My Route in SE Asia

The End.....

I suppose I should give this blog a conclusion. Since the last update, I took an overnight bus to Vientiane, arrived at 4:30am, so I found a park and slept for a few hours. Found a guesthouse for cheap, but that evening I got a knock on my door, there was a Laos woman standing there in just a towel. She offered me a "massage", and wouldn't take no for an answer....I had to physically push her out of my room. That night I got attacked by bed bugs....obvioulsy I left the next morning.

Took another night bus to Bangkok, met up with some Swedish guys that I hung out with in Sapa-Vietnam. We shared a room for cheap. I got really sick, then got heatstroke....all while suffering with bedbug bites. When it rains it pours! Took a plane to Macau which is just a ferry ride away from Hong Kong. I flew Air Asia, but they're really strict with check in baggage. To reduce the excess baggage fee, I wore a pair of shorts, two pairs of jeans, heavey hiking boots, and two jackets....all in 40 degree weather! I felt ridiculous walking through the airport, I'm sure they all knew what I was doing. The flight attendants laughed when I went to the bathroom on the plane and came out wearing shorts, sandals, and a singlet....holding two bags of clothing :) Hung out in HK with some friends Michelle and Rex, then headed home the next day.

3 guys who shop too much in a small room....
I was sweating so much at this point...and I was deathly ill.

I was greeted at the airport by Kristen...and my parents, I had no idea they were coming! It's so nice to be home with friends and family....and of course Kristen!



Hike we did on Vancouver island.

I'll never forget or regret taking this trip to SE Asia. It taught me alot about other cultures...and myself.


THE END!!

Laos New Year - Luang Prabang

The water fight in Luang Prabang was crazy. We (me and the Swedes) had water guns, and matching electric salmon BeerLao t-shirts....which made us a team....and a target :) I got really good at shooting people directly in the eye-balls...but I got shot in the eye-balls as well...so it was even. I didn't dare take my camera out there, I was drenched within the first block. Imagine thousands of people walking down the same street, all spraying each other with waterguns, plus countless teams on the side of the road with huge bins of water dumping buckets on everyone that walked by. Oh yeah, and there were countless vehicles driving by with huge bins of water soaking everyone....it was out of control. So much fun, oh yeah, they kept wiping weird black crap on everyone's faces...and blue crap...and green crap. Oh, and flour, throwing an insane amount of flour. It was tons of fun.

That's it, split up with the Swedes, took another overnight bus (not even sure how many I've taken) to Vientiane...now I'm taking yet another overnight bus to Bangkok. Probably no more posts with pics as I've lost yet another camera cord.


This picture really doesn't do the waterfight justice. Taken from the safety of our guest house, it was just a random soaking, no where near the main street of the fight.


T.E.S. Team Electric Salmon getting ready for battle. Notice the modified water tank on my gun? Yeah ya did. I broke the original one due to excessive pumping (too much pressure, burst the container)...they gave me another one at the store...and I broke that too. The 2litre Pepsi bottle was awesome, held way more pressure...allowed for a fiercer (is that a word) stream for direct eye-ball shots. 12pts for shooting monks, 15pts if you shoot monks in the eyes :)


The "after" pic of the first day of fighting.



Random waterfall (in Luang Prabang) shots.

I love the backflips.

Nong Kiew

I went to a little town called Nong Kiew with the Swedes for a few days, it was awesome. SO beautiful, set right in the between mountains and right beside the Mekong River. It is a tiny town, no internet...I didn't even see a bank. The only thing to do at night is go see a movie at this little "cinema" (little business this guy made, just private little rooms with decent tvs, pick from hundreds of dvd's)...but the guy got too drunk two nights in a row and didn't passed out...so we had NOTHING to do at night. First day we tried to climb a mountain, but our efforts were quickly thwarted by dense impenetrable bush. So we went for lunch, then went swimming in the river. We hiked along a trail on the side of the river for a few km's, arriving at a little village. It was super cool, total village life. Some guys escorted us into a building where it seemed like just the men were partying...pretty much just getting drunk on some sort of liquor. They wanted us to try it, so we did....it was the harshest liquor I've ever tasted, it burned in my chest for about 5 minutes. They really wanted us to stay and keep drinking this stuff (I think it's called LaoLao, pretty much everything is named after their country), but we quickly got out of there as it was getting crazy. We hired a dude to give us a ride back on his boat, cool experience.

Next day we rented bikes (yes, with baskets and bells) and biked down to some caves that the Lao people lived in during the war in the 70's. We biked a bit farther just to see more landscape, then swam in the river again. It was SO hot, even at like 7pm I would still sweat profusely. Cool place.

Today we took a local "bus" (more like a tuk-tuk type pickup thing with two benches running the length of the truck bed and a roof) which was much cheaper. It got so packed on this thing, they even set up small plastic chairs in the middle, I had to (damn Canadian courtesy) give up my seat and stand on the step up part at the bottom of the tail-gate....for hours! We got SO SOAKED on that trip, it's the Laos New Year and they celebrate for what seems like weeks by splashing everyone with water. I just ziplocked my camera and mp3 player and I was good. I'm not even sure how many buckets of water hit me today, I lost count...I was wet all day. I love this country and the people here, always smiling and waving and saying hi. Super friendly people, super beautiful Country.



Boat ride home from village.


Local "bus"...BEFORE it got packed.