Happy National Sunglasses Day!

Hope its sunny wherever you are :)

Life Rules 1 to 9

I guess its my turn to post my own set of life rules. Jess, Jill, and Sash - love yours. here's mine...

one - eat something green everyday
two - work hard at the things you love.. like really hard.
three - dont be afraid of looking dumb, asking a stupid question, getting rejected, falling on your face, or being otherwise embarrassed.
four - wine is always a good idea
five - go outside.
six - be different. But always be yourself.
seven - happy girls are the prettiest girls
eight - DIY
nine -  sometimes its good to be bad, am I right?

Where the heck does time go?

I spent 99 days in 22 cities in six different countries. I boarded 12 planes and literally flew around the world. I rode an elephant, took part in a national waterfight, learned how to cook thai food, rented scooters, discovered the most beautiful natural hot springs in the world, and ate my fair share of street food in Thailand. Crickets, gyozas, steamed curry buns, spring rolls, crepes, and an endless amount of pad thai. I rode tuktuks and ate fresh pineapple on the steps of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the largest hindu temple complex in the world, built over 900 years ago. I rode the worlds highest gondola, drank snake blood (and ate the snake along with its pulsing heart), sailed through the islands on Halong Bay and took a 24-hour train across the country of Vietnam. I climbed to the top of the worlds highest twin towers, watched a fashion show and was chased off a beach by some crazed monkeys in Malaysia. I turned 22, got a tattoo(!!!) and relaxed on the beach for weeks in Bali. I hiked the trails of Cinque Terre, ate the best pasta of my life in Rome, explored several little hill towns and the Vatican City, and drank floods of red wine in Italy.

99 days is a long time and its so nice to be home. I missed Cat, my bed, kale, hummus, good coffee, hot showers, real toilets, my girl army. Obviously.

So I caught up on the things I missed. And now I'm ready for the summer! I'm ready for summer potlucks. Messy braids. Bright lipstick. Dancing in the sun, sangria in hand, girls by my side. More waterfights. Cut-off jeans. And lets go on some road trips, shall we?

The end is near

Bali is already behind us! The last 3 weeks flew by so fast it feels like a dream. We spent lots of our time laying in the sun while in Bali. On the beaches, at our pool. All we wanted was to be lazy in the sun everyday and relax. After 3 months of fast paced traveling and always on the move this was the best place to end off our trip. Other than soak up the sun we did some fun things while we were here. Like our private cooking class taught by a tiny Indonesian lady named Maria. She taught us in her house which is only one small open room. The kitchen was outside and it was so beautiful! She taught us how to make our own coconut milk, fish pepes cooked in banana leaves, peanut sauce, and a few delicious spicy dishes that I dont know how to pronounce or spell. We left with our bellies full and our mouths on fire!

I turned 22 in Bali! And we ate lots of treats.. Chocolate cake, apple-banana crumble, tirimisu, banana splits. And surprise! Cam flew all the way to Bali to hang out with me on my birthday!!! Well, thats not entirely true.. But how cool is it meeting up with friends on the other side of the world!? We ate a fancy dinner. I had swordfish! And we drank a tower of Bintang (my favourite cheap Asian beer). Later we found a bar giving away free drinks for one hour!! Obviously we consumed as many of the surprisingly strong and sugary drinks as we could and continued the night with some live music, mojitos, Sara high-fiveing every taxi driver on the walk home, a late night swim in our pool and popping popcorn at the 7-11 at 3am. It was perfect.

We left Bali for awhile and headed to a tiny island called Gili Trawangan. Its so small you can bike around the whole thing in one hour, and more stray cats live on this island than people! It was beautiful except we spent four out of five days watching movies, playing crib and waiting for rainstorms to pass. Luckily our last day was sunny so we rented bikes and went exploring!

And now our 3 months of traveling is over! Well almost.. We only have a couple days in Bangkok to eat all the pad thai and fresh tropical fruit that we can and drink lots of cheap beer while getting $3 foot massages.

A bit of Bali

I'm sorry! I haven't been posting anything lately. We've been so busy laying on the beach everyday and I've completely forgot about my blog. I only have a few minutes so I'll just share some pictures of Bali so far. Enjoy!

This takes my breath away.. and makes me want to do cartwheels.

 

green tea pringles!

Get me outa here!

The other day Sara and I were in Georgetown. A smallish town on the tip of an Island off the West coast of Malaysia. We left Kuala Lumpur (the capital city) quite spontaneously, in search of a town that would offer a little more adventure. Beaches? National parks? Some hiking trails? Count us in!
I dont know how to say this nicely.. We hated it!
After being quite disappointed with the food, the beaches and the lack of anything going on in the city we headed to the national park. Hiking! I was so excited.
Well, the hike was a nightmare! Climbing over massive rocks and through overgrown trails with spiderwebs constantly in our faces. Bugs attacking us from everywhere. There was also a very terrifying loud screech coming from somewhere in the jungle. It was such a relief when the hike brought us to a nice little beach so we could relax.10 minutes later we were surrounded by monkeys. It was so scary! They were all jumping around with eachother and screaming and watching us, one actually stole Sara's granola bar from her. They basically chased us back into the trail. It was the worst experience! I think the minute we arrived back to our guest house we booked bus tickets back to Kuala. Which is where we are now.. Waiting for the day a little plane will take us to Bali.

North Seeth Oust and West

When Sara and I were planning which countries we wanted to visit prior to our trip, I wasn't too excited for the Thailand part of it. I was looking forward to Vietnam, Malaysia and the less common places to travel. 'Everyone goes to Thailand!' is what I was thinking..  I half expected the cities to be full of young backpackers who are just here to party. But I have been pleasantly surprised and the last 2 weeks in Northern Thailand were AMAZING! Ive definitely been having way more fun than anyone reading this blog!

I found these two along the way! YAY!

We discovered some natural hotsprings in the middle of the jungle just outside of Pai. It was actually the most magical place I have ever seen. The little city of Pai was also incredibly cute. It is just like Nelson, one of my favourite cities back home. And we rented motorcycles!

For the Thai New Year they celebrate (for 5 days!) by having a massive, never-ending water fight. Here in Chiang Mai everyone is equipped with hoses, buckets or waterguns attached to water tank backpacks and I havent been dry in almost a week!

Annnnd, we rode elephants, and hiked in the jungle to a village where the people cooked us amazing pumkpin curry and gave us a few too many shots of their homemade rice wine.

We went rafting down a river on a long bamboo raft. It was only a few peices of bamboo tied together so I was slightly terrified. I decided it would probably be illegal in Canada.

We danced our faces off at a live show. A fun Thai jazzy band. Awesome!

We learned how to make curries and pad thai and soups! And we were allowed to eat everything!! 

We floated paper sky lanterns!

We spent HOURS walking through markets, buying funny socks and making sure we tried every food stall. Steamed buns shaped like farm animals, gyozas, spring rolls, mini fried quail eggs, VERY spicy mango salads, cupcakes, lots of food on sticks, crunchy tubes that taste like kettle corn, deepfried sandwiches, and fried Crickets!! Which didnt taste bad with our seaweed chips and Chang beers.

 Jack and Jill chips!

Today Jess and Jill left for Laos. Have so much fun I MISS YOU ALREADY! And tonight Sara and I are heading to Krabi, in the southern part of Thailand. YAY beaches!

That guy looks like Jackie Chan!

Dear Hanoi,
You have been my favourite spot in South East Asia during this last month of travelling. I'll miss wandering aimlessly down your medieval streets in the Old Quarter. I'll miss racing through the traffic on the backs of motorcycles. I'll miss your shoe district. I'll miss your apple pears, your eggplant claypot, your bar peanuts, your sweet and salty popcorn, your coconut cream-filled buns (especially your coconut cream-filled buns) your smoothie lists, and your baguettes filled with shredded veggies, cucumbers, a fried egg and chili sauce (otherwise known as a Banh My, definitely my favourite street food in Vietnam). I'll miss the most amazing coffee I have ever had in my life from Cong Caphe. I'll miss your Megastar Movie Theater. I'll miss your night markets and bargaining for absolutely everything i bought. I'll definitely miss the chocolate buffet feast at the Metropole, I have never experienced happiness like that before. I'll miss the funny things people load onto the backs of their motorcycles (goats, pigs, chickens, their family of 6, dozens of bags of koi fish), I'm going to miss this city so much, it is literally pulsing with life and the people here are so friendly! I feel like I say that everywhere I go but its different here! Hanoi is a completely different world.
I promise to visit again one day. Dont change.

Love, Nicole

Also, thank you Mary for showing us around Hanoi and to all your secret places. It was amazing being able to experience the city in a non-tourist sort of way. Thank you for teaching us the transit, how to barter properly, finding me some hummus, how to cross the streets, and how to say a few things in Vietnamese. Asking politely for hot porridge will come in handy one day!

Here are some phone pictures taken during our wonderful week in Hanoi. 

Ill start off with the chocolate buffet.

Thats only 3 of the 4 plates I ate. I also forgot the picture of the homemade icecream.

 

In the middle of Saturday morning traffic. You should see what rush hour is like here. 

 

 

Sailing through the 1969 islands of Halong Bay!

Making pottery in the Pottery Village with new friends!

 

Farewell Vietnam!

Picture day

These were all taken in Nha Trang, a beautiful beach town on Vietnam's coast. Spent a lot of time on the beach, eating ice-cream for breakfast, and riding bikes around the colourful city. We also took motorcycle taxis to the worlds highest gondola! Which then carried us to Vin Pearl Land for a day of waterslides, cheap rides and free popcorn.

I still haven't slept since our 24 hour train ride that dropped us off in Hanoi this morning at 5am. Time for sleep. Perhaps tomorrow I will write a real blogpost and share some stories. 

Found Paradise

The 12 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Sihanouk ville was a painful journey. Our bus drivers were maniacs, honking their horns at everyone and swerving in and out of all the cars. The bus was uncomfortable, cold and smelled terrible from the mixture of weird foods people were eating. Like hard boiled eggs and fried bugs. The lady beside me was enjoying a bag of fried spiders that were each almost the size of my hand. She would break off the legs and eat them first, saving the body for last. It was disgusting.

We finally made it though! We layed on the sand for hours, fresh pineapple juice in hand. Listened to the waves crash on the beach and watched the locals walk around to each tourist, trying to sell fruit out of the baskets they carried on their heads. Occasionally dipping into the water to cool off. Except the water doesn't cool you off at all, its so warm here! I have never swam in an ocean as warm as this one.

Were living in paradise and I never want to leave!

You know you're a long way from home when the supermarkets here sell only 5 different types of cereal, and have two rows full of soya sauce and instant noodles.

Pineapples on sticks! You can buy anything on a stick around here.

Sitting, waiting...

Our bus is already 27 minutes late so I figured I would have time for a post.. There is no way I would be able to live here in Poipet permenantly. For one thing I hate showering. I only shower if I absolutely have to. But here you get so sweaty and covered in dirt you definitely need one every day. Also, they eat huge amounts of white rice with every meal. Every day. I'm sick of it! There aren't many options for food here. Another thing about this city I can't stand is how everyone seems to be atleast 45 minutes late for everything. There are some things I will miss about this place though, - mostly the kids from Safe Haven. yesterday we taught them how to play 'heads up 7up' it was so much fun. - the tacky tablecloths! - the peppery scrambled eggs - fresh watermelon and grape juices. They don't sound all that wonderful but they were shockingly delicious. - being taller then almost everyone. It was very strange but I enjoyed it. - The fruit muesli bowls that are packed with sweet bananas, apples, papayas and pineapples! I just finished my last one. - ill also really miss all the staff at cho. My favourite part was teaching them how to bake cookies and cupcakes to sell in the cafe. The cookies were a huge hit! At the moment we are relaxing on the front patio of our hotel, waiting for the bus to take us to Siem Reap. We're excited for every day to be different from now on. And cant wait to wear shorts and tank tops again. For the last week we have been living in the same outfit of one pair of baggy pants and only one Tshirt each. Gross!

CHO

After spending 5 hours hauling bricks by hand in 39 degree weather yesterday, and sweating non stop, I was really excited to spend today just hanging out with the kids at Safe Haven and helping teach them English. It was so much fun and the kids are always laughing. Oh, for those who dont know, we are volunteering for a week with CHO (http://www.cambodianhopeorganization.org/) an organization here in Poipet, Cambodia. So far it has been an amazing experience. Just connecting with the people is incredible, they are all so kind and welcoming and full of life and love. They're also extremely hard workers and we were fortunate enough to experience a little bit of the work they do every single day. I dont know how they do it!!! Especially with the little amount of equipment they have! Anyways, Ill try and post again soon and tell you more about what we do during the week we are here. I'll post pictures soon too! All I have for you now is a couple taken with my phone. This is the view from our hotel here.

And this is probably the best fried rice I have ever had, right before crossing the border into Cambodia.. Which was a complete nightmare.

Here is Sara teaching the kids the Story of Noah's Ark!