Trip to Thailand .....Continued

Continuing from my last post......

ring, ring (conversation between my mom and I while being stuck in Thailand)

Me -Hello, Mom?

Mom -Ah, where are you??
Me-Oh, well I can`t catch my flight back to Vietnam through Bangkok because of the protests at the airport. So I got a flight tomorrow morning to Laos, the country between Vietnam and Thailand and I will get a connection to Hanoi and I should be in Da Nang by tomorrow evening.`
Mom-Ah ok, you had us worried, the news is making this look very scary.

Me-I know, but I haven`t seen any protesting and really the airports are just backed up like when we get a snow storm at home. No need to worry.


ring, ring (conversation between my mom and I from Luang Phrabang, Laos about 12 houres later with a very choppy connection)


Mom-Hello?
Me-Hello?

Mom-Hello?

Me- I have arrived in Laos but I can't catch another flight out for a week.
Mom-WHAT? Where are you? Is it safe? Oh my nerves!

I think I gave them a few more grey hairs that week but really I was safe and actually enjoying myself...I think that makes it worse;-) Love you Mom and Dad!

After discussion with the CECI office in Hanoi, I decided that instead of wasting the week trying to get back to Da Nang by bus, I would to take my last week of vacation in Laos and bought the next available ticket to Hanoi from Vientiene, Laos. I grabbed a Tuk Tuk into town to find a cheap hostel.
Common mode of transportation - Tuk Tuk!


I set off to discover Luang Phrabang...I knew very little about the place, since I wasn't really planning on visiting Laos until January, I hadn't done my research.
Luang Phrabang - BEAUTIFUL!!!

It is a sleepy mountain town (pop. 26,000) in Northern Laos along the Mekong River.

The Laos population is 67% Buddhist and 10% of the population in Luang Phrabang are monks. This was very visible in their daily lives. Here I came across some young monks practising their morning drumming session.

Then I came across some monk laundry hanging out to dry!!












The markets were so beautiful, filled with woven products from the local indigenous tribes, hand made umbrellas, and of course lots of tasty snacks!












Wanting to get out into the beautiful mountains I saw from the plane I signed up for a 2 day trek to a remote village. There were 7 of us in total ; a young Irish couple, a young American girl, a Polish man, and our 2 guides, Cay - born in one of the minority villages, then his family was relocated to the town because they were opium farmers and Gang - who spent 12 years as a monk (both incredibly intelligent, hilarious and extremely generous). We started with a short boat ride up the Mekong then begin the 8 hour trek.











We soon came across a small village where they were drying river weed (similar to Nori - the seaweed use to wrap sushi). They collect it from the river banks then dry it out on straw mats but not before adding tomatoes, garlic and seseame seed for flavor. Once it is ready it is eaten with sticky rice and chilli paste...it is very yummy!!

Drying Chilli's to make chilli paste!!! YUMMY

Ok back to the hike! First day the plan was to hike for 8 hours and stay with a village the the peek of this mountain!!

It got pretty steep at times and was much more challenging and remote than the hike I did in Thailand the week before.





The views were spectacular



and so was the canopy of bamboo over our heads during the last hour, and steepest part of the trek.









We arrived at the village and were greeted by the children.















They were so entertaining. The little girls just wanted to get their picture taken so that they could see themselves on the camera screen. The little boys, however, were a bit more shy.













The next morning we woke up above the clouds.

And got ready for the steep trek down the mountain. We went through a few villages and came across a wedding. The locals invited us in for some dancing and drinks. It was about noon and everyone in the village was `3 sheets to the wind`! They had live karoke under a bamboo hut and lots of homemade wine. It was one of those moments I will never forget and couldn`t have planned it if we tried. They were so welcoming and happy to have us there to celebrate with them.

Once back into town. I met some great people at the hostel I was staying at and they were heading down to Vientiene the next day same as me. So we all took the same bus. And headed the 6 hours down to Vang Vieng. I stayed in Vang Vieng for 2 days and did a crazy tubing trip down the river with my new found friends. Then it was off to Vientiene to finally catch my flight back to Vietnam. The 3 hour bus ride to Vientiene turned out to be 5 hours and the seat I bought in the bus ended up being a spot on the floor beside the driver!!It wasn't the most comfortable 5 hours of my life but the views were spectacular!

Once I finally got to Hanoi Sunday evening, I missed the connection flight to Da Nang so I had to take the 1 hour ride into Hanoi at 8pm and then back the airport at 4am the next morning to get to Da Nang. Absolutely exhausted I finally made it into the office at 9am Monday morning. It was great to see everyone and they were happy I made it back safely. All in all it was a bit hectic trying to get the planes, trains, and crowded buses back as they say when life serves you lemons, make lemonade!! It turned out to be a fabulous trip.

Trip to Thailand .....and more....

In November, I had the opportunity to go to Thailand for a week. I flew into Bangkok and met a friend of mine, Wicky, from university who is from Bangkok. We hadn't seen each other since graduation so it was great to catch up and he gave me a great tour of Bangkok.








What an amazing city; so modern compared to Ho Chi Minh City. It is very westernized but still maintains its unique culture. Traffic was a bit of a mess, shopping was out of this world (variety, style, and price), and the food was terrific.


Wicky and his friends were amazing hosts and are really into the live music scene and amoung themselves they are always getting together for a jamming sessions. Being starved of the live music scene you can say it was 'music to my ears'! Thanks Wicky & Sun:-)


My purpose for going to Bangkok was to represent UNBSJ (the university I graduated from) in a recruitment fair for their MBA program. It was a great opportunity to meet the potential students and answer their questions about studying in Canada, UNB, and of course the weather!!


I decided to make a bit of a holiday out of the trip and headed up north to Chiang Mai. Wicky had some other friends visiting from Italy who were also heading up north so we all went together!! One of the Italian girls and I did a 2 day trek into a remote village. It was extremely beautiful! Here are a few of the highlights:

Elephant riding!!

All they wanted to do was eat the Bananas we had for them!!










Our guide from one of the villages, Buffalo Bill, was extremely entertaining. He didn't speak much English or Thai but knew all the words to the Bob Marley song he was named after and didn't go anyway without his slingshot!










The scenery was beautiful




and when we arrived at the village we were greated by the children who sang to us around the camp fire. Then they wanted us to sing a song from our country to them!! OH GAWD!!! Yeah, you guessed it, I sang oh Canada! and it was aweful:-) Sorry kids!

After a few more songs by the fire and some dancing lessons from Buffalo Bill it was time for bed. We had another full day of trekking ahead of us. What a great sleep under the stars in complete darkness..ahhh!!

If you noticed I mentioned I was in Thailand in November, yes, during the airport protests! Instead of taking a plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mai I had to take an overnight train which was totally packed due to the cancellation of so many flights. As planned I stayed in Chiang Mai for 4 days hoping the airport would reopen before I had to catch my flight back to Vietnam. Getting a bit concerned it wasn't going to reopen in time I decided to look into alternative ways to get home. Everything was selling quickly and my only option was to fly into Luang Phrabang, Laos and get a connecting flight to Hanoi from there. So I had to stay an extra day in Chiang Mai and took advantage of the opportunity to take a Thai cooking class.

The next morning I took flight to Luang Phrabang and after a brief connection I would be back in Vietnam by that night. Right?


View of Laos from the plane!

I got off the plane, onto the single runway and was surprised at how small the airport was. Upon entering the airport, about the size of a legion hall, I was given the form to apply for a visa to enter Laos. I politely explained to the customs official that I wouldn't need a visa because I was just connecting to Vietnam. He gave me an equally polite and innocent smile and handed me the application. To make a long story short, there were over 80 people on stand-by for the next flight to Vietnam and there were only 2 seats left on the plane!! The next available flight to Vietnam was a week from that day and the bus would take 35 hours to get to Da Nang. What to do....?

....to be continued.....