Meet John... he's amazing and is from Texas. Ohhh and did I mention his family are Ranchers .... horses, cattle, vast amounts of land, cattle dogs, horses... need I say more (ohhh yea, we hit if off right away!!!!) He is volunteering here at CMS college for one year and gave me a tour of college life, and around Kottayam :) He also took me to the boys orphanage he volunteers at on the weekends. IT WAS WILD!!!! [View Full Entry]

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John was nice enough to bring me along one weekend to Kanam, where he volunteers at the CSI Boys Hostel (Boys Orphanage). It was super wild and crazy... and I loved it! Let me know if you are interested in sponsoring a boy from here. I think its around $120 a year and that will pay for his food and schooling :) And the boy will send pictures and write letters to you etc. The whole package. Pretty cooooooool!!! That's it :) [View Full Entry]

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For the first time EVER in my life I have been pleasure reading on a daily basis :) It's amazing. I don't have any due dates, or pressure of what I am supposed to get out of the readings etc. It's just me and my book of choice. I love reading. HAHHhahHAHa hah ahaa SOOOoooo here are the books that I read and ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!!! Each book is amazing, and completely different from the next... You'll just have to check em out. I highly reccomend all of them :) That Quail, Robbert -Margaret A. Stanger Tales of a Female Nomad -Rita [View Full Entry]

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The official language of Kerala is Malayalam... In Malayalam, Opachin (which I'm sure I spelt wrong) means Grandpa :) So meet some of the local Opachin's at Mandiram that I am volunteering with! They are all incredibly cheerful and always welcoming me with a smile to come and hang out with them :) [View Full Entry]

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The official language of Kerala is Malayalam... In Malayalam, Amachi means Grandma :) So meet some of the local Amachi's at Mandiram that I am volunteering with! They are all amazing and full of tons of spunk, zest, and lots of touchy-feely LOVE... which I'm eatin right up!!! [View Full Entry]

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On January 16th I violently woke up from my horribly-uncomfortable sleep to an old lady shaking my leg... we had arrived from Chang Rai at the main bus terminal in Bangkok, and it was time to get my sleeping butt off the bus... it was 5:03 am... and I was back in Bangkok, my least favorite place in all of Thailand. But instead of me being a lost and confused little Joey (baby kangaroo) arriving in the dark, at a big bus terminal... I knew exactly where to go, what taxi drivers to ignore, and how much I should be expecting [View Full Entry]

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Here are some pictures from Claire and Bonnie's jumble of pics, and a couple late night Koh Phagnan ones from me. Side note: I miss you Claire and Bonnie! It's not the same without you, and in case you guys couldn't tell, they are amazing to travel with ;) [View Full Entry]

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The power of small meaningful gifts is a wonderful thing. And can change lives. Today was the most AH-MAZING day of my entire trip. I woke up in my favorite provenance, Chang Rai... and prepared myself to go on an delightful horseback riding/horse trekking tour! With just me , and the local who was arranged to pick me up at 9am sharp! The night before I could hardly sleep because I was so excited to meet the horses and see the country side. And I was in pain from hiking up thousands of stairs that day to see a temple. The [View Full Entry]

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I was thrilled to arrive in Chang Rai early in the morning, and be the only tourist at the bus stop. Unlike it's more well known brother Chang Mai (which I avoided)... Chang Rai is a laid back area, filled with less tourists and more life. Mae Salong, which is 1800 meters above the sea level, is a town of Chinese temples, open air bazaars, beautiful blooming cherry blossom trees, and shops that offer Chinese specialties as tea and locally grown preserved fruit. About 2 hours away from Chang Rai. The area has an alpine-like landscape and climate, and is known [View Full Entry]

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When asked about my favorite Temple in Cambodia, my answer is not the big and mighty Angkor Wat, but my reply is "Oh, totally Ta Prohm!" While most of the main temples in the immediate Angkor area have been cleared of vegetation, leaving only baren lifeless stone temples, it was decided to leave Ta Prohm untouched as a testament of the forces of nature... Sounds awesome to me! You might know the temple of Ta Prohm from the movie Tomb Raider?? ehhh? Ta Prohm was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and University in 1186 [View Full Entry]

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