Vietnam

As I mentioned before, we loved Vietnam! The town we stayed in was just so charming, I think that's the best way to describe it.

On a ride to China Beach to try and find some surf. There's something about bike riding through Vietnam that is just so fun. If I ever find a bicycle from Vietnam, I'm buying it. They're so cool. (i'm having a font problem and I can't change it back to my normal font, blogger has done this to me before. I don' know why, it drives me nuts)

Believe it or not, that is a fishing boat...we saw them in action.

Around town photos...

Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk...so delicious! We looked forward to it every morning.

"Pho" Vietnamese soup that is so yummy!

Fish with lemon grass, steamed in a banana leaf, also very tasty.

Brian, picking out his suit styles and getting measured. We had such a great time with our tailors. They were such nice, fun ladies.

Backtracking to Malaysia

Even though I recaped most of our travels through Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia I never put up any photos. So, here is the start of those few weeks: Malaysia...

Night market shopping in China Town in Kuala Lumpur

Delicious Indian food! Can you say Chicken Tikka Masala and Garlic Naan? Oh Yeah!

The Petronas Towers.
The tallest twin towers in the world.

Knock-offs galore!

Dragon fruit

Any fresh, cool tropical fruit you want at your fingertips. For $.30 it comes peeled and ready to eat!

Local street food. The spring rolls with plum sauce were delicious!

Phuket, Thailand

We are now officially relaxing! After a busy few days of non-stop travel we are living a completely different lifestyle. The laid back, high-end island style of Phuket is much different then the chaotic run-down style of Cambodia. The water here is gorgeous...clear blues and turquoise with super soft sand and the most perfect temperature I have ever felt!

We decided to splurge while we were here by getting a room at a resort. And by splurging I mean spending $23 per night, amazing deal right?! We checked in, went to our room and were surprised to find 2 twin sized beds. Not what we were hoping for, but we were willing to make due if that was all they had available. We mentioned to the front desk that this weekend was our anniversary (well, almost) and asked if there was any other room. They surprised us by upgrading us to their Deluxe Suite, which goes for $150 per night. We were ecstatic! Brian was particularly excited that he could watch the flat screen tv from the bath tub, then put on the provided robe, and walk out to our balcony to look at the ocean and see what was going on at the pool below us. We scored big time!

We have had a great 2 days here so far. We did alot of exploring on the southern part of the island yesterday afternoon and earlier today. We did a bit of snorkeling yesterday and saw some pretty tropical fish (a black and white lion fish was one of them)...the underwater world is gorgeous! I always freak out a little bit when i'm down there because it is so foreign to me, but Brian made sure that I survived. We also went surfing this evening at Kata Beach when the sun was going down and we had a blast. There was a beautiful purple and pink sunset happening at the same time so it made the whole experience even better.

Last night we were hanging out at the beach in the evening just chatting and enjoying the perfect weather under the beautiful full moon. Down the beach from us people were sending off these crazy looking glowing lanterns into the air, then fireworks started going off, then a crazy display of lighting out on the open ocean began. It was pretty epic, it felt like we were watching a show that someone put together for us. Here's a few more pics for fun...

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary, so we are headed to a small island about 45 minutes away from where we are now. I am super excited! Ko Phi Phi is supposed to have some of the most amazing beaches in the world...and we get to enjoy them!

Shopping in Malaysia, Loving Vietnam, and Crazy Cambodia

Well, it has been quite a whirlwind of activity since we left Bali last week. (I have no pictures for you at the moment because we decided to take a side trip to Cambodia and we do not have all of our camera cords with us). Anyway, as I last mentioned, we were on our way to Vietnam with a one day stop over in Malaysia...

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia pretty late in the evening and headed straight to our hotel in the China Town District, which was literaly smack-dab in the middle of crazy, chaotic China Town. We dropped off our things and headed into the street to see what kinds of fun goods we could get our hands on. This place had every kind of "designer" brand you could think of: Lacoste, Channel, Gucci, Burberry, Rolex, Tiffany's, etc. If you stopped to check out an item, or if your eyes lingered for one second too long then you would have to make a run for it or else you might be stuck all night long. All of the vendors promised they were giving you, "Very cheap price, My best price for you, I give you sale price, etc." It was pretty crazy, but super fun.

Since we only had one full day in Malaysia we spent most of our time around the China town area. We had some yummy spring rolls and roast duck with plum sauce for lunch and then headed to the famous Petronas Twin Towns, while doing a bit more site seeing along the way. We threw in a bit more shopping, ate a delicious dinner of Indian Chicken Tika Masala with Garlic Naan, had lots of tropical fruit (you can buy yummy, fresh, cold fruit sold on the street that is already prepared for you and ready to enjoy)and headed to bed since we had to leave for Vietnam at 4 a.m.

Vietnam was AMAZING! I almost cried when we left because it felt like my second home. We stayed in an amazing town by the name of Hoi An. There was alot of French architecture so it made the town seem very European, it also helped that there was a delicious bakery that had the best chocolate croissant that I have ever eaten!

The people in Vietnam are GREAT! Everyone was so friendly and wanted to talk and talk. We met some neat people too, which is part of the reason that traveling is so fun. One Vietnamese woman, whose name was Tam and owned a little restaurant by the name of Tam's pub, told us all about her life during the war. I think she was around 12 years old when she was taken in by American soldiers and worked for them in the American compounds. She said that she loved the Americans. Even to this day she has soldiers who come back and visit her, pretty cool. Anyway, she said that she used to cook for the soldiers and do whatever else they needed help with. Apparently there were times when they would be driving from place to place and fighting would break out...she said they would throw her under the jeep where she would be safe and she would watch the fighting from there. She had some pretty crazy stories and we felt like we could have talked to her for hours.

A little more on Hoi An...they are a town with about 500 tailor shops, literaly, it's crazy! So needless to say, we decided to get some things made :-) Brian got some suits, pants, and business shirts, and I had 2 jackets and 2 dresses made. It is SO fun to have things custom made for you. I don't want to buy anything from a store ever again. The tailor shop we had our things made at was called Blue and we loved the 3 ladies (Tam Tam was the owner) that worked there...I think they loved us too. We spent alot of time together with them and multiple fittings to make sure that everything was perfect. They even bought us a bag of fruit (mangos, these massive, yummy grapefruit, and some sort of small oranges) when it was time for us to go. Another thing about Hoi An is that it is just 3km from the from the ocean, so it was a quick and easy bike ride or motorbike ride to China Beach. The water in Vietnam was insanely warm...warmer than Hawaii water, which was quite suprising. Anyway, I could have spent weeks in Hoi An. It was such a fun, but relaxing town. I highly recommend it!

And now, we are in Cambodia! We decided a few days ago to make the trek here, and a trek it was!!! It took us 24 hours to get here from Vietnam, but I'm glad we did it. I'm also glad we made it here safely because we had to endure the longest 2 hour drive I have ever taken in my life. The taxi ride from the border of Cambodia to the town of Siem Reap (where we are staying) was probably the craziest, scariest thing I have ever done. Words cannot describe the insanity, but i'm pretty sure we got video of it so that you can experience it yourself.

So the reason we came to Cambodia in the first place was to visit the Temples of Angkor, which were built during the 12th century. We spent most of the day today traveling to and exploring the different temples. They were quite the site to see and we got some really awesome pictures. I can't wait to post some so that you can see what we have seen. It's getting late and we have to be up early tomorrow to begin our journey through Cambodia and into Thailand. Continue to keep us in your prayers.

Au Revoir!

Saying good bye to Bali

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Bali and we are so sad to be saying good bye, but that just means that we have more fun ahead and new places to venture to. Here are a few pictures that I bummed off of the Garaway's camera so that you could get a bit more of a glimpse of what we have been up to. And just so you know, we bit the bullet and bought a new camera today, so we are back in the world of photo taking. Here's what we've been up to...

Lots and lots of surfing. Here is a sequence of Brian surfing out at Uluwatu.

This is the amazing view that we would wake up to every morning (sort of, it was only a few yards away from our cottage) when we were staying at Romeo Bungalows out in Uluwatu. We only spent $15 per night and it was such a quite and peaceful place...definitely our favorite place so far.

Here we are on our trusty motorbike getting ready for another crazy ride. The roads here are literally out of control. Oh, and just so you know Brian joined Jessica by getting a Bali burn on his leg also. Poor guy...

Beautiful Padang Padang Beach

Up North in Ubud, exploring the river and rice paddies

One of the many sunsets that Jessica and I enjoyed together while our husbands were out surfing.

The four of us at the Uluwatu Temple where we were attacked by monkeys.

Some of the many "homestays" and "warungs (restaurants)" on Bingin Beach

This where the boys spent a good deal of their time and where most of their wounds came from.

Brian's dream has finally come true! He has had an obsession with monkeys forever and we were finally able to hold one. It was pretty hilarious...I just laughed the entire time.

More rivers and rice paddies in Ubud.

The mean, fat grandpa monkey at the temple who stole the bananas from Brian, and the cute babies to his left. These things are vicious!

Well folks, I guess that's it for now. Tomorrow we are headed to Malaysia for about a day and a half on our way to Vietnam. The forecast is looking like rain, so that should be quite a change for us. Time to go get some sleep!

Bingin Beach Photo

Let the adventures begin

Well, we've made it. We have been in Bali for almost 2 weeks now...it's pretty crazy how time flies! It's been a little harder finding time to get to a computer then I thought, but here I am finally.

One bummer so far is that we are pretty sure we have lost our camera, so sad. Luckily I downloaded the first two hundred that we had to our ipod, but we have lost the second round. At least we still have some pictures on the Garaway's camera so it's not as bad as it could be.

As for what we have been doing? Well, we have been enjoying (for me anyway) some pretty hot and humid weather. The water is the perfect temperature of warm but also refreshing too, I love it. The guys have been surfing almost every day (minus the two days there was absolutely no swell) at Uluwatu or Bingin and have been having a great time...not to mention a few cuts, bruises,and puncture wounds to go along with it. I didn't realize how handy those band aides I brought were going to be.

Our accommodations have been pretty awesome. It's cool when you can spend somewhere between $7.50 and $15, to get a place that practically overlooks your favorite surf spot.

I love the mornings here. I love waking up to warm weather, getting some morning tea, and looking out over the water. It's such a great way to start the day!

There is so much to fill you in on about Bali. Sorry if this post seems so sporadic and not orderly. I have so much going on in my head and I am trying to hurry.

Everyday there is some sort of new crazy adventure that has taken place.

• We were attacked (almost, sort of, basically) by some crazy monkey's at the Uluwatu temple...I think those things run the place, they are definitely not friendly monkeys.
• Jessica and I lost our husbands for a few hours on our second day in Bali, that was an interesting experience.
• I've had to pick lots of pieces of reef out of Brian's feet.
• Poor Jessica has experienced a Bali kiss (as they call it here), which is the name for a nice sized burn on her right calf from the exhaust on our motorbikes.
  
• We were kicked out of one of the places we were staying when we woke up the morning by a lady telling us, "you leave now, you leave!"
• We have had some interesting food, as well as some good food too. The other night the boys each ordered a hamburger that was said to have "choice australian ground beef," but when it came out the ground beef looked like a piece of salami, seriously.
• We got to hold an orangutan (sp?) which was hilarious. Brian's dream finally came true, he loves monkeys!
• We have seen five people on one motorbike: mom, dad, baby, and two kids (that has been the record breaker so far).
• Driven a car so far North that no one spoke any English and all they did was stare at us.
  

I know there is lots more, but this is all I can do for now. Sorry there are no photos to go along with it. Hopefully within the next few days I can do that. We leave Bali on tuesday and are already so sad to be leaving...it has been so relaxing and I have been able to do lots of reading too, which has been fun. We are off to malaysia next so i'll let you know how that is.

Au Revoir!