The Maldives - The Last Vacation

I've been putting off writing this blog for some time now, because if you haven't heard, our Singapore adventure has come to an end and it's time to go home.  How did two years go by so quickly?  We always knew this trip would be temporary, but after making so many good friends and seeing such spectacular places, it's difficult to see it come to an end.

Ever since we arrived in Singapore two years ago we have been talking about our "exit trip".  A lot of people who move temporarily overseas plan a big trip and travel for a couple of weeks before returning home (wherever that may be), and we had big plans for ours.  New Zealand?  South Africa?  If you could travel anywhere in the world for two weeks, where would you go?  Unfortunately, our time (and money) was starting to be limited, and we had the dog to think about (her return was more expensive than ours), so our two week plans were whittled down to one week.  We starting asking ourselves, what is one place that we would probably never return to if we were not ever to move back to SE Asia?  I took a poll, and the vote was overwhelmingly for... The Maldives.

The Maldives are a group of islands off of the southwestern tip of India in the Indian Ocean, almost right up to the Arabian Sea, and boasts the record for the lowest high point for any country in the world.  The highest point in the entire country is eight feet.  Eight.  The ceilings in my house are higher than that.  This is the country that held a cabinet meeting under water in order to highlight what will happen to the country should the seas rise too much higher.

It's also one of the most expensive places in the world to stay, with an average price of a room around $800/night, and many are as much as $1500/night.  The Holiday Inn it is, then!  Though we were consistently mocked by our peers for choosing the Holiday Inn for our very last trip in Asia, we had the last laugh, as this was the view from our beachside bungalow:

The Holiday Inn Kandooma is no ordinary Holiday Inn...

You just cannot believe the color of this water.

This was my view for the first few days, looking up from my beach chair into the shade of the palm trees.

One of the two restaurants sported a rooftop bar, with great sunset views.

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We didn't exactly do a whole lot on this trip, most sitting on the beach and reading, but one evening we took a Night Fishing tour to try and catch something for dinner.

I was the first one to catch a fish!  Grouper, I think it was...

I also had the record for the biggest fish of the evening until Max from Belgium caught this whopper of a snapper and put my little grouper to shame.

Dinner!

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Tomorrow, my first sea plane ride!  And meet the Justin Bieber of Male.

Thailand with Austin - Breakfast with the Buddhists

Our flight left for Singapore at 10am, but that still left plenty of time for one last thing.  A 5am thing.

Here's David, taking advantage of the early hour to text a friend back in the US.

Every morning before sunrise, the monks walk down a hill from their monastery to the city to collect alms for the day.

They mostly collect food, and when their bowls are full they walk back up the hill where it all will be divided and shared for lunch, their second and last meal for the day.

You can bring your own donations, or you can buy food there for a dollar or two.  You place the alms in the bowls (not touching the sides!), and then kneel to receive a blessing from the monks.

It's getting lighter outside...

And finally light enough for breakfast!  We enjoyed a typical Thai breakfast of rice porridge, which included soy sauce, bean sprouts, egg, meat, green onions and mushrooms.  A little much for me for breakfast (I need a little more sugar in the morning) but David loved it.

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And thus ends our whirlwind trip of Thailand.  Thanks to Austin, who gave up Christmas with his family to come and visit us, and join me next time for our trip to the Maldives, or One Last Hurrah.

Thailand with Austin - Elephants and Tigers and Dogs, Oh My

Our second day in Chang Mai dawned bright and early, where our guide met us at the hotel to take us on a little Thailand adventure.

First onto a bamboo rafting ride... with free hats!

Along the way we spied a mamma elephant giving a ride to some tourists with her baby in tow...

David giving it a whirl... he did pretty good!

Arriving at the elephant camp, we got to watch the elephant getting a bath, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

Most of the elephants at the camp used to work for logging camps, and are now here at this place, earning their keep by... painting.  Seriously.  And they're really good.

And then we went for a ride!

The elephant ahead of us had a little baby who followed right along the whole time.

Though he did stop and dawdle quite often.  Then our elephant would come up behind him and nudge him and he would trot to catch up with his momma.  So cute.

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Leaving the elephant camp, we stopped at a place called Tiger Kingdom, which for a not-so-small fee you can hang out and pet the tigers.  It was a bit on the dodgy side because you can pretty much walk right in the cages, which was either a.) really really dangerous or b.) not-so-dangerous but only because they do something to the tigers to make them not-so-dangerous.  We declined to pay $30 to pet a tiger and settled for pictures only.

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Back in the city we took some time to walk around a bit.  Remember my pictures from Vietnam with people and the little kids on the bikes?  Well, here's one with two big dogs.

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Tomorrow - Wrapping Up Thailand at 5AM

Thailand with Austin - Flight of the Gibbon

Our first day in Chang Mai we drove a couple of hours outside of the city for "Flight of the Gibbon", a zipline tour of the Thailand jungle canopy.  I knew this would be quite an afternoon as soon as our guide "pretended" to push me down a cliff.  No real safety talk here, just put you in a harness and toss you off the platform.  Literally.

David refused to bring more than one pair of shoes on this trip so was stuck wearing sandals the whole time... they stayed on though.

Here's my first ride!



If you ever do this tour, you have to ask for Cash.  He had great one-liners for almost every situation.  As one of the guys crashed into him after one of the rides, he said "The good news is I got you!  The bad news is I'm a little bit gay."

The tour consisted of about twenty zipline rides, the longest of which was 800 meters long.

Funny story about the guy standing behind David.  We got to chatting on the drive home and found out that not only was he an American from Minnesota, he was from Minneapolis, and lived on our street.  Meeting a neighbor for the first time in the jungle of Chang Mai, definition of a small world.

Here's what happens when you let Cash get a hold of your camera.

Thanks Flight of the Gibbon, we had a fantastic afternoon!!!

Tomorrow:  Have you ever seen an elephant paint?