Quick Trip Reflections

MY TRIP:
October 12, 2006 - January 26, 2007
(106 days)

Countries: 8 (officially, not counting the US)
China- (Oct. 12 - 31)
Tibet- (Oct. 17 - 29)
Vietnam- (Oct 31 - Nov 20)
Cambodia- (Nov 20 - 25)
Laos- (Nov 28- Dec 5)
Thailand- (Nov 25 - 28; Dec 5 - 22)
Malaysia- (Dec 22 - 26)
Singapore- (Dec 26 - Jan 2)
Australia- (Jan 3 - 23)
Hawaii- (Jan 23 - 26)

# of photo's: 646 (camera is still MIA in thailand...)
# of different beds slept in: 38 (different one every 2.8 days!)
Total trip cost: $3613.87 (thats $34.09/day including transportation costs!)
Total miles traveled: 28,500+ (according to a Google Earth estimate)
Top three moments:
1. Surviving the Everest Base Camp hike (barely)
2. Sunrise on the Great Wall after camping in the watchtower, and not seeing another tourist
3. Feeling of pure independence in Australia/ surfing in 80 degree water
Longest stay in one place: Cant remember, but it was definitely less than a week
Favorite drink: coconut shake or vietnam coffee (usually both in the morning for under a buck!)
Favorite dish: chicken with coconut curry over rice (the one in Hoi An was the best and I got to watch the chef make it from scratch)
Weirdest thing I ate: yak jerky and yak butter tea in Tibet (chickened out of eating live scorpion on a stick in Beijing); never got travel belly!
Place I want to go back to most: Vang Vieng, Laos (the place where we drank beer and floated down the river three days in a row...obviously ;) and Queensland Australia
Best beach: Byron Bay, Australia
Cheapest beer: $0.15 for a tall bottle in China
Cheapest accomodation: $1/ night at both hostels in Cambodia
Best quote of the trip: "that happened during the French Colonation" -Carson
Wish I had brought: more maps, less lonely planet books (they weigh less, and give you more freedom)
Wish I hadn't brought: half of the clothes that weighed down my backpack
Honeymoon-worthy spot: Ko Tao, or any of the southern islands of Thailand

still unanswered questions:
Biggest regret:
Most shocking moment:
Biggest surprise:

... and I'm still trying to think of more, so email me anything you want to know!

I Made It

Wow, the trip is over. I am writing this from my own computer, in my own room, and with all the comforts of home. It has been a crazy experience over the past few months, but God has been good, and now I get to start a new chapter.

For those of you who have been following along in my adventure, I'll catch you up through the end of the trip:

After spending a great week in Manly Beach, I hesitantly left the comforts of staying in a nice place with people I know, and took a flight up the coast to Ballina airport, where I caught a short bus ride to my destination, Byron Bay. I had been told that I had a place to stay with a friend of a friend, and that I didnt need to book a place to sleep, but it never materialized. I found the only room in town for only one night. I was a little discouraged running around by myself carrying my backpack, and ended up wandering down to the beach to compose myself after the day of traveling. I realize this may not sound like much of a trial, and it really wasnt bad, but it was a stern realization that I was traveling alone, and had to make things happen for myself.


The whole experience turned out to be a great time. I found a much nicer hostel down the road for the next couple nights and met some fun people. I even managed to rent a surfboard and surfed at "the pass" which is the main point at Byron. At this point, my experience with Byron really turned around for the better, as I surfed for hours at a sandy bottom, Rincon-esq wave in trunks talking to everyone out in the water who seemed to all get along perfectly despite the chaos of different surfing abilities. Those of you reading this who surf can definitely appreciate this phenomenon of harmony. It was a few fun days of surf, good hostel conversations, and some town exploring before taking the bus up to the Gold Coast.

I met another friend of a friend who showed me the epitome of good Australian hospitality, giving me a free place to sleep, buying meals and drinks, and extending my stay. It was a relief to feel so welcome, and a treat to be staying 100 yards from a really fun beachbreak... I also walked around a little in the Gold Coast, strolling through the infamous Surfer's Paradise, which is an overly touristy stretch of town where the surf out front actually isnt good at all. This was really the end of my trip, and it was a great spot to relax and reflect on the past few months. I wrote alot in my journal, prayed about my next steps, and just enjoyed the feeling of being away. Although this was an easy place to want to stay for a long time (air= 90, water=82, sunrise=5am, sunset=9pm, beautiful) I had already booked tickets home, and felt ready to make the return journey.

I stopped for a night to visit my friend Christian's parents in the slower paced Sunshine Coast, where I caught a flight back to Sydney, and from there over to Hawaii. Go figure I actually saved a couple hundred dollars on a return ticket by stopping over in Hawaii, as compared to flying direct to California... I stayed with cousins and other extended family, and had a blast sharing stories of the past few months, and enjoying some of the familiar luxuries such as BBQ's and modern transportation on the right side of the road. It was a great chance to unwind some more and shake off the jet lag.

I came back to the states feeling relaxed. I think the transition period was a big help in dealing with the inevitable culture shock. The reunions with family and some friends already have been a blessing. I am excited to share more of my stories and hopefully bring many of you closer to the rest of the world through my experiences.

Thanks to all of you who read/replied/ acknowledged/ complimented this blog!!! Your prayers and emails and phone calls have all given me perseverance and a sense of connection while I was traveling. I am flattered that you have taken the time to read about my adventures, and eagerly await swapping stories with many of you about the past 4 months!

G'day from "God's country"

I have been missing all of you friends and family over the holidays. Hope that everyone had an enjoyable break from work, school, obligations, etc. Cant wait to hear all the new years stories when I get home.

So I have apparently made it to "God's country" as it was called by my buddy Christian as I landed in Melbourne, Australia. And in God's country, cricket is more important than world politics (and probably eating and sleeping for that matter), surf is incredible, people are less pretentious as lifestyle dominates working status, and you have to shower with a bucket to collect water for the lawn because the droughts are bad right now.

I came down with my first case of "culture shock" (going from a third to first world country) during my first few days in Australia. Our family friends Christian and Emma from the Nihiwatu resort that we have kept in contact with over the years let me crash at their brand new house in Geelong. It is only about 10 min from the surfing headquarters of the world, Torquay, which is home to bells beach. After three months of travel through Asia, I was basically plopped into a similar version of San Clemente. It was strange to see full retail prices in surf shops which kinda blew me away. Its been awhile. More than the prices, it was the incredible hospitality that I have continued to experience here that has shocked me the most. My guard was up from all the scams and rip-off attempts that faced us in every country thus far. Now in Australia, I have a free place to stay, I am being fed like a king, and all forms of service now dont require some form of monetary compensation. I tripped out the first few days trying to get used to this system, desperately trying to return the favors and drop my guard.

I had a great first week with Christian and Emma, as they filled me in with the Aussie way of life. I ate Vegimite, which is disgusting, and watched hours of cricket. Fortunately, we got to surf some unreal waves on the south coast, although I was so out of practice I did more bobbing and shivering in the lineup than actual surfing. I had a few more surfs to get the kinks out, which felt amazing after a three month hiatus.

Now I am in Sydney, staying right above Manly beach at a friend's dad's beach house. Good networking is a beautiful thing, isnt it? I have been completely spoiled again by the Australian hospitality over here, and have had the opportunity to explore some of the nearby cities and beaches. Sydney is an amazing place. I wish it was closer to Orange County so I could live here. The vibe is fun, the community is active, service is friendly, beaches are incredible, and there is plenty to see in the main part of the city. Last night I went to an open air theatre right on the water at the Sydney Harbor.

This next week I am continuing to explore the Australian coast from Byron Bay up through the Gold Coast, and on to Brisbane. From there, its hawaii for a few days, and then home by the end of the month. Its crazy that my adventure is finally winding down.

Merry Christmas from K.L.

Wow, alot has happened over here since the last post...

In short:
We flew down to Phuket, saw a really ugly and overpopulated beach out front, took a boat trip to "The Beach" which was beautiful for its powder white sand and snorkling, got scammed into paying a high hotel bill, and took off for Koh Tao. This island was a quiet paradise, and our pace slowed down tremendously. Carson got Scuba certified, Andrew and I did a couple fun dives, I got to snorkle alone with black tip reef sharks- 30 minutes I will never forget! We quickly became accustomed to the mellow locals and travelers, and decided to extend the trip a few extra days. Carson took off from here to surprise his family on Christmas Eve (probably less than 12 hours ago from now), and Andrew and I carried on to Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia.



This journey proved to be the most frustrating/ patience building day of my trip so far. The day began at 5:20am (40 min before I planned on waking up) with a phone call to the room that our bus is waiting. Next we were duped into paying for the travel agencies overbooking mistake by paying $40 each for a form we found out later was free. After 3 bus changes, and still no clue what was going on, we are dropped off at yet another random travel agency in some middle-of-nowhere town. We are told that we have bus tickets for the 10:30pm bus to KL (6 hours away at this point), but we can buy tickets for the bus that leaves in a half hour. Reluctantly we paid for the time, and all we had to show for it was the same bus ticket that now had a time written on it... duped again. This is the third time we paid for the same ticket to KL. I had to open Kirsten's "save for a bad day" letter. It helped. At11:30pm we are kicked out of the bus onto the main street's median, and stumble around looking for somewhere to crash. It was a long flipping day, but we made it. The next day we went to the mall and ordered our first fru-fru coffee drinks all trip at Coffee Bean. I completely forgot about the previous days trials with a large frappachino, Christmas Carols playing (in English), and a 100ft christmas tree in the mall's center. Finally, I could begin to forget about the 90 degree heat, and get in the mood to really think about Christmas, and what we are ultimately celebrating.



Yesterday, Andrew and I found an all you can eat buffet in a pretty nice hotel. It cost 10x a normal dinner for us, but we went in with the intention of gettin our money's worth. There were about 7 or 8 of these counters with food from all regions. It was awesome!! It felt so great to be that full; I could hardly eat today.


This morning was odd, and somewhat depressing waking up for christmas morning in a small, undecorated hostel room. We tried our best with a backpacker decorated Christmas tree and stockings (above), and reading Luke 2 sitting on the floor. Its strange being away from home now that it finally hit me that it's really Christmas. We buried our homesickness with waffles and good coffee from Coffee Bean.

If the rain holds off, and the tickets arent completely sold out (we are waiting on both answers), we will catch a train to Singapore tomorrow and scout it out for a fun new years eve.

Christmas Carols and Thai Boxing

Strange combination, I know, but these are two of my latest stories in SE Asia...

First the caroling:
The three of us caught a cheap flight from Laos to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. It was such a relief to find out that it would be the same price to fly or take a two day hellish boat ride and another day by bus. No brainer. Chang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, and quickly reminded me of all the things I didnt like about Bangkok. We did land on December 5, which happened to be the King's birthday celebration. This goes off like the fourth of July in the states. Fireworks and street parades were everywhere. So, that was pretty fun.

Chang Mai also acts as a sort of "port town" to the nearby mountains where 800,000 people live in scattered primitive vilages. We really wanted to check out the hills and see the cultures, but we were skeptical about the possibilities of our trek becoming a visit to a "human zoo". We chose a tour company from our guesthouse that ended up being fantastic. Only the three of us plus a couple from Malaysia enjoyed the two day adventure.

The trek was beautiful (check out the pictures of elephant riding and bamboo rafting) and so were the people (no pictures). The village we spent the night at belonged to the Karen tribe (largest hilltribe population) who mostly migrated from Tibet. It was really cool to see a village in Thailand full of smiling Tibetan faces just like I remembered from a month before.

During our campfire that night, we heard villagers singing up on the hill, and soon recognized the tune of "silent night". The carolers went around to each hut in the village and sang different Christmas songs. I tagged along in the back and sang quietly the songs I knew in English. The carolers blessed each hut, and the receiving party gave out rice treats for the participants. It was beautiful to hear in another language, and a completely unexpected treat.

The next day we hiked through the hills and stopped for lunch at a sweet waterfall. We followed the stream down to the valley where we got to navigate bamboo rafts the rest of the way to the stopping point. Check out the pics and videos... it was a blast!

That night I checked out a Muy Thai fight. It is the Thai version of kickboxing where fighters use elbows, knees, whatever to knock the other down. The stadium couldnt have been shadier, but it was super entertaining with a live band playing Thai music during the fights. Hey, where else can you see a fight from the second row and drink a couple beers for under $15??

Now, we jump on a plane to Phuket to get out of the mountains, and into some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world.... YEEEAH!

Laos is Legit!

After somewhat rushing through Cambodia and seeing all the major tourist sites, it is refreshing to be in a place where we can just kick our feet up and relax with some breathtaking scenery to gaze at all day. Our first stop in Laos was Vang Vieng. The three of us actually heard about this place exactly one year ago from some backpackers at our hostel in Rome. They described a paradise where you can rent giant inner tubes and float down this river with bars littered along the shores. And to my surprise, it turned out to be just like this too-good-to-be-true description.


We stayed at a guesthouse that boasted this view from the balcony and a postcard- worthy sunset every evening that we stayed there. It made for a great setting to digest the day and enjoy a little BPS (beer. peanuts. sunset.). Two days in a row we were dropped off a few kilometers upstream and had the afternoon to float and choose which bars to stop off at to have a drink and a go at the ropeswing or zipline into the river. We stepped it up a little on the second day and went on a full day tour through a village and got to tube into a completely dark cave. After the BBQ lunch, we jumped on kayaks to speed through some new rapids and back to the familiar part of the river in time for the afternoon beer and ropeswing. Absolutely EPIC!

The only downside to this welcoming and slow paced Laos lifestyle is the direct correlation to their transportation. The busses have been arduous, and typically twice as long as advertised, but hey, the scenery is one of a kind, and by now I have learned that it takes quite a bit more than a slow bus to get our spirits down.

FYI- we are now in Luang Prabang, Laos where we plan on scouting out the city for a few days before taking the 2-day slow boat up the Mekong to northern Thailand. After that, its south until we hit Singapore. More video and pics will be up as soon as we find some decent internet around here!

Hopefully the last near death experience...

I had the chance to throw a grenade into a small pond at the sketchy shooting range in Cambodia. It was pretty freaking sweet, but there's not much instruction before hand... they just get a grenade from the back room, take you to the pond, take the pin out and hand it to you. I wasnt sure if the time started when he pulled the pin or anything, so I chucked it pretty quick. The major thing they fail to tell me is that a small explosion (that sounds like an M-80) goes off to set the grenade... needless to say that scared the crap out of me... watch!