Jumping off a Perfectly Good Bridge

While we were in Nepal we had the opportunity to bungee jump and passed it up without much additional thought (mainly because Adam was not the least bit interested) but while looking for things to do in New Zealand we somehow came to the agreement that we would do it there.

With only two days remaining before we caught a flight out we found ourselves pulling into the parking lot at Gravity Canyon to make good on our agreement.  They have the tallest bungee on the North Island of New Zealand at 80 meters high, and also boast a canyon swing and a 150 km/h zip line they call The Flying Fox.  When we were selecting an activity to accompany the bungee jump the helpful guy behind the counter said the swing was much better than the fox and we were sold.  

Please enjoy the video montage we created from the pictures and GoPro footage of this madness.

Bula from Fiji

While we were in New Zealand people would ask us where our next stop was and we would reply Fiji, not thinking much of it. The last few days people started responding “are you sure?”. Um...yes that is where my plane is going. Turns out Fiji was getting hit by a major cyclone. Luckily, when we got a chance to check on our resort and flight they were both fine. Our resort is south of the main island, and the storm reeked the most havoc on the north west islands. We headed to Nadi as planned and checked into our cheap overnight hotel, awaiting our 7 AM pick up the next morning. 7 AM came and went, then 7:30 and we were thinking it was just Fiji time. At 8 I asked to use the phone, only to learn that they weren't working due to the cyclone. There also wasn't any internet, and the cell phone towers were all offline. At 8:45 we decided to head back to the airport in hopes of being able to contact Beqa Lagoon and figure out how we were supposed to get there. We got a hold of them by phone once, and then the phones all went dead again. About 30 mins later an airport staff member came and asked if we were Julie and Andrew going to Beqa Lagoon (we said sure, sounds close enough and we were ready to get out of the airport). We ended up having to take a taxi for 2.5 hrs and then luckily found the boat to take us across to Beqa island. With all the destruction in Fiji we were just happy to make it to the resort on the day we had intended.

Photo by Paul

 Once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised at what we found, I mean we saw a turtle swimming before we even got off the boat! Our bure was HUGE with AC and a comfy bed. The beach at the resort lead out onto a beautiful reef. We got settled in, ate a great lunch and got our dive gear rented. That afternoon we snorkeled on the reef. It was a great start to our 7 day stay. For dinner we found our assigned seats and quickly made a tableful of new friends. Paul and Ruth, Del and Lee, and Josh and Ashley welcomed us with open arms and tons of dive stories/pictures. Adam and I laughed that real life diving might just be like the PADI video which is full of crazy friends (if you've ever seen it you understand).

Photo by Paul 

At 8 AM the next day we loaded up onto the dive boats and headed for our first dive trip. We motored over to a giant coral filled wall and spent the next 50 minutes amazed at the fish and other colorful creatures living underwater. We were both glad to get the first dive out of the way, making sure we still remembered most things from out certifications. By 2 PM we were back at the resort where lunch was waiting, then it was a nice relaxing afternoon looking at pictures and reading.....I could get use to this!

Day 2 of diving took us out to our first ship wreck. We were just swimming along and then Adam points over and there is a huge sunken ship next to us! It was a totally different feel than the reefs we had seen to date. In the back of the ship there were 2 lion fish in a little cubby. Once we left the wreck we encountered a huge current and struggled to make any forward progress. We used up all of our air in 30 mins, instead of the normal 60 and were glad to be back safely in the boat. The second dive was alright, less current but the people in our dive group kept running into us and kicking us. We tried yelling, but its tough underwater. That afternoon it poured rain as we relaxed in our room.

Christmas Day we awoke to bright blue sky. The dive boat headed in the opposite direction we had gone and we got 2 new dive sites. There was a mild current all day, but nothing compared to yesterday. The first dive site had another wreck, but this one was deeper, the top being close to 90 feet deep. We didn't stay at the wreck too long, and the coral viewing was a bit rushed, before we knew it we were back on the boat. Dive two was much better with less current and tons of fish and coral. We saw an amazing purple jelly fish and a bright blue eel. We were diving with Ruth and Paul, who are very experienced divers and they were very helpful in pointing out new things. Paul has a huge camera and takes amazing photos. Hopefully we will get some of them before leaving Beqa. After lunch we opted to do a shore dive on the house reef and take our 10 ft waterproof camera to 20 feet to see if we could take some photos of our own. It was a nice relaxing dive filled with fish, and crabs, and coral. Our camera survived like a champ. That night Paul taught me how to edit the photos to make them look about 1000 times better then the originals. White balance may just be my new best friend.

Our 4^th day of diving found us on a different boat from all of our new found “friends”. We joked that we were voted off the island. Having learned from previous days, we quickly made some new friends (Linda and Jim) and created our own diving group. Linda and Jim both have point and shoot cameras and also take amazing photos. They were nice enough to point out tons of different creatures on our 2 dives.

Day 5 of diving brought us to the Golden Arches and Fantasy dive sites. This was some of the best diving of the trip. The sites were filled with huge coral fans, tons of colorful fish and lots of little creatures. We got to experience our first swim-through, a beautiful arch covered in coral fans.

When we booked this resort, it included 5 days of diving over 7 days so we had a choice of adding another day of diving or just lounging. Dive conditions seemed to be improving every day so we opted to dive for a 6^th day in a row. We came to Fiji with 6 dives, we will leave with 19! For our sixth day we dove Side Street and Coral Garden, which were in the same area as Golden Arches and Fantasy. Side Street had an awesome 15 m tunnel swim-through. I was a little freaked out at first because I couldn't see the other side, it kind of looked like a cave, but once I was started it was a blast. The corals and variety of fish here are amazing. Hopefully we are able to steal some pictures from people to share some of what we saw, words just don't do it justice.

From Fiji we are headed to Melbourne, Australia. Paul and Ruth have graciously welcomed us to their home for New Years and some diving, so that will be our first stop! We have had an amazing time in Fiji. I think we could get the hang of this diving thing!!

Tongariro Crossing

After our exciting bungee experience (awesome video coming when we find good internet) it was back into the van, headed further north. About two hours north we ended in Tongariro National Park. There is a famous day walk there called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Unfortunately, the crossing was partially closed due to volcanic activity. I guess frying tourists in frowned upon. We stayed at a campground with great views of the volcanos, and they convinced us that the part of the crossing that was open was worth it, so we signed up to do it the next day. Our bus left bright and early at 6:15 AM. The campground suggested going early to avoid walking with all the other people who show up at about 8. We were able to walk out to Emerald Lakes and then turn around and head back. The scenery was different than anything we have ever seen, very desolate, in the shadows of volcanos. It took us about 2.5 hrs to hike. At the high point of the hike we hung out for about 45 minutes waiting for the clouds to clear. They seemed to constantly blow in and out, so we got several great views of the surrounding areas. We were glad to have hiked so early because it was much cooler, and we passed about a million people on our way down who were just starting their hikes. By 1 PM we were back to our camper van and headed towards Auckland. This would have been a stunning hike if we could have done the whole thing, but half of it was still fun and very different from what we had seen thus far in New Zealand.

6 months and counting...New Zealand Cont.

Six months into our “fun-employement” journey, you'd think I'd be a little better at blogging. So far we are lucky to get a blog posted every couple weeks, so I'm going to try and stay a little more on top of things. With any luck we will have more posts for the next 6 months of our journey.

Right now (aka 2 days ago when I wrote this) we are on the ferry, headed back to Wellington and the North Island. It's hard to believe we only have 3 nights left in New Zealand. I believe the last blog left off with the amazing Fiordland National Park. It truly was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. After our cruise in Milford Sound we headed north to Queenstown. It was weird being back in a bigger city, and we had plans of getting out and exploring. By the time we finished laundry and got all settled in we both opted just to hang out, and try to get a little bit of Australia planned.

The next morning we headed up to Mt Cook. We lucked out and the clouds parted on our drive in, affording us amazing views of Mt Cook. The wind was gusting like crazy the entire day. Despite being blown all over the road we safely made it to the visitors center and found a short 3 hr walk to stretch our legs. At the first swing bridge we were almost blown off the bridge, I thought about turning back but after about 30 secs the wind died down and we ran across the bridge! We made our way through occasional gusts until we reached the lake and “view” of the glacier. From there the gusts turned into a hurricane, with water blowing off the lake and no lapse in wind speed. We snapped a few quick pics and then ran back towards shelter...while running back I felt like mario with star power, I would jump and get pushed forwards, moving faster than I ever have on my own. It was fun, but a little scary. Once back at the car we decided not to camp there and headed on down the road. We found a campsite on a lake and got the last powered site. We can tell it is getting closer to peak season, there are a ton more people out and about.

Next we headed to Akaroa, a small French town on the Banks Peninsula. We walked around town and just relaxed in the sunshine. It was by far the warmest day yet in New Zealand. Our campsite was on a hill overlooking the harbor. The next morning we watched a cruise ship unload its passenger for 4 hrs...I can't believe how many people fit on that ship! Akaroa is home to the worlds smallest and rarest dolphin, so we boarded a sailboat in search of them. There were only 8 people on the boat and it was so relaxing. The dolphins swam on the bow of the boat, and at times there were 10 up there. We even saw a baby that was less than 3 months old. You could've reached over the side and touched them. Another great experience on our trip. After our boat tour we headed north the Christchurch.

We opted to take the Tranzalpine train tour from Christchurch to Greymouth over Arthurs Pass and back. The scenery was great and it was nice not to have to drive for a day. We enjoyed looking out the window, and catching a nap on the return journey. We started driving north and managed to find a great campground with power, showers and only a $20 price tag. Typically those campgrounds have been $40-50/night. That wraps up our time on the South Island. Tomorrow we are supposed to go bungee jumping, if I don't chicken out! We've been searching for a GoPro, but they are really hard to come by in New Zealand, so no luck yet. Guess we will have to film the bungee jumps the old fashioned way (except that camera is basically broken with spots all over the lens), so I guess you will get no photos of bungee unless we can find a new camera in Wellington tomorrow!

New Zealand 2/3 finished, where does the time go?

It's hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for two weeks now and still haven't made a blog post yet.  We only have a week left here before heading off to Fiji for Christmas and I find myself in awe at all we have already seen and done in this spectacular country.  The remaining week will be just as busy and I think Julie would agree that it would be easy to spend another month exploring.  Here is a brief rundown of what we have accomplished so far.

We landed in Auckland on the north island and immediately picked up our camper van.  After a trip to the grocery store and the New Zealand equivalent to a wal mart we had the supplies needed to start our 21 day camping adventure.  It was already late though, so the first night was spent in a commercial campsite near the airport.  The views weren't anything to write home about but it gave us the opportunity to check out the van and read all the brochures we had picked up at the airport to help plan the trip.

Ferry to the South Island

Our plan was to get to the South Island as quickly as possible and we headed south the next morning, stopping for lunch near a lake along the way.  We stopped at the visitor center in Rotorua and picked up a few more pamphlets before stopping at the giant redwood forest and eventually camping on the shore of a beautiful lake.  The next day was spent exploring some of the geothermal areas of the north island and taking a hike up Rainbow Mountain.  We were going to go see their "mini-yellowstone" attraction and a geyser, but when we learned it was $50/person we headed towards the free mud pools.  A couple days later we learned that they pour soap in the geyser to get it to erupt....so glad we saved the $100.  Our plan was to hike the Tangariro Alpine Crossing the next day, but part of the trail was closed due to a recent volcanic eruption so we decided to head further south and hope it was open on our way back to Auckland. The next morning we caught a ferry to the South Island and upon arrival made arrangements to walk part of the Queen Charolette track the following day.  We camped along the coast in the Marlborough Sounds and found mussels and clams alongside the shore just steps from our campervan.  

Our day of hiking began with a boat ride and the realization that the weather forecasters had actually gotten it right, windy and wet!  The windy part was realized immediately with the very rough boat ride, and we ended up hiking for 4.5 hours with a continuous rainfall.  We were soaked at the end of it but even with the bad weather we had some amazing views of the sounds.  While we were waiting for our boat ride back we ran into a couple that we met at Thailand cooking class....CRAZY!   

We had also learned that this part of New Zealand was world renowned for making Sauvignon Blanc and that there a bunch of wineries close together that offered tastings, so we booked a campervan sight for two nights and set off one morning on bicycles hoping to taste as much wine as possible.  We had a blast, making it to the first winery just before it started pouring and then trying to time it right with the rain each time we pedaled further.  Luckily we managed to stay almost completely dry and got to try (and buy) several outstanding wines.  

The next few days saw us head to the west coast and explore the beautiful landscape as we drove along what Lonely Planet called one of the top 10 coastal drives in the world.  What Lonely Planet forgot to mention was the 1,00,000 sandflies that would also be enjoying the ride.  We've gotten rather good at at mushing them.  We got to see a seal colony, experience blowholes, view pancake rocks, see several caves, and look at two natural limestone arches.  We also managed to get a lot of hiking in (non of these spectacular sites were immediately next to the highway)!  

After spending a few days along the coast we headed inland to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.  When we arrived it was forecasted to rain the entire next day, so we opted out of the heli-hiking trip and planned to do day hikes.  We awoke to blue skies and enjoyed our morning hikes and views of the glaciers.  After lunch it started to rain, so we hopped in the van and headed south towards Fiordlands.

Doubtful Sound

Reflection in Doubtful Sound

Further down the coast we found what might be one of the most beautiful places on earth with Fiordlands National Park.  We toured a glow worm cave, spent a day kayaking in Doubtful Sound, and took a cruise in Milford Sound.  The weather while we were kayaking couldn't have been any better and we had a private tour because they had to pick up an overnight trip from the day before (they usually have groups of 10 but we were the only people booked that day).  It was truly awe inspiring to be surrounded by such enormous mountains that were long ago carved by glaciers over 2000 meters thick while sitting in a small boat on the water.

You can see all of our New Zealand pictures here and our Fiordlands pictures here

Beaches, Scuba and Rain

DISCLAIMER: this was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago, sometime around December 1, but technical difficulties have delayed it somewhat....please enjoy any ways 

Sorry, there will be no pictures with this blog.  The internet is much to slow to upload any, but I thought we should finish up our Thailand adventure blog before we got too far behind. 

After leaving Chiang Mai we flew south

to Phuket and then hired a car to drive us to Koh Lak. We spent 3

nights there laying on the beach and by the pool. We stayed at Ayara

Resort, and it was probably nice a couple years ago, but seemed to be

struggling a bit now. During our three nights we managed to break 2

AC units, a tv and a telephone (well technically we didn't break

them, but they all went out). But the beach and the pool were both

really nice. The sunsets were absolutely stunning and we enjoyed our

relaxing days.

Next we headed to the island of Koh
Phra Thong for our scuba certification (in the POURING rain). After
a long boat ride and pick-up truck ride we arrived at our bungalow
completely soaked (along with all of our stuff). We spent the next 4
nights in a very “rustic” bungalow, which was open to the
outside, and had electricity for a couple hrs a day when the
generator was running. We were the only ones staying there, so we
basically had our own private chef! The guy running the place
cooked all of our meals and they were amazing! Some of the best food
we've had the entire trip. We would just tell him what time we
wanted to eat and presto, our meal would be ready. I loved being
disconnected from everything and not having to plan the next thing.

I was worried about being able to pop
my ears while diving, what I should have been worried about was lack
of visibility and strong currents during our “confined” water
dives. Since there was no pool to practice our skills we got to
learn everything in open water, just a little shallower. The
currents off the island were tough and visibility was terrible
wherever there was sand to kneel on. When we first went below the
water I had a minor freak out and immediately went back to the
surface. Fortunately, that was my only major problem and I made it
through the course while actually enjoying myself. After suffering
through a couple days with 1-2 meter vis we were both glad to head to
Tachai National Park to finish our course. There we found no current
and 15-30 meter vis. We enjoyed our first couple “real” dives
and were sad to have to leave the island. From Koh Phra Thong we
headed to Koh Samui via taxi/bus/boat.

Arriving in Koh Samui we were greeted
with rain....did you know that Thailand has TWO monsoon seasons!? If
you did, why didn't you warn us! We thought that the Thailand
monsoon ended at the beginning of Nov, and for the Andaman Sea it did.
Unfortunately in Koh Samui the monsoon starts in November. Luckily
we had booked a nice room, with the thought of laying by the pool and
the beach. We spent most of the next 5 days hanging out it our room,
or anywhere else we could find that was covered. It probably rained for 20+
hrs/day. Oh well, it was still fun and we got a dive trip in to Koh
Tao. The diving there was spectacular and we only had to deal with
the rain on the surface. The 2 hr speedboat ride there and back
wasn't so fun, but the driver was good and I only thought we were
gonna flip a couple time in the 8-10 ft swells. Our last day in Koh
Samui we met up with Julia, a college friend currently working in
Brunei. It also happened to be the Loy Krathong Festival, so we made
floats (Krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers. Ours won first
place...who knew engineers had an artistic side (or maybe it was the
free drink they were offering to the winners that motivated us).
Either way we enjoyed our prize – a bottle of sparkling wine! That
evening the rains held off and we launched our Krathong into the
pool. That night was also the full moon party, but we decided that
was one life experience we were ok with missing, and we confirmed our
decision the next day at the airport when we saw numerous hungover
people strewn about waiting for their flights.

Back in Bangkok we enjoyed our last
night in Thailand by walking through the cheapest market we had seen
(we were also the only white people there). By the time we got to the airport we were both Asia'd out
and excited to move onto New Zealand....unfortunately Thai Air wanted
to make that difficult. We hadn't yet booked a ticket out of New
Zealand, because I had read that all we needed was enough money to
buy one. Thai Air didn't like that and refused us our boarding pass
until we had a ticket. So we looked for wi-fi, nope, that's not
available until you are in the terminal. So we went to the Thai
ticket purchase center. They said they couldn't sell us a ticket
from Auckland to Fiji...sooooo....we were directed to an internet
cafe. By this time I was “hangry” (hungry and angry) so we
picked up some snacks and started looking for cheap flights. We
found one on Expedia and booked it, and they declined our card. So
we tried another card, it wouldn't give us a confirmation so we
bought more internet time and found a ticket on cheapOair. Luckily
that went through and after 2 hrs were were able to print
confirmation and get our boarding passes. Luckily we had gotten to the
airport with 5 hrs to spare! Once inside the terminal Adam received
an email about fraud on his card....awesome. We called and found out it was the Expedia charge, so we just had them cancel that. When
we checked our other card we found that Expedia had charged that one
too, even though they never said it went through. Thank god for
credit cards that just let us decline purchases!! After our fun
little airport adventure we were more ready than ever for New
Zealand!

Cooking, Caving, and Flying

Before leaving Chiang Mai and heading south to the beach, we had a couple more adventures up our sleeves.  

First up on the agenda was a Thai cooking class.  This is something we talked about doing from the first moment we decided to go to Thailand and were very excited as we headed into town to attend the Siam Rice Cookery School. It started out with a tour of a local market where we learned about several of the ingredients we would be using in our dishes.  After that we sat down with the other people in our group and everybody picked what we wanted to cook.  Since Julie and I were enrolled in the full day class we picked 7 things each - a soup, a noodle dish, a stir fry, a curry, a curry dish (with our curry), an appetizer, and a desert.  We would cook a couple of things and then eat what we cooked before cooking the next dishes.  Needless to say we were completely stuffed by the time we left the class.  It was as much fun as we hoped it would be and is high on our list of favorite things we have done on the trip.

Next up was a caving trip with Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures.  We originally hoped to do a multi day caving trip, but they only had one of their caves open so they helped arranged a home stay and a day of zip lining to go with our caving, making it an overnight trip.  The trip started with a 40 minute drive out of Chiang Mai to their rock climbing spot called crazy horse.  Next came a quick lesson on the gear we would be using and then we went into a practice session where we learned to climb a static rope with our jumars and to rappel with our stop tools.  Shortly after that we started into the cave and had to descend almost 30 meters straight down to the cave floor.   We ate lunch in the cave and spent the next couple of hours exploring the underground world full of stalactites, stalagmites, spiders, and mud.  At the end of the tour we had to go back up the rope that we had rapalled down earlier, and I'll tell you that using a jumar to ascend that far was no easy feat.  By the time we got back to the parking area we were all quite tired.

 

There was a small wait before we got picked up and headed another 30 minutes or so away from town.  The zip line company, Flight of the Gibbon, was now in charge of us.  We drove a short distance up a dirt road to a small house where we learned we would spend the night.  The guy who met us spoke okay English and told us that we would have dinner and a massage later that night before leaving us.  The lady who owned the house did not speak any English, but showed us the bathroom and our bedroom.  We showered to remove all the mud from caving (Julie was covered head to toe) and then sat awkwardly reading our nooks in their living room until the man of the house made some grunting noises and pointed us across the street to dinner.  The food was really good and that was followed by an hour long thai massage in the living room before heading to bed.

The next morning we ate breakfast and were waiting to be picked up by a staff member at 7:45 as instructed.  Around 8:15 someone came by and told us to head down to the shop and when we got their we were rushed to get set up to go with the first group of the day and they acted like it was our fault we were late...we hoped the rest of the day wouldn't be so obnoxious.  Thank goodness it wasn't.  Or two guides, or sky rangers as they were called, were absolutely hilarious and the group we were with was pretty fun as well.  We spent the next two hours riding cables from tree to tree as we made our way through the course in the forest.  Some lines were shorts and some were long and there were even a few where we went two at a time, but mostly it was awesome.  They provided lunch and we had a short visit to a waterfall before heading back to Chiang Mai.

After all of our northern Thailand adventures we were ready for some beach time!  Next stop, Phuket.

To see all of our Chiang Mai pictures click here

Chiang Mai

After a couple days in Bangkok we headed up north to Chiang Mai.  We didn't have much planned, except for caving and zip-linning, which we leave for tomorrow.  The first 2 nights we spent in the city center laying by the pool and exploring the millions of markets that are all around.  We really enjoying just relaxing and took full advantage of the $7 massage places scattered around town.

On our 3rd day in town we decided to check out Tiger Kingdom, a place where you can pet tigers.  Reviews online are all over the board, people either love it or think the tigers are drugged and beaten.  Our experience there was terrific.  We opted to pay to go in all of the tiger cages (smallest, small, medium and big).  We started off with the baby tigers.  They were 3 months old and adorable.  Mostly they just laid around sleeping while we petted them, but occasionally they would wake up and wonder around.  After 15 minutes it was time to move onto the bigger tigers.  The small tigers were 6 months old and they most active.  One kept running around the cage and jumping in the "swimming pool".  I definitely don't think they were drugged.  Next we were onto the biggest tigers, which were only 18 months old but HUGE. I think we were both very glad that they were sleeping, although one did stand up while Adam was petting it, that got the heart rate going a little bit.  We ended our journey with the medium tigers.  They were more interested in watching the ones in the next cage play than with us, but that was fine by me.  Our guide got some great pictures of the two of us in this cage.  We survived our tiger petting experience and would highly recommend it to everyone.  The tigers seemed much happier then you typically see in a zoo and the trainers were always playing and interacting with them.

Back in Chiang Mai we waited on our ride out to The Secret Garden, our next hotel which was 12 km outside of town.  The Secret Garden ended up being in the middle of a subdivision, but was a lot of land and trees so we didn't notice (except for the Saturday night parties).  The hospitality was amazing. They had a delicious dinner buffet every night and made us lunch the day we chose to stay and lounge around the pool.  On Sunday we ventured into town (via public transport, aka the back of a pickup truck) to experience the Walking Street (also called the Sunday Market).  The market was huge, and you could buy pretty much any craft or food you could ever imagine.  We spent several hrs walking around, and the place got progressively more crowded.  By the time we decided to get out of there it took of good 45 minutes of ducking and dodging to navigate the crowd.  Neither of us were in a very good mood by the end, reaffirming the fact that we don't like big crowds.  We found the nearest restaurant with AC and went to cool of and grab a bite to eat.  We took a cab back to the hotel and had to shower before either of us could fall asleep.  It was so hot and sticky!!!

For all of our tiger pictures click here

Moving On - From Nepal to Thailand

We left Nepal and headed for another southeast Asia country, Thailand!

Before getting into Nepal we were told that we needed to have a ticket to leave or we may not be granted a visa.  That being the case, we wanted to book something that was fully refundable so we could change departure dates if necessary.  We booked two first class tickets on Thai Airways with the intention of canceling and rebooking something cheaper.  However, our crazy experience on the flydubai plane that took us into Kathmandu and the relatively small difference in cost vs. coach tickets prompted us to treat ourselves and keep the first class seats.  Neither Julie or I had ever flown first class and we were like kids in a candy store playing with the electric seats that reclined almost fully, listening to our Bose-like headphones, and enjoying the 5 course meal we were served. The one thing we could complain about was that the flight was only 3 hours long!

It was dark when we landed in Bangkok and the ride to our hotel took longer than expected due to the traffic jam on the 8 lane superhighway. Although no couldn't see much I knew that we were in a much more developed city than the one we had just left.  We didn't do much of anything the first night in town, just enjoyed some of the nice things we had been missing for the last month - a good shower, fast Internet, and English news on the TV.

We wondered around on our own the next day and ended up at the backpackers market on koh sun road where I got a much needed haircut and we enjoyed our first thai massage of the trip.  We took a city tour the second day in town and had a lot of fun learning about Thai culture and history from our guide "Jack".  We visited the Golden Buddha, the Reclining Buddha, and the Emerald Buddha, as well as the Grand Palace, the Vimanmek Mansion, and the temple of dawn (Wat Arun).  We also learned from Jack that our hotel was in the red light district of Bangkok so our evening activity was walking around until it got too uncomfortable for either of us to continue!

Three days was enough of Bangkok for us, so we left for Chiang Mai excited to see another part of the country!

To see all of our Bangkok pictures click here

Elephants, Tigers and Rhinos....Oh My!

After finishing up our Nepal rafting trip we hopped into a beat up old truck and headed towards Chitwan National Park for some elephant safaris. It was a very bumpy and dusty road, I'm pretty sure the truck lacked any kind of suspension. After 2.5 hrs (about 1 hr longer then necessary because our driver had no idea where to go), we arrived at Tigerland Safari Resort. We picked this place because they offered private bungalows and planned everything out for you each day, I was sick of planning.

At dinner that night we were given our first itinerary....Elephant Safari, Elephant Briefing, Lunch, Visit the Croc Breeding Center and a Jeep Safari/boat ride. A very full day, but I was excited to ride elephants first thing. The next morning we loaded up on the elephants (4 people to a small box on top) and off we went. I'm not sure what I expected riding an elephant to be like, but it wasn't comfortable at all. We were sitting sideways, being jolted with every step, and constantly felt like the box was going to slide off.....but it was still amazing. The morning was very foggy, and we couldn't even see the grasslands 50 yrds in front of us, which made for some of my favorite pics of the trip. As our 2 hr ride continued the fog lifted and we were able to spot a couple deer, peacocks and monkeys. We even saw some fresh tiger tracks which were following baby rhino tracks, but had no luck spotting either. We returned to camp where we attended an info session on the elephants and we got to feed one “cookies” and take a picture with it. The croc breeding center was interesting, they were breeding Gharial crocs which have really long narrow snouts. They had them from babies to adults. Then it was off on the jeep safari. We didn't see much on the jeep safari, but as we exited the park to head for our boat ride we noticed a rhino in the field right next to the boats. We parked the jeeps and walked towards the rhino (smart right?!?). I'm pretty sure the German guy with us wanted to pet it, as he kept going much closer then the guard wanted. At one point the rhino turned and growled....it made for some great pics, and I was confident we could outrun the German so all was good. We then headed to out boats for a great sunset cruise down the river. Our second day included a village tour in the morning and then an afternoon elephant ride. The afternoon ride was awesome. We saw 2 different moms with baby rhinos (one was only a couple months old). It was much less nerve racking chasing rhinos via elephant.

Since most people only stay 1 or 2 nights, and we stayed 4 they offered to take us on a private jungle hike with a picnic lunch the next day. They said it would be lots of walking, but since we just finished 485 miles a couple months ago, I was confident we could manage. The next morning we headed out with a guide from the lodge and a tracker from the park. They both carried bamboo sticks for protection, not sure how much they would help fight a rhino or tiger but oh well. First we learned the rules....1 if we see a rhino hide behind a tree, if there are no trees drop something on the ground and hope the rhino gets distracted so you can find a tree, rule 2 if we see a tiger take lots of pictures because there are no safety rules for tigers, if they want to eat you they will (but apparently humans don't taste very good). After our safety briefing I began to wonder just how good of an idea this was. We spent the next 2 hrs quietly walking, we saw hogs, deer, 2 sets of tiger tracks, fresh tiger dung and blood spots we assumed came from a Leopard eating in the tree above us. We had been walking on the road so we had a little visibility, but right after the blood spots our guide decided to go bush whacking through 8 ft tall grasslands, visibility equals ZERO! I jumped at every little noise, almost ran face first into a bunch of giant spiders and was very happy when we made it back to the road. We ate our lunch at an oxbow lake where rhinos typically hang out, but they must have all been on vacation because we didn't see anything. After lunch we continued walking and found fresh rhino dung, shortly after we heard crashing through the woods just to our left. I jumped and my heart rate hit at least 200. Our guide ran into the forest and informed us it was a giant herd of water buffalo, but we didn't actually get to see them. The rest of the walk I was really on edge and jumpy but all we saw was a huge heard of deer and some monkeys. As we made our way back to camp we walked past a guard post and they said a rhino had just passed by 2 minutes before. So what do we do? Start running to find the rhino of course!! Now keep in mind that both sides of the trail were 8-10 ft tall grass so we couldn't see anything, and there were no trees to hide behind. Just when we thought we had lost the rhinos we saw the grass rustling...oh boy there goes my heart again. Our guides ran ahead and then we play red light green light, stop go, stop go....at one point he counted on his hands to 3, meaning there were 3 rhinos about 20 feet from us. SCARY! Our second guide then told us to follow him and we took off running, this time past the rhinos towards trees. We never did see the rhinos, and I was ok with that. About 5 minutes later I hear a crash in the grass next to me, and quickly jump behind the little bamboo stick, it was just a hog and everyone laughed at me, but they all jumped too, I was just faster. We finally finished the walk around 5 PM. It was hot and sticky. I was ready to be done walking through the tall grass that was hiding giant animals.

 We had a great time at Tigerland and would definitely recommend it. The next morning we caught a 25 minutes flight (as supposed to a 12 hr drive) back to Kathmandu just in time for our flight to Bangkok. Nepal was amazing but after a month I was ready to leave. It was so dusty I now understand why all the Asians where those masks around. I had a cough I couldn't kick and was ready to not be sick. I'm sure the beach will cure everything!!

To view all of our pictures click here

Pictures!!!

We have finally found internet that is fast enough to upload pictures, so I have uploaded a ton of them.  If you click on the picture tab at the top of our blog (or the link below) you will find a list of links to all of our pictures.

http://travelingseibels.blogspot.com/p/pictures.html

Backtracking

A little over a month ago we flew through Dubai on our way to Nepal and had the opportunity to stay overnight. Before our connecting flight the next day we took a whirlwind tour of the city.  It is such a unique place I felt compelled to backtrack a little and make a quick post about what we saw.

Centerpiece of the Atlantis lobby, all blown glass

Maybe next time we will try it out!

Burj Al Arab Hotel, starting at $1500/night!

First of all a big thank you to Julie's old neighbor Doug for picking us up from the airport late in the evening, allowing us to stay at his house, and arranging a driver to show us the city.  Without his help we probably would never have left the airport.  

After being picked up (at midnight on a Sunday) we took a drive around the city so we could see the lights from all the buildings before retiring for a restful nights sleep at Doug's place near the now defunct "Dubai Land" development sight.  The next morning we were treated to a home cooked breakfast and had a driver waiting to show us the city.

Or first destination was to view the "six" star Burj Al Arab Hotel (the one that looks like a sail) which had to be done from a distance as you were not allowed anywhere near it without reservations.  After a couple of pictures we quickly jumped back in the air conditioned car - Dubai was much hotter than we expected!  The second stop was the Atlantis hotel on the palm, the man made peninsula shaped like a palm tree.  Because we only had two people and a very adventurous Asian guide, we pretended to be guests so we could go inside and see the beautiful lobby and the worlds largest fish tank.  A quick trip to an awesome view point of the Burj Khalifa followed where our guide parked illegally for our benifit and played dumb to avoid getting in trouble. For our last stop we headed to the Mall of the Emerits to see Ski Dubai, and it was hilarious to see people attempting to ski.

We ate a Lebanese lunch a before getting dropped off at the airport to continue on to Nepal.

Burj Khalifa, pictures can't explain just how massive this really is.

Nepal Pictures....FINALLY

As we rap up our month long stay in Nepal we finally found internet fast enough to post a couple of pictures.  I'm pretty sure we have 2,000 pics from Nepal and sorting through them to pick the best is almost impossible!!!  I managed to post 1/2 of our trek and then an album with 27 pics from the entire month.  Tomorrow we head to Thailand and maybe the internet there will let us share more pictures with everyone.  For now please click the links to see pictures....facebook loads pictures about 1000 times faster than our blog site.

Trekking Pictures

27 Pic Summary of Nepal

The Nepal we didn't know existed

With 2 weeks remaining in Nepal we had to make some decisions on what to do.  With a tourist agency on every corner in Kathmandu the choices were practically endless.  We bid farewell to our trekking buddies and boarded a bus bound for The Last Resort.  It was a very bumpy 3 hr ride to escape the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu.  We signed up for canyoning (aka repelling off of waterfalls) since we were both to chicken for bungee jumping and canyon swinging.  After getting geared up - wetsuit, harness, helmet - we found ourselves at the first waterfall.  It was about 5 ft tall and I was convinced I could've walked down it without a rope.  I remember thinking that this has got to get better, and it quickly did.  The next waterfall was 10 m high and there was no way down without the rope.  As we continued the falls kept getting bigger, with the final one topping 45 m.  Thankfully we had our waterproof camera to capture some of the moments, we would both highly recommend the repelling.  The Last Resort was very relaxing, with hammocks and cushioned chairs everywhere.  After spending the night in our tent, which had one of the most comfortable beds we've had in awhile, we opted to spend the next day relaxing.  I got a massage and Adam just hung out, trying to kick the terrible cold that seems to be following us around.  The 3 hr ride back to Kathmandu was just as bumpy and uncomfortable as the ride there....so we opted to buy plane tickets back from Chitwan, which means avoiding a 6 hr bus ride.

We arrived in Kathamandu late and had to repack our bags for rafting and safaris.  We also needed to get some cash to pay for rafting, which proved to be harder then it should have been.  The first ATM had a guy sitting in it, so we moved on.  The next was broken and the third only allowed us to withdraw a third of what we needed.  The fourth did the same and also told us that our available balance was 8,000 rupees, or $100.  Our trip was going to be cut really short if that was the case!!!  After a few stressful minutes we got logged onto our bank account online and found all of our money there....and then we found an ATM that actually let us withdraw what we needed. Vacation back on track!!!  We finished packing what we needed and stored the rest of our stuff at the hotel.  At 7 the next morning our rafting people picked us up and we got to spend another 2 hrs on the glorious roads of Nepal.

A German couple joined us on our rafting adventure and the 4 of us spent the next 3 days floating (and swimming) the rivers of Nepal.  The first day was supposed to be fairly mellow on the Trisuli River, with excitement building each day.  Our first real rapid was called Monkey rapid...because, as our guide Mila put it, it can make you jump out of the raft just like a monkey.  We hit the rapid perfectly, so perfectly that Mila yelled "get down" just has we plunged into a huge hole.  I ended up underneath the guy in front of me and Adam....well he must've jumped out just like a monkey because next thing I knew we were pulling him back into the boat!  River 1 Adam 0!!  The rest of the day was pretty mellow and the guides let Adam and I use the catamaran for the last half of the day.  The rapids feel so much bigger when you are on your own without a guide!  We managed to navigate successfully and stay onboard the catamaran, although our paddling skills are definitely subpar.  We ended the day at camp where we ate dinner and settled into our tent on the beach early.  

Day 2 offered more rapids then day one, but no swimmers.  Adam and I were in the front, which is a totally different perspective as you crash through the rapids.  Towards the end of the day the guide pulled out a "river boogie" and I took the first stab at basically swimming through the rapids.  It was hard to stay in the right place, even with flippers.  Adam took the river boogie down the last 2 rapids of the day which were much larger than anything I attempted.  It was funny watching him disappear And then pop back up in the rapids....I even got a video!

For day 3 we drove 2 hrs to the Marsyandi River which was much more action packed.  It was almost non stop from the time we put the boats in the water and required stopping to scout 2 rapids.  During scouting of the first rapid our guide explained how the last raft he took through there flipped, and that if we swam get your feet first so you don't hit the big rocks with your head.  Awesome!  Our boat was the first through and we made the first drop, and then we were sideways going into a giant hole.  The raft flipped up and I went head first into the water, but my foot was still hooked in.  The next thing I know I'm swimming towards the big rock, luckily feet first!  I managed to make my way to shore and walk to meet up with the rest of the boat, they all managed to stay in.  The 2nd boat then went through the rapid and ended up with 3 swimmers.  What an exciting start to the day.  We spent the next several hrs fighting rapids and having a blast.  We managed to keep everyone in the raft for the rest of the trip and all made it safely to the end.  We were now ready for the drive to Chitwan National Park for elephant riding safaris!

Himalayan Trek

We've been trekking in Nepal and I have to admit that it is much easier than backpacking! 

I had no idea what trekking was prior to this trip, just that the timing worked out to meet one of Julie's friends in Nepal to join in on a trip that was already planned.  We flew from Munich to Kathmandu via Dubai (that was a whirlwind of excitement that will be discussed in a later post) and met the other 5 people we would be spending 17 days trekking with.  We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla on a very small plane, capacity 16 passengers.  As luck would have it we were flying the same airline that had wrecked a plane while landing at the same destination just a week before so everybody was quite nervous but the flight made it with no problems at all.  

I quickly learned that trekking, unlike backpacking, involves me carrying a small day pack while a yak carried the rest of my crap - can you say awesome!  We spent 16 days walking through the mountains in Nepal, staying at various tea houses and lodges and continually being amazed by the beauty of the Himalayas.  We worked our way up in elevation, summiting Khala Pathar (18,500 feet) and Phokalde (19,049 feet) before heading back down.  We had amazing views of mountains such as Everest, Ama Dablam, Lhotse, and Nuptse pretty much the entire time.

Pictures to come after we sort through what we have and pick out the best

Traveling Pros

We were "those people" at the airport - you know what I'm talking about, the people in front of you who can't seem to get their crap together while you stand there staring at your watch praying you dont miss your flight!

While going through security leaving Munich they had to re-scan our crap about 5 times.  There were no signs stating that everything that might look electronic needed to be placed in its own bin.  So we did the usual, laptops by themselves andno liquids, but our shoes got to stay on.  Julie's bag got pulled, the entire contents dumped into bins and rerun (sweatshirt, rain coat, apples, a nook and our solar charger)...we knew my bag was in for a treat!  My backpack went through the machine holding a nook, iPad, steripen, and a drybag full of cords and chargers (all things that zip through U.S. security with ease) and pretty much shut down our security line while they started running everything back through a couple pieces at a time.  They were especially interested in the steripen, as they had never seen one before, and it got a special test after I explained what it was and how it worked...did I mention that after it passed its special test they ran it through the X-ray machine one last time for good measure!  The umbrella managed to make it through with one scan but was heavily scrutinized as well.

The good news is we allowed plenty of time for such occasions and were in no rush! 

It has actually been quite interesting comparing the various levels of security screenings as we have passed from country to country.  

Oktoberfest- The aftermath

  

So we appear to have survived Oktoberfest in 1 piece.  I'm really glad we decided to go there on Friday afternoon because today (Saturday) was absolutely insane.  We thought there were a ton of people around on Friday, but we still managed to make it into the tents, sit at a table (so what if it was supposed to be reserved) and order beer.  We ate lunch in a beer garden and bought awesome shades since the sun was brutal.  We even rode one of the rides (an Olympic Roller Coaster) and didn't have to wait in line. 

On Saturday we headed down to the festival at 10:00, hoping to beat the crowds.  WRONG!  It was packed when we got there.  How thousands of people can be ready to drink by 10AM is beyond me.  We managed to make it into 1 tent, but there were no seats so we headed out to a smaller beer garden.  The people kept streaming in and by 11 you could barely move.  All of the beer tents were full/closed and there were giant mobs of people at every entry.  We wondered around for a couple hrs, just taking it all in.  By 1 we had all the "fun"/people we could handle for the day and headed back to the hostel to relax.  Oktoberfest has sure been an experience, although I think we are better suited for Tulsa's version.