Sapa, Nam continued

Got interupted by my guide for the day coming. anyways had a good time wiht the crazy americans and got to bed at a decent hour. woke up and arranged a 'trek' basically a long walk to differnt villages, nothing to really report except the landscape was amazing. basically more rice field villages but my guide was very nice and spoke great english. there was one upsetting experience where i heard a dog screaming and the guide said they were killing it for food. They eat dogs here and its pretty fucked up to see how terribly they treat them. all in all it was kind of an expensive day for not that cool of things but it was nice to walk and get some fresh air, they have wonderful stars here as well. Treated myself to a massage when i got back to prepare for the 10 our train ride and its much differnt then thai massage but still nice. they concentrate more on the energy lines and point and no streaching just rubbing.
Going to Halong bay after going to Hanoi first, its supposedly beautiful though the travel booking is frustrating from what i hear. just have to remember that they lie and you dont alwasy get waht you expect so keep my cool.

Sapa, Viet Nam

Took a night trin wit my friend Mix up to a town close to the border, there we said our good byes as he heads to China and i continue my adventures in Viet Nam. How strange to be totally by myself! Another 10 hour train ride, no big deal. the beds were a piece of wood with a inch of padding, i didnt get much sleep. Took a mini bus up the mountain to Sapa, which is a gorgeous town in beautiful mountains. The rice fields are carved into impossible mountian sides and colorful tribe women acost you to buy shit. They speak very good english and are very friendly until you refuse to buy anything. i got suckered into getting 4 shitty braclets for a dollar just to make her go away, which is most of there stratgies. they have some pretty cool earings though and im thinking of you Kilani, you still have your ears gagded? Arrived and passed out for a few hours (5) and then had a relaxing day reading some Jane Austin in the park. Finished Pride and Prjudice, one of my all time favorites, oh Mr Darcy! and headed to trade the book, got the alcamist instead and it looks like it will last my a few hours at most.. then sought food. i was a little hungry for company as well so i sat down next to this nice Austrailian and we had a cup of coffee. The place was pricey for food so we headed to the more local outdoor dining area. There was a big table of Vietnamese men beside us and since Tin was born in Vietnam and moved to Austraila when he was 5 he still speaks a little and was able to translate for me. They immediately started demanding we chug our beers and take shots of the rice whisky they were pouring out of a water bottle. they also do this thing here of taking tabacco out of a bong and i was super down and they all had a great laugh as i got a huge headrush and smiled huge for the next ten min. they have some pretty cool bongs here and i wish i could take one back with me. pretty easy to make though just need a fat bamboo stem. We then got this thing called a Hot Pot, which is boiling broth on a burned that comes witha huge platter of veggies and greens and meat all raw. you put what ever you want into it and wait for it to cook. It was all very good but my stomech hasn't entirely recoved and im afraid i wasnt able to keep any of it down. Then we went to the disco tech! which basically was a huge room with no one there except us and a stage. I as the only female so they insisted i dance pretty much the whole time which was fine with me, man they could boogie. there was this adorable child of nine who had some great moves and knew a little break dance (sort of) he was real shy of me but i charmed him in the end. Then the karoke started... oh god asians fucking love karoke. No english songs of course but they got me up on stage and made me interprative dance while they took turns singing to me. one of the older ones was a great dancer and we were twirling around to applause. basically i should have had the whole event recorded and watched daily, deff would have got a million hits on youtube.. oh they also had me sing in Vietnamese, you can imagine how that sounded..I had to get the fuck out of there eventually so we headed to the only open bar in thsi sleep town where we met some americans, or one was a french american canidian or something silly.

Nam, Hanoi

Luang Prabang was a wonderful city, i dont know about the pearl of the orient but it was very relaxed and people were very friendly. Met some wonderful people at the guest house we were staying at as well as some totally insane people. Michael, oh Michael. I keep meeting crazy austrailians and i like it. Wade made the decision to head back to the US which i think was a very good idea. He just was overwhelmed i think by all the new strange things, make sure to give him a big hug and lots of love, he should be arriving in a day or so if he got his flight from LAX to SAC sorted. And so i begin the solo part of my travels. Im actually really excited, one thing i have learned about myself on this trip is i am very independent, social when i want to be but if i like being by myself allot. i think its healthy and reflective, although i am a little scared about traveling by myself, sometime people follow you or are more likely to harass you if you dont have someone with you, though its so easy to meet fellow travelers and im a bad ass so im not to concerned. You hear so many horror stories bu i feel like i have a fleet of angels guiding me, all the people i have met have been wonderfuly helpful and have looked after me so well, i feel very blessed and taken care of. So i got the shits pretty bad the day of the airplane ot Vietname and oh man am i glad i opped of the flight insted of a 30 hour bus ride! I have kind of had it with bus rides that last longer then 24 hours, its just brutal at times, though i know i have many more coming up i need a little break. Arrived in Hanoi, Viet Nam two days ago and i love this city! such hussle and bussle! the streets make absolutely no sense, its a maze. you just know your general direction and have to wander around til you find what you looking for. theres a abig lake in the center that supposedly has giant turtles living in it, though i havent seen any so far and i cant imagine how anything could live in that discusting water.. I like Viet Nam allot so far, people told me taht everyone was unfriendly and will try to rip you off. they will try to scam you the best thing to do is just refuse to be scamed, if your an idiot they will take all your money and not think twice. you have to makes sure you agree on the price before you do anything and even then they will change it after the fact and make a big scene if you dont give them the money. its best to keep your cool and just skae you head and look like your not fucking around. it helps i have been hanging out with Mix who is a giant Danish man that will just start jabbering away in Danish if they try to make trouble and they usually just walk away looking confused or amused. People have been friendly to me thus far though. Crossing the street here is very hectic, you just pick a pace and walk at it, there are no stop light or if there ar no one pays any attention to is. just keep walking while a million motorbike zoom towards you and as long as you dont stop or make a sudden movement they just go around you. it a very interesting experience but its worked thus far, every once in a while i wont see one and they'll honk right behind me and i jump and get out of the way.
Im staying at a very nice hotel that has a tv, fridge, clean bed, and my own bathroom just for 8 bucks! pretty awesome, thought the window doesnt have a screen. i was brushing my teeth the other night and heard a buzzing and saw something brown flying around. i came out of the bathroom and saw a cockroach as long as my middle finger chilling on my pillow.. I was really not stoked. Tried to get it out but it just scuttled under my mattress. got my flashlight out and moved the bed but the fucker was no where to be found. It was hard to sleep easy that night, every russle of the blanket or tickle form the fan made me jump. Ill take leeches over cockroaches any day, they dont do shit but they crawl on you and are discusting.
Strang being in a communist country, facebook wont wort for one. they have it all blocked because it shares information or something. I dont really understand why any of the governement have bothered to call it communism. No one has succeeded in making anything equal, theres still the rich and the poor. but i suppose we dont really live in a real democracy as well so all governments just lie and call things what they want. Saw some amazing art yesterday, embrodiery that blew my mind. HUGE cloths that were covered in amazing pictures all done by hands, thread a needle. Also saw some old communist propaganda posters. It was interesting seeing the american flag in such a negative setting, they had statement like "40000 US planes brought down by the brave fighters" and "Nixon must pay with blood for our blood." its also strange how they call it the American war. We dont have a real name for the war, we call it Vietnam war which woundlt make any sense over here.
Thinking about spending 2 weeks in Vietnam then taking a train through SW china to Nepal, still thinking about it though.

Well im hungry but i promise to keep this blog better up to date.

Catch up, LAOS

Wow its been too long since i have updated this. So Wade made it back from Burma just fine, got his 15 days. I finished Massage school and had a really great time, passed my final although i really shouldnt have, i still have allot of practice before i can give a good massage.. Met up with my friends Jerad, who i know from two years ago in Colorado in a spiritual retreat, we had a geat time going to a snake show, visiting tiger kingdom (you get to pet tigers, and no they aren't drugged!), a waterfal and a temple. I think i have seen enough water falls and temples to last the next ten lifetimes! the snake show was rteally cool, although i made the mistake of giving a little scream the first time they pulled a trick (he threw the snake but held onto its tail so it came within feet of my face) so they teased me the rest of the time. dropped a cobras body on my lap, let the snakes go under my chair and pinched the back of my legs when i held the anadaconda. We made great friends with the family that owned the guest house we stayed at and they had two birthdays that week so they got us really drunk and fed us. they were nice anc we bonded with thw daughter May and partied with her allot. They were some sort of red shirt leaders though... sketch. Met a great friend Steve who owns businessed in Cahing Mai and is really a wonderful person to know around that city. he let us stay in his fortress and treated us very well, I had so much fun! My visa was running low though so we had to journy to Laos

The buses in Laos are worse then Nepal, which i didnt think was possible. took us 12 hours on the first one, 2 hours on the second where we got our Visas sorted and arrived into Venten (sp?)the capital. We decided to take a van straight to Vang Vien and met some really lovely english people on the trip over. arrived in vang vien after almost 20 hours of travel and we were tired! Vang Vien is allot of fun though a serious tourist trap, family guy and friends play at all the restaurants and its pretty funny to walk past a packed place where no one is talking at all and they just staring stoned at the tv.. The attracting in the town it Tubing, where you rent a inner tube and float down the river. there are bars all along the river and they throw you lines and pull you in. basically you get shitface and sit in dirty water. Its pretty amazing. They have zip lines and trapeeze and water slids at all the bars and its really fun to go off huge platforms and bellyflop in the river. i went on one zip line that just had a stop at the end which you shoudl let go before you reach it, i didnt know this hit the stop and it flung me into a sumersalt to land flat on my back in the water. hurt! The next day we took a sleeper bus to 4000 islands, not the best plan travel wise but i learned how to plan better in the future. another 14 hours on a bus but at least this one had a bed, a very small bed i shared with wade. We arrived in Pakse in the morning and was directed to another bus station where we had to take a long tuk tuk filled with rice, pots and locals for 4 hours to the dock. transportation is really very trying here. took a boat to Don det and had a great time chilling in hammocks by the river and bike riding around the island for a few days. We then headed back up north ( the bad travel planning) on more awful buses, stopping in tom somthing to see a huge cave. The cave has a river going through it and runs for 2km, it was really beautiful but not as creepy as the guidebook claimed. Checked out huge stalamites ect. then a short 5 hour bus trip back to capital where we stayed for a day. It had fantastic food, pizza, bread, cheese, wine! the french colonized laos for a while so they have some good food. Then up to Luang Prabang, the "pearl of the orient" which i dont think was worth the 12 hour bus ride wich for some reason was so much worse then the other ones.

A bit on the buses here and then ill let it rest. One we were in a local bus stopped every 10 min for no reason at all, they then filled the asile and lower part with bags of sugar and rice. i was thankful it wasnt livestock.. a second one was totally filled with no seats, so they took plastic stool and had people sit all along the asile! i had a guy pretty much sleeping in my lap taking up my arm rest while the ac dripped wateron my face and people vomited up front into bags they just stuck in the asile. 12 hours of this through the night. think i got about 30 min sleep...

Got a little bit of infection on my leg but should be fine with some hydrogen peroxide and antiseptic. got some really narley bites on my back as well they look like some sort of rash thing. I need to remember to take care of myself here, i think i am resilient to everything and there are some dangers here.

Wade wishes to "convey to the public" that the cokeacola here is much sweeter then home... He is struggleing to find the positive in all situations and i think he might be taking a early flight home. Asia is a little too unorganized for his standards and he thinks he is catching every diease in the sun. travel can be really shocking to the system and the mind.

Im going to head to Vietnam soon and not sure he is going to join me. Im excited to see the war museam, i hear its really intense but educational. people tell me the people there are agressive but the country to beautiful and its worth seeing. I might tell them in Canadian...

I'm going to Burrma

I am out of time here in Thailand so I must go to do elongate my stay for yet another 15 days. I booked a bus but it is without AC and it's a 6 hour trip. The bus was really quite empty when I choose my seat so who knows how I will fit. I will get to Mae Sai ten minutes after nine. I will then find a tut tut to take me over the boarder to Burma. I have yet to decide if I will stay the night in burma but there is a chance that I will. It will be an something new and terrifying. I rode in a tut tut get to the bus station. I was accompanied by an entire family, father, mother, older son, and baby. It seemed quite sketch to not have the baby in a car seat as we sped along the worn uneven pavement. I had my eyes closed and the tut tut driver told me that if we get stopped by one of the many of the authorities just hand them 200 baht and we can go along our way. Fortunately we did not get stopped because I didn't have two hundreds to pass to a corrupt police.

Off I Go. What will it be like in Burma.

What a wonderful first day at Massage School, i recoment Sunshine School of massage if anyones in Cahing Mai and have a couple weeks to learn a great skill. Our teachers name is Mint and she is adorable yet fierce. My other classmates are fun and great to talk to. There are four of us in total. A man from Southern France, Portugal and a woman from Germany. all of them have many stories to share and travels under there belts. Today we learnd feet and energy maridian of the legs. It takes some getting used to and is hard! I am always reminded to keep my back straight because you can get sore after awhile and you have the most power that way. I changed to a guest house that is really very nice for around the same price of the hostel and much closer to the school. I have a fridge and lost of shelves, it will be my home for the next two weeks and it feels great to be able to unpack and have some space. Its strange but i am still scared of the dark a little ( i know im old) i feel so much better walking by myself on the street or encountering strangers then i do sometimes trying to fall asleep. Guess thats a silly fear that wont go away with the chagne of a country! Easter came and went and I had bearly an idea! i wonder if Haloween and the Holiday season will be the same.. prob not, ill set up a little banna tree in my room in Neapl.

Wade went with Ryan to Pai and I know they are having an amazig time, he will have his own adventured to tell soon enough!

Happy Easter!

Thailand(BKK) Chaing Mai

Alright, so i met Wade at the skytrain after some miscommunication but we found each other. he wasn't able to get a Thai phone so i pretty much have him on a leash ;) Because of Songcran (the thi New Year water festival) all the hostels were full. So we drank and snuck me into his where we did some moving around and I was able to find a bed. It was a dutch hostel so everyone spoke mostly dutch ut knew english and spoke for our and our Canidan friend, Shaine's, benifit. they taught us some card drinking games that Im excited to bring home. Similar to kings cup but a little better and way less nasty. The next day we took a sleeper train to Chaing Mai. the train didn't leave until 6pm so we hug out in the station allot and avoided the streets. The Water festival is pretty much the biggest water fight in the world. every one runs around with super soakers and hoses and just sprays EVERYONE. sticks mud on your face and gets drunk. We wern't to down to be soaked on the train so we hid. I thought that I would arrive with enough time to catch the last days as everyone said it went through the weekend. I missed it however and im really bummed. Looked like loads of fun. People were spraying monks and little kids would do drive by shooting on the back of motorcycles. SO cute ut got a little old after you just get dry. the sleep train was rad, a bed that folds down and was very cozy, though a little pricy and i think we will opt for the less expensive and wayy less luxorious bus option when we go elsewhere.
Arrived in Chaing Mai around7 am a toal of 14 hours on the train. We booked a hostel online and it turns out its pretty much the best thing in Cahing Mai. A Little Bird Guest House is filled with awesome travelers with wonderful stories. its a great place to meet people and plan other trips. Hearing all the stories from others just makes me want to travel more. I dont think i ever want to come home!
Wade is having a time adjusting, though i have so much faith that he will rise to the challenge once he gets a handle on things in a week or two. Traveling is deff harder for some people then others, i used to think that everyone should do it (and they should!) but some i think get used to the experience faster. Its super crazing not being able to speak the language, and even just the street food is an out of wold experience in itself. You have to watch where you step as to not get run over and people will try to take advantage of you as much as possible. Im used to this a little because i lived in SF for a tad bit and cities dont scare me as much.
WE went Bunge Jumping yesterday which was awesome. 50 Meters which i think translates to around 160+ feet. you stand on this little platform with a rope straped around your legs and you just have to trust it'll catch you. It was pretty funny seeing huge british guys take 5 min at the top to get the balls to go. Honestly thats so much harder then if you just do it and dont't think as much. Once you get in your head its allot harder to talk yourself into it. You stomech just flip flops when you jump and the ground get closer then the bunge sets in and back up you go! Then you just kinda bounce around for a little bit till they decide to take you down.
Meeting loads of awesoem people. I start Massage school on Monday, so im sure exactly what Wade will do till them. Our friend Ryan is renting a motor bike and going to Pai. Whcih is a smaller version of Cahing Mai and a mekka of amazing travelers. I think it will be very good for him to take off for a bit and learn how to navigate by himself and with someone that isn't me. We will need to do a visa run soon and i hop i can fit it into the weekend i have off with School.
keep me in mind for a massage when i get back, ill have to work my ass off to make South America happen after a few months of being home. I can't image being in the states for a long period of time right now!

Cheers!