13.1 miles & a beach recovery

The only problem with running in a half-marathon together is that you have no pictures to show for your efforts (that's not true, they will gladly sell me some rather unattractive ones for around $15). I do have a lovely before shot at 4:30 am when Sherri roused me out of bed.

Race day!

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Celebratory Angkor beer!!!

Sherri found a latte,

An amazing holiday with an amazing lady!

Phu Quoc harbour

Floating sea food market.

The race was great. Definitely a unique experience and one I won't soon forget. The 13 miles didn't exactly fly by but I ended strong and am glad to have done it. I never thought I was a runner and while I still wouldn't claim the title, I do know my body is willing and able.

Sea urchins, tasty.

When we weren't running, Sherri and I took advantage of our lovely hotel swimming pool, had some lovely massages and ate cheap, tasty Cambodian food.

Happy feet....even if they're missing two toenails.

Sunday, after the race, we flew to Saigon for a quick overnight and then to Phu Quoc off the Vietnam coast near Cambodia. Phu Quoc was absolutely stunning. Lovely sandy beaches on the bay with minimal people and more than sunshine than even I could need.

Most of our time was spent swimming, lounging, reading and enjoying the lovely many food options. But we did manage a trip to the south one day for a day of snorkeling (pretty sure Sherri is hooked) and a motorbike ride to the north to lounge at another lovely resort on another lovely beach.

Merry Christmas!

Hard to come back to Lao and even harder to send Sherri home to rainy Washington but it was a lovely holiday and one I won't soon forget.

A day around Vientiane

My good friend Kerryn is leaving Laos and heading back to Australia in early December. So another friend had the idea to do a cycling scavenger hunt through Vientiane with friends popping in throughout the day. Hillary Clinton provided clues via text.

Hillary texted Kerryn with the scavenger hunt clues

Kung's cafe for brunch.

We started with brunch at Kung's cafe, a quaint little Laos cafe in town. It's down the end of an alley and has become an institution in the expat community.





Patuxai yoga

From there we headed off to Patuxai, a classic tourist attraction that was built with donated funds from the U.S. (not quite the intended use of the money). There we flexed our yogic muscles to spell out Kerryn's name and recruit a helpful tourist to assist us.

Tie dying with love.

Stewing my scarf.

After Patuxai, we cycled to Hung Huaey, a weaving center outside of Vientiane to tie dye silk scarves. They turned out surprisingly well.

Well done ladies.

Showing off our handiwork.

We then headed back into town for some drinks and snacks at another classic expat hangout, the Spirit house.

By that time we were pretty tuckered out from all the cycling and decided we deserved a foot massage a.k.a. nap time.



Spirit house for drinks, Mekong river in the backdrop.


To finish the day off, we went to a lovely little Laos restaurant for some tasty Laos dishes. A very successful, yet exhausting day!

Dinner to finish a lovely day.

 

Sri Lankan Adventures - part 3

One of the highlights of the Sri Lankan trip was a daylong safari into Yala national park. Yala is located on the southeastern corner of Sri Lanka and is home to the most dense population of leopards in the world (according to a Sri Lankan published guide book).

The safari was a little surreal in the way that it's ran. Basically, the town of Tissa has become a mecca for touts running "safaris" into Yala national park, so anyone and everyone who can afford a massive jeep has one and rounds up tourists for daily runs into the park.

The park itself has an intricate network of poorly maintained dirt tracks that make for an off roading adventure in and of itself. Add some wild elephants, leopards, crocodiles, etc. and you have a pretty amazing experience, nothing to compare with an African safari but a good time all the same. The problem is that with so many tourists going on these "safaris" and such a network of touts, you end up with traffic jams of jeeps anywhere a leopard is spotted. One tout spots the leopard, spreads the word via cell phone and about 30 jeeps take off at break neck speeds driving like manics to get their spot in the traffic jam to see the leopard. All together an odd experience but one that did afford us a couple glimpses of wild leopards and even a photo or two.

Sunrise

Kingfisher

Iguana

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Mongoose wrestling...or something like that

Baby monkey....now if he were only riding on a pig!

Baby elephant

Jeep traffic jam.

Curd....or buffalo yogurt.....not too bad.

Tea plantations.

Temple of the tooth.....supposedly Buddha's tooth lives inside....in a giant metal box that is never opened.

 From Tissa and Yala national park, we headed up into the hill country. We had intentions of climbing Adam's peak, a mountain that houses a temple and amazing views after a 5000 step climb, but never made it due to the rain. Instead we spent some days visiting tea plantations then went to Kandy, the spiritual/cultural centre and second largest city in Sri Lanka.

There is apparently a lovely train ride in the hill country with beautiful views but unfortunately, we managed to choose a national holiday to travel and the train was fully book. So instead we spent four long hours on windy roads in the hills trying not to get car sick. The scenery was beautiful but we were both happy to arrive in Kandy and get out of the minivan.

Kandy is a lovely city with a large lake, some beautiful temples and heaps of people. We managed to do some shopping while there, as many American brands are manufactured in Sri Lanka and sold at dirt cheap prices.

We also had the opportunity to meet up with a friend's mom and brother who live in Kandy. It was great to have a nice home cooked meal and spend a couple evenings having good conversation with locals.

After Kandy, we caught the train back to Colombo to fly out the following day. All in all a great adventure and I plan to return in January to see other parts of Sri Lanka and attend a meditation retreat.











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