Langkawi, Malaysia

Dec 27- Finding a new Guesthouse! in Langkawi
So we got up this morning to go look for a new guesthouse at about 8:30 in the morning. We started wandering around but then decided that it was a bit too early for normal people to be up in the morning without eating and found this Indian food place that serves one of our newly found favorite breakfasts, roti. Roti is delicious. It is a dough stretched paper thin (the guy making it often looks like he's making pizza) and then folded, allowed to rise a bit, and cooked with oil on a flat grill. Its loosely similar to a pancake, only its full of eggs or chicken or lamb and comes with delicious dipping sauces (red and yellow... I think tomato and some kind of curry, not really sure). After eating an egg and onion roti and a chicken roti, we walked around and find a guesthouse for half the price we'd paid the previous night and happily found our way to the beach. After about 45 minutes of beach time we packed up our bags and switched hotels. After all this strenuous work, we decided it was again time for some beach relaxation, only this time with a beer in hand. Eventually we decided that it was time for a shower and some dinner and found ourselves at the same Indian food place for dinner (it was delicious and cheap, the latter hard to find on resort-oriented Langkawi). With our bellies bursting, we decided we needed to relax by the beach again with a beer and before too long were tired and called it a day.

Dec 28- Exploring Langkawi
Today we got up and rented a motobike and headed towards the port city of Kuah on Pulau Langkawi to buy our onward ferry tickets. About 45 minutes after leaving Pentai Cenang (where we were staying, the nicest beach of the island) we had our tickets in hand. After some lunch in Kuah (half the price as food near the beach) we headed out on a tour of the island via moto. First we tried to go to the bat caves, but they were along a river, and the boat tour was really expensive so that plan was vetoed. Next we went to a waterfall that was pretty cool, but we'd seen a lot of waterfalls and didn't spend too much time there. Our third stop was at a beautiful beach that was pretty much deserted, which was cool. We were even stopped halfway along the beach by a 4 seasons hotel security guard, who informed us that the rest was private beach. Wanting to make the most of our day, we didn't spend much time at this beach (it takes a lot of time to travel to each of these destinations, like 20-30 minutes in between each destination). Our next stop was at a black sand beach, where the the sand on the beach is actually black (caused by excess tourmaline and ilmenite, in case anyone wanted to know). Its really pretty awesome (although not a beach for lounging). Apparently the local legend is that the black sand is the result of a war between the ocean and land kingdoms long ago, where the land people burned huge bonfires on the beach to make the ocean kingdom think there were thousands of land soldiers waiting for them on the beach. This turned out to be key in the land kingdom's victory but at the cost of staining the sand black forever. After checking out the black sand we decided we wanted to head over to this place with "7 pools" where you can slide down into them. We slid down the river along the rocks, and carefully halted at the fence, where the river turned into a waterfall. Unfortunately, as we started walking down (it was a long climb up some stairs to get there) it started pouring rain on us and we got absolutely soaked. We took refuge for a while and eventually made our way back to our motorbike (where someone had thoughtfully turned our helmets over so they weren't giant cups during the rain). The moto home was long and cold, but Steph saw two amazing malaysian Rhinoceros Hornbill (click here to see how cool it is) as they flew by!! Phil missed it because he was driving :-(. Eventually we made it back to our hotel where a shower and much needed nap awaited us (we were exhausted). After a brief outing for some dinner, we called it a night.

Dec 29- Goodbye Langkawi, Hello Georgetown
Today we slept in and briefly went back to the beach for a picture, but since it was cloudy, we didn't stay long. After a quick shower and some packing, we checked out of our hotel and grabbed a taxi to the port. It turns out that today there was a detour on the road we wanted to take and ended up getting on the ferry only 5 minutes before it left (after of course freaking out in the customs security line). It was a fairly uneventful 3 hour boat ride to Georgetown (although I was watching a pretty neat subtitled movie about Thai boxing. Tons of intrigue, crime, death, marriage, violence, the whole works). Once we got to Georgetown, we promptly told the taxi driver the name of a guesthouse which turned out to be completely full. Steph and I were getting ready for another long guesthouse searching session, but were stopped by this guy on a moto who told us of a guesthouse around the corner with rooms. So we go and check in at this place and were quite happy because it was only $7.33 for the room. While we were sitting in this room this guy (in a towel, just got out of the shower) hears our American accents and asks us where we're from. We learn that he is from Brooklyn and this quickly turns into about an hour or more conversation with this guy. Apparently he is a "traveling monk" who has had quite the last 10 years of monk hood. He started in California, but basically got the boot from his monastery there (because he was white) and left with only his robe and alms bucket. He ended up homeless and chilled with the hippies in Berkeley for a while before someone gave him money for a one way ticket to Thailand to hopefully switch from Novice monk to fully ordained. Once he landed in Thailand, the senior monk at this temple offered to be his mentor but wanted sexual favors in exchange. Since that wasn't really a good deal, Brother Mark left that temple immediately and eventually found a good place in the mountains to become fully ordained. After that he's been traveling around staying in temples for the most part (apparently as a monk you usually get 1-2 weeks free per temple, that's a lot of traveling in this part of the world). Anyways, a long conversation later, we were starving and went in search of some food and eventually went to bed.

wanna see more pictures of our adventures on Langkawi? click here

Christmas on Ko Adang, Thailand

Dec 21- Travel Day

Today we got up in Kanchanaburi and checked out

of our hotel in search of a computer station to skype our families. After a while of searching, we found that most the places here were truly on "Thai time", meaning if their sign says they open at 8:30 am it really means sometime around 10ish. We finally found an open shop, and after a skype session we grabbed a taxi to the bus station and booked a mini-bus into Bangkok. After a bit of trouble finding a suitable taxi (a guy trying to charge us 500 baht, when we knew it was only about 100), we were on our way to Rangsit to meet up with Nathan. We grabbed a bite to eat with Nathan and relaxed till we had to leave for the bus station. At around 4:30 ish (Nathan is on extra Thai time.... always late and never in a hurry :-) we caught a taxi to the bus station in Bangkok and soon found ourselves eating dinner at KFC waiting for Chayani (ok... so first off, their chicken sandwich was pretty awesome after 3 months of rice and noodles. But heres a tip: never order a rice dish at a fried chicken restaurant. trust me.). Our bus to Satun left at 6:30 pm and we were now off on another 15 hour overnight bus ride! Woooo!

Dec 22- Koh Adang, Thailand
With sore necks and aching backs, we got off the bus in Satun and headed to Pakbara to catch a boat to Koh Lipe. After about an hour ride on the speedboat, we found ourselves just off the coast of Koh Lipe being unloaded onto a small taxi-boat to take us to Koh Adang, a 20 minute boat ride away. Even though at first we had our doubts, after landing on the island we quickly realized how awesome Koh Adang really is. The only spot to stay on the island is run by the Thai government and it is all national park land, so the amount of tourists is really limited (I'm talking like 30 of us whiteys on the whole island. awesome.). Our room was pretty spacious but we immediately saw a ton of ants crawling on our bed. Steph and I weren't really too upset about that at the time, so we brushed it off and later found ourselves exploring the beaches (finding many hermit crabs and even a river emptying out into the ocean) and jumping into the ocean. After some dinner and

a beer (at the only restaurant on the island...it was pretty good food, but definitely over priced), we started our first of many card games and soon realized we were exhausted from so much travel and wanted some sleep. Upon arriving at our bungalow, however, we found that the ant problem was much more of a problem than we realized (seriously, there were ants crawling out of the frame of the bed. Definitely didn't want to sleep there). Chayani went and talked to a staff member and we were moved to an ant-free room. Exhausted, we were soon asleep.

Dec 23- Exploring Ko Adang

Today we woke up around 9-ish, ate breakfastat at the restaurant, played a few obligatory card games and then walked around the island for a bit. After lunch, we decided to go snorkeling at the 'best snorkeling spot on the island', where we saw some pretty corals and fish. Phil and I even saw a cuttlefish!!! We chased it around for a while, saw it change colors, but eventually its marine adaptations beat ours, and it quickly swam away :-(. After our snorkeling adventures, we took a shower, watched the sunset, and played some more cards with dinner while listening to terrible Christmas music. Eventually, at around 10pm, one of the cooler employees noticed our grimaces and put on some awesome Thai music instead!

Dec 24- Snorkeling!

After breakfast, we headed to the beach to commandeer ourselves a taxi boat to take us around for some snorkeling. We shared the boat with another Thai couple, and the six of us set out for some adventure. We stopped at several places for some snorkeling, hopping in and out of the boat. The next stop was an interesting island, with lots of perfectly round and beautiful black stones. Apparently you are supposed to stack 13 on top of each other for good luck (which of course we did). I was about to grab a couple stones to take home when I noticed the huge sign warning against taking stones--takers of stones are inflicted with extreme bad luck, which pretty much eventually leads to death. Needless to say, we left the stones, and decided to skip some off the island instead. Afterwards, we headed to the beautiful 'white sand' beach, had some lunch and then chilled on the perfect beach for a while. On the way back, we stopped for one more snorkel, and then

headed back to Ko Adang. On the way back, we saw a swordfish jumping!!!, which was the perfect end to a great day. Once home, we realized we hadn't been quite liberal enough with the sunscreen and Nathan, Phil and I were quite burned. Chayani, on the other hand, was smart and wore a shirt and reapplied her sunscreen, so she was spared. We took a quick shower, lathered on some aloe vera lotion, and had some dinner while playing cards (again...).

Dec 25- Xmas chillin' on the beach

We woke up, had some breakfast, and then went to chill on the beach. We sat there for several

hours, playing cards, nursing our sunburns, and hopping in the water whenever the heat overwhelmed us (which was about every round of cards or so). After a while, we moved into the shade, played a few more rounds, and went to grab some lunch. After lunch we decided we would check out Ko Lipe (to book our tickets to leave, to have dinner from a different restaurant, and also just to see what we were missing). Turns out we weren't missing too much--the island was ridiculously developed, the food was even more expensive than back on Adang, and the beaches were ridiculously crowded (they did have some nice beaches though). We booked our onward travel, watched the sunset, grabbed some snacks and beer from the convenience store (which was cheaper), and hopped back on the boat taxi.

Unfortunately, now that it was dark, the ferry was twice as expensive (also, as it turns out, rather dangerous since it was now low tide...we had to push ourselves out using sticks for a good 20 mins before it was deep enough to use the motor...oops...). Once back, we had a nice (and rather pricey) xmas dinner of deep-fried fish (mmmmmmmmm), played some cards, and enjoyed a nice little Christmas buzz from our beers, and then headed to bed.

Dec 26- Goodbye Thailand, hello Malaysia!

After packing and breakfast, we headed to the taxi boat, plopped our bags on, and boated o

ver to Ko Lipe for departure. After walking around FOREVER in the ridiculous heat, looking for immigration, we finally found the right spot, and left our bags there while we helped Nathan and Chayani figure out where they were supposed to leave from them. Sadly, we said goodbye as they boarded their boat back to the mainland. For the next few hours, we wandered semi-aimlessly around Ko Lipe, did some internetting, had some coffee and some food, took a quick swim, and hopped on our ferry to Langkawi. The ride was pretty uneventful (minus a gorgeous sunset). Once in Langkawi, we didn't even have to go through customs, the boatmen just took our passports and brought them

back 20 mins later. We grabbed a taxi into Langkawi after being informed that most of the hotels were booked solid (apparently this was a popular island for Malaysian tourists as well). After about an hour or so of searching, we discovered that the taxi drivers were in fact not overexaggerating, almost every single place was booked solid. We settled for a resort, got the last room, and paid $40 (instead of our usual less than $10)...ouch. Exhausted, and rather pissed, we grabbed a quick bite of food, and set about enjoying our super comfortable bed.

Wanna see more pictures of our adventures on Ko Adang? Well, too bad. Just kidding, we are still working on getting the high-res versions from Chayani. For now, check them out on facebook! :-)

A bit more Rangsit (Bangkok) and Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Dec 17: relaxin' in Rangsit
We planned on going to Kanchanaburi today, but slept in really late (the past few days of biking have really been exhausting, and well, we had several beers the night before). We decided to hang out in Rangsit with Nathan for the day. We grabbed some food and decided we would try to see Harry Potter (again). We headed to the theater in Rangsit but discovered it was only playing in Thai (once again, you can't trust what the internet says). We hung out at the mall for a bit, and found something we were not expecting to find--a peyote cactus (wtf is that doing in Thailand?). Then we headed off to the theater in Bangkok for an English version of Harry Potter. After an hour or so of travel (ugh, rush hour) we ended up at the theater to discover that the 6:00 showing was about $20, while the 7:30 showing was only $7. We bought tickets for the 7:30 showing and wandered around the mall for the next few hours. Then, popcorn, and HARRY POTTER, finally! Then, back to Rangsit for a few beers and some late night curry, and bed.

Dec 18: Chatuchak Market (Bangkok) and off to Kanchanaburi
We woke up late (again), grabbed some food, and headed to the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok, a huge market. We shopped for a bit, had some food and hopped on a mini bus to Kanchanaburi. After a 3 hour ride, we were there! We grabbed some food at the night market: a delicious egg + mussels/clams? fried and served with bean sprouts, cilantro and some delicious red sauce (we also ate some fried chicken, surprise). After quite a bit of searching, we found ourselves a nice hostel with a river view, and headed to bed. All-in-all, it was a rather uneventful day...

Dec 19: Erawan waterfall and the Death Railway
Today we went to check out the Erawan waterfall. Supposedly, they are supposed to have 7 tiers that you can find as you hike through the jungle. Turns out there are a lot more than 7. We hiked all the way to the very top waterfall, and tried to swim, but there were lots of little fishies that nibbled you if you stopped moving. There were lots of pointy rocks, so it was hard to keep moving, and we decided to go back down to a lower level for some swimming. We stopped at what we thought was the 5th level and hopped in, which was quite refreshing, and we only got the occasional nibble from a fishie. Afterward, we had some lunch and headed to the Death Railway museum. The Thailand-Burma Death Railway is a 415 km stretch of railway built by Japan during WWII. POWs and Asian laborers were forced to built it --about 15,000 POWs and 100,000 Asian laborers died over the 20 months it took to build it. We checked out the museum, and then walked to Hellfire Pass, so named because the emaciated workers were forced to work through the night by torchlight, and it was said to resemble hell. Afterward, we took a ride on part of the railway that is still in use. Then we headed to the Bridge over the River Kwai and back to our hostel. We headed out for dinner and drinks with some people from our hostel (we stopped at 'Get drunk for 10B' bar and at a reggae bar, had a midnight snack of Pad Thai, and headed to bed.

Dec 20: biking around Kanchanaburi
We got up late, rented some bikes, and headed out (during the hottest part of the day...smart...). We got a bit lost and ended up on some random back road in the countryside. Without too much trouble we found our way and ended up at the War memorial. Then we headed to the Kanchanaburi Monkey School, where they train monkeys to pick coconuts (apparently monkeys can pick 800-1000 coconuts per day instead of ~200). We saw a coconut-picking demonstration, and a couple of other neat tricks that they've trained some of their monkeys to do (shoot hoops, swim, ride a tricylce, etc) and then we got to hang out with some of the monkeys! They were 1 and 2 years old, rather rambunctious, and quite smart. They went straight for our pockets (luckily, we had already removed everything), but one did manage to steal my hair tie (which I was not expecting). Afterward we headed to a temple-cave, which was probably one of the cooler ones we have been to so far: we actually had to walk around through a maze of caves, instead of just walking in and out! Afterward we were pretty tired and decided to head back and find some coffee and dinner. After quite a bit of searching we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had some delicious pork with peppers and pork with chili paste. Then, intense internet session, and bed!

wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Kanchanaburi? click here

Ruins, Ruins, Monkeys and more Ruins (Sukhothai, Lopburi, and Ayutthaya, Thailand)

Dec 13: Chiang Mai to SukhothaiToday we hopped on a bus from Chiang Mai to Sukhothai. The bus ride was extremely uneventful (except for when I thought my bladder was going to explode. Phil thought it was rather humorous. I did not.) and rather long (around 6 hours or so). We got to Sukhothai just in time to find a hostel and go out into the city to look for some food. We ate some delicioussss fried chicken (perhaps it was because we hadn't eaten lunch?) and some fried pork with broccoli (our first time having it...it was amazing and has turned into one of our favorite dishes) We headed back to the hostel for a beer or two and some games of rummy.

Dec 14: exploring old Sukhothai
We tried to start the day out early, and were relatively successful. We had some bfast at the hostel, and then hopped on a songathew to old Sukhothai, where the ruins are located (about 14km away) . Once there, we rented some bikes and started on our bike journey through the ruins. Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand for about 140 years in the 1200's. Many of the ruins are excavated, and some have been restored. We had a very enjoyable day biking around the three main areas (minus the scorching heat in the middle of the day. We offset this with an ice-cold Chang at lunch). The afternoon was extremely pleasant--it was much cooler and the way the light hit the temples made them extremely beautiful. Around 4, we dropped off our bikes, grabbed a well-earned iced latte and hopped back on the songathew to new Sukhothai We were delayed for about 30-45 mins on the way back, so our driver could fill up his vehicle with school children. Back at the hostel, we relaxed for a bit and headed out to find some food. We went back to the food stalls we had seen the night before, and got some more crispy pork and a noodle dish. mmmm. Then, more rummy, a bit of skyping, and bed.

Dec 15: Train to Lopburi (monkeys!), then AyutthayaToday we hopped on a bus to Phitsanulok where we switched to a train and headed off to Lopburi (a stop on the way to Auyutthaya). Lopburi is a small little city, with a few ruins, most of which are completely overrun with monkeys. Why? Nobody knows. But they are everywhere. So we hopped off the train at Lopburi, a little anxious about the monkeys (somebody told us they had been bitten!), dropped off our bags, and headed to the ruins. There were monkeys everywhere (even in the streets!). We cautiously entered the ruins and snapped some pics--old monkeys, baby monkeys, fighting monkeys, stealing monkeys (one lady left missing a flip flop, and we saw other monkeys jumping on people trying to get stuff out of their backpacks). We fed the monkeys some cucumbers, and luckily left without loosing any of our possessions and without getting bitten (success!). Then we searched for some food at the local night market, and waited for our train to Ayutthaya. We got there rather late, found a hostel, took a nice long shower and headed to bed.
Dec 16: Exploring Ayutthaya
We got up pretty early, ate breakfast at the hostel and found ourselves some bicycles. We bought a 6-ruin pass, and spent the rest of the day trying to see those ruins (and in the process saw many more!). Ayutthaya was also an old capital of Thailand from 1351 to 1767, and repelled 23 attacks from the Burmese, until the Burmese finally won, burned the entire city down and decapitated all the Buddha statues. The city is huge, and there are ruins scattered everywhere, in between modern buildings. We biked and biked and biked all around the town, until we ended up very far away at a rather lame temple and had to take a break from the heat. We headed back to the city, dropped off our bikes and had some delicious Pad Thai and Laad Na from some street vendors. Then, we headed to the train station and waited for our train to Ransit (which was 1.5 hours late! arg!) to see Nathan. Once in Rangsit, Nathan was nowhere to be found, so we hung out with a bunch of the other exchange students (they were having a party, since it was most of the students' last night) until Nathan came home, and then we collapsed and fell asleep.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Dec 9: Chiang Mai temple day
Today we woke up rather late, had lunch at street-side cafe (Pad Thai and some curry, which was unfortunately not that good), and decided to check out the city's many temples. We started our walking tour, hit many of the temples around the city, then decided to go check out the temple at the top of the nearby hill. Apparently it was supposed to be a really beautiful temple, and you got a great view of Chiang Mai. All this ended up being true, we just paid way too much for the ride up, entrance fee and the ride back down. Not worth it. That evening, we decided we would cave and splurge on some Mexican food that claimed to be REAL mexican food. Turns out it wasn't too bad: we got a combo with a taco, burrito, enchilada and beans and rice. Everything was pretty darn good except for the enchilada sauce that was trying really hard to be red chile sauce but failing. Relatively satisfied, we went to check out one of the night markets for about an hour or so before attempting to go see Harry Potter! (it was the first time we were in a big city since it came out, and we checked the internet, which said it was playing in english at 9:30. We've since learned that you can never trust the reliability of anything written on the internet in Thailand). We had a tuk-tuk drop us off at the mall, and it took us about 30 mins and lots of confused Thai people for us to figure out he had dropped us off at the wrong mall. Frantic, we found another tuk-tuk to take us to the correct theater, where we found Harry Potter, playing at 9:30, but only in Thai. Very, very sad, we decided to have an hour long foot massage outside the mall instead.

Dec 10: Thai Farm Cooking Class
Today we woke up bright and early, ready for our cooking class! Our first stop was the local market, where we saw several curry pastes, how coconut milk and cream are made, and where we bought some breakfast snacks in the form of pineapple and strawberries (or, as the Thais say, stlawbelllllliiii). Then, off to the farm! We were told that it was a farm and we would get to pick all our own ingredients, etc, etc. Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed when we discovered there was 3 other groups of 12 people and the garden was basically just a display garden that we looked at and didn't pick anything from. Sad day. Other than that, we had a great day. We made our own curry pastes using a mortar and pestle (steph-green, phil-red), a curry dish, several different soups, and basil or cashew chicken. We ate our food with some great sticky rice (and were stuffed to the absolute brim). After lunch, we made a couple of more dishes: Pad thai for Phil and Pad si ew for Steph. We also made a couple of desserts and called it a day. We headed back to the city, had some beers with some of our buddies from the cooking class, and headed to bed.

Dec 11: Elephant Riding, Waterfall and RaftingWe started our day in the back of a pick-up, and it was about an hour's ride to the elephants. We stopped along the way to check out an orchid farm, which was pretty cool. Then we stopped at a longneck village, which was a bit awkward--it was very obviously set up for tourists, and all the women just posed for us. Despite the awkwardness, it was really amazing to see and feel how much all the brass weighs, and that they can still go about their daily lives with 11 pounds of brass around their necks. Next, we headed off to the elephants. Apon arrival, we were instructed to buy some bananas. Then, we boarded our elephants. Turns out they really like bananas. They stick their trunks up at you and they stop walking until you give them a banana. What happens when you run out of bananas you might ask? Well, either they would grab a giant tree branch and rip it off the tree, or our guide encouraged the elephants to keep moving by tapping them on the leg or the butt. After the elephant ride, we rode something similar to a zip-line, except it was a cage...so we rode a cage across the river... Afterwards, we had some lunch, had a short hike to a waterfall, took a short swim (the water was freezing), and then headed back to the truck. We were dropped off for some white water rafting. The rafting was rather short, but also exciting. We hit 5 or 6 rapids, most of them pretty tame, except for one, where we were literally spinning and bouncing through some pretty serious rapids. Then we hopped on a bamboo raft (luckily we were all past the rapids) and headed home for the day, exhausted. We had some dinner and went to bed.

Dec 12: Biking around Chiang Mai
Today we decided to have a relatively relaxed day. We got up a bit late, had a late brunch at Kajana, one of our favorite restaurants, and rented some bikes. We headed outside the walls of the central city to see some of the temples that were further away. Our first stop was Wat Suan Dok, a beautiful, almost completely white temple that contains the remains of some of the former rulers of Chiang Mai. Next we headed to Wat Umong, which took us a little while to find due to some awkwardly placed signs. Wat Umong is a 700 year old Buddhist temple. Some of the monks live in tents near the entrance (the new ones), while others live in houses throughout the area. The cool thing about this temple is there are many tunnels (that you can still explore!), that are said to have been built for one of the monks who really liked to wander while meditating. After Wat Umong, we had a snack at a local restaurant, and headed back to the city. In the evening we went to Chiang Mai's huge Saturday market, which stretches from wall to wall in the central part of the city (approx 2 km!). We went with our friend Ari that we met in cooking class, but ended up loosing her in the huge crowds! We surprisingly didn't buy much, and headed back to the hostel for an hour long Thai massage ($5) and some sleep.

wanna see more pictures of our adventures Chiang Mai? click here

3 days of travel and Akha Hill House (Laos and Thailand)

Dec. 3-4 Luang Prabang to Pakbeng to Houayxai (Laos)
So we get up on the 3rd looking to see the monks receiving alms at about 5:45 am. The procession was very interesting and really could have been something really special except for some western tourists killing the mood. Basically the monks are not allowed to cook for themselves and so go around every morning and receive alms from faithful Buddhists in the form of sticky rice and other similar morsels. People not participating are supposed to respectfully keep their distance and not use flash photography. Presently, however, the monks have to walk through throngs of tourists who walk straight up to them and take flash pictures right up in their face (I equate it to a tour bus of Asian tourists going into a Catholic mass and taking pictures). Still, it was really interesting to see and definitely worth the early wake-up call. After monk-watching, we headed to the riverside for some breakfast (noodle soup, fried banana pastries, and coffee). After munching we headed over to the boat station and got there at around 7:15 to buy tickets. People kept telling us that someone would be there soon but at 7:30 we didn't have our bags and decided to head back to the hostel to check out, get our bags, and take one last poop before boarding the boat. Chores done we got back to the dock a little after 8am and bought tickets to Pakbeng for 100,000 kip each. The boat ride itself was largely uneventful and we spent most of the time reading (each of us finishing a book!). The scenery as we went by was really nice though and the ride itself was quite relaxing. We arrived at Pakbeng around 5pm-ish and found a guest house with our new friends Dominik and Claudia (the Swiss couple). After settling in we had dinner with them and headed back to the guesthouse for some sleep. The next day we woke up around 7am, ate breakfast, bought snacks, and got on the boat. We had a little trouble finding the boat (it wasn't the same one as the day before) but eventually found it (120,000 kip each from Pakbeng to Houayxai). There was a little drama this morning with some of the other passengers on the boat. They day before Steph and I were both pretty oblivious, since we were far in the back of the boat and intently reading our books (one about zombies, the other about nanoparticles taking over the world), but apparently 3 English girls were getting drunk and being loud the entire ride. Today this German guy was pissed because they were sitting right in front of him (again) and he didn't want to deal with their noise for 9 hours (again). He started yelling and gesticulating wildly, indicating that they needed to switch seats and move farther away from him and his wife. Of course they refused to move. Luckily, they ended up sleeping most of the trip (hm, perhaps they were hungover???) so any further drama was avoided. Anyway, today we sat with the Dominik and Claudia and played Spongebob Squarepants Uno with them for nearly two hours. After this awesome Uno session (I won soooo many times! hahahaha) the normal slowboat activity of reading and sightseeing commenced. At around 6pm we arrived at the docks of Houayxai, found a guest house, ate some do-it-yourself barbecue and headed to sleep.

Dec 5- Chiang Kong to Chiang Rai to the Akha Hill House (Thailand)
Today we got up around 8ish and grabbed some noodle soup before heading to find a boat. Once at the docks we "exited" Laos and hopped on a boat in order to cross the Mekong River into Thailand (about a 2 min ride). Once we got our Thai stamp on our Visa, we hired a taxi to the bus station and caught a bus to Chiang Rai just as it was about to leave. By pure coincidence we ended up on the same bus as our Swiss friends (yay!). Once we got to Chiang Rai a guy handed us a pamphlet for the Akha Hill House (aka jungle bungalows among the Akha hill tribe) which was convincing enough for us to want to stay there. We left our baggage in his truck and decided to check out Chiang Rai for a few hours before we had to be back (truck leaves to the hill house at 4:30 pm). Chiang Rai is a pretty small town so we decided to check out one a couple of its temples. Along the way we stopped at this really great coffee shop and indulged in some hot (Steph) and iced (Phil) lattes and free internet. They were awesome. I don't know if its because we've been drinking the local coffee for the last 2 months or so, but espresso and steamed milk really hit the spot. After the espresso we went out in search of food and temples, found both, and eventually found ourselves at a really awesome book exchange. We traded World War Z (great condition=250 baht credit) and ended up walking away with 3 new books. After we met up at the bus station we hopped on back of the pick-up and eventually started to make our way up to the Hill House. The hill house is about 23km outside of Chiang Rai in the mountains. The ride itself was really awesome because we were basically riding up into the mountains through rice fields, tea fields, hilltribe villages and jungle. We got to Akha around 5:30 that night and checked into our bungalow. Our bungalow was pretty awesome because it was so simple. It was all bamboo with a "squater" toilet and an awesome view over the jungle. That night we grabbed some food (which was, unfortunately, not that good and double the price), drank a beer, and booked a trek for the next day.

Dec 6- Jungle Trek (Akha Hill House, Chiang Rai, Thailand)
Today we got up early for our jungle trek starting at 9:30. Our guide was born and raised in a village in the jungle and as such we already knew we were in for a treat (but he did speak pretty decent English). We started off hiking from Akha and basically made our way straight up a hill (I don't think switchbacks exist in the jungle) and got a good view of the area. After about 30 minutes of trekking we stopped close to a stream so that we could make bamboo cups for our lunch. At this point our guide walks into the jungle and comes back in a few minutes later with a sizable stalk of bamboo. He quickly went to work making us PERFECT bamboo cups with his machete and afterwards let us try (it was much much harder than it looked and we have the cups to prove it). After grabbing some bamboo to make us chopsticks we trekked for about 30 or 40 more minutes stopping only for a few more pieces of bamboo for cooking. Eventually we got to a hut where we were told we would have lunch. Our guide quickly went to work by grabbing some water from the stream and some banana leaves. He then chopped some cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and lemon grass and packed it all into a large piece of bamboo with some water. Then he took some of the veggie mixture and put it into a smaller piece of bamboo along with some eggs. After this he built a fire and both bamboo tubes went right inside it. While these were cooking away he also boiled some water to make "jungle tea" which is made from tea naturally growing in the area (even though it seriously looked like it was planted). Eventually he combined the veggie with some ramen-like noodles and let it sit. We ate out of our newly made bamboo cups, and although lunch was simple, it was surprisingly good (it was cooked in bamboo!!!). After lunch we headed out for some more trekking again hiking straight up another hill and pushing through super tall grass/jungle (it was steep and very hot- I think I could have put out a small fire with all my sweating). At the top we took a small break with another great view and made our way to a Chinese village (the hilltribe was originally from China, but they all speak Thai now). After a break here we continued our trek and ended at a waterfall before returning to Akha. We were tired, sweaty, and needed a beer. After a shower, a beer, and some dinner we headed to bed.

Dec 7- Hot Springs (Akha Hill House, Chiang Rai, Thailand)
One of the great things about Akha is that we got TONS of sleep. We went to bed early (like 9pm) and got up late (today around 9am). It was awesome. Today we decided we wanted to trek to the Hot Spring which was roughly 5-6 km down the road. Unfortunately, we didn't get started until about 11am so on the way there we were walking during some of the hottest parts of the day. Much of the road was shady but unfortunately much of the road was really, really steep (much harder walking downhill than up). Once we got there we found that the hot spring was pretty much a swimming pool with hot spring water being pumped into it. There were several pools before the one we could get in, where the water was cooled down from its original 87 C. It was pretty relaxing despite how hot it was outside (it is cold season for the Thai people, meaning under 95 ish degrees). After a dip in the pool we decided we wanted something to drink and grabbed some coffee and a coke at the stand nearby. After relaxing for a bit more we decided we were hungry and tried to grab some barbecued fish (soooo good) but apparently the 5 fish on the grill were going to the 2 guys waiting nonchalantly nearby (Steph was really disappointed, as one guy walked away with a pile of 5 fish). Instead, we grabbed some d-e-licious barbecue chicken, along with some fried veggies, pork and basil, and a beer. We managed to improve the mood later though by grabbing some eggs in a basket and heading back to the hot spring to boil them. Its pretty popular for people to boil eggs in the hot spring (I'm convinced its because it smells like sulfur and thusly eggs). Our plan was to eat the eggs for breakfast the next morning but I guess we got impatient while boiling them and they didn't cook all the way (as we found out the next morning ha! At least they didnt explode on us hahahahaha!). The walk back to Akha seemed to be much shorter this was probably only because it was much cooler at that point. Once back at Akha we both showered and headed to the main dining area for some more mediocre food and beer and an Akha massage for Steph.

Dec 8- Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai (Thailand)
Today we left Akha at about 9:30 and got back into Chiang Rai. After a long internet session to figure out what our next move should be, we decided to leave Chiang Rai and head to Chiang Mai. We caught a tuk-tuk to a different bus station and boarded the 3 hour bus for Chiang Mai. Once we arrived we immediately got into another tuk-tuk and headed to find a guesthouse. Our guesthouse right now seems pretty promising and basically gave us a "no-bullshit" overview of what to do in Chiang Mai and the surroundings. We were really hoping for a home-run dinner tonight, since the food at the Akha hill house was really lacking in awesomeness). We ended up having an awesome dinner of really good Thai food at a place recommended by our hostel. We had an appetizer of pork with cucumber sauce on toasted bread followed by spicy fried noodles with chicken and basil and a really tasty pineapple curry (pineapple is in season here-- I've definitely had some of the best pineapple I've ever had in my life during our jungle trek). That pretty much brings us to now! And now I think we're off to bed!

wanna see more pictures? click here

Luang Prabang, Laos

Nov 28: off to Luang Prabang
We hopped on our bus to Luang Prabang and quickly discovered that the bus had no air conditioning (yay!). Luckily, we were next to a window, which we opened (to our dismay, this often meant there was lots of dust in our faces, but it was worth it for the nice breeze). The seats were uncomfortable, but otherwise it was a rather uneventful 7 hour journey to Luang Prabang (except for one stop we took at the top of a mountain--it had a great view). After arrival, we grabbed a tuk-tuk and found a hostel. Then, we searched for dinner. We found a really cool night market nearby, with ladies selling food for $1.25 a plate. Basically, there are 10-15 huge bowls of stuff, you spoon it onto a plate, then she adds sauce and heats it up for you in a wok. Delicious. Afterwards, we did some shopping at the nearby market and then headed to bed.

Nov 29: Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang is a gorgeous little town, basically on a peninsula in between two rivers. The main part is composed of about 3 parallel streets with french architecture. We spent most of our first day just wandering through the streets and visiting temples. We hiked to the very top of the hill in the center of town with a temple on top. At the bottom, ladies were selling little sparrows you could set free at the top. After seeing the Monday-Sunday Buddas, we headed down the mountain. Our further wanderings brought us to a used bookstore. (p.s. we've decided a lot of bookstore owners are crazy). We also discovered the cooking class next door, which we signed up for. We headed back to the night market for some more food, and settled on some amazing grilled fish and some delicious bbq pork (we've become very fond of 1) bbq 2) being served a whole entire fish, head and all). We also had some amazing little fried coconut/rice balls/pancakes and a fruit shake.

Nov 30: Pak Ou (Budda) Cave
We booked a tour to take us up the river for about an hour or so (we hadn't really considered that we would be on this river for about 16 hours total a bit later in the week) so we could visit the Pak Ou Caves. On the way, we stopped at a whiskey village, where the locals produce their famous lao-lao, or rice whiskey. We watched it being distilled and also sampled the 15%, the 55% and the 'black rice' variety. Then, we pressed on to the caves. The caves were pretty lame by themselves, but they were filled with over 4000 buddhas--many of them damaged--which have been donated by the locals over the years. Although impressive because of the sheer numbers of buddhas, we were a bit disappointed because it was ridiculously toursity. We snapped a few pictures and hopped back on the boat, and headed back to town. We spent the rest of the afternoon searching for a better bookstore to swap our books (10 books down...and counting!) and wandering through the town. We decided to treat ourselves for dinner, and shared a buffalo steak with green peppercorn sauce...mmmm. Then we had a nice long internet session and headed to bed.

Nov 30: Cooking Class!
We had been warned not to eat too much, since we would basically be eating and cooking all day. We had a quick bowl of noodle soup and headed for the kitchen! We met our cooking companions for the day: Dominik and Claudia (a super awesome couple from the german part of Switzerland), Brian and Vincent (a gay couple from Ireland but living in Syndey...they are about to open a wine bar) and Colleen (a raw food/vegan from colorado). We started by taking a tuk-tuk to the market and "buying" all of our ingredients (basically, our cooks pointed out all the ingredients they would be buying for us). Then we headed back to the kitchen for a tea break, and then we started cooking. First, our instructors demonstrated what we would make, and then we'd make it ourselves. First we made Luang Prabang salad (we were a bit disappointed that we were making a salad. cmon, everyone knows how to do that...but it was actually quite good) and fried wide egg noodles with chicken and vegetables. We breaked for lunch and some more coffee and ate our creations. Then, it was time for 'dinner' even though it was barely 1! The instructors demonstrated 3 dishes, and we picked 2 to cook. Then he demonstrated 2 more dishes, and we picked 1 to cook. Then he showed us how to make the delicious traditional Laos sticky rice and chili paste. For dinner we ended up with an eggplant/pork dish, a pork/egg/chako (a vegetable) soupy thing and vermicelli noodles with pork. We could barely finish all our food. Stuffed to the brim, we chatted with our friends and all discovered none of us had visited the waterfalls yet, so we decided to share a tuk-tuk instead of taking a tour. Afterwards, we headed to a great little hang out place, right along one of the rivers to read for a bit, and then we went to see the movie 'splice' for free (it was horrible, in case you were wondering) and then headed to bed.

Nov 2: The Interview and the Waterfalls
We got up rather early because Phil had an interview over skype, and headed for an internet cafe. The interview went quite well, except the professor had given away the position the day before :-(. We had a skype session and then it was time for a quick lunch and to meet up with our friends to go visit the waterfalls. We bargained the price of the tuk-tuk down, and headed out on our adventure. The first waterfall was about 30 km away, and luckily we got there before all the tours did. At the entrance, we encountered a sanctuary for asian black bears and watched them for a bit. Then we headed up the trail to see the waterfalls. They weren't really waterfalls, they were more like many large pools that spilled over into one another. They were still gorgeous though, especially the color. We found the main pool (designated by a swinging rope and larger waterfall that you could jump off) and hung around there for a while, swinging and trying not to freeze (the water was quite cold). Afterwards, we headed up the trail a bit further to find the main waterfall, which was much larger (but also much less interesting because there was no rope). We then headed off to the next waterfall. We actually had to take a river boat taxi to reach this waterfall, and by the time we got there it was closing time (which was actually perfect, because we didn't have to pay an entrance fee and by this time we were done swimming anyway). We snapped a few pics and headed back to town. Once back in town, we realized we should grab some more night market bbq (even though this would be our 3rd time eating there) because it was so delicious and because it was our last night in LP. With plenty of fish and pork in our bellies, we went to pack our bags and prepare for the next day.