Laos

We made it to Laos, we cut this short by a couple days because the flights into and out of laung prabang dont fly as often as we thought and we ended up spending an extra night/day in chaing mai.

So far its been one of my favorite stops, the people are nice/friendly and not as aggressive in trying to sell tourist everything and anything they have which is a nice change at the markets which seem to take place every night/morning. Laos is such an interesting/beautiful place. We ran into an Aussie in Bangkok who spent 6 months riding around southeast asia on a Harley last year. I cant remember the exact number but i think Laos has had the most bombs dropped on it per square mile than any other southeast asian country and only 20% of the country has been cleared of landmines and the remaining bombs. So its wise to stay on the roads and not venture off into any rice fields here. The capital city is more of a small town, i think it took about 5 or 10 minutes to ride thru town on our scooters. It seems like we flew back about 20 years in the city and 50 years in the countryside once we got here. I tried to find a payphone to call home and had no luck. The hotel didnt think there was one in Luang Prabang. Sorry Mom.

We spent most of the day today just tooling around on some scooters we rented. Imagine riding a scooter with a space heater turned all the way up and blowing in your face all day and that may give you an idea of how hot it was on the roads. It took us an hour to go 30 kilometers b/c the roads weren't the best and weren't the straightest but once we got there it was worth the ride. The waterfall was amazing, and the water was actually pretty chilly. Around every corner there were kids riding bikes, playing, or walking to and from school but they all seemed to notice the two awkward looking foreigners ride by on there little scooters, Matt told me it looked like i was riding a miniature bike b/c my legs stuck out to the sides so much. Overall a fun/sweaty day in an amazing country.

Off to Vietnam tomorrow,

-Alex

A few extra pics from Chang Mai

From our last full day a the B.M.P(Backpackers Meeting Place)in Chang Mai. The Long Neck Lady tribe was the most interesting part but the snake wiskey which i tried was a close second.

Chang Mai Pictues

Finishing up at Chang Mai

Today is our last morning in Chang Mai then we're onto Laos for 2 nights. Probably won't get into much except for a swim in the pool before we head to the airport. Hopefully the seating is a little roomier than the previous plane.

Chang Mai was definitely worth the stop. We were busy every day with different adventures from the tiger kingdom which we already talked about to a full day of trekking/swimming, fishing, and finally a long day in a bus to see the long neck ladies.

Trekking was an experience, we first went to visit a few little villages along the way and then hiked about 20-30 min thru the jungle towards a beautiful waterfall where we could all go swimming and cool down from the ridiculous heat over here. I unfortunately slipped on the rocks and ended up with a nice bruise on my leg but it def couldve been worse. The highlight of the day had to be the bamboo rafting though. We spent about an hour floating down a shallow river with, thru pretty small rapids and pools with local thai kids from all ages splashing us along the way. I'll try and post a few pics above.

The next day we had planned to go look at some temples but at the last minute decided against it and went fishing for some Me Kong Catfish instead. We caught about 15 for the day, it was great to reel them in but the fishing was kind of a joke b/c it was a stocked pond and the fish seemed to know the drill. In any case i still caught the biggest fish at 22 kg, equaling free beer for me the rest of the day. So it cost Matt about 4 bucks.

Chang Mai also had quite a few different markets and activities to do, i dont think 4 days was enough, but now we're onto Laos for a couple days and hopefully we'll have Internet to keep thing thrilling blog updated/interesting.

Any updates from the states? Let us know and keep in touch.

-Alex

Chang Mai

Yesterday was our first real busy/tourist day of the trip. We woke up early and headed down towards the canal to take a long boat up towards a few temples and the grand palace. We ended up taking a canal tour on the longboat which would bring us by a floating market(ended up being two old women selling trinkets on a tiny little boat), a snake farm, fish farm, and then drop us off at the palace. Once we got dropped off we got lost, which at this point was not uncommon, and ended up running into the tourist police. He put us in a tuktuk and basically planned the rest of the day for us with the tuktuk driver. From noon til 4 pm the tuktuk driver took us around to different temples, a travel agent, a tailor shop, and finally the grand palace. The palace and temples were incredible to say the least. I posted a pic above from one of the temples with some monks in the middle of a prayer.

-Alex

So today we woke up early and headed to the airport to fly to Chang Mai. The plane was a little tight for both of us. I having a more "athletic/husky" build could not put the tray all the way down because my stomach was in the way. And Alex had to lean forward and push his butt back in order to fit his knees in. We got to our hotel/hostel B.M.P. and checked into a room size oven complete with two beds. We were soon off on our first adventure to get up close to some tigers and cubs. It was a great experience and made for some once in a life time photos. Just before we left we decided to try and get our feet exfoliated by fish. It is very hard to describe the feeling but it was a lot like pins and needles. In a few hours we are heading to a Thai boxing match where we are sitting ringside. Tomorrow we are off on our trek, pictures to follow.
-Matt

First Post of Thailand

After 30 something hours of traveling i finally made it to Bangkok, overall it wasnt too bad, a 1 hour flight, a 15 hour flight and a 2 hour 45 minute flight. Even though it felt like i was sleeping on a sheet of ply wood last night it was nice to get here.

Matt made it in this morning and we pretty much headed straight into Bangkok to relocate. We randomly picked a hotel to get dropped off at in downtown bangkok and told the cab driver we were all set. Then we found out the hotel had no rooms available. Not the best start but luckily the Thai women was generous enough or felt bad enough to make a few calls for us and found us a room right down the street in a pretty nice hotel, The Fusion Suites. According to an Aussie we ate lunch with its the best bang for the buck as far as hotels go in bangkok.

Pretty lazy/uneventful afternoon otherwise, strolled around and got lunch, i ordered a non spicey soup and ended up drinking a bunch of water and a beer just to get thru it. Overall not a bad afternoon. Gotta run but hope you enjoyed the first post from abroad, i'll try and make them more interesting as we get into more exciting stuff.

-Alex

The packing has started

Packing is one of those things that's both exciting and nerve racking. I always feel like i'm going to forget something important. I'm not one to make a list leading up to the process, i just make 100 trips between the closet, bedroom, living room and whatever store is close by. If you have any suggestions please send them along..here's the progress so far.

In case youre wondering i fly out of Boston on Monday the 29th at 9:50 am and land in Bangkok on Tuesday the 30th at 11:40 pm, with stops in NYC and Hong Kong along the way. Talk to you from Bangkok.

-Alex