Sawadee! Kah-boon-kahp (Hello, thank you)

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Sorry people but its been a frantic couple weeks of relaxing on the beach, getting cheap massages, and crossing international borders. I know its been over two weeks, but we've been busy bronzing and exploring tropical islands via motorbike, taking six hour bus rides etc...

Right now, we're in Cambodia, in the beach town of Sihanoukville, so I'll give you a stripped down play by play of how we got to this point.

We finished up New Zealand with two days in Auckland on the North Island. Meg's birthday happen to land on our full day there, so I surprised her with a little sunset dinner cruise on a 46 foot sailboat around the harbor. I know- I'm good. But our stay in NZ had to go out with a bang, so Meg convinced me to get strapped into the "chair of death" bungy located smack in the middle of the city centre. The one that shoots two careless souls skyward and slingshots them toward the pavement at twice the speed of the launch. And then momentum takes over and jolts you back up and down until your bones rattle out of your skin another half dozen times. Fun. For some reason I was expecting a county fair quality ride. What I got was the shock of my life. I'm quite sure half of downtown Auckland heard "Holy Sh#&%@!" screamed from the top of this petrified American's lungs. With our appetite for adrenaline satisfied, it was time to slow things down a notch with a nice sail around the harbor. Score one for perfect weather and a perfect sunset. A perfect end to the beginning of the journey. Next stop Bangkok.

Walking out of the Bangkok airport was a surreal experience in itself. Breaching the threshold of the glass slider doors, a bombardment of new sensations wash over me like a raging torrent of sensory excitement. First the smell. Like a bottle of noxious exhaust from an engine fueled by Mexican food, opened inside my olfactory receptor, the smell is something that could disrupt a California smog check machine a mile away. Then the heat. The moisture envelops your skin like a swarm of hungry ants on a piece of meat, compounded by the fierce equatorial battery from the scorching sun. And the sights. My eyelids were on overdrive as our nascar-reject taxi driver maneuvered our way to Khoa San Road, some forty minutes away. Decrepit and faded billboards dot the highway as if they were monuments to a once prosperous era, immortalized by the steadfast immunity of paint and steel. A plume of black smoke billows on the horizon, incinerating some unknown combustible- hopefully non-toxic. A family of three hold on to a motorbike like a cowboy trying to tame an out of control bronco, as the driver- grandma- narrowly avoids disaster between a semi and a bus. Finally we arrive at Khao San Road, the main traveler area in Bangkok, where street stalls compete for every inch of roadside and where the hot products on the market range from chocolate covered crickets to knock off Gucci handbags. Don't tell Meg its a fake! You know how she is about her designer labels hahaha. We lined up a bus ride to Koh Chang for the morning, so Meg came up with the brilliant idea to get a massage. A real massage. A Thai massage. These women don't mess around! A ninety pound Thai woman man handled me like a wrestler, climbing around, lodging knees into my back for leverage, putting me into holds that Hulk Hogan would appreciate. Feeling loose, the night ended with a dessert from a street cart- a banana "pancake"- or banana wrapped in a crepe and pan fried in a wok. Yum. Next stop Koh Chang.

A six hour bus ride and a short ferry ride brought us to the island of Koh Chang. The ferry was third class all the way, holding more cars than people and some passengers choosing to sit in the beds of their pickup trucks. A truck taxi brought us to our destination, the Kae Bae Hut on Kae Bae Beach. It happened to be New Years Eve, so fireworks and loud music were plentiful, but after that, it was nice and mellow. This is what we were waiting for. A bungalow twenty steps from the beach, complete with western exposure for perfect views of those Southeast Asia sunsets. Not too shabby for $12 a night including buffet breakfast, which is the most we've paid so far.
We seemed to get lost in the in the slow paced laziness of the beach days, which was somewhat needed after twenty days on the road in a camper van in New Zealand. Warm blue-green water, white sand beaches and palm trees were the name of our game in Koh Chang. We liked it so much, we extended our stay by three days. We rented a motor bike and explored the island via the one road that circumnavigates it. More left side driving tested my undeniable scooter skills; Meg was impressed at least. One night we discovered a restaurant right off the lively main road with a boisterous character advertising bbq red snapper for 100 Baht, or about $3. We had to try it. Great choice. The whole fish was bbq'd- skin and all. It was so good, we made friends with the guy selling them and came back the next night and doubled our order. One whole fish each. Thank you Peggy! (yes, we met a man named Peggy). Ahh the mysteries of travel. A kayak and snorkel adventure the next day... The usual. I could get used to this. Next stop, our first night in Cambodia, a night we'll never forget.

We knew something was fishy right off the bat when we booked our bus to Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The trip included a nights stop in Koh Kong, Cambodia, a border town from hell. We crossed the border into Cambo and we were bombarded with snaky locals offering visas and rides and anything else to earn a quick buck. We didn't give in. Stick to the plan. Get the visa stamp and go. We partnered up with a German fella named Marco who has been traveling for two years. A hardened veteran on the squad never hurts. After the immigration/visa business was taken care of, we soon realized that our promised air conditioned mini bus had turned into a beat up Toyota Camry. Wearily, we headed to our stop, where we would unknowingly endure a nightmare of an evening. We got to our accommodation, of which I forget the name because my brain tends to enact selective memory retention, blocking out traumatic events. We got into our room and everything seemed okay, so we headed out to see the market in town. This place was like nothing we've ever seen. Koh Chang has a hint of Americanization, but this place was another world. We were getting stared at on another level. These people were like children at a zoo, and we were the animals. But, it was great. I never felt threatened, they were just curious, and rightfully so. We grabbed a bite and after talking with our pal Marco for a while about scuba diving, we retired for the evening- or so we thought. Upon laying down for bed, we noticed a couple of bugs at first. No big deal. Then a couple bigger bugs come into the scene- on our bed. Okay, we'll just flick them away. Haha. Not gonna happen. We tried to ignore the tick looking creatures crawling on our bodies, but at a certain point, we lost it. Turning on the light revealed dozens of these red creepy crawlies that looked like double sized ticks everywhere. On the bed, in the blanket, in the damn pillowcases for crying out loud! This was ridiculous. I can deal with a bug or two, but this was a disgusting infestation of potentially dangerous critters. Finally at midnight, I stormed out of there and tried to find the manager guy. He was sleeping by the front desk on the pool table and I scared him when I woke him up. He ran away at first, not recognizing me, but he eventually came back. He said there were no other rooms available. We showed him the room and he felt sorry for us. He walked us across the street to a guest house owned by a jolly Scottish fella and hooked us up with a clean room for the night. Disaster recovered. Sleep. No bugs. But I can still feel the things crawling on my face to this second.

8 a.m. couldn't come fast enough. We caught the bus to Sihanoukville, a nice Cambodian beach side town with warm water and unbeatable prices. Cambodia is cheap cheap cheap! So far so good here. Next on the agenda is the capital city of Phnom Penh, on the way to the famous temples of Angkor Wat. Can't wait for that!

Oh-khun (thank you in Cambodian)

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Comments

[Shannabelle]

WOW
What an amazing trip, you two are truely blessed! Great pictures by the way thanks so much for sharing. I am traveling to Viet Nam and can only hope to see such beautiful scenery.

[Karl]

hahaha that was fabulous! hahah meg is totally going to see that the stitching is not right on that designer bag! You know she's a connoisseur when it comes to that! hehh.. o and meg.. now i reallly know what you were talking about..."You ain't gonna get anything out of us Riley's" ---nicely done with that fish! hahhahha I am dying! Jake- we will all forgive you for slacking for 2 weeks, but dont let it happen again! ahhaha oxoxoxoxoxx --karl :)