Surpise trip to Krabi

What was long planned to be a trip to Rangoon to visit a friend turned out to be a very last minute trip to Krabi, Thailand.  Long story short:  we done goofed.  Though Alex had the diplomatic paperwork to get into Myanmar, I did not.  We were under the impression that visas were given on entry into the country but non-diplomats have to arrange ahead of time.  We were very upset and bummed about this. Fortunately, the airline, Air Asia, was very nice about it and said we they would honor our tickets for a future date.

After letting our friend know we weren't coming, we decided to take a trip anyway as the Myanmar trip was a planned birthday trip for Alex.

So, we ended up rolling up to the Air Asia ticket window, asked where they flew and randomly picked Krabi.  Pretty cool feeling to do something like that.   Here were the results:

Das Geburstagskind.

Low tide, out about 100 yards compared to higih tide.  This is the view during low tide right in front of the hotel beach.

Ma lady with the hotel in the background.

Double selfie. 

Sunset.  These pictures can't do it justice.

Like a mountain range filled with water.  Beautiful.

One of my favorite pictures ever.  Taken by Alex.  The middle one is actually two people hugging.  Must have been their honeymoon.  We have so many incredible pictures of them.  They happened to be silhouetted perfectly during the sunset. Probably should have offered to email them to them.  Will do if we run into them before we leave.

View from hotel pool.  Not bad for a last minute jag.

We rented a longboat for the day to check out a couple nearby islands.

Thai longboat.  Beautiful, rickety, awesome.  

Hong Island.

Photo Montage: A day in the life of Francis in Vientiane

Greetings Capitalists!  I was feeling a bit bored recently and decided it was high time to update the blog again.  Since the last update, I've gotten Dengue, had tons of schoolwork to do and had my parents visit.  I will have blog updates shortly both Dengue and my parents visit.  I assume there is little interest in seeing pictures of me studying.  For now, a look at a day in the life of Francis in Vientiane.

Morning begins.  Standard wares on bed: laptop and Cognitive Psychology book with some withered palm trees outside the window as we're nearing the end of dry season.  

First sight out of the bedroom:  my beautiful wife.  Likely catching up on celebrity gossip on People.com

Head downstairs and greeted by Mit, our Mae Bon.  She is pretty much the sweetest person there is.

After getting ready and walking out the door, I am a greeted by the sounds of dog barking and  chicken shrieking.  Turns out the neighbors dog, Poppy (pictured)...

And Buddy...

Had cornered and were trying to kill our neighbors chicken...

Enter Muong, the gardener.  He saved the day.   Muong, like all Lao, is extraordinarily friendly.  Quick story:  He also takes care of the pool.  Trying to make a few extra bucks, he had sold all of the chemicals for said pool and rendered it both bright green and unusable for the month of February.  Upon hearing this, the people that own the house inexplicably gave him a raise.

Later, after putting on some of this...

So I don't get this again...

I hopped on this and made my way into town.  FYI, this is a Kolao Classic, joint venture company between Korea and Laos.  It's a 100cc scooter that we bought for 750 bucks brand new.  Life changer.  Awesomely fun to ride and allowed me to lean my around Vientiane.  Now, the route to kickboxing practice.

The dirt road we live on.  No idea what it's called.  To give directions to our house, we have to tell people to go to the closest embassy and give directions from there.

Our street from the opposite end.  Tin shack houses, stray dogs and chickens everywhere.



Turning right off our street you can see the local garbage burning area.  Who needs garbage pickup when you can massively pollute your own neighborhood for free?  The smell of this smoke is god awful and everywhere.  In a weird way, it is the thing I will always associate with and remember most vividly about this place.  Dusk is prime garbage burnin' time.




The greatest sign in the history of signs. 



Finally, I make it to kickboxing class.




My buddy Don (left) and our teacher Safaa.



Saf with your humble narrator.  Saf is an amazing teacher and has led an extraordinary life.  I should do a blog entry just on him.

So, I stopped here, Simuang, our local go-to Western food store which also has an ATM.  I pick up some cigarettes.  Carton of Marlboro Lights = $15.  Just about the price for a pack in NYC. 

Park across the street from Simuang.  This guy says hello.

  

  After hitting up the cash machine, I get a bunch of these.  The local currency here, the Lao kip, is 8000 to the dollar.  

Afterwards I invite my buddy Don to the house for some of this...




And we immediately negate our hour and a half workout with a lot of cigarette smoking and aforementioned coffee drinking.  Don displaying his Canadian roots via this killer Canada Rocks t-shirt.

After finishing coffee time with Don, I went to Joma Phonton cafe.  I eat here all the time while Alex is at work because I can't cook for shit.

I ate this.  It cost 3 dollars.

View from where I was sitting.  Even in Laos, there is always money in the banana stand.

By the time I finished eating, it was probably around 11:30am and I was sweating balls.  I checked my handy Samsung phone's Weather.com app.  95 degrees with heat index of 107.  It went up to 100 and 115 respectively by 5pm (which is the hottest part of the day).  Still not hot season.

After lunch, I stopped home.  Greeted by our UN mandated security guard, Khamount, and his daughter Liu.

After heading out again, I stop by the other Western food store by us to pick up a few things.

Stop by my buddy Steve's house to hang out for a bit.  This is the outside of his condo complex.

My man Steve.

 After hanging with Steve, I go back in attempt to study for a bit.  Doesn't happen.  Swim instead.

Afterwards, Alex and I grab dinner here - Aria.  Good pizza and pistachio ice cream were had.

End of the night, I treat my lady to a $1 DVD of Les Miserables.  I fall asleep.

THE END.

E-Coli and Electricity Ladders

Greetings Capitalists.  Sorry for the delay on updating this page. Between getting E-Coli and catching up my schoolwork I haven't had the time and/or energy to do so.  But, I'm going to try to do a post every 1-2 weeks from here on out.  I will probably post things less often on Facebook so I'll have more to write on here.

Anyway...

So, since my last update quite a few things have happened.  Most notably I contracted E-Coli which royally sucked.  The most typical way to get it is from drinking non-treated tap water or eating poorly cooked food.  I'm thinking I got it by eating a disgusting piece of street meat.  It was beef that tasted more like rotten fish, so fairly safe to assume that was the culprit.  Never again will I do that.  I'm downright scared to eat meat of any sort now.

E-Coli is straight-up AWFUL and I now understand what the meaning of 'feeling like death' is.  I dropped a good 10-15 pounds in a week as my stomach become bloated to the point of not being able to drink or eat anything.  I took far too long to go to the doctor as I never had a high fever, but found out after going that I have an allergy to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.  This set me back a pretty nasty rash and allowed the E-Coli to stay in my body for an additional week.  Eventually I was given a mix of different antibiotics by a doctor at the French Medical Clinic here, which is basically the best place to receive medical treatment in all of Laos, which isn't saying a lot.

On a more positive note, I have fulfilled a long-held bucket list wish of getting a moped.  She's a beauty and is insanely fun to hop around Vientiane in.  Seriously, I love this thing.  It's a Kolao, which is a joint venture company between Korea and Laos.  I was tempted to buy a faster Suzuki or Honda motorcycle, but those things get stolen constantly.  The Kalao ended up costing only about 900 bucks brand new and I can get a weeks worth of gas for around 3 bucks.  Francis likey.  Here's a pic.

Alex and I finally have a pretty good feel for this city now.  Here's a map (click on it to make it large enough to see).  We live where the red circle is within the embassy part of town.  The black square is the downtown area.  That's easy to find because it's where all of the white people are.  Lots of great little restaurants here where you can get a good meal for less than 5 bucks.

The weather here is insane.  I've mentioned on facebook several times that it's the cool season,  yet somehow is still 95 degrees every day.  It's also the dry season.  I think we've had a combined 5 minutes of rain so far in 5 weeks.  Hot season is going to be an unbearable 110 degrees and 90 percent humidity, or so I've been told.  Thankfully it only lasts for the months of March and April.  I think I'll head back to Jersey for most of April to jointly visit family and friends while getting out of the heat.

Speaking of heat, it has made me already go through several haircuts and facial hair configurations.  I think you'll notice a pattern here.

I'm also happy to report that I've gotten my driver's license back.  On our second day in Vientiane I was pulled over for a cop for having my headlights on during the day.  Apparently, that's a no-no for some reason.  Once I was pulled over, the cops here (who are kind of scary looking communist police) took my license and drove away.  Apparently, I was supposed to follow them but it was hard to know that considering they spoke zero English.  Only later did I learn I could just give them 4 dollars and they'd walk away with no questions asked.  Instead, Alex had to enlist the help of UN security to first locate my license.  It wasn't until we offered $25 to a policeman that they finally 'found' it.  Bribery goes a long way here.

Since we have gotten here two major things have happened at home - Hurricane Sandy and the re-election of President Obama.  It was a very helpless feeling watching the reports of Hurricane Sandy and watching foreign coverage of the election helped me realize what an enormous impact US politics and policies have on the world, even here in tiny, communist, landlocked Laos.  It's easy to see how the US affects places like Iraq or Afghanistan but seeing it from here provides a very different and very real perspective that I hadn't had before.  I'm sure I'll write more on that in future posts.

Please note -I now have a US phone number that forwards to my cell phone here in Laos.  The number is 908-514-4473.  Call me!  Reminder:  Laos is 12 hours ahead of EST.

Lastly, escalators in Laos are called 'electricity ladders'.  How awesome is that?

Over and out.

-Pat