Did we say 16, we meant 26, hours on a bus!

Okay as promised some more Laos photos

This is on the road back from the waterfall day trip, I wish the lady had been closer as she had a huge smile on her face

The view from the top of the waterfall, the hike was grueling but worth it

We jumped in and then lay on the top looking down into all the other pools from the photo above this, it was surreal

Look Sean and Paddy Gecko's

Another spectacular sunset

Thank God this is nto the bus that we are about to get on

We decided to be cheap and take the bus from Vietanne to Hue in Vietnam, the poster said it would take 16 hours. I am not sure who is still learning to count but it took 26 hours, it was not fun and we were not very happy backpackers. The 1st 12 hours were not so bad except for the blasting music but in the 2nd half we got share the bus with 4 fridges

Once we got to vietnam the rice fields were picture perfect

We finally arrived here late last night and were dropped on the side of the highway. We called a ritzy(by local standards) hotel and they came to get us, we are splurging and spending 2 nights there. Today we went to see the forbidden purple city here in Hue

What remains of it was cool to see, sadly a lot of it was destroyed in the war

We stopped for lunch at this great little place and got to make our own spring roll style wraps, they were amazing

Then we walked back tot the hotel for a swim, tomorrow we are off to Hoi An.

Buses 101

After spending 4 days in Luang Prabang ( a great little town with lots of character and places to visit) we got on a bus and headed to Vietainne (another dirty capital city with very little to do or see) the bus ride was through the mountains and within the first 30 minutes people around us started getting sick. Luckily for me my MP3 player drowned out most of the noise and I was able to sleep a bit. We finally pulled through the worst of it and ended up in a little place for lunch and then back on the bus for the rest of the ride. All in all it wasn't to bad for me but a few other people will remember it for a very long time. The scenery was amazing if you were able to watch it go by.

We got up the morning and went on a quest to find a bus to take us into Vietnam, it was bit of an adventure. The Tuk Tuk took us to the bus station and they told us that there was no bus until; Tuesday and they knew nothing of prices or schedules. Another person told us we were at the wrong bus station and that we should go to the other one. Off we went to the other side of the city, we pulled up to a Vietnamese restaurant and after some conversing found someone who would take us to were the busses left from. The man finished his breakfast and told us to follow his motorbike. (I was concerned about not seeing the bus that we would be riding on and did not want to put out the money until I was sure that we would ride in at least a little bit of comfort) They took us into the "office", sent some kids to get us some water and assured us that the bus we were taking was nicer than the ones outside. We decided to just go with it because our only other option would be to wait here until Tuesday. We got our tickets and the phone number of the person who sold them to us and hopefully at 6pm he will come to get us and put us on a reasonable bus headed for Hue, Vietnam. It takes 14 hours but we will be there tomorrow morning. From there we will head down the coast toward Saigon, slowly but surely.

Once I am in Vietnam I will post more photos. On Friday we went to a great waterfall and I got some amazing pictures, it was a long drive and then a long hike up but worth every minute of it. Talk to again soon from Vietnam.

So last night I was typing this great long entry about the 3 days that we spent travelling to get to Laos. It had great photos inserted at all the right spots and I was rather proud of myself and then the power went out and I lost the whole thing. I was not a happy backpacker. So here I am again and instead of doing it all again I am just going to post the photos with some captions..... This is our first view of Laos, we drove from Chaing Mai to the border on Sunday and then on Monday morning we took a boat across the river

We were packed rather tightly into a small boat on the first day

Loas still has lots of rural areas

I loved seeing all the other river traffic

Here is our overnight stop, it was an interesting place... more details eventually

The boat was bigger on day 2 but there were a lot more people on it as well.

I knit, listened to tunes, read and enjoyed all that there was to see on the banks of the river

Elephants ont he banks

Day 2 on the Mekong saw a lot of sleeping

The old and new meet on each street.

The steps to the library and school often have children on them.

Luang Prabang is a Unesco world Heritage site and I am in love with it.

Some local monks, we rode bikes around town yesterday, it was a great way to see things.

Last nights sunset on the Mekong

I can see the toll that tourism is taking on the local culture but there are moments of beauty and simplicity

Laos

I made it to Laos in one piece but I am exhausted from spending 2 days on an overcrowded boat with little room to move about. I am in Luang Prabang and after a good nights sleep and some coffee in the morning I will fill you all in on my 2 days travelling down the Mekong river. See you in the morning.

These are a few of my favorite foods.

Fresh fruit at the market we went shopping at before our cooking class

A million types of rice, I never knew there was so much to know about 1 grain

CJ looking stunning. She is all decked out to wander around the farm and pick some veggies and other amazing thai things

There were heaps of butterflies on the farm

Me and Bun cooking sticky rice in coconut milk, all the food was amazing

Look Lunch, made by me, I could not eat it all but it was so good and we made many of my favorite thai foods.

The farm, out the window

A farmer that we passed on our way back into town

The ride back into the city was beautiful. Cooking school was amazing and if you are ever in Thailand I would suggest you take the time to come north and spend a day or two taking a class. We went to an organic farm and it was beautiful and quiet.

Today is Saturday and our last day in Chaing Mai, tomorrow morning we are getting on a bus to go to the Laos border. We spend the night there and then on Monday we will get on boat for 2 days and travel up the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. The boat ride takes 14 hours, 7 each day and I think it will be a great way to see the country. I am hoping that it does not rain the whole time but it may. We have been lucky with the weather this far and I hope it holds. I will be in Luang Prabang on Tuesday night and then on Friday we are off to Vietnam. I'll be back as soon as I get to a computer again.

I am having a bit of trouble with haloscan but don't have time to deal with now, if I haven't answered your comments know that I have read them and glad that everyone is enjoying living vicariously through my photos.

Chaing Mai

Our zoo trip was a lot of fun we saw hippos and

pandas. There were lots of other animals as well. After the zoo we headed to the night market to do a little shopping.... my favorite activity

We got up this morning to go on a day trek. There are heaps of them here but it was hard to find that we could do without feeling like we were being careless tourists. We finally settled on elephant riding, hiking and white water rafting. On the ride to the elephant camp we encountered a school parade, they were excited to see a car full of farang (foreigners)

CJ and I on our elephant

We fed the elephants bananas

and they sucked them up with their trunks and then put them in their mouths, it was really cute

an adorable baby elephant

Our hike was good but there were a number of rather narrow logs to cross

but the waterfall and the swim at the end made it all worth it

Then we went white water rafting and got really wet.

It was super fun and a great way to spend a day. Even though the treks are touristy I am glad we went on one because it meant that we got to see some things we never would of been able to see on our own. We avoided the ones that we felt were exploitive to the animals or to the local people and this one was not to bad. Tomorrow is cooking school and probably more shopping, then Saturday is our last day here and on Sunday we head into Laos. Getting to Luang Prabang will be adventure, I'll keep you posted.

Lots of fun being had in Thailand

We went on a great boat cruise down the river in Bangkok

and got to ride in Tuk Tuk in Bangkok traffic, but not this one

The famous Kho San Road was our stop for lunch

We also stopped at Wat Po to see the giant recling buddha, I liked the cats outside

Outside in the Wat Grounds, the inside photos did not turn out so well


Then we got on the night train headed North so we could spend a few days in Chaing Mai. Here's me knitting on my top bunk

We arrived in Chaing Mai exhausted but happy to be out of the city. We wandered around for a bit and then found a rooftop bar to have a drink and watch the rain move in from the mountians, it was pretty cool

Here's the inside of the bar. Toady we are off to the zoo because I want to see the panda bears and then tomorrow we are going on elephant/hike/rafting day. Friday we are going to Thai cooking school and then on Saturday or Sunday we will head to Laos. We have got Vietnam visas and so that is our next stop after Luang Prabang. I'll be back on the weekend with more photos.