Sunday, April 28, 2013
I know the blog has Southeast Asia right there in the title, and that Hawaii is not in Southeast Asia, and therefore should not be on this blog, but here it is anyhow: Our trip to Hawaii.
The trip started with a hiccup. When we got to the airport, excited as hell to get to Hawaii for our first time, we learned that Ashley, God bless her, accidentally bought us tickets to and from the wrong island. Whereas we were planning for a trip to Kauai, Ash had booked us on a flight to Maui. Honest mistake and, one might think, an unavoidable marital fight waiting to happen. but it didn't. We kicked that hiccup's ass and booked an inter-island flight. So suck it.
Half of our trip, give or take, was spent camping on the Napali Coast, a rugged 20 mile stretch of cliffs and sand unfit for roads and the unadventurous. We made 11 miles of trail at a breakneck speed of 7 hours. That doesn't sound fast, but carrying a heavy pack along constant ups and downs of goat trails, along steep cliffs, we moved at a steady clip. And again, a lesser couple might have gotten into an argument at some point on that trail, but not us. We kicked that trails ass and made it to the most lovely campsite on Kalalau Beach just before the sun set.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
The trip started with a hiccup. When we got to the airport, excited as hell to get to Hawaii for our first time, we learned that Ashley, God bless her, accidentally bought us tickets to and from the wrong island. Whereas we were planning for a trip to Kauai, Ash had booked us on a flight to Maui. Honest mistake and, one might think, an unavoidable marital fight waiting to happen. but it didn't. We kicked that hiccup's ass and booked an inter-island flight. So suck it.
Half of our trip, give or take, was spent camping on the Napali Coast, a rugged 20 mile stretch of cliffs and sand unfit for roads and the unadventurous. We made 11 miles of trail at a breakneck speed of 7 hours. That doesn't sound fast, but carrying a heavy pack along constant ups and downs of goat trails, along steep cliffs, we moved at a steady clip. And again, a lesser couple might have gotten into an argument at some point on that trail, but not us. We kicked that trails ass and made it to the most lovely campsite on Kalalau Beach just before the sun set.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
We knew it had to end.
We discussed in our last few weeks of the trip how funny it was, that originally we had planned to go for only two and a half months, and how, looking back, that would have been a ridiculously inadequate amount of time to see what we saw. But the return ticket said February, and the money was drying up, so we said goodbye to Tonsai, and embraced Bangkok for a few final days.
We decided it would be only fitting to spend at least one night on Khao San Road, the epicenter of Southeast Asian backpackers. That we had spent so much time across Thailand without seeing Khao San was becoming almost embarassing, so we checked into a reasonably priced, clean enough place and hit the streets. Khao San Road itself is unattractive. It represents what so many travellers are trying to avoid. You can't find a more beaten path anywhere in the world, but because of that, it suits Thailand perfectly. Anyone that expects Thailand to be a well-kept secret is a moron, and should arrive expecting flashes of the Western world, crime, prostitution, and filth alongside the beauty that attracts one there. Only in Thailand will you see a drunk 16 year old Australian, stumble down the street, arm in arm with a ladyboy, past Burger Kings and baby elephants, more than likely on his way to being pickpocketed. And there's no better place than Khao San Road to see it happen.
We knew we had left the best behind us and genuinely enjoyed the circus that Thailand often is. We spent most of our day at an enormous weekend market, famous in that you can buy anything there. From what we saw in seven hours, it wasn't far from true. We walked away with clothes, picture frames, jewelry, a birdhouse, and various gifts but walked past stalls selling furniture, art, kittens, snakewine, and most other things you could ask for, or not ask for. We spent the night drinking beer as we absorbed the spectacle of the Khao San. Mostly we reminisced about our trip, and occasionally listed the good parts of heading home; family, friends... family...um... cheese...
When we decided we were supersaturated with Singha, we headed home to rest up for our glorious check in to the Four Seasons, Bangkok.
I would guess, and I could be wrong, that we were the only people to pull up to the Four Seasons in a tuk-tuk in quite a while. The bellhop seemed unfased, though, as he wrestled our filthy backpacks and torn plastic bags from the cart before handing us our ticket. After checking in, we took a self-guided tour through the hotel, and deciding that we wouldn't be able to afford to eat in any of the four hotel restaurants, and wanting to maximize our hotel time, we decided to find a grocery store where we could stock up on snacks and hunker down for the night.
Here begins the twist.
Months earlier, I had decided that I would propose to Ashley at the Four Seasons. It seemed like a perfect way to end a perfect trip, and it was exciting to think of returning home engaged. As Ash settled into the room, I told her I would run to the front desk and ask about grocery stores nearby. In addition to grocery stores, I was also asking the concierge where one might be able to get some flowers and champagne, which attracted the attention of the girls at reception, who asked if I was celebrating a special occasion, and for the first time, to anyone, anywhere, I said I was going to propose. The staff became so excited that I remebered I could enjoy myself as well, and breathe again. My nerves had taken over at that point and I was a bit of a mess. After offering the services of the hotel to provide champagne and flowers, I delicately explained that we were not your average four star guests, and that there was likely no way in hell I could afford Four Seasons champagne or roses. Instead the concierge offered to outsource the flower job, with my permission, and let me get the wine.
Ash and I made our way to the store, with me acting nervously, and awkwardly, but Ashley chalking it up to us being a day closer to the real world. At the store I convinced her that it being our last real night of the trip, we could splurge and buy wine, and that if you're going to drink wine, you might as well drink champagne. She reluctantly gave in, and we headed home to get ready for an afternoon at the gym.
While she was getting ready in the room, I answered a phone call asking if I could come to the front desk to discuss the secret op. When I got there, the concierge and reception girls told me that they had decided to upgrade us to a suite. For free. Just because they're awesome. The official reason was that "this only happens once", but really, it's because they're fantastic people. And when I say suite, I mean S-W-E-E-T! It was massive. I felt like I was back in Amazing Cave (see Vietnam).
God bless the front desk at the Four Seasons, Bangkok. God bless each and every one of them.
Short story long, Ashley and I headed down to the gym, Ashley completely unaware of any mysterious goings-on, including the room upgrade, and started working out. I started working out just to give the impression of working out, knowing that once Ashley got going, I would be running back upstairs in my dirty gym clothes and sparkling white sneakers to put the finishing touches on the preparations. I walked into our new room to find a team of six people arranging rose petals on the bed into a heart shape, putting music on the stereo, and champagne on ice. Then I ran back downstairs to find Ashley, and convince her not only to come back upstairs sooner than she wanted, but also that the staff had asked if we wouldn't mind switching rooms, due to some high roller requesting ours. She hadn't spent enough time in the steam room, she said, and needed more time, but I sold a sob story, that I was bored, and my feet hurt, and couldn't we just come back later. Eventually she agreed and we headed upstairs.
The rest of the story is personal, but in a nutshell, I asked, she said yes, we laughed, she cried, and we spent the rest of the night giggling in each of the rooms of our oversized suite, trying to get used to the words husband and wife.
And that's that. Our trip to Asia.
I can't believe it's actually over, and each day that I'm home, it becomes harder to believe that it ever happened at all. We made promises to each other that we would come back with the lessons we learned, that we would look at our lives here as just the next adventure, and we're both trying to do that. We had record highs yesterday in Milwaukee, and I feel lucky for that, though 56 degrees still feels pretty miserably cold to me. But we're happy to be home, and at the risk of sounding corny, have been staunchly reminded how lucky we are to have the friends and family that we have. It has been overwhelming, the reactions people have given us, not just at our recent news, but also at the prospect of us sticking around for a while.
We'll see what we can do.
We discussed in our last few weeks of the trip how funny it was, that originally we had planned to go for only two and a half months, and how, looking back, that would have been a ridiculously inadequate amount of time to see what we saw. But the return ticket said February, and the money was drying up, so we said goodbye to Tonsai, and embraced Bangkok for a few final days.
We decided it would be only fitting to spend at least one night on Khao San Road, the epicenter of Southeast Asian backpackers. That we had spent so much time across Thailand without seeing Khao San was becoming almost embarassing, so we checked into a reasonably priced, clean enough place and hit the streets. Khao San Road itself is unattractive. It represents what so many travellers are trying to avoid. You can't find a more beaten path anywhere in the world, but because of that, it suits Thailand perfectly. Anyone that expects Thailand to be a well-kept secret is a moron, and should arrive expecting flashes of the Western world, crime, prostitution, and filth alongside the beauty that attracts one there. Only in Thailand will you see a drunk 16 year old Australian, stumble down the street, arm in arm with a ladyboy, past Burger Kings and baby elephants, more than likely on his way to being pickpocketed. And there's no better place than Khao San Road to see it happen.
We knew we had left the best behind us and genuinely enjoyed the circus that Thailand often is. We spent most of our day at an enormous weekend market, famous in that you can buy anything there. From what we saw in seven hours, it wasn't far from true. We walked away with clothes, picture frames, jewelry, a birdhouse, and various gifts but walked past stalls selling furniture, art, kittens, snakewine, and most other things you could ask for, or not ask for. We spent the night drinking beer as we absorbed the spectacle of the Khao San. Mostly we reminisced about our trip, and occasionally listed the good parts of heading home; family, friends... family...um... cheese...
When we decided we were supersaturated with Singha, we headed home to rest up for our glorious check in to the Four Seasons, Bangkok.
I would guess, and I could be wrong, that we were the only people to pull up to the Four Seasons in a tuk-tuk in quite a while. The bellhop seemed unfased, though, as he wrestled our filthy backpacks and torn plastic bags from the cart before handing us our ticket. After checking in, we took a self-guided tour through the hotel, and deciding that we wouldn't be able to afford to eat in any of the four hotel restaurants, and wanting to maximize our hotel time, we decided to find a grocery store where we could stock up on snacks and hunker down for the night.
Here begins the twist.
Months earlier, I had decided that I would propose to Ashley at the Four Seasons. It seemed like a perfect way to end a perfect trip, and it was exciting to think of returning home engaged. As Ash settled into the room, I told her I would run to the front desk and ask about grocery stores nearby. In addition to grocery stores, I was also asking the concierge where one might be able to get some flowers and champagne, which attracted the attention of the girls at reception, who asked if I was celebrating a special occasion, and for the first time, to anyone, anywhere, I said I was going to propose. The staff became so excited that I remebered I could enjoy myself as well, and breathe again. My nerves had taken over at that point and I was a bit of a mess. After offering the services of the hotel to provide champagne and flowers, I delicately explained that we were not your average four star guests, and that there was likely no way in hell I could afford Four Seasons champagne or roses. Instead the concierge offered to outsource the flower job, with my permission, and let me get the wine.
Ash and I made our way to the store, with me acting nervously, and awkwardly, but Ashley chalking it up to us being a day closer to the real world. At the store I convinced her that it being our last real night of the trip, we could splurge and buy wine, and that if you're going to drink wine, you might as well drink champagne. She reluctantly gave in, and we headed home to get ready for an afternoon at the gym.
While she was getting ready in the room, I answered a phone call asking if I could come to the front desk to discuss the secret op. When I got there, the concierge and reception girls told me that they had decided to upgrade us to a suite. For free. Just because they're awesome. The official reason was that "this only happens once", but really, it's because they're fantastic people. And when I say suite, I mean S-W-E-E-T! It was massive. I felt like I was back in Amazing Cave (see Vietnam).
God bless the front desk at the Four Seasons, Bangkok. God bless each and every one of them.
Short story long, Ashley and I headed down to the gym, Ashley completely unaware of any mysterious goings-on, including the room upgrade, and started working out. I started working out just to give the impression of working out, knowing that once Ashley got going, I would be running back upstairs in my dirty gym clothes and sparkling white sneakers to put the finishing touches on the preparations. I walked into our new room to find a team of six people arranging rose petals on the bed into a heart shape, putting music on the stereo, and champagne on ice. Then I ran back downstairs to find Ashley, and convince her not only to come back upstairs sooner than she wanted, but also that the staff had asked if we wouldn't mind switching rooms, due to some high roller requesting ours. She hadn't spent enough time in the steam room, she said, and needed more time, but I sold a sob story, that I was bored, and my feet hurt, and couldn't we just come back later. Eventually she agreed and we headed upstairs.
The rest of the story is personal, but in a nutshell, I asked, she said yes, we laughed, she cried, and we spent the rest of the night giggling in each of the rooms of our oversized suite, trying to get used to the words husband and wife.
And that's that. Our trip to Asia.
I can't believe it's actually over, and each day that I'm home, it becomes harder to believe that it ever happened at all. We made promises to each other that we would come back with the lessons we learned, that we would look at our lives here as just the next adventure, and we're both trying to do that. We had record highs yesterday in Milwaukee, and I feel lucky for that, though 56 degrees still feels pretty miserably cold to me. But we're happy to be home, and at the risk of sounding corny, have been staunchly reminded how lucky we are to have the friends and family that we have. It has been overwhelming, the reactions people have given us, not just at our recent news, but also at the prospect of us sticking around for a while.
We'll see what we can do.
Monday, February 2, 2009
On to Tonsai...
Tonsai is where this whole trip began for us. I can't believe it's been five months already.
Coming back just made sense to us. We've really developed a love for rock climbing, and Tonsai is so out of control beautiful, so we booked our final flight and made the full circle. on our first afternoon back we were having lunch on the beach, making plans for the coming week, talking about the months behind us and the months ahead. sometimes when we're eating we'll pick a very specific category over which to wax nostalgiac; what's been our favorite meal, favorite guesthouse, best day, scariest moment, and so on. on this particular occasion we were covering people we'd met alon the way that we wish we could have spent more time with, and after rattling off an elite few, we settled on our friend rupert as our number one. we met him early on, just as we were heading into laos and only got to spend about a week with him before we parted ways.
well, our food arrived, and was not very good, and way too expensive, but the beer was so cold and so good, and we sat there staring out at the ocean when lo and behold, walking up the beach... rupert. it was another magical moment too good to be true, too perfect to explain. for the next seven days we spent our days kayaking, sitting in the sun, and climbing, just ash and i, and every night we sat on the sand and drank beer with rupert.
on one of our kayaking days, the three of us, along with two very friendly, and very stoned danish guys paddled from beach to beach, swimming occassionally to cool off, eventually floating towards a gorgeous catamaran, where we smoothly invited ourselves onboard for a quick tour.
our days climbing were fantastic, making us eager to join a gym with a rock wall when we make it home. we climbed for a total of four days, including a day of deep water soloing. deep water soloing is just like a normal day of rock climbing with one big change. no ropes. a boat takes you to a terrifying ocean cliff, and you free climb it until you either can't go any farther, you get too scared to go any higher, or you fall. it was awesome. don't get me wrong. i was near shitting my pants from fear when i first got going, but incredibly i made it to the top, and successfully and deliberately jumped 25 feet down into the turquoise water. ashley, despite being a superior climber, got a little nervous about the getting down part, and jumped from about 15 feet, still a nerve racking experience. when you hit the water, you catch your breath, and then make your way back up to do it again. it was incredible.
we spent our final day in tonsai climbing with a scottish couple who turned out to be lovely, to use the parlance of our british friends. after a delicious thai dinner we finished our night lying on the beach, watching as bars lit off fireworks, and people in nearby sailboats lit candle lanterns that float up and up into the sky until they burn out and disappear. the next day it was tough to leave the beach behind, but thank god we had our night in the four seasons to look forward to. that stroy will have to wait, though, as it's time to pack up and get into bed for a few hours sleep before six flights and two days of travel bring me back to milwaukee.
in february. way to think that one through, brian.
Tonsai is where this whole trip began for us. I can't believe it's been five months already.
Coming back just made sense to us. We've really developed a love for rock climbing, and Tonsai is so out of control beautiful, so we booked our final flight and made the full circle. on our first afternoon back we were having lunch on the beach, making plans for the coming week, talking about the months behind us and the months ahead. sometimes when we're eating we'll pick a very specific category over which to wax nostalgiac; what's been our favorite meal, favorite guesthouse, best day, scariest moment, and so on. on this particular occasion we were covering people we'd met alon the way that we wish we could have spent more time with, and after rattling off an elite few, we settled on our friend rupert as our number one. we met him early on, just as we were heading into laos and only got to spend about a week with him before we parted ways.
well, our food arrived, and was not very good, and way too expensive, but the beer was so cold and so good, and we sat there staring out at the ocean when lo and behold, walking up the beach... rupert. it was another magical moment too good to be true, too perfect to explain. for the next seven days we spent our days kayaking, sitting in the sun, and climbing, just ash and i, and every night we sat on the sand and drank beer with rupert.
on one of our kayaking days, the three of us, along with two very friendly, and very stoned danish guys paddled from beach to beach, swimming occassionally to cool off, eventually floating towards a gorgeous catamaran, where we smoothly invited ourselves onboard for a quick tour.
our days climbing were fantastic, making us eager to join a gym with a rock wall when we make it home. we climbed for a total of four days, including a day of deep water soloing. deep water soloing is just like a normal day of rock climbing with one big change. no ropes. a boat takes you to a terrifying ocean cliff, and you free climb it until you either can't go any farther, you get too scared to go any higher, or you fall. it was awesome. don't get me wrong. i was near shitting my pants from fear when i first got going, but incredibly i made it to the top, and successfully and deliberately jumped 25 feet down into the turquoise water. ashley, despite being a superior climber, got a little nervous about the getting down part, and jumped from about 15 feet, still a nerve racking experience. when you hit the water, you catch your breath, and then make your way back up to do it again. it was incredible.
we spent our final day in tonsai climbing with a scottish couple who turned out to be lovely, to use the parlance of our british friends. after a delicious thai dinner we finished our night lying on the beach, watching as bars lit off fireworks, and people in nearby sailboats lit candle lanterns that float up and up into the sky until they burn out and disappear. the next day it was tough to leave the beach behind, but thank god we had our night in the four seasons to look forward to. that stroy will have to wait, though, as it's time to pack up and get into bed for a few hours sleep before six flights and two days of travel bring me back to milwaukee.
in february. way to think that one through, brian.
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