SouthEast Asia 2008

Back home in SF!

2009-02-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Our epic (yes, epic!) journey has come to an end and we are back home in San Francisco. We had the time of our lives- learning so much about the world, each other, and ourselves. We can't think of anything we would have done differently, especially with Vlad on his way to SF!

Now on to planning our next trip...

2009-01-25T03:35:00.000-08:00

View of the valley

watching the sunrise over the Himalayas

The past 4 days we have been mountain biking through the wonderful, rural Kathmandu Valley. We started on the wrong path, making things 10 times harder on us-- but the rougher the road the bigger the pay off, and it was! After 10km of straight up hill rocky road the night before, we woke up in Nargakot to a breath taking view of the sun rising over the Himalayas. We could see everything from our hotel rooftop- even Mt Everest!

The days after were filled with wonderful little hillside villages ... full of history and culture. And the beautiful, lively people that live in them! Everything was so beautiful, I wish I had a camera attached to my head.

Southern Nepal

2009-01-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

Rare one horn rhino!

Jess' graceful self "climbing" the elephant

Hey all. Borneo hade bad weather so we tried to get into India without any luck. We needed 5 days to get a visa and unfortunately that was time we dont have... So we just packed up and went to the airport and figured Providence would steer us in the right direction. Long story short, we are in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kathmandu is an amazing and mystical place. Cruising through its old streets in the shadows of the Himalayas to the north, you can't help but be swept up in the romance of the place.

We spent a few days in the south at Chitwan park looking for Tigers but to no avail... We found lots of Tiger prints around the camp and by the river nearby and even bribed our guides to take us out in the middle of the night! That was probably the highlight because these guys were scared to death the whole time. I didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into until an older Nepali man gravely nodded his head and said "Not Good. No Smart." as we took off into the night...

Everything went well tho and we lived to see some rare Asian Rhinos and spend some time with the camps elephants. All in all it was pretty touristy but we had a great time. Talk Soon!

Liveaboard life

2009-01-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

The past 4 days we spent all day and all night on a boat... eating, sleeping, and diving- no joke. We literally woke up, ate, dove and hour, ate, took a nap, went diving, ate lunch, napped or sun bathed, went diving, ate again and then went night diving, then some more food and sleep-- everyday! It was the coolest thing we have ever done!

The diving was wonderful... We saw a few 22 foot Manta Rays, Octupi, Giant Morray Eels, schools of Great Barracuda, Leopard sharks and more. We spent 13 hours under water in the 3 1/2 days we were on the boat. Jess got certified to dive on Phi Phi Island and then got her adanced onboard. Yeah!!

Ok well time to head back to Bangkok... and I think we have decided to then head to Borneo for our last couple weeks. Peace & Love!

Gearin' up

Being stuck onboard with Russians is one thing...

Being stuck onboard with Russians in speedos is another-

Diving spot... "Donald Duck Bay" (See the duck bill?)

Captain Jess

Asian pose...

Here are the pics! Sorry for the delay...

Diving in Phi Phi Don

2009-01-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

We are now on the island of Phi Phi Don.. enjoying the beach life and hanging out with good friends. I started my open water diving certification yesterday and words aren't enough to describe how amazing it is. Chris is already certified and loved getting in the water again... I think this may become a new hobbie of ours.

We are currently trying to figure out where to go next- we have about 3 weeks....

Stay on the islands of Thailand?
Borneo?
India?

Let us know what you think! We'll keep you posted..

Much needed update on pics...

2009-01-05T06:34:00.000-08:00

This is our.. "Oh shit we made it to Bangkok" faces-- while Chris was darting through traffic

And the celebration begins... Hanoi to Bangkok in 38 days- wohoo!

But sadly all good things come to an end and we had to end our trip with Vlad (the bike). Luckily Chris found a loophole and now Vlad is on his way to San Fran!

Customs will believe a crate full of "used bike parts" right?

We made it to the sunny islands of Southern Thailand... This is where we are at now, Phi Phi Don

Happy Birthday to me! yummy Thai banana split!

We lucked out and ended up on the same island, at the same time as my good friend Travis, from Selah

My first day diving!! Unbelievable... we saw 2 turtles and 2 leopard sharks!!

This is what we went diving around... life is rough! ha

Dancing with fire on my bday

Chris gave me the best birthday a girl could have... Thank you baby!!!

Livin' the life in Bangkok...

2009-01-02T01:38:00.000-08:00

Enjoying the amazing view from our downtown hotel balcony before hittin' the streets for NYE

Last sunset of 2008

No, we did not catch on fire in a night club on NYE- we are both alive, happy, and healthy as can be. We had a wonderful time saying goodbye to 2008 in this lively city of Bangkok. We met up with some friends and went out celebrating in style- with thousands of Thai people all around us!

2008 is a year we will both never forget and are so thankful for!

After about a week of trying to decide where to spend our last 30 days of vacation (almost taking a flight to India or meeting up with Chris' fam in London)-- we have decided to stay in Thailand and hit up the south for some beach time. We plan on getting in a lot of hours in the sun and climbing and diving as much as possible.... rough life over here!

We hope all our loved one's out there had a wonderful New Year and holiday season... we miss all of you so much and are always sending positive thoughts your way...

C & J

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T03:28:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately we have both been very ill the last week with food poisoning we think, or what they call the "Mekong Belly", so we haven't been able to get out and about to update the blog and things but we are still having an amazing time and thinking of all you!

We spent our Christmas watching the sunset over Angkor Wat and shared a lovely dinner with some friends we have met along the way. We may be sick but no complaining over here!

We hope you all have a wonderful, healthy holiday season and we are with you all in spirit!

Love all around...

Chris and Jess

2008-12-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

I swear this is real! This roadside mokey loved coffee!

Waterfalls in Si Phan Don

A puppy (Snoop) I adopted for a couple nights- I loved him! (Don't tell Teen!)

Another breath taking sunset on the Mekong

Our improv English class we taught along the way!

Monkeys on our guest house roof! awesome...

So cool!!

Beautiful children at an orphanage/english school we met friends at- we are blessed!

Update!

2008-12-20T00:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry we haven't been keeping you all kept up, but we have made it down Laos and through Cambodia! After hanging out in wonderful Phnom Penh for a few days we have made it to Siem Reap where we plan on spending quite a bit of time here, making sure to take in every temple we can. And there's a lot!

We hope to meet up with some friends- Brad and Jane, who are here in the city somewhere also... and a couple other people who we have met a long the way. Should be good times! Also we will be spending our first Christmas together here, sadly not with all you but so grateful be spending it here! We will update more with stories and pics soon.

Love and miss you all...

some pics...

2008-12-16T23:54:00.000-08:00

Into Laos

2008-12-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

We figured out how to get considerably more gear onto the bike in Hanoi and set out for Laos! I figue we are riding with about 450 lbs including ourselves.

We had a very loooong ride down to Vinh, Vietnam but fortunately there was a beautiful sunset to keep things interesting.

The next day we made it over the mountains and thru the woods, er, jungle towards the Cao Treo border crossing with Laos. On the way we found a waterfall that you can see Jess exploring if you look real careful. The highlands were very wet and we were thankful for the sunny skies of Laos on the other side.

Once we got to Laos we stopped in the first town we found called Lac Sao and decided to have a BiaLao while we figured out where we were. It wasn't long till this nefarious man on the right found us and the party began! He was trying to explain to us that he had beenshot by the cops, or maybe that he shot a cop himself. Not really sure... Unfortunately it wasn't long before big poppa there was trying to make-out with Jess and we had to bolt!We hadn't been in the country for 30 minutes and already there were 3 people buying us drinks and giving us snacks! Over all a pretty funny introduction to the wonderfully friendly country of Laos..

Day 2 in Laos, we headed west for the Mekong but made a stop first at Tham Kong Lo, a 7km river that flows trhu an underground cave to the other side of the Limestone mountain range. It is totally amazing to float around the corners into cathedral-like caverns 100m high. We had a couple of very freindly local chaps get us thru in total darkness on a little motorized canoe. Halfway thru we hit a large submerged rock and shattered the prop but luckily they had a replacement.

Well a few days later and we have made it to the Mekong. We've had our first breakdown (involving three broken spokes on the rear wheel), but after pushing the bike for 2km in sweltering heat we were able to get a temporary fix and had the wheel as good as new later that night in Tha Khek. Fortunately all that work and new parts ran less than 10 dollars!

We will think of you all as we drink our BiaLao's by the mighty Mekong tonight! Hope you are all well. Talk Soon...

Pics tell more than we can..

2008-12-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

Village in the mountains

Quick recap

2008-12-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

Nov 21st we headed out on the road bright and early for a 5 hour road trip to Cao Bang. We stopped along the way for a quick warm up and a rest. Soon the sidewalk cafe was filled with guys... all came to see the new folks in town we think. All the men around here sit on the side of the road and smoke tabacco out of water bongs. They offered me one, as a joke I think, and well to their suprise I took them up on the offer. Their reaction was great! Soon more showed up and wanted to see me do it again. It was tough on the lungs but so worth their huge smiles and laughs.

This is where the roads started to get rough. But as we have learned, the rougher the roads- the better the destination. When there is a bad road, that seems impossible to climb- yes climb, these moutnains are huge!- that means fewer whities have took the journey. Which we all know is a good thing... the kids would come running out, "Hello, Hello!", we would see smiles from everyone- the best come from ancient old men who are very shocked, but after it settles are thrilled and we get an energetic wave and smiles.

The next day we made it to Bao Lac after a 6 hour ride. Bao Lac is a very small village, very beautiful, filled with amazing flower H'mong and other tribal cultures. We got there right after the market shut down... these people have markets about every 6 days-- in different villages. They get all decked out in their full traditional tribal gear and hike who knows how many miles to these markets to buy, sell, and trade goods.

We definetley were the only white people in this town and everyone did all they could take take us in. As in, staring real hard and taking notes I'm pretty sure. In a way it's flattering, but it also very tough to sit through that day after day. We get many giggles and laughs, but we know it's just because we are different and that's ok. Def getting a feel of what it's like to be a minority...

The next couple days was filled with our journey to Meo Vac. We didn't get to cross the river liked planned, but we made it only one day later so that is ok! But damn it we tried! Meo Vac was a really beautiful village, surrounded by moutains on all sides. We stayed at an alright hotel there... but it soon became our most memorable hotel so far.

We were headed out of the hotel to get some instant noodles and somthing to fill my unhappy stomach (first time though!) and the hotel owner invited us to sit down to eat at the table with them. At the time there was only food on the table, but delicous looking food! We quickly took him up on his offer after eating only noodles and crap for the last few days on the road... Chris grabbed a bowl and chopsticks and dove right in! You should have seen the look on the man's face!! It was hilarious! I got the hint and told Chris to hold off for a sec...

Not even 5 mintues later the table was filled with meat, soup, green beans, rice, and more... and his family, 5 or 6 women had joined us too. Everynight they all sit down together for a huge feast. We see this everywhere we go. It was such an honor to be able to experience this with them. He was a little shocked at Chris' intial move to dive right in, but after the fact he was making jokes about it and we knew he understood our hunger pains!

Dinner was absolutley amazing; so special to have that time with these beautiful people, trying to communicate with the lil vietnamese we know and the lil to no english they know! We sat there, taking in all we could, very neat cutural traditions to be learned! After dinner anotehr guy joined us, who was very enthusiastic about America and iphones! We got our ipod and iphone out, showed them pictures we had on their of our families and our baby (Martini!). When the older man looked at Teen he just about fell out of his seat! I think it may have scared him a bit! haha

The new guy, Nguyen, ended up taking us outside and buying us all kinds of stuff. We were shocked, and so grateful! We tried many times to give him something back, but he would not have it. Chris got a traditional Vientamese shirt and I got a handmade purse. Pretty freakin' awesome!

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Many more stories to be told but we are sleepy now! Pics will have to do. I think they shall tell the stories just fine :)

Nov 20th-- on the road

2008-12-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Nov 20th we headed out on our first day on the bike. The day was an easy one, only 4 hours on the bike to Lang Son. Time goes by so fast on the bike because it never ever gets boring. There's always beautful sites to look at, cattle and other animals to dodge, and my time is filled with waving to all the people. Really, I feel like I was in a parade for 10 straight days. Pretty cool!

Lang Son was a small town, with many shocked faces to see us. Good place to crash out and get some sleep before once again waking up with the sun and heading out on the road...

Next Stop: Laos

2008-12-01T08:43:00.001-08:00

So we've succesfully completed our tour of Northern Vietnam! Almost 1600 km (which is about 900 miles I think?) of very crazy riding, wonderful people and beautiful scenery. We are now on to Laos which we are both very excited about. It will take us a couple days to get to the border and hopefully successfully cross it! Wish us luck!

What we've been up to...

2008-11-29T17:43:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics of the last couple weeks... we had an amzing time riding over the mountain tops and through the villages. Chris will update in detail later, but here are some pics to hold ya'll over. More to come later!

Cruisin' hillside, having a blast! Sore ass and all...

The guy who saved our ass.. well Chris' :) He got the bike to start just in time before Chris started to dismantle the thing...

Beautiful H'mong people of the mountains

Through the mountains we go!

Talk about Dumb & dumber! These guys were hilarious...

Peanut Butter Jelly Time! We now never leave home without it

Ready to roll!

Still Alive!

2008-11-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

So the past couple days have been quite crazy! We've been on the road for the last few days. The roads have been progressively dissapearing on us. They are now mostly fist-sized rocks and mud that wrap around huge mountain cliffs. Over the last few days we have entered the Tribal region of the north. About 85% of the people we see are from tribes like the Tai, Flower H'Mong and Black H'Mong. It's really a trip up here and judging by peoples reactions they are as excited to see us as we are them. Tomorrow we will attempt the push to Meo Vac, which EVERYBODY has told us is impossible, but damn them we will try anyway. Just wanted to let everybody know we are alive and seeing some reall6y amazing things and will post pictures and further details when we get down out of the mountains in a few days. The towns we are in only have power for limited amounts of time per day so it's tricky to say exactly when that will be but stay tuned... Love to all!

And we're off...

2008-11-19T06:10:00.000-08:00

Today Chris and I got good ol' Scootin' ready to roll... we filled the tank up, went helmet shoppin (mine's a purdy baby blue one:), got new smaller packs (cheap rip-off North Faces), and got everything packed up for the next 2 weeks on the road... oh and even some stickers for the bike!

We are leaving a lot of our stuff here at a hotel while we go on this first "test drive" trip. So we are strappin on 2 smaller back packs to the rear sides of us, well sides of me since I'm on the back. I can't imagine how it's going to be with our 2 huge packs on the back! But at least by that time CHris will have a lot of mileage on the thing and will know what he is doing :)

We will be on the road bright and early tomorrow morning...

Until next time we find a connection- hugs and <3!

Back in Hanoi...

2008-11-18T02:19:00.000-08:00

Today was a total success! I spent the morning bouncing around mechanic shops in Old Hanoi, which in itself is a pretty good time, talking to the locals about our plans and looking at bikes. Eventually I found Mr Cuong at a small shop on the edge of town. He remembered Tim ("Crazy Tim. Very crazy!") and brought me inside for a crash course in bike touring and the Russian Minsk. This guy knows everything and I've since found out that he is quite famous in certain biking circles. He and two other guys rode a few of these from Hanoi to Paris a few years back..

After some negotiations and test drives we settled on a dark blue Minsk and named it Vladamir Scoot-in. We've had him outfitted with some racks to tie our gear to, a full tool kit, spare parts and he rides great for a Russian!

In two days we are beginning a northern loop along the Vietnamese and Chinese border. For anybody interested or who knows the area, we will be hitting up Lang Son, Cao Bang and Bao Lac before heading up to the disputed Dong Van region to interact with some local tribes in the weekend markets. Hopefully we can secure a night or two in a village through any friends we make there. After that we are going to cut down to Ba Be national forest and then push on to Ha Giang and Bac Ha to see more Montagnard tribes. Finally, we will end in Lao Cai and board a train with our bike back to Hanoi. Cuong wants to give the bike another once over before we ride it to the Na Meo/ Laos border crossing.

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So 2 more days preparing in Hanoi and off we go! Wish us luck (we may need it!) on our next adventure... CHris says he knows what he is doing so we are going to be ok! :) This is our new baby... Scoot-in!

Cat Ba Island Pics

2008-11-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

Nov 17th- Cat Ba Island, Ha Long Bay

2008-11-18T01:17:00.000-08:00

We've been having soo much fun in the last week! After we last talked, we hopped on a bus to Halong city, gateway to Halong Bay (one of the new 7 wonders of the world, and rightly so in our opinion) and Cat Ba island. When we arrived they dumped us at the "Tourist Dock", the first sign we were in trouble..

After securing a few tickets on a junk to Cat Ba island we were hustled by some Vietnamese guy onto one junk amd then another. I swear he waited for us to get topside and in our bathing shorts before he swooped in to drag us off. The dock was crazy. It was like a scene from Indiana Jones where all the boats are pilled up and people are running around with boxes and bags. The air was swrirling with different languages and the smell of fish and diesel fumes.

Anyway, we finally pushed out to sea and were cruising along when all hell broke loose. The ship hands and a surly old madam of the ship started surrounding us and asking where our guide was! "You no pay! You pay now!" They were screaming with their hands out! It took a few minutes but we squared everything away and showed them our tickets. I guess they weren't used to seeing people doing this on their own..

The ride was incredably beautiful tho and when we got to the island, Jess and I rode all the way across it on the backs of two guys' scooters with all of our backpacks and gear too! It was really fun and Jess was smiling from ear to ear and "flying" with her arms way out to the side..

Cat Ba was amazing. It's an island out of Jurrassic Park, mostly monkey-populated jungle surrounded by the limestone karsts of Halong Bay. We spent a handfull of days there riding a scooter we rented from an old lady downtown, kayaking in the bay and rock climbing some of the nearby islands. I would easily recommend a 2 or 3 week trip there just to hang out and rock climb. It's totally undeveloped (for now, Chinese developers are planning 2 "mega" resorts that will no doubt kill the vibe and a good deal of local enviornment) and there are not many people showing up to climb and kayak like they do in Thailand. Also when we were riding in the hillsides all the village kids would come running out smilling and posing for pics. They really loved to see us and you definately dont see that anywhere that tourists have made their selves at home. In those areas (Saigon, Hanoi, anywhere mentioned in Lonely Planet) you get lots of people hustling you and everybody else giving you shit... which leads to the next story in our journey..

On Cat Ba we met a really great expat named Tim who has been in Vietnam for 6 years. He's done every job under the sun here but he currently lives on a tiny /karst used for climbing. It's just a small beach with Tim and two local Vietnamese chaps really. He's like Robinson Curusoe living out there with no power, monkeys, millipedes and bugs and about 2000 feet of beachfront on a little island maybe 30 or 40 thousand square feet total.. crazy. Through him we got a crazy idea and some great connections and phone numbers for this next part of our journey..

Tomorrow we are going to see a guy here in Hanoi to check out some old Russian motorcycles called a Minsk. These things are bulletproof, sturdy two stroke workhorses that go for about $400.. After we figure out how to get ourselves and 20 kilos of gear safely strapped on to it, we are going to ride north and west alongthe Chinese border (and maybe briefly across it) towards Laos. This is going to take about 3 weeks and I'm guessing we are going to have lots of enexpected suprises too.

When you get onto a bike and out of the main cities the locals are so happy to see you. You buy them one beer and you often are being fed for free the rest of the night! Kids will pose for pictures too, and they giggle like crazy when you show them the results! I really think this is the best way to see this country and meet it's people, plus we have some contacts from Tim to meet up with and hopefully secure housing amongst the local hill tribes. I really want to spend some time in these villages living in their elevated bamboo huts...

So that's it really. Hopefully the bike will hold and we will have an amazing time. If that's the case we will ride it as far as it takes us. It will pay for itself if if makes it to Luang Prabrang and if I sell it for maybe $200 it will have been a great investment. If we are having a good time we may try to ride it all the way to Bangkok! Or it could break down on the side of the road and we just decide to ditch it but we will have a great story never the less..

Well we are off to find a leather store and the helmetshop. We are getting full coverage travel insurance in case of disaster and we have to figure out how we can cut some weight from our luggage too, so the next few days will be busy.. I will get in touch if, or when, we find our trusty stead. Wish us luck and think of us this Thanksgiving! Is it this Thursday or next? Can't remember... But hopefully we will be riding through rice paddies with the wind in our faces and the sun at our backs!

We love you all so much! Wish we could share these holidays, but know you are in our thoughts if not our arms and we will return soon. Jess is trying to upload photos butso far to no avail. It's impossible on these computers cause they usually just crash, but you will hear as soon as we have any success... Until then, we remain;

In adventurous spirits,
Chris and Jess

Nov 13th... Hanoi

2008-11-18T01:14:00.000-08:00

Jess has finally arrived from the States and we have made our way north to the beautiful city of Hanoi. It's exactly as we pictured it. Ancient streets filled with motorbikes, cyclos, green trees hanging over food stalls and rural women carrying everything from fruit to small noodle kitchens on long poles from their backs.

We got kicked out of our hotel today for not playing along with the owners wishes to buy tour packages from him. What an ass.. Turns out these things happen for a reason as we now have a very nice room with a balcony overlooking a downtown street for the same price. It's wonderful how these things happen and it serves as a reminder to us to flow with the good vibes towards calmer, more beautiful seas!

Tomorrow we are going to make our way to Cat Ba island in Halong Bay. We plan to soak up some some sun, rent kayaks and generally just act like we are on vacation instead of a mission for a little bit. Halong Bay is filled with limestone islands jutting out from the sea. Caves, monkeys and junks are everywhere. I'm excited for what I'm sure is going to be one of the most photogenic parts of this trip. I promise to get some pics uploaded this week. We decided not to bring the laptop so we are at the mercy of the internet gods, but I'm sure that with the extra time and a little patience we can make it work..

We love you all and will write more to each of you soon. Until then you are always in our thoughts and we have a little bit of each of you in our hearts as we continue our adventure. Keep the emails comin as they are greatly appreciated here on the frontlines!

Again, so much love to each and everyone!

Jess and Chris

Here and loving life...

2008-11-17T03:37:00.000-08:00

OK, I realize these are horrible pics- but the internet here is not the best I chose randomly- but poorly :) I will post more and upload good pics as soon as we get a chance...

The adventure begins...

2008-11-09T00:33:00.000-08:00

I am leaving to meet up with Chris is Vietnam on Monday. We will be backpacking around SE Asia for 3 months! My Central America trip didn't work out, but things happen for a reason and I am stoked to be traveling around with the love of my life for 3 months. I can't wait to be there with those wonderful people and that beautiful country...

We will be traveling to Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand also- returning home beginning of February. This seems like it may be a good way to keep everyone posted and share our experiences so I thought I'd try it out.