The Best Kind of Scary

Oh how we love Laos already. We are back in Huay Xai (border town in Laos) after spending 3 days and 2 nights doing the Gibbon Experience. Aside from the diving we did in southern Thailand, this was the most incredible experience we have had yet. If anyone out there is planning a trip to Laos, this is a MUST DO.

The Gibbon Experience provides an opportunity to swing through the jungle canopy (like a gibbon) using a series of zip lines. As if that isn't cool enough, you also sleep and eat in treehouses, getting in and out of your home via zip line. After a 2-hour drive and an hour hike into the jungle, we were given harnesses and taken by our Lao guides to our first zip line. Hundreds of feet about the jungle floor, we clipped our harnesses into a cable and soared through the sky, screaming and laughing with fear and exhilaration (you should hear Tyson yell like a school girl at an N'Sync concert.) The feeling is indescribable but we think our guide Juning put it best when he said the experience is "the best kind of scary."

Somehow, we were lucky enough to wind up in the newest and nicest treehouse: Treehouse #7. We shared the treehouse with 3 other travelers who let Tyson and I have the very top floor for our bedroom. We had a toilet and a shower on the bottom floor where we could wash the sweat of the day away (with only an open-air wooden lattice floor separating our toes from a 100-foot drop below) while staring out into an endless expanse of untouched rainforest.

The best part of the Gibbon Experience is the justification behind it. The experience takes place in the Bokeo Nature Reserve, which is a 100,000 hectare area of rainforest in north-central Laos. Although the area is designated as a nature reserve, it is a reserve in name only; the government does not provide any funding to maintain the protection of the park and prohibit poaching. The money from the Gibbon Experience goes towards the conservation of this wilderness area, paying wages for forest guards who patrol the park boundaries with AK-47s (which we saw first-hand), and providing jobs for local villages and greater financial incentive in protecting the forest rather than destroying it.

In addition to the incredible time that we had zipping through the trees, one of the highlights of this experience was spending time with our two guides, Jai and Juning. Both are Hmong, an ethnic minority hill-tribe with villages in Laos, Thailand, China and Burma. They practiced their English, we practiced our Lao, and we all laughed alot over card tricks and songs. We learned that they each came from large families who lived in villages over 3 hours away; that they work every day, with no vacations; that they make $3/day working for the Gibbon Experience and that the money goes towards living expenses and paying for school for their siblings. It is a different life than anything we know and we were very grateful to be a part of it for a few days.

Over the past few days, we have learned that it is very easy for us to be happy as long as we have a few simple things, mainly, safety and good health. It's no different than our friends Jai and Juming. We are all connected in such simple and beautiful ways and I am thankful that we were able to feel that in a treehouse, 40 meters above the ground, in a forest in the middle of Laos.

This trip is the best kind of scary.

More photos.

Chiang Mai Will Make You Puke It Too

Today, we crossed the Thailand border into Laos. After a great first three weeks, it feels like the country basically puked us out. Jenn ended up catching the same stomach bug I had, but instead of being in a relatively comfortable hotel with our own bathroom, she was sleeping on hard wood in the backcountry on the last night of our trek. She had an hour and half hike, waiting, and then a couple hour ride back to our hotel to endure. All the while, she couldn't hold down any fluids, while hiking through the hot sun (luckily, it was mostly downhill). She was a complete studmuffin through it all, and is on the road to recovery. Experiences like this bring us even closer.

Its funny how illness can effect your persception of a place...while sick, I decided I didn't like Thailand very much. Now that I'm feeling better, that's not true at all....I just didn't like feeling sick in Thailand. We're hoping Laos will be a little nicer to us.

Tommorrow, depending on Jenn's health, we strike out on the Gibbon Experience, which we've heard nothing but good things about. We basically will be living in tree houses for a couple of days and zip lining from place to place....awesome!

On a side note, perhaps too personal, but educational: squat toilets aren't so bad. You just have to squat like a catcher. Pardon the pun, but if you have-ass it, you miss. This comes from experience. So, next time you find yourself in Asia without a western style toilet, think "catcher". Otherwise, you may get thrown a curveball you really don't want to have to try to hit.

So, here's to Laos and our newly awarded 30 day Visas!

Phuket Will Make You Puke It.

Here's a map of the places we have been as of right now. After a scary bus ride and a bout with food poisoning (Tyson is feeling much better, thank you), we are now in Northern Thailand, in city called Chiang Mai. We flew here from Phuket (such a treat!) and were picked up from the airport and shuttled safely and smoothly to the hotel we booked as part of a package tour when we were in Bangkok. Tomorrow, cooking class!


View Jenn and Tyson SE Asia Trip in a larger map

We have posted a few more videos to our Youtube page; sorry they are not current. It takes a long time to upload each one so we have a backlog of insanely interesting material. Believe me, you guys are really missing out right now.

Traveling has an interesting way of taking you up and bringing you down. The swings of emotion and experience are to be expected, but somehow, they always feel new. We are feeling great now, but Tyson definitely got taken down by some bug that made his body eliminate everything inside. To add insult to injury, every time he had to rush to the bathroom, he slammed his head on the 5 foot tall doorway. When you are sick, everything feels fragile and vulnerable. You long for the familiar, the simple. You do not long for a fan-only room with two twin beds and unreasonably low door frames next to a very vibrant and very loud local market selling fruit, veggies, and animal carcass. For the record, we switched rooms and got ourselves some AC and I, somehow, managed to find Gatorade and some fresh french bread for Tys to eat.

We ate pizza for dinner last night. It was the best pizza we have ever eaten (ok, that I have ever eaten - it tasted JUST like my mom's), prepared by an expat from Italy. No more Thai-Chinese for Tyson.

There is great comfort in having a partner in this journey.

You Shake It Hard Enough, You Lose Your Tailfeathers

Here we are, 3 weeks into our trip in Thailand, and have realized a number of things. First of all, don't expect anything to go as you would plan, it may be better, it may be worse, but always entertaining. Second, days turn into memories way more quickly then we'd like. Third, if you shake it hard enough, you just might loose your tailfeathers.

Expectations. When we traveled from Khao Lak to the Ton Sai Beach (right next to Hat Rei Lei), we paid a modest price, went from bus to bus to taxi to longtail boat seemlessly and effortlessly, found a place to stay, and were celebrating with dinner and beers before we knew it. We fully expected delays, difficulties, or whatever else might come our way. Today, on our trip from Ton Sai to Phuket, we expected the same, and drew a wild card...a 20 year old public bus driver who was literally racing his buddy in another public bus. Neither one of us remembers being so scared. He dodged and weaved "his" greyhound sized bus through traffic, into oncoming traffic lanes, basically touching the bumper of the other bus going highway speeds, and weaved across lanes of traffic to block the other bus from passing us, accelerating around the bends. I'm not sure words can qualify our feelings toward this kid. Having already paid the full fare to get to Phuket, we abandoned the bus at the first opportunity, and were taken in by a truly Thai community for an hour while we waited for the next bus to come. The wait was great, filled with laughs, smiles and charades. Completely unexpected. And terrifying. Don't worry, the next bus was just fine. We were happy to pay the full fare once again. Next leg, we're flying.

As for time passing by, we had an amazing time diving in the Similans, it feels like you can see forever. We camped next to the beach; it really felt like we were diving and lounging in a post card. So good that we hardly took any pictures (we're kicking ourselves now). We spent the past few days in a climber's paradise (Rei Lei beach area), where the cliffs literally fall into the sea. It was quite nice being in an area where we didn't participate in the main activity (for the first time, we were able to stick to our true budget). Instead, we hiked around, swam, climbed up to an amazing lookout point, kayaked and ate amazing food from longtail boat stands. And now we are staring down our last week in Thailand, just like that. We've done a ton of stuff, seen even more and realize that the end of April will be here before we know. Until then, we'll be drinking it in.....

As for losing your tailfeathers...that's what happens when you're a manly looking transvestite using a peacock ensemble to accentuate your hip shaking dance to "I Will Survive". You just need to shake it hard enough. That brings it all back to today: we may have lost a few tailfeathers along the way, but we survived. And we are very happy about that.

Here are some new photos.

More Photos

Hi everyone,

Everything takes more time and more effort here. We were having trouble uploading photos and videos but figured out the photos (for now.) Here they are. Sorry there are so many; we don't have time (or the patience) to edit them now.

Tyson will hopefully figure out the video thing soon. The Thai computer gods appear to be very lazy and/or overworked.

Quick recap of where we have been and where we are: we left Khao Sok National Park, after spending a night at Chaew Lan Lake in the floating bungalows and one more night in the Nung House (we loved it there!) Yesterday, took a public bus to Khao Lok that was scheduled to leave at 12:30pm but didn't show up until 1:40pm. No seats when the bus arrived so we sat in the stairwell of the back door. Luxury travel.

Khao Lak is the jumping off point for the beautiful Similan Islands. But it is a strange place. Apparently, it was "discovered" by Scandanavians and so tourists from Scandanavia are everywhere. You can get schneitzel and bratwurst and designer eyeglasses that will help you see more grown men in speedos than you would ever hope to. It is also the place that was significantly impacted by the December 2004 tsnunami. We spoke with a Thai man who owns one of the resorts here and he showed us photos of the devastation. We also spent some time today in the Tsunami International Museum; a very somber and reflective experience for this tragic event. On a positive note, many places have been rebuilt and tourism seems to be booming here right now, especially tourists from Scandanavia.

We do feel like we have been on the tourist track and haven't had a ton of exposure to "real" Thai culture but are hoping to get more immersed as we head away from the beach areas and towards Chiang Mai. Tyson will post later about our experience at the "Angel Caberet," a slice of gender-bending entertainment....

Tomorrow, we leave for a 2 day/1night dive trip to the Similan Islands. We'll do 4 dives and spend a night camping on one of the park islands. The trip is quite pricey and we are finally feeling like we need to reel it in and start behaving less like flashpackers (a term we learned along the way) and more like backpackers. On the island we will be "chillaxin,"another term we picked up and will not use again after this post.

Sending lots of love home to all of you.

Have Packs. Will Travel.

Yesterday was an insane travel day. We were traveling from Ko Pha Ngan to Khao Sok National Park and had booked our travel at our lodging on Ko Pha Ngan. The manager of the Haad Gruad Resort handled the arrangements and setting things up literally took us two seconds. We thought, "wow, that was so awesome and so easy!" The plan was to take a taxi to the ferry that would take us to Surat Thani and then a bus to Khao Sok. But unfortunately, that is not what happened. Taxi to ferry was no problem. Ferry, no problem. (The joint ticket operations of bus/taxi/ferry are pretty organized; they stick different colored stickers on your and your bags so they know who is going where and our last bus/ferry journey was pretty effortless.)

However, when we got off the ferry, we thought we were going to be in Surat Thani. But we weren't. We were in a town to the east called Don Sak. So we got herded onto a janky pink bus that had tiny seats with no leg room to travel to Surat Thani.

After we rode that for an hour on the cramped bus (Tys and I weren't sitting together because there weren't 2 seats together available,) we got dropped off at a "bus stop" in Surat Thani which was like a dirt lot with some seating and shelter overhead. I had to pay 5 baht to use the bathroom! We were told we were going to have 20 minutes before our bus left so Tyson went to buy us a few beers. In the time it took him to get through the line, we were being told to get into this transport truck (more on that in a minute) that would take us to the "other" bus stop. We were PACKED into that truck, which is called a sawthaeng. It is essentially a pick-up truck with bench seats on either side and this particular truck actually had the tailgate removed and two additional seats welded on to the back, just to maximize the number of people that you could shove in! Anyway, we and all the other travelers were drinking our beers and thought the whole experience was pretty funny. We were in that truck for about 10 minutes and then dropped off at another bus station with more tables, chairs, food and beer.

At this point, we had made some friends, including a few guys from England and a girl from Sweden. We drank beer and just waited to be told what to do next. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 5pm. At 7 pm, we were finally told to get back into the transfer truck/sawthaeng. And we were in that truck for 2 hours in the dark with 8 other travelers. We are guessing that we were supposed to be in a minivan and that it broke down and they had to take us in that really uncomfortable sideways-benched pick up truck.

It was humorous at the beginning. And then it wasn't anymore. After we got gas for the truck and picked up the driver's girlfriend, we were on our way. The driver was probably 20 years old and was cuddling with his girlfriend, rolling a cigarette, eating a hot dog on a stick, and talking on his phone all while he was hurdling us down a dark, 2 lane, winding road. FOR TWO HOURS. Sitting sideways in the back of a covered pickup truck.

I will admit, it was a little scary. (Mom and Dad, don't freak out, we are safe!)

We did not make arrangements for accommodations in Khao Sok. But we happened to get SO lucky on the ferry. We had met a couple from SF and they recommended a place for us to stay and that is where we ultimately wound up. (We made arrangements from one of the bus stops after a guy that worked there tried to sell us accommodations at his place of lodging and they were all sold out. He also told us it was really busy here and that we'd never find a place to sleep. So not true.) Thanks to our new friends Ellie and Jeff for helping us have a safe landing at the Nung House!

But we only arrived at the Nung House after the transport truck dropped us off at some other lodging (the one that has a "deal" with the transport), then got into a minivan, then waited for our german travel companions to look at lodging, then waited for our driver to get a shirt.

It was insane. Took us about 10 hours to get here. But the place we are staying is lovely and the park is gorgeous and it is quiet and peaceful here and we are almost able to forget about our experience yesterday. We had did some hiking and swimming in Sok River today along with more new friends from England (Nadia and John-Henry) and are heading to Cheaw Lan Lake for trek, boat ride, night on a floating raft bungalow, and general natural beauty fabulousness.

I don't know how we could have avoided the situation we wound up in. There was no way we could have gotten to Khao Sok on the public bus from the ferry in Don Sak. And when we made our plans, it was our understanding that we'd be taken from the ferry to the bus and then delivered safely and happily here. Alas, things here are NEVER what you expect and it's better to have no expectations at all.

We are safe. We are happy. But we are hoping that we do not have another travel experience like the one we had yesterday. We're betting we do. Anyone else care to bet on that?

Here's where we've been so far:


View Jenn and Tyson SE Asia Trip in a larger map

More Photos

Hi all. We are having trouble getting photos to embed in our blog posts. Sorry about that. Here's a link to the most recent batch of photos. Don't worry Rosemary, there's only 46 this time!

The Land of Smiles.

Thailand. I can't remember ever feeling so relaxed amongst organized chaos. Things just seem to work themselves out. We've been here a little over a week, and all the knots in my back are gone. Maybe its all the smiling, the sunshine, the time in the water. Maybe its the crazy contortion our Thai Masseuse put us through (one moment she's massaging my back, the next she has me in a backwards pretzel, her feet next to my crotch, somehow using her tiny body to crack every vertebrate I own). The openness of Thailand may be best summed up by the Thai woman who runs the breakfast shop next to our dive shop. At 8am, she greets everyone with the same enthusiastic smile as she does at 10pm at night. Happiness seeps out of her pores, and it is incredibly contagious.

When we arrived on Kao Phangnyan (the island we are currently on), we thought we would have to figure out what beach to go to to find accommodation. Not so. As soon as we got off the boat, swarms of offers engulfed us. One man came over, showed some rooms in the $30/night range (much to much for our taste). I told him "no thanks, we're looking for something cheaper". Immediately, he raises his hand and yells out "Cheap!!!". Within seconds, three women are surrounding me calmly offering rooms for $9 to $15 per night. Next we thing know, we're on a cheap taxi heading to a beautiful resort where we end up with air conditioning and a hot water shower (Jenn and I were beside ourselves with excitement). Thailand is amazing. Everything really does work itself out, although we're still not getting on the back of a motorcycle.

You Tube Channel, Up and Running

Alright Team. We haven't been great about writing, but we have been taking some short videos of our experiences.
We'll post a video from time to time, but most of them will just be loaded onto our YouTube channel (it's crazy that anyone can have our own channel). So, if you'd like to check those out, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jennandtyson

In the meantime, here is a video of our dive boat (we are now officially Advanced Divers....it was awesome! We saw phytoplankton at night; it was like a fireworks show underwater). We loved our instructor, got really comfortable underwater, became "narked" at 30 meters depth; it was an all over great experience to share.

Is it hopeless?

Because we are both in the environmental field, we are particularly aware of and curious about the conditions of the places we are visiting. I am, of course, most interested in what's happening in the ocean and Tyson is curious about the sources of energy and fresh water. Seeing all the cars, buses, tuk tuks, and motorbikes in Bangkok made us feel like it is going to be impossible to wean the world off of fossil fuels and to get global warming under control. How can we get developing nations to transition to clean energy when it is cheaper and more convenient to have business as usual? In Ko Tao, the long-tail boats with two-stroke engines belch nasty black carbon pollution into the air causes worse problems then engines from cars.

As far as the ocean goes over here, the island of Ko Tao is actually a marine park where no fishing is allowed within a certain distance from shore. They have recognized that tourism (and a healthy reef ecosystem) is more financially beneficial than pulling all the fish out of the water. There are currently 52 dive schools on Ko Tao and all of them are churning divers out daily. At first, I was disturbed by this, concerned about all these novice divers landing on the fragile reef. However, I am now hopeful that these divers will learn and appreciate the beauty that lies underwater and that an ocean conservation ethic will follow them home from Ko Tao.

All is not perfect in the oceans here. On our first advanced certification dive, at a beautiful offshore site called Chumphon Pinnacle, we saw a lost fishing net that had continued "ghost fishing" for who knows how long. We've heard about the effects of lost fishing gear and have seen the impacts on tv, but I can't tell you how devastating it was for us to see this abandoned net firsthand, with at least 20 dead fish that been trapped and died. It was a horrible sight. The only positive of that experience was that our dive instructor tried to extract the net and actually freed several fish that were still alive, including a rabbitfish and a bannerfish.

To add to my concern, there is fresh fish on the menu everywhere, every night. While I'm sure it's delicious, I worry about the sustainability of these fishing activities and am disheartened by the lack of care and attention we see our fellow travelers giving the environment around them. We saw a guy on the ferry platform spill his plastic cup and just watch as it was about to blow into the ocean. Tyson rescued it and the guy who had dropped it acted as if it wasn't his to begin with. WTF?

Sorry for the depressing post but I suppose this is the truth of our time. We hope that the environmental situation is not hopeless, but over here, it certainly feels like it at times.

Now go get on your bicycles and eat some veggie burgers!

Ko Tao. Still.

This is our 5th day on Ko Tao. Our open water scuba course is finished this afternoon and the original plan was to move on to Ko Pha Ngan, another island just to the south of here. However, we are loving our dive school and our instructor and have decided to stick around for another 2 days to get our advanced scuba certification. This means we'll be able to dive down to 100 feet rather than 60 and we'll get another 5 dives in while we are here. It's cheaper to do this certification here than in the U.S. and Tyson will feel more comfortable doing dives in other places having several more course dives under his belt. Plus, there's a chance for us to do a dive where we will see sharks! And maybe a whale shark! If I see a whale shark, I will probably explode with exitement. Seriously.

We did our first two open water dives yesterday, one at a reef called Japanese Gardens and another at Twin Rocks. The visibilty was great and we saw so many beautiful corals and fish. Tyson is a natural under the water and it's really great to share this underwater experience with him. Before leaving the States, I purchased a "Relief Band," which is this bracelet that sends a small electromagnet pulse to your wrist every four seconds and is supposed to keep you from getting seasick. I am thrilled to report that it works! I did not get seasick at all yesterday during our boat time or after. That band will change my life!

Anyway, I think my first post on Bangkok might have given an impression that we didn't like it there and that isn't true. The second day we were in Bangkok, we took the Skytrain (elevated train) to the Chaya Prao River. We successful dodged the ripoff "tourist" ferry for 150 baht and found the local express boat for 12 baht each. We were so proud of ourselves for finding the cheaper boat! The river is really busy, with ferry boats, long tail boats, and shipping barges. It was pretty easy to figure out how to pay and where to get on and off. We got off at the Khao San Road area (the backpacker haven)and set out to find where our bus would leave the next day for Ko Tao. After lunch and finding the bus stop, we wound up hiring a tuk tuk that brought us to several wats (temples) and of course a tailor shop. The tuk tuk drivers get a commission if they bring you to the tailor shop and the tailors hope that you buy a suit from them. We passed for now (hoping to get suits made in Vietnam at Hoi An)and the next stop was at a tourist office that is run by the Thai government. We purchased a trek and accommodations in Chiang Mai while we were in the tourist office and are still questioning whether that was a good decision. We probably could have found cheaper options once we arrived but sometimes it's nice to have everything sorted out ahead of time. We made a pact that if we find out we got ripped off, we won't ever do that again!

We made our way home on a long-tail taxi boat through one of the canals that runs east-west through Bangkok. Thankfully, a kind Thai man on his commute home from work helped us figure out what stop we should get off to make it back to our hostel. Tyson and I were the only non-Thais on the boat. And the people who collected the fares were hanging on the outside of the boat from ropes, wearing hardhats (and jelly sandals)!

In summary, this day in Bangkok was filled with travel and sights but most importantly, we met at least 5 Thai people on the street who were incredibly friendly, kind and helpful. At first, we were very suspicious of their willingness to help, but we soon learned that that's just the way it is here. It sucks you in, excites you, calms you, and above all else, leaves you with the feeling that everything is going to be alright (or much better than alright).

So much more to write but it's time to dive!

Long Tail Boat Ride....Awesome!

Photos!

Ok, we figured it out. For now. Here's the first batch of photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jennandtyson/Bangkok#

Hooray.

Being Cool Doesn't Buy the Dollars

Happy New Year everyone. As I write this, I would guess that some of you are still celebrating; we have been in the New Year already for about 19 hours! That's right, we're in the future.

We have experienced so much in the last 6 days that I'm not sure I'll be able to capture it all, but I'll do my best to give the highlights. Bangkok is a crazy city. It assaults your senses with the constant noise of motorbikes, tuk tuks, music, cars, people. You do not get a rest from it. There are commercials playing in the trains, huge screens on the street playing videos and music, and a cacophony of sounds and music coming from the shops and street vendors. There are significant and obvious differences in class; with huge, extravagant shopping centers directly next to impoverished shanty towns. Tyson and I unfortunately found ourselves in one of those shanty towns while trying to locate a computer store near Siam Center. I directed us down an alleyway that I thought would get us where we wanted to go, but I was wrong. We wound up in this rabbit warren of tarps, stagnant puddles, motorbikes, cooking food, and "shops" selling sweets and other knick knacks. The sky was covered by tarps or other structures and the living conditions were terrible. We never feared for our safety but we were very uncomfortable as it felt like we had walked into this underworld of poverty and were walking through living rooms. To the credit of the people who lived there, they hardly flinched at all to see two white kids walking in a place they are probably never seen.

We finally made our way out of that place and located the computer store we were looking for. We had been advised to get a small travel computer before we left on our trip, but thought that it would be too much to carry around. After realizing that it would be easier for us to upload photos and videos and to write blog postings if we did have a computer, we thought we'd try to get a deal in Bangkok. The place we wound up was INSANE. Picture 4 floors of computer equipment, cameras, printers, ipods, dvd players, stereos and any other electronic equipment you can imagine. Now imagine stalls and stores full of this stuff. With flashing lights. And each place playing different thumping music. After our experience in the shanty town, this place just pushed us over the edge. We were officially overstimulated. We failed in our attempt to find a cheap computer and quickly got ourselves back to the Skytrain and to our hostel. We were so happy to have some quiet.

2 hours later, we were making our way to the western side of Bangkok in a cab on our way to catch the bus that would take us to the ferry that would take us to Ko Tao, the gorgeous island we are on now. The two cab rides we have taken so far have been terrifying to me. The shoulder of the road is used as another lane and the lanes themselves seem to just be "guidance," staying between the lines is optional.

We arrived safely at the bus pick-up spot, where we were supposed to check in at 7:30pm. There was already a line to check in when we arrived at 7pm so we joined and expected we'd have time to grab some dinner before the bus departed at its scheduled time of 9pm. Ha. Wrong! Apparently, the bus can leave whenever it feels like it. And we were informed that we had 10 minutes to get food and get on the bus. Given the fact that we are not ready to eat what i affectionately call "street meat," we were left with buying potato chips, raisin bread, and a snickers bar at the 7-11 before boarding the bus. Let me tell you, Tyson was NOT happy. In addition to feeling frustrated and rushed, he was quite disappointed with the bus accommodations. I think he was expecting some VIP bus like the kind he had ridden in in Argentina and advertised on the ticket ("first-class, VIP service!) but alas, our seats only reclined partially back and the knee room was spacious for a 4-foot-tall Thai woman. After eating a bit, Tys settled into his seat and passed out while I watched Bangkok disappear behind us.

There is so much more to report,from the ridiculous late-night bus stop, to the 6am taxi cab ride in the back of a truck to the beauty of this island and our fabulous New Years Eve, but that will have to be for another post. We are hungry and cheap Thai food awaits!

We are working hard to figure out how to upload photos and videos but are having some technical difficulties. Actually, we're not working that hard but we are trying occasionally and will hopefully have something for you all to look at very soon.

Happy New Year to all. From the future, this year is off to an amazing start.

Oh, in case you were wondering, the title of this blog post came from a t-shirt we saw on one of people we walked by today. We thought it was hilarious. What do you think it means?