Monks collecting alms

Staircase to the view

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

I left LP on Friday evening by bus. I took an overnight bus and in the morning I arrived at the river border to Thailand. Some quick stamps, a ticket across the river and before I new it, I was in Thailand. I waited at a small restaurant for the better part of two hours before my mini bus connection left the border town for Chiang Mai. It was a quick and easy 6 hour ride and I arrived in Chiang Mai before sunset.

I’ve been in Chiang Mai for 4 days. It has been fun, but I miss the quite streets of Luang Prabang. I’ve been bad about bringing my camera with me, as most days have been quite spur of the moment, hop into a random tuk-tuk and I’m off on an adventure with zero notice.

The first day I just explored the city, visited it’s many temples (of which, I honestly can’t remember any of the names) and checked out the Sunday market in the evening. The following morning, after I woke up and ate breakfast the woman running the hostel asked what my plans for the day were. I had nothing planned and she offered a full day 7 course Thai cooking course. Unfortunately, I left my camera, but I ate well to say the least. I ate so much food, it was all delicious and after all was said and done I had met some really cool people as well. That evening I ventured off to the night bazaar and roamed throughout the many side alleys and browsed all the vendors had to offer.

Temple in Chiang Mai

More temples

The next day I was feeling quite lethargic and ended up reading for the majority of the day.  And the following day I went to Tiger Kingdom, where you are able to go into the cages with tigers. The younger ones were much more playful than the more mature ones, and I have to say I was thankful for that. I was quite intimidated being that close to them; they are massive animals and it’s pretty clear that I would be torn to shreds if push came to shove. It was a really cool experience and gives you a whole new respect for the power that these animals have.

One of the big guys

Two of the tigers we got to pet

With a smaller one

There was a huge tiger in the cage next to us that stood up

Playing

And so today I catch a flight to Bangkok, where I’ll be for a little over a full day before I spend way to much time flying back to Seattle. It’s been a fun trip, but I’m exciting to be heading back home.

It’s so nice to be on the bike again and I am almost as excited to get back to the States and ride as I am to do anything else once I’m there. The roads here were pretty good; there was little traffic and after a while I turned off the “bigger” road and followed a gravel road for about 4 km.

I saw so much random stuff today on a short bike ride that I’m still trying to grasp it. Where to begin? As far as on the bike, I cycled over a live snake, I almost crashed into a herd of cattle or water buffalo (not sure what they were), saw a man put a goat in something resembling a burlap sack, flip it on its side and then drive off with it straddling a scooter, and raced a kid (probably 7 years old) on an electric bicycle for the better part of a kilometer – he was fast!

Once I got to the hiking start for the waterfalls, I parked the bike and hiked up to the falls. It took me the better part of an hour to reach the top. The entire way I was swatting awake mosquitoes and random bugs. All was going smooth, until I looked down and had a spider the size of a deck of cards on my shirt, where I proceeded to flip out in the middle of the jungle almost rolling down the side of the mountain, haha (I laugh now but at the time I was screaming like a little girl). The falls weren’t that impressive, but it was nice to be in the shade for a while before heading back out on the bike and hitting up the hills again.

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The trip included much chill time, both on the boat and on a private island. Swimming, kayaking and general laziness took up much of my time. It was definitely a nice break from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, where I feared for my life every time I crossed the street. As a wise man told me, just close your eyes and maintain your pace; you’ll be fine.

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And so now I am in Luang Prabang, Laos. So far it’s very relaxing. It’s nice to know that the people are not out to screw you over for being a tourist, unlike most of SE Asia. Today I am going to rent a bicycle and go explore a little. Wish me luck!

The next two days I laid in our room, which eerily resembled a solitary confinement cell at a prison, battling a fever and diarrhea. Meanwhile, Lauren explored the town, got taken for a ride on a motor-taxi (in more ways than one), and toured the Mekong Delta. The only time I left the room was to grab a bowl of Pho, which was delicious, but unfortunately didn’t save the day and make me feel any better.

On Wednesday evening, I finally broke down and visited a doctor as the OTC medications I was taking just weren’t doing the trick. I got some antibiotics and other meds and went to bed. The next morning, we started packing our bags for the long train ride ahead. That afternoon before we boarded the train, we visited the War Remembrance Museum. It was quite intense, and I don’t remember being shown a lot of that information in school in the States….

The train was 14.5 hours to Da Nang. It wasn’t too bad, but since we were on the top-level we couldn’t sit up, so laying down got old after about 5 hours. From there we jumped onto a yellow local bus for approximately an hour and it dropped us off at the bus station just outside of Hoi An. We spent the rest of the day roaming throughout the town. It’s a beautiful area and was a nice break from the rush that is SE Asia. It is very calm, and at dusk the area lights up with lanterns. It’s quite a sight. Saturday we were off on the train again for a little longer than the day before to get up to Hanoi.

Hoi An Riverfront

Awesome alleyways

Sailor’s Delight

Hoi An Nighttime

Overlooking the river

Evening boat ride

The train to Hanoi was much easier. We rode in a soft-sleeper this time (only 4 people in a room) and had plenty of room to sit up. The majority of the night Lauren and I were the only two in the room, which was nice.

There is a typhoon currently in Halong Bay, so we hung out for a day in Hanoi. Tomorrow we are doing a three-day trip to Halong Bay. I’ll update soon afterwards.