So Far

This is going to be the most rushed post ive made so far but bare with me as I haven't had much time on computers and everything tends to sound a bit like rambling these days.

Here is my attempt at a very brief recap of my time so far:

After many delays including 7 hours stuck in the beijing airport I finally made it to Bangkok where I spent only one night before getting another flight to Hanoi. The flight was fine, got off the plane at midnight to a dark and busy street with no idea where to find a place to sleep, heavy backpack and humid hot air that made me dread the coming day when the sun was actually out.

Spent about two or three nights in hanoi roaming the city, people watching, met several people that walked around with me and indulged my growing fondness for unusual street food and creepy crawlies on sticks.

Sidenote: Food eaten so far:
Chicken embryo on a stick
frog on a stick
dog (yeah, yeah i know)
shot of centepede lao whisky

had the chance eat snake but passed. didn't feel like taking a shot of vodka with a still beating heart in it, washed down with a shot of blood, then an eight course meal of cobra.

After Hanoi I traveled north about 9 hours to a town called sapa with a guy named dave from australia. He somehow roped me into climbing the highest peak of vietnam called fansipan peak at 3,143 meters. I never actually got a look at the peak as it was stuck high above the clouds. We hiked 8 hours, camped in the mountain then woke and continued to the peak the next day. It was the hardest thing ive ever done and my knees didn't work right for days after, but it was an amazing experience. We also got motorbikes and ran around the mountains the next day.

Stayed in sapa about 5 days then headed back to hanoi to catch the 24 hour bus to Vientienne, Laos. Uncomfortable but it wasn't too bad. Had a few issues at the border involving my passport and what the border police thought would be a hilarious joke of "pretend we aren't letting her through and shove the passport in a drawer and lock it so she thinks she can't leave the country after a 24 hour bus ride, no food and little sleep." HILARIOUS.

Phew. told you this is a rant.

So, now in Laos I spend a couple days in the capital city looking a temples, met a couple of monks who walked around with me telling me about laos and practicing their English. Basically, Im waiting around for Alex (carries fiance) and Paddy (alexs friend from korea) to meet me before heading off to travel around.

In the course of a week with the boys:
went to Buddah park on motorbikes
ate lots of food
enjoyed BeerLao
went to some museums (discovered laos was the most heavily bombed country in the world- 1 bomb every 8 minutes,24 hours a day for 3 years.)
decided motorcycles are too much fun and rented four and drove to vang vieng for four days, went tubing on the mekong river...so much more I can't get into right now.

So today, said a painful goodbye to the boys and am now off to luang prabang (10 hour bus ride tomorrow) for some more solo travels. Im exhausted, traveling is hard work...but ive never had more fun or felt as happy in my life.

SOrry for the rambles but I thought id do a horrible job of summing things up so you guys at least have an idea of what ive been up to.