Nolan's Eleven Heaven meetups

Hali and I traveled with fellow TravBuddies Kim, Reg and Nate from Bangkok Hualamphong Station on the overnight train to Nong Khai, and then on to Thanaleng in Laos. We spent a couple of days visiting Vientiane and Luang Prabang.

Hali was excited about this trip with us TravBuddies so she took care of booking four tickets in first class sleeper cabin, a few months in advance of the actual trip. It was funny because the tickets were sent to Hali's hotel in Bangkok, only to be told somewhat that these are vouchers which needed to be exchanged for actual tickets - they were the actual tickets! Anyway, we had to chase our train ride back from Ayutthaya earlier in the evening and transfer to the LRT that would bring us to Hualamphong Station. We made it with about an hour to spare, and we settled into the cabin. As Reggie was a last minute addition to the Laos group there were no more first class sleeper tickets but Lehel was kind enough to buy a second class ticket which I exchanged my cabin ticket with that for Reggie.

Bangkok Thong Lo BTS station after coming from Octave Rooftop & Lounge BarHali is one of the most organized TravBuddies you meet, and she travels to great lengths and durations on her trip (well, to begin with, Hali lives in the midst of a winter praerie in Regina, Canada). I envy Hali for being able to manage her schedule very well - she's almost on a 6-9 week trip every quarter or two quarters, and usually on round-the-world trips.

As our friend Jon (northlight) would call Hali a "globe-trotter", one can easily image what TravBuddies like her encounter regularly - 40 hour flights, two days in a row with hardly any sleep, and so on. And yet Hali manages to bring a ton of enthusiasm wherever she passes by. Not to mention that as an extrovert, Hali will go crazy if not allowed to mingle for people for more than a day or two.

Hali and I first traveled together from Kuala Lumpur after the November 22, 2014 meetup to Sri Lanka.Bangkok Thong Lo BTS station after coming from Octave Rooftop & Lounge BarWe spent short of a week there with our other TravBuddy friends - Masayo (masayo), Rhea (rheagirl), Jon (northlight), Kanak (kanaknaidu), Anne (super_otap), Forrest (pbj2050) plus sisters Devi and Hima...and had a lot of fun (see my blog http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/123239/)

In February 2015 I traveled with Hali, Reggie (tiggerlily), Kim (journeyoveryonder) and Nate (NathanC) to Thailand and Laos, although she continued on to Cambodia with another Eleven Heaven friend Brian (besandri), and stayed on long after we had finished that vacation and embarked on a new one. That trip of Hali lasted 9 weeks and went around the world in a westward direction, covering sleepless nights on the plane and in transit, but filled with fun traveling with TravBuddies.

In the future I hope to join Hali on one of her extended trips, although she is way ahead of me in planning because she already has Antarctica paid on downpayment for 2017!