Hong to the Kong and The End of a Chapter

First of all we have to give a big shout out to the amazing Marge who not only let us stay at her beautiful home, but she was also the best tour guide and buddy to have out there!  She met us at the airport and because she's been living there for 5+ years now she is quite the expert at getting around on their public transportation system.  Which is pretty crazy because of how big this city is!

Marge took us to all the hot spots while we were there and made sure we tried all the random foods!  Luckily we had her to tell us what the good ones were and what the really weird ones were to stay away from - because there is definitely some weird stuff there!  But a lot of really cool stuff - our favorite thing we experienced there was rice balls and these awesome sesame paste filled rice balls - so yummy!!  She also took us to the best dim sum place in town where we did some fine dining and ate some of the best bbq pork buns we've ever had!

So there you have it - FOOD was a big part of the Hong Kong experience.  Another major part - SHOPPING.  Which was super nice for us since it was so close to Christmas time!  Let me tell you, we shopped til we dropped, multiple days.  And we drug Marge around as we hassled vendors - Robby is absolutely the best haggler there is by the way- he pretty much offended and pissed off a lot of people, but eventually was able to get some amazing deals by standing firm!  I loved watching this boy bargain.    It was an art.  And our family and friends will thank us because we were able to buy more Christmas gifts because of it!  We hadn't bought much of ANYTHING our whole trip, until Thailand and Hong Kong, but especially in Hong Kong.  Since it was our last stop and we had an extra duffle bag we figured we pack that thing full and check it on our flight home.  And that we did!

Hong Kong is an amazing huge city and we got such a beautiful view of the skyline from Marge's apartment on the 11th floor.  She is a friend of Robby's mom that they knew when they all lived in Denver, but her husband's job brought them to Hong Kong 5 years ago.  She was a saint to us, gave us a comfortable bed to sleep in and a shower to use that we didn't need to wear flip flops into!  That alone  felt amazing.  And we even got a home cooked meal or two while we were there!  this was such a great transition for us since we were about to come home.  We started to feel very comfortable again and became more excited to come home...because initially we were completely dreading it!  But soon we remembered the comfort of having a place to live, meals to cook, laundry machines, and toilets that you can flush toilet paper in!  Oh the little things you begin to appreciate!

Anyway - Hong Kong was a very cool, huge city.   It was a cool feeling to walk around these immaculate buildings and just look up - it makes you feel so small.  We also checked out the giant Buddha and a really cool fishing village while we were there - and got to take a cable car across the city too!

most days were foggy there

Hong Kong was a great way to usher in our homecoming....but even still we were dreading the day we had to go to the airport and check into our flight to San Francisco.  As much as we were excited to see our families and enjoy the holidays, we were heartbroken to be ending this chapter of our adventures.  It truly was the experience of a lifetime and we will always be grateful for the things we learned, people we met, amazing sights we saw, and the way our hearts were able to be softened for and given to people and places we had no idea existed!

so sad to be ending this adventure

The people we saw and lived amongst taught us to be more grateful, more open, more loving, and more simple.  We've learned and lived lessons that will last a lifetime and have memories etched in our minds that have changed who we are.  Forever grateful for that.

There are so many incrediblethings in this world, I continue to be amazed by it and by the people who live in it of all walks of life.

I have and always will be one to promote living your dreams, whatever they may be. It should be a requirement of living.  Because we don't get re-dos.  This is our chance to create our own story, so write it exactly how you want it to go.  You would never regret it.  The "normal" life will always be waiting for you when you want to go back to it. Oh and by the way - the time is NOW because tomorrow is never promised.  So whatever it is, you should probably go for it.

I feel so blessed and satisfied to have lived one of my biggest dreams and I plan to keep dreaming and turning those dreams to realities as well.  Robby and I will always have wanderlust and I'm sure there will be so many more adventures! I'm excited for them all.  Even the ones that occur during every day life.  Which we are now slowly getting back to!

We've been here!!

Inle Lake with a Splash of Yangon - Just How I Like it

Okay so we did have one more day in Inle Lake after our awesome bike ride adventure...and what would a trip to the lake be without going onto the lake?!? It wouldn't be a trip to the lake at all now would it.

Our day started at 4:30am.  Now that is a time of day that I rarely want to see.  But this day we were excited.  The lake can be extremely misty at night, making it look totally mystical and scary.  Once the sun rises the mist does too so it looks a little different, plus, watching the sunrise on an old boat in the middle of the lake was incredible.  Too bad our boat driver was late picking us up (the one time we were acrually on time and waiting!) and we missed a lot of the mist, but we still got an awesome sunrise! 

It stated out freezing! 

The lake is incredibly beautiful.  I don't know what it is about it's properties, but the way it reflects the sky is unlike any other body of water I've seen! And instead of water the lake looks like it's filled with clear oil.  It's so shiny and smooth!  Scattered around the lake you have these old fishing boats with fishermen all over doing what they do best!! They were so cute, many would stop and wave with huge grins on their faces.  These people are not used to seeing tourists still.

Doesn't the water look like oil?! It was a pretty oil though, like a clear blue

The coolest thing about the lake besides how beautiful it is, is the fact that there's an entire community that lives on it.  In the middle there are houses on stilts,   in the water, boats parked out next to em as their vehicle of choice and they carry on like business as usual.  We even passed a post office on stilts!! They have this floating market that we went to called the "Five Day Market" where each day of the week one of the five different communities that live on the lake get to host.  We checked it out and it was so cool to see what they had - lots of crazy fish that had just been caught, fruits, veggies, and hand made everything!  These people truly lived their lives on the lake and lived off the land in every way.  So crazy to see.

A lake house

All on stilts! 

Climbing through boat after boat to get to the floating market!

Inside the market is madness 

People laid out everywhere selling their goods!

Of course fish galore...which made for some interesting (nasty) smells 

Parking lot for the market.  And you thought Costco parking was bad!

Restaurants, temples, homes, everything a normal community has - just floating!

We even saw a village with the long neck tribe...they put these gold rings on their necks to stretch them out!

We spent an entire day roaming the cities on the lake.  One of them has giant temples (or pagodas) and they have them all over the place!  These ones were so striking with gold, orange, white and brick colored structures.  And they were so old they had trees and roots growing out of some of them! 

Don't let the biceps distract you from the scenery 

Tree growing right on and above the pagoda!

To make the community on the lake complete of course there had to be floating gardens.  I don't get how it works at all, it blows my mind, but in the middle of the lake you can literally see floating gardens.  They grow tomatoes and other vegetables that way.  Can someone explain this to me?! 

Garden growing in the middle of the lake!

Back on dry steady land we took ourselves out to a nice pasta dinner (Burmese food is some of the worst we've ever had - so you gotta go with something simple) and checked out a real live puppet show!!!! For whatever reason, the people of Burma are a little obsessed with string puppets.  It's kind of funny how you begin to notice how each country has their own "thing" they love.  No real reason or history on it - they just love puppets!  You see them everywhere. So we had to see a puppet show. I don't know what I was expecting, I half expected two guys with socks on their hands talking in weird voices behind a couch or something, but this show was legit!  If you can even imagine what a legit puppet show would even entail.  It was hilarious though.

Kinda freaky yet entertaining!

That night we took another one of our beloved night buses back to the capital city of Yangon.  Here we wound spend a couple days before flying back to Thaialnd and then to our last stop on our trip, Hong Kong.

Yangon was awesome!! We had zero expectations of it.  All we knew was that it was the capital of the country and that it was way bigger than most cities there.  Well that was true.  Not only is the city bigger, but everything in it is bigger! Kinda like a Texas.  They had pagodas there as well, but one of the biggest and most amazing one we had ever seen!! We explored this place like it was Disneyland!

They wouldn't let me in in leggings so I got to borrow an authentic skirt wrap thing.  But Robby got to show off his legs!

Buddha just chillin 

The temple  looked so cool as it got darker! This thing is all gold and covered with gold leaves that people press on as gifts to Buddha.  There's also supposedly a 30 karat diamond at the very top!  Try and Top that with your next ring J-Lo! It's pretty crazy how they would have so much money invested into a temple and to see how much money the community gives as offerings to Buddha and the monks when most the people themselves are so poor.

Like I mentioned, up until now Burmese food had been some of the worst we've had! But Yangon had some amazing street food.  They were deep frying scones all over the place, Burmese pancakes (which were our favorite!!), Indian curries, fresh bread, gutted fish, you name it! We explored this to the max and tried as much random food as we could!

Loved this street curry! They just give you a metal plate and spoon and you eat it right there on the street sitting on a bucket!

Their streets were filled with trash because of all the markets and street eating

Loved their fruits! Especially these baby cuties!

Making scones! Yum!

Burmese pancakes - Robby's fav!

We also had one of the weirdest drinks ever from a small diner. Picture a slushie...now add some weird jello like strips to the bottom of it, a handful of nuts, more weird jelly been stuff, random fruits and berries, and maybe some condensed milk and you get this.  Actually pretty tastey...

Right before we left we got to try their infamous avocado shakes.  I am telling you, this is sooooo good!! Basically just their giant, ripe avocados mixed with condensed milk and probably some sugar.  This is a recipe I WILL try at home!  Probably won't be the same because somehow all fruits and veggies are bigger and better in Asia, but it's definitely worth a shot.  One of the most delicious things we've ever drank!

Skeptically trying the avocado drink 

Both were amazing! 

After eating our way through Yangon and spending hours and hours at their giant pagoda we headed back to Thailand, where we spent "One Night in Bangkok" again, and then jet settled to Hong Kong.  So sad that this would be our final stop!!

Hangin out! 

We loved Burma!!!