sneak peak

Today's task is not tackling that spring break to-do list, but instead tackling a fun photo project I've been thinking about for the past few weeks. {after seeing this one}

I mentioned recently that while traveling Southeast Asia we took over 3,000 photos {3,352 to be exact}.
When we first returned to the states, I was eager to sort through the photos, to create slideshows of our most memorable moments and share our travels here and here and here.  I only got through day 15 of our 48 day trip, never even touching the photos from the last three countries we visited.  Somehow in the craziness of moving home, job searching and starting a new position, along with house hunting and finally buying our first home, these photos have been on the back burner for over a year.

Until now.  Now have the time and energy, along with the motivation and excitement to sift through these photos and sort out our favorites.  Now I'm trying to fit those photos into a measly 440 page book.  Now I'm up for the challenge!

One year ago...

It's hard to believe that a year's gone by already...but it's been an entire year since we were in Taiwan!

It's amazing how time flies, and how much has changed in the past year.  We never in a million years thought we'd own a house and be living in Fort Wayne, Indiana right now....funny how things have turned out.

Last night we hooked up on new computer (I'm in love!) and I decided to look through some of the photos from our travels.  As I opened the first file, I realized that it had been exactly one year from the date these photos were taken.  This time last year we had spend our first night in Singapore and were headed out to explore the city.  We didn't spend much time there, but packed a whole lot of sight-seeing into our short visit.  It doesn't feel so long ago, I can still remember the sights, smells, and feelings we experienced in that city....I wonder how long that'll last!

We are so thankful for the time we were able to travel and for the places it has taken us.  We love our house and being home....we have jobs, and a puppy, and couldn't be more content in life.  Though browsing these photos we long to do more traveling, right now life is good!

Cabin fever & Southeast Asia Recap 3

These past few days being stuck inside and feeling the chill of the weather has made me really think about how much we've moved around the past few months.  Though we left Taiwan just 4 short months ago, we've seen and done so many new and exciting things that it's hard to wrap my mind around it all.  It's overwhelming.  Today I've begun sorting photos from our S.E.A. trips again - that in and of itself is exhausting but cool in how it brings up memories of our time in Asia.  There were so many interesting people to talk to and places to see, here I feel stuck in a bubble, seeing the same people and doing the same routine every day.  While that is the way of our American lifestyle, I'm stills struggling to adjust.  I miss new things.  Maybe it's the weather, or maybe just the flashing images of a warm climate and history, but I truly miss Southeast Asia.

Today as I look through these photos, I can't help but want to share every one, to share every story, and to somehow allow others to experience this part of the world [and re-experience it again and again].  Unfortunately, my blog isn't equipped to hold the amount of photos we took during the 7 weeks of our trip.  So, I'll just have to stick to the highlights for now.  If there's a photo that catches your eye, please ask about it as there are loads of other photos I'd love to share with you.  Also, if you're interested in any photos that you might like to have a copy of, please don't hesitate to ask!

You can see our photos from Singapore, Bali, & while traveling here and here.

On to Malaysia.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur following our trip to Bali.  Mostly KL was a pit stop, we really wanted to check out the Petronas Towers and a few other cultural sites.  We were only there about 48 hours then caught a train into Thailand.



Once in Thailand, our first stop was Railay.  Getting to Railay wasn't an easy task - it definitely tested our patience and frustration in communication styles.  One frustrating experience that we laugh at now was the trip from the train station to Railay beach.  We met a few backpackers during the train ride who were all headed to the same beach so after leaving the train station we wandered around the town in search of a bus to the port.  We set out in search for the bus station which no one seemed to know where it was located.  After about 30 mins we ran into two American girls who had already reserved a seat on a van leaving at 1pm and suggested that we try to get on their van.  We asked the desk worker and were told that the van was full but we could catch the 2pm van.  Okay, we can wait.  But then our new friend Diego walked by and said that he also had a van reservation with a different company at 1:10pm.  So we walked over to that desk worker and were told the same thing "van full, but you can catch the next one in an hour."  Okay, well we had an hour to kill, so we decided to take a taxi and find the bus station, figuring that the buses would be cheaper than the vans anyways.  The bus station turned out to be about a mile away and we immediately were offered a van ride at a much cheaper rate than the previous two, and it was leaving NOW!  So we went with it.  When we opened the back of the van to throw in our bags we were surprised to see not only our two American friends, but also Diego already in the van!  Apparently the van picked up the Americans, drove around the block and picked up Diego, then drove around town for about 30 minutes until finally picking us up.  We all paid different prices for the same trip.  It turned out to be quite a pleasant trip and offered us the opportunity to share other travel stories.  The two Americans even went in with us to find a super cheap bungalow to spend our time in Railay.

We ended up spending more time in Railay than perviously expected due to it being rainy and Dan had a stomach virus.  If we had to spend extra time in one place, Railay was a great place to do just that.  It's pretty remote and low key, we were able to take leisurely walks to the 3 nearby beaches and do some simple hikes (Dan's energy level was quite low, but he pushed through!) and even spend a day kayaking to a nearby islet.  Because there were so many photos to share I have yet again another slideshow.  Feel free to click on the slideshow to see the pictures full size.



Stay tuned for more photos... Until next time.

SouthEast Asia Recap 2

BALI
After Singapore, we headed to Bali for a week.  We spent two days in three very different parts of the island.  First we were in Ubud, where we found it a bit most touristy than we like, but still nice.  Then it was on to Candidasa where we stayed at the Ashram Gandhi, which was quite and relaxing.  Finally we spent a few days soaking up the sun and walking along the beach in Sanur.  You will find some more detailed information and pictures here from our posts along the way, but here are some additional photos from our time there.

Batik Making Class in Ubud

Dan took a carving class while I was at my Batik class

Ashram Gandhi

Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

Tai Chi in the morning light.

SouthEast Asia Recap.

Well, it's been a week since we left Vietnam and we've had little time to just "be."  It feels great to be home and we're excited about our upcoming move.  Because of all we have going on, I'm just now sitting down to look through our many photos.  Over the next few weeks I hope to recap our trip in a few installments.  Once I've gone through all the photos I'll add a slideshow to the blog...but there are just too many to sort through to do that just yet!

So, let's start.

SINGAPORE

We shared a bit about our time there here, but here are a few more pictures to add...

getting a henna tatoo in "Little India"

Singapore's many colors, day and night.

As said before, there are only two things to do in Singapore

"shop 'till you drop" OR "eat your heart out"

and eat we did. 

a plethora of Indian food

a variety of satay on the street

and while we didn't partake, we could have had our very own
"cup of corn"

Greetings...

...from our 5th country in 4 weeks...Cambodia.

We've been moving fast over the past few weeks and thought it was about time to check in.  Things are great...we're seeing and doing so much, and enjoying every minute of it!  We spent a total of two weeks in Thailand before heading to Cambodia.  After leaving Raylai Beach, we headed north to Bangkok for a few days - it was interesting and kept us moving.  We spent many hours walking through markets and "window shopping" - what we buy, we have to carry in our packs!  After a few days we were ready to move on, Bangkok can be very exhausting with it's pushy tuk-tuk drivers and potential scam artists! 

Next we headed north to Chiang Mai...we tried to take an overnight train but were turned back to Bangkok due to flooding and ended up spending nearly an entire day traveling by bus (a very uncomfortable bus too!).  We fell in love with Chiang Mai instantly, with it's quiet old city and pleasant weather.  Our first day was spent wondering the many temples and markets.  Day two we headed out into the country for a day of elephant training!  And our final day was spent learning the art of Thai cooking.  It was a fantastic place to end our time in Thailand!

In order to leave Thailand before our visa ran out, and spend the most time in Chiang Mai, we opted to take a bus that would take us directly to our next destination - Siem Reap, Cambodia - rather than stopping in Bangkok again for a few days.  Unfortunatley, this meant that we were on buses in transit for over 24 hours.  We finally arrived here last night and spent our first day exploring the famous Ankor Wat. 

I know I'll have much more to say later about everything we're doing...for now I hope this helps to give a little glimpse into what we're doing. (they're kind of out of order due to slow loading...)

Elephant Training

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Ankor Wat

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ankor Wat

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ankor Wat

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Thai Cooking Class

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Thai Food we made!

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Monk Chat

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We're planning to stick around Siem Reap for a few more days before heading on to Phnom Penh and on to Vietnam before heading home.  See you in a few weeks! 

Until next time...

Quick update!

We're in Bangkok(Thailand) now and have free wifi at the hotel, so I thought I'd take a minute to update you all.

We've been here a total of 24 hours, having arrived in the morning on an overnight train from the south. We had hoped to be heading further north this evening, but due to flooding, the trains weren't running yesterday or today... We'll check back today about possibly going tomorrow, but if not, we may have to take a bus, or change our plans. The train offers a sleeper, which is much nicer on an overnight trip than a bus seat - or a regular train seat as we found out a few days ago. Traveling overnight, we don't want to lose sleep then lose a whole day of seeing things because we're catching up.

For those following the weather, it looks like we're out of the path of Typhoon Megi, but we'll keep you updated if our travel plans change. Our prayers are with those in the path of the storm - the damage we've seen from previous storms is devastating and can take years to rebuild.

Until next time...

A few photos from our travels.

Singapore.

Bali, Indonesia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia



Railay, Thailand



In Transit.

Today is Day 16.  We're in Railay, Thailand where we've been relaxing on the beach and sea kayaking.  Unfortunately, it's monsoon season, so our time outside has been limited by the torrential rain storms.  But we can't complain, we have a nice little bungalow, set in away from the beach where we've been able to relax and read in our hammock on our porch.  We've decided to stay an extra few days as it's so beautiful and peaceful here. 

Before coming to Thailand, we spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur.  Here, our dislike of cities was reiterated, after a few days we were ready to move on.  Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia, is a nice city, but much smaller than we had expected (using only our Lonely Planet Guide as a reference).  The Petronas Towers were beautiful, and we saw some amazing Mosques.  Overall, it's a beautiful city and offers much in the way of food and shopping.  The recently built MRT system is quite efficient and clean, so travel around the city was easy. 

Our departure from KL to Thailand was by train.  We took an overnight train leaving KL at 9:30pm and each had a sleeping berth.  Luckily we were able to sleep much of the night and awoke in time for the border crossing where we had to get off the train with all our things and go through customs and immigration - no sweat!  Unfortunately, the trip did not end there and we had to wait an hour while all passengers did this process before loading up the train again and making the final 3 hour trip to Hat Yai.  There we took a minibus to Krabi (another 4 hours or so) and finally a 15 minute longtail boat to Railay, where we've been for the past 4-5 days (can't quite remember what day it is or the day of the week!).

We've deviated a bit from our original plan a bit and are playing it by ear from here.  We are loving Thailand and don't want to leave until we've seen all we want to see.  We'll keep you posted along the way as to where we're going and where we've been!  Until then...

Bye Bye Bali

Sitting on the beach one last time before heading to our next destination--Malaysia!

It's been a great week in Bali but a week is much too little to spend here. We were reminded of this often when people asked how long we were staying and when we said a week they would reply with a shocked "so short!!!". Yes we realize that a week is "so short," but when there is so much to see, you can only stay in one place for a short time.

While here, we visited Ubud, a fairly large village near the middle of Bali. We stayed at a nice little homestay set away from the main stretch and much of the touristy areas. Ubud is very touristy, so it was hard to avoid it all together but we did our best. While there we each took an art class. Mine was traditional Batik, which is similar to tie dye, but using wax to make a design or drawing first. It took about 4 hours and was located on this quiet family compound. I turned out to be the only student, so I got extra attention and was able to chat with the teacher while my piece dried. Dan took a wood carving class where he learned techniques in carving as well as carved a small turtle. Unfortunately, the turtle was too heavy to bring along. I know he looks forward to carving more things once we get home.

Also in Ubud, we rented bicycles and cycled to a "nearby" village to see a famous temple. The village ended up being about 3 hours away, the road having a slight incline the whole way. Once there we only had about 10 minutes to look around for fear of not having enough day light to get back. We headed back and were happy to ride down hill most of the way. Unfortunately a storm brought early dark and we got a little turned around, but not until we had returned to Ubud. Though stressful at times due to traffic and weather-not to mention a very difficult ride- it was a pleasant trip.

After Ubud, we headed to Candidasa where we spent two quiet days at an ashram, participating in yoga, meditation and prayer. Our bungalow was directly on the beach and offered a pleasant breeze along with fantastic views.

Finally, we ended up here in Sanur..while the Lonely Planet aptly nicknames it "Snore," we were able to find plenty to keep us busy for a few days. Walks along the beach and around nearby Turtle Island were both interesting and cheap!

Today we saw an anazing sunrise and went for a sailboat ride out to the reef, where we went snorkeling. A great end to a great week.

It's been a truely relaxing and wonderful trip thus far. We're excited to see what the next stop has to offer!

Until next time...

Sight seeing in Singapore

Singapore has been just what we needed after a long and stressful last week in Taiwan.

There are basically two things to do in Singapore...
"shop 'till you drop" OR "eat your heart out"
And since we're not really into the first, we spent put day wandering around the city between meals.

Our hostel is located on a pedestrian only street that leads up to this beautiful Mosque, which is where we began our walk.

 

Next we ventured into "Little India.". We're both really excited about visiting India so this was a nice taste of what we'll find when we get there. The streets are lined with fabric shops selling the most beautiful Saree fabrics I've ever seen. Between the fabric shops you can find restraints serving every kind of Indian food imaginable. We enjoyed some wonderful vegetable baryani before heading to Chinatown.

Chinatown was basically a massive night market. We were soon bored with the same things we'd seen numerous times at Taiwanese markets and decided to head back for a nap.

For dinner, we went to Lau Pa Sat market which has a famous Satay street.  Delicious!  It was a fun atmosphere of hawkers bidding for our business.  They close down the street on Saturday nights and set up tables and chairs....it was nice to eat under a darkening sky and cool breeze.

Our night ended with a stroll along the harbour and some beautiful night scenes.

 

 

Today we're taking it easy, reading and relaxing until our flight to Bali this evening.  Singapore has been nice - it's a beautiful and clean city, but doesn't offer us a lot to do.  I can't complain though, after the stressful week we had last week, it's been refreshing to not feel pulled in a million directions.

Hope all are well.

Until next time...

Philippines Part 3 (Finally)

It's taken me a while to sift through the many photos we took while on vacation and to motivated myself to write this post. After returning from the Philippines, we were thrust back into the daily grind and finding time to catch up on the blog hasn't happened until now.

After leaving the island of Bohol, we headed to the small island of Siquijor. Our visit to Siquijor was intended to be our first diving experience, however our resort didn't realize that we had never been diving before and did not have a dive instructor on hand. Despite this setback, we had a wonderful time exploring the island by motorcycle and walking the beach.

Here are some highlights...(click on the slide show to see full captions and larger photos)

Our final stop was Manila for the weekend before heading back to Taiwan. We arrived around mid-day and took advantage of the daylight to explore the city. We wondered around to the various cultural sites and through the parks listed in our Lonely Planet guide. The best find was this beautiful cathedral that had been rebuilt 7 or 8 times due to various burnings, bombings, and other disasters, however the front of the church is the original structure - it remained intact throughout each of the disasters and they were able to salvage it during each rebuild.

Dan's only request of our trip to the Philippines was that he got to see a volcano. So on our last day in Manila, we headed south to the Taal Volcano. The ride took about an hour and a half and upon arrival it was nearly noon - the sun high in the sky, not a cloud in sight and no wind to speak of - it was HOT! We took a boat from the main land over to the island where the volcano is then chartered two horses with guides to take us up to the top of the volcano. Throughout the trail, there were numerous openings in the ground releasing steam - adding to our heat. The view from the top was magnificent, the mouth of the volcano is a lake - apparently sulfuric and deep enough that some SCUBA dive in it. While it's an active volcano, it has not had any activity in recent years.

(click on the slide show to see full captions and larger photos)

After about an hour exploring, we headed back to the mainland where we enjoyed some Tilapia - they live and breed quite well in the sulfuric water and because of this are quite healthy for you. Once we had finished our lunch, we made the trek back to Manila via tricycle, jeepney, bus, and subway, not to mention a short walk back to our hostel. That evening we relaxed in the hostel talking with other travelers wishing that our vacation wasn't ending.

Philippines Part 2

Sorry this has taken me so long...it's been a rough week trying to get back into the swing of things. It's hard to come back from such a relaxing vacation!

Tarsiers
These cute little nocturnal monkeys make their home on the island of Bohol. They have become quite a tourist attraction - locals have captured the monkeys and display them at local markets. However, some including the one we visited, have created a natural-like habitat for tourists to see the monkeys as they would be in the wild.

Unfortunately, while we were exploring the Tarsier Center, a bus of Chinese tourists arrived, crowding us out and agitating the Tarsiers. When they left, the guide allowed us to take a few more photos before leaving.

Loboc

Between the Chocolate Hills and the Tarsiers Center is the small town of Loboc. We ventured through there a few times throughout the day as it's a beautiful, quaint town. There is a large Catholic Cathedral and a river that runs through the middle of town. The locals have done a great job cleaning up the town and used the tourism to their advantage - it's the primary source of income for most.

Here we took a boat back to Nuts Huts - it turned out to be a much more expensive trip than taking the bus and walking, but it was a beautiful ride.

Jungle Hike
Our last day at Nuts Huts began with a jungle hike. Our guide, who lives across the river from Nuts Huts, lead us on a 4 hour hike through the jungle and to a bat cave. Along the way, he shared with us about his family - pointing out his parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives homes - he climbed a tree to share with us a fruit we had never heard of...

and took us to a rest house to relax in the shade and enjoy the magnificent views.

Finally, we ended in a nice cool bat cave - I was a little less than enthusiastic about this part of the hike, so I spent the time relaxing in the cave opening while the others ventured down various tunnels. It was a great experience to spend time with a local and learn more about this culture and landscape.