Time flies in Thailand

Sawatdee ka! We have been in Thailand for a little over two weeks, mostly island hopping, beach bumming and rock climbing. Here are some pictures from our first few days in Southern Thailand...

Tonsai beach crag

$5/night bamboo bungalow... Wound up with many, itchy unidentified bites but it's the price of cheap living in the jungle.

 Our bungalow walls from inside the mosquito net.

Bouldering in a jungle cave before we had gear to rope up.

Limestone is soft on the hands and littered with beautiful features. Most everything has been rebolted with titanium bolts that the harsh seaside air won't corrode. 

Unique & crazy 'tufas' form like stalagmites that you can climb out on to.

Every picture is postcard worthy here.

Off to meet Chris & Sophie in Phuket. The post from our time together is yet to come.

This is a Thailand taster! Today we said goodbye to Chris & Sophie and are traveling with the fabulous Sharon Best. She is here until Sunday the 2nd and we will play blog catch up after that. Best wishes and send us Halloween photos of yourselves, pets, & cute kids! 

xxx Liz

Georgetown Blitz

Feeling anxious to get climbing in Thailand, we spent only one night in Georgetown on the island of Penang. Originally a British port town and later host to people with all sorts of ethnicities, the buildings have a sort of ruined colonial feel. The whole town is a UNESCO world heritage site. Georgetown is known for its food and more recently there is a ton of street art that has been attracting attention. We did a lot of walking in the hot sun wandering from piece to piece. Some are wire sculptures telling some bit of history, some are paintings, and some are paintings with added props. 

Most of the wire pieces were over 6 ft tall.

Stumbled on to some kind of Chinese festival with sticks of incense as tall as Matt and as thick as a grown man's thigh.

Here's the real deal street art. Matt loved this one with Bruce Lee karate kicking a cat..

And then we saw a river of blood...

And then more beautiful street art...

Other than Bruce Lee- there was a 'be kind to cats' theme. The strays here looked clean and well fed. And I found Vinnie.

This kid is eating a giant ball of flavored ice.... With chopsticks.

These two were the biggest we saw.

In the evening we went to a food court with 40 hawker stalls selling everything you could want to eat. We decided to try small plates from a bunch of different stalls. We had stuffed crab, dim sum, fried chicken and Chinese fried noodles. The whole meal, with beer, came to about $15.

We have a 5am bus to Thailand and then we will climb for a few days until CHRIS TRAINOR & SOPHIE MORRIS get here and then SHAROOOOOOOOON. We are so lucky to be getting visits from some amazing people. 

xx L

Cameron Highlands

Enjoying Malaysia immensely! Despite the regular afternoon monsoons we have been having fun. Cameron highlands is at 1500m so the air is cooler and they can grow many things that don't grow anywhere else in the country. We went to the Best of Highlands tea plantation and did some light trekking. We also met some awesome people as well. 

All tea bushes!

Tea leaves rolling and drying 

Chinese Buddhist temple..

Waterfalls and strawberries.. 

Steamboat dinner with some friends, big boiling pot of soup and tons of veggies, fish, meat, eggs, noodles, & tofu that you throw in it to cook.

On our first afternoon we found this little street stall run by a deaf couple. They were incredibly sweet so we went there daily for breakfast. I made her a bracelet and the last morning they gave Matt and I bracelets too which they said were for safe travels. 

Our hostel was fun, it had a nice patio where we hid from the rain and a bar where we spent nights sitting around the fire with a bunch of people. These beautiful orchids were on the patio.

Onward to Georgetown, Penang, an island off the northwest coast and then to Thailand.

xx L

Welcome to the Jungle

After 3 hrs on a bus and 3 on a boat, we found ourselves in the middle of the jungle. We spent a couple days traipsing through the trees and along the river, and ate most of our meals on floating restaurants. For wildlife, we avoided the much discussed leeches, and saw water buffalo, monkeys, fish, lizards and inch long ants. Incredibly, there was wifi even here. 

These are the floating restaurants!

They have a canopy walk that claims to be the longest in the world at 550 meters, and whether it's true or not it was quite cool. 

Followed by some light trekking...

Jungle poses..

And a quick swim..

In the evenings we hung with some locals and some travelers at our hostel, playing guitar and swapping stories. Next is on to Cameron Highlands which will be a nice, cool change from the humid jungle where nothing seems to dry..

xx L