tasha - hi ho, hi ho. it's off to laos i go.

december 14th. i am so hung over. we went out in pai, and rather than go to bed and get up early, i just vetoed sleep and stayed up. shea was in bed by 12. no, this isn't the twilight zone - shea went to bed, tasha pulled an all nighter. it was just too fun - there was a new bar opening in pai, so we hitched a ride with some american and tripled up on the other bike we had and hit the bar. it was crazy - mostly thais around this big bonfire with really expensive beer. then we went to another bar down the road, where i made the mistake of getting a bucket. buckets have thai whiskey, red bull and coke. i should mention that the red bull here is not like red bull at home - it's super concentrated and potent, and thai whiskey has a derivitive of speed. so, basically, a bucket can be a bucket of joy or a bucket of hell. it was a bit of both for me, but all was good, had a great time, froze my ass off (you could see your breath) and showed up at the bus station at 6:30 am to get back to chiang mai. i passed out the entire drive home, woke up once. shea was super pissed, she was crammed between me and the driver and i was passed out against her. haha. sucker.

so we hopped on the bus in chiang mai to head to the thailand/laos border. it was a long, long ride, trust me.

the next morning we got up and started our trek into laos. good lord - what a gong show. so they herd us into a truck and drive us to a ferry. we got into these long, skinny boats that ferried us across the mekong into laos. from here, laos did not make a good first impression. i was quite excited about laos, hearing it's so laid back and the people so great. well - this method of entering laos does not put the laos people in the best light. first of all, you have to pay everything in US dollars at the border. if not, they screw you over big time with the shittiest exchange rate ever. i paid $42 for my visa (canadians pay the most - weird, non?), shea, because she paid in baht, paid $60. then we had to pay a fee to both the visa guy AND the passport guy because it was saturday. then we got into a truck, drove 45 seconds, were let out at a restaurant and told to eat here, buy everything here because there's nothing on the boat for 7 hours. so, we do. and we wait. we finally get to the long boat, and it is PACKED. oh, and wooden benches. so, we get on, get a seat, and more people keep filing in. the boat is getting super full - then some loudmouthed australian woman started a freaking riot. "there are only supposed to be SEVENTY PEOPLE ON THIS BOAT. there are ONE HUNDRED AND TEN. we need another boat. this is unsafe!"

yeah - this is also laos.



anyway, she created enough of a stink that people started to panic that we were going to sink, and they pooled together and paid 200 baht each to charter another boat. except for the loud mouthed australian woman. she was all up for bitching until she had to pay more. anyway, of course we did have a stop and 10 laos kids with baskets of food, drinks and beer got on. "beer laos cheap and cold! beer laos cheap and cold!" they were persistent little bastards.

6 of the longest hours ever on wooden benches cruising the mekong, we arrived in pak beng. the impression of laos did not improve - about 50 laos kids flooded the boats and grabbed bags, wanting to charge to drag them up the big ass hill to the guesthouse (which we booked ahead of time, because the tour guy told us there was very little there, and paid twice as much as those who paid when they got there). you had to peel your bag off of the kids back and chug it up yourself. lots of bags had zippers open and shea's shoes, which were clipped to the outside, went to some happy laos kid. the gang plank was super sketchy and i was sure i was going into the drink, but apparently i am a master at balancing with 50 pounds on my back.

so in pak beng, we actually got a really nice room, so it made it all ok - we hit this great little restaurant where we were given a bottle of lao lao - laos whiskey, brewed from rice and nasty nasty - to do shots. apparently it's offensive to decline. so, when in laos...






we'd met this great bunch - a couple from alberta (bonnie and tyler), a couple from australia (emma and andrew), a couple from wales (mike and annie) and a couple from the UK (johnny and jenny). we still had the obnoxious british girl and had picked up this irritating australian girl too. we had dinner, some drinks, then at 9:30 all the lights went out in laos, and we had to stumble back to our guesthouse blindly. gotta love generator power.

yesterday we got back on the boat - early this time, to get good seats - and imagine our pleasure to see comfy bus-type seating. we scored big time. obnoxious australian lady waddled her ass onto the boat 15 minutes before it left and had another riot about there not being enough seats, and i thought "geez lady, were you not in the same boat yesterday (literally and figuratively?) you should have got here early."




needless to say, 7 hours passed blissfully in comfy seats. though i forgot to wear sunscreen and half of my face is burned with big sunglasses marks. the mekong is incredible - there's just vast jungles, then, in the middle of nowhere, a beach with 10 naked laos kids dancing and playing. there are villages dotted throughout, with agriculture, some water buffalo, goats - all completely detached from modern civilization. it's stunning.

we got into luang prabang last night and were swept to this guesthouse, where we happily were able to ditch the bitchy australian girl. laos has redeemed itself - what a beautiful place. it's so relaxed and kind - we went to this bar, called lao lao, where again we had to do a shot of laos whiskey. we met a few more people, and when the 11:30 curfew was imposed (i know - crazy) we were booted to the streets. oddly enough, there was a party going on across the street, at a temple of all places. there was live laos pop music and dancing, gambling, cheap beer laos - and at every break in music chants blasted from the temple. there were monks standing all around watching - i couldn't decide if this was really great or really offensive to the monks. they impose a curfew here because of the laos monks who get up at 6:30 to meditate and chant - today they were probably a bit tired.

so, now we're weighing our options. travel is taking far longer than i had anticipated, and i'm really beginning to doubt we'll be able to make it to saigon for christmas, unless we just want to spend every day on a boat/bus/train. we're weighing our options - spending it with the orphans in saigon would be incredible, but spending it with all of our new friends would be special as well. we've agreed if we don't make it, we still want to do something very cool for the kids wherever we end up, so we'll probably buy a bunch of presents and try to figure out how best to distribute them - but we'll figure that out today. today is about chilling out, exploring luang prabang, doing laundry and catching up on emails. and, of course, blogging here. if i can tune out the evangelical american talking on skype next to me.

oh - i should also mention another reason why i'm loving this trip. andrew asked shea and i who was older of the two. HOORAY. we made him guess. it took him a few seconds, made me feel great. i'm sure shea was crying on the inside.