On dial-up *sigh*

We've made it to Bagan safe and sound. Not too many hours of sleep though. Sandra had fairly uncomfortable seat and Kyaw Kyaw's seat-bottom was loose. But we met some nice people on the bus who've decided to bunk in the same guesthouse as we do. Tonight we're going to visit the pagoda festival they're having right now. Last night it went on till 6 this morning... And i've been informed this will be the case for the next 3 nights as well. So it'll be better to join the party.
ANyways, just a short update. I'm on dial-up and the connection is even worse then what i've gotten used to. Apart from that.. electricity is on a come-and-go basis...

Fustration

I've been trying to put some extra pictures on my account of the cooking course. It has cost me already 2 days but no luck what so ever. Even if i get back that it is done, there are no pictures added. The other half of the time, the page just hangs itself........ Bummer. Especially since i have such nice pictures of this day. I'll try again when we're back from Bagan. We're leaving on the 3 o'clock bus, arriving at around 6 tomorrow morning. I'm quite sure all 3 of us will be thinking with longing of the comfortable thai buses that ply the tourist routes....

Cooking class in Pai

We were 5 to do this amasing cooking experience. I wouldn't even call it a cooking course. A whole day (with thank god a break to digest our fantastic curries. My mouth starts to water just thinking of them...). Karina, Stephanie, Kyaw Kayw, Sandra & i of course started at 10 in the morning. Tee, our teacher, had been at the market at 6.30 that morning to get all the ingredients. But it didn't feel like we'd missed something. His explanation of all the fruit, veggies, herbs, spices was as complete as we could possibly want.
Kyaw Kyaw cutting his veggies
Stephanie and Sandra reading up on the instructions. We were making curries.








Me, cutting up my chillies.... (for the curry paste)
And my veggies for my panang curry.

Loy Krathong or festival of lights (Chiang Mia)

We went out with a big group on saturday evening. First of all we all wrote our names on the balloon -thingy. San lit the fire underneath it and he and Kyaw Kyaw held it while it filled with hot air. Then it was time to let go. Our balloon wasn't the only one to light up the sky. Too bad that pictures of all those balloons dancing their way through the night air didn't catch well on camera. It was a beautiful sight.




After that we hit town. And it was crowded. So many people... Performances, more balloon lightning, fireworks (most noticable of all).......
Kyaw Kyaw with 2 volunteer tourist policemen. And of course a picture of Sandra & Kyaw Kyaw to complete it. I know pictures of me are missing but i was too busy enjoying myself

Relaxing in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is THE packpackers hangout. To many off them but it isn't too hard to ignore them. Unfortunately Vang Vieng encourages a certain type of people to come along. Every other restaurant and bar offers "HAPPY' things on the menu. And if you don't realise what that means then there is a nice description of the main ingredient of that happy-feeling. From Weed to Opium....

Vang Vieng is in this beautiful spot, along a small and fast flowing river. Gorgeous scenery thanks to the mountians that dot the place. A nice place to relax. Do nothing, swim a bit in the river, go tubing down the river (insert yourself in a big tire and drift down with the occasional stop along the way in one of the riverside bars....). And of course round off the day by sipping a beer while relaxing in a hammock. As demonstrated by Kyaw Kyaw in the picture below.

Vientiane

Evening setting over the Mekong river. The opposite bank is Thailand, the Vientiane bank is busy with foodstalls and tables. We ate there a fair few times, watching the sun go down.

A big favorite was the 'hotpot/fondue/whatever which wasn't on the menu but which was very very nice. We pointed and asked.. ;-)




Lunch in a temple with a few resident students. They live there because their villages are too far away. And there is no money for living in the city...







On our last day in Vientiane we went to the Buddha park. A place not very very big but full of statues related to buddha and buddha teachings. We couldn't stop taking photographs. A good thing we had a bus to catch...

In Luang Prabang

We should have been warned when we saw them loading our bus.... 9 hours and stops whatsoever until someone indicated it was time for a toilet stop... At that time the bus would stop and everybody streamed out and find him/herself a bush to hide behind and do their thing....








Of course one of the things to do in Luang Prabang is to make a round of a few of the many temples around. Some are more beautiful then others but all were worthwhile. And it was nice to notice that there where enough monks to 'staff' them. Notwithstanding Laos' communist regime













Kyaw Kyaw sitting on a terrace along the Mekong river. A great way of passing some quality relax-time. Of course trying to catch up on keeping a dairy was very necessary too....

And after that, enjoying the beautiful sunsets......








Our favorite food street. A whole line of foodstalls offering everything from vegetarian buffet to whole bbq-ed fish.And a whole lot in between......





Rounding of an evening by being among friends, sharing a beer

A 'jungle' trek

Ok , to be honest, it wasn't the most difficult of treks. Heck, until we hit the jungle proper Sandra was enjoying herself and Kyaw Kyaw was saying it wasn't anything special. I of course was enjoying myself but i only had to look around since i was as usual tucked away in my bag with just my nose out so i wouldn't miss a thing. In the jungle itself, Kyaw Kyaw still didn't think it was anything to write home about. Sandra was having more difficulties. It had rained a lot and the ground was like wet clay. So going up or down steeper slopes (of the sliding kind) wasn't all she was especially raving about (or she was, in a negative way...). I still liked it a lot. Kyaw Kyaw was carrying me and i had a good overview. Besides, i trusted his footing a lot more then Sandra's.

On several occasions our guide had to hack his way through the bush as you can see....











Making LaoLao in the village. And he wasn't the only one we saw when we had a walk around .









We stayed overnight in ths village which was fun. Bathing in the (fast flowing) river, having the most excellent dinner (and breakfast) with some kind of fern that the villagers grow. We loved that stuff but it was the one and only time we did find it.

And crossing the river the next day.. Kyaw Kyaw barefoot, Sandra was wearing her boots (which took a few days to dry properly but she claimed there were way too many rocks in that river. Besides, Kyaw Kyaw needed someone to support him while he tried to cross without getting his shoes wet...)

An Akha woman doing her shopping in the next village we came to.

Crossing the Mekong to Laos

First of all, you get past the customs office in Thailand. Sandra had miscalculated and had to pay up. One day overstay (she's starting to make a habit out of it. Twice already did she overstay in Burma. It is less costly over there though...). Anyways, we did get into this canoe with motor together with an english couple we had met on the bus the day before. Getting in and out of that canoe took more time then the actual crossing of the Mekong...

On the other side of course more of the customs-routine. And then we were all targetted for the boat trip. We hadn't bought tickets yet and i think we were all glad we hadn't... that boat (a long boat, hard seats and virtually no space) was going to be packed. There were so many people heading for that boat. All westerners! That was the last thing i wanted to do. Being packed up for 2 days (and an overnight stay in a village along the way) with way over 40 westerners in a boat that can seat 40 or so. We butted out. Did some shopping around but found that everybody told us different sories according to what they had to sell themselves. We got so tired of it that we decided to leave the place anyway even though that ment hiring a minibus instead of staying one night and taking the normal bus the next morning (that bus leaves before anybody basically has a chance to get to the other side, the custom officials don't want to open up before 8 in the morning and the bus leaves at 8.30....So you're obliged to stay one night).

One of the more interesting things we saw that day. Snake wine/whiskey/whatever. Even one that had the tail of a scorpion in it's mouth.




Along the way we gave a ride to 3 thai. They were on a weekend trip with their american employers (or something of the sort). They had hired 2 pick-ups for the journey but according to them one of those cars had problems from the beginning and nobody was allowed to sit in that one. When we pulled up they asked us if we could take some people to the next village. Sure, no problem. Well, it became a problem since villages came and went. We even all stopped at one place for lunch and they got back in the car with us. At some point Sandra decided to ask. Turned out that they were coming all the way with us. That of course pissed us of quite a bit. Ok ,we are farang (westerners) but we don't like being taken advantage off.. So we said they could come with us if we got some money for the car. After all we had hired the damn thing and suddenly it became a lot more crowded (i even got stuffed back in the bag for goodness sakes...) . The guy that had hired out the pick-ups even tried to negotiate with us. The nerve. We all felt a bit pissed off. They had lied to us. It was obvious that they had banked on us not saying anything and taking advantage. Well. they got the wrong people. But it did leave a bad taste in our mouths for a while. And after that we didn't enirely trusted the driver anymore either. After all, we all had a sneaking suspicion that he and the other guy had arranged it along the way...

Back in Bangkok

We've all arrived back in Bangkok. A fairly uneventful bustrip from Chiang Mai to here. Apart from an unexplained small explosion in the front of the bus and the subsequent half hour stop along the road nothing exiting did happen. Sandra did something she hasn't done up to date yet.. She left her book in the bus (it was 5 o'clock this morning when we hit Khao San Rd and she'd been asleep up to then so maybe that's the excuse. Of course it could be that she didn't like the book of course. I don't know). Hopefully the next few days in Bangkok will give me the opportunity to update this blog some more. Uploading pictures in Burma is always a difficult thing... Ok, Sandra is going of for lunch and i promised to keep her company (she's been drinking a bit in Chiang Mai the last few days and she keeps saying she's hungry...). Kyaw Kyaw has a bit of an upset stomach and doesn't feel like eating (but feels fine for the rest..) .

A watery Sukhotai

Ok, i haven't really done any writing on these pictures. I think most of them speak for themselves. But let's say it this way... Are was water aplenty......
Fishing on the streets. This was a normal intersection before it was floaded. And the water floaded fast! These guys had a lot of fun with it that was obvious though. And very profitable too. There was a full bucket of fish standing on the side. The water on the right side is the river. The left side is the floaded street (calf-deep)
Becky, Kyaw Kyaw and the people from the guesthouse.
Me making friends with a kid that was staying in the guesthouse. he and his mom were travelling around for a month.

Kyaw Kyaw in Ayutthaya

We had a great time in Ayutthaya. Of course Sandra & I had been there before but it was good to be back. There is so much to see there that even we saw so many new things. Sandra decided to opt out on the boat trip but i went again. And made friends with our 'captain'. A lovely lady. And of course there was Laurent. A french guy that came with us from bangkok and who has been travelling with us on and of for since then. My favorite captain....


View of one of the Ayutthaya temple-sites
Kyaw Kyaw loved this buddha head that is embedded between the tree-roots.