new pics of Thailand!

We've explored:

Krabi, Phuket, Phang Nga, Ranong, Ko Phayam and finally as of now leaving Bangkok and moving towards
the river kwai!  Wish us luck!!!

Click here for PICTURES!

Bangkok

The bohemian backacker haven we are staying in is filled with people
who for some reason believe they want to look like pirates.
Cigarettes smoked, giant hippy pants and dread locks to boot.

The city is big and crazy with lots of cars and motorcycles but most
importantly. Unlike Jakarta. Useable sidewalks where you won't fall in
a hole to your death. We love it!!

Need a beer for the road? You'll find it for $1 at the 7-11 And drink
it happily walking along the spacious sidewalks, because they do that
here.

Need some food? You'll pass 10 restaurants or food stands per block.

Need a taxi? They'll run you over in anticipation. In fact, you'll
have a hard time crossing the street and not getting hit by one in
their excitement that you might pay them.

Perhaps it's time for dessert? A mango with sticky rice with coconut
sauce and special nut topping will blow a whole 40 baht ($1.10).

Tired? 300-400 will get you a room for two! ($9-12)

All is good in Bangkok!

Bangkok

For the last week we've traveled up the west coast of Thailand by bus
with R mans friend Fernando! Now we are stationed in Bangkok where he
was able to catch a plane back to Colorado this morning.

This past week was jam packed with activity, so there will be plenty
of gorgeous island beach, boat, cave, mountain photos coming once we
find Internet access easily!

From Bangkok we can go anywhere, so we are trying to decide just
that! Where do we go now?
The river kwai? Chiangmai? ??

Any reccomendations??
For now, we are excited to explore Bangkok!!!

Memories of the seashore

That's the name of my favorite piece of all the music I've played on marimba.  The reason I wanted to play music...
But I didn't know why.

Standing with my feet in the sand.
Watching the waves flow in and out from the darkness.

Listening to the soft whisper of the water, like a women humming her child to sleep.

Feeling the sand under my toes disapear as the water slowly moves over them with a sigh...I disapear grain by grain.

There's no fighting anymore for the ocean.  It's tired.  It wants rest.

Shhhhhhhh.............
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......
Shhhhhuuuuuu..

The moan of the ocean crying out to the world in sadness and salty tears of all the things it has seen and heard and can't forget.

          With every sense it surrounds you, envelopes you, and whispers late at night... You are not alone.

The sunset over Nai Yang Phuket

banana hammocks

Allright.  That's it.  I've had it.  A revolution is in order!!!!
The banana hammocks must be stopped!
If you are male over the age of 16 and do not currently compete on a swimming team/work as a male model, you are not allowed to wear a thong on a public beach...particularly white (see thru) and/or leopard print.

It's a matter of decency/common courtesy to those trying desperately not to look in your direction, but for whatever reason....sun glare, a pretty bird, a sail boat, etc.. accidentally happen look in your direction not realizing it and get more than an eyeful.  It's something hard to forget, and once you do accidentally notice "something," it's like watching a car crash, it's hard not to look away.

I know you're on vacation and you want to be comfy, particularly if you have a large potbelly hanging over the  front of your trunks, but please, as a favor to the rest of the planet, regular trunks of the shorts type variety are  very stylish and affordable at the moment and the world will thank you for your modesty.

I appreciate your help in this matter.

Coconut mini pancakes

Tonight we discovered mini coconut pancakes at the night market.
Piping hot mini love.
She had mini fried quail egg right next to them. Perhaps tomorrow!!!

Krabi Thailand is Krabilicious!

Krabi Thailand is super fun!




There is a delicious night market here, and plenty of little corner stands selling this and that to eat for a few cents here and there.  Sarah heaven!!!  We are also staying at a wonderful, RESTFUL hostel with wifi, a clean room, movies at night...I love it!  Life can't get better for the next few days...

From here, it's on to Phuket Thailand (party zone central) to pick up our good friend Fernando who will be joining us for our travels over the next few weeks up to Bangkok.

From Bangkok?  Northern Thailaand - particularly Chang Mai, where I hope to take a Thai cooking class, and get a Thai massage or two - then it will be a few weeks in Laos, a few weeks in Cambodia and by then, our South East Asia adventures will be at an end.

Well, gotta go!  Time to stroll thru town and perhaps take a boat ride thru a cave and a fishing village!

Sweet Dreams

Sunday evening: Trang Thailand - very cute small town - great night market!!!

Monday morning: Kho Lanta (Big giant Island of scariness)

Today (Tuesday): Emergency escape to the wonderful city of Krabi

So.  Ko Lanta.

Thailand is proving very different from Malaysia.

Here's the story:

We find ourselves an affordable hut on the beach and spent a wonderful afternoon swimming, wandering the beach and watching the sunset.  

• 10pm:       try to fall asleep
• 10:30pm: turn on the fan
• 10:45pm: adjust the fan
• 11:00pm: move fan into mosquito net
• 1am:        give up trying to sleep
• 1:30am:   sit outside waiting for the thump thump thump of Bob Marley to end
• 1:45am:   lay in bed listening to the squishy sound of gigantic snails moving underneath our hut
• 2am:        rat sighting in the rafters of hut
• 2:15am:   AHHH!!!!!!!!!!
• 3am:        fall asleep
• 6am:       wake up to someone outside hut raking
• 10am:     departure forever from Ko Lanta...$%^&*%$!

Today we checked into a wonderful hotel in the small town of Krabi.

The hotel's name?  Good dream.  No kidding.

nap time at Gecko Guesthouse - Langkawi Malaysia

There were about 12 cats, 20 chickens, 10 baby chicks, 5 singing birds in cages, 1 old monkey chained to a tree and one extremely crazy monkey who liked to get crazy, all living with us as one happy family.

My favorite cat was the first one, which I nicknamed stumpy...because he has a stump.  

Taxi time

I just did our budget for the last 7 weeks of travel and we average
$20 each/day! So, for those of you thinking travel is too pricey,
it's time to get off your bum and into one of these cute little
tricycle taxis!!!!! Vrooooooom!

Sawadee ka!

I think that's hello in Thai?

We made it to Thailand today!!! We arrived by bus this afternoon to
the city of Trang!!!

We are about to partake in our first night market experience. We
already ate our first meal at a family run shop on the side of the
road and I can already tell I'm about to eat the best food of my life
for the next month!!!!

Pad Thai and curry here I come!!!!

Bye bye Langkawi

More photos! Leaving tomorrow morning to Thailand. We'll definitely miss Malaysia after this great month!

Pics? Click here

Langkawi Cable car

We decided to take a cable car up to the top of a mountain.  

I'm from Minnesota.  They don't have mountains there!

Scaaaaary but great.  We lived to show you this picture!

(I walked across that bridge!)

Dagang?

When we were in Terengganu, we had rumor of a special local dish consisting of rice soaked in coconut milk, and a special fish curry.
We searched high and low for two days, and in the middle of a local fair, I came across a lovely grandma type women selling "something" at her little table stand, so I stopped and stared for a moment, and heard her say the magic words...DAGANG!
"Dagang?" I asked?
"DAGANG!" Was the very stern and slightly annoyed response. What else would it be silly tourist!
"How much?" (holding my fingers up, 1? 2? 3?)
Two finger held up in front of me...and then the adorable paper package, and plastic bag of curry were handed to me.
There was of course a moment of "SARAH! How are we going to eat this on the street?" But Sarah soon found a table worthy of our purchase, (probably meant for the street sellers...everyone else seems to take their food home with them) but my goodness! What incredible food!!! For .60 cents, it's hard to beat!

Pics, Malay style.

After the self-imposed no-post curfew, thanks to shaky news from Chile, it's time to post pics again.
Click here...

...and leave comments!

The places? Perenthian Islands and Kuala Terengganu.

updates

Lots and lots of things have happened, so many things, in varying degrees of importance, I don't know where to start!

- You may have heard, Chile had an earth quake. A big one. Luckily, Rodolfo's family is all ok, but it was a bit of a shock to hear about on a tranquil island in the middle of nowhere.

- Visa Hunting: Friday is a Sunday here in Malaysia. Everything closes...including the Thai Embassy. Where we thought a quick swoop in and out would suffice, it turned into a 3 day wait, so we traveled to Terengganu for the weekend to experience Keropok (deep fried fish sausauge) and some Malay Muslim culture - very cool

- We returned to Kota Bharu and successfully picked up our visas in the one hour slot the Embassy was open and booked an overnight bus to the northwest Island of Langkawi where we have just arrived via bus/giant ferry/taxi!! While in Kota Bharu, we may have happened to also purchase a small laptop for skype/tax/life purposes which I am happily typing away on right now!!! YAY! So, life just got much, much easier. $300 US dollars for a mini electronic piece of love. We love Malaysia!!!!

 - Plenty of drama/pics/paradise/love/anger/frustration/sweat/HBO movie day/fried food in between all of that as well, but now there is plenty of time to blog about it.  Off to bed now after a long day/night/day.