8 Weeks, 8 Countries, 8,000 Miles

The Final Count...

We spent our last full day in China on 08-08-08, and coincidentally, many of our total calculations would up being "8" as well. 8 weeks later, we have arrived home having visited 8 new countries, traveling 8,000 on a plane to China where we then traveled 8,000 miles on land.

In China the number 8 is representative of prosperity. We are both currently unemployed, (and anything but wealthy) but we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience.

8 Weeks:
We left home on June 12 and arrived back home on August 9.

59 days of traveling (including Chicago)
52 days in Asia

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8 Countries:
China
Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
Singapore


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8,000 Miles:
The distance we traveled by bus, train and boat on our route from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur. Once we arrived in China, we traveled all the way through to Singapore, and back up to KL without flying. Needless to say, we were constantly on-the-go and we quickly learned how to sleep while sitting upright!
We spent 342 hours on transportation (the equivalent of 14 straight days) and in total, 13 over-nights on buses

We will certainly never complain on a road trip, ever.
In addition, our flight to China was approximately 8,000 miles each way.
And our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou was over 2,000 miles.
That brings our total mileage to around 26,000 miles!

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Chris predicted that Jennifer would take 17,500 pictures, which at the end of the trip was not a bad guess. The final photo count is...

12,510 pictures taken by Jennifer
619 pictures taken by Chris

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The most time we spent in any city was 4 nights (Hong Kong).
We stayed 3 nights in only 3 different cities (Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, and Kuala Lumpur).

In total, we stayed in 26 different hotel rooms (some better than others!).

"many a backpackers' nightmare"... Chungking Mansion

We definitely mastered the art of living out of our packs, rearranging our clothes like pros!

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Just to give you an idea of our budget and expenses...
Starting out, we had a living budget of $20 a day each (not including transportation). The most we ever spent on accommodation was $25 for both of us per night, and the least was $3 for both of us. Food expenses almost never pushed us over budget. Meals were anywhere from $1 each to $5 each depending on how nice of a meal we chose to eat (given: we never ate at a 5-star restaurant). At the end of the trip, not including our many splurges at markets along the way, we stayed under our budget.
The change Jenn received after buying ice cream... they didn't have a 200 dong coin, so they just threw in a stick of Doublemint!

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All said and done, the trip was a success.
We visited incredible places, saw indescribable things, and met amazing people. The realization that we just traveled for 8 weeks through 8 completely foreign countries is only just settling in.

We survived an esophageal ulcer, stomach flu, 100-degree fever, a cut-open toe, jelly fish stings and managed to never get malaria or Japanese Encephalitis. Phew!

Jennifer surviving a stomach flu atop an Angkor temple.

We endured a 17-hour local bus, dodged millions of motorbikes, survived the decrepit Chungking Mansion, trekked through cow dung, tasted foreign fruits, and explored a closed country.

We certainly had luck on our side while catching a train leaving within minutes, getting a refund for the train we actually missed, finding a taxis at 5am after being dropped in a dark bus stop, and surviving crazy Vietnamese bus drivers on winding country roads.

We learned more about the world, and about ourselves, than any classroom experience during 4 years of college. We survived lessons on patience, priorities, friendship, values, vanity, money, time, acceptance, pain... and so much more.

A lesson in losing vanity :)

We learned about foreign customs, religious rituals, and cultural norms in a place vastly different from America. We let down our guard and realized that in some areas we could make people's day by just smiling, waving, and saying "hello" in their native language. We learned to take pleasure in simple luxuries, like the occasional warm shower, or semi-clean clothes. It was the best thing either of us could have done straight out of college, and we hope you have learned from our experiences too.
Most people have not seen the things that we have seen, but we hope through pictures and stories you will understand a fraction of the things we have learned. We hope in some way this will either motivate you to travel for yourself, or change your ideas of living. Now that you know traveling for an extended period of time in a foreign country is not only possible, but affordable, practical, and incomparable, we hope you are open to the possibility of traveling there, too. And maybe next time we travel Asia all the tourists and backpackers won't be Australian or European- maybe, just maybe, we'll run into a few more Americans along the way!

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
-Miriam Beard

5 Senses Review: MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE

Sight: The Petronas Towers glowing through the night sky in Kuala Lumpur; What a marvelous sight. The Islamic architecture really stood out as the towers each display two interlocking squares with circles on each intersection. All of the details are brilliantly lit up to display its beauty amongst the calm night sky.

Sound: While we missed the opportunity to hear the cry of the Gibbon in the wild while in Laos/Thailand, we did hear it in the Singapore Zoo! As Chris said, "it sounds like the squeal of a teenage girl." The monkeys would talk back and forth, and swing through the jungle as they belted out their unique song. The noise was mesmerizing; I could have listened to them all day.

Taste: Cheesy Nan bread dipped in sweetened condensed milk while eating at the mamak on the streets of Kelana Jaya, Malaysia with Sam. Slightly non-traditional, definitely like no other Asian cuisine we had tried, but uniquely Malay and so delicious.

Touch: The touch of newly-printed train tickets from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (after missing the original train). The part that stands out the most would be the relief we felt from holding those new tickets in our nervous hands. How nice it was to feel such hospitality and graciousness from the stationmaster.

Smell: As we explored Little India in KL with Sam, the smell of unique curries filled each breathe with new scents. We were able to taste several delicious curries at lunch. In addition, we enjoyed the familiar and wonderful smell of our lunch at Nando's. The smell of peri peri spices brought back many memories from our time in Australia.

The Final Leg of our Amazing Race

TUESDAY, August 5:
In order to fit in 8 countries in 8 weeks, we have been constantly traveling, always on-the-go, and we keep finding ourselves in 'Amazing Race'-type situations. These last 5 days, full of adventures, is no different. At the end of the last post were in a pickle at the Singapore train station having missed our train, but we made the best of the 8 hour layover until the next train and relaxed at a nearby mall. We successfully updated the blog, had a great cup of coffee, spent the remainder of our Singapore dollars, and boarded our train extra early at 3pm. The 7 hour train arrived by 10:30pm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We no longer book guesthouses or hotels before arriving in a new city; now we just get off the bus/train, walk around for less than 30 minutes with our packs and bags, and find a decent guesthouse to stay the night. This time was no different, managing the streets of our new destination like pros, we quickly found a room for the night, dropped off our bags, and headed out into the Chinatown area to explore a little before crashing. Immediately we appreciated the incredibly clean streets of Singapore, but also looked forward to exploring all the KL had to offer. We found our first Nando's of the trip (for any of our OZ friends, you will know how excited we were after not seeing one for over a year now!!)... and since it was closed we walked a bit further near Little India and found a local place to rest our feet and eat a delicious dinner of roti, rice, and curry chicken. We were able to spot the Petronas Towers lighting up the sky on our walk, but saved that adventure for another night.

WEDNESDAY, August 6:
We woke up and got going by 8am to see as much of Kuala Lumpur as we could! We made a stop near our guesthouse in Chinatown for a fun local breakfast. Chris ate noodle soup and Jennifer had a coffee and dumpling.

Local Malay food, as we soon learned, is a combination of traditional local Malay dishes, Chinese food, and Indian food..., which means we pretty much love Malaysian food. After breakfast, we ventured across some rather busy intersection without traffic lights to visit the National Mosque.

The mosque has a gorgeous blue twelve-point star roof covering a detailed mosaic temple. We had to see it from the entrance ways, as non-Muslims are not allowed inside. We had to sport some pretty styling purple ropes to walk the premises though!
Next, we navigated back across the busy intersections and walked to ante mosque, Masjid Jamek. The temple was beautiful, decorated with traditional Muslim domes and open areas for prayer. We walked around the temple (again, because we weren't allowed inside) and while Chris was welcome in his t-shirt and shorts, Jennifer had to wear a robe and full head-covering. After our visit there, we headed into the Central Market where we browsed the little shops and picked up a couple postcards. At 12:30pm, we met Chris's good friend Sam, who we both met while studying abroad at UTS in Sydney. Since he now works downtown KL, he was able to meet us on his lunch break for a quick bite to eat! After a great reunion by the McDonald's, we walked into Little India and followed Sam to the upstairs room of a local place where we ordered us food in Malay. Anxious to find out what he had ordered us, he explained that we were going to eat a traditional Banana Leaf meal-- where they place a huge banana leaf in front of you as a plate and fill it with rice, curry, chopped cucumbers, and as assortment of other veggies and sauces. Then we chose four different meat dishes to share (a variety of chicken and prawn). It was great to have Sam there to help us discover the real local side of KL.
We walked with Sam back to his office and parted ways, agreeing to meet up again for dinner. We then continued exploring the city, heading over to the Golden Triangle where we wandered some of the huge Megamalls KL is infamous for. First we walked through Sangai Wang, then over to Times Square mall... both enormous. Times Square even had an indoor theme park!! A good bit of window shopping, and then headed back to Chinatown near our guesthouse and met up with Sam again at 8pm. We took the LRT train to the end of the line to Kelana Jaya, where Sam grew up. He then drove us to a nearby shopping center in his fun little suburb of KL (actually its own city). In this strip-mall type center, he explained to us that we were going to eat at a Mamak, which serves a mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese foods, and typically has card tables and plastic chairs set up on the street. This particular mamak was obviously the most popular around, as the tables spread out on the sidewalk for some 50 meters down the shopping center. Sam, once again, ordered our local food in Malay and we waited anxiously to see what came out of the kitchen! We each picked our favorite fruit (Jenn- mango, Chris- pineapple) and they created a slushy drink served in a mason jar. For dinner we ate these delicious cheese and garlic nan breads, prawn fried rice, and chicken Chinese noodle dish. All so filling and yummy! Next, Sam took us across the street to a fruit stand, selling durian. It is a local fruit. which Sam told us we had to try! We watched as they cut open the fragrant fruit and revealed the fruit inside. The only hesitation was that the fragrance wasn't exactly appetizing. In fact the durian is known for it's unpleasant pungent smell. Sam told us we would either love it or hate it... well, we didn't love it. It was kind of creamy, definitely flavorful, and a taste we won't forget for a while. Sam loves it though, so he ate the rest! haha. We had so much fun exploring Kelana Jaya with Sam- something we could have never conquered without him! Then we took the LRT back into KL and fell asleep quickly at the guesthouse.

THURSDAY, August 7:
We woke early again for our last non-travel day of our trip. Our nostalgia is kicking in, savoring every minute of exploration and constantly reminiscing about the incredible journey so far. We left the guesthouse by 8am and took the LRT to KLCC (city center) where we stood in a huge line to get free tickets to visit the bridge of the Petronas Towers. We finally made it to the front and chose to come back at 5pm to visit the bridge. As we walked outside, we strained our necks to admire the gorgeous twin towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world, and the 3rd tallest building- sparing no detail, the Islamic-inspired buildings were gorgeous. We walked across the street and relaxed a while, staring at the towers. Then we continued to explore and headed to the Menara Tower, the 5th tallest tower in the world. From the top of the Menara KL you could overlook the entire city of Kuala Lumpur, including an impressive view of the Petronas Towers. We listened to our audio guides and took the tour around the tower seeing all parts of the city, and then headed back down the tower and walked to meet Sam for lunch. We took Sam to Nando's for a delicious Peri chicken lunch. It was so great to taste our favorite 'fast food' from Sydney :)So then, we walked to the Chinatown market and browsed the many stalls filled mainly with purses, watches and scarves. As we were wandering, the sky rumbled and it started to pour! The rain was so intense, forcing many market stalls to bundle up in plastic to protect their goods, and water would roll off the roofs, flooding the streets quickly. We took refuge in a nearby cafe and treated ourselves to bananas and ice cream. After realizing the rain wasn't letting up, we made the short trek through the showers to our hotel to change clothes for dinner... followed by braving the rain as we headed for the LRT station. We made it to the Petronas Towers just in time for our 5pm appointment to visit the tower bridge! First we were shown a 3D video about the towers, and then given official-looking passes to visit the bridge, and finally we were taken to the speedy elevator! We were so excited to explore the beautiful towers up close. Up on the 42nd floor, even through the rainy weather, the view was exceptional. After plenty of pictures we headed back down (we were only allowed on the bridge for 10 minutes) and we browsed the KLCC shopping. Sam met us there for dinner at Madam Kwan's to eat some great Malaysian food. Jennifer had Nazim Lamak (coconut rice) and chicken and Chris had the local noodle dish... both delicious! Next Sam took us to his favorite bar, with the best view of the Petronas Towers in the city. We thought the towers were impressive during the day, but all lit-up, they filled the sky with light, and radiated through the night. We went to the top floor of the nearby Traders hotel for a cocktail while enjoying an incredible view of the Petronas Towers. We thank Sam for the local advice and fun hangouts he took us to... they all exceeded our expectations and gave us such a wonderful impression of KL :)
We managed to catch the last LRT home around 11:30pm, packed up our bags, and went to sleep for just a few hours...

FRIDAY, August 8:
After our recent issues with oversleeping we were not taking chances today since we had a flight booked from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Shanghai, China for 8:00am! We had the reception of our hostel bang on our door at 3:30am (after just a couple hours of sleep) to ensure that we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We left by 4am, easily caught a taxi to the bus station and got on the 4:30am bus to the airport. It all went as smoothly as we could have hoped! I suppose we've become backpacking veterans by now... just in time to head back home! We arrived at the airport before 6am and piled into fairly unorganized lines as we finally found a counter with a piece of hand-written paper reading "Air Asia flight D7 2602"... very official. We checked our packs and proceeded to security check, where we luckily bypassed the carry-on luggage scale (because we a positive that our newest addition souvenir bag is heavier than 7kg). And we made our way into the mass waiting room for a little break before our flight boarded, saying our final goodbyes to Malaysia. Before we knew it though they were calling our flight number and we walked out to the Air Asia plane. Our entire concept of travel-time has completely changed... a 5-hour flight? air conditioning? no one sitting in the aisles? Piece of cake.We couldn't believe that after a short nap, and relaxing a bit we were already beginning to descend into Hangzhou, China. That's right, Hangzhou, not actually Shanghai, but 3 hours outside the city. We figured actually flying into the Shanghai airport would be too simple, and Air Asia likes to complicate things, so we flew to Hangzhou instead.

I was mind-boggling to imagine that we had just retraced our entire 8 weeks of traveling with a simple 5-hour flight. I mean, we have spent hours upon hours on buses, trains, tuk tuks, taxis, motos,... and it was all undone with a short plane ride. The realization that we were actually ending this adventure started to sink in. But, we were armed and ready with experience and ready to conquer the last 24 hours in China. Through all 8 countries, we both agree that China is by far the most difficult language barrier to overcome. But we soon realized that with all we had learned while traveling, communicating via hand signals and a minor Chinese vocabulary was a lot easier than we found it 8 weeks ago. In fact, we got off the plane, easily made our way through customs, found our bags waiting on us, and bought tickets for a bus leaving in 30 minutes with incredible ease. We smiled at the thought that we finally knew what we were doing. The bus arrived at a random bus station in Shanghai around 5:45pm after several intense police checkpoints (security is intense due to the Olympics starting, even though we are in Shanghai and not Beijing). With the help of a very nice local, we found the nearby metro station, and figured out the correct trains we needed to take to get to the hostel we first stayed at 8 weeks ago in Shanghai. As we arrived at the East Nanjing Road station, we found ourselves in a bizarre time warp.

With the anticipation of our homecoming on the back of both our minds, we had not considered how odd our arrival back in Shanghai, where it all began, would feel. It was a firsthand look at how much we had learned, how much we had change since the beginning of our journey. We emerged from the metro station on Nanjing Road, much like we had back in June, only this time we could see Shanghai with new eyes. On one hand seeing that same exact image we had seen upon first arriving; it was without a doubt the same metro station exit we had taken the first time. On the other hand, it was a city we both immediately recognized after exploring it for only 2 days, 8 weeks ago! We had discussed while on the train that we wish wee had a map because we were not confident that we could find the hostel (some 15-minute walk from the station) without guidance. But when we stepped on Nanjing Rd, we both knew exactly where to go.
Also bizarre was the change Shanghai went through. In 8 weeks China cleaned the streets, cut down on motorbikes, and clamped down on the selling on fake goods; the change was apparent. We arrived at Mingtown Hikers Hostel and greeted the same reception staff as before. They told us we would have to wait until 10pm to see if they had a vacancy, but if they didn't we could sleep on the sofas in the lobby. Another change we noticed in ourselves was not only the fact that we hadn't reserved a room before arriving, but that sleeping on the lobby sofas sounded appealing to both of us. So we left our bags at reception and headed out to explore the city on our last night in Asia.
We took the metro to French Concession, an area of town we had yet to visit. We wandered around and finally found a local restaurant with a TV playing the opening ceremony, so we entered in hops of having a fun last Chinese meal. The waitress translated the all-Chinese menu for us in broken English and we ordered chicken noodles, and dumplings. As we ate our meal (which wound up being chicken-blood pieces, which we removed...) the waitress stood next to our table the whole time, telling us about the Chinese officials shown on the TV and chatting with us in broken English. She even insisted that we take pictures with her... she was so fun!
After dinner we headed down the street in French Concession in search of another fun local hangout. All along the street there were random televisions with locals all stopped to watch the Olympics! So fun to see how much they loved it!
As we walked along we eventually walked past this deserted restaurant where we noticed a television upstairs, what looked like a few locals crowded around, and the bottom floor completely empty except for one lady. We walked in, and without a single word we communicated that we wanted a drink, she typed the price into the calculator, we agreed, and she led us upstairs! So simple! For the next 3 hours, we sat at this small table directly in front of this small television playing the Olympic opening ceremony. The small crowd that was there already was actually just the wait staff hanging out, but before too long there was this huge Chinese family that rushed in and filled the three tables surrounding us (we would have felt popular, but we're pretty sure they were interested in the television, not us). Without speaking to each other, we started getting to know that family, and as we cheered for the USA team entering the Birds Nest stadium, they realized where we were from. They soon loved us and we had so much fun with them! They were completely crowded around our table to watch the games, just like we were part of the family :)
After the ceremony, we unsuccessfully searched for a taxi home, but after a while we just decided to walk. It was a LONG way, so when a local on a moto offered us a ride, we obviously have become braver throughout our journey, because we agreed and hopped on! As Jenn took picture while riding in the middle (of course) he smiled for the camera- so funny! We returned to the hostel to be assigned a 6-share room, moved our stuff upstairs and went to sleep for our last night.

SATURDAY, August 9:
We woke up and left the hotel by 8:15am to fit in one last exploration before heading to the airport. We walked down Nanjing Road to People's Square for a visit to the Shanghai Museum, which we didn't get to fit in last time. We walked through the various exhibits after waiting in line for an hour. Great to see some ancient Chinese artifacts one last time-- really helped us appreciate for the final time how vastly different Asia is from the Americas, and remind us about their incredible history.
We then headed back to the hostel, stopping at some last minute souvenir stores, Olympic shops, and enjoying the local feel of the old Chinese couple dancing along the street. We then took just 20 minutes to completely stuff our packs with the recent purchases and everything we had accumulated over the 8-week journey. Then we checked out of the hotel by 12:20pm, and began the 15-minute walk in the extreme heat with all our stuff back to that East Nanjing Road metro stop. After going through security and changing trains a few times we arrived at Longyand Rd. station, where we first arrived 52 days ago without a clue! This time we knew of an alternative to the hour bus- the Maglev train! It is one-of-a-kind in the world... a levitated magnetic train. Just 8 minutes later we found ourselves at the airport!!! The train got up to 431 km/hr... if only trains like this existed throughout China we would have gotten around Asia a lot quicker! We loved the last adventure before our final plane journey. We final checked in for our flight, got through security and arrived at our gate with a couple hours to spare. Jennifer was able to find her friend from school, Ke, who was departing for America at the gate next door! It was great for them to catch up. Chris found the Olympics playing on a television in the terminal. By 3:30 we were boarding the plane, getting cozy in our first class seats once again :)
As we got comfy, we realized that our stewardess friend from before was once again abroad the flight! It was very full-circle to see her! The flight went smoothly, in fact even if we had been forced to sit in the aisle, or stuffed back in the luggage compartment we wouldn't have complained after everything we've been through. Any 15-hour trip seems so simple and easy; having a chair that folds into a bed was actually nicer than some of the hotels we stayed in. It was almost too easy- watch 3 movies, eat some great food, take a short nap, chat about our trip with the stewardess... and before we knew it we had landed in Chicago!
As we pulled up to the gate we were told that the US Customs' computer was down, and we weren't allowed off the flight. Jennifer was nervous because she had a close connection back to Atlanta, but 45 minutes later we were allowed off, only to realize her fight was delayed anyway. We used the time to divide up our souvenir bag... she was like our third traveler- she weighed as much as a person, well, not really, but filled to the brim, of course. As we got off the plane, we were soon separated out as "citizens" and forced to stand in line with all the people who actually spoke English and didn't have a fun accent... how boring! We knew immediately that the reverse culture shock was kicking in and our need for adventure was not going to be fulfilled.
But without any problems we waited in the domestic terminal, our connecting flights were delayed a couple hours, but in the end what is a couple hours of waiting in an air-conditioned terminal? We said our final good-bye as Jennifer headed to Atlanta and Chris returned to Tulsa.
Before we knew it we were back in our parents' arms and comfy at home, but filled with new perspectives and ideas about life. Stay tuned for a conclusion post and updates! Thanks for reading and caring, we love you all. Also- comments should now be easier to post, we changed some settings we didn't know existed. Thanks for everything :)

5 Senses Review: THAILAND

Sight:
My favorite sight would have to be the peaceful underwater paradise that I had a chance to explore. The beautiful coral and colorful fish created an unbelievably relaxing environment. Watching each unique fish on its unknown journey through the reef, and seeing sea snakes and Moray eels wander amongst the coral was incredible... as I am sure Chris' shark encounter was as well!

Sound:
We happened to arrive in Bangkok on a public holiday at the start of the Buddhist Lent. As we visited temples crowded with locals, the huge rooms would echo with the clanking of coins. Each person would walk along the wall and drop coins in little metal buckets as an offering. The unique sound filled the room.

Touch:
Rough, scaly, whisker-filled and wrinkly: Nothing is quite like the feeling of an elephant's skin. We enjoyed a day of feeding and riding elephants, but an amazing part of the day was just feeling their tough skin.

Taste:
There is no question that the taste of Thailand has to be Pad Thai. Not only can you find it everywhere, but it is simply delicious! And lucky for our families, we learned how to cook the sweet and flavorful noodle dish at our cooking class, so I'm sure we'll be trying our hand at cooking our own at home!

Smell:
Tough choice for smells of Thailand... a room on a ferry full of 70 sleeping tourists and locals, the sweat and blood of Muay Thai boxers fighting each other, local markets throughout Bangkok filled with unique foods, sweet banana pancakes with chocolate and condensed milk cooking on the streets, and the salty/fishy scent of the underwater coral reefs (just kidding, you shouldn't try to smell while underwater). It's the mixture of all of those things and so many more that remind me of this beautiful country.

Adding Our 8th Country & Island Explorations

MONDAY, July 28:
After updating the blog in Bangkok for a couple hours we headed back to the train station to catch our 1pm train to Chumphon, Thailand. From there we were planning to take a ferry to Koh Tao- one of the islands off the east coast of Thailand. So we enjoyed the 9 hour train ride (even 2nd class trains are luxury compared to any bus!) and we got off the train at 10pm. We quickly found a guesthouse to stay in that was willing to book our ferry/bus ticket to anywhere we wanted to go! We got a lot of information about the surrounding area and decided to plan a little adventure for tomorrow, and then we were off for an early nights sleep...

TUESDAY, July 29:
We've gotten a bit brave to say the least after the last 7 weeks of traveling... and we've realized that Lonely Planet's advice is usually conservative (providing extra precautions in most cases). Soooo, if Lonely Planet tells us that is is fairly simple to visit Myanmar, than we figured we had to try for ourselves. We decided to adventure a couple hours away to the nearby border in hopes that we could cross into Kawthong, Myanmar (Burma) without difficulty. We woke up around 5am, hoping to catch the 5:30am bus, but we arrived at the bus station to find out that there isn't really a 5:30am bus like advertised... but we were able to catch the "Visa Express" minibus to the border through the hotel at 5:45am. Since Thailand only lets you in the country without a visa for 30 days, a lot of long-term travelers have to stamp-out of the country on their passports and re-enter in order to avoid overstay fees... so we joined the group of people headed to renew their visas. As we got to Ranang, Thailand, we stayed with the group, taking the Visa Ferry across to Kawthong, Myanmar. As we stood in line to stamp our passports we realized that not too many foreigners attempt to stay in this city- it's typically just meant for re-stamping Thailand passports. We had trouble getting the immigration office there to take our US $20 bill... they require you to pay US $10 each to enter, but they didn't want to take our bill because it was folded in half and it had the tiniest little tear at the top. Finally, we figured out another option, and headed into Burma! As we watched the Visa Express Ferry pull out of the harbour we realized all eyes were on us. On the docks in Kawthong we were definitely a little apprehensive, but as we walked through the city you could immediately tell the difference from the cities in Thailand we just left. The town was situated between mountains, so we headed to this hilltop temple overlooking the town and sea. It only took us 30 minutes in Burma to realize we made a great decision deciding to visit this 8th country on our trip. It was so vastly different, yet standing atop this gorgeous temple, overlooking the quaint yet undeveloped town, it was so refreshing from everything we had seen lately. We also realized that all the people staring at us where so warm-hearted and just wanted to say "hello!" We really were American celebrities... we met a guy named Jo Jo who taught us how to say "hello" and "thank you" in Burmese, and we headed through the temple and into the town greeting each person we met with our new phrases. It was fantastic- everyone was so happy to say "hello" back with the biggest smiles :) This group of teenagers said "hello" to Jennifer and then all laughed... later Jo Jo said they wanted her to take a picture of them, and a little while later we'd had a whole photo shoot and they loved it- got to see the pictures on the screen afterwards and they were so happy! As we walked through the town the moms would literally prop up their children for us to take pictures of them, never expecting anything in return, just so open-hearted and loving (compared to Thai and Lao kids who exploit themselves to get money after you take their picture!!). It was all so refreshing. We also met this man originally from India who loved Chris- bought both of us cokes to drink, tried to give us all kinds of stuff from his shop, gave Chris 3 of his phone numbers, was willing to let us borrow his motorbike!... it was so generous. Eventually we realized we needed to make our way back to Chumphon to catch the night ferry to Koh Tao, so we took a little local long tail boat back to Thailand, stamped officially back into the country we'd just left this morning and got a local bus back to our hotel. We ate some delicious Pad Thai, check email a bit, and then boarded our 7:30pm ferry to the beautiful island of Koh Tao (Turtle Island). We both feel asleep before too long, rocked to sleep by the waves.

WEDNESDAY, July 30:
We docked in Koh Tao by 2am, but they let us sleep on the ferry until just after 6am. Not a bad view to wake up to!

We then made our way to land and figured out where we were going to stay... we'd been recommended to stay at this place "Ban's Diving Resort" and we got them to pick us up from the docks and take us to their resort right on the beach! Jennifer really wanted to get scuba certified, and Koh Tao is suppose to be the best/cheapest place to do it! Plus, with your certification you get free accommodation! So we rested at the restaurant right on the beach until we could check in, them we rested a bit more until Jennifer started her dive school at noon. A few hours of videos, a little scuba diving in the swimming pool, and another bit of classroom lessons by her private instructor Paul! Chris decided to walk along Sairee Beach enjoying the picturesque beach boardwalk, looking for ferry/bus tickets down to Singapore (since we're always on the go!). He stopped for some awesome pork-noodle soup along the way. Afterwards Chris did a little bit of swimming by the Ban's resort, and laid-out to work on his tan a bit. He met some fun new English friends along the beach and invited them to Chopper's Grill to watch some cricket. They never showed. Chris is really good at meeting quality friends, just kidding. That night we met up in town where Chris had found cricket playing on television, and then we relaxed until deciding to check out the Muay Thai boxing match in town. Joined by new friends we found the boxing ring just in time to get great seats. The boxing was crazy- kicking, punching-- nothing was off-limits. Six fights later, we got really into the whole thing, yelling "oh!" along with the locals at each hard kick. We finally made the walk back on the boardwalk to our resort by midnight.

THURSDAY, July 31:
Jennifer had an early start, meeting Paul (her private dive instructor) at 7:45 for the first open water dive! We caught the dive boat at the pier and headed to Twin Peaks for a 50-minute dive. Before the dive, Paul would draw out a map of the dive site on the table (picture below) to give Jenn an idea of where they'd be swimming around! It only took 5 minutes for Jennifer to fall in love with diving though. With just a little experience diving in the past (Australia, and Caribbean she knew she wanted to get certified, but had no idea how addicted she would become!). This dive spot had some of the best coral and fish near Koh Tao... multiple White-eyed Moray Eels, tons of fish, a family of Panda Clown fish, heaps of Angelfish and Butterfly fish, Masked Porcupine fish, gobies and their blind shrimp friends... it was all so peaceful underwater. Next, we moved to the second dive spot, White Rock. After a break, they were back in the water- in search for the sea turtle that had been spotted in the area last week. The fish were just as abundant, more Moray Eels, a Banded Sea Snake(!!), ton of Christmas Tree Worms on display on the sides of the coral, Titan Triggerfish, Harlequin Sweetlips, and at the very end of the dive we finally spotted the 1-metre sea turtle! And were the only people on the dive boat to spot it! Back from diving around noon, and after a rest, Jennifer met back up with Paul for a couple hours of lessons and her PADI dive test, and all she has left is 2 dives tomorrow and she'll be certified!

Chris woke up by 8am to catch a moto with a local Thai lady to the docks where he boarded a deep-sea fishing ship. On board he met a Danish guy and 3 Dutch guys. For the next 6 hours, they were able to try their luck at 3 different sites. Chris caught 10 fish including Red Snapper, Yellow Fish, Tiger Fish and Grouper. They provided a rice, egg, and meat lunch aboard the ship. He had to eat lunch bite-by-bite because the huge choppy ocean was not kind to his stomach. But after a 20-minute rest he was back in action. The other guys also caught Travali, Spotted Grouper and Big-Eye Fish. The guide caught a massive rare Barracuda too! As they were trolling along, they spotted a huge fish nearby on the surface and the guide attempted to scoop it up with fishing net! haha, but they were unsuccessful. Beaten and tired they arrived back to the harbour around 4pm and were taken in a truck back to Ban's...

We met back up at Ban's for a well-deserved ice cream sundae break right on the ocean! After cleaning up we headed into town to explore a bit more... such a cute beach town. We both had Pad Se-Ew (Jenn's fav) and then at 10pm went to a "Lady Boy" show called "The Queens." One of the best things we have done so far-- absolutely hilarious. It was about 10 of the local he-shes all dressed up and ready to perform! Dancing, lip-syncing, elaborate costumes, and some pretty-legit looking ladies added to a night we won't forget anytime soon. Afterwards we went back to Ban's for an early night after Jennifer ate a banana pancake on the street, as always :)

FRIDAY, August 1:
We cannot believe that we only have ONE WEEK until we fly up to China from today! It all flies by so quickly. This morning Jennifer had to meet Paul at 7:45am again for her 3rd and 4th dives.

The first dive spot was Mango Bay where we fit in a 58-minute dive! Finishing all tasks for the certification, and making a massive loop of the bay, they managed to see loads of cool fish. More Moral Eels, Titan Triggerfish, a small stingray, a beautiful clown fish, and this massive school of fish, bigger than two of our hotel rooms, just hanging out and swimming along together... swimming underneath the school was so unreal. An hour break and then back in the water for her 4th and final dive in Koh Tao... back to Twin Peaks, but this time the goal was to fit 18m depth. After some convincing, Paul got Jenn to lie on the ground next to this massive coral to see a huge blue-spotted stingray just taking a nap on the floor. Tons of fish, more Triggerfish, and finally a gorgeous Yellow Box fish! Arriving back from the dive at noontime they finished up paperwork, and Jennifer was officially PADI Scuba Certified! A quick nap and then Jennifer was off to book our tickets to Singapore. Then some relaxation time at Ban's cafe until Chris got back...
Chris was picked up by 8:40am for a full day of snorkeling and island site-seeing trip. They went to 5 different snorkeling spots, including Thian Og Bay (Shark Bay). The reef had tons of branch coral, but the highlight was seeing a 6-foot black tip reef shark in just 4-foot-deep water! Next was off to Lang Khaai Bay and Hin Wong Bay... both had beautiful marine life, giant clams, brain coral. The boat offered free tea, coffee, watermelon, pineapple, and served delicious rice, chicken and cucumber lunch. Next was Mango Bay with schools of crocodile needle fish, tiger fish, and more coral. And finally he visited Nangyuan Island (next to Twin Peaks where Jenn went diving). It was a beautiful island and Chris had the chance to hike to the top for some great views. Then back on the boat where he met Jenn at Ban's around 4pm...
We headed back to the town to have a pad thai dinner (we are really going to miss Thai food!)... We rested until around 8pm when the truck picked us up for our night ferry. All packed up, we hopped aboard and headed to the harbour. Little did we know that the ferry was just one massive room of mattresses (for 70 people!) and along the wall were numbers 2-feel apart, telling you where to sleep! We had a good laugh, Jennifer managed to pick up one late banana pancake, and then we went to sleep in the bed with 35 other travelers.
SATURDAY, August 2:
The Ferry arrived in Suratthani, Thailand at 5am where we were ushered into town. We waited until 7am, when they divided us into groups by our destinations and sent us off towards Singapore... Four hours in a speedy minibus to Hat Yai, followed by another 3 1/2 hours in a different minibus, and finally we had crossed the border into Malaysia! We were dropped off in Butterworth, Malaysia at 2:30pm and told that our connecting bus departed at 10:00pm. We would have been upset by the unseen delay, but we had thought we would be on a bus until tomorrow morning, so having 8 hours to just relax was fine by us, since the night bus was scheduled to arrive at the same time! We took a taxi into Georgetown and found the Megamall where we were both very excited to see the new Batman movie was playing! After confirming that the movie was played in English, we bought ticket for 5:45pm for under US $3 each! Then we rested in the mall, ate ice cream, eventually had an early Chinese dinner of noodle soup, and then leisurely made out way to the movie at 5:30... and were told that the movie had started already! Apparently no one told us that there was an hour time change when we crossed into Malaysia, but we figured it is better than we missed part of the movie than miss our 10pm bus!! So, we watched the remainder of the movie and then headed via taxi back to the bus. A decent AC bus left at 10pm sharp and carried us to the Singapore border...

SUNDAY, August 3:
We woke up on the bus around 7am for border formalities. Eventually we arrived in Singapore, but as we exited Singapore customs, we realized our bus left us at the border! We finally figured out the local bus system and made our way to a hotel by 10:30am. We decided to fit as much in as we could, so we headed out towards Orchard Rd... but managed to get side-tracked by Starbucks along the way. Then we kept walking and found Orchard Rd, filled with malls, shops and shopping centers to explore. Around the area were some gorgeous parks as well; we love the clean city! From there we hopped on the MRT to Little India where the atmosphere completely changed. The culture was amazing; it felt like we were actually in India. We stopped for a delicious lunch of Chicken Tikka Masala, Calaloo, Curry Aloo, Chopped Cucumber, rice and roti. The little sections of town all have brightly colored terrace houses, each so unique and fun to walk along. After that we took the MRT to Kallang and caught a free shuttle to the Singapore Indoor Stadium for City Harvest Church's annual Festival of Praise. Tonight was the third of three nights, and we were very excited to get to catch part of the festival. Reuben Morgan from Hillsong in Sydney and the Hillsong team along with Parachute Band played for the worship, and Mark Conner from Melbourne, AU spoke. The auditorium was filled with tons of locals (about 8,000!)... what a sight to see. It lasted from 7:30pm until after 10:30pm... the engery was captivating. We both had such a blast especially hearing songs from the new Hillsong album "This is Our God." Afterwards we took the bus and MRT back to our hostel.

MONDAY, August 4:
We got up an hour late but got going quickly to City Hall where we caught the MRT to Ang Mo Kio station near the Singapore Zoo where we took a local bus the rest of the way. We had heard the zoo was a must-see, but we had no idea how great it really was! There was every animal you could imagine. We got there just in time to see a "Splash" show with manatees, penguins, sea lions and pelicans... then another show was cancelled due to rain, but we still got to see the elephant feeding. Next we walked around for hours (seriously it was a massive zoo) and saw heaps of snakes including Taipan Snake, King Cobra, massive pythons, and so many more... Also saw white tigers, gibbons screaming at the top of their lungs (so cool to hear!), lions, jaguars, leopards, orangutans, chimpanzees, komodo dragon, giant turtle... then saw the polar bear, rhino , and lion feedings. We stayed until around 2:30pm, loving the open atmosphere of the zoo, not a whole lot of cages per se, mostly just small fences and ditches (that doesn't really sound comforting, but it still felt safe!). Afterwards we took a bus to Choa Chu Kang station and caught the MRT to the railway station where we bought train tickets for tomorrow morning back into Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur. Then we decided to walk the rest of the day so we started the long trek to Chinatown where there was a fun night market opening up. The streets were colorful as always and lined with Chinese architecture. The market streets were decorated with string lanterns- all decorate and festive. As we headed out of Chinatown, we ran across the Sri Mariamman Temple (the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore) where they were having some sort of festival/ritual/chanting...? Then we continued on our walk to Marina Bay where we say the Merlion statue and had some great views of the city. We finally saw the business district, which has some impressive architecture. We snaked along the Singapore River where we hit the Boat Quay, and eventually up to Clarke Quay where we ate some pad thai along the riverside. Then we headed into Clarke Quay, which had an incredible atmosphere, even on a Monday night. We settled in Brewerkz, a restaurant and brewery where Jennifer had the "sampler" to try a variety of their house beers (so good!)... after relaxing a while we made our way back to the cozy hostel.

TUESDAY, August 5:
Long story short, we're updating the blog from Singapore waiting for our 3:30pm train, after missing the 7:40am train. We blame it on the room without a window, the blackberry alarm that ran out of battery and our recent trend of oversleeping/being late to things. Luckily, the incredibly nice train master let us transfer our tickets to the next train for free! *Given, we were only 5 minutes late, so he cut us some slack :)
In the meantime we got a nice cup of coffee and picked out our pictures to post on the blog! So lucky for all of you still reading, we got a chance to update! Miss you all, cannot believe we're heading to China in 3 days and back to the states in just 4 more nights.