same same, but different (official thai motto)

well, uploading photos isnt going quite like i had planned.. the computers here never recognize my SLR camera.. so maybe egypt?!

i just got back from a 2 day trek in chang mai.. wish i couldve gone on a longer one... but ive got lots of places to go! tonight im headed back to bangkok on the overnight train again.. and then ill explore ayutthya (or somehting close to that) tom before getting back to bangkok to fly to cairo!! so where did i leave off?!

after my amazing tour of the islands... vanita and i headed to krabi mainland where life was a bit cheaper! we got there in the afternoon and i spent about 2 hours trying to figure out what to do with my life.. i could fly to singapore with vanita if i wanted, or head to malaysia by train or bus because it was soo cheap and close.. i could fly to cambodia and pit stop in vietnam and try to cram in 2 more countries that i really wanted to see, or i could head to northern thailand to trek in the jungle and stay with the hill tribes.. everyone i met said that the trekking was amazing..and it basically filled the plan for the last 5 or so days i had... so i went with it. i booked a flight to bangkok and planned to overnight train it up to chang mai... vanita and i walked around through a few markets and an unbuilt temple? it looked like it was in the process... looong staircase up this hill wiht dragons weaving down the railings.. we saw some more beautiful limestone cliffs peaking out of the water.. and went back for a little nap.. that night i went to a neighboring hostel and ate a "cheeseburger" for 3 bucks so i could have 30 mins of internet :) the burger was alright..im no burger fan at home so i guess my vote doesnt count.. it was a nice change from the mounds of fried rice and pad (phat or pat) thai- fried noodles with good sauce and some veggies- that ive been eating for practically every meal. i went back to the night local markets and got a kilo of lychee and a kilo of mangosteens for 17 baht... i basically had 4 pounds of fruit for 50 cents! mmmm.

the next day i said goodbye to vanita as she went on a tour with some other girls to hot springs, temples, waterfalls, and the likes... i couldnt go because of my 3:30 flight to bangkok.. so i took the local bus for the local price to the tiger cave temple.. my bartering is defintely improving! first you just flag down the right color pick up truck with two benches in teh back and a roof cover, and then you tell the driver where you want to go and how much you want to pay. he says yes or no. so i got to the temple for 50 baht... where i went to hike the 1237 stairs to the top for an amazing view! it took a solid hour..and there were definitely more than 1237 stairs because they were numbered.. and they stopped counting once you got to the top and didnt count the ones where you go barefoot... (every building you enter you haveta take off your shoes) and let me tell you... some of those stairs shouldve been broken into 3 steps! they were as high as my knee! but i made it! and felt good! and then i had to get back down without the monkeys attacking me. i explored the area seeing the caves where the monks live and the 1000 year old tree.. of course those 200+ steps didnt count either :) i was whipped..and everyday im convinced i sweat more than the last.. i thought i had it planned perfect to take a quick shower before my ride came for the airport.. but the lady who sold me the ticket ran in and said hurry! they leave without you mam! and she drove me in her minivan down the road to where the bus was.. i get to the airport..and my flight has been delayed 2 hours. of course. so stocked up on timtams, pepperidge farm cookies and sour peachies they had on sale at the airport. SUGAR! my boday actually went through some withdrawls from artificial sugar.. ive since recovered but there were 2 days when i really just needed some good old fattening american candy and i couldnt find any! so i get my flight and they give me vip front row because im supposed to catch the train in bangkok at 7 and the new flight gets in at 6:15... and the train station is across bangkok and its rush hour.. needless to say we pulled in as the train pulled out..of course! and so my expensive taxi dropped me off at the "bus station" so i could catch the bus.. i wish i had paid for the local bus into bangkok for half the price! bah. just my luck! so anyway i get ushered into the TAT..the government run tourist booking place.. somewhere the tuk tuk would take you.. theyre supposed to be fair prices cuz its run by the government.. b.s... tired, still sweaty from 23134556 stairs, and bummed i missed my train with a bed.. i let them book the rest of my time in thailand.. so i paid just over 100 bucks for my night train up to chang mai, my hostel, my transporation, my transportation, andmy train back.. sounds like a decent deal but i knew i was being ripped off.. but i couldnt fight it at the time! coulda prolly saved 20-25 bucks had i done it on my own. o well... its been too easy now.

so on the train i met rafaelle.. from switzerland.. we were both cuddled up in our two seats trying to make beds for the night... i fit a bit better than he did.. so i told him about how i got scammed into my trek and about the nice hostel i had and he decided to come with me... so we shared a room and i got a few bucks back on the deal! we walked around chang mai all afternoon.. finding ourselves in real thailand.. where we were the only white people... had some authentic food, and went to our trekking meeting where we met our tour guide... jay jay! ha. he was funny. raf and i went to dinner and checked out the lame nightlife before turning in for our big day.. i packed up my bag the night before and he kept making fun of me for being such a tourist and being so prepared... i was more concerned with fitting everything when my camera takes up half my backpack.. so i went to bed and he went out again..and when i was ready to go at 8 and he wasnt.. i got my laugh in :)

we headed out with jay jay and two boys from DC and a swiss couple.. not a very diversified group by coiencidence.. now that i think of it these were the first ppl that ive actually really met from america though. we went to the local market where i got a waffle for 10 baht :) and then i found out it had corn in it.. strange.. adn the lady liked me and gave me some waffle dough balls? as a bonus.. ha i have no idea what they were.. except delicious! and of course some more mangosteens! the group then went elephant trekking again.. you always learn to do things better and cheaper the second time around... it was much better than my trek in phuket as they elephants were running around crazy!well, they still walked but they were so much happier.. and the photo that i hosulda bought was only 100 baht..and the frame was made out of elephant poop! how precious... only lauren would appreciate the paper fibers out of the poop like i did! haha... we then had some rice and were off on our trek.. the jungle was pretty cool..and we got lucky with little rain again.. it actualy didnt rain at all til we got to our "house" for the night and were under the roof (made of leaves!).. we stopped at a waterfall after about an hour and half.. had a swim and a nice break..and then hiked for 1.5- 2 hours more to a village hill tribe.. and then aorund the village to the family we would be staying with.. apparently this was one of the biggest hill tribes...as they have been established for 50-60 years.. and there were about 250 familes in the tribe.. or maybe it was 250 people.. our place was nice... and we had HAMMOCKS!..or so we were so stupid to believe.. two of the boys tried them out and crashed to the ground before we realized they were actually the mosquito nets... hahaha.. oops! we hung out enjoying our amazing view of the jungle... played some card games.. and ate a hugeee wonderful meal prepared by jay jay.. we couldnt even throw our butchered thai at the family to say thank you because all the hill tribes have their own languages..we learned hello and goodbye but i already forgot :( so the little shed for lack of a better word where we stayed was cool.. there was definitely no electricity.. they had their own runnning water setup and the standard toilet hole... the hill ppl wear these cool bright colored sarongs and vest like shirts.. most of them with a bright magenta in there somewhere..with necklaces hanging from their earrings..which were more like massive plugs.. they were nice and happy to take our money for waters and beers and bracelets etc... we were entertained by the 3 dogs.. 2 kittens, and 67 chicks runnign around.. one of the dogs wasnt theirs..he had followed us for about 3 hours.. adn decided we were cool enough to stay with all night.. he slept in our shed too! ha.. our dinner was more than the 6 of us could eat..chicken adn potatoes in curry, rice and pad thai with tofu.. mmm we were quite hungry after our journey

the next day (today!) we had a nice large standard breakfast with REAL tea.. i mean ..straight from the leaves in the pot.. the standard toast, adn some eggs and pineapple. :) we... dog included head off to the village school where we saw the kids in their classrooms... im sure they love all the white visitors always peaking in! i was taking pictures of the kids and one of the smarter ones stuck his hand out after he smiled for me and said 10 baht! it took me a while to realize that was what he was saying...but the swiss guy helped me out! haha... i let them see the picture on my screen... you should see how bright their faces got looking at the digital image.. it was crazy.. there was about 5 of them crowded around me starring with googoo eyes at the image.. hah. one of hte boys from the family we stayed with looked through all my photos twice with me last night as well.. just in awe.. it was cool and crazy we think of it all as so standard.. we walked for a few more hours..up and down big hills.. jumping rivers and brushing all types of crazy plants and bamboo..i ate a wild starfruit..that was def not ripe..adn we saw some CRAZY snakes and spiders... in aus.. brown is bad and green is good... here brown is good... TO EAT! adn green are bad... the spiders..ah. huge and colorful.. i was mesmorized and scared to death at the same time.. we eventually took a break by a river..and hiked a tiny bit more before enjoying our bamboo river raft ride.. it was peaceful.. and nice..and kinda wet becuase the bamboo planks dont really ever touch.. we went down a few rapids too..nothing too big..but still a little hectic for our 15 foot raft that was only 3 feet wide...

so ive been keeping very very busy.. think ill sleep well in my two seats again tonight! and then... tomorrow night off to cairo! so see ya in egypt! just talked to some canadians who told me their tour of egypt was beyond amazing and the best way to go.. good to hear! adios!!!!!!

solo adventures... well kinda!- ko phi phi and railay islands

so far so good.. getting a hold of the internet on these islands isnt as cheap or easy as i wouldve hoped.. i had to stalk down every internet shack and wait for the internet to come on at 9 am this morning! i spent 3 nights on ko phi phi.. or koh phi phi..or p.p. or pp island.. depends what sign you read.. youd think theyd have a set name for the palce.. but nah. the boat ride over was rainy adn hectic.. but i made it in one piece.. getting off the boat i found the man who said he would walk me to my bungalow... and on teh way we picked up vanita who was also goin to the same place. we decided to share a room.. shes a nice english girl originally from india..and she just came from living in australia for 8 months so we had a lot to talk about! ha. it POURED through the night.. ive never heard so much rain in my life.. but by 9 am it was sunny..and so we decided to book a boat tour to see the nearby islands.. phi phi ley.. the smaller island is wehre maya bay is.. where the beach was filmed.. just another really famous popular movie i have yet to see.. i just wanted to see the bright water and white sand! we also went to shark point... i didnt see any..many otehrs did.. and basically its this little valley we boated through that looks a lot like milford sound in new zealand..but tropical! we also went to bamboo island and to the monkey beach.. none of which we ever knew where we were unless we read the itenerary ahead of time.. we didnt even know if we got on the right boat or with the right group.. we just went along.. and everyone else in the group felt about thes ame... it was pretty awesome.. with the sun coming out just as we reacehd each location and i could snap away with my slr! my screen on my little camera is still broken.. so i cant wiat to see if there are even any pics on there let alone whats in the frame.. it was all fine and completely beautiful... i even enjoyed the 200 m swim to get to maya bay.. the tide was too far out to boat in.. and we found out later that the boat men avoid the national park fee if we swim in the back vs them taking us straight into the bay.. o well.. this couple took my camera in their waterproof bag... we risked swimming with it and holding it above water to get our babies to the beautiful bay.. it was sooo worth it! adn it worked! whoo!

on the way back.. our motor broke. just stopped. and it started to downpour. so we sat there. for a long time waiting. and a boat came and pulled us back into the shark point where we sat in teh only cold day of all of thailand.. i just laughed my head off.. it was soo thailand. our day was going too perfect for nothing to go wrong. so after an hour and a half and lots of empty boats passing us.. we finally got another long tail boat that half of us jumped in... and we pulled our boat adn the rest of the ppl back in it. the stormy weather was brewing some bigggg swells.. many of them bigger than our boat..we were all ready to shit our pants.. i was more worried about my camera than swimming back.. we had lifevests on to stay warm.. so we were fine! but it was soo scary and im glad i was in the front boat and not in the dragged one! we all became pretty good friends on the boat.. bonding over the almost expected thai adventure... so that night many of us went out together.. the sky cleared up for a nice night wiht fire dancing on the beach.. they had a fire jump rope and a ring..and the limbo... of course i did all of them! and waited until the stationary limbo bar to singe off some arm hair and burn a bit of my arm.. i was the only one on the beach who even got burned im sure... it was good!

the next day vanita and i layed on teh beautiful beach for most of the day.. it was a gorgeous day of sunbathing and sweating... i applied sunscreen about6 times and still pulled off a burn.. later we hiked to the viewpoint up a few thousand steps.. welll maybe only 1000... but it was worth it! soo pretty! the night before we also went to eat dinner at a little thai hut where this guy handed us a book with dinner.. it was baout the tsunami that hit in dec of 2004.. showing all the destruction that hit phi phi and the horrible deaths everywhere.. i thanked him for showing us it.. and he told us about what happened to him.. he was standing up and completely covered in sand from head to toe.. he showed us where he was in one of the pics.. couldnt even see him... some french man dug him out and saved his life... and later that man helped him re-build his restauratn where we ate! pretty darn cool! we went out again that night.. tlaking to every perosn on the island i felt like.. the population of that island is 85% white tourist isish/english..the rest other tourists and the locals... we drank the buckets! yes. declious.. and now i can say ive had a bucket in thialand..which is a must! its literally a small bucket you take to the beach filled with a big fat mixed drink.

the next day we layed aruond for a bit before catching our boat to railway... or railay or railey.. you know.. vanita decided to come with me.. and getting off the boat .. what a beautiful ride!.. we met some more english girls. kaylee and rose..and we found a place together.. walked to island.. had some good dinner.. and planned our rock climbing for the next day... so yes.. yesterday i rock climbed limestone cliffs.. my forearms still ache but it was sooo cool.. and the views are AMAZING! and limestone is 92347023 times harder than plastic walls in a gym.. it was good..then we went to the beach where our instructor told us.. omg soo gorgeous! i cant wait to put up pics! kaylee rose and me later hiked through a bit of jungle to go into this large cave.. lots of bats.. a crazy purple-blue crow bird..and stunning views.. we used some of our new rockclimbing skills to get in there.. so its awesome here! ive never seen a prettier place in my life.. and now im headed to the mainland to figure out my life for the next week.... maybe malaysia..its cheap adn easy...or northern thailand to hike in the hill tribes and stuff..who knows.. vanita has taken a slightly motherly role for me.. i feel a lot of ppl do that.. but shes nice..and talks a lot.. and shes flying to singapore tom.. ah gotta go packmy life up in my little house i wear on my back everywhere! SOO glad i have a backpack here.. a suitcase would be soo impracticall..and i hate hearing vanitas drag behind us down the rocks adn on the sand! kk well im doing fine! have no worries!

all alone!

well, although phuket has moved at a slower paced once we got settled.. things kinda took a crazy turn when jenna sprung on me that she would be leaving... so i just got ditched in thailand.. but so far so good! i've already went on an elephant trek.. my elephant wasnt so into trekking.. he wanted to stand and eat bamboo.. so i felt a little bad when my dude kept kicking his ear and yelling at him :( and i felt bad for the elephant in front of me cuz he had some bad grass or something man.. he kept farting and bubbling up some crazy brew in his big belly.. maybe i shoulda offered him some of my immodium! my elephant started moving better when the guy got off and let me ride on his neck tho! it was kinda scary cuz we were goin up and down hill and i was holding onto nothing! it was our little secret because the establishment told us we had to stay on the chair thing attached to the elephant.. so i felt special..but sad cuz my camera decided it wasnt going to work anymore :( sooo i had to buy the stickin 300 baht pics from the people because i had to have a picture of the event! i also watched this baby elephant place the harmonica not so well and dance around... he was havin a great time! right now im off to get a thai massage for about 5 bucks for an hour..and then on to kho phi phi for three nights.. i think its gonna be awesome! tons of beaches and limstone cliffs.. and im stayin in a bungalow for 6 bucks a night! yess!

yesterday we explored phuket town... and got stuck in our first downpour..surprisingly we've had amazing weather considering its the rainy season and its guranteed to rain everyday.. i think its gonna rain in a bit... it gets FREAKING HOT right before it rains.. sooo humid too.. as an understatement! this guy drove us around in his "taxi" for a few hours.. we were happy to pay the 40 baht to stay dry.. and after we found ourselves in a scam.. the guy explained why they take you to all these jewlry places and tailors.. the places give him a stamp..and after 10 stamps, he gets a free tank of gas. so we said as long as our drive is cheap we can pretend to buy stuff everywhere! ha. we then went to the other kata beach... i climbed up these crazy rocks along the side of the beach and saw tons of fish and crabs and crazy jumping tadpole things... and beautiful rocks and ocean scenery! hopefuly i can get my camera to work so i can put up some pics.. this is prolly good for me becasue itll force me to use my SLR camera and get better with it rather than just snapshooting.. which is why i lugged it all the way over here.. on the flipside.. its not waterproof :( o well.

k well im doing alright so far.. well see where the world takes me the next few days!

the longg road to phuket

well, we got on our train just fine... and it was cosy and they gave us a bedtime to turn our chairs into beds at about 9 pm.. which was fine.. sleeping wasn't so easy for me cuz i woke up at every stop.. and i felt like my bed was scraping along the right track, bouncing around and jerking around. it was kinda cool though.. i felt for a bit like i was on the hogwarts train.. except the hogwarts train im sure was much more functional... the toilet was a hole to the tracks below.. and considering ive had to use three different holes in teh ground now.. im realllly glad i brought that roll of toilet paper with me! the 10 hours on the train werent so bad as we were sleeping most of them.. well jenna slept.. i pretended.. and then we were quickly hurried off the train to the bus station where we were supposed to take a 4 hour charter bus to phuket. as ive learned not to have too high of expectations, at least our bus was later than our train, adn so we didnt have to wait for the second bus to come 2 hours later! except it was packed to the brim.. and i told him we paid for seats and he said "ok. are u getting on?" so we smashed on. i made myself a cozy seat between 4 suitcases against the toilet door... only 20 mins later to be flicked on the back of my shoulder by the bus master telling me to get up and stand next to jenna.. i guess to keep us in order? then irealize he just wanted to jack my seat. how rude! the ppl here are definitely not as nice as in bali.. but they are just as out to get your money.. if not more! the thai royal police came on board and inspected all the asians identites at two stops and didnt bother with us.. dont know hwat that was about... after what seemed like an eternity on our more than 4 hour bus that's airconditioning prolly only worked for the driver, the bus master stood up and said if you are going to any beach, get off here.. there werent too many white ppl left on the bus and so we assumed that meant us too.. so we got off and shoved in another van. after 2 mins the van pulls into a tourist info store and tells us all to get out.. everyone was mad cuz they all just wanted to get to the beach and we were all tired of being haggled and taken to the wrong places by the thai ppl trying to get more money out of us.. then the new van man told us we couldnt get back on unless we had a sticker or paid 150 baht. the other people got the stickers just before we got crammed on the bus saying where they were going so they could heard us better... and so we didnt have them, and neither did our new friend john from spain. john was verrrry angry they were trying to squeeze more money out of him and he started yelling.. somehow i got them to agree to take us to the town center for free, since that is what we paid for in our all-inclusive tickets.. and we would get our own ride to the beach. the van man was livid and drove us down the road about 2 more k's and threw us out. so we walked. and jenna and i are pretty good at getting bothered by the "transport?" drivers so we had faith something would show up.. so jenna, john and i walked for a bit.. and a few motorbikes offered to take us.. they assured us we would fit with our bags but we said no.. so eventually one guy drove his bike home and got his "taxi car," aka for sure the family car. we hung out in the shade of some bedding store laying on nice comfy matresses in the shade wondering why none of the hostels we stayed at had anything romotely close to the matresses.. our guy showed up and took us to patong beach where john wanted to go.. and i said we should just go to and jump in the water and check it out since our beach was a bit further south from where we were. we jammed out to american 90's pop music.. like bon jovi, nsync, and ricky martin.. but of course none of hte songs were actually by the correct artists. whatever! and we got to patong and the teal-blue water that we traveled so far to see wass.... brown. we said bye to john who went to find a room and we went for a swim anyway..then we decided to be brave and get in a tuk-tuk for the first time beacuse we were assured that they were better in phuket.. we gave the guy our address and he promised he knew where it was.. as we were driving i noticed he kept looking at it.. and realized he had no clue where we were going.. we drove in circles, and stopped and asked 15 different ppl if they knew.. and no one did.. one person sent us to a fried rice restaurant because our hostel is named southern fried rice.. o geez. it was probably an hour.. and we started to konw the streets better than him! but we found it! and its very nice and clean.. some dude from norway runs it and its overly talkative.. but nice..and we have free internet again so yay! i walked down to kata beach where the water was just the right colors and maybe even too warm...and the sand white and super duper soft :) yay! we made it.. and the experience was one for the books. i think we'll pay the extra 20 bucks to fly back when we leave for egypt in a week and a bit!

bye bye bangkok

tonight were getting on the overnight train to phuket! yess! bangkok is a city for sure.. but nothing like sf or new york or any american city.. there arent really any high rises..and walking around theres random beautiful temples just everywhere! and lots of cars and crazy intersections with timers and such.. quite a few trees and crappy air quality.. the other night i talked to this kid from perth for a while.. and he gave me a good idea of what to do yesterday, telling us which public transportation to use.. maybe youve heard of tuk-tuks.. o my. they are little "taxis" that scam you. they say theyre a cheap taxi but really they just take you to a tailor to get a suit.. everytime.. so ive been told. theres signs and warnings in lots of buildings saying beware of the strangers with the tuk tuks or a private boat... so far we avoided the tuk tuks.. and the private boat.. well we prolly got ripped off but it took us everywhere we wanted to go! it stopped at this cool tall temple thing that ppl were climbing up.. of course we didnt have our sarongs for proper attire with us.. so between having to pay for that and the 20 mins we were allotted to look at the temple from our boat lady.. we didnt get to climb it. we then we to the floating markets... which after spending over an hour at the train station talking to the guy.. i found out those are the fake ones. it make sense cuz they werent actually floating markets.. more floating restaurants or food carts. it was still pretty cool.. tons of boats lined up with any fish or thai noodles and sticky rice you could imagine! i had like 5 giant prawns for 100 baht (like 3 dollars) so i thought that wasnt so bad? we've been eating a lot at the food carts..they line every street and have basically anything you want.. fruit, meat, "hotdogs," soup, pad thai.. i just saw an ice cream one even.. all the meals are somewhere between 1-3 bucks. pretty good! so after our floating market experience, we were dropped off at the royal palace adn the temple of the emerald budda.. again not what you expect.. so maybe that applies to asia. it was cheaper than our boat, but still expensive to go look aruond (~11 bucks) considering the thais go in for free.. also every time we stop the boat. there was a dock man charging us 20 baht.. pshhh. theres no hiding here either.. but at least the people arent so crazy tan like bali.. but im def above average height.. and were in a city... so different ppl and tourists are more common. im defintely above average height here which is nice.. but not nice for buying the one size fits all clothes.. at least the tiffanys jewelry and lacoste shirts still fit! hahah. the knock offs are amazing. not as much bartering here either... it still exists but we got pretty good at cutting costs.. and here there are more standard prices. maybe its my reallly long legs, but i walk way faster than ppl here. no one is in a hurry.. i just dont like wasting time.. also its important to not walk in the middle of the sidewalk. thats where teh hanging signs end.. and apparently the buildings sweat as much as we do in the humidity.. so they just drip all over you! the traffic is interesting.. i understand asain drivers now.. but walking traffic in thailand doesnt make sense.. they drive on the left, ride escalators on the left, and walk on the right. hmm. this morning i went and got our train tickets for tonight.. this little old man saw me walking and so i talked to him for a while.. and he showed me the 'cheap' place to get tickets.. they were way more than the ones we tried to get yesterday... adn then by the time i made it to the train station they were basically the same price although everyone says that everything here is the same standard price.. they are lying.. kinda like the tuk tuk man who told me it was a long way to the train station and i wouldnt be able to find it.. and i was standing in front of it.. maybe they think were really that dumb. the drinking fountain with spring water as they call bottled water also lied.. poor jenna filled up her water bottle there..shes ok, just not feeling like a million bucks.. the ones in bali were fine.. guess you did haveta pay a nickel for that one tho. these lying thai ppl need to go to bali to learn some honesty i think!

just a few pictures from bali

bartering with wayan for souveniers.. another attack. the rice fields
MONKEYS! i took way too many pics of monkeys... and im sorry i picked such a bad one to upload..
the burning carcass at teh cremation ceremony we saw on our first full day in bali.. lovely!
awesome sunset in kuta beach

sunset on lembongan island

snorkeling at playground beach! (lembongan)

beautiful coral! guess i didnt get any fish in this one.. but i promis there were a lot!
damn the roosters...
seaweed farming! iwish i could figure out how to turn pictures on here...

lembongan island and THAILAND

we made it!

first off, we had a whirlwind final day of adventures with the motorbike boys.. we ate lunch overlooking some rice fields up the side of a volcano... and then stopped to boat to this temple in teh middle of a lake.. except 100,000 rupiah (10 bucks) and 40 mins later after renting our paddle boat to go "rafting" we landed on the shore of the temple.. which was basically next to the road that we would later drive down. whatever. the boat was amuzing at the least. and i guess we can say we paddled a traditional balinese boat. awesome! then we stopped off on the side of the road..and being two white girls.. these men come up to us offering to be our tour guide. we said we didnt need one.. but they wouldnt let us down the path without one. luckily jenna used some good bartering skills to get our tour down to 8 bucks... basically we paid him 8 dollars to carry our bags and point and say look! kopi (coffee) and vanilla! and paper plant! we still werent too sure of where this path was headed and then we get to these beautiful twin waterfalls... and we get to swim in them and swing across on a rope! yea! pretty cool! and worth it. as we kept driving to the other side of bali to see the hot springs, one of the boys decided they wanted to stay on the other side of the island.. so jenna and i pulled together our resources to ride the bembo home to kuta... aka the only form of public transportation in bali.. it was special and this crazy old man sat basically on my lap trying to speak indonesian to me.. i kept showing him my wedding ring on my finger since i thought he was saying single?? but he didnt really get it...maybe he was trying to say something else. i think i spoke more indonesian than he spoke english. it was our most authentic experience for sure, and although i cant say that i really enjoyed it... in a way i did because we were by far the only people that resembled anything white on teh bus and we really got to see how some of the ppl travel around.. not stopping at any marked stops.. school kids getting off the bembo...and so on.

the next day we headed to lembongan island of the southeast coast of mainland bali. the ride over was not so smooth..and i forgot how motion sick i get. luckily i made it in one piece and it was well worth it. we pull up to lembongan where were staying in a "resort" for big bucks... 15 each a night. theres a line of straw huts lining the beach where the seaweed farmers live.. and when i say huts, i mean huts. they might have two rooms, one being the entrance and im sure over half of them definitely did not have electricity. but who needs it when you have such an amazing view?! we walked down the beach to our resort.. and its pretty nice.. with a pool on the sand and a little bar.. our room was equiped with lots of bugs, a fan, and running cold water only. perfect! but really... it was! we relaxed all day laying by the beach/pool and then went on a little walk along the top of the island where the mangrove forest is.. (we skimped on the 1.50 boat tour through it) and we observed the simplest life we have ever seen. every few houses has a cow and a rooster or chicken runnign around.. maybe the neighbor has a mangie looking dog. and there is seaweed laying out everywhere to dry in the sun. at night.. we headed down a few 'resorts' where we saw a sign for the state of origin game (australian big rugby game) between queensland and new south wales.. we made a friend with our vip pulled up table next to the bar sipping on our cocktails out of a mini pineapple.. laela from coolangatta.. very close to where i lived in australia.. awesome! so we talked all night with her and friend robot who was from lembongan... we talked foot, colored, played hair... and o yes.. laela is 5. she told us more than anyone else about that island too cuz she lived there for a while and was going to school with the balinese kids for a few months... how awesome!

the next day we were greeted nice and early by the kooing of roosters from every angle.. some sounding like they were on their last koo of life but they kept going until the sun was waaay waay up. so we got up pretty early and decided we could walk to the other end of the island.. i think we got kinda sorta lost covering territory im sure only about 5 other white ppl may have been too.. but it was nice.. good scenery and building a nice tan. we found the yellow suspension bridge that leads to the next small island (where laela and the otehrs go to school.. she drives her motor bike there cuz all teh other kids get to too) adn we follow the signs to dream beach... we detoured at this underground house where this guy was hiding for many years of his life.. very crazy intricate underground world.. where i couldnt live.. i could only be down there a few mins before i ran for the first exit i saw. o yes. we had to pay for a tour of that too.. even tho no one went down with us. eh. we continued through the little town and ended up on sunset beach naturally because that wasnt where we were headed.. but it was cool.. crazy powerful waves crashing down and bright blues in the water... we then jumped over a wall, swung around a tree, trekked through a few shrubs and an open field before we got to the dream beach resort.. where laela had told us the turtles are.. she was right! that beach was nice too.. adn then we managed to find a shorter way back... the sun was just about setting and since there are no sarongs for sale on the island.. teh boat men come up and ask you if you want to go snorkeling or a tow out to the surf.. the reef kept the water on the beach calm and the waves were about 400 m out... so i bartered with this guy to go snorkely ..adn he took jenna and i out for 10 bucks.. and let me tell you it was worth every cent of that 5 bucks and the 25 for the mediore snorkeling before.. the reef was awesome and the fish even more amazing.. angel fish and bright color ones ive never seen before.. and a parrot fish that couldve eaten me in one gulp! he was at least 3 ft.. soooo cool!!! so we watched the sunset on our boat adn went in slow.. just how it is in bali :)

this morning we had to get up early to catch the public ferry back.. cuz it is 5 bucks vs the 27 for a private speed boat.. but no worries... the roosters were well at it again. the ride back was much better adn faster.. we got back to sanur where we spent the first few nights and had one last authentic lunch on the street for 50 cents.. a bit spicy and really delicious and unidentifiable.. and then we went to mcDs for 20 cent ice cream cone on our hunt for the post office.. we finally found it and they only took cash. so we had to carry our crap to thailand with us today! o well.

and now were at our hostel in bangkok.. its pretty nice for the 9 bucks a night or whatever it may be... we walked down the road a bit and had some pork and sticky rice from a street cart for 110 baht for both of us.. o bahts are way fun... we are going to get reallly good at converting in 3's.. 34 bahts=1 usd. so 100 baht is pretty much 3 bucks. and then we had a tiger beer for 90 bahts at the happy beer garden watching ppl in the street..we found some markets and walked through.. the people still hastle you like bali.. but in a different way..and here everything is knock off desinger.. so if you want a fake ed hardy shirt, or a purse, or tiffanys.. let me know! and theres men trying to get you to see ping pong shows.. i dont think they mean table tennis... it was nice to see a freeway and ramps and cars for a change.. although i cant read a street sign here if my life depends on it.. every once in a while theres an english translation underneath.. but for the most part.. thai has reallly pretty swirly cool looking letters that mean absolutely nothing to me. tomorrow we will explore more! and soon i reckon well be off to phuket and the islands.. we've heard lots of good things about them! because every white person we talked to in bali had alraedy been to thailand.. guess we went backwards. oops!

Lembongan island... Our vacation from vacation. So basic and peaceful and crazy beautiful! Limited Internet and well everything else.. See ya in thai!

no worry be happy

"no worry be happy".. the saying every bali person suggests to us. after set of questions how are you? whats your name? where are you from? im thinking of changing my name or location everytime.. but for some reason the truth always comes out. jenna and i have moved our sleeping place to kuta.. its the happening location let me tell you! its like tourist central.. and we couldtn find a room anywhere cuz of school holidays.. then this one guy who was selling transport (like 45282094 other people on the road) called his friends to help us.. and he walked us to a few places cuz we made it clear we werent going to pay anymore for transport and we both wouldnt fit on his tiny motorbike with our backpacks on.. so we found a little place down an alley and its perfect. none of the roads are straight..they all turn and go different ways and i dont understand how they rarely intersect. its strange. from what ive seen, theres not too much free land in bali.. teh 230 million people i was told live here seem to cover this island pretty well.. ive now identified balis smell.. its the smell of burning leaves used to make the little baskets or trays for the offerings they burn three times a day.. they are little things of flowers, sometimes rice and such outside every store and restarant and little trolley beach cart. its a weird smell that i wont ever get used to.. writing about it makes me think of the smell.. ick. so anyway.. on first arriving in kuta, after we threw down our bags we were hot and starving so we headed across the street to the famous beach in search of food. we decided to try out the local deal.. and the lady told us to sit at the cart.. and we ate rice and chicken that was the best meal yet.. it was 50 cents! and we met a friend there.. he convinced me to eat this pepper.. i knew it was going to be spicy but somehow he convinced me otherwise.. and so i bit it and he laughed and i almost died. so johannas said he could take us around on motorbikes for three days as long as we pay for them and buy him lunch. duh! the bikes are 5 bucks a day... and he got his friend, ozzie, to drive the other one, so jenna and i have a much cheaper personal shuttle these days. the first day they took us back to ubud where our first dude took us, but this time we went to the monkey forest and through the actual town of ubud, where we flew by the artworkand got to intake all the lovely aromas of bali... we also were able to walk on the rice fields which are sooo awesome looking..and we kinda sorta learned their whole deal.. but it was hard with the language barrier..then we went up to mt. batur and had a huge buffet lunch overlooking the volcano and the lake.. pretty sweet view.. and then later we went down to the lake to touch it.. bright blue nad warm water! everywhere we stop so the boys can smoke a cigarette or take a break or watever.. we are SWARMED by the sarong ladies and souvienier ppl.. o gosh its pretty stressful. theres no hiding with our white skin and light hair. ive taken probably 5 or 6 pictures with random ppl basically as a celebrity.. haha. why not.

today was an awesome day too... we got to sleep in a bit before meeting johannas and ozzie down at the circle k for our ride today.. first we went to nusa dua to go snorkeling and to turtle island.. and we decided to try out the flying fish while we were at it. why not. the flying fish was still not worth the bartered down price of 15 usd for "15 mins" of laying against an inflatable raft almost parasailing but really just floating in the air for 2 turns.. totaling a min id say. o well. snorkeling we saw lots of really cool fish.. angel fish, parrot fish, the zerba striped ones that are half yellow.. and ones with pokes on thier foreheads.. that was an hour too..but probably really like 30 mins.. thennn was turtle island where we found out they had build a cage and had 25 turtles in teh bamboo entrapment on the water :( jenna volunteered my single status to the turtle man who greeted us... and he told me if i married him i could have all the turtles i want. o boy how could i turn down that offer?! he was funny and really excited about taking picutres with all the other animals on turtle island.. the 10 ft snake, the bat, the iguana, komodo dragon and such... nothing is what you expect in bali.. better to not have any expectations really.

we then went to 'dreamland' where we had our favorite plate.. nasi goreng.. meat and an egg over flavored rice with some veggies.. yummY! i think dreamland was the name of hte resort or the place we ate it or something.. but watever.. the beach was AMAZING> hugggge surf and lots of good surfers and crystal clear beautiful teal water. nice view. :) then it was off to uluwatu temple for some more monkey fun and the sunset! a monkey stole my hair thing right out of my hair and laughed at me when i tried to get it back :( when he couldnt eat it i laughed at him... but it was still broken. i took too many pictures of monkeys for sure.. and the sunset was sooo nice and relaxing. and then it was another adventure riding home on our bikes of course!

everyone in bali is very concerned that you have a good time and they always volunteer to take pictures for you. they are all very trustworthy.. i never feel threatened in anyway.. jus bothered that they try to make u buy crap every second you stop to scratch ur nose. tomorow is another adventure to another volcano and temple and hot springs! whooo!

well hopefully that paints a better picture for you! more adventures in the last few days are still to come! take care!!!

BALI

bali is almost just as i expected it.. a chaotic wonderful mess! theres generally one to two lanes for traffic marked out.. but that means theres really 3.5 lanes for cars and scooters to drive in. generally theres at least 3-4 people crammed onto one scooter..we've seen a full family of five though. everyone is very very friendly and happy and nice to meet you miss.. come and look at my shop. so we've been bartering for everything..or so we thought. today we went on a "tour" and basically just had a taxi driver who took us around for 25 bucks all day suggesting where we should go. he told us how to better barter for EVERYTHING. dinner. hotels. water. so we knew we were getting ripped off at first when our first meal was 8 bucks? total with two full plates of rice, eggs, and a bit of shrimp each with a beer.. but its still cheap as! when we were waiting to take part in a cremation ceremony today, we stopped in a shop down some street adn had some more than local meal with spicy creepy crawlies.. ha. it was alright. everyone wants us to take their picture... these girls here became our personal fan club.. .they wanted us to take lots of pictures of them. shy at first but then they all whipped out thier cell phones to take my picture because i was so beautiful! ha. they were really cute. and heres a bit of the tower where the dead man got to ride in the '1 k' to the cemetary.. it was a long ass 1 km in the heat down the middle of the road where traffic was stopped so we could just march on through! so it was pretty cool..
adn then we watched them move the dead guy into the bull where they stuck all his belongings and holy water and a live fish? so that they could all be burned together. yea. the dead guy kinda fell outta the bull while they were scorching him. we were lucky to see a 2nd class cremation cuz the 3rd and 4th classes dont get to be burnt in the bull and they have less offeriings...
heres the town dudes playing all types of crazy cool songs the hour before the procession... it was really cool and completely nothing that would happen in the states for so many reasons... i cant even imagine the number of toxic fumes from the vibrant paints we breathed in and such.
o and arriving to bali was its own advenure too! first they almost kept me in australia cuz i didnt have a printed itinerary that said i was leaving bali.. so i went up and down and allll around th brisbane airport trying to get proof that i wasnt going to live in bali.. we finally found a computer to print on.. .adn they let me on the plane.. where i never ever needed to show that paper. upon landing we were greeted with face masks before even leaving the plane.. and then we were all hearded like cattle through customs... where we each stepped into this stainless steal booth to disinfect us from swine flu. and then we were hearded again to pay 25 bucks to get our visas and had to stand around for over an hour. no one is in a rush here. ever. theres no excuse for one even. all the streets are crowded and the shops all line up right to the road.. i thought there would be more open space.. where i think the people live in these little walled areas behind and next to whatever shops are kinda cool.. many decorated with asian statues and stuff...hindu and buddism.. although theres tons of muslims and even christains. quite the bit more educational experience than australia.. but that was to be expected! so now ive been on the internet for too long and need to go barter my price. prolly down to 50 cents from a dollar! haha.. nah its not all thatttt cheap. but pretty darn good! kk let me know how you are all doing!

jenna petting her first roo :)jenna's b-day at outback jacks! o wait..
sunset on southport
my personal surf instructor
the natural bridge in springbrook national forest.. (jed getting ready to take a dip)

Bali is amazing sorry I can only type in the title line guess iPods and Bali internets don't fully agree

yesterday we went to springbrook and the natural arch in the hinterland of the gold coast.. it was fun re-exploring the old stomping grounds of the marshmallow with molly, christie, tiff and colleen! it was pretty cool in the mountains but nice to get away from the busy coast life.. we had a big plan to go to byron for the night the other night, but the gold coast marathon had everythign closed on the highway and we couldnt get the car we hired. :( and then we tried to go to collangatta to explore for the day but the buses were messed up too.. and we didnt really get anywhere for the day. we did, however, see katrina running in the marathon which was cool! we hung out with drake and i went out with drake and michael for the night to catch up on old times.. right now we are doing our laundry and eating muffins at drakes getting our clothes ready for bali... we are supposed to leave for the currumbin wildlife park right now, but its raining so we may haveta re-evaluate... or i guess were going to go and hang out in the rain with the roos!

dicky beach shipwrecknoosa heads sunset soo pretty!

the view halfway up mt. warning! this is murwilllumbah where jed lives

the climb to the top was steeeeeeppp

byron bay lighthouse with jaqi and jenna

and what isnt a road trip without a few breakdowns!? RIP jeds car..

the pub with no beer excursion!!! they had beer and it was bogan.

yes. this is our wicked van that i learned to drive stick in. o beautiful 5 days in the orgie van...

jaqi's university in sydney... no big deal!

sisters infront of the harbour bridge :)

Livin it up

Jenna and I spent the last two days driving up the sunshine coast.. we stopped at the australia zoo and decided 50 bucks was too much to visit steve irwin's family and friends.. we stayed at sunshine beach on the sunshine coast in the sunshine state.. good thing it is was sunny! we spent the afternoon roaming around noosa and such.. it was nice.. when we got back to the goldie we helped jed and nick finish their new move in to their apartment that is practically on the beach! yay! so this morning we woke up and went for a surf and crashed a hot tub with a bunch of mates.. we seem to travel everywhere in large groups which is lots of fun! yesterday jenna, jess and i went up to burleigh beach to have a look around and enjoy the beautifulness of hte beach! and tonight were having a party at drakes house! we had to travel by bus to his house today in order to get internet.. being cheap makes it hard to find internet.. bah. but at least were out enjoying the sunny winter..and the "cold" water.... its not even half as bad as our warmest water! yay. everything seems to be good. and were gettin ready to head to bali in less than a week! o my!!!