Here's to the best of the best!

I dedicate this post to 3 people whom I consider some of the best friends on God's green earth: Chelsea Becker, Bonnie Berridge and Stephanie Kramer. The stars must have been aligned between October 25-26th, 1986 because that's when all three of these beautiful ladies were born! Coincidence? I think not.

Chelsea & me: Summer 2008

Bon Bon & me: August 2010

Steph & me: 4th of July 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU GIRLS! 

Sawadee Ka!

Sawadee Ka/Kap means hello (ka=woman, kap=man)...That and thank you are about the only phrases we have picked up in our 3 weeks in Thailand...Whether it's because we are lazy or because the Thai people are just better English speakers in general, I don't know. :)

Perhaps we'll get a little better at our Thai though, because we have decided to extend our stay! We are heading to Burma (aka Myanmar) on the 25th to basically get our passports stamped there, and then hop on a ferry back to Thailand. This little maneuver will cost us a little more than we expected, but we figured it's worth it to have the option of being in Thailand another 30 days.

So, after that hop, skip, and jump to a country I've barely heard of, we will head to the island of Ko Chang for a brief visit just to get one last glimpse of beautiful ocean before heading on up to Bangkok.  I haven't been too excited for Bangkok, but after the past couple months of traveling with the same 2 shirts, dress, and shorts, I am excited to do some cheap shopping! And to buy a couple books (damn you, Kindle.....). Hoping that Borders or Barnes & Noble have some sort of Thai sister store that actually sells English books. 

A little glimpse of where we are, and where we're heading

 Then, we will trek north into Chiang Mai- affectionately known as The Rose of the North- and Chiang Rai (two supposedly beautiful and authentic local towns). That's where we are going to climb on some elephants and ride around like real foreigners. We have heard some horror stories about certain elephant "sanctuaries" being nothing more than glorified abuse centers, so we are going to have to do some research and go to a legit place.

We figure we will be in Thailand until the first or second week of November, and then we head into Laos, where we will go tubing down the epic river, Vang Vieng, sleep in some huts, and then go into Cambodia...Angkor Wat and maybe another beach await us there, and then it's onto our final destination: Vietnam! 

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since we left (October 26th (Happy bday Chels!) is our halfway point of the trip)...Time has really flown by here, and we are just trying to enjoy all of the little moments. When they hit you, they really hit you. 

Exhibit A: The other night, after dinner, we went for a stroll on the beach and ended up underneath this horizontal palm tree, and just took it all in---how beautiful the dark hills were all around us, with little lights glowing from the houses nestled amongst the palm trees, the dark ocean as far as we could see..and just how lucky we feel to be on such an incredible adventure.

Same tree, but in the daytime (not quite as majestic as at night but you get the idea :)

The Thai-light Reel

We've been in the lovely, cultural, jaw dropping beauty of Thailand for a couple weeks now. We've had a pretty swell time so far, lollygagging around and taking it all in. The islands are where we've spent the majority of our time so far here, and we have no complaints. In fact, we are debating about extending our visa in order to spend a couple more sweet weeks on the sand before heading north to Bangkok and beyond.

Just a few of the highlights so far:

1. Buckets. Anyone who has been to Thailand knows what these beauties are. Just take a small bottle of whiskey, add Sprite & Red Bull, 2 straws, and drink up! (The best way to do it is find bars who have specials or free buckets at certain intervals and bar hop to hit up each one at their designated time in order to get the most free booze possible.)

2. Thai food. Masuman curry, you are my new favorite thing (Google it, people). Sweet & sour chicken, always a front runner. Banana pancakes, the thing keeping me from losing weight on this damn trip.

3. Beaches. The shores I've seen only in movies prior to coming to Thailand. Crystal clear waters, sand that is so soft and spongy under your toes you just can't wait to take your shoes off & frolic in it, and lush jungle as the backdrop. Not too shabby.

4. Street vendors. They sell everything from deep fried spring rolls that melt in your mouth to handmade leather bags (I may or may not have bought myself one) to $1 beaded bracelets and everything in between. I've been collecting bracelets now for the past few weeks and have 4! My hope is to keep all of them on my left wrist until at least Christmas. 

5. 300 baht rooms. $10. We love spending $5 each on accommodation- especially when wi- fi, soap, and fresh towels are included.

6. Misspelled words on signs, awkward signs, and funny signs. They're everywhere. It seems like a child drew half of the storefronts entry signs. Examples: "Callect calls." "We have coffee and American breakfarts". Not to mention EVERY restaurant sign proudly declares they serve: "Thai Food, Italian Food, Swedish Food, Western Food, American Food, and Dog Food." (Just kidding about the dog food....I hope.)

Phuket, according to Ross

My witty boyfriend/partner in crime wrote a way better version of this town and our activities here than I could.

Details of our past week to be found  here.

 Pretty hilarious and accurate.

Cha Cha Diego's

Anyone who knows me pretty well, knows that one of the things I truly enjoy in life is a damn good bean and cheese burrito. 

In San Diego, obviously, I had no problem finding one of these simple, yet amazing handheld meals. Even  in Santa Barbara, we were close enough to Southern California to have lucked out with a few decent down home, dirty (as in the real deal, no Chipotle for me thankyouverymuch), cheap decently priced Mexican shops.  San Francisco, on the other hand, is another animal completely. We had one, maybe 2, spots where they actually used refried beans and non-organic cheese. (Thank you, Pancho's on Polk.)

Ross, too, is another burrito lover. While I'm a simple pleasures kind of girl (plain beans and cheese, maybe some guac and sour cream if I'm in a spendy mood), he is much more of the full-fledged burrito (carnivorous, put everything you can possibly stuff into it, and make it extra spicy while you're at it) type of guy..

Imagine our surprise, while on the moto headed to a new beach, we saw a sign for "Cha Cha Diego's Mexican Food- Southern California Cuisine." Obviously we made a post-beach lunch/dinner linner plan for some hearty  comfort food. Laying on the beach, drinking our beers, we could already taste the salsa... We wondered what it would be like...Would the owner be there? If so, would he give us free stuff if we told him we were from San Diego too? (We're on a budget, ok?!) Would the cheese be orange, real cheddar-y orange??? (Most cheese we eat here is white and we aren't even really sure if it is cheese, let alone what kind of cheese it may be...)

All of our suspicions were confirmed when we got there.

• Yes, the owner was there. Nice guy named Craig, who hails from Kearny Mesa. He was kinda kooky, but my only disapproval of him was that he said Escondido is not "real" San Diego....Hmmm.It's not Temecula, buddy! He's not even a Padres fan though, so I didn't expect much out of this guy...)
• No, we didn't get free stuff.....sigh.....In fact, we spent a pretty penny on this meal.
• Yes, the cheese was cheddar! The beans were refried! It was pretty darn good.

I just need to make a side note that although the burrito was decent, it was no Santana's. I likened it to a burrito I would make for myself at home, with some grated cheddar from Albertson's and a can of refried beans in the microwave.  A good snack, for sure; maybe a 6 out of 10 overall. However, the fact that I was able to eat anything other than rice and chicken automatically puts this meal a cut above most I've had over here.

I am certain about one thing...December 21st, Santana's, here I come!

Buddha-ful

While laying on the beach the other day getting sunburned, Ross pointed out something that looked to be a large, white statue on top of a mountain off in the distance. We commented that it reminded us of the statue the LOST survivors stumbled upon (obviously not quite as majestic or ground-breaking), and instead of a large white foot it looked like a large white back of a head. A Buddha head, perhaps?, we wondered. Sure enough, we hopped on Google and found out that the largest statue of Buddha in  Thailand resides right here in Phuket. 

The infamous LOST foot

Okay, okay, we thought... Enough frolicking in the sea and getting skin cancer. One of these days we will actually do something "touristy" here in Phuket. So, yesterday we rented a motorbike and started the journey to the big white man in the clouds. 40 minutes and 3 wrong turns later, we had arrived on top of a mountain with a gigantic Buddha butt staring at our face. 

The Big Buddha

Appropriately named "Big Buddha," this thing is impressive, massive, and made of marble. Right next to it, is a smaller, gold version of a Buddha that doesn't get any accolades at all because his brother is just that grandiose. Usually visiting famous statues and monuments isn't my cup o' tea, but I was thoroughly impressed by this creation. 

The best part was that we got to make "Buddha" jokes all day which included but weren't limited to, some references to a few late 1990's rap music songs, i.e. our new rendition of Baby Got Back--"I like big buddhas and I can not lie...You otha brothas can't deny..."