Laos

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12-26
We got to the Laos side of the border where we had to get our visa on arrival. The visa on arrival window wasn´t opnen yet. It didn´t open until 7 am. When it did open we got our visa, no problems. We received our entry stamp and then walked into a lot of taxi drivers vying for our money. We chose the the cheapest one (of course) and I heard some of the other drivers laughing as we walked away. That was proabaly because this taxi was one of the biggest pieces of junk ever. You worried about carbon monoxide because all of fumes seemed to be ported to the interior of the car, but at the same time you didn´t worry about carbon monoxide because there were so many places that fresh air could come into the car. Well this car was wheezing about as bad as the tuk tuk we had ridden earlier this morning in Thailand. Eventually the car stopped running too, but after a few minutes with the hood up, it seemed to run again and eventually we made to our guest house in VienTiane, the capital of Laos. This city seems pretty low key and doesn´t feel that big. We crashed out in our room for about an hour and then woke up and went in search of an internet phone to call our families for Christmas. Even though it´s the morning after Christmas here, it´s still Christmas night back home. We did that and then ate some breakfast and then went back and took another nap. Even though we had a really nice bus last night, it was still restless sleep. Then we woke up again and went to look around town a bit and do some internet stuff.

We had a really good Lao dinner and let me tell you LaoBeer comes in a huge bottle and costs 80 cents and tastes good. After dinner we went back to our room and my pack has been getting really heavy. So heavy, that I thought I heard a seam rip the last time I picked it up. So I decided to clean out the pack and get rid of everything that I have never used or that I dont need anymore. Good bye London Fog jacket, thermal underwear, 3 pairs of socks, fire lighter, our homemade stove, swimming goggles, and various assorted other clothes and crap. The maid that cleans up our room is going to hit a goldmine. As I was cleaning out one pocket, I felt something at the very bottom.........and I pulled it out and..........THERE IN MY HAND WAS MY WEDDING RING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Needless to say I am very happy about this! It is a Christmas miracle, as I thought I would never see that ring again. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12-27
We got on the bus to Vang Vien and got about 30 minutes down the road before we were stopped at a checkpoint and then we just sat there forever. I got off the bus and talked to some other people that had got off the bus earlier and apparently our bus driver didn't have a liscence so they had to send for another driver.
Eventually we got to Vang Vien and we found a decent place to stay for only $4 a night. This town is really small and laid back. All of the restaurants have these raised platforms covered in cushions and short tables where you can just realax and enjoy your meal. We ate dinner at a place like this and they had a big TV and we got to see The Ring Two. That was nice as we don't get to see many movies these days. We are thinking of eating dinner there again tommorow if they have a movie we want to see. We also booked a trekking, tubing, kayaking tour for tommorow.

12-28
Today was one of the funnest days we have had in a long time.
Our tour started with a breakfast of bread and eggs and coffee. After that we hopped on a tuk tuk with a bunch of kayaks strapped to the roof. We drove for a bit and came to a little village that had a cave that you ride an inner tube into. Now we have tried on at least two other occasions on this trip to take a boat ride in a cave, but due to dry condtions we have never done it. Well, this was much better. Our tour had a total of about 6 or 7 of us, so it wasn't very large at all. We hopped into the innertubes and they gave us a head lamp to wear. Soon we were pulling ourselves along a rope that ran through these canal type caves. It was so much fun. We beached our tubes and had to crawl through some narrow spaces and went into a big room that had a rock formation that looked like an elephant. Then we made our way back out. It is a good thing that there was a rope to guide us because there were so many offshoots of the path we took.
After that we had a barbecue lunch that was tasty. In the village they had a monkey tied to a tree and Linh was taking pictures of it and then she walked around to get a different angle and got too close and the monkey just jumped up on her, holding on to her shoulders! That was funny at first and I was going to try and take a picture of her, but then the monkey started baring its teeth and not looking too friendly so Linh wriggled away from it.
After the monkey we got back on the tuk tuk and went to the kayak landing where we launched our kayaks.
We have been wanting to do some kayaking this whole trip and now we get a chance to. We got to go through some rapids and coming around one corner, I didn't quite steer us fast enough and I dug in really deep with my paddle, trying to get us away from a tree branch and we tipped over! Well, we made it under the tree branch and got the cool dip in the water that we had been wanting. We both made it back on to the kayak (it was a 2 seater, sit on top type) and we continued on.
A bit later we beached at a riverside bar/chill out area/ super huge rope swing and zip line place. This was a blast! You get to climb a bamboo ladder up this huge tree that has a platform on it. The platform seemed to be about 25-30 ft. high. From there you can either grab on to some handlebars and swing in a huge arch out over the river and let go for long drop or you can hang on to some other handle bars and ride down this really long zip line and drop into the river. It was so much fun. I hung onto the zip line for too long, one time, and when it hit the end my body kept going until my hands were forced by the inertia of my body to let go and I ended up doing, like, two flips and landing face first in the water. I thought my contacts were shoved behind my eyes but they weren't and I loved it. And Linh, queen of scared of heights, even she did the rope swing. I was so proud of her!
After doing that for a bit we got back in the kayaks and headed back to town. We passed scads of people tubing down the river and we might do that tommrow.
This was by far the best one-day tour we have ever taken and it was only $8 a piece including the food. This town is so relaxed and chilled out we love it!
We ate dinner at the movie place again, but the show of the night was Duece Bigalow European Gigalo. It's amazing what you laugh at when you don't see many movies.

12-29 "Jumping off high things"
I drank too much BeerLao today.
We woke up kind of late and headed for the inner tube place. We rented a couple of tubes and they took us upriver. We were on the water by noon. Now, near as I can figure, the whole point of this tubing down the river thing is to drink BeerLao and jump off of high things and I embraced this concept with both arms. We floated a bit and floated up to a place with high things to jump off of and beer. We did the rope swing and Linh even did the zip line this time! We jumped and did the zip line until we were tired of jumping. Now the whole reason they have high things along the river to jump off of for free is so that you will partake of their bevarages and snacks. So I bought a beer. Then we got back on our tubes and continued floating down the river. After a while my beer was empty, so I floated up to a place that had no high things to jump off of. I handed over a dollar and he handed me a beer and I didn't even have to get my lazy rump out of the inner tube. Life is great! So we floated for a bit and came to another high thing to jump off of. It was like a big bamboo plank that was held up by ropes and acted like a big diving board about 10 ft. high. Some guys yelled at me to do a flip, so I did, which surprised me because I didn't know I could do a flip. Linh isn't much for stationary jumps so I bought a beer and we floated on. About 20 yards later was another high thing to jump off of. It was a really big swing. You stand on it, and then two of the people who work there grab hold of a really long rope and proceed to pull you way back until you are staring at the ground and then they let go and you swing in this gloriously large arc until you jump off over the water. Linh loved this one until she did a belly flop. At this bar I had to hastily finish my beer from the last place and order another. We also ordered Grilled Lobster flavored Lays potatoe chips. Not my favorite. We talked to some rock climbers from Idaho there and then we floated on. A little while later there was another high thing to jump off of so we stopped again. I still had me beer from the last place, so we just ordered some nuts. Then I jumped off of a big concrete platform about 15 ft. up. I tried to do another flip but just did a back flop. Oh well. After that the sun was starting to go down so we floated on and on until we got back to the city where we returned our inner tubes. What a wonderful day we had!

Later we tried to watch the movie Sahara with dinner but it sucked so bad that we left after we finished our food. It's a shame, because I read the book and it had potential as a movie.

12-30
We rode on a bus all day today to get to Luang Prabang. We checked out the market here and it is really cool. We also feel lucky to get a room because things seem to be filling up quickly for New Years.

12-31
We walked around town today and found a cafe that has a lot of books and lets you trade them out. We had about six books that both of us had read, so we traded them for other books. Then we walked around some more and bought tickets for the slow boat to Pakbeng tommorow. Then we went to a bakery and had a snack. Then we climbed Mt. Phousi to watch the sunset. There was, like, a hundred other people up there. Then we hiked down the back way where there were much fewer people and there were some great views of the river. I don't think we are going to do much celebrating tonight because we have to be up early to catch our boat in the morning. I told Linh that I might set my alarm for midnight so we can ring in the new year, then fall right back asleep.
Well, I hope everyone reading this has a great New Year!
Welcome 2006! (we get it 12 hours before you east coasters do!)

1-1
Well, we actually stayed up till midnight and then hit the sack. We woke up early and went down to the boat dock and got on the slow boat to Pakbeng, which is half way to the Thai border. Once again we find ourselves on a slowboat on the Mekong river. The boat was really long with rows of two-seater wooden benches running down either side of the boat and an aisle down the middle. There were pads on the benches thank goodness and the boat wasn't overly crowded so Linh and I both got a bench to ourselves. So we rode this boat for 10 hours. The Mekong River is not nearly as wide as it was in VN and it moves much quicker. There were even small whirlpools and eddies occasionally. The secenery was beautiful and Laos looks so untouched by humans. There was the occasional village along the river but most of the time we were just looking at wooded hills. We got to Pakbeng around dark and found a place to stay. This was a small town that pretty much exists for the sole purpose of having a place to sleep on the way up the river.

1-2
We woke up early and bought tickets for the slow boat to the border. It was the same routine as yesterday except today there weren't enough seat pads for everybody. Linh scored one, but I didn't. Luckily she shared with me. We both got our own bench again though. Also, I might mention that it is quite chilly on the boat as there is a roof over it so we are always in the shade and there is a constant breeze blowing on you. We saw many of the fast boats pass us by. They seem to seat about 6-8 people and they have to wear helmets and they fly up the river dodging rocks and trying not to flip over. The slow boat trips were long, but you can get up and walk around and we could read our books and the scenery was nice and it was relaxing. By the time we got to the border it was too late to cross so we found a decent place to stay and had dinner. Again, it was about 9-10 hours on the boat today. Linh befriended a little Lao 5 year old girl and they kept each other busy for most of the trip.

1-3
We woke up at a leisurely 10:00 am and had breakfast with some of the people that we met on the boat yesterday and then got a ride to the Lao-Thai border ferry. We checked out of Laos with no problems and then took our last ride across the Mekong to Thailand. Check out the Thailand 2 blog.....
I should have all the Laos pictures up today