Me and my boo...

The last of my posts - I am not a blogger by nature. Because I am vehemently opposed to facebook I figured I had to do a shout out some other way...

Back in the Saddle Again, I mean Hong Kong

**This blog entry was writing progressively over the past couple days, I just haven’t had any way to post it so sorry for the references to the days. I’m just trying to catch up.

Well I spent both Saturday and Sunday enjoying waterfalls in the jungle and acquiring more and more mosquito bites despite my incessant application of REI’s not-so-effective “Jungle Juice”. Good thing I’m on those Malaria pills! Of all the cool things to see here, I have mostly enjoyed watching the people interact. When we were at a waterfall yesterday, there were Germans, Italians, Australians, Indians, and Englanders (or whatever you want to call them). I think if I were to come back, or do another adventurous trip like this again I would take a camera and just photograph the people.

We attempted to leave Samui on Sunday but the ferries were all booked so we headed back to our beloved hotel and stayed another night. Last night (Sunday night) there was a huge lightening storm on the island. Power went out for a while and I literally stayed up all night as a result of the flashes. Every now and then there would be a big boom. The thunder was spaced just perfectly so that right as your body and heart rate had just settled from the last one, another one would go off. The defibrillator effect. It was a long night, with very little sleep. However, I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise as well as another great rainbow – both celebratory of your birthday Mom! Yes, for those reading Mama Clark’s birthday was June 4th, wish her a late Happy Birthday. Just feel free to send Cindy Loo Hoo a text, she’s really good with technology. Or, you could just post something on her facebook wall if that’s easier for you.

We took the 7am ferry this morning (Monday) and drove to Phuket. I literally slept the entire way (Mom, I get that from you). Among Yale speeding through the roads as though it were a racecourse, topping at about 185 km/hr, I was passed out.

It was about 10 feet from the “Welcome to Phuket” sign that it started to downpour – further confirming our decision to stay on sunny Samui an extra couple days. It has been raining all day here. Phuket is far more built-up and touristy than Samui but fun to see it nonetheless. Our hotel here makes me miss Samui, but also makes me realize just how great it was there as well. Patong Beach has much more sand and actual waves but too many people. The tsunami hit Patong really hard and anything within two blocks of the beach was wiped out. It was interesting to see all of the building still taking place. There are now also numerous tsunami evacuation signs all along the beach. Scary.

We went out for dinner and I found a cute little man selling freshly grilled corn on the cob. It was dirt cheap (less than $1) especially in comparison to the prices of everything else. Phuket is far more expensive than Samui and especially than Bangkok. The tricks of tourism. I wasn’t falling for it though. I went with the corn peddler and was very happy. After, I went to McDonald’s for an ice cream cone. I thought I ordered vanilla with chocolate swirl but it happened to be coffee. So my trick to escape the tourist prices didn’t quite work as I bought another cone, this time raspberry. I ended up making friends and giving the coffee cone to a guy on the street.

When we got back to the hotel Pirates 3 was playing on TV – welcome to a country than can be entirely summed up in two words: Canal Street. Ok, maybe not the entire country, but a large majority of it! Later Yale and I watched Rush Hour 2 (we bought a pirated version in Bangkok) and had a good laugh. Right now I am sitting in the tiny Phuket airport waiting for our plane just people watching. I’ve managed to make great progress on my Book of Mormon reading on the trip and finished Mosiah today. My goal is to finish it by the time I take the GMAT, July 17. Signing off…

Mom – Happy Birthday!!!! I love you!

True Island Living

What a day. Yale and I have decided to stay here on this island instead of continuing south on the coast due to weather. Today we took a tour with about 20 others to Ang Thong National Marine Park, an archipelago consisting of 42 islands. The people on our tour were from everywhere imaginable…Italy, Germany, Ireland, Thailand, Japan, Canada, and even a couple from Brooklyn! Yesterday was kind of cloudy so I was praying for sunshine for the outdoor water day. Fished my wish! It was gorgeous! It was about an hour boat ride zipping across the emerald water to our first stop where we snorkeled for about an hour. The water was really shallow with tons of coral so you had to be careful. Don’t worry mom, you’re not missing anything, Belize was better.

After driving, or rather boating around more of the islands we stopped to see emerald lake – a mountainous lagoon where the water is unnaturally green. It was like Swiss Family Robinson climbing up, over, and through the jungle to get multiple views.

After the lake hike we were off to our own island where the staff made us a Thai lunch. It was remarkable – we were the only ones there on an absolutely beautiful island. We had a couple minutes to waste before lunch was prepared so Yale and I played coconut golf – the palm trees were our holes. Ummmm, yeah. I lost. We were then treated to fresh coconut milk – one of the staff scampered up a palm tree and picked the coconuts himself. I think I like coconut flavoring better…fresh coconut milk isn’t my favorite, but good for a picture.

Our next stop was another island – can’t remember the name, they all sound the same. We went kayaking for about an hour all around the island. Mom, you would have loved it. I had memories of when you kayaked in the crocodile lake in Belize. The water was beautiful and we explored rock crevasses and inlets. We were much better kayaking than canoeing! Back to the boat and on our way back. We were all sunburned and tired – it was a long ride back. Overall it was an amazing day and well worth the money for the tour. I just went next door for some aloe – yup, you could say I’m sunburned…

Butterfly kisses are better than elephant kisses

Thursday, as our introduction to the island, we took a jungle safari. We first started out canoeing down a dirty brown river. After discovering that I really don’t have any canoeing skills at all (I know, disappointing mom) we realized we did better with our backs to each other. That way, just in case, on the rare (ok not so rare) occasion that we got ourselves turned around, the other person was ready to paddle forward. This method was our most successful, but let’s just say we weren't the shining example of what to do.

After the canoeing we drove through the coconut plantations and up the hills to a waterfall. We hiked up to a beautiful jungle waterfall. (no idea what the name of it is) On the way down we found a swimming hole and took the liberty of cooling off. One of the highlights of the trip thus far. The water was the perfect temperature. The ocean here is a bit too warm to swim for a while. You only go in to be wet once you get out. The waterfall, however, was VERY refreshing and actually cool. We had a blast there.

The next part of the tour was the elephant trekking – Lower this was for you! We were strapped on to an elephant and toted around for about 30 minutes. Terribly uncomfortable! Elephants are not clean animals. After we had the elephant show. There was a baby elephant that did all sorts of tricks. One of the tricks was a thai massage. Yale and I were brought down to the front and got to experience the Thai massage for ourselves, elephant version. As I lied down on the ground I saw the man wipe the elephants trunk, cleaning it of all snot and whatever else is on those extended nostrils. I knew I was in for it. The baby elephant started to attack first my legs and then my face with its trunk. This little experience did not help my touch-phobia or my love for animals. It was hilarious though.

The rest of the afternoon I just kind of kicked it on the beach. It was cloudy and there were sparse large rain drops – it was so relaxing I even fell asleep. Who knew the beach in the rain could be so wonderful? By the evening it had cleared up and Yale and I went on the hunt for a dinner spot. Just down the beach we had a great Thai dinner on the sand. At dinner each table was given a ‘balloon’ or a flying lantern so send off. Kind of bizarre but at the same time it was really cool to see all the lanterns high in the sky looking like a new constellation.
Signing off for the day…enjoy the pictures.

Getting here...

So much to write! I am here in Ko Samui and experiencing true beauty – it is amazing here! We left Bangkok on Tuesday morning and drove away in our rental car. Well, away might not be the best word…we drove in circles for a while, making it only more difficult to adjust to the opposite driving standards. Needless to say, it took us a while to get out of Bangkok. It doesn’t help that there is no English translation on the signs. So as a result of intuition and luck we miraculously made it Rama VIII Bridge. Once we were out of Bangkok it was smooth sailing. With Tim Tams in hand, and counsciously reminding ourselves to drive on the wrong side of the road, we and our little Honda City were tearing through the roads. It was nice to Thailand outside of the dirty city. It was a beautiful drive. Early that evening we made it to our secluded hostel. What hostel has its own private beach?? This one! Since it is the off season, Yale and I were pretty much the only ones there. It was nice to have a change and have silence at night. It was very peaceful. Once our laundry was finished in the morning we hit the road again.

On the drive we even managed to drive to the Thailand/Myanmar border, a bit eerie. They wouldn't let us through - I have no idea why! This is me at the border crossing and they even let us go in a couple meters to take this picture. Right after the border crossing the road changes to dirt. It's a different, secret world past the checkpoint. A North Korea but no nuclear weapons.

We had read somewhere that our hostel was about 650 km away from our ferry connection and we had less than 6 hours before the last ferry. Yale drove like a madman – peaking at about 170 km. It wasn’t until we saw a sign (yes, in English!) for Surat Thani that we realized instead of being 650 km it was really more like 300 km. Whew! We made it to the ferry dock and after failing miserably with our attempted universal sign language (pointing and facial expressions) we decided to just follow the cars and line up. We only had to wait about an hour for the ferry and we were the last car on the 4pm ferry! Good thing our car is the size of a golf cart! The ferry ride was absolutely beautiful – islands and emerald water as far as the eye could see. Despite the view, I had other things consuming my time. Yes, I’m a nerd. See picture.

I drove after the ferry ride. Driving on this little island is absolutely insane. There are scooters buzzing about all around you like annoying nats in summer. No worries, I just passed them all. After driving through the touristy parts filled with people, lights, shops, and attractions we came to our hotel, the Lodge at Bophut. It’s on a narrow one-way street right on the beach. The nice manager even let us park right in front of the hotel – parking is harder here than in NYC! One window of our room faces the street which is lined with little shops and people here and there walking, and the other window faces the beach and we even have our own balcony. Amazing! This is a picture of our hotel and the morning view from the room window. Bophut is much quieter and less built up as some of the other parts of the island. That night we ventured out to find some food and ended up with Italian right on the water. We finished the night with a chocolate banana crepe – or pancake as the little peddler man from Bangladesh called them. Yummy!

No computer time...

I am still alive and here in Thailand. We're in a hidden gem of the world...the island of Ko Samui. I have no time to type a blog or use the internet, but for the impatient people out there you can look at Yale's blog for updates. www.yaleinasia.blogspot.com

BCB - if I were a big fat scientist who dissected pigs would you still be my boyfriend?

Wrapping it up in Bangkok

We came to find out that just about every form of transportation in Thailand is questionable. The water taxis (boats) don’t exactly stop when the pull up to the dock. You just have to jump on and off and hope you make it. We missed this small piece of information and missed our dock. We learned our lesson and were the first ones off at the next dock. We walked back to our original dock and took another ferry across the river to Wat Aran – yet another temple. Just as we were taking the smaller ferry across, after our 20 minute detour, it started to rain. Correction…it started to pour. To be honest it was a nice break from the heat. So we continued our sightseeing in the rain. We saw Wat Aran – an ancient temple decorated with broken pieces of Chinese porcelain. The temple reminded me partially of South American art – Mayan or something. Apparently it is beautiful at sunset with the reflection, but due to our ‘learning experiences’ with the ferry all chances of the temple at sunset were shot.

After the temple we decided, in order to avoid another HK experience, to follow the book’s suggestion for food choices. We went to Roti Mataba – a small hole-in-the-wall establishment just off the river. However, contrary to our experiences in HK, this place was amazing! And authentic! Roti is kind of like nan or flatbread. I know what you’re thinking and yes, imagine that…it was gluten free! (or so I would like to think so) For all three of us – eating an average of two meals each was a total of about $7. When we came out of the restaurant the rain had finally stopped and the sun was setting on the river with a huge double rainbow covering nearly the entire sky. There is natural beauty in Bangkok!

After we returned home I went straight to be…I literally crashed. I should have stayed up a bit longer because I woke up at about 4am for the day. Yale (who is on a normal sleeping schedule) and I spent the morning finalizing everything for our beach adventure ahead of us. We are renting a car that will be dropped off at our hotel tomorrow and making our way down the coast. We changed all of our hotel reservations and shuffled things around to see more of the sights while we are there. After making many phone calls to hotels and struggling to communicate with the large majority of people we spoke to, we finished and things should be in place for the next week or so. Stay tuned…

We made it out of the hotel by lunchtime and were off to the designer mall just down the road where we went for lunch. We spent our last day in Bangkok living the high life – bowling, IMAX movie, souvenir shopping, snacking at Dunkin Donuts, and roaming the plethora of air-conditioned malls Bangkok has to offer.

NBC = Need bowling classes…

1. contemplation - visualizing a strike

2. in the moment - I chose the run and chuck technique

3. didn't quite work out the way I planned...gutter ball

The outcome - didn't break 100...shockingly I think I am better at the Wii

We saw a 3-D IMAX show about an African safari. And yes, in case you were wondering my love for Africa is still strong. Once again we had to pay our respects to the King. Speaking of the King, apparently every Monday the King has asked the people to wear yellow shirts. As Yale and I walked out of our hotel this morning we thought it was just a big tour group…little did we know. Everyone was wearing yellow!!! When we asked someone at lunch, in her broken English told us how she loved the King. Imagine if Americans were united in liking something so much, other than Seinfeld or now The Office. We’re taking it easy tonight – probably going to McD’s for dinner…Buddha style.

Sunday Solace

Among all of our transportation nightmares in Bangkok, today has been great (so far). That doesn't mean we haven't been lost today, but we did make it to Church. The ward was a good size filled with expats and people from all over the world...reminded me of the demographics of Brooklyn wards. Church was great for so many reasons...

1. after driving around in a taxi for a while and wandering on foot for about 20 minutes...WE FOUND IT!


2. learning from past experiences, we left and hour early and made it ON TIME! in fact we were even EARLY! Just enough time for me to speak some French to a man from Paris


3. we went to the English ward so WE UNDERSTOOD IT!


4. AIR CONDITIONED!

After church we came back and are now taking it easy for a while. After reading the tour book on Thailand about Phuket and the southern beaches, I think we are going to change most of our itinerary in order to make time for bungee jumping, jungle zip lines, mountain biking, scooter rentals, kayak tours, and more. Should be awesome. As for the rest of the day we are going to ride the boats on the river to a highly recommended Indian restaurant and then head back down the rive to see the Wat Po (I think it's this one) Temple of the Dawn. It will be nice to get out of the dirty city and on to see more of the countryside and the cultural things.

One funny note is last night when we saw Pirates (not worth it), I failed to mention our mandatory 5-minute 'paying respects to the king' prior to the starting of the movie. Out of nowhere everyone all stood in unison while there was a video playing making him some god. Felt like a dictator. All rise....

Crazy Bangkok

A day in Bangkok. What a whirlwind. We started off the day going to the cinema to buy our tickets for Pirates tonight. Over here its assigned seating to you have to come early. Three hours of AC, new movie, all for under $4 – I’m in. We seem to be staying in the newer part of town and so we got a taxi to go see the sights after our movie tickets were secured. We arrived at the Grand Palace only to find that you have to be wearing long pants or a skirt so we decided to come back. We hired a tuk-tuk (a motorized tricycle) to take us around to some of the sights. Our crazy old tuk-tuk driver gave us a ride for our lives. We were grabbing on for our lives while at the same time trying to cover our mouths in order to not blacken our lungs from the pollution. Apparently there is some week-long tourism deal in Thailand where if tuk-tuk drivers take their passengers to certain tourist shops they are given free gas cards. We first went to the giant Buddha temple and then off to a few stores.

After the stores we went to the Golden Temple. We climbed to the top for a view of the city. Fortunately it was a clear day and we could see the gray city with the random golden temple spire sticking up, and no, it wasn’t angel Moroni. In some reverence for Buddha all of these temples make you take your shoes off once you go in which makes the 200 degree stone surface under your feet seem to constantly heat up. So imagine us prancing around the Buddha statues, stopping briefly for an occasional picture. Well after we came down from the Golden Temple our tuk-tuk driver was nowhere to be found. Supposedly he got the gas card and was gone – free transportation though. We then found an actual taxi to take us back to the no-shorts Grand Palace. This guy had to stop at the shops as well. Coincidentally they were the same shops, making it a little awkward for us. We were again ditched, but this time it was after the jewelry store. We then came to our senses and found a METERED taxi to take us to the Palace. I think we paid less than $2 for the ride. But hey, the ones before this one were free! At this point we were all frustrated from scamming Thai businessmen, hot (high of 36 today), sweaty (I’m sure you can see the drops in our pictures), hungry and I’m sure dehydrated. We decided to go in the Grand Palace – “Buddha, this one’s for you!”

We had to ‘borrow’ pants and a skirt…hence the awkward looking attire in the pictures. The skirt might as well have been wool – it was roasting! So I decided to be a little edgy and create a fashion concoction of my own. The guards weren’t too happy but I got away with it until the very end aka…it was worth it! The temples and shrines were impressive, mostly because of their colors and size. These golden, colorful temples stick out among the slum-ridden, gray blanket over Bangkok. In some of the pictures you can see what I am talking about in the background. After walking around the Grand Palace for a while and only exacerbating the dehydration we grabbed a bright orange taxi and headed home. I should mention here that the taxis are bright tropical colors like tic-tacs – helps amongst the drab colors. We ate at the food court of the high end designer mall just down the road from us. We splurged and spent $4-$5 each for lunch. As for now we are done being trucked around some foreign dity city and are taking it easy and preparing ourselves for Pirates – updating the blog, making calls to try and find church for tomorrow, and watching the only English channel on TV, HBO.

Bangkok

Last night we arrived in Thailand...what an adventure getting here. We RAN for the plane in the HK airport (I knew that was going to happen at least once but who knew it would be so early in the trip for me!) only to sit for 4 hours before taking off. Apparently there was some technical problem on the plane. We finally arrived and made our way to our hotel only to find that they in fact didn't have any reservations on file althoughwe had the receipt right in our hand. Welcome to Thailand. Luckily they found something for us. And here I am sitting in the lobby in my pajamas writing in my blog because it is the only time Yale or Fernando aren't on their computers. I do what I can.

There is an entirely different feel to Thailand -- we have certianly left the devleoped Asian world. However, I am looking forward to the adventures that await us in Thailand. We have a 7-11 practically next door to us and a movie theatre down the road...I think we are going to catch Pirates tonight.

as they walked and walked...and walked

So yesterday we romped around HK seeing just about everything. The highlights of the day are as follows

• crazy Italian lady on our bus
• the gluten-free market...check it out above
• crazy Dutch people living next door
• Mango ice cream cones seeing us through right at the point of exhaustion
• getting turned down from Buddha's big birthday bash because there were already too many people there
• seeing the temple
• accidentally speaking French is response to a Chinese person...guess I am that well trained
• going to bed!!

I was absolutely exhausted when we came back to our hostel and crashed...only to wake up at 5:15.

We started the day on a bus ride down from our military hostel camp acocmpanied by a crazy Italian women spouting or should I say shouting random things off to everyone in bus. At one point we were all ready to pay her way to get on another bus. Once down in the city we went to some fetival/parade that was pretty net. After we walked to Victoria Park -- don't get too excited here, nothing more than cement slabs painted over for soccer fields and basketball courts. Walking and more walking. Causeway Bay...Kolwoon Penninsula...and more that I entirely forget at this point. It was later in the afternoon that I hit rock bottom with jet lag and with a little help from a mango ice cream cone managed to continue on. Walking and more walking. We went to see the temple and ask about doing a session tomorrow. It was really neat to see the temple and hear the stories behind its construction. Dinner. Fernando wanted to have something authentic so Yale spotted a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place with reasonable prices. Well that's about the last time I do authentic. I ordered braised pork and I am not even sure there was meat on that fat cube. (see picture) It was the nastiest consistency -- not that I tried it but from prodding around with my chop sticks I was already disgusted. Yale ordered spicy chicken and ended up with chickens feet....yummy! Needless to say it was one for the record book. Fernando, who ordered eel, was the only one who tried everything. There is a video of him eating chicken feet on his blog http://blog.mladineo.com/.

ahhh.....more at home...

The day we left for Thailand we were able to do a session in the morning on our way out. It was incredible! I am so grateful for translations!

So that's a wrap for Hong Kong. It has taken me probably an hour to post all of these dumb pictures...I'm not very savvy with all of this -- still new to blogging.