eternal saturday

Days have started to merge into one long saturday....to be honest, to figure out what day it is we have to look on a calendar! It's great! We left Krabi (which was actually Au Nang Beach, just outside of Krabi) about 6 days ago. There we met two canadians (they were from Edmonton)around our age who were finishing up there 4 months of backpacking. They had lots of great tips for us and we picked their brains for things to do and not to do. They had been to Au Nang 3 times and had found some great spots just outside of town (oh yeah...we met them in McDonalds of all places) We rented scooters and they brought us to a fresh water stream where we relaxed in the shade, drank beer, and played crib. It was a great day followed by a great night of more drinking (for the boys) and a lot of gawking and a few pictures with some very exotic ladyboys. It was sad to say goodbye but we all new that that is part of the backpackers experience!

From there we went to Koh Samui. We decided to save ourselves some money and got a room with only a fan so that we could rent a scooter everyday and tour the island on our own. The room sucked....but it was worth the freedom of exploring the island. I'd like to say that our luck has been improving but it really hasn't. The bank machine ate our debit card, we got 2 flat tires and we witnessed a young girl who had just suffered a scooter accident and had some obvious head or brain trauma. Witnesssing the little girl drift in and out of conciousness(sp??)and being surrounded by 20 yelling thai's was very scary! It made us thankful that our bad luck is as minor as it has been. In saying that we have had some great experiences as well. We went to a beach called virgin coast that was literally that....their was nobody there...we had the whole beach to ourselves. We went to a zoo where we got to feed huge turtles by hand and Dean got to hold a very large bird (I kept my distance) We also saw a stingray that had a radius of Dean's honda civic...it was crazy! The tanks were open with sharks swimming around and when no one was looking we put our hand in and touched the fin of a shark...we are very rebellious...but it was worth it! We went out for dinner to a very unique place...a small bbq was on the table (it was more like a pot with a thing sticking up the middle and a fire underneath. You made soup in the bottom part and sizzled the meat on the part sticking up)It was a buffet set up. You got to pick what you wanted and got to cook it yourself! It was very cheap and very good!

We are now back in Koh Phagnan where Dean hurt himself. We are staying on a different side of the island were we can watch the sun set. The lady at the pier told us it was only 500 baht for an air conditioned room. Of course, when we got here it wasn't. The cheapest was 800. We ended up putting up a fuss and got the room for 600 baht. It has air conditioning, hot water (we haven't had hot water since Bangkok...it's a great treat) and a swimming pool!! We feel like we are staying at a 5 star resort compared to what we've been staying in. In saying that, we know that the next place we stay at will most likely be slightly disappointing. We are here for at least 2 more days and then we are undecided as to where we are going next! We are wanting to rent a scooter here but it is kinda rainy today...so we might stay an extra day just to get the island sightseeing in!

Other than that things are going good. We have found many of the comforts of home here. In Koh Samui we found a store called Tesco Lotus. It is like a Wal-mart/Mall/Grocery Store. It's comforting to know we can buy whatever we need but at the same time kind of dissappointing! The people everywhere have been, for the most part, very friendly and the food is still good. Although, we did come accross some snake head soup and cooked cows blood at one restaurant....our curiosity was peaked....but that was about it. Dean's arm has healed almost completly which is good. He will have a scar but at least it will be a good story...you know surviving a shark attack off the coast of Thailand is always an interesting story!

Well, time is up! Hope all is well in Canada....we heard about the snow in Calgary and all we can say is.....that sucks!!! haha...be assured we are soaking up enough sun here for everyone.
lots of love kelly and dean

our luck continues.. :)

Well today we had our four island tour. It was great. Snorkeling and beach touring and of course another sunburn. Anyways, Kelly was snorkeling, flaunting that she was in the water and I was stuck on the long boat, bobbing like a bob. All was going well until she came back to the boat in a hurry.. the good luck has continued. A jelly fish liking the way Kelly looked, thought it would be nice of him to plant a large kiss right on her lips!! Her lips were swollen like Angelina Jolies! Two hours later they were still in pain so we asked our guide what to do. He ripped up some leaves from a nearby plant and smashed them together with some water. It helped quite a bit. Needless to say her lips where green! Anyways, they still hurt!

Mom we decided to continue going to the doctor for my cleaning. Even though the material we had was clean. We are not. He is a super nice guy, just charges a lot!
Kelly, enojy those pancakes, they sure are good here. 20 baht for a Bananna chocolate right off the street. We were wondering when your trip was. Hope its super fantastic fun, and don't be going to any road side chappels!!!!
Dad I was meaning to type in the last one, and tell you about these fabulous trees here. If you think your lawn lines are straight. You should see these trees, everywhere you go, down any highway. Every type of tree is growing in a perfectly straight line with equal distance between. Its something else, you gotta see!! HA


We weren't going to post today, but thought you might be stressing about cleaning it ourselves mom. We'll write again in a few days with pictures.

Heaven on Earth..but then...

I had it in my head that I was gonna put together this huge story about how I injured myself. But for the past hour we have been walking trying to find a internet place that would allow me to get on blogspot. So instead I will just spill the beans. Kelly and I were in Koh Phangan and on our second day there we rented a scooter for the day. (a whopping 200 baht which is about 5 bucks) We were going to check out the beautiful island. I mean beautiful, top ten beaches in the world. Anyways, we had made our first stop and were checking out a beach 15 mins into the day. Now somewhere in my past I must have angered some granite gods, cause they took full revenge on me. I had climbed no higher then ten feet to get a better look. On my way down I thought in my head about jumping, but thought, nah, one more step. I fell. I didn't think it was much, but Kelly said she heard the thud 50 feet away. I got up and started to brush myself off, when a guy came running telling me I had to go to the hospital. I looked at my right forearm and saw nothing but blood, gushing out of a lot of open skin. We wrapped it in a towel (thanks Marcie) and hiked back up the hill leaving our scooter. Thankfully on the island taxis are common. We stood at the side of the road for not even 2 mins. Anyways, got to the hospital and my reputation for gross large lacerations continues. They froze my arm and began to stitch me back up, (meanwhile, Kelly could not watch any longer. She left and tried to control her stomach from upheaving, then proceded to fill out paper work with out fainting.) In the end I recived 21 stiches down my right forearm. Its about two inches below my pinky and about two inches below where a watch would stop. Maybe 8" long, it was deep, like all my layers of skin deep. I'm on antibiotics and painkillers. The clinic was really good, did a great job at fixing me up. I've been to a doctor everyday since for a cleaning. But since we left Koh Phangan I don't get my free cleaning. Today in Krabi the doctor charged me 400 baht. So, we bought the stuff at the local med store and are going to clean it ourselves. Everything is healing fine and the stitches come out in 5 more days. So, I get to enjoy all these fabulous crystal clear water beaches from the sand and Kelly, well she gets to enjoy the beautifully warm white sandy ocean in it. Now, I'll let Kelly take over cause my arm hurts from so much action.

Ok...so just quickly gonna fill you in on what else we've been doing!! We left bangkok and boarded a night train that proved to be a great way to travel! We each had our own bunk (with air conditioning of course) and when we woke up we were at our destination! Suratani! From there we took a bus (which almost killed us...the guy was driving about 160 km around corners, which caused me to spill my tea on my new white tanktop...I now have a huge stain!!!) to the ferry and travelled for about 2 and a half hours. It was on the ferry that we got very excited about where we were going. The dolphins were jumping all around us and it was crystal clear waters as far as the eye could see! When we arrived to what would be our new home for the next 3 days we were pleasantly surprised!! We had a small hut that was kinda like a cabin that over looked the beach (the shower had no roof...so the sun beat down on you...it was great) Despite the accident that set us back...well quite abit.... it was very beautiful and relaxing (I enjoyed swimming, but I did feel bad looking on to the beach where Dean was swealtering in the sun) We met 3 Canadians and a very nice german couple! Our resort was great! Great food and a great family that made us feel like part of their own! We could even run up a tab which was great! We left there yesterday morning and are now in Krabi (well actually we are ao nang beach). This morning we went kayaking (our guide was great and we had tons of fun with him!) and then spent the afternoon walking the beach. At the end of the beach there were tons of monkeys just playing...one tried to steal my bag...it was pretty funny and quite entertaining! Oh yeah, a dog was hanging out with the monkeys...he tried to fight one and then the whole clan came after it ... lol. Tomorrow we are doing a tour around 4 different islands. Then one day off then a tour to Koh Phi Phi....James Bond Island. We will also be snorkelling (well I will be...Dean will take pictures) We have yet to decide where we are going next but will keep you updated. It seems fairly easy to get around and we are not to worried about it!! Anyways, we are racking up a bill so we should say goodbye!!! We will put pictures up soon (we forgot to bring the cord this time) Love you all!!!! Bye for now!

A great day in Thailand

Yesterday was a great day for us and has changed our point of view slightly from Dean's last post. We decided to go over budget (which we've pretty much done every day so far..oops) and we booked ourselves a tour out of the city center. It started at 7 am as we boarded an air conditioned bus (won't do anything if it doesn't have air conditioning) and headed..well not to sure...I think we went south! Firstly we went to a floating market that was jammed packed with tourists. The boat could barely move through but we enjoyed it anyways. Dean is getting really good at bargaining and we bought some great food and a fan. From the floating market we went to Jeath's Museum which is where the Japenese used prisoners of war to build train tracks to get into Burma. We decided to save ourselves the 80 baht to actually get into the museum and instead chose to walk on the train tracks and take our own pictures. There we saw a very sick elephant tied up. It was quite sad. Dean fed it 2 banana's, it seemed to be starving. Our next stop was the best. We both thought of you Marty and both wished that we could have shared this with you. We went to a tiger restoration area. Here we got to sit and pet and get our pictures taken with full sized (not tamed) Tigers! It was so awesome!! The staff guided us through (while holding our hands) and let us pose with the HUGE tigers. I got whipped with the tail of the biggest one right after I was told not to touch it. It scared the crap out of me. It was a powerful whip! We also got to play with baby tigers. They were adorable. We've taken lots of pictures and Dean is going to post some hopefully today!!! After we got back into town. We went for dinner. We actually spent the evening with our first backpacker friend Marissa. (We met her on the tour) Dean had a whole fish for dinner. Head, Tail and all!! He definetly blew our budget for dinner..it cost him 300 baht...which is..approx $11..yikes!! From there we decided heck, we'd already spent so much money that day why not a little more and we did one of the best things.....Thai massages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is true..you can't get a better massage than the ones in Thailand. Dean was certain he probably could have gotten a massage with benefits...but decided not to jump at the opportunity!!! (which I was grateful for) We will definetly invest in another one before we leave here. Today is gonna be another hot day (yesterday at the market we had a little bit of rain...it was refreshing) We are probably going to go to Chinatown. Tommorrow we will go to the Grand Palace and to see the giant reclining Buddha. We will then board an over night train and head south for a few days on the islands! We've found the Thai people to be extremely friendly and even if they don't speak good english they make an effort. Everyone (at least in the city) wants to sell you something. When you say no they always offer a discount price and from there is where you start to negotiate! But on Khao San Road there is so many tourists, that they don't seem to care if you buy or not. The food has proven to be delicious! In fact, shortly after finishing a meal we are already thinking about the next so that we can try something else. We have yet to try something that we didn't like...so much for our travelling weight loss plan! It feels like we've been here for a really long time already and we both are finding it hard to believe that we still have well over 2 and a half months left.... Feel free to comment on our blog (or at least say HI) We would love to hear from everyone!

Can't wait to be out of Bangkok, possibly thailand. Heading south on monday, our time not you people in the past. Kelly was sick for the first day here.Shes getting better, she slept 20 hours yesterday. Heading to Ko Pha-ngan then onto Krabi. Hopefully the beaches will restrore a love for Thailand, probably will, I'm thinking its just the tuk tuk fumes have got to me:) Chow for now, my lunch as arrived.

Leaving Korea, the friendly one.

Well our twenty four hour lay over turned out to be not such a bad thing. We almost didn't make it to the airport in Seattle. Massive snow storms and roads you could hold a curling bondspeal on :) Kudos to my mom who managed to keep the car on the road as we traveled sideways. Anyways, got there and began our hurry up and wait. Our flight sat on the tarmack for just over two hours as we waited for our plane to be de-iced and then we joined rush hour on the runway as everyone wanted to leave. On the plane we were given excellent service, well I was given, Kelly slept 10 out of the 14 hour flight adventure, I managed at best two.
Souel is a beautiful place that is in full fledge swing to becoming "westenized". Skyscrappers are littered everywhere across the horizon, even four trump building, blah. The people are always smiling and dressed quite sharp. Our hotel was from what I can tell downtown, and we experienced our first ever computerized toliet. Seat warmer, sprayer and they even managed to get a blow dryer down there! Unfortunetly minus the menu, it looks like home. More english billboards of our own companies here then anything. But to everyone who joined us on our layover, we were all so surprised at how clean EVERYTHING is. Minus the alley ways, nothing but strip clubs and drunken bussinessmen coming out from there, ha. Well we're off to Bangkok in two hours and I don't know when we'll get back on. Don't miss home yet, but I'm sure it'll come. Not sure what home I'm going to miss, as we do not have anywhere to call home.Oh by the way, I'm sitting in a internet cafe surrunded by Apple Macbooks in the airport and its all free!

Mom~ hope the trip home was much, much better then the way there. I was afraid we weren't going to make it. But you white knuckled your way through. Much love.