Christmas!

Well, Brent and I have survived Christmas 2007! We had our first real experience of trying to spend the holidays with both families - the fiasco that all of my married friends used to to talk about. It was well worth trying to "do it all." We got to visit my family out in Baltimore, Maryland for about 5 days, and then flew out on the 24th to get back here to Oregon to do Christmas morning with Brent's family. The gifts we hauled all over Asia were well worth it. It seemed everyone appreciated a token of our trip, and it was fun to share some of the trip with them in that way.

Good News!

We wanted to announce to all of our faithful blog readers that on November 24th the beauty and romance of Thailand got the better of Brent, and he asked me to marry him... I said yes!

THE END

8 months travelling abroad, to the day. Not bad.

Leah and I board a flight to Seoul, Korea late tonight. We'll have a 9 hour layover, fly to Seattle, and then on to Portland. Wow, it's going to feel great and a little wierd to be home.

We'll try to keep this blog going for a while to keep those interested informed of where we decide to settle and work. Where to settle and work.....that's a BIG unanswered question.

New Member of the Family!

Say hello to Brent's new niece, Dyllyn McCrea Howell.

Congratulations Scott, Alex, and Bodey!!!

Back from Paradise

Wow, Leah and I never had it so good.

Descriptions of our great little bungalow right on the beach, crystal clear water, white sand, snorkeling, and all the curry and fruit you can eat are soon to follow.......

Ok, so I know we haven't written about our Himalayan trek yet, but since it's fresh in my mind, I'll write of our recent time bumming-it in Southern Thailand. Upon our arrival in Bangkok, we immediately set out to find a nice, quiet island off the main tourist track. Many hours of internet later, we decided on Ko Lipe (pronounced "leepay"). It required a 17 hour overnight train ride to Hat Yai near the Malaysian border, a 3 hour minibus drive to the port town of Pak Barra on the west coast, a 3 1/2 hour ferry to just off-shore of the island, and finally a 10 minute longtail boat (the local form of transport) to shore. A bit tired once we arrived to say the least. We were saying to each other the whole way, "I hope this island is worth it". It was. I told Leah in China, when she was trying to talk me into ending our trip in Thailand, that it sounded good to me as long as we found a semi-secluded island with a simple bungalow right off the beach. We found exactly that. In fact, of all the places to stay on the island, we think we found the best spot (for us). See photo above. It turns out there was some developed touristy stuff on the island, but it was on the other side and we didn't have to include ourselves in it unless we wanted to. Perfect.

Our time on the island consisted of waking up before it got really warm, walking to the village to get a great breakfast, buying some fruit for later, walking back to our bungalow and going for a swim, lay around for most of the day (Leah would read about the horrors of Mao on the beach in the shade while I would comb the beach for pretty shells and ponder making jewelry out of them), go get some great curry dish for lunch, a little snorkeling around the corral reef, shower to cool off and eat our fruit we bought earlier, more laying around and messing with shells, watch the beautiful sunset, go out for dinner and get some more great curry, lay in our hammocks on our porch and read, climb under our mosquito net and go to bed. Repeat over and over again. Really rough life.

Some highlights (good and bad) include:

- The food! I love Thai food and perhaps ate more than I should knowing that it will be a rare treat back in the States.

- The snorkeling! Lots of little Nemos and his friends.

- Finding out that I'm allergic to mango! Turns out it makes my lips and face get all itchy and bumpy.

- Meeting our new friends Laurie and Eddy.

- Having absolutely nothing to worry about, while knowing that very soon we will have plenty to worry about.

- Sleeping 10 feet off the beach in our cozy bungalow.

- Spiders the size of your fist (not kidding) in our shower\toilet room! A bit spooky when you need to "go" in the middle of the night.

- Sun burns.

- Making shell jewelry.

- Sand-in-sandals-induced feet sores.

- Fresh fruit.....tiny bananas packed with flavor, watermellon, and Leah cracking into coconuts. Wow, watching her tear into one of those reminds you to stay on her good side.

Recovering in Thailand

20 consecutive days on the trail in the Himalaya can really take it out of ya. What better way to recover than on a beach in Thailand. Decided on the island Ko Lipe off the west coast of southern Thailand. Will be a bit of a chore trying to get there, but hopefully it will be worth it. Supposed to be a bit off the beaten track.

We have purchased our plane tickets back to the good'ole USA. Flying out of Bangkok on December 1.