chiang mai 1

arrived in chiang mai after a 6 hour bus ride yesterday. decent scenery and the road was better than I had expected but still alittle rough in places. muchdifferent than Bangkok, although still big enough with 1.6 million people. it was late afternoon when we got here, but found our guest house (very nice) and toured the markets (7 blocks of shopping heaven/hell). today we wandered around the old city, saw a few temples and a few sites. Lo and behold we found the Hash House Pub & Restaurant. It is a novel concept, I think we need to start one at home. Anyway, after a 5 hour lunch (was it slow service or good company and cold beer???) we headed back to our hotel. we may head back for dinner....

tomorrow we try and teach Aneeda how to cook. I will go along just for the entertainment.

miss you all!!

Mobey's

PS. I think I need to give up on pics. We are in a decent hotel here but still the connection is painfully slow and no USB port. If you want pics, do an internet seacrh of the places and picture Aneeda and I there. Remember I look like Russell Crowe and Aneeda is a white JLo. XXOOX

sukhotai

first, would like to apologize for no pics. lots of internet cafes but the connectons are generally really slow and most do not have a USB port to connect the camera. Maybe in Chang Mai??
Sukhotai is very nice. did a lot of walking yesterday. Nice countryside, neat ruins and not too many people. And everywhere a Buddha. And by the way, very hot. still don't think we have seen a day under 30. It is a tough life.
Aneeda did her 1st Thai massage yesterday, really enjoyed it. I sat and had a beer and waited. Really enjoyed it.
Today we rented bikes and went about 10km to "New Sukhotai". Nice enough city, wandered the markets and toured around. Pretty relaxing...
hope everyone is doing fine - miss you all!!

Randy & Monique

bye bye bangkok

so we had planned to spend 3 nights in Bangkok but saw it all in a day and headed out after 2 days. Actually did not see much, toured a few Buddhas and temples and wandered Khao San Rd (the backpacker hangout). Bangkok is big, crowded and traffic is a nightmare with the related pollution. We did take a water taxi when we could, which was much better.
On Khao San we stopped for lunch and a couple of beer, ended up chatting with a Scot and a Brit. Booth agreed Bangkok was difficult but that it was a great place once you get used to it. Maybe we will stop again on our way back south.

On a related note, the Brit and the Scot both agreed on a number of things about the Welsh - something about Wellies, sheep and electric fences??

this morning (Friday) did a 6 1/2 hour bus ride to Sukothai, which is the ancient capital and has a lot of ruins. It is a small city (40,000) so a little calmer. We plan to spend 2 days/3 nights and then up to Chang Mai.

the scenery from the bus was nice - rice paddies, a few cities, etc. buit is pretty flat - makes Saskatchewan look like the Rockies. met a very nice man on the bus so that helped the trip go by.

hope everyone is doing well!

on to singapore

again no pics as at a terminal in Singapore airport that has no connection for camera.

tuesday and most of wednesday in Siem Reap were quiet days - wandered around the markets, hung around by the pool, read and relax. maybe a beer or two. met a guy from edmonton at breakfast one morning - small world.

some last thoughts on cambodia - very peaceful, only saw one army guy with a machine gun in 5 days. it is a 2 wheel kingdom, bikes, small motorcycles and tuk tuks. There are some cars but few compared to bikes and almost all of them are Toyota Camry's. Also the currency is really weird. They use the riel, which converts at 4,000 per $US. But everything that is worth $1US or more is priced in $US. And everyone uses $US. Except there is no coin, for small change under $1 they use riel. So the price of something might be $2.50 but what it really is is $2US and 2,000 riel. And if you give them $3US you get 2,000 riel back. it sounds simple but generally it confused the hell out of me.

Siem Reap is a tourism growth city. lots of new looking hotels and more under construction. roads to the more remote temples are being improved which will greatly increase the crowds. go now if you can!!

anyway, wednesday night we made our way to Singapore and stayed at a real hotel with furniture, a TV and a bathtub. Nice, but probably awhile b4 we see that again. Spent Thursday walking around singapore - nice. big buildings, interesting chinatown and very very clean. And lots of shopping (yeehaw???). Now at airport and on our way to bangkok. should be a thrill!!!

hope everyone is doing well!

beautiful cambodia

sunday after last post was a quiet day, markets, cafes, a craft school for disadvantaged and disabled youth, the hotel pool and a couple of beer. Monday was a Wow! day, absolutely great. On Sunday we had asked at the hotel desk about going to some distant temples - guide book said a dirt bike was needed, one clerk said tuk tuk was OK but the other said you needed to book a car. Price was a little much so we decided to go to nearby temples on Monday. But tuk tuk driver showed up in the morning and said he could take us - would be a long day and cost a little more but was agreed. i have never eaten so much dust in my life as much of the roads were dirt/sand/clay and/or very rough pavement. it took us 2 hours to get to 1st temple and then another 1 1/2 hours each to the next 2, and then 1 1/2 hours home. But what a day. temples were amazing, first was a 30 minute climb up to a riverbed and waterfall. no buildings, the carvings are all in the rock around and under the river. 2nd temple was small but intricate. Third was our favorite - very few people and the temple is still in the condition they found it. much has collapsed and tree roots grow thru the walls but really neat to clambour around on the buildings and explore with a very friendly local guide.

probably better than the temples though was all the driving thru the countryside. saw how people lived - very simple but nice. kids generally looked happy and many waved - in some places we went i think it was pretty unique for them to see white people in a tuk tuk, there were very few others we saw that day. stopped for gas at a typical cambodian gas station in a small town. if you want 1 litre gas, they have it pre-measured in Johnny Walker scotch bottles (probably tastes better than the scotch originally did!), if you want 2 litres it is a coke bottle full. the people at the store were quite amused with us. we also stopped at a large county market near where How (our tuk tuk driver) was born. it was huge and you could buy anything. No hawkers selling tourist crap though.

back to hotel after 6:00 and can't remember a shower ever feeling so good. or a cold beer ever tasting so good!

great day!



no pics as connection here is painful slow - maybe will have better luck in singapore or bangkok.



hope everyone is doing well!

wat's up in Siem Reap

sitting in an internet cafe on Sunday morning in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Pics look doubtful as connection is pretty slow.





so how did we get here? left home Wednesday a.m. at 9:00 Red Deer time. arrived at our hotel at 5:00 a.m. Friday morning Red Deer time. stops along the way included LA, Taipei, Singapore, Da Nang (Vietnam) and finally Siem Reap. Singapore Air was great, good food, lots of drink (but I was not drinking) and the flight attendants were very cute in their traditional outfits. Sadly I was fighting a head cold/flu so did not enjoy a lot of it. However, like a typical male I kept my suffering to myself and smiled along - no whining!

Arriving in Cambodia was a unique experience. Airport is slightly larger than Red Deer, looks like a new and very nice building. upon entering the terminal, someone at the door required to see our boarding passes. This confused us as we were off the plane. But... Once past this guy, entered a room with a big semi-circle counter behind which there were 14 men in shirts and ties sitting in a row. Lined up to see guy #1, who happily took our $40US (plus$4 because we had no photos) and the 3 forms we had filled out on the plane, each of which contained pretty much the same info. Then we lined up to see guy #14. Meanwhile, there was much shuffling of papers behind the counter as our passports and documents went thru the process. I think it was 1 guys job to look at the passport photo, find the person in the crowd and stare at them for 10 or more seconds. Anyway, roughly 5 minutes later guy #14 called our name and we got our paperwork and passports back. Then went to the next room, where there were 12 customs officials (much like US customs in Calgary) and lined up again. Got our pic taken and passport stamped and were on our way. A cynical person would suspect that all 27 people working at airport customs were related to a politician somewhere as appeared to be the simplest job in the world, seperating tourists from there money.

next to baggage, where we were thrilled to see our bags that we had checked in Calgary almost 2 days prior. next thrill was to see a young fellow holding a sign with our name on it and we were off on our 1st tuk tuk ride (small motorcycle pulling a cart). short hop to our hotel.

the hotel is a really neat place - I think it is a fine example of a late night beer drinking idea that someone actually followed up on the next day. Picture a few Norwegian packpackers who had fallen in love with Siem Reap who have the brilliant thought to open their own hotel, cater to backpackers and then they can get paid to hang around at their own bar and do the things they enjoy doing. Brilliant! And one of them must have been a hasher as their symbol is a footprint. And just before we got there, probably during another drinking session, they decided they should have a pool at the hotel to hang out in. And maybe shape it like a foot and put a seat and some jets in each of the 'toes' to give the jacuzzi experience. Really neat. And the staff, which are mainly locals, are incredibly nice, helpful and cute.

Siem Reap is a nice little city (160,000 people), much cleaner than I expected. Markets are fun, food is good and the beer is cheap. Yesterday spent a day at Ankgor, absolutely amazing. Visited a couple of different temples and tomorrow will do a few more. It was very hot (must have been 30 plus in the afternoon). Today we will do the markets and relax, taking in a play tonite put on by an orphanage.

it is great to finally be here - hope everyone is doing well at home.

back on the road (or on the air)

it was great to be home but we now we are heading back out. It was wonderful to catch up with everybody, highlights included Grey Cup at Brent & Claudie's, hanging out with a 2 year old (including Xmas and going out to cut down our own tree), New Year's barn party at Wayne's and going back country X-country skiing with Wayne, Mona and Brian. Also appreciated going to Kelly Collier's retirement lunch - after a mere 23+ years he has left Parkland to enjoy some travel/relax time with Wendy - good luck!

A few pics of some of these are attached.

Backpacks are packed and we are ready to go. we are heading out Wednesday afternoon from Calgary and, hopefully, a mere 40 hours later, we will be in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Will try to update as often as we can as I think there are quite a few internet cafes throughout.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season. Talk to you soon!

Randy & Monique