Catch up

All of us at the Waterfalls


One of the pools at Kuang Si Waterfalls outside of Luang Prabang Laos.




David, Me, Lisa and Brandi swimming in one of the pools from the waterfall.




Brandi and I along the Mekong during our slow boat trip.





The "rules" of our dodgy little guesthouse in Paekbang. I will never forget that room as long as I live.



The sunset on our first day of the boat trip. Luckily Brandi took this photo when she did because the next day was really stormy and cold with no sun at all.



The view along the Mekong on our s...l...o.....w.... boat trip.



A bunch of boats docked along the shores of the Laos village Paekbeng.



All of us backpackers loaded on the boat during the first day. Our boat was luxurious the first day, we had seat cushions. We weren't so lucky on the second day, it was hard wooden benched for our fannies.



One of the many Thai Hilltribe ladies who was trying to sell Ben her home made wooden frogs. They gravitated towards Ben more so than the rest of us, which we were quite all right with.




The countryside around Pai.



More Pai countryside from Brandi's little journey.



Our little Bamboo hut in Pai.




Brandi and I riding the elephant in Pai.




So the past three weeks have gone by really quickly. Last I left off, Brandi and I were still in Pai, our first stop. Our second day there we decided to rent a motorbike, since that seemed to be the thing to do there. Of course neither of us had any experience, and the rental shop wasn't too interested in giving lessons. We roped an Austrian guy named Martin and a Spaniard named Flavio to give us a quick thirty minute lesson. After our thirty minutes were up, I was convinced Brandi and I couldn't both manage to ride on the same motorbike and since there were no more automatic bikes available for rent, I opted for the safed pedal bike as my mode of transportation for the day.

I pedaled 7kms to the hot springs and Brandi drove ahead and then doubled back to see how I was doing. I made it in about 30 minutes, which I thought was quite the accomplishment, considering we were in the hills and it was plus 25. In the afternoon we headed to a nearby waterfall that didn't have much water which was a bit dissapointing. My legs couldn't handle another 15kms on a bike so I hired a motortaxi to take me to the falls. I came back sooner than Brandi as she stayed back to take some pictures of the countryside. We agreed to meet in an hour back at the guesthouse. When she didn't show up I was bit concerned, but I figured I should relax until she was at least an hour late. Fourty minutes after the time she was supposed to be back, she finally arrived. Apparently she got lost and had problems finding anyone who spoke English to give her directions back to the town. Needless to say I was happy she made it. It was quite the little adventure for her.

On Friday March 10th, we boarded our rickety little red bus and sadly said good bye to Pai. We both loved the place but were extremely excited to meet Ben and Lisa in Chiang Mai. Ben and Lisa were waiting for us at the bus station. It was quite busy and I wasn't sure where they would be, but I managed to see them from the bus. Ben's green tiger beer hat caught my eye and I was sure it was him.

We met up and headed out to check and see what we could find in Chaing Mai. We saw a bunch of temples and checked out the night market, which was completely overwheming. Brandi and I decided we would have to come back the next night after spending a day thinking about what we really wanted to buy from there.

Saturday was definately a shopping extravaganza It started out with Brandi's trip to the bamboo umbrella village. She has always wanted to buy these bambo umbrellas and Chiang Mai is famous for them, so we had to head there. After watching the entire process of how they make the umbrella; from cutting up the bamboo, to glueing , to painting, we headed into the store. Brandi was in heaven. She spent about an hour and a half combing through the aisles of umbrellas, deciding which ones would come back home to Canada with her. I think in the end she bought seven of them and a few fans. Lisa and I even got in on the action and bought one each. So that was the begining of the craziness. After eating some fantastic Northern Thai dish called kaow soi, we headed towards the Saturday market. The owner of our guesthouse suggested we go check it out. At the time we didn't think it would be anything all that special, but 10 minutes after we started looking around we realized we had hit the jackpot.

Almost all of the stalls had set prices and the prices were really reasonable. As soon as you started looking at their product they said, "I give discount for you!" It was phenomenal.Picture Lisa, Brandi and me running from stall to stall, our eyes darting left, right up and down because we didn't knwo where to go next. We were getting earrings for $.30 and necklaces for $1.00 - $3.00. We had an absolute blast. I think I was a little bit delerious by the end. It was 100 times better than the night market because we didn't have to bargain so much and the people were much more genuine than the night before. This market was different because it wasn't geared towards foreigners, in fact I saw less than 15 while I was there( probably because my head was down most of the time looking at all the jewellery and bags (haha.) Most of the sellers spoke no English, or just enough to bargain. There was no middle man, so their prices were reasonable and you knew they weren't trying to rip you off. In the end I think I ended up with 10 bags and who knows how many pieces of jewellery. The next morning our loot weighed in at 7 kgs when I sent it home from the post office. It was definately a shopping trip I will never forget.

After sending all of our goodies home, we packed our bags and waited for a minibus to pick us up to take us to Chiang Khong, a small town that sits on the border of the Mekong and the entry point into Laos. On the ride up we met a pair of Canadian girls who were traveling together and a guy named David from Zimbabwe. Four hours later we were in Chiang Khong checking out some of the sites and chilling out on the main street with beer in hand. We shared all of our stories about South Korea with David and after dinner Ben organized a little posse to head out and check out the night life. We ended up at some country bar listening to some Thai band show off their "talent" if you can call it that. I realized that night that I wasn't much of a fan of Thai music. During the break they played some hip hop and we got a little dance party started. Our night out didn't last too long, as we all had to get up early to prepare for our long boat journey.



The Two Day Boat trip

Most people who go from northern Thailand to Laos opt for the two day slow boat trip down the Mekong river. A six hour speed boat is offered, but most travel guides warn about the crash helmets people have to wear and the risk involved. After seeing how fast the speed boats actually go, I was happy we took the slower option. The scenery along the Mekong was outstanding and the first day went by really quickly. We got into the small village of Paekbang around 6 p.m. to spend the night. While we were still in Huay Xai, the village on the other side of the Mekong from Chiang Khong, there was a Paekbang guesthouse that had a booth set up. They had pictures of their rooms and were selling rooms then for whoever wanted. Some other backpackers were signing up and since none of us really knew what kind of accomodations would be available, we decided we should sign up to. The photos looked all right and we knew we had a place to sleep for sure.

As we approached the shores of Pakebang, locals lined the rocky shoreline just waiting to pounce and offer their services to the tired guests approaching their little village. There was mass confussion as the boat stopped. Basically everyone wanted to get off the boat as quickly as possible and they did, but then no one seemed to know how our bags were supposed to get off the boat. Most people assumed some workers were going to take them off, but we all soon realized we had to reboard the boat and get them ourselves before some local grabbed them and expected us to pay for their services of carrying it. Ben and I got back on and managed to somehow balance ourselves on the foot wide board that was our dock. We grabbed our bags and got directions to our guesthouse. We arrived and saw a nice new guesthouse and then a really old decrepid one. I was crossing my fingers that ours was the nice one... but we weren't so lucky. Basically we could have the nice new one if we paid an extra 100 Baht ($3) but we decided we would suffer through it. Our door wouldn't completely open because the foundation of the building had shifted. There was blood on Brandi's blanket and on the wall and there was some kind of little dish with water in it, which we figured was some sort of Laos homemade bug trap, but we weren't too sure and were not prepared to ask. Ben and Lisa's room was a bit better, but not by much. The power went out at 11 p.m. as the place opperated off a generator and Brandi and I opted to sleep over the covers instead of under since we weren't sure what might be crawling in the bed with us. We were all quite happy to see the boat the next morning.

The second day on the boat is much tougher as Brandi and Lisa figured out. They both were almost delerious by the time we finally reached Luang Prabang and every time a speed boat past they broke out in a laughing fit thinking they could have been there already if they had only taken the speed boat. I enjoyed the trip and spent the time catching up on a weeks worth of writing in my diary. Everyone, including myself were quite relieved when we finally did reach land at 5:30 that evening.

Ben and I set out to find accomodations and we stumbled accross this spotless room for $8 U.S. a night. When we brought Brandi, Lisa and David there, their eyes all lit up. It was luxury compared to Pakebang... amazing what $8 can get you in different places.

I'll catch up on the rest of Laos later....Sorry for any spelling mistakes... I don't have the time to do fine tune editing...