The Adventure of a Lifetime

From a Year on the Road to Our Own Abode (The End)

2007-08-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

This year's team for the President's Cup

Who is the weird guy in the middle pulling the face?
And what is Craig looking for?

Peter thanking Troy for his work on Foster's

Foster's group reunited!

A game of twister gone bad

Lauren with Mom and Tom

Good old family fun

Sagalow family reunion

Spending a day at the waterpark with Dad and Jetsabel

Reuniting with our best friend, Allison

Hello Everyone!

It's good to be back in the good old US of A. What a fantastic trip it's been, but it sure does feel great to be home! We are relishing in all of the luxuries we once took for granted, but not anymore after our year on the road - air conditioning, working showers, toilet paper, sidewalks and driving a car. It's unbelievable how quickly we are adapting back to life in the Western world.

We arrived home three weeks ago and we have had plenty of time to reflect on our life this past year. We have shared so many amazing experiences, met people from completely different cultures, sampled items we didn't even know could be considered food, and enjoyed every minute of it!!

Backpacking is a constant adventure and there is never a dull moment. From skiing in Chile to camel trekking through the desert in India, from seeing Everest at sunrise to the sunset in Goa, from a live aboard dive trip in Thailand to a rafting trip in Nepal, from ancient ruins in Cambodia to the modern city of Bangkok, from Tibetan butter tea to Argentine red wine, it's been quite the journey, and one we will never forget.

As Green Day poetically said in their song "Time of Your Life":

"So take the photographs and still frames in your mind. Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time. Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial. For what it's worth, it was worth all the while. It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life."

Now, let us assure you, we did "have the time of our lives". Thanks to each of you, our friends and blog readers, for your comments and for experiencing this journey with us. We are looking forward to catching up with each of you in person. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Thank you again for logging in each week and taking a bird's eye view of what has been an important milestone in our lives.

Your Friends,

Lauren and Troy

From Nature´s Force to Back to the Source (Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires)

2007-07-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

And this could be all yours with no money down!

Welcome to Iguazu Falls

Panoramic view of the falls from Brazil

Picture perfect

Rainbows, falls and palm trees....what more could you ask for in a photo?

Fury of the falls from below

Who would have thought they could have made it?

Basking in the sun and enjoying the view

Tarzan swinging through the Argentine jungle

Happily back in Buenos Aires

Hola Amigos!

We are writing what will be one of our last blogs from Argentina. Before you get all teary-eyed though, rest assured that we will be posting a conculsion blog enroute back to the States.

Our last week in Argentina has been one of the best without a doubt. With only a matter of days left in our journey, we threw out the notion of a backpacker budget and rented a car to take us to some of the harder to reach towns in Northern Argentina.

Cruising the amazing desert landscape with wind blowing our hair, we had a blast listening to Coldplay on the CD player while we sang along in our best Chris Martin voices. Allison, this defenitely reminded us of our roadtrip to the hill together!

As the saying goes, the journey, not the destination, is often the best part of the ride and this was true for our roadtrip. The towns we made it to were interesting and filled with lovely people, but the ride was tops.

After being in the desert for the past few weeks, we thought it might be time to try something new. Something with a little more water. So, we decided to jump on a bus and head to Iguazu Falls, the largest in South America. Now lets not under estimate the bus ride, it was over 24 hours!

The long trip was worth it once we arrived at our destination in the very Northeastern tip of Argentina. We have seen our share of waterfalls throughout the trip, but none hold a candle to fabulous Iguazu. This remarkable waterfall system consists of 271 separate waterfalls along 2.7 kilomters (1.7 miles). In every direction that the eye could see, huge amounts of water were crashing down. The scenery and sound of the water is astonishing!

The falls can be visited from both Argentina and Brazil. Lucky for us, we were able to use our Brazilian visas from our trip a few years ago and saved ourselves the hefty visa fee. We spent the first day on the Brazilian side, which offered the most panoramic views. The second and third day of our visit were spent on the Argentine side which allowed us to get up close and personal with the falls.

One of the most amazing aspects of the waterfalls are the rainbows that are created on clear days. We really lucked out with all of our days being clear and were able to capture fantastic photos.

With all of the excitement of this impressive natural wonder, it was hard leave Iguazu, but we had to get back to Buenos Aires. We finally booked our flight home and will be leaving Buenos Aires in two short days (Aug 2nd)!

We will be writing our last blog from the comfort of our air conditioned house in Florida. We think we may even have a wireless connection to the internet instead of dial-up! Wow, the luxuries of home.

Lauren and Troy

From Seaside Delights to Flamingos in Flight

2007-07-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just another colorful block in Valparasio

Bundling together to keep warm

Amazing landscape in Chile

If you are going to skate on thin ice, you might as well tap dance on it

Posing with San Pedro´s version of Zoro

Streets of San Pedro de Atacama

So this is what we woke up at 3:30am for.....

Sunrise view of the geysers

Giving a hug to an old mate

Hola Chicos!

We hope you are all doing well.

This week we made our way half way up the country of Chile and what a ride it´s been. After our week of skiing in Portillo, we made the short journey to the beautiful seaside town of Valparasio, located about 90 minutes north of Santiago. Valparasio is a unique place, extremely cultured and scenic. The city is built on massive hills that rise up from the ocean and the houses and shops seem to barely hang on to the steep ledges (think San Francisco). As if this weren´t dramatic enough, the buildings in the city are all brightly painted with colors such as pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange and green. It really is a sight to see.

After an active week of skiing, our plan for Valpo (as the locals call it) were to just chill out and enjoy some Chilean cuisine...and that we did! Our daily routine consisted of a long lunches and dinners for which we would always choose a restaurant high up in the hills with a great view. In between we would wander the streets and try to catch a musician performing in the square.

Unfortunately, while all this eating made for a good experience for us, it doesn´t necessary translate to exciting reading for you. So we decided to change all that and head for more adventure. After 2 days in Valpo we embarked on a mammoth bus journey of about 1000 miles and finally arrived in the small desert oasis of San Pedro de Atacama. We have to say that San Pedro is one of the most interesting towns we have seen during our travels. Every building in the town is built in the traditional adobe style, made of mud and hay. It is a very picturesqe town.

However, the main attraction of San Pedro is not the town itself, it is the huge range of activites that are on offer in the surrounding desert. San Pedro is located in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. From flamingo spotting to sandboarding (yes SANDboarding) to geyser walking, there is enough activity there to keep even the most picky tourist happy.

Among the many activites we enjoyed in San Pedro, the geyser tour was our favorite. Now we know most of you will not believe this given the fact that we had to wake up at 3:30am for the tour! Yes, we were dragged out of bed at this ungodly hour and stuck on bus for the two hour trip to the geysers. Why you might ask a 3:3o start? The geysers are most active just before sunrise, so all of the tours leave early in the morning to take advantage. But it was worth it to see the sprays of boiling water and billows of steam rising out of crust of earth, especially coupled with the pink sunrise that emerged from behind the snow covered volcanoes.

And if you´re like us you might be asking how does a geyser work? Geysers are fairly common in areas with active volcanoes. The magma under the earth´s surface heats up the rocks below the crust which in turn act like a kettle and heat the water. The water reaches temperatures of up to 800 degrees farenheight and finally bursts through the crust due to all of the pressure. These bursts of water and steam are known as geysers. Although the biggest geyser is located in Yellowstone National Park (Old Faithful) in the US, the geysers here in Chile are unique for a couple of reasons. The first being that they are the highest geysers (in terms of elevation) in the world, located at an altitude of over 4000 meters (about 13,000 feet). The second reason is that they are completely natural and unmanipulated. This means that none of the geysers have been sealed to produce more pressure and activity in the open geysers, such as what has been done at Yellowstone National Park.

Sadly, these geysers are also special because in about two months they will be closed to tourists. The land has been sold to an electric company which plans to harness the energy of the geysers. Unfortunately tourism could not pay the bills and the government had to look elsewhere.

While in San Pedro we also had the opportunity to visit the salt flats and see wild flamingos. They are such graceful birds and when they would take off in flight it was fantastic to see their bright pink bodies streak across the blue sky.

After 5 great days in San Pedro, it was time to say goodbye to Chile and make the 12 hour bus journey back to Argentina. The bus ride involved crossing the Atacama Desert, the driest and highest in the world.

The bus arrived at the station to pick us up and we were overjoyed to see that it was a first class bus, complete with reclining seats, a bar on board and DVD players. This bus was brand spanking new, what a way to traverse the harsh desert climate! We crossed the Chillean border and chugged along through the desolate desert scenery enjoying the ride.

After about two hours we started to hear weird noises coming from the engine and the bus started to jerk back and forth. We pulled over and all that could be seen were the billows of black smoke emerging from our fancy bus. We waited and waited, in the middle of the desert, while the bus driver tried everything to get the engine going. Finally, the bus came back to life and we turned around to make the trip back to where we started. As if this wasnt bad enough, because we had crossed the Chile border, but had not yet immigrated to Argentina, we were considered illegal immigrants and not allowed to wander more than 10 feet from the bus. So, like a bunch of refugees, we stood in the shade of the broken bus for 2 hours while we waited for our replacement bus to arrive. It finally pulled up and by this point, we didnt even care that it was missing all of the luxuries of the previous bus! We made it to Argentina late in the night, but were still able to celebrate with a huge hunk of beef and a bottle of red.

We are planning to explore a few of the smaller towns in Northern Argentina in the next few days. We look forward to updating you on the last few weeks of our trip.

Talk to you soon!

Lauren and Troy

From Fine Reds to Falling on our Heads (Mendoza, Argentina to Portillo, Chile)

2007-07-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sampling aged reds in Mendoza

Home finally...amongst the wine barrels

Posing with the chocolatier in Mendoza

Welcome to Hotel Portillo!

Part of the backpacker clan, taking advantage of the free welcome drink

Dancing the night away with the Argentines

On the sun deck of the hotel after the blizzard

Sampling local Chilean drinks on the way to Valparasio

Hola Amigos,

We hope you are all doing well. And, to those of you in the US, Happy 4th of July! We missed one of our favorite holidays, but trust that you each had an extra burger and beer for us.

We´ve been having a blast in South America. It seems like the fun never ends. After writing our last blog update, we took a bus to the heart of Argentine wine country and traded our ski gear for wine glasses. Mendoza is a picturesque city, surrounded by vineyards and the looming Andes. We had no trouble filling our time or wine glasses while in Mendoza.

Our most memorable day in Mendoza involved bicycles, which make for a very interesting ride when wine tasting. With a couple of other keen backpackers, we went out to the wine district of Maipu and rented bikes to tour several of the wineries. The day began very nice and relaxed as we peddled our way through the countryside in search of wine tastings. It quickly turned into an all out party when we stumbled upon the whiskey distillery. Add that to the multiple glasses of free wine and chocolate liqueur and you´ve really got yourself a fun afternoon! ¨Drinks on Bikes¨!

We quickly got used to the high life of sipping wine in Mendoza and found it hard to leave. However, there was another adventure right around the corner, so we packed up yet again and set off.

Some may think that skiing in two resorts in Argentina would be enough, but we had other ideas. As our last ski hoorah in South America, we booked ourselves into the prestigious, world famous Hotel Portillo in Chile for one entire week with the white stuff. You may be wondering how we were able to afford to stay in a place with the word ¨Hotel¨ in front of it given all of our stays have been in backpackers (hostels). We´ll allow us to explain.

While this legendary 5 star resort charges upwards of $2500 USD per person for the week, there must be a softie on the management team with a heart for the lowly backpacker. The hotel opens up it´s staff quarters, which are dorms, and allows backpackers to take up the empty beds for $600 USD per week. This is quite the deal when you consider that this price includes 7 nights of accommodation, 8 days of lift tickets, 4 meals per day and use of the hotel amenities (heated pools, hot tub, gym, sauna, cinema, etc.). So we lived it up for an entire week; skiing in fresh powder, soaking in the hot tub, eating like kings, meeting heaps of backpackers and other hotel guests, slurping down Chilean wine and dancing until the wee hours in the disco. It was a fantastic week and one of the best experiences of our entire trip thus far.

The first few days in Portillo were picture perfect with warm temperatures and blue skies. However, towards the end of the week the weather changed and a huge blizzard brought 2 feet of fresh snow! This huge amount of snow resulted in the slopes being closed for a day, and in a round about way, was responsible for a couple of humorous stories.

Since we knew that the mountain would be closed in the morning, we all decided to have a big night out which included making a cameo appearance at the disco. As luck would have it, it was karaoke night and Troy along with another Australian backpacker (Mike) graced us all with his rendition of ¨Land Down Under¨. You should have heard the applause from the crowd, they were a real hit!

When the weather finally did clear late the next day, everyone had a bit more courage on the slopes due to all of the fresh powder. How can you be scared when falling feels like landing on a pillow? So, abandoning her usual conservative ski style, Lauren thought this might be the day to practice some of those daring jumps. We sailed over the snowbanks, launching ourselves in the air and had a great time landing on the ultra-soft snow. But, Lauren got a bit too brave the next time around. She decided to go for a jump that ended up being more of a wall made of snow. Instead of smoothly sailing over the snow, her skis went straight into the snow bank, her bindings released and she was catapulted like a cannon ball over the bank. She landed on her head, with poles still in hand, about 10 feet from her skis, laughing hysterically about the plunder. Upon looking back, she noticed her skis still stuck in the middle of the bank, suspended from the ground, bouncing up and down. Great times were definitely had in the fresh powder!

Reluctantly, we said our goodbyes to Portillo and all of the great friends we met, and took off to Valparasio, an artsy seaside town in Chile. Luckily, we didn´t have to say too many goodbyes straight away as our good friends Claudio and Adan from Chile kindly drove us to Valparasio.

The days are starting to wind down for us as our trip will be finishing up in early August. Time is flying at the moment, but we still have a bit more traveling to do before returning home. We will update you with more adventures from Chile soon.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Ice Walls to Snow Balls (El Calafate to Bariloche to Las Lenas)

2007-06-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

We couldn´t resist posing with the mini icebergs!

And we complained that Milwaukee was cold...

Passing by icebergs on our boat ride

In front of the Spegazinni Glacier

Argentine patriotism with glaciers in the background

What goes up must come down

Taking a break from skiing to enjoy the views

Could the conditions be any better?

Skiing on top of the world (or at least it felt like it!)

Enjoying a well-deserved cerveza after a day of skiing

Troy preparing a traditional asado (Argentine BBQ)

Hola Amigos!

Brrrr.....we are writing you from the bitter cold region of Southern Argentina. This past week has been filled with loads of bone-chilling adventure!

After our weekend at the end of the world in Ushuaia, we took a flight to the quaint town of El Calafate. This little town is famous for one big attraction - a series of massive glaciers that surround the area. Our first encounter with these massive walls of ice involved waking in the dark in order to arrive at the glaciers in time for sunrise. Mind you, down here the sun doesn´t show it´s face until about 10am...so it wasn´t that bad! We quickly forgot about the cold and dark when the magnificent orange sun began to rise over the glaciers. The mountains and glaciers absorb the sunlight and cast beautiful colors of pink, orange and yellow as the sun changes position. It is truly a sight to see.

We spent two days visiting the glaciers and taking in the surrounding sights. We went out on a boat for most of the first day to access the hard to reach glaciers. The boat ride was fantastic as it allowed us the opportunity to get up close and personal with the glaciers and icebergs. It really was an amazing experience to be out boating among icebergs that have been frozen for thousands of years.

The second day of glacier exploration was no less impressive. We visited the Perito Moreno Glacier, the most famous in South America. This glacier is well known because it is so active. The glacier is advancing at a rate of about 6-10 feet per day. This means that enormous chunks of ice are frequently falling off the front of the glacier, creating huge crashing noises and gigantic waves in the water. We were fortunate enough to witness this spectacle a few times, but weren´t quick enough to capture it on photo.

All of the cold weather and snow got us really excited for one of our favoirte winter pursuits, skiing. We embarked on a 30 hour bus journey (that´s right 30 hours) from El Calafate and finally arrived in the town of Bariloche, an outdoor paradise. We wasted no time and were on the slopes of the nearby ski resort, Cerro Catedral, early the next morning.

The views from Cerro Catedral are absolutely spectacular. The Andes mountain range stretches as far as the eye can see and several of Bariloche´s blue glacial lakes sparkle at the base of the mountains. The skiing was challenging because it was icy, but the views more than made up for the difficult conditions.

Mid-June is the beginning of the ski season in Argentina and since skiing is one of our favorite hobbies, we were anxious to move on to the next ski area in hopes of better conditions. We made our way to Las Lenas, a ski resort famous for it´s powder snow. Las Lenas definitely did not dissappoint, it turned out to be the best skiing conditions we have ever experienced. As we swished down the mountain, sprays of fluffy white snow shot up behind us....absolutely brilliant conditions!! Although the powder snow was much easier to ski than the icy hills in Bariloche, we both had our share of falls and returned to the base of the mountain covered in snow. Good thing the ski lodges are masters at whipping up the best hot chocolate!

We are now making our way to the Mendoza area, which is the heart of Argentine wine country. We will be writing you next time with teeth 3 shades darker and red wine lips.

Hope you are all doing well, we miss you!

Lauren and Troy

Whale Tales (Puerto Madryn to Ushuaia)

2007-06-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Enjoying the Patagonian beach

Sea lion colony and and a row of penguins perched above

Patagonian coastline

Looking out over the colony of sea lions and penguins

Hoping to spot the big ones

Bus or whale? You decide.

Blowhole!

Typical backpacker whale-watching with champagne

Troy contemplating writing his resume

Enjoying the view of whales from above

Clowning around on Penninsula Valdes

Chowing down on Argentina´s finest beef (don´t mind the hat hair)

Hola Amigos!

We´ve had a whale of a time this past week in Argentina. No pun intended.

After living La Vida Loca in the Buenos Aires province we made our way down to Penninsula Valdes, the marine life capital of Argentina. Penninsula Valdes is home to whales, orcas, sea lions, elephant seals, penguins and an abundance of fish. We had the amazing opportunity to see many of these animals up close, in their natural habitat.

Our first animal encounter took us to a dramatic seaside location with massive cliffs looming over the beach. These cliffs created a protected environment for the hundreds of sea lions, seals and penguins that call this beach home. From a viewing platform 50 feet in the air, the incredible view of the animals, cliffs and sparking sea seemed to stretch on forever. It was quite a scene to take in.

The sea lion colony was just a warm up for bigger things, literally. The next day we set off on a whale watching tour. We were very excited, but careful not to get our hopes up as the captain said, "this is not an acquarium, sightings are not guaranteed." Well, boy did he undersell his whale spotting capabilities! Within minutes of leaving the dock, we came upon a pod of 5 whales, splashing and frolicing in the water. We have never seen creatures this huge, it was unbelievable! The whales must have taken a liking to our boat because they swam all around us, even under the boat. They were so close, if we wanted to we could have reached out and touched them. With only 15 other passengers on the boat, we were able to get a first rate view of these massive mammals. And just in case you are wondering exactly how massive, the whales were the size of a city bus and a half, weighing up to 50 tons.

The next stop on our Argentine itinerary was supposed to be Calafate, a 2 hour flight from Penninsula Valdes. The flight was delayed for many hours due to fog and bad weather and when we did finally board, we learned that Calafate was the second stop. At first we groaned because this meant more time sitting on the plane, but then an idea began to form. The first stop the plane was making was in a city called Ushuaia, famous for being the southernmost city in the world. We had wanted to visit Ushuaia, but the flights were very expensive for some reason and the bus trip was over 15 hours. So, knowing that our flight was making a stop there and then continuing on to Calafate, we wondered what would happen if we tried to get off in Ushuaia. Once the plane landed, Lauren was nominated to be the one with the "ear ache" that would prevent us from finishing the flight. We insisted that we get off in Ushuaia, visit a doctor, and reschedule the flight to Calafate for a few days later. Somehow, this brilliant plan worked and we earned ourselves free flights to Ushuaia and a weekend at the end of the world!

So, here we are in Ushuaia and it´s a pretty unbelievable city. The town is built around a beautiful lake, and snow-capped peaks rise up in the background. Tourism is big business at the end of the world, so there are loads of restaurants specializing in the regional favorite (lamb), as well as countless shops, coffee bars, wine bars, etc. This town even has it´s own casino where we managed to lose a whopping 100 pesos! Good thing the peso is still recovering from the massive crash as 100 pesos is only about $30 USD.

So now the only way to go is North, unless of course we want to go to Antartica. It´s not in the plans as of now, but who knows. Things can change at the drop of a hat, as we experienced with our weekend in Ushuaia.

We miss you all and hope you are doing well. Till then, let the travels continue.

Lauren and Troy

From Plates of Meat to Dancing in the Street (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

2007-06-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

Troy saying goodbye to his brother Jason at the airport in Paris

Catching up with our great friend Vicky who we met in Tibet

Even the cow´s head was fair game at this parrilla (steakhouse)

Where´s the riot?????

Hard core bus travel in Argentina (full reclining seat)

Futbol (soccer) match in La Boca

Contemplating riding the antique bike home to work off our lunch of steak & wine

Amateur tango dancers

Professional tango dancers

Hola Chicos!

We thought about writing this blog in Spanish in the spirit of Argentina, but then realized two things, (1) we don´t speak fluent Spanish and (2) neither do most of you! So, here it goes in boring old English...again!

Argentina has been treating us very well so far and we are absolutely loving it here. Since arriving almost two weeks ago (yes, Leon we know the blog is late once again), we´ve spent time in the exciting capital of Buenos Aires (BA), as well as venturing out to a few smaller towns.

Buenos Aires is such a unique and energetic city, filled with delicious steak restaurants, trendy bars, markets and sultry tango dancers performing their art on the streets. It´s everything you imagine a Latin American city to be, a melting pot which contains all one could desire.

We had the chance to catch up with our good mate Vicky (a friend from our travels in Tibet) on one of our first days in Buenos Aires. Vicky is now living in Buenos Aires and showed up at our hostel with a bottle of champagne in hand, in true BA style!

To do Buenos Aires and Argentina any justice, we must stop and pay proper homage to the food and drink of this magnificent country. The steaks are as thick and juicy as any we have ever tasted and the red wine is out of this world. The most popular restaurants in Argentina are parrillas, which are steakhouses. Each one is a bit different in terms of offerings and atmosphere and we definitely found our favorite in Buenos Aires. The place was called Siga La Vaca and for the hefty price of $10 USD, one is entitled to an entire bottle of wine, all you can eat steak, ribs, chicken, pork, lamb, salad bar, appetizer table and a dessert fit for a king....or should we say a gaucho (Argentine cowboy). The food is divine, but the main attraction are the cutters who man the 40 foot long grills and serve up the most flavorful pieces of meat along with a little Spanish humour. We learned to order "bife de lomo, jugoso" which is a tender cut of beef cooked rare. We certainly became fixtures at this place as we managed to eat there 4 times in about 10 days!

After stuffing our faces with Argentine beef, we decided we should do something active and sporty. We headed down to the neighborhood of La Boca to take in a proper Argentine futbol match. Before going to the game, we had been warned by our hostel and several taxi drivers that Boca was a particularly rough area of Buenos Aires. At first we thought everyone was being protective of the little tourists, but then quickly realized it was not a joke when our taxi driver rolled up the windows, locked the doors and started running red lights. Now, this may have been exceptable if it was 3am, but it was mid-day on Sunday for God´s sake! Needless to say we made it out a live and with a victory under our belts as our adopted team La Boca won 3 goals to 1.

Besides all of the futbol and beef action, we have been trying to take in the city as typical Argentines. See the above photo of us tango dancing to see what we really mean. When not performing tango for the masses, we spent our time shopping, hanging out in the cafes and getting to know the people of BA.

In addition to spending time in BA, we visited a few nearby towns to relish in the quiet Argentina countryside. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and just chill out.

We are preparing to leave Buenos Aires and head further south to the province of Patagonia. Patagonia promises to be one of the most spectacular destinations in Argentina, with the chance to see wildlife such as whales, sea lions & penguins, as well as ample opportunity to trek and see the mighty glaciers up close.

We look forward to updating you on our next adventures.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Coffee and Crepes to Catching up with Great Mates (and Jason too!)

2007-05-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Brother's in arms (Siene River in backdrop)

Lauren and Melinda catching up in front of the Eiffel tower

Lauren, Citoo and Clo looking much cleaner than in their backpacking cloths in Nepal

Troy, Citoo and Clo on the streets of gay Pari.

Parisan love birds in front of Notre Dame church

Learning French over a bottle of wine in Jason's flat

A rose between two thorns

Troy and Matt.....just like old times in Australia!

Lauren and Jason sneaking a cuddle

Matt huffing, and puffing and blowing them down

Italian dinner with Karen, Matt and Jason

Bonjour from the delightful city of Paris!

It's definitely a strange feeling being back in a Western country where things seem so familiar, yet so different. Our feelings about our travels through Asia are hard to summarize in words. Asia is such a diverse and multi-layered place. From the deserts in India to the beaches in Thailand, from the pilgrims in Tibet to the fisherman in Vietnam, from raging rapids in Nepal to calm streams in Laos, from the poverty of small Cambodian villages to money galore in Bangkok, from dusty Indian streets to gleaming green rice paddies, from Nepali curries to Vietnamese spring rolls, Asia has been eye-opening experience. Exciting and challenging at times, but always rewarding. Asia has taught us a lot about ourselves and the people with whom we share this world. We may not all be from the same background or have the same perspective in life, but when you get to the root of it, we're really not that different. We leave Asia with many new friends, fantastic memories and plans to return again and again.

Although it was hard to say goodbye to Asia after spending so much time there, we couldn't help but look forward to our Parisian adventures. As you can probably imagine, landing in Paris was quite a culture shock. As we stepped off the airport tram, we prepared in usual fashion to be bombarded with taxi drivers, touts advertising hotels and people offering to change money. We must have stood there for a good 5 minutes before we remembered that things in the West operate a bit differently. We managed to find the metro into the city and arrived at Jason's apartment within the hour. For those of you who aren't familiar with Jason, he is one of Troy's younger brothers, the second oldest in the Watters family. Jason moved from the US to Paris around 18 months ago to pursue an international career with Cerner, a medical software company.

It was so great to see Jason after such a long time, almost a year to be exact! Not much has changed though, save for the new language he speaks, suave suits he wears everyday, amazing apartment (with a view of the Eifel Tower), and the harem of gorgeous French women that follow him everywhere. As you might have noticed though, nothing has changed with us either......still telling lies! All in all, he's still the same old Jason and we are so happy to be in Paris spending time with him.

Jason has shown some of the best sites Paris has to offer. One of the highlights so far was the night he took us to the stunning Sacre-Coeur church to enjoy the view of Paris. The Sacre-Coeur is located on a hill-top in Paris and is famous for its aspiring musicians that play on the church steps, love-birds drinking wine while listening to the music, and tourists admiring the grand church and view that stretches for miles. After a few bottles of wine on the steps, we headed over to an Indian restaurant for a meal to remind us of Asia. Apparently Jason either had too much to drink or he felt that the curry was a bit bland as he knocked over his glass of red wine into the curry dish halfway through the meal. Just in case you are wondering though, the chicken curry was actually tastier with the glass of merlot mixed in. Looks like Jason should be an Indian chef!

After being in Paris for only a few days, we received our first surprise. Lauren's college roommate and close friend, Melinda, came down to visit us from London. In true Florida State University (FSU) fashion, we started off the night with champagne and wine, which quickly turned into mojitos and caprihinas. To choose our restaurant that night, we actually played paper, rock, scissors...with the winner getting to choose. Although, Melinda didn't do as poorly as Lauren by going out in the first round, she did take us back to our college days with the following remark when she finally lost "OK, do I have to chug something now". A great time was had by all, though we're not sure that we all remember exactly what happened that night! Got to love those crazy nights out! Melinda - we really appreciated you making effort to come all the way down to see us for the night, it really meant a lot!

Lucky for us, we had more mates to visit in order to ease the pain of Melinda returning to London. As some of you may recall from our first few blogs in Nepal, we met a lovely couple from Paris, Citoo and Clo. We have kept in touch with them throughout our travels and caught up with them a few times since we have been here. As native Parisians, Citoo and Clo took us to some of the best restaurants in Paris and gave us a grand tour of their beautiful city. They also had an exciting surprise to share with us.....these hard-core travelers will soon be trading in their hiking boots and sleeping bags for baby formula and booties as Clo is expecting this autumn! We are very happy for them both and know that they will be fantastic parents. Thank you also Citoo and Clo for your generosity and time while we were in your city. We loved catching up with you and always felt in good hands with such wonderful tour guides.

The flurry of family and friends didn't end there. This past weekend Troy's good friends, Matt and Karen, took the train down from England to visit. They brought with them two more surprises.....the first was that it was Matt's birthday, and the most exciting surprise was that Karen is 4 months pregnant! Something must be in the water, 2 pregnancies announcements in just 1 week?!

We had a really nice weekend with Matt and Karen. We spent the day yesterday having a picnic under the Eifel Tower and then went out for a fantastic Italian dinner. Since the mom-to-be couldn't dive into the wine, we bought her a bottle of sparkling grape juice so she could feel like a grown-up drinking with the rest of us! Karen was more than happy to partake in the festivities with her grape juice and was absolutely glowing. Matt had a ball acting out on his birthday, which included him licking the plate his cake was brought out on. As you can imagine the French waiter was very impressed with his behavior. The best was the end of the night though. Since only 4 people can fit in one taxi, Matt and Troy stayed behind while Jason, Lauren and Karen jumped into the first cab. As soon as the first group was in, Matt and Troy heckled Jason by telling him as the cab pulled away that he had to take the girls home and they were going to the pub! You should have seen Jason whimper, he squealed in a clearly distressed and high-pitched voice, "No, no no! They're going to the pub! It's not fair, I want to go too!"

Our time in Paris is quickly coming to an end and on Tuesday we will be on our way to Argentina. We are hoping to catch up with Vicky, another friend that we met in Nepal way back in September. She is now living in the vibrant city of Buenos Aires.

Bonjour for now.....looking forward to writing from Argentina!

Adios!

Lauren and Troy

From Paradise Found to Paris Bound (Whale Island, Vietnam to Paris, France)

2007-05-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

The result of not booking a hotel - sleeping on the floor

Julie and Troy relaxing under the shade of a palm

Resort view from Whale Island

Diving off Whale Island

4 Divemasters

The "before" photo from Pub Golf

Julie and Troy showing off the pub golf score card

Margarita round of pub golf - par 1!

Taking over the job of bartender

Hello All,

We know it's only been a few days since our last blog, but we wanted to give you a quick update on our last few days in Vietnam and then get onto the exciting twist in our travel plans.

After getting measured and pampered in the tailoring shops of Hoi An, we moved south to the beach side town of Nha Trang. We were all very excited to arrive in Nha Trang for some R&R and scuba diving.

Upon arrival, we heard about a paradise-like island, 2 hours from Nha Trang that promised the best diving, beaches and sunsets. We jumped at the opportunity of seclusion and beauty and were on the boat the next day. When we arrived at Whale Island we knew we had all made a good decision. There is only one resort on the island, and it accommodates about 30 guests at a time. The beach in front of the resort was beautiful, and the water was perfect for just walking out and snorkeling.

We spent our time relaxing in the shade of our thatched roof bungalows, diving in the crystal clear sea, and sipping cocktails at the beach bar. The visibility of the water was the best we have seen while diving, but the fish life wasn't that abundant due to the common practice of dynamite fishing. In order to catch the most fish in the least amount of time, the locals actually used to explode dynamite underwater to bring the fish to the top of the water. Then, the fish (dead or alive) were simply scooped off the top of the water with nets. Fortunately, this method has been recently banned, but the effects are still being felt today as the fish life slowly starts to return.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end as we had to leave the island and return to the mainland two days later. It was our last night together with Leon and Julie, so we wanted to do something special. Surprisingly, they weren't interested in a fancy seafood dinner, they just wanted to play a round of pub golf!

For those of you not familiar with pub golf, it's a typical backpacker game that involves hitting all of the happy hours in town. For each hole, a new bar and drink is selected and the players take turns in determining the par for that hole. For example, one might choose a beer and make the par 3, which means down in 3. All players scores are kept and tallied up at the end with the lowest score winning the competition. The game rarely continues past 9 holes for obvious reasons and our group was no exception to the rule. The night ended with everyone devouring pizza and shaking their heads in disbelief Leon's record score of 9. Yes, that means he skulled (slammed) all 9 drinks!

As you would expect,the next morning began with headaches. Why do we keep forgetting the after-effects of rice vodka? So, reeking of rice vodka and feeling like a million bricks (not bucks), we sent Leon and Julie off on their flight to Saigon and we spent the rest of the day relaxing. That night we went out to the most well-known restaurant in Nha Trang to grill our own seafood right at the table.....mmmmm delicious!

The next few days we spent researching flights, talking to travel agents and booking tickets. For what you ask? Well, there has been a significant change in our travel plans. When we originally left for our trip we had planned to spend the entire year in Asia. It's been 9 months now and we have decided that we are ready for a change in culture. So, the exciting news is that we flying to South America to spend our last few months in Chile and Argentina! Now, this in itself is fabulous, but there is a kicker. We have to fly through Europe to get to Argentina from Vietnam, so we are stopping over for 2 weeks in Paris to visit Troy's brother, Jason (who has been living in Paris the last year). Most of you might know him from the diatribe and ranting that he leaves on our blog comments, sometimes longer than some of our very own postings.

Now, imagine Jason's surprise when we called him and told him we were coming....in two days! We can't wait to see him and to partake in a joys of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Here is to French champagne, red wine, cheese, baguettes, PDA - public display of affection, ménage à trois, urinating in the street, hating the English, and freedom fries (we mean french fries)!

For now it's goodbye to Asia and hello to Paris. We will be sure to update you on our Parisian adventures. For everyone's sake we will try to keep the blog-writing away from Jason.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Snatched Bags to Corporate Rags (Hanoi to Hoi An)

2007-04-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Relaxing on the balcony in Sapa

Motorbiking through the Sapa countryside

Cruising around Halong Bay

Where the crazy night started

The kareoke group

Belting out our favorite tunes

Lounging on the boat deck after a night of kareoke

Squeezing through the Vinh Moc Tunnels

Getting fitted for the million dollar suit

French architecture in Hoi An

Sin Chow Everyone!

The past two weeks in Vietnam has been filled to the brim with all kinds of activities. From mountains to beaches to underground tunnels, we've been pretty entertained.

After spending a few days in Hanoi, we took the overnight train to Sapa, a hill station in Northwestern Vietnam. Sapa is known for breathtaking mountain views, cool weather, trekking trails and ethnic hill tribe groups. We rented motorbikes and drove all around the area on our first day, and what a ride it was. The roads (and we dare to call them roads) wind and twist through the mountain tops at 2000 meters above sea level. The views are stunning and the locals practically drop their jaws when they see crazy foreigners zoom past them on a motorbike.
We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Sapa with a huge balcony facing the valley. With such a great room and view, we couldn't resist spending an entire afternoon on the balcony, drinking wine and playing cards. Who knew that Julie was such a poker shark once the whopping sum of 100,000 dong (about $6 USD) was on the table? She cleaned up in a matter of minutes.

After relaxing in Sapa for a few days, it was time to head back to Hanoi and embark on our next adventure. We took the overnight train from Sapa and arrived in Hanoi at the ungodly hour of 5am. With no hotels open at this time of the morning, nor hardly any shops for that matter, imagine our delight when we finally spotted an oasis, a little bakery serving fresh baguettes and coffee. We dropped our bags on the sidewalk next to us at an outside table, ordered breakfast and stared out into the dark and quiet city streets. The quiet did not last long though. All of the sudden a guy on a motorbike raced by, grabbed Leon's day bag from the pile and sped down the street before anyone could even comprehend what had happened. Not to worry though, the contents of the bag only included 2 Australian passports, an iPod, mobile phone, sunglasses and a few other misc. items! But don't tell that to the insurance company as we think the bag probably contained a bit more. What a Vietnamese welcome for Leon and Julie!

With 2 passports gone and probably being scalped on the street, we had to change our plans and spend another day in Hanoi sorting out the situation. Leon and Julie had the patience of seasoned backpackers as they pounded the pavement in an effort to get new passports. After 4 visits to the Australian embassy, 2 visits to the passport photo shop and one visit to the local police, they finished the day with brand new "emergency passports" from the embassy. What a day, everyone was ready for a 12 cent beer by the end of it! Of course we all sat with our bags on our laps, looking out for any suspicious motorbikes.

The next day we set off to visit Vietnam's most famous natural attraction, Halong Bay. After a 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi, we arrived at the pier and boarded the boat. We were so excited when we stepped foot on the boat, it was beautiful! There were about 12 tables in the main area, all set with white table clothes and wine glasses, now this was traveling in style. We set our bags down and the crew looked at us as if we were from another planet. They quickly shuffled us and our bags to the back of the boat and we immediately understood what was happening. This fancy boat was not ours, the boat we were to board was so far out from the pier that we had to scramble across 4 other boats to get to ours. When we finally made it to the boat you could only laugh. The SS Minnow looked better even after it's wreck. What did we really expect when we paid $39 each for an all inclusive 3 day/2 night tour?!

As soon as we set sail, it was clear that the boat we were on did not matter, the 2000 limestone islands rising out of the bay were the main attraction. We passed several picturesque floating fishing villages and marveled at the islands, topped with thick jungle vegetation. It was such a relaxing day. That night we had a great group of backpackers on board and got right into a huge game of poker after dinner. The drinks were flowing and we made the wise decision to crank up the karaoke machine, much to the dismay of the crew. We belted out timeless tunes such as "Careless Whisper" and other hits from the early 80's. As you can imagine the selection was a little outdated! The highlight though was when Leon broke into the Vietnamese CD's and mumbled his way along. A great time was had by all and the crew gave a big round of applause (in relief) when we finally headed off to bed.

Ouch! Everyone woke up with huge rice vodka hangovers the next day. We were happy to lounge on the deck of the boat and soak in the glorious views. Not much action for the group this day!

After our Halong Bay trip finished up, we arrived back in Hanoi and boarded the overnight train to Hue. We were all so excited to visit Hue and soak up the war history (Vietnam / American War). We hired a car and driver and set off at 6am on the first day. Our first stop was the famed Vinh Moc Tunnels. The tunnels were a major excavation project completed by the villagers of Vinh Moc in the early 1960's. The tunnels were built out of necessity as the villagers could not leave their homes and livelihood behind, but risked death by bombs if they stayed. So the digging began and in a period of 13 months, 2.8 km of underground tunnels were built by 100 people. The entire group of 400 villagers lived in the tunnels from 1966 to 1971. Amazingly, 17 babies were also born underground.

It was an incredible experience to walk through the underground labyrinth, but very claustrophobic! We had to duck in most places to fit through the tunnels and the rooms where each of the 64 families lived were extremely small. The tunnels were built in 3 levels, the deepest reaching down to 23 meters, almost 90 feet. We cannot even imagine the fear that the villagers lived in, especially when the bombs began to drop and they were forced to huddle in the bomb shelter, a small dug-out room, 90 feet below the earth's surface. Due to the clay in the soil at Vinh Moc, the tunnels held up very well. However, this wasn't the case at nearby tunnels as many collapsed, killing everyone inside. We visited a few other war sights in the area, but none were as impressive as the tunnels.

After spending time in the mountains, islands and learning about war history, it was time to do the next logical thing on the list....go shopping! Back on the train for the short journey to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Hoi An.

Hoi An is one of the most charming cities we have ever visited. The town center is located on the Thu Bon River, a small waterway dotted with rowboats. Hoi An was occupied by the French in the 16th and 17th centuries and still retains much of it's French architecture. Hoi An was also an important trading point for the Chinese, Dutch and Japanese, so there is a mix of cultures in this small riverside town. The restaurants are fabulous, the buildings are beautiful and the people are full of smiles, but Hoi An is known for something else.....shopping! This small city is the textile and tailoring capital of Southeast Asia.

As many of you have commented on the blog, our dear Troy has lost a bit of the Foster's belly and has adopted a new lifestyle of eating healthy and working out daily. So, we knew that once he returned home and tried on his work clothes we would have a small problem on our hands. Rather than run out and buy a whole new wardrobe of work clothes, we had him fitted and hand selected the best fabrics imported from Italy and England. In the end, Troy walked away with 2 beautiful suits, 3 additional pair of trousers and 14 shirts. A little extravagant? Not for the ever low price of USD $700!

With a huge chunk of our budget spent on clothes, we've now been forced to eat at the street stalls with the locals. We just have one question, why is everyone staring at us when Troy strides to the street stand for a $0.50 cent meal in a Italian suit?

We hope you are all doing well at home and look forward to your comments.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Stolen Thongs to Vietnamese Dong (Cambodia to Vietnam)

2007-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

In front of famous Angkor Wat

Ancient temple being overtaken by jungle

Swapping partners

Angkor Wat

Driving our guests in a tuk tuk

Moet picnic at Angkor Wat (local kids watching from above)

Delivering fruit to the local markets

Adjusting to backpacker life (can of tuna and baguette)

Vietnamese for a day

Rice paddie near Tom Coc

Floating down the Yen Vi River just outside Hanoi

Sin Chow Everyone (Hello from Vietnam),

This past week has been a whirlwind, having gone from Thailand to Cambodia and finally Vietnam. Our good mates, Leon and Julie from Australia, have joined us on this leg of our journey making the trip all the more exciting. When we set out on our travels some 8 months ago, Cambodia and Vietnam ranked very high on our 'priority list', so we can't wait to relive some of the experiences with you in our latest blog.

After Lauren's mom Wendy and step dad Tom left us in Bangkok, we organised an overnight bus trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia (home of the ever impressive and historic Angkor Wat). The journey was going extremely well until we crossed the border and soon discovered the vast differences in quality of roads between Thailand and Cambodia. We travelled 4 hours in a private taxi no bigger than a Minnie Minor only to find out the size of the car actually fit INTO some of the pot holes on this dirt road. We have used many different modes of transport in our travels on many different roads.....but this road took the cake. At one stage, it started to rain, making the roads even more dicey. So you can imagine our fright when the driver, who looked no more than 12 years old, started turning the steering wheel back and forth like he was driving a bumper car. Fortunately for us, we had the anticipation and excitement of meeting Leon and Julie on our minds and therefore got through the journey relatively unscathed (albeit we were 'shaken like a crying baby'). Sully, we had to quote you here in order to describe the roads.

The next day we met Leon and Julie at an Irish Pub (of all places) to catch up on old times and to plan out the month we would be spending together. It was great to finally see them, but not so good for the liver! One beer turned into another, and finally somebody made the wise suggestion to go and get foot massages before we blew our month's budget on drinks.

The next three days were spent touring the extraordinary Wat's surrounding Siem Reap, including the most widely recognised temple, Angkor Wat. The Wat's were all built around the early 1200's by the Khmer Empire and later partially destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970's during the genocide in which over 2 million Cambodians lost there lives. The Wats have been overgrown by jungle and vines which adds to the atmosphere of this lost civilization and makes a great backdrop for photos and even movies (ie. Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie). Touring these impressive temples really makes you stop and think about all the history and how relatively young the US and Australia are compared to some of these civilisations.

On the third day of touring the temples we decided to 'do it right' and have a picnic at one of the most famous sights. So in true backpacker style we purchased a bottle of Moet (Leon's choice as he is used to traveling on a corporate budget), french wine, salami, cheese and biscuits, etc and setup our feast in one of the most impressive ruins. We're sure it must have looked pretty weird as all of the locals took position high up in the temples to watch us sip champagne. Fortunately we had plenty left over (no, not the champagne but food) so all the locals got to share some of the delicacies. You may be interested to know that not even Cambodians like celery as we found a trail of it on the path leading all the way back to the village.

Now you may be asking why the title of our blog 'From Stolen Thongs (aka flip flops) to Vietnamese Dong. At the end of each day we would head back to our hotel and leave our thongs (aka flip flops) outside the hotel entrance as it is rude to wear your shoes indoors in Cambodia. Upon returning to pick up our thongs before dinner we would always finds Troy's pair missing. At first we thought they might have been stolen by a street urchin, but after 15 minutes of searching we found the culprit. It was the hotel manager! It seems he had blown a tire in his thong (ie. his pair were torn) and instead of going out to purchase another pair he just decided to take Troy's. By the way, Troy's pair of thongs cost less than USD 1.00, so the hotel manager wasn't exactly getting around town in style. This happened on so many occasions that eventually Troy and the hotel manager worked out a 'shift' program. Upon returning to the hotel Troy would kick off his thongs and hand them to the manager. He would then say to him that he needs them back in 1 hour. The manager would then go into town in Troy's footwear. After 1 hour the manager then had to forfeit them for Troy's use. Now that's a system! All was working fine until Troy came home late one day and the manager desperately needed footwear. What to do when you're the manager of a hotel and you don't have any footwear? Take another guests of course. In this case it was Julie's turn unbeknowngst to her. Nevertheless, they were returned in time for Julie to use when she next needed them.

After about 5 days in Siem Reap, we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam. Arriving in Hanoi we were immediately hit with sensory overload as there are countless numbers of scooters zipping around town, children playing games in the street, food stalls set up on every corner and every vehicle in sight tooting their horn. Even better is the challenge of crossing the street with hundreds of scooters heading towards you and no traffic lights to stop them! The trick is just to walk, make eye contact with the drivers, and allow them to either detour left or right around you. It makes for a hairy situation at first, but once you get the hang it, the traffic becomes old hat.

We spent about 3 days touring Hanoi and it's surrounds and have loved every minute of it. The Vietnamese people are all very lovely and the food and beer just as good! Hanoi is know for it's little street side bars that set up on any random corner and serve beer right out of the keg (no chillers of course) all for the low, low price of 2,000 Vietnamese Dong (the equivalent of USD $0.12)! Can you imagine how excited you would be finding a beer for .12 cents! And if that wasn't enough, there are countless food stalls setup on the sidewalk serving Vietnam's national dish PHO. PHO is noodle soup with vegetables and a little bit of meat, although we were not always sure what kind of meat!

Vietnam has treated us very good so far and we are looking forward to spending the next 3 weeks touring the countryside and getting to know the culture and people. Stay tuned for more on the exciting and beautiful country of Vietnam!

Hope this blogs finds everyone in good health and spirits.

Lauren and Troy

From Traveling in a Pair to a Family Affair

2007-04-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

Arriving after 24 hours of flying!

Mom and Tom at the famous Patpong (ping pong) Market

Floating Market

Bangkok's incredible wats (temples)

Local transportation

Bangkok's most notorious tuk tuk - driven by Mr. Thailand

Paradise in Phi Phi

Troy's favorite boat, "Cannabis"

Outside the resort in Phi Phi

The big fight

Tom, Troy and the "team managers"

Hello All!

Apologies for the delay in sending out our latest blog, it's been a crazy couple of weeks! We are writing what will be our last blog from Thailand....a beautiful and fascinating country that we will miss dearly.

This past 2 weeks in Thailand has been extraordinary because we had 2 very special guests visiting! Lauren's Mom and step dad, Tom, traveled to see us all the way from Florida, USA. After flying for more than 24 hours, they arrived in Bangkok at 1am and we celebrated with a bottle of bubbly in the hotel lobby. What a great start to the holiday!

After catching up on some much needed rest that night and most of the next morning, we ventured out in Bangkok to show Mom and Tom the best the city has to offer. We sampled the delicious street food, bargained 'til our voices were soar and carried big bags of shopping goodies back to the hotel at the end of the day.

The next day we decided to take in the Floating Market again, one of our favorite experiences in all of Thailand. We just knew they would love it based on our previous experiences. So, up at 4:30am and in the car by 5am, we were on our way. Just as we had hoped, our guests were impressed by the timeless pace of the market, entertaining vendors, tasty bites and colors of this unique experience. Again, we returned with many shopping bags!

We were back in Bangkok before lunch and ready to tackle the rest of the city! We visited several historic wats, went for the token tuk-tuk ride, shopped 'til our credit cards burned and finally rewarded ourselves with an afternoon beer. One beer turned into two, which turned into ten and before we knew it, we were signing Mom and Tom up for a tuk-tuk ride with Mr. Thailand - check out the photo above! Mr. Thailand is a crazy Thai that dresses up like Elton John (including decorating his tuk tuk) and pedals around the party streets of Thailand all the while playing Elton's greatest hits. It's a fun way to get around, a bit embarassing though as all heads turn when the tuk tuk passes people by.

After the chaos and excitement of Bangkok, we were definitely ready for some relax time on the beach. We flew down to Phuket and then took the ferry over to the beautiful island of Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee). Of course, everyone got a kick out of the pronunciation! Arriving to Phi Phi was like a dream....massive limestone cliffs surrounded the island, turquoise waters lapped the powder white sand and palm trees swayed in the breeze. Okay, now are you all ready to book your trip to Phi Phi?!

We spent 8 glorious days basking in the sun, snorkeling around the island, dining on delicious Thai cuisine and enjoying the culture of the island. The time went by in a flash, it's hard to believe we were there for over a week. By the end of the week we had our favorite restaurant and our favorite ladyboy server, much to the shock of Tom!

The snorkeling around Phi Phi is second to none and once Mom got over her fear of the mask and snorkel, it was smooth sailing. The first jump into the water with the snorkel gear took a little bit of coercing, we had the Thai boat driver cracking up as we lowered Mom into the water with her bright orange life jacket, it was very graceful! Snorkeling around Phi Phi is like swimming in an aquarium, the fish life is incredible. We were surprised that snorkeling was better than some of our dive trips to the hyped Similan Islands!

Not to be outdone in the water sports department, Tom and Troy went out for two rounds of scuba diving. Tom has only been once before, but it's just like riding a bike, right? You never forget. Well, that may be the theory, but it was a little more of a challenge than expected! Add that to the fact that the instructor was totally unorganized (read: he forgot one of the air tanks), the current was strong and the waves were surging....this was quite the initiation experience! Thankfully, everyone came back in one piece and totally exhilarated. Tom's first comment when popping his head out of the water after the last dive, "Glad that's over.....let's have a cocktail"!

We had a few nights out in Phi Phi, one being very memorable. For a change, we went out for an Italian meal which of course included huge carafes of wine. We then ventured over to the Irish pub and on the way out noticed the Thai boxing ring across the street with a sign reading "Ladyboy Boxing Tonight". We couldn't resist stopping over for a few photos so Lauren asked the bartender if Tom and Troy could get in the ring. We were snapping away on the camera when all of the sudden a referee appeared in the ring and "team managers" started suiting the boys up with boxing gloves and headgear! Before we knew it, the bell rang and the theme song to Rocky started playing! Tom and Troy put on a good show, bouncing and jumping off the ropes like WWF wrestling stars and dancing all around the ring, the whole crowd was cheering! All the while the Thai referee is saying, "Stop jumping off the ropes", "Stop wrestling each other", "Get up and fight". Three rounds later, they were both still in one piece and rewarded with big buckets of Thai whiskey (just what they needed at this point).

Our time in Phi Phi had come to and end and it was time to return to Bangkok. We gathered our many bags, took the ferry back to Phuket and then flew into Bangkok. We had our farewell dinner at our posh hotel and toasted the fantastic times we spent together. It was so great to have our family visit and bring with them a slice of home.

Today we are off to Cambodia to meet our next group of guests! Our good friends Julie and Leon are meeting us all the way from Australia. We will spend about a week in Cambodia and then we're off to Vietnam for three weeks.

Thank you all for following us on our adventures. We really love hearing from you and miss you all very much.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Pints of Irish Cream to a Hippies Dream (Koh Samui to Koh Pha Ngan)

2007-03-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

Irish breakfast

The luck of the Irish!

Pick the leprechaun?

Famous beach on the island of Koh Samui

Reading at the pool bar

Deserted beach on the island of Pha Ngan

Island of Pha Ngan

The Ritz Carlton of Backpackers (Hostels)

Hello Everyone,

We sit here writing this blog and can hardly contain our excitement as in just a few hours Lauren's mom Wendy and stepfather Tom arrive from the US to visit us for two weeks. After nearly 7 months of travelling together without spending time with any family or friends we are truly over the moon and can't wait to show them around what has turned out to be one of our favourite countries in the world (Thailand of course)! Our plan for their visit is to spend a few days touring Bangkok before heading south to the beautiful island paradise of Phi Phi (made famous by the movie The Beach as this is where it was filmed). Before we get to carried away talking about the future though, we should give you a recap of our last week on the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan.

We arrived on the small island of Koh Samui just in time for one of our favourite holidays, St Patrick's Day. And what a St. Patrick's it was! Koh Samui is a beautiful island, somewhat developed, but not nearly as developed as Phuket. As such, you don't have to look hard to find a pub or more importantly an Irish pub in order to quench your thirst and partake in an Irish jig. Arriving the day before the big celebration allowed us to stake out the area and find the best Irish pub so that we could develop a plan for the next days festivities. Our plan, involved doing what every good Irish want-to-be does and that is to start celebrating early with Guinness and eggs for breakfast. Needless to say having a pint at 9:00 in the morning is going to end in trouble or at least with some good photos! It didn't take long before Lauren was "borrowing" one of the bouncers Guinness hats to liven up the photos. Not to be out done, Troy decided if he couldn't "borrow" a hat without being thrown out of the pub, then he would do the next best thing of "hijacking" a photo with the 9 beautiful barmaids in in their hats. We had a fabulous day, which ended with us doing our best Michael Flatly "Lord of the River" impersonations later in the night to the band's rendition of "Dirty Ole Town". Just like the good ole days in Essendon! Fortunately for us, no video footage was taken of the festivities to be later submitted to America's Funniest Home Videos. We hope the photos above capture some of the moments.

The next morning (or should we say early afternoon), we decided the best way to recover was to take a nice refreshing dip in the sea on the beautiful beach of Chaweng. Lauren must have been still somewhat intoxicated from the night before as she pulled an absolute beauty (Aussie slang for a funny moment). As we were swimming in the sea and body surfing the waves, Lauren noticed that the waves had pulled the top down on the lady next to us, unbeknownst to her. Despite several objections from Troy, Lauren decided the best thing to do was tell her so that she could cover "them" back up. The lady was slightly embarrassed but thankful that Lauren had made her aware of the peak show. After another 10 minutes of swimming, again Lauren noticed that the waves had pulled the same ladies top down. By this time Troy is thinking this is a personal show for him, but Lauren again decided to rain on Troy's parade by notifying her she was again "out" for the beach to see. After tucking them back in the for the second time in only a few minutes, Lauren decided to change the topic to ease the ladies embarrassment. Being in the water at the time and swimming in the waves, Lauren decided to comment on the size of the waves by saying "They're big, aren't they?", however having just tucked away her rather large bosoms, the lady thought she was referring to her. After much laughter on Troy's part and embarrassment on the lady and Lauren's part, we decided the best way to end the odd moment was to just go our separate ways. Gotta love the beach!

After spending a few more days playing in the sea on Koh Samui we decided to pack up and move onto the next island of Koh Pha Ngan. Koh Pha Ngan is world famous for it's full moon beach parties in which 30,000 hippies descend on the island each full moon to rave, fire twirl and drink any kind of alcohol imaginable from buckets until around lunch time the next day. Smart planning on our part meant that we arrived at half moon, and could therefore skip the "mess" and see the island in it's quieter time without the worry of waking up with new body piercings or tattoos. Koh Pha Ngan has several very beautiful beaches and we spent a few days exploring the island and sitting by the pool enjoying a rare treat (as most of our backpackers do not have pools).

Yesterday we took the ferry to the mainland and then took the overnight bus back to Bangkok. The overnight bus is never a fun experience, but knowing that we were meeting 2 very special people in Bangkok made the trip easy. Which leads us back to the Internet cafe that we are currently sitting in, waiting the arrival of our guests!

We hope you are all doing well and we look forward to updating you on our adventures in Bangkok and Phi Phi Island.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Disco Jiving to Deep Sea Diving (Phuket to Similan Islands)

2007-03-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

A margarita and the paper in the morning, can life be better?

Similan Islands (our dive boat in the background)

View from the top of Tachai Rock

Climbing aboard the dive boat

Laughing after adding another 10 kilos to Troy's weight belt

Getting ready for the big plunge

On board the dive boat, our home for 4 days

Visa run to Burma

Sophisticated immigration check point in Burma

Hello Everyone!

We hope you are all doing well and getting ready for St. Patty's Day festivities (even if you aren't Irish)!

It's been another week in paradise.... Thailand continues to treat us well. We spent about 5 days on the island of Phuket, Thailand's largest and most developed island. As backpackers, we were definitely the minority to holiday (vacation) package groups, but we had a great time none the less. The beaches in Phuket are beautiful and packed with all kinds of eye-catching commotion - parasailing, jet skiing, tourists wearing bathing suits that are way too small, and vendors selling everything from dried squid to wooden elephant statues.

Phuket is also know throughout Asia for it's wide range of nightlife. There is definitely something for everyone and that's not an exaggeration! If you love the Irish pub scene, there are multiple joints to choose from. Those seeking techno and house music will have no problem finding ultra-hip lounges and clubs. If you fancy an Thai-Elvis show, you are in luck as well. And if you are one of those silly middle-aged western tourists out for a cheap thrill, the number of girlie and ladyboy bars is staggering. Just look for signs like "Katoys R' Us" (in the Toys R' Us font), as a "katoy" in Thai refers to a ladyboy! No, we did not spend a lot of time shopping for toys.

After a few late nights in Phuket, we were ready to get away from it all and relax on a diving trip. We booked a 4 day/4 night live aboard diving trip to the Similan and Surin Islands, some of the best dive sites in the world. With a group of 14 other avid divers, 3 divemasters, and 5 crew members, we set sail into the deep blue.

We sailed for 6 hours the first night and woke up in the beautiful island group of the Similans. After Lauren fed the fish (sea sickness) the first night, we were definitely ready to get in the water and off the boat! Our first day of diving was incredible. The marine life in the Similans is mind blowing. The soft corals sway in the current and are teeming with all kinds of aquatic life. The colors are beautiful, it's like an underwater fantasy world!

The days and dives tend to blend together, but over the course of 4 days we went on 12 dives. The most memorable marine life included a whale shark about 12 feet long, manta rays with wings stretching 15 feet across, turtles, lobsters, octopus, a sleeping nurse shark and hundreds (if not thousands!) of tropical schooling fish. It was certainly an amazing experience, the trip completely exceeded our expectations!

Eleven out of twelve dives were day dives, but one of the dives was at night. The feeling of plunging into pitch black water and going down 50 feet was absolutely terrifying. It was Lauren's first night dive, Troy's third, and right away Lauren decided she didn't like it. She gave the emergency signal and then pointed up to say she wanted to ascend, but our divemaster wouldn't hear of it. He knew that if we went up, we would never come down again. After a lot of hand signals and an underwater disagreement in the dark, Lauren finally got a hold of her senses and relaxed enough to continue the dive. Diving at night feels like outer space, it produces the strangest sensation! The marine life is much different in the night as the nocturnal creatures come out to feast. Looking around with a torch (flashlight) lights up all of the sleeping fish. Some have the most clever hiding spots. The night dive was definitely an experience, but we much prefer the day dives!

So after 4 days on the boat, we made it back to land. We stayed in Phuket for one more night and then headed to a town called Ranong that borders Burma for our "visa run". A visa run is a term that refers to re-newing your visa in Thailand. Most foreigners get a visa for 28 days on arrival and if you wish to stay longer, you have to leave the country and then re-enter. It's actually a really silly process, as you only have to be out of Thailand for about 5 minutes. It's more of a pain in the arse than anything! We took a local bus 5 hours to Ranong, got a taxi to Thai immigration, boarded a long tail boat to take us across the river to Burma, got a stamp in our passports in Burma and then came right back across the river to Thailand. We were issued another 28 day visa and then were set free again to do as we pleased in Thailand.

It was late by the time the whole process was over, so we spent the night in Ranong. Yesterday we got up early, took the bus 3 hours to Surat Thani and then the ferry 2 hours to the island of Koh Samui. We were so happy to finally arrive!

We have a great little room in Koh Samui and the island is very nice. The beaches are clean and beautiful, there are lots of beach bars and the vibe is very relaxed. We'll spend about 5 days here before heading off to the next island.

Thanks again for all of your comments, it is really fun for us to log in and hear from you!

Take care!

Lauren and Troy

From Islands that Soar to a Sea Kayaking Tour (Krabi to Phang-Nga Bay)

2007-03-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Cliffs surrounding Railay Beach

Troy's version of rock climbing

Coastline around Krabi

Thailand's version of the International House of Pancakes (IHOP)

Sand spit in the Phang-Nga Bay

Setting off on our self-guided kayaking trip

Ariel view of Ko Hong, our first camp site

Kayaking amongst the cliffs

View from Koh Kudu Beach

Our last day kayaking, view from Ko Chang Lat

Sa Wat Dii Khrap everyone and greetings from the beautiful southwest coast of Thailand.

Apologies for the delay in getting our blog out this week, but we just got back from an exciting and adventurous 4 day kayaking trip around the Phang-Nga Bay. More on this later; we'll start with our experiences in the scenic coastal region of Krabi, where we made our way from the island of Ko Lanta.

We arrived on the coastline of Krabi about a week ago and our jaws dropped as we looked out the ferry window at some of the most breathtaking scenery we have ever laid eyes on. Krabi is many things, but it is especially known as a rock climbers paradise and photographers dream for the massive cliff walls that jet out of the sea . It is hard to describe in words how beautiful the coastline of Krabi really is, but try picturing the Grand Canyon cliffs surrounded by white sands and tropical blue waters. The landscape is simply awe inspiring!

We spent a few days on Tonsai Beach in Krabi and filled our time with long tail boat rides to the surrounding beaches, swimming in the sea, hiking between beaches and dining on fantastic seafood curries. Tonsai is a backpacker's haven; it's filled with activities to keep you entertained in the day and beach bars to keep you entertained at night. There is never a dull moment in Tonsai, the area is constantly buzzing with energy and activity. In the morning, rock climbers are gearing up with their ropes, scuba divers are checking their tanks, beach bums are staking their claim in the sand and snorkelers are strapping plastic masks on their heads.

Among the most outlandish activities on offer, base jumping definitely takes the cake for the most daring. While having a quiet breakfast, Troy looked up to admire the surrounding cliffs and spotted a base jumper about to take off! It was incredible to see this guy throw himself off the top of a cliff with only a parachute strapped to his back. Due to the proximity of the ground, base jumping is far more dangerous than sky diving, one of the most dangerous sports in the world. No wonder why we observed the guy making the 'sign of the cross' just before jumping!

Later that day we went out on a long tail (the local form of boat transportation) for a snorkeling/sunset trip. We visited 3 snorkeling sights and were most impressed by the visibility of the water and the swirling schools of tropical fish. No sharks spotted, but we did see the next scariest thing..... We pulled up on a sand spit (sand bar) to have dinner and watch the sun set, and at the far end of the spit we saw about 15 men synchronize dancing. First we thought that a Thai music video was being shot, but as we got closer it was apparent that this was no Thai production. Bollywood was on the scene! With their cheesy dance moves, polyester suits and overly dramatic face and hand gestures, it was clear that this was a Bollywood production. Our suspicions were confirmed when we spoke with the female stars' father. Tradition still has a lethal grip on Indian women as there is no way the 21-year old star would be able to travel internationally without her father's supervision. We had a good laugh and then ran in the opposite direction when they requested extras - we had enough from our time in India!

When we first arrived in Tonsai we had booked a self-guided kayaking trip and it was due to begin the day after our snorkeling excursion. We stocked up on groceries such as pasta, fruits, veggies, tins of tuna and other supplies we would need. We got to bed early that night as we wanted to have a fresh start in the morning. Our kayaking trip began with a 45 minute drive and then we were dropped off at the bay and were set free to explore. With maps in hand and our faces doused in sun block, we started to paddle. We thought that the scenery around Tonsai was magnificent, but seeing these massive rock islands up close in the water was truly incredible. I think we took about 200 photos!

We paddled for about 4 hours on our first day and arrived at our first camp site, Koh Hong, in the early afternoon. Koh Hong is a day trip destination for tourists from Phuket, but by 3pm everyone cleared out and we were left completely alone on one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe the setting. We swam in the water, cooked up a huge feast, watched the sun set and drifted off to sleep in our little tent. Waking up to the sound of small waves breaking on the shore was much better than an alarm clock and we were up to enjoy the beach by 6am. After breakfast, we paddled about 5 hours before reaching our next destination, Koh Kudu. We hit a strong head wind and were completely exhausted by the time we arrived, but it was low tide so we had to change our plans and paddle another hour to the next island, Koh Roi.

The sun set views from Koh Roi were second to none, but the beach was very small and not nearly as scenic as Koh Hong. After enjoying another feast, we practically fell asleep on our beach mat. A little flash of lighting (first we thought it was heat lightening) soon gave way to massive crashes of thunder and a serious down pour! Troy worked quickly to put the rain cover on the tent while Lauren gathered up the supplies that would be ruined if wet. Troy pounded in the last stake of the rain cover and dove in gracefully. Lauren didn't seem to have the same grace as her "swan dive" was more of a football tackle that practically knocked the whole tent down. At this point, all we could do was laugh. The storm dragged on for about 2 hours while we watched the tide line creep closer and closer to our tent. It was about 2 feet away and we were making plans to desert the tent if it came any closer. Luckily, we had reached the height of high tide and the water started to recede. Good thing...... we were ready for bed!

After relaxing on the beach and reading in the morning, we packed up and headed for Koh Chang Lat. It was another 4 hour paddle, but nothing like the day before! Koh Chang Lat was the perfect place to end our kayaking trip, the beach was gorgeous. We soaked up our last night under the stars, put the rain cover on the tent this time and watched the sun slip down behind the cliffs. The next morning was a quick 1 hour paddle and we were back on the mainland for our pick-up. We arrived back in Tonsai, had lunch with some friends we met along the way and then packed our bags for the ferry to Phuket.

We arrived in Phuket last night and indulged in showers and massages - well needed. As we have only been in Phuket for such a short time we don't have a first impression yet, but we'll be sure to update you in our next blog.

We hope you are all doing well. We miss you all!

Lauren and Troy

From Rope Swings to Beach Kings (Laos to Thailand)

2007-02-20T01:45:00.000-08:00

Tubing - the "before" picture

Troy flying high on a rope swing

Makeshift tree branch bridge in Vang Vieng

Buckets on the river

Sharing a tube out of necessity

The rapid we conquered while kayaking

Thai massage on the beach

Snacking on watermelon at our beach bungalow

Sa Wat Dii Ka!

This past week has been absolutely action-packed!

After a few days in Luang Prabang, Laos jumping off waterfalls and diving into crystal-clear pools of water, we decided it was time to take in even more adventure. One of our main reasons for wanting to visit Laos was to go tubing down the Nam Song River near Vang Vieng. For many reasons (outdoor activities, natural beauty, affordability and cheap beer), Vang Vieng is known as a backpackers paradise.

Since travelling down from Northern Thailand, we have met many other backpackers and we all decided to rendezvous on the river in Vang Vieng for a day of tubing. It's no surprise that when you put 15 backpackers together with cheap beer, countless bars on the riverbank, plastic tubes and a bloody hot day, it's going to turn into a mini spring break (aka. schoolies week). And, our group was no exception! We arrived at the riverbank at 11am with tubes in one hand and Beer Lao in the other. Can you think of a better way to start a Monday?

All along the riverbank there are bamboo bars set up with huge areas for sun baking, 10 meter (32 feet) high zip-lines & rope swings, BBQ's and volleyball courts. Dollar beers lead the way to a festive atmosphere and stopping off at every bar along the way is highly encouraged. We were in our tubes for about 10 minutes when a unanimous decision was made to stop off at the first bar. Free whiskey shots from the friendly Lao guys helped some of us work up the courage to climb the shaky platform made of tree branches and throw ourselves off holding onto the zip-line. It was great fun!

We jumped back in our tubes, cold beers in hand and moved on to the next bar. There were actually 2 impressive bars set up next to each other that were blaring music and filled with backpackers. We pretty much set up camp here for the day and took turns on the massive rope swing. A Lao party is never complete without rounds of Lao-Lao (whiskey) and our group definitely took advantage of the free offerings! We also splurged on $3 buckets. A bucket is exactly what it sounds like.....a metal bucket filled with Lao-Lao and various other mixers, very tasty!

The time passed quickly and before we knew it, the sun was starting to go down. We jumped back in our tubes (some of us more graceful than others) and headed further down the river. Now, we're going to chalk the next incident up to the rapids on the river......all of the sudden there was an explosion of yelling and laughter when Lauren somehow managed to lose her tube and could only gasp and giggle as it quickly floated down the river. Thank goodness for good friends as one of our good mates (Abi) offered to share her tube, and the two of them floated down the rest of the way screeching with laughter. We finally made it home well after dark; what a great day.

As you can probably imagine, the next day started off a little fuzzy! But, we had booked a full day kayaking trip down the river from Vang Vieng to our next destination, Vientiane. With Lauren still feeling the effects of the Lao-Lao from the previous day, Troy agreed to paddle most of the way down the river while Lauren relaxed and recovered. The views were beautiful, clear water surrounded by tall limestone rock formations on both sides. There was one major rapid on the trip and we made it through without going overboard. We had taken bets on who would be swimming and for some reason, the group agreed that we were the best shot.

We arrived in Vientiane in the evening, grabbed dinner and went to bed. The next day we began a long trip back to Thailand (this time southern Thailand to take in some of the islands). After a 17 hour bus ride and 2 ferries we landed in the tropical paradise island of Koh Lanta.

We've only been in Koh Lanta for a short time and most of that time (okay, all of that time) has been spent chilling out on the beach and relaxing in hammocks hanging from our beach bungalow. Troy did manage to make a move from our guesthouse, walking next door for a Thai massage (we always knew he was a go-getter).

We are planning to be in Southern Thailand for the next month or so; island hopping, soaking up the sun, diving, snorkeling and just hanging out.

By the way, we celebrated an important milestone this week. As of Feb 18th we have been travelling for exactly 6 months......and what a 6 months it has been! We have loved every minute of it and feel we are better for the experience. Living out of a backpack for that long and travelling through so many diverse countries teaches you a lot about the world and yourself. So we thought we would share with you 3 major insights we have learned while travelling through Asia.

Insight #1 - The Need for Patience

Best summed up by a local villager we recently met in Laos who said "The West may have the watch, but the East has the time."

And how true that expression is. In Asia you have to wait for everything and we mean everything. Whether it's queuing in line at the bank or post office, sitting on the side of the road waiting for your broken down bus to be repaired or just waiting 10 minutes for your tuc-tuc driver to find his keys (seriously this recently happened to us). Waiting patiently is just part and parcel of the Asian way and something you have to get used to if you want to survive without blowing an artery.

Insight #2 - The Need for Fun & Laughter

In Thailand, the need for fun and laughter is constantly emphasized. As the Thai philosophy goes, every day should be filled with a healthy helping of sanuk (fun). Daily doses of sanuk include eating and drinking with friends, gossiping about the crazy farang (foreigners) and adopting almost all foreign holidays as an excuse for a party. The Thais have got it right, what good is life without sanuk?

Insight #3 - The world is faced with too many wars, but not enough NEPAL

Don't take us too serious here, it's just that while travelling the beautiful country of Nepal we were told by the locals that Nepal stands for Never Ending Peace And Love. We guess in today's age this saying really rings true.

Interesting enough, one other insight we learned was that INDIA stands for I Never Do It Again. After travelling through India for 3 months we definitely felt like this at times, but we can't quite say this is completely accurate........just partially.

We hope you are all enjoying reading up on our adventures. We love being able to stay in close contact with everyone and we really enjoy reading your comments.

Jason - we just want you to remember that the world is your oyster and this blog is your stage. You really need to start uploading photos, the masses are waiting.

Take care!

Lauren and Lauren

From Not a Dime to Spare to Self Made Millionaires (Thailand to Laos)

2007-02-09T04:37:00.000-08:00

Crossing the border from Thailand to Laos

Novice monks in Luang Prabang, Laos

A monk in a side car!

Cycling in Laos

Lao village children

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall

Rope swing into the waterfall pool

Jumping off the waterfall

Airborne!

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall

Sa Bai Dii (Hello) from Laos!

In the last week we made our way from Thailand to Laos, and what an experience Laos has been so far!

From Chiang Mai, Thailand we took a van 6 hours to the Lao border with 8 other backpackers. We passed through Thai immigration in no time at all, and after a 10 minute ferry ride across the mighty Mekong River we arrived in Laos. We arranged our visas and sped through customs; the entire process took less than an hour. We wish all border crossings were this easy!

Once in Laos, we stayed in a small riverside town called Huay Xia. We met a heap of backpackers on the trip and all went out that night to celebrate our arrival in a new country. We immediately noticed that the most important word for any backpacker to know in Laos is very simple - "Lao". The word "Lao" will get you a huge bottle of beer for one US dollar and doubling up the word Lao (eg. “Lao Lao”) will get you a glass of homemade rice whisky for about half that. Needless to say, Troy practiced his newly acquired language a bit too much that night and paid the price on the boat the next day!

With “Lao Lao” hangovers, huge bottles of water and plenty of snacks, we went down to the harbour the following morning to arrange for a slow boat to take us down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. This is a much hyped about trip in all the travel guide books, involving 7 hours on the river the first day and 8 hours the second day. The experience sounded so romantic....floating down the Mekong in a wooden boat taking in the scenery with cool drinks in hand....however the reality was much different. The boat was absolutely packed with beer-drinking, cigarette smoking farang (foreigners) and tiny bench seats crammed so close together that even the vertically challenged people from the Wizard of Oz would struggle to fit their legs in! As promised, the scenery was beautiful, but the whole experience was not all it was cracked up to be! Every hour on the boat felt like an entire day, but we made the most of it and found ways to make it more comfortable by shifting from one bum cheek to the other every few minutes. Lauren even took a nap in the aisle much to the jealousy of the other tourists who couldn’t fit in this tight space.

After two days on the boat we finally arrived in the Lao town of Luang Prabang. We practically kissed the ground! Luang Prabang is a quaint city nestled on the banks of the Mekong River. The town is filled with temples, monks, markets, backpackers and fantastic restaurants. There is a huge French influence in Luang Prabang due to the French occupying Laos up until the 1950’s, which to us was most obvious by the dozens of stands selling fresh baguettes.

We spent the first day in Luang Prabang massaging our backsides (literally) and recovering from the boat ride. The next day we hired two bicycles (push bikes) and decided to take what we thought would be a 32k (20mile) gingerly ride through the Lao countryside to some beautiful waterfalls. What first started out as a flat and smooth bike ride quickly turned into a gravel road with huge vertical inclines and very few declines. This was made all the worse by the fact we decided to hire the cheapest possible bikes in town (at a cost of $1 USD for the entire day). The bikes had no gears, rusty chains and big baskets on the front. For some reason, Troy decided to motivate us during the trip by singing the hugely popular song “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls” by TLC.

Fortunately for us though the ride was worth it as this was the most breathtaking waterfall we have ever laid eyes on. The waterfall was 5 tiers, each with its own beautiful aqua coloured pool. One pool was actually deep enough to jump off the waterfall into the crystal clear waters below. Jumping off anything into unknown water is a scary experience, but this was made even more scary given the waterfall was over 4 meters (13 feet) high! What an exhilarating experience though once we worked up the courage to take the leap. Another pool also had a rope swing where you could perform Tarzan-like moves before cannon-balling into the water below. Who needs Wally World with a natural setting like this! We enjoyed the experience that much that we decided to do the same thing over the next day, minus of course the biking out there (instead we opted for the more environmentally friendly mode of transport – the Tuk Tuk). Check out the photos above of our plunge.

By the way, we’re sure a few of you are wondering why the title “From Not a Dime to Spare to Self Made Millionaires”. Well, allow us to explain. Upon arriving in Laos, we quickly went to the nearest money exchanger to change our Thai Baht into Lao Kip. After changing in what amounted to USD $140 we received back 1.4 million Kip. Who said you couldn’t pack in your jobs, travel the world and still become millionaires! And if that wasn’t enough to be excited about, we set our daily budget at 400,000 Kip between the two of us. Not many people can spend that kind of cash in one day. Eat your heart out Donald Trump. Forgot to mention though, 400,000 Kip converts to USD $40.00 per day, and this has to cover food, accommodation, entertainment, etc. Maybe we wouldn’t make good Apprentices after all.

Until next time……..

Hope this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.

The Millionaire and His Wife (Gilligan’s Island)

From Ancient Sights to Tasty Bites (Sukhothai to Chiang Mai, Thailand)

2007-02-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

Cycling around the ancient ruins in Sukhothai

Troy and his harem of "ping pong" girls (minus 1 of course)

Novice monk gathering in Chiang Mai

Thai farmers for a day

Trying not to burn down the kitchen at the cooking class

Troy......just being Troy

Handmade paper umbrella village in Northern Thailand

Sa Wat Dii Ka (Hello) from the Land of Smiles!

We are enjoying every bit of Thailand..... it is a fascinating and exciting country to explore! This week our adventures took us to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, with a stop along the way to the ancient city of Sukhothai.

Sukhothai is about 5 hours north of Bangkok and 6 hours south of Chiang Mai. This small town is known for the ancient ruins of the Khmer empire. There are about 70 historical sights within a 3 mile radius, most contained within a beautiful green park, dotted with ponds, Buddha images and sprawling temples. Upon arrival, we headed straight to the bicycle shop and rented bikes to scoot around the ruins. It was so enjoyable to cycle around the park from one impressive ruin to the next. Sukhothai dates back to the 1200's, so it was pretty amazing to see some of the remnants and learn about the history of a civilization that existed over 800 years ago!

The Thai people we have met on our trip so far are so friendly and inquisitive. While touring the ruins we met a few different groups of Thais who spotted us and rushed over to have their photo taken with us. We felt like celebrities for a brief moment with each of them pushing to be near us in the photo. One group of young Thai girls followed us around the park for a few minutes before working up the courage to ask for a photo. There was no need for them to be hesitant as Troy was more than happy to be surrounded by 6 beautiful girls for the photo!

After our dose of ancient history, we continued north to Chiang Mai. Our bus was supposed to arrive in Chiang Mai at 1am, but due to "technical difficulties", we didn't arrive until 5am! We were the only English speaking people on the bus, so we sat there in total confusion trying to figure out what was going on. The Thais on the bus were so kind, they kept trying to communicate with us, but all we could get was, "bus, not good". That much we had figured out on our own!

Arriving in Chiang Mai at 5am we did what every backpacker would do.... headed straight to a guest house to sleep in until the afternoon. We awoke to find that Chiang Mai is a very modern Thai town that extensively caters to backpackers. You cannot go a block without passing a guesthouse, bar (with dollar beers), restaurant, massage spa, or fresh juice shop. There is so much to do in this city that we are having a hard time deciding how to fill our days. Between trekking, cooking classes, rock climbing, yoga, mountain biking, Thai boxing, elephant riding and whitewater rafting, our heads are spinning!

We spent our first day in Chiang Mai visiting several towering wats (temples), all housing beautiful golden buddha statues. As luck would have it when we arrived at Wat Chiang Man there happened to be a novice monk convention. We soon found ourselves in an unexpected sea of orange!

Later that day we hired a Thai language tutor to teach us a few key phrases. Our tutor wanted to teach us the basics of Thai including numbers, colors and a few conversational phrases. I think he was surprised to learn we wanted to say things such as, "red chicken curry", "beer", "you're crazy" and "way too expensive"! In the end we compromised, but we can honestly tell you the only phrase Troy remembers is "you're crazy!" By the way the Thai translation for "you're crazy" is "ding dong ba ba bo bo". Who could forget that?

The next day we took a full day cooking course so that we could learn to make some of the beautiful Thai food we have been enjoying for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to order pad thai (a noodle dish) or one of the many rice dishes at 8am. The class was held about 20 minutes outside the city at a beautiful organic farm. The course was set up really well; we each had our own stations with a wok, stove, prep area, cutting board, etc. We made all kinds of Thai dishes: red curry chicken, green curry chicken, spring rolls, hot and sour prawn soup, stir fry chicken with basil leaves, and bananas with coconut cream. The food was delicious and everything was going pretty smoothly until Lauren accidentally left her stove on and the instructor shouted something in Thai that sounded like "Super Cala Fragilicious Expealahdosish Ding Dong Ba Ba Bo Bo", which translated into English "Don't burn my kitchen down you crazy lady"!

We intend on spending a few more days in Chiang Mai and then taking the slow boat down the Mekong River into Laos. We look forward to updating you on our next excursion.

We hope you are all doing well at home and enjoying winter or summer depending on which hemisphere you live in!

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Markets that Float to the Bridge Over River Kwai by Boat

2007-01-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Floating Market

On our boat in the Floating Market

Spicy noodle soup!

Bridge over the River Kwai

Railway over the River Kwai

Getting shit-faced on a shoe string budget - just like the sign promises

Erawan Falls

Natural rock slide at Erawan Falls

Sa Wat Dii Kha (Hello) from Thailand!

We hope you are all doing well.

This last week has been a whirlwind for us as we have been to three cities in less than a week!

We spent another couple of days in Bangkok exploring the markets and wats (temples). A visit to Bangkok would not be complete without a trip to the infamous red light district of Patpong. Besides the expected go-go bars and exotic clubs, the area is famous for Bangkok's best night market. The naughtiness of the red light district is totally over-rated, it's much more of a tourist show! The streets are lined with bars, shops and restaurants that keep Patpong lively, busy and fun. Sort of similar to the red light district in Amsterdam, there are many "talent shows" in the area. Just for a laugh, we decided to check out one of these acclaimed "Ping Pong" shows, but were quickly escorted out by a burly lady bouncer when we refused to pay the ridiculous cover charge. It was Troy's first time being thrown out of a bar for not paying, as compared to the usual antics of dancing topless on the bar, spraying the fire extinguisher (sorry again, Jason) or just plain bad behaviour.

The next day we took the bus (2 hours) to the town of Damnoen Sadauk. This town is known throughout Thailand for the Floating Market (you guessed it.....only assessible by boat). We arrived the night before to avoid the tourist rush and this definitely turned out to be a good idea! We hired a boat and the driver picked us up at 7am. After traveling down a little canal for about 10 minutes, we turned a corner and entered the market. It was an explosion of color, energy and activity. We were smiling ear to ear and couldn't get our camera out fast enough. The boats were filled with colorful fruits, vegetables, flowers, souvenirs and Thai women wearing protective sun hats that resembled lamp shades. The saying "you learn something new every day" rang true; we discovered a new use for lamp shades which are usually reserved for wearing on one's head during the company Christmas party.

Our driver maneuvered the small wooden boat through the market, stopping frequently so we could purchase market snacks. It's amazing what these ladies can whip up in a boat! Our favorites were coconut pancakes, pork skewers and spicy noodle soup. After having our fill of snacks and floating around the market for about 2 hours, we headed back to the dock. We were so happy that we went early - the tourist buses had arrived from Bangkok and there were literally hundreds of tourists boarding boats.

Later that afternoon, we took the bus (4 hours) to Kanchanaburi. The town of Kanchanburi is situated on the banks of the River Kwai. The town was made famous by the movie "The Bridge Over the River Kwai". Kanchanburi is filled with WWII history and monuments, it's a truly fascinating place.

During WWII, the Japanese had taken over much of Southeast Asia and wanted to extend their control further South. In order to supply their troops with the necessary ammunition, medical equipment, etc., it was decided that a railway must be built to connect Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma. The railway was to be called the Thailand-Burma Railway, aka Death Railway. The Japanese used Australian, British, Dutch and American POW's to build the railway. Engineers estimated that it would take 5 years to complete the railway, but the POW's were forced to complete the work in 20 months. Conditions were horrible - there was never enough food or water, medical supplies were either completely lacking or outdated, the camps were extremely hot in the day and extremely cold at night, the POW's were often beaten by the Japanese soldiers and forced to work up to 18 hours per day. As a result, over 12,000 POW's died at the hands of this project.

Kanchanburi is particularly historic because building the bridge over the river was some of the hardest work along the entire line. Upon completion, the bridge was used by the Japanese for less than 2 years, before it was bombed by allied troops. The bridge has since been reconstructed and serves as a memorial to the men who suffered and died during it's construction.

When visiting the bridge if you close your eyes you can truely imagine the war taking place at this very spot, but Troy didn't have to go that far as he experienced his own version of an air strike. While out for a run, he found himself under attack by a huge flock of bats! They were swooping at his head and dive bombing in an attempt to get him out of their territory. All this after having been chased by a pack of local dogs! Good thing a local guy on a motorbike witnessed the crazy white man (Troy) trying to defend himself with a tree branch against the flying creatures. He insisted that Troy get on his motorbike and then drove him home. Maybe we should think about giving up that new year's resolution to exercise regularly, it can be dangerous!

Today we decided to get out of town a bit, so we headed to the Erawan Waterfall. This waterfall is unique and beautiful because it consists of 7 separate tiers. Each tier has a magnificent green pool at the bottom, perfect for swimming. Check out the photo of Troy going down the natural rock slide! Besides the fish nibbling our toes (and scaring us half to death!) and the monkeys trying to steal our bag on the way up to the falls, it was a pretty relaxing day.

Tomorrow we are off to the ancient town of Sukhothai. We look forward to updating you on our next adventure as we head to Northern Thailand.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Crowded Indian Streets to a Dreamy Bangkok Retreat

2007-01-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Poolside at our Bangkok retreat

Mimosas in the morning at our first real hotel

Life riverside in Bangkok

Street smoothies for breakfast

Getting "Enlightened"

Game of Takraw (volleyball for your feet)

Another hard day at the Office

Hello Everyone,

After more than 3 months on the Indian subcontinent we have now arrived in the Land of Smiles - Thailand. We are really happy to be here as we both ranked Thailand pretty high on our wish lists. While every country has it's advantages and disadvantages, the differences between India and Thailand hit us like a brick to the face as soon as we stepped off the plane. What, no more having to side step cows in the street or their bi-products for that matter? No more swerving on a rickshaw through countless numbers of people on the streets because they have sidewalks in Bangkok? No more tooting your horn every second for no reason because it's against the law in Bangkok?

Yes, while we loved every minute in India, some of the simple things associated with not having 1 billion people and about the same in cattle on the streets has made things in Thailand much easier.

Our first observations of Thailand were of how beautiful the people were with their genuine smiles and slender figures. They all look so fit and seem to take pride in their physical appearnaces. The next thing we noticed was the food and how appetizing it looked! Our noses lead the way and showed us to the many streets stalls and stands selling red curry, green curry, pad thai noodles, mango sticky rice, fruit smoothies, skewers of chicken, pork and beef, etc, etc, etc!! It was obvious based on how we were gorging ourselves within 30 minutes of touching down in Bangkok that we were not going to be fitting in with the Thai tradition of looking slender! Oh well, food has it's price!!

Having spent our last week in India mainly in transit trying to get to the Himalayas to go skiing, only to have it called off due to lack of snow, we decided to treat ourselves our first few days in our new country by checking into a beautiful resort hotel, rather than a backpackers with shared bathroom. Yes, that's right, we finally decided to legally check into a hotel rather than just sneaking in to use the amenities such as the pool and restaurants. We still did so however on a backpackers budget. How you might ask? By using our Marriott points......Thanks Foster's!

We spent 3 nights at the Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa, dining at their 10 restaurants, swimming in their gigantic pool, exercising in their gym (trying to work off the 10 red curries Troy ate in day 1), ordering room service at night while spreading out in our overly cushioned bed and watching pay per view movies. All this might sound a bit boring to some having just arrived in a new country, but it's amazing how much you miss the small comforts when you've been living out of a backpack for 5 months. We both kept commenting how nice it was to have our own TV, toilet, hot water, air conditioning, comfy bed, etc. Lauren even found time to order mimosas in the morning to celebrate our new found comforts and freedoms!

We are now back to normal backpacking life having settled into a USD $8 per night room in a fantastic area called Banglamphu. Banglamphu is a backpackers heaven, with restaurants, bars, street stalls and shops everywhere!! You shopaholics would be glad to know that you can purchase anything from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Billabong to Quicksilver (all knock offs of course!). So far Lauren has managed to avoid buying anything that will fill her and Troy's backpacks, but all that will change when her mom and Tom arrive in Bangkok in just a few months to meet up with us!

On top of relaxing at the hotel, shopping, and eating at the many restaurants this week, we also found time to take in a few tourist sites. One of the most impressive was a Wat (Buddhist temple) called Wat Traimit, which houses a 3 metre tall, 5.5 tonne, solid gold Buddha image. This gleaming figure was once covered in stucco (cement like material), but during efforts to move it in the 1960's the figure fell, cracking the stucco and revealing the treasure inside. The stucco covering was intended to hide it during one of Burma's many invasions. You see, sometimes being clumsy and dropping things pays off. We can't wait to use this story and excuse the next time we drop and break something at our parents house!

Note: the image above of Lauren with a buddha statue is not the same as one described in this blog as it was much larger in appearance.

During one of our excursions, we also took in a game of Takraw, which is essentially volleyball for your feet. Like gymnasts, the players perform aerial twisting maneuvers, spiking the ball over the net with their feet....all at an extremely fast pace. We were going to try and push our way into the game to learn, until we saw how high they jump and realized that we both wouldn't be able to get more than a foot off the ground.

This next week we plan on exploring some of Bangkok's hidden gems as well as making day excursions to the Bridge Over River Kwai (WWII prisoner of war camp made famous by the film) and the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. We can't wait to share these experiences with you!

We hope you are all doing well.

Lauren and Troy

PS. Sorry we were a few days late in getting this blog out. Sometimes it can be really hard to find good internet facilities as evident in the last photo above of Troy (beer in hand).

From Snow Skiing to "Only" Dreaming

2007-01-09T03:35:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve Celebrations

Field of gold, on the way to Auli

Twisty mountain road, try this on an Indian bus!

Our sleeping attire (no heat at the hotel)

Sleeping Attire

Magnificent Himalayas

Happy New Year Everyone!

We hope you enjoy reading about our latest "misadventure". We had dreams of skiing fresh powder in the Himalayas, but ended up with just that.....DREAMS! Or some might call them nightmares.

Our ski course in Northern India was due to start on Jan. 8th. So in order to arrive in time, we took a 3 hour flight from Chennai to Delhi, an 8 hour train ride from Delhi to Rishikesh and a 9 car trip on a twisty, dirt road from Rishikesh to our final destination, the village of Auli. All of this travel took 2 full days, so you can probably imagine how we were feeling when we finally arrived in Auli - ready for a hot shower and bed!

Upon arrival at the resort (and we use the term "resort" lightly) we noticed that things seemed unusually dark and cold. We headed up to reception and attempted to check in to our 7 day ski course. We were then told by reception in broken English, "No snow, no ski". This had to be a joke. What was this guy talking about, it was after all dark and we could not see the slopes? After much shock, confusion and eventual anger, we were finally able to speak to the manager via phone and he confirmed that the course was cancelled. "Didn't we get the email?" he asked. "No, we most certainly did not get the email!" We'll skip the gory details (just know that the other 45 people who signed up for the course also showed up that night in Auli), but it was not a pretty situation! The resort was not ready for any guests and consequently had no heat or hot water running so we were forced to bundle up in our ski gear to sleep for the night. It was bloody cold!! It's pretty funny looking back now, but it definitely wasn't at the time!

The next day we went back up to the resort to try to sort out how we would get our money back. Then another 9 hours in the car back to Rishikesh! We stayed in Rishikesh for the night (a luxurious hotel room with a space heater) and then took the train back to Delhi the next night. We have been in Delhi for 2 nights and in just a few short hours, we will be on a flight to Bangkok! We are so excited - a new country, culture, people, food - there is so much to look forward to!

After traveling in India for more than 3 months now, we definitely understand that things here are a bit different. Going to an ATM can take the better part of 2 hours, a visit to the post office will set you back about 3 hours, and booking a train ticket involves waiting in line and jostling for space for nearly 2 hours per ticket. However, our latest run in with the disorganized and chaotic India system definitely took the cake.

And although some things in India drive you completely mad, just when you think you've had enough, something changes and then India is magic all over again. Nothing can replace the genuine Indian smile, the women clad in every color sari you can imagine, the beauty of the Himalayas and the diversity of the country. All in all, India has been very good to us and we will definitely miss it. This country is known for being tough on travelers and while we have had our frustrations, we leave India with fantastic memories, good feelings and a desire to return....

We're looking forward to writing you all from Thailand, the Land of Smiles!

Troy and Lauren

Happy New Year from India!

2006-12-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

Relaxing after Christmas Day lunch

Beach resort in Mamallapuram

"Greetings" to the Christmas party host

Christmas entertainment (Indian classical band)

Meditation hall in Auroville

Making friends with the security guard

Happy New Year!

We hope you all are enjoying the holidays.

Our latest travels brought us clear across the Indian subcontinent. Up until about a week ago, we had spent our time working our way down the Western coast of India from Mumbai to Goa to Cochi to Alapphuza. After the house boat in Alapphuza, we took a 15 hour train ride to Chennai, which is in South Eastern India. We then took a rickshaw (1 hour) down to Mamallapuram where we spent a few days relaxing and enjoying Christmas.

Mamallapuram is a laid-back, coastal town. The town is dotted with temples and various rock carvings. We spent a lot of time relaxing in hammocks on the beach, enjoying a Christmas feast (buffet style) and exploring the town on foot.

After spending a few days in Mamallapuram, we took an easy bus journey down to Pondicherry. Pondicherry is a former French colony and the town stills retains much of it's French culture. The food is fantastic here, we cannot get enough baguettes! The architecture in Pondicherry is beautiful. We are staying in a French villa at the moment and when we arrive home from a day of exploring we forget that we are in India. It feels like we are in the French countryside.....if only!

Just outside of Pondicherry lies the town of Auroville. Auroville is a very special and unique place. Auroville values spirituality, education and "serving the divine force" more than money and status. It's an experimental community that was started in the 70's and now boasts 1800 residents from 33 countries. It was kind of like being in an alternate universe, but very interesting. The community itself is very clean and all of the residents seemed extremely happy (must be the "local plants" they grow).

We're having New Year's dinner at our favorite French bistro in Pondicherry tonight. We will be thinking about you all and hoping that you are all ringing in the new year in style!

Maybe you are interested in hearing our list of New Year's resolutions:

Stop breaking into resorts that we are not paying for.
Refrain from stealing toilet paper (napkins) from restaurants.
Spend more nights sleeping in hotels than on trains.
Obtain better work/play balance in life.
Worry less.
Spend more time with a shirt on for the sake of photos (Troy).
Shower more often (Troy).
Commit to wearing a new outfit each day (Lauren).

All the Best in 2007. Hope the new year brings you success, happiness and peace.

Lauren and Troy

Santa Brought Us A Houseboat This Year!

2006-12-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

Enjoying coconut water

Relaxing on the boat

Drifting through the canals

Lounging on the deck

A photo of our houseboat from the shore.

Captain for a day

A meal fit for a king

Rice paddies

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays! We miss you all very much and hope you have a fantastic holiday season with your family and friends.

For us, the holiday celebrations have already begun. We decided to splurge this holiday season and rented a houseboat to tour the canals of Kerala in southwestern India. We dipped deep into our pockets and reserved the most beautiful houseboat we could find for a 2 day / 2 night cruise. The houseboat came equipped with a beautiful lounging area, dining area, 2 bedrooms (in case we got into a fight over the last Christmas cookie) and a kitchen. But that is not all! The boat also came manned with 3 cabin crew... and we were the only passengers on board! We had a driver, captain and our very own chef, all for the ridiculously low price of USD $100.00 per night. It was sheer luxury and a great way to enjoy the holidays since we could not be at home this year to enjoy the experience with you, our family and friends.

Some people refer to the canals of Kerala as the Venice of India, and for good reason as there are literally hundreds of canals in the Kerala area, weaving their way through villages and rice paddies. As mentioned above though, the houseboats are a lot more luxurious than the gondolas of Venice. The network of canals includes five large lakes linked by 1500 km of canals, both man-made and natural, fed by 38 rivers, and extending virtually half the length of the state of Kerala. It is truly a breathtaking site and proved to be one of the most enjoyable experiences we have had thus far in our action packed 3 months touring India.

We relaxed aboard the houseboat each day, reading books, taking in the scenery, playing chess and drinking coconut toddy (local rum made from, you guessed it....coconuts). Daily activity along the canals is never ending, with locals diving for mussels, women beating their laundry senseless on rocks and children bathing in the water. The nights were even more spectacular though as we would drop anchor in the middle of a lake, or tie up alongside one of the quiet rice paddy lined canals and just watch the stars while enjoying a nice glass vino. And let us assure you "The weather outside was definitely not frightful" this Christmas!

We are thinking of you all and hope you enjoy everything this festive season brings.

Happy Holidays!!

Skipper (Lauren) and her first mate Gilligan (Troy)

From Chinese Fishing to Tea Sipping (Cochi to Munnar)

2006-12-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Pulling the ropes of the Chinese fishing nets

Cochi waterfront

Chinese fishing nets in Cochi

Tea fields

Tea picker for a day

Carrying Lauren's pickings (tea leaves) from the day

The scenary of Munnar reminds us of Switzerland!

Troy admiring the mountain views

Hello From Tea Town (Munnar, India)!

We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than 10 days away and Chanukah starts this weekend.

We bid a tearful farewell to Goa, our home for the past three weeks, and took the 15 hour overnight train to Cochi. Cochi is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and a little explanation of Kerala will help you understand why this state is so special. Kerala is not only the cleanest state in India, but also the most educated. The state boasts an astounding 91% literacy rate. It is truly remarkable especially given the fact that most people speak and read English, as well as their native tongue.

Cochi is a neat, little coastal town that seems like it has been lost in time. The main industries in Cochi are fishing and tourism. The town is dotted with grand guesthouses and quaint restaurants. Along the waterfront there are about a dozen traditional Chinese fishing nets. This fishing style is quite impressive - the nets are about the size of a racketball court and are lowered and raised into and out of the water by a wooden apparatus that works like a sea-saw. The net is attached to thick wood beams that are lowered into the water when the opposite end of the apparatus (huge rocks dangling on the ends of ropes) are hoisted into the air. When it's time to raise the net, a group of 5-7 men pull on the ropes and with all of their might, hoist the net out of the water. This is tiresome work and the fishermen were glad to pass over the ropes and let us have a turn. Check out the photo above - it's harder than it looks!

As suspected, the seafood in Cochi is fantastic....and so is the method by which you purchase and cook your catch. Each group of fishermen set up their catch of the day on tables by the waterfront. Hungry shoppers have their pick of prawns, tuna, squid, kingfish and snapper as they walk by. Once you have selected and bargained for your fish, it's wrapped in a plastic bag and handed to you. Now what to do with raw fish in a plastic bag when you live out of a backpackers with no kitchen? Well, easy enough - you just bring the fish to the restaurant of your choice and the chef will happily cook the fish to your liking. It's a pretty fun way to select a meal and very cheap too - about $5 US to purchase 2 pounds of prawns and $1 US to cook them.

After a few days of fresh seafood and hanging out by the waterfront, we packed our bags and had the intention of taking the bus to Munnar to visit the tea fields. Just as we were about to drag our bags down to the bus, we heard that there was a government transportation strike in Kerala that was meant to last 24 hours. Okay by us, that just meant one more day of seafood and sun.

The next day we boarded the local bus to Munnar. Now this was supposed to be a direct bus, but the definition of a "direct bus" in India must mean a bus that only stops 50 times along the way, as opposed to 100. The ride was pretty wild as we were climbing steep hills and the bus driver was careening around the corners like he was Michael Schumacher. Luckily we had seats, but we felt bad for the poor souls who had to stand and hang onto the roof rafters for their dear lives. In the middle of the chaos, the ticket collector actually had the nerve to ask Troy to pull his elbow inside the window of the bus as he wagged his finger in our faces and proudly shouted "Safety First!". Wow - how ironic considering the fact that we were on two wheels for most of the journey!

We arrived in Munnar and our nerves were immediately calmed by the beautiful surroundings. High in the mountains (about 6000 feet) Munnar is a clean, green paradise. The entire landscape is covered with steep tea plantations, gorgeous wildflowers, rushing rivers and shining lakes. We had no idea that a place like this existed! The weather can be quite cool here though, it almost reaches freezing temperatures at night.

We hired a rickshaw driver yesterday and zipped around the area checking out the sights. The scenery here is like something out of a fairy-tale. We stopped several times to say hello to the tea plantation workers who were extremely friendly. Look at the photo of Lauren auditioning for the part of a tea picker - looks like we have a backup plan in case our money runs out early.

We plan to spend a few more days in Munnar and then take the dreadful bus down to Alaphuzza where we will sail the backwaters on a houseboat for a few days. This experience may prove to be one of our best so far in India and we are very excited. We'll write an update as soon as we return, which will be right before Christmas so we can pass on our holiday wishes to everyone.

Take Care!

Lauren and Troy

From Fishing Trips to Afternoon Kips (Goa, India)

2006-12-08T01:01:00.000-08:00

Reeling in the "Big One"

Anjuna Market

Troy practicing his bargaining skills at the market

A bottle of vino with the perfect sunset

Hookahs on the beach

Another tough day of traveling

Palolem Beach

Seafood platter on the beach

Zipping around town on the scooter

Greetings everyone from Goa, India.

Yes, we are still here in Goa after almost 3 weeks, and with good reason - the beaches here are fantastic and it's a great place to just unwind. As the islanders of Hawaii say we are "Chilaxing" (chilling out and relaxing), only this time Goan style.

Since our last blog most of our time has been dedicated to the ritual of mastering the hammock, perfecting our tans, playing cricket on the beach, watching the sunset while nursing a bottle of plonk (wine), zipping around town on our scooter and shopping for the best bargains at the local markets.

Speaking of markets, last week we went to the famous Wednesday market at Anjuna Beach. This market is one of the largest in India and is known throughout the country. It's not just a market, it's an experience. With over 1000 stalls selling everything from leather goods to spices to clothing, it's quite the colorful spectacle. As you probably know, Troy isn't the world's biggest shopper so he spent most of his time in the hanging chair stall while Lauren shopped 'til the wallet was empty....completely empty!

The weather in Goa has been superb with not a cloud in the sky. It does however make for a hot middle part of the day and for this reason we are still getting up early in the morning to be as active as we can be before the shade and hammocks start to call our names. While getting up early has significant benefits for us, it's not all happiness for our neighbors as our alarm clock must send a piercing sound to every stray dog on the beach (well over 100 of them). As soon as they hear the pitch of our alarm clock they start 'howling at the moon' for a good 10 minutes before everybody else on the beach has to get up. I guess you can call us the roosters of Goa. It makes for an interesting walk on the beach when you have a pack of dogs following you.....you kind of feel like the Pide Piper.

The other day was an extremely hot day, so we decided to break our routine of kipping from around midday to 2pm to get wet and cool down. After frolicking in the water for around 20 minutes we looked up to see one of the stray dogs sniffing our bag. We were a little bit reluctant to leave our bag unattended on the beach, but instead of being stolen by a rebellious teenager, the real danger was the stray dog who after sniffing the bag, decided to pee on it! We quickly jumped out of the water and ran up the beach to stop the dog before he decided to relieve himself of other matter. Upon arriving at our belongings we inspected the damage and realised that at least the dog had taste as he only peed on Troy's shirt and book, not on our camera or any of Lauren's belongings. For all you Republicans in the US, you will be glad to know that Troy was reading Bill Clinton's autobiography titled "My Life", and the dog peed right on Bill's head. The whole event was quite comical despite the need to clean up after him.

We had another unique experience with an animal while out for dinner with a couple from England that we meet in McCleod Ganj a few weeks back. We all decided to meet at an Italian restaurant for dinner (a restaurant highly recommended by Lonely Planet). From down the street the restaurant looked amazing, all lit up with candles and a wood fire pizza oven in the front burning away. However, our impressions quickly changed when we were kindly greeted inside the restaurant by the matradie.... a cow. Yes, you read correctly.... a cow! And as it turned out the cow wasn't in the mood to seat us as he was busy licking the fresh seafood lying on the counter. Once the cow was ready to seat us we quickly changed our minds, thanked him for his time and told him that we decided to eat elsewhere. Since that night, we have walked by the same restaurant every night, and the same cow is at the front greeting patrons as they enter the premise. Only in India!

Beyond our encounters with the animal kingdom this week we also found time to pack our bags and move to another beach called Palolem. This is the third beach we have stayed at while in Goa and is our favourite thus far. Palolem Beach is lined with palm trees, seafood shacks and huts for accommodation. It is also more backpacker oriented as compared to the other beaches that cater to 1-2 weeks package tourists. We have fallen in love with Palolem and have decided to stay here until Monday next week.

We went for a late afternoon fishing trip yesterday and had visions of catching huge kingfish, countless prawns, calamari galore and a red snapper big enough to feed every local on the beach. We were pretty surprised when the "fishing poles" we were handed were nothing more than a line with a hook attached to a styrofoam disk. Now, what in the world are we supposed to do with this "fishing pole", and how we will ever reel in the big one? We did end up catching about 10 rockfish, the only problem was that each one was no longer than 4 inches. It seems that we were fishing for bait instead of dinner!

We are not sure where we are going to spend Christmas and News Years yet as we were originally planning to be in Sri Lanka, but have since cancelled that leg of our journey as there is heavy fighting between the government and the Tamil Tigers. We're sure wherever we decide though it will be magical way to spend the holidays.

We hope everyone is in good health and good spirits. Thanks again for your comments, we love reading them!

By the way - don't get any funny ideas, it's just flavored tobacco in the hookah (photo above)!

Lauren & Troy

From The Capital of Cool to Beaches That Will Make You Drool (Mumbai to Goa)

2006-11-29T02:56:00.000-08:00

Buying "Mumbai Books" at a stop sign

Our preferred method of transport (a rickshaw or tuc-tuc)

Celebrating our arrival to Goa

Watching the sun set over the Arabian Sea

Relaxing under the palms

Buying fruit at the local shops

Putting our gambling winnings to good use

Greetings Everyone from Goa, India.

After 3 months of traveling inland in Tibet, Nepal and India we finally arrived on the coast of India (Goa) for some much needed sun, sand and surf!

Following our last blog posting, we spent a few more days in ultra hip Mumbai (Bombay) stocking up on "Mumbai books" before heading for the beautiful beaches of Goa (a 13 hour overnight train ride). "Mumbai books" are a fantastic concept, however highly illegal. With over a billion people in India to employ, some creative thinker came up with the idea to mass photocopy legally published books and then to sell them for very cheap prices on the streets. A book that would cost USD $25.00 in the US or Australia sells for around USD $2.00 on the streets in Mumbai. What a bargain, providing you can put up with the occasional blurry pages/chapters when the photocopy machine runs out of ink; or duplication of pages; or the pages sometimes being in the wrong order (ie. page 5 before page 2); or better yet the last few pages of a really good romantic novel missing the climax (if you know what we mean!). The photo above is of Troy buying a "Mumbai book" at a stop sign while traveling in a rickshaw (tuc-tuc).

Having stocked up on about 5 "Mumbai books" each we were now ready for some R&R on the Goan beaches. Goa is a beautiful area, made up of several villages that stretch around 12o kms down the coast of Southwest India. Goa, once owned by the Portuguese (even up until the 1950's) still very much possesses it's Portuguese heritage, with the religion being predominately Catholic, the building architecture looking like something out of Lisbon, and the food and drink being extremely different to the vegetable curries you will find in all other parts of India.

Since arriving in Goa about a week ago, we have spent a couple of days in a quiet, secluded beach in the village of Colva, and also ventured north to a more lively area called Candolim. Spending some time in Colva just lying under the palm trees, reading books and celebrating Thanksgiving Goan style (read cocktails and prawns) was a great experience. We have also really enjoyed exploring the Candolim area. Troy spent some time in Candolim about 10 years ago while visiting India for a couple weeks and has relished in reliving the old days, checking out the places he stayed last time and taking Lauren to his favourite restaurants. He says word has definitely spread about Goa as the traffic and number of tourists has increased considerably since his last visit.

Being on the coast, Goa relies heavily on tourism and seafood, something that we have found most pleasing to our stomachs! Every second building is a restaurant & bar and on the beach - you can't walk more than 10 meters without finding a seafood shack that serves everything from tiger prawns to kingfish to lobster and crab! Needless to say, after 2 months of predominately vegetarian meals, and given our love of seafood, we have immensely enjoyed the Goan cuisine! We even found a way to eat upmarket (lobster and crab at a 5 star resort). Now I'm sure you thinking how can a couple of backpackers on a budget of monopoly money afford seafood at an fancy hotel? By gambling of course! After putting our heads together, we decided we could double our money on the local casino boat in Goa with 'smart gambling', thus affording us the opportunity to improve the stakes (pun intended) in the standard of our diet. Now of course this plan can back fire (as you all know), resulting in us eating seaweed instead of seafood. However, fortunately for us this was not the case as Lauren ended up getting on a roll correctly predicting red or black when she needed to. The photo above is of us holding our meals prior to them being "cooked on the barbie". Funny how a meal tastes so much better when you earn it, or better yet gamble for it!

Another funny story happened to us the same day we decided to gamble for our food. Actually this story is the reason we decided to gamble as we thought it was our lucky day due to the following circumstances. While walking from a restaurant, where we just had breakfast to the beach, we were stopped by a local Goan villager on a motorcycle who asked us if we were interested in going to a party at a resort to celebrate it's 14 anniversary in Goa. We of course were stand-offish at first, given the number of 'touts' and schemers we have met while in India, but we quickly changed our minds when we were handed two scratch cards and told that they were handing out prizes at the celebration. We scratched our cards and Troy won a T-shirt (just like the good ole days at Foster's), but Lauren somehow won the grand prize! The grand prize could be one of four prizes, to be determined once we arrived at the resort and scratched off another ticket. The four prizes consisted of (a) an Enfield motorcycle, (b) one weeks accommodation at one of their other resorts in Bali or Thailand, (c) an Ipod, or (d) USD $500 in cash.

Given our excitement, we quickly jumped in a cab with the local and drove to the resort, the whole time guessing what prize we thought we were going to win! By the way, Troy's guess was an Ipod (however he was hoping for the motorcycle so that we could sell it) and Lauren's guess was the 1 weeks accommodation, given the fact they were a resort company. Upon arriving at the resort, we noticed the shiny Enfield motorcycle on display, which made Troy even more excited! The grand prize winner and her loser mate were escorted into the resort and introduced to a salesman by the name of Keith. We were then congratulated by Keith and told the real reason why we were there. By the way, the whole time this is going on Lauren is expecting balloons and confetti to drop from the ceiling while we are presented our grand prize in front of the entire resort!

As it turns out, the 14th anniversary was a hoax, and the grand prize giveaway merely a hook to get us to the resort so they could in-turn sell us a timeshare at their resort. However, things didn't quite work out to plan for the resort on this occasion. You see, the resort targets couples that are on holidays in Goa for a couple of weeks. Upon giving them their sales pitch (2 hours of agony), they tell the potential buyer that the grand prize they won is 1 weeks accommodation at their resort in Thailand or Bali, however one stipulation - they need to use this 1 week within the next 3 months. By putting the 3 month expiration term into the conditions, the resort assumes the couple either won't have the time or money in the next 3 months to redeem the grand prize. In most cases they would be correct. However, not when you dealing with two backpackers that happen to be heading to these two destinations in the next couple of months, and are willing to do anything to get out of the typical backpacker accommodation! We sat through the presentation, kindly turned down their offer, and then proceeded to tell them the exact dates which we required in order to redeem our grand prize! Now you see why we thought it was our lucky day and headed straight to the casino to cash in on more fortunes!

We plan on staying in the Candolim area for another week or so before heading down to another beach in the southern most area of Goa called Palolem. We look forward to writing our next blog and keeping you updated on our adventures.

We hope everyone is in good health and spirits back home, and thank you for comments on our blog.

Until next time,

Lucky Lady Lauren and Troy James Bond (Casino Royale)

From Hollywood to Bollywood (Our Week in Mumbai)

2006-11-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

Lounging at the Taj Hotel

French paparazzi with Brangelina images

Brangelina

Cricket grounds in Mumbai

Lauren on set in Bollywood

Troy on set in Bollywood

15 minutes of fame - Lauren's face, Troy's shoulder

"Cab" Mumbai-style

Hello from the modern city of Mumbai and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US! We hope that you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday.

After spending a couple more days in the desert, we decided to pack our bags and head to the fashion and film capital of India, Mumbai (Bombay). Mumbai is quite an impressive city and we have been having a fabulous time exploring the sights, restaurants, nightlife and even a little bit of Hollywood (Indian style)!

We are staying in an area at the south end of Mumbai called Colaba. Colaba is known as the travelers mecca and for good reason, the area is covered with hotels, restaurants and bars. There is plenty to see in the area and great markets all around.

By chance, we happened to be staying about a block away from one of the most luxurious hotels in Bombay, the Taj. Our curiosity got the best of us and we couldn't resist trying to sneak into the Taj for a free dip in the posh pool. We put on our dress up clothes (read - clean shirts) and decided that we had to walk in there like we owned the place in order not to be questioned. Things got off to a good start. We were shown to two beautiful lounge chairs and handed fresh towels and icy cold bottles of water. The pool attendant handed us the clipboard to sign in, which we did and then he smiled and walked away. We stretched out with our bottled water and newspapers to enjoy the sun. After about 5 minutes of heaven, we noticed a rather muscular security guard coming our way. We stayed calm during the questioning and explained that he couldn't find our name in the computer because we had just checked out and were simply waiting for our afternoon flight. As he walked back to the security desk to check our story, we quickly grabbed all of our belongings (including the free bottled water) and make a quick exit. Guess our idea to sneak in as hotel guests didn't work too well, but at least we got to live a life of luxury for 5 minutes!

Strangely enough, the next day we had an entirely different adventure that involved the Taj Hotel. We had just finished breakfast and were on our way to explore when we noticed camera crews setting up right outside the Taj. We paused to see what all the commotion was about and learned that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had been staying at the hotel and were due to leave for the airport that day. The press were hoping to get a few last shots before they headed back to the US.

During our talks with the various photographers, we met a really nice guy from the French paparazzi (if there is such a thing). He had been following Angelina and Brad all around India for the past two months while they were shooting a film. A few minutes of chatting turned into an entire afternoon as we tagged along with the French paparazzi. Although we have now stooped to our lowest level being paparazzi and all, it was very exciting! The team consisted of 3 photographers and about a dozen drivers and scouts. They were stationed at all of the different hotel exits and kept in contact with walki-talkies and mobile phones. The French journalist even showed us his computer that contained all of the images he had shot of Brangelina while in India(there were tons!). He allowed us to take some photos of his computer as souvenirs (see above). Can you believe that he sells these shots to the world media for up to $25,000 USD per photo? In the end, we didn't get a glimpse of Brangelina, but we did get to see their bodyguards. This was a big deal as these men are very controversial in India at the moment, they reportedly "roughed up" a few Indians who were interfering with the shoot, and both bodyguards were arrested.

Our time flirting with film stars didn't end there. The next day we were finishing up breakfast and planning to head out to sightsee when we were approached by a Bollywood casting agent. Bollywood is India's answer to Hollywood and the film industry is the largest in the world, cranking out over 1000 films per year. The Bollywood actors are gods here in India and we felt really lucky to be approached to be extras, or "junior actors" as they are called here. The shoot was taking place that afternoon, so we agreed to take part and jumped in a cab headed for the studio. The shoot was for the second most popular soap in all of Asia, titled "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki".

We arrived and were immediately shocked by the number of people on set, there were over 150 crew members and 30 actors present at the shoot. We also noticed the absence of the Kraft food service table, industry standard in the rest of the world, which was rather disturbing. Shooting in India is much different from shooting in the US. Once we got over the fact that we would not be eating gummy worms and drinking Starbucks all day (gotta love shooting in the US!) we got into costume and prepared for our parts. It was apparent that the quality of wardrobe for extras is not high on the priority list. Troy was given a wrinkled black suit with a dirty white dress shirt and Lauren was given a cocktail dress, both of us without shoes! Who says that you can't wear flip flops with a cocktail dress?

We entered the studio and were shocked to find a scene of complete and utter chaos. This gives new meaning to the phrase "too many chiefs and not enough indians" (pun intended). With almost 200 people cramped into a set half the size of a basketball court, you can just imagine the confusion. Regardless, the cameras began to roll... without anyone telling us what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed be. We soon learned that we could do whatever we wanted in the background as every single actor and junior actor was in every single scene.

After about 6 hours, we started to get a little restless. We were just chatting in the back of the set when the director approached us and handed us a copy of the script. In the next scene, he wanted us to play the part of the international press and he gave us each a speaking line! Fortunately for Troy, his line was in English, "You're looking very nice", but Lauren did not have the same luck....her line was in Hindi, "Aab bahari sundar kan rahi hein" or something like that! We were fitted with microphones and before we knew it the lights were blaring down and all eyes were on us. Troy said his line loud and clear and Lauren's line came out, "Aab.....hahahahahahah!!!! Sorry! Can I try again? Hahahaha", we couldn't stop laughing. Everyone else on set was cracking up as well and the director agreed with a smile that I should say the line in English, "You look gorgeous!".

Another interesting fact about the film industry in India is the speed in which the footage is edited and aired. We shot the footage on Saturday (yes, they work on weekends!) and it aired on Tuesday night. Pretty incredible. Lucky for us, we were still in Mumbai and able to watch the show to look out for our faces on the big screen. Our brief moment of fame came and went in a flash. Troy's line was broadcast loud and clear (no visual of Troy though as they probably though he had a "head for radio"). In the next scene, Lauren's face and Troy's shoulder were in the shot, check out the second to last photo above.

It was a long day (12+ hours) and at the end we were each handed 500 rupees ($10 USD) for our efforts. Now we know how they can afford to have so many people on set! We ran home with our small fortune and treated ourselves to a fabulous dinner at one of the trendy Bombay restaurants.

After all of the excitement, we figured that we had to dedicate the next few days to sightseeing. We visited an island off the coast of Mumbai to explore some famous caves. The climb up to see the caves consisted of many steps, so in true movie star fashion Troy decided he needed to be carried up the steps or he wasn't going at all. No worries though, we simply called a "Mumbai cab" to carry him up to the top. Wow, between feeling like King of the World on top of the "Mumbai cab" and appearing on TV, his ego has really started to swell.....

We are off to Goa tonight on the overnight train. We plan to spend Thanksgiving at one of the many seafood shacks on the beach. Goa is famous for sun, sand and seafood, we're really looking forward to this part of India.

We certainly miss everyone, especially during the holidays, and are thinking of you often.

Lauren and Troy

From the City of Blue to Camels that March on Cue (Jodhpur to Jaisalmer)

2006-11-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

It's been another exciting week in India; the good times just keep coming!

Since our last posting, we left McLeod Ganj, took an overnight train to Delhi, stopped in Delhi for the day, and then took another overnight train to the city of Jodhpur (the City of Blue).

We only spent a day in Jodhpur, but it was action-packed. We booked a tour of the city in the morning and were surprised to find out that we were the only two people on the tour. At first we were worried that the tour would be canceled due to lack of numbers, but we could hardly believe our eyes when a sparkling, white, old English style car arrived to pick us up! We even had our own driver complete with chauffeurs hat... now this was touring in class (and all for the price of USD $4.00)!

Our first stop in Jodhpur was the city palace which is built on a rocky ridge overlooking the city. The palace is impressive, housing a museum, countless courtyards, the current residence of the Maharaja of Jodhpur (prince) and a very posh 5 star hotel. We tried to get a glimpse of the elaborate lobby by pretending that we were hotel guests, but were called back by security the minute our flip-flopped, backpacker feet stepped onto the property. What? No flip-flops allowed in this place? We had on our best t-shirts and couldn't believe we were questioned like that. Did they not see the car we just arrived in?

Anyway, back on the road, our next destination was the Mehrangath Fort. Now this place was spectacular! The Maharaja of Jodhpur is extremely dedicated to preserving the culture of the city and the fort was the perfect example of his work. It was spotless and set up for tourists with audio guides, sign-postings and numerous staff members available to answer your questions. One of the largest forts in India, the Mehrangath has stood the test of time and even has the cannon ball scars to prove it. The highlight of the Fort was the view from the top. We could see for miles and in the foreground, the famous blue buildings (painted this way as the colour is thought to be an effective mosquito repellent) were a magical sight. We rounded out our day in Jodhpur with a nice meal in the blue city on a rooftop restaurant and then boarded an overnight train bound for Jaisalmer.

Jaisalmer is about 100kms from the India/Pakistan border. Many people describe the town of Jaisalmer as a fairy-tale land that seems to rise out of the desert. We agree with this description, as our first sight was of the massive honey-colored fort that dominates the old city. It looks more like a sand castle than a fort, truly incredible.

We spent the day exploring the small, twisty streets of Jaisalmer and rented a scooter to explore even further in the afternoon. Fortunately for us the saying "All you need to safely navigate the streets of Delhi is a good motorbike, good helmet and good luck" does not apply to Jaisalmer as the streets were very safe to zip around on (despite having to dodge the occasional cow or camel). We drove out to the sand dunes which are about 50 kilometers from Jaisalmer. It was a beautiful ride and such a feeling of freedom!

We drove for a while past the dunes and as the sun was starting to set, we turned around to head back to the city. As Troy turned the scooter, he decided to do a little 'off roading'. Word of advice for anyone thinking of taking a scooter into the Thar Desert, "stay on the roads as thorn bushes and tyres don't mix well together". All of the sudden we heard a "pssst" noise so we looked down only to discover that we had punctured the front tyre of our scooter! We rode the pathetic tyre 5 kilometers to the closest town and luckily found a mechanic right away. Since we can't speak Hindi and he couldn't speak English, it was a little bit of a challenge to communicate. We showed him the tyre and tried to ask the price to fix it and his only reply was "money after". Great - now we knew we were going to be taken for a ride! After about an hour of work, our tyre was repaired and he announced the price - 40 rupees - less than $1 USD. So we handed him a 100 rupee note, thanked him for his effort and were on our way.

The following day we booked a 4 day camel safari to the Thar Desert. This was our main reason for visiting Jaisalmer and we were very excited.

We started off the journey with a 50 kilometer jeep ride to the middle of nowhere. We passed by several small villages, local farmers and herds of sheep before meeting our camel driver and camels. Our camel driver was a man of the desert and his excellent English made it very easy to communicate. From the side of the road we set off into the desert - 3 camels, one desert man and the two of us. Now this was "City Slickers" at its best.

The days in the desert were dry and hot (as one can expect). We rode the camels in the morning and in the late afternoon, saving the hottest part of the day for lunch, naps and relaxing. The nights in the desert (no tents just sleeping under the stars) were the best. The temperature cooled down considerably, and with the sun settings over the massive sand dunes it was stunning. The sky turns a bright pink before the sun retreats for the day. After the pink fades, the people of the desert are treated to entertainment that surpasses any movie, concert or play. The stars light up the night sky and the Milky Way can be seen clearly. We spent the majority of the first night tucked in our sleeping bags, staring up at the sky and counting shooting stars.

Now you may think that we had to rough it a bit in the desert and live on cacti and stewed sand, but this was definitely not the case! Our camel driver also turned out to be a master curry chef and whipped up the most delicious meals, complete with chapatti’s (fresh baked Indian bread)! All of the cooking was done on an open flame, 3 rocks held the pot while small sticks burned at the base. Washing dishes in the desert is also a bit different from what we do at home given the fact there is no water in the desert. So how do you wash dishes with no water you might ask? Sand, of course! It's definitely not easy, but dishes are cleaned by polishing them in the sand after use. The above photo is Troy's vain attempt before being pushed aside by the camel guide to finish the job properly.

As you can expect, riding through the desert can make you extremely thirsty... so you’re constantly thinking about water or better yet beer. So imagine our surprise when a local villager showed up selling icy cold beer, in the middle of the desert! We spotted him in the early evening walking in the far, far off distance towards us; however we had no idea that he was carrying beer. Two hours later he made it to us, carrying an bag esky (bag cooler) of all things, selling cold beer and sodas. We thought we were seeing a mirage, but upon tasting the cool liquid it was in fact Kingfisher (Indian beer). Now that's distribution! At first we were a little hesitant to buy a beer, despite our obvious thirst, thinking the mark-up would be outrageous, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that large beers were a mere 100 rupees ($2 USD)! A cold beer in the desert never tasted better! The photo above is of Troy with the committed and hard working beer sales guy - his "beer hero" (a phrase coined by a good mate and ex-collegue of Troy's (Fred Chapman) in the US).

We arrived back in Jaisalmer this afternoon and both made a bee line for the shower - what a nice treat it was! We will be leaving Jaisalmer tomorrow, but are not sure yet where we are headed. Guess we'll decide in the morning!

Hope this posting finds you all well.

Take care!

Lauren(ance) of Arabia and Troy Khan

PS. Dan and Blais, good advice about Jaisalmer. We truly enjoyed the camel safari!

From Ghandi's Political Fights to Tibetan Human Rights (Delhi to McLeod Ganj)

2006-11-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

Hi All-

We hope you had a fantastic Halloween!

In the last week, we have traveled from Jaipur to New Delhi to McLeod Ganj (all in India).

We’re sure you can all recall the verse from the song by Frank Sinatra, “If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” Well, we have re-written the verse, “If you can survive in Delhi, you can survive anywhere!” Delhi was full-on to say the least. Between the rickshaw drivers that will stop at nothing to separate you from your rupees, and streets so cramped that you sometimes have to pin yourself against the side of a building to avoid getting run over; Delhi has the potential to make even the most accomplished traveler crazy! However, with a bit of patience and a smile, Delhi can also be a fascinating city filled with culture, history and excitement.

We began our tour of Delhi with our favorite past-time….Lauren shopping and Troy playing cricket with the locals. The shopping was fantastic, but the best part was the people watching. With over 20 million people in Delhi, you can be sure to see an interesting character or 2 (or 20) on every corner.

Troy’s cricket game ended in the usual way with his body saying "thanks for the neglect and abuse the last 10 years, we are going to repay you with a strained bad back and the need for bed rest the next couple of days." Nothing breakfast in bed and several painkillers couldn't fix though! And it looks like the neglect and abuse continues.

The highlight for us in Delhi was the Gandhi Museum. The grounds of the museum were an oasis of parks and water fountains in the middle of this hectic city. We learned the details of Gandhi’s early life as well as the later years for which he is now famous. He was a man who stood up for what he believed in and we can all benefit from his example.

While in Delhi, we also took some time to reflect on our trip thus far. It's now been about 2 1/2 months since we left home and we have traveled in China, Tibet, Nepal and the Northern areas of India. We feel that we have adjusted quite well to the differences between the East and West. Here's a list of some of the more comical things that used to make our jaws hit the ground, but no longer even make us blink:

· Hotel rooms that cost USD $3.00 a night
· Families of 4 traveling on 1 motorcycle
· Families of 10 traveling in a car the size of a Volkswagen Bug
· Cows/Camels/Elephants walking carelessly down the street
· Rickshaw drivers quoting 10x the fair price, then only dropping once you threaten to walk
· No rickshaw driver having a meter that works (although it somehow works for locals)
· Vehicles waiting to blow their air horn once they sneak up behind you.
· Hotel staff sleeping on the floor of the lobby
· Burping and “passing gas” on trains (locals this time, not Troy)
· No one in India EVER having change

Yes, it's been an interesting and amazing journey so far!

We have now made our way from Delhi via an overnight train (10 hours), toy train (7 hours) and taxi (1 hour) to the McLeod Ganj, the current residence of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. The toy train was an absolutely entertaining journey. First of all, it was supposed to be a 4-hour ride, but somehow lasted more than 7 hours! We didn't mind though as we chugged through the mountains of Northern India, passing rivers with crystal clear water and beautiful scenery. All of the windows were open and we sat in the doorway of the train with our legs dangling...it was so much fun!

McLeod Ganj is a fascinating city. At an elevation of 1700 meters the buildings seem to cling to the mountainside. There are thousands of Tibetan refugees living in this exile community, in addition to the original Indian community that was thriving here before the Chinese invasion of Tibet. We have heard so many stories of hardship, cruelty, oppression and torture that the Tibetan people have endured, but you would never know it by their kind words and smiles. It is truly amazing to see these people that have suffered so much express only kindness and compassion towards other people.

One of our favorite things about Tibet when we first visited in September was the tasty food, so we were delighted to hear that there were several places that offered traditional Tibetan cooking classes in McLeod Ganj. We spent a good portion of the day learning how to make several kinds of soup and of course had the opportunity to sample each one. The last two photos above are of us making the noodles for these delicious soups.

The weather in McLeod Ganj is much cooler than the plains of India and it's been a really nice change. There is a chill in the air, which makes for the perfect opportunity to drink tea and gaze out at the snow-capped Himalayas.

Where to next? We're not quite sure. Maybe to the modern city of Mumbai (Bombay) where we might have the chance to be an extra in a Bollywood film. Or maybe to Jaisalmer for a camel trek into the desert. Whatever we decide, we'll be sure to keep you all updated!

Hope everyone is doing well. Please keep posting your comments, we love reading them!

Lauren and Troy

From A Game of Concentration (Golf) to Australian Domination (Cricket)

2006-10-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Wow, what a crazy and action packed time we had this week. We took a break from visiting some of the more touristy sites of India and rather took in some of the local sporting activities such as golf, cricket and even elephant polo!

The week started off with an unsuspected surprise when upon arriving in Jaipur, India via train we met the Jaipur Indian Tourism director on the train platform while unloading our bags. In typical Troy fashion, he was practicing one of his many cricket shots on the platform when the tourism director spotted him and asked him if he played cricket, to which Troy lied and replied "why, yes I do". After introductions and the standard 5 minute chat about cricket, the tourism director invited us as his guests to a special polo and elephant polo match they were putting on in Jaipur on behalf of the English cricket players who were also in town for their up & coming match with Australia.

The polo match proved to be quiet the treat and spectacle. Imagine a couple of backpackers use to wearing the same clothes day in and day out attending a hoity toity polo match with everyone dressed up in their "Sunday" best clothes. Upon our arrival at the ground, we were ushered to the red carpet entrance and taken to the VIP viewing area. All heads turned as the "dirty backpackers" in shorts and t-shirts walked into the area. Were sure the other VIP's though we were the grounds crew or there to wash the horses and elephants following the match.

While the polo match and elephant match was a huge highlight, the pageantry surrounding the matches proved to be just as entertaining. A parade of "dressed up" elephants, camels and dancers marched around the ground to the music of an Indian band. It was extremely colourful and enjoyable as captured in the first two photos above.

The guest's of honour (the English cricket players) also got a turn riding the elephants to play polo. However, similar to their cricket woes, they still couldn't hit the ball despite the ball being as big as a soccer ball and their mallets twice the size of a normal cricket bat.

A couple days later we decided to get up early to take in a round of golf at a local 5 star hotel in Jaipur. This was Lauren's first time playing golf and she proved to be quite the natural, made all the easier by her caddie who was a 4 handicap golfer. While his tips proved to be valuable, his teeing the ball up for Lauren on every shot (including in the fairway and ruff) proved even more efficient. Hadn't Troy not explained that this was not legal following the game, Lauren might still think this is how every shot it to be taken.

The caddies were super cheap (100 rupees or the equivalent of USD $3.00). However, they didn't prove the best ball spotters as Troy still lost 5 balls.

The funniest part of the day was when we arrived at the 9th hole. Next to the 9th was a driving range. As golfers practiced their shots on the driving range you could see 3-4 Indian guys running around picking up balls and collecting them in a bucket. As India is a safety conscious nation (only joking), they applied this rule to the ball collectors and made them wear motorcycle helmets with no masks, while at the same time dodging balls! In the Western world, we have big machines with cages that collect the balls, however we think the Indian way was much more proficient and fun. Imagine trying to bounce a ball off a moving helmet instead of aiming for the flag markers! No wonder why the Indian golfers are so accurate.

Following golf, we caught up with an Australian couple that we meet in Nepal while rafting, and got ready for the Australian vs. England cricket match. Troy was extremely excited for this big day and decided he along with the Australian couple was going to support the Australian team by purchasing the entire uniform (what ended up looked more like pajamas). At the last minute Troy also purchased a turban (Indian headgear) and moustache to add a bit of Indian flavour to his Australian cricket pre-Halloween costume.

As alcohol is banned from the stadium (thank goodness as the Indian fans are crazy enough) we decided to have a couple pre match drinks at a 5 star hotel just across from the ground. As luck would have it, they were serving Foster's in a bottle so we had a few bottles of the "amber of the Gods" while Troy reminisced in the days of old working for Foster's.

While the cricket match between England and Australia proved to be extremely entertaining(with Australia turning up the pressure and easily winning), the highlight of the day was when cameraman Max noticed Troy's dress and decided to put us up on the big screen. It was a huge thrill, with many Indians around us trying to get in the action with the hope of being spotted and put into a Bollywood movie. Unbeknownst to us though, was that this footage was actually being showed all over the world as some of our mates from Australia noticed us on the TV. Leon a good mate of ours (but a English supporter for some reason) actually digitally recorded the match and took a photo of his TV with us on screen (the last photo above). Thanks Leon, now we have a memory of the time when over 500 million people around the world witnessed Troy dressed up like an idiot!

Hope everyone enjoyed the recap of our exciting sporting week. We are off to Delhi tomorrow for a few days and look forward to giving you a recap of our journey.

Hope this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits.

Lauren and Troy

From The Taj Mahal to Cricket Balls

2006-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Our latest journey took us from a monument built as a labour of love (the Taj Mahal) to a game loved by billions (Cricket). Hope you enjoy the recap.

The Taj Mahal is considered by many to be one of the 7 modern day wonders of the world. First built in 1653, it is located in Agra, India (just south of Delhi) and is about a 6 hour overnight train ride from our previous hold-up in Varanasi. This spectacular white mausoleum, resurrected on the southern bank of the Yamuna river, was built by the Mughal emperor in memory of his wife who died during child birth (her 14th child) in 1631. It took 20,000 workman from all over Asia 2 years to complete construction of this magnificent monument at a cost of around 3 million rupees (equivalent to around USD $60 million today). The entire building was constructed with beautiful white marble and thousands of semiprecious stones (which lit up into a fantastic array of colours when our guide shined his torch on them). Unfortunately though photos are not allowed inside the Taj.

While the emperor created the mausoleum in dedication to his wife, he was not as caring for the labourers and artisans who worked on the monument. To ensure that the perfection of the Taj could not be repeated elsewhere, some had their hands or thumbs amputated. He ultimately got his karma back though when his empire was later defeated and he had to spend the rest of his days looking at the dedication to his wife from his prison cell window.

Admission into the Taj is the standard Indian policy of "whatever it's worth increase the value by a minimum 5 times for tourists". The price for an Indian to visit the Taj is 20 rupees (equivalent to around USD $0.50 cents) as compared to the cost for tourists of 750 rupees (around USD $15.00). While USD $15.00 doesn't seem expensive by Western standards, for a couple of backpackers used to sharing a twin bed to save money (usually meant for one person), it's quite the splurge. Nevertheless the price of admission is worth it for the view and experience, not to mention the pair of designer slippers that are thrown in a part of the admission fee (as modeledd by Lauren in the photo above). While quite the fashion accessory, they also serve a valid purpose of preventing the marble floors of the Taj from being marked.

After spending a few days in Agra visiting the Taj, we headed off for Jaipur, India home to many tourist attractions, but for us the most important being that it was hosting a few of the cricket matches for the ICC Champions Trophy. The Champions trophy is a tournament between the 8 best cricket nations in the world, including Australia, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England and South Africa.

Of course, while we are here to support Australia, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, we also decided to take in a match between England and India so that we could experience the extravaganza of Indian cricket first hand alongside their fanatic fans!

For those not familiar with cricket (don't worry we won't go into detail) there is a huge rivalry between England and Australia called the Ashes Series. Being true Australian fans we could not therefore support England, so we choose to support the home side of India which made us a big hit with the local fans! We even decked ourselves out in the Indian "kit" to show our true colours during the match (pictured above).

While the game was a bit of a fizzer with England only scoring 125 runs (very low for a one day match), the highlight of the day was the dance party that broke out in our section during the lunch break. About 100 Indians were literally forming congo lines in the aisles while dancing to the "extremely" loud disco music. Being a couple of only a few foreigners in our section, the Indians immediately noticed our dress and decided to make us part of the "dance off". Troy even found a pole and did a "pole dance" much to the delight (and probably disgust of some) in the crowd.

Another highlight of the match was the firework show that was suppose to follow the game in celebration of the Indian victory. In true Indian fashion, somebody mistakenly set them off during the match (about an hour early), which proved to be a hilarious blunder. For 10 minutes the fireworks went off while the players stood around wondering what was happening. In the end the umpires grew tired of waiting and said "play on", which proved to be a huge distraction for the batters.

The experience will be afantasticc memory from our trip as it was great to see the Indians enjoying something they truly love. With over a billion people in India adoring cricket it truly is their religion and culture. You can not hold a conversation with an Indian without talking about cricket at some point in time (much to Troy's delight).

Next week the big match! Australia vs. England. We can't wait! Look for the recap and photos in our next blog as well as some of our other adventures!

Hope this update finds everyone in good health and spirits.

Lauren and Troy

From Elusive Cats (Jungle Safari) to Sacred Ghats (Ganges Steps)

2006-10-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone-

We departed Kathmandu for the final time, making our way to Southern Nepal and spending our last few days at Royal Chitwan National Park. We stayed at an amazing jungle lodge inside the park. Our room was a thatch roof cottage with a huge front porch and bamboo chairs. The lodge was very eco-friendly and had no electricity, everything was lit by candles.

The highlight of the trip was riding on the back of an elephant through the jungle! From atop the massive animals we had a great view of the surrounding jungle. On our first elephant ride we were lucky enough to spot a sleeping rhino (soon to be awaken from the biting of our fingernails)! He was huge and intimidating! We got about 8 meters (25 feet) from the beast and could see each and every one of his wrinkles. We inched closer (still atop the Elephant of course) and got about 3 meters (10 feet) from the standing rhino, quite an experience! The guide sits on the neck of the elephant and about half way through the ride he jumped off to take a pee. Lauren jokingly said the only two words she knows in Nepali - "Jam Jam" which means Let's Go!. Much to our surprise, the elephant started to walk away without the guide! Luckily our guide was right behind and was able to jump back on with ease.

Bathing with the elephants was also a highlight of the park visit. The enormous creatures waded in the river water and with the help of the guides, we were able to climb on their backs and get hosed by their trunks. It was a blast! The elephants would lie in the water and once you climbed aboard, they would slowly stand up. It was hard to keep balance with the elephants huge backbone moving under you! The force of the water from the elephants trunk was incredible! It was cold, but felt so good in the hot Nepali sun.

Besides the elephant activities, we took jungle walks, went on a moonlight canoe ride to a little village, went birdwatching and relaxed. While the Bengal Tigers proved to be elusive, luck must have been on our side as we spotted a rhino about 30 meters (100 feet) from where we were standing while on a jungle walk! It's very rare (and sometimes dangerous!) to spot a rhino on foot. We were told to run in a zig-zag pattern if he decided to charge! At a time like this we were wishing we had been "overserved" from Roxy (local rum) prior to making the walk. It would have made the task of potentially running in zig-zag fashion through the bushes sound much easier.

The nights at the lodge were also filled with fun. We met a fantastic couple from Paris and enjoyed drinks and dinner with them. We also met an Australian girl who lives about 10 minutes away from where Troy used to live in Sydney!

We left the park early in the morning and took a canoe, 3 different buses, a rickshaw, a jeep and an overnight train to Varnassi, India. (22 hours of nonstop travelling in all.)

Varnassi is one of the holiest (and most hectic) cities in India. Touts constantly pester us and ask if we want boat rides, guide service, postcards, chai tea, massages and just about everything else you can imagine! The heat in India is very intense so we have adopted a new schedule....we wake up at 4am and explore until about mid-day. It really heats up around 11am so we have lunch and then head back to our hotel and take an afternoon siesta. Cold showers follow and then it's back out to explore in the evening. It's really working out well!

The holy Ganges River flows down the Eastern edge of Varnassi. This area is consumed by hundreds of ghats (steps leading to the river) where devouts come to make offerings to the gods, bathe in the holy water, pray, socialize and dump their rubbish. It's quite a scene at dawn as the sun rises over the groups of women in colorful saris, holy men, touts offering boat rides and tourists with their hands clung to cameras.

The river bank of the Ganges is a very auspicious place for Indians to pass on to the next life and have their bodies cremated. There are several ghats where cremations take place. Piles of wood are erected and the deceased bodies are wrapped in cotton cloth, dipped in the Ganges and then placed on top of the wood to burn. This entire process is very costly (over $2000). We learned this knowledge from a local tout who said he didn't want money but just wanted us to understand that "Burning is Learning" and "Cremation is Education". In the end, much to our dismay (only kidding) he still wanted a small donation for the burning, learning, cremating and educating.

Back to the cremating process. As you can imagine, many families cannot afford cremation so they simply drop the body of their loved one in the river. This makes it common to see a corpse float by while you're on a boat ride. It kinda makes you wonder why anyone would want to bathe in the water!

Well, it's just about noon here and that means it's time for lunch and then our siesta. We're off to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal tomorrow night.

Hope you are all doing well. We love your comments!

Troy and Lauren

Scaling Rock Walls and Conquering Waterfalls

2006-10-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

Hello All-

It's only been a few days since our last posting, but we had such an exciting experience, we couldn't wait to share it with you!

We headed up to Northern Nepal to the Borderlands Resort. The resort is situated on a hill overlooking the massive Bhote Kosi River. Accommodation was in permanent safari tents with bamboo beds. Meals were served family style under a huge thatch roof hut. We were by no means roughing it, this place was plush!

The reason for our visit was to experience two of the largest and most exciting canyons in the area. Canyoning is a new extreme sport. It's a combination of absailing (repelling), hiking, swimming and scrambling down rock faces and waterfalls.

We began our first day with an hour long hike in the hot sun, directly to the top of the mountain (the starting place of the canyon). The steep hike brought back memories of the Great Wall hike. After cooling off in the waterfall, we suited up with a full length wet suit, fleece, helmet and harness. While the sun was hot, the freezing mountain water made the full "kit" necessary! The canyon was beautiful and besides a few high waterfalls that had to be scaled, we were pretty confident. Neither of us were scared at any point, we just enjoyed the ride. The only slightly frightful part of the day was when the guides told us that there were leaches in the canyon! As a joke, we kept count and Lauren won with 6 leaches, Troy couldn't compete - zero leaches for him! Now we know who has the sweet blood in the relationship....

We were warned that the second canyon was much larger and more agressive than the first. The first canynon was meant to be the warm-up canyon. The guides were spot on, the second canyon was a monster! The force of the water was incredible and it was hard to believe that we were going to make it through. Our first decent was wicked, the water pushed us around like we were ants! It was hard to cling to the slippery rock wall, much less place your feet in the waterfall without the feeling of being swept away. The next decent brough more of the same, (I) Lauren seriously considered walking down the side of the canyon at this point. There was a safety guide watching us from atop, maybe I could just scramble out and walk with him??!!!

Luckily, I learned from the guides that you can avoid the massive force of the water by scaling down the side of the rock (when there is a side to scale). A few more decents and we once again started to gain confidence. Just then we reached the top of the next decent and Troy almost fainted. We have to give him credit because with a fear of heights, it's not easy to look down 30 meters (about 100 feet) to the ground - the only thing separating you being a rushing waterfall and vertical rock face. After a plea to the almightly (and the realization that there was no other way down) Troy stepped out onto the vertcal ledge and sucessfully conquered his fear. You might think that we were past the worst of it, but think again. The next decent required a pass directly through water that was crashing so hard, it was hard to imagine our bodies surviving! One by one we conquered the wall of water and emerged unscathed. The rest of the descents were a walk in the park compared to what we just went through.

We reached the end of the canyon, full of adrenaline and pride. We had lunch and chatted with the guides. They then told us that we were the first 2 tourists of the season allowed in the canyon. Due to the strength of the water, the second canynon had only been opened a few days prior. According to the guides, we had the best (highest, strongest) water conditions of the season. From here on out, the water begins to lose it's strength...until the next monsoon season.

We are once again back in Kathmandu, our base in Nepal. We are planning to head South to Royal Chitwan National Park in the next few days. Wish us luck with the tigers, rhinos and elephants!

Lauren and Troy

PS. Apologies we could not rotate some of the photos. For some reason the computer would not let us.

From Monkey Jubilation to Yoga & Meditation

2006-09-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

Nameste and Greetings Everyone again from Kathmandu, Nepal.

After returning from our week long white water rafting trip in Nepal, we headed back to Kathmandu to catch up on some rest and relaxation beforing heading off to Pokhara, Nepal for some much needed enlightenment (yoga and meditation). More on the that later though, as we want to share some of our experiences from exploring Kathmandu first.

Kathmandu is interesting place. It is set in a valley with lush and green rice farms surrounding the dense city centre. The city of Kathmandu can be pretty hectic, especially in the tourist area of Thamel where we are staying. Thamel is full of cafes, restaurants & hotels......and with 'touts' on every corner offering everything from rafting, to trekking, mountain flights, accommodation, tour guides and hashish it makes for an interesting experience! We have taken them up on most of these offers, but I won't elaborate on which ones (only kidding).

One of our day trips took us to "Monkey Temple" or in the Nepalese language Swayambhunanth . Monkey Temple is a Hindu/Buddhist temple just on the outskirts of Kathmandu. The short walk up the hill to the temple is what gives it it's Western name.... as monkeys are everywhere! The urban population surrounding the monkey's 'playground' has led to an interesting mix of 'monkey antics'. With people giving them food on a regular basis they have become quite domesticated and they now think they are entitled to everything as we observed quite a few monkeys grabbing at peoples bags, food and clothing! Good thing for us we weren't carrying anything. It did make for a good laugh though as we pulled up a comfortable seat just outside the 'target area' to watch other tourists come under attack.

After a couple of days in Kathmandu we headed off to Pokhara, which is a quiet little village in Western Nepal just at the base of the Himalayas. Pokhara is a beautiful place with not only the snowy peaks of the Himalayas surrounding the village, but also a nice lake where you can enjoy the day sailing or rowing a boat (or even do your laundry)! Most Nepalese come to Pokhara to holiday themselves given it's tranquility, even the king and queen, who happened to be in town while we were there.

We spent 7 days in Pokhara. During this time we took the opportunity to hire a boat and row around the lake. At one stage we came across a beautiful waterfall that allowed us to take a Nepalese shower. After the Nepalese shower we were rewarded with "Roxy" (homemade rum) by some of the local villagers that decided to come down and sneak a peak at the hairy Yak (Troy).

However the highlight of our excursion to Pokhara was the 3 day live-in Meditation/Yoga course that we signed up for. The course was quite intense, with only the two of us and the instructor. The 'one on two' instruction proved to be the perfect opportunity for some intense learning, despite Lauren falling asleep twice during the meditation classes, which made for a great laugh when the instructor had to wake her up!

Back to Kathmandu now for another couple of days before heading off to Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal for a safari!

Hope this blog finds everyone in good health and spirits!

The Enlightened Lauren and Swami Troy.

From Relaxing in Kathmandu to White Water Rafting and Camping Too!

2006-09-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

Namaste (Hello)!

Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal. Kathmandu is a traveler's paradise! The tourist area of the city has a very laid back, hippy feel to it. There are dozens of outdoor restaurants, bars, live music venues, internet cafes and backpacker hotels.

We spent our first day relaxing at a coffee house and filling up on our favorite foods. In the afternoon, we decided to walk around to a few rafting operators to check out the rafting trips that were available. Our intention was to set up a trip for later in the week, but we found an amazing 7 day trip down the Sun Kosi river that was leaving the next day! The Sun Kosi river is one of the top 10 rafting trips in the world, with the trip traversing over 270 kilometers (over half the country of Nepal). Needless to say this was an opportunity not to be missed, so we quickly packed our bags, bid farewell to a group of backpackers we had been traveling with and shopped around for supplies. We met our rafting group that night and had our pre-departure safety briefing. The group got along well (amazing how a few drinks always helps to develop relationships). There was a total of 8 of us (5 Australians, 1 Irish and 2 Americans).

We set off bright and early the next day. After a bumpy, twisty 3 hour bus trip, we arrived at the "put in" point. The crew of 6 assembled the gear, prepared the boats and even served up a nice lunch before we headed off! Right away we knew that we were going to be in good hands.

What started off as a quiet and peaceful ride soon turned into raging rapids and huge sets of waves! Each day the rapids grew larger and larger, thank goodness for that pre-departure safety briefing! In true Troy style, he was the first one thrown from the raft and the rapids were only deemed "warm up rapids" by the head guide! Fortunately there are 2 kayakers that safely escort you back to the raft if you drift too far.

The expedition camped at a different beach every night and the evenings spent chilling out, having beers, preparing food and playing cards were definitely a highlight. Many of the beaches we camped on were close to small villages so when our group of funny looking foreigners turned up with two large rafts, two kayaks, and tons of gear, we were definitely the evening's entertainment for all of the local villagers.

While the majority of the villagers were lovely people, we were warned to keep all of our gear inside our tents as loose articles tend to "walk" during the night. This really must have stuck in the heads of two fellow travelers. At about 2am on the second night, we heard loud rustling in one of the tents, followed by screams of bloody murder! We were certain that someone (or something!) had attacked one of the tents. The crew came rushing out of their tents with torches to try to figure out what had happened. Imagine the head guides amusement when he shined his torch into their tent and saw the two of them rolling around in a fist fight! The two travelers in the "victimized tent" thought that someone had reached into their tent and tried to steal something! Then in the confusion and darkness, they both thought that the other person was the "robber" and started swinging like mad! It seems that in the end, one of the guys must have brushed the other guy with his hand by accident and they both freaked out! It was hilarious once we all figured out what was going on, but for the next couple of hours everybody was armed with sticks, clubs and Swiss army knives in their tents!

The middle of the trip brought huge rapids. Troy was thrown out of the raft for a second time and I was thrown out for the first time! The strength of the river was amazing as we were carried far from the raft in a matter of seconds. The safety kayakers quickly paddled over and we grabbed on for a ride back to the raft.

It was an exciting, physically-challenging and fun week on the water. We are now back in Kathmandu and plan to spend a few days here before moving on.

We appreciate all of your comments and email as we miss everyone very much.

Take Care and Namaste (good-bye).

Lauren and Troy

From Prayer Flags to Sleeping Bags (Nam-Tso to Everest Base Camp)

2006-09-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Our latest adventure took us from the highest lake in the world (Nam-Tso) to the highest mountain peak (Mount Everest)! What an exciting 6 days!!

For those of you thinking we have toughened up and decided to hike this route, think again as the route traversed over 1,100 kilometers! We did the trip in style, in a land cruiser with two other backpackers (Vicky from England and Glenn from the US) and a Tibetan driver (no name as he didn't speak any English). Needless to say it was pretty tough to communicate with the driver using only body language and short commands like "GO" and "STOP". I'm sure in the driver's head it sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher barking commands at him.

We started the trip at Nam-Tso (Tso means lake in Tibetan). Nam Tso is the most spiritual of all of Tibet's lakes and also the highest in altitude, some 5,000 meters or 16,400 feet above sea level. The mountain beside the lake was covered in Tibetan prayer flags, which you can see in the first three photos. Tibetans string prayer flags all over the countryside, especially around mountains and lakes, so that the wind can catch their prayers and take them to a special place where they can be answered.

From Nam-Tso we made our way through little villages such as Gyantse, Shigaste and Lhatse until we reached our ultimate goal of Everest Base Camp. While we were chauffeured in a 4x4 for most of the trip, we had to hike the final 8 kilometers to the Base Camp as the road is closed to cars. The hike proved to be tough and it was hard to get your breath back given we were over 5,300 meters (17,000 feet) above sea level, but in the end it was well worth the views! It felt like we were on top of the world...above the heavens! Base Camp is a dirt path lined with tents that serve as guest houses and tea houses. Our little guest house was named "The English Hotel".

Spending the night at Base Camp was a treat and challenge at the same time as temperatures dropped well below freezing. The Tibetan Indian that ran the guest house was extremely nice and not only made us dinner and breakfast, but also covered us up at night and tucked us in (literally). We both can't remember the last time we were tucked in, but we were grateful for the experience.

Our sleeping bags proved handy as in the morning the only way you could bear the temperatures to take photos of the sunrise was to wrap yourself in a sleeping bag and stick your hand out every couple of seconds to snap a shot.

From Everest Base Camp we decided to take a horse and buggy back to the car (8kms). Good thing we decided to only pay the driver half the money up front as the horse couldn't make it up the final hill pulling four backpackers that have been filling up on Yak meat and tea for the last 2 weeks.

Our final leg of the journey took us through some of the most spectacular plateaus, mountains and rainforest we've seen. Thankfully there was plenty to keep our minds distracted as we careened past cliffs dropping thousands of feet below. Our gasps and obscenities from the back seat must have translated to "SPEED UP and TAKE THE BLIND CORNERS AS FAST AS YOU CAN" in Tibetan to our driver, as this is what he did.

Off to Katmandu, Nepal next. Looking forward to updating you on our journey as we plan our Nepalise expeditions.

Lauren and Troy

From Train Bunks to Buddhist Monks (Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet)

2006-09-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

After 48 hours on a Chinese train, we have now made it from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet! The train was quite an experience and not something that should be glazed over. We decided to travel middle class which means a hard sleeper. Translation - you get a wood plank covered with a thin cushion about half the size of a twin bed. The bunks are stacked three high and there are two rows in each compartment. Actually purchasing the train ticket was an adventure on it's own, but we won't go through all of the details. Just know that a line (or que) has no meaning in China and pushing your way to the front is the name of the game!

Back to the luxurious train....we decided to reserve the bottom bunks thinking that we would have a good place to sleep at night as well as a place to sit up and play cards, read, etc. during the day. Little did we know that the rest of the compartment considered the bottom bunk to be the sofa! Any time we sat up in our "beds" our bunk-mates quickly rushed to the newly created sofas for a place to rest. Now it wouldn't be so bad if they just sat on the ends of our beds, but they really made themselves at home. They took their shoes and socks off and stretched their bare feet from one of our beds to the other - it was quite charming. There's not much choice in regards to food on the train so we resorted to instant noodles for most of our meals. Our bodies were so addicted to MSG by the time we reached Lhasa, we vowed never to touch a pack of instant noodles again!

The train from Beijing to Lhasa is very special and also very controversial. The train just opened to Lhasa about 2 months ago and we were some of the first Westerners to experience the ride. Until now, Tibet has been a very inaccessable region, separated from the rest of China by the mountains, lack of affordable transportation and sheer distance. The doors have now been flung open and the Chinese are pouring in like mad. Tibet is changing rapidly and we feel lucky to be here now to experience what is left of the Tibetan culture. It's quickly being swallowed up by Chinese infiltration.

Lhasa is a facinating city. The mix of old custom, Tibetan pilgrims, the constant smell of burning incense and the encroachment of the Chinese provides for a very interesting, yet intoxicating mix. We are staying in the heart of the city at a huge backpackers (hostel) called The Yak. We took it easy the first few days as we had to allow our bodies time to adjust to the high altitude. We are at about 12,000 feet, (Vail, Colorado is 5,000 feet). After taking some time to adjust, we've really been taking advantage of every minute to explore the city.

We visited the Potala a few days ago, it was spectacular! The Potala is where the current Dalai Lama lived until he was forced to flee to India for danger that he would be kidnapped or killed during the Chinese takeover of Tibet. It's such an impressive building, but the quietness and emptiness of a once lively place really put things in perspective. We saw the current Dalai Lama's bedroom and the chapel where he would officially receive guests. We also saw the tombs of 4 of the previous Dalai Lamas - they were magnificent! Each over 30 feet in height, covered in solid gold, turquoise, diamonds and other precious stones.

We've also been busy visiting monestaries around the Lhasa area, 3 in total. The most memorable was Ganden Monestary. It's about an hour and a half from Lhasa by bus and set on top of a spectacular mountain, you can just imagine the views! The monestary receives less Western guests that some of the monestaries in Lhasa, so with our white skin, funny backpacking clothes, camera and Lauren's curly hair, we were a hit! The pics above are from Ganden, the monks were all so incredibly friendly. Just a few spoke a bit of Engligh, but you could communicate just as easily through motions and smiles. One monk spoke particularly good English and invited us to see where he lived in the monestary. He served us yak butter tea (yuck!!!!!) and chatted with us for over an hour. He was very sweet and gave Troy a set of his prayer beads as we left. We also sat in on one of the classes. We were warmly welcomed with smiles from the high monk teacher, as well as the monk students. They debated, chanted, laughed and learned - it was a lively class!

Today we visited the Drepung Monestary because there was an annual festival taking place. We were among 20,000 pilgrims, what a photo opportunity! The Tibetan people are so beautiful. They all have the same tan skin, long thick black hair and rosy cheeks. The older people have the most facinating faces - crinkled and wrinkled beyond belief, but so intriguing.

Tomorrow we are off to Nam-Tso. Tso means "lake" in Tibetan and Nam-Tso is one of the 4 holy lakes in Tibet. We are also in the process of organizing a land cruiser tour to the border of Nepal. The trip will be five days with lots of stops on the way. We are expecting the highlight to be Everest Base Camp!

We hope you are all doing well at home. We miss you and think about you all of the time.

Lauren & Troy

From Bicycle Dodging to Wall Climbing (Beijing to Great Wall)

2006-08-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

After dodging bicycles (pushbikes) in Beijing for a couple of days, a city of 12 million people with what seemed like double the bicycles, we set off to climb the Great Wall of China. Our starting point was Jingshanling, which was about a 5 hour bus ride from Beijing. The climb that we decided to take was rated by Lonely Planet as "Not for the Faint Hearted", and we should have heeded this advise. The climb from Jingshanling to Simatai was 6.2 miles (10k) and it was straight up and down the entire way, with inclines up to 70 degrees! We passed through 30 towers, with two towers having more than 100 steps to climb before you could enjoy the view. Along the way several of the local villagers would be waiting for us in the towers offering water, food and beer. We both though about having a few beers, but didn't want to tumble down the same steps we just climbed, thus having to do it all over again. A few of the villagers made us seriously challenge our fitness levels as they were quite elderly and seemed to be having no problem with the climb.

At the end of our climb, with no gas left in the tank, we had to walk another 4,300 feet (1300m) back to the bus. With our heads down and legs shaking we started the walk back, praying for a rickshaw. Out of the blue we noticed a zipline (flying fox) that went from the top of the wall, over the lake and right back to the bus. So what's a person to do....walk or enjoy the ride and scenery? It was a extremely enjoyably ending to a great walk.

Needless to say by the end of the day we were dead tired, but proud of our achievement and the fact that we had enjoyed one of the world's greatest man made wonders.

Hope every one is doing well back home and we look forward to sending you our next installment.

Lauren and Troy

From Dingos to Dumplings (Australia to China)

2006-08-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

We spent a lovely week in Sydney visiting mates, preparing for our trip and soaking in the beauty of the city. Yesterday we flew 9 hours from Sydney to Hong Kong and then another 3 hours to Beijing.

We've been having a fantastic time in Beijing and it's only been one day! We are staying in a very cool little backpackers near the heart of Old Town. Today we visited Tianamen Sqaure and the Forbidden City. Check out the pic - I bet people didn't even think we were tourists :)

We are planning to visit the Pearl Market tomorrow and then the Great Wall on Monday! It's a very exciting time. We are also working on gaining permits to travel to Tibet and hope to be on our way by the end of the week, but......with the discovery that a "super-size" beer is only 25 cents, this will be a hard city to leave! Peter - no wonder why we couldn't make it in China - beer is half the price of water!

Just wanted to thank Craig, Leon, Julie, Dan, Blaise, Jim, Pat, Brooke and everyone in Australia for showing us such a great time last week.

We miss you all!

Love, Troy and Lauren

1 Month 'til Departure!

2006-07-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

After a year and a half of planning, saving and looking forward, our trip is finally about to begin! Troy leaves for Australia this weekend and I will be joining him in Sydney in about 3 1/2 weeks. We will spend about a week in Sydney and then fly to Beijing to begin our travels! Here is the plan as it currently stands:

End of August - Beijing, China (Great Wall of China)
September - Tibet
October - Nepal
November, December - Northern India, Western India, Southern India
January - Sri Lanka
February, March - Southern India, Eastern India
Beginning of April - Myanmar
End of April, Beginning of May - Laos
End of May, June - Vietman
July - Cambodia
August - Thailand

Let us know if you want to meet up anywhere along the journey!