Fire on the Mountain

Hello all, Mark here writing to you from Udon Thani, Thailand. Since we last wrote we have driven through out of control brushfires at insane speeds, gotten loaded while tubing down a river making friends, and spent a few days holed up in a hotel getting over our bugs.


From Luang Prabang we took a mini van back to Vang Vieng, where we were going to give tubing another shot and enjoy the really good pancakes. The mini bus drove so fast that I seriously thought our driver had something wrong with him. At our first stop I even mentioned to another passenger that perhaps if we all say something together he might slow down. She got on another van instead, and apperently had a much smoother ride. It started getting very smoky and we were flying around these tight mountainous roads. At one point we stopped, and when I looked up I noticed that the road ahead was blocked by opaque smoke and there was a 30 foot fire on the side of the road. The driver started backing up, but then decided to go forward. The 2 ladies in front of us started to get very nervous and then Liza put her foot down. She said, "whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa .... stop, i'm taking control now." She did this becasue most people on the bus were petrified, and the bus driver didn't really seem sure as to what to do. She was thanked later on! We stopped for a few moments and the driver started to say something along the lines of it's okay, the fire is gone. The Aussie guy in front of me (Brad) also stated that it should be fine, as they were controlled brush fires. Other cars started to come through the smoke from the other side, which was when I started to relax a bit. My main fear was the visibility. If we started to drive in to the smoke and it became too thick we would have been in a lot of trouble. Instead it cleared up in about 30 feet and all was fine. We passed crazy fires on either side of the road, one was even hitting the power lines. Liza was on fire in the van as far as her joke telling and set the whole van at ease. We ended up making friends with the two dutch ladies and Brad, and made plans to meet the following day for some tubing action.


The next day at about 12:30 we met with Brad. One of the other ladies had taken ill (this is what I call foreshadowing). We got our tubes and headed to the jump off. We made friends with the others in the Tuk Tuk as well. Last time we did the tubing we were the only ones on the river. This time it was like a full on party. I felt a little old but took on the attitude that this was my party. We had many drinks and and Brad and I tried eating wasps. We had to spit them out because no matter how much we chewed, there was no way to get them down. about half way down the river were the last bar is we hired a boat to return us. I really don't remember much from this point on. Liza and I met with Brad and Kathryn (another one of the tubers from the Tuk Tuk) for dinner. After this we went to a full moon party. Except for Kathryn we tuckered out by about 11:30 and headed home. I remember waking up at about 6:00 am and waking Liza up to say, "hey where's the money belt?" (contains money and passports). It was nowhere to be seen. We looked everywhere and started to assume the worst. We went down to the front desk and checked. We questioned the kids in our hallway... Nothing. We were going to have to cancel our trip and return home, then I looked at the bed and noticed something sticking out from behind the mattress ... saved again. We both have no idea how it go there, but St. Christopher and St. Anthony came through for us again! We did learn a valuable lesson though. We learned how important that stuff is, and how screwed we would be if we lost it. As if to hammer the meaning in I saw a young girl crying in the internet cafe next door. She was on the phone (Skype) with her embassy, she had lost her passport, credit cards and money.


Later that day we were supposed to be getting on a bus to Vientiane. I had to get the tickets changed for the next day. I was burning up, my throat hurt and my stomach and butt were doing weird things. The bit of hang over probably didn't help either. I was okay for the next day. But when we woke in Vientiane the following day I was really having stomach problems. For a second I started thinking malaria, and then I remembered how I felt the morning after chicken wings from Tags in Whitehorse on several occasions. The next day I wasn't much better so I started taking antibiotics for Travellers Diarhea. It's been three days but today I feel much better.


Tommorow we will be taking a bus to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. We plan on spending a few days there, and then taking the night train to Bangkok. A few days in Bangkok and then we are off to INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!