Just a few pics from our diving...underwater photography is challenging!

WE ARE "LIVING IN AMERICA"!!!!  

YAY!

P.S. THIS MEANS THE BLOG IS OFFICIALLY OVER, I THINK.

Oh the places we have been...

Well, we are officially on our last 24 hours overseas and will be heading home (long journey) back to the U.S. We are spending 2 days in L.A. with Amber and Tyler...it is Tyler's birthday Saturday so we are going to party! And then we arrive home Sunday evening in Mississippi!

We are enjoying Singapore...doesn't feel like we are in Southeast Asia anymore though. This is the cleanest, most orderly city I've ever visited. Did you know that gum is outlawed here? They do not sell it in any stores...only mints. And if you are caught chewing gum in a public place you are fined $1000. Crazy. So I have hidden my gum in the bottom of my bag because trust me we do not have $1000 left.

See you all soon! We can't wait to be Americans again!

Railey Beach!

the sand was blinding white, turquoise water and limestone cliffs

pool at our 'splurged' resort

Blaine now has the talent of folding towels like swans...so get ready future house guests!

We are wrapping our 10 week trip up! Have been doing our diving certification and now are Advanced Divers! Yay! We stayed 3 days at a beach near Krabie on the Andaman Coast...just relaxing the entire time...felt like a second honeymoon. Now we are on our way to the Similan Islands to get on a live aboard boat for 3 days to do more diving! We are loving it! More later...

OUR ADVENTURES AS OF LATE

Elephant ride in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Tiger Kingdom, 30 minutes cuddling tigers...no, Wesley they were not drugged or asleep (just blinking)

Waterfall in Luang Prabang, Laos

Blaine's daring video from our Gibbon Experience. Such a great time, zipping around the gorgeous jungle up above the forest. We slept in treehouses 150 feet above the ground!

Trip to the Blue Lagoon

Steffie/Blaine/Kate on tree swings

Our last day in Vang Vieng we rented mopeds and rode the 43 km loop to an amazing cave and blue lagoon. Blaine and a guy from Chicago we met (Shane) must have jumped off the top of the tree into the water at least 30 times! We even came back for another round at sunset after we had been riding on the dirt roads and got so dusty. It felt like a scene out of a movie, the crystal clear turquoise water, colorful fish and mountains all around. The cave was about a 200 meter climb up the mountain and we were really suprised at what we found--the biggest cave we've ever seen with beautiful formations, bats, and a buddha statue/incense burning to boot!

We have now split from Steffie and Linh Sa and are in Luang Prabang for a few days. Very warm here but nice and laid back. We fly home in exactly 4 weeks from today. Crazy.

footbridge in Sapa

Halong bay

Linh Sa, Steffie, me and blaine in Hoi An

We are all in Laos now. Vang Vieng to be exact. We are going tubing on the river today amongst amazing limestone cliffs where there are zip lines and tree swings...should be fun. Tomorrow we are renting mopeds to explore the area and see some historical caves.

On our last day in Hanoi we went to the prison where John McCain was imprisoned during the Vietnam War...very interesting (and I don't usually like museums).

We thought you guys would like to see a photo of the 2 girls from the Netherlands that we've been travelling with for the last 2 1/2 weeks! But only 1 more day and we start going North and they go South.

Our last day in Vietnam!

We just returned from Halong Bay, had a great cruise. We stayed on the junk the first night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_(ship)

where we kayaked to a cave and went spelunking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelunking

We then sailed to Cat Ba island the next day and hiked in Cat Ba National Park up to an amazing overlook of the island. This island has very few Langur monkeys left, one of the most endangered primates in the world (no, we did not see one). Spent the night in the hotel and sailed back to the port the next day.

Tomorrow we fly to Laos; we will make our way to the northwest corner (on the border of Thailand) to go on a jungle experience. Here is the website, take a look! We are doing the Waterfall Trekking.
http://www.gibbonx.org/

So farwell Vietnam, hello Laos!

The cutest boy ever!

Don't ask me what he was saying...but I figure it was something like 'I see you' or 'Try and get me'. But we visited an elementary school in one of the hill tribes around Sapa. He is wearing the cultural dress for that specific village. When I showed him the video afterwards he stood mesmerized...he had obviously never seen himself on a video. He watched it about 7 times. So adorable.

We loved Sapa and the trekking around to all the different villages. The terraced rice paddies and soaring mountains. We will post more photos later.

Are you happy now, Ben? :)

From Hoi An to Hanoi
We had a lovely time in Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They have preserved/are restoring more of this historic trade route/port town and it has a charming, old feel. A great site to celebrate my 28th birthday and Valentine's Day. As my mother said, the pressure was on Blaine to make it a great day and he lived up to the challenge. He brought me breakfast by the pool and wrote a thoughtful card...in the afternoon we went on a cooking class experience, where we toured through the local market and then took a boat ride out to the cooking school on the riverside. We made some awesome Vietnamese cuisine and got to eat everything we cooked. I got many well-wishes from home via email which really made me feel loved. Thanks to everyone who remembered me. Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day!
We took a flight this morning to Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam) and will spend the day tomorrow touring the city. Then we will be leaving for a cruise on Halong Bay, looking forward to that!
More soon!

Adventures in Dalat

warming up in rooftop hot tub after day of canyoning (with Stephie and Linh Sa)

Kate abseiling down 25 meter water fall (75 feet)

Group photo of canyoning crew

self-portrait by waterfall

incense burning at pagoda

Laughing Buddha--Blaine's favorite

Our great news is we have purchased our tickets home to MISSISSIPPI! We are arriving on April 5th, Sunday at 6:30 p.m. There is already talk of marching bands and blueberry ice cream....beat that!

Dalat, Vietnam

We enjoyed our 3 days in Saigon: visited the Reunification Palace, markets and took a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We caught a bus (7 hours) into the Central Highlands region (heading northwards through Vietnam) to Dalat, Vietnam. We hadn't even planned on stopping here but had heard from people that it was very nice. They were right...such a change from hot, humid, crowded Saigon to cool, dry mountainous with a small-town-feel Dalat. We are staying in the most lovely guesthouse-an amazing breakfast, free bike rentals, such friendly family who runs it. Today, we rented a driver/tour guide and explored some waterfalls, pagodas, silkworm factory, coffee plantation. Tomorrow we are going canyoning ($23/person)...I did this in Switzerland with Melissa and Cindy years ago and have been telling Blaine he has to do it but it is usually very expensive ($300 in NZ). So here's our chance! We still haven't found fast computers/internet to load up more photos but be patient with us! We have booked our tickets home to L.A. and will arrive on April 3rd...so we will soon buy our plane tickets to Mississippi probably on the 5th or 6th! We wanted to give everyone ample time to start planning our welcome home parties!!! (plural: parties)

Viet Nam

We are actually surviving just fine without Amber and Tyler (although we were a little worried in the beginning) and meeting people from all over the world. We took a bus tour through the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam for 2 days and enjoyed it until the very end. We were on a bus to get us back to Ho Chi Minh City but it is the end of Tet in Vietnam (which is their big holiday/Chinese New Year celebration) and the roads were very crowded...we waited on a hot bus for 1 1/2 hours to get on a ferry and my claustrophobia finally got the best of me. Blaine agreed that it was not 'feeling like vacation anymore' so we got off in this random town (Can Tho) and decided to stay the night and try again first thing in the morning. Our tour guide was not happy with us but we fished our bags out and went on our merry way. We ended up finding a lovely riverfront hotel ($10/night) and meeting some Aussies and having dinner with the ex-pats of the town! We got the 7 a.m. fast boat (that only the locals know about, as it is not in any of the travel guidebooks) and arrived in Saigon (HCMC) 3 1/2 hours later. I believe our original bus had not made it in before midnight the night before. When we arrived in Saigon we followed one of our Aussie friends from the night before to the hotel where he is renting long-term and ended up getting a lovely room (much nicer than we have been staying in) for $25/night and the hotel has a pool and rooftop terrace with 360 degree view of the city. We visited the War Remnants Museum today...learned a lot about the Vietnam War that we didn't know before.

I will give a shout out to my mother who celebrated her birthday (and it was a momentous one...30 I think) a few days ago! She is the most supportive, loving mama anyone could ever ask for and I don't know what/where I'd be without her! Happy Birthday!

Finally Some Photos From the First Week

Children's Art Project - www.artcambodia.org

A Relaxing Snorkel Trip

Kate taking a snack break

Bayon Temple - Can you spot all the faces?

Jungle Temple ruins - where Tomb Raider was filmed...sorry, no Angelina Jolie.


We said goodbye to Tyler and Amber today, and start the next phase of our adventure tomorrow... Vietnam!

Short but sweet...
We have not been stopping long enough to upload photos to the blog yet...we are trying to squeeze every moment we have left with Amber and Tyler. So I am sure once they fly out on Friday we will have more free time on our hands. We took our snorkel cruise out today and really enjoyed it. The weather has been beautiful for us so far. This is their "cool" season, yeah right. Blaine wants to go to the Snake Restaurant tonight...your glass top table has live snakes underneath it~not my idea of a relaxing dinner...we will see who wins out.
The day after tomorrow we will catch the bus back to Pnohm Penh so Amber and Tyler can catch their flight back to Bangkok then onto Japan and finally L.A. Blaine and Tyler want to throw a few hand grenades before he gets on the plane though.
I am beginning to relax a little with the mosquitos...if DEET is harmful for you though we are going to be in trouble. We cover up with long sleeves/long pants once the sun has gone down and try to eat under fans at restaurants for dinner. We moved into our beach bungalows at Queen Hill "Resort", very authentic. Last night was our first night to not sleep in an air-conditioned room and we actually did just fine. We slept under our mosquito net and burned mosquito coils. So nice to wake up, walk out on the porch and see the ocean spread out forever! Let the good times keep rolling...

Life in Cambodia, Sihanoukville

Happy Chinese New Year the Year of the Ox! We are definitely celebrating true Asian style...fireworks, dragon parades, etc. We have had some amazing sunsets, delicious grilled fish, local beer (Angkor) and lots of humidity. Just returned to hotel after a game of Uno with Amber and Tyler at sunset at one of the beachside restaurants. None of us wears a watch, we don't know the date or day of the week. Sounds like vacation. It was nice to get out of the bustling/smelly city of Phnom Penh and out to the warm ocean breeze. We are renting scooters tomorrow to explore the area and the next day we are out on a day trip to snorkel and visit a few islands off the coast. The boat trip picks us up from our beach bungalows, feeds us breakfast and lunch on the islands, snorkel equipment and fishing gear included (8am-4pm) to visit 3 islands all for the price of $15 U.S.! Sign us up!

P.S. I actually think Cambodia has faster internet than New Zealand. Unbelieveable.

Cambodia

We made it safely to Bangkok and on to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This place is truly incredible. The people are great and everything is really cheap. The last two days were spent visiting the temples of the Angkor region. Amazing sights and wonderful people.

Next, on to Phnom Penh and then Viet Nam (somewhere).

Last Post from New Zealand

Sun rising or setting? =view from our house (well, ex-house pretty much)
It has been a week of lasts for us. We are really tired of saying goodbye...actually we have been following Blaine's grandmother's suggestion and saying 'see you later'. Some of our friends we will hopefully see within a year or two but for many of the friends we have made here it is unknown.
It is so hard to believe it is over. We packed up our NZ life in 4 boxes that are somewhere in transit on their 84 day journey over sea to get to the U.S. (not to mention that our US life takes up an entire enormous storage unit).
2 1/2 years has flown by.
It is totally bittersweet for us...we are so sad to leave this place but SO happy to be back close to family and old friends. But bear with us for a little while when we get home while we go through our 'withdrawal' phase...it doesn't mean we aren't happy to be home.
We fly out today in 7 hours to Melbourne to stay with some friends overnight and then onto Bangkok, Thailand to meet up with our friends from L.A. (Amber and Tyler) who will be travelling with us for 10 days in the beginning of our Asian Exploration. The country order is as follows: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore. This, however, is subject to change at anytime. We are going to aim to post photos and quick synopses on this blog whenever we can but not sure how often that will be...
Please pray for our health and safety...Blaine is of course not at all worried but I am a nurse and have obviously been reading too much. Wanna have a look as well...visit http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/regionSoutheastAsia.aspx
But don't look too long b/c it might make you crazy like me.
Oh and pray for my mom b/c she thinks we are trying to make her go mad with worry on purpose. Mom-we aren't and I blame it all on Blaine.
No, we are going to be fine! And I feel like there are going to be some interesting stories when we return...

Hello, Goodbye~beatles

The pictures from above were taken on our last hike in New Zealand. We decided to hike to Mueller Hut, situated on Mt. Ollivier (the 1st moutain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed) b/c Blaine's cousin, Tommy, had suggested it. It was a 1,000 meter climb from Mt. Cook Village past the Sealy tarns, through a boulder field, up a rock scree slope, to climb through snow at the top and cross over the saddle to the hut. Gorgeous views for the climb out over the Hooker glacier and Mueller glacier. We shared a room filled with bunk beds with 3 other couples-from Israel, Germany and France. So as we got dressed in the morning there were 4 languages being spoken simutaneously. Interesting to say the least...but everyone commonly spoke English (which we were grateful for). You had to trudge through the snow to the outhouse (the small red building away from the hut-pictured above). Just to note: it is summer here and there was plenty of snow around. The hike up took us around 3 1/2 hours and the hike down about 2 1/2 hours. The only negative of the trip: Blaine got a ticket from the speed camera for going 66 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. $120 well spent for such a memorable weekend away!

Well, we leave 1 week from today and move away from New Zealand. Hard to believe that 2 1/2 years can pass so fast. Blaine and I worked our last day this past Friday. We are officially both unemployed (although Blaine would rather refer to himself as retired). There have been some sad goodbyes already. We are really going to miss this place. The golden question has been: "when do you guys think you'll be back?". Who knows the answer to that but the way we have answered has been "as soon as we can make it". New Zealand has most definitely changed us. And I believe there is no place like it on Earth.

Now, onwards for our next adventure....

Happy New Year's!!!!!

we had a great time in Sydney...fireworks were amazing