Post #167 - March 26 - April 5, 2013 - Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Overview

Getting to Bali was somewhat of a nightmare. It took us 39 hours of travelling door to door from Wellington, New Zealand to Kuta, Bali. This meant very little sleep for us which affected the first couple of days in Bali.

Bali is an island belonging to Indonesia. We were surprised to learn that Indonesia is home to over 200 million people. 80% of the population is Muslim. Bali is home to some of the world's best surfing.

Accommodations

Our first accommodation was at a bare bones hostel away from the lively part of Kuta. It was down a dismal, quiet road and there were really no amenities nearby, although breakfast was included. We did however get our own private room by chance due to them overbooking. The private room itself was like staying in an old attic. There was no bathroom attached, and the room had only a bed and a single chair. The first night we arrived, we didn't even have a sheet to cover ourselves with and the sheet on the bed barely covered the ratty mattress. But at least the room had air conditioning. Needless to say we were set on finding a nicer place to stay.

The 2nd day we were in Bali we went looking for other accommodations. We did some research and came up with a list of places to visit. We decided on a place called Pop! for the days leading up to Jeff's friend Jon's arrival. Pop! has to be one of the most cheaply made hotels we have encountered. The lobby felt like a school cafeteria, and the room was a cross between a spaceship and a hospital room, but it was bright and clean, the bed was amazingly comfy; all in all it was a solid place to stay for a couple of days.

The day Jon arrived, we checked into the nicest hotel we have stayed at during our entire trip. It reminded us a lot of the fancy hotel we got upgraded to in Puerto Vallarta a few years back when we felt like we won the lottery. Okay it wasn't quite that nice, but this place was outstanding for the price. It was $58 a night but was located right on the main drag of Kuta. The pool on the roof overlooked the lively main street called "Legian" below, there was a bar/restaurant also on the roof and the rooms were spacious, tasteful, cozy, and clean. The place just had a great atmosphere and we thought it was a good choice for our time with Jon.

City Vibe

We were expecting Kuta to be similar to Aunang Beach in Thailand, but it was quite different. Kuta, although very tourist friendly, had a lot more rustic charm, and their prices for everything are far less inflated than Thailand's. Besides KFC and the fancy mall there were no signs of western commercialism in Kuta, and that was definitely refreshing.

Taxis actually use their meters in Bali! There are taxis everywhere, but the roads are largely filled with motorcycles. The infrastructure in Bali does not accommodate the population and furthermore the traffic. There were regular traffic jams, and we were alarmed to learn that 8 people die in traffic accidents everyday on the island of Bali. We have a feeling a bulk of those incidents are due to tourists trying to make their way around the island on their own with no previous motorcycle driving experience.

Bali is like a sauna where weather and temperatures are concerned. It was between 30-35 degrees and humid every single day we were in Bali. It didn't rain once though. A couple times throughout the day we would find it necessary to retreat to our cozy room for some much needed AC action and then we'd venture back out into the sauna-like conditions. None of the restaurants or bars offer AC but oddly they all offer wifi access.

We arrived in Bali in the shoulder tourist season which was pretty good for us. It was reasonably lively without the high-season prices. Weekdays were slow though. Somedays Kuta's main drag looked sad and lonely with only a few people out and about. Later in the week things picked up and the streets starting filling up too.

Activities

Surfing

Our first full day with Jon we decided to try our hand at surfing. Let's just say some of us were more naturally gifted than others. We paid $15 each for the lessons and the surf board rental. Jeff went on his own with the chubby Balinese instructor and Jon and I got the ripped, tanned, and younger instructor, which I was okay with. I was reminded of the scene in the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" where Paul Rudd plays a surf instructor. All he keeps telling the main character during the surf lesson is that "you're doing too much... do less". There's no real concrete, tangible, or specific advice on successfully balancing yourself on a surf board. Our instructor's advice to us was... "just relax".

Jon and I are not sure but we think the chubby instructor gave Jeff some kind of magic surfing potion because he transformed into a graceful surfing penguin his first day on the surf board.... seriously.... Jeff was cruising on waves within the first hour of our lesson. I on the other hand was pulling out my wedgies and lifting up my horrible bikini top the ENTIRE lesson. I tell myself that my poor surfing skills were largely a result of the focus required to keep my bathing suit on me and not in the ocean. But honestly, I don't think I'd be much good at surfing anyway, but all three of us had a great time anyway. I wiped out countless times. Jeff and Jon both made fun of me for plugging my nose before wiping out each time, as if I was already convinced of my inevitable wipe-out.

We returned to the waves a couple days later, although I decided to sit this one out. Jeff and Jon hit the waves for a couple of hours until Jon pulled a muscle in his calf and was done for the day. They were out there for about 1.5 hours and seemed to enjoy themselves. I don't think Jon got any better. Jeff didn't seem too pleased with his improvement either, although he did mention he would like to surf again.

Rice terraces and temples

A couple days after Jon arrived, we rented a taxi for the day and ventured into the centre of Bali. Our first stop was the "city" of Ubud, which is actually just the sum of a bunch of small villages. We ate suckling pig at a restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet and it was pretty decent. The restaurant was a popular place. It was at the very least extremely well priced.

Our first stop after lunch was a place called Monkey Forest, which is essentially just a sanctuary for monkeys that have lost all fear of humans. I bought some bananas near the entrance and was immediately assaulted by no less than four or five monkeys. In no time, all the bananas were gone and Jeff and Jon were laughing at me because we hadn't even gotten a picture of me giving a banana to a monkey. So, we bought some more bananas and this time Jeff carried the bananas. Jeff started handing out the bananas to the monkeys and we got some good pictures. At one point, a rather large monkey approached Jeff and actually had his hand on Jeff's leg. Oddly, Jeff didn't seem to mind much. He calmly handed the banana over to the monkey and he walked away, apparently satisfied. The rest of the walk was pretty nice and we saw a lot of cute monkeys doing some pretty cute things. Like one monkey who was trying to hold down a smaller monkey to clean him, but the small monkey kept trying to run away, but couldn't because the bigger monkey was holding onto his leg. The amusement didn't go away after several minutes of watching.

After leaving Monkey Forest, our taxi driver tried to convince us that there would not be enough time to make it to the rice terraces, so we went to a place called the Elephant Cave, which is believed to have been a Buddhist hermitage. This was a bit of a letdown. There wasn't much to see, aside from some carvings outside of a small cave. We stayed only for about 15 minutes before jumping back into the car.

Our next stop was going to be Gunung Kawi, which is a group of stone shrines cut into cliffs on either side of the Pakrisan River valley, but it started raining really hard as soon as we arrived, so we cut our losses and hopped back into the car. At this point, we had a feeling that the driver wasn't being completely honest about driving times, so we asked him to take us to some rice terraces.

In about 45 minutes, not the three hours our driver had originally estimated, we arrived at some rice terraces just north of Ubud. The roadway overlooked a small valley lined with rice terraces. They were nothing compared to the scale of the terraces in China, but were beautiful because of how lush everything was. It had stopped raining by this time, and we very timidly began walking down a path along the terraces. We thought about turning back a couple times, but were very glad we didn't. We had a really nice hour-long walk that took us to the other side of the valley, where we met an older man selling coconuts. He bargained pretty hard with us, but we ended up drinking the best coconut water I've ever had. He then cut open the coconuts and we ate some of the inside. It was a pretty surreal experience.

After we were back at the taxi, it was time to head back to the hotel.

Spas

There are tons of places to get massages, pedicures, manicures, etc., in Bali and most are incredibly inexpensive. I would say the average for an hour-long massage was about $5.

We all got two massages while in Kuta. The first time we went we were told that one of us would have to be massaged by a guy. When the guy went up to Jon and asked him if it would be OK if he gave Jon a massage, Jon pointed at Jeff and said Jeff would take him. The two of them had a good laugh about that, although Jeff was kind of annoyed. Anyway, karma came back to bite Jon in the butt because the girl who ended up giving him a massage completely annihilated his calves and he could barely walk after the massage. Jeff mocked him quite a bit for this. Actually, I think Jeff ended up getting the best massage out of the three of us!

The second time we went for a massage, poor Jeff got stuck with the guy again! This time, however, Jon and I were raving about our massages, while Jeff just thought his was OK.

We also went for pedicures and manicures, which only cost $3 each! I got both, Jeff got a pedicure, and Jon can a manicure. At first we tried to convince Jon to get a colour for his nails, but when that didn't work, we did convince him to get the clear polish, which we neglected to tell him would cause his nails to look shiny. After this manicure, Jeff and I were making fun of his shiny nails and he eventually asked for the polish to be removed. We had a good laugh over that.

Nightlife

The nightlife in Kuta was somewhat interesting. There are so many bars and pubs lining the main street in Kuta that it's hard to know where to go. We went to a place called Sky Garden twice, which is a multi-level bar where most of the foreigners seem to tend to go. There are what we assume to be prostitutes walking around everywhere at night and they are in all the bars and pubs. That was different.

We checked out the nightlife in Seminyak, a town just north of Kuta, but it was very disappointing. Everything was basically just more expensive and less fun. We checked out one popular hangout spot, bought three very expensive drinks, and then got the heck out of there. It did have a very cool location right on the beach, but the atmosphere was too laid back and boring.

Food

You can basically get any kind of food you want in Bali. Mexican, Italian, German, Chinese, Thai, Balinese...anything. Prices are higher for foreign food than local food, but not too much higher. In general, the food was pretty tasty, especially the fruit juices and shakes. Jeff and I had a great Italian meal near the beach one of our first nights there. There was a live singer most of the time we were there that was really good and the food was excellent. In terms of eating, we did most of our eating off the main strip where prices are about 25% lower.

Our first hostel provided breakfast for free so we got to try a typical Balinese breakfast one morning. It was a noodle dish that was quite tasty. Our second hotel also provided free breakfasts and they served a rice dish with some chicken and spicy sauce served in banana leaves. This was also quite tasty.

We tried some local food at a night market with Jon one evening that was pretty good. We tried some frog legs, which were interesting, though I don't think any of us will be ordering them again. The food was decent and very inexpensive. It's possible to eat very cheaply in Bali if you know the right places!

People

We found the people in Bali to be extremely friendly and helpful. The first people we met were at our first hostel. They were excellent hosts and helped us out with anything we needed. One of the staff was heading to Lombok, an island we were thinking of going to, and he said if we made it there we should get in touch with him and he could show us around. Unfortunately, we never made it to Lombok, but it was an extremely friendly gesture.

Of course, it was awesome and completely random to see Jeff's good friend Jon in Bali. We spent about five days or so together and had a lot of fun. He is doing his MBA at Oxford in England at the moment, but had a couple weeks to do some traveling in Asia. Before Bali, he had spent time in Hong Kong and Singapore. Apparently Singapore is a really nice place. It's unfortunate that we decided we just didn't have time to see it!

It was all fun and games with the Balinese people though. One night when we were walking to a club, we were approached by three grown women and two small children. They were selling some bracelets and small things like that, and while they were talking to Jon, they managed to steals phone right out of his pocket! Fortunately, he realized his phone was missing only seconds later and demanded they give it back. He opened up his wallet and began showing them his money and then miraculously his phone appeared on the ground. He grabbed his phone and put most of his money away and gave them a dollar or so and then we moved on. It was a sad experience though because of how the children were acting. It's sad that they will grow up with such poor role models and will probably end up just like those women. They were not nice people.

Post #166 - March 26, 2013 - Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

What we did: flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; flight to Bali, Indonesia
Budget: 760k Rp/$80; Spent: 923k Rp/$97

We arrived in Guangzhou at about 5am local time and we disembarked the plane outdoors. Thankfully, the weather was actually very pleasant, much warmer than New Zealand had been at night. We passed through customs quickly and then realized we had nearly three hours to wait before leaving on our flight to Kuala Lumpur. We walked around for a bit but nothing was open, so we settled ourselves into some seats near an electrical plug and started watching a movie called Out of Sight, with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. It was pretty boring for the most part, but it was something to do.

Close to our boarding time we wandered over to our gate. Our plane to Kuala Lumpur was much smaller than our plane into Guangzhou, but it was still quite nice. We got another meal on the plane, but at this point we were pretty sick of airplane food. Our flight dragged on a bit and we were very happy to jump off of it in Kuala Lumpur.

We passed through security and customs with no problems and, because we were taking Air Asia to Bali and we were pretty sure it only has flights out of the older airport. We learned that we were correct and that we would need to take a bus to the other airport, but it’s easy to do that. In the meantime, we sat in the airport for a couple hours. We bought some coffees, Facetimed with Frank and Dan, and did some blogging. We were both feeling pretty out of it, but I think Patty was feeling worse than I was.

The bus to the other airport was cheap and pretty quick, and in no time our luggage was checked in and we were on our way to our gate. We tried to exchange some money for American, because we knew we would have to buy Visas on arrival in Bali and we needed exact change, but the money exchange kiosks only have US$100 bills. Not helpful. We decided that we would just figure something out when we landed in Bali and went toward our gate.

I was starving by this time and picked up a cheap chicken wrap from a restaurant near our departure gate. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes and by this time we were definitely feeling the effects of traveling for so long. When our gate opened up we were very happy. It was about a 5 minute walk from the gate to the plane. I can understand why they built a new airport, because this older one is quite odd. When arriving in Kuala Lumpur from Thailand we had walked for about 10 minutes from our plane to customs. It’s a weird set-up.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali was only three hours, but it felt like the longest flight out of the four we had taken since yesterday morning. Neither of us talked much and by the time we pulled into the airport in Bali, I could barely keep my eyes open. Thankfully, when we started walking I think this woke us both up, so we were somewhat clear-headed. We needed exact change for our Indonesian Visas, which of course we did not have, so we had to use an ATM. It was a little annoying, but this seems to happen often and no one was bothered by the fact that we had to bypass customs to get money out of an ATM then come back through customs to pay for our Visas. Everyone was actually really nice about it. It's just a money-grab anyway, it's not really a security thing. So $50 later, we were through customs and on our way out of the airport.

We picked up a cab a little outside the airport so that we could get a decent rate. Our hostel is in an area close to the airport called Kuta, which is a major touristy area. The first driver we spoke to had no idea where our hotel was, but the second driver we spoke to made an effort call someone he knew to ask for directions.

The taxi ride was about 20 minutes and cost about $5. This made us feel very happy to be back in Southeast Asia! When the taxi pulled up to the hostel, we were somewhat skeptical that this was the place, but then the owner/manager knew my name so that settled it. The hostel is a very strange looking place and not very welcoming at night. The owner/manager told us that he had overbooked his four-bed dorm so offered us a double room for the same price. This sounded great to us! Our room, however, definitely isn’t anything like what we had in New Zealand. We've booked two nights at this hostel, so decided that tomorrow we would go looking for better accommodations!

By this point we were absolutely exhausted and we just went straight to bed.

Post #165 - March 25, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: plane to Auckland, NZ; plane to Guangzhou, China
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$105/$88

We woke up relatively early this morning because we had some things to do, including checking out and calling the clinic in Taupo to get our test results. When we woke up around 8:30am our two other roommates had already left, which is always a relief since we never want to disturb anyone. It didn't take long to pack our stuff since we had already changed rooms the day before and everything was mostly packed up. We had some time before our 10am checkout time so we decided to go have breakfast before checking out.

We went down to the kitchen and tried to eat most of what was left of the groceries we had purchased, including eggs, yogurt, an avocado, a baguette, and a grapefruit. It was well past 10am when I went to grab our bags to bring them down, and on my way out of our room I encountered some of the staff who were coming to move our stuff out of the room for us so they could clean it. We weren't that late… Anyway, it was no big deal.

Patty called the clinic in Taupo and it turns out that we are not infested with parasites after all! Yippee. Unfortunately, Patty’s urine sample appears to have been contaminated, so we’re thinking we’ll do another test, perhaps in Bali. We also tried calling our travel insurance company to extend our insurance for two extra months, but the sales department had already closed for the day, it being a Sunday in Canada. We’ll have to call them back in Bali.

Then, I talked with my parents for a couple minutes. My mom’s surgery is coming up in early April and she seems very excited about it. It’s unfortunate that we have such long waiting times in Canada for things that are sometimes very much needed. Patty talked with her parents after I was off Skype, and then we ate a quick lunch before heading out the door.

Our flight from Wellington to Auckland was leaving at 3pm and we left our hostel around 1pm. The bus ride was ridiculous: it was a ten minute ride and it was $9 each. Just a blatant money grab. We were pretty disgusted by that.

Wellington is a very beautiful city, though. It’s right on the ocean in a very hilly area. It was a nice ride.
We decided to fly from Wellington to Auckland mostly because of the amount of time we saved, but also because it was only about twice the price to fly as it was to take the bus! The bus is a 12-hour marathon, and the flight is a quick and easy one hour. It wasn't a tough call to make.

The airport is quite nice. We dropped off our bags and then Patty bought some MAC makeup from one of the kiosks we passed while going toward our gate. Oddly, there is security only at the gate, not a general security area that everyone passes through. This was new to us.

Our flight to Auckland was short and sweet. No sooner had we taken off than we were descending into Auckland. Fantastic! We had over seven hours to kill in the Auckland airport before our flight to Guangzhou, China so we spent most of it in the food court where we could access free wifi. Around dinner time we grabbed some Subway sandwiches. A little pricey, but that’s New Zealand.

With just over 2 hours before our flight was departing we checked in our bags. A very cute older man gave us some advice about booking onward flights from countries we would be visiting and then proceeded to upgrade our seats, though we weren't sure what he had done until we actually boarded the plane. We have no idea why he did it, but we were thankful!

Just before we went into security there was a large group of people standing around crying and hugging one young man. It was actually very emotional to watch. The young man must have been leaving for somewhere for a long time because almost every one of the 30 or so people gathered there was crying, young and old. We couldn't help but stop and stare. We never did find out what was going on though.

Once we were through security, we just found some seats by the restaurant area and waited for our boarding time. We were flying China Southern Airlines and when we boarded the airplane we confirmed our suspicion that the friendly man who had checked our luggage had upgraded our seats. We have never had so much leg room on a flight before. And considering it was an 11-hour flight, what a great time for an upgrade!

As on our way to New Zealand, we enjoyed our flight to Guangzhou, China. Our plane left Auckland at 11pm, so after eating a decent meal and watching the Bourne Identity, Patty passed out. I then watched the Bourne Ultimatum before trying to get to sleep. I didn't have much luck with sleeping on the plane, but Patty was out like a light. Hopefully I get some sleep at some point on this journey!

Post #164 - March 24, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: coffees at McDonalds, made paninos, chatted
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$77/$65

It was another chilly day in Wellington. When the sun is not shining the wind picks up and the temperature really drops. I suppose Wellington is a full 1000 km further south than Auckland, so this probably makes a difference, especially at this time of the year.

We packed our backpacks because unfortunately we had to switch rooms and left them in the luggage room. We then ate eggs, bread, and tomatoes before heading over to McDonald’s for coffees. We stayed there and chatted for most of the afternoon before going back to our hostel to make some paninos. They were delicious. It’s so nice to finally be making our own food, although we also can’t wait to return to Asia where we won’t have to spend insane amounts of money on accommodations and food!

After our dinner, we went into a common room at our hostel and chatted for the rest of the night. Frankly, we are getting pretty excited to leave New Zealand because of how cold it is. We are simply not prepared for the weather, even though it’s not that cold. We have practically nothing to wear to keep us warm!

Post #163 - March 23, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: walked around town
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$95/$80

It was another late morning this morning. We didn't wake up until around 11am. I tried in vain to call my parents, but Skype was painfully unhelpful. Patty called the clinic in Taupo to see if they had received the results of the tests on our bodily fluids. Apparently, Patty had quite an experience with the calling card. She had tried to use it in a phone that didn't accept that kind of card and it had gotten stuck. She tried to shake the card out of the phone, scrape it out with her nails, and then finally grabbed some tweezers and got it out.
It was another slow, cold day. The weather is really making us want to stay indoors. I wanted to walk up a nearby hill to get some views of town, but Patty wasn't interested, so I wandered up there by myself. Patty stuck around downtown where it was probably warmer.

The walk up the hill was pretty neat. Wellington is such a contrast to Winnipeg: it’s such a hilly city with neat little roads running this way and that. I got lost once or twice but made it up to a church that sits near the top of the hill. There were some pretty good views from up there, but it was a little too cold and cloudy to enjoy them fully. There was a little park up there that I wandered around for a bit and then headed back down to the hostel.

[pictures of Wellington from the hill]

When I got back to the hostel, we had a fairly meager dinner of soup, sardines, and bread, and then we worked on the blog before watching some of The Hobbit on our laptop.

Post #162 - March 22, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: walked around the pier
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$115/$97

• Woke up quite late this morning
• Went down to have breakfast and to do some trip planning; booked a flight from Wellington to Auckland for Monday, March 25, which is the day we are also leaving NZ, but we have plenty of time in between flights; hopefully no problems come of this! We were also looking into accommodations for Bali, but didn't find anything in particular
• Around 3pm we finally set out into the city and walked down the pier for the next couple of hours; it is a really beautiful place and perfect for a great afternoon walk
• We saw people jumping into the ocean from certain places, and there was even a crooked stairway that led to a dead end that people were jumping off of into the ocean, it was very neat; people from NZ seem to love scaring the heck out of themselves
• We also found a plank that jutted out into the ocean; at one point, school kids were playing on it; that was fun to watch
• Eventually we ended up on some rocks in a quieter part and chatted as the sun set over the city; it was a really nice place to sit because we were in the middle of a big city, but it was relatively quiet there; it was a good spot
• On our way back to our hostel we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some more food for dinner tonight; we made steak and potatoes, with onions and mushrooms; we were going to make a soup as well, but we were too full to eat it
• We then blogged a little and chatted late into the night; at one point a very drunk fellow wandered in, clearly from a night at the bar, and proceeded to tell us his life story about how he had lost the love of his life of 9 years only about half a year ago; he was crying on and off, seemed like he actually needed someone to talk to; he was an interesting person, but kept us up quite late with all his chatting
• Once he had left us, we went to bed

Post #161 - March 21, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: bus to Wellington, Te Papa Museum
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$117/$98

• Woke up at 6am to pack and eat breakfast before our bus to Wellington, which was leaving at 8am
• We thought we might see the German girl again this morning because she had a bus as well for Auckland, but she must have left before we made it to the kitchen area
• We climbed aboard our bus and slept for a good two hours before our first stop around 11am; we grabbed a couple coffees and ate our sandwiches that we had prepared for ourselves this morning
• The rest of the bus we spent either sleeping, enjoying the view, or talking; it was a beautiful ride; at one point we were traveling through a ravine and the road was snaking along the side of it; it was amazing, but didn't last that long
• When we arrived in Wellington, we were dropped off at the train station, which required us taking a bus to our hostel; we found an information centre and he directed us to the bus no problem; about 20 minutes later we were at our hostel
• Our hostel is more like a hotel; it’s a tall building and right in downtown Wellington, which is a beautiful city; we were very happy with our choice of a hostel, even though it’s a little pricey, but everything is pricey here
• We decided we would check out the Te Papa Museum, which was close by, and headed there after we had put our stuff away in our room
• The walk was a short one, but it took us right to the port area of town, which is really nice
• We entered the museum, which is free, and one of the first things we saw were replicas of the cave trolls from the movie The Hobbit; we took some pictures, obviously
• Patty noticed an exhibit that interested her, and that was the history of the formation of the islands of New Zealand, so we went to check it out; there was some very neat stuff about the earth and about the plates of the earth, and volcanoes, earthquakes, and pretty much everything that has shaped our world over millions of years; there was even an earthquake simulator that we went into, but it wasn't overly exciting
• It seems that New Zealand has experienced several devastating earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in its day; some very cool stuff
• After the museum, we walked back to our hostel, stopping at the grocery store to pick up something for dinner
• We ended up making tuna salad with chickpeas and eating that with a baguette; it was a very nice meal
• The rest of the night we chatted and were on the internet

Post #160 - March 20, 2013 - Napier, New Zealand

What we did: wine tour
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$204/$171

• Woke up again around 9am for free breakfast
• Went back to room again to rest before our pickup time of around 12:45pm for the wine tour
• After we slept we chatted a bit and contemplated eating lunch, but we knew we were able to buy some snacks along the tour so we decided to skip lunch
• A van came to pick us up from just a couple minutes away from our hostel around 1pm; we hopped in with a girl from our hostel and another guy
• We stopped in a couple other places to pick more people up; in the end there was seven of us
• The drive to the first winery took about 30 minutes; our driver was extremely outgoing and friendly
• Our first stop was a very nice place; wines were pretty good, but what we really liked was their dessert wine; it was awesome
• Our next stop was just a couple minutes down the road from the first place; here we had some great wines and a cheese and meats platter that we really enjoyed; they also gave us a taste of a wine slurpie that was pretty good
• Our third stop was about a 20 minutes ride away; the ride was beautiful and the countryside was very enjoyable to watch; this was a smaller winery but that had won some awards in the past couple years, including a certain wine of the year; this seemed like a pretty big deal
• Our last stop was a winery called Mission; it was a very large place that was once a nunnery, I believe; it had some amazing views out the back and the building itself was quite grand; the wines here were very nice, including one of their dessert wines; we were served by a very charismatic and likeable fellow who made it a nice experience
• That was our last stop; and it was time for the drive home
• We had consumed quite a bit of wine in the afternoon, so we promptly went to bed when we got back
• We woke up around 8pm feeling pretty groggy, but hungry; we went to make a pretty simple meal of eggs and toast, with some leftover potato salad from the night before
• We drank what was left of our bottle of wine that night and later the girl from our hostel, who was from German (NAME?), invited us over to talk to her; she was with a group of people who were mostly from France, but they left shortly after we joined them
• We spoke with her until quite late; she is an interesting person, though she complained a lot, she even complained about how much Germans complain; she would be staying in NZ for an entire year by October and then she thought that maybe she would come to Canada for a year; she seems to really enjoy traveling and working abroad
• Went to bed a little late considering we're off on a bus to Wellington early tomorrow morning

Post #159 - March 19, 2013 - Napier, New Zealand

What we did: relaxed; booked a wine tour
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$71/$60

• Woke up at 9am for breakfast that is included in hotel
• After breakfast we went back to our room to nap; still really tired
• We spent most of the day in our hostel, on the internet, blogging, and doing some trip planning
• Later in the afternoon we went for a short walk to the beach and the iSite, which is the name of the tourism buildings throughout NZ; there, we booked a wine tour for tomorrow; we’re both excited about that
• On our way home we decided that we needed a couple things from the store, but because it was so cold I decided to run there so Patty didn't have to freeze
• Patty just went on the internet as I ran to the store; it was only a couple minute run and we didn'’t need much so it may have taken me about 20 minutes to get there and back
• We had a nice, simple dinner together of potato salad and sandwiches
• Had some wine and chatted late into the night
• Played some free pool at our hostel

Post #158 - March 18, 2013 - Napier, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: bus to Napier
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$162/$136

• Woke up around 9am to pack up and check out
• We decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant for breakfast we had really enjoyed a couple days before, but that was quite expensive; really enjoyed our meal and chatted for a couple hours
• After this, we headed back to our hostel, we chatted with Jeff’s parents, then realized our bus was leaving sooner than we thought and ran out the door
• We arrived at the bus station about 5 minutes before the bus left, so that was a little stressful, especially since we got a little lost along the way
• Bus ride was 2 hours long and pretty uneventful; Patty was getting motion sickness so didn't enjoy the ride much; it was a beautiful drive to Napier, which is on the ocean on the eastern side of New Zealand's northern island.
• Once we arrived in Napier, it took us about 5 minutes to find out hostel; it’s a lovely little town that reminds us of Taupo
• When we got to our hostel, we lied down in bed and pretty much went to sleep; we have been so sleepy lately; I think we've both been fighting something off most of our time in New Zealand
• We woke up around 7pm and decided to go do some grocery shopping instead of going to a restaurant that would cost us an arm and a leg
• The walk to the local grocery store was about 10 minutes and we found everything we wanted there
• On the way home it was starting to rain a little, but we avoided the downpour that happened a little after we got back to our hostel
• We made ourselves some refried beans, quesadillas, corn on the cob, and ate an entire head of cauliflower; Patty also made some salsa; it was delicious, so nice to finally have a familiar, home-cooked meal!
• There is some kind of wine and beer festival going on right now in Napier so we picked ourselves up a NZ$6 bottle of white wine and drank it after dinner; it was not bad
• We chatted until pretty late

Post #157 - March 17, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: recovered from hike
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$109/$91

• We woke up quite late this morning; exhausted from our hike yesterday
• We went to go grab lunch from McDonald's and got deli-like sandwiches and coffees
• It was raining on and off, so we just talked most of the afternoon
• We had wanted to check out some falls in the area that are supposed to be worth the visit, but the weather wasn't cooperating
• Went back to the hostel that night for some chili; made some tomato, cucumber, and cheese salad later that night; very yummy
• Went out to a local pub to celebrate St. Patrick’s day; it was pretty lively and we stayed at a pub talking for a couple hours

Post #156 - March 16, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: Tongariro Alpine Pass (hike)
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$191/$160

• Woke up at 4:45am to get ready for our hike; we got picked up at 5:20am; we were told that we wouldn't be able to complete the full hike because a volcano in the area had erupted; interesting way to start the day!
• We were on a bus until around 7:15am, when we started our hike
• We were both pretty out of it and lethargic; Patty complained about hiking not being her thing
• Scenery was very interesting, because it’s a volcanic area
• After about 1.5 hours of hiking we got to an awesome view of Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings movies
• We were tempted to try to climb it, but our bus driver had recommended against it because the weather was expected to be changing rapidly today, so we walked on
• We got to a very high point that had wonderful views of Mt Doom and the surrounding land, including some lakes
• We were both pretty tired by this time; we had been hiking for about 4.5 hours
• We decided to turn back and try to catch the early bus at 2:30pm because we didn't have anything left in us
• We were tired and somewhat grumpy on our way back
• It was an exhausting hike; arrived around 2pm; bus arrived shortly after; 2-hour ride back to our hostel
• On the way back, the bus driver pointed out the volcano that had erupted and there was a lot of steam coming out
• When we got back to our hostel, we decided to go to McDonalds for a coffee and chat
• We stayed there until around 7pm, when we went back to our hostel to see about getting their chili dinner; got the chili dinner and had a somewhat relaxing night, chatting and surfing the internet

Post #155 - March 15, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: talked; enjoyed the weather
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$95/$80

• Woke up very late again this morning
• Made ourselves a nice breakfast from the groceries we bought yesterday
• We then went to the clinic to sort out our samples; managed to get them all in; visited the lake
• Had dinner at our hostel
• Laundry, made lunch
• Got to bed at a reasonable time for us
• Early tomorrow we are doing Tongariro Alpine Pass; getting picked up at 5:30am

Post #154 - March 14, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: skydiving
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$1120/$941

• Woke up at 2pm
• Went to clinic; Jeff has been sick for quite some time; both wanted to get tested for parasites
• Came back to hostel to ask about skydiving; told us we could go right away
• Limo picked us up at 4:30pm
• Arrived about 15 minutes later
• Showed us a video, packages
• Got dressed up, met our skydiving tandem partner
• Got into the plane, 20 minute ride to 15,000 feet
• Patty jumped out first, Jeff second
• Absolutely amazing experience: Jeff had a great time right from the beginning; wasn’t scared and had an awesome time with the diver with the camera; mouth got really dry near the end and it was a little hard to breath, but that only lasted for a moment; once the parachute opened, it was a very nice float down to earth; a couple time my co-diver, Damian, did some really fast circles which I suppose got us to descend very fast, and this was quite a ride; crazy because the top of the parachute was at the same level as we were; we quickly reached the ground
• Patty: ….
• It was an exhilarating experience for both of us. We may have just found a new hobby.
• We picked out our shirts
• Watched our videos
• Got rides back to our hostel
• Ate dinner, each got a drink with the meal; we were so excited to have jumped from the plane and couldn't stop talking about it
• Later that night, we walked to a grocery store and picked up a bunch of food for the next couple of days

Post #153 - March 13, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: rested, talked
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$96/$81

• Another very lazy day
• We slept in until the early afternoon
• Went for breakfast/lunch at an excellent little place, but paid $32 for it! Neither of us can believe how pricey this place is. Even when we don’t do anything at all, we spend too much money. We are going to have go choose our activities here very wisely.
• We talked a lot about our relationship today. We have had a few break-throughs in understanding each other in New Zealand and it’s been wonderful. Never did we think New Zealand would provide us with this kind of clarity.
• We spent some more time by the lake, which is gorgeous, and every day here is sunny and somewhat hot, but not humid, so the shade it wonderful.
• We ate dinner at our hostel, chili with rice, which is pretty good. At least it’s a filling meal.
• After dinner, we chatted some more and then watched a part of Remember the Titans. What a movie! Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to be a little more productive!

Post #152 - March 12, 2013 - Taupo, new Zealand (draft)

What we did: rested, enjoyed the sunny day
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$78/$65

• Woke up very late
• What was left of the day we spent talking by the beautiful lake; enjoying the sun
• Ate McDonalds twice today
• We hope to hike up a mountain that is visible across the lake

Post #151 - March 11, 2013 - Taupo, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: bus to Taupo
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent NZ$95/$80

• Woke up, packed
• Hotel drove us into town, very nice guy
• Had breakfast at the café we were at yesterday
• The drive to Taupo was pretty uneventful, we stopped for almost an hour layover, but total travel time was about 2 hours
• Arrived in Taupo around 2pm, asked for directions to hostel and we found it easily. So nice to have people speak English!
• Guesthouse is pretty good, though we have to pay for internet, which is always annoying.
• It’s got a nice $5 dinner deal, though, so that helps to make up for it
• We were absolutely exhausted and didn't get around to really doing anything

Post #150 - March 10, 2013 - Matamata, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: bus to Matamata, toured Hobbiton
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$232/$195

• Bus to Matamata, 3 hours
• Waited in café, had coffees
• Hobbiton, chose to go on an earlier tour and leave our bags at the information centre
• Tour was amazing, guide, drinks at the end
• Waited to get picked up by our hotel until 7pm, hotel was too far to walk
• Dinner at subway
• Got picked up around 7pm by our hotel
• Taken to hotel, in the country
• Stayed up talking very late; bus to Taupo tomorrow

Post #149 - March 9, 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: trip planning, walked around downtown, grocery shopping, dinner, blogging
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$116/$97

• Woken up by staff telling us we had to check out and move to another room
• We had known about this but didn't realize it was so late in the morning
• Moved rooms
• Had breakfast
• Booked some stuff for our trip
• Went walking around downtown; quite a nice city; has a very small feel
• Got some ice cream
• Went grocery shopping
• Tried to take out money from about 100 ATMs, with no success
• Walked home
• Made dinner
• Blogged
• Sorted out issue with our bank cards

Post #148 - March 8, 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: worked on blog, slept, went grocery shopping
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$76/$64

• Couldn’t sleep; Patty didn’t sleep at all; Jeff slept for a couple hours
• Jeff got up at 4am to go work on blogs in the common room; Patty joined him at around 5am
• We stayed up until around 7:30am, when we realized it would be hard to fall back asleep if the sun came up
• Jeff slept until about 3pm, then went to work on blogs
• Patty slept until about 5pm
• Soon after we went grocery shopping
• We made a nice meal of some beef steaks with vegetables
• Worked on blogs and we looked into what we would do in New Zealand; Jeff talked with parents because it was his birthday in Canada still
• Made some good progress, but didn't book anything

Post #147 - March 7, 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand (draft)

What we did: flight to New Zealand, checked into hostel
Budget: NZ$150/$125; NZ$85/$71

• Slept most of flight
• Served us breakfast; Patty’s was cold
• Landed in New Zealand at 5pm local time, which is 6 hours ahead of Thailand
• We were feeling pretty tired and jet lagged
• Made our way through customs
• Grabbed our bags
• Asked at information desk how to get downtown
• Took a bus to downtown for NZ$32, total
• Realized at this point NZ would be expensive
• Bus took us almost directly to our hostel
• It was a little hard to find, but on our second pass of a small street Patty saw it
• Checked in, showered
• Went to a small convenience store and picked up some soups
• Looked for some medicine for my throat because it was very sore, but found none
• Went back to hostel to eat soup; not much of a dinner but we weren't that hungry
• Spent some time on the internet
• Went to bed around midnight

Post #146 - March 6, 2013 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (draft)

What we did: flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; flight to Guangzhou, China; flight to Auckland, New Zealand
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 1694B/$57

• Woke up at 5:30am this morning to catch our ride to the airport at 6am
• Jeff was not feeling well because of his burns
• Our very nice guesthouse owner (Man) drove us to the airport; when we got downstairs he was waiting for us and he told us his wife wanted to give us a discount on our last night at the guesthouse; we assumed this was because she still felt bad for recommending the sunset BBQ tour; when we got dropped off at the airport, we gave them the full amount saying that we had a very nice stay; I think Man appreciated this
• We checked in
• Grabbed a coffee and an amazing sandwich
• Skyped with Jeff’s mom
• Went through customs; realized we had stayed exactly the maximum number of days allowed by our visa in Thailand; very lucky
• We waited for plane for about 10 minutes, then boarded
• Two hour flight to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful; Jeff slept; Patty listened to iPod
• Arrived in Kuala Lumpur, went through customs
• After asking at an information desk, realized our departing plane was leaving from another airport that was about 20 minutes away by bus; not a big deal because we had about 7 hours
• Grabbed lunch at McDonalds
• Bought bus tickets; waited for bus; bus ride was pretty quick
• We arrived at the airport too early to check in; airport is beautiful; reminded us of Hong Kong’s airport
• We went to an eating area to go on wifi and wait
• Sent Landon Facebook messages wishing him luck with his fight, which was tonight
• Checked into plane; went through security
• Took a tram to another part of the airport; grabbed lunch at Mediterranean restaurant; food was good but pricey
• Went to wait by gate, not boarding yet
• Went through another round of security, waited to board
• Boarded; plane ride was about 4 hours to Guangzhou
• Our layover in China was a little more than 2 hours
• We went through security for people who are transitioning through China; no problems
• Found some seats by our gate to wait and charge our iPhone and laptop for the ride
• We got busy talking and missed the call to board; about 25 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave we went to go check at the gate and realized it was last call; boarded
• Very nice plane; comfy seats
• Fed us first meal almost right away (fish and potatoes)
• We then went to sleep

Post #145 - March 5, 2013 - Krabi Town, Thailand (draft)

What we did: Aunang Beach
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 1706B/$57

• Got up a little earlier to spend the whole day on the beach
• Ate breakfast in Au Nang; it was expensive and greasy and salty…not good
• We then went to the beach; played Frisbee for a bit; went into the ocean
• Went to grab drinks to watch the sunset
• Went back to hotel; they gave us laundry for free because they didn't clean our room (they weren't sure we had left for the day.
• Jeff was very burned from spending the day in the sun
• Grabbed some excellent pad thais in the local market for just over $2 total
• Bought some fruit, then went to hotel, showered
• Decided to watch Wreck it Ralph, but first went to pick up candy from 7-11
• Watched movie, we both enjoyed it
• Then we packed
• Got to bed with less than 4 hours until we needed to get up; on our way to New Zealand tomorrow.

Post #144 - March 4, 2013 - Krabi Town, Thailand

What we did: Aunang Beach
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 2307B/$77

After our late night yesterday, we decided to sleep in this morning. Not that we needed an excuse. We grabbed lunch from a restaurant near our guesthouse and then went straight to the beach at Au Nang.

We were a little grumpy by this time because we felt like we'd wasted a lot of the day sleeping. That being said, we still enjoyed several hours on the beach before Patty got a pedicure and I got a 30 minute Thai massage.

Afterward, we went to peruse some of the shops near the beach. Patty bought a pair of shorts and I bought a beach shirt. We then taxied back home and ate dinner at a touristy restaurant. We ordered a pizza that was pretty good but not cheap. Krabi has been quite a touristy place with some really expensive options. It's weird that Bangkok is so much cheaper!

We stopped by 7-11 on the way home and went to bed. A quiet but nice day.

Post #143 - March 3, 2013 - Krabi Town, Thailand (draft)

What we did: Au Nang Beach, picnic on Railay Beach with Shirley and Lesley
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 2195B/$73

We got moving this morning around 11am and quickly made our way over to a nearby restaurant for some decent eggs, toast, coffee, and juice. We then hopped on the taxi to Au Nang, hoping to get a couple hours of beach time in before we were supposed to meet up with Shirley and Lesley for the picnic at Railay Beach.

We ended up buying a cheap beach mat for $3 from a man walking around with them on the beach. It was quite convenient, actually. We then hung out on the beach for about two hours, playing with a frisbee, which we also bought from a guy walking along the beach, and just enjoying the nice warm, Thai water.

Shirley and Lesley had told us the name of the hotel they were staying at, but when we asked a local in a nearby shop, we learned that their hotel is about 5 km away from where we were. This was somewhat disheartening for us, and, feeling very lazy, we contemplated not meeting up with them, since yesterday they had basically left it up to us whether we would join them or not. Anyway, after thinking about it for a minute, we decided that we would regret not meeting up with them, so we packed up our stuff and headed to the main road to find a taxi.

It turned out that their hotel really wasn't that far away from where we were, although it would have been quite a walk. The taxi took about 5 minutes and we saw them almost as soon as we arrived. They were organizing things on the beach. They were happy to see us and told us that they had organized a ride to and from Railay and also just finished ordering some food for a picnic as well. They were so cute.

It's funny because we were very surprised that they liked us at all. We were very antisocial on the tour yesterday because of how angry and bitter we were at the whole experience, but for whatever reason they liked us. Now, that horrible tour had united us with two really lovely ladies that wanted to just have a good time with us. It was a nice turn of events!

• Went to buy another bottle of wine at nearby shop… bought a $10 bottle of Thai white wine
• Sat in Luna restaurant waiting all together for late lunch they ordered to be prepared. Restaurant was right on the beach across from their nice resort in Aunang. They got a bag full of ice to keep our wine cold.
• Hopped on boat they negotiated a price on (1500B) which is kind of expensive, but it seems money isn’t too much of a concern for these ladies.
• Got splashed on a bit on the ride there.
• Found a nice spot under the shade of some pretty trees.
• Railay is a beautiful beach
• The ladies brought 4 glasses for the wine. Turned out a lot of the food they ordered was missing so there really wasn’t a lot for all of us. They insisted we eat it all since they had just finished eating a big meal a couple hours ago
• They also refused to take any money for the food
• We chatted about so many things. We learned they both were or were in the process of getting divorces
• They had lots in common. Their sons went to school together and they both had young grandchildren. Both had been cheated on by their husbands. They opened up to us a lot and though it was heavy at times we laughed a lot! Lesley's husband was working overseas in Dubai 3 weeks on and off and she learned after over 30 years of marriage and 2 children he had another life in Dubai. She didn’t want to go into the details of how she found out but apparently he had a long term girlfriend in Dubai. She was visibly heart-broken about it. She talked about how she had always been completely faithful but when she found out she took his American Express card and spent $40K on jewellery, new bedroom, new carpeting and sent him the bill.

Shirley is hilarious!! Her husband cheated too. She stayed with him for the kids. They built an incredibly successful business in meat handling training and have grown their empire of real-estate properties and small businesses since. We had no idea she was so wealthy. She never flaunted it but it came about in conversation. She was incredibly humble inspite of the success and very kind and down-to-earth. Late in her marriage she ended up sleeping with a 35 year-old hottie and once they got separated she continued seeing him, even though he had a 21-year-old girlfriend! They were basically our parents’ age but it felt like we were hanging out with our friends.
• Every 30 mins or so Lesley would go in the water to cool off. After eating all 4 of us went in with our glasses of wine in hand. We waded in the beautiful warm water of Railay for a couple hours talking and laughing. I asked the 2 of them what advice they would give Jeff and I to make sure we lasted and they both agreed that we need to be each other’s best friends. That when kids come along it is vital to a marriage to make alone time for each other. Shirley said we needed to grow with each other. She then told us about her son, a dentist, who is in the middle of getting a divorce as well. They have a 2 year-old daughter and she said that the girl stopped growing while her son continued. Her son had been depressed for quite some time and was suicidal. All the stress for them both was part of the reason they decided to go on the trip to Thailand in the first place.
• At about 6:30pm as sun was setting we decided to find our boat and head back
• We took some fun pics in the boat and decided to grab some dinner when we got back
• We had dinner at Luna the place across the street from their hotel.
• Shirley ended up buying a huge bottle of wine and then proceeded to insist we pay for nothing for the day. We pleaded to let us give some money but they both refused. They simply told us to pay it forward. We’ll have to find a way to do that. Incredibly generous of them.
• We proceeded to drink the entire large bottle of wine over dinner and we chatted some more about personal things. Things that have scarred us. It will no doubt go down in my books as one of the most random human connections in my life. It was wonderful and I will never forget these ladies.
• We hugged and said our goodbyes but not before taking one last picture together. We took down their info in case we’re ever in Australia and so perhaps we can keep in touch
• Jeff and I walked the 5 kms back to the other side of Aunang to grab our taxi home.
• We got back and showered and went to bed.

Post #142 - March 2, 2013 - Krabi Town, Thailand

What we did: sunset BBQ tour, walking night market
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 3544B/$118

Completely out of character, we slept in this morning. When we finally started moving, Patty spoke with her mom for a bit over Skype. Again, we were too late to have a proper breakfast because we were getting picked up for a sunset BBQ tour around 12pm, so we grabbed some yogurts and croissants from 7-11 and stuffed our faces on the patio of our guesthouse where we'd be picked up from. This was not the greatest start to the day. Unfortunately, it didn't really get much better from there.

Around 12pm, we were picked up in a large van. Almost as soon as the door was closed, we realized we didn't bring our sunscreen, and we were going to be on a boat all day. This was annoying.

At 12:30pm, we arrived at the port and went desperately in search of a store that had sunscreen before our tour left. Thankfully, there was a 7-11 relatively nearby so I ran there and picked up a way-too-expensive bottle of sunscreen. At least it’s one of the spray ones, so it’s convenient.

I got back as quickly as I could to the port, but there was really no rush. In fact, we didn't leave until 1:30pm on a long boat, which then docked with a larger boat. We waited while the long boat went back to land to retrieve the other half of the tourists. This was not a good start, although we kind of felt cool on the boat at first.

Finally, the boat started moving! Another 30 minutes later, we docked with another long boat with tourists from Railay. After this, a long boat approached us and asked for fuel. So another 10 minute delay and then we were off! We were in such a good mood by this point, I'm sure I don't have to tell you.

On our way to our first stop, we passed by Chicken Island, which, you guessed it, looked kinda like a chicken. It was amazing. So amazing that we didn't even take a picture. It was soo amazing.

It was around this time two other ladies, who were having just as much fun as we were, introduced themselves to us. Their names are Shirley and Lesley. Shirley is very talkative. She was explaining that the more bored she gets the more she talks. Boy, she must have been really bored. But she was funny and sarcastic and we really needed something to keep us sane.

At 3:15pm, more than 3 hours after we were initially picked up, we jumped into the water to do some snorkeling. Surely, you're thinking, this would be fun…but no, the water was so dark and hazy we could barely see three feet down. Now, I don’t like complaining or comparing, but when we snorkeled in Cayman Islands, we could literally see the bottom of the ocean 20 feet or more below us. This was more than disappointing.

When we all got back on the boat, we were told we were going to do some more snorkeling somewhere else. Fifteen minutes later, we were back in the water looking at nothing. This time, we felt some weird pinching all over our bodies, so we got the hell outta the water. Another wonderful stop!

We then went to the only worthwhile stop on the whole trip. We can’t remember the name of the island (maybe “Poda”?). Anyway, there were two islands connected by a sandbar that we could walk across. Unfortunately, the sand was quite rocky, so we decided to just stay on the one island, but it was beautiful anyway, so it didn't really matter. Seriously, the trip would have actually been worth it if we had just gone straight there and stayed there the whole day. We had about 45 minutes there so we did some exploring. For a while we followed this interesting looking primate. He looked through much of the garbage left on the beach. It was crazy how human he looked when he handled the waste. We then followed him to the coast where little crabs were scuttling all over the place. He jammed his hand into a hole in the rock and pulled out a poor little crab. He proceeded to pull off its legs and eat the thing. I watched with a mixture of fascination and disgust.

Another nearby island was gorgeous and we took way too many pictures of it. The natural beauty of this place is incredible. When it was time to leave, the first group of tourists boarded the long boat and we were left behind to wait. We were fine with this, as there’s nothing to do on the boat!

Shirley and Lesley waved good-bye to us, calling out that they would send a search party after us. They’re awesome. The long boat that came for us ended up getting stuck, so they decided to pick us up at a different point on the island. By this time it was close to sunset so we were eager to get to the island where we would be watching the sunset and having dinner on the beach.

The long boat just took us straight to a large island, which meant we didn't go back to the big boat. Curiously, this meant that all the people on the boat, who left the last island first, actually mostly missed the sunset, while we got to see it. What a terrible tour.

The sunset was gorgeous, and it was a nice place to watch it. We took about a billion pictures. None of them capture what we saw, though.

The dinner was more than disappointing. It was more of a snack. Just a couple kebabs and plain rice. No drink. No seats. Nothing, really. It tasted decent, but was simply not a dinner.

Once the sun had gone down, there was a bit of a show that was not at all affiliated with our tour, but we watched it anyway. Two guys were basically twirling balls of fire around. It was pretty cool to see in the darkness.

When we went back to the long boat and back to the ship it was around 7pm. We were desperate to get home, but first there was a night-time scuba-dive to see some small sea creatures that glow in the dark. I believe it's called phosphorescence. We didn't do it, but we heard from Shirley that it would have been worth it. We just wanted to go home.

The boat dropped off tourists at Railay and then meandered back to Krabi Town. We were beyond exhausted and frustrated with the whole thing. What a waste of time and money! We pulled into the port after 9pm. The driver of the longboat we had taken from the larger boat decided to try to ram his way between two other long boats and one of the rotors of the boats came up and nearly killed Patty and Lesley, who were sitting at the front of the long boat. What a disaster. We heard a lot of complaining after getting off that boat!

Before we parted from Shirley and Lesley, they invited us to join them on a real picnic tomorrow. Having quite enjoyed their company on the tour (to be honest, they probably saved our lives), we agreed wholeheartedly. They said they would plan most of the day. Should be fun!

We then took a surprisingly nice SUV back into town. This was actually the best part of the tour. Completely weird. Anyway, if you've done your math properly, you will know that we were in transit for about six hours today. Awesome!

When we got back into town, we went straight to the walking night market to grab a real dinner. Thankfully, it wasn't too late and we enjoyed a Pad Thai and a thick noodle stir fry. We also saw the kids break dancing again. Finally, we were enjoying ourselves again!

Of course, we vowed never to take a tour ever again. I sincerely hope we follow through on this this time!

Post #141 - March 1, 2013 - Krabi Town, Thailand

What we did: Ton Sai beach, walking night market
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 2131B/$71

Our guesthouse's owners recommended we check out a beach called Railay, so that was our plan this morning. Unfortunately, we woke up pretty late because we desperately needed sleep, so we skipped breakfast and hopped on a bus to Au Nang, from where we could take a boat to Railay. We found the bus easily enough, it was just a couple blocks from our guesthouse and locals knew that's where we wanted to go, so they directed us there. The stop for the buses is right in front of the 7-11, so it's pretty easy to figure out.

The bus, which is really just a truck with its bed converted into a covered seating area, took about 30 minutes and then we were in Au Nang, a touristy, beach resort type location. We were a little bit disappointed with how nice it was. Lonely Planet didn't recommend staying there, but we immediately wished we had once we saw it. It also has a nice long beach! It's not really wide, but Krabi Town doesn't have a beach at all!

We asked the bus driver where we could get a boat to Railay and he directed us to a nearby kiosk. We bought decent-priced return tickets to Railay and soon enough we were skipping along the surface of the ocean in a long boat. The ride took no longer than 10 minutes and the boat pulled into a very isolated looking beach surrounded by enormous karst hills. It was very beautiful, but a little more secluded than we had anticipated.

We jumped out of the boat and began looking for a place to eat. We found a nearby restaurant called "Ton Sai Cafe", which was confusing to us since Ton Sai is a beach distinct from Railay. It was then that Patty suggested we had not been dropped off at Railay, but at Ton Sai. We didn't really think too much of it, as we assumed this would not be an issue.

After a meal with a picturesque view, we wandered down the beach and observed many rock climbers. The rocks face here is so convoluted, it must be a rock climbers' paradise. Some of the climbers here were really good and many were doing it on their own without an instructor. It was neat to watch. This is where Brian from Chiang Mai had done a month of climbing only a month or so ago.

Unfortunately, the beach itself wasn't that nice. It was kind of rocky, which made us wonder why our guesthouse owners had recommended this beach to us in the first place. Anyway, we splashed around in the water for a couple hours and by the time sunset neared we began thinking of heading back to Au Nang. After 6pm we would have to pay more for the ride back, so we wanted to leave before then. We asked a travel agent type person and he pointed us in the direction of the long boats. When we went over there, they told us our tickets were only valid for Railay. This was when we learned without a shadow of a doubt that we had spent the entire day on the wrong beach. This beach was, in fact, Ton Sai, not Railay. Awesome.

Thankfully, Railay was literally around the corner at the end of the beach and the tide was low, so we could just walk there. There were some dicey moments walking over some of the rocks, but we eventually made it to the way better beach of Railay. Of course, it was a race against time since we wanted to make it there before 6pm, so some stress was involved in all of this.

It was a real shame we hadn't spent the day at the Railay beach because it’s about 1000 times better than Ton Sai. The sand is not rocky at all at Railay!

We caught a boat back to Au Nang, and then caught a bus back to Krabi town. It was all pretty quick and easy. When we arrived back to Krabi Town we decided to check out the weekend walking market. We were also hoping to grab a cheap dinner there, and we did. Krabi Town is much less touristy than Au Nang, Railay, and Ton Sai, so we got quite an interesting experience. The first thing we saw was a huge stage with young kids trying to breakdance. It was pretty hilarious. Some of them were pretty good, and others not so much. But they were all having a great time, and many people were watching and clapping.

We both got pretty good meals for really cheap. We stayed around the market and perused the shops, but didn't buy anything. After this, we just went back to the guesthouse to sleep.