the king with the king

From northern thailand

picture of the thai king with elvis... found it in a restaurant in chiang mai.

on our way up north

we're leaving this morning for Muong Khiew, a 3 hour bus ride north of
luang prabang. and from there to some villages by boat. for the next
week we'll be hiking from village to village in northern laos. it'll
be in the mountains in an area without any cars. should be stellar.

we're traveling towards vietnam- should be there in early february!

cheapest way to new zealand

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we're heading to new zealand after asia. we've spent decent amount of time trying to find a cheap flight... its not cheap to get to new zealand. roughly $800-$900 USD for a one way flight. but, it turns out the cheapest way to get to NZ is through bali. about $300 cheaper. airasia.com flies ho chi minh city to bali. and virginblue.com flies bali to christ church. so thats the path we're taking. and we've got to go to bali for a week. should be rough.

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vang vieng

From laos

From laos

From laos

we arrived in vang vieng a few days ago... its a small backpacker town along a lazy river and nestled next to amazing karst-limestone mountains. everyday the views are amazing.

we took a day and went biking out into the surrounding area. got to explore a cave in the mountains. then we biked another few kilometers to a swimming hole. pretty astounding countryside... check the picasa page for some pics.

From laos

From laos

we also went tubing for 2 days. tubing in vang vieng is like going on mtv spring break. its overindulgent, but crazy fun. tons of young travelers drink their way down the river, stopping at bars along the way. the bars have set up good entertainment too.

professional lao swinger from kevin smith on Vimeo.
(if you know yu kuwabara- isn't that the spitting image?!)

there's about 6 of these swings on the river, and each one is easier to do, thanks to a few beers. there's also a zipline. right before filming the video below, an english traveler we met did the same exact thing, and landed flat on his back (you'll see the results in the video). his friend in the video below chose to do the same thing.

terrible idea from kevin smith on Vimeo.

got to do a few swings too... loads of fun.

vang vieng big swing from kevin smith on Vimeo.

waterfalls and more waterfalls

From laos

tat kuang si is the giant, multi-tiered waterfall outside of luang prabang. not sure if the pic above shows the scale of the falls, but its a big sucker. big like a five story building... only there's 1 five story building cascading into a giant pool halfway down, and then another five story building of water falling for the second part of the falls. its amazing.

theres a bunch of smaller cascades below the big one. these form pools great for swimming and rope jumping.

From laos

From laos

from the top of the falls we went looking for more pools further upstream. i had remembered a sweet swimming spot from 5 years ago, but couldn't remember where it was. so laura and i tromped upstream on dry stream beds, following what could have been a trail if you had a vivid imagination. turns out it wasn't a trail. and it turns out that laos mud is like quicksand: i stepped confidently into what seemed like solid earth only to sink up to my knee in mud. i had to stop sinking, so i jumped in with my other foot, sinking just as far down. it was like a freakin' cartoon... the more you struggled to get out, the further up shits creek you were. luckily laura was within arm's reach along with a few sturdy tree branches. and so ended our self-guided trek through laos's backcountry.

the day prior we caught a tuk-tuk with 3 folks from australia and new zealand and went out to the tat sae waterfall. its much smaller, but equally gorgeous. and far less crowded.

From laos

the aussie/kiwi crew were tons of fun to spend a day with. we hiked up the tiered falls and up to hill-top field. saw the remnants of the last corn harvet and tons of (what i think are) rubber trees. and a strange ladder to nowhere.

From laos

From laos

From laos

we got to feed an elephant on the way there. there's a video up on the vimeo page.

From laos

From laos

luang prabang

we arrived in luang prabang via the slow boat from the thai border on january 17. spent 2 days of floating down the mekong... sometimes scenic, sometimes beautiful, but mostly boring and tiring. the bus is faster and cheaper, but filled with vomiting laos... they don't handle mountain curves very well. their 'vomit comets' are stocked with plastic bags every few seats to manage the situation. we also found this true in cambodia. but in addition, the cambodians have their kids pee and poop on buses. they hold their kids out bare ass over the aisle and tell them to do their thing.

From laos

From laos

we read for most of the time on the boat. lkm crushed 2 books in 2 days- she's a machine. she's hooked on trashy detective novels now (the series is one for the money). we also got to taste some local fare.

From laos

the town of luang prabang has french colonial alleyways and houses- its a town that mothers love. and they do so in packs. luang prabang is the major tourist destination for anyone entering laos. its grown mightily since i was here five years ago. our guesthouse owner said there were 50 guesthouses five years ago. now there are 300. along with the growth comes some nasty side effects... but thats for someone else's blog. so here are some pictures.

From laos

From laos

luang prabang's night market is a never-ending strip of lit up tent stalls.

From laos

From laos

had grilled fish and the best spring rolls we've ever tasted for 3 straight nights.

From laos

the town has tons of wats (temples). its a unesco world heritage site. not for cats though.

From laos

climbed up to the hill top wat in the center of town tonight and caught a great sunset.

From laos

From laos

more pics up on picasa.

sabadii obama

even the people's democratic republic of laos is pumped for the inauguration (sabadii = welcome).

unfortunately, the laos PDR also has a midnight curfew enforced across the entire country. so we'll be watching a little bit of cnn from the bar, but we're scurrying our american butts home before the clock strikes midnight (and before obama gets sworn in).

we're still in luang prabang, a beautiful french colonial town on the mekong. we'll be heading down to vang vieng soon to tube down the nam song river, explore caves, and jump off cliffs into water holes. after a few days in the backpacker haven, we'll head north again through the lesser tracked portion of the country, to free ourselves from the banana pancake trail (and the comforts of hot showers).

guinness tastes best in a tuk-tuk

From cambodia

first guinness of the trip. mark it dude: december 20, 2008, phenom penh, at 30 km/hr in a tuk-tuk.

biker gangs

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

we were waiting on the roadside on the way up to angkhang and met a very friendly biker gang... it was a vespa scooter gang. they were on their yearly scooter trip from bangkok... must have been about 40 of them. all the vespas were decked out- personalized paint jobs. like this one with snoop dog.

From northern thailand

we talked for a while and gave them a few obama bumper stickers. one guy immediately put it on his vespa. in return, they gave us one of their "samurai biker" gang buttons. so we're part of the gang now. a vespa gang.

From northern thailand

gangs with buttons... chortle.

chiang mai elephant walk

we were in chiang mai for a few days after xmas. caught this action at wat doi suthep about 20 kms up a hill from chiang mai.

elephant steps from kevin smith on Vimeo.
we met up with laura szabo and her friend annie in chiang mai. they're doing a few weeks in asia for vacation this year. we took a cooking class together. went out to a market in the morning for fresh veggies, then spent the whole day cooking and eating. it was fantastic.

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

here's the sunday night walking market

From northern thailand

and the best refreshments around

From northern thailand

luang prabang

ดูแผนที่ขนาดใหญ่ขึ้น
on our way into laos. taking the slow boat from the border to luang prabang... we'll be on the mekong river for 2 days. the river starts up in the tibetian plateau and runs through burma, thailand, laos, cambodia, and vietnam before entering the pacific. turns out there's river dolphins in the mekong as well as grizzly bear-sized giant catfish. no joke. really.

the demon moustache

tons of food stalls like this in chiang rai. but only some sell the demon moustache.

no lae schoolhouse

lkm and i worked on an ewb schoolhouse project in no lae. after a few years of fundraising, coordination, and design, the ewb chapter at ucla scheduled 2 weeks of building at the same time we were in northern thailand. we spent 12 days laying bricks and pouring concrete... it was great.

here's the site the day we arrived...

From northern thailand

...and the day we left

From northern thailand

the kids were out of school on most days we were working. they were climbing around the construction site and following us around, so we put them to work.

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

say what you will about using kids for labor- i promise you its better for them than playing on this deathtrap. its like the atlasphere from american gladiators... for kids.

From northern thailand

worked with a lot of good folks on this project- mostly engineers from california. we stayed at the royal project staff lodging in angkhang... a sweet little bungalow with no heat and lukewarm shower water. met a number of great thai folks working there who helped us with the project. here's some of the folks (from the L: ray, jordan, diane, and a super friendly thai couple on holiday that brought us fresh fruit every day):

From northern thailand

this is pi aung... he's the man.

From northern thailand

From northern thailand

thats kally on the left... he's an aussie masterbuilder. he went around fixing all our mistakes. and mike on the right... a structural engineer from the bay area. below is jong, a chief landscaper at the royal project, getting his fill of chicken liver and intestines.

From northern thailand

posted a ton more pics up on the picasa site. here's the link (and there's always the link on the right sidebar of this page).