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

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