Phnom Pehn

Today was very full. we went to the royal palace, the central market, the killing fields and the prison museum. The Killing fields and the museum were pretty heartbreaking. It was really intence, but I"m glad we went. there were lot's of pictures at the museum of all the people that were tortured and killed. and at the killing field they had on monument with skulls inside. You could tell how they died by how they're skull was broken. Many were beaten by dull objects. (pretty gruesome I know...welcome to my day.) but the palace was nice. Cambodia is such an interesting mix of wealth and culture and poverty and tradgedy. You see a lot of nice cars here and a lot of disfigured people. . Tomorrow morning we go to siem reap to see ankhor

Quick Update

I'm going to start doing quick updates, because I'm on the internet often but usually only for a few minutes. We got into Phnom Penh today at 5 arfter about 20 hours on buses. (which actually isn't as bad as it sounds.) It's always fun to be in a new country and learn the new culture. Each culture in southeast asia is different. Cambodians seem really sweet. I had a long talk with a cambodian on the bus over. He was very jaded after all of the tragedy. I'm off.

Week 4: Bays and Buses

I am in the middle of a ten day Vietnam tour. (and thus in the middle of vietnam in Hoi Ann) we bought "open tour ticket" which allows us to travel from Hanoi to Saigon and stop whenever we want. We travel on these large "sleeper buses" which are pretty comfortable (thank god becasue it's a lot of driving)

Hanoi
We Flew into Hanoi from Luang Prabang and spent a day and a hlaf there. Hanoi is everything that Luang Prabang is not - loud, crowded, and full of energy. It kind of felt like a mix between India and New York with a franch influence. In general the Vietnamese seem to be the New Yorkers of SE Asia. THey just have a similar vibe. We spent the day in Hanoi going to various sites and arranging our travel for the rest of the trip.

Halong Bay
From Hanoi we went to Halong bay and did a three day "cruise". Halong bay is this natural wonder it is this emerald bay with over 3000 small islands in it. We had a lot of fun. We spend one night on a "junk" and one night at a hotel on the only inhabited island in the bay.

Hoi An
From Halong Bay we caught a bus back to Hanoi and then went straight to a night bus to Hue and then went straight to a bus to Hoi ann where we have spent the last day and a half. The trip took a total of about 20 hours. We were pretty wiped out by it. Hoi an is very pretty. It is a pretty small town filled with tailors (that will make anything you can imagine) and ancient architecture from the french colonial age and the chinese occupation. the middle of Vietnam is the opposite season as the rest of SE Asia and it has been raining here none stop. THe whole town is flooded. We spent the last two days wandering the town and we took a day trip see Cham Ruins.

From Here
Tonight we take a bus to Ngha Tran (spelling?) we are hoping there weather will be a little nice because it is a beach town. From there we go to Mui ne and then Saigon where catch another bus to Pnom Penn in cambodia. We will be in Cambodia until the 9th when we fly to Bali.

I've noticed that the comments have been pretty low lately. the blog takes up quiit a bit of time so if your reading it let me know by posting a comment. If no one is reading it (that would be nice to know) I will stop posting. Hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving! I'm not sure what I'll be doing for it yet.

Week 3: floating lanterns and lazy days

Now that I've left the comfort of esther's and internet is no longer free I will not be able to blog as often and my blogs will be much shorter.

Floating Lanterns

The last few days we were in Chiang Mai was the lantern festival. Everyone in thailand takes these white lanterns made of a thin paper (maybe rice paper) writes wishes on them and then lights a small candle attached underneath with wire. the hot air fills the paper bags (like a hot air balloon) and the lanterns float away. the whole sky is filled with them. All weekend people were sending them up. It was very beautiful. Esther threw a fundraiser dinner for the festival. Marissa and helped out by bartending because we speak english. (not because we know the first thing about bar tending) we each sent a lantern up and also put a flower offering into the river. the idea is to absolve your sins. it was very nice. there was also a parade on the last night. it was really crazy. It was huge. it wasn't moving very fast so marissa and I decided to walk the other direction to make it move faster. it must have taken us twenty minutes to walk the parade. there was so many decodant floats.

Lazy Days in Laos

On the 14th we flew to Luang Prabang, Laos. The plan was to spend about 3 days there and then go to the Gibbon experience. unfortunately the Gibbon experience was all filled up and we couldn't go. As a result we spent the whole 7 days in Luang Prabang. We are starting to get a little bit sick of doing all the tourist activities (treks, tours, classes, etc) and there wasn't all that much else to do in Luang Prabang. So we had a pretty chill time here. There are many beautiful temples and many markets. We spent a lot of our time walking from place to place, seeing temples, going to the market and buying fresh fruit, eating. Laos culture is very relaxed. It just seems really easy to lose a day without doing all that much. I think Marissa got a little bored with it, but all in all we really enjoyed our time here. I really felt like I got to know Laos culture and the people reallly well. Luang Prabang is beautiful too. It is on a peninsula in between two rivers. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides. There a lot of travel photographers here. We also spent many of our mornings volunteering at a youth center helping kids with their english. If the learn english they can get a good job. It was really fun because we really got to learn a lot about the people here. THey are so sweet. They all invite us back to their village (many of them are from hilltribes in the north.)

Vietnam
Tomorrow we leave for Hanoi, Vietnam. We will be in veitnam for a week. We haven't really decided what we'll do there yet. In addition to Hanoi, we want to go to halong bay. we also may work I way south and enter Canbodia by land. we'll see though. Hope everyone is doing well.

Week 2: Hilltribes and Motor Bikes

This past week has been a lot of fun! We went on a three day trek through the jungle and we went to Pai. I can't decide if time is going by quickly or slowly. on one hand, every day seems to fly by in a whirlwind of places to go and things to do. At the same time it's hard to believe that I've only been gone for two weeks. It feels like I've been here for ever. I am already getting used to the thai customs and pace of life. The thai people are so sweet. very friendly and helpful. even though there is a lot of poverty here, the thai people are very dignified. I have not been asked for money once.

Jungle Trek

We went on a three day trek through the jungles of northern thailand, about an hour north of chaing mai. We did the trek with three friends from france. They only spoke a little english but we all got along pretty well. The trek was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.

we started out the trek (after the hour long car ride in the back of a pickup truck. ) by going on an elephant ride. It was really fun to ride the elephants but slightly uncomfortable. we couldn't help but feel a little bit bad for the elephants though. The elephants would pause every few minutes to eat a bush or a tree.

After the elephant ride we hiked for about 4 hours up a mountain. For some reason I was expecting the hikes to be pretty easy, but they were actually fairly challenging. there really wasn't much of a path. it was more like beating our way through the jungle (and up a mountain) every now and then we'd get to a stream that we'd have to wade through. sometimes our "guide" would get lost and we'd have to back track or cut through another section of jungle. our guide didn't really teach us much, and he didn't really wait for us either. he just kind of walked through the jungle and if we were lucky enough to keep up with him, that was cool. this actually made it more fun though because it didn't feel like a tour it just felt like a trip through the jungle.

We spent the first night in a hut at a hilltribe village. The hilltribe were the karen people. THe Karen are known for there weaving and wear long woven "panchos". the next morning we hiked about 3 hours to a waterfall where we spent the night in a hut. it was fun sleep next the waterfall it was very loud. the final day we only hiked about an hour and then went whitewater rafting on bamboo rafts.

Pai

The day after our hike we caught a bus to Pai. Pai is a smalll mountain village about 4 hours north of Chiang Mai. It's hard to explain Pai. Pai is one part Thai Village, one part mountain village (think boulder), one part hippy commune (with a ton of crazy expats...think Berkley) and one part backbacker hangout.

We stayed about 10 minutes outside of Pai at an organic permaculture farm owned by a crazy expat which we found on helpx.net. the farm had no electricity or running water. It grew mostly coffee beans. My favorite part about staying on the farm was our breakfasts. every morning we would make a fire and then have fresh ginger tea made from freshly picked tea leaves and ginger, and have freshly picked passion fruit and bananas.

we rented motor bikes in pai and spent everyday riding to different waterfalls, hotsprings, and canyons. The waterfalls were our showers every morning.I can't explain to you how much fun it is to ride your motor bike across the Pai country side. It is SO beautiful there and we explored every corner of it. I'm actually considering buying a moped when I get home.

And now to answer the question that I'm sure is on everyone's mind: no Marissa's feet could not reach the ground from the motorbike. the bikes are quite heavy and she had some trouble going up steep hills (or more specifically stopping while going up steep hills.) The first day we were there we were going up a little dirt path when I heard her yell. Assuming she had fallen I turned around to assess the damages. I turned just in time see her run straight in to me and fall over while yelling go faster. From then Marissa rode ahead of me and while i slowly made my through the ruts and puddles of the dirt paths marissa just gunned it up and waited for me at the top.

Almost Done

wow this post is much longer than I expected. I probably will not be so thorough from now on. Any way we are back in Chaing Mai now and will stay here until the festival.

Also I finally thought of a more clever name for my blog. If you can think of an even more clever one post it. Hope everyone is doing well.

Temple Hoping and Elephant Bathing

The last few days have been a blast. very busy and very exciting. I love it here. THailand reminds me of a cleaner and less crowded india with less poverty. Marissa and I are having a lot of fun. everyone thinks we're on our honeymoon.I'm not sure why.

I think maybe I'll break it up into sections:

On Ester

As I mentioned in my last post we are being hosted by a lady named Esther. We found her on Couchsurfing.com. we thought that we were going to stay with her at her house but as it turns out she owns a guest house and she gave us a room. IT has been really great. the room usually costs about 2000 baht per night (about70 dollars) as compared to our 150 baht per night guest house that we had budgeted. we get our laundry done, free internet, free meals, and water in our rooms. but the best part is that Esther hads been showing us around and helping us organize our stay.

Esther is quite a character. She was born in singapore (I think) and educated at cambridge. she is 42, and a partner at a local law firm. She is wealthy and always telling us about shopping trips in Milan and meeting mick Jager.

Day One (continued)

when I last posted Esther was about to take us out ot lunch. SHe took us along with another couch surfer and a friend from england to local hole in wall restaurant and ordered us about 6 dishes. After words she took us out to this great bakery in one of the nice hotels. Esther paid for everything.



Day two

Yesterday went to the elephnt santuary. IT was really fun. we fed the elephants and we bathed them and we hung out with them. The santctuary was really impressive. despite being a big part of the culture, elephants in thailand are almost extinct. the shelter resues abused elephants from the tourist and logging industry and takes them into the park. there were about 40 elephants.

at night we were planning on going to the night market but we fell asleep at about 8 and missed it.







Day Three




Today went temple hoping. it was was amazing the temples here are so beautiful and peaceful. we hired a driver for the day for about 150 baht (3 dollars) and drove everywhere.

Afterwords we got an hour long thai massage. It was so nice. tonight we are going to a reggae concert.

the rest of the week

Tomorrow we are going on a daytrip to the highest mountain in THailand. the following three days we are going on a trek to stay with one of the hilltribes. (think national geographic long necks with rings around the neck)

I Have Arrived

Fourty some hours later and I finally made it to Chiang Mai. The trip was very long and exhausting but it went very smoothly all things considered.

I'm sitting at the banks of the river the flows through Chiang Mai (I don't know what it's called...soemone can look it up if they want) under a hut writing this blog. I hadn't planned to log on for a while bu I have free internet and I'm too Jetlagged to do much else

We had intended to stay with a girl that we met on couchsurfing.com but when we showed up we were at a guesthouse. After several comfusing conversations with people who didn't speak much english we deduced that the couchsurfer girl owned the guesthouse and is letting us stay here for free. I am fresh off my first shower in a few days and feeling much better

I cannot talk long because we are going to lunch with Esther (our host) and some of her friends. After that Marissa and I plan to visit a temple and maybe get massages before crashing for the night.

I like all the comments. keep it up, they're fun to read. also subscribe to my blog so that you'll know when I write as it will probably be sporatic.