KL Part 2

After our close encounters of the animal kind we headed to a more civil and less savage area - Petaling Street. Errr...right....

Petaling was a crazy maze of stalls intertwined with one another that created a Vegas feeling of never finding your way out. The walkways in between each side was approximately 18 inches and led to sideways walking and always touching something that someone was selling. Pausing and touching mean one thing to the sellers: you want it. If you pause for one second, examine an item for a breathe or raise your hand to touch it, you better be ready to a salesperson to come at you. There is no window shopping or pleasantly strolling through stalls (or even in shops) - it's an aerobic event for all. And they are ALL upsellers. We weaved in and out of stalls looking for goods to take back to our loved ones. It was mayhem! We'd walk in front of one another and let the other's know if we were stopping or moving on. I stopped the most, followed by Melissa and then Les. Les was in sensory overload and was in no mood to bargain, to banter, or to cut a deal. He laughed with us but was basically clawing for a way out of the claustrophobic mob scene. I bartered and had a great time with the stall-keepers (I keep using different names for these people bc I have no idea what the real name is for them: salesmen, stall-keeper, shop owner, etc). They'd play with you and groan when your price was too low and tell you it was your lucky day or anything to keep you looking. It was fun and alive with noise, color, and the sound of cash.

We had gone to the Central Market beforehand which is basically a small building with mini open shops inside - very mall like but still with stalls. It had a much calmer atmosphere, better items and less bargaining. Melissa really enjoyed the Central Market scene and fell in love with several scarves.

I liked the madness and the bargaining opportunities at Petaling St :) Surprised?
Les laughed at me and the results I got with some of the stalls. There's a fine line between good negotiation and insulting prices: I thought I stood on one side of the line, he thought I stood on the other. Hahahah :) Either way, yay! Was very close to getting a Coach purse (knockoff, of course) for about 60,000 RP which is about $7 USD.

After our shopping expeditions, we headed to find dinner.
We had our Frommer's Tour Book and had agreed on a place called 'Top Hat'.
We wound our way down the streets but when we arrived at the location, we were told it had been relocated! D'oh.
On to choice 2 - Shook!

It turned out to be at the bottom of a Marriott Hotel that was connected to the Starhill Centre.
We were worried when we found out that it was in the basement of a mall (ick, mall food) but found out soon enough that this mall started with Louie Vouitton and kept climbing the Brand ladder. We went downstairs and found about 6 great restaurants that we could have eaten at.
Determined we finally found Shook! (yes, it has the exclamation point in the name) and took a look at the menu. We were worried that our day clothes wasn't nice enough for this restaurant as it was beautiful and the hostess had a lovely black dress on. She didn't seem to care as she gave us the menu and encouraged us to try it.

We went for it.

It's menu was split into 4 different categories: Italian, Chinese, Japanese and the Grill.
It contained about 30 different pages of foods and probably over 100 different choices total.
It looked incredible. We started with drinks (Martini for me, Tiger Beer for Les, and a Caiproska for Melissa) as we were celebrating our amazing day. This dinner would be a treat for us all.
I got Short Ribs with Mashed Potatos and slaw from the Grill, Melissa got Spring Roast Chicken with Sweet Potato Purees and Les chose Tempura Vegetables with Udon Noodles. We devoured our dishes as they were the closest to 'home' food we had had in a while. They were excellent.
We had a great time over dinner discussing anything under the sun and totally enjoyed each other's company. Music was being played just next door on this mini stage and so the music set a beautiful tone to our meal.

We left full (we got chocolate fondue for dessert), tired and thrilled by our day.

trying to get pics up, but taking forever to upload. try again soon...

Kuala Lumpur

Little unknown fact about Kuala Lumpur....it's actually a very scary place to go!

Things that scared Erika:
mysterious unknown small animal in the forest, dead spiders and large live insects within cases, and butterflies

Things that scared Melissa:
monkeys, groups of them together

Things that scared Les:
the Sun. Still. And Amusement Park spinny rides

It also is a very dangerous place!

Things that hurt Erika: her bed post, her suitcase, a small post sticking out of the sidewalk (got her twice at once: toe and knee) and another piece of sidewalk

Things that hurt Melissa: tablechair to the pinky toe

Things that hurt Les: the Sun. Still.

Keep in mind that we were touring Kuala Lumpur and have stayed within city limits.
We are not out in the jungle, we aren't on an adventure trip, nope...we are just walking around the city. And getting wrecked! My feet were not pleasant before this trip and oh man...they have gotten even rougher! hahhaha

The first day in KL, we hit as much as we possibly could: the Petronas Twin Towers, Menara KL, Petaling Street (Chinatown on crack), Central Market, Little India (mini clustered electronic stores everywhere) and the Lake Gardens Butterfly Park.

The buildings here are awesome. Everyone is competing to the be the tallest "something".
Here they win for the Petronas Twin Towers. It is a masterpiece and really incredible engineering. We didn't end up being able to go in the Sky Bridge (the piece that connects as a walkway at the 41st floor) but we did the next day. We did go up the Menara KL (think the Seattle NeedlePoint Tower) and see the entire city from above. They had a bad ass self tour headset/video that you used for each look out window that explained history, gave a closer look to the outside/inside of the place and gave you a great rundown of the city. One of the best I've ever experienced.

From there, we walked down to get to the Jetlong Trail which is a mini nature trail that takes you into the forest to check out some tress and stuff. This begun our monkey encounters.
We saw a bunch of them playing and fighting and being silly so we took LOADS of pictures of them. We continued our walk and thus began our "jungle" experience and my first fright of the day. We were walking through tree after tree and I was already over this as bug upon bug and spider web after spider web had been passed. Don't know if y'all are aware of this but me no likey de spiders. So as we walked on my mind took a little imagination tour itself. Then suddenly to the left and down the hill, we heard and saw this bustle tear down the hill through the brush. It coulda been a large rat, monkey or gremlin, who knows. All I know is that I was OVER this walk. hahah But we continued walking looking at trees and spider webs. Boo.
I was ahead of Melissa and Les because frankly, I didn't care to read and look at things anymore, when all of sudden to my immediate left another bustle and close encounter with that gremlin happened about 2 ft from me. An out of body experience occured and a small (okay, quite loud) squeak/scream/squak come escaped my lips. Oops.

Les came over to see what was up and started laughing and asked if I was okay.
I said yup and my bad. :)
However, I was walking now 20 yards ahead of them and headed OUT of this place.
They stayed behind me and just kept cracking up about my speed and determination to peace out.

We finally got out of that dang jungle and were headed back up to civilization when we came across the monkeys again. They were on both sides of us and we had a great time taking pictures of them, especially the babies in the trees. Melissa got really close up to the babies and were taking great shots of them. Les and I were further back just watching. What we got to see if Melissa turned to the babies, while Mom, Dad or Uncle came down the other hill and get on the same path as us. We were like "Oh hey, Mel...you got a bit of company"
She turns to look at the older monkeys and starts taking pictures, then (And I WISH I had my camera on video-mode) a younger monkey jumps on a branch and swings right over her head. Melissa is now OVER these monkeys and the larger monkeys are ready for us to leave.
She starts heading over to us saying "I don't like these monkeys anymore. I think I'm done being around any of them anymore" and takes off down the stairs. This time Les and I are laughing. It's been quite the amazing forest experience for us.

We then headed to Petaling Street and the Central Market where everything is for sale and everything can be bargined. It's stimulation overload though. SO MUCH STUFF EVERYWHERE. We were starving by this time and decided to take a break, eat, and then go find the Lake Gardens because it had a closing time. Shopping here does not.

We headed to the Lake Gardens and after many uncrossable streets, turnarounds and guesses; we found the entrance way. We walked up and yay, we were at the Butterfly Park. Les and Melissa had been talking about this park for a long time and really really wanted to be sure to see this. I was less excited because to me, a bug is a bug. Prettied up or not, it's a bug and can get lost in your hair (personal experience), ears, mouth or suck onto you. So while butterflies are very pretty when they are by theirselves in the open nature; the idea of being in an enclosed arena with many well camoflauged and divebombers (about 6000 types they said) didn't exactly bring the 'joys' to me. hahaah
But I was excited because I knew they were very stoked and couldn't wait
It was a very pretty area and they were having fun discovering new ones, hidden ones, LARGE ones, pretty ones, etc. Once everyone had their fill, we were headed to the exit, me leading the way.

I opened the door to what I thought was the exit and instead found cases upon cases of bugs.
I did my best to not focus my eyes on any one of them since spiders could lurkbehind any one of those glass plated boxes. I backed up and turned for the door. My mistake. Behind the door was a huge mounted case of different spiders: large, larger, largest and hairiest. I caught a glance and then ducked my head and diverted my eyes and jumped for the door. Melissa and Les were staring at me like "What?" and I calmly told them what was up and that I needed to get out of there ASAP. I said I needed to find the exit from there but couldn't look up for the signs. Les said he would lead me. I very nicely said "I'm super serious so please don't joke or try to scare me". Les was fantastic and led me out. What I wish there were pictures of was that sight. I was bent over as if I had a horrific stoop in my back with eyes covering my peripheral vision and kept my eyes on my toes. Les stood in front of me and led me by the hand up some stairs, around corners and halls and kept saying "don't look up, don't look up". I'm sure we were a sight to see. hahahah

So that was Scare # 2 for me.

Les and Melissa came out 15 minutes later with reports of live large scorpions in a tank (about 20 of them), foot long milipedes and crazy huge bugs. Oddly enough, the only spiders that were in the "Insect Park" (Trap of Death, as I called it) were the ones mounted on the wall that I saw. The other bugs, I coulda dealt with, maybe. But their descriptions of the rest of the exhibit pretty much sounded like Bugs on Crack. Much like the Ninja Turtles movie where ooze gets on animals and makes them large and mean. Or the Jose Cansecos of the bug world.
I think we can all agree that we could do in a world without Jose Canseco.

Alright, time's up.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of KL!

Phuket

Awwww Phuket, beautiful, beautiful Phuket.
(prounounced 'poo-ket', not 'foo-ket' like I called it for awhile. And no! not 'fuk-et'!!!!!!)

Melissa and I had planned the trips and hotels in an order so as not to get tired or used to the same type of place or hotel.
Hong Kong - Matt's apt
Singapore - YMCA room
Bangkok - traveler hostel style
Chaing Mai - country b&b

And now,Phuket. Our relaxing, beachy and beautiful hotel stop.
Perfect timing.

The hotel was huge and spacious with it's own private beach and gorgeous pool overlooking the waves. Fabbbbbbbbbbbulousssss.

It was surrounded by a little town full of shops & restaurants that were just dying for business.
It's Thailand's low season so everything is an additional 30% off plus your bargaining skills.
We could see it be a very *happening* little place during the busy season, but as for now, it was longing for people.

After exploring and taking a night swim, we headed to our beautiful room to sit on the balcony and look at the sky and listen to the sea. This was my favorite part of the room. The patio overlooked the pool and into the ocean.

It was the perfect picture for a girly beach book. Imagine: a girl in the hotel's bathrobe, lounging on a patio chair, with feet resting on the railing, drinking tea and looking out into the view. Her hair piled ontop of her head since the wind was doing what it wished and a small smile on her face while she breathed deeply and sighed.

That was Phuket for me.

We spent the majority of the next day at the beach and playing the waves.
They were HUGE!
They rocked our world for awhile and we shrieked with laughter when one of us ducked too late, not at all or just misjudged the wave strength. There are pretty good sandbars out there so we could walk pretty far out. The result? Grand ol' times.

The view was breathtaking: on one side of us, the never ending Indian Ocean and on the other, the beach and green brush behind our hotel. None too shabby. Reminded me a lot of the time spent in Hawaii. Bit of homesickness, gotta admit.

The one catch to this beautiful paradise is the absolute need for sunscreen.
Alas, poor Les.
Poor, POOR Les.
Or as we could call him, Lobster Les.
Wowza.
He shall never make that mistake again.
Don't worry anyone, we've been capturing his color and now peeling skin ala "Jenny Craig" style with before and after pictures. He's starting to peel now (7 days later), the color is fading (a bit) and his bubbles are going down.

We headed to Patong to see the "Simon Cabaret" that evening.
This show was very highly recommended and our opportunity to see the Ladyboys.
Ladyboys are basically DragQueens; but more believable and prettier.
That was the word on the street.
The show was absolutely horrible. HAHHAHAHA
It basically was a high school lip-synching competition to different pop songs of America, China, and Thailand. There was some choreographed dancing (some. it was just bad) but mostly it was glitter and sparkle and crazy costumes. We just all looked at each other and started laughing; it was so bad it was funny. Melissa fell asleep for portions of it while Les and I just chuckled and shook our heads. Some were better than others but basically, the songs just gave you a chance to gawk at these Ladyboys. They WERE beautiful.
After the show, we had the chance to take pictures with him and see them up close.
Some were much taller than I thought and some you could tell now that you were closer.
However, a lot of them it was still hard to tell!!!!
Little bones, little bodies, little waists, they looked good!!!!
Is it wierd, as a woman, to be jealous of a man dressed up like a girl?
HAHAHAHAHAH

Patong was a cool town and was the most happening place to be. Restaurants and bars lined the streets with stalls and shops trying to get traveler's money. We've been told again and again that it was rare to see Americans over here so everyone just guessed that we were Australian. Catcalls and 'G'day Mate!' was shouted at us repeatedly. Good stuff. Made me proud. :)
We had eaten at an Irish bar called Molly Malone's as no one was ready for more Thai food (or bad food). Les and Melissa got Cottage Pies and I got a burger. Ahhhh, grease that we were used to.

The next day we headed to Phang Nga Bay for sea kayaking and a day at sea.
Les needed to get out of the sun and couldn't stand even thinking about it so we assured him that this trip would provide all the necessary coverage and shade he needed. :)

We boarded this large boat with about 20 other people from ALL over: Italy, Spain, Singapore, the Middle East, Ireland, India and France. The cool thing about traveling over here is that you see EVERYBODY. It's rarely just Europeans and Americans - we are defininately the minority. It's Eastern Europe, China, Japan, India, Malaysians and then Australians, Western Europeans and maybe some Americans. It's awesome. I love seeing the differences in dress, in family, in communication...
Let me just say....we whiteys love our khaki.

The Sea Kayak trip took up to several of the Thailand's different islands including Hong Island, Panak Island, Lawa Island and the "famous" James Bond Island from the Man with the Golden Gun (1970s?). We saw limstone caves, monkeys, walking fish, crazy trees and rock formations. It was cool. In the sea kayaks, there were some caves that we have to lie completely down to get thru. That was pretty cool. The crew was hilarious and service was top notch from these 20-something guys. Drinks, snacks, lunch was provided but more importantly, their attitudes and sense of humour. They loved joking with everyone and on our trip back they danced to MC Hammer, R&B and then had their own Ladyboy performance. It was hilarious and put everyone in a great mood. The day was beautiful and perfect. We were on the boat for about 7 hours.
The day was perfect and just being at sea made us happy. Wind in hair, surrounded by islands and seeing God's amazing creation. What an imagination He has. Some things are just crazy!

Not bad for 2.5 days!

Thailand - check.

On to Kuala Lumpur (KL).

Andddddddddddddd we're back online!

Hello!

Our last hotels didn't have internet and we basically just forgot to look for cafes!
So we have much to catch yuo up on.
So yes, we are safe, yes, we are having fun and yes, we have much to share!

I promise not to log on such looooooooooooong posts like Chiang Mai.

So here we go: Phuket (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and the beginnings of Bali, all coming to a post near you!

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai in a nutshell

Massage Treatments: 4 (foot, oil body, facial scrub and thai massage)
7-11s seen: 32
Thai dishes we learned to cook: 6
Pad Thai entrees consumed: 6
Elephants rode: 2
Villages seen: 2
Red Bulls consumed: 2
Orange Juices consumed: 5
Pokey packages consumed: 3
Square ice cream on a stick: 2 (strawberry& taro)
Linen shirt bought: 1 (Les)
Wats visited: 2
Funerals attended: 1
Rivers traversed: 2
Markets shopped: 2 (but really 1 + an infinity market, it went on forever!)
Friends we made: several British, several French, a couple Danish

Good times were had and relaxing time were had.
Sigh....now on to the beach!

Elephants!!!!! and more...

Yesterday was a day I had been waiting for since we arrived in Chiang Mai.
Elephants!

We had to make a decision between white water rafting, off-roading, elephant shows, elephant conservatory, the long neck village, etc.
We decided with a smaller package and a partially full day instead of a very early wake up call and a long lasting trek.

Our choice:
Trekking
Hilltop Villages
Waterfalls
Elephant Riding (yay!)
Bamboo Rafting down the river

Turns out, that was the best choice - we heard from others that the Elephant Show is just silly and the off-roading is actually more 'pushing' the car through mud and tough spots than riding.
We got the most bang for our buck while smiling instead of sweating it out in the heat.

We took a van along with 8 other people (French and English) for 1 1/2 hours north on Chiang Mai and then started to trek through the beautiful forest. Our guide was excellent and had a great sense of humor. She explained all about rice fields, the workers and demonstrated cool tricks on the different vegetation. For example, their is a Teak Leaf that is green and beautifully patterned. But if you rub the leaf together, it gives off a beautiful RED ink. Another example is this leaf that looks very much like pine tree needles in 4 branch formations. It grows close to the ground. If you lightly touch it's needles, it closes up so the branch (stick) looks like its barren. They call it a "Shy Leaf". It takes about 13 seconds for it bloom out again. It was really cool. Open and close. We played with them a bit :)

We arrived at the first village,the Karen people, and got to see them making cotton and making different shawls. They used a loom and a weaver and it was amazing to see. The villages were simple wooden huts made of bamboo and different dried leaves. It looked straight out of National Geographic. This tribe had about 45 people in it and the woman BUYS the man if they want to marry. They have finally allowed for inter-tribal marriage. The children run up to you and say "Hello 5 baht", it's hilarious. Luckily for the California bred travelers, this was very much the same ploy as the Mexican children and their chicklets. We were able to smile at them and shake our heads.
The scarves were a beautiful design and I picked up to of the most delicate and beautiful ones I had ever seen.

We moved on and kept trekking through the forest until we reached the waterfall.
The waterfall was beautiful and much like most of Thailand, had been built and made into a tourist trap with food, drink and things to buy around the highest points of it. There were small bamboo huts around the river where you could lay in the shade and just watch the river flow.
The coolest bridge went across it. Built entirely out of the trees that surrounded the river, it was a smaller, cleverly crafted, narrow bridge that only really allowed for 1.5 fat Brits or Americans to pass each other. We managed one close call of passing. hahahah.

Then on to another village, the Monc. The Moncs were very similar to the Karens; bamboo huts, weaving looms, and dried leaf roofs. We got to go inside one of their houses to find a one room hut with hamocks for beds and all their belongings piled upon one another. A small wall seperated the parents "side" from the main quarter. They used a small oven for cooking and a table to be used while sitting and cooking atthe same time. It was hard to believe that just a 2 minute drive down the road would take them to a road and a town. Dogs, chickens and pigs ran wild and they used crossbows to hunt. Of course, they had stalls lined up to sell things.

We went from there to lunch of rice, chicken vegetables, spinach, omelette and watermelon.
We got to try the Durian fruit (but a local kind) and a Starfruit. The Durian was sweet and was not the stinky kind that airplanes and hotels don't allow. The Starfruit was sour and I loved it. Les and Melissa...not so much.

And then, and then and then and then and then AND THEN!
the Elephants!

We had already picked out names for our elephants the night before (mine = Galoshes, Les = Captain Awesome, Melissa = Jabar Dumbo Elefante) so we were all set to go.

There was this one HUGE elephant that had pink splotches on his face and ears with massive freckles! He was incredible. I named him "Peaches n' Cream" on the spot.

Melissa and Les actually ended up riding 'Peaches' so I trumped their names :)
hahah
I shared a tiny elephant with John (our British representative of the trip). He was cute and last in line a lot. "Galoshes" was an amazing animals. The skin was so rough and the hairs were long and very coarse. It's very cool to think how elephants are known for their grace and soft presence because when you touch and ride one, all you feel is strong bone, tough skin and harsh hair. They are massive beasts, and yet they aren't, all at the same time.

We laughed the whole time watching our elephants scratch themselves on trees, break trees down to eat, poop on one another, and just lumber around.

We got to ride on its neck and that's really where you feel the power in every step. Muscles and hardness, it was so cool. The ears flapped about twice every 5 seconds to protect their ears from bugs. Luckily for me, it also kept the bugs from eating up my legs!!
It was the most amazing feeling. Being up there, going through the forest, across rivers, up hills...almost a royal demeanor comes across. Well, a cross between royalty and a young girl thinking "freakin' awesome!!!!" hahaha

The ride ended too quickly and it was off to bamboo rafting.
They take these 15 ft long bamboo shoots and cinch about 8 of them together at each end.
The end.
That's it.
Add another 2 bamboo shoots (but much thinner) in the hands of the steerers and away we go!

We had a boy about 10 years old help steer our boat. Basically, he would take the bamboo stick and push it again rocks, bridges, the ground and maneauver our boat through that. Itw as great and the breeze felt wonderful. As always, every raft got in a water fight by slapping the bamboo into the river and splashing the other boat. Some got wetter than others. Guess who was steering our boat from the back? Les. Guess who's boat got in the most fights and got the most wet. Oh yes, ours. :)

The end of the rafting meant the end of our exploration day and we headed back to Chiang Mai.

We learned that the Sunday Market was going on near our hotel in Old City. We were going to ask how to get there from our guide but when we arrived at our hotel, we realized that it was actually ON our street and surrounding us. Score.

It was ENDLESS. And this is where we found the good stuff. No more Night Bazarre and tourist trap hawker crap. These were nice things that the locals came to buy and sell. We wondered for about 3 hours. Poor Les, he enjoyed himself for the first hour, and then began to see double while Melissa and I tried to barter and be "tough" in our negotiations. We found great stuff and had a nice evening. It was beautiful out. Not hot at all and just gorgeous. We ate stall food (pad thai and ckn kebobs, waffles, ice cream).

AN AMAZING DAY

and this morning, we leave for Phuket.

Whew, this was a long one!!! Sorry folks, got carried away in "Diary" form rather than for the reader. Next time will be better!

Chiang Mai

So it seems that Erika has gotten you caught up to Bangkok. Allow me to elaborate on our time so far in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is in Northern Thailand and located in a valley and as such has had much more temperate weather. The break from the oppressive heat was not unwelcome.



We were up early Friday to catch our 7:10 flight and since we had been go, go, go for all of our trip so far we decided to take it easy Friday. Chiang Mai is a small city so we walked around for a bit and grabbed some lunch. Some delicious curry and papaya salad later we were ready for our first massage. We stopped by this place called Lila Thai Massage and got an hour foot massage for under $5. Funny enough the foot massage also included the arms and shoulders as well. Go figure. The week of walking just seemed to melt away. Rejuvenated, we decided to trek about the city some more. There is a pretty cool wat right across the street from our hotel that was "in funeral" for the regional chief monk who had recently passed away. After watching some of the goings on there, which appear to be lasting for a few days, we took a jaunt out of the old city and explored a little to the east. We stopped at Mike's Burgers for dinner as it was recommended by one of the guide books. Not too bad for being the far removed from the burger capital that is America. About this time Mel and I started get some cramps in our lower backs. Turns out when your feet and shoulders feel great, little pains in your lower back really stand out. This was all the convincing we needed to head on back and drop $20 for a full body oil and face massage. Needless to say it was was interesting, but the end result was about as relaxed of a feeling as I have ever had. After this we were too shot to actually make anything of ourselves so we turned in early to get ready for our big day of cooking.



Saturday was our first day to sleep in a while. We have been getting up between 4:30 and 7 that last few days, so sleeping in was nice. The Thai Cookery School was amazing, and we came back full of knowledge and with all of our fingers, though I am missing part of a fingernail that was the result of a close call. We learned how to make 6 or 7 dishes that we simply amazing. I can tell that my stomach is starting steel up a bit to the spicy because I will try some dishes and actually add chili pepper. I know, Les liking spicy food, don't all fall out of your chairs in amazement. What's next, elephants dancing the jig? Mel has said that she'll elaborate more on the actual cooking experience, but needless to say it was awesome. Thai cooking is very easy and very fast. Once the ingredients are ready, actually cooking the food takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

Once we were done with the cooking class we came on back and had our first Thai massage which shouldn't be confused with our earlier massages. These can be pretty intense massages and you as the massagee are an active participant in the experience. The massage focuses on your legs and feet for the first part then your back gets a turn with the help of some real Tiger Balm. I remember now why I loved that stuff so much during track season. Then your arms and shoulders get worked on for a bit. Great time. You feel fantastic afterward, even if there is a little pain during. I was lucky enough to win a bet with Erika and Mel today where the pay off was they are covering my next two Thai massages. Granted that is a whole $10, but hey, it's the principal of the thing.

After our massages, we mustered up the energy to go have dinner and a few drinks. After consuming 7 courses of Thai food in the space of 6 hours, Mel and I decided that it was time for a one meal Thai food break. Erika powered through, however, with her staple, Pad Thai. A bunch of beer and cocktails later, we turned so that we would be nice and rested for our elephant trekking and bamboo rafting adventure.

Totally in the weeds of blogging...BUT ALL CAUGHT UP!

Okay, okay, we know that we are super behind in blogging.
Not only have we not described hong kong, but we've left out quite a bit of singapore.
Les touched upon Bangkok but we have much much more to go bc now we're in Chaing Mai.
The good news: my journal is updated. The bad news: I can't morph it on this.

So how can I do these past couple of days justice?
Give it justice but keep it to just a couple paragraphs so you still want to read it?
That's the key.
And away I go...

Hong Kong with Matt
Tall buildings upon tall buildings upon the construction of more.
Breakfast at "Flying Pan" (not "frying" pan, funny though, for sure)

Walk round the city and see all the shops,
Tour the city butcher and watch the chicken head get chopped
Watch the ladies who lunch all clammer for shade,
Watch the ladies who slice fish and work with a blade.

Ride to the top of the Peak and tour a 360 view,
Sit and drink to good friends and to friends that are new,
Back to the Travelator side of town for one last drink,
Then to bed, oh so tired, to the bed we did sink.

Now off to Singapore, the World's Largest Mall,
High end and low end, oh they had goodies for all!
Once "out" of the craze, we saw the city from high,
Rode the Singapore Flyer, much like the London Eye,
We saw the neighborhoods, the history, the lore,
We walked in the cleanest city I've ever seen before.

We experienced Orchid Gardens, oh we took plenty a picture!
Lunch at the hawkers, every tourguide's "must" fixture,
Raffles Hotel came next, for a drink of their city,
Singapore Slings for us all, sat at the bar, feeling pretty,
The booze was a-lacking, no Mama Halverson experience at all,
But we took a photo of me, still, faux-clutching the wall!

Fort Canning was the last stop of our historical plight,
Spice Gardens, canons, and a wall built for a fight,
We saw The Ballet was preparing for an evening affair,
I danced in the garden and wished I could be there,
For those of you who know me, my fake ballet isn't new,
If you could've heard the music , you would have too.

Another early flight in the morning and with bellies all fed,
We taxied back to the YMCA, packed and went to bed.
You'd be impressed by the food that we've tried and have liked,
we can eat like a king after all the miles we've hiked!

Head off to Bangkok! A city entrenched in car smoke,
Our guesthouse was hidden, as if wearing a cloak,
We "toured" the city quite nicely because of this fact,
A couple times was worried, we wouldn't make it back!

We started to tour but a Thai man said "don't go walking!"
We weren't quite sure what he meant, and started on balking,
"It's a government holiday, it's Buddah Day," (o how lucky we got!)
"Tour the city via Tuk Tuk for just 20 baht!"
We finally got what the nice man's intent was,
Tour the city for cheap and depend on the tuk tuk's nice buzz!

To Buddah, then Buddah, then Buddah again,
Wat one, then Wat two, and Wat nine and ten.
It was nice to have a Tuk Tuk to call, no need for a hail-er,
And then we hit a new place; meet Mr. Jack, the nicest of Tailors.

5 suits were purchased, 3 coats and 3 ties,
Felt like hot stuff, we're not gonna lie.
3 fittings it took and they were almost finished then,
hell yeah, we're all stoked, let's do that again!

The next morning was the incredible Floating Market bizarre,
Had to go by "James Bond"boat, there's no need for a car,
The coolest thing I've seen and truly enjoyed,
Fully stocked kitchens made for the lazy kayak ride.
Fresh fruit, fried bananas, noodle beef, stir-fry and spices,
add porriage corn cakes, cream crisps, all cooked with crazy devices.

Then off to the Golden Palace, Wat Phra Kao and a Wat,
and on to the stadium for tickets of Thai Boxing bought.
Kick, kick, punch; punch, kick, kick, kick,
5 rounds, 3 minutes, and someone gets licked.

Off to bed we then head, one more early flight to catch,
Though we truly enjoyed the crowd to the boxing match,
Local travel this time, no more Immigration or Customs lines,
Headed north to Chaing Mai and a massage oh so many times. :)

Checked in at the door, and headed on to eat,
Caught a gist of the city as we hit every street,
Then to a foot massage, an hour delight,
We liked the place so much, we came back at night!
An oil body massage, a facial scrub and 2 hours went by,
Our skin's feeling nice, our body's just sigh....

And that's where we are! I think we're basically caught up,
Some details are blurred and minor stories were dropped,
But you are where we are and tomorrow doesn't stop!

Wow

4, 3, 2, 1... Bangkok!!!

4 shirts
3 ties
2 suits
1 coat

I am sooo susceptible to the up sale it isn't even funny. Especially when the above are all silk lined cashmere wool custom tailored suits for under the price one suit at home. Oh, and the shirts are also custom tailored. Now being a software dev, I don't have much in the way for use of such fine apparel (and no, I am not interviewing anywhere), so I am going to have to artificially manufacture some. Send me your suggestions.

Bangkok was the first stop on our tour that we had any hesitation about how easy it was going to be. Hong Kong and Singapore we new were going to be pretty simple because so many people spoke English. Bangkok, as it truns out, is not quite as easy, but we should not have worried.

Anyways, it turned out to be a special Buddhist holiday today and on top of that, the government decided to help out the tourists a bit. While many wats that were normally closed opened their doors for this one day, the government subsidized the tuk tuks (little three wheeled taxis) so that you could hire one out for 20 Baht (~60 cents) for the day. Though we feel like we have smoked 2 pack of cigarettes today, it was a good day.

Tomorrow we will be hitting the floating market, some more wats and hopefully a Thai boxing match. Should be another awesome day.

Singapore Continued...

Big Pau is basically a HUGE looking marshmallow.
It looks like a huge childhood delight, all puffy and steamy white.
The wonerful surprise is the yummy meat inside that dampens the dough and fills you with goodness. They were my favorite, fo sho!
Let's be clear here. They defininately try to fill you up with food here. The portions were crazy if you would have gotten just one order of anything.
And there is food everywhere, if you are tired of shopping, you can eat.
And can eat anywhere and everywhere. This is not a city that could go hungry.
There is always something open!
It's like New York - but cleaner and safer. And less people dressed in trenchcoats.

Because, baby, it's hot hot hot and wet wet wet here.
Luckily I entrapped my hair back into a bun of death on the back of my head.
I refuse to unleash it. Because if I do the humidtiy will only force me to take them prisoner.

okay, off to bangkok. we know we are behind, but our goal is to update on hong kong and the rest of singapore later this evening.

see you soon!

Singapore Complete

Did you know that Singapore is not a city....it's a shopping outlet.
I have never ever EVER seen so many stores in my entire life.
They had Orchard Road, which is basically 3 miles of high end stores mixed with cheap-os, mixed with shopping malls. The stores went on side by side, one on top of another and then deeper behind. And that was just Orchard Road. Once you get off of that, you hit the regular stores and every "attraction" has a crazy crazy crazy gift center. On the planes, they sell food and they sell souveniours. I was amazed. eBay would not work for them. They would prefer to haggle in person, outside and with instant gratification. They want it now! Singapore - the world's largest shopping mall.

We hit the Botanical Gardens and the Orchid Gardens yesterday morning. Sounds lame and very grandmotherly, I know, but you have not seen some of these flowers. They are incredibly gorgeous and the colors and patterns on them are just incredible. You will will see when we come home. We took about 3600 pictures of them...enough to drain my battery by 1:00 pm.
Hopefully one will come out :)

From that beautiful adventure, and let me tell you, you can see the gift of God through these gardens, we headed to the hawkers. Basically, an open air food court selling all sorts of crazy concotions. They sell more Seafood than Meat, which is fine, but most are whole or come with eyes included, something new... hahah The people who run the stands are salespeople and come after you with menus and call out to you and almost expect to take your order. These are not for the meek or the passive. Because you would for sure be buying from the first person who walked up to you (forehead to chin), asked if you wanted the special and took your money. Stand firm and walk away. The Big Pau was da bomb and actually one of the first things we saw. Les and I were all over it. (one sec, it's logging me out)

Off to Thailand!

Well, we are finished doing a whirlwind trip of Singapore and are off to Thailand on this not so bright and early morning! Erika and Les joined my brother and me in Hong Kong for a day and then we flew to Singapore, where we were for a day and a half. However, we saw 3 days worth of stuff in about a day. The botanical gardens were beautiful, especially the Orchid Garden, as you will see from the amount of pictures we took of the flowers. Then we headed over to the hawker center and ate some delicious and cheap food including black pepper udon, roasted chicken with honey sesame sauce, and pork rolls for Erika and Les. Did some more touristy things and saw a great panoramic view from the Singapore Flyer, much like the famed London Eye. Then headed off to Fort Canning, and finished up on a junk for dinner. Now, we are off to Thailand!

Hong Kong is Sweet, Singapore is Wet

While Erika checks some things I am going to throw up a brief post. We are in the Singapore airport right now. Saw some convenient internet kiosk, and thought I'd have a go. Erika and I got into Hong Kong with no problems yesterday. We met up with Mel and Matt (Mel's brother who lives in Hong Kong) and spent the day wandering around the city. Pretty cool place to be sure. We ended up at The Peak which gave us an awesome view of the entire harbor. We'll elaborate a bit more later on, but we need to get through customs now. Lates.

Less Than 24 Hours...

Ok, so I realize that Erika has beaten me to the punch for the pre-departure entry, but I feel that I should to throw my two too-excited-to-sleep cents in too.

I have done the travel thing a bit. I've lived in Northern Ireland, traveled around Europe and been down to Ecuador. This is going to be different in so many ways. For one, this will be the first time that I am going somewhere where I don't know if I (or the people I am with) can communicate on some menial level with the person across from me. Needless to say, that it is a bit daunting, but I am not overly worried. I am as master of charades and pictionary. For seconds, this will be my first travelling out of the area of Western influence. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, Europe, is well, Europe, and Ecuador use the US dollar for their currency. Even thousands of miles away you aren't really straying to far from home. It's time to stray, even if only slightly. We don't have anything overly crazy planned, mostly big cities, cool cultural things and beaches on the docket, but it is a step in the right direction. Let's take a few steps off of that beaten path that Erika talked about and see what there is to see.

Catch you on the flip side (of the world).

Twas the night before Asia...

...and all through the night; not a creature was stirring, it didn't seem right.
All the bags were all packed by the front door with care, in hopes that one's passport still would be there!

Okay, enough of the Christmas morning anticipation analogy, but you get it.
We're excited!

I'm taking a break from during some work that has to get done.
Time management says I'm not doing the right thing and I should power through.
However, I think that in 3 weeks when I get back, I'll be happier having this memory to look back on than any email I could send or project finished.

So here I am, packed (well, overpacked), awake (though the hours I've put in says I should be zonked out right now) and still feeling like this is surreal.

We. Are. Going. To. Asia.
really?
When we first put this trip together, we decided to go off the beaten path of where most travelers vacation. Not that there's anything wrong with those places, we just wanted to push ourselves and see something really outside our comfortability and knowledge. Does anyone remember their junior high or high school years of history? I had one college classes that covered Asian history, specifically in battles, but I can't recall a thing. It's a culture unrealized for me. One that we think we understand due to pictures, the news, stereotypes, Chinatowns and good food. Is it a small truth to what we are about to see? Or a bastardized or cheapened version of it? We are about to find out.

The world is about learning. Learning to do things, learning to think, learning to see, learning to believe and learning that the person across from you is going to contradict everything you think you've learned. What is normal? What is belief? What does histroy call us by someone else's book? We are about to skim the surface of finding out what is 'normal' across the world.
That is so freakin' bad ass :)

Don't get me wrong, this isn't just an ignorant thirst for "finding out".
I'm definitely in it for the Pad Thai Noodles.
Hands down. It's on.
Why do you think we are going to 3 places in Thailand? haha

This trip began with about 9 countries/cities that we wanted to explore and amongst great planning partners, we widdled it down to our current itinerary.

Tomorrow is just another day at work. Hustle and bustle with some chitchat and a Diet Pepsi on the go.

But by the following morning - 1:20 am to be exact - it will be another day.
A whole new freakin' day.
With a whole new 'normal'.

Stay tuned...we're about to be broadsided

Three Days and Counting

It is Tuesday night and things are starting to come together. We have all done this before, so I don't think that we are freaking out. Don't get me wrong, there is always a bunch left to do, but things are getting handled. First and foremost, I want to thank Mel and Erika for the awesome work they have put into this trip so far. This wouldn't be happening without them, where as it very easily would have come off without me. :o) For those whom are curious here is where we are going:

Hong Kong
Singapore
Bangkok
Chiang Mai
Phuket
Kuala Lumpur
Ubud, Bali
Kuta, Bali
Hong Kong

It is a whirl-wind tour of SE Asia, but it is going to be sweet none the less. Hopefully we can hit up and internet cafe or two while we are out and update this with some pictures and experiences. Till then.