TravelStream™ news feed for member ptelesca on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ptelesca en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:23:12 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ptelesca/2/1227873060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ptelesca/2/1227873060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ptelesca/2/1227873060/tpod.html Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:23:12 -0500 SouthEast Asia--Thailand, Laos, Cambodia---and back

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Jersey City, New Jersey, United States

here they are .. the file name gives you a brief description....the pictures are mostly in order in which tighe and i traveled ...

hope everyone enjoyed there holiday with family and friends ...

Copy and paste the URL below, and if you are not a member first, you must become one to shutterfly, and if you are already a member it will ask you for your signin information...sorry if this another email to look at pictures, as shutterfly most likely emailed you already to view these pics....

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/album.sfly?fid=59f07061ab934d71f12f12eb75ef82b5&startIndex=0&sid=8AZuGzhq0YuHGA

Hope you enjoy, and tell the next trip ... I am out ....
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Jersey City, New Jersey, United States

WELL WELL TIME HAS COME TO SAY GOOD BYE TO THIS PART OF MY LIFE ... AND AS YOU ALL HAVE BEEN READING IT HAS BEEN GREAT FROM THE START PLANNING IT 6 MONTHS AGO...I GUESS PLANNING WAS A LITTLE BAD CONSIDERING WHAT HAPPENED .. BUT WE DID SOME SORT OF PLANNING .. TO THE FLIGHT BACK INTO JFK ... WHICH GOT IN EARLY ..AND DANIELLE BEING THE FRIEND THAT SHE IS WAS PAYING ATTENTION ONLINE TO THE TIMING AND WAS THERE JUST AS I WALKED OUT INTO THE THE 30 DEGREE WEATHER ..

WELL I SHOULD BE SLEEPING RIGHT NOW BUT TO ME ITS 1PM ON MONDAY SO LET ME FILL YOU IN ON THE LAST 48 HOURS AND THEN TRY TO SLEEP AS WORK IS WHERE I HAVE TO BE TOMORROW KICKING ALL THESE DOCTORS AROUND FOR THE LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR IS HERE ...

AFTER GETTING BACK INTO BANGKOK AND TIGHE TAKING IT EASY WITH HIS STOMACH SITUATION .. WE DECIDED TO PLAY OUR CARDS SAFE AND GO BACK TO THE HOSTEL AND WATCH A MOVIE AND THEN WENT BACK OUT TO GET A BITE TO EAT .. AT LOVELY MC DONALDS .. ALONG THE WAY WE STARTED TO DO OUR SHOPPING PORTION OF THE TRIP .. THE STREETS ARE FILLED WITH VENDORS, MIXED IN ARE THE GIRLS OF BANGKOK, AND OF COURSE THE SHEMALES AS WELL .. .THEY TOUCH YOU AND ASK YOU WHERE YOU FROM .. YOU SO HANDSOME .. WE WALK THE STREETS AND END UP DOING PRETTY WELL BUYING ALL WHAT WE HAVE TO ... AND YES VICKIE YOU GOT SOMETHING THIS TIME!!! .. BACK TO THE HOSTEL TO GET READY FOR OUR LAST NIGHT OUT ...OR SO WE THOUGHT .. SHOWER UP AND GO OUR FOR A BITE TO EAT AND SHOP A LITTLE MORE .. AND KNOWING US THE TIMING WAS PASSING US BY AND GET BACK TO THE HOSTEL TO DROP OUR BAGS OFF AND THEN LOOK AND SEE ITS 1AM AND WE HAVE TO BE UP BY 330AM .. OH BEFORE GETTING BACK WHILE IN THE STREET AND ELEPHANT IS BEING WALKED AROUND AND AT THAT TIME TIGHE AND I FED THE ELEPHANT SUGAR CANE REALLY COOL EVENT ... TIGHE AND I DECIDE TO WALK THE STREET FOR OUR LAST BEER AND ONLY TO FIND OUT MOST PLACES CLOSE AT 1ISH AND ITS 130 NOW .. WE WALK AND FIND A LITTLE POOL HALL I HAVE MY LAST BEER TIGHE A 7UP BECAUSE OF HIS STOMACH .. AFTER THAT WE WALK BACK TO THE HOSTEL AND TAKE OUR LAST NAP FOR THE TRIP .. WAKE UP SHOWER AND GO OUT AND GET A TAXI... FOR OUR LUCK WHILE SHOPPING WE GOT OUR HAIR CUT AND WHILE THERE A NICE INDIAN MAN FROM NEW DEHLI LIVING IN BANGKOK NOW GAVE US THE ADVICE TO SAVE ON THE TRIP TO THE AIPORT .. DO NOT TAKE THE HIGHWAY TO SAVE THE TOLL AND MAKE SURE TO USE A METER .. THOSE TWO TIPS SAVED TIGHE AND I 300 BAHT ...
ONCE AT THE AIRPORT I SAY FARWELL TO TIGHE HIS FLIGHT WAS FIRST AND END UP SITTING DOWN AND READING MY BOOK .. I CHECK IN AND GO THROUGH CUSTOMS AS ALWAYS ON COUPLE OF FIGHTING ...THEY WERE AMERICANS BUT FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY ... I END UP GOING TO MANGO TREE FOR BREAKFEST WERE THE MEAL COST ME 20 BUCKS FOR TWO EGGS, HAM, AND 2 COFFEE LOVE AIRPORT PRICING ... WAIT IT GETS BETTER ... MY LAYOVER AT TOKYO WAS 2 PLUS HOURS AND I NEEDED TO EAT...FOR 30 DOLLARS I GOT A SMALL SODE, TWO RICE PATTIES, AND EGGS OVER RICE .. THAT WAS IT FOR ME .. I WAITED OUTSIDE THE TERMINAL FOR THE FLIGHT ..

NO MORE STORIES, AS ON THE FLIGHT I DRANK TO SLEEP AND THEN WATCHED DARK NIGHT FOR THE 5TH TIME THIS TTIP ...

THANKS AGAIN FOR READING, HOPE YOU FELT LIKE YOU WERE PART OF THIS TRIP CAUSE EACH AND EVER ONE OF YOU WHERE .. THESE BLOGS MAKE THE TRIP SO WORTH IT ... MY GOAL WAS TO HAVE 1000 TIMES THE SITE TO BE READ AND WITH THIS ONE IT WILL HAPPEN!!!!
LOVE
PAULIE T ... AND ... TIGHE "I'M BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER" BURNS ...
NOV 24TH 2008 1:09AM
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Bangkok, Thailand

WELL WELL IT FINALYL HAPPENED THE COMPUTER ERASED MY ENTRY SO I AM NOW TYPING THIS ENTRY FOR THE SECOND TIME ... so I will try this again but this tiem the entry has little highlights as the past days has been travel and cultural experience at angko wat and the best way to get that information is by online and search for the stories and pics ..

we were on track to get to the temple fore sunrise . we get there and because of the clouds the sunrise was not present at all .. so we walk around the place at a quick pace knowing there were 7 other temples we wanted to visit ... so make a break for somethign to eat and of course there are a lot vendors there .. tighe gets haggled by one girl and he says fine i will visit your stand .. we visit it and buy nothing .. she follows us and keeps saying you said you would visit .. i guess when you say that you are agreeing to buy something .. before we know it she is crying for real or fake we are not sure . we continue to walk and back to our driver who we have for the day ... our day is simple temple to temple pics and more pics ..
we see 7 or 8 in all .. visit the site where tomb raider was taped and then make our way back ... we clean up and head out to a higher end place to eat .. goodm eal and then we decided to hit the club pyramid up for the night .. about 20 minutes outside of town get a ride there .. "they waived the coverage charge" for us .. have to love it. . they have live music sung my locals and amerian pop playing .. tighe and i have some drinks and are asked if we want girls .. for 5 dollars they will takl to you .. the general manager says, who is philapino, i talk to him in tagalog as much as i know ... and tell him we will get our own .. haha ..tighe and i hit the floor dance and head out ..
get home and in the morning my back is in spasems i guess break dancing at 30 yrs old is not such a good idea .. i go to the pharmacy for advil and come back .. tighe and i get food and get a ride to poi pet, the boarder crossing into thalian .. a 3 hour ride from heal ... with a roaster in the trunk, yup thats right ... we get to the boarder and tighe is not feeling so well he goes to toilet and comes out and looks like war took place .. he has gotten ill .. so we walk through the boarder and get to tuk tuk stop and go to the bus station for 4 hour ride into bangkok .. tighe is not doing well i tell him to buy toilet paper for the bus ride .. good idea .. on the ride he ends up making his way to the toliet a couple of times .. for his luck we get to a rest stop for water, gatorade, and fresh air ... somehow we make it .. get a taxi to suk 11 hostel...put tighe into the room and go get him gatorde, tea, and bread ... i bring it back to room and then head out to eat ... after this i go straight to burger king .. and then back home to check up on tighe .. and fall asleep .. in the middle of the nighe tighe is back in the toilet .. but wakes up in the morning and he is feeling better .. levaquin to the rescue ..
we are both in low key mood right now as in 14 hours we will be leaving for hom .. and we are all ready for it ..
i wil be sending one more entry from either bangkok/tokyo airport or home ...
for now ...we are out
paulie t and tighe"i cant catch a break" burns ...
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Siem Reap, Cambodia

HOPE ALL IS WELL BACK AT HOME AND TIME IS WINDING ON THIS JOURNEY ... AND CONVERSATION HAS BEGUN ABOUT WHERE DO WE GO NEXT ...

I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel as the past day or so has been a little on the slower side which is just fine with Tighe and I as we did enough in the past days traveling that we enjoyed our room with a TV and air ..not to say there isnt a story or two to tell you about .. so sit back open your eyes and enjoy ... as tomorrow we are off to the amazing sites of Angkor Wat, and our plan is to be there for sunrise at 5am!!!!

after settling into the hotel tighe and i had the rest of our day to take in the town of siem reap so we did jus that ... at night we cleaned up and went for dinner .. and oh what a dinner it was ..we wanted to eat like the locals and there are tons of places to eat that caters to the travelers in this town as it is the center spot to get to the temples .. we walk past this side shop and notice only locals and try to go but the tables are full..must be zagated rated RIGHT!!! we continue to walk around and cannot find another spot so we turn around and this time it has some open tables .. we sit down and all look right at us knowing that we did not belong .. we try to order and they point to the cart sitting on the street and tighe and i look and say 2 cokes, well i try for sprite but he hays no idea what sprite was .. so we get two cokes in cans and then move to the cart for the food and in the mean time the lady places two bowls of rice on our table ... one of the locals helps us out and tells us what each one is .. we get pork, chicken, and beef and they bring the plates to the table ... the silverware is on the table already ... but all the silverware is in a cup of hot water at the table .. and that is what they consider clean .. i say oh well time to eat .. carefully we eat some rice and then i make a break for the chicken .. not bad i say its ok ..very limey which is common over here all foods come with a lime on the side ... then tighe takes a piece of beef .. which looks like beef jerky to say the least and his face says it all .. hmmm not the best but hey we are one of them ... now the true test this bowl they say is pork .. in the bowl it has chili peppers and other beans that are extremely hard .. not sure what to do i scoop some and put it in my rice .. turns out to be ok at best but ice cold ... not happy at all thinking this is dinner .. tighe tries some and has the same thoughts .. we cont thinking we have to survive this and make it look like we belong ... UNTIL... ITS ALIVE ... there was a nice size worm on tighes plate moving .. not lieing i got picture and video to prove it .. we call it quites and pay the bill .. we decide we need to eat something else but first things first find a pharmacy and get the immodium asap .. we find one and get 20 tabs thinking this could be bad .. we pop the bills and look for a place to eat ... finding a tourist spot to eat we are happy to be one now .. i get a pizza and tighe some pasta dish .. behind us are a couple we saw in the morning coming to siem reap chat it up with them .. telling our stories an they are saying how stupid we are they are on a completely planned trip ... we finish up and make our way to back to the hotel to shower and see how we felt .. we clean up and say lets go .. tighe graduating from temple law school made the call that we have to go to temple bar .. and why not it got great reviews in the book ... so we head there first and get some beers .. right away the prostitutes come over and start asking questions .. not being in the mood we see an open pool table and take over .. ended up meeting some people from london played a game or so .. then i tell tighe i can use some sleep .. we go outside finish our beer and make our way home .. not until we get attacked by little boys asking for money .. tighe takes a picture with kid whos shirt says "I could be your son" tighe and i just laugh and there comes another prostitute .. all the boys and girl follow us home and we end up closing the door on them all .. for bed as we planned on doing something the next day ...
waking up in the morning we realize its way past we thought it was .. and make our way out for breakfest .. we are ready for a big meal to fill us up for the day .. along the way we see a waffle vendor on the street we get four for a dollar and make our way to angeline's cafe fore breakfest and we ate like champs outside and decide lets take it easy today .. we finish up and go the coffee shop and drink a ice coffee and know that we should look into the transportation factor to get back to bangkok .. as we have pushed our luck enough already ... so we finish up and pay and walk back to get information on that .. we do and book a room for our last night in bangkok ..suk11, heard great things about it, ... we take a nap and know we should eat some thing ... about 2km down the road is the new mall .. Lucky Mall, we walk towards there and once we get inside and see the escolators .. and we act like two year olds and just keep going up and down them and everyone is picking up on our antics .. and starts laughing then i get ahead of tighe and start chasing him .. and while i am going up he is going down and in the middle slap high five ..the crowd is lost what to think .. this goes on for 10 minutes at least very funny .. as the cigarette vendor girls are laughing the entire time and that is the only thing tighe and i need before introducing ourselves ... we find out that girls cannot smoke in the country .. then we see a toy shop and decide to buy a little toy for the little girl who mother works at the hotel .. after that we see a thai food place to eat and do so ... we make our way back .. and after breaking to catch up on news we head out for dinner or somethign like that .. we find a cafe on the street have a couple drinks split some food and know that we have to be up at 445am to get the sunrise .;...so we call it a night ..

we are both online typin our stories .. i am done and ready to call it a night and finish the beer lao in my hand ..

tomorrow i can only imagine what i will see the sunrise at angkor wat...
to all thanks ...
we are out ...
paulie T and tighe (everyday i have another bruise) burns....
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Siem Reap, Cambodia

well i will start this entry off with you will not want to miss this one .. i am still in shock how tighe and i are in cambodia right now .. but having said that we are safe and taking it easy on a wet tuesday afternoon ...
since we last left you tighe and i were going to take it easy in savanket in laos and make our way to pakse to get to cambodia .. not a bad idea .. well savanket really had nothing to offer as far as excitment so we walked around town and pulled off to get a bite to eat and there as we order and lady walking around with a big plastic bucket in her hand comes over and not speaking any english opens the top and there is something inside .. tighe and i have fun with it while the waitress stands there not knowing what to do .. this is the first time the english language is really not being spoken at all .. so before we know it the lady takes outs to plates and puts some of the food that is in here bucket and brings it over the table and we look at each other and laugh... shake our heads no and she takes the plates back and puts the food back in the bucket .... we can only imagine what it was .. we think it is some sort of fish from the mekong river ... next a man walks around town and comes in asking for money . and i give him my soda and he gets on the way ... we finish our meal and are looking for a coffee of some sort the only place we know of is the fancy french place and we sit back and enjoy some ice cream and coffee ....we cont on our way and tighe comes up with the idea to buy a soccer ball and play .. AMAZING event .. we buy it and make some turns down a street and see all the little boys playing and we play soccer with them for about an hour or so .. and at the end we hand them the ball and they are so happy ... i mean this takes the cake over the full moon party for highlight .. these little boys have that ball and the memories of playing iwth two americans to live with and i know it makes me feel good ... we stop off and get a bottle of water make our way to the hotel to shower up and go for food .. we look at the book for where to eat the only place left is a korean bbq place .. so we go there and it was a good meal cooking and eat .. afterwards tighe and i decide that it is a good night to go play pool and have some beers .. but first tighe wants to go to the internet cafe ... .(LET THE FUN BEGIN>... while there i decide to see how we are going to get from paske...our next stop .. to cambodia .. and after looking online i see that there is flight the next morning out of paske at 1030am and right now it was 830pm .. i look at tighe and ask the vendor what time is the last bus to paske .. they call and say its in an hour at the station .. i push tighe to say this is the best way to get there and have an extra to play with either in cambodia or back in bangkok .. i go back first to the room and clean it up and then tighe comes up and we our on our way .. we think we will only pay half of the 700000 kip ...nope the lady says "same same but different" the normal laos saying .. we are not in any position to argue since we have to get a ride to the station and there are no tuk tuk on the road .. we pay and she hands us two bottles of water .. what a steal ..(5800 kip is 1 dollar), we start walking towards the station and no signs of tuk tuk .. so we keep walking and i see a truck pullin by i put my thumb up and say bus station they pull over and i see a bag in the back and the guy in the front be safe and jump in .. so we do and we arrive at the station with 5 minutes to spare .. the driver didnt want any money but we did anyway and turns out the guy being dropped off lived in oregan for a while .. off to paske and its another one of those local buses bus this time being that we jump on it midway it looks like there are no seats for us .. but there are two left we sit down and begin our journey .. now my stomach is kicking into full gear an i am not now paulie stop it it will be ok ... we keep stoping and droppin people along the way and make sone bathroom stop .. again on the side so i ahve to contain myself and tighe giggles as he knows the feeling .. we jump back in and before you know it the bus pulls over and they say paske .. aight time to get off and see what to do next .. we get out and my stomach is done i cant take ... so fill inthe blank .. what i had to do ... we are now outside the bus terminal and know its about an 8 km walk so tighe and i are like its 3am and the flight is at 1030...mind you we dont have tickets .. so we are doing all of this without a ticket to cambodia .. we keep asking people for rides and they laugh at us .. one guy says wait till 6ish when everyone is up but we want to be the first ones there to increase the chances of getting our ticket .. so we wave one guy down and he was a bike with sidecar ... take the guy who is already on the side car and puts him on the back and takes our bags and puts us in the side car .. plenty of space .. haha .. he drops off the one guy and then continues to take us to the airport .. we get there and there are no lights on and we are like what now .. well guess what mom and dad .. your son and friend had to sleep on the side of the road .. yup i was homeless and for some reason it wasnt that bad knowing that i was with a great person and it just adds to the story .. told this one is a good one ... i take my sweatshirt lay it down and proced to fall asleep and actually get a dream out of it ..believe it or not .. tighe had a little harder time to sleep .. and in the morning where we were sleeping was in front of some store front and they wanted to open for business for morning traffic so tighe and i get up and make our way across the street to the airport ..hoping there are two tickets left for us .. imagine that all that not nothing .. we get inside and first flight on laos airlines is sold out .. looked like a tour group of some sort .. i ask the manager and he says the bangkok airways flight has open seats .. yes we did it .. we buy our tickets and wait for the time to take off .. flight goes without a problem .. turns out on the flight was aguy who lives in nyc .. and we go through immagration no problems . get a taxi to downtown the driver actually did get us to a nice hotel for the night and we dropped our bags and went for a walk for lunch .. i got a local curry meal tighe got another local chicken meal and then we went for coffee and now here to the internet cafe .. along the way i did pickup express the movie for 3 dollars as i heard it is a great movie ..
tonight WE ARE STAYIN PUT >.... I PROMISE .. we look forward to getting to nap in a little and the nshower up and have dinner and go to the bars for some well deserved beers .. this time its angkor beer instead of beer lao ..
well that is all i have to offer hope you enjoyed it as i certainly did ..
tell after going to the temples and having beer
tighe and paulie T are out....
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Savannakhet, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

the last entry was the night before the tubbing so here is what has happened since the morning of tubbing to today which is a full 48 hours .. by the way its a good way to start your work week back at home .. enjoy ...and i only have 6 days left can you believe it ...

so we started the day by getting our tubes rented and then getting a bite to eat and packed our bags from the ride to the start of the journey ... on the ride everyone is excited to be going on this journey and people have been doing it for days on end .. unreal and they say when you finish you will come back tomororrow and we wished we did but we had to back our way onto the next city ... so we started by going to the start of the river and first thing is first get a beer lao in hand and talk with some aussies who are on their honeymoon and hang out for a while and finish the first beer .. before you know it is the first stop with zipline and trapezz wires all which you land into the river after you swing ... the stories are numerous and alone yesterday 3 or 4 people were seriously hurt .. does that stop your P .. of course not .. i tell tighe before i drink anymore and my strength is weaken i am going to the top .. so i walk the stairs to the top of the trapezz and the worker hands me the swing and says when you are ready .. i am a good 4 stories in teh air and with a blink of an eye i am now swinging throughout and everyone is watching ... it gets to the bottom and starts to make its way to the top at the other end and that is the realse point for me .. i just let go and fall .. and i thought the fall would never end but it did and so did the smacking of my side ... but to no avail i am up and swimming back to the bar area .. oh year each stop is playing music with free lao lao whiskey and beer lao .. it was spring break like mood ... tighe passes on this one and after finishing up .. we jump in the tubes and get to the next stop .. swe decided to relax and take in the sun and meet up with the guys from london and australia here and end up drinking mroe beer and listening to great music .... after a solid hour here we get back in the tubes .. and damm that hurt i say as my pinky toe ended up in the rock before leaving ... .yea two days later it is still not right ... injury number one for P ... i pass the next stop .. however tighe gets off .. i hear a good tune on the other side so my mate from australia and i get off ... and the way the pull you off the river is by throwing a water bottle on a rope and pulling you in .. kinda crazy ... the next stop has the "MUD VOLLEYBALL" which we heard about ... time for a beer lao and then i start waiting for tighe to head this way .. i dance and drink and everyone is laughin and getting along what a vibe .. i meet a guy who had sand in his contact i brought my soloution and give it to him .. he is really thankful .. we get into a great covnersation about women and politics (always happens when your american) anyway i see tighe in the river tell him to pull over he does an the fun begins .. sorry to say our buddy from canada ended up dislocated his shoulder on the zipline here and no one was tehre to fix it ... i felt bad nice man ... after volleyball and partying we go to the river for the last stop .. and the big slide ... we all get out and drink another beer lao and i say i am going to hit the slide .. not sure why but i did ... i was little whacked out of my mind already from the beer so i jump on it and land in the water .. my dumbass is trying to swim upstream not knowing there is a ladder downstream underneath the slide .. i realyl thought i wasnt going to make it .. but i did ... so i get back up and the partying continues ... i ask the dj to play a tune he does and i start going nuts .. i tell tighe we should be on our way as it is getting little late and there is a fine if we miss the return time .. so we start heading back and as we heard the last 45 minutes is horrible no bars and now the sun is down .. and opps there you go a rock into my back .. shit ... i say .. .5 minutes later shit another one .. i finally learn my lesson how to tell if there is a rock in site .. we make it to the end and walk our tube back in and are 15 minutes late so we loose 200000 kip ... we walk about to the hotel shower up and go out to dinner .. have some pizza and then the special menu comes out .. happy pizza and shakes we pass as i was not in the mood knowing i had to get up early for the bus tos vienteane and then to savanket(which is where i am typing this email now)....tighe and i split up and i end up a a cafe falling asleep wathching friends ... all cafe show friends its crazy ... i meet tighe on the street and we go back and then i end fallin asleep and tighe watches the rest of old school ...

after getting up tighe and i have a little bit of time crunch to get to the bus station tighe wants to walk it and i am not like hell no .. so we eat breakfest at the hotel and he starts to walk and i chill out and get a tuk tuk to the statation ... along the wayh driver puts it into reverse an i am like what are you doing .. before i know it he is droping his kid off to some lady i hope its his mom .. then we pick up some locals and i pass tighe while he is walking and i get to the station and buy the tickets for both of us ... seeeing that guy i gave contact soloution to at the volleyball court we end up talking they are going one way i am going another .. the bus pulls up and ithge and i are ready for the trip .. looks like a nice bus ... the problem is the amouint of space you get .. i barely could put my legs int he seat .. tighe gets the money chair and can extend his legs the entire way ... this bus might have been going 5 km/hr really slow .. later than sooner we end up in veintene and need to make our way for another bus .. so we put our bags on our back and look for a cafe to eat as well as tighe needs to look at an email to see if a friend of a friend is waiting to hear from us ... we eat and then end up walking to a local bus stop not the one we needed .. oh yea little atm issues for tighe along the way .. it toook him 3 different atms to get one to0 work ... we get to the local station and find a tuk tuk driver to take us to the south station .. we get in and on our way its 445pm need to be there by 6pm so we are fine ... along the way we pull over and i am lik e what the da f ... he pulls off the gas tank and brings it to the gas station and comes back with a "FULL TANK" ... off to the station .. .he brings us there and we are early for once .. we find our way around and see the bus for savanaket and it looks a little shady ,... we get our passes relax and board intime ... as soon as we pull out of the station make a left and bus pulls over and before you know its all these little kids and moms storming the bus selling food/candy/water for the ride ... never in my life have i scene that ... you think that is bad ... next up here come the motorbikes down the middle of the bus and they are making the journey with us .. i look at tighe and say welcome to teh laos circus .. i have a lao guy next to me taken over my seat caus the bike is have in his seat .. .wow .. is this really what happens .. and of course all the tourist on the bus ... all 6 of us start taking pictures an the locals start laughing ... the journey begins and along the way bus stops and picks up random ... then it stops for bathroom break .. well the bathroom being the woods .. men and women are off doing their thing .. and the bus picks up and cont the journey ... we are crusing now the space is not that bad andi am sleeping in and out and next up is a major stoping point for 20 minutes i get out and get some pringles and soda and enjoy space for sometime hanging with couple of trhe locals watching a tv show in lao as i try to act like one of the girls in the show .. the guy is just laughing at me .. the bus loads up and more people join in and the journey cont the space is even tighter for some reason ... the lights go and they say welcome to savaneket .. ok but we are int eh middle of an intersection at 2am .. they bang on the window and tell us its our stop .. the bags are thrown on the side of the street already .. we jump over the bikes and people an the bus takes off and we look at each other with knowing nothing ... well we find a way to ask them to the guest house area .. and they point one way .. we open our guide book and there is no information at all as we are far away from the the downtown area .. so its dark our and tighe and i are walking witha book and our bags and the hope to find a guest house .. and we do .. i look inside they are watyching womens basketball i get excited but for what .. they are all asleep so we keep walking ..with no idea of where to go next .. i am thinking sleeping in the street shit have to try it before i die .. well we keeping walking and i see an nice building with a security guard i wake him up and take out the book and try to speak lao to him and he tells to keep walking so we do .. then i see a car and start waving him down .. nice man speaks no english tighe shows him the map and says he knows where one of the guest houses is .. we jump in his ride ... a nice one i will say .. toyoya avalon .. he is pimp and playing his music nice and load .. he takes us to the the guest house on the map and drops us off not before he walks and takes a little tinkel for himself .. had to add that point ... after he leaves tighe jumps the fence and looks around to see if anyone if awake no one is but he saw poeple sleeping at the entrance so he walks over there and wakes them up and for one reason or another there is two rooms left one for me and one for tighe .. we take em and get our sleep ...

waking up this morning i was like wow what a night ... first things is frist tighe and i walk to get some food ... nothing much my stomach is not been right lately ..so i just get omelet with a bagquet and 7up .. and then we find our guest house for toinght and drop our bags off and make our way to .. St Teresia Catholic Church the only catholic church or oldest catholic church in laos .. we still dont know which is true one is though .. and after last night tighe and i needed to say our prayers .. nice little church made in 1930s .. we missed mass as it is 515am everyday ... ... we stay for a while and make our way to the cafe where we are now ...
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Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

there is nothing to write at this point however i had some downtime and wanted to upload some pictures for your enjoyment .. they will also be on snapfish.com all of them .. and if you dont recieve an email please let me know so i can update my email list in snapfish ... i am sure tonight there will be something to wrtie about as we are about to go into the river for some tubbingh .... tell then enjoy the pics ...
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Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

ok we arrived ...
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Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

I start this part of my journey at night and will submit it in the morning ... as after a day of nothing here in luang purbang tighe and i are preparing ourselves to make the bus trip to vang vien the water rafting to come ...

we planned on making it to the caves today however being that we are officaly at the one week mark of the trip we took it easy and wondered around town and did notthing beside eat food off the street and listen to music and say hi to all the locals as they drove by and saw two white boys on the street corner with their ipods on ... after sitting there for a little while we make our way back to the main strip knowing we should find a bus ticket to vang vien for tomorrow .. but instead we make our way to the top of another staircase and find another temple where we run into a lady from australia and before you know it "what do you think about the election?" comes about and tighe being tighe and me being me get into a nice little debate infront of her about the situation and why the US is the way it is right now ... it lasted for a little longer than i would have liked and then we move on and make our way back to the hotel to clean up and get readyt for dinner and shopping ... along the way we find a bus ticket to purchase and that is set for 9am on friday morning laos time ...

tighe and i made our way down to the end of the road and had pizza and beer for dinner just like americans do it .. as i needed someothing different than rice an noodles ... after that we go to pool hall and find our mates from austrialia chilling out with some ladies from ??? they mentioned they are leaving for vang vien tomorrow as well ... we tell them we are off to night market and might come back and if not we will see them in vang vien ...

whats was supposed to be a low key night ... turned out to be a fun filled night .. we got to the market as it was closing .. there is a theme here tighe and i are always pushing our luck with time .. so after running through the night market as it was closed and half the vendors were closed ... we try to find an atm and as i get tehre its closed for the night .. not 24 hours like all the ones in the states are ... so we talk to tuk tuk and tell him that we need to go to hotel to drop off our gifts we bought then bring me to the only atm in luang purbang and then to the famous bowling ally .. and we agrees ... so we make our way and all works out and then we get to the bowlin ally ... they say its a fun place to be so when we arrive its really not that many people there and tighe wins the first game and the second game and then here comes the heards of people from downtown .. this is known as the late night spot ... so our bddy from australia josh shows up of course and he and his lady friends join ou game and play one game with us ... as i sit down to put on my shoes i start feeling this hand massage my neck and 'she' says im over there ... i say ok .. then thi nice man from england i belive goes how do you like a massage from a man ... yes it happened i have been attacked by a ladyboy ... oh well i knew it was going to happen ... after that i ran outside and all the drivers were asking if i wanted drugs so i made fun of one and he came at me like he was going to play some jackie chan on me and then starts laughing and next move he picked up a beer bottle and made a move again only as a joke .. haha not very funny after i had a few beers through out the night .. .we get in our tuk tuk for the ride home and call it quits ..

it is now the morning and we are 10 minutes away from the bus and stil ahve to get our laundry from the service and pay the rest of our bill so i will leave you now and talk to you all from vang vien ..
cheers
paulie t
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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

OK all I am able to spend some time to update you on the latest actions on this trip and there is some fun stories from the past 24 hours ... before i forget my travel buddy tighe has his blog at www.philly215.blogspot.com and he is very descriptive on his stories so click on that as well for his views and some points that i probably have missed ...
so the last time i left off i was still in thailand and now in laos.. and the city of luang purbang and it is really a nice little city and that is why we added an extra day here we arrived via flight from thailand without any issue, good thing we were on time for the flight as it left earlier than it was supposed to ... while at the airport i noticed a bunch of ladies from brazil and tighe in the midst of learning portgegues i mentioned to him he should to them and he follows suit .. these ladies were carring huge bags and could not carry them up the stairs of the plane so the juice head that i am assist them by lifting the bags up the stairs ... the flight was easy and they served us a meal of some sort not sure what but i had to eat it ... we arrive and need to get our visa at the airport .. and as i forgot to mentioned in thailand we got our pictures taken and they are very amusing ones ... as we hang off all of our info for approval the workers start laughing at us because of our pictures that we submitted to them for approval...somehow they allow us to enter the country and we jump in a tuk tuk and get to the guest house ...
drop our bags off and we are off to the walk along the meking river .. and find a spot on the water to eat and see the sun set ... afterwards we start walking with really no agenda because all it pretty much shutting down as it is known as an early to rise early to bed town ..
we make our way around town and end up really just walking and talking like old men ... we find ourselves about town and tighe is little hungry so he gets a sandwhich on the street and i break the ice with the world famous "BEER LAO" .. and we are at the street market and eating and drinkin like two homeless men ... we walk through the market and just make our way through ... we end up meeting two ladies from sweden and have some fun chat with them ... and continue along the way ... now we come upon this badmitten court and start watching these men play some serious games ... outside at night it was really chill ... then we continue to go for some beers at a bar ... we find one with a pool table .. and let the games begin .. .first sitting down .. meet a couple from germany and whle tighe talks with them i see two guys playing pool and go up and ask who got winner .. we do now ... game on i say .. these two guys from england were really nice and had already gone to waterfalls that we werer going to the next day so they gave us advice and introduce us to two other guys from australia who are going as well ... so we set up to meet in the morning to share a tuk tuk ... the games go on and so does the beer ... and before you know its shot time .. green and red .. and taste like shit .. tighe makes a homerun call to order fries and garlic bread ... we finish up and make our way out ..not until i buy a shirt from the bar as the saying goes there "drink like a fish for the price of water!"
we take a quick ride home not before being offered to buy some opiium ...
wow .. there is a lot to fill you in on ... next day we are up and at em to get some food and meet josh and nick to get to the water falls "Si Waterfall"... we eat another bowl of foe mu (pork soup) and then make our way to the meeting spot .. we arrive and then they come in and they were feeling the effects of the night before ...josh and nick stayed up to 3am ... we worked on the drivers for the cheapest rate and make our way out of town to the waterfalls .. the drive was scenic and 35km long .. we get to the entrance and tell the drive 3 hours if perfect .. we enter and see a black bear exhibit as they are being funded by australia society of some sort .. some of them are fighting others are laying down taking a nap ... we start along the trail and find some amazing views and then we see it "SWIMMING AREA" ok guys lets go we drop our pants ... i was wearing my suit underneath dont worry ... and we heard the water is a little chilly so jus jump in ... and off the top of the tree i make a splash and yes sir it was cold ... we play for a little in the water and make our way to the end where the big fgall is and its amazing view ... its time to get to the tuk tuk to get home and get to WAT MAI for sunset ... along the way the driver stops and i get into the driver seat cause he was taken too long .. turns out the ride is about to over heat and needs more oil .. so he gets the oil puts it in and then 5 minutes later he pulls over and says 15 minutes to let engine cool .. great .. all four of us start sharin music that we have on our ipod and josh being huge into music had some great songs to kill time .. also the local children would come up and play with us .. ... back on the road and back to the room to drop off the wet clothes and make our way to WAT MAI for sunseyt ... up the 300plus steps to the top just in time fore the sun to set over the mountains ... (did you pick up ..once again just in time tighe and i ...) we get on top of an area we shouldnt be for the pictures and get yelled at ..well it is a buddhist temple so oi guess i shouldnt be standing on it .. the a french man tell everyone to clear out we are about to tape a show .. what is going on ... turns out its a reality show in france and the goal of this trip was to get to the top and get the next clue for the trip at the top of the mountain .. i saw how they tape it .. not really reality .. sorry all you reality show junkies ... but it really was stage .. afterwards we make our way down the steps to get some food ... on the way we see our ladies from sweden and just say hi what did you do todya ...etc ... and then we ask them the plans for the night as we found out from a local about the full moon party ...in nov laos is known for full moon party....they say sure and we agree to meet them at 8pm .. its now 6pm ... we go down the street and eat some food and are getting excited for the party as its a true laos experience now ... we eat and make our way back ... while at dinner though there were some poeple from either england or ireleand and causing a scene at the restrauny really not being cool and yelling at the workers causing a huge scene ... we got back to the room and shower up and tighe and i are like we are going to actually wear nice clothes tonight .. we are getting ready as we did back in philly when we used to go out and tear apart that city ... so we get ready get a cold beer lao for the road and believe it or not we are late as the two ladies tell us we are 15 minutes late .. we are on philly/ny time we said ... i was out of money and had to go all the way across town through the night market .. which is awesome and tongiht i will shop ... to get to a damm atm .. on the way back i see josh and nick and invite them to meet us at the full moon party ... they say sure .. so we walk to the party along the way there are plenty of cops .. and one has a long twig in his hand and i make a gesture to whip it .. and before i know it he whips me in the ass .. we all start laughing and joking about it .. we continue on our way to WAT THAT LOUANG as that is the site of the party ... this is the best part of the trip to date ... as these words do not describe the amount of fun we all had last night ...
we start off by playing games of throwing the dart at ballon to blow it up like we do back in the states .. we play for a while tighe and i trying to impress the ladies .. what else is new between us .. haha ... we find another game to play no idea how to play but as we do all the local kids come and join .. and to explain it it is like roulet where you have to place a piece on what you think the dice will show and we start to play and get all the kids involved and we ended up playin for 15 min or so and all the locals were enjoying it .. i had a bottle of oj that i won before and handed it to one of the kids and he thanked me so much ..really a good feeling how such a little bottle of oj made this kids night ...
time to party we say and we go off to the bar and the music and all of us get involved in the dancing scene as each song has its own dance and some are like indian dances where it is all in the hand .. some are line dances .. some or cirlce dances ... we all were trying our best to learn .. and danced with many people ... and of course tighe and i took the entire dance floor over by ourselves and danced for one entire song ... it was funny ... we stayed the night there with all 6 of us and made the night one to rememebr ...
on the way home always need drunk food so i see a street vendor no idea what he is making so i order one .. it was awesome .. like a crepe with banana and choclate to die for ...we get home and say to each other "oh what a night" good clean fun and learning to be with the locals ...
today we decide to stay one more day as it would be too much to run for a bus later on at night .. so we took it easy this morning and got breakfest and now both of us are typing as quick as we can so we can make our way onto the buddha caves which is 25 KM outside the city ... should be a good time and then tonight going to the night market and dinner ..
that is it ... sorry for making this one extremly long but you all are part of me while traveling so i hope you feel like you are in laos right now with tighe and i ..
till the next time ..
paulie T and slickie "oh shit" burns
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