What date is it again??

So its saturday in Sukhothai. The rooster outside of our room's only windwo has been enthusiastically cock-a-doodleing since, oh, maybe 5 am, much to our dismay. A few blocks down, a small restaurant decided to set up giant speakers proppd up against an old truck, playing cheery sounding Thai music.
The last few days have been spent in Chiang Mai as well as Pai. Pai was reached after a 4 hour minibus ride through the curviest mountain roads ive ever witnessed. Passengers were sick with motion sickness on our way there, and back... very understandable. It was much smaller than Chian Mai, more relaxed, nestled in the hills and farm lands. Very picturesque! We rented a scooter and drove to see a waterfall, hot springs, and the Pai canyon, all the while singing "Born to Be Wild" to ourselves. So much fun!!!
We got to Sukhothai last night, intending to stay for a short amount of time but I think we may stay here a bit longer than expected as katie is feeling a bit under the weather.
Next stop, we anticipate, is Phuket.

The land of smiles...

Sooooo Im in Bangkok!
Katie and Noah came and got me at the airport and took me back to the hotel on koh san road... tiny little room with a very interesting bathroom. We went out and danced and had some pad thai... for less than 1 Us dollar. SOO great!
Bangkok is phenomenal...its so different in every way. There are so many people everywhere, it smells, the taxis are BRIGHT pink, everyone is a crazy driver, there are men driving motor bikes with huge carts somehow attached to the front of them weaving between traffic, tuk tuks, food carts, stray cats and dogs, pictures of the King everywhere, orchids, temples....
amazing.
Everyone is very nice, the food is delicious, we all got 1/2 hour thai massages today for 100 B (2.50 usd?) which were so amazing.
We saw the Grand Palace today and walked around town for quite some time. In one of the temples there was a gigantic reclining Buddah which was about 50 meters long...GOLD!!! Just took my breath away.
Me, Katie and Noah all got matching fisherman pants (we ARE a team!), and Im making mental notes for all the Christmas presents i will bring back ;)

Sooo, change of plans.

I have returned to Adelaide on short notice. I am flying to Bangkok tomorrow!!! Katie and her friend Noah will be there waiting for me, ready for adventure!

Wwoofing with the Builders was amazing. What a great family! They treated me like one of their own, and Marco and Lola were so much fun too! We played quite a bit of chess, although i would get really antsy and get bored of the game... Rita was a great cook, which i will miss, but it was a very fun experience.
Today i ran all over the city getting my things together. I got immunized, talked to my bank, sent postcards... blah blah. all good fun.
Now im going to go to sleep because i have to catch a bus for the airport at 5:20 am! Ouch!

Apricots, parrots, and red dust.

Everything around me is so beautiful. I took the bus from Adelaide to Waikerie, where Thomas (my wwoof hosts' son) picked me up from the bus station. We drove 20 minutes outside of town through gorgeous dry red earth, gum trees, and golden grasses, to their fruit farm and cafe. They have a beautiful property overlooking the Murray River, 4 hectares i think, with peach, apricot, and fig trees. There are two buildings, both dating back to the 1800's, 1 story stone homes with wrap around porches. One of them is the cafe, which has many small tables in one big room with some local crafts for sale, a kitchen, and two bedrooms for wwoofers. It is me, Lola from Germany, and Marco from Austria. They are alot of fun, and Rita and Nick, the owners are very nice and really funny.
There are small lizards, large spiders, parrots (which they actually have to shoot from the fruit trees.. ugh), kangaroos, and a ton more wildlife. Our work around here is from 8 am to 1 pm, we clean up the cafe before it opens, and do some work around the property, pick fruit, or cut fruit and set it on trays to dry in the sun. The rest of the afternoon we have to ourselves to hang out and relax, talk with Rita and Nick, play chess, read, go on hikes... its so so so so so amazing.
Rita is an amazing cook, and they go for walks through the bush at night to get some exercise and see the insanely beautiful sunsets.
I will try to upload some pictures....

The first Australian day...

So this morning at breakfast I met a guy from Vancouver, and the two of us, along with four German guys I had met the night before got some free bikes across the street from our hostel and rode through Adelaide along the river, heading for the beach!!! Increeedible! There are eucalyptus trees everywhere, dry golden grass, and really really crazy birds! It was really sort of tough and I almost ran into a few people on the bike path because 1) we had to ride on the left side of the path.. so weird and 2) i was looking up at the trees and the birds and getting incredibly distracted!
After an hour ride, we got to Henley Beach where we had the alleged best fish n chips in Adelaide (i think i actually ate some sort of shark) and South Australian Beer. Then we went to the beach where the sand is so white nad soooo soft. The water was incredibly warm, so i jumped right in and washed my hair, but I was the only one who did, the boys thought the water was a bit chilly haha
Im leaving on a bus sunday morning for Waikerie where I will meet my first wwoof host! yay!

YOURE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!! ... oh nevermind.

After a 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney, then another 2 hour flight from Sydney to Adelaide, Im finally breathing Australian air!!!!
Katie and I had to bid farewell in the international terminal at San Fran. By far one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.. after being with someone for 6 weeks and loving the hell out of them more and more every day, having to leave each other is tough to say the least.
BUT she is now on a beautiful beach in Fiji and I on a beautiful beach in Australia, so everyone is happy!
I have chosen my first wwoofing destination, http://www.mallyonsonthemurray.com/ and I will be going there on the 16th. After that i have been looking at some tours to do to Alice Springs for 8 days camping and hiking, so Im very excited.
Woo hoo!

pictures from Katies camera!

At the San Jose Sharks game! Shark Attack!!!!


Halloween!

Banana Slug in Olympic

Rose Garden in Victoria

Graffiti Party = Love

picture update....

walking to our hostel in Port Angeles with our matching graffiti party shirts!!


hurricane ridge at Olympic National Park




Playing in the Pacific Ocean on the beach in Klamath



Redwood National Park.. huge root base!


Beautiful beach in Trinidad


Katie and Jon on our morning walk to the beach in Santa Barbara... no big deal



The hundreds of sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco! Very loud, hilarious and super smelly

Santa Barbara: land of money and palm trees?

So Monday we decided we wanted to head south to nice beaches and warmer weather (it was kinda cloudy and also rainy in San Francisco for a few days), and everyone we asked suggested Santa Barbara, so south we went! The three of us rode the bus to San Jose, arrived early afternoon and (concidentally enough) the train station was across the street from the HP Pavillion, where the SHARKS play! Needless to say we wandered over to the box office and bought tickets for that nights game! In the meantime we purchased our ticket for our midnight bus ride to Santa Barbara, and watched the election on CNN in a classroom at San Jose University.
The game was insane! SO much fun!!! Our seats were phenomenal for the price we paid, at the Bell Centre they would have been worth an arm and a leg. They played the Wild, super good game, lots of screaming and yelling. Turns out San Jose's fans love yelling and doing giant shark jaws with their arms for penalties... amazing!
We had some deliiicious mexican food and then sat down on a Greyhound for 7 hours through the night (ugh.) our bus driver was a huge jerk with a weirdo haircut. Not a fan.
We wake up all hazy and unrested only to see a desert sunset out the window followed by beautiful spanish style villas and palm trees everywhere!!! Stumbling off the bus we ask the first person we see where the beach is, and head that way. It was 6 am and the streets were deserted. The buildings in the city center were picture perfect, straight out of a hollywood movie, all the restaurants fancy as can be, and all the stores designer. The only people on the street were me, katie, jon, and the bums (who somehow you didnt 'see the rest of the day..)
Few minutes later we had found a hostel, gotten a free breakfast, changed into our swimsuits and settled down on the beach! Soft sand, pelicans, cool water, blue sky, hills, palm trees, sun, wharf, aaaaah!
We explored quite a bit and spent most of our time on the beach... and then the next day we took amtrak back to San Francisco, had insanely good sushi and hung out for Jon's last night.
We got a sweet room at a hostel downtown on the fourth floor, private bathroom, double bed, and a balcony! Living large!!!!
Sun sun sun!

Halloween

At the hostel in Klamath we met Jonathan who actually decided to come to San Francisco from Arcata with us! It made the bus ride much less scary and very exciting. We got to San Francisco and Jonathan from Montreal (thats right, we had TWO jonathans!) was waiting for us at bus station, so we all hiked to our hostel, The Green Tortoise, which turned out to be a really fun, funky place.
Halloween was very fun, katie and I spent a few hours in the morning making our costumes, with our theme being "things christianity ruined", I was Pocahontas and she was an Amazon woman. Turns out Christianity also ruined the Hamburgler as well as a female body builder named Helga (Jon and Jon's costumes). The hostel had a party in the main hall with a few kegs and some music, needless to say Katie and I danced the night away (someone actually pinned us as "hippies" due to our "tribal dancing"... what!?)
WE explored the city for the next few days and saw all kinds of crazy th ings like Critical Mass, Coit Tower, a lot of homeless people, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39 with all the sea lions, a small beach, and of course, each other's ridiculous beauty!
Katie and I found out having two Jonathans makes everything better. From walking down a dark street and not being terrified, to having someone fill up your coffee cup in the morning! woo hoo!!