Monday, May 21, 2012

Ambush at Yoga

So I started doing yoga again and woah man, the other day I totally got ambushed. I went in a little early and sat down in the back, minding my own business. Next thing I know, one of the yoga instructors is pulling my arms, and another woman (one of my student's mom) is pushing down on my legs. Then the yoga teacher starts punching my arms maybe to loosen up my muscles, I don't really know, but it really hurt. I was sure I was going to have bruises on my arms the next day.

Today, the other yoga teacher laughed at me because she said I looked funny while stretching. I was checking myself out  in the mirror after she said that, and I do look incredibly awkward. I'm at least a head taller than anyone else in the class and my long limbs look like jellyfish tentacles compared to everyone else.

I'm going to be more flexible than this cat someday
Even though I have no idea what is happening in yoga and I can't understand a lick of what anyone is saying to me, there is something so peaceful about it. I'm in complete solitude being the only foreigner in the class and there's something so relaxing about hearing people talking and not having a clue of what they're saying.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Tubing in Vang Vieng!

Finally! The post I'm sure most of you have been waiting for, and what I was most excited for during my trip... TUBING IN VANG VIENG! I didn't go tubing until my last day in Vang Vieng which was unfortunate because after going once, I wanted to go the next day (and the next, and probably the day after). Although, it may have actually been a blessing in disguise because I could have been one of those people who get trapped into the awesomeness of Vang Vieng and end up staying there for months.

Here we go!
The rules of tubing are simple: rent a tube for about 55,000 kip (about $7 USD), leave a deposit of about 60,000 kip, and that all includes a tuk-tuk ride down to the beginning of the river. Be sure to return your tube on time, otherwise you will not get your full deposit back. Unfortunately, I was 30 minutes late.

The tubing gang.
There are bars along the river where you can buy Beerlao, cocktails, and the deliciously dangerous buckets. At most bars, there are ziplines, ropes, swings, and slides that you can go off into the river. The bars are full with (attractive) people from all over the world, cheap beer, buckets, shots, great music, and dancing. Each bar usually has some sort of free shot or drink to get tubers to go to their bar. Some bars will even give you a free woven bracelet for every shot you take; some people have bracelets running up their arms after being sucked into the Vang Vieng Vortex. Or they just took advantage of the free shots of Lao-Lao whiskey.  After many buckets and beer, it gets pretty hard to get where you want on the river, the bars have a genius solution for that: Lao guys throw ropes with big plastic soda bottles attached, you grab hold, and they pull you in. Easy peasy.

The first bar on the river. This was still early.
The party starts at the first bar, luckily we got there early to find a nice spot to chill. Within hours the bar was packed. We made friends quickly and even bumped into some friends that we met on the slow boat from Thailand to Luang Prabang, a guy from Switzerland and three girls from Austria. We moseyed down the river stopping at whatever bar we wanted, or basically whatever shouted that they offer free drinks. You meet so many cool people at the different bars along the river. Granted, these are drunk conversations and you might holler at each other later at Smile Bar or Bucket Bar, but true temporary friendships are made on the Nam Song River.

Nina, from Austria
Tubing down the river is dangerous. People die, and actually the day before I went, an Australian guy died. I found that out on the tuk-tuk ride down to the river. Cool. You can still drink and have fun while tubing with a few easy steps. Don't do drugs on the river. Don't go down slides when people are still at the bottom. Don't go on zip-lines with more than one person. Don't do flips and jumps in shallow waters. These steps can save your life. Essentially, you don't really need to get completely intoxicated and black out drunk to have fun in the river. The river IS the fun. Heck, you could even try going sober and I bet it would still be a hoot.

Nina, Tim, and Magdalena
After tubing we continued the fun, watching episodes of Family Guy at a bar while enjoying Beerlao, ate Lao sandwiches, made new friends, wandered over to Bucket Bar, Smile Bar, and of course Reggae Bar. Then sadly, I had to catch the bus back to Bangkok the next morning.

Tubing was definitely an experience and I'm stoked to say I did it, and proud to cross it off my bucket list. I hope to make it back to Vang Vieng for more tubing fun, and cross your fingers I don't get sucked into the Vang Vieng Vortex.

This blog post concludes my Laos trip.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Music Monday

Hello world. So it's not Monday in Korea anymore, but it is in America, so this post is still legit. Booya.

A friend from South Africa (shout out to Chris-Fick) sent me this song and I have no idea what it is about, or what they are saying but I love it, and I've totally had at least half a dozen one woman dance parties to this song. 

After extensive Google research I still know nothing about who sings this song. I do know that Jax Panik, an electro-pop group from South Africa provided the background track, but I am still mystified by the mystery that is "Who is Will Mono?" His Facebook page provides squat, I still don't understand Twitter or Afrikaans so his tweets are useless, and his website and Wikipedia page are non-existent. What I do know is that I am infatuated with this "Will Mono."

Why do I love him? Let me count the ways...
  • He has an Afro
  • He dances for old people
  • He has one man dance parties (Combine his one man dance party with my one woman dance party and what do you get? A dance party.)
  • He makes mixes on cassettes
  • He wears sequins (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Swoon.
  • He owns a denim vest
  • He has Batman briefs


I hope you all enjoy this song as much as I do. As James Brown would say "get up offa that thing and dance til you feel better!" Or just get up offa your booty, put on your batman briefs, or your sequined jumpsuit, and have your own dance party.

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Blue Lagoon and Phu Kham Cave

One of the days in Vang Vieng, the German, the Kiwi and I decided to search for The Blue Lagoon. We hired motorbikes and went on our way (this was my second time riding a motorcycle and this time, I almost fell off a bridge into a river. I'll get to that later.) The bike shop gave us a hand drawn map that was not drawn to scale. Our first destination was not the Blue Lagoon, but after attempting to go to another cave and bumping into random tolls on dirt roads that didn't seem legit, we decided to seek out The Blue Lagoon.

Tim and I on the bridge, I don't know why we both look so pasty
The ride was amazing. We rode through farmlands, fields of rice patties, mountains, rivers, Lao kids chasing after us, we even saw hot air balloons hovering above us. We were on a dirt road for the whole ride, but despite bumpiness, the views made it worthwhile. When we were lost and checking out the map, a Lao man with really good English starting talking to us. He told us that there were two Blue Lagoons, and one of them was a tourist trap and that it's not that blue. So fellow backpackers, you will reach a fork in the road and there will be a sign to turn right to go to the "Blue Lagoon" but apparently that one is the tourist trap where some people looking for money set up the sign leading tourists to some other water area where they can sell overpriced beer. At least that's what I was told. So do not turn right, go straight when you see that sign in the fork in the road. After about 7km we reached The Blue Lagoon! Make sure you bring some cash because you'll have to pay to enter the area, as well as pay to enter the Phy Kham Cave which is a little beyond the Blue Lagoon.

Those wire cords probably saved my life

The Blue Lagoon is SO BLUE! The water in the stream comes from the mountains, and the water is so clear you could see all the way down to the deep bottom, and all the little fish that swim around your legs. There is a large tree with a rope that you can swing off of, or if you're more daring, you can jump off the tree itself.


Phu Kham Cave is a bit of a trek, so be prepared. To get to the cave itself we had to climb about 100m up the side of a mountain. It's a little steep in some areas and there was a makeshift bamboo ladder that was pretty sketchy. We entered the cave and all the sunlight shining into the cave shone on the reclining Buddha that rests in the center, it was stunning. Luckily, one of us brought a flashlight because besides the sunlight, which was going down, there was no other light in the cave. We explored around the cave a bit, but with one flashlight it was a little hard for all three of us to see. You can hire a tour guide or flashlights outside the cave for a fee, which may be beneficial. Apparently, you can go deep inside the cave into different chambers, but it's easy to get lost so it's be important to have a local guide is you want to go deeper inside.


After sweating so much from climbing to and from the cave, the Blue Lagoon was a nice place to relax and jump into the cool water. It was a nice change of scenery from the drunken debauchery that happens in Vang Vieng.


On the way home, we were crossing over the bridge pictured above, the bike had a flat tire that we must not have noticed, and as we were crossing over to make room for another motorbike, the flat tire didn't make it up the wooden plank (Laos bridges are pretty sketch), and the motorcycle capsized. I fell to the right and almost off the bridge, my arm luckily caught on to a metal wire to save me from toppling off and into the river, and the bike fell on top of Travis's leg. We both were fine, just some cuts and bruises, but with those cuts and bruises I escaped with a new fear of motorcycles, and really gross cut that was infected for the next four days and would change colors from green to orange to yellow and back again. It was a pretty sweet battle wound.