Bali Spirit Festival

The Bali Spirit Festival was awesome. Three days of yoga and dance classes and three nights of concerts. The festival took place in Ubud which is a really cute little city. Doing yoga felt so good. The classes I took were really fun and I felt so refreshed after. I took a few fun dance classes including African dance and Balinese dance!!  The concerts were great as well and included a ton of international music and bands. Definitely a highlight of my trip to Bali. I might just come back for next years Bali Spirit Festival   ;)

Beautiful Bali

Start up a converstation with any Balinese person and they could talk to you for hours about how wonderful Bali is. And they are right. Bali is amazing. The culture is so rich, the people are so friendly, and the scenary is absolutely stunning. I can see why they are so proud of their island.

When I first arrived in Bali the man who stamped my passport asked how long I was staying in Bali. When I told him one week he just shook his head and said "not enough time". He was right. A week in Bali definitely was not enough time. There is so much to see and explore and there is no way to pack it all in. But we did our best to get a good taste of the island. We hired a driver to take us around the island (definitely the best way to travel as there is no real public transportation). Our driver Yeoman was awesome and we hit up some great spots!

Here are a few highlights:

-Tanah Lot temple. A temple built on a small island in the ocean. Set against huge cliffs and a raging surf. Truely stunning
-Sunset at Uluwatu temple, another temple built on top of an enormous cliff. So dramatic. The monkeys here were not so nice and one tried to steal my flip flop!
-Local market is Despensar. Totally crazy but a unique cultural experience
-A trip up to Mt Batur, a huge volcano crator and beautiful lake. It was pouring rain but sitting at lunch and watching the clouds disappear and the crator emerge was pretty amazing.
-Ubud, such a cute town!
-Lush green rice terraces and all the beautiful scenary along the way
-The food! Turns out I love Balinese food!
-Bali Spirit Festival

I really hope to come back to Bali in the near future to explore more of the culture and places on this beautiful island

Paradise

Trying desperately to escape the madness of Phuket we decided to head to Phi Phi. Truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I had been anxious about getting to Phi Phi since I arrived in Thailand and it didn't disappoint.  It seriously looks like a postcard. I am having a really hard time coming up with the words to describe just how wonderful the island is. How white the sand on the beach is, what a beautiful color turquoise the water is, just how high the limestone cliffs jut out of the water. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to upload photos so if you are curious, do a google search of Maya Beach.

Amazing right? Look familiar? Its actually the beach featured in the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah, awesome, I know.

We spent a short two days in Phi Phi, which included a boat trip around the islands. We snorkeled in the clear blue water, saw monkeys on "monkey beach", got caught in a kayak during an epic rainstorm and overall enjoyed the beautiful scenery surrounding the island    Two days was not nearly enough and I hope to make it back! For now its on to Bali!! Can't believe I am going to two of the most beautiful places on earth in the same week! :)

I'm working hard on trying to post pictures!

Culture Shock

I never thought I would experience culture shock coming back into Thailand, but after spending almost a month in Northern Thailand and Laos it was such a shock when I finally made it to the south. After two LONG days of traveling, I arrived in Phuket. I definitely underestimated how long it would take to get from Laos to the Southern Beaches. Poor planning on my part. I arrived in Phuket utterly exhausted and I was dropped off in the middle of the craziest beach in Phuket, Patong Beach. The only way I can really describe it is like Bangkok only next to the beach. It was busy, noisy, crowded and really overwhelming. The streets were crawling with farang and I counted about 6 McDonalds on my hour long walk trying to find my hostel. Is this really Thailand? I was not liking Phuket so far. I decided to give it a chance and after a good night sleep and my first real meal in two days (does McDonalds count as a real meal?) I woke up refreshed hoping my view of the city would change. Unfortunately it didn't. It had absolutely no appeal to me at all. My friend Katherine and I decided it was time to get the heck out of Phuket and find a quieter island. Its amazing to me that Phuket is so hyped up. It doesn't even feel like Thailand.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang. What a pleasant surprise! I didn't really know what to expect when going into Laos. Even though we had done a lot of research I still didn't really know what we were going to find. The city of Luang Prabang is actually a World Heritage Site due to its 30 something temples (a lot of temples for a pretty small city). The city has a lot of French/European influence and we discovered lots of cute little sidewalk cafes and restaurants. I really felt like I was in Europe....with a Thailand flair. It was a very interesting, and at times, confusing city. Laos is an extremely poor country. The Laos Kip is not worth anything yet everything seemed to be really expensive when converted to Thai Baht or US dollars. It was not at all what I was expecting. The city was clean, the people were extremely friendly and there were a ton of foreigners around. I had no idea that Laos was such a popular tourist destination.

We spent five days in Luang Prabang. We went on a tour of the Pak Ou caves which is an ancient temple built into a cliff that now houses thousands of Buddha statues. We also took a trip to the waterfall nearby which, despite the rain, was amazing! The rest of the time we simply wandered the streets, hung out at cafes and bookstores and spent way too much Kip at the awesome night market! :)  It was such a fun city to just hang out and relax. A nice surprise!  It was a good change to get out of Thailand for a bit but now its back to Thailand and the beautiful beaches!

Crazy/Beautiful

Getting to Laos was, well, an intereting process. A process I hope I don't soon have to repeat. Malewaan, the super friendly owner of the guest house, drove us to the dock where we had to stand in line to get stamped out of Thailand. Then we had to load onto a long-tail boat for the short 1 minute ride to the other side. We made it to Laos! Along with about 100 other farang. Seriously, where did all these people come from?!? They definitely were not in Chiang Khong....We got to Huay Xai in Laos and had to make our way through a mad crowd of people all waiting to get their visa on arrival. I have never seen such a disorganized system. There was no line or any direction whatsoever ( I guess I should be used to this coming from Thailand).   I had to fight my way through the crowd in order to shove my passport and paperwork through the window. Then we had to wait for them to return our passport with our Laos visa. The process took forever and it was serious chaos. Everyone was crowding the tiny office waiting for their picture to be shown in the window. Finally we got our passports and headed up the hill to catch a tuk-tuk to collect our ticket for the slow boat. We got on the boat and found the boat was filled with seats that you find in a mini-van. Interesting choice for a boat. We grabbed seats and watched as the huge crowd of people we had seen at the imigration office were all getting on the boat. I had a moment of panic as they continued to load people and luggage. Is everyone going to fit? Is this boat even going to float?  Finally we left, 2 hours after the boat was supposed to leave. Lukily the boat did not sink and I enjoyed a beautiful, but a little cramped, boat ride. We stopped for the night in a little town called Pak Beng and then got up super early to ensure we got better seats for the second half of the boat ride to Luang Prabang. They had two boats this time so it was a much more comfortable ride, until we hit a patch of rapids and a big wave hit the side of the boat and we got soaked! We made it to Luang Prabang!

 Although the boat ride and the entire process was a bit chaotic the scenary along the river was absolutely amazing. My favorite part was seeing some of the local people swimming in the river. They jumped up and down and waved to us as we passed by in the boat. :)

Off The Beaten Path

After spending a couple days in Chiang Rai it was off to Chiang Khong, a small town on the border of Thailand. We found an awesome guest house that was right on the Mekong river. You could see Laos on the other side. It was beautiful! We met a peace corps voluteer, Josh, who lives in Chiang Khong and happens to frequent the guest house (to use the free wi-fi). We decided to rent bikes and ride to the waterfall that was nearby. The bike ride was pretty intense. Very hilly for someone who is not in shape and has done nothing but eat, and lay around for the past 2 weeks ;) The bike ride, although difficult was beautiful and took us through a couple of Hmong villages. Luckily Josh could speak Thai because there were no signs for the waterfall and we probably would have gotten lost. We had to hike for about an hour in order to reach the actual waterfall. I kinda got the feeling that this wasn't something very many tourists do. The hike was difficult but absolultey gorgeous. I felt really out of shape when we stopped for a rest along the way and we saw a group of Thais running up the trail like it was nothing...in flip flops! The actual waterfall was nothing special (it is the dry season after all), but sometimes its more about the journey then the destination. Chiang Khong was great and I am glad we were able to get an insider perspective.

The past couple of weeks spent in Northern Thailand has been amazing. A great start to my 2 month traveling extravaganza. I can't believe how different northern Thailand is from central Thailand. I saw some amazing ruins, beautiful scenary and met some awesome people.

Crossing the river into Laos! So excited!

Chaing Rai

Arrived in Chiang Rai, a short 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai. We had a few issues finding our hotel from the bus station but alas made it and wandered out to check out the night bazaar. Chiang Rai so far is a lot like Chiang Mai only a lot smaller. We discovered a cute place to stay, Baan Bua guest house. On Saturday we walked around exploring the city. Lots of little coffee shops and cafes. On Saturday we went to the Saturday night market which was similar to the Sunday walking street in Chiang Mai. So many vendors selling everything you could possibly imagine. It was super crowded and I wondered where all the people were coming from as Chiang Rai does not seem that big. 

On Sunday we signed up for a siteseeing tour. First stop on the tour was the "White Temple". This temple was built (and is still being finished) about 13 years ago by a famous artist in Thailand. It is white because it is supposed to depict his vision of heaven. It was very interesting because as you first enter the temple there are stautes and things that are supposed to depict hell and represents how you have to walk through hell to get to heaven. Inside the temple was a mural that had a similar theme. Things that were corrupt or evil on the bottom and more heavenly as you move to the top. The artist painted things like guns, knives, missles, and various American sci-fi and fantasy characters...superman, avatar, keenu reeves from the matrix.... interesting. Things I would not think would be painted in a temple.

Next stop was the "Black House" which is pretty much the exact opposite of the White Temple. The house was supposed to depict hell. It was built by another famous artist but I have to say I did not understand it. The house itself was beautiful but it was filled with dead animal skulls and the skeleton of an elephant.... Didn't quite like that as much as the white temple.

From here we took a GORGEOUS drive through the mountains up to the top of Mae Salong. The top itself was a big tourist trap attempting to get you to buy stuff made by the hilltribe villagers. The drive up was pretty stunning and we got to get a glimpse of the village life. We stopped a few times along the way to take pictures of the panaramic views and check out the tea plantations. A great tour! One more day in Chiang Rai and then we are headed to Chiang Khong on the Thailand/Laos border!!

Try to post pictures soon!

Chiang Mai Part II

The last few days in Chaing Mai were spent exploring the city and relaxing. I signed up for another cooking class and learned how to make more of my favorite dishes including chicken with cashew, mango sticky rice and my new favorite dish paneng curry. So yummy. I really hope I can recreate these dishes at home! We also went on a night safarai which was basically a tour of the zoo at night. It was cool to see some of the animals that usually only come out at night.   
I also spent my time in Chiang Mai eating. A lot. Breakfasts were pankcakes and fresh fruit shakes, lunch consisted of sandwhiches and another new favorite dish, khao soi (noodles and curry). We discovered a really great vegetarian resturant with our hostel mate Jesse and had a delicious meal. We came back the next morning for breakfast. They had the best vegan cookies and soy ice cream. So much good food in Thailand! I feel like all I do is eat.  :)

Chiang Mai was a great city and I really enjoyed it. So many cute cafes and coffee shops. The people were so friendly and spoke amazing English. 

Next stop Chiang Rai!