A Special Gift

Look at this cool present our friend Donna brought Matt and I back from Iceland. It's a stone egg! If I can't be traveling then the next best thing is getting presents from people who are. It was made by a really famous Icelandic artist. Here's their website.

The story behind it is that Icelandic people believe that there are little "trolls" lurking behind the scenes. This egg has a couple of those trolls on them. I guess the trolls could be compared to fairies or angels. Since Matt and I are definitely angels (or trolls, if you prefer) this egg reminded her of us. Isn't that just the coolest?!

Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Since I have been reading so much this year I thought that I would try and give reviews about some of the books. I don't know if I will review every book and I probably will just do it in random order. That's just how I roll. If there is a book on my "read" list that you're wondering about, leave a comment and I will try and review it.

I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert while I was traveling through Thailand. I have heard criticism of the book that the author is self centered and a lot of her choices are unrealistic. I can understand where these criticisms are coming from but I did find the book enjoyable. I think that the best part of the book was that so many of the experiences are dramatic and of course it's self centered- that was the whole point of taking a year to herself to travel, learn and reflect.

I think that this is the sort of book that will resonate differently with each person depending on what place they are at in their lives. The "eat" section takes place in Italy and focuses on the author letting go and allowing herself to do what she enjoys, guilt free. There are so many people I know (and I am sure that you know) that need to learn how to do this. Life is hard and stressful but what's the point if you are always fixated on that and not on the enjoyable things?

The next section, "pray", takes place in India. I have to say that I enjoyed this part of the book the least since it obviously had a lot to do with praying and religion. It was fascinating to learn some more about India since I am really interested in that country. It was also inspiring the great lengths Gilbert went to to discover her faith. There were numerous times when I was in Asia that I had the opportunity to do a temple stay and every time I avoided them like the plague. I like eating past noon, sleeping in comfortable beds and not having to bow hundreds of times. Good for her though.

The last section was by far my favorite. It really, really struck a chord and there were 3 major sections/quotes that resonated with me so deeply that I had to write them down so I could look at them again and again.

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it."

"All the sorrow and trouble of the world is caused by unhappy people."

"In the end, though, maybe we all must give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."

This section was called "love" but a huge part of it was about happiness and what really fulfills a person. Gilbert went to Bali, another place I'm really interested in traveling to, and found new friends and love. She spent time with a healer and helped change a family's life with her generosity. The story of how she raised money for a house for her friend (and how her friend tried to exploit her) was really fascinating. Especially considering how I was in the middle of travel and being out of my element. Having people asking for my time, language help, money and everything else and wondering if they were my friends because they liked me or because of what they could get from me. The point that was made was that this is how some people are able to survive- they get what they can. It doesn't make them bad people. It was food for thought for sure.

I liked this book and was a little surprised that I did. I can be a bit cynical at times but when it all boils down to it I recognized a part of myself in the author. A huge reason why I left Canada was in search of happiness. I wasn't happy in the lifestyle I was living before Korea and I felt like I wasn't accomplishing my goals. It was scary and people questioned my decision but in the end it was the best thing I ever did. You don't need to make a drastic and dramatic change but everyone could use a little boost of bravery and awareness.

I probably won't review every book this in depth. Haha.

The Long Journey Home

This was the longest trip that I've ever taken. It all started at 8:30 am on Wednesday, May 20th (Thailand time) when I woke up, showered and finished packing up our stuff. Ali, Byrun and Leah were already gone to work (we'd said our good byes the night before) and so it was up to Matt and I to get ourselves to the air con bus terminal. Look what Matt found in his shoe before we left!

The big question was how should we get there? We debated a lot about this. You see, Ali and Byrun live a good ten minute walk away from the road (they are in a gated community) and we had a lot of heavy luggage. Matt wanted to walk to the road, find a tuk tuk and get them to come back to the house to pick up our stuff. I thought this would take too much time since sometimes it's awhile before a tuk tuk comes around. My vote was to just carry all our stuff (2 huge traveler's backpacks, a box, a regular backpack, 2 small bags) to the road and go from there.

Somehow I convinced Matt to do things my way. As it turned out, Lady Luck was smiling upon us! We'd only walked about a block when a car pulled over and asked us where we were going. We told them and they offered to give us a ride!! The Thai couple was so lovely and friendly. Concidently they were actually going to the same place to pick their daughter up! I thought they might be bluffing with us so we didn't feel bad for taking them out of their way but then I saw them hugging and kissing a young girl so it was the truth.

From here we got a ticket for the next bus (2pm) to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok around 7:30pm and grabbed a taxi to the airport. We arrived there just before 9pm so we had a lot of time to kill. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:15 am! We wandered the airport and grabbed something to eat before checking in for our flight. Finally it was time to board and everyone on our flight looked sleepy. I was all prepared to go right to sleep.

This time luck was not on my side. The pilot announced that they were delaying the flight until some passengers could board. I'm not sure why they were late (or why they held the plane) but they were. Okay, fine. To make matters worse, one of the late passengers was seated right across from us and was having a huge temper tantrum. He appeared to be a Korean businessman and since we understand some Korean we were able to glean that he was not impressed at being seated in coach instead of in first class with his two friends. He actually was doing things like throwing his pillow on the floor and stomping on it and jumping up and down. It probably didn't help that he was a little bit drunk. Everyone was annoyed and uncomfortable with the situation. He was being so distruptive and rude!

His next problem was that the flight attendant serving him wasn't Korean, she was Thai. Did it matter that she spoke fluent Korean? Apparently not. At this point I was getting pretty peeved. I must have been giving him the evil eye since he stopped acting like a two year old and looked right at me. So I decided to shut him up. I spoke to him in Korean! Hah! Translated I said "Old man! Do you speak English? We are tired!" He looked so surprised and starting to try and appologize to me and complain about the service. I told him that the service was fine and that it was late and he should go to sleep and let us go to sleep too. What I had really wanted to say was "(in Korean) Old Man, do you speak English? (in English) GOOD! SHUT UP!" (*saying shut up is considered really rude to Koreans though) After that he mostly quieted down but needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep.

We landed in Seoul at 8:40am (Seoul time, which is 2 hours ahead of Thailand) and even though I was tired I shook it off because I was so excited! My best girl Min Jung was going to be at the airport to help us kill our massive layover! I was a little nervous since we would have to check out of the security area but that all went really quick and smooth (even the part where they were checking people for fevers and H1N1 flu).

It was so fantastic seeing Min Jung! It almost seemed like a dream. I miss a lot of things about Korea but I miss her friendship and working with her the most. Our first stop was a restaurant to pig out on some Korean dishes. We had gimchi jjigae, bibimbap and spicy bulgogi! We were so full!

The time went by so fast- before we knew it Min Jung had to leave to go to work. Actually, she left later than she planned (and ended up late for work... oops!). I told her she needs to come visit us in Canada really soon. It was so nice having someone at the airport to hang out with us.

After Min Jung left we went through security again. Matt was dead tired and our flight wasn't leaving until 6:30pm. We checked our email on the complimentary internet and then he went to our gate to crash. I decided to explore a little more and ended up chatting to a really nice girl who was working at one of the Korean cultural experience areas for over an hour. She'd lived in Toronto and Vancouver for awhile and her English was really impressive. I think she was just as bored as I was since there were no people at her booth.

The flight from Seoul to Seattle was relatively uneventful. The only thing worth noting is that we were running about 20 minutes late. No big deal, right? Well, I hate, hate, hate traveling through America. Why? Because even if you are just catching a connecting flight and aren't entering the US you still have to go through customs, pick up your baggage and then drop it off and find your next flight. I find this to be ridiculous! We rushed (since we had less than an hour and a half until our last flight left) but still managed to be in a giant line behind about 100 other people. It was crawling at a snail's pace. I looked at our boarding passes and it said that our flight would be boarding at 1:40pm and at this point it was 1:20pm. I started to panic that we would miss our flight so I decided that it was time to get a bit pushy. I flagged down a worker and told her what was going on and asked if we could jump the line. She said it was okay if everyone in front of us agreed to let us skip.

Thankfully everyone agreed and so we went to the front. I went up to the security worker who then said, "Hey, did you skip the line?". My heart skipped a beat but I explained politely the situation and that the other people had allowed us to go ahead. The worker then said, "I don't think you asked everyone or can you speak Korean?". I ecstatically exclaimed, "I CAN SPEAK KOREAN! I worked in Korea!" Hahah! The guy chuckled and said that maybe I should stick around and help him out then. He stamped us through and we ran to find our baggage.

Somehow we managed to get the baggage and an Air Korea employee helped us skip through yet another line and from there we ran like crazy people. It really did feel like we were contestants on the Amazing Race. Seattle airport is a bit annoying and has a lot of trains. Somehow we found the correct ones and made it to our gate! Our flight was supposed to leave at 2:25pm and we got to the gate just after 2pm! Success!

I was so glad we made it to that flight (and our luggage made it on too) because the next flight to Edmonton wasn't leaving until after 8pm. We were so exhausted by this point (I think I slept about 6 hours- not consecutively, during the entire 40+ hour trip) but really glad to be back. Wow, I think that's the longest entry I've ever written!

Karaoke in Khon Kaen

Taking our last (yay!) night bus to Khon Kaen was chilly and loud. When they say air conditioned they really mean it. We were glad to be able to spend some time with Matt's family before heading back to Canada. We squeezed in some karaoke with his sister Leah and a couple of Thai friends: Nitnoy and Kem.

It was an endurance karaoke and we managed to sing and dance for three hours! So much fun! It was sad having to say good bye to everyone but we're keeping in touch while they start their new teaching jobs. If Matt's family decides to stay in Thailand for the long term I am sure we'll find our way back there to visit!

Floating Market, Bridge Over River Kwai and Tiger Tour

After Koh Tao we headed back to Bangkok because all roads in Thailand lead there. Instead of pulling another amazing race and heading straight to Khon Kaen, we decided to stay a day and take the three part tour. Matt was a little unsure but I was pretty insistent and would have been disappointed if we hadn't gone. It was a pricey tour though (about $30/person) but definitely worth it just to see the tigers!

We woke up at the crack of dawn since we were supposed to be picked up at 7 am. It was raining so I was a little bit worried but there was no chance for us to reschedule so we just went ahead with the tour. It took longer than we planned to get to the floating market since there was a bit accident on the highway. A beer truck was on it's side- what a waste!

We made it to the floating market and had the option of paying for a boat ride or just browsing around on foot. We chose to go on foot for a couple of reasons: 1. We are cheap. 2. It was raining and I didn't feel like sitting in some boat getting soaked. 3. In the boat you cannot avoid the people trying to sell you things or control where you go. We managed to stay dry and avoided the pushy salespeople. I had a scary moment when a French lady came up to me and asked me (in French) if I could speak French. I choked out "un peu" nervously and then she started going off rapid fire! I had to appologize at my ignorance and run away. I really need to learn another language!

We stopped for lunch (included on the tour) and then continued on to Kanchanburi where the Bridge over River Kwai is. I haven't seen the movie and I don't really know my history so it was nice going to the museum (even if some parts of it were a little weird and inappropriate- like the label that explained how the bridge was bombed "higgedly piggedly").

Finally we arrived at the Tiger Temple! I was so excited! It's an actual Buddhist temple so the regular dress restrictions apply (no sleeveless tops or shorts) and there were some additional regulations because of the tigers. So no one wearing orange, pink or red was permitted inside.

It was fantastic! I loved getting that close to the tigers but Matt was really nervous. We have so many pictures with them. The way it works is you supply your camera and you are taken around with two staff members (one to take the picture, the other to guide you and tell you where to sit) and they let you pose with numerous adult tigers. They claim that none of the animals are drugged but I guess there is no way of knowing. Hopefully that's true. They are chained up and I do know that tigers generally hunt at night and sleep in the heat of the day so it is possible. Plus these tigers have all been brought up around humans since they were cubs. I think my favorite part was playing with the tiger cubs!

The temple is pretty interesting because it's home to lots of other rescued animals too; not just tigers. We saw numerous kinds of deer, wild boars, cows, turtles and even a camel! I really recommend checking out this place if you're ever in the area! We took so many pictures! Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

The Night Boat to Koh Tao

Our next stop was Koh Tao (Turtle Island) where we planned to catch a little more sun and meet up with my little sister and her tour group one more time. We were pretty weary on this trip, Matt especially. He managed to crash on the first boat ride on a pile of luggage.

We then switched to a bus filled with some friendly Australians before catching our overnight boat. I wasn't sure what to expect but this boat was pretty creepy. It looked like something out of a concentration camp or maybe a boat carrying illegal immigrants. The mattresses were so tiny and smelled pretty bad. It did have a bathroom but good luck using a squat toilet on a boat! Basically I cranked my iPod up and thanked all the gods that the boat wasn't crowded so I didn't have to sleep crammed next to a stranger.

It was worth the trip though! We arrived early in the morning and I thought I knew where Stephanie was staying so we grabbed a guesthouse nearby. We decided to splurge for our last island and our place came with a private bathroom and a TV! We passed out for a nap and then called Steph. As it turned out, there is more than one Crystal Dive Resort and she was staying at the other one. Bum! But she was able to find us without much trouble. We spent the afternoon together and then met up with her group for mini golf shenanagins. Just in case you were wondering, I was the mini golf champion!

We couldn't stay long but we made the most of our time. We had a lot of fun and good food. I didn't get to take that many pictures but it's possible that Steph has some more on her camera. She'll be back from her adventure on June 9th.

Who's Hungry?

One of the restaurants on Koh Phi Phi was offering this buffet deal. Hehe!

Koh Phi Phi- the most expensive island ever!

Our next stop was to Koh Phi Phi. We decided to skip the famous Full Moon Party on Koh Phangnan because it sounded like it would be tricky to find accommodation. It was worth it since Koh Phi Phi had celebrations of it's own and was much quieter than usual. To get there we had to take another night bus (they suck so much in Thailand! You have to sit upright, they always seem to be noisy and cramped) and then transfer to yet another bus and then a van and then wait THREE hours until we could catch our boat. Crappy. We were so tired and disgusting by the time we got there. The first thing we did was stop at a cafe to get something to eat. Immediately we noticed that the prices in this area of Thailand are through the roof! I was so thankful that it was the off season because they do lower things a bit. If it hadn't been I think it would have been a very short visit to Koh Phi Phi.

Anyway, while we were eating we starting chatting with a friendly German couple next to us. They gave us a lot of great tips and recommended the cheapest place to stay. It was still $10/night but much better than the places that were over twice as much! Why is this island so popular? Well, even though it was one of the places hit hardest by the tsunami, it is just gorgeous. It was the most beautiful island we traveled to. They are still fixing and rebuilding things but for the most part everything is back to normal.

One day we hiked up to the viewpoint and enjoyed the fantastic view. Another day we took a snorkelling trip, met some cute Koreans and visited Monkey Beach and Maya Beach (where the movie "The Beach" was filmed). Our evenings were spent relaxing on the beach and watching fire shows (and occasionally participating- Matt did fire limbo).

On the snorkeling trip, I couldn't believe how retarded most of the tourists were with the monkeys. I mean, sure, these monkeys are really used to people but they are still wild animals! We watched one moron chase a mother monkey with her baby (which caused all the monkeys to totally freak out), another moron allowed an aggressive monkey to climb up on her and then bite her! (the monkey was moving slowly enough that she could easily have avoided this) and another to let a monkey climb all over her and scratch the crap out of her leg. Anyone else care for some rabies? It was just ridiculous.

Maya Beach is really gorgeous but it's a bit tricky to get over to it. You have to crawl over sharp volcanic rocks and squeeze through a couple of tunnels to get there. Our tour guide kind of sucked and failed to mention that there wasn't any good snorkeling in that area (so we didn't need to lug our stuff over) and that we should take our cameras (which we didn't and it was so difficult getting over there so we didn't get to take any pictures of Maya Beach).

Otherwise we spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful scenery and friendly people on Koh Phi Phi. It's a great place to party and has a great variety of restaurants. We befriended a British girl who lives and works on Koh Phi Phi. Actually, she married a Thai guy and they run a travel shop and a rock climbing shop. If you're ever on Koh Phi Phi we definitely recommend Spidermonkey Climbing and the lovely Naomi! Matt went climbing on our last day with this company and had a good time (even if it did kick his butt a bit- it was a difficult cliff and he hasn't climbed in awhile). We were sad to say good bye to Koh Phi Phi but we needed to get going so we could meet up with Steph one more time. To see all the pictures go over here!

Time with the Lovely Leah

We made it back to Bangkok in one piece and then spent a day and a half exploring Khao San Road (this is where most backpackers stay but last time we stayed closer to downtown). I got my first ever facial as well. Did you know that they stab your face and squeeze the crap out of your zits during a facial?!? At least they did at this place! The worst part was that I didn't know it was coming so I was totally surprised! It was like, "Oh this is relaxing, oooh, she is rubbing some sort of cream on my face... HOLY SHIT! WHY ARE YOU HURTING ME!?! OKAY I'LL TELL YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT!". It was an experience, that's for sure.

Saturday morning we went to the airport to pick Leah up. This airport is one of the most confusing and frustrating ones that I've been in! For some reason none of the elevators go to the floor where the arrivals are! And once you manage to get there you're not allowed to go through to the area where people get in (we were bad asses and jumped over the barriers though). I suppose this is to try and dissuade cab drivers from hanging out there or something but it's really a pain.

We found her though! Some of the things that we did while we hung out in Bangkok with Leah included: going on a canal ride, touring the Wat Pho (our second time but that's okay), lots of shopping, seeing that stupid new Wolverine X-men movie and hooking up with my littlest sister Stephanie! We took a lot of pictures.

One of the nights with Stephie was spent at the tallest building in Bangkok. It was a bit pricey but the restaurant offered an amazing view and a fab buffet! Afterward Matt and Leah went back to the guesthouse and I went with Stephie and her tour group to see a "ping pong show". It was pretty traumatic. Matt asked me why I chose to go to it and I was like, hey, I figured I should see the ugly, seedy side of Bangkok too.

Matt and Leah also went and saw a Muay Thai match but I opted to stay back since I was feeling a bit under the weather. They said it was fantastic though! After about a week in Bangkok we sent Leah on her way (to Khon Kaen to see her Mom) and we headed south to Koh Phi Phi!

Bus Crash Disaster!!!

We left Koh Chang bright and early on a very, very rainy day. Overall we were lucky on our trip and didn't encounter much rain. It seemed that when it did rain we were spending the day traveling. We caught a songthaew to the ferry port and caught our ferry to the mainland. From there the company that we bought our ticket to Bangkok through picked us up in another songthaew and took us to meet our bus.

At this point we'd been traveling for about 3 months and had spent a lot of time in various buses. When we boarded this one it didn't take me long to notice that our driver didn't seem to know what he was doing. He got lost (or maybe just made wrong turns) three times!!! This is a really common and simple trip- hell, even I know that you need to take highway 3!




There was nothing that could be done about it so we dozed off. Later I woke up and was biding my time reading my novel and listening to my iPod. Suddenly the bus driver ran the bus into the cement divider! My iPod slid off my lap and onto the floor and everyone else was rudely awoken. We all rushed outside to get a better look at the damage. The bus was definintely fucked up.



This delayed our trip quite a bit and I had time to talk to some of the other passengers about our driver. It seemed that the bus had worn brakes and they had noticed this earlier on. It could explain the wrong turns (not being able to stop so instead turning down a different road). No one was hurt and the driver had gone into the divider to avoid hitting the truck in front while stopping for a red light.

Eventually the police came and then a tow truck and we were transferred to a different bus. This bus didn't have enough seats though so I ended up sitting on the floor for the rest of the trip. We arrived in Bangkok about 3 hours later than scheduled but things could have been worse. I suppose with all the traveling we'd been doing we were due for some kind of accident. Thankfully it was nothing like the one a fellow traveler had experienced in Laos when her night bus went off a mountain!