A long post...

Well we have been away from an internet source for so long, we have almost forgotten how to post on our blog! But now we are able to use the internet here at the hospital, though rarely. So we will try to catch you up on our lives. There is quite a line stacking up here in the internet place as there is only one computer that has an internet connection. Combine that with the fact that there are plenty of American medical students here itching to check their email. So where to begin?

That first night when we got here, we stayed in the house of the head doctor here and his wife. He is the one that is related to our friends who recommended this place. Anyway, they have a lovely house! They have an amazing view! I (Larissa) wish we could attach some pictures but this connection is so slow, I don’t know if we will even try. Plus it would be hard to pick so few pictures. The scenery here looks kind of like Italy. It has green rolling hills but it also has very cool and very dramatic mountainy plateaus of limestone.
Hard to explain but very beautiful. All the houses are built with lots of windows to take it the lovely view. We moved into our house.
We are very happy with it. We get to live in it all by ourselves which is really nice. It has three bedrooms and is very comfy. I am sure you want to hear about other things.

Jason was immediately commissioned to start helping some other fellows build a toilet. The people who come to the emergency room have had to walk down a trail to some outhouses so this toilet was very much in need. I didn’t really have a job yet so I went to work on the tennis court. Yes there is a tennis court. And a volleyball court and a basketball court. They are all the same court but it is horribly overgrown with weeds. So I got to work with a shovel. Some little girls were playing in the courts and they got curious and came over to see what I was doing. They conferred among themselves for awhile and then one brave soul spoke up in halting English. “May we help you?” I turned around and smiled and said yes. They were so excited to get the sentence right, they giggled and laughed and ran off to help pull weeds. Actually, I thought they were just going to collect the weeds that I had already pulled up. But then they ran off and grabbed the tools I had brought up with me. This worried me because they were sharp and scary looking and I wasn’t even sure how to use them and they were swinging them around everywhere. I watched them carefully but they were fine. Jason made friends with a Sotho guy who is helping them build the toilets. His name is James. The first day they met, James told Jason he wants an American wife. He is trying to talk Jason into bringing him one. A couple days ago, Jason asked James how old he was. We weren’t sure. He could have been 18 or 25. It turned out he was 23. He asked Jason how old he was and when Jason answered “23” James laughed and laughed! He acted like he couldn’t believe it. Jason said “What, how old did you think I was?” James answered “ I thought you were like…. 22!!!!” And laughed some more. James told Jason he really liked basketball but there wasn’t a basketball around to play with. Jason told him that when he went to town, he would try to find one. Jason found one in town and James and he played a good game of basketball. Jason won but he wasn’t that proud of it since James was playing in flip-flops and then later in barefeet. He would come down on a rock and say “ow” and keep playing.
Jason is also building the toilets with a guy from CA named Hale. He used to be a Peace Corps volunteer here about 15 years ago. He is almost fluent in Sotho. The other day he took us on a hike. It was a village about an hour from here. We took a taxi most of the way there which was quite an experience in itself. We stopped in this little village and then started walking. We were waiting for the taxi that was going to the next village but it was taking so long that we decided to start walking. It was a beautiful walk.
One thing that made it so great was that we passed through little homesteads, and Hale would speak to the people for us and it was so wonderful to be able to converse just little with the people. It made everything way more interesting. Another WONDERFUL thing is that people LOVE having their picture taken. Sometimes, they will stop you ask for you to take their picture. Makes us glad that we have digital. IT is extra good because after we take the picture, we can show them their picture on the back of our camera. They see it and then they shriek with laughter! Kids, adults, everyone loves it. In fact, the kids follow you around and pose so you will take their picture.
It was hard on our hike because sometimes we wanted to take a picture of scenery without out naked children posing in the middle of it. :]

There were a couple places when we were walking on the road where we had to walk over the water. Instead of making a bridge to go over the water, the build a “bridge” that stays under the water and is very strong that way.

Anyway, there was one where we had to cross kind of a strong current. There was a huge crowd of children following us out of curiosity, like usual. Hardly anybody around here knows how to swim so when the children tried to follow us through the river, Hale yelled at them to stay back. Some tried to come anyway but Hale got a stick and told them that if they came to the other side he would beat them. Of course he wouldn’t have but they didn’t know that so they stayed on the other side. Once we crossed the river, we came across a group of musicians who were sitting on the side of a hill playing an accordion and singing.

It was so cool to hear them. They got so caught up in it that they started dancing too. We had our own private musical show.

This is a typical Basotho house. They are called Rondovels (have no idea of the spelling). They are made from clay or sandstone bricks with grass roofs.

It was a beautiful day for our hike and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves except for the massive blister on my foot that kept reminding me of its existence. On the way back, we rode a taxi. The driver had the music all the way up and the African beat was blaring. Inside the minivan, all types of people going home for the night bounced their shoulders up and down and some moved their whole upper body all around. The party didn’t stop inside the van though. The taxi had to go relatively slow because of the muddy, pitted road. This gave the music plenty of time to be heard all around us. On the side of the road, there was a cluster of children that made the best of the passing party. All of them began to dance from the eldest who looked about 7 years old, to the youngest who looked all of 2. The 2 year old wore such a serious expression as she wiggled her little hips to and fro. Both Jason and I saw it and burst out laughing! I will never forget that as long as I live. It was so cute! I wish I had a video camera to capture it for everyone. Alas, we didn’t even get a picture.

The people around here wear blankets. Almost everyone does. I guess a British official gave one as a gift to an ancient Sotho ruler. It was one of his most prized possessions and soon, the British couldn’t import blankets fast enough to satisfy the appetite of the Sotho. They wear them in all kinds of weather. They wrap it around them and then fasten it with a giant safety pin. Hopefully you will get to see some pictures soon and you will see what I am talking about. The carry their babies around on their backs and the keep them there with a towel. They safety pin the towel as to hold the baby safely. I don’t know if I will ever get used to the women bending over, and slinging their 2 month old babies onto their back and the letting them lay there without supporting them while they grab the towel to fasten it. It almost gives me a heart attack every time.

I got to shadow a doctor from the Congo around the other day. He is really nice and he speaks 7 languages. His goal is to speak 10. He learned Sotho in 4 months. He asked us how to get to work in America. Many people have asked us that since we have come here. This guy at least has the qualifications. Anyway, I followed him around and at first I was helping a little bit. Well, I was almost helping. He told me I could do a blood pressure and I took his stethoscope confidently and then grabbed the cuff. That is when I began to feel uneasy. There was no way to fasten it. It was a long piece of fabric so I just wrapped it around the guys arm until it wouldn’t go anymore and then tried to take the reading. It didn’t hear ANYTHING. I tried again, still nothing. The doctor told me that you have to tie the end. So I tied the cuff on to him and tried again. This time I got a reading but just barely. It seemed like the doctor was going to let me try to draw blood but when I saw the equipment they still use I decided it might not be the best decision. They draw the blood up with a syringe and then they take it out and squirt it into a test tube. This is especially risky since you have to unscrew the needle instead of being able to just pop it off into the sharps container. A lot of people have HIV and AIDS here too so I don’t think I will take the risk.

After we looked at the blood drawing facilities, he took me to the wellness center which is where the patients with HIV/AIDS come for their specialized treatment. The second patient was a year and a half old baby. When the mother took him off her back, I almost couldn’t help gasping. It just a little skeleton baby. His cheeks were sunken in and his arms were like toothpicks. He was whimpering and crying weakly while the doctor examined him. His cries where what got to me; my eyes started to fill up with tears and I had to look away and try thinking of something else. This baby had AIDS and had even been started out on ARVs two weeks prior to his visit. Both of his parents were HIV positive but they looked healthy enough at the moment. The baby had thrush in his mouth and it was just so pitiful. I just started thinking that if the cry of a sick baby can make it so I can’t do anything with out crying, then it was hopeless to become a PA. I left that office very depressed.

There is a medical student here from Boston University and also a pediatric resident in his last year from BU. I guess Lesotho has a partnership with BU or something because all together there are about 5 people here from there. I shadowed the pediatric resident around on Sunday which is about the busiest day here. The waiting room was full of kids that day. I stood quietly while the doc saw the patients and watched. Jason shadowed the medical student around as he saw patients. As Jason mentioned to me, it was rather inspiring. So it made up for the AIDS baby experience. Of course then the resident told me that that baby that I was sad about died a couple days later.

Dr.Carter (the resident), had a translator for a nurse and it was quite an interesting experience. We had one nurse at first and she was translating. A mother came in with a baby that had inflamed eyes and a cold. Dr.Carter heard the symptoms and realized that it was a viral infection. So he told the mother breastfeed her baby a lot and come back in two days so he could check that the eyes were getting better. When the translator heard that, she didn’t tell the mother what he said but asked Dr. Carter, “That’s it? You aren’t going to give her anything?” Dr. Carter told her that it was a viral infection so antibiotics would help it all. The translator asked him if he wanted a second opinion. He said no, that he was sure about his diagnosis but if she wanted a second opinion, she was welcome to get one. She was worried because they have to pay to see a doctor and to just send them away without any medicine seemed like it was a waste of money. Dr.Carter compromised and sent the mother and baby to the ophthalmologist down the hall. I thought it was silly because they would have had to pay for medicine as well so I am sure they would prefer just the doctor’s visit cost. The nurse was nice about it but it was interesting.

We got a different translator for the next couple patients, who was also nurse. She was not a happy person. We thought she was just mad at us but then it became apparent she wasn’t being very nice to the patients either. She just glared off to the side and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. She wouldn’t translate until Dr.Carter prodded her and then she gave a big sigh. It got especially bad with one patient. A baby was very sick and the doc wanted to admit him into the hospital. He gave the parents lots of instructions about where to go for some lab tests, what he thought was wrong with the baby and what to expect when the baby was being admitted. When the nurse went to translate it sounded something like this, “blah blah blah blah blah”. There was a long silence while we waited for her to finish but that was all she said. Finally Dr.Carter asked, “Did you tell them all that?” She said yes and he said “You told them all that in the five words you just said?” She said she had so he looked her in the eye and said, “Ok, I want you to tell the parents to tell me back everything that I just explained to them. I want to make sure they understand.” She passed along the message and you could tell the parents were upset. They spoke rapid fire for a bit and then she said with a disdainfully straight face, “They are very frustrated because you are asking them all these questions but you never told them any information. You haven’t explained anything for them to explain back.” Dr.Carter got a little red in the face, but soon the conflict was dealt with. Sheesh. I would have lost my patience so much sooner. Anyway, Jason and I were very inspired after watching the doctors’ work and I felt much better about becoming a PA.

I have been typing a lot and Jason has gotten very good at the construction work that he is helping with. In fact, he has gotten so good at it that everyone just stands around and watches him work now. Not quite, but his is doing a lot more than everyone else and he does a very good job. He has been going up there at 7am and coming back at 5:30pm.

Neo is doing well. I saw him today. The last couple times I have gone to see him, he has been sleeping. So today I saw him and he was in such a good mood. Cooing and making all sorts of cute little noises. He likes to imitate things now. I made a kissing noise the other day and he made a smacking noise back. Then I blew air through loose lips and make a plblblblblblbb noise and he tried to do it too but he couldn’t quite get it. I whistled and he laughed SO loud! Of course, I couldn’t whistle anymore because I was smiling but oh well. If Jason and I were older and more settled, it would be hard not to take him home. But che sara sara.

On Sabbath we went on another hike. Here are some flowers that covered the valley as we were hiking. They are called Cosmos:

There is a big beautiful hill that is just perfectly shaped to climb. They call it the mole hill.
I guess it is kind of shaped like one. Anyway, there aren’t really any fences here so when you want to hike, you just set out on one of the many trails winding around. This place is very wide and open

I am pretty proud of myself. I am going to brag a little. I have gotten Jason to like a lot of food since we started dating. Here is a list: avocados, tomatoes (almost), artichokes, and mangoes. This trip has been mostly useful for him to start liking mangoes. I got a case of 6 big beautiful ones at the supermarket for 2 dollars (we also bought a whole bunch of Passion fruit too which cost like only 75 cents for 4). It seems that Jason has gotten addicted to having them on his cereal. In fact, the other day when we were out of mangoes, he almost made me go out in a huge thunderstorm to buy some more mangoes. I refused and he was quite crestfallen. He loves mangoes now. But he refuses to learn how to cut them (he doesn’t like getting juice all over his hands) so I have get up at 6:30 with him to cut the mangoes for cereal. Hah!

We are leaving for Cape Town, South Africa on Friday evening. We are taking another bus. I can’t believe that our adventure here is almost done. We have had really good time. I hope that once we get to Europe, we will have more reliable internet service. I really like being able to write everyday so I can get everything off my chest and share it with you guys. Much love and see you all soon!

Lesotho

We had a very nice and restful time in South Africa. It was nice having a Sabbath at a home. On Sabbath, we went to their church. It is called the Southern Suburbs church and it was their 70th Anniversary. They had a special potluck service and it was quite good. Then Pastor Harris' son took us to the airport. We had a wonderful time and the Harris' made everything so restful and nice for us. Pastor Harris' wife, Alet gave me some recipes that I got to try while we were there. She makes some amazing things. Like carob bars! Usually I don't like carob but WOW! These were good, I would rather eat them than real chocolate! Anyway, we got on our plane and headed off to Lesotho (pronounced Less-oo-too). We landed safely and wen through customs but there was no one there to meet us. We didn't mind and we were just going to sit there and wait but then the lady told us they were closing the airport at 6 pm. That was only 15 minutes away!! We had forgotten to get the hospitals number and the phones didn't work anyway so we were in trouble. There was a nice man in the back though that let us use the airport special phone and we got a hold of the doctor in Maluti. He said someone should be there shortly. They were and we had a long trip to the hospital. I have to type fast because the connection ehre is incredibly slow but really expensive.

Yesterday we got a tour around the facilities here and got to meet Neo. He was abondoned by his mother and came to the hospital when he was 9 months old. He is now a little over a year old. He is HIV negative. They don't have an adoption serivce here in Lesotho so they are just keeping him at the hospital until they figure out something to do with him. A lady with an orphanage wants to take him because she gets money for every baby in there but they checked out her facilites and decided it was too bad of a place for him. He is a sweetie. I wish I could include a picture but it isn't letting me. It is very annoying. If you want a picture of him I can email you one but it isn't letting me upload pictures. I don't know if it will let me post this even. Well, we will try to write more later.

South Africa ....and Beyond!

We had two very long flights in the last two days. The first was 13 hours from Singapore to Paris, the second was 11 hours from Paris to Johannesburg. They were both overnight flights so we slept in the plane. Air France has VERY nice service though so we slept rather well! I (Larissa) was surprised at myself. I think I slept about 8 hours the first night. When I woke up Jason said, "I am so proud of you! You just laid your head back and went to sleep like a mature old women. Instead of getting into all these weird positions first." I made sure that was a compliment.

We sat in the Paris airpot for about 12 hours. We could have taken the train into the city for not much money but we had both forgotten that cold existed so we packed we only had sandals and shorts/skirt on. The rest was in our checked baggage alas. We didn't think we would have much fun walking around Paris when it was below freezing out. Anyway, we stop back through Paris for a couple days on the way back so we should get some good sightseeing in then.

We ate our chips and salsa in the airport because all the food was WAY too expensive to stomach. For example: You know those 1/4 can of pringles? Those would have cost us around 3 euro! which is like... almost 4 dollars. An average slice of pizza was 5 euro. So we ignored our stomachs and then finally gave in to eating our chips and salsa and it was heaven.

We are here in Johannesburg now! Our good South African-American friends got this medical mission trip set up for us and for that we are very grateful! They thought they could have a friend of theirs meet us but they were going to get back to us to let us know for sure. Unfortunately, we weren't able to check our email in Paris so we didn't know whether anyone would be there to meet us or not. We walked out of the terminal and immediately saw a man holding a sign with the words "Around the World in 4 Months Jason and Larissa"underneath which he held the latest copy of the Adventist Review. We knew this was our man and we were VERY happy to see someone! Eddie is his name and he works at the SDA conference here. Jason will continue this post from here on out since I am running out of time on my internet.

So we have enjoyed touring around parts of Johannesburg. We went to a flee market earlier that had lots of nice African crafts and such. Then we toured a food donation center, where were met with great hospitality. After recieving a nice tour of the facilities, and told numerous stories of generous donations, we were treated to a very nice meal. I was especially excited to get to eat a few apples, something that we have had to do without for awhile.

Looks like we are going to do some more looking around and then head back to the Pastor's house. Tomorrow we will be off to Lesotho, which we just found out is pronounced Lesootoo, or close to it.

Home internet access is by the minute, and apparently very expensive, so we may not be able to post from Lesotho. If not, be assured that we are thinking of you all, and having a great time.

Four Cities, Four Days, and Four Currencies in My Wallet

We had nice upper-level sleepers for the train trip from Bangkok to Hat Yai.

Unfortunately, the other people riding in our car were not as intent upon sleeping as we were. Their talking and laughing, combined with the fact that the car's doors didn't work (so it sounded like we were travelling through a hurricane) meant that we weren't able to get a lot of sleep that night. Nonetheless, we arrived in Hat Yai safely, which was our primary goal. As soon as we arrived I nervously approached the ticket counter. You see, we had not yet been able to get tickets to Kuala Lumpur. The only place in Thailand you can book these tickets (unless you have planned far ahead and used a booking agency) is in Hat Yai. Fortunately there was room for us on the train. Unfortunately, the sleeping berths were not available. Oh well, we thought, at least we'll get there.

Hat Yai is located deep in the south of Thailand. While Thailand's predominating religion is Buddism, the majority of the people in the south practice Islam. In recent years there has been a separatist movement on the part of some Muslims in southern Thailand. They have expressed their dissatisfaction in the form of terrorism. Last year they bombed the airport in Hat Yai, and the year before they were responsible for hundreds of deaths in bombings throughout the neighboring provinces. Needless to say, we were a bit concerned about travelling here. We were happy to read; however, that Americans and other foreigners are not currently being targeted.
We set up camp in the heavily guarded train station. There were barricades out front, and a large number of highly armed guards. I thought they were a little careless with there guns, but I was still happy that they had them.

We decided that it would be too much of a bother for both of us to go into town. So, at no time during our seven hour layover did both of us leave the station. I was the first to explore the city. I went looking for food, internet access, and of course (upon Larissa's request) bookstores. I found all of these necessities, and even stumbled accross a national Hula competition. I went back to get Larissa, who went to watch the show and get some pictures.

All in all, we enjoyed our time in Hat Yai. Outside of the train station it actually seemed like quite a friendly place.

In the early afternoon we boarded the train. We found our second class seats to be comfortable, but soon realized that they would not be comfortable enough for the 16 hours we would have to spend sitting in them. Again, I will make an appeal for sympathy: We didn't sleep much that night.

Finally, early the next morning, we arrived at Kuala Lumpur's beautiful and modern Sentral Station (their spelling). At Sentral Station, the trains, subway, sky-rail, monorail, and bus lines all converge. We took the monorail to the station nearest our hostel, which we had booked online while in Hat Yai. Since it was to early to check in to our room, we left our bags at the hostel and headed out on the town. We were most excited to visit the Petronas Towers, so that is where we headed first. These are the highest twin towers in the world, and were officially the tallest buildings in the world until the completion of the Tapei 101 building in 2004. We took the monorail within short walking distance of the towers. There is a double-decker bridge at the 42nd floor that spans the gap between the buildings. The upper level is used for workers (50,000 people work in the there) to get between the buildings, while the lower level is used for tourism. We immediately went down to get our free tickets to the skybridge. Only so many tickets are issued each day, so we wanted to be sure that we were able to get ahold of two of them. The elevator ride to the 42nd floor only took around 40 seconds. We bravely made our way out onto the bridge, taking comfort in the fact that the towers were designed by an American. In the middle of the bridge there are two outcroppings, one on each side. I will admit that I got a little weak in the knees when I stepped out onto one of them. I decided that it was not a place that I wanted to stay very long. Larissa managed to capture my sheepish demeanor before I leaped back to safety.

In the lower levels of one of the towers is a massive shopping mall. While I don't really like going to malls at home, I enjoyed our time in this one. We could almost trick ourselves into thinking we were back in America. We enjoyed some delicious veggie burgers at McDonalds, and returned that evening to catch the movie Tristan and Isolde. The towers were beautiful at night.

The rest of the day was spent touring the city of Kuala Lumpur. We were very impressed with both the cleanliness of the city, and with its' comprehensive public transportation network, the former in stark contrast to Bangkok. We used the subway, skyrail, monorail, and buses with ease. It was nice to be in a city without Tuk Tuk drivers hassling us. In fact, no one really hassled us. We are a bit jaded after enduring the Tuk Tuk drivers in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand. We are suspicious of anyone who approaches us. Yesterday, a man started talking to us on the street, we tuned him out and said "No Thank You," and promptly walked in the middle of a movie filming. All he was trying to do was to get us to walk around the set.

We toured Chinatown and Little india, coming accross a couple of beautiful mosques along the way. The official religion of Malaysia is Islam, though freedom of religion is practiced. Therefore, we have left the land of Wats, and entered the land of Mosques.

The next morning we took the train to Singapore. The ride was only supposed to take six hours, but some of the passengers got hung up in customs, and the train waited for them. Singapore is known for being a very clean place. To uphold this reputation, Gum, other than a pack or two in your pocket, cannot be imported. The Malaysian train dropped us a bit out of town, but we were able to hike to a subway station so that we could travel to our hostel. After about an hour, we made it to the Backpacker's Cozy Corner Hostel, which is in the Arab district of Singapore. We hope to explore this area today. Nearby are streets with names such as Baghdad and Khandahar. The hostel offers free breakfast, and free internet. Free breakfast turned out to be basically just free toast, and the internet has been too crowded to use. The only reason I have been able to get on is because the internet is down right now. I am just typing this out hoping that the connection will come back.

Last night we went to explore the primary shopping district of the city, centered around Orchard Road. There was shopping plaza after shopping plaza filled with things I didn't really want or couldn't really afford. One plaza, called Lucky plaza, was filled with photographic equipment stores. So, in this case, the plaza was filled with things that I wanted, but still couldn't afford. Apparently Singapore used to be THE place to buy photographic equipment. I guess it is not the deal it once was; however, because all of the prices I was quoted (and bargained for) were higher than those in the States.

Larissa is apparently feeling better, because she is once again demanding that we start eating local foods, rather than fries from McDonalds or Pringles from 7-11. I am not really ready to go back to ramen. So, last night, we comprimised. I ate at McDonalds, and she ate some kind of mushroom noodle soup.

We are impressed with Singapore thus far. It is indeed a clean place, though probably no cleaner than Kuala Lumpur. It also has a very extensive public transportation network. We are going to explore as much as possible today, before having to catch our flight to Paris tonight.
Okay, I wrote the above paragraphs this morning, it is late afternoon now. The internet never did come back up, so I will update you on the day now.
First we took a walking tour of Singapore's Arab district. It was quaint, clean, and well planned. The nicest mosque we have seen thus far is located near Baghdad Street,

it is called Sultan Mosque. We wanted to go inside, but I had an immodestly dressed wife by mosque standards.

Then we took the subway to Little India. This seemed like a poor neighborhood in comparison to the Arab district. It was dirty, and the buildings were not nearly as nice. Unfortunately, it was lunch time, and we were both getting hungry, and a bit cranky. Not really the place to be, seeing as how we had both vowed to avoid Indian food for awhile. After buying some oranges at the market, we broke down and entered a vegetarian Indian restaurant. I thought we'd just get some naan and samosas. We ended up getting a full meal, even though we thought we had just ordered a couple of appetizers. I am happy to report that are stomachs are feeling fine.

After little India, we made our way to Chinatown. There we walked to some nice temples, and Larissa enjoyed looking in some shops. Then we went to the Singapore river, and to the local bay. This was the best place to take in the views of the city.

During our walk Larissa noticed a huge sign indicating that there was a book fair going on.

She jumped up and down excitedly and informed me that I was in big trouble. I knew what she meant. We would be spending lots of time, and lots of money at this book fair. There was indeed a lot of books at this fair and they were priced very reasonably. Fortunately for our budget, and for our time constraints, many of the books were written in Chinese. I was proud of Larissa. She only bought one book, and we were in and out of there in less than an hour.

We enjoyed a nice celebratory dinner following our departure from the book fair. Larissa had fungi pasta and a Mango shake, and I had fungi pizza and a blueberry muffin. It was our most expensive meal since eating at an Indian place in Palau. Prices in Singapore are comparable, though probably slightly less than those in American cities. While we have enjoyed ourselves here, we are glad that we didn't stay here very long. The only things we can really afford here is transportation, eating, and walking.

Yesterday we broke down and bought some chips and salsa. We are waiting for the perfect moment to dig in. The time will probably come sometime in the middle of the night when we are bored, hungry, and tired of flying.

Our journey from Bangkok to Singapore has turned out to be an experience to remember. We are proud of completing the 1500 some kilometers by the land route. It will take us much less time to travel the thousands of miles from here to South Africa.

Soon we will be taking the subway to the airport. I think we are looking at about a twelve hour flight to Paris. We will have a pretty full day there before boarding our flight to Johannesburg. We will then have over twenty-four hours in Johannesburg before flying to Lesotho.

Larissa wanted to add a few of her observations, which will hopefully be more entertaining and to the point than mine have been.

Well, I don't think that will happen! Anyway, I just wanted to say a couple things about the cities that we went to. Kuala Lumpur has the distinction of being a democratic Muslim city. Everywhere we went, there were women wearing head scarves. You could also see the men wearing the lace caps they wear if they have made the pilgramage to Mecca. It was interesting because while the younger generations still seemed to be traditional in the sense that they wore head scarves, many of the young women would wear very stylish and sometimes sexy clothing. There headscarves were defintely not dowdy. They fastened them with beautiful brooches and they mostly looked very trendy.

Kuala Lumpur was a very trendy city indeed. Everything seemed new and big and clean and very busy. The streets were wide but beautiful with trees and bushes lining them everywhere. The traffic wasn't bad at all. It was obvious that Islam is a very important part of life there. The sidewalk tiles each have the intertwined squares of Islam. Indeed, even the Petronas towers design is based on the Islamic intertwined squares.

Everyone was really nice to us. I went to get a sandwhich and the two Muslim women who worked there asked me all about my vegetarianism. They were very impressed. And they gave me extra avacado on my sandwhich. :]

Singapore is amazing! When we walked out of the train station, I wasn't too imporessed and I thought that I would like Kuala Lumpur better. But Singapore grew on me and now I really love it. It has a more sedate stlye than Kuala Lumpur. It is high class and bustling but much more relaxed. Both cities are very clean and it is hard to decide which one is cleaner. The river is not clear but it is clean and Jaosn and I witnessed how that came to be. We were standing on a bridge when we saw this weird contraption in the water. It was the boat thing with a conveyor belt. It goes around and scoops leaves and other junk out of the water. That is how is stays so clean. I thought that was really cool. More cities should do that.

Traffic seems to be almost non-existant here as well. Public Trans must really help . I have never ever experienced a city with so little traffic.

By the way, Singapore is a country but also a city. I was confused but I fianlly figured it out. Anyway, there are tons of cute kids here. Yesterday there were a bunch of kids playing in a fountain and I got a picture of an especially cute little girl:

Well, hopefully we will be able to write more soon but we don't know the internet situation in Lesotho. Good to hear from you all!

Ocean World and Khao San

Well yesterday we took care of some very necessary things on the internet (Jason filed his taxes and FASFA) and then we were off! We went to the huge new mall that we went to before that had the great bread. There we shopped to our hearts' content. Jason found some salsa again and it was on sale for $4.50, down from $5.00. Still too much though, so he sucked it up and put it back on the shelf.

Then we bought some hot gourmet soup. I had asparagus & Leek cream soup and Jason had mushroom and broccoli! So good, especially because we bought some bread to dip in it. After we ate, Jason came over to me with a sheepish smile and said "I REALLY want to go here" and handed me a brochure to the new aquarium that was in the bottom of the mall (its a nice mall!) I asked Jason, "Well would you like to go to this aquarium instead of the one in Singapore?" He said "I was hoping you weren't go to ask me that" After much ado, I agreed (it was over our budget). We bought our tickets and noticed that it was right at the time when the shark feeding was supposed to happen. So we RAN through the whole aquarium until we found the shark tank. Nothing much seemed to be happening, so we figured we missed it, walked back to to the beginning of the aquarium and started our journey through the sea!

They have this special glass bottom boat ride where you get to be on a glass bottom boat on top of the main tank. We didn't see anything more special than if we had just walked through the glass tube through the main tank. But that's ok because I got to see Jason wear a really cool bright orange life jacket!

At the end of the aquarium, we came to an "aquarium car". It was a car that was filled with water and had gold fish in it. You could toss coins in there and Jason quickly deposited three. Here he is:

After that we came back and went to Khao San road, this is the road we are staying on and where many backpackers come to stay. There is tons to buy but Jason and I just got a banana & chocolate crepe. Mmmm.

This street is pretty cool at night, here is a picture of all the people milling around. Pretty busy place.

Today we are taking an overnight train down to southern Thailand. And then we are off to Kuala Lumpur on another train. So, it may be awhile until we can post again. Best case scenario, we can post in southern Thailand. Not that there will be anything to say....

Elephants, etc.

What a fun time we had! Yesterday we had quite a trek. It started out with a hot hike up a mountain to visit a hill tribe (the Mhong people I think). It is the beginning of the hottest season here and you can certainly see it when you look around. Everything is pretty brown. The trees are all mostly dead and there are small fires daily that burn up the underbrush. Things are pretty hazy everywhere because of all of the fires. Soon we got to a very beautiful river. The clear water was surrounded by picturesque rocks and trees. Here is a picture:

And here is a picture of the bamboo bridge we had to walk over to get to the other side: It was fun! Don't worry, despite appearances, it is a safe bridge. The hill tribe was pretty cool too. These people came over from China a couple centuries ago. Here is a picture of a cute little boy that I (Larissa) saw:

The people of the tribe sell various things like handmade scarves and jewelry to supplement their main income, which is derived from farming. We didn't buy anything, but enjoyed walking around the village instead of spending our time bargaining. When we left a village lady sold us some bananas. We didn't really want the bananas, but it the sale gave Jason the go ahead to point the camera at her for a few shots. Here is a picture of me buying them from her:

Then it was off to the elephant rides. We don't have a picture of Jason and I on the elephant but Jason ran around the side and took this as I was boarding the elephant:

We both really liked our elephant. He was a big, gentle giant. One of the tourists had given him a cocnut before we left and he happily munched it as we walked. Not all of the elephants were as well behaved as ours. The one behind us liked to snort up dust in his trunk and then mix it with a good dose of saliva before spraying it on his forhead. Of course, this sometimes coated the passengers as well. His trainer knew about this habit and I suppose that is why he lead the animal from the ground instead of sitting on his head like most of the other trainers. We assumed that all of the elephants must have been feeling very hot. When we got to the water buckets for them to cool down; however, our elephant didn't even seem interested. The naughty elephant on the other hand, had a hay day. His slurped up the water and sprayed it everywhere, narrowly sparing the riders from a full on spray. It turns out this elephant was still young so he wasn't fully trained yet. Apparently, he was only 20 years old instead of 30-40 years old like most of the other elephants. The law makes it so the elephants must be retired at age 60. Then they are let into the wild. They often live until they are 80 years old.

Next it was off to lunch. Jason and I are proud to announce we were able to eat Thai food without any major setbacks. Ever since we got sick, even thinking about eating Thai or Indian food made us feel like throwing up. So we were glad to eat a full meal and get through it just fine.

Then it was off to the waterfall. Here is a picture of it:

The guide had us jump in the water near the base of it. It was just a sand bar under the water that we could stand on. Then we swam to the right of the waterfall and jumped off that little cliff there. Don't worry, we had the guide do everything first, although both Jason and I reported that we had touched the sandy bottom just a little upon plunging into the water. Our guide then took us around the right side of the waterfall and showed us how to go behind it. To get behind it, you had to go through some pretty strong spray and it almost pummeled me to death! But it was a pretty cool view from behind the waterfall. Imagine our surprise when our guide dove through the waterfall into the water below! We were supposed to follow!! Well, we finally got up the nerve to jump out through the falling water. Our dives were not graceful, but at least we cleared the rocks to land in the cushiony foam below. We regret not bringing our underwater camera. No action shots to share with you this time.

Larissa had to go back to our room, she said she is feeling ill again. She wanted me to finish this post before coming to check on her.

After the waterfall we took a short drive back to the river (the Mae Wang) pictured above. Once there, we were assigned to a bamboo raft. The rafts are about 30 feet in length, and 3 feet in width. They are maneuvered by two people holding bamboo poles, one standing in front, and one in back. I volunteered to be in charge of the back pole. Larissa sat on a simple, but as it turned out, surprisingly comfortable seat in the middle of the raft. Since we didn't have our camera at this point, I'll have to borrow a picture from so that you can see what the rafts look like: We greatly enjoyed our trip down the river. I was impressed with how well the craft was suited to handle whitewater. As we were drifting, I was drawing up plans of how I might get a raft like this in the states. It may be awhile before I can have one, as I'll probably have to grow a forest of bamboo trees first.

The Mae Wang river is enjoyed by many locals who want to escape the heat. Just as we take innertubes down the river in the States, they take their bamboo rafts. We saw a lot of teenagers having floating parties, complete with floating beverage service. Most of them splashed us as we went by. It didn't take us long to figure out that our guide was instructing them to do so as we approached.

Frequently during the drift we got to watch elephants going about their business on shore. Near the end of the drift, we got to watch an elephant bathing in the river with his owner. Both of them looked to be fully enjoying themselves. Not the sight of your typical canoe trip. I think that the rafting was the highlight of the day for me. I would like to plan a multi-day trip on a larger river.

We said goodbye to Chiang Mai feeling like we left it unexplored. At least we were able to get out for one day of fun in the woods. The cheapest way to get back to Bangkok was by bus, so that is how we did it. So, you get to here about another horrible bus ride. We boarded the overnight bus at around 7:30pm. It was very full, and the only seats we could find together were at the very back. It didn't take us long to notices that were few very annoying things about these seats. First, they were the only only ones on the bus that did not recline. Second, they were so high off the floor that we could only barely touch it with our toes. Third, the little twisty things that are supposed to be in place for regulating air-flow were broken out of their sockets. Therefore, we were sitting in a windstorm of cold air. It wasn't long before we realized that we weren't going to get any sleep if we both stayed up on the seats. I soon crammed myself between our seats and those in front of us for a night on the floor. Meanwhile Larissa fought for sleeping space with a girl across from us (there are 5 seats in a row in th back, instead of 4 with an aisle between them). Both of us froze, and neither of us slept well. We were both looking for sympathy when we arrived in Bangkok.

We are staying in a bright clean air-conditioned room. We have a mattress that actually feels like a matress, rather than a warped wood plank like the last one that we were sleeping on. We will be here one more full day before starting our trip down to Singapore, and then on to Africa. We have no idea what kind of internet access we will have during this trip, and during our time in Africa. Just know that we will do our best to keep you informed of our travels. Thank you for reading so faithfully.

I'd better go see how Larissa is doing.

Out and About!

Yesterday, Jason optimistically went out and booked us a one-day tour for today. About 2 hours after he did so, I was spending quality time hugging the toilet bowl. Jason was very compassionate and kept saying how sorry he was that I was throwing up. Then he went and postponed our tour until tomorrow. Hopefully, neither of us will be feeling under-the-weather tomorrow as this is our last chance to go on a tour. We are leaving on the overnight bus to Bangkok tomorrow right after we get back from the tour. We get to ride elephants, go bamboo rafting and visit a hilltribe village. I think there is a waterfall visit too.

Hopefully we will get some good photo documentation of this outing since we haven't gotten much during our stay in Chaing Mai. I take that back. After Jason vomited the first time and was still hugging the trash can, he told me "Hey, take a picture!" So I guess we have documented what we have really spent our time doing.

Today at about 11am, we were feeling well enough (or should I say desperate enough?) to get out and do something. We had been confined to a stinky hotel room and stinky road long enough. So we went to the mall! It is a beautiful 4 story building with starbucks and Pizza Hut. Not that we ate at either place. Hey, we even saw a sign for Intel on the way to the mall. Mahi, I guess you could get a job here! Anyway, we bought some sunkist oranges (they were the best ever!!), some mentos, some pringles, and some applesauce. Then we went and watched a movie with Harrison Ford, Firewall. Talk about suspenseful! I guess you can tell from our days activities that we are a little homesick! Movies here only cost $2 so we have seen two. We saw Fun with Dick and Jane. That was a much funnier/better movie than I thought it would be. Anyway, enough rambling. We wanted to update you on all the things we aren't doing but also let you know that things will soon change! Promise!

Still Mending...

Well Jason is on the mend at least. Less vomiting/more singing. He has eaten a few bananas.
I was just telling him that there is nothing more lonely than being sick by yourself in a foriegn country where no one loves you. At least we have each other! Awwww......
Anyway, we discussed how much we love America and miss our family and friends. As I was closing the door to the hotel room on my way out, I heard him start singing "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free..." :]
We have been laying in bed all day today, and the poor cleaning lady was beside herself because she couldn't do her job so I accepted some clean towels and a couple water bottles through the crack in our chain locked door.
I am off to find us some food that might be edible to Jason. Thank you for reading.

Sickness Abounds

Well, for those of you who thought my illness might be morning sickness, sorry to dissapoint you! Jason has just come down with my virus, while I am only feeling a little naseous today. Actually, Jason is feeling a lot worse than I ever did. He has vomited a couple times poor thing. I just felt like vomiting. His sickness came on around 11am. He has been rolling around on the bed moaning about dying and I have been trying to nurse him. He has a fever now but I gave him some tylenol to help with it. I was worried enough to wake up his dad (a doctor) around 3 oclock in the morning. Sorry! But he sounded glad to hear from me, and it was nice to hear his voice. So pray for Jason's quick recovery. I am not sure what he is the most upset about; his stomach or the fact that we won't get to go on a 3 day trek. I just left to get something to eat and update you all on poor Jason. I should be getting back to nursing him now.

Cooking Class

Around 9:30 this morning Larissa and I walked over to the indian restaurant to check in for her class. We were welcomed in, and promptly served tea, water, and potato naan. It wasn't long until Larissa was presented with a red and white apron (which she was quite excited about) and put to work cutting and peeling vegetables. I thought that this would be a good time for me to take off for awhile. While Larissa did some prep. work, I interviewed a few tour agents to get an idea of what might be the best trek to embark upon.


Eventually, I came back so that I could sit and watch some tv, and drink a soda or something. This was not in the cards; however, as I was promptly put to work peeling potatoes. While I slaved away, Larissa and her Indian teacher went off to the kitchen to start cooking. The kitchen was nice enough, though now that I think of it I would never eat at a place that looked like that in the states.

After I peeled a mountain of potatoes, I was free to roam the streets again. I returned periodically over the next couple of hours to try the latest dish. Here is Larissa presenting Masala Dosa, Yello Dahl, and a tamarind dipping sauce.

All of the recipes were delicious. I think Larissa kept accurate enough notes so that she should be able to repeat them when we return home. Unfortunately, Larissa is still feeling a bit sick today. She didn't really feel like eating a lot of the food that she made. After learning nine recipes, she was ready to go back to the hotel to lay down for awhile. I stayed back at the restaurant to learn how to make garlic naan and samosas. This lady really has things figured out. She basically gets people to pay her to work for her. My samosa making went very well, well enough that she had me make enough to fill the lunch orders. I was sent home with seven or eight different dishes for Larissa and I to enjoy in the hotel room. While Larissa was able to eat a little bit, it was mostly me doing the enjoying. Here is me proudly holding a samosa of my own making. They are filled mainly with potatoes and cilantro.

Overall we were both very pleased with the cooking class experience. For the price of an average dinner at an average American restaurant, we got to learn some recipes and come away completely stuffed.

Hopefully we will able to go on a trek soon. We are most interested in a 3 day tour in a national park north of here. We will be able to sleep in hill tribe villages, take an elephant ride, go whitewater and bamboo rafting, and enjoy vegetarian meals cooked by our guide. It is actually cheaper for us to go on a tour like this than it is to eat and do a bit of sightseeing around the city.

We are leaning more and more towards taking the train from Bangkok to Singapore. While we could actually fly down there cheaper, we think that spending a few days on the train will have a more positive overall effect on our budget. We plan on stopping for a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur to see the sights of the city, mainly the Petronas Towers. After that we hope to have a day or two in Singapore. If any of you know of some must see sights in these areas, please let us know.

First Day in Chiang Mai

We managed to make it safely from Koh Tao to Chiang Mai. From Koh Tao, we took an enjoyable three hour boat ride to Chumpon. The ride took us through many beautiful islands of the Gulf of Thailand. We definately prefer this express boat to the overnight boat. It was interesting to see that there were two classes of service on the boat. We paid for the economy class, which entitled us to be anywhere on the upper-deck, or sit on hard seats below. For an extra $1.50 per person, we had the option to sit in plush seats in a small room on the upper deck. After a bit of deliberation, we decided to stick with the lower class of service. Both sitting rooms had TVs, which happened to be showing King Kong on this particular trip. In the lower sitting area, where we spent most of our time, the volume was turned just high enough that it was hard to look away from the TVs, but just low enough to where you couldn't catch a lot of what was being said. I think that this was meant to persuade people to go upstairs and pay for the VIP room, where the sound was sure to be excellent. We pulled out the Archos and watched Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan.

We had three hours in Chumpon before our bus left to Bangkok. We walked around town for awhile, exploring several markets, and then stopped at a Japanese restaurant called Sukiyaki for dinner. For an appetizer we had a banana split. Larissa ordered some fried noodles with vegetables, and I proudly ordered Sukiyaki, not knowing what it was. The waitress seemed to understand my request for the vegetarian version. I was happy to see that the dish that I got had no meat, but rather tofu. While Larissa's dish tasted better, we were glad to have learned what Sukiyaki is.

A very nice bus showed up to pick us up in Chumpon, and it was a comfortable overnight ride to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok, we put another bag in storage, hoping to lighten our load for our trip up to Chiang Mai.

Three hours later, we boarded the "Express Train" to Chiang Mai. We found our seats in the front of the train. The car was airconditioned and plenty spacious. The ride was to take about 11 hours, so Larissa settled into reading and I settled into sleeping. Every couple of hours we were served a light meal and given a choice between Coke, Water, or Orange Juice, which looked and tasted like Tang. Everything went smoothly until we reached the hills leading to Chiang Mai. The train stalled several times, and refused to make it up the hill. We backed down several times in an attempt to get a running start at it, but to no avail. Of course during the hour or so that the conductor and crew were trying to figure out how to resolve the problem, none of the passengers were told what the problem was. Since I was watching the situation very closely (I think I must get more stressed about this sort of thing than most people), the people sitting next to us asked me what was going on. I told them what my best guess was, and they seemed to buy it. Anyway, we ended up back-tracking about 45 minutes to the last train station, where we linked up with another train. This train, while equipped with enough power to get over the hill, was certainly not an express train.

We made it to Chiang Mai at around 10:30pm, only about 3 hours late. We managed to get a hotel in the old part of town, which is surrounded by a square-shaped moat. Our guidebook claims that our hotel is the best bargain in this part of town. We are paying about $6.25 per night. Larissa was a bit disgusted that we opted out of the warm water, which would have put us back about another $1.50 per night. She was just as much a part of the decision as I was though, so don't let her make you think that she is any less cheap than I am. Besides, the cold shower was refreshing.

This morning we woke up starving, after not eating well for the past couple of days. We made our way to a vegetarian Indian restaurant, which was conveniently called "Vegetarian Indian Restaurant." We had one of the best meals of our trip so far. Many of the places we ate at in Koh Tao had low tables, and mats instead of chairs. We wished we had some of those mats this morning. We have found that a little nap after thoroughly gourging ourselves is much prefferable to sitting in a wooden chair for awhile.

We like the food so much that we signed up (rather Larissa signed up) for a cooking class tomorrow morning. She will learn how to make around ten indian dishes, and will come home with the recipes for all of them. While she is taking the class, I will get to try the food she makes, drink a couple of fantas, and take some pictures.

Unfortunately, Larissa was not feeling good following our meal this morning. We both hope that she just ate too much. She is back at the hotel right now taking a little rest.

Chiang Mai is the starting point for various trekking tours all over northern Thailand. We are looking into embarking on a trek to include a visit to one of the long-neck villages, an elephant ride, and a trip down a river on a bamboo raft. There are many other interesting offerings also, so we will have to do our research.

Internet access is pretty cheap here, so we should be able to keep you all well updated on what we are up to.