Go Saints!!

So I've been here in Australia for 5 months and I've yet to update anything but my photos. When I've sat down and tried to blog I kept coming up empty, thinking my daily life was too boring. These last few days in St. Kilda though have made me realize the little things, when appreciated, can actually be the most interesting.

The main sport here in Australia is good ol' "Footy", or the AFL. It's a bit of a combination of soccer and rugby played on a massive field. Mark's Australian friend took us to see a game back in May and I found the fans caught my attention more than the game (me not knowing rules might have contributed slightly:-). They weren't playing for a championship, just an early season game, and yet almost every fan there had some sort of team gear or colors on. Now being the end of September footy has reached it's pinnacle with the Grand Final. I live in the cute seaside suburb of St. Kilda, just a few miles from the center of Melbourne, and their football team The Saints is well loved. In their 136 years in the league they have only won once in 1934 and lost at three other attempts at the Final. This year was suppose to be their turn when they made it to the Grand Final against Geelong who've won the title the last three years in a row.

I work at an adorable family owned cake shop on the main street in St. Kilda which has survived there for over 70 years. The owner, Gideon, is a die-hard Saints fan and has spent the last week decorating the shop from top to bottom like a kid given a new box full of crafts. The main radio and TV stations have all stopped by the landmark shop to get his take on the St. Kilda fans outlook for the game. I thought I had little interest in the game today despite all the hype surrounding me and the regulars filling up the small tables to watch the TV perched atop the soda fridge. But with the last 10 minutes of the game leaving the score tied I started routing for the under dog Saints and their die hard fans. Unfortunately they ending up loosing in the last two minutes of the game and so I tip toed out of work knowing better then to try to talk to Gideon for at least a couple of days. I walked down the street to the entrance of the grocery store where the newspaper seller starting chatting to me about the game and inside I said hello to a mutual friend working at the register. The tram ride home was filled with depressed Saints fans but I saw an old friend from our hostel days and found out he's living close by. Today I realized that I finally hit the point here where I no longer feel like such an outsider. That rooting for your local team, knowing the bum on the corner, or running into friends on the tram are all the little things that make a place more then just a temporary residence.

Now that I' become so comfortable here we actually only have 10 weeks left. Me and Mark's plan is to continue saving up until mid-November and then travel for a few weeks before we leave on December 10th. We are hoping to rent a campervan and drive through out Australia (don't ask me where, we haven't gotten that far!). Then were stopping over in NZ for a few days to visit Mark's family and then he's coming back to Philly with me for a week! Yay!!

In the meantime I'm still working full time at the cake shop and actually really enjoying it. Usually there are just two staff on at a time as it's a small shop with Sam or Toby doing the coffee's. I take orders at the counter ringing people up on a 65 year old cash register. It has the old push button keys that make that beautiful "riinnnnggg" sound each time you press a number, which only go up to $7. So we hit keys two or three times and if its more then $18 we just write the amount on a slip of paper above. I've recently started getting to decorate all the cupcakes in the shop. At first I was terrible and my icing swirls always managed to be lopsided and I was covered in icing. But now that I'm a cupcake pro it's a lot more fun, and so is eating the homemade icing!!

Mark was keeping really busy working as a waiter downtown for the first five months. He was happy to leave though a couple of weeks ago when he and our roommate Jana got a job working at the Royal Melbourne Show. It's set up on massive show grounds outside the city and has large pavilions selling just about everything, agricultural stuff, and lots of over priced too old to still be running rides. I went to visit Mark the other night when he got off work and it was a lot of fun, especially since his friend let me in for free! We ended up coming home with a really odd assortment of things including amazing pepperoni, wasabi peas, wasabi macadamia nuts, and sour candy. I am so amazingly impressed with Mark's and Jana's ability to keep getting up every morning for this job. Tomorrow is their last day and they will have worked 12 hours a day for two straight weeks!! But because of Mark we are going to have the travel money that we really needed for November. Mark and Jana's next job through the same employment agency is "train counting". They will be counting passengers on trains. Yes, definitely not very stimulating, but since they both got team leader positions they'll have more hours and make more money so it's all in the name of travel!

Well I'll definitely need to write another blog about when Mark's parents visited last month and they took us on a short road trip down the beautiful Great Ocean Road. But for now I'm going to work on uploading all of my Australia photos. I'll write again soon (I promise I really do mean it this time!!)


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The Long Awaited New Zealand Blog!

When I first planned my trip to New Zealand from Asia I underestimated what a journey in itself it would be. I started the trip from the Perhentian Islands off the east coast of Malaysia at 6 am in an end of monsoon season storm. I boarded a small speedboat heading to the mainland drenched with 10 other wary backpackers. The forty five minute trip felt more like an amusement park ride as we rode the crests of the rolling waves. I thanked God that I made it to the main land safely and I hopped on a 12 hour bus that crossed the country to Kuala Lumpur on the east coast.

Halfway through the long bus ride we stopped at large local rest stop where I was the only westerner. Some of my favorite times traveling have been moments like this when I’m sitting alone surrounded by locals and I completely lose myself in my new reality. Then it will hit me, really hit me, that I’m by myself at a rest stop some where in the middle of Malaysia eating unknown but delicious food in a massive chaotic room filled with 30 picnic tables and a hundred hungry locals. That feeling that comes over you when you remember just how unique and crazy it all is is one of my favorite. It’s calming in the sense that you appreciate for a moment how hard you worked to get there and how worth it it all is.

So 48 hours and 1 boat, 4 buses, 1 taxi, 3 planes, and a minivan ride later I arrived in Taupo New Zealand where I got to see my dad for the first in 5 months. Seeing family after such a long time is such a crazy wonderful feeling, especially when you’re seeing each other again in a completely different country then your own. Of course the first thing I did when we got to our hotel room was take advantage of the huge jacuzzi. Who wouldn’t after months of cold showers?!

The Ironman New Zealand was held two days after I arrived in Taupo. My Dad was there working for his brother Ken and his triathlon travel business Endurance Sports Travel. They take care of the athletes and their family’s meals, transportations, hotels, equipment, etc. I was quickly enlisted to help out in the kitchen, but I can't say my cooking was anything memorable. I was really excited the day of the race to finally get to see an Ironman live. It’s such a big part of the Glah family since my Uncle Ken has raced professionally since his early twenties. I was immediately in awe of the athletes ability to push through from the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and then after all that they run a 26 mile marathon. I harbored delusions while watching the athletes fly by of my being able to do an Ironman, but if you’ve ever seen me run you know what a sight that would be.



A couple of days after the race my dad and I flew from the South Island to the North Island into Christchurch. When we arrived at the rental place to pick up our camper van we were told the previous renters had crashed it and so instead we were given a much larger pimped out camper that we readily accepted. Our first night we drove to Arthur’s Pass where I got my first taste of winter in almost a year. After the extremely hot and humid climate in Asia winter in New Zealand was a bit of a shock to say the least. My first night in Old Bessy, as I lovingly referred to our camper, my dad was surprised to find me in bed still fully dressed with two sleeping bags and a blanket. It took a week or two before I finally got used to the cold, because lets just say I’m not a exactly a warm person. I’m writing this blog entry while I sit in my bed in Melbourne with 5 layers on and 3 blankets.

Over the next few days we passed through the town of Hokitika, camped beside Lake Kaniere, and drove down the coast towards the Franz Josef Glacier. The drives between the different sites were as amazing as the destinations themselves. I had heard from my Dad and Dan about how amazing the scenery is in New Zealand and had seen their photos, but only after our third day when I saw the Franz Josef Glacier did I realize the word ‘amazing’ has an entirely different meaning in New Zealand. It took my dad and I 40 minutes to reach the base of the glacier and from there you could climb the pre dug steps to a certain point without equipment. We climbed up about 15 minutes and found a spot on the ice to sit and absorb the view and the fact that we were chilling out on a glacier. There were several tour groups passing us heading up and down the glacier in their crampons and down jackets. We waited for one group to pass and then began to descend the ice steps. The guide yelled up at me coldly, ‘Excuse me, stay back at least 100 meters so that when you fall because you don’t have the proper gear on you won’t take down my group.’ Personally, my dad and I thought she was just ticked because we made her look bad to her group because we made it up there on our own. Haha and no, to her disappointment we didn’t fall down the glacier!





That evening my Dad and I drove towards Gillespies beach on the Tasman sea, well technically since the camper was manual my Dad drove and I just relaxed and played DJ. When we walked over the dunes and onto the beautiful stony beach the colors were just beginning to emerge. It turned out to be a never ending sunset with new bolder colors rolling across the sky each minute and lasting for what felt like an hour. My dad and I took photo after photo with each one more amazing.





On our drive the next day we were treated to beautiful views of the southern alps, climbed a bit up Fox Glacier and continued on towards Hass Pass. We made a stop at the Roaring Billy Waterfall that runs down a cliff and drops into the ice blue river below. My Dad surprised me by jumping in for a ‘chilly’ swim in the glacier water! Honestly though, should I really have been that surprised:-)



As the trip progressed my Dad and I would talk about what we thought was the best scenic view of the trip so far and each day seemed to surpass the one before. Saturday was no exception as we drove down a dirt road running through farm land and mountains that were right out of Lord of the Rings. After about an hour and a half driving down the dirt road we reached the parking lot with the start of the path leading towards Rob Roy Glacier. I clearly remember this hike because it kicked my ass. Haha and I also remember my Dad saying how he remembered it from the year before not being too hard. The exercise was good for me though after being a beach bum for so many months in Thailand and Malaysia! The effort was well worth it when we emerged from the woods and saw beautiful green hills in a valley surrounded by mountains and at the top of one was the Rob Roy Glacier. The sun was right at the top of the glacier and made pictures almost impossible so we settled back and waited for it to set a bit. As we laid back on a warm boulder we heard the first crash of an avalanche up high and searched the snow covered mountains till we spotted the falling snow that continued rolling down the side for quite a while.







We made it back to our camper just before dusk and headed out from the parking lot with the intention of visiting the local town fair at my insistence. It just looked so cute and small townish I couldn’t pass it up. After only two minutes driving back along the dirt road the camper started riding wrong so we pulled over to the side of the road only to find that we had a flat tire, 20 minutes of sun light left, no cell phone reception, and we were 15 miles from town. Enter good ol’ McGiver. Somehow my Dad figured out that all of the tire changing equipment was behind the front seats and the spare tire was under the back of the camper and needed to be cranked down to the ground. With a little trial and error we got the new tire on and the flat one stowed away. I have to say though, as soon as I saw that we had the flat tire equipment I really wasn’t worried because fixing things is just my Dad’s specialty! And just like always he had the flat tire fixed with just a few minutes to spare as the last bits of sun disappeared behind the mountains and left the valley in darkness.



Over the next few days we visited Queenstown, built a beautiful campfire along the shore of Lake Wakatipu and took a cruise around the gorgeous Milford Sound.





One of my favorite hikes though was definitely when we climbed up a mountain on the drive back from Milford Sound. On the walk up we ran into Gus and Alicia, a couple who had stayed with my Uncle Ken’s company Endurance Sports during the Ironman race earlier in the trip. Travel never ceases to amaze me with the random places that I meet people I know in the world. In this case, on top of a mountain! The views on top were nothing like I had expected or seen before. You were surrounded by the green ups and downs of valleys and mountains rolling one into the other. To the north of us was a much larger mountain and halfway up was a lake tucked right into the middle!







As the trip neared the end we stopped at Mount Cook and walked out to the Tasman Glacier lake filled with massive chalky blue icebergs. The icebergs were so large that you could barely make out the small people below taking tours of the lake in little yellow rafts. They looked more like fall leaves floating by then boats.



I was really sad when we had to return the RV and the trip came to an end. We spent the last few days in Christchurch where my Dad was really sweet and treated me to a nice hotel before I returned to Asia. It’s a strange thing saying goodbye to someone you love and not knowing when you are going to see them again, whether it might be 6 months or a year. With both my Mom and my Dad when I said goodbye it seemed almost surreal, the trip never really felt over. It was only after they’d left for good that it hit me and I realized I was back to traveling solo. After being spoiled with such a great travel companion and Dad it just wasn't the same traveling without him after that!!!




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G'day mate! Have a minute for the environment?!

So, let me start by apologizing for not having written in 2 months!! I have so much to catch up on, my trip to New Zealand with my dad, my time in Bali with the madre, but first I'll just start with what I'm up to now. I've been in Australia for almost 3 weeks and things are going so much better then I expected. In the first week I got a job, a boyfriend, and a cool group of friends, in that order. My first day here in Melbourne I was walking around the city when a girl asked, "Do you have a minute to sign my petition?" I walked passed her like the hoards of people around me, but then I stopped and went back because I realized I had nothing better to do. She started talking about a petition for a human rights issue and as soon as she'd finished her spiel I asked if this was a paid position. It was. Are you hiring? They were. After a quick two minute chat on the lawn of the city library she wrote down an address of where I should go for my first day of training. So just like that, after 2 hours in Melbourne I had a job, and a pretty good paying one at that.




My meeting my boyfriend went just as easy, and happened on my first day in Melbourne. I'd been here for less then a day when a girl in my dorm room, Alex, asked me to join her and some friends from the hostel to go out for karaoke that night. Mark came out with us and we ended up chatting all night, and after a couple of more dates, it was official:-) When I've told friends I have an amazing new boyfriend, they're a bit reluctant to believe me with my sketchy track record, but this time providence helped me out and found me not only someone who treats me so wonderfully but also has an adorable British accent. You know how I love accents!!



So I'm still living at a hostel in the center of Melbourne while me and my friends look for a house to rent. I was surprised to find that about half the people in the hostel are living here on a semi-permanent basis while they look for work and a place. I've been at my job now for a week and a half fundraising for the Australian Conservation Foundation, and already its extremely repetitive, but I'm going to hang in there. I stand on the street and ask passer byers, "Hi! Do you have a minute for the environment!" or "Hi! Do you have a moment for Australian Conservation!" I say variations of these two phrases 150 plus times a day, and about 8 people stop to talk to me. I'll say this for the job, it definitely makes you immune to rejection!! Haha, you also can't take yourself too seriously when you're fighting entertainers and bums with coin cups for the best street corners. Last week I went to lunch and came back to find my library spot was taken by a guy on the bongos and a woman trying to get people to sign up for paintball. I crossed the street to try my other spot, but found a magician had set up shop and had a crowd of 20 watching his act. On Friday I came back from lunch and found my spot taken by a group of hari chrishnas rocking out with drums and chanting and a man selling books, only 2 books, both about animal cruelty. The job has its perks though, and after I tell you them I bet you can figure out the average age of the employees. Free coffee each morning at that days meeting spot, and the perks for bringing in a lot of donations include free lunch, movie tickets, extra money on your winter clothing allowance, and my favorite, a 6 pack of any beer of your choosing. The 6 pack is reserved for "high pacers" (a pac is monthly donation), and on my second day when I got a $100 dollar pac, I was rewarded with beer.

On Saturday night though I started to think that maybe I should just work three days a week and babysit the other two. I had a nightmare where I was stuck on a street corner saying desperately over and over and over again "Do you have a minute for the environment". I told myself it was nightmare and to wake up, but I was stuck on that street for way too long until I finally woke up and sat straight up in bed. I sighed as I calmed down and reminded myself it was the weekend. Yeah, so after I finish this post I'm looking for a second job.

Well that's all for now! Things are going so well, and the only thing left is to find a place to live. I promise I will post a bali and NZ blog soon!

All caught up! Southern Thailand and Malaysia!

Ok, well I've gotten pretty far behind on my blog so I'm going to sum up Southern Thailand so that I can start writing about what's happening now! After Ko Phi Phi Dan and I went to Krabi and my favorite part was when we took a longtail boat out to Chicken Island in the late afternoon. All the tours were on their way out and after a short time we had the white sand and blue waters almost entirely to ourselves. Our longtail returned at low tide, and with the water receding, we just barely made it out in time before the bottom of our boat became stuck on the coral. After Krabi we made our way south and ended up on a small Island called Ko Mook. It was long and skinny, and our beach had just a handful of resorts with bungalows lining the beach. To get to the other beach you had to walk through the jungle up a hill and through the woods. On my way back to our bungalow I was just about to head into the jungle when the woman at the restaurant offered a word of caution, "Watch out for the cobras". I laughed but she told me she was very serious, so with a stick in hand I made my way out a little to close to dusk for my comfort.



Dan headed on at a faster pace to get to Ko Lipe so we split for a little while. I stayed behind on Ko Mook and ended up meeting two cool Germans, one a dive instructor and another a backpacker vacationing with her parents who had come to meet up with her for a bit. We spent each night in the hammocks by the bar discussing travel and trying to take in how cool it all was but never succeeding. Next I moved on to an even smaller Island, Ko Hai. It had only 2 bungalow hotels and a nicer hotel called Charlies in the middle. I stayed in the cheapest bungalow but helped myself to the nice pool at Charlies in the afternoon. There was interesting snorkeling around the bend and I spent most afternoons making my way through the various lagoons. It was here that I first started feeling sick but I didn't think too much of it, I'll fill you in later with how that turned out. Next I met up with Dan in Ko Lipe, a much busier island full of shops selling pancakes, sticky rice, and foot massages. I always enjoyed going to the quieter islands for awhile then spending a few days on the busier ones drinking shakes, eating crepes, and watching movies at night in the cafes. Dan and I had dinner one night with a girl I met at the internet cafe. Her name was Jane, she's Thai, and she'd just moved to Ko Lipe to work in the internet cafe. She was sweet and after talking for awhile she told me she was finding it hard to make friends on the Island, especially since she worked 7 days a week from 8 am till 8 pm. I invited her out to dinner with Dan and I and she was so shy it was cute. It turned out it pays to make friends with the internet girl though because I ended up saving a couple of hundred baht on internet during my time on Ko Lipe :-)







Next I made my way through a few Islands in the Tarutao National Park. At this point Dan and I parted ways because he was heading back north, then onto India, and I was moving south towards Malaysia and Indonesia. I was really glad I went to the national park islands because they were completely devoid of just about anything touristy. I stayed in tents on the beach and ate at the uh, interesting, national park restaurants. In Ko Tarutao I met a group of Brits and a Polish guy and we hired a boat to take us to Crocodile Cave. The boat took us to the entrance, then from there we walked a bit in till we found the kayaks in the river in the cave. We got in and paddled for about 10 minutes until we came to a point where we pulled them up to a muddy bank. The only light illuminating the stalactite filled cave came from our head lamps. It was slow going through the mud which felt more like peanut butter as we made our way up into a large opening.





At the end of my Thai island hopping I was still feeling sick. I had nausea and stomach pains every time I ate and I was very fatigued all the time, to the point where it interfered with my ability to do and see things. I saw a doctor in Southern Thailand in Hat Yai but he did very little. So I took a minibus across the border into Malaysia and across to Penang. I saw two doctors there but unfortunately they completely misdiagnosed me. So I decided after a week with them that I should move on to a large city. I met a nice American family who lives in Kuala Lumpur at a hotel in Vietnam over Christmas. I called Kathleen, the mother, and explained my medical situation and asked her if I could take her up on her offer to stay with her family for a couple of days. The family was soooo sweet and ended up hosting me for a week and a half! It was a complete blessing as I was so sick and it was so comforting to stay in a real bed and curl up on the couch with a DVD instead of staying in a hostel bed and curling up on a chair in the Chinatown market. I saw two more doctors and I was finally diagnosed with an intolerance to wheat. So I'm cutting wheat out of my diet for 3 weeks, then I'll slowly reintroduce it in small amounts. So I can eat one cookie, a piece of toast, or cake, or something small once in a while so that my body does not become completely intolerant.



I enjoyed staying with Kathleen and Derald and the girls so much, and it was sad to say goodbye when I got back to travelling and took a bus up to the Cameron Highlands. The best part of the highlands was the cool mountain temperature. The hostel I stayed in was also just the kind I like with a lounge with internet that felt more like a lodge then a guesthouse. I took a tour one morning, and that was definitely my favorite part of my stay. We visited a temple, market, a crazy bug and butterfly place (the pictures will do it more justice then my great description), gorgeously colored gardens, and a tea plantation. The tea plantation was my favorite part, as the round mountains covered in mossy green tea plants was so unique.







I had a rough ride moving on from the Cameron Highlands to where I am now, the Perhentian Islands on Coral Bay. It was a 7 hour mini bus ride through winding mountains, and with my stomach still sub par I had motion sickness the whole way coupled with a lovely headache. The 30 minute speedboat ride in which the tip of the boat flew up and landed on the water as if it was hitting concrete every 10 seconds did nothing to relieve my headache. But after a hot shower in the guesthouse (hot water was something they lacked in the chilly Cameron Highlands) I was felling much better. I was just talking to my mom on gchat and she said I should write about the different people I've met here. I meet so many its hard to keep track of everyone let alone remember names, but I'll do my best. My first evening I met two English guys who invited me out later with an English couple to go to the other side of the Island. To get there you had to walk through the jungle, the path filled with termites, and lucky for me I had flip flops. (Well actually they aren't really my flip flops. Mine I left outside of the dorm room in the Cameron Highlands and I returned to find a mismatching two sizes two big pair in their place. Haha I look like I'm wearing clown flip flops) The guys though forgot to wear shoes, we usually go barefoot all day in the Islands, and the termites bit up their feet so badly they drew blood. We were all grateful to reach the other side and hung out at the beach bar called "Safety Stop" with low tables, lit by candlelight, with mats to sit on.





The next day I chatted with the Finnish guys next door to my bungalow, but I find the Finnish a bit hard to warm up to. The following day I was checking out a book stall when I hear a polite British accent inform me quietly that my dress was tucked into my bathing suit bottom. Mortifying. Well I tried to suck it up and laugh about it (I was still dying inside) and ended up chatting with the Brit, an American, and some Spanish girls. Then later I met a cool group of Irish guys. For dinner I ate with a cute German couple that I met on the speedboat over to Coral Bay, they were a riot and I had a great night chatting with them and enjoying the barbecue of fresh fish. The following day I took an amazing snorkel trip with the same Irish guys and a fun girl from Singapore. The girl, Pamela, and I ended up having dinner later that night and chatting for a good 3 hours and afterwards we joined the group of Irish guys to watch a soccer game. Haha so I guess all this to say that people always ask me if I'm lonely when I travel, sure sometimes, but with a interesting group of people like this I never get bored!



Since being here in the Perhentian Islands my favorite experience, in a long time, was our snorkeling trip yesterday. I had the opportunity to swim around shark bay where I saw 4 or 5 reef sharks about 1 to 2 meters long (don't worry, the reef sharks are harmless). Later we saw giant sea turtles, right out of finding nemo. Here's a pic I found online of them. And lastly we went snorkeling around the base of a lighthouse in the sea, and despite my month snorkeling in Southern Thailand, I saw the most brilliant colors I've ever seen. The huge sea floor was covered in multi colored reef, clams, sea anemone, and brightly colored stingray. I was surrounded for much of the time by schools of hundreds of fish in different sizes and neon colors. I darted through the middle of one school and felt their slippery bodies touch my skin. If this storm stays away I'm going to try swimming out there again with some fins this afternoon.

Well I did it! I caught up on the last 8 weeks of travel! I'm impressed if you actually read all of it and made it this far! You can check out my photos (I'll post Malaysia photos soon) by clicking on the link below.


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A night on "The Beach"

After flying into Phuket we only spent one night, because its very touristy and we wanted to get to the prettier beaches. So the next day we took a ferry to the island of Ko Phi Phi. Sadly, it was one of hardest hit areas in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami. There were about 11,000 people on the island when the tsunami struck and 2,500 or so were killed (5,000 total in Thailand). It was easy to forget the islands history as I walked through the streets crowded with beach shops, but then I'd turn a corner and there were would be a huge empty lot with just a single palm tree left. Dan and I climbed to the top lookout point and admired the skinny stretch of beach below. Photos were hung at the lookout of Phi Phi before and right after the tsunami. The most noticeable difference was the now lack of green vegetation and palm trees. I spoke to an English woman who had returned to Phi Phi for the first time since the disaster in which her brother almost died. He was suppose to meet a friend there but got hung up in Bangkok and arrived a day late. His friend didn't make it. What struck me the most about the people though is their resiliency. They've rebuilt much of the island over the last five years and they have such a positive spirit.



Next to the main island of Ko Phi Phi Don is Ko Phi Phi Lee. This is wear Leonardo DiCaprio's movie "The Beach" was filmed. There is one Aussie who has permission by the National Park Service to take groups to the island to spend the night. Dan and I lucked out because there were less then 20 people in our group the evening we went. The tour started by snorkeling in the large bay then they took us to the shore. The Aussie kicked the remaining tourists off the beach and our group had the whole island to ourselves. It was one of the most beautiful places I've been. The cliffs and mountains surround you, and its almost entirely closed off from the outside except for a small gap in the mountains on the far side of the lagoon. That evening we had a barbecue, the requisite bucket, and chatted with other travelers while we sat around on the beach. Later we literally slept out on the beach in sleeping bags, but I awoke all through the night completely frozen from the wind. I finally realized I could stay on the beach and freeze or go up to campsite and shelter of the bushes and brave the large scampering black rats. I chose the rats and Dan was nice enough to come along. I saw them scurry by but luckily they stayed away from our sleeping bags.








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Dan's Blog

A random trip to Singapore

We took a 14 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok but we ran into a bit of trouble while crossing the border. In the past, if you entered Thailand by land you received a 30 day visa. However, it changed while we were traveling and when we checked our passports we realized that now you only get 15 days. That threw off our plan to spend a month meandering through the islands in Southern Thailand. We were at a loss as to what to do because once you enter the country you have to exit and go to a Thai Embassy in another country to apply for a longer visa. We continued onto Bangkok and ended up running into our Canadian friend Jessie, from our motorbike trip in Laos. He was having even worse problems then us as he'd gotten his passport stolen on a ferry done south. We commiserated with each other over our bad luck as we walked down the street to the hookah bar. With a huge lovely strawberry flavored hookah in front of us we forgot about stupid visas and passports and spent the rest of the night laughing over new travel stories since we'd last seen each other. Dan and I solved our visa problem the next day by booking a plan ticket from Bangkok to Singapore and then from Singapore to Phuket (in southern Thailand). If we entered Thailand by air from another country then we could get our 30 day visa.

My first impression of Singapore can be summed up with one word. Clean. The whole city is so clean and orderly. After coming from Cambodia where it's not uncommon for people to spit their food out onto the restaurant floor if they don't like it, Singapore was quite the culture shock. In fact, just chewing gum is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. The metro ran on time, most everyone spoke English, the public areas were covered in well manicured gardens, and more uniquely they are extremely fashionable. There are so many shopping malls on this small island, more then thirty, that it's impossible to visit them all in one day. I did well in resisting the temptation to spend money and came out with only a new shirt and shorts. I should note that Singaporeans are the most fashionable people I've ever seen. As we walked through the malls I felt like I was in the pages of Vogue. Overall, I really enjoyed our short 2 day stay and I'd love to go back again with a bigger budget.


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The temples of Angkor Wat

It was a bumpy bus ride on the dirt roads from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The town was a lot smaller then I imagined, but also a lot prettier with a quiet river running along the edge. 5km outside of the city is a large expanse of 1,000 year old temples covering 400 km² known as Angkor Wat. The first night Dan and I met a British guy named Chris while eating dinner at a food stall in town. We made a plan to meet the next morning to share a tuk tuk around Angkor to save some money. We'd heard about how beautiful it is when you get there early and watch the sun rise against the temples. So we started out around 5:00am, but unfortunately the sunrise was more of an emergence of light without color. We were still happy though to start the day free of the large crowds. I have to admit I felt a bit like Indiana Jones stumbling upon a lost civilization as the three of us climbed through the stone corridors and rooms within the temples. At one point an old sun wrinkled Buddhist nun motioned for me to come with her to the alter inside. We both sat at the base of the alter then she began carefully removing various objects from her small basket. She gave me a stick of incense and instructed me to move it in a certain way while reciting a phrase. Then she lit the incense stick and I stuck it in the sand pot at the base of the Buddha statue. I thanked her, placing my palms together and nodding my head in a bow, and in return she tied a red string bracelet around my wrist symbolizing a buddhist blessing of good luck. It was one of my most special experiences in Cambodia.

Later that afternoon the three of us found spots on top of a temple and while enjoying the view I slipped into sleep and woke up 20 minutes later to find Chris and Dan had done the same. A half hour later we pulled ourselves up and back to the tuk tuk to venture off to a few more temples. We stopped for a snack at one of the roadside food stalls and I smelled something good being grilled. I saw a woman in the corner grilling meat on sticks and covering it with a sweet sauce. I got 6 small sticks for Dan and I and we each commented on how good it was, especially with the special sauce. As we were eating our last few scrumptious bites Chris was regaling us with tales of his time in China and South Korea. He told us of eating dog and its peculiar consistency. Stringy and chewy he said, very different from beef and chicken. Dan and I both looked at each other and realized that our wonderful "beef" on the sticks didn't actually resemble any meat we'd had before. Yeah, it was dog. Sorry Riley.

That evening was the big New Years eve party on "Pub Street" in Siem Riep. The three of us met up for dinner at the street stalls then walked over to the party. We found the whole street had been blocked off to traffic and the restaurants were selling beer for $1 a cup on the street. Halfway through the night all the power went off, leaving only a couple of glowing neon signs. The restaurant owners were unfazed though and within minutes candles filled the tables, bars, and even bathrooms and the party continued. When the power returned a few minutes before midnight the street assumed more of a Mardi Gras feel then Cambodian. It was definitely my most memorable New Year!


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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We started our time in Cambodia in the city of Phnom Penh. Our hotel was located a couple of miles from the tourist area, and as a result there were lots of local shops and markets. My favorite was the night market which would appear each evening at sunset just a block away. I was excited to try new food in Cambodia and I wasn't disappointed. Everything was pretty cheap with internet at 30 cents an hour and most meals were only a dollar. The interesting thing is that when you use your ATM card in Cambodia, instead of dispensing the local currency of riel, it gives dollars. Dollars are used for most purchases and your given riel as change.

Our second day there we visited a shooting range outside of the city and found the prices to be a lot higher then we expected. So we stuck to trying out an M16. If you had the money you could shoot just about anything. Backpacker legend has it that in the villages up in the mountains you can shoot a leper if you name the right price. Yes, a leper, like a human with the disease of leprosy. The scary part is that I've heard this story from quite a few people, some who have claimed to have first or secondhand knowledge of such going ons. Well I'm just going to keep on believing it's a legend.

The next morning we took a minibus to the outskirts of the city to the "Killing Fields" where the Khmer Rouge killed thousands of people and buried them in mass graves. Afterwards we visited a highschool that the Khmer Rouge turned into a brutal prison known as S-21. A popular book sold in Cambodia was "First They Killed my Father". My freshman year of college our grade was required to read this book before school started, and in the fall the author came to AU and told us about how she barely survived the Khmer Rouge. It touched me of course reading her book and hearing her speak in person, but not in the same way as when I actually visited the spot where the atrocities occured. That's one of my favorite parts of travelling; having the ability to take information and learning that was once detached and foriegn and make it real. I've read a lot of books detailing the accounts of Auschwitz survivors, but it wasn't until this summer when I visited the camp that I was able to really begin to take in the full scale of what happened there.


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Dan's Blog

Sun Damaged Chicken

We ended up spending quite a while in Saigon, a large city in Northern Vietnam. Two weeks actually because we ran into a snag with our visas when Dan got sick. But as a result we had a lot of great experiences that we wouldn't have had otherwise. One of the most visited museums in Saigon is the American War Museum (what we refer to as the Vietnam War, they understandingly refer to as the American War). I knew it would be graphic before we went, but I didn't realize how the museum would affect me. It is one large open room and you work your way around the walls. They are filled with photos and accounts of atrocities committed by American soldiers. I quickly stopped reading the captions as an entire family laying on the ground with bullet holes in their heads is explanation enough. While I found it difficult to see such gruesome acts perpetrated by Americans, I was glad I visited and saw the evidence because it gave me a much better understanding of their perspective.

A few days later Dan and I visited the Cu Chi Tunnels an hour and a half outside of the city. The tunnels were constructed by the Vietnamese soldiers over the course of twenty years and spread almost 250km. The Vietnamese used the series of tunnels to stealthily enter and exit through various concealed entrances and fight the Americans. I found it interesting that a good portion of the tunnels were dug deep enough that if the Americans dropped a bomb the tunnel would remain intact. I had the opportunity to crawl through the small tunnels and on my first attempt there were people squished behind and in front of me and I retreated to the surface after going only a couple of metres in. I waited until the crowd had dispersed and Dan went down with me for a second try and without the crowds I was able to make it the first 20m then I took the first exit out. It is unimaginable to me how people lived down there for months and even years. As we passed through the jungle we saw the gruesome traps laid for the Americans and their extreme disadvantage in fighting a hidden enemy. There is a tourist shooting range nearby and the sounds of guns and uzi's erupted every 15 seconds. I felt like I could imagine in a small way the fear the soldiers must have felt knowing that at every step they could fall into a hidden pit filled with spears or be gunned down by an enemy they never saw. I've heard people talk about how the Vietnam War left so many soldiers changed mentally because of the style of warfare and after seeing it firsthand I can begin to understand why.

After visiting the museums and the Cu Chi Tunnel we were planning on heading out to Cambodia to spend Christmas in Siem Reap, but our plans changed when Dan became really sick and ended up the in hospital. They gave him antibiotics through an IV and released him later that night. It took him a few days to recover so we had to get visas extensions. The extensions ended up taking over a week and Dan was better before they were ready. So we decided to get of Saigon and head to a popular Vietnamese beach town called Vung Tao. On the minibus ride there we met a Vietnamese Woman named Hang who invited us to come to her house on our way back to Saigon. Hang is an english teacher and had recently been to the US. She told us people there were so kind to her that she wanted to return the favor and have us come to her home and talk with her students. After a few quiet days on the beach in Vung Tao we called Hang and asked her if we could take her up on her offer. She met us at the bus stop and I got on the back of her motorbike and Dan, lucky him, was given both our packs to balance precariously on the back of the other motorbike. When we entered her house Hang showed us right to the spare bedroom that was made up for us, and we realized that this wasn't an afternoon visit as we'd thought but we were expected to spend the night. So we went with the flow and unpacked and then had lunch with Hang.

My favorite part about my visit with Hang were the cultural differences. She was forever pinching me telling me to eat more then pinching Dan telling him he eats a lot. When she saw me outside in a short sleeve shirt she pointed to my arms and said gravely, "Oooh, you have spots from sun damage. Too bad. You should be wearing long sleeves. Ooooh, too much sun." I tried unsuccessfully to explain that my spots were freckles and I've always had them. But yes I conceded, they did come out more with sun, and yes I'd been getting a lot more then usual, but it isn't damaged I insisted, now with a trace of uncertainty in my voice. She gave me a placating pitying look and thats when I just started to laugh. Later when we were drinking tea on her porch she asked me at what times I usually wake up and go to bed. I told her since I've been in Asia I get up around 8 and go to bed around 10. "Just like a chicken!" she exclaimed, "You're just like a chicken! Up early, to bed early!" Dan from then on enjoyed referring to me as the sun damaged chicken.

That evening her students came and we all went out to a coffee shop, a favorite in Vietnam since they don't really have bars. Unfortunately I had a headache and an upset stomach and by the time we got home I had to excuse myself and go to bed. The next day Hang didn't seem to understand that my stomach was not up to par and all three meals were filled with fish and lots of spice. Canned, fried, salted, pickled, and grilled fish all made their way onto the menu. My stomach turned but I tried my best to be a good guest and eat as much as I could keep down. When we went to the local market that afternoon we stopped by, what else, the fish section. There were all sorts of live fish squiggling around in pans filled with a few centimeters of water. Hang selected a couple and the woman took her machete and started hacking away. Apparently you don't actually kill the fish until the last step of hacking, so the poor thing just slithered around till it was finally put out of its misery. The hacking of the fish and the mixture of dead animal smells was enough for me to slip away and find a seat outside the market in the fresh air. After Hang taught her evening English Class she took us out for a walk into the town to visit her son's bubble tea shop. My new love after banana pancakes is now bubble tea! I love it! It's flavored jelly balls in a sweet flavored tea. I haven't seen it very much in the states and maybe opening a bubble tea/banana pancake shop is in my future. We said goodbye to Hang the next day and headed back to Saigon. After a few more days there we got our visas and we were happy to be on our way to Cambodia.


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From the beach to the mountains to sledding in the desert

Moi Ne was a quiet one street beach town stretching 7 kilometers. It has more luxury resorts then I've seen the whole trip with huge 5 star hotels doting the western end. We stayed on the eastern side in a small resort on the beach. It was our splurge and included a large pool with a pool bar and chairs and umbrellas on the beach. We were unsure whether we wanted to spend the money, but the receptionist had us the moment she said "breakfast buffet". We spent two days on the beach and by the pool, and the second evening we met a nice British couple, Giles and Samantha, at the pool bar. Unfortunately Samantha had her purse stolen on the beach earlier that day and they were waiting for the police to come and make a report. After speaking with them the cops made it clear that they thought they were making the whole story up so that they could make money from the hotel or insurance company. We later found out its not uncommon in Moi Ne, or Vietnam in general, for the police to be distrustful of tourists accounts of theft because it makes the country look bad. After a few drinks though they quickly forgot the craziness of the day and we all ended up taking our beers down to the beach.

After a couple of days at the beach we took a long bumpy mini bus ride up to the mountains to a town called Da Lat. We stayed in a nice guesthouse with great banana pancakes (didn't I tell you I'm a banana pancake connoisseur?). It was about fifteen degrees cooler there and it was a welcome break from the usual heat. We rented motorbikes and explored the outskirts of the city including a cool pagoda perched on a hillside with beautiful views of the surrounding rice terraces. That evening we visited a silk embroidery studio that was so much more impressive than I had expected. We were taken for a tour to the upstairs work room where women embroidered detailed pictures that looked more like paintings. It takes them 6 months to a year to finish some of the larger pieces.

We returned to Moi Ne to get back on our Open Bus Ticket. We rented a motorbike and headed to the desert of Moi Ne, which interestingly enough is located right next to the beach. The children held their sleds out to us and fought fiercely for our business. We negotiated with them to leave us in peace while we ate our lunch and we would pick sleds when we were finished eating. Their clothes were dirty and they knocked a ball around and poked in the sand. I remember thinking that they strangely reminded me of the lost boys from Peter Pan except harder, more tired. I ended up going with the little boy who had first approached me when we arrived. Another fierce kid got angry at me because he argued he was the first to ask me (bad call on my part to say out loud why I made my choice). He screamed "Fuck You Lady!!" a few times and gave me the middle finger and that's when the Nanny in me flared up. I yelled back at him that he shouldn't ever speak to anyone that way, especially if you want them to buy something. We left the kid fuming and went with our young guides up the dunes. The sand was absolutely scorching hot and I did a bit of a dance as I walked. Accompanying me was a little 8 year old girl with her dirt covered pink princess sweatshirt who put me to shame as she blithely walked through the sand. I asked her if she went to school at all. "No," she replied quietly, "My parents have no money. Need money for school." When we reached the top the older girl of 14 and the boy of 10 deftly dug out a sledding path for us. The girl explained that they pushed away the hot sand because the cool sand underneath made for a faster ride. They took a sled and stuck the front end into the sand, positioned me on top just so, and then gave me a hard push. My first time down I made it to the bottom before falling flat on my face! Ha! It was so much fun!



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