t stay in Chiang Rai very long, we took a bus to Chiang Mai today (yes, two different places, read it again). It’s a big city compared to the places we’ve been in the last month – they have a McDonalds, reportedly. But more about Chaing Mai after we’ve roamed the streets tomorrow.

Chiang Rai turned out to be a nice place to visit and we’ve got some nice pictures of the White Temple, still under construction. Our guesthouse, Baan Bua, was great. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful and breakfast was the best we’d had in a while. We took the cheapest room they had, but it was clean and well maintained. It was room number U/S, probably the only room without a number… probably the only room “Under the Stairs.”  But since it was tucked away in the corner, it was cool and quiet.

Relatively cool, that is. We’ve been enduring 37, 38 or so degree temps the last few days. Sometimes it dips below 30 at night. Today I got a little cooked and kinda lost it. I cut off about 2/3 of my hair with our first aid kit scissors. I look like an idiot, but my head is cooler and my hair dries faster. Besides, I can’t go in the sun without my hat on anyway. I’ve been considering shaving it all off, then I wouldn’t be so paranoid about head lice (I’ve seen some in peoples hair). It’s supposed to be really hot in Cambodia and Vietnam in the next couple of months.

In Chiang Rai, the “long neck villages” are a big attraction. You’ve seen pictures of women wearing a bunch of gold rings around the neck to stretch their necks, right? Well, the rings don’t make their necks longer, they push their collarbones down and squash their lungs and shorten their life spans. I don’t think the ability to scratch your knees while standing tall is any justification for the practice. We heard mixed reviews about the village tours and decided not to go. We enjoy a freak show just as much as anyone else, but if a bunch of tourists with cameras are paying money to see it, it probably only encourages it.

We also visited a waterfall and had some fun roaming the night bazaar, listening to live music and gawking at roasted insects.

Oh, that reminds me – tonight they had these little omelettes cooked in banana leaves on a grill. I ordered a mushroom one. There were other ingredients in it though and I was a little concerned since the sign read, "Omelette with mushrooms, green pepper, baby ants, baby bees and onion.” But I ate it. It was good. What is a baby ant or baby bee anyway, larvae?

We said goodbye to Laos today. The last couple of days have been not so bad and great at the same time. We spent two days on the slow boat traveling up the Mekong River, about 9 hours on the boat each day. The boat was alright, a little loud but it didn’t leak. The majority of seating consisted of narrow wood benches that weren’t nailed down. There were some good – no, sorry, better seats available for the people who boarded early or paid an extra couple of bucks for the reservation. The better seats were mini van seats that probably never made it into a mini van. They weren’t nailed down either. We managed to get soft seats the first day but spent the second day on the floor (better than the benches). We also sat on the rail from time to time to get some fresh air and enjoy the scenery.

And the scenery was amazing. Villages, boats, rocks, sandbars, mountains and jungle were just a few of the highlights.  Oh, and there was water.

We stopped in the middle of our journey and spent a night in Pakbeng. Not much of a town really – maybe it’s sole purpose is to provide food and lodging for travelers. The accommodations sucked. I wouldn’t complain about any of it (since it only cost about $3) but the beds were moldy and even through my travel sheet the odor was rank.  Richard didn’t use his because he thought it would be easier to shower than to wash the sheet…unfortunately the showers were cold and there was no light in the bathroom.

The food in Pakbeng was better. We were dragged into a restaurant by a very friendly older man who told us they had very good food and free whisky and peanuts. The menu looked ok and we agreed. He brought menus and peanuts and gave us each a shot of whisky (really, really bad stuff… probably a local brew, they have a lot of that for sale in reused glass condiment bottles). At any rate, it’s hard to read a menu when you’ve so recently gone blind.

A girl came over to take our orders. Richard ordered (and this baffles me after all the complaining he’s done) the chicken and rice.

“Oh, sorry. No have chicken.” The girl replied.

We took another look over the menu trying to find Rich a suitable alternative. More than half of the menu was probably chicken. I tried to order some fish:

“Oh,” she giggled. “Sorry, no have fish.”

We giggled a little too. Could have been the whisky in our empty stomachs.

Eventually we found something to order and it was really good. So we went back for breakfast. The typical Lao breakfast comes with a baguette. A typical lunch, which we were hoping to order for the boat trip, is a baguette sandwich. The same girl came to take our orders and of course replied with a giggle:

“No have baguettes.”

So we had eggs and got some sandwiches made a little further down the road.

The boat ride was much the same the second day. We once hit a fishing net or something. The captain stopped the motor. I don’t think anybody was too concerned until one of the crew sprinted to the engine room, hurdling backpacks along the way. Then people were starting to show some concern. He stripped off his clothes fast, like one could only do in a phone booth.  He disappeared in the back, wearing nothing but his briefs. I don’t think he ever got wet though. He ran back to the front of the boat, breaking his previous speed record, still in his underwear. I was a little confused, but then I noticed that we were drifting toward some rocks. But a bamboo pole kept us away from the rocks and soon after the engine was up and running and we were on our way. Really, after hours of slow motoring up the Mekong, events like that really are a welcome break in the monotony… I realized later that there were no life jackets.

The border crossing was really uneventful, but the sign just past the Thai Immigration building that said “WELCOME TO TOURISM SATAN,” that really cracked us up.

We’re now in Chiang Rai, Thailand. We’ve got a few pics for you, we’ll write again in a day or two.

Luang Prabang is a really fantastic place. It’s too bad we spent so much time sick in our room, but at least we were well in time for the New Year.

We actually managed to get out of bed at dawn yesterday – in time for morning alms. People bring food for the monks and line up on the sidewalk, kneeling on mats. The monks walk several blocks, accepting food from everybody along the way, though they sometimes fill up and dump a little to make room for more.  Some of the monks also give some of their food to the poor who line up along the street with baskets, boxes and bags hoping to get a little of the excess.

As for what monks eat… we can’t say for sure, but they get handfuls of sticky rice, things wrapped in banana leaves and lots of individually wrapped bars and candies. It’s all one messy clump and when you consider that each ball of rice has been touched by somebody different, the bowl of rice they end up with at the end has been touched by hundreds of people. But from what we hear, monks like candy – at least the younger ones do. Maybe they don’t eat the rice – it could just be for show.

We met up with some friends yesterday who introduced us to another group of people, some from Canada. We ended up having dinner and drinks with them. One of them has been working in Laos for the last two years so we learned a lot about the country. We had barbeque for dinner – but it’s really more like a grill in the middle of a fondue pot. The food was very good and quite cheap. We had a wonderful time; stayed out late and had to wake the guesthouse owners so they could unlock and let us in.

Today I managed to talk Richard into taking a tuk tuk to Kuang Si waterfalls a half hour from here. They were amazing and they aren’t just for show. There are several tiers and swimming pools where you can dive in and cool off. The place is huge, so it didn’t seem overcrowded despite the huge number of people. We even saw a couple of monks doing flips from a rock into one of the pools. We only wished we’d gone in the morning and stayed for the entire day.

And now we’re packing. Tomorrow morning we board a slow boat that will take us west to Huay Xai and the Thailand border. It’s a two day trip so we’ve got snacks and pillows to make it as comfortable as possible. We heard that navigation is difficult because the water is so low and a boat hit a sand bar a few weeks ago and dropped its entire load (that means people and their luggage…don’t worry, no one was hurt). So we bought a wet bag for Quark and the camera… just in case.

Finally! I feel OK. It’s been a slow recovery for both of us. We’ve been feeling better, but climbing a flight of stairs or walking a kilometer has been about all the energy we’ve had - until today.

Luang Prabang isn’t a very big city, but the population has probably tripled in the last two days. There are people from all over the country here to celebrate the Lao New Year.  Then there are a huge number of people from Thailand, not to mention the travelers from everywhere else – there are a lot of us here.

There are a lot of the things you would expect of a festival; balloons, comedians, games and of course karaoke. Today we watched a parade – apparently the same parade happens again tomorrow. That’s part of what makes the New Year celebrations so much fun, they last for several days!

The Lao New Year is known to some as the water splashing festival. There is some water splashing, for sure, but for the most part we’ve seen drenching, soaking, dousing and saturating. And, it seems, despite claims from some of the stuffy caucasian travelers, nobody is exempt. We’ve seen taxi drivers, policemen and monks attacked today and most take it with a smile on their face. We’ve been hit a few times during the past week, but since we were sick we just toweled off and had a nap. Today, on the other hand, we were feeling a little energetic and we joined the fight at the front door of the guesthouse, armed with small pails. We threw water at everybody whether they were walking, riding motorcycles or hiding in their cars. The idea is to get people wet, but since most are already wet we just tried to get them wetter. All afternoon there were war cries along the street;

“Open window!”

“Loaded Tuk Tuk!”

“He’s DRY!”

There are a huge number of trucks driving around town, the beds loaded with people and water pails and we got just as wet as everybody else. We’re surprised the Mekong River isn’t dry.

We also got “painted” today a couple of times. I suppose that water alone would be a little boring, so there are people rubbing lipstick and soot on people’s cheeks and tossing flour (which sticks incredibly well when you’re wet). Today a woman cornered us at a temple and got us with lipstick. She said it was good luck for the New Year. Who are we to argue?

Anyway, time for bed. We need our strength if we’re going to do it all again tomorrow.

Well, we’re sure that Luang Prabang is a great place to visit, but we haven’t seen a thing. We’ve been sick since our last blog and we lost track of the hours and days as we lay in bed contemplating our imminent deaths.

To be honest, we weren’t really that sick or we would have gone to the hospital.  And none of our symptoms were unusual or too serious to deal with on our own.

It all started when Richard got a sore throat. Then he had some aches and pains and next thing I knew I had them too. It felt like flu. Richard is on antibiotics for malaria already so we figured it was a virus. Neither of us had much of a fever. Our digestive systems were shaky, but fortunately, nothing got out of control. We just stayed in bed and tried to sleep it off.

A couple of times one of us felt good enough to go down to the street and buy water, crackers, Tylenol and toilet paper. We really regret choosing a room on the second floor. Those trips were nothing short of heroic.

We count ourselves lucky to be here in town with no plans to move on for another week. We are also very happy to have our own bathroom, hot water in the shower and two single beds (we would just glance at each other from time to time to make sure the other was still breathing). We also had books and a few videos on Quark to pass the time. It’s made the last few days a little easier to bear.

Last night we experienced the first sign of recovery – hunger. We went out and crossed the street and had a bit of soup. It felt good but the short walk was exhausting and we went right back to bed. Today we are even better, we went out for breakfast and made a trip to the ATM. We were out for a whole two hours before exhaustion set in!

At any rate, everything will turn out ok, we had our flu shots.

It’s been a while since our last update. There was no internet at the farm and we didn’t have a lot of time to make a trip into town to an internet shop. But we’ve just arrived in Luang Prabang where internet is available everywhere, so we’ll have lots for you this week. But first, here’s all about our week on the farm.

The cats in Vang Vieng are hungry. I’m still not clear as to whether the people consider them to be pets, but they do consider them lucky. At any rate, many of the cats don’t get fed, they have to feed themselves. And they do, they find people like Richard who are likely to share their dinner. But they also hunt. One of the cats snuck into our room and disappeared under our bed. I was about to fish it out when we heard a frantic scramble and claws scraping the floor. I knelt down to figure out what the cat was doing and just as I spotted it I heard a big “crunch”. Hanging out the side of the cats mouth were hind legs and long tail. I don’t think the gecko suffered. It only took about 30 seconds for the cat to eat the whole thing – and I’m glad it ate the WHOLE thing because I didn’t want to clean up another mess under the bed (in addition to the squished roach).

There were also a lot of baby goats on the farm - eleven. Some of the mommy goats are elsewhere (maybe the goat cheese place) so had to feed the babies formula at 7AM every morning. It was so much fun that we never slept in. We held the goats and feed them with bottles. It’s tricky to tell them apart – very important since they only get a bottle and a half each and they all want more. They are also getting big and strong enough to jump out of their pen and catching them is not easy; fun, but not easy.

We also learned about the native plants here. Richard has fallen in love with some of the weeds, but the farm hands wouldn’t let Rich transplant them, they kept getting pulled. (Richard’s note:  The ‘weeds’ are sensitive plants.  You know the kind, you touch the leaves and they fold up as do the stems.  So the plants that we buy at home and struggle to plant from seed grow in the wild here as weeds).  Some of the grasses that look like weeds are actually used for medicinal purposes (though the language barrier is making it hard to determine the ailment that they are used to treat).

Of course, the best part of our stay was teaching the kids English in the evenings.  The kids are so eager to learn. They love to talk and listen and read and write. Some of them are getting very fluent so we’re happy to see that volunteers can make a difference. And the pre-class games were fun to watch.  The kids have their own versions of tag and high jump. They also love skipping - their ropes are made from vines! All of them are so happy.

We spent our last day tubing in the Nam Song. It’s not about the tubing (you have to paddle so you don’t come to a complete stop) it’s all about the makeshift bars and restaurants along the banks. The owners will throw out a bamboo pole for you to grab so they can reel you in. To attract patrons, there are swings and zip lines over the deeper spots in the river. It was great fun. The platforms were quite high; ten meters or more. You grab on to the handle and jump off and perform whatever amazing stunt you can think of (though a belly flop from 10 meters is never nice to watch). The locals are of course very skilled at aerial feats and could probably get a job at any circus. I managed to get the swing spinning on my last jump, which was fun until I realized I had lost track of up and down. I will say that swimming towards the bank is tough when the bank keeps sliding to the left. The swings are addictive and I wish I could go everyday. Richard, on the other hand, wished he’d had the courage to try it just once. These swings would never exist in North America, at least not without steel and concrete and you’d never be able to climb up without a lifejacket – and NEVER, EVER at a bar where you can buy beer and shots of Lao Lao for under a dollar (not to mention the other mind altering items not on the menu).  No pictures, sadly, because we didn’t want to take the camera tubing.

We never did get all the way to town on our tubes. After the sun sunk behind the mountains we realized we needed to cut our trip short. We caught a tuk tuk back to town. We then spent the evening celebrating a birthday at the farm. We played games until the wee hours of the morning.

We were sad to say goodbye, but it was time to go. The Lao New Year is fast approaching and we just arrived in Luang Prabang in time to find accommodation. Things are filling up fast and the water fight has already begun – we were soaked before we had a chance to check in. All of the electronics stayed dry and we’ll make sure that doesn’t change.

We’ve been traveling a little more than two months. Things are cheap in south east Asia. The further north we travel, the cheaper it gets. A guesthouse room in Laos will cost 3 to 4 US dollars, and they are really quite nice. Clean rooms with tiled floors and sheets that don’t have holes in them! Actually, they aren’t much different from a room at the Holiday Inn, except for the price. Of course, we usually just get a basic room with a fan.  If you want all the bells and whistles like AC and Satellite TV, you can spend 10 dollars a night. For a little more, you could upgrade to an actual hotel, which is much the same except you get daily maid service and even more perks like a pool and free breakfast.

Speaking of food, we’re really happy with the menu choices in Laos. Sure, they serve chicken and rice, but there are other things on the menu and not just for show.  When I ordered a “cheese sandwich?” they didn’t bring me chicken and rice! I got the best cheese sandwich I’ve ever had. And it only cost about $1.50 US. The local beer is cheap too, about the same price as water.  But ice usually costs extra.

By the way, in Laos, the US dollar is widely accepted and is roughly equal to 10,000 kip. When it comes to us “Farangs”, everything is quoted in dollars. Then you can add the zeros and pay in kip if you like.

There are lots of little things that cost a buck or two here, like bridge tolls, entry fees, bike and kayak rentals and so on. But no matter how much kip we shell out, our huge wad of bills doesn’t seem to shrink at all. A person can travel here a long time on a tight budget. 

We don’t know what to think about our travels here. We aren’t sure it’s right to bring a bunch of cash to an undeveloped country for the sake of travel. On the other hand, maybe travelers are an essential part of the Laos economy like they are in Thailand.  But imagine if a traveler followed you around and took pictures of you doing things all day because they were fascinated by your odd lifestyle and the concept of a cubicle.  So I’ve been asking people if I can take their picture, and they are always happy to oblige.  Sometimes, as with children, they are honored to be captured on film (or in ones and zeros as the case may be). 

We know that tourism dollars go a long way for the people here, but how does it affect them in the long run? Will they come to expect our money and start demanding more and more?  Will they trade in their jobs and farms hoping to squeeze a little more out of a lost Canadian?

Well, we decided that it was time to give back to the community in a way other than buying street food and tuk tuk rides. We packed our bags and took a tuk tuk a few kilometers out of town to a local organic farm where the profits from our meals and lodgings are spent on community development.  We are also going to spend the next week volunteering our services on the farm.  Within a few hours of arriving we had our hands dirty.  Muddy, actually. We helped make mud bricks which are used to build homes, schools, and farm buildings. It was dirty work and it’s still hot here, but the time went quite quickly and the river is just 50 meters away and perfect for washing and cooling off in. Tomorrow, I think we’ll be feeding the baby goats at sunrise and then off to do a little gardening. They grow fruits and vegetables and a number of plants with medicinal purposes.

But the main focus of the farm is education for all. We learned all about mud bricks today (they add straw to the bricks for tensile strength). The people learn about farming and the children learn English.  That’s where us Farangs do the most good! We can talk to the children and teach them what we take for granted; a language that opens doors.

Four days a week, a school bus brings up to 120 children to the farm after school. Here they get an hour of English lessons from the travelers who stay here. We are looking forward to tomorrow evening when the first kids arrive.

Teaching English hopefully won’t give Richard anymore blisters! Shoveling mud is much harder than shoveling snow. But, we’re probably the only people here that know that.

Laos is truly a treasure.  It’s got a tiny population of less than 7 million.  Its capital, Vientiane, is big, but other cities are tiny and almost invisible from a distance, dominated by trees.  The land is incredible.  The rivers are clean and the mountains are amazing. But the thing I love most is the laid back, honest and friendly atmosphere.  The people are genuinely friendly.  While most are trying to make a buck, they don’t EXPECT it, or try to scam you for it, they simply smile and hope to sell you something honestly. Laos is certainly less affected by tourism… unfortunately, that will change in time.  Laos is popular right now with the younger travelers, it’s cheap and there are bars and tours that cater to the party crowd. Ironically, the Lao people haven’t adjusted their schedules to suit the traveling teenagers; everything is closed by 11pm or midnight and many guesthouses have curfews. So they start early here and are up nursing their hangovers by 10am. 

Richard (and I, by association) haven’t done any partying thus far.  Of course, we still sleep in most days as our bodies try to rebuild water stores and digest mosquito venom. But we’re still up earlier than some and we pack snacks and water and venture off with our map as our guide.  Once you get past the edge of town, there are no tourists or travelers anywhere.  Apparently, if it doesn’t involve tubing down a river lined with bars, the foreigners aren’t into it. So our days have been relatively quiet and we’ve been having a great time exploring the mountains and caves around here.

Once you get past the edge of town, rural Laos becomes evident.  The people live in small shacks amongst rice patties and now, in the dry season, they are busy building fences and burning their fields. Some of the locals are busy finding ways to sell us, the foreigners, products and services. We pay tolls to cross rickety bridges, entrance fees for tiny caves and service fees for guides. Of course, you wouldn’t pay to see a tiny cave up on top of a cliff if there wasn’t any decent way to access it, so the locals build wobbly ladders from bamboo.  We stumbled across a rocky outcropping today that had ladders crisscrossing their way towards the top.

“I’m not going up there,” Rich said before I’d even mentioned it.

“Ok, but can we rest in the shade a bit?”

“I suppose.”

We were greeted by a man who wanted to know our names.  Richard replied, “Richard. What’s your name?”
”Come’on,” the man laughed. “Come on, come on,” he waved at us to join him. “Would you like to climb up?”

“No, not really.” Rich said.

“Very nice cave, just here,” he said, pointing to the bottom of the mountain.

I don’t really remember the rest of our conversation, but we ended up paying to see something.  It worked out to 50 cents each and we would rather see the people selling services than begging on the streets, so occasionally we buy something we don’t really want.  We never climbed up very high, just into the small cave that Rich didn’t enjoy as much as I did.  He prefers a paved, well lit path through the caves he’s planning to visit.

We also ran into some kids today.  It was a bit “Lord of the Flies” for a few moments until one of the kids offered us bananas.  I was starved so I asked how much they wanted for two. The kids laughed, apparently they weren’t intending to sell them.  Rich and I each paid 500 kip for a couple of bananas (that’s about 5 cents each).  The kids were ecstatic.  The bananas weren’t very good, they were full of huge seeds so they were rather inedible, but whatever.  One of the kids walked back to town with us, which was good because we were lost.

We spent the evening watching The Simpsons in a restaurant. The restaurants have low tables surrounded by cushions and big screen TV’s that play movies, The Simpsons or Friends all day long.  We decided we needed a TV fix, and it seemed to do the trick.

Tomorrow we brave the bicycle seats again, we want to see a cave that’s a little further away.  Then I think we’ll give river tubing a try, though we’ll probably not do shots at the bars along the way.

Today we moved further into Laos to a town called Vang Vieng.  As usual, the trip was quite exciting!  We started off the morning by being picked up in a sawngthaew (it’s a truck with a couple of benches running lengthwise down the back and hopefully a cover over top).  It wasn’t the transportation that was exciting but rather the occupants.  We’ve been noticing, starting in Thailand, a lot of caucasian gentlemen accompanied by local women.  Now there’s nothing really wrong with that but I’m quite certain that it’s not love keeping a lot of these ‘couples’ together.  Anyways, the man of the couple sitting across from us in the sawngthaew was very talkative and after a bit of small talk informed us that himself and the lady he was with had just been married.  I choked out a ‘congratulations’ with as much morning enthusiasm I could muster while being chauffeured in the back of a truck.  Something else that was a bit unusual about this couple was that the man could speak fluent Thai, well since I can’t speak Thai he could have been speaking Klingon for all I know but I assume it was Thai.  The part that really made my skin crawl was he would make these jokes and remarks to her in Thai, laughed and sort of touch her face and what not in a playful sort of manner but she returned none of his affection.  In fact, she just sort of stared back at him stone faced.  That relationship ought to last.

After being dumped out of the sawngthaew, we stood around in the blazing sun for a while waiting for our bus attempting more stimulating chit chat.  After being burned in the past, I’m now trying to be more careful when booking busses.  I ask questions like what kind of bus is it and does it have A/C.  I’m then shown a picture of a pristine vehicle and assured it is a VIP bus and it definitely has A/C.  The types of questions I probably should be asking are, “Does it have a muffler?”, “Will there be one seat per person or do we take turns?”, “Is the bus insulated with asbestos?”, etc.  As the bus was pulling up it looked ok, not exactly like the picture but not too bad.  Everything was ok until I noticed that the windows were open and so was the door.  Why would the windows and doors have to be open on a bus with A/C…hmmm?  After the bus stopped, we rushed to get our luggage stowed and then rushed to get onto the sweltering bus.  We carefully chose a seat not too far to the back, it’s bumpy back there.  We also noticed that there was an A/C unit in the ceiling with vents in it so we carefully chose a seat that could take full advantage of the cool air, should it choose to emit any.  After waiting on the bus for about 15 minutes, by this time the greenhouse effect of all those windows was taking effect not to mention the body heat from all of the other passengers, the A/C was turned on and the bus did begin to cool off.

Another trend I’ve been noticing about busses here is that they like to pack them full of people and or cargo.  Our bus was full of people, not a single seat to be had when a guy and his family entered the bus.  And this guy was rather full figured even by North American standards so he really stood out in a country where most people weigh in less than 150lbs.  A moment or two went by before the guy realized that there weren’t any seats left.  Well, more correctly there was one seat left.  And by this time they were collecting tickets.  The man then expressed that he paid for his tickets and they weren’t getting his tickets until they had seats.  I whole heartedly agreed with him…and that’s when the lawn chairs came out.  Yes that’s correct, right in the aisle they set up a couple of lawn chairs.  I guess it is true that nobody stands on a VIP bus.  Once everybody was seated and the tickets were collected, Bryana noticed that there were a number of bags and backpacks that had not been stowed.  I wasn’t too worried, I made sure our bags had gotten on before we ever boarded the bus.  Bryana jokingly suggested that they would have to put the bags in the aisle.  Sure enough, in about a minute, this guy, smaller than most of the backpacks, starts hauling the bags in one by one.  So there we are, every seat is full, the aisle full of bags and lawn chairs and passengers, it must be time to go.

The bus left and started working it’s way through the streets of Vientiane.  All of a sudden the people beside us starting freaking out and before we knew it they were yelling at the driver to “stop the coach!”  At this point I thought maybe they knew something we didn’t and I almost followed them out.  Of course they had to climb over the bags and the lawn chairs and the people in the aisle, so I decided to stay.  It turned out that the people had forgotten their plane ticket in their hotel room, I’m sure the ticket was right where they left it…right!

Some time had passed, they bus was going along nicely and then I noticed a drip of water hitting me.  Funny, it was hot and sunny out and yet I was getting rained on.  And then a few more cold drips of water.  I looked up and noticed that the A/C unit was leaking on me.  I was a bit torn.  How bad could it be having icy cold water drip on you when the ambient temperature is somewhere over 30?  A few drops would have been fine but every time the bus made a left turn a bunch of water would splash down on me.  I moved the camera so it wouldn’t get wet.  I tried adjusting the vents so the people behind me or the bags on the floor would take their fair share but it didn’t really work.  Bryana gave me her bandana to hide behind which helped, at least I could sort of spread the moisture out over a larger area.  Anyways, we finally made it to Vang Vieng without any further incidence.  I wonder if they have any flights out of there?