We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

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.

The hardest thing about following the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (besides the fact that hardly anyone here ever thinks about snow) is the 15 hour time difference. We did manage to find a bar called Choppers here on Koh Tao that was playing Olympic coverage on a Hong Kong feed of ESPN, and we successfully watched Canada beat Slovakia in men’s hockey the other day.

We were determined to watch the gold medal game as well, except that the time difference meant that Canada would face the USA at 3:15 a.m. local time. Unfortunately, our gecko-inhabited beach hut is sans-satellite TV, so we asked Choppers bar if they might consider keeping some unusual hours for the sake of us obsessive hockey fans. It seems that enough people must have asked the same thing, because sure enough, by mid-afternoon the day before, the big game was written on the chalkboard outside: “Olympic Hockey, Gold Medal Game, Live at 3:00 a.m.”

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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.

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After nearly two weeks of working in Sungai Geringging, the time has come for us to carry on with our travels. As I wrote before, it was an incredibly inspiring two weeks for both of us. The work that HODR is doing is fantastic, and we are especially appreciative of their approach to volunteer work. Unlike so many other organizations, HODR doesn’t ask for money when you volunteer. Although this creates some operational difficulties, it makes the organization much more accessible to people who might otherwise not get involved. Being on a tight budget as we travel, it’s quite likely that we wouldn’t have shown up at all had it cost us anything. I believe it’s a wonderful approach to take, and I hope that they are able to continue on this way indefinitely. It is a wonderful cornerstone to the approach HODR takes to volunteering.

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Most days I am part of a salvage team. This means we spend most of our time chinking bricks or river rock from mortar. Sometimes we push down walls. We are always surrounded by hoards of adorable children who should probably be in school. They gather around and stare at the ‘boulays’. Today we had a bit of fun with them.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve in Maninjau, Indoneasia, with two new friends from Seattle and with a great big bonfire on the lakeside. Bring on 2010! Best wishes to all of you in the new year — do something you’ve always wanted to do, or go somewhere you’ve always wanted to go. Happy New Year!

We had some extra time on our hands during our cruise over to Singapore, so we put together this little project.

Merry Christmas everyone! We miss you all.

This afternoon we board our cruise ship, final destination: Singapore. We’ll be in Egypt in two days! Hard to believe. We’re really excited about having a room to settle into for the next 24 days, even though many other aspects of the cruise are making us feel a little unsettled at times. More to come on that soon; for now, we just can’t wait to board and set sail!

This brings an end to our European leg of the journey — at least for now. We’re looking forward to all of the new and exotic experiences that await us elsewhere.