up to now...

we are once again in Siem Reap.  The gods have smiled down on us for the past several weeks and brought Mrs. Charlotte(Austin's mom) out here to grace us!!!  THANK YOU!!!  We have been enjoying her company very very much!  While she's been here, we have tramped through beautiful Laos and the Temples of Angkor!  We started in Luang Prabang, Laos.  Luang Prabang is loved by everyone I talk to...and now I know why!!  It is a sleepy French colonial city and now World Heritage Site.  Monks float throughout the city, dressed in their beautiful saffron robes collecting alms or moving from temple to temple for chants and meditation sessions.  Just a beautiful place to relax!  We also swam in waterfalls and rode the cutest elephants:)

After L.P. we headed to Vang Vieng-backpacker heaven-known for its lazy river tubing and wild drink fests.  You should have seen the fit Mrs. Charlotte pitched when we told her she couldn't do it...that it was too wild and crazy of a partay!  ahhah!!  Just kidding!  We all decided to cut the tubing and kayak instead...and rock climb...and just enjoy the beautiful scenery.  You know, perhaps if some of you guys would get your booties out here we could play in rivers and tubes....you know Austin and I can't do everything by ourselves:)

So after all that we went over to the capital...Vientienne, which can surely be skipped for anyone planning a future trip.  But we were there for Laos' largest festival...the Full Moon fest. I must add, that I am a pure SUCKA for festivals...but these people have a totally different agenda....selling goods, clothes for a dollar, and companies forcing their employees to dance and sing for advertisement!  Fun...oh yeah...and did I mention that they truck em in by the thousands from all over the country???  "That Luang Festival" is the name and it is a religious festival that starts and ends with monks from all over the country walking around a temple collecting alms(offerings).  Don't know much else about it. 

After all that jazz...we went down to the South of Laos and played around near the most beautiful waterfalls EVER!!!  They were by far the best I have ever seen!!!  HANDS DOWN!  We also went down to what is known as the 4000 Islands which are islands in the Mekong River. Here, the river stretches out 9miles wide!  Mrs. Charlotte and Austin took a small boat and searched for the Mekong River Dolphins....they are called Irrawadday Dolphins...I had the world's worst headache, so I stayed behind!!  

So now we are just back in Siem Reap hanging out and viewing temples:)  So kool!!!!!!  Chat soon!

don't tell my mom...

that I've been run over by a car, lost at sea...twice, stung by malaria filled mosquitos, been victim of an attempted break in...that I'm stuck in Bangkok admist protests...that I steer Elephants by my lonesome while holding onto sugarcane(their fave)...and so much more! Some of you have asked for the good stuff...the stuff we don't tell our moms...so I figured what the heck, we've survived...so I'll just say it:) Because, these are the things that make our trip flavorful:) So the story goes....since we've last been up to date with the blogs...we've gone back to Indonesia. We went to Pulau Weh to do some diving for about 9days. Little did we know in those 9days we would be lost at sea TWICE:) woops! We laugh about it now, but we were slightly pissed when this went down. Austin and I were way down deep having a dive with an experienced dive master and some guy from Singapore, who sucked at diving..but no judgement here, just that later we would find out it was all his dang fault.....anywho! Another group underwater is making the sign for shark...usually I like to go the opposite way when that happens, but as we are in super warm waters, the sharks aren't scary, but often very interesting....so we turn to follow the other group. But the little guy has gone, so our group turn yet again and proceed on our merry lil way. The currents begin to pick up and our dive master motions for Austin and I(who are teamed up as "buddies") to follow him to the sandy bottom where the currents are more manageable. So we do...then ZIPPIDY DOO DA...we turn our heads and just like that, our dive master has disappeared....what in tarnations!!! So Austin and I do what experts like us(haha) were taught...look for one minute, if you can't find them, do a 3minute stop in 5meters of water, then surface. So, to interrupt here...we don't have watches and Frank surely doesn't know where 5meters is:) woops! So we attach ourself to the corral, trying not to hold on to that ole Scorpion fish whose poison will put our arms out of commission for life, and we wait in what our gauge says is 9meters and for what our watches that we don't have tell us is about 3minutes. LOVELY:) The current is beating us up too:) So we surface! The boat is close by, so no worries moms and dads:)

But wait, it gets better....our dive master gets on the boat and asks US where WE went...ahhaha!!!

He would later lose Austin that same day. But that time was not his fault but simply mother nature! But don't worry...we found him:)