Takeoff!

With a few hours to kill before I take off, I figure it’s about due time to bring you all up to speed on how my trip has came to a close.

Now that I have been back in Bangkok, it is interesting how much my perception of this unique city has changed. What before was an unavoidable barrage of unwelcomed sensory overload, is that now a welcome, comforting buzz. I feel as though Bangkok is less a city and more a living entity and that buzz is her heartbeat. Sounds cheesy, I know. At a point early in this trip I doubted I would ever return to Thailand if I had the chance… I can assure you this is definitely not the case. There are so many places I haven’t explored and so many more amazing people to meet that I wish I had more money in the bank to keep this adventure rolling... Oh well, I’m young.

Koh Samet. This island is Bangkok and Thai’s island party destination, especially on the weekend I found out! By the time I arrived, my sleep schedule was so out of wack, it took no time to adjust to lunchtime wake ups, naps on the beach in between chapters, and evening BBQ with friends at Ploy.  Ploy is the place to go if you want to see the best fireshow in Thailand! Honestly, I was under the experienced assumption that once you had seen one fireshow, you had seen them all… that was until I saw theirs. After 5 nights at Ploy I had become pretty good friends with all the firedancers and bartenders.  This lead to late nights of free drinks, fresh seafood, and even fishing at sunrise at the place where a lot of them live on my last night. Who knew you could eat fresh caught prawns without cooking them, legs and all, and they would taste so good?! Urchins as well. I immensely enjoyed my time here.

Of course, to make things easy, I headed straight to Khao San Road.  Many may call it Thailand’s backpacker gateway! But K.San was not the highlight of my last day.. rather, a trip to Wat Bang Pra, a temple complex about one hr outside Bangkok, to receive the Sak Yant Tattoo from a Buddhist monk was!

The Sak Yant I received is commonly know as the 5 lines. According to friends I met that evening, which I will tell you about soon, its owes a good deal of popularity to Angelina Jolie. Hers is in the traditional location, the left shoulder blade. Sak Yant tattoos are believed to be magic and bestow mystical powers, protection, or good luck. For the one I received, each of the 5 lines can carry different sacred meanings depending on the variation of the asian tattoo art. Typically the lines will help bestow the receiver with success in all aspects of life, charm, loving kindness, good luck and protection from evil spirits. According to the great Wikipedia, I received my Sak Yant at the most famous place to receive a Sak Yaht tattoo.  There is a festival there each year where people from all over the SE Asia make pilgrimages here to do exactly what I did… It was a truly amazing experience!

The day got even better when I ran in a couple of American Acupuncturists on my way to the Grand Palace in Bangkok later that evening.  The Grandpalace was closed so they invited me out to dinner with them. Shelby has a practice in Upstate NewYork and Susan is a accomplished author, acupuncturist, and whose latest project is Electric Scooter rental company with a very similar company model to Zipcar.  Susan’s better half, Sebastian, an Serbian accupunturist with a practive in Bangkok for the best Thaifood I have had on my entire trip at a resturant called, Krua Rakangthong.  While we ate and drank, looking out across the Chao Phraya River at the tops of the Grand Palace and Angkor Tom(home to the immense Reclining Budda), a ligtning store rolled in right over our heads. It was a truly magical way to cap off my last evening of a truly live changing journey!

But the journey isn’t over yet.  I made it to the Grand Palace(third times the charm) and was able to make it here to the airport with plenty of time to share this with you.  Im off to catch the first of a few planes back to Seattle!

Goodbye Asia, I’m so glad I could visit!

Sawatdeekrap! (Hello in Thai)

Well it looks like I am the last one left... Lauren made it to Australian and I am sitting on a beach on the island of Koh Samet, about 4hrs from Bangkok.

There is so much to tell, I think I will start with the beautiful city of Ubud. Ubud seems to be the 2nd tourism center in Bali, after the Kuta area. While Kuta draws low budget travelers and Aussies looking for cheap beers, beaches, and large clubs, UBud draws tourists of all budgets and all countries with the goal to experience a taste of the true Indonesian culture and amazing Indonesian food.

The highlight of our first day would have to be the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We made our way that direction after finding a homestay with a comfortable foam bed, hot water, and free breakfast. We set to the streets to do some window shopping and we both had to use self control because the quality of artwork, jewelry and woodcarvings surpassed all places we had been so far on our trip. Also, I spied a non-profit organization called BAWA whose main purpose was to address problems posed by the transient dog population in Bali. They provide veterinary care for those who can afford it, run an adoption center, dog shelters, as well as spay, neuter and vaccinate dogs for the local population who can't afford it.I hoped that I would have the opportunity to lend my veterinary experience to good use and at least volunteer for one or two nights at their local animal shelter but the bureaucracy of the volunteer acceptance process kept my application from going through on time. Oh yes, I was going to tell you about the Monkey Sanctuary.


The Sacred monkey forest sanctuary is actually a holy area due to the temples there, built in the 1400s, as well as an ecological preserve for all the Balinese Mackacs that call it home. There we observed the harmonious relationship between god nature and humans and laughed our asses off!

Luckily both our cameras died and I was forced to use my good old 3GS iPhone to capture the moment otherwise, I would have no pictures to share. While trying to upload pictures for Lauren's last post, my memory card with all my pictures was corrupted and I wont know how many can be recovered, if any at all, until I can visit a legitimate camera shop back in the states. Luckily, Lauren and Jason's cameras have captured the bulk of our adventures together. Thanks you two, I'll be setting up a dropbox for us as soon as I get home since that sadly may be the extent of my contbution picturewise... But I'm thinking positive, if they can recover harddrives from computers that get ran over by cars or catch on fire this should be a piece of cake.

On our last day in Ubud we took an Eco-cycling tour to see the real bali. It was by far one of my best highlights for the trip. It started with a great breakfast overlooking Lake Batur, a crater lake nestled between the two peaks of Mt Batur, an very active volcano that erupted as recently as 2000.

From there we drove a short distance to a nearby plantation that harvested all types of fruit and coffee beans. We were not only able to observe the traditional coffee bean roasting process, but we were sat down for a complimentary tasting of various coffees and teas. I personally thought the ginseng coffee was the best. I hope I can find it back home! After that we were transported to a lot were we selected our bikes, grabbed helmets and then started our downhill adventure. First, We stopped at a home where we learn about the traditional customs and living structure if a typical Balinese family.  Second, we visited a 500 year old Bantu tree where a local boy handed me a 4 in in diameter black and yellow Tree spider. Lauren snagged a good picture with it on my face! Maybe I can share it after I have my card looked at. Before lunch we were instructed that we had the option to hop in the car or bike 8.5 km uphill to lunch. Lauren I and some retired profesional triatheletes from New Zealand went chose the latter.  These 60+ year olds were impossible to keep up with.

I was very impressed with the quality of food in Ubud and in Kuta. In Ubud we frequented an awesome coffee shop that served fresh dessert and coffee cakes and had an amazing organic and raw food menu that featured everything from Thai to Mexican. Also for our last night we enjoyed a salad and pizza in a quaint little warung that had two local musicians covering songs by request. I have been impressed by the quality of live musicians I have seen on my trip; I am reminded of the Bruno Mars cover we heard in Railay, which sounded better than his studio album, and the Santana that this pair was wailing out.

Well after our last day on the beach in Kuta, some awesome body surfing by yours truely, and a lot of shopping for the people back home we miss so much, I saw Lauren off at the Bali airport on her way to Sydney to visit Alexis Woodward, a friend she made her year at UW. With a 6 o'clock flight and nowhere to stay for the night I found a comfortable section of grass in a landscaping element in the front of the small, one terminal, international airport, laid down a beach towel and got comfortable for the night.

A day and a half later of traveling, I've found myself in Koh Samet. I started this on the beach but the light rain has chased me back into my bungalow. It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday but today is mostly overcast. Hopefully better weather tomorrow but the restaurants, bars & beach are close and the rents cheap, so complaints here! O and i forgot to mention there is live Thai Boxing at my place at 9 as well!

William

Wish I could provide more visual stimuli... Copy and paste something from above into google, that should do the trick.

An Island life for me...

Hello

William and I arrived in Ubud the day before yesterday, a popular destination in central Bali. But just to get you caught up as I know we left you last in Pedang Padang. After leaving we took a short early morning ride across the peninsula to the bustling port of Sanur. From there various forms of Transport can be taken to Indonesia's neighboring islands. Being on a tight backpackers budget as we are. We decided to go for the longer but much less expensive local transport to Nusa Lambongan, a small small island to the south east of Bali. Although Sanur claims to be a port there are no docks or clear loading areas per say. The boats all just dock along the beach which means we had to wade out into the waves heavily bagged down to catch our ride. Although a little bit soggy on the ride over, we spend one hour lounging up on deck watching the coastline go by and from here we could even spy the massive volcanoes on the horizon. Definitely an interesting experience for sure.On arrival at the island from our vantage point on the boat we had a fantastic view of the island and As we loped around we took note of the coolest looking beaches and spied some very fancy looking cliff hugging properties... Needless to say out of our budget! We were dumped off at the main beach where most of the accommodation lines the beach walk. Already we noted the small size of the island and its lack for rooms given high season. After a panic infused search for accommodation with the first 5 properties all fully booked up we lucked out on a fantastic property with a great view of the bay.

Lambongan has a very slow pace of life, with hardly any bars or hangout spots with most places closing down around 10. A big change for us after backpacker crazed spots like the Thai islands and Kuta where life seems to pick up at night. Anyways we found ourselves drawn into a slow paced life with early morning yoga in a bamboo structure at a place called the secret garden (it was hard to find!). This place was truely a a little gem with bungalows all decked out with hammocks and little terraces. We would eat here most mornings enjoying real English tea and porridge. They even had movie nights, for the first time in about a month we were able to chill-out sit back and watch a movie. I can't really describe how excited we were for such a simple pleasure. Our days were spend exploring the island, and our nights either with beer and chocolate tucked into a good book, or relaxing on the loungers with new acquaintances.

Our daily excursions included renting a moped and exploring the islands little track roads. As luck would happen we found the one unpopulated beach we had spied on our boat ride over. This little beach was adjoined to the popular mushroom beach but was separated by a huge cliff face so the only way to get to it was to wait for the tide to edge out and for the waves to calm so you could wade around.. This is where our dry bag came in handy!! But we were well rewarded by having a beautiful beach all to ourselves. Other paths took us to secluded waterfront bars and restaurants where we cold retreat to at the hottest Point in the day.

Our little island was also connected to another small island by a yellow suspension bridge. But little did we know until we were driving across it that its only enough for one moped and its made with wooded slats, lots of which are missing, not too comforting!

We also had a great morning of diving with 'big fish' divers, as our first fun dives after achieving our PADI open water certification we were stoked to get out there! On our first dive we had a beautiful sloping reef where already we were amazed at the difference in underwater life compared to that of Thailand. Most notably we saw a massive rock fish just chilling on the reef and many different kinds of trigger fish. Thankfully these are not as territorial or aggressive as those biters in Koh Tao! However both William and I agree that our second dive was one of the most exhilarating experience either of us have ever had! We were taken to a spot further offshore and were given the opportunity to try a 'negative Entry' where you roll straight into the water from the side of the speed boat and descend rapidly without coming to the surface, we felt like experts!! Now, what made this dive truly awesome was the huge current that took us on our way. Immediately underwater we were picked along by an extremely story current which Was akin to a feeling of free falling or floating. It was like a roller coaster ride, almost too dangerous for such newbies as us because you could be pulled away at any moment from the group and it was impossible to swim against it! Thankfully our dive master kept us all at hand, all be it with some frantic swimming to our aid! The fish did seem to take a second hand on this dive, but we were lucky to see various sting rays including eagle rays and a turtle! Also a portion of our dive was spent in and out of a thermocline, an area underwater where waters of highly different temperatures meet creating a mirage-like effect. Altogether this drift dive was an insane ride!

Other things of note during our stay included the food, as you can Imagine on an island you get choice pickings of some amazing seafood. After a recommendation from the owners at Secret Garden we made our way over to the less touristy areas of the island to try some local seafood at Bambu Warung. We ordered one whole grilled tuna fish to share which we were able to view before and was cooked right in front of us on a BBQ. Without William's famous appetite I'm not sure we could have finished it, it was a feast to remember and definitely the best food I've had all summer for only $5!!

We were having such a good time on the island we totally lost track of what we were spending only to find one morning we didn't have enough money for the snorkeling trip we had planned. Initially we thought this to be no problem as we could pay by credit. Once we learned practically nowhere accepts credit and there are no ATMs on the island, we felt like idiots. From a few choice options, leaving the island seemed to make the best sense. So we had to say goodbye to island life a bit earlier than planned, but we are just thankful we had enough cash to buy a boat out of there! A rapid exit only adds to the adventure and so here we are in Ubud ... Stay posted for more...

- Lauren

ps. Im sorry the pictures suddenly stop, we had a some trouble with accessing pictures on Will's camera...we are hoping they can be saved :(

Dreamland

Kuta could well be described as the "it" spot on Bali given the mass of travelers and tourists. But that really depends on what you are looking for. Kuta is a sprawling town packed with shops, restaurants, guesthouses, inns and plenty of bars and nightclubs. It's also heaving with people, mopeds and taxis. With the tiny little streets and no sidewalks at times it's almost a battle just to walk down the street or to avoid being accosted the locals trying to sell you their 'fares'. We would often head back to our inn which was tucked away on a little street to get a respite from the madness in it's quiet gardens.

To be honest although we enjoyed out time and the variety of things Kuta offered, this hectic place was not really what myself an William were looking for. Even though you seem to get trapped in the rythm of life there, after four days of sensory overload, we decided to head further south to the quieter Bukit peninsula and a little place called Padang Padang.

Comparing here to Kuta would be like comparing apples and oranges. Where Kuta seems to be all about the wild nightlife, The peninsula is all about the surf. We have come to what is often called surfers paradise or dreamland as one beach is aptly named. And in prime surf season such as now this place has a real chill vibe. Filled with those who visit only for the allure of the waves and the possibility to surf in just their board shorts, unlike many other surfing hotshots across the globe, it's the perfect place to sit back relax and take it all in.

These famous indian ocean swells bring people from Brazil to Japan, and notable surfers can be seen hitting the waves on a daily basis. As it would happen we have come at the perfect time to see some amazing surfing. Ripcurl (a notable surfing brand) is holding their yearly 'Ultimate tubing contest' here in Padang Padang, famous for creating the perfect barrel wave. Given the fickle nature of the wave Ripcurl sets aside a 5 week holding period for the contest where they will await the best waves then hold the whole contest in one day. Although they have been waiting for a while we were lucky to see a day of trials for the competition. It was a perfect blue sky day and the waves were pretty impressive too. All in all something I'm thankful I got to be apart of, the beach was almost like hitting a music festival.


This is also a very spiritual area for the local belinese people, and the community has done amazingly well to keep development to a minimum with no branded resorts only locally owned villas and guesthouses. If you could experience this place with it's rolling rural landscape, towering cliffs, soft white sandy beaches and clear water bays you would understand why. Exploring some of the roads off the beaten track on our moped we have come across some truly charming little places, with villas and cobbled walls, the dry heat and wandering cattle this place is reminiscent of rural untouched Spain. Even trying to get to some of the more well known beaches is like a little adventure, following dirt tracks and the occasional cardboard sign. The beaches are tucked in little coves under the cliffs so most require a steep climb down to get to. From the very top all you see is across the ocean, but as you begin to decend through little trodden tracks a village begins to emerge and the steps weave you through thatched villas and inns and warungs (local restaurants) most with a balconies offering a fantastic view of the surf.

One day on one of our moped adventures we went off to find the local temple in Uluwatu which is famous for its unique position located high on a cliff top at the edge of a plateau 250 feet above the waves of the Indian Ocean, offering an amazing vantage point to view the surrounding surf. According to locals this temple is a directional temple (facing SW) which guards Bali from evil spirits. Those cheeky monkeys that Jason was talking about in his last post also inhabit this temple and are known to steal all varieties of things from unbeknownst tourists including sunglasses, hats and cameras! They also smell any food from a mile of...so open crisp/chip packets at your own risk! All in all a pretty awesome place to stroll around for a hour or two.



We have watched the magnificant sunset here at all three of the local beaches. The Warungs or small restaurants that i spoke of perched on the cliffs offer a comfortable spot to survey the vast Indian Ocean beyond and with panorama on three sides you are bound to see some good surf as the waves pick up at low tide. This for me is just paridise to sit and dangle my feet over the edge, with a chilled Bintang in hand (or the occasional Mojito if i want to splash out) and feel the last rays of sunshine on my face as i watch some incredible surfers. And afterwards there are tons of places to find fresh grilled seafood!


Although we feel like we could stay here forever there is so much to see in Indonesia. We will be sad to leave tomorrow but we are hopeful that Indonesia will bring more wonders along the way. Initially we had planned to go to Lombok and the infamous Gilly islands, but after difficulty finding transport and the price per head starting at about 75$ oneway, we decided to take the less well trodden path to Nusa Lombongan!

Thats all for now
- Lauren

The Blue Skys of Bali

After touching down in Bali during sunset Lauren and I started our adventure to Kuta Beach to find accommodations. More on that later... Let me catch you up on our short stay in Railay and Malaysia.

After leaving the bucket crazed mayhem of phi phi Lauren and I and Darren and Sophie, a couple we had been traveling with, stopped for a few nights in Railey, a climbing mecha beach community on the east coast of Thailand's Peninsula.  We decided to treat ourselves to 2 nights in a "resort" mainly a place with hot showers and A/C but we were disappointed when we showed up and we had neither. After a quick polite word with the front desk we found ourselves with a free upgrade to their luxury room twice the price we had paid with everything we wanted and more. After checking in we headed for a local BBQ where I enthusiastically picked out the largest crocodile skewer to try for the first time, and Lauren went for the safe chicken skewer which looked just as good. I was greatly surprised by the rich taste and tender meat that I was brought, much better than the quality of beef they serve here ! Lauren gave it a shot and loved it as well.  I will definitely be eating Crocidile in the future.

The weather in Railey turned out as we feared but it didn't keep us from enjoying some of the cool features of this beach paradise nestled amongst 300+ ft cliffs. We walked the beaches, went on a cool jungle hike to a beach normally only accessible by boat, and explored some remote caves with only bats as company.

Diamond Cave Entrance

Cliffs around Railay

As we boarded our longtail boat to begin our journey to Malaysia, we were sent on our way with a beautiful sunrise framed by placid seas... Looking back on all we experienced in Thailand it's  hard to imagine we were there for only a month. We have made great friends along the way and shared amazing unique experiences.

Our boarder crossing and trip to Malaysia was the least hectic and most comfortable yet, putting u In a good mood on arrival in KL. at first I thought Kuala Lumpur would be more like Bangkok but it ended up reminding me more of Hong Kong, with a huge middleastern and Indian influence. The city was concentrated and the building were beautiful and huge. This included the shopping centers/complexes. We utilized the cities monorail system and a hop-on hop-off tour bus service to see the city while we were there. We visited the city's orchid and hibiscus gardens, the Petronus Towers, Times Square, Chinatown, Little India, the National Art Gallary, and KLCC the posh city center in KL where we actually saw real designer products, not just knock-offs, for the first time on the trip. KL was fun but Bali is better.

Hibiscus Gardens

Petronas Towers

Little India

@ The Aquaria

Our first day in Bali was relaxed, just what we needed!! We started our day with some scrumptious banana pancakes courtesy of out hostel and headed straight for the beach. You can immediately tell this is a surfers destination with long boards lining the broadwalk and hundreds of sitting surfers on the horizon waiting for the next wave. After a few hours watching the beginners stand up and fall down in continous rhythm, we had caught the surfing bug and headed out there ourselves to give it a go. It was tons of fun!

Kuta City Center

After a late and much needed lunch we ran into an old friend of ours, Elle Moseley. For those who dont know, Elle went to Uni with lauren in Manchester and was studying abroad at UW when Lauren and I met. She has been spending her last 7 weeks in Padang Padang and leaves today on a mission with her bf Sam to catch the biggest swells on the other islands as its apparently been flat around the Bukit Peninsula the last two weeks.

The plan as of now is to get out of the crazy tourist packed beaches of Kuta and head to the more secluded beaches south on the Bukit and then make our way leisurely to Lombok and Gilli T, surfing snorkeling and diving along the way.

Popping the dive cherry on Koh Tao!

It has been an exciting five days on Koh Tao to say the least. On the ferry from Chumpon to Koh Tao we coincidentally reunited with our friend Darren who we had met in Koh Chang as few weeks back.  He was traveling back to Koh Tao with Sophie, his girlfriend, who had just arrived in Bangkok from the UK.   Darren had just finished his Padi Open Water Cert. at Phoniex divers on the island so we took it on his advice and arranged to do the same as soon as we arrived.  The dive shop was really laid back and not crowded at all, unlike Ban's the biggest diver operation in the world located less than 50 meters down the beach. Just what we were looking for. Plus the free 4-day accommodations landed us in the best rooms we have stayed in since our 5 star treatment in Bangkok. 

Daren and Jack moved on to Phi Phi while Jason Lauren Sophie and I  remained in Koh Tao.  With Lauren and Sophie doing all the academic and pool work that I had already done in the states, Jason and I were able to explore Koh Tao which was uncharacteristically calm thanks to the Full Moon Party drawing most travelers to Koh Phangan just an 1hr boat ride away.  We stumbled upon an amazing and beautiful chill bar called the High Bar perched a ways off the beach, high up on a cliff.  Here is a picture of the view we enjoyed as we played some pool and sipped on a couple of large Changs. 

Sunday, I joined Lauren and Sophie for our first two underwater dives. Jason even joined us for our third and fourth dives at 6:45 the following morning.  All in all the dives were amazing!  We saw so many different types of fish and marine life: Angel Fish, Great Barracuda, Puffer fish, Clown fish, moray eels, Trigger Fish, the girls even saw a Bull Shark! It was an awesome experience that I'll never forget and I'm glad I was able to share it with Jason and Lauren as well.  Here are some pictures we have taken over the course of the process.

One more night in Koh Tao and then its off to Phi Phi tomorrow night and one last night with Darren and Jack before Jack must return home.

"You pay later"

Firstly just to catch you up on our journeys, myself and Wilbur met up with Jason in Siem Reap. And although we didn't get to tour Angkor Wat together i know we all appreciated the wonders of the temples. As it happens though, fate brought us back together again on the top of a temple to see the sunset amongst hundreds of other travelers.

One of the things we found to love in Cambodia was the traditional Khmer food and their love of BBQ!  Here is a picture of the local dish we enjoyed, where you get to cook your own meat at your table.

On out last day in Siem Reap while buying postcards we stumbled upon an unknown gem on the Cambodian coastline called Sihanouk Ville. Although our initial plans were going to keep us in Cambodia for a few days, we loved it so much we wanted to experience more. So from just one picture we decided to make our way in that direction instead of back to Thailand.

Sihanouk Ville is a little up and coming tourist destination with several upscale lodgings being developed close by and renovations taking place all over the town. Despite the construction there is a great atmosphere down at the beach day and night with tons of little beach side restaurants and bars with great BBQ and sun loungers on the beach.

Cambodians are very persistent in selling their services to you. At every possible point your are offered TukTuks, drinks, accommodations and seats at their establishments. It is impossible to stroll down the beach without being hassled or hustled in one way or another. Kids will come and sit on your sun lounger and practically demand you buy a bracelet, or women come by every two minutes offering massages and pedicures. This gets old quickly and although w\you may stand firm in the beginning eventually you end up buying 5 bracelets have a pedicure and then a manicure and even get your eyebrows plucked at the beach. A strange experience for sure. One first tactic was to phase having no money...in the end this didn't work as they only say "You pay later" and begin their work on you anyway.

Tomorrow we make the long 11 hour journey to Bangkok and then straight down to the southern thai islands to continue our beach break.
Thats all for now

-Lauren