Good Bye Asia... Hello normal toilets!

Would you beleive we actually made it??
And with little to no emotional turbulance on the way.. Thank the heavens!
We took our 10 hour flight here and landed yesterday at 12:00pm.
Customs should have gone smoother but we ran into a little trouble when I was "caught" for bringing in "non-disclosed" wood.. (It just slipped my mind that the wood vase we had and other items etc were made of wood and therefor classified as a plant..... OOOPS!!)
They gave us a rough time expecially since the one item had bugs in it.. Double oops.. and informed us that our item either had to be fumagated at the cost of $80 or it could be distroyed.. So... Sorry mom.. Looks like you wont get the buisness card holder I got you.. Dont worry - It was hideous, but I think you would have loved him..I sure did.. But he has gone to a better place.
So then the man escorted us away from customs and into the "This is my lecture of being responisble) place. He then pointed at the sign of a mandatory $200 fine for non disclosure of items. We explained had we realized it was catagorized as a plant we would have disclosed it as we had no reason not to. He lectured us some more then was very kind to just give us a warning.. However I have been forever black listed in New Zealand and will have to go through searches everytime I come into the country.. Oh Well... I would rather that then be fined!
We got a shuttle to Auckland Central Backpackers - Got our dorm room for six and when we got there one of the beds had been slept in and there was a suitcase there. They advised no one should be in that room so they took the suitcase and remade the bed and we hunkered down for a nap as we had not slept for the last 30hrs.
Sometime durring our sleep the door opened and a guy peeped in then left. When we woke up we went to front desk and advised them what happened and they realized a key was missing and someone had it that shouldn't so we promptly changed rooms which worked out well since the new room had a lot more room to move around in.
Bob,Sarah, Kirby and I went out for a nice coffee and then back to the room where we ran into Chris who had just downloaded the last 3 new episodes of The OC, so we sat in one of the TV rooms and watched 2 episodes until 4:00am. Then Jay came back from the internet and we sat around and talked for hours. The boys went out at 6:00am and got us some McDonalds breakfast (Which is terrible at home, but even worse here)
And we finally got some shut eye at the wee hour of 8:00am.
Sarah was ever so kind to wake us up at 3:00pm so we crawled out of bed, did some laundry and went for a great Starbucks (Which there is one every corner here)
We went to the Skytower right down the street as I found out yesterday it has a casino. I tried myluck at the money wheel (Changed in $10 for 4 chances) you have to bet $2.50 on which city the wheel will land on based on the odds and lost my $10.00.
Then everyone played blackjack for 1/2hr-1hr. Kirby lost his $20.00, I walked out with the $20 I had changed and the $10 I lost on the money wheel and Jay and Chris was also up.. I think Sarah would have been up if she didn't keep giving it to Bob to lose.
Tomorrow we are heading to the movie theatre and seeing Harry Potter.. I can hardley contain my excitment!

How to survive a natural disaster in Thailand

The rain started on Thursday at 1:00pm. It was by no means a light rain but certainly wasn't heavy enough to cause any alarm. We went into town at 4:00pm and had a nice Japanese dinner - The rain was coming down so hard by 9:00pm that when we went in for our massages my clothes were so wet they made me changed into some cloth thai pants and lose the shirt completely, then my massuse was practicing for Thai Idol and singing along merrily to the music - Hmmm, naked and being sarrinaded .. How romantic???
The lightning started while we were in the massage and by the time we were out, it was still pouring down madly.
We hailed a taxi and it wasn't until we started passing through deep pockets of floods on he way up to the hotel - Still no concern, we dont need to leave until Saturday right??
So we awoke on Friday morning to discover the power was out and it was still raining.. The rain let up a bit at 1:00 (And when I say let up I mean rained like a normal shower would) And since we had dropped all our laundry off down the road the day earlier this was the time to fetch the missing clothes. We headed down the hill to discover a lovely river where the road had once been Jason and Kirby decided to wade through this mess to collect the clothes - Great idea, however the shop had been floooded out and was closed. Ok so now its 2:00pm we have no power still and hardly any clothes. We decided to pop down to the restaurant for a bite and talk about our options, this was the first time we realized that there may be a possibility we were stranded. The rain was coming down even harder (Like take the hardest rainfall we have had and times it by ten, then keep it up for 36 hours) But they managed to get the power back up, phones are still out until 5:00pm at which time we attempted to cancel our hotel reservations we had in Kuala Lumpur the following day to save some money - Kirby's mom was successful in cancelling where Jason, Chris, Sarah and Bob did not have as much luck and they would not cancel their reservations.
We kept our eye out on the floods and rains and with only 7hours to go before we are supposed to go to the airport the rain has not subsided and the lovely river down the street has now become an ocean and there are no vehicles now able to get into the hotel and we cant get out. The airport is still closed as it had been for 2 days. The hotel said we could retain our rooms for a price of $10,500BAHT ($315CAD) on the following night if we cant get out which was a price we couldn;t afford and we still did not have our laundry.
Kirby and I got up at 4:30am and checked the status on the lake - It was now gone!!! The guys went down to see if the laundry was retrievable and they were able to get through to the building but there was no answer on the door.,
We went to the main lobby and the person at the desk the conversation went as follows;
Us: Can we get a ride to the airport
Him: The airport not open until 8:30
Us; Well that wont due as our flight leaves at 8:00am, we want to be there in case it does open.
Him: Not open until 8:30
Us: Well can we get a ride then?
Him: No, we cannot drive as there is a flood
Us: We were down there, the roads have cleared
Him: I have no staff to drive
Us: So even if the airport does open you cant get us there.
Him: Yes, Right!! (SMILES!!!!)
so this conversation went on for 25 minutes until I wouldn;t stand for him not getting us to the airport, he managed to find a hotel van and a driver and just as we suspected the roads did not have much water left on them.
We had accepted our clothes from laundry was a loss and unable to retreive them - then as we drove by we saw a light on, we jumped out and WOOHOO - She had our clothes!!!
So far so good!
The flight was delyed only an hour and we were on our way to Phuket by 10:00am.
Phuket flight was a little delayed but we finally made it to Kuala Lumpur by 4:00pm.
We decided to pop into lost and found and see if the bag we left in the airport 45 days earlier was still there - It had Kirbys favorite hat, my hoodie and my sunglasses.. The bag was there.. I danced a dance of joy - To the humor of all the airport staff around us!
We set off for the hotels (Which Kirby and I had cancelled and hoped we could get our room back)
Not only was our reservation there but they had to upgrade us to Executive Suite as they had no more rooms with king size beds.. The day went off without a hitch and some good luck followed suite.
We later found out on our way to Kuala Lumpur that the storm we got caught in was deemed as a natural disaster (6 people were killed) and as per kirbys mom who looked it up 354mm's of rain fell within 24hrs - We were pretty stressed out the day prior not knowing what we were going to do, but in the end we ended up very lucky!

Its been awhile

Well I guess it's been a little while since our last post - Only problem is there isn't much going on here! I had a little mishap (Lets just say it involved fainting and smacking my head against the hard wood floor and needing a doctor) So we have been spending some time in our loverly accomidations watching countless movies and keeping the beds warm and thankfully they are very nice and comfy. We managed to make it into town yesterday and had a very nice pizza hut lunch we found a painting we are still debating if we will buy it (Its very large but only costs $100CAD and its super nice, it is chinese symbols that stand for "power" "love" and "Excellence"
we will have to see.. I also found a statue of an iguana on a log that I loved but kirby wont let me get because it really is too big to ship!
The gang booked into a tour today to see most of the island, we decided to conserve money after the expensive doctors bill (And possibly put that money towards the painting).. Who knows..
We have been having trouble with hot water as we are so far up the hill in the resort and we are also so excited for an actual bathtub that we refuse to let a little thing like hot water stand in our way so.. We fill the tub half way with luke warm water, then for the next half an hour we boil water in the kettle and in a largew pot and fill the remainder of the tub with hot water and in the end have a very nice bath.. BUT you have to make sure you want a fairly long bath or your efforts are not worth it!
There is a storm off the cost of Koh Samui (The biggest one in 10 years) and the resort normally has a beach but the waves coming in has swallowed the beach whole - Which is ok with us because they have a very nice pool and you can watch the waves crashing in on the rocks.. Its very pretty!
Hope everyone is well and we will talk to you soon!

Here in Koh Samui

We have arrived by ferry across the ocean to Koh Samui!
Upon arrival at the dock we instructed the taxi to drop us of at the Starbucks on Chewang beach. We dropped our bags and sprinted across the coffee shop and wallowed in coffee and regular sandwhiches.. Now this is paradise!!
We had not found a place to stay so Sarah, Kirby and I stepped out of the Starbucks, walked across the street and booked the closest possible bungalow for the night. They were not bad bungalows with a good size, TV and mini fridge it certainly would do the trick. After a couple hours the hunger began to hit so Kirby and I were off to locate that evenings dinner - And what luck!!! There was a pizza hut right across from the Starbucks.. Could life get better???
We ordered a combo with a Med Meat Lovers pizza, Garlic bread, wings and pepsi and enjoyed a very nice meal in the room which is something we havn't been able to do.
We picked up Jay, Sarah and Bob and hopped across the road for some Treasure Island mini golf, Who is our opinion had far too many water hazards (With such dirty water you cant even see where your ball is) Kirby lost one of his balls when it went under a bridge, my ball bounced off a rock and into the water, Sarah jumped the edge and went into the water and well Bob... He just got angery and hit it to hard, it came richoceting(??) right past him and into the bushes.. Never to be seen again..
After that we ventured around and found a set of bars, one of which was a GoGo bar.. Well being this is a part of Thai culture we thought.. what the hell.. Lets see what its about. We sat in out row which was near the stage that looked upon 8 women in underwear dancing on the stage.. Kirby immediatly wanted to leave as did Sarah and I - However Jay had already ordered a beer. So we did the same and continued to sit there.. Now let me start by saying that our understanding of a GoGo Bar is where women basically "Do Tricks" with their neather regions and it is a humerous show.. It only took a minute to realize this is not what we walked into.. he women on stage just danced and showed off their "moves" - Now heres the kicker.... Each woman had a number pinned onto her underwear to make it easier to "order" and after 3 songs they would switch to a new set of girls.. In other words we were sitting directly in the middle of a prostitution ring.. Oh what fun!!!!
Jay ordered a 2nd beer only because us girls hadn't finished ours then we were out of there like a rocket! (And used a good portion of Sarahs hand sanitizer)
After that we were done with the night out and headed back to the hotel.
We packed up this morning and headed to the timeshare we had booked. They had some problems with the rooms and after 2 hours we got a room that slept 4 people.. so we have a couple cots coming up to the room for the boys. The suite is very nice complete with a bathtub and several english television stations!
It poured all day, complete with thunder and lightening - It was something to see the waves crashing so hard against the rocks.
On a more personal note - Bob has decided to shave off his swiss family robinson beard and has switched into a "70's pornstar" moustache - Sarah and Bob currently have a poll on how his moustache looks, so please vote at www.gradstonomads.blogspot.com
Kirby's Opinion: "definatly a keeper"
Krista's Opinion "Bob you normally look like a distinguished young gentleman, Now everytime I look at you.. I throw up a little..What a creep."
We are currently split, girls say Nay, Boys say Yay!

Full Moon Party

The full moon party was lastnight and I dont think any of us were expecting it to be the way it was. We hung out on Jay and Chris's deck until 11:00pm and then headed out to the party. The music was blasting and the drinks were flowing so we headed to the Cactus bar and got a couple of pails of vodka and redbull. Kirby and Jay started with water and the rest of us got our own pails. The place was cramed with people so bad it took about ten minutes to get from the bar to the edge of the water and out of the swarms of people. It was at that time we really got a look around at our beautiful beach. The beach was so littered with broken glass, beer bottles, water bottles and pails that you couldn't walk without stepping on something. People were passed out all down the beach scattered in every which direction. For entertainment you cuold watch the "couples" who had met and paired up that night doing everything from kissing to having sex right on the beach. All down the waters edge we saw men lined up peeing in the ocean and even a couple of guys who had to "digest some food" to put it nicely with pants down in the ocean. We have agreed that we had never seen anything so faul as this party. Sarah drank only a quarter of her pail and as the drink was made so badly caused her to immediatly get sick, Bob drank his whole pail and was sick the same time as Sarah. I stopped drinking my pail half way through - The drinks here are funny because you really dont get drunk at all, you go straight to being sick. My pail started to effect my stomache so I got rid of it immediatly. Kirby had not yet started to drink and at this point decided he didn't want to. Jay and Chris as per usual decided to continue with the partying so Bob, Sarah, Kirb and I headed back to the rooms at 4:00am as we had had enough. We saw our favorite stray dogs being mauled by the drunks so I whistled at them and they all ran over and came back with us to the room. One - Which we have named Oreo, stuck around and kept us company for a while as we sat on our deck.. Next thing we knew Jay and Chris had come up the walk and had a seat with us and used the bathroom. Our German neighbour then popped by and we sat around there until 5:00am.. The German girl was upset her friend ditched her and didn't want to go back to her room but was tired of the creepy drunk guys so Jay and Chris escorted her back to the party and kept her company for the rest of the night. We popped back into out place and watched an episode of The OC on Chris's laptop(Jay had to buy the 2nd season here so he could catch up to us)(I couldn't be happier) and finally called it a night at 6:00am.
Chris was very kind to stop by at 8:00am pounding on our door as he wanted the laptop back to play music as they were going back to their deck to continue the party - They got to bed at 10:00am, so at 12:00am when we got up we went and banged on their door.. Chris was still drunk an unable to form a sentence, Jay seemed alright but had not yet fallen asleep.. Needless to say I doubt we will see them again until nighttime. Sorry no photos right now as we didn;t take our camera.. Chris had his but as I said.. Still not functioning so we will see if we can get some on later.
This is our last day and will be heading out to Koh Samui tomorrow to our resort which we are really looking forward to having a pool etc.. (Thanks Sarah's parents for the place, we are all really excited!!)
1 more week in Thailand, then we are off to new ventures and a new life in New Zealand.

Beach Party

We are living the life here. Let us give you an idea of how our day goes here -
We wake up in the morning usually about 9:30 - Lay in bed listening to the ocean for an hour or so then slowly peel ourselves from the sheets, throw on the closest clothes from the floor and make our way through the exasperating 10 step walk to the lounge and restaurant that is right across the way from the bungalow. I always enjoy a fresh banana shake in the morning and Kirby is useing Lipton tea as a replacment for his Tim Hortons. We start with a nice breakfast (at this point the rest of the gang slowly filters in) then we get changed and walk down to the beach. This is where we end up useing most of our encergy for the day as we need to use our muscels to spread out our beach mat - Then the sitting down takes some effort. The hardest part is having to crack the book.. Boy my fingers are killing me!
After such a hard workout and sun you start to work up a sweat - So off to the ocean we go. Today we saw a fish skipping over the ocean like a rock, but going much higher each time he came out of the water.. He "skipped" about 6 times.
After some swimming we go bcak to the air conditioned room and clean up from the sand and salt - Then time for lunch, and boy.. after such a busy mornng you are ready for it!
After lunch we wander into town for some light shopping and then back to resort which is followed by a nap and then dinner. At about 10:00pm we move down the beach to the Cactus Bar. They have mats in the sand and little tables with candles, pumping music and they serve their beverages out of a pail. (instead of useing a shot glass to measure for the pail they use a cup then pour in the coke... Needless to say it is so strong it is hard to drink) For entertainment they have men with stafs that light them on fire and twirl them so fast the fire is just a blur, they also have balls on the end of chains that they light on fire and swing - It is amazing they dont burn themselves. We call it a night at about 2:00 or 3:00am (Chris and Jason are more like 6:00 or 7:00am)and start it all again tomorrow!
The pictures attached are from the beach party!

Greetings From Ko Phangan

We have made the trek across the country of Thailand and are now on the island of Ko-Phangan. We took a 5hr bus ride from phuke, we met 2 english girls and they are now traveling with us, Jay and Chris are in their glory and turning on the "Magic" so to speak. We took a ferry lastnight that left port at 5:30 and arrived in Ko-Phangan at 8:00.. We ended up partying with a big mix of people on the roof of the boat including people from South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Australia and England - There was about 25 of us in total. When we left the boat we were swarmed as usual with people wanting us to stay at their bungalow - Kirby wanted to go to Haddrin beach but as it was already 8:30 and most of the group was drunk we decided to go part of the way to haddrin and spend one night in a small beachside bungalow. The bungalows were in the middle of nowhere and very small with only a fan -But it only cost 250BAHT per bungalow ($7CAD) so we saved a lot of money. Unfortuantly turns out we cant make due without the airconditioner that we were all so hot none of us got any sleep. We took the taxi down to Haddrin Beach today and after an hour and a half of searching, Kirby and I found a beautiful bungalow resort right on the beach for 800Baht ($25CAD) - It is called Seaview Haddrin Resort. It has air conditioning (If you was A/C you will pay at least double for a room) the views are breath taking and the beach is so lovely with very few tourists and no waves.. the perfect place to use our floaties!
We have booked in for 5 nights then we will be moving to another place here in Ko-Phangan as the resort we are at is on the same beach as the full moon party which would be very loud and busy so we are changing resorts for that party.
The photos attached (If I can get it working) is of the Sunset we saw from the ferry to Ko-Phangan. the view from our deck at the resort and the beach we are staying on!

Very nice here

We have booked in an additional night here in Phuket. It isn't as nice a Krabi but the ocean is different so it provides us with other things to do here. Sarah, bob, Kirby and I rented boogie boards and hit the waves - Its really a fun sport. You sit in the water and wait for the biggest wave to come, then right before it breaks you start swimming and catch the tip of the wave and ride it into shore, very fun!!
We are getting addicted to the Thai massages - at $6.00 a pop its well worth it!
I think Kirby will be back boogie boarding today, I am not a fan of sand and salt (When you get out of saltwater you are sticky - and need a shower right away) I am thinking of lounging at the pool and getting deep into my book today,
Aksi we have new photos added onto our link so check them out!

I left my heart in paradise..

We shipped off to Railay Beach - The gang went off to do the rock climbing. Kirby had agreat time and looks like will be taking up a new hobby - He did 2 climbs the highest was at 24meters. I parked my bottom in a chair by the beach and enjoyed a nice book and some cold coke. We went to the beach afterwards at West Railay and although overrun with tourist it was a beautiful beach with limestone rocks surrounding the cove and green waters, it was a nice lastday spent in Krabi Province. We caught our bus this morning and headed out to Phuket - We had originally thought we would go to Karon Beach however we had a brief stop in Phuket town and was advised the ocean there has sever waves that have caused death and were further advised to go to the next beach called Kata Beach. We were disappointed to discover all of the beach huts had been distroyed in the Tsunami and were replaced with hotels, thus meaning there are no budget accomodations in Phuket, and certainly not in the high season (Which started Nov 1)We looked around and for a room for 1200Baht you got your standard everyday stinky room - The lady at the Phuket tour place who advised us not to go to Karon advised she is able to get us a deal for 3 rooms in the Kata Seabreeze Resort for 1400BAHT per room ($45CAD) so we decided that we would pay the 200Baht more per room, which works out to 6 more dollars for the resort which has beautiful large rooms, a nice pool and swim up bar instead of the stinky room with nothing in it. Due to the high costs we have been forced to re-arrange our travel plans. We had originally thought we would stay here about 7days then ship off to Ko Panang, since Ko Panang is in the Gulf of Thai and was not hit by the tsunami hundreds of beach bungalows still remain for an average of $10CAD per night we will be heading there early and will be in that area for about 11 days. We may also see if there is accomodations on some islands around that area.
We will post some pictures soon, Kirby i svery upset there was no comments and would like everyone to know if they dont start commenting we will stop posting!! :)

Could you pass me another beer?

Life here is good, we are keeping it very on the mellow side. Spent the better part of the last few days swimming in the ocean and improving the tan lines. They had an arranged "damage to power" today which left the entire town without electricity from 9:00am until 3:00pm.. Boy you really learn to rely on air conditioning when your out here! We did find a hotel that offers their pool and pool towels for 100Baht a day ($3CAD)Sarah, Kirb and I spent our day lounging poolside, Bob finished his last dive and Jay and Chris sat in their room watching movies. Tonght we will be heading to the Smile bar and play some poker and enjoy some refreshing cold tropical beverages (But no too many)We have booked a tour tomorrow to go to Raleigh Beach - Everyone is going to do rock climbing for the morning (I will be sitting by the beach instead building sand castles.. Dont climb so well since I left the jungle gyms at the age of 8 with a broken arm) Everyone is very excited for their climb and the tour has allowed me to come for free.. They are finished their climb at 1:00pm and then we will meet up somewhere along the beach and maybe hit up a restaurant - The boat will take us back home at 5:30pm so we will have the whole day at this beach which is apparently one of the nicest places to see here. We will be booking our bus to Phuket this evening and will be leaving on Sunday (Your Saturday) at 9:00am and will arrive at 12:00pm - We will then head over to Karon Beach in Phuket and I think we will hunker down there.
This will likely be the last post for until we reach Phuket, so all stay happy safe and warm and you will hear from us soon.

Let it snow..

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but in Thailand it's delightful.. And since we arn't going to go.. let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....
Well it is very nice here still.. We still haven't left Krabi - Really enjoying the relaxing. Yesterday Bob was hungover so he couldn't do his diving for the day so Sarah, Bob, Kirby and I went for a nice lunch at the Last Cafe on the end of the beach - Then we saw some monkeys and fed them some leftover pineapple. It was really neat to see as they would come up and sit like a dog in fron of you and reach out and take the food from your hand. I threw a peice to a monkey who looked mean and was getting really close and it was so weired to see as the monkey can actually catch with his hands!
We had dinner at a fancy restaurant on the roof top that over looked the beach and palmtrees - Kirby and I split a volcanic chicken which is a whole chicken on a stick, then they cover it in vodka and light it on fire, it was quite tasty.
We got stuck in a rain storm lastnight as we were shopping away (buying some pirated movies; Finding Neverland, Bad Santa and Pirates of the Carribean)and next thing we knew we were stuck in a shop that is like a big tin garage and the rain was hammering down - Most rains here die down in abuot 15min so we waited and waited and finally decided we had enough so off we trudged through the pouring rains - It had accumulated so much within the 10min that the water was over our shoes.. By the time we had ran the 2min back to our room were so wt we might as well have walked as you cant get any wetter. But hey - At least I was wearing a white T-Shirt with a black bra and we were both wearing sneakers and jeans (Because we all know how fast that stuff drys out)
We had a minor leak in our room - Right over my bed.. Thankfully it was in the top corner so we just moved the beds over and I slept closer to the inside.
The night life here has yet to be seen as the diving boys are in bed by 8:00 most nights but tonight is Chris and Jays last dive and Bob has to make up his dive on Friday, so we might go out tonight unless Jay is going to accompany Bob on his last dive.
Other then that we are just hanging out and enjoying our little peice of paradise.