Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Koh Lipe
Hello from Koh Lipe! We’ve been here for two weeks now, and the internet is slow and expensive, hence the late update on the blog. Apologies! We arrived at the height of peak season, so at first we had a little trouble finding accommodation. In fact, we’ve finally just settled into our dream bungalow: it’s one of only six on this small beautiful beach away from the crowds and the main drag, it’s right on the beach, has it’s own hammock, and is fairly secluded. We love it!
What have we been doing the last two weeks? Well, there’s not much to do on this little island, and that was part of the appeal. We’ve both been reading a LOT of books (me, 6 so far!), doing the usual beach affair of swimming, snorkeling, tanning (I’m brown, Guido’s spotted), and eating of course. It’s been fun and relaxing, but truthfully, I’m just about ready to leave Lipe. It’ll be sad to go, but I think we need to move on in our travel adventures. Guido will tell you more…
Hope everyone is doing well! Take care – Willierose
Lipeee! Really beautiful spot, I must say. I especially like our new bungalow, it’s gorgeous. Been snorkeling pretty much every day here, sometimes 3 times in one day. You can just swim out from any beach and there are coral reefs wherever you go. So far I’ve seen 3 sea horses, a moray eel, thousands of clownfish (Nemos!), lots of pufferfish (fugu-chan), a beautiful and highly poisonous sea snake, entire forests of coral etc. I’m toying with the idea of going diving, too, but’s a fairly pricey affair..2800 baht (about $85) but since Willierose still owes me a Chrissy present.. J
In a few days, my friends Reto and Petra will arrive here, too. Petra should be in the air as I type this actually and there shall be much rejoicing when they get here. I haven’t seen Petra in 3 years (not counting countless Skype sessions, esp. when Kete-chan was still in J-Land).
Alas, our visa will expire on the 26th, so we have to get out of here soon. After much debate, we decided to go to Malaysia for a week, since we’re really close to the border down here. We’ll take the train down to Penang first and hang out in Georgetown and then head on down to Kuala Lumpur, from where we’ll take the plane to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, hang out there for a bit and then to Oz on the 7th. Phew! Lots of countries in less than 2 weeks.
Over and out,
Guido
PS - pictures will be posted as soon as we find cheaper and faster internet, probably not for another week or so....
What have we been doing the last two weeks? Well, there’s not much to do on this little island, and that was part of the appeal. We’ve both been reading a LOT of books (me, 6 so far!), doing the usual beach affair of swimming, snorkeling, tanning (I’m brown, Guido’s spotted), and eating of course. It’s been fun and relaxing, but truthfully, I’m just about ready to leave Lipe. It’ll be sad to go, but I think we need to move on in our travel adventures. Guido will tell you more…
Hope everyone is doing well! Take care – Willierose
Lipeee! Really beautiful spot, I must say. I especially like our new bungalow, it’s gorgeous. Been snorkeling pretty much every day here, sometimes 3 times in one day. You can just swim out from any beach and there are coral reefs wherever you go. So far I’ve seen 3 sea horses, a moray eel, thousands of clownfish (Nemos!), lots of pufferfish (fugu-chan), a beautiful and highly poisonous sea snake, entire forests of coral etc. I’m toying with the idea of going diving, too, but’s a fairly pricey affair..2800 baht (about $85) but since Willierose still owes me a Chrissy present.. J
In a few days, my friends Reto and Petra will arrive here, too. Petra should be in the air as I type this actually and there shall be much rejoicing when they get here. I haven’t seen Petra in 3 years (not counting countless Skype sessions, esp. when Kete-chan was still in J-Land).
Alas, our visa will expire on the 26th, so we have to get out of here soon. After much debate, we decided to go to Malaysia for a week, since we’re really close to the border down here. We’ll take the train down to Penang first and hang out in Georgetown and then head on down to Kuala Lumpur, from where we’ll take the plane to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, hang out there for a bit and then to Oz on the 7th. Phew! Lots of countries in less than 2 weeks.
Over and out,
Guido
PS - pictures will be posted as soon as we find cheaper and faster internet, probably not for another week or so....
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Thailand, part I
And right back at ya! We're in Thailand and already had a busy week. Met up with Reto in Bangkok and went up to lovely Chiang Mai, a laid-back city in the mountainous North.
It was quite a lot cooler up there, which was a nice change. Like everyone else, we did one of the famous trekking tours, which was, of course, tres touristy but fun nonetheless.
Apart from walking a LOT through woods and hills, we also rode elephants, showered under waterfalls and took a bamboo raft down a river. Hanging out with Reto again was great and we spent New Year's Eve together as well. We had a yummy dinner at the gekko cafe, which included our first tom yum goong and a plate of roasted frogs! Mmmm...they were juicy and crispy at the same time. You can see one of their feet in the slide show. After quite a lot more than one beer, we decided to walk around town for a bit when we stumbled upon a great custom here. Hundreds of people lit sky lanterns, which filled with hot air and then suddenly took off! The entire night sky was filled with hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns. Of course, Reto bought one too, so we all let it go into the air together.
The next day, our trek started and luckily, we weren't as hungover as some of the other group members. Even though it was a fairly big group, we had a great ol' time with lovely people, gorgeous waterfalls and views and more beer ;)
This morning, we arrived back in BKK and will head down south tomorrow for some serious dolce far niente, sunbathing and coconut-sucking. Stay tuned!
It was quite a lot cooler up there, which was a nice change. Like everyone else, we did one of the famous trekking tours, which was, of course, tres touristy but fun nonetheless.
Apart from walking a LOT through woods and hills, we also rode elephants, showered under waterfalls and took a bamboo raft down a river. Hanging out with Reto again was great and we spent New Year's Eve together as well. We had a yummy dinner at the gekko cafe, which included our first tom yum goong and a plate of roasted frogs! Mmmm...they were juicy and crispy at the same time. You can see one of their feet in the slide show. After quite a lot more than one beer, we decided to walk around town for a bit when we stumbled upon a great custom here. Hundreds of people lit sky lanterns, which filled with hot air and then suddenly took off! The entire night sky was filled with hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns. Of course, Reto bought one too, so we all let it go into the air together.
The next day, our trek started and luckily, we weren't as hungover as some of the other group members. Even though it was a fairly big group, we had a great ol' time with lovely people, gorgeous waterfalls and views and more beer ;)
This morning, we arrived back in BKK and will head down south tomorrow for some serious dolce far niente, sunbathing and coconut-sucking. Stay tuned!
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
It's been a while! Guido and I hope everyone had a great holiday. If you didn't get our Christmas email, it means either we don't have your email address; or we just forgot (if so, we apologize). Our holidays were pretty darn good. When we got back from El Nido, Guido, cousin Kate and her friend Shids all went to Batangas and Tagaytay for the weekend. We'd like to profusely thank Tito Tom and Tita Vicky for providing us with the beautiful hotel rooms. We had a very nice, relaxing weekend. After getting back to Manila we had a big night out with some of the Natividad cousins. they took us out to a comedy club, and --can you believe it-- karaoke! So of course we had a blast.
For Christmas we went to Bataan. There we ate, drank, got very merry (even more karaoke)! Guido also finally got to try my Tita Emy's famous cooking. I had been waiting for her kare-kare dish since the year 2000. Yummy! Unfortunately, Guido got a cold and was under the weather for about a week. Poor thing. After a slow recovery at Tito Alvin's place, our stay in the Philippines sadly came to an end. We'd just like to thank all our family and friends in the Philippines for taking care of us! We had a great time and we're really going to miss all of you!
Here are a few more pics--
For Christmas we went to Bataan. There we ate, drank, got very merry (even more karaoke)! Guido also finally got to try my Tita Emy's famous cooking. I had been waiting for her kare-kare dish since the year 2000. Yummy! Unfortunately, Guido got a cold and was under the weather for about a week. Poor thing. After a slow recovery at Tito Alvin's place, our stay in the Philippines sadly came to an end. We'd just like to thank all our family and friends in the Philippines for taking care of us! We had a great time and we're really going to miss all of you!
Here are a few more pics--
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