I'm a professional rock climber....

...not really, but kind of. So Michole and I tried out rock climbing the other day on Railay Beach, and of all the things I ever thought I'd be good at, rock climbing was definitely not one of them. I proved myself wrong though, surprisingly. Neither of us had ever climbed before, unless you count fake rock climbing at the gym, but this was the real deal. Ridiculously high vertical cliffs right on the beach. We signed up at "Tex Rock Climbing"...(figured the name was a good sign) and headed out with our guide in the morning. There were lots of other groups out there through the same company, so we all moved around to different climbs within the area. Our first climb, with our guide Singha, looked horrifying. We got there and just stared straight up to where we were supposed to climb to and then both looked at each other like, "this is the beginner's course??" It was. Singha tought us all the basics...tying the right knot so as to not fall and die, etc. Then he scampered up the wall to hook the rope in at the top. And then it was time to climb. I stepped up and went first. This first climb wasn't too awesome considering we were just figuring out the right steps to take, what to look for to hold onto the wall, etc. Singha basically just told me exactly what to use, so I made it up to the top after much talking back and forth about where to move next. Then Michole went and made it up to the top as well. I think Singha liked us so he was trying to help us out as much as possible. The second climb was a lot harder. It was less obvious where we were supposed to hold on and climb up, not to mention it was completely vertical, but I made it straight up. The guide on this climb, Bo---a reggaeish dreadlocked Thai man, hardly told me anything. I just went straight up to the top. No problems. Third climb, same thing. Except no one was really telling me anything. Just monkeyed my way up there really fast. There happened to be a large group of English guys our age climbing with us. It was their first time as well...and Michole and I ended up being roughly eight million times better than them. The fourth climb was one of the hardest ones, and also the tallest one that we did. You start out on the same path as the second climb, but you keep going higher. You even get to a point where it's just slick rock. There are no holes to grab onto or good ridges to put your feet. You're just spidering your way up the wall. The first English guy to try it barely made it to the top. He had to stop lots of times and even let go of the wall completely so Bo had to pull the rope to suspend him in the air. After multiple breaks, he made it to the top. Then it was my turn. I made it up there in one shot. And fast. Bo didn't even have to help me out. It was ridiculous! I was so proud of myself. Michole made it all the way as well. And the next English guy to go didn't even make it to the top. We were proud. And then the last climb. Only two of us in our group attempted it-English guy who took lots of breaks up the fourth climb....and me. English guy couldn't even make it onto the wall. (You have to pull yourself up over an overhang first to even get onto the cliff.) I made it up...again with no problems. Which made me the only one to successfully complete the fifth climb. Awesome!

So pretty much I would love to continue rock climbing. Hopefully there are places to do this in LA. And hopefully this hobby doesn't meet the same fate as the guitar and the bicycle. But really...who woulda thought I'd be good at that of all things?! Crazy. Oh and we have TONS of pictures of us climbing. I just made the executive decision that since I'll be home in two days, I don't feel like taking the extra time to upload all those pictures. It takes forever. Internet is not exactly fast over here. I promise I'll email them to everyone when I get home.

We left Railay Beach on the 18th and it was quite the miserable journey back to Ao Nang on the long tail boat. For starters, it was raining. The long tail boats have a small covered portion, so everyone on the boat huddled under there. And it had been storming really bad on the 17th, so the waves were ridiculously high, and we were in this small wooden boat cutting right over them. Needless to say, I'm glad that we're done with long tail boats. The worst part was that he dropped us off REALLY far away from where we were supposed to get picked up to go to the Krabi airport. We paid for transporation to the airport at the pier (which is where we left Ao Nang for Railay via long tail boat) and on our way back in, the waves were too strong to stop the long tail at that spot, so he had to go up the coast to calmer waters. When we got out (in the rain, of course) we had to walk with our huge backpacks all the way back to the pier. In the rain. Did I mention it was raining? Because it was raining. Hard. This made us late to be picked up to the airport, and the poor guy had been waiting for us for thirty minutes, but he was still there (there's some good news) and took us to the airport in his fancy minibus that was equipped with a huge flat screen TV playing a concert tribute to Bob Marley. Nothing like some good reggae tunes in a minibus to Krabi driven by a terrible Thai driver. Good times. We made it, though, and were also smart enough to put a change of clothes in the top of our bags so that we wouldn't be soaking wet on the plane to Bangkok.

We flew from Krabi to Bangkok, then waited in the airport for roughly five hours before boarded a plane to Chiang Mai. There were earlier flights, but we went with the cheapest option. Hence waiting around in the airport. But we made it to Chiang Mai! Although we thought our baggage didn't. Isn't that the best feeling...when you're waiting at the baggage claim and eeeeeeveryone else has their bags except you? Yeah that's how we felt. They found them, though. How miserable would it have been to lose our bags right at the end of the trip? That wasn't our fate, thank goodness. So we've been in Chiang Mai since the 18th. We're staying at the same hotel Michole stayed in last time she was here, and it's really nice. It's in a great location, and we've really liked it. The main attraction of Chiang Mai is the night market. Every night, hundreds of vendors set up shop down some of the streets and even take over and entire square selling their merchandise. I think Chiang Mai now has more of my money than any other place on this trip. But it's worth it...I've bought some really amazing things. So we've gone to the night markets every night and shopped around. It's been really fun.

On the 19th, we went to Doi Suthep...a huge temple up on top of a mounain. That's was really cool. (Lots of pictures...no worries.) I also went to a lady that Michole went to last time and am getting two suits made and one pair of nice pants. I went back for a fitting the other day, and she was making really good progress. Final fitting today in about an hour. Hopefully the turn out well!! Oh and yesterday, we went trekking. We went on a group tour and started out at some hilltribe villages seeing how they live and the things they make. Then, we hiked to yet another waterfall. It wasn't as big as the one in Bali, nor did we have as hard of a hike as the one in Koh Samui, but it was really pretty. After that, we went and rode elephants!!!!! It was so fun...I was giddy the whole time. There was a baby elephant following us around and I don't think the smile ever left my face. I have lots of photos of them, too. Apparently, they start training them when the elephants are only a year old. They train them with one of the hilltribe languages, so it's weird to hear them control the elephants. They can speak really softly and the elephants know exactly what they're saying. It was crazy...they were really smart and obedient. Except ours kept stopping and putting his trunk back towards us asking for bananas...(you could buy bunches of bananas to hand out to them, and we ended up buying about six bunches...hungry elephants.) So our elephant got in trouble a few times for stopping and asking for food. It was kind of adorable. Oh and the baby one would stick his trunk up on our legs and beg for bananas, too. He was so little that we really had to strain to get him bananas. Precious. After the elephant riding, we did bamboo rafting....which I would advise you wear a bathing suit for. Or maybe bring a towel or some clean clothes for afterwards. Lucky for Michole and I, not only did we fail to wear a bathing suit, but we only had the clothes on our backs. Awesome. You get soaking wet. Not just "oooh man it looks like I peed my pants from where I sat on the raft." No...completely soaking wet. As in, I may as well have jumped in the river with my clothes on. The guides think it's funny so they keep splashing you to make you wetter saying "NOT ENOUGH! NOT ENOUGH!" when you're only half soaking wet. So after we stumbled off the raft, we bought new outfits from some lady with a little booth set up. I actually ended up with a really cute dress and Michole with a cool pair of shorts, so it wasn't so bad. Good way for her to make money...sell clothes to the idiots who didn't bring their own. Definitely smart.

Today, we're just kind of taking it easy. I'm going to buy a new bag for all by new purchases. And probably also pick up a few more things. Tomorrow, we leave Chiang Mai on a train bound for Bangkok at 8:30 in the morning. It's a 12 hour train ride, but I'm looking forward to it. It'll be cool to see the country all the way down to Bangkok. We have a hotel booked there for tomorrow night really close to the airport so that around 5 am on the 23rd, we can head over there! Our flight leaves Bangkok at 8:20 bound for Hong Kong. From there, we fly to LA and enjoy an 8 hour layover. We get back to Austin at 11:55 pm on the 23rd! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone, and am ready to be home. This trip has been absolutely incredible and has been the trip of a lifetime. I'm so grateful that I was able to go, and I know Michole and I will remember it forever. I can't wait to show everyone all the pictures! See you all soon!

Lots of photos!

Ok finally...a computer that accepts my camera. So I have roughly a million photos to share with you. Here goes:


This was on the beach in Nha Trang, Vietnam.


Look! Proof that Michole and I made friends in Nha Trang. Some of these guys were from England and one was from Brazil.


This was our hotel in Mui Ne.


The beach on Mui Ne.


Kuala Lumpur Tower.


The Petras Twin Towers.


Look! It's me at the bottom!


The towers at night.


Parrots that dive bombed us at the bird park in Kuala Lumpur.


Flamingos.


Peacock.


The starfish that I found in Bali.


Tanjung Benoa beach in Bali.


Our resort at Tanjung Benoa, Bali.


The view from our hotel room on Tanjung Benoa.


Surfers on Kuta Beach, Bali.


Kuta Beach, Bali.


Michole and I at our resort in Ubud, Bali.


A monkey on the street in Ubud. Normal.


Baby monkey in the monkey forest!


Mommy monkey with baby in tow.


As close as I got to the monkeys. I didn't want them to attack me.


Ketut Liyer! Medicine man and palm reader extraordinare.


Floating temple in the north of Bali.


At the floating temple. The Buddha statue really wanted a photo with us.


Rice terraces in north Bali.


Huge waterfall in north Bali.


Us at the bottom of the waterfall. I don't think you could hike to the top of this one...well you probably could, but we've already done that once. Staying at the bottom was fine. :)


The hot springs in the north of Bali.


On the 15 hour train ride!


Thumbs up for train rides!


On the long tail boat to Railay Beach.


Railay Beach. This is what we stare at every morning while laying out on the beach. Gorgeous.


Looking the other way down Railay Beach.

Ok so that's it for photos right now. Hopefully more to come! Michole and I are going rock climbing tomorrow!!! No worries...they assured us no experience necessary...we'll see about that. I'm excited about it. Railay is known for its rock climbing...so when in Rome! Enjoy the photos!

Back in Thailand!

I. Am. Exhausted.

The past two days have been a whirlwind of traveling, but hopefully I'll get to catch up on some rest now that we're back in Thailand.

Wow, I haven't updated this thing in forever. Ok...so Bali. We went to Ubud on the 9th and stayed there until the 12th and really had a good time. Ubud is more inland, so there wasn't a beach. It's a small town, really centered on one main road-lots of restaurants and shops. Oh and a monkey forest. Yes, I went to the monkey forest. And took roughly 8,000 pictures. Which hopefully I will post soon. Our hotel was really nice. It felt like we were really in the middle of a jungle or something. Again...photos soon. So we relaxed in Ubud, shopped a bit, and then did a full day tour of North Bali one day. We went to some Botanical Gardens (that we didn't care about. At all. And it was cold there), to a lake with floating temples, to one of the black sand beaches in the north, and to a natural hot springs. It was a good day...just long and tiring. One of the best things we did in Ubud, though, was find Ketut Liyer. If you haven't read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, then you're missing out. It's phenomenal. Basically, Liz Gilbert is a woman who recently went through a terrible divorce and is trying to get back on track to find herself and figure out what really makes her happy. In doing so, she travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia (each place for a few months at a time) to try and sort herself out. In Indonesia, she lives in Bali just outside of Ubud. She goes to spend time with this medicine man named Ketut Liyer. He's well known in Bali for what he does, and he's also a palm reader and makes magic paintings. Apparently, lots of women come to him if they're unable to find love, he paints them a magic painting, and soon after, they find what they're looking for! I know...sounds really weird, but after meeting him, he's totally legit. No worries...I didn't get a magic painting or anything. He told Michole and I that we're too young...love is coming! We won't have to wait long...(law school??) Meeting him was really amazing, though. In the book, he's such a HUGE influence on Liz Gilbert, and we felt like we got to know him through her writing, so actually finding him was great. He's like 90 years old or something...he can't remember when his birthday is, so each time you ask him his answer changes...usually depending on how he feels each day. If it's a really good day, he'll say he's 65. If he feels tired, he'll throw out an older age. He was 80 when we went to see him. He read each of our palms. In addition...he checked on our health through his own medicine man ways. Apparently we're both really healthy. Interestingly, he told each of us, without knowing our plans or our history, that we're on a similar path to success (law school), and that we're both incredibly smart, bright people (due to the fact that I had a star on my forehead and back...don't know where he found that...and Michole had a moon). Oh and Mom and Dad...apparently you'll have two grandchildren one day. Before I'm 35, he says. (I better get on it then, huh!!) He said each of us would be incredibly successful, satisfied, and happy. Hopefully he got that right.

So meeting Ketut was really a treat. We enjoyed that. We left Ubud on the 12th really early in the morning...and thus began the reason why I'm exhausted. We flew out at 8:00 in the morning to Kuala Lumpur. Got there around 11:30 and took a bus to the train station where we sat around until 8:45 that night to get on our train. Long day. Not to mention, we had to keep moving all of our crap around because multiple people with horrid hygiene sat next to us at different stages during the day. Couldn't handle it, so kept moving around. It was awful. But, there was a McDonald's, so it really wasn't too bad. The train ride to Hat Yai, Thailand was about 15 hours...but we were in a sleeper car, so we just slept the whole time. It wasn't bad at all. We got into Thailand around 1:00 yesterday afternoon and took a minibus to Krabi, which is a town kind of near Phuket. That took about 5 hours. Our final destination was Railay Beach which you can only get to by long tail boat, but apparently the last boats leave at 6:00 pm every day so we missed that. We took a cab to Ao Nang, just about fifteen minutes from Krabi, and spent the night there. It's a shorter boat ride from there to Railay so we figured that was the best option. I don't think I've ever felt more disgusting in my life than I did when we finally got into the hotel in Ao Nang last night. Not only had I not showered but I'd had nowhere to brush my teeth. I really feel sorry for the people who sat next to us on the minibus for five hours. Sick. So pretty much we each cleaned ourselves last night and then passed out.

We slept in this morning, and then took the long tail boat to Railay beach. We just checked into our hotel here, and it's really beautiful. Railay is really small, and it's exactly as you would picture Thailand. The stock photo that's on the front page of my blog looks exactly like this beach. It's a white sand beach with blue water surrounded by cliffs. Amazing. We're gonna go lay on the beach the rest of the day. And we're here for four nights, so hopefully we'll get some good relaxing in. On the 18th, we fly north to Chiang Mai, and will be there for four nights. On the 22nd, back to Bangkok (probably by train), spend one night, then wake up early early in the morning for our 8:00 am flight back home!!! It's been quite the unbelievable journey, but I'm definitely ready for home. Lots of memories to take back with me, though!

Again, I'll try to get photos up soon. These computers look more promising than the ones in Bali. We'll see. Hope all is well! And see you all soon!

Bali, beautiful Bali

I can't believe I'm actually in Bali.  It's one of those places that I've always heard about but never thought was possible to visit, like it's some exotic tropical place that only exists in books or something.  And I'm actually here.  I've always heard that it's amazing but nothing I heard even compares to how great it actually is.  

But before I get into that...Kuala Lumpur.  Michole and I spent all day on the 4th of July galavanting around the city.  First, we went to see the Kuala Lumpur Tower which is a super tall space needle thing...like with the observation deck towards the top and a revolving restaurant above that.  It was really cool because we could see the entire city from every angle from there.  After that, we went over to the Petronas Twin Towers.  They were amazing and ridiculously tall.  We couldn't go up to the top or anything, but we were able to stand downstairs and take nine million pictures.  There's actually a bridge connecting the two, and they call that the observation deck, which is where people are allowed to go, but the problem is that they only give out a certain number of tickets a day and if you don't get in line at 7:00 in the morning, then chances are you will not be going up to that bridge.  Hence why we just stood outside.  One day, hopefully, you will all be able to see the photos that we took but the last two computers I went to just decided not to acknowledge the presence of my camera.  This is why I continue to not be able to upload photos.  Maybe I'll get lucky next computer.  Anyway...after the photo op at the twin towers, we were hungry (me, hungry?  crazy!  :) ) so we decided, it being the 4th of July and all, that we would celebrate by eating lunch at McDonald's.  I mean, how much more American can you get?  So after an absolutely fabulous meal, we wound our way around the city and went to a bird park.  Yes, a bird park.  Don't worry...I have a million pictures of funny birds that will one day make it onto this blog.  It was actually really cool.  Apparently, it's the largest covered bird park in the world.  Most of the birds are free to just roam around, because the whole park is covered with like a net.  Some of the birds were in secluded areas, such as the ostriches.  Those things are mean.  And ugly.  We walked through a section called "Parrot World" that had some cages, but mostly just various types of parrots flying around your head.  We were almost dive bombed a few times, but it was entertaining.  Everywhere we walked there were peacocks.  Everywhere.  It's like they just threw a few peacocks around the entire park just to entertain you wherever you went.  We actually saw one with full plumage shown trying to woo a female, but I think he got intimidated by the massive amounts of people snapping photos of him.  Or was embarrassed that said female was zero percent interested and kept walking away.  Either way, he lowered the feathers.  But he was really pretty when he had all those feathers out.  (Again...photos will be posted hopefully soon.  After the bird park, we took the monorail to the train station (yes...we conquered the monorail in a foreign country.  Nice!) and bought our train tickets for July 12 when we'll be travelling by train from Kuala Lumpur to Thailand.  It's a long train ride, but we bought tickets for actual beds, so that'll be nice.  To round off our day in Kuala Lumpur and celebrate for the 4th of July just a bit more, we went to Hard Rock Cafe and ate our weight in BBQ.  It was heavenly.  We both figured if we were at home we'd be eating BBQ, so it was only appropriate.  

All in all, Kuala Lumpur was really nice.  It was a cool, modern city with definite Moorish influence in the architecture.  The people...not so awesome, but we were only there one day so it didn't really matter.  Although we will be sitting at the KL train station for eight hours on the 12th before our train takes off.  Eh...what can you do?  

On the 5th, we flew to Bali!!!  Ohhh Bali.  Where do I even begin?  Thanks to Michole's amazing hotel researching skills, we are staying at the Aston Bali on Tanjung Benoa (one of Bali's beaches) which happens to be a four star hotel.  And we're only paying $65 a night...total.  Which seems super expensive to us considering the less than $20 dollar nights that we've been paying for at most hotels, but we decided, hey...it's Bali.  Let's do it right.  The hotel is truly breathtaking.  Seriously...this is an amazing vacation spot.  It should be considered in the future for your vacations.  Our room is HUGE, the pool is HUGE (equipped with waterfalls and a swim up bar), and the beach is gorgeous.  It's really interesting because in the morning, the tide is really high and goes all the way up to where the lounge chairs are on the beach.  Around 3:30 every day, it recedes way back and leaves small lakes of water surrounded by sculpted sand dunes from the waves earlier in the day.  We walked through where the water receded and saw some random marine life that looked like it was just hoping that the makeshift lake it had been deposited in wouldn't recede.  I took a picture of a really cool starfish I saw.  You wanna see it?  Oh just kidding...computers here hate my camera.

I digress...so the hotel is really great.  We're having a blast.  The other night, they had a Japanese BBQ buffet outside by the pool which also featured traditional Balinese music.  Which was weird because I could have SWORN they were a mariachi band.  Balinese mariachis.  Crazy.  They walked around to tables like a mariachi band and the music actually sounded kind of similar.  Needless to say, Michole and I left our table just in time because they were walking towards it to serenade us.  Today we took a cab to Kuta Beach which is the more touristy beach.  We're glad we didn't stay there.  We like our quiet beach, but it was nice to go over there for the day.  Kuta is a surfer's paradise.  Really big constant swells that are all pipelines.  We just sat on the beach and stared at all the surfers for a good hour while trying to avoid the nine million people trying to sell us temporary tattoos and pineapples.  Then, we found a book store, which was the best find ever considering we had both run out of books and needed more.  I bought four and will probably finish all of them before I head home...lots of travelling time equals lots of reading time.  So we're back at the hotel, about to eat dinner, and then we'll probably go sit in one of the many sitting areas in the hotel and read.

We'll be at this hotel until July 9th, and then we head more inland to Ubud.  It's apparently the cultural hotspot of Bali.  It's surrounded by rice terraces and is rumored to be one of the most beautiful places on earth...so we hear from the people here.  Who probably haven't seen much of earth.  But they are basically the happiest people I've ever seen.  Always with huge smiles on their faces and more than willing to help you with anything.  They are by far my favorite of people that I have encountered on this trip.  Anyway, we'll be in Ubud for three nights and then on the 12th, back to Kuala Lumpur to an 8 hour wait at the train station.       

Again, I really hope to get some pictures up here soon.  Hold tight!  Other than that, we're still having an amazing time.  I can't believe we've already been gone for three weeks.  I miss you all and hope all is well!

Mui Ne, Vietnam / Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hello all! So the other day, Michole and I took a five hour bus ride to Mui Ne (a beach in Vietnam) from Nha Trang (the first beach in Vietnam that we were on). During that five hours, we switched buses once and stopped what seemed like every twenty minutes for a "toilet break", which really means "I have a contract with this random shop in the middle of nowhere so buy things, use their toilet, and then they give me commission." Regardless, we made it to Mui Ne. Too bad we were only staying for one night because it was gorgeous. (I know I sound repetitive with all the gorgeousness of the beaches but really, they're unbelievable). The resort had bungalows right on the beach and a huge pool with comfy lounge chairs. We immediately went to the pool and swam for a bit, then I found the spot with the most shade to hang out in considering I still look half lobster half white. It was a really relaxing day. I took some pictures of the resort/the beach but I forgot to take my camera cord with me to this internet cafe, so I'll have to post those later.

Next morning, we got on another five hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). This bus ride was nine million times better (no having to switch to a new bus), and we also stopped less. Basically I slept the whole time. We weren't able to spend any time in Saigon because we had our huge backpacks with us, so we just went straight to the airport. We got there around 2:30 and our flight wasn't until 7:00, so we pretty much just sat around, read, and people watched. Our flight was only two hous to Kuala Lumpur, and after a MISERABLE taxi ride to our hotel, we went to bed. I say miserable because the little guy made Michole sit in the front seat with him and wouldn't shut up. He kept asking all these questions, and his voice was extremely loud. He even turned up his music so loud at one point that even I felt like it was too loud. Not to mention, terrible music. He made us really uncomfortable. And then he said he'd be back to pick us up tomorrow to go back to the airport and so we got his card just to be nice and promptly tossed it in the trash upon entering the hotel. What a crazy.

Today, we're going to go see the twin towers here in Kuala Lumpur and also some of the other sights around there. I think those were previously the tallest towers in the world until somewhere like Dubai surpassed them? I could be wrong. Regardless...they looked really cool last night when we were driving in, so we're going to go take a look. Tomorrow, we fly to Bali! We'll be on a beach there for four nights and then in Ubud for three nights. Can't wait!

Ha Long Bay/Nha Trang

So on the 27th, Michole and I went on a cruise through Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. It was absolutely incredible. We left Hanoi early in the morning and three and a half hours later, we made it to Ha Long Bay. Not to mention, in that entire three and a half hours we had the pleasure of listening to this Thai guy talk on one of his two phones (one a Blackberry and one an iPhone...which is completely necessary). This wasn't just any Thai guy. No...he happened to be Captain Amazing, or as Michole described him, "the most important man in the world." Really, he was. I mean, you must be the most important person on the planet if you're talking on your phone about your many houses around the world and that you're currently playing host to Jean Claude van Damme (or JC as he likes to call him) at your beach house in Phuket cause he's filming a movie there. Oh and also it was important for all of us to know that he was planning on building a Ritz Carlton in Phuket but is instead building some other fancy hotel because it was easier to plan or something along those lines. Basically, he's super important...switching between speaking in Thai on one phone and California surfer-esque English on the other. The best part, though, was when he stood up tall at a striking 5 foot 2. (No offense to all of you wonderful short people out there but damn. This guy has a Napoleon complex.) It made for an interesting ride to the bay.

Once we got there, though, we checked into our boat-Indochina Sails II. Here it is:

Sorry...not the best picture ever. But it was super nice. Our room was immaculately clean and pretty. Hard wood everywhere, marble bathroom, fancy bedspreads, free wine (!!!), and right down the hall from the dining room. Granted, I almost starved during lunch since it was a set menu...consisting of mainly Vietnamese dishes meaning fresh seafood. Luckily, I had a can of pringles in the room. And some oreos. I may or may not be gaining lots of pounds here. After "lunch," we took a boat tour through a floating fishing village in Ha Long Bay. It was eye opening. These people live in tiny shelters floating on the water and spend their days fishing and hoping tourists like us will float by long enough that they can attach their little boats to us and try to sell us a soda or water. Here are some photos of the village:


As you can see...they live in extreme poverty...although almost every house we went by had a nice TV. Crazy! Apparently they get electricity from generators, so I guess they spend a lot of free time watchin' the tube. It was really interesting to see this village though...completely floating on the water.

After the boat tour, we went kayaking through a cave with bats flying around our heads. After steering clear of rabies, we climbed this mountain with a pagoda at the top and took lots of cheesy pictures. It was really pretty up there, so we went kinda crazy with the cameras. I'll spare you all of those. Here are a few:

You can see Ha Long Bay in the background. There's over two thousand of those islands everywhere. The majority of them are just like floating cliffs, though.

This is probably a better shot of the islands.

It's a dolphin trash can!!! I couldn't resist.

After our photo session, we headed back to the boat for dinner. A buffet! I could eat! Ha...lots of good food choices. Lots of wine. Sleep at 9:00. It was amazing. The next morning, we woke up and went on a tour of the Surprise Cave, apparently named by the explorers in the early 1900s who were completely "surprised" at the inside of the cave that they happened across. It has three chambers, one of which being breathtakingly huge. I tried to take pictures, but none of them turned out very well...here's one of the better ones of the big chamber, although it really doesn't do it any justice:

All the rock formations from thousands of years of calcium being deposited from the water are amazing. It was really interesting, and I'm glad we got to see it.

After the cave, we had brunch on the boat then it was time to go! Don't worry...we were definitely with Captain Amazing again on our ride back to Hanoi. And also don't worry...he was just as important this time.

Back in Hanoi, we stayed at the Hanoi Elegance again...still the best hotel we've been in by far. Michole and I even decided to be less lame and go out! We found a bar with a balcony and were able to sit and look over the millions of motorbikes down below. Just to get an idea of how many bikes there are in this place, I took a pic from the balcony of a makeshift parking lot. Look at all the bikes!!

It's crazy.

Yesterday, we hopped on a plane to Nha Trang, which is where we are now. It's a beautiful beach town, and also happens to be the location of the Miss Universe 2008 pageant which takes place here in two weeks. They're already rehearsing and stuff for it so it's been interesting to watch some of it. The city is completely excited about it...posters are up everywhere advertising for the pageant. Obviously, it's a big deal here. I'll keep ya'll posted on any Miss United States sightings or anything. We layed out by the beach all day today. For like three dollars we got two comfy chairs under a cabana umbrella thing, so that's where we spent our day. And that's also where I developed the most awkward sunburn of all time. Apparently, when I spray my sunscreen on, I don't rub it all in correctly. So instead of being sunburned all over, I have splotches. On my knees, my legs, my arms, my back. Basically, I look like I have a skin condition. I bought some aloe and bathed in it earlier so we'll see what happens. It's really bad. Especially with the contrast of RED on WHITE. Nice.

We're about to go grab dinner and then there's this bar called the Sailing Club right on the beach that has happy hour tonight and really cheap drinks so we're gonna see how long we can stay out. I'm so proud of us for trying to go out! Ha...usually we just read until we fall asleep. Oh well...we're on vacation, right!?

Hanoi, Vietnam

We're in Vietnam! So crazy...I repeated that to Michole like a million times today. I keep trying to picture exactly where I am on a map and every time it blows my mind...this is amazing.

We got here around 1:30 this afternoon after spending last night in Bangkok. The hotel we stayed in was close to the airport and really convenient. So convenient, in fact, that it was called "Convenient Hotel and Resort"...and it was basically a replica of a Holiday Inn Express. Except that it had this toilet:

How great is that?! Haha...the room was actually really nice and then we walk into the bathroom and BAM! It's like they handed a two year old some stickers and said go to town. Love it.

So we flew over to Hanoi today and spent the day walking around the Old Quarter, which is the part of town we're staying in. It's also the part of town with the most French influence so it's really old/colonial looking. There's a beautiful lake right in the middle of the Old Quarter with floating temples on it. We were able to go into one of them and walk around. Really we just took pictures of the lake...so here goes:


This is the floating temple.

The red bridge to get over to the floating temple.

The other floating temple...but looks like you can't get there unless you feel like swimming. Probably not the best of plans.

Another part of the lake. There's a really pretty walkway that goes all the way around it...they call it a "jogging trail" and people were actually exercising everywhere around the lake. Except the kind of exercise they do here is ridiculous. And by ridiculous I mean absolutely hilarious to watch. They just stand there and swing their arms around then crouch down and swing their arms some more, then shake each leg for a while, then do a little jig, then repeat. How this is supposed to be good for you is beyond me but it was definitely entertaining to watch.

Our hotel in Hanoi is amazing. Everyone who works here is absolutely wonderful and accommodating. It's one of the nicer hotels we've stayed in the whole trip. They even booked us a cruise on Ha Long Bay for tomorrow night. I'm really excited about this. Apparently Ha Long Bay is currently being considered to be one of the new "Wonders of the World." So basically it's going to be gorgeous. We cruise on a junk (Vietnamese yacht basically) and we get to go kayaking, and we stop at some secluded beaches and islands and such. It should be really nice. We get back to Hanoi on the 28th and we're staying at this same hotel again. The 29th we'll be heading to Nha Trang...beach town! Super excited about that, naturally.

Oh also while in Hanoi today we went to a water puppet show. It was...interesting. I had read about how it was "absolutely necessary" to go see the water puppet show, and it was only two dollars, so we went. Basically, you go into this theater (think super miniaturized version of Bass Concert Hall and/or just a lecture hall at a university with comfy red seats) and the stage is a pool of water with a big Vietnamese building in the background/palm treees, etc. The puppeteers stand behind the building thing and move the puppets around in the water. Then there's traditional Vietnamese musicians sitting on the side playing music...and I guess I'm not the biggest fan of Vietnamese music. Just got kind of bored. The whole thing was actually pretty boring. But it's a really traditional Vietnamese art form, so we did our part to experience the culture while we were here. I'll just pass on those from now on.

By the way, if I was to die here it would be from getting plowed down by one of the eight billion motor bikes coming at you at any given time. There are no "you can walk now" signs on any street so you basically just have to start walking, don't look anyone in the eye, and hope that the oncoming traffic sees you and swerves to miss you. We've had more than one near death experience, to be honest. But amazingly, the people are used to this, and they all drive pretty slow (as opposed to the crazy fast drivers in Bangkok) so I think we'll be ok. :)

I'll post about Ha Long Bay when we get back! Hope all is well.

Photos!!

Finally some photos! I think i just spent almost 200 baht (roughly 6 dollars) using the internet trying to load up my pictures, and I wasn't even able to load all of them, so I picked some of the best ones. So here goes:

Michole and I at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. It was gorgeous.

More Grand Palace.

Some Buddhas.

At the Grand Palace.

More of the Grand Palace.

The Reclining Buddha. It's HUGE.

The feet of the Reclining Buddha. See the person to the right? Puts it into perspective a bit.

At a secluded beach on Koh Tao. There were huge rocks everywhere but it was really pretty.

More on that same beach. Those bungalows are where we hope to stay next time we come out here :)

I thought this was cool. It's on a beach in Koh Tao, and the rocks are massive. I thought it was neat to see how high the tide comes up. And also the balancing skills of that rock on top.

Koh Tao.

This was walking through a beautiful resort on Koh Tao.

Walking into the water!

Now that I know how to post photos, I'll probably be able to do it more. Koh Tao was absolutely beautiful. Michole went diving one morning and I went with her on the dive and went snorkeling. There were two sisters from Ireland with us (one snorkeled with me) and then a couple from Australia who have become our new best friends. We hung out with them all day. They've been traveling for 5 YEARS! I can't imagine. But Thailand is their last stop before they head home. Anyway, snorkeling was unbelievable...beautiful reefs and tons of fish that I've never seen before in my life! The extreme sunburn on the backs of my legs was definitely worth it. :) The dive instructors were a married couple from Brazil who are living on Koh Tao and they were amazing. They were so happy and positive and just radiated fun. They're like those people who always make a good time out of every situation, and they definitely love diving so they were super excited to take us all out.

Yesterday, we took took a huge catamaran from Koh Tao back to Koh Samui, which is where we're staying now. Our resort is RIGHT on the beach, and it's like one of those beaches that you see in postcards for exotic places. It's stunning. We can walk straight out on the beach from our little pool area. We have a bungalow that's really nice, and there are a lot of people our age staying here-mostly from Europe, but there are a few American girls too. We're hoping to make friends with some of them and go out tonight. Here are some photos of Koh Samui:

Laying on the beach at our hotel.

Paradise!

Looking down the beach the other way.

Oh AND...Michole and I climbed an 80 meter waterfall today!!! I don't know how many feet that is, but it was a lot. And it was steep. And we were climbing up roots and rocks and mud and it was awesome. I'm really proud of us. Here are some pictures of our huge accomplishment:

This was on our way up the waterfall. What a beautiful view.

There's the waterfall! It doesn't look as massive in this photo, but it was huge. And this was just the bottom...we climbed all the way to the top.

This is looking down close to the top.

Michole and I at the top! There was a little pool up there, so we went for a swim...and promptly got out when fish were nibbling on us. It felt weird. Although it was worth it considering we were DRENCHED in sweat.

Me with Bom. He showed us the way up to the top. There's no way we would have made it without him considering there was absolutely no path.

This was one of the parts that actually had a rope for you to hold on to. The majority of the way up was steeper than this and you just had to figure out how to not fall.

So pretty much I'm having the best time EVER. I've decided that the beaches are much more fun for me than the cities...surprise surprise. I'm not looking forward to going back to Bangkok tomorrow, but we just spend the night there and then we're off to Vietnam on the 26th! Oh and just in case you were wondering, my stomach feels fine and I've been eating plenty of pasta. As in spaghetti. Because there are Italian restaurants everywhere. Perfect!