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!