It's always great to get back to Bangkok. It's up on there on my list of favorite cities. Friday night I went back to my favorite theater and watched the new Bond film. Good movie.

The Lao Airlines flight was actually quite nice. The plane was relatively new and the service was great. I wouldn't hesitate to fly them again. They even served us lunch on the 1:45 long flight.

The bottom picture shows the Mekong River just south of Luang Prabang.

Banana Pancakes



1. Flatten ball of dough with cool wrist flicking action.
2. Fill with banana slices and fold up
3. Cook until golden brown and crispy
4. Cut into small squares, cover with sweetened condensed milk (or chocolate), provide toothpick for eating, and serve
(step 4 not pictured)

Wow... I'm really going to miss Thanksgiving this year.

There aren't any ping pong shows in Luang Prabang, which means the Tuk-Tuk drivers get pretty bored. Instead they harass you with offers of taking you to a cave or waterfall. Finally there was an offer worth taking. $3 round trip brought me to this waterfall. The name escapes me but every Tuk-Tuk driver will know what you are talking about.

Lindsay said I haven't been putting up any pictures of myself lately so I was sure to get some today. It was strange asking somebody to take a picture of me after I jumped in the water, but it really paid off... as you can tell.

BTW- did you know that the German flag is a speedo? They seem to be the only people wearing them and everybody seems to talk about it.

I visited what was supposedly a refuge for abandoned Asiatic Black Bear cubs. As well as a refuge for one female tiger. It's tough to determine if this refuge is actually just a tourist trap, but the animals certainly were interesting to look at. These photos really don't do the size of the tiger justice. (should have used manual focus... shooting through the fence complicates things for auto)

1 bug free bed in Luang Prabang = $9 per night (and I shopped around)

The night market in Luang Prabang is so quiet I found myself whispering to the 12 year old negotiators.

If you haven't checked out Wikipedia you better. It's the most up to date Encyclopedia in the world as evidenced by one of its latest entries... Head to Wikipedia and search for John Harrington. Scroll down to the "See Also" section and read the 2nd entry.

traveling in this part of the world has helped me understand the value of this free content encyclopedia. A constantly updated resource that will soon be accessible for free by almost anybody on the planet. With the distribution of the $100 laptop in countries like Thailand and Cambodia, children will have free access to sites like Wikipedia and free textbook projects aimed to create free content open-source textbooks that will rival any $150 textbook. And by using Linux as the laptop's operating system (the One Laptop Per Child organization declined an offer to use Apple OSX for free) the children will be able to customize and create their own software and operating systems.

The stunningly modern local office of Lao Air, which I will be flying to Bangkok on Friday. (note: sarcasm)

This flight will be my 3rd regional flight. (1. Saigon-Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines 2. Hanoi-Bangkok on Asia Air 3. Luang Prabang-Bangkok on Lao Air)

Vietnam Airlines was very nice and up to the standards I'm used to. Asia Air was a pretty bad experience as the staff blatantly lied to us about the departure time several times (as they knew the incoming flight had yet to take off- they still told us our flight was leaving shortly- a common problem I later found out)

I'm curious to see how the Air Lao experience is.

A Wat in Luang Prabang, Laos. I have seen countless Wats (aka Temples) all over SE Asia, however, I have yet to actually step inside any. (well, with the exception of Angkor Wat)

I told some guys about my lack of Wat visits yesterday and they said, "What the hell have you been doing". Their surprise reminded me of how much I've been able to see and experience by avoiding the traditional tourist trails in each city I visit. Mostly I've spent my days eating at markets, street stalls, and food courts. I'm certainly not opposed to visiting Wats, I just haven't gotten around to it.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang is an UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Laos. I arrived here after a 6 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng. Unfortunately this region of the world is quite hazy this time of the year as evidenced by my photographs. (Northern Vietnam was the same)

This photograph shows the bank of the Nam Khan River which meets the Mekong in Luang Prabang.


View of the Mekong River from a temple that sits on Phousy Mountain in the center of "Old Luang Prabang". It is divided by the Mekong and the Nam Khan River.


A view from the Phousy Mountain Temple looking at the Nam Khan River.

Vang Vieng is a strange town midway between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Laos. Surrounded by stunning limestone peaks, it is home to a strip of bars and restaurants running a constant loop of the television series, "Friends". The bars offer "Happy" shakes with choice of fruit and illicit drug. I decided to skip my usual banana shake as the language barrier could easily result in a wrong order. I had some dinner, beer Lao, and watched 6 episodes of Friends.

I took the Thailand Railway from Bangkok to Nong Khai overnight on November 10th. My 2nd class A/C seat folds out into a flat bed with privacy curtains and a reading light. This was my 4th overnight trip in 2nd class. (I hope to try 1st class before I go home in December)

The 12 hour journey landed me in Nong Khai around 8:30 am where I took a tuk-tuk to the Laos Border. After paying a $36 Visa fee and borrowing a passport photo from a Dutchman (I forgot to bring one of my own) I walked into Laos. (The Laos immigration photo didn't seem to notice the photograph was of a light-brown long haired man.

Thai-sized Dairy Queen Blizzard. They have Oreo, Coffee Oreo, and Kit-Kat. Aaron got the Coffee Oreo.

Aaron eating a delicious unknown substance on the other side of a fish tank in the Paragon Food Court.

Crispy Crab Omelet

We went to the nicest movie theater in the world... based on my experiences. Bangkok is known for its high tech movie theaters and the Siam Paragon may be among the nicest. Seating is assigned and there are several types to choose from. Leather massage chairs, private viewing boxes, and luxury lounges are all offered. Going to the movies here appears to be a big deal. About $4 gets you the lowest level of seating with a reclining leather seat and large armrests. $1 buys a Coke light in a can.

After the movie you can head downstairs to buy a Ferrari, Lamborghini, then maybe some Jimmy Choo shoes, and a Versace suit. (all real brands and all real prices) And if the Paragon doesn't have what you are after there are several more shopping centers just like this within walking distance with every designer shop you could imagine. And if you don't have $30,000 to spend on a watch you can walk outside and buy a nice copy for $20.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Halong Bay is an UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Vietnam. We desperately wanted to visit alone, without taking a packaged tour, however that seemed to be impossible. We signed up for a packaged 2-day 1 night trip aboard a "Junk" boat. The tour operators promised a max of 16 people, hours of kayaking, swimming, and great food. Our boat had about 30 people the first day (22 overnight), 20 minutes of kayaking (before breakfast on day 2), 20 minutes of swimming (day 2), and terrible food. The bay was beautiful but it was hard to get passed the tour we were on. The bay is completely filled with tourist boats (like ours) and the caves we visited were disappointing.



At night we docked in a bay for dinner and some rest. There isn't much to do on the boat so most people go to bed pretty early. This may be the only place in Vietnam where you can't hear a car horn.


Surprisingly our boat was quite nice and our cabin had 2 bed, a bathroom, and hot water.

The docking process is a "free-for-all" and as a result all of the boats are pretty banged up. The most entertaining part of the tour was watching the boats crash into eachother. Our boat lost a few boards and we watched another boat sink in the middle of the bay. When we returned to the dock we saw another sunken "Junk" boat (that's really what they are called) sticking up out of the water.

I guess that lighting a cave with colored lights and filling once tranquil ponds with electronic water fountains kind of takes you out of the natural element and makes you feel like you are in a crappy version of Disneyland. The caves were beautiful but because of what has been done to them I was thoroughly unimpressed.