Tubing in Vang Vieng!!!

We just had one of the craziest days on our trip: tubing in Vang Vieng!!

For anyone who has been there before, yes it is still craziness and for those who haven't and who like to party, it is AWESOME!! To the young backpacker crowd, this place is a rite of passage and the party tone is set early on in the day. Colin and I were definately above the average age (most kids were Brit gap year-ers or Aussies on holiday) but we still had fun. The day consists of riding a tube down the river, while stopping off at bars along the way. These aren't normal bars though, these are makeshift shanty bars which also provide homemade swings, zip lines, slides and a whole amusement park worth of homemade contraptions to entice the drunken tubers.

The day went like this...
After a lazy breakfast, all the backpackers descend on one of two inner-tube rental shops who quickly take your money, make you sign a waiver and then whisk you off to the inner-tube launch site. When you arrive at the launch, a nice lao-lao (homemade whisky) shooter is waiting for you. Before you even launch your tube, you can stay and have some drinks at Bar 1. At Bar 1, they have a homemade trapeze set up and anyone can attempt to be an acrobat for FREE. Colin and I chose to do our acrobatics before we drank too many 1$ 650ml beer laos. It was a riot!! No injuries for us...You could also get a bucket of anything you might fancy for about $4 (Vodka Redbull, Lao-Lao and coke, etc.). After a few more beer laos and even a bucket of Vodka Redbull, we decided the swings were so much fun that we had to try again. This time I had a bit of a side flop and some mild bruising...oops. Our final 'ride' was further down the river...it was a giant homemade slide. It looked amazing!! When I got to the top, I noticed it was all tiled and I thought perhaps it would scratch me all over the place. Luckily it didn't. However it did shoot me off the bottom like a canon! Take a look at the videos...looking at them now makes us feel a bit stupid but hey, EVERYONE WAS DOING IT!! Oh, and there were little Laos children flying all over the place. There were 5 year olds in their undies doing backflips off all the trapezes!!



Miss you all,
P & C

Thailand -> Laos

We spent an amazing month in Thailand! In fact we enjoyed it so much we almost forgot to leave. We were issued a 30 day visa upon landing in Thailand which allowed us to stay until Jan 18th and we left 30min before the border closed on that exact day. Severe financial penalties (17$) would have ensued had we left late.

We've now been in Laos for nearly a week and it has also surpased our expectations. It is so amazing to be immersed within a country where the average person has so little compared to western standards and yet is so giving and welcoming.

Since arriving we've spent most of our time in the north, somewhat off the heavy tourist route, and visited some small villages that are really only accesible by walking or being pulled by animal. It has been somewhat reminescent of Africa in terms of the ruralness and lousy roads.

After that short time in the north we headed to Luang Prabang which is the start of the major tourist corridor and looks like we will be with the masses until Vientianne were we hope to head into the less touristy south. We miss the slow pace and no hassle of the small town, but we are loving all the comforts and luxuries available in Laung Prabang. We've had great coffee, baguettes, and cheese already and we just found a shop with cheap French wine. We deserve this...since we've been eating noodle soup at least twice a day for the last month.

One of the great parts of any country is the national beer and Beerlao has been the best brew yet, since arriving in Asia. No more Chang-overs!!!
Cheers to beers. (Colin's sign-off)
Check out some actual pictures of Thailand and Laos, not just beer pics, using the links on the right. Miss you all, we'll be home in less than 3 months, (Patti's sign-off) Boring!! (Colin's response)

P & C

Losers win big

Since leaving home we've participated in a couple of trivia nights at pubs around the world but we've never won so much for doing so lousy as we did in Chang Mai. Teamed up with Julien a British retiree living in Chang Mai we succesfully answered less than 50% of the questions. Prizes were for the top three scores and then the worst score who gets a pitcher of beer, however we didn't actually have the worst score. So we wouldn't have won the pitcher if it wasn't for Julien who attends regularly to lose the contest but win the pitcher.

Team "Canucks" total points 49!
Rewarding pitcher of Heinenken with teamate Julien.

Hockey tonight on T.V. and the Habs to boot

We've arrived in Chang Mai in northern Thailand and are ready for a couple of days of non-movement and relaxing before we head east to Laos. This town has been hyped pretty hard by fellow backpackers along the Thai route and so far it hasn't disappointed. We found a great little guesthouse for next to nothing and have had some great meals of both Thai and western style food (needed every once and awhile).
The greatest discovery so far is that a bar called the U.N. Irish Bar is showing NHL on a big screen and tonight New Jersey and Montreal, booya. It might feel like home if it wasn't for the 34deg heat and the amount of animal organs for sale in the street.

The Status of our Stuff

We've been gone for approx 8 months now, with 3.5 months to go. The first 8 months have taken quite a toll on stuff. Here is a little status list:

• Our sleeping bags are dirty (Colin's stinks).
• Colin is on his second SLR camera, has had repair work on one of his camera lenses and I'm on my second camera. Thank goodness for second hand stores. I got my camera used for less than half the price of a new one and it is in better shape than my original one.
• Colin is on his 3rd pair of flip flops and so am I.
• I have new hiking shoes (first ones got a bit roughed up while camping in Africa) and have lost my atheltic sandals (chose not to replace these).
• Lost one of my little green amber earrings during a scuba lesson (yes Jan, my little amber studs from Poland). Lost several earrings in other places, leaving me with a bag of mostly one earring per set.
• Both of us are on passport number 2.
• We have our original bank cards, except I no longer have a Royal Bank debit card.
• I have about 50% of the originals clothes I brought, still in ok shape. Colin has almost all of his original clothes, lots with holes and faded armpits.
• Oh, and for those of you who knew we were each bringing only 3 pairs of undies...I have 2 of my original set and one replacement pair purchased on a discount shelf in Nairobi, Kenya. Colin has all 3 original pairs of undies....check this pair out, crotchless boxers!!! (he got two new pairs for Christmas but is yet to throw out the old ones). Yes, that is a HOLE!

Hehe, all in all, we are doing fine. You've got to expect these things, I guess. Wish us luck on our last 3.5 months. Hopefully no more big ticket items will be replaced!!

Miss you all, love,

P & C

Happy New Year to All

We celebrated a rather drunken New Years in Koh Tao on the beach under the full moon. Now it wasn't a true full moon party of the Koh Phangan legend but it did have almost all the same ingredients; buckets of booze, sand, full moon and dancing. The only thing it was missing was about 25,000 people.The entire evening was great, we started with a wonderful seafood meal at the King Crab on the beach then met up with Thomas (Colin's dive buddy) at Vibe Bar before hitting up the real party at Club Fiz. Didn't hit the sack until about 4:00am and woke up with a serious hangover. Although Thomas was much worse off and didn't make it out of bed until around 5pm.

We have another couple of nights in the islands before we really explore Bangkok and then head north, can't wait.

Love you all.

Colin and Patti