2010 Year in Review

Saying good bye to this American life in January was difficult for us - we left our part-time jobs in Spokane, and with the assistance of Derek's family, moved all we owned to a storage unit. We spent two weeks in Colorado with Kendra's family and finally flew the coop to Thailand, where we were set to be volunteer English teachers for six months.

We had a wonderful start, amazed by the beaches and the kind people we met at Step Ahead. The community center where we lived is also where we taught, and was right off the main road running through little Khao Lak, Thailand, a favorite beach getaway for German vacations. We learned quickly that there were jelly fish in the water and crashed a lovely resort for their chairs, shade and pools. We didn't waste any time getting started with teaching - our students were adults in the community, most of which worked in the tourist industry. We taught about God's love through Bible stories and writing practice. We became very close with our students.

When we weren't in the classroom, we kept ourselves busy with community projects. Derek worked on setting up a village garden for Sea Gypsies in the town. I spent mornings at the preschools our organization ran, playing with the kids and teaching them English words for fruits and animals. On the weekends, we watched movies and read and painted. When the rainy season came, we were often stuck inside, but inside there was air conditioning, for which we were very grateful.

My parents came to see us in March, and we experienced scuba diving and snorkeling with them. We visited Bangkok and Singapore, and they were able to visit Khao Lak, where my father's insatiable need for ice cream landed him in the hospital with food poisoning. In case you believe this is an indication of the poor conditions that others in the world experience, keep in mind that both Derek and I were never seriously ill in the 6 months we were there, and we didn't have medication or shots. Thailand is the cheaper, more Eden-like version of Hawaii. Go, if you ever get the chance.

We spent our last month in July backpacking to Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. We lived very cheaply but saw many incredible things and met many nice people. The beauty of the land and the unique lifestyle of Southeast Asia is truly life-changing. We both agree that it's one of the greatest things we've ever done in our lives, and would do it again in an instant. Thank you all for your prayers and financial support. We're better people for that experience.

We returned to the states in August and enjoyed Craig's 60th birthday party and Craig and Ranae's 25th Anniversary in Colorado before driving our little purple bug and Avery the pig back to Spokane. We picked up a new addition to our family on the way - Paprika, who was later re-named Bernadette because of the Four Top's song. We settled in to a two bedroom apartment and Derek started Medical school with 20 first year students for the University of Washington's School of Medicine.

Kendra was hired at Jigsaw, a Salesforce company, in their Customer Success department, where she trains new clients and manages accounts for the organization. As her department is being restructured, she plans to move to the Operations department to assist with automating the new account set-up process. She loves her job and is doing very well, though she is still undecided about her chosen course for her future career.

We will be fortunate enough to see both of our families for Christmas this year and are very much looking forward to time off and time together. God bless you and yours this holiday season!

~ Derek, Kendra, Bernadette and Avery

Irra-what?

When we got back into Phnom Penh, we bought bus tickets for the following day to head north to Kratie (pronounced "krachay") to see the endangered and infamous Irrawaddy River Dolphins. We ate at the night market where I stumbled upon the perfect ornament for our future Christmas tree, a mini fishing catcher which they use in the fishing dance and also, ironically, in REAL life, for fishing.

The bus rides, at this point, are nothing. We crammed our stuff under the seats and had our typical rations of water and bread ready for the hours ahead of us. Derek made a funny comment that the kid next to us "killed Winnie the Pooh" as he had a backpack of his likeness hanging by the neck around his seat. The family to our left let their kid run in the aisles with his toys. We watched some strange picture on tribal fighting in Cambodia, with a very annoying woman who talked like Hello Kitty. ALL Cambodian women featured in movies speak this way - only dogs can make out the pitch they find appropriate. I think they believe it makes them sound innocent and sweet, but instead, you want to bust your own eardrums to keep from hearing the siren's call to throw yourself over the nearest bridge.

A nice American woman, who had married a Cambodian man, told us when to get off. We enjoyed the scenery and switched seats to have more room as people got off. The bus was freezing, and I put on Derek's socks and extra clothes to keep myself conscious until we arrived.

When we got there, we were dropped off in the middle of a street and began to pick our way along to a $5/night hotel. A man walked next to us the whole way, telling us he had just the place for us to stay - and it turned out, that he was pitching the same place we'd already chosen. He came all the way up to our room with us, telling us about the rates to see the dolphins (that's all this town is living on). We told him we'd think about it, and left for dinner when we finally kicked him out.

We had dinner (after a failed attempt to find the night market - if we found it, we didn't know it, it was probably that small) at another hotel where we ended up booking a driver for the next day - the rates were half of what our little "friend" quoted. He wasn't happy the next morning when he found out we "cheated" on him, but we had a splendid drive with a French couple out to meet the dolphins.

This Irrawady River dolphin, closely related to the Orca, is a round-nosed entertaining character that lives in the Mekong river and its delta waterways. The water is muddy brown, but the dolphins surface for air every few minutes, giving you a priceless opportunity to see them for yourself. There are only 100 or so left in the world, and about three quarters live in the river near this Cambodian town.

We sat for an hour out on the water, filming them whenever we could manage to catch them in the viewfinder. We didn't see them jump, and pictures were hardly possible, but it was a really fantastic opportunity. We stopped by a hill temple on the way back to town that isn't even really worth mentioning, and packed our things. We were harassed all the way to the station by our little "friend" from the day before, who told us we could get discounted tickets from him, and he reserved them for us, and we didn't want them. He had a few VERY unkind things to say to us, and for the second time on our trip, we were told by a local never to come back to Cambodia. Of course, the other 99% were charming, so we indeed would come back, in spite of his rude comments. We waited for much longer than promised for the bus, which was loaded with tourists when it finally arrived ("only 30 minutes more"...."you sure? you said that 30 minutes ago"..."yes, i'm sure, only 30 minutes more") and we had a surprisingly white-filled, peaceful time watching some sequel of The Mummy until it skipped itself into stop mode, and we watched as our driver tried for a half hour to maneuver the bus over a very narrow and rickety-looking bridge while a hundred onlookers sat by to see if he'd hit the edge and end us all, into the muddy ravine.

I wouldn't mind so much, as long as the bus didn't kill one of those dolphins in the process.

Snicker Doodle-Ville

We took a bus down to Sihanoukville on the southern coast. Boasting a first-rate slot as the nation’s most fantastic beach area, we arrived in the pouring rain to a town with trash-filled streets. We avoided the mob of taxi offers as usual and determined to walk to our guest house. On the way, we found a small restaurant called Holy Cow, where we enjoyed some comfort food on warm couches. It was getting dark, so we headed to our guest house, passing by a massive golden lion statue in the center of a roundabout. Our first try for a room struck out, so we stayed a few doors down at a mellow hangout, called Mick & Craigs. After a shower, we played pool and ordered drinks. 

The next day, we walked towards the shore. We didn’t have much time, so we got an early start and bought bread and jam at a convenience store to save on breakfast. Down at the waterline, workers slaved away building up a boat port. We were swarmed by girls selling bracelets and sunglasses and women giving pedicures, for only $2! But, our feet had a longer way to travel, so we denied their pleas. Some of them got quite friendly and offered that we could sit at a restaurant’s beach chairs without buying anything. They showed us how they “wax” women’s legs – with a piece of floss, worked on your hair. As the string twists, it pulls hair with it. My legs weren’t bad, considering I had recently shaved after a very long stint of neglect (hey, it’s backpacking!), but they still wanted to show how their method was better than anything else, and that the results would last up to three weeks (for the record, it lasted about one).

We met an unfortunate shoe salesman who hit us at our point of irritation with the constant requests to buy things, even as you try to relax. He responded to our blunt denial to his product by telling us that we shouldn’t come to Cambodia if we don’t want to be bothered. We’ve met so many amiable people; it was a shame to run into an attitude like that.

The sky was very cloudy and it dribbled a bit, so we got very little sun, but we were glad to see a bit more of the country. We left that afternoon after a quick meal in a local restaurant, and headed back to Phnom Penh. That night in Phnom Penh, we hit the night market where we scored a local noodle dish that we like, Lat Char. The place was brimming with noise and people, so we didn’t stay long. I did buy an ornament for our tree – a mini version of their woven fishing tools. 

The next morning, we took off for Kratie (pronounced Krachay) where we would view the endangered Irrawady Dolphins. We stayed that evening in a very nice $5 hotel and got a nice dinner at a place where we managed to book a boat and tuk tuk for our touring pleasure. We were picked up the next morning and met a young French couple who would ride with us, out to the boat docks a half hour north, where the dolphins stay. We got in a little motor boat and set out for the center. No one else was out that morning (not much else is in the area, so it’s not nearly as touristy as some places), and after a minute we were able to see the dolphins surface. For an hour, we just sat quietly, waiting for them to come up. You could track where they’d resurface after a bit, and we got some of our time on film (thanks, Derek!) because pictures were useless with such little notice and very little idea of location. It was a very incredible thing, seeing these creatures living in their natural habitat, with no one else around, and with only 100 left in the world (75 live in this area, the other 25 or so near the delta). When the other boats started coming out, we headed back, and grabbed ourselves a hand-carved wooden souvenir of the dolphins before heading to a hill (it’s not worth mentioning – the views were mostly hidden by tree growth, and we saw more temples, a very common thing at this point, unless they’re unreasonably spectacular, which they weren’t).

Then, onward to Siem Riep, where we would conclude our trip. I was looking forward to not moving around for a few days, as we were on a bus every day for a week. But, no one can say we didn’t use our time well, and we certainly saw more of Cambodia than most visitors.

Democratic Republic of Kampuchea

Taking a slow boat into the capitol and back in time, Cambodia has much ado about not developing. Despite this, the kingdom remains a wonderful place to visit for its amazing people, alternately beautiful and terrible sights, and of course, the food.

During the reign of the extreme marxist Pol Pot in the 1970's, millions of the country's citizens were killed and the entire population was enslaved into agrarian work camps. Dreaming of a one-class society where all workers fueled agricultural production, Pol Pot slaughtered any academic or dissenter his genocidal party could find. We shared a morning tuk-tuk to the Choeung Fields killing fields with Tanya and Eugenia, the Russian-Canadian sisters turned awesome traveling companions we met on our way into the country from the Mekong Delta.

Upon arriving at the fields, you're greeted by a beautiful stupa that towers over a peaceful orchard. Butterflies flit about and the ubiquitous southeast Asian chickens cluck along peacefully. You think to yourself how lovely it is until your foot steps on a skull fragment.

Housed inside the stupa on 17 shelves are nearly 9,000 skulls recovered from the roughly 20,000 people that were slaughtered here. Organized by age (from children up) it's a frightfully somber reminder of how horrible humanity can be. As you tour the sight, you see depressions in the ground where the seemingly innumerable mass graves were/are. There are terrible things here, and most of you would be better off not having your day and mind so afflicted by such atrocities. It's a strange feeling, a powerful mix of sadness, shock, and disgust. For anyone wondering why this wasn't stopped when it happened in just the 70s, well, look at Burma right now. . . and support the Free Burma Rangers.

Not yet sufficiently depressed, we continued on to Tuol Sleng, a school that was, quite symbolically, turned into a prison-torture center. Some of the rooms are still stained with blood, and large portrait photos on the walls showed the bodies found in them when the detention center was liberated. Other rooms showed the brick and wood barriers built up to house prisoners in tiny cells formed within the larger classrooms. Exhibitions with photos of the detained also added an all-too-personal reminder of the human cost of genocide.

Having seen enough after walking through the section on the torture that occurred here, we left to find lunch and a little sanity outside in the capitol. Happily, we found  our way to Friends restaurant, a wonderful organization that serves Cambodia's street youth. We are always happy to be patrons of organizations like this and greatly enjoyed our delicious, if overly American-priced, lunch. Kendra, still feeling the effects of our morning's festivities, opted simply for a lemon-soda, adding soda water to lemon and sugar mixture. I thought that was neat.

Continuing on, we found ourselves freed from the horrible sights of the morning to view the better half of Cambodia's history. If you were to listen to a conversation in the Kingdom of Cambodia, 1 out of every 4 words spoken would probably be "Angkor." They're phenomenally proud (images of its main temple adorn just about every vertical surface) and rightly so, the temples, as we would later see in person, are incredible. After being refused entry at the Royal Palace for not being dressed in a sufficiently respectful manner (it's okay, it's basically a small carbon copy of Thailand's Grand Palace anyway), we would catch our first glimpse of Angkorean ingenuity at the National Museum, housing a multitude of the Khmer Kingdom's finest stone masonry all surrounding a gorgeous central courtyard.

After filling up on the beautiful carvings, we sought to fill our tummy's at an authentically Khmer, and authentically delicious, food market outside the Psar O'Russei market-center. It was a full day in the capital, and what better way to prevent burnout then to take a trip down to Cambodia's 'premier' beach destination at Sihanoukville.

One Night in Chao Doc

We spent one night in Chau Doc, at the edge of Vietnam, and it was by far the sketchiest place we've been. Swarmed by the legion of taxi and moto drivers at the bus station, we stuck up our noses at their ridiculous offers and donned our ponchos to venture out in the rain for better prices and less obnoxious people. One of the moto drivers ran into my leg and left a nice tire mark on the back of my calf. We were bothered so incessantly by one driver and he offered such an incredibly low price that we consented to a ride to our hotel. It was a good choice because the center of town was quite a ways off, and without a ride, it would have taken us forever to get there. We each had a driver and we kept our eyes on one another until we reached a guest house which wasn't at all the one we had asked for. Finally, we had gotten to experience the too-well-known gig of being taken somewhere that gives the drivers commission. We were very loud in our complaints and they offered to take us now to the destination we had requested. "Don't waste my time," I told my driver, "or you don't get paid at all." They brought us to the hotel which was cheap and clean, and we were glad to finally be at the border.

We walked down dark, dirty alleyways in search of cash and water and kept our eyes open for the night market. We returned to our hotel immediately, and there we enjoyed dinner at a floating restaurant, held up in the water on short stilts and accessed only by uneven hand-made wooden ramps. We booked our boat for the next day and as we fell asleep, with a request to be woken up early enough for breakfast, Derek fought to kill the mass of gnats that had invaded our room. We slept with a light on that night to keep them drawn away from us...the town was FULL of bugs, everywhere you looked. Really a crummy town. If you go through here, don't stay longer than you have to.

The next day, our internal alarm clocks kicked in, and as is usually the case, we had no clock. No one had woken us, though we had reiterated our request til we were blue in the face, and we threw our stuff together, scared that we'd end up missing the boat and having to remain here another day. Fifteen minutes after we were supposed to get up, a woman opens our door and sticks her head in (our wake up call, we think), and immediately leaves. Not two minutes later, she comes in again (no one knocks...be dressed at all times if there's any way they could have a duplicate key) and in broken Vietnamese yells that I have to get out. I haven't the faintest idea where Derek is, and I'm pissed that the woman would have woken us up and given us only 2 minutes to get out of the room to meet our ride which was 15 minutes early. Derek met me downstairs with bread he had picked up from a street vendor, and we sit to wait for our driver. A man with a cart is asking if we want a ride, which we routinely reply that no, we don't need a driver. Turns out he was our driver, but no one told us and he certainly didn't speak enough English to let us know that we were supposed to go with him. Surrounded by three others with the same vehicle, wanting to take us wherever we wished to go, he blended in so well that it took us five minutes to figure out that we were, in fact, waiting for him.

We met up with a massive group of foreigners in a cafe, where we ordered butter and jam for our dry bread, but we didn't get to use even half as we set off directly, separated from our bags, and walked to the pier. The boat ride went smoothly, and we met some very nice people. We visited a fish farm, which is common in this area set up under the house. We went to a village to visit the Cham people, who are known for towel weaving (the towels are almost the same as all the other scarves around, but they use them as towels) and found them to be very happy and photogenic. Some kids selling waffles rattled off their rehearsed pitch in very monotonous voices, so much so that we wondered if the Cham people might have built robots to look like children to sell their wares.

* Side note -  I have yet to see actual "syrup"...pancakes come with honey, which they call syrup

The ride began very pleasantly. We didn't expect it to take more than a few hours. People along the river waved as we passed, which I thought amazing, since they must see foreigners every day pass by, always taking video and pictures of them in their daily routines (washing clothes, dishes, brushing their teeth, bathing, washing their cattle) and would think after awhile they'd get sick of waving. But they always did. Then, we sat at the border for forever while our visas were worked out by our guide. He also offered to change our money for us, but we were too guarded because we didn't trust his exchange rate and figured we'd trade in town.

Note to fellow travelers - when entering Cambodia from Vietnam, CHANGE YOUR MONEY RIGHT AWAY. No one in Cambodia would take our Dong, so we had $100 in useless currency and still do now. Hindsight is 20/20, naturally, but if the boat driver offers to change your money, take him up on it, if only in this instance. We used US Dollars for everything while in Cambodia (their money is the Riel, but they only use it for 20% of transactions, usually as a replacement for US coin).

It began to pour, so we traveled in a tarp-covered boat, but though this kept the rain out, it made it very stuffy inside and since we were all right on top of the engine, I opted for fresh air and water than to suffocate from the fumes. It was a VERY long rest of the way there...we underestimated our travel time by at least 5 hours. After awhile, sitting on the hard boards and trying to avoid the line of ants running behind you gets very old. When we finally stopped, we weren't in the city center yet, and had to get into a van which dropped us off at a Phnom Penh guest house, where we took the bait and opted to stay because we were tired and hungry. We hadn't eaten almost at all, anticipating getting in early enough for a late lunch, and at 8:30 we headed out to finally fill ourselves up. Vietnam was now behind us, and a very packed week or so in Cambodia was ahead.

Bygone Saigon

After two days of recovery for colds we had developed from general uncleanliness and no sleep, we left the room one evening to see a water puppet show (I went with some friends from Britain, Derek didn't come) and to visit the Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake, where a giant turtle is "embalmed" but is not a very convincing specimen. The water puppet show was created in the Hanoi area in the 11th Century by rice farmers. The puppet masters control the figures by poles that run under water, and they stand behind a curtain to run the show. The stage is all on a square, lake-like surface. If you're in Vietnam, it's a must.

We took a flight the following day to Ho Chi Minh City, and on the way, we experienced attempted extortion by our cab driver, who tried to have us pay 1/4 the price of the already expensive drive as a reimbursement for "toll fees" that he had supposedly paid. We didn't pay it, but he was pissed.

Ho Chi Minh City, known still by the locals as Saigon, is a much more relaxed place than Hanoi despite its doubled population (7 million; Hanoi -3.7 million). On arrival, we met with a group from a global outreach for Habitat for Humanity and they gave us a free ride to downtown! We had lunch at Sozo, a Christian organization that trains street kids in Vietnam for culinary employment. The staff was friendly and the internet was free - we were in a good place. We found some excellent street food (Bun Cha) and an overpacked grocery store. Our room must have been 7 floors up. All the buildings in Vietnam are narrow and tall. The front is the width of a strip mall shop, but they build back and up as far as they can, so most of our rooms have been a painful climb.

We visited Reunification Palace, where we saw the digs the south Vietnam "President" was setting up for himself before the northern army brought a few Russian- and Chinese-made tanks through their front gate, ending the north-south conflict for Vietnam on 15 April, 1975. We enjoyed the underground bunkers and the old equipment, all frozen in time. They had tanks and a jet on display in the lawn, copies of the ones that had ruined the gate and bombed the building, respectively, and a US helicopter on the roof.

We walked to the War Remnants Museum, whose front lawn area was filled to the brim with US military equipment left behind (too bad - we could probably still use them) and had many pictures of people harmed by the war. The tone of the museum was decidedly propogandist - the US was an evil conquerer bent on destroying civilized humanity, wanting to rip Vietnam apart for its own purposes, against the wishes of all Vietnamese people. It was very tough to see, as an American, and the pictures themselves bespoke atrocities that should never have occurred, but the government-run museum certainly didn't post pictures of any of the atrocities that they were responsible for, so in the end, you left feeling sorry for the whole mess, and sad for anyone who fought, only to have their efforts later portrayed in such a poor light. Ah, well, such are the politics of war.

Insert - I'm sick of Asian TV. Whiney female voices, all of them, and cheesy karate films, which are entertaining as an accidental comedy, and not for their intended purposes.

We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral, where mass was being held. We ate at a posh, but very cheap, restaurant called Quan An Ngon where we enjoyed Bun Bo Nam Bo. We left the next morning on a two day trip to the Mekong Delta region. Our first stop was Mytho, where we saw a coconut candy "factory" (some machines, just as many people, but the assembly line concept was in effect), rode horribly broken-down bikes through the countryside, dodging donkey-pulled carts and trucks stuffed to the brim with chickens. In Ben Tre, we took a small boat paddled by an older woman in a rice hat through very narrow canals in the mangroves to a fruit orchard, where we sampled local fruits until overrun by bees.

We had honey tea (soooo good) and held a python at the bee farm, where I hid in plain sight from the swarm that didn't seem the least bit interested in anything but our drinks. A boat back to the bus which took us on to Cantho ended our first day. We met Michael and Marion Milch of France and dined with them on questionable chicken dishes on the water. It was a beautiful region, but the bus ride was violently bumpy as we crossed more bridges than there are characters in this message.

Hell Bus

I woke up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom desperately, and after crawling over the sleeping bodies in the aisles, I managed to share my growing concern with the driver's assistant. Repeatedly, we stopped and I wasn't allowed off. Finally, we stopped to pick up a woman, and I dashed into the alley...never gone so fast in all my life! Another two women followed me, and we were back on the bus in a flash.

About 3:45 am, the bus stopped at a dark lot, and some people slowly unloaded their things. The driver turned the bus off, and we're all thinking that he must be taking another cigarette break. A half hour later, unable to fall asleep again and sweating from the lack of circulating air, someone asked the driver when we'd be off again, to which he replied that he was no longer driving that night. No, he wasn't being replaced...he was just done. He got a chair and some other Vietnamese joined him outside the bus, lying down in the street or smoking. We were stunned, and very out of it. As the morning light began to rise, we got off the bus to find some moving air, and realized we were in a dump, with other busses, nowhere conceivably near Hanoi. The driver laughed at our request to turn the air back on, and someone managed to get him to tell us, an hour later, that a local bus would come and pick us up. We got so sick of waiting, we paired up with an Israeli girl traveling alone and got a taxi back into town.

A Rice Paddy For Your Thoughts

Growing exhausted by the alternating 'this-is-wonderful-wait-it's-terrible-ope-now-it's-amazing' nature of life in Hanoi, we journeyed north to the remote mountain station of Sapa close to the border with China. After taking a taxi to the train station and arranging for the cheapest sleeper ticket on a train we hoped was heading to Sapa, we set about our day in the city and then returned ready to sleep it off in the train.

  An entire Vietnamese family was prepared to sleep it off with us, however, as we were situated on the top, coffin-like bunks in a cabin shared with the rambuncious (and noisy bunch. Glad to have finally found the train- given that Vietnamese public transit is the transportation version of a chicken with it's head cut off - we found sleep anyway despite the lack of head room and noise emanating below.

   We awoke to the mass departure of everyone around us and, in the well-established tradition of venturing out without knowing if we'd made it there yet or not, we got off anyway. A legion of shuttle bus drivers met us with offers of plush seats available for the drive up into the mountains. '150,000,"they said. "30,000," Kendra returned. They immediately accepted, and so we were off.

   The gorgeous drive heavily featured rice paddy terraces framing steep mountain ridges and cliffs framed by absent -inded water buffalo chewing the day away. The views were so beautiful they could've made a Swiss person cry, and the cool mountain air, pine trees, and stunning views instantly reminded me of back home.

   Walking to the guest house we'd planned on staying at, we were met by Mah, a local woman dressed traditionally and carrying an adorable baby strapped to her back. She spoke excellent English and asked us about where we were from and what our plans were. She offered for us to spend the night with her after hiking the 4.5mi into her village, and, feeling adventurous, we accepted.

    With a homestay, we purchase the food for dinner and breakfast while the family provides us lodging. that way we get a wonderful experience for a very low cost and they get an expensive meal they normally couldn't afford. After resting in a nearby restaurant - changing and cleaning up in the bathroom - we began the insanely beautiful trek down into the most picturesque valley in the world.

    After talking at length during the downhill hike, and splitting a massive cucumber which we ate like a watermelon, we arrived at Mah's home. The modest accomodations were framed by the beautiful scenery, and we were instantly welcomed by her extremely friendly family. Another local woman shoed me to her house, where she prepares garments by hand, stripping, sewing, and dying hemp cloth then weaving it with a wooden loom. Jin, mah's husband (they're both 20 and have 3 children) helped with a dinner that was fantastic. After lots of conversation, we retired to our bed but not before many games of "Go Fish." Despite having just taught Mah and Jin, they did a great job and scored several wins.

    Our night's sleep was  eventful, as our mat over straw on the dirt floor afforded little protection from an army of curious insects. The many farm animals were also bent on destroying our hopes of consistent rest, but we endured and wouldn't change the experience for the world. After a wonderful breakfast, more photos, and a long goodbye with the family, we hiked to a nearby village and caught motorbikes back up into the city.

   We rested the remainder of the day in the city's peaceful park and found lunch at a restaurant with an impossibly gorgeous view. We would then catch a night bus back to Hanoi, and little did we know what that bus would bring. . .

High Highs and Low Lows

Our first day in Hanoi, we checked out of our room with the intention of taking a bus to Nin Binh, but our late departure and our hotel receptionist held us up just long enough to make traveling that day a waste of time. So, when a taxi was called for us, we took it to the train station instead and bought tickets on the local train to Sapa, where hilltribes are settled in the north. We went to the Temple of Literature, set up by a Vietnamese king in 1070 to honor Confucius and was soon after converted into Vietnam's first university. Here, stone turtles hold the names and birth places of 1306 men who were awarded doctorates from the triennial examinations held here at the Quốc Tử Giám ("Imperial Academy") between 1484 and 1780.

We had lunch at KOTO (*Know One, Teach One), a nearby non-profit restaurant that trains street kids in the culinary arts and helps them to get jobs all over Southeast Asia. Then, we caught a cab to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and spent the afternoon looking at model houses, costumes, tools and handicrafts of the various hilltribes and subcultures of the Vietnamese people. We managed to catch part of a water puppet show outside, which I'll elaborate on after I've seen a proper show tonight.

We tried to get to Hoan Kiem Lake to see Ngoc Son Temple before closing, but the rising taxi fare and traffic forced us to bail early, and we ended up at a Botanical Gardens park. We watched the runners with some amusement...a video alone could describe their unconventional dress and form. We saw a cage with peacocks and another with monkeys. At one point, we realized my sunglasses were no longer on my shirt, and we searched after them for a half hour in vain. A few tears (on my part) and a serious rest on a park bench brought us some perspective. We were tired and thirsty and frustrated...one of those times when you hit your limit but you're nowhere near any place that can make it better. So, we caught a cab to JoMa, a favorite cafe from our time in Luang Prabang, and stuffed our faces with milkshakes and pizza. We washed our feet and brushed our teeth in the restroom and drank all the free water we could get our hands on. We had carried our things with us, on our backs, all day long, and it was so nice just to sit away from the traffic and the people, if only for an hour.

After a hurried day of covering all the "must see" spots in Hanoi, we purchased sleeper train tickets to the northern city of Lao Cai, a border town with China. Our sleeper was a very tight fit, to say the least, and the Vietnamese family that shared the car with us was amused and a bit irritated that we would be joining them. Since the train left pretty late, we went straight to bed, but not before snapping some pictures of our cheap predicament.

Some time around 8 am, everyone started unloading, but no one mentioned which stop we were at. We have struggled here more than in any other region with communicating with the locals. Most often, no one attempts to help you, and they laugh when you ask questions and sometimes just walk away. It's a very frustrating cultural "lesson" to learn. Here, we caught a minibus into Sapa, and we held out on our lower rate of 30,000d when they threw prices like 150,000d at us - we were groggy and sleep-deprived, but we knew we were too stubborn to bend to their demands, and we got what we wanted.

The drive up takes about an hour and a half, and most of the way, we just gawked at the beauty outside the windows. The mountains were almost all cultivating rice, down steep slopes of the greenest green you've ever seen. We were blocked at times by massive water buffalo that sauntered along the skinny roads without much care for our schedule. We sped along, barely missing massive busses coming from the other direction, and never really sure which side of the road we were "supposed" to be driving on (they drive on the right side, like in the US, and like in Laos). Hilltribe women and children sat alongside the road in their colorful costumes - a preview of what we were sure to see in town.

For Lucky

We've been in Luang Prabang, Laos, for the past few days and absolutely love it here.

Everything is just amazing- the contrast of the decaying French Colonial architecture with the Lao culture and numerous temples, to fresh-baked baguettes accompanying each meal... it's extraordinary! There's far too much to write about given the short amount of time that we have here in a little internet cafe, but a few highlights:

- Hiking up alongside Kuang Si waterfall and climbing up a section of the falls to reach a secret lagoon so impossibly beautiful that it's beyond description. We kept remarking that it seemed fake it was so stunning!

- Perusing the night market that forms on the main road each evening with gorgeous silk scarves and all sorts of incredible items, framed by lights reflecting off the nearby temples.

- Meeting excellent new friends from England and the United States that we've met up with a couple times since sharing a tour with them to the Buddha Cave (a remote cave above the Mekong River filled with discarded Buddha statues), and learning about their lives and experiences here in Asia.

- Sharing a cup of fruit (mango, pineapple, banana, apple, dragonfruit, and piya) while waiting for a french crepe from one of the roadside carts.

"For Lucky" is the phrase vendors at the Hmong night market use to let you know that you are receiving a special discounted price for being their first customer. We doubt it's authenticity because we hear it every time we reach a new vendor, but we've taken them up on the well-wishing once or twice in exchange for beautiful Lao handicrafts.

We love it here and are sad to move on in the next few days, but we're perfectly safe, very happy, and taking lots of pictures (which have just been uploaded), so look for some exciting additions in the next few days.

Also, we're in Hanoi, Vietnam - just arrived this afternoon. We'll be heading out tomorrow to take a bus to a nearby village that is closer to some natural beauty we want to see...thanks for your continued love, support, and prayers.

40 Hours of Continual Travel

Last Thursday, we said our tearful good-byes to our friends at the center, and before we even knew it, we were on the top of a double decker bus flying down the road towards Bangkok.

We had some business to take care of there, but after catching up on some rest at the Quinley's, we caught the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai on the northeastern border of Thailand.

We took a tuk tuk from the train to the bus station and avoided paying double what the man asked for. We went through customs and successfully obtained visas at ridiculous prices (even if they were reasonable, any price to just enter a country is ridiculous). We took another tuk tuk to the northern bus station and waited several hours to get a 10-hour bus from the capital, Vientiane, to Luang Prabang. The drive was breath-taking, and we enjoyed ourselves, until around 6 pm.

The mountain vistas were breath-taking until darkness set in and the bus driver sped crazily down the switch-backing mountain roads. It was dark, and we could've fallen into a precipice   (<-- Ace Ventura line).

We finally got into LP around midnight and flopped into a nice roadside guesthouse (he didn't speak a word of English - it's incredible that we managed to get what we wanted) and slept off our trip until the next morning...stay tuned!

To Lao, and Beyond!

This blog is called "The Y Rock Movement" for a reason...and again, the Weyhrauch's are moving! We're off to Bangkok today on an overnight bus, and tomorrow evening we'll catch another overnight train to Nong Khai on the border to grab our visa and head into Vientiane, Laos. Blogs from here on out will be dependent on internet access, but I'm sure you won't see much of a drop from us anyway - we do love to tell stories!


These past two weeks have flown with all the activity here - I was a photographer for a Thai wedding, we've finished very successful rounds of classes, we've said our good byes over dinner with friends and a final mango roti before we shove off.

We love and miss you all so much! Our time here has flown by, and we're sad to leave Step Ahead. This organization is such a blessing, and we're excited to pass on our knowledge to Christy, the new volunteer teacher here for the next two months. Pray for our health and safety, as we are daily praying for yours.

July 28th will be here before you know it - then it's time for med school, cell phones, car insurance, jobs and expensive food again ;-) Ah, America!

Coffee Crappers

Just one hours' drive north of the center is the beautiful Khao Sok National Park where Derek, Sarah and I spent last Saturday. After breakfast, we followed a rough map on their website through Takuapa and managed to find ourselves without any road signs. We pulled over and asked a local how to get to Route 401, and the old woman responded with a heavy dose of directions in Thai. I nodded along (I told her I didn't speak it, but that didn't stop her) and remembered the hand motions...we figured, at least we could round the corner and speak to someone in English without offending her. She followed us right back into the car, speaking through the doorway. We drove, and somehow, we found the right road, following only the memory of her vague hand gestures.

Khaosok is the oldest evergreen rain forest in the world. This park is home to some very unique animals, like the clouded leopard, the Malaysian tapir and sun bear, and the mouse deer. We parked the car and paid our 200 THB fee (about $7) to enter the park. We crossed on foot to the entrance of the first of three possible sight seeing places. Many areas were roped off due to the dangerous rivers that worsen with the rainy season. We looked at the horrendously overpriced list of tourist activities and snubbed it - we were doing this one ourselves (to be fair, we usually do them ourselves).

We started up one trail to see a "panoramic" view of the jungle. We climbed many steep stairs that were in disrepair and quickly stopped pulling off to the side to read the barely legible, rusted signs in Thai. We saw an army of massive ants, with big black bodies and big red heads. We think they were giant fire ants, and they were at least a half inch long. They were all over the hand rails and when you looked at them, they reared up and tried to check you out to. *Shudder*...disgusting.

We wandered over a suspension bridge with boards missing and broken support cables. It was like in the movies, where they walk over this nothing of a bridge, and at a key moment, the rotting boards break out from under them. Yep. It was like that.

We got to what seemed like then end of the trail, but we could see nothing like a panoramic view, so we kept going. I mentioned at least twice that I was pretty sure we weren't on a path anymore, but Derek and Sarah were determined. I peeked at the ground around the time they began agreeing with me about us having gone too far, and saw a worm moving like a slinky. When we got back to the trail, I looked down and saw the worm stuck to my ankle. I slapped it, and the back end came off, but it held tight. I smacked it again, and still another chunk broke off, but it was resilient. Finally, the third strike broke the sucker off. I wasn't bleeding, but I was hysterical, and Sarah took my hand and walked me down the path, telling me that it was probably nothing. But, I knew it was a leech. I had gotten them on the bottoms of my feet in Wash Park, Colorado while playing in a stream. And they're on my ultimate hate list. Derek had one on his sock, but it was brushed away easily. And Sarah was clean...we thought.

On our way to lunch, Sarah took one of her shoes off. Something that looked like a rock rolled out. But, it wasn't a rock. It was a fat leech which had just filled itself to the brim and had detached itself from her toes. It struggled to move its overfilled body along the ground, and while we filmed it, Sarah dared to check her other foot. Low and behold, another was stuck fast to her big toe, and a first attempt at removal failed (they're slippery buggers). She pulled it free and Derek squished them both into oblivion on the pavement, squirting Sarah's blood on my shoes...don't worry, she promised me she was free of any blood borne diseases ;-)

We ate at the only restaurant we could find, and they gave Sarah napkins to stop the bleeding. When we were done, she walked to the side to adjust her makeshift bandage, and two women from Ireland came to the rescue with "plasters" (bandages) and water. We thanked them and took off for our second hike, because Sarah's a trooper, and we wanted our money's worth on the park. The latter half of the hike was quite easy as the dirt path was more like a road. We walked along without seeing anything of consequence while Derek looked in vain for the Malaysian Tapir and elephants he was sure were just out of eyesight. To navigate a particularly skinny pathway, I led the way. As we came around the bend, we saw a Civet cross the road just up ahead. We rushed excitedly to the spot where it ascended into the trees to see it climb out of sight. Just then, a Thai guide and two farangs came up, asking what we had seen. We told him. The guide smiled at our naivety and told us it was a monkey. Stupid guide...like we haven't seen a hundred monkeys and we're hallucinating from blood loss.

I have never seen a civet before, even in pictures, but Derek's spent WAY too much of his life learning otherwise useless facts about very "irrelevant" animals that one could never hope to even see...except this ONE time, when it came in handy. I described the animal to him and he determined what it was, and I affirmed this when we got back and looked it up online. They are very difficult animals to track down, and it's a miracle if you see one at all...it was pretty cool. We didn't take this picture - the animal was much too quick. Civets are known for producing the most expensive coffee in the world (watch The Bucket List), called Kopi Luwak. The stuff sells for $100-600 per pound! It is made from coffee cherries that have been eaten by the animal, partially digested, and are then harvested from its feces. Mmmm, GOOD! 

We detoured down to a swimming hole, but none of us were interested in getting in the lake after the leech attacks, and none of us have ever watched the ground so carefully as we did now. It started to rain, but we moved on to see a very beautiful river filled with smooth, giant boulders. It was very peaceful, and we were all in awe that we were here, in the middle of this massive rain forest in Thailand by ourselves. We felt pretty grown up...that, and we just bought our first car insurance policy  ;-)

We hiked further to see the waterfall, and you might say we were disappointed by their definition. This was no waterfall...it was a rock with some river "water falling" over it. But, it was pretty and the walk back was pleasant.

It's Not Nepal, But I'll Take It!

We spent this last with Sarah Hendrickson, a friend of mine from High School. She joined us for a week of relaxation after trekking in Nepal and doing research on tuberculosis in Velore, India for 9 months.

We had quite a time getting her reeled in. I drove to the bus station early Monday morning and when the bus stopped, I could see her sitting in the top level (double decker) as the bus drove off again. Unsure whether or not she had spotted me, I ran back to the car and followed the bus until it let someone else off. I ran and spoke with the bus driver, telling him that my friend was on the bus and that he needed to let her off. He pointed ahead and I assumed he'd pull over up the road, but he just drove on and I followed him right out of town. As we rounded the final curve out of the mountain pass, I saw what he was pointing at: another identical orange bus ahead of him, the one that Sarah was on. And it was flying. I went back to the center to wait for her call.

Meanwhile, Sarah HAD spotted me at the station, but the bus only stopped for a moment and when she had gotten to the lower level, the driver's assistant refused to let her off until they reached the "downtown" area, where she did, in fact, get off. I must have passed her driving through the area after the bus that she wasn't on in the first place. She waited to see if I'd catch up and then took a taxi back to the station to wait. The taxi driver didn't know where the station was (it's not that big of a town) and dropped her off past it. She insisted on being let off and a lady on a motorcycle offered to take her the rest of the way there. Sarah waited at the bus station for two hours for me to return, while I waited by the phone for her to call. Finally, she got a taxi to drop her at Step Ahead (which he miraculously recognized) in the middle of my class, and we finally got her to her room.

This week, Sarah and I lounged at the beach, had many Nutella Rotis, snacked on popcorn and M&Ms while watching Supernatural and The Big Bang Theory and got massages. We made several runs to Thai Totes and shopping trips downtown. We found gorgeous shells at our private Shell Beach and sipped on Derek's mango shakes. I watched her pull the exoskeleton off of jumbo prawns and pull leeches off her toes. We had fun with a fancy camera and enjoyed cocktails at Chong Fah Resort and visited the beached police boat from the tsunami. We looked at her pictures from Nepal and listened to her hum the official song of the World Cup. It was an excellent week.

Phi Phi Don (pron. Pee-Pee Don): Not like it sounds

Imagine a beautiful tropical island. Still, translucent waters gently lap at powder-soft white sand and slowly fade into a memorizing crystal blue. Can you picture that island? Well, when that island needs a vacation, it goes to the phi phi islands.

The view from the main beach on Phi Phi Don

   Arriving with a throng of tourists on a ferry from Railay, we were immediately hit by the nearly overwhelming array of options for activities and accommodations greeting us at the Ton Sai Bay pier on Phi Phi Don. Checking out a wall listing places to stay, we settled on 'The White,' a very pleasant yet budget-friendly hotel that occupies a corner in the middle of the tiny, highly concentrated island community. The hotel was aptly named, with a white decor serving as the central theme for our small but very comfortable room. As we prepared for a relaxing trip to the beach, I had no idea how much fun and adventure was lying in store for us in the Phi Phi islands. It's far too much for a single entry, especially given the propensities of a writer as long-winded as myself, but I'll do my best to give a recap of some of the highlights. 

Same beach as above, viewed from the kayak at high tide

   Phi Phi Don is the largest and only inhabited island of the small phi phi chain. Lying on a narrow sandy isthmus, the Ton Sai Bay Pier monopolizes one side of the isthmus while a beautiful beach lays claim to the other. We found ourselves here for part of the first day, relaxing on the sand and taking in the view. After resting up, we put together a picnic lunch of some baguette sandwiches and chips, rented a kayak, and began paddling out of the above bay to Monkey Beach. 

   After battling our way to the small beach, we pulled the kayak up onto the incredibly soft, pure white sand. We then set up our beach mat and began enjoying our lunch.

That's when they came.

   The noise of movement over the leaf litter of the jungle floor behind us came to my ears and I immediately knew what had happened. Drawn by the smell and noise of our meal, the monkeys descended on us to demand their fair share. What follows is a very interesting experiment in the male and female approach to conflict resolution. Kendra stood peacefully among the monkeys, holding her sandwich without experiencing any harassment, while filming me in a protracted battle with several of the vicious demonic beasts.

A happy portrait taken at the site of 'The Battle at Monkey Beach'

   Rage and malice consuming their soulless monkey bodies, the little devils made vicious charges at me, hissing and glaring with monkey lust at the sandwich I was holding. One problem- it was my sandwich, and I was prepared to do as much yelling and ineffectual kicking as was necessary to keep it that way.

   With growing boldness, the monkeys charged at me and I settled on the obvious solution of retreating into the shallow surf to kick sand and salt into their monkey faces. The most daring of the several that were attacking me even tried to venture into the water, but a blast of wet sand had them in quick retreat. And so we danced...and I made those monkeys watch me eat my sandwich.

   Despite my dramatic description, I was quite surprised at how vicious the monkeys were but never considered myself in any real danger. Only towards the end did I start to get actually angry, and by that time I'd finished my sandwich and they had set off for the greener pasture of the white bread a boat of tourists offered them.

   Picnic over, we kayaked back into Phi Phi Don and rested up for an incredibly fun evening of fire shows and various other promotions the elaborate bars all showed off. Our favorite was the Banana Bar, a rooftop bar with neon paint patrons can use to decorate as they please.

   For dinner, we had 'the best phad thai in the world,' as recommended by a passing couple who would actually become good friends. Lane and April Perry are ex-residents of Oklahoma come denizens of New Zealand, where they are continuing their work in their graduate studies focused on higher education. We'd see them many times throughout our stay and always greatly enjoyed the wonderful conversations that we had. We're excited to keep in touch and hopefully visit them sometime in the future.

   The next day promised a tour of the Phi Phi islands with a discounted price from a local company. After the frustration of a very late start, we set off towards Phi Phi Ley.

Approaching Phi Phi Ley

   

   The first stop was in a beautiful inlet formed by a channel into the center of the island complex. The islands rise straight out of the water, no beach or even inhabitable surface save for the Maya beach area we'd later explore. The inlet itself was beautiful, with the gorgeous limestone cliffs frosted in greenery rising straight up from the water below. We were able to swim about for an hour before heading to a cove on the opposite side of the island. 

The cove in the center of the island complex

   Our next stop was a cove on the other side of the island. To our surprise, we would depart the boat and make a short but surprisingly difficult journey to the infamous Maya Beach. Jumping off the boat into the rough water of the cove, we swam to a network of ropes directly in front of a less-than-structurally-sound ladder. Battered about by the rough water, we finally were able to make it up the ladder before climbing down the other side and hobbling over sharp rocks as surf from the rushing tide did its best to knock us onto them. 

   Making our way off the rocks onto the sand, we hiked through a short patch of beautiful jungle, with the steep cliffs above opening up as we approached the beach. The trees gave way to tall fronds and your excitement built as you got closer, until all of a sudden the view pounced on you. Despite its notoriety, Maya Beach easily came in behind Railay West and Phi Phi Don in terms of beauty, but it was quite striking. Soon enough, we found ourselves called back to make the journey to the boat and continue our tour around the Phi Phi islands. 

The rest of the day's tour would explore Phi Phi Don, Mosquito Island, and Bamboo Island (easily my favorite for the beautiful view from its understated beach). We would also meet an extremely nice Israeli couple, on extended vacation after their service with the military. Speaking with both, I was very impressed by their perspective and they each sold us on interest in visiting Israel. 

Kendra Interjects: Our last stop on the boat tour was Shark Point, where we were "guaranteed" to see Reef Sharks, a fairly large but not "particularly" dangerous shark off the coast. Either way, there were sharks in the water, and they were on record as, at some point in history, having attacked humans before, so I'm still putting them in the "large fish with teeth that I never want to meet" category. But, we both got in anyway. We spotted some long, white fish that looked like distant sharks in the shadows (my fears were causing me to hallucinate and hyperventilate, a bad combination while snorkeling in shark-infested waters), but we saw nothing of the sharks and Derek managed to get himself stung by jellyfish...twice.

   After viewing the sunset from the boat, we would have another wonderful night in the crazy fun party that is Phi Phi Don, with some more excellent encounters with Lane and April, and time spent with Bailey and a friend of hers she met on a trip to South America and coincidentally ran into here (small world indeed). 

   A morning ferry would take us away from Phi Phi and begin our trip back to what would be a very busy next week at the Center, but the memories we have of the tropical beauty of Railay and Phi Phi will be hard to wash away. 

Railay Relaxation

We were anxious to get started on our weekend getaway Thursday, and after our classes ended, we were already packed and ready to go. But, the truck needed to get checked out and we ended up having to wait for the shocks to be replaced. It was a bit awkward leaving once we did because it was the last day for our co-worker who wasn't talking with us, so I anticipated an uncomfortable exit. She wasn't around, though, so we said our goodbyes and drove the three hours to Krabi Town.

We parked at the pier and worked our way through the bossy long tail boat owners who laughed at us for wanting to pay 1/3 of their asking price. We got a very decent rate (better than they were offering - who's laughing now?!) and carefully made our way into the long tail boat via the bow with several other visitors. We were on our way to Railay, a part of Krabi that is only accessible by boat because tall cliffs make traveling by land impossible.

The waters got a bit rough in the afternoon and I threw on a life vest...I spent the last part of the boat ride wondering, if we capsized, how I would save the video camera from being ruined. The vests were strapped to the side of the boat and weren't required for passengers. I thought of how very useless they would be if we sank...and how pathetic it would look for the rest of the passengers to be floundering around in the water (I didn't take them for the swimming type) and me trying to save the electronics.

We arrived and walked on an underground plank through the shallow waters to the shore. The tide had receded quite a ways, and most of the beach was now mud. The waters were much too shallow for boats, so you had to walk into shore with your bags. Our first move was to check out the western shore, which is known to be more beautiful than the eastern shore. It is only a short five minute walk from one side to the other. A huge resort, Railay Beach Resort, has primo real estate in the entire midsection of the "island." We checked in to Ya Ya Resort (everything is a resort, but not everything is a resort). For about $10, we got a small fan room with no sink, but we are used to cheap options and didn't think we'd have any problem with it.

We had a nice dinner at the Diamond Cave Resort, but the mixture of cocktails and pain killers left me quite tired and a little woozy, and we went back to the resort early. On the way back, I dropped my camera case in the dark and in the mud, and we had to go back and look for it. We danced on the beach too...by beach I mean mud that used to be under water, and by danced I mean Derek held me up while I wobbled home.

Neither of us slept. He had tonsillitis and I had cramps...we were both hot and sweaty and in the morning, we woke up to ants making homes on our things. We decided - that's IT. We've had it. We're checking in to someplace with a real sink and windows. So, we got our stuff, had breakfast at Ya Ya Restaurant and checked in to the Railay Beach Resort. We spent the day lounging on their beach chairs with their fluffy towels, right on the edge of the western bay. I got a small sting from a jelly fish on my leg (a baby one - it looks like a huge water droplet), but otherwise we had a spectacular time. We swam in the pool and took many pictures. It was overcast, so for once Derek wasn't sweating like crazy. We had appetizers on a candle-lit mat on the beach and Bud's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (heaven in scoop form). We ate at the Railay Beach Restaurant where they carved tomatoes and cucumbers into flowers.

That night, we lived a life of luxury. We soaked up every possible benefit of spending 10x the amount that we did on the room the night before. We got free soaps, tooth brushes, sewing kits - we took them all, even if we already had it. We used the whole thing of bubble bath and I got to BLOW MY HAIR DRY. I remembered days when my hair looked good, if only for a brief moment. We watched television and walked around in the free bath robes and slippers. We slept very well.

The next morning, breakfast was free, and bountiful! Derek loves hotel breakfasts, so he just about wet himself when he saw the spread in front of us. We both ate way too much, but we were getting our money's worth.

We met Bailey at the docks to board the ferry for Phi Phi Don, and we were on our way to further explore the beauty of southern Thailand!

Back from Paradise

Hello! We're back from our 5 day trip to Krabi and the Phi Phi Islands, and we've got a lot of catching up to do here at the center. So, until we can write a proper blog, please enjoy these pictures of our trip, and we'll write up the story as soon as we've got an hour to spare...

Railay Beach Resort

Railay Limestone Formations

Railay Eastern Beach

 

Monkeys on Monkey Beach at Phi Phi Don

Kayaking in Phi Phi Don's Loh Dalam Bay

Loh Dalam Bay at low tide (That's Derek out there)

Maya Bay at Phi Phi Lay Island

 

Jelly Fishing and Drinks at the rooftop Banana Bar

Sunset off of Ton Sai Bay, Phi Phi Don