Koalas!
More posts are on the way, but first we thought we would share with you a clip from the Healesville Sanctuary, a kind of zoo with only Australian animals - Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, platypuses, reptiles...
We shot this film at the koala enclosure. For once, we actually got to see the koalas move, make sounds and interact. They usually just sleep during most of the day (they spend 16-18 hours per day sleeping - ah, the good life), like the ones we saw in the Chiang Mai zoo.
Apparently this Koala thought it would be a good idea to play king of the hill (tree) and just claim the other koala's tree as its own. May seem a bit rude, but we liked the show they gave us! And obviously koalas grunt like wild boars when upset - otippat, as we say in swedish! :P
/M, C & L
We shot this film at the koala enclosure. For once, we actually got to see the koalas move, make sounds and interact. They usually just sleep during most of the day (they spend 16-18 hours per day sleeping - ah, the good life), like the ones we saw in the Chiang Mai zoo.
Apparently this Koala thought it would be a good idea to play king of the hill (tree) and just claim the other koala's tree as its own. May seem a bit rude, but we liked the show they gave us! And obviously koalas grunt like wild boars when upset - otippat, as we say in swedish! :P
/M, C & L
Last days in Asia
Yeah, we haven't been very good with the whole blogg part. Sorry, but really, one of the last things we want is to sit down and write for an hour on the computer. We have so many other things going on! But is was a long time ago now, so we'll try to be a little better.
Now we'll tell you about our last days in Thailand, Malaysia & Asia! It so happens that we're in Melbourne now. Oh yeah. But since you don't know what happened between Chiang Mai and Australia, we thought we might fill you in.
After Chiang Mai, we went to Koh Tao again. This is the island where Chris & Marcus got their diving certificates. The reason to go back? Cheap dives & Liz also wanted to get a diving certificate. We went to the same resort we stayed at the first time and got a sweet deal. We got free accomodation since Liz was doing her diving course. So while Liz started with her course, Chris & Marcus rented motorbikes and drove around the island in search of beatiful beaches.
We ended up staying in Koh Tao for 6 days. The diving course for Liz was supposed to take 4 days, but she first had problems to adapt to the whole underwater-breathing thing, but she did manage. However, right after that she got sick and couldn't finish the course. But she got a referral, so she can finish the rest somewhere else within a year. Chris, Marcus and Liz a few times went to a total of five different beaches. All of them with crystal clear, warm (29 degrees) water and many with beatiful white sand. We swam and snorkeled there for many hours and really enjoyed life in Koh Tao. Though Chris & Marcus were a bit slow with the diving thing. They ended up doing two fun dives, which was really great. Chris also did a Deep Dive the day after. Went down to 30m and loved it! Did get an ear infection for that, but still worth it!
One of the beautiful refuges we found.
The awesome beach by Shark Bay.
Shark bay, a sunbather's and snorkeler's paradise!
It really doesn't get much better than this! :D
Team Sweden, featuring Oz!
Chris on his way into the deep!
On saturday it was, however, time to leave Koh Tao. The time had come to say goodbye to Thailand. We had a flight from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) the 22nd, so we left Koh Tao on the 18th for Phuket. We had a flight from there to Kuala Lumpur early the 19th. It was (as usual) a dull bus ride, we arrived to Phuket around 9pm. Didn't have that much time to see anything at all, we just went for dinner and then to bed. The flight to Kuala Lumpur went well, we landed around 11am and quickly found a hostel. We stayed in Chinatown in KL and spend most of our time there. Walked around the markets, had some food and just chilled. We were supposed to go to Petronas Towers on monday (the 20th), but apparently, it is closed on mondays!
In our depression, we went to a shopping mall and spend a whopping 9 hours in there!!! It's not as bad as it sounds though. That time included both lunch and dinner plus a movie at the cinema in the shopping centre. We tried to go to Petronas early on tuesday, the same day we were leaving for Melbourne. We got there around 9am and the tickets were already sold out! Disappointed, we at least snapped some photos outside and then went to the airport.
Bros @ the Petronas Twin Towers.
The indoor rollercoaster @ the Times Square Mall, Kuala Lumpur. Insane!
That flight went well too. We're now in Melbourne. Today we're going to IKEA to buy swedish christmas food! We'll give you more updates of what we've been doing here in a couple of days. So to all of you, from all of us, a very merry christmas!
GOD JUL!!!
Chris, Liz and Marcus wishes you all a merry christmas!
/C, M & L
Now we'll tell you about our last days in Thailand, Malaysia & Asia! It so happens that we're in Melbourne now. Oh yeah. But since you don't know what happened between Chiang Mai and Australia, we thought we might fill you in.
After Chiang Mai, we went to Koh Tao again. This is the island where Chris & Marcus got their diving certificates. The reason to go back? Cheap dives & Liz also wanted to get a diving certificate. We went to the same resort we stayed at the first time and got a sweet deal. We got free accomodation since Liz was doing her diving course. So while Liz started with her course, Chris & Marcus rented motorbikes and drove around the island in search of beatiful beaches.
We ended up staying in Koh Tao for 6 days. The diving course for Liz was supposed to take 4 days, but she first had problems to adapt to the whole underwater-breathing thing, but she did manage. However, right after that she got sick and couldn't finish the course. But she got a referral, so she can finish the rest somewhere else within a year. Chris, Marcus and Liz a few times went to a total of five different beaches. All of them with crystal clear, warm (29 degrees) water and many with beatiful white sand. We swam and snorkeled there for many hours and really enjoyed life in Koh Tao. Though Chris & Marcus were a bit slow with the diving thing. They ended up doing two fun dives, which was really great. Chris also did a Deep Dive the day after. Went down to 30m and loved it! Did get an ear infection for that, but still worth it!
One of the beautiful refuges we found.
The awesome beach by Shark Bay.
Shark bay, a sunbather's and snorkeler's paradise!
It really doesn't get much better than this! :D
Team Sweden, featuring Oz!
Chris on his way into the deep!
On saturday it was, however, time to leave Koh Tao. The time had come to say goodbye to Thailand. We had a flight from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) the 22nd, so we left Koh Tao on the 18th for Phuket. We had a flight from there to Kuala Lumpur early the 19th. It was (as usual) a dull bus ride, we arrived to Phuket around 9pm. Didn't have that much time to see anything at all, we just went for dinner and then to bed. The flight to Kuala Lumpur went well, we landed around 11am and quickly found a hostel. We stayed in Chinatown in KL and spend most of our time there. Walked around the markets, had some food and just chilled. We were supposed to go to Petronas Towers on monday (the 20th), but apparently, it is closed on mondays!
In our depression, we went to a shopping mall and spend a whopping 9 hours in there!!! It's not as bad as it sounds though. That time included both lunch and dinner plus a movie at the cinema in the shopping centre. We tried to go to Petronas early on tuesday, the same day we were leaving for Melbourne. We got there around 9am and the tickets were already sold out! Disappointed, we at least snapped some photos outside and then went to the airport.
Bros @ the Petronas Twin Towers.
The indoor rollercoaster @ the Times Square Mall, Kuala Lumpur. Insane!
That flight went well too. We're now in Melbourne. Today we're going to IKEA to buy swedish christmas food! We'll give you more updates of what we've been doing here in a couple of days. So to all of you, from all of us, a very merry christmas!
GOD JUL!!!
Chris, Liz and Marcus wishes you all a merry christmas!
/C, M & L
Adventures in Chiang Mai
The last few days we've actually been doing stuff here in Chiang Mai! First of all we welcome Liz to our trip - she got here three days ago and will be a part of the fellowship we call the bro trip (like it or not Liz, this is the bro trip. You're a bro now.)
Two days ago we went on a full day trip, outside of the one main street we've been seeing so much of these past few lazy days. The plan was to ride elephants, go for a swim in a waterfall, visit a native village and go river rafting. And that's exactly what we did! The bus picked us up at 8:30 am. About an hour later we reached our first destination - the elephants! Without any real instructions we found ourselfes riding an elephand within five minutes! Chris and Liz sat on the "saddle" on the elephants back, and Marcus was the designated mahout - the elephant driver. :P Not too comfy sitting on an elephant neck, but a great experience!
Since we were kind of rushed onto the elephant, we didn't really now any commands how to "steer" the elephant. Luckily, a trainer came with us, telling the elephant what to do and where to go. The elephant took us through a narrow jungle path, managed to climp surprisingly steep hills and then all the way down again to where we started. At times, we clinged to whatever we could - the saddle, each other, the elephants ears - trying not to fall off while the elephant tried to reach new hights! Elephants really are magnificent, huge and funny creatures! The one we rode was a 45 year old female! For an older gal, she had a lot of energy! As thank you, we gave her some bananas. It made her happy :)
Our elephant almost went bananas.
A baby elephant we met on our way to the waterfall.
We said goodbye and went on with our trip. After 30 minutes of walking we reached the Maewang waterfall. After the long trek a dip in the cool water was more than welcome! The water was freezing by the waterfall and the current was so strong but that didn't stop Marcus and Chris from goofing around! We continued our trek through the jungle after that and came to a little village where we wandered around, seeing the handmade scarfs for sale and the villagers making them.
Bros @ Maewang waterfall.
The mermaid of Maewang.
It was finally time for lunch after the village (by this time it was like 3pm and we were all starving!) and then we went on to the final item on the agenda for the day - river rafting. We left our bags with our guide for the day, Pot, and got on our bamboo raft. It was an hour cruise that started out quite calmly but there were a few rapids so we were soaked by the end of the trip. After that, we went back to Chiang Mai and our hotel for some much needed rest.
Almost like Huckleberry Finn.
The next day (thursday) wasn't nearly as long as the day before but just as exciting. We went to the Tiger Kingdom! A kind of tiger park where you can visit tigers of different ages (depending on what you are paying), walk into their enclosures and interact with the tigers. We decided to visit the big tigers, about 2 years old and the smallest tigers, about 1½-3 months old. We started in the enclosure with 3 big tigers. It was so cool standing next to these huge cats. Took a lot of photos with them. We were lying on the tigers, sitting behind them, standing next to them and patting them. You only get 15 minutes in there, so time passed rather quickly.
The big tiger, Oliver.
We continued to the smallest tigers. They were so cute! Looked like bigger housecats with enormous paws. There were two sisters, just 1½ months old, who were playing around with each other that were so adorable. Just wanted to take them home. We didn't. The 3 month old was also very playful and tried to bite us (and succeeded) and kick us. But we had a leaf rattle to keep it busy. We all had a really good time and left tiger kingdom after a couple of hours.
The sisters - Lala & Nala.
Today, we haven't done anything. We are leaving Chiang Mai tonight and heading for Koh Tao once again. The plan is that Liz will get diving certificate and Chris & Marcus will do some fun dives and swim in the ocean. Sounds like a good plan, right?
/ C, M & L
Two days ago we went on a full day trip, outside of the one main street we've been seeing so much of these past few lazy days. The plan was to ride elephants, go for a swim in a waterfall, visit a native village and go river rafting. And that's exactly what we did! The bus picked us up at 8:30 am. About an hour later we reached our first destination - the elephants! Without any real instructions we found ourselfes riding an elephand within five minutes! Chris and Liz sat on the "saddle" on the elephants back, and Marcus was the designated mahout - the elephant driver. :P Not too comfy sitting on an elephant neck, but a great experience!
Since we were kind of rushed onto the elephant, we didn't really now any commands how to "steer" the elephant. Luckily, a trainer came with us, telling the elephant what to do and where to go. The elephant took us through a narrow jungle path, managed to climp surprisingly steep hills and then all the way down again to where we started. At times, we clinged to whatever we could - the saddle, each other, the elephants ears - trying not to fall off while the elephant tried to reach new hights! Elephants really are magnificent, huge and funny creatures! The one we rode was a 45 year old female! For an older gal, she had a lot of energy! As thank you, we gave her some bananas. It made her happy :)
Our elephant almost went bananas.
A baby elephant we met on our way to the waterfall.
We said goodbye and went on with our trip. After 30 minutes of walking we reached the Maewang waterfall. After the long trek a dip in the cool water was more than welcome! The water was freezing by the waterfall and the current was so strong but that didn't stop Marcus and Chris from goofing around! We continued our trek through the jungle after that and came to a little village where we wandered around, seeing the handmade scarfs for sale and the villagers making them.
Bros @ Maewang waterfall.
The mermaid of Maewang.
It was finally time for lunch after the village (by this time it was like 3pm and we were all starving!) and then we went on to the final item on the agenda for the day - river rafting. We left our bags with our guide for the day, Pot, and got on our bamboo raft. It was an hour cruise that started out quite calmly but there were a few rapids so we were soaked by the end of the trip. After that, we went back to Chiang Mai and our hotel for some much needed rest.
Almost like Huckleberry Finn.
The next day (thursday) wasn't nearly as long as the day before but just as exciting. We went to the Tiger Kingdom! A kind of tiger park where you can visit tigers of different ages (depending on what you are paying), walk into their enclosures and interact with the tigers. We decided to visit the big tigers, about 2 years old and the smallest tigers, about 1½-3 months old. We started in the enclosure with 3 big tigers. It was so cool standing next to these huge cats. Took a lot of photos with them. We were lying on the tigers, sitting behind them, standing next to them and patting them. You only get 15 minutes in there, so time passed rather quickly.
The big tiger, Oliver.
We continued to the smallest tigers. They were so cute! Looked like bigger housecats with enormous paws. There were two sisters, just 1½ months old, who were playing around with each other that were so adorable. Just wanted to take them home. We didn't. The 3 month old was also very playful and tried to bite us (and succeeded) and kick us. But we had a leaf rattle to keep it busy. We all had a really good time and left tiger kingdom after a couple of hours.
The sisters - Lala & Nala.
Today, we haven't done anything. We are leaving Chiang Mai tonight and heading for Koh Tao once again. The plan is that Liz will get diving certificate and Chris & Marcus will do some fun dives and swim in the ocean. Sounds like a good plan, right?
/ C, M & L
Chiang Mai Chillout
We did it. After searching for the sun and a clear blue sky for a month, we finally found it in Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand. You don't really get more inland than this, so the beaches of the south will have to wait.
We flew here from Koh Samui, desperately trying to get some sun. After our diving course on Koh Tao, we thought we could find the sun on Koh Samui. We didn't. Rain, thunderstorms and just cloudy. And that was the forecast for the next 7 days at least. We had enough. We went to the airport on Koh Samui about 9 o'clock in the morning, without tickets. Walked up to the first ticket office we found and asked for two tickets to Chiang Mai. They were a lot more expensive than we thought, so we discussed it and checked the web for lower prices. We couldn't find any cheaper than that and almost missed our plane because we were stalling. We actually begged them to sell us the tickets, so it took us 15 minutes from the moment we bought the tickets until we were on the plane!
We've been here in Chiang Mai for 6 days. Sunny and about 30 degrees every day. Finally! Though, we've been really inactive. Just been lying by the pool every day after breakfast, enjoying life. It's a really nice city. A cultural and educational city. But we're tired of temples. They do have other things in Chiang Mai. Tomorrow we're going to do an elephant trekk and the day after tomorrow, we may visit tiger kingdom and pet the tigers, can't be dangerous, can it?
Chiang Mai.
Our sanctuary.
First night in Chiang Mai at a mobile bar.
Two nights ago we were out celebrating Marcus, it was his birthday and also the king of Thailand's birthday. But we didn't celebrate him, we're not very fond of him. We met up with some friends that we've met earlier on our trip - Erin, Hannah & Tim. We all went out for dinner and then moved on to the bars. However, because of the king's birtday, many bars and clubs were closed! And 7-eleven wouldn't even sell beer. Took us a while but we found a place in the end. Had a really good night and got home about 3 o' clock.
Dinner with friends - Hannah, Tim, Marcus, Chris & Erin.
Birthday boy was happy.
Yesterday, Liz came to Thailand and to Chiang Mai and has now joined our trip. So Chris n' Liz spent the day together and Marcus had a cooking class that was really nice! Today we went to the zoo, saw some cool animals like pandas, white tigers, koalas, jaguars, gibbons and elephants. It was a nice zoo. Lots of interesting animals. That's all for today. Hopefully we'll give you a new update tomorrow!
A lazy, drooling panda.
Hungry fellah?
/ C & M
We flew here from Koh Samui, desperately trying to get some sun. After our diving course on Koh Tao, we thought we could find the sun on Koh Samui. We didn't. Rain, thunderstorms and just cloudy. And that was the forecast for the next 7 days at least. We had enough. We went to the airport on Koh Samui about 9 o'clock in the morning, without tickets. Walked up to the first ticket office we found and asked for two tickets to Chiang Mai. They were a lot more expensive than we thought, so we discussed it and checked the web for lower prices. We couldn't find any cheaper than that and almost missed our plane because we were stalling. We actually begged them to sell us the tickets, so it took us 15 minutes from the moment we bought the tickets until we were on the plane!
We've been here in Chiang Mai for 6 days. Sunny and about 30 degrees every day. Finally! Though, we've been really inactive. Just been lying by the pool every day after breakfast, enjoying life. It's a really nice city. A cultural and educational city. But we're tired of temples. They do have other things in Chiang Mai. Tomorrow we're going to do an elephant trekk and the day after tomorrow, we may visit tiger kingdom and pet the tigers, can't be dangerous, can it?
Chiang Mai.
Our sanctuary.
First night in Chiang Mai at a mobile bar.
Two nights ago we were out celebrating Marcus, it was his birthday and also the king of Thailand's birthday. But we didn't celebrate him, we're not very fond of him. We met up with some friends that we've met earlier on our trip - Erin, Hannah & Tim. We all went out for dinner and then moved on to the bars. However, because of the king's birtday, many bars and clubs were closed! And 7-eleven wouldn't even sell beer. Took us a while but we found a place in the end. Had a really good night and got home about 3 o' clock.
Dinner with friends - Hannah, Tim, Marcus, Chris & Erin.
Birthday boy was happy.
Yesterday, Liz came to Thailand and to Chiang Mai and has now joined our trip. So Chris n' Liz spent the day together and Marcus had a cooking class that was really nice! Today we went to the zoo, saw some cool animals like pandas, white tigers, koalas, jaguars, gibbons and elephants. It was a nice zoo. Lots of interesting animals. That's all for today. Hopefully we'll give you a new update tomorrow!
A lazy, drooling panda.
Hungry fellah?
/ C & M
