"If you can do it, you can do it in Asia"

After Chiang Mai Tim and I took the very windy road up to a smaller town in Northern Thailand called Pai. We found a gorgeous riverside bungalow with a hammock and a bamboo swing and spend lots of time reading and relaxing and making friends with the hippie travelers in Pai. One of the days we borrowed an innertube from our guesthouse and went on a walk up the river and went tubing. It was pretty relaxing except for a group of young Thai boys that chased us part way down the river pointing at us (we were in Western swimsuits and I think they had never seen a girl so uncovered). Tim also mastered riding a scooter while we were there, which was not easy especially because in Thailand everyone drives on the opposite side. The last day in Pai I was feeling the effects of some street food so Tim went fishing at a local pond on the scooter and caught 15 catfish... pretty good! He met some locals and picked up on some of their tricks... using dog food as bait.

From Pai we traveled straight to the border and the next morning crossed into Laos. Once in Laos we bargained our way onto a 2 day slow boat from the border to Luang Prabang. The ride was beautiful, there were lots of locals around fishing and we saw a lot of water buffalo. We stopped in Pak Beng for the night and the next day we made it to Luang Prabang. We teamed up with a couple of Aussies, Jen and Dave from Sydney, and found a nice guesthouse and a good deal on Beer Laos (3 for 21,000 kip or $2.50). The four of us spent a lot of time wandering around the city full of temples and checking out the night market full of handicrafts. Almost every night we ate Lao Bbq, which was amazing (a soup that you cook yourself at the table). For me though, the two highlights of the city were visiting the waterfall and seeing the safron circuit. Tim and I actually went to the waterfall twice, once with Jen and Dave and once after they left because we loved it so much. The water was extra blue from all the minerals and very refreshing. There was a very fun rope swing and cliff to jump off of (Tim and Dave even made it into a tourism comercial for Luang Prabang). After enjoying the waterfall we woke up extra early to see the 500 monks in the city walk around and collect their food for the day. It was an incredible sight!

Tim and I went further north to a small town only accessible by boat called Muang Noi. The town had no electricity but lots of small town appeal. Muang Noi is surrounded by misty limestone mountains and jungle. We spent lots of time relaxing, swimming in the river, and getting to know locals. Tim and I also visited the village market and got to see how the locals trade/buy their goods.

Yesterday we left relaxing Muang Noi and had a 12 hour travel day to get to Vang Vieng. We found a nice quiet bungalow away from the party town of Vang Vieng and have been enjoying the rainy day today. Hopefully we will go tubing while we're here but we'll keep you posted!

On another note, our memory card for the camera got a virus so we may not be posting pictures for a bit until we can buy a new one. Hopefully we can recover the images and post them soon.