have you been scammed while traveling?

Posted on November 19th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, random.

My friend Erik (of The Global Trip fame) is looking for your stories. Go to World Swirl and send them in. You have till the end of 2008… you could be published - you know you wanna!!

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My first trip to Yosemite

Posted on August 2nd, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel.

I went to Yosemite a few days ago to meet up with my little brother Noah, and some friends of his from Spokane. Yosemite is an AMAZING place, and I would encourage EVERYONE to go visit. There are not very many Americans there either - it’s funny how much you seem like you’re in the minority. But it’s SOOOOO beautiful. Go visit. I took a whole bunch of pictures, and played with sepia, black and white and normal. I even have some pictures of me!! Aren’t you lucky… It was gorgeous. Here’s the flickr link:

Noelle’s Yosemite Pictures

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oh… and…

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, random.

I am so excited!! August is going to be great. I get to drive to Yosemite (where I’ve never been!!) on the 30th of July to see my little bro. And I’ll come back around the 2nd of August. And then on the 14th of August, I’m going to NYC. It’s been far too long since I’ve been there (less time has passed since I went to Vegas, but NYC is so flippin’ rad!!!!) and I’m going for an old high school friend’s wedding. It’ll be great!! I also get to see friends there. It’s all just gravy. I’m stoked. I’ll be there for four whole nights. YIPPEE!!!! Just wanted to share. I love to WALK so much in NYC, it’s just great…

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benefit dinner on Sunday, July 27 in SEA

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel.

My friend Aung Aye is hosting a fundraiser for the victims of the cyclone in Burma a few months back. It’s going to be at Perche No Pasta & Vino, on Sunday. It’s at 4pm, and all you Seattle-ites should go. Here is more info:

Please join us for dinner at Perche No Pasta and Vino, an authentic Italian restaurant near Green Lake in Seattle, to raise funds for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma (Myanmar). On Sunday, July 27, 2008, owners David and Lily Kong will open their generous hearts and award-winning kitchen to help cyclone victims, donating half of all sales that day.

PLEASE RSVP for Reservations: (206) 547-0222

Cyclone Nargis swept through Myanmar in early May, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Another 2.4 million people lost homes, schools, crops, farming animals and access to clean water. For survivors, some of the most effective help has come from local monasteries. The Seattle Myanmar Buddhist Association is working with Sitagu Buddhist Vihara, a monastery in Burma, to provide rice, canned fish, blankets, roofing materials, clean water and medical supplies. The monastery has already set up five free village medical clinics and emergency relief shelters for 900 cyclone victims in the hard-hit delta area.
Thank you for your support. The Seattle Myanmar Buddhist Association will send 100% of donations to monks who have an established track record for helping cyclone victims. All donated funds will be used for cyclone relief.
Located in Kent, WA, the Seattle Myanmar Buddhist Association (SMBA) was founded in March 2006 to provide a center for the practice of Buddhism, meditation and Dhamma study in the United States.  SMBA is a registered 501 (c) (3) organization; donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
For more information and online donations please visit:
http://www.tipitakausa.org/main.php

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Pictures are up!!

Posted on April 15th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, work, Thailand.

I’ve posted all the pictures. Some of the descriptions are filled in, some are not… Go here.
Can I go back now? I will be (hopefully!) getting some underwater pictures from my dive buddies, so stay tuned!!
I asked my boss if he could get me a job at the Tesco Lotus in Phuket - he said I would be ideal for stocking the top shelf. I could go diving all my weekends!!

Needless to say, I’m back to the grind… Boss told me he didn’t miss me, but many others told me he did.

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Getting to Bangkok

Posted on April 12th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, Thailand.

I kind of pushed the limits today… I didn’t want to go to Krabi for a night and then go on to BKK on a plane. I decided that I might end up cutting it close with a minibus to Krabi… I asked the driver if he would drop me off at the airport and he assured me he would. There was a family on the bus who was very late, and if they hadn’t been late, I might not have had to shout at the tour agency where I was dropped off… note to self - do not fly to Krabi in order to go to Khao Lak. When I come back to Khao Lak to dive, I’ll definitely fly to Phuket. I had to flag a songthaew (an open-backed taxi) to get me to the airport, and had to pay him 150 baht, but that was a GOOD DEAL less than I would have had to fork over for the stupid tour agency to take me… I ended up giving him 200 baht. And I barely made the check-in time, according to the sign - BUT, I don’t think they were really going by that.

Uneventful flight back to BKK, I had to fly over the lovely blue water of the Gulf of Thailand and I was very sad… there is no ocean breeze here, and I really would much prefer that… But, I’ll get to hang out with my friend Helen from the boat, and also with Suthee and Wendy. I still need to do some shopping, after all!

I had an authentic market Thai dinner with some people from the dive shop on Friday night, which was very fun. It’s great to be able to make friends where ever I go!

I probably won’t post before I go home, so I’ll let you all know I’m back when I get to the office, zombie-like, on Monday. What I would really like to do is NOT go home, but go do more diving… but reality has set in, and I feel like I should do it. Bummer.

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More detail about the liveaboard

Posted on April 11th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, Thailand, diving.

Since I have some time, I figure I’ll write out what I’ve written in my little black book… here goes:

Started the trip at 8pm in the diveshop, drove up to Kuraburi where we got on the boat. I rode in the back of a minibus with Helen who is basically a British Valley Girl. I think that’s possible, but she does not. The other person was a Californian named John - he lives in Redondo, so it just became a small world!

I went diving with a computer from the shop for the first time. I dove with Ben (our Divemaster), Scotty (an Aussie) and Oliver (a Swiss-German). Justin (another Aussie) was the 4th person, but he had air issues, so they changed him to a different group. It was a good group. Saw lots of great stuff, LOTS.

The Divemasters on Board were fantastic - always helped with small tips here and there. It was super helpful. The Thai crew was awesome as well - just really fun and funny people. They were always there to help - no matter what was happening.

My ears got a little stressed, I think that three plus dives/day will do that to you. A couple of the DMs had some of the same problems - it’s the end of the season and the ears have a tendency to get more easily stressed.

Overall, I’d HIGHLY recommend Sea Dragon. All of it is fantastic. All of it. Here’s the link again: Sea Dragon Dive Centre.

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The Last Dive…

Posted on April 10th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, Thailand, diving.

BOO! I just did the last dive of the trip. I really was not pleased with having to do that, but I had to do that. You are supposed to have 24 hours between the last dive and flying. At least. And now I’m there. I have to fly on Saturday back to Bangkok, and then on Sunday for hours and hours back to LAX.

So, I can’t dive any longer, but now I’m up to like 35 or 36 dives in my logbook. I have decided that I want to start procuring my kit. Slowly but surely I’ll procure all the stuff I need for diving, so that I don’t have to share regulators with other divers.

I got to see plenty of lionfish, scorpionfish and schooling fish today, along with a good variety of nudibranchs - you’ll have to ask me for the diving sign for those - it’s comedy. I had a Divemaster I knew with me, from the liveaboard, and it was truly great. Just the two of us, and really only saw a few people who were starting their dives as we were coming up. The wreck was an old tin mining platform. The weather is still hot and I still like it. But, I have to start preparing myself to come home… that kind of stinks. ;) Miss you all, but really…

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know I came up from the bottom…

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Getting Up Early

Posted on April 9th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, Thailand, diving.

Apparently on the boat, we were one of the groups that was the easiest to get up each time. The DMs were not pleased with this. They wanted at least 10 minutes of “wakey-wakey” time without customers. We did not oblige. I was up 10 minutes before the wakeup shout came, as I needed to make sure my contacts were all sorted before a zillion (yes, that’s an exaggeration) people started wandering about… Anyway, I’ve not yet been able to sleep in past like 8am any of the days I’ve been on holiday so far. But, I’ve gotten good sleep - apparently going to bed early works for me. That did NOT used to be the case. But now, whatever… I have to go back to the land of less sleep next week - sucks - and hopefully this store of sleep I currently have will tide me over for a while…

Anyway, I’m headed to a market today, in one of the next beach towns North, and also to that beach, to sit. That is part of vacation too, I think.

I just received an email from my dad that stated that 30 degrees C is 86 degrees F. Um, wow. That’s hot in the water. The monsoon is starting now too - the weather is turning very humid with crazy rain storms in the afternoon (as I told you before). We arrived back to port in one of those storms… It is also, in Phuket, supposedly currently 84 degrees, feeling like 94 degrees. It’s HOT. And then I just depressed myself by looking at the temperature in LA… not cool. But, I’ve still got time here… YAY!

I was trying to put some pictures up from the liveaboard of the lovely islands, but my camera (my borrowed camera) and this computer are not getting along. You may have to wait till I return home to upload them. If so, I apologize… I don’t have that many pictures this time, nothing like last time… I do think I have enough, though.

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No Whale Sharks…

Posted on April 8th, 2008 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, Thailand, diving.

I didn’t see any whale sharks (they are the world’s largest fish…), but I saw some really, really great other things. I was out there underwater for three times a day, starting at 7am on Saturday morning… only two times today - and the last dive was a bit of a letdown… boo.

Overall, it was a total of 12 dives as I did only one of the night dives. It was a bit intense on the ears, but I’m going back down for another dive on Thursday… there’s a wreck in the area that I want to go down into. The divemasters were all fantastic, and the Thai crew was really, really awesome. The group we were with also was great as well. I’ve now become facebook friends with some of them (Mrs. Gray, get on it!!).

The diving was AWESOME, RAD, WICKED, WONDERFUL, SPECTACULAR… um, what else? I saw little fish, big fish, corals of all sorts, black-tipped reef sharks, leopard sharks, two kinds of turles (FOUR turtles in total on ONE dive!!)… it was really, really great. I know some of you don’t want to hear about this, but it was really good. Mom, we’ll just have to come back - Sea Dragon rocks.

As I said, met some great people, so I’m going to go hang out with them today and tomorrow. And then dive again on Thursday, make my way to Krabi on Friday for a Saturday flight to BKK… The hotel I wanted on Saturday is booked, so I’ll be doing the typical wander about town trying to find a place… Unless a friend can work magic and find a place to stay. It IS the beginning of the Thai New Year weekend, so I’ll just hope for it. I need to do some shopping for pashminas - and, anyone need anything?

I’ll try to write a more detailed update of the trip. Suffice it to say that it was really, really great.

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