Well, I didn't end up going too far south in Thailand just yet. I went with Linda and Nick about 5 hours south of Bangkok to hang out at the beach for a few days. Unfortunately, a typhoon had swept through about a week prior so it was really windy and you definitely couldn't swim. Nevertheless, if you could ignore the prostitutes that seemed to be everywhere preying on drunken Englishmen on their way home from the bar, it was a decent time. Afterwards, Linda and I said goodbye to Nick in Bangkok and headed north to Chaing Mai for Christmas. Chaing Mai is an interesting place and I bet it was probably quite beautiful about ten years ago. It has a great night market and is easy to navigate on foot, unfortunately though, the traffic is very heavy and it is very difficult to avoid hitting cars while on a bike that has bad brakes... I sort of hit a car while trying to work my way through the fast pace traffic, falling off my bike and injuring my left foot in the process. I was on crutches the next day (which happened to be my birthday:( and have since been given several nicknames, mainly Gimpy and Cripple. I did, however, get prayed over but a very drunken Thai woman who blew on my face and placed her hands on me, trying to heal my foot. Too bad it didn't work! However, even though I was on crutches, I had a great birthday. Ivan surprised me with a birthday cake that said "Happy Birthday Christine!" It was really thoughtful and totally unexpected- it really made my day. I left Chaing Mai the following day and headed northeast to a small hippie town called Pai. I spent Christmas there with Linda and Ivan and we had a gift exchange on Christmas morning. It was really good to be able to spend Christmas with good friends- it made it just a little bit easier being away from home. Since I had pulled tendons in the arch of my foot, I thought renting a scooter would be the easiest way to see the area around Pai. So I hopped on the back of a scooter with a guy named Peter and a few others and we set off. It seemed as though I must have acquired some bad karma along my travels because as we were slowing to cross a bridge, the gears gave out and we did a fishtail on the gravel and bit it. I luckily didn't land on my hurt foot, but I did land on my knee instead. So, I with my very attractive, bloody knee and Peter with his badly skinned palm, we got back on the p.o.s and rode back to Pai. The next day, I am almost embarrassed to say we thought we would try it again with a different bike. Well, it seemed as though we were gluttons for punishment as our scooter died about an hour outside of Pai and we had to hitch a ride back to town. After all this, I decided to head back to Chaing Mai with Peter for New Year's and give the city one more chance. When I first got there, I went straight to the hospital and had x-rays of my foot and got meds, etc. When I got a "noting bwoken" I went ON A SCOOTER (I know...) with Peter and we rode around CM. We got back in one piece and that night, we went out for New Year's Eve. We were at a bar when we heard about the 3 bombings in Bangkok and bomb threats in Chaing Mai. Unnerving to say the least, but it really got bad when we heard a really loud noise and the sound of things crashing and breaking coming from the other side of the deck we were all standing on. Everyone panicked and rushed inside, but as it turns out, it wasn't a bomb but a half collapsed deck. Not safe either, but better that than the alternative. As it turns out, a couple days after I left Chaing Mai, there were several bombings too. The Thai government is really good at keeping things hush, hush though, if this is news to you.
After New Year's Eve, I took a bus to the Laos/Thailand border and got on a 2 day boat to Luang Prabang in Laos. The Mekong River was beautiful, the boat was cramped and the company good fun. Laos is a beautiful, green country, with limestone mountains that seem to jut up from nowhere. The people are friendly, always saying "Saw-wah-dee" which means hello, although, since it has only recently opened it's borders, it still has a long way to go... What I mean by that is the people of Laos (some, not all) really are just after the Farang's (white people aka white people) $, especially the police who watch intently for pot-smokers and then blackmail them out of hundreds of US$. They try to cheat you often and aside from that, there is a good chance you will be stared at and laughed at quite frequently by the men, children and some women. That being said, the majority are still a really nice group of people who are incredibly friendly (even to Americans who only in the past 30some/40 years bombed their country to an unimaginable extent), but they just aren't used to having a bunch of white people marching around their villages. Fair enough...
Luang Prabang was a nice town on the Mekong river with waterfalls nearby and good trekking. I actually met an American couple at one of the waterfalls and long story short, I ended up babysitting their two kids that night for $25 USD- nice! While in LP, I got up early on several occasions to watch the monks/novices as they walk through the streets at dawn, collecting alms (rice mostly) from the locals. They only eat twice a day,- in the early morning and then again at 11:30am and then that is it for the day. It is a really wonderful experience to watch them proceed through the empty streets in their orange clocks. The novices are anywhere from 12-19 years old and they come to Luang Prabang from all over Laos to become a novice. The main reason is so they can get a free education, but some decide to stay and become a monk after the age of 19. LP also has a great night market and food stalls where we made it a habit to go to these vegetarian buffet places for only 5000 Kip (.50 cents US) for dinner each night. There was a lot to see outside the town including beautiful waterfalls that I visited via bike. I ran into Ivan again here in LP and we decided to head north to a small village called Nong Khiaw. I stayed in bamboo bungalows overlooking the Mekong. Really cold at night (as with most places north of Bangkok), but hot, hot, hot during the day. It was a beautiful place (pictures in the next batch!) with a bridge over the river and mountains surrounding us. We took an hour boat ride to the next town up, Muang Noi(?) which was ever smaller than Nong Khiaw. We stayed there for two days, went on a hike to a nearby village (my foot is doing much better thanks to a Canadian named Brian who sold me his magnetic insoles that are miracle workers!), met a hilarious Scottish girl there and just had a great time. After returning to Nong Khiaw, I caught a bus back to Luang Prabang, picked up my visa for Vietnam and I headed south to Vang Vieng. The scenery was gorgeous, with more limestone peaks and a river that runs by the town. I did a full day of kayaking down the river with a few other people and we went in a water cave on an inter tube, pulling yourself along a rope that went from wall to wall. The day before I had gone deep into a cave and then deeper down a ladder into this gray water. It was a definite psychological test and I passed, although I was relieved that I didn't have to retake it again the next day in the tubs! The town of Vang Vieng isn't that wonderful- very touristy. I mean touristy as in all the restaurants play re-runs of 'Friends' all day long. I admit I may have watched an episode or two, but that was only because it reminded me of home, which was quite nice. I now am in Vientiane and just said goodbye for good to Ivan, a long time travel companion. Tonight, I catch a overnight/day/freaking forever 22 hour bus to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Should be fun! La Khon!
