South East Asia so far

It has been a while since I have given a proper update. We have been in South East Asia for nearly two weeks now. The heat has been a welcome change from Scotland, but I have to admit that I really miss Scotland. I loved it!

Coming to South East Asia feels like starting over again. We were expecting this, but the excitement of figuring out an entirely new place has lost its luster and seems tedious at times. It probably doesn't help that we haven't been feeling the best. We spent our first two days in Bangkok in our room trying to sleep. Then, we both had lingering colds. Then, I lost my voice and I still have a wicked cough. Thankfully the cough is as far as my unwellness goes; I feel fine aside from that.

Bangkok. That was a bit of a blur. The main thing I remember from the few days we spent there (I think it was three nights) was the yummy pad thai we ate for every meal. I kid you not, we had Pad Thai for every.single.meal. And let me tell you, it was delicious. It was cheap, it was twenty feet from our hostel and it was yummy.

We headed north from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We were relieved to get out of Bangkok. We have learned that we aren't particularly fond of big big cities. We much prefer towns that at least have the feel of being much smaller than they are. Chiang Mai was less aggressiventhan Bangkok and for that we were thankful.

We didn't spend much time in the city. We ended up doing a three day trek the day after we arrived. I have no idea where we went, but we did have a view of the tallest mountain in Thailand while we walked. erik liked the trek more than I did. I would categorize it as a glorified walk as it certainly wasn't hiking. In my opinion, hiking requires sweating and being short of breath. You need breaks when you hike and I, for one, hate hiking every single step of the way. Yes, I hate the act of hiking, but I love love love everything else about it. We "hiked" for seven hours, in the sun, and nobody broke a sweat. That isn't hiking.

On our trek we also rode elephants and did some bamboo rafting. The rafting was surprisingly the highlight. It was peaceful and relaxing and lovely. I was disappointed with the elephant riding. It seemed... I just didn't really like it. We were told we were going elephant riding, but we didn't know who we were going with or how they treated their animals and I didn't like that. I also didn't like that all we did was climb up to a platform, walk in a circle on the elephants, and then climb back onto the platform and they left. I didn't even have a chance to take a picture! I know pictures aren't everything, but when am I ever going to ride an elephant again? Never, that's when. I think I had the romantic idea of interacting with the elephants a bit more/at all.

We were supposed to do cooking classes the day after the trek, but I woke up sounding like I smoked 40 packs of cigarettes every day of my life. I felt as terrible to so we rescheduled for the following day. Trekking was Erik's highlight, but our cooking class was definitely mine. I learned hoe very easy Thai food is to make. The only difficult part is finding the proper ingredients -- that will be a challenge. We made seven dishes (4 individually and 3 as a group) and they were all so delicious! Thai food is so yummy!!!

We headed east to Chiang Khong where we spent a day before crossing the border into Laos. We spent the last two days peacefully slow-boating down the Mekong to Luang Prabang and we are, again, without plans.

We never have hostels booked and honestly only have a very rough idea of where we want to go. We change pur minds frequently and fly by the seat of our pants. I haven't even read about Luang Prabang yet... We will have to do some exploring today.

Just yesterday we decided that we are cutting Vietnam out. I am a bit sad about this, but it is just too expensive. We would want to travel cross country and that would include either back-tracking or flying, both of which are expensive. So it is getting the axe. A some point you do need to make decisions based on money alone. I know this will probably be the only time we are ever in South East Asia, but that is just the way things go sometimes.

I think we are being hit with a bit of exhaustion right now. We are tired of always being on the go and always figuring out a new city, a new mode of transportation, and a new culture. It is exciting, but it gets tiring. Sometimes you just want to know and be known, on those days we go on dates. We sit in a cafe and journal, read or talk all day long and it is so refreshing. I think we just need to get our South East Asian groove on.

So, to leave this a bit more positively, we are very excited to explore Laos. We have been told that the north is particularly lovely and we have plans on heading there in the near future.

Much love.