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Great big blog birthday wishes to my partner in wanderings. The day will be spent scooting an snorkeling around Koh Tao. If our new power adapter comes in from Bangkok what a birthday it shall be.
Also happy birthday to my wonderful supportive Mother Goose who turns 60 today.
Beaches, bridge and broken power adaptrs
March 4th, 2010
Tags: Thailand
Posted in Thoughts | 2 Comments »
You may have noticed a brief lull in our posting. You could blame it on the fact that we are on Koh Tao, a tropical Thai paradise island with ample snorkel and relaxation opportunity. You could blame it on Mike and Sarah: we are having way too much fun and playing way too many hands of bridge (or not enough, no such thing as too much bridge). Or you could blame it on the fact that our computer power adapter has hit the fan. Ironically, it ceased charging our computer just days after purchasing a new battery. We have to pay exorbitant amounts of Baht to receive a new one here in Thailand. The new battery and power adapter monetarily equate to a new iPad. Oh how I wish we had one of those over my clunky old Powerbook. Our new power cord is supposed to arrive today. We are hoping they got it right and we’ll be back online with photos and fun in no time.
Our wonderful kindred couple friends Mike and Sarah have come all the way to Bangkok to visit us! We are beyond excited to see them. After allowing them some time to recover from their 25 hour journey, we’ll be heading over to Cambodia to visit Ankor Wat. After that we’ll be parking it on a beach on Koh Tao for a couple weeks. Beaches, bridge and Mike and Sarah: our most favourite things in the world. Life is good.
One of my favourite aspects of travel is that it helps me to appreciate where I’m from. Mobile phone rates aside, I am so proud of my home and native land.
Mark and I were feeling especially proud after having watched the Olympic opening ceremonies. Our dear friend Rachel generously gave us a night at her fly guesthouse in Vientiane and our room had a t.v. for us to watch it on. We both got goosebumps and all teary-eyed for home while watching.
We’ll be following the action as much as possible and wishing we were at home to be a part of it.
THE thing to do in Laos, on the backpacker circuit, is tubing in Vang Vieng. It’s not just backpackers making their way here, it has become a Euro/Aussie spring break destination as well. It’s a freakish sort of adult fantasy land with bikinis, booze, adrenaline and breathtaking scenery. As odd as it felt to find this party vibe in the middle of rural Laos, we couldn’t miss out and allowed ourselves to have a fantastic time of it.
The idea is to gently float down the Nam Song river, stopping in at riverside bars along the way to become completely inebriated on buckets of alcohol and beer whilst enjoying and/or injuring yourself on the multitude of slides, swings and ziplines into the water.
Good movie, if you don’t consider the plot and the dialogue. However, this is about a blog avatar. If you’d like a little photo of yourself to appear when you comment on people’s blogs, like wewander.ca, it’s easy! Go to gravatar and sign-up. The photo is related to whatever email you sign up with. So whenever you type in your email to a site like ours it will automatically appear! FYI.
What to wear. A dilemma I face every morning. Back home I’m the type of person who tries on 5 different outfits before walking out the door with my shirt on inside out. You would think this would be an easy decision for me now that I’m traveling. I have an extremely limited selection from which to choose. Pants A or pants B? Shirt A or shirt B? Not so.
Although I’ve never considered myself stylish per se, I like to think that I have style. Fashion is a means for expressing said style. What you put out there for the world to see influences not only other peoples impression of you but more importantly your own self-confidence and outlook. Fashion contributes to feeling good about yourself and feeling good about yourself is important, even when living out of a backpack. Especially when living out of a backpack.
Mark proudly presents his shiny purple scooter helmet, called “Space Crown”.
“Fragrant Recall
Very Lovely Smile
= Joy Time
We in life lucky”
~ As read on a blanket in our guesthouse in Pak Beng.
Our second stop en route to Laos was the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Although the city is riddled with noisy traffic and is ridiculously westernized, it is still very charming. The central part of the city, where most of the tourists are concentrated, is islanded off by a moat/canal keeping most of the traffic to the perimeter. We spent just two nights in Chiang Mai allowing our well-trodden travel bodies to recover just slightly. We spent our time meandering along the narrow streets of the centre, visiting wats, markets and tasting the local street treats. We got our first Thai massages at the affordable price of around $3.50 Canadian. Mark had masseuse envy because mine was doing all sorts of great things, climbing up and down my back and legs, stretching and pulling me in all sorts of directions. I think Mark was envious not because of my masseuses fine skills but because she was young and cute whereas his was old and haggard. He will admit to this partially.
