Bali and one.....oops, TWO more days in Saigon!

Hi all!

We should technically be posting from the plane back to Portland by now, but alas, our flight got cancelled last night and we are still in Saigon - WOOHOO!! Flight cancellations can be a great thing in Asia when the airline puts you in a 5-star hotel with robes and slippers (see bottom pic), a pool, gym, spa, hot H2O shower, air-con, sheets you actually want to sleep in, and 3 amazing buffets to keep you busy while you while away the hours in one of the most amazing cities on earth! Pity us, please!

We have had a great last week of our trip, aside from the belly issues that got to the both of us the last weeks. Kuta, Bali was fun - we got our great hotel back and had lots of sun. Poor Krista was not feeling great and couldn't enjoy the surfing, but I am happy to report that I figured out how to surf (on the smaller waves) and had a blast doing so.....came with a couple battle wounds (I have bruises like a 5-year old!), but the adrenaline rush of catching a wave was well-worth the pain (see first pic)! Other than that, we just relaxed by our pool and did a little shopping and walking around - and of course, playing with the poor caged monkey on the side of the street (3rd pic) - don't worry mom, I washed my hands after petting him!

We had a bit of a layover in Kuala Lumpur and saw some sights briefly before heading back to Saigon. Very happy to be back here - it's such a fun city and we really missed the Vietnamese food! We even took a ride to the museum with the bike-transport-rickshaw (sp?) thing - quite fun. It really seems like eons ago that we first arrived here - we have been so far and done so much in 6 weeks! We were really not at all sad that we were forced to do one more day here!

So, back to the States (maybe!) late tonight. Who knows, perhaps we'll get a free day in Tokyo too - we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Krista and I will both be posting our pictures on facebook when we get back - there's a ridiculous amount of them, so hopefully they won't be too boring. Check them out!

Chilling in Gili Trawangan, and the Journey Back to Bali

Well, back to Kuta, Bali after 6 relaxing days on Gili Trawangan. I can't believe we are down to less than a week! It has been very nice having the last 2 weeks with lots of sun and sand. After running around so much, we have finally had time to stay put and actually get a little bored every now and then - perfect vacation!

On Gili, we did 2 more dives - both were great. Sealife here is a little different than in Thailand. We saw lots of turtles, a nice big ray, some eels, and my favorite, a large, squiggly, OCTOPUS!! He was so cute (i only assume it was a "he" - I have to admit that I didn't actually check!) Poor Krista was not there to see him, but I did and it was quite funny seeing him swim and then try to hide in a hole. I spent a bit of time trying to coax him out, but to no avail. I wish I had an underwater camera - the fish are amazing and so colorful, but you will all just have to imagine....

Otherwise, we also did some snorkeling, lots of relaxing on the beach, and a little exercise with a good size running "road" around the island - the road being a sandy path that is sometimes so narrow that you have to jump out of the way of one of the speeding horsecars - which is the island's major form of mass transit (see 1st picture). The other form of transport on the island is by bicycle - I couldn't get a pic of the family of 4 on a bicycle, or the person carrying a basket of pineapples on her head while riding a bike with her 1 year old balanced on the crossbar, but the 2nd pic is a little taste of normalcy there!

While Gili Trawangan is known as a "party island", there really weren't a ton of partying tourists there when we were - but we still went out a couple of nights, and our last night we spent with the fun Irish couple (Julie is in the picture with us at the bar) and some their friends, which made for a great last night before getting up to hit the boat -> bus -> ferry -> bus back to Kuta, Bali. On the way, we discovered the "Krista", which is apparently an SUV made by Toyota - Krista was very excite!!!

So, we are now back in Bali to do some more surfing and sunning - the "Asian Beach Games" are here starting Saturday, so we'll have to see what that's all about. We got very lucky and the hotel we stayed in before had a room for $8/night with breakfast included and a great pool - a nice place to finish out our time here. We fly out early Mon morning to Kuala Lumpur and then to Saigon for one last night - poo! But we won't think about that for another couple days!

Bali and Gili

Hello everyone, been a long time since our last blog. We have been from Kuta in southern Bali, to Lovina in northern Bali and now we are on Gili Trawangan (one of three small islands of the coast of Lombok which is the island just east of Bali). Come to find out Bali is very beautiful between the jungles and architecture, but the beaches themselves not overly impressive. We spent several nights with a lovely girl from Holand and 2 pilots from Italy, which made for good company. Anyways, we are going to be in the Gilis for 5-7 days just relaxing, diving and whatever else. We will be here for a full moon party which is all people talk about in all of SE Asia, we'll try and get some pictures.
The first 2 pics are of Gili Trawangan and the other 2 of Lovina, Bali. The pool is from the place we stayed whch was very nice and only $7 including breakfast. When that sounded expensive to us, we knew we had been here too long and adjusting to US prices is going to be difficult. Hope all is well back home and can't believe we'll be home in less than 2 weeks. The food has been great, but a few doosies when we try and do western food. I want some real grilled chicken tacos with homemade salsa, avocado and cabbage and a beer from Amnesia brewery and Lauren wants some good Italian pasta and an Oregon Pinot Noir...yes the main focus of the trip has been food!

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Ahhh lovely rain. We tried to get away from the heat at sea level by escaping to higher ground in the middle of Malaysia and now we're wondering where our sweatshirts and pants are...hey Rochelle can you send them back over?! Well it is beautiful, the view from our place is the sunset pic and we have been on several jungle hikes and we've heard monkeys above us but they have very good camouflage and no desire to come down and play. It does make an eerie noise when they call all around us. We did find several more sci-fi bugs here, note the pic of the bionic fly and I swear the pictures never do them justice. We have been eating a lot of Indian curry and are already missing the Thai food. We hear Bali is still a lot of Indian influence too. We'll have to subsist on garlic naan which we have come to love and find very cheap. Here in the highlands we heard rumors of strawberries and veggies galore which we have searched (through the rain by foot) to find and have only found strawberry umbrellas, nightgowns, slippers, keychains, blow-up balls, pillows, hats and many more non-edible forms.
We spent last night drinking beers with people we picked up on some trails, a Dutch couple traveling for 1 year and an Aussie who has been traveling for 12 years. So here is my rant. I hate these damn foreigners who have no school debt, on holiday forever, have no recent history of any lucrative jobs, who speak 15 languages, know more about our politics than we do and all have something to say about us (being the US) not signing the Kyoto agreement which I have never heard of (the agreement or the city). We are apparently arrogant, worldly blinded, monolingual, broke and overworked...anyone want to move?
AANNNYYYWWAAYYSSSS...Tomorrow we leave to our final major destination both Bali and neighboring Gili islands...more sun and diving...very excite!!

Mmmm.....Beach Time in Koh Tao

It has been so amazing to be back on the beach again! We are in Koh Tao, Thailand, which is a small little island to the east of mainland peninsular Thailand. The weather has been perfect (fairly hot, but a nice mix of sun and clouds so we haven't been frying ourselves every day), and we had an amazing time getting our diving certifications the first four days that we were here. Today it was nice to just relax and walk around the island a bit....allowing the hangover to resolve without being out on a boat!

The top picture is of our bungalow - Krista and I have been quite cozy! Who can complain at $6/night??? No air-con this time, but the fan and mosquito net have been working out quite well. The hammock on the porch has also been put to good use!

The next 2 pics are from the deck of our guesthouse restaurant - we face west and the sunsets have been just beautiful........not to mention the crystal-clear water and !

Finally, a pic of Krista and I on our last day of diving. We had a great group - 4 of us total - Dorthe from Denmark and Ross from LA - plus our instructor, Rick (who is from Hawaii but has been living here for the last 4 yrs). Our little group has been hanging out since we got here and we're having a blast. We had early, relaxing dinners and not much partying during our diving course b/c of early mornings and lots of choppy boat rides (not too good with a hangover belly), but we all went out last night and had a blast eating, drinking, and dancing on the beach at a little waterfront bar just down the way. We have met a ton of people who came here to dive and just never left........I can't lie and say that hasn't crossed my mind as well. Just have to figure out how to disappear and get out of all of those student loans.........any suggestions are welcome!!!

So, tomorrow we leave for a day of travelling to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia for some trekking in the high jungle. Then, off to Bali and the Gili islands to while away the last 2 weeks on the beaches with more diving, some surfing, and lots of relaxing - and one of the famed SE Asia full moon parties along the way. I can't believe we are already 1/2 way - it has been great so far and I hope the time starts to slow down!

Wish you could all be here!

One night in Bangkok

so Bangkok was quick and crazy. It involved a really nasty...I mean nasty hotel, which we only could take for 4 hours before getting our money back and splurging for about $25 USD at another hotel. The next day we said goodbye to Rochelle as she started her long journey home and we went downtown to do some walking around. The picture of the dude with muscles was showing off for Lauren when she was taking a pic of a funny outdoor gym in the park. Apparently working out is a big deal at the park, there's yoga, jazzersize and a few runners (including crazy Lauren).

Climbing

This was our 1 day of climbing near Chiang Mai. It was a blast. All the routes very well maintained. I'm on the left and Lauren on the right. Rochelle's so damn fast we couldn't even catch a picture of her climbing...ok, we actually used her camera for pics of her which is now safely at home in Longview, WA...HI ROCHELLE!!!