I guess I have really reached ‘kick-back’ mode! The blog posts are fewer and I have distanced myself from my little lap top computer, preferring to just “be”. I’ve lost interest in ‘blogging’!

I have arrived, again, though at another paradise that I feel like sharing. I’m so out of touch that I’m not sure where I left off, but I think it was Luang Prabang. (I don’t have internet access at present and will cut and paste this to my blog when I do).

So – the trip from Luang Prabang was absolutely brutal, to be kind! I would never recommend busing up and back through Laos. I’m guessing, but I know I won’t be too far out when I say that the bus trip involves some 500 hair-pin curves. The 400 km is covered in 11 hours and on the way back down I opted for the “VIP” bus which is supposed to be better than “AIR CON” but in these VIP buses you sit up very high (you actually climb stairs to sit up top) – sounds nice in theory, on a straight road, but after the first 50 turns almost everyone around me was barfing. The driver’s assistant was constantly picking up bags of puke from people – both the Laos girls sitting in front and behind me were very sick – and so that alone made me feel nauseous although I managed to hang on to my cookies!!! We stopped for one of the famous pee breaks I talked about earlier and I watched the assistant hurl (no pun intended) the now huge bag of combined puke bags into the bushes. Nice. Enough of that nastiness.

Vientiene, again, for the primary purpose of picking up my passport from the Chinese Embassy. Pretty uneventful – except that from my evening meal there, I acquired another bug and got sick again. I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say I didn’t dare eat anything and stayed that way for almost 3 fulls days. They were difficult days of travel. My flight to the beaches in the south was already booked so I had no choice but to keep on with travel the next day. I went from Vientiene across the border, and back into Thailand after picking up my passport in the morning – praying I’d always have a toilet available!

Udon Thani, where I was flying from to get to the south of Thailand, is a pretty indistinct town except for its reputation of girly bars and older western men preying on the young girls. I went for a short walk at night and the street my room was on was one ‘sexy’ (they are actually named like that) bar after another. I came across 4 girls sitting waiting for the action to happen and I guess I was an unusual sight being a lone female ‘farang’ (foriegner). They called out to me so I went and chatted with them for a while and tried to convince them to go back to school!

Flew to Bangkok and then Phuket the next day – then a 3 hour bus trip to Krabi. Stayed the night in Krabi and then in the morning got the ferry over to the island paradise I am now on – Koh Lanta.

I’m staying in a bamboo hut which is pretty basic but has a mosquito net (important!). Cost of living is noticebly more expensive here in paradise so I’m having to adjust with that. I listened to the gheckoes screeching around me as I went to sleep and then woke at 5:00 to the monk chanting on a loud speaker. Such a beautiful sound which breaks the silence and puts a perfect perspective on any day.

I met a girl from Holland on the ferry here (Meik). We shared a ‘taxi’ to the other end of the island – about 20 km – and I swear (and so would she and everyone else who saw us) we had the craziest, wildest ‘taxi’ driver ever! The ‘taxi’ was a motorbike with a side car for her and I and we flew down the road with the horn beeping and passing everyone and only on 2 one wheel on the corners! Then, he just randomly stopped on the side of the road and asked if we wanted a smoke – it was smoke break time! Ha ha – too funny!!! Then, once the smokes were lit, off we flew again.

Enjoyed having dinner with Meik last night and sharing our life’s stories. It was great to chat with another woman again. She had to move on today because she didn’t have a good accommodation but I will always remember her.

This beach is amazing and I’m loving it. The water is incredible – the sand is white and soft. The beach bar has a great laid back atmosphere and the “Bob Marley” Thai guys running the place are pretty cool! They do a twirling fire show at night (turn off all the lights for the show) and they are playing GREAT music.

So – today I rented a scooter (Honda Dream) and toured around the island. Got a hair cut – bought a bathing suit. THEN – I made the big leap and signed up for my PADI dive certification course! I’m doing it through Scuba Fish – very reputable. (It was actually Meik who inspired me) I’ve started the theory part which officially starts tomorrow morning at 9:00, and then tomorrow afternoon we go to the pool. There are 3 more days after that, 2 of which involve going out in the boat!!! I’m pretty pumped. The diving here is spectacular, so they say.

So – I’m getting back on track here and realising I never talked about the water falls at Luang Prabang. They were so incredibly beautiful – like something out of a movie. They almost looked fake, but they weren’t.

I also had another great day in Luang Prabang bicycling around to a nearby village and watching the women making paper out of banana plants. I just had to buy some! I have so much stuff I’m packing around again!! I know – I’m crazy. Now I’ll have my dive books too.

Oh ya – also went on a boat ride up the Mekong to see some caves. Met another girl – Sue from Dublin – on that trip. Great day. (that was LPB too).

Gotta study up on my dive theory now!

Its the next day now…. I’ve just finished day #1 of my PADI Open Water Dive Certification. The morning was all theory – 3 videos and quizzes and then the afternoon was my first contained dive in a pool. I am one on one with a beautiful young Swedish woman for an instructor. She is great, and I have learned so much today. I was nervous about the underwater stuff at first (even though I love water – under water is another thing and I had to learn to trust the equipment). Tomorrow morning at 8:00 we head out with a whole bunch of people – an hours boat ride to an island. I will do my first open water dive. The next day is theory again. And the next day another boat trip and a deeper open water dive!

I have moved my accommodation to a cheaper bamboo hut, but nicer! It is up a steep hill from the beach, and sits on a point overlooking the ocean (not my hut, but the resort). The hut is pretty basic, but clean and cheap! Its actually a little bit bigger than the last hut but the floor boards are pretty sketchy – not sure they will hold my weight when I walk on them!!

Only one week until I am joined here by Gregg. He has decided to come all the way to Thailand rather than Beijing. I’m really looking forward to having his company and sharing some of this with him.

I will travel back to Canada with Gregg and try to earn some money for a while before I make my next move (to the UK – visiting Megan and Matt and his family – and who knows where else that will lead at this point). Money always has to be considered, unfortunately!!

Time to go enjoy the paradise I am in again.

Sa Wa Dee Kaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! – from Koh Lanta, Thailand.

xo