Pics... make me sad and happy all at once

So yah.... sad that I'm not back there having a blast with julie.....

heres the 3 of us having a drink in Vietnam (on CatBa island in Halong Bay)

Below is me jumping off a cliff in Laos..



















Julie thought her taxi driver stunk SOO BAD... that I just had to take a picture


and Finally - the great wall... the 10km hike far surpassed anything i ever expected out of a wall!...

cheers.
me.

BEIJING

WOW - what fun!

We arrived in Beijing after taking a red eye flight from Bangkok and were greeted by a city more polluted than its Thai counterpart...

China is a VERY different country to travel in when comparing it to the other places we have been. The language barrier is much more prominent (i.e. NO ONE speaks english here). This made for a very difficult time finding our hostel - very difficult. We took a airport shuttle bus to downtown and basically had no idea when to get off... after that, at least 5 cab drivers waved us off when we showed him our guest house - FINALLY we got one cab driver to take us into the vicinity of it (after a long time using our navigational skills with a chinese map)! After we got dropped in the vicinity of our GH I went for a very long walk while Julie guarded our bags on the sidewalk. I actually can't believe we managed to find it! We are staying in a 'hutong', which is an old alleyway that make up a lot of Beijing. Sadly, many are getting destroyed because of expansion of the city and the 'Olympics coming to town' (which we heard was simply an excuse by the government). Anyway - we love our GH - the 'red lantern' - and would reccomend it to anyone coming to this part of the world!

We spent out first afternoon exploring the hutongs around our GH - the ones here are about 200 years old, which is young in comparison to others... these alleys are soo full of life - everyone is buying, selling, yelling, and riding their bikes. Its soo much fun just to watch life go around you!

We met a very nice man from Oregon who works over here as a proffessor. He took us out for 'hot pot' - which was AMAZING. He showed us how to do everything - and its quite the process:
- get a lady to give you a hot plate with a big pot of stock on it (you can get one or 2 different flavoured stocks)
- go up to this big cooler and grab as much food as you want (dozens of vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, noodles, soo much seafood, meat, etc. etc. - it really was endless) - we had mutton
- grab a tray of appetizers to eat while the stock boils (peanuts, soybeans, watermelon gourd, soy bean curd, etc.)
- make a sauce of your choice to dip all your stuff in (Steve made ours - some sorta nut based sauce)
- get something to drink (a liter of beer is about 20 cents canadian)
So.. once your stock is boiling - you chuck whatever you want in there and wait till it cooks (meat is floating) and then dig in - its one big messy fondue and its soooo delicious. Chinese usually end their meal with a carb - so we waited till the very end to have our noodles. Mmmmmmmm. I think the best part was - for all of us to stuff our faces with food and beer - the bill was less than 10 dollars!!! YAH!

We started the Beijing tourist trail and visited the Summer Palace - which was built so the royal family could escape the heat of the Forbidden City in the summer. The place was massive and beautiful and full of tourists! For dinner we went for Peking Duck - it was a whole other process for that meal - basically you order a duck and a chef comes out with it and butchers it in front of you - you eat it with pancakes and a sauce - they even cut the head in half for you, but its hard to deal with - then at the end of the meal they bring you out a soup that is apparently all the duck meat that the butcher couldn't get from the bones or somthing. It was good... but hot pot is a better bang for your buck in my opinion!

We went to Tiananmen Square - the largest public square in the world - and then to the Forbidden City. Both of these places were WAY bigger than I ever imagined..

Tiananmen Square:
We started the day off wrong - we took the right bus - but the wrong way - OOPS. Anyway.. we finally made it the square - our goal was to get there by 7 am and avoid some tourists but the bus problem made us arrive closer to 8:30. TS is the world's largest public square - what is very interesting about many of the sites in Beijing is that they are all built in accordance to Feng Shui and their ideals on heaven and earth and where things need to be placed according to their beliefs...

Forbidden City:
Now, this place was AMAZING. It was like one giant maze - 8000 rooms in 900 buildings - we got soo lost and soo turned around in the 'Palace Museum'! The FC was off limits to 'commoners' for 500 years, housed 2 dyanasties (Ming and Qing) who never left the place unless they had to (or it was too hot - see 'summer palace :). Apparently.. the FC is soo large that a permanent restoration team moves around painting and repairing - it takes 10 years to do a full renovation.. and then they have to start over again. Almost all the signs are in, you guessed it, Chinese - so its kind of hard finding your way around. Julie and I got lost so many times - so fun!

We did a 'bit' of shopping one day here as well. I might give us awards for our bartering skills. The people selling stuff here will actually grab your arm and pull you into their store... and the prices they start at our ridiculous. Some things I bought went from 1200 yuan to 70. We figure they must start that high because there are some stupid tourists that will actually pay that much. Shopping is soo much fun here - but soo draining - its a lot of work! Life is hard.

The Great Wall
We, of course, had to make a trip out to the Great Wall. We opted for a location very far away from Beijing (and thus the hoards of tourists). Before we made it there, our bus decided to not have a clutch anymore so we had a one hour detour on the side of the highway before we got another bus. We went to a site called Jinshanling which is about 110km NE of Beijing. And our plan was to hike about 10km (and 30 towers) to a site called Simatai... by accident... we took a wrong turn (who does that?) and ended up walking through some farmland and a small valley to the 10th tower - we took an hour off of our original hike!! A group of 'hawkers' me us ever so kindly there and showed us the way - I felt REALLY good about my self when a 65 year old lady was helping me climb up the wall.. while she was carrying more bags than me... she does that EVERY DAY - she was truly my hero! The actual sites we saw while on the great wall were undescribably - one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen! I ll show you pictures soon

Temple of Heaven Park
We went to this park in Beijing at 7am in the morning and watched hundreds of Chinese people do their daily routines of Tai-Chi, dancing, singing, stretching, running, and other traditional forms of excersise... it was AMAZING.. one of the most peacefull parks I have been to... so fun just to sit and watch....

OK - sorry for the rushed blog. i catch a flight in like 6 hours to go home - BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

see you soon
TL

MALAYSIA!

Now, don't think I have been ignoring this blog thing for the last 2 weeks. Its just that internet access hasn't really been available for a while (at 10 bucks an hour.. who would dream to use it?)

I don't really know where to start on how my time in Malaysia went..

KUALA LUMPUR (KL)

The capital city was an absolute culture shock, especially coming from Cambodia. It's really hard to explain - but coming from a country with no chain stores, few paved roads, a lot of poverty, and a lot of recent, sad history to a country that plans to be considered 'fully developed' by 2020, has McDonalds in a VERY clean airport, has a SKYTRAIN, etc., etc. - the whole thing was hard to grasp... they really did seem like extreme opposites. (It was interesting, however, that we felt Malaysia to be super clean and modernized when we entered it, yet to Dutch girls coming from Australia found Malaysia to be 'rough and dirty' - wow!)

We stayed in the heart of Chinatown at the Backpackers Travellers Lodge. The people there were almost too friendly and helpful - it was great! Shopping in KL's Chinatown was quite an adventure. There is a lot of good 'knock off' stuff for sale.. Adidas, Nike, Gucci, Rolex, etc. etc. Each stand has around 4 people working for it. One person sells and the other 3 have radios and are at each corner of Chinatown looking for the cops coming to bust them. Very often, Julie and I would be shopping, say for some Diesel watches when all of a sudden, this guy would sweep the whole table of watches into a garbage bag, chuck them to the side, and start putting stuffed animals and stupid trinkets out for sale. Kinda funny, but really annoying as a shopper!

We went to the famous KL twin towers and walked across the skybridge on the 41st floor - it was pretty neat.

The food in KL (and Malaysia as a whole) was phenomenal and CHEAP. We ate street food as often as we could because A) its cheap and B) its soo tasty! We went to 'Little India' one night and had ourselves 7 different dishes and drinks for maybe 2 dollars each! Amazing!

TEMAN NEGARA

After KL, we took a bus first to a town called Jerantut (to get our licenses), and then to Kuala Tembeling (to hop on a 3 hour boatride) and then to the world's oldest rainforest - Teman Negara! We did a group tour sorta thing for the first 2 days... some of the stuff we did with the group were:
Night jungle walk (lots of disgusting insects, wild pigs, deer, lemurs, etc)
Canopy walk (nothing special wildlife wise... but the bridges were really sketchy and we were really high up)
Rapids on a dinky little boat (not a single dry spot on our bodies and our driver was psycho)
Bukit Teresik (we hiked to this little peak.. and lost our group for a bit cause we met a fellow canadian and talked to him for a while)

So, Julie and I decided to spend an extra day in the park before we left. We wanted to do our own hike in the jungle. This was a BAD idea. We convinced Colin, a guy from London to come along (always smart to add a third person). We decided to hike to some rapids called 'Lata Berkoh). It was 8.1 km there....and the hike was good. It was soo muggy in the forest so we were all sweating profusely... we finally arrived (after crossing a river in our barefeet (OW) and getting monsterous leeches on us - I had the biggest one EVER on me.. the little bugger got inside my shoe and I had NO idea). Anyway.. we swam at the rapids and I ate a hearty lunch of ritz crackers and some fruit (how substantial). It was at this point in the hike that I realized I had roughly one cup of water left in my bottle to get me over 8 km back to the park headquarters. Not good. On our hike back.. we saw some monkeys fighting in the tree.. I don't remember much of the hike back.. I don't think I have ever been that dehydrated in my whole entire life. I ran out of water - after some serious rationing.. with about 5 km left to go - haha! So, when we finally reached the headquarters.. I drank 2 litres of liquid within the first 6 minutes... it tasted sooo good! We were DONE for the rest of the day. Sooo tired.

PERENTHIAN ISLANDS

After leaving Teman Negara.. we felt it was time for some serious relaxing before we headed back to what we feel could be the 2 most polluted cities in the world (Bangkok and Beijing). We went straight to the islands from the park...on our ride to the jetty in Tok Bali we met a very nice chinese man (he was our driver) who happened to own shares in the taxi company as well as the boat company. It worked out in our favor because he up graded our ticket for free and even carried out bags right down to the boat dock for us! He wanted to meet us on the island in a few days at some cafe for lunch but we ditched him for some kayaking (are you proud of me dad?). So we arrived on the Pulau Perenthian Kecil (small island, Besar is the big island) and were taken aback by its beauty!

The Perenthian Islands are VERY unique! There are no roads on them, not even trails for dirtbikes. You can between some beaches - but basically everything is done by boat taxis. There is no electricity on the islands either. Everything is run by generators - so accomodation gets power from 7pm to 7am. The island is also relatively 'dry' - by saying this I mean alcohol is very expensive and often not even on the menus (my kinda island!)! Oh yah - one of the more abundant wildlife species on the islands are monitor lizards... i had no idea they were HUMUNGOUS! Some of them tip to tip were easily 6 feet! WOW!

We met up with Mark again (so fun!) which was a great treat! We spent our first day on the island doing a snorkelling trip amongst the two islands as well as some outlying reefs. This trip FAR SURPASSED ALL EXPECTATIONS I had. Why dive when you can snorkel? It was AMAZING. We were diving with hundreds of species of fish, inclduing reef sharks! We went to one spot known for its turtle population and I had the honour of seeing 4 turtles within 40 minutes of snorkelling. 3 of them were HUGE (almost the size of me!). We followed one for about 10 minutes and swam beside it while it surfaced for air twice and was being cleaned by two friendly fish! It was a beautiful sight!

The next day we (Mark, Julie and I) rented a 3 person kayak and decided to do a bit of a trip to another beach. These kayaks were not made for huge westerners. It was not a pretty sight there (one person swam behing the whole time) and on the way back when the seas got a bit rough - we took in a lot of water and mark fell off twice. It was a good laugh though. So after Mark left for Phuket... Julie and I basically chilled on the beach, ate amazing food and drank ginormous mango shakes.

We also switched accomodation 3 days into our stay on the islands - we moved into what many would consider a shack or shed back home. First of all.. there was no path to it.. you just kinda climb over rocks to get to it. Basically it was a wood platform with a bunch of 2 x 6's making 4 walls. We had 2 open air windows (one couldn't shut) and a deck. We had a lightbulb but no light switch - so to turn off the light to go to be I had to unscrew it. Our roof was made of tin sheets - but when it rained our roof leaked... in 3 spots one to left of me, one to the right of me and one to the left of Julie. All hit our bed. Lets just say the place waws a little damp at times. We also had visitors at all times of the day.. these freaky looking lizards about 6 inches long. Oh yah.. the bathrooms - oh the bathrooms! They were about a 5 minute hike away so at night when it was dark out.. we would just go outside our shed. When we did use them, however, we shared them not only with the 30 something other shacks... but also snakes, frogs and these weird looking lizards. ew. We did however go from paying 40RM a night to 15! (only 7.5 each - thats like 2 dollars - which is realllllly good on these islands!

Our time on the island flew by - we made good company with one cafe, and ate their everyday! We played beach volleyball with some of the locals that worked on the island - and we snorkelled around whenever we felt like it. Life was good! Unfortunately we had to leave - we went to a town called Kota Bharu and stayed a guesthouse run by a chinese lady. She loooved me! She kept talking to me in Chinese cause she knew I was half - so fun!

After Kota Bharu we had to get back into Thailand for a flight to Bangkok. We went to a town called Narathiwat in Southern Thailand only because we found a flight out of there for 11 dollars. Basically the town had NOTHING in it - but we managed to eat an unbelievable dinner at some outdoor street stalls for super cheap. Street food, I have now realized, is the best tasting food in Asia, and conveniently the cheapest. What a good deal!

So, now here i sit. In Bangkok. We fly to Beijing, China tomorrow...

Exploring the Temples of Angkor

So.. the last time I wrote I was in Sihanoukville, Southern Cambodia. We ended up renting bikes there and riding to a beach much farther away than the more ''popular'' ones. It was well worth it - we were by ourselves most of the day relaxing on the beach.

We spent one more night in the capital before heading up to Siem Reap, where I now sit!

We bought 3 day passes for the Temples of Angkor - as we heard purchasing one day passes ''was a crime''. We hired Chea, a tuk tuk driver, to take us around the temples for 2 days. He is super nice and a great driver, especially considering how bumpy the roads are.

On our first day we left our guest house at 5 am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Before coming here, I didn't really know what to expect from these temples.. but after arriving, I know that they far surpassed any idea that I had in my head.

Here's my brief history lesson on the temples of Angkor:

Basically back in the day, by this I mean between the 9th and 13th centuries, a bunch of ''god kings'' ruled the land. Using all of their wealth and labour force they built these temples to glorify not only themselves, but also their ancestors. I look at it as a kind of competition!

In my opinion, Suryavarman II won! He's the guy who built Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most massive building I have ever seen and I have NO IDEA how this place was built so long ago. It is still considered the largest religious building in the world. WOW. I was more than impressed.

In this same day we visited quite a few more temples, including the one that tomb raider was filmed in. It was really neat. We also went to the Bayon, which is known for the many faces in the stone. There are a number of theories on what the faces on the stone are or mean, but no one really knows... Hmmmmmm.

On our second day, we checked out another group of temples known as the Roluos Group. They were much older than the first temples we visited.. but amazing all the same! In the evening we wanted to see sunset at Angkor but it was raining (boo). We did, however, manage to visit the Landmine Museum - it was well worth the REALLY bumpy road... and it put some facts and figures on the problem here in Cambodia...this is amazing as well... but not in a good way.

We catch a plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia tomorrow. I'm super excited to visit Malaysia - but at the same time, I am shocked at how fast our trip has gone by. WOW.

TL

Finally - More Pictures!

I apologize for the lack of pics on the blog - but its hard to find computers here that can do 2 things at once... enjoy! This one is of me and Julie kayaking in Halong Bay, Vietnam
This is the sunset we were welcomed with on our first day in Saigon... we rode the Fokker 70 into the city
This pic was taken way back in Laos on our way home from checking out the caves.. they way this guy and his ox worked together was really amazing
These are the beautiful waterfalls I was talking about just outside of Luang Prabang, Laos - we swam here!
One morning in Luang Prabang we woke up at 530 am to see all of the monks collect gifts and foods from the locals ... they do this EVERY MORNING.. it was amazing!

TL

ENTER CAMBODIA

Alrighty - so far Cambodia has made me both ecstatically happy and very, very sad. Maybe I'll talk about the sad stuff first - then end with the happy stuff - just like a good movie.

We visited both a museum and a memorial site on our first full day in the capital city. We went to 'the killing fields' memorial first.

A little background on Cambodia if you didn't know already: (this is gonna be in a nutshell)

So in 1975 this guy named Pol Pot (a former school teacher - who knew?) decided that Cambodia needed a facelift. He started a revolution and recruited many followers saying that he was going to improve Cambodia as a country. He called 1975 'year zero' and decided to kill everyone who had any status or influence in the country: teachers, doctors, the wealthy, and even people who wore glasses (because they looked like intellectuals), etc. He even killed people who worked for them if they became too smart or too influential to others. He also destroyed all hospitals, schools, government buildings, etc. The guy was nuts. It lasted for 3 or 4 years and in proportion to the population of Cambodia was deemed the worst genocide. He was overthrown and killed.

The killing fields are 14 km outside of town and is the location where around 17000 people were killed and put into mass graves. Its sickly sad. The escavated after the genocide and pulled out 8000 skulls and put them on display in this massive tower where you enter the fields. Looking at it made me feel ill - then realizing that it was less than half of the people blew me away. You walk through these fields seeing the sites where all different people from all different social status' were killed - there's still bones and clothing in the ground around you. It was awful.

After this memorial we went to the 'S-21' or 'security prison 21' museum. Pol Pot had prisons all over the country... this one was a highschool before the 'revolution' that he converted into a massive prison. He had documentation of every prisoner that went through the walls and often tortured them until they would admit to somthing they didn't even do. It said he had kids that were 10-15 years old be some of his prison guards at this place. Apparently of the thousands upon thousands of people that went through that prison - only 7 people survived.

I can't really describe what these 2 places were like - other than the fact that they were extremely sad and disturbing. However, I am glad that I went and I feel that everyone that visits this country should go - because it gives people an awareness of what goes on in some places - and how recent these events were.

On a happier note - the next day we asked some motorbike drivers to take us to an orphanage and they did. We got dropped off at an orphanage that a German couple started 6 years ago. They rent a house and have 23 kids in their care - ranging from 1 month old babies to 16 year olds. The couple wasn't actually there while we were there visiting (they were just leaving). We had a blast. All the kids were wonderful - so happy and generous and kind - it was GREAT. We played tons of games, had a traditional Khmer lunch with them (I was shown how to wash my hands by an 8 year old girl). They are all learning English and were very good at it. They asked me to read some books to them - I was reading books in not only English but also French (it was terribly ugly). I also had to read some religious stories to them - I didn't know how to pronounce some of the names and places - I kinda felt DUMB - oh well.. I tried! A 6 year old girl then decided she wanted to do my hair - OUCH. We left that place more than exhausted.

To top it off MY ride back to the guest house was terrible. First of all - after all of the insane driving in Asia - I finally witnessed my first accident... it wasn't pretty - a motorbike with a 45 year old lady and 75 year old man (yes, that's right, yet ANOTHER 75 year old man enters my adventures on this trip) T-boned a big SUV coming over a bridge.... RIGHT BESIDE US - they were under their motorbike and gas was leaking everywhere - NOBODY STOPS - I hope they are OK. Then - my driver gets soo lost coming back to my guest house....he tried to drop me off at some random hotel - then I said 'No, I am staying at KING GH' and he nods and starts driving... 5 minutes later he tells me to get off the bike at 'NING HOTEL'... and I said NO. So he asked for directions and started driving again. He got lost again - and then I finally recognized a landmark and told him how to get back to where I was staying. What a pain.

Now I am in Sihanoukville - Southern Cambodia. Basically its the only part of Cambodia that touches the ocean - the Gulf of Thailand. Its pretty. A good place to relax for a bit until we get back to the cities....

TL

Missing 'Nam' already...

Greetings! Much has happened since we arrived in Saigon...

I must say having Mark around in the city was an absolute blessing! He speaks very good Vietnamese (an Irish guy speaking Vietnamese - quite the sight) so gets us very good deals everywhere we go...he knows all the right places to see and all the right things to eat.... it was great!

OK.. so we arrived in Saigon and Jonnie, Julie and I were sold the second Mark told us we could get GOOD sushi in the city. It was delicious! Mmmmmmmmmm.

Our first whole day in Saigon was spent doing our own walking tour of the city. BUT FIRST - Mark took us to the most amazing resteraunt ever invented. The name translated into 'delicious food resteraunt' and it didn't lie. Mark ordered food and drinks for the 4 of us and it was all soo tasty (and exceptionally cheap). We ate things that I would never have imagined to order - pounded shrimp wrapped around sugar cane....???

We visited the 'War Remnants Museum' and spent a long time there. It was reallly interesting to learn about the history of the Vietnam war, especially from a Vietnamese perspective. Some of it still confuses me - with the North and South, the so called ''çommunism'' of the country, and the politics behind it - but being a foreigner... I don't think I will ever fully understand what went and goes on here. After the museum we walked through "çentral park', checked out some markets and a shopping mall... basically saw a lot of the city on foot. I really like Saigon. It doesn't seem as busy and its quite clean and friendly. I can see how Mark lived here for 3 years.

Day 2 in Saigon started out BAD. Jonnie found out he got robbed the night before by a girl who 'wanted to take him home'. It was a bit of a blow to his ego to find out that she was just saying that to grab his wallet out of his pocket.. lesson learnt I guess. Anyway.. the 3 of us took a trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels - 2 hours north of Saigon. They are a 250km network of tunnels created by the Vietcong during the war in order to hide from the Americans. Not only are they underground (between 3 and 10 meters) but they are also WAY to small for any western body to fit into. I sure struggled getting around (and for only 90m) and thats AFTER they had been widened for tourist. Yikes!

The next day Jonnie left for Cambodia while Julie and I headed up the coast of Vietnam to a place called Mui Ne. It produces the majority of Vietnam's fish sauce - but thats not why we went there. Its a huge beach with guesthouses along it. It was nice to get away from the city and relax for a few days... the water was also COLDER and somewhat refreshing. On the second day there we rented a motorbike with a guy from London and one from France to drive out to the sand dunes (45km past Mui Ne). Julie drove on the way there (her first time - I was very proud of her). The dunes were great... we hired this kid and 4 slides to show us around. We hiked to the highest dune around and slid down them on crazy carpets... SO FUN (but i had sand everywhere - EW).

I drove on the way home. Big Mistake. It was dark... and when its dark.. the bugs come out. I HATE bugs. I drove home with one hand on the steering, the other one in front of my face, and my head almost at my knees to avoid the suckers. They HURT. It was like getting pelted with bebe gun pellets all over your body (I know what one feels like because when i was 16 Shawn shot me with one upstairs). Anyway.. it was painful. Part way through the ride Julies foot slipped off and rubbed the ground.. not only scratching her foot, but also throwing the bike out of wack... good thing i had ONE hand on the steering (and not 0 i guess) - ANYWAY - to wrap things up - it was by far the worst bike ride i have ever been on.

So .. we left Mui Ne and headed back to Saigon to roll in my 23 birthday with Mark. We ate at the delicious food resteraunt again and then Mark showed us a few hot spots in town.. it was FUN.

Now I sit here, in the capital of Cambodia. We took a bus this morning. The border was a gongshow. Listen to all of these lineups:
1. to hand in our Vietnamese departure cards
2. to get our visa stamped for leaving Vietnam
3. to fill out an Cambodian Visa
4. to fill out a health check for Cambodia
5. To fill out an arrival card for Cambodia and get our visa stamped

The whole process was so boring - If i was organising the border crossing (which i doubt i ever will) i would organize much differently - a lot less waiting in lines and more fans.

Anyway - a first glimpse of Cambodia tells me it is a lot different from the other countries we have been to. I'm really excited to check it out...
TL

Wow.

WOW. I have a lot of 'WOW's' this time around.

Currently I am sitting in an internet Cafe in middle of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC - aka Saigon). We arrived this evening on a flight we took from Danang. Jonny, Julie and I are all still travelling together and just finished a good meal of SUSHI.

I looooooved the town of Hoi An. It was beautiful and had everything we needed. We all got our fair share of clothing tailored for us. Its a dream come true - you walk into a shop and pick exactly what you want and then you pick the material you want, how long you want it - ANYTHING.... if you're really creative you can even draw it for them and they'll whip it up. My Tailor's name was nee and she liked to slap my bum. Other that that awkwardness - she was great. They take your measurements and less than 24 hours later you go back to try it on and request alterations if you want.

A whole new world opened up to me and Julie when we discovered we can get SHOES made...WOW. Same idea as getting clothes made (any style, any colour, any special request) and they just trace your foot and WHABBAM - new shoes for 15 dollars. Its great. WOW.

So in Hoi An we spent a lot of time going from shop to shop picking out clothes. But in our time away from that we did a lot of biking around the town. We made a few trip out to the ocean - its soo quiet during the day and at night it gets packed with Vietnamese people having dinner and swimming (they don't like the sun). We had dinner on a mat in the sand with lantern... I have no idea where they cooked the food - but it was cooked, and none of us got sick - WOW.

I have also found that travelling during the World Cup is a TON of fun. It brings the whole world together.. much like the Olympics.... travelling with an Aussie - we were obliged to sit down and watch AUS versus Japan the other night. It was my first time watching a whole entire 'football' match... and it was soo much fun (if you saw the game... you will know what I mean - a great finish - Jonny was a very happy man). So now that I'm an official football fan, and Canada is nowhere to be seen - I'll deem myself an Aussie fan. I hope they win the whole thing. I might have to get a jersey for their next game against Brazil on the 18th.....

So here's the big WOW: On our way to the airport we all hopped in a cab that our hotel arranged for us. Within the first 5 minutes our cabbie was asking us where we were from. When Jonny said 'Australia' the cabbie got soo excited over this fact (and the whole world cup victory over Japan) that we hit a 75 year old man who was sweeping the side of the street. Yes, that right, you read correctly, WE HIT A 75 YEAR OLD MAN WITH OUR CAB ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT. Now I don't mean like a head on, he went over the winshield sorta deal... but there was a definite connection between car and flesh... we kinda clipped him. I was in shock. We actually hit a guy. WOW. So the cab driver stops (I didn't think he would) gets out to check on him, and the old man is OK. AMAZING. I hope he's not sore when he wakes up tomorrow.

Oh yeah.. in the airport.. we ran into Mark.... from Ireland (see previous blog entries).. he used to live here for 3 years.. so he knows ALL the 'ins' and 'outs' of HCMC. Its great having him around... he gets all the local prices, speaks the language, and knows exactly where to go. Tomorrow he promises a GOOD lunch - I'm pretty excited.

Well, that's is all for now. I don't think we will phone those pilots. I guess we will see. I will take into consideration that I have been advised by 2 parents not to. TL.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!

First of all - OOPS. Let me apologize, I have not updated my blog in a VERY long time. Since then, we have picked up a new travel partner and switched countries. This entry will be long (maybe a tad boring at times) but nonetheless, it will cover all that has happened. Lets begin...

We headed to Vang Vien quite some time ago. The town was quite laid back, but a bit too catered to tourists for my likings. Every resteraunt you passed showed reruns of every season of 'Friends' ever produced. I have never watched that show before, but I feel as though I could tell you EVERYTHING about it. We tubed down the river on the second day we were there. I hate to be picky, but the Cowichan River is WAY better. Sure, there were stops for food and drinks along the way, as well as a few good rope swings and things to jump off (I bailed hard on one swing) but the Cowichan River is much more clean and peaceful.

We left Vang Vien for Vientiene on the 5th of June. We stayed a pretty dodgy guesthouse, but it seemed to do the trick for one night. We took a small walk around part of the city : Vientiene was a beautiful and you could really see and feel the heavy french influence.

The next morning, before our flight to Hanoi - we found ourselves hanging out in a nice air conditioned cafe...where we met Jonny - a fellow traveller from Sydney Australia on our slow boat into Laos (he stayed at the rat infested guesthouse in Pak Beng as well). Turns out we were taking the same flight into Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the Vientiene airport we were greeted by a guy promoting his guesthouse. He promised our ride into town for only a dollar and all we had to do was look at this place... saving money already I thought. It claimed to have air conditioning, free internet, free breakfast, good location, etc etc. The GH sounded too good to be true - so, I put my name down. Our flight to Hanoi was GREAT - way better than a 26 hour bus ride! We even got stuff to eat (tops Air Canada already).

In Hanoi - we were greeted at the baggage claim by a man carrying a sign with MY name on it - best thing ever! We ended up staying at this GH with Jonny for 12 bucks a night - A/C, TV, free internet - it was the poshiest place so far. We did a small walking tour of Hanoi that night to discover that this place can easily be deemed 'motorcycle nation'. The traffic is NUTS. The trick, we discovered, is to walk, and not panic wehn motorbikes are heading straight for you - its a but difficult at first - but you get the hang of it.

The next morning we all took a trip over to the Ho Chi Minh museum where we attemped to view his embalmed body. Well, we got too hooked up in this great museum about the history of his life and of Vietnam - that we were too late to view his body (it closed at 10 30 - who knew?). After that failed attempt, we hopped on the back of three motorbikes and zoomed over to a 3 story market - I reckon the ride was the funnest part..

That night for dinner we found ourselves in what appeared to be the upstairs of someones house. It was like they converted the place to a resteraunt and served only one dish a night. The 3 of us sat down and had food tossed in front of our face at once. It came out in this big clay pot with hot coals in the bottome keeping everything really hot. It was GREAT (and fun too). After dinner we were asked to join a group of men for a drink. Turns out they were all pilots for Vietnam Airlines that just came back from Frankfurt. They were heaps of fun to talk to and had tons of jokes for us. The chairman of VA was even present, and from what we understood he was ready and willing to give one of his pilots 15 days off with salary to be our personal tour guide for our stay in their country. They also want us to phone them when we reach Saigon so some of them can show us around... we'll see. My dad doesn't sound too impressed with this last idea...sounds fun though!

The next morning we left for a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. It farther north that Hanoi and is a a UNESCO world heritage site that contains over 3000 limestone islands. The tour was well worth my 70 bucks - they pick you up right at your hotel door and drive you 3 hours north where you get on a huge 'junk' boat and have a 'white linen lunch' thats delicious. We cruised for a bit and stopped at one island to go into some caves, and another island to hike to the top for a great view. We anchored down for the night after some swimming in the (a little too) warm ocean.

Day 2 of the trip was by far the best. We kayaked amongst some of the islands for a few hours in the morning and then changed boats after that. On this new boat it was literally just the 3 of us and our guide. We ended up stopping on a tiny beach for the afternoon and sat on lawnchairs in the water before (and after) having lunch. That night we stayed at a hotel on Cat Ba island and watched the first game of the World Cup at a pub. We got the time changes a bit mixed up so we played fooseball with some Swedes to pass some time. The last day of our cruise was just heading back into the port - the scenery is amazing!

Later on that night (June 10th) we took a sleeper train down the coast of Vietnam to Hoi An. The train wasn't nearly as nice as the ones in Thailand, but still sleepable nonetheless. In our taxi ride from the train station into the center of Hoi An, our cab driver, as always, had a great suggestion of where we should stay while here. We checked it out.

I feel as though i will never stay in a place as nice as this. I mean, it is 20 dollars a night (so about 7 bucks each) but I think it might well be worth it. The rooms really nice, it has a TV and a minibar, as well as a bathtub ( a rarity). They even gave us silk bathrobes in the closet. They give us bikes for free to explore the city and theres an all you can eat breakfast buffet. Good deal I think - too bad its STILL out of our budget....

So our first day in Hoi An was great. After a swim in the pool (oh yeah - it has a pool too) we took some bikes to the center of town and had some clothes tailored for us and then went on a marathon bike tour of the city - Hoi An is awesome - very nice people, there's a river running through town, and about 6km away is a great beach that will be visited frequently during our stay here....

Nong Khiaw and beyond...

Laos continues to far exceed its expectations. I had a Laos massage and a facial the other day in Luang Prabang for 6 dollars. First time my face felt clean in a while.. In LPB we took a truck out to some waterfalls that were about 30km away. These falls were EXACTLY what I wanted. First of all, they were absolutely beautiful - at least 6 different tiers to it, secondly it was a great workout to hike all the way up to the top and then all the way back down, third: the water was turquoise green and actually COLD (and therefore refreshing), fourth: there were cliffs to jump off of, and fifth, our company was great (a guy from Ireland and another fellow Canadian; Mark and Tracy).

The next morning Jules and I left for Nong Khiaw by boat. Boat left at 830 (AKA 945). It was supposed to be a 6 hour boat ride - turned out to be a tad longer due to some torrential downpour that made us stop for a while on the side of the river. The people along the river are great - all the kids wave at you and then show off their swimming skills to us.. its soo funny to see. The scenery was also fantastic - HUGE limestone cliffs surround the river.

The town of Nong Khiaw is really neat. There are no paved roads, and a few guesthouses. We stayed in one that gave us our own bungalow and we shared a bathroom with everyone. Upon arrival there was the most massive moth I have ever seen in my life right above our bed. If you have read the last entries to my blog than you may have assumed that Julie would take care of this. WRONG. She wimped out and I attempted to deal with it. I ended up getting it in a plastic bag and dropping that on our bed and running out of the bungalow screaming. At this point the owner of the place came in to get the bag.. once he touched it, the bag almost started flying away - he was spooked too, so I don't feel like a big wimp like Julie should!

Anyway - other than the massive insects... the place is great. There's not much to it, but its still manages to be amazing in my eyes. On the second night there we went to a talk by an american man who goes by 'MarkO' who has been 'travelling' for 34 years. He's not exactly proud of his country and what they did - so he decided to help out Laos in return.

(Laos was supposed to protected during the Vietnam war but after some slight changes it ended up being bombed more than any other country in the world. The equivilent of a plane full of bombs were dropped on Laos every 8 minutes for 9 years or something like that - absolutely ridiculous. To top it all off, 30% of the bombs didn't detonate ( I don't know WHO made them) so now the land is not safe to be on unless it has been cleared of these 'unexploded ordanance (UXO).

Anyway, this guy is raising money to help the people of Laos not only in debombing it, but also in the fight against opium and the sex trade. It was very interesting to hear him talk.

We were planning on going back to LPB the next day, but Mark and Tracy convinced us for one more night. Good thing. The next day we rented bicycles (I by far got the worst one out of the group.. it was terrible) and bikes to the entrance of some caves. In the second indochina war, over 300 villagers lived in this cave system to avoid the war and bombs that were happening outside. Inside the caves they had areas designated for cooking, banking, a hospital, etc. Conveniently, by the end of the trip Mark and I were the only two who managed to get leeches on our bodies. EW. EW. EW.

So now, I sit here, after a 3 (4+) hour bus ride back to LPB. Tomorrow we are heading to Vang Vien. Supposed to be just as amazing as the rest of Laos (slightly more catered to tourists...). TL.

Lovin' Laos...

First of all - the overnight bus trip from Pai to Chiang Khong (the Thailand side of the border) was awful. The road was incredibly windy, thus preventing any sleep whatsoever. After arriving at Chiang Khong I got Tuk-Tuk'd over to the longboats where I caught a boat to Laos (the border between the 2 countries is the Mekong River). Getting my visa in Laos was easy and quick (woohoo)! We arrived at the place where the slow boats leave from at 9am - thinking they left at 9:30. At just after 11am it took off (welcome to Laos time we were told).

The boat trip was beautiful! So much of the country is untouched that we would go for miles without seeing a single person. The actual boat was a bit crammed - there were about 70 people in it (8 feet wide and VERY long). Many had to sit on the floor. Because of this, we managed to meet some really great people - including a fellow UBC student!

The Mekong river was slow(ish). There were some spots that were a bit faster than others. Because of all of the rocks in the river, a lot of whirl pools form from the turbulence. We kinda got caught in one going to slow and got spun around and shot us straight at some more big rocks. It was quite entertaining to see how these people manage to get this super long boat out of situations like these. I wish I took a video.

We stopped for the night at Pakbeng, a 'town' right on the river. We stayed at a guest house for 1 dollar, in which we thought we had grabbed the deal of the trip, as we were expecting to pay a LOT more here. That night we found out why it was so cheap. No fan and a ton of rats. We never saw one, but we heard them on the roof, in the hall, and in our stuff. Yuck.

The second day on the boat just wasn't as comfortable for me. Maybe it was because I had one of the floor seats stuck between a bunch of cargo and a sleeping Lao lady. Nothing, however, could dampen the scenery... I think I got some great shots of fisherman, limestone cliffs, and longboats. I wasn't quick enough, however, to get a shot of the dead cow floating down the Mekong. Maybe next time.

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the early evening. LBP is not the capital of Laos, but it is the second largest city in the country, and a UNESCO world heritage site. There aren't really any easily accessible places to get money at night, so Jules and I were on a tight budget until the morning - oops.

So basically Laos is brilliant! Everything is so laid back and quiet; people are friendly; the city is beautiful & clean, and I have yet to see a single chain store! We did some exploring on foot today - saw an amazing Wat (temple) and hope to get a Lao massage later on today (we'll see how it compares to that of a Thai Massage).

Easy as PAI...!

After our time spent with the elephants, Julie and I took a one day Thai cooking course - YUMMMM! We all got to pick our own dishes and then our chef took us to the market to shop for the ingredients - there were definitly some interesting smells in that place. Supposedly, I am now supposed to know how to make green curry, pad thai, tom yum soup, and bunch of other things... we'll see if that's really true when I get home and attempt to show off my new talent!

We arrived in a place called PAI a few days ago. This town, is by far, the coolest! It took about 3 hours to get here by bus (only 100km away). The road was very windy and I feel that I now know the real definition of a 'hair-pin turn' - yikes. Julie and I were the last to get picked up so we sat three in a row with the driver - he didn't say a word the whole trip - kinda awkward.

Anyway - Pai is awesome. Its very small (2 main streets) and people here are very laid back. The trend appears to be "I went to Pai for 3 days and stayed for 3 weeks". A lot of people we have met have also settled down in Pai. A few of the businesses are European owned - very different from the other places we have been. We found a place to go 'trekking' with here in Pai. Its low season for tourists so it's very difficult to find a company to take us out for numerous days. We decided to just go for a one day trek (soon to be a VERY good decision). Out guide went by 'T', yah, that's right - 'MR. T' - so fun! He was really nice and knew the area very well. We hiked the whole day and visited 3 hill tribes of Lisu and Lahu descent, as well as some random people in the middle of the fields and forests. Hard to exlain - but a true story nonetheless. While walking through the jungle he was picking enough food to last him and his family quite a while - a couple of types of mushrooms, lettuce, some herbs, and a bunch of other stuff that didn't quite translate over. The scenery on the trek was beautiful - it poured with rain, but that didn't seem to hinder us. Oh wait, at some points of the trek we had to hike down and up these bare hills (that had just been rained on for like 8 hours). Anyway - it seemed like he flew through them without a problem. Julie and I were slipping ALL THE TIME. Finally, I was the first one to take a fall down the side of a hill, Mr. T looked a little frightened at the whole scenario, until he realized how hard Julie and I were laughing. I had mud everywhere! We ended the trek at a waterfall and then got a ride back into Pai with a guy named 'Chow'. Quite the experience, very glad I did it for one day and not 3!

Day 2 in Pai consisted of another motorbike rental. The 'Honda Dream' wasn't as nice as our ride back on the island, but it did the trick OK. We rode over to a national park full of hot springs - it was super nice! We tried to drive to another waterfall but had some difficulties getting up this one hill - we rolled back down backwards and decided not to attempt it again. A smart choice I think.

Tonight we head to Laos. A solid 3 days road trip that has mixed reviess by the people we have talked to. It consists of an 8 hour overnight bus to the border, a short boat ride across the river to get our visas, and then a 2 day boat ride to Luang Prabang in Laos. It has been described as both 'beautiful' and 'cabin feverish'. I'll give you my opinion in 3 days. Till then, TL.

PICTURES!

OK - so it took me a LONG time to upload some pictures.. I think I will be better at it in the future! These aren't in order either. The Tuk-Tuk driver is KEN in Bangkok. The picture with the beach and the grass hut was the view from our bungalow at Koh Phangan. There are two pics of me on Lukhon. One I am sitting quite comfortably on her neck, and the other one I am leap frogging over head to get on - quite fun actually! And finally, the last picture is of the boat we took from Koh Phangan to Surat Thani - hahaha just joking.. I though my dad would like a picture of Thailand's worst 'fixer upper'! Enjoy!

Becoming a MAHOUT...

I just got back from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) near Lampang and I can't describe how amazing it was. We arrived Friday morning and immediately felt welcomed into the center. We met the other people who were doing the homestay program with us and they were super nice. One couple from Canada (Marnie and Ron) and one couple from Liverpool (Hue and Alison). We had a short tour of where we were staying and the layout of the center. There are 50 elephants on the site with 2 Mahouts (elephant trainer) per elephant. All of the elephants are Asian elephants. There is also an elephant hospital where sick elephants from all over Thailand go to be cared for. Each mahout lives on site with there families, making the center feel quite 'homey'. We were introduced to our Mahout and our own elephant. We were also dressed in a mahout outfit (I guess it helps the elephants distinguish who's who at the center). My Mahout's name was 'Teet' and my elephant's name was 'Lukhon'. Lukhon was HUGE. She could have easily taken on Julie's.

Anyway, our first training session was very basic, with the key lesson of how to mount and dismout your elephant! Dang. It looked easy when they did - my first try was a failed attempt. Basically you tell the elephant 'Song Soon' and it bends its front right leg forming two steps for the mahout. One on the back of the foot and one on its knee. Then you grab its ear and a chunk of skin and hoist your self up. Harder than it sounds. To get off you just do the opposite (the first time i just slid down the side of Lukhon). So, I practiced getting on her this way for a while - until I was informed that there were numerous options of doing so. Like simply telling the elephant to lie down - MUCH easier. I think my favorite way was telling Lukhon to bow down to me and then taking a running start at her head and playing leap frog to get on. After she stands up - I just turned around - (to get off this way, you command then to bow down "tong soon" and then slide off between her eyes) - SO FUN!

When we are on top of the elephant we sit right up close to there heads, bend our knees on the top of their ears, and use are feet to tell them what to do along with voice commands. These animals (or let me restate that - Lukhon) was extremely obediant and well behaved to their mahouts. Their trainers would talk to them like they were in conversation to another person, and the elephants would do exaclty what they wanted. The animals even knew the voice of their mahout - so there was no confusion on a field with 10 mahouts! So after the mount and dismount were almost mastered - we were trained to command the elephants where and when to walk - forwards or backwards, as well as pick things up for us (shoes, waterbottles, etc).

Once we were done training for the day, it was time to take our elephants out into the forest for the night. On our way, we had to stop for a bath (not my FAVORITE part of the homestay, but nonetheless, a part of it). Basically, we walked into the water while riding our elephant and told it to sit or lie down while we were on it washing it (let me tell you, the water was far from clear and elephants don't know how to 'hold it in'- EW). Soaked from my neck down. I could feel the parasites entering my body. After the bath, and a long walk into the forest, we dropped our elephants off and hiked back. On my hike back, my mahout heard a sound and left me in the forest by myself for 10 minutes. That was fun. But I guess to make up for it - for the rest of the homestay he kept making me crafts from leaves. First he made me a hat, and then a bird, and then a fish, and then a fish eating a bird. Quite the multi-talented man!

At night, we all met at our cabin and cooked dinner for the group (well, by saying 'cook' I mean that I chopped some vegetables for them). The people in our group were extremely nice and interesting. One girl studied primates in Madagascar, and one couple were travelling on bikes, around the world, for a total of 2 years! There was also some card playing going on... I swear the guy said POKER but then he delt me 1/3 of the deck... it took me at least 5 games to figure out what to do and how to play - it was a rendition of BIG 2 - but with some quirky rules. Hard when we can't understand each other.

In the morning we had to hike back out in our wet mahout suits (later deemed 'masuits' by Ron) to find our elephant. On our walk back - we had yet another bath (yay) and it was during this bath that we learned about the ability to tell you animal when and where to shoot water from its trunk. NOT FUN AT 7AM.

We gave the elephants another bath a few hours later for a bunch of tourists visiting the center for the day. It was really interesting to be on the other side of the table for once (i.e. tourists watching us). I know for a fact we are in at least 50 pictures! Anyway... the day was spent working with our elephants again. In the afternoon we visited the elephant hospital - it was fascinating and devestating at the same time. So many were sick because of human influences - gun shots, land mines, abuse, and over working them. BOOOOO. On a good note, the center seems to be doing an amazing job at helping these animals (there were 2 young babies while we were there).

On our last day at the center - we helped with the show that they put on for the tourists. So fun! To sum it up - the last 3 days were absolutely wonderful. Hard to explain. I would recommend this place to everyone! (www.changthai.com). WOW.

So now, back in Chiang Mai - we might do a cooking course, and then head up to a place called PAI (supposedly some great hikes in a small town).. as of now.. we have nothing scheduled and nowhere to be anytime soon (except for our flight back home). We are flying by the seat of our pants now!!! (quite a good feeling)..... take care everyone...TL

SAWADEE KA!

Julie and I had our first motorbike experience the other day. Its 4 bucks for 24 hours - good deal! We only rented one - I drove, she held on... we got an automatic, so basically its like an overpowered scooter. I'm not gonna lie, the first few hundred minutes were a bit shaky - but after that - we were flyin' (well, not really, I went really slow).

So after I got up the steepest hill ever, we went to go find the Phaeng Waterfall National Park on Ko Phan-Gan. On the way there, we got lost 2 times but eventually found the place. We hiked up one of the highest peaks on the island (maybe 400 m up). It was a super nice view of the island - sooooooooooooo many palm trees. On the hike down we stopped off at the waterfall to swim in one of the pools. The water (still warmer than the lake) was so refreshing. We could actually feel the difference between the temperature of the water and the air - yessssssssss.

On our way home, we got lost again. On one of our turnarounds we actually came across this guy walking an elephant across the road. In my opinion, the sight was well worth the 40 minute detour. It turns out that we did make it back to our bungalow before night fall, however - it was via a different route on the island. I think we will rent them more often, especially in places where its quiet - they are such a good, relaxing way to see what real Thailand is all about...

That night, we took our HOG into town and went for dinner. 9:30 was the starting time of our first MUAY THAI (Thai Boxing Match). There were 7 fights, 5 rounds each, and each round was 3 minutes. In Muay Thai - it seemed like anything goes - kicks to the face, knees to the ribs, etc.

We arrived early and got front row seats - you know, the sweat and blood seats! The night started out with young Thai boxers (about 12 or 13 year old) fighting. Before each match, there was a lot of praying, and some heavy duty superstitious rituals going on. The announcer was speaking 90 miles an hour - barely ever in english - but the one thing I did pick up (during a slow part of a round) was 'Dancing, dancing, this is not dancing, its BOXING'!

One of the matches was even girls going atter'! I felt sorry for this one girl - she looked like 12 years old and maybe 110 pounds, while this other girl was maybe 25, 170 and solid. It was quite entertaining - Jules and I screamed 'Go Little One!' the whole time.

As the night went on, the boxers got bigger and stronger. There was definitley times that we got sprayed with sweat (EW), and even a few time where I swear the guys were going to fall over the ropes and into our laps - quite intense. After the fight, we hopped on our Harley and got groceries from the store and put them in our basket (yes, thats right, our bike had a basket - sweeeeeeeeeeeet!).

After that night, it was time to say goodbye to Island Life (sigh). The next day we took a boat to Surat Thani (about 4 hours). It was packed so we had to sit outside on the deck. We then waited at the dock for over an hour. A bus came and we took it to another bus stop and waited there for an hour (this 'Thai Time' really gets to you sometimes). Finally we hopped on a bus to Bangkok. It was absolutely full. Extremely uncomfortable. So these busses always make these random stops on the side of the road, or it takes them over an hour to get gas (which we will sometimes stop for 10 minutes into the ride - you'd think they'd fill up before a big trip?). Anyway - we arrived in Bangkok this morning at 4am - what a great time! We picked up our passports from a travel agency with our visas for China and Vietnam (HUGE sigh of relief there). And tonight we take a train up to Chiang Mai to meet up with Julia and Adrienne again. We invested a bit more Baht into this ride - supposedly we get beds. I'm a tad skeptical.

"I NOT DODGY"

WOW! Where do I start? We headed over to Koh Phan-Gan on the 11th of May and had absolutely NO idea where we were going to stay. We knew the island was going to be busy with the Full Moon Party approaching so were kind of nervous not having any reservations. Anyway as we were docking we were approached by this Thai guy who sais 'come stay at my bungalows, very nice, very beautiful, I not dodgy, look at me, I'm not a businessman, I'm wearing shorts!' So, we went. Turns out the place is great. Its a bit off of the beaten path (on the western side of the island a bit above the port town Thong Sala) but no complaints here. There's a pool at the place and we are staying in this little bungalow right on the beach. Its open air, so a mosquito net is KEY, and our bathroom is kinda on the outside. Theres newts on our roof, and toads by the toilet - other than that - its great! Well - there was this one little incident involving a lizard. Kinda nasty actually. Heres the story and ensuing conversation:

Julie bought this sarong a few days ago (like 4 bucks) and she hung it out to dry one day- she checked it that night before we went to bed (she wasn't wearing her glasses) and she screams at me
J: "Tina, a lizard poo'd on my new sarong"
T: "How do you know it was a lizard"
J: "Cause its right beside its poo, its a really big poo though, come see it"
T: "NO"
J: "PLeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese, you have to"
(Julie and I have this deal that she takes care of insects and I take care of reptiles - soon to be a very bad deal for my part)
So, I go out there to check this out and it turns out that the lizard actually doesn't have a head (its kinda mushed beside it - a better definition would be decapitated- which is why it wasn't moving - and we still don't know what the 'poo' beside it was. I flipped the poor little bugger over to find out that it wasn't its guts! The worst part was - Julie was too attached to this stupid sarong that she wouldn't throw it out - now she wears it and it has lizard head stains on it - EWWWWWWW....!!!

So ya - Everyone at this place is super nice - staff and other travellers included. The first day there we just relaxed and hung out. On the second day, we taxi'd to the pier to meet Julia and Adrienne, two girls that we have been planning on meeting up with for a long time, both from UBC (including one fellow islander!). That night we headed down to the south of the island to Haat Rin. Shopping was good and it was great to eat some dinner NOT from the resteraunt at the bungalows. On our walk back to the taxi's we happened to run into a common friend of ours (also and islander and UBCer) and his friends - which was SUPER COOL - as communication and trying to actually organize a meeting place amongst travellers is always tricky (the best reunions are always random anyway).

OK - so yesterday - the 13th of May - the night of the Full Moon Party was crazy. We spent the day resting and relaxing by the beach and had a big dinner with lots of others party goers... We took a taxi (AKA the back of a pick up truck with make shift benches in it) to Haat Rin - all I can say is that I am glad to be alive. There were 13 people in the bed of the truck wtih me and Julie being on the very ends (sorry Mom). The road to Haat Rin is very, very hilly as well - so in the middle of the biggest hill, we came to a complete stop, rolled backwards about 6 feet and then peeled off again. Slightly scary! Needless to say, we all arrived at the party safe and sound!

So, this Full Moon Party (FMP) - is absolutely insane. It's actually kind of outta control, and I think most people go, just to say that they have been to one. I mean thousands of people flock to this one beach, once a month, to drink out of BUCKETS and see how stupid they can be. We ended up helping this one guy passed out in the sand to a safe spot so no one would step on him - but literally, we just had to leave him there. There was nothing else we could do, he had no friends nearby - so we just left him with water. Yowsers. However - there were some highlights of the night - like some guy pointing at me and saying "you go to UBC don't you" and it turns out we study beside each other in Wood and he knows Dave and Krystie (it was Jason and his friends). So fun! We ate banana/nutella pancakes at 330am, and a chicken sandwich at about 4am (yes, my first street meat was a great success)! We 'taxi'd' home at about 5am - much safer this time - just a little tired... I went to sleep before Julie did and when she came in there was one of the places cats on the bed with me (EW, I don't know HOW it got in, but Julie threw it out for me). There were some other high/lowlights of the FMP - but to some it all up - everyone was safe, nothing got stolen, and we were tired.

Today we basically did nothing but eat and swim at the pool. Tonight we decided to walk into the port town (Thong Sala) to use some cheap(er) internet and book our tickets off of this island (probably in a few days). Tomorrow we might venture into the fine art of renting motorbikes and touring around the island, maybe doing a hike up to a waterfall - who knows - whatever we are feeling in the morning!

Time for dinner - hope everyone is doing well back home. And, before I forget, and most importantly HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM - YOU'RE THE BEST - I LOVE YOU!
TL

DONE diving!

I finished my Open Water PADI course yesterday. We did 4 dives in two days at different spots around the island - it was absolutely amazing (no whale shark though)! We did see a ton of other things though: baracudas, blue spotted sting rays, squid, and what seemed like a gazillion other types of fish (including Nemo). So if anyones looking for a dive partner when I get back - game ON! On our last day of diving they had a videographer come with us and film us throughout the day - I attemped the somersault entry into the water with all my gear - I would consider it a success... So last night, they played it on the big screen at the bar - it was really neat to see yourself diving under the water - and the footage of the fish was great.
So today we are just hanging around Koh Tao - with diving I didn't have much of an oppurtunity to do any 'exploring' on the island - so thats what today is for! Tomorrow we are heading to Ko Phangan on a morning boat (about an hour and a half) and plan on staying there for a few days. I think its a bit more developed than Koh Tao but still it should be sooo FUN. The weather is scorching - like 35 without humidity - and you don't cool off when you jump into the ocean, or have a swim in a pool, or take a 'cold shower' - as they are all about 30/31 degrees. Alrighty, time to go check things out..... TL

DIVING ON KOH TAO

Greetings from Turtle Island! (Koh means 'island', Tao means 'turtle')
After a very long, hard to sleep on, bus ride from Bangkok to Chumphon we are finally here! The bus ride was about 8 hours while the boat ride was about 2 (featuring Thai karoke as well). We had no idea our boat stop until some guy came on the boat yelling 'Koh Tao Koh Tao, get off now', so Jules and grabbed our bags and hopped off to be welcomed by an absolutely beautiful Island. There are no paved roads, tons of great places to eat, and the people are super friendly! Its a tad more expensive than Bangkok, but thats only to be expected (by saying this i mean breakfast is a dollar rather than 75 cents). I started my PADI Open Water dive course yesterday. My instructor is from Britain and she has two assistants (soon to be instructors) - one from Thailand and the other from Britain - there's only 4 of us taking the course (all from different countries), so we get lots of attention! (The last course she taught there was 12 - yikes!). Tomorrow we do 2 of our 4 open ocean dives - I'm realllllly excited. Theres tons to see out here and the water is really clear! And then the next day we finish our last 2 open water dives - a filmer comes with us, then apparently we celebrate that night at the bar while watching ourselves dive at 60 feet on a big screen TV - should be 'interesting' to say the least...
Well, I'm starving - time for some dinner...hope to hear from you all soon!
TL

BANGKOK!

Greetings from Bangkok!
Julie and I finally arrived after about a 30 hour travel day consisting of no english movies, intersting food, and a sleep on the beijing airports concrete floor...

Bangkok is HOT... it was 31 degrees when we stepped off the plane last night at 1:30am!
The cab ride from the airport to khao san road was 'fun', the nightlife never ends in this area...and at about 3 am we finally settled down to sleep.

So this morning we got up and started to do a little exploring...we hired a tuk tuk driver named Ken (or something similar to that) and he took us everywhere, claimed it would only cost us 10 baht each (which is like 30 cents). So, knowing that there was some sort of catch, Julie and I were IN! Sure enough, Ken took us everywhere, a big huge standing buddha, the lucky buddha - where a man took us around and showed us everything there he then showed us how to pray and lit some incense for us. Wished us LUCK and GOOD HEALTH on our trip!! So, next Ken decided us take us to TOP TEN FASHIONS (this is the scam part) where we had to go in and look at 'beautiful silks' and in return he would get free gas (4litres). So we did, but when we came out (like 2 mintes later) he said we were too quick and he got no gas... so he asked us if we could go to another fashion store up the road and take longer.... so in this store jules and i had a blast: we were picking out colours and patterns, asking prices, etc etc - we decided to leave when the guy wanted my measurments.... ken got his free gas... he was a much happier tuk tuk driver! He then took us the grand palace.. but we could'nt go in, we found out tomorrow is a holiday so there is some ceremony going on....maybe some other time!

I booked my diving open water course.... we leave tomorrow night for the island of ko tao. Thats about all my news so far...... excited to get out of the city.... get some FRESH air... its dirty here!

TL

HELLO!

I am slowly figuring out how to work this blog stuff....

So Julie and I leave for SE Asia pretty soon. We fly into Bangkok, Thailand and plan to travel throughout Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. On our way home we are scheduled to spend about a week in the city of Beijing, China.

I have high hopes for Julie being an absolutely amazing travel partner. Together, I think we will make a great team, although she is SUPER impatient...

Here is a pic of me and her in Cuba in December... you can check out her blog at http://julielittle.blogspot.com. Don't forget to 'comment' - I'd LOVE to hear from you...

TL