Vacationmania!

We're back from our visa run in Hong Kong and our lovely vacation in Thailand! Enjoy the pics!

MACAU

Our first day of vacation, we went to the old Portugese colony of Macau. As you see in the yellow Cathedral, there were many beautiful architectural buildings. Where's John - hint - he's got Starbucks in his hand!!!

Another treasure we found while in Macau - that John especially got a kick out of - was the "ObaMao" shirts! These were mass produced on his last visit to Asia and was made as a compliment, but I think that many Americans took it a bit differently! Enough said.

While there, we even made it to the 10th tallest tower in the world! It cost money to go up, but we did watch some people bungy jump off the top!


Hong Kong

Next we did a bit of traveling around Hong Kong while our visas were processing. We couldn't wait for Thailand to go to the beach, so we made our way down to the bay. The water was too cold to swim in, but nice on the feet. The sun felt SOO warm to us!

Here's a shot of us in this cool tree down by the beach. The camera was set on Dana's sandal and timed. I think this is take number 5 or 6! At least we were entertainment to some bystanders!

One of the days we took the metro to what is called the mid-level escalators. It is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. Near the top we stopped and had some amazing Greek food and after did a bit of shopping.

Northern Thailand

Then we made our way further south to Northern Thailand and stayed with some friends that are working down there. Wouldn't mind working down there ourselves. So beautiful, and ethnic. Here we are enjoying our strawbetty shakes (they were like drinking a strawberry) at a German restaraunt. You know we ate brauts with kraut.

One day we went to what is called an Elephant Camp. There are these super cute elephants that are so smart. They play the harmonica, soccer, and paint! We even got to do a one hour jungle trek on one of them!

Here we are enjoying the show drinking delicious coconut milk. (You were right, Justin - delicious!) The cool thing was that after we drank it, we were able to feed them to the elephants. They crushed the coconut like it was a banana - no problem. Such a loud noise. They're such strong animals.

After the elephants we went to the butterfly orchid and ate a Thai lunch. Arn't the orchids beautiful?

Later we went soaring through the jungle by ropes.... ziplining! Here we are getting ready to propel about 150 feet down. It was a blast! The tour guides didn't quite understand why John kept screaming so high, but it sure made us laugh!

After ziplining, we did a little hike up to a waterfall. What an unbelievably beautiful area.

Southern Thailand

Finally we made it to the beach area. The first day we went to arguably the best rock climbing in the world - Railay Beach. What a blast! Other than a slight puncture on John's knee, we were really sore the next day!

Our lives were in the hands of this small man. See the size difference?

Here's Dana nearing the top!

One of the guides had a baby monkey in his pouch. This little guy smelt banana being eaten from yards away by another tourist and came climing up his leg to get some. He was so cute!

There are so many small islands all over the place down there. We got to travel on a speed boat to the Ko Phi Phi Islands where we saw where the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed (horrible movie, breath-taking setting) as well as many other spots.

They replaced this beach sand with flour... or so it seemed. It was really something you dream about. White sandy beaches with warm and clear blue water. AMAZING!

Don't worry about this sign. The waves were even too small to boogy board - but the snorkling was amazing. We saw 3 little Nemo fish on an anemone as well as a few large Dora's. We saw a jelly fish briefly, little sword fish, and some sea urchins (yes, Michelle, the spiky black kind that your hand got very familiar with before). Other than John's back becoming red as a beet, it was a blast.

You can say that we got a good fill of hard playing, as well as some good rest and relaxation time down there.

On our island tour, we briefly stopped on Monkey Beach - no explanation necessary. We saw so many monkeys down there. One day we got some Subway sandwhiches (yummy!) to go and were going to have a picnic. John went scoping out a place to settle while Dana watched the stuff. All the sudden a couple monkies came out of the jungle and straight for Dana! She grabbed the bag with the seeds and the sandwhiches, but didn't have enough arms for the rest of our coconut shakes... those dirty theives took them and drank the rest right in front of her! Grr... savages!

We even got to see Chicken Island on our way back. Cool, huh?

Our last day we went sea kayaking where we saw even more monkies. We're now back home fully clothed. Dana's hands and feet are back to their usual cold and turning blue, while John's back is in the gross peeling process. We had so much fun, but it sure feels good to be back home.