Since Asia I’ve finally had some motivation to give the jewellery business much needed attention. The brain elves have decided to get off their asses, of only for a quick walk around the block.

I’ve been experimenting with new designs and techniques, filling laser etching with colour and using multiple layers of acrylic. I’ve been cross stitching as well (but still haven’t found an appropriate pendant frame to make cross stitched jewellery, boo).

Here is what’s new in the shop (click the photos to see them on Etsy)

All the old faves are still there – unicorns, narwhals, cupcakes, and plenty of custom designs.

Another minibus, another drive between cities. After being dropped at the out of town bus station in Laos’ capital we jumped in a cramped shuttle with a bunch of other tourists from the minibus and were taken into town. Like a few others in the shuttle we hadn’t booked accommodation in advance, thinking we could wing it like we’d been able to so far. We didn’t count on it being a holiday weekend though.

We found a cheap room, good enough and even came with a small window; unlike a few of the others we’d looked at. It wasn’t the most comfortable place though so we decided to head out to the Rivertime Resort and Ecolodge 30km from town. Being a hot hot holiday day we were sufficiently overcharged for our trip out to the “resort” (my excellent haggling skills got us an aircon minivan for the same price as a tuk tuk though!). We hadn’t booked, again, because we weren’t able to get hold of anyone on the phone the day before. I almost died when we were initially told they had no room for us. Thankfully it was just a communication mix up with neither of us speaking the other’s language.

Rivertime’s floating restaurant and “pool”

Is it just me, or do you expect snakeless bathrooms, rooms without huge bugs crawling up through the sizable gaps in the floorboards, and actual showers when you hear the word resort? In an ecolodge in Laos you’d be wrong to expect that. One night in the 3 bed dorm with outside bathroom and I’d had enough. I paid the difference for the 3 of us to be moved to a room with an en suite just so I could go to the bathroom in the night and not have to bathe in the river.
During the day the lodge was lovely, green, and relaxing sitting in the floating restaurant. Once the sun went down it turned into a bugfest so bad I almost wanted to go home. It’s one of the 3 worst things I remember about the trip.

Anyway. A few days later I convinced the boys it was time to leave and we went back to Vientiane, and back to exactly the same room we’d had when we first arrived. 4 days till our flight to Hanoi was plenty enough time for me to be eaten alive by bedbugs. I’d never encountered the critters before so I just assumed I was covered in mosquito bites, which wasn’t an unreasonable assumption considering the state of my legs before we arrived in Vientiane. But by the last night I noticed the patterns of two and three bites and spent an uncomfortable night terrified I was going to see the bugs crawling all over me as I tried to sleep. Ugh.

So long and good riddance Vientiane.

The Mekong River border with Thailand



Patuxai – The Victory Gate monument in the centre of Vientiane. Built with funds and concrete given to Laos from America to build a new airport.

See all the Vientiane photos on Flickr

I think it’s the lack of talent I posses when it comes to wielding a paint brush, a HB pencil, or a spray can, that makes me love street art so much. As long as it’s got some artistic merit and isn’t just some dickhead scribbling their tag on my fence.

Wellington has some pretty great street art around at the moment. It helps that the more scribbly stuff is either colourful and confined to designated graffiti areas, or social commentary.

The polls might show that as a country we’re right leaning National lovers, but the Capital’s graffiti tells a story about leftist liberal greenies.

I’d love to be a food people. Unfortunately I’m better at eating food and squeeing over cute plates and good service than I am at actually cooking. I leave that to talented boyfriends and flatmates.

Thankfully I didn’t have to do any of the cooking this weekend. We drove out to the food mecca that is Petone in the morning and visited a bunch of new (to me) foodie places.
The Dutch Shop where we picked up chocolates and licorice bullets.
On Trays where the small isles are full of delicious looking jars, drinks, cheeses, olives, and a whole lot of South African dried meat. Brend and I chose a bag of delicious Biltong, but it didn’t survive the day.
An Indian store full of spices and dried pulses and ready to eat curries.
And finally the supermarket where we picked up salmon and ribs and capsicum to smoke.

Back in town the boys got the smoker going while I headed to Martha’s pantry for some girly high tea with Jo, twitter friend Selina (Jo’s IRL friend), and Selina’s daughter Shannon. On entering Martha’s Pantry I started kicking myself for not having been earlier; it’s a wonderfully girly heaven. Full to the brim with cute cup and saucer sets, frilly aprons, delicious looking sweets, and a million kinds of tea. The furniture is painted white and paired with kitschy table cloths, ours had cross stitched flowers.

I topped off all the high tea goodness with a walk home in the unusually warm Wellington weather; (almost) a bottle of bubbles; and smoked ribs, salmon, and salad.

Unfortunately overly sweet bubbles give me hangovers so I spent Sunday eating pie sandwiches, microwaved sausage rolls, custard squares as big as my head, and drinking orange cordial. I watched 5 movies as well.

Poor Vang Vieng has a fairly bad reputation thanks to more than a few Scheiß tourists. Maybe that’s not fair, but that’s my opinion regarding people that travel to another country in order to drink “happy shakes” in bars that play endless reruns of Friends; and get drunk while floating down an invariably swollen fast moving or shallow and rocky river.

With that in mind I was reluctant to even go to Vang Vieng, but the boys were not going to miss the chance to tube down a dirty river for a few hours. We agreed to not stop at any of the bars along the river therefore getting to float along it by ourselves while all the other tourists started drinking before they’d even gotten wet.

At one point during our stay it didn’t look like the river tubing was going to happen. We got hit with a spell of rainy weather and were warned the river would be freezing the day after a big rain. Thankfully we extended our stay by a day and the beautiful morning weather convinced me to forget the freezing water warnings and get in on the action. It turns out the river wasn’t cold at all. The rain that pelted us for half of our float was though.

It wasn’t a problem though, we enjoyed the float and stopped only twice to have a quick nip of something to warm us a little. And we scoffed at the tourists we saw boating back to town instead of tubing. At least they were smart enough not too float down the river for a couple of hours while smashed off their faces.

Vang Vieng is actually quite pretty if you can get past the fact it’s a tourist wasteland. We met some really nice Laotians and learnt a bit about Lao property laws and world economics from the man who was looking after our hostel. And I ended up eating my words against river tubing, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The rains continued on our drive from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng//Engrish//Half gin half tonic//We used the riverside pool at a fancy hotel for $2. Worth it.//The limestone cliffs, orange bridge, stairs, and clear blue swimming hole that surround Tham Jang Cave//America’s gift to Vang Vieng, an abandoned airstrip from the Vietnam War

Aren’t the limestone peaks a beautiful backdrop to this backpacker ghetto!
See all the Vang Vieng photos on Flickr

The New Zealand International Film Festival is over for another year, and with it goes my latest excuse for skiving off.

Incendies / Loved

13 Assassins / Really Liked

The Tree of Life / Hated

Submarine / Liked

Hobo with a Shotgun / Liked

The Guard / Loved

Another Earth / Really Liked

Melancholia / Really Loved (a lot)

Terri / Liked

The Future / Liked

Attenberg / Liked

But there’s no such thing as climate change right?

Inevitable question post travel: What was your favourite part?
Another inevitable question: Where was your favourite place?

Does saying that I want to pack all my friends up and move them to Luang Prabang answer that question? I loved Luang Prabang so so much, with all its French architecture and baguettes, the cheap comfy cafes and bars, the lack of supermarkets and 7/11s. Actually, the lack of supermarkets is one thing that would get to me if I were to live in Luang Prabang. I LOVE SUPERMARKETS. I think it’s something to do with the fact they’re full of food. I could probably overcome that with the help of warm mornings to explore the fresh food market though.

Luang Prabang is where I first touched an elephant! They’re huge (but still smaller than African Elephants, those must be HUGE) and tough. I recommend wearing long pants if you’re going to ride them without a seat because their skin and hair is rough as fuck and will scratch up your thighs. We rode around in a chair through the forest, over creeks, and up and down steep paths. And then we rode on the elephant’s back to the river and took it for a swim. The mahouts were egging the elephants on to throw us in the water, and you can see right there how elegantly I handled that. I thought I might drown…till I realised I could touch the bottom.

While we were in Luang Prabang we took an hour long tuk tuk ride with a couple of other tourists to the Kuang Si waterfall. Stunning turquoise water, a bunch of swimming holes, and you can even climb to the top of the fall if you’re that way inclined (we were, it was steep). And at the entrance there’s a bear sanctuary! Look at the cute bear climbing into his little pool! AWWW.

Our first experience with mangosteen / A bamboo bridge which is built new every year and taken down during the rainy season / The streets after a huge lightning storm which took out the power / Giraffes of Beer Lao / French architecture / Cosy forest hideouts

Archways made out of trees / Temple kitties / Riverside dining / Mosaiced temples / Village Women Union

See all the Luang Prabang photos on Flickr

Baanrimtaling Guesthouse, Chiang Khong // Simple living on the river // Huge spider

From Chiang Mai we bused to Chiang Khong and boated to the Laos side of the river and the town of Huay Xai. Considering we were crossing into another country it was surprisingly easy. Wait in line on the Thai side for a passport stamp. Pay a small fee for the 5 minute boat trip across the river. Wait in line and pay for a visa and stamp on the Laos side. Done.

Snakes in alcohol // Sunset over the Mekong // Communist flag // Beer Lao

Huay Xai is a typical border town. Specialising in tourist fare: cushions for your boat trip, tickets for your boat trip, sandwiches for your boat trip. We could have tried to jump straight from Thailand onto the 2 day boat but we were in no rush. It gave us a chance to meet Mr Singkham the lively 71 year old French/Laos/English speaking proprietor of Aramid Guesthouse who had some pretty strong opinions of stupid French tourists and the Laos government. It was ok though as he seemed to like us.

After stories of horrible nine hour trips stuck on wooden seats next to the motor, we were well prepared for slow boating. Arriving very early, armed with cushions, we were pleasantly surprised by a near empty boat full of comfortable ex car seats. We chose 3 at the front of the boat (far away from the engine) and settled in for our long wait.
Our first experience of Laos time sees leaving time rolling around, with a full boat, waiting for another tour bus. There is no way they’ll fit with us so another, bigger, boat is drafted. Tour bus fills second boat and it leaves an hour after schedule. We finally leave 15 minutes later. First in first served does not apply.

Day 2 is supposed to leave dead on 9 (we’re early again to get good seats) so when they’ve only pulled up one boat, and there are still stupid fucking tourists coming down the hill at 9.10, I can’t quit believe the audacity of some people. Once again, showing up late gets you a less crowded boat that leaves first. Lame.

The two days are really nice though. The Mekong river is a lot rockier than I expected. Quite rugged and beautiful. There are so so many trees.

At the start of day two I saw my first elephant being ridden across the way!

There are plenty of fisherman and swimming children to observe. Houseboats and huts. A prison. A cave. A mudslide. And if a previously boat phobic person can praise it there is nothing to be afraid of.

Just promise me you won’t take the speed boat!

See all the Huay Xai – Luang Prabang photos on Flickr