Vang Vieng

So we are today recovering from our new years celebrations. The most I think that we are going to do today is to catch sunset on the Mekong River.
The last week and some have been a blur. Laos has been relaxing and beautiful. We meet up with a couple of friends from earlier in the trip and they convinced us to skip Vientiane (which we are going back to tomorrow) and head straight to Vang Vieng. Such a good choice. Their isn't much to do in Vang Vieng except relax. We tubed down a lazy river next to the town. You have a tuk tuk drop you off a few miles from town and just float. The river is littered with bars on the banks that have big swings and zip cords over the water. Float 10 minute, stop at a bar, float another 10 minute...bar...float...bar...truly enjoyable... can't get any better.
I wish we had more time in Laos, but alas, we have to head to India so we are on our way out of here and back to Bangkok.

Bangkok, Thailand

Back in Thailand. We are stuck in Bangkok waiting for our India visa...it takes 5 days at the embassy. We got a flight to Kolkuta on the 6th of January...a bit later than we wanted, but it saved us a bunch of money to wait. We haven't yet decided what we are going to do until then, but I'm not to worried about it. The picture is of Regina and Aynur a couple of travelers that we met hung and out with in Bangkok.

Phnom Phen to Sihanokville, Cambodia

After leaving Siem Reap, we spent about 5 days in Phnom Phen (the capital). We visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. But the Royal Palace is never open for tours, so we were stuck wandering around it and the Silver Pagoda was a bit of a let down. It has a sliver tiled floor of which each tile supposedly weighed 1 Kg. The tiles, except for a 20ft x 20ft patch, was covered with carpet. The area that was exposed was very tarnished and the tiles were lifting up around the edges so bad that they duct taped them together. The one place in Phnom Phen that was very interesting, although extremely sad, was S-21. That was a detention center use for torture and interrogation by the Khmer Rouge. The building was an old high school that they turned into a prison, so on the outside it looked eerily normal.
We are back at the beach. The sand here squeaks! We arrived on Saturday and it was busy. Many Cambodian that live in Phnom Phen come down for the weekends because it is only about a 3-4 hour drive. It has chilled out considerably since the weekend finished. So we have been 'busying' ourselves with relaxing on the sand and, at least for me, eating tons of seafood. There are women that roam the beach selling lobster and BBQ squid (which they actually cook in front of you) (picture to come). We got massages the other day done by blind Cambodians (they say the blind give the best massages) at a place called Seeing Hands which is actually an NGO that helps train people and get them started in the trade.
From here we are off to Bangkok!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

So our 3 day pass for Angkor finished yesterday. This morning we tearfully dropped Lily off at the airport in Siem Reap. What to do with our time now?
As for Angkor, again the temples were amazing. Definitely something that We're glad we got to experience. We saw this small temple named Banteay Srei which was about 30 minutes outside of the rest. The drive itself was worth the trip. The road we drove down was lined with houses and rice paddies. Very picturesque. The temple itself was tiny in comparison to most, but the bas reliefs were some of the best. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see half of them. This small, out of the way, temple was the only one in Angkor that had portions of it roped off for preservation (kind of like we do everywhere in the States). Even at Angkor Wat we could climb anywhere we wanted.
We learned bunches about Hinduism. The temple guidebook that we bought helped us decipher the carvings that were everywhere about the temples.
Did you know: that apsaras (celestial beings that were sensual rewards for gods and heroes) were created as a byproduct of the 'churning of the sea of milk.' The 'churning of the sea of milk' is from the Mahabharata. The devas (gods) and asuras (demons) tug on Vasuki, a naga (5 or 7 headed snake), who is rapped around Mt. Mandara, supported on the back of Kurma (the turtle or 2nd avatar or incarnate of Visnu) in order to create amrita or elixir of immortality.
By the end of our 3 day temple tour, we finally had a bit of a grasp on the most famous of the Hindu stories.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

So we finally made it to Cambodia...dragging Lily along to see the temples at Angkor.
Our bus ride to Siem Reap (the town outside of Angkor) was a nightmare. We caught a bus in Bangkok at 7:30am that drove us to the border...of course, stopping at a restaurant with a bunch of other tourists to get our visas that we were told we could get at the border, obviously we couldn't. We then passed through the border only to wait about an hour to get a mini bus to Siem Reap. This was a mini bus from hell. The seats were made for someone that was max 4 feet tall. And we were on this bus for 6 hours. No air con, no lights, no toilets, but a lot of bugs. And, of course, they dropped us off at a guesthouse of their choosing (think commission) considering that it was 10pm and no one was going to look for their own place (at least it only cost us $2 per person).
We woke up early to experience sunrise at Angkor Wat (note the first photo). It is really hard to put into words. It truly is a wonder of the world. We also went to Angkor Thom (which is actually bigger than Angkor Wat), and Phreah Kahn (which is in the process of being renovated at the moment). There were many Cambodian children trying to sell us postcards and the such. They would follow us all the way down the road asking us where we were from and telling us the capitals of any state in the US along with the population (they were pretty good with country capitals too). We rented a Tuk-tuk for the day who waited for us outside all of the temples. Talk about convenience.
We bought a 3 day pass, so we are heading back to do some other temples tomorrow. Can't wait!

Bangkok, Thailand

Happy Thanksgiving (a day late!). We forgot about it until a couple of hours ago.

As for the trip...we headed to Bangkok on an overnight (Linda - note the neck pillow!) bus that stopped to change buses twice and also for a rest break (at 1am) for the driver to eat. But we made it! We have been occupying ourselves with wandering around and visiting Note. Note is the one in the picture that is giving Lily a traditional (Sak Yan) tattoo by bamboo. Oh, and Chris got in the spirit too and got his lebret pierced...it looks great...pictures to come!
Tonight we got a new camera after a bit of a search...but necessary none the less. It was weird being in this huge American-style mall with Starbucks, Guess, The Body Shop and the likes. A bit to expensive for our budget these days! We'll stick to the local markets for our clothes and such. Speaking of, we are heading to the enormous 'weekend market' tomorrow. There are supposedly around 15,000 stalls. Talk about overwhelming!

Enough for tonight!

Ko Lanta, Thailand

We made it back to the other coast (again near Krabi) on the island of Lanta. A sleepy island that is quite enjoyable although it has been raining since we got here. Chris and Lily are planning on going diving in a couple of days. It is suppose to be great around here...I on the other hand, can't due to the burn I got from the motorbikes. Life isn't fair.

Our camera died on us the other day. So we haven't figured out what we are going to be doing about that yet. We are still hoping that it will miraculously fix itself yet if we leave it alone for a few days. Cross your fingers.

So we are heading back to out bungalow and relaxing in hammocks for the rest of the day. Life could be worse.

Ko Pah Ngan, Thailand

So here we are on the night of the huge beach party. There have been 'warm up' parties the last couple of nights (pretty big in themselves) but they say tonight is craziness. We are sitting in a bar watching 'Simpson's' episodes (Chris is in heaven) before heading to the beach. They have these drinks called 'buckets' here in Thailand, and which are extremely popular on this island. A bucket is a combination of a flask worth of some kind of alcohol (whiskey, rum, vodka, whatever), and a soda (which could be coke, sprite or something of the sort). The never changing ingredient is the Thai version of 'Red Bull.' And they serve them, as it sounds, in a small beach sand pail. Potent stuff. Notice picture. Also you will notice the picture of Brent, our Canadian friend diving through the 'ring of fire', 'let 'er rip.' During which he dislocated his shoulder. And the picture of Chris' new 'faux hawk' courtesy of Dana...she's still working on Lily's hair.

We rented motorbikes today. Quite an adventure. Lily ran into another bike (don't worry, they were stopped and no harm done), and I ended up with a nice burn on my leg from the exhaust pipe while Chris was trying to get down this slick downhill. We visited this waterfall that until we were told that we were looking at the falls, we thought was just a little river. But they called them falls.

Well, the episode is over and I think that everyone is going to motivate down to the beach. Must get going!

The pics are from the night before...one of the pre-parties that were about the same as the actual full moon extravaganza. And the 3rd picture is of Chris's new hair cut care of Dana...Mark, be scared!...I'm taking over your clientele!

Koh Tao, Thailand

So Chris and Lily are right now on their 1st dives!!! They seemed to enjoy the pool bit, so it's off to open water. I am taking my advanced course and have 1 dive to go...a night dive, which are always fun! one of the guys that I was diving with took a couple of pix of my underwater, so as soon as he sends them to me, I will post them in this entry. Kinda funny, I've never seen myself underwater before. Chris and Lily will get a chance to see themselves under water tonight. They film the open water course's 1st dives and play them on a big projection screen that night. Should be fun! We are off to Koh Phan Ngan tomorrow for the full moon party. The picture is of the group they got certified with.

Ton Sai, Thailand

So we have been a bit out of touch the past week...in a good way! We have been in Krabi province on a little headland (that seems like an island) called Ton Sai. It took us 2 days to finally get there...From Chang Mai we took and overnight sleeper train to Bangkok where we hung out all day with another traveler (Brad) that we met on the train (a bit of testosterone for Chris after being stuck with Lily and I pretty much exclusively beside the trek). Then an overnight bus to Saret Tani where we were stuck at 6am for 2 hours while we waited for a mini bus to pick us up and finish off the last 3 hours of the trip to Krabi town...but we weren't done yet! We then had to catch a taxi to Ao Nang (only about 20 minutes) and then a longboat to Ton Sai (another 20 minutes). Needless to say, we were ready to hang out for a while when we got there.

We fell in love with it! it is beaches surrounded by huge cliffs...a big climbing area. We met this kiwi named Stacy (she stayed in the bungalow across from us) the first day. She has been there for about on and off for the past 5 months and she introduced us to tons of people around the area and took us to a couple great climbing areas (one of which we got harassed by monkeys, note the picture, for about half the time). The views from the tops of these climbs would make Tahoe jealous (and made us want to stay for a lot longer than we had time for)! We even convinced her that she needed to come to Tahoe because she was already considering going to Yosemite with a friend in June...what's an extra week if you are traveling all that way, right? So the last week has consisted of just about that...climbing, relaxing in our hammocks reading and listening to the waves.

We are in Saret Tani right now waiting for a night ferry to Koh Tao where Chris and Lily will start their diving courses in the morning (cutting it close getting there). If I get motivated I might go for my advanced certification...we'll see.

wish you could all be here,
Dana

Krabi, Thailand

Made it to Krabi from Kho Pha Ngan...we have to wait till tomorrow till we get to Ko Lanta (a small island down to the south a bit...a 2 hour ferry ride from here). Another full day of travel. Tonight we got a bit daring and decided to try some fried bugs...grasshoppers, grubs, and even a cockroach. Well Marlon tried the cockroach...the rest of us were not that susceptible to peer pressure!

As for the full moon party...it wasn't all we expected, but there was a bunch of great fire spinning to watch. We all ended up staying out and dancing until around 5am...early night. The music ranged from trance and techno to Elvis and top 40 MTV hits. We saw someone flailing as if drowning in a foot of water and then proceeding to wash his cloths and do the breast stroke (all in the same foot of water). Not as great as the guy that decided to reuse his drink bucket for his puke bucket...recycling Thai style. Hundreds of people peeing, puking, having sex all right next to each other in the water. quite a interesting scene...at least we weren't one of them.

late night...ready for bed.

us

Heifer

Moms and Dads...
Thought that you might appreciate this picture of an actual heifer project at work!

Chiang Mai, Thailand

So here we are in Thailand! At the moment we are in Chiang Mai. We just finished a 3 day trek in a jungle about an hour outside of the city. We took an elephant ride and went bamboo rafting along with staying in the hill tribe village of Karen. We are now wondering around Chiang Mai looking at different wats (Buddhist temples) and are on the quest of getting Lily a Sak Yan tattoo (given by monks with either bamboo or a long metal stylus). We head back to Bangkok tomorrow and then straight down to Krabi (where there is supposedly some great climbing). The people have been really nice and we have only fell into one of their little tourist scams (but it didn't cost us anything). Well, enough of this emailing...off to explore!

Tahoe, CA

We leave in 13 hours! Finally got this thing set up so that we could tell everybody what in the world we are up to. Hopefully we find that we can post and add pix from over there.

Well, back to packing!