April 3, 2009

Hello from Thailand!

We are currently in Bangkok after 3 days of traveling! We finally got through customs and passport checks last night at 2:00am...so finding a hotel wasn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. After our taxi driver brought us to the most expensive place ever, we finally crashed. It's amazing what you'll pay for a crummy hotel at 3am after flying for 2 and a half days!

Today we ran around Bangkok trying to get the hang of it. It's a HUGE city with almost 7 million people all driving on the left hand side of the road MOST of the time and the driving rules are just some sort of controlled chaos. We tested their public transportation called the Sky Train...and sorry to say, but it has the T beat! The trains are new so you get a smooth ride and it was SO easy to get around...and the fact that it only cost 20 baht (about $.50 USD) to ride made it totally tromp the MBTA.

Tomorrow we're going to be taking a bus south from Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan, and plan on staying there for a couple of days before catching an over night train to the Krabi Provence. The next couple of days will hopefully be filled with lazy beach bumming and checking out waterfalls.

I'll write more soon! Hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Moriah & Jarom

April 7, 2009

Krabi, Thailand!

Well we made it to Pratchaup Khiri Kahn. It's a beautiful place where tourists don't normally tred. It was really nice to step off the bus and not be bombarded by Tuk-Tuk drivers for our next stop. We stayed in this really nice place for about $10 USD a night and had a beautiful ocean view! I took some amazing sunrise pictures and will definitely share them when we return home. We also made it to a nearby beach called Ao Noi via motorbike taxi...yes, Jarom and I shared one motorbike with the driver! haha. We walked along this kind of sketchy trail out to the point of a rock peninsula, it was absolutely breathtaking with the Carst formations jetting out of the ocean and the colorful fishing boats dotting the horizon.

Next stop was Surat Thani as a through point to get to Krabi in far south Thailand. We had to take 2 busses to get there so we decided to spread it over 2 days...good thing since it's like riding a pogo-stick for 180km! After staying a night in the cleanest hotel ever, we made our way to the travel agency to book our last bus trip to Krabi. It was full of people trying to get every last dime out of you and trying to get you to your "destination" quickly. Everyone you pass asks you where you're going and if you have a ticket and how much they will charge you to get you there...it's WAY too overwhelming! Finally we made it to our bus and eventually to Krabi where we are now.

This place is amazing, after you get past the bus station and get into town. One guy tried to charge us 100 baht just to get into town (4km) and I knew from our travel book that it should only cost 20 baht...finally we got someone to take us there for the 20B. Here the smell of the markets define the town, and the gift shops are amazing. It's a through point for most travelers, but I think we'll end up staying here for a few days and visiting the nearby Wat after our trip to Rei Leh.

Tomorrow off to Rei Leh, only 1.5 hours by long boat to experience beaches, kayaking, and snorkeling...hopefully without sunburns! I'll update when we return to Krabi.

Love, Jarom & Moriah

April 12, 2009

Rei Leh & Hat Ton Sai, Thailand!

So we just got back into Krabi via a long boat after lounging at some beaches only accessible by boat. First we went to Rei Leh, it's amazing! The east side is where you can stay for a reasonable rate but it's still really expensive for Thai standards.

So after a couple of days of being lazy on the beach we decided to check out this trail with a friend of Jarom's that just so happened to be in Thailand at the same time as us! We hiked about 30 minutes through the jungle and happened upon a place to stay for 100 Baht a night! That's about $2.85 USD. It was incredible! The only thing about this place is you had to share the shower with about 5 billion mosquitos, and the occasional rat (who we decided to call Rattie). This place we found is called Hat Ton Sai. It's a climber's paradise with amazing climbs scattering the beaches, and free solo climbs over the ocean!

Mosquitos aside, it was a breathtakingly beautiful place especially at sunset, and it seems like it's one of those places that hasn't been "discovered" yet. It was nice to escape the world where everyone is racing to be the first to sell you something and dive into a place where you can just breathe in the sea air and enjoy the sand between your toes.

We'll be here in Krabi for the next couple of days exploring a Wat nearby and getting out on the water again and doing some kayaking. After that we'll be taking a bus, to a bus, to the train, then a plane....and finally arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, Vienam 2 days later.

I'll write again soon! I might even get a chance to post a couple of picutres :o)

Love,
Moriah and Jarom

April 15, 2009

Krabi, Thailand

What a fun time we've had here in Krabi. The 13th was Songkran, the Thai New Year, where the entire city has a waterfight for the whole day. In some places in Thailand it lasts up to 5 days! I think the tradition started with children pouring water over their elders hands and morphed into this giant waterfight! There's absolutely no way you can make it through this holiday dry, the instant you walk outside there's a huge bucket of water poured over your head...and it doesn't stop all day long. There are trucks drivnig around with big barells of water in the back and kids with smaller buckets and squirt guns soaking anyone who looks remotely dry...or really just anyone in general. The sneaky ones put ice in their buckets so it was even that much more surprising! We had a great time.

Yesterday we decided to walk up to this Wat just about 8KM north of town. And in order to get there we decided to rent a motorbike...not only are we driving a motorbike on the left hand side of the road, in Asia...we're getting water thrown in our faces while driving! Haha! This Wat has a Buddah statue at the top of this mountain. In order to see this statue you have to climb all 1237 steps. Sounds easy right?! That's what I thought...just a few stairs and I'm there...no big deal. Haha! It was so intense...I couldn't believe how hard it was. We were sweating our butts off and huffing and puffing our way up. Finally though, we made it and it was well worth the sweat we put into it. The golden Buddah statue is probably 25ft high and had the mountains/Karst formations as the backdrop...simply stunning. Walking down with shaky legs we saw old men and women making the trek as well as little children maybe 6 years old or so. Wow.

Today we went back to Railay and went kayaking and snorkeling. What a beautiful end to our stay in this amazing place. Tomorrow we start our journey back north to Bangkok, and will fly out to Vietnam from there.

Anyone who has been up on the news in Thailand probably has heard of the political demonstrations there. It got a little out of control and some people have died, but looks like it's disbanding and Bangkok is returning to normal. We will be limiting our presence in Bangkok as much as possible, but it is our "through point" for many of our destinations. Things look like their a-okay and we will post and continue to travel safely.

We're having a blast here and we miss you all!

Love,

Moriah and Jarom

April 19, 2009

Can Tho, Vietnam

Good Morning Vietnam! ...sorry...cheesy, I know, I couldn't help myself.

So, we made our crazy trip of planes, trains and busses to get us to Saigon, Vietnam on the 17th. For the record Saigon is absolutely crazy! I can't believe how many motorbikes they can fit on a single road at once! Well, I guess they use the sidewalks too...so maybe that makes it a little better. We got in at 5pm and were waiting for the Saigon city bus that comes to the airport and goes right by our hotel after our flight whe the Taxi Men came over and started their routine take-the-tourist-for-all-they-have gig. We were one step ahead of them this time though! They told us the bus stopped running at 4pm and we they could take us to a great hotel for only 250,000 Dong! We told them we'd wait and see if bus would come...and sure enough it showed up 5 minutes later...we happily boarded the bus paid our 3,000 Dong fare and waived good-bye to our friendly neighborhood taxi drivers.

Then, once on the bus, Jarom's jaw dropped almost to the floor and for nearly the entire ride home he sat in awe of the sea of motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic. It really was amazing. I expected the traffic, but had never seen anything like it even in Hanoi. The motorbike to car ratio had to be 10:1 and no one follows any sort of traffic laws, they just "merge" in and out of traffic and most make it to their destinations...somehow. Needless to say we probably won't be renting our own motorbike here!

The traffic aside, Saigon is still nuts. We counted our paces between people trying to sell you something, and couldn't get over 60 before the touts attacked! Some were attacking after only 3 steps! So, to avoid the craziness, we booked a mini-bus ticket to a place called Can Tho in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.

So far it's great here. It's WAY more laid back than Ho Chi Minh City and we're going to be taking a tour of the floating markets in the morning and then taking a boat to explore the many rivers and canals of the Mighty Mekong Delta! Then we'll head to this town called Vinh Long where we'll hopefully be able to do a homestay with a Vietnamese family for a night.

I hope everyone is doing great. We miss you all!

Love,

Mo & Jarom

April 24, 2009

Quy Nhon, Vietnam

While we were in Can Tho we scheduled a long-boat tour of the floating markets and the many canals of the Mekong Delta. It was great to see everything on one trip. We went through 2 markets where these giant boats with fruit and veggies sold to the smaller boats where they in turn sold it in the street markets in the villages. It was fun to see the process, and eat some good fruit while we were at it! Their "grapefruits" are about the size of a cantalope, and are SOOOO tasty! We even made as stop to see how rice noodles are made. It's a pretty cool process. Then we continued our river adventures down these little winding canals. It's a shame they're littered with trash and plastic bags, it would have been a beautiful trip if it hadn't been so dirty. We all know where this garbage and plastic goes once it flows out of the Mekong... It's sad to see, but there has to be a way to clean this up or to educate people better so they don't just throw their trash into the water.

After Can Tho we took a mini-bus to Vinh Long where we wanted to arrange a homestay. We were under the impression it was only going to cost about $10 from the guide books, but when we went to book it they were trying to get $65. It was just too much for us to justify, and I know that the family we would have stayed with would only see a small percentage of the money so we decided not to do it. Instead we went to the market for dinner and it was fantastic to just point and have someone make you something...I don't really know what I was eating, but it tasted good! I just gave what looked like meat to Jarom :o) The next day we took a bus to Saigon, and an overnight train to a sleeply little beach town.

So, after a long 12 hour overnight train ride we made it to Quy Nhon. It was funny, we decided to get the "hard sleeper" versus the soft one...and we decided to get the top bunk (the thrid tier) because it was all cheaper. Haha, you should have seen it, we were like giants stuffed in a doll house! I could almost sit up in my bed, but my head had to be tilted over to one side or another...oh so comfy. So, for the next 12 hours we had to lay down, which is probably better then sitting up for 12 hours.

Once we finally got to Quy Nhon and were finally able to sit/stand upright it was great! There are only a few people here trying to sell you things and everyone you pass says "hello" and/or gives you these long stares while walking the streets. We have only seen a couple of other backpackers in this town so it's kind of nice to see a place that doesn't survive solely on tourism. It seems like people make their money on fish and fruit here, so therefore we're not constantly pestered by people trying to sell us something or some service.

We're staying in a beautiful hotel with our own balcony for about $11 a night and it's SO cheap to eat here. We went to this great vegetarian place for lunch and it cost us $1.25 total! How fantastic first of all that they have vegetarian places, and second that they're so cheap!

We decided to rent a motorbike today in order to get to a beach about 20km from here. And I thought we got looks from being backpackers walking around...everyone was staring at us on our motorbike. We made it to this amazing beach that was deserted except for us. Then we ran around town checking out cafes here and there. If you can get past the new "traffic rules" and just roll with it, it's so nice to ride a motorbike, it allows you to see so much more of the town. Tomorrow, we're heading about 5 hours north of here to HoiAn by bus in the morning. I'm looking forward to showing Jarom HoiAn. It's a beautiful old place with TONS of character and amazing tailors. We'll be there for about 5 days before we head back to Thailand, and travel the Northern half starting at Chiang Mai.

I'll write more soon!
Love, Mo & Jarom

May 2, 2009

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Wow...it's been a few days since my last post only because we've been having so much fun I haven't had time to be in front of a computer! So, I'll give you a bit of a run down on what we've been up to for the past week.

On our way to HoiAn we had the most horrific bus ride! It was completely insane, there were 15 passengers and 4 of them were throwing up the whole way...I think Jarom and I were too scared for our lives to be sick! haha. The driver would get right up to the bumper of the car in front of him and jerk the van to the side to pass and then we would narrowly miss getting in a head-on collision with a giant truck as he would jerk us back into our lane. Not to mention this was all on a curvy back road so most of the passing was done on blind corners...but we lived to tell about it! :o)

HoiAn was great, we spent 4 days there getting clothes tailored for us and relaxing. We ended up running into a guy who takes people via motorbike on the back roads to see the Ho Chi Minh trail (this is the trail the Vietnamese used to get their weapons from the North to the South during the Vietnam war) and to get off the typical tourist trail. We ended up booking 2 days with him. Jarom and I were on one bike and we followed him. What a great experience! The only hitch was we ended up picking the only 2 days while we were in Vietnam where it was pouring down rain the whole time. So, we put on "rain gear" our guide had for us and enjoyed the warm rain. We ran out of gas at one point...our guide eventually noticed we weren't behind him and came back for us and gave us some gas from his tank, along with a rain drop or two. This water caused our bike to stall out if you went over 5km/hr. We evenutally made it to the next town where Mr Quang fixed the bike for us while we waited in some person's living room. We talked to them using the best charades we could muster since these people spoke no more English then "hello" and us no more Vietnamese then "xin Chao"!

Once Mr. Quang dropped us off in DaNang he invited us over to his family's house for dinner that night. Wow, how cool! We sat on the floor and learned how to make fresh spring rolls and they kept the food coming and our glasses full. We laughed a lot and left fat and happy! This was by far one of the best experiences I've had in Vietnam. What a great send-off from Vietnam!

The next day we took 3 flights to get us here to Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's great here, not too loud or busy, and the people aren't nearly as pushy as they are in the south! I think we'll spend a few days here exploring the Wats and markets before we head a bit more northwest of here to a town called Pai for some trekking!

Love,
Mo & Jarom

May 3, 2009

Chiang Mai, Thailand



Love,
Mo & Jarom

May 7, 2009

Pai, Thailand

So we decided to rent a motorbike and drive to this town about 4 hours outside of Chiang Mai, called Pai (it's pronounced "bye"). What a crazy road! Take "Going to the Sun" road in Glacier National Park and multiply it by 100, and you might have an idea how steep and relentlessly winding it is! We finally made it here to this sleepy little hippy town in the afternoon where we settled into a bungalow by the river. It's a pretty cool town, and a nice escape from the buzzing city! I think we'll take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere and stay here for a few days.

Today we went on an elephant ride in the river! Don't worry we made sure to go with a company that is known for treating their animals respectfully... It was so cool! All day, I was so excited to ride them and then when we actually stood before "Aoi" our elephant...I was instantly terrified, and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I had forgotten just how huge elephants are. First Jarom got on, then she put her trunk out as to lend me a hand, (and since Jarom was still sitting safe and sound I figured it was pretty safe) I then stepped aboard and she lifted me up to her forhead so I could climb on. What a crazy experience...to be up so high, it was like riding a horse bareback, but bumpier and much MUCH higher and wider! We got to the river and she lowered her trunk and threw it up at us and showered us with water. She leaned down into the water and shook her enormous body, Jarom and the trainer went flying into the water...yet I stayed on attached at her neck! For a breif moment I thought I'd missed my calling....then she went again and I too, went flying! It was so much fun to play in the river with our newfound giant buddy, and a nice way to cool off in the middle of the day. By the time it was over, we were ready to climb down...and climb into a hot tub to relax and soak our aching legs and butts. And 27 year-old Aoi was ready to finish eating her 250kg of food for the day!

We're not really sure what's next...but I'm sure we'll find something to keep us occupied, and we'll be sure to update when we do! :o)

Love,
Mo & Jarom

May 13, 2009

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We made it back from Pai on our motorbike in once piece to Chiang Mai. This is a pretty cool town. It has about 300,000 people and has a moat surrounding the Town Center. The moat is surrounded in some parts by a giant brick wall that dates back to the early 1400's. Only parts of the wall remain, but it's amazing to see. There are also over 30 Wats (or Buddhist temples) dotting the city! Mostly there's not a ton to do in this town but Wat-gaze, go to the night markets and eat :o)

So since we liked the food so much we decided to take a Thai Cooking course. What a fun day! We got to cook 6 different couerses each (some definitely better than others) and we got to eat it all providing we could actually swallow our own cooking! I failed my attempt at Phad Thai, and I'll probably choose to add a few less chillies next time I make Green Papaya Salad...the little red ones are way hotter than I originally gave them credit for. I have to say though, I will definitely be making the Paenang Curry again, and I'll be begging Jarom to make his spring rolls and Water Chestnut salad YUMMM! They even gave us a cookbook so we can remember how to make these dishes at home.

We also went to all the night markets in Chiang Mai. It was exhausting having to barter for everything you wanted to buy! They say 800 baht...you say 300...they finally say 500, and back and fourth like that until you end up spending about half of what they were orinigally asking. Then 20 minutes later you see the same thing you just bought selling for half what you just bartered down to! It's crazy.

At the market there are also these portrait sketch artists, you can pay them 3 bucks and they'll sketch your portrait in about 15 minutes. Pretty cool, eh? We decided it would be a good gift for my Mom to have Jarom and I drawn together, so we scoured the artists sample drawings and picked the best one. We sat there while he was drawing us (keeping a smile plastered to our faces the whole time) and people were stopping and watching him draw. They would look at us, back to the drawing, back to us and giggle. I was trying to decide if this was a real drawing or a charactacher sketch. Finally he showed us the drawing...and all we could do was hand him the money and take our drawing. It looked NOTHING like us! haha! He couldn't really draw my eyes at all, they were all lopsided and crooked, and you can't even tell it was Jarom he was drawing next to me aside from the eyebrows! We decided we'd keep searching for a gift for my Mom. We also decided that our sketch artist must have borrowed his sample drawings from his neighbor...

I'll write more later!

Love,
Jarom & Moriah