The adventures in to Laos..

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(i have more pic's for this blog - but the computer won't upload on to this site... oh well i'll add them on later!)

Eliott Austin Carver and i got a mini van ride up to the Thailand Laos border/thai customs, which looks like an open air restaurant, two people who give you forms to fill out, sell you beer and take you to the long boat to Laos... that takes all of 3 minutes to cross the river. Once there you hike up the hill a customs guy stamps your passport and your done. Thats it folks... although Canadians have the most expencive visa cost - 1800 baht for 30 days (there are no longer 15 day visas here ) that's about $60 CAN. (americans have to only pay $40 - even though they are the ones who bombed them for so long ?!!!) Ah well. There was a 'tour' orginized to take us all to Laung Prabang (sp?) on the slow boat - 2 days, each day 7 hours... the 1st day was hell. HARD wood seats and more people on these boats than what you would think our offical standerds would permit ("only in Asia" we've come to say a lot) and a very loud moter pushing the slow boat down the river. Laos is incredibly beautiful. Beyond anything i've seen. The whole country side - along the Mekong river is really unspoiled land. A lot of regular villages are set up along the way and small fishing nets are hooked up to large rocks with people just sitting by. The first night we got off the boat (that was an adventure in it self...)and found a cheep room to say right above an Indian restaurant. This guy was GREAT!!! and the food - Lynds and Andrea i thought of you the whole meal - the chai oh and the nan and the curry... i could go on..!

The boat ride the next day was fantastic! The 4 of us were up at the front this time and we could chill out on the seat (still wood hard - but we had leg room!) and there was enough room infront to lay out. We got the crew boy to open the roof (it was like a long boat sun roof) and we all sat in the sun floating along the Mekong river. Again I was in awe of the beauty here. Every time you passed any kids along the river they would all jump up and wave. We arrived at Laung Prabang and settled in to a guest house. All four of us are sharing a room - $8 dollars a night Laos has a few restrictions here though...

1. All bars have to be closed by 11:30 ( the govn't is tring to change it to 10:30 but most still stay open till the late hour of 11:30)

2. All people (local and farang) should be at there FINAL destination by midnight - the whole country has a midnight cerfew ... fines will arise if your caught out past then.

Last night was well odd... we went out for dinner (a whopping $13 for 4 people) and then decided to go for a drink (here you can by your bottle and then go with it to the bar as long as you buy your ice and mix there) it was awhole walk around the wrong way to find the bar but we did. It closed an hour later! HA! Next thing you know everyone there says that they are going bowling - it's still open (just outside of town) and serving. Well we hop in the tuktuk and head out to the bowling lanes (!?!) It was an honest to goodness real bowling ally - just like at home - bad music, serious bowlers, and then us - gutter ball after gutter ball!!!! HA! it was fantastic. Carver and i and a new friend Aperna (we meet her on the boat) headed home at 1:30am. Trying to avoid the popo..... our diver took all back roads and deposited us safely at our house. The streets were deserted and it was very odd. We unfountualtly had to wake the owners of the guest house up to get in, we felt horrible - and then i warned him that elliott and austin were still on their way back to the house - he seemed less impressed about that news! Oh well live and learn. LAung Prabang has been named a Worls Heratige site and it's really neat. Very asian, open air markets (it's hard not to buy anything!) open air food markets (dinner including 1 beer and one pop $3.50 for both of us) temples, waterfalls (with a tiger...) buddah caves along the river museums... french infunace here is so apparent. You can get fresh baked goods anywhere - the cafes put ours at home to same. The crussonts here ! WOW they remind me of the ones i ate in France! Incredible!

Carver Elloitt Austin and I decided to go to the large waterfall and took a 'jumbo' (same as a tuktuk, only it can take up to 8 or more depending - 8 would be just a tad squuishy) the waterfall is 32 km out of town along questonalble roads and took about 1 hour to arrive. We paid the driver 12USD (everything here is kip or USD or baht but it get complicated to do the exchange from baht to kip or usd then think about the can dollar..) the 12$ included the ride for everyone and waiting time to take us back. We were at the waterfall for about 4 hours...!!

The 'park' has two area's that are sancuaries for captued animals that were in the hands of poachers. They have about 3 baby Asianic Black Bears (also called the moon bear), about 3 teenagers and maybe 4 or 5 adults and older bears, and one beautiful big Indo-chinesse tiger (Phet). On our way up we stopped to visit with Phet, she shows off a little, as most cats do! From there we made our way up to the waterfall. It was huge! and we were at the middle part! The falls cascade down and form about 4 pools near the bottom where there are desginated swimming areas - that are near frezzing - Northern Laos is NOT a warm country. We all decided to climb to the top of the falls - there are two ways to do it - the easy way with stairs or the hard way - foot holes in the hills that are dusty and some 'steps' half the size of me. Clearly we chose the hard way! FINALLY we were at the top where the falls gather ... a lot of little steams all merging together in pools that you can walk thought get to the other side ( there is a little 'fence' along the edge so you wont go over..). Once on the other side we found a great look out. We were higher up than all the other hill tops around us. Then we found the easy way down. The whole climb up and down with stops along the way took about 2 hours! We found the pools - a cold touqroise blue, colours like you only can imagine! We wondered down and found the bears. It was clearly feeding time as the little ones were pacing infront of the keeper area (the 'cages' are like big open area's where they can lounge all day as they like and then attached is a house where they sleep and are feed) so the babies were pacing in front of the door and when you heard the keeper come up they went NUTS!!! holding on to the bars, shaking them, screaming (have you ever heard a bear scream!?) and then when they got let in just maddness! (you couldn't see then inside the house though just hear them) all the adult bears just wandered up and took their time though, much calmer than the little ones! We walked around the building and found the keeper had left the door open when he went inside to feed them and we were allowed to come in and watch. It's just a big room with cages that the bears are in. He would give them bananna's and they would reach their hands out and gently take them from him, some rubbing up along the bars asking for more! We were about 5 feet away from them! Incedible. I asked about the tiger - when she would be feed - he was on the way there, so i asked if we could also come watch that to, Yep! WOW!!! We were like kids high on sugar.We walked up to Phet's area and when ahe saw her keeper she started to purr!!!! and follow us inside her area up to her feeding/sleeping house. Inside we were standing beside the most beautiful creature i've ever seen. The keeper and Phet clearly had a relationship - he raised her from the day she was taken from the poachers (the poachers had killed her mother and her brother died from bad care from the poachers - she was 5 days old when she got to the 'park' 7 years ago). He would chat with her (clearly she understand Laoition not english!) and she would answer back just like cats do at home - but definatly not your typical house cat! He had her come up to him and he was petting her and chatting the whole time. He feed her by putting some of the meat at the top of the bars so that we could se how tall she was when she stood up. I'm gonna guess about 7 feet or so! she demolished the two peices of meat with bones and all. She gets 4kgs of meat a day twice a day. What an experiance. I think we stayed there for 45 minuted or so just awe struck.

i want a tiger!

The next day i had the oddest experiance. The 4 of us had climbed up to the summit of Phu Si (a temple at the top of about 400 stairs that looks out over the whole city and river- the sunset is supost to be amazing) But in northern laos they start burning the land to ready it for the next season - so needless to say it was inceadibly hazey. Oh well, we had a bottle of red wine (angain thanks to the french influance!) and it was great regardless. A guy named David (from Ottawa, he's somewhere in his 50's?) and his friend Anne (New Zealand) were up there so we all got chatting (he's really interesting - on his was around india pakastan Napal asia and back to india to fly home) anyways- it's getting dark and the boys head down but Anne and i are chatting, so when we head down the hill we end upp walking with novice monks. they come to the summit (i'm sure for the offerings at the temple) but also to learn english from all the frang that are there. The steps were uneven so the monk beside me kept saying watch your step..etc, but then he held on to my arm... monks are not suppost to touch women right? this was really weird for me, but then it got weirder.. he held on to my arm (at the elbow) and started to move his hand down to my hand - like he wanted to hold my hand - very grade six - i kept my hand very ridged and then in a fist... I really think he was tring to hold my hand, like i would with carver if i was walking down the street! And here i was earlier in the day unsure if i could take a picture of a monk or two!

Now we have moved on and have been in Vang Vieng for a week. I've been sick so i've been staying inside most of the time - it's been a real bummer. But i've just got baack on my feet and i know how much the boys have been loving it here. This place is a real mecca for back packers - but it's gonna be destroyed soon enough... the guesthomes that are being built, the consturction... wow.... There is so much to do here though. They have a tubing experiance here that is pretty funny though. You rent tubes jump on the river and float down it - stopping along the way at all the bars that are being built up. There are also caves with beautiful lagoons all around the village here that you can go in to. Flashlights and headlights and climbing shoes are a must. When you get far enough back you can't see you hand in front of your face if you turn the lights out.
There has been a minor insurgancy around the village (and a lot of rummors too!) but the govn't has had a clash with the Haomg here. So we've seen a few tanks up and down the road and a few soliders. All internet and phone connections were disconected for the last 3 -4 days and today is the 1st day anyone has been able to use the internet! The bars are being prompltley shut down at 10pm by the police, who don't have any uniforms but definatly have guns! No big deal as we are heading out to the Plain of Jars in two days.
Plans have changed and we are going to Vientine in a week and flying to the south of China and then heading up to see the Great wall and the off to Korea (by boat - it's gonna be 25 hours but i have tons of sea sick tablets!!)

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