So there we were in Luang Prabang, full of bliss after a day of too many massages and swimming beneath waterfalls when David suddenly says, “You know I’m wondering if our Laos visas really were for two months or just one.”

Me:  I’m sorry?

David:  Yea, I think the visa was good for two months but once you enter the country it’s only good for one.

Me:  Splendid

We ran off to the immigration office and looked in to it and sure enough we read the visa wrong.  We overstayed (not the first time on this journey) way too long and owed a ridiculous amount of money.  We payed up so as not to end up on Locked Up Abroad, and since then everything has changed.  No more boat trip up to the magical mountains of Phongsavali, no more wandering through Northern Laos with no care in the world other than where our next dish of Laap is coming from, no more ambition to cross the new and remote border in to Northern Vietnam.  We have been nicely asked to leave the country or pay more money.  We don’t want to pay more money. Game over.

Ok not quite.  We still have some things to see in Thailand and whatnot, but we are indeed a bit bummed out.  After the visa issue costs, and figuring out the costs of entering Vietnam by land (they want an arm and a leg!), not too mention travelling around there (way more expensive than Laos) we realized it might be best to head back to Thailand and then…

wait for it…

wait for it…

HOME! 

So….I am sad to announce Vietnam is no longer on the itinerary.  However, David has been eager to remind me that this leaves plenty of things to explore the next time we are here.  And yes, I believe we now both officially plan on coming back here as often as possible for what remains to be the rest of our lives.  So, that’s awesome….

So, feeling a bit deflated with the loss of our battle at the immigration office, we got a total of 5 massages in one day and then found a bar.  There we devised a bit of plan so we could still have some fun before heading back home. It was a pretty typical conversation between the optimist and the pessimist:

Kevin:  Screw this, screw Laos, they just took our money and now we got crap.

David:  Ok, well, it’s ok, this just leaves more to explore before we come back, right?

Kevin: This drink tastes like ass, they never put enough ice in these drinks.  They call this a cocktail?

David:  Would you like another drink?

Kevin:  What I would like would be to continue on my journey and go to Vietnam just like I wanted!

David:  Right, but that isn’t really possible right now so maybe we should think about some fun things we can do in Thailand before we go to the airport.

Kevin:  I’ve already been to Thailand and it’s stupid.

David:  I’m going for a walk. 

Eventually I relaxed, David returned, and he was kind enough to not reprimand me for (again) acting like a two year old.  At any rate, I got over my Vietnam-less Pity Party and am fully ready (and even excited) to depart Laos – we came back to Vientiane to say goodbye to the family –  and enter Thailand on Saturday.  We have some plans to grab a motorbike and do a little cross-country before hitting Bangkok International.  Plus, since Thailand is by far the most inexpensive place we have visited we won’t have to worry as much about time and money.  There are a few places we want to return to and say hi to those who so warmly welcomed us when we first arrived.  Plus there are a few places we have yet to see in Thailand and this gives us the opportunity to do just that.

So, here it is folks.  The moment you have been waiting for:  We will be home (likely) in March. 

Speaking of coming home, we are just beginning to start to form our next ‘plan.’  David has declared he is going to school, and has his application in to a couple of places throughout the states (I’ll let him tell you where and what for).  He plans on spending a bit of time with his various family members before hitting the books. 

As for me, I have a thousand different ideas of what I want to do next and am just beginning to narrow them down.  There are some killer non-profits in the States that are doing amazing work for Laoation and Cambodian children, particularly around education and health.  I am looking in to those and have even started thinking about, dare I say, grad school.  Terrifying indeed.  We’ll see.  Either way it appears I will be heading back through Oakland to see all my beautiful friends, and then out to Ohio to visit the good ol’ fam (man do I miss them!) and all my other beautiful friends.  Whether I end up in Ohio or California more permanently is still up in the air – it of course depends on work and (possibly) school. 

For both of us, the end goal is to come back here.  We don’t want to live here forever, yet we understand how much we have fallen in love with it to know we must come back here sooner or later.  Hopefully these next steps will shape this in to a very attainable goal.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Oh – and….we got the camera battery charger back!  Woohoo!  More pictures soon.  The next post you will see will be from Thailand.  Good bye, for now, Laos.  You have treated us well, and we are forever grateful.

Tomorrow afternoon we board a bus leaving Vientiane for a little town called Vang Vieng farther up North. The night before we pack up and move on to another town is always a little bittersweet for us. We have to say goodbye to the guesthouse or little bungalow we had been staying in and made our home for a couple days or weeks. And it’s hard leaving the local market we had gotten used to where the sweet old lady cooked us eggs every morning. Plus, when you are on the road this long it’s nice to stay in one place for a bit every once in awhile. Still, we leave for Vang Vieng tomorrow at 1 and we are utterly pumped. Evidently this little town has become quite the popular spot on the backpacker route in Laos, but for good reason. Lime stone cliffs and huge caves and river tubing through the jungle and nearby Hmong villages…I can’t even wait. It should only take 3 or 4 hours through the mountains by bus to get there, and this time we are prepared with plenty of Dramamine. Yess.

We have been here in Vientiane for the past couple weeks, mostly staying at David’s family’s house outside of town or at fancy guesthouses near the city center (fancy meaning hot water and televisions and it’s AWESOME). Vientiane is incredibly beautiful . If you simply smile at just about anyone here they will invite you in to their home for a cold beer (literally). The city has grown just enough to have a smooth infrastructure compared to a lot of cities we have experienced (sigh…poor Phnom Penh), but it’s still quiet and charming and it feels safe, even at night. The weather is much better than the South as well – “hot time” doesn’t quite hold the sway here as it did down in Pakse and we are very thankful for it. It’s a shame most backpackers just past through here on their way to Vang Vieng or Vietnam, but I suppose that just leaves more for us. Nothing like kicking back at a street cafe near the Mekong with a cold Beerlao in your hand watching all the crazy motorbikes race by…. If we can make it happen, we’re coming back here as soon as possible and you should join us.

I got food poisoning. Again. Or, as David likes to call it, “The Affliction.” It happened less than 1 month after the last Affliction and it just seems entirely unfair. Last time the culprit, as you recall, was a delicious bowl of Thai chicken curry. An old favorite of mine which I have yet to consume since. This time? VIETNAMESE SANDWICH! The vendor seemed so sweet and like she made a killer sandwich, but little did I know… I woke up later that night feeling like there was a demon inside my intestines scraping his way out with a spoon. And let met tell you this: Laos bathrooms are totally tolerable until you are puking your guts out at 3 am. That’s all I have to say about that.

As we move North now we are making our way over to Vietnam, the end of our adventure. It was hard to say goodbye to David’s family today because we know we most likely won’t be seeing them after we enter Vietnam. Especially John and Jay, two of the goofiest and smartest kids I think I have ever met. How we will ever live without the midnight kung foo tournaments or the endless question and answer periods about the English language, I will never know. And as always, Kouk made some of the most delicious meals we have had since touching down 3 months ago in Bangkok. We will miss them (and the food) a lot, but remembering we came here to travel is getting us itchy to move on.

And where are the pictures of this increasingly-epic journey you may be wondering? Well…we have over 400 that need to be uploaded that we have taken since the new year but unfortunately our little memory card in our little camera got a VIRUS. Not to worry, though. David of course fixed everything right up while I was typing this and we will be uploading the pictures upon arrival in Vang Vieng. There’s some real gems in there, too, so come back and check them out.

Please leave us a comment or two and let us know how YOU are doing…we do indeed miss you…

Much Love,

Kevin and David

p.s…if you want a call from the future please email me your phone number – I had an iphone meltdown and my life is now hidden away in Apple’s basement….

Check out the albums

Vientiane

Ban Naxaithong

We left Phnom Penh on a 6 hour bus journey through the Southern Cardamom Mountains to get to the tiny coastal city of Krong Koh Kong. The town lies just 10 kilometers from the Thai border at the mouth of the Kah Bpow river, which empties in to the Gulf of Thailand. It’s an interesting mix of Thai and Khmer culture with tons of sea food. Tourism is just starting to pick up here because it is a gateway to  beautiful jungles, waterfalls, and pristine islands, but for the most part it still retains it’s old rural, market-place feel.  We spent most of our time wandering around the open markets, eating above the river, and trying to stay out of the intense, Southern sun.  The most enjoyable part of the trip along the coast came when we finally got to bust the tent out again.

On our second night in Koh Kong we ended up at a place called Bob’s Bar run by a friendly Irish guy who fell in love with the area awhile back and couldn’t leave.  We got to chatting with Bob who hooked us up with his German friend, Thomas, who runs a boat up the Kah Bpow river anywhere you want to go for a reasonable fee.  We had him take us and our new friends from Norway, Susanne and Lars, up the river about two hours to some beautiful cascades.  There we went swimming, jumped off cliffs in the river, and camped on the shore under the stars.  Perfectly beautiful experience.  Thomas brought along a couple locals to make sure we were fed well with grilled shrimp, squid, a couple Thai curries, and some eggs and baguettes in the morning.  We spent some time kayaking through the mangrove forests and hiking up the cascades as far as we could go in search of an even better swimming hole (they were endless).  The water was clear and cool, and we spent so much time in it and on it that we ended up with sun burns to last us the next couple weeks.   Because the river is so close to the ocean it acts with the tides, so on the way back our boat ran aground a sand bar. We took the opportunity to run around this little ‘beach’ while the sun was setting (and the captain was working to get us going again).  Eventually the boat was freed, we left the beach and relaxed on the way back under the last bits of the Cambodian sun.  If you are ever in Koh Kong look up Bob’s bar and have him make you a good western style pizza, then give Thomas a call at Neptune’s guesthouse and let him take you on the trip of a lifetime (just be careful of the crocodiles, literally).

We spent some more time in the markets of Koh Kong after the camping trip where we met lots of different kinds of people – women at banana stands, men selling the Khmer version of the pork bun, young guys inviting us to ‘the deeeskoh tek,” kids hawking post cards and other souvenirs.  The nice thing about this place is the open market is so very much Southeast Asia, but in too many places the markets have been taken over by souvenir shops for the tourist and no longer serve the locals.  Not Koh Kong, thankfully, where you can still get a massive bowl of soup for 70 cents and consume it while watching women sew while their kids make up fresh spring rolls.  The market was also our first experience with the Cambodian rains:  The sky suddenly opens violently, the ground is immediately flooded, and everyone closes up shop and goes home because the flood means no costumers.  Some day I’ll see that market again, and I will remember to bring my umbrella.

We are back in Phnom Penh now, and I think we have a better appreciation of the capital then we did our first time here.  We understand a little more about the people and their resilience, which gives me a bit more hope.  After doing some more reading and talking with more locals I think I am beginning to understand the needs a bit more as well, but mostly I’m just realizing that these people are strong.  Seriously, so strong.  It’s a good thing to know.

The sweetest thing about Phnom Penh is the evening “dance time.” Around the royal palace, which is near our guesthouse, are wide grassy boulevards in between one-way main streets running in either direction.  Here there are various monuments and fountains and wide grassy promenades where huge groups of people gather and do a dance routine.  In each group there is a leader who has a particular style, and each group has their own music blasting away while they all go nuts, perfectly in step.  Most of the dance moves come straight off of MTV, as well as most of the music.  Each song has a different dance that goes along with it.  So basically you have 5-10 groups of people, each group consisting of 20-60 people of all ages, dancing in perfect step to something they picked up on MTV – all in the middle of Phnom Penh’s busiest streets with the fountains and the royal palace in the background.  If only they danced during the day we could have had a better picture….

We will be spending a bit more time here, soaking up as much as we can learn as possible.  I have been meeting with a few people and looking in to different volunteer commitments, and we hope to have a little more direction before we go to Saigon for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas….last night we were wandering some markets here in Phnom Penh when we came across a jewelry seller with one of those big glass jewelry cases.  On top of the case was a tiny Christmas tree about 2 feet tall with some ornaments, blinking lights, tinsel, a star, the works.  You don’t see something like that very often here so we payed attention.  We asked the woman where we could find a small fake tree like that in Phnom Pehn.  Her response was, “I sell you now fiteen dolla.”  We swiped it up, carried it back through the streets, ornaments and all, and now we have a Christmas tree in our guesthouse room.  We plan on taking it to Saigon with us so we can have a proper celebration on the 25th.

Happy Holidays

Take a look at our Koh Kong photos:

Laos has long been suspected of being one of the most laid-back cultures in the world.  After spending nearly 2 weeks here on the Mekong I couldn’t agree more.  Speaking with the locals we have learned the concept of ‘Laos Time,’ which is set to a very different clock than the rest of the world.  10 minutes can mean an hour, an hour can mean any time today, and there isn’t much concept of ‘tomorrow’.  It’s a culture that exists only in the present, and it can be of great comfort or great annoyance.  Stepping in to a café and ordering a Pepsi may be an experience that lasts more than an hour.  If you order a meal your server may actually hop on a bike and ride to the nearest market to pick up the ingredients for your plate, returning 30 minutes later to begin preparation.  If you are told that your ferry across the Mekong will be here in ‘ten meena,’ don’t be surprised if it shows up in two, or forty.

On the other hand, the people here seem reasonably happy and we suspect it’s because they aren’t panicking about ‘what needs to be done later’ like Western cultures tend to do.  In America we might sit down to lunch with friends and mostly discuss how much laundry we have to do later, what time we need to pick up the kids later, and how we need to get to the bank later before it closes.  Here, people sit down to lunch and simply talk about lunch or whatever they are thinking or feeling right then over their meals.  Maybe all those cheesy ‘living in the present’ self-help books actually have something to say.

And my God the generosity and hospitality of these people.  We have primarily been staying with David’s extended family – Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc, who all mostly live on the same compound on the outskirts of Paxse.  This seems to be common in the Laos way of life – very large family’s all living together in a small number of huts or modest homes which sit in or around their place of business.  Here we have had all of these people taking care of us in every way they can, as Laotions evidently always do for guests.  We wake up in the morning (generally around 6:30 am) and the women are already doing our laundry and making our breakfast.  When we come out of the room we are sharing with David’s younger cousins, John and JJ, the rest of the family swoops in and cleans up our blankets and bedding right away.  Sometimes they overhear us mention we want a beer, and next thing we know we have six ice cold ones sitting in front of us.  Did you say you want to go to the Bolevan Plateau?  Get in the car.  Did you say you were hungry?  Here are 7 dishes to choose from, we just whipped them up over the open fire and the fish are fresh from the pond out back.

Sometimes this can become a bit awkward.  In the States when you are invited to dinner it is expected, and enjoyable, to help (or at least offer to) prepare the food or clean up after.  Not here.  The men work during the day (except for when they are napping in the hammocks during ‘hot time’) and the women take care of the men.  Period.  As men, we are expected to sit on the bamboo mats and relax while the women wait on us hand and foot.  A few times we couldn’t help but get up and assist the women with carrying the absurd amount of dishes over to us, but then they got a little nervous and the men started pointing and laughing.  We don’t do that anymore. When in Laos…

At times this can border on absurd.  Some of the younger kids speak a bit of English as they are now taught it in school so here and there they understand what David and I are saying to each other.  Yesterday they heard me say to David that I need to go shopping soon for some clothes.  Next thing I know the children have run to the women, informed them of my needs, and together as a family they began loading up the car to prepare for a shopping trip.  When we arrived they helped me find a new pair of shorts and were shocked when I demanded to pay for it myself.  In the end, I found the money back in my pocket later that night.  What we are learning is it’s much more respectful to smile and say thank you rather than protest as it can seem offensive, especially with the language barrier. This is not the United States – these people don’t need us to be polite, they need us to enjoy the moment with a sense of gratitude.

We will be staying here at the family compound for another few days at least, sleeping on mats on the floor, eating the best food cross-legged with our hands, and bathing with a hose and a bucket. We are tired, and we are loving it.  We will be leaving for maybe Cambodia, maybe Vietnam, maybe northern Laos, likely within a week or so when we have had our Southern Laos fill.

Here’s some wild stuff we’ve learned since arriving here – either from just observing Lao Folk or from asking John random questions (he’s the only person here who speaks some English and he’s only 13, and he thinks we’re the two coolest dudes ever, and we think the same of him):

1 – No one here has ever heard of Britney Spears, but Jason Mraz is absolutely EVERYWHERE.

2 – No vehicle goes anywhere with fewer than 10 passengers inside.

3 – Acting like you’re in a rush brings stares and questions like, ‘are you sick?’

4 – Congealed pig’s blood and blood clot soup is a little intense on the stomach – eat it slowly and fill up on the rice and bread.  Everything else is nearly always perfect.

5 – When conversing with men, look them in the eye.  When conversing with women, only ‘steal’ glances or they will start giggling and be unable to speak.

6 – Camping in Southern Laos is not possible.  Why?  According to Uncle Ut, “Danger.  Tiger and Gun.”

7 – It pays to learn the guitar before coming here: All Laoations generally know how to play at least one instrument, and more often than not it’s the guitar – usually played at night with at least one other family member singing along.

8 – During a baasli ceremony in which you are the guest of honor, the white threads the monks are tying around your wrists are there to bound guardian spirits to your body and soul – duh.

9 – When stepping in front a spirit house, especially near a bridge or in the wilderness, always wai (bow your head and touch your hands, in praying fashion, to your forhead), even if you look like a goofy white guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing.  It’s respect.

10 – Happiness ends after about 3 hours on a 115 cc bike in heavy winds, so keep it around 2 ½ and you’ll do just fine.

11 – Laundry baskets are used for trash and trash cans are used for bathing.

12 – No one ever has a pen but everyone carries a marker.

13 – If you feel like passing a vehicle on a double yellow line prior to a treacherous curve, it’s fine: Just honk your horn to warn the people coming head on.

14 – When language is taken away as a way to communicate, it’s surprising the number of smiles one can wear.

I think Chang Mai, for better and certainly for worse, was one of the most interesting experiences we have had since arriving in Thailand. One we won’t soon forget…

We arrived in this Northern Capital of the Chang Mai province after a 17 hour disaster house train ride (see below) from Ayuttaya The city was comfortable and welcoming, and the high country mountain breezes and cool evenings was a welcome retreat from the hot, Southern Stickiness. Chang Mai proper lies in a massive valley surrounded on all sides by towering mountains. The old inner city is still surrounded by an ancient moat with huge brick and plaster gates still visible. We checked in at the Grace Guesthouse on recommendation from our lady friend we met in Ayutthaya. She was right: comfortable and clean rooms in a perfect location, reasonably quiet neighborhood and incredible food, all for a mere 200 baht a night (about 6 usd).

The first night there we had a few drinks at Bee’s Bar, and then headed back to the guesthouse to sleep off the train ride. Bee’s bar was a small pub around the corner from our guesthouse run by a wonderful Thai woman (Bee), a kind and talkative Englishman named Sean, Bee’s boyfriend, and Sak, the cute and friendly bartender who became our best friend and guide for the next week. Being just off the main drag in Chang Mai, Bee’s bar was a welcome reprieve from the westerner filled, over priced night clubs sprinkled all over Chang Mai. These three folks welcomed us in to their little family, showed us around the city, and taught us a thing or two about Northern Thai culture. Not a day went by that we didn’t visit, and not a moment went by that we didn’t enjoy ourselves when with these people. Hopefully some day we will be lucky enough to see them again.

We spent a couple days here and there motorbiking around the city, just lazily exploring whatever caught our eyes. I would say one of our most beautiful days was when we took the scooter up one of the mountains in search of the Doi Suthep Wat, a massive Buddhist temple overlooking the Chang Mai valley. It was touristy as all hell and filled with plenty of French (again, nothing against the French, but I just can’t get over the smell), but no matter because the views were stunning, the Monks were welcoming, and we could have watched the little dancing children for hours. If you ever go to Doi Suthep get there plenty early because you won’t want to leave.

Back in Chang Mai we met up with Sak(pronounced sock) as he became our perfect local contact. He took us all over the city and showed us the local nightlife, the ‘real’ gay clubs, and the various foods we needed try that could only be found in Chang Mai. The gay clubs in Chang Mai are very, very different than those back home. Living in the Bay Area I thought I had seen it all when it comes to gay culture, but boy was I wrong. I would say he took us to about 6 different bars and we had just one drink at each, just enough time to show us the different ‘entertainment’ that was available. I’ll keep this part short as I know many different people are reading this, but here is one example: We walk in to a place called “power boys” which is aimed at primarily entertaining western, wealthy, white men. We were met at the door by an entourage of handsome young thai men and a couple kathooyes (ladyboys, kind of the equivalent of drag queens in the states, but more respected as an art form here) and we were escorted to our seats in front of a large stage. On that stage were three rows of more handsome young thai men who just sort of stood around, looking somewhat bored, and nodding there heads to the music. They wore only underwear and on their underwear they each had a number. The point of the number? Well, if you are interested in one you tell one of the men in your entourage who is serving you to bring you ‘that number.’ You can then order a drink for ‘that number’ and then he sits there with you and entertains you, chats and converses, while you have the drink. When he’s done with the drink he goes back to the stage and takes his place with the rest of the men, who are constantly being replenished by more men at the change of every song. Evidently, though, you can have more than just a drink. It’s all perfectly legal, as long as you have the money, and this is evidently a very common form of entertainment. David and I just sort of sat there with our jaws dropped, amused and slightly uncomfortable, and we promptly requested that Sak take us somewhere else after we finished our drinks.

The next place, Circle Bar, was pretty much the same except everyone was naked. Sigh. Lesson learned: No more gay bars.

We did however go to a place called The Mandalay on Halloween night with Sak and his friends and had an absolutely killer time. The place was about half the size of a football field with maybe 6-story ceilings. Laser shows and loud Thai pop, different people coming by to dance ON your table, pool tables, water features, a mix of gay people and straight people and white folks like me and Thai locals, all the works. We danced all night for sure, but mostly we just sort of looked around in awe. The San Francisco night life seemed like nursery school compared to this. One humorous little moment – It is evidently a common thing when one goes to a restroom in one of these upper-class places that several men come up to you while you are at the urinal or washing your hands and start giving you Thai massage. This is not a ‘gay’ thing at all. It’s just expected to receive a massage on your back, head, and calves while you are…well…doing your business. Of course I didn’t know this, so when I went to the urinal and felt six hands on my back and legs I zipped up and RAN straight for the table and yelled to my new friends, “I was trying to pee and all these guys were trying to grab me!!” Of course Sak and all of his friends laughed so hard they nearly fell over, and told me if I didn’t want the massage to just politely say no. I took their advice and for the rest of the night I peed in peace.

We found out through these pals that in a few days the Loi Kathong festival would begin. Loi Krothong is a Thailand-wide festival celebrating the November full moon, or harvest. In each province it is celebrated in a slightly different way depending on local custom. In Chang Mai tens of thousands of people gather at the river just outside of the old square for 3 days of song and dance, huge elaborate parades, fire dancing, incredible food, and more fire works than we knew even existed. The most amazing thing was the lanterns. People buy these huge lanterns made out of a kind of crepe paper with a candle attached at the bottom. You light the candle, heat up the lantern, and then let it go to float off in to the sky. With tens of thousands of people doing this all at the same time the whole sky was lit up. Plus, people take these little wreaths that sit on a tiny boat made out of banana leaves and flowers, called krathongs, and they light a candle on them and then float them down the river. So the river was all lit up as well mirroring the sky. Evidently you are to put your worries in the krothongs and the lanterns and then float them away. It was 3 days of intense beauty, deafening fireworks everywhere you turn, fighting through hordes of people in search of more delicious food, and complete and severe exhaustion. We felt lucky and grateful to have been a part of it, and we will never do it again.

Chang Mai is a city that finds an excuse to party for any possible reason, and it prides itself on stress-free, easy living. It’s no surprise that we ran in to dozens of backpackers who, on their way to Laos, stopped in Chang Mai and simply never left. 3 or 6 or 10 years later they still can’t manage to move, and I don’t blame them. It’s also a place that plays a bit too much with your head. Everything is in excess and moderation doesn’t seem to be in the Chang Mai vocabulary. Everywhere you look someone seems to be doing something more exciting or more interesting than yourself and it makes you question what the hell you are really doing there. Plus, everyone gets so exhausted just getting to Chang Mai that, once they arrive, they are just too tired to keep on moving. It’s a truly seductive city, and everyone seems to think they have a secret the rest of the world doesn’t quite understand. The mountain air is the best you will find in Thailand, the food is to die for, the people warm and welcoming with an ‘anything goes’ attitude, and somehow it also feels a bit like a prison. I highly recommend you pack your bags NOW and visit the place, but don’t be surprised if you get a bit trapped and never really leave.

For David and I it had a real, and thankfully brief, effect on us. We were exhausted and our heads were constantly floating to the clouds. We were jealous of others and their lifestyle and the atmosphere constantly had us longing for something more and different. The energy there is so powerful we nearly forgot our reasons for traveling together in the first place. Thankfully we escaped when we did, and ran off to Pai (more on Pai soon) to sit under the moon together and reflect on all our Chang Mai deeds and misdeeds.

I’ll miss Chang Mai with all of my heart, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be leaving.

Lessons Learned in Chang Mai:
1 – no more gay bars

Lessons Learned since leaving Chang Mai:
1 – The foundation I have built with David and David with I is more powerful and mysteriously beautiful than any krathong festival, fireworks show, or Chang Mai gay club could ever have to offer. How grateful this trip is having us become…

A Note on the Photos:

As you can see we are lacking in the photos department on this post. We had a couple nights where we forgot the camera, and a couple others where the batter died because we forgot to charge it. Plus, all the clubs and bars don’t allow cameras inside. On top of this, there were days when Chang Mai was really feeling like our home away from home and it simply felt unatural to be busting the camera out. We are learning that sometimes experiencing the moment for the sake of itself will give us a more vivid memory than a picture ever will.

Still, look for MANY more photos in the posts to come..

( in the mean time, enjoy the 30 photos we did snap -D):