Rod Smith

I posted a few new picture books.  i discovered a problem when I was looking over my pictures: I took too many pictures of some areas, and not enough of others.  I posted just a little from each area, hope you enjoy!

Well my last full day in Luang prabang was a good one.  I went aand spent a day at a waterfall near the city, and it was very cool.  The water fall itself was huge, and there was many little pools you could swim in, jumping off smaller waterfalls and swinging on some vines they had tied over the pools.  There was also a few bears in a cage, and a ful grown tiger nearby.  When we got back to luang prabang we booked tickets on a 6:30am busride to vientiane, hoping to be there in time to catch a nigh train to bangkok.  We woke up in time, and were ready to go, but the guesthouse employees were very unorganized and ended up making us miss the bus.  I learned my lesson, ask for your passport back the day before you leave!  Anyhow we eneded up getting on and 8:30 bus that had airconditioning and a toilet (was supposed to be an express bus).  The bus kept having troubles, such as airconditioning breaking down fenders fallig off, engine overheating, and god knows what else.  So what we were told was a 9-10 hour airconditioned bus ride turned into a 12 hour, disgustingly hot bus ride.  And to make things even more fun, the people in all the seats around me started puking about 1 hour into the trip, and didn't stop for the entire ride.  Oh well, can't complain too much, sincne that is the only real bad luck that I've had on the entire trip so far.  Anyhow, iI'll be jumping on a night bus tonight, and arriving in bangkok first thing in the morning.  I gt to hang out thre for a few hours, then jup on my plane and head back to HK.

Well, I just finished my 3 day jungle trek and it was a great time.  The first day started with a 5 hour bike ride through the hilly countryside of Laos.  It was a nice change of pace, rather than sitting on buses and trains I was finally out and getting some exercise.  It's just too bad it's so bloody hot out.  The first few hours were uneventful, but when we stopped for lunch around noon one of the tires on a bike just blew for no reason.  Luckily our guide had a spare tire to replace it with.  After this we pedalled on for another hour or so until the tire blew again.  At least we were almost at a village, so it wasn't too long until we found a place to have the tube repaired.  A few hours past the village and we were at the end of our bike ride.  From here it was an hour's walk to the small village that we would be spending the night at.  The village was pretty cool.  There's no electricity, only one store (which is obviously for the tourists passing through) and just one tiny school.  It is a group of 35 families living together, about 272 people.  The village survives by growing rice in the surrounding hills and raising pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks and cattle for food.  Not a single animal was in a fence, they were free to wander wherever they felt like going.  All the houses were built from bamboo and seemed very tiny to be holding families this large.  It seemed like each family had at least 6 kids, each in various states of dress.  Many were naked, many were half clothed, some fully clothed, and some dressed in clothes that couldn't exactly be called clothes anymore.  Looking around, it seemed like everyone was very content with life.  I don't think I saw a single unhappy looking person in the village.  I also learned a new sport that I plan to show everyone when I get home: kataw.  It's sort of a mixture of soccer and volleyball, played with a small, wicker soccerball.  After the sun went down, it wasn't long until the village was silent.  So it was an early night, sleeping shortly after sunset. 

I woke up in the morning to a huge thunderstorm.  The rain was coming down unbelievable fast, it would be interesting to witness the rainy season here, when rain like this can supposedly go for 3 days straight.  Once the rain let up a little we began our trek through the jungle.  It rained a few more times during hte day, but luckily we were approaching a village each time it began.  By early afternoon we arrived in the next village that we would be staying at.  This one looked much more modern.  Most houses had concrete foundations, there was electricity and every second house was a store.  The people here live similar to the ones in the last village, but they were living right beside a river.  So many of the local people spent their days fishing.  Once I saw the size of fish they were catching, barely larger than a minnow, it seemed kind of a pointless way to spend the day.  I spent my afternoon watching a local group of kids play kataw, it was amazing.  These people have come up with so many ways to spike a ball with their feet.  I then introduced our guides to "Drunk Driver": we polished off a few bottles of beer and a bottle of what the guide called lao rye whiskey. 

The next morning we jumped on a motorboat and travelled to an elephant camp that was a little ways down the river.  Here I got to ride an elephant for about an hour.  Pretty boring. I thought it would be more exciting, but it's really really boring.  After this we jumped on a kayak and paddled for about 5-6 hours back to Luang Pra Bang.  The only problem with the kayak trip is that the water kept washing the sunscreen off me and by the time I got to LPB I was very very sun-burned. 

The plan from here is to visit some waterfalls this afternoon, then jump on a bus to Vientien tomorrow morning.  From there I can take an overnight train to bangkok.  If everything goes according to plan, I'll ahve time to go to some tiger monastery west of bangkok.  From there, it's back to HK.

Well, after spending a few days in Veng Viang I've moved on to Luang Prabang.  The bus ride here was very long, but through a beautiful countryside.  There is a very narrow highway weaving amongst mountains and passing through small villages the entire way.  Very beautiful scenery, but quite a long time to be sitting in a bus.    We had two days of rain in Laos already.  It seems like half of our trip has been soaked in rain already, but it normally only rains at night so far.  After being in Cambodia, Veng Viang seemed like a beautiful place, but now that we're in Luang Prabang everything else seems dull.  The city has a nice relaxed atmosphere to it, but it's also quite well kept.  I spent all day yesterday tubing down a river in Veng Viang, and it was great.  We spent the first half of the day playing on the swinging ropes and zipper lines built alongside the river, accompanied by a healthy dose of beer.  We then stopped at a giant restaurant that was setup on the riverside.  From what jesse told me, I expected to see loads of backpackers there but it was all locals.  That was fine with us, we went up and had a pretty sketchy meal, and sat with a beer watching some of the locals playing on the swings.  While watching, a local family sitting near us invited us to join their lunch.  So mark and I spent a few hours sharing their food and talking with them.  Once finished that we said our goodbyes and jumped on our tubes to continue our float down river.  At one point in the river, an old Lao woman was crossing the river and carrying something interesting looking, so I paddled over to check it out.  Turns out it was a baby monkey, which she handed over to me.  poor thing was scared shitless, but really cute.  The rest of the river was pretty uneventful, just floating, relaxing and chatting with other backpackers who floated past.  It was a very fun day. Anyhow, time to dive into this city and see what it has to offer.

i finally arrived in laos!  It only took a 3 hour taxi ride through cambodia, a 5 hour train ride to bangkok($2 uS) and then a 12 hour overnight train ride to the Laos border.  Unfortunately one member of my travel group got very sick and ended up staying in bangkok to go to the hospital.  One other also stayed there with him, so now it's just down the me and a dutch guy.  Unfortunately i was unable to to spend much time in vientiene, the capital city of laos.  the city seemed to have a great vibe to it, a nice break from siem-reep.  I've also heard from various people that it was one of their favorite destinations in southeast asia.  the trip itself was quite uneventful except for the places we stopped or ppassed through a city.  the lunar new year in this region is from april 13-15, and it is basically one giant waterfight.  Cambodia didn't seem to be participating too much, but thailand was insane. there was buckets of water flying through the train window any time we passed by a city. all one could see when looking up the streets was pickup trucks with their boxes packed full of people hurling water at one another.  Needless to say, everytime we got off a train we got soaked.  we quickly learned to keep valuable things like camera's and passports deep in our bags.  Laos itself seems to be amazing.  My first impression of this place is that it's really laid back and happy.  A welcome change from siem-reep, cambodia.  I haven't had much time to do anything here, but there seems to be a lot of cool options. i ran into a fellow winnipeger yesterday, and met a few people from norway.  Today i think i'm going to rent a motorbike and check out the city and surroundings, maybe explore a few caves.  Oh and one last thing, I'm a millionaire!  exchange rate here is: 1us = 10,000 kip.  I changed $100 us and my wallet is about 4 inches thick!