Great Canadian Welcome

Well we are back in Canada now (have been for 2 full days) and let me tell you, we couldn't have had a better welcome. We arrived in Edmonton around 11:30 PM on Friday the 18th and then slept a night and then drove home to Grande Prairie. That day (the 19th) was John's dad's birthday so we went to town to have dinner as a 'family' (my parents included) While we were there a pretty major thunder storm happened upon us and there were huge crashes of thunder, bright streaks of lightning and get this... hail. There was enough hail out that it looked like it had snowed and then while we were driving home it got cold enough that the rain started to freeze and the roads got ridiculously icy.... our great Canadian Welcome on our first day home!

It's been nicer since then, although not as warm as Thailand, but at least no snow :) We've had lots of fun showing pictures and maps and just seeing family and friends again! There are still a few people we haven't had a chance to connect with but I'm sure the time will come! It's looking like we'll be pretty busy with wedding stuff and John's brother and his soon to be wife have offered to let us stay in their place while they are gone on their honeymoon (for a month) :) so that will help us out a lot as well. Today on this holiday Monday we are just hanging out with the family.

Homeward Bound

Hello from the Bangkok Airport! We have now begun our trip HOME! Yay! We have a few hours to wait here before we fly to Singapore for an overnight and then we get on a plane and fly accross the 'pond' back to North America. Thailand was awesome! We were spoiled in Indonesia but Thailand was good too! My coolest thing was that I got to ride an ELLEPHANT!!!!!! It was soooooooooo cool. We have lot's of pictures that we'll post later. Did you know that Ellephants are hairy? I didn't. The 'driver' was pretty funny and he got off and let us sit right on the ellephants neck, his ears kept flappning into my legs and the hair was really prickly but it was sooooooo cool. Our ellephant was a 12 year old named noh uhm. He was pretty stubborn at times :) as most 12 year olds are :) We also enjoyed lots of swimming! at least 2x per day, and John actually snorkled himself out! We didn't get seriously burnt but we did get a little colour (not really) as it was cloudy for the most part. Well, I guess that's all for now, we still have 7 hours to wait for our next flight and who knows how bored we'll get before then :) Neither John nor I slept much last night, so maybe we'll find a quiet corner in the airport... (not likely)

Bye for now!!!! Next post? Singapore? San Francisco? Grande Prairie? who knows!!!!

The Adventure Never Ends...

Well folks we have now enjoyed on night on our little island of Koh Tao and it is pretty good. We have both come to realize how good we had it when we were in Indonesia as the hut and food was cheaper and the snorkling and beach was better. Needless to say Thailand is very interesting and we are enjoying this little 'vacation' before our Vacation is over. The train from Bangkok to Chumpon was uneventful and fairly sleepless for me (John slept well for some reason) We left Bangkok at 7:30 PM and the train arrived in Chumpon at 4:00 AM. We got off there transferred to a bus which took us to a waiting room where we waited until 7:00 AM for our boat from Chumpon to Koh Tao which arrived around 9:30 AM. After some fierce negotiating with our driver we caught a taxi to our little resort which was an adventure in and of itself. The 'road' was EXTREMELY rough to the point where your brains shook and you wondered how we were going to make it. We were even riding in a fairly new 4X4 truck! Anyways, when we arrived we checked into our room and then jumped in the ocean! Oh we may have eaten somewhere in there I can't remember when.

Anyways, today is a little bit cooler and there are clouds overhead. We thought it would be fun to rent a kayak and paddle around a little but the sea is pretty rough today so after 1 hour and almost sinking... we headed back to the beach. Now, don't get me wrong, the boad didn't almost sink because of rough water... it had a hole or crack shall we say!!! About 1/2 an hour John says... um, i think we're sinking. He was sitting in the back and the back end of the boat was almost level with the water :) It was a little bit crazy. We made it back to the beach but the inside of the kayak was almost 1/2 full of water when John emptied it out. Since then we've just bummed around, it's still pretty hot but we're surviving...

Canada looms in front of us now, we're getting pretty close! time wise anyways, were actually further away now than we were in New Zealand. I'm getting pretty excited!

Barely in Bangkok!!

What I mean by that is a bit of a story so here goes!

We started planning this trip to Thailand about 2 months before we left New Zealand (or maybe even less, I can't remember) and there was a lot of shuffling and re-booking and stuff. We had to re-book our flights to Canada, then make bookings to Bangkok and then we wanted more time so we re-booked everything again. In the process our flight from Singapore to Bangkok somehow got missed. Not by us but by the airline. So when we got to the ticket counter after a long day in Singapore we found out that our flight was still booked for the next day (meaning we would have to wait a whole day in Singapore again (and overnight) without a booked hotel and we were pretty tired (that's another storey) Well the lady there said she would do her best to get us on the flight (standby) and we would just have to wait. Well we waited until 8:30 (the flight left at 9:00 until she said anything to us and then we got the good news that we were on and rushed through security, customs, and onto the plane! What a crazy day! I thought we were going to be stuck in Singapore (which isn't that bad really) but no, God had it under control once again (go figure). We arrived in Bangkok and found a taxi who took us to our hotel (with much confused miscommunication) and we had a pretty good nights sleep. The jet lag right now means that we are exhausted around 7:00 Pm Local time and are awake around 5 or 6 AM. Today we were supposed to get on a train to Chumphon but the 8:00 am one was full when we got to the station! We now have all day in Bangkok and we don't really know what to do with ourselves! Alas I have found an internet spot (1 Baht per minute and $1 Canadian is 29 Baht, you do the math!) so we thought we'd send a little email home!

Okay now I can tell you the storey of our day in Singapore! Well we woke really early and since we had all day we got up and wandered around. We found a good place for breakfast (ordered something off the menu, that we really didn't know what we were getting) at a little Indian restaurant. We then proceeded to a shopping center called Mustafa Center. When we first walked in the shop we found was the LARGEST jewlery shop you've ever seen. Literally, it was MASSIVE!!! Gold neckaces and big babbles EVERYWHERE!!!! John and I both kinda stood in awe for a few seconds at the vastness of the gold in every direction! We found a little grocery store and it is really quite fascinating what you find in grocery stores in other countries. Its funny what "Westernized" things you find. After shopping we packed up and headed out for a walk around the 'city' we decided that we wanted to go to the bird park, which on our map didn't look that far. We figured out the sky train thing and got to the end of the line (which looked close :) Well there were busses but we didn't really know what we were doing so we started walking! Well... 3-4 blisters later and a long HOT walk, we found the bird park and were almost too tired to walk around and see the birds! We especially enjoyed the Penguin display because it was cold inside :) Well we were smarter on the way back and took a bus and then the sky train (quite sophisticated really) and that brings us to the airport and the confusion with the plane tickets...

So that's all the news to date. Today, now with our new train, we don't leave until 7:30 PM on an overnight train (dissapointing since we wanted to see the countryside, but oh well). We'll see what adventures we can come up with today.

Oh, P.S. we also got to ride in a Tuk Tuk today. CRAZY!!! what made it even more crazy was that the guy didn't know where he was going and I'm pretty sure we drove in a few circles until John pointed out where we wanted to go! :)

P.S.S. It's a good thing that I've used blogger for a while because today here in Bangkok all the script on the screen is in Chineese Characters and if I didn't know where the 'sign' in button or the 'new post' butten were I wouldn't have had a clue! It's kind of like when you change the language on your digital camera and you have no clue how to turn it back to english because you can't read any of the menu's :) ??? Fun fun...

Until next time.... :)

WE SOLD OUR VAN!!!!!!!

This is a tribute to how God is faithfull and knows exactly what we need, and WHEN we need it. Our trade-me auction ended Monday night with only one bid that didn't meet the minimum price we had set. We felt pretty discouraged but decided to offer it to the person that bid for $3000 (we were asking $3500) When he didn't respond by Tuesday morning to that offer we figured he'd changed his mind. Not too long after we got an email saying that he had indeed accepted our offer. The next tricky bit was to have him look at the van (including the side door which we didn't mention online) and figure out how to get the money into our account before we had to close it before we left the country. Well today he met us in Matamata (a nearby town) and took it for a spin, liked it, drove us straight to the bank where we got the money all sorted and put into Canadian dollars :) and then he drove us home and took the van with him! What a relief to have that all over and not have to worry anymore. Not that we ever really had to worry because God had it all in control. He knew what price we would get for it and when we would sell it too! Thank goodness!

Well, thanks for all your prayers, next step... get to Auckland, then Singapore, then Bangkok, then Koh Tao, then back to Singapore, then San Fancisco, then Edmonton!!!!

Back at Finlay Park

Well, we've made it up the North Island, back to Finlay park where our New Zealand Adventure first began. It's been good to see those friends again and catch up.

We've begun the 'van selling' saga now. You can check it out on Trade Me which is the New Zealand version of Ebay.(If you spot any typo's please let me know!!) We also have signs in the windows and if it doesn't go on trade me there is an Auction in Hamilton next Tuesday (2 days before we leave) YIKES!!!

It feels very wierd to say goodbye to all these places that are special to us here. It's been very good, very fun, and completely amazing to see another culture so like our own but so different at the same time. Those of you who I will see right away when I get home, don't make fun of me because I've picked up quite a few 'kiwi' slang words although no matter how hard I tried I couldn't pick up the accent. :)

Anyways that's all from us for now! Next post will be our final goodbye probably (unless we sell the van, in which case I will be so excited, I'll probably post)