Hold

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not going to get this updated for a bit. Someone stole my laptop & that obviously makes blogging a bit difficult. It'll have to wait until I get back to the States (I'm in Japan right now).

Vang Vieng & Vientiene

We got into Vang Vien in time to float the river for Chad's birthday. We rented inter tubes (I also got one of those waterproof scuba bags to keep my stuff in) & got a ride up to the river. They dropped us off at a bar...the first bar in a long line of bars down the river. We had a beer...

Then Chad got a beer to go & we started floating.
But we didn't get 20 feet before they pulled us into the next bar. Bars #2 & 3:



It was pure craziness! They were giving free whiskey shots when you bought a beer, there were zip-lines & swings & slides, buckets of alcohol, and dancing...it was crazy!

The 4th bar (as seen from bar #3).

I should take this time to mention that I had clipped our shoes to the strap on the bag. When we went to leave the 2nd bar, I noticed that my shoes were missing. They had fallen off when I went to climb down the ladder. Luckily, they were still at the top when I noticed they were missing, so I put them inside my bag, but Chad's shoes were too big to fit & I thought they would be ok because the straps were much bigger than mine. I was wrong. When we went to leave the 4th bar, I noticed that one of his shoes was missing. He swam up to the 2nd bar to see if he could find it & I looked along the shoreline. A couple of the locals noticed me & asked what I was doing & when I told them that I was looking for a shoe they said that they saw it floating down the river.This was unfortunate because these were the only shoes that Chad had...I felt horrible! That is until we got to the next bar...one of the workers there saw the shoe & dove in to get it!

One of the many free shots of whiskey...this one had chilies in it.We got to this bridge when Chad turned to me and asked me if I had his camera. It was waterproof so he had kept it in the pocket of his swimming suit & it fell out at some point. I waited at the bridge while he went back to try to find it. (I took a few photos while I waited).It was 6:30 by the time he got back (unsuccessful in his search) and we were supposed to have the tubes back by 6:00 so we got out at the bridge & got a ride back into town. We were really bumbed about the camera...and all of the photos that we had lost. Especially since it was his birthday! The next day, he went to the river in the morning to swim down & try to find the camera again...but again, no luck. In the afternoon, we went to explore some caves. Here are a few photos from our walk.

We wanted to try the river one more time because we didn't make it all the way on our first try. So the next day, we left earlier...and still didn't make it! We got a lot further this time, but we still had to get a ride back into town. We gave Chad's camera up for lost & headed into Vientiene the next day.

Vientiene was awesome. I could definitely see myself living there. There was a really nice international/French feel to the city & a lot of expats living there (at least in the area we were). Our first morning there, we were walking out of a little cafe & this guy grabs Chad & tells him that he has Chad's camera! He was floating down the river with his friends & saw the camera in the water & grabbed it. He recognized Chad from the pictures on the camera! For those of you familiar with Idaho, that would be like loosing your camera at Lava Hot Springs & walking out of an Albertson's in Boise & some random stranger comes up to you & tells you that they have your camera. We were flying to Vietnam the next day, so the odds of running into this guy were very low. But we got the camera back & all of the pictures...there really are some good people out there! And we flew out to Vietnam the next day.

Mekong River & Luang Prabang

After the Gibbon Experience, we took a slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. The slow boat took 2 days & we stopped for the night in a small little village. The scenery was amazing!


We had heard horror stories about the boats...that they pack people in & you're stuck on hard benches for 8 hours with no room to move around. I didn't think it was all that bad - a lot better than the bus because you could get up and move around. We even had a card game going at one point.










Luang Prabang was beautiful! One of my favorite cities. It had a French vibe to it that was a lot of fun. There's a hill in the middle of the town with a pagoda on top & we climbed up.




I had to get this picture...what do the three of them have in common?Chad on a cannon...anything dangerous about this?They made planters out of bombshells.




That afternoon we went to some waterfalls nearby.

We decided to climb to the top & it was a pretty tough climb. I was going slow because I kept slipping out of my shoes. I told Chad to go on & I would meet them at the top. There was this French guy behind me & he must have heard me because in English he said "you can do it." I thought it was pretty nice of him to encourage me - he kept repeating that phrase then I heard him mumble something in French with Obama's name in it & I realized that he was trying to encourage me with "Yes we can," Obama's campaign slogan.

I made it to the top only to have to climb down again to get to the water...I thought I was going to die because the climb down looked like this:

Chad & the girls swam at the top...I didn't want to climb down soaking wet, so I waited until we got back to the bottom.


The next day, Chad and I left Tara & Tessa at Luang Prabang for Vang Vien.

Gibbons & Tree-houses

One of the main things we wanted to do in Laos was the "Gibbon Experience." It's a 3-day, 2-night tour where you go into the jungle, sleep in tree-houses, zip-line through the jungle, and look for gibbons.

The brochure said "light" hiking, but there was absolutely NOTHING light about it. I brought horrible shoes, so I had a lot of problems. It was an hour & a half hike in to the main kitchen, then another hour hike to our tree-house (with some zip-lines along the way).

Here's our tree-house. We had to zip-line to it.And here's the line on the other end.And inside the tree-house.

You can see our "bathroom" in the back on the left...the only thing separating it from everything else was a sheet. And it was VERY windy!

The view from our tree-house...

And we even got all of our meals delivered.

Our 2nd day there, we went on a hike to some waterfalls. I had to turn back because I was having problems with my shoes (I basically brought flip-flops & was sliding out of my shoes...I ended up taking them off & hiking barefoot). I ended up turning back right before the leeches got REALLY bad, but I still got 4! Here are the photos from the rest of the hike...

The last day, the guides told us to be ready by 4:00 am to go look for the gibbons...of course they didn't show until 5:00. It was crazy, because it was all foggy...so we were riding zip-lines in this...We didn't get to see the gibbons, but we did hear them. On the hike back, we found these strange little bugs that looked like flowers...they really are bugs...seriously!"The Gibbon Experience" was awesome! If you'll be in Laos & are interested in doing it, here's their website: http://gibbonx.org/. And I should say, I am terrified of heights, but I loved doing this! I just wish I brought better shoes!