time for a new continent.

hey everyone,
Its been a while since my last post so let me fill you in..
I flew up to Koala Lumpur from Phuket and stayed in KL for a few days.I ended up having to buy another suitcase and it became a bit of a situation... i bought it for about 20$ and i was packing my things and one of the zippers ripped off.. and then the other one... and then the stitching came apart and i had to bring a carry on that had huge holes connected by safety pins.I guess you get what you pay for.
I took the bus/ ferry over to an island called Penang, which was really nice.The beaches werent as nice as in southern Thailand, but still beautiful of course.I fed some horses on the beach some apples and carrots because they looked like skeletons.I also took a bus ride that somehow took 3 hours when it was supposed to take 40 minutes, that was a long day.The artictecture is amazing there, Penang is one of the worlds most historical sights.
On Christmas Eve me and some of the girls from the guesthouse went out for dinner and went christmas partying.In Malaysia Christmas was really weird because not many people celebrate it so its just like a public holiday.All the clubs had huge Christmas Eve parties and counted down to midnight...
On Christmas i went up to Koh Phangan, Thailand for the huge Christmas parties.Theres 10-15 thousand people on the beach.. its pretty insane.Its definately a Christmas to remember!On Boxing Day i went over to Koh Samui to meet up with my godparents,Lee and Vallarie.Ive been hanging out with them and they're kids for the past few nights.On the beach there's a bar thats made completely out of ice.. all the stools are like big ice cubes!The whole club is (-7) degrees!
Next I'm heading up to meet my friend Sage for New Years in Bangkok and then flying up to Amsterdam.
Write again soon.Happy Holidays!love, E

i have also posted a few new photos... here's the link again:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49010&l=b2c08&id=509443580

West coast

Hey everyone,
Sorry i haven't been updating very much but theres only so much i can write about..
I am in Phuket now.I was with my friend Shani for a bit but she went home to Australia...
Phuket is an island so i spend most of my time at the beach.Unfortunately i can't swim right now because i cut my foot open the other day and i'm on antibiotics so i have to wait a bit.It's healing up really well though considering i cut like half an inch off my big toe...
It's really beautiful here and theres lots of different beaches.Patong beach is the one i spend most of time at.It has lots of clubs,shopping, a nice beach and lots of people.Right now theres the annual Phuket carnival at Patong so theres lots going on.. lots of events, art and vendors. Kata beach is smaller, less hassling and nice to relax at.Karon beach is nice as well but i dont go there alot because its farther away.
Today i went to the " Big Buddha". Its a huge buddha on the top of a mountain near Kata beach.Its 50 feet tall and made out of cement.I got blessed by monks and they tied strings around my wrists for good luck and gave me an orange.The view is gorgeous from up there, you can see the whole coastline.
Tomorrow i'm going to Malaysia because my visa runs out so i'll be there for about a week and then back to Southern Thailand for Christmas.. i'll try to write again soon.love, e

So i have made to to the Southern islands of Thailand,Railay to be specific.In KL(kuala Lumpur).. I took a bus over the border and when i went to catch the bus they ended up sending me to the wrong platform and the bus left without me.Which would've been fine if i didnt leave my bag with the people i was travelling with.I ended up getting my bag back but it was quite the ordeal...
In KL i went to a fish spa.. a trendy japanese spa where hundreds of little fish suck on your feet..it was really ticklish to say the least.Its supposed to be very good for circulation, metabolism and overall health.
Now i'm in Railay where they have amazing rock climbing and today i ran into 2 friends from Nelson(avery and jamie)! Its beautiful here, write again soon -e

Koala Lumps

Soo I had a flight out of Saigon to Bangkok last week which, obviously, i didnt attend.So i got a credit fromAir Asia and flew down to Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia.I met up with a canadian couple from Victoria/Fernie and we travelled over here together because they are also going to the southern islands of thailand.Last night we stayed in a hotel thats was used to be an old railway station, and it kind of reminded me of the movie The Shining.The guy who carried our bags up to the room looked like lurch from the adams family.
Malaysia is SO different than the rest of S.E asia so far.The architecture here is amazing,all the buildings look like they belong in Aladdin haha...Malaysia is a mix of Chinese,Indian and Maylay cultures, so its very diverse.Within Kuala Lumpur theres lots of different districts including Little India and Chinatown.Theres also huge twin towers and a times square, just like in New York.The food here is so good due to the multiculuralism.. my favourite is a malaysian iced tea kind of like an iced chai.. but better.
Tomorrow or the day after i think i'm heading up to Krabi, an island in Southern Thailand to meet up with some friends..I'm hoping to travel around the islands for a few weeks until i have to catch my flight up to Amsterdam.The situation in Bangkok seems to be escallading.. i just talked to a couple travellers who came down from there and they said it was havoc.So i may have to change my flight to fly out of Malaysia instead.Hope all is well...love -e

pictures..again...for those who dont have facebook

sorry everyone heres a public link to the pictures... 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49010&l=b2c08&id=509443580

same same, but different

So if anyone is curious, yes i am safe.I travelled down the coast from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Mihn City a.k.a. Saigon, and have been here for a couple days.Saigon is a flurry of people and mopeds( they have the most mopeds per capita in the world!).After being in a small fishing village for about a week its definately a shock.
To my surprise, when i got here my flight had been cancelled due to the riots between the government supporters and the People's Alliance for Democracy(PAD).Both Bangkok airports have been overtaken by the riots and all flights were cancelled.Over 400 flights go through the airport daily, so its kind of a big deal.
As of now, i'm thinking i will change my flight to fly into Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia and take the 8 hour train up to the southern islands of Thailand and stay there for a few weeks until i fly up to Amsterdam.Nightlife in Saigon is fun but very busy and crowded.It's also much more expensive here than the rest of Vietnam so far.. write again soon, e

bliss

Right now i am sipping Vietnamese tea( green tea and lotus flowers) beside my bungalow in Mui Ne, Vietnam..i spent the afteroon in my hammock between two palm trees.Life is good.I left Laos last week and went to Hue, which was in the middle of monsoon season.. not fun to say the least.So i headed down to Nah Trang,almost got ripped off by the bus driver, but made it there.Nha Trang is a beautful city right on the coast of Vietnam.The weather was relatively good but was flooded up to my knees by the time i left.
Mui Ne is a small fishing village 6 hours away, it seems to have it all:cheap bungalows, amazing beaches,waterfalls,sand dunes,fairy streams.. and thats just a start.They have an odd amount of resorts for how small the village is but i managed to find bungalows for 6$ a night opposed to the 30$ the resorts were asking for.The only downside is that part of the village smells like fish sauce(due to it being a fishing village).. so i just stay away from that side.
Next i head over to Ho Chi Mihn city a.k.a. Saigon and fly back to Bangkok to go to the Southern islands of Thailand...i've noticed vietnamese people seem to be alot less helpful and more rude to travellers, which is a little frustrating, a lot of the time they will just turn thier backs and walk away from you.Also here they have "sleeper buses" which are the coolest things ever!Theyre big buses with two levels of beds to sleep in for long trips...-e

pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49010&id=509443580

baguettes!

So finally I have gotten to Laos.Me and James decided to split up for a while and meet up in a couple weeks.I went from Chang Mai on a bus to some random town on the border of Thailand and Laos.The next day we got our Lao visa's (which was a nightmare and really expensive) and then got on the slow boat.
It took about 2 hours to convince the Lao workers that 120 poeople couldnt fit on one longboat.I met a group of english girls and irish guys and we were playing guitar and singing.. keeping ourselves entertained. Seven hours and four Laobeer later we pull up to a small village just in the middle of nowhere beside the Mekong River.We had an amazing dinner and called it a night.
The next day we got back on the boat for another 7 hours and finally arrived to Luang Probang.The town is quite expensive but has some really nice cafes and guesthouses.After looking for about 2 hours we managed to find a nice guesthouses for about 5 dollars a night.Next time i'll make sure to pre-book at high season.So far, all the bread i have eaten has pretty much been wonderbread so i was pleasantly surprised to find out that Laos has amazing freshly baked baguettes everywhere.
Tomorrow me and my english travel mates are off to the buddha caves and waterfalls on a kayking trip.After that I'm going over to the coast of vietnam for about 10 days and then back to Thailand for christmas.. talk to you soon ,e

.whirlwind.

So its been almost a month since i left my beautiful home and things have been going amazingly well.The first week in Bangkok was mayhem.. tuk-tuks, temples and tourists pretty much sums it up. Went to the tiger temple, which was cool to see but not worth the 500 baht.
After a few days we decided to head up North to Chang Mai. After a 14-hour ride through the jungle, on a train that has a hole in the floor for a bathroom and one fan per section, we were glad to arrive. Chang Mai translates to walled city; its seperated into the central old city (which was walled at one point) and the new city where all the modern shops are. We rented some really great road bikes to get around on, which defiantely saved us alot of money.One night i even got to pet and feed a baby elephant!The scenery there is beautiful and its alot less chaotic than Bangkok.
A few days ago we ventured up to Pai, a small hippy town alot like Nelson.It took 3 and a half hours of switchbacks to get there but it was worth it. Full of bungalows by the river,organic cafes and reggae lounges it was kootenay kids dream.I met an awesome group of people, especially one australian girl that I was inseperable from.We rented mopeds and went up to the local waterfalls for our last day in Pai.
Yesterday we came back to Chang Mai for the annual lantern festival called Yi Peng. The sky and river were filled with thousands of lanterns.There was a ridiculous amount of people and an amazing parade filled with floats that seemed to take years to prepare. Today we head up to Laos on a slowboat so i should be there in a couple days!