Janelle on December 18th, 2008

Every tourist has to do certain things in Thailand, and I think one of those is to experience their world-famous kathooey (ladyboys, basically transvestites/transsexuals–the Thai’s don’t seem to differentiate, they’re just all kathooey) in some way or another. For some fairly obvious reasons, we decided that the best way to experience it would be to [...]

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Janelle on November 25th, 2008

Hey foodies! This post and photos are for you! In Luang Prabang, we decided to check out the cooking class by Tamarind (a restaurant) which was highly regarded (and turned out to be good). The class started out with a market tour led by our Lao teacher, Jack. He pointed out various herbs, meats, and [...]

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Janelle on November 24th, 2008

We went trekking yesterday through Luang Prabang province, here is a bunch of photos…and text. For the first part of our trek, we went to an elephant park that uses tourism dollars to try and save elephants from a hard life of logging (which I saw in Cambodia) or being poached. Letting humans ride on [...]

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Janelle on November 18th, 2008

So, here Hugh and I were sitting in a net cafe, when four young novice monks entered the shop. They were dressed in the usual saffron-colored robes and shaved heads and eyebrows. You see these monks commonly around South-East Asia, but Hugh and I are always amazed to see them doing “normal things” like buying [...]

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Janelle on November 10th, 2008

We took the trip from Vientiane to Vang Vieng on a local bus. Being sore from constant scamming in Thailand and Vietnam, we were stunned to actually meet helpful people who weren’t trying to secretly sneak us onto a crowded mini-bus, but were just kindly pointing which one to go to. The local bus proved [...]

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Janelle on October 25th, 2008

We took the train from Saigon to Nha Trang today. Most tourists take buses, but the train is marginally faster…and had the interesting benefit of traveling mostly with locals. What I noticed pretty quickly is how familiar Vietnamese people are with one another. It’s nice, but also sometimes a bit surprising. I watched strangers offer [...]

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