A new country

Thailand just kept getting better and better. We started out a sweaty mess in Bangkok and ended up in a little slice of heaven in Northern Thailand called Pai. Here, the nights are cool, the days are breezy and the air was absent of smog.

After our trek out of Chiang Mai, we took a windy road through the moutaineous north country for four hours and wound up in a small town nestled in a valley of green and brown rice paddy fields with lush mountains on both sides. A simple river with wide banks ran through the town of Pai as bungalows were scattered along its shores.


(Our bungalow in Pai. We deemed the look "Bamboo-chic")

We didn’t do much in Pai, mainly because people go there for that exact reason. We rented a motorbike for the week and rode around to the nearby attractions. There was a waterfall about 5 km west of town near one of the mountain springs. We rode out there, looking to cool off in the natural waters. On the way, we stopped and had an interesting chat with some old Thai ladies on the side of the road. We didn’t speak any common words but we smiled, bowed, smiled, hand gestured for the waterfall and then moved on. Gotta love that! Once there, the view was beautiful but the swimming hole was small. We also spotted a thin snake slithering into the water just as we were about to go in. Needless to say, we hestitated for a bit, and then I said, “Screw it, I’m hot, I need to get wet.”

Another day, we went out to the natural hot springs in Pai and were charged 8 times more than locals. Andy was hot under the collar but we decided to pay the jacked up fee anyway. We figured we were giving money to keep the parks clean and available and we probably won’t ever get a chance to see these springs again. The hot springs were too hot to go in for me, unfortunately. Andy, however, had paid her entrance fee and damn it, she was gonna soak in hot water. So she plunged in the shallowest, coolest part of the river that sprang from the hot source – still about 107 degrees Farenheit. I put my feet in but that was it. The pools at the mouth of the spring were so hot (80 degrees Celsius) that the park sold eggs that you could submerge in the water to get hard boiled eggs! Someone was using their brain. Kudos!


(That girl is a professional soaker. We are entering her in the soak off competition at Harbin Hot Springs when we get back. She's a 4-1 favorite to win the whole thing.)

Pai nights were spent chowing down on the yummiest of yummy curry dishes at The Curry Shack, a small bamboo restaurant run by a brother sister team. Their special dish was the Coconut Chicken Curry with Vegetables served in a hollowed out coconut. I deemed it “The curry that kept on giving!” With the brown rice and a shake, the whole meal ran me $3 and was, by far, the best food I have had on this trip. Sorry Greek souvlaki, sorry Dutch fries, this curry nabbed top honors so far.

Pai had gobs of live music options too. One night we ventured out of town a bit to a bar called BeBop where we took in a truly unique scene. A Chiang Mai blues, jazz group played covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Credence, etc. The American blues filled the bar as Thai teens sat in large groups and drank beer with ice cubes in it. Andy and I were the only white people there the entire time. I’ve never felt like more of minority than I did that night.

The best part was the interlude between opening act and headliner. A good-looking Asian guy, probably around 25-ish, popped up on stage with a mic in his hand. He was wearing stylish jeans and a white, Haines style, v-neck tee shirt. His hair was fashioned a little like early Elvis’ locks with the whispy bangs, greased back sides. The jazz trio behind him began a standard jam while he held the mic to his hip and snapped along. Then he began his rendition of “All of Me” (Why not take, All of Me?) and it was perfect. His English accent was spot on and his voice was like butter. Halfway through, he began to scat simultaneously with the guitar solo. I don’t get blown away easy, especially from a cover song, but these guys rocked my world. It was so refreshing and new and they had some serious talent. Unfortunately, Thai people don’t clap when a band finishes a song, and as hard as it was, I was following their lead when it came to the culture norms. But after the guitar player’s solo, the skat and the finish of the song, I couldn’t contain myself. I clapped. Not too loudly, but enough that they could hear my acknowledgement.


(Andy's getting good, isn't she? Nice angle, good juxtaposition of the man made idol with the natural branch background. If I were a photo editor I would give this a Gold Star sticker.)

We spent a week in Pai and if not for our visa running out, I could have stayed there for another month. It was that chill of a place. So we were moving again, this time to another country. We packed our bags and wound up in a former French colony in Northern Laos called Luang Probang. Despite being so close in proximity and culture and religion and weather and past history, Laos and Thailand couldn’t be any more different. Laos instantly felt quieter, even from the moment we arrived at the city airport. (We decided to fly there after weighing the prices between that and the three-day van, slow boat trip from Pai through the Mekong River to Luang Probang. It was the wimpy way out but we were thankful for our decision after hearing horror stories from other travelers we met about their brutal experience on the overpacked slow boat.)

Luang Probang was incredible. The city, with only about 30,000 people, was a big adjustment for us as we were coming from Thailand, a world where tourism was overtaking its surroundings. In Laos, life is slower, the kids are happier and the stray cats are friendlier. Here everyone wants to practice their English with you, asking you the common questions. Not like Passover, these questions are a bit more real. “Where are you from?” “How long have you been here?” “When are you going home?” Occasionally you’ll get the “Are you married?” or “How old are you?” questions. Unlike the Bangkok Tuk Tuk drivers steering us in the wrong direction, Laos people were so helpful and smiling. It was such a great feeling and it made me want to sit down and talk to them, without fear that they were trying to sell me something. They just wanted to talk English. It was cool.


(Another Wat To See. Hard to get capture the beauty of these temples with pictures.

One day, Andy was strolling through the back alleys of Luang Probang taking in the Wats and Buddha statues everywhere when she came across a small office. In it was a non-profit group publishing books in Lao and English for hill tribe children. Their goal is to get tourists/travelers to buy the books and hand them out in villages when kids ask for candy or money. Andy fell in love with the idea and asked if there was a way we could volunteer. The guy didn’t hesitate, what with our teaching and editing backgrounds, and jumped at the chance to get us in the fold. We wound up being the third read on a short book about the wonders of the world, written for 8th graders. We were in charge of finding any grammatical mistakes as well as making all the changes that other editors had suggested. We were given a three-day deadline for it and we ran with it! Despite being told not to focus on subject matter and only on grammar, we found a lot that sounded innacurate. So we read it, made up some research questions for ourselves and went online to answer them. (Fact checking can be fun once in a while. Try and do it as a career and watch oneself crumble under the tediousness.) The project was a success and we felt great about contributing to this worthy cause. Sure it didn’t read that great and in the end, I would have rather re-written the entire thing than hand it in with my name on it. But the guy told us not to worry too much about content and that the real goal was to have the kids learn how to read English. We kept reminding ourselves of that.

Luang Probang came and went quickly. There was an amazing night market and cool cafés were set in big, open air spaces that lined the main road. Because it was a former French colony, the town kept some of the trait of its previous parents. Besides the surreal French architecture encorporated into the Laos-style homes, the locals kept the French bread baguettes and the pastries! We hadn’t had bread, real bread, since Europe and it was nice to get a sandwich. I stayed away from the pastries, bad news bears for me, but Andy indulged here and there and I got to see that closed-eyes satisfaction face that she makes so well.

Our one daily excursion from Luang Probang came when, thanks to advice from friends, we went an hour out of town to see the famous waterfall. The drive there was bumpy, dusty and windy. But it wasn’t far and the reward was worth it. The water was turquoise blue and the main falls attraction must have been a 200-foot drop, at least. There was a dirt path up the side of the waterfall. It was a bit damp so I took off my flip flops and hiked it in my bare feet. What an amazing experience to climb up the side of a hill with no shoes on. I had never felt more grounded to the earth than at that moment. We got to the top and had an unbelievable view of the valley and the slash-and-burn farming techniques. We stood on the ledge of the falls and looked over into the pools. Later we walked down the other side, me still barefoot, and headed to one of the many pools at the bottom that you could go swimming in. We found one deep pool and cooled off in the blue water.


(What is it about waterfalls that attract humans to them? We've decided to ask this to our loyal readers. Why do we flock to them in every region of the world.?)

Five days came and went in Luang Probang and it was time, once again, to move ahead. We headed five hours south to a traveler friendly, riverside town called Vang Vieng. The town is famous for three things: stunning scenic mountains, tubing down the river and TV bars. Lining the main street is bar after bar of places to watch TV. Crazy! It said so in our tour book, but I didn’t believe it until I got here. They show everything, including episodes of Friends, The Family Guy, The Simpsons, as well as thousands of movies. The other night we watched the new movie "The Departed" (loved it) and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (friggin classic). Can’t beat a Jack Nicholson double feature!


(It's the little things you miss about home when travelling. Like watching a movie.)

We also did the tubing thing and all I have to say is wow! Slowly meandering down the river, bars are situated perfectly on the banks with old ladies screaming “Beer Lao! C’mon! Beer Lao!” They have men with long ropes and they throw them out to you and fish you in so you can drink their beer. Someone is using their brain again! The younger, more adventurous, more drunk travelers were swinging on rope swings into the deeper parts of the river as we floated by. As far as mellowest days on the trip are concerned, this one was close to the top.


(We took a day trip from Vang Vieng to the caves. Only a 2 kim wlk actually. We had met a German traveller named Hoiger at one the TV bars the night before and planned the trip together. Along the way to the caves we had to cross this bridge. Kinda looks like a mini Golden Gate Bridge?)

We are about to shake things up a bit from here on out, though. Andy is going to keep moving through Laos and Cambodia and I have decided to stay in Vang Vieng for a couple weeks to write, relax, unpack, get to know some locals, maybe even go tubing again. For the next two weeks, Andy will be heading through southern Laos on a pilgrimage to see the fresh water dolphins and then on to Cambodia to take in the ancient Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat. From there we plan on meeting up in Bangkok close to the time our Laos visas run out, sometime in mid December. We are both a little nervous to be apart from each other in this strange world, but I feel that, if there was anywhere in the world to do this, Laos is it. I have faith in the people here to help us and guide us on our solo journies.