Thailand, indeed the land of smiles

133 - June 12th
Woke up after one of the single best nights of sleep on the entire trip! Something about the 72 hours of traveling combined with the cool room and very squishy bed (not just by Asia standards!). Upon fully waking up we realized we were in the middle of a very intense rain storm. After watching it for a few hours the Seattle-ite in us kicked in and we put on our rain coats, shorts and flip flops to head into town. As we were leaving the resort we were offered two golf umbrellas to add to the ensemble and a ride into town, yes please! Town is sort of relative here as the entire village of Bang Bao is houses on stilts built down the length of a pier. After wandering the whole town (ok, so we walked up and back on the pier), we settled in for a delicious seafood feast (heck, you can see the crab pots off the edge of the restaurant).

View of our resort from the pier

134 - June 13th
The only thing about visiting an island in the start of the rainy season, is you must must must have books with you to occupy your travel companion. So, the goal today was "Find John Something to Read". Headed out to Lonely Beach where rumor had it we would find a good used book store. Turns out there is a bit of a different concept with used books in Thailand, each book was being sold at the Baht equivalent of the price on the back in dollars (regardless of where the book was from and therefore if the original price was quoted in pounds or euros the price as still converted as in US dollars). After John located a book he was interested in, I went back and found the same book exactly but published in Britain so that it would be 1/2 the price. Worked out fine after all! And to continue what is starting to look like a trend, we hopped in a sawngthaew and the sky opened up.

Beach in Ko Chang

135 - June 14th
As an analyst I know that it takes three points to make a trend, that being said we are officially in a massive huge black clouds and pouring rain trend, it is awesome! We also discovered the joy of swimming in the pouring rain, where the water is coming back up at you due to the force of the drops hitting the pool. In the midst of our swim a girl came running up to the pool with two towels and an umbrella for when we were done. Very thoughtful, though we were fine with being drenched.

Back side of the resort


136 - June 15th
Rain storm day 4, definitely a trend! Will attempt to upload a really cool time lapse photo set that John took of massive waves crashing, but we'll see how that comes out.

Single frame from his cool time lapse

137 - June 16th
Woke up this morning to blue skies. That's right, not rain. It even looked like our trend might be broken. Luckily, mid way through a morning swim, we noticed a huge black blanket coming in from the north. Spent the next 20 minutes watching the storm approach and then took shelter as it opened up overhead. Pretty neat to watch!




138 - June 17th
Today is our last day living the posh life and of all the luck, we got real honest sunshine! Decided to make the most of it and cram in another swim, a walk around "town" and a mosey around the resort grounds. It was a really lovely place to be and a great way to recharge for the final month on the road!

139 - June 18th
Another transportation day: sawngthaew to ferry, ferry to Laem Ngop, sawngthaew to Trat bus station, bus to Bangkok, taxi (no monorail or subway this time) to OTHER bus station, bus to Kanchanaburi (dinner on the bus), and finally a pair of cyclos to our guest house.



We then wandered around town for a short while and then crashed. It was hard to leave our island paradise, but we decided to keep moving.

140 - June 19th



One of the highlights of Kanchanaburi is Erawan National Park. As most of you probably already know, Erawna is the Thai name for the elephant who carries Lord God Indra (of Hindu fame). So we boarded a local bus out to the park. As with most local buses, this one would have long ago been retired in the US. But we bounced along anyway. The main attraction of the park is a seven tiered waterfall. This one beats the pants off the two so called waterfalls in the Cameron Highlands.



It takes about two hours to hike up the paths next to the river. Each fall is carefully marked, so there is no confusion about what level you are on. I tried to swim in one of the pools, but there were a ton of fish who wanted to nibble on my feet and legs. Since this is quite an odd sensation, I opted for a brief swim.

The nibbler fish

Also, on the hike out we found a vendor selling sticky rice and beef jerky (among other things) and this turned out to be a very tasty combo.

141 - June 20th
We were going to try to see a temple where monks have taken to living with tigers, but as logistic would have it this didn't happen. So instead we wandered around town. I went to see the Bridge over the River Kwai. From a distance that is. It was really hot and I lost my motivation. Then we boarded a bus back to Bangkok (at this point we have been to Bangkok four times without staying the night. A tourist record I think). Right now in Thailand there are protests going on. Some people apparently have a different idea on how the government should be run. There was a huge march on a government building today. I don't think anybody has been seriously hurt, but we heard of a couple of arrests. We have stayed away to avoid any trouble. But the protest did make our cab ride to the train station about a hour longer then it should have been, and we had to walk the last three blocks. Not too much trouble at all. And we finally arrived at the train station. There we caught an overnight train to Chang Mai.

142 - June 21st
The beauty of the rail system in Thailand is that they have really figured out the timing. You get on a train at 8pm and it arrives somewhere at 9am, leaving you with a solid night's rest, accommodation in the form of transportation and a beautiful view of the countryside! Once we arrived in Chiang Mai we were greeted by the now familiar swarm of tuk-tuks, sawngthaew and other taxis offering us a ride anywhere. After settling in at our guest house we decided to venture to the other side of town and see is the Chiang Mai Night Market lives up to all its hype. It does. It very much does. It is a combination of small shops, street stalls, and a few block sized multi story building for more small stalls. We did a single lap through it all and it took us nearly 3 hours with almost no purchasing since we were simply overwhelmed. Pretty sure we will be back, but next time with a purpose (bring home souvenirs for friends and family). Other highlights of the Night Market include dinner that again exceeded John's dish size expectations and the "awesome" band covering Elton John songs without a complete command of English, meaning a number of sentences were more like close approximations of the sounds contained therein.

143 - June 22nd



Wat a day. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Hey, I resisted for along time. Anyway today, as you many have guessed, we toured a couple local wats. This is another situation where poor spelling can not be held against me.



We saw Phra Sing (one of the largest and most popular wats in Chiang Mai), Chaing Man (the oldest wat in CM), and Chedi Luang (home to a massive Lanna-style stupa (basically a really tall (six stories) pile of bricks with Buddhas at the top)) to name a few.



After touring the wats we took a break at a Tex-Mex restaurant. Hmmmm, nachos. Tasty. Then, fully recharged we headed out to the Sunday Market. Basically everyone and their kitchen sink descends on downtown Chiang Mai and sets up a stall. If you want to but silver stamped into the shape of an elephant, thousands of little knit key-chains (which I later realized where actually cell phone charms), or a t-shirt that reads "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most" you have come to the right place.

Having long ago worked out a market shopping system, Eliza and I browsed though rather uneventfully. A couple of small purchases were made, but nothing that would make the evening news. Which was rather surprising to me. I expected to act as a sherpa as I think it's Eliza's goal to have one gift for every person she knows. Do you have any idea how many people she knows? Plus, I think she made up several of the Sarahs so she can buy more things for herself. At the end of the night I asked if she was feeling alright, I mean she was far under performing in the purchasing department. Her response: "No, I feel fine. Tonight was just for looking. We'll be back tomorrow or the next night to actually buy things."

144 - June 23rd
Some how, while resting in our little slice of paradise both of us got a little bug. Nothing major (as traveling goes), just a small flu or something. We tried to fight through it in Kanchanaburi, but all the travel and bustle caught up with us today. So we scrapped our plan to see the elephants. Instead we walked out of our guest house and headed left. Different because previously we always headed right, and a big and bold move because each step took us father west then we have traveled before. We ate Thai soup for brunch, and headed back to the guest house. Some three to five hours later we headed out in search of falafel. Well, Eliza went searching for falafel (I still am not sure what exactly a falafel is). But, the falafel place was closed, so we settled for a cheese burger. Spicy curry or Pad Thai not being the ideal comfort food. We followed the afternoon meal with about three hours of sitting in Starbucks. Yes, there's one in Chiang Mai, don't act that surprised. This was followed by (as Eliza puts it) a slow mosey to dinner. Dinner consisted of some sort of leaf vegetable boiled in garlic sauce for Eliza and fried rice with chicken for me. At the bewitching hour of 7pm we headed back to the guest house for more R&R.

145 - June 24th

Elephants! Today we boarded a bus headed for Bangkok with the assurances from the bus company that it would stop and let us out at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Sure enough, after about 45 minutes of driving the bus pulled over, the bus attendant waved to us, and pointed to a giant "Thai Elephant Conservation Center" sign. So off we headed. First we signed up for an elephant ride. Which was awesome.



It is kinda like riding a slow horse canter (Eliza says), only the "horse" is 9000 lbs and ten feet tall. A really nice way to travel through the jungle. The elephant was apparently hungry because at various times throughout the ride he would stop and start pulling bamboo and other vegetation out of the ground with its trunk. The manhout (elephant handler) would first try to talk the elephant out of stopping for a snack. Then he would step up the commands. And finally he had a stick used to encourage the elephant along. Now I have heard elephants are thought to be one of the brighter animals in the world. Well, this one definitely knew who was bigger and therefore who should be in charge. I don't' speak Thai or Elephant, but I think the conversation went I little like this:

Elephant: Hmmm food.

(Elephant stips one branch of bamboo clean)

Manhout: No, no stopping now.

(Elephant strips another branch of bamboo clean)

E: Hmmm, bamboo, my favorite.

M: No. no food now. You'll get food when we get back to the stables.

(Elephant strips yet another branch of bamboo clean)

E: But I want food now.

(Elephant now moves on to grass)

M: Okay, one more bite.

(Elephant rips off more grass at the base)

E: Yeah, whatever.

M: No. I mean it. Let's go now.

(Elephant starts in on some vines)

E: Oh yeah? Make me!

M: I mean it. If you don't stop eating right now and get back to carrying these tourists around you will get no bananas at snack time.

(Elephants continues to rip the vines off of the trees)

E: Just three more bites.

M: No now!

(Manhout taps elephant on the head with the stick)

E: Hey, that was uncalled for. Okay, I'll start walking. Sheesh I was just taking a little nibble.

(Elephant rips up more grass and stuffs it in his mouth to eat as he walks)

Another cool part about riding an elephant is that you don't appear to be moving that fast, but with each step the elephant covers about ten feet. After the elephant ride, we headed over to see some elephants get bathed. Basically this means the elephants walk into a small lake and start splashing themselves. While, the handler on their back tries (unsuccessfully) to stay dry. One of the tricks the elephants have learned is to suck a bunch of water in their trucks, hold their trucks up for the manhout to grab and aim at someone, and then blow the water out. Largest squirt-gun ever.

(one took a detour before her bath into the tourist tent)

After bathing, the elephants (and spectators) walk to the performance area. There the elephants display some of their tricks: bowing, kneeling, waving (their trucks), picking up the manhouts dropped shoe, laying down, and putting a hat back on their handler. The elephants also show off their artistic side by playing the xylophone, drums, chimes, and painting pictures.



As part of the demonstration the traditional forestry skills of the elephant are displayed. The elephants pushed, pulled, kicked, and carried logs as they would have done many years ago.

John handing out bananas

Total elephant joy!

We followed this up with the purchase of some souvenirs. One of you lucky readers might get elephant dung as a gift, so you better be nice to us when we get back. After all was said and done with the elephants we headed back to the main highway to flag down a bus headed for Chaing Mai. This took thirty minutes, but might have only taken five had a semi-truck not been between us and the first bus to drive by.

Once in town, we headed back to the street market to buy some more souvenirs. Eliza, in prime form as usually, left no stall un-inspected and no vendor questioning who was the better negotiator.

146 - June 25th

Somewhere along this trip I learned about cooking school. It is quite the popular thing to do in Thailand, learn to make a few of the more common dishes and take a recipe book home. I could barely contain my excitement, John was doing a much better job. The day started with a ride around town picking up all the participants and a trip to the local market to see where some of our ingredients were purchased.

ALL the rice options at the market

After getting that all squared away we were off to the farm to make our own curry paste and become Thai chefs. All in all we definitely made some dishes, with varying degrees of success.

(We didn't plan the "team green" part)

John's yellow curry was delicious, my chicken and basil dish was a success and the rest of the menu gave us a solid jumping off point for future attempts.

147 - June 26th
With three things remaining on our "Chiang Mai List" we headed up to an alleged bike rental shop. I say alleged because it was not where it should have been on the map and no one in the area had ever heard of it. Making me wonder if it really ever existed. So we settled on an unofficial taxi (a guy in a taxi t-shirt driving a regular car) and headed out to Wat U Mong. Built in the late 13th century it is a Wat out in the forest, with the main temple built back into a hill so that it is a series of short tunnels that take you from place to place. It was built as a place for Monks already trained in the cities to come learn more about the breathing and meditation arts. Quite a cool site and very relaxing. After this we headed over to Wat Suan Dok, a Monk University where students from Wats all over Thailand come for advanced education. Two very different styles, both highly cool. Ended our Chiang Mai tour with a stop into the National Museum. We we walked in, two individuals working there hurried over to turn on all the lights. We were officially the only people visiting at the time and I very much enjoyed it due to the proliferation of very good dioramas depicting Chiang Mai in various times through history.

At this point we are entirely caught up on our blog.

I know sevral of you doubted this would ever happen, and we know who you are (elephant dung headed your way). I am sitting an a internet cafe typing right now, watching a parade go by. There are elephants, Thai shadow boxers, and tigers. I will say the tigers don't look that well cared for. They look a little hunge...

Visit Malaysia 2007 (plus 1)

113 - May 23rd
Today's transportation path: sawngthaew to ferry dock, bus to different ferry dock, ferry to mainland, new different bus to "Train Station", and tuk-tuk to real train station. Why is train station in quotes. Well, at one stop a lady gets on the bus and announces that this is the stop for the train station. Okay, I know this is not the train station (having been to the train station a couple days earlier), but I figure the train station is just round the corner or something. The train station is not just around the corner. As we get off the bus she says she can call a taxi to pick us up in one hour. We politely inform her that the sign on the front of the bus and our bus ticket both state that we purchased tickets to the train station. She relies "Yes" and she will call a taxi to take us there in about a hour, would we like to eat at her restaurant? Well another couple of people (who's ferry had broken down earlier in the day and were now less patient) stormed off after having a few choice words. We merely stormed off. There were a few tuk-tuks ready and waiting to take us the final 15km (How convenient?), but we ignored them and marched on. Just to drive in the point a little more, we walked for about twenty minutes in the rain until we got far enough away for the tuk-tuks to have reasonable prices.

114 - May 24th
Well, turns out we would have had plenty of time for the walk because the midnight train was delayed until 2am. Nothing like a 2am departure to set the traveling mood. When we reached the Butterworth train station we had made up about an hour of time, but still running one hour late. So, virtually on-time for SE Asia. In Butterworth we boarded a bus to Kuala Lumpur. The bus ran only two hours late. We finally arrive in KL three hours after we told Jimmy (Eliza's friend from Hong Kong) we would be there. No problem as we entered the hotel lobby only minutes after Jimmy arrived. We promptly dropped our bags and headed out for dinner. Dinner was eaten at a street restaurant with a local cover band playing in the background. "Sweet Home Alabama" never sounded so...so...so like they had never been to Alabama.

115 - May 25th
After the late night street concert and some solid Malaysian food we all slept well, very well, so well that we did not even open our eyes until nearly 11 am (which we all know is practically unheard of for John). The biggest problem with the 11 am wake up, is that breakfast at our hotel, ended at 10:30. Lucky for John, he was able to sweet talk the guys in the restaurant into some fruit to tide him over as we all got ready. As the only real thing on our KL "to see" list was the Petronas Tower, we headed there first. Well let me tell you, you need to get there early for your free tickets as it is a very popular activity (this may have had something to do with it being both a weekend and a school holiday, neither of which we took into consideration). Ah dear, after asking lot of people we learned that as a special school holiday exception they were going to be open for a half day tomorrow, at least we now have a plan.

Outside view of the Petronas towers

Headed over to Chinatown next in search of some "discount" DVDs and other culture. Later that day it appeared the seafood wanted to battle John again but he decided to take it on with a very early bed time (read 5pm). At this point Jimmy and I decided the only appropriate thing to do was go and get foot massages and try to catch the rockin' street band again. Luckily, both were successful!

116 - May 26th

Today I got up early (while Eliza and Jimmy slept) to get in line for Petronas tickets. I arrived before the ticket booth opened and got into the ill-formed line like everyone else. Just as the ticket window opened a security guard ushered everyone to form a more define line. It was at this point the several locals appeared out of no where and mingled in strategic places (i.e. near the front) of the line. So line forming is better in Malaysia in that they know how it is supposed to be done, but don't always follow. 1-1/2 hours later, Jimmy and Eliza appeared and we were ready to tour the tower. First off was a 3D video about the Petronas Corporation and their oil and gas explorations and drilling operations. Next was a quick elevator ride to the observation area (the enclosed bridge connecting the two towers). You maybe more familiar with the movie "Entrapment", same place.

On the Petronas bridge between the towers

After the towers, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and grab a bus to Singapore. Our bus turned out to be Super VIP. Which means three seats to a row instead of four. And more leg room. I know, we travel in style. The only problem with the bus was that by the time we got out of Singapore Immigration the bus had left us. Which was really annoying. Not only did the bus leave the three of us (Jimmy is still in tow), but the driver also left three other tourists. So, out of a total of 27 possible people, at least 6 were left. I am no math expert, but if you are missing 20% of your fares, maybe some thing is wrong.
On the bright side this did lead to Jimmy revealing one of his Five Creeds of Life: Never trust a bus driver. This creed can be applied all over SE Asia. When we finally did make it into town via a local bus (the bus driver appeared trust worthy, but we still eyed him suspiciously), we ate a good dinner, bid Jimmy a good night and crashed hard.

117 - May 27th

Woke up bright and early (thank you to the natural alarm clock that was the construction site across the street) and took off on our self guided walking tour of s'pore. In the first 2 hours of the beautiful, sunny warm day we managed to see just about all the "sites" listed in the greater downtown area, including the MerLion (see photo). When we were going thru immigration the night before (likely at the exact time our driver was taking off without us) the official asked me how long we were staying, I replied one or two days and he told me we would be able to see all of Singapore in that time, I laughed. Turns out he wasn't making a joke!

Said Mer-Lion

Attempted self portrait with the MerLion, or John's head has sprouted a leak

Saw a post office symbol on our map and headed over to check out some shipping info; in the 5 minutes between the MerLion and the shopping center, the dark clouds in the distance closed in and the sky opened up. Getting accustomed to these showers.

Jewish Asia - Singapore

Ended the day by seeking out a bar with Happy Hour (quite a popular phenomenon in S'pore) and had farewell dinner with Jimmy, it's been fun to get to meet up throughout this trip!

118 - May 28th - Happy B-day Biscuit Pants
Today we departed Singapore for the jungles of Malaysia. The train left at 5:30 in the morning, so we were almost half asleep by the time we realized they don't stamp your passport when you enter Malaysia through Singapore. And to think I am on the "Do Not Fly" list back home. Ahh security at it's finest. The view from the train through the interior of Malaysia was very pretty. Don't ask Eliza about it because she slept the entire way. Only walking up occasionally to pull the curtain shut and shade her from the sun. In order to see out the window, I would wait until she fell asleep to pull to curtain open and get my view back. This routine continued until our arrival in Jerantut. After arriving, we ate a SPICY local lunch, purchased some sundries at the local shop, and booked our tickets to Taman Negara.

119 - May 29th
We began the day by taking a bus to the jetty. The driver was in no hurry and even stopped to do some grocery shopping while we waited. Once at the jetty we waited for our boat. After an hour or so our boat showed up at took us on a nice river cruise to the town of Kuala Tahan on the edge of the park. There we wandered about to find a place to stay. Which wasn't hard 'cause there are only six different places to choose from. We then crossed the river (the park is on one side of the river and the town on the other) and explored a small section of the park. It is as one would think a jungle might be. Boiling hot, 100% humidity, and filled with animal and insect noise. Quite a difference from the temperate rain forests of Washington that I am used to.

Taman Negara

Then we headed back to the hotel to shower (highly needed, as 100% humidity leaves you sweating like Kraft cheese left in the sun). As we headed out for dinner we ran into Jenn and Alex (who you might remember from such places as Laos). Quite a surprise to run into them. It is not everyday you step out of your hotel in the middle of the Mayasian jungle and hear your name yelled. And for those of you keeping score, I am chalking this under my list of people we have met. They had grouped up with another couple of people and so the six of us headed out for dinner on a floating restaurant.

120 - May 30th
Due to the infamous school holiday we keep encountering, the "Canopy walk" was only going to be open until noon today and was likely to have a long line, this was the advise given by our helpful and informative from our guest house. That said, the 6 of us headed out bright and early to make the 2km hike to the Canopy walk in time for it to open. So the canopy walk is a series of 6 suspended rope ladders about 147 meters up from the floor of the jungle. Really quite cool, but I do not have a major fear of height (or any really) so I am pretty sure I had a very different experience from some other members of the group.
"Stable" canopy walk

The biggest (actually quite little in physical size) problem with everything related to hiking today is that it rained very heavily the night before, and in addition to some muddy paths (not a real problem) is that rain brings out the leeches. Before getting to Taman Negara I read about leeches in the guide book and started to develop a completely irrational fear of them. Before taking off on the hike this morning we made sure to have two lighters (to burn them off), covered our bodies in citronella (to avoid them in the first place) and have iodine with us (in case any leeches got to us). This also meant we started taking breaks at every sunny, wide patch on the trail to make sure no one had gotten leeched. After shrieking when I found one above my sock attempting not to panic as John flick/ burned it off, it looked like we were going to be fine. Not so. First casualty was Alex, who got a bite and go without ever noticing. The problem is, though leech bites do not hurt (or even feel like anything) they use a major anti coagulant and leave you with a solid bleeder. Though it was a beautiful hike with some awesome views there was a lot of time devoted to panicking whenever a leech was seen on the path or worse yet, on someone. Somewhere around the last 2 or 3km of our loop, the whole group was essentially engaged in a mild trail running exercise to get out of there as quickly as possible. All in all, Jenn and Jerone were bite free, Lindsay and John got one each and Alex and I lead the pack with 3 or 4 apiece. I will be fine if I never meet another leech in my life.

After a late (and leech free) lunch we signed up for a night Safari, which is an open jeep and a really powerful flashlight tour through the palm tree plantation on the edge of the jungle where a lot of the small to mid size animals go to feed. It was a really cool way to see the ecosystem at work.

121 - May 31st
After yesterday's hike taking about 3 times a long as the book estimated, we were hesitant embark on anything more major. After some discussion with the helpful gents at our guest house Jenn, Alex, John and I opted to take a boat up one of the tributaries to some rapids, known by the locals for good swimming. The ride up was completely breath taking, pure jungle hanging out over the water.



The boat dropped us off with a gesture to the right and "about 10 minutes". Well, off we go. Turned out to be a easy and leech free walk to the first rapids. After a brief rest and look around we decided to walk up to the second set. About 10 meters into the walk I had a leech drop on my hand (see previous days tirade on leeches for my thoughts on this one) and I promptly opted to turn back and spend my time at the first look out.

122 - June 1st
Today we headed by bus to the Cameron Highlands. Jenn and Alex accompanied us as far as Jerantut, but then we said good bye to them. We then continued our bus journey all the way to the highlands. The Cameron Highlands are located in central peninsular Malaysia and are popular because they are a good 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit cooler then the rest of Malaysia. They are a draw to the Malasians and Singaporeans (besides escaping the heat) because they can grow tea and strawberries there. We were not so interested in the strawberries because we can grow them back home (ok, I can't grow them personally, but my mom can). Once there, the cool weather felt amazing. It hasn't been this cold since Xi'an, China. We wandered around the town a bit (once again, the major metropolis of Tahan Rata took all of fifteen minutes to circumnavigate). For din-unch we ate at an amazing Indian food place.

For the first time in my life the picture in the menu showed a smaller portion than the actual food served. So, we might have over ordered. Now I did my best, but I am ashamed to say there was food left over. And this is coming from a guy who can eat an entire pig worth of ribs. Man I was in heaven, too much food and cool weather.

123 - June 2nd
In and around the town on Tahan Rata are a couple of hikes. Some up to the top of the higher peaks and some to a couple of waterfalls. Since Eliza has a little trouble with the whole "elevation thing" (the highlands are at about 4000ft high), we opted for a hike leading to a waterfall. Well this particular hike was more of a walk as most of the way was poorly paved, the river was was more of a spillway, and the water fall could have been easily navigated by a rubber ducky. But is was still fun to get out in nature and not sweat buckets. We headed back into town via the main road and had dinner at another Indian restaurant. Between the two restaurants we have found a good new dish. I can't be held responsible for the correct spelling, but it was called something close to "Thosi". It is a big rice pancake with all kinds of vegetables or other food wrapped inside. Which you then dip into different sauces. Really good.

124 - June 3rd
Since the Cameron Highlands are known for the tea plantations, so we decided we should see what all the hype was about. We jumped on the local bus which runs up and down the main road (there is only one main road) between the small towns. After thirty minutes of riding along in what only can be described as a jalopy, we alighted and headed on a 4km walk along a small road thought the tea fields. (side note: nobody over here says "get off" or "disembark" they all say "alight". British I guess. Just odd because it distinctively does not mean "set on fire". Which could prove to be disastrous if confused.) The walk was nice because a) it was cool and b) it was through tea fields.
On the walk to the Boh Plantation

When we got to the Boh Tea Plantation (our destination), we settled down for a nice cup of tea. Being the tea aficionado that I am, I can tell you that the tea was a 2008 vintage full bodied black tea with a high concentration of antioxidants and vitamins and minerals. Okay, I read that off the label, but the tea tasted good to me.



On the walk out we realized that we had perfect timing. The one-lane road leading to and from the plantation was bumper to bumper with cars. Nobody wanted to give up the right of way so they were literally at a stand still. The cars that left the same time we did ended up catching us 3 kilometers (thirty minutes later) down the road. Quite a traffic jam. Indian food again.

125 - June 4th
Today we spent some time planning for the next part of our journey. Eliza had planned on heading to an island called Palau Pangkor. But after several phone calls and emails we realized all the accommodation's were booked. At this time I think I should mention that we are still in Malaysia during the two week school vacation. And there are lots of families traveling at this time. This makes finding hotels more difficult, but until now not impossible. So we altered our plans and decided to head to the island of Langkawai. After another couple of phone calls. Thank goodness for Skype because it figures out all the area codes for you. No messing with +011-060-whatever. Anyway, we picked a place based on a recommendation from Jenn and Alex. After much computer work we headed out on another walk to see a waterfall.



This one actually had more than one drop and the more than one drops were all more than a six foot drop (much better than the previous disappointing waterfall). More Indian food.

126 - June 5th
Transportation: bus Ipoh, different bus to Butterworth, ferry to Georgetown, and ferry to Lankawai. Except for the last ferry part. See when you get to Georgetown the ferries stop at 2pm not the 7pm we were told. Oh well, we'll stay the night. Georgetown was founded by the British East India Company and has been used as a trading port ever since. So it is home to a lot of history and varied cultures. The architecture, mostly not-maintained colonial, is also worth the visit.

from the ferry

127 - June 6th
Hah, finally caught the ferry to Langkawai. It took about 2 hours and was a blue, beautiful ride. After taking a taxi to our guest house it was swimsuits on and beach bound for this duo (oh and about a 1/2 bottle sunscreen application between the two of us). Spent some time in the ocean staring off at the horizon.

128 - June 7th
So the thing about beach time is that, while wonderful to experience, is not that exciting (one hopes). Today's big news is that we bought a sarong to make into a large beach blanket that could easily be moved around to stay in the shade. I know, try to contain your excitement.

View from the beach

One interesting thing to observe on the beach here was the local population enjoying the water. As a large population of Malaysia is Muslim, many of the beach goers were covered, as in ankles to wrists and up to the head, even while enjoying the ocean. Made me feel a little indecent for even having a two piece on under my t-shirt and capris!

129 - June 8th Happy Birthday Momma Meds!!
Today's big variation on the beach theme was the awesome sand turtle John and I built. Well, John really worked more on sand supply while I did most of the building, but a group effort nonetheless!

Sunset in Langkawai


130 - June 9th
Side note on the START of my day today: Woke up to the alarm and like many people, needed to use the restroom. Headed in and for some reason looked in the toilet before sitting down. Was greeted with the most unexpected site at 7am, a lizard who looked far larger than the pipe, in the bowl, staring up at me. I promptly screamed, slammed the lid shut, and then ran out to the porch to fetch John. He took a look in the bowl and nodded then asked me what I wanted him to do about it. Turns out I had no plans past showing him, so I opted to leave the lizard there and avoid the bathroom for the last 15 minutes of packing up. Oy!

We now begin our epic three day journey to Koh Chang, Thailand. This process took three days and several forms of transportation. Here is a list in brief: taxi to ferry, ferry to Kuala Kedah, taxi to Alor Setar, overnight train to Bangkok. Highlights include buying chicken and sticky rice from the vendor ladies that hop on-and-off the train, and the extra wide bed because it was a Malaysian train.

131 - June 10th
Continuing the transport trend: From the main Bangkok train station to the subway, subway to monorail, monorail to bus station and bus to Trat. And in Trat we rode a tuk-yuk to the guest house. After checking in we headed to a night market were local food could be found. We ate one dish which shall not be named (they didn't speak English and we ordered by pointing) and a pad thai. Which was followed up another pad thai. The street food in Thailand has been so good. And at a dollar a dish, so plentiful.

132 - June 11th
Tuk-tuk to ferry, ferry to Ko Chang Island, hitched a ride to the sawngthaew station at the next ferry terminal (who knew we bought the wrong ferry tickets), sawngthaew to Bang Bao. We (Eliza) had to bargain hard with the sawngthaew driver because he wanted to wait for more people (even though he had five tourists and three locals already) to make the trip more lucrative for him. Anyway, he eventually agreed on a price, but we don't think he liked us too much because he ended up dropping us off ten minutes from where we were headed. We hiked the last kilometer or so to the resort. One of my promises to Eliza (in order to trick her into taking the crazy trip with me) was that we would spend a week at a fancy resort. So on Lankawai we spend a couple hours looking at different resorts. We ended up at the fanciest place I have ever stayed at, for less than the cost of our hostel in Singapore, sweet sweet low season. The Nirvana Resort. Beach side bungalow, two pools, sauna, on a peninsula (ocean on both sides) to name a few of the amenities. All-in-all nicer than I deserve, but Eliza was right at home. We ate dinner at a restaurant on a pier and settled into the most comfortable bed of the entire trip.

Aahhh....


And now, a preview to our lovely, waterlogged week in Koh Chang!

Destination: Beach time

Day 108 - May 18th

Early tuk-tuk to airport, airplane to Bangkok, bus to Hua Lamphong train station, overnight train to Surat Thani (phew). One item of note was that on the train there was this group of people blaring obnoxious music in our train car. However, this time it was annoying Americans with American music. No Thai (or Vietnamese, or Lao) Pop music, but good old American bands. Okay so I am not that "cool" and I didn't know half the bands or songs, but it was in English, and that was good enough for me.

109 - May 19th

Woke up at 4:20 to the announcement that we were in Sarat Thani, the jumping off point for our destination of Ko Samui. The only problem with this is that the first bus to the port didn't leave until 6:30. We lucked out around 5 when a bunch of buses pulled up and they decided to take a group over to the dock early. After some more sitting and waiting we finally boarded a boat and were on our way to Ko Samui! After one final mode of transport, sawngthaew, we were at Hat Lamai and more than ready for some beach time. I know this is going to sound crazy but...we met up with some friends of mine from college (and Seattle) and went to find some much deserved lunch. After more quality time on the beach, swimming in the gulf of Thailand and a much deserved nap (yeah, I know it doesn't sound like a busy day, but all those modes of transportation sure take it out of you!), we headed out at a big group to try some seafood.

110 - May 20th

I am going to let Eliza explain the majority of this section of our travels. Why you ask? Well most of my time was spent staring at the ceiling or the toilet bowl. "Revenge of the Seafood" I have titled it. Three days of island bliss spent eating Saltines and drinking Gatoraide.

Yeah, not likely John's single greatest beach vacations ever, though the morning started out nicely. After some quality beach time with Joanna, Timmy and Amy, it was time for the second haircut of the trip. Decided to keep form and get a some fancy toes while he went number 2, faded to the top. It was about this time, he decided that the remainder of the beach portion of the trip would be spent indoors, AC cranked, hoping for more Gatoraid.

111 - May 21st
Started the day with some beach/ pool time and read my first book of the day (friends were on a snorkeling trip). After checking on John a few times I went for reverse order of pool/ beach time, as well as book two. Sadly, seafood still revenging, so started in on book three...

112 - May 22nd
Got a chance to see my friends off early in the morning! Mid morning John decided to venture out to the pool with me, woo hoo, seafood less venging!! Ended the afternoon with a great foot massage and headed to the night market for the best Pad Thai of the trip (thus far). John braved dinner and was officially declared the winner of John vs Seafood, it was touch and go at times, but the stronger fighter prevailed.

Ko Samui in the morning

Temples temples everywhere, literally

Day 100 - May 10th
A week or so back, when we booked our flight from Pakse to Siem Reap the helpful lady at Lao Airlines reminded us to check in at least 2 hours before our flight. As John hates to be late for these sorts of things, we arrived at the Pakse airport with 2.5 hours to spare. This turned out to be a little less necessary than it might be at other airports. First, there are 10 parking stalls at this airport, one run way and 2 flights per day which is really one flight that travels Luang Prabang-Pakse-Siem Reap and then back again. Second, we were the only people taking this flight from Pakse.

The days arrivals/ departures.

The cards came out and the hours were passed. When the plane landed to drop the 4 people off we went through immigration (a 7 second process), and went out to board the plane. As we were 8 on the flight total we had to sit with even weight distribution over the wings, this is a new one for an international flight. A short, bumpy flight later (our Asian flight luck remains), we were in Cambodia and our taxi was there to take us to our guest house. In Cambodia they have a different take on the tuk-tuk. It is a scooter with a carriage hitched to the back, pretty nice way to go.In our eternal quest for Mexican food, we found a place with the name "Viva" and opted for a nosh there to start our adventure in Cambodia, we'll try Khmer food tomorrow.

Day 101 - May 11th
The Temples of Angkor are really freakin' cool. I am not a poet so I will not try to compose some sort of ballad or tribute to describe them. Just go there and see for yourself. Someday we'll get the pictures posted online and you can check them out.

Stop One

We decided the best way to see all the temples was to rent bikes and pedal around. It was a great way to go, but if I had to do it all over again I would have hired a tuk-tuk. We got a nice early start. Not as early as I wanted, but Eliza insisted on sleeping or something, I wasn't paying attention. There are two popularly traveled circuits around the temples: The Grand Circuit and the Lesser Circuit. Of course we stated with the Grand Circuit as I would accept nothing less.I am not going to get the exact names right, or the exact order, but here is the path we took:Prasat Kravan, Bat Chum?, Banteay Kdei, Sra Srang, Prasat Top, Ta Prohm, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Prasay Krol Ko?, Neak Pean, Banteay Prei, Prasat Prei, Prah KhanHighlights include the whole day, but here are some notes;Ta Prohm was really cool. The archaeologists/conservationists are leaving this site untouched, so the jungle is moving in. And when they say "untouched" they actually mean they leave the cool natural parts and build a boardwalk throughout most of temple. There are huge trees (and I mean huge) which are growing over the temple walls.

Said trees

Also, Ta Prohm was as featured in "Tomb Raider" if you have seen the movie.Neak Pean is on an island in the middle of a reservoir.Ta Som has a cool tree growing over a door way.And one, I can't remember which, has cool statues of Elephants all over it.

A temple gateway


Day 102 - May 12th

Neak Pean

With our behinds sore from the previous day of biking (40km in total), we headed off on day two of our Angkor Adventures. This time we headed straight for Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was a walled city that housed many temples. Today there are about ten "sites" to visit. My favorite temple in all of Angkor was Bayon. Which sits at the center of Angkor Thom. It has 50 or so massive towers, each with a large carving of a face on each outside wall. So 200 or so faces. And the faces are big. Say 10ft tall. Some of the faces are said to be of Jayavarman VII (the ruler at the time of construction). No insecurity issues there.

Then we headed to the main attraction of Angor Wat. Just as we pulled our bikes up to the main entrance the rain started. And this was no light shower. We're talking Chicken Little "The sky is falling" rain storm. And being the proper Northwesterners that we are, we pulled out out rain coats and ventured in. Well the rain kept most of the crowds at bay. Which was nice, but it was difficult to take in the whole of the temple when you can only see thirty feet in front of you. After walking around for about an hour we headed on back to our hostel. Oh, and yes it was still raining and we were completely drenched by the time we got back.

Angkor Wat from the back

Day 103 - May 13th
So today's plan was to get a tuk-tuk and see a few temples that are much further from the Angkor center, and given the rain storm of the day prior, to revisit Angkor Wat. In the sunshine, it is truly stunning, and swarming with people. People who are in very bright outfits, of the same color, his and hers bright outfits. Bordering on strange. Turns out May 13th is the Kings birthday, and therefore a very lucky day to get married. All of these groups in bright outfits were wedding parties, doing pictures at Angkor Wat. Hauling around massive suitcases containing up to 13 outfits per person that they will wear throughout the day. Angkor was definitely worth the re-visit.

The cool kids at Angkor

Off to Banteay Srei, also known as the Women's temple since many scholars thinks the carvings are to intricate and detailed to have been done by men. It is a small site about 28km from the main area and completely worth the tuk-tuk ride out there.

Banteay Srei

To round out our tour of Angkor, we finished with "The Rolos Group" a set of structures from a different era and about 16km east of the main area. One major plus to this group is that, while they are very impressive, very few people venture out to see them. In fact we were the only people at Lolei and Prah Ko, and it was only 20 minutes into our visit at Ba Kong that another duo joined us. All in all, it was a chance to really take in the grandeur of these places and get a true sense of how they wanted their deities honored.

On the way home we were privy to another 'sky is falling' storm. It got so bad that out tuk tuk driver pulled over, pulled down the plastic make shift sides and crawled in to chat with us and wait out the storm. As with all extended conversations, it came up that we are from the USA. This time we were not asked if we knew an uncle/ aunt/ cousin in Mississippi, but instead what our knowledge of the green-card system was. Can you buy a green card? Is the lottery free? What percent chance does he have of actually getting one? Is it a better idea to move to California or New York? For all the bad press America gets, we are still seeing a strong interest in moving there. Huh.

Day 104 - May 14th
We took an early bus from Siem Riep to Phnom Penh in order to arrive at a decent time. The problem is not so much the distance (300km or 250km depending on who you ask), or the road condition (not too bad for SE Asia, and much better than even three years before), but the fact that the bus stops three times for lunch. In most modernized countries the trip would take maybe three hours. So, seven hours later we roll into Phnom Penh. As we left our first hotel choice (they did not have any rooms to our liking) a nice Norwegian gentlemen waved us to his new guest house. After checking in we went to the large central market to pick up some supplies.
Then to a new "market", which strangely resembled a "mall", but Eliza told me it was a market and therefore had cultural benefits. And if she says it, it must be true. There she picked up some much needed supplies (I carried the wallet). We ate dinner at a nice restaurant on the waterfront.

market number one

Day 105 - May 15th
Today was glitter day. What does that mean? It means I read about shinny things in Rough Guide/ Lonely planet and we are seeking them out. First stop on glitter day was the Royal Palace and silver pagoda. You are only allowed into certain building in a small part of the grounds as this is where the King still lives and works. Unfortunately they do not allow cameras in, but the throne was very gold ornate, and definitely shinny. The Silver Pagoda got its name from the entirely silver tiled floor. In any western nation, the things in the display cases in the pagoda would have some pretty major security, here there is a list taped over the opening of each display case so that people can tell 1) if that case has been opened and 2) if so, what is missing. Security at it's finest.
Headed over to the national museum next. A number of carvings and smaller statues (read less than 20ft tall) from Angkor have ended up here. It was pretty cool to take a look at these pieces up close and out of the elements. Ended the night with dinner on the river, watching the lightning storms somewhere in the distance.

Day 106 - May 16th
We started the day with a trip to the local tourist market to get some of the gifts you people expect from us when we return. After loading up with "My best friend went to Cambodia and all I got was this stupid T-shirt" shirts, we met up with Lynn and Hannah. Another set of people Eliza knows. A-ha, fooled you, this is the one and only time we are meeting people I know. Okay, so they are friends of my uncle and I have never met them before, but I am so tallying this under my section of the score board. They are both very nice people and we had a great lunch with them. As a pick-me-up, we went to the Tol Sleng Genocide Museum which is housed in the old S-21 site. This is the former high school buildings where many of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge took place. Not a very nice place at all, but worth a visit.

Day 107 - May 17th
Today I ventured out to the "Killing Fields" which is about as happy of a place as the name sounds. From History Class I knew that the Khmer Rouge were not nice people. And from Life Class I can tell you they were REALLY-NOT-NICE people.

We then spent the rest of the day researching/planning the next part of our trip.

More pictures to follow when we get a chance!

Laos, friendliest nation on Earth

Day 85 - April 25th

Because Phosavan is a small town and we are in low season there was only one option for traveling there: Local Bus. And as it turns out the local bus was better than the VIP bus. Okay the physical bus wasn't better, the bus was a piece that's for sure. However, the ride was smoother because we were going slower and the open windows provided more ventilation and cooling. And, somewhat surprisingly, our bags made it too. Which was good because they were strapped to the top of the bus with rope.

Said bus

After settling into our hotel room I wandered around town. It took me ten minutes. Like I said, this town is small. After getting some shady offers from a couple of tour companies (for example one guy stated a price, then his "brother" chimes in with a higher price claiming the first guy doesn't speak English that well. Not sure what Lao for "yeah right buddy" is, but we didn't book with them.) I booked a tour with a local company to take us to the Plain of Jars. The convincing tactic of offering me a "special discount" worked like a charm. Also, I was at the last place in town. As they were taking my money and filling in my information they made me promise several time not to tell anyone how much I paid because the "discount" was for us only. Turns out several other people paid the same amount, but it did make me feel special.

Day 86 - April 26th

Sometime in the 5th or 6th grade I read a magazine with an article about the Plain of Jars. It is a site in Northeastern Laos where there are acres and acres of stone jars, each carved from a single stone of all different sizes. Since there is no carbon matter, they aren't really sure when they date from, or exactly what purpose they served. All in all, this means I was totally pumped for today's tour! Loaded in the the van and we were off. Due to heavy artillery during and after the Vietnam war (the US systematically bombed the area, one drop every 9 minutes for ten years, which seriously adds up) only 3 areas have been sufficiently de-mined to be open to the public. The first site was very cool, rolling hills with jars all over the places. It turns out our guide when to University to study archeology and then spent 2 years working on the Plain of Jars sites. He now works part time as a guide and part time with an archeology group in the area. Continuing in the Laos spirit, it was a laid-back, informative tour, actually the best one we have been on yet. The combination of information, followed by our guide plopping down in the shade until we were done taking pictures, made the whole tour feel, well, un-tour like. The roads to the 2nd and 3rd site deteriorated the further out we went to the point that the ride felt a lot like the massage chairs one finds at Brookstone, only bouncier.

One of the large-sized jars


Day 87 - April 27th

Hopped in a tuk-tuk with two people from our guest house this morning and headed back to the "new" bus station. Purchased a "Special" ticket to Vang Vieng (turned out to be a cross between local and VIP, with the bags still strapped to the top but an AC option on board). Over the next 6 hours we befriended the entire group of falang (foreigners) who had been on the bus from Luang Prabang to Phosavan and upon arrival in set off en mass to find a place to stay. After looking a a few places we stumbled upon a new guest house with huge rooms for a very reasonable price (under $10 per room, US rates are going to be painful when we get home).
After settling in and having a Beer Lao to calm the bus nerves, settled in for dinner. As we are eating, our friend Kyle wanders by, after a few shouts he realized it was us and joined up. Also learned some new rules for the British game "S@#t Head" tonight, John pretty much never lost, can't say the same for myself.

Day 88 - April 28th

Around 5am, I woke up to one of the most massive rain storms we've experienced yet! The result of the storm was the group decision to post pone floating until tomorrow. After a morning of playing cards, all the clouds completely cleared and left us with blue skies and sunshine! Through all the card playing, we learned that our friends Jenn and Alex also played a game called Beer Pong when they were in college, this conversation lead to the idea that we should bring it to Laos.

Market in Vang Vieng

After lunch, a smaller group headed up to the local market in search of tiger balm and a ping pong ball. With much success at the market it was time to introduce our game. Once we got started Ben and Lu totally got the hang of it and the local guy from the store next door turned out to be a complete ringer! Maybe this is where the idea that Americans have weird habits stems...

Day 89 - April 29th

Today the weather was clear enough to head out floating, or tubing as they call it here. I'll let Eliza describe most of the day, but I wanted to pitch in for the description of the ride there. The Tuk-tuk loaded up about eight of us and our tubes and headed off down the road. About half way we hear the ping-ping-ping sound of metal on concrete as something fell off the tuk-tuk. A couple people made the comment "I hope that part wasn't important". It was. As the driver went to take a left, the right wheel fell off. Which would be bad if you have four wheels, but on this tuk-tuk there were only three wheels. So the tuk-tuk tipped sharply to the right and came to a rest leaning badly. Fortunately we were not going that fast, so nobody was hurt. However the best part had to be the drivers comment, and this reaffirms the Lao attitude towards life. "No problem. We're here."

After clambering out of the tuk tuk and grabbing our tubes we headed down the road to the river. Looked to be moving pretty quickly but we hopped in and were off. About 100 yards down river a Lao gentleman with a long bamboo pole was waving wildly at us and pulled us to shore, turns out to be the first of many shore side bars along the way. After getting our whole group out and then back in again, we decided to be more selective in our stops. A bit further down, eagle eye Lu spotted a volley ball court and it was time to pull over again. As the first 6 people to arrive, we set up a rousing game of 3 on 3 with no real idea what the rules of volley ball were. Over the next hour as more and more people joined the game it became clear that our make shift rules were quite off base, ah well, it was lots of fun. Back in the tubes to head downriver in search of some lunch. Over the next 4 hours we floated more, marveled at the rock formations on either side of the river and got up the nerve to try these swings into the river. Essentially many bars have built platforms on the river banks where you can swing out over the river and then drop, surprisingly not as scary as it sounds (and I am sure twice as safe as my description implies). At the end of the float we realized we were on the cusp of the 6pm return deadline, this resulted in some mad paddling on the part of our group and a nice jog though town to return things in time. All in all, great Laos fun!

Day 90 - April 30th

In order to reach the Tham Phu Kham cave we rented mountain bikes and headed out of town with a photocopy of a hand drawn sketch as our guide. Accompanying us were our new friends from England. The bikes weren't necessarily up to the road conditions much less a mountain, but we managed anyway.

At one water break on the ride out, we were catching our breathe when we hear Lao singing wafting over the hills. As we sat there listening to this baritone voice, a small boy of ten or twelve came riding around the corner on a bike two sizes to big belting out the unknown melody. He is effortlessly navigating the rocky/pot hole filled road with one hand on the handlebars and the other gesturing in full opera form. As he approaches us he stops and loudly sings/exclaims "Sabadee" (hello in Lao). Then picks up right where he left off and continues on his way.

So as I am riding my bike along the "road" when I hear a familiar and disheartening "phhffffff" from my back tire. A crap a flat, how the hell am I going to fix this? What I need is a tire repair shop. Let me set the scene. We have been riding four 45 minutes along a dirt road through farm after farm. The only signs of life we have seen are fellow bikers (mostly Lao school children), cows, and chickens. There have been four houses and no villages. So as I survey the damage I look around for any source of help. And I am not kidding, about 30 feet down the road is a house with a sign that reads "Tire Repair". So I push my bike to the house where an elderly lady sits weaving and a boy sits resting. I point out my tire and he hops up and starts to fix it. His tools were a little more crude than I am used to. Not sure a chisel is a part of the normal bike mechanic's toolbox, but it works. Thirty minutes and 5000 Kip ($0.75) later I have a fixed tire. At seventy five cents a pop, I thought about offering him a job following me around to fix all my flat tires.

When we reached the cave it turned out to be at the top of a "path" that was more of a scramble/climb than a path. Inside the cave was a reclining Buddha statue. At the base of the climb is a lagoon great for swimming and cooling off from the heat of the ride and the day.

Eliza headed out dancing that night with two of the girls we met. I didn't ask her what she did and she didn't offer any details.

Day 91 - May 1st

Most of today was spent in the back of a pickup truck or sawngthaew headed back to Vientiane. These pickups are converted to passenger vehicles by adding to benches to the back and throwing a roof over it all. A good way to travel (except see my previous description of the road conditions, Day 82), but I got really nauseous on the ride. I did get to see a local family buy and consume bbqed bat on a stick (that didn't help the overall nausea).

On the sawngthaew

When we finally reached Vientiane, we check into our hotel and headed to dinner with Kyle (who accompanied us on the sawngthaew).

Day 92 - May 2nd

Laos Airlines has disappointed us once already this trip with their "we have that route, but it is not flying now" answer to all our inquiries. Okay, so they don't actually say it that way. It is conveyed in more of a "no" fashion. Which confuses us because we don't know if they mean no tickets are available, no because of the weather, no because the pilot got lost, or no because we are in the low travel season and the route is not flying due to lack of customers (the actual reason we think). But anyway, there is no flight to Pakse from Vientiane. This leaves one option: the dreaded overnight bus. So we signed up. This time for seats and not beds, because we figured why pay extra and not sleep.

Day 93 - May 3rd

After the overnight-not-sleeper-but-still-not-sleeping-on bus we arrived in Pakse. Most people travel that day to the Four Thousand Island (our next stop), but we are familiar with each other, so we decided to take a "calm" day (as Eliza calls it. I call it "keep Eliza calm-day". POtato, PotAto.). And Pakse is the perfect place to take a clam day. And I thought Phosovan was small with nothing to do. Highlights of the day include...okay no highlights to speak of, but we did book a bus to the Four Thousand Islands.

Day 94 - May 4th

Our bus picked us up right on time and drove us two blocks to a bigger bus. Highly efficient. This bus then took us to Nakasang. There we hoped a ferry to Don Khone. On Don Khone, there is absolutely nothing to do. There is no power (generator run for 4 hrs per day), and no plumbing (unless you count the pipe from your bathroom to the river). There are hammocks, playing cards, and three restaurants. Oh and about one billion bugs and thousands of fat geckos and frogs. So we sat around and played cards, took naps, ate food, and avoided the bugs.

View from our deck

Day 95 - May 5th

Happy birthday bro'

As today's adventure (just to break up the card playing routine) we went to see the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins. In order to see them we were driven almost to the Cambodian border, where we got in to a set of small boats. Them we were transported to a couple of rocks in the middle of the Mekong river. Not an island, but a couple of rocks about 15 feet in diameter where ten of us sat for an hour. We did get to see the dolphins as they traveled past us. I have pictures of ripples that used to be dolphin tails to prove it. Very cool. And as the piece de resistance, as were we headed back to the dock in the boats, three or four dolphins fully breached right in front of us. Very cooler.

Day 96 - May 6th

We originally thought we would head back to Pakse and then take a day trip to Champasake. On the bus to Pakse we started talking with a couple from Portland who were headed to Champasake. After a quick geography lesson from them, we decided it was going to be best to bail early and visit Wat Phu today. The ferry from the drop off point across the Mekong to Champasake was two boats lashed together, on an oooooold bus filled with tiles, rice and other random sundries. The bus dropped us between THE open hotel and restaurant. Checked in and went to find food with our new northwest friends. Towards the end of lunch the sky opened up and we decided to play some cards until things dried up a bit (noticing a trend in our time wasting?). As it never quite dried up we ended up at the same table in the same restaurant from lunch right on thru to dinner, that was a first.

Day 97 - May 7th

The ruin of Wat Phu is a Angkor style temple built on several levels extending from the river plain up a mountain. The result is a spectacular temple. You begin by walking along a dry reservoir, then through a pair of large buildings on opposite sides of a main path. Then you walk up a series of stair cases to reach the second level. Following that are more stairs and a third and final level. On this level are the ruins of the main temple. The temple is backed up to a shear rock cliff probably 100 feet tall from which a spring naturally bubbles. When you finally turn around to see where you have been you realize the view extends as far as the eye can see along the Mekong river valley. The natural scenery on the temple grounds makes it a beautiful place of worship.

Main temple building

Obviously my description is highly simplified, and I don't feel I can give it an adequate description, but this was one of the highlights of Lao for me.

After our visit we all decided we should head back across the river and try to catch a ride back to Pakse on the same bus we jumped off the day prior. Today's ferry was much smaller than the day before and though still was two boats lashed together, these were more of the canoe variety with some planks forming the passenger platform.

Ferry ride (& me avoiding a sunburn on my head)

On the other side we started asking around for some transport to Pakse, pretty much all the locals only wanted to offer us a very expensive ride to the main highway (about 4km from the town at a price more than double the cost of a 80km ride). In principle our groups of now 6 decided we would just walk back to the main road. About 1 km into it our packs felt incredibly heavy and we were all beat, as luck has it, this was when a giant pick up truck slowed down and motioned for us to hop in the back. The "hop" was about 6 feet off the ground but with one an other's help we were on our way with the drivers 4 kids, bouncing towards the main road. I got the distinct feeling that we were an unusual site by all the giggling "sabadees" we received along the way. At the main junction a mini-bus heading to Paske immediately pulled over, we worked out a deal and we were on our jolly way.

Day 98 - May 8th
As happens every so often when traveling, the travelers completely run out of clean clothes. These are laundry days and almost always result in said travelers wearing some pretty strange outfits as the entire rest of their packs are being washed, today was one of those days. At least we will enter Cambodia in style!

Day 99 - May 9th
This is what we have referred to thus far as an "administrative day". It means we spent most of the time figuring out:
1) How we will get back to the US at the end of our trip (via Jordan on Royal Jordanian Airlines)
2) If we can fund the rest of our trip (yes)
3) Where we will stay in our next location (thanks for the rec Kyle)
4) If we can cram everything purchased so far into our bags (mostly)
and other fun things of that sort.

Side note: We are writing this from an Internet Cafe in Malaysia where they are playing on TV an Asia version on American Idol. The "artists" are performing a variety of hits including: "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, the theme from "Phantom of the Opera", and several Chinese songs. The Malay cafe workers are periodically singing along.

Ok, some pictures up, John's still to come!