In the tubing- Vang Vieng

What was once thought as a watersport reserved for weekends at the river (or Lake Mead in my case) is Vang Vieng's tourism cash cow.

Thousands of young travelers head to Vang Vieng in Northern Laos every month to shed their baggy pants, backpacks, and Birkenstocks for nothing but a bathing suit, tank top, some shades, and a plastic pouch around their necks (for money, toilet paper, and sunscreen). Some were daring enough to bring cameras, but after our boat capsizing incident, we were not.

Bright colors are mandatory. We don't complain about that! :)

Ross and I, along with the new gang we accumulated on the sloooow (2 day long) boat from Thailand into Laos, got our Beerlao goggles on and bought our "In the Tubing" tank tops (or vests, as British Faye affectionately called them) and got ready for the festivities.

Laos doesn't realize that "In the tubing" is not a grammatically correct sentence.

Typical day of tubing:

9- Wake up and get ready

10- Have breakfast of fried eggs and toast

11:30-12- Stand in line at tube rental place and hop in a tuk tuk to the beginning of the river

Q Bar with the group..Ross and I are next to the guy in the pink shorts (Anthony)

12-5:30- Drink at various bars lining the river. When done drinking at one bar, hop into the river inside your tube and float to the next one. When you get to the next appealing bar, a kind man will throw you a line so he can reel you in to the bottom of the stairs. Also, zip-lining, rope swinging, and high-diving ensue.

6- Tubes must be back or you don't get your deposit back. 

6:30- Nap. Or, keep drinking.

All in all, tubing was amazing. Our philosophy in terms of how much tubing we could manage was "one day on, one day off" (it can be pretttty intense, folks!) but there were some people who had been doing it for 2 weeks! These people are what you'd call alcoholics. 

Many people along the ride enjoyed body paint, a few consumed illegal substances, and a lot of people congratulated Ross on his mustache.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have been in Laos now for about 10 days (beautiful Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and currently relaxing in the capital of Vientiene). We leave tonight for 4000 Islands, where we will be spending my birthday weekend and hoping to spot a rare freshwater dolphin. 

In other news, it's officially one month  until we are leaving on a jet plane back to the states!  At this point in the game, we are definitely hitting our stride but we still can't wait for Christmas dinner.

Cooking, Trekking, & Motorbikes

We've had an amazing and eventful week in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand). Chiang Mai is one of the best places to go for courses of any kind (cooking, yoga, massage, etc), as well as jungle treks, zip line adventures, and day trips to small towns surrounding the area. It's a small, unique town that still has an old-Thailand feel (still has a large brick wall surrounding part of the old city from back when it needed to be protected from invaders).

I decided the second day I was here that I wanted to partake in a cooking course. After some deliberation between the ten different school's advertising fliers sitting around at our guesthouse, I decided on the Thai Kitchen Cookery Center. I felt like a kid on the first day of school, a little nervous, hopping into the back of the school's transport truck and saying hello to a few strangers who soon became my new "friends". Linda (from Australia), Hayley & Ross (both from England) and I spent all day slaving over the wok together and bonding over our travel experiences.

By the end of the day, I had cooked Pad Thai with prawns, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Massaman Curry (a sweet curry with potatoes, onions, and chicken), spring rolls, coconut milk chicken soup, and fried banana in a toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream. SO DELICIOUS. I can't wait to try the recipes at home--that is, if Albertson's carries curry powder and strange Thai vegetables.

That night, the four of us, plus my Ross and another girl we had met, Bridie, decided to go to Pai (a small,hippie mountain city about 100 miles north). We rented manual motorbikes and headed up. Thank God Ross knows how to handle a scooter. 5 hours, 1 decent lunch break, and 6 sore butts later, we had arrived. We spent the night drinking rum, playing King's and other drinking games, and had a great time wandering around Pai. Despite running out of gas pre-Pai (word to the wise- don't rent from Mr. Beer's Motorbikes!), and waking up to a mysterious flat tire on our bike, all in all it was a great time with some fantastic new friends.

On November 5th, Ross and I joined with about 10 other travelers set out for our jungle trek, something that we had been looking forward to since we began our trip. It was a two-day, one night trek and the first day consisted of visiting a butterfly/orchid farm (which was alright but made for some great photos), and a long, difficult, ardous 10 km hike. A little stressful, but we did it! We then ate some delicious food, enjoyed the company, and spent the night by the fire in a hilltribe village with no electricity...The "cabin" we all slept in was completely made of bamboo and wood, and we slept on mats on the floor covered with mosquito netting...An interesting night for sure.

The following day, we awoke to toast and a hard boiled egg along with some Nescafe (the coffee of choice over here), followed by some more light trekking until....drumroll....we got to ride on the elephants! Ross and I lucked out and got a mama elephant, so her baby was walking with us the whole time. We just walked around the hills for 40 minutes or so and fed her some bananas..It is definitely a wonderful experience. Being that close to these creatures is just surreal. We had heard some horror stories about the animals being badly abused and mistreated, but the extent of abuse we witnessed was a firm swat on the head with a stick if the elephants did something wrong (ie. turn the wrong way, get naughty, etc.). We hope that's all the punishment they receive.

Then, we rode a bamboo raft down the river, which was eh. Next, we white water rafted down another river which was amazing...Complete with helmets, life vests, and paddles. It was pretty intense at some points but I loved it..I could have done that all day! Finally, we ended our trek with a trip to a waterfall- pretty cool but nothing to write home about (ha). Next time we find ourselves in Chiang Mai, we would love to go to the Elephant Nature Park (both Bridie & the other Ross did this) where they got to bathe, swim with, ride, and play with the elephants all day. A lot more expensive, but completely worth every baht.

Now, as we say goodbye to Thailand and continue our journey to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam we are very sad to say goodbye. From the beaches and islands, to the quiet green hillsides, and especially all of the amazing friends we have met, Thailand has been very good to us. We can't wait to see what the next month and a half has in store for us!