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Published: January 31st 2007
Our Elephant
Chiang Mai - ThailandOK. January 30th seems like a good time to write another blog. I had to pick the right time, that’s all.
I am now starting to wrap up my life here in Taiwan as my year contract is coming to a close in March. I can’t really believe it. It’s a bittersweet time for me since I really love it here… but also love Canada, my family, friends… the real world (well…the last one is a scary thought -although my family runs a close second ; )
My sisters are having babies like it’s in fashion, Jake has been patient, Barrhaven has a Swiss Chalet…and the list goes on. It’s about my time.
Back around Christmas time, Jake was here for vacation. We went to Thailand and Laos for 5 weeks which proved to be so much fun! It was really hard to adjust to a familiar face, I’m not going to lie…but after I learned how to ‘share’ my things / space (anyone living away for a long time will identify with that statement) it was terrific. The whole thing kicked off with my sitting next to a man wearing all tie-die and a fluorescent pink cowboy hat
on the plane from Taiwan. Obviously we ended up sharing a cab with him right into the heart of the city. There it began.
From Bangkok to Luang Prabang, Jake and I backpacked, boated, trained, flew and rickshawed across both Thailand and Laos meeting excellent company and eating many a banana and chocolate crepe (I can’t believe I actually didn’t have clogged arteries at the end of it all).
I guess it’s pretty hard for me to get too detailed about the whole thing…but major highlights for us were Chang Mai, Thailand, Bangkok (for the food and the shopping), Ko Pha Ngan (for the local whiskey…beach huts and old retired guys who live on the beach and tell funny stories about the 70’s), and
everything Laotian.
Sidenote: never trust whiskey that’s come from an old jam jar. This is not necessarily the beacon of quality you may think it is. As some have heard…on the night Jake and I tried it, I had to put him to bed at 9pm while I ended up at some beach fire until early morning. Also worth mentioning is that earlier in the evening, we were conned into believing that the local yogurt-making-lady
On an Elephant
Wear long pants if you ever do this! was indeed the mayor of the island (I KNEW she looked a little too young…).
By far our favourite destination was Laos - specifically, Vang Vieng. We, unfortunately, weren’t able to get too much off the beaten path since our time was limited, but what we saw and experienced has us both vowing to go back one day.
Laos is actually one of the most primitive countries left (in the top 7 or something)…and the people & surroundings there are a nice change from touristy, busy, commercialized Thailand. I preferred Laos for sure.
To get to Luang Prabang (first stop), Jake and I had to take a 2 day boat ride down the Mekong river…it was either that or take an 8 hour speed boat where you have to wear a helmet and at least one person dies a week.
2 days wasn’t bad at all.
When we arrived by bus to the connecting town, we had missed the next bus which would’ve taken us to the boat port.
We had this ‘amazing’ idea to hire a tuk-tuk (motorcycle on 3 wheels with a covered back) to take us to this city. I think Jake and I ran
Hiking Group - Chiang Mai
A really fantastic bunch of people... through the entire human emotional range on this journey…from delirium, slight frustration, fear - we were scrunched into a tiny little seat (he took up most of the room, I might add), using our beach towels as blankets. We even had the “if you could eat anything right now, what would it be?” conversation, which, got quite detailed, actually. I never knew Jake liked Swiss cheese on chickenburgers…
Anyway - you get the point.
5 hours…many jungle roads…wrong turns…and locals telling us we should not continue, later…we made it to the town. Only $30 Canadian (it seemed like a bargain at the time) and we were able to take the boat we wanted in the morning. Phew.
THE BOAT:
Basically a wooden rectangle with TINY wooden boards as seats.We managed to hop on the other one which had no seats….just plastic lawn chairs that you could shove aside in order to lie on the floor. So, that’s what we all did.
On the boat we met some of the best people…and ended up hanging out with them for the next few weeks.
On to Luang Prabang.
This is an interesting city. The French influence is really prominent and
Buddhism 2006
Should we be surprised? mixes surprisingly well with the Asian atmosphere. The shops and homes are all really European as is the way some of the people dress. There were baguettes with every meal and French signs all over the place including on Buddhist temples (of which there were MANY).
We didn’t stay too long as I ended up getting sick and needed to get to a hospital (long story - nothing immediately life threatening)…so at 5am one morning some guy on a rickshaw agreed to take me to a Chinese medicine hospital - AKA: a concrete hut where some guy in an Italian soccer jersey was sleeping on a towel on the floor.
“I’m the on-call Doctor”, he said. And, he might very well have been. HOWEVER. I was not about to let this guy diagnose me. I’m not even a 'team Italy' fan.
Luckily the photocopied Lonely Planet we had was really old…and there happened to be a brand new hospital out in the middle of nowhere. SO, after sitting in a tuk-tuk for 40 minutes going through dirt roads and primitive villages (very interesting) I was willing to take any medicine they could give me. I was so lucky
- the first Dr said that the medicine I needed was “not available in this country”...but in usual Asian style, this was not accurate (thank GOD!)
Moral of this story: don’t get sick in Laos.
Next was Vang Vieng.
My favourite place of all…a really small, sparsely populated and not-very-touristy town that has not much to do but relax near the river…explore immense caves, mountain bike, swim in lagoons, white water raft etc... You can see why we stayed for over a week.
Most people who visit Vang Vieng will at some point do the notorious tubing trip. You hire a huge tire for $3US, they cart you to the start of the river and you float down for hours, stopping at the random bamboo bars to meet other people, get a beer or two and swing from the huge Tarzan ropes and zip lines (none of which would ever be legal to run in any other country than Laos).
A journey usually takes about 2 hours if you don’t stop…but of course our group started at 10am and rolled in around 4pm each time (yes, we went three times). I swear, by the third trip we’d
all perfected our airborne triple sow cows.
Pretty sure the guy’s (who was in charge of the first station) first English words were mine and Jake’s names.
Ever since the vacation, I’ve felt a lot more relaxed. Before, I was working a lot - kind of trapped into the cycle of little sleep, extra work at home and squeezing in as many weekend road-trips as possible.
Things have been a lot more tolerable since, and I’m busy trying to sell all my belongings, find replacements for my different jobs and planning my trip to India (heading there March 13th in case anyone wants to join. The short of it is…I’ll be spending a month in Kolkata volunteering for CRAWL, www.crawlsociety.com, and then onto some travel for the following few months).
Wow. Now that I’ve gotten into this blog, there really is so much I have to say.
But, I won’t.
I’ll leave the rest for when I come home : )
Enjoy the TWO pictures...there are many more, but they're at Jake's house on CD since my computer was wiped clean of them when i brought it in to get fixed. Thankfully i sent them to him
first before taking it in. Will post them someday.
Will write again….in less than 7 seven months, I promise.
Rebecca
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Amy B
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So great to hear from you again, Rebecca! Everytime I read your blogs, I laugh my ass off in my little cubicle and wish I was with you on these crazy adventures you have ;-) Keep on trekking - but I really look forward to seeing you back in Ottawa someday! Amy xo