If a picture is worth a thousand words is a thousand pictures worth an Angkor Wat?

Before I start talking about Siem Reap and Angkor Wat I realized that I didn’t actually talk much about Phenom Penh, which is unfair because I actually quite liked it as a city. I think it has been actually my favorite South East Asian city. The city is a bit on the dirty site, but it has a fun sort of vibe about it with a slight ‘I can still kill you whenever I want’ mixed in for good measure. This isn’t to say I ever felt unsafe in the city, but I was aware that the possibility did exist. The city also isn’t all that large so I was able to walk a good chunk of it my first day. The major tourist sites aside from the killing fields and S-21 weren’t amazing, the grand palace is overpriced and not impressive, and the museum is ok if you want to see a lot of statues, but the food was great and the people were very friendly. All and all I really liked the city.

So if Phenom Penh is great and I’ve really enjoyed Cambodia (although not as much as Laos) what about Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. When I was laying in a hammock on Don Dhet I was debating skipping Angkor Wat and if I was going to do that I figured I’d just skip Cambodia in general. I figured I had seen hundreds of temples on the trip and I knew it was going to be expensive so why not just hit a beach again for my last week. Well, I am very glad I didn’t. The town itself isn’t that great, although it has probably my favorite night market of the trip, but Angkor Wat makes up for it in spades. I decided to go for sunrise my first morning which meant meeting my tuk tuk driver at 5am. This was pretty crazy early even for me on this trip, but if I was going to do Angkor I might as well start off with a bang. Pulling up to Angkor Wat I started thinking to myself, ok, this is pretty impressive. There’s a man made moat and the temple is quite large. As I walked across the bridge and through the first door I then realized that I wasn’t entering the temple but just the front gate. The actually temple is another massive complex inside with another lake and is flanked by other smaller buildings. It’s more than a little impressive, it’s simply stunning. Then I began to realize that Angkor Wat is just the common name used to describe over 50 huge temples in the area. My mind then proceeded to blow out the side of my head. I know I was tough on people taking photos before, but that was a specific type of photo. My first day I took 1178 pictures. And no, that is not a typo, 1178 pictures. I think my tuk tuk driver thought I was a little crazy because apparently I did what most people do at Angkor Wat in three days in one: the mini loop, the grand loop, and then out to a couple of temples further away. They were simply incredible and most of them totally different and I wanted to see as many as I could. I also managed to stop by the landmine museum which was another gentle reminder of Cambodia’s past, and although it isn’t large, or something you don’t probably already know, it was a nice stop. My second Angkor day wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped though. I had hoped to split a guide with a couple of people to get a little more history but that never materialized. Instead I went out to a less visited set of temples which was nice but I wound up cutting my day short as it was simply going to cost too much money to do the rest of the things I wanted to see. I did manage another 150 pictures though.

One thing I’ve noticed about traveling around here is that gas is just as expensive as back home. This I’m sure cuts directly into the profit margin of all of the moto / tuk tuk / taxi drivers because although prices for transportation have gone up, you can only put them up so far before tourists simply won’t go. We want to feel like we aren’t being taken advantage of and the drivers are trying to make a living. It’s a very hard line to walk and understand. I know for example that I used $8 in gas my first day at Angkor to get around. That may be minimum wage back home but it could be a daily wage here. In the end I wound up paying $25 for transportation for the whole day. Did I pay too much? Maybe, maybe not, I’m not really sure. I do know that the driver was really nice and that he did drive me around for 13 hours, so in the end I felt comfortable paying that price. That being said, $25 is a huge amount of money for me relative to my daily spending on the rest of the trip. This is one of the few areas that it has hurt me traveling alone but I suppose it’s just one of the trade offs. Had I been traveling with a group I’m sure I wouldn’t have taken as many photos and probably wouldn’t have seen as many sites but it would have been cheaper.

Tomorrow I’ve decided to forgo my third day at Angkor and head back to Bangkok. I’m not sure yet if I’m just going to chill there for the last couple days or try and hit up one more place before I head out. Luckily I’ve got a long bus ride tomorrow to figure it out.

Moving onwards

I keep trying to start writing something about the killing fields and S-21 but how do you begin to explain genocide. How can you try and put into words what so many have done before you, most probably better. Still, because I think I should, and in order for me to try and process it better I will try.

Before I get fully into it however, I would like to comment on people taking pictures at the killing fields and S-21. Maybe people take pictures because a picture is worth a thousand words and many have difficulty finding their own. I can maybe get behind this idea as the only way to share the experience with others and to enlighten those that have no idea about the tragedy. I on the other hand have only one picture from both places: a shot of the walls as I was approaching it from the side. This will serve as the only direct visual trigger to the memory. It isn't that I want to forget what I say, it's quite the opposite. I have no need to have pictures of death on my camera, and the idea of taking them makes me sick. I fell that in order for the tragedy to find closure it needs to find peace and that just doesn't feel like it can happen on a bunch of tourist’s cameras. Clearly we must not forget what happened, but that there has to be a better way to remember.

The killing fields are one of many mass graves utilized by Khmer Rouge. At this site the remains of almost 9000 bodies have been found. All of the skulls and the remaining tatters of clothing have been assembled into a large monument stacked up around 40 feet high. I visited this monument twice, once at the start of my walk about, and once at the end. After I had walked around the area I wanted to return to look into the eyes of the skulls. I was hoping to find the human lose in what is now an otherwise quite tranquil area. Several things struck a chord with me on my walk. First, I was struck by the origins of the area. The field of course was not evil by birth; originally it was simply an orchard before it was turned into a mass grave. Secondly I was shocked by how small the actual mass graves were. Once grave that held over 450 bodies was only slightly larger than an average sized kitchen. I couldn't fathom how 450 people could have been dumped on top of one another there; the pile must have been massive. The last major thing that struck me was how peaceful it now seems. Thankfully it felt like the area could come to some sort of peace and people could be allowed to move on. I was a bit sickened however by the fact that many of the benches that you could sit on were sponsored by Angkor beer. Is there no depth that advertising won't stoop?

In contrast to the killing fields S-21 was still heavy and raw. S-21 was one of the main prisons / torture centers for the Khmer Rouge and has basically been left in the exact state it was found when it was shut down. This includes large photographs of the bodies found in many of the cells and blood still stained on the walls and floor. Walking around S-21 is sickingly haunting. I didn't want to touch anything, I didn't want to talk to anyone, and it felt like I could barely even begin to scrape the surface of understanding of the atrocities that occurred there. Like most torture prisons meticulous records were kept and photos taken seemingly almost to boast at what happened. It almost made me want to throw up. You could wander around from cell to cell and some of them were so small I wouldn't have even been able to lay down in them because of my height. One particularly interesting part of the museum had the stories of some of the guards at S-21, many of them who started as children. They then proceeded to tell their version of the vents that occurred. It is easy to have blatant hatred for anyone that causes harm to another human, but what would you do if you would be killed if you did not kill? What if your family would be killed instead? Could you find a kindness in your torture? There are questions that I wish no one ever needs to try and answer honestly, but clearly it was a real situation for some people. In these situations blind hatred just can't be applied. I am in no way condoning their actions, but it is not a matter of basic right or wrong but instead a complicated spectrum of grey no doubt created at the amusement of the Khmer Rouge leaders.

After two days of genocide I needed something uplifting and what better place to find it then with children. I decided to go out to an orphanage, Save the Children in Asia, and play with the kids for an afternoon and then donate my soccer ball, frisbee, and ball pump. There is honestly no way to feel better than to have two kids glued to your legs and another asking for an airplane ride. SOCA is an orphanage that also runs English classes for the kids throughout the day and I had arrived right before one of the lessons started. I actually wound up teaching half of it as the main English teacher (Canadian of course) was sick for the afternoon. I'm not sure the kids were quite as big of a fan of me after I had to administer an exam, but as soon as a guitar was brought out and I started to play all was forgiven. I wish I could have stayed longer or helped more but sadly I had to move on. I don't have any pictures of this afternoon either as these memories are purely and selfishly only mine and I have no need to show them off. Besides, it feels wrong to include any sort of pictures with this blog.

As I finish writing this I am now about half way to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I really can't believe I have to come home in a few days; this trip has gone way to fast.

Leaving Laos for Cambodia

I’ve left my happy chilled-to-the max hammock island for a new country and a big city: I’ve moved on to Phnom Penh. It’s tough to leave somewhere that you really like, but alas, it was time to move on. My last couple of daze on the island were a mixture of easy days and late nights and it was actually nice to be out past midnight for a change.

I joined up with a group one other single travelers that had been together for a couple days now and we went out to see the Khon Phapheg falls singing any song we knew at least a verse to. I’m actually surprised our driver didn’t just stop the car and get out, but I suppose at the very least it would have been amusing. The falls themselves were not overly impressive as it is the rainy season so there wasn’t much of a drop but the sheer volume of the water power was a bit humbling. Apparently over a million liters crash over the rocks every second. It is almost a strange concept to think that that much water can flow down a river continuously every day all year round. After we got back we were feeling a little lively so we went for some drinks and a swim in the Mekong. I swear by this point I’ve drank so much of the river that I’m immune to every disease imaginable. The natural progression of the night then lead of course to us wanting to dance but there wasn’t really any dance clubs on the island. For most people this might be a problem but I noticed that the bungalow next to the girls was not occupied and in fact open so we turn the bed up on its side, lit up some candles, and presto we had a disco. This actually lasted for a fair amount of time until a very confused Lao guy asked us quite politely to stop, which of course we did. The night then wound down with a slightly heated debate between me and Agnes, a PhD candidate at U of T in philosophy, over the merits of contemporary religion and post modern theory.

The following day my dance party conspirators left and I rented a bike to explore both Don Dhet and Don Khon (the two islands are connected by a bridge). The ride itself was nice, if not a little bumpy, but I did run into a little trouble with the bike. Most bikes on the island were single speed cruisers with no shocks but I had managed to find a mountain bike. Great I thought, shocks will come in very handy on all of the bumps. The only problem was that the mountain bike had been partially converted into a single speed: the back gears were gone but the ones on the front remained sans shifter. The net result was that the chain liked to fall off, which normally isn’t a problem except that without a derailer it is much harder to put it back on. I did of course have it down to a fine art after about the 20^th time but then the chain decided it had had enough of me and broke so I had to walk the bike back the rest of the way. Still, I didn’t let this get me down and floated the rest of the day away on the river in a tube relaxing.

The next morning I jumped on a bus and headed off for Cambodia. Like most bus trips I had no real idea of how long the ride was supposed to take, this one being about 13 hours. To be fair it might have taken 12 had our bus not broken down for about 45 minutes. None of us were really sure why, but we suspect it had something to do with the horn which is an essential device in this country. The one nice thing about the bus breaking down was that it happened right outside of a school so while most of the bus patrons went off in search of food that wasn’t chips and biscuits I went got out my frisbee and went to pay with the kids. I always love how at first you only play with one kid, the brave one who tries to throw the frisbee back to you. Then instantly everyone joins in and wants a turn.

I should also mention that this bus ride was probably the worst I’ve been on. Actually there is no probably about it, it was by far the bumpiest, I’m pretty sure the bus didn’t have any shocks. It was the first time I wasn’t able to read in transit, although not because I was sick, my whole body was simply bouncing around too much for my eyes to focus on anything small. This of course was on the paved parts of the road, the unpaved, well I’ll leave that up to your imagination. The upside I suppose is I spent a lot of time looking out the window and the geography of Cambodia is quite different than it’s surrounding countries. It is actually quite flat and reminded me of the Prairies except that instead of growing wheat there was rice. The plants also looked much more scraggly and tattered.

I think that’s it for now, I’m sure I’ll have something interesting to say soon though as I am going to the killing fields and S-21 tomorrow.

Leap froging cities in search of the islands

I am currently writing this sitting in a hammock outside my bungalow right on the edge of the Mekong river. I'm not going to lie, I didn't see the sunrise, that's on the other side of the island, I get the sunsets. The small island that I am on is called Don Dhet and it is in the far south of Laos known as the 4000 islands. The hardest decision I've had to make so far today is which of my two hammocks to lay in: one is a little more tatter but it's closer to the river. Alright, I'll wipe the smug grin off my face; I'm going to be returning relatively soon and can directly feel the consequences by perturbed parties.

The last few days have been a fairly fevered leap frog of destinations. The first two nights were spent in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and I really don’t have much good to say about the city. It didn't have much vibe, it was expensive, the Wats weren't that interesting, and even the Patuyai - a Laos take on the arc de triumph - and that Luang - the national monument - were a little run down with even less character. As someone who has loved almost everywhere else in Laos I don't think I would go back if it could be avoided. The Buddha park and big lake outside of the city are supposed to be nice but they are quite far and the city doesn't leave you with much desire to see them.

From Vientiane we jumped a night bus to Savannkhet. I saw we because I was traveling with my minimum traveling requirement: two Canadian girls. The VIP bus down to Savannkhet was another rough ride. I may have said this before but do not take the VIP busses if you can avoid it, especially if there are lower seats. Once again Karaoke played at ear piercing levels most of the night only this time we were crammed on the lower level where if I sat up straight my head touched the ceiling. The VIP buses being slightly faster also tend to get in to their destinations at 5am which means you have between 1-3 hour before you can get food and a guesthouse. The only possible advantage of a VIP bus is that you MIGHT get a toilet and the seats are a little more comfy, but it isn't worth the trade off in my eyes.

Anyway, I digress, we arrived in Savannakhet at 5am and because we were so early opted to walk into town to find a guesthouse. The tricky thing of course when you first get into town is you don't really know which direction is which. Luckily, the sun was starting to rise so with lonely planet ‘objects-on-this-map-are-much-further-away-than-they-appear’ in hard we set out on our way. Much to the girls disbelief I was actually able to find the guesthouse we were looking for. This was made more difficult by the total lack of sleep and the fact that none of the streets were labeled so we did overshoot by a couple blocks the first attempt but hey, we had all of the time in the world to get it right. After finally finding a suitable guesthouse - the first was full - we all collapsed for a good little nap. After I woke the dead we set out for the tourist office and the dinosaur museum. Sadly the trek we really wanted to do was closed for the rainy season and the dino museum was one room with some fossils. I suppose if you had never seen real bones before it could be neat, you did get to actually touch a fossil, but on a whole it is skippable. Then came the big decision, to head out later that night for Champasak or in the morning. Much debate was had, but in the end the need for some sleep won out and we jumped on the bus the next morning.

Getting on the local bus I slept like a baby for a good hour. I really can't tell you why I sleep better on 3rd class busses and trains but apparently I do. By the end of the trip though my back was quite sore and patience was worn a little thin by the arms jabbing me from both sides: one from a person on a stool in the isle and the other from a twitchy sleeper to my right. After the bus we then took a tuk tuk to a ferry to take us over the river to Champasak. The first thing we all noticed upon getting off (our party now included two English girls as well) was that no one was waiting for us when get got off the boat. No hawkers, no tuk tuks, no nothing. This must be a laid back town. The one problem with this lovely reprieve was that we didn't actually know where to go now. We of course took out our trusted lonely planet but as it turns out the map in it was wrong. For whatever reason the ferry dock been moved further out of town. The result is when we came to the first guesthouse we thought we were totally lost as it was supposed to be on the other side of town. Luckily better slept minds prevailed and we came to the conclusion that the map must be wrong and plodded bravely onwards towards what we hoped was town. Finally, we wound up getting picked up by a guesthouse owner on a motor bike and stayed there to chill by the river. The major draw to Champasak is wat phou and we rented bikes the net day to head out to it. It is very much worth the stop. Basically it is a smaller barely touristed Angkor Wat. Perhaps it isn't as nice, I haven't been to Angkor yet but it is breathtaking in its own ways and I'd recommend the trip.

Sadly after visiting the Wat our party had to split ways. The English girls just wanted to dip their toes on a closer island and the Canadians wanted to head off to Vietnam so that was the end of our journeying together. After a quick goodbye I tore off on the bike on my way to try and catch a bus which would hopefully allow me to catch one of the last ferries to Don Det. After a speedy bike ride, a very kind lift from the guesthouse owner to the river, ferry ride, a motor bike taxi back to the road, I was able to catch a Sawngthaw (a bigger tuk tuk) stuffed full of 26 other people which took me to the ferry allowing me to get to where I am now.

Now I've come full circle back to me sitting in a hammock chilling out for a few days. I've got some more to say but I'll save the heartbroken Norwegian for later, it's breakfast time.

Heading South

After four days in Vang Vieng it was time to move onwards. I can defiantly see how people could get waylaid there for weeks though. In a lot of ways it is just a continual frat party although much more laid back and lao style than the south of Thailand. The main thing to do in the town is tubing down the river. Basically you get taken upstream and then float down past bars sporting all kinds of activities from giant swings and slides to volleyball nets. Even for someone not interested in the free shots of lao whiskey and other beverages I’d recommend it. It is a 40 minute ride down the river past some stunning scenery. There is very little actual Lao in this town though and one has to wonder how the locals feel about the constant stream of drunken college students flowing through the streets after curfew (everything in Laos needs to be closed by midnight).

As fun as tubing was I did need a little more out of the town and made it down to play volleyball and a variant of lawn bowling with the locals. I also rented a mountain bike to get out to some of the caves and local villages. Lonely Planet provided a very rough map which said the trip was about 43km but I think mine was closer to 50km as I wound up taking a couple of detours. I am hesitant to say I was lost because I didn’t know where I was going in the first place. It was great fun to be out on the roads as the only falang. Tons of little kids would come up and give me high fives as I went around. It was lucky that I did my little adventure on a mountain bike though because I had to wade through several streams carrying it over my shoulders to complete my journey.

Yesterday I decided to leave Vang Vieng but I opted for a little more style than the bus. Kayaking is clearly way more fun! We took a bus for a couple hours, then kayaked for about 4 hours then finished it off with another 2 hour tuk tuk ride. The rapids weren’t too crazy but we had a great group of people who formed raiding parties to knock each other in instead. I did actually get turfed during one set of rapids but overall they were pretty small. The only downside to this adventure was the tuk tuk ride to Vientiane. At one point there were 18 people crammed into the truck as the driver decided to pick up locals despite the fact the customers who paid for the ride couldn’t even all fit. The net result was people hanging off the back and at one point a crazy American got fed up and went on the roof. There was also a very sad incident were the driver ran over a dog. Luckily karma came to the rescue and the driver got fined by the police for having too many people in his car.
Today I think I’m just going to do another walking tour of the city and then I’m going to blast south which might put me out of contact for a while. I’m not sure if they have ATMs let alone internet down there.

The rain in Laos falls main on the plain... of jars

I am now kicking it in Vang Vieng: the fabled backpacker watering hole midway between Luang Prabang and Vientaine. At this point I’ve pretty much decided to scrap going to Vietnam and spend an extra week and a half in Laos, I’m just loving to too much to leave.

After leaving Luang Prabang I made a quick two night stopover in Phonsavan to see the plain of the jars. The road between these two towns is cut right along the mountainside and goes from the Mekong base up to about 1200m (where apparently in the winter it actually gets down to zero). I swear the bus driver along the way was playing a very unsuccessful game of operation as he honked around every corner to warm of our passage. The views however were great and most of the 8 hours was taken up by me just looking out the window.

The town of Phonsavan, which is spelt differently every which way you look, was quiet small and basically geared to bring in travelers: show them the jars and some bomb craters and then stick them back on a bus. The people were still on a whole extremely nice and welcoming though. Basically everyone I’ve meet from Laos is kind and has a smile, that of course could be because I look like an ATM machine to them but I’d prefer not to be that cynical, it does actually seem genuine. After out tour I was playing soccer with some of the local kids and the owner of the guesthouse brought me over to have some shots of rice whiskey with him and our guide and driver from the day to celebrate our new friendship. It was quite amusing to hear him talk about all of the foreigners and the ones he liked and didn’t. After about 3 hours and around 15 shots later the owner and guide had to retire for the night after attempting to drink me under the table. I on the other hand set out with the girls to search for some more food. Good times had by all!

Perhaps a little history lesson is needed in describing the plain of jars. The jars themselves are scattered across several plains around the area. The site I visited was one of the larger clusters and had about 250 of them I believe. What they are is large jars made out of stone ranging from quite small to 3.5 meters in width and a couple tons in weight. As for why the jars are, no one really knows for sure although the Laotians joke that their ancestors used them to make large vats of rice whiskey. We were actually supposed to go see another two sites but it was raining too hard and our minivan couldn’t make it up the mud road. It actually blew out a tire attempting to do so. Instead we went to several bomb craters and a local village. The other major history behind the area has to do with the bomb craters. Laos, as it turns out, is the most bombed country in history and much of it occurred around the plain of jars as it was a major supply route during the Vietnam war. Official figures say that the US dropped 2 093 100 tons of bombs on 580 944 sorties or, 2 million dollars worth of bombs a day for 9 years. Many of these bombs didn’t explode on impact so many people still die each year s they unearth live bombs. This war was fought in secret by the CIA and the Vietnamese with Laos just stuck in the middle. One upside is the local villages have adapted to their surroundings using pieces of the bombs to hold out their houses and gardens. The downside being that some f the bombs they try and use explode, and I’m not actually sure what they bombs are made out of but it probably isn’t the best thing to be handling in general. Needless to say I didn’t wander far off the beaten track in this area.

On a lighter note, one of the British girls made an astute and rather cynical comment about nothing on our travels ever being quiet. There’s the hum of the bus or boat motor, the sounds of frogs, crickets, roosters, and geckos, and if you are really lucky only the sound of the fan or AC. It’s a bit strange to think about as you’d think a smaller town would be less noise but it actually seems to have more. It’s weird what a city drowns out, or maybe it’s just the sounds we are used to filtering.

That’s all for now, it’s time to find some dinner. I’m sure I’ll run into everyone I know in this town again. It’s always fun to see the bastardized family gets created as the travels wear on, complete, of course, with sibling spats.

Chilling French Colonial Style

It's now day four in Luang Prabang. Originally I had been planning on heading out to Phonsavan today but I decided to chill with Emma and Maria for an extra day as they wait for their Vietnam Visas so we can all go up together. It's actually kind of funny; most people from my slow boat seem to still be in town. Perhaps it simply takes a full 3 days before anyone wants to sit on transit again, but the town also does also have a great vibe. The French Colonial roots seem to have infused it with a relaxed culture that includes some very taste non-asian foods. My only dislike as I expressed before is that you do pay for that vibe in dollars. I figure that so far Laos has been two to four times more expensive than northern Thailand with less infrastructure. Even this isn't a breaking point, but it does irk me a little to be paying four times as much to get to see their temples which thus far have not been as nice. I guess clearly people pay for it, so good on the Laos people for getting that price, but something still feels wrong about it.

On that wave length, I've found that one thing us Frang / Flang love to argue about is cultural respect. There are clearly some people who have done some research on the subject and other who show up to a temple in super short shorts and a bikini top which is a little more clear cut on the rudeness scale, but many other things are simply a big grey void. Because of this foreigners seem to want to try and one up each other to prove they are the most respectful traveler. One of my favorite examples was a couple of comments on foreigners taking slightly silly pictures in and around temples or next to monuments. The argument seems to be that you wouldn't do it in a church in Europe so why do it here? Personally I think I'm actually more likely to do something like that in Europe as I have a bit better understanding of the culture and don't take it all that seriously. The 'far east' however still seems to have a small cloud of oriental mysticism attached to it. The question is, I think, should it? I'm not really so sure. Clearly I'm not going to go out of my way to offend anyone, and yet as I say that I think I'd make a Christian joke without a second thought. Yesterday as I was walking through one of the temples I ran into a monk talking on a cell phone who was proudly displaying a sponge bob square pants towel outside his house. For 30 seconds I thought to myself, a monk on a cellphone, that doesn't seem right. Then common sense kicked in and said monks of course are people as well, and everything, including the mystic eastern religions evolve over time. I can't help but think that we are almost taking other religions more serious than the people that are actually practicing them. It's like we are hoping to create this frozen-in-time anthropological other that we see as true enlightenment that for some reason we cannot find in our own modern culture. It is our safety net if capitalism doesn't work. Overall it is just a silly thought, but one that many people seem to have. That being said, I'm still not going to go give Buddha a noogie.

Totally changing gears, yesterday was a nice chilled walking tour of some of the local temples. It was neat to talk to some monks and eat some great food from places alongside the river. I think it's safe to say that the rainy season is in full swing though as it's rained every day I've been here. I suppose being from Vancouver is actually an advantage here as I'm used to it. At least the rain here happens at 26C.

On a sad note I've noticed that here seems to be more beggars and small children selling stuff on the streets. I have yet to buy anything, and odds are I won't, but you do hope that the ones trying to sell stuff are too young to be in school. I did happen to have my Frisbee on me the other day though so instead of buying something I played with some of the boys for about 30 minutes. I keep hoping I'm going to stumble across a soccer game as well that I can join into. It was great to see the kids having fun, of course once it was over the went right back to trying to sell me something again which breaks your heart.

Another sad side note, and thankfully not about me, one of the couple's I had been traveling with had their wallet stolen yesterday. We had just been talking about how so far it had seemed pretty safe and it makes you want to let your guard down, and then later that day something gets stolen. On the upside, which is how they are both trying to look at it, it was only money and credit cards that they lost so they still have their passport and camera. It was kind of their own fault as Chris left his wallet on a table in plain view, but you always like to think people are better than that. Morgan for example got really lucky in Bangkok when he accidentally left his backpack in a store. I've also noticed here that vendors like to try and short change you when you pay. I've had it happen to me four times now and I've got my full change each time but you have to get into this argument about how much you actually gave them and it is just no fun. Overall though everyone has been very friendly and these have been quite isolated experiences.

Alright, this is getting far to long so I'll finish up on a positive note. It's raining again which makes me think of home. Not that I am anywhere near ready to come home or really miss it - in fact if anyone wants to send me money so I can stay longer I'll gleefully accept it - but it does bring a smile to my face. :)

It's laos time

Hello from Laos! After a very long slow journey I am now happily sitting in an internet café in Luang Prabang. It was a rather unique experience to get here. Actually, I suppose it wasn’t that unique at all as most people who come into Laos via Chang Mai come this way, but I didn’t want to say interesting again. The mini bus ride from Chang Mai to Chang Klong took about 7 hours. The minivan was supposed to be air conditioned, and well I suppose the air was conditioned, it just wasn’t conditioned cold. It actually wasn’t that bad though as I was sitting at a window and with all of the windows open it was actually quite pleasant. I couldn’t help but to think back to family trips when I was little and 5 of us were all pilled into the 5 person sunbird. I seem to recall my dad joking at the time that the car had AC, you just had to roll down the windows. Well, it was a very similar experience again although with a little less sibling squabbling.

The border crossing itself was pretty painless. The one thing I found odd was that a Canadian visa for Laos was $43 US (42 during the week) making it the most expensive visas out of all of the countries. I’m really not sure why this is as we didn’t try and blow the country back to the Stone Age… Someone told me that it is expensive to get a Canadian visa so other countries are getting us back, but being that I will never have to pay for a Canadian visa that’s a little difficult to confirm at this point in time.

The slow boat itself was boat very nice and very trying. The first day was about 7 hours long most of the time spent sitting on a wooden bench, and the following day was another 7 hours on an even more cramped boat before we finally got to our destination. One of the disadvantages to the slow boat is that you have to spend a night in a super sketchy town that the power goes out in at 11pm. I’ll just say I slept with one eye open and was a little more tired and cranky the next day on the boat. Luckily I met more friendly Canadians and we passed a good chunk of the time playing cards, including of course Euchre. We did however get reprimanded by an older New Zealand women and a younger Auzzie couple for having too much fun. I guess we got a little too into our cards (we also partook in some guitar playing and singing the day before) and they had simply had enough and told us. What really got me about the situation wasn’t so much that we were bothering them but the way in which they informed us about it. Had they said they were trying to sleep could we please try and be quieter things would have been fine. I know everyone was tired and worn out from the long journey and we were probably a bit noisy. Instead however, we were basically told to shut-up followed by some whispering amongst themselves as to how poorly Canadian’s behave. Oh well, you can’t please everyone I suppose.

The city of Luang Prabang is a really neat little place, the entire town has been classified a world heritage site. It is a weird cross of old French architecture and newer Laotian. The food also has a very French influence and they even have some decent wine, bread, and cheese! Ok, not quite as much good cheese as I had hoped for but I’ll take some good cheese over none at all. The only downside to this town is it does seem to know what sort of tourist destination it is. Almost every item you could buy or place you could stay at is a uniformed price across town. Prices are also a little over inflated, although not as bad as the south of Thailand, so being here on a shoestring is a bit tricky. Still, I think I’ll wind up spending at least 3 nights here before heading up to the plane of jars with a group of people.

As for today itself we (my fellow countrymen and I) decided to head out of the Kuang Si Waterfall. I wish the internet here was fast enough for me to upload some of the pictures because it was stunning. This time we actually got to swim around in the pools at the base of the waterfall and in behind and then hike up the top and look out over the falls and into the valley. An overall great way to spend the afternoon!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I think it’s time to venture out back into the thunderstorm that has just started in search of some dinner.