Adventure to the North (Chiang Mai, Pai, and Laos)

 I spent the past two weeks traveling around Northern Thailand and making the trek to Laos via land transportation. Before we left for our travels, we decided to have a final Phang-nga dinner at the Muslim fishing village. We ordered two whole fish (one fried with onions, one steamed with fresh chillies), a plate of prawns, four freshly caught blue crabs (they brought in a tub of live crabs as we sat down to eat...those were our dinner), and an enormous bowl of steamed rice. We were four people and the meal cost 400 baht total, including water (that's about $15).

Oh yeah...and we saw the most spectacular sunset.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed to Phuket to catch a flight to Chiang Mai and then a minivan from Chiang Mai to the town of Pai. We spent about three days in Pai where our daily activities included hot springs...

and breakfasts at the Witchin' Well, a restaurant whose book shelves were filled with prized possessions such as these:

Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells including love potions, voodoo curses, invisibility boxes, etc.

We also celebrated my birthday in Pai with a delectable cake from the only bakery in town.

Recognizing that one can only withstand so much time in a backpacker town, we headed back to Chiang Mai where we spent two days exploring the silk markets and the temples.

To get a rope bracelet blessed by the monks of the temple I had to don the fashionable attire you see here. Zipped up sweatshirt + floor length skirt inside a tiny room on a Thai afternoon = unfortunate.

I am convinced that this monk is the real-life version of Yoda.

These bells are rung in order from one end to the other. Long hours at a temple (or a science museum) are made infinitely better by hands-on activities.

The best way to wind down from a long day of wandering the streets of Chiang Mai is to attend a Muay Thai Boxing match. 

We bid farewell to Chiang Mai and headed further north to the city of Chiang Rai where the only real attraction, other than the short-lived fun of rhyming "Chiang Rai" with "Chiang Mai," is the clock tower at the center of town which lights up and sings every hour. I think it might win The World's Most Annoying Thing to Live Next To.

Now it's gold...

And now it's pink. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The next morning we headed from Chaing Rai to the border of Thailand and Laos. The border = the river.

Our transportation to enter Laos was a boat so unstable that the current basically forced it to drive perpendicular to the river.

After having our passports and visas cleared by the Laos Border Police, we headed to the slow boat (emphasis on the slow) that would be our mode of transport for the next two days. The first day's journey took about six hours but luckily the views made the cushion-less wooden benches that were our seats infinitely more bearable...

After six hours on the slow boat we were ready for dry land...our boat was a bit crowded.

We spent the night at the fishing village of Pakbeng where we enjoyed some Beer Lao and a game of pool in a "pool hall" where the kids outside played soccer with one of their shoes.

The next morning we got back on the slow boat and spent the next 8.5 hours on the Mekong River headed to the city of Luang Prabang. Although we were able to snag the comfortable seats in the back of the boat, we were unfortunately seated next to the women who ran the boat's snack table. I am not exaggerating when I say that they talked for the entire 8.5 hours. That is a lot of time to spend talking. And I'm all for the extended conversation but 8.5 hours?! I wish I spoke Lao so I could have joined in on what was surely a most epic discourse on the meaning of life. Luckily I was armed with a good book so I read for the whole boat trip and was easily able to ignore the incessant chatter of the Laos Ladies Who Lunch. The river provided us with some exciting things aside from its Willy Wonka Chocolate Fountain color...

A dead catfish floated by (some of them get to be 7 feet long).

One of the Thai men jumped out into the muddy river to pull the rotting fish onto the boat. His dinner? Show and tell? The meal I ate that night? Who knows.

Aside from the catfish, the only other noteworthy occurrence was the arrival of a man, woman (who was Pocahontas' doppelganger) and a baby. This picture is a better description than any I could fathom in words:

The baby had no diapers; instead, an additional pair of pants was brought out when the situation required it. Instead of a toy, the woman handed the baby an aluminum foil wrapped candy bar to play with. I'm sure that many people who have visited the world that comprises the places in which we have never and will never live are familiar with the sentiments I experienced as I sat in my seat, wearing jeans and a bra and a clean shirt, facing a woman whose shirt was stained by dirt and her breast milk. I felt ridiculous and helpless and utterly unsure of what I should do or what I even wanted to do. While she lay on a dirty blanket on the floor of the boat nursing her baby, I picked up the cushion of my seat and placed it on her flimsy plastic chair. When she stood up from the floor, she immediately removed the cushion, put it on the floor, and spent the next five hours sitting on the hard plastic. What was I supposed to do? Should I have given her my clothes? My money? All the hand sanitizer I had in my backpack? What was my moral obligation?

After the 8+ hour slow boat trip, we arrived at Luang Prabang in search of some baguettes (the French influence is still very much a part of culture in Luang Prabang) and real (ie. non-instant) coffee. The following morning we went to the Kuang Si waterfalls, which should be on everyone's Must-See List of The World's Natural Wonders (I know I'm not the only one who has that list).

Extreme Sports: Laos Edition

Doesn't look real, does it?

Little Becca, Big Waterfall.

On our last morning in Luang Prabang, we woke up at five to give the morning alms to the monks. Other than a desire to wake up before the sun has risen, the morning alms require nothing more than a bowl of sticky rice (which can be purchased at the morning market for a mere 10,000 kip or $1), dropping to your knees on the sidewalk while the monks walk by, and handing them wads of balled up sticky rice. 

(That's not me.)

(But this is.)