Our last few days in Chiang Mai (and in fact Thailand, as well as SE Asia) passed by in a blur of relaxation, eating, and walking the markets at night. As an exception to this, Friday night we walked to Wat Suan Dok, where they host a "Monk Chat" three nights a week. We arrived just after 5pm and sat with a small group of other travelers, asking questions of two young monks (well, one monk and one novice) about their lives and Buddhism in general. The young ...

We only had one full day in London so Beth and I decided to do what we do best, see everything!! Starting out around 10am we hopped on the "tube" and took a 1 hour ride into central London. Taking the Tower Bridge stop we started out on a walking tour of the South Bank called the Queen's walkway. It was a record day for warmth (and sun!) in London at 27C, so there was a lot of people out by the Thames River. The walkway was dotted with lots of little pubs a...

I woke up this morning to a rustling in the bathroom. It was early so I had no idea what Mark was doing up! Turns out he was hanging up a Happy Birthday sign (made by my Ma!) on the mirror. Way to celebrate my birthday with a flare from home all the way in Reykjavik! We packed up and headed back to the bus station and hopped on a bus to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's more famous hot springs. It was beautiful, giant steaming outdoor pools of milky blue hot...

Another fun day in Iceland. After a glorious sleep last night, we woke up early and hopped on the "Golden Circle" bus tour. We toured around the countryside, driving through some lava fields on route to Gullfoss, which is one of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland. It was spectacular and the trails around it allowed you to get up close and personal. It rained lightly most of the day (Scotland raining!), but didn't bother us at all. From our stop at the wat...

We landed this morning at Keflavik Airport in Iceland. As we landed, the sun was rising on a beautiful day. We took the bus from the airport into Reykjavik. Even though it was only 9am, we headed straight for our rental, hoping for an early check-in or a place to leave our heavy backpacks. Luck was on our side and our studio apartment was ready! We headed straight in and fell right asleep! We headed back out around lunch time and hit the local grocery store...