Kunming, China

This will just be a quick post...just finishing off some Chinese wine with my french friend here checking our internet then going out for street dumplings and noodles!

Climbed Fansipan...Wow. LOL I have too many stories for here, including where we slept on the mountain, the climb, the scenery, drinking too much rice wine and "happy water" aka Vietnamese rice wine (pronounced "SZee-Ow") with the guides and later a group of vietnamese students who embraced me into thier group... Ask me for pics sometime and I will take you through the 3 days, 2 nights. Quickly, some things I learned: 1) the top of a mountiain is very windy 2) vietnamese drink a lot 3) your body will not let you fall asleep if you are really cold 4) it is possible to climb a mountain in hiking boots (others), nikes (me), jelly sandles (porter), wellington rain boots (my guide) and bare feet (village women)

Crossing the border into China was pretty chill, just walking across a bridge from Vietnam, but it took forever because border security literally pulled everything out of all of my bags...looked through all my books, opened and smelled my shampoo, read my travel diary even! Looking for drugs???? A "free tibet" flag? After that, customs tore apart my carry-on, asking if I was carrying any books with me. I think they were looking for my lonely planet china (I hid it in my big bag because I read they confiscate them). Apparently because of the way they lay out the maps (taiwen is in a different colour or something) it is illegal to bring into china!

Missed the early local bus to Kunming from Hekou, so hopped on the local 1pm bus that got me into Kunming at 2am. I would have preferred the sleeper bus, but i didnt have enough cash for the ticket. Turns out my debit and credit cards didnt work in any of the banks in Hekou! I had barely enough money from exchanging my VDN at the border to get the bus ticket with enough to get a bed in a hostel dorm for the night in Kunming....not for food or anything else. So after booking into the hostel I had literally ZERO cash. No money. Nothing. In China. Totally fucked. I didnt sleep that night trying to make a plan...I was going to try my cards again the next morning in every bank in Kunming, and if they didnt work, book a flight back to Thailand from Kunming for that day, attempting to use my credit card on the last day before it expired (april 1)! Luckily the next morning my card ended up working no problem in the bank of china...the same freakin bank it was rejected in in Hekou! What a scare! I went out for a BIG breakfast and now am travelling with LOTS of cash :)

So yeah, aside from arriving in a strange city with no money in the middle of the night, the bus ride was ehhhh...long. Lots of people spit on the bus...not used to that. And smoking. But the scenery was BEATIFUL...all through rice fields and small villages. At a break for dinner I chatted with the only other white person on the bus, a nice guy from France living in Montreal. He bought me some food after finding out my cash problem and we found a hostel together when arriving in Kunming. We walked around exploring the city today....which is seriously a real city! SO different that Vietnam!! Everything is BIG and neon! There is a walmart (the bus passed it...havent found it), mcdonalds, KFC, pizza hut...

Tomorrow Im heading to Dali, then the rough plan is going to Lijiang, tiger leaping gorge then Shangri-la. Id also like to head to Dequin, a tibetian town close to the border, but we'll see....
Im travelling super slow now...planning on spending at least 3-4 days in each place...tired of just jumping from city to city... Man, I am really looking forward to just chilling with Tibetan monks in the moutains :)

K...finished my Medicy wine and going to get some food!

xoxo
Anna

Sapa, Vietnam

Adrian and I said our goodbyes yesterday morning in Hanoi :( I decided that Halong Bay was not for me...I decided to save up the money to climb FanXiPang mountain in Sapa. Adrian hopped on the backpacker bus to Halong Bay and I stayed behind to explore Hanoi.

I managed to make it to the Hoi Chi Minh mauseleum before the rain started POURING down. Seriously, it rained hard all day LOL. To get into the mauseleum you first have to check your bags and camera, then you have to get your purse scanned and walk through a metal detector....I felt like I was at the airport! There are officers everywhere looking very serious in uniform with guns. Once you enter the mauseleum you have to stay on the little carpet and are not allowed to stop walking...you follow the carpet into the room with Hoi Chi Minh's body (who is surrounded by 4 guards who watch you suspiciously walk by), walk around the room and leave the building.

After the mauseluem I walked to the market in the rain and then took the local bus to the museum of ethonology. All of the signs are written in Vietamese and no one (not even people who speak english) knew what I was talking about when I said "ethonology" but a nice man on the bus was able to tell me what stop to get off at for the street the museum was on, which was awesome. The people here are such a contrast.....most are willing to help you out, give you directions, help you with your map, offer you a seat under a canopy when it is raining, offer a cup of tea when you are soaking wet. ... Then there are others that look at you and make you feel like you shouldnt even be in the country....

I got on a sleeper train last night super exhausted, but ended staying up talking with a lady who has travelled a lot of the world who was in the bunk next to me. We arrived in Lao Cai at 5:30 am and hopped on a bus to Sapa. I really lucked out because a guy on the bus from Australia who was also going to the same trekking place as me had lived in China for a year teaching English! We talked for like, 4 hours about China and he gave me some great advice and taught me how to speak enough Mandarin to get by! SO awesome! I was a bit nervous about China before but Sam really got me excited for it!

I have so many good things to say about Sapa...it is a beautiful mountain town surrounded by clouds that mist in and out of the city. Hill tribe people walk around everywhere and the people are incredibly nice! I climbed Dragon mountain today and was so overwhelmed at how beautiful it was I ended up staying up there for 3 hours! Walked around the market, meet some girls from the states, and was invited by the lady who runs the trekking place/guest house im staying at to have dinner with her family! They even let me help cook a little bit... :)

Time for bed for me...have a few big days climbing FanXiPang tomorrow. As a side note, it rained here yesterday, this morning and this evening. My guide said that it is lucky because if it didnt rain we wouldnt have been able to climb the mounting.. there hasnt been rain here all month and the park has been closed since March 11 due to fire risk!

I have to come home....sigh.

So...turns out I will be coming home originally planned the end of April :(

This sucks, because I always thought of my return flight as flexible. Unfortunately, Orbitz doesnt seem to think so....changing my flight will end up costing me over $1000, which is INSANE and definitely more than I can afford. Im REALLY disappointed...I had a big plan on flying to the Phillipines from Hong Kong and doing an island hopping and dive trip for 2 1/2 weeks. Orginally I was going to head to Nepal, but after talking with other travellers and doing logistics Ive decided to make that a whole other trip and go with 2 or 3 people from home that are into trekking...that way it will be a guarenteed a good group, I can arrange the guide I want in advance, I will have the gear and be able to train a bit...

So yeah, Im back home for May.
Boo!

BUT...Im off to Alberta for June!
Yeah!

What will I do with that month? Ill prob head to Montreal to visit friends and go kayaking and drop by Ottawa for some kayaking on the way back... try to work a bit to scrap up some cash...

I guess all vacations have to end, eh?

Hoi Ann, Vietnam

We made it into Hoi Ann, the tailoring capitol of Vietnam! Adrian is getting pimped out with a suit and a few shirts and I somehow got talked into getting a dress....they are super super cheap though so its hard to say no. Every other shop here is a tailor and the others are shoe makers...you can get custom leather shoes made, design your own knock off "nikes" or design a shoe and have your name stitched on the side like a rockstar! I wanted to get a knock off of a Hurley jacket made, but they dont have thick cotton here..only silk, wool, etc. I guess people dont really get sweatshirts tailormade in Vietnam LOL

Today we have pretty much just been going for fittings and tasting the local dishes here...cao lau noodles, dumplings/wontons, etc. Tomorrow we will rent bikes and head to the beach and maybe MySon Holyland.

The day break in Nha Trang was awesome! Hopped on a "party boat" that toured 4 islands with a snorkel stop, a floating bar and live music. Maybe drank a little too much fruit wine...i hopped back on the night bus with a headache, coral in my foot and a nasty burn on my legs. The sleeping buses here are something else...i will post a pic rather than describe.

Saigon, Vietnam

Have spent two days in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and am heading out tonight on a sleeper bus. We are trying to get to Hoi Ann but the bus there is over 20 hours, so we are breaking it up by spending a day on the beach in Nha Trang.

Saigon is a HUGE compared to Cambodia and Laos! There are thousands of motorcycles/scooters on the roads and is bustling with people. It has taken some training to be able to cross the streets with all of the insane traffic because there is never a break in the cars/motos: you have to walk at a slow, controlled pace across the road and the motos and cars will just avoid you. The worst thing is to stop/hesitate or pull back or backtrack out of the way (which is your natural reaction when a motorcycle is speeding directly toward you at 80km/hr), because then the drivers cant anticipate where you will be and they honk and you swerve and it is chaos! Its really crazy having motos whizzing past you 2 inches away! Some tourists actually get helped walking across the street by friendly vietnemese people....LOL not gonna lie, I had to be helped once. I was staring at the busiest roundabout i had seen in Saigon yet and was thinking there is NO WAY i am getting across this and an old man came beside me and said, "you just go....come on" and walked with me across. I actually felt a moto brush my arm and couldnt help laughing histarically at the other side. Who knew that walking into Vietnamese traffic was a better high than skydiving!

Have spent the last two days walking around seeing the sights and just enjoying culture and food! Went to the war museum and saw the notre dam cathedral and old school post office, walked through ALOT of markets and spent the night perched on a little plastic stool drinking Saigon beer. I have great pics of everything but the computers here cant read my camera so posting them will have to wait for later :(

As an update about me, a couple days ago I accepted a job at Chinook rafting, so will be living in Canmore for the summer guiding :) I'll be driving there the beginning of June...If anyone needs a ride, let me know! I would also appreciate any hook ups with cheap accomodation out there...it will be a bit of a headache i think trying to arrange it from here...

Have also been thinking about extending my trip and heading to the phillipines to do some more diving and see some whale sharks.....have ditched heading to nepal because, for some reason, the flights there from beijing are insanely expensive. I will do another trip that includes nepal and india later....

gotta run to the bus...
Anna

Siagon, Vietnam!

Wow. How do I start about today? Adrian and I made it into Saigon about an hour ago after a serious journey.

It started with my surprise "you have to leave right now!!" statement from the guesthouse owner.

7:15am: Adrian and I hopped in the tuk tuk and we were off!

For two hours we drive on a dirt track through farmers fields, barely making it through the massive holes mid track filled with the rain that fell overnight. We were surrounded as far as you can see by rice fields, cows, pigs, chickens.... Children would run out of thier shacks as we passed by and stand on the street yelling "Hello! Hello!" and waving and would smile and cheer when we waved back! Man, we really felt like rockstars...every shack kids (and actually some adults) yelling "hello! hello! hello!"

9:15 am: We meet two moto drivers on the dirt road and they hand us each a helmet. We hop on the back and head out down a road that no doubt the tuk tuk could not make it through!

9:30 am: The Ha Tien border! This border just opened up 1 year ago, and from what Adrian read online, does not always let tourists through. We pay $1 together to get a departure stamp and $1 each to get through "immunization authority screening" I sign a form saying I do not have AIDS or a fever. We hop back on the motos and are off to Ha Tien!

10 am: Show up at the bus station in Ha Tien. The bus for Saigon/HCMC (Ho Chi Min City) left at 9am. No other buses until tomorrow.

10:15am: We chase after a local bus heading to Rach Gia...we are told we can catch a bus to HCMC from here. The bus stops EVERYWHERE to pick up people! Even when I thought it would be impossible to fit more people on the bus, they find a way! Three kids share 1 seat, sitting on each other's laps; women sit on plastic kids stools in the aisles; 6 people fit across the 4 person backseats; people sit on the stairs in the doorway. The small boy across the aisle starts puking from the bouncing road: a woman sitting behind me rubs some essential oil on his neck and behind his ears, and while his mother holds him another woman pinches three areas on his chest until they are brusied and the kid is screaming. The mother seems okay with it all and the boy doesnt puke again...

1 pm: Arrive Rach Gia. Are followed for 30min by a persistent moto driver who literally just walks behind us as we look for the bus kiosk saying "moto moto..cheap tickets minibus." We buy a ticket for a "big bus" to HCMC from a lady on the street, then sit and talk with an old Vietnamese man until the bus arrives. I search for some quick street eats and end up with a take-out bowl of pho.

1:45pm: Hop on the bus. It is a mix of loud honking and vietnamese music for over 6 hours. We have at least 2 near misses where I swear someone on a bicycle or crossing the street was going to die. We are hot and sweaty and very dusty from the open window...the only moving air. The bus stops every 5 min with LOTS of shouting out the door and exchange of parcels. We stop once for the bathroom. Have you ever tried to eat noodle soup on a lurching, start-and-stop bus?

6:45pm: The bus stops again, but this time two men grab Adrian and my bag and haul them outside and start walking away with them! We hop out of the bus and run after the bus, only to find another bus around the corner! The men stow our bags and we get a ticket. Turning around the other bus is gone. New bus, louder Vietnamese music....the driver just sits on the horn continuously until everything in my brain is honkhonkhonkhonkhonkhoooonnnnnkkkkkkk. It takes sitting down in two different sets of seats and being shooed out by the bus driver before we can settle in seats in the back...whats up with that?

9:30pm: Arrive Saigon at some bus station at night time. Very hot and sweaty. I am considering peeing into my Nalgene bottle (except that I couldnt bring myself to drink out of it later so decided against it). It is 15km to town and we have 8 moto drivers following us down the road. Only one will take us for the price we are offering...both of us on his moto! Adrian's big bag goes between the driver's legs, adrian behind him with his day back on one arm, my day bag on the other arm, me behind adrian with my huge pack hanging off me off the back of the moto, my butt half on the seat LOL. It was actually really scary because every time we started and stopped I slid back a little more until I was sure I was going to bounce off the back. I had a death lock with one arm around adrian, but the moto guy wouldnt let adrian wrap his arm around him....only let him put one hand on his shoulder. Other people on motos were pointing and laughing LOL...but we made it!

10pm: Found a guesthouse in the pham ngu lao area and grabbed some food...first food since breakfast! (well...if you dont count my unsuccessful attempt at eating my pho)

Tomorrow we are finally sleeping in (yeah!) and then heading to the war museum and just walking around shopping. Next day is the Cu Chi tunnels, then hop on a night train or bus to Hoi Ann.

Kampot, Cambodia

Still in Cambodia! Those who have travelled for a long period of time will know what I mean when I say that half the time I have no idea what time it is, the day of the week it is, and definitely not the exact date LOL. So when filling out our visas for Vietnam, I asked Adrian the date, who apparently didnt know either, but guessed with confidence....We wrote down "March 18" for our entrance date instead of "March 17." Apparently once its in your passport it is written in stone so we had to wait a day to go to Vietnam.

So with this new opportunity, we hopped on a minibus to Kampot, a very small, sleepy town a few hours towards the vietnamese border. It is really nice and quiet here...no one harrassing you like in Sihnokville.

Okay...so turns out we have to leave RIGHT NOW.....there is some issue with the bus! Ah!
Bye!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today I learned a lot.

Adrian and I started the day with traditional noodle soup and fried bread for breakfast, then headed to S-21, the highschool-turned-prison/torture center. Walked through rooms and rooms of pictures of Khmer people who had been tortured and killed, stood in the cells that they were kept in that still had dried blood on the tiles and fingernail scratches on the walls, watched a documentary on the horror that happened in between 1970-1998 in those buildings and around Cambodia. It was sobering and we were quiet for a long time after leaving...

On the way to the famous "Russian market" we wandered through a few different Khmer food markets. These are really something to see: tiny side streets lined with a rainbow of fruit--mangos, rambutan, pomellos, mangosteen, dragonfruit, oranges, pineapple, lychees, different sizes of bananas, wax apples, tamarind, limes (etc.)-- stalls have hundreds of dried crabs and every size of dried fish hanging from them, one whole street was filled with live chickens and geese and chicks all tied together by thier feet. Live fish, shrimp and eels flop on the ground. Baskets are filled with fried bugs, spiders, peeled and fried frogs on sticks; bags overflow with various types of rice, beans, dried shrimps and spices. Around the corners are women and men crouched over buckets filled with water cleaning fish, cutting open animals, cooking bananas over homemade fires, drying fish in the sun in woven baskets. The streets smell one moment like cooking pastry, then like fish...flowers..exhaust...feces...sewer...cooking fire smoke...I watched how a live goose goes from sitting on the ground quacking away to becoming something you see ready to buy in Loblaws...

Chickens, ducks and other fowl tied by thier feet in bunches of 5-6

[Let me inject a quick story here from another traveller i met on the bus: his friend was walking down a cambodian market street and saw animals in cages. in one cage was dogs and another puppies. she cooed over the puppies and played with them a bit until the stall over came over. he pointed at the puppies and said, "you like?" and she smiled and said yes and petted one that was extra cute. the man reached into the pen, picked up the puppy, snapped its neck and handed it to the woman. apparently the woman dropped the dog and started to cry and the stall guy was totally confused... I also have a story about dog brains but Ill spare you that one right now]


Where we are staying is a very local area--no white people! People stare at me curiously a lot (Adrian is asian so for some reason he is exempt). We are the only foreigners in restaurants, which means we get the "foreigner" menu that is in random english (great!) but is at least twice as expensive as the regular menu (not so great). Its still super cheap tho so I guess I cant complain...

Tomorrow morning we head to Sihanoukville by local bus...I am happy to be heading to the beach because it is stinking sticky hot here and there is no relief. You take a shower and literally once you have dried off you are covered in sweat again. It will be nice to have a breeze and (i didnt think i would ever say this) to see some tourists again.

I am munching on durian pieces out of a plastic bag as I write this...yum! It seems once it is peeled it doesnt smell that bad anymore (the fruit has a really nasty ammonia type rotting smell to it). I have been eyeing up some deep friend bread/pocket-like things that they sell on the street out of the carts...the prob is no one has been able to tell me what is in them yet....maybe Ill get a couple and get Adrian to have the first bite to clear it of shrimp! (I am super allergic to shellfish, esp shrimp). I had a bit of a scare in Chiang Mai with papaya salad that made it difficult to eat and drink for a few days--apparenlty just picking the shrimp out of something does not make it okay to eat. Hard lesson learned.

Tasting the pocket-thing at a bus rest stop...they are filled with sweet toasted coconut!

.

Going to take a shower and a nap then maybe a shower again. Excited about what new things we are going to eat and drink for dinner! Last night I had an AMAZING can of stout called Black Panther. Nice black licorice taste, but at 8% i could only drink one LOL. The beer's slogan was "Feel the power of the black panther." I might finally try Cambodian brewed Guiness ("Guiness foreign stout")...have been putting it off because of how gross the Belize brewed Guiness was... Maybe we will do some karaoke? ;)

Arrived Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Hopped on a bus this morning at 7am and arrived in Phnom Penh at 2pm...i am about to grab a quick tasty Cambodian curry called Amok and then will take a moto to the airport to meet up with Adrian! The food in Cambodia has a lot of influence from China but also Thailand and Vietnam, so you have a mix of noodle soups, curries, spring rolls...tasty! The fruit is awesome and SO cheap...25 cents for a full mango or pinapple cut up and ready to eat in a bag! The food is not spicy, which is too bad, but there are new flavours and spices and smells that are really growing on me :)
You can pretty much eat anything under the sun here: dog, frog, tarantulas, fried bugs, brains, crocodile, rat....really anything (this list comes from what Ive seen so far... I will start sampling interesting things and post pics later...not sure I want to do dog tho...hm, or rat if I can help it).

It is VERY different here from Siem Reap: there were $200 hotels in Siem Reap, restaruant strips that made you feel like you were in europe, an interesting mix of older couples with backpackers, shiny giant gas stations with mini marts that sold only western food (chips, cookies, ice cream, beer, burgers, american shampoos and other products) and a cambodian version of starbucks! Its like Siem Reap was disney land with angkor wat as the main attraction instead of mickey mouse! Seriously, bus after bus after air conditioned bus of japanese, german, french tourists pouring in and out of Angkor...in the end it was my least fav site of the entire place! (My fav was Bayon). I am staying in a cheap, local area here far from the tourist area by the river. It is around the corner from the market....dirty, busy, food stalls everywhere, cambodian people....more like real life. I hiked here with an english guy I met on the bus who was also looking to get away from the lonely-planet-tourist trap areas (which just also happens to be where the dirt cheap digs are). After about an hour walking, we found a really really sketchy place for $3! I would have taken it, but Adrian was on his way and from experience, after travelling for so long on a plane--jet lagged, melting in the sweltering heat, overwhelmed and tired--all you want is a comfortable bed, a clean shower and air con (none of which this place had..actually, I prob would have been hesitant to leave my bag in the room). I said goodbye to my friend and shelled out the $7 for a less sketch place with a fan and satellite tv (wierd!).

Adrian and I need to get vietnam visas, so we will be here for another day while they process...will probably go see the S-21 museum, killing fields and famous knock off market tomorrow while we wait then off the next day to the beach coast!

cheers!

Angkor Wat...Day 1

Monkeys on the road to Angkor Wat! I got off my bike to take a picture of the mother and baby, and when I came back the monkeys had taken over!





A beautiful sunrise at Phnom Bakheng...



Ta Prohm



Bayon

From Khao Lak, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Breakdown of the last two days:

-Hopped off the dive boat at 4pm
-Got on a second-class bus at 5pm (march 9)
-Arrived in bangkok, local bus station 7am (march 10)
-Local bus to khao san rd, arrive 7:55am
-Hop on bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia 8am
-Arrive Siem Reap, 8pm....

Crossing the Thai/Cambodian border was a trip! Along the way the bus people are pressuring you to let them arrange your visa for you for a super expensive price. I held my ground the whole way, insisting on getting it at the border for $20 USD.

So i get to the border and the border police guys look me up and down and say:
"Need visa? 1800 BHT."
And I say, "Nooo. $20 US."
The policeman looks at me and says, "mmmm....1200BHT."
And I point at the sign above the visa office that says $20 and say "No. $20!"
So he chats with his police buddies and says "Okay okay...$20...PLUS 500 BHT"
And I point at the sign again....Seriously, there is a freakin sign that says it is $20 right above him! And he talks with his buds again.
"Okay. $20 plus 100 BHT. For fast visa."
So I took it. 100BHT isnt such a bad bribe...but for real, where am I that you barter for your visa with the border police?!! I think Cambodia is going to be an interesting place...

(As an aside, while waiting at the border the bus drove away with my bag in it so the bus operator guy and I were chasing it down in a thunderstorm! Crazy!)

I am staying at this awesome guesthouse called Mekong village villa that has free laundry, free bicycles, free breakfast and the room is SUPER nice...a real shower and toilet and sheets and a towel and a hammock out front in a little patio. Man! All for $10/night. I met a couple from ireland and guy from germany and we are all biking tomorrow to go see Angkor wat. I have two days to see the temples and the owner, Eric, has mapped out a route for me :)

The Dolphin Queen liveaboard dive boat was incredible...SO glad I did it! The dives kept getting better....insane amount of fish everywhere! I saw octopus (they change colour and texture!), squid, cuttlefish, leopard sharks, reef sharks, tonnes of turtles, some super rare fish, eels of all sizes, shapes and colours, schools of barracudas, seahorses, sea snakes...I cant even try to list them all. Im not even disappointed that I didnt see a whale shark because everything else was so wicked! The days went: wake up at 7am, small snack then first dive at 7:30am, breakfast, nap, next dive, have lunch, hang out some more, dive again, snack, night dive and dinner after. (LOL so essentially: eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep!) Spent a couple nights sleeping on the sundeck watching the stars and crazy heat lightening with a couple of the guides...so awesome.

I have decided that I belong on the water and will have to figure out a way to live on a boat. This most likely will involve me working and living on a boat.....hmm.





Turtles swimming right off the diveboat! I grabbed my snokell and was swimming with them for a good hour!

Vang Vieng, Laos

So...... this place is wicked and I am staying another day! I bought my bus ticket for tomorrow so I HAVE to leave...but seriously, it would be SO easy to stick around here.

"Tubing" was a trip! To be honest, we didnt even bother renting the tubes....the bars on the river are so close to one another we just swam in between them in the current :) Each bar is pouring free whiskey shots, playing wicked music, everyone is lying around in bikinis and surf shorts on the docks, people are painting you with body paint and markers and there are these 30 foot trapez swings you can swing into the water with...awesome! One bar has a giant mud pit, another has a zipline into the water, another has a giant waterslide....and everyone is partying, wet and totally wasted. its unreal.

Yesterday went rock climbing all day to this amazing spot...no one else was there...was just myself, this guy Chris from germany and our guide, Apple. We climbed until Chris gave up and I couldnt bend my fingers anymore...I could even open my water that night! Im so sore this morning but totally worth it! It was such a beautiful spot...tree roots coming down through the rocks, leaves showering down in the breeze...there were even goats jumping around the rocks!

Went back to bar island and spun fire poi at the Sunset Bar, aka "canadian bar' ...since everyone that works there is canadian LOL (from calgary). Jason, the owner, spins fire too and we were showing each other tricks. He invited me to come with his staff to promote sunset bar on the river today...spinning poi and giving out free whiskey shots! so its another day of Tiger whiskey, trapez, sunning on the docks and dancing! :) Tough life eh? (Oh man, i gotta get outta here...this place is trouble)

Heading to vientienne tomorrow, then overnight to Bangkok and flying to phuket....then taking a bus to khoa lak and hopping on a liveaboard dive boat (the Dolphin Queen) for 4 nights and 4 days to the Similan islands. So excited! Had the best diving of my life last time I was in thailand...swimming with sharks, massive manta rays.... and now 14 dives in prime whale shark season!

xoxo
Anna