It's so hard to say goodbye

It's almost time to leave Thailand for the island paradise of the Philippines. Thailand, round 2, has been a bit different from the first time we visited, but no less amazing. In November, we went south, focusing on the beaches and island life. This time, we went north and were surrounded by the lush country side. We rode elephants, played with tigers, saw countless caves and beautiful waterfalls.. I will definitely miss this place.
Last night, we went to another Muay Thai boxing match held in Chiang Mai. If you don't remember my stories about the first one, see my blog entitled 'Boys are strange..' This time around, there was no bathroom bouncer to give Hbf a chiropractic adjustment (I think he was a bit sad about that), but he did say there was a mirror positioned in a very strange place. Let's just say he saw more than he wanted to.
The main fight was a very large english man against an over weight asian. The white guy seemed very cocky, and I didn't think the asian had a chance. He took a heavy beating early on, and at times it was almost difficult to watch. But, in round 2, the asian connected his foot to the white guy face and it was all over. The england guy tapped out, to the delight of the entire crowd. It was pretty entertaining.
While out and about on the streets of Chiang Mai, we came upon a baby elephant, visiting restaurants in order to entice foreigners to buy bananas and feed it. It was a strange site to see, and the elephant didn't even have a leash on or anything. You would think there would be some sort of leash law for animals that can trample people. But, I'm sure that is the only time he gets fed (sadly) and he wouldn't give up the chance for food by going AWOL.
I think the highlight for me would have to be the baby tigers. We only got 10 minutes with them, but it was the most magical 10 minutes. I really wanted to cuddle them, but apparently that is a no no since they are more than 4 months old now. I think they could easily rip someone apart during the pretense of 'playing'. But, they are just so dang adorable! I got to lay my head and snuggle with one that was sleeping and it was just so precious. After the 10 minutes, we got to walk around and be up close and personal with all of the other 25+ tigers, ranging from 1 - 15 years old. There were even 2 lion cubs there.
It's going to be hard to leave, but I am definitely looking forward to crystal clear waters and pristine white beaches!

Ohhh irony.. You are so ironic

I like Pai, I really do. It just may not like me. From Laos, we made our way up to northern Thailand, through Chiang Mai to a small town called Pai. Imagine my utter delight when I see at least 5 restaurants that offer bagels and cream cheese! My favorite food in the whole world! I felt like dancing in the middle of the street and I may have even broken out in a little wiggle because of my pure joy. Now, of course they don't taste exactly like what I love from home, but it is pretty darn close. Close enough after having maybe 1 or 2 bagels in the last 4 months. I savored every bite of every bagel for 2 days. On the night of teh second day, something didn't feel right...

30 minutes later, I'm kneeling over the toilet watching my berry smoothy and bagel come right back out. Yep, I had food poisoning. Again. Did my bagels betray me? I refuse to believe it. That morning, I had eggs with cheese on them. I hate you eggs! I hate you cheese (No, No, not you cream cheese.. I could never hate you)! Anyways, gross story short.. The next day I ate very little, but I kept it all down. I laid in bed and tried to watch TV while I recovered. There is only 1 english channel, a sports channel, and it froze up about 1 hour into a soccer game. It still hasn't unfrozen, 3 days later. I guess I'm not meant to watch TV here.

On a happier note, we rode elephants today, bareback. I didn't even know it was an option, but we were given the choice of riding in a chair or on a blanket thrown over the elephant's back. I was thinking it was totally awesome until the elephant took 2 steps. Can you say ow? I think Hbf was more uncomfortable than me and actually asked to get off at one point. Luckily (and to my amusement), the trainer didn't understand and kept going. At one point, the chang (elephant, in Thai) went on a rampage and wouldn't do anything the trainer was telling him to do. I nearly fell off (at least, that's what it felt like. Hbf claims we were never in any danger) as he crashed through the jungle. Finally, he calmed down and the trainer explained that the elephant had heard a dog and got scared. The trainer never seemed to have any fear and continually laughed through out the whole episode, which I guess made me feel a little better.. Anyways, we reached the river and the elephant sprayed us with water and then rolled around in the river, throwing us off playfully. We would get back on and he would roll again. It was pretty fun and quite the experience.

Sometimes, having fun hurts

Laos has been a blast, and we aren't done yet. The past 10 days have been filled with kayaking, tubing, hiking, and exploring caves. The scenery is pretty epic and there are lots of people our age to hang out with and make friends. We actually met some other people from USA, which is quite rare. I think tubing in Vang Vieng (pronounced Wang Weng, so I'm told, but that just makes me laugh) has to be my favorite thing, because I've never seen any setup quite like it. You rent a tube for like 5 bucks and they drive you and your tube upriver. All along the sides of the river, there are places you can stop to grab a drink or a bite to eat (read between the lines). Each place has a rope swing, zip line, giant slide or a very tall tower to jump off, and every single restaurant tries to out-do the previous places. So, the rope swings get bigger and the platforms get higher as you float down the river. It's a pretty fun place, but let's just say the safety standards may not be what my fellow Americans are used to. I saw numerous people let go of rope swings at the worst possible time, aka when they were returning to the platform and where the water was the most shallow. I also saw so many people have bad landings off a slide or a zip line, but everyone managed to survive. All around town I saw people on crutches, or people who had knees and ankles taped up. I can guarantee it was due to a tubing accident.

Hbf and I didn't walk away unscathed, either. He had a bad landing on a zip line (on purpose, or so he says..), and I landed sideways off a very high rope swing. At the time, it stung, but not enough for me to call it a day. However, the next day, the right side of my thigh was black and blue. Not pretty. You can watch our bad landings on our flickr website, and maybe even Hbf's blog. Don't worry, we're both ok. We both lost our sunglasses though.. And Hbf lost another pair the second time we did it. If you fall into the river once, say goodbye to anything not securely attached to your body.

We're in Luang Prabang now, and the bus ride here was brutal. Not for me, but for the grandma sitting in front who constantly threw up for the full 7 hours. And for the other people who just couldn't handle the very twisty road and puked every time we pulled over. I actually had an ok time, watching Law & Order on the iPod and reading my book.

I'm so glad that I hate strawberry syrup

A couple of nights ago, Hbf and I decided to splurge a little and go to a 'nicer' restaurant in Nha Trang. He had seen abalone advertised at a particular place, so we headed there in anticipation of a delicious meal (don't worry, I wasn't going to touch the abalone). We ordered a cheese platter for an appetizer (I love cheese!), and he got his abalone. I decided on a steak, since we were going big. We usually play cards while waiting for our food, but since this was a 'nicer' place, we decided to just chat. Blaaaaah (kidding)! Our cheese plate arrived, and to my horror, everything was covered in strawberry glaze. Bread, cheese, plate, nothing was saved. Inwardly I cried about my lack of cheese, but I decided to just eat around the nasty strawberry syrup and leave the rest to Hbf. He was delighted.



About half way through eating the cheese, Hbf stopped eating and started inspecting the cheese. I asked him what he was looking at and he asked, 'are these seeds in the syrup?' I didn't really look that close and told them they probably were, but he kept looking at the platter. 'I think they are ants, not seeds.' Sure enough, on closer inspection, the strawberry glaze contained hundreds of dead ants, not strawberry seeds. Ohhhhh thank you, thank you, picky tastebuds, for not liking strawberry syrup. We immediately sent it back but the damage had been done. Hbf ate ants. Lots of them. Haahahaa



10 minutes later our food arrived, and Hbf is able to thoroughly enjoy his abalone. I, on the other hand, had a rough start with my steak. They only gave me a butter knife, which I dutifully tried to cut my steak with, to no avail. I flagged a waitress down and tried to communicate to her that I needed a sharper knife, using hand signals and monosyllabic words. She seemed to understand, but a minute later she brought out another butter knife. Soo, now I had 2 butter knives and I still hadn't been successful at cutting a piece to eat. We found another waitress and tried to convey the sharp knife need, and she went back to the kitchen for a couple of minutes. When she returned, she brought me a very newly sharpened butter knife. Ummm.. Has no one ordered a steak here? Why do they not have steak knives? Hasn't anyone else asked for a knife sharp enough to cut a dang steak? I gave the sharpened butter knife a try and it worked well enough to make it through the meal. Mission accomplished, I guess.



After all that, they tried to charge us for the cheese platter. I told them we weren't paying for anything that has bugs on the plate. I'm not sure they knew what I was saying, but they took it off of the bill.

Happy New Years!

So, I survived Christmas without being home for the holidays. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard. But, I'm 27 now and I guess it is about time I cut the apron strings (maybe my madre wouldn't agree). I just really love being at home when the fam gets together because it's always an entertaining time. El Dub in a pink Snuggie, delicious food, constant laughter.. Oh and of course, some sort of boys vs. girls game. I wasn't there to help my team! I heard all about it, though (a very disappointing showing, ladies) and my mom even emailed a bunch of pictures so I could feel like I was there. I almost did..

The holidays are over now, thank goodness. I can now focus on the important things instead of moping around, trying to find food that reminds me of home (apparently they have never heard of chocolate krinkle cookies in Vietnam, how sad for them). We're at the beach now, and we've already enjoyed some snorkeling, SCUBA and lazy beach days. More of that to come, I'm sure. But now that the holidays are over, Hbf and I will have to start thinking about what we are going to do with ourselves when we make it back to civilization. It's crazy to think we only have about 2.5 more months out here, and we're going to have to start contributing to the world again in a responsible way (blaaaaaaaggghh). Somehow I want to find a job where I don't have to work in an office, I'm involved with puppies on a regular basis, and I use my engineering skills that my very expensive education taught me. Does anyone know of an opening? My new skills include: figuring out a bus schedule in any language, SCUBA diving, and an unparalled ability to ride an ostrich.

Happy New Year to everyone! Mine has started out pretty darn good! OH, and here is a strange tidbit: I've recently taken a liking to sushi. Don't ask me how or why, because I have no answers. Suddenly, I can't get enough of it and it kinda freaks me out. The roll I like has cheese and chicken in it, and it's all cooked. But still, sushi? L Rass would be so proud of me :)