This last blog is for some of you great people who I met on my trip. You know who you are! These are just some photos from where I live here in Canada. Anyway, keep in touch and I'll enjoy getting any emails you care to write! Love from Erika [View Full Entry]

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Our journey from Koh Lanta to Bangkok felt like absolute luxury. There were beds with pillows and blankets on the train. I was situated beside a local family from Bangkok on the train and I enjoyed helping their five-year-old practice her English! So cute! When we arrived in Bangkok, we bumped into Mani, one of our friends from Koh Lanta, and found accommodations with her. We found a simple, but clean little guest house away from the noise and chaos of Bangkok! We spent the last three days of our trip shopping and sightseeing. We spent the first part of the [View Full Entry]

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We signed up for a snorkeling trip to all the different beaches and karst islands near Phi Phi. We saw "The Beach" (From the movie....you know Leonardo di Caprio) but unfortunately it was swarming with tons of people and cost five dollars to go lie on the beach. The actual snorkeling was beautiful and we saw quite a few fish (Dad even saw a shark :S) but there were so many tour boats around, it was like a traffic jam. They also took us to monkey beach where Matt was attacked by a really, really fat monkey with a really bad [View Full Entry]

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We spent the last night on Koh Tao with our friends from the scuba shop. Our Thai instructor and her Italian boyfriend had us over for real Italian food! It was a great mix of a Thai party with European food! After leaving our friends in Koh Tao, we headed by boat for a 3 hr journey to Koh Pha Ngan. After arriving we found bungalows on the beach at Thong Nai Pan on the NE corner of the island. We spent a day exploring the beaches and at night Matt and I decided to try out one of the "moon [View Full Entry]

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Our continuing journey to Koh Tao was nothing less than an adventure! It started off on an air-con sleeper on the train. After reaching our destination of Chumphon three hours late, we decided it was too late to get a guesthouse, so we saw some street people sleeping in station by the track, and we laid right down beside them. After a few hours on a hard bench, we caught a minibus to the morning boat for three hours and then a truck to our scuba diving location on the south tip of Koh Tao! It's a beautiful beach, bungalow and [View Full Entry]

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We spent our last day in Vang Vieng tubing down the river. It definitely gave us a new perspective on Vang Vieng because.... it was worthwhile! As we floated down, there were bars by the riverside and the workers there would hook onto our tubes and reel us in chanting Beer Lao, Beer Lao. At the riverside bars there were also huge rope swings that customers could use to jump into the river! It was a real great time but seeing as there is nothing else for people to do in Vang Vieng except drink happy shakes and watch Friends, we [View Full Entry]

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For such a small city Luang Prabang is full of things to do. We started our exploring there by renting bikes and riding around through the streets and along the the waterfronts. There are actually two waterfronts there because it is where the Mekong and another small river meet. As you can tell by my title, the monks in Luang Prabang really stood out. They are roaming around everywhere due to the dozens of Wats around Luang Prabang. Many of them are just still young boys and some spend a good portion of their day floating down the river in their [View Full Entry]

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Our adventure into Laos has probably been one of the top experiences for me on our trip so far! We rented a 4 wheel drive and driver from Hanoi to take us to Nam Xoi, on the Laos border. Our driver did not know much English except for when we would see animals along the side of the road he would name them and say "buffalo...yum yum" or "chicken very good very good". As we got further and further from Hanoi, it became more and more interesting. Rice paddy terraces and minority tribe villages passed by the dozens. After 9 hours [View Full Entry]

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After deciding reluctantly to leave Hoi An, we caught the bus to Hue. There we found a great guesthouse in the backpackers' hideaway that contained nice little cafes with walls and ceilings completely covered in writing from all the travelers that had passed through. Matt wanted to visit the Demilarized Zone so he headed off on a bus and Dad and I rented bikes for the day. We ended up pedaling into neighborhoods with children playing on the narrow street. The city was an interesting maze of waterways and alleyways. As we rode by we were greeted with "hellos" from every [View Full Entry]

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Although Saigon had an amazing feel to it that we never expected, we decided to take a break and head to the beach for a few days. We took a bus straight from Saigon to Mui Ne where we found amazing bamboo bungalows right on the beach for only $7.00 a night! They only had double rooms so a girl from Holland and I decided to bunk together for a few days. On our first day on the beach all of us got completely fried under the hot sun! It was so scorching outside we could not even walk on the [View Full Entry]

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