Dermot and Cecilia's Travels: February 2011

Today we spent most of the day travelling from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong very close to the border between Thailand and Laos... we were advised not to stay here by the Health Canada travel advisory because of the high risk of malaria from mosquitos and some of the not so legal activities that take place on the border... I think they have a great sense of humour... but there are a lot of mosquitos around... thank Buddha for Malarone!

We have to say that the place where we are staying is very rustic and basic but very beautiful; the bonus is that they have internet access, albeit very slow.

It never seeks to amaze me that we have met such wonderful people on our trip... today we shared a couple of beers with people from Germany, Switzerland and Holland... we hope to catch up with some of them when we are in Europe.

Now we are looking forward to Laos, but sad at the same time to be leaving this wonderful country... The experience we have had with Thai people has been exceptional, but from what we hear about Laos we are in for a real treat... we look forward to keeping you updated.

We decided not to book a hotel in Pakbeng (the mid point on our slow boat trip)... but we are confident that we'll get a decent place when we get there... If not, there's always a park close by... Picture it, Ce in a park!... I don't think so! Me yes, but Ce!?

All our love

Signing off,

Derm & Ce

Very rustic and very beautiful

Ce relaxing on a stump whilst enjoying
a very cold beer

This is the dock that we're leaving from tomorrow

Not a bad place to live... basic with a wonderful view

Ready for the next stage of our holiday

We have never seen florescent tubes
for street lights in all the places we
have been

Ce with the smiling dragon

Where we are staying 1

Where we are staying 2

The closest Ce has ever been to a bird

We have been so busy the past two days... it started with a fund raiser (with a great turnout) for an orphanage in Chiang Rai run by the Buddhist Monks... (Keep up the great work Richard... you're the Man and we're proud of you!)... it got busier from there; the happy care free kind of busy.

The captions on the photo's say it all... we are enjoying ourselves immensely... great food, wonderful people and fantastic experiences.

So far we have met so many interesting and remarkable people from: Thailand, Japan, China, Israel, Germany, Austria, India, Australia, Poland, the U.S., Malaysia, Russia, the Philippines, England, Hungary, Spain and Italy... such a range of diverse intelligent people with very different perspectives... you know who you are and we'll stay in touch... (for the Italians; I'm sticking to my position that all of you are 100 g's short of a kilo! ;-)) I know, I know.... I can hear your retort now; "yes, but you have to take it from the source... which is an Irishman"... LOL!

After tonight we start on our journey to Laos, first to Chiang Khong where we stay overnight, the following morning we travel by long-tail boat to Hua Xai to go through Laos immigration and then onto Loung Prabang by slow-boat with a stop over in Pakbeng... more about that in our next blog.

We're not sure how the internet connection will be over the next few days, or if the suspicious faces of Ce and I will make it through Laos immigration, so it might take two to three days, or even a lifetime to post again.

Stay tuned...

Signing off,

Derm & Ce

P.s. Thanks to everyone who has sent personal e-mails and have commented on the blog... it really helps to motivate us and to do this as part of our vacation. To those that don't we are having a meeting with the head Monks to discuss the next course of action;-}

Pps. To Mike and Rhonda, thanks to you for starting this infection... that's what your blog was while you were in South America... In other words, you were a bad influence on us and we are praying to Buddha to recover from it soon, and for you two to mend your evil ways... ;-)

Our friend Richard from Poland at a fund raising event
in Chiang Mai

Wachirathan's Waterfalls

Cecilia's new favourite pets

Royal Pagodas located on the highest mountain in Thailand

The top of Inthanon Mountain in Intahanon National Park

A perfect place

The evidence that we reached the top (by van)

The Queen's Pagoda, Ce wants
one of her own

The King's Pagoda

I love the weather here, although most people had on long pants
and sweat shirts... it was 19 degrees outside

Inside the Queen's Pagoda

Ce in love with the Queen's Pagoda

We are redoing our landscaping when we get back

What a view the photo doesn't do it justice

The mountains of Thailand

Ce has fallen in love with everything: Elephants, Buddha's,
Orchids, Pagodas, Birds, Silk, Jade, Precious Stones in general.
The only exception might be small furry animals living in caves!