Merry Christmas from Taiwan

Merry Christmas!

It doesn't really feel like Christmas here, I rarely see a Christmas tree or Christmas lights.  I sometimes hear Christmas music coming from Starbucks or the mall, though.  It just kind of feels like another day.  But, I know that we celebrate Christmas not for the feelings and gifts, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Just because it doesn't feel the same, does not mean it doesn't have the same meaning. 

In Taiwan, they don't recognize Christmas as being a holiday, this is understandable though.  Only about 1% of the Taiwanese population are Christian, I actually would rather them not celebrate Christmas over celebrating Christmas for commercial reasons only.

I hope you all have a wonderful time with family, friends and whoever you run into this Christmas season.  I hope your Christmas is filled with warm, tasty food.  If you don't have a lot of family around, I hope that you will still find joy in the true celebration of Christmas whereever you are at.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Phil

Shihlin Market 1

Had to get a picture of this...don't worry, I didn't try it...I didn't want Mad Swine Disease.

These were really good. It looks like an ordinary roll, but it has meat inside.

These were like round seafood pancakes, they were pretty good, but I stuck mine into my mouth too quickly and it was incredibly hot (microwave hot) and burned my tounge.

Luke did the same thing I did, you can probably tell that his mouth is being burned. We met Luke in Taiwan, he is here with YWAM and is going to to the SBS (School of Biblical Studies) in March. We ended up saying with him for our second of two weeks (so far) in Danshui.

Shihlin Market 2

These are pigeon eggs, they are so tasty, we tried them in Thailand also...one of my favorite treats.

This is some kind of dessert, we didnt try it, but something like a cherry with berries in the middle.

This was a little crazy...so normally people will just purchase sausages...at this stand, you have the option to gamble to get a lower price by rolling dice. The goal of the game is to either get a lower score or higher score than the owner, you need to choose which. If you win, you get a discount on your sausage, if you loose, you have to pay the difference of the bet...you do have the option of just buying the sausage, but it's not as fun. I never thought I would see the day where people gamble for a sausage.

There is the owner, nice stache.

Shihlin Market 3

This is Lawerance, one of out Taiwanese friends we met at a conversational English class.

This is an Oyster omlete and pork stew of some sort...good for the soul. If you're sick, pork soup is great, so we hear.

Luke and Stanely

Jonathan, Lawerance and Nolan

Shihlin Market 4

Jonathan took his share of the pigs blood rice cake dipped in nuts and green onions, sick!

Here is a closer look, after we all tried it.

Stanely took us around the market. He is holding up some kind of Japanese salad. It was very interesting. It was some sort of doughy-sprout salad with corn, dried pork, tuna, seaweed, mayo and other stuff on top.

I'm still not sure what most of this is, but in the back right is rice sausage...it was pretty good, nothing like I have ever tasted before...it was literally a sausage made of rice.

Beitou Museum | Danshui, Taiwan

Sunset in Danshui



One of our amazing view in Danshui

This is a picture of one of the old hot spring pools, I believe it was a Japanese spa at one point in time many years ago.

Hot springs continued

Some guy enjoying the free hot spring area.

I believe this is close to where the water comes out of the earth.

More steam.

Hello Taiwan | Beitou Hot Springs

We have been staying in Danshui with friends and at the YWAM base. Danshui is northwest of Taipei, about 45 minutes from downtown taipei.


This is just some random picture...thought it was kind of funny.

We visited Beitou Hot Springs on our third day in Taiwan.

Beitou Hot Springs. They clear the place out and clean it every few hours. The pools start out very hot, on the top right, and progressivly get cooler and the water flows down. I seriously felt like my skin was melting when I sat in the hottest pool.

A closer look.

Making room

Danny needed to make room because he is expanding the recording studio for his music ministry.  We turned four rooms into one large room.  They will also expand one of the apartments across from the studio.  These are the rooms that Nolan and I lived in for 2.5 months.  So sad...my room...gone!

Dtan working hard.

What a mess, we started with 4 rooms and ended with 1!

The remains of the room in the corner.

Nolan and my new room, for about a week before leaving to Taiwan.

Last days in Thailand

Nolan doing some damage.

This was a massive Christmas tree in a mall, Thailand. I think it was something like 5 stories tall.

The national prayer conference.

No New Posts

Hello Everyone,

I appologise for not blogging lately.  We have been really busy.  We arrived in Taiwan about two weeks ago and are trying to get settled in.  We have had a tough time finding a coffee shop with wifi, that is open before noon (and that has a power outlet plug in).  We have mainly been going to a gammer internet cafe, so we haven't been able to use our laptops as much.  Once we get settled in and get internet of our own, I will be able to put up some new pictures and blog some more. 

Thank you for your prayers.

Take care everyone and God bless.

Phil

Queen's Botanical Gargen 1

The top of the Queen's Botanical Garden overseeing the hills.

Tan and Gai, they live with us at Danny's house.

Queen's Botanical Gargen 2

Queen's Botanical Gargen 3

Queen's Botanical Gargen 4

This was a really cool structure made of bamboo.



Nolan, wanted to destroy the pillars, but they were built too tough, sorry Nolan.

Queen's Botanical Gargen 5

Nolan drinking out of the water jar. Families used to have these outside their houses for people to drink out of when they walked past.





These leaves are huge, about 4'x3', wow.

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos meet.

Jonathan and Nolan...photo shoot.

A huge Chang (elephant) and Buddah

Akha Roaster

Danny and Nicol (the roaster and owner of much of the coffee trees)

Nicol's new roasting facility, it is still being built and setup.

Akha Food and Coffee Roaster

This is the Akha food we ate, it was delishious. We had some kind of lap, vegetables fried in garlic, pickled vegetables, a meat soup dish, some fresh fruit and other amazing food. Our rice was cooked in banana leaves and they had this amazing spicy paste (which is my favorite in Thailand so far) that is made with peanuts.

When we first arrived to the village they served us coffee grown in the hills. They harvest a large amount of coffee and sell it around Thailand and probably world wide.

Steamed rice in Banana leaves with lap. Spicy sauce on top with some garlic vegetables.

A couple pictures from deep within the hills at a coffee roasting facility.

In the hills visiting the Akha tribe

Me at the top of Doi Chang (elephant mountain).

The first fruits of the harvest. It is a huge festival (Much like Thanks Giving), the ceremony lasted about 3 or 4 hours. There were about 300 people or so at the event in this building, we got to sit in the front row...we felt very welcomed being the guests.

Funny little kids.

Many fruits, vegetables, spices, chickens and other kinds of food.

Akha School | Part 1

We visited this Akha hill tribe school, where the kids live away from their families in Chiang Rai, they eat, go to school and learn about Jesus here. We got to play soccer, eat and worship with these kids...it was awesome.

These are all the kids.

Worship with the kids was awesome. They would sing (scream) at the top of their lungs, it was really fun.

This dog felt compelled to come up and greet me during worship. For some reason it felt like it would be okay to jump up on the bench with me. He stood for a while and after trying to push him off discretely a few times I decided to let him stay and I made him lay down. He tried to switch angles a couple of times and almost slipped off, haha.

Akha School | Part 2

This is a school in Chiang Rai where Akha hill tribe kids from the mountains live, go to school and learn about Jesus. Some of these kids don't have parents or just one that is around the family (in the hills). We got to play soccer with these kids, eat dinner there and have worship...it was pretty cool.

Boys dormatory.

Some kind of swing contraption, it wasn't setup.

This is one of the two dogs they had on the grounds.

Wongen Coffee Shop Training

This is the first coffee shop ministry we helped at. We helped with latte art and a little with adjusting the grind.

Jonathan showing Mangooo milk steaming techniques.

Mangooo picked up milk teaming really quickly...the art will come.

Painting and such!

We helped Bik paint Pan's new appartment. Wow, look at Nolan's Stache.



The stairs up to Pan's room we were painting, crazy...I think the structure was completely made of bamboo.

This is Joe...really cool Fijian guy that we met, he lived with us for a little bit. He is involved with YWAM in India.

The Adventures of...Mustache Malaysia!

To start out the trip, we carved out mustaches and created the Mustache Malaysia theme, you will see in the pictures...

We spent about 4 days in Malaysia for our visa run...it was pretty relaxing.  We ate a good amount of Malaysian as well as Indian food.  There are many 2nd and 3rd generation Indians whose ancestors migrated to Penang.  We had some amazing Naan bread at one restaurant, it was a fresh as is can get, he made it right in front of us, pulled it out of the brick oven and we ate it within seconds...wow.  We hiked in the National Forest, went to Monkey beach, swam in the ocean and hiked to the light house (a sad end, read on for explanation).

We spent some time in a Buddhist cafe, it was peaceful indeed.  We visited Fort Cornwallis (that was pretty neat), saw some cool buildings (including the Queen's Watch Tower and St. George's Church) and visited a museum among other things.

Overall, it was a relaxing trip, soar at times, but fun.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Malaysia (Penang) | Malaysia, Malaysia

These are random pictures in Malaysia.

So, this bathroom didn't have toilet paper, not even a bidet...as you can see, all it had was a tube and a water handle...major bummer. I will let you use your imagination from here...but, let me tell you, it was a challenge.

These were everywhere, we may have taken one of these taxi's, but most of the time, we walked faster than they rode.

Lebuh Chulia, the street we stayed on.

Malaysia (Penang) | National Forest/Ocean

We decided to hike through the National Forest in the North-West part of the island. It was pretty cool, we hiked for about 45 minutes to Monkey beach, went swimming in the ocean and it was amazing. The ocean was everything I imagined a tropical island to be like...there was a easy breeze, the waves were calm, the water was warm (so warm) and the sand was warm! Ahhh, so nice.

So...we decided to hike farther to the light house...everyone told us it would be a great hike, great view...how weird. My guess is that few people have made it all the way to the light house. It was an incredibly grueling hike, major incline and once we got to the top, we found out that the light house was all fenced off, we couldn't get in and there was no view do to all the vegetation! What a bummer. Not to mention, we were completely soaked in sweat, that is how grueling the hike was...then we had to hike about 1 hour and 20 minutes all the way back completely soaked in sweat.

At the beginning

A neat looking bridge early in the hike.

Monkey Beach!

After swimming.

Malaysia (Penang) | Holy Monkey!

So these monkeys were hilarious. After we had our coffee/tea (which I had cardamum coffee, it was really good), one monkey took my mug and tried to drink out of it, when he realized that there wasn't anything left, he tried to eat/bite the mug...when that didn't work, he simultaneously threw the mug off a cliff and jumped into the tree, ha ha...oh well.

Apparently, he was waiting patiently for me to be done so he could take my mug.

He was eating a packet of sugar.

Wow, what a face.

Malaysia (Penang) | Spice Garden Detail

Our time in the spice garden was pretty cool...you could tell that they put a lot of work into the garden with the layout and choosing fruits, plants, flowers, and spices from all over the world.  I posted quite a few pictures, but have many more...even more in my mind that were not taken (my camera battery almost dead).  It was well worth the $4.50 to get in, very interesting.

Malaysia (Penang) | Spice Garden

This is from the spice shop. Cinnamon.

More spices.

It turns out that black pepper used to be a pretty hot commodity. It was worth it's weight in Gold back in the day...some people would even pay their rent with black peper (or rather the landlord would ask for black pepper in return for rent).

Dried Chili's

Malaysia (Penang) | Spice Garden Continued

This was a crazy looking Fan Palm, apparently it is pretty rare, the leaves were massive.

This was another crazy plant (I also believe this is from the palm family), the leaves spiraled as they went out and it had about a 30 foot span from one side to the other. I couldn't get far enough back to do it justice with a picture...too bad.

Crazy-looking flower plant.

Malaysia (Penang) | Spice Garden Continued

Waterfall allong the way.

Crazy looking flower thing.


This was a neat looking plant/flower.

Malaysia (Penang) | Food

Indian food, so good!

This is a Malaysian hamburger...it was so amazing, I had 3...or maybe 4! I got what they called: Beef double egg! What they would do is fry two eggs on a skillet then wrap them around the meat patty, they would throw this on some lettiuce, then throw sauted onions and sweet chili sauce on top with shreded cubcumber (I believe).

Malaysia (Penang) | Food Continued

I actually don't know what this is...some kind of rice ball with chili paste or something on the top...just thought it looked interesting.

These looked like doughnuts of some sort, didn't try them.

This was Indian food that we got for 5.3 ringit and the chai was awesome, that was 1 ringit (totalling about $2.30)

A close-up of the Indean food, fried rice with chicken, an egg pie thing and a couple of different curry sauces...mmmmmmm.

Malaysia (Penang) | Watch tower, cafe

This is the Queen's Watchtower.

A closer look.

We found this cafe that served espresso...we later realized that is was some kind of Buddhist cafe.

A Buddhist Temple.

Malaysia (Penang) | Fort Cornwallis

This is Fort Cornwallis on the north east part of Penang, one island of Malaysia.



Cannons, I would not want to be in the way of this when it fired.

This is a little rusted.

Malaysia (Penang) | Fort Cornwallis Continued

A huge Cannon.

More Cannons.

That's us.

The outside of the bunker.

Malaysia (Penang) | Fort Cornwallis Continued

This is inside the Bunker. Ammo, gun powder and such.

Jonathan found a huge swing...probably what they did in their past-time, when not fighting or off duty (eh, eh)

The Chapel.

Malaysia (Penang) | Buildings

I believe that this is called St. George Church.

This is some kind of government building.

Another government building of some sort.

This is the north east end of the island, the ocean water was very calm.

Video Blog 6 | Bangkok Slum

Helping in the Slums: After

We only had the resources and ability to replace the roof to the bathroom and to the entrance of their house. If the water goes down to a reasonable level we will try to return in a week to raise the bathroom and make a better walkway to the bathroom.





This is the walkway to the house, I didn't get a before picture. This is the finished roof that we put in.

Helping in the Slums: Before

So the family we helped out today was really poor. The father had become ill about a year ago (I think his kidneys) and has been unable to work. He and his wife have three kids and his wife has been supporting their family making about 150 Baht/day. 150 Baht is something around $5. I will typically spend at least 90 Baht on food in a day when I am going cheap...

Their bathroom sunk and their roof was in bad need of repair. We had planned to raise the bathroom and make a new walkway, but due to the recent flooding in Bangkok and lack of resources, the water was too high to raise the bathroom or create a better walkway to it. This is a picture of the failing roof to the bathroom.

Here is another picture of part of the roof that had been destroyed by rust.

This is an example of how the people in the slums just throw their trash in the water that surrounds them...and it's a lot of trash.

The bathroom was flooded and the path is hardly walkable...the water is raised about 1 ft above the usual level in this picture.

Flooding in Bangkok

So we have spent most of the last 3 or 4 days in our house because we had some major downpours for a few days in a row, not to mention crazy amounts of lightning and really loud thunder (waking us up at 3am, the loudest thunder I have ever heard).

The street directly outside of our house was about 6"-1 foot deep with standing water. The closest main street was even more flooded, in some places it almost went up to my knees, we had to wade through it a few times...Don't worry, I washed and scrubbed like crazy when I got back, who knows what is in water that is standing for 3-4 days...some places smelled like feces, sick!

The flooding finally ceased last night and we could cross the main road without getting wet, Nolan and I rejoiced. Otherwise our stomachs would have gone hungry for the night as most things were closed at that time.

I updated my comment restrictions, I'm pretty sure that you may leave comments now. So if you want to leave a comment, please do.

Video Blog 5 | Laos - Part 3

Video Blog 5 | Laos - Part 1

Video Blog 5 | Laos - Part 2

Cooking in Asia Episode 1

Laos Recap

So our time in Laos was very relaxing…The weather at first was pretty rainy and we had a lightning storm nearly every night for the first week and a half.  We began staying in Pakse, the second day in Laos we took the trip to the Bolaven Plateau (coffee/tea farm, ethnic village and waterfall).  We then stayed in Pakse for a few more days, relaxed, toured the town, drank coffee, played cards and read.

Our second trip was to Champasak to visit Wat (Temple) Phu.  We stayed in a guesthouse for two nights on the Mekong river and the temple was pretty neat, we have lots of pictures.  We thought Pakse was really slow…Champasak was even slower, there was very little to do.  I better mention that crossing the Mekong river in a boat made out of half a tree is a little scary.

We returned to Pakse and relaxed some more.  We had been frequenting a coffee shop called Champady.  It was the best coffee we found in town and the food was decent as well.  Anyway, we had made friends with the employees and we asked them if they would be interested in us doing a little bit of coffee/barista training and latte art lessons.  They loved the idea.  It turned out to be an amazing and unique opportunity for us, the language barrier presented some difficulties though.  The Lord has blessed us with a gift and knowledge (coffee industry) that we can take across cultures.  It is a neat way to get to know people.

We then rented motorbikes and took a trip back to the Bolaven Plateau in search of the a couple different coffee growing areas and a specific coffee shop called the “Travelers Meeting Place (or Point) Café”  We rode a long way and didn’t really find what we were specifically looking for, bummer.  We did see many coffee plantations, but didn’t have an opportunity to stop in.  We ended up finding one coffee shop where I bought ½ a Kilo (about 1.1 lbs.) of Arabica beans (not sure the varietal) that looked well sorted, I am excited to roast these.

Then returning to Pakse again, we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a large festival.  The main attraction was the boat racing…this is where you have about 20 people in a really long boat racing against other teams.  It was a fun 3 days, full of food and many people…the small town just seemed to be exploding at the seems with locals.

That pretty much sums up the trip vaguely, if you have specific questions, please ask, there is much more to tell.  Hope you all enjoy reading this and please don’t forget to pray for our safety and health as we travel.  We have lots of footage, so look for more videos to come soon.

P.S. sorry for all the posts all at once…we didn’t take our computers to Laos, so I just got a chance to upload all the photos and write about everything.

Laos - Random

This was a random house that I took a picture of in downtown Pakse.

This is the lemon-grass steamroom that we frequented, then ended it with a $2.50 1/hour massage...so nice. (sorry for being so blurry...my camara wasn't doing too well with the low light)

It is often that a single motorbike (or scooter) can be transportation for a family of 3, 4 or even 5 people...you can witness it yourself. If you asked me the secret of how they actually do it...I couldn't give you a good answer.

We ended up being in Pakse at the right time, there was a huge boat race and festival for the last weekend we were there. It was a lot of fun. Usually Pakse is pretty quiet...but I think that for this weekend all 66,000 people in Pakse arrived and then some.

Laos - Food, edible and non-edible

If you are craving a great hardboiled egg in Laos, you might just want to think twice.

We learned the hard way...apparently it is a fine treat to hardboil an egg...once the chicken (or whatever it may be) is partially formed. Yep, we got tricked into it...some little food vender by the river, they were so excited to see us and we thought, well great, they are so hospitable...and man, could I use some hardboiled eggs...wrong! I'm sure you can find good hardboiled eggs, but be careful. Ya, Nolan and I ended up trying one, the least formed of course, you can see the video (soon to be posted).

This ol' gal was selling sweet sticky rice with cocunut on top, it was tasty.

It boggles my mind how they can fit a whole chicken between two sticks...so amazed. Granted, the chickens in Asia are a slight bit smaller.

This is a bag-et, we found out about this little bag-et cart about half way through our time in Pakse and let me tell you, they are amazing. We often got cravings for them. A small bag-et like this one would cost around $0.50, a larger might cost about $2. Many times we would eat a couple of these for $1. I miss them already.

Laos - Barista and Latte Art Training

This is the best coffee shop we found in Pakse, Laos. We frequented this place while in Laos, it is called Champady.

This is some of the group that we helped train.

Here is Sow working away.

Tulip, it isn't the best, but certainly not the worst.

Some more Latte Art.

Laos - Wat Phu Temple Complex

This is one side of the 1st level of the complex (3 levels total)

This is some kind of temple on the second level.

This is inside the above temple.

This is a picture from the third level, you can see the first level from here.

Laos - Getting to Champasak

This is Nolan and I (of course you know that) and the water taxi that we took across the Mekong river to get to Champasak to visit Wat Phu.

Another Shot...I seriously was wondering if we would make it all the way without the boat sinking.

This is just as crazy...its one of these water taxi's but for vehicles...never would have thought that I would be traveling on one of these.

Another shot of the water taxi full of vehicles and people

Laos - Ethnic Village

These are some ladies selling agriculture in an ethnic village.

Here is some sugar cane (I believe)

Kids from the ethnic village...they hardly have enough cloths to wear...this is what it really means to be poor.

A pig that decided that it would be a good treat to eat the banana peels that we bought from the ladies and threw on the ground.

Laos - Waterfalls

These are two waterfalls that we visited



This was a Crazy Cow that kept trying to follow me...maybe he wanted to lick the camera. It was really funny how these cows would cross the river about 15 feet from the dangerous parts of the waterfall, haha.

Here is one of the bridges we crossed to get to the second waterfall.

Laos - Coffee/Tea Farms

This Lady worked on the tea farm selling coffee/tea.

This is where they dry the tea.

Coffee plants

Update From Laos 9/28/09

Hello to all,

I apologize for not updating my blog in a while, are you still out there? Anyway, we are in Laos right now. We left Bangkok on 9/20/09 for a visa run. We took a night bus and ended up in Pakse, Laos (southern) the next day. I feel rich because $1 will buy 8,400 Kip (Laos Currency). We stayed the first night in the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, it was decent except for the hammering and construction right under us at 8:00 in the morning, we also found out that we were being a little overcharged for what it was. The next night we stayed in the Royal Pakse Hotel, which was decent, we paid about $4 a night each (they gave us a good deal). We had A/C and our own bathroom with a hot shower, that was nice since it is a little cooler here in Laos. We stayed there for 3 nights.

The second day we took a trip to see some waterfalls, a tea and coffee plantation and an ethnic village, it was pretty fun except...Jonathan got some rash from climbing around in the jungle...we all wanted to see the waterfalls better, and I think we all got a little bit of the rash, but Jonathan got it bad, haha. At the next village the driver got some lime and powder so we put it on him...he is doing much better now.

We then took a 2 day trip to Champasak, the home of Wat (Temple) Phu. We stayed at a pretty nice guest house on the river for about $3/night each. We had to cross the Mekong river to get there and the boat was a little scary, I wasn't sure if we would make it all the way across the river. Champasak was very nice and relaxing, very quiet compared to Pakse and especially compared to Bangkok. Wat Phu is a pretty cool temple complex, we spent about 2 hours there. When we left, we took a ferry boat that carried vans and cars...I thought that might sink as well...but it held up pretty well, haha. I have lots of pictures, I will post some when I get back to Bangkok, we left our computers there.

We are now back in Pakse and are staying in a different place, Sedon River Guesthouse. It is a pretty good price and includes a hot shower and A/C.

Oh, and I almost forgot to say that on our way to Champasak, we paid (1/2 the trip cost) a guy to set us up to go. About 2 kilometers into the trip the driver stops because he is supposed to pick up other people and take them farther...long story short, we ended up getting out and taking a different van, much nicer for less. Now we need to find the guy we paid to get our Kip back!

Hope you all enjoy reading the update, I will post pictures when I return to Bangkok.

Video Blog 4: Tim Tam SLAM!!!

Video Blog 3

Trip to the South 2

Trip to the South 1

Bridge building in the slums

Nolan, Jonathan and I helped YWAM build a bridge in the poor slum area. The community is built about a foot above water on a wet-land type of area. We built this bridge because there are a few women who host a bible study back here and people were having a hard time getting there. When we got there, the old bridge was almost deteriorated, it was made of wood and parts of it were in the water, it was way past due to be fixed. Can you imagine trying to step very carefully over trash ridden (probably disease infested) swamp water everytime you come and go from your home? I didn't get a before picture (it was raining almost the whole time), but got these pictures of the finished product.

We began by destroying the old wood parts and taking 3-4 foot cylinders and pounding them into the swamp water for a base. We then cemented a short 2x1 foot piece of concrete onto two of these cylinders. we then proceeded to lay down large slabs of concrete (which you can see, they are about 1.5'x7') on top of the base. They were super heavy and it was a tricky job...but it ended in success, we were really glad to had the opportunity to help. Nolan and Jonathan were the slamming masters (they took the slammer and pounded most of the concrete cylinders into the swamp).


This is a closeup of the bridge

This was the cutest little girl. She is enjoying the new bridge, afterward she and all the other kids wanted us to throw them in the air...so natually, we did.

Finished Bridge

Another photo from the coffee roaster.

Specialty Coffee Roaster in Bangkok

We visited a specialty coffee roaster in Bangkok, it was pretty cool, but on a very small scale. Specialty coffee is kind of a developing market in Thailand right now. They use mostly Thai coffee as it is very expensive to import coffee (90% duty tax). We also went back two days later to cup coffee's from around the world. It was nice to find people who are passionate about coffee in other places in the world.

For more pics, visit Jonathan's blog http://thefareastconcatenation.blogspot.com/

This is Zan, he owns the coffee roaster.

Roasting Coffee

Teaching English in a Southern School

Nolan is taking on the whole class
 
 
 
 

Fishing Village in the South

 

 

 

 

Bee Hive we destroyed and bee that stung me

The Bee that stung me...Dead, what he deserves.

Hot springs in the South

The southern beach and hike

 

 

 

 

Trip to the South Continued.

 
 
 
 

Food at the local Market

 
 
 
 

Temples and swimming

This is a huge Buddha in a cave temple.

Shawn and I under a small waterfall, the water was soooooo warm. Bik thought it was cold, eh eh.

 

Me, Bik, Shawn, Nolan and Jonathan.

All of us posing on a tree by the rope swing that Nolan broke

Monkey's

This is the monkey that lost it's footing and fell into the water, it was really funny.

 

Nolan filming the monkeys in the cave with Jonathan, Bik and Shawn in the background.

 

Monkey and her baby...she is dreaming of bananas.

 

A monkey jumping up to grab a banana out of my hand.

 

Bangkok

This is a picture of a piece of Bangkok, pretty large city.

 

I had to get a picture of this.

 

One example of the kind of food we have been eating. Boiled egg, rice, chicken and some cucumber.

 

This is a picture of the overnight luxurious buses we took, they were really nice.

 

Update 8/19/09

I apologize for not updating my blog sooner, as many of you know, I have been crazy busy. Anyway, I did a 3 in 1 update so you can all see some of what I have done while back in Eugene. We two days left in Eugene and it is going to go by so fast. Wow, leaving to SE Asia early on the 22nd, I can't wait!

Hike

Hiking


Jonathan, Andrew and I


Andrew jumped, it was a long fall, but he was alright!

Andrew and Renee

Newport Aquarium Visit

Family at the beach around the fire.


There is some crazy stuff at the Newport Aquarium.


Japanese Snow Crap (I believe), it can get something like 13' across, wow!


Don't touch em'


This must be some kind of a sucker fish, haha.

Hike at the Coast

Above is from a hike we took at the coast.


This are some more pics from the coast, the sunset was awesome.

The Taco Truck

The Taco Truck, a place that is very near to my Heart. 35th and SE Division.

Itinerary

Hey all,

I will be moving back to the Eugene area somewhere between July 10th and July 20th. From that point I will be visiting people and relaxing until we fly out to Bankok, Thailand on August 22nd. We will be spending 2-3 months getting to know the culture and traveling out of Bankok to the surrounding countries and different parts of Thailand.

We will be traveling to Taiwan sometime in early to mid November to prepare for a year of teaching English. Your prayers are welcome and appreciated.

I want to see as many people as I can while back in the Eugene area, so if I haven't talked to you yet, please contact me and lets get together. Don't be a stranger!