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Published: June 17th 2006
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The slow boat
The small boat that we were moved to Well I don't know about you guys, but we've had a busy few weeks. I last left off in chang mai where we were about to take the slow boat in Laos. we were told that it was a 2 day event. however it really was 3 days, because we had to take a 6 hour bus to the boarder and then take the boat for 2 days. the first day on the boat wasn't too bad. i mean how much fun can 8 hours on a boat be? it was a fairly decent size and we were able to sit and lay down on the gound when needed. the boat overnights in a little town called Pak Beng. i had been told that this was "rat town", so i was keeping my eyes peeled for visitors. luckily none came. the funny thing with pak beng was the drug pushers. before we even had a chance to put our bags down in our rooms, we were offered opium and marijuana.
the next day we went to board the boat but discoverd that they switched it on us. this boat was half the size, and it made frequent stops to pick
Kristen and Alex
Having supper in Pak Beng if locals, food and chickens. it got a little cramped in there to say the least.
we arrived in luang prabang in one piece and decided to take the next few days pretty easy after our journey. we had made some more friends on the boat and were now travelling as a group of 7. finally after a few days everybody felt up to taking the trek to the waterfall. it was such a beautiful waterfall that had several levels in which you could swim in. this however was not enough for one of the guys with us, dave. he convinced us all that there were areas that you could cliff dive from. so we set up on a journey up the mountain in our flip flops and bikinis. we must have made quite the site. it took awhile to finally get to the top, but when we did, it was well worth it. to get to the area to cliff dive, you had to climb down a very steep rock wall. this detered everyone in the group but two guys. they went down, and after about 5 minutes, kristen and i couldn't handle it, we had to join.
the view
View from our guest house. below is the river that we went tubing on. so we slid down the rocks and climbed up to the cliff. there we were on the top of a mountain cliff diving into a waterfall pool. if that wasn't enough, it then started to rain....it was all to beautiful to even be real.
that night world cup started, england played and since we were with 5 british, we were forced to the game. well coming from canada, i can honestly say that i have never watched a soccer game. but after these last few days, it's grown on me. as well i have to admit to calling it football, after many times of being yelled at, it's finally stuck. so the few nights in luang prabang were great because everybody's team seemed to win. first it was the english, then dutch and then aussies. so there was always something to celebrate.
we left for vang vien on wednesday. we had been told to do the tubing there and were game for it the next day, however a group member was room bound that day. so instead kristen, matt (one of the english guys) and I all rented scooters. it was great, we found these little side dirt roads that had the greatest view i've ever seen. dad/matt, you would have been in heaven. we finally got to tube the next day and the rumours were true, it was a blast!!!! you tubed down the river, and every few meters there were little huts that you could stop at. at these huts, they had zip lines, swinges, human sling shots, jumps and much more. if you bought a beer you could have unlimited access to these things. the first hut we went to was a zip line. everybody went off it with no hitches. the beers here though are like a 1L big, so it takes you a while to finish them. i got impatient and went to go again. i hadn't sufficiently dried off though and as soon as i jumped off the platform my hands slipped off and i did a back flop from about 20 ft in the air. OUCH!!! kristen was on dry land convinced that i had landed on a rock as i was only about a meter away from the shore. she later told me that she was thinking of things to tell lionel when she had to make the call. lucky for her i was merely adjusting my bathing suit underwater. the rest of day however my back was bright red. not to be one to give up, i turned around and climbed back up that tower and did the zip line again! the day took us 8 hours to tube and do all the jumps, but kristen and i did every single one there. it was one of the best days ever!! sorry i have no pictures as i didn't want my camera to get wet.
well we're in vientien now, which is the capital of laos. we are heading out on a bus to vietnam tonight. it's just back to the two of us, the others have more time and have stayed back in vang vien. i hope everyone is doing well. thinking of you all.
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Mom
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Football, Tubing, Beer .. is that you Adrienne?
Once again your pictures are beautiful and it sounds like this is your "adventure" part of the trip. It sounds fantastic! Keep me posted on Laos as that is somewhere we are interested in going .. our neighbours just returned and loved it. Am here with Grandma - she says to say Hi and told me (once again!) how much she enjoyed you phoning her. I am here for business - Edmonton and then Montreal and should be back home in Ottawa by Thusday morning. Enjoy enjoy enjoy and stay save. I love you lots. Mom