Island hopping...Phuket

Due to some uploading/memory card issues it looks like our blog is taking a turn towards the bit unorganized. So we are starting at Phuket...but are missing our time in: Vientiane, Khon Kaen, Khao Yai National Park, and Bali. Sorry about that, but it is just something that you are just going to have to get over(like how we got over the fact that we were gonna have to use squat toilets every once in awhile).

But anyways, Phuket was the start to our island hopping through Southern Thailand that we decided to wrap up our trip with. This last part of our trip has been quite different from the rest of our travels and pretty much just what we have been looking for. Island life. We have found the beaches of Thailand to be unbelivably beautiful. You take a picture while sitting outside of your bungalow and just sigh to yourself thinking "nobody back at home is going to actually believe that there is such a beach". It is straight out of a postcard.

We started off our time in Phuket with a personal tour from the British owner (with big British flag crocs) of the guesthouse that we were staying at. This was the first time that this has ever happened to us. Our typical guesthouse owner has been a native of the country, and sometimes cares very little and sometimes cares moderately. However Phil was the best owner we had encountered, his rooms were awesome including his great DVD selection and local tour when we first arrived. He showed us where to go for the best Pad Thai in the WORLD for $1.34. Along with chicken feet stew (which Nat unknowingly ordered since its not like these places have menus, you merely point to what looks good) Trust me the stew was awesome. I typically do not like chicken, frankly I find it bland, dry, and gives me a funny taste. This stew was nothing like that, flavor filled and the chicken melted off the bone. Anyways I miss that place. ALOT. IT was our next door daily meal, for all of 4 dollars after Pad Thai for both of us, water and drinks.

Back to main Phuket, Phil showed us the good bar to go to, where it is actaully owned by 2 Americans who were from Redmond, WA (ex-Microsoft.) There we has dinner and a few drinks, and met another American, who may have had a few too many before he came through the door. But non the less he introduces himself, where he is from and come to find out BEFORE I have even said anything about where I am from he grauduted from Bellevue High in '79. We talked for a bit before him and his son, who was throughtly embarassed, left and headed home. We followed suit shortly admist the hollering of women (I think they were women) asking us if we wanted to come into their bar and have a drink with him..oopps...I mean them.

I was convinced by an old friend (thanks Juice/Brandon) that we had to rent a scooter on Phuket, and so we did. It cost a total of 9 dollars for the day, including 2 full tanks of gas. Awesome deal, considering I just got a livingsocial email that offered me the incrediable price of 125 to rent a vespa for 2 hours! HOLY HELL what a deal. God, I am not ready to get back to the US and have to deal with expensive stuff. Well the scooter ride was awesome, Natalie loved it I think more than I did, she even drove it for about 20 meters. So please mock me all you want, I never thought I would ride anything with 2 wheels and a motor but man is it fun!! We rode it up to the biggest Budda statue in the world appopriately named (Big Budda) and its freaking huge. On the way, we got caught in a ridicous downpour, but made it up with sunny weather. Then following we went to a small beach and layed out, for a few hours and rode back.

Big Buddha (obviously)

View of Kata/Karon beach from Big Buddha

I hate this picture, I look like a dorky 10 year old on his big sisters scooter.

The next day we went to Patong, which is simialar to the red light district in Amersterdam but not as intense. They are adversiting for "ping pong shows" and I will leave that up to your imagination and a google search engine to answer what those are exactly. WARNING: I bear NO responsibility to what the search may bring up. K you have been warned, search away I will wait..... K done? Yah. gross. We skipped that and opted to people watch with a couple beers in hand. "Ladies" like these hover in the middle of the main street, adversitising for shows and other exciting events. Patong is pretty neat if you are shopping or looking for good food and some overpriced hotels. Otherwise its fine for a night, but that's enough. Nata even braved a picture, something I was NOT willing to have on the internet.

Come on Evan you know you wanna take them home.

"Time for Sexy Pose... Sexy Sexy".

Kata Noi beach, just as the sun was going down.

We then hopped on the boat to Phi Phi the next day and were off. Phuket I will miss you, we could have spent another week here but had more adventures to attend to... Stay tuned Phi Phi is up next. OH AND COMMENT PEOPLE I AM LIKE A BUM PLEADING for change. I DONT WRITE THIS FOR NOTHING. GIve us a LITTLE love!!

Chris and Nat

Buses, Buses are no fun...Buses, buses hurt someone

So its my turn to write my favorite topic; bitching and ranting. So boys and girls lets begin…

4:00am BEEP BEEP BEEP (you know the horrid alarm clock noise?) We get up to leave the relaxed and totally awesome city of Luang Parbang, the day before we stoped by a travel agency to buy “ VIP bus tickets” which were about 2 dollars more than the delapadated “local bus” Now as many of you may or may not know I am a huge advocate for public transportantion and I will talk your ear off on how its better for cities and makes them grow, prosper bla bla bla.. anyways this is NOT like a metro bus. We arrive at the bus station via Tuk Tuk

We are pointed to our VIP coach, which on first glance appears to be a huge double decker bus, we get our “final tickets” (because the tickets we had before were our first tickets even though they looked exactly the same). SIDE NOTE: ASIA IS TERRIBLY INFFECIENT nothing makes a whole lotta sense. Which bothered me at first but now after some ZEN buddist training I have learned to roll with it.. kind of. K back to the bus, we hop on to make sure we are in our proper seats and some Laotian has not layed across them and acted dead in an effort not to move (seen it). So we are seated in what appears to me to be a glorified 1985 CEO executive chairs with HUGE arm rests. This 1973 Chinese POS bus was not my idea of VIP, however, I looked over to see an oddly painted “local bus” that looked like a school bus, and by looked like I mean it was exactly that, a really really bad looking school bus, tiny seats that give no back support, bad paint, and a million people trying to strap bags onto the top in a very unsafe manner. Well thank god we did not cheap out and take that bus which also needs to be noted takes 10 hours to cover the exact same distance it takes our bus to cover in 7 hours…. Well back to our chinese “VIP bus” which was all white but about 10 Laotians, we get under way….

We start out going through the mountains which was horrendous. I start to feel a tad car sick as you can't see out the front window and the roads just wind and wind. My stomach was being wound like a jack in the box ready to pop out all over the German with the horrible haircut in front of me (remember him for later in this blog). However, being tired took over and I fell asleep in a very uncomfortable position only to be awakened by “BALLAHHGHHHH BALLLLGLAHAGALA BAAAAAAAAAAALLLLGLGGGGALL” Aww the little Laotian man can't handle a bus flying around corners that if we went off would kill us all, how cute. God, I thought my father made the worst puking noise, nope wrong again (which seems to be theme for me here, sorry Chris you're wrong again) yah this guy may have been dying. Oh and what does the bus attempt to do with the puke bag? Well of course he just opens the back door and tosses it into the jungle. Christ, that was bad. Until lunch came around... Nat and me have been every good at avoiding a few things, motorbikes, squat toilets and monkey brains. Lunch included only one of the above list. I was NOT feeling too hot, my lower intestine was ready to burst all over the German man in front of me. Lunch was served Bellevue high lunch room status, except Asian style. Gross. Not only was I supposed to poo/ mud butt in a hole in the ground, which is VERY HARD for me with no toilet paper "butt” afterward I am supposed to eat mystery meat and white rice. I opted for 2 bites and to wait for Vientiane. Long story long we made it there and I am sure Natalie will write a very nice and pleasant blog about how the rest of Laos was and I will follow up with something angry and slightly funny.

Love from Phuket,

Chris and Nat

I love you Luang Prabang

Ahh Luang Prabang. How quickly you took my heart with your small town charm, amazing food and beautiful landscape. Our first step off the plane and into this city had to be some kind of indication of what our time in this city would feel like. After having my hand squeezed harder than ever before (Chris was just a tiny bit afraid of flying on a propeller plane) we walked off the plane to the smallest airport I have ever been to at around 8:30 pm and strolled through customs to find our driver holding up the "chris swan" sign that we know so well (apparently Swanson is just too long a name to write over here) and hopped into our air conditioned mini van to be taken to the Lao Wooden house, our home for the next 6 days.

One of the very first things that we were able to notice in Luang Prabang. NO incessant honking of horns/whirring of motorbikes. The silence was music to my ears. Well, I shouldn't say silence as the honking was replaced by the crowing of the resident rooster. He would literally walk up and down the street stopping at each guesthouse to crow, let everyone know it was time to get up, and then move along to his next stop (he was a little off on his timing however, as he would "wake up" the neighborhood ALL day long).

One of the nice things about Luang Prabang was that it was small enough where we could take our own walking tour around the city to visit some of the local temples and markets. As all other places we have been in southeast Asia, temples, stores, restaurants (basically any business) opens and closes as they please so a few stops on our tour were missed simply because the monks were out to lunch or the market just wasn't there for the day for whatever reason. We did find a hidden temple, Wat Xieng Muan, that got Chris and I in a little "discussion" over where we both thought it would be. We were both hot and dehydrated (a common theme over here) and about to call it a lost cause until we decided to take a look/walk down a small back alley to discover this gem of a temple. My favorite part was the small buddha garden and the fact that we were the only ones there except for one other girl. Sometimes it seems that the best places we have been, or that I have enjoyed the most have not been the most famous but the less visited. It makes for a feeling of an individual experience of being a traveler and not just a tourist.

Wat Xieng Muan

We also visited Wat Xieng Thong which is one of the bigger temples in the town and of course intricately beautiful. It was also our first temple that we visited with massive dragon-snake looking statues in and around the temple (a little freaky staring those things straight on).

Wat Xieng Thong

We ended our walking tour climbing up to Mt. Phousi, which is a hilltop viewpoint in Luang Prabang that overlooks the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Saving it for last was a good call since we were able to sit atop the hill and watch the sunset while feeling victorious for actually completing a full walking tour (we usually end up only getting halfway through).

Two other major highlights of our time in Laos was a trip the the Kwang Si waterfall and Asiatic bear rescue center and our day long cooking class.

First, the Kwang Si waterfall and asiatic bear rescue center...AMAZING. Any place that has waterfalls and secret swimming pools among jungle trails I am completely ready for. After our hour long, bumpy tuk tuk ride up to Kwang Si and days of hot, humid weather the pools were absolutely refreshing and rejuvenating. We had heard that there was a "hidden" pool up at the top of the trails and spent a good hour or so trekking around trying to find it and low and behold...Chris came through to find the way to the hidden pool. Needless to say we spent the rest of the day there swimming and lounging. At the bottom of these pools is the bear rescue center that houses about a dozen bears that have been rescued from poachers and traffickers. The bears were quite active when we there, swinging in their hammocks, climbing up trees and standing on hind legs sniffing for their meat and rice...lots of rice...dinner. We of course spent tons of time sitting, watching, and maybe a little bit of talking to the bears. :)

Chris showing off his matrix moves

Finally, the cooking class...sorry, I know this is getting long I will try and keep it short (especially for Daniela). Chris and I are now bonafide Laotian cooks. yup that's right. I can cook up a mean Feu Khua...or what is that you say? you don't feel like chicken, noodles and veggies? Then how about some Khua Maak Kheua Gap Moo? mm mmm...who doesn't love some fried eggplant with pork. Seriously though, Laotian food is my number 1 so far in our travels around SE asia and this cooking class made me love it even more since I actually succeeded in cooking it up (I only messed up once when I tried to cook the chicken salad). Here are some pics of our nom nom worthy 5 course meal.

Luang Prabang salad and Feu Khua

Nom nom dinner. As you can tell I am very proud of our Laotian cooking skills, but if anyone knows of my cooking skills in the states you would understand.

That's it for now. Sorry we have been slacking but don't worry, Chris says he is feeling a rant blog entry coming on. And also, we are in Phuket, Thailand right now. Got here yesterday after a great week in Bali. Blog entry about our time there also coming soon to your computer screen.

Lots of love,

Nat and Chris

Where in the World are Chris and Natalie?

Sa wat dee!!

We have moved out of Laos and into Thailand by...let's see...bus, train and ferry. It has been awhile so I wanted to quickly jump on a computer and update everyone on where we are now and where we are headed, as there have been a few changes.

Sadly, we are no longer traveling to Cambodia, however, we have happily added Bali, Indonesia of places to be/see :) thanks to Papa and Mama K for graciously giving us some time share points to live it up and rest it up at Jimbaran Bay which is on the southern peninsula of Bali. But we can tell you more about it when we are actually there...

Anyways...because of this change in itinerary we had to figure out how to make our way to Bangkok for our flight to Bali, fairly quickly and inexpensively. I will leave the ranting of our interesting transportation to Chris (as he rants so beautifully). Anyways, we decided that the best course of action would be to take a bus from Vientiane, Laos and cross the border to land in Khon kaen, Thailand. (this will be another rant for Chris as Khon kaen was not the greatest place to say the least) After a night there, we took yet another bus that was headed to Bangkok but dropped us off on the side of the street next to the Khao Yai factory mall (who knew right?) to be picked up by a tuk tuk and taken to the greenleaf guesthouse in Pak Chong which would serve as our home for the next 3 days while we took a tour or more what felt like a wildlife safari at Khao Yai National Park during that time. Lastly, we woke up this morning to be taken by tuk tuk to the train station where we took the 3rd class train (where i sat to arguably the cutest thai baby I have ever seen) to our final destination (so far)...Ayuthaya. ahhhh **that whole "update" made my lil fingers tired and not to mention my head reliving all of it. But there you have it...where in the world are Chris and Natalie??...Ayuthaya, Thailand.

We are missing quite a few posts (all of our time in Laos) so we will update what we did and saw there as soon as we can, but you can check pictures out from Luang Prabang, Laos on our photobucket to whet your natalie/chris blog appetite if you would like:

Click here for Luang Prabang pics:

http://s393.photobucket.com/albums/pp19/ouremail343/Luang%20Prabang-%20Laos/

Sapa pics

Currently in Vientienne, Laos and finally staying at a guesthouse with working USB ports...yeaa! Here are a few pics to go along with the previous blurb about our time in Sapa :)

Nat the GIANT starting out with our Black Hmong Crew. (Pi pi is the girl to the left)

Beautiful Sapa

Our guide, Pi Pi, lived in the cluster of 3 houses across the way with her husband and his family

Showing off our Sapa pillowcase

It's Pi Pi!

This is all we've got for now...If you are looking for some more sapa pics (we have a pretty impressive water buffalo poo in there somewhere) feel free to take a gander at the pictures on our photobucket.

Sapa!

Hello Family, friends, and randoms

***this post comes with a preface letting you all know that there are no visual treats (pictures) to go along with the writing as it seems that all the internet cafes in Luang Prabang don't allow people to insert USB cables/USB ports don't work. Sorry about this...we will upload more pics as soon as we can! :)

Today I am pleased to present you with a wrap up of Vietnam and hopefully if my stomach and wallet allow me to stay at this internet cafe, an intro to Laos. Ready? OKAY! (god that's the dumbest thing I have said in a while)

So upon our spontaneity we decided to head up to Sapa, which we had heard was amazing and well worth the trek. Our train left at 9pm. We had a shared cabin with a very nice Vietnamese man and his plump little son (no, i don't care if you're offended) and exchanged about 25 smiles and 3 words then went to sleep, as did Natalie and I. Now your asking, "Chris, I thought you said these trains were bad?" Oh, they might have LG screens in every compartment playing propaganda videos but the track lines that these things run on are something else. Wow. You know in Star Wars when the millenium falcon is getting messed up by the Star Destroyer? That's what the train was like. I felt lucky to make the 8 hour trip. We arrived in SAPA, feeling car sick, sleep deprived but happy... It was one of those I am so tired everything is funny mornings, we ate breakfast among totally silent Europeans. Nat and I laughed non stop about her burned leg and other things that were going wrong (e.g., bugs on the floor, the fact I "forgot" to bring any clothes and Nat complaining about how heavy the backpack was). Oh yes, I forgot to mention the mob scene of 4 foot tall locals (no joke) who completely come on you like a you're a rock star.

Fast forward a few hours, and we are with our guide PiPi pronouced Pee as in "I peed in your pool". Natalie and I, being the lazy bums we are, elected for 13Km hike which I had imagined to be only on roads and paths. Yet again I am wrong. Very wrong. We hiked through the steepest terrain I had ever been on, an Army grade hummer could not have gotten up or down this. On we went down this amazing valley in the clouds, with tiny huts, rice paddies and corn fields. Pee err i mean Pipi and her guide friends who were all tiny offered to support us as we walked down. these women had the most amazing balance that I have ever seen, but in my head I am thinking "that's cute you want to help me, but i weigh over 60 pounds more than you and if I fall your coming down with me." Low and behold guess who falls forward directly into Pipi?... me. and you know who holds me up and pushes me back up with virtually no effort?... Pipi. One 4 foot tiny villager completely supported my falling body weight. I was impressed to say the least. Our day was followed by a picnic lunch and trekking through 2 villages (one being a Black Hmong village where our guide lived), then off to the hotel we went to sleep, and sleep some more.

The next day was a much easier hike as we moved along to see two more villages and went shopping in the local market. Our time in Sapa was amazing to say the least possibly the most scenic place/landscape we have ever been in the world.

the train ride back was much of the same, and due to my illness (mud butt) I need to get out of this internet cafe. We made it safely back to Hanoi and will have a great Luang Prabang post for you coming up shortly!

ALl our love

Chris and Nat

Halong Bay

So this is a tad late... WELL BACK OFF. We have been busy; getting stuck in whirpools, harassed by tribal women, and on trains that are similar to ones one would imagine in the U.S.S.R, "in Soviet Ruzzzia you don't ride train, train rides you." K now that I have the worst things out of the way lets talk about the amazingness that was Halong bay.

Okay, I may have been lying about the worst things, there was one thing that took the cake. As we started out at 6:00am on June 10th, we opted to take the private car to the Hydrofoil, which by the way, no one here seems to have ever heard of FALSE ADVERSTING, the picture of this hydrofoil is on some sort of ski system that makes you glide seamlessly above the water, the boats looking nice and new with comfy seats. WRONG. Finally after waiting for a good 20 min past the scheduled boarding time (SIDE NOTE: Vietnam operates on a, "when we feel like it calander", time means nothing) we get on this dilapidated and pardon my French... PIECE OF SHIT. Good god. I thought this thing was gonna sink... on the dock. Natalie was already nervous so I had to put on the, its gonna be fine; I have seen way worse; and no of course this won't sink; face. Oh, and the seat I had been assigned did not exsist so I took some Vietnamese girls seat who yelled at the ticket taker that her and her cute little Hello Kitty friends did not get to sit side by side each other(or at least they thought they wanted to....) finally ol' nessy fired up in the black smoke plume and we were off. I prayed to the Hydrofoil gods: "please let us be close enough to land so I can carry my camera and passports above my head when this thing sinks."

K this story is getting too long, anyways to make this short. HUGE swells coming above the windows, Vietnamese girl (Hello Kitty girls) puking directly next to me, and Vietnamese people think its good to ENCOURAGE the driver to go FASTER over the massive swells. It was WORSE than being in a boat, or any vehicle for that matter, with AJ Pujalet behind the wheel. (just kidding AJ but only about the other vehicles part)

Well... We lived and the boat somehow stayed afloat, we were greeted by our tour oporator who informed us the boat was 2 hours late. Somehow a 45 min boat ride had turned into 2 hours and 45 min!! JEZUS this cruise we booked better be the best thing in the world... Good news; it was.

After arriving on Cat Ba island, which is a very cute, quaint island we were whisked away on motorbikes, which we had tactfully avoided riding on up until that moment. We arrived on our little Junk( name for aChinese boat). The 3 man crew instantly liked us considering we brought a 24 pack of beer on board and told them via hand motions they could have some beers too. The boat was considerably smaller than most others on the sea and thus we were able to get much closer to mountains of limestone and into smaller hard-to-fit spaces. We began the first day by visiting our captains fish farm which had some of the most delicous sea food I have ever had in my life. Lunch was served, ALL food which we watched them pull out of the water live and cook, then serve to us in a matter of 30 min. AMAZING FOOD. I am not good at describing food so how about a few pictures. This is a few meals we had while on Halong Bay. Probably the best food we have had while in Vietnam.

Yummy

We then Kayaked with our private guide, which did I mention this boat was just for Natalie and me? No one else to bother us or force conversation with, man that was nice. We were the only boat we could find on Halong bay like this and I booked this trip almost 6 months in advance. Back to the Kayaking, which is not our strong point in the relationship... we arrived to a secluded beach where we swam in water that was about 80-85 Degrees Farenhiet. Just like bath water.

Returning back to the boat we cotinued around to another kayaking spot. You know when you see little huts on a beach with a couple lawn chairs and an outdoor lounge, with no roads, white sand beach, and a huge limestone cliff behind it? No? You have never seen anything like that then please refer below for paradise.

Yah and at 45 dollars a night I would have stayed there for as long as my bank account let me. Alas, this was just a teaser. We swam around, snapped a couple pics and were back to the boat for dinner. Fast forward next day.

Wake up. On to touristy caves which if not filled with Hello Kitty girls would have been sweet but our guide was good and always seemed to know when less people would be at certain places. Please see pics below for cool limestone underground caves

The highlight of the trip...

We began by kayaking under an enormous mountain, see picture, to came out in a lagoon with that being the only way in or out. Our guide sprints ahead in his Kayak and starts making the weridest noises, at first I thought he may have been dying considering he chain smoked about 2 packs of cigs a day. And low and behold, out of a green belt comes a family of howling and swinging monkeys! There was around 20 and we got some great pictures of them going up a sheer rock face while all the while talking back to our guide. No food or payment required just some good ol fasion monkey calls. God it was incredible. Never have I seen anything like that in the wild. As always, please see the pics below for awesomeness.

**to see monkeys zoom in and look to right side of mountain

I hope all of you were watching the world cup on the 11th, opening day. and you are now thinking to yourself, wow sucks chris you missed it. NO. I did get to to watch the world cup. We were invited by the captians family to watch on his tiny 2 room house boat with 15 other vietnamese men who spoke zero English, huddled around a 20 inch TV. The offered us tea and cigatress, we both just stuck with the strongest green tea of our lives, which our guide informed us is "stay awake" tea (or sober up tea) considering it was around 11pm. Yup I stayed awake for the game and crashed so hard I hardly kept my eyes open for the 1st half of the France game.

Sadly the next day we had to head home, but not before our final kayak adventure, and boy was this one super duper fun. Not only was the tide rising but we were entering yet another lagoon that had only one way in our out. Our guide had informed us that a few times previous, tours had gotten stuck in there and were forced to stay the night. Not my idea of fun. We saw a few ENORMOUS Jelly fish that were around 4-5 feet long and about 1 foot wide and got the heck out of there. Since we had to kayak through a long underwater cave, our guide told us to stick to the right of the cave and when he meant right, he meant HUG the wall. This cave was where two currents met creating a nasty pull to the Dark scary corner of the cave where you were sure you were going to get to get eaten by "some big scary sea monster"-Natalie. We did get pulled over there, and as I was incharge of steering while Natalie thought she would for the first time take care of that. It was like watching a Looney tunes skit. Im going forward, she is going back, finally we got back to the enterance where our guide and I switched spots, Nat was banned from paddling and I took the single kayak and we got through the cave. This will make me think twice next time my mother suggests a fun family kayak trip through the mercer slough, you never know where those sea monters might lurk.

Well we made it back to Cat Ba island alive. But Natalie was not content coming back unharmmed. We took motorbikes back from the dock, Nat gets off on the right side and her leg introduces itself to the exaust pipe creating this fun little number. Don't worry, Nat plans to make a blog chronicling her "3rd degree burn" which is more like a 1st Degree.

We took another hydrofoil back, horrible to say the least. I did find it funny there was a first aid kit... THAT WAS EMPTY. We got off on some industrial dock, and hopped in the car waiting for us and waited... and waited... and waited... for about 1.5 hours. Turns out one of the cities we had to pass through had flooded horribly. Because only 1 car could pass through at a time we arrived back in Hanoi (at our little home hotel) 2 hours late. Bah man that made me tired just writing about all that. Stay tuned, SAPA is up next and coming to your computer screen in just a few hours.

All our Love,

Chris (author) and Nat (editor)