Koh Tao

Koh Tao is a beautiful island located in the Gulf of Thailand. It is mostly known by its turquoise waters and amazing corals and water life. Koh Tao is one of the best places in the world for diving where the visibility can go up to 30m. The island is really famous among the tourists and travelers, it is developed with a lot of restaurants, bars and shops but big enough so there is always spots to relax and run away from the crowds.
For those who want to drink and party the best place to go is Sairee Beach on the west coast, for those who want to relax in remote places the east coast is more recommended but our perfect spot was in the south of the island where there was cheap accomodation, some restaurants and shops but not too crowded and we could enjoy our days without having to rent a motorbike. Generally there is a misconception that to be in the paradise people have to pay $100/night but we found accomodation in a very nice room for $12/night... absolutely incredible.
We reached Koh Tao with a very specific task, we had to decide what to do with the rest of our trip. When we arrived to Koh Tao we had no clue about how many days we would stay in the island, the only thing we knew was that we needed to use our time to relax and to figure out what would be our next step so we lived our days very slowly and with no stress at all. We did only what we felt like doing, no rush and no preasure to visit this or that. 
After Laos our minds were a bit lost... we were in the middle of the trip still with some money left and we had no clue what we wanted to do.
We thought about so many possibilities...
keep travelling in Southeast Asia?! What if we are not going to enjoy as much and we are wasting money?! Get a minivan and travel around Europe?! Sounds fun but what is the actual purpose of that? South America?! At one point we were even more lost... so many places we could go but something was escaping us... the purpose. Why did we decide to do this trip in the first place? The answer to that is so easy... we wanted: Culture shock, to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to be put to test... so why were we even considering going to Europe or keep staying in Southeast Asia? We were ready for the next step in terms of backpacking... AFRICA!
Almost everybody thinks of Africa as a dangerous place where it is not possible to backpack. We also thought the same but excited about the possibility of an even bigger adventure, we forgot the paradise beach in our yard. We just started researching online: is it safe to backpack and volunteer in Africa? For a couple of days we did not stop researching... visas, vaccines, malaria, crime, safaris... so many Google searches, without noticing there was no way to go back in our decision. We found several blogs of travellers that backpacked in Africa and they total recommend it. All of them say the same, they were scared before starting the trip but after doing it, it easily became the trip of their lives. All the blogs we read made us feel much more confortable about the crime and the deseases. There was only one thing missing, we wanted to find a volunteering place to go and that ended up being much harder than expected.
After going through tons of NGO websites and finding nothing or being asked for $800/week to volunteer, we decided to start looking at our dear www.workaway.info. We always used this website and it is great because it has reviews from other travellers. We tried to find volunteering places in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. After contacting a few of them we decided that we could start in Uganda, more specifically in Mubende where we will be helping to build water wells for schools, distribute higiene kits for children and pregnant women, etc.
With our minds clear and with our next adventure already planned, it was time to enjoy the sun, the beach and the turquoise waters. We spent amazing days in Koh Tao, we bought snorkels and enjoyed the days watching tousands of fish and beautiful coral.
In one of the days we did the snorkel tour around the island and it was one of the most fantastic days of our trip... we saw the ocean in a way that we had never imagined and we also got the opportunity to explore the famous Koh Nang Yuan, an island composed by three small mountains connected by sand and surrounded by the astonishing Japanese Gardens (under water gardens).
We tried to explore the island as much as we could, sometimes by motorbike but most of the times by feet. Since the accident in Krabi, riding a motorbike is not as fun as it used to be.
From all the great beaches that we went, our favorite was definitely the Freedom Beach with a very relaxed environment and beautiful underwater views.
Koh Tao was exactly what we wanted to be, a place to refresh our minds, to find our next move and obviously to relax.
After Pedro's birthday we were ready to leave Koh Tao. We now had the mission of getting the vaccines and visas to Africa  in Bangkok... we even got a great surprise, on our last day in Koh Tao, our dear friend Garcia informed us that he was going to meet us for a few days!!! We couldn't be more excited about seeing a friend after so many months of traveling.

IMPORTANT NOTE: for some reason blogger is not allowing us to post with pictures, we will update the post as soon as we fix the issue.

 

Laos

Laos was one of the countries that we were more curious about. All its mystic mountains, the temples, the discovered but almost untouchable land full of scars from the bombs of the Vietnam war that were dropped on its skies, the simplicity of the local people and the cheap prices for travelers were our expectations before arriving to Laos.

We had planned to stay 30 days in Laos, so after reaching the border Thailand/Laos by bus we got a 30 day Visa for 36 dollars each.

We were now in the Laos side ready to explore the country. New Language, New Customs, New Currency, New Culture, New New New... everything was NEW. We were so happy!! even without any idea about which city we were heading to, we had no idea about where to go or from where to start... But we were in Laos and that was more than enough to make us feel happy and excited for being in the 'New' once again.

Well, we headed to the closer bus stand and tried to buy a ticket. Luang Prabang, a city that is well known for being a World Heritage Site, was 10 hours trip by bus from there... which is pretty much 'OK' for us...after hundreds of discomfortable and long distance buses that we have been taking through this 6 months of traveling...10 hours was almost nothing, though the price...we had our first "owwww" moment in Laos. The price was insane!!! We got surprised by that time with the transportation prices, super expensive comparing to Thailand. Well but it actually helped us a lot to choose which place we would go, we bought a bus ticket for the cheapest destination - Luang Namtha!
We started our Laos experience in Luang Namtha, in the North, and slowly started going to the South.

LUANG NAMTHA
Among all the cities we visited, Luang Namtha is the most remote one. Surrounded by stunning mountains, it still keeps its natural essence, far better from the other developed cities that we crossed on our journey in the country. This city is mainly known for the great trekking and hiking on its surroundings. If there is a place to do trekking in Laos, that place is in Luang Namtha, but as we have posted before, we did a trekking a few days ago in the North of Thailand, so it didn't make any sense for us to do it again. Of course, it always depends on the budget, for our budget, which is short, it didn't make sense, we prefer to keep our budget and energy to interact with the real culture and the local people of the country, avoiding the huge corporate touristic experiences. We are not saying that they are bad, it is good once in a while, but the real cultural experiences still remains in the more simple things, like just walking on the street, taking the transportation that all the locals take and not the ones that tourism offices have to offer, going to the local restaurants where your eyes don't want to go, etc...

So, resuming, we took the cheapest bus and we ended up in a city where we were not willing to spend money on its main adventure, the trekking.

Well, as soon as we stepped on the street we saw a small shop renting bicycles and motorbikes. We had a plan now!!! The next days we rented bicycles and a motorbike, where we had the opportunity to drive ourselves all over the places that we wanted.

On the bicycles, while exploring the city, we raced with some kids that decided to follow us and we broke through a weeding!! Amazing!! No one in the weeding spoke a word in English, they were all very happy for having us there so they started offering us "BeerLao" the most famous beer in Laos, without noticing we were drunk. Yes, more or less in 1 hour we were completely drunk!! They were always giving us more and more beer, our cup couldn't be empty and when the cup had beer they always insisted to "cheer" with them, which in Lao culture means drinking the beer like a shot! So we ended up drinking more or less 2 litters of beer each in 1 hour. Besides the beer they also invited us to go to dance and of course they have their traditional way of dancing. Basically, the dance consists in couples dancing in a circle where every person goes around the circle while slowly moving the hands and feet with extremely LOUD music. Hard to explain, but AMAZING experience. One hour later, after dancing, taking a bunch of pictures and drinking lots of beer with everybody, including a police officer and a monk teacher, we decided that it was time to go.

On the motorbike, we had the opportunity to explore the surrounding tribe villages. It was a very pleasant ride where we could see the simple and happy way that the people from outside the big cities live. Houses made from natural materials, sandy roads, people fishing in the river, animals like pigs and chickens wandering all over the places... very nice.

We stayed 3 days in Luang Namtha before moving south to Luang Prabang.

LUANG PRABANG
The second most important city of Laos, on the edge of the Mekong river, Luang Prabang is a World Heritage Site. The city itself is beautiful, full of temples, pretty houses, bars and restaurants, the roads are very well maintained and the view to the Mekong river is just stunning. However, it is a pricey city for the reality of the country, super mega touristic! A very easy place to be with a lot of western options for food and comfortable accommodations. We struggled a lot to keep ourselves on the budget. This was the city where we became more thoughtful about the rest of the trip. We were feeling like we were not having that much culture shock as we were expecting to have.

'A lesson that we have been learning along with this year journey: how to deal with expectations'

After long conversations about what could be good for us, we decided to subscribe on a volunteering in a city close by, called Vang Vieng. The volunteering was in an organization called 'SAE LAO' that had a beautiful cause and offered us the opportunity to interact more with the Lao people.

VANG VIENG
We planned to stay two weeks in SAE LAO project, the cost would be 300 dollars for both, the money would cover our accommodation, food and a donation part to help supporting the project. SAE LAO PROJECT is an organization that provides Education and inspires the population of Nathong Village, in Vang Vieng, to live in a Sustainable way. Sae Lao has many different projects going on, such as, English Classes, Water treatment and distribution to the village and also helps the people to create their own business, currently there was a workshop going on to teach the population how to make homemade soap.

When we arrived at SAE LAO we realized that there were almost 20 western people volunteering at the same time. The property was amazing, they really take the word "sustainability" seriously. They had a permaculture garden, mud houses, drinking water filtered from the rain or the lake close to the property, a biogas tank that was connected to the toilets where all the pee and poop goes in and with time the pressure produces methanol that is used in the kitchen to cook our food, homemade mud bricks and many other interesting things.

Each one of the volunteers was responsible for one class, one hour a day of English teaching. Besides the teaching we had several tasks to do during the day, such as, cleaning the water filters, making mud bricks, gardening, cleaning the restaurant and social areas, feeding the pig and chickens, cleaning the pig, building the future mud kitchen, maintenance of some broken materials, etc....

Everything was excellent in this project, though we were a bit disappointed with the fact that we only had contact one hour a day with the population, the rest of the day we were in a completely western environment always occupied in our own tasks. We also felt that the portions of food for the volunteers were very small and there was a lack of nutrients on it. In addiction, the management could have been better. So for all this reasons, we decided to break the plan once again, we only stayed one of the two weeks that we wanted to stay. Nevertheless, we met really nice people, we learned a lot of good things about sustainability, which is something that Pedro is really interested in, and we had our first experience as English Teachers which we really enjoy it.

There was only one day that with had free time, that day was on Buddha day, where in the Laos country side no one works, there is a Buddha day every week. On this day we took the opportunity to swim on the famous blue lagoon, that was located a few steps from the property, we visited one stunning cave and we also climbed a mountain where the view was breathtaking.

Overall, we liked the experience in SAE LAO, the cause is beautiful. Maybe in another time, we would have stayed the second week.

VIENTIANE
Vientiane, the Capital of Laos. Vientiane is a flat city with a lot of diversity. There are many western and local Laos restaurants, good options for accommodation either on the budget or more expensive, nice markets at night where you can feel the Lao culture and some temples around.

We stayed four days in Vientiane, where we rented bicycles and a motorbike to explore the city and the surroundings. We had the opportunity to visit the Buddha park, a nice park full of Buddha statues artistically made with cement by a Monk that dedicated all his life to this project and we also visited COPE National Rehabilitation Center.

'COPE - Cooperative Orthotic Prosthetic Enterprise'

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HISTORICAL FACTS:
"Between 1964 and 1973 the US army dropped over two million tons of ordnance on Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. Of the more than 270 million sub-munitions, 80 million failed to explode. The nightmare continues to this day: one person is killed or injured almost everyday by unexploded ordinances (UXO) in Laos. The Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) is a non-profit based in Vientiane that runs rehabilitation centres aiming to provide care and support to UXO survivors, including orthotic and prosthetic devices and physiotherapy." - By travelfish.org

"Since the war ended in 1973, more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured – half the victims are children." - By travelfish.org

"Less than 1% of bombs that did not detonate have been cleared." By travelfish.org

"COPE provides orthotics, prosthetics, physical rehabilitation and occupational therapy so those with disabilities can develop independence and become an active member of society" By travelfish.org

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While in Vientiane we also got our 30 day Visa to...Thailand!!! We paid a few dollars for the Visa to cross the boarder by land and to be able to stay 30 days, with no Visa we would have been authorized to stay only 15 days. We could have just taken a flight from Vientiane to Bangkok, and that way would have 30 days for free, though the price of the flight would have been way more expensive then entering by land and taking a bus to Bangkok.

TRANSPORTATION
The transportation system in Laos is kind of crazy. We always traveled by bus or van. Bus or van are all the same category, it all depends on how many people are scheduled to travel with us. In Laos when we buy a ticket to somewhere we never know in what kind of vehicle are we going to travel in, we only know it at the moment we are jumping in to start the trip. Sometimes it can even be 15 people on a van for 10, there is always a space for someone :)

The roads are just one of the most dangerous we have traveled. 90% of the roads we have traveled in Laos were through the mountains, tiny, bumpy and with no rules. The drivers might have their own rules, thought for us, tourists, is super scary. They drive on the wrong side of the road almost all the time. When it comes to a scary curve, even a 180 degrees curve, they do it on the opposite lane... It is just scary.
Throughout all the country we saw two accidents, one involved a public bus and the other a truck, both were turned upside down on one of those scary roads that we are talking about... Could have been ours but fortunately it was not.

Laos is one of those countries where its real beauty is hidden far from the big cities, cities that we can call them touristic centers.

Our first plan was to stay in Laos for 30days, though we found ourselves a little bit lost. Yes, we were really happy because it was a new country, but we realized we had been traveling since September jumping from one place to the other, which is amazing for all the meaningful places and experiences we have been through, though we felt we were getting tired.

India was the strongest experience we have had in our lives, Thailand was nice to give us a break and relax.
Laos is nice but at one point a temple is just a temple, hiking a mountain is just one more hike, walking in the street is just walking in the street it doesn't matter if we are in Thailand, Laos or Cambodia, they are all the same touristic thing, maybe good for other type of travels.

When you backpack throughout SouthEast Asia, it all looks the same, you kind of lose the sense of culture shock, which is one of the most important parts of our travel.

At one point we were just thinking about the food, friends and family back home. So, Laos ended up being a place where we became more introspective and thoughtful about  the rest of the trip.
We still have 5/6 months of traveling and we do not want to spoil it with the thought of "it is just one more country like the others".

However we visited the country... four cities in 15 days, Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane, always by bus or van.

No doubt that Laos is a nice country to backpack, it is true that it is not that cheap as everybody might think it is, though it is understandable that the only way that the country has to support its development is through the tourism. Nevertheless, it is worth to come to Laos, the prices are expensive compared to Thailand or India, but still cheap for Europeans.

We know we have skipped many interesting things in Laos, but as we already said, we are getting tired of moving from one place to the other day after day. Our initial plan was to move to Vietnam and Cambodia after Laos, but we have decided that we need to stop for awhile while to rethink about what will be our next move.

For those who have been following our blog, we have already explained that the main purpose of our year trip it is not for vacation. We wanted to put ourselves out of our comfort zone, to be tested, to volunteer and to learn as much as we can. After the amazing, unforgettable and fulfilling experiences in India, we feel that Thailand, Laos and probably the rest of South East Asia, are "short" for what we are looking for.

We are heading back to Thailand again. This time we are going to an island called Koh Tao. We will stay there for two weeks to recharge ourselves on the paradise. While there we expect to find the boost that we need to put ourselves again on the road. The world is too big, we will see where are we going next.