Last few weeks in a nutshell

its been a while and we apologize but there has been limited internet access.

We last left off in Chiang mai where we had a good time with my mom, we saw a few temples, snuggled some tigers and enjoyed some very good food. After Chiang Mai we grabbed an overnight bus to Bangkok, which was very nice, even though my mom woke up to her with her head resting on an unsuspecting young Thai woman. We got the first bus to Kanchanaburi which is about three hours from Bangkok, and quickly settled into a decent hotel on the banks of the river Kwai. Kanchanaburi is a great town with some very interesting sites, but it is a large, spread out town so we found ourselves wanting some form of transportation. After admiring the sidecar tuk tuks in town we decided to ask about renting one. The driver was happy to let us use his wheels for the day because it meant he could sit back and relax. We visited all the major POW cemetaries, were thousands of allied soldiers were buried after being worked to death on the river. We also visited a temple in a cave and the bridge over the river Kwai. The next day we went to a 7 tiered waterfall which was home to fish that clean your feet, and beautiful blue/green water.
After Kanchanaburi it was off to Bangkok to celebrate st patricks day on Khao San rd, Meet up with Liz Kellyt. It was then time for my mother to head home, and we were headed for the beach. we decided that Ko samet would be the right choice and spent 4 great days relaxing and swimming.
Then it was off to Laos We spent one whole day and one night traveling from Ko Samet to Vientienne, taking smelly local buses, and sleeping on a 2nd class bus. after crossing the border and settling into our hotel, and bowling, we settled in and headed to Vang Vieng the next day. Vang Vieng was fun as always, spending a few days on the river tubing, mountain biking, caving and eating baguettes we were on the winding death road to Beautiful Luang Prabang.
This city served as the capital during the french colinization and remnants of the french architectural influence are all over the city. We visited a beautiful waterfall and went kayaking in some "whitewater." after a great two weeks with Liz, it was time to say goodbye, and she headed to phuket to begin her teaching, and we were off to Hanoi Vietnam.
Hanoi is a beautiful city, very busy, but very clean, we have spent the last few days here visiting a prison built by the french and reused during the vietnam war for POW's and seeing a water puppet show. We love vietnam so far but I must admit, its difficult leaving a place where we could easily communicate to a place with a completely different language. tonight we have booked a night train to beautiful Sapa, we are very excited to see some of the vietnam countryside.
Theres the cliffnotes for the last month...