"Go shorty. Its your birthday, gon' party like its your birthday..."-50 cent

Yes, its true, I am yet again, another year older. Great thanks for all the well wishes and celebratory activities... it'll definitely be one to remember.

Now you might be going… how on earth did you get from Luang Prabang to Birthday (3 days) w/out any other posts… well… that’s b/c we took 2 days worth of boat rides… where I read 2 books… and had a very sore bum by the end thanks to the rather crappy seats… but I got a few good pics… despite an 8 hour trip followed by a 6 hour one.

This here is the little village we stayed in the first night… climbing up here was terrifying… we didn’t pull in until after dark… there was no dock… just rocks to climb up… w/ our bags… and some ropes…rocks, ropes, and a plank of wood. There were people trying to take your bags, and you were hounded by people trying to get you to go w/ them to their guest houses. This was the only point that I distinctly remember losing my temper at all… b/c they were blocking me from my group and I just snapped… “No, I’m with them get out of my way”… yeah then we had to treck all the way up the hill… Where we then had to wait over 2 hours for our dinner… making us all pretty miserable.

The next day was better as it was a shorter ride… above are some kids playing in the water… followed by a group of monks charging our boat as we sailed by…plus some pictures of rainbows.
The celebrations began at midnight... where I got to hear happy birthday in english, italian, and iranian. Then we all crashed b/c we had been in a boat for 8 hours.

Next morning we crossed the border into Thailand... (my 30th country on my 24th b-day... pretty cool)... we then drove for like 5 hours... stopped in Chiang Mai (sp?) for 2 hours... where i saw my first mcdonalds, starbucks, and subway since I've been here. That’s me and Monica in the picture… A few people stayed behind here, rather than moving on to Bangkok… which was pretty sad

But here's me and Monica in Chiang Mai.

We then hopped on an overnight train to Bangkok.. which is where I am now... and there's a huge Thunderstorm, so I'm at a free internet place. Anywhoo… above are some pics of jenni looking thrilled… my beautiful b-day dinner, and Monica and Sam…

I had a great surprise of a little mini birthday cake and candle… and everyone sang to me on the train…. These trains were different from the last one… Instead of cabins, the chairs pulled out into beds, and a cot pulled down from the side above… and there were curtains… and that was it… surprisingly enough however, the sleep was some of the best I had in a while.

Oh... and on the overnight train... there was a party car.... like an actual club w/ bar music and dimmed lights. It was filled w/ old frenchies that wouldn't let us out until we danced w/ them... I should rephrase that... the old lady in the first picture... wouldn't let us out until Jenni danced w/her. Overall, highly amusing.