LIFE UNLEASHED

We’ve spent our last days of 2008 in one of our favourite destinations (Thailand) and once again, it was a food & smile filled time!  Highlights include a homestay in a Thai muslim fishing village where ‘Ma’ (the lady of the house) cooked us up fresh fish & squid and Christmas day at Surin National Park snorkeling with the Thai Navy.  We had our most interesting Christmas ever as the navy boys invited us to their house where they cooked us up a Christmas feast and taught us Thai folk songs.  Photos and a blog entry to follow (some day :)). 

We’ve just finished up 4 days in Bangkok with a visit to our favourite all you can eat sushi joint and Thai tailor for a new suit for Brad. 

Hope you all have a fun start to 2009!  Our first stop is Myanmar (aka Burma) for a few weeks followed by trekking in Nepal! 

Lisa - “It’s great to be back in Thailand, isn’t it”

Brad - “Yeah fer sure”

Lisa - “Great beaches, fresh fruit smoothies, the constant smiles of the Thai people and massages on the beach.  I couldn’t ask for anything else”

 Brad - “Definitely”

Thai Masseuse approaching us to offer us a massage, sees Brad and immediately says -  “Ha ha.  You are like a monkey”.  Followed by gentle stroking of his arm hair.   

Yes our first day back in Thailand and Monkey Boy is welcomed home.  To be fair, he looked even hairier than normal with 8 weeks without a haircut and furfuls on the back of his neck.

As a result of the Thai lady being so sweet and laughing at Brad, we were ‘forced’ (yes, twist our rubber arms) to each get a thai massage followed by a mini pedicure for me and yes, a haircut for Brad.  Afterall, he hasn’t had any of his furry friends there to groom him.

Monkey Boy Stroking Count = 1

(For those that feel out of the loop — Brad has had the nickname Monkey Boy for several reasons that include him constantly being called a Monkey in various languages as we travelled across SE Asia in 2004.  Even in Russia where he thought he’d be safe from primate comparisons!  The funnier part is before that trip he gained the nickname through a silly thing I said to him on the phone once in front of a few friends before he was ever stroked in Asia.  I always new he was a bit behind evolution…..)

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!  We are currently in Southern Thailand enjoying plenty of massaman curry, green papaya salad, pad thai & coconut ice cream.  We just spent 7 days in one of our favourite places in the world - Koh Pu.  Yes, we hear the resounding snicker….but Koh Pu just south of Krabi and north of Koh Lanta is one of those places you imagined of when envisioning Thailand.  Pristine nature, deserted beaches and warm hearted Thai people.  Here’s a few preview photos until we find some time to update the blog. 

In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS!  We are blessed with so many wonderful friends & family ’round the world.  That should be gift enough for us this year. 

After coming from a 3^rdWorld Island (Chuuk) there was nothing more shocking and comfortable then to slip into super civilized Hong Kong life.  We would actually slip into it a little further than we thought because a political demonstration shut down Bangkok airport , which was our intended destination.  Well, if you are going to get stuck someplace it might as well be Hong Kong!  HK has managed to stave off impending Chinese assimilation and remain a bright star of fine dining, entertainment, shopping  and…hiking!  All made even better by having our good friend Pam’s cousin Navin put us up in his incredible condominium overlooking the city. 

Food wise Kong Kong is a diner’s delight - from the lowliest street vendor to Michelin rated restaurants the food is incredible.  We gorged ourselves on steaming prawn dumplings, pork buns, assorted Dim Sums, spicy Sichuan stir fries and seafood laced with chilli.  We also did something that no person should culinarily (Is that a word?) ever do. We went out for a delicious Peking duck.  (That’s not it - everyone should do that!)  If you have never tried Peking duck you should stop reading this and go out and have one.  They are artery cloggingly good.  What you shouldn’t do (and we did) is follow it up the next night with a heart stopping meal of goose!!! 

Luckly, we had a plan in mind to whittle (wattle) down the fatty layer we had so gluttonously wrapped around our hearts - we were going to hike the Dragon’s Back!  A vigorous hike of ups and downs along Hong Kong’s craggy mountainous spine.  It turned out to be beautiful hike with awesome views but an absolute cakewalk(no-pun intended) on the cardio system.  They cut a path flat along the side carefully avoiding any of the ups and downs that might make our heart rates even register through their new waterfowl coated exteriors.  That’s when Navin (our kind host) mentioned that for a work out we should really be doing the Twin Peaks/ !000 Steps (of death) hike. It was a tough hike.  There was more like 1500 steps all totalled but again this hike had incredible views of beaches, rolling hills and small suburbs to make it all worthwhile.  Who new that Hong Kong’s best kept secret was hiking!!!

Authors note - Navin was mentally deleted from our Facebook friends list at about step 823 of the Twin Peaks / 1000 Steps.