Adventures Through Nature; By: Audra

Wow! These last three days have been filled with many explorations through the jungle outside of Chiang Mai. On our second day here, I went ziplining through the hills which was tons of fun. The next two days consisted of an overnight trek to a local village. I rode an elephant, whitewater rafted, bamboo rafted, and went on the most intense hiking trails of my life. My group slept in a bamboo hut with the locals. They also cooked dinner and breakfast for us, and I was able to spend some time playing with the kids there. The experience definitely opened my eyes to different life styles. I asked my guide about whether or not the kids went to school, and he told me they have a school but no teacher. Currently, the school is being used to house bunnies, which they eat.

Meanwhile, back in Chiang Mai, Christine has been exploring the city on "tuk tuks" and loving the open air. She also learned how to make seven classic Thai dishes in a full day cooking course!

Christine and I also decided to take advantage of the incredibly inexpensive custom clothes making opportunity in Asia. Christine had a dress made and I stocked up on dress shirts and a suit for my upcoming interviews with school principals.

This afternoon we head back to Bangkok in order to catch our morning flight back to CA. See you soon!

Arrived in Chiang Mai; By: Audra

After our twelve-hour overnight bus ride, we arrived in Chiang Mai (in northern Thailand). The bus entertained us with a screening of "New Moon," which Christine excitedly jumped for joy about when she learned the bus driver's choice...although only to be thoroughly disappointed by the bootlegged-copy which was in Spanish with Thai subtitles. Haha...Oh Thailand...So Christine slept for the rest of the night while Audra stayed up and "kept watch" (my mom will like that sailing-lingo!).

Here in Chiang Mai we'll be letting our separate interests split us up for a few days. I will going on a group trek in the jungle while Christine stays in town to take cooking and massage classes!

Off to Chiang Mai, Recap of Saigon! By: Christine & Audra

We leave for Bangkok tomorrow morning, we will be taking an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, Thailand. If we get robbed while we are sleeping, Christine will blame Audra.... But if Christine looses her backpack, that will be her own fault... :)

The last four days have been filled with some great times, and some sketchy times... We have taken taxis that have ripped us off, then tried to walk to avoid the taxis, only to be almost hit by seas of motorbikes. But our times here were filled with pleasant experiences as well. Yesterday, we took a private cooking class where we learned how to make banana lotus salad, carmelized pork in clay pot, steamed rice with ginger, and sweet and sour starfruit soup with clams. It was all so delicious and was a highlight of our trip so far... :)

The day before, we took a day tour out to the Cu Chi Tunnels where we were able to climb through tunnels that the VC built during the American War. It was quite the experience as we were able to walk through an authentic tunnel and see the Vietnamese perspective on the war.

Audra of course, has enjoyed a plethora of new tropical fruit. We went to a fruit stand and picked out every single fruit we had never seen or tried and are still working on sampling our selection.

Being in Vietnam was definitely an adventure. We learned many lessons and have had many great bowls of pho. See you Chiang Mai!

Love you all,
C & A

Adventurous Times in Saigon! By: Christine

Spent a relaxing last day in Phuket, I spent the last of my Thai Baht on an oil massage, then took the mini bus to the airport to catch our flight to Saigon! Flight went very well, and despite the many screaming children on our flight, we made it!

Got a bit lost on our way to the hotel, but nothing we couldn't handle. :) Found a cozy little hotel with two twin beds for Audra and I, and I passed out before my head even hit the pillow!

Oh, I forgot to mention I left my backpack in the taxi cab and we had quite the adventurous 2 minutes chasing after the cab, jumping in another cab, and basically riding in a high speed car chase while the taxi driver successfully hunted down the first driver! So... despite how much my mother would have LOVED to see me loose my bag as a valuable lesson learned, sorry to say mom, not this time!! My luck was just too good! :)

So excited for the food, I think that here I will finally get my fix for noodles satisfied! Okay, off to see the famous Ben Thanh Market!

XOXO
Christine

Island Hopping By: Audra

Our last three days have been filled of island fun and adventure! Yesterday we went on a sea canoe trip to a cluster of islands off of Phuket. We literally had to lie down in the canoe (because the cave is too low to sit up) and then got to a beautiful lagoon with long-tailed macaques (for all of you non-anthropologists, a macaque is monkey). They were just feet from us! At night we went for a night canoe and saw the phytoplankton all lit up in the water like stars in the sky. So amazing! Today we went snorkeling and saw lots of bright fish. This evening, while out exploring, we stumbled upon the Phuket annual carnival, which added to our selection of amazing foods-- I had a banana nutella Thai pancake and Christine and I also got some more fresh fruit.

Tomorrow we head to Vietnam...more later!

Koh Mak! By: Christine

Left Bangkok early this morning (not without one last banana chocolate pancake from the corner food stand which is open 24 hours a day to accomodate hungry backpackers) to catch a flight to Trat, a small town in the south east corner of Thailand close to the border of Cambodia. We then took a ferry to the small remote island of Koh Mak. Our guesthouse is gorgeous and lies right on the beach! Today was spent resting and lounging around in hammocks... Our guesthouse restaurant serves some delicious food as well! Audra had Chicken Pad Thai and I enjoyed some delicious fresh scallops with garlic pepper dressing!

We walked the ten minutes it took to get into "town" and are off to enjoy some dinner.....

Tooodle Loooo!

XOXO,
Christine

Fruit, fruit, fruit! Mmmm; By: Audra

Today has been filled with lots of new fruit! We went to the floating market, which is where boats float around selling food and goods to shoppers who are also in boats. We tried lots and lots of new food-- especially all sorts of fresh fruit. I had coconut milk straight from the coconut (tasty and fun!). After the market the boat took us down the canal for a ride.

Tomorrow we're heading to an island for some relaxation (a nice change from our exhausting travel days!). There's no blue sky in Bangkok, but the island should solve that problem. My nature-quenching self is looking forward to a break from the big city!

Talk to you again soon!