Our flight was entertaining, between Lindsay taking pictures of everything and everyone. There was a little boy climbing over the airplane seats and we chatted with the Spanish women next to us about Spain and adventure we were about to embark on.

We meet up with Alan and he introduced us to the “Royal Carthago”, our home for the next few months. She was a beauty. A 1994 Carthago Volkswagan Caravan, sleeps 3 with a sink, stove, refrigerator and plenty of storage. We had so many great moments with the Royal Carthago. My personal favorite is that we could park it almost anywhere. We had some incredible views of sunsets and sunrises. Although we didn’t see many sunrises…

We could also have lunch anywhere we wanted to…whether overlooking the sea or sitting outside IKEA.

I appreciated traveling via Caravan so much! Compared to our earlier travels of having to be on a set schedule or worrying about where to catch the next train or bus – it was such freedom! I think that it is the American in me. I loved being able to see so many different places and every night was a new adventure!

Of course along with any fabulous adventure, there were the not-so-fun things. A few of our top moments include:

1. Lindsay doing dishes

2. Drying the Laundry (it took 3 days for all of our laundry to dry!)

3. Finding a camping spot in the dark then realizing you are at a church and waking up to church bells every hour…and we made this mistake twice!

4. Getting the Carthago stuck. I got it stuck in the sand, thank goodness for some nice people to help us get it out, and the other one…well let’s just say Karla suggested going around the tunnel, but Alan decided we would be ok…you think the name of the tunnel would have been a clue. It was called “Mini Tunnel”….

and my most-not-so-fun moment in the Carthago…finding a place to go the bathroom first thing in the morning. Let’s just say, I had to dig myself a hole in the sand flats of a National Park for this morning experience. Alan was restricted to a 100 yard distance from me…I appreciated him not using the zoom lens on his camera.

We crossed over into Israel from Taba, Egypt (a small beach and diving resort) then through Eilat, Israel (another small beach resort town). We took a bus to Taba then walked to the border by foot and arrived in Eilat. When we arrived in Eilat, we were just in shock. Tons of cars and people camping out on the beach of the Red Sea, it felt like we were at a 4th of July BBQ on a lake in Colorado. but it was the Jewish holiday Passover (Pesach). So many different looking people running in bikini’s with pop music playing…I took a deep breath and smiled. Oh ya, we are out of women suppressed, worrying about what to wear, 3rd world countries!

I was so excited when I saw someone use a debit card at the mini-market, something I haven’t seen this since Thailand…we don’t have to worry about having cash in hand at all times! I started to realize how much I am missing the conveniences of America.

We arrived at Ryan and Inbar’s then headed to Inbar’s parents for dinner. It was a fabulous dinner that was “Kosher” for the Passover holiday – it was sooo yummy. To be ‘kosher’ there were no breads or grains that make bread, and the Matza was used instead of bread with yeast. Matza is bread that is flat and unrisen. Like big crackers. I was loving Matza with the hummus, baba ganoush, pate, peppers and tomatoes starters!! We talked a lot about basketball since Inbar and her sister are playing in the women’s Israel semi-pro league and asked a bunch questions about the passover holiday in Israel. We learned that nothing is open during Passover. There is only one gas station in all of Jerusalem that is open for the days of Sabbath (friday night and saturday day) and passover. All of the shops are closed and only restaurants that serve “kosher” food are open.

The next day we headed to check out some Holy sites. Ryan and Inbar had a place in downtown Jerusalem, which is in walking distance of the Old City where most of the Holy Land sites are located. Inbar and Ryan first drove us around Jeruselam and showed us all of the different areas. It was the day of Sabbath (Saturday), the a day where no one drives. I think we were truly the only car on the road. It was great! We saw the entire city in an hour and then headed over to Old City. We wanted to see one of the processions at the Church of Holy Sepulchre the place where Jesus died and was resurrected. The procession was for the Jesus walk of Via Dolorosa and was very beautiful with the re-enacting the path that Jesus took, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. There were 9 stops in the old city, where the procession would stop and preform a little ceremony for each station (i.e. Christ falling down or the meeting between Jesus and his mother), then finish at the Church of Holy Sepulchre. The picture below shows the Via Dolorosa going into the Holy  of Sepulchre.

After watching the procession at the church, we walked the entire Via Dolorosa street and checked out all the stations. The street crosses the Muslim and the Christian quarters in the Old City, it was interesting to see the stations of Via Dolorosa marked really well in the Christian quarters and not so good in the Muslim area. We actually missed a few of the stations because they weren’t marked very well in the Muslim area. As we walked through both quarters I was really surprised how everyone was getting a long, there wasn’t much animosity displayed between the two religions and with the Jewish quarter close by. I expected to see more yelling and fighting in the Old City, but it seemed very harmonious overall.

The next day we went back to the Old City with Ryan and a few of his friends. Ryan’s buddy, Ben, was our personal tour guide, giving us all these great facts and info on the Old City. They took us to a Arabic restaurant (not kosher), then over to the Western Wall, where we put our prayers inside the wall. First we stopped at a lookout spot that overlooked the Wall. Up there we found some other people mainly orthodox Jews that were praying toward trees, bowing their head over and over and over. I had never seen this before, read a little about it, but I could help but wonder why the head bob?

As we headed over to the wall, they separate the men from the women so I took the camera in with me. The women’s side was incredibly packed with women and children. There were several women praying, sitting reading their scriptures and then you had to finess your way up to the wall, where women were praying, reading and touching the wall. I place my prayer in the crack of the wall, then said good bye to crowd of women. As I was walking away I saw all these girls walking backwards to leave, I had no idea what that meant…so I stood there watching for a minute to see if any other women would walk backwards…but they didn’t. I guess some orthodox Jews believe it is disrespectful to turn your back to the wall. But when I saw it at the beginning I thought, I was going to be on some prank TV show where a group of people does something really odd and other people just join in cuz everyone else is doing it and then  they are told they are on TV.

The next day was Alan’s Birthday! He’s 32! We initally were going to go to Bethlehem but we forgot our passports, so we didn’t get the chance to go, but we met up with a Alba a friend from Egypt and checked out the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and back to the Holy Church of S. After visiting more of the holy sites, Alan watched a big juicy burger for his birthday, so we had dinner at a burger joint and blew a few candles with his french fries.

That night we went to an concert of Jasmin Levy, a Sephardic musician, which is a mix of Ladino/Judeo-Spanish language and culture of Spanish Jewry and Flamenco dancing with Ryan and Inbar.

After the concert, we had some birthday wine and dessert with ice cream and brownies (kosher of course)! Happy Birthday Alan!

We decided to rent a car in Jordan, we are slowly realizing we are car travelers. I think we like the independence, but also Alan and I both grew up doing a lot of road trips with our parents as well, so I wonder if was home grown. Because of the cost of Jordan, we decided we could only stay a few days. So we rented the car from Aqaba, Jordan and drove the highway next to the Dead Sea. We hardly saw anyone on the road, only a few people at bus stops and look out towers, with Isreal only a few kilometers away. We also saw lots of shepherds with their sheep…lots and lots of sheep. Sometimes you would be waiting 20 minutes from the sheep to cross the road.

We ended up almost to Amman but decided to go the where Moses saw the Promise Land. It was gorgeous and really cool to be able to see all the way into Isreal. After Alan showed me the the Promise Land, we began to drive toward this amazing place called Colored Canyon…it is the Grand Canyon of Jordan. It was gorgeous….and very, very windy. We drove a lot of it at night and was the most incredible sunset, then camped out near by to wake up to the beautiful view.

After taking some pictures of the Canyon, we headed to Petra. I really didn’t know much about it, but Alan has seen some pictures of it and was really looking forward to taking lots of pictures. We walked the Siq about 500 yards and you come the first building carved out of the rock…I can’t tell you how breath taking it was to see The Treasury…

After Petra, we headed to Wadi Rum, another amazing surprise. Wadi Rum is a national park made from sandstone and granite rock in South Jordan. The home to many Bedouin tribes, they even had camps that you go to for the night. What I loved about Wadi Rum, were the camel crossing everywhere, so in the US we see lots of deer crossing signs but here it camels! We even saw some wild camels running around – so crazy.

We randomly came across one of the Bedouin campgrounds and decided to spend the night. We took a hike to watch the sunset, then came back to an amazing dinner and chatted with the owner about Google search rank…he was just stating to market on the internet. The next morning we asked him for a jumping shot before we headed back to Egypt to spend some time in Dahab.

Check out more pictures for Jordan, Petra and Wadi Rum.

Here are some of our favorite things about Egypt.

Staying with Lara’s Egyptian family – Boudy and Mother Su. We also got to meet Boudy’s niece, she was such a doll.

Learning about the Islamic way in the Al-Azhar Mosque

Spending the night on the Feluca and meeting our new friends JJ and Duk Yu.

Picking up Mika from the airport…and heading to see the pyramids. Not only seeing the pyramids and being one of the last group out of the park, let’s just say it was my most adventurous cab ride from the entire trip!

Hiking Mt. Sinai and see the sunrise.

Doing a jumping shot off of a boulder down the path Moses took from Mt Sanai.

Before catching a cab to Colaba, we  walked the boardwalk across the street from the Seth’s home. It was a gorgeous setting, there were so many people out walking, sitting watching the water, and kids playing in a patch of water surrounded by rocks. As we were getting ready to leave three young men walked up to us and asked for us to take their picture. Alan took a few photos, and then would show them their picture on the digital camera. They would get such a kick out of see themselves on the camera they kept asking to take more, then they wanted a picture with me and then with him, then individually. They asked for the pictures to be sent to them, Alan suggested by email so they took down our email address, but we still haven’t heard from them. They were so funny, I think they would have gotten their picture taken all day if they could have, but Alan finally said we had to go.

Then we hopped into a cab, it was a old cab from the 1970′s. Poor Alan didn’t fit it the cab at all. He had to scrunch down just right to keep his neck straight, I guess cabs weren’t meant for tall people back in the day. The cabs used a really old meter where you had to use a chart to actually calculate the taxi fee. We didn’t learn this until a few days later…I am sure we paid a few extra dollars for our taxi rides. The taxi cars do not have rear view mirrors and their is a reason. The traffic in Mumbai is crazy! They fit four cars on a three lane roads, cars are inches away from each other. I am so amazed we didn’t see any accidents while we were there, but is must mean it works for them!

Colaba is where the Taj Hotel terrorist attacked was in November of last year. We were curious how the hotel would be only a few months after the attack. We had to go through 3 sets of security checks with metal detectors at all three, but when you walked into the entrance, it seemed like business as usual. We walked around the hotel some and talked to one of the people that works there and they said they have limited all their services to guests only so we did not end up being able to stay very long. It was great to see the hotel was busy with different business conversations going on and others lounging around by the pool. The hotel seemed very busy, especially if all the people were guests. I read later that the TaTa group reopened the hotel within a month after the attacks to show that India is strong and the terrorist could not impact their way of life. I definitely felt this as we were walking around the hotel and other areas of India.

We headed back after a little sightseeing and dinner to get a good nights rest. The next morning we headed out early (around 1030am – that is early for us!). We wanted to see the Slumdog Millionaire movie which was set in Mumbai, we had some time until the movie started so we headed to Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, the place were 5,000 men wash about 100,000 pieces of clothing a day. I could not understand how everyone would get their cloths back, but I am told they have a system that works and all cloths get to their rightful owners.

Then we headed to the Mahalakshmi Temple, where the goddess of wealth Lakshmi sat. We happened to come during a time when people were preparing to give their offerings. There were so many people, and the women looked beautiful in their colorful sarees. They divid up the men and women on each side and they have to standing (I have heard it can take hours) holding coconuts, flowers and sweets to offer to the goddess.

After walking around the temple, we bought some India sweets, and headed to see the movie. It was fun seeing the movie Slumdog while in Mumbai. Little scenes like stealing someones shoes from the temples and then reselling them, made me think twice about leaving my shoes when siteseeing at the different temples. We also talked to the Seth family about the movie and how India hasn’t felt that it portrayed the true slums in Indian, because there is a sense of happiness and acceptance of where you live and who you are in India, and it is not just a way of life people are trying to escape as described in the movie. Priya, one of the daughters, is a cinamagapher in Bollywood (Mumbai or Bmobay’s Hollywood) and helped us get a better idea of how it was recieved in India. It was way cool to see the movie here, unfortunately, there were no beers sold at the movie theather like the one in Vietnam, Alan was a little disappointed…

After the movie, we walked through Mumbai University, where hundreds of cricket pickup games were going on and Kamala Nehro Park (spelling?) where there was an amazing view of the city. On our way back past the beach back to Mr. and Mrs. Seth, Alan took some incredible shots of the Bombay skyline as well.

That night we meet Mr. and Mrs. Seth, they were wonderful and so much fun. We had sooo many questions for them. I think the most questions we asked were around the servants, cooks, and drivers…just kidding, but we were very definitely fasincated with their way of life. And of course…also enjoying having our food cooked and bed made for us. We had a tasty Indian dinner at home, then Mr. and Mrs. Seth wanted to take us to a few places in Mumbai at night, so we headed out in the car and they took us around. Showing us the area Mrs. Seth grew up, the Queen’s Necklace drive with a beautiful display of lights, and the area where the other Mumbai attacks were and how there friends were injured and killed. After the drive we headed back to their home and got some sleep so we could get up early to go on their early morniing walk and tea at the race horse tracks.

So, we didn’t get up early enough for the walk, but Mrs. Seth showed us their morning stroll before getting picked up and heading for tea. A man selling fresh, vitamin packed juices right out of the back of his car, so had a taste then rode over to the race horse tracks. When we walked into the club, it was like walking onto a movie set with the trainer and jockeys exercising the horses. We sat with a group of the Seth family friends, they have been coming to the tracks together for exercise and tea for over 20 years. They were alot of fun, cracking jokes and poking fun at each other, sharing plates with each other, and knowing how each person liked their tea. I wish we would have gotten a picture of them together, but I remember them all very clearly. There was one moment, when one of the ladies asked Alan if he was a movie star, I was laughing so hard, he made a joke trying to play it off, but he was definitely grinning the rest of the time giving the women a little more attention the rest of the time. I was ready to strong arm her if she wanted him to walk her to her car, but they left

Mrs. Seth let us borrow her car and driver for the day, so we dropped her off at her women Gin Rummy card group at the country club, then took off to check out some of the bazzars and shopping. I was soo wonderful to have someone who lived in the area helps us get around, she told her driver where to take us and magically we were there without a worry. It was such a nice break from the battles of haggling for a price of a taxi and wondering where to go shopping or sightseeing. We firest went to pick up some beads for my mom, they street was full of bead shops – I went a bit overboard on the beads for her, but she is my mom!! Then we headed to the “Chor Bazzar” Thieves Market. Alan wanted to see where all the shoes they take from the temples steps are taken then resold. When walking around, you could see people reselling shoes, taking a part motor bikes and selling parts, even tearing apart cloths and sewing it back together in a different pattern. It was crazy!!! I wondered how much was stolen and how much just found on the street and of course paid for, but there was not way to tell. I didn’t see another women in sight the entire time we were there, so we were getting even more stares that normal. I wanted Alan to do a jumping shot in the middle of the street with all the hussle and bustle, but we soooo chicken…so of course I made a bet…thinking it would be the first time he would not take the bet, but he did it! I was so surprised! He was horrified after and everyone was laughing at him. After that he was ready to get out of there!

After our tour around Mumbai, we headed back to have dinner with the Seth’s. Priya and her husband took us to a restaurant where we learned all about cinemphotography, since they are both in the business. Her husband, Vishnu, is doing a big budget flim, it was fun to hear all about how they do the different scenes, and Priya has her film releasing in a few weeks as well called “Barah Aana”. At the end of the night, we tried to pay for dinner, but Priya had already told the waiter at the beginning of the meal she was paying in Hindi right in front of us! The waitor said to me later, “you better learn Hindi” after he handed her the check.

The next day we went with the Seth Family to a work celebration, where they invited all of their employees and family member to a lunch and to celebrate Holi. There were some employees that had been working for Mr. Seth for over 40 years, who brought their grandchildren and others brought their children all dressed up. The kids would greet Mrs. Seth by touching her feet, a custom in India, it was interesting to watch the little customs and traditions of India. I see the respect for the elders an focus on the family, as the most beautiful thing here. We took photos of all of the employees with their families and also some pictures of the factory, then had lunch a traditional Rajasthan meal where I kept eating with my left hand and the kids were starting at me (big faux-pa as that is the hand you wipe with) and then Mrs. Seth gave each child some color for Holi and some Rupees, and then we toured the factory.

The factory use to be for textile manufactoring, then it became a warehouse, and now Bollywood studios are renting out the one of the warehouses. So, it was fun to check out the one and the new areas of the factory. Mr. and Mrs. Seth have planted a garden and also are beginning to landscape the property. Mr. Seth says in a year it will look totally different, I believe it. They are also renovating the other warehouse to a studio, so it will be complete refurbished.

Right now, there are two studios, one studio for a new TV and the other for the #3 primetime TV show in India. We were able to walk around the sets and watch one of the show be filmed. It so interesting to watch the filming, at the end of the shot, the voice over was talking in to the camera while the actor would give all these different facial expressions, similar to a U.S. soap opera where the person would be talking to themselves during the show. It was so funny, I knew if I looked at Alan or Priya, I would just lose it and start laughing.

Then, we walked over to the other set, Mrs. Seth was explaining all the different areas of thet set and what was going on in the TV show since we was a big fan. I made her walk down the stairs of the set, since she it is the stairs where something takes place in every show.

After the factory, we stopped off for some coffee and donuts in a nearby mall. We also checked to see if Pryia’s movie was advertising yet. And they were! So we of course took some pictures of the poster with her name on it!

For dinner, the Seth’s took us to their Cricket Country Club, where we dressed up in saree’s. Mrs. Seth gave me this beautiful saree, I was speechless when she gave it to me. Alan recorded how to put the saree on since I have a feeling I won’t be able to do by myself! I was the joke of the evening with the nickname “Indian Princess” but that is ok. I was enjoying my saree!!

I have to thank the Seth family for their amazing generousity and making our trip to India so wonderful. Through the rest of the time here in India, they have take care of us in so many ways, and connecting us with their friends and family in India with places to stay in Armistar, Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. Their generiousity makes be think about how I want to create a home as welcoming as theirs, I will forever be thankful for all their generousity. And as Alan and I keep saying, the Seth’s will be our first guests at our villa in Tuscany!

More Pictures of our time in Mumbai: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanseideman/sets/72157615073477098/

After we arrived in Phnom Penh, we found a hotel easily, but surprised by the cost. Cambodia seems to be as much as what we were spending in Thailand ($75-$100 per day), we were expecting to be spending about ($50 per day). We thought maybe Siem Reap was more pricey because of Angkor Wat, but it seems all prices are higher in Cambodia than just a few years ago. After getting settled in our room, we headed out to see the city. We came across a exercise in the park on our way to the riverfront, very similar to what we saw in Thailand. It was fun to see sooo many people doing aerobics, also funny to see two different classes right next to each other competing with their music and loud speakers.

Transportation in Cambodia seems to be by car, tuk tuk, motor bike, or bike…but we can’t forget the cyclo! We saw this old westerner man on a cyclo…I made Alan take a photo. I could see my dad in this photo with the knee highs and all! We actually took a cyclo back from the grocery store, with me sitting on Alan and our groceries on top of me, it was the most horrifying yet silliest feeling I have had in a long time. The guy would just cross traffic and cars would go around!

We then headed up to the riverfront where we came across a Buddhist temple. There seem to be some sort of celebration going on. People giving offering to the Buddha, music and praying. It was a beautiful sight, I didn’t get this pics uploaded, but I will add them to the post when I do.

Also at the celebration, we saw the poverty first hand again. A lot of begging, but also a lot of unattended children. It was so sad to see the kids naked or with little to no clothing, but you can also see how they take care of each other. We watched the kids for a while hoping to see a parent, I did suspect a parent was there, but didn’t see one during our time there.

The next morning (yes I consider 11am still morning), we wanted to go check out the museum and killing fields that were part of the genocide of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970′s. I hadn’t heard much about the genocide compared to the holocaust, so I was very curious. And, it just so happens while were there the leaders of Khmer Rouge are finally going on trail (day 2 of the trial i think), it was so fascinating to be here while the trial started. Although, we didn’t feel any of the impact of the trail walking around the city, learning about it while the trail takes place was interesting.

First we went to the Killing Fields, this was one of four areas people were killed during the genocide. The government had be excavating the land for the last 15 years, but recently stopped. What has been excavated has been placed in this special case in memory of the 2 million people that lost there lives. It was definitely a sight I will never forget. You could actually see the damage to the skulls where people were hit in the head.

As we were walking around the grave sites, the tour guide begins to explain how the government stopped excavating but during rainy season cloths and bones of the victims will be washed up on the ground. He points down and you can see the bones and some clothing that we were standing over. I was shocked and almost asked “why are you letting us stand here!” He then told us later, they pick up the cloths and bones when they are easily accessible, but that they are suppose to wait for the excavating team. I thought to myself, this is something you wouldn’t see in the US…

We headed over to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum where the Khmer Rogue detained and tortured Cambodian government workers (including teachers, librarians, lawyers). It was an old high school turned into a prison. The site was a beautiful memorial for the victims, but also a very dark and detailed of the killings and torturing that took place. They have a photo wall of the victims along with the actual shackles and beds that the prisoners were kept on.

After going from Angkor Wat to the learning about the Genocide, I feel like I have seen the extreme, of what one man can create and another man can destroy so easily. I definitely have a new respect and patience for the Cambodian people. As I read one of the brochures about the genocide, there was a statement about remembering this piece of Cambodian history so it can never happen again. It states “We have to emerge and extend the anger as much as possible in order to make the dishonor history be existed in Cambodian heart for a lifetime. Also to prevent this foolish regime not to return into Angkor territory as in the world.” This statement made me think about the lack of smiles, the abrasive faces you see along the road, and how this genocide happened just 30 years ago and is still a memory to a lot of people as Cambodian family and friends have been killed or their life was turned upside down and had to start over with very little….

After the museums, we headed over to the mall to try and get Alan some new shoes. He had broken his flip flops and sewed it back together (impressive – i know!), then tried to duct taped them (thanks for the tip Flo!). So we walked around trying to find some new shoes for him…no one have a size 13…surprise, surprise!! The largest anyone carried was size 11. I guess there really are no tall men in southeast Asia. We did end up finding a size 12 pair of sandals at a sporting goods store, so Alan has squeezed his little feet into them for the time being…he looks so pretty!

After the shoe purchase, we came across a skating rink, where a bunch of teenagers where doing flips and spins. It was cool to see this type of rink with a half pike, etc. (totally don’t have my skating lingo going on…). We also checked out the Arcade, a little boy was trying to show us how to use one of the games, which I thought was really helpful. But when I put the money in he took over the game! He did get us to level 10 but still…I wanted to play! So I gave him (little guy in yellow) a token and we played another game by ourselves!

The next day, we headed for Ho Chi Minh (Siagon), Vietnam. We bought the packaged bus tour, so the border crossing was seamless. Ah yes, travel angencies do know what they are doing…

Pics from Cabmodia (same pics from the Siem Reap blog).

We broke our rule of arriving in a unfamiliar town after dark, the bus dropped us off and luckily there was a tuk tuk (motor bike) taxi driver who offered to take us to a guest house. There was another backpacker who was very paranoid, telling us not to get in the taxi….which made me really anxious, but after walking around a bit and noticing no signs for hotels. We got in the taxi and he took us to a hotel very safely. Once we got there we noticed that there was no english signs labeling hotels, so it would have been really difficult to find a place on our own. We checked into a surprising clean hotel and slept for bit. My stomache was super upset from all of the caffeine on the bus, so I couldn’t sleep much.

We woke up and grabbed the same taxi guy from the night before who I swear just sleep in the tuk tuk waiting for our fare in the morning. He took us to a travel agent, we heard they really over charge to take you across the border, so we asked to be taken to the border. The taxi then takes us to the Cambodia Consulate where we got our Visas. It seems very odd the consulate wasn’t a very formal place, but we paid $30 each and got our visas for Cambodia. Then the taxi driver took us to the border where we walked across. I was very overwhelmed with crossing the border. Of course, I had read all these horrible things about getting scammed and being stuck on a bus for 10-15 hours going to Siem Reap from Thailand, so I was extra paranoid. Also as we are walking across, there was this man in a Cambodian Tourist shirt who kept telling us what to do, which seems a bit odd as well. And then to top it off, we are hand a little piece of paper that said to watch out for people pick pocketing, especially little kids. I was on overload, plus needed to go to the bathroom again to get all the caffeine out from the previous bus ride. Well, it turned out the guy that was helping us. He was from the Cambodian Government helping tourist get across the barder, he got us to the bus terminal without any concern. It was a good reminder to be aware and careful, but to not let preconceived notions get in the way of my experience!!

We hopped on another bus to take us to Siem Reap, it was Pink! Everything was pink! Inside, outside, curtains, seats…We enjoyed our pink ride, I couldn’t help but take a few pictures of Alan looking so beautiful surrounded by pink! Plus in was Valentine’s Day so the pink bus was perfect!

Once we arrived in Siem Reap and got a hotel room, we headed out to a nice dinner for V-day, where they had a buffet and dancing entertainment. The dancing was a bit cheesy but it was great to try a bunch of different Cambodian food at one time. After dinner, we feel asleep very quickly and got up early (ok noon…) to check out Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was incredible. We did two days of touring around. The first day we just walked around, taking in the 800+ year old structures. The next day we got a guide who walked us through the three main temples: Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Prohm. My favorite has to be Ta Prohm because of it’s natural state. The fig trees have taken over and growing around, through and on top of the temple. It is an incredible sight to see these enormous trees just powering their way through the man-made temples.

After our first day in Angkor Wat, we were heading back to our hotel and saw lights that looked like a carnival. We asked our Tuk Tuk driver what it was and he said he would take us over to show us. We checked it out and it was indeed a carnival. So we went to a Cambodia carnival! There were so many people there, we saw one other western couple a ways away, but other than that it was all Cambodians. The carnival was very similar to a small town carnival in the US, rides for kids, games and prizes, and lots of food stands. Alan was determined to win a prize with the balloon darts, he finally got 2 balloons and the prizes were two drinks, he picked a really warm Coke and Green Tea.

Also, while we have been here, we have noticed the coldness and stricken looks on the Cambodian peoples faces. You definitely don’t feel like a welcomed visitor like you do in Indonesia, where people are always smiling, asking you “where you are going?” and helping you. In Seim Reap, you can feel the struggling of the country and even in the infrastructure, there will be a really poor hut or home next to a large new home, hotel, bank, etc. Another thing that is hard to get use to is the exchanging money. We have had a difficulty getting our heads around how to pay. Everything is quoted in US dollars, they hardly use their currency (at least with tourists). So you are told the cost in dollars and then if something cost $1.50, and you pay with a $5 bill, you get $3 and 2,000 Cambodian Riel (for the $.50). If you try to get cash out of the money machine it is given in US dollars and to exchange money into Riel is not easy and is much less at a bank exchange ($1=3,500 riel) for what you would get in the streets ($1=4,000 riel) when paying for a tuk tuk.

At Angkor Wat there are also a lot of children trying to sell you things like jewelry, books, postcards. After walking around Angkor Wat, we needed to get something to drink. We sit down to get a cold Coke and the kids just swarm around you, asking you to buy something. Especially the 4-7 years olds, they will have 10 bracelets in their hand and say “10 for a $1″, and then count out each bracelet for you. It broke my heart to say no sooo many times, but those kids are so persistent! We had 7 kids sitting around us while drinking our Coke, finally, Alan said he would buy a couple of the kids a Coke for a jumping shot. So he picked the first two kids that approached us and had them take a picture, while the other girls just sat there in front of me staring at me, wanting me to buy their postcards. Yes, I know…tall girls can’t jump.

We were only in Siem Reap a few days, then headed to Phnom Pehn. Cambodia will be a quick trip since we need to get to Vietnam and catch a flight to India on March 5th. I am looking forward to Phnom Pehn to see how things are different from Siem Reap! More to come!

Check out our Camodia pictures on flickr!

We found a hotel fairly quickly after getting dropped off by the bus then headed out to check out the city. The amount of motor bikes are insane! So many people buzzing around the city. We crossed a stop light in the main area of the city and just saw this sea of motor bikes, like a massive school of fish only on land. They seem to use their motor bikes more than in any other country we have been in so far.

The first night we walked through the main park, and there were hundreds of young Vietnamese teenagers hang out, talking and sitting in their motor bikes – their version of ‘parking’. We also bought a “hacky sack” for lack of better term. It is a plastic thing with a feather on the end of it, I think it is called ‘shuttlecock’… everyone was playing it in the park, so we decided to join in. As we were starting to play three young teenagers came up and started to play with us. Alan and I both thought great, we will never get to play, but they were as good as us (not so good), and very sweet on taking turns. After playing for a while, we headed back to our place, walking back through the park.

The next morning I woke up with a headache, so we hung in until I felt better. I was cold, so Alan wrapped me up tightly in anything he could find. He says he didn’t have any intention of making me look funny, but I don’t believe it…by the time he was done wrapping me up, he had to take some photos. I slept like this for 2 hours…not moving a bit!

By noon, I felt good enough to walking around so we went and found a place to have pho soup, and then started to do a walking tour through Saigon. First up was this cool market, but learned very quickly to not walk through the small aisle in the market since people will grab your arm and try to pull you into their shop. They were a lot of beautiful things in the market, I would have loved to buy, but with many months left to go on the traveling, it is hard to buy a lot of the things. We came across this Snake wine that Vietnamese supposedly use for healing all sorts of sicknesses. It literally has a snake and a scorpion in the wine bottle. I dared Alan to drink some, but he was not having any!!

After the market, we decided to do the walking tour described in the Lonely Planet. Alan was our navigator, we were able to check out the different art galleries, museums and parks. We decided to relax on the grass at one of the parks, but quickly realized, that you are not allowed to sit on any of the grass in city parks as a guard was yelling and whistling at us. Now we know why everyone was sitting on their motor bikes at the park the night before. Saigon was a fun town, I loved the different architecture, there were streets that felt like you were in France, San Fransisco, and of course Vietnam!

After our self guided city tour, we stopped at a roof top bar and watched the sunset. It was a nice ending to a fabulous day in Saigon!

Then Alan decided he was going to eat one of the bugs on the street…ok from one of the street food stands. He decided on the scorpion, but there we so many to choose from…it was soo gross so of course I had to video it.

Alan;s video of eating a scorpion

We then saw Terra off to the airport at 4am and headed to bed. The next morning I was just a little hungover…hadn’t drank in Thailand, so I was feeling it…Alan went and got us fresh juice. I was sooo happy, Alan was laughing at me so hard he finally took a picture…now I know why!!

We then hung out at the park again, reading and watching people. Alan had stepped away to take pictures and the aerobics started up with me right behind the instructor. I was a little hard to concentrate. The next morning we headed for Bali!!!

As we left Thailand and headed for Bali, we thought about some of the funny and non-so-funny moments in Thailand. Here is our list of favorites and funny moments.

Top Moments

• Arriving in Thailand for the first time and spending an hour figuring our what we were going to do. You think we would have had it planned out!
• Almost sleeping through New Years Eve celebration in Hau Hin
• Being dropped off by the bus in Chumporn, where no one spoke english and no taxis or tuk tuks
• 1st Bungalow in Koh Tao
• Figuring out how to ride the motor bike with 2 people, 2 bags and 2 backpacks in Koh Toa
• Alan eating the scorpion in Bangkok
• Elephant and Bamboo ride in Chiang Mai
• Thai Boxing
• Aerobics in the park
• Movie in Chiang Mai
• Rockclimbing in Krabbi
• Sitting on the front of the boat to Surat Thani
• Sunset on West Railay beach in Krabbi

Things we will miss!

• Thai Massages
• Food Stands – so easy to get food and cheap food!
• Roti – Banana Pancakes
• Lamb sandwiches
• Thai Iced Coffee
• Thai Iced Tea

Things we won’t miss!

• People constantly trying to sell us things
• Spending 2 hours searching for a room in West Railay beach in Krabbi
• Waiting for buses
• Karla forgetting her purse with all cash, credit cards and her passport on the beach in Koh Tao (yes, it was still there when we went back)
• Drunkin’ kids on Koh San road in Bangkok
• 2 hour bus ride in a broken seat to Surant Thai, bouncy, bouncy!
• Eating at the market in Chumporn where there was a big rat running back and forth, then have the worst spicy fish soup and bubble gum tasting soda
• Man getting %^#$%& right next to us at dinner in Krabbi
• Cockroach in Karla’s bag in Koh Sok, Alan had to get it out…

We ended up being in Chiang Mai for about a week. This was totally unplanned. We expected to stay there about 2-3 days, then head onto Bali, but once we decided to book our plane ticket, the flights were expensive so we needed to wait until the 23rd to get back the beach!

I really liked Chiang Mai, and could see why people live there. The city overall is very easy to get around on a motor bike with a lot of different activities. We rented a motor bike the first day we got there and started to explored. We headed up toward the main hillside where we could see a temple on the map thinking it would have a great view of the city, but we never could seem to find it… we traveled about 15 minutes on the motor bike to a path on the hillside, where we thought it take us to the temple and came across a kind of make-out spot that overlooked Chiang Mai, tonz of couples were taking pictures and watching the sunset. We then tried another road to find the temple, we came into a private resort where there were a lot of dogs. The dogs in Thailand have been totally laid back, we haven’t really heard a bark at all, but at the second resort Alan decided to bark at this dog and we hear a man yell something and the dog started chasing after us. We weren’t going very fast on the scooter and the dog caught up with us, so there was this dog right next to us getting closer and barking, I had my leg up in the air by Alan’s head so the dog wouldn’t bit me…we really thought one of us was going to get bit! Finally the scooter changed gears and we out ran the dog, then we headed back down the hill where we came across the Chiang Mai zoo.

The zoo was closed or so we thought when we entered the open gates and started to scoot around. It was great! No was there trying to sell us anything and we didn’t have to pay the admission fee, etc. We checked out some of the monkeys and lions/tigers, then headed down the road of the zoo looking at the other animals from a far. It was definitely spooky being the only ones in the zoo and there were no gates or fences just a moat of water separated us from the animals which really freaked me out. I felt that if they really wanted to get at us, they could…we heard this roaring of a lion from the cave, we weren’t sure if it was another lion or a recording so we hung out for a while to see. Alan would hide behind a bush and take pictures and the lions head would perk up and see where he was…i was totally getting freaked out that it was going to come after us with no one around, but after a while the lion and tiger just ignored us.

We found the Night Bazzar, where there was so many different vendors than in Bangkok and things were so much cheaper!! This was such a nice surprise since things in Bangkok didn’t seem so authentic. We learned later than Chiang  Mai was main city for trading, and back in the day, villages use to come to Chiang Mai and trade from Berma and Loas. After I did some damage shopping and paid almost $75 to send things home, then we hung out and relaxed for a few days.

We met up with Alana and Orence, our friends from Denver. Alana had a friend, Tiovo, that lives in Chiang Mai, we had dinner with them at this amazing buffet, then they took us around for shopping and told how to bargain and gave us some great suggestions on shopping for silver for Karla’s mom.

We also went to see a movie “The Elephant King” at one of the Chiang Mai theaters. It was a movie about Thailand in English with Thai subtitles. When we purchased the tickets they have you select a seat from the computer, then when you go into the movie theater it looks exactly like a theater in the US, but there is assigned seating. The movie was really thought provoking, especially about westerners in Thailand and how they corrupt Thailand with sex trade and flaunting their money. I definitely walked out of the movie not wanting to spend anymore money effecting the Thai traditions, it really made me wonder about things going on in Thailand.

We hung out at the park a few times, going for a few runs and checking out the different activities going on. People were still playing the hacky sack game and they had the organized aerobics again, which we learned is a theme in Thailand at all the public parks they have aerobic at sunset. There was this outdoor workout “equipment” that people were using so we decided to use it after our run. First off, the euqipmnt was sooo small Alan looked like a giant and the second we didn’t know what to do with half of the stuff. Definitey different than what is in states!

Then….we went on a elephant ride!!! We did a day trip for trekking, elephant riding and bamboo rafting. The elephants were cool, I have to say the ride was a little bumpy, but I liked to feed the elephants, except when they below spit all over you when you didn’t feed them right away. I was pretty much disgusted with that.. There was also this baby elephant who would follow us around for us to feed it too. All the elephants thought my yellow straps on my bag were bananas so they keep going for my bag….by the end I had spit all over it…yucky!

Then we went on this bamboo rafting ride, I thought we would be sitting on a raft going down a calm little river. Well, I was right about the river being calm but we were standing on a 2 foot wide raft of really long bamboo. We had to balance our way down a 45 minute rafting ride. This was probably the most fun of the day since Alan and I ended up we another couple from Connecticut, where she could not balance (if her life depended on it) and he was smoking a cigar down the river. Literately, if the raft hit a rock someone would go off balance and move, then everyone would have to re-balance to make sure to not fall off! Our group was the only one that made it down with no one in the water, the rest of the group had someone fall in, by the end you see the rest of the groups on their hands and knees going down the river. I have not laughed so hard in a long time, watching everyone’s faces as they tried not to fall in. It was fabulous!

While in Chiang Mai, we broke down and had Pizza Hut and Dunkin’ Donuts. The donuts were totally worth it, not sure I will get pizza again while I am here…I was fairly disappointed and it was more expensive than in Denver!

Now were back on the train heading to Bangkok! We decided to head back to Bangkok early to meet up with Alan’s friend, Terra, before heading to Bali!

Here is a link to all of the pics from our time in Chiang Mai. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanseideman/sets/72157612635165408/