Feb 2007

I am now back in Vientiane. After my day of recovery on Wednesday, I pulled another day of tubing...Had a blast again, although I couldn't do as many swings because my arms were killing me from doing so many on Tuesday. The only problem was that on Friday morning, I realized that I had only 6 dollars to my name and I couldn't get any money out of the ATM so I had to go back to Vientiane. Also, if I didn't get to the Thai Embassy before 3 pm, I would have had to wait in Vientiane until Monday, so I busted out of there on a minibus as early as possible in the morning.

Made it to Vientiane and the Thai Embassy, got my passport and walked around a bit...Aside from Pha Tat Luang, there's not a lot to see (although it's pretty cool). Met up with my friend Thierry, who I'd met in the Phillippines and he took me out with his friends in Vientiane - it ended up being a really crazy night, partying on the veranda of a club in a massive hotel overlooking the Mekong. Really crazy night.

In a few hours, I'm jumping on an overnight bus to Pakse (Pakxe?) to get to Champusak and Si Phan Don (4000 islands) to do some trekking and communing with nature.

The last few days have been a whirlwind. After spending all night on the overnight bus, I arrived in Vientiane. Apparently, Laotians don't like Canadians, because visas for canadians are $42, as opposed to everyone else, who only pay $30-35. Add to that fact that I needed pictures and didn't have them, so they charged me an extra $2, plus I paid in thai baht (they murdered me on the exchange) so altogether it ended up costing me around 50 bucks. Wonderful.

Anyways, I arrived in Vientiane...not exactly paradise. I spent a few hours at the thai embassy getting my next tourist visa sorted, went for lunch, walked around and decided that I was leaving that afternoon to Vang Vieng.

The bus took a long time (welcome to Laos) but I finally arrived in Vang Vieng at around 6 pm. Went for some beers with an Irish guy I met on the bus, only to find out that the bars all close at 12 pm and if you're out past 12:30, the Laos police can arrest you.

Yesterday, I walked around Vang Vieng, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Not the town itself of course, but there are massive hills, jungle, it's amazing. I went tubing down the Namsong river all afternoon - got absolutely wasted and met a ton of people. It was soooo much fun.

Then, after that, last night was an interesting experience that I don't want to write about on a public blog, so I'll leave that until later...

Well, my time here in Bangkok has been grand...at least what I remember of it...It mostly involved drinking plenty of buckets on Khao San Road, hanging out with Andrew, Tiff and Peter, and lounging by the pool during the day. Yes, it was a very cultural week.

Tonight I'll be taking the overnight bus to Laos and arriving in Vientiane sometime tomorrow morning.

Hope everyone is well!

Damn buckets...when am I going to learn that you have to build up a tolerance and not try to drink 3 of them on my first night. My first night in Bangkok was pretty mad...at least what I remember of it. I started off by drinking at a street bar on Khao San Road and met a bunch of Aussies, then some black dudes from Zimbabwe, then some guys from Montreal. We ended up at Gulliver's (anybody who has been to Bangkok knows where it is)...but after that...no recollection. I woke up in my own room with all of my money and body parts intact though, so I couldn't have gotten that out of hand.

Yesterday I was pretty hungover, so after taking care of some errands (putting my pack into storage, checking out transportation costs, ie...) I just chilled out. Last night I just had a few beers and watched the football on the backstreet parallel to Khao San.

Anyways, today I have to go blow a lot of money on my CELTA course, and maybe I'll go see a Muay Thai match.

Hope everyone is doing well!

China eastern airlines....worst...airline...ever.... (cue the fat comic book guy from the Simpsons). Two cancelled flights, two delayed flights, and worst of all....no beer on the international flight. Finally arrived in Bangkok after a 3 hour flight delay at 4:30 in the morning, so as expected, no rooms were available. Had to wait until 9 am with all of my bags to check into a room, then crashed out until now. Now I'm all settled though...time to go drink a Singha...