No time!

Hey! So much has happened and I really haven’t had time to sit down and blog! So here it is. Actually it’s really annoying cause I just spent ½ hour writing one and the computer crashed just as I was about to his save. Arg.

We just got to Laos. We have been doing so much. Where do I start.. I guess with the last post is a good idea. We left Bangkok on an overnight train to Chiang Mai. It was a 12 hour ride, really comfy with beds. Then we got there and decided to leave right away cause the amount of dirty old men in that city is pretty disturbing. Every bar..old fat white guys and young Thai girls (lady boys??)…or both. Who knows. They really don’t try to hide it…no shame.

We left the next day on a 3 day trek in the jungle. The trek included about 5 hours of hiking each day which always seemed to be straight uphill or straight downhill. My poor legs. Thank god I had good hiking shoes - the people who didn’t were screwed, falling down all over! We went swimming in this great waterfall where all these little Thai boys (and there mothers) wanted to take photos of me. I don’t think they have ever seen such a tall woman. I felt like Barney the purple dinosaur at Canada’s Wonderland.. On the second day we rode elephants for an hour on which was very exciting at the time..not so much anymore.. (more about that later). The trek was really fun. We stayed in these small tribal villages in the mountain, our guide cooked great Thai food for us at night, even made dishes and cutlery out of bamboo. Mr. 30 Bhat was his name. he was funny. We had campfires and played games at night. Going to the bathroom was a terrifying experience - you seriously never know what will be waiting for you, especially if you have to go at 3am, thank god for headlamps. An and I made a pact that if either of us had to go in the middle of the night the other must get up and go with, cause I wouldn’t send my worst enemy out there alone. The next morning we went bamboo rafting, we were so tired from getting no sleep and hiking so much, we had to stand for 4 hours on the river. But it was still great. Being tired really feels different when your floating down a river in Thailand then it does at work. We even did the hokey poky.

So back to Chiang Mai after that to see if we could get into this elephant camp we heard about on the trek. This Thai lady started rescuing logging, tourism and street begging elephants from Burma / Thailand that were being abused or neglected and started this sanctuary. We decided to go up and volunteer for a couple of days. So we drove up there and learned all there is to know about the Asian elephant. We bathed with them, fed them, took them for walks in the morning but the best part for me was to just sit back and watch them. They are so emotional and intelligent. They form these families and protect their young like I couldn’t believe; they even adopt other elephants with no family around and take care of each other when sick. Anyway please, if you ever come to Asia or anywhere DO NOT RIDE ELEPHANTS!! I felt rotten about it the whole time…but I didn’t know what the training process was like and I knew next to nothing about elephants in general.. I won’t go into the stories of these animals cause they are really sad. Just don’t ride elephants.

After that we left Chiang Mai, headed to Laos where we are now. What a trip that was. One day on a bus and two days on a boat sitting on a 2 X 4. Honestly, my ass still hurts. I stood and read my book for 2 hours today cause it was better than sitting on the benches. The town we stayed at last night was cool, right on the edge of the Mekong river, this place had no electricity after 10:00pm and was completely run on generators. We went down to the beach and had a campfire, then went to bed in the weirdest place ever. There was a mouse on the floor all night eating a bun I had left there and my bed was on a slant so me in my sleeping bag kept slipping slowly off the bed all night, I guess whats what you get for a dollar! There was a toilet down the hall, but I would rather pee in the jungle than use it. Scary stuff. Just so you all know there is no toilet paper in Asia, instead there is a hose beside the toilet to clean your ass with then what? Put pants and undies on your soaking wet butt?? I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I just store toilet paper everywhere since you never know when curry belly might hit. Another issue I am having is doorways. I currently have 3 goose eggs on my head cause I keep walking into doorways. Other tall travelers I have met have the same problem. All the doorways are smaller than me. I am like Alice in wonderland. Haha. Oh ya, on the way to Laos ion the bus we drove past an accident and I saw 2 dead bodies! That was a first for me. Pretty traumatizing. Oh..speaking of traumatizing, we also saw someone bbq’ing the fattest sickest rats ever in Bangkok, I don’t know who eats them but someone does. So gross.

p.s i tried to add a picture but the internet is too slow! check out my pics on the side!

xo