We all get sick of sand in our shoes...

But we call all agree on one thing, tans fade, highlights get dark, and we all get sick of sand in our shoes…

As much as I would like to pretend it away, my biggest confession on this trip would be that I have now become addicted to Gossip Girl! Juan downloaded a few episodes to keep me entertained on our long bus rides and now although I don’t even like the darn show I find myself wanting to see each and every episode. Im not even going to justify my terrible new taste in junk television but I will say the quotes they come up with send me into hysterics sometimes. Take the above for example, oh how I love it. And for once I found myself relating, it was one of those “im not laughing at you, im laughing with you” situations (which is a rarity when I watch the show).

So with that being said I am indeed getting sick of sand in my shoes, literally and figuratively.

Didn’t some wise old man once say everything must come to an end? I guess for me that is true, my travels although not over (ever) must come to an end for now. I am ready to go home, I am ready to unpack my bag and live out of a closet rather than a backpack. I am ready to have my own clean bed to crawl into every night, to have my dog curl up beside me while a read a book on my comfy couch. I am ready to drive to Tim Hortons and eat fresh salad every day, I am ready to smell clean air and call my friends in the same time zone on my own phone. I am ready to spend time with my family again and build a little home for myself.

There is a part of me that could travel forever. Especially if I had a family I could just be on the move to a new country all the time but right now I need a little calmness. I went away to travel and relax and the ironic part is I now want to go home to wind down…and I like that. My goodness, in the past six months I have been to India, Canada, Spain (three times), France (twice), Germany, Italy, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia, and I am still heading off to see another two or three countries. Traveling gives me this beautiful world, it opens my eyes, and brings such a light into my life. I become ignited with a passion to see more, do more, and meet new people. I become more still in life and more grateful for the many blessings I have been given. But for the first time in many years I have also become homesick, I miss my world I have left behind and I am reminded that my life is not beautiful simply because it is, it is beautiful because I choose to make it that way no matter where I am.

So with that being said I have decided to come home. I really wanted to stay at least a few more months in Asia and I wanted to try and work over here just to give it a shot and see what it is like. The thought though of not being with my family for Christmas made me sad, it is too important to me. It was going to be a surprise for my parents as one of their Christmas gifts but with my big mouth I knew it would just be too hard. So Mom and Dad, surprise, one more month and you will be listening to my never ending sarcasm and bantering, and wondering when the heck my next adventure will be; I cant wait to see you guys soon, love you!

Short and sweet Malaysia

So Malaysia turned out to be quite the adventure for us…or should I say lack thereof. This really is a beautiful country and I was in love with all the green beauty from the moment I arrived. We landed in Kuala Lumpur and have spent the majority of our time here; it is so much different from anywhere I have been yet in Asia. There are magnificent skyscrapers that cover the skyline, there are the biggest malls I have seen in my life with any high-end store you could imagine, and comparatively it is an exceptionally clean place. And talk about a mix of cultures which so wonderfully intertwine. Malaysia is filled with Malays, Indians, Islamic, and Chinese people which combines to make such a lively and interesting place to be. I really really liked the city and wished I could have spent more time going about Malaysia but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.

We arrived on a Wednesday, spent the next day settling in and then on Friday we went to the Chinese embassy to get our visas done. Unfortunately they needed more paper work than was listed on the website so we were sent home and told to come back on Monday. This put a bit of a damper on our plans as we were hoping to get away for a few days. Saturday Juan ended up being sick so we couldn’t go anywhere and then Sunday we escaped for a day trip to Melaka. Monday we went in to get our visas done, Tuesday was another sick day (for both of us this time), then Wednesday when we went to leave to the rainforest for a few days we realized that our flight did not actually leave on Sunday like we thought but on Friday morning instead. Uggg, so annoying! This meant that we had to cancel our trip to the rainforest so we could pick up our visas early Thursday morning and leave the following day. So yeah, the trip was pretty much a bust. Between being sick and getting our Chinese visas we were not able to do much of anything. I am still glad we were able to make it here but it really is unfortunate we were not able to see more of the country.

What we did see though was beautiful. I think this is the greenest place that I have been to in my life. Everywhere you look it is covered in lush forest with incredible plants and flowers, and there are rolling hills and big valleys all around, even in the city. We went to Melaka for a day and I loved the place. It was really cute and small yet still really lively and there was a ton of history and things to do. Ninie set us up with some of her friends and we had such a great time with them. It was really nice for me cause they were both from Canada (Jordon from Winnipeg who moved to Malaysia and Bruce from Toronto who moved to Singapore). It was great to be able to talk about home and what we miss, especially when it came to the food! They showed us around brought us to a temple, a mosque, the market, St Pauls Church where the St Francis Xavier was buried originally, and we even went to a traditional tea ceremony which was so nice and enjoyable. The day was great, the company was better, and to think we only got a taste of what Malaysia has to offer.

A friend of Juans hooked us up with his old flatmate from when he was living here for us to stay with. From our first email introduction to Ninie she was one of those delicious people who is so nice you don’t even know how to respond. Without knowing us Ninie and her roommate Anna welcomed us into their beautiful home and invited us to make it our own for a few days. Ninie and her boyfriend Faroq took us to some wonderful restaurants, they spoiled us with wonderful evenings out in KL, and they graciously opened their lives up to us in such a beautiful way. Oh and since Ninie is a fabulous yoga instructor here with her own studio BeYoga, she even had us bending and stretching in ways that my newly plump-too-much-Asian-food body was not quite ready for. One of my favorite parts about traveling is getting to meet all these new people, to have new friends come into your life and add something a little extra special to your world, Ninie, Anna, and Faroq definitely did that during this trip.

So Malaysia although short and simple was a very nice trip. I hope to someday come back here and discover these lands more but for now I am off to China to see what may be in store for me there.

Pai, Chiang Mai, and a Thailand goodbye!

This week was a really good time. Juan and I finally made it to the North of Thailand where we were able to move away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and settle into some calmer cities and towns. First we went to Chiang Mai which was a really great place and then after that we went to Pai.

Pai was an amazing little town, it was just what I needed actually. The drive was absolutely insane, I have never seen more jagged and winedy roads and with every sharp turn my stomach knotted up and I envisioned spraying the mini bus with a little treat from my tummy. Actually much to my embarrassment I will admit the drive made me have my first breakdown as I crawled out of the bus and started crying in frustration with the drive and how sick I felt. On the upside, Pai is in the mountains with incredible scenery and fresh air where you could finally smell the color green! The town itself was small; it was easy to walk in a half an hour, no long bus rides, no waiting for motos, no honking or traffic, just a nice stroll through the town. It was very much a little hippy art town. As always the roads were lined with vendors and markets but this time most of the markets were art, crafts, homemade village items, or photography. The streets were filled with great music (finally no Jack Johnson which everyone seems to play here) and the vibe was just really chill. Pai allowed us to once again be lazy for a while, to bum around town not doing much of anything, and to make the days biggest goal finding a delicious fruit shake.

Chiang Mai was also a lot of fun. We were very lucky because although we didn’t plan it or even know about it, we ended up being around in one of the best places to celebrate the Loi Krathong festival (festival of lights). For two days the sound of firecrackers filled the air every evening and the night sky was light up with beautiful “krathongs” (they are like paper hot air balloons or lanterns that float up into the sky). They also set afloat thousands of banana leaf floats down the river, filled with beautiful flowers, candles, and incents. When asking some of the Thais what the meaning of the festival was many people gave different answers, some believed it was an offering to Buddha, some believed you were supposed to let all the negative in your life go as you released your float or lantern, and some believed it was their way of apologizing to the river for polluting and stealing the water. Whatever the meaning you choose to follow the ceremony was beautiful and it made the city a delightful sight for those few days.

Thailand is now coming to a close for us. We are off of Malaysia in two days but I am already sad to say goodbye to this beautiful country. Thailand was a great place to travel too. The people are so friendly and respectful and no matter where I traveled I always felt safe. The food is cheap and delicious, the shopping is absolutely fabulous (even though I literally did not buy one thing). There are actually a lot of things I will really miss about here, even things I never did. I wasn’t a big fan of the sugar on everything but I thought it was cute and it made me smile when I sat down to the table. Sugar is a must here and everything is sweetened. Milk is sweet like juice, rather than salt on their corn they put a few teaspoons of sugar, and on every restaurant table you will find both white and brown sugar that goes overtop of every meal including soup. I will miss the amazing Thai massages and the ability to walk to any street corner and get pampered and spoiled without spending more than five dollars. I will miss the most delicious salad and apple dressings that I have ever tasted. Although I complain about it now I may even miss the sound of falling asleep to howling dogs and firecrackers filling the night air. Oh and I will definitely miss all the 7-11’s that literally flood the streets and provide me with the convenience and deliciousness of fountain ovaltines and processed banana bread. Ahhh Ill miss it all! In Thailand we have spent just over a month all together and it became a love of mine, im excited to move on but I am going to miss this place a lot!

Elephant Madness!

The other day Juan and I decided to do our first big activity and we went elephant riding in Pai. Wow, it was so much fun! I have ridden an elephant in India before but I wanted to try riding bareback and be able to spend some time playing with the elephants which is something I have never done. The great thing about Thailand is that they love to sell you things that you want; their goal is to have good business, for you to enjoy and come back again. We found a company that was willing to take us out by ourselves (rather than in a big group) on our own elephant and essentially do whatever we want for a really great price, they even brought along our own guy who took pictures and videotaped the whole thing.

We decided that rather than going through the jungle we would head over to the river and play in the water with the elephants. Such a good decision! We were able to see some of the jungle anyway when we were walking to the river. The walk was beautiful, the views of the town and the landscape were painfully pretty, and riding an elephant bareback was a lot of fun. It didn’t take us long though before our butts were thanking us for not doing the whole half-day trip through the jungle, the spine of the elephant and huge muscles were almost unbearable on our bottoms by the time we arrived (actually three days later our legs and bums and still hurting).
When we got to the river we walked around for a bit and enjoyed the scenery some more and then it was time to play! Our elephant was a blast, he would sit down in the water and slide us off his back, he would stand up tall and playfully shake us off until we went flying into the water, he also would fill his trunk with water and give us a nice shower or spay us really hard until we would almost fall off again. For almost an hour this continued. When we would fall into the water he would turn sideways to stop the strong current from dragging us away too far and then he would get really low so we could crawl up onto his back. He also let us crawl up his trunk and ride on his head, he would bend down really low, stick his trunk out for us to put our feet on and then as we climbed he would slowly lift us up until we made it to the top. The whole thing was so exhilarating!

At one point when he shook me into the water, I fell off and the current guided me underneath our elephant. I couldn’t get out because his legs were blocking me and the current was too strong. Naturally he started lying down expecting me to crawl back on top of him. As he began to lie on top of me his belly crushed my head for maybe the shortest second of my life the only sound I could hear was my own neck cracking under the water. It was the first and only time in my life where I have ever actually thought “wow, I am going to die right now”. Thankfully our guide was right there, he jumped off our elephant (right on to my neck again which I surely thought was broken by this point) and pulled me out from under the elephant. I was so scared. A part of me wanted to pull out my inner child and swim to the shore and just cry but the bigger part of me won and I timidly crawled back onto my elephant only this time holding on for dear life every time his massive body shook. So yeah, an elephant sat on my head and I survived, unfortunately I have a pretty messed up neck to prove it.

The day was incredible, it was so much fun. I am so thankful that I know how amazing these experiences are. I cannot count how many times during the day I thought “wow, how magical is it that I am just playing with an elephant right now” and magical it was! The ride, playing with the elephant, the tour guide who was on his toes, the scenery, even my scary experience, all of it just made my day so special. And so as always I am having a blast here in Thailand and loving all of my new adventures!