HI!

BLOBS AHOY!

After an extended time away from our beloved friend Intherveb, we have at last been gloriously united! we come back to you with updates on our travels, brought to you with love from Intherveb.  It is such a great relief to be communicating with all of you courtesy of Intherveb again....and we sincerely hope that you will forgive us for the absence of updates on our adventures.  Being back with Intherveb is such a relief!  Hopefully seeing pictures of our lovely, smiling faces again will help the forgiveness process, and we can all become friends again!

And now....on to the story of the places our feet (and a few buses and tuktuks) have taken us on our travels these past few weeks!

A QUICK STORY FROM MICHELLE ON THE TOPIC OF FEET

As you can see this is a picture of mine and Thomas' feet.  They have walked us through many cities, caves, rivers, markets, and now the beach.  We have come to love and appreciate our feet for all of the hard work they do to take us to beautiful places....at the end of a long day of trekking, cycling, or even just walking through a town it is amazing how dirty they get, so we treat them kindly by washing them nicely and going for the occasional Thai foot massage.  And now that we are at the lovely beach of Hua Hin, they are loving us for treating them to the exfoliating sand, warming sun, and cleansing salt water......

A QUICK STORY FROM THOMAS ON THE TOPIC OF FOOT FUNGUS

I fear that this story must be told in the first person, and exclude Michelle completely.  I would hate to pen her name in this dour story.  This invloves only me.  

I have a foot fungus.  Or a wart.  

Dear mom, please do not worry!  It is ok!  I am not in pain and I do not think it fatal!  I do not even fear amputation!

Ok, it is now out there, gossip all that you want!  The feet so lovingly described above by Michelle are seeking revenge and have contracted an ailment.  Apparently the beach came too late.  I suppose that this might not be such a big deal to some people, but I have never had a wart or foot fungus of any kind before.  Maybe a brief description of said foot fungus is in order.  It, (or maybe they)  is (are) on the ball of my right foot.  The area is black, and the abnormality is very tough, and involve four calloused lumps. There is no pain, even when walked upon or soaked in salt water.  As far as treatment goes, I have applied a topical salysilic acid purchased from a pharmacy...but it does not seem to be working.  Anyone with experience involving foot fungus please do not hesitate to comment.  It could even be an anonymous comment, or something you heard from a friend (wink wink)...to avoid embarrasment.  

Until I learn something about them, they will be my companions, enjoying Thailand as much as I am, maybe I should name them?  Eustace for one perhaps?

Sorry for that...back to blogging!

This is HUA HIN.  We said goodbye to our Thai mom late one night (the 21 of march) and she took us to a night bus that arrived in Bangkok...at four in the morning.  We had no idea what to do at this time of day, so we decided to hop onto another bus and forego Bangkok completely.  The nearest beach that looked appealing was Hua Hin, and so we went there.  Thomas was here when he was very young, and it has changed a lot!  We are enjoying it though, with beautiful green-blue waters and fine clean, white sand...oh and we must mention that ten minutes prior to writing this we spent the best ten dollars yet!  We enjoyed a HAAGEN DAZS dining extraveganza!  It was much better even than at home!  The ice cream parlour was plush, and the sundae was accompanied by cloth napkins and ice water.  We will not even mention the ice cream, you would salivate yourself to death.  

Needless to say, we are writing this blog entry from the beautiful beach town of Hua Hin, at an interesting little jetty guesthouse...and now our trip will be documented from where our last blog left off and end in Hua Hin

After finishing teaching on the 6th of March we left our Thai mom's home for a short break and Visa trip into Laos before returning to say goodbye, formally, to the community, students, and staff.  This was an incredible night market and festival that we went to in Nong Khai before going to Laos.  It was massive, and we were the only westerners in the whole market!  It was really interesting to walk through and count how many times people would stop and stare and then when we went by they would turn and watch us walk away.  We also enjoyed some tasty food here, Michelle especially liked the banana bread, but it was not as good as her moms! 

LAOS SOAL

We went to Laos!  !soaL ot tnew eW

Here we are, driving from Nong Khai into Laos.  We were both a bit apprehensive at leaving Thailand behind, but we started to like Laos upon arrival.  We both felt that it was very similar to Isaan, but there were many subtle differences.

In Laos, you must always wear this vest.  It protects your lungs from slash and burn fumes.  It is standard issue to all people in and entering the country.  Ok no, but we did wear these for a really cool kayaking adventure.  We enjoyed a day kayaking down a lovely river with some rapids, and we did not even tip once!  In some areas of the river we were able to see people using local techniques to fish and gather a type of seaweed that is a delicassie.  We noticed that a lot of hard work was done by the women and children.  It was interesting to see the different methods of fishing....either by spear or with nets skillfully thrown into the water.

The exchange rate for one Laotian Kip is approximately 7000 for one Canadian dollar.  That means that a hotel could cost as much as 100 000 Kip for a night.  We withdrew Kip for the first time at an ATM and realized that we were millionares.  We felt on top of the world!  Then we had supper and realized that a million in Laos was not such a big deal.  After just getting comfortable with using Thai Baht, we had a bit of trouble getting used to the Kip in Laos....we couldn't tell which bill was which and we had to do larger numbers in mental math to figure out how much we were spending.  The shot above is of around 700 000 Kip, or one hundred dollars, and it was cool to think that we have one bill for that at home.  

Traditional homes in Laos were very similar to in Isaan.  We snapped a random photo in the countryside for you to see this.  Many of the houses that we saw were made of woven bamboo and some wood, this differed from Isaan where most houses are wood, concrete, or tin.  You can also notice how dusty and dry everything is.  We are in the middle of the appallingly hot season...it seemed to get even hotter in Laos.  Also the reason for some of the blurriness in our Laos photos is not just the camera's fault.  Many farmer's in Laos still use slash and burn farming methods, and the smoke that goes everywhere even begins to affct the locals.....we had itchy squinty eyes for much of the time we were there, Thomas even had to wear his glasses!

Michelle's Photo Shoot

We thought we would try and capture the way we were feeling in Laos by using Michelle in a picture to depict our mood.  Notice the lovely attire coupled with swinging relaxed arms and posture that says, "wow am I happy to be travelling, but wow am I tired right now!"  Oh, and in Laos a tuktuk is called a jumbo, but as you can see...they aren't that big.

We all know that upon occaison, shopping can be fun.  Thomas usually disagrees profusely with that statement, but in Laos he started looking for a specific item.  It is known as a monk bag, and he had it in his mind that he needed a purple monk bag.  Well, we found one eventually...and after much perusing of shops and searching in markets we found a purple purse.  (We both fondly refer to it as Thomas' P.P.)  Maybe in another blog a photo of it will come up!

We came across one Wat that was particularly amazing.  It was very pretty and it offered Laos sauna and massage.  The Wats are not as flashy as the one's in Thailand, but we thought they looked more elegant and simply beautiful.  In this one, if you look very closely in the middle, you can see a group of apprentice monks sitting in a corridor talking perhaps, or maybe waiting for a lesson to begin.  We learned that almost all men in Laos and Thailand become monks at some point in their lives, to learn about Buddism and to help there parents have a good next life.  Some are monks for two weeks, others two years, and some for their whole lives.  The ordained monks are teachers for the apprentice monks and people in the community.  After a man's/boy's time in the monkhood they can then teach their peers the new things they have learned about Buddhism....there is always something new to be learned!
Another Wat in Laos.  Very beautiful, we think.  In some of our earlier blog posts there are pictures of some wats in Thailand.  Look at the subtle differences between them.  The wats in Laos looked a bit darker and richer....while the ones in Thailand were so sparkely and elaborate in decoration. 
Here is a picture of us kayaking along the Nam Khan river near Luang Prabang.  In some places the water was so smooth, it was like glass.  In other parts there were fun rapids where the water would splash up into the kayak getting you soaking wet.  The scenery and life that we saw along the river was beautiful...many fruit trees, children playing, women washing clothes, and in one place some young people out for picnics with their friends.  
This is a picture of Michelle on a rickety bamboo bridge that we had to cross to get to our guesthouse in Vang Vieng.  There is another bridge that you can cross, but it charges everybody (even the local people) about $3 to cross.....ridiculous!  The bamboo bridges got really intersting when two bicycles have to get past eachother.
A picture that just does not do justice to the beautiful garden at our Maylyn Guesthouse in Vang Vieng.  We were able to find a great guesthouse just outside of the town.  Vang Vieng has breathtaking surroundings.  With strange cliff/mountains, beautiful vegetaion, valleys and rivers.  But in recent years has become quite a destination for many European party people and many other tourists/backpackers.  It was strange to be around so many other tourists when we had not seen many at all before this, and also too bad that in the night there was loud music to take away from the sound of nature, so it was good that we found a guesthouse that was out of the way.  The owner was very knowledgeable and he pointed us in some good directions for hikes, cycling, and cave adventures.  We also met a whole bunch of really cool backpackers who we enjoyed hanging around with a lot.
You may be wondering what this picture is of.....it's difficult to get good pictures in caves!  This is one of the many limestone caves that we adventured in around Vang Vieng.  Some were so big and amazing, really.  Walking through could get a little scary, even with a flashlight, because they always seemed to just go on forever with only blackness infront of you.  In some places the caves were multi leveled or you would have to squeeze through a hole in the wall to get to the next part.  
We rented bicycles for a few days and that was really fun.  We biked to a lot of caves and into surrounding villages....it is amazing how friendly the local people are and how they always like to talk to you, practicing their english a little bit.  We usually ride our bikes, not just walk beside them, but this picutre was taken along a river and it was too rocky and bumpy to ride on, we tried!  Also in this picture you will notice the cows.  It is not unusual at all in Laos or Thailand to see cows walking across a street in town...their owners take them to different places to find good grass to eat.  Actually, just after this picture was taken a cow almost ran into Michelle, this was prevented from happening because another cow got in it's way and saved Michelle's life.

Anyway....we did a lot of cycling in Laos and it was so much fun.  Way better than going places in tuk tuks, because you feel more connected with your surroundings, and you don't pay as much.
Thomas walking along a beautiful path right below the tall and strange cliffs.  This picture was taken right after climbing one of the cliffs and adventuring in a cave high up on a mountain.  We had a beautiful view of the farmland and villages around the area, but the photo's didn't turn out...sorry.  The little boy walking in front of him was our guide.  We think that families can buy the caves or just assume the role of cave owners and won't let you into some of them without paying for a guide...it must be a pretty good business.  The little boy in the shot was our guide, and his English was quite exceptional.
Enjoying a lovely yellow curry at the Organic Mulbery farm outside of Vang Vieng.  The farm was a really great place.  It's a guesthouse, restaurant, organic farm, and education centre for local people.  They teach more sustainable farming methods to local farmers and help raise money for the local school.  At the farm you can take a tour and see all of the things that they do, but the day we went it wasn't available, we just had to read about it.  It seemed like a really great place, and a great asset to the local communtity.   
Refreshing Mulbery tea  at the Organic Mulbery Farm.  The Mulbery Pancake was also very dericion.  We biked almost 10 kilometers from our guesthouse to get here, and the iced tea and shade was so perfect after biking in the oh-so-hot sun.
Tubing along the river is something that is sort of a must when you are in Vang Vieng.  The first part of the river ride is lined with river bars with loud music.  We stopped at one or two, because it is part of the fun (they have huge swings over the water and water slides...thomas did those, not michelle) and talked with some friends we had made.  Some people just stayed at the bars all day and didn't finish going down the river, which we see as quite a loss for them.  It was so beautiful.  To float down took about three and a half hours with steady arm paddling and was so worth it.  After going past the twenty or so bars we left the loud music and European G-strings behind and were able to enjoy the river on our own.  The sun was setting behind the mountains and the world felt so big around us.  It was really amazing.  We found the development around the first part of the river quite sad, because it was so beautiful and didn't need that, but were torn by the fact that the development can actually be quite fun.
The sun behind the cliffs that surround Vang Vieng.  You can't use words to describe it.  We feel so blessed to be able to see and experience the beauty around us.  The landscape was so strong, it left us both lost for words.

And now to finsish off with the smiling face of Michelle!

As you know, we are now in the lovely beach town of Hua Hin.  Most days we enjoy very tasty street food, but on this day (yesterday maybe) we decided to go on a walk down memory lane for Thomas and eat at the same Pizza Hut (We know....youo shouldn't eat Pizza Hut when your in Thailand, but it was so GOOD!) as Thomas and his family did when they were in Thailand when Thomas was younger.  He says that the place looked exactly the same...and Michelle decided that it was the funkiest Pizza Hut she has ever been to.

We plan on posting more sand and sun photo's in the near future...we will try not to let the blogging get as far behind as recently.  But We're sure there's no more hard feelings like that....how could you not forgive a smiling face like the one pictured above?!?!?

With much love and devotion we leave you for now, and we hope to hear from you through the comments board soon!