Wanderlust

Tucson, AZ

So much to tell…

I ended up getting into the Masters program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I start at the end of August working towards my degree in the Language, Reading and Culture department. I’ve signed up for my classes, met my advisor and some of the faculty, and now I’m just really ready to get started. We’re in Tucson now, waiting to hear whether or not we got a great apartment near the downtown area (which is nothing like any downtown that I’m used to) and the university. If we get it, then we move in on June 1st and can finally really unpack and get furniture. We already bought an amazingly comfortable mattress (after a year of sleeping on all kinds of crappy beds, we deserve it) and it’s just waiting at the store to be delivered to our new place when we get one (right now we’re sleeping on a blow-up camping mattress, which is better than most beds in China).

Yesterday we went to a Chinese Dumpling Festival in town. It was expensive, but well-worth it for real, authentic Chinese dumplings. We also picked up a few menus there of recommended authentic Chinese food restaurants. When we get jobs and money, we’re heading right for them.

When we first got back to the States I had a hard time adjusting. I’d read a little about how a lot of people who have gone on similar trips have had more ‘culture shock’ returning home then they did while traveling. Something about all the differences becoming the norm and then being back where you’re supposed to be comfortable. And also some people experienced that they had changed a lot over the trip but everyone they’d left behind had stayed the same. For me I think the hardest thing was getting used to English. I noticed almost immediately that having everything, everywhere, all the time in English was very overwhelming. I had lost the ability to block out all of the visual and auditory stimuli we’re bombarded with every day in America. Starting out in New York City didn’t make things any easier, either.

This was all a little shocking and overwhelming. And it took me a good month to start to get over it. When we traveled we went to incredibly crowded, noisy places that were covered in advertising. But it was all in a different language. It’s easy to block out noise when it’s just that–noise. But being back in the States the ‘noise’ was suddenly talking, all of the time, and very loud and I couldn’t get away from it.

But New York wasn’t all bad. We went to an amazing musical called “In the Heights.” It was fantastic. Stephen and I both really loved it. It was fun, too, to go see a musical in New York City. We saw the Statue of Liberty from afar throught he sprinkly rain, went to the Brooklyn Bridge, stood on Wall Street, and ate Chinese food in China Town.

The New York City China Town was a little strange, though. It looked nothing like China. All of the buildings were red brick. It looked more like a scene from the Cosby Show than a street in Beijing.  But the food was pretty good, so we were happy.

After NYC we took the Greyhound Bus (completing our long distance busing in all of the continents we visited) to Pennsylvania to visit my family. The bus was both cleaner and dirtier than buses we were used to (confusing, I know, but I’m not sure how exactly to explain it). It was really wonderful seeing my family. My cousin Megan is very pregnant and my niece Sophia is walking now. So that was fun to see. And we had a nice extended family dinner party to celebrate my upcoming marriage. It was a good time, if a little stressful with all the English and planning a party. But fun, too. My sister and I didn’t even fight, a lifetime record.

After Pennsylvania we drove down to Alabama with my mom to visit my old university and see some of my friends. We had another party there (bbq, of course) to celebrate but otherwise just enjoyed relaxing a little. Being back in California was the best, though. We both really missed the Bay Area and Steve’s family. It was great to be back ‘home’ finally, but also a little bitter sweet since it was only temporary. But I think we were both excited about moving to Tucson, and looked at being in California as just another stop on our trip, so it wasn’t too bad.

Our friend Joe, and my traveling companion when Steve and I met five years ago, flew out to California to marry us. We had a whirlwind day on Thursday, April 30th getting everything together. We picked up Joe the night before at the San Francisco Airport and we stayed with Steve’s sister and brother-in-law in the city that night to save us a lot of time and effort. Laura very sweetly made us french toast in the morning before we went off to the court house to get Joe sworn in as our deputy for a day (aka officiant). It was a really easy process. We took our marriage license in, he filled out some forms, got sworn in and voila, he could marry us! Since we were ahead of schedule we walked over to a yummy Turkish place down the street and bought gyros before driving to Castro Valley and the lovely Deer Crossing Inn B&B where we were scheduled to meet my stylist at 1 pm and get ready before driving to the coast and getting married. We had originally planned on getting married on May 1st, but with complications with our original photographer (she double booked) we ended up switching to the April 30th and then to a new photographer.

When we arrived at the Inn (an hour before our early check-in time. Cindi, the Innkeeper, was amazing on the phone when I made the reservations. Allowing us an early, early check-in so that we’d have time to get ready and pointing me to one of their awesome room deals which saved us a lot of money and got us the best room!), one of the staff told me that my stylist had called and said that she wasn’t going to make it since her car had completely broken down on the way. Having only a tube of chapstick with me and maybe a hair tie, was a little distressed, but kept it together pretty well. The nice lady told me that there was a mall down the street, so after eating our gyros and relaxing a little on the patio, Joe and I drove to the mall and had a lovely time at JC Penny getting my hair done (all the little old ladies getting their hair curled knew about my getting married and the stylist not making it by the end. They were all telling me how pretty I looked and wishing me and Joe–my fiance, obviously–the best of luck). The woman did an amazing job turning my lack of hair ideas into something just perfect. We then went to the MAC counter in Nordstrom and got a free (FREE!) makeover comlete with fake eyelashes! I was a little freaked out at first since all make up artist girls working the counter were way overdone (coming from the girl who doesn’t wear any make up). And more freaked out when she started with my foundation and then my eyebrows (I looked all eyebrows), but when it was finished I felt sort of uncomfortably beautiful. Which is a good thing.

Somewhere in there I had called my (amazing) photographer Silvana and left her a voicemail to meet us at the beach instead of coming to the Inn because there wouldn’t be getting ready shots since I was getting ready at the mall. She didn’t get my message, and was at the Inn when we got back. She had taken time to get shots of Stephen and of the Inn and to sort of scope the place out. This really came in handy when Steve told me that he had called the beach where we had planned to get married at and they said that they fog was already coming in. For those of you not familiar with California fog, it really means a cold, windy wall of gray that envelops the coast so you can’t see anything. We decided to change our plans and just stay at the Inn instead.

Silvana took photos of me in our amazing suite. We ended up getting the best room in the house, a giant suite with a huge bathroom and a private balcony. It was better than I could ever have imagined. I was more nervous about having my picture taken than of getting married in a little while. I didn’t know what to do with my hands or my head or where to look. But Silvana was really wonderful, directing me when I needed it but otherwise just letting me relax and be me. I felt really comfortable with her, especially after I had to get her to help me put my top on over my hair about five minutes after I met her! A good ice breaker if there ever was one.

When it came time for the ceremony, Stephen, Joe, and Silvana got a spot ready up some steps on the hill by the Inn and I waited inside the room trying to figure out if I should carry my purse out with me or not (it was holding my vows). I ended up leaving it and just carrying my bouquet with the vows tucked in the middle. Cindi, the Innkeeper, suggested that she blast some music from our room so that I’d have walking out music. So when everyone was ready, she turned it up and walked out. We had a very cheesey moment as “Lady in Red” started playing just as I emerged (fitting since the top of my dress is red).

The ceremony went really well. Joe did a wonderful job of being serious and funny during his part, and Stephen and my vows went together really well even though we had written them separately and hadn’t shared them until that moment (he memorized his and I ended up just winging mine, not wanting to read from the paper–in all the commotion I had forgotten to read over it before the ceremony). Silvana did a wonderful job of taking beautiful, intimate photos without any of us even noticing she was there. Joe screwed up his one official officiant line he had to say, so we had to do a little do-over back down at the house. But that seemed right, too. Everything was lovely and perfect and we drank some delicious champagne courtesy of my cousins in France (thanks Coco and Mine!) while we took some couples photos and just relaxed and were silly.

After the ceremony Joe, Steve, and I hung out in the room and snacked and talked before we changed and drove to Berkeley to drop Joe off at his friend’s house for the night. Steve and I ate at our favorite sushi restaurant (Joshuya). It was amazingly delicious, as always. And then we went back to the Inn where there was a plate of delicious brownies (Cindi leaves treats all around the house!) and our giant room waiting for us.

It was really a perfect wedding day for us. Just what we wanted, even with all its hiccups. Joe and Steve were more nervous than I was, which seems right, too. And I couldn’t have been happier with my styling courtesy of the lovely ladies at the Castro Valley mall. Our photos are gorgeous, too. So important to us since we’re photo people and since we didn’t invite our friends and family. I highly recommend Silvana DiFranco Photography for anyone in the San Francisco area, or anywhere, really. She travels, too!

And now we’re in Tucson. Getting to know a new place and about to start a new adventure. It’s wonderful to sleep in the same place every night, to cook every day, to not be house guests anymore, and to have our cat Elizabeth back–who is just as fuzzy and vocal as ever.

I’m not sure if either of us has time to really process our trip yet. It was a giant undertaking. And I’m so glad we did it. It’s brought us closer to one another in so many ways. I don’t think I’d ever do it again, though. With all the great parts of it, it was also really challenging, exhausting, and sometimes not all that fun.

I plan on taking this blog and making it into a book along with the photos we took so that we have a more permanent keepsake from our trip. Maybe when that giant project is finished it’ll all seem more real.

It’ll be interesting to read what I’ve written this past year. I think I’ll remember a lot of things I had forgotten.

Provence, France.

It has been a long time since I last wrote. We have been both very busy and very lazy the past few weeks. There has been a lot of preparations and planning for coming home, getting married, and moving. Real life stuff has quickly taken over which is nice in its own way. Steve and I are both ready to be home again and then to move and make a new home. I still haven’t heard from Arizona about whether or not I’ve been accepted to their graduate program. Waiting is stressful and a little annoying, but there’s not much I can do about that. We had a nice time in Berlin and Frankfurt visiting our friends Nicole and Jan. It was nice to see Berlin again. It was a completely different experience, though, then when we were there five years ago. It was summertime then and the sun was always shining. In February Berlin was a dreary cold place where even when the sun was out it didn’t seem to fight the dark. We spent a lot of time just relaxing, but we did find the bus stop where we met for the very first time. So that was nice and cheesy. We were only in Frankfurt for a couple of days, but we got a nice tour of the city which is pretty small and nice. We could immediately tell the difference from Berlin–the metro was filled with people in suits and briefcases in Frankfurt where as in Berlin there were more mohawks, piercings, and trenchcoats. I watched my first European football match. It was a little boring. I was surprised by how whiney the players were. There was a lot of fake injuries trying to get penalties called. I guess that’s just how the game is played, but I thought it was pretty silly to see grown men pretending to be hurt.

We have been in France now for a week and it’s nice to visit my family and see the sites. We’ve been tourists again which has been fun. I convinced Steve to go to the Louvre with me, and it was really lovely. We got the audio guides which were well worth the money. I only wish they had information for all of the pieces of art as the placards at the Louvre are only in French and sometimes I’d be interested in something that wasn’t on the guide, but I was out of luck. I was disapointed by both the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Neither really captured my attention or my imagination. We’re in Provence now and it’s so beautiful and sunny. It’s wonderful to see the sun again. I’ve really noticed how much dreary, cold weather affects me. Yesterday I felt more awake and happy than I have maybe since coming to Europe and that was with waking up at 5:30 am to get the train to Avignon. TGV train tickets are very expensive, but we got a deal through the website iDTGV. The tickets should have cost us 300 euros for 2 roundtrip tickets from Paris to Avignon. Instead we got them for 150. We could have gotten them cheaper, too I think, if we would have booked them earlier.

So far we’ve had pretty good luck with transportation in Europe. There’s a bus line called Eurolines which has cheap bus tickets around Europe. We took them from Prague to Berlin for 50 euros. And we got a cheap train ticket from Berlin to Frankfurt–only 10 euros each. There is a special weekend ticket in Germany where up to 5 people can ride on one 40 euro ticket. We found a guy online who wanted 10 euros each to ride with him on his ticket. It worked out really well. We had to change trains three times, and it took longer than the more expensive, faster trains (it took us 9 hours) but since it was so cheap it was worth it. It was also nice to be traveling with someone who knew where he was going. We just hung out and he told us when it was our stop next and directed us to the next train. It was one of the least stressful trips we’ve had in a long time.

We fly to the US on the 24th. We got really cheap tickets then, too, through Aer Lingus. Under $1,000 for both of us one way Paris to NYC. So we’ve been having good transporation luck lately. We’re going to spend two days in New York being tourists. Neither of us has been there before and we’re looking forward to seeing the sites and hopefully going to a Broadway show. And then it’s a Greyhound Bus to Pennsylvania and seeing family and friends again. I think being back in the States is going to be a bit of a shock. It’ll be interesting to always understand what people are saying and to be able to ask questions and read menus again. And wedding and party planning is going really well, so that’s exciting too.

So everything’s good with us. We went to an amazing Picasso exhibit at the Cathedral of Images near Les Beaux. It was breathtaking. They took an old quarry and project images of artists on the walls. It’s all set to music, and the whole experience was one of the best we’ve had on the whole trip. Click Here to learn more about it. They feature different artists every ten months. The Website also has beautiful pictures that almost capture how awesome it is. Steve and I both highly recommend it to anyone traveling around Provence.

Prague, Czech Republic.

Things didn’t work out at the farm. Last week was a very stressful week for us. I got an email Sunday from one of the graduate schools I applied to saying they were missing something from my application, and that I had one week to turn it in. But they didn’t say what. I tried frantically emailing the woman to ask what it was I was missing (after checking online that everything was checked off as being done and that they’d received my transcripts). She didn’t respond. Finally on Wednesday I emailed her again and also the Graduate Division as a whole, and my Department. I also had Steve’s sister Laura call them, since I realized I had put her down as an authorized representative (smart thinking). Finally Laura got some answers. It seems they were missing my entire application (for the Graduate Division. The department’s application was mailed in and they received it). Pretty confusing when I could look at it online and see that it was both there and marked off as submitted. But it was some sort of computer glitch, and a couple of very nice people fixed the problem and everything is okay now. But I could’ve done and said not so nice things to the woman who didn’t respond to me until I wrote everyone else, too. I’m trying to tell myself that maybe she was out sick, but when she finally emailed me it wasn’t apologetic.

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(near) Gospic, Croatia (the birthplace of Nikola Tesla).

What a week! We have survived our first week working on a farm in the Croatian winter. And so far it’s been really good. Today is our first day off, and it’s a true day off since we’re planning on doing absolutely nothing and Silja (pronounced Celia), the other WWOOFer here is graciously taking care of the horses (we’re going to rotate Sunday horse duty–letting them outside, cleaning their stalls, and letting them back in at night and giving them food, tea (!) and their medicines).

We took the bus from Zadar to Gospic on Saturday after spending Friday wandering around Zadar. We had a nice day Friday enjoying the beautiful city. The sea organ was absolutely amazing. Whoever thought them up is a genius. The one in Zadar is very subtle. There are steps at the ocean and you can sit on them and listen to the waves and the organ sounds that the waves make as they hit the underwater stuff that makes it work. (I have no idea how they work and the internet here is too slow and temperamental to try to look it up right now.) But it was beautiful. Very relaxing and pretty. We had a delicious dinner of meats and gravy and potatoes. And we went to bed early to escape the cold and to get a good night’s sleep before getting up at 6 again the next morning to get to the bus station on time. Read the rest of this entry »

Zadar, Croatia.

Our last few days in Italy were pretty uneventful. It kept raining. I got over my cold with the help of lots of naps. We ate a lot of pizza and salads and drank yummy wine. It was cold, but we still tried different gelato combinations (blackberry and lemon was my favorite). We never went to a museum or did anything cultural. It was a nice vacation from our vacation.

We ended up getting very cheap train tickets to Ancona (port town on the Italian coast where you get ferries to Croatia and Greece). They were only 14 euros each for the 5 hour trip and compared to the 25 euros each for the 2 hour ride from Milan to Florence, that was a great deal. We left at around ten in the morning. We had a nice walk from our guest house (it was called Losanna and was near the synagogue. That whole area of town was really nice and quiet with a wonderful daily market and a cute little park nearby) to the train station, stopping to buy sandwiches on the way. The closer we got to the coast the clearer the skies got. By the time we reached the sea it was sunny and warm. We walked from the train station to the ferry. It was a short walk but pretty confusing. Eventually someone pointed us in the right direction. We might have been lost forever among the docks and different buildings. We easily bought tickets (55 euros each for the cheapest beds) and had a five hour wait before we could board our boat (the Marko Polo) at eight. They had a shuttle bus from the ticket office to the boats and a man told us we could leave our bags there. We got on the shuttle bus and it did a loop around and then stopped back at the ticket office where we started. We giggled and looked confused and finally let the driver know where we wanted to go. He said, yes, that’s where he goes next. We were the only ones on the bus and I wonder if he was messing with us or if the loop served any purpose. We made it to our stop but couldn’t find the place to leave our bags, so we just sat in a waiting room reading and relaxing.

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Florence, Italy.

It’s been an interesting couple of days. Mostly good, really. I feel like I should go back a bit and sum up our last few days in Thailand…

We spent the rest of our time on Koh Tao laying around and snorkeling. We did a day long snorkeling trip where we went by boat all around the island (and to the little private island just off the main island). It was really fun. We saw a lot more fish, learned about the fish and coral in the area (we took the only tour company on the island that advocates education and sustainability as part of their trips. And they didn’t even cost more. I can’t remember their name…but they’re part of a swanky resort and they advertise all over). It was a good day. I took some more underwater photos, and they turned out okay. It doesn’t do it justice in the least, but what do you expect from a cheap underwater camera?

The ferry and bus ride back to Bangkok was okay. Steve didn’t get sick, and we both sat up on the deck. It was in the morning so I think that made a big difference. Being back in Bangkok, I realized how noisy that city is! Or at least the touristy area we were staying in. It was hard to have a conversation while walking around in the street. I felt like we were screaming to each other just to communicate. We got our last cheap massages, and they were wonderful. Probably the best yet. We didn’t go for the traditional Thai massages since I read that they’re more torture than relaxation. So we got Swedish massages. But they threw in a little Thai flavor at the end. I was all happy and relaxed and then I was told to sit up. My massage lady had me lock my hands behind my head. Then she proceeded to put me in a full nelson, wrap her leg around my lap and break me in half. It was terrifying! To be fair, it felt amazing on the first side because I didn’t know what was happening. But then when she put her other leg onto my lap and started pulling me the other way I got nervous and it wasn’t so fun. It didn’t exactly hurt. It was just a little freaky. Steve, on the other hand, loved his torture ending. So everyone’s different.

On a sad note, my camera broke. The lens cover won’t open when I turn the camera on. I tried fiddling with it with a Qtip and it worked again for about two days. So now I’m basically camera-less. But we’re going to take it to a Panasonic place today in Florence to see if they can fix it. I’m sad. But hopefully it’ll work out okay.

Our flight from Bangkok to Dusseldorf went pretty well. We didn’t have our own tv monitors at our seats, so that was a big disappointment. But they fed us a lot and played movies throughout the 12 hour flight, so it wasn’t too bad. When we got to Dusseldorf at 6 pm we changed into warmer clothes and called our friend Florian who we met in Ecuador. He came and got us at the airport and we had a fun night walking around Dusseldorf freezing cold. We didn’t sleep on the plane, and with the time difference we were very tired. We only slept a few hours at his place before we had to get up to get the train back to the airport. We had a bit of a scare when the online train schedule turned out to be wrong and we had to wait at the tracks for a while for our train. But we ended up arriving at the airport on time and everything was okay.

When we arrived in Milan we got a bus to the central train station and decided just to take the train to Florence instead of trying to figure out the bus. The buses were cheaper, but in the end we were way too tired to try to deal with it. It was nice to arrive in Florence again. I like it just as much as I did when I was here 6 (or 7?) years ago with my friend Joe and his parents. Even though now it’s a lot colder and it’s raining. But the food is delicious, the city is gorgeous and the people are very friendly. We’re having a great time pigging out on bread and cheese and wine. I had the most delicious pumpkin stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce with fresh mint last night. It was a big splurge (which we’re making up for today by eating market food and pizza–so we’re still not suffering) but definitely worth it. There’s a few things trying to rain on my parade, though. The rain, literally, for one. It was clear skies when we got here, but since then there’s been a constant drizzle. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop while we’re here. It’s also freezing cold. It’s a nice change, but we had to buy some warm clothing. Luckily we found a secondhand shop and I got a warm hat, a scarf for each of us, a wool turtle neck, and a Woolrich button-up that reminds me of my nana and very much looks like it belongs on a horse farm! I also was pooped on. Stupid pigeons! Only in Florence could I be shat on and still be happy, I think. Luckily I was wearing my raincoat, so it was a pretty easy clean-up. We also got kicked out of our first hotel! We found this cute little hotel for only 24 euros a night. We slept there the first night and then went out the next morning to walk around the city. When we got back to the hotel that night we walked into our room and there were people in our bed watching tv! I think we were all shocked and lots of Italian followed. When I asked the reception guy what was going on, he said that we were supposed to check out that morning because they were all booked for that night. We, obviously, were never told that we had to check out the next morning. The man who checked us in never mentioned it when we checked in, and the same man didn’t mention it when I spoke with him that morning before we left for the day. Check out was at 10 am. We left after 10 am and he said nothing. I was furious. Especially since we were tired and cold from walking around (this was after I bought the new, warmer clothes but before I had a chance to change into them). The man helped us find a new hotel, though, which was nice. And he informed us that it was only that night they were all booked up, so if we wanted to come back…. So stupid. This sort of thing just really annoys me. If they would have just told us, we still would have stayed there and we would have come back. It was a cute place and it was cheap (our new place is 30 euros a night). But now we don’t like them, so we’re not going to go back.

I also have a cold. Which isn’t surprising since the drastic change in weather and temperature, 14 hours on planes, and not sleeping for 48 hours. But otherwise things are good. We’re taking a train to Ancona (on the coast) on Thursday, where we’ll get an overnight ferry to Zadar, Croatia. We’ll spend the night there on Friday and then take a bus to Gospic on Saturday where we’ll meet Bozidar from Linden Tree Retreat. I’ve looked into the Croatian food situation and looks like they have very similar food to Italy. So that’s great! Although all of this bread and cheese after no bread and cheese for so long is a little overwhelming! But I think I’ll get over that! Speaking of bread and cheese, it’s time to go to the farmer’s market and get some yummy food for lunch. Then we need to see about getting my camera fixed and we’re going to buy our wedding rings! We picked rings out the other day on the famous jewelry bridge in Florence. So despite the rain, I think it’ll be a good day (unless the camera man gives me bad news. But I’ll deal with that when it comes).

Bangkok, Thailand.

Tomorrow we fly. We’re off to Italy (via Germany)! Goodbye Asia! Hello Europe! A lot has happened over the past few days, so I have a lot to catch up with the blog. But I’ve been so busy trying to upload all of my pictures from S.E. Asia, that I forgot all about writing! And now it’s 9 pm, I haven’t had dinner (but I had a very late lunch) and I need to pack and get some sleep before tomorrow. So, updates will have to wait! I haven’t quite finished with the photos, but we’ve made it to Angkor Wat and there’s only a little bit more to go–including some underwater photos of snorkeling!

We’re both excited about being cold, eating Italian food and drinking wine, seeing our friend Florian in Dusseldorf (we have an overnight layover so we’re going to get some food and possibly crash at his place tomorrow night), and soon going to Croatia to WWOOF. I’ll try to make some time during our few days in Florence to write some more. But one happy bit of news I have to share–I got into UC Santa Barbara for graduate school! Yay! Real life is quickly catching up with the trip. But I’m glad. Especially since the real life things are all happy!

Koh Tao, Thailand.

Wow! This place is amazing! We’re definitely enjoying our island paradise. It’s just what we needed after 8 months of traveling around. Koh Tao is beautiful. We took an overnight bus from Bangkok and then the speed ferry from hell. The bus ride went pretty smoothly. We didn’t sleep much, and it arrived hours before it was supposed to (which shouldn’t be a problem, but we expected to arrive at 7 am, but we arrived at 3 am which meant a lot less time to try to sleep on the bus). We had about 45 minutes of waiting around on the pier before loading onto the ferry. It was still so dark outside (being 3:45 and the sun doesn’t come up until 6:30 here) that walking down the pier was a little frightening (in sandals, with my heavy bag on and not so closely spaced, flimsy looking boards making up the pier). Stephen gets seasick, so we were already prepared for a not-so-pleasant ride. Happily, Stephen did not puke. But I think that everyone else around me did. At some point Steve decided to go up top to sit on the deck to try to get some fresh air and ease a little of the stomach flips (the boat was just slapping up and down in the water which at first was sort of fun–butterflies in the stomach and all–but it got old quick). I don’t get seasick, but I was so incredibly tired that I felt generally crappy and exhausted. I leaned my head against a little window sill and tried to sleep/ignore all of the commotion. Shortly before Steve left the girl in front of us started puking. Her boyfriend had asked us if we had a bag of some sort for her. We did, but it turned out it had a hole in it (sorry!). I was surprised that little barf bags weren’t passed out or readily available anywhere for us. After Steve left all gastro-intestinal hell broke loose. I swear I was surrounded by retching. It was awful. I plugged my ears, closed my eyes and tried to go to a happy place. Luckily Koh Tao was the first island stop, and we disembarked soon after all of the sickness. It was still very dark when we got on firm ground and we decided to just wander and find a place to sleep since according to our guidebook there were a bunch of bungalows just down the street. It took us a few minutes to find our way and to wake up a sleeping guesthouse owner to show us a bungalow. But just as the sun was coming up we were lying down to finally get some sleep and trying to ignore the fact that it felt like the bed was still moving!

We woke up around 10:30, got some yummy Thai food (it’s so good!) and started to explore our little island. We were staying in the main area of the island, near the piers, where there were lots of bungalows, dive shops, internet cafes, and people. After reading the book a little we decided that we wanted to go to a more private area for a few days of solitude and snorkeling. We wanted to get over to Tanote Bay to check out the accommodation before committing ourselves with our heavy bags. So we decided to hike across the island to check it out. It ended up being more than we bargained for. It was hot and the dirt roads were so washed out from the previous rainy season that they were treacherous even to walk on. We got turned around a couple of times since the free maps of the island weren’t very accurate. But we had lots of water and snacks and we made it to the bay before dark. We stopped at a restaurant in the mountains overlooking the bay. It was yummy food and a gorgeous view. We made a reservation for a little bungalow on the far side of the bay and we scheduled to have the guest house pick us up for free the next morning. We got a truck-taxi ride back to the main part of the island and went to bed! It had been a very long day!

We spent the last two days snorkeling around our little bay. The first morning we went out right away and headed towards some rocks that the guest house worker pointed out to us. We saw angel fish, hard coral, and Steve even saw a little reef shark! It was beautiful, but the sky was a little cloudy and it ended up raining a little in the afternoon (we napped!). The next day we headed out to the middle of the bay where we had seen a bunch of people snorkeling the day before. It was absolutely amazing. So many fish. Such beautiful colors. There was mostly hard coral, but all different kinds! Some looked like brains, others were neon green, there were big columns of coral with rounded tops and hollow bowls at the top where little fish swam. We saw a couple of soft, purple coral with little purple fish swimming in and out of them. There were schools of hundreds of little fish which we would chase and they would break apart into smaller and smaller groups until you weren’t sure where they all went! It was beautiful. Steve had so much fun diving down and chasing after fish! I am an amazing floater–really, I just hang out and don’t have to move and I float–but I can’t dive down for anything. So I just slowly float around, stopping in places where there are lots of fish and just watching until they all surround me. When I was little we had a giant fish tank in my house and we had all different kinds of fish in it (all fresh water). I used to love to watch the fish and to go with my dad to aquariums to buy new fish. I’m surprised it took me this long to realize how much I’d love to snorkel! But I guess I never had a chance to try it out until we went to Baja two years ago.

One of the highlights of snorkeling for me was when this pretty fish about the size of my hand was swimming along and I was just slowly following it. It noticed me at some point and swam up in front of me. I stopped swimming and looked back at it. It came so close to my face that I could see its little fishy bucked teeth! We just stared at each other. I wasn’t moving so not to scare it, and it was just slowly waving its red fins. It was so close to my face that I could’ve touched it. It was awesome. After a little while it lost interest and slowly swam away. I followed, hoping to get its attention again. But then it found this pretty white fish with long finger-like tentacles around its mouth that was rooting around in the sand. The red fish followed this fish around, hoping to get some leftover food I imagine, and I followed the two of them around until I lost interest. It was so amazing that the fish seemed curious about me, too!

We ended the day, yesterday, when some sort of cloud of sperm came into the bay. It was crazy. We were swimming around and all of the sudden it was like we were swimming through a cloud of purple specks. It was everywhere. I couldn’t find my way out of it. When Steve dove down it wasn’t there, but towards the surface it was everywhere. We finally had to call it a day because we could barely see anything through it–and there were tons of fish having a feast!–and it was sort of gross when you thought about it. When we got back on shore the water looked dark purple from all of it washing up. And there were lots of dead shells trailing what looked like a long line of eggs. So we’re assuming that it was some sort of sea creature spawning. But it was sad that it ended our day of snorkeling a little early. It turned out my back was a bit burnt, so it was good that we stopped. We spent the rest of the day reading and lying in the hammock. Steve went out to give snorkeling another try, but he wasn’t out very long.

Now we’re back in the more populated part of the island. There is another bay called Mango Bay which is supposed to have amazing snorkeling, but it’s at the far Northern tip of the island and I’m not sure how we’ll get there. We can hike out, but there’s nowhere to stay (well, there’s one place that sounds very expensive) and we wouldn’t want to do the hike with our bags, anyway. So we might get a boat taxi or do one of the snorkeling day tours that they offer all around. It was great having a little secluded beach almost to ourselves for a couple of days, but we’re looking forward to being in a more populated area now, too.

We have our plane tickets all taken care of for Italy (Thanks Laura!). We fly out of Bangkok on the 29th. I can’t wait to eat yummy Italian food! I’ve been hungry for pizza for a while now, but I’m holding out for the good stuff! We also got confirmation from Linden Tree Retreat about WWOOFing there for two months. So after Italy it’s off to Croatia and snow and work. After all of this sun and beach I think we’ll both be ready for it.

We’re off to look for our next bungalow and to do some serious lying around on the beach!

Bangkok, Thailand.

We had a great day at Angkor Wat and around. We ended up only buying the one day pass ($20 each) and it was enough for us. We just get so bored with architecture and old stuff after a while. But I had fun taking photos the whole day. There were so many wonderful little details carved into the stone temples. It was great. Lots of little surprises if you looked hard enough. This was our first ancient ruin experience (and we’ve had lots of them over the past 8 months) that felt really adventurous. We could literally climb all over the fallen stones and ancient carvings. Other than all of the other tourists, it felt like we were discovering these amazing places. I took a lot of photos which I’ll try to upload soon (I’m so behind on uploading pictures. It’s daunting).

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Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We’re busy travel planning again, and things are changing daily, almost, so we’ve been pretty busy (and a little stressed). We had an okay time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. It was incredibly hot, which we’ve learned makes Gina very unhappy. It was almost impossible to get out and walk around between 11 am and 3 pm, and it got dark at 5:30, so there wasn’t much sight seing done. But we did go to the Palace area which was nice. It would have been nicer if the gardens were open because then we could have walked under nice, shady trees. We did see some beautiful architecture and more Buddhas, though.

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