For as long as I can remember, whenever I was asked, "if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?", my answer was always the same - "Italy."  But, now that Shortpants had arrived in Europe, Italy looked like it wasn't going to happen.  We soon discovered, after a couple of days in Geneva, just how crazy expensive Europe is.  This wasn't a huge surprise, but we realized travelling through Italy for a month or so would put an end to the entire world trip.  However, all soon changed after we landed a sublet in Chamonix, France - the alpine capital of Europe - for the rest of the summer, saving us precious dollars.  Italy was ON!  We gave ourselves 11 days. 

The reason I was so desperate to do Italy was FOOD.  I love homemade pasta more than anything else out there. On the flight out I said to Chris, "the calorie budget goes out the window on this trip.  Don't let me start complaining about eating too much."  Of course, I was complaining by the end of day 1.  Never, have I eaten as much as I did in these 10 days and never have I had food this good.  Click Read More below...

 This episode of Shortpants finds us on our favorite lowcost airline, Air Asia, where fares are never more than the cost of a pair of pants.  We are leaving Malaysia, our home for the last 2 months.  Overall?  Malaysia was cheap living with lots of wildlife - elephants and orangutans above ground; blue-spotted stingrays and bumphead parrotfish below.  We had some big adventures here - we climbed 13,000 feet up the highest peak in Asia and we  dove down 40m below to hang out with hammerhead sharks.  And, with Malaysia, our SE Asia leg is at an end.  Are we glad to leave?  Yes. We are both sick to death of noodles, heat and rice.  In that order.  I don't know about Chris, but my digestive system could certainly handle some fiber.  Actually, I do know about Chris and fiber is the last thing he needs...

Ummm... when did we say we would write again?  We'll skip the excuses and move straight into the details of our travels over the last... uh... holy crap... 3 months.

Let's see now... where did we leave off... ah!  Thailand!  OK, lucky for me, Claire took some notes of our travels after that point in time, so I can write this update long after the fact from the luxury that is Chamonix, France (more on that later.)  I'll skip a lot of the "mental stuff", because Claire insists that no one really wants to hear my obnoxious editorials about how much I loath western tourists and how everyone has got places like Vietnam wrong.  Well, I'll try to skip it...  I can't promise...