Quick post

First - Happy Thanksgiving! We did not find any turkey but we had a beautiful day. I hope all is well and everyone had a great holiday!
Second - Tahiti was phat. I won't brag about it here. Water was blue, weather was nice, food was good and snorkeling was fantastic.
Third - I forgot to mention one part on my last blog about New Zealand I wanted to post. We went to this beach...New Chums I think. Rumor from the locals has it that it is one of the top 10 or 20 beaches in the world. Not bad considering all the beaches in the world. Rated by the elusive 'they' of course. We parked at this beach, scrambled over some rocks past where everyone was, found a secluded path that cut thru the jungle for about a quarter mile and got dumped onto a beautiful, secluded, half moon bay, turqouise water, deserted (we were two of about 5 people total on a 1\2 mile streach of sand) beachy goodness. Weather there was great despite being not so good on the other beach. It was pretty incredible, well kept secret by the locals. Making friendly with the locals paid off for us on this one.
Fourth - We are in Wellington now visiting Judy's old roommate Theresa. Tomorrow we head out to start exploring the South Island. First stop - wine country and then off to the eastern coast and some hot springs. Will post again soon.

Tahiti

We arrived in Tahiti and spent our first night in Papeete (Pah-peh-et-eh for you non French speakers). They next day we took a ferry to Moorena where we checked into the Sheraton for the next 5 days in an over water bungalow. The water out here is clear and blue and we can walk right off our deck and into the water to snorkel. There are fish and coral everywhere to look at. To one side of us is a blue lagoon and behind us huge green majestic mountain peaks. This is the life. So this is where we are now. We have two more days before we head back to N-Zed and begin our 20 day tour of the South Island. ‘They’ say the South Island is even more beautiful that the North. We’ll see as I am still sceptical of what ‘they’ say and am still trying to find out who ‘they’ are. Anyway, we will be in Tahiti for Thanksgiving (tomorrow), dunno if we will find any turkey to eat but it is a minor trade off for where we get to be. We do miss being with our families and friends for the holiday. Will blog again when we get back to the South Island.

N-Zed

New Zealand is BEA-utiful! We spent our first day and night with an old friend of Judy’s named Leslie. They used to work together when Judy lived out here. She picked us up from the airport, us with much baggage in tow and took us to her crib in Auckland. It’s true, they call bachelor pads cribs out here. I find that I cannot resist calling every house I see a crib now. “Check out that crib! Is that your crib? Where is the baby’s crib in your crib?” and so on and so forth. I seem to have no problem fitting in and making friends everywhere I go with my insatiable thirst for answers from all of our hosts. We took a big walk around town and had a picnic in the grass on top of a hill that overlooked the entire city and much of the coastline. Thank you for the wonderful day and your hospitality Leslie. The next day Judy and I picked up a rental car and headed out to explore the North Island for the next three days. Judy is driving this leg of the trip (at my insistence) as things tend to be much less stressful for her, me and our relationship when I am not behind the wheel. I still insist I am a great driver but out here they drive on the opposite side of the road and, well…it’s just better she drives for now. The countryside was so beautiful, so green and lush and rolling hills everywhere you look. Absolutely enchanting. The first day we headed for Wytomo which is a little town that exists for the sole purpose (at least as far as I could tell) for the nearby caves. Judy and I arrived with just enough time to get a bite to eat and then head off to start our cave tour. The tour we choose was 5 hours long and was AWESOME! We donned full body wet suits with Kevlar kneepads, helmets with lights and white boots. We looked hot with our white booties. Especially me as my helmet seemed to only sit awkwardly crooked on my melon (that’s my head). To enter the caves you rappel down 67 meters into a hole in the ground which opens into a large cavern. I am scared of heights but as soon as you go into the hole you cannot see much so it wasn’t too scary. After this you do a flying fox which is a zip line into nothing, also scary because they make you turn off your head lights so it is pitch black as you fly thru the dark not knowing when or how you stop. A little bit of an adrenaline rush, nice way to get the blood flowing. Next we drank some hot coffee and tea to warm us up before grabbing and inner tube and jumping about 8 meters off a cliff into pitch black water. I struggled the most with this (the whole heights issue). The water was super cold and the wetsuits had many leaks. At least mine did. “The wetsuit does nothing!” I protest. Too late, I find alternate ways to warm the water (eeewwww, ahhhhhh :). We tube a little way and turn off our lights and see stars! Millions of them above us, beside us, all around us. In reality they were glow worms, very cool. It looked like a perfect night sky with stars everywhere. I giggle in excitement and look around for bugs to throw in the dangly snot traps the worms make (Google it) but to my disappointment find none. We tubed a little longer before ditching the tubes and starting the hike. We hiked, swam, crawled and waded for hours up, down, around pools, rocks and waterfalls. We actually rock climbed up raging waterfalls 60 meters under ground. Way cool. We also sat and told ghost stories and sang kumbiyah, climbed more and freaked out (at least he girls did) over giant eels swimming around in the water. It was awesome! 5 hours underground. Well worth it. After this adventure we got some grub and crashed at our hotel. The next day we went for a leisurely drive which took us thru the countryside and then up the Coromandle coast. We stopped at the hot water beach where you dig a hole in the sand which fills up with hot water (thermal spring below) and you have a sit in your own personal hot tub. Unfortunately the tide was in and we did not get a chance to do this, bad timing for us. We made our way to the B&B we would be staying at that night. The place was very nice, perched on top of a hill with a deck that overlooked a huge part of the coast. Our guests were very nice inviting us to sit on the deck with some of their friends and enjoy some beers. Judy and I got dinner in town and headed out the next morning after a wonderful breakfast prepared by our hosts. We drove down the opposite side of the coast to a town called Thames (pronounced Tay-ms) and to the next B&B we would be staying at. We hung out here and checked our their beautiful gardens and had dinner prepared by our hosts which was REALLY good. We checked out the new bond move on a DVD I bought for $2 when in Thailand. As usual filmed from a movie screen but it was nice to watch and relax. I could have waited for Netflix, the move was OK. The next morning we drove back to Auckland and boarded our plane for Tahiti.

Posting comments

I've received some feedback that comments have been difficult to post. I've turned on anonymous posting so you can hopefully more easily post your comments. Please put your name at th ebottom of the comment so we know who you are. Love hearing from you all thank you for the positive feedback. Nick and Judy.

Chang Mai and Khao Lak

After Sokhuthai we had a 4 hour car ride to Chang Mai. Paul was our guide. He shared with us his in depth knowledge of rice cultivation and Thai history in general. I would call him a regurgitator, fact after fact after fact. Good stuff, picking his brain was fun. Along the way we visited a temple and stopped at an Elephant conservation center. Here they train and take care of elephants that no longer have a productive use in Thailand. Back in the day they were used as labor but with the development of modern industry they had become for the most part obsolete. Many of these camps popped up to provied a home (including national park) for the elephants to go to. We saw a little show where they did tricks and played instruments and painted....it didn't feel like a circus (as I had originally expected) as much as stuff you would train your dog to do (wish I could teach my dog to paint). After the show we got to feed the elephants corn, sugar cane and bananas. This particular place also had a hospital for elephants. Here we saw some really old elephants (sad) as well as some injured by landmines that were on the mend (also sad but good they were being cared for). There were a also a couple of baby elephants we were allowed to feed (cute little buggers). After this we explored a local food market during which Judy and I ate crickets and I ate bamboo worms. That's right we ate bugs and worms. They are considered a delicacy, had to do it. They were friend and salty and...well...I can say I did it. ...Not that that is something to brag about. Snake's blood would have been way cooler. I tried but could not find (probably better) also never found a cock fight (I asked a few times). After this we arrived at our hotel in Chang Mai. Our hotel, the Chedi, was hands down the finest hotel we have stayed in the entire time. I'm talkin 5 star resort, spa, couches on our patio, electric window shades, rain shower, spa tub, excellent food goodness. I could stay there forever. We are now spoiled and can never accept anything less (although my wallet would disagree with that assertion). A mojito, Cuban cigar and a Belgian beer later (by far the best beer I have had the entire trip, Belgian beer AM good) we headed into the city. So, turns out Chang Mai is having a little festival of their own called the Full Moon festival. This is like 4th of July and New Years and every other holiday and festival you have ever been to all wrapped together. First we watched the parade for a little bit which included marching bands, floats, the usual. Then we dove into the crowds. The big thing here was fireworks and 'lanterns'. First the fireworks, EVERYONE was lighting off fireworks. Consider here that we are close to the source, China, so they were good fireworks. There wasn't a moment where there wasn't a pop or fizz or sparkle or a ka-blamo...that's right, KA-BLAMO! Everywhere, all directions explosions and light and streamers and fountains, every firework you could imagine plus ones you never have imagined plus explosions. The other (Boom) big part (pop) of the celebration is (ka-blamo) the 'lanterns' (whistle, pop). These (pow, pow, pow) are big paper cylanders (pop, they come in all different sizes), think 8th grade science, with stuff you ignite (boom) at the bottom to creat fire (pop, pop, booom), the heat from the fire in turn (ka-blamo) heats the latern filling it with hot air (pop, pop, fizzle) which in turn creates lift and takes it into the air. Now imagine the sky filled with hundreds of these, people sending them skyward everywhere you turn (some with fireworks attached of course). So we have fireworks and lanterns, bands and parades, food and more food and tons of people everywhere celebrating. We got stopped at one point by some kids who asked to interview us for school on camera. Of course! First Question, "Have you been here before for the Full Moon Festival and what do you think of it?" Judy - "No, this is our fist time and it is quite incredible." Nick - "This is AWESOME! Where do I buy the explosives??" Second question, "Do you have anything like this back home?" Judy - "Well yes but not quite so chaotic and no laterns as it is too dry, fire in the air bad where we are from, we have strict laws against these sort of things." Nick - (appearing from nowhere with a hand full of contraband and a mouth full of fried chicken) "No way, the man is always spoiling our fun, all we get is sparklers and snakes and they come after you and give you a ticket if you try to do anything fun. The man is always tring to bring us down." Third question, "Do you think this is dangerous?" Judy -"Yes!". Nick - "Danger is my middle name!" Short and sweet, I imagine our video has been circulated around the Thai version of You Tube at this point. We purchased a lanter and made our way down by the river that cuts the city in half. There we launched our lantern and our bad fortune away into the air wondering where it will finally land. I wonder if our bad luck, carried by the lantern lands on someone elses house and becomes their bad luck...I ponder this briefly. That night we do see some land in tress fully aflame and the next day we seem them littering the street and some of the countryside we visit. We also launch a couple of Krathongs which were also widely available. I notice the guy next to us whos lantern does not have enough hot air for lift and crashes into the river (sucker, I hear that's 7 more years bad luck). We chilled on the river bank watching lantern after lanter and fireworks go off all around us up and down both banks of the river. All thru the nigh until about 5 am where there explosions. Judy did not sleep well. I on the other had happily slumbered twitching now and then muttering "ka-blamo" and "ka-pow" and "stupid man always keeping me down" in my sleep as I had blissful dreams of Thai festivals. The next day we visited another elephant camp where we rode elephants for an hour thru the jungle. I like. I've never really experienced elephants up close and I have to say they are pretty magnificant animals. Judy agrees but still thinks our yard is too small to start a camp on our own despite my please for the abandoned Thai elephant. She just doesn't seem to appreciate their deminishing value in the Thai workforce. I will keep working her on this. After the ride we took a bamboo raft a couple of kilometers down a nearby river. I inquire about the lack of monkeys, the boat guy (I can't really say he was driving as he was only shoving a stick into the water to push us along) says they Thais ate them all so they hide deep in the forest (damn, I forgot to ask about eating monkeys when we were at the marker). next we visited an orchid garden. Orchids are cool, they look like little alien faces. After that is was back home. Judy an I got Thai massages, took showers and headed out to the local night market for some grub and shopping. The next morning we got up early to give alms to some monks. You give them food, they pray for you and you both go about your business. I'd like to go into the whole monk, Bhuddhism, giving alms thing but don't have the time here, sorry. We then went to a local food market to experience daily life, ate some sticky rice with mango and took some rick shaws back to the hotel. Bummed we didn't get more time at the nice hotel we took showers, packed and headed to the airport to fly to Phuket.
Our SE Asia travels are winding to an end. We are currently in Khao Lak, just North of Phuket, lying on the beach and enjoying some downtime. The water is a nice aquamarine and the weather soothingly warm and balmy. I am of course sporting my water wings. Safety first. I would argue the water here is warmer that Hawaii but the beaches (at least where we are at) not quite as nice. our resort is surrounded by jungle and lush gardens. Life here is slow and good. We leave Wed for New Zealand. I am excited to go and Judy is excited to go back. We will first visit an old friend of Judy's before driving around the north island for a couple of days. We plan to do some Black Water Cave-ing (I'll blog on exactly what that means after we do) and checking out a festival in Coromandel and maybe even some additional beach time. We are both sad to be leave SE Asia and have both really enjoyed our experience here enough to want to come back and do more. Maybe after our next marriage :).

Sokhuthai

We arrived in Sokhuthai to find our hotel was WAY outside of the city. We had three days so one we toured with our tour guide Tong, one we spent by the pool and the last we had to hire a driver to take us into town for the festival. The first day on the tour we saw some more temples and ruins (nah, really?) which were neat because they were not overgrown by jungle, ruined by invaders and were for the most part still in prretty good shape. These were the first ones that we could climb on and really explore and there were no crowds to deal with. That pretty much took up the whole day. Our hotel was really nice. I was excited for some relaxing pool time after so much go, go, go. Sporting my Sponge Bob Square Pants water wings I doggie paddled in circles (can only seem to turn left) and yelled "Judy, watch this! Judy look at me!" While Judy read and lazily replied "uh uh. That's nice sweetie." We made a point to come to Sukhothai for the Loi Krathong or festival of lights. To the Thais it is when they 'start over' and release their bad luck and make good wishes for the future and let go of past negetivity and hope for new things. We heard this was pretty amazing and since we would be in Thailand at the right time we had to go. After being dropped off by our ride in town we found ourselves immediately immersed in people and food and shops and people and lights and music. It was Awesome! If you have ever been to a concert festival it was a lot like that. Lots of people and food and trinkets and bands. The festival was staged in the national park (Sokhothai was the original capital of Thailand) this had moats and lakes and wats and temples. Very big park to say the least and we spent most of our time exploring. We wandering around for hours fighting our way thru the crowds and eating much food. Their friend chicken is hands down better than any KFC or in my experience home cooking fried chicked I have ever had and the rest of the food and drinks were $.50 instead of the typical $5 or $6 you pay at any concert or sporting event back home. Part of the fun was buying a Krathong (ka-tong) which is a floatie thingie made of bananna tryy, leaves, flowers, candles and incense that you light and set afloat in one of the moats or lakes. Some of these were really elaborate, Judy and I bought small ones. The night culminated into a massive ceremony where the royalty and local gov. set off really big krathongs and made speeches (boring when you don't know Thai) and then finally a good firework show. We then shoved our way out and back to our patiently waiting driver who took us home. We got out right on time. It was like leaving Red Rocks right as the last song finishes and beating the crowds and not having to wait in a line of cars for hours. Good timing for us. The next day we headed to Chang Mai for a couple of days for some more touring, some elephants and little did we know a festival that hands down was way above and beyond anythign we had experienced before....

Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok and this time had a day to explore (last time we were stuck in the airport for 8 hours after not sleeping for a day). After checking into the hotel Judy and I walked to the river that splits the city in half (again, not good with names) and got on a water taxi without buying a ticket. ...at least I think it was a water taxi, they didn't seem to mind the two white people jumping aboard. We had no idea what we were doing but as usual seem to figure it out without getting arrested. We visited the Royal palace and a couple of pagodas. Basically the 'must do' if you only have a day in Bangkok. Huge grounds, lots of colors, lots of people, some buddhas, a tons of pics and a few hourse later we wandered out and headed to another wat nearby that had a 80 meter long lying buddha. Without going into detail, and judy and I are buddhism experts now, lying buddha represents him before he went to nirvana or as we would say, 'died'. It was HUGE! Lots of pics that I will someday post. Next we walked by one huge park where people were playing ping pong and basketball and a game similar to hacky sack but with a whicker ball about double the size of a hack and hollow on the inside. We wandered to another park where they were setting up for the funeral precession for the princess (king's sister). She's been dead for 14 months but they just did (I think yesterday and we were there a few days before) the official burial ceremony and parade and what not. You probably saw it on the news if you check any news that is not local. Anyway they were setting up for it and even days before it happened there were hugs crowds gathering around to pay respects. Ladies in black everywhere and mobs of people hanging out around the park that surrounds the pagoda where the body was. She was very much loved by her people it seems. From what I could gather she spent a huge part of her life working for the people doing charities and humanitarian work. We need more people like that. Judy and eventually found ourselves at a large street lined with vendors and restaurants and tons of tourists wandering around. We got dinner and did some more people watching and site seeing. Some more food and a foot massage later we tried to hail a cab to take us back to our side of town. 4 cabs later and some significant communication breakdowns we finally got one to agree to take us. He was cool, spoke no English and still managed to teach us some Thai which has come in VERY handy during the rest of our travels (thanks dude). Back near our hotel we found a night market and wandered around (suprise) for a few hours and got some dinner. This market was a little different than some of the others we have seen. It had the usual stuff for sale but we also witnessed an elephant on the street doing tricks for food (sad really) and I think this may have been on the border of or even in one of Bangkok's red light districts. There were people trying toget you into strip clubs and selling porn and sex all over the place. Let me put this into perspective. Guys would come up to you with a menu asking if you wanted pussy. You look at the menu, even if you didn't look they put it in front of your face, and the first item on EVERY menu is pussy ping pong. I'll let your imagination fill in the rest fo the choices. Just when you think you have seen it all. We had to get up at 4am to catch our flight the next day so we headed back to our hotel (at midnight no less) to catch a little sleep. The next day we headed to Sokhuthai.

More Cambodia

We arrived mid afternoon in Siam Reap. We had the day off from touring so we hailed a tuk-tuk and headed to Pub Street. After the 'incident' Judy made it very clear I was not to shout di di mao at the drivers from now on. Pub Street stretches a few blocks and is lined with restaurants, bars and shops. There are little alleyways leading off to additional places to eat and drink. After a quick lunch we headed to the local market (surprise). We wandered around for a few hours, it was inside and therefore very hot and stuffy. I suffered standing idly by and Judy did the same for me as we each gazed up on and inquired about different items. We have found that we both have very different tastes. Not a bad thing in my opinion but sometimes challenging when we are trying to agree on something. It goes something like this, Nick - "Look Judy, that wooden figurine has a woody. Get it? get it?" Judy - "That's nice sweetie." Nick - "Let's Get a woodie." Judy - "no." Nick - "Why can't we get the little figurine with the boner? It's cute! It would look great on our mantle". (BTW these figurines were EVERYWHERE) Judy - "Seriously?" Nick - "He's so happy to see us! Just look at him, if that's not happy I don't knwo what is." Judy - "No". Nick -"OK, maybe we don't need the lifesized one, how about this smaller version?" Judy - "No, let's go." Nick - "But the lady said special price, just for me. You always say I need to pay more attention to sales." Judy - "If you buy that I swear I will ditch you in the jungle somewhere." I love Judy, she has such a good way of making decisions easy for me. After that we went back to our hotel and took a nap. That night we headed back out to pub street again and after dinner wandered our way to the night market. it's like the day market but at night. The next day we were picked up by our driver and tour guide Kim. She took us to Angkor which is an ancient city...better described as an area with cities and temples inside of it. We toured a couple ruins of old temples. First was Angkor Thom. Lots of people. Very annoying. Hot. Very annoying. But incredible to gaze upon non the less. Next we headed to Angkor.....shoot can't remember the name at the moment but it was also called the jungle ruins because of the way the jungle had taken over the ruins. These were really cool because they had not be rebuilt or completely destroyed (unlike every other ruin we have seen). Trees had grown into and over the ruins and in some places even kept them intact. There was much rubble but it was also still put together pretty well. You also didn't have to use your imagination as much as some of the other places we visited where it just looked like rocks scattered across the ground. Bright green moss covered the rocks and with the greyness of the stone they contrasted well together. Roots growing into and out of the ruins as well as holding up parts of the temple made it a pretty awesome sight to behold. I think I enjoyed these ruins the most. Next we headed to the infamous Angkor Wat. Again, hot. Less peole this time as we were able to get in ahead of the crowds on the advise of Kim. These were pretty incredible as well. Very large in scale and area. We wandered around these for a couple hours admiring the artichecture, bas reliefs and our history lesson. One thing that rocks about having personal tour guides is you get more indepth lessions about the history, culture, etc... than the canned overview that the group tours give you. We can also go at our own pace and ask tons of questions always impressed by the depth of knowledge of our guides. Kim actually grew up as one of the little begger children that peddle their wares to all that pass by. Her Mom still runs a shop inside Angkor Wat and we were happy when we had the chance to meet her. I saw monkeys too. My day was happily fulfilled. That night we headed back to Pub Street, there is really about the only place to go which is why we keep going back. After dinner we chilled at a street side table to have a couple of drinks and people watch. We noticed this old guy run out to the street to some she-males and invite them to come sit with his friends so he could buy them drinks. Judy and I wondered if he knew what he was getting into. We were sure if we should warn him but he seemed very delighted to have them so we watched and were entertained. When they got up to leave the guy came over to us and says "don't worry, I'm not taking them home". We struck up a conversation with him and it turns out her knows one of them. Aparently he comes here often, we didn't ask why. One time he started choking and one of the she-males did the heimlich (sp?) on him and saved him. She\he helped him back to his hotel and he found out she was a he. I really, REALLY wanted to ask how he found out but he was nice and I felt it was better to let that one go. Anyway he saw her\him just now walking by and wanted to say hi and buy her\him a drink. I would say 'only in Cambodia' but I bet that happens all the time all over the world. We eventaully went back to our hotel and left the next morning for Bangkok. BTW, I know my spelling and grammer has been at about a 5th grade level. I never seem to have enough time to proof read and then later I read the blog later and realize I make no sense. Oh well, what can you do? Hope all is well with everyone.

Cambodia Part Deux

Forgot to mention our first stop in cambodia was Phnom Penh (P-nom Pen, H is silent). On our second day we had a private tour with our guide Zenith. I like Zenith, he is my favorite guide so far out of all guides we have had. Judy woke up sick with stomach issues. She was a trooper and tried to go out with us but we got about a block before she had to ask the driver to turn around and drop her back off at the hotel. Like a good husband I leve her behind to sleep and be miserable while I went out with the guide. I felt special and cool to have my own private guide of the city. We cut lines VIP stylee and I smiled arrogantly at the tour groups with 15 people to a guide. They looked at me with curiosity asking themselves "Is he important? Is he rich?" If only they knew. I am not cool. I am not rich. I am but only a commoner just like they. First Zenith and I went to the royal palace. It was neat. Opulent and richly decorated. I was not supposed to take photos while inside. I did. Covertly of course. Every seen Pulp Fiction? I wondered if I will have to smuggle my camera out like Christopher Walken did the watch. I am glad I did not, happily stowing my contraband in my pocket. Touring the palace grounds was more interesting than the palace itself. Beautifully lush and maticulously cared for the gardens were a woderful site. On the grounds of the palace there were wats, residences for royalty and guests and even a house that stored the musical instruments for ceremonies. It was quite large. I think to myself "They could fit a lot of poor, homeless Cambodians in that place." The expense put into such places while the people suffer annoys me. I know better than to voice this out loud. Judy would be pissed if I 'disappeared' during our honeymoon for spouting off my grievences of the government. I wonder where they keep their Guantanamo Bay? In the instrument house maybe. Anyway also on the grounds were the emerald and crystal budda statues (more contraband pics taken here). The crystal budda has 2000 diamonds the largest of which is 25 carets (insert impressive whistle here). The emerald budda is really jade. Zenith mentions this after I point out it does not look emerald. We toured a couple more buildings and a museum and some more wats and headed off. I think the wats look incredible on the outside. Huge tempels with beautiful coloring and architecture I could stare at these for hours. Alas we do not have time for me to stare only to look and go, look and go. SE Asia is gong by too fast. I need to come back to Cambodia. At lunch we go back to the hotel so I can check on Judy and see if she is feeling better. Luckily she is so we pack her up and take her with us for some lunch. She does not eat much so I finish her plate and mine. Did I mention the food is really good here? It's too bad she got sick and continued to feel sick for the next couple of days. I was excited to go, go, go and do, do, do and she just did not have the energy. I felt really bad for her, I hate getting sick. In fact it is usually me who is the one that is sick. Over the next couple of nights she tells me to go out on my own but I don't want to leave her behind so we keep our nights shorter and make our excursions briefer than usual. She is a trooper for allowing me to drag her along for longer than she would prefer. Thanks love. That afternoon we visited Toul Sloung or S21. A high school that was turned into a prison during the reign of the Khamer Rogue (Ka-mer Roo) and is now a museum. Horrible. So very horrible the things done here to cambodians and during this time. They killed everyone deemed an enemy of Angkor. Not just certain people or types of people (like the Nazis to Jews). EVERYONE. Children were turned into child soldiers forced to kill, including their parents. They were told these are not Mom and Dad these are enemies of Ankor. You are not killing Mom and Dad you are killing enemies of Angkor as they were sometimes forced to shoot their parents. If you were suspected of being an enemy your whole family was killed including children. Like a weed you have to destroy the whole plant even the root or else it grows back. These are the paranoid thouhts of those in control. Madness, paranoia, it goes beyond comprehension. Sheer and utter burtality under Pol Pot aka Brother #1, the leader of the Khmer Rogue. Figures go up to 3 million killed. There was a room where they showed pictures of those put into the camp, put to death, tortured and brutally murdered. I point out that very few, almost non of them look afraid. Some of them even smile. Zenith says that this is because they know what is about to happen and they know that there is nothing that can be done. They know this. They have come to resolve at this point and they can no longer be afraid. What can they do? Wholy sh*t! Everyone knows if you 'disappear' you never come back. Everyone knows that if you are here, you are dead. Plain and simple truth. Wow. Old people, young people, kids, poor, rich, foreigners, even members of the regime. Pictures of everyone and everyone with a picture is killed. No exceptions. Bullets are expensive too so clubs, hammers, knives, anything else is used to kill 'enemies of Angkor'. Some are even buried alive. This was exponentially worse than what we learned was happening in Dachau. So many people were 'disappeared' and families killed that the majority of the people in the pics (we saw maybe 500 of the millions), no one knows who they are, there are no surviving relatives or those who survived were so young they cannot identify. They cannot even identify the dead because there is no one to identify them. Hundreds of thousands of unknown people. Dead. Zenith was one of these children, he has much to say. Members of the regime still alive. Some in politics still. Very few have been arrested and only in the last couple of years. Still no trial. This happened from 1975 - 1978. Wow. Judy and I are pretty speechless after we leave here to go to the killing fields which is one of many sites of mass graves. Zenith has much to say about all of this. The killing fields is an area of mass graves. Pits where bodies have been exhumed. In the middle of the area is a monument with hundreds of skulls of some of those killed and buried in this area. Not all the graves have been dug up yet. The government sold the site to a private Japanese company. Neither the company or the gov. are putting much effor to memorialize, excavate, dig, identify or really do anything about the remains. We're walking arund this area and Zenith points out clothes half buried in the dirt. These are victims clothes that are bing exposed over time by weather. Everywhere we walk he points out "there is some teeth" "here are some bones". Everywhere! On the paths, in the grass. In the holes. Everyhwere! Exposed by weather. WTF??? We are litterally walking on bones and parts of murdered people. Why?? Like I said above nothing or very little is being done to excavate any longer. I feel dirty. I feel humble. I also feel disrespectful because I am walking on dead people. It is just not right. I haver never experienced anything like this before. Speechless. The utter senseless brutality and lack of concern astonishes me. Sickens me. This experience will stay with me for a long time. On the ride home we wax some philosophical with Zenith which is very interesting and enlightening. I like him, he is a good man. Judy and I head to the waterfront that night for dinner and head home early so she can get some good rest. We leave early the next day for Siam Reap (Sy-am Reap, not Si-am as we had been saying) to see Angkor Wat. A couple of the books we bought had to do with Pol Pot and the Khamer Rogue. I have read one so far 'First they killed my father.' Written by one of the people who was a kid during these times. Very sad. I recommend. My words do not do justice to what happened. This book gives one good perspective. Read it if you get a chance.

Cambodia Part 1

We arrived in Cambodia (seems like ages ago now) and the first thing you do is get a visa, i.e. stand in line and pay $$$ to enter the country. Funny, they charge you to enter and leave. Actually that's not funny. Anyway, when you give them your passport for Visa approval, there is a line of about 10 officials and they pass your passport down the line with each official examining it and approving by passing it to the next individual. Government burecracy and employment at its best. We met our driver and guide who took us to our hotel. We had the day free so Judy and I headed out to go explore a local market. We attemped to walk but got lost and hot really quick so we hailed a tuk tuk. We asked to go to the Central Market and were dropped off at what seemed like an auto parts market. One thing to note is that a lot of the markets we have visited are these huge indoor complexes (some are outdoor as well) where you wander aimlessly down isles and isles of store after store of goods, trinkets, food, etc... they are dark, dirty, cramped, crowded and all around loads of fun. They have pretty much anything you could ever want or not want to buy. And the stores are not like mall stores they are more like little booths I would say 10 x 10 meters without only two walls. Tons of fun, wish we had places like this at home. Anyway we headed into the auto parts bazarr not knowing if we were going to enjoy this one and after many right turns and a couple of left turns the good stuff started to appear. BTW we later found out we were at the Russian Market (nothing to do with Russia) not the Central one. One of many 'communication errors' we have experienced. The Russian Market was good for us because they don't see many tourists and the bargaining was fun and excellent, again for us. Bargaining typically goes like this. Nick - "How Much?", Vendor - "For you , very special price, $50", Nick - "What, are you crazy? I'll give you $2" (In the U.S. I would probably get punched for making such an offer), Vendor - (not smiling any longer and acting sad) "Oh noooo, I cannot do, How about $48? Very special price just for you.". Nick - "Awww, you say that to all the tourists, what is MY very special price?" Vendor - "OK, OK for you, cause you are so nice, $40", Nick - " I dunno, how about $5"? Vendor (a little in shock) - "Nooo, I cannot do. $38". Nick - "That is just too much. See that woman over there (pointing at Judy looking at trinkets in another booth), she's my wife, she won't let me do it" (I make a motion and sound like I am cracking a whip.) "I really like but she is el Hefe and beats me when I spend too much (actually she beats me just for fun but I do not tell her this) I think the best I can do is $8". Vendor (laughing) - "OK, OK, I like, you funny, very special today price just for you, I have not seen many tourists today (whoops, should not have told me that) you can help me, $35, very good deal, you buy" (As she starts putting the item into a bag). Nick - "I dunno, There are a lot of other people selling the same thing I need to look around more and think about it some more." As I start to turn to walk away The price drops to $20 and then $15, the farther I get the more it drops. More than once the price has gone to $1 above what I am asking and they say "only one dollar, you can do". I hate that, it usually makes me feel cheap and then I don't want to buy from them anymore. By the time I walk far enough to reach Judy they yell back, "OK, OK, for you very special good price, $10!" Sold. The vendor is still smiling and so am I. Sometimes after walking away with our newely purchased goods we have gone back and given them the $1. It means a lot to them a little to us and makes them extremely happy when we do this. Judy's version of haggling is much simpler, it goes like this Vendor - "$20", Judy - "$18", Vendor - "Sold!". "DOH!" - That's me standing behind Judy cringing. The vendor is so excited they throw in some free stuff. With some practice she has gotten much better we've even done a little good cop, bad cop with our bargaining. Loads of fun. I thuroughly enjoy the bargaining even though sometimes they don't. Hate the game not the player. I think the markets are one of the things I have enjoyed about just about every country we have visited. Even when you don't purchase anything they are a ton of fun to just look and window show and people watch and see how the locals do things. The food areas are fun too as you can buy local foods or just see what they eat, butcher, keep alive and sell. After much haggling we walked away with a bunch of items that will hopefully survive the rest of our travels thru the region. After a few hours of this we hailed another tuk tuk, there is no shortage of these and it only takes a second to find one, and headed down to the waterfront. Hugging the river, can't remember the name at the moment, there are a ton of shops and restaurants and stores. We stopped to eat at Happy Pizza (it was indeed happy). There were little kids running around selling stuff like books (photocopied of course) and bracelets. Some of the way tooo young (like 6 or 7). One little brat told me to F* off when I would not buy from him (I wonder if he kisses Budda with that mouth). We did buy a couple of books about Pol Pot and the Khamer Rogue from a little girl who we found out was in school only after we quizzed her endlessly about what she learns and likes most about school. From there we wandered up and down the strip just looking at stuff, turning down tuk tuk drivers and basking in the local life. Massage parlors abound with rates of $6 for 60 minutes for all types of massages (Ted, we need to talk about your rates :). Judy and I have partaken in a few massages since we arrived in SE Asia and plan to have many more before we leave. We had lots of conversations with local people about everything from the upcoming Independence Day which includes dragon boat racess and policitics, especially Obama. It's had not to ovoid the Obama conversation as they bring it up often although that has died down now. The people here are super friendly and always smiling! Obviously not everyone but the majority are an absolute pleasure to deal with and when you say no thank you they rarely haggle you or bother you and they usually say thank you and let you go on your way. Judy and I both have veen very impressed and have thuroughly enjoyed the poisitiveness and happiness of the cambodian people. After a few hours and a couple of meals we get another tuk tuk and head back to the hotel. Price for carting us around never exceeds $3. Super cheap, we are almost in awe after wandering thru Europe using the Euro where things were not cheap. For example, beer in Europe 6 Euro (about $10), beer in SE Asia on average is $1. Cambodia uses the Dollar and the Real, Thailand uses the Bhat and Vietnam the Dong. Exchange for all three countries is about 33000 per dollar. We walk around with millions in our pockets. It feels good being a millionaire. BTW the food here is SOOO FREAKING GOOD! I want to eat and eat and eat and eat. We got back to our hotel which is nice, eat once more and head to bed. The next day we have a tour of the Royal palace, some wats (temples) and the Killing fields and museum.

Son of a...

I spent the last hour trying to post pics. I'm really excited to share and some of you have rightfully commented on my lack of pics. Alas my efforts have failed and all of my uploading just failed with a recent power outage. Internet connections here are so slooooooooooooooow. Grrrrrrr. Very frustrating. I am going to wait until we get to NZ and 'should' be able to post by the end of the month. Hopefully I can take hostage the PC of one of Judy's firneds whose house we will be staying at. Then I can let it chug away (I was trying to post about 300 of close to 1400 taken) and FINALLY share some photos for you. Sorry. It is what it is. Eventually it will happen. Cambodia rocks. Stories later. Food now.

I love SE Asia

This is the coolest happiest place in the world! We are in Phnom Penh now. We had the day to wander around twon and the markets. We got carted around in tuk-tuk's as I screamed ditty mao! and waved dollar bills at our drivers. They love Americans like me. Tomorrow we visit some pagodas and the killings fields. It will be depressing. I don't have time now so will blog on it later. I brought the camera to upload pics but this PC has no USB slot. Shoot. Will get pics soon. Promise. Obama won. Nice. People around us are very excited. Every time we identify ourselves as Americans people get excited and this topic comes up. It feels good that people are happy for us. I guess I can take off these Canadian patches now. :)

Vietnam continued

Sooo....let's see...after our quick tour of Hanoi we jumped on a train that left for Lou Cai at about 9pm. The train was supposed to arrive at 5:15am. After a fitful night of sleep in a bed not fit for a big man like me (still enjoying that :) I realized we were stopped in the same place for an extended period of time. Around 9am our guide came to our car and knocked on our door and turns out that there was a mud slide that blocked the train tracks due to the extraordinary amount of rain they have been receiving. Most people make the most of the extra time and buy chickens and beer form the locals knocking on the cab windows and have a 'party' in their cab. Long story short about 100 card games and a couple chess games later we were on our way again. BTW, teaching Judy how to play chess with my portable set, she is but a grasshopper. We finally arrived at Lou Cai about 2:30 PM. Longer than I would have preferred on the train. At this point we have traveled for extended hours by plane, train, car, boat, etc... Anyway, we then connected with our driver and headed on to Sapa. A mountain town in the North of Vietnam "1 mile high" as Duong (our guide) would say. We spent the next two days wandering around town and the local hillside villages. It was super foggy and you could not see more than 30 meters in front of you (I'm speaking in meters and celcius now). Half creepy, half cool. Felt kinda like a horror movie, American Warewolf in London stylee. Judy and I wandered around the town and the market....we make a point of visiting the markets of every city we visit when we can. They say a lot about the lifestyles of the locals. Nothing like seeing skinned animals hanging from hooks to give you a feel for the local life. OOOH, and speaking of markets...I like to 'adventure' with local cuisines (still have not had dog yet...that I know of...). When in Rome, right? I found solkworm grubs (imagine maggots but biggger and fatter) and they were alive! I stared and contemplated the joy of ingesting and subsequently regurgitating them up, nothing like staring at a pulsating mass of overgrown maggots to stir the appetite, when I was informed that I had to fry them first. Damn. Maybe next time. Anway we spent the next day visiting different towns of tribes that live in the hills including the Hmong (pronounced Mong) and Dao (pronounced Zao). It was actually really interesting seeing how they lived off the land, made their own food and clothes and pestered tourists to "buy from me?", "I have baby, you buy form me?" Of course ignoring the fact that I point out that they all have babies. They were all actually very nice but used car salesmen have NOTHING on these people. When we arrived in one of the Dao villages about 16 women surounded our car. It was a little intimidating, even a little flattering at first but actually they were all very nice. Asking our age (a polite question, right), where we were from, our names, how many children we had, etc. They learned their English from tourists (better than TV, right?) They followed us thru the village expecting us to eventually buy from them. They have nothing, we are rich Americans, etc... If only they knew. We visited a local house and I sat by the fire and drank rice wine brewed locally (rice version of moonshine basically) by the fire (inside the house in the ground like a campfire) with our guide while Judy negotiated with the hoards. She appreciated that. I kept telling her it was good negotiation practice. Just walk away and the price will drop in half I tell her. She feels bad. Needs more negotiating practice. It was a good expereince. Some of the women have gold teeth which is a sign of wealth for the family. Back home we call them 'grills'. I pointed out that they had no words like pimp and Gangsta written in the gold. I think I got one or two of them complataing this. I feel sorry for the next tourist that meets a Hmong with 'Rice' or 'player' carved into their 'grill'. Good times. I think you can describe it two ways...1) We trekked thru the mountains of remote Norther Vietnam and visited the local indigenous people. Like traveling back in time 1000 years, these brave people live off the land making use of everything nature has to offer. Their humble homes and friendly peaceful ways make you feel as if you are but only a step away form your ancestrial roots. You can almost imagine guiding the water buffalo thru the fields cultivating this years rice harvest that will bring your family and tribe much honor. Version 2) It's still freaking raining here? Does it ever stop? Drug out of our warm and DRY hotel we one again walked ankle deep thru mud into a remote busted down dilapitated village of people who live off the land so well then they 'woo' you to give them all your cash or they'll cast a voodoo spell on you while smiling a big gold smile on their faces. Live off the land huh? What the heck do you need my money for? Do you see any gold in my teeth?? They just smile more. WTF, is that cow sh*t I just sepped in? It's knee deep! Seriously, what is able to create such a thing? And what the hell is that smell? Is that me? Watch out! Another moped has just flown by almost knocking me over, beep beep beep, and drenched me in more filthy poo\mud water. Gross, I think I got some in my mouth. Will we ever make it out of this place? OMG are those spiders? They hurt when they bite? No kidding, they are as big as my freaking head! OK, that chicken is eyeing me funny, that's it I'm out of here. Seriously it was a good experience. I am glad we did it. So after that we took the train ride back, this time uneventful and arrived back in Hanoi and jumped on a plane early and headed to Phnom Penh. A couple other things. Lots of people wear masks. When I first saw I think SARS in a ignorant mass media educated sort of way. Turns our people wear these because of pollution. Most people ride mopeds or motorcycles and theses spew exhause and not having a car to protect, makes sense. Who wouldda thunk it. Also, exercise to them is a 'brisk walk' in the AM or as we call it...'walking'. They also wave their arms up and down to stretch. I tought Duon how to do situps. He was amazed we could do such a thing. I feel very oblivious to the world outside my bubble after this conversation with him. Also Vietnamese is a tough language for me. I want to make a joke. The Vietnamese currency is call the dong (hee hee). So anyway I want to tell Duong he is Money. Very smart guys, deserves a compliment I think. So I say U R Dong Duong". Very Semi-super Genius (good in theory, horribe in practice). Judy is rolling and Duong is looking at me like I am in idiot. Ironically they are both right.

They call me a big man here

I like. Back home they just call me huge. :). We have a picture of me standing around a bunch of Hamong (local tribal people in the North) women who were walking with us. They don't even come to my shoulders. I look like a giant. Good times.

Try again

I was a little discombobulated last night when I posted. A Thai massage ($15 for 60 min) and some food and sleep later, here I go again. First I would like to say Go Obama! Not because he is a Democrat, I typically vote on the candidate not the party but because he, to me, represents the most change which I think our country needs. Judy and I get a lot of questions about the election. It has been our experience that in all the countries we have been to and the people we have interacted with, Obama is the favorite. We've seen posters, art, graffitti, etc...for the lection. It's interesting seeing so much about it away from home and not just on the news.
Soo...let's go back to Signapore. The airport was incredible. Very nice and modern, very comfortable with couches and a huge pond and orchid garden in the middle. I was really impressed. I would like to visit Singapore sometime...maybe another trip. Judy and I had a 2hr layover there before we headed to Bagkok for another layover. It was tough staying awake (needed to to fight jet lag) in such a comfortable airport. We arrived in Bangkok after a short flight and it is a very moderns airport as well. Built in 2004 I believe. All steel and glass. Very cold. The center is full of fancy shops. Judy and I could not sleep yet so we wandered up and down the main terminal (it is huge) window shopping just trying to keep moving so we could stay awake. I felt like night of the living dead. A zombie wandering around, indoors, under the floursecent lights completely dead in the brain (mmmm braiiiins). I had been up more than 24 hrs at this point. We got foot and shoulder massages at the airport, very cheap and refreshing. This brought some of the life back to us. After a long layover we headed to Hanoi. We got there around 9pm, met our driver and headed straight to our hotel. Judy and I were so tired we ate some food and went righ to sleep. A comfortable king sized bed it was the best I have slept this entire trip (We've stayed in some pretty shabby places). Very much needed. The next AM we headed to Ha Long bay for an overnight on a Junk Boat. Hanoi was flooded in many places. Streets were closed or impassable. People were ferrying others around in boats in the middle of the city. I got a kick out of watching people fish in the streets! Since fish ponds and rivers had overflowed into the city fish had swum into the streets and people were fishing. It would be like watching people fish on 16th street mall. Some people died due to the floods. Very sad. We have a guide that is with us while we are in Vietnam. He is educated as an Economist but went into the tourism industry and really enjoys it. It is us and him and a driver. His name is Duong. He has relatives in Denver and calls it the '1 Mile High City'. Too funny. TONS of motorbikes and few cars in the city. I touched on the traffic laws earlier. There are few traffic lights so you just see people drive in all directions on all parts of the road. It looks very chotic but I think they have it all figured out. I feel like frogger when I cross the street. Good thing I have years of practice on that game as a kid. It is also entertaining seeing so many people on one bike or carring animals with them. Duong is very informative, we've been learning a lot about Vietnamese history. Interesting that they are still communist. I did not know this. I think about and we talk about the Vietnam war the U.S. was involved in. I have relatives that were inVietnam. My Uncle Steve was a helicoptor pilot. I think he even got shot down once. I am glad he made it out alive. I've only heard stories from my Mom I would like to talk to him more about it someday if he is willing. I keep imagining the battles and them and us moving thru the jungle. The war is actually very fresh in the locals memory. Reading the paper they still talk about it. There was a short story article I read that talked about the bravery and fighting the U.S. marines. A little propaganda piece. Also articles with people who were in the war talking about their experience. It was strange seeing these things when we don't hear about it much at home. Especially not in mass media. It is still very fresh in the minds of the people here. I did not expect that. So we arrived in Ha Long bay to stay overnight on a Junker. A Junk boat is just a wooden boat, the Chinese called them this because tehy could ferry tons of people back and forth, somehow this gained the tearm 'junk'. Gof figure. There were 11 people on our boat. Plenty of room. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site (one of many we have visted so far). Limestone peaks jut out of the water everywhere (almost 2000 total). Very beautiful! The weather was perfect, overcast but warm and not raining. The food on our boat was outstanding. Actually all the food in Vietnam so far has been excellent. We ate crab and shrimp and fish. Good stuff. Our 'host' on the boat was Thi (pronounced Tay), he was always smiling. Very funny guy. Spoke pretty good English. I find we talk broken English as we travel so our English has gotten much worse and we recognize that when Judy and I start talking to each other. You can probably tell from my blogs :). It's different with Duong. He English is broken but he understands big words better when you use them. Words like Opulent or dilapitated or conundrum or philadendrum he understands with no problem. He struggles when we use little words or dumb down our talk. He is re-teaching us how to speak English. We've been talking to and hearing broken English for a long time now. Where was I.....oh yes, Ha Long Bay. We did some kayaking into some caves, swam and basically cruised around for a day. Good times. The next day Duong and the driver picked up back up and we haded back to Hanoi. We went to the Temple of Literature where Confuscious taught back during Chinese rule. Basically a buch of tests and then you become a doctor. That's the 'nut shell' explanation. We also saw Ho chi Minh's moseleum. He is still very revered here. I could write a ton about the histry and who and why and why they are where theya re now but I don't have time. Sorry. Google it :). We also saw a watter puppet show before we headed to an overnigh train to Sapa. Judy just tapped on the window so I have to go to breakfast now. There was adventure on the train and after we got to Sapa and I will blog on that later. We get back on the train tonight and tomorrow morning fly to Cambodia. We have more free time when we get there so I should be able to post again and totally catch up. Also I will try hard to post pictures. I have been slacking big time on those and I have got some really good ones.

Vietnam, first impressions

We arrived in Hanoi after a long day of travel with layovers in Singapore and Bangkok. BTW, you have not flown until youhave flow Singapore airlines. Free drinks, hot towls, leg room, free movies. Not very smart but I choose not to sleep and watch lit sof movies. I don't sleep well on planes anyway. We arrived in Hanoi and aparently they have had the most rain over the previous three ays than they had had in 3 years. Tons of flooding everywhere, made things a little difficult for us. Luckily we brought good weather and continue to do so. We arrived at our hotel late at night and went to bed right away. The next morning, early, we met our driver and guide and took off for Ha Long Bay for an overnight on a junk boat (more on that later, almost out of time.) Motorcycles EVERYWHERE but that is not the best part. The best is that they have 1, 2, 3, 4, sometimes FIVE people on them! Adults, babies all on a moped or motorcycle. Not only that but they tie goats, buffalo, yes buffalo and all their luggage to the bike and then there are 500 of them heading in all directions, no traffic signals. The rules are good two. If you are in a car and hit a bike. Car is responsible no matter who's fault it is. If a vehicle hits a pedestrian, vehicles fault no matter who is really at fault (as we would think of it). Basically thef ood chain goes, Pedestrian at the top, then bike, then motorcycle then car. So as a car driver, watch out, you don't want to hit anything or anyone. And the courts let the familys settle. I want to say more but am late for a massage. Will post again later and elaborate and talk about the last fews days.

oi....so much to say

Soooo....let's see, whered did we leave off. Oh yes, Athens. So when we got back from the islands (back to Athens) we decided to take a 4 day tour to Olympia, Macedonia, Delphi and Meteora. Our first guide was a total biotch and then she got sick and left us so that was good. The second one was nice. The driver was CRAZY. The first day Juday and I sat up front to check things out. After thatwe say further behind because we didnot want to see our impending deaths. Better to be ignorant and get wiped out without knowing. Luckily we made it out alive. There is tons I want to say about these places but it's been a while and so much more has happened I will only skim over. Olympia was pretty sweet, original site of the Olympic games. Judy ran the track (first games were foot races only), I had flops on and obstained. The ruins were pretty incredible as well. Personally I liked meteora the best. Monistaries perched atop high rocks with cliffs all around. Very beautiful. Amazing people could build structures up there especially back in the day (thousands of years ago back in the day). Ummm...that's all I want to say about Greece right now. Athens was a lot of fun. Food was great. Greeks are not very hospitable. Glad I went, don't need to go back. I'll probably think of more to post later about it, we'll see if I find time.