Our Freakish Friends

The title is because of our new friends that we met on our Rock climbing adventure. They are from California and are Professional Entertainers. Now I know what your thinking, "Hot Strippers" well not strippers but they were hot. "Professional Fire dancers" We look forward to visiting them one day but on with the story.

We decided that we must go rock climbing because Krabi where we are at is the worlds mecca for Climbers. Over 700 runs in lest than a 1/2 a mile. And all over the most beautiful scenery. Kelsey of course did a full day and I was planning a half day which was a wise decision on my part because after 5 climbs of 50 feet I was shaking. Kelsey on the other hand was looking for more. We were stationed on Railey East which had another 30 climbers and I stayed to that. Kelsey after the morning climb went off with her guide and a few others to try another wall or so I thought. They actually went spelunking in a cave and ended up on the other side of the mountain and repelled 60 ft down to the next beach.

After lunch I was done and her group went to another mountain. I decided to explore more over the area.

There is a the most beautiful beach on the south tip that had monkey's and caves and powder white sand, and crystal water. I will let the pictures speak for them selves.

We finished the night with our new fiend and the Rock bar which was featuring a fire dancer. He was ok but luckily, like professional Erin had brought her "poie balls" with her and asked if she could give as a show. She was AMAZING and her husband showed us how to properly EAT fire. The night ended late and we took a midnight boat ride back to our beach. It was a good day!

New Day, New Adventure.

We had found a nice beach but the place we were staying was not. We had a bad experience with the staff when we first arrived. They came to pick us up at the main downtown site and we got in and they said we are still waiting for one more person, then as we waited they continued to walk the streets handing out brochures and trying to persuade people to get in. This made me a little questionable about the place we were going. I gave they a look, WHEN. They got the clue and jumped in we drove slowly so they could continue calling out the any white person around, and then we went to some side street and the ladies said just 5 minutes and left. 25 minutes later the 2 ladies and the driver were still MIA and we just got out and left, finding our own way there. Making a long story short, too late, we found out that the pick up was some of the staff at the place we were staying and I told the manager I was upset for being left, he said he would do something about it but every time I got close to him he would turn and walk away to avoid me. So we left early the next day to another bungalow, which was another story.

Bed Bugs! Yes I slept with bed bug and got eaten all night. Their are more details but the picture will suffice.

We then broke out of our budget to get a nice place for a night or two. We found it just a couple of doors down. It was the place that we had been eating almost everyday. Good found and a fun staff. We had the place to ourselves because it was still being built. We even had a beach side pool. This is the view from our room. YEAH.

Unfortunately the weather did not work for us that next day but it was ok because we spent the day watching movies that were still in the theaters. Thanks Black Market! The day before though we did rent a scooter and drove the Island (P.S. we were on the Island of Ko Lanta) I got lost and had a flat tire but things ended up working out. We went to the south of the Island to hike to a waterfall the was on the map. It was a short 30 min hike through a fresh water stream which was perfect temp. and found a cave which I started to go into but quickly turned around for fear that I would not survive the next corner. We even saw our first elephant up close. (elephant poo is huge) When we got there we found a tiny rush of water over the rocks but that was ok by us we jumped right in to cool off, which was nice.

After 4 nights in Ko Lanta we travelled to Krabi and the beach of Ao Nang which has been very nice. We arrived on Wed. the 12th which happens to be the annual Lovers Festival (Nude people everywhere) no just kidding, it was actually very nice. Couple would first have to buy a floating flower arrangement, which meant negotiating the cost of our love, I thought it was only worth 50 baht ($1.70) but the women selling thought is should be 150 baht ($4.50) we disagree and the price settled at 80 baht ($2.40). We would then light the candle that would blow out within 1 min. and light the incense and send it out to sea. If the sea took it out then your relationship would have good luck if it came back to shore then you would have bad luck. Ours held true and went faithfully out to sea. Not the same with the balloon. Same concept but with a waxed paper candle attached to a tissue paper balloon. Ours first almost caught fire which must equal our burning passion for one another or symbolize Kelsey's burning rage when she is mad, one or the other, I can't tell. Then as it took flight it hit a few trees (we know there are always obstacles to overcome) and then it finally took and went higher and farther then most other balloons (so we like to believe).

The next day we (mostly my desire) got to go scuba diving at Ko Phi Phi, which is where "The Beach" was filmed. That beach is not so empty now. There were close to 50 boats and tons of people there, we went diving on the outside of the lagoon. I loved it. Kelsey not so much, but she did both dives, the trooper. And she didn't have to throw up till after it all. Too bad we spent $1.50 on that only baked potato we found so far and now its in the ocean. We saw Moray eels and scorpion fish and all different kinds of bright colored fish. I got down to 13 meters which I was not supposed to, I was proud of myself. All in all I had a blast and Kelsey Survived never to dive again.

We are going over to Rai Ley Beach today which is said to be on of the most beautiful in all of Thailand. We will see.

Finally the Beach

After the time in Malaka we decided to jump a bus to the north of Malasia to the Island of Penang, to the town of Batu Ferringhi, which is the north side of the island. And we found beautiful beaches and warm (85 degree) water.
The ride thier was alittle long but the views were unbelieveable.

We have been spending our days on the sand so there is not much to say but we got burned. Alaskan are not ment to spent 15min on the beach. A day and a bottle of Aloe Vera latter I feel good but I can't say the same for Kelsey. We will survive.

Yesterday, we found a beach all to ourselves and just soaked it all in.

Some of the many random things, I went jogging on the beach in the morning and saw that is were the dogs go to die, I saw a guy draging a dead dog across the beach to the trash and then saw about 5 other dogs on the verg of death. Well it is a beautiful place to die.

The Before and After Pics of Kelsey's Tan

2 Countries and Counting

So it is almost one week and we have found ourselves in BEAUTIFUL Malaysia. We did the big city life of Bangkok and didn't really like it. TOO MANY TOURISTS. That's funny because all summer long we have to work on the receiving end and now that we are on the other side we look at the way other tourists behave and fill with disgust.
To move things on a more proper view I will try to move chronological, if my memory serves.
We survived a 26 hour flight, (not as bad as the 31 hour I took to Africa) I blame the personal TVs, who would have thought economy class was so special? 4 movies later we were in Soul Korea and then Bangkok, Thailand. We saw some white people that looked lost and took a cab together to T. Khoe San Rd. which is where the party is at, it was 1:00am and the crowd was just getting started, loud music, side-street food and everyone was drinking. We felt like it was Mari Gras and we were on Bourbon St. We ran into another group of Canadians that we met in Soul and they seemed as dazed. Kelsey and I walked the full street once and decided we were ready to sleep. We followed the book and found a gem called the New Siam Inn. For $10 a night we got a double bed, fan and shared the bathroom with the rest of the floor so we could not complain.
The next day we walked around, tried some wired fruit (the lady said it was mango but I think not), and saw the more dirtier side of Bangkok.

We decided to move to a Hostel that was recommended by a friend called the Shanti Lodge, we came to find that it really was a Shanti, the bed was a rock and the walls were made of bamboo paper so when anyone in the house moved we all heard. The showers were downstairs, and the toilet, so when I had to go the bathroom @ 2:00am everyone in the house heard it. Between the jet lag and heat we slept most of the first day.
The next day we decided to go Downtown to the Mall (I thinking that it would be small or poor was shocked), the Siam Center. To put it this way, think of the most elaborate mall in, lets say Vegas, then add 10 x bigger and 10 x more elaborate. I have never seen anything like this in my life. We plan to go back and get pictures at the end because it would take up a full role just on one of the 10 floors. Not only did it have 10 floors they were the lenght of 3 football fields. The top floor had a huge convention ballroom, 2 Imax screens, 16 movie screens, 3D screen, bowling ally and a large Karaoke bar. All the stores located in the mall were AX, Channel, Boss, Lacoste, Gucci, and any other HIGH-end store you can think of. Oh and I can't forget the electronics stores, anything and everything. And last but not least Asia largest Aquarium in the basement. (More pictures when I return home)
Then the MBK mall across the street. Can you say black market. Anything and everything. I bet if I tried hard I could find a new Kidney. Movies, Music, Designer clothes, Electronics, I even found a Canada Goose parka that I bought for Alaska Excursions for $575 wholesale, selling at $100 and that was before I bartered. I will definitely be back there before Christmas. (send us a list and wire lots of money!)

After all that we decided we have had enough of the big city and decide to head south to Malaysia. I told Kelsey that it would be worth paying for the flight just to get here faster, so we flew to Kuala Lumpur and found the people to be a little more laid back, at least outside of Chinatown; That's another thing, no wonder there are 5 billion Chinese, every major city has a
Chinatown to house them.









The first day there we went to the Batu Caves just outside town, WOW. It is a Hindu worshiping sight where they still practice Mastication and gather for worship. The cave is up 243 stairs and has a 130ft statue that guards the enterance. With the heat it was pretty intense. Once we got to the top of the stairs we then entered a chamber that had a 300ft ceiling and is 100 yds long only to have more stairs at the end into another open sky chamber.

With bats and monkey's I couldn't have asked for a better excursion.
PS the Monkey's were very mean and warnings are placed everywhere that they bite.


The next morning we went to the Downtown of Kuala Lumpur and went to the world famous Petronas Tower's (yes the ones in Entrapment). We had to wait in a line of over 200 people for tickets but it was ok because they were free. They only let guest go to the 41st floor of the sky bridge but that was enough to get your ears to pop twice. Beautiful views all around.

After we took a 2 hour bus ride south to Malaka (a cute little historical dutch town) Still no beach but the City has so much personality it doesn't need it.






We took a rickshaw ride that was lit-up and playing music, decorated with silk flowers it was quite romantic.













Even Chinatown was smooth, No one haggling and you could even walk without bumping into everyone and everything. We liked it so much we decide to stay one more day.