Thoughts, Feelings, etc.

Greetings from...drum roll please....Walnut Creek!!! I have safely returned from my 11.5 week journey. Fairly unreal feeling. Europe and Asia feel worlds apart (literally:)) My mind has divided them, so that at this point, I can only comment on overall lessons learned and Asia. Thus, without further ado....
Lessons Learned
1. Rice is amazing and delicious in all forms. Always.
2. 7-11 is a whole different breed in Thailand. I think I will continue to never go in the US (other than when I scored goals as a child in soccer and got rewarded with a Slurpee), so as to not taint it's stature in Asia. Open 24 hours, air-conditioned AND you could ALWAYS buy a bottle of cold water. (not just water in a fridge; sometimes the fridges weren't plugged in. it made you expect cold water, but really..LIES!)
3. Pet populations need to be controlled. Southeast Asia demonstrates this all too well...
4. Bus/train squat toilets are never a good idea.
5. Traveling alone allows you to meet a LOT of people.
6. Monkeys, elephants, water buffalo and turtles are still my favorite animals. you have NO idea!
7. Lauren and access to cheap and delicious food are a formula for disaster. Unlike most normal people, I lost weight in Europe and gained it in Asia, merely due to price. sigh.
New Life Goals
1. Run a marathon
2. Learn to knit (thank you Jill and Aurora for inspiration!)
3. Learn a new language, suggestions welcome as to which one
4. Live abroad for an extended period of time and get paid? ie work...(accepting job offers now:))
Highs
1. Meeting other travelers and locals
2. Appreciating my youth and health
3. New cultures
4. GREAT weather (in Asia, NOT Europe)
5. Food, new different exciting amazing
6. Cost of services, food, products, alcohol, lodging in SE Asia
7. Friends living abroad and putting me up--THANK YOU ALL!
8. Having the luxury to read a TON (once my mind engaged)
Lows
1. Not speaking Thai
2. American guilt complex...Cambodia was the worst, but I felt it in Laos too. Why did we bomb these countries for so long again? There's NOTHING there..why destroy a country that already barely has any infrastructure.
3. Stomach woes--inevitable, however, Alex didn't have any. what up with that? We met some Aussies and they called it a "runny stomach." Gross, but good terminology.
4. Not having you all with me to share the experience.
Ok, so that's a wrap. I've been home for 40 hours and it already feels like weeks. If anyone wants to, you know,...give me a job abroad? I'll GLADLY accept. Thank you for your comments, emails, advice for the last 3 months. This blog, while I fought the idea initially, really allowed me to feel connected to everyone when I traveled alone and was far far away. Thank you for reading, it was a great support. Until my next big journey...
Love,
Lauren

Greetings from Paradise

A very belated hello to all! I have been so far behind on blogging, but having so much fun traveling! Just arrived in Bangkok this morning after a boat-->bus-->bus overnight extravaganza. I will say that while traveling here is sometimes frustrating, i.e. stop the bus periodically with no explanation...one is never sure if it's a toilet break or if the bus is broken or if the driver is merely buying cigarettes (have I told you lately that EVERYONE smokes in Asia? It is so reminiscent of South America for me when I started feeling bad not having lighters for people...oh social norms! nerd alert?!), it is a scenic and amazing way to see the country. Last night we got caught in the tropical storms of all tropical storms. It was AMAZING. We unfortunately we're in the process of our "half hour"=1.5 hour stop to switch buses and got SOAKED. Really brought the bus together however, lots of new friends. Something about having all of your belongings on your back, then having your back get soaked, really unites people. Regardless, the first bus was SO hot that the shower probably improved the overall bus odor for the long haul of a journey back up to BKK. They showed Blood Diamond on the bus, fairly heavy, but I watched lightening. Seriously, continuous lightening for 3+ hours. One of the coolest things I have ever seen.. Anyway, my life for the last couple of weeks:
Kho Tao---beautiful rocky island in the Gulf of Thailand. One of the most popular dive sites in the world. Alex and my British friend Jannicke got open water certified=Lauren got free accommodation! Our weather was not the best, but I got much needed zen time staring at the ocean, snorkeling, sunset drinks...the snorkeling here was UNREAL, i couldn't swim without bumping into fish. Jannicke's cousin is a dive instructor and has lived on Koh Tao for 4 years, so we had a local guide. It was great.
Railey-HEAVEN ON EARTH. Please go here if you ever have the opportunity. It is beautiful. Huge limestone cliffs, a climbing destination--it reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. From Koh Tao it took us about 13 hours to arrive in Railey, part of the mainland near Krabi, but only accessible by longtail boat. The highlight of our journey was arriving in Krabi after dark and having them lure 6 other people to buy tickets to go to Railey (they'll only take a boat at night if it has 8 people). They shoved me and alex into a rather dilapidated tuk-tuk and gave us random luggage, which upset the owners of those bags...ultimately we took this tuk-tuk down a dark pier then had to walk onto the boat in complete darkness, no worries, only stairs with ropes and wow, glad we made it on. The ride was about 20 minutes and was really tranquil. It was SO dark and I was singing "Gotta have faith" to Alex, because we literally were at the hands of the longtail driver. When we approached the beach we ran aground about 200m from the actual coast because the tide was out. So had to wade/walk with all of our belongings to get out. It was great though. We stayed in rather posh accommodations since that is all Railey really has to offer and enjoyed 3 BEAUTIFUL beaches. Little kids bring you drinks on the beach, I got a foot scrub, Alex a massage. I almost didn't leave. Alex and I did part ways though. He went off to Hong Kong and I continued south to meet up with some friends in Koh Phi Phi!
Koh Phi Phi-I was warned that it was super touristy, which it was, however it is for a reason. The clearest waters I have ever seen. I snorkeled, but it was relatively unnecessary because you could see everything as well from the water. I LOVE parrot fish. Did a sweet hike up to the viewpoint and got to see where the tsunami hit in 2004. You can't even tell it ever happened now, but they've rebuilt since the tsunami. then we continued to Rantee beach which was almost empty and gorgeous. Phi Phi has fun nightlife, they did fire throwing, fire limbo, fire jumprope...you get the idea. I danced all night and would just walk into the sea when it was too hot. Met lots of people. I would have loved more time there. Now I have one more night in Thailand. Cannot believe my journey is winding down. I intend to do one more blog of actual thoughts and ramblings, but need to go frolic now! See you all soon!
Love,
Lauren

someone took my flip flops:(

Hoooooola! Alex and I have finally reached beach paradise of Thailand. We are staying in Koh Tao, "divers paradise," on the southeastern coast of Thailand. Kind of amazing. I think my entire trip has been based around arriving here. That said, it is currently storming, so I'm waiting it out on internet:) Should be snorkeling in a bit. In reference to the title, we just had breakfast and you have to take your shoes off before entering places here (standard for asia, I dig it...wiggling my bare feet as I type)...anyway, i removed mine and when I left got a different pair of the same flip flops that are more worn and too big. To be fair, pretty sure mine were fakes and these are brand name, but still. EW! someone else's foot sweat. Still surprised that this is the firs time it has happened on my trip though:)
What else? We overnight bused from Vientiene to Bangkok and then got a morning bus to Siem Reap that took us 13 hours! We had to cross the Cambodian border and it just took all too long. Driving in Cambodia was fairly hilarious. Lots of motos, and animal carts, bicycles, buses, trucks and cars all sharing a two lane highway, the last bit of which is unpaved. It makes for lots of horns honking and near misses. I saw more passengers on motos and in cars than I have anywhere else in the world. SEVEN on a moto, probably over 20 in a minivan=RIDICULOUS.
Siem Reap was unreal. HUGE temples, frogs everywhere. I have amazing photos which will be uploaded someday soon I hope. DELICIOUS Khmer food. I bought a book about Pol Pot and man...I have a lot of guilt being an American. It's overwhelming that we bombed Cambodia of all places...
Then Alex and I met up with Julie Picquet in Phnom Penh!!! She is working for the Kiva Foundation and put us up in her apartment. It is run by an 84 year old Khmer deaf, mute man. So sweet. I LOVED P-P. We celebrated Alex's birthday with class (April 5) and went to markets, Toul Slang (the old prison used under Pol Pot..HEAVY) and ate wonderful food with Julie's friends. I love having a local hostess. Then we flew (yes, very over buses) to Bangkok. Got amazing lightening storms throughout all that. Then we overnight bused to the south of Thailand and caught a 7am Catamaran to Koh Tao. Now, I'm in paradise. I miss everyone and will try to upload photos soon because they have high speed internet here! Happy Passover/Easter/Full moon, etc.
Love,
Lauren

You can take Lauren out of Laos, but you can't take Laos out of Lauren!

Very early morning greetings from Bangkok! Alex and I have just stepped off our overnight bus from Laos to Thailand. We arrived over an hour early. Not one of those events where it is in anyway useful to arrive early...Thus, it is 5 in the morning and we have just booked another bus to Cambodia for 7:30. No better way to cope than with internet! (and everything else is closed...)
Highlights (and lowlights) of the last week:
1. We took a beautiful bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Very mountainous and allowed us to peer into mountain/rural living in Laos. The people were showering on the side of the road. Cows, chickens, goats were wandering. Land was being burned. Little kids were walking home from school. There were small children and pregnant women EVERYWHERE. Made me start to wonder what the life expectancy and infant mortality is in Laos. Every traveler I've asked just says there are lots of children because "there's nothing else to do." However, Alex just looked it up and life expectancy at birth is 56 (=young!) and infant mortality is 85 per 1000 births, also high. This makes sense...but still...We got to see a BEAUTIFUL sunset. Reminds me of all those environmental videos from school when they'd highlight how bad pollution was, and then say, "but it makes for BEAUTIFUL sunsets." Case en pointe.

2. Vang Vieng is a tourist destination. Weird town where you can tube down a river and go bar to bar. We opted to go to caves on our one day there and took quite a hike deep into a cave. It wouldn't be legal in other countries to go without a guide due to liability, but leave it to Laos! It was a good 8ish mile walk and great cave!

3. There were many power outages throughout our stay in Laos. Really only hindered my ability to have 50 cent fresh tropical fruit smoothies...mmmm.

4. Laos is a communist country.

5. Vientiene, the capital, was the most developed city we saw the whole time. It was an amazing contrast. I saw people on the street, clearly very poor, and then a Merceded M-class.

6. I went to the US embassy to get more passport pages and the man greeted me by saying "hi, how are you?" First time anyone has asked how I was. Made me happy to be coming home eventually.

7. What are Buddhist beliefs on death?

8. In reference to the title of this blog, I have parasites or some crazy stomach issue. Really been challenging the last few days. I'm on the upswing though. Thank the lord! I did, however, miss kayaking from Vang Vieng to Vientiene. Alex and a fellow traveler did it. It was fun:(

9. Alex found me gatorade in Laos. I was speechless (and thankful).

Off to Cambodia now! Hope all are safe and sound:)
Love,
Lauren