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