We've moved! Chris and I returned to the US for one week before shipping back out again-- this time for a two year+ three month stint in Albania! We're serving in the Peace Corps, which means that Chris will be assigned to work in a bashkia and his goals include Community Development, while I will be implementing health programs within the Public Health Department. For the time being, we're stationed in Elbasan, the third largest city, where we do technical training with all 37 volunteers twice a week. However, all of us trainees are living with host families split amongst 8 [View Full Entry]

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Final destination, and back into the hustling-bustling modern world before we fly home to the land-o-plenty. Our first two nights in town we crashed on the floor of our CS host's flat on the outskirts of the city, which was more 'neighborhood-like' with so many commuters coming home at the end of a long day. Chris and I visited the Asian Civilizations Museum, which was extremely comprehensive, with many interactive TVs and games. I really liked touring the galleries, but after a few hours I began to have panic attacks and felt the incredible desire to escape from the building, however [View Full Entry]

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After eating a delicious breakfast at White Coffee (somewhat of a ‘Malaysian Starbucks’) and touring the infamous Kelli’s Castle (built by a Scottsman who mysteriously died before construction finished), Chris and I boarded a bus from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpor, Malaysia’s bustling capitol city. Luckily we had arranged another couchsurfing home with a wonderful Indian-Malaysian girl, Ratna, whom I had been e-mailing for almost a year now. Her apartment is located at the edge of the city, but easily accessible via KL’s light rail system, and in between days of walking (a [View Full Entry]

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Whao! We stepped 30 years into the future! Ahh yes that's what Chris and I thought as we crossed the bridge over to Penang Island, staring at the glitzy New York-esque skyline. We weren't really sure where we were going to, but after showing our driver an address scribbled on a scrap of paper (our couchsurfing host), he pulled the minibus over on the side of a highway and promptly shooed us away. Bags in toe, we walked toward a group of shops, and since we had no ringits yet (no banks in site and likely shut at 7 pm anyways) [View Full Entry]

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Chris and I spent a night of recovery in Trang-- a commerical city in the south known for its Hokkien koppi shops (one of the few places in Thailand where they specialize in drip coffee, rather than Nescafe) and filling our bellies with cheap food (ahhh yes, 15 baht for a plate? I'll take it!), then we set off once again for the islands. This time we took a bus to Pak Bara (which is in Satun, Thailand's most southern province), the ferry landing for boats going out to islands in Ko Tarutao National Marine park. Our friend Aom, from Chiang [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the wonderful island of Ko Tao, I was sorely disappointed to come to Railay (a peninsula jutting out from Krabi's coastline, in the Andaman Sea, though only accessible via long boat). Railay is known for its dramatic karst mountains that are perfect for intense rock-climbing, which is rightfully true-- sheer cliff faces plummet right down into the ocean and I'm sure give spectacular views when you're perched up there while the sun sets-- but I found it to be absurdly overcrowded, dirty, and expensive. Maybe I'm just sore because I stepped on someone's vertical corncob stick (loca [View Full Entry]

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Ko Tao (lovingly named "Turtle Island" because previously, ie before tourism, turtles used it as a breeeding ground, and its shape is somewhat turtle-like) is a beautiful island in the eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand, and happens to be the cheapest place in thailand to get PADI certified. ;) Chris and I hesitantly booked a package from the Buddha View Dive Resort office just off Khao San, which couldn't have worked out better-- for 9800 baht we got an overnight bus south to Chumpon, tickets on the morning catamaran (which was hilariously devastating as the Thai crew guys had [View Full Entry]

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Chris and I finally made it to the dreaded Khao San road-- where all stinky, stingy backpackers must eventually turn up and submit to the ultimate tourist trap. It wasn't quite as I expected-- much more clean than fellow travelers had warned me (did they miss the trash piles of Laos and Vietnam?? At least Thailand has a sanitation system!) and full of waaaaaay more people than I could have imagined. Right there in the middle of the City of Angels is a self-sustained pocket of foreigners' playground-- bars pouring endless drinks, music pumping out on the streets, vendors lined as [View Full Entry]

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We've stepped back into the land of smiling Thais, only this time we're in the more-touristy and more-costly regions of the south. From Cambodia's border Chris and I traveled to Trat, the jumping off point to Ko Chang. This island, deemed by Lonely Planet as an "untouched magical realm of waterfalls and mystic mountains" turned out to be highly developed and quite crowded. From the ferry dock we shared a seangtow up along the steep roads to Lonely Beach, where we camped on the small stretch of white sand nearby some of the bungalow operations. I had been feeling quite ill [View Full Entry]

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We finally made it to one of the world's premiere archaeological destinations: the Angkor complex! Specifically, Angkor Wat, the most well known of the bunch, as well as the Bayon (Angor Thom), Ta Prom (iconic Tomb Raider complex, overgrown with trees), and several other magnificent temples. We hired a moto driver for the day (its illegal to drive your own, which is good because it creates jobs for Cambodians)-- the same guy who drove us to our guesthouse from the bus station. Our newest Khmer friend and driver, San, is really friendly, speaks English well, and is a proud new father [View Full Entry]

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