For those of you keeping up on our where-abouts you should fully know it’s been 4 months since we made the last leg of our journey to home. During this time I’m sure you also all noticed our blog entries died down to pretty much a sudden stop. Adjusting back to the real world has been some awesome fun, lots more work then we are used to, busy busy busy, and we can’t forget about the gambit of emotions to go along with all that!

Luckily we did not jump back into the work force right away and planned to have 2 months of seeing friends and family, espcially since we did not have a home yet. Our condo still had renters in it until July 1st. So, we stayed mostly with my parents, with sleep-over extended visits to various friends houses here and there.

The start to life back in Canada was a short visit to Calgary. Our great friends Steve and Karen who traveled with us for 2 months through Europe were great hosts for these couple of days and made us one of the best dinners we had in a long ass time. We love steak, especially Triple A Alberta Beef. You’ve never have beef until you have eaten this. Trust us! We tried steak all over the world and nothing came remotely close to Alberta Beef. Our friends showed up Gordon Ramsay in their own backyard. No fancy gourmet kitchen or posh restaurant with a ridiculous priced menu. Take that Gordon!

We then flew home to Vancouver filled with extremely happy family/friends to see our return. Welcome home BBQ’s, parties, simple get togethers, outings and repeat. We truly felt missed and were quite thankful of my parents letting us live with them until we got our condo back.

However, on top of all this hub-bub, we really had a hard time getting out of bed and doing anything during the day. We were still quite used to sleeping in and then relaxing all day on a beach or in a pool. Plus, I’m sure we had a large dose of jet lag in our systems as well.

May long weekend we drove out to Salmo B.C to help PK Sound with the Village stage tear down at Shambhala. Demolish parts of the stage and clean up the forest during the day and drink with friends around the giant bon fire at night.

After May long we drove back to Calgary for a couple weeks to do some much needed renovations on our loft in order to get a new renter for July 1st. New paint, new carpet, replace some light fixtures, replace the bathroom door, hang up curtains, clean it up, list it, and interview possible renters. When I look back at the work we did it doesn’t sound like much. But, like most renovations things never go as planned and ended up being quite the headache. It sure felt good once it was completed! I wanted to move back in after pouring my heart and soul into it. It looks SO good and in result rented quite easily. Unfortunately we were so down to the last minute we completely forgot to take after photos!! =(

Another highlight for us was participating in our first scavenger hunt with Alex and Heather. We named our team Gang Green, wore all green clothing, and decorated my car for some extra bonus point team flair and scavenged the city for items and photos. It was a blast and we won second place!! Can not wait to do it again next year. Much thanks to Mike Awesome for hosting this!!

Suddenly July long weekend approached us and that meant three things. First, Scott would be going back to work at his old job. The second was one more weekend spent at The Village helping now with the beginnings of the new stage construction. Third, we got to move back into our home! It was a busy week of driving, constructing a stage, moving, unpacking, and Scott adjusting back to the work life.

As great as it actually was to live with my parents for the past two months. We truly have an amazing relationship with them. Which was only made stronger when they both traveled all the way out to Thailand for a month with us. It’s now amazingly great to truly and finally be home.

We still have a ton more stories to share from our travels. Vietnam, Cambodia, and one last week in Thailand are still to come, even some tales from on the road in Canada. Also, coming up are more things to share about our adjustment back home and stories about the music events we have attended. I’m sure Furry Friday will also make a big come back appearance soon enough!

Sorry to have been on such a hiatus. But really… we are not sorry! We’ve been really enjoying life and every moment of being home. Hope your summer was as awesome as ours.

One of the reasons we started this blog was to help pay it forward. The travel tips, inspiration and cool places to go for other travelers. I remember the first travel blog I read, The World is Not Flat by Lee and Sachi LeFever.. After reading their travels for the first time it really made it seem possible to do in my mind.

I read many other peoples travel blogs while we were traveling. When I read Gillian and Jason’s report of Soppong and the Cave Lodge I decided we had to go check it out!

I really loved Chiang Pai and Soppong in Thailand, they were some of the most beautiful, relaxed and adventurous places in Thailand. The vendors really didn’t push hard and Pai is more of an artists hangout than anything with hilltribes surrounding it. Because it’s a crazy 5 hour 500 turn journey from Chiang Mai, it doesn’t get as many travelers and maintains a smaller town feel. It’s all designed for tourists, but you can get out of the town center and see beautiful countryside and get a feeling of being “off the beaten path” – as much as that’s really possible in a tourist area.



I just heard that Ryan and Liz from Pause The Moment are in Chiang Pai and liked my recommendation! I’m glad to be able to pay it forward after receiving great advice from Gillian about the area.

What about you? How do you figure out where you go while traveling? Do you value the advice of blogs over guidebooks? Is there one site that’s inspired you?

Hooray we finally made it!!

After a week and a half of sleeping in, playing queen of spades, eating dinner, then getting drunk with the A-Team, we finally made it tubing on our last day in Vang Vieng, Laos. The sun was shining, we didn’t wake up hung-over and were rip roaring ready to go!

Typical sight to see in Vang Vieng, Laos

There are two tubing stations on the same street which are impossible to miss. Depending on the day of the week depends on which tubing station you go to. There really is no difference between them. Same style/quality tubes, same rules and timelines and same line up of tuk tuk’s outside waiting to take you and as many others they can fit into the back. A tube rental costs 55,000 KIP (about $7 CDN) plus a 60,000 KIP deposit (about $8 CDN). All tubes are due back by 6pm. If you return it late they only give back 30,000 KIP of your deposit. Reasons why its best to leave earlier then later to go tubing! The river runs slow and take about 4 hours of floating time to get back to town. That does not include the time you might spend drinking away at any of the riverside bars along the way.

Various menus and treats you can find at any bar

The bars however are all placed right next to each other except for “The Last Bar” (and in our opinion the best bar!). The music of each one is blaring at full decibel level and train-wrecking with each other. Bars also have giant swings, giant slides, and other means of random entertainment aside from cheap buckets and beers. But really the main reason to stop at any bar is to have a drink. However, their “special” menus do also tempt the curious. Or maybe you wish to try some snake whiskey? Really, you can find whatever you want if you just look for it!

Gorgeous!

Everyone is in good spirits and having the time of their lives. How can you not be gleeful as you float down a river in a tube? Which is really the best part of the whole experience. Just sitting back and looking at the sky and amazing mountain scenery with your feet latched onto your friends tubes and just letting the river take you away. Some spots are so slow and peaceful while other spots have a wee bit of a rapid. My favorite parts of the day were when no bar was in sight or earshot and it was only you, your friends, your buzz, and mother nature. Perfect.

Fishing for tubers at “Last Bar”

Because of our time spent drinking at the bars, watching Adam use the giant swings, and talking to randoms we did not make it to the end of tubing. We tried our best but it quickly turned dark out and became quite scary and cold on the water. Once you past “Last Bar” there is nothing for a long time. No lights, no nothing! So we decided to head to shore, walk up a dark farming road with hopes we can make it to a major road to find a tuk tuk. Luckily we were successful!

Good times!

I really wish we managed to get ourselves tubing earlier, as we all agreed if we were staying in town longer we would totally do it again and spend less time at the bars so we could just enjoy the float part some more. So, if your heading to Vang Vieng don’t be like us and wait till your last day to go! Skip those buckets for one night and make it out there early!