Good Night, sleep tight...

Yeah yeah…Don’t let the bed bugs bite…. Only this time they aren’t bed bugs, they are scabies, and Jonathan has them. They put my hard work and complaining about mosquito bites to shame. He has been very good natured about it only temporarily going insane as evening approaches and the histamines start to rise. I; however, would have lost my cool and remained insane all day long… We included some pictures of his bites (if they don’t look like scabies to you let us know!)

We have to tell you how cool our new friends are here! They have enlightened our way of Tonsai Beach living as well as explained and helped out in any way they can. Nathan and Angeline are from Canada/Australia and actually met on this beach. They spend at least 8 months of the year traveling and this happens to be their favorite spot. They are the ones that are letting us borrow a portable stove so that we have heat to cook our own food! They gave Jonathan some soap and ointment for his scabies (which we discovered are actually for fleas so we will be taking a boat tomorrow to visit a pharmacy), showed us where the really nice bungalows for cheap are (which is where we are now staying) and are full of helpful hints about stuff on this island and the way of life down here!

We are enjoying cooking our own meals! Jonathan has turned out to be quite the cook. Both of us have had to use our imagination and culinary skills to create meals, using only a small pot and pan and one burner. We have an incredible selection of fruits and vegetables that we bought at the market. We have had scrambled eggs with rice, stir fry, pastas etc. All absolutely delicious!

We got back to bouldering today and I am beginning a healthy obsession! Jonathan was able to get over the crux of his problem and I was able to move along a little farther in my route as well! Both of us are getting stronger and are really enjoying watching the other. Jonathan has been a great teacher! I have yet to climb using ropes but we are hoping that tomorrow or the next we will be able to go! Our new friends next door want to go with us!

We have a few requests from those people who enjoy cooking and have a collection of recipes…We need some ideas! We have pasta, rice, corn, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers, watermelon, apples, bananas etc…

The only things we have to season with are curry powder, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, salt, chives, and basil. Any suggestions will help greatly!

Tara and Jonathan

By the way we look forward to our comments on our blog so please leave them! We love to hear from everyone back at home! Thanks to everyone who has left them on our past blogs and to Emily Cross who was the only one who responded to the last blog! We love Hello Kitty and love you too!

Our Market Days

Hey Tara do you think the food has gotten blah at the restaurants on our island >< ??

Well it started out tasting really yummy but as the days go by and the more food we eat I can’t help but notice that the both of us are dragging ass….

Yeah I agree, what the bleep do they keep putting on our food that’s makin’ us feel bad?! I swore the other day that my noodles were made out of shaved snail butts.

Snails have butts? I think you are obsessed with butts, first cats, now snails… In fact I think I do know. Even though MSG has been taken out of most of the food in the States, turns out that in the Asian countries they put MSG in EVERYTHING! Not only that but they sprinkle it on top of your food like some sort of garnish. It’s in every kitchen right next to the salt, flour etc, a huge container of MSG…

I must be hangin around your Dad too much…gah his butt fetish is dangerously close to rubbing off on me…at least his brother had the kindness to admonish me. Haha just kidding Eric ^_^ Ok back to the MSG, you CAN really taste it and thank goodness that we ran into some fellow travelers that not only directed us to a better place to stay on the island – but they also shared some secrets about cooking your own food on the island! They let us borrow a burner and we are filling a propane tank today. They also directed us to a local market that’s about 1 hour from the island. We have to take a boat, then we ride in the back of a truck and finally we walk around the town of Krabi!. We bought a weeks worth of groceries for the cost of a single meal on the island! What did you think of the markets?

Well as long as we stuck to our new found vegetarian diet and avoided the carnivorous aisles, we were golden. Enduring the smell of raw fish mixed with pig and chicken is rough. Actually we had a really great time and it was really nice to be able to plan out meals and get fresh fruits/veggies. The meals on the island have been really measly, even after our stomachs have shrunk, we end up going to bed hungry at night and Jon tends to eat tons of peanuts and ritz crackers right after dinner. Apparently, there is a restaurant mafia on the island that requires all restaurants to keep their prices within a certain range. They can get away with it because there are only little mini marts on the island (with much inflated prices) and you must take a boat into the next closest town to have any sort of supermarket. So we are sticking it to the man and making our own food for the rest of our stay!

Heck ya I’m so excited! ZOMG guess what else?! I love Swenson’s like a fat kid loves cake! Tara I can’t believe we used to have these stores in the States, I’ve never been to one. You went when you were younger right? They are SO good and by FAR the best ice cream treats I’ve ever had. So I guess all that’s left for our day is to get a few pots, some utensils, olive oil, bread/pastas and to pick up our propane tank, right? I’ll admit that we’re gonna have to take lots of breaks b/c right now we are both carrying a lot of weight.

Yup slow and steady. My Nana used to take us when we went to visit in Napa, CA of course she preferred the huge ice cream dish with over ten scoops. I’m sure you would/could eat it if you tried ;) So we’ve decided to stay on the island until the Sep 15^th and will be making market runs every week. However, that doesn’t mean that we have decided where we are going to go next…

P.S Happy 27^th(?) Anniversary to Eric and Linda!

P.P.S We have listened to requests and will be posting more pictures!

The only good mosquito...

…is a dead one. Indeed, if one could only have a personal electric discharge system that was (of course) battery powered perhaps I would feel something of a different sort. They would never be pesky in the first place. You see the whole purpose of the thing would be to generate a small magnetic proximity field around the wearer which, whenever it was intruded upon by something of similar size and mass as a mosquito, would create a discharge of 7 electron volts of electricity zapping the little booger and consequentially splitting the oxygen molecules in the general area into O3 or ozone. Walaa – two problems solved at once –more ozone for our global warming conundrum and killing a mosquito becomes as effortless as taking a breath of air. However, as this device has (to my knowledge) yet to be created and successfully mass produced we must further bear the never ending humiliation of looking part epileptic and part masochistic as we whack ourselves wherever a mosquito may land…be it arm, leg, face, neck etc. And of course, after a few days of this treatment the body’s senses have become superhuman and heighten to the point that mere dust particulate landing on our skin triggers the circle of violence and a vicious swing from which ever hand happens to be closest to ground zero commences. Then, as we carefully peel our palm away to exam our kill ( there is simply nothing more satisfying than seeing the freshly smashed corpse of your would be devourer) we are washed away in great defeat as there is merely the sting from slapping ourselves staring back at us. Was it a mosquito or a piece of dust? Who knows – but someday I hope there is a Budweiser commercial saluting you “Mr Mosquito Lightening Discharge Man.”

Ah well enough of that – needless to say Tara has taken one for the team as the mosquitoes have unanimously concluded she’s the one they ought to dine upon .-. I have resorted to going shirtless and not putting on bug spray but to no avail…the only place they find desirable on me is my ankles.

We are in beautiful Tonsai and it is the same but different from my last visit. So much of the beach is closed or run down!! Many of the places I visited with my friend (Saras) last year are totally demolished. Our first few days here we spent reading and hanging out by the beach. There were some amazing rain storms. We are staying in Bamboo Bungalow’s for about 150 Baht (a bit less than $5) per night and they are quite nice. We spent the last two days bouldering and Tara’s first ventures onto the rock have been great. She’s a natural! I did have an absolutely terrifying experience with a male monkey. The darn things jump all over the island and often, in the middle of the night you’ll lurch awake b/c it sounds like Godzilla is crashing through your roof. This was only a matter of acclimation before it didn’t really bother us…well acclimation and ear plugs. Anyways, the monkey’s own the island…right, check and not a big deal to be one with nature. HOWEVER, one morning this crazy male monkey worked its way onto the tree that’s about 12 inches from the railing on our little front porch. The ladies that ran the place were not happy at all and had been chasing them while banging pots and pans. His arrival was very sudden as Tara and I were sitting on the porch reading, writing etc. Alarmed, I had her get everything inside and I picked up a chair and banged it against the post to make noise. As soon as I did that the monkey snarled and growled at me revealing a set of teeth befitting of Kujo. Bloody hell. Tara was inside looking from the doorway and I was 3 feet from King Kong’s evil mini-me. @!#$. Well what would you do? I’ll tell you what I did – I started swinging the chair at that furry SOB as hard as I could. He growled and bared his fangs some more but after two thrusts he was about 8 feet away. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO OO OO AA AA ME WANT BANANNA MONKEY?!@ At range, I switched weapons – and I must note was thoroughly pissed. I started launching every coconut I could find. When I ran out of those I used rocks. I hit it square on with an apple sized rock and it finally started to run away. Well hell, I chased it for a good 300 yards throwing all manner of things, the ladies from before had armed me with a slingshot (which was more likely to ricochet the rock in my face.) and when it was finally far enough away I broke the chase. I’m sure the evil monkey’s from Family Guy will have a whole new meaning.

We will stay here for another week or two and we’ll be sure to update. I’m hoping to start climbing with ropes in a few days. We’ve met all manner of people and Tara and I are working on a our own secret language which is a variation of Pig Latin I learned as a kid. It’s a nice trick to have and quit confusing to people who are sure we are from California.

Jonathan and Tara

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!

As Jonathan burps out the title to our blog in my ear to get me to laugh or something....

Anyhow! We made it! Actually we made it a few days ago we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand at about 01:00 on August 16th. The flight was about 20 hours with a layover in Taipei, Taiwan. It included a lovely rain shower provided by Jonathan's Camelbak. Which had a bonus of clearing the seat next to me giving us the entire row to ourselves. Needless to say, if you have a camelbak, make sure the valve is set to off, so if you throw it up in the overhead storage compartment it doesn't pinch the bite valve and drip on your neighbor and every seat four rows back O.o;;
Bangkok has been great, between the intense heat and humidity and what Jonathan describes as the "cat butt smell" which is quite a good translation! No really it has been fun just a slightly difficult adjustment to the heat and way of life in Bangkok. We explored Wat Pho, which is the place where the reclining Buddha resides, as well as a variety of other Buddhas. It; however, does not smell like cat butt. It is clean and trash free.... Jonathan would like me to add that he does not like cats, except for his Grandma's cats... We found a lovely little park, which is part of the royal gardens complete with a wonderful reflexology garden. It has a series of small paths with different patterns and various sized stones cemented in the ground. You walk across the stones hoping that the pain isn't expressed in awkward facial expressions or seizing movements. Making the Thai people think that the foreigners are even more bizarre... We met a local man who moved to Thailand after retiring from the computer business in Silicon Valley about five years ago. He introduced us to the Thai bus system, fruit juice shakes such as apple with oreos,omelet with rice and showed us where to refill our water bottles. It was a great peak into the hidden inner workings of the city.
We have returned to the park and reflexology garden everyday since we have been here, reading our books for hours in the park. I just finished the book "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," which was given to me by my Aunt Terry and was an absolutely amazing book and a must read for anyone who enjoys losing themselves in a book. We have also been coming to Bangkok University to use their Internet and enjoy the inexpensive college snacks. Today we took a Tuk-Tuk, which is the local transportation in Bangkok. It is extremely inexpensive and they will take you anywhere you want to go as long as you stop at certain tourist traps along the way. My Grandmother suggested that I not ride in these things due to their unsafe nature; however it was a great time and much better than walking in the blazing heat.
Tomorrow we fly to Krabi, than take a boat to Railay Beach where we will be for possibly a few weeks. I am excited to be able to jump in the water when it gets to warm and to be out of the big city!
Tara and Jonathan