End of the journey...

We are currently in Bangkok waiting to leave for the airport and are excited despite the 36 hour trek home. We've had an amazing adventure and it was monumental for us! We enjoyed sharing our stories with all of you and putting up our favourite pictures. Thank you for following and a big shout out to our #1 fan, Ten, whose comments kept us going.

We'll leave you with one last pic, one of our favourite activities in Southern Thailand, "hammocking"!

Sending you all elephant hugs and giraffe kisses.
xoxo
Aliyah and Sarah over and OUT!

Paradise!

Our trip is quickly winding down and we're ending it off with some rest and relaxation in paradise!! We are on Koh Phangan on a tiny cove a beach called Haat Salad. It is glorious! We are loving every second. It's the first time we've been able to leave our bags unpacked and take time for ourselves...boy it feels good.

Sorry for lack of blogging in Asia. We were on the move the entire time. Our journey here took 31 hours: 5 bus rides, 1 plane ride, 1 long ferry! It was entirely worth it.

Currently our days consist of sleeping in and waking up to breakfast on the beach. Then there is reading, swimming, journalling, napping, and chatting. This occurs either poolside or beachside - it's sooo hard to choose, they are both great options. Good thing everything is within seriously 15 meters!!

We are loving life on Thailand's beaches and will be here until Tuesday. Here are some pictures so you can daydream yourselves...

Yesterday we rented a scooter for the first time. It was quite the thrill. A little scary but we totally managed. We are now biker chics.

Last night we watched this fire show while eating dinner on the beach. Pretty awesome...

This is our room and our own personal veranda. We are missing the British Colonial company but we will be spending many moments here...


The real world awaits in T-10 days!! Ahhhhhh :( We are pumped to see all of you soon.

Trekkin'

We just came back from a 2 day trek in the rainforest near Chiang Mai! We rode elephants, we climbed uphill 2.5hrs and sweat our bums off, and we went white water rafting and bamboo rafting. We have no time to write now but will give more details later. Here are some pics for now...

Thai Chefs!

We are currently in Chiang Mai. We arrived yesterday morning, way too early. After resting a little we explored the city. We pretty much chilled all day, got another Thai massage and hit the market for some more shopping!! Life is great :)

After the market, we prepared ourselves for a night out in the city. We headed out to a cute little bar, had a couple of drinks and listened to some live music. We had a fun night.

The highlight of today was our Thai cooking lesson. We started off by going to the market with our teacher Perm, who showed us how the locals buy produce. He then took us to his house, where in the back he has a cooking area. His jokes were lame but he was quite the chef. We learned how to cook hot and sour soup, chicken with cashews, green curry, pad Thai and banana spring rolls. It was quite the scene! It was quickly paced and he was quite the "Iron Chef". It all turned out surprisingly yummy and hopefully we will be able to reproduce them once we get back home.

P.S. We had some fun in our new Thai clothes. Check out Aliyah's shirt!!!

Being Beyond Begins...

Not only did we have to say goodbye to Kenya, but we also had to say goodbye to our 3rd musketeer Michelle. We had such an amazing time with her and she was such a great addition to the trip. We will miss her morning grunts, her laughter, her tummy troubles, her storytelling abilities, and so much more! It was tough to say goodbye, especially the fist time! Our flight to Bangkok was overbooked and we had to stay in Doha for an extra 12 hours. We were given visas and a hotel and had to sneak Michelle in with us. It was quite the production but we succeeded and made it to Bankok a day later than scheduled.

After checking into our hostel we quickly searched the streets for our first thai cuisine. Our mouths were watering even before we landed. We had a great dinner and followed it with a trip to the night market. There, we made our first purchase - new thai pants! You have no idea how exciting this was after wearing the same clothes for the past 6 weeks. The market blew our socks off and the variety of items was remarkable. We heard the shopping was good, and it truly is!! This is being said from two non-shoppers. Real shoppers would go on quite the spree here.

The following day we checked out the major attractions in Bangkok. This included the Grand Palace and Wat Po, which houses an enormous Buddha. The sites were stunning and large, both having a compound of sparkling buildings to wander through and around. The pictures don't do these places justice. The buildings and statues are so detailed and meticulous, they really are quite the sites to see.



Next, we took a boat down the canal home. We used means of transportation in the past 24 hours (plane, boat, car, feet). This left us exhausted and achy. We deserved some pampering...so...we went for our first Thai massage. W-O-W. An hour massage cost less than $10 and it was fantastic!! Our bodies are craving more...

We then went to Kao San road for the evening, a very popular place for travelers. It was bumpin'! Music was playing, vendors were selling all sorts of food, the market was always tempting us. It was glorious!! We ate, we drank, and we ate some more. Key items were pad thai off the street for less than $1 and a banana pancake drizzled with chocolate sauce. We may start our own cart when we get back to Toronto!! Soooo good.

We've enjoyed Bangkok way more than we ever anticipated. We think Asia is going to treat us very well. We're off to Chiang Mai in the morning, we'll see what's in store for us there...

Kwaheri Kenya

Our trip to Kenya has been life changing. The diversity of our experiences has allowed us to gain so many different perspectives. Our eyes were opened to poverty, drought stricken conditions, and unique tribal cultures. Our experience on the mobiles gave us so much insight. It was our window into the hardships of a life so common in Africa. We were touched to see that a life so simple could bring so much joy and unity. We saw the spirit of Africa.

We also lived the life of privileged locals. The enormous disparity between rich and poor is immense and blatant. It impacted us deeply and made us appreciate the strive for equality in Canada. We feel so lucky and grateful in our lives.

We will never forget our time in Kenya. What we learned will live within us each and every day. We see life now with a new light.

Kwaheri (goodbye) Kenya, we will miss you!

p.s. We climbed a mountain.

Safari

On Oct 2nd we left for Masai Mara, the most renowned safari in Africa. We rented a safari van and driver to get the full experience. Game drives consisted of driving around the savannah on the lookout for wildlife. To assist our hunt, the drivers communicate via radio, pointing out the hot spots (we have no idea how they do this as nothing is marked). We stayed at Mara Sopa and were treated like V-V-Vip's since the owners are friends with the Sumar family. It was definitely not what we are used to. Going from camping in gaming fields to resorting in them was quite the shock to our systems.

Apparently we were really lucky and saw animals that even locals rarely see. Our first day we saw a covoted leopard and its baby. The second day we saw 3 cheetas chillin'. We were also privy to many lion feedings (disclaimer: a picture below is quite graphic). Our van was approached by a family of elephants within arms reach. Seeing wildlife that close, so uninhibited is incredible.

To describe what we saw in the gaming fields would be futile, only pictures will suffice.

Life's a Beach!

We departed for Lamu on Sept 28th. After an hour and a half flight we landed at the manda bay airport, which consists of 2 huts: on one side arrivals and duty free, on the other departures. Baggage claim was an outdoor table on the dirt. We were greeted by our cook, who took us on a dhow (old school boat) across the bay to Lamu.


Lamu is an ancient Muslim town. The buildings are literally stacked together with small alleyways to pass between. The only mode of transportation on the island is donkey, and they do a ton of work carrying up to 200kg on their backs! We fully were able to appreciate their title 'beasts of burden.' The only downfall was donkey poop everywhere which gave the city an aroma of its own.

Since Lamu is a Muslim town the majority of its residents adhere to the schedule of prayer. This means the city shuts down during prayer time which occurs 5 times a day. The prayers are announced over loud speaker which can be heard throughout the island.

We rented a house, for $60 a night including our own personal chef. It was incredible! It was the true meaning of open concept with only 2 enclosed rooms and all other rooms open to the outside. It was 3 storeys and included a rooftop patio where we spent most of our nights, staring at the stars. The house was furnished with hand crafted wooden furniture and the doors were hand carved, Lamu style. Our cook treated us like royalty. We ate baracuda, the largest crab we've ever seen, and lobster. He made a coconut peanut sauce that we really can write home about. YUM.

Part of us never wanted to leave home, until we got a glimpse of the beautiful beaches of the neihbouring towns, Shella and Manda. Our first full day there, we rented a dhow with captain and toured the area. We visited ruins nearby and ended up on Manda beach. Literally, we had the beach to ourselves. Because Manda is full of private residences the flow of visiters is seasonal and no-one was there! The water was breathtaking, bright green and the temperature of a warm bath. We couldn't get out of the water.

After a taste of the beach, we decided to spend the next day exploring Shella beach. We walked there, a 45 minute trek in blazing sun. The outcome was completely worthwhile. Again, we had the beach to ourselves. We swam and were sun kissed (Aliyah and Michelle are now browner and Sarah is still white with a tint of pink!)

After having such a packed schedule before this little getaway it was nice having some down time. Island life was good to us. Hakuna Matata!!

We relutantly said goodbye to Lamu but the animals were eagerly awaiting our arrival at Masai Mara.

City Life in Nairobi

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while, we've been busy squeezing everything into our last week in Kenya.

After climbing Mt. Kenya we took the rest of the week to relax in Nairobi and catch up with Aliyah's family and friends. We ate, ate, and then ate some more: BBQ's, Indian food, Chinese food, sushi, Italian...you name it, we ate it! We decided to spend the weekend as locals, this is what it entailed:

- Going out on friday night with friends. Seems harmless. We went out at around 10pm, for a long night ahead. Before we left, Aliyah's aunt and uncle actually encouraged us to stay out until morning, around 6am. It's safer to come home earlier than be on the roads in Nairobi in the middle of the night where you risk getting car-jacked. We started off at a club with a very mixed crowd. We bamba'ed (danced) to the same 5 songs all night and had a blast. At around 3am we went to another club close by, this time a more local experience. We ended the night/morning with chai and pizza at 6am!
- Wake up at 9am for some sight-seeing in Nairobi. We went to the animal orphanage which is in the Nairobi National Park. This was an amazing experience, as we got to hold 2 month old cheetahs! They were soo adorable. We also went into a cage with older cheetahs and fed wicked looking monkeys. The excitement temporarily masked the tiredness we had accumulated from the previous night. The pictures speak for themselves...

- We came home, had a quick nap, and went out to eat (again!) We got read and were ready for round 2 of partying!
- The night began at 11pm with an entourage of 4 cars going to an outdoor party. It was called 'Earthdance' and was going on in 6 different countries simultaneously. After arriving, we soon realized we had signed ourselves up for a rave! The music was not our typical genre, but we embraced the moment! We danced like we've never danced before - we were rockstars! We made up moves, jumped around, and tore up the grass. Time flew by, and before we knew it, 5:30am arrived. We left with the group we came with, however, it somehow expanded from 7 to 12 people. We had a 7 seater SUV and squeezed everyone in. We rode home matatu style! The night wouldn't be complete without food, so we had fries and bajias and arrived home at 7:30am, a record for all of us!

We survived the weekend, feeling very old and tired...and excited to chill on the beach in Lamu.

Can you believe we climbed a mountain?!?

Our last day with FIMAfrica was spent in Nanyuki visiting an HIV Orphanage and HIV Hospice. We exercised our knowledge by giving a lecture on HIV and nutrition which was very well received. The children and patients were so welcoming and treated us like celebrities! It was a great way to end off the experience.

FIMAfrica was such an unbelievable experience - but we had to say goodbye and move onto BIGGER things - like a mountain!

Being in Nanyuki for 3 weeks we were made aware of how close Mount Kenya was. Since we hadn't had any form of exercise since leaving Toronto, we thought it would be a great work-out! Boy, were we in for a treat! Apparently, it is not just a walk in the park.

Since this was a spur of the moment idea we did not have any appropriate gear. We used the Sumar family connections to round up all the winter gear available in Nairobi. Luckily, we knew a guy that knew a guy that "hired" boots and jackets...upon arriving at a tiny shop we realized that our options were limited. All 4 pairs of shoes we had to choose from were at least a men's size 8 (all 3 of us are women's 7) and jackets comprised of "previously used" men's jackets that completed our sexy mountain attire. Thus, we were READY!

Day one. 9 Km to Old Moses.
We met "the boys" in town. The crew consisted of our guide, John, our cook, John and our 3 porters John, James and Robert.
We started "pole pole" (slow, slow) to acclimatize and arrived at our first camp, Old Moses, after a 3 hour trek in the rain. We arrived to a table set complete with table cloth, fresh popcorn, biscuits and hot tea! (the food was plentiful, and shockingly amazing!) The porters had gotten there an hour before us with all of our luggage. They were lean mean climbing machines and beat us everywhere by at least an hour.

Day 2. 14 Km trek to Shiptons Camp.
Left at 8am to endure a 7 hour hike. On this particular day we experienced the ups and downs of the mountain and weather. The day started with the blazing sun (Aliyah regretted her decision to wear snow pants forcing us to stop the bypassing porters for lighter attire). This was followed by rain, wind and finally the sting of hail as we trekked on. It was a long day and we were thrilled to arrive at camp despite the bitter cold. We proceeded to pile on all the clothing we had brought. To the surprise of our crew, being Canadian did not prepare us for the cold we experienced that night. Thus, we invited ourselves into the kitchen with the boys where they had a charcoal fire brewing. It was a great night with laughs, singing, dancing and a little medical education.

Day 2.5. 4 Km CLIMB to point Lenana - Summit.
Awoke at 2:30AM and left at 3AM with our head lamps guiding our way to the top through the night. Unfortunately, Michelle's stomach was still hating Kenya and she started her ascent with severe nausea...not ideal..but she plugged on reluctantly with our guide's insistence that the climb would soon get easier!...turns out that that is a dirty trick!
It was dark, cold, icy and vertical. At this point we began to question our preparedness for the mountain. At points we were light headed and scared but we continued for what seemed like forever...awaiting the sunrise and the summit. When we were within an hour of the summit and the sun began to rise, Michelle picked a spot to rest and decided that this "was it!". This was not an option. Sarah, by sheer willpower went ahead on her own; Aliyah followed with a helping hand from our guide; and Michelle, feeling like death was approaching, brought up the rear with a helping PUSH from James.
Words cannot describe this challenge...we were definitely pushed to our physical limits! In our own ways, we all emotionally and physically conquered point Lenana. What an amazing feeling! We had planned various picture formations and choreographed dances to capture our achievement; however we were frozen and exhausted. We snapped a few goodies and quickly started our descent.

Note this picture above has Aliyah climbing in it!

Day 2.83. 4Km back to Shiptons.
After reaching the peak, we thought the way down would be a piece of cake. Not the case. We learned the hard way that the descent is in fact even trickier than the way up. As the sun came up the snow melted and then turned to ice. It was very steep and we were all falling all over the place. Wearing our rain pants added extra slippage. We thought this was fun and didn't think it could lead to disaster. At one point the three of us slipped at the same time. Sarah, trying to avoid Michelle, veered off to the side out of control. With the steep incline and icy conditions, she could not stop slipping and instead of stopping on the rocks she flew right over them. After 30 meters of this, her back hit a large rock and thankfully stopped her. It was a scary moment for everyone present. After gaining composure, we all slowly and cautiously continued down. We made it back to Shipton's and were relieved to be off of the ice.

Day 3. 14 Km back to Old Moses.
Within half an hour of arriving at Shipton's we were instructed that we had to leave and journey back to Old Moses.
We were in shock, exhausted, and uncertain of the extent of Sarah's injury, however, we were forced to move on. With her strength, optimism, and 2 ski poles, Sarah made it to Old Moses. What a CRAZY AND LONG day!

Day 4. 9 Km back to base.
After finally sleeping 12 hours (sleep was non-existent before this night), we got up and mustered up the courage to put our blistered feet back into our lead boots (side note: Aliyah has never in her life experienced a blister. what a freak). This 2 hour descent was a treat but our bodies were screaming to get off the mountain. We couldn't have been more thrilled to reach the base when we did!

Overall, we climbed a freaking mountain! Mount Kenya is the 2nd highest mountain in Africa (after Kilimanjaro), and the highest mountain in Kenya at 4,985m above sea level. This climb was not only the highlight of our trip but will remain a major highlight in our lives. What we experienced on the mountain will remain with us forever.

Surgery 101

We arrived back in Nanyuki Monday evening to our home away from home, The Simba Lodge. This week we looked forward to a whole new adventure with FIMAfrica since we are no longer travelling for mobile clinics but experiencing medicine in the local community.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to observe a general surgeon in a government hospital in Nanyuki. The day started off by us dressing the part in oversized scrubs. We were so excited to finally observe our first surgery. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that the general anaesthesia machine broke the day before so most of the 14 surgeries planned for the day were cancelled. We did, however, see some amazing sights.

To set the scene: the surgery facilities were not up to Western standards. The surgical room we were in most of the day was a very small clinic room with zero ventilation. It didn't help that there was at least 8 of us in this tiny room at any given time. The room was not sealed and cell phones were in use at all times. Gloves were worn, but hand washing was non-existant. To top it off, there were no towels in sight and also no toilet paper in the bathroom. This led to quite the predicament...

First on deck: a young male with a severe neck injury caused by a machete fight. The interior of his neck was fully exposed, and his trachea was cut so that air was escaping from the wound and he could not speak. As a first surgery experience, this was an overwhelming spectacle for all of us. Sarah started off the drama with turning white as a ghost and viewing the surgery behind a room divider. She couldn't stand up for more than a few seconds without feeling faint. Michelle and Aliyah seemed fine through most of the surgery until Michelle broke out in a cold sweat, ran out of the room, and practically fainted in the change room. Aliyah went to check on Michelle, and at the sight of her in such rough shape, felt a little uneasy herself. We felt like the biggest wusses and the nurses were having quite the laugh afterwards. From what we did catch of the surgery, we were uterrly impressed. By the end of it he had the patient talking and even making jokes.

We viewed two more surgeries which weren't quite as graphic. The first was a fibular biopsy on a 15 year old girl with suspected bone cancer. The second was a 4 year old girl with a dermal cyst very close to her left eye. We remained standing for these two events, but by the third one Michelle threw in the towel.

Overall it was an amazing experience that we wish our stomachs could have handled better! We have a greater appreciation for what surgeons do on a daily basis but are happy to stick with our profession of choice.

Up next: climbing Mount Kenya starting tomorrow morning! Stay tuned.

An Intimate Day With Giraffes!

Today Aliyah got to show Sarah and Michelle one of her most favourite places to visit in Nairobi, The Giraffe Centre. We met 5 of 9 Rothschild giraffes, a type of giraffe that is an endangered species. This centre serves as a conservation area and a breeding ground.

Right from the time we got there the giraffes were all over us. We started off a little cautious and only offered food from our hands. After feeding the giraffes and getting acquainted with their slimy black tongues, we were all left with sticky and wet hands. Since we are used to getting down and dirty on this trip, we decided to take the next step...1st base! With a bit of instruction from the giraffe keeper, we manned up and held a treat between our lips, closed our eyes and hoped for the best. We think the pictures will speak for themselves!



We spent over a good hour watching these amazing creatures in awe. It's been the most action we've had all trip ;)