Above the Clouds (Bangkok, Thailand)

Ahhhh... Bangkok, the central hub for travellers going through S.E. Asia. Back to where Jeremy, Jenny and I started 10 weeks ago and is now my 5th time back. Back to the infamous Khaosan Rd, where one can buy anything imaginable from the hundreds of street vendors that line the road. Items including fake ID cards, bongs, switchblades, pirated CD's, imitation brand name clothing, or even get a tatoo or dreadlocks right on the spot. So many travellers get stuck here, which is easy enough to do with all the western novelties in the surroundings. Its nice to see the look on the travellers who have just arrived, the ones who are fresh, eager to be a 'backpacker'. They have that look on their face, wide-eyed and ready to face the world, ready to face challenges, ready to get shitfaced and throw up in some foreign city.

I got to witness some spew myself during our 24hr bus ride coming from Laos. The roads wind around hills and mountains and its quite easy to get car sick. All I knew was the bus stopped for some reason and next thing I knew there's a Lao lady outside wiping her own vomit off her pants. Yummy.

Anyway, it was weird, we woke up at 5:45am yesterday morning and were at our guesthouse here in Bangkok at the same time and went staight back to bed. The only thing was, a whole entire day had passed and we're now in a different country. Not all of it was a waste, actually it was quite worth it.

After sleeping on the bus for a couple of hours after we had first departed, I awoke and looked out the window. It was about 8:30 am and the sun had already been up for a while now and was shining through our windows. As I said, we were driving through the beautiful mountain ranges that engulf most of Laos. Within all the valleys a huge layer of clouds filled the gap, it was almost as if I was looking at a lake with a light fog over top the water. On the outskirts of this lake were the hilltops that popped out of the clouds, pure magic. We were driving above the clouds! Its something that I'd been waiting to see ever since being in Laos. I knew that it had to happen early in the mornings, but I was never high up enough or awake early enough to see it. And for those 5 minutes or so as we drove around each bend in the road on either side of the bus, it was as if I we were driving through Heaven. God's had welcomed us to enter His house. And at that point, I was the one who had that wide-eyed look on my face and I remembered why I travel.


Gone Fishin'

So before leaving Laos, Jeremy and I stayed in these 2 little towns/villages (Nong Khiew and Muang Ngoi) that lay along the Ou river. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful they are, once again, they are surrounded with the untouched mountains/hills, so green and lush, almost unreal. The accomodations we had is some of the cheapest I've stayed in. We paid $1 each for a room big enough to fit a double mattress on the floor. We paid $0.50 each for our own bamboo bungalow hut that had a balcony with two hammocks over looking the river. Only one of the 2 had electiricity and we had to use candles during the evening, its more exciting that way.

So in Muang Ngoi we befriended this local Lao guy, named Hamphoun, who worked at a restaurant/tour agency. We ended up playing cards with a bunch of his friends who didn't speak a word of english, but cards need not words I guess. The following day we went on one of Hamphoun tours to go fishing. I was really excited, hoping to catch many fish. Hamphoun brought another guy along with him to act as another tour guide I suppose, that's good we could always use the company.

So on the way to the boat we had to carry 2 fishing rods made of bamboo sticks and a short fishing line and hook. Okay, real primitive I thought, adds to the experience. Hamphoun and friend carried two large fishing nets. Anyway, the day turned out to be 'okay, you two wait here, we'll go fishing with the nets'. Hmmm... the thing is these nets are very complicated, you have to walk deep into the river and lay it out over a large area and then make some noise to scare the fish so they get caught up in it. It would have been fun to try, but that wasn't part of it, we just sat there all day and did nothing. At one point we used our bamboo rods, but that was a joke. I got to dig for worms as well, that was actually the highlight of the trip for me, too bad it only lasted two minutes. Oh well.

At the end of the day, the two fishers caught approximatley 15 small fish. We went back to the restuarant and fried them up. Delicious.


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Its now the 2:00am on the 24th here in Bangkok. If I don't hear from you, I'm assuming that you're having a wonderful holiday! All the best.