Oh hello

We are currently in Yogyakarta, Indonesia! Here's a less intense update.

After my birthday we took an overnight bus to Bangkok. We had no idea where anything was but were saved from overspending with the taxi men by these two girls, one from Norway and the other from Germany. They'd both been there before and directed us to a nice street of hotels off of the tourist-ridden and notorious Khaosan Rd. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy things in Bangkok. Failed at Chinatown, saw the giant (giant!) reclining buddha in Wat Poh after almost being tricked (ok it was just me.. Aarti is too cynical to fall for anything) into taking a 10Baht "tour" of all the temples that were mysteriously all about to close. Sounds like a deal but you either 1) get a tour of temples but then get dropped somewhere random if you don't buy something expensive from the stores they take you to also, or 2) only get taken to stores and have to demand to be taken back to your hotel.

Then we went to Korat to visit my cousin Jason and his wife and my adorable first-cousin-once-removed Wyatt. Amazing that we met up. They knew we were coming, but not if we were going by bus or train. We were supposed to call and say how, but none of the public phones were working. They didn't even realize we had Jub's sister's phone number. And apparently they only had internet at their coffee shop. But luckily when we arrived in Korat one of the bus workers helped us out by letting us use his cell phone to call them. And he even spoke in Thai with Jub to make sure it was clear which station we were at.

The next day was full of adventure at the national park an hour from their place. We had a very adventurous hike- a story best told in person. Ask me about this later. The next day was spent wandering around Korat where we saw a sweet museum about their "wonder woman" (Suranuri), a lady who apparently led some ragtag soldiers to victory?; a temple with stalactites and stalagmites in it, rescued from a cave that was set to be destroyed for commercial reasons; and did some shopping.

The next day we ended up making a stop in Ayuttaya (the previous capitol of Thailand I think) before heading back to Bangkok. We rented bikes and rode around for a few hours touring the ruins of the city. Pretty nice, but hot.

Thennnn... the last country on our list! Time goes so fast/slow. We arrived in Bali and I sadly realized I was missing something :-(. Nothing of any monetary value, just a small present I'd bought. I can't think of anywhere I might have lost it. I have my suspicions that someone grabbed it in the airport since it was on the outside of my bookbag. Who knows.. Oh well. We ran into some Belgian girls who were going our way and shared a cab. Got tips from them on Java and found a hotel.

Next day was full of tourism: silver jewellery workshop, batik and painting stores, rice terraces, monkey forest (pretty crazy place with wacky  monkeys.. no trouble from them myself but saw them take a woman's earring out of her ear to try to eat it! ask me later for more details in person), an awesome buffet lunch overlooking Mt Batur (a volcano), and various cave temple things.

Relaxed the next day. Looked around, and got to practice Indonesian on the beach! The ice cream man came by and tried to sell me ice cream for about 5 times the store price. Despite not buying anything from him, he turned out to be really nice and happy to sit for a half hour to practice English with me while I practiced his language. That night there was a huge party on the beach sponsored by Yamaha (because of all the motorbikes here) with a concert and dancing.

The next day was pretty lame since we had booked a trekking trip up Mt. Batur for 1:30am the next morning (you have to leave at this time to drive there and then climb to the top by sunrise) and needed to go to slee p around 6pm. I couldn't sleep, and the midday sleeping threw off my schedule. I ended up taking my malaria medicine on a super empty stomache and I think all those things combined made me feel not so good. But dinner fortunately fixed all that since we had a mountain to climb in just a few hours! And it was great! Our guide was great and took us quickly to the viewpoint where we watched the sunrise, took a bunch of silly pictures, checked out steam vents (so warm!), and saw a bat cave.

Spent our last day in Bali buying movies with Indonesian subtitles (yay fun practice) and lying around on the beach watching sunset.

Now Yogyakarta. We successfully got to the street full of hotels using the bus (I got to ask directions in Indonesian!), booked a tour of Borobudur and Prambanan for tomorrow, and checked into a sweet hotel with a delicious and cheap restaurant downstairs and free internet! We are thinking we might spent a few days here. It seems nice.

Then on to Bogor to see Fengky, Padang to see the city we've thought so much about for the last year, and Bukiittinggi for some more nature adventures, before heading back to Bali for one last day bumming on the beach before heading back to reality.

See all of you relatively soon!

almost done!

5-1 Krabi, Thailand
-omg it´s may already. we feel like we´re almost done and then realize we still have 3 weeks in indonesia ahead of us. wow.
-got up early and caught a van for our 4 island tour. first stop was rah lei. went a new direction along a path through some bushes. come upon a cave wall climbing area. pretty cool. we collect some sweet seashells.
-stop two: some island with a bunch of monkeys who start to close in on these three brave people eating lunch. many pictures ensue. also, snorkeling!! i got to swim with this school of yellow and black fish. kind of freaky at first, but despite being surrounded, i never touched a single one. they are so fast!
-then to chicken island and another island it´s connected to by a thin sandbar. more snorkeling by the shoreline and then snorkeling where it´s deeper. they threw some bread in the water so we could swim with the little yellow fish as they went nuts over the bread. really fun. but then i saw a tiny jelly fish and decided i was done, haha. completely fell asleep on the ride back to shore
-got dropped at a beach different from ours (like the previously day) since apparently high tide means crazy waves on ours. tour group hooked us up with this truck with benches in the back as a ride back to our hotel. realized i got quite burnt (first time so far) and started putting on loads of aloe. my spf 55 from the morning must have washed off sooner than i realized.
-discovered a small ant attack of my dirty laundry. ew. why on earth would they want to go there? spray more permethrin (best purchase ever), then wash a few things. so humid in our room that nothing dries. ugh.

5-2 Krabi, Thailand
This will be shorter since I haven´t even written about this one on paper yet. (I keep a handwritten journal as we go and use that to help me remember things.. my current on is almost full! Good thing I bought a sweet new one in India!)
-went on a ¨James Bond¨ tour. saw the james bond island popularized in man with the golden gun. got taken on a canoe through some caves. had to lie in the canoe at times to get under the very short passageways. soo fun. saw the monkey temple and the incredibly cute monkeys outside. took lots of pictures. sang ¨baby monkey riding on a pig¨ to myself.
-shoppping

5-3 Krabi, Thailand
-slept in, yay
-lunch.. fried noodles and chicken burger. soo good.
-used internet but it was wayy too hot in here and left soon after to get ice cream. crazy chocolate thing.
-more nap time
-dinner, then chocodip, chilling by the water and looking at the stars, a little shopping
-and now you are all caught up!

Hope you enjoyed that. Also a gecko just showed up behind my computer monitor. How fun. Goodnight from Thailand! Tomorrow to Bangkok!!

make that like 8 bug bits. by far my most so far on this trip.

stupid computer room. i even put on bug stuff. just not on my toes or knees. and that´s where i got bit. so dumb.

4-30 Krabi, Thailand
-went to Rah Lei for the day and booked the ¨4 island tour¨ for tomorrow
-this little kid from kuala lumpur deemed himself our tour guide and led us to crawl under some rocks then climb up some other rocks to see phra nang cave. pretty sweet.
-went exploring and found a rope leading up a rock slope with a sign saying ¨slippery¨. wondered if this was the way to the lagoon. apparently they aren´t big on signs here. got confirmation about the lagoon and began our trek. not quite hiking, not quite rock climbing. the only thing to tell you that you were going the right way was this rope that was useful for going down the sometimes muddly slopes. it was really fun and very sweaty. we made it almost to the lagoon, to the point where the trek becomes vertical. we figured we could do it, but didn´t want to take any unnecessary risks since we were all alone out there and headed back (we´d heard the lagoon wasn´t so good right now anyway). also saw the view point. a forest of palm trees looks so nice from above.
-caught a longtail boat back to ao nang. it´s kind of fun wading into the water then climbing into the boat. had some more pad thai and tried red curry, then chocodip for dessert. it is so good here! had a second one :-D
-back in our room i discover a gecko. i tell aarti only because i don´t want it in our room either and i figure she´ll notice me trying to get it out. she is too scared to deal with it, so i, being the slightly less wimpy one, am forced to formulate a plan. i veto capturing it with a glass cup that´s a little too small partially because i think i´ll freak out and drop it. i also veto spraying it with permethrin because neither of us want to kill it and we think it might leap somewhere or something. i grab a large ziploc bag so i can keep my hands far from it and capture it inside (it´s high up on the wall). i quickly close up the bag and run outside, holding it far in front of me. i get a strange look from the man in the lobby. i guess they don´t see this all the time.

Thailand! Also I hope you guys are appreciating the blogs posts and pics..

because I think I´ve gotten like 5 bug bites while doing this. gah

4-29 Krabi, Thailand
Wow. an adventure. We got one final free breakfast from red inn, then got in a van for krabi. made some friends with the thai people in the car and got lots of offers for help and were encouraged to stay in thailand to teach english.
-transferred to a different van in hat yai. made a stop for food, and then another stop later on where i tried to take out money, but my long pin number was too much for the atm. fail. with no thai money, we skipped on food here. a mistake, since we ended up getting hungry later on in the ride. also tired. also had to pee. the driver more or less told us he was going to take us to ao nang (where we eventually wanted to go anyway) for 100 baht more instead of krabi town. we didn´t have any thai money still but planned on getting some in town when he dropped us off. however, it was not meant to be.
-somewhere between krabi town and ao nang, the engine dies. he restarts it numerous times only to have it die again. we soon realize we´re not going anyway. i can´t stop laughing. so hungry. so tired. still have to pee. no idea where we are.
-this couple who we originally thought was a little demanding soon helped us out as they told the driver they would not pay. we did not get to our destination, and in fact were stuck in the middle of somewhere. none of us had thai money anyway. we ended up walking toward town until we came upon this convenience shop and a lady who spoke english. she hooked me up with a bathroom then called her husband who was a tuk tuk driver. she accompanied us to town with him and brought us to her friend´s hotel. nice place and cheap. we booked a night there. this lady saved us! got some food nearby. pad thai. in thailand. feeling so much better.

Penang

4-27 Penang, Malaysia
-originally planned to only be here for a night then to go to thailand the next day. realized this was crazy talk. booked our first dorm-style room at red inn, where they have free breakfast, coffee, and internet, all for about 8 usd. yes.
-got some not-so-impressive dinner then planned out our next day. self guided tourism.

4-28 Penang, Malaysia
-made friends with a girl from Canada, Veronique. she joined us as we bussed to the Snake Temple (they have poisonous snakes just chilling all over the place, it´s crazy. but the snakes are totally lazy and don´t do anything but sleep), then back to town for lunch (really good this time), then off to penang hill.. penang´s version of hong kong´s peak tram. this one was steeper! and it was cool at the top and we saw lots of monkeys in the surrounding trees. so cute. then a hindu temple that was soo colorful and probably my favorite so far on this trip (take that, india). we took lots of pictures of penang island (all visible from up there), then headed back down. we had some western dinner since veronique was craving it, and saw some event at a club across the street. very fancy people there. we decided we looked too ¨spiritual¨ to even have a shot at getting in. got some ice cream and called it a night.

Ipoh

4-25 Ipoh, Malaysia
-met up with our fist couch surfing host, Kian. really nice and we stayed with him and his family. their house was amazing! and our room had AC and a shower!! we watched some tv with him. top chef and australian biggest loser. neither of which i normally watch, but since we hadn´t seen tv in so long, it was kind of enthralling. and they had malaysian subtitles (which is basically the same as indonesian), which was really helpful for learning as i listened in english.
-went to a night market with Kian and tried some fried ice cream (omg) and a peanut pancake. liking the malaysian food

4-26 Ipoh, Malaysia
-Kian dropped us off in town near a cave temple. we caught a taxi to gua temperung (cave system), but while we were in the taxi, the driver starts saying how it´s farther than he thought and he´d have to charge more. we tell him to drop us at the bus station. we are not noobs to getting scammed. we catch a bus, but don´t realize we need to push this button to get off. end up going 2km past our stop and get off when some ladies push the button for their stop. transportation in ipoh isn´t great and there aren´t any buses or taxis to be seen. we walk towards the cave. 2km later we get to a sign. cave is 2km to our right. we walk some more. it is mad hot. we hear what may be monkeys in the trees. we continue onwards. finally, the caves! we get some ice cream and sit in the shade with a fan.
-unforunately we are an hour or two late and like 10 people short of being able to do the ¨wet tour¨ were you venture far into the cave then exit by walking through the cave river. poor planning, but it´s hard to do this when we´re in each place for such a short time. so far we are failing a bit at malaysia with the KL towers and all. we do the ¨dry tour¨ which is still pretty good, and when the tour guide realizes i know a little malaysian, we end up chatting for the rest of the tour.
-we find this older white guy after our tour and ask him how he´s getting back to ipoh. apparently he´s going somewhere else but he has a car and upon finding out we´d walked there, offers us a ride back to the main road where the buses are. yesssss. he tells us his story. he was teaching in malaysia for a while when he met his soon to be wife. ended up moving there. he drops us at a bus station where we are later joined by some locals. we are all skeptical that a bus will ever come. they begin trying to flag down people on motorbikes for a ride. finally, a bus!
-we get back to where kian dropped us with just enough time to see one more cave temple (not the coolest one we wanted though)
-later that night he drops us in town again, this time at tutti frutti (frozen yogurt!!) where we give in and buy 5 usd worth of it, haha. soooo good. then we meet up with this girl couch surfer, wen. she is amazing! we get chinese noodle soup with her (really really good), then back to the night market where we sample some kaya (a malaysian jam sorta thing) and other sweets. wish we had more time to hang out with her.

Some more

4-24 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-got up at 6am. painful. headed out for the petronas towers (my favorite buildings!!) and arrived around 8:30am. woops. not early enough. no more tickets for the top. kind of sad, but oh well. took lots of pictures from the outside. then stopped by a tourist info place but mistakenly (not really) ended up in a chocolate store. almost bought white chocolate covered mango, pineapple and papaya but there were too many people there and we didn´t have enough patience for the lines. got samples though! then onwards to the KL tower, but found out that was a little expensive to go out. second fail. got a sundae to make up for it.
-naptime. since we started the day so early we were already tired, and aarti was still getting over being sick.
-decided to make the most of our last night here by seeing the central market. it was good to both of us. i got a ring (something i´d been looking for the whole trip), a dress (my fifth of this trip, haha), and some awesome ice cream
-researched thailand. it looks confusing.

4-19 Goa, India
-packed then hung out at our favorite restaurant for a long time ordering one thing at a time, haha
-got contact info from our best friends in Goa, these New Zealanders we met on the train there
-internet to plan malaysia!
-sweaty bus ride to the train station, and then overnight train to mumbai, aka sweat central.

4-20 Mumbai, India
-arrived at our hotel before the room was ready. not surprising since it was like 6:30am. fell asleep on some chairs in the lobby. then moved to our room and slept there.
-then more laundry by hand. actually got a blister from this. man i love laundry machines..
-finally tried the mcspicy paneer. indian mcdonalds, i love you.
-home to do a phone interview!

4-21 flight to Singapore!
-met up with janmeet one last time and gave him fenny and cashews from goa. he gave us bracelets! sweet
- watched ps i love you on the plane instead of sleeping. woops.

4-22 Singapore
-airport is mad nice, as i´d heard
-this place is so clean
-this place is way more expensive than india
-aarti was kind of sick so i explored during the day alone (totally safe, don´t worry mom and dad!!), then we met up at night to see the sweet buildings and fountains and a street performer named willy along the water. also i went to the malay heritage center and got some practice recognizing words in indonesian! so exciting after all the studying i´ve been doing before and during this trip.
-went on a wild goose chase for internet, only to find it for free in the end. score!

4-23 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-packed up and walked maybe a mile with all our stuff in the heat. we are true champions. also i am getting so good at carrying aarti´s bag up the stairs, haha. took a bus that had AC (Singapore is not India it turns out) and reclining chairs. wow. slept for most of the way.
-dropped off at a semi random location in KL. near the bus station, but we couldn´t see that from where they dropped us. luckily, we could find our street on the google map aarti made before the trip. yay, our preparation was useful! we managed to navigate ourselves toward the city. meanwhile there was crazy thunder (but no rain thankfully) and we didn´t have any malaysian money yet. found an atm, then found a hotel. teamwork. SHOWER.
-went out to explore chinatown and got some awesome pineapple fried rice and chicken actually in a pineapple.

It´s May 4th already in Thailand

Gah. Just typed up a ton, and then the internet died. Sorry, but it´s going to be shorter this time.

Birthday- lots of sleeping and eating. crazy chocolate ice cream.

4-16 Goa, India
-first time getting our laundry done. amazing
-night market with new friend, present for parents, and hippy music!
-got random people to help me measure my head in the internet cafe with a ruler i printed out so i could order my cap and gown

4-17 Goa, India
-bought some darjeeling tea and learned how to make it!
-saw most of Lagaan, a hindi movie about a cricket game for independence (and about a drought). during the movie a crazy storm happened (totally out of season here) and we ran for cover and the projector died. will have to finish movie later

4-18 Goa, India
Wanted to go to Baga beach, just to the south. Option A- rent a scooter. salesman scared us out of it though, saying we shouldn´t try it and get hurt on our vacation if we don´t already know how to drive one. Option B- take a bus. we just missed it though. Option C- after some people laughingly telling us we could walk to baga, we accepted the challenge. Found this narrow path along the beach. It took us over some rocks, up a hill, along steep ledges (not too steep! don´t worry mom and dad), over a ditch, through some trash, under some overgrowth, and strangely past two men in business suits. Then we arrived in baga. however, we realized we were on the other side of this river thing that flowed into the ocean from all the tourists and restaurants. not to be defeated, we put our purses into plastic bags and decided to ford it. We saw multiple tourists attempting the same thing, walking a few steps in, sinking a bit, then turning back. They were all taller than us. But we are way tougher. One guy watching all of this go down wished us luck. We´d need it. We decided to ford it in two parts. It was shallowest where it branched off into two parts. The first one was easy and we ended up on a sandabar in the middle. The second part looked deeper and the current a bit faster. I tested it out first without stuff to make sure we´d be able to do it, and it was way easier than it looked. We ventured in. Success! By that point we had quite a few people watching us and offering to help us carry our things. But we did it alone. We felt so victorious, you have no idea. That night we went to the famous Tito´s bar where ladies get in for free and also free drinks! Lots of sweet music. It was pretty good, except the expensive (relative to India) taxi ride back home. Oh well. Oh yeah, and the bartender told us we looked ¨spiritual¨. I think he was calling us hippies.