Strolling through the Cameron Highlands

With the interesting travel delays and disruptions due to Ramadan and Hari Raya, the group that I've met up with convinced me to head over to the Cameron Highlands with them. Actually, this was my only option, because the company would only take us on their holiday because there were enough of us to fill a minivan and make it a worthwhile trip for them moneywise, to haul all 8 of us to the highlands. It was actually kindof nice...like we had our own public transportation. So we said good-bye to our tropical paradise and headed out, by boat first, to the mainland and loaded up the minivan.

Well, because of the traffic on the roads from the holiday and the rain that was pouring down, our trip took longer than anticipated. We rolled into Tanah Rata (one of the towns among the Cameron Highlands) and were taken straight to the Daniel Lodge, which only had dorm rooms available. I haven't done the dorm thing yet, because I like knowing my valuables are locked up in a room, but since this was our only option, I had to say go for it. So, there was a row of like 10 beds and we all just picked one and called it home for the next 2 nights. Even though I was indoors, I felt as though I was camping, given the mattress was thinner than my thermarest I use when sleeping in a tent, and above us was a large blue and white plastic tarp to catch any rain that came through the cracks in the wooden roof. Plus, the guy that checked us in said to be sure and throw away any food we had because the mice would be sure to come and get it if we left it in our bags. Haha! This was quite the switch from my princess days at Railay Beach with Lani.

Basically, when you come to the Cameron Highlands, it's green and hilly and people are interested in seeing the tea plantations, strawberry farms and doing some mountain hikes. It's a cooler climate and it was beautiful! We spent the next day on quite the adventure. We decided to take a public bus up the road near the strawberry farm and tea plantation. Well, we thought we were on the 11:30 bus, but we just sat, and sat, and sat some more. At about 12:30, all of a sudden another bus pulled up and we had to switch over. Well, it was already overcrowded, and we didn't get seats, so we were stuck standing in the back as we weaved through the traffic up the road. And actually, the traffic jam was horrendous! Again, the craziness of everywhere we were traveling to was all a result of the holiday. The people were traveling to and from to visit family, friends, and have a few days off of work. Our bus driver would not tolerate waiting in line, so he was pulling off road and into the other lane with oncoming traffic to pass it all up. It was a crazy experience. Had anything like this happened in the States, quite literally risking each of the passengers lives, his license would've been yanked in a second! Only in SE Asia I tell you!

Anyway, we ended up hopping off the bus and doing a hike into the Boh Tea Plantation. The green terraced hills were lovely and once we got to the tea shop, we all sipped on some tea as well. It was a little bit like Starbucks, the line was out the door, but it was still a tasty little treat to enjoy, harvested right off the lands surrounding us. To the right is part of the crew, Fletch, Ed, Jeroen, Lonneca, Randy and myself.

After tea, we tried to take a shortcut to the road and got lost. We had to turn around and hike back out the way we'd come. When we finally reached the main road, it was beginning to get dark, but the area is famous for strawberries as well and I had to see the strawberry farm. Luckily, it was right off the main road. We wandered around briefly and then to make the trip complete, I purchased a 100% strawberry ice lolly (that's what the English call a popsicle). Quite delish! And rather than catching the crazy bus back into town, we opted to walk. However, somewhere along the way it started to pour down rain, and we were still 6 km from town. We flagged a cab and the 6 of us piled in (see below). The cabby really didn't have a problem with an overcrowded taxi, just as long as we all payed our way. It was quite a crazy day of transportation issues and wandering through the tea trees.

Malaysia Border Crossing and the Pehrentian Islands

As you know, unfortunately, I've lost my travel partner to the States and I have now hit the road solo. Because of our time being cut short in Myanmar, I had to cross a border to avoid my Thai visa expiring before returning home. So, I headed south to Malaysia...and the border crossing was an experience. No service actually takes you across the border, so you get taken to the border by an overcrowded minivan and then you hop out and walk across the Thai/Malay border, expected to sort things out on the other side. Fortunately, there were 2 other travelers headed to the Pehrentian Islands as well, so we were able to share a taxi to Kuala Besut. But first, we had to find a bank to get the currency, since there were no ATMs or banks in the town we were headed to or on the islands. Not knowing how expensive things would be, and not knowing the exchange rate of US dollar to Ringit, trying to guestimate how much cash to pull out was more than I wanted to think about after a long 10 hrs sitting cramped in the back of a minivan. But I sorted things out and we eventually made it to Kuala Besut, but not early enough to catch a boat to the Pehrentians, which meant we stuck it out a night in this 1-hotel, 1-restaurant town.

The next morning was interesting as well. Because of the largest Muslim holidays, Hari Raya and Ramadan falling on the 13th and 14th of October, me even trying to travel anywhere on those dates was out of the question. Who knew?! So, I spent the morning frustrated and concerned about how I'd head north back into Thailand to meet my parents by the 18th. The bus I wanted to take to Kuala Lumpur was booked up until the 23rd of October. Seems a little ridiculous, huh? For 10 days, there was no bus I could get on to get me out of here. So being unable to make any sort of travel plans, I just decided to head out to the Islands and cross my fingers that things would work out...somehow.

Once out at sea, can I just say how absolutely incredible the Pehrentian Islands were! It was like I'd entered a tropical paradise.

There was nothing to do but be a beach bum, go snorkeling, and play volleyball and frisbee on the beach. And I totally lucked out and met a fantastic group of people. There were 4 Dutchies, 1 German, 2 Spaniards, 2 English and I actually found a fellow American guy who had been traveling for 8 months. It's been a super fun group and we refer to ourselves as the 'United Nations' - y'know, kinda bringing all countries together or something. And our snorkeling trip was incredible!! It is the clearest water I've ever been in and visibility is top quality. We saw sea turtles, little sharks, colorful coral, and all sorts of fishies. (the snorkeling pic below is with Lonneca from Holland)

After a full day on the beach and a round of volleyball, each evening we would catch up for dinner, which consisted of a delicious fish bbq on the beach - from the catch of the day - and then there was only 1 small bar on the island to mingle and hang out at. (this pic is with 3 English girls, Carly, Nicola and Monica and a Canadian, Jane - who I just met that night. We had a fun time dancing barefoot in the sand).

And then, how can you stay on a tropical island and not watch the sun come up one morning?! So I pulled an all-nighter to watch the sunrise on the ocean - which was beautiful. And then the real highlight came with the fact that 2 of the locals fed us their celebration food they had prepared for Hari Raya. It was incredible! It's food that they prepare special, only once a year, and since I'd expressed my hunger (surprise, surprise), we snuck into a kitchen in one of the chalets and they brought out part of their special holiday feast to share with us. Although I'm not 100% sure what I ate...some sort of meat dish and rice wrapped in a banana leaf, it was tasty!

It all seemed so surreal. Here I sat at a table, looking out on the palm trees and sandy beach, watching the sun peak through the clouds and paint the sky, and eating Malay food, prepared special for the once a year holiday, with 2 Malay men, 2 English girls and a German guy. It's quite fun to think about the types of experiences and memories that can be made when traveling.

Considering I wasn't even planning on coming to Malaysia, I'd say the Pehrentians were quite an enjoyable part of this trip so far.

Total Princesses at Railay Beach

Well, we went ahead and spoiled ourselves with our recent days at Railay Beach. It was the end of Lani's trip and we'd just suffered through sickness in Myanmar, so we figured we deserved to be princesses for a few days in southern Thailand. We splurged on a nice hotel, with AC, television and a pool with an incredible view at the base of rock cliffs and green palm trees surrounding us. The weather was only so-so, with occasional patches of sunshine and then intermittent rain showers. We basically spent our days relaxing - between the pool and the beach, which is just what we needed at the end of Lani's travels and to help us mend from our illnesses.


We did a day trip to Ko Phi Phi Island, which was beautiful, but our weather was poor. I'd say the island is still in repair-mode from the tsunami, and I can't imagine how nice it must have looked before the water damage and such. But there were definitely tourists still visiting and it is on the mend. Our morning was spent in the pouring down rain, and then the waves were too high on Phi Phi Le Island to see Maya Bay, which is where "The Beach" was filmed. But we did do some snorkeling and we had a lot of fun seeing the colorful coral and swimming amongst the fishies.

And then our time together on the Southern Thailand islands was all coming to an end. On our last night together, we sat on the beach and watched the sunset - wuite romantic, huh? It was really the fitting way to end our trip, since we have been quite the cute couple for the last 3 months. :)

And then it was a sad day the next morning knowing that I was losing my travel buddy. We caught a boat together to Krabi town and then I left Lani waiting for her minivan and I hopped in a little truck, which they call the public bus, and rode into Krabi alone. I sorted out a place to stay for only $3/night - it was pretty much a prison cell with painted walls. And then I did some research amongst the travel agencies to figure out how I was going to get across the border into Malaysia.

Our Time in Myanmar - Cut Short

As most of you have probably seen on the news, Myanmar is in disarray right now with the monks protesting in the streets and the outbreaks of violence by the "government." But Lani and I had already forged the path into the country before the violent uprisings started and we luckily left Yangon/Rangoon the day that actual deaths occurred. However, our time in the country was still cut short and it will be a place I have to return to one day to fully understand, appreciate and explore. With my brief experience, I did fall in love with the people. The men all stroll the streets in serongs and to be more beautiful, the women wear paint on their faces. When walking down the streets, everyone just stares at you and I've felt a little bit like a freak and a celebrity at the same time. So regardless of the endless gawking, they are absolutely lovely and given their hopeless situation with the government, I am more than impressed to see the wide smiles on their faces and what appears to be, happiness.


The rest of the country however, leaves a little bit to be desired. The roads are rough; the taxis are in terrible condition (we're talking cracker boxes with their doors falling off, that need to be jump started, and may just kill in the middle of an intersection); the streets are filled with potholes (you gotta stare at your feet when walking to avoid a broken ankle); their isn't money for power to light the streets at night so it feels quite strange even going out after dark. But I guess these are the interesting things that make traveling an experience.

As for our time in Myanmar, we spent a day and a half in Yangon, wandering the streets and visiting the Schwedagon Pagoda. That is where the thousands of monks gathered in the afternoon to protest, so we tried to avoid too much time in the area. We hopped a miserably long and hot 19 hour bus ride north to Inle Lake, Lani got hit with nausea and when we arrived in Inle, she spent the next 2 days in bed. The day she got better, I decided it was my turn to be sick. And fortunatetly for me, we'd decided to only take a 12 hour bus ride that day to Mandalay. And given the fact that Myanmar is like taking a major step back in time, the bus was extremely unpleasant and I was unable to get comfortable with my body aching and alternating between the chills and a fever. We arrived in Mandalay early in the morning and I spent the next 3 days in bed. Lani did a little exploring by herself, but given the fact that both of us had been weakened by sickness and the country can be challenging to get through, we decided it was best to book a quick flight to Bangkok and head to a doctor, where conditions would be better.

On a more positive note, like I said, the people in Myanmar are incredible! We had such good experiences interacting with them and I'm happy we got a small glimpse into their culture. My boat trip on Inle Lake was beautiful and I fell in love with our boatmen, Myasa and Meento, who were the cutest father-son duo I've ever met.



Meento is only 12 years old and was just as much a captain as his dad. And when Lani was feeling better, she wanted to hit the lake up as well, so I went again to accompany her and we had the same guides. And this time, we were lucky enough to have Myasa take us to his home - which was such a special experience to be welcomed into this family's home and meet his wife and children and share a cup of tea, sitting cross legged on a bamboo mat on their floor. The children loved having pictures taken of themselves and this experience with the family was definitely the highlight for me during my brief Myanmar experience!

Do Nothing in Pai

Well, this sleepy, little, hippie town in Northern Thailand shared some similarities with The Haight, and it was nice to have a little piece of San Fran with me for a few days. The town called Pai, is a place for one to chill and relax, if you want to. Mozy down the streets, sit by a swimming pool, hang out at the bars or grab some baked goods (which we of course did daily), take a stroll across the river to the green hills and visit the local artists at night who set up shop on the streets with all their handy crafts for us to ooohh and aahhh over. The tag line for this town is: Do Nothing in Pai. We did a pretty good job of not doing much, but we did spend a day on the Pai River rafting with a fun girl from Connecticut, Brittney, and two crazy Spaniards, Raul and Sebastian. Turns out, the men were supposed to be the strong oarsmen of the trip, however, due to their hangovers from the night before, us 3 girls really were the power behind the boat. Good thing the rapids were small, or we would've flipped for sure!

We spent the night in Mae Hong Son, another small mountain town about 2.5 hrs from Pai. The next day we rented a moto (Lani and I were feeling adventurous) and motored our way through the hills to reach Pau Sua Waterfalls. These were probably the prettiest falls we've seen yet in SE Asia, so we were glad we risked our lives on the moto. Just kidding - Lani is a very safe driver, and I was a very still passenger. Then, it was back to Pai on an extremely, curvy road (at least 45 degree angle turns) that we had to stomach, stuck in the back of a full minivan. You couldn't even try to sleep because the driver took the curves so quickly that you had to hold onto the seat to avoid sloshing onto your neighbor. And who was the smart girl who decided to eat a creme-filled powdered donut before hopping in the van? Oh, that's me, that's me!! I was glad when the ride was over and we were back in peaceful little Pai.

We had a couple more days in Pai. We had one rough night as Katie diagnosed Lani with worms. It was fairly traumatic for her as she feels she was tortured in a previous life by worms and slugs...the thought of her feeding them inside of her was not a fun one. We got meds the next day and made sure to wash all our laundry and she seemed to be in better spirits - becoming one with them, more or less. The rest was all thumbs up. Katie and Lani spent a day with the elephants, while I got in touch with my inner chi and spent a day doing a yoga course. There was a beautiful eco-friendly pool on the hillside that I hit up to catch a few rays.

And we of course, had to go out one night with the rafting crew - including our guide, Jacko. It was a super fun night bouncing around to a few bars and dancing with our friends from Spain and the river guides.

So although they say you can "do nothing in Pai," I'd like to think we did a little something and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I got to ride an elephant!

Yay for Chiang Mai and my elephant ride! For all of this trip so far, I've been holding out for an elephant ride and we finally did it. It was quite fun. Our elephant was a female, so she was small - but that doesn't mean she wasn't the cutest little elephant of all the pack. Check out the pix!

Besides our elephant ride, we did some bamboo rafting, which consisted of sticking about 9 or 10 pieces of bamboo together and heading down the river. It also means a guaranteed wet butt.

We had several days in Chiang Mai and didn't really do much. Got massages, wandered the city, hit the markets and spent too much money on jewelery from local artists...Katie was one heck of a bargainer (yes, we joined back up with our buddy Katie), sat by a pool, and tried to avoid being completely disgusted by the large population of old, white men, who come here specifically to get a little, oh, you know.

Gibbons and Leeches and Mud, Oh My!

We just spent 3-days in the world of rainforest and mud in search of Gibbons (a type of monkey). We did a trip called the Gibbon Experience (GE) and any traveler we'd met that had done the GE just raved about it, so I think Lani and I went in with slightly high expectations. We were a group of 8 people. I wouldn't say we came our completely disappointed, just glad that the trip was over.

Our group consisted of 3 Brits, 1 Kroatian, 1 South African guy (who should've stayed home - he had such an ego it was incredible!), and the 2 "dirty American girls." Because it's rainy season here, we had to trek in to the first tree house for 8 hours, through mud and rain and up slippery hills and through quite literally, mierda, for about an hour of the hike. And when you have animal feces squashing between your toes, and haven't eaten for 8 hours, I would say I probably wasn't the happiest camper. And then once we arrived at the first treehouse, it was not a place to comfortably rest our heads. The sheets hadn't been changed from the previous guests and Lani and I spent a long night trying not to move a muscle, as we slept in our clothes, covered head to toe to avoid any contact with the bedding, and quite awake as each little sound in the jungle kept us on edge. I was grateful for the morning when the guide zipped in at 6:00 a.m. and we got the show on the road. On a more positive note, it was quite amazing to wake-up in a treehouse, 150 meters above ground, and as far as I could see were green trees and the fog settling on the mountains, with the sound of Gibbons singing as my alarm clock.

We spent the day zipping around on these cables, suspended from tree to tree. You zip high above the tree canopy and it is quite an amazing vista. Once I got over the initial scare of being suspended on a cable, more than 100 m above ground, it was quite a fun day. It was kinda like we were the monkeys, and we had a great day swinging from the trees.


When we weren't zipping around, we were hiking again, in more leech-infested mud. In fact, over the course of the trip I got 2 leech bites. Yuck! I screamed like a total girl and the guide had to flick the blood-sucking beast off of me (I might be over dramatizing the event, but seriously). Proof of the blood below (near my heal) to document my first leech bite ever in my life!


For the second night in the rainforest, we switched treehouses. It was much cleaner and well kept.

The only real issues we had this second evening was that the horse bringing the food never came. So for dinner and breakfast at the treehouse, we had a tasty batch of sticky rice and boiled potatoes. Luckily, Lani and I had brought Oreo's in our backpacks and they were a delicious night cap on the evening. And our other adventure this night was the fact that we had 2 incredibly large, hairy spiders crawl around our bedding area. We had to wake up our Brittish friend, Flip, to kill both of them. They were huge! I guess we were in the jungle, but seriously, the creepy-crawlies that I was confronted with over 3 days was almost more than I could handle.

The next morning we said good-bye to our treehouse and the Gibbons, that we never saw, and hiked out to the village. We were supposed to have another 4 hours hiking out, but since it hadn't rained in the valley the last 2 days, they had sent in a jeep to pick us up and I was quite extatic to hop in the back of that baby and ride up the muddy hills, rather than walk them.

Back in the border town of Huay Xai, a shower was the first priority! Then we had dinner with the 3 Brits along the Mekong River and watched the sky change colors as the sun set over the mountains. It was our last night in lovely Laos. The next day we would cross the river to Thailand and head to Chiang Mai.