i've never been to 7/11 so often in my life...

yes, a weird opening statement after close to three months of traveling and no update - but i can't get over it. i really believe 7/11 owns part of asia, it must. it's at least twice as worse as starbucks in the states ... but it's a reliable place to get toilet paper (i have not yet totally embraced the thai way of spraying myself clean - how do you know when you're done?)and water. that is another thing in itself, friends -- i have been going through so many plastic water bottles. ugh! i feel guilty but i don't really know how else to go ... you can't drink the tap, sometimes i see centers to fill up on filtered water for my kanteen but they are few and far in between -- and in this heat you can't risk it. any advice from any fellow travelers? asides from that it's a big shenanigan to just buy a bottle of water before they try to throw it in a plastic bag with a plastic straw ... and they look at you so strangely when you refuse!

but, other than that travels are going smooth enough. i've officially seen the biggest spider in my life, or should i say caught a glimpse of it before i closed and barricaded the bathroom door? or should i say before paul closed and barricaded the bathroom door as i was standing across the room next to the front door if it came to that. hopefully that's the end of those stories. the food has been great - strangely enough the weirdest thing i've eaten wasn't because of crazy ingredients or anything like that -- it was just plain weird. i thought i'd get a delicious smelling waffle for desert and i bite into it to find that it's filled with ... hot dog? eww.

there's so much to catch up on - and with a limited time to do it in, i can already feel the randomness of this passage growing and growing.

at the moment we are in a town called lopburi, famous pretty mcuh only for the fact that it is overrun by monkeys. apparently the monkey gang is lead by a half blind geezer, though i haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet. it really is one of the strangest things i have ever seen - there are so many more than you would expect. this morning a monkey ran up behind us and grabbed half of our breakfast goodies and then proceded up the telephone pole to eat in in front of us out of our reach. yesterday paul was bending down to take a photo and before he knew it a monkey was on his head ... it's very surreal --

almost a weirder phenomenon than the elephants! how fun was that?! some of you have probably seen the photos but we did an adventure trek which included elephant riding, bathing and a camping trip to the waterfalls. such a beautiful couple of days - but so many mosquitoes. i was worried the elephant riding experience might be a sad one - but the elephants seemed happy tromping through the jungle and the river. i would have liked more interaction with them, the guides assume you always want to be riding them so you barely see their face -- but it was a great experience. very weird because you are thrown right in there and you just do it.

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france! what a great month as well - marie was an amazing host, as i would have expected ... we saw so many beautiful places, met some wonderful people and ate SO much good food. i think the french food has officially captivated paul's heart ...

i will say this about france - apparently at parties they like to dress up like mice and sing about cheese? it's true, there is photographic proof.

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the last couple weeks in australia were great and i'm starting to look forward to going back. we took a roadtrip through pretty much outback land -- very interesting camping and roughing it in the middle of nowhere ... and still i have seen the most beautiful beach of the trip there. our last week was spent with a couchsurfer (apparently an ex-pro bullrider of australia?) and his couchsurf-ees. it was amazing how quickly we all became so a close group.

...

somewhat of an update of a good amount of time - i know i'm missing tons of great stories. today we are on a train to phisanulok, and then to chiang mai. from there we fly to souther thailand, into phuket. then some of the crazy beach time will begin ...

at least, that's the plan ... we'll see how it actually goes.

<3