http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jodi-and-Dan--Asian-Trip-of-a-Lifetime/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jodi and Dan Asian Trip of a Lifetime en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:51:56 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:51:56 +0000 How many movies can you watch during a 28 hour travel dayJodi writing.........Dan and I arrived home late Saturday night. We arrived at Pearson airport much to our embarassment sporting flips flops and shorts well only Dan was foolish enough to wear shorts. The truth is you are not really keen to pack warm November wear in mid July...so there we were. It was really cold. Our first stop inside http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Ottawa/blog-341223.html Laos slow boat and sore bumsdan writing....so we have just returned into Thailand. Laos was a great experience and an eye opener for sure. If anyone ever asks you to take a slow boat down the Mekong River just say....I'm taking the busWe endured our 16 hour boat ride over two days and decided boat trips with wooden benches are not for us. Call us picky or whatever but you have to draw some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-337859.html Our hospital tour of Northern Thailand continues....October 10 We have been in Chiang Rai for several days now and I am ashamed to say that I dont have many pictures to show for them. We seem to have caught some strange bug perhaps while crossing swollen rivers filled with runoff read waste waist deep Today we finally got ourselves to the hospital for some blood testing. We are really gett http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Rai/blog-332922.html Pai and Treking to see Karen and Lahu villagesDan's entry......So we boarded our minivan packed to the hilts 11 in total for our 3 hour drive to Pai. This drive is different from any other in that it encompasses half of the 1800 turns from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son. Our total distance was only 140 kms but our ribs and necks felt like 300 all the jossling really gets to you after a while. I w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Pai/blog-331337.html So nice to have the trains running again After an eventful flight from Singapore to Bangkok on September 26 I always classify having to adjust your flight path due to lightning as eventful lightning is not beautiful at 30000 ft we arrived in Bangkok. After spending the night Dan and I made our way to the train station to buy 2nd class sleeper tickets for the 13 hour ride to Chiang Mai.We l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-328919.html Malaysia and Singapore....the two most built up countries in Southeast AsiaWell we arrived in Malacca not quite too sure of our plans from then on. This was the beginning of something special and expensive relative to our budget. Jodi and I arrived wondering where we were going to stay as usual but ended up staying at the nicest place to date. We decided to treat ourselves to the Hotel Puri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Melaka/Melaka-City/blog-328893.html The Lonely Planet describes Taman Negara National Park as a buzzing leech infested mass of primary forest and though we avoided leeches due to the dry weather the forest is definitely buzzing The park is virgin primary rainforest which is over 130 million years old and in the more remote parts of the park are Malay tigers Asian elephants and Sun bears. We stayed in a nice hostel here calle http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Taman-Negara-National-Park/blog-325831.html After taking a night bus from Kuala Lumpur and a fast boat from Kuala Besut we arrived in the Perhentian Islands on September 15. We spent 3 nights on the Perhentian island of Kecil. The Perhentian islands are a national park off the eastern coast of Malaysia the beaches were beautiful the sun was relentless and the water was crystal clear. Dan and I went snorkelling and saw amazing sea tu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-325827.html Kuala Lumpur....I needed thisSo now that we have arrived in Kuala Lumpur I can definitely tell you that this is the cleanest city thus far. The people in Malaysia are very friendly apparently forthcoming and helpful. Jodi and I have needed a little rest and relaxation in a nice room so we have stayed the last couple of nights in a place called the Swiss Inn. It has a comfy bed our own bathro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-323294.html We did manage to arrive in Penang Malaysia in one day from Koh Samui but the journey had us in absolute stitches 20 hours after venturing out.We left our hotel at 610 in the morning and managed to flag down a minivan to the bus station on Koh Samui. We were able to quickly buy a bus ticket on a government bus to Hat Yai in the very south of Thailand which included our ferry ticket to Donsak. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Cameron-Highlands/blog-321909.html Sorry about the time....As you may be aware it has been a while since we last published a post. We have been busy doing some travelling and finding the time to post has been hard. So here is what we have done over the past 12 or so days.....We crossed the border of Cambodia the day the protests trying to force the prime minister of Thailand to quit started. We arrived in Bangkok in search of our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-320761.html All templed outWell we arrived in Siem reap on schedule from Phnom Penh and set forth looking for our next adventure. Siem Reap is a built up tourist destination as everyone who visits Cambodia is here for Angkor Wat and the amazing temples located just outside Siem Reap. Needless to say you can get whatever you want here. There is a ton of people tourists around doing the exact same thing a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-315957.html Where are weSo here we were about to depart Saigon and all I Dan could think is....what is Cambodia going to be likeTo be honest.....It's great. The people are very friendly the Khmer food has been excellent and the weather was better. It was a bit of a weird border crossing as we had to pay a bribe of 1 as we both were not in possesion of our International Travellers Vacination certificat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-315828.html Time to buy an umbrellaWe spent just over two days here and it rained for about 75 of the time. The sky would just open up and let everyone have it Flooded streets everywhere and horrible smells wafting through the air. We still enjoyed our time here in Saigon. We visited the war museum previously called Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes Reunification Palace and the legendary market http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-313447.html On a bike for 4 dayssore bumWell we decided to hire a couple drivers from easy rider bike tours we weren't really sure what to expect or how we would like it. We enjoyed it very much. The trip gets you to places that you would not see at the usual bus stops and tourists hubs. We got to see how the local agriculture works village workshops in action and coffee everywhereWe started out from D http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Central-Highlands/Da-Lat/blog-313074.html Not sweating for oncewe arrived in Dalat after a long pain in the a bus ride from Nha Trang. The open bus tour is a real scam at least to us. It took seven hours to drive around 215 kms and stopped numerous times to get our money at obvious cash sharing places. We did the thing we always do and gave them nothing out of spightWe arrived in Dalat to a great change of pace and temperature. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Central-Highlands/Da-Lat/blog-311254.html Beach Bums EverywhereDan and I spent 2 full days in Nha Trang. We spent the whole first day at the beach it was beautiful. We hummed and complained about having to spend 25000 VND to rent beach chairs under umbrellas...but then when we checked ourselves and realized that this was only 1.50 we gave in. The South China sea was so warm and the weather was perfect The second day in Nha Trang we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-311246.html Today we are finally writing in real time August 8 instead of trying to catch up. We have been having quite a few problems accessing this blog site and internet sites in general.... which is why we always publish several blogs at once.After Quang Ngai we spent two days in Quy Nhon. There is a nice beach there but it was pretty rainy while we were there. We did not really do much. We ate some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-309680.html Remembering My LaiIt took some real determination on our part but Dan and I finally made it to the memorial at Son My. We took the train to Quang Ngai and stayed overnight and then drove out to the memorial site with two other travellers from Belgium. There really are not many tourists here Son My is the only reason anyone stops and it seems that few do. Only 4 of us got off the train in Quang http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/blog-309670.html Have you ever been to DisneyworldIts a small world you know the exhibit I am talking about. I felt like we were in it. Hoi An is a top tourist destination in Vietnam. It used to be an important seaport for trading. It is now famous for some very well preserved traditional houses and buildings in the centre as well as tailors where you can have clothes made overnight for very cheap. It is a tou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-308857.html