Japan, Tokyo and Hiroshima

J We arrived in Japan rather early, or so it seemed to us. We had jumped ahead 5 hours from our previous timezone, and arrived at about 10:30am local time. Were we tired? Yes. We had done some last minute research days before arriving and decided to come earlier then Julie and Cory, and to use the time to visit a little gem known as Nikko. After about 15 minutes arguing with an ATM we had money, then we found the trains toward the city. It cost about 1000 yen($10) a person to get a train into the city, and took 90 minutes. I was just coming to terms with the fact that we were no longer in S.E. Asia where for $20 I could have my own personal tuk-tuk for a day, and originally thought the gentleman at the train ticket office was scamming me asking for $20 for two train tickets.. reality dawned on me before I embarrassed myself thankfully.

We slept on the train, clutching our bags close. We still had the black bag we had purchased in Chiang Mai and stuffed with souvenir's, but decided to leave it in a locker for a few days to lighten our load. After switching train lines we picked up passes for the train and buses in Nikko, and then headed out. The pass was called "Nikko Free Pass" which was quite a play on words, because it cost 4400 yen, which was certainly not free. We're glad we got them though, as we quickly started realizing the horrible truth, many Japanese people didn't speak a word of English. Not that they need to really, there are enough Japanese tourists who frequent Nikko and area that they simply don't need to rely on foreigners for business. We quickly got down the basics as we always did, Thank You, Hello, and our numbers 1-10. We also quickly learned it was uncommon to thank people with "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto", unless you wanted them to look completely confused.

Nikko is in the foothills of mountains, and is in a National park, so it reminded us alot of Jasper. Unlike Jasper, we ran into wild monkeys on the way into town from our hotel, which was a bit of a walk out of town. Something I brought up each night we walked home in the cold. Keep in mind we had come from Laos, where the temperature was consistently between 20 and 30 °C, and at Nikko the mercury dropped below 10°C at night. Luckily our hotel had an electric blanket which Michelle enjoyed using.

On our first full day we walked pass the famous red "Shinkyo Bridge" and started exploring the nearby World Heritage Site, which includes perhaps a dozen temples and shrines (some of which are 400 years old). We started the tour with a walk through a lovely Japanese garden (just like in Kill Bill)! The fish in the pond were at least twice the size of Moby. We also stumbled upon the famous "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" carved monkeys. The architecture of these structures was quite amazing. Although we had seen many temples up to that point we were still quite impressed.

The next day, after sleeping in and doing some window shopping in town, we jumped on a local bus and visited the nearby Lake Chuzenji which had a waterfall nearby, and because of the elevation.. SNOW! Of course this led to a snowball fight. We attempted to find hot chocolate but eventually gave in and got hot drinks from the vending machines which we found everywhere.

We also spent an entire day at the theme-park known as Edo Wonderland. While there we learned some things about traditional Japanese swords, some history about life hundreds of years ago in Japan, and sampled some strange new foods (mostly seafood), which we barley managed to get as there were almost no signs or menus in English. We were really enjoying the experience, when it happened. Even though we attempted to avoid the eye contact with the man on stage, and even with much protesting I was dragged on stage and subsequently given a wig. I was to act as a rich foreigner (who spoke absolutely no Japanese), while the beautiful geisha girl attempted to subdue me, I DID tell them I was a married man, but alas the language barrier proved too much. Michelle sat in the audience laughing and snapping photos of my first Japanese acting debut.

The next day we said goodbye to Nikko and attempted to run into the wild Monkeys again, but they had moved on. Back in Tokyo we got settled at a hostel called K's place, which was very nice. Small and compact, but with some of the nicest and cleanest bedrooms we'd experienced in hostels. The toilets seemed like things out of the future, with many buttons on the side control panel, although none of them controlled a hidden T.V. screen, too bad.

Getting to the hostel proved to be quite a feat, as we started off in the wrong direction from the train station. After almost half an hour we started asking the locals if they knew where the Denny's restaurant was, they kept pointing us straight ahead, but we soon learned there were many Denny's in Japan. Finally after almost an hour of hiking the busy but clean streets of Tokyo we gave in and jumped in a Taxi. Five minutes later we arrived at our hostel, at the cost of a 1200 yen($12) cab ride.

Later that evening we went out to meet Julie and Cory at their hotel, they were arriving directly from Canada (having stopped over shortly in Minneapolis) and were probably going to be a bit jet-lagged, but it was decided we would meet and make plans for the next day. The trip to their hotel also proved interesting.

M I couldn't believe the day had finally come when I was going to meet up with my sister. I was so excited I could practically skip down the streets. Which as Jes had mentioned were extremely clean. We followed the instructions that Julie had forwarded to me about how to get to the hotel they were staying at. The last thing we had to do was "turn right at the family mart" then walk up the street and we would see it. We found the family mart and turned right, only we walked and walked with no sign of her hotel. I may have been a little over dramatic with my frustrations as we were already 10 min late and where was the hotel!?! After asking for help from a local we found it and realized we were suppose-to turn 'right at the family mart' right in this sense could have been substituted with turn 'just at, after, or right away' at the family mart. We arrived at the hotel and they were not there yet. We went back to the corner to ensure they did not do the same thing we did. It wasn't long before we saw them come around the corner in a cab. That evening we went out for dinner and talked non-stop. Julie barely had time to go through the detailed itinerary she had written for us to follow. As jet lag started to hit them we parted with plans to meet them the next morning back at their hotel.


On a side note I would like to describe the toilet in our hostel. Firstly the seats are heated. The buttons Jes talked about are for cleaning, and some even dry you when you are done. My favorite button was the one that played a flushing sound so others can not hear you doing your business. Then when you flush for real, water comes out of the sink which is on top of the toilet encouraging you to wash your hands. The water from the sink then is used to fill up the tank of the toilet. What will the Japanese think of next?

The next morning we got on the train during rush hour to meet up with Julie and Cory. Let me say that again, rush hour in Tokyo. We were not prepared for it at all. I have never seen so many people in suits. They lined up in designated spots that mark where the doors of the subway car would open. Each door has a guy with white gloves waiting. People get off the car, then we all stepped on. The job of the guys with white gloves is to push people on as to have the car as full as possible. He then ensures the doors are able to close and waves to the conductor. I have never been so squished in my life. We described the scene to Julie and Cory when we arrived at their hotel late. By the time the four of us had made it back to the station it was not quite as bad as about 30 min had passed. We ran down the stairs and jumped on the car just before the train pulled away. It was full, but not squished by any means. Then someone mentioned that there were a lot of women on this train. In fact, other than Cory and Jesse there was only women on the train!

I looked up to see large pink signs on every window that said 'women only'. Being polite Japanese they said nothing, probably giggling to themselves. When we got off we saw that there were signs outside the car too. We had a good laugh at at that one! Julie had read that many women felt uncomfortable being squished up against the men and their had been some instances of groping, so they made this special car for ladies to feel safe on.

We spent 4 full days in Tokyo, and thanks to Julie's planning were able to see many sites.


One of our first stops was the fish market. There we saw more types of fish and sea life than I even knew existed. It was a real working fish market too, which was neat to see. It left us wondering if there were any fish left in the ocean!


Of course no trip to Japan would be complete without visiting the many electronic stores. The first one we went to was the Sony Center, were we saw many top of the line electronics, most of which would not be released in North America for months. I pulled Jes away from buying a laptop and Julie pulled Cory away from buying the Rolly. A device that plays music while dancing -sounds dumb but is really is mesmerizing. Later we went to the Apple store and ooooed and aaaahhed over their new technology. While in the area around these stores we spent some time pretending to be rich while looking through extremely expensive stores.


One of the coolest things we did was go up the Japanese Eiffel tower, oops I mean the Tokyo tower. It's true, Tokyo actually has a tower that is a replica of the Efile tower in Paris, but of course it is 11 meters taller, oh and it's orange! The view was amazing. We had decided to go at night, which was such a good idea looking back. We walked all around and in every direction all you could see was city with no end in sight. Huge sky scrapers lined the skyline.


Another day we tried to go the the imperial palace, but although we walked around the beautiful gardens, we were unable to get into the palace. Unfortunately no-one could tell us why. The guards just held their arms up in an X while saying things in Japanese and not letting anyone pass. We did so much walking that day. We exited the subway station and walked for about 20 min and were still seeing more exits for the same station!


We were visiting Tokyo during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The cherry trees blossom for only about a week. They are quite beautiful. We enjoyed walking through a park famous for it's cherry trees. The crazy thing is that we saw Japanese people all lined up in roped off sections just sitting having picnics and watching the cherry trees blossom. We enjoyed some "interesting" food from the street venders in the park. We then went to the Tokyo National Musuem. There we saw many artifacts and learned some Japanese history. The musuem was huge, but we had a good time. Later we enjoyed walking down a crowded street and ate at an awesome "train" style sushi restaurant.


We would have never guessed, but one of the most popular things in Japan are claw games. They are everywhere, along with other video games, but nothing as much as the claw games where you try to get a stuffed animal out. Jesse and Cory were hooked instantly. We passed so many stores that were just full of these games and the guys were constantly going in to try their luck. Although they did win a few times, they ended up with some pretty expensive stuffed animals.


We also went up another tower, but this time it was free. Julie had learned that we could go up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office. It was really nice with an expensive restaurant and souvenir shop at the top. By the end of that day we were exhausted, and I can only imagine how tired Julie and Cory were as they were still battling jet lag.


Every day when we walked back to out hostel we passed a little place that had cartoon statue outside. It ended up being the head office of Ban Dai, a T.V. studio responsible for shows like Pokemon and their many other cartoons. We took Julie and Cory there and had some fun taking pictures with the statues outside. We then showed them our hostel, which was neat as they had never stayed in one. In the same area we saw a large temple and pagoda. It was really beautiful, and it was awesome to see Julie and Cory wide-eyed at the temples.

For lunch that day we enjoyed Curry at a restaurant. That is not interesting, but what is, is that many restaurants including that one, had you order from a vending machine. You put in your money, choose what you want, then it gives you a ticket which you give to the host(ess).


We also took a nice boat cruise to get to an island that was built on reclaimed land, as much of Tokyo is. On that note many of their highways just go out over the water to get people from one place to the next. Why not? The island was called Odiaba. There we went on a huge ferris wheel. We also saw a place where people can pay to go and play with cats. Many people can not have pets in their apartments, so you can go to this place and pay to hang out with the residential cats.

We also played more claw games and similar type games, the place was full of Japanese people of all ages. We saw an old car museum which was pretty neat. All in all Odiba is a really neat place with an almost fair like atmosphere mixed in with the apartments and office towers. When we left Odiba we took an unmanned tram back, the cities lights and nightlife were so beautiful we got back and took the tram back and and rode it agian to the mainland! lol

On the 4th day in Tokyo Julie and Cory were suppose-to go to the sea side, but had some problems. We had the day to ourselves, and aside from doing laundry and playing on the internet we decided to go to an electronic district to look around some more. Again we marveled at the advanced items we saw, and Jes bought an electric razor, which he later decided to use before charging the batteries, and it died half way through a shave, and he had to use a regular razor and shave off most of his beard. lol We later walked around Shibuya where girls dress up in crazy outfits, or so we were told, although we really didn't see any. We did find a pair of sunglasses that had an mp3 player build inside, which we were pondering buying for a certain Dave we know.



That night we were on a night bus to Hiroshima.


J The overnight bus ride to Hiroshima was an interesting experience. The company we went with didn't actually have a station they parked their bus, they just pulled into a parking lot (which was under a bridge and took us a long time to find, up a flight of stairs with our bags, ask for directions, down the stairs, ask for directions, up, down, you get the picture). Anyway, they setup a check-in by putting up a portable sign in place and having some guy with a name tag stand in front of it. Luckily (as Mich hates being late for anything) we had enough time to find the bus, although just barely.

They turn off the lights, and there are curtains over the windows, which was nice as it made it much easier to fall asleep. There are two drivers, which switched off at one point, and the one guy gave us blankets which were quite soft and a good size. Oh, and the seats recline quite far back, unfortunately though if you recline your seat back.. the person behind you ends up with almost no leg room. So once again we felt too guilty to recline our seats very much, especially since not a single local (and other then us everyone on the bus was Japanese) put their seat back.

We both wrestled in and out of consciousness over the proceeding 11 hours. The bus would stop about every 3 hours for a bathroom break, and the facilities were quite nice, always some place to buy a snack as well, although we didn't eat after 10pm. The return trip wasn't quite as comfortable as the one to Hiroshima as we sat behind a couple that constantly changed their seat recline position, and thus we didn't sleep too well, but the bus itself, the drivers, and the bathroom stops were all top notch, and we didn't even get the stylish bus! lol

Hiroshima is a bustling city, population about 1.2 million. If you weren't standing in the Peace Memorial Park or in front of the A-bomb dome building, you wouldn't realize it was the first city to feel the destructive force of the worlds first atomic bomb. We got into town early in the morning, checked our bags at our hotel, and set about to find breakfast. We hit an internet cafe to waste a few hours as we weren't meeting Julies and Cory until afternoon, and we found one easily. It wasn't cheap however, about the same price as in Europe. However it was an amazing facility. Other then internet, you could rent a small alcove with a leather recliner, a t.v. , an xbox 360, and you could borrow any of the thousands of DVD's they had in their library, many of which was anime (of course). This internet cafe had it all, we were impressed.

We also stoppped at the local gaming building (yes a whole building, 5 floors) with the lowest level devoted to the claw game, we had learned our lesson though and stayed clear. After checking into our hotel we unpacked and freshened up, then we headed out to meet Julie and Cory.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the Peace Memorial Park, and in the Museum which was simply excellent. We learned a lot about the history of the city, some background on WWII and the days surrounding August 6th, 1945, when "Little Boy" was dropped on the unsuspecting city. We had many emotions to deal with that day, including guilt, and anger. It also opened our eyes to the realization that atomic warfare was and still is a threat the existance of the human race itself. The weapons are indeed so powerful (much more so then 60 years ago), that we could literally cause our own extinction if a nuclear war started. We left the Museum with a lot to think about. After dinner that night we headed back to Julies and Cory's hotel and watched Monsters Inc. on their ipod (plugged into the t.v.), while enjoying some Japanese beers, good times.

The next day we headed out to a small island just outside of Hiroshima, Miyajima. We took the street car system to get to the port, and then a ferry across. It was a great little outing, we bought some suouviners, stopped to pet the "wildlife", took a rope-way or gondola, and climbed to the top of the mountain which gave us an incredible view of the area (Hiroshima is beside the ocean don't you know). The highlight for me was when a park ranger took the plastic bag which had our souviners in them from Michelle and gave them to me to hold onto, as the monkeys were known to attack and steal from tourists, espcially if they thought you had food in hand. Of course we saw the monkeys but none of them did much other then to stay in the shade and make faces at us, so we made fun of the monkey raiders who were waiting behind every tree to jump out and attack. lol

We parted ways with Julie and Cory who were taking a nice fast train to get back to Tokyo, and we made our way back to the train station, which oddly enough is where our overnight bus left from. Another 11 hours later we were back in Tokyo.

M Our last two days in Japan were spent at Tokyo Disney. There is no way my sister could have come this far and miss it. On the first day we visited regular Tokyo Disney and the second day Tokyo Disney Sea. Many of the rides are similar or exactly the same as Disneyland in California, but there are some unique differences. For starters the Japanese actually understand and use the fast pass system! So unlike in California where you can really take advantage of fast pass, in Tokyo there are much longer line ups. Even though the first day was a miserable one, the weather that is, the place was still packed! There were line ups for everything from the rides, to food stalls, to the bathrooms. Also, there are popcorn stands everywhere, with crazy flavors like chocolate, strawberry, or curry!

Unlike Disneyland Paris, there were few foreigners, and many of the staff did not speak English. We saw about eight other white people in the park each day, no joke. And on that note Julie and her blonde hair was pretty much a feak show. People would just stare at her hair. One lady in line asked to take a picture of her, it was so funny. At least it is better than the many people in Southeast Asia who just walk up to Jes and start patting his tummy with awe. lol


We arrived at Disney Sea an hour and a half before opening. There was already a huge crowd of people at the gate. Once the gate opened it was complete madness. People pushing and shoving to get to the front. Once through they would run, yes literally run, to the popular rides. We had sent Cory to fastpass a ride while we got a spot in line for another, and by the time he ran there there was already a line up. He was just getting to the machine when a guy pushed him out of the way! He pushed back to the guys surprise, luckily despite the tension no fists were thrown. It was complete mayham. All the rides in Disney Sea are water themed inclucing a whole underground Little Mermaid area. Both parks was extremely well done, and we had a great time.


The next day we went to breakfast with Julie and Cory at the hotel we were staying at, it was very nice to be in the same place as them, and afterward we said our good-byes. Our spirits were a little low as we left them, not only were we saying goodbye to them, but we had recieved an e-mail saying our beloved cat Max had passed away. It was a quiet afternoon of heading to the airport.

Our next Stop, Vietnam.

All our Japan pictures can be viewed online at our Picasa web album (see image below):

Japan 2008

Encounters with Laos traffic police, Vientiane

M The ride to Vientiane was an unpleasant one as we had been scammed. The VIP bus we paid for which was to have AC, free water, etc. just like our last VIP bus, turned out to be a mini van with no AC. It was full of other tourists who were also told they would be getting a VIP bus, some who were told they would be transferring after getting picked up by a minivan and taken to the bus station. It was incredibly hot that day, the temperature outside hit mid 30's, and I have no idea what it was inside the cramped van. But we all survived and the driver, who claimed the VIP bus was full, dropped us off in the center of Vientiane, Laos' capital. Safe and sound.

We got a tuk-tuk to drive us around until we found an affordable guest house to stay at. We refused to pay $20, knowing by this point that we could get a decent double room for $15. After getting settled in our guest house we went for a walk to discover the area. We heard live music coming from the waterfront which was just down the street from our gust house (RD house). It turned out to be a fair! This fair was going on for a week and we arrived on what was the first day of the Mekong Festival. There were people selling ice-cream and other goodies such as the ever popular fried crickets, which we just could not bring ourselves to eat. There was an air-filled jumping house for kids, the classic pop the balloons with darts game, which Jes played and won a bottle of imitation red bull, and of course a stage with a DJ pumping out the music. The dance floor was virtually full of tourists dancing while groups of Lao people stood around the perimeter watching; they appeared mesmerized. I guess that is what the Dutch guy in Vang Vien was talking about when he said watching how westerners act when they are partying is like watching TV for the Lao people. lol

One of the highlights of Vientiane was going to the national museum (no pictures allowed, sorry). We learned the Lao side of the story about the French colonization, the Indo-China war, and the Vietnam war. This little country has really been through a lot. It made us feel quite sick and angry, particularly the section of the Museum on the Vietnam war. On one hand I felt proud to be Canadian, but still ashamed to be a westerner. Our world view has been changing and expanding on this trip, but I think this was pretty huge, for me anyways, coming in about second place after seeing Auschwitz.

When we went to the Vietnam embassy one morning to get our visa's made, we were again shocked at the price. Our guide book said it was $20 USD. When we arrived though we were told it was $60 USD to have them done in 10 min, or $50 USD for 3 days, no matter what country you are from. We took the 3 days one but were still disappointed, and Jes let the guy at the counter know. There was no bartering to be done however, as the price is non negotiable.

One afternoon we decided to enjoy a foot massage, although parts of it were nice, the ladies were pretty tough on our sensitive little tootsies. They used a little stick and poked it into our feet! It often hurt, and after a couple days of walking we are pretty sure it was the massage that aggravated Jes' foot injury again.

Jes really wanted to rent a motor bike while in Laos, so we looked into it, and like most things it was very affordable.

J We found a shop renting some nicely put together custom bikes. The guy who rented them also maintained them and gave us information on the various models he had available. I choose a 200CC bike that said VanVan on the side, I found out later that Suzuki makes this bike. The owner was a French fellow and once again we cringed at the thought of him finding out we were non-French speaking Canadians.

One of my personal favorite memories of Vientiane was visiting the Buddha Statue park, this little park is about 30km outside of town, and the drive out was thrilling for me, as we had the rented motorcycle. Mind you the day didn't start too well as we were pulled over not two blocks from our guest house for driving the wrong way down a one way street.

The signs were there, but we simply didn't see them, mostly because they are so different to Canadian road signs, and also because of their placement. We paid the fine to the police officers right there instead of going to the station with them as they wanted (which looking back was a bad idea as it was likely they pocketed the money). Either way, it was only a $17 fine, like everything in Laos, pretty affordable. Back on the road we got a little lost getting to the park and at one point had to stop and ask for directions, even though the locals didn't know a word of English they were very happy to help point and make hand gestures to ensure we got back on the right track.

Later when we were lost again I pulled into a gas station, the attendant filled up the motorcycle, but as we hadn't been driving it more then an hours it was still quite full, so we ended up putting in a dollars worth of gas. lol Then, being a silly foreigner I went inside the building to pay for my gas, the gentlemen inside was quite confused with what I was doing, trying to give him money, and eventually I realized that the young man at the pump was also the cashier. I mean why have multiple people, really.

So I paid him, made sure I was still headed toward the park and continued on our way. No sooner had we started back on the road (oh in Laos they drive on the right, unlike Thailand) then we were staring down another police officer with his whistle in mouth and palm pointing toward us. Luckily though, as we approached he stepped to the side to let us pass and pulled over the car behind us, for speeding. We saw the lazer trap on the way home, but of course we didn't speed at any point while riding the motorcycle. Not because the bike wasn't capable, simply because the traffic and roads were nothing like at home.

Michelle will recall (and does often) that the road going to Buddha statue park was barely a road, and it was pretty scary for her as it was the first time she road on the back of a motorcycle, although she did ride on the back when we had the scooter in Koh Phangan. Pot holes (in the dirt), puddles, dust and vehicle debris, and the locals flying by with no fear of death added to the ride out to Buddha statue park. Once there though, we were rewarded by some impressive sights. The park was right beside the Mekong, and there were probably close to 5 dozen different statues. Some were huge Buddhas, one stone structure had hundreds of statues inside it and we were able to climb right up to the top of it. It was quite a hot day out and we stopped at the cafe on-site for cold drinks.

After finishing a bottle of water I asked Michelle to get me another, I gave her a 5000 note and informed her I didn't have the extra 1000 I needed as the water was 6000. I told her to just start looking through her purse when the cashier asked for the money and that she would simply take the note in hand and forget about the 1000. Mich didn't believe that the lady would do it, and so when she returned to tell me it happened just as I had predicted I had a chuckle. As we read in the guide book, everything can be bartered for in Laos, and playing the I don't have change game is something the locals do constantly, so why not return the favor.

M Day two of having the bike started just like the previous day, as we went toward the Vietnam consular office and, you guessed it.. an officer pulled us over as we turned a corner. There are police sitting in small shacks at literally every major intersection in Vientiane and I'm sure all white tourists have big dollar signs over our heads so we're easy to spot. We were being given a ticket for having our head light on during the day, apparently it is only allowed at night. The officer took Jes over to where a senior officer was and they talked for a very long time. I stood there waiting and got worried, but after close to 10 minutes Jesse walked back toward the bike.

He told me the officers spoke very little English, but were able to figure out what Jes was telling them, and with enough smooth talk he got out of the ticket! First he argued that he already paid a ticket and that the law was stupid as it wasn't a headlight but daylight running lights, although the Bike did have a switch for no lights. When that didn't work he pleaded for a warning to be given and no fine. The officer seemed to have fun attempting to converse with Jes, using the few English words he knew, and when Jes started talking about the bad impression that the police were leaving on him as a traveler and talking about how it would affect tourism if people were afraid to come to Laos, the officer gave in and let him go.

After making sure the headlight was off, we put back on our funny looking bike helmets and drove towards the Laos version of the Arch de Triumph. The official name of this arch is Patuxai Anousavary, which is also known as the victory monument. The French had started to build it, and although it is amazing, it was never completed due to Laos' turbulent history. The views from the top were amazing, but we had to go through several shops on the various levels to get there. After enjoying the area and an ice cream as it was another hot day, we headed over to a huge temple called That Luang.

This huge golden looking, pyramid-like structure is the actual symbol of Vientiane. It was quite beautiful, and we spent a few minutes walking around it and discussing what we had learned of Buddhism and the monks who devote themselves to the religion. I had worn a tank top, which was a good idea as it was a hot day, bad idea because we went to the temple. So luckily Jes convinced me to get a "same-same" shirt to remember Laos while at the big arch, so I put it over the tank-top as to not offend anyone while at the temple. So after 10 minutes I was sweating, once outside the entrance gate I took off the new shirt, phew. We took our time walking past the various small shops outside the temple before heading home and as we did so a bunch of dark clouds started to come towards us. While we were driving back toward the guest house it started to rain. We pulled over and took cover in a cafe, and boy were we glad we did as it poured, so hard it was unbelievable.

Once the rain let up enough to drive we went back out. What better thing to do when the weather is bad, but get another massage! We both got Swedish oil massages this time, at the same place we had went before, and once again we only enjoyed half of the experience, as the ladies doing the massage pressed so hard at times it hurt. Afterward we went for dinner at a restaurant on the waterfront. This place had a few options we had not seen before, so we went out on a limb and tried frog! It tastes like Chicken..Really and it was very tasty. lol

We enjoyed the fair another night, and Jes won another bottle of imitation red bull from the balloon game. The next day was Jesse mom's birthday. Due to the time difference we planned to call her in the morning, which would have been the evening of her birthday. We went to about 5 different internet cafes, only to be told the internet was down at all of them. By the time we were able to call her it was the next morning for her and Jes felt pretty bad.

On our last day in Vientiane we spent a few hours on the internet, did some walking around, and relaxed. We knew my sister Julie had a packed schedule for our next leg of the adventure.. Japan!

Viang Vieng

M We left Luang Probang bright and early on the VIP bus. It was nice, had a bathroom, AC and we got free water, little cake snacks, and a free lunch. I was very happy we took the bus as the roads were incredibly winding and if we were in one of the mini vans that we saw pass us I am sure I would have been sick as I was already pretty close. Thank goodness for Gravol.

After walking around a bit we found a nice guest house for $20.
Viang Vieng is an interesting little town. It is full of backpackers like no other town I have ever been to. As we walked down the street we saw hoards of tourists lounging in restaurants watching Friends, it was unbelievable. We thought they were dumb as they could watch Friends reruns at home, but then we passed the resturaunt playing Family Guy and Jes could not resist, next thing we knew we were one of the dumb tourists watching T.V. and enjoying cheap drinks. All the signs in town were in English and I honestly think the number of tourists equalled the number of residents. Oh we both got a neck and shoulder massage that first night.

The next day we left for a trek with a recommended travel agent. The discription said "caving, easy hiking, and kayaking". So we were surprised to find a few people show up in flip flops, but even more surprised to find the tour didn't provide us with flashlights, and we were to visit 3 or 4 caves! Our guide was named Olah, and he had 2 assistants who could not speak English, but they were friendly. The first cave was not very deep, and had lights inside with a huge budda image. There was also a bomb casing turned into a bell, which was a remnant from the Vietnam war. Olah described about the number of UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) which is still left in the eastern part of Laos, and how during the war the Laos people had to hide in caves sometimes for weeks as their country was carpet-bombed by the Americans. Apparently the Vietnamese armies were using Laos as a hiding place and when this was discovered they immediately became a target.

In the second cave our fellow trekkers who did not bring their own fashlights, and we only had one, were given small candles to hold. It was a neat experience, and Jes enjoyed holding the candles although he admitted he would have rather had a flashlight. Then only 12 minutes into the cave one girl in our group smacked her head on a low part of the cave. We felt really bad for her, after a bit of a cry she decided to continue on. A few of us were rather upset that there was only 3 or 4 flashlights for the 10 people in our group. One other girl got upset as we were barley moving, claiming this was not "real caving", so she left the cave. Our guide argued with her that we have to go at a pace that acommodates everyone in the group and that she should have went on a private tour, but Jes later voiced his thoughts that the main issue was the lack of lights and that candles meant we had to walk very slowly, and the company should have enough flashlights for every person on the trek.

After a lunch break we were all offered "proper head lamps", which must have been borrowed from another hiking outfit nearby. They consisted of a huge heavy battery in a plastic case, that was swung around our shoulder to carry, then wires, that did not look safe, leading up to the lamps which we put on our heads. The caving was neat although I have no idea how the people in flip flops did it as there were some pretty scary parts. One spot there was a hole in the ground, and a drop of about 10 feet, so to discourage people from falling in, the locals had put barbed wire around it. No kidding. So if you didn't see the hole or the wire, not only would you fall down the hole, but you'd get cut to bits by the barbed wire, great system.

The fourth and last cave was the most scary though as we had to take our super safe head lamps with us as we sat on rubber tubes and went through a cave that was full of water. It was very scary for me as I get claustraphobic and some parts were pretty low. Jes totally loved it, although he took my wind-up flashlight and got it wet, which pretty much killed it. I was very relieved to be out and seeing the sun again.

The kayaking in the afternoon was much easier than either of our previous kayaking experiences. The water was very shallow again, and we frequently scraped the bottom of our kayak on rocks on the river bed, but we managed not to tip once. As we went along we saw the famed tubers floating along, one guy grabbed our kayak and so we gave him a short ride, but let him know we weren't happy about the added drag. More on the tubing later though. The mountains and lush forests on either side of us were once again mind blowing, and beautiful.

That evening we went out for dinner, and then afterward, again we visited the Family Guy restaurant for a coffee and fruit shake. Our guesthouse was a bit of a walk from the main part of town, but the shower was great, and the bed was definately a king sized one, the biggest we had slept on ever. Getting out of it every morning was a challenge.


J We started our day, after sleeping in, by renting bicycles. I choose one that I figured would support my weight, and it did, but being Laos quality and poorly maintained I broke the pedal arm after an hour. The owner apologized profusely and gave me another bike, I was just pleased they didn't try to make me pay for a new nut (which I later found).

We decided to bike out of town and find the local organic farm. It was quite the bike ride, we were gone about 3/4 of an hour before finally getting there. As we went down the road a school field trip went by us, about 30-40 kids on various bikes came down the street, many riding beside each other and talking, and many riding two children per bicycle. It was actually uncommon to see a bike go by without a rear seat affixed to the guard above the rear tire.

When we finally got to the organic farm, we were hot. We had a mullberry shake, and learned a little bit about what the farm did. There were opportunities to volunteer but it was early afternoon and everything was fully booked up. We cooled down with water and drinks under a nearby tree before heading back to town. We were dissapointed finding out the tube-run started right beside the organic farm, so we would be returning later in the day, bathing-suits and all.

Back in town we decided we should just return the bikes, as our butts were sore and we planned on being on the river until late, so we did. Then we went back to the guesthouse to change and put on sun-screen. The tuk-tuk took us for 4 dollars a head, which included our rubber tube, to the drop off location. We grabbed a drink to go, and headed down the water. We floated along very slowly, using our flip-flops as paddles. lol

On either side of the river bars had been set up, some were merely shacks with a cooler full of drinks, others had complete sound systems and running water. One of the more popular spots had a rope swing over the river, and even a volley-ball court. We decided the busy place wasn't our style and decided upon a small place across from the biggest bar so we could watch the insanity and people using the rope swing.


We ordered fresh fish and I got talking to the owner, who was a white guy from Holland. He was engaged to a Laos woman and had rented the space by the river for 3 years. He built the house and platform himself as he was a carpenter by trade. I asked him many questions about living in Laos, and enjoyed his company as his wife cooked us dinner. After eating and saying goodbye we realized it was 5 o'clock, and we had to have our tube back by 6 pm or pay a late fee. Our host informed us we were only 1/3 of the way down the river and so we better hurry, so off we went, paddling away with the flip-flops and holding onto eachs others tubes.

We had made considerable distance but really had no idea of how much longer the river ride was, and it was 10 minutes until six. We noticed a bunch of other tubers getting out and inquired if they had a tuk-tuk we could hitch a ride with, they said there was a tuk-tuk waiting but how many people it would take was unknown. We paddled to the rivers edge and got out, as we walked up a short embankment we saw the one tuk-tuk parked, already full with tubers like ourselves. There was also a lineup forming behind the tuk-tuk, of people asking if there was another coming shortly. The driver was on his cell-phone so we assumed there would be another. Minutes went by, and it was now 6pm. The tuk-tuk driver was still on the phone when we left the area, we decided that if we followed the road we would get to the main highway, and simply catch a ride with the next vehicle heading into town, and perhaps save ourselves the penalty fee. We were not alone in this idea as one of the girls who had been waiting in line was about 15 meters in front of us. After a good 5 or 6 minute walk we finally saw the highway ahead of us, strangely enough as we approached the tuk-tuk we had left behind never did pass us, which was comical as the passengers already in the back were getting audibly frustrated as the 6pm deadline loomed.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk almost immediately, once loaded into the back and heading into town the girl who had been ahead of us informed us that she had not brought any money along, apparently her boyfriend (who was nowhere in sight) had been paying for everything. I did not know whether to believe this at face value or not, but we had negotiated a price for ourselves and were not about to offer to pay for her when the tuk-tuk dropped us off, mostly because it seemed she was attempting to get us to pay from the start. We payed our driver and started waking toward the inner-tube rental guys, we heard the girl explaining to the driver he would have to wait as she went to her hotel for money, not a big deal as everything in town is a 2-3 minute walk. Amazingly, despite it being 6:15 we were not charged and simply greeted with a smile from the rental guys. So we headed home to change out of our swimsuits.

That evening was spent releaxing, eating out and once again catching a bit of family guy at one of the many couch potatoe restaurants. The next day we were heading toward Vientaine, our last stop in Laos.

A slow boat to Luang Prabang, Laos

M Our last night in Thailand. A mini bus picked us up at our hotel at 9pm; our destination was Luang Prabang, Laos. There were 4 other people from our hotel getting on the bus and to be nice we decided to let them sit together. So we took the back bench seat that was beside all the luggage. I can not even describe how squished we were once the bus was full and all the luggage loaded. The seat is really big enough for 1 1/2 people or maybe 2 skinny Thai's, but not a guy Jesse's size and little me. We discovered we would be stuck in this cramped position until 5am.

Everyone else stretched out their legs and leaned on each other while we sat squished in the back with my legs bent up as the wheel well was under the seat. To make matters worse, our driver was crazy. He was speeding down the winding roads. I took 2 motion sickness pills and had my special wrist bands on that help with motion sickness, and still felt a bit ill. Being at the back of the bus as we went down the bumpy roads at top speed (lots of them under construction) we often bounced around, and on one particularly big bump we actually got air. We were very happy with our crazy bus driver though, as we pulled into the Boom-house at 2:30am rather than 5am. Finally we were allowed out of our prison.

We were told we could have a room until breakfast at 7am. Sure the bed was hard as a rock, but it didn't matter we were so happy to be able to stretch out. As soon as our heads hit the pillow we were asleep.

The next morning after breakfast we made our way to the pier. We took a small 'long boat' across the Mekong river to Houay Xai, Laos. Then our guide helped us get Visas. We were sure glad to be with a guide as we saw many others who were not standing around looking very confused. Once again (like in Turkey) us Canadians had to pay one of the highest amounts to get into Laos, $42 USD. Most other travelers were about half that. At least we get into China cheaper. We 've heard that if Canada charges a country a lot to let their citizens in then they will charge a lot to let us in.

Then, after we were told to exchange our money to Kip as they do not take the Thai Baht, and to be sure to buy food at the local supermarket as there is none on the slow boat - we found both of which were not true - we got on the slow boat. There are two boats you can take to get to Luang Prabang. One is the slow boat (which we took), the other is the speed boat. The slow boat was full of tourists with only a handful of locals. It seated well over 100 people and surprisingly went at a decent speed. Then there is the fast boat, uncovered, seating about 6 people max, and it goes about 3 or 4 times faster then the slow boat.. but because of this there have been accidents, the last one within the past month, one man died. Many travel agents simply refuse to sell fast boat tickets as they are too dangerous, but still we saw plenty of them out there. By the time we boarded the boat it was about 11:30am.

The scenery was absoulutely amazing! I just sat staring out at the lush mountains and the hill tribes as we floated along the mighty Mekong. We saw many people fishing with bamboo poles and nets, and people bathing and washing clothes in the river. As we went by, kids would wave frantically at us and we would wave back. The seats were wooden boards, and although we had purchased the reccommended seat cushion our butts were extremely sore. Jes spent a large part of the trip reading his new book he picked up at the book exchange (Blood Work). He also enjoyed his first BeerLao, which he would come to enjoy everywhere during his travels around Lao, and we learnt is for sale absolutely everywhere.

We pulled into the small village of Pakbeng at about 5pm. We found our guest house up atop a huge hill. It was fairly clean, but the bed was hard as a rock (no exaggeration) and it had no hot water or A/C, but it did however have a mosquito net and a fan, so we were happy. In this and many small villages they have generators that run in the evenings for electricity. In Pakbeng, being a big stop on the way to Luang Prabang, we had power from 6am to 10:30pm, luckily we had our flashlights. The main street in the village was lined with restaurants and places selling Pringles and Oreos. On a side note the Pringles here are not the same as at home. Same container, same picture, same name, same shape, but they are lacking a serous amount of taste. They are so bland no matter what flavor you get. Well as the shirts at the tourist shops say "Same Same, but different". That's a bit of a stab at all the locals who always tell you "same same", meaning my stuff is the same as everyone else, so no need to go else where, or this thing is the "same same" price as that one. lol Someone came up with the shirt, which we saw a lot of in Thailand, but the shirt in Laos says "same same" on the front, but on the back "but different". lol

So after cooling down in our room we walked down the main strip looking at a few restaurants. We had decided to go to an Indian food place when the guy at the place next door stopped us and asked us to come to his restaurant. These greeters were standing in front of all the restaurants. We said no and as we started to walk he started to pout saying "every night Indian restaurant full, not mine, not fair, every night". This made me want to go to his place of course, but not Jes. He told him that if the Indian place is always full, there must be a reason for it, and walked in.

We enjoyed our meal, then walked in the dark back to our guest house. The next morning we were back on the slow boat. Jes had his nose back in his book, and I was staring wide eyed at the lush mountains and hill tribe people. We read that 80% of Laos people live in villages, so we were observing daily life for a large number of people in Laos. Jes finished his book after a couple hours, and joined me in planning our trip and staring at the landscape. The cramped boat was full again of tourists, some playing cards, some sleeping, one guy was playing a guitar, and many others sat reading their lonely planet books.

We are so happy that we chose to do the slow boat rather than fly. We would have missed so much. We were told that Laos is a laid back country that you can not rush through. We now know what they mean. When we pulled into Luang Prabang we were surrounded by people either asking us to come to their guest house, asking if we wanted a tuk-tuk, or asking if they could carry our bags. We politely declined and pressed through the mob. We had chosen a guest house from our book, but when we arrived we found that it was full, and worse then that the price had gone from $15/night to $30/night. They claimed that when Lonely Planet put the book out 5 months earlier it was not the high season. So we left and followed a guy next door who was calling us to come to his guest house. It was $15 a night, but what a find! The room looked like a display from Ikea. It was very clean, it had satellite TV, AC, warm water, and the biggest shower we had seen yet. Unfortunately it was only available for 2 nights, but we took it.

The first weird thing we noticed in Laos is that prices for hotels, and many other things are in US dollars. It's nice as we are on par with the US dollar, so no need to convert in our heads, although we always pay in Laos Kip. Once settled we went out walking through this cute old town. There were many French tourists as Laos used to be a French colony. I think many were surprised to find all the signs are in Lao and English, but not French. The French colonial buildings are neat. We enjoyed a nice dinner, then walked through yet another night market! Unlike Thailand, Laos is much less developed and the prices were generally cheaper. Also, people generally don't own a stall and would just lay a blanket on the ground and sit down beside thier goods. Those on the outskirts of the market who do not pay to have electricity sell thier items by candle light.

J On our first full day in Luang Prabang, we walked down the main strip. There were restaurants, massage parlors, travel agents, guest houses, and more of the same. We ran into the friends we had made on our long journey from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang and talked with them briefly, they were headed to a waterfall just outside of town and we agreed to join them after brunch. We didn't have any money though (save for some US dollars left over from buying a visa) and so we went off to find an ATM. The first ATM we found made the sounds we expected but when it came to giving us money it said something about a device error. I was suspicious so I monkeyed with the machine, luckily nothing broke off during my investigation, so it seemed to be legitimately broken. We were getting worried though as we had no dough, but we eventually found the other ATM in town, which we had walked past earlier that morning. So when I was given the option of an amount, I decided upon the maximum of 700,000 Kip. Yipes, if I had taken out much more I would be an instant millionaire!

We stopped at a place called The Coconut and had a good size brunch, then we got our first bill in Kip. It came to 50,000. Although it seemed a bit much, it only worked out to about $5.5 for us both to have a decent breakfast. I was quickly learning something that I was not prepared for, eating out in Laos was even cheaper then in Thailand. YAY! We still had an hour before the tour to the waterfalls left so we decided to look into a trek. We went to at least four different places before deciding upon a 2 day trek, starting the next day, as we only had one more night in our current guest house. The company we went with was called White Elephant Adventures, although the tour we choose had no elephants. The first day was trekking, seeing a few different hill-tribes (ones that had not migrated to live beside the road selling goods to hoards of tourists), and after a home stay (sleeping in a hill-tribe home) we would trek a short distance before kayaking back to Luang Prabang. Exciting.

We met our friends and boarded the mini-bus that took us out to the Kuang Si waterfall, which was just 10 minutes out of town. Within the site was a habitat for "rescued" Sun Bears, and in her own separate cage, an 8 year old Tiger. The Tiger was in her pen for the day though and we didn't get any pictures, the bears however were out and about, sprawled all over the place eating, drinking, but mostly doing nothing. They looked so lethargic that we had to wonder if they were drugged.

The waterfall was amazing, many different pools had developed down stream of the main falls. We spent some time jumping in from about 10 feet, and there was a rope swing someone had tied to a tree. The local Lao people were thoroughly enjoying themselves as much as the tourists as we took turns jumped into the FREEZING cold water. At one point two Lao boys and I jumped in together making one of the bigger splashes that afternoon. I didn't dare do a cannonball though as most of the time my butt hit bottom, and luckily it was just sand.

We had a bite to eat and sampled fresh coconut for the first time, which wasn't as good as the roasted coconut we had tried in Chiang Mai. We had been gone a good 3 hours and sadly had to board the bus back to town. After a quick stop to change out of our wet stuff and into clean clothes we were back in the thick of things. We had dinner and then decided to walk through some of the night markets. They weren't nearly as big as the one in Chiang Mai, but had different items. The biggest shocker was that at about 10:30/11:00 pm they all started packing up and going home. We found a keepsake for ourselves, and gave the lady a good price. Michelle was a little upset when she found out I paid almost $20 for two rocks. Carved into elephants and painted, but apparently made of rock, I hope to use them as book-ends when we get home.

We got back to our room with enough time to pack up our stuff as we had to get our bags to the tour shop by 8:30 am the next day. Once again we had a television, so I watched a bit of B.B.C. One other weird thing we learned about Laos, is that there is only one Laos T.V. station, so many people simply watch Thai shows, and subsequently learn a lot of the Thai language. Also Lao and Thai are quite similar, so we've been told.

The next day we got up bright and early, thanks to Michelle and her trusty travel alarm clock. We found a tuk-tuk driver as we walked around the corner from our guest house. That's when the madness started. There was already a guy in the tuk-tuk, but being so early and seeing no one else on the road we leaned out and the tuk-tuk stopped. The guy in the back was upset and told the driver to keep going but he refused. We learned that the fellow traveler was going to the North bus station, we didn't know where that was but with half an hour before we had to be at the tour office we weren't worried. The tuk-tuk was weighed down heavily with all our bags and three people in the back, and it went along at a snails pace. We were slightly worried as we noticed him pass the street we needed but felt it was only fair that the first passenger be taken to his destination first. Soon though we wondered if we were going in the wrong direction.

I thought I saw a road sign that said South bus station. Our companion with his heavily accented English (French I assume) continued to inform the tuk-tuk driver and in response he just kept nodding his head, assuring us he was going to the right place. When we got to the South bus station it was 8:20. We were told not to arrive later than 8:25 as the van for the trek left at 8:30 sharp. We immediately got out and went looking for another tuk-tuk, the confused tuk-tuk driver got a mouthful from the French tourist who was now quite late and at the wrong bus station.

We ran over to a waiting driver and explained where we needed to go. The young man seemed to have no idea as we told him "white elephant adventures", so then we tried to tell him "down town, tourist offices, ATM". Anything that would give him an indication of where we were going. He started to give us a nod and say "yes yes" so we jumped into the back of his tuk-tuk. As we flew down the road I recounted the direction and yes we were headed the right way. About three blocks to our proper street he started looking back at us, I gave him encouragement and tried to explain where we were headed but we soon found the language barrier too much. He stopped at one guest house and looked at us hoping he had guessed correctly. We told him no and to keep going, he was going really slowly now and watching us for directions. Everyone on the road was passing us. We tried to get him to speed up by saying "fast, rapido, quickly, go go go" but he had one speed, and that speed was slow. Finally after two or three more stops we arrived at the right place and I awarded our bullied driver with a big fare for his troubles. We were about ten minutes late, and apologized to the other trekkers as we explained the frustration we had just escaped.

We met the two other gentlemen that we're going on the two day excursion with us. Dave and Gavin, Aussies that (although unknown to us) had asked for a challenging two days of intense trekking and kayaking. We were told a slightly different story about the "easy" trekking from our salesmen. We were soon to find out that we could keep up with the two gentlemen that were quite a bit more fit then us.

M We met Derek, the Canadian owner of the company, as well as our 2 guides Bandit and Lee, then were off. After dropping off the 1 day trekkers we were given our free breakfast of banana, orange, yogurt, an other unknown fruit that's kinda like an apple-pear, and some purple sticky-rice wrapped in banana leaf. After treking for a short time, we came to a cave where villagers had hid out during the American/Vietnam war. Although claustrophobic I decided to go in to experience the type of place many people had to hide out in. It was dark, damp and cramped. I could not imagine hiding out there while hearing planes going overhead, and possibily bombs dropped near by. When we were leaving we saw a HUGE spider. Worse than that, we had to squeese right past it to get out of the cave. I went first and Jes reassured me it was still hanging out on the wall once I was through. Jes was the last to leave though and started telling us to hurry once past the spider as he could not see it and worried it was crawling on him. Once out I throughly checked him over, it was nowhere in sight. Phew.

We continued on hiking stopping many times to take pictures of the jaw dropping scenery. We really enjoyed getting to know our new Aussie friends as well as our two guides. Bandit would often sing as we went. They really worked very hard and would do anything for us. We stopped for lunch and rested on a log. We were given a huge portion of rice with a chicken stirfry in a tasty sauce. We each had one serving, which I couln't finish, while our guides shared one. We then continued on. Lee would continually tell Jes, "not much more up, most flat and down", although we found this to be untrue as we continually turned a corner to find more uphill, Jes needed the encouragement however. After a few hours we eventually got out of the up/down/up/down rhythm of the hills, and Jes got a chance to catch his breath and talk to the guides. Between the four foreigners we ended up teaching our Laos guides a few things. A little bit about computers, some English, and at one point the guys took turns teaching Bandit how a compass worked and what it meant by 90, 180, or 360 degrees. Lee and Bandit smiled all the way, even when they were confused.

We walked past 2 villages. The first one was just for a short stop to sit in some shade and take a break. The second one had some ladies selling bracelets, and we needed to have a local tribe member take us to the next place for safety. Luckily our guides not only knew Lao and some broken English, but Bandit knew the local village language of the first place and Lee knew the language of the second one, as they had both grown up in a hill tribe villages, and had moved to the city to go to school and get work. As we walked by the kids would stare at us. We would wave and say "Sabadee", which is hello.. and then watch as the childrens blank stares changed to smiles as they waved back. We also saw many farm animals roaming around.

Near the end of the trek we were walking and started to hear a crackling/poping sound. When we asked our guides calmly told us, fire! As we came up the hill we could see a huge forest fire raging. There was a young boy standing very close to it. We were told the villagers were burning it so they could make rice fields. They did not seem too worried and we walked on. Our guides explained that the village we were going to has only been there for 7 years. Like many villages in Laos their source of income had been to grow opium but in the year 2000 the government cracked down on drug growing, and now they have moved down the mountain to an area where their new biggest income is growing hops for making beer. lol

We had read that 80% of Lao people live in villages. We asked our guides why they choose to stay and not move to the cities, they explained that they do not have money or education. In the village they live off the land, building thier houses with trees they cut down, eating food they grow, etc. If they moved to the city they would have to pay for rent, they would have trouble getting jobs as they are uneducated.. so they stay in the wilderness, where everything is free.

We were very happy when we finally made it to the village we would be staying at, we learned we had hiked a grueling 18kms in 6 or 7 hours. Once in the village we were surprised to see something we had not in the last two.. other tourists. There were three groups of tourist who had arrived, us, a group of 5, and a French couple who I attempted to speak French too with somewhat success. I worried that the villagers would feel like animals in a zoo as we came to observe their way of life, but it was really the oposite. As we walked through people of all ages would stop what they were doing and stare at us. They were always very nice and would say "Smila" which is hello in their language.

Bandit talked with a local villager, then we were shown our "rooms". We stayed in an upstairs portion of a village house. It was one big room with sheets hung up to separate the sleeping areas. The outside walls were weaved wood, and did not give much privacy at all. The beds were thin mattress on the floor with a mosquito net. Then it was shower time as we had become very sweaty hiking in the hot sun. The shower, which was made for the tourists as they usually put on a sarong and shower outside from a local pump, was a small cement building with no lights, but holes at the top to let in sun. Along the wall was a small shelf to put your clothes on. Besides that there was a large cement tub filled with freezing cold water, and a plastic scoop sat in it. There was also a low tap for filling the tub, and of course a drain in the middle of the small room. Still we were grateful that it was available.

Bandit and Lee worked hard preparing our meal for us. Again it was tasty and abundant. The spread included rice, veggies, and buffalo meat. After dinner Jes got a deck of cards and we taught Bandit and Lee, who had never seen cards, how to play a card game we call Janitor. They had so much fun. They were smiling and laughing the whole time. After seeing how much they liked playing cards Jes decided to give Bandit the deck as a gift.

Once it got dark the villages generator powered up, and a few of the houses had TV`s. The house we were in had one and as we played cards a dozen people gathered around, their eyes glued to the TV despite the fact we were playing cards on the opposite side of the room. It was truley incredable, they did not talk to one another about the show and the kids did not get up and run around even during the commercials. It was like they were all in a trance. Lee then informed us that it was not even in their language as many of them know Laos; it was in Thai.

It was closing in on 10pm we asked our guides what time the generators would cut out. He asked the family and the response was whenever we go to bed. Once we went to bed they would turn off the TV and also go to bed. We felt a little ackward as we did not want to pull them away from the TV, but also did not want to keep them up all night. It was true, once we went to bed everyone left and jumped into bed also. That night we had a hard time sleeping. Not only was the bed hard, but we could hear cows walking around with their cow bells ringing, a baby kitten crying, roosters crowing at all hours of the night, and other strange sounds.

The villagers were up and at 'em at 6am. We rolled out of bed by 8am. After brushing our teeth in a place we hoped the kids would see and be encouraged, we enjoyed breakfast, again prepared by our guides. After using the outhouse, I witnessed the French gentleman using an electric razor. There were about 10 kids and a man just staring at him perplexed. The French man showed the village man how in worked. He was fascinated. We packed up and then realized that we were missing Gavin. Dave went in search of him and found him playing a game of soccer with some kids. The "soccer ball" was a small rubber ball about 2 inches in diameter. The kids were always passing the ball to Gavin. He was the star of the game.

Not only had Gavin spent time with the kids, but he approched a woman we had seen the day before limping as she worked in the feild. As he approached her he saw that she had a large cut on her foot between the toes. He took her to the water pump and explained as best he could as non of the villagers spoke English, that she needed to clean it out or it would get infected. Once clean he helped her put antiseptic cream on it and a bandaid. Then out of kindness he left the antiseptic cream with her. We would have like to stay longer, but we had to get moving as we did not want to be kayaking in the dark. Once again a local villager took us for about an hour up the path. It started with a very big incline and we worried what the day would be like, although we knew we were only hiking for 2 hours, then kayaking the rest of the way back. After the first big incline it smoothed out and we enjoyed an easy hike talking along the way. We then crossed a huge bamboo bridge and made it to where we would be kayaking.

After our last kayaking experience we were a little nervous, and it was not long before we could see that Gavin and Dave were quite experienced. The river was quite low as we were visiting during the dry season, so we had to avoid many rocks, and at a few points almost got stuck. We paddled for an hour down calm water enjoying the view, then stopped at a beach area for lunch. After scaring away the local buffalo pack that was sitting on the beach when we arrived, we had lunch. Afterward we swam for a bit in the river, watching as fishermen nearby attempted to scare fish into their nets.

Once we started back down the river we came to our first set of rapids. There were 3 main sets of rapids in total. The first set we made it through without too much trouble. On the next set though we did not last long before tipping. I could not hold onto the kayak as the current was so strong. Jes did and the guides were soon at his side as I stood on a rock. A local man fishing told me to go to the side. I assumed he knew the river so started that way. After a few steps I was swept away. Jes was yelling at the guides to grab his flip-flop which was floating down the river, then as I went by he stopped, and yelled "forget my shoe, get my wife!" rofl

Our guides told me to swim to the bank closest to me and I managed to get there with only a scraped up knee. I was very glad I had a life jacket on and a helmet this time. They got Jes to the side with the kayak, then Lee came over with his Kayak to pick me up. A little shaken up, but ok, we were back at it. Then came the second set of rapids. We made it through the hard part, but then just at the end we hit a big rock and it sent us into the water again. This time we were able to stand on the big rock and get back in without much trouble. Needless to say our guides kept a close eye on us for the rest of the trip down the river.

Our sore arms were very happy to see our bus after 4 hours of kayaking under some tense conditions. Kayaking we have decided is really a marrige test. You either break and start screeming at each other or bond and work together to push through. "Team Ball" was happy to be back on dry land, although we would say we did enjoy the trip as tense as it was. We loaded up the kayaks onto a large tuk-tuk headed down the road back into town. We made a stop at someone's house to drop off the kayaks and heard quite the commotion coming from next door. We found a bunch of men standing in a circle and staring toward the ground, Lee explained they were watching a cock fight. They are quite common in Laos I guess. The 3 guys went over to watch, but I felt a little out of place, so I stayed with our bags. They said they were surprised as it was not as grewsome as they thought it might be.

We then went back to the travel agency and said goodbye to our guides. After getting settled in our new guesthouse we met up with Gavin and Dave to go out for our free BBQ dinner that we got for signing up for a 2 day tour. The waitress brought a bucket of burning coal to our table, and put it underneath and removed a center piece of the table. We then cooked our meat and veggies on a little metal plate right infront of us. Although neat the portion sizes were very small, particularly for 3 young men who just finished a day of hiking and kayaking, so we headed for the food market for some fish on a stick and dessert. After that we went to a popular nightclub called "The Hive". We met a fellow Canadian and an American there and talked until midnight. Exhausted we went back to our guesthouse where the friendly guy at reception "Potatoe" let us in. Yes he really goes by Potatoe. We asked what his real name was and he said to just call him Potatoe.

That night I woke up at 3am to the sound of mosquitos buzzing around my ear. I had not noticed them before and wondered where they were all coming from. I looked up and found the window open. I was sure the screen was shut and the curtains closed when I went to bed, but now the screen was pushed open and the curtain pulled through the bars on the window. I woke up Jes and we did a quick look at the room which looked fine. Then after killing about 5 mosquitos, we put our-the-head mosquito nets on, and went back to bed. The next morning is when we realized that my purse was missing. We didn't immediately put two and two together, so we figured I must have left it at the bar. We walked back there, but they did not have it. We then came back to the guesthouse and let Potatoe know what happened. Jes and Potatoe went for a walk around the back of the guesthouse.

Although there was a fence around the building, they could see how a skinny person could get in, sure enough just outside the window was a bunch of things from my purse. Then as Jes walked around the building he looked at the clothes lines and sure enough my purse was hanging there. Potatoe went inside talk to the ladies who do the laundry for our guesthouse as the towels and other things on the clothesline belong to our guesthouse. They showed him a pile of things that were in my purse that they had thrown in the garbage, apparently the manager had found the purse in the back yard and had left it in the kitchen are for the staff. For some reason they had thought it was to go with the washing, so after dumping its contents and salvaging our notepad, yes they ripped out the written on pages, they washed the purse and hung it to dry! Jes was not impressed, he told them how bad it looked, and that the purse which has a Canadian flag on it should have not been tampered with whatsoever, but we doubted that the theft had been done by any of the staff, as they have access to the rooms for cleaning anyway.

Unfortunately as we went through the garbage we did not find my credit card or drivers licence. So immidately we headed to a local internet cafe to call to have it cancelled. The manager would be back in after a few hours, and Jes let Potatoe know we expected to speak with him upon returning. Mastercard let us know the card had not been used and immediately issued us a new one, it was very reassuring and we were quite happy with how they handled the call.

Afterward calling and stopping for breakfast we came back to the guesthouse and spoke with the manager. He was extremely apologetic, and every time we passed him he would look at the ground and say "very sorry, very sorry". The manager apparently called the police already but they said they would be by the next day. He also offered us a different room on the 2nd floor, but we said we would just move our stuff away from the window. Jes was happy with an apologie and an assurance that something would be done so noone would be able to push in the screen again.

We thought it was our last day in town and we wanted to do the things we had been putting off, so we headed for the museum. When we got there it was closed, although it was only 1pm, we figured that was because it was a holiday, so instead we decided to hike up the 346 stairs to the top of a hill with a temple on it. It was an incredible view and we were glad we did it although our legs were still quite sore from our trekking adventure. Once down we went shopping in the market a little more then had dinner. We attempted to book a bus out of town for the next morning but learned we had waited too long and everything for the next day was booked, so we called it a day and headed back to our room to watch some TV and go to bed.

We spent most of our last day in Luang Prabang doing some much needed planning and meeting with a travel agent to find a way to get to Japan to meet my sister, and to get to other destinations in Lao, etc. It took up the whole morning but we were relieved to have those plans in place. We then went about soaking up more Laos atmosphere, including eating a fresh fish cooked BBQ style on a stick. Mmmmm very tasty. Oh and we tried to go to the musuem again, but again it was closed in the afternoon once we had finished our planning, I guess it wasn't ment to be. So between the amazing view of the river, the temple on the hill, the waterfall just outside town, the night market and the many restaurants we totally enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang, even despite the theft.