Here we are again, for the last time, in the land of smog and traffic, backpackers and braids, late night pad thai and pancakes, and of course the famous Ping Pong show. Been here five days and I must say, we're enjoying it much more this time, considering it's been pretty cool out instead of the 50 degree heat we're used to and we've found some of the best green curry this country has to offer.
So far we've done some "drive-by tourism" as we like to call it (not really knowing what we're looking at or visiting the sights, just taking pictures as we drive or walk by), went to Chinatown, the land of cheap watches, jewelry and plastic things, where you can hardly buy anything not in multiples of six or more, at least the boat ride there was fun..... as was the evening that followed.
So after a long hard day of shopping we decided to relax with a few beers. It only took two big Changs and Robin's absence momentarily for our friend James to convince me it would be a good idea to eat bugs, as there's vendors on every corner frying up the little critters and we must be missing out on something! So we bought some crickets, huge grasshoppers, silkworms and the biggest black scorpions I've ever seen. (I opted out on the cockroaches) We started with scorpions, not that bad, but pretty crunchy, I managed to down half of it then spit out the rest as I no longer had the energy to chew the thing. We managed the rest alright too, James keeping a brave face on the whole time while I jumped up and down, whined and scrunched my face Fear Factor styles. All the while, Robin snapped pictures and took video so there's lots to come.
The next day after nursing our hangovers we went to the 3 big malls in Bangkok, all in a row and absolutely huge. "Luckily" we couldn't afford to buy a single thing there so we were in no danger of breaking the bank. Robin and I spent most of our time feeling like frauds, browsing in Chanel and Gucci, going into Hermes for the sole purpose of touching the bags, and down to Jimmy Choo to drool over some of the nicest shoes I've ever seen. I tried to convince Robin to go down to Harry Winston with me, and pretend we were interested in some of the billion dollar jewelry so we could try it on but she didn't think they'd buy it.
We also went to the biggest market I've ever seen boasting over 9000 stalls. Figuring we could only spend 15 seconds at each stall in order to see them all in the time we had, we rushed through as quickly as possible and probably saw about a fifth of the market. There were lots of funky t-shirts, the best brownie donuts I've ever had and tons and tons of puppies! Obviously we had to spread the love so we spent way to much time in the pet section playing with the puppies(I think I pet ever puppy there) and the just hatched chicks, they also had mice and squirrels for sale but I stayed away from those.
After our long hard day shopping we went to the movies as per our friend Rob's recommendation. An experience, to say the least, we sat in reclining leather lazyboys which had massage and heat, they give you blankets and pillows, and drink service if you like. You just can't get to comfy before the movie because you have to stand for the national anthem right before. One complaint- the guy who got a little too comfortable and snored through the entire movie, at least you could only hear him during the quiet parts, and it was kinda funny.
The rest of our time here has been spent wandering Khoa San Road, fending off offers for tuk-tuk rides, tailored clothes and those irritating wooden frogs (they make a noise just like a frog when you run a stick up the back of them, .....impressive.....once) We've been shopping for new travel clothes since most of ours have been bleached, dyed or lost in the laundry. Otherwise, we just waste time since it's monsooning on Phi Phi island, our next destination. So we'll wait out the rain another few days and hopefully our next post will be from "The Beach"
Hugs and Kisses,
Carla
Monday, May 22, 2006
Photos of S-21 Prison in Phenom Penh (formerly a school)
The graves of the last 11 victims of the Khmer Rouge found in the prison and burried on site.
Sculls of the victims of the prison were kept and their ages reccorded. Children as yound as 4 years old were belived to have been kept there, along with women, elderly and men of all government and military ranks and professions.
All prisoners were numbered and their photos were taken. Normally the number is pinned to their clothing, it seems this boy had no shirt.
A view of two holding cells from the window outside.
A torture room where a prisoner was found after the regime fled.
The exterior hallway of the school/ prison, preserved as it was found so many years ago.
Some of the photos of prisoners killed. I couldn't bring myself to photograph the wall of children, ony apologize to their images.
A picture of Pol Pot destroyed by visitors to the museum. And rightly so.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Pai, oasis the middle of nowhere
The drive up to Pai was gorgeous, too bad the rest of the bus, including Carla feeling a bit pukey from all the twists and turns was asleep and didn't enjoy it. We climbed through the rainy hills and arrived just as there was a break in the downpour...a good sign. Our friend James had told us he was staying on the river and so we ventured that way finding a set of impeccably clean bungalows, with a shared washroom nicer than mine at home...perfect ambiance. Washrooms are important. I can deal with ants, and a bit of dirt, but give me a dirty smelly, spider infested hole in the ground and cold excuse for a 'shower' and I am not the happiest camper.
Anyhow, it so happened that the staff knew 'James with the bat' and we caught up with him for drinks later and invaded his space for the rest of the week. The 'bat' by the way is an ingenious invention of an electric tennis racket that electrocutes all bugs who fly into its unfortunate doom. So ya, Pai was great, it was hard to leave. A small town filled with reggea bars with live music every night, a strong hippie culture of people who got lost in Thailand and very friendly people.
We rented a moto, aka Sabrina, and climbed three of us on the back to check out the Lod Cave. This was a cool day trip. The ride was only supposed to take us 1.5 hours, but poor sabrina coundn't make it up all the hills with all of us on the back and Carla and I had to bail off the back a couple times before we were run over. The cave was gorgeous. Huge, and undeveloped into a tourist site compared to many others we've seen. There were enormous fish in the river which travels the length of the main cave, and Carla bought fish food to feed them, which was cool, until on our tour, we had to walk through one part of the river to see a cave no the other side. It was pitch black and I almost cried when a big fish splashed at our feet....not my favorite part of the day!
We did a full day Thai cooking class at Bebe's Wok n' Roll, which was great fun, and learnt all about Thai cooking...be excited family! When I get home you all get to sample! We visited the romantic hot springs, which are too hot in some places to go in. And we met a poor Saint Bernard who jumped in the +80 degree water unknowingly. We also rode elephants at Thom's elephant camp, which was such a highlight. Carla and I shared a rebellious 39 year old elephant, who had had her tail bitten off by a randy male a few years before. We rode bare back and end up with bruised thighs and calves...I have a feeling at one point she was trying to toss us off!
We rode through the jungle spotted an amazing moth about the size of both my hands put together, and rode on to the river, where the elephant sprayed us continuously with his trunk and then dumped us into the river....repeatedly. Trying to hold on was like riding a bucking bull. Hilarious. Carla got an ear full of sand when we got tossed from high up, and is still 4 days later cleaning the sand out of her ears. When we saw the football sized turds floating down the river, we had had enough, and back to the camp we went.
So we are in Chang Mai now, back in the big city, population 1.5 million, and full of sexpats. Leaving James to walk down the street solo is really something to see, the bars one after another's doorways filled with girls, "Hello Mister! Come inside!". It has rained here the last three days, and so there's not much to do. Yesterday we went to the mall and watched Mi III. Pretty cool. And you can get 'honeymoon seats' in the back two rows, where they are lazyboys, and the arm rest lifts up. You select your seat number when you buy your ticket, and stand for the national anthem before the film starts...oh ya, and the movie was actually pretty good.
So now we are wasting another day, off to the night market this evening, and to Mc Donald's...that's right! There's one here! so excited! And we are heading down to Bangkok via night bus tomorrow, and then off to the islands as fast as possible. My tan is fading!!
I promise to update more, so these things aren't so lengthy...sorry..there's just so much to write!
hugs to all! -R
Anyhow, it so happened that the staff knew 'James with the bat' and we caught up with him for drinks later and invaded his space for the rest of the week. The 'bat' by the way is an ingenious invention of an electric tennis racket that electrocutes all bugs who fly into its unfortunate doom. So ya, Pai was great, it was hard to leave. A small town filled with reggea bars with live music every night, a strong hippie culture of people who got lost in Thailand and very friendly people.
We rented a moto, aka Sabrina, and climbed three of us on the back to check out the Lod Cave. This was a cool day trip. The ride was only supposed to take us 1.5 hours, but poor sabrina coundn't make it up all the hills with all of us on the back and Carla and I had to bail off the back a couple times before we were run over. The cave was gorgeous. Huge, and undeveloped into a tourist site compared to many others we've seen. There were enormous fish in the river which travels the length of the main cave, and Carla bought fish food to feed them, which was cool, until on our tour, we had to walk through one part of the river to see a cave no the other side. It was pitch black and I almost cried when a big fish splashed at our feet....not my favorite part of the day!
We did a full day Thai cooking class at Bebe's Wok n' Roll, which was great fun, and learnt all about Thai cooking...be excited family! When I get home you all get to sample! We visited the romantic hot springs, which are too hot in some places to go in. And we met a poor Saint Bernard who jumped in the +80 degree water unknowingly. We also rode elephants at Thom's elephant camp, which was such a highlight. Carla and I shared a rebellious 39 year old elephant, who had had her tail bitten off by a randy male a few years before. We rode bare back and end up with bruised thighs and calves...I have a feeling at one point she was trying to toss us off!
We rode through the jungle spotted an amazing moth about the size of both my hands put together, and rode on to the river, where the elephant sprayed us continuously with his trunk and then dumped us into the river....repeatedly. Trying to hold on was like riding a bucking bull. Hilarious. Carla got an ear full of sand when we got tossed from high up, and is still 4 days later cleaning the sand out of her ears. When we saw the football sized turds floating down the river, we had had enough, and back to the camp we went.
So we are in Chang Mai now, back in the big city, population 1.5 million, and full of sexpats. Leaving James to walk down the street solo is really something to see, the bars one after another's doorways filled with girls, "Hello Mister! Come inside!". It has rained here the last three days, and so there's not much to do. Yesterday we went to the mall and watched Mi III. Pretty cool. And you can get 'honeymoon seats' in the back two rows, where they are lazyboys, and the arm rest lifts up. You select your seat number when you buy your ticket, and stand for the national anthem before the film starts...oh ya, and the movie was actually pretty good.
So now we are wasting another day, off to the night market this evening, and to Mc Donald's...that's right! There's one here! so excited! And we are heading down to Bangkok via night bus tomorrow, and then off to the islands as fast as possible. My tan is fading!!
I promise to update more, so these things aren't so lengthy...sorry..there's just so much to write!
hugs to all! -R
Monday, May 15, 2006
Laos: land of good beer and great friends
So after leaving lovely Don Det, we parted with our English duo and headed back to Vientiane on yet another overnight bus. The aircon must have been broken, because we shivered all night in the winter wonderland, and tried to sleep with our heads covered and bundled together. The only time I uncovered was when a guard was wondering through the bus and so I took off my sleeping mask to ID myself...they actually took someone off too...very strange. Apparently Laos and Thailand around the border are doing random drug searches of buses to stop the trafficking, mostly of locals tho.
Anyhow, we made it to Vieng Vienne in one piece and enjoyed some 'Friends' at the restaurant, and went tubing the next morning. Now this is really the reason that people come to Laos, for tubing in Vieng Vienne. So what it was was Carla and I paying a few bucks to rent a tube and a tuk tuk drops you at a slow point in the river (which speed up in places by the way), and you pretty much just drift down. Oh ya, and well, the bars pull you in with bamboo poles for cheap Beer Lao, ands Tarzan ropes, and a zip line, so fun. We got smashed met tons of fellow drifters, and managed to survive dunking our heads in the Mekong. We managed to avoid this for over two months, for fear of illness, but who can pass up a rickety bamboo tarzan rope! so F'n high by the way!
The day was great, and that was enough of Vieng Vienne, so we hopped on a day bus the next morning...crammed in as usual on the winding mountain pass. Gorgeous scenery. There are all these tiny houses perched on the mountain side the front on the highway, the back on stilts off the hill. Impressive. The best was passing a small boy selling rats, I am assuming to eat. Held by their tails in the air and yelling to the passing trucks. Better than the women selling beetles on sticks on the buses in Laos. yuck!
So Luang Prabang ended up being great. We spent 3 hours on a slow boat on the Mekong the next morning to see a cave filled with Buddha statues. Pretty cool, but not worth the three hours. We arrived back in the city dehydrated and exhausted, and not very interested to get on with the tour package we bought to see the elephant waterfalls in the afternoon. But when we got there we were impressed! It was gorgeous with multiple levels of swimming pools with small waterfalls in between, and crystal clear, freezing cold water. You could jump off the waterfalls and stand behind them. It was perfect. So nice to swim in a waterfall that isn't brown of from the Mekong. We wanted to go back again the next day, but alas the rain came, and we followed a sign down Chicken Alley to a movie place instead. his was a great idea, where you pay two dollars, and get your own living room to watch a video on the big screen. Awesome.
So that was Laos, home of gorgeous mountains, and beautiful sunsets, and great people...oh ya and wicked cheap beer. Back to Thailand we went. We took a speed boat 6 hours down the Mekong to the Laos border. This was not a great day to say the least, it seemed like a good idea at first, as opposed to the two day journey by slow boat. We ended up leaving 3 hours late, with all locals, the two of us shoved into a 1 meter by 1/2 meter box with a tiny cushion and our day packs. The first half of the journey was far from comfortable, but we managed to have only three of us in the boat, so Carla and I stretched our legs over the seat in front. Although when we stopped half way to load up with more people and have lunch, as we set off again, with nine people in an 8 person max boat, they refused us life jackets and helmets, as we had before, yet suited up the locals with jackets. Well, don't worry mum, because I put up a fight and got some jackets, not that they did up, but atleast we had something. It rained, and we stopped a million times on the way, everyone ignoring our questions, and our presence really. Oh ya, and this whole time we were trying to catch a 6pm bus to Chang Mai on the Thailand side. We should have had three hours to spare, but with all the meandering, we missed the border by 3 minutes, and the f*ckers wouldn't stamp our exit cards!, so we had to stay overnight. Carla felt there may have been some conspiring going on to keep us there, but who knows.
Anyhow we managed to get on a bus at 11am the next day, and into Chang Mai half in the back of a comfy mini bus and the other half the two of us i the back of a jeep. The driver was a young guy playing 90's love ballads on the stereo, trying hard not to sing. He was so happy when we asked him to turn it up and we all sang our hearts out the rest of the journey.
We got into Chang Mai at 3, and decided the big city looked too overwhelming, so immediately grabbed the last mini bus up to the remote town of Pai further north, and what a great decision that was...
Anyhow, we made it to Vieng Vienne in one piece and enjoyed some 'Friends' at the restaurant, and went tubing the next morning. Now this is really the reason that people come to Laos, for tubing in Vieng Vienne. So what it was was Carla and I paying a few bucks to rent a tube and a tuk tuk drops you at a slow point in the river (which speed up in places by the way), and you pretty much just drift down. Oh ya, and well, the bars pull you in with bamboo poles for cheap Beer Lao, ands Tarzan ropes, and a zip line, so fun. We got smashed met tons of fellow drifters, and managed to survive dunking our heads in the Mekong. We managed to avoid this for over two months, for fear of illness, but who can pass up a rickety bamboo tarzan rope! so F'n high by the way!
The day was great, and that was enough of Vieng Vienne, so we hopped on a day bus the next morning...crammed in as usual on the winding mountain pass. Gorgeous scenery. There are all these tiny houses perched on the mountain side the front on the highway, the back on stilts off the hill. Impressive. The best was passing a small boy selling rats, I am assuming to eat. Held by their tails in the air and yelling to the passing trucks. Better than the women selling beetles on sticks on the buses in Laos. yuck!
So Luang Prabang ended up being great. We spent 3 hours on a slow boat on the Mekong the next morning to see a cave filled with Buddha statues. Pretty cool, but not worth the three hours. We arrived back in the city dehydrated and exhausted, and not very interested to get on with the tour package we bought to see the elephant waterfalls in the afternoon. But when we got there we were impressed! It was gorgeous with multiple levels of swimming pools with small waterfalls in between, and crystal clear, freezing cold water. You could jump off the waterfalls and stand behind them. It was perfect. So nice to swim in a waterfall that isn't brown of from the Mekong. We wanted to go back again the next day, but alas the rain came, and we followed a sign down Chicken Alley to a movie place instead. his was a great idea, where you pay two dollars, and get your own living room to watch a video on the big screen. Awesome.
So that was Laos, home of gorgeous mountains, and beautiful sunsets, and great people...oh ya and wicked cheap beer. Back to Thailand we went. We took a speed boat 6 hours down the Mekong to the Laos border. This was not a great day to say the least, it seemed like a good idea at first, as opposed to the two day journey by slow boat. We ended up leaving 3 hours late, with all locals, the two of us shoved into a 1 meter by 1/2 meter box with a tiny cushion and our day packs. The first half of the journey was far from comfortable, but we managed to have only three of us in the boat, so Carla and I stretched our legs over the seat in front. Although when we stopped half way to load up with more people and have lunch, as we set off again, with nine people in an 8 person max boat, they refused us life jackets and helmets, as we had before, yet suited up the locals with jackets. Well, don't worry mum, because I put up a fight and got some jackets, not that they did up, but atleast we had something. It rained, and we stopped a million times on the way, everyone ignoring our questions, and our presence really. Oh ya, and this whole time we were trying to catch a 6pm bus to Chang Mai on the Thailand side. We should have had three hours to spare, but with all the meandering, we missed the border by 3 minutes, and the f*ckers wouldn't stamp our exit cards!, so we had to stay overnight. Carla felt there may have been some conspiring going on to keep us there, but who knows.
Anyhow we managed to get on a bus at 11am the next day, and into Chang Mai half in the back of a comfy mini bus and the other half the two of us i the back of a jeep. The driver was a young guy playing 90's love ballads on the stereo, trying hard not to sing. He was so happy when we asked him to turn it up and we all sang our hearts out the rest of the journey.
We got into Chang Mai at 3, and decided the big city looked too overwhelming, so immediately grabbed the last mini bus up to the remote town of Pai further north, and what a great decision that was...
Sunday, May 14, 2006
M.I.A.
Hey everyone,
Just so you all know Carla and I are still alive and kicking. We just spent a wonderful slow and quiet week in Pai, in northern Thailand, after a quick jaunt through the north of Laos. I promise to tell you all about the tubing, tarzan ropes, getting stuck at the border, crystal clear waterfall, buddha cave, speed boat, lot cave, cooking class and elephant riding when I get over my two week hang-over....and finish this beer (just kidding mom!, it's all about the culture).
Off to discover the Chiang Mai nightlife. Updates coming soon....promise.
later, R
Just so you all know Carla and I are still alive and kicking. We just spent a wonderful slow and quiet week in Pai, in northern Thailand, after a quick jaunt through the north of Laos. I promise to tell you all about the tubing, tarzan ropes, getting stuck at the border, crystal clear waterfall, buddha cave, speed boat, lot cave, cooking class and elephant riding when I get over my two week hang-over....and finish this beer (just kidding mom!, it's all about the culture).
Off to discover the Chiang Mai nightlife. Updates coming soon....promise.
later, R
Monday, May 01, 2006
W.W.M.D.
Sorry about the delay folks...seems Carla and I got ourselves into a bit of a spot here in Laos.
Of course we planned to get out of party central Vientiane and go see the dolphins in the 4000 Islands in the south of the Mekong. So we ended up on Don Det, a tiny island with very few people and sporadic evening electricity. Well, we managed to loose our flashlight four days in and wandering around one night in the pitch black with a few too many Lao Lao cocktails in our system, we stumbled into the wrong bungalow and passed out. Only to be woken up by the police who wrongly accused us of bedding a local and tossed us in the local holding cell. As many of you may not know, it is illegal for foreigners to sleep with Lao people...and is apparently a law which is enforced. So we spent another 5 days battling tiny ants in our beds, and showering in a concrete room with dirty Mekong water, itchy and trying to bribe our way out.......
Well, maybe it wasn't exactly that way, but we thought it was a better story than meeting a couple English lads on the bus(es) heading down south, happenning upon a group of quiet bungalows on the sunset side of the island and doing nothing all day...literally. It was perfect.
Our first day was quite ambitious we got off the bus-taxi-bus-boat at about 9am, rented bikes and went to explore the island. We made the mistake of following James' man-sense at first and got lost, ending up riverside for a dip, then made our way with a bit of back tracking to the huge waterfall hoping for a swim. Turns out the waterfall, where we had to pay to park our bikes, was really huge. James and I, to Carla and Rob's discontent attemted to jump rocks and find a cool spot to hang out anyhow. Which was going great until James came to help me across and slid off the side into the falls going over a 12 ft drop and coming out quite scractched up at the other end...ok a bit of an exageration. But he did fall off the rock and manage to put a nice gauge in his leg....my hero.
We finished the day off downing beer Lao (large bottles only please), and giggling at Rob's attempt to be a propa' gangsta' with wonky nips. Good luck to ya hun. All was going great until the cement walk to the washroom managed to jump out and steal the ends off of Rob's toes on both feet, only to have James stumble and do the same not 5 minutes later. You can imagine the pools of thinning blood under the table...napkin anyone? Carla felt like joining the ranks, and fell off the steps on our way out of the bar, twisting and bruising her ankle. In her defense there was no light since the power had gone out over an hour before and the bar staff had gone to bed leaving us with a solitary flashlight and four more bottles of beer Lao....but still.
So that was enough excitement to last us...about 8 more days. Until we rented kayaks and paddled against the current on our way to see a 'lame' temple (we're a bit templed-out) and more waterfalls. Really what we did see was much more exciting: we ended up on a smelly island surrounded by dead fish and no shade. And again we blame James' man-sense and his "these islands looked alot smaller on the map" sense. So we thought to ourselves, what would MacGyver do?, and attemted to build a canopy on the kyak...but alas the day was not a waste as we watched another gorgeous sunset on the water. So other than that the days were filled with late and long breakfasts ending around beer-o'clock, and alot of hammock time. We also met a nice man from Leeds who somehow managed to smell worse than the adorable monkey he carried around....one point off for the English
It was hard to leave out quiet island paradise, but after nine days managed to split and get going. Carla and I are back in Vientaine where we treated ourselves to a nice hotel with a real shower. The bit about the concrete room and the Mekong water...both true. I had actually convinced myself we were showering in rain water for the first week, that was until they started pumping it and filling the tank while I was having my morning wash. For those of you who do not know, the Mekong is not the cleanest of rivers in the world. It has a reputation for being thousands of people's bath, toilet, dishwasher and even drinking water, oh ya, and they also float bodies down it for burial...lovely. So here we are waiting to catch our 2 pm bus up to Viang Veinne for some quality drunken tubbing down the river tomorrow.
Until next time...R
Of course we planned to get out of party central Vientiane and go see the dolphins in the 4000 Islands in the south of the Mekong. So we ended up on Don Det, a tiny island with very few people and sporadic evening electricity. Well, we managed to loose our flashlight four days in and wandering around one night in the pitch black with a few too many Lao Lao cocktails in our system, we stumbled into the wrong bungalow and passed out. Only to be woken up by the police who wrongly accused us of bedding a local and tossed us in the local holding cell. As many of you may not know, it is illegal for foreigners to sleep with Lao people...and is apparently a law which is enforced. So we spent another 5 days battling tiny ants in our beds, and showering in a concrete room with dirty Mekong water, itchy and trying to bribe our way out.......
Well, maybe it wasn't exactly that way, but we thought it was a better story than meeting a couple English lads on the bus(es) heading down south, happenning upon a group of quiet bungalows on the sunset side of the island and doing nothing all day...literally. It was perfect.
Our first day was quite ambitious we got off the bus-taxi-bus-boat at about 9am, rented bikes and went to explore the island. We made the mistake of following James' man-sense at first and got lost, ending up riverside for a dip, then made our way with a bit of back tracking to the huge waterfall hoping for a swim. Turns out the waterfall, where we had to pay to park our bikes, was really huge. James and I, to Carla and Rob's discontent attemted to jump rocks and find a cool spot to hang out anyhow. Which was going great until James came to help me across and slid off the side into the falls going over a 12 ft drop and coming out quite scractched up at the other end...ok a bit of an exageration. But he did fall off the rock and manage to put a nice gauge in his leg....my hero.
We finished the day off downing beer Lao (large bottles only please), and giggling at Rob's attempt to be a propa' gangsta' with wonky nips. Good luck to ya hun. All was going great until the cement walk to the washroom managed to jump out and steal the ends off of Rob's toes on both feet, only to have James stumble and do the same not 5 minutes later. You can imagine the pools of thinning blood under the table...napkin anyone? Carla felt like joining the ranks, and fell off the steps on our way out of the bar, twisting and bruising her ankle. In her defense there was no light since the power had gone out over an hour before and the bar staff had gone to bed leaving us with a solitary flashlight and four more bottles of beer Lao....but still.
So that was enough excitement to last us...about 8 more days. Until we rented kayaks and paddled against the current on our way to see a 'lame' temple (we're a bit templed-out) and more waterfalls. Really what we did see was much more exciting: we ended up on a smelly island surrounded by dead fish and no shade. And again we blame James' man-sense and his "these islands looked alot smaller on the map" sense. So we thought to ourselves, what would MacGyver do?, and attemted to build a canopy on the kyak...but alas the day was not a waste as we watched another gorgeous sunset on the water. So other than that the days were filled with late and long breakfasts ending around beer-o'clock, and alot of hammock time. We also met a nice man from Leeds who somehow managed to smell worse than the adorable monkey he carried around....one point off for the English
It was hard to leave out quiet island paradise, but after nine days managed to split and get going. Carla and I are back in Vientaine where we treated ourselves to a nice hotel with a real shower. The bit about the concrete room and the Mekong water...both true. I had actually convinced myself we were showering in rain water for the first week, that was until they started pumping it and filling the tank while I was having my morning wash. For those of you who do not know, the Mekong is not the cleanest of rivers in the world. It has a reputation for being thousands of people's bath, toilet, dishwasher and even drinking water, oh ya, and they also float bodies down it for burial...lovely. So here we are waiting to catch our 2 pm bus up to Viang Veinne for some quality drunken tubbing down the river tomorrow.
Until next time...R
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