So we'd seen and heard from some friends about a little place outside of Hanoi called Snake Village. We'd heard something about cobra hearts, snake whiskey and getting drunk. Cameron and I decided for $15 we'd venture out for the day and check it out. So, we jumped on a bus with about 9 other travellers and our sweet little guide named Ti and had about a 20-minute drive out of town. We arrived in Snake Village and walked in to find a Vietnamese man holding a 4-foot Cobra, taunting him a bit for our entertainment. He started walking off and we naturally followed to continue taking photos. We were led to a deck over a mucky green lake, with lots of covered seating. Ti quietly gestured for us all to make our way towards one ... read more

The chips, aka crisps, in Asia are weird!! We've been able to find Plain, Sour Cream and Onion and Barbecue, but otherwise the flavors are crazy. For example, they have: Sweet Chili Squid, Nori Seaweed, Hot Crab and Hot Chicken Lemon and these are just the few I can remember. The Nori Seaweed isn't bad. Cameron and I were bored at the airport in Vientiane, while waiting for our flight to Hanoi (and also trying to get rid of the last of our Laos Kips, cause other countries definitely do not take this currency) so we decided to try the Hot Chicken Lemon. They were pretty gross, but we ate them anyway. This is a pointless blog really, but I just wanted to put up the photo! :-) Hope all is well!!!... read more

Vang Vieng is awesome! We've left now and headed south to Vientiane, which it good, because it would be very easy to get stuck in Vang Vieng for weeks! All the restaurants in the town are just like the one we slept at our first night in town, where they all have mattresses and pillows at the tables, so every meal is super comfortable. Also, every restaurant plays Friends episodes, from open to close. There is one restaurant that plays Family Guy and one that plays The Simpsons, but the rest are Friends, so when walking around town you hear "I'll be there for you" about every 5 minutes, as a new episode starts at one of the restaurants. I also liked the restaurants, because they had awesome pizzas and the pizza in Thailand just did ... read more

So we woke early for our 7:30 AM breakfast in Chiang Khong, because we were told that we'd be leaving for the slow boat down the Mekong River around 8:30 or 9 AM. When 9:30 AM rolls around, some trucks show up to bring people down to the river. The complete lack of organization or sticking to plans makes traveling in Asia pretty unpredictable. Well, it's predictable in the sense that you can add at least an hour to the given time frame of every bus ride or planned event you schedule. That's predictable! We took a small boat across the river to Laos. Here we spent the next two hours showing our passports to people, what seemed like every 15 minutes! We filled out visa forms and got our entry taken care of and thought ... read more

I've added a new best friend to my previous list. Before it was just hand sanitizer and baby wipes, well now Bonine (for motion sickness) is right up there as well! When we left Chiang Mai, we took the local bus to a little hippy town called Pai, about 4 hours West. The roads are all switchback, mountainous, bumpy roads. Actually, I think Michigan and Thailand are on the same level as far as road construction goes. But Michigan pretends to be fixing it, where Thailand doesn't bother. The local bus was the longest, bumpiest way to go, but it cost 72 Baht, as opposed to 250 Baht in an air-conditioned mini-bus. Who needs air-conditioning in Thailand?! The weather is perfect and I spent my 4 hours with my head out the window taking in the ... read more