The Outrageous Adventures of Chris and Blythe Sather

Join us on our around-the-world tour! This is a story of two novice travels bumbling through Europe and Asia on a quest to find adventure, intrigue and maybe learn a little something about the world (and ourselves).

Tuesday, November 13, 2007










Finally in Boreno!
Greetings to all from what might be the LAST entry for our travel blog! Its hard to believe that a week from today we will be heading home to Western Washington. We are sad because we are really getting used to this "traveling for a living" thing. But my award letter came via email today from Children's hospital reminding me that new things are just around the corner.
Since our last post, we have survived some harrowing monsoons and interesting travels. Ko Tao was beautiful, even though it was raining a lot. Our night dive was one of the more hair-raising experiences we have had. With huge swells, driving rain and pitch black seas, we catapulted ourselves off the front of the dive boat and dove with about 1 meter visibility to complete the night dive portion of our Advanced dive training. Needless to say, Chris and I have never really linked arm and arm like that on a dive! But it was good experience and next time we night dive, it will only get better. The next few days we dove in the rain, but saw more (turtles, rays, blowfish, scorpian fish, etc) and managed to get a lot out of it. Both of us seem to have jellyfish stings on our hands that won't go away, but otherwise it was good. We took off from Ko Tao on the evening of the 9th and to catch the overnight train from Chumpon to Bangkok. We had a bumpy boat ride from Ko Tao to Chumpon where we were not sick, but many others were (yum!). In Chumpon, we went to "Papas 2000!" a restaurant across from the train station that was clearly sponsored by Heiniken. Chris ordered a draft beer and was presented with a pitcher (that held about 5 beers) and when he finished it (of course he did!) they gave him a commerative Heiniken glass that said "Athens" on it. We of course had a good laugh about that. We finally boarded the train around 10pm and got into our top bunks that were actually quite clean and nice and slept most of the way to Bangkok. We arrived back in Bangkok and headed back to the Buddy Lodge at 6am, where we had stayed before only to find they have no rooms for that night! We wandered around a bit and found a place down the way that was way cheaper, had decent, clean rooms and a pool on the roof. We got checked in around 10am and since we did not sleep great on the train we decided to relax for a while. It was bright and sunny so we sat by the pool for a few hours, getting the suntan we had been seeking for a while. In the afternoon, we took to the streets to finally really do some shopping - picking up a few things for ourselves and others :) We headed out for the evening and to our surprise, we ended up having drinks at a old Shell station with a bar built around it. We just couldn't resist! We had a fun night on the town and then next morning headed to Singapore. When we arrived in Singapore, it was very apparent that this was a whole different world. Everything is clean, very nice and orderly and expensive! We found our hostel (after a bit of walking in circles) and it was really more like a hotel. Very well run place - the Hangout@Mt. Emily - if your ever in Singapore, great place! We were in fairly late so we had a bit of food, wandered a bit and headed for bed. The next day, we toured around Singapore and both agreed that we felt like we were in the States. All people seemed to do was go to the mall and shop at chain stores - not really our cup of tea. But we did go to the Botanical Garden and the national Orchid Garden and that was totally beautiful and worth the trip. That evening, Chris wanted to take me out for a nice dinner and boy did he ever! He got a table at the Equinox, a restaurant at the top of the tallest building in town (highest restaurant in Asia) and we learned what Singapore prices were really about! On top of everything, we got to the restaurant and they would not let him in because he was wearing sandels! We had to go to the mall adjoining the hotel where the restaurant was (of course there was a mall) and buy him some shoes! After much running about, we ended up having an fantastic gourmet meal with a breathtaking view of the city. Maybe a bit out of our price range, but what the hell right?
The next day we knew we needed to get to Johor Baru (across the border in Malaysia - about 1 hour from Singapore) for our flight to Borneo by 5pm, so we toured Chinatown and the Colonial district in the morning, saw the famous Singapore Merlion (very strange) and did some shopping, and then headed back, grabbed our packs and started toward the airport around 2pm. What a journey this turned out to be! We took a taxi to close to the border, then a bus for a 1/4 mile to the Singapore departure immigration site - went through checkpoint, then another bus over a bridge to the Malaysian immigration site- again, went through checkpoint, got on another bus through town to the place to pick up another bus to the airport. Once at the airport we had to go through immigration a third time just to get on the place, and again when we got off the place in Sarawak! Whew! We were picked up by Charlie Yeo (past Immunology grad student fro Pat Concannon's lab) and he took us out for local food and many beers. Nice to get some local knowledge and have someone to translate for us! Charlie had us stay with him last night and today we are heading to a guesthouse in town and will begin our Borneo adventures! Today we are going to tour around Kuching and have dinner with Charlie and friends tonight. Tomorrow we have planned a kayaking trip through the jungle and a visit to the orangutan rehab center. The following day we scheduled a caving expedition (rock climbing in caves - yippee!) and the last day we will go to Baku National Park before our 9pm flight back to Singapore. We are only in Singapore for a the night and we fly to Hong Kong the next morning! Only a few more days left, so we are packing in everything we can!
Well, enjoy the pics of Thailand (the grand Palace, on the dive boat, at the beach), Singapore (at the National Orchid Garden, Chris and the Merlion) and Borneo (me and Charlie at dinner) - more from us soon!
Take care -
Blythe and Chris

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Greetings from Ko Tao!
Quick update - we made it safely to Bangkok after some minor plane ticket issues that are too long to explain here. Just FYI - LTU airlines from Munich is the "city bus" of long haul airlines. Tiny seats, no movie in the seat, not comfortable. We were pretzels by the time we arrived. We found ourselves in Th Kho San Road the "backpackers place to go" and got a room in the middle of the craziness. People were out in force and everyone was selling EVERYTHING. So cheap. Chris and I managed to get there, get a room and get out and see a bunch of the sights in the two days we were there. Street food was really good and we both tolerated it fine. Phad Thai (really yummy) was 50 cents on the street - add a beer and a stick of grilled chicken (another buck and a half) and your good to go. Halloween night was totally crazy - Thai people out partying their brains out. I got a 1 hour Thai massage, mancure and pedicure (15$!) and then we joined the madness. Then the next day we went to the Grand Palace and then downtown to the modern shopping district (think Pacific Place times 1000). We barely made it back to catch our overnight bus and boat ride to Ko Tao, a tiny island diving mecca in the Gulf of Thailand. We have been here for 4 days. The first day we had sun and got a beautiful bungelow on the beach. We went out for dinner, had some drinks and took a little night dip in the very warm, very blue water. All is well! Suddenly, I wake the next morning with a 102 fever, my head is exploding, my back and stomach are cramping (sick in all possible directions) up so bad I am reduced to a wimpering pile on the floor. My immunology brain is scrolling through all the possible things that I am being raveged by, but my cooler head prevailed and I popped a few Cipro, drank a Gatorade, a couple tylenol and I am finally back to normal. Chris was my hero (as usual) getting me more Gatorade, tylenol and generally sitting with me and making me feel like I was going to live. Uggg! Now we are back on track and diving, diving, diving! We moved to a more remote side of the island with a beautiful protected beach and cove . We are taking our Advanced Open water certification class and it is tons of fun! Night diving is later tonight and this morning was deep diving and navigation. Having a great time and will hopfully find a place with faster internet sometime so we can upload pics! Miss everyone and we will write more from Singapore and Borneo!
Take care !
Blythe and Chris

Wednesday, October 24, 2007









Ya-su from Santorini! We are been blazing throught the rest of our Italy tour and Greece since we last wrote. We had a wonderfully relaxing time in Lucca and ventured on to Venice after a few days of sunshine, good wine and food. Though we were ready to be sleeping in the same room again so I found a sweet deal on an apartment in the center of Venice right nest to the Pont de Rialto bridge. Almost too good to be true, right? Well, we arrived in the afternoon in Venice and searched for hours and hours for this apartment to no avial. Keep in mind that we had been trying to find an affordable place in Venice for weeks and there was nothing. We trooped our stuff to the very pricey in-town internet cafe and got the info for this place that we booked so we could call them and see what the deal was. They seem to have no record of our booking and thus can't give us any info on the place. It turns out that I, as Chris calls the "mad clicker" did not hit the book button on this reservation and thus I have left us homeless. Ooops. But, wait, the place was still available and if I just gave them my credit card info again (ahhh, ok, a little scared about this now) they can contact this person about the apartment. I take the risk and go for it, only to find that niether I, nor the booking people can get a hold of this women. So I say forget it, cancel it because this is not working. Then we begin to wander (in the dark now) through Venice wondering what to do. But I feel the need to make a last ditch effort to call again and again to this womans voicemail for the apartment and we finally get her on the phone. She is speaking broken English - what reservation? I thought it was canceled? You are on the street with no where to stay? Oh dear! She promises to meet us at the Rialto water taxi stop in two hours and give us keys if we pay cash. Ok - so we wait - me biting my fingernails thinking Chris will throw me into the canal if this woman does not show. But there she was, early actually - I was so happy I hugged her. She led us to the door we had found and dismissed several times earlier as someones house to this great little place with a kitchen, double bed and its own bathroom right in the heart of everything. We were so happy and stayed there for three days, saw all of Venice, went to the market for supplies and cooked all our own meals. It was wonderful - but I had to tell the story of our arrival so you could fully appretiate how it begun.
After Venice we went to a tiny, overpriced hotel near the Milan airport and stayed one night so that we could catch our flight to Athens in the morning. We had an uneventful flight and arrived in Athens to our great little hostel in the center of Plaka. We spent two nights there and got to tour around a bit, see the Acropolis and have lots of chicken pitas. At this point we have been talking a lot about how great it would have been to see all these places before tourism had got a hold of them. So much tourist crap everywere, its a bit annoying. But, this comes with the deal right? Suddenly on our second day, the rampent rain and thunderstorms returns and we are stuck inside for the rest of the day. We think, lets get out of here and go to the islands - get some sun and all that right? Hmmmmmmm....
The next morning, we board a high speed ferry to Santorini in the sunshine and our hopes are high. We have a beautiful boat ride and we are picked up as promised by our hotel shuttle and wisked to the beach town of Perissa. We have a lovely place, with our own room and a kitchenette. But there is only one problem - most everything is shut down for the season. Apparently this particular place shuts down completely at the end of October. We venture to the one restaurant and have the few things left on the menu and a little too much Ouzo :) The next morning, we awake to pouring rain and thunderstorms. All the ferries are canceled and so we spend the day watching movies in our room and contemplating what to do next. It seems that this weather will continue and we start to wonder if we should make our way to another, warmer place (ie, move on to Thailand). That evening was filled with terrible food, more movies, and loud guests at our hotel. Not much sleep that night. The next day was more of the same, lousy weather and the uncertainty of what to do next. So we said Hell with it and took a bus to the Fira the picturesque postcard town you see on all the advertising for Santorini. We arrived with no reservations but figured it shouldn't be a problem. After getting off of the bus and shewing away the persistent man who wanted us to rent a room for 10 euros, who knows where that would have been, we set off to find our room. The good ole Lonely Planet Guide saved us again, we ended up with a room right on the edge of the famed "Calderra", from our balcony it looks like we are hanging over the edge of a great abyss, amazing. The Calderra is the edge of the Volcanoe that makes up this small island chain. Essentially the entire town is propped on the top of the rim of the old Volcano. We went into town and finally had some great Greek food, and decided to take the Cable Car down the face of the Calderra to the small port at the bottom. What a view, the cable car seems to go straight down a cliff covered in Volcanic rock to the small port. Of course the only reason Chris wanted to take this ride was so they could take the donkey ride back up instead of the cable car. The donkey trip was interesting, and scary. Chris's donkey had dreams of being Dale Earnhardt, biting his other Donkey competitors and passing them against the wall, the outside (Yikes) and the inside. Blythes donkey was a little more low key until the dog showed up that her donkey didn't live very much, he thought he could catch the dog and so tried. After that it was back to the room, a good dinner, and then a quite nights sleep. We are heading for Naxos, another island, for a least a day as we figure out what to do next. Pictures above are in order, Chris on the ghost of Dale Earnhardt, Chris above Fira, the Acropolis, Venice, Chris amazed at how the boat docks,

the view from our room on the edge of the Vocano, and a very sexy Woman posing on our deck.

See you all soon,

Chris and Blythe

Saturday, October 13, 2007





We are now firmly rooted in the Tuscan countryside! Greetings from Lucca - one of our favorite places so far! Since our last entry, we have been so many places it is hard to get your head around it so I will give you the highlights. We ended up staying for four nights in Sorrento because we loved our place so much and we made it to Positano, an amazing city down the coast cut into the cliffs (see pic), We spent the day there and took a boat ferry back right just in time. A HUGE thunderstorm hit and shook the bungalow all night - one of the biggest I have ever been through. But in the morning it was green and beautiful and we found our way up to Pompeii and saw the ruins there. After one more night we headed to Rome for four nights. I wont even list all the historic and amazing things we saw there, but we saw it all. Chris and I had a long discussion about monuments and "old stuff" and decided not to just see everything because we feel that we have too. All amazing, but its all starting to blend together. We vow to get even more creative with our travels :)

We do see all of Rome and were ready for something slower so instead of heading to Florence as planned, we found oursleves in Lucca, which is between Pisa and Florence. Lovely place in the Tuscan countryside that has few cars inside its walls (bikes mostly-obviously I love it). Today we rented bikes, bought food for a picnic and off we went. We ended up 20 km away in Pisa and got to see the tower and everything. So amazing! So now we are tired and ready for some good pasta! We are off to Florence for the day tomorrow and then on to Venice on Monday. Enjoy our pics (us and the travel dragon of course).

Take Care -

Blythe and Chris

Friday, October 05, 2007





Bonjourno from Sorrento!

Its been a bit since we have had affordable internet access or time to use it! We left Avignon in a whirlwind and got the only train to Paris last Sunday and had to pay a bit more because they only had first class available. It actually was worth every penny because it was the most comfortable ride. Only 2.5 hours to Paris - I have never been on a train so fast! We got to Paris and I must say, if you have never been there, stay as close as you can to the center. We had a barebones hotel out in Bastille and it was a bit of a pain getting in and out all the time, plus our neighborhood was a bit scary. But we made the best of it and we were just happy to have our own bathroom :) Though it was cold and raining, we managed to walk everywhere and really see all the sights. We skipped the Louvre, but made it to the Modern art museum (more our taste anyway) and did the whole walk to the Arc de Triumph and all the grounds in between. We wandered up to "the biggest flea market in Europe" and it was scary and all the stuff was cheap - dont let anyone talk you into that one. We had our breath taken away by Versille - totally amazing and well worth the crowds. One night we treated ourselves to a really good French restaurant - could not resist. And the last night we made it back to the Eiffel tower and, though we did not think we were going to make it up because the line was so long, finally got to the top and the view was stunning. If you are in Paris, go up there at night - the lights are amazing and the whole structure is set to twinkle with blinking white lights on the hour which makes the whole thing sureal. Just bring your boxing gloves to fend off the vendors selling plastic Effiel towers - they are very aggressive and everywhere.

Yesterday, we woke totally exhasted after staying up trying to figure our next step via slow internet connections and we found this great place in Sorrento. We hoped on a plane in the morning and landed in Naples after lunch. As for Naples, we could not get out of there fast enough - people were yelling and screaming at each other, there was more litter than I have seen anywhere and the smog was so thick you choked on it. Sometimes you just dont realize how good we have it! But a quick train ride down the coast and we landed in Sorrento. Our directions to our place were a bit hazy and we wandered very tired and hungry all around before we finally found our way up the hill and into Villagio Verde - the greatest place we have found yet. Though we dont have a view of the bay like all the other places boasted, we have a little bungelow in a lime and olive grove, away from the noise of town (god, there are scooters EVERYWHERE) and we have a big queen bed, our own kitchen and bathroom and a beautiful pool with a terrance. It is paridise after Paris. We decided to stay four nights because it is cheap and so relaxing. Today we took a stroll through town, took in the sights, bought a couple days worth of grocerys (we have a little deck with a picnic table on the front of our cabin to each at) then made cocktails and sat by the pool - ahhhhh, sooooo nice :) Tomorrow we are taking a bus up the Amalfi coast to do some beach going and hiking in the surrounding towns. We will try to keep you posted again once we make it up to Rome. Enjoy our pics - one from atop the Eiffel tower at night, one from Versilles and two from our little bungelow here in Sorrento :)
Chow for now -
Blythe and Chris

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Friday, September 28, 2007


















Bonjour from Avignon!


We have finished our whirlwind adventure in Spain and we have landed in Provence for a few days. We had such an amazing time in Barcelona! There was so much to see and we managed to see a huge amount of it along with staying up all night with the New Zealanders from our bustling hostel. If ever you find yourself in Barcelona, if you do nothing else, go to the La Sagrada Familia - quite possibly one of the most amazing pieces of architecture we have ever laid eyes on. Chris and I are now both rabid Gaudi fans - any prints or books we can find we are hunting for when we get home. We really can't buy anything here because we have to carry it(shipping things home is crazy expensive), so we are just making lists of things we will have to find later.


In Barcelona, we stayed in a hostel in which every room held 12 people and it was packed. It was so fun and we met people from all over - lots of New Zealanders here for a big rugby tourny starting in France next week. We treked around town all day and usually started dinner around 10pm with drinks until 3am or so. Very noctornal these Spanish folks - my kind of town :) After a few days of that, we were ready to chill and so we took a day train up to Avignon in the South of France. The only room we could get on such short notice was in a hostel that seemed to cater to 18 year old German kids. Needless to say we departed this morning and paid a bit more for a little pension in the middle of town. We are going to stay here two more nights relaxing and enjoying the beautiful sunshine before heading to the madness of Paris. Enjoy our pics or the beach outside San Sabastian in the Basque country, one silly one of me from inside the tower in La Sagrada Familia, us outside the buliding and a few snaps from the Park Guell (also designed by Gaudi). Take care and more from us later!
Later-
BDS & CSS


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Sunday, September 23, 2007









Hola again from Spain -
We are now in beautiful San Sabastian and we are having a wonderful, relaxing time. We are staying with our friends Javier and Maria in their beautiful apartment in the center of town. It is just one block from the beach! They have showed us all around this great city and we have had fantastic food and wine in their favorite places. Yesterday we had a bit of rain, though Chris and I still went running down the boardwalk. Then we went shopping with Javi and Maria so that we could make them dinner last night. It is always interesting to try to buy groceries in another country. We had a wonderful lunch (the octopus was amazing - good suggestion) and took a bit of a siesta before we headed up to the highest point in the city to look at the view. The beaches and the scenary are so amazing here, I highly recommend it to anyone. Then Chris and I made our hosts dinner and we chatted until late in the evening. Today we ventured down to the beach since it was sunny again and soon we are off for a drive down the coast. Tomorrow night we catch an overnight train to Barcelona where we will stay in a hostel for three nights - 12 person mixed dorm room style this time. We will be sure to update you all from there, but for now, enjoy our pictures of San Sabastain and our hosts.
Take care!
BDS & CSS
PS: Note the pictures of our travel dragon - he was supposed to accompany us on our trip, but the pictures here are the last before he made his escape. He now sleeps with the fishes after he jumped off Chris's shoulder into the sea :(

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