"The World's Finest Walk" - The Milford Track, NZ

On February 9, we started the Milford Track, a 33.5 mile (54 kilometer) hike to the Milford Sound. It began with an hour boat trip from Te Anau Downs to the beginning of the trek at the Glad Wharf. Once the boat docked, we kicked off our shoes and socks and journeyed through the brisk water to shore since the docks were flooded from recent rainfall.


As we dried off our feet, put on our shoes and shoed away the sandflys, we gathered our packs and set out for the first of three huts on the Milford Track, the Clinton Hut located a short 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) away. We walked across a long suspension bridge to start the track and enjoyed the amazing surroundings of cascading mountains, clear blue streams littered with moss-covered limestone rocks, and the peacefulness of the track ahead.

Once we arrived at the hut, we headed to the bunkroom to unpack and figure out what freeze-dried dinner we should make that evening. We chose Nasi Goreng, a Balinese dish we enjoyed many times while visiting the Indonesian island. After a decent tasting dinner, we had a sleepless night in the snore-filled room of one of the Clinton Hut’s bunkrooms.

The next morning, we woke to overcast skies and light showers to begin our 9.5 mile (16.5 kilometer) hike to our next hut, Mintaro. As we ventured out, we enjoyed trails filled with singing birds, green ferns, moss covered logs and flowing streams along the trail. At many points, the trail opened up and we were surrounded by mountains and beautiful waterfalls. As we hiked along, crossing many bridges we enjoyed seeing some of New Zealand’s indigenous animals like blue ducks, weka and kea birds, and a huge rainbow trout that was in one of the streams.


After a 5.5 hour hike, and finishing with a 40-minute ascent, we were excited to arrive to a warm fire at the Mintaro Hut, as we were a little soggy from sloshing through puddles, and the light rain that accompanied us most of the day. We enjoyed another night of socializing with our 40 new friends and bunkmates, but headed to bed for an early night’s rest so we would be rested for the steepest part of our hike the next day, Mackinnon Pass.

On Friday (Day 3 of our trek), we ventured out early to endure the zigzag climb to Mackinnon Pass, the highest point on the track that would see us to an elevation of 1154 meters (3,786 ft). As we climbed up the pass and through the fog and mist-filled canyon, we emerged at the top of the pass to enjoy amazing views and the “12-second drop”, a straight drop down to the canyon floor below us. From the highest point on the pass, we enjoyed spectacular views of Mt. Hart and Mt. Balloon, it was truly spectacular! To warm up, we headed to the Mackinnon Pass Shelter to re-fuel and to put on some warmer clothes, as it was very cold on the top.

We enjoyed the amazing views for about 45 minutes before we started our hike down to the valley floor, a 970 meter descent (3,182 ft) to our final hut, the Dumpling Hut. As we maneuvered rocky, uneven terrain we enjoyed the spectacular views and waterfalls that surrounded us. This particular section is coined the ‘Roaring Burn’, and featured a wooden boardwalk and staircase section next to the numerous amazing waterfalls. Before arriving at the Dumpling Hut, we enjoyed a slight detour to enjoy the highest waterfall in New Zealand, the Sutherland Falls, dropping an amazing 508 meter (1,666 feet). We could really feel the awesome power these falls produced when we were standing at the bottom getting sprayed, it was incredible!

For our final day, we trekked 18 kilometers (11.5 miles) to our final destination, Sandfly Point. As the track gently descended following the Arthur River, we enjoyed the natural wonders like the beautiful Mackay Falls (in our opinion, the most beautiful waterfall we have ever seen- you were right Lori!). Shaped like a wish-bone, these falls are a definite highlight on the Milford Track. After Mackay, we continued on our journey enjoying our surroundings, and talking with our fellow hikers. We finally reached Sandfly Point after five hours and a reasonably easy day of trekking. We were excited to have completed such an amazing and beautiful trek and looked forward to a shower and a nice warm bed for the evening. Anyone considering this trek, we highly recommend it!

Love and miss you all,

Cathy and Adam

NZ: Manapouri, Doubtful Sound, Milford Road

(pic: View from Gertrude Saddle)

After leaving the Catlins, a region combining farmland, native forests and rugged bays, we continued on the ‘scenic highway’ heading northwest. Since starting our New Zealand adventures, we had been looking forward to the day that we would be in the Fiordland National Park, the largest national park in New Zealand and a World Heritage Area. We arrived almost a week ago, and one word…WOW!!!

We thought Switzerland was the most beautiful place we have seen, but being here has changed our minds; the Fiordlands are truly spectacular! Ok, the Annapurna Range in Nepal is quite amazing as well, but you get the point.

Our first three days we spent in Manapouri, a little town 20 kilometers south of Te Anau, and 144 kilometers south of Milford Sound; there is nothing else nearby. Manapouri sits on Lake Manapouri which is the gateway to the Doubtful Sound and back dropped by the amazing Fiordland Mountains. Our four day hut-to-hut trip on the Milford Track doesn’t start until Feb. 9, so we have had time to enjoy gorgeous hikes and scenery in the surrounding area. We have been doing roughly 3-5 hour hikes each day to get us somewhat prepared for our upcoming 54 km trek. We didn’t know there were so many accessible hikes around the area, it’s awesome!

So far, we have hiked portions of the Kepler Track, Circle Track in Manapouri, and the Gertrude Saddle, the latter being an almost 5 hour hike to a 1410 meter peak above sea level. It was by far the greatest and most technically demanding hike we’ve done, thus far. Yet the rewards were breathtaking views of the Milford Sound and the surrounding rugged mountains; it was like no other in the world!

In Fiordland National Park there are many INCREDIBLE tracks to hike, or ‘tramp’ as the Kiwis call it, but only a few are considered to be ‘Great Walks’. In Fiordland, there are three: Milford, Kepler, and Routeburn with the other six Great Walks located around NZ, all multi-day hut-to-hut treks that range from 29 to 82 kilometers. For these treks you need to be self sufficient and pack in/out your own food, cookware, clothing, and anything else you might need; just like the back-country hut trips in Colorado.

During our stay in Manapouri, we decided to book an overnight cruise to the Doubtful Sound, the second biggest Sound in the Fiordlands behind Dusky. We departed by boat from Lake Manapouri and headed to the West Arm Power Station about one hour away. From there we boarded a bus that took us 22 km up and over Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cove, the start of the Doubtful Sound, holy shizzle it was breathtaking!!

We ventured through the fiords and sounds in awe over the stunning beauty where mountains, rock, forests, and grasslands collide. The weather was not sunny and bright as we hoped it would be, but rather very windy with some rain. At first we thought we picked the wrong day to book the tour however, when the HUNDREDS of waterfalls started flowing from seemingly every nook and cranny, we welcomed the rain and wind. Our cruise took us up close and personal to the waterfalls, so close in fact, it was splashing down on the boat’s deck! Pretty cool.

We continued through the Doubtful Sound all the way out to the Tasman Sea where we saw a colony of fur seals (which are actually sea lions and not seals) sitting on the rocks. We ended our day by docking in Christmas Cove for the evening, the boat’s Captain pulled into a relatively calm bay to let people kayak and swim if they wanted to. When we looked out the window, we noticed a woman had dumped her kayak and fell into the water. She was fine, but cold I’m sure, LOL.

We had an amazing dinner on the boat and spent the night in our bunk beds. The next morning we meandered through the Sound before making our way back to Deep Cove and onto Manapouri. The massive and magnificent Doubtful sound was a great experience and we would recommend it to anyone who travels to New Zealand.

Following our three-night stay in Manapouri, we headed to Te Anau, the gateway to the Fiordland National Park, to get settled before our trek. After a few days of hiking around the area, we decided to explore the infamous Milford Sound (122 km away from Te Anau) to enjoy both the spectacular views as well as the Gertrude Saddle hike. The 2.5 hour drive is breathtaking the whole way, and neither of us has ever seen landscape like this before. If I had to compare, it would probably be a little like Yosemite in California, HUGE mountains shooting straight up from the road about 1100 meters high.

After hiking the Gertrude Saddle and enjoying the summit’s million dollar views, we made our way to the base of Milford Sound. As the sun was shining, we grabbed a cold beer and toasted to the amazing view and to our accomplishment of summiting a challenging hike.

We have a few more days until our trek and we are really excited to get it started. We hear the weather is supposed to be rain/wind free, which is really unheard of in the Milford Sound, but hopefully it will prove to be true, we’ll see.

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love, Adam and Cath

New Zealand Adventures

Adam and I arrived in Christchurch, NZ on January 11 anxious to explore the beautiful country. We decided that the best and most economical way to see as much as possible was to buy a car. Even though we thought it would be cool to cruise around in a VW bus ‘Spicoli’ style, we opted for the old faithful Subaru. After 10 days of searching, we finally found a 1994 twin turbo Subaru Legacy; the dent in the door came at no extra charge.


While waiting for a few “minor” fixes (like a new transmission), we checked out Christchurch. The town has a similar feel to Boulder; a very laid-back and friendly environment. There are beautiful Botanic Gardens where we enjoyed early morning walks and evening sunsets.

On only our second day in town, I (Cathy) experienced my first earthquake aftershock (if you are not aware, Christchurch experienced a 7.1 earthquake on September 3), thankfully no one was killed or seriously injured, yet it caused a lot of structural damage to many of the buildings; most of the town looks like a big construction zone. One morning while Ad and I were enjoying a cappuccino, we felt a strong shake throughout the building, then a few days later, we were woken up at 6:00 in the morning to a 5.1 tremor that caused us to jump out of bed and head to the nearest corner of the room.

Even though we had to deal with a few aftershocks, we enjoyed the very friendly people and also found some great local breweries that served delicious beers and food. My favorite beer was the ‘Ginger Tom’, and for Ad, a dark stout called the ‘Black Shag’. Next to the local brewery was a farmers market; we roamed around, checked out the local artists, tasted some local cuisine and enjoyed the sun while it was shining.

Akaroa, Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Otago Bay, Catlins National Park

Our car was finally ready and we were anxious to hit the road in our ‘new’ silver Subaru. We headed to the Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa, a small harbor town and the site of the country’s first French settlement. The charming town is filled with B&B’s, cafés, small bistros and beautiful bays.

For the evening, we headed to a campsite located outside Akaroa in the beautiful Okains Bay. It was chilly, rainy, and foggy yet we pitched our tent and enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner on our new camping stove.

After Akaroa, we headed to the ‘Southern Alps’ of Lake Tekapo, a turquoise lake with a backdrop of green rolling hills and mountains. The blazing turquoise water, called ‘Blue Crush’ is due to the sediment in the water. This sediment gives the water a milky quality and refracts the sunlight which gives it its brilliant blue color.

Next, we headed to Mt. Cook National Park, a World Heritage Area in the Southern Alps that has a blanket of permanent snow and glacial ice. Of New Zealand’s 27 mountains over 3050 meters (9150 ft), 22 of them are within this park. Ad and I headed out to enjoy the awesome peaks and the surrounding landscape by hiking up to the base of Mt. Sefton and checking out the amazing view of Mt. Cook (Maori name is Aoraki). Mt. Sefton includes the Huddleston Glacier, and the Footstool.

Not only is the Mt. Cook Wilderness area surrounded by incredible mountains and valleys, it is also home to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre, which was opened three weeks before his death; Mr. Hillary is regarded as the greatest New Zealander of all time. Above the Alpine Center is New Zealand’s most famous hotel, the Hermitage Hotel which was constructed in 1884 and rebuilt twice after a devastating flood in 1913 and then a fire in 1957.

When we left Mt. Cook, we headed south towards the Otago Peninsula, but stopped in the small town of Cromwell first where we enjoyed a delicious wine tasting at ‘Wooing Tree’ winery; oh these wines were spectacular! After spending the night, we continued our drive and reached the Otago Peninsula, which is located along the rugged southern countryside and home to an albatross reserve. As we traveled along the coast, we enjoyed incredible views of the rural countryside, beaches, amazing coastal birds and many sheep along the rolling the hills.

We stopped at the Royal Albatross Centre and learned about the world’s only mainland royal albatross colony. We learned that the birds spend eighty percent of their time at sea and New Zealand is the only place where they touch-down to nest. In addition, the female albatross will only lay one egg every two years so the species has been enlisted as endangered.

Once we left Otago, we headed further south to Catlins National Park. The Catlins combine lush farmland with amazing forests and rugged bays. Our first stop was Kaka Point (hee hee) to walk on the huge beach and collect sea shells. After enjoying the fresh cool air and the beautiful view, we headed to Nugget Point, which offered breathtaking views of the ocean, and unique rock formations. As we followed the path to the lighthouse, we enjoyed watching the fur seals and sea lions laying out on the beach and frolicking in the water.

We are now in Invercargill and planning our route to the Fiordlands, which lie in the southwestern part of New Zealand’s south island. We are enjoying our journey in the far south of the world and hope you are all doing well!

Love and miss you,

Cathy and Adam

Melbourne, Australia

Ad and I arrived in Melbourne via a quiet and easy overnight train from Sydney. Melbourne is south west of Sydney situated along the coast. Deemed as the “world’s most livable city,” Melbourne is filled with hip cafes, delicious restaurants, trendy culture and beautiful gardens. The rapidly growing city (over 1500 people move to the city on a monthly basis) is easy to navigate and filled with friendly and active people.

Once we stumbled out of the downtown train station, we walked to our hotel located in East Melbourne next to the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens. As we walked down the street, we stopped in a cute café located down one of the many alley ways in Melbourne and enjoyed a little breakfast to help wake us up and get us going. After breakfast, we enjoyed the morning walk through the city to our hotel.

During the first few days, we walked around an enjoyed delicious (but expensive) food from some of the city’s restaurants. After stuffing ourselves with delicious Italian, Chinese and local cuisines, we decided to venture out of the city and enjoy a wine tour through the Yarra Valley.

Our first stop on the tour was to the well-known French winemaker, Domaine Chandon. After tasting some delicious sparkling wines, crackers and cheese and enjoying the surrounding hillside views, we headed onto to the next winery, Rocheford Winery.

Only a few scenic miles from Domaine Chandon, we arrived at Rocheford. The winery offered a variety of red and white wines, yet is known more for their whites and in particular, their Chardonnay. Besides wine, the winery also has delicious fudge and gave out samples of over 15 different flavors. After a few tastings, Ad and I opted for the Jaffe, chocolate and orange flavored; it was delicious!

After Rocheford, we headed to Yering Farm Winery, located on a beautiful fruit farm with scenic background views of the mountains, rolling hills and vineyards. Yering is a boutique vineyard and offers a more intimate country-style tasting room as well as an onsite bed and breakfast. After a few tastings, we found their dessert wine t be the most delicious.

Once we finished at Yering Farm, we headed to our final stop on the tour, the Kellybrook Winery, known as both an apple orchard and winery. Among the many wines, this small winery also featured a very delicious cider that tasted like a light apple cider with a kick (7% alcohol). It was delicious (better than the wines) and we decided to buy a few bottles for the trip back to Melbourne.

In addition to our wine tour, we also booked a tour to see Australia’s Great Ocean Road (a must if you come to Australia). The highway was built in 1918 as a dedication to those who served in WWI and offers a ton of scenic highlights. Our first was Bells Beach, famous for its international surfing competition and its feature in the movie Point Break. As we drove up the coast, we were also able to see several kangaroos hopping around “the bush” (or fields) as the Aussies like to say.

After Bells Beach, we headed to Split Point Lighthouse to take in the fantastic coastal views. Our tour driver explained that every lighthouse has its own unique light signal; this is so sailors know exactly where they are on the coast. Next, we headed to Kennet River where we got a chance to see a few small, very cute cuddly koalas.

We were only a few hours into the tour and already had a full day’s worth of sights. Our next stop was Maits Rest, a cool temperate rain forest with a few walking trails. On the trail, we walked under a canopy of huge and very old (a few hundred years) ferns, Myrtle Beech trees, and towering Mountain Ash and Blackwood trees; it was pretty awesome!

Our next stop was the beginning of the infamous Twelve Apostles; dramatic limestone rock formations located along the coastline. We walked down the Gibson Steps to the beach to get a close-up view of the first two Apostles and marveled at the sheer height and beauty; they were pretty amazing!

After Gibson Steps, we headed to the remaining six Apostles. Originally, there were 12 Apostles yet due to erosion there are only eight remaining with the most recent one falling in 2009. [Side note- the formations were originally called the Sow and her Piglets and eventually were renamed the Twelve Apostles when Australia didn’t think the name truly represented their beauty].

To really enjoy the natural beauty of Twelve Apostles, Ad and I decided to take a helicopter ride around the amazing formations. We were blown away by their beauty, especially with the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. I couldn’t help but giggle and smile at the 360 degree views of this amazing natural wonder.

Our last stop took us to the Loch Ard Gorge which has a beach and cave where only two survivors took refuge after a tragic shipwreck in late 1800s. We also viewed the Razorback, Island Arch and the remains of the London Bridge. The London Bridge (a natural limestone bridge) collapsed into the ocean in the 90’s while two people were crossing, but lucky for them they survived the fall.

During our stay in Melbourne we stayed with our friend Belinda (thanks for the connection Bridget!) who was an incredible host and treated us like family; did I mention she’s also an amazing chef (she really is a chef) and treated us to a few very tasty meals! OMG were they delicious! Thanks Belinda, we are sincerely grateful.

We enjoyed our time in and around Melbourne, and hope you do too when you check out our photos!

Love to all,

Cathy and Adam

New Year's Eve in Sydney, Australia

After a night flight out of Bali, Ad and I arrived in beautiful Sydney, Australia on Wednesday morning. Our Aussie friend Dave picked us up at that airport and we headed back to his (and his fiancé Beck) home that is situated along the Sydney coast in a small community called Vaucluse.

Once we arrived, we dropped our stuff and headed outside to take in the amazing ocean bluff views. Their condo is situated on a park that borders the Pacific Ocean with a view of the Macquarie Lighthouse, the oldest and longest running lighthouse in Australia that was built in 1791; it has had a working navigational light since 1818.

On the south side of the park is a paved walking trail called the Coastal Cliff Trail that follows the coastline and offers amazing cliff-top views of the ocean. To the north there are picturesque views of Sydney Harbor, Watson’s Bay, Center Point Tower and the infamous Sydney Harbor Bridge; all are stunning!

After enjoying some sunshine and a nice shower we made a plan to pick up a few items for the New Year’s celebration. In addition, we decided it was time to get haircuts (we were in dire need). It had been 8 months since Ad had his hair cut, and for me, almost 6 months, so we were excited to get rid of the floppy mess we had on our heads.

One of the highlights of Sydney is the infamous Bondi Beach, a beautiful beach just 5km from Dave and Beck’s house. We only got to spend a few hours down here, and even though the beach was packed, the water was cool and quite refreshing; oh and the fresh fish and chips we had for lunch was incredible!!

New Year’s Eve celebration was on Friday and Dave and Beck invited a few friends over to ring in 2011. For the festivities, they set up a nice tent and had tables that were covered in white linens out on the front lawn. While a 13 pound red snapper marinated in Dave’s Thai-chili recipe, and tasty steaks grilled on the barbeque, we enjoyed delicious appetizers, glasses of wine and the first round of fireworks at 9 pm (in Sydney, they have fireworks for kids at 9 pm and midnight for adults). The fireworks were spectacular and it left Adam and me wondering what the midnight fireworks would be like.

After a few more hours of enjoying the festivities, the midnight fireworks started and were incredible. Ad tried to capture as much of the show as he could on video . It truly was the most spectacular fireworks show we have ever seen!

A couple of days after New Years, Dave and Beck took us down to Watson’s Bay to catch a ferry into the city. Along the way Ad and I had a chance to see the beautiful harbor as we made our way to the Opera House wharf. Once there, we walked through the city to an area called Darling Bay to enjoy lunch and the beautiful city views. After lunch, we decided to head back to the Opera House to have a nice glass of wine out on the deck and watch people climb to the top of the Harbor Bridge ($220 per person!).

After our great time in Sydney, we thanked our friends Dave and Beck for their wonderful hospitality and then jumped on an overnight train (and hopefully the last) to our next city, Melbourne!

More to come!

Love and miss you.

Cathy and Adam

Merry Christmas from Bali!!

Sending our family and friends love and hugs and wishing you all a wonderful holiday season! We miss you!

Love,
The Rongeys

Nusa Lembongan, Amed, Candidasa and back to Ubud

(pic: Nusa Lembongan)

Bali, I just can’t get over how nice and charming the Balinese people are. With smiling faces and friendly hellos, I think they are the friendliest people we have met during our travels.

During our time in Ubud, we were able to experience the Balinese festival, Galungan. This Hindu holiday fell on December 8, and is celebrated every 210 days (the end of the Hindu calendar year). During this festival the Balinese people pray, present religious offerings to their God, and share food together.

Ad and I decided to rent a scooter and headed north out of Ubud to a temple located in Tampaksiring to see what it was all about. As we arrived, many locals were entering the temple carrying (either in their hands or on their head) religious offerings such as food, rice, flowers and small gifts. As we got off our scooter, we grabbed our sarongs (thanks Kram) and were immediately greeted by Made (Maw-day), an extremely nice Balinese man who had huge hoops hanging from his ears. He introduced himself and told us we could be his guests for the ceremony (very cool!).

[Sidenote: Everyone in Bali is either named; Wayan, Made, Oman, or Ketut. This is the order of when they were born; it starts over with Wayan when number 5 is born.]

We followed him and his family into the temple where we sat cross legged on the grass and observed the ceremony. There were a series of bells that rang, people were blessed with Holy water, and rice was placed on their foreheads and throats for protection from evil spirits entering their body. After the ceremony, we went to Made’s house where he and his family treated us to homemade ‘satay’ (incredible!) and Balinese coffee. We checked out his art (he is a Jack of all trades for sure) and listened to him play his guitar before we left; it was a really great experience.

Ubud is a cool town with many shops and restaurants, and is located about an hour north of Denpasar. We stayed in two places while we were here, Gusti’s Gardens and Kajeng Bungalows. Both places had bungalow style rooms surrounded by lush gardens and a refreshing pool. We could hear the river and see the beautiful rice paddy fields from our porch, pretty nice! However, the climate is incredibly hot and humid, I (Adam) felt like I was melting everyday and much prefer our Colorado weather.

After checking out Ubud for about a week we decided to head to Nusa Lembongon, an island that is about one hour off Bali. We didn’t really know what to expect yet we were excited to check out another place. On Nusa Lembongon, there are no cars and when you pull into the beach there is no dock either; the accommodations are pretty close by, so it wasn’t a problem to walk and find a place.

We stayed at Tarci’s Bungalows, nothing spectacular (which is about par for the course in Bali when you are traveling on a budget), but it did have a pool. The beach, which was directly out in front of our place was kind of depressing with the trash and boats monopolizing the shoreline. So, swimming wasn’t really an option. On the positive side, three surf breaks (Playgrounds, Lacerations, and Shipwrecks-all reef breaks) were also right out our front door, but there was no swell, therefore no waves. This was a bummer as I heard these breaks are awesome when it is pumping.

We rented a moped and made our way to the other side of the island via roads that were more like bike paths, and a suspension bridge that was a little rickety. Something we noticed while we were cruising around is how quiet it was, Nusa L is pretty chill. We did find a nice little gem of a place called, Dream Beach (out in the middle of nowhere), it had beautiful turquoise water and a small white sandy beach. We relaxed here for a bit and had lunch, then made our way back to our bungalow. Being a small island, there is not much to do if you aren’t scuba diving, snorkeling, or surfing, and since we weren’t doing any of these things we decided to leave and head back to Bali.

The next few days we spent between Amed and Candidasa, both VERY quiet places northeast of Denpasar. We enjoyed chillin out eating some tasty fish and talking with the locals (all who wanted us to buy their wooden boats they made, nerp!). I (Adam) had a great time giving math lessons (in the sand) to two very bright local boys, Wayan (14) and Made (12) down on the beach.

We are now back in Ubud, as it has been our favorite place (and has the most to do) until we head down to Seminyak for Christmas. Until then, Happy Holidays everyone!!

Love,
Adam and Cathy

Vang Vieng to Bangkok and onto Bali

December 7, 2010


We spent 4 days in the peaceful riverside village of Vang Vieng with stunning views of limestone mountains, the slow-flowing Nam Song river meandering through the town, and lush forests filling the landscape. On our second day, we decided to go tubing down the Nam Song, one of the area’s biggest attractions. We hired our tubes from the market up the street, jumped into a VERY SMALL tuk tuk, and went on the 4km ride to the start.

At the starting point we were greeted with a free shot (just a little one Sal, come on buddy) of homemade Lao whiskey, KAW! In addition, you immediately see all of the make-shift bars that you will soon be passing, or visiting if you choose to take the ropes the kids (teenage bar workers) throw out to you. I (Adam) thought this was funny, because if you remember, I am not…petite and most Asian people…are therefore, I was more nervous of ripping them off the deck where they stood then having them try to pull me into their bar.

[The Bars]
The make-shift bars aren’t just bars; they include CRAZY rope swings, zip-lines, and slides. Most bars are up and off of the water with sketchy steps and NO railings to stop one from falling into the rocks below. This may sound exaggerated, but I am telling you it is not. Of course it doesn’t have to be a scary thing, and it is safe if one is aware of what they are doing and doesn’t make poor choices.

We decided to start our tubing adventure around 11:30 am in order to avoid (yes avoid) all the drunks that tube later in the day. The water was a little chilly initially, but became very refreshing and pleasant after a few minutes. Our first stop, about 500 feet from where we started (LOL) we stopped to enjoy a nice cold Beer Lao to help cool us off before continuing (at this point I (Adam) dumped my tube and lost my SECOND pair of glasses).

Our next stop was the Slingshot bar, the last stop before you continue the 3.5 remaining kilometers down river. While enjoying a “bucket”, a small plastic bucket (imagine a child’s beach bucket for making sand castles) filled with gin and tonic for two, we kept hearing what sounded like a small child periodically yelling and whistling. The bar owner told us they were talking birds and that we could check them out if we wanted to. Intrigued, we climbed up the hill from the docks and found these two amazing birds. One of them would say “sabbidee” (‘hello’ in Laotian) and “Good morning”, the voice was identical to a human, no robot sounding crap, but a human voice; it would also cough like a human, it was incredible! The other bird would ‘yell’ every time it heard a whistle, needless to say, we were fascinated.

The next day, we decided to hike out to a scenic overlook called Pha Poak. Pha Poak is a small hill/mountain (depending how you look at it) that has an amazing overlook of Vang Vieng. To reach the top, you climb a series of sketchy bamboo ladders before scaling sharp rocks to the top. It was steep, scary and completely exhilarating once I (Cathy) was finished. I am not a fan of heights and was really happy to have reached the top (and bottom) with the support of Adam, who decided to cross a steep and scary chasm at the top to get some amazing photos and video. [Adam here; Cath was AWESOME! The whole way up she told me she couldn’t go any further, but she ventured on like a champ, I was really proud of her, as it was not for the faint of heart; it was indeed very steep and very technical.]

We left Vang Vieng by yet another bus and headed to the country’s capital of Vientiane. Once arriving, we were surprised at how much this felt like a bustling city compared to the other places we visited in Laos. After a brief thought, we decided to catch the local bus to Nong Kai, the border of Thailand, and then an overnight train to Bangkok.

We arrived in Bangkok the next morning (surprisingly somewhat rested from the sleeping bunks) at around 7:00 am and immediately headed to the backpacker’s district of Khao San Road. Once there, we were disappointed with the selection of sub-par hotel rooms and guesthouses so we went online and booked a nice 4-star hotel in Bangkok’s Silom district, a business district filled with shopping malls and high rises. We enjoyed two nights of luxury that included a rooftop pool, air conditioning, hot shower and a clean bathroom with toiletries… life was good. Our next big adventure: Bali.

Arrival into Bali on December 4

We arrived into Bali around noon and immediately grabbed a taxi and headed north to the small town of Ubud. Ubud (Ah-bewd) is a charming town filled with chilled out restaurants, cafes and spas, as well as ancient temples and of course Balinese culture. A day in Ubud could include anything from Balinese dance lessons, yoga, cooking courses, visiting ancient temples, and walks around the beautiful rice paddy fields, to a relaxing day at the spa or wandering through the many art galleries that line the streets. Or, you may find yourself retracing Elizabeth Gilbert’s steps when she visited the town before writing her best-selling novel/movie, Eat, Pray, Love, which we did not do.

We found a nice, quiet guesthouse called Gusti’s Garden located a little off the beaten path in Ubud. Our bungalow overlooks a beautiful terraced garden, a pool, a small river and rice paddy fields in the background. It’s a peaceful location with the sound running water and the smell of beautiful frangipani flowers.

More to come….

Many hugs, kisses and KAWs to you all!

Love,

Cathy and Adam