Full Moon Party, but only showing you the sunset.

The island of Ko Pha-Ngan, Thailand hosts a Full Moon party. Every month. Where some 20,000 travels descend to the beach and dance until the sun comes up. I thought I was getting too old for this, but when I finally walked back to my room around 10:00am to get my bag and get on the ferry heading to our next island, I had the biggest smile on my face! Turns out 30 doesn’t slow you down at all. It just lends you cute 30 year old Australians to spend some island time with.

Unlikely we’ll be posting any pictures of that evening. For the sake of future employers, if nothing else. But, I wanted to share the sunset that we had while carb-loading before kicking off the evening. Unreal, huh?

Oh, right, the blog.

The strange thing is that I’ve had about 11 posts ready to go for weeks. Internet has been scarce, at times, in South East Asia, but, no excuses, just catching up now…

In short, we’ve just arrived in Cambodia, after a 17 hour journey to get here… And coming off the heels of an all nighter with some Irish boys. Do they know how to drink or what?! Did any of you know that about the Irish?? Holy moly! Needless to say, when we left at 8am, they were still up from the night before. But, we bid farewell to Laos, got our visas all squared away, and here we are.

Sleep calls, for now. But a few pictures from our day of travel…

Like, the bucket of roadside critters waiting to be fried:

And, the plate that they were offered up to us on:

And, us, with Charlotte and Sandra, playing cards with some cold ones at a rest stop/bus transfer, while trying to ignore the plate of tranchulas: (Please keep in mind that this is about 14 hours in… We don’t always look so ragged, or at least I hope not.)

A SLOW Introduction to Laos

Before I travel to a certain city/country I like to read up on some of the history, highlights, culture to get a sense of what to expect. So despite Lonely Planet, Travelfish and other travelers advising me that Laos operates at a slower pace than surrounding countries – relax, enjoy some Beer Lao, don’t lose your cool, go with the flow – nothing could quite prepare me for just how slow it would be.

We planned on taking the two day slow boat from the border crossing down to Luang Prabang (stopping overnight in Pakbeng) and heard you needed to get to the boat early to get a good seat. Great. We wake up early, have some coffee (ill-advised, we’re not in Australia anymore) buy our sandwiches (also ill-advised, mayonnaise, a 9 hour boat trip and the sun don’t quite mix) and purchase our cushions.

Where are my pink and white marshmallows and pretty foam design?

We arrive at 9am, find great seats and wait until our boat is full so we can take off. At around 10am we realize that most people did not cross the border the night before so we will have to wait for everyone to get their visa. Realizing we were in for a long wait we made two trips to the store to get more Beer Lao. For some reason, the ‘boat operators’ decided to start filling a different boat before ours was full. Right before boat #2 is ready to leave Mary and I decide to jump ship and move to the other boat. Once onboard we realize that our big bags are still under boat #1 (travel rule #1: never separate from your bags). Damn! As the boat starts pulling away we scramble up to the front and make the leap to the other boat. With backpack, cushion and open beer in hand I almost fall between the two boats and, in the process of steadying myself, dump about half my beer on Mary. We sure know how to lift the spirits of 70 grumpy people. We wait some more and at around 12:30pm our boat disembarks to begin the 7 hour journey.

We met some great people on the boat including an American couple who were traveling for 2 years. It was Erica's (the wife) birthday so we HAD to celebrate. By the time we got to Pakbeng we were all determined to keep the ball rolling. Chaos met us at the dock. Since we were the last boat to arrive (there were boats coming upstream as well) and most places fill up quickly, Erica and I ran ahead to secure accommodation. By the time we get back to the others, Mary has our bags strapped to the back of two 7 year old Laos boys. Our own personal Sherpas! I wish we had a picture because the bags were the length of their bodies and they kept flexing their muscles and saying 'so strong'. Too cute! Not wasting anytime, we throw our bags down and head to dinner. Some local whiskey, more Beer Lao and some other concoctions later we are ready to crash. If I was even a little bit sober I am pretty sure I would have cried myself to sleep.

Our accommodations for the night!

Needless to say, the next day Mary and I did not read, play cards, eat, drink or even leave our seats for 9 hours. Welcome to Laos.

We are NOT in New Zealand any longer…

Thanks for all the sweet notes inquiring whether or not we were still in New Zealand since their devastating news. We’ve been in Australia for the last 10 days.

For those that have not seen the news, Christchurch, a city on the South Island, and the city that we flew out of, was hit by a massive earthquake a couple of days ago. Really sad for the people there. At the last count, there were 92 confirmed dead and 200 still unaccounted for. Still need to catch up on the posts from the end of our New Zealand trip (internet access hasn’t been nearly as easy here in Australia) but attached is a picture of the Church that we visited and stayed next to during our 2 nights in the city center.

Christchurch steeple, after the quake, and what it looked like when we saw it the week before...

If you’re a praying person, or just a positive thinker, please send prayers/good thoughts to the people of Christchurch. We (as Americans, and just mankind) know all too well the devastation of natural disasters… God’s speed, Christchurch, and thank you for holding it together while we were there.

Franz Josef Glacier Hike

On our tour of the south island Mary and I stopped in a little town on the West Coast, Franz Josef. Besides four coffee shops, one convenient store, and the world’s rarest kiwi, Franz Josef is home to a 12 km long glacier. Due to this spectacular sight, 250,000 tourists come through the little township of 330 residents every year (thank you wikipedia). As the Franz Josef glacier is one of two glaciers located in a tropical rainforest, the other being in Chile – I thought it was necessary to explore.

We got really lucky with the weather because about 48 hours prior no one was allowed on or around the glacier due to severe flooding. Apparently the water was about 3 meters lower than the all-time record, rising well above the roads on either side of the river. They just LOVE to talk about the water level and the speed of their rivers! To be honest, it’s pretty impressive that this whole area was covered in water:

So I had a few options for exploring the glacier. Pay $399 for a heli-hike, $149 for an hour tour of the glacier, or walk around the glacier valley and base for free. Being only two weeks into the trip – I chose the third option. I had a super friendly shuttle driver who gave me a map of about three hike options up to the glacier and other look-out points.

Hike #1 was a 1.5hr roundtrip hike up to the glacier’s base. I couldn’t actually get on the ice, but it was great being so close! I quickly learned that self-portraits were not my forte (ah the freckles!):

Much better!:

Hike #2 was shorter, but all up hill to a look-out point – which was beautiful. I felt like a real photographer!

Hike #3 was through the rainforest base or ‘through the bush’ to a few points where you could see the glacier and walk along the river. The water was so fresh that you could drink from it… Or at least that’s what the seven year old filling up his bottle told me.

I only go to bars that professional athletes frequent.

We made it to Wellington *just* in time for Sevens.

Yeah, I had to pretend like I knew what Sevens was, too.

It’s a Rugby tournament, but only teams of 7 on the field at any one time. Turns out the whole sport is a lot more manly (as opposed to barbaric) than I had originally thought. And, Sevens is tournament style, so you play one country and then the winners move on, and the losers hit the bars. Which, of course, means that I had a long night ahead of me…….. Because obviously I was gonna wait for the winners. Duh. (Did any of you know me when the WORLD SERIES WINNING SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS came back for the SF parade and the 48 hours that followed?? Alrighty then.)

We met up with some new friends I had made in Paihia, while I was “killing time” waiting for Murphy to arrive… Oh, forgot to mention that Sevens is like a Bay to Breakers on Speed. Hey-O! You have to dress up (in groups of 7 – fitting) and hit the streets. Hmmm, turns out my traveling wardrobe was fitting for costumes for both Murphy and I. Scary. But I like army-apparel. What can I say?

The girls (Farrah and Bronwyn) didn’t have much time to plan a costume, but snagged these sweet wigs!

And their friend, Jason, who had a matching wig, and way more funny shirt.

Our group then headed over to another bar, at the recommendation of Farrah’s current squeeze. Gideon’s from a very small village in South Africa. Cool, huh?? Almost. (I had to sneak-take this photo… Needed documentation, you know, for potential identifiable purposes, again.)

He’s been living in Wellington for several months and has a good job, so we didn’t feel too guilty about his treating all 6 of us to countless rounds. It wasn’t until he leaned into the table upon a toast to another tequila shot and asked: “Have you guys ever killed anyone?” that we thought maybe we should try to get out of the questionable backdoor we came in and lose ourselves in the crowded streets.

The night just got more fun from there when the rugby teams started trickling into the one bar we chose to hang out at. Lucky, again. But the best part: there are very few jersey chasers in New Zealand. Bonus! We played it cool and didn’t take many photos with the ones we sat around and learned about Rugby from, but I’ll share one of the guys that I got into a debate with over my Power Balance bracelet. They were my favorites, and play for England. (I’ll fix the red eye later.)

New Zealand ended up winning… And THAT, my friends, is what they call: being at the right place at the right time!

Sevens will be in Vegas very soon… And if you’re there, you MUST go!

And a little photo sequence… Murphy and I had to have a little chat about her open mouth photos… Apparently she can’t help herself which cracks me up, but I told her we could NOT be having that all over the world. I have a feeling her friends are going to giggle about this.

I’ll Take Any Excuse to Dress-Up

Right on cue, Mary and I started planning our Wellington trip two nights before we were set to arrive. Hmmm, no hostels available anywhere in the city? That doesn’t seem right. I mean there are about 127 backpackers in Wellington. What could possibly be going on? Oh Sevens – only the biggest rugby tournament/Halloween party/street festival of the year? Game on!

*For all those who know the special place that costumes (especially costume parties) hold in my heart – you could only imagine my excitement when I heard that 20,000 people will be dressed up (in groups of seven) attending a sports event and then party in the street all night!*

With Cornel’s help we made a plan to arrive in Wellington, stick our bags in the Ferry Terminal lockers and stay out all night. With Amy’s insistence and worry we decided to email four hostels and ask about cancellations. Long story short, about a block away from the last-minute hostel we hear “i throw my hands up in the air sometimes singing heyo, baby lets go” (an hour and a half later turns out those were the only words they knew) and when we reach the patio we see about thirty huge men dressed as doctors, army men, hobos, and bikers. We give each ‘the look’ and almost run for the Ferry Terminal.

Eventually, Mary and I head out clad in ‘army’ costumes, post up at a corner pub and chat up all the people. My personal favorite were the two figure skaters in full spandex and glitter skates. Their favorite pose below:

The night went on in this fashion until we eventually met up with Mary’s friends who were working in Wellington (shout out to Bronwyn and Farrah) and watched the Sevens finals! Our night only gets better from there – see below for a quick photo montage…
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Oh and it all ended with a street hotdog at 3:00am – almost felt like home!