After the fun we had climbing in Vang Vieng, we were eager to get in some more practice. When we heard about Thakhek, which is a big stop in the area for climbers, we added a couple of days to our time in Laos. And our friend Monika (who we met climbing) was also heading…

If you are planning to come to Laos, and looking at a stop in Vientiane, stop looking. There is very little to do there. The night market sells more knock off clothing, pjs, watches, etc… than anything else. There was very little food and souvenirs (even t-shirts) compared to other markets. Almost everyone we met…

As a kid, my favorite activity at Greene Family Camp (GFC) was climbing the Alpine Tower. A 50-foot, wooden structure with rocks, ladders and ropes to climb. But after seeing the movie Vertical Limit, I was sure I had been scared out of trying rock climbing on, you know, real rocks. That was until we…

We were so happy to get off the slow boat!! Though I will admit that it was much more pleasant than a stuffy, bumpy, winding bus ride. We grabbed a tuk-tuk and head to the center of town to find a hostel for the next 2 nights. On our way, two guys on a motorbike…

Tooooo geeeet to Luaaaaang Prabaaaang (Laaaooosss), we toooook the sloooooow boaaaaaat. (We heard the speed boat was uncomfortable and dangerous. Don’t do it.) The sloooooow boaaaaaat took twooooo daaaaays with a quick stop in Chiang Khong to cross the border, and an overnight in Pak Beng. It was ssooooo sloooowww that wee leeearrnneed  tooo speeaaak…

We spent about a week longer in Thailand than planned, so we decided to make a quick stop in Chiang Rai on our way to Laos. We had one full day and a small to-do list which made for a relaxing morning. Our first stop was to the White Temple. We’d heard from some that…

NOTICE: Please do not share this post due to certain sensitives we must respect. Thank you. Because of some people we met during our time in Thailand, we stumbled in to a second volunteer opportunity. This time, we would be working with moon bears and monkeys. We were thrilled! Every day while we were on the…

Our week with the elephants was one of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip – and it was even more amazing than we had hoped! As we mentioned before, we joined Elephant Nature Park (ENP) for their Journey 2 Freedom (J2F) project because it offered not only lots of up…

As you very likely know, elephant interaction tours are a big thing in Thailand and all over Southeast Asia. What you may not realize is how bad many of these programs are for the elephants, and how horrible the training is for many of them. This first elephant post is going to be a bit…

More. Curvy. Roads. *sigh* Once again the road trip was a pretty rough. This one was only a little more than an hour long, but everyone was turning a little green. (We likely would have both been sick if it had lasted 5 more minutes.) When we were freed from the minibus, two others (Helen…

One of our favorite ways to find places to go is to ask other people we meet along the way. And Pai was easily the most recommended places. We heard it was beautiful, chill and a bit of a hippie heaven. Luckily it was much easier to get there than Chiang Mai. (Our hotel helped…