Beyond the Ebb and Flow

Goodbyes are Never Easy

tess311 — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 10:05:00 GMT

The time has finally come to say goodbye to this crazy, beautiful part of the world. Coming back to Bangkok, where it all started is so strange. When I first arrived in Bangkok it was so overwhelming and completely different than what I was used to. Now, after traveling Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, Bangkok is refreshing and actually feels like home. I don't know why this is. I guess it is just more westernized than the other countries. I've missed you Bangkok, and didn't even realize it!

Finally, I have gotten used to being dirty all the time, not throwing toilet paper in the toilet, bum guns, squat toilets, not being able to wash my hands, street food, geckos all over EVERYTHING, cows and chickens on the side of the roads, endless rice paddies, new friends, saying goodbye, the same backpacker conversations, eating every meal with rice, terrible western food, and the list could go on forever. Anyways, now that I’m used to this lifestyle, I have to leave it. I feel very sad that I’m leaving, however, I’m leaving a better person.

The idea to traveling the world solo is to “find yourself”. Well, I don’t think I’ve found myself. I think I had already accomplished that before I left. I have known for a while the type of person I am, who want to be, and how I want to live my life. But coming here on this trip has changed me. Traveling solo, I have had to learn to fend for myself, to take care of myself, to feed myself, to shelter myself. I’ve been responsible for my own safety, and I’ve learned to not only trust my instincts, but to identify them. Also, traveling solo, you learn to trust strangers, and hope they don’t lead you astray. This sounds ridiculous, but sometimes out here you don’t have a choice. I have read in multiple articles that traveling with another person strengthens your relationship with that person, and traveling solo strengthens your relationship with yourself and your surroundings. I couldn’t agree with this more. I have never felt such a strong connection with the world around me than I have while traveling on my own. I have completely grasped the beauty of this earth and the ground I’ve walked on. Many times, while exploring a city by myself, I would feel more at peace and happier than I have ever been, just soaking in everything around me. It has truly been an incredible experience and I’m so glad I’ve done it. It also helps that Southeast Asia has such a vast beauty to it, but that’s beside the point. Ha ha

It wasn’t always this peaceful and serene though. Sometimes it got lonely…Very lonely. It got so lonely to the point that I was ready to give up and catch the first flight home. I was lonely, but not alone. I was surrounded by so many people doing the same thing I was, yet I had no desire to talk to or get to know any of them. I would have kicked myself so hard if I gave up at that point. I just had to pick myself up, go explore, let a day or so pass and that loneliness faded completely. I would have missed out on some of the most interesting and best times of my life. I think feeling that way a couple times actually made me stronger. Knowing that I can get through something so tough has been enlightening.

For about the past two months though, I have not been alone. I’ve been travelling with people. One person I’ve been travelling with has stayed the same the whole time, while others have come and gone. Goodbyes are never easy. You become so close with people while traveling because you spend every waking minute with these people. I have said goodbye to so many people since I’ve been here and some have been a lot harder than others. You get attached to people very easily. Then you go your separate ways and will probably never see them again. I hate this part about traveling.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have learned that it’s okay not to like some people. I tried to be friends with everyone at first, but I realized some people are just not worth my time. It’s okay to pick and choose who you want to be around or hang out with. I’m not saying its okay to be rude or mean to people, you just choose to avoid them. That’s the beauty of traveling solo, if you aren’t feeling a person or group of people you’ve met, you don’t have to be around them, you simply just move on and go a different direction.

Emma has been my travel companion for the last 2 months. We traveled Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and then back to Bangkok together. Boy, has it been one wild ride! We have had the most fun together and picked up other travelers along the way, which have all come and gone, but we have stuck together until the very end. With both of us being solo it has been easy. We each do what we want and if we both want to do something then we do it together. Simple as that. We don’t have to try to please each other and that has been nice. It’s also been nice being able to share this whole experience with someone.

It is now 12:18 am and I have to be up in 2 hours to catch my flight home. Shit. I can’t believe its ending.

Goodbye Southeast Asia. I will miss you, and never will I forget you. It’s been fun, challenging, educational, hot, enlightening, and strange. Thank you for all that you are.

It Won't Be Long

tess311 — Fri, 6 Nov 2015 18:34:00 GMT

Vietnam has been good to me so far. I love it. I could almost say that it has been my favorite country so far, but I can’t bring myself to say that because there have been great things about every country I have visited. They have all been amazing in different ways. For example, Thailand has a variety of things I enjoyed, including the amazingly beautiful Thai islands where I learned how to dive and got to experience the Full Moon Party; along with northern Thailand where I got to see the lovely Pai and hang out with elephants! Not to mention the food in Thailand…Phenomenal! Laos was just spectacular. Laos didn’t have a lot of materialistic things to offer because it is such a poor country, but the beauty and the landscapes made up for that. The lack of money made the country better, I think. It made me appreciate my surroundings and allowed me to soak it all in. Cambodia was a very educational and fun country. Learning about the genocide really made me open my eyes to the pain and suffering that this country went through and it made me appreciate the my own life and the country I was raised in. The temples in Ankgor Wat were a fascinating site to see as well.

Then we get to Vietnam, my last country on this crazy journey. Vietnam so far has been nothing but positive vibes. The people here are lovely, including the locals and other backpackers. All of the hostels I’ve stayed in have been very nice and comfortable. When in Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, in southern Vietnam, I went to the see the underground tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. They were very interesting. Some of them went on for 250 kilometers, which is 155 miles long. I walked through one tunnel that they actually made bigger for tourists to go through and I could only make it 50 meters or 164 feet before having to take an exit out of there. I didn’t think I was claustrophobic until I did this. I can’t imagine those soldiers crawling through these tiny tunnels for miles, afraid to come to the surface in the chance that American soldiers would be waiting at the top just to throw a grenade into the tunnel, sending them to their death. There was a shooting range along the trail we were following so I got to shoot an AK 47 rifle! Only myself and the other American girl were excited about shooting guns in our group. Haha! I wanted to shoot a machine gun too, but I thought the ten rounds you get would go way to fast. After the tunnels we also went to the Vietnam War Museum. This was so intense for me, being an American. Since it was from their point of view, it made America out to be this evil country. It was very sad to see that. I didn’t realize how many other countries were against us invading Vietnam. There was so much propaganda against the war and getting America out of Vietnam. It was quite informative, but very overwhelming for me. The pictures on the walls were very graphic and some were even quite inspiring.

After Ho Chi Minh, we traveled to Mui Ne. This town was very beachy. Expensive, fancy resorts were everywhere! I used my time here to have a break and relax for a couple days. We did do a jeep tour one day while here and that was definitely an experience. The jeep was supposed to take us to this Fairy Springs with a waterfall, then to a floating fishing boat community, red sand dunes, and white sand dunes. The jeep ride to the first stop, the Fairy Springs, was insane. I literally thought we were going to kill a pedestrian or someone on a scooter. Our driver was flying down the road then slamming on his breaks if we came up to a scooter or a person walking. The driving in Southeast Asia is always a little crazy, but this was extreme. We thought the driver knew what he was doing so we were all laughing, while jamming out to this weird Asian techno music. When we finally arrived to the Fairy Springs he parked and told us to meet him back there in 40 minutes. We did our thing and walked through the springs, where I got to ride an ostrich that I immediately regretted doing because I’m pretty sure they blind all the ostriches just so tourists can ride them. It’s a guess, but I’m pretty sure it’s true. Then we got to see the waterfall, which was small, but pretty. We made our way back and when we got to the jeep our driver was passed out in the driver seat with his feet propped up on the dash. We didn’t really think much of it until he wasn’t waking up after tickling his feet, shaking him, and yelling in his face. Finally some other local Vietnamese guys saw what was going on and came over to also try to wake him up. After about 10 minutes he was still not waking up. Everyone was shaking him and shouting at him to wake up. When he finally did, he stumbled out onto the sidewalk. We all realized that this guy is wasted, and we were very thankful nothing happened on our way there. One of the other Vietnamese guys offered to drive us and we accepted. As we were pulling out the original driver runs over and pulls the guy out of the driver seat and hopped back in behind the wheel. We all immediately began shouting, “NO, NO, NO!” in unison and then we all proceeded to pile out of the jeep as fast as we could. After much debate and refusing to get back into that jeep, the other Vietnamese guys offered to call a different company to take us to our other destinations at no charge. We all agreed and another guy came and took us to the other places with no problems. The white sand dunes were amazing! I had never witnessed anything like it. We rented quad bikes here and had an absolute blast riding them up and down the steep sand hills! I got stuck in the sand at one point when no one else was around to help me, and had to get off the bike and pull it out by myself! The red sand dunes were very pretty as well. We watched the sunset here and it was beautiful. The fishing boat community was also a site to see. I have posted pictures on Facebook.

After Mui Ne I split off from my group and traveled to Da Lat by myself. The hostel I stayed at here was called Mr. Peace’s hostel and it was the best hostel I have stayed at yet! I was greeted with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek by Mr. Peace himself. He is a small Vietnamese man with a big personality. We had family dinners every night where they cooked for us and we all sat at the same table for our meal, while Mr. Peace would sing the titanic song, “My Heart Will Go On” in his best voice possible. It was hilarious! His wife’s name was Strawberry and they had the cutest little girl, Lauren. I fell in love with that little girl. I also did a canyoning tour while I was here, which is what Da Lat is most famous for. It was such a good experience. It was a lot of tough trekking, and climbing rocks without a harness, and abseiling. We abseiled down a waterfall which was just incredible! Again, look at my tagged pictures on Facebook. The trekking was actually quite tough. I was in a group with 7 other guys, so I did my best not to slow everyone down, ha!

After Da Lat, I met back up with my group I’ve been traveling with in Hoi An. Hoi An was also very nice and on the coast, although it rained almost every day. Here is the tailor capital of Southeast Asia. Every other shop was a tailor where you can have clothes made. Most guys will get high quality suits here made for around $100, which is so cheap compared to back home! I had so much fun looking at all my options of stuff I could have made just for me! I ended up buying quite a lot of stuff. I had to buy another bag to fit everything. I go three dresses, a romper, two pairs of dress pants, two plaid long sleeve shirts, and two pairs of boots. Yeah, I went all out, but the price I got this stuff for was so worth it. I could spend so much money in those stores! I rented a bicycle everyday while I was here and loved it. It was so easy to get around by a bike in that city. One day a group of us rented scooters and rode to what they call Marble Mountain. This is a group of mountains that are hollow and cave-like. We went inside one of the mountains and there were so many creepy looking carvings and statues inside, all made of limestone or marble, which is what the mountains are made of. It seemed very religious, and had a lot of devil-like creatures. Pictures to come later. They don’t really tell you about the history of the mountain though. We all meant to look it up when we got back, but haven’t yet. I’ll let you know later.

We have now arrived to Northern Vietnam to Hanoi, after spending 5 hours in the airport because our flight got delayed. Hanoi is okay so far. Our hostel is huge with 18 bed dorms. Usually there is about 6 to 10 beds in a dorm.

Well that’s what I have been up to in Vietnam. Only 6 days left until I am on a flight home. Since I go home so soon, I don’t have any motivation to go explore. It feels like now I am just waiting to go home. It is the strangest feeling. I am excited, anxious, and sad at the same time. I want to go home and see my family and friends for a while, then leave again to explore another part of the world. Europe maybe?...........

The World at Large

tess311 — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 20:08:00 GMT

The time has come to leave Cambodia and go to Vietnam. My original plan was to only stay in Cambodia for 1 week and then go back to Laos for the zip lining adventure, but plans changed. We went to Phnom Penh from Siem Reap and had a really good time here. We went to the killing fields where thousands of bodies were found and dug up from the mass genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975-1979. It was a very eerie and chilling experience. It was probably one of the saddest and most surreal things I have ever witnessed. There are still bones and clothing that are making their way to the surface of the ground that have not yet been dug up. Once a month the people go to collect all the bone fragments, skulls, clothing, and other remains that have come to the surface. Even women and children were involved in this devastating tragedy. Actually, one of the burial sites was dedicated to only women and children who were tortured and killed in a brutal way. We also went to the museum that started out being a school for children, then when the genocide was taking place it was turned into a prison and torture chambers. The museum was even worse than the killing fields. You could still see the blood stained floors and the homemade prison cells made from brick and wood. It was definitely a sobering site to see. While this was all taking place, no other countries knew what was going on. They hid it so well. There would be talk amongst other countries about what was happening, but they just made it out to be a myth. It was even Cambodia’s very own people who did this horrible thing. The Khmer Rouge was responsible for all this. About 1.7 million people died in only 4 years time out of a total population of 7 or 8 million. They believed that anyone with an education or an actual skill was a threat, so all educated people were killed off, which is just f’ing insane. At the museum nearly 20,000 people were held here and only 7 were known to survive. I know this is a little intense, but it’s necessary to know. Finally in 1979 the Vietnamese figured out what was going on and declared war against the Khmer Rouge and put an end to it. At one point in time people thought the U.S. was responsible for all the killings, thank god that didn’t last long. It is very sad knowing all this happened in this beautiful country. Because of this, there are hardly any elderly people here. The majority of the current population was born after 1979.

Anyways, enough of the sad stuff. I ended up missing my early morning bus back to Laos for the zip lining tour. I was upset to miss it, but it ended up being a blessing. I got to travel down to Koh Rong Samloem, an island off of southern Cambodia, with the best group of girls ever. This island is very remote. No roads, only jungle and beach. We stayed on a beach where there was only one hostel, one restaurant, one beach and one waterfall. It was a blast. We originally decided to come here to chill out and have few days to lay on the beach and do nothing…. That didn’t happen. We ended up partying and dancing our butts off and having the best conversations girls can have. There were also a couple guys traveling with us but we left them off to do their own thing. Every day we would play beach volleyball, enjoy the ocean, and each other’s company. Every night we would get in the ocean under the beautiful star-lit sky and stir up the amazing plankton that glittered all around your body in the water. At one point we were all marveling up at the amazing stars above us, and a shooting star decided to pass by us as we were all looking up. It was very exciting that every single one of us saw it. One thing that made this island so special is that no wifi or internet access was offered at all. We knew this was the case before arriving here, so every single one of us accepted it and loved it. It made us have actual conversation instead of hiding our heads in our phones when sitting down for a meal. It was so refreshing! It’s amazing how aggravated we get while traveling when we go somewhere we are promised wifi and it doesn’t actually work. The wifi rage is real!! However, when we all knew we weren’t going to have access to it, we did not mind one bit. All four of us girls decided to put our hiking shoes on and climbed through an actual stream up to see a waterfall. It was a nice waterfall, but I think the trek there was even better. It was another bonding time for us girls, and we overcame a challenging course. We had to jump from rock to rock that were covered in moss and very slippery! The noises we were all making along the way were quite entertaining. At the top we all became even closer friends than before, while sitting next to the refreshing waterfall having more wonderful conversations and getting to know each other. After not wanting to leave Koh Rong Samloem, we decided it was time for some access to the outside world and caught a ferry to Koh Rong, which is a bigger island not far away. This island had a lot more going on, although it still did not have any roads and was very remote. There were a lot more restaurants and bars here. We had a very nice time here. We enjoyed the beach, played more volleyball, did yoga, and played with the countless numbers of puppies and kittens that were here.

Today, we came back to the mainland and are catching a night bus to Vietnam. It is very sad that two people in our group are going in the opposite direction to Siem Reap. I met these two while in Laos a while back ago, and met them again in Phnom Penh. I will miss them tremendously. Goodbye’s suck.

Anyways it is so so so nice to be back on the mainland in a nice hostel for a few hours that actually has flushing toilets, hot water, and a TV to watch a movie on a clean comfy mat! Haha

Well this was my update. More on Vietnam later.

Only 2 ½ weeks left!

Captivating Cambodia

tess311 — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 23:48:00 GMT

Moving right along through this wonderful journey.

I loved the shit outta Laos. Laos was filled with so many beautiful sceneries, sunsets, the lushest rice paddies, good people, and loads of fun and relaxation.

I started in Northern Laos where I did Luang Prabang after the wonderful slow boat journey. Here was where I saw the breathtaking waterfalls and went bowling until 5 AM on more than one occasion. I then ventured to Vang Vieng where I had the most epic river tubing adventure (So much fun)! After Vang Vieng we hopped on multiple tuk tuks, mini busses, and a sleeper bus and after a full 24 hours, we finally made it to Southern Laos near the Cambodian border called the 4000 islands. It is a bunch of small islands on the Mekong River. Don Det in the 4000 Islands was also incredible, very remote and low key. This was such a good place to go to relax and take a break from all the partying. We rented bicycles and you could cycle the muddy paths around the whole island in about 35 minutes. The humidity was insane. I didn’t even know it was possible to sweat that much. I spent a full 7 days on this island, which is quite a long time to stay in one spot when you are backpacking. There were not even any ATMs on this island. I’m actually surprised they even had electricity. That’s how remote it was. Adam’s bar was where I spent most of my time while here. This was a restaurant/bar that had a big screen tv and all the movies or tv shows you could ever want, with these padded mats that you could lay down on and watch hours and hours worth of movies or tv shows. Since it was a restaurant as well, you could just have food and drinks served to you without even having to get up. It sounds very lazy and it was. I did yoga on our amazing balcony that overlooked the beautiful river at our guesthouse almost every morning. One morning while doing yoga it began to rain a steady drizzle and a butterfly sat peacefully on the floor of the balcony very close by. It was exhilarating and such a peaceful experience at the same time. I felt very in tune with myself, and the nature around me. I have not done much yoga in my life so it is fairly new to me, but I’m absolutely loving it. Yoga is a fun and easy thing to do as a backpacker to stay healthy while on the road. I also did a kayaking tour while here on the Mekong River. We got to see more amazing waterfalls and the stunning views from the Mekong. Emma and I capsized in our kayak at one point and it was terrifying for a split second. When you know there are crazy river monsters in the water and you can’t see through the water due to its brown color, it can be a little scary not knowing what is underneath you. I got back on the kayak very quickly but Emma who was on it with me struggled a little to get back up. She was also scared of what was underneath. Haha! What scared me the most was the terrified look on our tour guide’s face when I looked up at him from the water. All in all the kayaking was a great experience and I really enjoyed it.

Just so you know, when I mention “we” I am talking about a British girl, Emma I met on the slow boat to Laos. We have been traveling together for a while now. Its nice having someone to travel with opposed to traveling by your self all the time. Which I do enjoy, don’t get me wrong. A little variety is always good, though : )

After not wanting to leave the relaxing and amazing Don Det, we decided it was time and crossed the border and came to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is where the famous Angkor Wat temples are.

I also really like Cambodia so far. There are usually just faint differences between the countries. Laos people are way more laid back than Cambodians. Cambodians are very pushy and nag at you to buy their goods or services. They are actually quite good scam artists. Some of the women will carry infants and approach you and say they need milk for their baby, then when you go into the store and buy milk for them she immediately puts the milk back on the shelf and she and the store owner split the cash. Even little boys have came up to me asking for milk. Thank god for the world wide web that warns you about this kind of thing. You can’t walk five feet without a tuk tuk driver or someone else shouting at you as you walk by.

We went to all of the ancient temples around Angkor Wat. We went one day to a certain temple to see the sunset, which was pretty. The next morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to see the sunrise at the temples. The sunrise sucked. It was too cloudy so it was very anticlimactic. It was dark then all of a sudden it was light. You couldn’t even tell where the sun was. I would have appreciated the few extra hours of sleep instead of seeing that sunrise. Also there were so so so many people during the sunrise and the sunset. The whole place is just littered with hundreds of tourists. It would have been a lot more beautiful if there weren’t so many people. The temples were very interesting and beautiful though, and over 800 years old. I will post pics later. One of the temples is where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed.

We did the Siem Reap pub crawl which was definitely a good time! I ended up running into some friends that I met about a month ago in Chang Mai and Pai! Its so exciting running into people that you have met on the road! It was a big reunion of the whole Chang Mai crew! I woke up the next morning with neon paint all over me, and a foot covered in blood. I wasn’t sure if it was my own blood at first, then I found that it was in fact my own from a gash on my heel. It wasn’t so bad, though.

I love Siem Reap. It is so much fun! The nightlife is just crazy, but good!

We have now traveled to south of Cambodia to Phnom Penh. Here is where you can see the killing fields and learn about the mass genocide that happened back in the 1970s. I’ll speak more on this later. We see this tomorrow. I need to emotionally prepare myself for the brutality that took place in this country.

After two days here in Phnom Penh I go back into Laos to do a jungle treetop zip-lining/hiking/climbing adventure, which I am more than excited about! Then I go to Vietnam.

I am still missing all the fall festivities and hoodie weather back home, but maybe I will get to enjoy a bit of it when I get back. However, I am really loving it here. It just keeps getting better and better. And the people have made it that way. I will be really sad when I have to leave this all behind. I am already thinking about my next travel adventure, where I want to go and who I’m bringing with me! I really love traveling solo, but I think it would be nice to experience all this madness with someone from home, who I know would love it just as much as I do.

I’ve been learning a lot about myself since traveling and also a lot about other people, and obviously other cultures. I will get into all this later. Only four weeks left! Its so bittersweet!

Peace & Love <3

Laos Love

tess311 — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:47:00 GMT

A lot has happened since my last post! I had to go back and re-read my last entry to see what I have talked about and what I haven't.

Chiang Mai was wonderful! I met a lot of good people while there. I saw some more temples, got to hit a giant gong, and got a bracelet that was blessed by a Thai man in the temple (not positive he was a monk). I then went to Pai for five nights. Pai is a very quaint little town in northern Thailand. It is a three-hour mini bus ride from Chiang Mai. The ride is very beautiful with extremely winding roads and quite steep hills, up and down. People fall in love with Pai. It was a wonderful place and very beautiful. I stayed at a hostel that was in the middle of rice paddies in a big bamboo hut. At nightfall the sounds of the nature was absolutely incredible. The frogs and insects and whatever else was out there in the nature made a beautiful, natural melody that was incredible to fall asleep to. I rented a scooter for one day while I was here, then I decided to get a bicycle to not be so lazy. There were beautiful waterfalls, and canyons here to see, but I never went to these. This was a big mistake on my part. I’ve learned my lesson. I did get to hang out with Shelly a little while I was here, which was nice. She has now went the opposite direction as me and headed to Myanmar. After Pai, I went back to Chiang Mai to do all the things I wanted to do the first time I was there. I went to an Elephant Nature Park and had such an amazing experience. Elephants are truly amazing creatures and so intelligent (and emotional, very emotional). There are so many camps here in Southeast Asia that are cruel to the elephants. Riding elephants is actually very bad for them. The elephants are only supposed to carry up to about 160 pounds on their backs, so if you ever see the elephants that have the big cage-type things carrying multiple people, know that it is not good. Also, they usually use a bullhook-type tool to hit, poke, and prod them to move, which can cause major wounds. The camp I went to takes in elephants that have been abused or hurt and nurse them back to health. Their policy is to let the elephants live like they are in a natural setting as much as possible and let them free to roam wherever they please. They have elephants that were once used as loggers, which includes pulling logs with chains wrapped around them (also very cruel), as well as elephants who have stepped on land mines from the war that have been sitting dormant for a very long time, and elephants from the riding camps. The riding camps in Thailand still exist and it is very sad because a lot of people sign up for these tours not realizing the cruelty in it. There is also a tiger sanctuary you can go to and actually pet and cuddle with full grown tigers. The only reason one can do this is because the tigers are heavily sedated. All these things are very unfortunate, and very sad to see.

The elephant camp I attended was so delightful, and very informative. We got to feed the elephants an ungodly amount of fruit pretty much all day long, and go on a very beautiful long hike with them. They give you a bag of bananas and you occasionally give the bananas to the elephants so they will follow you. Elephants eat something like 200 kilos of food a day or some crazy huge amount. Earlier I mentioned that they are emotional creatures, I say this because one of the elephants was making this horribly loud cry that sounded to me like a roar from a T-Rex (ha-ha). She did this multiple times then turned around and ran off while the other elephants were making their way to the river to bath. I found out later that her best friend she usually hangs out with had injured her foot and was not let out to roam, so she was so upset because she missed her friend, so cute.

Anyways, I could go on about elephants forever, but I won’t. I have been wanting to go rock climbing since I have been here, so on a day I did not have anything planned it was raining, so some of us from the hostel decided to go to an indoor rock climbing gym. It was just a bouldering gym, meaning you have no harness or straps, you just free-climb. We made a fun game out of it and ended up being there for like 2 hours. My upper body was extremely sore for three days after that. You do so much walking, trekking, hiking, and climbing steep hills and steps while here so my legs have been doing all the work and my upper body is just turning to mush. I’m going to try to change that by doing more rock climbing! : )

I also did a cooking class while in Chiang Mai. It was so delicious! I now have a Thai cookbook and can’t wait to go back home and cook up some amazing Thai dishes for everyone!

After Chiang Mai, I took a four-hour bus ride east to the Laos-Thai border then hopped on the slow boat on the Mekong River for a two-day journey to Luang Prabang, Laos. The slow boat was a lot of fun. I met a lot of fun people on the boat and the view was spectacular. Before Luang Prabang we stopped in Pakbang for a night. Here I had the scare of a lifetime. I shared a room with a British girl that I made friends with, so it was only the two of us in a room instead of the normal dorm-type rooms that have many bunk beds to each room. We went back to the room pretty earlier after dinner with everyone. When we walked into the room there was a GIANT spider on the wall. I bet it was 6 inches in diameter. I’m pretty sure it was a Huntsman spider. Look it up, they are terrifying. So, we threw things at it until it crawled into the bathroom, so we shut the bathroom door and locked it for the rest of the night. After finally settling down from the spider incident we went to sleep. At 2 AM someone turning the doorknob to our room and pounding a slow eerie knock on the door awaked us. We both woke up and looked at each other, terrified. After a moment of silence the shutters that were open on the outside of our window SLAMMED shut! It was so loud and so scary, I couldn’t move my body, I felt paralyzed. Then the knocking started in again. Both of us were way too terrified to open the door or peak out the window to see whom it was. Finally the knocking stopped, and we both lay there, hearts pounding, not able to sleep from the adrenaline pumping through our veins. I don’t know how long I laid there, terrified, before I was finally able to fall asleep, only to have nightmares about spiders and being kidnapped. The next morning I had to shower, so we had to deal with the monster spider in the bathroom. We braved it together and sprayed down the whole bathroom with the shower sprayer to make sure it wasn’t hiding out somewhere, it wasn’t.

At breakfast we asked all the other guests if they also had someone trying to get into their room and so far we were the only ones. After a while, we had finally found the culprit. An American girl who was also on the slow boat with us, got a little too tipsy and forgot where her room was. She had the right placement of the room just one floor down from her own. She thought her roommate had locked her out, until she finally realized she had the wrong room!! It was quite funny and relieving knowing that was all the commotion was. We laughed about it for a long time, and I still have to give her some hell for it every once in a while, ha-ha. So, we hopped back on the slow boat and headed to Luang Prabang. After two days here, I fell in love. This place has been my favorite so far. It is very raw here. It’s not as touristic as Thailand. The people are so poor and are so content. I just absolutely love it. I’m hoping it will only get better. I went to a waterfall here yesterday and it was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Pictures just don’t do it justice.

I have decided to give up on posting pictures on this site. It just takes way too long and is too much work. If you want to see pictures I am just going to put everything up on Facebook. It’s so much easier.

If you want to see where I'm at I have been putting it on the map at the bottom of my entrys. Sorry if it doesn't work, I know this site is not great.

I love and miss you all!

Cheers : )

It's all Coming Together Again

tess311 — Wed, 9 Sep 2015 21:01:00 GMT

So I’ve survived one whole month of my travels. I’m going to start by listing the things that I miss the most: I miss a soft bed. Not necessarily my bed, but a soft one (all beds here are like sleeping on a wooden board). I miss good beer, whether it craft beer or just a good ole, ice cold miller lite (there is a selection of like three beers here and all of them are just okay). I miss my gym membership. I miss having someone around who knows who I am, what I’ve been through, and my story. I know I’ve said this one before, but I miss my friends and family. I miss having stability (sort of). I miss having a home-cooked American meal. I miss Aces High sweet corn (because I didn’t get enough of it this summer). I miss having my whole wardrobe to choose from. I miss having a nice hot shower. I am GOING to miss everything that has to do with fall: hay rides, pumpkin flavored everything, carving pumpkins, seeing the beautiful changing colors of the leaves, Halloween and everything that goes with it (costumes, haunted houses, parties, etc.!).

So there is A LOT that I miss. BUT on a brighter note, I am finally away from those beautifully brutal islands of Thailand, and have made my way up north to Chiang Mai. I took a flight from Krabi to Chiang Mai and the moment I stepped foot into my hostel it was like a breath of fresh air. Good people, so many good people. Nice people. Welcoming people. People I knew I was going to get along with right away.

The islands were great, don’t get me wrong, but they are more of a vacationing spot for couples or travelers wanting a tropical vacationing paradise. It’s not great for solo backpackers like myself. Koh Phi Phi was my last stop for the islands and it was absolutely beautiful. I went on a snorkeling excursion and they took us to a few different islands and bays. I got to go to Maya Bay where the movie The Beach was filmed, absolutely stunning. The sand was the most powder-like sand I have ever seen or felt in my life. It felt incredible.

So back to Chiang Mai. There is many other solo backpackers like myself, which makes it so much easier to relate. It is very beautiful and jungle-like here, unlike the islands. I am so excited to do some of the tours they have to offer here. I believe tomorrow I am going to do an elephant park experience. I am looking forward to playing with elephants J. I am also thinking about doing a Thai cooking class. There is so much to do here and I want to do it all, so it’s a little bit overwhelming trying to decide what I want to do most!

I am going to nearby Pai on Friday I believe and hopefully meet up with Shelly while I am there. Every single person that has been to Pai absolutely loves it and has nothing but good to say, so I am also very much looking forward to that.

Sorry for the slacking in the picture department. I will have them up eventually. It will be a treat J

Catch you later!

The Islands are Getting the Best of Me!

tess311 — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 16:25:00 GMT

Sorry, I know it’s been a while. I have not had good Wi-Fi since I left Koh Samui over a week ago. I have also been very busy and haven’t had a lot of time to myself.

After I left Koh Samui, I took a ferry to Koh Phangan. The hostel I stayed at was one of the biggest party hostels on the island I’m pretty sure! I met so many amazing people. I now have friends from Italy, Germany, France, Wales, Canada, England, and more. I also met some guys from the US. They were all lawyers on their Bar trip. Two of them were together from California and the other from Texas; the other one was a solo traveler from New York. We all became friends immediately. I was glad to have them. Also, Steve from New York who I met back in Bangkok came to stay at our hostel and also hung out with our crew. We all had a blast. There was a different party every night! The first party I went to was a beach party. It was pretty low key. A lot of dancing happened. The second party was called the Maya party. Wow, this party was probably the most fun. Our little group was definitely the life of the party and we danced our asses off for, I shit you not, three hours straight, non-stop. I don’t mean just slightly nodding your head and kicking your feet dancing, I mean arms flailing, getting low, booty shaking, rave dancing. I bet I burned a million calories doing it and had the time of my life. We even started a dance-off circle at one point. I think Danny, the lawyer from Texas totally owned it.

So, that was fun. The party the next night was supposed to be a “Waterfall Party”, but apparently the waterfall was dried up, so what was the point of a Waterfall Party with no waterfall? Instead, there was a crazy-ass pool party. I will post pictures later. It was insane! I have never seen so many people in a pool at one time. Of course everyone was dancing, inside the pool and out, because that’s what you do at parties on Koh Phangan, you dance! That party was also a lot of fun. The next night was a “Jungle Party”. We all had really high expectations for this party because we heard from a lot of people it was supposed to be the best. The setting of the party was really neat, however the energy of all the people was so low. No one was really dancing. It was a lot of nodding heads and kicking feet like I talked about earlier. I thought it was just okay. All of these parties are the parties leading up to Full Moon Party. I had no idea there were so many different parties! I knew about Half Moon and Full Moon and I thought that was it. Boy, was I wrong. All of the parties leading up to the Full Moon Party start so late. At our hostel, Happy Hour was at 10 PM and they had a recording of what sounded like a WWF announcer, with a 5 second countdown “In FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, ITS HHHAAAAPPPPPYYYYY HHOOOUUURRR!!!! NOW COME TO THE BAR AND GET YOUR BUCKETS!” It was so ridiculous, but so funny. It cracked me up every time I heard it. Happy hour consisted of buy one bucket get one free. After that week, I never want to see a bucket or drink red bull ever again. Its how we started off every single night, Red Bull buckets. They don’t just have normal Red Bull like back in the states. This stuff is serious. It’s like normal Red Bull on speed. It’s called M-150. I didn’t sleep a whole lot while I was there because of this stuff. So, happy hour would start at 10pm, which means we wouldn’t actually go to the parties until about 12:30 or 1 am. That was so strange to me, but I eventually got used to it. The pre-parties at the hostel were always fun! There was a lot to do there. They had pool tables, ping-pong tables, beer pong tournaments, a pool, video games, and we decided to play drinking games with cards. We had SO. MUCH. FUN. Evan, the lawyer from New York, introduced us to Horse Racing. That game was incredibly fun! Then, I also played a different version of Kings that an Italian girl introduced me to, also so much fun! Finally, comes the Full Moon Party that was on Saturday night. It was massive! It consists of a huge party on the beach. There are tons of stages set up with different kinds of music playing at each stage, with a crowds of people dressed in neon and fluorescent paint, dancing at each stage! If you didn’t like the music at one stage, you could walk down the beach a little bit and find a different stage with different music. I actually met another girl from Indiana! She was from Indianapolis, which is insane! We immediately became friends and come to find out later that she is also a nurse!! It was so strange how random it was meeting her. After that I instantly lost my crew, which sucked. I spent the whole rest of the night trying to find them! Haha! I was fine, Mom! Don’t worry I wasn’t really alone, I ran into some people I knew. I tried doing a fire jump rope, which wasn’t smart. Haha! I was terrible at it… but everyone else was too. It was quite difficult. I fell onto the burning rope immediately, frantically trying to get up off the flames. I succeeded and did not burn myself, thank god! After that I lost my flip-flops. Woops! Then I found a huge water slide that I just HAD to go down. The slide was really fun, but then my shorts were wet for the rest of the night. At the top of the slide, I ran into one of the Canadians I had met in Koh Samui, so he took a video of me going down the slide! That one will have to come out at some point. I am going to try to get it from him somehow. After that my night was pretty much over. I went back to the hostel. I still hadn’t gone to sleep yet and it was quite entertaining seeing taxis packed full of people in the beds of their trucks coming back to our hostel and the one next door. At 8 AM it was like a party all over again. Full Moon Party really does go all night long, but goes by so fast!! That day a lot of my friends were going home L… it’s so sad to see people that you have become so close with leave. You never know if you will see them again and that is the sad part.

After all that I was feeling really lazy, dirty, and just plain exhausted. A lot of the people from our hostel were going to Koh Tao, so I decided to do the same. I got a nicer resort for a little R&R. I have spent most of my time in my hotel room watching movies. It’s been very nice actually, after a crazy week like I had in Koh Phangan. I believe I’m going to stay here in Koh Tao for a couple more nights, hang out with Shelly, then make my way to the other coast and visit Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta, and then catch a flight to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. I think I’m almost fully recovered. Haha!

I miss everyone back home so much. I think about all my friends and family a lot! I am really enjoying traveling solo, but sometimes I wish I had someone who actually knows who I am and what I’ve been through. But that passes and I know I have to buck up! I have two more months of this! I am so looking forward to Northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia! I have lots of exciting things planned!

Strong All Along

tess311 — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 20:54:00 GMT

Don’t worry. I’m still alive.

Koh Tao was amazing. I loved it. Shelly did a wonderful job at keeping me entertained. So, thank you, Shelly!

I left Koh Tao on Sunday and took a boat to Koh Samui, another island, which is where I am at currently. Koh Samui is nice. I like the hostel. It is way easier to meet people at this hostel than it was at my hostel in Bangkok. I met 3 Canadians, two guys and a girl who are all lovely. I went out with them last night and we had a really good time!

It’s still unreal to me that I am even doing this. Sometimes when I am traveling to my next stop, trying to figure things out, I get small bursts of feelings of terror from the realization of being all by myself…. on the complete other side of the world from my friends and family. It usually doesn’t last long, and I can talk myself down from it. It was comforting being with Shelly for a few days. It sort of took that feeling away. But, now I’m back to being on my own and try to figure this shit out. I came to Koh Samui to go to the immigration office to extend my stay another 30 days, which takes a lot of stress off. It was quite an interesting experience doing that. Thanks again to Shelly, for telling me how to do it! I would not have been able to figure that out by myself. Quite confusing.

I am staying in Koh Samui for one more night, then it is off to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party! I think the Canadians are staying in my same hostel there so I will actually have some people that I trust to go with. Full Moon Party is huge. I think its like 70,000 people or something. Lots of craziness happens. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be good. I think I might dive while I’m there so I can check out Sail Rock, which we did not get to dive while I was with Shelly. It was too wavy or something.

I’m still trying to get used to the driving on the left side of the road. The worst part is trying to cross the street. It takes me about 20 minutes to get across due to looking both ways so many times because I can’t figure out which way the cars are going to come from. It’s very confusing. I almost got killed in Bangkok due to looking the wrong way, so now I think I’m traumatized. I look both ways a million times just to be absolutely sure. Scooters are everywhere, and it’s terrifying.

I am having a great time so far, and I am enjoying being on my own. I still miss the comfort of home sometimes, but it fades. Its sort of like a rollercoaster ride of emotions, doing this on my own.

"Strong all along. Strong all along. Come to find out the arm of the truth is long." 311 song. Look it up.

Photos soon to come.

I am off to hunt for food. I’ll be back.

Koh Tao!

tess311 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 21:41:00 GMT

My last day in Bangkok was a success. I met a guy from New York (I think) who is a reality TV show producer! He has done shows like LA Ink and some others that I can’t remember. He was very nice and let me hang out with him for the day while I was trying to kill time before I had to get on a bus to Koh Tao at 6 pm. We went to a snake farm in Bangkok that was actually very neat. We got to see them handle the snakes and my favorite was watching them handle the King Cobra. I did not realize how big those things are! I even got to hold a Ball Python! I will post pics later on. Then we went to a couple more temples I hadn’t seen yet, which are always cool. Then I got on the bus and made my way to Koh Tao. Thankfully, I missed all the bomb drama that happened in Bangkok that night after I left! Glad I left when I did! Scary stuff.

It took about 8 hours on the bus, then I had to wait 2 and a half hours for the ferry, then the ferry was three hours to Koh Tao. I was freaking exhausted. The ferry was infested with cockroaches. It. Was. Disgusting. I wanted to sleep so bad, but couldn’t from the fear of a cockroach crawling on my face or something. They kept crawling on my feet. Ew.

Once I finally got to Koh Tao all was good. I made it to the resort and met up with Shelly. She has shown me a good time so far. I feel like I’m on the inside because I get to hang out with all the dive instructors! They are all good people. I like every single one of them so far. We didn’t waste any time getting me started on my certification. I am Shelly’s only student for this course so we have been doing a speed course so I could get into the water sooner! I went on my first open water dive yesterday to a so-so site right off the island. I thought it was amazing anyway since it was my first dive. Today we went to an even better site and it was beautiful! As of just a few minutes ago I took my last tests and am now a Certified Open Water Diver! Woo Hoo! I did it!! Haha! SCUBA diving is freaking exhausting. I am so drained after diving for two days. I think its amazing, don’t get me wrong, but I am so glad I have a day off tomorrow to relax and lay around by the pool or beach drinking beer! However, Saturday we are going to Sail Rock, which is supposedly the best dive site in Koh Tao! I can see how excited Shelly is about it, so it must be good. I will let you know how it goes and post pics from my GoPro later.

Anyways, enough about diving for now. I plan on going to a few of the other islands when I leave here on Sunday. I am sort of excited about being on my own again. I love being here with Shelly and all, but I am sort of on her schedule. Not that that’s a bad thing! She is showing me the ropes and all the ways of life on Koh Tao, and I am thankful for that! I’m just excited for my next journeys.

The food has been fantastic! Shelly introduced me to these Mango shakes and I am hooked. They are so amazing. I could probably drink three of them in one setting, no problem.

Okay I lied. More about diving. I forgot to mention, Shelly and I had a videographer film us on our dive today from beginning to end. We are silly and it should be good. We are going to try to get it posted on Facebook so keep your eyes peeled! It will be good J

I am about to go watch the video now, so I’m out. I will keep in touch!

Oh, the Heat!

tess311 — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 19:56:00 GMT

Did I mention that it is HOT AS HELL here? I mean, my goodness. I thought I could handle the heat, but it is pretty unbearable. I didn't think I was that much of a sweater but oh was I wrong. I don't understand how everyone else isn't as sweaty as I am.

I have been venturing out by myself that past couple days and it's been nice. It's nice not having to follow the group or go where everyone else wants to go. Even though yesterday I got so lost. I wandered out to get some food and to do a little shopping. I ended up at this little restaurant on the street that was very delicious. There was a woman sitting by herself next to me and she asked the owner for the wifi password, he told her it was broken. She threw a fit about it and was very rude. I wasn't even going to ask since it was "broken". He then came up to me and "psst, you want the wifi password?" under his breath! Haha! of course I said yes and he gave it to me without the other woman knowing. I felt special. I don't know why he didn't want her to have it. Then a guy from Austria, and a girl from Germany came up and sat next to me. They had been traveling Cambodia and were on their way to Koh Phangan and island near Koh Tao where I am heading tomorrow. They were very nice people. He had a guitar with him and the owner of the restaurant asked him to play a few tunes. He was not bad. Then Max, the owner asked to play and he played a few familiar songs like Oasis and the Chili Peppers. Then Max started to do card tricks which was very entertaining. He was good. I drank my first Chang beer here. It was... not bad. Not like the ice cold beer at home!

After hanging with Max, the Austrian, and the German for a while, I started to make my way home. Did I mention that all the streets look the exact same? I got lost. Very lost. Its hard to remember which direction you came from after making so many turns and all the streets looking the exact same. Its market after market, street vendor after street vendor. I somehow managed to pass up my turn to the hostel and went about 2 miles out of my way. Finally I found someone who spoke very little english and he pointed me in the right direction. It is so easy to get lost here. I forgot what it was like to not have gps to rely on. WiFi has been my saviour since I've been here, though.

I was going to go out last night with the girls from England. They were going to the Sky Bar which was in Hangover 2, and pretty fancy for here. I had all intentions of going and of course while they were getting ready I passed completely out. Charlotte said she even tried waking me up, and I didn't budge. It must have been from all that walking and sweating! I. Was. Exhausted. So much for experiencing the nightlife in Bangkok! I am really not that interested anyways.

Today I went out by myself again. Got some Pad Thai for the first time since I've been here. It was delicious, obviously. i did a lot of shopping today too. Everything is so cheap and you can always talk them down. Sometimes it doesn't seem cheap because 100 baht equals $2.84, it seems like a lot when you hand over two 100 baht bills, but its really not. I went into a converse store today and was in heaven! Chucks for days! I should have taken a picture because it was beautiful. I wanted to buy them all.

I thought I was lost again on my way home, but I knew if I kept walking I would eventually find something familiar. I kept making mental notes of different businesses when I would pass so I would know I was going the right way when going back. And this coffee shop sign that I got a picture of is my saviour for getting me back to my hostel every time.

There was some kind of bike event going on today and I have never seen so many bikes in my entire life.. It went on for miles. I got a picture of it.

Sorry if I'm boring. Nothing too exciting has happened yet.

Anyways tomorrow its off to Koh Tao. I am so ready for the beach. I. Can't. Wait.

Ta-ta for now!

City of Bangkok

tess311 — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 15:32:00 GMT

Well I think I am finally getting the hang of things. Yesterday morning at breakfast I met Charlotte, a girl from England. I ended up venturing out with her and Brittany a girl from Nashville who now lives in China, along with another guy who lives in China, but I can't remember his name, it was something crazy Chinese. Whoops. Anyways, we went out on the town to a few Buddhist temples, saw a really big buddha, rode tuk tuks, shopped, ate, and did a whole lotta walking. Thank you Chacos! I ended up getting back to the hostel around 4 and of course immediately passed out after not getting a wink of sleep last night due to sleeping all day. And of course I passed out the entire night once again. I missed dinner and going out and all that. Oh well. I'm not worried. I took a couple nyquil to help me sleep through the night last night and it helped a little.

I went out today with Charlotte and her 3 friends all from England for a little bit to see the giant swing, which was pretty anticlimactic. After that we had already walked so much and it was so hot, I decided to come back to the hostel. I ended up taking a tuk tuk by myself and the driver had no idea where my hostel was so I told him it was close to Koh San Road and he took me there. I was a little nervous trying to find my way back by myself, but I managed. Almost everything is written in Thai. Sometimes if you're lucky it will have english sub titles. I decided to look around and do a little shopping on my own before making my way back, which was nice. Those English girls can be hard to understand with those thick accents, even though they are speaking English. I have heard more accents in the past two days than I ever have in my life. Its quite entertaining actually. I think my favorite so far is the Italian I met. On another point, language barriers are....difficult. Not fun at all. I think I'm getting better communicating when there is a language barrier, but probably not.

I actually plan on staying awake tonight to experience the night life. I have not drank a beer or anything at that since I've been here. Very unlike me. Haha. I'll let you know how that goes later on.

I heard someone in the hostel listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers really loud the other day. I wanted to go hang out with those guys but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was coming from. It was nice to hear some familiar music. And good music at that!

I decided to go down to the islands to see Shelly before she leaves in about a month, so I will get to Koh Tao to see her on Tuesday, which is her birthday! She gets to teach me how to dive! I am more than excited. I like Bangkok, but I'm ready to move on.

Keep an eye on my pictures! I'm posting as I go.

Love, Love, Love!

Here Hostel Day 1

tess311 — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 22:37:00 GMT

Well I guess you would consider my first day a success, although very uneventful. I woke up in this strange little coop of a bunk bed with a curtain for privacy, for a moment not remembering where I was. It was about 7:30 and I knew I wanted to shower so bad after over 24 hours of traveling. I laid in bed for about an hour contemplating whether I wanted to brave going downstairs to the bathroom to shower, where other people are also showering, or just lay in bed some more. It felt so strange being here, still does actually. I finally mustered up the nerve and went to take a shower. I knew I wanted to eat something as well, so after I was ready I went walking around. I am still trying to figure out how everything works around here. I feel like a complete moron. So, I went outside and noticed some food vendors right outside the hostel. I thought this was where everyone else was getting their food, so I went to the next vendor about 20 feet away and chose chicken curry over rice, (the fried fish heads at the initial vendor were not looking very appealing). They made me sit down with them at this tiny picnic table to eat. Thats when I realized everyone else was not getting their food here. They were actually serving breakfast in the hostel. Doh! It was okay though. The man offered me a coca cola that I was very happy about because that shit was spicy! I was even happier when he brought me a glass bottle of coke :). So, I gobbled that all up and went back into the hostel where you are not allowed to wear shoes. They are very strict about this too. I felt weird leaving my sandals right outside the door, along with about 40 other pairs, but now its not a big deal. There are young people everywhere. I haven't really spoke to anyone yet besides the desk workers.

After all this I decided to go back to my bunk to chill out and soak it all in for a bit. I contemplated back and forth walking to the market that's not far away for something to do, then I decided against it and just relax. I began reading a book from my kindle and eventually just passed out. I fell asleep around 11:30 and when I woke up it was 6:00 pm. Hah! I must have been tired and just didn't know it from all the exhilaration and getting adjusted to the time difference. I contemplated for a while, once again, whether to go downstairs or not, after hearing lots of laughter coming from down there. I finally mustered up the nerve and went downstairs for abour twenty minutes, then it was right back up to the comfort of my coop. I am not really worried about being antisocial or anything at this point. I mean, it is only day 1. It takes time to get settled and feel comfortable. Maybe tomorrow will be different. Who knows?

Photos: Digital SEA

tess311 — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:53:00 GMT

Adventures in Southeast Asia

Venture on!

tess311 — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 19:26:00 GMT

So, here I sit, 5:30 am, about to embark on the biggest journey of my life. After 5 months of research and planning, the time has finally come. I am traveling to the other side of the world for adeventure, self-awareness, pleasure, to gain insight to another culture, and for just plain fun. I have never felt so sure of something in my entire life. Well, up until right this second. I'm not really nervous, just indifferent. I'm sitting here not knowing what the hell to expect, even after the vast amount of research. I've been cooped up in little ol' Washington, IN my entire life. Not that thats a bad thing. I love my home town. I love all my best friends and family, and I will miss them so much. I will be gone for three months. The longest I've ever been away from home.

This year has been the best year of my entire life, after traveling a little bit of the United States, and going on 2 different Carribean Cruises. Now its about to get even better.

This blog will be here to share all my thoughts and experiences while on this journey. So, stay tuned, my friends.

Love to all!

"Venture on. The sketch is not completely drawn. Travel wide. Its not hiding inside. Its out beyond the Great Divide." -311