Jenny Moves

Ahhh yes the Golden Land. Welcome to Yangon, which used to be Rangon, ex-capital of Myanmar, which used to be Burma. Slightly confusing, yes. Tom and I decided to visit Yangon so that I could renew my Thai visa. Not a typical place to go for a visa renewal, as you need to get a visa to enter the country itself… Which we didn’t realize until a day before our original departure date so our trip was delayed a week so that we could get the Myanmar visa.

Anyways, we finally did make it to Burma early last Wednesday morning. Upon leaving the terminal the first difference I noticed between the Burmese people and it’s neighboring Thailand is that they wore traditional, conservative clothing. Even the men hassling us about a taxi wore the long sarong style skirts. Women wore long skirts and shirts that showed no shoulder skin. We also quickly noticed that there were no ATMs at the countries international airport, we soon learned that there are no ATMs in the country and to withdraw money you have to do it the old fashioned way, withdraw it straight from the bank itself. This is most likely just another way the militant government controls the Burmese people. Good thing our hostel tripled as a money changer & tourist office as well.

After heading straight to the Thai embassy to drop off my passport and then spending a frustrating 30 minutes or so of walking from 3 of the 15 or less guesthouses in the whole city we finally found a decent one, The White House, its one of the oldest and established in all of Yangon. Although it was not white and nor was it a house, it did have clean rooms and a rooftop where you chill and see the city view and drink a cold beer. The rooms looked somewhat grotto like, as if we lived in the side of a cave.

view from the roof top

After a big beer and a chilled hour at the rooftop it was time to venture out. Eating in a new city is usually an enjoyable experience, but in Yangon it’s a little more difficult. Although we like to try street food, especially during any southeast Asian trip, Yangon felt a bit different. Street food wasn’t the same here, it was, well, just, dirty, dirty even for street food.

and yes I know that this isn’t perhaps a
street vendorbut with this next to a street vendor- or any food for consumption- it sort of put me off of all the street food. Flies attached themselves to all of the meat for sale at that stall and the smell was no less than putrid. When I saw an elderly woman carrying a huge block of ice, with her bare hands, across the street from one shop to another, it really put me off again. Her hands looked anything but clean and were stained red from bettle nut juice.

We did find some delicious sugar cane juice though and tea, if that counts all at for street food.

As well as in china town, they had edible spicy noodles and a whole (small) street dedicated to BBQ at night- the fish was delicious. And this street was the only place in town it seemed ok to drink beer openly.

We did have a few good meals in Yangon- the best was by complete accident as we were looking for a non existent restaurant (and took an hour long ride to no where) we ended up at a popular business lunch location. It was a legitimate restaurant, the food was kept in a warm buffet style, and people used tongs to get ice. It was traditional Burmese food. To order you just had to point to the buffet to say what you want, lucky there was one server who spoke English and he helped us decifer just what was in the buffet. We almost ordered mutton brain (lamb brain) because we couldn’t understand that he was saying ‘brain’ but luckily understood in time and we just ordered regular mutton.

This was the full lunch: mutton, spicy shirmp curry, green tomato salad, creamed corn of sorts, mixed raw veggies and of course rice, all complete with coke imported from Thailand! It was actually very very good.

Aside from searching for clean places to eat, we spent lots of time wandering. We saw sights we’ve never seen before. One of the most memorable sights was so many young monks who were begging at major intersections in the city center. Monks are not supposed to beg and this came as quite a shock. We also saw monks smoking cigarettes and even a monk who looked pretty intoxicated.

we also saw this tooth pick construction sight-

a whole row of vendors- mixed in a way quite unsanitary to most- meat, veggies, books, hair clips- everything was mixed together, no separate areas for different goods.

We did take the time to see the Shedwagon Pagoda, which is one the most recognizable symbols of Burma besides the newly elected Aung San Suu Kyi. It was beautiful and quite impressive, and legend says the pagodas construction began 2,5000 years ago when the lord Buddah gave 5 of his hairs to Burmese

from the top: the pagoda itself, sweet little girl and her dad smiling for the camera, we saw monks and pagoda visitors inside some of these, praying, and last some toys for sale in the walk way. Too bad I didn’t get any pictures of the LED lights that were above many of the Buddhas heads or the woman who grabbed my arm very tightly and smiled at me with all her heart. Or the taxi who took us form the Pagoda to the Thai embassy so I could pick up my passport that had a few dead cockroaches at Tom’s feet! Barf.

So there you go, the ermm highlights of the 48 hours in Yangon. I do plan to make it make to Burma again sometime but plan on spending as little time as needed in the ex-capital and more time seeing beautiful ancient ruins, un-spoilt beaches, and talking more with willing locals (hard to find in Yangon) about the countries political past.

us at the one of the many tea & coffee spots throughout the city where you sit in kid sized chairs drinking sweet milky coffee or tea.

As we all know, the city of angles, not meaning L.A., but our own Bangkok, is not, well, quite so heavenly at times. Being a dancer in this hectic, sweaty, vibrant, perverted, thrilling, loud, ;concrete jungle has both glamourous ;and ;ridiculous, irritating moments.

For one instance, Thailand is a very popular travel destination for people all over the world. Thailand is only a 4 hours or less plane ride from many middle eastern countries as well as India. Many men who visit Thailand from these countries are not used to seeing women in clothes that show as much skin. Many dance costumes tend to be either tight and/or showing off more skin than daily wear clothes.

Often times, guys like the one in the photo where you see a floating head mixed with a group of dancers, just happen to pop into your picture. This particular event was on a river cruise boat for Coca-Cola Pakistan. And although this picture doesn’t seem so bad, when we annouced, after our 5 dance performances, that we could pose for pictures, the crowd closed in on us and the manager in charge got on the mic to announce “no more photos”. Us dancers were literally swatting away men who tried to put us in the stinky arm-pits to pose for pictures. And although that instense circumstance of the crowd literally closing in on us doesn’t happen often, it’s quite an obnoxious and unnerving feeling. It seems that when men and women from countries who are not used to seeing revealing clothing do, minor spasms seem to occur. I’m not sure why the audience is so surprised to see a belly dance costume when they know they are going to watch a belly dance!

Next, I must tell you about castings in Bangkok as a dancer. During a casting, sort of like an audition, the dancer must dance and show his/her skills to the style selected. But here in Bangkok, often times there is no style mentioned or the music is some crazy reggae pop and they want funky jazz or even better, they give you no music and just tell you to dance. When this happens I ask them, “well, what style of dance would you like me to do” one time they just told me to dance like I was super happy. I was confused by this and didn’t know if they wanted some cheesy jazz dancing or for me just to bop around, snapping my fingers with a big grin. So I did a combination of both and luck had it, I even got a call back for the job. But, if you know anything about dance, you need music or at least some direction for what style, theme, setting, anything ;that might help you show the client what they are looking for. If you have no music it generally just seems like you’re moving around with some skillful movements, but not quite dancing. Also… it’s often quite interesting here to see the client whom you are casting a job with, I’ve casted for jobs, ;particularly ;Bollywood jobs, where the director has sent a man with no clue of what good dancing looks like with an ;assistant ;that shouts and you in a brash and bossy tone that just might tell you off if you look at her wrong.

Lastly, it’s the misconceptions, people (especially people in Bangkok) have when you say that you’re a professional dancer. Sometimes people automatically assume, ooohh well, with that white skin of yours you must be an Eastern European escort or something. This usually results in a not so friendly conversation between dancer and performance viewer where us dancers become highly offended and storm off. Those who ask this really can be quite irritating, especially after they’ve just watched a class-act dance show, with talented dancers, beautiful costumes and high levels of professionalism. None the less though, there are several great things about being a dancer in Bangkok.

We get opportunities to dance in films, music videos, commercials, and live events very frequently. We don’t have to fight crowds of 100s of other talented dancers during auditions. Dancing in Bangkok also means the opportunity to preform at beautiful beach front hotels, parties, over the top extravagant weddings, corporate events aboard cruise ships, and entertain clients from around the world, ones that otherwise we’d never have the pleasure of meeting. We work with people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds and are able to take away various worldly and performance knowledge from all of the different people we encounter. At a wedding we danced with a Bollywood singer as her backup dancers and in a recent commercial to be aired in Pakistan we were featured ballet dancers, we also are treated like princesses at times being served the finest food from the event and access to free flow alcohol. Dancing in Bangkok is similar to living in Bangkok, as in you never know what your going to get. Only expect the un-expected.

On a recent trip with my family to the beautiful island nation of Bali, my mom and I both realized how much children, around the world, share such universal characteristics. Both of us were once teachers and we always find ourselves as the ones in the group engaging with the toddler or school child who looks like they have something to tell you.

This photo was taken in a country side village in Bali, where young school girls wear pigtails, hold hands and giggle a lot on their walk home from school a common scene among school children around the world.

Posing! Young children around the world seem to become enchanted by the camera. These young girls saw a few visitors to their village (us) and jumped at the chance to have their photo taken. Again and again.

While in Bali we were lucky enough to be part of, or better I say witness, some religious ceremonies. Which, if you’ve ever been to Bali or read about Bali you might have seen or heard about how there are an abundance of religious celebrations that happen all throughout the 210 day Balinese calendar, and the majority of these celebrations take place from November through April. We were there in late February and it seemed nearly every village we passed had processions, parades, and many preparations going on for ceremonies and celebrations to come. On our way to Sidemen, a luscious green-rice-terraced village (which I’ve blogged about before), we were lucky enough to witness the end of a procession and see the 100s of beautiful Balinese villagers with their entire families. This one family of three boys caught my eye.

Three brothers walking back with their parents to their home. They stared, curious-eyed, at me wondering probably what this strange-looking white girl was doing taking pictures in their village during this special day. So I just stood back and tried to melt into the mud siding of the house so I could get a better more realistic view at this sweet family. What I did see, was the father giving some Rupiah (Indonesian Money) to each of the older sons, the eldest son proceeded to jokingly take the money from his younger brother, then gave it back in a taunting manner, a common sight you can find in many parts of the world. The older sibling taunt of the younger sibling. The top picture of these boys portrays that image of the younger brother wondering when the heck his older brother is going to give him back his Rupiah!

This image is from the way back from Sidemen, we stopped to look at the flower offerings a woman was selling and came across this youngster. A classic shot of a child, proud with their creation. Typical of young boys, this boy too made a slightly demonic looking mud sculpture. Or maybe it wasn’t meant to look that way… but regardless it sure made a captive photo.

Balinese Dancing. Again, around the world, children love to dance, be it boys or girls, this form of expression is commonplace throughout the world. Especially when it comes to showing tradition and culture through dance. These children were exceptionally gorgeous and were wearing elaborate traditional Balinese costumes and had meticulously done make up. A few nights before watching these children perform in a local village, we watched a Balinese dance performance in Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali, these young children did the same dances and told the same cultural stories of war, love, and myth, as their older professional counterparts. Although this performance was a much different experience as the one in Ubud.  We were invited to the village by the manager of our homestay, because her daughter was performing that night. There were several technical difficulties with music turning on and off and audience riff of laughter and shouts during this. The audience did not sit the same either, women sat of the floor of the covered pavilion where the performance took place and men stood outside, smoking their kretek cigarettes, and talking men stuff.  Also, different was the fact that myself, my mom, dad, and the South African surf guide we were with, were the only Caucasians in the village during that night (about 400 people), compared drastically to the very touristic (but beautiful) performance just a few nights before at the Ubud Palace.

Lastly, just a few more pictures of the beautiful children this island nation is filled with. Young girls being camera-shy with their mother and a young boy at the store front of his family’s shop also being camera-shy.

I encourage any traveler or visitor anywhere to make it a point to spend time interacting with the youngest members of the location, that they will always bring you joy and put a smile on your face. Even if they are flicking you off, you know, giving you the middle finger, while waving at you telling you “Hallo”. It’s just too bad I didn’t capture that moment on camera because it did really happen one day on a back country road in Bali and it really reminded me again of how similar children are around the world. The probably didn’t really realize what it meant that they were doing, but they knew it was bad and they sure thought it was funny.

Among this amazing Pho eatery, which is right in the center of the backpacker drag, we really enjoyed our quick weekend break in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh as its called now a days, I still think that Saigon just feels cooler to say. If you’ve never had pho before your seriously missing out; succulent, juicy, tender beef – and at this open-air restaurant – in a rich tomato-like broth with a hint of spice, juicy carrots, greens, onions and fresh sprouts to go on top. Rich aromatic smells and salty/sweet, lemon juice to wash it down.

We did a little more than just eat pho on this trip and one of those things was venturing out to see the Cu Chi tunnels.

The Cu Chi tunnels are a famous landmark known in all of Vietnam of where the Veitcong soldiers hid from American troops as well as lived in various portions of the tunnels. These tunnels are extremely small and I lasted all of 2 minutes in them before having a mild panic attack and running out. Being brave as I usually am- I thought tunnels- sure of course I can crawl through those! I’ve hiked up a sandy mountain top, skydived, and canyoned before. But I was very wrong these tunnels that the Vietcong used were immensely small as in just big enough to crawl through basically on your hands and knees, pitch black, and hot as hell. Not a good combination if your the slightest bit of a claustrophobe. It’s amazing the Vietcong used these tunnels as a war strategy, hiding and popping up in the various 250km span that the tunnels covered! Our guide also really emphasized that the tunnels were nearly impossible for the large American GIs to fit through.

Now you see it!

Now you don’t!

There he is!

Funnily enough on this tour our guide did speak to us about the the common question, do they serve dog in Vietnam? Well the answer is yes and they did so to begin with many years ago to ward off starvation when times were tough because the country was under siege. Our guide also told us that he had dog several times, but the first time unknowingly. His friend didn’t quite tell him it was dog till after the fact and he thought that it tasted pretty good before he knew it was dog, so, he continued to eat dog in the future. And no, I didn’t see any dog meat, or I should say I didn’t see anything dog meat that I knew of…

I figured while in Saigon I might as well get some nail art done, since I know Vietnamese are known for their extensive nail art all around the world. So I got some cutesy little flower thingy and all for under $10 I had lovely mini pictures on all of my nails, tee hee!

We also ate at Cục Gạch Quán, which had brilliant food and that cozy, artsy, vibe everyone looks for in the midst of big city chaos. We ate sea bass with passion fruit sauce (the definite highlight for me), had fresh squeezed and shaken Vietnamese Cherry juice, a tofu dish with fried garlic, a salad with papaya and spicy shredded style beef, and more deliciousness which I can’t recall as I was quickly in a food coma after devouring the table.

My dear friend Richie and his girlfriend who live in Saigon took us to this lovely restaurant that I’d highly recommend to any Saigon visitors! Great place for introduction to Vietnamese food

The rest of our 3 short days were spent eating pho at our spot 2 more times, wandering through the several public parks that place themselves smack in the middle of Saigon, drinking loads of Vietnamese ice coffee (delicious), one afternoon at the Reunification Palace and evenings out at the many chill bars with live music- especially Thi Cafe in the backpackers drag, if you stop by Thi Cafe go in the evening for great live bands and try The Orgasm, drink that is!

Lights for TET- Vietnamese new year which occurs same time around chinese new year.

Riding around local style… Mind you, this is a quiet street, usually theres so many motorcycles they look like a swarm of bees!

Old meeting room of Vietcong in the Reunification palace.

Fruit vendor yelling at some nearby competitors.

Some solider replicas

In front of the Reunification palace

Runaway durian

Dude sleeping near a public park

I’ve been a naughty girl once again and everytime I begin to write a blog I stare at all of my drafts… It’s not work I say, it’s fun to blog, but is it? Ramble, ramble, blah blah blah

Anywho here’s the odds and ends of the many things I’ve been up to since wiping that tide…

Loy Kratonging it. Loy Krathong is a Thai holiday where you float a Krathong (what I’m holding- flower in a coconut shell with sparklers- can be many different varieties) to thank the water gods for water and the life it brings us. Although, this year it felt a bit like a contradiction after the horrible flooding and devastation all that water brought.

Keeping busy at Thai Room the bf’s restaurant. Opening in September and encroaching busy season it’s fun to hostess and talk to all the interesting folk that pass through the doors from around the globe. Not to mention the food is outstanding!!

Finding dinosaurs I mean water monitors while Sunday Funday strolling around Lumpini park in central BKK, gotta love these creepy creatures!

Working hard in Phuket shooting a commercial for a European travel company… Bikini required and so was laying in a hammock for 2 hours during my shoot, pretending to sleep with my ‘husband’ on our honeymoon

Husband & the hammock

Poor goat who was a character as well, who they actually tried to put in the hammock that didn’t quite work & her poor little legs just slipped right through

Feeding my pug Pika leftover lamb shank

Shooting a music video with my dance team Dance Legends

We shot on a hot sunny day on a roof top in Bangkok- great shoot and looking forward to the video coming out in early Jan!

I’ve always loved to high kick! If I was a quarter-inch taller- I definitely would’ve tried my best to be a Rockette!

just 2 days after the shoot we headed to my homeland for the holidays of course!!! And made a stop in DC to see one of the besties and sight see, here I am at the World War II memorial.

the new Martin Luther King memorial, so beautiful!

view from the top of the old post office- Washington monument in the background- so gorgeous! Bless the USA!

Next stop- Charlotte, North Carolina for another besties wedding!

got the bride & groom into the photo booth!

we even managed to fit in an NFL game… Goooo Panthers! Too bad they lost, but none the less we all had an awesome Sunday Funday and boarded our flight to FL just slightly intoxicated- that’s what happens when you party with the BFFs from college- you stay in college mode forever

We made it to Orlando- woop woop! In the home state! And continued to drink, eat and be merry with more best friends- this time from highschool!

Love these guys!!! Yay for champagne flights and being asked to be a bridesmaid in one of my dearest friends weddings!!!
Finally we made it to my beloved parents in my hometown, and soon we’re off to the home of the Buckeyes (Ohio) for those of you that don’t follow college football!

Beautiful Florida! It’s always good to be home for the holidays!

This has been my life for the last month or so… Which is why I’ve struggled to find the time to write. I promises myself in the new year though I’m gonna be better, I must!

Wishing whoever loves me enough to read this a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and just a lovely holiday time of year!

            Overall there were about 11 groups with 15 people each. Each group split up and basically invaded different traffic intersections in Bangkok. This past Sunday, all groups went to the Thonburi side of Bangkok, which is opposite the river of the city’s main hub. You don’t see many foreigners in this area but during our fundraiser there were many of us, working together with Thai volunteers to raise money for the flood victims.       We paraded the streets, some with buckets and squiges, some with signs, and others, like my self, with the donation box.     We stormed the buses which are one means of public transportation. The bus system of transport is one of the least expensive ways to get around the city. And, funnily enough the buses often provided us with the most money. The high end cars like BMW’s or Audi’s that zoomed by sometimes wouldn’t even open their window to drop a few coins in. It seems that those with the least gave the most. And those with the most, sadly, gave the least. We decided, the nicer the car, the less the money. Hopefully this pattern won’t hold true for the next wipe the tide.                 We approached tuk tuks and even motor cyclists. Everyone seemed enthusiastic and interested to help our cause. I think people were surprised to see so many forigners and Thai’s working together. Local people were happy to see this sight and as you can as in the photos, often donated with a smile.   

Our groups 4 donation boxes totaling over 50,000 baht (USD 1600). In just 3+ hours!! We were one of the highest grossing groups!

 One of my favorite photos of the day, a mother and baby in the back of an open air truck who donated to our cause. I just love the innocent expression on the babies face and the smile on the mothers.

                                                                                                                  Another happy donatee.  Our group consisted of Thai, English, American, German, French, and Singaporian volunteers. All working together, for the people.

More happy people dontating for the flood victims. Always with a smile, proving this really is, ‘the land of smiles’.

                                                                              Most of our group, minus myself as I was the one taking the photo

This donatee tried so hard to get her partner to pose, but I guess its a girl thing to always be ready for the camera.

 Happy donatees from one of many cabs we approached.

 Dancing to draw even more attention to our worthy cause.

 You can see the smile on both faces, good feelings all around.

 Our good friend Jon who was a true champ of a volunteer. We made a great team combining our skills, Jon’s Thai language skills and friendly nature and my  big ole american smile, got us many notes into the donation box. Although the project is called “Wipe the Tide” most cars were happy to not have their windsheild wiped and to simply donate instead. Our box. Tom and I took turns photographing and holding the responsibility of the money collector. Which was great fun,we snapped at least 200 photos and did a pretty good job of hustling to get that money baby! Just kidding, but we were quite the friendly approachers, trying to get every vehicle at the intersection, be it motorbike, bus, tuk tuk, cab, truck or car.

During this experience I really learned about the unexpected generosity of Thai people, finding that you can never ‘judge a book by its cover’ proving true again. One of the most memorable moments was when an elderly couple, riding in the back of a truck, reached into their pockets with frail and aged hands, pulled out a 1000 baht note. Not what I expected at all, but it truly brought that warm fuzzy feeling we all get inside when something really beautiful happens. Those with the least consistently gave the most.

We plan to attend the mega Wipe the Tide on Sunday December 4th where the goal is to reach 1 million baht! If your wondering, the 11 or so groups this past week raised over 400,000 baht! In just 3+ hours! The money goes towards supplies like food and water which is scarce in hard to reach regions which are still underwater, as well as supplies for rebuilding homes, clothes, and other necessities. I’m hoping to make it on a boat soon to actually hand out the supplies to those in need.

If your interested check out http://bangkokvanguards.com/wipe-the-tide/ and if you’re in the Bangkok area, living visiting, or passing by, this Sunday the 27th  or next Sunday December 4th, you can meet in front of Central World at 11am, wear a white t-shirt and find any other information in the link above.

So, I haven’t blogged for a long while. The other day one of my girl friends told me that she really enjoyed reading my posts and that inspired me to write a bit and explain why I haven’t been blogging so much lately.

There’s been a lot going on in Thailand and in my own personal life as well. The flooding situation being one of them, and to put in words as best as I can, I feel that my own stories are trivial compared to whats happening to people affected by the floods throughout the kingdom of Thailand.

The other day on the skytrain I jotted this down about how I was feeling:

Today I saw an advert for MSG on the skytrain, which triggered off my angry feelings towards this, sometimes very ignorant, country, that can never seem to get its facts straight. For the past several months people have been living in fear and panic, buying up entire grocery stores. One hungover morning in Pattaya there was no  bloddy water at 7-11. The government has told the people time and time again, “No, Bangkok will not be flooded” only to change their minds a day later and tell people to prepare sandbags and to stock up, which means PANIC BUY to people here. Hence, the no water at 7-11. That being said at least 12 of the citys 50 districts have been evacuated and many more have experienced a taste of the floods. But, for us, Sukhumvit and Silom residents we have not experienced this, yet. I’ve donated my money, bags of clothes, sacks of rice, canned goods, and packages of water for flood victims. Unfortuntley I have not done a full days worth of volunteering but don’t judge me yet…

Empty shelves at a Tops grocery store in Bangkok

I did go one day on a mission to volunteer with a few good leads (or so I thought) from twitter of locations where you could volunteer. But, in typical Thai fashion my friend and I were misled not once, not twice but three times. After being laughed at by van drivers at the first location, where we were told vans were taking volunteers, we made our way to location number 2, that actually ceased to exist. Finally we decided to follow the lead of an acquantince who is a police officer. They took us to the location in old Bangkok, Thammasat University to be exact, gave us boots, and sent us on our merry way. “Just turn down that soi” and they pointed. We walked 5 minutes, saw the flooded soi which connects directly with a peir, and trudged thorough the water. We arrived and guess what no one was there doing anything, no one to tell us anything and no supplies anywhere to do anything with. It was almost comical. The police officers had told us we would help people coming off of the boat to the pier, but there weren’t even any boats at the pier. None the less, I did find a place to go this week, it’s the Channel 3 building on Rama 4 road, and will be going very soon. Here’s a few photos from the day of attempted volunteer work…

a small soi flooded near the grand palace- this soi leads to the peir, vendors remain open

still selling turtles, fish, and various creatures

As usual, I’m running LATE. SURPRISE… welcome to my life- I had a nice chat with a good friend about this life-style of always being late and she concurred that its not always so fun and can be very stressful. But, lucky for us, we live in Thailand, home of the motor cycle taxi!

This taxi takes me where I need to go everyday and damn quick, we weave in and out of cars, tuk tuks, buses. We can go the wrong way down congested roads and even hop the sidewalks and cruise past pedestrians, vendors, and soi dogs. I would be lost without them and advocate that other big cities around the world invest in these handy transporters!

Since my arrival in Thailand the motor cyc, as thai people say, has saved me precious moments of my life… these moments allow me often the time to eat! If I would’ve cabbed it, trained, or heaven forbid walk, I wouldn’t always have time to grab snacks that keep me going throughout the day. I did get in a minor accident once but we were going very slow but it was still scary at a major intersection but to make it worse, the rude driver still made me pay, well he tried to make us pay but we didn’t. And one other time a woman, well a person with lady parts, might be more fitting, quadruple charged me what I should have been charged. But, besides these instances I can really say that these are easily my favorite and fasest way to get around.

Here’s a Poem to You~~

You take me where I need to go and rarely do you say no (unlike ruuude cabs)

You get me there ever so quick even though you make me flinch

faster faster, but careful I say, Thanks for getting me there everyday (and thank you too for cheap prices!)

You can usually find a ride by 7-11, where I found these drivers

My guy, he used to take me to school in rush hour traffic every day

Back in the day with Nichole- always room for one more! We were on the way to Kao San I believe

my favorite driver

When you live as a foreigner in Thailand and your on a tourist visa, you must complete the ever popular ‘visa run’. Run should be no where in this statement because all you freaking do is wait. Wait for your tuk tuk, your bus, your taxi, your ticket to get in line, wait in the line, wait to cross the border out of the country, wait to cross the border into the next country, wait to pee in a toilet that has no resemblance of toilet paper, wait with 18 year smelly pitted backpackers who have not showered in 278 days and have dreadlocks on accident. Anyway, you get the point about all of the damn waiting. Waiting, so you can get your visa extended so that you can stay in the land of smiles for another 60 days or so…

To do this ‘visa run’ I choose to go to Laos because I had been wanting to check out Vientiane, the capital city and possibly head to my favorite hedonistic place I’ve found yet, Vang Veing, in the central Laos, but that’s another story.

So, our journey started out like this… We left at 7am from Chiang Khan, as our lovely and trustworthy guesthouse owner had told us. We walked down the rainy muddy street with our backpacks and headed to the convenient store with the blue tent ceiling (as we were instructed) I chugged a juice box and waited, excitedly for the big blue song-thaew to pass and flag it down (as we were instructed). We were headed to a small town near-by Chiang Khan and planned on splashing in waterfalls all day, we were thinking we’d get there around noon and it’d be just perfect! Yeaaa, well. Any-who, the big blue song-thaew (truck converted into a bus by putting some sort of roof like structure over the open air part) came about 45 mins later than usual. Awesome. After this ride we were dropped off at the point where the bus was supposed to take us to the real bus station, where we would then get a big bus that would take us to the waterfall town. Below is the ‘drop off point’ a random shop house. Wtf? Anyway, after that the day went something like this…

 We sit and wait for 1+ hour for the bus and meet this lovely shop house woman. She likes us, the both of us. Tells us how she lives there all alone and she collects biscuit tins.

  She thinks I’m funny and fun to look at because I’m white and now how to say Sawat dee ka or hello in Thai properly. We take pictures with her and drink a beer at 9am… what the hell, why not. Finally the damn bus comes. We rush and are excited, because now we are finally headed to the real bus station to catch the bus that will actually take us to the waterfall destination.

 We get to that bus station at about 11, but as our luck would have it that day we missed the 10:30am bus and now have to wait until 3pm. We missed it by 30 minutes! How frustrating!!!Well isn’t that just freaking Lovely! AWESOMEEE. Luckily to keep us entertained, there is an interesting market at this bus station.
And there is this woman selling herbs of all kinds and unique dolls made of wood which lie in a fornicating position. We also have our books to read, we eat noodles, play on the 100 year old gym equipment at the park (yes there was a run down park with ancient gym equipment) and finally, finally, after being undressed by the eyes of every man within a 5km radius of the bus station,  our 3pm bus arrives.

This friendly door welcomes us and we decide at this point, screw it, we’re not going to make it to the damn waterfall place, it’s already 3pm, lets just go straight to Laos, it was in our plan anyway just not so soon.  We prepare ourselves for an 6 hour ride, rather than 2 hours, after an already pain in the ass, sweaty day of no air-con and randomness. Whatever, it will be worth it once we get our beer Lao and I get my new visa in my passport.

We settle on the bus. Tom is pumped. He gets to sit next to Winny the Pooh. The bus becomes ridiculously crowded of course and they actually leave this door open the entire time, to help air flow. VERY safe eh?

6+ hours later, once we finally get to the border crossing town we are insanely starving and grumpy. A visa scam agency approaches us as soon as we step off the bus and offers us the convenience of quickly taking us to the border and then all the way to Vientiane (which is where we must go to to get the Visa), they tell us its ‘no problem my friend’ (a phrase you hear often from scammers) and they’ll make it quick and easy for us, just hurry, come with them. Good price. BS! Even though we both knew this we didn’t care any longer. We went with them instead of crossing the border on our own, which would’ve taken a bit more of our time but, it would have saved us a bit of money. Oh freaking well. We crossed the boarder with no issues. We then arrive at our ‘private transport’ which is taking us to Vientiane…

Soooo, needless to say the ‘private’ transport they promised after crossing the border into Laos turned out to be anything but private. As you can see, it was clearly a luxury vehicle, just kidding. We ended up sitting across from this,

Dyed chicks, on a tuk-tuk, that did not even take normal roads. We practically road though peoples drive ways and backyards for the first 20 minutes. We ended up at an overpriced guesthouse that smelled like smoke, what ever, we had a few of these…

Beer Lao, the best beer in all of South East Asia.

The next morning, we prepared ourselves to go to the Thai embassy. It went like this… Wake up late, bargain with a tuk tuk driver to take you to the embassy. Get to the embassy and see the LINE you must WAIT IN FOR 183984939473974934343 hours. Find some crappy breakfast after waiting in line to get your ticket to get into the line to hand in your passport to get the damn visa extension.

While waiting, we see A’li G’…

 Very sweaty people wearing jeans with sweat dripping down their backs…

Entire Russian families…

A local woman hoarding about 25 tickets to sell to foreigners outside so they don’t have to wait in line as long…

Me, after a crappy breakfast and a 2 hour wait, my number is almost about to be called and then this long hellacious process is over for today. Until the next day when I pick up my passport with my new visa inside. Which isn’t so bad…

And there you have the art of a horribly executed visa run. I did pick up my passport the next day, with no problem and proceeded to quickly leave Vientiane after this. I had had enough of this town and I still feel I didn’t give it a real chance. They do have loads of loads lovely french inspired cusine and lovely temples. It is a capital city after all.

Pha That Luang, the national symbol of Laos

Lovely temple as I said…

There is better ways to do visa runs, with companies and what not, but I like to do things on my own. Try to save money, have a little adventure. And all and all, looking back it wasen’t so bad and we got to see some interesting sights and humans along the way. But next time, I might try going to the Cambodain border. I hear they have casinos, that might even be better than dyed chicks.

Click to watch: From Paddy Fields to Pit Stops

watch this video about Bali, KL, and Koh Lipe

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