102...but who's counting?

This morning, as we flew home from an amazing weekend sailing the Whitsundays, Dave reminded me that today was our 102^nd month anniversary. 

It brought me way back to the very first day that we started dating...July 30^th, 2003. Actually it was in fact July 31^st that Dave officially asked me to be his girlfriend, but we decided right then and there that if our anniversary fell on the 31^st of the month we would only get to celebrate every other month, the ones that have 31 days...because yes, when you're 17 you celebrate 'anniversaries' on a monthly basis (one year just seemed like light years away). So naturally we nominated July 30^th as the official date of our budding romance. Who would have thought it would have blossomed into a love like this, 8 and a half years or 102 crazy beautiful months later?! 

I always knew i was going to marry that boy some day... 

xo Tegs

It feels like home to me

Our gorgeous view this fine January evening!

The past six months have flown by in a whirlwind of fun and fury. When I finally sat down long enough to think about all of the travel I’ve done the past half a year, it finally became clear to me why I’ve felt so busy lately...since August 2011 I’ve logged the following air miles (for both work and our own adventures):

Old pic for good times sake!

1.       Brisbane to Cairns

2.       Cairns to Tabubil, PNG

3.       Tabubil to Cairns

4.       Cairns to Brisbane

5.       BNE to Sydney

6.       Sydney to Vancouver

7.       Vancouver to Sydney

8.       Sydney to Brisbane

9.       Brisbane to Sydney

10.   Sydney to Melbourne

11.   Melbourne to Brisbane

12.   Brisbane to Singapore

13.   Singapore to Phuket

14.   Phuket to Koh Samui

15.   Surat Thani to Bangkok

16.   Bangkok to Hanoi

17.   Hanoi to Kuala Lampur

18.   Kuala Lampur to Kuching

19.   Kuching to Singapore

20.   Singapore to Brisbane

21.   Brisbane to Prosperpine, Witsundays (Ok...not yet but departing on Jan 26!)

22.   Prosperpine to Brisbane

Wheew! Some trivial fun facts: (I cant deny my inner nerd the urge to crunch numbers!)

1. That’s a total of 22 Flights in 180 days, which averages to a flight every 8.2 Days.

2. Thats a grand total of 55,322 kms...which is equivalent to flying once around the world (40,074 kms is the distance around the equator according to Wikianswers) and then onwards from Brissy to Toronto!!

It makes me a wee bit exhausted just thinking about it...and while Dave & I are always so so very grateful for the opportunity to travel, it is always divine to be back in the comforts of home at the Regis. Having my sista here made it all the more reassuring that we are right where we need to be, just relaxing (after a fun GNO!) watching the sun set over the city we've fallen in love with.

xo Tegs

Last Stop - The Borneo Jungle

Well Im sad to say that this post from Borneo will be the last blog of our SE Asia journey. I can’t believe that one month flew by in such a flash. It has been such an uh-mazing experience and we didn’t slow down once. But as this journey comes to an end, it brings new possibilities for more travel in our future. Dave and I love nothing more than to wander through foreign lands and throw everything that is safe and familiar to the wind for a short time. And we did exactly that in these past 30 days, they were unforgettable. 

The Borneo jungle is cuteness overload. We planned to come here with one single goal in mind...and that was to see the orang-utans in their natural environment. They are the most gorgeous animals on the planet and we were lucky enough to visit two rehabilitation centers to get our fix.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the stunning creatures in all their glory!

The first ranga sighting was in a national park which facilitates rehabilitation so that the apes can survive in the wild. As such, they live almost completely on their own, only coming down for a feeding during the dry season when fruit is few and far between...in July! January happens to be the height of fruiting season, therefore we were warned that the chances of spotting our red headed cousins was most likely nothing to less than nothing. But amazingly, we lucked out and saw a precious mama and her we little baby monkeying around high in the trees. We got about 15 ft from the mama and were in sheer awe that we couldnt even get the camera to function because we didnt want to take our eyes off of her, plus with the babe around she was in ultra protective mode. Once we backed away I took these shots. It was brilliant!

They have such beautiful personalities that shine through without reservation. It’s amazing to watch them interact with each other, it’s almost like a community of people who aren’t concerned with judgement. I mean look at how they can just chill out and unwind...they epitomize relaxation.

They are fun, playful and so loving, i think they have a lot to teach us if we take some time to watch and learn from them.

Just a sweet visit between two lovas!

Catching some rain to quench her thirst.

This bad boy (yeah I'm talking about the scooter) was our ride while we were in Borneo. Pretty reliable hog...got us through about 80kms in monsoonal rains, a little soggy but a lot of fun. We really just relaxed in our last week of the trip in Kuching. We are sure gonna to miss noodles for every meal our new jungle buddies when we get back to the land down under!

We arrived home to Brissy five days ago and have been enjoying the uh-mazing company of our friends Kelly & Delaney ever since. We are so happy to have all this quality time together, and have new plans in the pipe for some Whitsundays sailing in a few days!

xo Tegs

Eating away at my sole...

 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Day 19 (5/1/12)

Well, i think it’s fair to assume that anyone who knows me, knows that I love a good old fashioned spa day! Heck, it doesn’t even have to be the whole day. I’ll take anything I can get...so long as it’s in the name of pampering myself. On this trip alone I’ve already tried the traditional Thai massage in which I was bent like a human bow & arrow (and didn’t have much to complain about there seeing as I left feeling like a million bucks). Then there was the Vietnamese double date massage with Sabi, where the lovely masseuse ladies climbed right up on those little folding tables with each of us. Then halfway through the massage they threw a pedi in the mix which was much to our surprise and delight.

So when the opportunity came up for a Malaysian spa retreat I was on it like white on rice! Dave and I sussed out the local “Fish Spa” and I thought I should at least give it a try, seeing as my poor dry, cracked soles have suffered immensely on this soul searching journey. I knew Dave was not going to be my partner in crime on this adventure, so I embraced it on my lonesome. The whole idea is that these schools of little fishies eat away at the dead skin on your feet leaving them smooth and supple. I’m not going to lie...I thought it was going to be easy breezy, but it was terrifying! As soon as I swung my feet over the ledge and dangled them above the water those ravenous little guppies actually leaped from the water to get at my feet! I decided that I better just dive in and with that almost every fish in the pond came to snack on my soles! It was weird to say the least...it tickled and pinched and mostly just felt like a slow agonizing torture that would make for a good fear factor challenge. Ok, so maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but i didn’t want to freak out and kick a million fish in the face at once so I just tried to sit there as long as I could. Apparently the owner doesn’t feed them, so they are starving I would imagine (although I think today I may have generously offered them a thanksgiving feast complete with coral reef scabs for entree). And just like with a lot of things that happen in Asia, you must not think too much about the hygienics or you will be left sitting & starving in your hotel room (for your sake I have left out the details of the toilets here). Let’s just say you use a large volume of hand sanitizer at all times. So what’s the verdict you ask? I left walking away with tootsies smooth as a baby’s bum but I don’t think I’ll be returning for seconds!

Here are the last few pics from our trip up the telecom tower in KL. Did you know that Canada’s CN tower is the largest telecommunication tower in the world? Oh yeah!

xo Tegs

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Best place for your next ladies night!

Another impressive guest post: This time by the fabulous Sabi, aka my little sis! Enjoy her account of just one of the many adventurous stops on our South East Asian tour so far! Thanks for sharing Sabi...

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (or KL for those who are familiar) - Day 18-19 (5/1/12) 

As soon as we landed in KL, we were blasted with the 32 degree heat we had been hoping for this whole trip. I took a bus & train to get to my hostel and as soon as I arrived everyone was coming together to make plans to check out the local pubs and entertainment for ladies night, which in KL means free drinks for the ladies all night (Alberta should get wind of this!). I met a friend and we went to the mall where upon entering I first saw all the independence bears, which were each equally amazing for several countries. Canada’s looked like an optical illusion once you took a picture of it. Other favorites were USA`s statue of liberty bear and the Irish bear, decked out as a giant leprechaun. The malls were so big and filled with really familiar stores like Zara and Sephora. We went out for the night having lots of fun with the temperatures staying right around 26 all evening. The owner and worker from our hostel took us all out to hit their favorite spots, ensuring that we all had a wonderful fun filled stay. We went for some fabulous noodles (when in rome!) before calling it a night.

 

The next day went to see the beauty of the Batu caves, which was the light at the end of the tunnel, the 400 stair tunnel to be exact!! It was quite the trek in the heat, and since it hasn’t been that hot all trip it seemed like somewhat of a shock. 

 

There were lots of monkeys running freely so we put our sunglasses and water away just to be sure they wouldn`t get a five finger discount, as they were snatching at people and grabbing food and bags. They were really entertaining to watch fly around so fast and carefree and the babies were so adorable.

Bet he`s eyeing up my shades right now

 

We then headed out for some street supper- where I have become addicted to banana and coffee flavored milkshakes so I had my fix before heading off to the local shisha hot spot. We walked to the twin towers at night and they were amazing. Lighting up the sky in perfect design, it was a great way to end the night and quick trip in KL. Great time with some new friends! 

Until next time…

Sabrina