You know where you are...

You're in the jungle baby! Today we took a full day trekking adventure about 1 1/2 hours outside Chiang Mai into the jungle. Our day started with a visit to a local orchid and butterfly farm. We then continued some 80 km to the elephant camp where Lauren and I rode one of the beasts for about an hour and then hiked down to the river and zip-lined across. From there we hiked a bit in to find a nice little waterfall which we were able to slide down. After we were wet already, we white water rafted down some brown river and then took a bamboo boat the rest of the way. Whew! We're beat. Going to grab some dinner and probably a Chang beer or two. See you in a few days. Love, us. BTW...our elephant farted really loud and everyone behind us thought it was Lauren.

The Best Thai Cookery School

On a whim, we decided to take an evening cooking class. Our lead chef/market guide/taxi driver was named Mr. Perm and he took us through all the ins and outs of the local market ("the best way to tell the difference between the red curry, the panang curry and the chiang mai curry is to read the sign"), before driving us all out to his home north of the city. We spent a good three hours cooking, drinking Chang beer, dodging fire and of course, eating. We all proclaimed it the best Thai meal we'd had so far.

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai on the 5th and Lauren is excited to be back in her old neighborhood. We immediately met John and Lisa at the Irish Pub and talked about the upcoming week where we plan to take a few day trips, rent some mopeds, visit temples, and eat plenty of good food. Chiang Mai is a backpacker's haven and should be a very nice end to our 4 week trek in which we took 9 flights already!

Kuala Lumpur

We spent 4 nights in KL and enjoyed roaming the city on the fairly complicated mass transit system. The highlight had to be the Petronas towers which stand as the 2nd tallest buildings in the world.

Relaxing in Malaysia

All vacations at some point get a bit tiresome and one needs to take another vacation to sit back, relax, and reflect on the other vacation. Confused? Lauren and I are currently in Malaysia, sitting by the pool and beach, reading books and falling asleep. In between all that action we have managed to eat some good food, drink some bad beer, and go snorkelling around the small islands that surround Tioman Island. The pictures show just how green the water is, how nice the sunsets are, and the little boat that gets us around. Side note: When the driver of the boat says the coral below is 7 meters, don't trust him. Our driver said this and dove into the water only to come up bloody from head to waist. We felt bad as he boated himself to the nearest hospital to get some cream and bandages. He was back at work today.

3 Days in Siem Reap

After our visit with Lauren's friends Zach and Maggie, we took a short, prop plane flight to Siem Reap where we checked into the very comfortable FCC Hotel. 10 minutes after we checked in Lauren's long time friend/tour guide/government worker/rice paddy farmer/mango farm owner/Khmer Rouge survivor met us at our door to organize the three days of temple exploring we'd be doing. Both days were very hot but we managed to see a good 6 temples and topped it off with an hour boat ride through the floating houses on Tonle Sap lake.

Highlights of the trip include:

• Angkor Wat. This amazing temple (LT and I are standing in front of) was built in the 12th century and was buried for 100s of years until a French scientist stumbled upon in in the early 1900s.
• A 5:30am sunrise at Bayon temple where over 100 large faces lit up as the sun illuminated the temple. There were plenty of bats too!
  
• The Ta Prohm temple where the jungle has formed a vice grip around the walls and doors. Also noted is that Tomb Raider was filmed here. They love Angelina.
• Our dinner with our Aussie friends were I was able to take a picture with the dancers at the end.
• The array of wildlife we've come across such as baby cobras, crocodiles, pythons, bats, crazy looking wasps, and spiders bigger than your face.
• Mr. Sok Som. This being the 3rd time he has tour guided for Lauren, his stories and descriptions made the temples come to life. Without him, we wouldn't have enjoyed the sights half as much.

See you in Malaysia.

Tuol Sleng

As a tourist in Phnom Penh, it's imperative to make a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum. When the Khmer Rouge were in power, they turned a local high school into a prison where, over the course of 3 years--from 1975-1978--they killed more than 17,000 people. Today the prison exists as a museum (open in 1981) and a visit is both harrowing and fascinating. The museum is divided into 3 parts--the cells where the prisoners were shackled to metal cots, the wooden and brick solitary confinement cells, and the photo exhibition. We spent about 2 hours touring the grounds, watching a documentary about the prison and reflecting on the experience.

Hello, Tuk Tuk?

Lauren and I rented a tuk tuk for the day to drive us around Phnom Penh. Once again, the heat was intense but we took it like men (kinda) and saw many of the sites around this developing city. Our first stop was the Genocide Museum which I'll explain in a separate post. After a nice lunch, we toured the Royal Palace which held many cool buildings and included a few nice buddhas dressed up in over 5000 diamonds. In between we stopped by the Russian market where Lauren bought mangosteens. They are a ton cheaper here than in the US (you should tell your brother Jeanne). Our day ended with a cool passion fruit mint caiprioska in the FCC overlooking the Mekong River sunset.

Lazy Day

Today consisted of breakfast, lunch at the mall, Lauren's haircut, a 2 hour nap, and I guess the highlight of a delicious dinner at Cabbages and Condoms. The restaurant is affiliated with a sex education and AIDS prevention organization, hence the condom Santa Claus. A percentage of their proceeds go to the battle against AIDS in Thailand. Although we planned a big night after, the downpour and my feeling ill put us back to sleep 3 hours after our 2 hour nap. Today we head to Cambodia for a week. See you there!

The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace was built in the 1700s and houses the famous emerald buddha (which was closed because they had to change his clothes and we still had to pay full price!), Bangkok's #1 tourist attraction. Although a place one can wander for hours, the 100 degree 100% humidity weather hindered us from spending too much time there. So we did what comes naturally and scurried to the nearest 7/11 to get water and pretend to browse while enjoying the air conditioning. We also had a chance to see the famous reclining buddha which has got to be a city block long.

Lunch took us to a 10 person hole in the wall that wound up being the best Thai food we've had so far. But the heat was hard to battle so we headed to the new mall and watched the Dark Knight which happened to come out earlier than it did over your parts. Standing up for the national anthem before the movie began was interesting.

We also happen to be in Bangkok durring a 4 day Buddist holiday where bars do not serve alcohol. AWESOME!

Ready and Caffeinated!

So we made it in today around 5:45am Thai time missing the whole day of Wednesday July 16th. We'll never have the day back...and the things we would have done with it! To make up for lost time, we promised not to fall asleep until 9pm in order to "right" ourselves for the rest of this month long trip. First stop, some authentic Thai coffee! After 2 of those, it was the ORIGINAL Red Bull to help get to dinner. I can barely type I'm so tired.

Where are We Going?

Our month of travel takes us to Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kuala Lumpur, Tioman Island and Chiang Mai. We'll try our best to keep you updated with our stories, sights, and adventures...like the one we had here.

About to Leave

Lauren and I are leaving for Bangkok in a short few hours but wanted to have a page ready for family and friends to view throughout our trip. These are pictures of Corey's wedding in Santa Ynez. While I cheered for Corey here, Lauren was at Dan and Cindy's wedding in Ithaca.