Happy New Years from Thailand!

So I'm getting back into the Blogging thing (hopefully). I'm going to run through the last couple months very quickly, probably won't have very detailed descriptions of each place...

So from Dalat we went to Hoi An. Hoi An is an alright place however it rained every day we were there so it probably could have been a lot more fun. It is known for it's tailors and I had 2 suits made among some other clothing. We sent the clothes hoome so I'm crossing my fingers the box makes it there eventually. 2 Tailor made suits (Cashmere wool) for $120USD....not bad.

From Hoi An we went all the way to Hanoi, skipping Hue completely...We felt we were running low on time and it was raining in Hue when we got there too, so we kept on truckin. Hanoi was okay, although as far as the big Vietnam Cities (Saigon, Hanoi) i thought Saigon was leaps and bounds better than Hanoi. Hanoi was more expensive than the rest of Vietnam in every respect except for one. Beer is cheap in Hanoi. For about a quarter you get a medium sized glass of draft beer....3 dollars goes a long way if you want to drink. There's one catch though, all the cheap beer stand's seating arrangements are kindergarten style stackable plastic chairs...in fact all the cheap grub in Asia uses these types of chairs and little plastic tables at the food stalls. It really is a great way to eat lots for a good price...and usually the flavor is really good as well because the vendor makes one or two kinds of food and so they are very good at making whatever they serve. Anyway, Katie and I started using the term "Kindergarten Soup?" or "Kindergarten Beer?" when discussing where to eat. Note, Kindergarten Pho is delicious!!

Katie didn't feel very well in Hanoi and so we stayed a couple extra days before moving on to Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is an amazing place and really needs to be seen with your own eyes to understadn the wonder of the place. You can look at pictures on the net and get an idea, but it is quite something to behold in person. you can purchase pre-arranged trips but Katie and I were getting sick of pre arranged tours and excursions and so we did Ha Long Bay on our own. it ended up being a great decision. We spoke with some other people who did the arranged trip and it turned out we followed very similar itineraries except that we saved a little money, had a nicer hotel, and didnt have to deal with the crowd being in a big tour group. Definitely no regrets in the Ha Long Bay Decision. We were there for Katie's champagne birthday (26 on 26th) and i have a humorous little anecdote about getting her birthday cake you'll have to ask me about. Birthday cakes, or even bakeries, aren't an everyday thing in the small town of Cat ba....which is why getting Katie a cake turned out to be a good little story (ask sometime). And the cake was delicious!!

We didn't want to leave Ha Long bay but our Visas were down to the wire and we didn't want to risk overstaying the Visa. We left Ha Long Bay back to Hanoi and stayed one night in a dorm style room where a Rat or some sort of creature ate a box of crackers we had purchased for a bus ride the next day. The best part is the crackers were right beside Katie's feet and so whatever ate them was proabbly crawling all over Katie's sleeping body. She loved coming to that realization.

After Vietnam we took a 30 Hour bus to Laos, it turned out to be only about 18 hours which was nice. It was a little dreadful and crowded, but again there were people in worse sitting positions than us (like Kindergarten Chairs in the aisle of the bus) so I didnt complain too much. Getting our Laos Visa on arrival was quick and painless. For some reason however, Canada has to pay the most of any country for the Visa....maybe they dont want Canadians visiting their wonderful country? Who knows....

Laos is a very nice place. So similar to Vietnam yet so different. Same Same but Different. (Asia joke). I actually didn't enjoy Vientiane very much (where we arrived in Laos) but we quickly left for Vang Vien and Vang Vien was unreal. I absolutely loved it. It is a little town driven by tourism of people going tubing down the River...i can't remember the name of the river right now. I highly recommend the river tubing just so you can try the rope swings the rope swings are incredible. There is a whole bunch of them, all attached to restaurants/bars as you float down the river. The very first swing is the best one though as it is the very highest. I was actually so scared going on it my first try that I couldn't even breathe. It is that high up....and the swing is so large that it is almost more like a trapese, you reach an incredible velocity as you swing out and when you let go you fall what I would guess is between 4 to 6 meters.. A totally unreal feeling that I kept going back for after the first try. Still scary every time though....just one of those kinds of thrills mountain dew lovers live for....

I'll blog more later on. Nature is calling. Merry Christmas everyone. Very special Birthday wish for my Grandma who just had a milestone birthday yet she still manages to beat me at Crochet (The line, "You play like my grandma" isn't so bad when it comes to Crochet.) It was hard being away at this time of year but it's like my Dad said, when I'm getting down about being away I just have to think about all the snow in Calgary and all the turquoise water and white sand here in Thailand. Thanks for reading everyone!! Happy New Year! We really miss you all and can't wait to see everyone again.