And as it began, so it ends!!!!

Here I am again, at the Hong Kong airport...this time, all alone!!!!  As the trip has gone on I have gradually dropped the traveling gang and now I'm doing the 35 hour trek by my lonesome!  

The last of Phuket was great, as you could only expect in a place like Phuket!!!!  We then flew back to Subang for the final dinner at D'Tandoor, which was amazing and home to pack and watch movies.  Up this morning and I went into school to see what the kids have been up to, out for a quick lunch and then off with Das to KLIA.  I enjoyed my final Malaysia bathroom experience (good riddance!) and off I went.  

Hong Kong is rather boring, and now all of the shops are closing as it is 11pm...and I get to stick around until 2:30am!  Going to go hunt for some candy now that I am no longer in a Muslim country and gelatine is once again an acceptable food product and try to get in one more Starbucks to get me back on Canada time!  If all goes well I'll stay awake through and be jet lag free, however, the carpet in the corner is oh so tempting, as Legs will attest!

Wish me luck - I'll be at Cora's for breakfast Saturday morning if you wanna come!  See you in Canada....Peace, one last time from Southeast Asia!!!!

Thailand and spas and elephants oh my!!!!!

Hello from Phuket! Have I mentionned before that I love the beach!?!?! Cause I love the beach!!! Phuket is pretty sweet, definitely an interesting place!
After another Monday morning cab ride with Das to airasia, Legs and I flew off to Phuket, our one and only venture into Thailand. It's definitely a great place for one last vacation! We are staying in a luxurious hotel complete with shower, sink and a toilet that flushes without pumping!!! There aren't even any lizards in the room....it's a bit much all this cleanliness!!!! And there's is an incredible spa attached, for only 1,000BHT ($30CAN) I had a 3 hour body scrub, Thai oil massage and the best facial of all time! Then more beach, and fabulous food....the best phat thai I've had in my life, for only 50BHT!
And the partying is like nothing I have ever seen!!!!! Banghla Street is insane! All over the road there are folks trying to convince you to see a Go-Go show, with a list of things that girls will stick inside....the big seller is the ping-pong ball, which I understand they then shoot back out....This is also the home of Rock City, a cool rock cover band bar, you haven't lived till you've seen a Thai boy/girl rockin' out! There is also a prominence of lady-men, I got to see some sweet fake boobs on a very hot man at the beach yesterday - the gals are gorgeous!!!!
What else....lots of stuff, selling, massaging, pedicures, beaches, drinking, whatever goes here!!!! So so many large white old guys with lovely Thai lady "friends", which has become an interesting people watching fascination for Legs and I as we sit on the beach, or at lunch, or at dinner, or drinking....
And then this morning, I got to ride an elephant!!!!!!!!!!! So friggin' cool!!!!!! I'm not sure how I feel about the elephant riding and trecking companies, I would much prefer to see wild elephants, but that's not the way in this part of the world. I did buy my elephant a big bunch of bananas and feed her after, so I hope that made up for the ride a bit.
Anyway, this is my last beach day! Tomorrow I fly back to Subang for one last D-Tandoor dinner with the peeps, and then to visit at school Friday before hoping on a plane for my solo journey back to Canada! I'm trying to think of all of the things which I am looking forward to, like clean fresh air, knowing what I'm eating, seeing my family and friends....all will be good! I am very scared of the cold weather - anything cooler than 30 seems insane right now!
So Canada, I'll see you this weekend - I land in Ottawa at 9:10am on Saturday morning and will be going to Cora's for breakie if anyone's interested!
See you on the other side of the world, back in time!!!! Peace!

One more time!

This is it...leaving on the last vacation today!!!! In 2 short hours I'm off to the airport to go on one last trip, for a big ol' party in Phuket!!!! I'm only a little excited!
What's been up since my last post, well, I spent the weekend on the tiniest island, that I would like to rename Fish Island...yeah. After getting back late Thursday night from Langkawi, I met the gals at school and we hopped a cab to KL center to get the bus. They then informed me that the bus line we were using was the most reliable and had the lowest accident record...great! After a 3 hour ride that took 5 hours we made it to Lumut and ran over to the last Ferry of the night to Pangkor. We then took one of the oh so lovely pink cab vans to our new home, the Omback, which we shared with a family of ants and a giant lizard....you wouldn't believe the places we stay in Malaysia!!!! The weekend was good, but the island is only 8 square kms, so as you can imagine, in a day, I was done! We did the beach, scootered the island twice and beached again...I've never in my life seen so much dried fish, or smelled so much dried fish...I'm a little turned off the fish now! We did see some cool stuff while scootering, including a psychadelic temple with mushrooms and donald duck and a purple turtle, and a temple with a kitchy mini great wall of China....fun times! I'll do the pics for the last trips when I get back to the airport to come home I think....no time here!
And now, I'm going to shower in what I have come to appreciate as the best shower in all of Malaysia and then hop on a plane to Phuket...4 more days of vaca fun, and Friday I start the journey back to Canada.
I've come to discover that while I find Malaysia rather heavy and not a great place to backpack, and the what may be the worst bathrooms in the world, I love living in developing areas...my favorite places in the world are those that are somewhat underdeveloped...anyway, that's my realization for today, enough of that!
Off to get clean and fly away again! See everyone soon...Peace!

The only way to do it!!!

I love the scooter! I saw so much of Langkawi that I never would have otherwise, all on my very own scooter....rented, but my own driving!!!! A little scary when the water buffalo charged across the road, but all in all, so cool! We left after the rain yesterday, or so we thought until we got caught in a crazy rainstorm!!!! After getting gas, we went up to the cable cars, which were closed due to clouds. I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm kinda ok with them being closed, cause those suckers were high!!!!! We then went to Seven Wells and hiked up about 800 stairs through the jungle to the top of a very cool waterfall to chill at the Seven Wells, then back down to see the bottom of the waterfall and a few monkeys along the way! After making our way back down the last 300 stairs or so we took off to a masoleum. There is a legend in Langkawi that we were told by our cab driver in KL, and then the bartender here, about a woman who bled white blood a put a curse on the island....so the dealio, this woman was born under all sorts of auspicious signs and was beautiful and people wrote poetry about her and all sorts of stuff. She ended up marrying someone of some importance in Langkawi who went off to battle. In order to take her down, a rumour was started that she was unfaithful, and was to be put to death. She was tied to a tree and despite all of their efforts, the villagers couldn't kill her. In the end, they had to kill her with her own sword and she died tied to a tree. Before she died she put a curse on the island that if she was not guilty, there would be no development on the island for 7 generations. They cut her and she bled white blood, and for 7 generations, no development. They are now at generation 9 and things are starting to pick up tourist wise, and there's a cement plant...believe it!?!?!
That was about the end of that day, we biked back, went to the fancy hotel swim up bar for happy hour and made a few new friends and then out for a very western dinner of pizza and cheeseburger and fries, and to the moldy room for a sleep.
This morning, after waiting out the rain, we biked way up north, cause I'm super fast now, and went to the black sand beach, a crazy cool craft place, hot springs and the sweet beach and then biked right on back here to try to book flights for next week. Only seven more sleeps till the trek home....
Off to the reggae bar on the beach now (notice a trend...) and then back to Subang. Just now decided I would go to Pangkor with some of the gals from school tomorrow, so back home long enough to clean up and off again! Going to bus out there tomorrow afternoon and grab a ferry...and then Monday-Thursday in Phuket I think....but if you look back over the blog you'll notice that the plans never remain the same!!!!!
That's enough internet time for me my friends, I have to go have one more beer on the beach before flying away....to another beach!!!!!!!!! Ciao....Peace!!!!!!!

Rainy Malaysia...

Yup, I'm blogging again....it's raining again! No beach today, which is ok, as I am rather red, but we rented scooters to get the heck out of Cenang, and then it started to pour!!!!! I am pretty awesome with the scooter tho, I must say!!!
What else...well, last night we had the yummiest indian food ever, and then went to have some drinks, but the bars were empty, and the beach bars had closed because of lack of peeps...don't come to Langkawi in off season! We ended up at a quaint little beach bar and then the rain came again! We gathered under the bar roof with strangers and soon enough, new best friends!!!! Legs actually married 3 young men last night, there was a birthday party and a group of random chinese, malay, german and us people! Fun times!
Anyway, that's about all that's happened in the last few hours....so much blogging, so little done! I think the rain is done, so we are off to see the island on a bike! Peace!

A new day, a new beach!

I just can't get enough!!!! Actually, today I reached my fill for the day, which is why I am now in a dark room off the side of the beach talking to you!!!! So what's been happening? Well, I finished up the yoga retreat with 108 wonderful sun salutations, done all whilst baking in the sun, and then spent the day chillin' at the retreat, taking in what was happening all around, soaking up the last of the vibe! Then it was back to Graha and off to the airport...got back to Subang at 2am to sleep, shower and repack and flew off to Langkawi, a chill island in Malaysia. After a quick flight we walked around and bargained ourselves a cute little room for the next three nights and went out to walk the hood in the gloomy Malaysian weather! We found the Babylon bar on the beach and chilled with a cheap drink (the island is duty free!) and some nachos, and then to a cute beach side restaurant for more cheap drinks and a dinner of olives in garlic and bread....so good!
And then woke up this morning to the sun! It was like Christmas morning, back to the beach I went!!!!!!! I got up early and did some yoga on the beach beside the ocean and walked way down the shoreline...then thought I'd jump in and cool off....and a giant wave knocked me flat on my back!!!!!!!!! So I carried myself and my rock/sand filled bathing suit back to the room to clean out the beach, only to find that the shower doesn't so much work!!!! No worries, the tap on the wall works awesomely well to I showered/squatted/bathed....oh, and I forgot to mention TOD, aka, the Toilet of Dreams!!!!!!! This is the lovely blue toilet in our room....you have to turn on the water, wait approximately 2.5 minutes for the tank to fill, but only part way, otherwise the bathroom floods, then you can go, and then you have to reach into the tank and pump the plug vigorously to make it all go down....turn it on and pump it up!!!!!!! Good times!!!!
So now I'm in the darkness of the internet room waiting until 5pm which is when Happy Hour starts at the fancy hotel down the way...they have a swim up bar, which Legs is dying to visit...and although we are not staying there, apparently it will not be a problem for us to just walk in, because, wait for it, we're white....how I missed the racism!!!!!!!!!!
Not sure what comes next, but my time on this side of the world will soon be over....I'm sorta looking forward to the clean air at home, no more brown asian cloud! Send me emails, let me know what's happening in Canada.....off to drink and swim and tan a little more....Peace!

Blissed out in Bali!

Bali Spirit Festival...do it! If you ever get the chance it is amazing! The last two days have been blissed out awesome-ness, despite the not so amazing living accommodations, which comes with many free friends (spiders, cockroaches, lizards....that's all I've seen so far...)
What's life like, well, I'm so chilled out and lovin' life that I don't even care that I sleep with bugs!!!!! Ah, it's not that bad!!!!! We have running water now, so I have managed to bathe, which is fantastic, because in Bali every yoga class is a hot yoga class!!! The rooms are a bit on the nasty side, it looks like it was an incredibly cute place about 50 years ago and that nothing has been done since then....and it's Indonesia, so.....yeah! It wouldn't be so bad if the bugs here were normal size, but they're all on steroids I think!!!! Anyway, it's all good, I will appreciate the sketchy two-starness of Langkawi even more next week!!!!! You get what you pay for rears it's ugly head again!!!! Adrienne - it's like the place in the mountains in Cuba....maybe 1 star better than that, but without Carlos it hardly seems worth it!!!!
Ok, so yoga! Well, I really want to give up everything in life and teach yoga in a random country and live wherever and make peace with the giant bugs!!!! I started Friday morning sans coffee or food, in an Anusara class, which taught me that what I think of as "hard" in yoga, is nothin'! I sweat for hours!!!!! The classes are all 2 hours long, Ansuara was amazing and challenging and I was doing handstands and elbow stands and a million backbends!!!! Then I stayed for an incredibly crazy session in which I did things that I didn't think were possible! I can reach my arms around my body in insane ways....it's a whole new kinda bendy! After that a lunch break and then a session with the most amazing incredible wicked yoga teacher Mark Whitwell...he was trained by Krishnamacharya in India in the 70s and has travelled the world teaching yoga. Blew my mind!!!!! After a shuttle ride back to the dungeon for a shower we had some dinner and went back out with the rest of the gang for the music, which was again, awesome!
Day two was today, and I am so sore....anyone who says yoga is not work is not working hard enough!!!! I am feeling every single part of my body, even the teeniest tiniest muscles! And yet, I decided to start my day with Hot Apple Flow!!!! It was amazingly great with an awesome teacher from the UK, but after that I decided to re-think the rest of my days' plan because I was not feelin' it!!!! I skipped the Prana Flow and went to Gentle Hatha instead, and I think I may have fallen asleep a few times from the chillness of it all! After another amazing lunch (ginormous falafle sandwich!) I went to a Learn to Love your Hips class and fell in love! So blissed out at the end....it was Forrest Yoga - look it up, if you like my yoga classes you will love this!!!! So many abs and hips and so much release and so much happiness at the end! Bliss!!!! Then I stuck around for a Tea and Talk with Mark Whitwell, Eoin Finn (Canadian!) and others about Adapting Yoga to the Modern Era. It was so great to be in a room of yogis, new and old, who share the same thoughts as me....we talked about the Westernization of yoga, how it's different from the real-deal and if that is ok....so cool!!!!
And that was that! I know you want to hear about travel adventures....not to worry, the travelling fun starts again tomorrow! It's a free day at the yoga retreat, so the whole gang is coming for 108 sun salutations, and then I'm going to do a music session, reggae for yoga and a discussion of the effects of music on practice. Perhaps some African drumming to end off the day, then back to the hood for one last amazing Bali dinner before the long ride and long flight back to Malaysia! Monday morning Das is fetching us at 10am to fly to Langkawi, which is only an hour long flight, and then it's back to the beach for this gal! It's also a duty-free island, so there may perhaps be a party or two in my future!!!
More to come soon, and if I'm feelin' ambitious on Monday morning I'll go post some pics at starbucks before my flight, but probably not.....
That's all folks! Off to have a drink while I wait for the peeps to get back from the beach....I would love to go back and chill in my room, but in the quietness I can hear the creepy crawlies!!!!!!!!!
Lovin' Bali....Blissed out....Peace!