sabaidee! (hello in laos...)
when we last left you, jen and i had arrived in luang prabang. we spent two nights there, which largely consisted of massages, facials, trying to bargan with little laos women at the market, (seriously, they are fiesty over here! i can't wait to get back to the western world where bargaining doesn't exist. or maybe i could introduce it to america...like, walk into the Gap and take a $100 dress to the counter and be like..."i'll give you $7"...and see what happens...), and visiting perhaps the coolest temple we've seen yet. the budhas were HUGE and plentiful, and we also spoke to a 19 year old monk for a good 45 minutes and learned all about the monk life. after i get home, i'll put the video i took of it on here. i felt very doing-a-documentary-for-pbs-ish as i sat there with my little video camera with the mountains and temples and river in the background as jen asked him all sorts of interesting questions.
our last night in luang prabang, we headed to the local (and only) disco a little out of town with our two friends stacey and jayne. there we rocked it out on the dance floor with the laos people, and i may or may not have even pulled out the worm. those who've seen this rare and highly unpleasant move know that in no way do i actually know how to do the worm, but anyway, it was a big hit. after the disco (which closed promptly at 11:30 as the laos people have a curfew), we headed to the local and also very obscure and "where-did-this-come-from" bowling alley, which was ofcourse packed as it's the only place open past 11:30. there i bowled a whopping game of 16, but more importanly had oodles of fun with all the other travellers.
the next day we took off for vang vienne in the afternoon in quite possibly the DODGIEST bus ride of my life! laos is absolutely one of the most beautiful countries i've been to, big mountains and giant rock formations everywhere, but this makes for very difficult driving co0nditions. the bus ride took about 7 hours, winding, curving, up, down, stuck in mud, almost hitting a girl on a bike in a village we traveled through, and several times, i looked over the edge at the vertical drop off and tried to figure out what our chances of survival would be should we fall off the edge. fortunately, we didn't, and made it to vang vienne in one piece.
so this is where we find ourselves at the moment: vang vienne! we've been here 3 nights and have decided that this is absolutely the craziest place we've ever experienced! the big draw for travellers here is tubing down the river. i really don't know how to explain it, and i'm afraid if i try all my readers will just do a head tilt, hair scratch, and say "huh?", but what happens is, every single day, about 250 people rent old tubes, get dropped off by tuk tuk up the river, and float from bar to bar (6 in total), all day. so really you tube for about 15 minutes in total (except at the end which is about a 20 minute tube ride back to town), and when you get near to one of the little bungalow bars, little laos kidsthrow tires and long sticks to you to try to pull you in. the river is as high as it gets at the moment, so believe me when i say if you miss what is thrown to you, there is no hope to getting to shore. anyway, so they pull you in, and each stop has rope swings, zip lines, dance floors, mud volleyball, or something of the adreneline rush sort. it's just. absolutely. nuts. i've never in my whole life experienced anything like it! all these random people in the most random place in the world doing the most random things on a river in laos. so we did two full days of tubing, and needless to say, my entire body feels like one giant bruise. jen's entire body IS one giant bruise. but quite possibly the most fun i've ever had!
this morning we tried to trek out to some caves and a lagoon and after about an hour of wadding through mud up to our thighs, turned back. and now we leave for bangkok in an hour on an overnight bus, then we take another overnight bus/boat to the island of koh tao in thailand! there we will be doing a 4-day scuba diving course (GET READY TO BE LOVED COLORFUL FISH!!!!), and then heading to koh-pha-ngan, another island, before heading back up to bangkok on september 10. i can't wait to chill on the islands, but i'm quite sad leaving laos. we've been travelling with the same bunch of people from place to place for about a week now, and now we're all sort of headed in different directions.
my next entry may be written with a view of the ocean!!!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
loving laos.
hello from luang prabang, laos! quite a journey getting here....
jen and i met at the bangkok airport no problem (whew), and headed to our hostel near koh san road in bangkok. we made the most of the late night with drinks and a hookah to celebrate the beginning of our journey. the next day we did the bangkok norm of the grand palace, some famous temples, and about 10 miles of walking before hopping on a train that night to chang mai. the train was air conditioned and had beds...sort of...and was packed with people. it was about a 15 hour journey, but we actually both had a pretty good sleep through the night, and it was cool to be on a train riding through the thailand country side. i like trains. they make me feel very dr. quinn medicine woman-ish.
we got to chang mai the next morning, grabbed the first hostel we saw, and rented some bikes to see the town. we headed up to (another) famous temple on top of this big hill, which we were adament we could bike up, but were told by the tuk-tuk drivers we most definitely could not..."15 km! too far! we take you! low price!" we were skeptical but decided to go with the tuk tuk and THANK GOODNESS! it was most definitely 15 km completely up hill. but we did make the most of our bike rental by heading out of town about 12 km to a lake reservior in the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! we were pretty much alone, other than a few thai kids swimming, and after such a long hot bike ride, we really deserved a swim and a lay in the little bamboo huts that surrounded the lake.
the next day we started on our two day hill trek into the thailand jungle, which in the two days included about 25 km of trekking through the mountains (calling it a hill trek is truly decieving because those were no hills my friends), sleeping on a slab of bamboo and getting eaten alive by mosquitos in a tiny little village of long-neck people from mynmar (you know where the women have those rings around their neck and their neck gets really long), elephant rides through the jungle, white water rafting, and bamboo rafting down the river. a busy 2 days! i loved the hiking, despite my poor aching legs, and mostly loved my elephant! we first nicknamed it horrace (jen's idea), then dumbo (too unoriginal), then elly. (also may sound unoriginal, but every time we said it he flapped his ears with approval.) anyway, he was a good elephant in that he didn't crumble to the ground through all the muddy uphill and downhill slopes along the river. seriously, elly was a champ! and the leader of the pack! he insisted on being first and shoved his way to the front. my kind of elephant.
the day after we got back from the hill trek (exhausted), we hopped in a crammed van and headed to the laos border to begin the long journey to where we are now. jen and i got slammed into the tiny little space in the back of the van next to about 12 massive bags of luggage. i took a dramamine and was pretty much knocked out (in that wierd not quite sleeping but can't move your arms sort of way) the whole 7 hour trip, but i think jen was a little worse off with no leg room and no sleep inducer. we got to the border in one piece, made some friends with a girl from ireland and a girl from england (who are still with us now), and the next morning, after a 3 hour long visa process, climbed onto what they call the "slow boat" which takes two days down the river to get to luang prabang. once again, jen and i got the worst seats in the house, crammed on a little plank of wood directly next to the smelly bathroom and in front of the hugest loudest motor i've ever heard in my life. all you can do is laugh! but again, we made some friends with some italian guys (i just have a hard time trusting italian men...a little too smooth...), and made the most of the 7 hours by charging people a bathroom fee since they literally had to climb over us to get to the toilet, which really consisted of an open hole with the river underneath. i think taking on the role of bathroom police, along with the fact that we literally had to shout as loud as possible the entire time just to hear each other properly (and later found out the entire boat of 130 people could hear everything we said) led to jen and i not exactly being the most popular people on the boat. but hey, i'd like to see other people have as good of spirits as we did seeing as our sense of hearing and smell will never be the same again.
that night we stayed in a little laos village right off the river. it was really really interesting. i loved laos immedietely, just because it seems so much more undiscovered than thailand. we kept the trend of "worst luck possible" going by staying in the most disgusting hostel ever...complete with an ant brogade taking over our toilet, a trickle of cold water coming out of our shower, mattresses from the stone age--in that they were literally made of stone--and the best part...the elecricity in the entire village shuts off from 10-6. so...no fan! wohooo! again, all you can do is laugh and chalk it up to a true laos experience. i didn't sleep that night as it was about 100 degrees in our room and i kept hearing different animal noises moving from corner to corner of our room. jen told me the next morning it was a gecko. who knew they could be so loud!
yesterday was the last day of the boat trip--another 7 hours--and we actually got seats! on the little wooden benches. seriously, i wish you could picture this boat! at one point there were about 25 laos people in the aisle, just picked up from another little river village, a baby screaming, a half naked little boy going up and down the aisle, and a wide-eyed bunch of foreigners not sure if they should laugh...or cry...or just make a dash for the life and swim to shore. but it was definitely worth it as we got to see laos in a really interesting way. it was really beautiful along the river, and there were several tiny villages we saw we cute little kids full of dirt all over their faces, half clothed, smiling and waving at the boat. i didn't realize how poor and undeveloped laos is.
so we got into luang prabang last night, another little river town, and we LOVE it here! we splurged on a hostel with an actual shower curtain, and immedietely got massages. this town is super friendly and chilled out, and full of history and interest. we may even stay an extra day. this morning we got up at 5:30 to watch about 300 monks make a walk around the temple walls. we bought sticky rice and little bananas and as they pass, they open their little bowl things and we put food in as some sort of offering. we aren't exactly sure of what it all means, but it was really cool. some of the monks were so young! not older than 10.
ok, jen's here now, so we're headed to see what this town has to offer. next we're headed to vang vienne for a little tubing down the river! until then...
jen and i met at the bangkok airport no problem (whew), and headed to our hostel near koh san road in bangkok. we made the most of the late night with drinks and a hookah to celebrate the beginning of our journey. the next day we did the bangkok norm of the grand palace, some famous temples, and about 10 miles of walking before hopping on a train that night to chang mai. the train was air conditioned and had beds...sort of...and was packed with people. it was about a 15 hour journey, but we actually both had a pretty good sleep through the night, and it was cool to be on a train riding through the thailand country side. i like trains. they make me feel very dr. quinn medicine woman-ish.
we got to chang mai the next morning, grabbed the first hostel we saw, and rented some bikes to see the town. we headed up to (another) famous temple on top of this big hill, which we were adament we could bike up, but were told by the tuk-tuk drivers we most definitely could not..."15 km! too far! we take you! low price!" we were skeptical but decided to go with the tuk tuk and THANK GOODNESS! it was most definitely 15 km completely up hill. but we did make the most of our bike rental by heading out of town about 12 km to a lake reservior in the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! we were pretty much alone, other than a few thai kids swimming, and after such a long hot bike ride, we really deserved a swim and a lay in the little bamboo huts that surrounded the lake.
the next day we started on our two day hill trek into the thailand jungle, which in the two days included about 25 km of trekking through the mountains (calling it a hill trek is truly decieving because those were no hills my friends), sleeping on a slab of bamboo and getting eaten alive by mosquitos in a tiny little village of long-neck people from mynmar (you know where the women have those rings around their neck and their neck gets really long), elephant rides through the jungle, white water rafting, and bamboo rafting down the river. a busy 2 days! i loved the hiking, despite my poor aching legs, and mostly loved my elephant! we first nicknamed it horrace (jen's idea), then dumbo (too unoriginal), then elly. (also may sound unoriginal, but every time we said it he flapped his ears with approval.) anyway, he was a good elephant in that he didn't crumble to the ground through all the muddy uphill and downhill slopes along the river. seriously, elly was a champ! and the leader of the pack! he insisted on being first and shoved his way to the front. my kind of elephant.
the day after we got back from the hill trek (exhausted), we hopped in a crammed van and headed to the laos border to begin the long journey to where we are now. jen and i got slammed into the tiny little space in the back of the van next to about 12 massive bags of luggage. i took a dramamine and was pretty much knocked out (in that wierd not quite sleeping but can't move your arms sort of way) the whole 7 hour trip, but i think jen was a little worse off with no leg room and no sleep inducer. we got to the border in one piece, made some friends with a girl from ireland and a girl from england (who are still with us now), and the next morning, after a 3 hour long visa process, climbed onto what they call the "slow boat" which takes two days down the river to get to luang prabang. once again, jen and i got the worst seats in the house, crammed on a little plank of wood directly next to the smelly bathroom and in front of the hugest loudest motor i've ever heard in my life. all you can do is laugh! but again, we made some friends with some italian guys (i just have a hard time trusting italian men...a little too smooth...), and made the most of the 7 hours by charging people a bathroom fee since they literally had to climb over us to get to the toilet, which really consisted of an open hole with the river underneath. i think taking on the role of bathroom police, along with the fact that we literally had to shout as loud as possible the entire time just to hear each other properly (and later found out the entire boat of 130 people could hear everything we said) led to jen and i not exactly being the most popular people on the boat. but hey, i'd like to see other people have as good of spirits as we did seeing as our sense of hearing and smell will never be the same again.
that night we stayed in a little laos village right off the river. it was really really interesting. i loved laos immedietely, just because it seems so much more undiscovered than thailand. we kept the trend of "worst luck possible" going by staying in the most disgusting hostel ever...complete with an ant brogade taking over our toilet, a trickle of cold water coming out of our shower, mattresses from the stone age--in that they were literally made of stone--and the best part...the elecricity in the entire village shuts off from 10-6. so...no fan! wohooo! again, all you can do is laugh and chalk it up to a true laos experience. i didn't sleep that night as it was about 100 degrees in our room and i kept hearing different animal noises moving from corner to corner of our room. jen told me the next morning it was a gecko. who knew they could be so loud!
yesterday was the last day of the boat trip--another 7 hours--and we actually got seats! on the little wooden benches. seriously, i wish you could picture this boat! at one point there were about 25 laos people in the aisle, just picked up from another little river village, a baby screaming, a half naked little boy going up and down the aisle, and a wide-eyed bunch of foreigners not sure if they should laugh...or cry...or just make a dash for the life and swim to shore. but it was definitely worth it as we got to see laos in a really interesting way. it was really beautiful along the river, and there were several tiny villages we saw we cute little kids full of dirt all over their faces, half clothed, smiling and waving at the boat. i didn't realize how poor and undeveloped laos is.
so we got into luang prabang last night, another little river town, and we LOVE it here! we splurged on a hostel with an actual shower curtain, and immedietely got massages. this town is super friendly and chilled out, and full of history and interest. we may even stay an extra day. this morning we got up at 5:30 to watch about 300 monks make a walk around the temple walls. we bought sticky rice and little bananas and as they pass, they open their little bowl things and we put food in as some sort of offering. we aren't exactly sure of what it all means, but it was really cool. some of the monks were so young! not older than 10.
ok, jen's here now, so we're headed to see what this town has to offer. next we're headed to vang vienne for a little tubing down the river! until then...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
thailand bound.
i'm currently in the seoul airport, just said goodbye to my little apartment, my friends, just watched ali get on his flight back to england, and am getting ready to say goodbye to korea. i take off for thailand in about an hour and a half, and will be meeting jen at the bangkok airport (oh please oh please God let us find each other...), and our southeast asia journey begins! it's been a bit of a rough week trying to pack, sort out terrible work situations and pay checks, saying goodbye to everyone and everything i love here (which ofcourse included a few late nights in hongdae and an up-till-4-am nuribong karaoke session), but i'm glad it's over and now i'm ready to move on to the next thing. like a month long vacation! :) i can't believe in just 7 hours i will see jen! family! someone completely unconnected to korea and completely connected to every other part of my life. it will be a nice transition into going home i think.
i'll try to keep the blog updated as much as possible as we make our way through thailand and laos. the plan for the first section of our travles is a day in bangkok, a night train up to chang mai (northern thailand), a couple day hill trek through the back country of thailand, and a 2 day slow boat trip into laos, where we will hopefully not get washed away by the laos floods (boo rainy season!), and will be spending a couple days doing the classic vang vienne river tubing. i'll let you know how it all goes!!!
i'll try to keep the blog updated as much as possible as we make our way through thailand and laos. the plan for the first section of our travles is a day in bangkok, a night train up to chang mai (northern thailand), a couple day hill trek through the back country of thailand, and a 2 day slow boat trip into laos, where we will hopefully not get washed away by the laos floods (boo rainy season!), and will be spending a couple days doing the classic vang vienne river tubing. i'll let you know how it all goes!!!
Friday, August 8, 2008
let the games begin.
THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING THE OLYMPICS ARE STARTING!!!!! (i'd do the little circle olympic symbol thing but i'm just not that computer savy.) jolly good. i'm more than thrilled. mostly because the opening ceremonies tonight will give me a wonderful distraction from the fact that one of my best friends and college roommates is getting married tonight and all 6 of my college roommates have been together all week. :( so just a quick shout out to katie helder and nolan wiersma!!!! happy wedding!!!! but i'm also pumped to watch the olympics this year because i was at the olympic stadium in beijing just 6 months ago. infact, exactly six months ago. wow, really? i just realized that. yup, exactly 6 months ago. CRAZINESS!
i'll be off to thailand in a week and 2 days. i'm trying to chip away at packing and doing all those ending tasks that one must do when they are leaving a place they've lived a year and love, but running around with my head cut off the last 3 days i'm here just seems inevitable. i did, however, get two big boxes packed and shipped this week. yes, i've resorted to shipping boxes as i've found out i'm only allowed a total of 44 pounds on my trip from seoul to america (which i'll be doing right after thailand. in fact, i have about 2 hours to get off my flight from bangkok, sprint through baggage claim and customs, meet my friend who will have the rest of my luggage, and re-check in for my flight to america. it will be a miracle if that all goes smoothly...), yes that's right 44 POUNDS!!!! when i came here, i had two massive suitcases weighing 160 pounds. go ahead and make fun of me, but let's all keep in mind that i am not simply packing for vacation. this is my entire life in these suitcases. everything i own essentially. anyway, so hopefully i'm not over. (my friend was on the same airline as me and was over and got charged nearly 500 bucks...eeeesh)
wohoooo summer olympics 2008! go america! (who's excited for gymnastics? i've been watching you-tube clips on shaun johnson all week...)
i'll be off to thailand in a week and 2 days. i'm trying to chip away at packing and doing all those ending tasks that one must do when they are leaving a place they've lived a year and love, but running around with my head cut off the last 3 days i'm here just seems inevitable. i did, however, get two big boxes packed and shipped this week. yes, i've resorted to shipping boxes as i've found out i'm only allowed a total of 44 pounds on my trip from seoul to america (which i'll be doing right after thailand. in fact, i have about 2 hours to get off my flight from bangkok, sprint through baggage claim and customs, meet my friend who will have the rest of my luggage, and re-check in for my flight to america. it will be a miracle if that all goes smoothly...), yes that's right 44 POUNDS!!!! when i came here, i had two massive suitcases weighing 160 pounds. go ahead and make fun of me, but let's all keep in mind that i am not simply packing for vacation. this is my entire life in these suitcases. everything i own essentially. anyway, so hopefully i'm not over. (my friend was on the same airline as me and was over and got charged nearly 500 bucks...eeeesh)
wohoooo summer olympics 2008! go america! (who's excited for gymnastics? i've been watching you-tube clips on shaun johnson all week...)
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