Log/Pic 11 Laos

So let me start by saying, I love Laos. After the hustle, pollution, pace, and hassle of the previous countries, at least in most parts of them, when we arrived in Laos, it just all came to a complete halt, and then there was silence. Starting from the passport man at the airport, the people were so very nice.

We arrived in the capital, Vientien, and got a place that looks over the Mekong River (shown above). We spent like a week here enjoying maybe one sight per day, talking to people and enjoying the pace and view.
Next we went about four hours north to Vang Vieng. As soon as we pulled in I through my bags on the bed of the guest house-which appropriately shared the name of Pundas girlfriend. I immediately rented a bike for $1.oo per day, and drove the six km to an organic farm I had read about in Lonely Planet. A couple hours later Iwas teaching English to 30 kids age 5-12. How cool is that? After they left I had another class of 30, 13-20 year olds (although there was one woman age 21 and a 30 year old guy). After the first couple of days the numbers in the first class rose to as many as 49 youngsters including a couple of children who could not have been more than three. It didn't matter though because they WANTED to learn-a concept I was unfamiliar with.

The organic farm was a great place, run by Mr. Thi (t), and his wife. These were two awesome people who spend their day teaching any kid or adult that comes along from the nearby villages, working and running the farm and resturaunt, and planning and building a library, community center and a youth center for the villages whose residence can not make it to the school in town. This photo above is the Nam Song River that runs along the farm. I went tubing down it three times. It's a three to six hour trip depending on how many caves along the way you explore and how many places you stop to get Beer Lao.

This picture is from the walk down the dirt road to get to the farm.

This was the walk on the path through the village up to the community center. The kids would see me coming and know there would be a class that night. They greeted me with much enthusiasm. This may have been the best part of my day.
Here I am teaching the young group. The girl standing is my appointed translator. She spoke very good English and although she was very shy at first, like many of the Laosian girls, she was very proud of her position. Notice the sweat on my shirt. This was the beginning of class and I was usually saturated by the end. Damn, does my ass look big!
These are the older kids. Each night after class we played Rattonball-a local game played like Hacky sac, but with a wicker ball. This group comes from three surrounding villages and many did not know each other. We had a dance on my last night there-they do now!
I had a moped for two weeks to get back and forth to classes. During the day I visited the other villages to the north and south of Vang Vieng. I also would check out the caves in the area. The above photo was taken on the way to the caves.
Some caves we could visit from our tubing trip. This was either None (sleeping) cave, or Lom (windy) cave. This is Peter and Linda from Holland. A great couple, very fun. I just added another destination to my trip!
This is the young class outside. We usually started outside to play learning games-and because it was so hot inside.
This is the big class outside. I loved Vang Vieng in case you hadn't caught that. From here I extended my visa and Kevin went north without me. He is then going to Hong Kong to see his future wife, and I am now back in the capital to get a Myanmar visa and fly out from here.

Today I was walking to this art gallery and I cut through a temple. These three monks called me over and asked me the typical questions: "where are you from, what is your name, where are you going? I sit on the bench with them and play a game of checkers-of course they are using twigs and rocks. One monk asks me to help him understand a grammar problem he is having and the next thing I know he has his work books out. Three hours pass and we are now teacher and nine monk students. It was a hoot. Before I left I drained them for monk information and was very happy with the trade.

I walked by the gallery and it had now closed. I went back to my room, got the Skip-Bo cards and returned to the monk-filled bench. They were all thrilled to learn this game. We ate some grape-like things from the tree we were under and practiced counting numbers in English as we played this simple game. What an experience. I love Lao.

I miss you all. Blog ya soon. Love Larry

Log/Pic 10 India

So India was quite the experience. The beeping of the horns was the same but the pollution, population and poverty were much more. However, when we were visiting the sites, aside from the locals who never quit begging and trying to sell us their wares or services (or charge us for some service they provided without us knowing like guarding our shoes when we entered a mosque), we came in contact with many Indian travelers. They were all so friendly and dressed in clean, vibrant colors.

They would usually begin communication with us by pointing us out to their children and telling them to say hi. When Punda and I would respond, the questions would start and we sometimes spent five to ten minutes talking to this family. This happened so much at certain palaces or tombs that we would actually have to keep walking sometimes after saying hi because we would not be able to see what we came to see.

These meetings were priceless though. Thefamilies would always want us to take a picture of them after. I don't know if its because they think we as Americans like to take pictures, or if it was something to remember the brief meeting. Sometimes people would just stand right in front of us. Our driver said that some had not seen a white man. A "namaste" would break the ice. Sometimes it took them a minute to snap out of their trance. A smile was often the only communication, possibly the only mutual understanding, and always the only thing needed.

The first photo is Ghandi's tomb located in Delhi. It is in a nice green park with plenty of trees and flowers, a total contrast to the rest of the city. The flame is always burning and a crow stood guard the entire time we were there.
This is a mosque we visited. It was my first. I had to leave my shoes at the front and wear a dress because my legs were exposed. This was not the first time I wore a dress, I think it was the 4th time, 5th if you count the mini-skirt-but lets not go there.

Here is the famous lotus building in Delhi, often compared to the opera house in Sydney, Australia. We walked through and there was nothing to see but a bunch of chairs which I assumed many people pray for long periods of time. The end. On way to Agra, we stopped at Akbars tomb-they really honor the dead!

The famous Taj Mahal in Agra, India as seen through the archway.

The Taj Mahal is very impressive. This is early morning but there would be no sunrise during monsoon season I'm told. After a couple of hours here, it did rain. I was glad we came early. The tomb of the man who built it and the woman he built it for, are both inside. There is a mosque to the left and a guest house to the right (not seen in this photo).
This is me holding a cobra after the cobra taming guy pissed him off with his trumpet thing. It's actually that funny hat that pisses the snake off and this guy wasn't wearing one, so I was fine.
Some residents from Bombay that we befriended at some castle in Jaipur, India. Note the black makeup under the babies eyes-wild!
Riding a camel in Pushkar, India, a cool little town built around a lake. We walked through town and into the desert passing a little desert village.

This is Mother Theresa's tomb in Calcutta. We spent this day visiting the home for nuns of "missions for charities" and Mother Theresa's orphanage. There was approximately 300 kids there. It was very sad, yet not. Although there were so many children there, many crippled or diseased, all previously homeless, we saw so much of that on the street that I felt in comparison, these kids were in great hands. This was a very moving place.

"Peace begins with a smile," Mother Theresa

Log/Pic 9 Tibet

So this first picture is left over from Nepal. It is two of the six rhinos we saw while riding the elephant through the jungle-an amazing experience. One of the rhinos was bathing in a mud hole.
This is the famous Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It holds the tombs of the 5th through the 9th Dali Lama. Each is covered in gold and precious stones-very impressive. This, like many of the monastaries and temples we visited in Tibet, housed many monks. At one place, we witnessed monks having an intense ceramonial test that lasted 12 hours. My most memorable experience was when two very old monks stood up to take my hand after I said "tashi delet" (hello) to them. As they grasped my hand and said a few words i did not understand, they began to smile and pull at the hair on my arms-priceless!

This is Mt. Everest (for photo see website).We saw some great views of it and made it to the lodge (shack) that house people who wish to climb to base camp. This was the intention of Punda and myself, but I'm embarassed to say that altitude sickness kicked my ass. It was 4950 meters (you do the math). On the way up from China/Nepal border we had reached altitudes of up to 17.000 feet (no need to do the math). I had a pounding headache for at least three days, could not eat, and towards the end I could not take a deep breath-very scary. We both admitted we could not climb up the last 1000 feet to base camp. I'm already over it-it would have been nice though.
Before Lhasa, we had to go seven days across Tibet. We drove a jeep with our driver Teshi and our guide Tensing. We drove from Katmandu and these are some of the things we saw. Tibetan people were spotted in the middle of nowhere, many miles from any sign of a village.
A Tibetan boy with the traditional runny nose. As an adult this boy will advance to coughing up a lung biscuit and spitting it wherever he sees fit.
Nothing comes between a man and his yak. We had many opportunities to take these pictures as the jeep broke down 11 times- one for each day we were in Tibet).
This is one of the many villages we passed on the week-long drive. The houses were made of mud and dung. Many times we would see them mixing and making these bricks and laying them out to dry.
Before I arrived in Tibet I decided I wanted to ride on a yak. At a pass around 15,000 feet, I got my chance. Here is me bonding with the yak before I attempt to mount it-always a good idea. Of course I had to find out from the nice old Tibetan man how much yuan he was going to charge me!
The majority of this drive was dirty, bumpy, rough and filled with potholes. My mouth was full of dust and I kept a headache, stayed dizzy with chills or fever. However, we did see some great views-especially towards the end.

Here are some Tibetan children in Tingri, one of the small towns we stayed in along the way. The guest house smelled so bad we could not sleep. The hole for a bathroom that everyone shared was so disgusting that others had thrown up in it. Punda and I made our own bathroom out back. I don't think anyone would notice. One note about the kids in Tibet, at least the very young ones; their pants have slits in them like crotchless panties. I will try to send a photo next time. I know you can't wait.

I loved Nepal and all the people, especially in Lhasa. Punda and I felt like celebrities. We got stares from everyone and was often invited to sit down just so people could try and either talk to us or more often, just look at us-and much of the time laugh. So many people would rub my arms, legs, and often my beard-men, women and of course the children.

The first night in china we did not make it through the three check points in time and had to stay in this hotel by the border just over the Frienship Bridge. The local T.V. station was there doing some international thing on tourism and the crew asked if we would roll play. Thats two countries we are famous in!

When leaving china this morning, I was pulled to the side by security because he spotted a pair of scissors in my carry on through the x-ray machine. I had bought them a couple days prior to cut the mustache hairs from growing from my lip into my mouth. I was really shitting when he found my knife that I usually put in my bag to check. Not only did they not tackle me and throw me in a Chines jail, the guard escorted me back to where you check the bags to allow me to put it in mine. I didn't make it and had to donate it, but it was a small price to pay.

Log/Pic 8 Nepal

So Punda and I went canoeing in Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal. This is me bathing with an elephant in the river which we saw a crocodile the previous night.

Huts made of mud and dung Visiting a Nepalese village just outside Chitwan N.P. by ox cart.

These photos I took while canoeing down a river within the park.

This photo I took while hiking around the grasslands looking for rhinos.

Catching a glimpse of some monks at Monkey Temple in Katmandu.

Chitwan N.P.

A monkey at Monkey Temple.

This photo is from the elephant breeding ground in Chitwan.

Log/ Pics 7 Hanoi/Halong Bay, Vietnam

So we arrived in Hanoi and things appeared to be the same as Saigon-busy, polluted, horns, hassling to buy goods or service. I needed to maybe get away from the city, atleast for awhile. We went to Halong Bay about three-four hours outside of Hanoi. We boarded an old wooden boat with a few cabins below deck, a main deck with some tables for eating or playing cards, and a top deck where I spent 90% of the time enjoying the view of the bay. There were a lot of high rock limestone faces, most covered in green. I slept on the upper deck the first night after cruising for several hours and swimming off a beach.

The next day I went on an intense thre-hour hike up a steep hill along sharp limestone rocks that caused several injuries. It was a beautiful view from atop this mountain, but I think everyone was glad to be done and have suffered no fatalities.

We then cruised the bay and kayaked around Monkey Island. We watched the monkeys from the beach and then from our kayaks. We witnessed them play around the rocks and even in the water. These monkeys were actually going underwater and swimming in the salt water-doggy paddle I believe. I couldn't believe it. We watched them jump off the rocks into the ocean, mate like...monkeys, and even watch them surround some guy who was trying to get a picture. The monkey eventually bit him on the leg. We later talked to the guy and checked out his gash. Anyone know the symptoms of rabies?

We stayed that night at a hotel on Cat Ba Island. A quaint little island with a lot less hassel and many nice people (except for the cute 8 year old who told me to F--- off and that I was going to die because I would not buy a post card from her. But I guess you can get that anywhere huh?

The best thing about this three day excursion was the awesome group we hung with. Sweeden, Canada, Singapore, Maylasia, Switzerland, New Zealand, England and even Philly and Missourri were all represented for some good talks, cards, dining, drinking and just plain getting goofy.