Southeast Asia 2014

Saigon

hotmessexpress — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 21:00:00 GMT

The last big stop in Vietnam for us! The capital city of Ho Chi Minh (or as I prefer to call it by it's old name, Saigon). Let me start by saying that even though I am totally a small town girl through and through, every couple years I absolutely have to spend a little time getting a big, dirty, raging city out of my system. There's very few big cities that have taken me heart like that. San Francisco (duh), Chicago and now I can say Saigon are some of the few big cities I could really spend some time in getting my big city fix.
Got to Saigon in the late evening and checked into our hostel, the Saigon Backpacker, which I really liked. $7 got us free breakfast every morning, a rooftop hangout area that overlooked some of the city with bean bags to chill out on and an amazingly friendly staff. The first night we were pretty wiped out from our traveling so we just ate a great, cheap dinner at 5 Oysters (phooooo) and chilled out.
The next day we paid $5 to have a tour guide take us out to the Ku Chi Tunnels (yes, you heard me potty mouthed friends) and give us a tour. Wow! These are a huge underground series of tunnels hand dug by the Vietcong and used during the war. It was an incredibly informative, saddening and humbling experience. On the way there, they took us to a place where disabled victims from the use of Agent Orange made pieces of art to sell. The art was beautiful and if I had any way of taking it home I would have. Instead I bought a "mango" smoothie that tasted like poultry so I considered that just to be pretty much just a cash donation after having to immediately throw it out. One of the rules of Asia, if you have any suspicion of what you're consuming do not, I repeat, do not eat it! During the tour we were actually able to crawl through the first two levels of about 900 feet of a section of the tunnels. Wow! Besides the obvious feelings of panic and claustrophobia (I was crawling on my hands and knees at one point with my small pack dragging on the ceiling!!), it evoked very powerful feelings knowing that people lived in, fought in and were killed in these tunnels. Such an experience. Definitely glad we decided to check out this historical site.
That night we decided to check out the rooftop bar at the Vietnam Inn. The views were incredible! There is a huge rectangular park that runs through downtown filled with people partaking in huge, free Zumba classes, people working out on the free machines, hacky sacks, badminton, everything. The bar overlooked this park and the skyline of Saigon, so cool! The weather at night was perfect, I wore sundresses all night and the cool breeze on the rooftop bar was amazing. We met three guys that were staying at the hostel up there, two from Denmark and one from Oregon, and ended up partying Saigon proper with them. Local street food sitting in the little kid stools that line the streets, jenga with the locals at the bar and a lot of gin, such a fun night!
The next day we had made plans to visit the Vietnam War Remnants Museum with Stefan and Rasmus (in case you couldn't tell by the names, those are the two from Denmark, not Oregon) so we met with them and very slowly started our day. We knew the war museum, especially since we're both from America, would be an incredibly difficult but profound experience but wow.... I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life. The war museum consisted of three levels and we started at the top and worked our way down. The top floor was one of my favorite parts because it portrayed the photography taken by the journalists who risked their lives to document the war. The vast majority of these journalists were killed in the war but the pictures they captured were absolutely haunting and so saddening but so necessary in my opinion. The top floor also consisted of detailing the general history of the war. We had read that the museum was fairly slanted against America so we went with open minds and open hearts hoping for the best. I have to say that at the end of it all I didn't feel like it was totally anti American. There wasn't really any part of the museum that tried to purposefully portray us as an evil country. The closest thing we saw to anti American sentiments was that a passage from the Declaration of Independence was displayed before the beginning of one of the floors exhibits. "We hold
these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." An incredibly simple way to say so much... There were obvious sentiments of anger and sadness but it was a war, how could there not be.
The second level was such a hard experience to take in. It focused a lot on the effects that the use Agent Orange had on everyone involved in the war. The pictures I saw and stories I read from the victims won't be discussed any further in detail in this blog. I will note however that reading petitions from both the Vietnamese and American victims of Agent Orange to the US government and more specifically Monsanto and the DOW corporation made my blood boil and my eyes tear up. Here we are in 2014 still fighting for the right to have our foods at least be labeled! And the same company that created Agent Orange, such a destructive and gruesomely effective method of killing and harming generations after generations, still owns such a percentage of our government that we as citizens aren't even allowed the right to know what is in our own food. I apologize for the political soapbox but this is a topic very close to my heart. My BA thesis was on GMO's and the effects on both America and third world nations. Seeing letters dated from the seventies (!) demanding criminal action be taken against companies that we are STILL fighting and that could manufacture such a product was just too much for me. The second floor did end with describing that even though many of the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange have died from lack of access to healthcare, many now lead inspiring lives. Some teaching, some creating art, some writing books, all in all so incredibly touching and overwhelming. The bottom floor was by far the most "upbeat" if you could use that term in that museum. It consisted of peace posters created during and after the war by countries around the world. It also described the dissenters and draft dodgers in America as well as displayed such an interesting article on the first American soldier in the Vietnam war to refuse to keep fighting. Also displayed was a letter written in 2009 (!) to Obama from a Vietnamese Agent Orange victim asking for increased medical assistance in Vietnam for those affected. So insane to think this chemical is still not done destroying lives 40 years later. All in all this was one if the most profound experiences of my entire life. After we walked out we all had to go sit and process what we had just seen. Truly one of the single most moving experiences I have ever had.
After this we decided to go rest up for a little bit and meet up again later that night for drinks at the rooftop bar of Saigon's tallest tower. On the way back to our hostel we ran into a couple free Zumba classes happening in the park that I got to do for a little bit, so fun!!!! I love this town so much for so many reasons. The rooftop bar on the tallest building was so fun! Reminded me of drinking martinis with Jeff in the Hancock building in Chicago, so epic. After that we had a few beers with our Denmark friends and a late night meal and parted ways.
I only got two nights in Saigon but I am hooked! I cannot wait to come visit again and hopefully spend some time living and teaching here. The people were so incredibly kind and for me, the city had such a familiar and comfortable feeling to it even after only getting 48 hours there. What a send off from Vietnam! Saigon, I 'll be back sooner than later!

~ Binksy

Hoi An!

hotmessexpress — Sun, 2 Mar 2014 20:56:00 GMT

Where to start with Hoi An? This beach town halfway down the coast of Vietnam has taken the prize of being my favorite town thus far on the entire trip and for so many reasons. Being the first official warm, tropical beach town of our trip made it an obvious contender for making it my favorite but the list of endearing qualities only grows from there.
Our first day in Hoi An Betsy and I walked to the beach for sunset. A rather long walk but totally worth the walk. We enjoyed a bowl of quail egg soup on the beach watching the Cham island off in the distance in the Pacific. Night one we explored the Old Quarter of the city which was strewn with multicolored paper hang of lanterns everywhere. At one point in our night we noticed the full moon behind one of the strings of lanterns looking just like another paper bulb. The picture didn't quite come out but it was gorgeous. The markets in the Old Quarter are filled with shops selling everything from art to lanterns to little plastic magnets in the shape of pho bowls. And the custom clothing stores!!!! You can't walk down a block without being asked by at least three vendors trying to make clothes for you. At first this seems irritating but there was such an awesome selection of clothes there it was hard not have a day of shopping. I had two pairs of custom made leather sandals ($28 total), an amazing silk lined pea coat custom tailored ($30), and, as I've already said on facebook, the most amazing item clothing to ever touch my body, a neon pink and purple onesie. I wish I could say that that was custom made but the one on the mannequin fit so well I wore it straight out of the shop. A highlight of night one was eating at one of the most amazing Indian food restaurants of my life.
The only other restaurant to rival this one is actually in the Caribbean of all places. Our friends who joined us there when we went again 3 days later said that even though they have visited India, this was hands down the best Indian food they've ever had. The name of the restaurant was Ganesh and while one the "high end" of cheap backpacking eats ($3-$6 for more food then you can even finish) I would 100% recommend that restaurant to anyone. The naan bread was legitimately as big as a pizza...so dank. Night one ended pretty tamely with drink along the river with some European friends we pulled a table up to.
Day two we met up with Krueger who had rented a motorcycle driver to take him from Hue down to Hoi An and headed straight to the beach. Our first swim in the Pacific coming exactly one month into our travels, couldn't have been better!! The beaches were pretty clean and except for the occasional woman trying to sell us cigarettes, dice or weird useless plastic toys, a super relaxing day. That night we met up with friends for a cheap dinner on the river and met up with a few more at a late night bar called the Volcano. $4 gets you all-you-can drink from 10pm-3am... We've come to learn that Vietnam may truly be one of the cheapest countries in the entire world to drink. A lot of the restaurants in Hoi An sold beer for 3,000 dong which equals about 15 cents a beer...the hooters have officially landed.
Day three: Such an adventure. The kind that pushes you but in end you realize you wouldn't have had it any other way. We woke up just in time to make our breakfast. A quick word about the breakfast at our hostel, the Sunflower Hostel. The breakfast is included in the price of the room and is a huge buffet of made to order eggs, toast, 3 different juices, coffee, tea, fruit, potatoes, stewed tomatoes and various Asian dishes. Best hostel breakfast of the trip hands down! After breakfast we were told by Kruger that him and the two guys we were partying with the night before had rented two motorbikes and we were going to be exploring the city that day. Our first stop was interesting but pretty much just a tour of the surroundings rural neighborhoods leading to a beer stop at a very rusty and unused boat. Made for great photo shoots. Next on the docket we thought we were going to grab food somewhere so with Kruger, Betsy and our new friend Jami (or Skipper as we called him, a Finnish student studying in Shanghai) on one bike and me and our new friend Jacob (an EMS from Berlin) on one bike we took off following Kruger. Jacob and I had no idea where Kruger was taking us and considering that it was a pretty cloudy and windy day the 20 or so minute bike ride felt like an hour. Kruger had taken us to the Marble Mountain which was a gorgeous and extensive temple built into this huge set of cliffs and caves overlooking the entire coast between Da Nang and Hoi An (about a 30 minute distance from one another). When we got to the temple Betsy and I were tired, cold and the hangover wasn't helping. My mood wasn't improved in the least when after finding a restaurant I asked them to show me to the restroom and after being taken down what seemed like a half mile trail of broken glass through some backyards I was taken to an extremely unsympathetic woman who refused to let me pee without paying her 10 cents which I didn't have on me. She wasn't taking any IOU's...so furiously walking back down the trail of glass back to the restaurant I was told to go pee behind a building. The "field" behind the building was a pig pen... The pigs looked as scared as me but the experience did not lighten my mood. After some self meditation and warm coffee we went to explore the Marble Mountain. Gotta hand it to Kruges...freezing our baguettes off on the motorbike to ride to who knows where was totally worth it. The mountain was an elaborate set of caves with shrines and statues built into them. We got to explore for hours and the viewpoints we could hike to on top showed us epic views of the stormy ocean. We spent the sunset on top of Marble Mountain sharing a beer, all in all a great day of exploring. That night we took our new friends to a great restaurant on the river and showed them the "party boat" we discovered night one in Hoi An. The sign next to the boat says free hookah, two for one buckets (the staple drink of SE Asia, a cocktail that fits and is served in a sand pail bucket) and free first shots. So you get on this ghetto looking boat with a disco light and a guy puts on some electronic music and within 30 seconds your on the other side of the mountain 20 feet away..hah! Apparently the restaurant he drops you at supposedly has all that the sign offered but we ended up just riding the boat for the fun of it and running to our favorite bar on that side of the river. Spent the night at this riverside bar that let us DJ and hang out way past closing time.
The next day, aka the day of the epic onesie, was cloudy again but I crawled up the jenky, perpetually empty lifeguard chair on the brag and watched a surfer using the stormy seas to his advantage. It looked like SO much fun! I cannot wait to fulfill my número uno life goal right now which is to learn how to surf. No I shouldn't say, learn how to surf. I'm not trying to stand up once or twice. I'm going to Bali to spend a day or two learning how to surf and then hopefully spending the rest of our two weeks there SURFING. The rest of the day was pretty mild for me, but not for Kruges! After being separated from him all day I found him back at the hostel with a (pardon my French) shit eating grin on his face. He had bought a motorcycle named Helen and intended to ride it down the coast and interior of Vietnam/who knows where else? After lunch with our Hoi An crew, Betsy, Kruges, Jacob, Skipper and myself plus the rad guy who sold him Helen, we went to find a place to practice her. Finding a perfect set of dirt road out of town, Kruges took some laps on Helen getting used to her and Betsy and I took the opportunity to try out the motorbikes. That's motorbike, not motorcycle hah. As in the same ones we got denied from in Pai :) we did totally fine, it is so easy and, yes, right as I was getting off mine I did drop the bike on my own leg. Haha...baby steps.... The night ended with a goodbye to Jacob and then 30 cent beers with Mike, the previous owner of Helen, and the two badass (!) girls he had traveled up Vietnam with. These girls Julie and Jessica took it upon themselves to buy motorcycles in Saigon (the number one craziest city in the world I'm convinced to ride a motorcycle. No joke - 11 million people living in Saigon / 36 million motorcycles), learn how to use them there and ride up the coast. So insane! Badass Bay Area chicas! The night wended fairly early but not before before hustled by a woman selling clay, animal shaped whistles into buying 10 whistles for three bucks. We were DEFINITELY everyone's favorite (or most hated)table at the restaurant after that because of course we had to practice them all right then and there!
The next day was just a day of waiting to get on the night bus to Nha Trang so we chilled out next to our pool all day. Hoi An is still my personal favorite town of the entire trip. The friends we met, the beaches, the food, the onesies (!), the purchase of Helen...I would be honored to come back and teach here some day. I'm undoubtably leaving a piece of my heart in this town for sure.

~ Binksy

Food Poisoning on a Night Bus.

hotmessexpress — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 03:53:00 GMT

Yes, you heard it right. Robin and I fought through food poisoning on a 12 hour overnight bus ride from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Vientiane, Laos. I think that I can honestly say that these were the worst 12 - 24 hours of my life that I can recall. I'm pretty sure that it came from homemade coconut icecream, which was delicious at the time. We had not been previously warned that ice cream may be unsafe to eat due to either being made with dirty water, or becuause of the fact that it melts and then becomes refrozen. Big mistake! After the 4 hour bus ride from Pai to Chiang Mai, where we were to change buses, I was definitely feeling a little ill. I blamed this on the curvy roads and lack of sleep from the night before, and made the very unwise decision to still board our 12 hour bus ride across the Loas border, into Vientiane. About an hour into the bus ride, I grabbed Robin's arm and told her that I felt horrible and that she had to ask around for a bag (awkward situation for her, and muchly appreciated and needed)! She was fortunately able to collect a number of plastic bags from other people on the bus which I used to throw up into almost hourly, for about the next 8 hours. I had to have Robin and others to persuade the driver to pull over so that I could use the restroom and get some freshair, which he at first was refusing to do. The people in the front seat generosly gave up their seats so that the two of us could sit together, next to a window, and of course, as far away from everyone else as possible. Not only was I in so much physicl and emotional pain, I was also completely and utterly embaressed and felt horribly for the other passengers who had to sit through this mess with me. Robin and I thought about getting off the bus and trying to find accomodations for the night, but due to the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere Thailand, we decided it wise to stay on the bus and tough it out. Luckily, I had enough bags and nothing got totally out of control. All I could think was, "what the hell did I do to deserve this?!" I kept looking at Robin with these "are you f*cking kidding me eyes". I really can't think of a worse traveling situation, and the other passengers agreed and were amazing at helping to take care of me. I was given anti nausea pills and such, which helped me to sleep and calm down. To make matters worse, our driver seemed to have been dozing off at the wheel and while Robin was tending to me, she was also trying to keep the driver in check. What a saint! Okay, it gets worse... With about 2 hours left in the trip, Robin started getting sick. At this point, I was done needing the bags and our roles reversed. Throughout this entire process, we had to go through Lao customs, including talking to officilas, signing documents, passing over passports, paying for visas and the whole lot. It was such a nightmare, and I can't believe they even let us into the country. Wow! Thank goodness for deep breaths and kind people, otherwise I don't know how well I would have made it through this exprience. Without needing to be said, our entrance into Laos was very interesting, and we were having a hard time accepting this new country as a happy place. However, it's a beautiful country and after this experience, I feel that I can handle whatever the world brings my way! A big thanks goes out to all of those people who were so generous and caring, whom most of them I will likely never see again. Oh my, what an experience, never to be forgotten, but surely something to learn from. Do not attempt anything that takes you out of your comfort zone when deep down you really know that something inside of you is going wrong - especially public transportation in a foreign country!! Live and learn, fellow humans, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

<3 Betsy

Northern Thailand in a Nutshell.

hotmessexpress — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 03:19:00 GMT

Thailand rocks! At least north of Bangkok, which is all that we have experienced in Thailand thus far. I'm not sure exactly why we picked the route that we did around SE Asia as we were super pumped on getting to the beach, but for some reason the north was calling our names. So we headed north, stright to Chiang Mai the northen capital, and immediately hopped on a 3 day trek which we had booked in Bangkok. We felt a little rushed after getting off of a 12 hour bus ride and by getting hustled around on what seemed to have been random tuk tuks and such, but in the end, the companies had it all figured out and everything was ran completely smoothly. Our 3 day trek was great; we got to encounter elephants within our first week of being in SE Asia, slide down some waterfalls, hike up to and spend the night in a beautiful local mountain village, and meet some awesome fellow travelers. After the trek, we spent a couple nights in Chiang Mai and loved the smaller but still happening city life of a foreign country. The night market was great, and of course we splurged on a few sweet but most needed traveling souveniers. The food in Chiang Mai, and in Thailand in general is amazing.. some of the best in the world I suppose (and the vegetarian options were endless)! After Chiang Mai, we headed north to Pai. Robin's post on Pai pretty much sums up our epic time there. The small mountain town kindly reminded us of our hometown of Crested Butte, Colorado, which we kept telling/ bragging about to everyone! Live music, great food, friendly people, and adventurous days. The heat was a lot for me to adjust to but what was I supposed to expect?! We're in one hot spot after all! Leaving Pai was bittersweet, but one of the best things about traveling are the adventures that await ahead. We booked our bus to Vientiane, Laos and were on our way out via a quick bus exchange back in Chiang Mai.

<3 Betsy

We're just having too much fun!

hotmessexpress — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:48:00 GMT

Hi friends and family!

Sorry that it's been so long since I have posted but we are clearly just having too much fun that I don't have time to keep up on the blog ;) Also, maybe, a little bit of laziness has been involved. Nonetheless, we all have so much to talk about and share!! We are currently traveling down the coast of Vietnam and are loving every second of it! From Bangkok, we traveled to northen Thailand, to Laos and to Vietnam, where we currently reside. We are moving pretty quickly through different towns and regions as we have only 3 months to cover a rather large and diverse amount of the world that we wish to discover. However, we have not left any destination before feeling ready to do so, and still have so much to look forward to. It's hard to believe that we are almost already halfway through our journey. For about the first 2 weeks, we all agreed that time was passing at a perfect pace; going by neither too fast nor too slow. I still have a very pleasant feeling about where we are at on our adventure, but it most certainly feels as though time is speeding up. I have been doing a lot of journaling, so I am going to share with you some of our most loved and of course, some of our not such enjoyable moments. We have been dealing with difficulty regarding uploading photos onto this blog site so we have instead just been posting up pictures on facebook. I know that some people don't do the facebook thing, so if you do not and still wish to view our photos, please let us know and we can arrange something else. Otherwise, check out the facebook pages of 1 or all 3 of us by requesting us to be your friend if that is not already the case. You can find us all on facebook with our full names.

Betsy LeClair

Robin Palmer

Chris Kreuger

<3 Betsy

Life of Pai

hotmessexpress — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 14:13:00 GMT

Life of Pai

When we reached Chiangmai I northern Thailand (one of my favorite towns in Thailand so far) we were told by everyone to check out Pai, a town even further up in the mountains three hours north. Betsy had found a circus school/hostel in Pai too that seemed right up Kruger's alley so we booked a bus and headed up. The road to Pai is one gigantic mountain pass and they even count the number of turns (it's written on shirts sold all over Pai). 762 to be exact; so after a windy three hours north we we're dropped off in Pai.
Our first impressions were pretty awesome. One of the first things I noticed is the HUGE Rastafarian influence in the town. Thai men walking around like they could have been straight out of Jamaica. Rasta bars everywhere and live music at every corner.
After getting their we asked directions to our circus school that we had booked a night at. Not going to name any names of the hostel but after noticing the extreme amount of ants crawling all over what would have been Kruger's bunk, we decided to seek other accommodations. A priceless moment of realizing that we weren't going to stick it out was when we told one of the hostel workers about the ants and he came in with a broom and literally swept all the ants onto the open backpack of the poor person (who was not there to witness this) below the top bunk. After "brushing the ants off the bed" he simply told Kruger to sleep with his head on the opposite side of the one with the ants. Haha we weren't impressed and moved on.
What we did find was an amazing hostel called the Kwang House just over a VERY haggard bamboo bridge on the quiet side of the river that Pai sits on. $4 or $5 a night got us our own bungalow with a hammock on the porch. The staff were so friendly and laid back and the dogs they owned that roamed the grounds were adorable. We were also given huge papayas grown on the trees in front of our bungalows one of the mornings which was very sweet of the men who worked there. Spending my mornings watching the jungle mist burn off reading a book in our hammock was such a cathartic way to start my mornings.
The street market that seemed to run every night had a very cool feel to it. Not the same stuff all over Bangkok. The food in Pai was the best food I've had on the trip thus far.
Food carts everywhere and we found an amazing falafel restaurant that became a favorite (go figure Betsy and I are digging on some falafel). Amazing Indian food in Pai, $1 fresh fruit smoothies, $0.15 fresh potato samosas...couldn't beat the food. The nightlife was super fun there as well. Live music everywhere and like I said a huge reggae influence. The bars all closed at midnight and everyone made their way to the popular late night hang out, the Don't Cry Reggae Bar.
Our first real evening in Pai Betsy and I hiked out to a waterfall (started a little too late to make it all the way) but the views of the sun setting over the mountains was gorgeous. Also the dirt road out to the start of the trail was littered with adorable little hippie commune type hostels.
The next day Betsy and I decided to rent bikes (not motorbikes, not bikes with gears)...Betsy's was literally a heavy old school beach cruiser. We were told by the guy we rented them from (about $1 or $2 for the day) that we could take them up to the Mor Prang waterfall...that was both ambitious and highly misleading of him. After biking/ walking our bikes for several hours (tons of hours) + an accidental detour through the Chinese village of Lisu we made it to the waterfall. Gorgeous as it was it was too late to really enjoy the swimming so we headed back. We were really high up so we had beautiful views of the town of Pai from up there. And the bike ride down (even though we got lost and had to take
a different road into Pai) was pretty epic after our long day.
The next day we decided we'd try out renting a motorbike which seemed to be the thing to do for about $4 a day and take another loop around Pai for sightseeing...hahah we didn't make it far. Seems
like riding a motorbike should be simple? We were trying to start it on a pretty busy street and the rental guy was giving us a hard time when we were trying to start it...embarrassing, hilarious & possibly for our own good he took the bike away and gave us our money back...only after we'd already filled the tank.... So back to our bicycle man from day 1! This time my bike had gears and brakes that worked but I think Betsy got the same beach cruiser as before. She killed it regardless! The bike tour was so fun!! We were just given a map and told to go for it.
First stop was a gorgeous coffee plantation followed by a stop at the 'land crack' which is a farmers land that has been pretty rapidly splitting into small canyons and ravines over the past couple years. As soon as we got there he invited us to sit in the much needed shade and brought us a FEAST. Roselle fruit was a big part of their farm. We got fresh Roselle, Roselle wine, Roselle jam, Roselle juice, banana chips, peanuts, sweet potato wedges and tamarind. This entire meal was totally donation based and everything was grown on their farm. The couple was so adorable and I think this was highlight of my day.
Next stop the weirdest strawberry farm I've ever been to. Interesting to check out... Sarah mc Lachlan in Thai and other soft jams like that playing with super cheesy wooden cutouts to stick your face in and take pics. Very, very....very weird.
After that the 'grand canyon' of Pai which was actually super awesome. Reminded me a lot of hiking in Utah. This was the end of our loop so we headed back at sunset. Such a fun day!
Yet another highlight of our 5 days in Pai was the last night when Betsy and I went to the Pai Reggae on the River Festival. Flyers all over town said 12pm~12am so logically we thought the festival started during the day...we were told on our walk to the festival that it didn't start til midnight which turned out to be misinformation. Turns out 12pm~12am actually means 12pm~12am...even though when we checked it out at 4pm they were still just setting up. So that night after dinner we found our way to a carnival happening on the otherside of town, we were the only non locals there and it looked awesome but was closing up. After that we headed to the reggae festival only to be told it was about to be over but they let us in for free. I'm SO glad we still went because when we left at 2:30am the music was still cranking. Lots of bob Marley and typical covers but Small Axe and Soul Shakedown were highlights for sure. Also there's something about a Thai Rastafarian that is so interesting, such a cool blend of culture.
So this was our week in Pai in a nutshell. Lots of exercise (get ready mountain bike season, we're training on fixed bikes this spring), lots of sun, lots of great food, tons of awesome music. If you every find yourself in Thailand and have the opportunity to head north DO IT. You def won't regret that pretty little hippie town :)

~ Binksy

Photos: Bangkok & Chiangmai - Robin!

hotmessexpress — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:49:00 GMT

Photos: Food Tour SE Asia Style

hotmessexpress — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:34:00 GMT

Photos: Bangkok & Northern Thailand - Betsy

hotmessexpress — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:49:00 GMT

Traveling to Southeast Asia.

hotmessexpress — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 17:34:00 GMT

28 hours of traveling?! Yea, it's pretty much as bad as it sounds. Robin and I flew from Denver->Vancover->Beijing->Bangkok. It took a full day and with the time change, super exhausting. Totally worth it though! We finally made it to Bangkok around midnight on Sunday night. Customs and all that went super smooth,; if you're staying in Thailand for 30 or less days at a time, you get a visa exemption meaning you pay nothing and you can pretty much just walk into the country. Feeling super wired yet ecstatic at this point, we hopped in a cab and got dropped off at a hostel where we thought we had a room. No such luck but fortunately we were close enough to walk to Khao San Road which is a huge touristy area in Bangkok with endless cheap accommodation. When we got there, the energy was so exciting that we decided to put off getting a room until the morning and we posted up at a bar to watch the Broncos game. We got a room early the next morning and settled in to the crazy city. We turned our passports in to get our Vietnamese visas because you can't get them on arrival there. We also booked a 3 day trek by Chiangmai which turned out to be awesome! We spent about 3 days in Bangkok exploring temples, eating awesome street food and shopping. Everything is so cheap! When it was time to hop on our night bus for chiangmai, we were definitely ready to leave the city!! Robin and I were both a little sick from traveling so getting up into the mountains has made us feel a lot better :) the bus ride to chiangmai was 12 hours and freeeezing! We got to experience out first squat toilets at the rest areas... Knarley!!! Not sure if I'm ever going to get used to those but definitely learned quick to always carry tp wherever you go! We have already met so many awesone fellow travelers from around the world. Not many Americans, mostly Europeans, but people from all over! The vibe over here is so sweet. So many smiles! it really is easy to live in the now, relax and just be a happy you :)

<3 Betsy

3 Day Jungle Trekking in Northern Thailand

hotmessexpress — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 19:28:00 GMT

We were pretty dazed after arriving in Bangkok without a place to stay (thank you unreliable internet hostel bookings) and waiting for the sun to come up so we could book a room. That being said we were pretty out of it when we signed up for a 3 day jungle trek in a national park just north of Chiangmai in northern Thailand and werem't really sure what we had signed up for.

What we got was an amazing 3 day hiking/whitewater rafting/camping/elephant riding trip. On the first day we were loaded (what must have been a completely illegal amount of people to pack into a truck) into the back of a truck and driven a couple hours to the start of a hiking trail in the middle of tobacco and banana fields. On the way we stopped at a paper making center that used elephant poop for the paper, awesome experience, didn't smell at all! The hiking that day was pretty lowkey and we ended the day with an hour elephant ride that was so humbling. Our guide for the trek, a local college student named Cai (pronounced Chai), was so much fun. A highlight for the night was watching him and one of the men that lived at the elephant camp smoke an E-cigarette for the first time. One of our travelers with us showed them his and let them smoke it. They all had huge handrolled cigarettes from the tobacco fields that surrounded the camp and it was pretty funny watching them figure out the E-cigarette.

The next day we met up with about 10 or 15 other travelers and hiked through the jungle to a couple SWEET waterfalls. The first one was a natural slide that was super fun. We ended our hike for the day on top of a mountain where a tribe lived. This experience was incredible!! We all stayed in a long communal bunk house that overlooked a valley and had a firepit on the porch out front. Watching the sunset over the northern Thailand mountains was epic; the stay at the village was a huge highlight for me, as was being sung to by the local school of about 10 elementary aged kids. Everyone in our group was so fun and so nice. We had travelers from Holland, Korea, France, Great Britain and AMerica. We've learned that Americans make up a minority for travelers here. Since we've been here we haven't even met 5 Americans. Pretty rad!

The last day we hiked down (way down) the mountains to another huge waterfall and then to a whitewater rafting company. The rafting was hands down my favorite part of the trip! Just class I and II's (no Numbers!) but the water was perfect and clear. About the temperature of the MEsa in the summer. We even got to sit on a traditional bamboo raft and ride it down for half a mile or so. I did stand up at the end of our float and find a spider about the size of my palm on my leg.....

The trip was humbling, gorgeous, enlightening, eye opening, pretty dope! A little more tone and a little more tan. So happy we made that decision in Bangkok.

Robin