Hanoi

We are still alive after trying to cross the street while motorcycles,cars,busses,etc keep moving. They do not stop even if you are in a cross walk! We just bunch up and keep walking.
We loved the water puppet show and pho (which is a wonderful noodle soup). This soup is a breakfast staple.
We also saw the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, which was packed with thousands of people. He looked pretty good for being dead 43 years!

Vientiane

This is the new capital of Loa. Very modern on the Mekong River. 135,000 population. Great coffee and good shopping

Cope rehabilitation center

Our visit to Cope will forever be in our memories. Their purpose is to provide prosthetics for people who have been maimed by buried cluster bombs from the US bombing the Laos , Vietnam border. Still today they are going off on people trying to clear areas for rice farms and just children running around. The huge numbers and tragic stories were so very hard to hear.

"Vang vieng,Lao

An very scenic town that is filled with 20 something's that act like they are on Spring break. It's a place for rock climbing,tubing,and biking. We biked to the scene of the Blue Lagoon.

Elephants

Friday we went to an elephant preserve. Los was known to have over a million elephants. There are now only about 5,000 left. Very sad for this regal animal. The large elephant is 38 years old. They can live to be 100! I did not know that we could swim with them or I would have opted for that.

The White Budda Wat

You have to check this out. I can't post enough pictures. It has everything--Darth Vader, Michael Jackson, etc

Luang Prabang

So far our favorite city. About 250,000 people. The old capital with French influence--food and architure. They have a great night market for food and textiles.

Pakbeng

Another small, quaint river town on the Mekong. Tried water buffalo and seaweed for dinner, Yum!

Huay Xai

Just Xai is a small river town where the Chinese trade with the Loations. We spent one night there. Many tourists. The younger ones of our party hit a karokie club and were out very late!

All night train and Chaing Mai

We are backing up to explain leaving Bangkok to Chaing Mai on the all night train. We had little compartments that fit Sara completely, Bob not so much!

Here is the temple (Wat) on a mountain outside of Chaing Mai. We went to hear the monks chanting at sunset.

Mekong River Cruise

We spent 2 days floating down the Mekong River. The river is the supply life blood of the area. Our family lives on their boat--note satellite dish. The villages increased as we got closer to Laung Prabong. They grow corn, sweet potatoes along the river bank. They also brew Lao whiskey from corn mash

Our travel friends

We are traveling with ten others: 3 Brits, 4 Canadians ,1 Irishman, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Aussie and our Cambodian guide. What a fun group of people! We are all mixing so well! Here we are in Lao.

Bangkok

after 26 plus hours travel from Seattle, we landed in Bangkok! We are 14hours ahead of Boise time. Yesterday, we went by tuk tuk to many temples . Traffic is insane, our eyes are burning from pollution, but we love this place. last night we went to Chinatown and had a wonderful dinner for 3$!

Trip To Indochina

The hats were provided by our friends, Connie and Larry Seitz. They are getting us prepped for our upcoming trip.

We leave Monday, January 9th and arrive at 11pm January 11th...24 hours on a plane. I hope they allow jogging in the aisles! Bangkok is 14hours ahead of Boise time.

The blog will be more of a challenge as we are doing it on our ipad and don't quite know how to sync it yet. Hope it works!