Crazy Andy.....where is he now?

I don't know if you read or saw the movie "Eat, Prey, Love", but it was set in the island of Bali ( which was really impressive). Ubud, which is in the center of the island has really friendly people and everything from the artwork and dance to the Hindu culture is really intertwined with daily life....still very geniune. Surprising, considering the amount of tourist they recieve. however.....It seems that "Eat, prey, love", has drawn more tourists to the town.

In the movie, there was a yogi-master guy who played himself. Before he would charge 100,000 rupiah (10 dollars) to sit with him for readings or whatever the term is. Now, I hear he charges 1,000,000 rupiah per person...and the line waiting to see him each morning is long....winding around looking to have a seat with him.

Today Ira and I are taking a boat to the second island....it drops us off about 10am and picks us up at 3:30. That island is the smaller Gili Meno. There is even a smaller island called Gili Air....each island lets you feel more and more like Robinson Crusoe....

Were taking snorkling gear and there looks like there is a small lake in the middle of the island also....should be interesting. This is the last full day here, then I'm heading back to Ubud. I hadn't planned to, but since it is so nice.....I will spend my last day and half there before heading back to Thailand.

I'm back in Bangkok for a day before traveling up to the northeast part of Thailand and then hopefully over the border to Laos. From there I'm not sure yet....I have to do a little more research to see if I can go inland from there or down the Mekong for a few days to a village called Luang Prabang. I have been there before and it really is a cool little town.....very relaxed and a world heritage site.

I have attached a photo from Gili Meno the second island out of three in the Gilis......we did a day trip there....really beautiful.

I'm not sure if I told you this already, but when I arrived back in Ubud....and returned to the same homestay...the mom was really surprised to see me again. The had just finished a ceremony for one of the children. She made me a dish of the leftovers.....fresh roasted pig and rice and vegtables.....really nice. They took me to the airport as well.....really nice family.

I flew from Bangkok to Chang Rai this morning. I had a nice day traveling around Bangkok yesterday...going to a few markets. There are canals all around Bangkok with boats that the locals use to avoid the terrible traffic. They cost very little....50 cents or less. There a great window to see how locals live along the canals as well as the people who travel on them. There are plastic tarps on the side of the boats and passengers raise them up when boats pass-by.....to avoid the spray from the wake.

I guess that there was a bombing not too far away from my travels yesterday. There was a story that an Iranian tried throwing a bomb.......but the bomb ended up blowing both his legs off.....and the limbs ended up in a school yard....they have caught most of the people involved. I flew out this morning expecting serious security, but it seemed normal.

I'm close to the border of Laos now...just a few hours away. I will take a local bus to the crossing tomorrow. From there I was thinking of taking a boat down the Mekong for a few days, but decided to head inland to the northern part of Laos instead.......it seems to get relatively few tourists and is really beautiful.

I still have about 2 weeks to explore...taking my time to hopefully get off the touristy stuff. Chang Rai, where I'm at now is very relaxed and easy going. When I checked into the guesthouse here the lady gave me back way too much money by accident. I walked back and looked down at the money and she realized immediatly what she had done...and gave me a wai...the bow with her palms clasped together.....and thanked me.....good karma I feel...