apparently when you sign up to start a blog, you're also signing up for "blog-guilt". i've been slacking on my entries and now theres so much to enter i won't be able to get it all in. oh well, i guess i should have read the signing agreement more closely ;)
i also have some pictures to post, but seem to be having trouble accessing them on this computer...hopefully i'll get that figured out soon :)
i picked up a few more modes of transportation over the past week - so onto the list goes...elephant (yes, elephant...so so cool), bamboo raft, also very cool and slow boat...cool at first, but by the end of the second day i was getting a little weary of it :)

the elephant and bamboo rafting were both a part of a three day trek we took out of Chiang Mai. It was a great experience leading us into the hills, where we stayed in remote villages and then hiked, elephanted, and rafted from one place to another. the scenery is unbelievable, and the people even more so. our first night in one of the villages we were approached by some of the kids to go play soccer in the rice fields. it was a pretty amazing experience, laughing and yelling our way through a dusty sweaty game of soccer, with the backdrop of terraced fallow fields, mountains, stream, and buffalo cows making their way home for the night.

we made it back to chaing mai, welcomed whole-heartedly by the people that run our guesthouse - we'd made friends with them over the past week, and thanked them with a little homemade picture card when we left.

leaving chiang mai we began a three day journey to get to Luang Prabang, Laos. the first leg of the trip was via mini-van - hair-raising to say the least. we then stayed overnight near the border and took advantage of the main eating area and abundance of thai whiskey to make fast friends with a couple irish guys, a boxer from scotland and an israeli (whose jokes none of us could understand :) )
day 2 began with a small ferry ride (don't even try to imagine any ferry you've ever experienced...think more along the lines of pictures of little rickety boats you've seen of vietnamese floating markets) we landed at the border to laos, and after a confusing mix at "customs" (luckily we had our visa stuff all done ahead of time and zipped right through) we waited around and boarded the slow boat. the slow boat is a long open boat, with benches or random chairs that appears to hold about 80 people...we soon learned that it can actually hold anywhere from 80-150 people, (with one "bathroom" ie. toilet)and loads of local produce.
We took advantage of the next 8 hours on board to make more friends, share BeerLao, play cards and overall have a great time.
That night we stopped in another little one-horse (or buffalo-cow) town. Upon arrival you're approached by people (children)and offered opium, speed, hash, weed - pretty much any drug you can imagine....we politely declined :)
next day was another 8 hour shift on the boat, pretty much the same as the day before with a couple new faces and a couple new card games.

we finally arrived in Luang Prabang....a great little town with interesting temples, and training centers for monks, lots of restaurants (we now saw the french influence as baguettes and cheese became available everywhere), a beautiful night market, and even a good bar (which incidentally reminded us of montreal, and we later found out is actually owned by a montreal couple :) )

we spent the next few days exploring down, and visiting the waterfall - which is about an hour out of town - you get there pretty much drowned in dust after a bumpy ride in the larger pick-up truck version of tuk tuks. it's completely worth it. we spent two days there, one where we climbed to the very top and manouevered into a pool (very cold) that cascades down into all the others. it was a little frightening, but there isn't enough water this time of year to make it overly dangerous.

being a small town, we spent most of the next couple nights with people we'd met and run into from the boat, having a fire on the beach, and even experiencing the first rainy evening we saw in south east asia. it was after that night that we had determined to get up for the super-bowl, showing at 7:30 am in the only sports bar in town. we enthuiastically agreed to the plan, but only a few managed to stay up/get up for the game, and even fewer stayed awake through the whole thing. :)

yesterday, was another full day of travel, in another one of these mini-bus van things from Luang Prabang to Viang Vieng. feeling a little under the weather i endured a fairly miserable ride through the mountains on dirt roads, around extreme curves. a group of 8 of us had booked the trip together and at least that made the whole thing bearable. they explored the town after we arrived while i decided to take it easy and enjoy the quiet in our fairly nice (maybe the nicest yet) guesthouse.

Viang Vieng is a sort of odd town - with one main street and a bunch of bunalows and restaurants on the river, it offers backpackers a little rest spot. the big thing to do is inner-tubing down the river, being pulled in at various turns for drinks and food, or lounging in the may main street restaurants where you plant yourself among pillows, eat, and watch old "friends" dvds. bizarre...but fun :)

i opted out of the group tubing today - time to get caught up on emails and BLOGGING :)
but will hopefully have the chance to go tomorrow and will report back


so
i think that's about it for now :)
thankyou all for comments...i'm glad you're getting a chance to check in on my little adventures :)
thinking of everyone
much love
sun