Why Not?

**We updated pictures on all blogs so if you're interested check them out! Full moon party is still yet to come!**

We are on the bus headed to stop #2 in Cambodia and wow, it sure has a lot to live up to after our first stop in Siem Reap. Please excuse if this doesn't make sense but I'm having trouble staying focused as there is some sort of slap-stick Khmer comedy show absolutely blasting into my ear right now from the speaker directly above our heads.. I have earplugs in and it is still almost unbearable! At least there is AC, but the nasal yelling is getting to me... Only five more hours... all part of the experience!
Anyway, we've been in SR for five nights and it felt like saying goodbye to family when we left, we were treated so well! Now, Siem Reap has a good night life on Pub Street and is the city closest to Angkor Wat, the biggest sight to see in Cambodia and one of the wonders of the world. Chris has been to Macchu  Picchu and Stonehenge and I've checked out the Acropolis and the Colosseum, but Angkor Wat is on a different scale completely. First of all the size of the area is way bigger and the level of detail that remains intact though it is so old is astounding. So Siem Reap does have it's own charm and there are many tourists who stay for more days than expected to check out all it has to offer. Still, there are a lot of things about Cambodia that are a challenge and a constant test of patience (I must say it has been good practice for me!). This is the hottest place we have been by far with no water nearby to escape! We've been scammed (especially when it comes to transportation) a few times and it's unsettling to feel like you can't trust anyone, not even banks and post offices, because of the corruption the country struggles with. There are children begging on the streets, and count on never being able to go anywhere without hearing "tuk tuk, lady?" "lady, you like massage?", "you buy something from me, special price?" or "you want some ting to eat, lady"? The constant harassment combined with the heat can be absolutely exhausting.
But... While Thailand somewhat lacked in culture and experiences with the locals, the Cambodian people (outside of the central tourist area) are to me what give Cambodia it's charm.

One of Whynot's suggestions - a local swimming hole.  We were literally the only white people there among THOUSANDS of Khmer (Cambodian) people.  The kids were all practising their English with "Hello, how are you?" and "What is your name".  Absolutely adorable, we splashed around and laughed and had a great time.  Priceless!

This is what the lake looked like: shelters with hammocks and mats that you could rent for 25 cents.  People everywhere, this is a less busy part of the beach!

Adorable kids hamming it up for the camera!!!

Specifically... Mr. Whynot (his name yes, because the answer to any request you may have is 'why not?').
This man is the most incredible person, along with his welcoming family and adorable three little girls.  We had read online reviews of the hostel (Angkor Wonder Hotel, dont stay anywhere else! $14/night with AC!) saying how amazing he was but he still managed to exceed expectations. He sits down and spends ages going through where to go and possible places to see. He goes out of his way to invite you out to spend time with him and some local people, to show you what true life is like in cambodia, expecting nothing in return.
During the Khmer New year celebrations he took at least 15 of us out on a sketchy tuk tuk ride way out to the 'burbs' of siem reap. There mats were spread out all over the ground and in the centre bowls of fresh mango and a big feed waiting for us, along with buckets full of ice cold beer all courtesy of Mr. Whynot.  They had gone to so much trouble to show us a good time and the other Khmer people were so eager to dance with us, have "beer o'clock" (as they called it!) with us and eat and laugh the night away. We got to experience the kindness and happiness of Khmer people that night as we bonded wordlessly through dance and drink. Papa Tom (an experienced traveller who stopped at whynot's  place intending to stay for 2 nights but who is now essentially part of the family and planning to live out his retired life in SR) found out it was my birthday the next day and promised we would have another celebration. He fits right into whynot's family in the generosity department! We met a bunch of travelers that night and bonded over our mutual astonishment of whynot's generosity as a conversation piece (and a lot of dancing!). The night was so fun that I could even overlook the 5-year old boy begging with his arms wrapped tightly around mine, who was charming and irresistible up until he point he realized I wasn't going to cave and left me with a kick in the shin and a f#%* you! Yeah... you gotta take the good with the bad in this place!

Eating and drinking with the locals with limited English but similar intentions,.. Love it!

Some of our friends we met that night and who we continue to bump into along our way... they all celebrated my 30th as well, fun!!

My 30th Birthday...
Not many could say that they watched the sunrise over Angkor wat for their birthday. Chris was a trooper, we had to get up at 5 in order to get there by bicycle on time, and he's just not a morning person.. Although who is that early in the am after a night of drinking?! At 5:30 am we were both dripping with sweat from the 7k ride out. Hint, don't try and be ambitious and bike around the temples.. Its hard enough walking through all of them in the crippling heat without also exerting yourself on the roads in between. We spent 6 hours checking out the various temples, battling the sweat and 40 degree heat the whole way. It was an amazing experience and as i sit here on an air-conditioned bus with a tank top that's not soaked with sweat, I can look back on the experience and say how amazing the place was. At the time however, I was more of the "get-me-the-hell-out-of-here-and-into-some-AC" mentality. It was a challenge, intense but rewarding. Chris was  patient with my impatience and we saw everything we set out to see and then some. Seriously though, just hire a tuk tuk! We did have a great time shaking our heads in awe of the clothes people were wearing to face walking around in intense heat and lots of stairs. Some of our favorites include:
-Spike heels two sizes to big (at least), with socks of course!
-a faux-fur jacket and gloves
-a turtleneck with a jacket on top for that little bit of added warmth (a sweaty-mess kind of cozy!)
And... Our personal favorite, the garbage man, sporting full jeans, sweater, gloves and to top it all off, a wooly balaclava!!!
Shit, we were looking around us all day thinking, "are we the only ones dying of heat here?"
Well, we made it back to the city after a 12k bike ride with the sun directly overhead. Pizza for lunch followed, then napping in our AC heaven, and a salad for dinner. Not a single grain of rice or noodle all day long, a welcome break!

Our travel buddies say "Women don't sweat, they glow!"  I was definitely glowing after our bike ride to Angkor Wat!

Chris wasn't glowing, he was sweating! But we cooled off over a fruit shake eventually. It's so incredibly hot in Siem Reap, the hottest place by far!

These smiles appear natural, but mask the suffering of intense heat.  When you go into the temples (well, certain parts) you have to have your shoulders covered.  Seeing as I only have tank tops, here I am with a long-sleeved black sweater holding back tears.... ha ha no not that bad, but these are our brave faces!

Why hello.. how are you?

My and Chris' favorite temple: Ta Prohm, where they filmed Tomb Raider and where nature has caused most of the destruction of the temple.  This is one of many examples of the trees growing right around the ruins.. awesome!

We then returned to the hostel, to find the front garden/terrace transformed into a birthday party!! Balloons were strung all throughout the palm trees, the table was set with sparklers at every place setting, people were once again enjoying coolers full of beer provided by Whynot, and the Angry Birds cake that Papa Tom had made for me sitting in the middle of the table (I don't think there is a single kid without an Angry Birds shirt here, they even make collared dress shirts!). The generosity of these people is incredible, they went out of their way to make sure it was a special night!!! The little girls sang happy birthday while waving sparklers at least 20 times (maybe they were going for 30?), and let me serve up about half of the cake before they were scraping off the icing and wiping fingertips all over the guest's faces. We sat and drank and chilled till late and it was a perfect way to celebrate with new found friends. To top it off the next day Chris treated me to a fancy oil massage and went on a mission to find us a pool so we could spend the day relaxing and staying cool. That combined with all the Facebook messages and emails from home and I sure felt loved on my birthday. Thanks everyone!
We spent another couple of days chilling with new friends around Siem Reap, one more than originally planned while we waited out Chris' 24-hour stomach sickness. The poor guy was in bed for almost 24 hours straight and feeling extremely 'shitty',. Luckily he is almost back to his normal cheery fun self and able to eat food again... Though he'll probably be laying off the spicy foods for a while! Me too, I'm scared I'll be next! Ah, the joys of traveling...
Anyway we're now headed to Phnom Penh where we plan on depressing ourselves by going to the killing fields from cambodia's not too distant, war-ridden past. I think it's an important part in understanding why cambodia is the way it is and how its struggles during that time affect how the country is today.
And now it is time for me to damage my eardrums by blasting my music in an attempt to drown out the obnoxious blasting of the TV speakers... Wish me luck!
So about those Canucks..... Yikes!

Glowing once again, that night it was 36 degrees at 6:30pm (felt like 41 with humidity)!! So nice that it cools down in the evenings! (PS, Have been trying not to be frustrated with the lack of photography skills of others.. ha ha oh well!)

Happy Birthday to ME!! Yay! These are my personal birthday singers, before they wrecked the cake!

Lauren and Chris xo

Soaking It Up!

 The islands of Thailand do a great job of providing budget  travellers with beautiful sandy beaches, snorkeling spots and cheap cocktails..  They are full of young people with similar travel itineraries sharing stories and hanging in hammocks. You cant help but get stuck somewhere for a little longer than expected and have a great time catching a few too many rays. For us, what the islands lack is any kind of local culture, they're all so full of tourists! This is why Chris and I were absolutely floored that the final leg of our Thailand trip was spent on Khao San road in Bangkok, celebrating Songkran!

A few pics from island life in Thailand... so beautiful! Many a sunsets and always warm enough for a late-night swim!

In the background you see the massage table, not a bad location!

One of our favorite beaches, Mae Haad on Koh Phangan

Canadian buddies we've been meeting up with on the way.. they've gone home now *tear* but hopefully we'll cross paths again!

$6/day, not a bad way to get around! My knight in shining scooter :)

In theory, Songkran is the celebration of the New Year in Thailand, Cambodia and probably other surrounding countries too. It is a water festival, and locals will pour a cup of water over a Buddha statue in hopes of a fresh start and good luck in the New Year.

In reality, just as the religious premise of Easter is an excuse to hide chocolate bunnies around the house, so is Songkran an excuse to pour giant buckets of water over the heads of strangers, huck buckets of water at unprepared tuk tuk passengers, smear talcum powder paste all over each others faces, and generally have the biggest water fight in the world. Awesome!

Though many travellers had described to us what it was like as I try to describe now, like being Vancouver during the Olympics when Canada beat the rival US to win the most important of all golds, only those that were there to see it could truly understand the absolute chaos!
The best part about the water fight is that it was mostly local people of Thailand who were filling the streets to celebrate it! At one point we found ourselves on the side of the main road with a family of Thai people, playing with the little kids by pouring buckets of water over each other and throwing water at the trucks that would drive by with, literally, 10-15 people (standing room only) in the back! This was the cultural experience we were looking for! No matter how icy the water, how much it might've stung getting a shot directly in an unexpected eye or talcum powder smeared into a surprised mouth, everyone was laughing and completely carefree and happy! If anywhere in the western world  attempted this type of festival, fights would be breaking out left, right and center! Not in Thailand! We partied and splashed and threw for a few hours during the day and then headed back again at night for another soaking... The ice water got a bit cold and after a couple of hours we found ourselves slowly approaching breaking point of 'dont you dare spray that in my face'! But it was all good and we made it out harmlessly soaked and cooled down for once to head back to our room with a fan that was more like a heater because all it did was blow hot air at you. The next morning of the festival we left pre-festivities and said goodbye to Thailand (for now). What a way to end! Happy Songkran and hello Cambodia!

With love,

Don't mess with him, that's ice water in there!

I'm thirsty! Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of the action unless we wanted to ruin our camera!

Lauren and Chris xo

The Full Full Moon experience... (thanks MasterCard!)

Cost of getting our faces and arms  done up with fluorescent paint.... 100 baht

Buying the quintessenial Full Moon tank top to fit in with the brightly coloured crowd... 180 baht

Thai buckets filled with red bull, your choice of liquor and mix.... 200 baht
Family run Taxi filled with other drunken tourists, driving all the happily drunk people home well after the sun had come up.... 400 baht
Entrance to the beach (includes cool souvenir bracelet!)... 100 baht

Bartering for some almost-fresh street meat and almost warm pizza.... 220 baht

Getting pick-pocketed while watching fire-limbo (luckily Chris was smart and emptied the wallet of any credit cards, IDs, etc)..... 1300 baht

Dancing on the beach to various DJs, stumbling across a Canadian flag and singing the national anthem with a bunch of random Canadians, watching chris try his best to skip under a giant flaming skipping rope, seeing the line of bare asses along the shore of the ocean toilet, and random encounters with travellers all over the world in a setting that could only ever be legit in Thailand.... PRICELESS!!!!!

Gotta love it!!

More to come,
Lauren and Chris xo

A whole new world under the sea

Disney-lovers will see what I did there.. "Life is much hotter under dee watah take it from me!"
Wow! We have just spent the last five days on Koh Tao getting our dive certification and words can't describe how amazing it was!!
We took the open water course, a four day academic and practical course at the end of which you get to complete four scuba dives and the ability to do guided dives all over the world!
We had no idea what to expect, but the experience was beyond what either of us had imagined. Even initially in the pool deep end doing out skills tests was wicked- sitting down at the bottom of the pool looking up to the surface and just breathing underwater- so so cool.
The next two days were even better because we got to check out some amazing reefs and fishies around Koh Tao. Hannah (our instructor) said that one of the dives site we went to was in her top five for the best visibility she'd seen it. Clear blue waters, and tons and tons of fish! It was so cool looking up toward the surface and having your view crowded by schools of hundreds of fish! My favorite part about the whole thing was the feeling of weightlessness, as I would imagine it would be in outer space! We had fun practicing hovering upside down a metre or two off the ocean floor and somersaulting around effortlessly. Everyone can be a gymnastics pro underwater!
The lifestyle of the instructors of Simple Life Diving resort was pretty tough to beat too: swimming with fish by day, hanging out over beers by night. They were a welcoming group and the six of us taking the course had fun partying with the crew on several occasions.
The only obstacle was that we figured Chris must have the biggest lungs ever because he was using up almost twice as much air as he rest of us in his tank. We couldn't figure it out, because the previous day it had been no problem. He kept trying to take deep slow breaths but he was burning through his air at record speeds! In any case the next day Chris and I decided to go and do two more dives (now as certified divers): one deep water dive ( getting down to 30m below the surface, whereas our certain only allows for 18m) and one wreck dive (think the beginning if the titanic movie, sunken treasure ships, woot woot!).

 We were both quite nervous about being that deep underwater and also about Chris using up air so quickly that he couldn't have a long enough dive to make it worthwhile.. All the nerves completely disappeared when as we sank down through  what seemed to be computer-generated blue waters to the most amazing coral reef. Wow, it was lile being in a freakin national geographic documentary! Not only that but the volume of fish was probably Bree times as much as our dives the previous day, and we thought there were lots then! Time seems to go by so fast down there and I dread seeing the guide tell us it's time to surface. Oh and the other great thin was that Chris used normal amounts of air this time (we think there was a problem with his equipment the previous day) so he got to really enjoy it too, and not have to worry about his breathing.. Loved it!!!!! We were both so pumped when we got to the surface, and it's funny because you try to recap everything that you both saw but couldn't talk about while underwater..

Unfortunately the wreck dive wasn't quite as astounding. Still cool just being down there, but it was described that as you descend, this ship just appears out of nowhere- sounds awesome, right? Well, we went down and down and I was watching.. No ship, no ship, no ship... then our guide Josh stopped and was feeling around. Huh, we'd arrived at the ship but the vis was so bad that we couldn't even see it coming! We had to buddy up super close and feel our way around.. Kinda sucked at first and was super freaky! By then it became a bit clearer and we got to do handstands on the guns and look into some of the ship's entrances to see schools of baby barracudas and other fish swimming through it. That was pretty sweet.

Basically, if you haven't sorted it out by now, we loved the diving experience and would absolutely recommend it in Koh Tao to anyone and everyone!!! We loved Simple Life (see Simple Life Divers) too, a laid-back super cohesive group of instructors that are chill most of the time but focused when you need to feel confident in the water beside them. Can't wait for some more diving experiences: I think we're hitting up Cambodia and we hear the diving in Egypt is good too...? We'll let ya know!
We're hitting up the full moon party next and then chilling on Koh Phangan for some beach time before we head to Bangkok to celebrate "Songkran" or Thai new year, which is basically a giant water fight! Time to go barter for a super-soaker! Sweet!
Lauren and Chris xo

Poor Man's Paradise!!

It sounds worse than it is maybe, what I mean is we're in Thailand now and loving that everything is so cheap!! First let's go back to post-NZ...
We said goodbye to Chris' parents at Auckland airport after two awesome months that would have more than broke our budget if it weren't for the Leary's letting us get by on the 'bank of Mom and Dad'! We have been so fortunate that Chris has such an incredibly generous group of friends and family- we've been so spoiled! That didn't end when we met up with Glenn and Sonya in Singapore.  We would've been lost both literally and figuratively without them! Singaporeans main life focuses are shopping, going to the movies, and eating! We mostly tried the eating part... We'd already seen he Hunger Games in NZ, why try to top that? We had a whirlwind visit but the highlight was definitely going to 'altitude', q rooftop bar on the 60th floor of a high-rise giving 360• view of the city!  What a contrast when we went form this posh rooftop bar to sitting in a crowded street eating satay, trying sting ray (not my flavour but by I tried!) and taking in the amazing food culture the city has to offer!
Singapore was hot and humid, but so far Bangkok takes the cake when it comes to smack-you-in-the-face, sticky, hard to breathe in heat. Wow!
First impressions of Bangkok were not great- it seemed just a really big, dirty city at first. We did see a few cool sights and straight away were loving the cheap Thai food, street meat and fruit smoothies! The biggest pain in the ass with Bangkok is the damn tuktuks! Helpful hint: if you're going to hire a tuk tuk to get around, make sure they are not asking you to make a stop or two before your destination. This was my breaking point on day 2 of Thailand. We would just be looming for a simple tuk tuk ride to and from our hostel and it would take us 5 or 6 painful negotiations in broken english to find a driver that wouldn't want us to stop in at some tourist trap market where they'd get a kickback if you bought anything! But hey, its all part of the experience right? We even had a driver take us to the complete opposite side of town because he misunderstood where we asked him to go and we pulled up at this massive gold palace- the kings palace. Still, we got to squeeze in an extra tourist moment in the end anyways!
We left Bangkok on Sunday (1st) via night train! Joy! First class sleepers were sold out so we were stuck in 2nd... Which at first glance was just two seats facing eachother... But no! In reality they were a Thai version of 'robots in disguise' Transformers! I was pretty damn cozy (though Chris would definitely recommend the bottom bunk, he had a fluorescent light from the ceiling shining into his eyes all night.. The boat at 7am didn't get much better- we got caught mid-ocean in he middle of a thunderstorm! No white squall or anything but rain coming in sideways and soaking all if us on the open air deck! It was worthy the trip to get into koh Tao, where we are going to stay for four nights to do our scuba certification!!!!! Yeah! Chris and I are super pumped not only for the course itself, but for diving in cool places in the future as a result of our certification. Awesome!
Love to all back home,
Lauren and Chris xo

An Unfortunate Decision (and South Island –Part 2)

 It was windy.  It had been windy for a few days.  Maybe gradually wind wears its way into your ear tunnels to mess with your ability to make smart decisions. In any case, it got to us.  We were down at a beautiful beach ready to enjoy yet another delicious home-cooked camping meal, but the wind was too strong to get the cookers going.  Luckily, I found this great spot, a small gravel opening, surrounded by bush, on the opposite side of the road.  Chris shrugged a “sure” to my suggestion to eating dinner there so I turned in without hesitation.  That’s when the sinking began. I felt the wheels turn deeper into the gravel as I pressed the gas to go forward. Uh oh. Chris immediately took control in the driver’s seat, but we ended up underestimating the power of the gravel and found ourselves completely stuck, with gravel up to the chassis and the two front wheels in giant wells.  We dug and dug, nothing. We tried wedging our plywood table behind the wheels for support. Nope. We realized we needed help.  Luckily a local family had decided to go for a post-dinner drive down to the ocean to check out the big waves due to all the wind.  They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into: a three-hour mission to help some idiot travelers out of a gravel pit!  First we tried attaching ratchet straps to the van (he had a truck).  They snapped and the van didn’t budge. Then Dave (our new best friend) headed back to his house to get rope – it took him at least a half-hour so clearly it was out of his way.  The third try was a charm.  There was a lot of rolling around under the van, a lot of debating on which type of knot to tie (Chris’ sailor knot knowledge came in handy!), and a lot of crossed fingers and toes..  but on the third try (the rope broke once even!), Wobs came smoking and squealing out of her unfortunate situation. Success!!! For the next day or two, Wobs was feeling the pain and “tink-tink-ing” her way down the highway as bits of gravel continuously made their way out from under the car. Crisis averted! Oh, and one more funny bit – the AA Chris called before we decided to have a go ourselves closed at 5pm and there is only one tow-truck driver in all of the Marlborough region. Chris phoned and left a message on “Tony the truck-driver”’s machine, but he was probably out on the piss or something, we never heard back!

Chris frolicking with the sea foam minutes before....

...Still smiling, but how quickly the situation changed!

Prior to this unfortunate event, we had an amazing time on our other hike, the Abel Tasman! It’s a complete contrast to the Kepler- instead of hiking up into the mountains, you hike along the beach, and even have to wade through estuaries at several points.  We kayaked the first day and went past a seal colony where seal pups were out on the rocks and playfully swimming around in the water.  We pulled up to a secluded beach for our final lunch with Matan and Andrea before ‘paddling’ our separate ways. We camped at this amazing, private spot where there is a lagoon at high tide, and we had the latest sun of the whole campsite. Good times! We then hiked across beaches and waded through low tide crossings for 17ks the next day to get to the next site. Such a contrast from the Kepler and so beautiful too!

Our not-too-shabby farewell lunch with our travel buddies!

Best camping spot ever!

On the way back to Auckland we hit up "Windy Welly" (Wellington) and it sure lived up to its name.  My favorite spot on the way back that we hit was Napier, a town that was devastated by an earthquake in the 1930s and all the buildings were re-built in the Art Deco style that was popular at the time.  We had lunch at a cafe and sat out in the sun... yes, the sun! Maybe that's why we loved the place so much, it's crazy what a difference the warm sun can make! In any case, this place had great character and we also went to the best winery there because we hit it up at the end of the day and they had 12(!!) bottles open for tasting.  Nice!! 


One of our last camp spots we stayed in required almost a 45-min drive into the middle of nowhere, along this gravel road to a small grass clearing in the bush.  We arrived late at night, so I was already a bit creeped out.  Chris then heard the call of a Kiwi (an actual bird, not a person!), so he took my hand and we went on a search.  Well, that lasted about 2 minutes because I heard a rustling in the bush, and although Chris assured me that the only thing it could possibly be was a bird, I just couldn't get the Canadian voice out of my head thinking it had to be something bigger.  Well, I guess we were both right in the end! We awoke to a dreadlocked-hippie chick making her way out of the bush in the morning.  Turns out it wasn't a bird, but a human sleeping in a hammock tent, who happened to be from Salt Spring Island!!! Ha ha, crazy...


Well, we made it (and more importantly Wobs made it) safely back to Auckland, where we will spend a few days catching up for one last visit with friends and family, planning to an extent what Southeast Asia might look like for us, and mentally preparing Chris for the heat and humidity that is SEA. 


Sending love to Vancouver,

Lauren and Chris xo