New Pics!

I finally got a good internet connection, so I uploaded a good portion of my pictures. I'll put them into the correct order later, but keep them at the top so you don't miss them :)

Vietnam

Laos

Malaysia (second time)

Thailand

Malaysia (first round)

Good Morning Vietnam

After a short flight from Laos, we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. I went to the ATM and withdrew 2,000,000 Dong which should cover us for a while. A bottle of water cost 10,000 Dong, so the money goes a little faster than you might expect. We took a minibus to the Old Town and arrived just after dark. The streets are crowded, noisy and dirty. We found a not so great hotel for the night, but have upgraded since. We need to apply for our Chinese visas, so we are trying to get that done here. It's a hassle since we are getting special visas for working which means we need a letter. The good news is that we just found out that we don't need the original letter, the bad news is we have to wait until Monday to apply, since the Chinese Embassy only works until 11AM M-F and we came around 11:30 Friday. :(

Our plan now is to do things around the area. We will probably go to Ha Long Bay for 3 days once we turn in our visa applications.

Hanoi is not a nice place to walk around. The streets are crowded with honking, swerving scooters and the sidewalks are crowded with everything but room for walking. If you want to cross the street you cross your fingers and walk slowly. (I've lived in China for 2 years, Hanoi is much worse). The street is always littered with trash and wet. Besides the getting around, its a nice town. The people have all been friendly, the food is good and the hotels are decent for the price.

Luang Prabang

We are currently in Luang Prabang, Laos. We flew from Malaysia to the capitol of Laos on the 18th in the morning. Explored the city a bit and ate a nice lunch by the bank of the Mekong, looking across the broad river at Thailand on the other side. That evening we boarded a "VIP" bus to Luang Prabang. If there is anything I have learned traveling, its that when a bus touts a name like "VIP", it will ceartainly not be for very important persons. I can guarentee that the president of Laos doesn't got "VIP". Maybe there is a "Super VIP" for him. ANyway, we got to our seats for the 10-11 hour bus ride, and found that, of course, the leg room between our seats and the one in front was much less than the other seats on the bus. They alwasy try to cram in an extra seat at my expense it seems. Eric and I experienced this in Bolivia quite a few times. It caused us to fly the one internal flight we did in three months in South America. Needless to say we decided, because of multiple reasons, we are going to fly to Vietnam. But back to the bus ride! I saw our seat and immediately asked the ticket guy if there were any other seats available. He said there were three left at the back. We went quickly and claimed them, thinking we were lucky because we had three seats. This brings me to lesson two: don't count your chickens... If there are available seats, they will be filled, even if it means the bus leaves hours late. Not only did all the seats get filled, but a few people stood in the aisle. Which reminds we of a time in Guatemale, but we'll save that for another time.
After many events, including sitting next to a man with a rifle (we found out later that he was the security guard), we made a bumpy, dusty, noisy, loooong, trip to Luang Prabang. This place was a great rest break last time I was here, and its a great now. Camilla loved it immediately, but unfortunately, she has been a little under the weather. She's resting and starting to feel a little better. We have done pretty well so far and have not had any major sicknesses of food poisoning.

More to follow, we fly to Hanoi on the 25th. It will be a Lao/Vietnamese Christmas.

In KL again

We spent a lovely couple days in Thailand relaxing at a snazzy resort. There was a beautiful pool, buffet breakfast, etc... Quite a change from the backpacker style bungalows and hostels we've been living in.

Then we tried to catch a bus back to Malaysia. Heh heh heh. Well...it was an interesting adventure...that left us stranded in a Malaysian border town with no transportation. Luckily we fell in with a bus that just happened to be stopped by the side of the road, and coincidentally they were headed in the direction we were headed! We negotiated a price, and hopped on.

We spent a day exploring Penang on a motorcycle and had an interesting hike in a "National Park". I think the definition of national park in Malaysian is a little different from ours. There was a family having lunch there, and not only were they leaving their garbage all over the place, but the father threw his leftover garbage into the trees for the monkeys. Then, when a monkey came closer to try and grab some of the food at the table, the crazy fool whipped a log at the little creature!

We also saw some giant lizard in the water...it was probably four feet long. We speculated that it might be a komodo dragon that would drag us to its lair and devour us, but we decided it probably wasn't.

The next day we caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur, and here we are. Today we're going to explore the town, and tomorrow we fly to Laos! That's when the real adventure starts...dum dum DUMMMMM!!!!!

Kickin it in Thailand

We left from Penang, Malaysia and took a long-distance bus to Hat Yai, Thailand, and from there traveled to Surat Thani and from there to the lovely tropical island of Ko Pha Ngan.

We've got a bungalow right on the beach and we can hear the sounds of the waves lapping the shore as we snooze with our feet up on the porch. We've rented a motor scooter, so we've been having fun scootin' around the island and exploring. Even I (Camilla) got the (scary) opportunity to drive it around. It was fun...just like riding a bike, but a lot faster!!!

Tomorrow we're going to live it up on one of the beach resorts. We'll have a nice room, hot showers, TV, pool, fridge and American breakfast buffet, right on the beach, for $30 US dollars. Yep, we can only afford that kind of luxury living for one night. Let you know how it goes.

Malaysia

We arrived safely in Malaysia after about a four hour flight from Hong Kong. It was getting pretty late, by the time we got our backpacks and went through customs, so we decided to stay in the airport (with many other fellow travellers) until morning. At about 6:30 we tried a bus to train to bus to bus route by passing Kuala Lumpur to get to Melaka on the southern west coast of peninsular Malaysia. It was worth the trip south. Melaka is a colorful town with a myriad of cultural influences. Cheng Ho the famous Chinese explorer landed in 1405, the Dutch set up camp in the 1500's, the Portuguese in the 1600's and the British in the 1700's (if I remember correctly). All of these groups along with the Sumatra Indonesians just across the water, have influenced Melaka. Today it is a booming tourist town with the majority of tourists coming from nearby Singapore.
As with all of Malaysia there is a mix of people living there. Mostly Chinese (Buddhists), Malay (Muslims), and Indian (Hindus). It is amazing to see such a swirl of cultures mixed together harmoniously.
We walked around the streets of China town marveling at the old beautiful architecture. Our guesthouse provided free bikes to use, so we went for a cruise around the town. We even caught the newest Bond movie in the local theater (which I don't recommend unless you like great action with no plot) for 6 Ringgit, roughly $1.75.
We headed out after two nights for the Cameron Highlands in the interior of Malaysia's mountains. We are staying at a cheap hostel with lots of noisy guests as I speak, and will be heading out for Penang, the island on the northwestern coast tomorrow morning.
The Cameron Highlands is at the top of a mountain range the runs north-south through the interior of Malaysia, a little closer to the west coast. The area is famous for beautiful views, cooler weather, and tea farming.
Yesterday was sunny, and beautiful, about 80 degrees (Melaka was probably 95). We walked around, seeing the nearby town and realizing that the bus system is quite inadequate and that we would need to find some transportation or go on a tour if we were going to see anything.
So, after seeing the prices on the somewhat overpriced tours, we decided to rent a scooter the next day (today). Unfortunately today was grey and rainy. We went anyway, got wet, and had a blast. This was Camilla's first time on a scooter, she was a little scared at first, but by the time we were through, we were talking about maybe getting one in China. It was my first time driving on the wrong side of the road. Camilla had to keep reminding me to stay left! I guess I have to get used to it, since we plan to rent a car in Australia.
We rode to the Boh Tea farm. I guess it is the most famous tea brand in Malaysia. They had a great tourist facility set up, with a little tea factory exhibit. (There are tons of tourists, everywhere we go, we finally found out, its because it is a school holiday now.) Despite all of the tourists, it was a nice place, but the rain made it so we couldn't walk trough the tea fields :(
We saw a temple and a few other things and called it a day, since we were cold and wet, and the hostel had hot showers.
I'll update more when we get a chance. We might be heading to Thailand afterall, just to go to the southern islands, since the political situation seems to be resolved for now. Unfortunately, we already bought a ticket from KL to Laos, thinking we would stay in Malaysia.

Plans thwarted, new plans made

Well, we were planning to fly to Bangkok. Yeah, I know. Great timing. Not sure if this made headlines back home, but apparently there are some protesters in Bangkok who want to force the Prime Minister to step down. So they stormed the international airport, took it over, and disrupted flights all over the country, thereby destroying the tourism industry and the economic backbone of their country.

Since our flights were cancelled, our discount air carriers graciously gave us our credit back (yes, Southeast Asian discount air carriers seem to have better customer service than stupid Air Canada...that's another story for another time). As a result we are now flying to Malaysia. We'll be exploring the West Coast, possibly Melaka and Penang. We have to stay on the West Coast because we heard it's the monsoon season on the East Coast (a bit disappointed about that as we wanted to go to Pulau Perhentian, the islands where we spent our engagement week).

After a couple weeks in Malaysia, we'll be flying to Laos, over land to Vietnam, and then to Cambodia. We'll keep you updated when we get there! Miss you all!

Accomplishments

Today we got a few things taken care of:

I booked us a flight directly from Bangkok to Samui, so we don't even have to go into Bangkok. We have to spend about 6 hours in the airport.

We heard back from our would be employer that they have finally received all of the needed documents and will be sending a contract in about three weeks. After many hiccups, it looks like things might work out, and I will be starting at Xiamen University around February 15th.

We also went to the Vietnamese Embassy and dropped off our passports for visa stamps. It cost 300HKD and should be ready by Friday.

Hong Kong

We made it to Hong Kong after 24 hours of travel on 3 hours of sleep. The great thing about modern air travel is that you get your own personal little TV screen, so you barely notice how long the flight is. We watched "Wall-E", which I recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it. It makes robots and cockroaches look cute and beyond that has a strong message about pollution and human laziness.

When we arrived, some of Cam's relatives were at the airport to pick us up, which was really nice since we had over 200 lbs. in luggage. Now we are staying at her Aunt's house in a high-rise apartment complex on Hong Kong Island. It's nice to be right in the middle of everything.

Resurrecting the Blog

We are off again! Camilla and I are sitting in front of Tim Hortons (the Canadian fast food craze), eating doughnut holes (aka: Tim bits) and drinking a half coffee/half hot chocolate (Cam's favorite).
We are here in Canada for a three hour layover in Vancouver on our way from LA to Hong Kong

A lot has happened in the past few months, so I'll breeze through some of the highlights:
-Camilla and I left California in July to head to New Jersey for Eric and Joanne's wedding
-Along the way we visited various friends, stopping in over 20 states.
-From the Eric and Jo's wedding we headed back to Toronto to stay with Camilla's family until our wedding.
-My parents visited and so they could meet Camilla's family before the wedding and see a bit of Canada
-We drove to Montreal and Quebec City
-Friends and family flew in to town for the wedding October 11th
-Camilla and I drove back to California for a second wedding reception and and extended visit in California.
-Camilla's family came for the reception and we visited Yosemite and San Francisco.
-After seeing a bunch of family friends and driving 17,000 miles, through35 states, we are back on the road to Asia.
-From Hong Kong we will fly to Bangkok and visit SE Asia for about a month and a half. Our plan is to see Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, then fly to Australia and New Zealand before heading back to China.
-The eventual plan, if all works out, is for me to teach oral English at Xiamen University and for Camilla to study Mandarin and tutor English in her spare time. Xiamen is on the coast of China between Hong Kong and Shanghai, closer to Hong Kong, straight across from Taiwan.

Just Married!

After our wedding, we headed back to California for our second reception. These are some pictures of the trip back. We went through Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone.

Roadtrip from California to New Jersey

Here are some pics from our road trip to Eric and Joanne's wedding in New Jersey. We spent a few days in California before we took off across the nation. After New Jersey we headed up to Camilla's parent's house in Toronto.

Camilla's Perspective

Hello everyone! I'm writing you from MALAYSIA right now in a little town called Kota Bharu near the northern coast. Guess what's on my hand??? A diamond ring!!! UH HUH! We're engaged!

I will tell you guys all the details later, but suffice to say...Chris had the whole surprise planned out. He took me on a "surprise" day trip to Hangzhou (after a "surprise" massage with our friend Angelia) and proposed in a little gazebo near the top of a mountain in Zhongshan Park. Little did I know that 7 of our friends had followed us to HZ and unbeknownst to me, were stalking us like NINJAS taking pictures and videos the whole time. They jumped out in true ninja-like fashion from behind a screen of umbrellas when we returned to the gazebo to take some photos, nearly causing me to have a heart attack, but I didn't.

Next, they surprised me again when we got to the train station, ostensibly to return to SH, by whipping out a couple of backpacks. "We're going to Malaysia!" said Chris. From Hangzhou airport (which I was not expecting because international flights hardly ever leave from there!)!

So we flew to Kuala Lumpur, flew again to Kota Bharu, took a boat to the Perhentian Islands where we spent a few days on a BEYOOOTIFUL white sand beach. I got to surf, snorkel and eat shark for the first time =), and then we came back to KB to experience everday Malaysian life. Our next stop is Kuala Lumpur, and from there, back to SH!

More details later (such as the mouse that ate a hole in my backpack...or was it a gecko...I know you're dying to find out, but the mystery will be unveiled later!).

Engaged!

Chris and Camilla got engaged February 22nd, 2008 in Hangzhou, China in a Chinese pagoda atop the lone hill in Zhong Shan Park next to Xi Hu (West Lake).
What a discription, huh!

We then flew to Malaysia for a week long rest at the beach and exploring Malay culture. The beach was beautiful, the water was warm and clear and the weather was wonderful. We had an awesome trip and are back to work again, teaching eager minds!