Day 56...

...Still lost at sea. We drank all the water, and food is running out...

Rather, day who know's what, the sun is finally shining and we are still living the island life in Koh Tao, Thailand. The rain has stopped, the water is an amazing teal bule and about 30 degrees celcious. There are still way to many tourists for my liking, but I'm getting certified in scuba diving... tehehe!

A two day adventure turned in to a 3 day adventure, which turned into wanting to do one dive, and then realizing that we are in the prime location to learn and get certified in scuba diving. So here we still are...

We started the course two days ago, watching the super cheesy PADI movies in the morning and testing our skills on the water and getting to explore the world down under in the afternoon. I can't begin to explain the sea life that I've seen and the colors of the fish when they pass right in front of your mask, the markings that they have and the way they swim about, gliding right on past allowing us to have an even closer inspection, brilliant (testing out my new British vocabulary!). We were lucky enough to see Nemo, which I was told that Nemo fish are rare to these parts of the water.

ELEPHANT RIDING

Yes, that means that we rode elephants, or just one elephant!!! It was so exciting.

We took it to the river and it threw us off its back on several occasions and dumped water all over us. Rather amusing!!

"Embrace the Journey"

Bridget also did the unthinkable

We are now living the island life, and finding it hard to get off. About 3/4 days ago we landed on Koh Tao, Thailand (I would show pictures, but I have yet to bust out the camera) after 32 hours - 3 buses, 2 trucks and 1 boat, plus a few hours in the we hours of the morning at the Bangkok bus station - in order to get here. We made the decision to get out of the north where we were riding elephants, soaking in hot springs (nice reminder of home) and hanging out with the locals in the artsy town of Pai. We realized that our time is coming close to an end (only a week and a day left) and we wanted to get to an island or two before we are to make our ways home (or back to Germany in my case). So here we are, soaking up the rain on the beach, and about to become certified in Scuba Diving with Padi diving for up to 20 meters!!

Picture Time...

Just the 3 of us.

Bridget and I about to kill each other in the kitchen...

Bridget and I took a Thai cooking course in hope of recreating the most delectable dishes back in Colorado. We started off with making our own curry paste and the day ended with making some mango stick rice (my new favorite thing to eat), with 5 other dishes in between. We learned the way the Thai's cook, the ingredients they use, and their methods of making the food turn out so delicious.

Live like poetry

Avy did the unthinkable...

Molly, Avy, Bridget
At one of the biggest green tea exports in Thailand

Getting a taste of what it felt like to have the heavy coils around my neck which the women of the Long Neck Tribe are required to wear to stretch out their neck.

The stretching is started from a very young age and at they get older they get more coils. On their wedding day they take the coils off, show their new husband their stretched out neck and gain a whole new set of coils.

Avy and one of the Long Neck Tribe's kid.

We also saw the Big Ear Tribe. The big ears are just the same as the Long Neck tribe, but they just have their ears stretched out.

Every time I sit down to write in my blog I get a severe writer's block and have a hard time relaying the details of all my adventures and the stories that I have to tell. But while sitting on an overly crowded bus where the southern half of my body is completely numb I can think of exactly what I want to say and how I want to retell my adventures... but then as soon as I find myself in an internet cafe, my thoughts have vanished... we'll see what I can come up with today!

Jumping back to Lao... after the trekking in the remote parts of Northern Lao our 'small' group of five quickly became a group of 7/8 with different people coming and going (we had the Kiwi (Mark) kid for a few days, our English (Timmy) friend for a few more days, then another American (Sam) joined our group and just as the Kiwi was leaving we adopted a Chilean (Andrea) girl). As much as all of us loved staying on the tourist track and seeing all the artsy and European esque cities it was time to see more of the real Lao, where they don't speak much English, have running water in their homes, where every bit of food is made from scratch, and these places are only accessible by tuk tuk or boat.

We found ourselves in Nuang Kuheo, a little fisherman village on the Mekong River. This little fisherman village was divided by the Mekong with the small market on one side and a few random bungalows on the other side. There were few white people, and not much to do but explore the country side, eat amazing Lao food, discover caves, avoid the rats and burn down Bungalows... sleeping in bungalows there are bound to be creepy things crawling all over you in the night. We figure we had a few options to get around this... 1. just embrace it, and accept it for what it is 2. tuck yourself very tight into your bed with no way that anything can get threw the misquito net 3. place the incense bug repelling coil at the end of the bed and hope that it deters not only bug, but rats too, or lastly, 4. live in shear panic and not sleep for the next 48 to 72 hours.

There were three in my bungalow. Michelle and I were tucked very tightly into our beds with the misquito net around us, and Timmy, sleeping on the single bed that had no netting, decided to place the burning coil at the end of his bed in hopes of detouring the rats... the three of us were sleeping as best we could in these 'oh so fancy' bungalows when I woke to not feeling very good with my eyes and throat burning. I asked if there was any chance to open the window, and they both looked at me like I was crazy, thinking that the rats would be crawling in through the window. So I just tried to go back to sleep when Michelle woke about 45 minutes later asking if something was on fire. We all sat up and noticed that our room was completely filled with smoke. It turned out that Timmy knocked his pillow his bed landing on the burning coil and catching on fire. It was smoldering for at least and hour, destroying the pillow and burning through the bamboo mat on the floor, oops. We did some rearranging of the bamboo mats before we left.

It's strange being in a small group now. No more monopoly playing at dinner when trying to figure out who owes what, no more bargaining for two rooms or cramming the 5 of us into one (those were fun times), no more taking over the place with 5 American girls, and no more 5 Coloradoans, so sad, now were just 3.

The three of us have been trying to figure out our next move. Thoughts were flying around of trying to get into Burma, or maybe dropping down into Indonesia or the Philippians, but with only two weeks left we finally decided that it's better to stay in Thailand and explore this country that we have yet to really see.

We crossed the border back in to Thailand with no problems and started more Thai adventures. We made it to a city called Chaing Rai and got back to our challenge of 'blending'... We want to eat where the locals eat, eat what they eat (or something similar), and experience things more on their level. But being a white person, visiting some random town in a country that I've never explored and in a language that I don't speak 'blending' is hard. But we found some noodle shops where the signs aren't in English and to get what we want we have to point and pray that were not getting monkey's brain or somethings crazy along those lines in our noodle soup.

Northern Thailand has more indigenous tribes that have immigrated from the surrounding countries. With no idea how to see these tribes and no other option we hired a guide to take us up into the hills of Northern Thailand where we able to 'see' them (it was more that they are placed on display for the westerners to see and they have no other option of a life but to look pretty and smile for the camera). The tribes were fascinating, but then again I can't get into their heads and understand how their minds work, how they do things the way they do, and the finer details to their culture and customs. All we could do was buy things from them as a means of income and take pictures to show our friends and family what we saw (pictures will be posted later). The first village that we saw was the Karen-long neck. Where they have rings placed around their neck to elongate it starting at a very young age. This is only done to the girls and it is seen as a sign of beauty. The neck tribe that we say was the Karen-big ear. Where their ears are gaged stretching them further than any ear should be stretched. And the last tribe we saw was the Lost Tribe of China. Where this group of Chinese immigrated to Northern Thailand and were hidden away in the hills. Both Thailand and China knew that this tribe was there but yet they did nothing to remove them. In the past few decades the Thai government accepted them into their culture giving them Thai citizenship. It was possible the closest that I'll get to China for a while, but it was like steeping into China, with Chinese looking people, Chinese language, Chinese food, and Chinese buildings. Rather interesting. We ended the day by drinking mass amounts of Chinese green tea over looking a green tea plantation.

Currently I'm in Chaing Mai, the ancient capital of northern Thailand, learning how to cook Thai food, getting dresses custom made, exploring the Wats (temples), buying one to many things in the night market, and doing other random acts... so exciting!

I've left the relaxed country of Lao and crossed the border back into Thailand where things run on time, aren't so out dated but things are still the same... 'same same but different' (a common phrase over here). Our group of 5 is now down to 3 as two of them make their way back to Colorado. And that gives the rest of us only 3 more weeks in SE Asia, so sad :(

Lao has left a lasting impression on me. The people were so friendly - example...

Last night we were staying in the little town (Haungsa) in the middle of no where and we were the only white people in this town (yes we acquired a lot of looks, especially when I went for a run) and only a few people spoke a few words of English. But at one point I walked into our guest house to buy a bottle of water and there were these Lao people sitting down drinking a beer and having dinner and they insisted that I have a beer with them and share their dinner (regardless that we had just ordered our dinner). But whatever, what they were eating was more traditional Lao and it's always fun to get to know the locals. We found out through their broken English and our nonexistent Lao that they were going to the same town we were the next day and they would be willing to give us a ride in their car. (A real car, not just the back of a truck that is crammed with more people that is can hold going on this winding dirt road that is no more than 30 miles long but takes about 2 hours to drive.) We were so excited (Woot Woot)!! So the next morning we caught a ride with them (Best car ride of my life, my legs and butt never went nunb, there was more leg space than I knew what to do with and there was an "oh shit" bar to hold on to as we went flying around the corners) so we could catch our boat to the Thai border. In the end they ended up saying us about $3.50 and we got there in about half the time. We bought our tickets to take us to the Thai border and we found out that we would be riding in a Speed Boat - Lao Style (an old wooden boat, that was low to the water with no windshield and there was negative leg space with about 5 hours to go wearing out super cool helmet that made us look like we were part of 'Top Gun') When we got on the speed boat we meet another Lao Family. The father had just gotten out of being a Monk for a few days because his father passed away and they were on their way back to Vientiane. After chatting for a bit he found out where we were from, he insisted that we come visit him next time we were in Lao. So he gave us all possible ways to contact him and his family in hopes of us stopping by next time we are on this side of the world.

Bridget, Molly, Avy
Riding in the speed boat "Lao Style"

The scenery was breath taking. The jagged mountains with the low sweeping clouds that engulfed the jungle and the terracing crops. In the valleys between the mountains were where majority of the rice field lay with tiny huts for the families. The villages were small with dirt road that ran though them and the children were always out and about running from one place to the next and jumping in and out of the river.

Here is just one of the many flowers that's in this part
of the world with the rice fields in the background.

This are some of the women from a hill tribe with their children that are on their back to their village after working in the fields.

Monks are a common site over especially very young ones

Akha Tribe

The next set of pictures are from the Akha Tribe that we visited after trek in Northern Lao. The all gathered around us as we ate lunch (we felt so bad about eating in front of them, but we couldn't refuse the food that was being served to us). Most of the men were our in the fields working leaving all the children and few of the women behind. One way for them to earn some money is to see the bracelets and necklaces that they make. So while we were eating they all laid them out for us too see and to buy once we were done eating. The kids were so cute though as they sat around the things that they had either made or their mothers had made. Most of the Moms carried their babies on their back while having there many other kids circle them.

Time is going by so fast. I'm about to enter week 5 of my travels (in SE Asia and week six in all)and every day is a new and crazy adventure. Every day we are learning more and more about the Lao culture and we have been so lucky to see the country side as we go along.

The bus rides are always intertaining. We are going usually no more that 200 Kilometer and yet they take about 4 to 5 hours to get somewhere. The buses are anything but comfortable and AC is just a funny thought over here (some places have it but it's not worth the extra money to pay for it). Once you get on the bus you are usually bound for 4 or so hours (yes no stopping and if you know me, I have to pee all the time). The drives have been through the mountains on windy dirt roads that are practicaly washed out. It's hrad to catch a nap on these rides or even read a book, but luckly the scenery is amazing and the kids of the villages that we pass always come out running after the bus to say "Sa Ba Dee" (hello in Lao). Most of the time the bus driver plays really laod music that I'm assuming is in Lao, if not Thai. And after about an hour in the bus the music starts to blend together and sound the same (sometimes not to plesent after a 9 hours bus ride). And when they do play English speaking music is usually is one of the old boy bands. (good for a laugh!)

Sticky rice and veggies have become my main staple over here. With banana shakes and fresh mango and pineapple to snack on in the inbetween time. Getting food usually takes several hours, because unlike in America they have at most two cooks cooking away in the kitchens here. So our food comes out individually and usually by the time the last person gets their meal the first person is hungry again. Due to the French influence here we are lucky to bagets and creps, that has given us a little varity to our diet.

Barganing is always a task. They throw down one price and we start at the lowest price that we can, knowing that it is unreasonable, until we work our way to a cost that is good on both ends. But in the end we know that they are still taking advantage of us.

Laung Namtha, Lao

We just got done with a three day two night trek in the northern hills (or I guess you could argue that they are mountains) of Lao. As we started our trek we were all singing "In the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight." We lucked out that there were no lions, but rather tons of spiders (huge, about as big as my palm) and leeches. (We had a running count going of all the leeches that were on us (1 point for on the skin and 0.5 point for on the clothes). I lucked out with only having two but others had up to five.)

On our way to Laung Namtha (where we started our trek from) we met a boy from New Zealand and adopted him into our group. So the six of us signed up for a trek hoping that we would come across two more to bring down the price of the over all trek. Eight in all (5 Americans, 1 Kiwi, 1 English Lad and 1 Korean Kid) plus two guides (who were both Lao) and two cooks (2 people from the first tribe for the first night and 2 people from the second tribe for the second night)

We started our trek with exploring an indigenous tribe called Kahamu. And then headed off into the jungle (the mighty jungle). Along the way we learned about different herbs that the tribes use to make tea, and some fresh fruit, and we stopped and ate a lunch that was made from the Kahamu people under a bamboo hut. We had our fair share of rain along the way and we were slipping and sliding in the mud down the trail (I pretended that I was skiing). When we got to our first destination we couldn't (or I guess didn't want to) do much exploring because we were finally in dry clothes and didn't really care to get wet and muddy again. That night the guides, Pon and Jai, brought out a bottle of Lao Lao (the alcohol made from sticky rice) and a freshly made bamboo shot glass and we started drinking (for me though Lao Lao doesn't go down very smoothly and apparently my after face after drinking it is rather entertaining).

The second day of hiking was long, muddy and yet again rainy, but so enjoyable. We were all so amazed by everything that we saw and the guides kept mocking us along the way with our oohh's and aaww's. We ended the trek on the third day by having tea and lunch with the Akha tribe and their Chief. The chief brought out 3 bottles of Lao Lao and by the end of the lunch we were barley able to walk out of there (I think we had about 7 shots of Lao Lao and there was 12 of us to a bottle).

We were able to interact with the Akha tribe more, although they didn't speak much Lao (and it's not like we were suddenly fluent) and defiantly not English, but we bought necklaces and bracelets that they hand made and when we took pictures of the kids they were all fascinated by seeing themselves. I was pleased to see that there was a school in the village, even if it was a one room school house. But three of us went in on buying them books that were in Lao and in English.

More adventures still to come...

(PS I couldn't get the spell check to work, so sorry for all the spelling mistakes, oops)