adventures in southeast asia 2008

this is actually an old blog from my trip in southeast asia in summer of 2008 that i am just now reposting here.

anyone interested in seeing more photos can also find me on facebook where i have a lot more pics uploaded.
the weather has definitely been pretty hot and very humid the whole time so far. only rains occasionally and briefly too for the most part. there have been a few pretty good rainstorms so far though.
so far i have been thankful to have such a small backpack. its so much easier to lug around and stow on planes and buses when its only 35 liters. even though i have hardly any clothes to choose from and no room for souvenirs or anything.

to give you an idea of what i packed or purchased on the way for this trip:

  1 lightweight hoodie, 2 sleeveless shirts, 3 tank tops, 2 casual button down shirts, 1 shortsleeve polo, 2 pair of shorts, 1 pair of pants, 5 pair socks, 5 pair underwear, all purpose trailrunning/crosstraining shoes, flip flops, collapsible umbrella, rain poncho, mosquito net, sleep sheet, 2 travel towels, sunglasses, guidebook, book to read, journal, belt, 1 quart size bag of toiletries (including hand sanitizer, shampoo, soap, shave cream, toothpaste, etc), insect repellant, and i try to always keep a spare roll of toilet paper with me since none is provided in most places and the bum gun isnt always so pleasant to rely on. ha. im sure there is more that im just not thinking of at the moment but thats a general idea. also keep in mind that ive lost or thrown away some of these items along the way and replaced them or purchased different items.

i dont have a whole lot of time to go into details about everything thats gone on since i left the states so this is just a very brief summary of my trip so far...

___japan:___
100 yen= 1 usd

--tokyo--
arrived july 9th, a wednesday i think. and there is somewhere around a 12 hour time difference here from the states so jetlag was a bitch. and we took turns getting pretty run down by allergies or colds or whatever in the beginning of the trip. so that slowed us down a little bit when it came to going out at night.
was with my family for most of the 9 days i was in japan. and it was partly with a tour which was both helpful, frustrating, and lame.
we all agreed never to do a tour again. we got to see some great sites but the guides were boring and hard to understand at times. and they rushed us.
but we still had a great time and got to see a lot of tokyo and a good bit of other areas along the way.... and it was nice to start the trip off getting to spend time with the fam. and we stayed in some very nice hotels and ate at some great restaurants.

... so we went to a couple very nice garden/forests in tokyo.
meiji forest and garden which used to be some kind of emperors hang out or something.
and a bunch of crazy temples too. cant recall the names of all of them off hand but all were FULL of shrines of all sorts. they all had different kinds of incense burning rituals and special prayers and things you could do for good luck and all that. most of which you paid for of course. wandered around the city, navigating through the bustling subways to all reaches of the city. and they have 'pushers' in the subways that shove you on the train when it gets full to make sure the doors can close. ha ha. akihabara, electric city with its overabundance of neon lights and porn shops and toy stores. LOTS of porn AND toy stores in this city, and on the same streets as each other even. ha. got our picture with a japanese superhero at one of the toy stores.
checked out the red light districts too, even brought the family along for the stroll. ha. they have store fronts where you shop for girls on a computer and decide on a package before they bring you wherever the girls are. i even read about packages where you can have the girl dress up like a coworker in a room decorated like a work environment where you can harass them and act out your fantasy. ha. plenty of aggressive touts trying to grab you (literally)
off the streets to bring you in too.
met some really nice people along the way, some very helpful locals to guide us in our wandering, and made a few friends as well. one of which was a reporter from brazil by the name of analu that was along on one of our tours to explore the shrines of tokyo.
and tokyo has its own statue of liberty in the bay there which i never knew about. some kind of gift from us after the bombing i think.

--mt fuji, lake ashi, mt kamigatake, hakone--
also took a bus to lake ashi. and from there a ferry to mt kamigatake. and a cable car ride to the top where there was a real nice view. than it rained while mike, cory, and i walked the trail to a shrine at the top and than ran back down getting soaked. the view back down was great as the rain clouds cleared just enought to let some hazy light shine down the mountain onto the lake. and cory flipped off all the waving tourists in the other cable car as it passed us on its way up. ha ha. than on to station 5 up the incredibly narrow windy roads on mt fuji.
and than to a town called hakone in the mountains for a day and night. not much goin on in the quiet area we were in. had fun playin a few strange arcade games with cory and mike at the hotel.

--kyoto--
than to kyoto which is a very cool city. at least the gion and surrounding area is for sure. had a few days of crazy festivals in the streets to celebrate the end of pestilence. shrines and music and vendors all filled the streets. 1000s of people.
lots of people were wearing the japanese kimonos too.
went bar hopping with some friends i met, elizabeth and emma, from new zealand and sweden, in an area called gion where they have a ton of strange little bars along the narrow streets. you can only fit one car or just people on some. and most of the bars are very small and have very odd themes to them. one was called the mushroom or something and was decked out with a mixture of mario brothers and other video game or cartoon memorabilia. another we had to ring a bell and be permitted up a narrow stairwell to a private club. all were either in basements or several floors above the streets or down long narrow alleyways. and almost all the bartenders were unusually hospitable and extremely nice. some would even follow you out of the bar bowing and thanking you. one even gave us an umbrella on a night when it was raining.
went to a cool jazz bar with yuko and nao, a couple of locals, one of which worked at the ryokan inn we were staying at. pretty cool and crowded little bar, even though we got in trouble for talking while the band played : p

watched a cool fire dancing show on the river. there were about 5 different dancers plus a group of people drumming along with them.
stayed one night in an authentic japanese ryokan inn with the futon mats for beds and the sliding paper doors and all. that was so awesome!
they even did the authentic japanese style dinner and a special tea ceremony in the teahouse that is set in an open garden in the middle of the building. very cool we wore the real robes and drank the tea as they explained the whole process and tradition and its meaning to us.

saw some geishas and maikas walkin around the streets.
went to the nijo castle, the golden temple pavilion, imperial palace.
went to kyoto studios, which is this really corny little theme park where they film samurai movies and stuff. it was so bad it was hilarious. it even had a japanese style haunted house and a whole room full of power ranger style character statues.
ate green tea flavored ice cream.

went on an old style boat ride down the hozu river with doc and cory. through some beautiful scenery, a few rapids, some close calls with some big rocks and narrow passages, it was fun. dont know much about where we went though since the guides and all the other customers were japanese.
ate dinner at a rotating restaurant over kyoto with the fam. most restaurants had a very good variety of foods to choose from in a lot of places as well. janell and mom ate vegetarian most of the way and were still very happy with the meals. meanwhile mike, cory, and i were still able to get a sufficient amount of duck, chicken, and beef too.
oh, and the toilets are abnormally high tech. they have a whole panel of controls on the side for different kinds of bidet options, heated seat temperatures, etc. some even open for you automatically when you walk in! everything short of wiping your but for you. ha ha
the language barrier has been fun to work around in japan. english is spoken by some but not always well, and all are not always willing to try. but we still managed with broken phrases in english and japanese and hand gestures or pointing at pictures.

___singapore:___
1.33 SD(singapore dollars) = 1 usd

than me and my older bro cory went on to singapore when the rest of the fam went home. got there friday the 18th. cory saw about a 2 foot lizard in the shower room the next mornin. ha
went and checked out a few sites the first night and than out for drinks with some locals. my bro has a friend that lives there that was showing us around. her names trixy. she showed us around to the merlion, art center, boat quay, and some other quick sites.
cory called it a night early so i stayed out in an area called clark quay with trixy, cynthia, and some friends of theirs. they taught me a few drinking games that we played late into the night at a scottish bar with a great live band.
today we went hiking in the rainforest. they say its a million years old. it was really cool. was drizzlin a bit while we were there but it was kinda nice. saw some wild lookin trees and jogged some surprisingly steep and narrow winding paths. a few dark eerie caves were spread along the path as well. a sweet view overlooking a quarry in one spot. than as we were leaving we saw about 30 monkeys swarming this one apartment building sneakin in windows stealin stuff and runnin around like crazy. it was hilarious. some kid started pokin at one and it bared some pretty sizable fangs and hissed at him too.


another day went to pulau ubin, an island off the northeast coast where things are still as singapore was many years ago. very old shacks for houses, very thickly forested. some wetlands at one end and a beach at the other. rented a single and a tandem bike with another local friend of ours, cynthia. we needed the tandem since she 'doesnt have any sense of balance' as she puts it. she wore a dress and heels because she didnt know we would be going there so it was pretty funny to see her freaking out. we took turns riding the tandem bike which was really a site to see. ha ha. cory was a trooper and rode tandem most of the way, even though cynthia wasnt even pedaling half the time. ha ha. beauty and the beast she says. ha. went down some pretty rough paths, through some mud and narrow paths which made our paris hilton guide complain even more. ha. cory and i climbed some trees like a 'couple of monkeys'.
but she was a good sport about it and we had a blast. than took the ghetto old ferry back to the mainland at sunset which was beautiful. tried some ice cream on a piece of sweet bread that is apparently a local thing. than on to dinner at a hawker spot. got some cheap indian food. than cory and i went to wander around little india.


saw a lot of odd signs and advertisements throughout the trip so far, including brands, essence of chicken. ha. some kind of vitamin pill or something.
downpoured almost all day on monday so we got drenched as we explored some indian and buddhist temples in little india. saw some crazy statues and stuff. one temple dedicated to kali, goddess of destruction and destroyer of ignorance was really cool. than checked out the mall and got some drinks at happy hour. walked through the red light in the geylang area with our local guides and observed the girls on the street corners and in the stairways awaiting their prospective customers. than chilled by a bridge over the river near the indoor stadium. was nice to just sit and have some peace and quiet after the past few weeks of runnin around.
language is absolutely no issue in singapore since most singaporeans learn english, as well as their native language, from birth.

___malaysia:___
3 RM (malaysian ringgit) = 1 usd

--kuala lumpur--
tuesday july 22 got packed up and headed for malaysia by bus. 6 hours later was in kuala lumpur gettin checked into my hostel in the heart of chinatown. busy area around here.
i have noticed though that no restaurants offer napkins, no toilets have toilet paper (although some have some form of hose attached that works like a bidet), and most sinks dont have soap anywhere in site! so you pretty much have to stock up on your own any time you come acrossed it.
but the food is SO cheap here. for about RM12, 12 malaysian ringits, i can get dinner and a beer. RM 5, less than 2 US dollars, gets you a plate of roast duck and rice. and most hostels are from RM5 to RM 45, between a few dollars and 15 dollars US.
got some good suggestions from a new dutch friend by the name of jerome that i met this afternoon. so after exploring here i may head inland to taman negara and hang out in the jungle for a bit before making my way to the beautiful beaches of the perhentian islands in the northeast. on my own now though so who knows where the road will take me from here....

got a room at the red dragon hostel in chinatown in kuala lumpur, or KL as some call it. the place used to be a movie theatre so its got abnormally huge hallways. not a bad spot though, and i got my own room with air con. sweet.
walked around chinatown a bit the first night and checked out the hawkers and vendors, had some good roast duck and rice for 5 RM. went to the 7-11 to pick up a few carlsberg beers to drink with some people at my hostel. on the way out i see these two low rider chopper style bicycles on the sidewalk and stop to check them out. the local guys that the bikes belong to, Man and Ejam, invite me to join them on the stoop of the 7-11 for a beer. ha ha. so i spend a couple of hours drinkin there and talkin about travel and the growth of KL and malaysia over the years. just talkin life when people start gatherin around for late night brews with us. a mexican kid named james starts playin some tunes on the guitar and a crowd of assorted locals and travelers forms. a couple from iceland, baldvin and his girlfriend, and a few others.
spent the next day on the north end of  KL at Batu Caves. very odd place. enormous gold colored statue guards the 272 steps up to a giant cavern in the cliffs containing a temple and a bunch of statues and stuff. another cave called the dark cave branches off into the darkness for private tours as well. made conversation with a nice french girl on the bus ride back and share photos and stories.
hunt down some pork fried rice near the hostel before heading for reggae bar to meet some friends from the previous night. hang with mark for a bit, he works a stunt show in thailand but is from england so he has to leave every few months to renew the visa. than chat with the couple from iceland and there danish friends for most of the evening. great people and conversation.

thursday i head for the bus station. only to find i have to find the sky train subway to go cross town to the other bus station. in a hurry so its a big mac for breakfast today. ha ha. get to the station around 1 pm. lucky me, the bus inland is late and pulls up right as i buy my ticket. 14 ringgit for the 3 hour ride to Jerantut. chat with kae and arpita, a nice couple from singapore on holiday. get to Jerantut and the bus is swarmed with taxi drivers asking crazy prices. so we grab a bit to eat and wait til 4:30 for the local bus that takes us to Kuala Tahan, the village at the edge of Taman Negara, where we plan to do some jungle hiking. we drive for about an hour through enless palm tree oil plantations and dodge oncoming traffic and roaming cattle on the road there. driver stops to chat with friends along the way. i guess we're not in a rush than, ha ha. only 6 RM for the ride so thats cool.

--taman negara, kuala tahan--
pretty cool but VERY small village on the river with just a few hostels, some floating restaurants, a little resort, and a couple shops. and a chess corner where theres no chess. hm. most places are pretty booked so kae and arpita go with a hotel room. gregor and teja, a couple from slovenia, and i check out a hostel that claims the whole village has no water! that could really make an interesting couple days in the muddy jungle. they lied though, so we stay at a spot on the river. only 10 RM for a bunk for the night and theres water. some locals hangin out there share some real good local fruits with us as we check in. than to one of the floating restaurants for dinner. than some beers with the locals and a few travelers. it POURS all night. not the cleanliest of places either. the bathroom is pretty grimy and infested with ants. and in the middle of the night gregor jumps out of bed. he got bit to hell by bed bugs. we had to throw the mattress in the hall and he slept with teja. i used my mosquito net and travel sheet and managed a restless nights sleep. it was humid as hell and the bugs didnt make it any better. ha.

first thing in the morning check OUT of that spot. ha. get a shared room in the teresek view hotel for 80 RM split 3 ways. but it is bug free and has a decent shower. so the 5 of us meet up and head into the jungle to do the canopy walk which was awesome. walking on a rope bridge suspended between trees 45 meters above the ground. so its bouncin and swaying the whole way as you walk. than i play tarzan for a bit and start climbin vines up into the trees. ha.
gregor, teja, and i check out a view point up some pretty wild trails where you have to hop across and step up big tree roots to stay out of the puddles and ditches. and we are lookin stylish too, got out pants tucked into our socks and sprayed the heck out of ourselves so we dont get covered in leeches. i somehow manage to slip on a log and gash my arm open pretty good (like a 1/4 inch deep and inch long, nice) but it doesnt bleed much so we go on. a few kilometers and view points later and after climbing steep muddy embankments and crossing streams we make our way back to the river. get one of the boats to take us across the river to the village and get some delicious sweet and sour chicken and banana chocolate pancakes (crepes). yum. later grab some tiger beers from a souvenir shop.

next day i find a van to drive me to kuala besut, the jetty town in the northeast malaysia. im the only one who booked it so i spend the whole 6 hours driving through small villages and vast palm oil plantations with just the driver and his 8 year old son who speak very little english at all. it was cool though trying to communicate. grabbed lunch at some shop in the middle of nowhere. using the bathroom was a task there. ha. just a hole in the cement floor in a dark corner of a room enclosed by a crumbling cinderblock wall that was about chest high.
drive through a lot of small villages full of women in the traditional muslim attire. girls in there school uniforms. all wearing headscarves and everything.
there is no atm in kuala besut or on the perhentian islands where i am going. luckily the woman who i bought my fastboat ticket from got her daughter to drive me 30 minutes to Jertie to an atm. that was another sweet bit of luck because a taxi would have cost 40 RM. and she plays american rock music! its so nice to hear that for a change. i have no tunes with me so i miss my music.

--perhentian islands--
took the fastboat to long beach on perhentian kecil. fun ride bouncing over the waves trying to hold down my bags. meet some cool people on the boat. get a chalet(a shack on stilts more or less) on the hill overlooking the beach for 25 ringgit a night. outdoor bathrooms and showers that are as basic as you can get. my leg muscles are gonna be huge after this trip from hovering bomber style over all these dinggy toilets. ha ha. and the electricity is very limited and only comes on for a few hours at night.
spend the next couple days floating in the crystal clear/bright blue waters and layin on the beach. walkin around the whole time in flops and a bathing suit. hung out a lot with alex, leia, pady, and dave from enland. and also christine from greenland and niklas and daniel from denmark. we all had a hell of a good time hangin together too. watchin movies as we eat barracuda bbq dinners. had a blast banana boat riding with all of them and some others. we all racked up a few injuries and 'finger fines' on that one. finger fines are one of the rules that the english bartenders play to get people drinking. pady and dave bartend at bellends bar, which is the main bar that we all hung out at every night. and the name means the end of your penis. ha ha. had a few nights of tons of drinking games and uno at the bar gettin smashed off of pint bottles of whiskey and orang utan rum for 21 RM. we also had a tequila night. people dancin on the bar. the whole bar goin late night skinny dippin and runnin around on the beach naked past the campfires. ha ha. played some intense games of beach volleyball.

spent one day snorkeling which was amazing! spied on some good size sharks at shark point. trailed some turtles in turtle cove. swam with schools of thousands of fish at blue lagoon. and explored the coral and stuff like that as well. what a day that was.
found a lizard about one and a half feet long on my bed outside my mosquito net one afternoon. saw some lizards in the jungle near the beach at least a meter long. some spiders in the trees the size of my palm.
ive been finding it interesting that most restaurants so far in malaysia go by a bit of the honor system. you eat and than you go to the reception and tell them what you had and pay for it. and the service is so random. a table of people order food and they bring things out one plate first, than 15 minutes later another plate or two. so much different from the western style.
than off on a fastboat to the mainland to grab a cab with loes, annemeike, and juliette to kota bahru. split the 40 RM price between the four of us. takes about an hour. tomorrow i will be walking the 2 kilometers to get across the thai border and head for the cliffs of krabi. you have to walk across on the eastern side of the border due to some kind of political dispute going on.

--kota bahru--
spent two nights in kota bahru. when we arrived in the cab a friendly local named mohammed walked us to our hostel and chatted along the way. first night went for fried noodles and pork and some beers in chinatown with annemeike and loes and another friend. when it came time to pay and we were dividing the price between us the lady that worked there just held up a sign that said 'i am just here to look cute, dont ask me to think' or something like that and smiled. ha ha.
than back to our hostel, the ideal guesthouse (10 ringgit a night for a dorm bed) to have some drinks. had a lot of laughs drinkin and playin 'world travelers' trivia game and than asshole. juliette(france), loes, annemeike, and emma(sweden) all played. but the garden area of our hostel closed at 0 o'clock so we had to call it a night. ha ha.

next day bummed around the hostel all day relaxing and downloading all my pics up till that point. than out for dinner in chinatown again. than we found our way to the cultural center to watch a shadow puppet show with a musical background. probably one of the strangest shows ive seen. it was pretty cool but they had one instrument that was deafening because they had it blaring on a microphone. and there was a crazy local guy sitting next to us mumbling to himself and convulsing to the music. wierd. ha. as we walked back to the hostel we walked past some kind of school that was just finishing and all the young kids (maybe 10 yr olds) were saying hello and shaking our hands as we passed. though that was pretty interesting and unexpected. when we got back to the hostel chatted with a few other travelers. one of which was a guy cycling from singapore to vietnam. what a trip that must be!

next day its cloudy and feels like a good day to move on. say goodbye to the girls and walk to the bus station to catch the local bus 29 to the border town of Rantau Panjang. 1 hour and costs 4 RM. get to the border and walk across with a couple from canada. crossing was a little confusing but we managed and walked a total of about a kilometer or so to the train station. stepped on a foot and a half long dead python on the sidewalk. good thing it was dead! get to train station just in time to run across the tracks and grab a ticket for the local train to Hat Yai that was leaving as i arrived.

___thailand___
31 B (thai baht)= 1 usd

--sungai kolok, hat yai--
train to hat yai cost 42 baht. so i jumped on and found a seat. as im sitting there i realize i am the ONLY foreigner or white person on the whole train as far as i can tell. and the train is full of armed military walkin up and down the aisles carrying some pretty big guns. and there are more at every one of the many local villages that it stops at along the way as well. the train is unbelievable hot and humid and had just large open windows for air flow. but the country is nice to watch as it passes by. get a few strange looks or stares from people as i sit awkwardly in my uncomfortable window seat for the 4 and half hour trip.

--hat yai--
thursday, august 1st? - arrive around 6 pm and walk to the Cathay guesthouse to get a room. costs me 200 baht a fan room with toilet and shower. drop my bag and head for an ATM. and only after walking all over the surrounding blocks to 4 different banks to i find an ATM that excepts my card. what a relief! than i stroll down the main street to find some food when i see a sign for a double big mac meal for 145 baht and cant resist. ha ha. i was so hungry i couldnt be bothered with searching for good local food and waiting for it to be prepared.
than its time for a shower and head out on the town. check out the few local bars they have nearby which are all empty before hangin out for a beer chang at the post laser disco pub or something like that. the local band does a surprisingly good job on there covers of american songs. and the beer is only 60 baht. than i wander around the streets for a bit to see if i can find another bar with no luck. and i start noticing women of all ages and appearances that will say hi to you as you pass and if you even look at them or acknowledge them they offer you 'boom boom 1000 baht, you want lady?' so i figure its a good time to head back to the hostel and call it a night. ha ha.

next morning im rushing to get ready and run out the door when i find out there is a 1 hour time difference from malaysia to thailand! so its really only 8 am and not 9. so i get breakfast and catch my minibus to krabi. costs 250 baht and takes 4 hours. i sit between tum, a thai girl on vacation, and brandon (or snakebite as the locals call him). turns out snakebite manages a bar called the Reggae Disco on Ko Phi Phi Don and needs a bartender. so i detour from krabi and head for the ferry with him. ferry leaves at 4 pm and costs 400 baht instead of 450 since we work on the island. there are a ton of people swarming the ferry to get on when it arrives. i sleep the whole 2 hour ride to the island on the deck of the boat. thankfully its cloudy today.

--ko phi phi--
friday, august 2nd? - 6 pm arrive and head for the lux guesthouse to get a room. 300 baht a night for a fan room with toilet and shower. but no hot water as usual of course. but im getting used to that and almost prefer it in this heat. get ready and take my groggy tired self to work at 7:30. the bar is pretty cool and so are the people. work with A, the owners son and a muay tai trainer, sao the cashier, and 'bang'(thats his name apparently), a local bartender, and brandon (snakebite as the locals call him because he got bit by one). so the deal is 500 baht a night(enought to pay for my room and food) and all the free drinks i can handle each night. ha ha. and there are some pretty cool staged thai boxing matches downstairs as well.
after a fun night at work and making a bunch of 'buckets' of booze that we serve, i head to a few beach bars with jennifer, an english girl from work.  and after bar hoppin and gettin a bite to eat at one of the streetside grills the first night we end up at a local thai house with about 6 thais hittin the bamboo water pipe for a bit. they are pretty cool but they get a bit too rowdy after a while, some playin guitar while others swing knives around and slap each other with the dull edge of the blade. all the while saying 'dont worry, be happy, ha ha ha ha'. so needless to say we end up headin back to the beach bars before long. ha ha

the second night there are some pretty wild beach parties around. people doing flaming jumproping and limboing under a pole thats on fire as well. and wasted people stumblin around all over the place. but the island seems pretty cool so far. there are no cars or anything on the island. just narrow cobblestone streets with a fair mix of locals and tourists. and the beaches and surrounding cliffs are beautiful. might try to do some scuba diving and rock climbing while im here. maybe even get some muay tai lessons too.
i think its august 10th now, a sunday. been here on phi phi don for maybe about 10 days or so. and since i wrote the last entry on the second night i spent the following week working every night and partying with a bunch of different friends ive made along the way. about 15 people i met on long beach on perhentian island all ended up here during the week so spent some time hangin with them. dave, padi, alex, leah, and a few others i hung out with a lot included. and also been hangin out a lot with moon and nate, a couple of other english friends i met on long beach. and we have all been having a hell of a good time.
i think its been too much fun at this point actually. or too much partying at least. ha ha. the bar i work at has had night after night of muay tai fights, free bucket and shot giveaways, and one night they had a ladyboy cabaret which was quite a sight to see. ha ha. and there are a few that work as cocktail servers at the bar and ive seen a few too many drunk and unknowing guys making out with them. ha ha. so you start to look at all the local girls as a possible man. ha ha ha.
and every night the whole staff spends some time out front on the walkpath handing out flyers and trying to promote the bar and bring people in. thats a pretty common thing with all the bars around here as well. so you get used to people constantly shoving flyers in your face while you walk.
spent a few nights goin shot for shot with some of the tourists that came in to the bar. drinkin flaming b52 shots and tequilas and whatever else we could think of. ha. than everybody goes on the stage and dances their asses off until 2 am when we close and everybody heads to the beach bars to watch the fire dancer shows and all that. there are a lot of extremely talented fire dancers here too. they spin flaming bow staffs and chains around like crazy while dancing to the music all night long. some will even throw the chain or staff a good 40 or 50 feet in the air and catch it or throw it 100 feet down the beach to each other. got a ton of pics and videos of all this of course. also had a night where a bunch of us painted our faces like tigers and took the pack out tearin through the food at the streetside vendors and than to the beach. haha

but after more than a week of nights like this and days of chillin on the beach in a daze i decided to take a break. so went one day rock climbing the tonsai towers, the limestone cliffs overlooking the beach. nate and moon and i went with theep, the instructor from a company called spidermonkey where theep, naomi, and noi do a great job of taking care of and teaching their students. and we had a blast that day as well! first theep would show us how its done and clamber up the rock face like a spidermonkey of course. and set up the belaying ropes for us. than he would let us belay each other as we did our best to make it to the top, about 25 meters, or around 80 feet maybe, above the beach. and the view from the top was amazing!
and after starting with a 5a rated climb and working our way up to a 6a+ rating on the thai rating scale i think i found a new hobby! i had an awesome time. managed to snap a few cliffhanger poses on camera as well. ha ha. finished the day with some goofin off climbing long vines or roots that were hanging from the cliff and than chilling in a hammock before heading back to town. i am now really excited to find some new spots to climb. i hear there are some places in chang mai and vang vieng. and of course there are many places back in the states that are different styles as well.

spent friday night partyin with some english guys at the beach bars chuggin down buckets of booze and playin pool before heading back to town. stopped along the way to have a shot put contest with some bricks we found on the street. and than fough over who would be the one to ride in the wheelbarrow we found. ha ha. than it was off to 7-11 for 20 baht chicken burgers at 6 in the morning. ha ha. what a great idea the night before i have to start scuba diving at 9 in the morning. ha
and the next day started my 3 day open water scuba diving course. costs about 12,700 baht or roughly 400 us dollars. there are places, such as ko tao, where you can get it considerably cheaper but i was on phi phi for so long and had the chance to pretty much have my own instructor so i went for it. my instructor is mitchel from princess divers, a swedish guy that also worked at the bar where i worked. the class is small, which is really nice, just about 2 students per instructor. and this course will get me my open water padi, or license, so i can rent gear and go whenever i want. and so far its been a very strange experience. the first day i watched a bunch of videos and than we went to the beach to practice some skills. removing and replacing the mask and regulator underwater, removing and replacing the entire BCD and air tank and all under water, buoyancy control, and emergency situations. the visibility was terrible and the fact that i could only see about a meter in front of my face made the experience very eerie and awkward.

but by the second day, even though i was very close to being sea sick while on the boat, was much better. once we got into the open water and had some decent visibility it was much nicer. and it was a lot more enjoyable since were spent more time exploring the coral and marine life instead of doing skills. its such a wierd feeling though being 'neutrally buoyant' as they call it. you just float along suspended like an astronaut. and each breath in or out can affect your depth. and dont forget to equalize! it was so cool to swim along with the turtles and other assorted marine life. saw banded sea snakes, frogfish, cuttlefish, scorpion fish, puffer fish, mantis shrimp, magnificent slug, batfish, clownfish(nemo), triggerfish, giant moray eels, and a bunch of others as well. except at one point we did some skills at the bottom and there were these bastard little moon wrasse fish biting my legs where my sunburn was peeling. ha.
we ended up at some points down to about 15 to 18 meters beneath the surface swimming through passages of coral and schools of fish. also had lunch on the boat in maya bay, which is the bay at the beach on ko phi phi ley where they filmed the movie so that was cool to see. we also did a dive at coral table city near the island bida nok, than another in malong bay, by phi phi ley. now its back to more studying for the exam tomorrow. i have to be there at 7:30 in the morning again. and i thought i was on vacation! ha ha.
some other things i should mention are that the beach on the loh dolom side is gorgeous! knee deep water for about 50 meters out and NO waves. its amazing. the shape of the island keeps the beach so enclosed its great. and the sunset is beautiful from the beach and from the viewpoint that is up in the hill on one side of the island and overlooks the whole isthmus and both beaches.

also, i have gotten into the habit of drinking these phenomenal fresh fruit shakes that they serve all over the place around here. and they also have a drink called lassi, which is a fruit shake with yogurt. most cost from 30 to 60 baht and are spectacular!
have had the chance to try some great, and some terrible, foods so far as well. made the mistake at a bar called breakers of having the burger. and it was like chewing on rubber. i think thats the last burger i may have (other than the occasional big mac when neccessary) while in southeast asia. better to stick with the sweet and sour chicken, pad thai, and other rice and noodle based dishes that are local and therefore made very well. and the occasional king fish or barracuda at garlic house restaurant. and of course cant go wrong with breakfast at my usual spot where they have a nice american style breakfast. because although im all for eating the local foods, breakfast is not a meal to mess with. ha ha.

last day of scuba diving was great! took a tablet to be sure i didnt get seasick. both dives took us down to about 18+ meters. it was just me and my instructor/friend mitchel in our group this time so we were able to explore a bit easier without worryin about keepin everybody together. finished the last of my skills tests on the first dive at coral table city near bida nok island. had to do the test where i take my goggles all the way off and open my eyes while trying to breath through my mouth but not nose before putting it back on and clearing the water out. a bit tricky at first. not one of my favorite tests. ha. than checked out the artificial coral reef and found a bunch of nemos as well as batfish and others as well.
second dive was in an area that i cant recall the name of at the moment so i will update it later. it was a spot where there are supposed to be a lot of leopard sharks and other sharks. we didnt find any unfortunately though. so we failed mission priority 1 and mitchel owes me a beer. ha ha. but it was a great dive anyway. saw a lot of other cool marine life. much of the same as the previous day and a few others as well. the huge walls of coral that we swam around were quite impressive though. and so full of life! we had a nice dive just wandering around and through these walls of coral. and it was also fun because i was getting more and more comfortable with my buoyancy control and maneuverability.

than it was back home to take the exam, which i passed, before heading to work. spent a short while helping out at work before i decided to say my goodbyes to the staff so that i could leave the following day. i was sad to leave since it started to feel like home very quickly with everyone being so nice and quick to befriend me. but there is a lot i still have to see. so i left to get a nice dinner of pad tai at a local restaurant, and a fresh fruit lassi of course. ha ha. than went out with nate, moon, and the guys to get some fried chicken from a streetside grill, very cultural food. ha ha. than off to check out the beach bars for the last time. had a great time and a late night watchin the fire shows and partyin with a bunch of other people we met. took some hilarious photos as well.
next day woke up and rushed to get ready and catch my boat. had to pay a late check out fee for leaving at almost 1 pm and rushed to have my usual breakfast before getting my boat ticket to railey for 390 baht. than to get my PADI from the scuba place and have a fruit shake with phill and mitchel while i filled out my scuba dive log book. picked up nate and moons cliffjumping dvd for them and headed for the boat at around 3 pm. nate got bit by a monkey while on this trip as well which makes the dvd all the more priceless. ha ha

--railey beaches and ao nang area--
tuesday, august 12th - one and a half hours of sleep on the aircon ferry was so nice and than woke up to the towering limestone cliffs of railey beach. arrived at around 5 or so in the evening. had to hop into a longtail boat to get to shore as is usually the case with a lot of beach towns. arrived on the east railey side where the 'beach' isnt really a beach at all. had to trudge through the murky and rocky water 30 paces to the shore from the longtail boat. walked to the first reception desk which happened to be Ya-Ya's hotel and restaurant to decide what to do and right away started making friends. 3 french girls that were there decided to try there luck walking along the water with all there gear to find cheap accomodation with only frustration and disappointment as their reward. i chose to sit and have a mixed fruit lassi with liam, an australian friend of mine that i met there at the reception. two others, elyse from brazil and wybe from the netherlands, left their packs with liam and went ahead to scout out the best accomodation. after an hour of waiting they returned and told us all about how they managed to get lost in the jungle somehow. ha ha.

so liam and i made our way to the diamond cave resort and found rooms with 2 double beds and private toilet and hot shower for 400 baht per night. pretty sweet find compared to the competition in the area. had a real nice pool and everything too. so we went back for the others and our bags and then went to chill in the pool for a bit. than our for our own form of buffet at the resorts restaurant choosing an assortment of dishes to split between the four of us. than topped it off with a few singha beers. afterwards we went exploring the island a bit and found our way to the west railey beach about a 10 minute walk away. sat on the gorgeous west beach for an evening drink between the moonlit silhouettes of the surrounding limestone cliffs. than got ourselves lost in the woods for the better part of an hour before finding our way back to our resort. ha ha.
up early next morning to take a longtail boat to ao nang beach. and luckily for me i thought to put my camera and wallet in my backpack before stepping out of the boat at ao nang because a wave came and got me soaked up to my thighs. ha. and after changing into my bathing suit i decided to spend the rest of my longtail journeys in swim shorts and flip flops. ha. than we each rented a motorbike for 150 baht for the day and headed our for breakfast. but before we could leave the rental shop elyse dropped her motorbike to the pavement upon pulling out of the shops lot. thankfully she wasnt hurt physically but her wallet would be hurting later when she returned the damaged bike and had to pay 800 baht for the repairs.

than went ahead and spent the next 8 hours or so racing all over town and the surrounding area. got lost several times along the way of course. and just barely slowed down from 110 km/hour before speeding past a couple of cops. ha ha. ended up managing to find the tiger temple where we made the climb up 1237 steps to the enormous buddha statue at the top of the mountain. and they were abnormally big and steep steps as well. but even despite the snarling babboons at the base and the tiring climb it was worth it. rang the bell and lit some prayer candles and headed back down. grabbed a vitamilk, milo, ice cream cone, and snickers (some of my favorite new things) to get my energy back and off we were. ha ha. but not before making a small donation of 20 baht to the cause of a new bell being put into the temple that will supposedly have all the donors names engraved into the inside of it. got a nice bracelet for it as well.
after climbing all those stairs and driving around in the hot sun getting sunburned we were ecstatic about getting to the huoy toh waterfalls in the national park nearby. enjoyed a real nice and refreshing swim in the cold water under the falls. was only 100 baht to enter the park too so it wasnt too bad. than got lost again on our way back on the dark streets to the beach. and after arguing about the damaged bike went hunting for a boat back to railey. finally ran across an english guy with his ladyboy friend (which wybe went picture crazy over. ha ha.) to share a tuk tuk ride with us to some dark sketchy boat dock where we found a longtail boat back to railey for 150 baht each person.

than it was out for dinner at our new fave spot at the end of the 'beach' near our resort. i had some amazing deep fried barracuda with rice for only 120 baht. which i liked so much i had it again the next night. and my mixed fruit lassi of course. than a few singha beers before heading into the jungle to a bar called jungle grass to watch some thai boxing match for a bit. than off to stone bar for a few relaxing cocktails on one of the incredibly common lounges that you find on the beaches in this area. a table in the middle surrounded by pillows and cushions.
next day spent the day hiking/jogging on my own through the jungle to check out tonsai beach and the viewpoint there. very beautiful and peaceful beach there. and found some adorable kittens playing in the sand near the restaurant i went to for some phad thai before heading back to railey through a beachside jungle trail. found wybe on the beach and rented a 2 person kayak for 300 baht for 2 hours. paddled around the bend to explore phranang beach. watched the sun set with a couple of nice italian girls we met on the beach and than went back to find liam and allie(and american friend of his) and go for dinner. than relaxed at another lounge drinking singha and chang beers and smoking shisha with T and several others we met for the rest of the night.

-- ko pha ngan--
friday, august 15th - than on to ko pha ngan for the full moon experience.... so now i will do my best to piece together what i can from the full moon weekend. ha ha. i first spent an entire day traveling by boat and bus from railey to ko pha ngan which cost about 600 baht after shopping and haggling around. part of which i hung out with liam and wybe. but at one of the transfers we parted ways and i spent some time hanging out with the italian girls, victoria and diana, that i met on phranang. also chatted with hilary and jillian from canada for a bit along the way. stopped for lunch at a local spot where they apparently constantly play jackass movies for the passing tourists, even though they skip the really raunchy scenes. ha ha. after the bus reached surrat thani on the east coast we got on a slow ferry to the island which took about 2 and half hours. enjoyed a nice sunset while the almost full moon was visible high in the sky. only down side was that sitting on the upper deck resulted in ruining my white swim shorts by staining them with soot from the smoke stacks. there were crowds of kids up there actually covered in the stuff.

by this point we were covered in stickers from all the stops along the way labeling where we were going as if we were ups packages being shipped or something. ha ha. than we were herded onto the backs of these converted pickup truck taxis and taken about 30 minutes to the full moon beach area. about 100  baht per person i think it was. met some really nice people along the ride including francis from england and chatted to pass the time. the driver was completely nuts as usual though racing up and down the windy and hilly roads tossing us about in the back. arrived in haad rin and found my way to coco huts on leela beach where my english friends, nate and moon, were staying by around 8 pm.
finally arrive at the resort to find that it is amazing! the room is basic two bed room with fan and shared bathroom for 600 baht. but it is directly on leela beach where there are hardly any people and the sunsets are breathtaking. and the pool overlooking the beach is gorgeous as well as the great movie lounges all over the resort.
lucky for me i go knocking on my friends door to find no answer and have know way of knowing where they are. sweet! ha ha. so after half hour of sitting there i was about ready to stash my bags somewhere and head to the party when the whole crew (nate, moon, john, bav, rob, andy) all stroll up with two massive buckets of booze ready to party. the buckets are probably about 3 gallon buckets and they come with a 750 ml bottle of sang som rum, a case of full strength red bull (the kind too strong to get in the states), and a liter of cola. and each bucket was only 500 baht. what a steal.

so we start the night off with some rounds of kings(or sociable, ring of fire, whatever you want to call it) which consists of pretty much chugging both buckets down between the 6 of us, since andy was drinkin beers. and than out to full moon beach for the full moon eve party. wild night. i bought a bucket at a store in the beginning of the night and the cashier actually gave me a pack of mentos as part of my change because she didnt have small enough coins to give. ha ha. had a hell of a laugh playing the color game and getting pics taken with all sorts of people for a bit of it. at one point we see a bunch of people trying to climb this bamboo pole and falling so i figure ill give it a shot. big mistake. i clamber right up to the top, about 15 or 20 feet up, in no time at all before it starts to sway a bit to much for comfort. and just as im waiting for it to bounce back i hear a loud 'crack!!' and down i go. timber!! i crash to the sand in the middle of a crowd of dancing people. ha ha ha. its only than, as a group of thais swarm around yelling, that we notice it was actually a light post and now they want to take me to the police box! well, to make a long story short, it took us about half hour of arguing, bargaining, and almost brawling to settle this thing. literally the one thai guy took a swing at rob (who happens to be an MMA fighter back home from what im told) and rob just leaned back from it and shook his finger 'no' in the guys face. ha ha ha. funniest thing ever. but thanks to the help of my friends we got the hell out of there without any real trouble. but no more unofficial climbing challenges for tarzan here. ha.

so before we know it its 8 am and were crashin out at our rooms, with me on the floor since we dont have enough beds. ha. spent the next day with the lot of us takin a trip up to mellow mountain for some happy shakes before headin back to chill in the pool for the rest of the day. and man was that pool great! ha ha. and so was the constant entertainment of bav. according to him moving felt very new and he wasnt afraid to show it. ha ha. especially when he continued to make funny faces as he got lost trying to get out of the pool. ha ha ha. we all love you bav. ha. than watched an absolutely gorgeous feiry red sunset right as hil and jil, the canadian girls from the trip here, arrived to join us for a swim. than we all enjoyed fresh 300 grams of shark each for 200 baht i think it was at a local restaurant at the end of the road.

than it was time for more rounds of kings before heading out to full moon party at the beach. and what a party it was. totally insane. so many people on the beach you could hardly walk, and definitely couldnt find your friends again once you lost them after the first couple of minutes there. just a mass of wasted people dancing all over the place with not a concern in the world, or even an awareness of the world. ha. played rock, paper, scissors to down a couple strong buckets with rob before having ourselves body painted by some random people on the beach. before long it was 4 pm the next day and i was finally making my way back to our resort pool to meet the guys, without my flip flops or shirt though. and rob without his camera. now i know why everybody warns you not to bring or wear anything of value or that you care about to that party.

so moon, nate, and i spent the next couple of days just lounging in paradise by our pool by day and watching dvds in the movie area by night. eating the best chicken schnitzel sandwiches in the world every afternoon at the neighboring resort. and than having pizza or pasta or phad thai in town for dinner with jill and hil. went 'drinking with rambo' one evening with the five of us. which was basically chugging down drinks for each kill while watching stallone eradicate whole armies in the new rambo flick. than out for a hilariously fun night of  smoking sheesha and munchin on fried chicken and dancing on the beach till the sun came up. although the fried chicken lost its appeal when one of the girls unknowingly bit into a whole chicken neck with head and all. ha ha. and it was moons turn to be babysat that night as well. than it was back to sleep on my new air mattress (a raft i bought for 150 baht. ha ha.)

spent the last night on ko pha ngan relaxing and watching movies again but no drinking for us. by this time we had seen wild hogs, rambo, kingdom, and several others including the guys cliffjumping video where nate got bit on his head by a monkey. ha ha. he has been receiving regular rabies shots since than, and thats no joke. ha. so i finally got onto a nice little weight set they had set up outside at the resort next to ours which felt great to finally do. but than i had some bad pork for dinner and have been feeling ill since. feels like my stomach will never be the same. ha. so ive decided to swear off pork for the rest of the trip. ha.
next stops were to be bangkok and chang mai.....
got myself a ticket to bangkok for 900 baht and hopped on the ferry i think on wednesday morning. losing such track of days lately, especially with all the overnight buses and everything. after being herded onto the ferry i met some cool people to chill with for the ride. a kid from canada by the name of shawn that i ended up travelin with a little bit. and than there was the australian hunter s thompson duo offerin up the uppers, downers, and endless beer changs. ha ha. spent the 2 or 3 hour boat ride havin a laugh with those guys. than it was off to the overnight bus. looooong damn ride that was.


--bangkok--
arrived bangkok around 6 am and got a sweet air con room with hot shower at the rambuttri village inn near kao san road for 450 baht a night and spent the day resting so my stomach would get better. than hunted down a BK since it was all i could handle at the time and felt much better afterwards. ha ha. did some haggling in the kao san markets including a pair of swim shorts for 180 baht (about 6 dollars). not too bad. and in this heat swim shorts become the favorite shorts to wear because they are so lightweight. saw a few sights in the area and met up with john and andy for a while. next day hit up the rooftop pool at my hotel for a bit, pretty sweet, and shared party stories with a few english girls before catchin my overnight bus to chang mai(500 baht) at around 6 pm. bumped into shawn again when i got there and spent most of the ride hangin out with him and three really cool english girls we met(beulla, caroline and one other).

--chang mai--
chang mai is a pretty nice city, and if you look around a bit you can find a lot of really interesting stuff to do. shawn and i got an air con room with hot shower, two beds, and cable tv(on which we happened to catch an episode of the Mr. T cartoon. ha ha). at panda guest house for 400 baht. explored the old town a bit and had some beers before heading to the thai boxing stadium(400 baht a seat). checked out the night market on the way where the vendors will bargain down the price as far as it takes to get you to buy something. the thai boxing was cool. 6 fights and a lot of action. but way too many ladyboys in the damn stadium, it was overrun with them. ha ha. the fighters were surprising though. they were from age 15 to 20 and weighed 105 to 120 lbs. doesnt sound like much but they didnt look that young or light and they kicked the crap out of each other. than out for drinks with the english girls at the THC rooftop bar.

--pai--
pai is one of my favorite cities so far. a beautiful little town way up in the mountains. nice restaurants, great lounge bars and even a few clubs. spent one day motorbiking all over the countryside which was gorgeous. saw lots of rice paddies and banana trees. ancient village, chinese village, some crazy dirt trails where we almost wiped out, awesome mountain roads, and a great view at pai canyon. and only 100 baht for 24 hours. stayed one night at breezes pai for 250 baht two bed room with hot shower. nice place. another night at abodaya where we got the same deal but ended up waking up to a swarm of hundreds of wasps comin in through the bathroom somehow. than there were the mass amounts of ants carrying away all the wasps that we killed. so that was nice. ha.

went on an phenomenal 2 day white water rafting trip with pai adventures. i went with shawn, marty and jeanette(a really cool canadian couple i met when i walked across the border from malaysia a few weeks ago), sabrina and mona(two very sweet girls from switzerland), and sam and sara( a nice couple from england and australia). 2000 baht per person includes delicious meals and a night at a jungle camp on the river and a very scenic and insanely bumpy ride to the put in point. ha. the guides, jacko, jacka, and rudy, were awesome. really nice and incredibly funny and entertaining. went to a waterfall with a natural waterslide. went to some hot springs where we had a huge mud fight. cliff jumped some 9 meter cliffs into the river. and went through endless dense jungle full of lush vegetation and gorgeous mountains and cliffs and not a single other person or village or anything almost the whole way. rapids were up to class 4+ and a blast to go through. went over huge drop offs and in between big rocks and got tossed all over the place along the way. than at the end we all jumped out and floated down the last few kilometers of rapids and river in our lifejackets.
had some fun nights out with the group of us at phu pai, ting tong, bebop, and other bars. and by this point weve all gotten used to wearing flip flops nonstop and having to take them off at the door to almost every bar and store that we go to. also ran into inga, lena, and sabrina from germany who came out with us as well. and cant forget the late night chicken burger and leo beer runs to 7-11. ha ha. also starting to notice an abundance of dogs wandering the streets all over the place. some of which look extremely sickly and sketchy. its very different in the northern areas than it is in some areas in the south and in malaysia where its cats that you see everywhere.

than it was the 28th before i knew it and time to run for the border of laos before my visa runs out on the 29th. took a bus to chang mai where marty, jeanette and i parted ways with shawn and headed to chang khong to spend one night there. 120 baht a night for a single room by the river at binramtaling guest house. free ride to the border from our host where we caught a longtail across the mekong to laos.

___laos___
8600 kip =  1 usd

--huay xai--
pay 35 usd for my 30 day visa on the laos side of the river. dollars are cheapest way to pay for the visa. and its more for canadians. that means you marty. ha ha. than catch a tuk tuk to an atm, a snack shop, and than the slow boat with 2 couples i met in chang khong the night before. chris(coldplay. ha) and lauren from georgia, and ralph and marina from england. 250000(about 30 usd) kip for the 2 day trip to luang prabang. we might have got a bad price though. spent the next two days floatin down the mekong mostly reading, napping, and enjoying the scenery. nice scenery along the way and some stops at villages to pick up or let off locals. got swarmed by kids selling snacks out of baskets at one stop while the parents watched from the shore. great sunsets and rises over the river.

--pak beng--
spent one night at a nice new white hotel(cant remember the name) just up the road from the peir on the left. 35000 kip, or 4 usd, a night for private room with hot shower and a great view of the mekong. dinner at a nice indian restaurant. chicken tikka. and some delicious beer laos for only 10000 kip for a 22.5 ounce bottle. pretty sweet deal and a damn good beer that i will end up drinking a ton of while in laos. ha. than the power shuts down in the entire town at 10:30 pm. so suddenly the whole place goes pitch black and chris, lauren and i are left with nothing but candlelight at our table on the balcony of our hotel.

--luang prabang--
the area of the city near the port on the mekong river is great. very nice friendly spot with attractive architecture and a laid back vibe. get to luang prabang on saturday, august 30th. just in time to see the locals pulling a bunch of long decorated boats out of the river in teams and pushing them up the street. it was the end of the dragon boat races. got ourselves a couple of rooms at the view khem kep guesthouse. 50000 kip for a single room with hot shower. than out for some great laos style dinner at a place on the river. followed up by a few glasses of lao loa rice whiskey. than off in a tuk tuk with chris and lauren to go to daofa night club. this place was crammed with motorbikes out front like some kind of moped biker club. ha ha. and we were almost the only falangs(foreigners) in the place. and we were probably the tallest and oldest as well. ha ha. had some fun dancin the night away with some locals though and drinkin beer lao on ice. than our tuk tuk took us to the bowling alley when the club closed a little after 12. the place was packed so we had a few beers and got a laugh from the other foreigners flirtin it up with a bunch of ladyboys. haha. and the tuk tuk cost us about 80000 kip for all of us for the whole night which was a bit much in terms of kip but a great deal in terms of dollars. the other nights were a bit more tame than that with some nice local dishes for dinner and...

when we werent going to clubs or chillin at restaurants drinkin beer lao we spent a bit of our time in luang prabang exploring some waterfalls in the area. one day the 7 of us(chris, lauren, ralph, marina, kevin and aideen) got a tuk tuk(basically a three wheeled motorbike taxi) to the kwong si falls, the biggest one in the area and quite impressive. checked out the lao blackbear sanctuary on the way and then hiked up level by level to the top of the falls. then finished it off with a jump from a tree above the swimming area to cool off. another day we rented some RICKETY old bikes (mine was spraypainted and had stickers of the pepsi and honda logos on it where the brand name should have been.) for about 20000 kip(just over 2usd) each to cruise around on for the day. so the gang of us biked out of town to the tad thong falls which happened to be down a very long bumpy dirt road. and did i mention the bikes were rickety? well a few of us had chains that kept falling off and i also had handlebars that were sliding all over the place too. what a surprise from my late model pepsi/honda brand bicycle. ha. so it was an interesting ride to say the least. shortly after we arrived we checked out several levels of the falls as we hiked to the main one. the first one we swam in had an audience of locals staring and photographing us. i guess these falls were off the beaten path a bit. or maybe they just liked the white girls in bikinis. ha ha. and when we got to the main falls chris and i climbed straight up the falls through the rushing water to the top which was really cool. we also trekked up into the jungle a bit but it was practically a mudslide and so overgrown we didnt bother to go very far.

then ralph, marina, chris, lauren, and i took a minibus to vang vieng. and the scenery along this insanely windy mountain road was absolutely breathtaking. for most of the way the road is practically right on the peak of the mountain with sprawling views of the valleys on both sides as we passed through small scattered villages perched on the hillsides. part way through the trip we picked up a local couple who spiced things up a bit by throwing up in shopping bags the whole way and tossing the bags out the window like grenades onto the side of the road. by this time it had already become very apparent that most lao people arent very concerned with the environment. many of them toss trash into rivers and on sides of roads as if nature was created to be a garbage can. this couples sickness was so intense that it had us all worrying for a while that we might end up catching some crazy foreign airborne virus or something. luckily it turned out to just be a horrible case of carsickness, which the locals here seem to constantly be getting on some of the longer bus rides. although im sure it doesnt help that the drivers are all insane and the roads terribly maintained, if at all. but anyway, this trip took about 5 hours or so i think.

 

-- vang vieng--

vang vieng is a small but lively town surrounded by spectacular countryside and limestone cliffs. upon arrival we hopped in a tuk tuk to the city center to look for accomodation, which we spent the next several hours doing before we finally decided on something. the place is just loaded with hotels. chris and lauren decided to splurge and spend 20 dollars on a palace of a room for the night. i ended up spending an exhausting amount of time searching for the best deal and spot and finally settled at the malany guesthouse right in the center of town for about 60000 kip(about 7 usd) a night for a fan room with hot shower(even though the water pressure was practically non-existent. when i complained, the guy at the desk actually held the shower nozzle about a foot off the floor and said,"see, the water works." and i was like,"yea, but i dont really feel like laying on the floor to shower. why doesnt it work when its at normal height?"). it was a great location though and had real nice balconies to hang out on on each floor. than we all met up in town and got drunk of course, finishing the night at the bucket bar on the river and then getting some heavenly chocolate banana pancakes from the street vendors for a dollar or so.

 

next day woke up just in time to run down to the tubing place to meet everyone and rent our tubes. cost about 55000 kip(about 6.50 usd) for the whole day. then piled into a tuk tuk with jay and jay from england and a bunch of others and went to the drop off point to begin the total insanity that is tubing in vang vieng. during the drive the tuk tuk is so crowded that im left standing on the back bumper holding on for dear life with one hand while enjoying the best damn ham and egg sandwich of my life with the other. so basically this event consists of tubing down the river from bar to bar drinking loads of beer lao and lao lao whiskey buckets at each of the 8 to 10 different bars along the river. the first 4 or 5 of which are within the first quarter mile stretch of river you're on. so we hardly even got into the water before we were being pulled out at the first bar. and thats only because we didnt count the one that was right at the drop off point.

at each bar you get to they throw you a stick or rope and pull you in, or swim out to drag you in.
and at each of these bars you can, and probably will, climb a sketchy wood plank ladder high into a tree and then walk the plank out to an insanely huge rope swing that leaves you soaring into the river from as much as maybe 40 feet in the air. we all had a blast doing backflips and stuff from these, except marina of course. she had a habit of climbing to the jump off point at waterfalls and rope swings where she would stay forever before finally deciding she wasnt going to jump. ha ha. others have ziplines which are also fun, as long as you dont dislocate your shoulder when you hold on too long and get jolted and tossed off by the knot at the end of the rope, leaving you somersaulting into the water. and one has an enormous cement waterslide that wasnt finished when we were there. i can only imagine how disastrous, and fun, that may be once its completed.
one bar has a big mud pit with a volleyball net in it that everyone goes crazy for. especially the topless girls rolling around in the mud and than hosing themselves down like their filming a porno. ha ha. and we ended up making friends with a bunch of people and playing hilarious drinking games and doing 'dentist chairs', which is where you sit back and open wide while they pour whiskey and beer in your mouth at the same time. yum. and than you get to a bar where they offer all the 'special menu' items. happy shakes and whatever other concoctions you can dream up. after that, of course, is when it gets real interesting. that also happens to be around the time that it gets dark and everyone ends up floating down river trying to hold on to each others tubes until they find their way back to town, if they find their way back. some people end up getting out at the wrong spot and wandering through woods and fields until they find a road and flag someone down to drive them back to town. others go too far and someone from town has to go find and retrieve them, if they are lucky. i heard something about one guy trying to tube to vientiane. ha ha. and the real lucky ones find their way back to town on the river, where there are usually little local kids standing in the dark in the river waiting to pull you out so they can ask you for money. at this point there are about 5 different bars right on the river in town to finish you off if you havent had enough yet. one friend described it as being like disneyland at first, than suddenly its apocalypse now. ha ha. and this goes on every day. so you always see people stumbling around town at night in their swim suits wasted out of their minds. 

 

than there are also the 'special' bars in town to keep you busy if you dont make it to the river that day. and almost every restaurant is playing endless reruns of family guy, friends, or just movies all day and night. so aside from all that i spent one of the 6 days i was there bicycling in the countryside and doing some caving and swimming in a lagoon with jay and jay and some others we met along the way.

so after 6 days of being sucked into the madness i got a bus outta there. took a 4 hour bus ride to vientiane where i caught an overnight bus to hanoi, vietnam. total for the trip from vang vieng to hanoi cost about 220000 kip(about 25 usd). and the overnight bus took about 24 hours on a stuffy, jam packed bus with seats that hardly even recline. a very cozy ride for sure. ha ha. and the first half of the trip is on the usual narrow, windy, bumpy, not so well maintained roads of laos. not to mention the weak stomached locals throwing up all the way. there were actually only about 6 tourists on the bus. but i somehow managed to sleep most of the way anyway. and for some strange reason you get to the border at around 2:30 in the morning and spend 4 hours sleeping in the bus waiting for it to open.

 

__ vietnam __

-- 16500 dong = 1 usd -- 

 

september 9th. so after spending the night waiting in that cozy little bus of ours we were up at the crack of dawn getting ready to go through customs and all. which was like opening day at the races or something, people swarming the customs window shoving their passports through the crowd at the officials on the other side. than after a considerable wait everyone has to pay an extra dollar to get their passports back, the first of many lovely scams in vietnam. than as we walk out of the border area a guard does a final check and when it comes to me he points to where it says america on my passport and looks at me with a questioning look as if asking if its true or something. and when i say yes he looks at me like im some kind of nutjob and waves me along. and than right next to our bus is a row of women selling goods such as live eel, which they have a whole tub of, or live chickens, which they have a whole basket of that people are just reaching into and pullin the little guys out by their legs to buy.

 

--- hanoi ---

than its on for about 8 more hours on the bus up through vast rice paddies and french colonial style villages to hanoi. when we arrive they drop us in what seems like the middle of nowhere in town where we get bombarded with taxi and moto drivers offering rides. we finally work out a deal with one for the 6 of  us to get to the old quarter area for about a dollar each. at this point i have grouped up with jo and jo(two girls from england), rob from england, and anto and jay from ireland.

when we get to the old quarter the streets are PACKED with people and street vendors everywhere. it turns out that it is the time of the mid autumn festival which is kind of like a street carnival. stuffed animals, balloons, toys, and all sorts of other stuff. and its shoulder to shoulder with people while motorbikes squeeze their way  through beeping their horns endlessly. and its loaded with pickpockets of course as well. one of the girls we met had her purse slashed and her camera stolen out of it without even having any idea it happened until later on. 

 

so we ended up finding a decent room at the old quarter hotel for 10 dollars(165000 dong) a night for two beds, cable tv, hot shower, aircon, and balcony. than we head out to fight our way down the streets to find some good grub and go for a drink. afterwards rob and i go in search of a good bar to have a drink at but find only a few empty bars in the area. and by the time we found any of the bars the cops were already shutting them down. according to what we're told in hanoi the bars close at around midnight but some will do lockins to keep people drinkin. but sometimes the cops will notice and stop by to throw everyone out. so we stop in a playstation 3 soccer game bar for a few quick games before getting lost walking in circles around town trying to find our hotel. what we didnt count on was that everything closes so early and all the store lights go out and the shops securtity doors close so everything looks completely different at night. but we managed to find it eventually.

 

after chatting with our very hospitable host, dean, at our hotel, rob and i headed out to do some site seeing. but spent the first hour getting lost trying to find some decent breakfast. it was hard to find a place that served breakfast at first, and a few we found that did serve it were not so sly about giving us foreigner priced menus which we werent so thrilled about. so after we got some food and reoriented ourselves we headed toward hoan kiem lake. on the way we noticed a lot of women carrying long sticks over their shoulders with baskets hanging from each end filled with goods for sale and wearing the traditional cone shaped hats. some of which will follow you down the street hounding you to buy something, others will even knock on restaurant windows or walk inside to try to sell while you are sitting down having a meal. i ended up buying a hat with the vietnamese star on it for 30000 dong(about 2 usd). 

 

so we ended up checking out the temple and island on hoan kiem lake where we spotted some locals sneakily catching turtles to sell on the streets. than took a cyclo(a three wheel bicycle where you sit in a seat on the front and the driver pedals at the back) to st josephs cathedral. than on to hoa lo prison, or the 'hanoi hilton' as the locals call it. this is the prison that was first used by the french to imprison the vietnamese and than later by the vietnamese to imprison american POWs, including john mccain. than on to one of the pagodas in the area before gettin some dinner at one of the rooftop restaurants. afterwards we got tickets to the water puppet show(40000 dong/ about 2.50 usd) that is a well known traditional show with, of course, puppets on the water, acting out scenes of things such as fishing and dancing and animals doing their mating dance. all while the band plays beautiful music on their traditional string instruments. interesting show for sure. than we crammed three of us on a motorbike taxi to zip through traffic back to our hotel.

 

-- halong bay--

next day rob, jay, anto, and i, along with about 12 others, took a tour to halong bay where our tour guide, inh(or ana for here western name), did a great job of showing us around and telling us all about the bay. in the two days there we ate some quality seafood meals, sunbathed on the roof of the boat, explored caves on one of the islands, and visited floating fishing villages. we also went kayaking the second morning around the bay and through a tunnel in one of the cliffs that led into a completely enclosed pocket of water surrounded by tall cliffs all around. also spent the first evening jumping from the roof of the boat as the sun set. the roof was probably around 25 feet high and made for an exciting jump when you dive head first. but a bit painful when you do a flip and land the wrong way. i found this out when i saw stars after over rotating and smacking my face on the water. ha ha. we had to keep an eye out for jelly fish though because it was the season for them to be out in full force. one of the guys on our boat got stung when we were jumpin in.

after dinner the first night a group of us played cards and drinking games for hours on end, polishing off the two 750 ml bottles of hanoi vodka we bought for about 3.50 usd each in hanoi. also bought a few cheap local beers from one of the ladies that floats around the bay in a row boat selling beer and snacks to all the cruise boats. had a big argument with the boat operator over this at one point because he wanted to charge us a fee of 10 usd, which we refused, for bringing our own alcohol on board.

 

than it was back to hanoi so i could sort out an overnight bus heading south. bought an open sleeper bus ticket to nha trang, a beach further toward the south of the country. cost about 40 usd. and right before i left, when it was too late to get one or course, i find out that you can get a 30 gb ipod for 130 usd at a market there. so i hopped on my sleeper bus for the 12 hour ride to hue. 

 

--hue--

arrived in hue at around 8 or 9 oclock in the morning and had to wait about 4 hours for the connecting bus to hoi an. so i went into the hotel that the bus stops at to leave my bags and ran into jo and jo and another friend(some of the girls i hung out in hanoi with) and we all decided to go on a 3 hour motorbike tour for about 6 usd each. so that took us all over town and the surrounding countryside. along the way we stopped at shops where they made incense and the traditional straw hats and other things that they tried to sell us. than went on to see one of the tombs, a pagoda, and the the forbidden purple palace inside the citadel. crossed the perfume river on some super narrow lane on a bridge and passed through vast fields of cemeteries full of elaborate headstones and mausoleums.

than back just in time to catch our bus to hoi an which passed through some spectacular scenery. through tunnels and hills over bridges crossing some nice calm bay areas surrounded by small towns. this part of the trip took about 4 hours. and when we arrived and got off the bus the girls stayed there and i had to turn around and get right back on to continue on to nha trang. so another 12 hours or so more on the sleeper bus, making this trip last the entire weekend from friday evening til sunday morning without hardly stopping. and this part of the trip was during a weekend celebration so we passed through towns with the streets full of people drumming and dancing everywhere. the buses could hardly get down the streets.

 

--nha trang--

was finally freed from the bus on sunday morning sometime around 6 am or so. and of course the bus dropped us at the hotel of the drivers choice a good distance from where you want to be, either because they bribed him the most or are friends or family of his. so i made my way toward the beach, ignoring the usual bombardment of hotel promoters on motorbikes. and after getting near to the ocean i spent about an hour or more checking different hotel options. and while some had nice views and others had decent prices or rooms, i was determined to have it all. ha. and eventually i did. i found a sweet spot right near the corner intersection at the beach. got a big top floor (4th floor) room with bathtub, hot water, cable TV(not like that matters much), air con, and a nice big balcony with a great view of the ocean. and although there was no elevator the price of 12 usd (about 200,000 dong)a night for that deal was worth the climb.

 

so after i settled in i went out exploring downtown a bit and realized just how difficult it was to get around on foot when you get intercepted by what seems like an endless supply of so-called 'easy riders'. the original company made such a reputation for itself and its motorcycle tours that now every guy with a motorbike coins the term to help promote himself. and they all have books filled with supposed reviews and photos from satisfied customers that they just insist on showing to you, whether you like it or not. so after the 3rd or 4th time you can pretty much recite their whole sales pitch to them before they even open their mouth. but they dont like that too much. ha ha. needless to say, by the time i had been there a few days i knew most of them by name and used a variety of different excuses why i wasnt interested in their services. bottom line is that 50 bucks a day just didnt appeal to my backpacker budget very much.

the beach and the view from it was quite a sight. and there were plenty of lounge chairs and huts to chill at, as well as bar/restaurant resort type areas. and lining the streets for blocks from the sand were LOADS of restaurants, cafes, hotels, ocean sport shops such as dive shops, and tour and rental agencies of all sorts. there was also one really neat looking building that was made to look like a huge lotus flower steps away from the sand that they used for special events. i also stumbled upon a pretty cool, and strange, closed down amusement park full of run down rides and strange statues. i wandered around here for a bit playin on and taking photos of some of these rides and statues. then after some shopping around i rented a motorbike for a day to cruise around and check out the coastline a little. this proved to be a bit of a fun challenge, learning to navigate the mad frenzy of traffic, consisting mostly of overloaded motorbikes, weaving and intertwining going every which way all over the road. one of the locals i met told me a joke that describes it pretty well. it goes "in thailand they drive on the left side of the road. in cambodia they drive on the right. in vietnam they havent decided yet." all you need to remember is to get the heck out of the way of anything bigger then you are. ha. so it was of course a lot of fun to drive around here.

plenty more to come..