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America, f*#@ yeah!
We somehow managed to surprise most of our friends and family (damn you Ian!) with our early return home that we had secretly been planning for months. Unfortunately, we didn’t count on the airport being taken over by anti-government protesters for an entire week, stranding somewhere around 300,000 people in Bangkok. What was initially a very frustrating situation for us (our flight from Bangkok to Seattle was canceled and we had already booked a flight from Seattle to Baltimore 3 days later) turned out to be a great end to our vacation. The Thai government was crediting stranded tourists $60/person/day to stay in participating hotels in Bangkok so we were able to stay in an incredible 5 star hotel and enjoyed 3 free buffet meals every day. Kelly had just worked out in the hotel fitness room and was sitting by the pool on the 26th floor when the airline called to say we could leave on a flight departing from a military airport the next morning. We were incredibly lucky to only be stuck in Bangkok for about 30 hours beyond our original departure time. We know someone who was stranded for 2 weeks. We were unlucky to have to hire a taxi to drive us the 150km or so to the military airport and more unlucky that the taxi driver got insanely lost on the way there, stopping for directions whenever he saw anyone on the side of the road (which was not so frequent at 3am). In true Thai fashion, NO ONE knew where to go. Finally a bus driver pointed us in the right direction and we were the first flight to leave the airport that morning.
We were happy to have a longer-than-originally-planned layover in Seoul and were able to spend the night in the city and do some sightseeing the next day. Then on to Seattle for one night before catching our already scheduled flight to Baltimore. After two solid days of travel and lack of sleep, we couldn’t bear to stick to our original plan of apartment hunting, and instead went out for pizza and belgian beer with friends we had met in Thailand.
So now we’re in MD for about a month before moving to Seattle. Hope to see everyone soon! Final Thailand and Korea pics are up now too.
Cambodia pics are up
The honeymoon is over
We had a ton of fun exploring Koh Phi Phi and Railay with Hannah and Pat; kayaking, cave exploring, cliff jumping, snorkeling, swimming, and eating tons and tons of curry. We found our favorite restaurant on Koh Phi Phi where the food was cheap and excellent, the meat was chopped right next to the swampy bathroom, and the owner’s cats took turns chilling in the bottom of the refridgerator next to the produce. Quality. We eventually had to say goodbye to Hannah and Pat, but we’ll continue to explore southern Thailand on our own until our visas expire. New pics are posted!
Laos
To quote a fellow traveler, Laos keeps surprising us. Laos is home to European style cities like Luang Prabang where wine bars and baguettes dominate the streets. Not far away are towns like Vang Vieng that are almost entirely made up of partying tourists attracted by the extreme tubing, or chilling in one of the many restaurants that shows reruns of Friends or Family Guy on endless loops. Tubing down the river only takes one hour if you don’t stop anywhere, but with bars lining almost every foot of river edge, each providing free shots of Laolao (the nastiest liquor known to man) and terrifyingly high rope swings (more like trapezes) and zip lines, we had to rush to make it back in 6 hours. Regretfully, we didn’t bring the camera on the tubing trip, figuring the risk of losing or ruining our camera was too high.
It’s also very easy to find more “rustic” surroundings. We took a two day boat ride down the Mekong and spent our first night in Pakbeng, a town with no electricity but plenty of restaurants and guest houses operating on generators until nighttime. Our boat stopped along the river at one point and dozens of huge bags of rice were loaded into the aisle of the boat, bags full of coconuts onto the roof, and even a bag full (yes, a bag full) of baby pigs kept up front. We spent some time in Na Hin, a remote town on a road leading to Vietnam. We were horrified to see several huge truckloads every day carrying hundreds of dogs in tiny cramped cages in the direction of Vietnam, presumably to end up as someone’s dinner. We also drove a motorbike from Na Hin to a river that flows through a 7km long cave. Two men from the nearby village zoomed through the cave in a small canoe like boat powered by an adapted lawnmower engine.
And we continue to be surprised. The other day we rented a motorbike again to explore some of the caves outside the town of Tha Khaek. We were having a difficult time finding one of the caves that we thought was a 400 meter walk off the side of the road. A young boy came over and told us that we needed to take a motorboat up the nearby river in order to see the cave. After we were unable to find any trail, we agreed to pay the requested $1 for the boat ride. We followed the boy to the river and assumed that he was taking us to an adult who would be driving the boat. We were surprised when another boy paddled a small boat over to us. Apparently we had hired two eight-year olds to transport us in a “motorboat” that was actually powered by their pretty ineffective paddling. Neither boy spoke much English (beyond saying motorboat) but they kept us entertained by catching a nasty huge beetle which also distracted them even more from their paddling. By the time we returned from the cave, the boys were busy pushing each other in the water while John ended up paddling 
Overall, Laos is probably the most beautiful country that we have visited so far. Our pictures won’t do it justice, particularly since many of them are taken from the back of a moving motorbike. New pics are being uploaded slowly but surely. Now it’s back to Thailand to meet up with our favorite honeymooners (and our prom dates), Hannah and Pat!
Ladyboys
Despite the current political unrest, we are having an amazing stay in Thailand. Our love of Thailand is no doubt largely due to the small price tag attached to most everything in this country (particularly compared to Australia), but our positive experience is enhanced by the friendly Thai people, the incredible architecture, the country’s natural beauty, and the plethora of tasty cheap eats. Here’s a few of our most interesting experiences so far…
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We took a sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The second class sleepers were plenty comfortable for us and we had a decent night’s sleep. However, we were pretty surprised when we used the train’s bathroom that morning. We could see through the toilet straight down to the train tracks passing below us. Then we started to notice all of the toilet paper on the tracks. That’s right, we had been going to the bathroom right on the tracks.
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Sticking with the toilet theme, while only some of the public restrooms have toilet paper, most are adorned with a spray hose next to the toilet, kind of like the spray hoses you may find with a kitchen sink. When in Rome…
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We both decided that after about 5 months of travel, it was time for some new underwear. However, finding underwear of an acceptable size was an incredible challenge, particularly for John. Did we mention that Thai people are freakin’ TINY. After about 3 days of searching, we finally found an XXXL pair of supposed Calvin Klein’s at a stand on the side of the street in Bangkok.
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We rented a small motorbike in Chiang Mai for a couple days and drove into the mountains to see some sights and escape the city for a bit. It’s incredibly terrifying to ride through town on a bike when there doesn’t appear to be any traffic laws. Lanes are merely suggestions for where you may position your vehicle, cars, tuk tuks, and bikes weave at will among the traffic, and there are no speed limits posted (not that it would have mattered because our bike’s speedometer didn’t work). It’s incredible to see a family of 5 Thai people seated comfortably on a bike together, none of them wearing a helmet. We even heard a story of a woman driving a motorbike and eating noodles.
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We stopped at a small “restaurant” by a crafts market for a tasty $3 lunch. We were offered Halls cough drops as after meal mints
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There’s no shortage of places to get a massage. The roads are literally lined with massage parlors, their staff beckoning you as you walk by. However, we found it impossible to resist the thai massages provided by convicts at the women’s prison in Chiang Mai. Actually, the massages occur across the street from the actual prison, but the masseuses are prisoners and the receptionist is a prison guard. The amount of pain these tiny Thai women can inflict while contorting your body and digging into pressure points is truly amazing.
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Some Thailand pics are up now too.
New pics, new number
We arrived in Bangkok on the 21st. This place is absolutely crazy in a wonderful way. You can go to a market and buy an alligator, bunny, snake, squirrel, chicken, every type of clothing, shoes, food, antiques, jewelry, custom made furniture, linens, basically anything you can think of, all in the same sprawling place. The malls are 7 levels and have amazing food. Bangkok kind of makes New York city feel quaint. Plus, our nice hotel room costs half what we were paying for 2 dorm beds in Brisbane. Yet again, we have another phone number. From the US, dial 011 668 2335 9390.
Also, all of the Australia pics are up now!
Are You For SCUBA?
We finally made it far enough north where we are able to camp without freezing overnight! Probably the highlight of Australia, thus far, has been our stay on Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island as the locals like to call it. It’s in the tropics and palm trees are abundant, but the rocky island is still reminiscent of the Maine coast. We took a 4 day open water SCUBA course based at one of the hostels on the island. Besides having to listen to the DJ at the hostel play the exact same songs every single night, it was pretty much good times. We had a great instructor, a very small class (only 3 peeps) and 6 open water dives were included in our course. We moved on to camp at a Koala sanctuary on the island where we were able to hold a crocodile, a cockatoo, an echidna, some lizards, a huge python, snuggle a Koala, and feed about 200 ravenous lorikeets. A bird pooped on Kelly’s face (3rd time that’s happened) and John had his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th being shat on experiences all right in a row. We then headed even farther north and took the river ferry to the more remote areas of Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation where we tasted some exotic fruits on a local organic farm.
New pics are now posted!
How to Speak Australian
Australian>>>Amurican translation
Holiday = Vacation
Jumper = Sweater
Trekking = Hiking
Chemist = Pharmacy
Rubbish = Trash
Overtake = Pass
Give Way = Yield
Tomato Sauce = Ketchup (learned the hard way)
Coffee = Espresso Drinks (also learned the hard way)
Blank Stare = Reaction to Asking For Regular Coffee
Brekky = Breakfast
Bacon = Cross Between Canadian and American Bacon
Burger = ANYTHING on a bun, aka, a sandwich
Chips = Fries
Crisps = Chips
Tasty = Sharp (as in Cheddar)
Coon = Cheese Brand
Goon = Cheap Boxed Wine
Biscuit = Cookie
Jug = Pitcher
Stubbie = Short Bottle of Beer
Pot and Schooner = Small and Medium Draft Beers
Bottle Shop = Liquor Store
Victoria Bitter, Tooheys, and XXXX = Budweiser, Miller, and Coors
Corona = Exotic Import
Backpacker = Drunk 18 Year Old German Tourist
Footy = Soccer
Snogging = Making Out (FYI, there’s no snogging allowed in the pool)
Kangaroo = Deer ( = Roadkill)
Not Accepted = American Express
Left = Right
G’Day Mate
Our last week in Fiji was spent hopping around the Yasawa Island chain, land of the 18 year old English backpacker. These islands are what you see in ads selling Fiji as a great tourist destination, beautiful blue and green water, tiny islands with tiny villages, coral reefs galore. They are also some of the more expensive places to visit since resorts are your only option and most include an overpriced compulsory meal plan. We’re still trying to figure out how these kids are traveling on these very expensive package tours through Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. There are a ton of activities available and we took advantage of some great snorkeling with friendly reef sharks, squid, and giant clams, line fishing (we both caught barracuda), and cave exploration. John even got to “jam” with the locals at one resort after he had tuned all of their guitars for them. The resorts all provide nightly entertainment and usually all of the staff knows how to sing or play guitar. They ALL sing the same farewell song though, and after hearing it every day for a week, we were not sad to leave that song behind us. Actually, we probably only heard about 20 different songs the entire time we were in Fiji. We think there is one CD that everyone in Fiji owns and it’s played at all of the resorts, on public transportation, on the radio stations, etc. The radio also overplays a small selection of truly terrible pop music. John would usually have to “cleanse” his ears with his iPod after any public outing.
We have since moved on to the land of Oz. We met up with some friends in Brisbane (Shosh from St. Mary’s and David who we had met in Fiji) and took a couple days to get over the shockingly high prices in Australia. For realz, cheap nasty beer costs $5-7 each at a bar and about $14 for a 6 pack in a bottle shop, gas is about $6/gallon, crappy dorm beds about $30, and the Lonely Planet guide for Thailand costs $50! Luckily, there are many used book stores around but we’re refraining from beer these days and trying hard to get north where it’s warm enough to camp. We have always imagined that winter in Australia was kind of mild (more of a “relative” coldness) but it’s been dang nippy since we arrived getting down into the 40s at night. It even snowed in Sydney a couple days ago. Our wildlife spotting has been pretty limited so far…one live kangaroo on the side of the road, about 15 dead ones. It doesn’t look like they’re too good at crossing the road. We’ve also discovered that free wireless internet in Australia is something that only exists in our imagination so we’ve been forced to actually (gasp) pay for internet access to upload our pics. So here ya go, the rest of our Fiji pics are now posted.
We have a local phone number now also. If you want to call us from the US, dial 011 617 0405 639 558. From Australia, it’s just 0405 639 558 (city code 07).
Taveuni
Another rough day at Beach House included our massages, where we got seriously worked over by two beefy Fijian women. It was the shit. Pretty sure John got the “stronger” of the two. Ian you may commence jealous mutterings. The women gossiped during the whole massage. This would have been annoying as shit if they were speaking “Amurican” but they spoke Fijian which sounds very melodious, calm and soothing. Late in the afternoon we went on a snorkeling trip out to the edge of the reef. Saw some pretty cool new stuff including soft coral, sea anemones, clown fish, and sea snakes. The sea snakes are supposedly the most poisonous snakes on earth but are very docile so you don’t have worry about them.
The next morning we caught the bus to Suva, the capital and largest city in the South Pacific. We had some trouble getting money from the ATMs there but crisis averted, we boarded a ferry bound for the island of Taveuni. The ferry was supposed to take about 14 hours overnight with a stop in Savusavu. Instead, including a 2 1/2 hour departure delay, we spent 22 hours on the boat. That’s Fiji time for ya. While aboard we were treated to bad action movies and an endless loop of cheesy Lucky Dube (R.I.P.) videos. The economy class was unairconditioned and a bit oderific but we managed to sleep a little bit. Mysteriously, the outside of Kelly’s checked backpack, along with half of her belongings housed inside of it, picked up the strong scent of mothballs. Yummy. Needless to say we were eagerly awaiting the return voyage. Altogether we spent just over 31 hours traveling from Beach House to our accommodations in Taveuni.
Taveuni is the fourth largest island in Fiji, and lies just east of Vanua Levu. It actually has a lot of strange similarities to Kauai in Hawaii. Both are the fourth largest islands in their respective chains. Both are known as the “Garden island.” Both lack mongoose and as a result have an abundance of wild roosters (although Kauai easily wins the prize in that department). Both are known for their abundant rainfall, and both have one road that goes most of the way around the island before being blocked by impenetrable sea cliffs and rainforest. Interestingly, during the 2 1/2 weeks we spent on Kauai it rained exactly once, while it has rained everyday (and night) of our stay here. Oh yeah, both are known for their red dirt too.
Our first destination on Taveuni was the small village of Lavena, which lies in the middle of the eastern coast at the very end of the road. The bus ride from the town of Naqara near the ferry landing took over 2 hours. Most of the route down the eastern coast of Taveuni is unpaved and there are a couple of spots where streams wash over the road. The bus was packed with local Fijians returning to their villages for the day (this was the 3rd and final bus running for the day). When we arrived in Lavena at 6:30 pm it was already dark. The island of Taveuni actually straddles the 180th meridian and although the International Date Line curves around so that all of Fiji has the same time, it gets dark early here. Plus this is the dead of winter after all ;) Upon arrival we checked in as the only guests of the Lavena Lodge, located about 30 feet from where the bus parked for the night at the end of the road. This lodge was a bit of a dump, kind of your typical accommodations in a Fijian village and quite a contrast to the sweet digs at Beach House. However, it’s literally the only place to stay in Lavena and to do a day trip from the main resort area involves a $60 cab ride. It’s a good chance to experience village life though.
The next day we hiked a trail along the coast and then up through lush jungle along a river, finally swimming to the end of the “trail” where two waterfalls meet in a deep lava pool with high walls covered in ferns. The hike back was at low tide so we walked out onto the tidal flats and observed the abundant life in the tide pools. We hung out in the common area of the lodge that night and John played his ukulele with some of the locals. We tried to buy some vegetables from the only store in the village to supplement the noodles we’ve been surviving off of, but this place is pretty much devoid of actual nutrients. The only vegetables they had in stock were onions and most of the locals subsist off of root crops. Still, fried onions did noticeably improve the plain (and I mean PLAIN) “breakfast crackers” we had. We considered taking the early bus (5:45 am) out the next morning but eventually decided to sleep in and take the 11:00 bus. Only problem was that it had rained a lot overnight and through the morning so the rivers were high and the 11:00 bus never came. Nor did the 6:30pm bus which usually spends the night and leaves early the next morning. It continued to rain most of the day so we mostly chilled at the lodge and hung out with an American living in the village through the Peace Corps. Our room was free for the night thankfully. By chance, we woke up the next morning around 6:00 am and heard the bus unexpectedly roll in. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity, threw our things together and stumbled onto the bus.
Our next stop was Beverly’s campground on the north side of the island, where most of the accommodations are located. Beverly’s is run by an elderly Indian man named Bill Madden and his native Fijian wife. He treated us to toast and tea for breakfast and led us to our tent site, complete with electricity! We walked around the area, bought some groceries, and chilled some more. The next day we took a kayak out and did some modified snorkeling, one person hanging off the back of the kayak with their head in the water while the person in front paddles. Not a bad system, especially in an area where shark attacks can be a problem. We cooked some dinner in the communal kitchen and chatted with the family from New Zealand that was also camped there. Only minor issue was when we caught Bill’s 15 year old grandson going through our tent. Luckily, nothing was taken since we had all of our valuables with us by the kitchen area. Looks like Bill will be sending his grandson back to live with his parents though since he seems to cause quite a few problems for Bill.
The next day was our last day on Taveuni. We expected to be heading out in the late morning but there was some confusion among locals we had talked to about when the ferry was actually departing, if at all. We called in the morning and they said it was running late, they were telling people a probable 4pm boarding time. When we called later, it had changed to an 11:30pm boarding time because they were working on the engine, then delivering a shipment to another island before we could board. We had to flag down a cab and ask them to come back at 11:00 since taxis don’t usually run that late and it was about a 30 minute drive to the wharf. In the mean time, Bill had been drinking rum and coke with his brother-in-law Joe and was noticeably wasted. He kept insisting that the ferry wasn’t really going to leave and that we should stay for free and take the next ferry 2 days later. He wasn’t very helpful when we were trying to work out our plans, but he did keep us entertained. He and his brother-in-law just kept repeating a few key hilarious phrases by the end of the night including, “I’m Irish” and “Bastard” and “He talk too much!” all followed by a hearty drunken cackle.
When all was said and done, the ferry did finally appear at the wharf around midnight. We bought our Economy class tickets and found our seats amongst the locals. The trip began much like the last time and we slept most of the way to the first stop in Savusavu. Kelly was feeling really pleased with her Bonine because she didn’t feel sick at all even though the ocean was pretty rough and she heard a few people in the cabin wretching throughout the night. Turns out she was overly confident. The rough seas really didn’t hit until about 6 hours into the trip and she spent a couple hours outside on deck, trying to watch the horizon but mostly dry heaving. The boat crew provided full size black garbage bags as a barf bag. Wonder if that’s the usual, or if they had run out of smaller bags? We did eventually figure out that getting seasick, then passing out on your husband’s lap on the salt covered deck while getting sprayed by ocean water will get you bumped up to first class though. We spent our last 10 hours “enjoying” the air-conditioned first class cabin. Kelly was beginning to believe that she may actually live through this voyage when the engines stopped working about an hour and a half from our destination in Suva. The ship rocked powerless on the high seas for about an hour while the crew attempted to set the anchor and engineers worked on the waterlogged engines. At one point we were rolling so badly that the glasses and dishes behind the bar smashed to the ground, pretty unsettling. We pulled into port at about 8:15pm, were finally let off the boat around 9:15pm, and then happily headed to our hotel room in Suva.
Bottom line: Tavenui was awesome, but we’ll fly next time.