There's no place like home. (Certainly not anything like the Thai islands...)

After almost two full months of backpacking through some of the most fascinating areas of SE Asia, there was no better way to end a trip then at the southern beaches of Thailand. Limestone cliffs claimed the sky to the east, the ocean to the west, and white sandy beaches of coconut palms in the middle. And living in a two story open air bungalow just steps from the beach... paradise. We spent our last few days together soaking up the hot sun at Railay Beach in Krabi Thailand. We found Nemo scuba diving off the coast of Koh Phi Phi Island, exchanged Secret Buddha (like Secret Santa) gifts, worked on our tans (maybe a little too much), went hiking to mystery caves in the pitch black of night with only one flashlight, and just relaxed in the 80 degree Fahrenheit water.

Looking back, my SE Asia adventure was everything and more that I had ever imagined it to be. I left on my trip with one backpack, no blisters, full bottles of sunscreen and bug spray, restless feet, a thirst for adventure, a hunger for Asian food, on a quest of self discovery. I came back with THREE bags, still no blisters!, an array of bugbites (I can play connect the dotes on my legs), 2000 pictures, innumerable memories, an empty bank account, an inspired soul, new knowledge of blackholes, an appreciation of western style toilets, a love of curry, an addiction to pad thai, so many emails and facebooks from acquaintances in Cambodian high schools to Thai rock climbers to a Spanish massage student, and so many new friends I want to keep in touch with forever!

Thank you to everyone that has followed my blog and/or my facebook pictures! Thank you for all your comments, it was wonderful to be able to share my journey with you.

Birds, Fish, and Temples Oh My!

When someone tells you that tonight you will be sleeping in a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, images of an island came to mind, a few bamboo huts surrounded by water perhaps. But it turned out when they said floating village, they literally meant floating! And not just floating houses, they had floating gardens, floating schools, floating stores, floating compost heaps, floating children on giant tires...and not a piece of land in sight! One of the best parts about living on a floating lake: if your neighbors are up too late being loud or have a yappy dog just tow your home sweet home to another location! Literally, we saw a boat towing a house and its floating garden go right by us. (I consider loud neighbors a possible problem because I did see a little bamboo shack with not only a tv but a stereo and large speakers...) Bad parts about staying on a lake? Mosquitoes and lack of familiar sanitary practices. The bathroom at our homestay household consisted of squatting over a large crack in the floorboards. Although some people might argue whether seeing the sunrise and the birds at the wildlife sanctuary in the morning was worth the trip out to the lake, I enjoyed the experience!

Nothing feels better after the sweltering hot day and night in Tonle Sap then a jump in the hotel pool. But another problem after months on the road is sore, tired feet. Fortunately, Siem Reap has a cure for such inflictions as Emily and I found out, wandering through the Night Market. Dr. Fish! "A pedicure and massage all in one!" says the amusing man to everyone that walks by what appears to be a square tub of water with hysterically laughing tourists sitting on the edges with their feet dangling in... On a closer look, it is full of fish! Basically a giant fish bowl full of little fish hungry for dead skin. Yes it sounds revolting. But its quite fun. For some reason, maybe I had a lot of dead skin, but the fish loved me almost as much as the mosquitoes did on the lake. Their mouths tickle soooo much! Emily and I were rolling with laughter, and sorry to the poor little fish I might have kicked when the tickle got too extreme and I jerked my feet out of the water... So we might have been in Siem Reap to see the magnificent Angkor temples but before I describe these wonders of ancient civilization I just had to share our appointment with Dr. Fish...


So I don't really know how to transition from fish cleaning my feet to the Angkor Temples... But hum the Indiana Jones theme song for a second and that might help. One of the first things I discovered about the temples is that it is more then just one temple. Much much more. Its an entire civilization! Built from the 9th to the 15th century, these sandstone marvels have withstood landmines, the engulfing jungle, and looters. We have spent the last three days exploring the many temple mountains and shrines, each built by an succeeding king of the Khmer empire, trying to out do the last. Thank goodness for our wonderful tuk-tuk drivers who transported us all over the place. Pictures do the best to describe Angkor. I am loading them to facebook right now... Too many pictures! Here is a preview...

"Co yum jo jet ple pomme" (I like apples)

The subject of this post is sadly the only phrase I remember from the two hours we spent at the local high school in Takeo, Cambodia. Not to mention we were supposed to be helping them with their English...I think we needed way more help with our Khmer. We had a blast trying to pronounce their language and playing twister and pictionary with the class of seniors! Later that day we played basketball with competitive girl's team coached by the Peace Corps volunteer Derek that was also staying with Siphen and Mach, we found out a couple days ago they just won their province championships! Yay Tigers! The school is home to over 2000 students who study their from 7 to 11, bike home for lunch, then from 2 to early evening. We were brought to the school by Siphen and Mach, our homestay parents for the three nights we spent at their house. And their house is like no other! Where else can you relax on a grass thatched open air patio watching Planet Earth on a projector screen hearing the birds and crickets outside mingle with the sounds of the movie. It was surreal!

Overall, an awesome way to begin our Cambodian journey! Since then we have discovered the not so pretty side of Cambodia. My visits to the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields in Phenom Penh were both intense experiences of learning about the Khmer Rouge. And the fact most hard to believe is that these events did not happen too long ago. And then to experience Cambodia's extreme poverty like we did today going to the Stung Meanchey rubbish dump...really drags on your soul. We all wore blue masks on our short walk into the horrific smell. Out of the smelly haze little shacks that people call home started to appear and then workers appear with their bags of garbage treasures, mostly recyclable materials that earn them about $1 a day per family. Little kids ran barefoot, barefoot!, on the heaps of disgusting trash. Some piles smoke and burn. It is hard to breath. I can't even imagine the lives of these families living off the dump. The worst part is the children. Most families force their kids to work night and day collecting trash to support their poverty lifestyle. However we joined up with an NGO organization that provides relief, education, fun, and three meals a day to the rubbish dump children. A lucky 15 kids partnered up with the 15 of us Pacific Discoverers for a fun day at a puppet show! We watched the show of brightly costumed puppeteers that jumped and danced a story of epic porportions! Then learned how to make puppets, play the instruments, dance, and put on our own show. It was so much fun! But the hardest part was watching the bus depart with our new little friends, knowing they were headed back to the dump, leaving me humbled by their happy and enthusiastic good byes despite the circumstances. It might have just been 15 children that we got to treat to a fun day, but every little bit is something.

That is all on Cambodia for now! I wish I could have talked more about Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields but it was too intense to blog. Pictures will hopefully come eventually. The internet isn't too great here. Until next time!

(Picture of the monument at the Killing Fields)

Hello Moto!: A Motorbike Thrillride

I can now say I have experienced the infamous Vietnam traffic! From learning how to confidently cross a roundabout intersection in Hanoi rush hour to sitting on a huge bus feeling like an island in a sea of kamikaze motorbikes, to actually riding on the back of one with one hand gripping the seat and my camera in the other. It all began a couple weeks ago arriving in Hanoi...in the middle of rush hour. Some information for your imagination is that Hanoi's population is 6 million and of that, there are 3 million motorbikes. And at dinnertime I think they are all one the road. In fact I think the whole city is in the street! If not on the back of a bike (I've seen whole families, parents and kids!) then they are selling you dvds, clothes, fruit, anything!

The key to crossing the street is to NOT STOP. Its an art, to know how to keep calm as traffic just flows around you. Its kind of like crossing a river, the water doesn't stop it just keeps going. Its hard not to freak out when motorbikes dodge you as horns go off everywhere. I would never attempt to cross a street this crazy in the states. But its exhilarating! Often we would reach the other side so proud of ourselves we would laugh and cheer...yes we are tourists...

Thankfully our adventures actually riding a motorbike took place in a city not quite as crazy as Hanoi. In Hue, a night train distance south, we mounted on the backs of the two-wheeled honking motorbeasts that we'd been chased and dodging all week and set off follow-the-leader style out into the rice paddies. Our drivers were awesome. Mine helped me with my helmet and pointed out places of interest as we crossed bridges and transitioned from paved streets to village corridors to raised bumpy stone paths between rice fields. We visited many locations on our tour including a Japanese-style footbridge (See first picture) built in 1776 (I remembered thanks to Columbus) and the Buddhist pagoda famous for being the home of Thich Quang Duc the monk that burned himself alive in Saigon during 1963 to protest the Catholic regime(picture below). Over rice-covered hill and through another cemetery brought us to a French bunker just out of sight from Hamburger Hill. At this site, our guide noted the 4 young trees each planted at the prior location of 4 landmines (removed several years ago no worries!) Another fun place was the burial temple of some emperor...where by that time we were so overwhelmed with the heat we mostly just sat in the shade daring each other to drink "Bird's Nest." We did. Well not me...supposedly made from bird saliva...

Really, the places we visited were interesting! ...but the best part was flying through the city and countryside on the back of a bike! Especially when we got caught in Hue afternoon traffic, the hour when all students are travelling home and creates a melee of insanity I know my mom would never let me walk home in let alone ride a bike as most students did. Entering an intersection was an event of uncertain peril as bike were going left and right and straight all at the same time.

Overall I have to say, Vietnam is a motorbike mayhem. Honking is part of the soundtrack of daily life in Vietnam, it is a country on the move!

Now I am in Cambodia and Vietnam seems like such a long time ago...but I wrote this entry in my journal a while ago and finally had a chance to type it on the computer. More on Cambodia to come! Thanks for reading!

Junk Boats and Motorbikes

Well the good ole wet Western Washington weather caught up with me. And it just so happened to do so when I would least want it to turn cloudy. A few days ago our group of Pacific Discoverers boarded a Vietnamese "junk" boat to cruise the magnificant Halong Bay for three days and two nights. Thankfully it never really rained. I did abrubtly jump off the lime green lounge chairs off the top deck where I fell asleep one night when a few sprinkles hit my face but it stopped 10 seconds later and I was again able to regain my state of contented slumber under the occassional stars.

However the bay was still beautiful! The water is still a unique turquoise green blue and the thousands of limestone islands still rise out of it depths with the same brilliance. In fact, I think the misty conditions added a mystical affect to the landscape. Now I know, here I said I would be spending two months trekking through SE Asia volunteering and learning about different cultures and now here I am relaxing on a boat with catered meals and lounge chairs aplenty...but everyone deserves a break right?! And the food was one of the best parts...they made all kinds of seafood like crab, snapper, prawns, everything was delicious! To work it all off we explored the islands via kayak and also jumped off the boat every day for some swimming. The amount of boats in the water was incredible! Touring Halong Bay by a junk boat seemed a common tourist experience but definitely one to experience. And no tourist location is complete without snacks! But on the water they are called "floating 7-11s." haha

Speaking of tourism, I have yet to mention the importance that Pacific Discovery places on keeping an ecotourism approach to travelling. Ecotourism is all about leaving the places we visit exactly as we left them. We accomplish this by keeping money within the local community we visit, by using eco-friendly products and picking up our waste, by using locally operated tour guides, and by not just observing but interacting with the people we meet and the places we go. And it is so much fun to interact! At the Museum of Ethnology today in Hanoi, I met a group of young Vietnamese students who were learning English. I think I spent 20 min in a Q and A session with all of them, it was more fun then the museum! Its awesome feelings like these that really makes this trip awesome.

On the Rooftop of SE Asia

When I came on this trip, I had no intention of climbing any mountains. I figured the village treks would be more my style. However, give me an opportunity to do something unexpected and I will go for it! So yesterday, me and three other friends: Caity, ME, and Jack, decided to choose the most difficult trek offered: Mt Fansipan! Which at 11,000 ft, is SE Asia's tallest peak. The fact that this trek's description mentioned several times that it was treacherously hard worried us a little bit but hey, its a mountain, uphill is to be expected. However we did not account for the multiple ups and downs, it felt like we were climbing a million mountains! It got to the point that I thought if I had to go dopwn and all the way back up and more one more time...I was going to declare the view as good enough and call it done. But the hope and promise of the feeling of exalted victory of extreme accom0plishment upon reaching the summit was more then enough to keep me going! It was fun for a while, scrambling up and over boulders of rock, stepping on roots as stairs, and using bamboo as handrails. Every so often we would come out on a ridge with fantastic views of the valley and depressing views of how far we had to go still. One of my favorite parts of the long climb was walking along a ridge where my eyes were torn fromlooking over the wind-blown polant prairie landscape and at the same time, keeping an eye on my feet to not trip over any rocks. We reached the "high camp" at 2008m around 2:30 where we dropped off our packs and headed up the last 1000m with our cameras. Those last few hills were killer! My feet felt like lead. But the summit, an hour and a half later, was totally worth it! And thanks again to ME if she reads this for bringing that big Snickers bar to the top for a celebration treat! I have never climbed a mountain like that before, and the feeling of being abover everthing, literally at the distant foothills of the Himalayas and Mt. Everest, is AWESOME! Yes it is quite a distance to Mt. Everest...but the guide told us that Mt. Fansipan was in the foothills! sounds cool... We could see all the way down to Sapa, our base town, and all the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, the hazey smog that is inevitable this time of year hindered our view farther out, but still the view was amazing. In the end, the intense climbs, the cold and windy night at high camp, and the noodle and meat and vegetable soup for breakfast, was well worth this intense adventure.

Now I am glad to be back in the town of Sapa, which I might add, feelslike a fantasy oasis in itself. Those that have been to Europe compare it to Switzerland! I feel like I am sitting in a village on a hillside out of a storybook. Quaint Vietnamese houses with their wooden door and window frames surrounded by balconies make a beautiful contrast to the bright colors, green, turquoise, yellow, and a few gray, of the hotels. However descend down the cityscape, past the potted bamboo and skinny brick chimneys, and enter a scene comparable to China (according to my friend Jeremy). Women from every native tribe in the area constantly and relentlessly ask you to "please buy something from me" but the market is quite fun and the shops full of handicrafts and treasures.

Soon I will say goodbye to Sapa and board the night train once again for Hanoi. Then a van ride to Halong Bay where we set sail into the maze of islands that make up this natural wonder of the world!

here is a Sapa sunrise from my hotel room balcony...

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts that go with me through this journey. I have felt them throughout my trip and I say thanks for them every day!

Loving Laos!

Laos is the epitome of wild beauty. Misty mountains rise more majestically then the mightiest sky scrapers. I want to call life here as quiet and simple but the hard working Laotians in the abundant rice paddies contradict the easy lifestyle of my first impression. Not to mention the tiring work of moving from place to place, village to village, via the main sources of transportation: foot or boat. And we utilized both while in Laos. Roads are limited here, the road we took from the border to Luang Nam Tha was actually built and paid for by the Chinese government for economic trading purposes. Parts of the road had yet to be completed and were still only dirt and gravel.

Our first adventure in Laos was a two day trek along a spectacular ridge and down into a valley, climbing hills, jumping rocks through streams, and crossing "dancing" (they were a bit unstable) bamboo bridges, until we reached a Ankh village. This trek included a remarkably fabulous picnic lunch served on banana tree leaves, of sticky rice, fried vegetable, and fried fish. Whole fish I might add, scales head and all! But it was delicious! So were the homemade potato chips that had the perfect amount of natural sweetness to a hint of salt. I LOVE Lao picnics! In fact, the food in Southeast Asia is jut plain amazing in general!

Walking through the Ankh village was a fascinating experience. The children hilariously followed us around posing for pictures and laughing at themselves when we showed them our cameras. After our dinner, some of the children came back and gave us massages! Well...I might need a massage to recover from that massage. They cracked, or at least attempted to crack, every finger and toe! But it was one of the more entertaining massages ever! We laughed and traded Ankh words for English ones, counting loudly to ten in both languages and naming parts of the body as they gave us a vigorous rub. It was an awesome trek! And really fun to interact with the village!





February 9th, three days ago, we said good bye to the quaint Boat Landing Guesthouse in Luang Nam Tha, Laos, with its amazingly soft warm beds and solar-heated showers, to embark on a river adventure. Let's just say it started off on an interesting note before we even set foot on the small wooden boats. The past few mornings I think our group of 15 hungry, French-toast-loving explorers ate not only all the bread in the guesthouse but all the bread in the entire village! You definitely know you are in a poor country when a town runs out of bread. So with a breakfast of eggs and pancakes and a large order of fried rice wrapped in banana tree leaves for a sack lunch instead of sandwiches, we packed our stuff waterproof tight and loaded up.





Floating down the Nam Tha River was an exciting and sometimes perilous experience. Especially considering there was barely enough water in some places due to it being the dry season. Several times our expert boat crew had to turn off the motor and guide the boat with bamboo poles and paddles through the rocks. They could not have been more skilled! I think they know the Nam Tha better then I know how to get around my home town. Still, it was inevitable that we would hit a few rocks. Upon which the wooden boards would make a "bang!" and a scraping noise that left you frantically praying that the boat would neither A:get caught and tip or B:bust a hole and capsize. Never came close to doing either thank goodness! Ultimately, we made it safely (but sunburnt) to our home for the night in a small village called Ban Khone Kham, where the river is their only access to the outside world. Quite a trip! It is evident how important the river is to the village communities we passed along the way. Every bend in the river brought more waving children who splashed and played along the banks, or women wrapped in sarongs bathing in the shallows, or men with their fishing nets, and everywhere, bamboo huts with thatched roofs against a backdrop of jungle-covered mountains. Laos has such an untamed yet serene feeling, its gorgeous!