I've done an awful job of keeping up with this blog and now that I've been sucked into the whole Facebook thing it's doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon. That being said I'll try to give a brief overview of our time since leaving Indonesia.
First we flew out of Denpasar on Bali to Kuala Lumpur to walk three hundred steps up into the Batu Caves with over a million Indians in Arizona-style heat and the next day we caught a train to Taman Negara the biggest national park in Malaysia and the oldest rain forest in Asia to hike and pick leaches off our feet and eat meals on large platforms floating in the river for a few days before taking the Jungle Railway north to Kota Bharu where we got stuck in a great guesthouse that had a television and a box of hundreds and hundreds of dvd's so I stayed up every night until seven in the morning then slept until after noon and did the same thing for five days until we had finally had our fill of movies and decided to cross over into Thailand for the second time and we spent the next two days on the train traveling from the very southeastern corner to nearly the northern border to Chiang Mai where we did a lot of walking and eating and music playing with some new friends and after a certain time every night we did a lot of saying no to the prostitutes which gets old really fast and after a few days of really enjoying ourselves in one of our favorite new cities we took a very small very cramped bus five hours north to Pai where we relaxed in the mountains and enjoyed the cold weather for the first time in quite some time and met back up with our two new favorite people Faye and Luke from England and the four of us went on the most epic motorbike journey 200 KM into the mountain range and back and near the very end Nate crashed coming around a very sketchy hairpin turn but other than some cuts and bruises he is just fine and since Thailand only gives out 15 day visa stamp for anyone entering the country on foot we were forced to leave earlier than we would have as Northern Thailand is one of the nicest places we've yet been so the four of us caught a bus to Chiang Rai to spend one last night in Thailand that wasn't all too exciting as I had spent the night before in the throws of a horrible fever and somehow passed it on to Nate for the day but luckily the next day we woke up and felt much better and were of to Chiang Khong on the Laos border and after crossing the Mekong on a small boat and then paying our $36 visa fee we were in Houay Xai to spend one night before taking the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang which was truly slow but such a great time as we met three more people to add to our growing posse, Lisa from Holland and Alex and Will from England, and a river cutting it's way through enormous mountain passes with Laos on your left and Thailand on your right is not a bad backdrop to spend a couple days viewing and after the first days trip we stopped in small Pak Beng for the night where we found out about a local celebration that we were invited to attend and when we got there it was about five hundred locals drinking Beer Lao and dancing quite badly to live music so naturally I fit right in so we all drank and danced for a while before retiring to our guesthouse where they shut of all the water and electric at a certain hour and the next morning we had to get up far too early for our second day on the boat which was much different than the first as my seat was directly next to the engine and it was so deafening that I couldn't hear anything or carry any type of conversation and it took a good day for my hearing to fully come back after arriving in Luang Prabang but it eventually did and now I have a great story of my nine hour boat journey with what sounded like a helicopter directly beside me and either way it was worth it because Luang Prabang is so lovely and slow nestled between rivers and there are three vegetarian buffets that all cost 5000 Kip (about 60 cents) and everyone sells fruit smoothies and there's even a bowling alley where I proved my incredible bowling skills by bowling a 96 two nights ago on Nate's 28th birthday and right now there are seven of us traveling together and somehow we all really enjoy each other's company and have plans to stay together for the near future and Will has even changed his plane ticket to Australia to stay and travel through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam with us until Nate and I fly to Hong Kong on the 27th of April so it will be a nice change and a different mode of travel for us for the next seven weeks and we're both really looking forward to all of it but before any of that today we rent bicycles to cycle around the city for a few hours before wondering the night market, eating some cheap vegetarian food and settling down on the roof of our guesthouse with a great view of the city for some beer Lao, cards and conversation until the early morning as we've done every day since we've been here and will probably continue to do until we find some reason to leave the incredible peace covering the city.
Love to all,
B
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