January 4, 2013 was supposed to be the day we completed the 3rd item on our While We’re Alive list.  Unfortunately, the week we just spent on Oahu consisted of rain, high wind warnings, rain, rough seas, rain, and ultimately the cancelation of our cage dive with North Shore Shark Adventures.

After receiving the terrible news, we couldn’t help but sit and feel bad for ourselves, wondering when we’ll get the chance again to dive with sharks with the safety of a steel barrier.  We were so ridiculously excited to complete this one, especially having gone out and bought our own dive masks and snorkels for the first time!

But then, we saw the most stunning rainbow we can ever remember seeing, and realized life really wasn’t all that bad, and perhaps the shark dive just wasn’t meant to be.

Then we thought to ourselves, “Holy s***, Hawaii really does get a lot of rainbows!  It’s no wonder they’ve put them on their license plates.”  :)

Today the world was supposed to end, and here we are now surfing the web, writing blog posts, and finishing up our last little bit of online Christmas shopping.  Well, life on Earth has carried on, and we’re here to tell you that we’ve actually been to the end of the world.  We’ve seen it with our own eyes!  Of course, we’re talking about World’s End in the Horton Plains National Park in Sri Lanka.

With a 1050m sheer drop, World’s End is no joke!

Setting out from Nuwara Eliya at 5:30 am, we were told that an early start was an absolute must, because between 9am and 10am, the mist rolls in, making it impossible to see ANYTHING.  As much as we hate getting up early while on vacation, we can honestly say that we never regret doing so.  Some of our best experiences have come from doing so.  And this particular morning failed to disappoint!

After giving both our arm and leg for admission into the national park, we made the 4km walk in record breaking time!  And it was a good thing, because after just 20 minutes of observing the death defying view, the mist did indeed roll in right on schedule at 9:30am.

Looking back at it all, we don’t really know what the highlight was…the drop itself, or watching the clouds completely fill the valley in under 5 minutes!  Either way, we sure felt bad for those poor suckers who decided to sleep in for an extra 30 minutes….

There were rumours swirling around for years about the impending closure of the Suan Lum Night Bazaar in Bangkok, but we refused to believe them.  After all, it was our evening sanctuary.  A place where we could walk to in just 5 minutes from our hotel, at any hour in the night, to satisfy our needs for some pad thai, a cold drink, or a little shopping.  It was a place we could always count on to get some last minute souvenirs, and stir up a conversation or two with some ladyboys.

And, since its closure in 2011, our night market loving lives have been left with a gigantic void needing to be filled.  We’ve frequented many night markets in Bangkok since Suan Lum’s closure, and are still searching for the perfect replacement where we can put our feet up after a long day of exploring and say, “Isn’t life AWESOME?!”

If you know of such a place, hit us up with a comment below!

A massive plug of magma rock in the middle of Sri Lanka, we’ve been itching to get to the top of it ever since watching the boys on Departures climb the thing a couple years back.  Enter – #68 on our bucket list: Dodge The Hornets While Climbing Sigiriya Rock!

It wasn’t the fact that it’s a World Heritage Site that we wanted to climb it.  Nor was it to see the thousand year old fresco paintings.  It wasn’t even the mystery of the ruins atop that drew us there.  No, what brought us to Sigiriya were the killer hornets.  That’s right…KILLER HORNETS!

We wanted to climb Sigiriya, and survive it, in style though.  There was no way we were putting on the “complimentary” body armour.  If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.

Screaming kids and all, we’re sad to report that we received a total of ZERO hornet stings.  That was ok with us though, because once we made it to the lion, we were much more worried about falling to our death as we made our way up the makeshift stairs that fringe the side of the rock, than getting stung by some measly hornets.

Don’t get us wrong though…the hornets were there.  They were just much more interested in huddling into a ball of death to plan their next attack.  We’re still curious though as to what would’ve happened if we tossed a pebble at their “nest”.  Next time!