The first stop on the 2nd half of The Trip was supposed to be Bali. In fact, when we originally decided to take the trip, our first stop was Australia since we hadnt even thought that we could go to Bali. And definitely not Thailand. One of the main criteria of taking the trip was going places where Matt could easily find food he could eat. After some initial research, we found Bali would be doable. After talking to travelers along the road, we learned that Thailand would be doable as well, and possibly even easier than Bali. (Apparently our South East Asia research skills suck) After many planning sessions in Pokhara, Nepal over cheap Everest beers, it was decided that Thailand and Cambodia would come on board and everything else would have to change. The 2nd half of the trip now goes:
Thailand
Cambodia
Southeastern Australia
New Zealand
The rest of eastern Australia
Indonesia
Hawaii
Alamo
NYC.
For now.Getting to our first Thai destination was an epic journey - a good way to start off traveling after 10 days of slacking on Mom's couch. San Francisco to Hong Kong. layover. Hong Kong to Bangkok. Immigration. Bangkok for 12 hours with no hotel or place to shake off the jetlag. Scarf down Subway sandwich on Khao San Road. Nine hour overnight bus ride to Chumporn. Four hour ferry ride from Chumporn to Koh Tao, and Koh Tao to Koh Phangan. Ride on the back of a pick up truck to beach resort. Room isnt ready for 3 hours. Sit and get really really hot. The whole thing took 48 hours from Alamo to hotel room with no shower, no bed, and like 7 airplane/bus/boat meals. This is whats all about, right?(and I realize its winter for most people reading this now, so I apologize in advance if this is cruel)It was worth it though. Koh Phangan, which has a reputation for its famous ruckus full moon parties, is beauitful. It had more palm trees and tropical plants than any island I'd ever seen. The beaches are white powdery sand and the water is clear with shades of aquamarines and greens. Phangan was great intro to the Thai islands and made for a really fun full-moon party New Years Eve. As every hotel on the island demands 5 night stays during New Years week, we spent a few days swimming, kayaking, and also took a boat out to Angthong National Marine Park - which is where the island in the movie "The Beach" is supposed to be. 
After Koh Phangan, we headed to Railay Beach, home of the most impressive limestone cliffs Thailand has to offer. They tower above the white beaches and are now famous for being the best rock climbing jungle gym in the region. The only way to get to Railay Beach is by longtail, the iconic boat of Thailand. Longtails serve as taxis throughout the islands as there are many places not accessible by motorized vehicle and have waters so shallow that ferries cant get to them. There are no piers in bays where the tides can change the waterline by as much as 100 yards. Therefore, you must take off the flops, hike up your shorts, and wade out to the boat, luggage in hand. Once you arrive at your destination, you jump out into the surf, grab your bags and hope a wave doesnt take you out on your walk back to shore. Anyway, when in Railay, one must rock climb, so rock climb we did. Matt, climbed well. Me, not so much. But the views were incredible and at least we tried. 
Next stop, Koh Jam - another island with no ferry access. In fact, the island is so remote that the ferry stops in the middle of the water and longtails drive up to the ferry. You must transfer both bags and person onto the longtail without safety of solid ground - a very unique way to arrive at an island. For 300 Baht a night (about $10) we were picked up from the ferry and greeted with mango juice, our own bamboo hut complete with mosquito net, and bikes for rent. We rode bikes up and down the 4km long beach all day, stopping along the way for a fruit shake and to check out the sand crabs in the tidepools. We then drove in towards the island's only village, and this is where things got a little muddy. Or alot muddy - depends which one of us you talk to. About a 3km ride from the safety of our bamboo roof, the sky opened up and poured a good Southeast Asian 10 minute monsoon on top of us. Clothing soaked and red dirt roads now muddy pools of well, mud. By the time we made it back to the beach both our bikes were caked with a thick layer of red slop, as were Matt's legs, Matt's bathing suit, Matt's sandals, and just about everything else on Matt. Somehow I made it mudless, which is still a sore spot.
Koh Lanta is about an hour ferry ride south of Koh Jam and is most known for beach resorts and diving. Since we dont dive, we decided to spend our time their riding a motorbike up and down the main island road visiting all the beaches on the west coast. This was a really good idea as long as someone knows how to ride a motorbike and would have been really fun I'm sure. Within literally 2 minutes of having rented the bike, I rammed our shiny pink bike into the bikeshop owner's bike. Aside from earning a toe owie and a few bruises, I walked away from the rental shop and Koh Lanta embarrassed and a 250 baht bike rental fee poorer. 
icing the toe.
If there is one island that you must visit in all of the Thai Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, its Koh Phi Phi. This is what you think of when you think of Thai beaches - shallow aquamarine water on silken white sand beaches. Rock karst formations all around. Palm trees and fruit drinks with pineapple slices on the side. Aside of Koh Phangan, we spent the most time here. One night was spent camping in Maya Bay, the actually beach used for filming in the movie The Beach. (it really is that perfect) The rest of the time was spent snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, nearly being attacked by monkeys....the usual. Unfortunately, amongst all the beach fun, we did lose one of our cameras to the aquamarine water in a sticky ocean-kayaking situation. Rest in peace, crappy Kodak. 
Overall, Thai islands get 4 thumbs up. We spent time the best beaches we've ever seen in the world. However, because there is such a large amount of foreign tourism on most of the Thai islands, I can't say that we walked away from the south with a firm grasp on the Thai culture or the Thai people. What I can say is that after seeing how beautiful the islands were and how unique the landscape was, we boarded our flight to Chiang Mai with alot of excitement to see the rest of Thailand.On a side note, I would like to say that I really do appreciate the Asian cultural habit of taking off one's shoes before entering a house/business/restaurant. However, I think I draw the line when drunken travelers somehow stop paying attention to the shoes they are putting on when leaving an establishment and end up somehow with my Left Flip-Flop. Where ever you are Left Flip-Flop, I hope you are enjoying yourself. I walked around Thailand for 2 weeks looking like an idiot with your new owner's crappy fake left flip flop and my sad right one:
I have since purchased new flip flops (Thai brand, recycled rubber, $6) - I no longer look like a bag lady.
So, its been WAAAY too long since either one of us wrote a blog entry about anything that we are doing on our trip. Im sorry. Between travel days, flying over the pacific ocean, and waiting in immigration lines a multitude of times, somehow the opportunity escaped us. However, after spending the last 16 days on the beach, I guess theres hardly an excuse left to explain the absence of a post. So, here is a post to cover all days between November 4th, the day our Everest trek made it safely back to Kathmandu, until the kickoff of the 2nd half of The Trip. It might be a long one.Nepal.After the trek we headed to Pokhara, a small town by the base of the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. Its about a 7 hour, very treacherous, very bumpy, very hot bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which we happily did with our new buddies Christina and Brian from New Foundland. The town sits on a lake so theres boating, theres hiking, theres eating, and theres happy hours. A lot of them. We spent about 10 days in the Pokhara area and over that time period, I think we attended 95% of those happy hours in search of the cheapest Everest beer. Three of the days spent in Pokhara were at a yoga center in the hills. This was a great experience as it forced us both to relax a bit more as well as experience one of the most widespread Hindu practices right at the source.
Instead of traveling directly back to Kathmandu, we made a stop along the way in Bandipur, a town located at the top of a ridge (only accessible by extremely overcrowded 4x4 taxis). As it is not completely easy to get to, it has been spared a heavy influx of tourist businesses and has remained an old, very Nepali, very local town that feels like time stopped moving in 1884.
After a few days in Bandipur, we spent our last few days in Nepal in Bhaktapur, which is the old capital of Nepal and a city rich with Hindu temples and local culture. There were so many amazing temples in a small area, and being in their presence was one of the most exotic and mysterious experiences we've had on this trip yet.
Hong KongWe arrived in Hong Kong with food poisoning. 35 days in Nepal and we felt completely fine. Until our redeye flight to Hong Kong. My fever set off the temperature control at Hong Kong immigration which almost barred us from even entering the country. For our time in HK, we settled into a shoebox studio apartment in the middle of the city which was modern and new, a stark contrast to the parade of Nepali guesthouses we were used to. The next few weeks were spent hanging out with some much missed friends, visiting the Hong Kong racetrack, walking around Taoist temple complexes, seeing movies, visiting Macau, and going to see the Gorillaz.
ChinaUnfortunately, we had very limited time in China, however it proved to be okay as this was by far the most difficult country weve encountered in terms of eating and communication. No one speaks English and no one makes Matt-friendly pasta. The two stops in China we made were in Chengdu, and then again to Zhuhai.Chengdu is a large city in the western part of China. It is the gateway to exploration of Tibet as well as being home to Sichuan cuisine. But screw that, lets get to the important stuff. This is totally where the pandas live. Their natural habitat is in the mountains immediately north of the city, and the ridiculously awesome Panda Research and Breeding Center is about a 20 min taxi ride from my hotel. We went twice. One day was spent feeding pandas, touring the grounds, cleaning their cages, and generally being happy people. The second day was The Day Annie Held A Panda On Her Very Own Lap. It was also the day six 5-month old panda puppies played in the garden and thoroughly entertained the Shustrins for about 2.5 hours. Theres not much else to say other than that I wanted so badly to steal a panda and bring it home. Thankfully, Matt talked me out of it since we figured Chinese customs officials might not look too kindly on that plan.
Zhuhai. Im not sure why one would ever go to Zhuhai. I know why we went though - because we could. It was an hour ferry from Hong Kong, had a overland border crossing into Macau, and we had one more entry left on our China visa. Thats about it. We spent our days shopping at the uber-massive underground mall for bootleg DVDs and China souvenirs, and learning how to pronounce Zhuhai. Its Joo-hi. Our nights were spent at the one western restaurant in the area, owned by a very friendly Zhuhai-ian. I know im being all negative about it, but being seriously now, there were 2 good takeaways from Zhuhai. The first was literally, a takeaway. Matt "forgot" that his hot springs uniform shorts were still in my bag when we left a hot springs resort, which was probably the only really worthwhile thing to do in Zhuhai. The second takeaway was the experience of being ushered through trapdoors hidden in the walls of various clothing shops that hid bustling bootleg DVD stores behind them. It was so 007. After 3 days of Zhuhai we'd had enough, so we crossed the border and spent a night in Macau, playing poker, drinking lychee martinis, and learning how to play Sic-bo.
Boarding a plane to San Francisco officially ended the 1st half of The Trip. We've traveled countless miles through 9 countries, 13 time zones, been through immigration checkpoints over 30 times and taken about 23 Gigs of photos. It was both really sad and amazingly empowering knowing we'd completed this part of the journey. We've come out the other side as a happier and stronger unit as well as having had some unforgettable personal experiences.Once home, a 10 day break from traveling really hit the spot. There was bagel eating, sourdough bread eating, sandwich eating, Tostito-and-milk eating, football watching, free laundry, and plenty of family. It was a great way to kick-off the 2nd half of The Trip feeling refreshed and ready.
After Koh Phangan, we headed to Railay Beach, home of the most impressive limestone cliffs Thailand has to offer. They tower above the white beaches and are now famous for being the best rock climbing jungle gym in the region. The only way to get to Railay Beach is by longtail, the iconic boat of Thailand. Longtails serve as taxis throughout the islands as there are many places not accessible by motorized vehicle and have waters so shallow that ferries cant get to them. There are no piers in bays where the tides can change the waterline by as much as 100 yards. Therefore, you must take off the flops, hike up your shorts, and wade out to the boat, luggage in hand. Once you arrive at your destination, you jump out into the surf, grab your bags and hope a wave doesnt take you out on your walk back to shore. Anyway, when in Railay, one must rock climb, so rock climb we did. Matt, climbed well. Me, not so much. But the views were incredible and at least we tried. 
Next stop, Koh Jam - another island with no ferry access. In fact, the island is so remote that the ferry stops in the middle of the water and longtails drive up to the ferry. You must transfer both bags and person onto the longtail without safety of solid ground - a very unique way to arrive at an island. For 300 Baht a night (about $10) we were picked up from the ferry and greeted with mango juice, our own bamboo hut complete with mosquito net, and bikes for rent. We rode bikes up and down the 4km long beach all day, stopping along the way for a fruit shake and to check out the sand crabs in the tidepools. We then drove in towards the island's only village, and this is where things got a little muddy. Or alot muddy - depends which one of us you talk to. About a 3km ride from the safety of our bamboo roof, the sky opened up and poured a good Southeast Asian 10 minute monsoon on top of us. Clothing soaked and red dirt roads now muddy pools of well, mud. By the time we made it back to the beach both our bikes were caked with a thick layer of red slop, as were Matt's legs, Matt's bathing suit, Matt's sandals, and just about everything else on Matt. Somehow I made it mudless, which is still a sore spot.
icing the toe.
Overall, Thai islands get 4 thumbs up. We spent time the best beaches we've ever seen in the world. However, because there is such a large amount of foreign tourism on most of the Thai islands, I can't say that we walked away from the south with a firm grasp on the Thai culture or the Thai people. What I can say is that after seeing how beautiful the islands were and how unique the landscape was, we boarded our flight to Chiang Mai with alot of excitement to see the rest of Thailand.
