From Grads to Nomads

So, yesterday for the final day of low season we (Kirby, Krista and I, as the other guys were all at their scuba lesson) took a day long island hopping/snorkel trip to Phi Phi and other islands. The day started off alright, slightly cloudy, we were walked down the the beach where we had to catch our boat. First we see this huge crowd and there are 2 boats for our tour, and the first one filled up quick, leaving us to get on the second one. Once we finally boarded we had to sit in the boat as it rocked back and forth, waiting for 2 people who were late, for almost 40 minutes, and they NEVER came. What did come was the beginning of my sea sickness. So once we finally get going, enter- the Obnoxious family, as we dubbed them. At 9:30 in the morning, there is this mother and her 12 year old son playing some stupid game that made them both yell and shriek in a very irritating sound. They later found it neccessary to sing loudly in french, in a very obnoxious manner.

When we were almost at the first island, we got to see a bunch of dolphins in the water which was one of the few cool parts of the day!! We then pulled up to our first beach where we had 30 minutes, I had a walk down the beach and the clouds began to roll in for rain that started shortly after. We then toured and saw a old pirates cave, and then a bay where we could have swam, but there were about 10 other full boats there too. Then we went to another bay where we snorkeled, and it was best not to think of whether or not the snorkels were sterilized before we used them. I actually enjoyed the snorkeling due to the lack of big fish and the depth of the water. From here, we went to THE BEACH, where the movie was filmed, and that was a very beautiful bay that looked the exact same as in the movie, however the dozen boats and tons of tourists kind of took the beauty away a bit. Plus when I was walking and one of the anchor ropes spun up, it rubbed my shin raw which hurt a fair bit.

We then got back in the boat (spent about 5 hours in the boat riding) and saw a beach covered in monkey's, but I was too seasick to actually enjoy this, and from there we got to Phi Phi ( pronounced Pee-pee) island for lunch. It turned out all the boats have lunch in the same restaurant and we had to wait in a huge line to get food, and we miraculously spotted one empty table so we left our stuff on it, which as soon as we were in line, some Americans were kind enough to steal our table, put our stuff on the ground, and say " you snooze you lose". Idiots I say.

So while in line, one of the sons in the Obnoxious family was eating his food and it was falling out of his mouth while he was in line and it almost fell back into the main dishes, I was very disgusted, but what more could we expect from this terrible family. We then ate our lunch in the rain, absolutely frozen, and then wandered over to the one nice beach we would have liked to stay at except we had no time there. We walked back to the boat where we had to wait an extra 20 minutes for the people who can't tell time apparantly and then were off to ANOTHER bay, when we only wanted to go back to Ao Nang. Then when we thought the tour was finally over, while our boat was bouncing over huge waves and coming down so hard it hurt every time we hit a wave, we went to yet ONE MORE beach for a half hour, where we stood and stared across the bay at Ao Nang wishing we were back there. Finally, 8 hours after our long long day began, we were back to have a hot shower and go for a cup (or 3) of hot tea. I have declared an end to going on boat tours for now as it was the longest 8 hours one can imagine having in paradise!!!

~We are thoroughly enjoying Ao Nang, it is a great town with tons of tasty cheap restaurants and tons of massage places as well. Our first day here we wandered around, and Rob, Jason and Chris signed up for a 4 day scuba certification course, meaning they had to study a book the entire first day we were here. THe other 3 of us left them in the room and walked the beach here, being solicited by masseuses, and the one who won us over was a kind woman who brought us free pineapple, the most delicious pineapple known to mankind!

That evening we all partook in a sunset massage by the beach, given to us by a Thai family. Later on the boys had to go back to the room to study scuba and Kirby , Krista and I went wandering and discovered this great section of bars where we sat at the Smile Bar, and they kept bringing us puzzle games and JENGA!!! Nothing like sitting in a bar in Thailand, listening to fantastic music and playing a round of jenga!

This is our little room for 6 $ each a night, made for little people, as I am able to stand up in it but just barely!

Well we have arrived in Ao Nang, after a full day of travel. Yesterday for our last day in Langkawi, I went for a traditional Malaysia Hair treatment and head massage, which was very nice, but after rubbing a bowl full of some sort of coconut milk product in my hair, my head looks permanantly as though I just stepped out of the shower, very gross indeed!! I am hoping after a few more showers the grease finally leaves my head!

Oh and cockroaches....well the ferry ride over here was pleasant for Rob and I, as I just zoned out and listened to my Ipod, but for the others, they had cockroaches crawling on their legs, feet and chairs, digusting!!! Looks like we had the lucky clean seats!

We then had to barter to get a ride to Krabi, avoiding the dangerous area of Hat Yai entirely, so we had a 5 hour ride in a van with some air coming out, but for the most part it was hot and sticky. However it was better than the open air trucks other tourists had to take with wooden benches, at least we had leather seats, regardless of how sticky they got!~

We got to Krabi, it was a crappy little town, but there was a British man who had moved to Thailand recently and he advised us to come to Ao Nang where it is more of a beach town, and his advice was fantastic, it is stunning here, and we are in a guesthouse which is very clean and nice for 5 $ each a night!

On the 20 min ride from Krabi to Ao Nang we had a THai man hop in the van and try to persuade us to stay at his hostel and do his tours, he got downright obnoxious and rude, and was arguing with the British man over who could give us better advice!! We trusted the Brit, due to the fact he is also more of a tourist and was not out to gain any profits from giving us advice, we learned our lesson in Malaysia!! haha!!!

Today after a nice sleep in, we walked down to our favorite restaurant, the Red Tomato for lunch, had some delicious Aglio Olio ( pasta with olive oil and garlic ) and the proceeded to take a taxi to Oriental Village, this man mad little pristine shopping and restaurant area which was our base for the day. From there, we trekked 2.2 km, passing up around 500 steps to go halfway up a mountain to the Seven Pools, undoubtedly the coolest thing we have seen yet.

These are freshwater pools with smooth rock that lets you slide from one pool to another (relatively pain free, Rob did cut his wrist and Jason did split his shorts, leaving us in hysterics on the rocks) and we played around here, enjoying the cool water and sliding back and forth for a few hours! because of the elevation, we were treated to a beautiful view of the ocean, and all the surrounding jungle. There was almost a monkey incident as one moved in close, with his eye on our bags while we were swimming but we yelled at him and scared him up the tree.

After getting the most of the freshwater pools, we stopped by a waterfall on the way back down, then sat at the bottom area where there was a refreshment stand and we tried coconut juice, and laughed at monkey's fornicating.....we have a great video!haha

Then the monkeys stole the leftover coconut and ate away as though he would never eat again, also got that on tape!!! One nearby Chinese man was very lucky as he escaped being peed on by a monkey in the tree above!

We then rode the gondola up to the very top of Langkawi, 2400 feet above the sea, and the gondola has the longest cable in the world, and one of the steepest rides, it was a little hair raising at times I will admit!!

We have some great pictures, but will have to wait until Thailand to get them up!

We have been a busy here on Langkawi, enjoying the sun and our pool, today finally venturing out on a tour. We were picked up this morning for the island hopper, and our first stop was to a fresh water lake called Lake of the Pregnant Maiden ,as the island from a distance looks like a maiden lying on her back. There was a bit of a walk through the jungle to get there, and as we walked, there were tons of monkeys around. Well, Rob just happened to be carrying a litre of mango juice, and 3 monkey's all ran at him, swarming him.

Rob instantly surrendered the juice to the monkeys who ran away gleeful with their new treat, and I was stuck with drinking warm bottled water instead of the cold mango juice, which the monkeys drank every last sip of, ripping the container open to lick the insides.

Once at the lake, we rented paddleboats which was quite pleasant, although Chris and Jason had the foresight to get a solar powered one so they laughed at all of us paddling away in the heat. We then went to another island (Langkawi has 103 islands) where the guide threw chicken chips in the water and dozens of eagles came down to feed just by the boat. From there we were off to an idyllic beach where we swam and lazed about under the shade of a tree.

We just finished a great dinner at a very clean restaurant where we had our first he/she serving us. They also had the greatest bathroom I have ever seen, as there were only 3 walls with the other side being open and I could view a man made creek and flowers while in the loo! Pleasant indeed!

Pictures will be coming soon (fingers crossed)

So thankfully our room did not smell like sweat/urine last night due to Rob spraying disinfectant all over the bed, so instead of the smell I wound up with a headache!! oh well, at least my nose was able to breathe properly! That is one problem with third world Asia is that a lot of offensive smells drift past ones nose as you walk down the street!

So today we thought it would be fun to get to the beach....so Kirby, Krista and I began walking that way as the others were too lazy to get up and planned to meet up later. So halfway there, it began to downpour of course, so back we went to the pool where there is shelter, a swim up bar, and a lack of garbage and gross smells.

Our hotel has been so very helpful too, telling us such things like "there is nothing to do here and nothing is open past 10pm", refusing to cash travellers cheques even when it is on paper that they offer this service, losing the ability to speak English when they are questioned about anything negative, and the maid stole Krista's bra. Lovely place. The quote which is in their hotel guide is quite fitting...
"We hope your stay is memorable if it is not enjoyable" Word for word.....fantastic!!

Oh and look for pictures soon, it is NOT that easy to get them up, trust me.....and we do have a picture, although in bad lighting, of Rob and I with the wee swindling Malay!

One nice feature of our hotel is that we have a pool bar, swim up and all. Made up for the smell of sweat and urine in our room while we were sleeping, those carpets in there are downright nasty!!!!

Langkawi is not a bad island, pretty scenery, too much rain (of course we are in the rainy season) and a fantastic Italian restaurant with the first meal I have found downright delicious!!!

So after a morning ferry to Langkawi, we arrived to a heavy rainfall, and I was fortunate enough to slip and fall on my knees in a huge puddle!

We arrived at our RCI timeshare hotel, which looked very nice from the pictures....however we have decided that surely it once was nice.....in about 1975. Our first room reeked of urine, so we were able to move to a new one thankfully. It has some old school charm to it, but it is in bad need of refurbishing. I am reminded vaguely of the hotel in Lake Balaton (all those who were on the field school with me will know exactly what I mean here) but at least the room is free of bugs for now.

It does have the longest swimming pool in Malaysia however, so that is one perk. We hae a week here so keep a look out for how our week progresses!

Dad- when and why are you going to Mexico City?!

Hello viewers, Rob/Bob here, This will be my first post.

Allow me to set the scene. GeorgeTown, Penang it's hot, humid and there are lizards abound. While enjoying our walk to inquire about ferry tickets we happened upon an old Malay. The friendly little bugger (little means Sarah towered over him) began talking about his favourite Canadian PM - Trudeau - We bit our lips. In what seemed like a bit of friendly local advice, Lung (not sure of his name, Lung seems fitting)decides to show us where we can buy chicken flied rice - only two block! After arriving at this little road side hole in the wall, he extends us an offer to sit down and have rice, he only want cold beer. We obliged. Discussing everything from Alberta oil money, to Bloody Bush's policies, and our cars back home. I Informed him we came from a very wealthy province, and that we were not simply poor backpackers. Big mistake.

Two large bottles of beer later we (Pretty Lady and Young Dustin Hoffman, as he refered to us) were informend that the information he gave us - restaurants and hotels etc. indeed came at a price. The whole converation he plied
about our financial status and use that information to decide his time was worth RM50 each (Because we not married, we pay each). Basically, as he put it,
"I am a man so I will ask you straight up, 50 ringgets each"
Well then, seems a little steep for an hour and a half of his company PLUS we were buying the beer.

I pulled out my last 35 Ringgets to give to him, and Sarah put down 50 for the beer. When the 8 ringget change came back, he swiftly pocketed it from the waitress, taking more of our hard earned money!! Conniving little bastard!

At any rate, we walked back to his hotel, after he had advised us we should go back and rest, it is good idea!!

Combined sarah and I have 34 years of education yet we were taken in by a wee man from Penang.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b195/Titmouse69/

The last 24 hours were a series of contrasts and interesting times. Yesterday we had a leisurly sleep in the jungle, and from there Rob and I had a tasty breakfast at the fancy resort across the river from where we stayed. The others all took the 8am bus to get to Penang, to avoid the possibility of missing the bus, whereas Rob and I opted for the 2pm boat ride out.....so as teh boat was surprisingly prompt, we hopped on to discover the guy behind us was wearing a U of C 101 shirt.....turns out though he was from Manchester, England, so we had a great little chat!

After the bus, we hopped on a local bus at Jerantut, a pithole of Malaysia, where we received many a stares from Muslim women fully head clothed. After a bumpy many stop ride to Temerloh, we had 4 hours to kill until the 11pm bus to Butterworth, to get to Penang. There was an air conditioned pizza hut where we had dinner, and they would not give me a menu due to me being female. When we went back later in the evening, again they would only give Rob the menu.

The bus station was not a pleasant time, as the designer had the foresight to design benches that were simply 2 metal poles, not comfy at all, and then while waiting for our bus in teh back terminal, what should be scurrying around the ground, but a huge disgusting rat. We were utterly disgusted, as rats are just not commonly found in Canada!! It was at that point we decided some luxury was in order upon arriving in Georgetown, Penang.

The 6 hour long night bus was anything but fun, as the driver blasted the air conditioning and half froze us to death, Rob kept his feet warm by putting them in his backpack, and I accidentally squished him while I slept and took over both seats. A LONG 6 hours later, we pulled up in Butterworth, and were totally unaware of it, the driver came over to ask us where we were going, we said Butterworth. "Oh" he goes, and walks away. Two minutes later, a different man comes to us and says "this is Butterworth!"

So in the dark, we were swindled into an expensive taxi ride into town due to a reluctance to take the ferry, and we pulled up to the Eastern and Oriental Hotel, which is a fantastic 120 year old colonial hotel where we have a gorgeous suite that brought pure giddyness to us upon getting into it at 7:30am this morning! We will be thoroughly enjoying luxury the next 3 days for sure!!!

Just this afternoon, after my last posting, we took the 50 cent boat across the river into the National Park where we trekked 2 km to the canopy bridges, walking up on teetering rope and wooden creations high above the jungle floor. Unfortunately there were no animal spottings, except for a butterfly!! However, on the walk back, once inside the resort area we saw a foot long lizard and lots of monkeys in the trees! It is hot like crazy here, sweating buckets, and we just finished a snack of rice and cold drinks on the floating restaurant.

Trekking in the jungle was quite amusing, as we were all slightly nervous going in due to the fact that we have no idea what is out there, unlike the good old rockies where you KNOW there are grizzlies!!! After joking that there are no bears to get us here, we discovered at lunch that there are indeed bears in Malaysia!!

So yesterday we awoke nice and early, 6am to be exact, right after the morning Muslim chanting, and we got ready to leave our hotel to get to Chinatown to catch the jungle bus. It was a great sign that we were in a quality hotel when we had requested taxis to come get us and they said no taxi's can come there, but thankfully due to Kirby and Krista's persistance with the man we suddenly got taxi's a few minutes later.

As we rode into town and were almost at our destination, Rob realized he had left his jacket at the hotel so we did a quick turnaround and back we went, accidentally leaving the others at Chinatown to wonder where on earth we were for so long!

Anyways, we then got on the bus for a 3 1/2 hour ride, for which half of the ride the bus went MAYBE 20km/hr.....at least we had no chance of getting motion sick that way! We then arrived in Jerantut where we had a long wait, and then we took the bus to boat docks where we got in rustic wooden boats seated 2 to a seat and we rode 3 hours down the jungle river into Taman Negara. We wandered around with our heavy packs upon arrival to find a place (my pack being like 1/3 of my body weight, I packed a tad bit heavy) and then we finally found a nice clean motel after rejecting a hostel that smelled like urine.

We enjoyed dinner on a floating restaurant with another Canadian couple, eating fried rice and chicken/veggies for about 3 dollars each, including a drink! We are off today for a jungle trek and a night safari....be in touch soon!

We are in our 2nd day here in the capital of Malaysia and it has been an entertaining time. Yesterday we went to the Petronas towers, the tallest buildings in the world and wandered a designer shopping mall, enjoying some fantastic Vietnamese food and Chili's for dinner, good old American food (haha I personally prefer the Vietnamese we had for lunch!) We also wandered to the CHinese market where they have knock offs of every brand name imaginable.....my only puchase was a Tod's purse which I only bought because I got all into bartering with the man while all the guys were buying DVD's (which did not end up working anyhow) so I wound up with this purse that I was instantly mad at myself for wasting money on...oh well....I will leave it here in our hotel for whoever stumbles upon it!

Today we went to the Batu Caves, climbing the 272 steps up while monkeys scrambled around us and we seemed to be amoung the only tourists there, everyone else appeared to be Hindu and there to pray or light incense and burn them on the rocks.

Afterward just Rob and I went up the other tall tower here and had an amazing view of the city....then we went back to the Petronas towers and made our way to another very Asian mall where Rob Jason and I just finished with amazing massages in a seemingly sketchy little place!!! OUr massauses were all blind, as it was called the "Success Blind Massage" but the tiny Muslim woman who was straddling me on the massage bed gave a great pressure point massage!!! Although, I must admit she was a bit too strong for my feet which were in agony while she was digging her thumbs into my arches, but right now I feel amazing!

We are off to the jungle tomorrow which involes a bus ride and then a 3 hour boat ride....so we will see what the internet is like from there!!!

Arrived in KL yesterday. It was a arduous long flight of 18 hours overall, however from LA to taipei we managed to sleep almost the whole way!!! We got to KL around noon, went through customs very easily and changed our flight to NZ to Nov 27, wihch was fortunate being as every day in December was full already!!

It is very hot and humid here, and below our hotel across the street is a lovely shanty town....pleasant indeed!! I ordered my first malaysian dish at the hotel restaurant, and after I thought the waiter and I had come to a clear understanding on there being no eggs and my meal being vegetarian, out came this pile of rice with a huge fried egg on top and tons of little squid and dried salt fish throughout the rice, so today I am goig to learn the word for Vegetarian in Malaysian!!!

Other lessons learned since the last posting include
-not sitting in the soak row at the Waterworld show at Universal Studios
-not drinking all the free beer Malaysian waiters bring you

Also, we welcome any comments you wish to make....we have changed the settings to allow comments from anyone and everyone :)

SO last night we decided to drive down into Hollywood, to see the Chinese Mahnns Theater, the handprints and stars in the sidewalk and all that. After finally finding parking under an outdoor mall, we walked down towards the theatre only to find out the premier of the movie Domino was playing, which we instantly concluded meant the theatre was filled with celebrities, seeing as security was busy rolling up the red carpet that had been laid out.

We decided to become paparazzi for the evening, so we stood waiting in the brisk night (about 15 C) and watched a man dressed as Spiderman bounce around the streets, talked to the Security guard who entertained us with stories of pompous publicists and producers coming to screenings....then after about an hour our waiting was worth it.....we got to see in person

one of the Baldwin brothers, then the man who plays Charlotte's gay friend on Sex and the City, Keira Knightly (with many guards, due probably to all the diamonds on her), Luke Perry ( who stopped to smile at us), Lucy Liu (who is very short), Mena Suvari (who is not so friendly to smile for pictures), Brittany Murphy ( who turned around to smile and wave so we could take her picture), Shannen Elizabeth (not a big celebrity), and Julie Cooper from the OC. I think that was all of them!!!

ALl in all the perfect Hollywood evening

Awakening this morning bright and early at 8am.....we got ready to go to Disneyland to make a full day of it. After a short shuttle ride down there, we wandered amongst the crowds in some confusion until we discovered one line was to pay, the other to get in. From there, we made our way through Indiana Jones (so very cool.....and I may have screamed a little when the ride took us down under the oncoming boulder) and then onto Pirates of the Caribbean, by far the most fun, and then to the Haunted Mansion which has gone all "The Nightmare before Christmas", it just was not the same.

Spalsh mountain was a great time.....while we didn't get wet on the actual ride, the waterfight Jason and Chris started in the tunnel left us all clambering off soaked.....lucky it was a nice warm day :)

There was a pleasant lack of line ups except for the 45 minute for Space Mountain, and was a fanstastic day in the "happiest place on earth!"

3 days to go now until we are off to Los Angeles, Malaysia, Thailand, and New Zealand.....today the packing will begin, as the weekend is packed with our party at Schanks Crowfoot tonight, the wedding tomorrow, and Sunday is turkey dinner with family and friends!! Next blog will be out of LA where we are staying in the OC!

My packing has begun.....I have had 3 packings already, each time elimanating clothing and such......currently as it stands my pack will close but with no extra room which does me no good to be able to take advantage of the cheap shopping in Asia...so tomorrow, round 4 of packing is to begin!

It seems so long ago Rob and I were sitting in Calgary, ready to plan a one month trip to Europe when it occured to us, Wait a Second, why not go for longer......and the idea of the trip was born. Then it only made sense to leave once cold weather hit Calgary, and we could be off in 6 months of summer weather!! Through the summer we gained 4 travel companions as the idea of taking off, leaving a job and all responsibility checked in Calgary was too tempting not to take up!
Our itinerary takes us to LA for 3 days, then onto South East Asia for nearly 2 months before heading to New Zealand!