STORIES

January 6, 2008 (For the second time) - Kirkland, WA, USA

Home again. After a very long few days of travel, we're finally back in Seattle. I'm in the process of downloading all the images now, and hopefully I'll have a ton posted tomorrow. I'm also adding a new section to this site for Random Quotes. It'll be full of funny anecdotes that may or may not make any sense to anyone else. Also, hopefully when I manage to get over jet lag, I'll post some more stories and details to this page.

Coming soon will be the website for our Africa trip this summer. We are certainly revamping this to add a forum where all of you can post comments and questions, etc. More to come :)

January 4, 2008 - Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia

Well I just spent the better part of the last hour writing a brilliant entry about the last week of travel, and of course this POS computer in the "#1 Airport in the world" decided to restart. Number 1 airport my ass.

We're in KL now- been waiting for nearly 4 hours, and have another 4 until our flight leaves. Then another 9 hour layover in Seoul before heading to Seattle. Can't freakin' wait. Anyway- the short version of the last week is. We flew from Bangkok of Phuket and took a boat to Koh Phi Phi- stayed in the nice resort and bummed around the island for 5 days, then when back to Phuket and flew to Kuala Lumpur. We've had a crazy 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur, saw most of the city- thanks to a decent public transport system.

We'll be home soon and I will actually tell you some decent stories and upload at least a few more photos. Cheers everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Long boats lined up at Phi Phi Island (Thailand).

New Years Gala Dinner Buffet.

Fire show on the beach at Phi Phi.

Kayaking. It looks easier than it is.

Jared on the front of our long boat tour around Phi Phi Ley island. Big waves, very scary.

View from our balcony.

View from the other side of the hotel on Phi Phi- beaches on both sides, how can you go wrong?

Kobus and Jess in front of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

View of the Petronas towers from the KL Tower- the 4th highest in the world.

December 29, 2007 - Bangkok, Thailand

We're finally in Thailand. Sorry for the delay in posting. The truth is we ran out of money, and when it comes down to the 2000 Riel cold beer after 6 hours of walking around in 90 degree heat- or 2000 Riel to sit on a 56k Modem and write to all of you... well the beer wins. Four days in Siem Reap was just about enough. It was a nice town, but expensive by Cambodian standards, and really, how many days of looking at thousand year old temples can you really handle? We spent most of the day on the 27th just trying to get to get out of Cambodia. The border was a mere 200 km away, but the road was a mess. The rumor is some airline is paying the Cambodian government not to fix the road. We had heard of the bad conditions and opted to take a taxi to the border rather than a bus. Still it was the scariest taxi ride I'd been on in a long while. The road was mostly dirt, the bridges were for the most part- non existent. Kobus and I rode in the back, and the lack of seat belts meant we had to hold on for life, or we'd constantly have our heads slamming into the roof of the car. We got about half way there and had to stop for 2 hours while the bridge repair crew replaced all the metal plates in the one lane bridge. The road quickly turned into a parking lot of taxi cabs and pickup trucks loaded with locals. Once we crossed into Thailand the roads were beautiful. Actual tar, and freeways!

Bangkok is much like I expected. The bus dropped us in the most touristy part of town. One street called the Th Koah San (I probably spelled that wrong). It looks like someone took all of the sketchy-ist hippy-wannabes from Capitol hill and stuck them in Thailand. If you want dreadlocks, this is the place to be. Yesterday we walked around most of the city. Well- not really- Bangkok makes Seattle look like a village, so to say we walked all of it is a bit of an overstatement. We did however manage to find the largest shopping center in all of SouthEast Asia. Shit- they weren't kidding. It certainly was a culture shock after spending nearly 3 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia, I'm sure they only dream of shopping centers like this one. We had some overpriced lunch, enjoyed the free air con, and continued on our way.

Tomorrow morning we are heading down to Phi Phi Island, for our paradise resort stay. Hopefully it we'll have some decent internet, and I'll try to get some photos uploaded. We've taken nearly 40 gigs worth since starting, I'm sure more than half of that has been in the last week. I'll certainly have some work cut out for me when I return. I'll have to update this page with a decent variety of photos. Those posted really don't do the trip justice.

That's all for now. Happy New Year!

Cambodian Traffic Jam (See blog entry about the one lane bridge closure). Fun.

Kittens eating the offerings on a Buddhist shrine.

The main tourist drag in Bangkok.

Typical shop in Bangkok.

Kebab anyone? Any type of meat you could imagine.

December 24, 2007 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

We arrived in Siem Reap yesterday afternoon, a day earlier than scheduled. Battambang was a sketchy town, with very little to do, so we figured we might as well move along. There was a small restaurant we had orginaly planned to take a cooking course at, but after seeing the site of the kitchen, if you could call it that, we decided against it. We spent the better part of yesterday on another so-called "4-hour scenic" boat ride from Battambang to Siem Reap. If was closer to 7 hours, and while it was scenic, its hard to enjoy being cramed 50 people on a 20 seat boat. We were thankful to find a hotel for the night in Siem Reap with a swimming pool and cold beer.

Today we traveled through most of the famous temples at Angkor. They were stunning to say the least. It really makes Rome look like shambles in comparison. We'll be spending the better part of the next 3 days around these temples. With 20,000 Kilometers to explore, I'm sure we won't get bored. We'll be up at sunrise, so I guess this is all for now. I'll try to write more and upload photos before we get to Bangkok.

Merry Christmas!

The Royal Hotel in Battambang, Cambodia.

Angkor Temples... Lots of photos here.

Really Really big spider. Eaten in Cambodia- fried and crunchy. mmmmmm.

Sunrise Christmas morning at Angkor.

Street in Cambodia

Path throught the temples at Angkor Wat.

Monkeys at the Wats.

December 21, 2007 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I just spent the last hour uploading 18 fabulous photos for you to look at, so go look at them! We're headed to Battambang in the morning, and then to Siem Reap on Christmas Eve. Write more soon. Cheers!

December 20, 2007 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Whew. We made it to Cambodia- and what a ride it was. Three hour boat followed by a sketchy border crossing, followed by another 3 hour boat ride, followed by a 2 hour bus ride. If you can call it a bus- more like a minivan with a few extra rows of seats crammed in. Nevertheless, we have arrived.

We're staying in a hotel called "Nice Guest House". They don't lie, it really is nice. For $12 a night, it's even nicer :) Although we did have to get the one of the matresses swapped out, there were a few spings poking through. Yeah, not-so-nice. It's probably in the mid 90's today, they said around 36 Celcius on the TV. The humidiy was bad yesterday, but it is tolerable today. It certainly doesn't feel like December. I'm loving every minute of it. We spent most of the second 3 hour (Cambodian) boat ride on top of the boat yesterday. The entire boat was made of tin, with small windows. It was comparable to being packed like sardines in an oven. So, we bought some 75 cent beer and made for the roof. Needless to say we're pretty sunburnt today.

Cambodia I think is a bit nicer than Vietnam. Certainly not richer, at least as the locals say, the only rich people living here are Chinese or Vietnamese. There really is no middle class, either you have a 10 year old motorbike, or you have a Lexus SUV. Of course, that's if you base class purely on the vehicle you use. The food is amazing, thats for sure. It is much more flavorful than Vietnam. I imagine Thailand will be even better. Kobus keeps ordering different curries and diligently taking notes of all the ingredients. The difficult part will be finding all of the spices back home.

We spent 2 days in the Mekong Delta with a tour group. The Mekong was not like I had expected, but it was probably because we were with a tour and had very limited amount of time to explore the country side. I'd like to return to Vietnam a certainly spend more time outside of the cities.

We spent the better part of today seeing the tourist attractions of Phnom Penh. There are a number of monuments and museums created as memorials from the civil war (the Khmer Rouge rule between 1975-1979.) I don't have the words to describe it yet, but I'll write more tomorrow. Too many gruesome thoughts to put into this entry today.

We'll be in Phnom Penh for at least one more day. I hope to upload the photos tomorrow. We have hundreds more from the last few days, so I'm going to have to find a decent computer- and by that I mean something better than the 486 I'm on now. ha. I hope all is well back home. More tomorrow!

Popping rice in a heated metal wok.

Kobus striking a pose on the back of our Mekong tour boat.

House Boat along the Mekong River

Another boat selling vegetables along the Mekong

Small wooden boat in a part of the Mekong

Lady arranging silk scarfs for sale

Three girls selling sweets to the tourists.

Painted boats along the river towards the Cambodian Border

Our tin can oven boat from the Cambodian border to Phnom Penh

Jared and Kobus on top of our Cambodian Boat.

Palace in Phnom Penh

Other parts of the palace in Phnom Penh.

One of the torture cells at the Khmer Rouge Security prision, S21.

Outside the S21 prison.

Along the halls of the S21 prison.

Kids couting to 3 to have thier photo taken outside the mass graves at the Choeng Ek killing fields.

Vegetables and fish farms just outside of Phnom Penh.

Red Bull Van!

Jared and Kobus with our trusty Tuk-tuk driver Vannak in Phnom Pehn.

December 16, 2007 - Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), Vietnam

Finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. Jared joined us last night after some 22 hour flight via LA and Hong Kong. He brought Moquito repellent and loads of hearty American snack food with, both of which we are thankful for. We're leaving HCMC tomorrow morning on yet another jam packed tourist bus. Hey, what can I say, its a cheap tour. We'll be in the Mekong for 3 days, and magically ending up in Phnom Pehn on the last day.

Yesterday marked a monumental day in Vietnam. A new law went into effect requiring all motorcyle and scooter drivers to wear helmets. Seeing how more than 12,000 people die each year in Saigon ALONE, it's probably a good idea... (figure out that precentage!). It was amazing how over night moto drivers went from maybe 1 in 50 wearing a helemt, to nearly everyone. It might have been something to do with the giant propaganda wogons driving around town proclaiming the new law and its punishment.

We're staying at the most expensive hotel so far. $35 a night. Bling Bling. We actually get both a shower and a bathtub, and both have shower heads high enough for us to fit under. Its a curse being above 5'0" in this country.

Another great disovery on our 18 hour train ride was Red Bull! Imported directly from Thailand for the low price of 8,000 Dong (that's 50 cents). The cans look a bit different, but the Taurine is still there :D We even had a very nice Vietnamese guy give us some cup-o-noodle soup on the train. He said "I welcome you to Vietnam, have some soup." It was a life saver too. We had planned to buy dinner at one of the stop offs, but all were closed, and the food on the train was "mystery meat" to put it nicely. He also gave us two little mini rolls of pork sausage. Think hotdog in a plastic wrapper. Kobus swears they were good. But coming from a South African, it's not suprising. I'll stick with identifiable meat from now on.

That's all for now. We'll write more from Cambodia.

Rice Fields taken from out the train window on the way to Ho Chi Minh City.

Jared and Jessica in the fancy hotel in Saigon.

Two white boys on the street corner in HCMC

Market Stalls in HCMC. Mmmmm, fish sauce and pickled shrimp.

More traffic photos in HCMC. We'll need to take some video to do this cluster justice.

December 13, 2007 - HoiAn, Vietnam

We are still in HoiAn, but leaving first thing tomorrow morning. We spent most of the day today visiting My Son, ancient temples about 30km from here. They were more like piles of bricks over grown with jungle. But for 7th century brick buildings put together without mortar, its impressive there is anything left at all.

The weather is getting warmer, and the mosquitoes are coming out. It seems the further south we go the more humid it gets. Thank goodness we found someone to do some laundry, we really were starting to smell... interesting, yeah, that's it. It rained today for the first time since we have been here, although not enough to warrant dragging out the rain coats from the bottom of our bags. I'm starting to regret dragging those with us. Think of all the extra souvenirs we could have stuffed in their place. ha!

Kobus has been searching far and wide for a Vietnamese spoon to add to his collection. We're all but given up on that one. I've resorted to buying stylish chopsticks instead.

Tomorrow we are headed to Ho Chi Minh City on another long train ride. We leave at 11 am tomorrow and arrive in Ho Chi Minh at 5:30 am the next day. That's if the train is on time.

Ok, we're going to attempt to upload new photos now.

December 12, 2007 - HoiAn, Vietnam

HoiAn is a nice little town. Only 75,000 people compared to Hanoi's several million. It is definitely a tourist trap. They say there are 200 tailor shops in this town. I think we have been inside every one of then. We're going to start throwing out our crappy American clothes and replacing for tailor made Vietnamese stuff. Hot shit.

The bus ride here was a nightmare. It's only 100 kilometers from Hue, but it took nearly 5 hours. The government has reduced the speed limit in most places to 30 km/hour in order to avoid accidents. However it doesn't seem to improve the safety one bit, it just forces all of the impatient cars to swerve madly onto the wrong side of the road in attempt to pass slower (law abiding) buses, like ours. All the time honking madly, so there is no chance of sleep. Not so much fun.

We'll be in HoiAn for another day and a half so we'll probably update again soon. No photos yet... still working on that one... Cheers!

Really good Vietnamese lunch, made specially for us during a tour on the river near Hue

Fresh Chilis in a Market in Hue.

My Son ruins near HoiAn

Jessica and her new tailor, Ms. Vy in HoiAn

View from our $8 hotel room in HoiAn.

December 11, 2007 - Hue, Vietnam

Once again not enough time to do justice to this entry. We've moved to the south, Hue. It is a nicer city than Hanoi, less busy, and the people seem nicer. Today we are going on yet another boat tour of several tombs and pagodas around this area. Then we will head to HoiAn in the evening.

Our trip to Halong Bay was interesting. Being with a group of other tourists was both irritating and rewarding, it depends who we were talking to. The bay was stunning, but very foggy. It made for nice pictures, but not so good sight-seeing. We don't have the ability toi upload photos yet, but hopefully soon.

I did learn that the coffee in vietname (when it is not instant) is excellent. Almost as strong as turkish coffee. They serve it with sweet condensed milk, which I don't care for, but hey, coffee is coffee, I'll take what I can get. The food has been fairly good as well, lots of rice and noodles, and fruit. We have been to several makets both here and in Cat Ba Island. Both were jammed pack with everything you could ever want, and a few things, you wouldn't.

We spent 13 hours on a train yeaster day, leaving at 11pm, and arriving around noon in Hue. It was as good as could have been expected. We didn't get robbed, so I guess we can be thankful :) There were 4 of us crammed in one little cabin, its a good thing we had cruise ship practice, otherwise it may have been a bit uncomfortable.

Cheers to everyone, I hope all is well back home. As a side note, you should know this entire entry was typed without the use of a backspace key :P

Traffic in HaNoi

Kobus and Jess on the Imperial Junk boat on HaLong Bay

Kobus on the front of our boat in HaLong Bay

House Boats and fishing boats at a small village in HaLong Bay.

Our fearless captain, steering with his feet.

Sunset on HaLong Bay

Our very small cabin on the Junk.

December 6, 2007 - Hanoi, Vietnam

Finally we are here. And look this blogging thing actually works. We're both really tired which is to be expected after that crazzy series of flights. I have a cold and with all the Sudafed, pretty much managed to sleep most of the way. Kobus was not so fortunate. Regardless, we're happy to be here, have our very first vietnamese spring rolls (a bit disappointing actually). We haven't taking any interesting photos, so we're not going to bother posting them. Besides it would probably take several days to upload! We're headed out on a 3 day boat tour tomorrow so doubt if there will be any news for a few days. Cheers!

December 2, 2007 - Kirkland Apartment

Here it is... entry 1. It's not even offical, we haven't left yet. But the bags are packed, the batteries charged, seat selection made, super drowsy sleep inducing tablets for Kobus packed. And we're set. Just as long as no one robs us in the next 48 hours (knock on wood)...

There's really nothing else interesting to write, so I'll spare you from more unnecessary rants until we've at least left the country. Hope you enjoy!

The bags... really, this is it.