We woke up late. Like 12:00 in the afternoon is when we finally got out of bed. We haven’t had any decent sleep for a while. To was a chore day. Booking travel, choosing an island to chill out on for the rest of our trip, laundry, hair cut, etc…
Eventually we made it up onto the roof of the hotel to see their pool. It was only 3-4 feet deep, but it was fantastic. It looked nice, the water wasn’t freezing cold, the chairs around were nice… it was a shame it was only open to 6:00.
After we frittered time away in the streets and then headed off to check out the protests. They were definitely being done the way a protest should be done. Organized, visible, calm, good natured… and finally we got to see the non-tourist prices. There were food and merchandise stands set up for the protesters, and for example, glasses that are priced at 250 baht on khao san road were priced at 50 baht.
After we checked out a show, and then after a little more shopping we headed back to the room.
Well it’s our last real day in Chiang Mai. We had a fairly hefty list of things to do before leaving. Firstly, having slept in a different spot every night, I wanted to keep that alive, so I wandered off in the morning to see if I could get into the guest house next to a hotel with a pool which we enjoyed before. We had been trying here for a long time and finally we were able to get a room. Roughly 10-12 bucks for all three of us in a nice room, access to a pool, en suite washroom, free water bottles in the room… crazy good deal.
After we moved over we got some breakfast and then it was off to get a scrape on Jen’s leg checked out (she got it on the trek.) A short tuk-tuk ride to the hospital and I think we had probably the best experience you can have in a foreign hospital. The waiting room had 4 seats, and that was all it needed. Jen was in getting checked out in a flash and after a shot and some antibiotics, all done right there, the total bill was only about 30 bucks. I don’t know how they do it over here.
We got our stuff figured out for Laos. We will be taking a bus ride to the border. Sleep for a night there, cross in the morning, take a river boat down (2 days) while spending the night at a village along the river. At that point we will be enjoying all Laos has to offer until Amy’s visa kicks in for Vietnam. There is some fun stuff to do along the river, and apparently some trekking like adventures to be had as well. My understanding is the road system is horrible in Laos, so train and water will be the way to move around when possible.
We got set up with books, and some US currency (apparently that is the smartest one to get for Laos) and now I am just making sure the ol’ blogeroo is in order before I enter the land of the unknown. Internet might not be so easy to come by. I might need to buy myself a note book to keep track of what happens and do another one of these blog assaults when I get back to civilization. After a dip in the pool it will probably be bed time… maybe a late night snack could get squeezed in there too 
