TravelStream™ news feed for member allisonandjeff on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/allisonandjeff en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:57:28 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142453280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142453280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142453280/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:57:28 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Oahu/Maui, Hawaii, United States

From Bangkok, the two of us took a very long flight to Hawaii, stopping a few times in Asia and then crossing the International Date Line. Altogether, we traveled for around 20 hours. Add that to the fact that we didn't really sleep our last night in Thailand, and we were pretty dazed when we found ourselves in Honolulu in the early morning, local time. Somehow we got through immigration and customs without too much trouble (though not without some consternation on the part of the officials who learned how long we'd been gone and how many countries we had visited - we could tell they wanted to search us...). Then soon enough we were on a public bus bound for Waikiki. We were going to meet Allison's parents at a hotel there later in the day and were hoping we could check in early, before they arrived. But it was still only about 9 am when we pulled into the front desk, so we had a wait awhile for guests to check out and the room to be cleaned. We sat in the open air lobby for awhile, having "home" sink in. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but we enjoyed the feeling that we were watching an aquarium of tourists swimming back and forth, with an occasional piece of a cell phone conversation drifting by: "Now, my brother-in-law here in Honolulu, is LOADED. We're going to his multi-million dollar condo tonight. If only he could get his four kids, who are all under five, under control..." As usually happens when returning to the US after being in the developing world, one of the first things we noticed was increased average girth - let's face it, we aren't a thin nation. But a surprise this time was the limping we saw. It seemed like everyone we saw, young and old, fit or not, was walking with a limp. This confused us for awhile, and made us wonder if it was due to lack of time spent walking. But we realized later it was probably just people getting used to walking in flip flops. Our room opened up surprisingly quickly and we passed out for most of the afternoon, pretty excited about the soft mattress and nice sheets (been awhile since we could have said that - we'd been steadily dropping our accomodation standards the last few months of traveling). We woke up in time to get back on a bus to the airport to meet up with Allison's parents, who were scheduled to arrive sometime around 4:30. Or so we thought. We'd forgotten it was a good idea to call the airline before leaving for the airport and paid for it when we discovered that their plane was three hours behind schedule (major snowstorms across the Midwest). It didn't seem really worth it to go back to Waikiki, since it was about an hour on the bus each way, so we decided to stay around the airport until they arrived. We hadn't really eaten yet that day, as we'd been served the equivalent of about 2 days of food on the flights to Hawaii. But around that time we were just starting to feel like we needed something. There's no shortage of food in airports, but all of it was in the secured area, where we couldn't go. We started asking around to see if there was any food to be had within walking distance of the airport. We got some funny looks about wanting to walk and warnings that there might not even be a sidewalk, but were sent off in one direction with promises that there would be several fast food places somewhere up the road from which to choose. It was better than the airport staff predicted: the walk took about 3 minutes and there was indeed a sidewalk - they needn't have worried. We spent about $6 on a foot-long sub from Quizno's, reflecting that the same amount would have bought us each a meal at one of the best restaurants in Bangkok. Time to readjust price expectations. We killed time at a table outside the strip mall until it looked like it was about to rain, then hurried back to the airport, where we killed time reading tourist brochures. The Browns eventually arrived, we had a happy reunion, picked up a car and headed back to Waikiki for the night.Our plan was to spend a couple of days in Honolulu, then move out of town to a cottage at a military recreation center about 45 minutes out of Honolulu (Allison's dad is a retired Air Force officer, which qualifies the family for such things). Since it had started raining about as soon as we all arrived (you might remember having heard about the record-setting rains in Hawaii this spring - we were there for a lot of it), we spent that day getting organized and buying food before we moved into the cottage the next day. Jeff and Allison's brief stint with culture shock continued as we first marveled at portion sizes at breakfast (how many eggs are in this omelette?) and then went shopping at what is sort of a military equivalent of a Target. Something about the size of the place and quantity of stuff (the easter candy and decorations in particular stood out) seemed pretty crazy to us. Mom and Dad Brown were patient as we readjusted.The next day we moved into the cottage, a simple place practically right by the ocean. We spent the next week there, with Adam (Allison's brother) joining us a few days into our stay. While the frequent rain made for a less than ideal beach vacation, we still had a great time. The sun peeked out for a few hours at a time now and then, and we would all run to the beach to sun and swim while we had the chance. It seemed that it was most often pretty clear in the late afternoon, and we watched neighborhood surfers during the sunset. And when it was raining, we had a reasonable excuse to be sitting inside watching much of the first three or four days of the NCAA basketball tournament - really, would we have felt good about that if the sun had been out?? We also had time to take a few walks in the surrounding neighborhood, an interesting place. Except for the Army Recreation Center where we were staying, there were no tourists, just working class (and primarily native) Hawaiians. Kind of gave us a glimpse of the "real" Hawaii. Though not always pretty (high cost of living widens gap between rich and poor, lots of health problems in the native population, struggling public education system, etc.), it made us feel like we were a little off the beaten path. And with a good ice cream parlor across the street (visited most nights) and a decent Mexican restaurant not far down the road, we had even less reason to mind. One day, when we had a full day of beautiful weather, we drove up to the North Shore of Oahu, home of some of Hawaii's most famous surfing. We spent awhile watching surfing at Sunset Beach (should have brought binoculars, but still impressive), then moved on to Waimea Beach Park, where we could at least possibly swim. Though the waves were still pretty intimidating along most of its shore and reserved for maniacs on body boards, we were able to go in at one far end and body surf the shore break. Jeff, Allison and Adam were like 10-year-olds and wouldn't get out until potential sunburn compelled Rick and Randi to round up the family and get off the beach. The week passed quickly and soon enough we reached the time when we had to start moving off in separate directions. Rick, Randi and Adam were moving back to Honolulu for their last night, while Allison and Jeff had to head to the airport for the next bit of adventure. Jeff flew to Maui to meet up with his friend Kyle, while Allison had to make a brief jaunt to the mainland (long story) before joining Jeff and Kyle on Maui. Thanks to the Browns for a great time!Kyle is a Michigan native who is currently making a living on Maui by taking photos of people learning to surf (good score, Kyle!). He basically snaps photos while surfing alongside beginners, quickly puts them into a digital slideshow before the end of the lesson and then uses his natural charm to sell students one of the best souvenirs they'll take home from Hawaii - a picture of themselves and their friends up on a board riding a wave (and falling off a board, and laughing in the water, etc.). Though Kyle had to work during most of the days we were on Maui, we were able to ride along with him to the surf schools and use any equipment we wanted. We've both dabbled a little in surfing before (especially Jeff), so we went out alongside the official surf students on the three or so days when the weather wasn't completely horrible (remember we mentioned we visited Hawaii during one of the rainiest springs in memory?) The schools were all in spots with really small, easy waves, so the surfing was manageable for us (sort of a novelty - seems like we always end up trying to surf in waves we have no business being in). Jeff looked like a pro compared to the students, though Allison was definitely in their ranks, only able to get up if someone pushes the board for her (paddling not being her strong suit). When not at surf school with Kyle, we had a great time playing frisbee in Kyle's huge backyard (except for the time when Jeff fell in a huge hole hidden behind some grass mounds and messed up his back...) and making a few side trips to other parts of the island. Due to the weather and the fact that we were becoming lazy travelers, we certainly didn't do Maui justice, but we did manage to take a nice hike at a pretty park in the hills and do some more body surfing on one of its more popular beaches. We also met up a few times with two other friends - Shira and Kata - who are also former Kalamazoo folks living on Maui. So, thanks to you, too, Kyle, for a really fun week! It passed too fast and soon enough we were on a plane bound for the mainland.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1147029480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1147029480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1147029480/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:52:58 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States

Once we'd finished our Utah National Parks trip, we knew it was time to put in some long hours on the road. But first we had to make a stop in Denver for about a day and a half to visit with our friend Lora, who we'd met a few different times while traveling in India. Lora had just gotten back to the US a few weeks before (and had gotten married since we had last seen her!) so we all had lots to catch up on. We also had a great time seeing a bit of Denver, including a walk around the Red Rocks Ampitheater area. From Denver we spent a day driving to a small town in northeastern Nebraska where Jeff's Great-Uncle Ezra and Great-Aunt Rosalie live. Uncle Ezra had been on some rocky ground health-wise the whole time we were gone, but he was feeling strong the afternoon we visited. So, the two of us, Ezra, Rosalie and one of their daughters took a drive into the countryside, where they showed us stuff like their first farmhouse, an old cemetery where lots of Jeff's relatives are buried and some of the big cattle feeding lots in the area. The trip was rounded out with a trip to Dairy Keen (completely independent of Dairy QUEEN) so that we could try the local specialty, the Ruf Nek (vanilla soft serve with peanuts, hot fudge and malt powder - good stuff!). Ezra passed away a week later, so we felt so lucky to have been able to visit when we could.After our stop in Nebraska, we spent another long day driving and then found a campsite near Iowa City late one night (yet another amazing find - they have a county park that has about the largest, most private campsites that we have seen anywhere). Back in the car the next morning, and we were officially on our way to Michigan. Of course, we sat in traffic for about an hour and a half while passing by Chicago, since what trip would be complete without that? We finally made it to St. Joseph (Jeff's hometown) that night, just in time for the fun to begin. It was no coincidence that we arrived back in Michigan during Blossomtime weekend in St. Joe, and all of Jeff's extended family was in town. So we had a nice "Welcome Back" to Michigan with his family for the weekend, and then drove on to Kalamazoo early the next week, officially completing our trip around the world. Since that time, we've bounced from couch to couch until we found a permanent place to stay for the rest of the summer. Jeff was substitute teaching until the end of the school year last week, and Allison went back to her old environmental consulting job for the summer. We'll be moving to Philadelphia sometime in August. Keep in touch everyone!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1146251700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1146251700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1146251700/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:32:03 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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National Parks, Utah, United States

After leaving Yosemite, we made a long drive through California around to Vegas (because of the presence of many National Parks along California's eastern border, you have to drive pretty far to find a highway that actually goes east across the state line). Allison had picked up some sort of virus and by the time we made it to Las Vegas wasn't feeling very hot (well, literally, she was feeling hot). But it was our only night there, so she did her best, and we got in about 4 hours of walking down the strip, popping in and out of casinos (mainly just looking around - not having worked in over a year discouraged us from gambling for the most part). The next day we had to drive to St. George, Utah, and find a place to stay so that Jeff could get up early the following morning to take a test. Allison had decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania for law school, so Jeff had recently started working on getting certified to teach in Pennsylvania, which had turned out to be quite a pain. Among the many requirements was taking a standardized test in the elements of the elementary curriculum (guess that Master's degree doesn't mean much) and we had determined that the best place for Jeff to take it (considering the test date and our travel plans) was St. George. It turned out that the test gave us a great excuse to hang out a couple of days in an incredibly friendly and fun little town, the best part being staying at a state park outside of town (Snow Canyon State Park) that might possibly be the nicest state park in the country. The red rock/desert scenery was absolutely beautiful, the bathrooms were nicer than most restaurants and the infrastructure was top notch. If we hadn't needed to keep moving, we probably would have stayed another 2 or 3 days. From St. George we started three or so days of visits to southern Utah's National Parks, including Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Arches. It was an amazing and completely enjoyable road trip that we would recommend to anyone. Utah is a truly beautiful and unusual state.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1145214780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1145214780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1145214780/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:29:54 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Yosemite, California, United States

Our first stop after San Francisco was Yosemite National Park. We'll let the photos do the talking, other than to say that place is incredible and one the best places we visited during our whole trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142367120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142367120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142367120/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:27:50 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Eugene, Oregon to San Francisco, California, California, United States

Now that we had a car, it was time to leave Eugene. Our trip through the Pacific Northwest had already been twice as long as we had originally planned, so it was time to make up some ground... But first we needed to make a quick trip to a salvage yard to pick up some parts for our new Subaru, as it likely that there was nowhere else we'd visit that had more Subarus per capita than Eugene. That done, we left Eugene and headed for the Oregon coast, which we'd heard only good things about. It was indeed beautiful, reminding us a lot of South Africa's coast. It also marked the first sun we'd seen in several days, enhancing the overall experience. However, while we were anxious to put to use our camping gear, which Allison's parents had been kind enough to ship out to us, the temperature was still pretty mild and the rains returned that night. We opted to delay our planned tent camping and instead stay in a "yurt," a round one-room "cabin" that are apparently popular in state parks throughout the west coast. We realized it was an extra-good decision when we discovered we'd left our rain coats at Justin's house in Eugene. The next day we headed south on Highway 1, crossed into California and pulled into Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We stayed there two nights and took a really long hike through the redwoods and the nearby shoreline. From the redwoods we drove down to Mendocino County, where we visited a few spots where we'd gone on our honeymoon (one stop for a pint of Red Seal Ale at the North Coast Brewing Company's pub in Fort Bragg and then other stops at a few Mendocino wineries we had liked and remembered). After a night camping in Mendocino county we moved on Napa, where we were planning to meet up with our friend Bill, who we had met hiking the Inca Trail while in Peru. Bill had told us he was in the wine industry when we first met him, but it was only when we visited that we learned that he is actually a winemaker. He's been making wine for Burgess Cellars since the winery opened in the early 1970s, and we were impressed to no end. If you ever see a bottle of Burgess Cellars, give it a try. He and his family showed us a great time around Napa Valley for a couple of action-packed days, and we will be forever grateful for their hospitality. From Napa, we traveled to San Francisco, where we met up with Allison's brother Adam, who has become the most frequent guest in this travelogue (first in India, then in Hawaii, now in California!). Adam is a graduate student at UC Davis, but has lived in San Francisco the last year along with his friend Jeremy, who was also great to see. We had a nice few days exploring his neighborhood (the Mission), hanging out in his apartment and monopolizing the internet while we figured out where we were going next. Yet again, we spent about twice as long a time there as we had planned, but at least we left San Francisco with the rest of our road trip pretty well mapped out. Thanks again to Bill and Adam for a good time during this part of our trip!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1144609800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1144609800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1144609800/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:24:36 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Seattle, Washington to Eugene, Oregon, United States

From Hawaii we flew to Seattle to visit our friend Jamie and start planning our trip back across the United States. Allison, though, had to leave almost immediately to go visit some law schools on the other side of the country, so Jamie and Jeff had the bachelor pad to themselves most of the time. Jamie showed Jeff had a good time in the city, including one of the first Mariner games of the season on a cold evening, a night out to a couple bars/brewpubs and visits to the Pike St. Market (and some minor "construction" work too). Eventually, Allison returned, so we spent a few days together walking around downtown and getting organized for the next stage of our trip before moving on. Our plan was to drive across the US (at least as far as Michigan), but we needed a car to do that. We had sold both of our cars before traveling and the time had come to find a replacement. We had been told that Oregon would be a good place to look because the state has no sales tax and registered license plates stay with the car (because we didn't really have a home and didn't know when and where we were moving, having to immediately register a car would have presented some difficulties - registered license plates would buy us time). But we needed to get to Oregon first, so we decided to find a ride on craigslist.com, which is really active on the West Coast. We ended up coordinating with a talkative, energetic woman who is a teacher in Seattle and was about to start her spring break. And, who would have guessed, but she happened to be from Michigan originally. We became fast friends as we drove to our first destination, Portland. While she met up with some old friends for the night, we took the opportunity to visit with a few old college friends of Jeff's who both live in Portland (Brooke and Brooke). When one night turned into two nights, nobody really minded. We got a good tour of the city, took a long walk through downtown Portland and made a trip to the Saturday Market (sort of a weekly art fair). Nice city! Eventually we left Portland and traveled to Eugene, where we had decided to do our car search. Justin, another old friend originally from Kalamazoo, was kind enough to put us up in his house for a week, introducing us to his large group of friends, favorite bars and an addictive dessert and coffee cafe. The car search was a little frustrating, and we at various points considered traveling across the US either by road bike (not that we have road bikes or road biking experience) or Craig's List rideshares. However, we eventually found and bought a decent 10-year-old Subaru wagon and were on our way.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142175180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142175180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1142175180/tpod.html Thu, 11 May 2006 11:12:44 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Bangkok, Thailand

When Jeff's parents left us, we didn't have much of a plan for what came next for us, so we left the island of Koh Lanta and followed them as far as the mainland city of Krabi. We settled in there for a few days to come up with a travel plan, while also enjoying the unexpected charm of the town (a great night market with cheap seafood, a couple of restaurants serving good coffee, cheap rooms, nice people). Our 30-day Thai visa was close to running out, but we decided that Jeff should take a SCUBA diving class before we made a border run for a new visa. So, we spent a few days walking around the Krabi area checking out the local diving options and spent some quality time on the internet looking into what dive shops were offering further away. We eventually realized that we should have just stayed on Koh Lanta all along - turns out it was the best combination of price and current diving conditions, so soon enough we were back on a stuffy mini-bus bound for Koh Lanta. Our time in Koh Lanta was good and bad. The good was the diving - Jeff had a great time doing his course while Allison (already certified) went out separately to get in a few dives. We didn't see anything "big" (no sharks or sting rays or anything), but it was still pretty nice, and we saw good stuff like pufferfish, lion fish and scorpion fish. The bad part of Koh Lanta was that our bungalow was broken into the night we arrived (probably while we were at dinner) and all of the money intended to pay for our diving was stolen. Yeah. To make it worse, the bungalow management became hostile to us, accusing us of making the whole thing up. Maybe it was just that they didn't like that we got the police involved. But they also may have been uneasy because there was good evidence that the break-in was an inside job. The afternoon we arrived we had been picked up from the dive shop by one of the bungalow's drivers. He arrived early and saw us go to an ATM while he was waiting. That person could have easily found out which bungalow we were in, and it seemed the person who took the money likely had a key. We hadn't put all of this together when we talked to the police (other than the part about needing a key to get in), so we didn't make any outright accusations, but we think the bungalow management either suspected the same or actually knew what was going on. Whatever the case, when Jeff approached the owner the night before we left to comment on the general lack of security in the area we were staying, the owner erupted into a very un-Thai fit of shouting.But anyway... We finished our diving and left the island on a Thursday. We needed to get to a border by sometime Friday so that we could exit the country and then come back with a new visa. We returned to the city of Krabi, and, because we had found the Thai public transit system to be pretty reliable, we decided to wait until the next morning to take a bus up to a sort of obscure river border with Myanmar/Burma. But our bad luck continued. First, we almost missed the bus because we had trouble finding a taxi to the bus station and then the taxi took about twice as long as expected to get to the bus. Then, the bus ride took two hours longer than we were told, largely due to several inexplicable stops, one of which seemed for the sole purpose of fixing the bus radio. We rolled into the Thai border town around 5pm, hoping there was still a chance we could do our visa run before the border closed at 6pm, at which time our visa would expire. But, when we suggested the idea to the shared taxi drivers waiting at the bus stop, they laughed at us - no way were we going to get that accomplished in an hour, they told us. The next morning we found out why. First, we had to take a shared taxi to the immigration office on the Thai side. Only the office isn't really at the border and our driver misunderstood where we wanted to go. We overshot immigration and had to walk a mile back the way we came so we could get stamped out. Then, despite our hopes that the immigration officials might overlook our short visa overstay, the officials made us go out and make photocopies of our passports and then pay a $5 fine each (all noted in our passport with an extra stamp documenting the extent of our overstay and the payment of the fine). We then walked back to the border area, which is actually a harbor, and had to find the boats to Myanmar, which wasn't at all clear. After about a half hour of walking around we found the boats (or rather, one of the boat hustlers found us). So, we loaded on the boat with a bunch of other passengers, mainly Thai or Burmese, and started the comical trip down the river to Myanmar. Our first stop was at another Thai border post, the function of which we didn't really understand (other than that they had to stamp a piece of paper clipped to our passports to show we'd been there). Second stop was several minutes later at Myanmar immigration, where we had to pay $5 each to enter the country. The hang-up was that the officials accepted only pristine US dollars (apparently, Myanmar's banks won't accept anything less than perfect bills). We had about $100 US cash at the time and they rejected every single one of our bills for either having been folded or having a slight mark on it. Well, we did have four $1 bills that they found acceptable, but because we didn't have a fifth dollar bill that they would accept, the first four didn't do us any good. The alternative was to pay in Thai Baht, but, of course, that increased the price - they wanted the equivalent of more like $8. Oh well - it was kind of our fault anyway... We had been warned that they were picky but thought our bills would be good enough. So, we paid the Baht and continued up the river to the Myanmar border town. Again, we visited another inexplicable border post where our passports received additional stamps. That done, we made the reverse trip back to Thailand passing through all the same river border posts and then walking back to Thai immigration on the mainland for our new visa. Altogether it took three or four hours. Probably good that we didn't attempt it late the previous afternoon. But it left us wondering why Thailand doesn't just let tourists like us pay THEM $5 each for a new visa rather than make us go through the trouble to put it into the hands of a military dictatorship that is the embarassment of the region...Now that we had enough visa power to get us through the rest of our stay in Thailand, we were able to move on to the nearby island of Koh Phayam, which we'd been hearing lots of good things about, especially from traveler types who are good at getting off the beaten path (we don't claim to have earned that distinction yet). It was a great four or five days. The island doesn't have any roads, just a cement path down the center of the island that is used by motorbikes to transport people back and forth. There isn't any electricity except for that provided by generators, usually only from 6pm to 10pm. So, it is really quiet. We stayed at a great place called Hornbill Huts run by a really friendly Thai couple with lots of good ideas - a huge book library, hammocks in the shade, free use of snorkel gear, nightly sunset beach volleyball games and a great restaurant. It was the kind of place where staying for only a couple of nights makes you feel out of place (example: we met a German guy there who parks at Hornbill Huts about 8 months a year). Why not, though? The island is incredibly laidback, receives far fewer visitors than the more well-known Thai islands, and the beaches are beautiful, though in a really unique way. The island doesn't have fluffy white sand, but the sea bottom is so close to flat that it allows the tide to go out incredibly far each day. So we had a huge expanse of drying sea bottom where we'd run around and play frisbee when the sun wasn't too hot (and it was HOT). And hardly anybody was on the beach anyway, since it attracts types that spend so much time there that they'd rather have a spot in the shade than the sun. So, other than sitting around and reading, the occasional toss of the frisbee and participation in late afternoon volleyball games, we didn't do much, but that's about what Koh Phayam is meant for.As much as we loved Koh Phayam, soon enough we had to leave. But for good reason - Jeff's sister Jill and brother-in-law John had decided to join us for our last week in Thailand. So, we took an overnight bus back up to Bangkok (always a good way to wreck the following day) and got a few things organized before they arrived. Jill and John touched down a few days later on a late night flight, but we all rallied early the next morning so that we could hop on a bus and bring the poor Midwesterners to a beach as soon as possible. We had decided to head back towards the island of Koh Chang, which we had visited before going to Cambodia. We hadn't particularly liked Koh Chang, but had heard good things about a nearby island called Koh Mak. Since it was relatively close to Bangkok, we decided to check it out. But first we had to get there. Our run with bad luck continued, and we ended up picking a taxi driver who took the longest, slowest route imaginable to the bus station (and we knew something was up, because we had done the same ride before in about half the time). It is possible that he wanted us to miss our bus so that he personally could bring us to the beach, at a rate of about five times what the bus would charge. And we did miss the bus we wanted, actually watching it pull out of the station as we were approaching. But we knew there was another one leaving about 45 minutes later, so we sent the taxi driver on his merry way without us. The ride was uneventful, but somehow we managed to get behind schedule, narrowing an already small window for error to get us to the ferry to Koh Mak on time. However, things were looking up, and we arrived at the ferry office just in time for the woman at the desk to call the ferry to ask it to wait for us. We rushed down to the dock and hopped on more or less as the crew was pulling up the ferry's anchor.We opted to take the "slow boat" to Koh Mak, rather than a speed boat, and found it was a good choice. The ferry was more or less a tug boat. Cargo filled most of the lower level, but the covered upper level had rows of beach chairs for the passengers. Sure, it took three hours to get to the island rather than the speed boat's one hour, but there are worse ways to spend time than kicking back in a beach chair while watching a chain of tropical islands pass by. We arrived on Koh Mak close to sunset and managed to find ourselves a couple of bungalows on the quiet part of the island. We spent five days on Koh Mak, swimming in the bathtub warm water, sunning on the beach (at least, when the evil sand flies weren't biting too much), drinking Thai beer on Jill and John's porch and playing some frisbee. Jill and John kept the Thai massage ladies busy, and Allison and Jeff managed to get in a morning of diving. We also did a fair job of exploring the island and spent a few days hanging out on the grounds of one of its posher resorts, returning home in the evening to our more modest bungalows on the other side of the small island. The days passed quickly and Jeff and Allison's departure date was looming. So, too soon, we found ourselves back on the tug boat to the mainland, and then on a bus bound for Bangkok. That night we did some exploring in the Khao San Road area, the nerve center of the budget travel scene in Thailand. Neon signs, racks of hippie clothes on the sidewalk, pirated CDs, fake designer sunglasses, vendors selling any sort of fake ID you might want (international student ID cards, PADI dive certification cards, media passes...) and, about every 20 feet, a vendor selling pad thai or banana pancakes. And a McDonald's and a Starbucks for good measure (complete with a Ronald McDonald statue in the posture of a polite Thai greeting, bowing with his hands pressed together). We navigated our way through the madness for awhile, stopped at a good Thai vegetarian restaurant off one of its back alleys and eventually wandered into a more authentic Thai night market for some traditional desserts (pumpkins stuffed with custard, gelatinous water chestnuts in coconut milk served over ice, mango with sticky rice...). The next day, Jeff and Allison's last in Thailand, we made a trip to Bangkok's gigantic weekend market. The two of us had gone there the previous weekend, before Jill and John had arrived. However, we decided a second trip was warranted, both because Jill and John would love it and because it was so huge we had barely scratched the surface in our first visit. Wow. First there is the section filled with nothing but dozens of booths of second-hand Levis. Nearby are more second-hand clothes, likely donated long ago by people like you back home to places like Goodwill. It seems like we saw something very Michigan in one of the booths, like a "Yes! There really is a Kalamazoo!" T-shirt (wish we could remember exactly what it was). Then there are just as many booths in other parts of the market selling everything from pets, to books, to Thai crafts, to expensive art, to boutiquey Thai designer clothes, to anything made in China... Lots of good food, bottles of water and coffee drinks are sold around every corner to keep the energy up. It seems impossible to go to the weekend market without spending an entire day, even though it is incredibly crowded, exhausting and HOT (it was around 100 degrees the day we were there). We were ready to drop by the time the market was about to close, but, in typical fashion, there were all sorts of things Jeff and Allison needed to do before leaving Thailand. Except for a break for a really good dinner, the group of us didn't really stop moving until late into the night. We were in an internet cafe around 1am burning photos to a CD and were eating banana pancakes and barbequed sweet corn on the side of the road around 3am. It was around then that we figured out that the two of us need not have bothered with keeping our hotel room that night, but since we had the room, we returned for a few hours of sleep before we had to get up and to the airport for our early flight to Hawaii. And that meant our international trip had come to an end. But there was still a bunch of US travel ahead, and we'll try to get some stories and photos about that posted soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1139900460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1139900460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1139900460/tpod.html Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:39:43 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Koh Lanta, Thailand

Our two day river trip from Laos to Thailand was pretty nice, but for one setback. For some reason (hmmm...), our boat left late the second day, and we just "happened" to reach the border town about 20 minutes after the border had closed. So, suddenly, there was a boatful of backpackers needing a place to stay. Good thing (insert sarcasm) the boat operators had a friend who had just opened a hotel near the boat landing... This sort of thing would have been kind of funny if not for the fact that we had to meet Jeff's parents the next afternoon, several hours away from the border. But, we were stuck, so we made the best of it. We were first in line at Immigration the next morning before the window had even opened and were almost overjoyed when the boats across the river to Thailand were ready to go right away. We got stamped into Thailand and for once were happy to be met by motorcycle taxis - for one thing, we wanted to get to the bus station ASAP - even better, they had posted fixed prices that were actually fair (been a long time since we had THAT happen at a land border crossing!) We had good luck and left on our first bus of the day within minutes of arriving (but with just enough time to pick up a bag of just-cooked, deep-fried bananas for breakfast, which are almost a reason to come to Thailand alone). And through a lucky combination of two buses, a pick-up taxi and some slightly confused wandering through the alley-filled old part of Chiang Mai, we happened to have the luck to turn a corner and see, about a hundred feet in front of us, a taxi driver helping Jan and Jerry get their suitcases out of the trunk. We caught up with them practically on the doorstep of the guesthouse where we were meeting, so, in the end, our timing couldn't have been better.The group of us spent four fun and action-packed days in Chiang Mai. The first full day we made a tour of some of the best old temples in town and got a little taste of Buddhist ceremony. At one temple we happened to arrive while monks were blessing local children, and at another temple Jan paid a few dollars to set some doves free from their wicker cages (a lot of temples have ladies with birdcages and setting them free is supposed to bring you merit - a lot of birds end up getting recaptured, but the lady at this temple SWORE she doesn't do that...). We also just generally enjoyed the old part of Chiang Mai, which is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Thailand. It is surrounded by a moat and a city wall (well, the wall isn't totally intact) and is filled with little alleys that encourage getting lost. There are Bhuddist temples and monks everywhere. It's touristy, but in a nice way. The people of Chiang Mai seem to be in balance with the tourism. The second day we went outside of town to an elephant sanctuary. First up was an elephant show: everything from elephants playing basketball, to elephants painting T-Shirts (ask Jerry to see the one that he bought), to a demonstration of the work that elephants used to do in Thai forests. Next was a trip on a bamboo raft down a pretty river with jungly hills on either side, pointy Asian sunhats for each of us included. After a good lunch, we were off for an hour-long elephant ride through the forest. It is interesting that elephants used to be a means of royal transport, because there seems to be nothing graceful or elegant about riding an elephant. Just a lot of swinging back and forth, side to side. It is surreal to be on a such a large animal, though, and to feel how little we weigh to them. And it is amazing they don't tip over - from an elephant's back, it is hard to believe the animal is managing the terrain it navigates, but we have read that they distribute body weight better than almost any other animal on Earth. Once we got to the end of the elephant ride we walked through some souvenir stands (cleverly marketed in the tour brochure as a "Hill Tribe Village") and then took a ride back through the countryside in an ox-drawn cart. So, a fun afternoon, and it was good to see that the place treated their animals pretty well (it's been a problem in Thailand figuring out what to do with huge animals that formerly worked forests but have recently be put out of a job by modern equipment - elephant sanctuarys and "theme parks" have been both good and bad to them). But the day wasn't over yet. From the elephant park, our group (which included 6 or so other people) was given the option of visiting a monkey show, a snake show or an orchid farm before going back to Chiang Mai (did we mention Chiang Mai has a reputation for being touristy?). While the two of us checked out the orchids, Jan and Jerry took a trip to the monkey show, which they found less than funny: no monkey deserves to be kept on a leash.The third day in Chiang Mai we let Jan and Jerry rest up a bit while we figured out some details for the next leg of our trip. We all reunited later in the afternoon for a trip to Chiang Mai's famous Sunday Night Market. The town closes off several blocks and the street becomes filled with a great mix of locals and tourists (including Thai ones) moving from vendor to vendor. It was a lot more like an art fair than the average craft markets we've visited and had tons of great food - pumpkins filled with custard, whole barbequed fishes, all sorts of fried noodles and spring rolls... And you can get a half-hour Thai foot massage for about $1.50, a good way to end the night. We fully endorse the Sunday Market. Day Four was all about food. Jan joined the two of us in taking a Thai cooking class, an event the two of us had been looking forward to doing for months. It was pretty great. We got a tour of a market, learning about Thai ingredients as we walked through the stalls (Thailand has about 17 different kinds of eggplant it seems). Then we were driven to the cooking school, which is located a little outside of town in a beautiful location with lots of gardens. We each had our own cooking station, which were located outdoors under a canopy, and learned seven different dishes - fish cakes, spring rolls, tom yum soup, green curry, pad thai (fried noodles), a cashew stir-fry and a custard filled pumpkin. We got to eat about the half of the dishes for lunch and each person had enough food to feed about three people, so we were stuffed. And then we got to-go boxes for the dishes we made after lunch... Though the Reimann threesome wasn't the smoothest (Jan knocked all of the ingredients for one dish onto the floor, and Allison cracked an egg all over her stove), we can all claim to make some pretty mean Thai food now.The next morning we picked up a rental car and headed west for a three-day road trip through the beautiful Northern Thailand hill country. The first day we wound our way to a little town called Soppong and found a really great place to stay along a pretty river. It happened to be just after Chinese New Year, and some of the Chinese descended ethnic groups in the area celebrate it every night for about a week. A really nice local woman who worked at the guesthouse where we were staying took us up to the celebration going on the night we arrived. Although it was apparent that several nights of festivities had started to wear the villagers out, it still was fun to drop in for about an hour. We were the only Western visitors, and the people were incredibly welcoming. We (well, Allison mainly) were swept into a circle dance the women were doing to a sort of trance-like music blasting from a children's portable karoake machine, which was carried by a man who also supplied some vocals. Everybody was wearing traditional outfits that are only brought out for Chinese New Year and there was a healthy quantity of rice whiskey being passed around. Lots of famous Thai smiles. The next morning Jeff and Allison visited a couple of local caves (one had extremely old coffins carved from tree trunks in it), while Jan and Jerry relaxed on the guesthouse deck by the river. We then moved on to the friendly and interesting town of Mae Hong Son, located near the border with Myanmar (Burma). Our luck continued, and we happened to be in town during another big festival, which was taking place at a Bhuddist temple on a hilltop overlooking the town. When we visited that night there were lots of people milling around - some were buying offerings to be placed at various points in the temple, others added coins to the alms containers of the temple's monks (placed one by one on a very long table), and a big crowd had gathered to watch a slapstick comedy show playing on a stage off to one side of the temple (we think traditional stories were being told, but it was hard to tell). The next day decided to go back to Soppong for another night because we had all liked it so much. After spending the next morning sitting by the river again, we returned to Chiang Mai to drop off the rental car.The main reason we had decided to come back to Chiang Mai for another night before moving on to other parts of Thailand was so we could catch the best part of the Chiang Mai's annual flower festival, which had started while we were out of the city. The next morning we joined quite a crowd lining the city's main streets and watched a sort of Thai Tournament of Roses Parade. It was sort of like being back home - high school marching bands, beauty queens, crazy costumes, floats covered in flowers and a guy on a huge elephant (oh wait, we have fire trucks). It was a good time. That night we took an overnight train down to Bangkok and then spent the next day resting up. Jan and Jerry specifically found a place with international cable, so the next day we all reunited in the early morning hours to watch the Superbowl (Thailand is 12 hours later than the Eastern US). It was sort of a strange Superbowl party, involving coffee and cookies, rather than beer and chips. Post-Superbowl we spent a few days in Bangkok seeing some of its more well-known attractions. One of the best things we did in Thailand period was visiting two of Bangkok's most famous temples. The most impressive, Wat Phra Kaeo, is located on the same grounds as the site of the Grand Palace, the former residence of the Thai royal family. It was one of the most beautiful spaces we've seen anywhere in the world, with incredible jewel-like mosaics over temple walls and beautiful murals. But we don't do words well, so we'll attach photos that give a better idea. The other temple we visited, Wat Pho, was also great - it contains one of the largest reclining Bhuddas in the world; 45 feet high and about 140 feet long, it basically fills an entire building. And the surrounding temple grounds look like something out of Alice in Wonderland, with strange pastel mosaics covering many structures, as well as hundreds of Bhudda statues tucked into seemingly every available corner. From Bangkok the four of us traveled south on an another overnight train and then took a bus to the city of Krabi, located on the southern west coast. From Krabi, we took a minibus and a couple of ferries to the island of Koh Lanta, where we spent about the next week relaxing on a beautiful beach. At the end of the week, we said good-bye to Jan and Jerry, who returned north to Bangkok so that they could make a side-trip to Cambodia before returning home. Another thanks to Mom and Dad Reimann for catching up with us and being part of three fun weeks!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1143446100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1143446100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1143446100/tpod.html Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:53:43 -0400 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our two day river trip from Laos to Thailand was pretty nice, but for one setback. For some reason (hmmm...), our boat left late the second day, and we just "happened" to reach the border town about 20 minutes after the border had closed. So, suddenly, there was a boatful of backpackers needing a place to stay. Good thing (insert sarcasm) the boat operators had a friend who had just opened a hotel near the boat landing... This sort of thing would have been kind of funny if not for the fact that we had to meet Jeff's parents the next afternoon, several hours away from the border. But, we were stuck, so we made the best of it. We were first in line at Immigration the next morning before the window had even opened and were almost overjoyed when the boats across the river to Thailand were ready to go right away. We got stamped into Thailand and for once were happy to be met by motorcycle taxis - for one thing, we wanted to get to the bus station ASAP - even better, they had posted fixed prices that were actually fair (been a long time since we had THAT happen at a land border crossing!) We had good luck and left on our first bus of the day within minutes of arriving (but with just enough time to pick up a bag of just-cooked, deep-fried bananas for breakfast, which are almost a reason to come to Thailand alone). And through a lucky combination of two buses, a pick-up taxi and some slightly confused wandering through the alley-filled old part of Chiang Mai, we happened to have the luck to turn a corner and see, about a hundred feet in front of us, a taxi driver helping Jan and Jerry get their suitcases out of the trunk. We caught up with them practically on the doorstep of the guesthouse where we were meeting, so, in the end, our timing couldn't have been better.The group of us spent four fun and action-packed days in Chiang Mai. The first full day we made a tour of some of the best old temples in town and got a little taste a Buddhist ceremony. At one temple we happened to arrive while monks were blessing local children, and at another temple Jan paid a few dollars to set some doves free from their wicker cages (a lot of temples have ladies with birdcages and setting them free is supposed to bring you merit - a lot of birds end up getting recaptured, but the lady at this temple SWORE she doesn't do that...). We also just generally enjoyed the old part of Chiang Mai, which is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Thailand. It is surrounded by a moat and a city wall (well, the wall isn't totally intact) and is filled with little alleys that encourage getting lost. There are Bhuddist temples and monks everywhere. It's touristy, but in a nice way. The people of Chiang Mai seem to be in balance with the tourism. The second day we went outside of town to an elephant sanctuary. First up was an elephant show: everything from elephants playing basketball, to elephants painting T-Shirts (ask Jerry to see the one that he bought), to a demonstration of the work that elephants used to do in Thai forests. Next was a trip on a bamboo raft down a pretty river with jungly hills on either side, pointy Asian sunhats for each of us included. After a good lunch, we were off for an hour-long elephant ride through the forest. It is interesting that elephants used to be a means of royal transport, because there seems to be nothing graceful or elegant about riding an elephant. Just a lot of swinging back and forth, side to side. It is surreal to be on a such a large animal, though, and to feel how little we weigh to them. And it is amazing they don't tip over - from an elephant's back, it is hard to believe the animal is managing the terrain it navigates, but we have read that they distribute body weight better than almost any other animal on Earth. Once we got to the end of the elephant ride we walked through some souvenir stands (cleverly marketed in the tour brochure as a "Hill Tribe Village") and then took a ride back through the countryside in an ox-drawn cart. So, a fun afternoon, and it was good to see that the place treated their animals pretty well (it's been a problem in Thailand figuring out what to do with huge animals that formerly worked forests but have recently be put out of a job by modern equipment - elephant sanctuarys and "theme parks" have been both good and bad to them). But the day wasn't over yet. From the elephant park, our group (which included 6 or so other people) was given the option of visiting a monkey show, a snake show or an orchid farm before going back to Chiang Mai (did we mention Chiang Mai has a reputation for being touristy?). While the two of us checked out the orchids, Jan and Jerry took a trip to the monkey show, which they found less than funny: no monkey deserves to be kept on a leash.The third day in Chiang Mai we let Jan and Jerry rest up a bit while we figured out some details for the next leg of our trip. We all reunited later in the afternoon for a trip to Chiang Mai's famous Sunday Night Market. The town closes off several blocks and the street becomes filled with a great mix of locals and tourists (including Thai ones) moving from vendor to vendor. It was a lot more like an art fair than the average craft markets we've visited and had tons of great food - pumpkins filled with custard, whole barbequed fishes, all sorts of fried noodles and spring rolls... And you can get a half-hour Thai foot massage for about $1.50, a good way to end the night. We fully endorse the Sunday Market. Day Four was all about food. Jan joined the two of us in taking a Thai cooking class, an event the two of us had been looking forward to doing for months. It was pretty great. We got a tour of a market, learning about Thai ingredients as we walked through the stalls (Thailand has about 17 different kinds of eggplant it seems). Then we were driven to the cooking school, which is located a little outside of town in a beautiful location with lots of gardens. We each had our own cooking station, which were located outdoors under a canopy, and learned seven different dishes - fish cakes, spring rolls, tom yum soup, green curry, pad thai (fried noodles), a cashew stir-fry and a custard filled pumpkin. We got to eat about the half of the dishes for lunch and each person had enough food to feed about three people, so we were stuffed. And then we got to-go boxes for the dishes we made after lunch... Though the Reimann threesome wasn't the smoothest (Jan knocked all of the ingredients for one dish onto the floor, and Allison cracked an egg all over her stove), we can all claim to make some pretty mean Thai food now.The next morning we picked up a rental car and headed west for a three-day road trip through the beautiful Northern Thailand hill country. The first day we wound our way to a little town called Soppong and found a really great place to stay along a pretty river. It happened to be just after Chinese New Year, and some of the Chinese descended ethnic groups in the area celebrate it every night for about a week. A really nice local woman who worked at the guesthouse where we were staying took us up to the celebration going on the night we arrived. Although it was apparent that several nights of festivities had started to wear the villagers out, it still was fun to drop in for about an hour. We were the only Western visitors, and the people were incredibly welcoming. We (well, Allison mainly) were swept into a circle dance the women were doing to a sort of trance-like music blasting from a children's portable karoake machine, which was carried by a man who also supplied some vocals. Everybody was wearing traditional outfits that are only brought out for Chinese New Year and there was a healthy quantity of rice whiskey being passed around. Lots of famous Thai smiles. The next morning Jeff and Allison visited a couple of local caves (one had extremely old coffins carved from tree trunks in it), while Jan and Jerry relaxed on the guesthouse deck by the river. We then moved on to the friendly and interesting town of Mae Hong Son, located near the border with Myanmar (Burma). Our luck continued, and we happened to be in town during another big festival, which was taking place at a Bhuddist temple on a hilltop overlooking the town. When we visited that night there were lots of people milling around - some were buying offerings to be placed at various points in the temple, others added coins to the alms containers of the temple's monks (placed one by one on a very long table), and a big crowd had gathered to watch a slapstick comedy show playing on a stage off to one side of the temple (we think traditional stories were being told, but it was hard to tell). The next day decided to go back to Soppong for another night because we had all liked it so much. After spending the next morning sitting by the river again, we returned to Chiang Mai to drop off the rental car.The main reason we had decided to come back to Chiang Mai for another night before moving on to other parts of Thailand was so we could catch the best part of the Chiang Mai's annual flower festival, which had started while we were out of the city. The next morning we joined quite a crowd lining the city's main streets and watched a sort of Thai Tournament of Roses Parade. It was sort of like being back home - high school marching bands, beauty queens, crazy costumes, floats covered in flowers and a guy on a huge elephant (oh wait, we have fire trucks). It was a good time. That night we took an overnight train down to Bangkok and then spent the next day resting up. Jan and Jerry specifically found a place with international cable, so the next day we all reunited in the early morning hours to watch the Superbowl (Thailand is 12 hours later than the Eastern US). It was sort of a strange Superbowl party, involving coffee and cookies, rather than beer and chips. Post-Superbowl we spent a few days in Bangkok seeing some of its more well-known attractions. One of the best things we did in Thailand period was visiting two of Bangkok's most famous temples. The most impressive, Wat Phra Kaeo, is located on the same grounds as the site of the Grand Palace, the former residence of the Thai royal family. It was one of the most beautiful spaces we've seen anywhere in the world, with incredible jewel-like mosaics over temple walls and beautiful murals. But we don't do words well, so we'll attach photos that give a better idea. The other temple we visited, Wat Pho, was also great - it contains one of the largest reclining Bhuddas in the world; 45 feet high and about 140 feet long, it basically fills an entire building. And the surrounding temple grounds look like something out of Alice in Wonderland, with strange pastel mosaics covering many structures, as well as hundreds of Bhudda statues tucked into seemingly every available corner. From Bangkok the four of us traveled south on an another overnight train and then took a bus to the city of Krabi, located on the southern west coast. From Krabi, we took a minibus and a couple of ferries to the island of Koh Lanta, where we spent about the next week relaxing on a beautiful beach. At the end of the week, we said good-bye to Jan and Jerry, who returned north to Bangkok so that they could make a side-trip to Cambodia before returning home. Another thanks to Mom and Dad Reimann for catching up with us and being part of three fun weeks!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1137353460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1137353460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/allisonandjeff/trip_2005/1137353460/tpod.html Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:52:31 -0500 Two Backpacks, No Job... Around the World in 14 Months.

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Vientienne, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Hey there friends and family (and everyone else out there responsible for giving our site over 1200 hits since March 1 even though we haven't posted anything in weeks!) - sorry we've dropped the ball and managed to get two full months behind on stories of our adventures. We'll see what we can do to get caught up before we forget everything we've done. First up - our three weeks in Laos.We didn't start off so well. First, both the Cambodian and Lao border guards demanded bribes (albeit small ones) as we moved from one country to the next. Then the Lao border guard attempted to hustle us into his overpriced "taxi" to get us to our first destination in the country. We wanted to go to Si Phan Don ("4,000 Islands"), a chain of small islands in the Mekong River, not far from the border - but first we had to get to a small village where we could catch boats to the islands. When we refused to use the border guard's special taxi service, we discovered our few other transportation options had similarly ridiculous prices. In a fit of obstinance over the last few dollars, we decided we would walk (or hitchhike) the 18 kilometers rather than pay the sharks. We lucked out, though, and within 10 minutes we were rescued by the postman and given an inexpensive ride to the village. But our bad start continued when we discovered the boat operators in the village had formed a cartel and tripled the price for the short trip to the islands (okay, it was still really cheap by our home country standards, but annoying nonetheless). Because we had shown up at the same time as about eight other backpackers, the whole group of us tried to find somebody else with a boat who was willing to undercut the cartel. We found somebody, but after one of the cartel's thugs followed us and threatened our potential boat driver's family, the deal fell through. In the end, we all paid the cartel's inflated price and headed to Don Det, one of the larger and more visited of the 4,000 Islands. Don Det is a nice sleepy place to spend a few days (or, like many, a few weeks). There are no roads - just a wide path around the perimeter of the island for walkers, bikers and a few motorbikes. There is only electricity a few hours every night (or not at all, depending on where you stay). Accomodation is limited to simple huts containing a bed and a mosquito net. Bathrooms are shared. But prices are incredibly low and the scenery is spectacular. Our main concern became finding a bungalow that had not one, but two, hammocks hanging from its porch. But, unfortunately, after moving from one bungalow operation that had no hammocks (where we stayed the first night) to another operation that had two per porch, we discovered we had lost our wallet, probably leaving it at the first bungalow. We returned to get it within 45 minutes, but it wasn't there. The family who ran the place communicated in their limited English that they hadn't found anything, but we felt like they were being a little shifty. So, altogether, we weren't really happy about our start in Laos. But, a few days spent in those hammocks, followed by a "Laojito" at sunset (basically, a mojito with Lao rice whiskey ("lao lao") instead of rum), allowed us to decompress and move on from our initial frustration. And, can you imagine our surpise this very morning (meaning March 22) when we completely emptied our backpacks, every last pocket, and found the lost wallet??From Don Det we spent about a week moving north to the capital of Vientienne, hitting several small towns along the way. First stop was Pakse, where we spent a nice afternoon walking through a traditional residential area along the Mekong River. Houses are all on stilts, there are lots of pigs and chickens running around and people gave us a warm "Sabaidee!" (hello) throughout our walk. We ended up running into a married couple who were originally from Laos but had emigrated to Australia in the 80s. They were visiting their remaining family members and had us stay with them to chat about the differences between their lives and their families' and sip on a coconut for awhile before continuing our walk. From Pakse, we traveled east to the coffee-growing center of Paksong. Laos is supposed to grow some of the best coffee in the world (who knew?), and we appreciated it there in the local market Laos-style (basically, three parts strong coffee, one part sweetened condensed milk). After a night in Paksong we continued our move up the Mekong River to Savannahket, a pretty little city with lots of fading French colonial architecture. Similarly to Pakse and Paksong, we spent most of our time just walking around and observing the sleepy pace of Laos life. We particularly appreciated the town's great baguettes (another mark of the French), especially those sold by a lady who would stuff them with scrambled eggs and a salad of green papaya (not sweet), lemongrass, chili peppers and cilantro. After a few days in Savannakhet we continued further north to the town of Tha Kek. We really only went there to break up the remaining distance to Vientienne, but we ended up being really glad we decided to stop. Around sunset the first night, we were walking through a small neighborhood when we saw some younger Lao guys playing patenque in their yard (basically the same as bocci ball - brought by the French and now practically Laos' nationally pastime). We walked over to watch them, and the owner of the house came out to say hi. He was very excited by any opportunity to speak English, and before we knew it, we were seated with a big group of enthusiastic patenque players and several cases of Beer Lao were brought out. Soon enough, we were out playing patenque with the crazy group. We were pretty pitiful compared to our new friends, who really could have been professionals for all we knew. But both of us were given a Lao teammate so we could play against each other. The pressure was on when we realized all of the other Lao guys watching were betting on each of our "teams." The "Ok, Allison, try again!!" and "Almost, Jeff, almost!!" didn't ease the pressure much.After Tha Kek, we finally made it to the capital, Vientienne. An interesting place... The center of town is sort of bizarre - all of the bars, restaurants and upscale grocery stores clearly show the presence of expats and NGOs. It's almost as if the place is still colonized. But, at the same time, the city has all of the best of Laos culture - the most important Buddhist temples in the country, food vendors along the river at sunset and great baguettes in little hole-in-the-wall Lao restaurants. And Lao sauna and massage - we spent much of the afternoon on the grounds of a Buddhist monastery enjoying an herbal steam room followed by a traditional Lao massage (kind of like a Thai massage - pressure points and stretches more than an oil rubdown), all for about $4. This wasn't the first or last place we did this in Laos, but the capital had one of the best.After four nights in Vientienne, we moved north to one of Laos's biggest tourist destinations, the quaint ancient capital of Luang Prabang. Another sort of funny place. On one hand, it is beautifully situated along two rivers, contains practically the only remaining "old" temples in the country (older temples in other parts of the country were destroyed during one war or another from the mid-1800s onward) and has lots of interesting little alleys to explore. The town is also in great shape, with expensive-looking brick sidewalks and perfect roads. But those nice sidewalks and the related chic tourist restaurants make it seem somehow un-Laos. The character of the people is still there, but the setting seems wrong (well, at least right in the central part of the city - we didn't have to go far to find the equally charming, but more authentic, unpaved roads with kids playing and chickens running around). A combination of Luang Prabang's charms and our own laziness, though, resulted in our spending almost all of our remaining time in Laos there (about 5 or 6 days). One highlight was attending a party honoring the birth of a baby in the family of the people running our guesthouse. It was similar to the baptism we attended in Peru in how much it reminded us of a wedding reception. There was a live band and special dances for the parents and both sets of grandparents of the baby. Lots of food (in the form of Lao noodle soup) and, despite the pre-noon starting time, even more lao lao whiskey was served (we realized lao lao tastes like tequila). Guests brought gifts and money for the family. We left relatively early, but soon realized the lao lao had killed what remained of the day.We enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang, but soon enough we realized we had only a few days before we needed to be in northern Thailand to meet up with Jeff's parents. We opted to take a fairly popular two-day trip in a "slow boat" that would take us to Thailand via the Mekong River. The boat is more or less for transporting supplies, but somebody figured out that tourists would pay decent money to ride along and take in the scenery. It was a relaxing few days, despite the hard wooden benches. It helped that we were going in the direction less travelled, so the boat wasn't very crowded either. We got a lot of reading done. And it got us to Thailand.
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