Delays, delays...
Alrighty, if you happen not to be ill... Beachbeachbeach!! But.. It's raining. Quite a lot. Let's go inside for a movie. Oh no, no electricity. Let's play some cards. Nope. A window-less room equals darkness.
And as we're speaking, we do neither appreciate very much that...:
* No boats go to or from the island. Which slightly ruins our plan, since our Thai Visa ran out yesterday. Bonus: The fine amount is times the number of day and there is still a long way to go.
* Food doesn't taste as good beyond locked doors and glass windows. Unreachable since shops and restaurants are shut because of the power cuts. At least we're hardly running out of water.
But there is always positive sides as well...:
* Our concerns about running low in cash (every single ATM closed) was not too necessary, since there is nowhere to use our Baht notes in the dark.
* I do like candles. Feels a bit like christmas.
But now... the power came back late last night after a couple of very dark days+nights stuck in the room. Fever is gone, ATMs are turned on again and all we're waiting for right now is a boat to take us to the mainland. Fingers crossed, we'll make it cross the border to Malaysia and be on Tiamon island within 24 hours!
You evil sun.
Imagine a new born kitten, just before it's lived enough days to open it's eyes properly, a bit swollen and the face part not entirely fully shaped yet.
Now, think about the Danish flag (or make it English, what you prefer), skip the cross and just mix the colours with your previously pictured cat face.
( 
)
...equals Luke. Do never rely on an innocent hammock nap in the Koh Phangan sun, unless you're one of those people who truly enjoy dipping your head into the frier machine. Same effect, and trust us, not worth it. Poor Luke, we DO feel sorry for you and here comes our official promise that we won't make any jokes about it. Yet. We'll wait a week.
Very very very painful news, and as a painful bill at the pharmacy.
Recipe: Healthy mixed fruit shake
Peel of and shred the skin from 1 Dragonfruit.
Add 1 apple. (Granny smith is to be preferred).
1 peach. Avoid the seed in the middle, you don't want any traces stuck between your teeth.
Complete the ingredient collection by the beach, as the purple grapes are more common down there.
Oranges are as known a good source of C vitamin. So lets go for one of these as well.
And oh, raspberries are my favourites!!
After adding another couple of grapes, use your kitchen blender for the best and healthiest fruit shake ever!
Vang Vieng - Kho Phangan, still alive
Just another train.
Resume: 4 days and 3 nights riding non-stop by trains, tuktuks, boats and I can't even count neither the amount of hours we spent or the amount of busses we killed them on in the passed week. What day is it? I didn't have a book, and believe me, 4 full days of window watching make you lose it.
An amazing reunion with our 4 Cairns girls+Chris!! (Less happy about all the facial hair that's now eventually getting dumped by both Zaid, Luke and Harry. But I guess I have to accept that it only said 1 month in the moustache/beard contract).
Sorry about all the whining... I'll make it up to you with a list of good things that come out from long time travelling:
* None of the bus drivers hit a dog this time.
* May not be the most practical way of travelling, but certenly the cheapest.
* Oh man, my passport is colourful now from crossing all those borders and stamp men. And I do like colourful.
* Even if it more likely was dog food we ate, they actually DID provide us with 1 lunch.
* Cows, temples, rivers and mountains are fun to watch. For the first hour.
Koh Phangan. Party on the beach/our front yard.
Hard work work
Yeh, and of course we got it. Personal details and previous resumes were not very important. Alina, Harry and Luke can now add Mojitobar, Vang Vieng, to their resumes.
It's a hard life we're living and the tubing bar work is extremely tireing. Besides, they should definitely give at least a little pay rise for all the risks you constantly put yourself through at work. I mean, being stuck in a tree during work hours was never mentioned in the task contract.
Harry on job trial. Alina on trial.
Boys on trial.
Now, lets retire and have some holiday. See you in a few hours, Vientiane!
Vang vieng, my favourite playground
Not that I didn't trust the driver in front of me on the motor bike. Cause I did, mr. Stamp. But, we are in Vang vieng, Laos, the city where you wouldn't be surprised to find a COW on your balcony or a dog in your shower, this circus town. And, I do NOT trust the roads here, the other drivers, the non-existing helmets or the road bridges made by wood and ROPES. So I saw it as a sign when the lady in the bike rental shop made it clear there was not enough bikes left for all of us. I happily excepted mr. Tuktuk's lift offer, destination: Blue lagoon.
The Blue lagoon = a very blue lagoon, surrounded by mountains, tropic sounds and FLIES.
Rumors had told us about massive caves above the spring. 4 muppets ignored every single WARNING-sign about the caves, by the steep mountain path, and found an entrance to what we thought was a cave. But nono, WRONG! It was a HUGE cave. I felt like the claustrophobic version of Gollum while climbing around between the rocks.
An echo from deep inside turned out not being the Ghost of the Buddha statue in the middle, but some well prepared guys with all their caving equipment. " Are you really going further in?! Where are your lanterns??? Maaaan, we've got one each and it's still crazy black dark in there. Whaaaaaat...?!?! ARE YOU BAREFOOT?!! Good luck guys... You are gonna slip and die in the darkness..."
I guess the signs knew what they were talking about then... We waved good bye to Buddha and the impressive rocky space around us and went back down to earth, where Zaid kept amazing us with his double back-flips into the water.
And by the way... Vang vieng is a play garden. That's what it is, a playground (not a YARD, Ziddle!!!). But, the toothpaste here is with a taste of salt and herbs, Alina not very happy. And, the men's deodorants are with a whitening effect, Harry (with bleached armpits heheh) not very happy.
SLOWSLOWSLOW boat
I'll tell you what... A slowboat is not as fast as it sounds, it's SLOWER. Spent 2 days on this beauty...
I blame the over-populated world for the noice that still goes on repeat in my ears. The boat was so crowded that the 7 square-centimeters each we received on the floor were NEXT TO the engine (/monster). I forgot what silence sounds like.
But within all these hours I managed to squize in several first time seen-experiences:
1. Floating body. Neither the sight or the smell of a dead woman is very pleasant. The colours of what was cruising down the river reminded me of the Swedish flag and the size of her legs, swollen up by dirty water, were more likely belonging to an elephant. Actually no, 2 elephants. Absolutely terrible. RIP, I wonder what happened to you, poor thing.
2. My new favourite car brand - Elephant. The habitants of the passed villages taking the riverside "road" to work. This vehicle is slightly bigger than a jeep, 4 wheel driven and gentle for the environment. These Asians do really think about everything.
3. They forgot how to spell the word "jetty" when they wrote the Laos ditctionary. Terrifying minutes climbing rocks and down the steep mountains, while balancing 35 kilos of luggage, to reach the boat. That's how we roll here. Definitely a mental near death-experience.
Lost
Happy shoppers on the way back from the market
I have absolutely no idea what day it is, if it's morning or evening, where we are or what kind of animal the 7 cm long creature on my desk is. It's got 2 tails though...? It's been a huge bunch of hours travelling already and I believe there is another 48 hours of constant rides left to go, by all sorts of vehicle and by both land and water, til we reach our destination #1 in Laos. I don't even know the name of the city, but they better make me a proper coffee when I get there.
Morning ride with my favourite tuktuk driver man.
I do know though, that a bus dropped us off at this guesthouse, in the middle of nowhere, about an hour ago. Apparently the people here are gonna help us out with the visas we need to cross the border to Laos. "Photos will be taken at 6.00 pm, dinner is served at 7!!!" Orders from the chubby man who checked and KEPT my passport. And he wants heaps of money from us too, that greedy thing.
Chiang Mai was a pretty place. We went to the most beautiful night-light market, had some monday session and french fries with the tigers in one of the 239846 temples around and somehow got a VIP table next to the ring at the Muai Thai boxing championship. The boxers had funny shorts.
Luke shared my opinion about the boxing dresscode and bought his own shorts.
