Hello, hello! We are just finishing up our first week in Thailand, and what a week it has been! We have spent the whole week in the Chiang Mai area in the northern part of the country, and we have enjoyed being REAL tourists. It's amazing how far your money can go here! Much farther than in New Zealand, that's for sure. We can stay at nice hostels with air conditioning, eat out every meal, go on tours, and SHOP! And we have done all of those things...
I don't have time to write about it now, unfortunately, but check out my pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy .
We are catching a train this afternoon that will take us all the way down south to a town called Chumphon. From there, we will catch a boat that will take us to Ko Tao, our island beach paradise for the next two weeks. We've had our dose of culture, and now we are ready to do what we came here to do - relax, and stop with the worry and hustle and bustle of traveling!
Hope you are all well! Much love.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Ending, Beginning
During the last three months – our months on the road – we have kept a joint journal, tracking where we’ve spent each night and some highlights of our day. We decided to tally up a few things yesterday, which I’ll share with you here.
93 - days on the road
45 – nights spent in a tent
12 – nights spent in a Department of Conservation hut
13 – nights spent in a hostel
23 – nights spent in a homestay
392 – kilometers hiked
12,000 – kilometers put on Betty from September to May – wow!
We have driven and camped and walked the hell out of this country! We have eaten breakfast next to lakes and rivers, in the middle of rainforests, on the tops of mountains. We have sat on beaches, drinking wine; we have eaten dinner by flashlight, huddled in the car on a rainy night. We have hiked ourselves into isolation and enjoyed quiet nights by a campfire. We have met farmers and hunters and horse breeders and shop owners. We have tried our hand at shearing sheep, planting gardens, and breaking in horses. We have seen cows and goats and horses and pigs and all manner of crazy birds, as well as endless sheep. We have learned the names of native plants and trees. We have collected a whole jar worth of rocks from special places here and there. We have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. We have grieved for loved ones in far away places.
We have seen the real New Zealand. I am certain of that. And I’ve become attached to this place in a way I didn’t know I would. It has sunk in, as we’ve been trying to get all of our stuff packed up, that we’ve LIVED here, not just visited. I feel, in some ways, like we are in the middle of a move. We have said goodbye to Bettty, our beloved car, to Bob and Black Chair, our camping chairs, to the cups and bowls we’ve eaten out of every day. And every little thing I’m having to say goodbye to is making me sad! But, as Bjorn told me last night, you can’t have a beginning without first having an end. So true.
Today is our last day in New Zealand. Tomorrow, just after lunch, we will board our plane for Bangkok. One adventure ends; another begins.
I have no idea what to expect in Thailand. We bought the Thailand Lonely Planet a couple of days ago and have been trying to get ourselves organized and to get our heads in a new mindset! I am trying to brace myself for the experience of being in a really foreign country, where English is not the first language, and where I stand out terribly just based on the color of my skin and hair.
We’re getting into Bankok around 9:30 PM on Friday, and then we are getting on an early shmearly flight the next morning for Chiang Mai, in the northern provinces. (I know you all, like me, probably know nothing about Thailand, so it’s time to get out your maps!) Chiang Mai is supposed to be a cultural mecca, full of ancient ruins, Buddhist temples, museums, and classes! Apparently one of the big tourist activities is taking these day-long culture classes – on Thai cooking, Thai massage, meditation, etc. How cool! You better believe we’re taking a cooking class! Anyway, we’ll probably spend about half our time there and then hurry down to Ko Tao or Ko Chiang for some serious beaching. I’ll keep you posted.
And I will! But I won’t have my laptop anymore, and I don’t know how available internet will be. But I’ll be back.
Hope everyone is well! Much, much love.
Goodbye, New Zealand.
93 - days on the road
45 – nights spent in a tent
12 – nights spent in a Department of Conservation hut
13 – nights spent in a hostel
23 – nights spent in a homestay
392 – kilometers hiked
12,000 – kilometers put on Betty from September to May – wow!
We have driven and camped and walked the hell out of this country! We have eaten breakfast next to lakes and rivers, in the middle of rainforests, on the tops of mountains. We have sat on beaches, drinking wine; we have eaten dinner by flashlight, huddled in the car on a rainy night. We have hiked ourselves into isolation and enjoyed quiet nights by a campfire. We have met farmers and hunters and horse breeders and shop owners. We have tried our hand at shearing sheep, planting gardens, and breaking in horses. We have seen cows and goats and horses and pigs and all manner of crazy birds, as well as endless sheep. We have learned the names of native plants and trees. We have collected a whole jar worth of rocks from special places here and there. We have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. We have grieved for loved ones in far away places.
We have seen the real New Zealand. I am certain of that. And I’ve become attached to this place in a way I didn’t know I would. It has sunk in, as we’ve been trying to get all of our stuff packed up, that we’ve LIVED here, not just visited. I feel, in some ways, like we are in the middle of a move. We have said goodbye to Bettty, our beloved car, to Bob and Black Chair, our camping chairs, to the cups and bowls we’ve eaten out of every day. And every little thing I’m having to say goodbye to is making me sad! But, as Bjorn told me last night, you can’t have a beginning without first having an end. So true.
Today is our last day in New Zealand. Tomorrow, just after lunch, we will board our plane for Bangkok. One adventure ends; another begins.
I have no idea what to expect in Thailand. We bought the Thailand Lonely Planet a couple of days ago and have been trying to get ourselves organized and to get our heads in a new mindset! I am trying to brace myself for the experience of being in a really foreign country, where English is not the first language, and where I stand out terribly just based on the color of my skin and hair.
We’re getting into Bankok around 9:30 PM on Friday, and then we are getting on an early shmearly flight the next morning for Chiang Mai, in the northern provinces. (I know you all, like me, probably know nothing about Thailand, so it’s time to get out your maps!) Chiang Mai is supposed to be a cultural mecca, full of ancient ruins, Buddhist temples, museums, and classes! Apparently one of the big tourist activities is taking these day-long culture classes – on Thai cooking, Thai massage, meditation, etc. How cool! You better believe we’re taking a cooking class! Anyway, we’ll probably spend about half our time there and then hurry down to Ko Tao or Ko Chiang for some serious beaching. I’ll keep you posted.
And I will! But I won’t have my laptop anymore, and I don’t know how available internet will be. But I’ll be back.
Hope everyone is well! Much, much love.
Goodbye, New Zealand.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Goodbye, Betty
Hello, hello! We have reached our final destination of Auckland! And, by some miracle, we have also managed to get Betty sold!
We had posted her on a website here similar to Craigslist several weeks ago, but we'd had very few inquiries. But all you need is that ONE inquiry! We had an email from a lady named Sonnia, inquiring on behalf of someone that was WWOOFing for her, who was a backpacker, freshly landed in NZ, and eager to get on the road! We received this email on Friday, and wrote right back saying we'd be in Auckland the next day and would be more than happy to show the car as soon as we got in.
Well, the following day, when we were about an hour outside of Auckland, we decided to make a pit stop to check our email (we had stupidly forgotten to get the address of the hostel we'd booked for ourselves). We had a reply from Sonnia, saying they were in a town about 45 minutes from Auckland, and if it was on our way, maybe we could stop by! We called Sonnia immediately, and it turned out we were quite close by to her home.
Our potential buyer was Nico, a 30-something German guy who was going to be spending a year here, basically doing what Bjorn and I have done. He was just what we needed. He really just wanted a CAR. Didn't have to be fancy, didn't have to be nice, just needed to be able to lay himself down in the back if he wanted to sleep. Nico and Bjorn went out for a test drive, and within 20 minutes of our arrival, we'd shaken hands. We would sell Betty to Nico for $1100, which, considering we bought her for $1550 eight months ago, is GREAT for us. We are thrilled.
We knew it was really right - destined to be, in fact - when we heard Nico giving his birth date over the phone to the car insurance people. March 16 - same as Bjorn! So Betty gets another Pisces owner. Wonderful!
We finished off all the paperwork, and then Nico drove us the short distance into Auckland and dropped us off at our hostel door, which was exactly what we needed, considering we still had all our crap in it. We shuffled everything into our sufficiently large room here, again shook hands with Nico, and said goodbye to Betty. What a good girl she was. I hope Nico has as much fun with her as we did.
So we arrived in Auckland on a Saturday and didn't have to attend the Sunday morning car fair at all! Of course, now we're sort of in limbo. We don't have any means of transportation, and well, we don't really have anywhere to go anyway. So we are just hanging around Auckland until our departure on Friday. We're exploring the city a bit, catching up on our movie-watching, reading up on Thailand, and trying to get packed!
We luckily had the foresight to check the weight limit on checked luggage for our flight to Bangkok, and realized we were limited to 44 pounds per person. That's not much for an international flight. So now we are going to ship a box full of crapola to Sweden, including my laptop. It's a slight hassle, but, it would be more of a hassle having all that stuff with us in Thailand. A traveller with too much baggage is a vulnerable traveller, I think. So just backpacks for us again!
Okay, we are now off to see Slumdog Millionaire. I'm excited. Check out my recent pictures (though there aren't too many). I realized, as I was posting the most recent album, that I had never made the last album public. So sorry about that! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy
Hope everyone is well! Much love.
We had posted her on a website here similar to Craigslist several weeks ago, but we'd had very few inquiries. But all you need is that ONE inquiry! We had an email from a lady named Sonnia, inquiring on behalf of someone that was WWOOFing for her, who was a backpacker, freshly landed in NZ, and eager to get on the road! We received this email on Friday, and wrote right back saying we'd be in Auckland the next day and would be more than happy to show the car as soon as we got in.
Well, the following day, when we were about an hour outside of Auckland, we decided to make a pit stop to check our email (we had stupidly forgotten to get the address of the hostel we'd booked for ourselves). We had a reply from Sonnia, saying they were in a town about 45 minutes from Auckland, and if it was on our way, maybe we could stop by! We called Sonnia immediately, and it turned out we were quite close by to her home.
Our potential buyer was Nico, a 30-something German guy who was going to be spending a year here, basically doing what Bjorn and I have done. He was just what we needed. He really just wanted a CAR. Didn't have to be fancy, didn't have to be nice, just needed to be able to lay himself down in the back if he wanted to sleep. Nico and Bjorn went out for a test drive, and within 20 minutes of our arrival, we'd shaken hands. We would sell Betty to Nico for $1100, which, considering we bought her for $1550 eight months ago, is GREAT for us. We are thrilled.
We knew it was really right - destined to be, in fact - when we heard Nico giving his birth date over the phone to the car insurance people. March 16 - same as Bjorn! So Betty gets another Pisces owner. Wonderful!
We finished off all the paperwork, and then Nico drove us the short distance into Auckland and dropped us off at our hostel door, which was exactly what we needed, considering we still had all our crap in it. We shuffled everything into our sufficiently large room here, again shook hands with Nico, and said goodbye to Betty. What a good girl she was. I hope Nico has as much fun with her as we did.
So we arrived in Auckland on a Saturday and didn't have to attend the Sunday morning car fair at all! Of course, now we're sort of in limbo. We don't have any means of transportation, and well, we don't really have anywhere to go anyway. So we are just hanging around Auckland until our departure on Friday. We're exploring the city a bit, catching up on our movie-watching, reading up on Thailand, and trying to get packed!
We luckily had the foresight to check the weight limit on checked luggage for our flight to Bangkok, and realized we were limited to 44 pounds per person. That's not much for an international flight. So now we are going to ship a box full of crapola to Sweden, including my laptop. It's a slight hassle, but, it would be more of a hassle having all that stuff with us in Thailand. A traveller with too much baggage is a vulnerable traveller, I think. So just backpacks for us again!
Okay, we are now off to see Slumdog Millionaire. I'm excited. Check out my recent pictures (though there aren't too many). I realized, as I was posting the most recent album, that I had never made the last album public. So sorry about that! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy
Hope everyone is well! Much love.
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