We arrived to Don Khong in the morning, so we grabbed a hostel and a motorbike, and decided to explore Khone Phapheng waterfalls, “The Pearl Of The Mekong”. We brought our swimsuits excited to cool off in the water (it was about 95° that day), but found the area to be a bit different than we thought. Firstly, it was $7 per person to get in…quite a bit of money to see a natural wonder. Then, there was a temple associated with a sacred tree that was onsite. As soon as I saw the first monk walking around I knew I had to ditch the whole swimming idea. Bikinis and monks do not mix. Bummer. The falls were stunning, but I'm not sure it was worth the price and the heat. That night made up for it as we celebrated our 100th day on the road by splitting a huge dinner and a few BeerLaos.

The next morning we headed over to Saibadee Volunteer School. This is the homestay we would be teaching English at for the next week. There are four levels of students attending the school. Groups 1, 2, 3 were almost the age equivalent of elementary, middle, and high school in the states. All the children and teenagers show up after school and each get an hour of class time in their respective levels. A small group of adults show up in the afternoon on their lunch break to learn as well. Classes run every day, Monday-Friday, and most of the time a group of kids come on the weekends to play games with the volunteers.

Because we showed up on a Saturday, we had a lot of time to get into full relaxation mode at the homestay. The first day was fairly mellow, and we stuck around the property to play games with the kids as they showed up. Uno, hangman (all English of course), and tag are all favorites of the younger classes. The kids knew numbers, colors, and “sorry teacher!” in English (I had a lot of draw 2 cards directed at me). The kids were all smart and adorable. They kept asking me the names of new words or actions in English. It was nice to see what level they were at in a fun way.

The next day, Grant and I borrowed bikes from the homestay and biked 5 miles across the island to get to the larger, morning market. Being there was one of our favorite market experiences so far. We filled up on fresh spring rolls, donuts, and a sugary drink for about 50 cents each. It was the first time we were getting charged the same price as the locals. After eating, we wandered through town and found the shore. There, we watched a series of boats with questionable safety standards riding to and from the beach. Shortly after, it was starting to heat up (at 9:30 AM) so we decided to trek home. Because of the heat, we learned to hide out in the shade or in the water for the majority of the afternoon. No wonder markets wind down at 9:00 in the morning…it's too hot to be active after that time. On a walk later on, we saw a golden tree snake and the locals were as excited to see it as we were.

Monday was our first real class. We volunteered to teach the adults at first, and later on I taught Group 2 and Grant did Group 3. The lessons are all planned by the volunteers. The classes themselves were difficult because no one who spoke Lao was ever around to help out. Miming and consulting various dictionaries/translate apps was the only way to get our points across at times. At one point during a question/answering exercise, Grant asked why the chicken crossed the road. After giving a sincere answer, we tried to tell them what a joke was and they didn't understand what we were gesturing about. Unemployment was another difficult concept for them to understand as well. Despite this, the adults had a pretty good grasp on the language, but were not comfortable speaking casually. So, of course, that is where we focused a lot of our energy on during the week. By the end, they really did seem more comfortable talking, so I hope future teachers continue to work on that with them.

The kids classes were more difficult for different reasons. It was hard to get them to settle down and to not use Lao to one another. Also, they were all at various levels learning the material. Since our lesson was after their normal schooling, I don't blame them for being slightly rowdy. We worked on answering questions about time and played competition games for practice.

When we weren't teaching, making lesson plans, or hanging out in the shady hammocks, you could find the volunteers playing cards, reading, hanging out in the Mekong, or eating the delicious food that was made for us. Curries, stir fried dishes, soups, fruit, eggs, bread, rice, and more rice were some of the things we would have in front for us for every meal. It was awesome to have 7 days of home cooked Lao food to eat.

Our room was simply made, but had an awesome view of the sunrise over the Mekong. With no doors or windows, the swift breeze would blow through our hut throughout the night. The breeze was welcome, however, since the nights were warm and the wind blew the smoke from the sky. Although we summoned the energy for a few late nights of Lao Lao (rice 'whisky'), BeerLao, card games, and stories, most ended early since we were almost always up for the spectacular sunrises (various island roosters and Jimmy made sure we were awake).

Finally, the host family and founders of the program were amazing to all the volunteers that came through the school. Although we only spent a day with the leader and father of the program, Khamla, we could tell how kind he was and how interesting it would be to know him. During our one evening together, he told us about Lao traditions, his life as a monk, his family, and his time as a student in Laos. He told us about how Laos struggles to keep young talent from going to the surrounding countries, unable to resist the lure of more money. He stayed in the country because he is the youngest in the family, and therefore, responsible for taking care of his parents as they become older. He had a good sense of humor and he treated the volunteers with honesty and fairness; I'm glad we were able to spend just that day with him. His wife was a delight as well, dispite the language barrier. Her smile brought more light to the homestay, and she was always working hard to feed the volunteers and students, and to take care of her 10-month-old son, Jimmy. Jimmy (named after James Bond) was as cute as it gets, and as all the volenteers learned, curious in almost a dangerous way. Somehow, Jimmy was already walking everywhere, but the concept of ledges and steps were foreign to him. He'd routinely walk off of drops, with a volenteer or his mother arriving just in time to catch him. Everything new needed to be picked up, inspected, and tasted. Most of the volunteers are convinced he'll be an engineer as well, since he routinely investigated the motorbikes and bicycles for moving parts.

In the end, this was an awesome experience, and now we are even more excited for the next volenteer opportunities ahead of us in Malaysia.

Before then, we will be exploring the Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We finally caught up with our postings, so stay tuned for an update soon!

Danielle and Grant

The post Don Khong – Relaxing, Teaching, and Homestay-ing appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

As we arrived in Pakse we expected lots of tuk tuks to be hassling us for expensive rides into town. Instead, we found ourselves in an empty busstation with only two people, a dirty man with a mohawk and a man with a Russian assult rifle on his back. They told us (in a non threatening way) the only place to sleep was the adjacent hotel and that no tuk-tuks ran at this hour. We were stuck, so we decided to listen to the man with the gun.

The next morning we were able to take a tuk-tuk into town, and we found a much cheaper hostel. We also found our new favorite restaurant, a place called Daolin. For a fair price, we were eating real bacon for the first time in 3 months.

The first day was spent wandering the city. We walked to monuments, temples, markets, book stores, museums and food stands. Wikitravel teased us with promises of cheap burgers and ice cream, but it was a sham. That night we met up with a few new friends, played games, and drank beer. No one told us all the hostels lock up at 11, so when we got back home at 12, we thought we were sleeping outside. Luckily we were “those people”, and a sleepy, grumpy, hotel owner opened the door for us. “Do you know what time we close?” he growled. “I do now?”

Pakse is apparently the second biggest city in Laos, although it doesn't feel like it. The city isn't crowded and the traffic is almost non-existent. There isn't much tourism there, and we found that this was part of the charm.

We made an effort to take more photos of the locals while we're we here.

The second day, we got on the road and visited Wat Phu, a gorgeous temple near the town of Champasak. This ancient temple was originally built before 1000CE as a Hindu temple, but over the years it blended with Buddhism, and about 500 years ago, it became a primarily Buddhist temple with Hindu influence. We found the temple, besides beautiful and impressive, interesting. The blend of Hinduism and Buddhism is very unique, especially from a westernern religious perspective.

That night we finished some blog posts and enjoyed more food as temporary regulars at Daolin.

Finally, off to Don Khong for our first volenteer opportunity. Wish us luck.

Thanks for reading,

Grant and Danielle

The post Pakse – A Long Ride, an Ancient Temple, and a Man With a Machine Gun appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

Our first and only full day in Phonsavan took us to the first three field sites. I think there are well over fifty sites in total, but most sites are isolated by hundreds of meters of land that might have land mines and UXO's (“unexploded ordinances”).

Of the sites we saw, Site 1 was the biggest and most interesting, Site 2 was the most relaxing since it offered shade, and Site 3 was the prettiest. Site 1 was currently undergoing a new archeological project that was apparently going to last several years. While we were there, we were able to talk to the archeologists who we happy to explain their work, theories, and tech.

The land we explored in Phonsavan was strangly barren, possibly the aftermath of deforestation during the war, or the aftermath of the slash-and-burn agriculture so common in Laos. Either way, the haze was concerning.

The aftermath of the war left this region of Laos ravaged. As we rode our motor bikes, we could see caters in the hills and fields that marked were little “bombies” landed from the air raids. Although the bombies were about baseball sized, they were dropped in the thousands and each took a 10m radius hole out of the Earth. Exhibits told us that on average, a plane dropped a bomb load in Laos every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 7 years. The communist resistance made strong holds around the jar sites so each site has a crater every 100 yards or so. Some of the jars were damaged as a result of the bombs.

Since the war, a large percentage of land is considered unsafe to trek since unexploded ordinances and land mines still scatter the landscape. No one in Phonsavan should walk off trail unless the ground has been cleared. Many groups are working to clear the land, but the work is slow moving, dangerous and tedious. Apperently they find and safely detonate about 200 explosives per year. Safe trail is mark with scattered, unobvious blocks (see below…the 'MAG' side is uncleared, while the white side is). This obvious danger does not keep the locals from wandering the hazardous fields however. A local archeologist told us some Lao are commonly found searching with metal detectors, taking home the bombs found, and fishing with them. We couldn't believe it, but it's true.

During the rest of the day, we tried to visit a waterfall that was recently diverted into an aqueduct adjacent to a new road, and we indulged in some awesome Indian food in town.

On to Paske! It's only one, little twenty hour bus ride away.

Grant and Danielle

The post Phonsavan – Jars, Jars, and more Jars appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

Now the river front has two bars on it, and the atmosphere is relaxed at both places. Grant and I grabbed a few beers and hammocked the afternoon away at the Smile Beach Bar. We were rewarded with watching a few kayaks lose control right in front of us and nailing young tourists drinking in the river. It was pretty funny. We also saw an awesome sunset, so the overpriced beers were well worth it.

The next day we were determined to adventure around as much as possible. We woke up early, grabbed two mountain bikes, and hit the road before 8. Starting early is critical because the temperature rises quickly throughout the day.

We attempted to climb a mountain with a view, but the path was closed for whatever reason. Oh well. We moved on to Lusi cave which was only a gorgeous 1km hike away. The cave was fairly large, and we found a great view out of one of the openings looking into the valley.

Next, we biked over to the blue lagoon area for a potential swim and more cave exploring. The lagoon was over crowded with tourists, so we opted to just see the cave. Due to the slippery nature of the opening of the cave, not many tourists venture into the chambers inside. Thr cave was awesome. At one point, we found a wall with muddy handprints all over it. We found some mud and added our own to the mix. After, we enjoyed watching tourists jump into the lagoon from a tree growing right over the water.

On our bike trip back to the river, we found the best noodle soup place ever. The meat and broth were delicious and it was 50 cents for a bowl. Definitely worth the stop!

After, we cooled down at a river beach we found near our hostel. The current was much stronger than anticipated, but we found a slow pocket to laze around in. Kayakers and tubers floated past constantly, and they got a kick out of watching Grant swing into the shallow water from a tree vine.

All in all, we really enjoyed the beauty and activities offered in Vang Vieng. It is well worth the trip even if you are not looking to drink yourself silly each day.

See you in Phonsavan.

Danielle and Grant

The post Vang Vieng – Hammocking, Biking, and Caving appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

” …Anyway, I wanted to message you and thank you SO MUCH for the motion sickness pills. I decided to try one out today and it saved my stomach […] After screaming down the windy road and a third of the way through our drive, the passenger in the front seat started hurling out of the van. After that, every time we wanted to look at a view we had to look past the barf painted window. It was pretty gross to see but my stomach felt fine. Then about half way through the drive, the passenger behind us woke himself up by throwing up all over the van floor. It only took a couple of minutes for the vomit to trickle under everyone's feet because of the twists and turns. I did a mental check on my stomach and I STILL DIDN'T FEEL NAUSEOUS! It was incredible. I hope you never have to experience this, but if you do, know that those pills are magical.”

I wish I had a picture of the van, but we forgot to take one.

Needless to say, we were happy to stop in Luang Namtha. After getting off the van, the city immediately took us in. In the night market, across the street from the hostel, they served full rotisserie chicken with sticky rice and papaya salad (for two) for $5. We were happy. That night we played cards and searched for a guided overnight trek / homestay.

The next morning we left for the trek in a big group of twelve. We were a little disappointed, since we expected to go with a group of four, but since we got a big discount, we didn't mind. The hikes were short and easy with stellar views, but lunch on a banana leaf table was the best part of the day. Despite the easy hikes, we were accompanied by three Israeli princesses that complained with every uphill and moved at a snail's pace. Danielle and I are convinced that it was because they spent most of their energy talking to each other.

The homestay was in a local village tucked away in the jungle. Before we left, Danielle and I bought a bag of balloons and the kids could not have been more happy to play with them. After we tried showing them how to share and play games with the inflated balloons we gave them, most of them just took them and untied them so they could make noises and launch them around themselves. That night, we watched the kids play with the fire as we drank Lao Lao out of bamboo shot glasses and listened to Mumford and Sons. Eventually, the chill drove us inside for a very cold night's sleep.

The next morning was Chinese New Year (Tet) and we were greeted to the sounds of gun shots, or that's what I thought. Instead we found the children heating up fresh bamboo section in the fire, creating a pressure chamber, and then whacking them so they exploded. I have no idea how safe this is, but I would have adviserd all of them to wear safety glasses if they had them.

As we hiked out, one of the princesses (who I'm still surprised made it through the night) were pulled up the hills with a stick by the very patient guide (see picture below for proof). Since we weren't going anywhere quickly, Danielle and I hung back and helped the other guide with his English.

Again, lunch was the coolest part. We hacked down banana trees for a few layers of the outer stalk (it looked like and had the consistancy of pasta), the core of its stalk, and for the huge flower. With this, we made soup using big sections of bamboo as a pot. Lunch was served in two half sections of bamboo, repurposed as serving trays. We ate everything with sticky rice and spoons made with hand-folded leaves.

We got back to the city that night, and the next day was spent lazily waiting for laundry, reading, and posting to quarterlifeexcursion.com. We also got the worst massage I've ever paid for $5 for and spent a bit of time in a local sauna that could be decribed as a clamy concrete box. Ha.

Grant and Danielle

The post Luang Namtha – Night Markets, Jungle Treks, and Motion Sickness appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

The next day, we woke up early and made the trek up a nearby mountain to watch the sunrise from a very tall peak. The view was spectacular and fog was rolling over the nearby peaks constantly. We waited around at the top for the fog to dissipate, but had no such luck. Oh well; it was beautiful anyway. Tock stole the phone for a stealthy selfie at one point.

The rest of the day was spent chatting and playing with an adorable hostel kitten. We were throwing a crumpled piece of paper for him and he was attacking it, then growing bored. At one point, he learned if he brought the paper back to Grant, it would get thrown again. Success, we taught him fetch!

The next day, it was time to hop back on a bus and head further north for more trekking in a new city.

Until the next post!

The post Nong Khiaw – Sunrises, Sunsets, and Smart Cats appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

To initially cross the boarder, we took a bus to Chiang Khong, stamped out of Thailand and paid $36 for a Laos visa on arrival ($1 for a “weekend tax”). We crossed “Friendship Bridge #4” with a neutral bus, then headed over to the boats for the long ride to Laos. If you ever take these boats, remember to bring food,since they don't feed you, and remember to bring a sitting pad, unless they tell you that you don't need one (you can buy them at the boat dock).

The slow boat was, in the end more, comfortable than expected but about as nice as a long plane ride. From the boat we saw fishing villages, kids playing in the river, monks, temples, elephants, fish, bison, and sweeping views of beautiful mountains and karsts. The scenery was stellar and I'm glad I saw them, but everyone was antsy by the end of the ride.

After two days, we finally arrived in Luang Prabang and immediately started wandering around the city. Luang Prabang felt like a small town to us, but it is one of the biggest in Laos due to the population. It has 5 bars, all in one area, that close at 11:30, but if you walk 1 mile away, you're out of the city limit and there is a late night bowling venue. Ha. The prices are a little higher here (about 50-75% more than Thailand) but if you work hard, you'll still make your budget. The first night, in order to save our money, we visited buffet alley (see picture) and had some pretty awful cold food, which is never a good idea.

The first morning we immediately negotiated for a motorbike and headed to Kwang Si Waterfall. This waterfall takes the cake so far for coolest waterfall visited ever. The electric blue water cascades over dozens of individual terraces ranging from 1 to 30 meters. Several pools are available for swimming, and several are closed to preserve their function and beauty.

Before the waterfall, there is a moon bear reserve and a butterfly park. This was a great first stop to start Laos right.

The next day we ventured in a random direction, spat seeds into the river, and lounged on a make-shift beach. That night we learn a few new card games from a group of Canadians (31, Oh Hell, and Asshole), and prepared for the jump to Nong Khiew, our next destination.

See you there.

Grant and Danielle

The post Luang Prabang – Welcome to Laos appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.