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Lauren and Sara - Lauren & Sara

Lauren & Sara's Quarter-Life Adventure

We are roommates heading off on our Quarter-Life Adventure...Yay! Yay! Yay! After an invitation to the Beijing Olympics which came back in 2002 (yes..six years ago), we are making a dream become a reality. With over a year of saving and planning, the adventure is finally here! We have quit our jobs and are heading out on a 5-month Asian/Australian Adventure.

Kick off: Beijing Summer Olympics > Hong Kong > Macau > Vietnam > Thailand > Australia > New Zealand > Fiji > Boston, USA!

Not only is this going to be the best journey of our lives but we are keeping this blog to stay in touch with our family and friends (Yes - YOU!), so make sure and SHOW US SOME LOVE!

xoxo
Sara & Lauren

Quote to Live By:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!"

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Joined on: July 18th 2008
Last Login: November 13th 2009

Blog Entries: 16
Photos: 497

TB Code: [blogger=82351]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Lauren and Sara, order by Date newest first.

By Lauren and Sara
September 18th 2008

Craziness: Defined as Full Moon Party, Out-of-Control Mopeds & any tour with the word "Magical" in it Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ko Samui

Welcome to Ko Samui, Thailand

Finally.....the islands and beaches of Thailand!!! They are all ours and ready to be conquered! After an intense 5 weeks of being a tourist, Lauren, I and our lovely guest Emily were ready to do absolutely nothing. We had the most horrendous flight from Bangkok to Ko Samui, not because it was long, but because it was at the ass-crack of dawn. The ONLY bonus were some awesome sunrise pictures I got to take of the island while we came in to land. First order of business, check-in to the Ark Bar Garden Hostel on Chaweng Beach, dump our crap, then [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
September 12th 2008

Elephants...Tigers...Hospitals...oh my! Asia » Thailand » Western Thailand » Kanchanaburi

Erwan Waterfalls National Park
Preparing for our trek!

If this title doesn't get you excited for this blog - I don't know what will! Wednesday, September 10th Because we had arrived late the night before, we hadn't been able to book any of our tours - so we got up early this morning and hoped that we would be able to book a tour today for Erawan Falls...which thankfully we were! Erawan Falls is a park about an hour away from Kanchanaburi where you can hike up to the 7 different levels of the waterfalls and swim in the different lagoons. It was beautiful. After spending the last few [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
September 9th 2008

Bangkok - Home of Temples and Lady-boys Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok

Bunnies for Sale..

Saturday, September 6th We arrived at our lovely hostel (not quite as described online, but we made due!) and found that we were pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the red-light district! But on the plus side, we were really close to public transportation and an international hospital (which comes in handy later). We were sharing a room with a couple of British girls who were in Thailand on holiday, so that night we went out with them and a few guys from our hostel to a bar a few blocks away. While we had heard that a lot of [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
September 6th 2008

Cruisin'...the Vietnamese Way Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi

Overnight Bus to Hanoi
aka.... Hell on Wheels

So let's talk about the Overnight Bus......pretty much hell on wheels. The first problem was that I(Sara) was almost sure we had asked for seats near the window when booking. But, when we got on the bus we only got one window and one middle. (Note: Insert Sara's claustrophobia problem here). After I was unsuccessful in trying to convince the driver to let me switch (which in the process I thought I was going to get myself kicked off) Lauren was grateful enough to let me have the window seat. A true sacrifice. The ride was pretty awful. Between trying to [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
September 2nd 2008

Getting Schooled on the Vietnam War Asia » Vietnam » North Central Coast » Hué

Highway of Horrors Memorial

Monday, September 1 After an extremely early flight (it left at 7am!) we landed in Hue and were greeted by our personal tour guide for the day, Mr. Trung. If anyone comes to Vietnam and wants to do a tour of the DMZ, We highly recommend him. He was, by far, the best tour guide we have had! He grew up in South Vietnam and fought for the Southern Army during the war, so he was extremely knowledgable, and was able to tell us a lot of stories you wouldn't normally get on a regular tour. Since it was a private [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
August 31st 2008

Vietnam - Honking Horns, "Cafes" & Ice (A True Commodity) Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City

Cu Chi Tunnel
This is the little (obviously VERY little) escape holes Viet Cong would use to hide from enemies - US!

So we try our hardest in every blog to give you the "real feel" of each country. As with China, there are a few things you need to keep in mind that have become universal in Vietnam. 1) Honking Horns & Mopeds: Mopeds are EVERYWHERE! And mixed in with them are cars. The ratio is probably something like 20:1 (mopeds to cars/trucks). You can imagine what it's like trying to drive (or ride for that matter) anywhere. Basically, if you're in a car you have a little advantage in that your vehicle is bigger. But, if you are the passenger - [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
August 28th 2008

Hong Kong - The Land of Giant Buddhas and Burritos Asia » Hong Kong » Kowloon

Bank of China Tower
The tallest tower in HK

Well, we made it safely to Hong Kong - and since we are a little behind on our blogs, I (Lauren) will sum up our time in Hong Kong. We arrived at our hostel pretty late at night on the 25th, and we realized we had been a bit spoiled in our accomodations so far. Not that the room was bad (just a little small), but because space is at such a premium in Hong Kong, they try to jam as many people into the city as possible. So the building our hostel was in took up a whole city block, [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
August 25th 2008

Closing Time.....An Olympic End, A Hot Shanghai Night and an Au Revoir to China Asia » China » Shanghai

Trying to take this pic ourselves..
A little upclose and personal...needless to say

So Closing Time is a great song by Green Day but is also a great theme for our last couple days. Our first night in Shanghai was quiet and just what we needed. Our hostel, Shanghai City Center Hostel, was really good. The atmosphere and the people were fun! We met two friends from Scotland that were traveling for 1 year. They started in Africa and had worked their way north then east thru India and over to China. Their next adventures included a similar route to ours and we might actually meet up with Kerry in Thailand. That's the crazy [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
August 23rd 2008

And The Beat Goes On..... Asia » China » Shanghai

Silk Market
Lauren was WAY better at it than I

We're moving on.... but first a recap of Beijing So we decided to end our last day in Beijing by getting stuff done in typical tourist fashion... on-the-run. After getting thrown out of the Silk Market the other day we decided to go back and I'd (Sara) take my chances that the same vendor would not be working and I could get the tanks I really wanted. This time my friend Li accompained us thinking maybe she'd find something she'd like. Lauren decided to buy 2 Polo shirts and unbelievably got 2 for 80RMB ($11) thanks to a little help from [View Full Entry]

By Lauren and Sara
August 22nd 2008

Stinky Tofu and Squat Toilets Asia » China » Beijing

A typical Hutong

We are a little behind, so I (Lauren) will try and update you on the past few days! Wednesday August, 20 We were lucky enough to have our personal tour guide back for the day (Li!). Today we were going to head to the Hutong section of Beijing. Hutong's are like little streets (some as small as alleyways). Some of them are residential, and some of them have cafes, bars and boutiques. We took our time walking through the streets poking into some stores. Our favorite one was "Tea Talk". We ended up spending almost an hour talking with the owner, [View Full Entry]

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Lauren & Sara's Quarter-Life Adventure

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