Kristen Heil

before/after

2009-08-10T13:26:00.025-06:00

Here is a little display of before and afters. I need to take more after pictures of the backyard etc but at least these pictures below will give you some idea of what we did to the house. We haven't worked on the house (except for organizing) for like two weeks. I still can not believe what a little (or a lot of) elbow grease and paint can do for a room. Happy Viewing!

upstairs/main bathroom before

what we did:
gutted everything...all new walls, new ceiling, new ceiling light/fan, new high efficiency toilet, new vanity, new mirror, new wall at end of tub, new tile on floor and in bath/shower, refinished green tub to make it white, new faucets, new baseboards/trim. The only thing we didn't change was the door and the window. :)

the bathroom today! (still need to put the window trim back on and paint it)

old toilet (was leaking)

old bath/shower and vanity...are you sad we got rid of the green?

view of new mirror, vanity and toilet.

old guest bedroom (keep in mind the ceiling and all the walls were wallpapered...about 7 layers. What we did with ALL of the bedrooms and hallway up stairs was have the wall paper sealed with glue and then two layers of a skim plaster was applied to get us nice clean new walls!)

what we did:
prime and paint the walls/ceiling and door/floor trim.

guest bedroom today (still needs some finishing touches)

the study before (notice how yellowed the trim and door frames are)

what we did:
prime and paint the walls/ceiling and floor/door trim.

study today! we still need to put a second layer of paint on the trim and doors but what an improvement.

study before

study today!!!

dining room before

what we did:
painted the popcorn ceiling, painted over the cool textured wallpaper, painted the chair rail and under the chair rail, put bamboo blinds in both windows, scrubbed the floor multiple times.

dining room today!

the view of the fireplace in the living room before.

the fireplace today!

the view from the living room into the dining room before

what we did:
paint the popcorn ceiling, primed all surfaces with Kilz primer, painted every wall, put bamboo blinds in one of the windows and scrubbed the floors multiple times.

the beautiful living room/dining room today!!!!

almost livable...

2009-08-10T13:07:00.006-06:00

Ok, so these pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. As of today (8.10.09) the house is livable and we are now going to stop doing major renovations on the house and start focusing on our wedding (which is just a month away!). I will post before/after pictures soon so you can see the (mostly) finished product.

Scott, Sarah, Zach and Erin came over one Saturday to help us prime every inch of the second floor. What a boring job, but what great friends! Thanks guys!

we are pretty sure this door used to be white. gross huh?

still priming the second floor.

bathroom with the tile finished

brad refinished our lovely green bathtube one weekend while I was in Chicago. We now have a beautiful white tube. Thanks Brad!

another wall DOWN.

2009-07-16T14:45:00.007-06:00

This past Sunday, my project was to uncover a brick wall (our last one!!!) in the stairway. I recruited my good friend Mary to come help with the dirty dirty job. Thanks Mary!
Brad had to work Sunday so I got started at 12pm and Brad and I finished up at 12am Sunday night. I'm super glad that we aren't uncovering any more walls.

(sorry about Maya's spooky eyes)

exhausted.

2009-07-10T12:21:00.007-06:00

I think Brad will echo my sentiment when I say that I'm EXHAUSTED.

We have been pulling a lot of late nighters this week to prepare the second floor for Mauricio (a guy that we have hired to help us tape and plaster the bathroom and smooth out all our wall paper walls). At first I wasn't too sure to get help...now that I am exhausted...I can't wait for him to finish the walls so I can paint.

So, in preparation for Mauricio's arrival...Brad and I got out the spray paint gun again and sprayed Kilz primer all throughout the master bedroom this past Tuesday night.

WARNING: the pictures you are about to see are us during the height of our delirious state in full painting gear.

sorry about those...but as you can see, we made sure this time that we were completely covered from head to toe so that we wouldn't get the Kilz on our hair and skin. We were covered in Kilz last time we used the spray paint gun which resulted in us taking a paint thinner sponge bath.

The next night, Wednesday, Brad and I focused on removing the remaining two feet of plaster that was left on the brick wall in the bedroom. We also spent many hours taking down MORE wallpaper.

The pic below is the difference between what the brick looked like after just taking down the plaster and after it is scrubbed with water and a wire brush.
What a difference!

All done scrubbing. Now we just have to seal it and it is finished!!!
I'm so proud.

So, this weekend, Mauricio is set to skim plaster up all the bedroom's walls and ceilings and in the hallway/stairwell. I am going to be working on exposing brick on part of the wall in the stairwell. We also are hoping to get the tile done in the bathroom so that we can finally shower at the house. We will see what all gets done. Send some energy our way. :)

seeing progress

2009-07-06T12:59:00.016-06:00

So... Brad and I have had our house for three weeks now. I can't believe it has been that long, because I honestly thought (going into this project) that it wouldn't take this long to renovate. Boy, I was totally wrong. Everything we do takes three times as long as we think it will take. I guess these are the things you learn while renovating a house?
However, this past week, Brad's dad, Stan, came to help us with the house. We decided to focus on the main bathroom and do a total makeover. We are super glad that he was willing to come and help us because we definitely needed someone with experience. He has basically renovated his whole house and came to help with tons of tools, tips, and hard work. Thanks Stan!!!

the day Stan arrived-full of energy and ready to go.

Stan, tearing down the glue pieces on the ceiling.
Brad got to take a couple days off of work to help out his father.

Brad, under the kitchen sink.
Before, Brad and Stan got to work on the bathroom, Stan had the great idea of feeding 250 ft of electrical wiring from the basement, through the kitchen, through the demo'd bathroom wall and up to the attic crawl space so that when we want to add more electrical to the house we have enough power (and cord). What a smart idea, we would have never thought of that.

Stan, building the new wall.
We originally thought that we would keep the tile around the bathtub but since we are building a wall at the end of the tub the tile that we would have put on the new wall would differ from the old tile. Therefore, we decided to tear down all the original tile and put up all matching tile in the bathroom.

Brad (very excitedly) using his brand new power drill. :)

YAY!!!! I finally have finished painting the main floor- which included, the living room, dining room, half bath, and foyer. I will post before and after pics of the rooms after we get furniture in them.

During the day on the 4th of July (Saturday), my friends Brian and Mary came over and helped me tear down wall paper in the master bedroom. In the process, I think we saw at least 7 different layers of wallpaper. I guess that was everyone's solution....wallpaper over the old stuff. We are going to break the horrible cycle!

Then on Sunday, we decided, that it was now or never to expose brick on one wall in the master bedroom. So I went to town on the wall. It was a dirty dirty job but I think it will turn out to be a pretty cool accent wall in the end.

I still have the top two feet to do...but what do you think of it so far? It has to still be cleaned and sealed.

Brad's father left Sunday morning after helping us for a week. Brad had to finish putting up about 6 pieces of sheetrock all by himself on Sunday. It took a long time, but by midnight Sunday night, Brad was finally nailing in the last screws! Congrats Brad!!! Yay!!! We are so close to finally having a bathroom (which means, no more traveing to Brad's house to take showers!!!)

Success!!

Here it is, the last two pieces of sheetrock Brad finished last night. They def were difficult pieces because he had to measure and cut accurately all the spots where the faucets went. He measured accurately the very first time...I'm so proud of my guy!!! Good job Brad!!!

my lil project

2009-06-23T11:57:00.009-06:00

So, after realizing how long it is going to take us to make this house a "livable" space, I decided for my own sanity to get at least one room finished. Therefore, I focused all my efforts on the smallest room in the house, the half bath. As you can see, it was once a dungeon of red and dark blue. I thought I would brighten up the small space and finally have something finished!

I painted primer on every surface and painted the trim and ceiling white twice.

All primed and ready to go...

Brad and I both decided that we needed a light/bright color for the tiny room to lighten it up esp bc there is no window. So we decided on a sage green, thank God that this green was decent bc I bought a gallon of it. ha.

Here is the final product...I still have some decorating to do bc I just threw things I already had into the bathroom but you get the idea! Yay! One room done. :)

Our first HELPER!!!

2009-06-23T11:36:00.008-06:00

This past weekend we had our first "demo" helper. Nicki, Brad's sister was generous enough to help Brad demo the bathroom on Saturday. It was definitely a dirty job. There were multiple layers and really dusty. It took ten trips to the dumpster to clean up after demolishing the plaster in half of the bathroom. Thanks Nicki for helping!

Brad's so proud of his plumbing work. I'm glad he got it fixed otherwise I wouldn't have water/plumbing when I move in.

On Sunday, Brad and I took down all of the boards that you see on the walls. Just half of the bathroom to go. I hope we get most of it done before I have to move in on Sunday, so that I have a place to shower. ha. ????

Day 2 & 3

2009-06-17T12:30:00.011-06:00

Days 2 and 3 didn't seem as productive as day 1. Each day Brad and I would get to the house around 6:30pm and work until about 11pm. This made for late nights and early mornings. Needless to say, I think Brad and I will be worn out if we keep this up.

However, we have made some decisions regarding what we are going to do to the house and what is feasible. I think the consensus is that we will gut the master bedroom and the upstairs bathroom. And then just prime and paint the rest of the house.

Last night, I started priming the living room. I borrowed an airless paint gun/machine from a friend and spent an hour trying to figure out how it works. I never got it working and resorted to rolling on the primer the old fashion way. We bought a primer called Killz that claims it will remove any odor still remaining in the wall (ie: smoke smell) I guess we will see how it works when we get into the house tonight.

While I was covering the walls (and myself) with primer Brad was up in the master bedroom taking off molding so that eventually we can demolish the walls. Three of the four walls in the master (after demolition) will have exposed brick. We are trying to decide if we want to leave one wall exposed... hmmm? decisions, decisions.

If anyone was wondering how Maya was reacting to all the happenings...she is doing great! She just follows us around like our shadow and will watch us work. She is definitely getting a work out (same with us) going up and down the steps countless times throughout the night. I do however, think she will really enjoy the new house, especially since her old house was the size of our new living room. ha.

the living room all taped up and covered for painting of walls and ceilings

at the end of the night, priming the half bath's door. seriously, who paints a tiny half bath dark blue and red????
notice my white hands, I didn't have any paint thinner last night and so I showed up to work with white hands and feet. classy.

brad is so proud of his high tech mask...he is ready to demolish!

in the four hours of work, brad got a wall and a half of trim off. I think this is going to be a very long process. notice the three+ layers of wall paper with paint over the top layer. I think all the previous owners didn't want to hassle with doing things right.

not too excited about the nights progress. oh well, some nights will be successful and some will just be ok.

stay tuned for more updates!

EXTREME Home Makeover- Kristen & Brad style

2009-06-15T12:35:00.022-06:00

So...for those of you that didn't know, Brad and I closed on our first house in Denver this past Friday (June 12, 2009) but because we closed a week early we allowed the tenant (the owner's mother) a couple extra days to move out. Therefore, Brad and I did not get to start work on our house until Sunday evening. Believe me, we got right to work. We have a lot to do and thought it would be cool to document our progress on the series of tubes (aka: the internet). So if you would like to follow our progress we should be updating the blog frequently.

to view more of the "before" pictures visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/bwhoffman/Gilpin#

Home Makeover: Day 1 (6hours of work)

When we finally got into the house, the tenant definitely did not leave it squeaky clean. She left a lot of cool stuff but she mostly left alot of crappy things too. So, to start our project off right, we had to get rid of all her smokey things (yep, folks she was a smoker, another hurdle/project for us-get out the smoke smell). We tossed out carpet rugs, a couch, and all the window coverings. Just doing that already helped with the smoke smell. Then we opened as many of the windows that we could. That itself was a project because most were either sealed or painted shut but Brad did a great job and got most of them open.

our next project was to rip out the carpet on the stairs and in the hallway on the second floor. The two pics above are the "before" pics of the two stairways going up to the second floor.

Brad and I were both super excited to see fairly decent wood floor under the crummy carpet. Yes!

yes, I did a lot of tossing things off the balcony. :)

the end result.

next project, bathroom.

we had to rip out the ceiling, floor and wall paper. fun stuff.

almost done with the ceiling. now what to do with the globs of glue still left on the ceiling boards?

Brad was nice enough to finish gutting the bathroom floor while I went downstairs to clean out the fridge. We still have some sticky tile on the floor but all in all it's a whole lot better than where we began.

This is where we left it last night. I think we accomplished alot for the first day renovation. Although, it seems like there are endless things still left to do.

Stay tuned to see what we demolish next. :)

valentines day

2009-02-16T09:00:00.002-06:00

Would you eat this for Valentines day?

Brad and I made heart shaped sushi for the first time for Valentines Day. It turned out to be fantastic and made for a great Valentine special treat.

OBAMA-nation!!!!!!

2008-11-06T11:25:00.012-06:00

I had the great privilege of attending the Chicago Rally on Nov 4, 2008! It was a while in the making but Brad and I made it! It all started a couple weeks ago when my sister and mom told me about the rumor of a rally in Chicago after Obama won on election day. I told them that they better get downtown and attend because it was going to be such a Historic/Country Changing event. So, my mom got on the phone and internet and started looking for hotels downtown. It took her two days of trying but she finally got a room in the Best Western right across from Grant Park-where the rally was to be held! But then after thinking the rally was free and open to the public she learned that tickets were going to be issued in a lottery. So my mom made sure to find out when she could sign up for tickets and then got my sister and dad to sign up as well. The all got the same response email saying that the Obama campaign would get back to them later with more information. Did they have tickets? Were they wait-listed? Finally, on Sunday, Nov. 2nd they all recieved an email saying that their tickets would be emailed to them between 6-7pm Monday night!!! How exciting! When they told me that on Sunday I immediately started looking for cheap flights to Chicago. I found one for under $200 but the flight there would take me through Phoenix first and on the return flight I would have to fly all the way to SanFrancisco and then to Denver but I didn't care...I was going! Brad decided to join me on Monday when he found out that we had an extra ticket. I was so pumped to have him come along and enjoy this historic event with me :) So we left Golden, Co at 4am on Tuesday, arrived in Ohare at 1pm that same day. Got to Chicago and our hotel right across the street from Grant Park at 3pm and was now officially ready for OBAMA fever! We had a nice dinner with Jen and Jonathan before the rally and then they went to see the play WICKED while mom, dad, Brad and I went to the rally. It was such an exciting night. We had no idea where we needed to go or how long it was going to take us to get in but Chicago did a pretty good job at controlling the lines and crowds and we made it into the rally in about an hour(way better than the DNC). Below are pics from the night. enjoy!

The fam, brad and me waiting for CNN to get on their horse and announce and Obama win!

The crowd was huge and people were packed into Grant Park like sardines! But it was worth it! Only 65,000 people got tickets and my family was lucky to get 6!

When CNN finally announced an Obama win!

Our President elect-Barack Obama giving his first speech. What a historic night!
"Yes We Did!"

It seemed to me that these lights were shining the way for us into a future of hope and change.

leaving the really. there were soooooo many people! i am so thankful (to my fam esp my mom) for getting us tickets and a hotel right across the street from Grant Park for this Awesome night!!!

What an AWESOME, HISTORIC, HOPEFUL, COUNTRY and WORLD CHANGING night!!!!!

on another note....brad an I got our picture on the web. ha
http://www.flickr.com/photos/busybeaverbuttoncompany/3006018230/in/set-72157608677960012/

update-a-roo (along the same lines as an updizzle)

2008-09-08T14:33:00.024-06:00

this past weekend was packed with activity. Brad planned a really nice hike for us Saturday morning. we hiked herman gulch which is a trail very close to the continental divide. the hike was short but challenging with most of the hike being uphill. we brought maya along and she is still doing awesome at hiking right along with us. she is such a smart dog!

the girls at the beginning of the hike

maya could barely contain her excitement for this picture

there was a beautiful lake at the end of out hike

maya and I enjoying the view of the lake

maya was trying so hard to be a good listener and sit with us instead of chasing marmots

our lunch spot. it was such a gourmet lunch brad set up for us. it included fruit, chili flavored almonds, gouda cheese, bread and sausage...plus the guy even carried up a bottle of wine for us. what a nice romantic surprise :)

the view from our lunch spot. it was a super view and we had the whole lake to ourselves for a while!

Then, I planned an outing for us on Sunday. We took the long drive (100miles) to the town of Leadville, which by the way is the highest incorporated town in the US. but before we hit the town, we drove north up Tennessee pass to the Colorado trail to do a little mountain biking.

getting things together before hitting the mountain bike trail

brad taking on a cool bridge along the trail

brad and the camera couldn't keep up with my speed!

we stopped to take some cool jump pics. our jumps and camera taking abilities could probably use some improvements. ha.

this jump is the jump that did me in. i hit a rock with my back tire and got a flat.

this was me changing a tire before we realized that brad's extra tube was actually flat too. bummer. i had to walk/run my bike four miles back to the trailhead. not fun.

having the time of my life...not really. let this be a lesson, always make sure you have "new" spares along for the ride.

we finally made it down the mountain to the cool/historic mining town, Leadville. The town was really cute and beautiful and we made sure the first thing on our agenda was to eat a packed lunch on a park bench. food always seems to take priority.

cool guy pose

i loved how colorful the buildings are, it reminded me of mexico in a way.

posing for brad..ha.

well, even after all the excitement of the day, we crazily decided it wasn't enough. When we got back to Golden, we hurried to the bike shop for THREE spare tubes (can't be too careful) and we grabbed maya and decided to head up to Boulder to fit in another mountain bike trail before it got dark. mostly we wanted to see how maya would do on the mountain bike trail. well...it started off rocky. she was a bit scared of the bikes but then she settled in and loved it. i think she really loved running at her top speed (bc up until now she was only running as fast as i could run, which is super slow compared to how fast she COULD run). when we came to a tight spot through trees she stayed right on my back tire the whole way, slowing down and speeding up as i did. All was going awesomely until...POW...I blew ANOTHER tube. what luck. i was so frustrated that I didnt want to change it and risk loosing another new tube so brad took off to go and get the car while maya and i walked out. i am starting to get really tired of walking my bike. i think i just need to buckle down and get new tires (esp since I have never gotten new tires, EVER) oh well, at least the walk granted me a beautiful view of the boulder flatirons and a glorious red and orange sunset.

on top of world...or ummmm colorado

2008-08-24T15:21:00.027-06:00

so, we finally did it. we climbed a colorado 14er. for those of you who don't know what a 14er is, let me explain....it is a mountain that is over 14,000ft high and yes, people climb to the top of them here in the C.O. we (brad, maya, brad's friend-brad #2, and I) left denver around 5:45 and headed 1.5hours into the mountains to the base of mount bierstadt.

maya and i on the way to our first 14er!

the morning started in quite an unusual way. when we were at our cars getting our gear on the wind blew an abnormal substance through the parking lot and literally everyone in the lot started coughing and sneezing. i tried putting my shirt over my nose but to no avail. it passed after about a minute but everyone was in bewilderment. what could it have been? we may never know?

brad and brad#2 at the trailhead. we estimated it would take about 4-5 hours round trip...not too bad?

our first obstacle...a creek. i didnt want to get my pants wet....so dont mind the fashion faux pas.

yes!!!! we made it!

making our first pitstop...and fueling up for the tough climb ahead.

yep, i may have been hiking a little fast for the boys :) sorry guys.

maya did GREAT! i took her off-leash about 20min into the hike and she listened sooooo well. i am so lucky to have found such a great dog! as you can sorta see in this picture, i recently purchased a doggie backpack for her so that she will be responsible for carring her water and food. she didn't even seem to notice it was on.

a better view of maya and her doggie backpack (or as brad likes to call it "doggie saddle")

we made it! 14,060ft.

what a good pic of my friend, that's a boy.

maya did exceptionally well with all the people around her and on the trail. she didn't try to run away and hide like she has had the tendency to do in the past. she even let people pet her and of course she LOVED socializing with all the other dogs on the trail. however, she did need a little down time when we reached the top so here she is curled up in her "safe spot" :)

the emblem at the top of the mountain.

the view of the continental divide.

cute maya

view south toward new mexico/pikes peak/salida.

oh maya :) she followed me everywhere, i think this pic is from her keeping the lookout while i took a much needed 'pit stop' (if you know what i mean?)

awesome tundra flowers

maya LOVED the snow. whenever she saw a patch she would run over and dive head first into it (much like a "coda dive"). i think she is going to like winter-alot!!!

on the way down...i let the boys go in front but only for a little while bc they couldn't handle me clipping at their heels.

the view of the marsh below

the boys... thats the peak of bierstadt behind them.

we made it out just before the afternoon storms...phew! :)

all in all it was a great 14er...not to hard for the first one and i can not wait to do another one. any takers?

a lil maya with my fruita & wine

2008-07-07T09:16:00.016-06:00

so this past weekend was very busy but awesome! Brad and I decided to take a road trip out to the grand junction area. his cousin and family live in Palisade, co and they were gracious enough to let us stay in their house while we explored the area. however, due to my spontaneity we had an extra guest along for the ride. on friday, i adopted a dog from a local rescue. she is a border collie mix and very shy/timid but such a doll. the rescue said she was probably abused as a puppy, how sad. anyway, she did great all weekend and really opened up. i think she will be such a great dog once she learns how to be a dog.

this was the first time she put her head on my lap during the car ride. i think she may like me? :)

brad and i ventured to fruita, co...a mecca for mountain biking. this was our first ride. it was just as awesome as the first time i went there. (this is my 2nd time)

me riding some sweet singletrack

brad riding some sweet ridgebacks

steep hills

maya's first bath...she really needed a bath esp since she lived her whole life in a kennel/shelter.

just chilling outside brad's cousin's farmhouse

our 4th of july picnic...maya did well but we left just before the fireworks she was getting a lil freaked out.

we were going for the typical white trash, walmart t-shirt wearing, typical american couple look. notice the AWESOME jet fighter on my t-shirt...all i was missing were jean overalls and jelli shoes. ha.

on saturday we took it easy and visited three wineries, a meadery and a local brewery. we escaped with only buying five bottles of wine, two 6 packs of beer, two four packs of rootbeer, and an awesome aspen print. i thought we did pretty good. :)

we took maya downtown grand junction for dinner. she did so good. she just sat next to our table the whole dinner.

no flash pleeeeeeease!!!

finally, sunday morning we got a ride in before we drove back to denver. this ride took us next to the great colorado river.

cheeeeeeeesy, i know. :)

what a sweet/loving pup! I think she is going to be great!

lost

2008-06-29T18:47:00.017-06:00

ok, so brad and i didn't get lost but we did backpack in the "lost wilderness" this past weekend. it was pretty sweet but we are both pretty exhausted from carrying huge packs. lost wilderness is about 2hours s.w. from denver...we drove right past where my parents got married so it was pretty sweet to show brad that. we then had to turn off the nice smooth highway on to a forest road...which we didnt realize is just a dirt road. we had to travel on the forest road for a half hour and it was the bumpiest road i have ever been on. i was relieved to finally find the trailhead. however, it was a sad drive because the road went straight through the forest that was destroyed by a massive forest fire in 2002. it destroyed 138,000 acres and is the largest recorded fire in colorado history. fortunately, the fire didn't reach where we were hiking but we did have to hike about 1/4 a mile through the burnt area at the beginning of the trip.

beginning of the hike though the burnt forest

the area we hiked is fairly unique to colorado, some say it is more like utah's landscape with huge rock formations dotting the landscape.

this was our lunch spot!

there were huge groupings of rock formations throughout our hike and this is the one we chose to explore.

me, inside exploring (would you expect anything else?)

me, falling down the crevice that the rain runoff water created.

brad's great photographic eye

brad and i posing with the huge rocks. ha.

we had to climb down this sketchy makeshift tree bridge to see the amazing view in the picture below.

what a great view!

our camp spot. we were probably too close to the water and we were in a pretty dangerous location if there was to be a massive downpour but we decided to take the chance, plus all the other good spots were taken (and i thought this place was going to be pretty secluded...i was wrong)

muscle man breaking a HUGE stick

getting a necessary drink towards the end of our long trip. it was a great trip and we are now ready to take on longer more rugged trips with this first one under our belts. :)

spring happenings in colorado

2008-05-30T15:10:00.009-06:00

so this is a little recap of what i've been up to lately....

cutie nick loving the car ride
I got to watch Sienna's (the little lovely baby i sit for) dog's while her parents and she went down to new mexico for a week. brad and i decided to take the pup's out for a hike in the mountains. what an adventure. long scenic drives, three (semi) hikes, and two very tired dogs.

brad taking the pups for a run after our failed attempt to hike above 10,000ft in april. not a good idea unless you have snow shoes...who would have know? (it was 80degrees in boulder when we left so we (ignorantly) assumed that it would be fine in the mountains...ha. we learned our lesson...wait till june)

brad and the pup's...what cuties. i love those dogs :)

me and the pup's at boulder falls
and no, abby (one on the left) does not have a muzzle on.

brad's friends tailgated before the colorado rapids game on memorial day weekend. this is brad and me at the game. the stadium reminded me alot of the chicago fire's new stadium. it was cool to be back watching the MLS. :)

brad dj-ing at the bar after the game for his friend Zach's birthday.

the beautiful orchid brad gave me. i hope i don't kill it :)

probably my favorite picture. i had no idea he was doing that when i was taking the picture (he just received collagen lip implants...haha)

Meee-hee-co

2008-04-14T16:11:00.032-06:00

San Cristobal was our first stop in Mexico. It took us 14hours to get there but it was sure worth it. San Cristobal is in the state of Chiapas which is the poorest state in Mexico (its in the south of Mexico close to Guatemala). We spent two of the days walking around and taking pictures of all the colorful buildings and visiting the many cool churches and two days taking trips, one to a near by canyon where we saw monkeys and one to Palenque where we heard howling monkeys (and saw a toucan).
We def didn't participate much in the touristy Mexico most Americans see which was a nice relief :)

the cool pedestrian mall walk in San Cristobal

people must have been short back in the day :)

enjoying a warm cappuccino on the pedestrian mall

an old mayan women sleeping in san cristobal

Brad and I decided to forgo the tours and venture to Palenque on our own (so that we would have more than 2hours to see the whole site). It made for a long day (leaving at 6am and getting back to San Cristobal at 10:30-5.5 hour bus ride both ways). Because we went on our own we wandered away from the touristy path and got to see a toucan (sorry i forgot to put the pic on the blog), other less visited ruins, and a cool waterfall.

Sandra was nice enough to drive the four of us to the cute town of Taxco. It is an world heritage site and every new building has to be built in the same style and with the same type of materials which is pretty cool bc then the whole town looks the same. It was fun just walking around the curvy/hilly roads and getting lost.

We got stuck on top of a hill overlooking the town of Taxco. So we called a taxi (but not before we tried to bum a ride from a refresco mini truck but unfortunately it was filled with soft drink bottles and wouldn't fit 4 more people). The taxi that came was a tiny beetle with the passenger seat removed. poor Brad had to sit on the floor of the taxi and feel every cobblestone bump in the road.

Brad and I went to eat at the restaurant that Sandra's dad owns...delicious mexican food. :)

We all went out for a last night in Mexico before Mel left the next day. We ordered a set menu of 6 different types of meat for tacos (delicious), chips and salsa, and 24 drinks (all cervaza) for 10 bucks each.

Brad had a "surprise" birthday celebration from restaurant which ended costing us 9dollars for the cake!!! who charges for birthday cake? outrageous.

the crew and our new friend "chicken"

me after taking my free shot of tequila...the waiter shoot my head uncontrollably after I downed the shot. (i won a dice game at the restaurant)

photo opp after 24 cervaza's (granted Brad and Martyn drank most of them)

Sandra and I being true Mexicans...ha

Sandra took us to a Pumas v. Cruz Azul futbol game. the Puma fans never stopped chanting and yelling the whole game. unfortunately they lost....boo.

all of us at the game (our last night there). it rained at the beginning of the game and brad and i sported blue ponchos....hot.

my very own shoe box

2008-03-30T14:11:00.011-06:00

hello everyone...just a little update.

So, this weekend I just moved into my very own studio (athough some might call it a "shoe box" or "dorm") in Golden, Colorado. I am so happy to finally be out of my apt in Boulder bc my roommate was not the most ideal person to live with. Anyway, Brad helped me move yesterday. We managed to fit everything into my car and Brad's friend's pickup but barely. We only had one casualty driving from Boulder to Golden, one of my old Mizzou soccer jerseys flew out of a storage crate when the lid flew off. I will def be on the lookout for it driving to and from work everyday. This first pic is the best view of the shoe box. I really think I will love living here and having it all to myself. :)

Brad relaxin...we had a LONG saturday moving.

view from the kitchen

the view from the couch

another view from the couch to the bathroom

I finally have a (clean) kitchen that I will actually want to cook something in.
and we did this morning...we whipped up some delicious eggs and cafe o lait.

lovin my new couch/bed (for guests...anyone want to visit?) :)

rockin out...
i think we are going to hang the guitar on the wall right next to my hoi an painting.

me and brad :)

I know, its been awhile...

2008-03-01T22:05:00.011-06:00

so...I know its been awhile and Jen and Foley have been nagging me to update this blog but I feel like there isnt much to update about so here is a pretty random post.

Today in Denver the temperature hit 70degrees so of course I headed to the mountains to get in some of that warm weather skiing. It was probably like 40 up in the mountains and most of the time too warm for the winter jackets Brad and I were wearing. (minor complaint) Anyway, it was a great day of skiing even if the snow was a tad bit slushy. and the best part of the day was that I got to wear flip flops! ha.

(the first pic is the view of the Boulder flatiron mountains from my apt window with the morning sun.)

loving the flip flops and snow.

Brad and I at the top of Mary Jane

the view from the highest point at Winter Park/Mary Jane.

I usually ski with poles.

Brad at the top of the mountain.

Climbing in Rado

2007-11-11T17:33:00.001-06:00

Mary belaying me...you can kinda see Denver in the background if you look closely!

I made it to the top...if you were wondering :)

the view of Golden, Colorado (where I stayed with Brian and Mary for a month)
Great town!

Mary climbing a 5.10

me trying to conquer that same 5.10

Brian belaying me...he makes me nervous bc he never really pays attention..but in all honesty he is a really safe climber, I just get really nervous sometimes :)

Brian climbing a 5.10...he's basically a pro!

the big MOVE!

2007-09-15T16:48:00.000-06:00

COLORADO

So I know that I haven't updated in awhile so I thought it was about time. Since I got back to the states in July alot has happened...

1. I packed up my lil pontiac sunfire and drove the long 15 hour drive to move to Colorado!

2. Currently sleeping on a comfy couch till I find a place of my own (thanks brian and mary!)

3. Just got hired by a non-profit organization, GRI, and will be in charge of all their marketing and promotions! (www.globalrefuge.org-for those interested)

4. Just made the switch from my old school PC to a brand spankin new MacBook!

5. Been living the "outdoor" life! mtb-ing, climbing, hiking! love it!

well, i hope thats updates people? if you are ever in colorado def come visit!

last stop- Dublin

2007-07-17T12:51:00.000-06:00

it was a Nice, France reunion in Dublin when I visited my friends Pawel and Natalia. Joe from London met me over there and we did the 1 touristy thing there is to do in Dublin....visit the Guinness Brewery and drink the most expensive pint of Guinness ever, 9.50 euros haha

at the guinness factory...thats the water they make the beer with

here's Joe confused (as always) about the word fermentation....i still think he has no idea what it mean!

celebrating st. patty's day a little late this year

now thats a more appropriate hat :)

Joe and Pawel starting the night with Tequilla shots...thats dangerous

Natalia, Joe, Me and Pawel at the bar

the Fantastic Four (minus 1-Jamie) together again
we missed you Jamie!

rock city

2007-06-29T11:05:00.000-06:00

I just visited Petra, Jordan and was really blown away. It is basically a whole city carved into these beautifully colored mountain walls. Amazing! I def recommend!

the walkway (20min walk through towering cliffs) that takes you to the city Petra.

The Treasury is the first really cool building you come to while walking through Petra. It is the most decorative and elaborate in the whole complex (as well as the most famous).

the most famous shot of the Treasury...made famous by the movie "Indiana Jones and the last crusader" (the theme song was on repeat in my head the whole time i was in Petra!)

a temple complex....many of these buildings were built as tombs for the dead or as banquet/assembly halls. It was basically a whole city built into the side of the mountains! how cool!

is this kid old enough to drive? i think not!

temples

i thought this was cool

another temple

the only free standing temple/building in the complex.... all the others were carved in the sides of cliffs.

i love how people look so funny on donkeys...their feet almost scrape the ground! I laugh every time I see someone riding one and the donkey struggling with the overweight people! so funny and cute!

the monastery...we had to climb to the top of the mountain to see it. i think it was the largest and most impressive temple in the whole of Petra. It was soooo huge, I look like an ant in it!

i love donkeys! this picture looks like it could have been taken from biblical times?

the colors on the rock just blew me away....red, blueish, yellow, orange, brown, black & white!

the Treasury in a different light (right as we were leaving)

mt. sinai, egypt

2007-06-29T09:20:00.000-06:00

So today a nice friend of mine showed me how to make all my pictures smaller so that it wouldnt take hours to upload pictures on my blog (would have been good to know 5months ago!) So, I would hope my blogs and pictures will improve from now on.

Anyway, while I was staying in Dahab, Egypt I did more than just lay on the beach....I climbed a mountain! Two girls that I met in Dahab and I decided to take the challenge and climb the mountain for the sunrise. We had to leave Dahab at 11pm and drive 2 hours to the base of the mountain(but not before going through 3 security checkpoints who proceeded to shine lights in our eyes to wake us up for passport checks-couldnt they see we were western??) We then were given a "guide" (aka leader) that was to lead us up the 7496ft mountain in the dark. Im glad Jen gave me a mini flashlight before I left or I would have had real problems (it was already tough avoiding the pointy rocks in my flip flops). Anyway, the hike was interesting bc we had no idea where we were going, all we could see was the camel poop and rocks on the trail and in the distance a string of flashlights weaving up the mountain. It took us 3 hours to finally reach the top(we had some stragglers we had to wait for) We found a huge boulder to chill on and watch the sunrise. It probably was just like any other sunrise but I thought it was much more special bc of mt. sinai's symbolism. It was where Moses received the ten commandments from God. And the thing I think makes it more special is that it is a religious site not only for Christians, but for Jews and Muslims too.

one of the many camels that would sneak up on us and basically run us over on the trail. they sure didnt care who or what was in their way!

a little shop along the hike up the mountain. thats our guide in the pink shirt lighting up a cigarette...and he wasn't even winded! thats one tough cookie!

waiting for the sunrise...it was sooo cold on the top!

the beginning of the sunrise, "here comes the sun"

the outline of the mountains

cool huh?

......no words

the church on the top of the mountain

the rock cliffs were so amazing and it was so cool to look down the mountain and see all the stuff we passed by in the dark.

this is where everyone was sitting during the sunrise

a typical Egyptian man

a little house and garden in the middle of the mountains

a rock arch on the steep but "faster" way down the mountain

can you see it? "I spy a camel"

St. Katherine's Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai

bell tower in st. katherines

this is supposed to be the "burning bush"??? I thought I'd touch it just in case? ps. if you were just wondering why my pants look like im wearing a diper in the front...its because they were gna make me pay to rent clothes to "cover" my knees so i just sagged them until they got uncomfortable and let me in. hahaha

walk like an egyptian!

2007-06-23T09:01:00.001-06:00

So I have left Egypt (currently in Jordan) but have finally found a sec to kinda update everyone on my travels in Egypt. I flew into Luxor and then went to Cairo (for the great pyramids) and then to the Sinai Peninsula to relax for 6days in the great chill town of Dahab! It was a very interesting country and totally diff from any place I've been to thus far.(prob doesnt top my list but had its good features).Sorry about not writing much but when I get home (mid July) I'll elaborate more.

here it is.....the FAMOUS Nile River. but please dont swim in it bc its infested with worms that will eventually work their way to your eyes and thus affect your vision. needless to say i just stuck my big toe in.

the souq (aka shopping area) in Luxor. the men working at the shops would do absolutely everything to try to entice you into their shops...i found it sooo amusing! :)

Luxor temple, in the middle of luxor. the Muslims built a mosque right int he middle of the temple and the Romans defaced the temple too, painting christian biblical scenes on the walls of the temples thus trying to make it into a church.

Luxor temple at night.

the outside of one of the tombs in the valley of the kings. we werent allowed to take pictures inside but the inside of the temples were amazing. pictures are just covering the whole tomb and its all in color and perfectly preserve. they used precious stones to make the color and then covered the paintings with bee's wax to preserve them. how intuitive!

the inside of my taxi in Cairo. from the moment I arrived, I knew I wanted to leave. It was so polluted, had very very very crazy drivers and very very creepy men. YUCK!

I have a lot of pictures like these (its the cost of traveling alone) so i thought it was time to include one in my blog. this is taken on the balcony of my hotel room in cairo.

The "money" shot! My camel's name was Mickey Mouse (yeah right!- i think George suits him better?) The pyramids were cool but the fact that the city of Cairo basically comes right up to the pyramids kinda ruins the whole atmosphere(plus there was a pizza hut right across from the pyramids....do you think Pharaohs like pizza?)

desert anyone?

there are police checkpoints just like these all throughout egypt. its a good thing bc it protects the tourist but it also makes traveling in Egypt long and tiresome. however, it is a bit funny bc you have all these young guys just lounging around until a car magically appears from the desert and then they act all official "checking" passports.

one view of the walkway in dahab, egypt. it was such a great chilled out city...totally different than the rest of Egypt which is very strict and conservative.

there are tons of cats in egypt and this was a typical situation at any dinner. this pic was right before the kitten jumped on my table and stole a piece of my pita bread. it was so cute that i didnt mind. but it was funny that with every dinner came a water spray bottle to shoo the cats away!

the view of part of the Funny Mummy restaurant in Dahab...i practically lived there and became a local for a week with all the workers. It was such a chill place. Fire twirling shows at nite and really cool nice people to talk to all day and night. (plus really good food)

I went snorkeling in the Red Sea at a place called Blue Hole. It was an awesome place to snorkel and dive bc the reef was right off the beach(rocks) and its a weird phenomenon bc reef is surrounding this crater like hole that dips down hundreds of feet for some reason (no one really knows?)

dubai, UAE aka. construction city

2007-06-23T08:09:00.000-06:00

So, on my way from Kathmandu to Egypt I had a day layover in Dubai, UAE. I was actually really excited to get to see the world famous Dubai but was immediately let down after touring around for a hour. First off, the hype is way over rated! Everything is under construction! (they are currently building 7,000 sky scrappers!) There is no history to the city because most of the natives are basically Bedouins that have roamed he desert for years and years. All the cool things that will eventually make Dubai interesting are not built yet. Plus the traffic is a nightmare (maybe worse than the states) and the heat is even worse. When I was there it was 39degrees celsius (102F) with a humidity of 70%. Needless to say I've never felt such extreme heat! (on top of that, I wasn't even there during their hot months. I guess it can get as hot as 52C or 125F!!!!! yikes!) Anyway, this hasn't been my favorite place since traveling.

the ski slope inside a mall which has every single store from around the world. I saw, h&m, forever 21, zara (european), abercrombie, marble slab...the list goes on and on.

peering in to the ski slope...who'd ever thought? skiing in the middle of the desert?

the outside view of the indoor ski slope

this is the land view of the "world" island they are currently building. they are basically building islands that will take the shape of the countries of the earth. when it will be done it will be so big that it can be seen from space. i guess the rich are really interested in the idea of owning thier own country that a guy bought the "UK" island for $40million dollars! insane!

thought it was funny that one of the gas stations was named "chicago beach"! a gallon of gas in the UAE cost about $2.00-for some reason i thought it would cost less????

this hotel is the worlds only 7star hotel. each room has their own reception counter so not waiting in lines and each room has their own butlier! there is a helicopter landing site and a floating rooftop restaurant/bar! I guess the luxury suite costs $9,0000per night (I guess ill never be staying there ever!)

what will soon be the worlds tallest building and will always be the worlds tallest building bc they built it so if anyone else built a taller building that they could add on to the top to always make it the worlds tallest building....yep they are crazy over there!

construction, construction, construction and more construction

a tad bit more of nepal

2007-06-16T08:02:00.001-06:00

so, here are a few more pictures from Nepal. sorry there arent more but the computers i have been finding recently have sucked and are so slow. but my trip to nepal was amazing and i hope you enjoy the pictures :)

a village in the himalayas!

this was the furthest we could hike without going into the forbidden mustang area. its beautiful though!

showing off my lovely flipflops and feeling so much better to be out of those damn nike shoes!

this is the "packs" sherpas carry up the moutain. they are basically mobile stores on their backs!

at moktinath buddist temple, a religious site for both the buddist and hindu's (many people try to pilgrim there at least once in their lifetime)

just a little pick-up game of soccer with the locals at 13000ft- they were def shocked! :)

stuggling on the wet downhill in my flip flops

what a great view!

a sampling of what to come

2007-06-12T21:38:00.000-06:00

ok, so I am able to upload a bit(only let me upload 3) of photos so here are a couple of the ones from my trek in the Himalayan Mountains. My aussie friend, Stuart and I took a mountain flight(a bit scary since it was very cloudy when we took off and headed into the mountains...i was very thankful during that flight that radar was invented) to a town called Jomson where we then proceeded on our first day (not the brightest of ideas to hike higher on the first day without acclimatizing to the altitude but we were stressed for time) to hike up to 13,000 ft to the buddist holy town, Muktinath. We then trekked down the mountains for the next 5 days staying in adorable mountain villages and viewing some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. It was def an amazing experience, sometimes very difficult, but very rewarding none the least :)

I was not a happy camper with my blister feet :( damn Nike shoes!

one of the log bridges we had to navigate across, the water was rushing so fast under the bridge that it made me extremely dizzy trying to balance and walk across the log. but luckily my gymnastic days paid off and I made it across without being swept away in the rushing river.

one of the cute mounatin villages we passed through. i thought it was interesting that the way they keep the roofs of their houses on is by weighing them down with wood and rocks. :)

a bit of an update

2007-06-12T04:27:00.001-06:00

Sorry everyone, the computers here in Nepal are ancient and so slow so I can't post pictures but I thought an update would be in order anyway. I just got done with a week trek in the Himalayan Mountains and WOW, those mountains are AMAZING! I thought the Rocky Mountains were huge, but man, I was so wrong. I hiked up to 13,000 ft (I believe Pikes Peak in CO is only a mere 14,000 or so feet) and I still wasn't close to the peak of the mountains here in the Himalayans. I hiked through so many different types of climates from complete desolate desert conditions to evergreen forest to wet monsoon conditions towards the end of my hike. The trek as a whole went well except for massive blisters I accumulated on my feet from the damn Nike shoes I was wearing (I should have learned my lesson from wearing Nike shoes and getting huge blisters from them in college) However, Stuart solved the problem by buying me a pair of lovely green $1 flip flops which I wore for the last 2 days of my trek (what a relief!) however, the locals had a good laugh at me and my bandaged feet as I would hobble by. No worries though, I made it down the great mountains and now tomorrow I am off to the Middle East (Dubai, UAE) hopefully Ill be able to post some pics of the ginormous mountains there.

sapa, vietnam

2007-05-26T22:37:00.000-06:00

I met up with a friend I had made in Maylasia, Stuart, in Hanoi, Vietnam and we decided to head north to Sapa (we heard was an amazing town!) We took the overnight train and when we got to Sapa, the temperature was about 10degree cooler...what a relief from the hotness of Hanoi. We found an amazing hotel with the best view $6 could buy and man, what a view! Sapa is set right in the middle of the tallest mountain range in Viet Nam and rice terraces are carved into the sides of all the mountains. It is truely an amazing sight and def something I have never seen before. Throughout Sapa there are tons of minority girls selling blankets, jewerly, purses and other stuff but the amazing thing about these girls was how good their english was! the best in vietnam! We met two lovely cousins Mee (13yrs old) and Pan (22yrs old) and spent three days chilling with them. They truely touched my heart and I wish I could do more for them bc they are so poor (mee sleeps in the market everynight) but yet they are soooo happy. It was such a great experience meeting them and hanging out with the locals. :) Of any place in vietnam, I think I would choose Sapa to go back to.

just two of the many girls that always bombarded me. they would literally cling on to me while i walked through town...i think stuart was a bit jealous bc they only did this to girls...haha!

i had no idea (until i got to vietnam) that people actually still use an ox and plow!

the awesome view from the hotel room!

a minority woman with her newborn baby, when the baby reaches about 3months, the mother makes one of her other daughters carry the baby each and everyday, basically becoming the "mother" for this child.

a local tuesday market....the villagers (ethnic minority people) are so colorful!

a vietnamese gas station....could this work in the states??

the tennis court in Sapa...kinda ironic that a ox is grazing grass right next to it. Mom- could this happen at the racket club?haha

Stuart being bombarded by the village girls....they all were so good at english we just couldnt get over it!

the chinese boarder

Sapa town

stuart and I drinking Bia Hoi- the cheapest homemade beer in asia (3000 vietnamese dong, about 20cents per mug)

our lovely girls....Pan and Mee. they were so sweet and happy even though they have so little. they agreed to be our guides for a day

rice terraces near pan's village

Pan's village

boys fishing in the stream

me and mee at Pan's village...what a beautiful place to live!

Pan directed us to the silver waterfall which took us an hour to get to bc we were driving half the time in a foot of mud but it was worth it! when we got to the waterfall it was pouring down rain so we parked our motorbikes and had some street food. Mmmmm delicious! bbq pork with chili sauce and sticky rice which was cooked in bamboo sticks

at the beautiful silver waterfall...pan was so happy to get to go bc it had been 7years since the last time she saw it.

"mee" on Stuarts motorbike. she decided that her cousin "pan" would be our guide for the day and she would be the tourist with us. She was such a character and her english (as well as all the village girls working in Sapa) was the best we have heard in Vietnam.

the best view ever! the last stop on our guided tour by "pan" we just sat here admiring the view while the girls made halo wreaths of flowers for me to wear on my head. they were pros!

they were such fun!

the rice terraces in Sapa

more rice terraces...I could only imagine what it would look like after the rainy season...so green and lush!

Hoi An, Vietnam

2007-05-13T03:25:00.000-06:00

So, I stayed in Hoi An a little longer than I had anticipated (about 5 days longer!) It is such an amazing town and so different from the rest of Vietnam! I guess, during the war, the North Vietnamese army and the US made an agreement to not bomb the city so it is pretty much the only "old" city still intact-and it shows. The streets are a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and European influence. UNESCO declared it a world heritage site with many of the houses dating back over 400 years ago. I got stuck in the charm of the streets and variety of restaurants and shops. I could walk the same streets everyday and always see something completely new and wonderful. It is so different than the other cities of Vietnam, its so quiet and peaceful with the city shutting the streets down at certain times of day to cars and motorbikes. What a truly amazing city!

a fisherman out at sea near Hoi An

just outside Hoi An on the way to the beach

a typical road in wonderful Hoi An

the only picture of me in my favorite town of Hoi An

looking across the river in Hoi An

the famous Japanese bridge...it is built unusually sturdy, I guess the Japanese were afraid of earthquakes?

just a typical scene for Hoi An

Hoi An at sunset with all the lanterns starting to light up.

after leaving Hoi An (sadly) I drove my motorbike 83km to the city of Hue. It was a beautiful drive and would have been prettier if not for the rain and clouds. However, I had the opportunity to see the famous, China Beach, Marble Mountains (mountains made totally out of marble) and drive up a scenic mountainous overpass (however, it was too cloudy for it to reach its full potential of beauty)

China Beach- a famous beach during the Vietnamese War where the US soldiers and S. Vietnamese soldiers were shipped to to get a little R&R.

self explanatory

a fishing basket...fishermen sit in these baskets out in the ocean for days catching fish

the view on the way up to Tam Trom Pass, i guess a leper colony lives down by that beach?

a small town on the way to Hue

on the way to Hue

a farmer boy looking after his water buffalo

the view of the fishing nets in the ocean

the front of the citadel in the third largest city, Hue

part of the palace inside the forbidden city

inside the forbidden purple city

the ginormous flag outside the citadel.

a section of the town, Hue

view from my hotel window today, not much I could do since it was pouring down rain. would have been a good movie day.

view from my hotel window today

a motorbike road trip...

2007-05-08T04:48:00.000-06:00

the great Mr. Jone checking my bike in Saigon before I venture off into the unknown.

here i go....

So my first venture out into Vietnam completely on my own started a bit rocky. I had to navigate through the outrageously crowded streets of Saigon and then hop on the even more crowded highway. To get an idea of how crowded it is, i was averaging about 20km/h (at the begining) which i think equates to roughly to about 12mph! But honestly, I would have been frightenend to go any faster- i opted to just go with the flow! In addition to the craziness of motorbikes and cars on highway 1, it started to pour down rain. I put on my bright blue poncho and toughed it out but in the end i was drenched. So as I was continuing (slowly & carefully with alot of honking- thats how the vietnamese signals to pass) I couldnt find my turn off to the mountain town of Dalat bc the road signs are in vietnamese and are very inconsistant ( i later learned how to navigate fairly well) Just when i was giving up hope to find the Dalat turn off I lucked out and stopped at prob one of the only shops with an english speaking family!

Here if my "Vietnamese Family"

When I stopped off to grab a drink and try to figure out where I was, this lovely family who owned the shop wanted to practice their english with me and therefore asked me all the same questions that one learns in like high school spanish/german class. "whats your name?" "where are you from?" "how old are you?" "how many brothers and sisters do you have?" "what do you do in your free time?" and so on... however, their vocabulary and english did extend beyond the typical questions. As it turned out, I had arrived on their daughters 21st birthday and they extended to me an invitation to her birthday dinner. I decided why not, i thought it would be cool to see how the vietnamese celebrated birthdays. So for the rest of the day I hung out at their shop/house and it turned out that they have relatives in Texas and Florida and they LOVE America (everyone here wants to go to America which I find strange since we basically destroyed their country only 30yrs ago) Dinner with my vietnamese family was great...they taught their 90yr old grandmother to say "you eat" and she kept putting food in my bowl and insisting I eat more and more. The birthday girl ordered about 12 different dishes and we all ate from each family style, delicious! We then went back to the house and ate birthday cake...it didnt taste as yummy as our birthday cake but it was pretty good. They then insisted I stay the night in their home instead of a hotel. What generous people! I almost got tears in my eyes when saying good bye. It was a great experience with the local people.

I finally did make it to Dalat and hired an "Easy Rider" guide to guide me through the mountain roads for five days eventually taking me a town called Hoi An. On the five day ride I learned about so many of the different ways vietnamese people earn a living (mostly doing something with agriculture- silk, pepper, rubber, bricks, coffee, tea, flowers, veggies, fruits, rice and on and on and on...) I also had the amazing opportunity to visit many local ethnic minority tribes on my way. Each tribe has different customs, buildings and language. We always brought candy for the kids who came running when they heard our motorbikes enter their village. I also drove on the Ho Chi Min trail (a famous trail during the war for the viet cong) through the mountains. It sure was a different experience driving on mountain roads by motorbike than by car. Firstly, its easier to stop and take pictures and secondly it is unreal how much more you can see on motorbike! i highly recommend!

Dalat, a town in the mountains where the air is cooler and its less crowded and busy, although you wouldnt be able to tell that from the picture.

here is the "happy" budda, it is different from the budda's in cambodia since vietnamese buddism comes with chinese orgins and i believe cambodian buddism come from indian orgins??

typical buddist shrine

they always have some crazy stuff at buddist temples. who would have thought a horse and bugy would be part of a religion? anyone want a ride?

a rice field in the mountains

going to one of the many flower greenhouses. all the flowers are grown in the mountains and then shipped to Saigon (where the rich people live) this how many vietnamese women look with the face mask to keep out the dirt and pollution, the cone hat to keep the sun and the rain away and totally covered from head to toe (white skin is beautiful in vietnam)

learning how the vietnamese make silk. the red basket is filled with larva which is later sold at the market and then fried up with garlic and onion. (i have yet to be brave enough to try it)

a glimpse of the mountanous countryside.

these were the first ethnic minority kids i visited, arent they cute? It was actually sad bc it is custom for them to burn fires inside their huts thus filling them with smoke. so they live and sleep in a constant smoky environment.

I got to try on their backpack baskets and hold their knife thingy. I guess they hold it behind their back because then the Tigers wont attack them with the knife pointing outward? I wonder if thats really true?

I thought this was a cool but somewhat disturbing picture.... a lady smoking while carring her newborn.

I learned the whole process for making bricks...the govt wont allow the people to build their houses with wood anymore since the forrests/jungle is diminishing (that was very evident during my drive through the mountains, whole hillsides of trees were cut down) so brick making is a good way for some to earn a living although its very primative...they still do everything by hand.

I had the fantastic opportunity to spend the night in one of the ethnic minority villages. This is how they earn some extra money to buy goods they cant make on their own. They sell rice, here is how they dry the rice before they put it into bags to go to the factory so it can be shelled.

this is the longhouse where I stayed the night. it was an interesting experience. the cows and pigs and chickens sleep under the house so I woke up to the sound of pigs squeeling and cows mooing! that sure is a different wake up call!

the village also had "pet" elephants. they were basically ginormous! here the villager is taking the elephant for a bath in the lake. (here's your elephant jen)

an old lady in the ethnic minority village where I had the opportunity to spend the night.

a common occurrance...stopping for cows to cross the road

during my 5 day mountain drive, in front of some rice fields

bananas anyone? these little guys are sweeter than our giant bananas

saw some amazing waterfalls along the way and got the chance to cool off in them as well!

another beautiful waterfall in the vietnam jungle. as i was walking to this waterfall i was on a path alone in the jungle and i heard a loud noise, i was so frightened thinking it was a tiger but it turned out to just be a huge family of very large monkeys. it was so neat watching them jump from tree to tree like it was the easiest thing in the world!

nope, i didnt chance swimming in this monster of a waterfall!

good morning vietnam!

2007-05-04T18:12:00.000-06:00

My first stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Min City or how the locals still call it, Saigon. The name was changed after the south lost the war, it is to idolize their founding communist leader, HoChiMin. (he is basically everywhere in Vietnam, they idolize him fully!) Anyway, my first visit in Saigon was the war museum. it was def eye opening since everything was anti-american and how we killed so many innocent people (but of course, the viet cong could do no wrong!) americans were even referred to at one point as "little devils" it was pretty different than the view we get in the US.

so this is the crazy crazy motorbike traffic in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Min City) it is def crazy but an organized craziness.

on my first day in vietnam i hired a motorbike driver, mr. jone, and he took me to the CuChi tunnels. which are the tunnels the viet cong dug to hide from the americans during the vietnamese war. they were so elaborate and complex and it was quite interesting on how the whole exibit was anti american (even though the south fought with the americans, the communist government runs the tunnels)
this entry hole was a very tight squeeze, those vietnamese people are tiny!

an american tank left over from the war

so, i finally fired my first and last gun, an AK47. Man it is so powerful and i was a horrible shot, haha!

squeezing through the tiny tunnels

Mr. Jone and me at his brothers restaurant (on opening day!) he was an awesome moto driver and he loves americans!he fought with the americans for three years in the "american war." his father actually was a general in the war and is now living in texas bc he would be put in prison if he still was living in vietnam. as i was chatting with Mr. Jone we were discussing where in vietnam i was planning on going and somehow by the end of the conversation he had convinced me to buy a motorbike?!?! what did i get myself into? so the rest of the afternoon Mr. Jone and i visited to many motorbike shops to count and finally after two hours of shopping around found a brand new honda bike for only $450! what a steal! I plan on riding it the length of Vietnam and then selling it when i get to hanoi. It should be an interesting ride!

on my second day in Saigon, Mr. Jone took a texan i met at the tunnels and me 100 km south to the mekong delta. it was a good excuse to go see the delta since i had to break my new motor bike in anyway. the mekong river is one of the worlds great rivers and the delta is one of the largest. it is so big that it has two tides a day and it is where all the rice needed for vietnam is produced (plus some for export!- thats alot of rice!!)

fishermen on the mekong delta- all the boats are so colorful!

kids playing in the canal waters

on the boat through the delta (the boat eventually broke down and we had to get towed though the canals which in turn made us hit every plant, boat, bridge, dock imaginable- quite the experience!)

inside the canals of the mekong delta (yep, thats someone's home)

The texan, being the true tourist he was decided to do every touristy thing imaginable. thus here we are eating cobra (he was brave enough to take a shot of the blood! YUCK!) It actually tasted alot like chicken, haha. they also served elephant ear fish, turtle, and squirrl.

boats on the mekong delta (many people live on their boats)

finally to end our day of "touristy activities" the texan insisted we have dinner on one of the floating boats in Saigon. we had rice noodles and a steam pot. it was so tacky with a horrible vietnamese women singing and handing out fake flowers. the boats name says it all "Saigon tourist boat" haha (never again!)

Angkor wat, Cambodia (aka:longest post ever)

2007-04-27T04:24:00.000-06:00

After Malaysia I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the largest religious temple (complex) on earth, Angkor Wat! Its so large and spread out that I needed (at least) a three day pass just to see the main temples. I traveled by good ole fashion bicycle my first and third day and hired a moto driver for the day in between so that I wouldnt kill myself in the heat biking to the outlying temples. I've only put up pictures of my favorite temples so to try and not bore everyone so i hope you enjoy......

this is a map of the main temples of Angkor...there are so many more outlying temples in a 10km radius around the main complex but I stayed mostly in this main area and only went to a few outlying temples (ie:womens temple)

my first view of the famous Angkor wat temple (most of the temples were built between the 9th and 15th centuries, so all of them have similar architectural features but have some unique features depending on which period they were built)

this is probably my favorite picture...it is a great illustration of a typical scene at Angkor wat

part of the bas reliefs that run along the whole lower level of Angkor wat temple. they are intricate rock carvings that illustrate different wars with the gods and important stories of the Khmer civilization.

a typical buddist shrine in almost every temple

Ta Prohm temple, one of the few temples that the govt is not restoring bc it illustrates how most of the temples were found after being "forgotten" for thousands of years. the silk trees are actually ruining the temple bc they grow under and between the huge rock blocks and topple the structure.

the enormous silk trees over taking Ta Prohm

inside Ta Prohm temple (just trying to change up the "normal" picture poses)

Ta Prohm temple

one of the numerous ladies that care for the buddist shrines in all of the temple, i paid tribute to the dead by lighting an incense and she tied a red piece of yarn around my "right"wrist (the left hand is considered dirty(used in toileting only)...sorry lefties!) for good luck.

atop the highest temple in Angkor, watching the tourist ride the elephants to the top of the hill.

this is a must see/do while visiting Angkor, go to Angkor wat for the sunrise. so i dragged myself out of bed at 5am to rush to the temple along with thousands of other people to see the sunrise over the ancient temple.

while i was trying to plan my next course of action after the sunrise, a lady came up to me while i was sitting on this temple and said that she just took my picture bc it was the typical traveler's pose (sitting in a corner reading a book, trying to find their way) so she offered to take the same picture with my camera...this is pretty much what i did throughout my tour of Angkor, find a quiet shady spot to read about where i was and to try to figure out where i was going.

entrance to the woman's temple....it wasnt as large as the other temples but the carvings were much more detailed and preserved. I couldnt stop admiring the craftsmanship! it was one of the only temples that had barriers stopping people from touching and walking on certain parts of the temple.

women's temple

women's temple

the women's temple

bridge over the moat of Angkor Thom, the tuk tuk in the pic is the preferred method of travel for tourist viewing the temples.

my favorite temple, the Bayon temple. It had so many different tunnels and corridors and the huge faces throughout the temple made it stand out from all the temples of Angkor. I had my fortune told by a Cambodian monk inside...he kept emphasizing that I was going to have a good marriage and was going to be very wealthy and make millions...my response to that was, "you probably tell everyone that!" but he insisted otherwise so i guess we will see...hahaha

a resting (probably korean) tourist...it was funny to see these tourist wearing the cone hats, they looked so out of place!

i was constantly amazed at how intricate the stone carvings were in all of the temples...it must of taken ages to carve such detail.

inside the Bayon temple, near a buddist shrine

one of the dozen enormous faces throughout the temple

inside the Bayon temple

Bayon temple, if you look closely all the large faces have different expressions

Bayon temple

Bayon temple, buddist shrine

begging children, arent they so cute? i wanted to buy something from all of them...

Baphuon temple, inside Angkor Thom

walkway to Baphuon temple

Elephant terrace inside Angkor Thom

"my world" for two (out of three) days....a mountain bike and Cambodian mango served in a plastic bag (scrumptious!)

cameron highlands

2007-04-22T07:03:00.000-06:00

Since I had to wait 4 days for the "express" visa at the vietnam embassy I decided to get out of KL and head north to a place that was highly recommended, Cameron Highlands. From only being 4 hours away from KL it was like entering into another world. First off the temperature dropped from 30+degrees(90 degrees F) to 20degrees (70 degrees Fahrenheit). I was so not prepared for the cold nights too (around 60 or so degrees) but it was a refreshing contrast to the heat I have been enduring for the past 2 months. The drive up to the highlands took us on a windy 2 lane mountain road with (what I would later find out) more than 600 curves. The views were breathtaking and the quaint little mountain town was a relief from KL.

On my first full day a few guys and i decide to hire a guide to take us through the jungle. we climbed up two mountains which was a feat for all my smoker companions. but the views were worth it! and it helped that the temperature was a lot cooler in the highlands.

view of a tea plantation atop the first mountain we climbed

view from the top of the second mountain we climbed during our jungle trek

farm fields in the only Malaysian village in the cameron highlands

a Malay village, they are not bound to regular Malaysian laws

waterfall at the end of our jungle hike...you cant see it here but it is very polluted. the locals try to clean it up but right after the clean up its polluted with trash in less than a month.

this was my guide through the jungle, Bob, the jungle junkie. (the name not only comes from his obsession for the jungle but i guess a while back he used to be an actual junkie, which can be seen during his jungle tours as he pointed out pretty much every plant that get you high and believe me, there are a lot of them in the Malaysian jungle!)

on my second day in the Cameron Highlands, Sebastian, a swiss, (who was staying at the same guesthouse as me) and i decided to go and check out the tea plantations. the local bus dropped us 2 km from the tea plantation (restaurant/factory) but the walk was well worth it. the views of the tea plants on the rolling hills was spectacular and warranted a new photo opportunity at every bend in the road. The BOH tea plantation was interesting and we got to tour the factory on the premises and see how the tea making process works.

another view of the plantation

yet another great view of the plantation

this is the view from the restaurant at BOH tea plantation. I sampled some mango tea and had a strawberry tart (strawberries grow really well in the Cameron highlands and are abundant)

closer view of the tea plantations, i just love how the rows of tea plants look on the hillside

a tea tester at the BOH factoy

Kuala Lumpur X2

2007-04-22T06:01:00.000-06:00

I took the overnight train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Maylasia and arrived early in the morning. I took the monorail into the city from the train station and headed for Chinatown, here I heard was the place for cheap guesthouses (i have long dismissed the idea of using guidebooks since the lonley planet I bought for NZ and Oz was a waste, instead opting for word of mouth and the free maps/literature upon arrival at each destination). I met a girl from Germany, at the first hostel i checked out. we decided to share a room and headed out to look at the hotels to share a cleaner/less sketchy room. we ended up in a dorm to ourselves (3 beds...thats a luxury for a dorm) at the Chinatown Hotel (2), for $20 ringgit ($6) which was ok considering it was maylasia. I headed out to the city to explore and to find the Vietnam embassy for my visa. I quickly learned that KL did not take after the grid like cities of the US with intersecting roads but had roads winding everywhich way and sans alleys connecting the roads between buildings. It took forever to get around and their public transportation (subway and monorail) seems to never get romotely close to any of the major sights. So I relied on my two feet and a terrible map with childlike drawings to help me navigate my way around the city in the tremendous heat and humidity.

view of a monorail station

the most notorious symbol of Kuala Lumpur, the twin towers. they used to be the tallest towers in the world but not anymore. you can go on the sky bridge for free but people queue at 6am for a ticket everyday and they are sold out in an hour so because i was only in KL for 2 days (one of the days the tower bridge was closed) I didnt get the opportunity to go on the bridge and see the view.

a decked-out tuk tuk......imaging riding around chicago in that? haha

a view of the "supreme court building" near the nation's mall in the center of KL

during my second trip to KL, Stuart (aussie I met on the bus from Cameron Highlands to KL) asked if I wanted to join him and a family friend for a drink later that night. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, i thought we were meeting a 20 something old at a hole in the wall bar but I was so wrong. Unbeknowing to me, Sunny(our 50+ yr old host) was one of the wealthier residents of KL. He showed me a side of KL I otherwise would have not seen. I learned that Stuarts parents and Sunny had both attended Cornell University to complete their PHd's. He first took us to the oldest English club in KL (I think its like 200 or so years old), where we sipped english style gin and tonics. They just recently started allowing women in the club-women are still not allowed to go to the bar, so because of me we had to sit out in the veranda (the boys gave me shit for that all night!) The club was right in the middle of town near (what we would call) the supreme courts and the nation's "mall" (lawn). He then drove us in his Audi to another club he was a member at. This club was more family friendly and was a mix between a country club and fitness club with restaurants, movie theaters, spas, swimming pools, tennis courts, and squash courts. We had a couple of drinks in the bar while a Malay women tried poorly to sing english songs. All in all it was a great spontaneous night out and a great way to see the more wealthier side of Malaysia and hang out with them.

I found that Malaysia seemed wealthier than its neighbor Thailand but not as well off as Singapore. There were places in KL that were poor like Thailand but then there were very wealthy areas, like for instance....this mall (ironicly called Times Square) that had an amusment park inside and 10 levels of shopping.

I just thought this was funny/interesting concept...."McDelivery"- imagine if the US had this? (would we be an even fatter nation?) haha Another interesting thing about McDonalds is that the menu changes in every country...(i should have taken a pic of the menus in each country..oh well too late) for example there is a McCafe/deli in Australia which also serves pasta on its menu and in Malaysia they serve these pita like sandwiches with rice cakes inside and they also have "rice burgers" (burgers between rice cakes instead of buns) hmmmm, interesting!

Singapore

2007-04-15T06:41:00.000-06:00

Singapore was a nice relief from the third world cities I have been in the past month. It is an ultra clean city with big brother watching your every move. it is basically a city state and resides on an island with Malaysia to the north. However, it has a lot of charm with little india and chinatown, not to mention a ton of shopping (it was overwhelming!) on the main shopping street, orchard rd, there are like 40 malls in less than 1 mile! too much esp since I couldnt buy anything. There are even whole mall devoted to the selling of particular goods, ie: electronic (i found out its one of the cheapest places to buy electronic in the world...the US is another one of the cheap countries too, so i didnt feel too bad not taking advantage of it). All in all Singapore was a nice city but then again it was just another big city very similar to the ones in the states.

for some reason i didnt take any picture of all the modern skyscrapers in Singapore, and believe me there are a ton!?? opps! i think its because they werent that special to me bc they remind me of all the cities back in the states. this is the only picture i have of the skyscrapers, and it isnt even a good one, sorry! i guess youll just have to google Singapore if you want to see more images...ooopppp!

throughout all the huge modern skyscraper are little streets that have a european flair to them...i thought it made the city have a cool/unique charm

more european charm

funny t-shirt....any questions? just ask...the city is so clean bc i think the govt scares the people stiff with big brother watching at all times...i was even paranoid that i might drop something on accident.

chinatown

part of the Hindu Temple....i walked up right at the start of their service/ceremony/ritual??? it sure was a sight...it involved the ringing of a bell for an hour straight, very loud out of rhythm music, lots of lighting and blowing out of candles, giving of gifts to what looked like a woman with an elephant trunk as a nose, and tons of kneeling and standing and bowing...all in front of a very tacky alter of flowers, candles, fruit, different flashing christmas lights, and weird statues.

i thought this was interesting....in the middle of Chinatown sat a Hindu Temple right next to a Muslim Mosque.

a typical store in little india...they hang those flower strands on everything, motor bikes, boats, houses, rearview windows, temples etc...they are everywhere!

the fountain of wealth...something to do with feng shui (sp?) and if you walk around the fountain like 5 times for 10 consecutive days it will bring you luck and wealth? welp, i didnt have 10 days so i just walked around it once (im crossing my fingers!haha)

on just about every corner in Singapore is a shopping mall. even the walkways connecting subway links are air conditioned shopping malls...it was almost too much shopping. the funny thing was that i didnt really see many people shopping. while walking through one of the millions of malls i saw this fish tank with a flat screen tv in it advertising movie trailers....jonathan- dont get any ideas :)

i thought by coloring these buildings it really livened up the bland city landscape

a cool looking Mosque in Singapore

good bye Singapore, hello Maylasia

me in the cramped sleeper car...but i shouldn't complain, it was soooo much nicer to be able to lay down then be stuck on a greyhound seat that doesn't recline-even if the worlds loudest snorer was sleeping right below me :)

Railay-Tonsai beaches

2007-04-09T23:11:00.000-06:00

ok- if you ever come to Thailand go to Railay beach! It is absolutely amazing! The rock krasts are breathtaking and even though it is attached to the mainland there is no road access so there are no cars in Railay! (sure is a nice feeling) Anyway, I spent 6 days on Tonsai beach which is in basically the same area as Railay but more of the "budget" backpacker beach. The only way to the beach is by a longboat or walking over sharp rocks at low tide. I opted for the cheaper option of walking and it sure was a feat climbing over rocks with my big pack on my back making me way off balance. :)

Anyway, I spent most of my time on Tonsai/Railay rock climbing for three days. Railay/Tonsai beach is world renown for rock climbing and I thought, what better place to really learn all the ropes? It was the most exercise I have had in three months and it sure left me beat at the end of each day. I am pretty upset though bc I had some amazing pictures of me rock climbing (action shots!) but my memory card is busted (if anyone knows how to fix sd memory cards I would love any advice)! I learned so much rock climbing and I think I am now obsessed! It was such hard work both mentally and physically but when looking at the thai rock climbers scale the walls, one would think it was like walking up a ladder. They are amazing climbers!

this pic is on tonsai beach at the "freedom bar" overlooking some of the "hard" rock climbing routes. needless to say...i never attempted any routes on this wall! all the bars had these awesome wood table planks a couple of inches off the ground where people would sit all day long enjoying cool drinks and watching the climbers struggle.

a different view of the freedom bar and a better angle of the hard climbing routes (for those rock climbers...the routes on this wall are 7+ on the french scale and i believe something like 5.10+ on the american scale???)

this is the front of Adaman Nature Resort, the bungalow resort (well it really wasnt a resort more like a restaurant and a bunch of bungalows) that i stayed at in tonsai. i think i stayed in the worst bungalow of the bunch...bc all my friends had bungalows that didnt have holes in the floor, that had shutters on the windows and they werent frequently visited by Jerry, the mouse that seemed to love to torture me late into the night with his scurrying around my bungalow. oh well at least is was a roof over my head and i cant complain bc it was only $6 per night. I really enjoyed staying at the resort and especially enjoyed having coffee and banana oatmeal every morning while watching the BBC on the tv....i was so excited to actually know what was going on in the world for once! (I know im a nerd!)

the path to my bungalow

the view from tonsai beach out to sea

while doing the three day rock climbing course, they factor in a "rest day" however, after climbing all around tonsai and railay and not being able to stop and see all the beautiful sights, my "rest day" turned into an active day. I went to the top of one of the rock krasts to the lookout point. what a great view!

after climbing to the lookout point i unknowingly decided to go checkout the lagoon. it was a rough climb down and if it were in the US, no one would be able to see the lagoon bc the way down to the lagoon would be a law suit waiting to happen. basically it was rock climbing but with out safety ropes, just one dingy rope with knots tied into it to aide in the straight climbs down. but I made it, but not after really convincing myself that tons of people use the ropes and that they are theoretically safe (in thailand's standards)

the first day of my three day rock climbing stint, i had two other climbers with me, Sig and Inga (both from Belgium) and they were just doing a half day rock climbing bc they wanted a refresher course to rock climbing bc the real reason they were here on tonsai was to Base Jump off the huge rock cliff on the beach. Crazy fools! Bc in order to get to the top of the cliff they had to free climb up...no top rope at the top to catch them if they fall! But they sure enough got the hang of the climb and would base jump from the top twice a day, morning and evening! it sure was a sight to see! (if you look closely you can see a person starting their jump at the top of the cliff)

at night on the beach, the bars lining the beach would lay down mats and pillows and candles and everyone would congregate to the beach to chill. there would be live cover bands playing indie rock music and sometimes fire twirlers would come along and entertain the patrons. it was such a great atmosphere esp with the sound of the waves crashing into the beach in the background.

picture of freedom bar at dusk

the mats and pillows that were laid out each night infront of the bars....how cool does that look with the rock wall in the background?

this is a pic of tonsai beach as i was leaving on a long boat...i didnt want to go so soon to Bangkok but i needed to move on. if i ever come back to thailand i will be sure to spend most of my time at tonsai....i just loved it!

favorite day thus far....

2007-04-02T23:33:00.000-06:00

Krabi town

so, i wasnt going to spend a long time in Krabi town bc there isnt much to do/see in the actual town. but i met this aussie guy, jarod on the bus ride from the ferry to town and we decided to rent motor bikes the next day and visit all the cool sights outside of town. what an AWESOME day! it was nice to have some freedom for the first time in 2 1/2 months! we visited the hotspring pools, an 11 tier waterfall in the national park, and the tiger temple. the sights were amazing but it was the adventure driving around the countryside that made the day so special!

yours truely and my pink motor bike. it was a little touch and go at the begining of the day...3 mini spills-one very embarassing one in the middle of a big intersection..oopps!(mom-im fine...just a couple of scrapes) but i was a pro come the end of the day...but having a motor bike was prob on of the best experiences i have had since being away. it allowed me to not rely on the bus to see the countryside and to go where i pleased...all for just $150bht per day (5bucks!) i am sure to be renting one again!

the first stop of the day was at the hotsprings. it was about an hour drive from krabi town and boy was that an adventure. it was a two lane main highway and the trucks and cars and traffic basically pass whenever they want. luckily the motorbikes have their own lane...ie the shoulder of the road. it was a little unnerving at first but after a while it was quite fun!

the hotsprings were really cool and not very touristy...more thais were there then westerners. what i thought was neat was that the water made natural hot tube like pools and seats within the pools for the visitors to sit in.

the last waterfall we saw for the day... it was quite the hike but so worth it!

during the heat of the day jarod and i went to the national park near krabi town to visit the 11 tier waterfall. it was amazing. there were huge cascading waterfalls that fell into cool pools of water, great for swimming in. we only saw about 5 of these waterfall/pool combos bc we were so preoccupied with swimming in every pool. but this picture was taken on the highest waterfall we hiked to...the higher you hiked the less people there were and we had this pool all to ourselves along! the water was so refreshing in the 30degree(97degree) heat.

so we drove around on motor bikes all day and it sure was a funny and exciting way to get around. throughout the day we had to dodge people, tuk tuks, other motorbikes driving ont he wrong side of the road, trucks, chickens, tons of stray dogs, cats, lizards, cows and horses. there really isnt any room to day dream when your driving in thailand.

the bottom of the steps to the tiger temple. we hiked up 1,237 steps to reach the top but it was sure worth it! some of the steps were straight up, more like ladders. and at one points as i was struggling up the steps i looked up and there sitting on a step right in front of me was a grey monkey...i kinda yelped in surprise to see a monkey just sitting in my path and i think the scream scared him and he scurried off. but honestly, i never thought i would in my life ever look up and see a monkey in my path!

atop the tiger temple at sunset with a storm rolling. it was a good thing there was a storm coming bc it made the temple more amazing bc it wasnt streaming with tourists. we had the temple to ourselves apart from the two buddist monks sitting under the temple, escaping the storm.

part of the tiger temple

what an awesome end to a great day! the storm made the tiger temple more surreal. jarod and i waited out the storm under the temple watching the lighting and drinking fanta. the storm was happening all around us but for some odd reason it never really hit the temple??

after a long climb back down the 1000+ steps in the dark...jarod and i found out motor bikes, dried the seats and started on our journey back to krabi town. when we were leaving the temple, a stray dog came chasing us out of nowhere. it jumped infront of our motor bikes and sat there crying for food. we made a dash for it and scooted around the dog but it took off chasing us down the street. It chased us for probably 3k's and that dang dog was speedy...proby running at about 60km/h! We had to stop at a traffic light and we turned around and there enough was the stray dog on our tails. He ran across the busy busy street with us and tried to keep up but we made too many turns for him to follow....it made for a really random end to a great day!

next stop...Railay bay to do some rock climbing!

Thailand- Phuket & Phi Phi Don Island

2007-03-31T00:22:00.000-06:00

Phuket Town

My first stop in Thailand was Phuket town. I arrived at Phuket airport after a long two days of travel and an overnight sleep in the Brisbane airport (not as bad as one might think!) I arrived at 8pm so I was a little worried about finding a cab into the city at night. I was a little wary of non metered cabs but to my dismay they were all gone when I walked out of the airport, so I had to take my chances with a non metered taxi (although I wouldnt exactly call it a taxi...just an old man offering rides into the city-or wherever you needed to go) We agreed on a price before I left ($400 bht ($12) for a 45min ride) and we were off! I was relieved when we actually did pull up to my hostel 45min later...but not after a stop at a travel agency and much persistance saying that my hostel was full and I should go to this or that hotel. I think I lucked out with my hostel...free internet and very clean and modern....which i was very thankful for since I have heard many horror stories of thailand accomodations. Phuket town was an interesting place to stay....there were very few tourist around...I could walk all day and never see a western face, which was a nice relief from just being in Australia. The town is alive with energy of tuk tuks, moped and cars (the only cars i saw were pimped out trucks or suv's...obviously owned by westerners or the really wealthy, but I couldnt tell bc all the windows of these cars were always tinted???) anyway...it was an interesting first couple of days in Thailand!

near my hostel in Phuket town...it was very interesting walking around the streets...with mopeds racing by and the hustle of normal day life.

round-about in Phuket town

fruit market, Phuket town

outdoor market in Phuket town

Phi Phi Don Island

Phi Phi Don island was so amazing. I spent 5 days and 4 nights here. It is pretty touristy but nice. It was hit really hard by the tsunami. One of the residents here told me that something like 800 people were found dead and 1600 were never found, just washed out to sea. It took them months and months to clean the ocean and they moved thousands of pounds of debris off the ocean floor. stuff like fridges, childrens toys, bicycles, lawn chairs etc all littered the reef and ocean floor. I stayed at a guesthouse here called "the rock" and luckily the tsunami waters just reached the base of the guesthouse. The Rock is cool, it is actually built into a rock and it looks very different to the new developed hotels and guesthouses. It has a lot more thai charm. Living in Thailand has some getting used to....things i take for granted at home arent available here. Clean water, hot showers and flush toilets do not exist. But there are ways to manage...bottled water is only $.30 and its ice cold so very refreshing since it is so hot here (getting into the hot season now). And since it is so hot...who needs hot showers? But the toilets took me awhile to figure out. I searched and searched for a flush button...but found none. Finally after a couple of days I realized that the bucket of water sitting next to the toilet was a sort of "manual" flush! haha I should have know. The smell is also something to get used to...I could not stand the smell when I was in Phuket...it made me sick to my stomach. I had originally thought the smell was bc of the dirty surroundings in Phuket but I have come to find out that the smell is that of the Thai street food...with that said...I have yet to try thai street food. :) But all in all I am loving my time in Thailand so far and it hasn't yet been a week!

near the pier on Phi Phi Don Island

view of Phi Phi Don island from the lookout point. before the tsunami the strip of land between the two bays used to be covered with palm trees, so much you couldnt even tell there were buildings but now thats not the case.

thai boy using a cooler as a boat....so cute!

Maya bay....where the movie "the beach" was filmed. truely gorgeous beach!

there were these crazy/amazing rock formations surrounding the islands

this is a thai longboat...the main way to get around. they all have colorful scarves and garlands of flowers decorating the front of their boats...i believe its to pay tribute to Budha.

view from monkey bay...yes I saw monkeys but those pictures I am saving for my "wild animals" post.

cool bar on the beach- you can rent those beach chairs for $2 per day! what a steal!

they are still trying to clean up from the tsunami. the thai government put restrictions on the rebuilding stating that all new buildings and business have to be at least 51% thai owned, which is good so that foreign investors dont over take the island.

the town area in Phi Phi....great shoping and bargaining. no cars just bicycles and walking...a nice relief

Fraser Island/Whitsunday Islands

2007-03-24T19:49:00.000-06:00

Fraser Island

packing the 4X4 to leave for fraser island. i got paired with 10 other people and then were sent off to basically fend for ourselves on the largest sand island in the world for 2 days. it turned out to be a great time and the majority of the people were cool.

another way we cooked....out of the back of our 4X4. you have to pretty much through away all notions of cleanliness as we were eating out of rusty bowls/plates and cooking out of a sandy/run down truck. oh well i survived.

the whole gang at the shipwreck

a shipwreck on fraser island...the australian airforce used to use it as target practice so it is pretty beaten up but still a cool sight on the beach.

view above the champagne pools

the champagne pools on fraser island....probably my favorite spot on fraser. the waves crash over the rocks filling it with pools of water.

the whole gang at lake mckenzie on fraser island

how we cooked and ate our delicious (yeah right!) dinner, the food was good but seriously who has baked beans and spaghetti on toast for lunch? (its a british thing, yuck!)

our tents on the second night campin. we had an encounter with a dingo (wild dog) this night...a drunk guy from a campsite further down on the beach passed out in a tree by our tents and the dingo was circling him...possible looking at the best way to attack! but fortunately for this drunken soul we rescued him from his likely doom! haha

our 4X4 vehicles and campsite on the second night

beach at fraser island

Whitsunday Islands

part of the whitsunday islands
there are 70+ islands that make up the whitsundays. we went sailing for 3 days and spent the night on the boat for 2. we did a heap load of snorkeling and had to wear stinger suits (a thiner wet suit) to protect us from the jelly fish.

sunset during our first night on the boat. the first night on the boat was horrible...it rained all night so we couldnt go out on the deck and sleep. we were cramed in the bottom of the boat and my bed had no breeze at all. i resorted to pouring water on me to cool off. to make things even worse the whole gully smelled of toilets...ahhh yuck! at least for the second night the rain stopped and we all slept out on the deck under the stars. awesome!

the tide was high when we went to the lookout for whitehaven beach....what a disapointment. Oh well ill just buy the postcard.
whithaven has been ranked among the top 3 beaches in the world for the past 30yrs. the sand is 99% pure...NASA even got permission to dig some up to turn into the lens for Hubble.

me and our "creepy" skipper. he was trying to get a german girl to give him a massage in exchange for a candy bar. needless to say, this picture was the closest i allowed myself to get to him...haha

chillin on our boat at sunset

Byron Bay-Coolum

2007-03-24T02:09:00.000-06:00

Byron Bay

Byron Bay at twilight

scenic views of around Byron

the eastern most mainland point in Australia

in my room at my hostel were two guys from Norway...and of course being from europe lived for football so we made our way down to the beach, recruited two swedes and a dane and played a little game of beach soccer. (my team won...of course :)

main drag in Byron Bay....no McDonalds, Hungry Jacks (aka our "Burger King) or KFC! it was a quaint town with a lot going on....i could see how people come here for a couple of days and stay months.

yours truly

view of the main beach in Byron

Village Backpacker's hostel in Byron Bay....nice but expensive$$$$ but so is everything in Byron Bay. (run by a bunch of 20yr old canadians...they and their damn canadian flags were EVERYWHERE!!!ahhhhh)

view of common area of hostel in Byron

Coolum Beach

Neal and I went to a surf comp in Noosa (14k's north of where the guys live in Coolum). It was pretty cool but towards the end of the comp a huge storm rolled in and down poured! Here is Neal taking a pic of the paddle surf comp with the storm coming in the background.

Noosa Surf Competition

this is called "paddle surfing" it was the first EVER Comp of paddle surfing in the world. It is a pretty cool sport that is just starting gain in popularity. The surfers control their boards with the paddle and can slow themselves down or speed the board up so they can do turns/tricks.

being tourist/travelers from the states we just HAD to try Kangaroo! I would say it looks like beef but taste more like chicken, although the boys said it has a "gamey" taste to it.

my hosts for the weekend..Neal and Kip

I met these boys in Fiji back in January. They are from Montana and working in Oz for a bit before going back to Uni.

for some reason i love going to the beach at night??? so tranquil and peaceful!

Adios Melbourne...hello east coast!!!!

2007-03-04T21:53:00.000-06:00

Me and my AWESOME Melbourne guides out on the town!

andrew and me

chris and me

My tour guide, Andrew and I at the observation deck. Thanks for showing me all the sights!

One of my last days in Melbourne...this is the view from the observation deck in Melbourne.

Andrew took me to an Aussie rules Footie game. It is a very exciting game and the action never stops! It was the first pre-season game and I am so happy I got to attend! Footie is the number one spot in Australia and I am pretty sure they dont play it anywhere else. There are at least 7 teams just in Melbourne (where it originated)

at the famous opera house in Sydney...it is beautiful but a bit of a let down. Sydney is a cool big city with beautiful harbours. I visited the fish market and had some fresh fish and chips (french fries) Did a lot of walking and met up with two american friends I met while in Fiji....sydney is a great international city with tons of international neighborhoods/areas. From street to street you can be in a different world! I didnt have a very good experience at my hostel in Sydney...alot of them are really dirty and I thought I was in a pretty safe/decently clean hostel but, boy, was I sure wrong.....4/10 people in my room had bed bugs...YUCK! (its a pretty common thing while traveling but my first close encounter with them)

I was lucky enough to meet up with my friends Shane and Megan (met in Fiji) and they showed me around where they lived...Bronte which is a 20 min beautiful coastal walk from the famous Bondi Beach. This pic is of Bondi and for those wondering all the famous celebrities visit bondi...Paris Hilton was here during New Years!

me, along the coastal walk to Bondi Beach.
The coastal walk is really rocky and an easy place to hide...there is actually a bum that has lived in the rocks for 7 years and he has a decked out bum house. Multi leveled with 3 huge unbrellas, all the comforts of home and probably the best/cheapest view in Bondi!

This is at my first stop outside Sydney...Coffs Harbour. It was a quaint little town with some awesome beaches and harbours. Relaxing!

Coffs Harbour at sunset

Now, this is at Byron Bay at sunrise this morning. I will post more pictures of Byron later. It is an awesome little beach/backpackers town with breathtaking beaches and coastal walks. I am trying to beef-up my surfing here bc my hostel has free surf boards! Sweet as!

Byron Bay at sunrise

ps. I tried to write a bit more about my trip on my dad's request. I hope this is a bit better???

surf's up!

2007-02-22T19:03:00.000-06:00

I have been in Melbourne for the past week and 1/2 and been loving it! I have had the privledge of having some great hosts! Chris (who im staying with) and Andrew (i met both guys while traveling in Prague in 2005) have been great host...showing me all around melbourne and taking me down the coast on two different occasions. thanks guys!me and chris (you can see melbourne in the background) he lives in a near suburb called Brighton and his house is a very close walk to the beach! how lucky!
me at Brighton beach...the little colorful beach houses in the background go for around $200,000 aussie dollars! they are expensive bc no more can be built on the beach.

Chris's friend Jackie, Andrew and me at the yacht club Chris works at. What a great summer night!

Last weekend chris took me down to his beachouse which is on the "great ocean road"- a beautiful scenic road thats right on the coast. it was built after the soliders came home from the war and needed jobs. it is a beautiful road with breathtaking coatline and tons of places to pull off the road and surf. he tried to teach me to surf and he got a little of surfing in with some of his friends too. these were the waves chris was surfing!
here is my pathetic try at surfing. chris took me out three times (would have gone more but the surf was non existent a couple of the days) I surfed at a place called torquay, which is basically where surfing started in Australia. I was a stud the first day and then it went downhill from there. but i'm not worried...i still have a month in oz to get it right.

(i know pretty bad but hey! it was only my first try...give me a break! its harder than it looks)

ps. sorry it has been so long for an update...i caught a bad case of strep and have been in bed for the past couple of days. i will try to be better and update more. i am leaving Melbourne and heading up the coast on Monday so expect to see more pictures of beautiful beaches and perhaps a kangaroo from time to time :

lil bit of this, a lil bit of that

2007-02-12T23:22:00.000-06:00

at milford sound....usually it rains here but we had a gorgeous day! milford was carved by a glacier thousands and thousands of years ago. it was a nice relaxing boat trip and my final time with all my friends at Stray. milford sound, againmilford sound, once more

waterfall, milford sound

another waterfall, milford sound

the girl band @ milford sound

I went to my first rugby game in Christchurch. (ryan/mike I hope you are proud of your cuz!) The match was between the crusaders (won the division last year) and the reds (ozzie team)
this is after the crusaders scored their first tri! (i hope thats how you spell it?)

man, those boys' got some hops

after the rugby match...crusaders win!

good bye...new zealand

hello melbourne, australia!

one "extreme" day (don't think my heart can handle anymore!)

2007-02-08T16:08:00.000-06:00

we decided to go "big" and do the thrillogy...three jumps in one day!

the 1st jump....the bridge (home of the first ever jump site-1988)

the view from the bridge

penguin walking to the edge...i told the guy to not let me fall and then realized that is what i was there to do! haha

getting ready to jump....

the three of us after our first bungy jump ever...only two more to go!

i didnt want to get dunked in the water but the guys operating the bungy gave me extra bungy and made me get wet...oh well it was refreshing on a hot day!

the 2nd jump....Nevis (highest in NZ-404ft)

yep folks, thats what I jumped from!

on the mini cable car ride over to the jump car

the three brave souls...what were we thinking?

james (england), sandra (mexico), me

thats the floor of the cable car...made it more intense that you could see through it!

the view from the cable car....the jump is 404ft down to the bottom of that gulley! ahhhhh

and what made it worse was that i had to wait for an hour and watch 20 people go ahead of me.

i had to sit in a wobbly chair so that they can strap/clip me in...the chair was on springs so it made it seem like i was going to fall backwards out of the cable car. it def added to the suspense. i have never been so scared!

me, bouncing along after the big jump.

I survived! That was prob the scariest thing I have ever done, much much worse than skydiving! but it was so so worth it!

the 3rd jump...."the ledge"

thats the view from my last bungy...view of Queenstown

i decided to try something a little different on my last jump...went for a front flip!

the last jump wasn't as scary, which was good bc i got to enjoy it more!

I also have video and dvd's of all the jumps, for anyone that wants to see it when I get home

chillin on a glacier...

2007-02-05T14:56:00.000-06:00

I climbed Franz Josef glacier. It is one of the few glaciers in the world that is in the middle of a rainforrest. It was a great experience and even better bc it was in the middle of summer which made it a little warmer.

i dont like the look of those warning signs!

view from the bottom of the glacier....

danger, danger! last chance to turn back!

can i fit?

a view from atop the glacier

you can kinda see the blue ice...its blue for the same reason the ocean and ski are blue...i think it has to do with the amount of oxygen in the ice?

the girls

our guide took us on an adventure through the glacier...here we are hopping over a cravass!

at the end of a long glacier walk...

Other side trips.....

mirror lake...which side is up/down??? who knows?

this is the view from the top of mt. shrimpton...let me tell ya they should change the name of the mountain...it normally takes people 3hr to get to the top (6007feet) but i hauled ass and made it in 1 1/2 hours! Go me! haha j/k it was a great hike and amazing views of the southern alps.

south island fun

2007-02-02T02:26:00.000-06:00

I am currently on the south island of New Zealand....it is amazingly beautiful here. We have been driving along the west coast and to our left is a view of the southern alps and to our right is a view of the breathtaking coastline. The south island is more remote than the north but thats what makes is special/beautiful. In a couple of hours I will be walking on a glacier, franz josef glacier! Enjoy the pictures!

at our first stop on the north island we went sailing for the day in Abel Tasman national park. It was good to relax for a day on the sailboat!

we stopped for lunch on a beach, i thought the colors of the water/sand were beautiful

we saw seals and penguins while we were sailing! here are two playful pups!

hoisting up the sail (I was 2nd mate) haha

a pit stop along the way to Franz Josef

another pit stop along the way

this place is called pancake rocks...if you look closely the rocks look like a bunch of short stacks all pilled on one another!

we just caught the sunset on the beach, my first in New Zealand....I guess my 4th grade gymnastic days came in handy for this picture!

we stayed last night in a pretty "hick" town, Berrytown, and had our own little party with the locals. I guess it is custom to dress up like your "granny" while drinking in the local bar. haha it was a good laugh! (me, sandra, mel & karen)

Tongariro Crossing

2007-01-29T00:33:00.000-06:00

5 brave souls and I (25 opted out) decided to hike the Tongariro Crossing, a 8 hour hike through the mountains. We experienced rain, straight up mountain/rock climbs, volcanic desolate areas, rain forests, grasslands, lakes, beautiful landscapes, gusts of wind that almost blew us over, once in a while rays of sun, and achy legs and backs. All in all it was a great day and we were so glad we decided to take the chance and go for the adventure!the sign before we left....

by a waterfall at the beginning of our hike

mt. doom (lord of the rings)

we only hiked up to that ridge on the left but man was it a hike! from 800ft to 5,400 ft!

we were basically walking on a couple of dormant volcanos that could erupt at any sec...ahhhh!

for you Lord of the Rings buffs....run Froto run!

(where he ran before getting to the gates of Mt. Doom)

the view of where the "gates to mordoor" (sp?) were in the Lord of the Rings

at the emerald lake (near the top)

the clouds opened up as a peep hole to view the lake

towards the end of the hike...behind the mountains is lake taupo (where i sky-dived over)

a hut along the way...lunch break (soggy cheese and tomato sandwich, delicious!)

thought this was a cool pic

we did it! 6.5 hours later!

robert (canada), karl (norway), me, anne (netherlands)

ps. I added a couple of videos on the stikam...i hope they work

pps. thanks everyone for all the comments...i love to hear from you all!

mom/dad....please don't have a heart attack!

2007-01-28T02:41:00.000-06:00

12,000 feet

45 sec free fall
@130 mph

awesome views of lake taupo and the mountains

......priceless

i think the five of us has a death wish!

what are we thinking?

Steve...harnessing me in...I hope he knows what he is doing!
(I go all the way to NZ to jump out of a plane strapped to a guy from Chicago!)

there the plane goes....will the parachute open???

on my way down....

the landing!

happy to be alive!

mom, send "steve" a thank you card for bring me back down to earth safe and sound!

ps. I have a personalized dvd of the whole experience

....so there will be a viewing/celebration (i am alive) party when I get home :)

Hello from Raglan NZ!

2007-01-26T13:40:00.000-06:00

This hostel was the best hostel I have ever stayed in! It was in pretty much the rain forest but had a killer view of the ocean. The first night we had dinner at the hostel and a wonderful chef cooked us delicious baked chicken...yum yum. The hostel was just done up so nice and they had so many activites to do. They had a zip line, basketball, pingpong, different trails to walk on and a rope course! I could have stayed here a week but could only squeeze in 2 days. A couple of girls and I decided to go on a "bush walk" and as you can see from the picture....the trees here are enormous! haha

just lying on a hammock on the
deck right outside my room

a little walk along the hostel's path, "sunset boulevard" brought me to "inspiration point".

How lovely!

auckland

2007-01-22T12:22:00.000-06:00

hello and goodbye from Auckland.........

heading out into the "bush" today so to get a better helping of the "adventure capital of the world"!

view of Auckland atop a volcano

one of the dozen piers in Auckland...at the end of the pier is the Hyatt!

finally pictures from fiji!!!!

2007-01-20T00:43:00.000-06:00

ok....so finally here are some pictures from Fiji.

enjoy!

view at the Beachouse

jumping off of the waterfall- don't know why I held my nose...it was only 5ft deep??

anyone want to take their valentines date to a candle light dinner at Mickey D's??

a lil more Beachouse

a traditional fijian fire walker

last night at the beachouse....just chilling on a beeched boat looking at the most stars I have ever seen in my life!

ps. I tried adding video of the beachouse but the file size it too big...i will try to find another way....foley, any suggestions?

bula!

2007-01-19T01:36:00.000-06:00

Well..... Bula (hello) to everyone and thank you all for your posts!

I am alive an doing amazing in wonderful Fiji (except maybe a little sun burnt-the sun is sooo strong down here...i guess it is due to the whole "hole in the o-zone" thing??? (damn global warming)

I have had such an awesome time here, I wish I had more days :( The Beachouse was a great place to stay and had a ton of stuff to do.

I have gone horseback riding on the beach and up into the mountains-beautiful views. Afterwards went to our guides village and shared a over ripe coconut with him and his kids. It is actually very good when the coconut sprouts...the fruit is kinda spongie and sweet.

I met some cool aussie surfers that rented a car so last night 10 of us piled into it and went to an authentic fire walking ceremony and drank their sacred drink, Kava (made from some weird type of root??- I guess if you drink a lot of it, it is a muscle relaxer and makes your mouth go numb....dont worry mom, they only gave me a "low tide" helping of it)

Today, two Montana guys took me and my roomate, anja (norwegian) to this beautiful waterfall. it was so muddy getting up there we were walking fijian style (no shoes) all the way up to it. Man, those fijians have feet like leather!!

Other than that I have been just lounging around the beach getting some sun and going for swims in the ocean. the water is unbeleivably warm.

Sorry i dont have pictures posted but the computer wont allow it....ill try to post some pics in NZ tomorrow.

i hope everyone is doing awesome and goodbye from Fiji!

ps. thanks foley for updating my blog...much appreciated, keep up the good work!
pps. Danny- I have your postcard written and ready to be mailed...now all I have to do is find a post office...look for it in the mail :)