back in the states

yup, we're back! we had a couple very easy flights from bangkok to tokyo and tokyo to ny's jfk airport. we're currently chilling at my parents house for a couple days and then heading back home to philly. after 2 1/2 months, we're stretching out the re-entry process. it's nice not to have to sort through the giant pile of mail yet!

we're working on getting the rest of the pictures up and will hopefully also update the blogs with more details/more entries.

thanks for reading and a super extra big thanks to all those who helped make this trip possible. it really was an adventure of a lifetime.

*hugs*

beach bliss

we are now on ko phi phi don island (http://redirx.com/?0f1x) off the coast of southwest thailand. it is beautiful here. we flew into krabi and took a ferry to the island. the ferry ride in and of itself was awesome as we could watch the blue-green waters and limestone cliffs on various islands speed by. we were greeted at the pier on phi phi by someone from our guesthouse and they gave us a lift to the place. there are no roads on the island, so we took a boat! it was great. you could see all sorts of coral from the boat since the water was super clear and pretty shallow. after we checked in, we headed to another small bay to get the lay of the land. it was low-tide, so we could walk across the beach in a couple inches of water. the water was quite warm! we wandered around for a bit and grabbed some tasty seafood for dinner at a beachside restaurant. after that we hung out at a bar and met two really nice german men and had a great time swapping stories.

we're not quite sure what we'll be up to the next couple days. i think some kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving and beaching are in order. it's a beautiful tropical paradise here!

Movies & games !

Really dug learning two new games with friends tonight: cosmic wimp out, and citadel! Cosmic wimp out is just good, inane fun. Citadel is a little more strategic (but not overly so), easy to learn and very social. Definitely time to kickstart weekly game night (and dinner) in Philly.

Saw Ong Bok 2 at the super posh movie theater today in Bangkok. All 20 seats in the theater are plush, reclining leather and include a blanket, pillow, bar area, etc. Really expensive (by Thai standards), but totally worth it.

jan daeng, my new love

yes, there is a woman in my life. she weighs an enormous amount and goes by the name jan daeng.

we just got back from 3 awesome days at the elephant conservation center outside lampang. it was awesome. joe and i ended up being the only ones on the 3-day trek, so we got tons of attention and were able to ask all the questions we wanted. we each had our own elephant that we took care of for the duration of the trek. mine was named jan daeng. she was a spunky 38 year-old female. joe worked with an older woman, tantawan, who was 51. their trainer/caretakers (mahouts) were with us at all times. without tiean, i wouldn't have even been able to get up on jan daeng. joe was helped by pun for the first two days and neak on the last day. we had an awesome time. we just finished burning the pics to a dvd and will hopefully be able to upload them soon. we learned how to get on the elephant 3 ways (front, side and with the elephant on her belly), bathe her, give her directions (forward, turn, back up, stop), as well as their daily routines. the elephants were walked into the jungle at night and chained up to a tree by a very long chain (maybe about 60 feet long). they were then collected in the morning, bathed and then we walked them. we also got to see an elephant show, the elephant hospital, the elephant nursery and the dung paper factory.

we're closing down the internet cafe, so i'll update this post later with more details. joe and i miss our ladies very much! :)

happy thanksgiving, elephants

We missed everyone on Thanksgiving! Hope you all had a good holiday, including some yummy turkey. Turkeys are bad luck in Thailand, and they don't raise/eat them. In fact, I haven't seen a single turkey in SE Asia :( We had curry for tgiving dinner.

We also wanted to give a quick update on our travels. Just spoke with our security service, and they think the aiport will re-open by the time we fly out (12/18), but to check back with them in 3-4 days. We're headed to Lampang tomorrow for a 3-day visit to an elephant conservatory. We get to bathe and feed them, as well as learn about their behavior. Once we're out of the jungle, we'll check on the protests and go from there.

not in bangkok!

Amy and are in are in northern Thailand, safe and far away from the political unrest in Bangkok. We're in Chiang Rai to be exact which is in the far north of the country near the Laos border, around 12 hours from Bangkok which is near the center of the country. The political 'crisis' is currently only in Bangkok, and based on our limited understanding of Thailand's political history is likely to remain isolated to that city. In fact, from what we can gather, many residents of northern Thailand are so apathetic with regard to federal Thai politics that as of this morning they are completely unaware of the airports shutting down. Furthermore, they don't really care which corrupt Thai administration/regime is currently in power as the vast majority of their votes are bought by corrupt political candidates/parties during their 'democratic' elections.

Our previous itinerary involved travelling to Bangkok around one week from now (11/8/'08) to meet up with some friends (Toma & Eric), but we're obviously watching the news very closely and doing some contingency planning. To alay the fears of you worry warts (you know who you are!), we were conservative in our trip planning and bought a special travel/medical insurance that is intended to assist us in exactly these types of situations:

http://www.internationalsos.com/en/forindividuals.htm

Aside from potentially re-routing some of our flights, we don't expect the political unrest to affect us much, especially considering this is internal Thai political unrest that is not directed at foreigners at all. As far as we can tell, the main reason they are protesting at the Bangkok airport is because the prime minister they are trying to oust is arriving back in the country via that airport. If the situation escalates out of control and we're in a bind, our insurance provides 'emergency evacuation and repatriation' services.

FYI, the US Dept of State has useful travel alerts which are updated frequently:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1766.html

and here is a primer on the political environment:

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/26/1689630.aspx

thailand, we're here!

hello everyone!

we are currently in chiang rai, thailand. a nice, quiet city in the northern part of the country. it's beautiful here and we're so excited for thai food!

i know we didn't write anything about our week in laos, but we will.

unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. yesterday we crossed the border into thailand from huoy xi, laos and took a bus from chiang kong to chiang rai. on the bus, our camera was stolen. so, we lost the pictures from angkor wat (the big temple on the last day) and all our laos pictures. hopefully we'll be able to do research and at least give you links that you can look at. needless to say we were upset at losing all those pictures.

it did make for a good adventure today. we went to the big c, a department store just outside the city. it was odd to be in such a big mall-type place. we were able to find the same model of camera and a large memory card, so hopefully that will do the trick for the rest of the trip.

we also had a great massage before a really tasty dinner tonight. yay for thai food! we're also getting our plans together for the rest of our time here - an elephant caretaker training course, cooking class, visiting some cool places and beaches, as well as the great thailand meetup (as i'm calling it) where we will hopefully get together with some peeps from california (hi eric and toma!).

all in all, we've rebounded well from our setback and a have a cool new souvenir - a police report in thai!

i think we're shutting the internet cafe down, so hopefully i'll get a chance to write more soon!