Chiang Mai, Thailand

The northern city of Chiang Mai is super cool.  We had a long journey to get here from Surin National Marine Park in the Andaman Sea (more on that later).  First, we took a speedboat back to the mainland.  Then a truckride to the bus station in Kuraburi.  Quickly thereafter we boarded a bus to Chumphon, where we had a quick dinner before getting on a night train bound, for Bangkok (BKK).  Luckily the train was late, so instead of arriving in BKK at the ridiculous hour of 6, we arrived a few hours later.  Dropped our stuff off at a hostel, ate a few meal, saw a movie, "Love and Other Drugs" (Pete Loved it!), bought another train ticket for that night (ugh, Kira is not the biggest fan of the sleeper trains-Pete Loves them).  Then we just needed to get back to Khao San Rd. where our backpacks were, eat again at the incredible restaurant of Ethos (across from May Kaidees!) and get over the the train station for our 2nd night in a row on a train--this one bound for Chiang Mai.  We would've had the perfect amount of time to leisurely enjoy our meal, etc. but we wound up with a total joke of a cab driver.  Oh My Goodness.  I looked on a map and saw that we only needed to go between 5-6 kilometers.  OK, yes, the traffic in BKK can be insane but after about a half hour of driving around, i was beginning to wonder what was going on.  then i saw that we were at the train station and consequently in a very long and slow line of cars.  the train station was definitely not on the way to Khao San Rd.  He made a phone call, probably asking for directions because a few minutes later, he reached into the glovebox and pulled out a GPS!!!  So we got to hear the GPS lady giving directions in Thai.  Are you kidding me??!! It's not like we asked him to take us to a remote village near the Cambodian border.  When most drivers pick up farangs (Westerners), they assume they will be going to Khao San.  Since our driver did not speak English, i tried to ask in Thai questions like, "why are we here?" "Where are you taking us?" "How much longer?" which was not helpful because he would answer in Thai and i did not understand.  after another 10 minutes, we saw that we had been driving around for 12 km and were not much closer to our destination! We ordered the driver to let us out, wherever we were and we didn't pay him the full amount.  We couldn't even express our annoyance because he didn't understand and Thais don't like confrontation.  Well, neither do Pete and I. Maybe we could be Thai.  Maybe we actually blend in so well, that the driver thought we were Thai and that's why he picked us up.  ha ha.
SOOOO, we made it to Chiang Mai and quickly checked into a nice and cheap hotel ($8.00/night), mostly just so we could have a place to put our stuff for the day.  Later that day, we found a cute boutique-ish hotel and decided that the next day, we would upgrade to a $20/night room with AC, TV and refridgerator! We have done lots of hanging out and eating good food in this city.  Pete went mountain biking for a day while Kira went to a yoga class.  I wanted to take a vegetarian Thai cooking class, but it didn't work out.  The most amazing thing we did while in CM, was definitely going to the Elephant Nature Park, about 60 km north.  It was kind of expensive for one day, but the money was worth it, as it all goes to running the park.  An amazing Thai woman, Lek, started the sanctuary some years ago and has rescued 35 elephants from abusive situations.  There are thousands of elephants in Thailand today that are abused in various ways: logging (which is illegal but still happens), street begging, giving tourists rides.  When Lek hears about an elephant that is being forced to work but is unhealthy or disabled, she does  everything she can to buy it and bring it to her park.  One of the elephants there was hit by a car when it was forced into the city to beg on the streets with its owner.  Another was tortured by its owner, resulting in a disabled leg.  They both walk with labored limps.  Watching this followed by a documentary we watched during our stay there, brought tears to my eyes.  In the film, we saw how elephants are "broken" when they are very young and then they are trainable.  It is disgusting and unbelievable to me how people can be so cruel.  So, if any of you ever visit a place where elephant rides are offered, ask first how the animal was trained before you financially support those people! Aside from the sad part, the day we spent at the park was incredible! We got to feed, pet and help wash some of the elephants, including a 1.5 yr old baby!!! Feeding them was amazing because we were right by their beautiful, giant heads and could see right into their eyes.  They are such wonderful animals.
       After spending nearly a week here, we were going to head over to the town of Pai and then towards the Burmese border, but when we found out that we can't do a visa run at that particular border (to extend our visa, which runs out in a few days), we have decided to head towards Laos instead.  Maybe when we are back in BKK in  April getting our India visa, we will make it to Pai and beyond.  We'll see.  We are excited for a new country.  We'll get to be millionaires again! (8700 Laotian kips to one dollar). 

End of Indo.

Hello Lovelies,
Greetings from Lovina, Bali.  Last time we left you all, we had just been diving off the coast of Flores.  wow wow.  Those dives will be hard to beat.  We will keep trying though : ) When our time in Labuanbajo, Flores was coming to an end, we got to decide what our next step would be.  To Borneo, back to Bali or eastward on Flores?  We decided to join some of our posse #2 friends and go East to see the 3 colored lakes at Kelimutu National Park.  To get there, we could either rent a car and driver or take a bus for an obscene amount of hours or fly on an airline that either was or was not any longer on a "banned from flying into the EU" list.  Pete already mentioned Wings Air and its reassuring slogan, "Fly is cheap."  Well the whole flying experience was actually quite enjoyable.  First of all, we didn't have to go through any security points to get to the luxurious Air-conditioned waiting room. (the delicious AC made the fact that we got there so early very worth it).  There we all were at the gate, full (!) water bottles, nail files, pocket knives and all other manner of dangerous and illegal (according to most airlines) contraband, just chillin' in the AC.  Then our plane landed and we carefully tried to visually inspect the deplaning passengers to gather how their flight was.  The folks looked just fine, even a few smiling and we all felt more confidant that our flight too would be smooth.  Then someone was carried out on a stretcher, holding his head.  We all made up stories like, "oh he must've hit his head on the door on the way off the plane."  hmm, we have no idea.  anyways, soon, we got to board and take our seats.  Kira was stoked because everything looked so CLEAN and new.  and of course there was the AC.  We actually got cold.  it was a lovely flight.  and the scenery of Flores below us was gorgeous! 
We landed about 45 minutes later in Ende.  Greeting us as we exited the small airport were many, many men who really wanted to drive us all anywhere.  Maybe it was the heat, maybe my bag is too heavy or maybe I can't really be bothered to wait while our comrades were haggling endlessly over a COUPLE OF DOLLARS but I almost wanted to get in a car with only Pete and leave already instead of waiting for our people to get the price down just "for the principle."  Well, Finally, a price was agreed upon to drive all 9 of us 2 hours to Moni, where we would stay the night.  The drive took us through beautiful, mountainous, lush, green countryside, with waterfalls aplenty.  The town of Moni is very tiny and there were only a few rooms computer reakdow.  guess which letters are o loger workig.  more very soo

Eat, Pray, Blog

Oh my gosh!  Was that Julia Roberts?  Ubud is soooooo cool!  All the stars are here.  Or at least a bunch of women carrying around their copy of Eat, Pray, Love following the movie tour around town.  Okay, just kidding, but we did make it back to Bali after some fun and somewhat trying travels to the east.  In roads that are not as well trodden.

So these are some phrases and quick memories from the last week or so:

"Fly is Cheap"  A registered trademark slogan of a real airline that we really flew on.  Oddly enough, it is named Wings Air, for anyone that remembers the sitcom from the early 90's.

"Hello! Taxi?! Transport?!"  I just heard that same quote a few seconds ago.  Taxi drivers are everywhere looking to give people a ride. We hear this about 100 times a day.

"I'll have the Spanish Omelot, please."  Famous last words.  After waiting 2 hours to get everyone (but me) served with a party of 10, I found out that they had forgotten to make my omelot.

"Oh, you on yo honeymoon... Honeymoon price, you bring me good luck..."  Being told that you will bring someone good luck by buying a shirt or a dress is supposed to make you want to buy it more.

Seeing a woman with a goiter that made her look like a singing bullfrog.  Very sad, but fortunately the Indonesian people  seem to have good health overall.  And beautiful teeth that you see in their frequent smiles.


Flushing toilet paper down an airplane toilet!  Yay!  That was a special treat that we no longer take for granted.

Watching our ferry leave port at 5 am from the town of Sape after being stuck there for three days.


Nice segue, eh?  For those following along, we last left you stuck in Sape, the ramshackle backwater town that watched trash blow like tumbleweed, but had townsfolk with hearts of gold.  Anyhow, our ferry finally left with a lot of relieved foot passengers and truckers.  We ended up making it to the town of Labuanbajo on the island of Flores where we joined a posse of international, like-minded travelers.  Our common bond was Sape and, well... Sape.  That was enough to bring anyone closer together.  So we ended up hanging out with a couple from Argentina and Italy and their friend from Spain.  And then we met an Irishman and a German guy and a couple from England.  Then most of posse #1 left, leaving the English couple. We met some other folks to fill the absent posse places.  Posse number two consisted of a couple from The Netherlands and Australia.  Then another guy from Holland (doppleganger to Mike DeWindt - for those that know Mike - or maybe Mike is reading along) and an Englishman, a Swede that spoke Australian/British English.  Somewhere in there we had a couple guys from Britain that were actually from France and Poland, respectively.  Real mushpot!

So we had a lot of fun with posse #1.  We got out of Sape for starters.  Have we mentioned Sape?  We got to the island of Flores and got to see the famous Komodo dragon.  We did some bartering with a boat captain and took the three hour boat trip to the nearby island of Rinca which is part of the Komodo National Park.  I say close by and write three hours, which may sound strange, but is actually true.  When your boat goes about 3 knots, a place that takes three hours to get to can actually be close by.  Anyhow, we saw the dragons, which was pretty cool, but it was somewhat akin to what I imagine people experiencing after a trip to Yosemite in the 1950's or 60's.  Instead of bears being fed from the garbage dump, we saw dragons being fed by the ranger kitchen.  Still it was pretty sweet to see these amazing lizards that are 6 feet long.  It would have been even cooler if we didn't find out that everyone else that we talked to got to see the dragons feeding from a dead water buffalo carcass in a river bed while out on the "nature hike" that the rangers lead.  Apparently our ranger didn't think we would find 13 komodo dragons feeding on their kill in the wild very interesting.  Manneshevitz!
Anyhow, the next day we headed out with our posse and after some more dockside bartering got a nicer and faster boat to two cool snorkel spots not far from Flores.  We saw some nice coral and fish and got to try out our new waterproof camera.  It actually takes some pretty decent pictures.
Oh, then we got to dive!  This is when we transitioned into posse #2.  Our dive trip consisted of 2 dives, to two very different spots.  The first one was on the backside of a very small rock island that went straight down into the ocean.  It was a convergence spot of some different currents, which meant that it was an awesome place to see every imaginable type of coral and fish.  This "meeting spot" could also sweep you away out to sea or down to unchartered depths.  Good thing we hung with our expert guides and divemasters, who made the trip very safe (that's right moms and dads, very, very safe...).  Upon entry we saw what they call around here, "color full of fish".  Then we saw some 5 foot white tipped reef sharks, then we saw a huge green turtle hanging onto the rock wall munching some coral.  It was amazing (Kira's favorite dive spot ever!)!  Of course this was all inbetween all the novices kicking eachother as we tried to get our buoyancy figured out.  Dive two, however was just about the best ever.  We went to Manta Point and guess what?  We saw Manta Rays!  Two of them.  This has been a dream of Kira's since she was a little girl, and it is finally realized.  They were a good 3 plus meters across.  And now we are getting kicked out of this internet cafe so this installment comes to an abrupt end.  We love you all and send our best.

onward to Flores, almost. . .

so, we left our sweet situation on Gili Air and set out for the famed and fabled Island of Flores.  They say that it's the journey, not the destination that is the key.  well, i guess it's really true if you don't actually get to the destination! Ah, such is transport in Indonesia.  We took a boat from Gili Air to Lombok.  A shuttle to bus the station in Mataram, where we got to spend about 4 hours.  That was actually the first place that we got to practice our Indonesian (thank you Lonely Planet phrasebook!) as we were instantly surrounded by between 2-5 men for about an hour or so.  Some of them wanted to practice their English, or just listen.  You'd think that English was either the most beautiful, or entertaining language, by how people seem to crowd around us all the time and watch. Maybe it's just Pete's beard they're interested in.  For real.  Anyways, we got on the luxury "A/C, Toilet" bus and were about to begin the long, arduous journey.  ugh.  it was actually fine for the first 9 or so hours, which consisted of 2 hours of riding on the bus, a 2 hour ferry ride, then back on the bus to ride across the Island of Sumbawa for 12 MORE  HOURS.  It was really just the last 4 or so more hours where it felt like we were in a giant washing machine, made for buses. I was, in my half-assleep state, imagining that if it ever snowed heavily on that "road," it could be used as moguls for skiers.  oh, and thanks to Kira's tiny bladder, i got the pleasure of experiencing the "toilet." wow, that was awesome.  I got in just after the bus started to move again after a brief stop.  timing.  i won't go too into detail, i'll just say that i'm glad i have really good balance and only had to pee.
around 5am, we switched onto a smaller bus and a few hours later, ended up in the lovely town of Sape, where we were to board the ferry bound for Flores.  Still half asleep, Pete tells me that the ferry had been cancelled.  I think we were all so tired that we weren't even mad, just tired and incredulous.  Pete and I and a European couple hung around the port or awhile trying to figure out our next step.  Supposedly the ferry would not be running for many days.  and sape is not the travelers' ideal destination that you all thought it was.  we checked into a hotel to sleep for awhile.  it had been awhile since we'd been fully horizontal.  my left foot (2nd bunionectomy) was swollen up to my ankle.  oy.  later, we all talked to some local boat captains about chartering a boat to Flores for much more money than the ferry but at least a smaller boat could make it.  maybe.  Lonely Planet had 2 separate warnings about doing this, stating that the waters around Komodo are, "notoriously treacherous" and "tempestuous." Some of the boats are not "seaworthy."  Well, we really wanted to get to Flores and were assured there were life vests and that the captain spoke English.  I was quite apprehensive the whole time.  But we met them at the dock at 3am (when the waters were calmest), ready to go and then we inspected the life vests.  HA HA.  they looked like a jr. high school kid's home ec. project and the kid got a D on it.  Imagine an orange piece of material in the shape of a vest (good) with broken chunks of styrofoam sewn into some pouches (bad).  you know, if you're on a boat and things get bad enough that you need a life vest, you're gonna want one that's actually going to help save your life!!! we were all in agreement that there was no deal, until the one guy who spoke good English returned with a life preserver ring.  one.  and somehow that was enough to convince the Europeans that the deal was back on!  this was way too much stress to be dealing with on our HONEYMOON!! we gave them some $ to offset the cost of us not going and went back to our hotel, only to find that the hotel owner was sleeping in our room.  we did not blame him; they didn't expect us to return and it had AC!!!! thanks goodness we got it back.  so, we've been hanging out in this town and waiting for the ferry to run again.  supposedly it's going to leave at 4 tomorrow morning.  Yesterday, we enjoyed walking around and taking pictures of the locals, who seem to love it! i think it's totally possible that many of them have never seen themselves on a digital camera.  and of course, they love Pete's beard.  Many goats, chickens and cats with no tails walking around.  Tarps full of seaweed drying in the sun.  Garbage everywhere.  Having no trashcans around really makes you appreciate them.
So Kira has covered most of the bases of our wonderful stay here in Sape, but what a town.  we lucked out with our A.C. room and the fact that we both have books to read and scrabble and lots of good music to listen to (thanks Max!) on our itouch.  i made a sweet come -from-behind victory this morning on my last letter in my hand!  real thriller.  anyhow, our stay here is reminescent of the novel "the plague" by albert camus.  everyone is trying to leave and all kinds of scams and rumors and lies come filtering down to offer hope to those stuck in a quarantined town.  fortunately, we are not quarantined.  if you have ever seen a movie where the protagonist is told, "trust no one, you have no friends..." you get the picture.  we hear all kinds of stories and get varying answers for the same question put to different people.  all in varying degrees of english skills.  fortunately kira is nearly fluent in indonesian.  the other part of our time hear has been enjoying the friendly people here.  they may lie to you, but at least it's with a smile on their face.  just kidding.  we've only gotten bad information from two or three people here.  the rest of the townspeople are very nice and quick to wave and smile at us.  we hear " hallo missus"  or "hallo meesterrr"  quite a lot.  one thing that has been great is that kira and i don't get bored around each other.  what a relief!  because we're planning on spending the rest of our lives together.  it's nice to have some Sape reaffirmation that we really do love each other.
Aww, sweet.

Indonesia

Alright folks, maybe we should actually tell y'all about Indonesia?! We arrived on Bali and were lucky enough to stand in the visa line twice at the airport.  After buying the visas in the desolate, back corner of the room, we again got to read the giant, yellow sign reading, "DEATH PENALTY TO DRUG OFFENDERS!" So we quickly ate all our illicit drugs to avoid beheading.  We have never been higher on acetamenaphin in our lives.  After those moments of intense worry, we made it to the other side and didn't have a pain in our bodies.  We were greeted by a driver (holding a sign with my name on it) from our hotel and led to the van.  He helped load all of our overly heavy bags and then we were ready to get in and drive off to Kuta.  Kira walked over the the passenger side and wondered why the key was in the door.  Just as she was about to give it back to the driver, she realized that the steering wheel was on the that side too.  hee hee. 
Kuta was awesome!  If by "awesome" you mean that you have nowhere to walk and are being constantly passed, hastled and choked out by the scores of moped "transport" drivers.  If you love the sound of a Husquevarna chainsaw, then you would love the sounds of the smog filled streets of Kuta.  Try to shake that head cold and sinus infection in Kuta.  I dare you!  Oh, and Peter woke up the first night in our hotel (the one nice place we did have in Kuta) to find his eye 3/4 swollen shut.  That was weird!  Ole lazy eyed Pete.  Must have been all that acetaminaphine. (Renee and Ryan--we suggest that you avoid Kuta and Legian.)
      It felt great to get out of there! We had a travel day to get to the neighboring island of Lomboc, where we stayed in a place that caused Kira to think, when she woke up in the night, "this will be the grossest, worse place we stay on this whole trip!"  The next day, we took a little boat (which didn't even come close to sinking!) to the little island of Gili Air.  Ahhh, what a pretty, tropical island.  We have a great 2 story bungalow with an open-air hang out space up top, complete with hammocks and cushions everywhere.  (Ali Baba's) The food here is delicious and supposedly the snorkeling and diving are great too but we have yet to find out for ourselves as the water has been quite choppy.  Hopefully, we'll get to check it out tomorrow.  more soon and love to you all!!

Indonesia

Greetings everyone! Welcome to our blog.  We are happy to be writing from the lovely island of Gili Air in Indonesia.  It seems like it took quite a long time to finally get here and like we've already been living out of our bags for awhile.  After spending a wonderful week with the Wamplers in New York, we journeyed down to NYC for New Years, enjoyed a few days with the Stern-Crowley-Gottfrieds and Mica in Philly and then it was about time time leave the USA.  Following some debate by our Manhattan friends about which train would get us to JFK faster, we boarded the A train headed Uptown.  or was it the E train headed downtown?  well, whichever it was, it won the award for being the slowest train because there were a ridiculous amount of stops due to "track work."  Then the shuttle train to the airport seemed impossibly slow.  our pre-planned 3 hour window of time to arrive before our flight dwindled into 1.5 hours and we tried not to freak out.  Luckily, there was no line at the ticket counter and the woman helping us was angelic.  we had just enough time before the flight left for Kira to: try to call her mom with our new i-pod touch (which we refer to as, "i-pood"), which didn't work;  try to use a payphone (we did not bring our cell phones with us), what a joke that was, although I was not laughing; buy one trash magazine when i got change for the stupid kaputt phone (thank goodness for that garbage, which kept me occupied for a whole 45 minutes of the 16 hour flight).   Once on the plane, i tried, unsuccessfully, to borrow my neighbor's cell phone.  She said that her phone was from Singapore, so she didn't think i'd be able to use it.  Mom, i really wanted to call you one last time!  Trying not to get too desperate before we started to hear the flight attendants tell us to sit our butts down, I scanned the passengers for someone who might have an American cell phone.  A very easy task when 95% of the passengers have straight, black hair.  i quickly found a blond and finally got to make the call. 
We landed in Hong Kong 2 movies, 2 Simpsons, 2 Sex in the City's, 2 meals,and too much sitting in those awful chairs later. Got to hang out with two awesome couples who live there that Pete knows ( and now me too).  Really enjoyed our 15 hour layover thanks to Bryce, Nikki, Jesse and Abigail!
We are schwitzing like crazy in this internet cafe and will write all about our Indonesian adventures very soon.