Koh Phangan - 'Haad Rin'

After a bumpy boat ride from Bottle Beach (Walter was white-knuckling it all the way there) we arrived on the beach that started off our trip in May; Haad Rin. Although the weather was pretty crappy while there, we made the most of the nights. Jess and Gabe still had three days until they joined us, so until then we partied on the beach sharing vodka and soda buckets and dancing all night on the white sand beaches.






So as you can see Jess (and Gabe) arrived safetly from the Phillippenes, although Gabe was pretty sick from some fungus or something and wasn't quite up to par since the beginning of his trip to the Phillippenes. Poor Gabe.

Here we are at the half moon party that took place in the jungle! Not quite as crazy as the full moon party, but fun nontheless. As most of you know Jess is not much of a drinker so it didn't take much for her to get all glossy-eyed and had to take a little break for a bit, but she was back in action in no time.

Just a few days after Gabe and Jess met up with us on the island, Cindy was soon to follow. We actually met up with her walking along the main strip in her bikini top and backpack! Seasoned traveller I guess. It was really awesome to be hanging out with Cindy in THAILAND!!! Surreal. She got a guest house right near ours and we grabbed some beers from the convienient store and quickly caught up on the past 3 months. That night we had a "date" with a couple from Toronto that we met earlier that morning and had some drinks with them at our guest house before heading down to the beach. She's a lawyer and he's in the process of getting his PHD. Unfortunately Cindy was still jetlaged and stayed behind to get some rest while the rest of us hit the buckets.

Koh Phangan - 'Bottle Beach'

It was once again time to go back to the beach. We choose to go back to the island where we first started our trip on, Koh Phangan. This time however, Walter and I wanted to check out another beach that wasn't as busy with stores and tourists while we waited for Gabe and Jess to get back from the Phillippenes. We took a 12 hour bus ride from Bangkok, waited another 2 1/2 hours at another location, then took a 3 hour ferry until we finally arrived on Bottle Beach. Much more quiet than any beach or island we've been to, Bottle beach was extremely relaxing and was free of people asking us to buy things and take taxis. We also scored a really cute hut just steps away from the beach for only $9 a night! A really nice change of pace for our last few weeks of vacation.


Every beach and city in Thailand has their own type of dog roaming and lounging around. We'd find them sleeping in the middle of the roads or under our tables while we're eating. Here on Bottle Beach these were the kind of dogs that were running around, little furballs! Totally cute. This one here looks like he's actually posing for the picture when really he was watching the volleyball game going on on the beach and I interrupted him! Well after time well spent on this beach it was time to pack up and get ready for the main party beach where we would soon meet up with Gabe, Jess and eventually Cindy too!

Kanchanaburi

After Auytthaya we wanted to see what other history Thailand had for us to discover so we went to Kanchanaburi. About three hours from Bangkok, the main tourist attraction here is the "Death Bridge" built by the prisioners of war during World War 2. Thousands of prisioners; Dutch, British, Austrailian, Americans and even some Asians were forced to build a bridge that connected Thailand to Burma under the Japanese command. Due to the inhumane conditions under which these prisioners had to work; from sunrise to sunset, malnourished, wounded and deathly ill thousands died while building this bridge through the jungle and mountains. This took just over a year to build when in reality it should have taken several years. The reason for the Japanese to have the bridge built was so that they could have a way into Burma in hopes of overtaking their country so they had no mercy on the prisioners and used whatever means necessary to get the job done, they stopped at nothing. This bridge is in use today.

We also went to visit the cemetary where those who died are buried. Although the American soldiers that died were sent back to their own country as their final resting place, all the other soldiers lye in peace here in Kanchanaburi. Rows upon rows of tomb stones list those who died so that others could live and many only in their twenties. It's too bad that so many lives are taken because of greed and hate and the cycle still continues today.

Auytthaya

After Koh Chang, it was back to Bangkok for the night and then off to Auytthaya for Walter to go back to his Portugese roots. Authttaya was actually the old capital of Thailand so it is just filled with history. Unknown to many, the Portugese were one of the first foreigners to settle into Thailand. Back in 1511 the Portugese used to do trades with Thai people and when a war broke out between Thailand and Burma the Portugese helped Thailand and introduced guns to them for their defense. In doing so the King rewarded Portugal with some land to settle on. The Portugese people stayed for about 300 years.


During our days here we also checked out some old temples and other stone buildings. As you can see we could just climb on them as we pleased...do you think that would be allowed in Canada? Hmm, probably not. It's funny the things we're able to do here in Thailand. While we were walking around this park I was passed by a thai woman who told me that my top was "not polite". I was just wearing a tube top, nothing revealing by any means, but I just found it funny considering that the majority of men around here walk around with their t-shirts pulled up to thier chests revealing thier bellies. Whatever lady. We did enjoy walking around the park and taking in the incredible view of this city! The picture before this one is also of the park.








The one thing about this city that did really scare us both was the insane number of dogs that would walk the streets, especially at night time. Any other place we've been there have been many stray dogs around, but the dogs in this city are not friendly, and we are even warned to stay away from them in the Lonley Planet book. Our walks home from the bar were tense and uneasy as we tried to look straight ahead with nervous laughter not wanting to let the other know that we were scared as hell. Oh, and did I mention that they travel in groups of 4 or more?!












Yes, I'm afraid it had to be done....KFC baby! And not only did we have it once, but twice in 4 days. I couldn't even tell you the last time I ate this at home, but here the idea of it was mouth watering not to mention that it's almost like fine-dining here.
Unfortunately they didn't have poutine of course, but we managed otherwise. It was funny because when Walter ordered his meal they thought it was for both of us! Didn't I feel like a cow when I went next and ordered the exact same thing. Delicious!

Koh Chang


After leaving Cambodia to return to Thailand we thought it would be a good idea to return to an island and have some beach time, after all we were on the mainland for almost a month! The island we went to was a small island called Koh Chang. I found this to be more of a "day-time" island where most things were to be done during the day and the evenings were a little quieter. Here is a restaurant/bar that we frequented almost on a daily basis called "Treehouse". It had a really cool funky menu with inexpensive prices and the view wasn't bad either! In the evenings they had a DJ or a bongo drum band playing so you could either dance or chill out in a hammock and relax.



What can I say, I was totally blown away by the this scene. Here is a place we stumbled upon after moving down to the main beach to be a little closer to all the action. Right on the beach, this was one of many restaruants that had everything set up for a beach view dinner. We soon discovered that inside the bar there was a really cool band playing so we moved in. The band was an all Thai band and played a variety of music ranging from No Doubt, Tracy Chapman(who I've discovered I really like) to U2 and Santana. We enjoyed the music and dancing so much that we came back the following two nights to do more of the same! Super fun nights here!!!!


Okay, so this is what we woke up to on more than one occassion - wild monkeys on our roof!!! Our huts were right by the jungle so I guess they came around looking for food. Some of us went and bought some bananas for these guys and I just happened to take a picture at the perfect moment! How funny is that?! An even funnier part of this situation is our neighbours (Polish) came out to see the monkeys as well, but in their friggin underwear! It was hilarious, the lady was standing there talking to the bungalow owner while standing in her underwear very casually and her husband in his tighty whities. Too funny.

Chaos Crossing Cambodia


Okay, so after crossing the boarder into Cambodia we were about half way to the city we wanted to go to. The mini-van that took us thus far stopped for us to have a bite to eat before continuing on for the rest of our 5 hour journey to get to Vang Vieng. After eating lunch we were ready to get back into the mini-van (a different one that took us the first part of the way) only to find out that there was no mini-van, but that they actually expected us, all FIVE of us (not including the driver), to get into a CAR!!! After arguing with a couple of the guys for a while and trying to explain to them that we are not small thai people and that there isn't even enough seats for all of us, we had no other option but to get into the f$%## car. Needless to say we were all pretty pissed at the whole situation, but none of us had it as bad as Jess. Unfortunately she's the smallest of us all, she had the luxury of sitting in between the driver and the passenger, strattling the gear shift for the 5 hour ride. As you can imagine I was not about to complain about the seat I had when it was all said and done. This takes the cake when it comes to our worst travelling experience thus far.



Phnom Phen

The first place we stayed in in Cambodia was it's capital, Phnom Phen. This city is just overflowing with history, most of which many aren't even aware of. From 1975-1979 approximately 3 million educated Cambodian people were killed by the Khmer Rouge Regime. Surprising that this could have went on not so long ago and yet not many people even know about it. We went to the Killing Fields where many of the people (women and children included) were taken to be killed and buried in mass graves. As we walked around the fields with our guide who gave us the history on it all, we saw many disturbing things. There were mass graves that were labelled as 'mass graves of victims without heads', as well as a "killing tree" which is a tree that was used to bash babies on until they were dead. Words cannot discribe how disturbing and sad it all was.


As well as the Killing Fields, we also went to a school that was turned into a torture camp. Inside you could see the rooms that the prisoners were held in as well as the instuments used to torture them with. Other space was used to display pictures of those who had lost their lives. In these pictures were thousands and thousands of victims, both men, women, children and even babies. I could hardly keep myslef together to view the even more disturbing pictures of those who were already dead.
Despite having the history that Cambodians do, they are very wonderful, strong and postitive people.






Here we are at a bar/club called "Heart of Darkness". This is a popular bar among travellers, but also has many locals, fairly wealthy locals, that fill the place. We hung out at this bar a few nights during our stay in Phenom Phen. With a bottle of wine costing only $10 you know that even if I was drinking it on my own I couldn't pass up a deal like that. Unfortunately the first night there Jess wasn't feeling very well, and the next time we went there it was Gabe who wasn't feeling quite right, but we did enjoy the music and interesting entertainment of drunk foriegners and roudy locals.



Siem Reap/Ankor Wat


If you're ever in Cambodia the one thing that must be done is a trip to Ankor Wat. Here there are ancient stone temples built as far back as 879 AD by the Khmer Civilization. Here is how you get up these temples...yep, that's right no railings and it's steep as hell! I was sweating like crazy it made me so nervous, and getting down is even more fun.











Unlike other temples at Ankor Wat, Ta Phohm has been left pretty much the way it was found. It just goes to show what a tropical forest will do to an ancient monument over years and years. This temple was built in the eariler part of the 12th century and leaves many parts of the temple in the strangehold of the trees. This was also where the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed (woo hoo!). It was pretty amazing to be walking through these stone buildings especially since Ankor Wat may be closed to the public soon to preserve what's left of it.





Here is yet another image from Ta Phohm (Tomb Raider ruins). I still can't get over how we were just allowed to wander in, on and around these historical ruins. Not only was it some of the climbing dangerous, but it seems as though something like this should have a fence around it or something.





Okay, so I guess I lied. This is the one, and only place that we weren't allowed to go.

So here we are hanging out with monks at the top of steep climb on one of the temples. Jess took the picture so that's why she's not in it. It was cool talking to them and finding out that some of them have been monks since they were ten years old and want to be monks until they get married. Sounds crazy but they're happy and I guess that's all that matters.





These set of ruins have the ruler's face carved into each side of the stone and were unlike any of the other temples at Ankor Wat. During our exploring it was so unbelievably hot (about 40 degrees)! Near the end of our day at Ankor Wat it started raining. We took shelter under one of the ruins until it slowed down before hopping on our electric bicycles (yeah we're cool) and heading back. Not an experience to be forgotten that's for sure.




When we weren't checking out tourist attractions, we were checking out some of the many, many stunning restaurants that they have in Siem Reap. Similar to home, but a quarter of the price. It was pretty surprising actually to be in restaurants that look like they belong in Toronto, while outside of them there are small children that follow you around begging for money and food. Some of the kids have little brothers or sisters hanging off their hips while they tug at your arm.




It's also been pretty interesting travelling during the world cup. Soccer, or as they call it 'Football', is really popular here so when the games are on the bars are filled. Unfortunately (for Walter), Portugal was illiminated by France and when this happened we were in a bar surrounded by French people. We were the only ones cheering for Portugal so it really sucked when they lost. It was really wierd, after France won, one of the French guys started singing "I will Survive". And I don't just mean the chorus, but he knew the words to the entire song!!! Bazzare French dude! When Italy played for the final game it was us cheering for my team, Italy of course and the rest of the bar cheering for France. It was awesome when Italy won just to shut them up! We had some fun times watching the games. Walter found a pair of really tacky bright coloured shorts with soccer balls, players and referees on them to wear during the games...and I must admit that I too bought a pair- my dad can have them when I get home. Most of the time we stayed up until 2AM to watch them.

And no, there were no Brad or Angelina sightings while in Cambodia!!!!!!!

June 12, 2006 - Who the hell said that half the fun is getting there?!!


The next part of our trip was the travelling to get to Laos...not as easy as it sounds. It started off with a six hour mini van ride followed by a one night stay in the boarder city in Thailand next to Laos. That part we can do with our eyes closed at this point in our travels, but I couldn't have been prepared enough for what was ahead of us. The bus we boarded to take us through our 6 hour journey was lined with small wooden benches that were extemely uncomfortable. Walter and I did one step worse than that and managed to get seats that were right next to the hole of a washroom and the loud engine of the boat. Cameron was lucky, yes lucky enough to get a seat on the floor! Just when we thought that they couldn't possible cram anymore people onto this boat we stopped along the river towards a grassy hill and more people came aboard finding space on the floor to sit. Fortunately the following day we were smart enough to grab a seat on the floor for another 6 hour boat ride.





June 13th, 2006 Laid back Loas at Last!
Well finally we arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos! The city is absolutely gorgeous and the people are super friendly. You couldn't walk down the street without someone smiling and saying hi, it just blows me away how nice the Lao people are.
This is just one street over from our guest house that faces the Mekong River and is just hustling with people carrying on with their busy, yet simple lives. The french influence is Loas is quite noticeable; there are a number of bakeries and if you want a baguette or a criossant, you got it!



What also amazed me is how cheap it is here, and I mean even cheaper than Thailand. Our guest house cost us a total of $3 a night, now that's what I call a deal. Working at our guest house was a really nice Lao guy named Son. This guy is a very hard-working 19 year old kid who's studying english and speaks it very well. He also works making sticky rice at 6am every morning and helps to run the guest house. Hard-working is an understatement when it comes to this guy. He was just another person we were glad to have met.

In Luang Prabang there is a great night market. Unfortunatley on the night that I planned to do the majority of my shopping it poured down rain forcing the majority of places to take cover until the rain passed. One thing that we did find was an all you can eat, or should I say all you can pile on your plate, for only 50 cents!!!













So after a few days of recovering from our hellish journey to get here we decided that it was time to do something active so we planned a two day trek - agian! This trek was different from our first one in Thailand so it wasn't just trekking through the jungle, but included mountain biking and kyaking as well. The first part of the trek began with the mountain biking. Supposedly this was the "easy" level, but most of us would disagree with that statement, especially Walter who's skinny legs caused him to walk his bike up some of the steep hills. I found that going down the hills was the frightening part. Flying down rock-covered dirt roads was enough to make me crap my pants, not cool! After the 2-3 hour biking adventure we treked one hour until we arrived in the little village that we would be staying at overnight.


This village had a population of approximately 200 people and like the previous village we stayed in had no running water or electricity. It was surprising to see the number of children that live in this village. During the day the parents would go to work in the fields and the children would be left with their elders to take care of each other, and that's just what they did. Here all of the kids get along and really look out for one another. It was not unusual to see a kid walking around naked either, in fact there were a few. I'm not sure if those kids just preferred to have no clothes on, or their families just didn't have clothes for them to wear. Another one of the little girls was walking around all day long with her little baby brother on her back. At night we played cards at the table inside the hut we were staying in and the children would come to the window and watch us. In the morning the children came back to the window to see what we were up to and to say hi. Realizing that they were probably hungry we gave them some of our breakfast. They were all too pleased with the bread and jam and shared it between them all.




Next it was off to Vang Vieng. This small city had only a couple streets that were lined with restaurants designed for people who just wanted to chill out, and I mean really just chill out! Many of our nights were spent lounging on the asian-styled coushins while we ate and drank while we watched movies that we chose to keep us entertained for the evening, tough life eh?! During the day, on more than one occassion, the popular activity to do here is tubing - yes tubing! Believe it or not, this activity can take up your entire day, and even most of your evening. We would just rent tubes and float along the river until we felt like stopping at one of the many bars/restaurant type stops along the way. Along the shore would be someone waiting to pull us in with a bamboo stick (could we get anymore lazy?!) There we would chill out, have a few drinks, play some volleyball and swing from a four-story zipline into the water! Usually when we decided it was time to head back the sun was already starting to do down and we would be left floating along the river in the dark guessing where we were supposed to get out - this is just another example of the situations we find ourselves in.






On other days like this one here, the only way to cool down on a hot day is to rent a bicycles (or in Walter and I's case, a motorbike, we're lazy) and take a half hour ride to a lagoon. The lagoon was an astonishing blue colour, but was however shaded by trees so that after one or two jumps the novelty of swimming in a lagoon wore off quick without the sun blazing down on us.








The next place we checked out was the capital city of Loas, Vientienne. It was just the four of us after saying bye to Cameron as he was leaving for Bangkok before his flight home. While in the city we checked out, yet again, another market or two (sorry guys), did some bowling and checked out a few bars. One in particular was a spur of the moment idea which turned out to be a great time. A place called D-Tech that was rammed with people, and the parking lot with rows, and rows of motorbikes. With our bags checked at the door, I having forgot that I had bought a bottle of wine at the convienient store earlier that day, had to hand over the bottle until we were leaving. Did I ever feel like an idiot. Anyways, we were practically the only foriegners in the place but were not made to feel awkward in any way. In fact many of the locals were very friendly and were happy to talk to us. In fact, the guy in this picture wanted me to pass messages to Gabe about how he just loved Miss Universe (she's from Canada). Do you think maybe he had a little crush?... on Gabe that is?! A totally cool night!





After the city life (well not really), we headed south to the islands Don Det, and Don Khong. These are just two of the 4000 islands in the south of Laos. After arriving we decided that first thing's first, so we ate. After tossing drawing straws it was decided that Jess and I would be the ones to find us a place to stay (by our standards). It turned out that when Jess and Gabe took a second look around they actually found a place along the river with a connection 'porch', hammocks and a little table. These cute little huts were, get this, only one dollar a night!!! Needless to say we took them. The island of Don Det was pretty quiet. It consisted of one street that were lined with guest houses and restuarants. On one of the days we decided to rent bicycles and check out the other island and have some dinner along the river. As you can see the manly men here chose the matching purple bikes. The ride to Don Khong was bumpy but enjoyable, on the way there that is. On the way back was another story. Not thinking that it was be pitch black on our way back, only one of us had a small flashlight. With Walter lighting the way we slowly found our way back, but not without the sounds of cows in the not so far distance.








We did do a little bit of sightseeing while we left the island. The four of us and another couple (her Irish and him Australian) did some dolphin watching, or should I say 'looking for dolphins'. The dolphins were so far in the distance that we could barely see them because they were closer to the Cambodian side of the water. After squinting for about 15 minutes we were taken back to shore and hopped on the back of a pickup and taken to see Southeast Asias largest waterfall. Ourselves and some Japanese tourists took some pictures while we ate ice cream before heading back.

June 10th, 2006 - Back to Chiang Mai

So we returned to Chaing Mai for a few days. While we were awaiting our visas to get into Loas we decided to explore the small city. While out for dinner one night we thought that it would be fun to have a 'theme night' one evening while hitting up one of the 'discos'. We all pitched our ideas and decided on the "small clothes" theme. That night we checked out the night market and picked out our outfits for the night. Jess choose a six year old boys outfit, I choose a very cheesy, touristy kids shorts and t-shirt with thailand written accross it with a huge elephant, and the guys did not hold back either!!! Wally, Cam and Gabe all managed to find little, tight hawaiian button up shirts, and very short shorts....scary! While walking down the street to get to the club it was histarical the looks and laughs they were getting, too funny.

Another day Jess and I decided to take a cooking class to learn how to make some of the food that we have been eating here in Thailand. We took a half day class and learned how to make dishes like tom yum soup, pad thai, curry and banana spring rolls, delicious! It was pretty cool and we even got to try "adventure style" cooking, which is where you make the fire from the burner fly up into your face!!...yeah, I don't think I'll be trying that one at home! At the end of the lesson, the "Master Chef" had Jess and I practically rewrite his entire brochure for his class, pretty funny.