Chiang Rai and now Laos!

Well, here is another blog post and it seems incredibly long again.  Even as we continue with this incredible journey, as I put together "a week in the life" - it is a lot.  The fantastic luxury of this trip is the feeling of not needing to pack it all in, or rushing it, since over the course of the 3 months we will have ample opportunity to experience.  That being said, we're still finding a ton of things to do and see.

We left off in Chiang Rai, and though we didn't have a long time in that town, it left an impression.  It felt very country and remote in comparison to the chaos of Chiang Mai.  We really enjoyed our guesthouse and host, and the relaxing nature of our time there.  From Chiang Rai we traveled to Laos.

I have been very excited about traveling to Laos as I haven't been here before.  It is definitely not disappointing and we are enjoying our time here.  I have to say, traveling this part of the world is so nice because, in part, the buddhist culture.  People are just kind and giving.  I have to say, its quite refreshing.

Here are the plethora of photos and things that we've done over the last week:

Sunset in Chiang Rai from our guest house.

So, I signed us up for a day trek and bamboo rafting thinking it would be fun.  I have to be careful on how I prep things to Maeve -- too much information doesn't work often, and too little information can backfire too.  I think I fell into the too little information on this one.  Oh well.  Not all days are going to be winners.

All is well early on -- we hiked to a local waterfall (Khun Korn).  There were smiles all around.

Obviously there is bamboo everywhere, but I love feeling like we're walking through a tunnel.

We learned about the rubber trees

And, well... things took a turn.

Someone wasn't as enamored about this trek as I was...

Our guide used his machete to help clear paths.

We did this tour with 6 other Polish travelers, and though they were friendly and trying to be helpful - Maeve didn't connect with them or the guide (despite their efforts), and well -- that is the make it or break it for Maeve.  Unfortunately, this was just a miss.

Our lunch rest spot.  The whole thing was very scenic.

The bamboo rafts.  When I did this previously, we were in Pai and we went down a little river.  This time we were on a lake -- which looked scenic, a little harder to manage as bamboo rafts aren't exactly designed to glide through the water.  Oh well.  Everyone should experience bamboo rafting at least once when in Thailand.

My vantage point.

And... back to the grumps.

And, here we are in the 7'o clock hour with Maeve falling asleep on me and I'm drinking a beer in bed.  We stuck a fork in this day -- the next ones will be better.  Ha.

The next day we hired a tuktuk driver to take us around to the places we wanted to see.  First stop -- the Hillside Tribe Museum.    Maeve is striking a pose here with the other mannequins.

Large bamboo bowl for rice collecting.

Obviously we visited the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun).

We are in the land of temples, and honestly its easy to get "watted out", but we're glad we ventured to see this.  Its pretty magnificent.

The bridge of "the cycle of rebirth" - Maeve did not know what to think of it.  I read that the outstretched hands symbolize unretrained desire and that the way to happiness is by foregoing temptation, greed, and desire.

Happy travelers in our tuktuk

We headed to Art Bridge to take in an art gallery full of Thai artists.

Outside of Art Bridge is a mural celebrating the many volunteers involved in rescuing the thai boys in the cave.  I was enthralled with the story and even tried to convince Maeve that we should travel the hour away to see the cave.  She was not as interested.  So, we settled on visiting the mural instead.

One of the things that we wanted to do was visit a hot springs and boil eggs (because we saw it on the Amazing Race, and obviously, we wanted to do it too).  I had told our driver where we wanted to go, but I think he only took in the "hot springs" part and took us to one closer to town that wasn't as hot.  Oh well.  We boiled eggs. 

Another hot springs photo.

And... I think Maeve's favorite part of Chiang Rai.  Here we are at Cat 'n Sip.  To be honest - I wasn't really sure about this, but as you try and plan a trip with a 9 year old, you try and seek out things that they would be interested in.  I knew a cat cafe would be right up Maeve's alley.  I was afraid it would be full of mangey cats, but it turns out I was completely wrong.  These cats were so well cared for and well mannered, I was sucked into the wonder of it all.  

Every hour you can buy a cat treat for the kitties... this made Maeve a very popular customer with the cats.

So, I've managed selfies with a quokka and an elephant.  Why not a sleeping cat too?

More snack bugs for sale at the market.  I can't...

Night market.

We were picked up at 0615 from Chiang Rai to make our way to the Laos border to catch our slow boat.  En route I captured some misty morning shots during sun rise.

Out of order - but we made it to Laos :-)

And... back to the misty sunrise.

Just before we got on our slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang.  We choose to go with the company, Mekong Smile Cruise.  There is an option to go with the basic "ferry-type" cheap version, but once you peruse the web for options to take the slow boat, you really don't want to potentially share the boat with 50 other people, when you can go a very comfortable version instead.  Ha.  I am definitely getting soft in my older age.  

There are a lot of slow boats -- some for passenger travel, and some for cargo.  There are slow boats that the hillside tribes own too - and profits the whole village.

Here was a very small crew on the boat with us.  It was so fun and we had such lovely people with us.  We had a couple from Germany, a couple of English (who live in France) and a couple of Canadians.  We got on the boat, the slid the sun roof open, and we got on our way.

We immediately embraced the R&R

I never wanted to leave the slow boat.

Though its "slow" - it moves at a pretty decent pace and it is so relaxing and peaceful.  For the first hour and half we had Laos on on right and Thailand on our left.  After that, it was Laos all the way.  

Our boat

There were many villages on both sides of the trip that lived close to the water and we'd often find children playing in the water, and they'd wave.  Here is Maeve waving back.

During lunch, our new English friends were a bit horrified that Maeve didn't know how to spit out watermelon seeds, and were also a bit horrified to know we eat GMO watermelon (hence the no spitting out seeds).  We may need to remedy this.  So, here was Maeve learning a new life skill here.  

Not only was the boat amazing - so was the food.

During our two day ride down the Mekong, we made several stops.  This stop was to a hillside village (I think it was Huay Pralam village, but don't quote me).  I wanted to ensure that I was cognizant of not exploiting the village people and being respectful.  This particular tribes' beliefs revolve around nature/spirits.

This is Katia - who spent time with Maeve doing Kanoodle.

We all got the Kanoodle bug.

At Pakbeng we got off the boat and spent the night.  These pictures are a little out of order, but in the morning, we were able to witness the Monks during the alms ceremony.

Morning time as these ladies head down to the river so that their wood can be sold (I couldn't understand if they were taking them to a market or their business was at the market).

This was a hotel with charm

Inside our hotel room.

This little stopover town had way more character than I was expecting.

The mornings are definitely cool here, but by mid-day very hot.  The range is about 15-30 C (60-90 F).

And, on the boat it is downright chilly first thing.  I had read about that in someone else's blog, so I was prepared.  Sometimes you wonder if you needed to pack things, ie your fleece.  We are liking our fleece in the mornings and nights here in Laos.  In this picture, Rosie and Maeve are journaling while bundled.

We made another stop at a hillside village.  Little did we know that we were entering a market.  The little streets were lined with vendors trying to entice visitors like ourselves to purchase from them.  Of course we did buy some bracelets and a scarf, because it was hard to say no.

At the hillside villages, our guide had us try their whiskey, aka their version of moonshine.  

Weavers on site.

This village was Lao and had Buddhists beliefs.

Maeve became tight with our English friends -- Tessa and Rosie (so did I).  Maeve's experiences really are enhanced with the people she meets and she fell in love with these too - especially Rosie.  Rosie was like a surrogate grandma to her and made her belly laugh.  It was fun to see Maeve totally uninhibited and she'd be happily telling stories to them.  They would spend a good deal of time at the front of the boat taking in the scenes while telling stories to each other.

Before we got to Luang Prabang, we stopped at the Pak Ou cave.

So, for those of you worried that we'd be roughing it.  No need to worry.  I knew at times we'd be splurging and treating ourselves, but this choice of stay was simply because I'm a sucker for bungalows.  Well... its a super sweet set up and so beautiful.  

And, one of the best things is that they deliver a continental breakfast spread to our bungalow at our specified time.  Its going to be hard to leave this place!

We walked the bamboo bridge.  This bridge is only up for 6 months of the year, during the dry season.  It comes down during the wet season as it can't sustain the currents etc, and they erect a new one come the dry season again.  Bamboo is crazy strong and they use it for many things.

You guys... we found our place of total chill -- Utopia.  We came here for lunch and almost never left.

We loved it so much that we met our new friends, Tessa and Rosie here for lunch the next day.

We ventured up Mount Phousi (with half of LP) to catch the sunset.  As a result,  you can see the whole surrounding area.  This part of the world is really pretty.

I just had to capture the whole scene.  Ha.  That being said, we got there early enough, had a seat on stairs and had a nice view, with good people watching too, obviously.

After the sunset, Tessa, Rosie, Maeve and I wandered to a hotel that was showing an outdoor movie -- it was an old 1927 Academy Award winning film, Chang.  It was really good, though at times difficult to watch (it was about a family living in the jungle and surviving).  It was a cool experience that I'm glad we participated in.

Luang Prabang is such a cool town.  It is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It has over 33 Wats, it is the former Royal capital, and its french influence remains.  Its streets are beautiful to wander around.

At the night market.  Rosie picking out gifts to take home.

The next day, Maeve and I decided to check out the waterfall that gets so much mention - Kuang Si Waterfall.  I can see why it gets attention, but at the same time, all the attention is a complete turn off for me since it had masses and masses of people.  We even purposely went late, as it wasn't supposed to be as busy.

So, we swam, took some selfies, and didn't stay too long.  Too bad.  We need to find some less known waterfalls.

Getting ready for the night market.

Homework at a sweet cafe.  She wrote a letter to her class, I drank a Lao beer.  That's the way we roll.  Ha.

Okay.  Wish me luck everyone.  Tomorrow we take off for a 3 day trek.  Maeve is not completely on board with the plan (read: I had to bribe her), and I hope that the wonder and awe takes over and she forgets that she didn't have anything to do with these plans.  Parenting is hard sometimes.  When to push and when to bail on plans.  Time will tell...