We left Luang Prabang on Friday and took a bus to Vientiene - a 10 hour bus ride on a very windy road through the mountains - every curve is a hairpin curve - and hearing the brakes squeek everytime the busdriver used them didn't allow you to rest comfortably. The bus was crowded with small wooden chairs in the aisle for additional passengers. (If you want adventure travel, travel through Laos. Not that it is hard or exciting to travel here. Everything is just a little sketchy!) We did go through many small villages in the mountains. The small villages we go by are amazingly simplistic. The landscape was breath-taking and quite different from that which we saw along the river.

We arrived in Vientiane in time for Dave's 27th birthday. Because it was his special day, Dave chose what we did all day. Of course, a chunk of the day was spent in an internet cafe so he can geek out a little! What's that about not being able to take the geek out of the boy???

For dinner, we ate at a very good French restaurant. Laos used to be a French colony and its influence is present. We then went to an Italian restaurant and celebrated with some birthday cake! Mmmm!

We've been travelling in Laos for about a week now. We've literally been travelling most of that time because to get anywhere here you have to travel, and it takes a long time! The scenery has been beautiful and has made it a rewarding experience. So many people have told us how wonderful it is. Simple, easy going, not touristy. Well, they are right...and to tell you the truth, we are a little bored! There were some other things we wanted to do like see some waterfalls and caves. But it is really cold here (only getting into the mid 60's during the day) and what's the point of going to a waterfall if you can't swim in it. And the warm ocean and beautiful beaches of southern Thailand are calling our name! Whoo-hoo! Paradise awaits!

Well, I've done it! I breathed underwater for the first time yesterday in a swimming pool. Then today, we went to this protected bay in the Andaman Sea and went 9 meters down and practiced more techniques. We then swam around some coral and some some really pretty fish, some eels, an octopus, nudibranch, spiny lobsters, giant clams...just to name a few. We dove twice today. Tomorrow we do 2 more dives around a wreck where there are suppose to be a lot of fish!! (The bay didn't have many...but I was impressed.) Our open water certification will be finished tomorrow. We might go on another dive with the same instructor to the Similian Islands off the coast. It is suppose to be one of the premier places to dive in the world! We had the option of doing it for our dive tomorrow, but decided we would dive the wreck and get 2 more dives in before hitting the Similian Islands. Our instructor is great! He's been diving for 10 years, mainly in Belgium and Turkey. (He's from Belguim.) He is also a marine biologist so he knows where to look for the cool things and points them out to us. Both Dave and I agree that he's really great at teaching people techniques. Some techniques include taking out your regulator and retrieving it again and taking off your mask, replacing it and then emptying the water from it. Both at first sounded scary. But he shows us exactly how to do it and it is actually quite easy. We wanted a challenge, so we then practiced taking out the regulator, removing the mask, replacing it, removing the water (which you have to do with your own air), retrieving the regulator, and then placing it back in your mouth. We both accomplished the tough task!! This morning I was really nervous knowing I was about to make my first open water dive. But things went really well and I am excited about tomorrow. The only bad thing about this diving business is having to be on the boat between dives as it rolls back and forth. Man, how did I ever make it through fishing??? ;-)

Dave and I are doing great! Kinda missing some home cooking. I am getting sick of everything being fried! But the banana pancakes are something I have been enjoying each morning!

We are still at Hat Khao Lak (just north of Phuket on the Andaman Sea). We are now officially open water SCUBA certified! That's the first level of certification that you can get and involves 4 open-water dives. Tuesday we completed the course and dove twice at a wreck nearby. There were a lot of puffer fish, squid, lion fish, scorpion fish, eels, and baracudas! (It reminded me of Jayson's aquarium!) It was tons of fun!

Yesterday, we went on a trip to the Similan Islands and did 3 other dives. The first one was weird. My mask was leaking and it scared me as we were going down in the water. I came up and so did Dave (he's my buddy and you have to stay with your buddy). Our leader realized we weren't there and came up wondering what was wrong. I didn't know...I just knew that I felt like water was rushing in. (I thought it was going into my mouth as well...but I think I was just panicking.) He grabbed on to my arm and went down with me and we swam a bit with me just holding on to his arm. I was really scared because I couldn't see much until we started swimming horizontally. I was able to calm down and was going to swim off with Dave, but then he ended up leading us back up to the surface. Turns out that the current was so swift that we missed the dive spot and there was no way for us to get back to it. Where we currently were, it was too deep with nothing to see. The leaking was due to part of the plastic in my mask being out. (I should have tested this before getting into the water, but now I know!) The guide explained how he always wants us to solve our problems underwater...not to be afraid of the water. If my mask leaked, I know how to clear it. If it was broken, my buddy might have been able to fix it. If not, then I could always swim with my buddy leading me until the dive was over. But we missed the dive and that was a bummer! I am kinda glad that happened in retrospect...because you learn *a lot* about how to react to certain situations so I think I wouldn't panic as much next time.

The next 2 dives were great!!! I was proud of myself that I did awesome and didn't panic even though the first dive scared me. The only bad thing was Dave and I got separated as buddies. There were 6 people diving in all. Our guide happened to also be our instructor from the course. He is a professional and plans the routes we take and is responsible for everyone underwater. There were 2 other guys who hadn't dived in a while and were larger, older gentlemen. They used up their air very fast. The guide has to lead us all up when the first person has 1/4 of his air left. Well, there was another guy who was also a dive master diving with us. He wanted to stay down longer and has the qualifications to do so. Dave is an excellent scuba diver!! Since he doesn't go through his air as fast, he was now that guy's buddy and dived longer. They also 'cheated' a little and Dave shared the other guys air for a while so they could both stay under water longer! So that was a great opportunity for him! He learned a lot about trying to relax while breathing and just playing with the fish! The bad part was not being able to share our experiences with each other.

I have been doing a good job with conserving my air as well and usually end up having about the same air left as Dave. In fact, on the third dive, I still had 90 bar (just less than 50%) of my air when we reached the surface. So it was a bummer that I couldn't stay down longer. But I'm sure there will be other chances.

Oh, on one of my dives, I saw a shark. (I know, Michelle, you are envious. Sorry...we didn't have a camera, but I immediately thought of you!) It was about 25 meters away and was laying motionless on the bottom. The guide was trying to get our attention and point him out. I was the only one that saw him. The shark must have realized we were there because he just swam away and others did not get to see him. He looks like the sharks you see at the aquariums (or possibly at the restaurant in Kemah, TX). We also saw so many fish with beautiful colors!! And the coral was gorgeous! It was amazing that such a place exists and we barely know about it!! :-)