Hanging in Tonsai

We're just back from Hat Ton Sai near Railay in Thailand. It was one of the best places we've been on our entire trip thus far and definitely our favorite spot in Thailand. That is a nice surprise, because we were only planning on popping over for a few short days to visit KT's friend Rissa and her brothers Zac and JT. That turned into many adventures over six days. 

Ton Sai is a secluded beach on the Andaman Coast near Krabi. It is the climbing mecca of Thailand and when you arrive, you can definitely see why. The small beach is absolutely surrounded by stunning karst cliffs. Most cliffs are full of stalagtites and huge overhangs. The climbing style is more powerful than a lot of the vertical walls with smaller holds that you find elsewhere in the world. 

We spent two days climbing. The first day we hired our own gear, found a suitable wall and taught ourselves how to lead climb. That's where you place your own quick releases in the bolts (in case you fall on the way up) and set the top rope. We both did well - the highest top rope that we each placed was about 15 meters. The second day we spent doing deep water soloing. That's where you free-climb on cliffs that overhang water deep enough to dive/fall into. It was beautiful and we did some somewhat challenging ascents. It was scary to do so on slippery rocks without any safety device. Perhaps most scary of all was the final jump and tombstone into the water. The highest was about 15 meters. One final note - climbing up stalagtites = epic. 

The beach itself was a cool scene. Most people there are only there to climb and the community was really friendly. There are a few small food spots and three rasta bars. We definitely spent a few late nights at the bars watching fire-spinning and practicing the slack line. Oh, and one night we watched a man combine the two. It was amazing - he did poi, fire staff, AND spun multiple staffs at a time all the while balancing on the slack line in different positions.

It was great to spend time with Rissa, Zac, JT, and the other like-minded travellers on Ton Sai. We've been travelling together for so long without a consistent social scene and it was nice to see the same people multiple times a day and go do activities with them. With Rissa, Zac, and JT we took kayaks out in the evening one night, swam from a beach to small island, practiced a lot of slack line, and fought off marauding macaques. 

We saw great wildlife whilst there. Almost every day we watched a few families of wild gibbons hanging out in the canopy above us. We saw a baby monitor lizard and a lot of big toads. Cody also killed a number of cockroaches and a wolf spider in the room. 

Next up, we fly north and see what happens. Until next time,

~cody & KT

Thailand Pics

Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi is swell. We have a cozy little bungalow away from the noise on this little island. We're writing now after a wonderful dinner at Esan Tua Joing. We've eaten there twice now and both times were excellent. Yesterday was green mango salad, chili/basil seafood noodles, and a whole fried fish with fresh tamarind sauce. Today we ate catfish mango salad and an omelet stuffed with chicken in a chili sauce. Just trust us, it is amazing.

Earlier today we did two dives near Ko Phi Phi Leh. The scenery was beautiful and we saw a ton of marine life. Highlights were trigger fish, puffer fish, box fish, a big black and white sea snake, and a moray eel. It was really nice and we're excited to possibly do more off of Koh Lanta where there are a few famous dives.

After that and before the dinner we spent a few hours at the beach. It is beautiful here. The bay is no more than a few feet deep when the tide is low and you can walk for a mile or so. It is one huge ring with a small-ish outlet to the sea. The water is extremely warm. Think a hot bath when you're close to land and a warm shower when you've walked out a bit. Yesterday we got caught in an epic rainstorm when we were pretty far out. It was amazing to be pummeled by drops so big that we couldn't see the beach.

There are a ton of young people here. More than we've seen anywhere else. This is definitely a destination for backpackers and the young jet-set alike. That makes going out here a lot of fun. The beach converts to a big party at night. Tons of loud music, fire-spinning, and drink buckets. For those of you not in the know, that's a children's sand pail filled to the brim with a cocktail. We learned the hard way the first night that you only need one to share for two people and don't need to have any beers beforehand...

An interesting phenomenon that we also wanted to note are the tattoos here. There are a lot of shops on Phi Phi and there were also a lot on Phuket. It seems a lot of people come here specifically to get inked. It seems strange, since you're meant to keep fresh tattoos out of direct sunlight for the first few weeks and then very protected for the first six months. People are also getting pretty cliche designs. We asked one guy who was getting the same tattoo with his friends after a long day of beers and sun what his meant. He didn't really know what the thai script read. "something like 'good fortune' in Thai," he said. Seems like less thought and more tattoo just to get tattooed to us. Everyone who's seen ours is extremely complimentary and impressed as they look nothing like what others have and the quality is so top notch (thanks Jeff and Cecilia if you're reading this!). OK, enough of that rant.

We're going out soon and working on deciding where to go next. More adventures soon,

~cody & KT

Catching Up

It has been a while since we've posted. We've been through a few new places and I'll detail that below.

First, we finished up Angkor and Cambodia. The weather there was so hot. It was well over 40 degrees during the day and we saw some pretty epic thunder+lightning storms at night. The other temples were so cool. It's funny, because we went into the experience not thinking we could last more than one day and we'd just target the primary structures. In the end we saw almost every temple over three very long days and loved every moment of it. We especially liked some of the smaller ones. Got great pictures and stories. Our two wildlife highlights were finding a giant wood spider as big as my face and that baby king cobra that almost got KT the first day.

We were really impressed with the Khmer civilization and agreed that the temples should definitely be one of the modern Wonders of the World (whatever that means). Besides the smaller ones I think that Bayan (in Angkor Thom) and Ta Prohm were the highlights. Angkor Wat at sunrise was pretty cool too. It was especially good when we got inside of it and were the only people there. Everyone else was outside trying to get a sunrise picture - so cliche. Oh yeah, KT got mad because they wouldn't let us up to the top of Angkor Wat because she was wearing shorts. The guard suggested that she pull them down a little so that they covered her knees, to which she replied, "What would you rather see, my knees or my butt?"

Last bit was that we spent time at the land-mine museum there. It was really inspiring and sad at the same time. Land-mines and UXO kill so many people each year. It was a bummer to see that the USA was one of the only countries (along with a handful of militaristic third-world countries) to not sign the international agreement banning them based on the massive collateral damage. We saw a lot of land-mine victims in Siem Reap missing arms and legs.

OK, enough of the tough stuff. Next up is Thailand. We flew from Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur (one night layover and a stamp in the passport) and then to Phuket. I don't think that Phuket would generally be on the top of our list, but we really wanted to try kiteboarding and that's where the wind is this time of year. We spent four days at Hat Nai Yang chasing the wind and only got about 4 or 5 solid hours of practice. It was a little disappointing, but we're excited to try again in South America.

Next we headed to Patong for a little bit of late night party. We also wanted to see the lady boy thing in action. Patong is like the Las Vegas of Thailand. Based on what we've seen it is the #1 place in Thailand for: russians, sex tourism, lady boys, high-priced drinks, people who drank way too many of said drinks, and indian/arabic restaurants. Needless to say this place is strange. We went out one night and saw all we needed to see by about 3:30AM. Beyond that we've dabbled in thai massage, had some good italian food (after many, many meals of delicious thai food), and got some rest. It may sound funny, but we don't really take weekends out here on the road, so it was nice to rest up a little.

Next up is Koh Phi Phi Don and then the rest of the Andaman Coast (Koh Lanta, Ton Sai, Krabi, etc.). More soon and thanks for reading!

~cody & KT

Wats, Wats, Wats.

So many wats and so little time. We spent a few days in Luang Prabang which is an excellent city. Its small, has great food, a really cool vibe, cobblestone streets, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are a lot of really important temples there and we spent a lot of time seeing those, going to the museum, and exploring the shops around town. We also ate our way through the city: great night of Hot Pot/BBQ and a 7-Course vegetarian Lao meal were highlights.

We also took a day to visit this massive waterfall nearby. You'll see via the pictures, but we could both easily say that it was the best waterfall we've ever seen. It cascaded over a long path of terraced pools and long (20M+) drops. We hiked up to the top and found a secret entrance to one of the pools that overlooks the largest drop by literally walking up a section of the waterfall. It was such a beautiful experience and we'd both love to go back at some point.

Oh! Almost forgot. We left Vang Vieng without one of our passports. We were at a rest stop an hour north when we realized. Our best option was to offload the bus, kiss our $20 worth of bus fare goodbye, and try to hitch back to town. We got picked up by a local bus and were kept company by 8 giant crates of leaky eggs. We got the passport and got tickets for the sleeper bus that night. Turns out it wasn't much of a sleeper. We were added to a bus that must have originated in Vientiane and so was already packed full. It was hot, uncomfortable, and one seat got feet all over them while the other had someone leaning on their shoulder. Not so fun, but an experience nonetheless!

We're now in Siem Reap. It is pretty amazing here. Over two million tourists visit the Angkor Archaeological Park every year and so the city is pretty happening. Lot's of bright lights, authentic Khmer food, spas (Katie loved the fish spa...), and shopping. Our first day inside the park we visited Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Ta Nei, Chau Say Tevoda, and Thommanon. Those names probably don't mean much to you, but just believe us that it was amazing. Pictures are definitely going up soon. Ta Prohm was a highlight with huge strangling parts of the temple. They looked like parasitic aliens trying to suck the brains out of the temple. Another highlight was Ta Keo which is more vertically-focused very impressive from both below and up on top.

Tomorrow and the next day we're doing the big ones (Angkor and Thom). We're glad that we started small since there's so much to see. We have a very nice Tuk Tuk driver named Leung who charges us $10 a day to drive us wherever we want to go and wait around for us.

Ah, one more thing, speaking of money. Everything is in US dollars here! When you pull money from the ATM, it only comes out in dollars. They have some local money, but only to act as change (no coins, only bills). Compared to Vietnam and Laos everyone also speaks really good english. I'm sure there's a lot to do with the tourist-hub nature of this place, but it is surprising nonetheless.

OK, that's it for now. Thanks for reading and more soon,

~cody & KT

Sabaidee!

That's hello here in Laos.

Laos is so cool. We really like the people and vibe here. We last left off in Vientiane where we celebrated Laos New Year (Pi Mai Lao!). It was epic fun until we got tired of it. Glad that we only caught a three-day festival and not something longer. The temple visits were great - we joined everyone in going to all the local Wats (which are beautiful and huge) to offer our prayers and wash all of the buddha's onsite. We also donated to the Monk School and were given bracelets for good luck. It was a wet affair, but a very peaceful and meaningful one.

Outside the Wats was a much different story. Non-stop DJ music, hoses, buckets of water, water balloons, and so much BeerLao. It got pretty old by the last day. Especially when people have water color in their water balloons and we didn't want our clothes ruined. So we brought a few french pastries with us and jumped a bus to Vang Vieng.

We've done so much here and also so little when we've had a moment for a break. We've done two days of rock climbing on Sleeping Wall and Secret Canyon. The climbing here is great. Pretty loose on the rules - we got to belay our guide as he set the top rope every time. Both days we completely destroyed our bodies. We definitely need to work on our grip strength.

The second day we really got into the swing of things and made some really scary climbs. The hardest one we both scaled was rated 6b and had a tough start, some pretty challenging overhangs, and very few grips. No slips or rests on the belay rope. The setting was also pretty amazing. It was just us in the middle of the jungle with a lot of animal noise around us. We actually had to crawl through a cave to get there (therefore: Secret Canyon). Our instructor kept mentioning that he smelled snake which was a little unnerving at first.

We also took a dirt bike trip with a guy named Tom from Wales. It was really fun to get out onto the forest trails with big bikes. We both picked it up pretty quickly and got to do some pretty gnarly trails. Tom (who used to race competitively) said that one of them would have even been a feature in a trials event. No trouble or spills when we were on them, but when we got back on our scooter to take us back to town (and were saying goodbye to Tom), we wiped out in the parking lot. Hah! No major injuries, just a few scratches and torn pants. Chinese rental scooters are not the best, I think.

Next we head to Luang Prabang. More on that once we're there. After that to Cambodia and Angkor Wat. Beyond that to Thailand and ultimately to Europe.

Miss you,

~Cody & KT

Hello, Laos

What a trip.

We arrived in Vientiane (pronounced Wiangchan) a few hours ago and this has been such an experience. We arrived on the first day of the New Years Celebration for Lunar New Year. What that means in Laos terms:

-Getting you wet: with buckets, hoses, squirt-guns, anything... the entire country is having one huge water fight
-Block party: parties everywhere in front of houses, restaurants, and businesses
-Burning Man in Laos: Funny how we think that in America our music is so unique... they listen to the same thing here and play it loud
-Very gay friendly here, we saw men dancing all up on each other in the middle of the street blocking traffic - awesome!
-All of these things happening just across the street from the most epic Buddhist temples

We also just had the best dinner with fresh steamed tilapia in the best herbs/spices, spring rolls, and sticky rice. So good! That and the national beer here (BeerLao) is not so bad.

We left Hoi An this morning. We were sad to leave Vietnam, we both felt a strong connection to the people and way of life. The culture was awesome because the people were great, but felt a little stripped down. The language not having written characters anymore, Buddhism/religion in general not having a big presence, and the daily dose of propaganda created an unexpected, but interesting cultural experience. We're not complaining, Vietnam was amazing. We think it just created a readiness to receive what we're finding so far here in Laos.


Laos seems very different....we were greeted to smiles all around, and the feeling of being part of the culture rather than observing the culture. Excited to see what tomorrow will bring.

-cody and KT

Laos Pics
Vietnam Pics

Lazy days in Hoi An

We're in Hoi An having some clothing made for ourselves and taking it easy for a few days. Katie has found a great tailor for her wedding dress and I've found someone to make my suit. While we're at it, we're both also getting a few extra button-up shirts and suit jackets made for each of us, since our sizes are not exceedingly common. These are all extremely cheap here and the quality is quite nice. There are over 300 tailoring shops in Hoi An and it is one of the premier places in the world to have clothing made on the cheap.

Today we took a trip to the beach (An Bang?). It was warm and a little overcast. We spent some time laying out and built a sandcastle. We also body surfed for about an hour. The waves were humongous and tossed us both around pretty significantly. Katie definitely lost her suit a few times.

Interesting bit about Hoi An is that this is a city that's a bastion for disabled people. There are really good programs here for them to find training, work, housing, and etc. We try to support them as best we can by buying items from them when possible.

The food in Hoi An is some of the best in Vietnam. We took a cooking class yesterday and learned how to make fried Vietnamese spring rolls, an herbaceous fish cooked in banana leaf, chili lemongrass chicken, and caramelized pork in a clay pot. All of these dishes were exceedingly delicious and we were surprised by how easy it was to create them. Well worth the class so that we can re-create some local favorites once we're home. That's definitely one thing that we both miss is having a stocked kitchen available to us to use regularly. Here's a laundry list of other fantastic dishes we've had here: eggplant in claypot, mustard greens (YUM), pavlova, at least one Vietnamese iced coffee a day, unpasteurized/fresh beer, morning glory, fried pork wonton covered in sweet & sour sauce, squid stuffed with pork, passion fruit juice, french pastries, and etc.

Next we head to Laos. We're catching a flight on Sunday from Danang to Vientiane. It was a hard decision, because we also wanted to go to Tha Khek for rock climbing. Ultimately we decided that the north has a lot more action and we can also find rock climbing in Vien Viang (which we absolutely plan on taking advantage of).

Thanks for reading and more soon,

~cody & KT