Quick Travel Update

Hi friends and family,

I'm writing a quick post to catch you up to real time. At some point I intend to write longer posts about the adventures we've had since Bangkok, which is the last place I blogged about (see that post here). However, I'm about to be living out of a camper van in the South Island of New Zealand for the next 12+ days, so I'm doubtful I'll have the ability to write posts during that time. To keep the blog somewhat up-to-date, I wanted to give a quick rundown of the places Mel and I have been, with more complete stories coming later.

After Bangkok, we traveled north to Khao Yai ("big hills" in Thai) National Park for three days. The park was fun, but it was a lot of hassle to get up there and it was in a local town, making it difficult to get around because many people didn't speak English. We rented motorbikes for a few days to make getting around easier and explored the park for a couple nights.

Next, we went to Koh Phangan, a lovely tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand, famous for it's full moon parties. We stayed in the party town of Haad Rin and soaked up the sun for six days. The island is beautiful with stunning beaches all over; even the main beach in Haad Rin was incredible. The interior has plenty of lush jungle, as the island hasn't been developed much. The island always has parties going on, all building up to the Full Moon Party. We enjoyed the calmer atmosphere of the beach the first few days we got there, and I personally liked that time more than the main party. Still, the Full Moon Party was really cool and we loved the island as a whole.

After Koh Phangan, we went to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for six days. Some travel sites and literature portray Chiang Mai as a quaint village, but it's a pretty built up city with over 125,000 residents. We didn't love the city itself, but we were able to more easily meet locals and have some authentic Thai experiences that were rarer in places like Koh Phi Phi. We were taken aback by the surrounding countryside. One place we loved was an elephant sanctuary near Doi Inthanon National Park, where we spent the day hiking, floating down the river on bamboo rafts, and playing with and caring for elephants.

From Chiang Mai, we flew through Singapore to Fiji. We've been absolutely washed out in Fiji with unrelenting rain. Our one big planned excursion was a day cruise to the Mamanuca islands (Fiji is composed of over 300 islands), but it got rained out. We haven't been able to see much besides the half touristy, half local town of Nadi, by the airport. Though we haven't seen as much nature as we would've liked, we've enjoyed our time here and are especially fond of the people. Everywhere we go, people smile and say bula (hello). Hotel staff, servers, taxi drivers, and locals we've met have all been outgoing and friendly, with some even inviting us to party at clubs.

That's a quick update for now - more to come later. The plan is to be in New Zealand for the next 12+ days. I'm still trying to figure out whether to spend all my time on the South Island or get up to the North Island for some of it. In early-mid March we'll head over to Australia for a few weeks, and that will probably be the last stop for me before heading home to Hawai'i. I'll write again when I have time, likely in a couple weeks. I'll do another short update like this before writing longer posts if I fall behind again. Thanks for reading. I love and miss you all.