Featuring the travels of Mark & Michelle.
December 11, 2008
10 countries visited
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18 flights down, 1 to go
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102 different places to sleep
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24 sick days
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23 forms of transportation:
Plane, train, ferry, catamaran, long-tail boat, car, bus, van, minibus, pickup truck, tuk tuk, cidomo (horse buggy), bemo, taxi, jeepney, becak (rickshaw), longboat, walking, subway, skytrain, motorbike, canoe, elephant …
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7000 snapshots
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3 tubes of toothpaste
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29 boxes of cereal (in NZ alone)
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1 time that Michelle’s deodorant was used by the hotel maid
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20 postcards sent
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5 syringe attempts in Asia to get enough blood for testing
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1 crazy hippy lady who gave us free pottery
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4 big boxes of stuff sent home by sea-mail
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37 loads of laundry (some of which came back dirtier than before)
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3 boxes of Oral Rehydration Salts
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0 times we were mugged
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30 Degree Weather for over 4 months
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Many, many new and delicious ethnic foods tried
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1 Billion amazing memories
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1 TOTALLY AWESOME TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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December 5, 2008
We have just spent a fabulous 10 days in Fiji and are leaving tonight for Hawaii (our last stop before going home). Fiji has been great, we took a 5 hour boat ride to a chain of islands called the Yasawas where we stayed in some really nice places. The snorkelling was just amazing there! Michelle was really sick for a day and a half, but is doing much better now. The Fijian people are the friendliest we've ever encountered - it was a really nice experience. At one of the places we stayed, we sat at communal tables for meals and met some really interesting people from all over the world. We also stayed at a place called Dee's Homestay on the mainland of Fiji. It was just somebody who has made their house available to travellers. It was a unique experience as well. We also met up with a Fijian friend called George who does a prison ministry here in Fiji. He also introduced us to some other local Fijian pastors.
Michelle poses with Dee and her daughter in Nadi, Fiji.
We are glad to be coming home in 10 days, but we're really sad as well.
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November 16, 2008
We found a really awesome hotspring in the middle of the wilderness. We had to drive several hours into the forest to find it.
Here's the view of one of the pools. We hiked a further 4 hours into the bush to find another hotspring.
People had made all sorts of creepy rock carvings and left them around the second hotspring.
We spent one night in a wilderness hut near these springs. This one was so much hotter than the first one that we could only sit in it for about a minute before having to jump into the ice-cold river nearby.
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November 8, 2008
Well, we're back on the North Island, but before we got here we had some interesting adventures. We were driving along the highway on the windiest day we've had in New Zealand when we came across a huge tree fallen across the road. We were the first ones on the scene and went to find a farmer with a chainsaw. It was hilarious because we literally had a truck full of thicknecked chainsaw toting hillbillies following us back down the road within 90 seconds of knocking on their door. By that time there were dozens of volunteer woodchuckers on the scene. Judging by the fact that we were the first ones there and the fact that we had seen cars approaching from that direction just minutes earlier, it must have happened literally just before we rounded the corner. It was a good thing we had stopped on the side of the road to get something from the back of the car a minute before we got around that corner, or we would have been jelly right now. It's clear that God was looking out for us.
Here Mark helps remove the last remnants of the tree.
We camped a few days at Kaikoura, a place with beautiful coast and lots of marine wildlife.
Mark hadn't yet had his fill of woodchucking, so he devised a new method for hatchetless firewood generation.
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October 28, 2008
We've just arrived in Christchurch, having rumbled along the bottom of the South Island. We stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders - perfectly round rocks embedded in the beach. Michelle was very happy when Mark woke her up at 5 am to watch the sun rise over the boulders. We've done loads of camping the past few weeks. And we had some good meat pies. We've got about two more weeks on the South Island, and then we make our way back to Auckland. Then it's off to Fiji!
Here are just a few of those boulders - we were lucky to get a picture without a few dozen old bus tourists in it.
These are Yellow Eyed Penguins (the world's rarest penguin). After they come out of the ocean they do some weird little greeting ritual (see picture) and then trudge up into the forest where they have their nests.
Blue
Green
Orange
Purple
Red
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October 20, 2008
We just spent our last little while driving through the South of New Zealand - an area known for beautiful scenery and many opportunities to spot wildlife. We certainly have seen both.
This was a gorgeous waterfall we hiked to in the bush.
We have seen our fill of seagulls (above), but we also managed to spot two unique birds last night at the same time in the same place. The world's largest seabird, the Royal Albatross. And the world's smallest penguin, the Little Blue Penguin. The albatross were huge, having a 10 foot wingspan!!! And we had to wait for 90 minutes in the freezing cold to see the penguins, but it was worth it. About 30 all shot out of the water at the same time and waddled their way to their nests in the hillside as we stood in the darkness and watched.
Here's another bird we encountered, the Kea. They are not shy at all. This one tried to rip parts of our car off!! They are known to sometime rip windshield wipers right off.
We also had a chance to see plenty of seals and sea lions.
But as we learned, they don't like you to get to close. Our first encounter was with a young one who was scared off by us, but this adult male wasn't too happy that we interrupted his ... romance, so he tried to eat us.
We visited Larnach Castle, NZ's only castle.
Nice beach.
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October 8, 2008
After doing the Abel Tasman track, we drove down the beautiful but very wet West Coast of the South Island. The scenery was totally sublime. Here is a sample of what we saw on the coast:
We visited the Oparara Basin, a very tranquil rainforest with many arches and caves. This was the Moria Gate arch. We got pretty soaked that day though.
At the very top of the West Coast's highway is a neat campground where we saw some nice sunsets amidst crashing waves.
We hiked to the terminal face of the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. We didn't become one of the many "stupid tourists" who go into the ice cave and get mangled by falling chunks of ice.
These are the Pancake rocks. There was also a blowhole in the middle of them, but we weren't there at the right time to see it in action. There were hundreds of tourists scurrying around like cockroaches.
There are often amazing sunsets in New Zealand.
Near Haast, we almost stumbled over this sea lion who looked exactly like a wet log as he was sleeping on the beach. He heard us all of a sudden and booted it into the surf. They can really move fast if they want to. Pebbles were flying like nobody's business.
We spent two nights in Wanaka, a very picturesque little town.
The view from the top of a nearby lookout gave great views over the Wanaka region.
Right now we are in Queenstown. Today we woke up to find ourselves covered in snow! We are hoping to spend at least one night on the Routeburn track, and then we might go check out Milford Sound. Over and Out.
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September 27, 2008
Yesterday we finished the Abel Tasman Track - a beautiful 51km track along crystal clear coastal bays. We spent 5 days on the track, sleeping in a tent every night, and rationing our food. It was amazing though. We met lots of interesting people along the way as well. Following are some pictures from our time on the track.
We have spent about 10 days on the South Island so far and have already decided we'd like to extend our stay in New Zealand. We'll probably add three weeks to the NZ part of our trip (and lose some time in Fiji and Hawaii).
We were entertained as we did some grocery shopping in Motueka, a pleasant town where we spent three nights with the McIvers. This busker played until he had enough to do his own grocery shopping. He was actually really good!
We really wished that it was summer when we passed though the Pelorus Bridge area. This amazing river had huge areas that would have been perfect for a swim.
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September 17, 2008
We have been having more amazing times on the North Island of New Zealand! Right now we are staying with the Armishaws near Wellington and will be heading to the South Island in a few days. Here are some of the things that we've done in the past week:
The luge at Rotorua was fantastic. You sit on it and go crusing down different tracks. Michelle was like a wild woman. Mark looks so mad because he has a mouth full of Michelle's dust. To get to the luge track we took a gondola up to the top of a scenic lookout. After each luge ride we took a chairlift back up. 5 rides was not enough!
Our need for an adrenaline rush was not quite fulfilled so we tried out the SkySwing. It swung us out over the mountainside at 120km/h. It was awesome. But not quite thrilling enough, so we just simply had to....
SKYDIVE!!!! Wow, this was one experience that we'll never forget. 45 seconds of freefall over beautiful Lake Taupo. We both think this is something we will have to do again one day.
Here we are after our jump. Our blood was still pumping like crazy!
We visited an amazing thermally active area near Rotorua. There were all sorts of boiling and bubbling pools of various colours. These two pools are actually not beside eachother (even though the pictures sort of make them look like they are).
The boiling mud pools were one of our favourites. Every few seconds they would erupt and send mud shrapnel flying everywhere (onto our clothes).
We stayed a few days at Lake Taupo, a very beautiful area. We went down to the lake at sunset.
Here are two tasty little morsels! I want to eat them.
We stopped to take a picture as we drove past Tongariro National Park. Just out of this picture is the mountain used as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Everywhere we go in New Zealand we see beautiful green hills.
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September 12, 2008
NEW ZEALAND!! We've been planning to visit this country for 7 years, and we're finally here. We had a great introduction to the country staying with the Wheelers in Auckland. We'll be travelling the whole country for about two months.
This is our car named "Mutton." We drive Mutton everywhere, and sleep in Mutton's back when it's raining (which has been almost every night so far). We've rented Mutton for the duration of our stay here. After four months of not driving at all, we were thrust onto the wrong side of the road. After a few minutes it feels normal though. We've only been in NZ for two weeks and we've driven about 2000km so far. Driving through the countryside is fantastic though. The grass is so green (we keep on thinking we're driving past a golf course, but it's always just the sheep and cow fields).
This is Cape Reigna, the northern tip of New Zealand. The lighthouse is still in use.
New Zealand has some incredible beaches. It seems like every ten minutes we want to pull off the road and check out some amazing view or natural feature.
Near the top of the North Island are giant sand dunes. We had a lot of fun running around and jumping off the dunes.
Unfortunately, mark lost one leg from the knee down (as well as one arm) while we were at the dunes. He's pretty good at jumping that way though.
This is Haruru Falls, an area where we stopped overnight. Sometimes we stay in holiday parks or campgrounds, but sometimes we just park Mutton in a parking lot somewhere and go to sleep.
At Hot Water Beach people flock at low tide to dig pools in the sand. There are natural thermal springs which bubble to the surface here. The water was so hot in some areas that we burned our feet in the sand. People would work hard trying to dig their own pool and then a huge wave would come in and wash it away. We just snuck into somebody else's pool. There are loads of places in NZ that have thermal activity. We've already enjoyed an amazing hot pool experience at Te Aroha and Rotorua.
We find creative places to cook our dinner. This night it was windy and raining so Mark decided to cook our pasta and fish in the nearest public shelter. How did he get this picture?
Michelle on the other hand, prefers to cook with the company of goats, emus, and chickens. We enjoyed a meal of butter chicken on the side of the road. The cannibal chickens enjoyed a few pieces too.
Cathedral Cove was a fantastic beach that had a natural stone arch you could walk through. It's also the entrance to Narnia in the latest movie. We had a blast there, it was so beautiful.
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August 28, 2008
For our last day in Australia we went with the Bartsches to visit Sydney. We couldn't leave without taking the iconic opera house shot.
This is a beach in Australia called "The Farm." We had a cookout here one evening. We were all freezing cold and huddled around the artistic fire, but it was extremely memorable. Our tin foil package dinners that we cooked in the fire will stay with us as one of our best meals ever!!!
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August 22, 2008
Can you guess where we are now? The picture below is a clue:
AUSTRALIA!!!! We got here about one week ago and we've been having an awesome time here. The cold weather is an extremely welcome change from the heat of Southeast Asia. We are spending time here with our awesome friends the Bartsches (Ken and April and Dania and her fiance Andrew). We all went to a very neat national park yesterday where we saw the whitest sand in the world (literally), kangaroos, and loads of birds.
The birds totally mobbed us once we pulled out the picnic lunch. Ken got divebombed by a Kookaburra who stole a piece of his sandwich. They landed on our heads and ate off our plates.
Here is the kookaburra with a stomach full of our lunch.
We went to see a blowhole in the nearby town of Kiama.
Here is a squadron of pelicans. The Bartsches live in the town of Shellharbour which is absolutely beautiful. It's right on the coast.
This is a lookout point that oversees the area of coast that we are staying around. There are totally amazing white beaches here and rolling green hills.
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August 1, 2008
We are back in Indonesia after a trip to the Philippines. In two weeks we leave for Australia. We are really looking forward to a cooler climate for a while. We're also looking forward to some other things. Like cereal. And Kraft Dinner. And a Mr. Big.
We made the obligatory trip to Indonesia's Borodubur. It's a massive ancient Buddhist temple.
The whole thing is covered with carvings and statues.
Apparently there are some sights more impressive than Indonesia's biggest tourist attraction. We were inundated by teenage Indonesians with requests to be in pictures with them. It was pretty funny, but the crowd started to get really big. Eventually we had to make an escape. We started dodging statues and running down flights of stairs until we lost the mob.
This little green man wasn't too interested in the temple.
This is the market in Kota Kinabalu, a Malaysian city that we passed through on our way back from the Philippines. The market was pretty neat - except that it was right outside our window, started before dawn, and played the same three country songs over and over again at bone shattering volume. On this trip we've had some fantastic sleeps. This was not one of them.
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July 19, 2008
We are spending our last few days back in Bali before we head to the Philippines to do some videography. We just spent a week in Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali. Totally by chance we were there exactly when a very important cremation ceremony was being held. This is probably the most important of all Balinese religious ceremonies (Hinduism), and this particular one was the most extravagant in the memories of any living Balinese people. It was the cremation of a member of Ubud's royal family.
Giant horses, bulls, dragons, and towers were built to hold the remains and be lit on fire. Some of the structures were almost 100 ft tall. Amazingly they were carried through the streets by teams of hundreds of men. The powerlines had to be cut down for the day so the structures would fit.
There were hundreds of thousands of people there - locals and tourists. We had never seen so many tourist men wearing sarongs!
We also watched a Balinese fire dance.
This dude needed to warm his feet.
We went on a day-trip (or night-trip rather) to climb Mt. Batur before sunrise. We left at 2:00am to reach the summit by 6:00am. It was quite exhausting (straight-up) but we had lots of fun. The mountain is an active volcano, having erupted last in 2000. At the top we had a breakfast of volcano-steamed eggs (not joking). The trip was fun, but Mark's $300 visit to a medical clinic for blood tests the next day wasn't so fun. We thought he might have had Malaria or Dengue because he has been sick and feverish, but it turns out that it was nothing too serious - just some friendly local bacteria!
Mark on the top of Mt. Batur.
Some friends we met at the top. One of them jumped at Michelle out of the bushes (to her horrified scream).
It turns out not only humans enjoy watching the sunrise.
For our 2 year anniversary on July 8, we stayed at a really nice hotel for one night. The pool was amazing! The giant Buddha head actually contains a waterslide. You come shooting out his mouth on his tongue!
This guy asked us about 20 times in three days if we wanted to buy his pineapples and bananas.
The bungalow above shows our typical daily accomodation. A simple shack in a field or back alley. A typical little friend is usually waiting for us inside (cockroach). Sometimes they climb onto our mosquito nets. We don't even bat an eye any more.
Michelle on a good-hair day. She claims it's her first one in months.
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July 3, 2008
Right now we are enjoying the fantastic Gili Islands north of Lombok, Indonesia. This is a very popular backpacking destination, but there are some extremely tranquil areas as well. We have enjoyed snorkeling here, doing lots of relaxing reading on deserted stretches of beach, and Michelle has particularly enjoyed looking for seashells. There are plenty to be found.
Relaxing and watching the sunset on one of the Gili Islands.
Here are some of the shells that we found on the beaches here.
I thought that this shirt was pretty funny because there are no motor vehicles on any of the islands here. This child has likely never seen a car before. To get around on the islands we use horse drawn buggies called cidomos (see below).
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June 24, 2008
Hello from Bali! We arrived here two days ago, and have been settling in. We had an interesting time in Singapore, just after we left Thailand. We were there for four days and couldn't wait to leave! We found out once again that we are certainly not city people. The cheapest hotel we could find in the entire city was three times more expensive than the most gorgeous beach resort that we have stayed at during the previous two months. And no joke, Mark could actually touch two opposite walls at the same time. It was literally a 7 foot cube. The door brushed against the bed when you opened it! We were kept awake most of the nights by a very loud and noctural family. We did have a good time visiting the Bird Park and the very neat Night Safari though. We also went to see Kung Fu Panda in one of Singapore's 100 or so malls. And we saw the world's largest water fountain.
Here are a few birds that we saw at the birdpark:
The bird park also had what is apparently the largest manmade waterfall in the world.
We are happy to be in Bali right now. Our plane made an intense aborted landing because of a traffic jam on the runway. In two days we will be heading to the Gili Islands.
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June 18, 2008
Well tomorrow we are leaving Thailand after being here for almost two months. We have had an awesome time in this country. We will be going to Singapore for 4 days and then to Bali, Indonesia. We just got back two days ago from a trip up to Northern Thailand. On Mark's birthday we spent 6 hours driving in a packed van on a very bumpy road. We joined a team that was scouting out a piece of land for a building project. Our day was very busy as we both were taking hundreds of photos. Today we will be visiting the orphanages that Team 2000 run here in Chon Buri. We knew we had been in Thailand for a while when we didn't find it unusual when a cat sauntered into the middle of the restaurant we were eating at one evening, dug a hole in the gravel between all the tables, did his business, covered it up, and sauntered back out.
Here are some of the things that we will or will not miss about Thailand: banana pancakes, Coke-in-a-bag (see picture below), Swensens icecream, $1 tasty meals, standing up in the movie theatre to honour the King (for a few minutes), Engrish, the girl on the beach asking if we would "like cold drink?" about 9 times in one hour, stray dogs everywhere, awesome food (did we say that?), night markets, 40 degree days, elephants on the sidewalk in the middle of the city, food. Lots of other things too.
Mark got a haircut. He said he wanted it "short" to the Thai woman who didn't speak English. She took the shaver, gave Mark one big swipe, and then said "OK?" What if it wasn't OK? There was no going back.
Mom P, this one's for you. It's a "different kind of bun!" It's a long story, but lets just say that we weren't expecting to find anything inside it.
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June 12, 2008
Hello from Chiang Mai - a city in Northern Thailand. We flew here yesterday after spending a few days near Bangkok, with Team 2000, a team of MBMSI missionaries who have been working in Thailand for 7 years. We enjoyed the church service at The Life Centre, one of the churches that Team 2000 has planted in Thailand. We also enjoyed the dinner and breakdancing that happened after the service. The breakdancing has been a very successful evangelism tool for the team.
While we were with the team we went to a school with some of the missionaries where they play games with the kids, sing songs to help teach them English, and teach them some Bible stories. This is a good opportunity to get to know the kids in the area and invite them to a weekly cell group where the gospel can be shared much more freely. For one such cell group we sat on straw mats on the side of a dirt road lined with metal shacks. As all the neighbourhood kids played nearby several women sat with us with their children and we sang worship songs together in Thai and listened to words of encouragement and teaching in Thai. Some of these women regularly came, others were new attendees - curious about what was going on. We have seen how the missionaries here reach the Thai people by meeting with them on whatever level they are used to.
We have one week left in Thailand - it seems like we just got here! Next we will be stopping in Singapore on our way to Indonesia. We might be sleeping on the street when we get there though because Chiang Mai is known for its fantastic night market and Michelle is going wild!
From what we could tell, the kids at the school really enjoyed their weekly time with the missionaries who visit them. I don't think that we ever looked this attentive during class when we were kids.
The kids are singing "My God is so Big" - a classic.
Icecream break.
This little girl is the daughter of the housekeeper for one of the missionary families. Her mother came to know the Lord and has been helping to draw other mothers from her neighbourhood to the weekly cell group on their street.
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June 6, 2008
Right now we are staying on Kho Khao Island - it's in an area north of Phuket that was hit hard by the tsunami in 2004. The past week that we spent with the Operation Second Wave team in Phuket was really great. The name of the team describes pretty well why they are here. After the tsunami, MBMSI helped to build and finance many new homes for families that had lost everything. Now several families have stayed in this area, and are ministering to their community.
We have two weeks left in Thailand which we will spend with another MBMSI team in Thailand called Team 2000. They are located near Bangkok. We will also be going up to Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand for a few days with some team members.
Michelle is standing in front of a boat that was washed a few kilometres inland by the force of the tsunami.
Here's another boat that was washed inland. It sits in the middle of a neighbourhood and will be left here as a memorial. It was nicknamed the Blue Angel because it saved the lives of the people who managed to get onto it as the waves hit. Right beside this boat sits another boat nicknamed The Demon because it killed around one hundred people who were caught in it's path.
We are staying on Kho Khao island for a few days. The beach stretches for miles on either side and is completely empty. There are amazing seashells to be found on this beach.
Today we were visited by a family of horbills. This one is still young and doesn't have the full bill yet. This one almost took Mark's head off.
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June 2, 2008
Right now we are staying in Phuket, Thailand - visiting MBMSI's Operation 2nd Wave team. The team here is involved in teaching English, hosting kids clubs, discipling new believers, and reaching out to their community. We are having a great time here - getting to know the wonderful families here and helping out when we can. We even managed to go to the movie theatre for the first time on our trip. It was a blast!
Michelle is helping some of the neighbourhood kids do their crafts at the weekly Kids Club at the Griffioen's house. She had fun with crafts, teaching English, singing songs, and of course the flannelgraph made an appearance.
Lots of kids from the neighbourhood come to the kids club. The missionaries don't put up any signs for the club, because then they would be simply inundated with far too many kids! The club is a great way to build relationships with the kids, but it also provides a unique opportunity to get to know their parents. Some of the parents will then come to weekly English classes and some are open to hearing about the gospel as well.
The kids are certainly a handful though!
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May 23, 2008
We just arrived yesterday at Railay beach in the Krabi area of Thailand. This area is known for its fabulous cliffs. The past week was spent at Khao Sok National Park. We had a good time there, even though the park was closed due to too much rain. We did manage to pick up a leech within a hundred metres of the park entrance though! We met an interesting Swede whose knowledge of English seemed to come entirely from pop songs. He was always asking us what song lyrics really meant. "What does she mean 'hit me baby one more time?' I don't understand it."
There are lots of amphibians all over the place. This little guy joined us for breakfast (and barely escaped becoming breakfast). But we let him go shade himself with his tiny umbrella.
At Khao Sok we stayed at Nung house. We were happy to arrive at Khao Sok in one piece because we had a suicidal taxi driver who seemed disappointed when we arrived safely at our destination without anyone sustaining life threatening injuries. Here are our two friends from Nung House. The giant dog who followed us around and sat beside our table at the restaurant - his head level with our plates of food. And the deaf guide who daily insisted on telling us his life story through miming.
We went on a fun elephant trek up a mountain stream. The elephant consumed half the jungle along the way. He was 49 years old.
We managed to make a day trip onto the awesome lake at Khao Sok. This was probably the only rain-free moment of the day. We still went canoeing for a few hours in the pouring rain though and had a blast. We had a really good Thai lunch on a floating rafthouse.
This is the Railay area. We may try some rock climbing yet.
We went into a really neat cave this morning. It had amazing limestone stalagtites. Lots of bats and bat poop too.
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May 14, 2008
Hello from another island in the Gulf of Thailand - Koh Tao. This small island sees more divers every year than any other place on earth. We're probably the only ones here who aren't going to be sampling the underwater bounty. Well actually, we're going on a boat trip around the island tomorrow to snorkel in all the best spots, but that doesn't really count.
We had an interesting ferry ride to this island from the previous one. The seas were quite rough. Michelle managed to hold on to her cookies the whole trip - until we reached the pier. Let's just say that the locals had some extra scrubbing to do on the side of the boat! Fun. We got to the island and walked up and down mountains to find a good place to stay. We finally found a good place - called Koh Tao Tropicana. Here are some of the pictures from where we are now.
We are sitting here in front of our room. Notice how Mark is wearing "flip flops" for the first time in his life.
What is wrong with this picture? We just love Asia.
Here is Michelle standing on the walkway that leads to Big Buddha Rock (seen in the background). It looks like a seated Buddha.
Sitting on the floor at Tropicana's neat little open air restaurant. It's right on the beach and serves some tasty food.
This is the same restaurant at night. Good thing we brought the tripod!
Mark is sampling the fine fitness facilities here. He has no time for a smile - he is all business. Look at those legs, they are a blur of motion. ZAP.
DOGS. Everywhere. They sit under your chairs in the restaurant, and they barf beside you on the beach. They are our friends though.
Well, that is all for now. We are having a blast and Michelle's teeth are getting better, but she is still having a little pain.
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May 7, 2008
So the last time we posted we were staying at a guesthouse in Bangkok called the Suk11. It was crazy and so neat there but as soon as we stepped outside the door, and into the city, we just couldn't help but feel so overwhelmed by the busyness and heat of it all. We expected this reaction, because we had heard that Bangkok was a crazy city for first time Asia travelers. Also given that Michelle was having lots of tooth pain (and getting extremely stressed out because of it) it just wasn't the place for us. So we decided to head over to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand two days early.
After 24 straight hours of walking, subway, waiting, train, bus, and boat, (and squatty potties) we arrived at our final destination. We are now settled into the most beautiful resort called the Salad Beach Resort (see below for pics). We both felt exhausted and just really wanted a place to unwind from the last week. We are not normally going to be staying in places this nice, but when we saw it we just couldn't resist (and $30/night isn't really splurging THAT much).
Again, it's super hot here, but with the breeze from the ocean, it's perfect. So this is where we'll be settled for the next week or so. We just officially started having fun!
We hope that everyone back home is doing great. Thank you for your prayers, they are so comforting and appreciated. Please continue to pray for Michelle's teeth, which are still bothering her every day.
Here is out hotel room. It has a balcony overlooking a jungle pond. It's amazing!
Here is the setting right outside our room window.
Here is the waterfall jacuzzi
The resort has a fantastic pool in the middle of a jungle setting. Tropical birds (like hornbills) can be seen in trees around the pool.
This is the beachfront restaurant where we have our buffet breakfast every morning.
We're having fun here - it's a much more pleasant introduction to Thailand than Bangkok was. We're also really looking forward to meeting some of MBMSI's Thailand missionaries in the next few weeks.
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May 4, 2008
We finally made it to Bangkok after 2 nights in Hong Kong. Below is a picture of the neat guesthouse we are staying in right now. We are still trying to adjust to the time zone, but especially to the heat. We haven't really seen much sun since we've been here, but it's still super hot! Please pray for Michelle who is still having tooth pain - two months after her wisdom tooth ordeal.
Below is a picture from Hong Kong. We stayed in a really nice hotel for our first two nights in Asia. It took 30 hours of travel from stepping out our door until we got to the hotel. We were very glad to get there. We stayed in the town of Mui Wo, an interesting place.
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April 18, 2008
Here's the weather at home:
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