Hello everyone! We apologize for not posting sooner, but we've been pretty low and lazy lately, enjoying the cool nights and slow movements of Luang Prabang.

Without too much fuss, here's some photos! :)


Here is the lovely Maria whilst our bike ride posing in front of the foliage that is all over this place. Its still very hot, but the air is fresh, unlike Bangkok where it most certainly is not!
It's nice to be able to finally ride BICYCLES around a town.. everywhere we've been only ever hires out motorbikes.. quite a shame since you can see so much more while biking!







This is a good example of the kind of houses people here have. I beleive this particular one is a guesthouse, not very different from one that we're staying in. Luang Prabang definitely makes you feel very at home, like you're in a small town outside of Vancouver.. very cool!





While Wat hunting yesterday, we saw many buddahs, as to be expected. This one stood out as it was all alone in the corner of the property, and basically deserted. It's so peaceful to be able to just kneel down in front of a huge statue like this and let your mind roooooam....






Here is a (blurry) shot of the night market that happens here every day.. people literally set up and tear down this market that occupies a full two blocks of road, and is shut down to traffic. Most of the vendors sell the same stuff, but for ridiculously cheap! We plan on doing this up in a couple days, when we decide what we really like ;)





What do you get when you cross a Croat, a Frenchie, a German, some Dutchies, and a Greek?? This picture! (since I built it up so nicely) We sat down at the lovely Nazim Indian restaurant and stocked up on butter chicken and masalaaaaa..






There is another photo that goes with this one, but it's totally Rated R.. if you're really nice, mayyyybe you'll get a looksy.
Basically, in Laos, they don't beleive in "change" (DAMN PENNIES! HA!) and their currency is entirely bills.. funny thing is that each of these bills equals about $2.. since we exchanged enough to sustain ourselves for a week, they gave us HUGE stacks.. totally feel like a millionaire here!






Hope you all enjoy the pics! Parents, we're doing grand, and looking forward to talking with you guys soon! Mom and Kath, expect an email next time around, and to the rest of the fam, hope you're doing well.
To everyone else, we MISS YOU!!!! Hope everyone is doing okay, and hope we're still in your thoughts because you're all in ours!

Aight, I'm out.. l8a!
V

WERE IN LAOS!!
Its really beautiful and we arrived this afternoon. We have a cute little guesthouse right near the river. But as Vlad put it... " WE CANT GO SWIMMING IN THERE! THERE ARE PIRANNAHS AND STUFF! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING"
So that cut down my dreams of going for a dip in the river... SHHOT DOWN!!
But our cell phone doesnt work here, so sorry parents, but we will have to phone you!! We tried!! Were gonna be here for 9 days and its gonna be nice!! The weather here is a lot more forgiving than Bangkok was. Plus, no pollution! yay.
Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to let everyone know that were ok!!
I had a missing home day again today. But alas, this is our travelling part of our lives and we must go on!! Did we mention GREECE IN 3 WEEKS ! YAY!!
ok bye. peacelovehugatree
mia

So were still here in Bangkok and its been quite the adventure, although once again, we are ready to leave and have another change of pace. Its amazing, but one week somewhere has proven to be more than enough!!
Weve done some interesting things while here. Its quite the city. Weve seen the Grand Palace as Vlad mentioned, weve seen aquariums and museums and hmm.. lots of rain!!
Luang Prabang is 2 days away and we are VERY excited!! Hopefully there will be sun and we can go suntan at a park or something! Here are some more pictures to keep you all going.



<-- Heres me and Nemo. Were buddies, didnt you know? Good times...









<-- Toni, this is for you! In the Emerald Buddah temple there are all of these amaaazing paintings on the walls, with gold and mother of pearl.. Really beautiful!
















<-- This is at the Grand Palace. The demons and monkeys are holding up this stupa. They are decorated with coloured glass and the stupa is gold plated i believe! (there is another one that is solid gold and its HUGE)










<-- Last night we watched the breakdancers practice at the skytrain station. It was pretty cool and you get a glimpse why they call it Break dancing.










<-- same thing






















<-- Heres me and Vlad in our hotel room. Nuff said.








So to continue... yesterday at the Grand Palace we finally felt what it is to be a victim of some form of racism. Because were white, or foreign for that matter, we had to follow a whole bunch of rules that the Thais dont have to. RIDICULOUS.. Let me paint a picture.

We enter the Palace and there are people all around. Its a huge tourist attraction. Right away, because Vlad was wearing shorts and i was wearing a tank top, we were told to go into this line. Basically, we had to borrow clothes to enter the palace. So we wait, and get dressed with an extra layer each, only to find that many Thais are wearing shorts, and skirts and open toed shoes. IT SUCKED. Then we had to pay 250B each to enter (where the Thais get in for free) and then at the entrance where we paid, there were guides bombarding us to buy their services. Another 400B, so we said forget it, we can just read the stupid paper guide and eavesdrop on other peoples guides!! It was definitely beautiful but i dont quite know if it was worth the money and hassle. Then in the evening, we had a wicked Indian dinner in MBK and yet another form of racism happened.
We were watching the breakdancers and Vlad lit up his cigarette and i guess the skytrain police were watching us and they basically tried to be all friendly asking us where we were from, and so they fined Vlad for throwing his cigarette butt on the floor of the skytrain. Unfortunately, there are no garbages in THAILAND and to look around and find millions of other cigarette butts around. It was just a bad and expensive day.
SOOOO... that brings us to today. We were going to get up early to see Ancient City, but we were just too tired. All this walking around and we have become quite the athletes. We wish we had a pedometer just to see how many km's weve clocked. So thats about it. My hand hurts, so im gonna stop now, i hope this was an entertaining portion!!
Much love... mia

Well well well.. here we are again with yet another installment of the Vlad and Maria Fantasy Escape.

Today's set of adventues brings us to the heart of Thailand, Bangkok.

Drumroll please....

*Sigh* Here is where Mia and I have been spending all our bloody time. This frigging mall is like a black hole that sucks in everything that comes near.

Good food, cheap internet, video games and tons and tons of shopping. What more could you ask for??

Did I mention also that ALL malls here are ridiculously lavish?!?! Mom you would get lost here for a week before you found the front door :)




Pic of the Siam Station. Once we realized that we couldn't walk everywhere to see the city, we braved it and bought a rail pass. The train doesn't go all over the city, but it did get us to certain parts of the town that we needed to go, like Silom Rd. where we found Egypt Air and other agencies where we could buy our future travel tickets.



Without a doubt, the highlite of the Bangkok trip so far was our trek to the Giant Reclining Buddah. This picture doesn't even do it any justice at all.. it is HUGE. Walking into the temple and witnessing the sheer size of this piece of work leaves you breathless. We could only stand and stare to try and take in the magnitude of what we were looking at. It was truly one of the most humbling moments that I've had so far..
Obviously this is about 1/10th of the full size..





...and here is the rest of it!









We also took a day out of our time here to visit the Grand Palace, located right next to the Temple housing the Buddah shown above. This is apparently where the King lives.. not too shabby at all if I do say so myself..






So I did just try and upload a buncha other pics, but this blogger site is a piece of junk and it won't recognize the pictures like its done sooooo many times now.. rest assured I will post more of them very soon, probably next chance I'm online.

To give a quick update, we have all our tickets set up, and we're ready to fly! This sunday we'll take off and travel to Luang Prabang in Loas, and from there after a week to 10 days we'll find our way to Chiang Mai, all in the Northern parts of the countries.

We'll keep you all posted.. also, we have cell phones, so if any of you want to keep in touch with us via SMS, send us your phone numbers and we will message you, and then you reply etc..

Take care everyone, and keep posted.. more to follow very soon!

Much love, Vlad and Mia!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MY GOD!! WE GOT CELLPHONES~!
We are the happiest campers right now.
Weve arrived in Bangkok (obviously) and i have to tell you, this time around is so much more enjoyable!! Were staying in the Siam Square area. Its nice. At night time there are a whole bunch of activities , like people practicing break dancing, and dj;s. Its neat. The mall is insane. It makes Metrotown look.. well, weve discussed this before, so no need again!
Yesterday we went and took the skytrain around and we got caught in the biggest rain storm. Ive never seen rain like this.. actually, i have. When the whole of White Rock beach flooded. Its like that.
Were going to tour Chinatown today. Apparently they have a huge Indian area with food and sweets. All i can say is ... YEAH!
Its raining again so we have to buy a huge umbrella so that we arent hampered by the rain.
hmm. what else.. Were going to buy our tickets to Athens today too. And get our Visas for Laos. SO MUCH TO DO!! Well, this is just a quick update, so i better be going now. miss you all...
xoxo
mia

Hello from Bangkok once again!

We had a busy day today.. spent the morning travelling and now we have left Phuket and made our way back to the capital Bangkok. And MAN did it start with a BANG!

The flight was very good.. took us a while to get to the airport, but once we did it was smooth sailing. Much nicer to get to Bangkok in an hour as opposed to 12 by train. In fact, we would have had to drive by bus to Surat Thani and THEN train, which would have taken wayyyyyyyyy too long. So we paid the money and made it here in a flash.

Upon arriving, we took the 29 Bus into town to find a place to stay. We found a charming little guest house (pretty cheap @ 400b/12CAN a night) and plan to stay for a couple of nights while we really do Bangkok the way we should. We're right across the road from the ominous Siam Square and MBK mall. It's really hot here at the moment, and thank heavens we have a room with A/C yet again. I dunno how these Thais do it without it!

So as the day progressed, we simply could not contain our excitement to get back in the mall and grab some grub. The food court is sensational! They have Hong Kong Cuisine, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, you name it.. all for dirt cheap! I have to take some shots in this mall the next time we find ourselves wandering aimlessly around.. it's cavernous.
After we grabbed some food, we found our way to the (duh duh DUN) Cell phone floor. I will be the first to admit, I'm not the biggest cell phone fanatic out there.. in fact I find it kinda weird how people are so gaga over them, and how they can bury their head into a screen that's this big [_____________].. but now my friends.. I beleive I understand a bit more.

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to introduce you to my new phone the Samsung d820.. I wanted it, and now I DO HAVE IT!!!! YESSSSSSSS!!!!! This phone is KILLA. I got it 2nd hand, and saved quite a bit off of it.. its visibly used, but works perfectly, and seeing as how good of a price I got on a very new model phone, I'm quite excited. Mp3, Video, Pictures, 1.3m camera, Bluetooth.. man the works.. and its so purdy and slidy and black... DAH I wanna use it right now!
Anyway, so now we're on the hunt for Mia's phone the 6270.. also a very nice phone. Not quite as slim as the one I bought, but Mia has been branded by Nokia so she can't resist clearly. I don't blame her, this phone also totally rocks and she's very excited to make the purchase. She will be trying to get hers new since 2nd hand for her is not an option. She talked one guys price down a fair bit.. we're probably going to go and pick it up from him tomorrow maybe for even cheaper.

That said, now that we're here in Bangkok with a place to stay, we'll be able to really see the sights. We're very excited as this city has TONS of history, and its time to really fill up the memory in my camera. Getting around the city is pretty difficult actually, because the traffic is a zoo ALL THE TIME. I don't understand how a city of this size can have next to no traffic regulations.. no visible crosswalks, or very few at least.. not that they matter.. people would run you over and drive off either way I'm sure.
Still though, there is lots to do here and we're glad that we came since we are more prepared to tackle it now. We're also very eager to move on to Luang Prabang as its a lot slower and we'll be able to rent bicycles and ride around the small nit city. *sigh* life is rough.

Anyways, that's all we have to say for now.. hope everyone is doing aight, and we'll continue updating as we have been. Moms, we'll call in a couple days, and to everyone else, hope you're all good and thank you for your comments.
P.S. Zsa, what do you think about our first parcel?? We'd love to hear what your reaction was!!

Aight, peace everyone ;)
V & M

Hello Everyone!! From the land of nod and rain...
So its been raining here on and off (mostly on) for 2 days now and we only have tomorrow to play at the beach!! Plus, there are so many tourists here, ive decided that i dont really like patong beach. Stupid Falangs everywhere. Does anyone know what a falang is??


Farang (in Thai: ฝรั่ง), pronounced falang, is the generic Thai word for a white foreigner. It is closely related to the Khmer word Barang. Africans or African-Americans will be occasionally referred to as farang dam (black farang, in Thai: ฝรั่งดำ). While generally farang is a neutral word, it can be used as an insult depending on its context. For instance, the expression "farang ta nam khao" (in Thai: ฝรั่งตาน้ำข้าว, which literally means farang with rice-milk-colored iris) would be considered an insult.

Falang in Mia and Vlads dictionary , aka. fat dirty old man, ugly old man, discusting fat old ugly man, you get the idea. Refers to all the gross white fat old men who walk around with Thai prostitutes on their arms, who clearly cannot seem to find companionship on their own without payment. Its really really REALLY gross. We cant stand it.

Another thing thats getting on my nerves is the people selling stuff. We cant walk on the street without getting BOMBARDED with people trying to sell us stuff for the nth time we walk down the same street in one hour. (or even minute) So ive devised a plan, every time someone is agressive in trying to sell us something (and they most often are) im going to .,... get this...
HIGH FIVE THEM!!
I did it once already and it totally throws them off! Then they just are so flabbergasted that you high fived them that they stop talking. If you cant beat em, join em! Plus, them + PMS + being slightly short tempered already = HIGH FIVE!! (its brilliant)

So we have just two more days here in Patong, bless the waves which we decided that although its raining , we still should go and play in today, and tomorrow if the weather still sucks. But im happy were going back to Bangkok where theres so much to do, and plus, were gonna buy our phones there. Ive decided on a Nokia 6270. Its quite nice. http://www.europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,75912,00.html
It will cost me a bit, but with that, I wont have to buy an mp3 player because it has one built right into the phone. Its very nice.

Were both excited to keep moving. Plus, there will be more of a choice of food with the night markets being everywhere in Bangkok. (theres not much choice here) YAY for moving on!!
And may I mention, I love the fact that you all posted comments. its wicked.
Love and miss everyone very much. xoxoxo
mia

....

K now my turn!

Pics to start it off.. cuz you know that's how I roll.. *note* obviously we have way more pics than this, but these are just a couple of shots to show what we've been up to or where we are staying etc.. plus it takes a while to upload and I'm a very lazy man.. soooooo

While in Phuket Town (not there anymore) we went out of the city a fair ways to visit the Phuket National Museum. It was practically deserted, and we had the whole place to ourselves.. it was quite marvelous though! We got a bunch of shots of ancient weopons as well as relics, statues, pottery, etc. Here is a statue of Buddah dated to be about 800 or so years old.. found in Sukothai which was the capital city of the first Thai Empire.




Here we have a picture of the back of my head.. ordinarilly a shot like this is only moderately interesting.. however, after I went and got the BEST HAIRCUT I HAVE EVER GOTTEN EVERRRRRR, we felt it appropriate to take many pictures as well as video so that I can get it done like this all the time..




Here we have a shot of a fairly large fish that we saw at the Phuket Aquarium. It was quite a nice visit as they have quite a wide variety of animals both large and small.. it was very cool to see so many different types of fish and sea life in one place!





And here I was under the impression that Mia had gotten her fill of Starbucks in Canada.. but sure enough, once she saw the big green circle, her vision was blurred with sights of espresso and foam, and she had to take the plunge.







This is a shot from the balcony of our room in Patong Beach, where we are currently staying. Not a bad location really.. very close to the beach, and right in the center of town. Lots going on round these parts, and we're getting a little sick of the harassment. But all in all, a good place to see and I'm glad we came, even if the missus isnt.. tee hee!



Ohhhhh baby.. this is what its all about. The food here, ugh.. I can't even speak of the deliciousness. This is a plate of fried rice/chicken, with a plate of Green Curry/Chicken. Meals like this make being in Thailand a real treat, and food like this can be found all over the place for dirt cheap.
MMMM spicy!






Oh, and also, for anyone who's interested, say hello to Vlad's new cell phone!


Pretty aint she!?!? Can't wait to hook this baby up when I gets home!








Anyways, with that, I hope I have filled the craving for photos, and hopefully I'll be able to throw a couple more on once we get to Bangkok and really do it proper. We'll be going back on Saturday and taking care of some loose ends.

Mom, I hope that you opened up the package and like the stuff that we purchased!
I have gone for my fitting for the shirts that I'm having made and they fit perfectly and look awesome.. We'll be sending some clothing back as well, probably tomorrow afternoon, so that we don't have to carry it all around. Tonight Mia will be getting her last fitting, and tomorrow all of our stuff will be ready.. fun fun fun!!

Alright, I think that is a long enough post.. love you all and we'll talk again soon..as mentioned, we love the comments.. pleassssse keep em coming!!!

V

GO CROATIA GO!!!!!

I have to admit, I'm not as positive about tonight's game as I could be that's for sure.. I am certainly trying though to stay positive and hopefully Croatia will give me a reason to go and celebrate on Bang La road!

So right now my lovely lady and I are nestled comfortably in a small inn off of the main stretch in Patong Beach.. it is in the Southwestern part of Phuket Island, and one of the many beach residences strewn out in the area. Other stretches of beach are Kata, Karon, and one that is now eluding me. In any event, much to our suprise, we've discovered that this area has so much more to it than Puket town.. We almost struggled to find a place in Phuket Town, and you would figure that a city like atmosphere would provide more options. This place is a whole other ball game. I've seen more aussies, germans, chinese, and thai he-shes here than anywhere else. And lemme tell you, when they shut down Bang-La road from traffic, after 10pm its a brew-ha-ha-ha0oooooooo-ha.. the streets are littered with people walking all over the place, merchants selling their wares, and people falling over onto the sidewalk drunk as skunks.. quite amusing..

At first I was a little concerned as to how a whole bunch of people that pack these little bars could stay ruly.. apparently its not too much of a problem.. everyone seems to be having fun and lettin the good times roll. The aussies went completely bonkers last night with the late 3-1 victory over Japan.. whatta game!! Maria's already getting fed up with me and soccer, but to her I simply say "PSH".. Its WORLD CUP BABY!!!!! :D

We've really enjoyed it here so far at Patong, and we're really finally starting to feel a lot more comfortable here in Thailand. Mia's even started to eat more Thai food, which I was sketipcal would happen at first. Not that she doesn't like the spice, more just that she's not a huge meat fan. However, lately, we've had some of the best meals that 5 dollars can buy. Yes, we've had meals like whole crab in green curry paste, fried rice and mixed vegetables, and chicken and red curry with sides of rice and beer for .. get this.. 7 dollars. And though the food is cheap, it is nothing short of completely and utterly delicious.. smelling fingers after 7 hours and they still smell like curry is a treat I will surely miss.

We feel a little bad that we hadn't figured this out sooner.. "eat where the Thais eat" is our newly discovered mantra. The food is fantastic, and we constantly are finding new places to score awesome dishes.. Dad, the squid is plentiful, and when they serve it up simmered with Garlic and Pepper, you'd think you died and gone to heaven. YEOW!

Also, since we've been here, we finally have caved and decided to do a little shopping. We had planned to save this until we got to Chiang Mai, as they apparently have the best wares, and we beleive, best prices. While walking around town, we discovered the "Paradise Market".. now, most of these shops all carry the same sort of things.. if you want plates, shoes, billabong shirts (oh my god.. enough with the Billabong). We decided to go and take a look at one of the 1,576,392 Tailor shops that line the streets of Thailand, to see what kind of stuff we could get tailor made for us. I'm proud to announce that I stood my ground in the face of high prices, and decided not to succumb to the temtation of paying too much for a couple shirts and/or an overcoat. Unfortunately, I couldn't save myself and Maria at the same time... I had to let her go. And GO SHE WENT!!.. Check this.. she managed to grab a *custom made* blouse, pair of pants, and overcoat, made with silk/cashmere for $100 Canadian. Moms, you have to hand it to us.. that is a smashing deal. We just came from fitting #1, and we have to go back at 10:30 tonight for the fitting of the pants. Mia's super excited, and I am too because she is going to look stunning in these new threads. For me, I found another tailor that boasts on the front door "5 shirts - $70". I'll be making a stop there on the way back from here to "do business", and hopefully I won't be paying $70 ;)

Oh, and I almost forgot.. as someone who has never really gone surfing or boogie boarding, I've never had the privilege of playing at a beach where there is a lot of surf crashing in constantly.. well that all changed today when we headed for the beach about 2 minutes from our room.. man oh man, I didn't think it could be so fun splashing around like an idiot in the water, but today I found out that I still have a whole lotta kid left in me.. and I'm turning 25 this year?? Bah.. can't be true.

Anyways, I will be posting pics again in the next few days once we get to a computer that I can do so on. To sum up our upcoming travel, we have booked our tickets from Phuket Airport to Bangkok for this Saturday, and plan to spend about a week in Bangkok. From there we have also booked our flight to Luang Prabang in Laos, and are totally stoked for yet another change of pace. After that, we will be making our way back to Thailand, and head lastly up to the North to Chiang Mai, which we're also very excited about. Once we finish there, we head down to Bangkok, and on the 15th of July leave this wonderful place to go to another wonderful place.. GREECE!!!! YEAHH!!!!!!! Maria's been getting me hugely excited about the Acropolis which I'm absolutely DYING to see, and to eat all that the Greeks have to offer.. thank god for my abnormally high metabolism!!!!!

Aight, I think that should suffice for now.. hope everyone is doing so well, and thanks again for following along with our travels.. it truly makes our day every time that we log on and see all the comments.. keep em up!!

Much Luv & Fisherman's Pants..
Vlad & Mia

Yooooooo .. Vlad here again with yet another update.. I'm in agreement with Mia, I just can't stay away from you guys! You keep me reminded of how much I love you all and our great city.
(and Maria with everyone in Cowtown as well.. *she made me put that*)

Our past couple days have been quite a whirwind of activity. We found our way off the island of Ko Pha Ngan, and down to the southern most part of thailand to the largest island called Phuket. (If I wrote prior to this post that Samui was the largest, you may send me mail calling me an idiot all you like!)
The first night was a little rough considering that we stepped off of the bus (our tavel time that day took us about 10 hours) and it started to pour. We had to find shelter and quick, as it was getting dark and we were not sure of where to go. We found a small fairrrrly decent place and shacked up for the night. The next morning we walked to a more central area of Phuket Town, and got ourselves a nice room with good view and close to everthing, from the night market, to the cinemas. We plan on staying here for a few days and seeing the sights, and then we're going to make our way to the western part of the island to a place called Patong. This is apparently where the tourists swarm, and the nightlife is plentiful. We're enjoying ourselves obviously beyond words, and don't want it to end!!

We have booked our flight as well, from here to Bangkok, as another trip by bus is completely OUT of the question. Although I usually can handle riding by bus, I admit I was far from preparred for the onslaught of Thai music videos that invaded our ear drums for the entire duration of the trip. Not only were these videos the epitome of fromage, the driver seemed to beleive that everyone in Thailand needed to hear them so he cranked the speakers to 11 for the entire time. I couldn't help but laugh by the end of it. Thank god that they had scrolling lyrics on the bottom in Thai so that Mia and I could sing along.. *smacks head*

From Bangkok, we're going to head to Luang Prabang in Laos. We're totally stoked to see what we can find and will be glad to head somewhere other than Thailand for a change of pace.

That said, here are some more shots for your viewing pleasure.. we will post a video up in a couple days since I can't seem to make anything work properly right now.. clearly I'm losing my touch ;(



We grabbed this shot from the fairy upon arriving at Don Sak terminal, right before our long stretch to Surat Thani, and then Phuket.









This is a shot that I took in Surat Thani, right before we got on our second bus bound for Phuket. Notice the power lines looming in the center of the shot that soooo adds to the authenticity.






Finally in Phuket, this is a shot of the streets below from our 3rd floor suite. It's a cute little hotel like room that only costs us about $15 a night. This is quite cheap compared to some of the prices we've been forced to pay for faaaaar less.






Picture of us about to go to the Night market in Phuket for some "Chicken Fly Lice".. as my Dad used to say ;)
*ps* sorry that these photos are crazy big.. I don't have a program here to make em smaller!





Shot of the stand that we got our delicious dinner from..
The street is literally filled with open air markets that serve fresh fish and meats with rice, noodles, you name it. I have definitely been developing a taste for spice.. mostly because I have no choice what-so-ever. I'm not complaining though.. the food here is nothing short of marvelous.




To give a better idea of the small huts that line the roadway with eats.. places like this is where most of the Thai people eat, and they are very welcoming. All of the shops compete to try and get you to eat at their place.. some of the tactics that they use is pretty funny! When 2 plates of food, and bottle of beer costs you $2.50, you generally will eat almost anywhere though..





And with this once again we are off to explore some more.. well, maybe get some breaky first. We're going to the Museum today and then maybe tonight we'll try and catch a flick. Peter, I got some sand for you from Ko Pha Ngan, and Mom and Kath, I think I finally know what to get you two.. You owe me EMAILS! *waves a finger at you*

Aight, peace everyone ;)

V

Word up my lovelies..

Mia and I have been good so far, and we're in Thong Sala right now, pretty much waiting on our ferry/bus trip to Phuket.
We spent the last couple of days in a VERY remote location on the North West side of Ko Pha-Ngan called Thong Nai Pan. We found it quite peaceful and unspoiled in almost all senses, however the tradeoff was that it was completely devoid of all necessities that we have enjoyed thus far..
Don't get me wrong people.. take a look..



This is the beach, all-beit at 6AM, but u get the picture. I'd throw some of the ones during the day, but I already backed them all up to a spare minidisc, and cleared them all off my Digicam. Bottom line, I have a couple pics that I took this morning, as well as (dun-dunna-NA!) a video clip!!!!





Pretty much 20 feet in front of our beachside bungalow.. the only problem we had with this beach was.. the bungalow. Although close, it was a rotting old building with shabby workmanship. Maria and I were joking that Mike Holmes would have a field day ripping them all apart with his burly blonde haired bazooka arms. (Maria loves Mike)



Aha!! There they are those wretched mouse holes.. wellll maybe I'm being a tad harsh.. they do come with A/C and what not. The bugs were free of charge.. great deal!
Although there were other options for accomodation, we didn't want to go overboard with spending. The food here was a little less than ideal, and we felt that after 3 days, it was about enough.. whatta beach though!





Unfortunately, there were quite a few more clouds today than yesterday, which made getting a really good shot kinda tough.. this is definitely the cream of the crop though ;)
We'll get more of these in Phuket (I hope). The weather was beautiful, and we can't avoid the sun no matter what we try.. guess we'll have to settle for ridiculous tannage..






Another a couple minutes after ward.. also, below is a link for a small video that I shot with the cam in quicktime format.. only 7mb.. with commentary (he he)





Video: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=A2B1DB010B8D83DB
(right-click on link and "save-as" - Note: This file expires in one week so get it while its hot!!!)

As mentioned, we are now in Thong Sala, which is the main port on Ko Pha-Ngan. We will be riding by Ferry and then buss tomorrow for most of the day until we reach Phuket. Phuket and surrounding area was where the tsunami hit years ago. We were a little concerned about whether or not it would be ok to travel here, but according to several sources, the land has been thoroughly rebuilt, and travel is no problem at all. We are excited to get back into more of a touristy area, as the island was quite a change. We did enjoy our time here though, and have many pictures to prove it!

That's all for now.. I will post more in Phuket.. here's Mia :)

So all i can say is that im happy were out of the bug bungalow. I like feeling at one with nature, but sharing the sleeping headquarters with mosquitoes and flies and gross other things that i dont know what names they have! eek!
Were on our way to phuket, im happy. We have calculated and weve been here for 17 days. thats a long time! Were doing well!
We still dont really believe were in Thailand. It kind of just seems normal almost at this point. Theres just so much still to do! Were gonna try and make our way to Luang Prabang for sure for a week. I was just telling Vlad that im happy that we are doing this at this time in our lives. Its so difficult to pick up and leave for months at a time, and after you get settled, it just doesnt make sense. Im happy "getting this out of the way" so to speak, at this point instead of a year from now. So anyways, not much else to post at this time. Wish us a happy ride to Phuket.!
love mia and v

Just a verrry lazy hello from Ko Pha Ngan! So weve made our way to the famous full moon party island. We have decided not to attend the full moon party as it will be too difficult. This island is quite difficult to get around. So difficult, that we actually took an hour long Long Tail boatride. It was verry interesting. So we spent some days at Lamai Beach in Ko Samui, which was quite nice. I really enjoyed it there. I think Vlad did too. But anyway, we decided it was time to pack up again and move to the island of Pha Ngan. (ko is island). When you say the phrase, "beach bum" what comes to mind?
Everything you thought of plus 10X more laziness! We are in a place where you need a boat to get to, mindyou there are some restaurants, but pickins are slim. We like it though. We have a cute little bungalow (no a./c which is unfortunate) but we have a fan. No tv. no bars, no clubs, its pretty funny. All we could find in the loaner items that they have here for beach bummers to read is GERMAN. Did we mention we cant stand german? or germans? Vlad managed to find an English Glamour magazine (with Britney on the front, which isnt bad hey chrissy?)
So all were gonna do here for 3 nights (because it wouldnt be worth the ride here if we only stayed 2) is read, eat, sleep, swim, take showers, drink, look at the beach, swim, look at the sand, swim... ummm. Thats about it.
So we will be very happy to move on by the third day im sure. But not just yet!
We wont post pictures at this time because its too expensive (2 bhat/min as opposed to 1 on the mainer parts) and we are also on dial up, which would take about, oh, 78.5 years. So keep posted for the rest. We will make sure we post as often as we have been though.
Our next planned stop will be Phuket province. Its supposed to be beautiful there, were pretty excited. Were still debating on whether or not to go to Luang Prabang in Laos... well keep thinking! Love you all. We miss yoiu guys too.
xoxox
mia and V

Hellllllloooooo my darling readers..

We've had to hide in the internet cafe a tad earlier today, as it's around 1:30 in the afternoon, and we seriously cannot stand the heat. Yesterday was bad, but this is even crazier. Even when the sun is behind the clouds, it still feels like my feet are melting away as i'm walking.

Today we'll be poolside, cuz the beach is way to hot to even stand on without sandals, and the pool is even cooler than the ocean beleive it or not.

It's our last day here on Ko Samui. We will be heading to the northern island of Ko Pha Ngan tomorrow in the morning, and hopefully finding accomodation in a quiter part of the island. Apparently the Full Moon Party (that Haad Rin is known for) will be going down on the 11th of June.. this causes prices on the island to shoot up pretty drastically, and we haven't quite decided if we're going to linger around and see what all the hubbub is about, or if we're going to abandon island, and head for the mainland.

Either way, the beach life hasn't quite left our sights as of yet, and we plan on getting all that we can out of it.. we certainly did that with this island, as we travelled all around and saw most of what is here to see.

*gasp*.. ok the pool is calling me.. ciao!

V

Hey all. Its Mia. I just cant stay away from this blog, i love it.

So its our 3rd day in Lamai. I quite like it here. I think the reason is that we have an airconditioned room and satellite tv which plays movies when we just want to veg. We are definitely spoiling ourselves but hey, its our trip right?

I just wanted to give a big HEY O to Toni, my lovely sister who turns 19 TODAY!! (happy birthday poo)


I hope you all are enjoying sharing our pictures with us as much as we like taking them! Its unfortunate because we didnt have time to post all the pictures we wanted to(vlads a bit of a perfectionist and it took an hour and a half to post the previous post!) But I have to mention the most special place (I feel anyways) was where you saw the pictures of the buddah room (and theres way more than 17) There was this marble buddah that was so spectacular (pics to come soon) It was so Indiana Jones! I felt a very spiritual connection at that place. The Buddah is believed to be hundreds of years old and it is just in such a cool spot. Not only that but there were all of these chedis (bell shaped towers containing five structual elements symbolising from bottom to top earth, water, fire wind and void, they were all of these graves, we will post pics of them too) It was quite the spot, I LOVED IT!

So our plans are kind of coming along. Leona has been mentioning how we should recoinsider going to Laos. Were gonna talk about it for sure, maybe we could go there for a week as well. Or two? Were also getting excited for Greece too. We have so much going on right now its crazy!

Anyways, just thought id say a little hello.

Homesick yet you ask?? A bit. The thing i miss the most is being able to make our own food at home and sleeping in our own BEDS!! (i really am happy i decided to bring my pillow, it has at least made up for a bit of not having my own bed to sleep in! its worth the pain in the ass of trecking it from city to city, beach to beach.)

And i think by the time October comes around, we will both be ready to come home... but not just yet!
mia