Goodbye Koh Lanta, Railay, Bangkok...

Being goofy in Railay Beach; a monkey mom and her baby; crossing the mudfield to the longtail boat; the cave wall to the beach at Railay; a limestone cliff at Railay; Chatuchak market; Standing Buddha in Bangkok.





hey guys! Sorry for the delay in posting in the blog. Life has been wonderful, we have been happy and healthy, and most importantly, having fun!

On our last few days in Koh Lanta, we went to a full moon party (not THE full moon party in Koh Phagnan, but they still had a "full moon" sign that was set on fire, as well as burning bushes, which the organizers miscalculated how much the sparks would fly and they set the mats almost on fire). The next morning on just a few hours sleep we went to a cooking class run by a Thai chef. The food was delicious, but after having taken two cooking classes, we realized that oil is a central part of Thai cuisine! We made phad thai, stir fry chicken with cashews, tom yum soup, and panang curry paste from scratch. It was incredibly delicious but I definitely should have worn pants with an elastic waist!

Koh Lanta was such an unexpected surprise. It was so beautiful and the people were incredibly friendly. We had the chance to get to know Thai people away from the hustle and bustle of overcrowded tourist spots. We will always remember the nice Thai boys who put on a special fire show for us on our last night, Jennifer from California, who moved to Thailand for a sex change at the age of 52, a Swede who went to school from Eric Karlsson who now plays for the Sens, and Rob, Mem and their beautiful 8 month old daughter Stella who ran the hotel we stayed at.

Railay beach was incredibly gorgeous as well, and felt a lot like a less commercial Ko Phi Phi. I keep thinking that I find paradise, then Thailand surprises me! The view is fantastic, and the sand feels like flour under your feet. The arrival here was strange though...you got to the beach on a longtail boat, then you had to carry your own bags through the water on to the beach. Unfortunately I had spent far too much time supporting the Vietnamese economy through shopping and my bag weighed a TON! The hotel was ok, though it was more expensive overall to stay in Railay. Like Koh Phi Phi, it's a completely pedestrian island with no roads. The odd thing about the east side of the island is that the tide comes in and out a few times a day so at times it's a complete mud field for a few hundred meters!

The great thing about Railay was the walk to the west side of the beach. You could walk along an amazing jungle path and follow a cave wall; at times the wall came almost completely over to the other side. On some parts of the path you could meet monkeys that were used to being fed by people so were incredibly friendly and could be hand fed. There were a few babies that were by far the cutest things that I have seen in a long time!

We left Railay on the morning of the 12th for Bangkok. Again we had to carry our junk through the mud field of a beach to reach the longtail boat. Unfortunately on the walk to the boat we had to step over some sharp stones so I sliced my heel open, but it's far from my heart and it seems to have healed ok!

Bangkok was wonderful. It's busy and crowded all the time but there is so much energy in this city! We are about a good half-hour walk to Khao San Road, the famous tourist hangout, but it makes for a good excuse for exercise! Yesterday we checked out some Buddhas and temples, and got swindled by some tuk tuk drivers who wanted to take us to check out some shops where they get a commission ("special promotion today!") so we tired of that fairly quickly. We checked out Jim Thompson's house, where Jim Thompson, an American who was responsible for the promotion of the Thai silk industry, lived. It was interesting to see some of Thailand's architecture!

Today we went to the incredible Chatuchak market, which has somethink like 8,000-15,000 stalls. You could get lost in there for days and days! Thankfully we managed to get what we needed before breaking the bank completely!

We leave very very soon for the airport for a gruelling trip home. Overall it was an amazing trip, and I am so fortunate to have done it with one of my best friends! The trip makes me appreciate the simpler things in life and the importance of respect, friendship and family.

Thanks for following along!

M xoxo

Paradise and elephants!

hey guys! Thanks for following along! :) after spending a couple days in Ko Lanta I can see how people decide to just sell all of their worldly possessions and move to Thailand. Ko Lanta is a really cool easy-going beach town where you can get to know people and you sort of feel like the theme song of Cheers ("sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name...") is always in the background. It's a great place where you can get to know the people and talk to them. It's a refreshing change from super commercial and congested Ko Phi Phi.

We stayed a couple days in a bungalow on the beach before moving across the street to a nice room with air conditioning and a balcony. It's not on the beach but at least it's cool, comfortable, a bit cheaper and the room isn't super hot (we only had a fan) and doesn't smell like sewer. It's funny how your standards change after a while!!

In Thailand they drive on the left side of the road...which means that when you are coming up to someone it's right hand to right hand (unlike left to left back home). It also means you need to reprogram your brain to which way to look when crossing the street...it's always a bit of an adjustment but I think I am ok again! Ko Phi Phi had no roads so it was easier there to forget where you were!

Yesterday we went on an amazing snorkel trip to Koh Rok. It's like a little piece of paradise! The island is a national park so it's protected and since it's closed 6 months of the year it's quieter than other tour programs. I have been very fortunate in that I have snorkelled to some of the top destinations in the world such as the great barrier reef in Australia and the red sea in Egypt so it's pretty impossible to top that (the coral was mostly dead or brown), but the Koh Rok beach was gorgeous. the sand feels like flour under your feet and it's never burning hot; the water is crystal clear and the shades of blue and turquoise are phenomenal. There are also wild iguanas walking around; all we have are squirrels and sometimes raccoons! We spent the day snorkelling, swimming and suntanning before coming back to a gorgeous sunset. I am a little peachy from the sun yesterday so I am trying to take it easy, but it's tough when it's so gorgeous outside and we only have a few more days to soak up the sun!

Today we went elephant trekking; we really wanted to go to Pai in the north to visit an elephant sanctuary but it didn't quite work out as it wouldn't make sense to spend a couple hundred dollars to be out of the way for a couple days. We had an opportunity to find an elephant park that seemed to take good care of the elephants, where it was cool and comfortable for them, and they didn't have any dumb elephant shows. It was sooo cool! We both even got to ride on its neck for a bit too. I sort of felt like horseback riding bareback, only in slow motion! We got to feed our elephant after too and cuddle with it, which was awesome. Overall it's been a great couple of days! We are planning to stay in Ko Lanta for a few more days and then spend a couple days in Railay beach, where it's also supposed to be gorgeous, before spending some time in Bangkok before flying home.

Here are a few photos: Koh Rok beach; trying to cuddle with a wild iguana, a beautiful sunset on our beach; cuddling with our elephant "Nookyiay"; and riding the elephant in the forest.

M xoxo

Life's a beach! :)

hey guys! I hope this message finds you well. I heard that it's stinkin' cold out in Ottawa right now...or at least it was really cold a few days ago! it's a beautiful cloud-less 30 C every day here in Ko Lanta. Ko Phi Phi was fun and I am glad to have done it again but I doubt I would go back for a third time. I don't remember the island being as congested and dirty three years ago as it was this time. We also stayed at the busier end of the island though. It's a bit of a tough call because I don't think the tourists are going out of their way to keep the island clean but the locals aren't giving the tourists a reason to keep it clean either when you come back to the beach the next morning and find it in almost the same state as it was when you left it the previous evening.

I think that Yosha and I are great at making responsible choices, often in the name of saving a few dollars, but sometimes we get burned too. In the words of a wise colleague of mine, "the cheap often pay twice". We thought we would move to a cheaper room on our second and third night in Ko Phi Phi. Air con was a priority but we were willing to let the tv go because hey, we have the beach! who needs tv? Unfortunately we only noticed till after that the place we booked didn't have hot water, or a sink (note: some things on this trip have become automatic. like bringing tissues to use the toilet. but not having a sink at all? though I suppose if you use the hose to clean yourself off after going to the toilet you don't technically need a sink, but it's helpful for other things, like washing your face, brushing your teeth, etc); and you could hear everything outside. I don't know what kept us up more: the bullfrogs, roosters, drunk people coming back at all hours from the beach parties or the super hard beds. oh well! it's an adventure. and I know that I have gotten no sympathy anyways from you wonderful people back home because you'll be like, oh boo hoo. at least you aren't shoveling snow!

The highlight of Ko Phi Phi, other than the six fruit shakes a day, was the half-day sunset trip to Ma Ya May where the movie "the beach" was filmed so long ago (they are still milking that cash cow. it's a gorgeous place though!). We went swimming, snorkelling in the bay and watched the sun set. The bay is absolutely amazing with sand that feels like flour under your feet. It was really busy though but we managed to soak in the sun before heading out.

Yesterday morning we got up to the Ko Phi Phi viewpoint, which was a decent hike! The view from the top was amazing! We were all alone up there except for a guy who, turns out, is from Ottawa, lives now in Montreal, and is a beatboxer. He beatboxed some Wu Tang Clan on the way down from the viewpoint which was pretty funny and made the walk down more interesting!

We left yesterday morning for Ko Lanta, which seems to be our own little piece of paradise! The beach is a lot rockier than in Ko Phi Phi but you can see uninterrupted ocean for miles and miles. The sun sets right outside our door too (we paid extra for a bungalow with a view to the ocean for a couple nights. No air con though...so we are moving tomorrow night for something with air con but not on the beach. it's a compromise!) I think I am going to start running on the beach for the time that I have left just so that I feel like I am doing something other than lounging around all day!

Tomorrow we are going on an all-day snorkelling trek to somewhere that is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. We are looking into elephant trekking at somewhere that apparently takes good care of the animals (animal welfare is a priority for us. We didn't want to see any baby elephant shows or any of that nonsense) and likely we will do a cooking class too while we are here. so at least some kind of structure!

anyways, I hope that you are staying warm. I will be suffering a bunch to adjust to the cold when I get back!

Photos below: viewpoint from Ko Phi Phi; Ma Ya Bay; being goofy on the beach in my new ridiculous Sex and the City-meets-resort-yuppy hat :)

Update from Ko Phi Phi!

hey guys! it's my first post for 2012. I hope that you are excited for what 2012 will bring you! I know I am! :)

New Year's Eve in HCMC was awesome. We had an amazing dinner (more on food on Yosha's blog) with my friend Rheanne from my grad school days. Someone had a genius idea to blow up a ton of black and white balloons and have them all over the floor of the restaurant, so for the first little bit until the balloons burst it was an adventure to move, sit or go to the bathroom. It was fun though! After ringing in the new year (to my favourite song, "the final countdown" (fun fact: the band members are from a small town in Sweden, where a friend of Rheanne's is from), we went out after to a club called Apocalypse.

After only a couple hours of sleep we flew to Bangkok then Phuket, Thailand (pronounced "poo-get") last night. Nothing too eventful...the flights were ok. It was raining though. We had delicious curries for dinner and caught up on some much-needed sleep last night. It was pouring when we got up but thankfully the travel gods were smiling on us so the clouds parted on the ferry ride and we were greeted at Ko Phi Phi with ("co pee pee") beautiful hot sun! The island is much as a remember it from three years ago, though it seems more crowded and understandably it's more expensive. What would have gotten us a great private bungalow now only gets us a room with AC at the far end of the beach. Oh well. It's still great to be here. We will probably hang out here for a little while, relax, get some sun, and then check out another nearby island in a few days. So if I am more quiet than usual it's because we will just be sloths on the beach for a few days!



Rheanne, Yosha and I on NYE. Not too shabby for a couple girls living out of a suitcase! We had our hair done that day for a whoppin' $2 :); traffic in HCMC; the beach at Ko Phi Phi.

I tried to upload a video; hopefully this works! This is us crossing the street in HCMC on our way to dinner.

Happy New Year from Ho Chi Minh City!

hey kids! This will be my last post for 2011! I like to look at the end of the year and reflect on how I grew as a person, what changes were made to my life, what went well, what changes are ongoing and where changes are still needed. It's also a wonderful opportunity to be thankful for what I have achieved and where life has taken me. I hope you do the same and are as excited for what 2012 will bring you as I am! :)

In my last post we were in Nha Trang and preparing to leave for HCMC. On our last day in Nha Trang we hung out and saw the Po Nagar Tower. This tower was built between the 7th and 12th century and is named for a goddess of local origin who is said to have created the earth, eaglewood, and rice. The temple was built during the Hindu period of Champa; the image of the goddess takes the form of Uma, wife of Siva. From there we took an overnight train to Ho Chi Minh City. It was SO much better than the bus! We had a room with four beds in it and even though I didn't have a great sleep, it wasn't interrupted by random stops in the middle of the night, and I at least didn't have to put scented lip balm under my nose to lessen the severity of the stench of urine coming from the toilet. After an adventure to find our hotel, which is in a side alley off a side alley, we scoped out an amazing bakery right across the street from our hotel (so much for healthy eating...this place is a goldmine of delicious baked treats!) and checked out the Ben Thanh market, which is pretty huge! We walked away with some random stuff. I bought a cheezy souvenir shirt and a super cute purse. We also checked out a culinary festival, tried some treats and walked around HCMC.

Nevermind NYC; HCMC is the place to be for NYE! The city is beautiful decorated with flower lights on a lot of the streets; the main street has light decorations everywhere. We take it as a good sign of the year to come that 2012 is the year of the dragon for Chinese New Year and we are in Vietnam where the dragon is a huge part of architecture, symbolism and culture. To Vietnamese people, the dragon brings rain, essential for agriculture. It represents the emperor, the prosperity and power of the nation. The Vietnamese dragon is the symbol of yang, representing the universe, life, existence, and growth.

We had a bit of an adventure trying to find the pagodas (and trying to find someone to speak enough English to direct us to see the pagodas!), but we found them. They were beautiful! Everywhere, but especially the roofs, are amazing. Figures and dragons are carved everywhere and like snowflakes, no two pagodas are the same. You could spend hours just describing the amount of detail in the carvings. From there we met up for lunch with my good friend Rheanne from my grad school days. We even found an American cupcake store. Yes, I may be going to hell after all of the junk food that I have eaten on this trip. It is a new year tomorrow though and I know it's just a matter of time before I am back to eating healthy when I get home.

Tonight we are all meeting up for dinner and likely a club after. It's going to be a rough morning tomorrow as we leave for Thailand really early but it'll be worth it to spend a great evening with friends to welcome in the new year before heading off for the final leg of our journey.

We wish you an amazing end to 2011 and hope that 2012 brings you everything that you asked for, and more! :)






From top (left to right): My Son temple in Hoi An; Po Nagar temple in Nha Trang; Yosha with a great view of Nha Trang in the background; our "room" in the train (it's no Hogwarts train but it's about as close as you can get I reckon!); the countdown to the new year in HCMC - if you look closely, you can see two bright dots in Vietnam. I imagine those are for Hanoi and HCMC; me near a hokey New Year sign; Yosha with the beautiful lights on the street; me having my absolute favourite meal: Vietnamese sandwich on the street! For all the French did a lot of awful things to the Vietnamese, the one good thing that they brought was absolutely amazing crusty bread!

Temples, shopping, eels and sardines!

hey guys! Here we are in not too sunny but at least not raining Nha Trang! We arrived this morning around 6 a.m. after a brutal 12 hour bus ride from Hoi An. Travel agents are great at recommending the overnight sleeper bus, a bus crammed with seats that sort of recline. Unfortunately, they don't tell you that they overload the bus every time and pick up locals along the way, with some people who have to sleep on the floor. Sometimes, like last night, one of the locals kicks you out of your seat even though there are no assigned seats. So I ended up squished like a sardine in the space of about a tiny double bed between a swede who got kicked out of his seat and an american. we survived though, but on the way we were woken up around midnight for food. Nothing too interesting, though we did see a lot of snakes, seahorses and squids in jars of rice wine. apparently it's good for your health. I would rather eat salad thank-you-very-much.
Speaking of food, Yosha has been working hard to update her blog on more of our food adventures.

So to backtrack, on Boxing Day while you guys were out scooping up amazing bargains, we toured around the My Son (pronounced "mee son", which means "beautiful mountain") temples. My Son is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa. Unfortunately a lot of it got bombed by the Americans in during the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975. I thought the temples were cool, but it's really hard to beat the Angkor Temples in Cambodia! The Hindu influence was interesting though.

From there we returned to the tailor and shoe maker to finalize our shoes and clothes. So I now have a couple from-scratch bowties, a full suit so I am all grown up and workout shorts. I also asked them to adjust the Chinese dress that I bought in Beijing so that fits well. During the day there may have been more shopping and junk eating as well ;) I did try eels though! that was a random pick of the day of eels sautéed in lemongrass and chili. It was surprisingly tasty, minus the chunk of eel spine in each piece though.

On the 27th we walked around Old Town Hoi An, where we saw the Japanese bridge. Built sometime in the early 1600s, the Hoi An Japanese Bridge is a symbol of the town and a beautiful reminder of a time long ago, when Hoi An was an important trading port for Chinese, Dutch, Indian, and Japanese merchants up until the 17th century.

Today so far at 4 p.m. we have just being touring around, napping, eating fruit from the market (Yosha has introduced me to so many wonderful fruits! Today we tried jack fruit and lychee. Both very tasty!) and praying for sunshine. I don't think we will get much sun until Saigon though.

A few random observations about Vietnam...

- their hand gesture for "come here", like if they are personally calling you, is close to what we would use for "goodbye", kind of like the "ta ta" hand gesture where you keep your palm parallel to the ground and flap your wrist.
- ironically, in a country of 40 million motorbikes where traffic laws are only loosely obeyed and everything moves so quickly, the key to survival when crossing the crazy streets is to take your time. The slower you move, the easier it is for motorbikes to swerve around you. Just watch out for cars, because they don't done move too good ;)
- because I am sure you are curious! Toilets here are the exact same as back home, except that there is often the option for a half-flush vs. a full-flush, and you aren't supposed to put anything down the toilet including toilet paper so bins are provided. There have been a few squatters along the way but I think they have adapted well to tourism!

Anyways, those are my thoughts for the moment! We leave tomorrow night by overnight train for Saigon to hang out in Saigon for NYE, then off to Thailand until we leave on the 14th. I heard that you guys in Ottawa are going to get a good dumping of snow. Drive carefully!

M xoxo



Some random photos for you!

Top to bottom, left to right: an old house in Hoi An; the inside of the top row in a sleeper bus - sometimes, like what happened last night, you sleep in a spot where there is an extra bed in between and you get super crammed in between two strangers; the Japanese covered bridge in Hoi An; trying eels for the first time; my new super cool footwear; and weird stuff in jars at a random bus stop.

Merry Christmas from Hoi An!

(clockwise from left: church in Hoi An; market in Hue; cooking class in Hue; market in Hue)

hey kids! Merry Merry Christmas from Hoi An! :) I hope that Santa Claus has been good to you. We are twelve hours ahead of most of ayou so Christmas has came and gone for us but it was great!

Yesterday we took a cooking class in Hue before leaving for Hoi An, which is about 4 hours of slow driving from Hue. It was really cool! For $15 we had a semi-private class with a Vietnamese woman who took us to the market. We had already been to the market the day before but it was cool to get a personalized tour and to see it all through the eyes of a local. It was saturday as well so it was extra busy with lots of vendors selling everything you can imagine. On the menu for the cooking class was the fried pancake, fresh and fried spring rolls, peanut sauce and bun bo hoe, the spicy beef noodle soup that is popular in Hue (different in noodles and broth from the traditional pho bo (beef noodle soup) that has different herbs and flavour). It was really wacky walking through the meat and fish section...some of the fish and eels were still moving so you know they were fresh. Thankfully neither Yosha nor I is squeemish, but buying meat from a woman who cuts the beef with her hands, then takes the money, then hands you the change, is a little much at times for even me, but when in Rome...so far other than a bit of a cold (I am still in denial about that), we seem to be doing well health-wise! :)

We arrived in Hoi An last night. Of all of the places that we have visited so far in Vietnam, Hoi An is by far the most amazing. The architecture is incredible; the buildings are absolutely beautiful. After checking into a random hotel (off a tip from a local at the bus station...who needs to book ahead?!), we walked around the town and had some tasty dinner (cao lau; noodles with sliced pork, deep fried croutons and herbs is the local dish and it's delicious!), drinks and snacks. Deep-fried banana is my snack of choice for the moment!

After dinner we walked around town. While most Vietnamese will probably consider themselves Buddhist, Christmas seems to be a really big deal. Walking around town there were tons of vendors selling helium-filled Santa Claus balloons; some stores were playing Christmas music; many stores, restaurants and hotels have lit-up Christmas trees, "Merry Christmas" signs and various reindeer, Santa and snowflake stuff out front. So we haven't forgotten it's Christmas! I have been wearing a mega dorky elf hat I bought off a lady for a $1 since last night. It makes me feel festive :)

This morning after a lazy start (maybe our first in ten days of travelling!), we got some shoes and clothes made. OMG I am soooooo excited for the stuff that I bought! There are probably close to 200 tailors and shoe makers in the entire city. I got two pairs of funky shoes made (work friends watch out!) and a pair of winter boots for $100. I also got a grown-up suit jacket, skirt, pants, as well as workout shorts made for $145. I am not going to think about how I am going to bring this home...but it'll be worth it because it's amazing and totally fitted to me! I feel like a queen!

The weather in Hoi An has been nicer than in Hue. While it was pouring rain this morning when we left our hotel it stopped and it's a lot more comfortable!

Tomorrow we leave for My Son temples. I am really excited!

While it's different not being around family and friends (except for my dearest Yosha of course!), this is probably the best gift that I could have given myself. There is something about travelling that makes everything else seem less important. While I think that we will always have stuff to pay off, I think that to deny yourself the joy, beauty and adventure of travelling is to miss out on a huge chunk of your personal growth. To quote St-Augustine, "the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page". So get your butt out there and take that big trip that you have always wanted to take! :)

So Merry Christmas dear friends and family! And thanks for following along! More stories from the road to come!