Kowlooooooooon

We spent last night in Lan Kwai Fong, and SoHo. Started the night at TiVo, which was a pretty cool restaurant, where it was two for one meals, so we saved some money as well. Then headed down to The Brew House for the end of Happy Hour! We of course got Hoegartens which were served in half litter mugs. It was the biggest beer I have ever held, but don't worry we both finished them, and then another! From there we went to Z-bar to listen to some music. Around 10 we hit up the infamous club Dragon-I and got some nice 12 dollar cocktails. Apparently it was model night as everyone in their was a model from some eastern European country including Kazakhstan, and Estonia.

Most conversations when something like this:

Me:Hi, I'm Joe, where are you from?
Model:(roll eyes) Kazakhstan.
Me:That's pretty far, why are you in Hong Kong?
Model: I am a model
Me:Me too!!
Model: I have to go now

It was actually a lot of fun, and I just kind of laughed it off, and got to dance to some good music. After the model club we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Woke up this morning and went to one of our favorite restaurants, Pret A Manger! Then we took up the mid-level escalator, to the end, and the walked back down. Then we took the subway to Kowloon! The subway system here is so easy to navigate, and so nice. Also the card is called an Octopus Card, which is way better name than a metro card.

In Kowloon we took a walking tour. We visited the bird market, where lots of old Chinese men sat around with their birds, and played Mah Jong. Next was the flower market, where we could bu banzai trees got so cheap. If only there was a way to transport them back to the states! Next we went to an outdoor market and bargained our way to some good deals.

Jed is ruthless with the bargaining, if someone says 200 Jed says 20, if they say 150 Jed says 20. He always gets a good price though. When I bargain, they say 200, I go 160, they say 190, I say OK! I feel bad for them because they might actually need the money. My trick is if I really want something, I just let Jed bargain it down for me. We ended up getting some great souvenirs, and gifts for everyone back home. I think we are going to need to buy an extra suitcase to carry all the items we have acquired.

It was a long and hot day. Back at the hotel now. Getting ready to go out. It is Canada Day and they are having some huge parties, so maybe we will pretend to be Canadian eh?

Big Happy Birthday Shout Out to Jeremy Bia, who turns 12 today!

2 Weeks In!

Cannot believe this is officially the start of our third week traveling. As you can imagine after the flying all day we were pretty exhausted, but we still made night of it. Explored the area by our hotel, which I can only describe as version of Hell's Kitchen but instead of restaurants they only have bars. Ate dinner at an English Pub, which was good but found out quickly the HK is going to be much more expensive than Thailand. Much much more!! Walked around some more and got a few more drinks, than decided to call it a night. Hotel LKF is like a luxury apartment, they have everything, from a mini-bar, to complimentary bathrobes. To save money Jed and I got only king size bed so its also very romantic haha :) I highly recommend this hotel!

Woke up at 10:30 and got ready while watching the CNN. Surprised to see how much we had missed while isolated on the tropical beach Paradise of Phuket. Went out to get breakfast/lunch then walked around central, which is the uhhh central part of HK. It is like any city here in Hong Kong, but the catch is there are hills EVERYWHERE. We got lost many times trying to find the Bank of China tower, but eventually got to it.

We did a walking tour we got from our Lonely Planet guide, and visited the HSBC tower, St. Johns Cathedral, the Hong Kong Park, and Central Square. We also went to the Chinese Tea Museum which is exactly what it sounds like (kind of boring, but free to enter). Jed convinced me to go get some tea at the attached tea shop. It was kind of cool to watch how the prepared it, but in the end, it was just tea, expensive tea. 81 HK dollars each! The HSBC tower is called the Steel Robot, and it lives up to it's name. The architecture is really beautiful here, I am excited to take the tram up Victoria's Peak to see it lit up at night.

So tonight the plan is to hit up LKF, hopefully make it to a happy hour, and meet some new people!

Note:
$1 USD is equal to $7.75 HK

You for Scuba?

Our sixth day in Phuket was pretty low key. Luckily the day before we did all our confined water dives (in pool) so we had the day off from scuba. We woke up by far the latest at around 1pm. Then we hit up a new beach called Kata Beach. It was so much nicer than Karon. No killer riptides here! Joe and I just chilled and Joe got some questionable Pad Thai from some hut right on the beach. But he said it was still pretty reasonable. After some sun and boogey boarding we headed home showered and read. Our motorbikes took us yet again to Patong beach where we found a Scruffy Mcgees and listened to some live music and called it a night.

The next day were our first open water dives! We were picked up at the bungalow around 8:30 then headed to the boat. The boat was pretty large and just made for scuba. About 25 people were also on the boat ready to dive. We were the only divers training for our open water certification so basically we were the newbs. After three dives at three different locations we were feeling pretty good. The dives ranged from 36-50 feet deep. Joe and I took our final exams and passed with flying colors. Food was served on the boat and after a 10 hour day we made it back to our bungalow. That night being exhausted we caught "Drag Me to Hell". I definitely recommend. It was good in a classic, cheesy, funny kind of way for a horror film. A lot like Sam Raimis other film "Evil Dead".

Saturday was our final day until we got our Padi certs. Same deal... we headed to the boat and did three dives. This time our dives went deeper and we saw a lot more cool stuff. At about 65 feet at Phi Phi island (where they filmed the beach) we saw octopus, zebra mora eel, giant mora, rock slugs, trumpet fish, lion fish, leopard shark, school of yellow tail barracuda, sea horse and some catfish. Not to mention a million other tropical fish. After another long day we finally got our certification. Now officially we can go out on our own and find treasure! It was actually a lot of work to get this thing, but Joe kept pushing to get it. Our last night in Phuket, we went to another Irish bar right by where our motorbikes were dropped off and watched some rugby. We walked back to Kata and fell asleep.

Today was a travel day. Flight leaving Phuket to Bangkok then finally to HONG KONG!!
We arrived a couple hours ago to pouring rain but still I'm so excited to be here. The city definitely has a New York feel. Our hotel is amazing and finally were not slumming it. Were located right in Lan Kwai Fong in central Hong Kong Island. Supposedly a very happening area. Miss everyone and we will be updating more often no that we have internet!

Change of Plans

If you haven't noticed we have been in Phuket for a while now, and are not leaving until Sunday. You are probably wondering how we are going to visit all the places we had in our original itinery, and the thing is we are not going to.

Now that we are in Asia we have decided to take our time in the places we visit, this way we will get to spend more in without all the hetic travel. We still plan on going to HK, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo, but are going to skip Singapore, and Vietnam. Vietnam was also a pain because the Visa are really hard to get right now.

Who wants to visit Vietnam anyway?

You Want Thai Massaaaaaaaage?

After the dangerous journey through the jungle, and weaving through Thai rush hour traffic, we met up with Tony, and Tim and decided we were aching for a massage. Now in Thailand, massage's are not hard to find, in fact the girls will grab you and do anything to get you inside.

The hard part in Thailand is finding a legit massage place, with no uhhhh funny business. After consulting with a hotel they told us the only place they could think of was called Let's Relax.

Not the most legit name, but we checked it out, and it seemed nice enough so we booked four thai massages, 1 hour for 500 baht. It was my first real massage, and it was as good as you can imagine. They bent me into shapes that are not natural, and really hurt, but felt so good later. It was funny because they kept making fun of us because we were so out of our element, every time they cracked one of our bones, they had a nice thai giggle.

After the massage we went to the Aussi bar, watched some AFL (like a combination of rugby and football) and called it a night. Tim and Tony caught their boat, so we said our goodbyes, but will hopefully see them in Australia soon!!

Yesterday was our first day at PADI. We went in at 8AM and after a long day of classroom and pool we were pretty tired. So we kept it pretty chill last night.

We went to the movies, which was so great. 140 baht for a premium reserved seat. Like a big lazy boy in the best part of the theater. Before the movie everyone stands to watch a movie of the King and hear the anthem. Being in Thailand really makes you love the King, I feel a big brother kind atmosphere.

Pictures coming when we leave Phuket, the internet is too slow on the island! Also there is no spell check at this terminal, forgive the typos!!

Jed and Joe of the Jungle

Oh what a two days it's been! We woke up the next morning and thought that since we didn't have any plans we would trek up one of these waterfalls everyone is talking about. Little did we know what lied waiting for us.

Joe and I got on our motorbikes and traveled a good 40 km to northern Phuket. Ton Sai waterfall was located in basically the hardest location to find on this island. We drove our little motor bikes on a 4 lane heavy traffic freeway. I must say we have gotten pretty good at weaving between trucks and the occasional tuk tuk. After an hour and a half ride, that should have taken 40 minutes, we finally made it to Khao Phra Thaeo National Park. We were extremely excited to finally made our destination.

We quickly jumped on a path and headed up the mountain. Now when I say path I mean in it in the loosest form possible. We had to climb rocks and clear away thick jungle to get through. We had our 100 deet bug spray so the bugs weren't all over, just ears nose etc. So we hiked...and hiked...and a little more hiking on top of that. We walked about Three miles in looking for this waterfall thinking we could hear it. Covered in sweat at the top of the mountain, the furthest part from where we began, a downpour started. It did make it somewhat cooler but the rocks got extremely slippery. Yes we both fell and my bag broke. We finally gave up headed down and then past a sign saying "waterfall this way"... We were so excited to get up we walked past the right path and took some random side path! WTF! So we got some water and headed home.

The experience was cool though. We will remember running through the forest like Predator hunting Arnold. Next up Scuba!!

Club Lime

Big night in Phuket last night. Met up with our buddies, then got some excellent Pad Thai from a restaurant. It was the best I have had yet, and yes Pad Thai just tastes better in Thailand. We started the night slowly with some Long Islands at the Aussi Bar, then hit up Club Lime. It just happened to be foam party night, which is as much fun as it sounds. And when you add foam party with 100b shots, the night is defeinitly going to be good. Though there were far more guys, then girls at the club we managed to have an excellent time. The DJ was from Estonia, and "spun" some good tunes, and looked exactly like Lady GaGa. Got back to the bungalow around 4, and went to sleep.