We arrived at the Yangon Airport and were greeted by our tour guide, the owner of the company and our driver

Straight from the airport we headed to a family’s home to watch the famous Htwe Oo Myanmar Puppet show…this group has traveled to the USA to perform their show

We took this type of airplane nearly daily to travel to our next city. At the airport we never once showed our ID since we had our tour guide with us and took care of everything for us while traveling domestically

We stayed at the “Amazing Bagan Resort” and really enjoyed the pool, especially in the afternoon when it was hot

Our first stop in Bagan was at the Nyong U Market. They have produce, meat, souvenirs, etc

With our tour guide at the Shwezigone Pagoda, which was one of many that we saw in Bagan.

At the top of a Pagoda during sunset. So many pagodas in Myanmar. It would have been fun to take a hot air balloon and see all of the pagodas from that view point (but the balloons don’t operate in the summer).

We went to a lacquer-ware factory to see how they make things. This shows the different steps to making something from lacquer

In Bagan they have a Golden Palace…this only shows half of the palace

While in Bagan the “Water Festival” started. The locals are out getting people wet and painting faces.

After 2 nights in Bagan, we went to Mandalay and stayed at the Mandalay City hotel

We went to U Bein Bridge which was super busy and crowded

We visited a monastery around lunch time and saw the monk procession where they bring in their donations for the day and then get their lunch meal

Mason ready to call people to prayer with a prayer gong

Ladies could only get so close to a Buddha to worship

So many people have put gold flakes on this Buddha that he looks like he is getting fat

We went to the Mandalay Hill Pagoda and had a beautiful view of the city and also saw the beautiful pagoda

The most memorable part of Myanmar was the “country-wide water fight!” (Thingyan) We were able to open the sun-roof to our van and have people throw water on us…yes it got the van completely soaked inside

The locals here are making a traditional sugar snack that is only eaten during the Water Festival

Matt and Kalani got out of the van and started dancing with all of the locals while getting water thrown on them

Matt and the kids joined in the fun of throwing water on people as they drove by

Yangon was first and last city we visited in Myanmar. They had awesome water stations to get wet

Getting wet with water wasn’t bad since it was mostly warm water. But then there are some people who buy ice and pour ice cold water on you and of course you scream and they laugh

The kids were done getting wet so they went inside the cab of the truck we had and were so much more happy

Our very last stop in Myanmar was at Shwedagon Pagoda. It is pretty amazing looking especially at night

Directly from the airport we went to a night market in Vientiane that was next to the Mekong Delta…then we went to Dhavara hotel for a night’s stay

Ho Pra Keo in Vientiane was originally constructed in 1565 as the Lao royal family’s personal chapel, and as a home for the Emerald Buddha after it was snatched from northern Siam (Thailand). This sacred jade statue was reclaimed by the Siamese in 1778 and now sits in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok which we saw in 2013.

Cool carvings out of tree trunks at Ho Pra Keo

Wat Si Saket located in Vientiane is famous for its cloister wall housing thousands of tiny Buddha images and rows with hundreds of seated Buddhas. These images mainly date from the 16th and 19th centuries and come in all sizes and are made from wood, stone and bronze – more than 6,800 Buddhas in total.

Laying Buddha at Pha That Luang reminded us of Thailand since they have one of these too.

One form of the local transportation in Laos

Inside an indoor market/swap meet type place. Almost every country in Asia has something like this

The Patuxai is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France…and is very similar to the Arch de Triomphe in France, although this one in Laos has shops inside.

View of Vientiane from the Patuxai

We drove 3 hours from Vientiane to Vang Vieng and stayed at the Riverside Boutique Resort

They day started out cloudy and rainy, but we still had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery

First stop was to Tham Chang Cave and we had to climb a bunch of stairs to get there.

Inside Tham Chang Cave

Mason praying inside the “Elephant Cave”

A Laoation tractor, also used as a means of transportation on the road for locals

Outside of the Tham Nam Water cave the kids had a great time playing with the inner tubes…inside the cave was pitch black expect for the headlights that we wore

We had a “Sunset Boat Ride” although we really couldn’t see the sunset. Still we all had a good time and saw a lot of foreigners looking like they were enjoying spring break as well.

All the food that we ate in Laos was DELICIOUS!

We are big fans of family massages when they are cheap

The Farley Family enjoyed Laos and all that we were able to see and do there

And thanks to our wonderful tour guide Chansay…and if he is booked, his fiance is also a tour guide!

Our schedule for Spring Break 2014

First outing in Hong Kong was to the LDS Temple…but the taxi driver said this was “not a temple, only Chinese have temple, this is a church”

Chi Lin Nunnery in Hong Kong was very peaceful, although we never saw any nuns while there

Did some souvenir shopping at the “Ladies Market”

The people in Hong Kong hang dry their clothes right outside their apartment window

My roommate and I at the 12 story church building where our conference was held

Streets of Hong Kong are busy

Cool Asian boat at the Hong Kong harbor

Old fashion double decker tram only costs about $0.30 to ride, but it doesn’t go very fast and makes many stops along the way and is crowded on a Saturday afternoon

Hong Kong Park is right in the middle of the city, but you wouldn’t be able to tell once you were surrounded by the fountains and trees

Unique teapots on display at the Teapot Museum located at the Hong Kong Park

Aviary at the Hong Kong Park

My friend who was in our ward in Texas, flew the 10 hours or so from Saudi Arabia to attend conference

My 2 friends who I got to join me from the Philippines

Tiananmen Square; we didn’t cross the street, so this was what we saw of it in front of the Forbidden City

Part of the Forbidden City. This view reminds me of the Disney movie Mulan

Behind the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park. It offers a fabulous view of how huge the Forbidden City is…9,999 rooms total before a fire destroyed some of them

A pedestrian walking street full of stores. Many familiar store were seen

Down a side alley of the pedestrian street is the “Food Market” where people can eat scorpions, starfish, seahorse and other items…yes, Matt ate some scorpions after they were deep fried

Around the corner from the scorpion area is this souvenir alley full of people and trinkets

We had time to do a little bit of shopping at this 4 story “gray market” where you bargain down and should only give the vendors 30-50% of their asking price. Matt got a couple of clothing pieces, Kalani got a pair of gloves and I got $20 knockoff Ugg boots that Kalani wears

We ended our first day watching a 45 minute acrobat show. It was the most amazing show that we had ever seen with a variety of talent and tricks

First stop of the day was the Great Wall of China and we had perfect visibility

We took these “ski lifts” up to the wall

We wished Kalani a Happy 10th Birthday on the Great Wall of China

To get down from the wall we rode this “Luge”.

We got to go see the 2008 Olympic park

Our last stop for the day was to the Summer Palace which has a ton of artwork since everywhere you looked there was some kind of painting, carving, mural, etc

This massive stone marble boat has held many functions and is just beautiful

The water around the summer palace still had some ice at certain areas

We started off the day by going to the “Dirty Market” to look for a painting and other souvenirs, and we weren’t the only people there

We visited the aquarium where we saw Beluga whales and heard the loud noises that they make

The sea lion, dolphin, whale show was also pretty cool

Of course we had to visit the zoo to see giant pandas in their home country

And we ended the day by visiting a silk factory where we learned about the silk process

We got to ride a Rickshaw through an old neighborhood and tour a traditional “Hutong” courtyard home

We stayed at the Shangri-La China World Hotel and had this view

Motorcyclist have warm gloves and blankets attached to their motorcycles to keep warm while driving

The BEST Chinese food we have ever had was in Beijing and didn’t cost very much. The servers take down orders on these devices that look like a walkie-talkie or cell phone (this is our tour guide Iris)

I don’t know if they block the doorways year round, but while we visited all of doorways had some kind of “blanket” to keep the cold air out

Last photo with our tour guide Iris, who we highly recommend