So I go out last night

to the main city on Penang called Georgetown. They have nice clubs and bars there. So me and nat go get some cool East Indian (or just Indian if you're European cuz you killed all yours) food. That day I'm happy cuz my nail that was ripped up due to me falling in the hole in Laos has finally healed. We leave the restaurant to head to this bar that is sorta like flashbacks (for you Kelowna people) but with a smaller dance floor. Well we take this short cut across this tiniy construction site. Lucky Tyler was able to smoke is big toe into some nice re-bar lying on the ground. And the re-bar was nice enough to hit square onto my nail, ripping it up all the way to the cuticle. So I'm standing there with blood puddling in my sandal and I have to hobble over to the 7-11 to get band-aids. I then get to spend the rest of the night moving around people hoping the don't stomp on my toe. This will be how I remember Malaysia.

Ty
hoping he doens't lose the nail

Ok, I'm in Malaysia now

On an island called Penang. I't s so hot and stuffy here. I'll update later when I actually know something about this hot and stuffy country.

SupaTy

**UPDATE**

Well I haven't been feeling 100%. Might be the humid and hot weather. Or the fact that I hadn't slept in 36 hours to get here. Or this strange oyster/noodle thing I ate at the market. You can decide. So I haven't been out and about too much. I'm staying at the Brisish girl's (Natalie) parent's house. It is quite nice and has satelite TV to watch the football (soccer) matches (FA Cup and UEFA CUP).

So far I've gone shopping for cheap mp3 players only to find that they are all cheaper back home (so much for the rumour that asia has cheap electronics). Natalie's family is a member of this hotel so they can use the gym and pool and stuff. She snuck me in there yesterday and damn, it's a fricken 5 star hotel! The pool goes into a caved area and has a water fall you swim through to get into the cave. You are surrounded by jungle as well. I can only imagine what it costs to stay here.

Oh, Nat's mom cooked sausages and mashed potatoes. You probably don't care but it was the first home cooked meal I've had in 2 months. *drool*

SupaTy

My Photo's of Laos

More crap top waste your day with. They are my best photo's yet tho!

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=11h9qk7b.14zak8tf&x=0&y=aljapk

SupaTy

Vang Vieng

Well that is where i am now (in Laos). It is very cool here and very chilled out.

Yesterday, me and this Dutch guy Eric rented some motorbikes and ripped around the town. We even spend by the local law inforcement here (this country is communist so they all carry AK-47's and such). We then went tubing with this dumb American girl and this other dutch guy. Picture tubing like the Penticton canal, with stations scattered along the riverbank every 20-30 meters that sell beer and have cliff jumping and rope swinging from trees. Yeah, that's right folks, it kicked ass. And I have the video's on my camera to prove it.

Today me and the Eric guy went on this day trip where you gave cave hiking and tubing. The caves sorta sucked (i also fell into a hole and ripped up part of a toenail - here's to hoping it doens't get infected! Don't worry mom it wont!) The tubing was cool tho. You basically go into the mountainside riding a tube with a group of people for 500 meters or so with some shtty flashlight to show you what not to run in to.

This whole town plays Friends (you were right Nat)! All the restaurants have it playbg 16 hours a day to get the tourists into it. I officially hate Friends now.

Some fun facts I learned in Laos:

- They use Kip not Baut for currency. 1 Baut is 267 Kip. So when I cash in approx. 70 CDN I get over 500,000 Kip - Makes you feel rich for about 3 days!
- They have Beer Lao which is there one and only beer. It is supposedly the best beer in Asia. That is cool with me as long as it still costs $1!
- They have a 12AM curfew they try to impose which can suck when you have had a few too many and are lost (this totally does not sount like a Tyler thing to do now does it??)
- To add to the post pervious. Don't drink the night before having to take a 6 hour minibus ride through bumpy and turny mountains (again not me).

SupaTy
- Saa Baa Dee (sp?) is 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'

more pics

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=11h9qk7b.u9vtgj3&x=0&y=-ctlg7v

In Laos

Well after a 2 day boat ride up the Mehkong river (i think) - Nat tell me in comments if i screwed that up. We stayed halfway through out bot trip at this place called Pakbeng. Me and this english guy Andy got a room. Some people had families of rats in there rooms but e were lucky and got a clean place (at least to my knowledge).

I'm now in this town called Luang Prabang. It as once rulled by the french so they can speak some french and they make french pastries! Strange but yummy. I did a hike up to this hilltop where a temple is. It has some very cool statues and a great view of the city (360 degrees). Today I'm heading out to this waterfall where a tigre is there as well. I'm going with some British, Andy, and some Kiwis.

I'll write more when I'm not at a crappy computer

Ty

My Trek

So fricken cool

3 days, 2 nights
all food provided
tranport provided
only 1,800 Baut (approx. 50 CDN)

Group consisted of:
3 New Zealand girls (Tessa, Amanda, Sarah)
2 Aussie guys (Sam & Cam)
2 Swedish girls (Jenni & Emma)
2 Slavenian girls (Pika & Petra)
1 Irish couple (Ollie & ?)
1 Japanese couple (Yes (sp) & ?)
1 Japanese (Hero)
1 Brit (Ben)
and me! (SupaTy)
oh, and our guide (Nit)

It was a blast. The first day consisted of a 2 hour hike uphill (relatively easy - most treks are designed so everyone can do em). We stopped at one of the hill tribe camps (500 peple camp). The kids are very friendly but covered in mud and dirt. They climb and punch and laugh and it was a great first stop by all. great pics in my ofoto.com album. We then hiked for another 2 hours to the second hill tribe camp. We stayed there in a large bungalow where we drank beer and wiskey and sang along with the locals. Great food is provided as well (curry dishes, etc).

the second day was a 4 hour hike to the elephant camp. Before the camp we hiked through poppy fields where the hillsman grow it to harvest it's opium. There are some pics of us standing in a field of opium. Once at the camp , myself, Petra and Pika rode one elephant (they road in the seats on top and i rode the neck/head) while the Jap couple and Hero rode the other I named our elephant Elly (pronounced 'Ellay' to sound like a Thai accent). I know I am hilarious (good pics in ofoto.com by the way). Elly was very hungly when we road her and would always wander off into the trees/bushes to eat. Of course these said trees/bushes had thorns on them and we all came back with cuts and scraps (especially me for some lame reason). Also my bottom still hasn't recovered fully from riding her for over an hour. Again the night was finished with wiskey and beer and song and dance.

The last day others took the elephants out for a ride and then we all went to the last village for lunch before going down this skinny stream on bamboo rafts. You don't paddle you use a pamboo pole to push yourself down. Very fun when you get the rocky areas and have to manuver around them and run from one end of the raft to the other to prevent it from getting stuck. Oh, there are 3 on a raft plus a Thai guy (well he is a kid from one of the camps that follows us to have a good time). it was about 2 1/2 hours long with the first 1/2 was a blast especially when you would try and overtake other rafters. The second half was slow and i was so exhausted (only me and the thai guy did all the work, the Slavenians did nothing).

All in all it was a blast and I am thinking about doing another one. But I will probabbly just leave Chiang Mai for somewhere else instead.

I'll stop now cuz this is too damn long. Check out my ofoto albums for pics of my trek and other stuff. The link is posted in the blog entry below this one.

Pics

If you want to see the pics from Natalie's camera from the Full Moon Party click here:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2131194600&code=14372789&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite

They didn't all turn out because.....well...we were drunk....enjoy!

I'm only in 3 i think but i'll get my pics posted one of these days.

Ty

*** UPDATE ***

I decided to stay up later and upload my pics up to Koh Samui (approx. Jan 20) to ofoto.com. Feel free to view them at:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=11h9qk7b.65ypmcn&x=0&y=-6wafhi

You'll have to sign up for free to see them but that isn't so bad, is it?

As you can see I am far from the best picture taker. Many more photo's are from jake, craig, kim, and others cameras and those wont be done until i get back home. So just suck it up :)

In Chiang Mai

Well it gets colded at night. In a good way though - you don't sweat like on Koh Tao, etc. The bus was another VIP bus and it was smooth and great until the last hour when the A/C got so cold. People had sweatshirts on. Of course all i had was a t-shirt and shorts, so i froze.

I'm staying at a place called nice place 2 (recommended by many travelers i have talked with). I ran into a Swedish (yes guys, Swedish) girls soccer team (9 in total) and spent the day with them shopping and eating and such. It is funny to hear them tlak and have no clue what they are saying. They are doing a 2-day version of the trek I will be doing (mine is a 3-day version). They leave tomorrow whereas I leave the day after.

From what I ca remember the trek includes visits to 4 local tribes in the mountains. Elephant riding (which I am very much stoked for), bamboo rafting, and some other stuff that i can't recall. There are up to 12 people in my trek and I meet them tomrorow at 5pm. If all goes well and I really enjoy this trek i may do another one to another area.

I went to the midnight market tonight with those swedish girls and it is so huge. just to wlak the sidewalks and cover all of the market it would take you over 2 hours without doing any heavy buying/bargaining.

Since the swedes go tomorrowe I have no friends and might just rest and read. I am so cool - be jealous. There is a pool at the place so maybe a dip would be good as well. I'll write next time with stories from my trek.

One thing I have noticed is all the other travelling countries find it funny that us Canadians travel with our flag on our packs. I think it's sweet. They laugh. It's all good.

Ty

An example of how cheap....

I just bought a big duffle bag to carry some of the stuff i've boughten here. It's Northface (a fake of course). It cost me 10 bucks! 10 freakin bucks. it''s crazy. Billabong, ripcurl, von dutch t-shirts are 5 bucks. board shorts are 12 bucks. it is rediculous. and now you know why.

Ty