I know it has been a while...

So I haven't posted in forever but the quick highlights are such. We met Ketut Liyer, the medicine man from Eat Pray Love, and he read our palms told us our fortunes and just talked to us for a while. I have a picture with him too and his business card so if anyone wants to come visit him in Ubud I have his address. We got to see the North of Bali while we were there and the rice terraces were beautiful. From Bali we had two pretty bad days of traveling until we finally arrived at Railay Beach where we relaxed most of the time but also did some rock climbing. It was really intense but definitely worth it. Catherine and I have like a billion pictures of that also. The next day I decided to hike to this lagoon that was in the center of the island surrounded by all these cliffs. The guy who had been our coach in rock climbing told us to go so I thought it couldn't be that bad of a hike, but boy was I wrong. I was basically free rock climbing for most of the hike and it didn't help that it had just rained so it was really muddy (red mud) and when I finally got to a flat part of the trail, I BIT IT. I came back COMPLETELY covered in red mud and Catherine just looked at me and said "Oh my gosh I'm so glad I didn't go." Overall it was a pretty funny hike.

From Railay we came to Chiang Mai. The first day we went to Wat Doi Suthep, a temple where they claim some of the remains of Buddha are kept. The temple was amazing and we were blessed by a monk, even though we have no idea what he said... Yesterday we did an elephant trek through the jungle and got to meet some of the mountain people, see another waterfall, walk through rice terraces, and then take a bamboo raft down the river. We had no idea that we were going to get soaking wet so at the end we had to buy some new clothes and let me tell you, you are going to be JEALOUS of the purple shorts I got. I think were just going to do the last bit of our shopping today and then start our long journey home tomorrow. Can't wait to see everyone!

Balinese Mariachis

So were in Bali on a beach called Tanjung Benoa or something like that and our hotel is absolutely awesome. It's beautiful here and I ran for the first time on this trip along the beach this morning. Let me just preface this by letting you know that they tie up all the jet ski's and ski boats on the beach which I had noticed yesterday but didn't take into consideration really... So I'm starting out my run today and I'm looking out at the ocean and then wave to these two balinese fisherman and then BAM my leg hits one of the ropes right above my ankle and I TUMBLED into the sand.  I was like wow that rope came out of nowhere!  And then as I got up, extremely embarrassed, wiping some of the large amount of sand off that was covering the whole right side of my body, I noticed that actually it did come out of nowhere.  It had been buried under the sand but a wave had hit the boat right as I was passing causing the rope to come up to about ankle height and causing me to eat sand.  Sooo that was fun.  The rest of my run proceeded a little better but I was VERY cautious about those ropes.

Last night we ate at the hotel, it was a Japanese Buffet with all you could eat sushi so I ate alot.  Midway through dinner a group of three balinese men came out, two with guitars and 1 with a drum.  And yes they were balinese mariachis! Who knew?  Even though the songs were not in spanish or english for that matter, I think that they could still be considered mariachis.  Especially since they serenaded every table... 

Kuala Lumpur was a cool city too.  We went to see the twin towers and also they have a really tall "space needle" building (kind of like the tower of americas in san antonio but a lot taller).  The twin towers were SO TALL! It was hard to look up that far when you were right under them.  We also went to a bird park that had exotic birds from asia that was pretty cool and then to celebrate the 4th, which was not so much of a celebration per sae...we ate at Hard Rock KL.  Well that is pretty much all I have to catch yall up on.  We've been traveling A LOT the last couple of days but we will be here at this hotel for three more nights and then were going to Ubud to search for my balinese medicine man Ketut.  Wish me luck! (oh and mom our cab driver's name yesterday was Wayan!)

Aliens

We have made it to Malaysia! (This post is called Aliens because everywhere we have been in the last week and a half, people have been staring at us like we are from a different planet...) We are in Kuala Lumpur and are about to go see the twin towers that used to be the tallest buildings in the world. We were in Nha Trang for 3 nights and Mui Ne for one night and then yesterday flew out of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I'm sad we didn't get to spend more time in HCMC because as we were driving through it actually looked pretty nice and clean.

Nha Trang was beautiful though. There are no hotels or resorts on the beach, they are all across the street so everyone just goes to one of these two "restaurants" that have lounge chairs and lay out for the day. The day we left Hanoi the concierge at the hotel informed us that the Ms. Universe pagent was taking place in Nha Trang while we were there and because of that the city was packed. The locals were so excited because I don't think much happens in Nha Trang on a regular basis. I walked down the second night and there was a parade with all of the girls from all over the worl and the locals were just eating it up! They loved it. The day we arrived at the "airport" which was possibly the grossest thing I have ever seen. It had one carousel, no gates, and the first thing that happened was a very cross-eyed man asked me if we needed a cab ride...I was just like no thank you... I don't think there is any possible way he could have driven. Quickly following we did find a cab driver whose first words were "don't worry I'm a good driver" which is never a good thing... But were alive, and the first night we ate at this place called the Sailing Club which is one of the restaurants where you can lay out during the day and it was so pleasant. We sat outside almost on the beach and just watched the ocean. The following day we went to the other restaurant and layed out the entire day and got pretty sunburned. Well I just got really tan with a hint of red but Catherine has some pretty hilarious burns where she missed putting on sunscreen. We went out that night, back to the sailing club,
and had a tad too much to drink so pretty much wasted the next day away unfortunately.

We took a bus to Mui Ne the following day and it was a very interesting beach. Not really beautiful like Nha Trang, just different because it was more of a fishing village. Our hotel was nice though and we just lounged by the pool after we arrived. I took a walk on the beach and ended up finding some of the most vibrant in tact sea shells that I have ever seen! I picked up a purple, orange, and red one as keepsakes. Yesterday we spent traveling and in airports which is not fun but we did meet a very interesting couple that were traveling with a stuffed giraffe named Geri. They had taken pictures with them everywhere they had been and I was obsessed with the idea! I just wish I had thought of it! I'll keep you updated on Kuala Lumpur!