around the world in 155 days

2006-06-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,
Well, we're at home now and the smoke has finally cleared from our jetlegged brains. It has being an amazing 5 months. We've seen so much and the memories will be with us forever.

Now starts our next adventure. Living together! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lol
thanks to all those people that joined us and comforted us with there messages and thoughts. But stay tuned we'll have pictures of our place soon.

2006-06-14T04:05:00.000-07:00

Just when you think the worst has come and gone,BAM!! Traveling throws another fun surprise your way. Well we thought the train in India was bad, the bus to Vietnam made that look like a cake walk. We purchased what we "thought"were VIP bus tickets from Lao to Vietnam,which turned out being the smallest bus,trailer rather,we had ever seen. Once they had managed to fill it completely with people, they slowly started,what i can only imagine was the goods to a new grocery store opening in Vietnam or something,the bus with fruit crates, fans,random boxes and my favorite about 10 50kg bags of white sugar,which they oh so elegantly lined along the isle's extra seats right? We drove from 7pm-12 and then stopped at this little dive of a restaurant which i thought was going to be a quick stop. Nope!! we were all staying there for the night until 6am. Sleeping in that bus,was the worst experience so far. After that we drove through the Vietnam border (which took another 100 years) and then 4 lovely hours later we arrived in Vingh, where Ian and I are now waiting for a 12 hour train ride to Hoi An(YES!,the tailor shops)Well if that doesn't make you want to travel,I don't know what will. Well that's it for now.I will update when we get to hoi An. Amanda,I need some new Emma pics on that blog,I'm going crazy here! Get to it.

2006-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is Jo's birthday cake (which tasted like absolute rubbish) After singing Happy Birthday we floated down the river on tubes. There were a bunch of spots to stop and drink beer and Ian went on some pretty crazy swings and trollies. Sorry , but the pictures were taken with a waterproof camera, we'll have to wait. After we made it back to the hotel, 7 hours later, we got changed and went out for some roast beef dinner, it was fabulous.

2006-06-10T03:09:00.000-07:00

Okay,Okay! We know! Its like June 10 (tommorrows my b-day)and we haven't updated our blog since May 18. Well, we apologize for any pain it has caused are devoted fans(Stef & Amanda). Well a lot has happened since then. We basically traveled to all the same places we had in Thailand four years ago, except this time we had Lee with us, so we were partying a lot more. The three weeks went by superfast(with the acception of a few horrible,and I mean stomach wrenching boat trips) and before we knew it Lee was heading back to Canada and leaving us behind.Dont worry we will try to get some pics up of Thailand soon. Now we are in Laos and tommorrow we are going on this great 3 hour tube ride for my B-day.We will have pics up of that soon.We promise!
Love you all
Jo and Ian

2006-05-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
wow it sounds like home is getting pretty hot too!well we will be home to enjoy the nice weather soon enough.We have been on Koh Tao for the last couple of days.Koh Tao is known for its diving areas and snorkelling.We totally planned on going on a snorkelling trip with these nice people we met,but the weather has been really crappy.So rainy!So now we have booked another ferry,bus trip to koh phi phi that leaves late at night.Any way i will report back when we get to phi phi!love ya

2006-05-14T02:14:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to Thailand,and its fantastic!We met up with Lee in Bangkok and he survived the horrible flight with only a little jet legged illness's cant believe how much its all change since we were here 4 years ago. koh san road In Bangkok looks like a cancun,Merritt mix full of topless steroid boys and bikini girls everywhere.Oh,and now instead of the 1 seven eleven they had before they have 4,2 burger kings a subway and of course Starbucks,Thank god!It was fun for about 2 days and then we got out of there.We headed to Koh pan ngn for the full moon party on the 13th.The party was crazy.Thousands of people on a big strip of beach with different music and scences as you walk.Pretty much a huge rave but with more clubbing music and less glow sticks.The best part is that all along the beach they set up tables with sand buckets that have a mickey of your choice, redbull and whatever mixer you want.They even had a diet coke bucket.Lets just say i only needed 1 bucket and i was on my way.The next day we took off on a ferry to Ko samui,also very commercial now,but still very pretty,the water is amazing.Oh!and the shopping,lets just say iam buying things everyday.The clothes are great and stuff that is "at home"wearable not just beach crap.Thats my new rule if i cant wear it at home iam not allowed to by it.Oh! and the sunglasses the bathingsuits......sorry iam really out of control.Iam literally running out of room in my bag.Well thats the update.As for Lee,well he is currently sleeping because we lost each other at the full moon party so he decided to take a cab back to our hut and then he drove right past it,but then he met some girls and ended up dancing with them on the beach until 7am....those buckets will do it to ya everytime!

2006-05-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!
Today we left good old Goa on a flight at 1:45pm and headed back to lovely Bombay.Coming back definitly dosent feel as scary as it did the first time.I guess we are use to the craziness. The first thing we needed to do was find a decent bookstore to stock up on some reading material for the 16 hour wait in the airport before our 4:45am flight to Bangkok.I guess it hasn't been so bad, but now it's getting a little boring,having ate half the airport and slowly we our starting to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie The Terminal.Ah well! we will be in lovely Bangkok soon enough "one night in Bangkok"(the 80's song)enjoying a Singa beer.Ians brother Lee will be joining us the following day.I can't wait to see his face when he sees how crazy the tuk tuk drivers are.Well India was defintly an experience that we will never forget.After our first week I never thought we would say it,but we will probaly come back one day to see the north.Thailand is so beautiful,and we our excited to go back, but you will never in your life see as much culture and rare beauty as India.Okay enough sap...........BRING ON THE SHOPPING IN BANGKOK!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

2006-05-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ian and I are now in Fort Kochin, a little tourist city that reminds us a lot of White rock or Stanley park or something. Watch out for the crowds Jo! There are little shops and vendors all along the water. The main attraction is the giant Chinese fishing nets that line the beach. Ian and I think the huge nets are a "bit much"considering they only bring in like 3 small fish. Today we also took a trip to Jewtown,Kochin. Its a old jewish settlement,All I know is that the shops were fantastic! I got two great chunky bracelets for really cheap! And Ian loved the antique shops,who knew! but all this lovely culture is coming to a end, because we our taking a train tomorrow back to Palolem ,Goa. The land of drinking. So we hope you enjoy the new pics we put up and we will keep you updated real soon. love yah!

2006-04-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

We're back!!!! The houseboat was amazing ,talk about being been treated like royalty. The boat was huge,we had a crew of three to wait on us hand and foot and they served up so much food that Ian put on a few. The canals are so tranquil, we just lounged around and thought about what everyone else was doing at home. Ian tried to fish but no luck Now we're off to Cochin for some more sights and sounds.
talk to you soon , love you all
Jo and Ian
p.s. We took this picture of the sunset from our deck.

2006-04-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Its house boat time.tommorow Ian and I will be experiencing our very first two day kerala backwater trip,on a lovely house boat.it was way to expensive(9000r-250$)but everything is included 3 meals,snacks fruit blah,blah,blah hopefully some booze!Today was awesome too we went to this "secret beach"(we r in Alappey by the way,still in kerala)we had breakfast and luch made for us by this nice family who owns a guest house in the village near the beach.it was soooo good.The best fresh mango we have ever had!to get to the beach you have to walk through the little village which was full of adorable kids so excited to see us and more excited to see themselves on our camera after we took a picture of them.Alapphey is really great and our guest house is so cute.We have this little balcony that reminds us of home.we were relaxing having some rum and diet coke, and couldn't help but feel like we were sitting back home in someones backyard.Ahh good old Surrey.anyway thats it for now.Pictures of the backwaters and the house boat real soon,promise.Love ya!

2006-04-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

HI AGAIN!
Well we made to Kerala somewhat alive.The 17 hour train ride was HELL!We were the lucky ones who got to ride in the sleeper class with no A/C and with no other travelers.We felt like it was the army or something with 3 horrible beds piled up on top of each other.My favorite part was when the train workers starting yelling "COFFEE","HOT CHAI" AT AROUND 4:OOAM.But oh well we our here now at Light house beach in kovalam.Its very beautiful and Ian is really excited because the waves are big enough to surf on.There also seems to be a lot of Yoga classes so that looks like what i will be doing.The only bad news?alcohol has a low tolerence here,so when they serve it it has to to be done secretly in big mugs so the police cant see it.Anyway so long for now!

2006-04-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Heys guys!
yes i know we our the laziess blog writers ever.we our still in Goa on Palolem beach but we will be leaving tommorrow on a lovely 16 hour train ride to Kerala.Palolem has been great but Kerala should have a lot more to see and do besides just drinking and laying in the sun.Kerala is famous for its backwaters,tea plantations and elepehants.The backwater boat trips are 6 hours long and you get to see villages along the river as well as temples and churches.so we will definitly be doing that.We have only three weeks left in India and then its off to Thailand where Ians brother lee will be meeting up wth us yaaaaaaa!we cant wait.well we miss everybody and hope that all is well at home
Love ya

2006-03-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
Sorry its being so long, you know things to do and people to see. We've been in Goa for about two weeks and it's beautiful. Crystal clear water, hot sandy beaches, and the food is amazing (cheap too). Our sense of time is drifting away very fast, no alarm clocks, schedules, or anything else to do with responsibility. But that's not why we came on this trip, we came to see the world and experience different cultures. And trust us we'll get back to that as so as we can drag our asses out of the beach chairs (and when Jo's good and brown). We have been doing something though , like watching dolphins swimming and playing, a little jogging, swimming, kyaking and Ian plays soccer with the locals at dusk. The night life here is quite good too. The other night (Monday, I think) we went to see a live concert at a locale beach bar that had a member of ub40 playing and a bunch of other bands as well. We went with two other couples (Shane & Nic are in the picture), they're very nice. Well that's it for today. Talk to you soon
love Jo and Ian

2006-03-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

hi everybody
from india!!! amsterdam was a bit of a haze. we sure had some fun though. we hit the hienkin tour , anne franks house, and the red light district. (no starbucks here suckas) only cafes, hahaha. the flight was smooth as ever. plus we were riding the edge of a lighting storm, so we got a pretty spectactular light show. we are staying at the hotel residsency, a quiet corner (yah right) of a counrty that has 1.1 billion people. but it's still quit an experience. until next time guys .
jo and ian
p.s. we'll try much hader to keep up to date on the blogs

2006-03-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

hi everybody
we fled italy pretty fast, but not before seeing the most amazing network of villages called, cinque terra. they were right on the crytal clear waters of the med. . we hiked through the mountian range from village to village, and got some absolute stunning views.

now after a very busy {and expencive} day of travel we are in brussels. can´t wait to go see the town.
talk to you all soon
love jo and ian

2006-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

hi everybody
We our now in florence,Italy.Rome was great,our hostel wasnt that great because it was shared dorms but you should see the room we have now.Its huge! with a high ceiling and big old fashion bed,by ourselves!The best part is is that its cheaper then the room we had in Rome. Today we took a hour long train ride to Piza,and we saw the leaning tower of piza.It was so great almost surreal actually seeing it. Tommorow we our doing a bike tour in Tuscany,we cant wait! tell y'all about later.
CHOW!IAN AND JO

2006-02-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

When in rome...
we went out on a pub crawl last night it was great fun. we've also seen the coliseium, the vatacain, and countless churchs and catherals. they sure built to impress back then. today we are off to florence and maybe tuscany, if we're lucky we might go on a winery tour. anyways i'm going back to bed to rest till our train ride. hope everyone is great.
miss you
jo and ian

2006-02-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

hi everyone
We're in Grenoble,France and we're staying with friends of ours, Bobby and Kelly Russel.They were so nice to let us use their car for a day to drive to avignon. Avignon is a beautiful lttle city that is built within fortress walls.When we were in the city there is a huge cathedrial called palais des papes. This is where popes were exiled to from Rome in the 14th-century. We will be staying with Bobby and Kelly for a few more days and then we will be heading to Rome and Amsterdam and then back to Paris to catch our flight to India! Don't worry we will keep in touch before then!talk to ya soon!

2006-02-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

2006-02-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

Bonjour
we are drunk on cheap wine and amazing sights , like the eiffel tower,the louve,notre dame,and that funny acrh in the road. the architecture is stunning, but we are now moving on to lyon, then a couple of more cities we decided to visit, nice, rome, venice,munich, prague,and amsterdam then back to paris for our flight to india. we'll keep you up to date . till then, bye

ian and jo

ps hi hanana and emma

2006-02-09T04:50:00.000-08:00

hi guys
okay so we are in france and we need to find another computer cause the letters are all dfferent. we are fine and will email again soon
love jo and ian

2006-02-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!!
Okay we are here in newyork and everything is fabulous!! we have visited almost everything that we have wanted to see and our model friend matt has been our tour guide the whole time! sorry I cant get into detail right now but i will when we get to paris!
love ya all! Jo and Ian

2006-02-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

hello everyone,
It is two days till we leave on OUR TRIP AROUND THE WORLD. So this we well be the last post from lovely Vancouver (er, I mean surrey ) . Alrighty then , talk to you all soon.

love jo and ian

2006-01-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

Alright everyone , it's 15 days till take off and we just set this up. Here's a picture of us at my mom's house. Feel free to leave as many comments as you like over the next 160 days.

2006-01-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

Congratulation you have stumbled across the most amazing blog in the world, no no universe.