I’m roused out of my sleep by the distant trumpeting of elephants and singing of thornbirds. It is morning on the Kinabatagan River and the animals announced the day's commencement. (Actually, it was the roosters outside my window that first awakened me, but I have learned to ignore them by now. Besides, it is much more entertaining and exotic to claim that I was awakened by wild elephants rather than the domesticated birds!) I have to kick Liz a couple of times before she finally rolls over and grumbles about waking up so early. I agree, but we have to hurry [View Full Entry]

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Butterflies can be hypnotizing. Tiny splashes of vibrant color twirling in graceful, solitary little circles. Purple, orange, and an unearthly shade of blue, they flit from one flower head to the next, creating a kaleidoscope of color, waltzing to their own musical melody. Poetry in motion! I was allowed to sleep in this morning, only to be awakened by the sound of children's voices singing "happy birthday" in the nearby school. I was alone. The eleven beds around me were a jumbled mess of twisted covers, discarded clothing, and other odds and ends trailing from open backpacks. Our front door had [View Full Entry]

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I’ m officially hooked. Rock climbing is my new passion. There is something incredibly exhilarating about clinging to a rocky pinnacle while balancing on a ¼ inch toehold 20 meters above ground. The two days on Rai Ley beach were fabulous afternoons spent hanging precariously on giant limestone cliffs and abseiling over the Andaman Sea’s emerald waters. By the end of our lesson, my muscles were trembling with fatigue, I was covered in caulk and scrapes, and my fingertips were bruised and bleeding, but I had found a wonderful new hobby. Amazing experience! I'd love to give a play by play [View Full Entry]

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We were warned. Other travelers, travel agencies, locals around town, and even the handy Lonely Planet guidebook deemed that the 25 hour bus trip from Hanoi across country to Laos was one of the worst in Asia. However, with our budgets, we were faced with either a $12 bus ticket or a $175 plane ticket to get us back to Thailand. It didn't take long to make the decision and we were soon waiting on the corner of a busy downtown intersection waiting for our bus. The approaching vehicle looked promising. It was certainly a large bus and fully lit up [View Full Entry]

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Wow! These past few weeks have passed by in a whirlwind. We sped through the rest of northern Vietnam, slept on a few trains, rode more night buses than I can remember, spent way too much money on "fun" clothes (strictly business suits of course), hugged Jen goodbye, and wasted some calories racing through a mini olympics in the mountains. I'm not sure where our sudden bursts of energy came from but we have certainly toned some muscles and raised our heart rates to considerable levels. Jane Fonda would be proud. Unfortunately, our threesome is once again a twosome as Jen [View Full Entry]

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The land of conical hats and endless bowls of steaming white rice, where the cities are alive with beeping horns and striking architecture and the countryside is vibrant with tropical flowers, steep rugged cliffs and picturesque scenery. Welcome to Vietnam! Our month in Vietnam began with crossing the border from Cambodia. I've learned that there is absolutely no truth in advertising anywhere in Asia. Although our bus company promised that the same vehicle would take us from Phnom Phen all the way to Saigon, we were dropped off at the border with no explanation of where to go or what to [View Full Entry]

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The sun in sneaky today, dashing behind clouds and casting deepening shadows across the ocean stretched out before me. I’m sitting on a balcony overlooking the gulf of Thailand, a broad body of water that cradles the southern coat of Asia and meets the South China Sea to the east. We came down to Sihanoukville to escape the oppressive heat of interior Cambodia and catch some tropical breezes before hurrying across the Vietnam border. Teaching ended much too quickly. I was sad to leave the children whom I had grown so attached to. I don’t know what sort of impact [View Full Entry]

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The students greet me in the early morning hours with a chorus of little voices and a sea of excited, smiling faces. I wave and say hello in Khmer before they sit down and pull out their pens and notebooks. As a sign of respect, the students always stand and bow whenever Jen, Liz, or I leave the room. It makes me feel almost like a real teacher! The plastic yellow flowers on my tiny wooden desk add even more to the classroom atmostphere. I’ve been teaching English for over two weeks in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We are volunteering in a [View Full Entry]

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We did it. We gave in to the hype of every teenage and twenty-something's island dream and followed the masses to Ko Phan-ngan, home of the legendary Full Moon Party, perhaps the largest, most popular beach party in the world. As the sun sets on Hat Rin beach, the sand comes alive with dancing backpackers, fire jugglers, thumping, pulsating music, and hundreds of buckets of booze. I don't know why we went. These types of parties are usually not my cup of tea since I am much more of a low-key, jazzy bar, small pub sort of girl. The idea [View Full Entry]

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We quickly passed through the small capital of Vietiane, staying only two nights and hitting the hot tourist spots before moving on south. Our goal was to get to Si Phan Don before the full tilt of the Lao New Year began, also know as Pii Mai. Otherwise we were likely to either have a very delayed bus or a slightly drunk Lao driver. Neither sounded very appealing. A 6 a.m. bus ride brought us down through the mountains and dropped us off on the southern side of the city, near the Mekong River and by a huge indoor market. [View Full Entry]

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