Ta ta Thailand, Sabai dii Laos!

Greetings from Vang Vieng, Laos! We made it to this joyous country after 3 buses, 2 tuk tuks, 1 plane and 1 over night train and we couldn't be happier to be here. Before we get into our love affair with this lovely little country, we want to give our final meditations on Thailand:

1)Thailand makes us smile! The Thais people are some of the kindest and friendliest we have ever met and they literally brought smiles to our faces everyday, our cheeks still hurt.

2)We still crave and love thai food even after eating it for a month straight.

3)The kids were too cute, we wanted to steal them all, it was tough to leave them behind.

4)We are so happy that we volunteered in Thailand because having the interaction with the locals and getting to know one town really well made Thailand that much more special to us. We miss Khao Lak and all of the people that made it so great for us! However, we were not all that sad to leave the scantily clad German tourists.

Now onto Laos! It took us 24 straight hours of travel to get here even though it neighbors Thailand, but the journey was worth it. Laos is so quaint and lovely. We spent our first day and night in the capital, Vientiane, which is the smallest capital city in SE Asia and the vibe is very laid back. It was refreshing not to see any McDonalds or Starbucks which are commonplace in Bangkok. Once we crossed the border, we cracked open our first Beer Laos (they are as good as they are hyped to be), hopped into a tuk tuk with several Lao and Thai women who we befriended and fielded marriage proposals from (they all wanted us to be their daughter in laws), and headed into the city. Once in Vientiane, we walked around the city, enjoyed some delicious sandwiches, got massages and watched the sun go down over the Mekong River. It didn't suck.

Yesterday we took a minibus 3 hours north of Vientiane to Vang Vieng, a chilled out riverside backpacker hub known for tubing down the river and drinking lots of lao lao. Vang Vieng is also known for the fact that all of the bars and restaurants play Friends dvds all day, everyday. We aren't sure why or how they got this obsession with the Central Perk bunch, but we must admit it was nice to lay back on a comfy bed of pillows and watch a few episodes. We rented bikes and ventured into the beautiful countryside which is dominated by amazing karst cliffs, it is one of the prettiest places we have seen yet. We attempted to find some caves but in the end just rode through several cow pastures and decided not to pay locals to see their "caves" because we weren't sure if they actually existed. Today we plan to go tubing, the Vang Vieng specialty, which involves floating down the river in inner tubes, stopping at various riverside bars for free whiskey shots and Beer Lao, and hurling ourselves off of numerous rope swings. We are quite excited. We should also mention that Vang Vieng is a "happy" town with many "happy" shakes, pastries etc. on the menus, but due to our tight schedule, we do not plan to indulge. Tomorrow or perhaps Tuesday we will head north again to Louang Prabang where we plan to do a home stay in a local village and do some trekking and check out the waterfalls as well as explore the city itself. Should be wonderful!

Time to get ready to hit the river, we will blog again from Louang Prabang. We miss you all and hope you are all doing well.

xoxo,
T&L

Buckets and Beach Classes

Hello again everyone! We just returned from Koh Phi Phi and as usual are exhausted from taking the cheapest travel options available. Last week we had a little change in our teaching schedule. With an abundance of volunteers for the schools we looked around to see where else our services might be needed. Surprisingly we didn't need to look much further than our favorite beach bars. So we trotted on down to the beach with a paper that had thai writing on it stating our FREE english teaching services. We ended the day with four groups of eager new students, including bartenders and masseuses. The next day we returned with a pink plastic briefcase (We will be sure to include a photo of it soon) that was full of homemade language flashcards. Our day was exhausting but glorious and hilarious. Our beach students are just as eager and fun as the kids at the schools. Bonus is that they give us free food, drink, and hand massages while we teach. Pretty sweet gig. We were jazzed to semi understand some thai spoken by our student Joy's adorable son. Very impressive. We had to say goodbye to two of our beloved fellow volunteers, Sarah and Barbara. We sent them off with a fun night of eating and dancing and lantern lighting. It is now safe to say that no matter how hard we try we will never be as sassy as Barbara. We will miss the ladies but are sure we will see them again in the future.

This past weekend we ventured out of Khao Lak by bus and boat to Koh Phi Phi Island. We met up with our fabulous Canadian friends who had already checked out the aggressive bucket situation and found the best street food vendors. The first hour on Phi Phi was distressing to say the least as it was more difficult to find accommodations than we had anticipated and Lauren had low blood sugar and we were both taken aback by how touristy the island was. Kind of felt like Nassau Spring Break 2003. But once we had found our beautiful beach bungalow and gotten some pad thai in our systems we were good to go. We spent Friday night gallivanting around the island, slurping buckets, dancing with underage European boys, and eating copious amount of street food, including chicken legs that HAD to be bought at 3 am, and Nutella Banana Pancakes with a touch of Peanut Butter. Yummmmmm!!! The highlight of the night was when we left our friend Jamie alone for an hour and when we found him again he had a fresh tattoo on his chest. Clearly it was a night to remember and now that Jamie has Bruce tattooed on his chest he will never forget it and neither will we (Parents we did not come home with tattoos in case you were wondering......). Saturday the six of us hired a longboat with a cowboy hat wearing driver to go beach-hopping and snorkeling. Our first stop was Monkey Beach which was obviously covered in monkeys and we watched some girl get a little too close to the monkeys and, after getting bit, probably walked away with rabies.... Glad we didn't try to pet them!! The highlight of the outing was going to Maya Bay, otherwise known as "The Beach" from the film of the same title. We snorkeled, sunbathed, and floated in the gorgeous waters. It was truly breathtaking and we enjoyed every second of it. Saturday night we were all worn out so we feasted on the most delicious massaman curry at Papaya (You must eat there if you go to Phi Phi, huge yummy portions). The restaurant was amazing once we got over the cats sleeping in the food and drink refrigerator!!! T.I.T (This is Thailand. Then we curled up with buckets of popcorn and candy to watch bootleg 30 cent DVDs and surprisingly we were able to go to bed early despite the fact that our bungalow was literally shaking from the beach party next door. All in all an epic weekend and we can't wait to meet up with our Canadian friends again, either in North or South America.

We can't believe that only a month ago we were indulging in Maher's divine lasagna at our going-away Family Dinner and have now been in Thailand for almost a month!!! It will be weird saying goodbye to Khao Lak and the beaches but we are very excited to venture north to Laos. If anyone has any must-do tips for Laos please let us know ASAP. We will post pics this week and try to do another blog before we leave. Hope all is well and we miss you all!!!
xoxo
T&L

Cooking and climbing

Hello and happy belated Valentines Day! Since our last post we have become Thai chefs and rad rock climbers. Last week we taught everyday and continued to absolutely love it, the kids just couldn't be more fun! We took a Thai cooking class at the restaurant/bar we frequent and had so much fun learning the Thai culinary arts. Goi, our teacher, took us to the local market to buy all of the ingredients, it was quite an experience. The market has everything from dragonfruit to fresh shrimp paste to pig faces and whole chickens with the heads and feet still attached. We learned how to make red curry with chicken and pineapple, pad thai, papaya salad, spring rolls and bananas in coconut milk. It was a sumptuous feast and we had to teach through food comas after. It was like Thanksgiving. Since we are accustomed to sharing 1 dish per meal, each having our own 5 dishes was a bit overwhelming, but joyous! Now we can't wait to hit up the Asian markets in SF and show off our skills at a family dinner, get excited!

This weekend we headed out of Khao Lak for a weekend on the beaches off of Krabi. We stayed on Ton Sai and also visited Pranang and Railay. The landscape was totally surreal, pictures do no justice. There is just something so cool about limestone cliffs meeting the turquoise water. All of the beaches are only accessible by longtail boats and there are no cars in the little beach towns, it's such a treat. Getting there on Friday was a bit of an ordeal because there were strong winds and rough seas and obese Germans in our little boat and we thought we were going to tip several times, but luckily we made it unscathed. Ton Sai is a total trip. It is a rock climbing haven, most of the people live there for months on end and climb everyday and party every night. The beach bars reeked of reggae and reefer in a good way and the people were beyond chilled. It was one of the first places we met any Americans and it was chock full of Canadians, 4 of which we befriended on the beach and spent Valentines Day dinner with at a lovely Indian restaurant called Tali Leaf, a must visit spot for anyone who finds themselves in Ton Sai. We also treated ourselves to oil massages on Valentines Day, much more relaxing than the traditional Thai massages we experienced last time. This morning we got up bright and early and went climbing. It was totally different climbing on limestone versus what we are used to in the Northeast, each route was so unique. Our arms still feel like jello, but it was a lot of fun and we look forward to returning for some more climbing in the future, maybe after we hit the rock gyms for a bit back home and we will bring all of you climbing fanatics with us!

After 1 longtail boat and 3 buses today for a total of $10 and 5 hours, we are glad to be home and filled up on a dollars worth of our favorite street noodles. This week we plan to be super thrifty and solely survive off of pb & js and street food to save up for our final weekend in Thailand which will be spent on the beaches of Koh Phi Phi. If you need to visualize what that will be like, rent the epic film "The Beach." Hopefully the weird video game drug sequence will not factor in.

Hope all is well back home! Keep us posted on your lives and try to come visit us! We have both been able to get some pics up on facebook so be sure to check them out, more to come soon.

xoxo
T&L

another blog to follow

Hey everyone! We will send an updated blog post Sunday night that will recap our amazing Thai cooking class with photos and our upcoming weekend in Railay and Ton Sai. In the mean time, we wanted to share with you all a link to the blog of the Home & Life Orphanage we have been working with. It is an amazing organization and the link is on our blog, but you can also find it at this link: http://homelife-thailand.blogspot.com/
If you or your office has anything extra laying around that you don't need, think about donating it to Home & Life. The kids could really benefit from tons of stuff that we just throw away.
Have a great weekend!
xoxo,
T&L

Concerts, lady boys and scuba galore!

It's been a fun filled few days since our last blog! We have fully immersed ourselves in the volunteer project, in fact we are even on the website! Scroll down to see pictures of us enjoying some of the best things Thailand has to offer; dancing with crazy Thais at a reggae concert and sampling grilled insects at a Thai carnival! We feel quite honored to have made the cut. Speaking of reggae concerts, we spent Thursday evening at a JOB2DO concert, they are Thailand's most famous reggae band, watch this video and you'll be hooked! We are currently sitting here singing along. The concert and surrounding carnival were a lot of fun and a great glimpse into everyday Thai life. We danced and sweated up a storm, but not quite as much as Barbara, our sassy 60 year old fellow volunteer. She is a hoot! As are the other volunteers we have been spending much time with, Sarah and Oliver. Sarah is a 27 year old hot ticket with a heart of gold from London and Oliver is an 60 year old Irish gemstone, not to mention Lauren's future father-in-law. Don't let Oliver and Babs' ages fool you, they drank us under the table, especially Babs at Friday's night lady boys cabaret! We can't stress how great and fun this bunch is and how we hope we are as fun, adventurous and giving when we are in our 60s. And FYI those lady boys had moves that we've never seen and we're not sure we need to see them again! Although Trish would like to take some dance lessons from them and we both want their abs and we really getting there with all of the banana pancakes and beer!

This weekend was devoted to scuba diving. Lauren successfully completed her open water certification and we celebrated by going diving in the Similan Islands. Just picture what scuba diving should be and that is what is was like, straight out of a dive magazine. The only thing you might not see in the magazine that we encounter were all of the men in speedos and all of the smoking, we thought smoking after scuba was a death wish but apparently divers of Thailand didn't get that memo. We saw tons of cool fish, turtles and really cool coral, it was simply divine! And we both got tan while doing it, what could be better?! Lauren's sunburn has made a turn for the better and hopefully she will catch up to Trish's golden hue. We both aim to look Thai-ish by the time we leave for Laos.

This week is all about volunteering. We are skipping the full moon party to fully dedicate ourselves to the project because it is so fun and the kids are worth it. We also have plans for a Thai cooking class at one of our favorite local restaurants on Wednesday and if all goes well, we plan to host a Thai family dinner to show off our skills when we return to SF so get your chopsticks ready!

We are currently exhausted from all the sun and scuba and are off to bed. Hope all is well worldwide with you all and we will post again later this week. Still working on getting some of Lauren's pics up, fingers crossed for this week!

xoxo
T&L

Everything happens for a reason

Greetings from Khao Lak! It's been a hot and sunny 2 days in paradise. We were supposed to start our project yesterday, but Steve had fallen ill so we headed to the beach! We did a long walk, discovered many fun beach bars and massage huts and got some good color slash Lauren is living off of aloe since she got a nice sunburn from Trish doing a poor job putting sunscreen on her back. Thanks Trish! But the beach was heaven regardless! Our lunch consisted of ice cold Chang beers and nuts at the Freedom Bar (actually spelled "Freeom" on the sign) and ice cream, delish! Last night we discovered that Steve is actually quite ill and is shutting down Fun 4 Kids for the month of February. Lucky for us, the volunteer network is so close knit in KL that we were able to hook up with Volunteer Teacher Thailand and will be teaching in schools and orphanages for the next 3 weeks, we couldn't be happier! The kids are beyond joyous and the other volunteers are so lovely and fun to work with. This situation is turning out to be better than we had hoped, clearly everything happens for a reason!

Life in KL is beyond laid back and lovely. It is a quirky and quaint town with a nice slow pace. All of the locals couldn't be friendlier, our favorite so far is Lin the barman at Everyday Bar who makes us special shakes and understands that we split EVERYTHING so it all comes with 2 forks and 2 straws. Our diet is consisting of fruit shakes, banana pancakes, Chang beer and thai food (we'll order any dish under $3 and have gotten to try many new yummy foods!). Luckily, Lauren's iron stomach is holding strong and Trish has faired much better than she thought she would. Lauren is starting her dive certification class tomorrow and if all goes well, we will head to the Similan Islands this weekend for some world-class diving! We will update you on that next week. Can't wait to share many fun stories from the classroom, we are sure there will be many, these kids are clowns! More photos to come soon if the hex that has been placed on Lauren's camera connecting to the computer is lifted. We have some gems to share! Trish thinks it's all in Lauren's head, but we all know that technology and Lauren don't really mix. Fingers crossed it works out!

Hope all is well with all of you and that you are enjoying reading the blog as much as we enjoy writing it.

Time for cards and a small beer which we share, obviously.

xoxo
T & L

Bye Bye Bangkok, Hello Beaches!

So much to report we don't know where to begin! Let's start with what just happened to us. We are now in Khao Lak and just treated ourselves to our first thai massages. Have any of you ever had a thai massage? It's not your run-of-the-mill rubdown. We came from the beach and couldn't get into the place we wanted to go so we settled for the nearest parlor that could accomodate us for a 10 dollar an hour massage. We're speechless. And we have never felt so limber. We believe they used Icy-Hot as the lotion which is why we are both slightly burning right now. They put their legs in odd places on our bodies and some of the poses resemble those of the Karma Sutra. It's safe to say Trish went to second base with her lady and ended up topless........But all in all a joyous experience which ended with sweet tea and watermelon......We're hooked.

Now back to Bangkok. Our final meditations:
1. You must stay on Soi Rambuttri Road right off of Khao San. It's more laid back and filled with joyous people and scrumptious street food.
2. You must eat at Gecko Bar and Mr. Yim's Vegetarian cart. They are across the street from each other and Gecko offers Pad Thai for 25 baht (less than a dollar) and Mr. Yim's makes the best pineapple and veggie fried rice on earth.
3. Visit with Joe, the friendliest travel agent around. He keeps post at New Siam 3 and is a complete gem.
4. Only cross the street when a Thai crosses the street. Bonus if you can cross the street with a monk, no one is going to hit a monk. It's important to make sure you get as close to them as possible when crossing so that you don't fall behind and get hit. We had a few close encounters but are now street-crossing experts!!
5. Tuk tuks are a must. They are better than a roller coaster and you get to barter your price, although you get forced to visit the "best" tailors in town and pretend to look interested in purchasing custom clothing. (Taylor Stitch, you should get in on this!)
6. Cabbages and Condoms is a must splurge. The food is delicious, the atmosphere incredible, and it is all for a good cause.
7. If you have the time, the Tiger Temple is a interesting excursion but we still can't decide if it was really cool or kind of sad. Regardless, Lauren got to spoon a tiger.

We have had a busy day, having gotten up at 4 am for our journey to Khao Lak, but we couldn't be more happy to be here!! We've already signed up for scuba and made friends with the owner of the dive shop. We probably don't need to tell you that the beach is incredible, but it is!! We have to go shower off all of this Icy-Hot before we meet up with Steve and get the low down on our volunteer project which we will begin tomorrow. We'll try to post pictures soon and hope everyone is doing well!!
P.S. Who won the Superbowl???

xoxo
T & L