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 of the surrounding villages. That's where we doing our language training-- five days each week. Learning Shqip (pronounced "ship"). Its a pretty intense language, I'm not gonna lie. Life here is not better, its not ... read more

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 (and walking, and walking…) around town we got to enjoy the comforts of the enormous swimming pool in her center complex. We spent the daylight hours on foot, exploring the amazing Islamic Arts Museum (which fully restored my declining pleasure for museums), Garden Lakes Park ... read more

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 Mai, had recommended coming south here because there are so few tourists (mostly Thais on a weekend holiday) and because the islands are protected by the national park. Except for tiny Ko Lipe ( a ... read more

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 to pass out endless plastic baggies for all the passengers who got wretchedly sea sick), 5 nights accomodation in the Buddha Resort, our Open-water classes/ dives/ and logbooks, and the PADI manual. Essentially, we paid ... read more

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 since the night before, so our first 3 days on the island I was almost completely nonfunctional, with a high fever and terrible body pains. I'd been sick before, so my insistence (stubbornness?) to wait ... read more