East Coast Mini Break

 We bought a car and so the obvious next step (to North) was to take a road trip because we hadn't yet done a summer trip and school was fast approaching. Excited about the new car we made a plan to travel across the country to the East Coast and a small surf town called Cherating (Che-rah-ting); it's the off season for surf right now so the perfect time for us to play in some shallow waves. We spent two nights at Villa de Fedelia, found some delicious food at Don't Tell Mama beach cafe and Warung Lambak Roti Canai, got sunburned (oops), experienced sand flies, and pushed ourselves outside of our normal comfort zone which was a positive experience. It felt really good to return to our house in Valencia and realize that it feels like home: it has our things, we know how things work, and it is a comfortable place for us to return to after we embark on adventures.

Our new ride: 2006 Toyota Foretuner that is tentatively named Alex Albon (after the F1 driver from Thailand). Seats 7 (probably 8 without a belt) so we're ready for visitors!

Our route East: super smooth driving on E8 for the majority of the time. Restrooms, gas, and food at regular intervals and once we were out of the city there were fewer motorcycles which calmed the nerves.

Dinner at Don't Tell Mama where we found both really tasty thin crust pepperoni and margherita pizza as well as butter chicken and beef pad kra pao (spicy Thai beef with rice) (and sweet lime juice!)

The place we were staying (bottom floor, left)

Baby sea turtles: we had the opportunity to release Green Sea Turtles which are one of the endangered Malaysian Sea Turtles. We listened to an interesting talk by a ranger-they patrol the beach at night and collect all of the eggs laid so that they can keep them safe until they hatch and then the release them in the place they were laid. The babies will go on their ocean adventure for about 30 years and then the survivors will return to their hatching beach to lay eggs. We released 10 babies and there were other groups doing the same so 100's of babies were released that night. Out of a thousand babies only 3 or 4 actually survive so she encouraged us to say some prayers for our babies as well...

Final morning breakfast of roti canai (layered flatbread) and curry or dahl. We had ours cooked with eggs and the boys had roti with milo (like a chocolate syrup) and roti bom (we think it had coconut jam inside-super sweet). Also with black tea and condensed milk. It felt like our first real food at a local spot: outside, workers coming and going and placing their orders, street cats wandering around the restaurant. It was a great end to our mini break.