No I don't want a tuk tuk ride, a tailored suit or a ping pong show.. Thailand 2011

Thailand was simply amazing.... We were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks exploring the country.  During our travels we realized that "The Hangover Part 2" wasn't just a movie story, what happened to them is COMPLETELY plausible and I don't know if that is a good thing....  We explored; Bangkok land of dirt, pollution, over population and traffic. Chiang Mai a place to explore the culture of Monks and temples that were actually being used, not just for tourists and the great outdoors with 'jungle people'.  Krabi, 4 Islands, Phi Phi island and Phuket - STUNNING beaches one could only dream of, extreme heat, snorkeling and sunning.

Overall this holiday was an extraordinary experience and a great peak into the Thailand culture. We also lucked out with the weather, although we went during the rainy season we somehow never had rain ruin any of our plans! and even that it only rained 3 times the whole 2 weeks, which was in the morning! We even got the opportunity to visit the small country of Brunei and tour the city and Mosques of this oil rich country.  Since I obviously will have lots to talk about I will separate this super long blog post into each city visited.

Enjoy the photos!

 Tour on a long tail boat, lots of houses here are on the water

 Dried fish at the market. STINKY

 Anyone want some shoes?

 If you ever need a fake; id, university diploma, drivers license, passport... just go to Thailand

 Oh the grammatical errors..

 Fake Tiffany's, all the rage in Thailand

 Some slum areas in Bangkok

Thailand McDonalds, this is how you say hello.   Sawadeka, pronounced Sahwa De Ka

 breathtaking views on Ko Phi Phi island

VIDEO OF OUR TRIP

 GENERAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THAILAND
- Thailand to me was a mix of Kenya and America.  Kenya in the sense of poverty, slum areas and massive population.  America in the sense of brands.  Since Thailand is such a huge tourist destination there are so many US brands.  The shopping malls had Gap, Coach and lots of other stores.  There was over 3000 Seven Elevens in the country (the US only has around 1000) and lots of food brands were just like the ones at home.  Surprisingly there was more brands and commonalities in Thailand than there are in New Zealand!

Thailand is also home to anything knock off, everywhere we went there was Tiffany's jewelry, Abercrombie and Fitch, Polo, Gucci, Coach, Nike and any other brand you could think of fakes.  It was quite amusing as basically all Thai's wore this. 

There was lots of 'lady boys' all throughout the country

Anywhere you went if it was in a touristy area you were asked if you wanted a; Tuk Tuk ride, ping pong show or a tailored suit.  There was also ladies from different hill tribes walking around in traditional dress carrying little trinkets to sell.

There is a different colored Buddha for each day, and depending on what day of the week you were born there is a story/presumptions about your life and personality.

Thai massages and foot massages were around 160THB an hour.. or the equivalent of 7NZ dollars = 5 or 6 US dollars.  YES PLEASE!

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MONKS/TEMPLES
- Bangkok had lots of temples/palaces but they were more for show.  Traditionally Chiang Mai's temples are actually used for Monks to learn.
- Monks are not allowed to touch women.  If a woman wants to hand them something it must not directly touch them ex; putting food into a basket the monk is holding
- All their food is donated.  Each morning the Monks go around collecting food from Thai's.  Most everyone will donate to them as it is seen as something god would want them to do.
- The goal of every Thai mans life is to be a Monk at one point during their life.  They used to be required to be a Monk for at least 3 months, but not it can be as little as 3 weeks.
- Temples and Wat's used to be the place men went to get educated.  Pre WW2.  This was basically their university to learn Thai Massage, become a doctor or anything else.
- Woman must cover their shoulders and knees.  So each time we visited one I had to have either along dress or pants on and then wear a sweater. it was SOOO hot!  but defiantly worth the sweat!

BANGKOK

We arrived at 12pm and made it to our hotel in the Royal District and an older part of Bangkok, wandered around the markets and fell asleep at 7pm. 
We spent the next day on a Temple Tour.  We took a long tail boat ride through the different canals. (Alot of Thai's live on the water and these rivers are their main source of transportation.)  We say a floating coffee stand along the way as well!

Then it was off to the Royal Palace and boy was it BEAUTIFUL!  The detail on each building is unreal and must have taken years to complete.  Everything about each building is breath taking and was such an amazing experience to see.  Then it was off to the Wat Pho where Thai Massage originated and Monks used to learn the technique.  This place also had the reclining Buddha which was the 5th biggest one in the world.  This place also was selling roof tiles you could write your names on, goals and ambitions which gets placed up on the roof towards Buddha.  We naturally donated our 20THB = less than a NZdollar and now our name will be up on the roof of the Wat Pho protecting the reclining Buddha.

The next day we did a bike tour around old Bangkok.  This was a GREAT experience.  We went across to the old capitol, before Bangkok was and rode through the old city and areas with floating houses for 4 hours.  Some of the areas you couldn't even tell we were on water because there was so much garbage.  Pollution is such a massive problem in Thailand its just so sad.

 in one of the floating houses areas, you can see the water but its SO brown and dirty.

 During our biking tour we also saw trains from WW2 - Dad these photos are for you! :)

We were more than happy to get out of Bangkok and on to Chiang Mai where we would explore the jungle on our 3 day hill tribe trek!

CHIANG MAI
We arrived in the afternoon and boy was it hot.  After checking into the hotel it was off to the Seven Eleven for our daily trip there consisting of water and whatever else looked good. (All Seven Elevens were air conditioned so it was especially nice)  We were off to a walking tour of the temples courtesy of the Lonely Planet book (not to put a plug in for them but I would highly recommend getting a book for whatever country you are going to! so useful!) We found real Monks and met people who wern't trying to scam you or sell you anything, it was refreshing!  We also found a very good vegetarian restaurant for some delicious thai food.

The next morning was the start of our Hill Tribe Trek!  We rode in the back of a truck for around 2 hours with the two other couples on the trip.  A German couple named Sarah and Marcus and an Irish couple named Jo and Owen.  They were all really cool and everyone got along wonderful making the trip even better.  After stopping at the market to get the food for our tour we were off to a stunning waterfall.   It was raining but that didn't stop us from saving our selves from the heat and jumping in.

Then it was time to walk.. we put on our packs and trekked off in the 90 degree weather and 70% humidity.  There is only one way to describe it, sweaty.  We trudged along for an hour and a half before reaching our village for the night.  Along the way there were leeches... and yes, they attached themselves to my heel.  I tried not to freak out too bad, but it was not a pleasant experience.

The village we stayed in for the night was stunning.  They all grow rice and the fields were bright green.  The rich colors surrounding us were so beautiful, the camera can't even begin to do it justice.  We were cooked a homemade meal courtesy of our guide and then all fell asleep in the heat, under our mosquito nets, on our thin bamboo sleeping mat, 10 feet up in the air in our wooden hosts home.

The next day we were off again, and super gross.  The only shower was in the same room at the squat toilet which consisted of a can with water on it and a bowl for you to pour the water on you.. not ideal.  But regardless with a shower or not you would be drenched in sweat only a few minutes after walking.  We trekked along for 2 hours before stopping for lunch.  Then it was another hour hike, mostly uphill to the next village we would be staying in.  Along the way into the village we came across a dirty, dirty man.  I honestly thought he was disabled and unable to walk because he was having such a hard time.  Turns out; he was just on opium.  And settled down underneath the table singing and talking to himself until passing out.  We say him the next day, scared of what would happen only to have him say hello and stroll right past us.  Everyones jaws dropped, as he was normal! We also go to try jungle whiskey, which is made with fermented rice, though to me it just tasted like really really horrible vodka.

 This lady we came across while walking in the village.  She was separating the rice from the grains, how amazing!

 Then she sifted it in her trays and separated it all out into piles, such a skill!

Group dinner!  Middle is Irish couple and right side is the German couple.
The next day was our final day in the jungle and we had just enough time to ride elephants for an hour and go bamboo rafting (a lot more intense than it sounds)  There were some serious rapids, and we literally were just sitting on bamboo, so sitting in the water...

The liner in my shorts is now brown, not white thanks to this water...
The tour was an incredible experience and so many wonderful memories.  After surviving the bamboo rafting it was time for lunch and then the 2 hour drive back to the city.  We checked into our hotel and took a long, well deserved shower.  I have never felt so clean!

KRABI
After saying goodbye to the jungle we headed down to Krabi, the sun and beaches! We spent the day soaking up the sun in Railay beach only reachable by long tail boat.  The next day was a four island snorkel trip.  We took a speed boat to four different islands to soak up the sun, play in the water and snorkel around the beautiful underwater world.  I unfortunately hit my foot on some coral and cut my foot, but it is slowly heeling! 

 Thai Red Bull. Hopefully that is actually what it says...

 Chicken Island

KO PHI PHI ISLAND AND PHUKET
The next day it was on a ferry ride over to Ko Phi Phi Island where our resort was on the northern part of the island only accessible by another long tail boat.  It wasn't as nice as we thought it was going to be and the most expensive hotel we stayed in, but it did have a private beach which was amazing! Naturally we spent the day soaking up the sun and snorkeling on our private beach before going to the sunset bar on top of the hill for some drinks and absolutely stunning views.

Our last stop was Phuket for one day.  We hopped onto another 2 hour ferry ride in the blistering sun and were on our way.  The real reason we got to Phuket so early was simple, zip lining!

We finished the night off with a delicious dinner and a long stroll along the beach back to our hotel with the non working airconditioner.

We then started our 34 hour journey home at 3:30am and were lucky enough to have a stop over in the small country of Brunei (new post and pictures of that comming soon!)

Its crazy to think that in 5 months from now we will be home.. done with all our adventures, or will we? What should the next destination be! :)

Time flys when your having fun!

Hello Everyone,

Wow first of all sorry I haven't posted anything in a month!  Oops.  Time is just getting the best of me right now.  I am once again caught up in work and whatever else we have going on.  We have been living in New Zealand for just about 7 months which is crazy!

I can't believe how fast time has gone, it hasn't seemed like its that long, and to know we only have 5 months left is freaking me out.  I mean we have moved to a foreign country, set up shop, found good jobs and are enjoying living on our own and exploring new places.  That is pretty freaking cool to think about.  What an amazing opportunity and to think it is going to be over soon scares me!  I mean what happens when we go home, we will just arrive home and then what?  How will being home (minus seeing all our friends and family) be anywhere as exciting as living in a different country and exploring new things each day, learning cultural, language and way of life differences?  Oh well I guess that just means I will (Colin included, he just doesn't realize it) need to continue traveling the world and experiencing new things.  It is a good reminder to never get too caught up in your life and own little world that consists of one city because there is so much more going on and it must be experienced!

Well in other news:

We officially leave for Thailand in 5 days!! I am beyond excited! If anyone is interested this is what we will be doing while venturing through Thailand!  We arrive in Bangkok and are there for 3 nights 4 days.  Two of the days we have half day tours.  One of them is a temple tour and the other is a country biking tour that goes to a sandal and factory.  I really want to go to this place called the Moon Bar which is on top of a sky scraper and you get to look out all through Bangkok!  Then we are off to Chiang Mai.  We fly up there, get to hang out for the day and then head out on a 3 day hiking tour visiting tribes and ridding elephants!  From Chiang Mai we go down to Krabi which is right on the water and we will be staying there for 4 days and go island hopping, swimming, snorkeling, rock climbing and whatever else we decide to do! And then, we go to Po Phi Phi island for a night which is where 007 and the beach was filmed.  After all that we make our way up to Phuket for a night and then fly back home.  Its going to be alot of traveling around but I am so excited to experience yet another country!  And I am sure this will make my travel itch even stronger!

The last month we haven't done alot.  Just working and Colin and I spending time together on the weekends.  We have been doing hikes and exploring more restaurants and craft beer bars throughout the town.   Work has been great and busy.  I absolutely love my job, if I haven't said it before.  Everyone I work with is great, the experience I am getting is outa this world.  I am constantly given more responsibility and soaking it up.   I am currently working on my first spend and win promotion for the centre! :) Jaime and I have been running during lunch which has been great!  I am no good runner, but I am slowly getting better.  We are doing 5-6.25 K's currently and my goal is 10k by november! (Don't judge my lack of distance, like stated earlier, I am not a good runner...)

This last month we had a super cool opportunity to volunteer for Beervana.  This was a beer festival in Wellington of all the craft beers (over 200) - Colin about peed himself with excitement!  So naturally we volunteered to be bar tenders for one of the sessions.  We got free admission to a different session ($35 value!) and the tokens for beers!  We had a blast!  But I made the mistake of not having dinner before all my tastings, so I was a little tipsy to say the least! :) But don't worry I made it up by being the typical drunk person and spending a ridiculous amount of money on a dinner that I can't even comment on!  Oh well.. Then saturday night we were bar tenders.  It was alot of fun, and I can now say I have 5 hours of experience pouring beer for tons of beer fanatics!

More Funny New Zealand sayings/things.

- Chalka - the line was chalka full.  - (The line was long)

- country road bags - these are like duffle bags from a store called Country Road which is a nicer store here.  It is a HUGE trend for everyone to use these as backpacks or purses.. I don't get it...

- boom boxes in bags - another big trend here.  To put their ipod and speakers in their Country Road bag and play it circa 1980s boom box.

- barbers sit while cutting hair -interesting...

- She's a nutter tell her to bugger off.  - Translation - she is crazy tell her to leave.

- drink driving.. - yes its called drink driving here. There is also a HUGE problem with that here.  You can actually be in your car and have open containers and be drinking....

puffer jacket- down jacket

Stuff you - like screw you.


For the first time in 30 years in snowed in Wellington, not only in the suburbs, but central Wellington which is at sea level.  Thus since this hasn't happened in decades everyone went crazy about it and the city basically shut down.  Sunday afternoon it snowed and actually stuck for a little bit.  Nelson and Rose our flatmates were super excited about it making snow balls and taking lots of photos.  We introduced snow to Kitty, but she didn't really like it.  And then basically refused to leave the house since there was snow on the deck.. still do not know if maybe she went down under the stairs and peed??

Work was a whole experience in its self.  I got to do a little emergency management with retailers wanting to shut down and what not.  It was very exciting, yet funny at the same time because snow wasn't sticking to the ground and everyone went into panic mode.  The busses shut down (luckily I was able to take a taxi) and everyone basically thought it was the end of the world.  So this went on for two days and finally the snow is gone and everything is back to normal! THANK GOD!

I also thought it may be nice, especially for later on in life, to take more photos around town.  So below are a few from down town wellington, the Sunday market, the local grocery store, roads etc.  I will get some more taken of the way up to our house too!

 The water front walk to the Market.  The waterfront here is great!

The good old Sunday market!

Where we go for lunch each Sunday at the New York Pizza Department in the market.  Probably the best pizza I have EVER had. Rumor has it, the dude in the photo above used to work for a big corporation and then decided to go travel the world and learn how to make pizza and is back!

More downtown and central Wellington area.  This hill above goes towards the Mt. Victoria suburb.

These roads are on Courtnay place, a major strip in central Wellington with lots of bars and restaurants.  The photo right above the road takes you to the water, and the New World grocery store pictured above.

Views from our suburb, Wadestown and the road to our house! 

Hope to post more often!  Miss you all!

Our little life in New Zealand

I can't believe we have been living here for almost 6 months.  Time has gone by crazy fast! It is time to get down to business and start doing some serious traveling!  Today colin and I are making our master game plan for the rest of the year, as we have LOTS to do!

Things with us are going well.  It is winter but slowly starting to become spring. it has been a very mild winter.  Apart from the wind storms last week and tornado 45 min away from us.. ha everything is well!  One of our crappy doors broke in the storm, a huge chunk of wood came off with the lock.  And the power at work went in and out so that was a long day!

Colin has steady work for at least the entire month which is good, meaning I don't have to pay for everything :))  and we are getting ready for Thailand! it has really snuck up on us! But am super excited about it, and then before we know it Martha will be here for our south island tour!! so excited!!

We went out with my co-worker Jaime and her partner on Friday night.  We went over there for dinner and drinks and yummy cake!  We had drinks and then went to go bowling, which is crazy expensive here, go figure NZ expensive!

after that we ended up going to 6 different bars!  Time flew!  Jaimes best friends family owns a few Wellington bars, so we got free drinks n what not.  Before we knew it, it was 3:30am!  And ps the bars in NZ don't really close, at least not until like 7am.

one of the many bars we went to had this budha looking thing that we decided to take a photo with... apparently that wasn't ok and they tried to kick us out.. luckily Steve is a cop and knew the people so they let us stay. but I couldn't help thinking that you would have to do WAY more at home to get kicked out.  oh well it makes a funny story! 

So we finally made it home and slept in until 12pm!  Jaime and Steve came back over to do our VERY important Nordstroms order and then Colin and I did our weekly walk to the grocery store and then walk home with our backpacks and reusable bags full (up hills). oh yes and here is a picture of Kitty being silly and sitting like a human

well thats all for now! hopefully I have something more interesting to post next time, before we leave to Thailand!

don't have your ID? Its ok! you can still fly!

 Anything you thought about going through security at airports (domestic travel) FORGET IT.  New Zealand has its own terms, and I didn't get my ID checked once,  going to Auckland or back to Wellington.

I was lucky enough to fly up to Auckland for the day to attend a Marketing Managers meeting (how fun!)  It was great to see the head NZ office and learn more about the NZ marketing world, everyone was really nice and they even took us out bowling after!

My morning started quite early, but luckily I had a taxi and didn't have to take the bus!  I got to the airport, got my boarding passes and just walked all the way though.... shops and eateries are all public. (The main road even runs through the airport drop off point!)  You can still greet people at the gate as well.  Anyways, I went through some security at my gate.  It was like flying cira 1990.  I didn't have to take off my shoes, belt, jacket and I could take in food and beverage.  Not once did I have to show my I.D and before I knew it I was on the plane and ready to go!  The cockpit door can open and shut, and it doesn't take them years to depart from the gate, they just close the door and go. 

Air New Zealand totally has their marketing down for the safety as well.  on the way up I watched a rugby theamed video, as below:

so I got to Auckland, took my taxi to 277 Newmarket and away I went for meetings.  After all the work was done we went to a bowling alley and played some game along with some drinks and food.  By the time I was off to the airport I was 2-3 glasses in, and come to find out I was served more wine on the plane!  So by the time I got home, Colin told me I smelt like wine.

In the Auckland airport.  I went through security (this time with a package of hair products for a campaign we are doing)  the security man asked me what was in my package and then just said ok, have fun!  how crazy is that!  I got to my gate and realized there wasn't food places so I just leisurely went out of security, got some food and then went right back through.  Once again my ID was never checked!


The week before my trip to Auckland was Greg's last week with us.  We decided to celebrate our flatmate family and go out in Wellington.  It was a pretty fun night, and we made it to a few different bars, but then decided it was time for Kebabs and a taxi ride home.  the next day we went out to Nelsons families house (who have been so nice to host us for dinner, drinks and movies twice now!)

We went out kayaking for the day and it was beautiful!  Went out for around 2 hours, and then headed back to the family's house for an amazing dinner and movies.  It was super sad to see Greg leave... especially since we were a little family.  But he is off to Auckland and then headed back to the US.  We got a new roommate, she is nice and finally starting to talk and come out of here room.  At first she was super quite and never came out!  But things are getting better now.

On the 4th of July my work was nice enough to have a 4th of July afternoon tea!  We all brought red white or blue treats and it was so much fun! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful job! 

 Cheryl, Nadine, Jaime, Megan and I - 5 people missing, and ironically 2 of them were in the US!



Things I miss:
honey nut cherrios
apple sauce
gram crackers
frozen juices - they don't have them here!
health drinks - like Naked or Odwalla


 Kiwi sayings:
gutted - like oh disappointing.  - oh gutted!
plasters - bandaids
being precious - being snobby or difficulty.
top up - refil
nutta - crazy person
flesh against the wall  - flat against the wall


Write more soon, Miss everyone!!