Tuesday June 16th - Walking Tour of Siem Reap

We had a low key day today. We started off by enjoying the breakfast at our hotel, and then after packing our bags and lounging around we checked out at around 11. We hired a tuk-tuk and got dropped off on the north end of town, and walked back into town along the river, stopping at small shops and restaurants along the way. We enjoyed seeing the way that the local people lived and used the river. Part way back into town we passed the royal garden, and went in for a look...and that's when we relized that the trees were full of thousands of squawking fruit bats...those things are huge! I estimate 2 feet across easily. After our walking tour we caught a cab to the airport and headed for Hanoi.

Angkor What? - June 15

It was a very early morning. We met our driver at 5 am for the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the symbol of Cambodia, it's everywhere, from their national flag, to their Angkor beer. Angkor Wat was absolutely stunning, the entire gigantic temple is covered in delicate carvings, bas reliefs telling famous Khmer stories.




We next went to Angkor Thom, which was the last capital of the Khmer empire. Khmer is to SE Asia what the Romans were to Europe, they went everywhere, conquered, built big stuff, and then got sacked. These statues guard the bridge into Angkor Thom.






Bayon is a temple within Angkor Thom, it is famous for all of the smiling faces. Very eerie, but strangely beautiful, it seems that no matter where you stand there are at least 8 faces looking at you.









We finished out the day by going to Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is a temple where they didn't remove all the jungle, so that visitors can understand the state at which these temples are found in. This was also the site where scenes from the movie Tomb Raider were filmed. It was strange to see such large trees encasing parts of these temples.



One of the things that is perhaps the most sad is the extreme poverty that faces so many. At least when you go to Mexico and tell a kid to quite selling gum and get back in school, you know that there is a chance. But here there is no public education system, we are struggling with seeing so many very young children in so much need.

Thailand Adventure Day!! - June 13

Sean and I had the best day today! We started off by going to a local butterfly farm. That is one of the things that is most beautiful about Thailand, there are colorful butterflies everywhere, they look like flying gemstones. Co-located with the butterfly farm was an orchid farm.

Next we rode on an elephant.





This is what an elephant looks like when you are on one and feeding them a banana:

We hiked into the jungle and made this waterfall our destination:


And then we went whitewater rafting. It was not as exciting as when I went with Marissa in Oregon, but was very interesting being in the jungle!



And to finish off the day we went down the rest of the river on a bamboo raft:

Caution: Gills in the Kitchen!

Before we left on our world tour I had heard from several folks "don't ride in a tuk tuk in thailand"...but at 9:16 this morning that is exactly where Sean and I found ourselves. However the ride was not scary, I don't think the Tuk Tuk ever went faster than I could ride my bike. The driver took us into town where we caught a van out to our cooking school. We started the day by learning the thai methods of vegetable carvings. That's right ladies and gentlemen, that's a carrot shapped like a leaf, tomato peel rose, a tomato lotus flower, and two tomato sauce cups. Please plan on seeing some very creativly carved sweet potatoes this year at Thanksgiving.

We then made spring rolls and got to use our sauce cups:


Our lessons were taught by the thai equivilant of Emerill, complete with his own tv show. Here is Sean at his work station:


And us enjoying our red curry duck and ginger chicken:


The gardens surrounding the cooking school are lovely, here is an unusual flower we found there:

We arrived back to our room in the afternoon and were so stuffed that we didn't even need dinner!

Chaing Mai...the anti-Bangkok

Well after our stellar reviews of our backpackers hotel in Bangkok it won't surprise you for me to say that on Wednesday morning we packed up our bags and got the heck out of there. In our humble opionion sitting in the lounge at the airport with free food, free drinks, and free wi-fi for a few hours was a much better use of our time than being in Bangkok. Here is a picture of Sean taking it easy in the lounge.

Our flight to Chaing Mai was uneventful and short. We took a taxi to our B&B and realized that we were in a wonderful place. The air here is saturated with the smell of the jasmine and flowers (that smell kind of like grapefruit) that grow in the gardens here. Our room is beautiful and huge. And perhaps the biggest difference is that the people here are outragiously hospitable. Their smiles could light up a room. We quickly made reservations for all the things we wanted to do, and got fitted for suits which will be mailed home after we depart.

June 9 -- Bangkok in a day

Our backpacking hotel was the most gross place I have ever stayed, I am completely baffled about it's good reviews on trip adviser and fully intend to add my own account shortly after posting this blog. The worst part was the lack of sleep due to the knowledge that every time I closed my eyes that I wouldn't be able to see anything potentially crawling/flying in our room.

We woke up early, and got ready quickly to site see while it was still cool outside. Our first stop was 7-11 for breakfast and water, and then we began our walk to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (co-located). The large Wat (temple) is covered in gold leaf, ceramic flowers, and color-mirrored glass tiles. I love the picture below of the mirror glass tiles that Sean took, look for him in the photo! This national treasure absolutely glowed in the morning sun. We hired a local guide to give us an hour tour, and were so glad that we did, his knowledge of the symbolism of the art, and the history of it made it even seem more special. We also saw a very famous Buddha, called the emerald Buddha. It is actually a large single piece of jade.

After the Palace and temple we boarded a longtail boat (a sort of skiff with a turbodiesel on a stick strapped to the back) for a canal cruise of the Chao Praya. Because our guide wanted a pack of smokes and ice, we went on canals less traveled, giving us an interesting insight into the daily life of the people who live on the canal, and the river. The main mode of transportation seemed to be a small flat bottem boat which could hold two people, but usually just one, about 7 feet in length. The boat driver dropped us off at Wat Po.

Wat Po is also called "temple of the reclinging Buddah" and has a buddah which is over 151 long and 53 feet tall. The grounds around the buddah are equally as stunning, covered in the same mirrored glass tiles and ceramic flowers.

Once our tour of Wat Po was completed we went back to Mae Kadiee's for vegetarian thai food for a late lunch (there is a reason that this is the only restaurnt in our area mentioned in Frommers). We walked back to our hotel, up to our room, and two minutes later the skies opened and the afternoon rain came pouring down. We took a short siesta, checked our email, waited for the rain to stop, and then relaxed the rest of the evening at a local open air restaurant. We even made a new friend there who was like an Austrian version of our friend Joel, the similarities were delightfully eerie.

Travel Day and Khao San Road

We woke up and somehow managed to coax a shower out of our pod bathroom (it was like the inside of a boat, a seamless fiberglass prefab bathroom – we are beginning to think Japan is the prefab country). We made it to the platform in time to get a couple pictures of the train approaching. The airport was a breeze, the lounge tasty (free soba noodles, drinks, and snacks!), and the flight to Bangkok comfortable and uneventful.

We caught a cab from Bangkok's airport into the city. Shortly after the driver put his foot on the floor, we discovered the lack of seatbelts! A gripping half-hour of the barely-ordered chaos they call driving, and our driver dropped us off in a narrow alley, next to the sign for our backpackers guesthouse at the entrance to an even narrower alley – actually, more of an outdoor hallway with awnings that overlap in the middle.

It's very hot here. It's about 95 degrees and what feels like 110% humidity – we're on the verge between the dry and rainy seasons. Soon after we dropped off our packs in our room and locked up our electronics, we donned our raincoats and headed into the street just in time for the skies to open and make our gore-tex worth carrying! We didn't realize until a couple hours later, while sipping a beer and people-watching on Khao San Road, why the other backpackers seemed to be chuckling at our raincoats. Everyone just takes siesta during the afternoon rain, then goes out to party in the evening. Whoops. No matter, we found the vegetarian curry joint from the Frommer's book and ate a delicious dinner – a little early by local standards, but we're still kind of on Japanese time. We walked by a lot of tailoring shops, junk shops, street vendors, tuk-tuk drivers, expats, backpackers, vacationers, and pretty much everything else you could imagine. Khao San is a dirty place – cheap, and probably a lot of fun – but dirty. Margaret kind of has this permanent 'blech' look on her face. Now we're hanging out in the guesthouse's veranda writing the blog, contemplating whether to crash early and see the sights before the day gets hot, or to go out and watch (or be) the nightlife. Probably the former, we're tired.