Sorry for the long interval between updates people!

After we left Ko Phang Nan, we decided to chance it and go down to Phuket, which is SUPPOSED to be nice this time of year. the Weather was indeed crap, so we flew all the way up north to Chiang Mai. We LOVED Chiang Mai. There was a huge festival on where people were lighting candles and floating them down the river (our version of the Canal), setting off fireworks like crazy, and floating up these huge lanterns everyone asscociates with Asian festivals...followed by a five day party/parade. The people in Chiang Mai were so friendly, accomadating, and the travellers here are not so "drunken/retarded/american".

Our second day in Chian Mai we took a Trekking tour. They picked us up and drove us out into a national park in the north, where we rode Elephants in for about 1.5 hours into the forrest until we hit a big river. then we had to take a zip-line accross the river to the other side for lunch...then we started hiking. It was a very steep/long hike through beautiful/thick jungle to the top of a mountain where there is a well-preserved hill tribe that welcomes vistors. We the group of us (12 people) slept together on the floor after a huge meal with the family/locals. The next morning we hiked down to an awsome waterfall that we used to wake up (FREEZING), and then hiked further down to where many rivers met. There we white water rafted a few km, and then got on some fairly primitive bamboo rafts and floated a few more km to our last meal on the trek.

We got back to Chiang Mai and stuck together for a night of eating/drinking the best offered in Chiang mai at a huge bar with two bands playing in different ends, while we ate dinner on the river. was amazing.

Reebs and I then started making our way north towards Laos (also known as Lao here). We took a bus from Chian Mai to Chiang Rai where our connecting bus was supposed to take us further north to Chiang Khong. Unfortunatly we were 10 min late and missed the bus. So instead we hired a Tuk Tuk to take us 300 km north at 5:30 pm. Reebs and I didn't realize how much further north we were, and 2.5 hours into the 4.0 hour drive we were freezing our asses off as he drove through some very sketchy short cuts almost flipping us many times!

We finally made it to Chiang khong ate/showered/slept, and then took the boat accross to Lao, where we boared a slow boat! The fast boat sounded tempting, twice as fast, but is known to KILL a tourist a week on the Mekong river, so slow boat it was! It took two 8 hour days of hanging out on a boat filled with tourists. It was fun for sure, but we were glad to get off the boat by the end!

Now were' in Laos in Lurang Prubang. It's very cool here...it was once dominated by the French, and with strong Indian influences in the culture. so a typical meal: Green Curry done with potatoes, white-steamed rice and a beguette....with a bottle of BeerLao.

The people here are amazing, and it attracts a lot more tourists than I imagined. Lots of French toursists, who aren't so friendly, but lots of backpackers in our scenario who are all very welcoming.

Today we went up a huge set of Waterfalls with about 100 small tiers and about 4 large pools that were all aqua blue. At the very top of it all was the mother of all waterfalls we obviously had to hike to the top of...then went down, swam and I slept the rest of the afternoon while Reebs went biking around town.

Now you're up to date, and I must eat some more Indian food! TOOO GOOD HERE!

I'm missing home a bit, but the trip is getting better as time goes by. The further north I go the nicer the people. Tommorrow we leave for Veng Vieng, known as "backpacker's paradise" as well as known to be one of the best places to explore caves, or just float down their "lazy river" covered in bars/swings/ropes and pulleys.

I'm out for now, but will do my best to keep you all updated. Sorry if this is poorly written, but proof-reading is for people who are NOT on vacation!

-Jake

So here I sit in an internet cafe in Ko Phang Nan, a fairly quiet island in the gulf of Thailand. We took a 12 hour sleeper train from Bangkok to Surat Tani, 2 hour ferry to Ko Samui. We were there for all of 20 minutes, and decided it was too developed and commercial, and took the ferry to Ko Phang Nan. We immediatly took a taxi to the very north part of the island which was described in our guide book as "quiet but not too quiet". Sounded perfect for us. And it was! Unfortuatly it is the monsoon season here, which doesn't say much accept for high winds. The winds are actually very pleasant, but make the water a little choppy, and because of how fine the sand is, once the water gets stirred up, it stays stirred up. So snorkling/diving was out of the question. But we had a great time met lots of very relaxed people who never plan on going home and just sit around eating amazing food, drinking Thai wiskey and doing NOTHING!

We spent two days there, and then left the beach with a Reiner, a new friend we met, who is a Kite Surfer from Germany. His life is kitesurfing (surfing with a parachute on!), and has travelled the whole world doing it. He took us in his jeep (terrifying...these roads are the worst I've ever been on....2 foot deep ruts running the length of long turns...totally eroded areas) and we went to a place called Ko Ma. This place is very cool and I'd love to see it in the peak season when the water is calmer. It is two long beaches that come to a point, with a very long sand bar and an island poking out at the end. BEAUTIFUL! Reiner taught me how to use the kite a bit in the water which was some of the most fun I've ever had. I was litterally just flying around the over the ocean with no board...occassionally touching down but for the most part jsut skimming my ass accross the water. Later that night Reiner went out really far and lost his board ($2000 EUROS) and had to swim back with his kit ($4000 euros) all by himself, as Rebecca and I had already gone for dinner. We felt terreble to hear his news.

Today the weather is not so hot, so we're going back to mainland. Apparantly on both sides of Thailand the weather is rainy for the next week (says the forecast), so we've accepted that we won't get any diving in and are headed to the far north to Chang Mai & Pai. We then plan to go into Laos and take some lazy river tours and just float around for hours! We were really looking forward to Crabbi and Ko Phi Phi (aka James Bond Island) but the weather is jsut not on our side.

After Laos we are going to see how much time is left and maybe go to Ko Chang, an island in the eastern part of the gulf that is supposed to be a bit nicer this time of year.

We're off to catch the ferry back to mainland!

-jake