Malaysia....a whole new world, literally

what a culture shock it was for us coming to Malaysia.  We were in heaven in our secret spot in Thailand....no cars, barely any motorbikes and an awesome hippy climbing community to hang out with.  Malaysia is a lot more developed than we were expectig with high rises, shopping malls and tons of traffic.  I definitely freaked out our first morning here and sat and cried at the computer.  I missed Thailand and had a mild panic attack.  Everything is fine now.  We have settled into Nicky's parents house, which is awesome!  We have laundry and after spending an entire month sharing a room, we are excited to have so much space.  Its pretty quiet in the part of Penang the house is in (Batu Ferenghi) which is much better than the craziness of Georgetown.  There is a small market at night on the main road and we went and got some cheap dvd's and are hoping to just have some dvd and wine nights coming up!  Nick's aunt and uncle invited us over for dinner for Chinese New Year.  We are so excited to have a traditional home-cooked meal! 

after Penang, i'm not sure of my plan.  Stace is going home and Anna and I might go up to Vietnam and try to meet up with JoAnna (their friend from Chiang Mai) or i'll go to the beaches in Cambodia, to KL and Singapore, or back through Thailand.  Just have to decide what i want to do most.  I have time to decide.

Let me just say, after coming to malaysia with all the excitement, i'm a little worried what going home will be like...not sure i can come back to reality quite yet.

miss you all at home and a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Val and Davey on the 4th and 5th and to CLAI on the 9th!

xoxo

I've gone and fallen in love

So its official, i am in love with Thailand.  The rest of Ko Phangan was great.  we met a bunch of people at our hotel- two americans and two brits.  We ended up hanging out with them for the rest of our time on ko phangan and have now continued traveling with the two american guys and the british guy.  Elie, Rob, and Lloyd.  They are really fun and its nice to have a change of pace. They are definitely high energy so it's been keeping me going.  So after Ko Phangan we headed down to Krabi on a bus.  Stayed a night there and then down to Ao Nang (the beach town in Krabi).  Elie has a friend he traveled in Panama with that is staying in another little beach area off of Krabi and really close to Railay beach so we came over here yesterday.  Its maybe the most beautiful place I've ever seen.  Its a rock climbing mecca so there are a ton of really chill people here.  Everyone is really nice and I think each of us has decided to stay here longer than we originally planned.  It's been really hot so i've gotten pretty sunburnt.  I've finally gotten away to upload some pictures so i'll leave some for you!

we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere so my blogging might be less frequent.  hope everyone is surviving the cold

Koh Phangan

we got to Koh Phangan yesterday and its beautiful!  The past few days we've done a lot of moving around.  The first hotel we were staying in Koh Tao was in a great location, but the room smelled pretty bad.  There were tiles missing in the bathroom so every time we would shower the water would just go under the tiles and the room smelled really moldy and gross.  It was so hot there that we had to leave the windows open and there were no screens so i got a ton of mosquito bites, one being on my eye so i had a swollen eye for 2 days.  So we decided we needed to get out of that hotel so we switched to the other part of the island, Tanote Bay which was really nice.  there was nothing around (stores, markets, etc), but the beach was big and it was nice and quiet.  The picture above is from our beach in Tanote bay. 

For the next few days we are planning on exploring Koh Phangan.  We have a kayak we can use at our hotel so i think we are just going to kayak around the island.  We have about a week here so hopefully we can find plenty to do!

After this, we are headed to the western side of Thailand to Koh Phi Phi.  We will then head down to Malaysia because Stacey and i really wanted to be there for Chinese New Year!

Thats about it for now.  sorry for the lack of pictures, i haven't found anywhere to get a cord for my camera so i can't upload pictures.

Paradise Found

I will type more soon, I'm headed to the beach now.  we left Koh Tao this morning and took a one and a half hour boat ride to Koh Phangan.  Our bungalo is literally on top of the ocean.  we have steps down into the water....

playing catch-up

so the last few days have been a bit crazy. Sunday we woke up really early and got on a flight to Bangkok.  We hauled all our stuff to the train station and stored it there for the day and then went to explore the city.  I'm sorry for those of you who have been to Bangkok and love it, we weren't such big fans.  It was so dirty, crowded and just way too overwhelming.  I'm glad we did it though because i can't look back and regret not going.  I think we were just too spoiled in Chiang Mai.  We tried to go to the Grand Palace- where the King used to live, and it was closing just as we got there, another dissapointment.  So we took a water taxi back to the train station (the best part of bankgkok, i thought) and waited for our night train to take us to the islands.  We then took a 7:30 train down to a town called Chumphon where we arrived at 5am.  Then we waited for a bus to take us to a ferry and we road this 3 hour catamaran boat to get to Koh Tao.  So we have been exhausted.  The first few hours in Koh Tao were pretty dissapointing.  There isnt much of a Thai community outside of tourism on this island so its more expensive and not as friendly.  We finally went to the southern part of the island which isnt as crowded and found a hotel.  we are much happier being down here out of all the tourists and divers and craziness.

bad news, i left the cord that hooks my camera to the computer at home.  so i can't upload any pictures unless i find somewhere to buy a cord. 

hope everything at home is going well, send me updates from your end!

Chiang Mai, one of my new favorite cities

Things in Chiang Mai are great.  Today is our last day here, then we are headed to Bangkok.  I've seen so many things while here, its been great having the girls here because they know their way around so well.  The first day, Anna took me on a small walking tour while Stacey was at work then we all met up for dinner.  Wednesday Stacey and I went up to Doi Suthep, which is a huge temple on top of a mountain right out of town.  It was pretty amazing.  you can see the whole city from up there and the temple is really beautiful.  Then we walked around Chiang Mai university and met Anna for Burmese food.  It was really good, but thats been the only thing so far that has made me sick.  It wasn't a big deal and I'm fine now.  Wednesday night we went to Saturday night market which is a huge.  There are booths set up up and down the street and there are tons of great things for sale.  The three of us got some goodies! 

Thursday was spent walking around again, we went to a restaurant that is a partner to the volunteer organization that Stacey and Anna were a part of.  We went to see a few local temples in town and then saw a really cool Terra Cotta garden.  We saw the Chiang Mai park as well.  We went to dinner close by, then went and had drinks at a restaurant close to our hotel.  We have a dog that lives at our hotel that loves us!  She followed us to the restaurant and stayed with us the whole time we were there (everywhere is open because of the weather).  Then she followed us all the way down the road until we got a taxi, then she ran home!  She's such a good dog, we are sad to leave her.  We went and had drinks on the river, then went to their favorite bar here called Zoe in Yellow.  They have tons of different parts, a reggae, hip hop, and just a beach bar. 

Today is going to be pretty layed back.  just sitting by the pool and packing up.  I have an early flight to Bangkok and probably wont be able to post for a while.  We are spending the day in Bangkok then headed down to Koh Tao for five days.

 Hope everything is going well at home!

Safe and Sound in Chiang Mai

I'm here!  after a fairly easy flight to hong kong, I took a flight to bangkok which was a little rocky.  once i was in bangkok i had a 6 hour layover, plus my flight was delayed an hour.  So i got into Chiang Mai around 8pm.  Anna and Stacey were waiting for me there and we headed back to the guest house.  I showered and Stacey and I got dinner at a great Thai place then we went to this Jazz bar that they go to every tuesday night.  Its an open mic set-up on tuesdays and they have local people just come play on stage.  it was a cool feel and there were tons of Americans there.  There's actually tons of white people everywhere, australians and europeans mostly.  Its pretty easy to get around because there is english on all the signs and most people can speak a little bit.  I just got my cell phone activated as well so hopefully i can start being in touch.  We all slept almost 12 hours last night which was amazing since I only slept maybe 5 on my flight over here.  Today Stacey had to work so Anna has just been showing me around the city.  Its not too big and there's a moat surrounding the entire city, so its pretty easy to get around.  Tonight we are going to a night bazaar which is just booths set up with food and shopping.  We are planning on staying here until Sunday then heading south towards Bangkok!

hope to update soon