Hay Long Bay June 8 - 9

We basically did a day trip to Hay Long Bay with the 2 English guys, the bay was gorgeous, we ended up visiting a cave where there were rock figurines that looked like different animals and were supposed to symbolize different things, this first pic is of one that apparently looks like a lion looking to the right. We got to see some floating fishing villages were we were able to get out and walk around, it was really cool and we actually bought some fresh crabs that we had the cooks on the boat cook for us....very yummy. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, talking, drinkin and watching the sun set

Hell Bus to Vietnam, Hanoi June 5 - 7

Hell Bus was definitely the right word to describe this trip. The bus picked us up at VangVien and wen to the capitol of Laos then drove to the border of Laos and Vietnam. They made all the Westerners sit in the back which made it for a really bumpy and rough ride....on top of that they had little critters and snakes in plastic bags that they kept in the overhead luggage places...pretty rowdy. When we got to the border the bus stopped and turned off the engine and we were supposed to sleep in a hot bus till the border opened. For some reason they barely let me into the border but we finally made it to Hanoi, the capitol of Vietnam. It was basically a big city but we did go to the snake village where we had the opportunity to eat 8 different dishes of snake, drink snake blood (red shot), snake bile (green shot) and local Vietnamese wiskey (brown shot), here are a few pics of the snake village and the shots....we also picked up 2 English guys traveling together, so our group grew to 5 now.....

VangVien May 26 - June 5

If I though Koh Pan-Ngan was a party, VangVien was even rowdier. Everyone talked about floating the river there and basically what it is, is a bar crawl right on the river, there are about 5 different bars and you can either float to the next one or walk to the next one. If you decided to float, there are Laotian guys that would throw soda bottles full of water attached to a string to pull you into the bars because the river flows pretty fast and most of the time your pretty drunk because each bar pours Tiger wiskey down your throat cause its so cheap....1liter of Tiger cost less then a dollar. Not only that, but each bar had their own rope swings, slides and zip lines. From what I remember, you would take a Tuk Tuk to the first bar and they would immediately pour wiskey down your throat when you got there, then you would buy some beers or buckets and start partying. The first bar had a really cool rope swing that would launch you pretty high. At the first bar, they would give you a string wristband, this was to signify every time you "floated" the river, or keep track of how many times you came out to party. The second and third bar were alright, nothing really to write home about. The fourth bar was the "mud bar" they basically had mud pits and you would drink and play in the mud, they also had a rope swing. Definitely a good time there. If you made it to the final bar, they would pain one of your finger nails so you remember how many times you made it to the end of the "float". The final bar had a slide and zip line where people would hold on till the end and get a really nice jerking stop when they hit the end of the zip line and they would do double and triple flips before hitting the water. Haha....good times there are plenty more partying to do away from the river and I managed to get a really good morning picture of where we were staying. Here are a couple pics to give you an idea of the madness.....oh...I made friends with a local pet monkey there also

Thailand to Laos via Lang Prabang - VangVien May 23 - 26

Leaving Thailand and making it to Laos was going to be hell....It was gonna take us about 2 days to travel and we had to go by bus then by slow boat on the river. So we take a bus to the border and end up staying in a guest house which wasn't too bad. We woke up early and got on a slow boat and by slow....I mean s-l-o-w...but it was good cause we got some booze and made the best of it. The boat was small but we had room to move around and stuff like that, just really nothing to do, but after 8 hours we finally make it to the mid point, Lang Pragang, where we stayed in a guest house were they shut off the electricity at 11 because everything ran on generators and they didn't want to waste the fuel keeping it on all night. We woke up and got on a boat....again, but this time it was definitely smaller then the first one and I swear it was slower. We make it to another stop off town and stay the night there and take a bus to VangVien in the morning. The ride there was really cool cause it was very mountainous and a very windy road, and these people are crazy drivers, passing other buses around blind turns where there is only room for 2 cars and no guard rails, haha good times.....



This is the double rainbow we saw on the way to VangVien....it did rain, but that did not stop the drivers from driving all crazy

Changmai May 19 - 23

Changmai is a really cool city in Northern Thailand, there was quite a bit to do here, from trekking in the jungle and staying with some local jungle people, whitewater rafting, the Tiger Palace and quad biking up trails and mountain....we did all of them except for the jungle trek only because we didn't have enough time and felt that the others were definitely a bit more fun......