i screamed, but nobody heard

Wednesday evening:
It was dark out. I saw a cockroach crawling outside our room. I stomped my feet in an attempt to scare it off. It moved a few feet away from the door but I watched it as I unlocked the door, just in case it decided to make a run for me... or for our room. I kept my eye on it as I stepped into our room and slowly reached for the light switch. The lights flashed on and in the second it took for my eyes to adjust I felt something. I felt a rather large something crawling on my hand and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large dark mass. I screamed, but nobody heard. I flicked the cockroach off of my hand and it scurried under the bed.

Later that night:
I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. I turned on the bathroom light, sat down to pee, and looked up. There he was, just sitting on the rim of the trash can, waving his long antennae, looking right at me.
"Sylvan?" Nothing. A little louder, "Sylvan?"
"Mmm, yeah?" he moans, half awake.
"The really big bug is in here."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, come see it. This is the one that scared me earlier."
"Mmm, okay." The bed creeks loudly. I hear Sylvan walk toward the bathroom. "Hmm, that's a big bug." Sylvan shuffles back to bed. The bed creeks again.
"Well, what should I do about it?" I ask, only slightly concerned that my new friend will find his way into our bed sometime before daybreak.
"Nothing?" says Sylvan, half asleep.
"Okay."

The next day:

2 dollars, 1 person, no tickets

After being ripped off a couple times by greedy moto-taxi drivers, Sylvan and I decided that it would be a good idea to rent a moto-bike and drive ourselves around Sihanoukville (Sihanoukville is along Cambodia's southern coastline). First stop, amazing waterfall. We'd heard a great deal about a waterfall a few miles out of time and decided to check it out for ourselves. Off the highway, at the end of a long dirt road surrounded by jungle, we found the entrance to the waterfall. A man stood outside what looked like a makeshift toll booth and had chained off one side of the road. He wore plain, dirty, clothes. He had no badge. There were no signs posted. In fact, except for the man and the chain, there wasn't much there at all. "Two dollars, one person." Now, normally, in the states, if someone is standing at a gait, even an unofficial looking gate, and asking for some sort of admission free to a park or something, I would pay them the two dollars and go about my merry way. Unfortunately in Cambodia, you can't just assume that things are what they seem. Everyone's trying to make a buck and Sylvan and I our tourists, which means we have money, which means that everyone is trying to make a buck off of us. Besides that, no one we spoke with mentioned an entrance fee and there was nothing in our guide book about it. Sylvan and I hesitated a moment and looked around. "There is no sign." I said to the man and outlined a box with my fingers. He didn't quite understand me but said in response, "No ticket. Two dollars, one person, no ticket." So this very unofficial man standing in front of a very unofficial chain, wanted us to fork over two dollars each, and give us no ticket or receipt in return. Sylvan and I have been scammed before but we have learned from our mistakes. No paper trail, no deal. We drove past the man and around the chain. He made a small attempt to stop us, but he was not match for our moto-bike and he knew it. We paid fifty cents for some kid to watch our bike, but Sylvan was still pretty uneasy about leaving the bike. Moto theft is common in this area.

The waterfall was beautiful. We walked around a bit and enjoyed noodle soup for lunch at one of the local food stalls. While we were eating, Sylvan spotted some kids near our bike playing with our helmets. Were were a few hundred meters away, but Sylvan walked over there and told them to knock it off. We went back to the waterfall after lunch and I played in the water a little. A tour group came in just as we were getting ready to go. The Cambodian tour guide greeted Sylvan and I as her tour group explored the falls. She asked us if we came to the waterfall on our own and if we had rented a moto-bike. She looked slightly concerned and said in broken English.
"It not safe. I from here. You not safe." I assumed that she meant it wasn't safe to ride a moto-bike on our own because the traffic here is crazy. I asked, "Because of an accident?" She replied, "No. Yes, that danger too." I could tell she was searching her brain for the correct English word. "The teef. Rubba. Tey shoot you." She formed a gun with her right hand. "Tey shoot you with a gun. Not safe. Last three year, happen." She must have seen my jaw drop because she followed up with, "but you be okay. I wish you good luck." I've never felt as nervous and sick as I did after she said that. I was scared the whole way home. On our way out, we noticed that the unofficial man at the gate had chained up both sides of the road. He was still no match for our dirt-bike as we zoomed around the chains. He made not attempt to stop us this time. A few hundred meters passed the gate, our bike ran out of gas. Sylvan was baffled at first because we had just filled up and there was no way we could have gone through the entire tank. He looked down and noticed that the fuel had been turned off and figured the little rascals that were playing with our helmets must have done it as a joke. He turned it back on and we went on our way. Half way home we nearly ran out of gas. Luckily we were near a gas station. Those little rascals stole our gas and if Sylvan hadn't gone over there, we might not have made it home. It is fairly safe to rent a moto-bike if you stick to main roads and don't go out at night, but after being scared half to death, I was thankful to have lived through another day.

i eat chicken feet

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that is a chicken foot and I ate it. Well, tried too. Sylvan and I stared at the grilled goodies for a while before asking the cook behind the cart if it was in fact, a chicken's foot. She spoke no English so Sylvan pointed to the foot and did an awkward clawing/walking motion with his hands. The woman smiled ans shook her head yes. A local man pointed and laughed, then imitated Sylvan's hand motions. Sylvan got a plate of assorted chicken parts and we sat down at the table next to the cart. We had no idea how we were going to eat a chicken's foot so we watch the family across the table from us. I figured that if the five year old across from me could do it, so could I. Sylvan picked up the foot and tried to take a bite from one of the toes. The man again laughed. Then, without words, he showed Sylvan how to eat a chicken's foot. Put lime in the pepper and dip. Then use the foot like a fork and eat some vegetables. Then bite into the foot and enjoy. The skin was tough and there was really not meat on the foot. I tried to eat as much of it as I could but kept getting chunks of bone and cartilage.



Sylvan and I have tried a bunch of other local food that is absolutely delicious and phenomenal in ways that I didn't think were possible but it's more fun to show pictures of the gross stuff. Some of my favorite local, homemade snacks have been popped rice balls (kind of like a rice crispy treat, but with some brown substance instead of marshmallows), candied banana in sticky rice baked in a banana leaf, and amazing coconut curry (a local favorite). Last night Sylvan and I went to Chez Claude's "one of the best restaurants on the south coast" and had the most amazing seafood spread: giant prawns, calamari, scallops, ceviche, and barracuda. Khmer food is amazing and delicious. I haven't been disappointing with a Khmer dish yet... except chicken feet. Gross.

the beach and the jungle

We wanted to be able to enjoy the beach and spend some time in the Ream National Park (the jungle). Since trekking through the jungle on our own sounded dangerous, especially during the rainy season, we decided to go on a boat tour of the area. We got to see a nice chunk of the river, and were able to trek through a half mile of jungle out to a beach. Everything is bigger in the jungle. The leaves are bigger, the bugs are bigger, the snakes our bigger. We didn't see any real animals to speak of except some termites, and a huge spider (picture left) which our guide said was very dangerous. When we got back to the boat, there was a delicious barbequed baracuda lunch waiting for us.

Otres beach is by-far our favorite. We've spent a few days surf-kayaking, body surfing, and soaking up both sun and rain on the comfy chairs at Daiquiris restaurant and bar. It's more like a small shack on the beach that a restaurant and bar, but the fruit shakes are delicious.
Our favorite spot:

The Orphanage

My alarm went off at 6:15am. I showered, dressed, and had breakfast. Sylvan and I caught a moto-taxi from our guest house to the corner of Monivong and Sihanouk Blvd. The information that I was given said to show up at 8am, walk in, and, without instruction, just start helping. I walked through the gate and into a building. A man inside pointed, motioning for Sylvan and I to go up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was another gate and on the other side of the brightly painted metal gate were seven smiling faces. Seven little children sat, eating crackers, smiling, and shouting and pointing at Sylvan and I. One of the sisters came over and asked us if she could help us. Sylvan quickly replied, "Well how can we help you?"

The kids were excited to see us, and Heng (a one and a half year old mischevious little boy) jumped up immediately and ran right into Sylvan, smiling and laughing the whole way. Heng knew we were there to play with the kids and it was obvious that he was craving attention. An older boy jumped up as well. Sylvan and his new playmates immediately began a good game of hide and seek. The other kids laughed as they watched Sylvan cover his eyes and the two little boys run off. When Sylvan uncovered his eyes, some of the kids would point in the direction the boys had gone and shout things in Khmer.

One of the sisters told me to go get the crying baby and to feed her. I walked back toward the cribs but couldn't find a crying child. She pointed to a skinny little baby girl who was barely wimpering. I picked her up to find her cloth diaper soaked through. The other sisters were busy bathing, feeding, and cleaning and changing didn't seem like the first priority so I held the wet little girl and fed her a cracker. I was surprised to find quite a few teeth in her tiny mouth as she took bit the cracker I held for her. I sat on one of the benches in the small orphanage. Sylvan's buddies hid behind me, then Sylvan thought it would be a good idea to hide underneath me. The kids really got a kick out of that one.

After handing off the baby to one of the sisters for a bath, I walked back into the crib section to find two crying babies. An adorable little boy in blue was climbing out of his crib so I went over to grab him. I tried to put him back in his crib but he clung to me so I held him. All he wanted was to be held. One of the sisters spotten me with Sopiah, gave me a bottle, and motioned to feed him. Sopiah is about a year and a half old and very strong. He drank fast. When he decided that he was finished with the bottle, I held him up to my shoulder and attemted to burp him. He flailed about but I finally got a good burp out of him. I put him down to play with the other kids and walked back to find another crying baby boy, about the same age.

Sameth looked strong as well but, unlike Sopiah, Sameth did not want to be held. He just wanted to use me to get out of his crib. Of course, it worked. So now twelve, or so, little children ran, waddled, and crawled around the orphanage. Heng was a little bigger than Sameth and Sopiah and it was clear the he bullied the other kids. Sameth and Sopiah got fed up with being bullied and found that the man trying to fix the windows was much more interesting than any of their toys. The boys waddled over toward the windows, climbed up and into one of the empty cribs, and then began climbing the iron bars that covered the windows. Sameth looked like a baby tarzan swining on the iron bars with one hand waving around. Sylvan ran over to spot him and make sure he didn't fall. The sisters said it was okay and that Sameth was a climber. After an especially dangerous climb, he returned to the crib and proceeded to trip on a blanket and fall right into the side of the crib. He had pretty nasty bump on his left eye, but he was a little more careful the next time he tried to climb.

Sopiah took a liking to Sylvan and wasn't happy unless he was safely in Sylvan's arms. Sameth was content to climb on his own, Heng, the terror, ran about with the older boy, and I found a bright eyed little, Marie Noelle, sitting on the floor wimpering. I picked her up and held her close to me as I swayed from side to side. Marie Noelle is a beautiful seven month old baby and I was absolutely beaming as I held her. I rocked her to sleep in my arms and proceeded to let her sleep on me for just a while longer before puting her back in her crib.

The orphanage in Phnom Penh is run by the Missionaries of Charity and is home to a dozen or so children. Some seem healthy, others are not so fortunate. We were not allowed to take pictures in the orphanage.

Angkor What?

The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument.

Cambodia: the third world

As Sylvan and I cross the border into Cambodia, we watch starving children dig through fly and ant infested garbage. They weren't begging for food or money, just picking through garbage hoping to find something to eat. We, along with other tourists in our group, give the children leftover snacks purchased on our way from Bangkok.

The road from Bangkok to Siem Reap is excruciatingly bumpy. The rumor is that some unnamed airline is paying some unnamed government official a large sum of money to slow and practically halt all road improvements. It wasn't enough to stop Sylvan and I from taking a bus across the border. Well, we thought we were taking a bus. It turned out ot be a van to the border and then a taxi once in Cambodia. Negotiating travel plans has proven to be slightly more difficult than anticipated. A private car, or taxi, was actually a good idea as it shortened the bumpy ride from the border to Siem Reap. Sylvan, who could sleep through anything, managed to catch some Z's on the bumpy road while I watched oncoming traffic and feared for my life. I was sitting in the front, on the left side of the car. The driver was on the right and we were driving on the right side of the road. I haven't quite figured out the driving laws in Cambodia. In fact, I'm pretty sure there aren't any. Bikes pass pedestrians, motorcycles pass bikes, tuk tuks pass motorcycles, trucks pass tuk tuks, and cars and busses often cross over into oncoming traffic to pass all of the above. Sometimes there are lane-lines painted onto the pavement but no one seems to notice or care. Seat belts and helmets are a thing of the past, or rather, a thing of the future as they have not made it into Thailand or Cambodia. In our time here I have only been witness to one accident. No one was killed, but it was extremely sobering. Many families own motorcycles and it is not uncommon to see a family of four or five on one motorcycle. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, and babies. Yes, babies on motor-bikes. Toddlers ride between the mother and father or if there are two small children, one rides between the driver and the steering wheel. Infants are held by driver or passenger. Most of these children are not wearing helmets and I cringe when I think of any kind of collision.

mingling with locals in Siem Reap
It's hard to get off the tourist track, but Sylvan and I have been trying to experience the local scene as much as we can. We walk around local markets and buy from local vendors. The market in Siem Reap was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Two city blocks full of fresh food, beautiful silk garments, and hand-made trinkets. Although the crafts were fairly interesting, what really caught my attention was the food. To get into heart of the market, where the sell fresh fish and fresh vegetables, you have to walk past the "fresh" meat markets. I'm no expert on freshly slaughtered anything, but something certainly smelled a little "fresh" to me. Once inside the tin roofed market, there are women sitting and standing in the middle of large wooden tables, surrounded by mounds of fresh fruits and vegetables... some of which I'd never laid eyes on before. It was chaotic, beautiful and amazing. Mixed between the tables of fresh greens were small kitchens and food stands, and a few tables of fresh fish and chicken. I wouldn't be surprised if a few fish guts splattered my way as local vendors cut and ripped the fresh fish apart before my eyes.

"Hey mista you buy from me? Hello lady? Sir you want? One dolla." We thought we got away from crafty salesmen when we left Bangkok, but the children of Siem Reap are vicious. They're so cute and relentless! They also speak surprisingly good English. The first words I learned how to say in Khmer (native Cambodian) were no (tay) and thank you (aw coon). After telling a little boy selling postcards "tay aw coon" he laughed and said "tay aw coon, tay lee hi." He explained that "lee hi" is Khmer for goodbye. He was friendly and a little less intense than some of the other children that we had encountered so we decided to share some of our snacks with him. We gave him a Fruit-a-boo. It's like a fruit roll. He said thank you and immediately asked for a another one for his little sister. Sylvan and I packed four fruit rolls, specifically to give to children at Angkor Wat. Another little girl ran over and we gave her one. Then the boys little sister came over. She was probably two years old and didn't say anything but just reached out her little hand. One more girl came over and grabbed our last fruit roll. Luckilly, there were no other children in sight. The kids looked at the package for a minute then quickly tore the wrapper. We told the boy not to eat the paper and he explained to the other kids. The littlest girl couldn't open the rapper on her own. She saw the other kids digging into their tasty snacks and held up the package to me and whined. I opened it for her and tore off a piece of the fruit roll so she wouldn't eat the paper. We asked the boy if we could take their picture. ---Mom, thanks for buying me a million fruit rolls from Costco. I knew they would come in handy... look, you can see the packages in the kids' hands. Thanks for helping me feed Cambodian children.---

After feeding Cambodian kids, Sylvan and I decided to have lunch. The restaurant we went to was operated and owned by a local family and was more like a food stand with tables and chares a mere 100ft from the tiny shack where they lived. The little girl that roped us in spoke English very well and explained that she goes to school at night to learn English so she can help her family with the restaurant. The food was amazing. Some kind of ginger soup served in a large coconut and the most amazing fried pinapple with rice. While we waited, we watched the girl's mother quickly, delicately, and artfully cut pineapples for other tourists. When the mother was busy cooking our lunch, the little girl grabbed the big knife and proceded to slowly, delicately, and artfully cut a pineapple for the girl at the table next to us. A whole pineapple, which took the mother 30 seconds to cut and the girl about 2 minutes, cost fifty cents. I decided I wanted one but didn't want the little girl to have to cut it. It looked like it was difficult for her. Sylvan jokingly volunteered to cut it for me, but we both decided it would be a good idea. The girl agreed to let Sylvan try it but watched him carefully. Her father also came over to supervise. The father laughed as Sylvan put the same care and thoughtfulness into cutting the pineapple as the little girl did. Our tuk tuk driver got a kick out of it as well. It took Sylvan about five minutes to cut the pineapple. The little girl was very surprised out how well Sylvan had done and he explained that he learned from watching her. Through a proud, wide smile, she explained that she had learned from watching her mother.

elections
Many of the local people have tried to explain the ongoing conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia and between Cambodia and Vietnam. The history of Cambodia and the Khmer people is tragic and worth learning about. Their civil war started in 1970 and ended not long ago. Many innocent people were killed by the Khmer Rouge (brutal regime 1975-1979) in genocides and many more were victims of land mines. A visit to the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap and the Killing Fields site in Phnom Penh (pronounced: p-nom pen) were sad and sobering. A man that served the Khmer Rouge as a boy and became and expert on landmines has spent the last 18 years of his life de-mining rural areas of Cambodia and making his country safer for his people. When he started deactivating mines, he used a shovel to find mines in the mud, then took them apart and deactivated them by hand. He trained village people to do the same. His story gained attention and a Canadian journalist helped him start the Landmine Museum. Someone in hollywood caught wind of his story and decided to make a movie about him. "Year Zero" hits theaters in 2009. If you've got a minute, check out: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/home.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields

There are still many scars left on the people of Cambodia and most everyone we encountered was eager to tell us how they felt about the upcoming election (July 27th). Sylvan and I caught part of a political rally before heading out of Siem Reap. The upcoming election could mean great change for this developing country.

whey you from? today yo lucky day!

Sylvan woke up at 6:30am and insisted that he couldn't go back to sleep and that we should get up and start the day... so we did. We had planned to go to a local cafe but it wasn't open so we strolled around until we found a long street full of open vendors. Fresh fruit and vegetables, every kind of fish and meat imaginable, and many other types of edible goodies that I was unable to identify. We were the only white people in sight and I loved it. Toward the end of the street I spotted a coffee/tea stand serving totally authentic thai milk tea in a bag. We watched some of the locals order before us so we knew what we were getting and how much it should cost. The woman preparing the tea spoke very little English. We said "Cha" which means tea in Thai and then held up one finger: One Tea. She made it for us, poured it into a bag over ice, stuck a straw in it and handed it to me. It cost 12 baht, about 35 cents. It was the best Thai milk tea I've ever had.

Later that afternoon, we took a tuk-tuk and got taken for a ride. A Thai man who spoke surprisingly fluent English approached Sylvan and I as we enjoyed a bag of fresh pineapple and what I think was some form of mango. He asked us all of the normal questions. Where we were from, where we were going, if we liked Thailand so far... but unlike most people that approached us on the street, he didn't seem to be selling anything. He explained that he was a student from Phuket and that he studied computers. He asked us to pull out our map so he could see where we were planning to go. He recommended that we go to five or six different Wats, or temples, and which ones we should see first because Saturday was a holiday and certain temples were open at different times. He then gave us a brief explanation of the tuk-tuk system. The tuk-tuks with yellow license plates are owned by a private company and the ones with the white license plates are owned by the government. He advised us to always take a government tuk-tuk because the other drivers would take us to places we didn't want to go. He numbered the stops on our map and stopped a tuk-tuk for us. Sylvan asked him why he was being so helpful. The man explained that next year he would be a monk and that helping people would give him good karma. He was a very happy man and asked us to please think of him after our travels when we return to our country.

The tuk-tuk driver took us to the first two places that the monk suggested. The first was a beautiful sitting Buddha. Apparently this particular temple is only open one or two days of the month, on Buddhist holiday and we just happened to get lucky. The second stop was supposed to be a beautiful silk shot that many tourists enjoy, Vogle. We walked in, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into: "Hello sir, madame, today yo lucky day. Whey you from? How many day Bankok? Whey you go afta Bangkok? You come back Bangkok?" The men were very polite, they took us upstairs to one of the VIP rooms, gave us free bottled water, showed us Armani catalogs, and tried to sell us a tailor-made suit for about $1000. We politely declined and went back to our tuk-tuk. The driver said we should visit another sitting Buddha and a reclining Buddha and then he said we should stop at a souvenir shop. We had most of the afternoon free, so we agreed. He took us to a small temple. Sylvan and I were the only people there and it was a very calming and powerful experience. The next stop was a jewelry shop where we were once again bombarded: "Hello sir, madame, today yo lucky day. Whey you from? How many day Bankok? Whey you go afta Bangkok? You come back Bangkok?"

Our driver waited patiently in the car and did not encourage us to buy anything. Sylvan and I couldn't quite figure out if the driver thought we might like suits and jewelry or if we were being scammed. He seemed so nice and so helpful. Plus, he had taken us to two extra temples that we would have otherwise never seen. Our second to last stop was the Golden Mount. The monk told us to climb the stairs and ring the bell three times for good luck. Our tuk-tuk driver dropped us off, and said he had to go somewhere for something. We didn't quite understand him. When we were ready to leave, we walked back to where we had left our kind tuk-tuk driver to discover one of the privately owned tuk-tuks. A man approached us. He said that our driver's shift was over and that he would take us to the palace, which was our final stop. He described our driver, and knew where we were from and where we were going. Sylvan and I were skeptical, so we waited a few minutes for our driver to return. When our driver didn't show, we agreed to go with the new driver. He said, "I take you to palace for 10 baht," which is about 30 cents US (really cheap), "but first I take you to suite shop and jewelry store because I get gas voucher if you go there." This was a new development which explained why our kind tuk-tuk driver had taken us to the strange suite and jewelry stores. Because of our new drivers honesty, we agreed to go along for the ride. We made the requested stops, then went to the gas station. It was pretty neat seeing the tuk-tuk tank being filled with some kind of compressed natural gas. Then he took us to the palace.

We were starving so we grabbed a quick snack. When you are surrounded with new and interesting fresh food of every kind, it's dangerous to let yourself get hungry. You never know what you might decide to try:

Tomorrow we will leave Bangkok and head to Cambodia to see the ruins of Angkor Wat. We've decided to do a SE Asia loop: Thailand - Cambodia - Vietnam - Laos - Thailand - China Bangkok is the biggest international airport in the area so we'll fly from Bangkok to Beijing in late August. Because it is the low season in Thailand, many of the beaches are rainy this time of year so we'll save our beach time for Northern Vietnam, where the beaches are supposed to be beautiful this time of year.

Bangkok:

don't eat the meat

Okay, I ate the meat. At least, I think it was meat... or blood... or some kind of fish creature. I'm really not sure, but I ate it and I lived to tell about it. In general the food was really good. I just shouldn't have ordered the soup. The soup with rolled rice noodles had a sweet beefy broth, half a boiled egg, and contained four different types of what I can only guess was meat. I think I identified beef, pork, pork blood, and some kind of squid. I had no idea what the brown, gelatin-like cubes were, but decided that they were edible and shoved one in my mouth. The texture was disgusting and made my teeth squeak. It didn't really taste like anything, but after I had swallowed, a faint taste of blood was left in my mouth.

Most of the day was spent recovering from some wicked jet-lag. My stomach aches and it feels like I haven't slept in days. It's 9am here, and 7pm back home. My mind is slow: 32 baht is roughly one American dollar but it took me a about 15 minutes in my tired state to calculate the dollar equivalent of 1,000 baht.

We spent the day in Siam Square at the biggest mall I've ever seen. It was amazing. 8 or 9 floors of the biggest names in fashion, crazy-expensive cars on the 4th floor, an IMAX theater on the top floor, and an aquarium in the basement, and the most amazing assortment of food. It was like an amusement park for adults. To help ease the jet-lag pain, Sylvan and I went to see an American movie, Hancock. The previews and ads before the movie were just as entertaining as the movie itself. When the movie audience stood to hail the King of Thailand during a prerecorded video/anthem, Sylvan and I stood with them. It felt a little strange, but it was an interesting experience to say the least.

I think Sylvan and I are both feeling better today. We're going to explore Bangkok, change hotels, and talk to a travel agent about pseudo-planning the rest of our trip.

18 hours on a plane

Safe in Thailand after almost 24 hours of traveling and a little bit of sleep.

It's noon. We arrived early this morning, 1:30 am local time (approx 11:30 am back home). It was a fight to stay awake on the plane. 11 hours from SFO to Tokyo, a 2 hour lay over in Japan, and 6 more hours to Bangkok, then a 45 minute ride to our hotel.

The Golden House hotel is nice. $35 or 1,500 baht a night. We plan to be here for 2 days before beginning another adventure. We have no plans yet but are looking forward to beaches, snorkling, and good food.

My favorite part of the trip so far? The little spokesperson cartoon and bathrooms in the Narita airport.