"Last Day in Paradise" and THE RECAP

Day 76 - "Last Day in Paradise" - Rarotonga, Cook Islands

It's the final day of our around the world vacation. We're very sad that it's all coming to an end. Tonight, we fly back to California.

It was a somewhat rough night last night. It was extremely stifling hot in the villa and unfortunately, we had no A/C. It was pretty rough sleeping without A/C when there was very little airflow through the villa. On top of that, I think I got food poisoning from the prior night's meal. I didn't do too well which stunk since it was our last night. Even worse, in the middle of the night, I spotted a big roach in the bathroom. It wasn't surprising since we're in the tropics and it rained the night before but I wasn't too happy since I was already feeling pretty bad. I took my misery out on that roach and Raided the heck out of it. Somehow it still managed to run away.

Gross recap but the next morning I heard Eric say "what the heck?!". Turns out that he found a wing and a leg of a roach on the wall in the living room. We suspect it was the Raided roach. Strangely, we never found the rest of the roach. Perhaps it was eaten by one of the many geckos co-habitating with us? Or was it like the commercial where after the roach is Raided, it explodes? "Raaaaiiiid? Poof!" It's a mystery we'll never solve.

Anyhow, back to our day. We finally got up and to escape the hot villa, we took the bus to the Saturday market where they sell fresh fruits and vegetables, clothes, souvenirs and food. We didn't see anything that we wanted to buy as a souvenir, but ended up filling our tummies with beef and chicken kebabs, shaved ice and ice cream. Actually, Eric had the kebabs and ice cream, I only had the shaved ice. I still wasn't feeling too well. Surprisingly, the snow cone made me feel a heck of a lot better.

We took a little internet break in the only place really open in town and then returned back to the villa for a massage for me. Rachel, our host, helped book me a massage with Janine, a kiwi who has been living here for 3 years. There is this nice gazebo right off the beach. We decided to do the massage there. While not the cheapest massage I've had on the trip, it was the most serene. It was nice laying there with the island breeze blowing and the sound of waves in the near distant background. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep. It really doesn't take much. While I got my massage, Eric took a lounge chair onto the beach and enjoyed the view (when he wasn't taking bad pics of me getting a massage).

After my massage, we went snorkeling again. We have been snorkeling every day that we've been here. It's just too convenient to pass up. This time, I think I did a better job capturing some nice fish pics. Sorry if there are too many, but rest assured that this is only 1/3 of the total number of pics we actually took. Due to the dark tan we got the day before, we decided to cover up today. Still no luck feeding the fish, but we got to get pretty close to large schools of parrot fish. They're so incredibly colorful it was really cool seeing many of them swim together.

After a long snorkel session, we cleaned up and walked about five minutes down the road to have dinner at the Pawpaw (Papaya) Patch where we enjoyed some local pork and curry fish. It was a pretty night and a nice end to an otherwise awesome time in the Cook Islands.

We begrudgingly walked back to the villa and packed up for our midnight flight back to the States. Rachel took us to the airport. The Cook Islands airport is pretty funny. The waiting area is basically just sitting outside on picnic tables, lounge chairs and the ground. We were very sad - not only to leave the Cook Islands, but to end our trip. Bye-Bye Paradise!

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5413106556563605105&authkey=Gv1sRgCP2gsd3a-5XZgwE&feat=email


THE RECAP

We got on that Air New Zealand flight and on the way back to the states, we thought we'd jot down a few of our favorite and not-so-favorite memories from the trip. Here we go!

Top Good Memories From Each Country

Greece: Ted's Sunset Cruise, Lobster spaghetti and cheap gyros, SmartCar drive around Santorini, View from Adamis Majesty hotel room
Thailand: Patara Elephant Farm, Two hour massages, Haircuts in Bangkok, Chiang Mai Sunday Market, Chiang Mai Le Meridien, Chiang Dao Waterfall swim
Cambodia: Boran/Warren and his Tuk Tuk, Banyan Temple and Ta Prohm
Hong Kong: Wedding dress (Theresa) and all the good dinners with family (Eric)
Vietnam: Day trip to Halong Bay, Halloween in Saigon
Australia: Diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Holding Lucky the Koala, George the Grouper, Sydney Bridge Climb
New Zealand: Hot Water Beach, Zorbing, Milford Sound, Glacier hike, Queenstown Sunset, Sky City Casino
Cook Islands: Snorkeling in our Backyard Lagoon

Top Bad Memories From Each Country

Greece: Running out of money on the Santorini ferry and eating scraps, Annoying restaurant guy at No Name Restaurant in Kamari.
Thailand: Unscrupulous cab drivers, Chiang Dao mosquitoes and roaches, Smelly flight to Bangkok from Istanbul
Cambodia: Jerks at the floating village, Siem Reap mosquitoes, Aggressive little saleswomen
Hong Kong: Theresa's drug rash and food poisoning
Vietnam: Traffic and feet everywhere, Toxic plane flight to Hanoi
Australia: Adelaide tour, Flies in Kangaroo Island, Smelly Euro Guy, Rat in convenience store
New Zealand: Speeding ticket, Sledging, Driving around Wellington at night
Cook Islands: Hour hike in the dark, Exploding roach and Hot night

On our adventures, we visited 26 cities, 8 countries, 3 continents, stayed at 30 different accommodations, and traveled on 29 different planes, multiple buses, trains, cars, boats, tuk tuks and songthaews. We got to see fish, sharks, eels, goats, sheep, lamb, cows, pigs, donkeys, oxen, deer, dolphins, elephants, wombats, tazmanian devils, echidnas, kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, penguins, seals, sea lions, rats, mosquitoes, flies, roaches, geckos, snakes, crocs, ants, spiders, fleas, bats, cats, rabbits, dogs, random scratching animals in the middle of the night and other indescribable bugs. We saw mountain tops, ocean floors and many amazing sunsets.

Throughout this journey, let's just say we got to learn a lot about each other. A few of the things we've learned:

5 Things Learned About Each Other:

1. Theresa gets a little nutty if she doesn't eat when she's hungry
2. Eric has an unusual fixation on icees, slushies, snow cones and any other ice-related drink/dessert
3. Theresa can sleep any where at any time and Eric loves taking bad pictures of her while she's sleeping
4. We both can't live without the internet
5. We both can be surprisingly low maintenance and can live off very little

We also learned that if we can get through 76 days of being with each other almost 24-7 without going crazy, we think this marriage thing might just work out.

It's time to bid our farewell and end our blog. Until our next world trip - peace out. Happy Holidays!