Soo! After Vientiane, we decided to go north to a town called Luang Prabang. The town is Unesco world heritage and you understand why when you arrive! The town is set along a

We went along the town for a while, watching the rivers and the little streets...
We also visited the oldest temple there, which is about 500 years... there is a mosaic on

While europe is loosing little by little its markets... here it is full on... If you haven't seen enough at the day market, you can see even more at the night market!! And close to that

The water is of a beautiful turquoise and the vegetation is very green and dense, so the whole place is amazing. But the best is that you can swim there as well... and there is a rope on a tree from which you can swim and dive!!! Cooool!!

Well, that was it for Luang Prabang....

Lots of kisses

Agnes and Ola

EN FRANCAIS....Luang Prabang, une jolie petite ville

Après Vientiane, nous avons décidé de nous diriger vers le nord jusqu’à la ville de Luang Prabang qui fait partie du patrimoine mondial et on comprend pourquoi dès qu’on arrive !
La ville est bordée par une rivière et la végétation y est absolument magnifique et très luxuriante… il s’y trouve également de très beaux « wats » (temples boudhistes) qui rivalisent avec de l’or, des couleurs rouge et verte… une beauté architecturale… toutes les 2 minutes, nous n’avons cessé de prendre des photos !

Nous avons parcouru la ville, regardant les rivières et les petites rues… nous avons visité également le plus vieux temple d’environ 500 ans…. L’une des chapelles est couverte de mosaiques, c’est magnifique….

Tandis qu’en Europe, les marchés disparaissent petit à petit, ici il y en a plein… si on n’en a pas assez vu pendant la journée, on peut en voir encore plus avec le marché de nuit ! et tout près de là, une famille laotienne offre un buffet de rue très bon marché où l’on peut manger une grande assiette remplie de nourriture pour presque rien ! on trouve donc dans cet endroit toutes les nuits des gens comme nous !

Pour notre dernier jour à Luang Prabang, nous sommes allés voir la cascade Haung Si à quelques kilomètres de la ville… quelques uns d’entre vous diront : “des cascades, ENCORE ??”… eh bien oui, elles sont toutes spéciales ! celle-ci est assez élevée et on peut escalader la montagne pour la voir d’une hauteur différente. Evidemment, nous sommes montés jusqu’en sommet ! l’eau est d’un beau turquoise et la végétation y est très verte et très dense. Tout l’endroit est splendide. Mais le clou, c’est qu’on peut nager ici… et il y a une corde dans un arbre pour nager et plonger ! coool ! Ola s’est trouvé bien sûr le premier sur place, et j’ai essayé quelques drôles de plongeons (je ne voulais pas qu’ils soient forcément drôles, mais au final……)

Voilà, c’est tout pour Luang Prabang…
Plein de bisous

written by  agnesola on January 28, 2008 from Luang Prabang, Laos
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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It is a pleasant place to walk around in, seeing the rivers(there is another, apart from the Mekong) and the mountains and the Temples. We did all this, and one night catching the sunset over the mountains...roooomantic!

A very popular thing in this village is a thing called tubing. You get a inner tube from a

well, that it is, we drifted down the river, walked and partied a little bit at a bar next to our hotel...and relaxed.

We are now in Bangkok! Thailand is nice, hot and humid...and we look forward to going to a nice tropcal island...more info about that later...

Lots of kisses!!!!!

Ola and Agnes

TRADUCTION...... (fidèle ou pas ! mais j'espère le plus possible...)
Après Luang Prabang, direction le village de Vang Vieng.

Le village a de beaux sites et est entouré de falaises de calcaire. Le Mékong le traverse tout comme dans beaucoup d’autres lieux que nous avons visités dans l’Asie du sud… c’est un endroit très agréable pour la promenade, avec ses rivières (il y en a une autre, en dehors du Mékong), ses montagnes et ses temples. Nous avons tout exploré et avons réussi à voir le coucher de soleil au-dessus des montagnes…. Roooooomantique !

Une chose très populaire dans ce village, c’est ce que l’on appelle le « tubing ». On prend un "réservoir" creux d’un tracteur (photos ! pour la bonne compréhension du tubing….) et on vous transporte jusqu’à un endroit de la rivière à 5 kms du village et on vous laisse flotter dans cet engin jusqu’au village. Cela prend environ 3 heures et c’est très relaxant. Vous avez juste à vous laisser flotter et à regarder les montagnes, les buffles d’eau et la nature. Il est possible de faire une halte à certains endroits précis et d’utiliser des perches (c’est rigolo !!!). Ces perches sont assez hautes (10 mètres) et vous avez une poussée d’adrénaline quand vous vous balancez au dessus de la rivière et que vous vous lâchez dedans… mais quelle rigolade !

Après cela, nous avons continué à descendre la rivière, avons marché et avons fait la fête dans un bar tout près de notre hôtel… puis place au repos.

Nous sommes maintenant à Bangkok ! la Thaïlande, c’est beau, chaud et humide… et nous attendons avec impatience de nous rendre jusqu’à une jolie île tropicale… plus d’infos plus tard…
PLEIN DE BISOUS

written by  agnesola on February 1, 2008 from Vang Vieng, Laos
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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Just to let you know that we are in Koh tao now... a little island from Thailand...
It is absolutely beautiful and we are going to enjoy somt very good diving here...

So unfortunately, we are not going to be able to write much on the blog for about three weeks as the internet here cost as much as two Rolls Royce per hour!!!

But we are enjoying dont worry about it!!

LOVE!!

Agnes and Ola

VERSION FRANCAISE.... (rapide, celle-ci !...)
Helloo to all of you... salut à tous….
Simplement pour vous faire savoir que nous sommes maintenant à Koh Tao… une petite île de Thaïlande… c’est absolument magnifique et nous allons nous faire plaisir à y pratiquer la plongée sous-marine…
Donc malheureusement, nous ne pourrons pas venir sur le blog pendant environ 3 semaines étant donné que l’internet ici coûte autant que 2 rolls royce à l’heure !!!!
Mais on a beaucoup de plaisir. Pas d’inquiétude !!
LOVE!! On vous aime !!!

written by  agnesola on February 4, 2008 from Ko Tao, Thailand
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We arrived by boat very early in the morning and when you arrive it is really like a paradise island, turqoise clear water, palmtrees and beaches...well, the first thing we had to do was to walk with our big backpacks through the woods for about 40 minutes before finding a bungalow that was available. We were very lucky to find one and we stayed at the same one until we left, it became our little home for 2 weeks. We Had a terrace overlooking the water and the sun setting just in front of us each night...

There is one real towncenter, we lived about 30 minutes from there, close to us there was a small little center with restaurants, a few bars along the beach and some shops
and divecenters, that was it. Nice and small. We had some great food here, Tom Kha and Tom Yam are 2 very nice thaisoups, Massaman curry is a new favorite as well...

As alot of you know, it was my birthday while we were here as well!!! on the 15 th of February... Agnes got me 2 dives as a birthday gift. All the time that we have been

On the night of my birthday we went out to have fresh seafodd barbeque thaistyle, really

All in all, our time in paradise was great, and we were a bit sad to leave...but now it is on to new things!

Puss o kram, Bisous! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

PS: We will leave you there with a last picture... and we really ask ourselves...: DO WE REALLY NEED TO WORK???

TRADUCTION POUR LES FRENCH PEOPLE :
Hello again dear readers.... hello de nouveau à nos chers lecteurs….

Voilà longtemps que nous n’avons pas mis notre blog à jour. La raison en est que nous sommes restés au même endroit pendant ces 2 dernières semaines, sur une jolie petite île de Thaïlande appelée Ko Tao.

Nous y sommes arrivés par bateau très tôt le matin et quand on arrive, on a le sentiment de se trouver sur une île paradisiaque, avec une eau turquoise claire, des palmiers et des plages… en tout premier lieu, la première chose que nous avons eu à faire ça a été de marcher à travers la forêt pendant env. 40 min avec nos gros sacs à dos avant de trouver un bungalow disponible. Nous avons eu la chance d’en trouver un et nous y sommes restés jusqu’à notre départ. Ça a été notre petite maison pendant 2 semaines. Nous avions une terrasse donnant sur l’océan et les couchers de soleil face à nous toutes les nuits….

Hormis les plages et les couchers de soleil, la principale activité pour nous, ce fut la plongée. Nous avons plongé 8 fois, et lors de la première plongée, nous avons côtoyé les requins gris des coraux et les requins taureaux ! une expérience vraiment cool. Ils ont l’air de vous menacer « je vais vous dévorer ». Mais ils se meuvent gracieusement et vont voir ailleurs. Ils n’attaquent pas parce qu’ils ont beaucoup de nourriture à manger autre que les plongeurs… nous avons vu plein d’autres choses également…. Des barracudas, des morues, Némo ! des thons, des « snappers » (c’est un poisson mais je –la traductrice- n’ai pas trouvé le mot en français !) et une autre chose très sympa que nous avons vue au cours de nos plongées… je vous en parlerai plus tard…

Ces jours au paradis, nous les avons passés sous l’eau , nous avons admiré les couchers de soleil et nous avons fait le tour de l’île. Nous sommes montés jusqu’au point culminant de l’île et nous avons pu voir très loin de chaque côté… moi, Ola, suis allé cueillir une noix de coco fraîche d’un palmier et l’ai ouverte et nous nous sommes régalés avec le lait de noix de coco tout frais !!!

Il y a un centre ville dont nous étions à environ 30 min, et tout près de l’endroit où nous étions, il y avait un petit centre avec des restaurants, quelques bars le long de la plage, quelques boutiques et des centres de plongée sous-marine et c’était tout. Petit mais mignon. Nous avons mangé de la nourriture succulente ici, Tom Kha et Tom Yam, ce sont 2 soupes thaïs très bonnes. Le curry Massaman est excellent aussi….

Comme beaucoup d’entre vous le savent, c’était mon anniversaire !! le 15 février… Agnès m’a offert 2 plongées. Pendant tout le temps où nous avons pratiqué la plongée ici, nous espérions voir des requins-baleines… mais rien. Et le matin de mon anniversaire, nous l’espérions mais ne pensions vraiment pas que nous pourrions en voir un… mais, à notre grande surprise, une fois sur le bateau, le capitaine s’écrit « requin-baleine » !et nous dit qu’ils en ont vu un et nous demande si nous voulons tous y aller… BIEN SUR ! on met promptement notre combinaison et descendons avec notre maître de plongée dans les fonds marins… et il est là ! le requin-baleine de 5 mètres de long, magnifique et étonnant. Les mots ne peuvent pas décrire cela mais cela fait partie des plus belles choses que nous ayons faites ; cet animal gracieux nage autour de nous pendant environ 30 minutes avant de disparaître… un très beau cadeau d’anniversaire ! et une chance extraordinaire ! nous sommes tellement heureux d’avoir eu cette expérience !

Le soir de mon anniversaire, nous sommes sortis et avons dîné d’un barbecue de fruits de mer dans le style thaï avec du citron thaï/du chili/de la sauce à base d’algues citronnées et bien entendu d’une crêpe d’anniversaire !... ce moment passé au paradis était « géant » et nous avons été un peu tristes d’avoir à partir… mais à partir de maintenant, place à de nouvelles choses !
Puss o kram, Bisous! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes
PS. Nous vous quittons avec une denière photo… et nous nous demandons vraiment… AVONS NOUS VRAIMENT BESOIN DE TRAVAILLER ????

They are quite dark some of them but you can still see this amazingly cool creature that we went diving with!

Bisous!!!! ola and agnes

SUITE TRADUC... BLOG PRECEDENT

Hello tout le monde à nouveau, on vient juste un peu étoffer notre dernier blog avec les photos de notre REQUIN BALEINE !!!!!
Certaines photos sont un peu sombres mais vous pouvez voir cette créature superbement cool avec laquelle nous avons nagé !
Comme nous l’avons déjà dit, c’est là une expérience formidable et quand cela arrive, on se précipite tous dans les combinaisons pour sauter à l’eau et descendre au fond !

Nous étions quelques plongeurs et nous nous cognions les uns aux autres quand nous nagions autour du requin et qu’il nageait autour de nous, mais nous n’en faisions pas cas tellement nous étions autant heureux que « frappés de stupeur » de nous trouver là… je laisse les photos parler d’elles-mêmes…
Bisous!!!! ola and agnes

written by  agnesola on February 18, 2008 from Ko Tao, Thailand
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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So we are now in India, our last destination! (snif snif)
But that will be for the next blog...

After having spend some time on that paradise Island, and having seen beautiful under-water creatures..., we went back to Bangkok, to visit a few more tourists sights and to say bye to Thailand!

Close to there, we visited a temple with 5 or 6 levels that you can climb up... the place is

We also walked along the presidential palace which is very beautiful and very white! But Unfortunately we were not dressed to the standards to enter and anjoy the park around... so we just looked at it from behind the barriers!

One of the most important attraction of Bangkok, is the Grand Palace. It is the Royal palace, but you can not actually visit the interior, you can just walk outside, but it is also

Around the different buildings, you can find some very tall statues of soldiers and some much smaller of old angry looking fighters!!

The main attraction of the temple is the Emerald buddha, one of the most venerated Buddha in Thailand... It is made of Jade, and it is not very big, but it is placed on a massive golden throne which makes it grand. It is quite an impressive religious thing, even for non believers like us!
(just so you know i wasn't allowed to take a picture of the emerald buddha... but I did it anyway... so sorry for the bad quality but I had to be dicreet and the lights were bad!)

At night, we went to see a night market in one of the red district of Bangkok... It is a pretty soft red district and most of the people here come to see the market and have a drink... but you can't avoid to see that a lot of them are here for the girls, and in some cases the boys...

It made us quite sad at the end of the night to see how many girls do that to survive... and we also had the bad luck to see quite clearly two pedophiles...

I know it kills a bit the light touch of the blog, but you can not go to Bangkok and not see those things... Unfortunately there is little to do in such a short time, but it is crazy to see how open and accepted it is there... and how many europeans or other westerners think that it is allowed for them too...

Well anyway! Lets not let it get to us!!
We are now in India, and here it is another story as most of the women are very covered when dressed! But we already like very much the country...

All in the next blog!!

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on February 22, 2008 from Bangkok, Thailand
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India is a violent assault on all the senses, and all at once. There is alot of beauty and colors, but also alot of tragedy, there is smells lovely as incence, flowers, food and spices, and also smells that are less pleasant... There is alot of traffic and noise. All this attacks the mind at the same time. Just by going from the airport in to the center I think both our minds raced in many directions and thoughts at once. I do not think we said more than a few words to each other during that trip, just lost in our own thoughts. What you see is just so much poverty, more than anywhere we have been before, but yet this country has some amazing and kind people, curious and helpful, more also than any other country we have visited.

We arrived late at night in Mumbai so we had booked a hotel from the airport, when we arrived the bed was very small, it was very tight for 2 people in the bed but hey, at least the trip brings us closer together =). So the next day we upgraded to something more comfortable with a fan with a noise, well rather a beat, you will all understand when you see our fan dancing video!

We started our first day with walking...we walk alot but it is cheap and healthy. Mumbai

We had been invited by the hotel to work at a indian wedding, well Agnes was going to work(work...I recognise that word...but what does it mean...) and i was gonna hang around. They wanted western girls to dress in sarees and greet people as they came to the wedding party. The place looked more like a event of some kind more than a wedding party. There was a big stage, cameramen and loads of food stands everywhere. As soon as we arrived they got Agnes to change in to a saree and she was put to work straight away. I thought I could just sit down and do nothing for 4 hours, take some photos and
sample the cuisine...

I was wrong, a few minutes after I had sat down at a table some kids came up and asking questions, which I gladly answered. They asked about my country, my favorite sport, are you married, what are you doing in India etc etc. At first this was ok, just a few kids, later it was alot of kids asking the same things over and over again. Then they started asking for autographs, and when I told them that Agnes was my girlfriend they started swarming around her as well. It was kind of like being treated like rockstars. The kids were lovely though, some of them brought me special sweets from the food stands to try, juices and drinks. All of them spoke very good english. I wouldn't say that it was annoying, but in the end it was a bit exhausting, having kids all around and asking stuff for 4 hours, we all know kids have a lot of energy. It was a very nice experience but we both went to bed that night very tired.

The wedding party itself was a bit strange, the two getting married never walked around, they pretty much just spent time taking pictures on stage and shaking peoples hand when they passed them giving gifts. But I guess it is tradition here, htere were fireworks as well, but I could not pay attention to much to the wedding couple, I had my groupies of indian kids to chat with all the time.

The next day was spent with more walking, pretty much the route we walked the day before, but this time we went a bit further, we saw a market that had alot of fruit and veg and live animals. It is a bit sad to see all; the animals; chickens, dogs, birds and more in small cages like that. There was also a cow meat market, the cow is sacred here in india, but not fore the muslim that live here. We just peeked in there becuse it was not open that day but it was just as good, the smell and blood we saw was enough. Sometimes the foodinspectors in Europe complain about a little bit of dirt in between some doors to a fridge or something like that, I think they would have a heart attack if they came to this place. We also visited a nice spiceshop and bought a overpriced bag of spices, it tasted really nice though so it was ok!

Well that is pretty much all of our 2 first days in India, we are now in a town called Jodhpur in the heart of Rajasthan, 18 hours north of Mumbai. We will write about that very soon. It is very beautiful though...

Sorry that we dont have more pictures, but the internet here is very slow so we will put more when we find quick internet!

Until next time, Bisous, Puss o kram and Kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

written by  agnesola on February 24, 2008 from Mumbai, India
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
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After starting our trip in India with Mumbai, we took a train to go to Rajasthan, which is a region north of India... The train to get there, was very ... how to say... interesting...!! Actually looking like a real moving prison...!! Not very comfy, but hey!! that's travellling!

So we sat in the train, and after some time, our "seat neighbours for the night" arrived: a lady, her husband, her brother and their servant.
They started chatting with us and asking questions, and we ended up sharing some food with them... which was very nice.
When we had to leave the train at our stop (after the night), the brother gave me a little book full of love sentences!!! He knew that Ola was my boyfriend but it seems like it doesn't matter so much there!!
Anyway, it was funny!! And I have his phone numbers in case !!!

So we arrived in a town called Jodhpur, which is a pretty old and big town... the streets are very hectic there, with loads of traffic...

One thing which is funny, is that we, as westerners, are kind of superstars for kids in the streets. They all come to us and want to know our names and our country and they shake our hands.... it is very cute and funny! They also love to have their picture taken!!

On our way back to town, we visited a small kind of temple made of marble which is a burial site for the former Maharajas. Extremely beautiful as well!!

Next episode soon!!

Love you all!!!

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on February 27, 2008 from Jodhpur, India
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Well! our next destination here in India,Jaisalmer...Is pretty cool!
It is very arabic influenced with a nearby desert, a huge fort made out of golden

It is a very nice little town, easy to walk around and with loads of old buildings. The Hotel we stayed in was 400 years old! pretty cool! The fort that overlooks the town looks like a giant sandcastle! Once again, like in other places in India, it really feels like stepping back in time. There is plenty of things to see and wandering around inside the fort getting lost is a cool way to spend a few hours.

There is old buildings with exquisite carvings, towers and walls with giant paintings of

Another thing that is possible to do in Jaisalmer is to go in to the desert on a camel safari. We thought about it but decided not to. And a good thing we did not!

Because on the night before we left we were walking home towards our hotel when we

The next day we were going to take a bus to our next destination, but check out was at 9 in the morning and the bus at 3.30, so we had a lot of waiting to do and did not know what to do with our day. We sat down at a cafe to have a tea and after a while we heard drums...hmmm. Another wedding we thought. I went to have a look and see a huge elephant coming towards me! The elephant was painted in bright floral patterns and

We stand still and watch people go by, dancing, singing. Then we go with them, talking to some, they give us special shawls around our neck and invite us to dance. All the time there are people throwing a red powder around. Apparently it is for good luck, but we try

While non of us are religious, it is interesting to see spirituality like this, it is really filling these peoples lives, and they celebrate it with joy and energy like you cant find in religion in Europe. Before we left we went back to our hotel to borrow the shower, that red powder was hard to get off....

So that concludes our trip to Jaisalmer! Fairytale forts, magic evenings and spiritual gatherings! we had a great time here!

Bisous, puss o kram! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes painted red!

written by  agnesola on March 1, 2008 from Jaisalmer, India
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So Udaipur... we arrived very early in the morning in Udaipur after a bumpy bus ride.
So we arrive in the touristy center of the town, and of course everything is closed and a few people try to get us in their "amazing" hotels. After a while walking around not really knowing where to go, we finally follow one of them to his hotel... And we were actually not disappointed at all. The room was relatively big and very charming! So we could sleep for a while and rest from the bus ride.

Udaipur is build around a few lakes, one of them being right at the center of the touristy area. There is an island in the middle of the lake where a beautiful hotel is... but very expensive and you can only go there if you go sleep or eat at the rather expensive night buffet!!! So we only enjoyed looking at it from the outside.

The town is also famous, especially the moosoon palace, perched up on a hill, for being the place where the movie Octopussy, James Bond movie, has been filmed... A lot of restaurants show the movie at night, so we watched it, but it has to be the worst James Bond movie ever!! Anyway, it was fun recognising places from the town!

Across the bridge from the main area, we went for a drink in a garden restaurant and

And last but not least, we visited an haveli (big old house) which was very beautiful and used to be the Maharaja guesthouse!

We also enjoyed going around town and seing the markets and bazaar streets. And doing a little shopping...

Next destination Pushkar! Over to you, Ola!

Kisses.

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on March 8, 2008 from Udaipur, India
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