On the Road in Southeast Asia
Woman from an Ahka tribal village At the Mae Ping Elephant Camp
Such a new and different land is so disorienting and unfamiliar at first and it takes a while before you can feel comfortable and safe.  We had each other to bounce our perceptions off of, and to reassure each other.  Bangkok was pretty crazy at first.  It was even the same coming up north to Chiang Mai.  You get lost and you're not sure you're safe and then you adjust and get into it, but it's a process.  And then there's the heat that makes you so tired.  Once you get over that hump though, it's great, and you start to meet people, travelers and locals, and the Thai people are just so darned friendly.  This is a bonus!

We're getting more and more adjusted to life on the road, making our home wherever we are.  We've got our roles figured out now too.  Carol is here to make sure I stay safe, and I'm here to make sure she doesn't get lost.  What a team, eh!  Every day has a new adventure.
It's been almost a month since Carol and I left Saskatchewan, stopping first in Vancouver, then off to Bangkok, Thailand, and then on the train up to Chiang Mai.  Our highlight for last week was a little trip down to Sukhothai, the ancient capital, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains, and it almost reminds me of the Fraser Valley in B.C.  Mind you, the only trees I recognize are palms and bamboo.  Teak is quite prevalent here, but I’ve not yet figured out what it looks like.  Also, there are over a thousand species of orchids grown in Thailand, so they’re everywhere, including in the table settings at many cafés.

There are lots of other international travellers here (Gringos, as I initially referred to us, but in Thailand we're known as Farang) and there's plenty to explore.

October 7 -- Our plan is to head off later today to Chiang Khong, where we'll overnight and then cross into Laos at Huay Xai.  There we'll catch a boat down the Mekong River for two days to Luang Prabang, another city that happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.  We'll be there till it's time to move on to Vientienne, the Laotian capital.  We figure to spend about two weeks in Laos, and then catch a bus over to Vietnam around the 20th of October, and spend about a month there.  We'll see how it all works out.

Check out our travels in Bangkok
Check out our travels in Chiang Mai
Check out our visit to the hill tribes
Visit the Elephant Camp
We made it to Laos.  Check it out!
 		 Evening at Wat Phra Kaew in Lampang
Drop us a line
Buddhist monks on the highway near Sukhothai