The Denouement of Our Excursion

In 3 hours we get on a train back to Yinchuan. Fortunately classes don't start for another 10 days. This was definitely the kind of vacation we need a vacation after.

After we left Vientiane we took a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad bus up to Luang Prabang. We got a room close to the Mekong River and basically played cards for 2 days. It was nice.
From Luang Prabang we took a GORGEOUS ride up the Nam K-something river on a long boat. There were tons of children playing on the shore or on the rocks in the middle of the river. They would all wave enthusiastically, and most of them were naked. It was pretty hilarious. Some of the kids would run along the shore with the boat as long as they could, or do flips and jumps when they saw us watching. It was easily my favorite part of Laos. The limestone cliffs, mountains, river side gardens, rapids (easily avoidable), vegetation in general, and mostly the children made for a pretty spectacular 8 hours.

When we arrived in Nong Khiew on the long boat we got to shore and saw two small villages connected by a long bridge and totally surrounded by mountains and cliffs. It was the stuff of movies. It was by far the most beautiful scenery in any town we stayed our whole trip. There was not much to see or do, but just being among the scenery was pretty neat.

The next morning we took a tuk tuk to a small town about 30km away, where there was supposed to be a bus to the China border. There was not. So, we hitchhiked in a pick up truck with a caravan of Chinese photography club members. It turned out they were guys from all over China who were just friends by their association with this photography group. One guy was apparently in charge of all of the roads in the Yunnan province, so we let him pay for lunch. They brought us all the way to the border where we hopped on a bus that was on its way through to Kunming. It all worked out fantastically. We've had to work a whole lot harder to get from point A to B on this trip, so we appreciated how everything fell into place.

We arrived in Kunming by bus around 6am and bought train tickets to Xi'an for that evening. We couldn't get train tickets to Yinchuan until the 12th so we spent the last 2 nights here finishing our souvenir shopping, with the exception of the Woller men (Dave included)... who have me stumped. Suggestions welcome.

We'll be in Yinchuan tomorrow. It's been a long, fast, slow, crazy, exhausting, fun, enlightening 5 and a half weeks.

Vientiane, Laos: Home of BeerLao

We are currently in Vientiane the capitol of Laos, but more importantly (to me) the home of BeerLao. Most people have never heard of BeerLao but it is widely accepted (by me) to be the best beer in Asia. It's better than Tsing Tao (Qing Dao, China), Tiger (Singapore), and every Japanese beer I have ever had (Asahi, Soporo, etc.) To attest to the quality of this beer, in 2002 Carlsberg bought a 25% share of BeerLao. Carlsberg experts were brought in to "improve" the beer but but were surprised to find that BeerLao consistently won blind taste tests against foreign beers. [1]

Yesterday I was able to visit the Beerlao Brewery. I got a free sample (two, really, since Jes always gives hers to me and that alone is reason to be married) and went on the 15 minute tour of the brewery. We were only walked through the bottling and packaging area and only got to see the outside of the building where the brewing actually takes place. However this tour was unlike any other brewery tour I have ever been on and I've been on a few (Coors, Miller, Anheiser Busch, Schells). For this tour we were able to walk through the actual factory. Nothing was behind glass. There was no special visitor walkway. In fact, I could have picked a bottle right off the conveyor belt. I was a cool experience but sadly no photos were allowed inside.

BeerLao is available in some parts of the U.S. but I have never seen it anywhere but Asia. If you do happen to see it, give it a try. I would prefer it to any macrobrew in the U.S. any day.

There are more interesting things to say about BeerLao and Vientiane for that matter but its time for supper and undoubtedly another cool refreshing BeerLao. [2]



[1] Source: Williams, China & et al. Lonely Planet: Southeast Asia. 12th Ed. 2004.
[2] This has not been paid for by the PDR of Lao, Beerlao, or its affiliates.

We Have 5 Different Currencies Currently

So we're in Laos now...

I kind of skimmed over Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It was really quite fascinating. We went for sunset one night and then woke up for sunrise the next. Unfortunately we accidentally set the alarm clock for 4am China time to be at our tuk tuk by 5am, and therefore sat an extra hour out on the street. Other than that, it was pretty awesome.

The next day we went out to our tuk tuk driver's home out in the Cambodian country a little bit. He has twin 3 year olds, a 4 year old, and a 12-year old girl who teaches English to 6 students in the neighborhood aged 3-8. His kids are beautiful, but picking up the little kids and playing with them sure made us miss a few kids back home.

We got in a shared taxi to the border of Cambodia/Thailand where we hitchhiked in the back of two pick up trucks to a bigger city in Thailand. Eventually we got on 2 more buses to the Laos border, and stayed in Laos for the night near the bus station. (3 countries in less than 12 hours) In the morning we got an early bus to the 4,000 Islands along the Mekong River near Si Phan Don and slept in a bungalow on Don Khon Island. We rented bicycles for the rest of that day and saw a really great waterfall. We climbed down inside and went swimming a bit. We were on our way to another beach and they were really old bikes with no brakes... and I fell off my bike. I'm an adult and I fell off my bicycle. So... I feel like a moron. A very nice pregnant lady helped me clean up afterwards though.

After that we went to the southern part of the Island and we took a long boat with one of the locals our to see the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins. There are apparently only about a hundred or so left, and this area in Laos is their last habitat. They were a little ways away, but we did see quite a few. It was pretty cool.

We took a long boat off the island and got a bus back to Pakse, the big city where most buses go through. Tonight we're headed to the capital city. Should be fun.

We're doing so much so fast. The boys are having a great time going, going, going. Me... I'm tired. I'm loving this trip, but I wish we could stay somewhere more than 1 or 2 nights and just rest.

One month down, about 2 weeks to go.

We miss you all... a lot!