Back in the swing

Hello everyone!!

I am pleased to say that I have finally made it to highland farm! The trip from southern Laos was brutal but we made it through. We left Pakse at 8:30 am but unfortunately showed up for the bus at 7 because we were told the bus left at 8, so there was alot of sitting around there. Then it was a 4 hour drive to Ubon Thailand. Once in Ubon we switched buses within 10 min of arriving and got on another 12hr hell ride back to Bangkok. The worst part is it is only 420km from Ubon to Bangkok but with all the stops and the slow travel it takes FOREVER!! We arrived at our guesthouse in Bangkok at 12:30am and woke Stav up to tell him we had made it fine. Then Chad and I started talking and thinking that "hey our bus to Mae sot leaves at 7 so we will have to get up around 5:30am to get there on time, so lets just stay up all night!" So we did just that and at 5:30 we woke up stav, gathered our things and headed once again to the bus station. Of course with my luck it turned out that the bus didn't leave until 9am, so once again there we were waiting. After another 8.5hr drive we FINALLY made it to Mae sot and Khun Pharanee was there waiting for us. We went to the restaurant in town called "Canadian" and met 2 other volunteers there. One was from Belgium and was actually leaving that night, but the other was a dutch girl named Hannakah. We made our way back to the farm and exchanged story's over Khun Pharanee's delicious supper and shortly after called it a night. Chad and I managed to stay up for an amazing 40hrs that day...or 2 hahha. Now days things are jist awesome, we spend our days feeding, cleaning, and playing with gibbons. Today we had to install some mesh to the bottem of an old cage so that the young gibbons feet wouldnt fall through. They have to be moved because we are painting they're cage over the next couple of days. Other than that we have got the ping pong table out from last year, and just today we set up the swiming pool. (thanks max!!) So everything is great but the only thing that could make it better would be if we could have the crew from last year with us. I'd like to give a big shout out to Max Sather, Lenny Broadbridge any Meera Daya, you are all dearly missed by me and I really wish you guys could all be here. There isnt a day that goes by that we dont mention you guys and smile and laugh when we think what a good time we had together. The thing that really amazes me is that all these people from different corners of the world could come together in this special place and all get along so well, and become such good friends. I know i will see you all in the future one day and untill that day I wish you all the best, and know that my thoughts are with all of you.

Well i had best be off now but i will be back soon!
D

Last day in Laos....

Alright gang here we go again. So where we left off was in Phransavon Northern Laos, in the middle of nowhere with no where to stay and no bus until morning. It turned out that there was a guesthouse right beside the guesthouse so we just said whatever and lodged there for the night. Early the next morning the man that owned the guesthouse was banging on our door telling us to get up, and that the bus had arrived. So we hurried out of bed and made our way to the station and got everything loaded on from there. After a long 5hr ride we arrived back to sunny Vang Vieng. The place we were staying at had the most friendly lady and her mother(Mama) runing the place, and we fell in love with them so we chose to meet stavros there. After pulling up in the tuktuk we both yelled "Mama!!" and after double taking who we were she ran over and gave us both a big hug. After that without saying anything she just grabbed a key to a room and passed it to us, no questions asked. It turned out that stav was in town so we set out to go looking for him. We later found him enjoying some sticky rice and we caught up over time spent apart. The next day we geared back up and headed down towards the capital again. We took it pretty east that day and didnt go out much as there was a storm blowing through. The next morning we woke up early to go see the nation monument in Laos that you see on everything, money, beer posters, ect. By 11am we had made our way back across the city and then down to the southern bus station. From there we got on a 4.5hr bus ride to a place called Thaket. Thaket is quickly becoming very famous in central Laos due to a small circuit called "the loop". It is a newly paved road and there are many many sites to see along the way such as caves lakes mountains and more. It was ment to take 3 days but could take up to a week if you wanted. Unfortunately at this point we didnt have 3 days so we were really bummed, but what we ended up doing was just renting a bike and doing the first section and then came back to Thaket. This turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences in Laos. The scenery was absolutely stunning and it just felt so good to be out on the road, in control.. One of our last stops was a stream called "Tha Flang" and when we pulled in there was a young Lao family having a picnic there. At first they kept pretty quiet but after awhile they invited us to sit with them and proceeded to give us fresh water and food. Such beautiful people, something you would never encounter in the west. We sat with them for a number of hours and i sat with the youngest daughter and we both went over a sheet given to me that had many English words with the Lao equivalent beside it, it was really fun and we had many a good laugh. After a number of hours it was time that we head back as we had another bus to catch, but we gave the family many thanks and they sent us off with brite smiles. The next place was Savanekhet, famous for its dried beef. We really only spent 2 days there and there really isnt much to see in the way of tourist sites, but the one that we did check out was a dinosaur museum. Its pretty weird to think of dino's over here but the museum was really cool and the old man that worked there was very happy to show us around, even taking us into the backroom and looking at some of the originals. Next we made our way down to the 4000 islands. This is the southern most part of Laos with Cambodia on all sides. Here the Mekong splits into a delta and thousands of small islands are formed as a result. Life on the islands is more laid back than anywhere in the world, things just get done when they do. The power only works from 11-12pm and then 5-45 - 12am. Also on a normal day down here the temp is at least 35 in the shade, so needless to say there was ALOT of sweating going on. We really didnt do to much on the islands as theres not much to do, but i had a really great time swimming in the river with the locals and really enjoyed the place overall. That brings us to today and i am currently sitting in Pakse southern Laos on the border with Thailand. Tomorrow we make way across the border to Ubon and then from there a terrible 8hr bus ride to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok we will pick up stavros, do a load of shoping and then try to grab some sleep. The next morning we must catch the first bus to Mae Sot, and i am glad to say I will be settling in to the farm for the next month. I really cant wait to get there and relax, unpack my pack and not have to take a bus for a few weeks. Well i must be off but i hope all is well back at home and thanks for the comments.


D

three amigos

Hello once again, i have much updating to do. After leaving Louang Probang we headed to the mysterious Phonsavan, home to the heaviest bombing ever seen by man kind. We stayed in a small place called the "nice guesthouse" and it wasnt so bad. We booked a tour through them for the next day to go see the plain of jars. The plain of jars are mysterious old stones hollowed out into pot like shapes of various sizes, no one knows who brought them here or when, and no one knows what they were used for. There are several myths regarding this mystery and one of the local legends is that the ancient Lao people used to be giant and could lift these massive stones with one hand, this sounds a little far fetched but our guide told us there had been some jaw bones found that were much larger than an average human's jaw. The jars are scattered among three main sites, all of them very odly placed among farmers fields and the dry wasteland that makes up this part of northern laos. All in all it was a great day and it was chads first time trying sticky rice (traditional Lao food) and he instantly fell in love with it. That night we made our way to the bus station to go to Vang Vieng to meet Stav. We were trying to get on the 8 oclock bus but by the time we had gotten there the bus was sold out. At this point its late and dark and nothing in town is open at all so we are really runing out of options. A man tells us in broken english that a bus passing through at 10 can take us, so the 2 hour wait began. After the bus finally arived we loaded our self on to a local Lao transport bus full of Lao people and not one backpacker but us. After a long wait the bus finally began to move but you could tell somthing was wrong. As we pulled out of the bus station the bus broke right down and we pulled over on the side of the road. Now we were really out of options... Well i must be off but stay tuned to see what happens.
Take care all
D

And then there was 2 cont....

Ok gang sorry about the rushed blog last time, Internet was crazy expensive so i didn't have much time, but now its all good and i will do my best to tell you the story. It starts back in Hanoi northern Vietnam, on our way back from the Halong bay trip. So on the bus we give the guy a business card for our hotel so that he knows where to drop us off. Then suddenly he just pulls over, hops out and starts pulling our bags out. I had to make a short goodbye with Stav and then hurry off the bus to grab my bags. Once off we started to ask the man which way we were supposed to go, and he just pointed down a busy street and said "down there". And after that the man jumped back in the mini bus crammed with about 17 tourists and headed off. Chad and I grabbed our things and started making our way to the hotel. The thing was we had purchased a 24 hour bus ticked supposed to take us from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiane, Laos. Capital to capital. If this is beginning to sound rough, believe me it gets alot worse. We only had 20min until we had to leave for the bus trip so we ran around frantically and tried to find some food and drinks for the ride. After arriving back at the hotel a man just busts in the front door and says "are you on the bus to Vientiane? Lets go!" So we grab our bags, run outside and see that its 2 motor bikes that are here to pick us up. They load our giant bags on and zoom off down the road. Now Vietnamese people are the most insane drivers you have ever seen, and some of them feel that they are unstoppable once they hop on these bikes. This was the case with our drivers. We head off bobbing and weaving our way through traffic, barley ever stopping and blowing many many red lights. At this point i have no idea which way that chad went so i am just hoping we are gonna end up on the same bus. So i get off in the middle of nowhere, chad nowhere to be seen and on some super busy road. I sit down with some local people and once of them buys me some candy and a glass of tea and they are very interested as to what i am doing here, but they spoke next to no English. Then after awhile chad shows up and vans full of white people begin to arrive. They start to move us all like cattle towards the buses but luckily chad and I get placed on the same one. This is were things start to go bad... First wrong choice was to get the very back seat on the bus because the seats wouldn't recline because there was an insane amount of boxes and such on the bus. So between all the white people we had managed to make some friend from the Halong bay trip and we were split into 2 different buses. So we drive for a few hours and then we pull over and all the lights turn on. The other bus pulls over in front of us and the people begin to unload the first bus and put whatever they were carrying onto our bus. After awhile all the people from the other bus start to pile on our bus and it begins to become VERY full. Stuff was thrown into the isle and insane cargo like fridge doors are straped to the roof. Then the next terrible thing to happen was that you were aloud to smoke on the bus so it very quickly became very gross. So we drive for a few more hours and then we pull over once again so everyone can eat and go to the bathroom. The bathroom was quite a scene complete with about 15 squeeling pigs, and 2 of the most nasty bathrooms you have ever seen in your life. So I sit down with the brittish and irish girls that we met and have a few cups of tea, and they pass around some Vietnamese candy. Then as we pull out of this place, i look onto the road and there is a motor bike that has clearly been in an accident and is smashed all over with a pair of shoes a few feet behind it. So then by this point its about 11:30pm and things are starting to get very uncomfortable on the bus and by this point this very weird Vietnamese guy had moved into the isle and was trying to sleep there. Chad was on the other side of the isle sitting against the window with one of the British girls sitting next to him, and then next to her was this creepy guy. So at one point blankets are sort of distributed around the bus but there is only one for chad and the brit and none for the guy in the isle. So chad and the brit just share the blanket because it was quite large, but then this really weird guy in the isle starts to snuggle up to the British girl, and then just grabbed the blanket putting him and her under it....Then he kept on putting his legs on hers and she kept telling him to quit but he never would so by like 2:30am she gets up and moves to the front of the bus. The next few hours were terrible filled with rain, cold, tossing and turning. At about 5:30 am we arrived to the Vietnamese-Lao border. The weather at this point was absolutely insane, like 110% humidity and just a wall of water suspended in the sky. So we hand our passports in not really knowing whats going on, and we are charged a fee of 1$ as a deportation fee from Vietnam. Then we all scuttle our way to the Lao immigration and the Vietnamese people become crazy and start pushing and shoving everyone on the bus. After alot of very confused back and forth and being charged the most for the Lao visa out of any country on earth we make our way back to the bus. I am looking at the ditch thinking about how much rain they must get in this mountainous area when i see a huge truck dumped over onto its side. A crew of men were working with lines and pulleys to try to flip the truck back over. So at this point the sun is starting to break out from the clouds and i am sooo happy to see it once again, as it has been almost a week with no sun in northern Vietnam. After a few more hours we stop again to grab some much needed food. There was some very strange things on the menu such as pigs ears and tongue. Then after a horrible 6 more hours of doom we finally arrive in the sunny peaceful capital of Laos. We quickly find a place to stay and are so glad to be off that horrible bus ride. After awhile we go out with everyone that we had met on the bus and went out and partied until 5am. The next day was a rough one to say the least so we took it pretty easy and just explored around the town. After that we went north to Vang Vieng, probably the most touristy part in all of Laos. It is famous for its "friends bars" showing that horrible tv show that i tried so hard to forget, and there are TONS of these bars in town. The other main thing that is done in Vang Vieng is the tubing! The tubing is beautifully set along a range of mountains and the first part of the river is crammed with riverside bars that you either float up to or have some one throw you a line and pull you in. Every bar comes complete with a huge rope swing and the locals are always showing off by doing insane tricks off of the rope. One bar even had a huge water slide that was one of the best things to do on the river. And the best part was that all the swinging was free and you could do it as many times as you wanted. All in all it is the PERFECT way to escape the mid day heat that looms around Vang Vieng. It averaged around 36 degrees when we were there and its supposed to be even hotter next month. Now we are sitting in picture perfect Louang Probang Northern Laos, and it has to be the most relaxed city on the whole earth. Its so beautiful to see the number of temples and monks roaming around this old city, it feels so exotic. Yesterday we spent the day exploring and i ended up meeting 2 monks that spoke some english and had a very good time speaking to them and asking them about they're lives. But as a typical Lao person they are always interested to know where you come from, what your doing, how long you been here, if its your first time to laos, and if you like the place. It was really an amazing experiance and i am hoping to meet up with the same monk today so we can speek more together. Well i had best be off here and sorry for taking so long to update but i will try to keep more up to date.

All the best to everyone
D

And then there was 2....

Hello once again from Sunny Vang Vieng Laos!! So much has happend since the last post and internet is very expencive so im going to try to sum it up but will retouch later. After Hue, we moved farther north to a small town called Tam Cock. We took a "sleeper" bus but i ended up spilling water all over me and just sleeping in my shorts. We were the only ones on the bus going to Tam Coc so at 5am we were shaken untill woken and then droped off in the middle of no-where. In the chaos i managed to loose my fav. pair of green sunglasses and bamboo hat. I was cursing when i got off the bus and banged on the door but they didnt stop. Then a small convertable straight out of a austin powers movie picks us up and takes us straight to a hotell for a decent price. We are so tierd at this point we just pass right out. The next day we rented bikes and found a very small out of the way guesthouse that had food downstairs and it was much cheeper than where we were staying so we decided to move. The hotell we were in charged us a "early check in" fee and we were all very angry with them because they had not told us any of this at 5 am. So the next few days we spend around our new guesthouse but the weather is very poor and very misty. One night a group of local vietnameese came in a group of about 15 and went on to have quite a party. Me and stav went down to have some food, and the people having the party invited us to sit and eat with them. They were extreemly kind and did they're best to speek english to us, explaning that it was a school reunion and the teacher was present as well. We sampled various local dishes such as goat and snake and watched the locals polish off 40 odd beer and a botel of vodka. After this madness was cleared up they invited us to come to karaoke with them and at this point we couldnt turn them down (i was sitting outside with some men eating oranges and drinking tea) so we got on they're motor bikes and the lady who owned the place we were staying decided to come and drove me and chad, thanfully she hadnt been drinking much.....Karaoke was a blow out, they had english songs and we all danced as the locals proceded to pound more liquor back. In all it turned out to be my fav. night in vietnam, and i will always remember it. Next we moved to Hanoi, the capital of vietnam. It was a very strange city, complete with old courter (tourist area). The amount of horn honking in hanoi is enough to drive someone insane, its unreal how much they use the horn. After that we headed to Halong bay, world heritage site. The weather in northern vietnam at this time was very misty/light rain and almost no sun came through. We stayed on Cat Ba island and went for a hike up a mountin with guide who had super small plastic sandles on and was a women, but could climb that hill better than any of us. The next night we spent on a boat in Halong Bay and i was a very cool experiance. Well i had best be off but stay tuned for more insane storys coming up!!

Take care all!
D

Sitting on the purfume river in Hue Vietnam

Hello from beautiful Hue, Vietnam!

Things couldn't be going any better in this beautiful, peaceful country. Vietnam is a very beautiful place that is entirely different from the world of Thailand. This country's poverty is a lot more in your face than Thailand and there is alot less of a tourist infrastructure. These things aside the people of this country have really touched me and the laid back kind nature of the people will never be forgotten. Since the last post we spent a few days in a beautiful town called Hoi An. Hoi An came onto the international scene for thousand years now. It was a very important trading point for many asian but as well as european countries. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site and its easy to see why. The town is set along the river on one side where the majority of people are fishermen or merchants of some sort. The other side of town is on the ocean and there are some breathtaking views from the beach. On our first day we arrived exhausted from our 24hr bus ride so we took it pretty easy and did some wandering around town and found a very nice little restaurant with a really cool old vietnamese man that we ended up going back to very often. The next day we took a tour to another UNESCO world heritage site called Myson Holyland. This was an ancient place of worship and the people who maid it were from the same era of Angkor Wat in cambodia. Unfortunatlly though this site was heavily bombed during the vietnamese war by american war planes, and the damage was very apparent. This is just one example of how america attacked peaceful people and places, sites of worship, schools, Buddhist temples, hospitals, so many needless deaths in this horrible war. The Holyland was a very cool place and it was very interesting to see the carvings and brick laying methods of these people. The next day we spent touring around town and checking out some of the local sites. Various museums as well as beautiful houses with history going back hundreds of years, all in all it was my favorite day in vietnam and I would actually say that Hoi An has been my favourite place that I have ever been. A wonderful experiance. We have now made our way to Hue located in central vietnam. It is a fairly large city so there is a lot of hussle bussle but it does have its quiet relaxed side aswell. Today we did a tour of the city and went to the Forbiden purple city, royal gardens, vietnamese kung fu show as well as a couple tombs. Very interesting stuff but it was extreemly hot today 34+ degrees so we were sweating the entire time. The weather in veitnam is alot hotter than in thailand and the humidity is much much higher so it is a very sticky heat. Well i had best be off but I will try to keep you all up to date as we go!

All the best
D

Good morning Vietnam!

Greetings once again! Much time has passed since my last post so i will do my best to fill you all in. Pai was a really chilled out place, very small but beautifully tucked away in the mountains of northern Thailand. We didnt really accomplish much but we managed to meet a crew of very nice Spanish people and ended up chilling with them the majority of the time, and went out to dinner as well. The next day we headed back to chang mai but not without me stoping the bus on the most hazzardous road on earth so that I could go pee. (Appaerently drinking a bottel of water, fruit shake and 7up before you get on the bus isnt such a good idea, who knew?) Back in Chang Mai we stayed for one night and then the next morning we grabbed out vietnamese visa and headed straight to mae sot. On arrival of mae sot we showed up late so we had a very hard time trying to find a ride into town, and once we did it was little more than a motorbike with some seats attached to the back. Then once in town i started to ask everyone if they knew about highland farm and did my best gibbon imprestion but no one had any idea what i was talking about. So after alot of hassle we decided to stay a night and wake up early the next day. The next morning we made our way to the Burmese border and refreshed our visa's (which expired the next day) and then made our way back to town to catch a truck to the farm. The truck was full of what turned out to be illegal immigrents and on the first police check stop the men gave the police a small bribe and he sent us on our way. But not 5min after that another police truck heading in the other direction pulled us over and procieded to arrest the burmese people, very sad but unfortunatly this is a daily reality in this part of thailand. Then about 1 hour later we finally arrived at highland farm. Khun Pharnee almost had a heart attack when she realized it was me and i was also filled with joy to see her once again. We only spent a short day and a half at the farm and then we made our way on a 9 hour journey back to bangkok. Once in bangkok we had great difficulty in finding the guesthouse Stavros was staying at as the taxi driver had no idea where it was and even proceded to ask me directions in Thai. After alot of circles his transmition actually exploded in his car so that was the end of that ride right there. Luck was on our side tho and we managed to find the guesthouse without to much difficulty, and thankfully stavros was still there. The next day we went to the airport and headed to Ho Chi Minh city in southren Vietnam. On first sight this is a VERY crazy place. There are over 3 million moterbikes in the city and the traffic is nothing less than chaos, just crossing the street you are taking your life into your hands. The next day we went to the Chu Chi tunnels an hour outside of the city and learned some very interesting history about the war. We also went crawling through some of the tunnels that the gorrilas had made it was a very cool experence. Then that evening we caught a bus at 8pm and arrived here in Nha Trang at 6am, pretty brutal ride. Now this evening we are catching another bus at 7 to arrive at 6am yet again but this time in Hoi An. So far Vietnam is a wonderful place with excelent food and very friendly people and i am very glad to be here. Well i must be off but untill next time all the best and take care everyone!

D