A Phi Phi Island Wedding

Beginning of February, 2013
Phi Phi Island, Thailand

At the start of our trip we had the chance to pass through Phi Phi Island for a few short hours and were determined to go back before we left Thailand because it was the most beautiful place we'd ever seen.  Luckily my friend Aimee from home decided to get married there at the end of January which gave us the perfect reason to go back!

Like usual, we didn't do much planning before heading to the island, so we weren't sure where the heck we were going to stay.  We got a tip from someone on the ferry ride over that the cheapest/coolest place to go was the Viking Resort, and if we wanted to save $3 each we could walk there instead of paying for a long tail boat over, like most people did.  He assured us it wouldn't take more than 15 minutes.  Also like usual, that was a lie.  About 45 minutes of hiking along the water on slippery rocks and up and down dirt hills through the jungle, WITH OUR BACKPACKS ON, we arrived at the Viking Resort.  2 very sweaty backpackers.

It always seems like a good idea at the beginning...

When we finally got to the resort we learned that they only had one room left.  A bungalow with one small bed and a shared bathroom that was about a 10 minute walk away.  Cool, we'll take it.

The front of our rustic bungalow

View from the back

Anyways, enough about our usual lodging and transportation mishaps.  Let's talk about the important stuff.  THE WEDDING!  There´s no way I could do their amazing ceremony and reception justice by trying to recap the whole thing here, so I´m just going to share some of my favorite pictures from the night, of which I took about a million:

Favorite thing #1:  While we were busy getting the bride ready for the ceremony a monkey came knocking on the door!  I'm not joking.  I'm pretty sure it was good luck.

There was a knock at the door, so we went to check it out...

Oh hello monkey!  

Favorite thing #2: The bride arrived by tuktuk

Bigger than a normal tuk tuk, it was like their limo version!

Favorite things #3 and #4 pictured here:  The AMAZINGLY gaudy hot pink and red asian-style wedding decor that the hotel staff put together....and the bride and groom drinking whiskey out of the "unity bucket" after their vows.

And favorite thing #4.5: Their hilarious friend Andy did the greatest job officiating

Favorite thing #5: They are the cutest couple ever!

AND they´re extremely attractive

Favorite thing #6: The bride, groom, and guests all sent off Thai lanterns together

Love this

My wedding date with our lantern

Favorite thing #7:  Still can´t believe I got to celebrate this girl´s wedding with her all the way across the world!  So happy.

Favorite thing #8: I had the hottest date in town!  

This lighting makes us look party animals even though we´re far from it

Thanks for letting us celebrate with you guys, Aimee and Mikey!  I think your thai wedding guests said it best.."the bride was very beautiful and the groom was very handsome". :)

Love,

Ashley

The worst transportation experience of our trip- and a hilarious email exchange

After Koh Tao we decided to take an overnight ferry to Phuket.  Let's just say I would have rather been biking and kayaking in Laos.

Here's the email Pkimb sent our friend Isaac about our horrific overnight ferry experience.  

From: Pkimb

We just slept here...

Overnight Ferry Prison for Backpackers

And now we feel like this...

Am I really posting this picture??

From: Isaac
Question:  have you been sold into the sex trade, and that’s the cattle car they use to smuggle you across borders?  Regardless, I’ve created a “Free Ashley & Kim² From the Thai Sex Trade” donation/charity on Facebook.  You’re welcome.

From: Kim M
I think being sex slaves would be better.  Let's put it this way...I slept 15 minutes on that boat and had a dream I was in a plane crash.  Yes I said dream not nightmare...you be the judge.

Just had to share this.  It was actually worse than the "after" picture shows, if that's possible.
Love,
Ashley

Koh Tao Recap

Sometime around the end of January

Koh Tao, Thailand

After a few days living it up on Koh Chang, we headed to Koh Tao for some more island fun.  As you know from Kim's post, Tragedy in Paradise, this is where I lost my iphone/3,000 unsaved pictures/only wifi device/heart&soul.  I still have nightmares about it slipping out of my hand, over the railing, and into the water.  It had been such a happy day!  Out on our first ever fishing expedition, ready to catch some giant barracuda, happy happy happy.

And then plonk.  Into the ocean.  ALL THE MEMORIES.  Ok sorry I'm getting emo over here.  Back to Koh Tao.  Maybe I'll just bullet point it.

1.  It was insanely beautiful.

This picture doesn't even do it justice

2.  We happened to be there at the same time as the Full Moon Party was going on just an hour boat ride away on Koh Phangan.  Sounds like an easy jaunt over there to partake in one of the biggest parties in the world, right?  And YOLO, right??  I know, but there were some important details we had to consider.  There was the fact that we had just arrived that morning after a horrific 9 hour overnight train ride from Bangkok and were worried we were too exhausted to party all night long that same night.  Or the fact that not only would we have had to party all night long, we literally would have had to leave at 4pm on a boat to the Full Moon Party to only return back to our hotel/island at 10am the next morning, essentially forcing us to be awake and partying from about 7pm until 9am the next day, without anywhere to sleep or rest or hide from the craziness.  Also, we were scared we might lose all our things, or lose each other, or get drugged, or have one of us get so drunk we'd have to leave them in a place called the "no rape zone" we heard about, or have one of those people who carry around big sn@kes and put them around your neck so you can pay them to pose for a picture approach me- and then I would have died, and so ultimately, it just didn't seem like a good idea.  The next day we saw the people who did decide to take the boat over to the full moon party and we were SUPER happy we didn't go.  

Yes,  I know.  This probably would have been me if we had gone...

3.  Kim and Pkimb talked me into taking a hike in the million degree heat over to some place called Banana Beach where I was supposed to be able to swim out to some amazing old bar in the middle of the water and enjoy the sunset.  When we got there a million hours later, super sweaty ready to swim we found out that there was no bar in the middle of the ocean to swim to, and the beach and water were COVERED in giant banana slugs (hence the name) so we didn't even get to swim really.  There was at least a cool looking rickety old bar on the beach that we got to go to, which was fun until we thought we made a new Thai friend who actually turned out to be a drug dealer and stopped talking to us the second we told him we weren't interested in any opium.  

4.  Pkimb got her first Thai oil massage on our last day on the island, which was one of the best massage places we had been to, except for the fact that Pkimb, the first timer, got stuck on the bed closest to the front window/doors of the shop and, while Kim K and I were back behind our privacy curtains enjoying our massages, Pkimb had to strip down in the front of the massage parlor, without a curtain, rushing to get under the skimpy little sheet they give you.  This was probably funnier to us than it was to Pkimb. :)

All of this takes us to our last day on Koh Tao.  The day before the worst day/night of transportation of our entire trip.  

Love,

Ashley

Meet Pkimb

This all happened about 2 months ago....we're a LITTLE behind... but this blog is our journal and we don't want to leave too much out, so let's just pretend it's still the end of January and we're still in Asia for a bit, k?  K.

A quick backstory:  After spending time in Laos with our 13 new friends, Kim and I headed out on a flight to Bangkok to meet up with our lovely friend Kim M (we'll call her by her asian name, Pkimb, for the purpose of this blog) from home who was flying in to spend 10 days with us in Thailand.  

The good:  We got to see Kim!!  I mean- Pkimb.

HI KIM WE MISS YOU!!!

The bad:  Kim K came down with a very nasty case of something very nasty.  

A tiny Asian version of Kim 

I had been really sick with the same thing the day before so I can say with complete understanding- it was bad.  When we arrived in Bangkok to meet Pkimb at the airport, it was pretty obvious Kim K wasn't going anywhere except the bathroom.  The only problem with this was that the 3 of us we were supposed to be getting directly on a 7 hour bus/ferry ride to the island of Koh Chang.  After a few seconds of trying to figure out what we should do, Kim K noticed a sign for an airport hotel and was like guys- you go ahead I'll meet you tomorrow- and ran off to go puke her brains out. 

Fast forward a day or so and the three of us are sitting pretty on a beach in Koh Chang together.  It was so amazing having Pkimb with us.  She's the most hilarious, easygoing, up-for-anything travel partner you could ask for and there are way too many stories that happened while we were traveling with her to share here, so I'll just pick a few of my favorites over the next couple of posts.

Pretending to fit in at the fanciest hotel on Koh Chang

Enjoying all the hotel had to offer

One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen

To start- there was the time (or 7) we snuck into the fancy hotel in Koh Chang next to our budget (gecko-infested, cement bed, situated next to a night club) hostel.  We spent the day swimming in their infinity pool, playing darts by the ocean, and buying rum and cokes like they were going out of style so that the waiter didn't kick us out.  We then snuck back to the fancy hotel's beach area that night to enjoy the cocktails and the ocean view from their cozy beach chairs.  About 20 minutes into our private cocktail hour, their security guard started walking around the beach with a flashlight looking for trespassers.  (Us.) We didn't really have anywhere to hide and we didn't know what to do so we just got really quiet and sat perfectly still, which worked fine until he shone his flashlight in our faces.  And then.  He walked away.  I know I'm not explaining how funny this was very well and it's probably one of those I guess you had to be there moments, but it really was hilarious and we could not stop laughing.  We were sitting there, giant cocktails in hand, at the fanciest resort on the island and we were apparently invisible.  After the security guard left we just kept laughing saying... if he's not looking for us...what IS he looking for?  

The next night we had a similar we-must-be-invisible experience when we decided we wanted one of the fruit shake vendor guys on the street to mix our favorite cocktail for us for the price of just a fruit shake ($1).  All it took was buying our own bottle of vodka, bottle of baileys, and ordering a banana shake.  As he started pouring all of the ingredients into the blender for the fruit shake, I leaned over and started pouring in our vodka and Baileys.  Don't mind me.  Just adding a little something extra.  Nothing to see here.  He literally did not look up, threw the lid on, and started mixing our shake.  Have I mentioned how much I love Thailand??

Here's our lovely fruit shake vendor

Here's me, adding in the special ingredients

Love,
Ashley

50 Shades of Orange -OR- That Time I Fed Bananas to the Monks

January 18th, 2013
Ashley here

One of the coolest things about Luang Prabang, Laos is being able to see all the monks walking around town.  There's actually a sign up in the main market area that I saw that says something like- 'You're probably really curious about our monks!  People are always asking...where are they going and what are they doing all the time when they're walking around?  The answer is- they're doing the same things as you!  They're going to school or going to see their family or getting some exercise.  They're normal people just like you!'  Uhhhh yeah, normal people except for the fact that every morning at 5am they walk through the streets in lines and collect their one and only meal of the day from old ladies and random people on the street who go out and feed them every morning.  Totally normal. 

All pictures courtesy of the internet.  Picture me squatting next to that girl with a few bunches of bananas on my lap.

A tiny bit of background: There are at least 30 Buddhist temples (wats) in Luang Prabang and real-life-shaved-headed orange clad monks live in all of them (I think).  Every time we would hear someone talking about the monks, it seemed like they were trying to one-up the last person we heard talking about them with their description of their orange robes.  From poppy to pumpkin, turmeric to tangerine, marigold to saffron.  It was like everyone was practicing for their next poetry slam.  

More like 50 shades of hungry.   HOW DO THEY SURVIVE ON ONE MEAL A DAY???

Anyways I feel like this is going to get really long so let me at least try to cut to the point.  We heard that you could get up at the crack of dawn and join the buddhists in feeding the monks, and Kim was kind of like ehhhh that sounds really cool and we should definitely do it, but I think I'd rather just watch.  And I was kind of like 5 in the morning?  That sounds horrific but I really want to feed some monks so fine ok let's do it.  The next day at 5 in the pitch black morning we got up and started walking to the main street in town to figure out how I could take part in this cool tradition.  I'd done some research the day before online and read that people usually fed the monks rice (oops left our rice cookers at home) or sometimes bananas, and so we went in search of a good deal on bananas at the local fruit and veggie street market.  I got a few bunches of them and we headed out to the street to get situated and wait for the monks to come.  

Once we saw the old ladies sitting on their stools with their big bowls full of rice, I started getting nervous.  I didn't have a stool, I didn't know what to expect, and it seemed like the internet had lied to me about the bananas, because no one else had any.  I stood around with Kim for a bit trying to figure out where I should squat and what was going to happen, and then we saw the first line of monks start walking down the street and I just plonked myself down next to a row of old ladies, set my bananas on my lap, and tried to copy what the ladies on my left were doing.  It was going fine for the first 9 or so monks, but then I realized I was running out of bananas and there were still about a million more monks coming down the line.  At about monk number 16 I was out.  Then I didn't know what to do.  I just stared down at the ground and waited for this first line of monks to pass, then ran across the street to Kim who was standing watching, taking it all in like a normal person.  

I felt like they were probably going..."rice, rice, rice, rice, rice, banana? rice, rice rice." Luckily they're monks so they didn't make fun of me.

After my few minutes of getting to at least attempt to partake in this awesome tradition, I stood with Kim and we watched row after row of monks get their food for the day.  Everyone involved was completely silent and the sun started to come up and it really was an amazing sight to see. 

Ashley

If Anyone Tells Us This Was a Character Building Experience...

January 17, 2013

Ashley is too angry to write this post but she has plenty to say so I will add her commentary in red, which accurately reflects her mood, as she reads over my shoulder.  Hi guys. Ashley here.

We decided to stay in Luang Prabang an extra 4 days so we could meet up with Hannah and Neil. We figured since we were staying longer we should do a tour before they got here.  My bad habits must be rubbing off on Ashley because we signed up for a day long biking/kayaking tour without really thinking it through first. We woke up early to join the one other participant and our "guide" -in the sense he told us what to do then took off at light speed without ever looking back to see if we were still behind him.   

Mistake #1. We assumed this would be a leisurely bike ride through town and some light kayaking since no one bothered to ask us our skill level. We also believed the agent when she said the roads would be flat.  Mistake #1.  Not asking for our money back the second our guide (who BARELY spoke English)  tried to get us on a bike built for Shaquille O'Neil.  It was literally made for a giant person and he was pointing at it trying to get me to start riding it and I was like ummm sir, this bike is WAY TOO BIG.  I can't even get my leg over the top.  And he was just shaking his head trying to shove me onto the bike and I was like DO YOU MAYBE HAVE ONE FOR NORMAL SIZED HUMANS???  And he ended up having to borrow bikes from the rental place across the street because apparently he usually only gives bike tours to Sasquatch and The Rock.

Mistake #2. I am probably the only woman dumb enough to show up for a bike excursion without a sports bra. The fact that our bike had shock absorbers should have sent me running back to the hotel room to get one.  This wasn't a problem for me a) because I was wearing one and b) because I don't really need one.   

The first 30 minutes were a pretty scary ride through town, dodging motorbikes and tuk tuks, up into the quiet suburbs with locals and dogs meandering the streets. Then the flat, paved road ended and turned into hills covered in big gravel that sounded like popcorn popping and slowed us down to about 1 MPH because we thought for sure our front wheels were going to go spinning out of control at any second. Our guide and Clive, the other extremely annoying and awkward gentleman on the tour, would bike ahead, stop and wait for us, then take off as soon as they saw us, repeating this the whole way. The only time they waited was when my chain came off and it was Clive, not our guide, who assisted.

The flattest, most scenic part of the journey.

We managed to survive the Gravel Hill Of Death and turned onto a dirt road which we soon learned was under construction as huge bulldozers and tractors went speeding past us. This part of the journey would have been a lot more enjoyable if it was a true country road, quiet and surrounded by trees and hills. Instead we were surrounded by the jarring sound of jack hammers, the beeping of forklifts backing up and potentially pretty views that were clouded over with a dusty haze.  GUYS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.  It was like trying to go for a leisurely bike ride through a monster truck race track while all the trucks on there were trying to run you over and you barely had enough energy to keep pedaling up and down the rocky gravely hills, let alone to dodge tractors and semi trucks filled with rocks and dirt that blew in your eyes.    

We kept going and going and going and going until we reached the turn off to meet up with the main road again. Sometime between the last tour and our tour, the construction team had dug a deep ravine separating our path from where we needed to go.  So through the ravine it was.  Here's where I 100% almost lost it.  Are you picturing this yet?  After hours of riding up and down an awful dirt and gravel road dodging construction vehicles, thinking we must ALMOST be at this river ready to get in the kayaks, the road ends.  And we're looking at a giant ravine filled with quicksand and nasty water.  And our guide can't find a way around it so he decides we have to go through it.  THIS WASN'T IN THE BROCHURE.  

The guide and Clive made it through without many mishaps and then it was my turn. I slowly walked my bike down the steep hill to the muddy, cloudy, nasty looking river that had been created. I pushed my bike over to the other side and then hopped across the river only to sink mid-shin deep in mud. I quickly started to climb out but the mud was pulling me down like quicksand. With a loud slurp I managed to pull my foot out while my flip flop (Mistake #3) was sucked down into the muddy abyss. Determined not to lose a second pair of flip flops only 6 weeks into the trip I grabbed a rock and started digging.  And I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures since I was still on the other side of the ravine holding my bike trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get across without dying.  This I have to admit was simultaneously the most insane part of the trip and the most hilarious for me because the three of them were over there sinking in quicksand, digging around trying to find Kim's other Croc (yes Laura, Croc!) and I was high and dry on the other side trying to capture the moment on my iPhone.  RIP iPhone. :(

Meanwhile Ashley was still on the other side of the river in a state of shock. Our guide decided to be helpful for the first time and picked up the biggest rock his small frame could support and threw it in the river trying to make a path for Ashley to cross, which resulted in him splashing her with a ton of disgusting water. (Here's where it immediately stopped being hilarious for me.)  Before she had time to react, he threw a second rock sending a second wave of nasty water all over her.  I almost threw the bike down and tackled him into the ravine because I was so furious but then I realized I would be even dirtier and oh god it was just so terrible, I'm angry thinking about it again.

By the time Ashley made it across I had given up on finding my shoe. The guide gave a half-hearted effort at digging and then he also gave up. Our situation had gone from bad to worse as I wasn't sure how I was going to continue with only 1 shoe.  And then the nearby backhoe started speeding down the hill, apparently tired of waiting for us. As we scrambled out of his way he dug up a huge pile of mud, threw it against the hill and there was my flip flop, tumbling out of the mess.   Ok wait, again, is everyone picturing this accurately?  We're all standing around in the mud trying to find the shoe and trying not to sink into the quicksand, and out of nowhere the giant bulldozer thing with the scooper thing at the front starts coming at us and we start scrambling out of the way trying not to get run over, getting muddier and muddier with each step, and then it turns out he's actually trying to help.  THE BULLDOZER SAVED THE DAY.  And I had pictures of it!  But now I don't.  

Onward we went to the river. Our guide asked if we wanted helmets FOR KAYAKING NOT FOR BIKE RIDING, thanks guy, and the following conversation occurred.

Me: "Do we need helmets?"
Guide: "Only if you capsize."
Me: "Do you think we'll capsize?"
Guide: "Only if there are rapids."
Me: "Are there rapids?"
Guide: "No." (handing me a broken helmet)
Me: "Are you sure??"
Guide: "Yes."
Me: "There are no rapids at all?"
Guide: "No. Only at the end."

We got in and practiced a little since this was my first time kayaking. The guide told me I should be good enough by the end that I'd survive the rapids.  He then paddled past Ash, splashed her with water, (that's when I screamed he should go eff himself) then took off down the river. I slowly fishtailed my way after everyone, trying to rationalize how my crooked steering could somehow work to my benefit when I reached the rapids that may or may not exist.

We stopped for lunch and had a heart to heart where Ashley and I admitted to each other there was no way either of us wanted to hop back into a kayak for 3 hours and brave the potential rapids. And so we happily thanked our guide, wished him and Clive good luck and took a long boat back to town where we finally got to enjoy some peace and quiet and beautiful countryside.  But not before Kim cheerfully had lunch with Annoying Clive and Terrible Guide laughing and joking and making the best of things because like a married couple- when one of us is upset the other one ends up overcompensating in the other direction so we don't have a collective meltdown.  Don't we make a great team? :)

Love,
Kim and Angry Ashley

Tragedy In Paradise

January 28th, 2013

**This post is out of order**

A few days ago we met up with our friend, Kim #2, to spend time on some Thai beaches. One of our stops was Ko Tao, a beautiful diving island on the east coast of Thailand. Since Ash and I can't dive we decided to go fishing instead. We were determined to catch, at the very least, a 4 ft barracuda so after 2 hours and only 1 of us catching a tiny fish, we jokingly asked our Thai captain (Kim #2 would like us to note he looked like an oompa loompa) if we could go to another fishing spot where the barracudas were. We are pretty sure he told us to go f*ck ourselves in Thai, told us in English he wasn't a magician and that we could find barracudas in an aquarium, then took us to the roughest part of the sea where they filmed the movie the Perfect Storm.

And then.....Ashley dropped her phone (our main camera) into the ocean. You are probably as surprised as I am that she didn't throw herself overboard as well. In lieu of flowers please send donations to www.whitepeopleproblems.com. We thank you for your kind thoughts during this dark period.

Kim and Ashley

P.S. Posts will be light on pics for awhile.

We may have picked up an accent

Jan 9th-ish 2013
Ashley here

Who do you hate more than those people who walk around talking with weird accents, and you're like oh where are you from?  And they're like who me?  Oh I'm from Cincinnati, love.  And you're like....???

That's us now.  I mean if not us it's definitely me-  I won't speak for Kim, but I will say that I've heard her mention how excited she is to go to Oz in a few months and that she'd fancy another beer a time or two.

What happened was...we met these 3 awesome new British friends here in Pai on our second night, and have pretty much not left their sides for 5 days straight.  It's a couple from England, Hannah and Neil, and a Scottish dude named William who I can understand most of the time, except for when he's talking to another Scottish person and then there's no way.  He insists they're speaking english but I don't think so.

After the first day we spent with them I was like oh how novel!  They call a jacket a jumper!  And a truck a lorry!  Isn't that nice.  And now while I'm riding down the road on my motorbike I catch myself literally thinking with an accent.  I'm like maybe we should have a cheeky little snack at that restaurant before we head back.  Or oh no! Mind that dog in the road! Etc etc etc.  It's embarrassing even when I'm the only one hearing myself think.
 
Anyways, just felt the need to confess.  Thanks for listening :)  Cheerio mates! -Ash

Kim and me with our 3 new besties having a barry night out!  (Barry = awesome in Scottish)

Riding the bus to Pai is like being on the teacups ride at Disneyland for 3 hours straight

January 6th, 2013
Ashley here

After 6 days in Chiang Mai we decided to bus our way to a nearby mountain town called Pai that we'd heard good things about.  Kim was especially eager to go there because it was supposed to be full of hippies and you know that girl likes to get her hippy on from time to time.

Here's a sneak peak of just how hippy the town turned out to be

The one problem with deciding to go to Pai next was that we'd heard the bus ride there was pretty awful.  We can now confirm these rumors are 100% true.

Riding the bus to Pai is like being on the teacups ride at Disneyland for 3 hours straight.  You're crammed in there, all sweaty and annoyed, sliding back and forth between the window and the person next to you every time the bus goes around a corner, and unfortunately this road has exactly 762 corners.  It's so bad that people have counted and they make t-shirts saying "I survived the ride to Pai".  I honestly think I hit my head on either Kim or the window about 760 times...it was pretty terrible.  Thank god we were warned before the ride about the road and were able to take some Dramamine before we left, otherwise we may have suffered the same fate as the girl who spent the entire ride puking into her Cheetos bag until it almost overflowed.

<just imagine a picture of a little Chinese girl neatly puking in a bag of Cheetos here>

All smiles before the journey starts.

To make matters worse- almost 3 hours into the trip our crazy driver still had not pulled over for a bathroom break and I was pretty sure I was going to pee my pants.  He didn't speak English and I was in the very back of the bus so I wasn't sure how I was going to get him to pull over.  Right as I was about to start yelling "TOILET" towards the front of the bus, the only Thai lady riding with us managed to convince the driver to pull over at a rest stop.  Every girl on that bus literally dove out the door and we all ran towards the bathrooms.  That's when I saw it.  My first squatter toilet.  Nothing I could do about.  I couldn't hold it, I couldn't try to find a different place to go, I just had to roll with it.  All I'll say is thank god I was wearing closed toe shoes. :/

At least they had a sink?  Even if they didn't have soap.  Or toilet paper.  OR  anything you might actually want.

We finally got to town in mostly one piece and were then picked up by the owners of the hotel we were staying at....on a motorcycle with a side car.  Kim got on the back of the bike and I sat in the side car with our backpacks.  At this point any type of transportation was better than being on that bus to Pai.

Our VIP ride to our hotel in Pai.  Note- This photo was taken from a side car.

We fought over who got to ride in the sidecar and I won :)

On a happy note, the city way exceeded our expectations!!  It was definitely the cutest town we'd seen so far, with the markets, and mountains, and shops, and we were super excited to start exploring.

That first night we had an amazing dinner for $3, we got our first Thai oil massages which definitely wouldn't be our last, we tried squid jerky from a street vendor which definitely would be our last, we met some people from Colorado who also were obsessed with Macklemore's new CD and they let me play the whole Heist album on the bar's sound system, and we froze our booties off in our bungalow because we had no idea how cold it was going to be in this new city!

This mixed veg was like 5 cents!! Made me want to be a vegetarian for at least 10 minutes.

This is the bar where they let me play Macklemore on their speakers and we had a dance party with our new friends.

Here's me dominating pool.  Stop judging my tennis shoe/dress combo.  I'm traveling ok!  I can't explain it!

Kim pretending to like dried squid

Me pretending to like dried squid

Lots more on the lovely city of Pai to come! :)

Sawatdee, Kyle!! (That means goodbye)

We sent Kyle off on a 40 hour journey back to Seattle where he had 1.5 days to recover before starting busy season. Hope that worked out well for you my friend.

The last of many delicious fruit smoothies at our 'Farewell to Kyle' dinner.

Ashley told Kyle to join us just a month before we left and since he does everything she says, he agreed to purchase a high priced ticket to fly to paradise during Christmas/New Year's Eve. If that isn't love I don't know what is.

His last day on the trip. Have you ever seen someone look like more of a tourist? His shirt says 'My city is filthy- Seattle'.

About to send him off on his million hour journey home.

The past two weeks were filled with many hilarious anecdotes, jokes, dance moves and monologues that had Ashley almost peeing her pants on many occasions.  Despite your two week long eye infection, your bout of food poisoning, and that other time you puked, we hope you had as much fun as we did. :)

Don't worry, Ashley stopped crying a few days after you left.

We miss you Kyle!!

Love,
Kim and Ashley