Christmas in Laos (who woulda thought)

Laos....what can I say about Laos!  I think Luang Prabang might be one of my favorite little cities.  They have amazing restuarant both Western and Lao dishes.  There are outdoor adventure to be enjoyed whenever you want.  Beautifully breath taking waterfalls, (also breath taking when you jump in to the pritine blue water).

We spent 7 days in Laos including travel.  Christmas  fell in the middle.  A few drinks on Christmas Eve along with some dancing, followed by a nice quiet xmas day.

Without a doubt our favorite day was our second to last one.  All of the pictures below our from that day!

Everything fell into place that day.  The Weather was amazing, the experiences were just what we were hoping for and more.

Asian Elephants weigh about 2 tons on average which is about 5 to 6 tons less then the average African Elephant. I think I am good on my Asian Friend!


Our day began with an hour walk on the out skirts of the Elephant.  The walk would have taken us about 15 to 20 minutes.  But Elephants stop about every 30 seconds to a 1 to eat OR "dispose of what they have eaten".

Afterwards we watch friends take the elephants for a bath in the river. Then we ourselves gave her a bath.  As you can tell bathes our for the amusement of the Mahouts as they watch the westerns fall off the giant mammal when she goes under

Nate was on the Elephant with me....if you look very closely you can see the top of his head as he "takes a bath" too!

Then off we went to are second waterfall to visit and go on an hour zip line course through the jungle!  (hint:  this was Nate's favorite part")

I don't think either of us believed our guide when he said he was hooking both of us together on this line!
Conversation
Guide:  "You go together this time"
Nate: " Sure....w wa wait WHAT!"
Guide: " Yay yay it ok"

We made it hung out in the waterfall for a while and then finished our wonderful and tiring day put the Elephants to bed in the Jungles of Laos!'

Next pics to come from the "Land Downunder"

Being Girly!

Ok so it has been a while since I posted to this blog.  Thought it was time.  Things have been going really well here.  I have been traveling alot and decided that I need to get some pictures up.    This past month I had 3 weeks off for the Christmas holiday.  I did 3 short trips: first to Hoi an, then christmas in Laos and New Years in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon).  Everything was fun a different.  Each trip offered different things.  I am going to split the trips into a few blogs because of the pictures.  But they were all fun in different ways.  Hoi an was a girls weekend,  Laos was a couples and Ho Chi Minh was back to single traveling getting out and around. 

 So Hoi an is in the middle section of Vietnam on the coast.  It is known as Tailor central.  There over 500 tailor in this small town and every shop is tailors, tailors, tailors!  If you every go there, give yourself a day to walk (shop) around and find the best prices.  Also try a few stores and buy 1 or two things at each place.  They get a bit over whelmed if you give them to many items at just one store.  I had a few dresses and shorts made.  But my favorites were black boot made just to fit me for $50.  They are in the top picture.  Also my new peacoat jacket sized just for me!

Girls week was great we went to Ba Na to take the cable car up the the mountain to see the giant marble Budha.  It was pouring, windy and quite cold on the top of the mountain.  But I am so glad to have that experience.

 
 Our favorite restuarant was this little place right across the street from our hotel.  The family was incredibly nice we played with the baby boy during dinner, they even gave us a cooking lesson on how to make our favorite dishes "Lotus Salas"  Amazingly good.

 I would write more but I need to go meet my friend Chrissy's new addition to the family, Marko!  Picture of him soon as well...