At Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ

At Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ

Quote from Into the Wild

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Bangkok, Thailand- slideshow


Sukhothai, Thailand- 3 days, well make that 4

Sukhothai, Thailand

Our new friends Ben and Denaree suggested we head to Sukhothai and that's just what we did.
It was worth the stop.  We've loved it here, actually ended up staying 2 extra days and taking some down time to read, visit some school children, soak up some rays at the pool, eat, and enjoy hot showers.

Sukhothai was the 2nd capital city after Ayutthaya.  The historic park and temples just topped anything we've seen thus far.  Wowwww!  Hard to imagine what these would have looked like fully constructed and in their glory days.

Tops for us:
• The absolutely amazing historical park and temple grounds. Must see (check out the slideshow also)


Historical Park- Buddhism and Hinduism monuments in Sukhothai Ancient City.  Indicates the flourish of this city between the 13th and 16th century A.D.
 • Our guest house: “4T Guest House”, had everything we wanted and only 400 baht per night (about $13.50), we stayed an extra 2 days just for this and to catch up on reading and some sun and to just pause the "travel button".

4T Guest House in Sukhothai, Thailand, we loved it here

BIG FUN: and NOT on the map or planned, but this was a real joyous morning.  While out on a morning run, we saw some school children in uniforms all funnelling down a street.  We followed along just to see and found their school.  We headed back, took showers and had breakfast, then ventured over to see if we could learn a little more about their days at school.  Translation was a bit tough, but meeting the children, playing ping pong, some type of jump rope and going into their classrooms for a bit was a real trip.  One class even sounded off together how beautiful Christina was. (and I didn't even set them up or have to pay for that, haahahah)
They also said hello to my nieces Grace and Abbie on video. They'll love that.   Really just a fun day.  It is important to us to look for these type opportunities and be open to getting off the "tourist route", this was a great example for us to remember.  We wanted the trip to not just be a site-seeing tour, we're doing it backpack style so we can try to gain experiences.  Hard to believe but the backpacker circuit is very clearly defined, you can easily find and follow others doing the exact same things and clearly see the tourist trail here.  Although we've not met one person from the USA yet, there are thousands from all over the world doing as we are.

Christina with a gaggle of school children that wanted their pic taken with the "pretty foreigner".
.

Bangkok ending and favorites

T&C’s Bangkok, Thailand, Favs and update…

We enjoyed Bangkok immensely. If you’ve seen the movie “The Beach” with Leo Dicaprio, I’d say the first part of the movie captured Bangkok pretty well. Lots of people, crowded, kind of dirty but great “public places”, chaotic, bustling with absolutely everything here you could ever want, and I mean everything. If you want to shop till you drop or party your face off and meet people from all over the world, Bangkok is the place. Shop shop shop, eat eat eat, party party party, temple temple temple = Bangkok in a nutshell (4 days gets it done and we’d highly recommend to anyone). We stayed 4 days ourselves and the total cost was around $350, including buying a new phone, some silk bed sleeping liners, all food (bfast, lunch and dinner), lodging, activities, tuk tuk/cabs, several massages and many many beers/drinks.

A big misconception we had was the safety factor. It was very easy in Bangkok, everything you need is available right at your fingertips…almost too convenient. It was much easier getting around Bangkok than LA. Nobody was “pushy” and outside of just being aware of yourself and wallet, it’s not unsafe in any way at all. No different than just watching out for yourself as though you were walking Michigan Ave. in Chicago. I’d easily take my mom here and feel at ease.

Todd’s tops

• 1 hour warm oil massage - $6 (by far, best massage ever had)
• 1 hour foot and leg massage on the street (while drinking beer) $5
• Spicy Papaya Salad and sticky rice to dip (nose runny goodness)
• Public Park not too far from Grand Palace that we ran across while on morning runs (beautiful,         people doing thai chi, free weights, exercise areas, ponds, lush trees, great track running)
• Reclining Gold Buddha Temple (3 story tall, 100 yards long, golden Buddha- astonishing)-pics coming
• Bonus- Fake Ray Ban Sunglasses- $5
• Never ending supply of fresh cut cold fruit servings- $.30 cents

Not so favorites: The distinct smell of urine on some of the public walkways (9,000,000 people and yes, some of them are homeless), cold showers, and if you can’t stand crowds and intense traffic- this would be rough to overcome here.

Christina’s tops

• Tom Yum Kung Soup (aka-Spicy Shrimp Soup)—damn hot
• Sharing time with Ben and Denaree, our new couchsurfing friends.
• Funky pants purchase from street vendor- $8 and super comfortable
• Reclining Gold Buddha also
• Mother Earth- Wat/Temple (wringing water from her hair, fountain)
• Fried rice and vegetables for breakfast (3 mornings), add some thai chili soy sauce and bammmmmm----goood.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Just a trial run on uploading some videos.  I'm no Dan Rather, so bear with.


Start Heading North...

Big Ol Buddha (maybe 10 stories tall)


Left Bangkok this morning working our way North eventually to the Thailand/Laos border and hill tribe communities and mountain/jungles.  Bangkok is fantastic, highly recommend, but just not too many days.  If you wanted to party your face off, you could get it done in Bangkok lets just say.

Highlights today---3rd class bus ride to next town Ayuthaya...(we were concerned at first but about 1.5 hrs- not bad at all really, fun countryside views) cost a whole $1.25 total (included both of us).  We grabbed a tuk tuk right out of the train station, paid him $15 bucks total- he took us to our hotel, we dropped off our gear and off exploring we went all day.  Our tuk tuk driver took us all over this city for about 4 hrs, acting as a chaufer/tour guide a bit, good deal for us and him.  Nice guy, just sight seeing, no shopping stops. 



  • We had lunch at just a really picturesque floating restaurant on the river here.
  • Christina and I got to feed and pet a Thai elephant (kind of like a wet vaccuum cleaner nosel)
  • Did some more temple touring (headsup, we gotta lot of Buddha pictures coming)
  • and then Christina got to pet and hold a baby tiger.
    • Baby Tiger probably the highlight of the day, the little guy was a bit pissed off though, they woke him up from sleeping so she could hold him, but he settled down after they crammed a bottle in his mouth.  Christina was in heaven rubbing its little belly.
Busy travel day, lots of moving from place to place and "travelling".  We've seen a lot of Buddhas thats for sure.  Looking forward to some mountain trekking.  Glad to get out of Bangkok also.  It was amazing but about 4 days is all you want of that place....sensory overload :)


We'll throw the pics up tonight from our first 5 days in a slideshow.  Christina is handling picture management operations for the team.

We'll throw up a quick blog on what rocked and didn't rock about Bangkok also.

Tonight is a chill/hotel night with A/C (yeahhh), hot water shower (yeahhh), free wi-fi, and king size soft bed (1 night price - $14).  Pretty Lavish place you could say.  Amazing how happy I can be just to get a hot water shower.

It does appear prices are getting lower as we move on from the big city, which is true but almost hard to believe.
 
T&C, chillin at breakfast 1st day in Bangkok

Up next

we head further north to city called Sukhothai (recommended by our friends Ben and Deneree), then contuing up to Chaing Mai, where we'll stay for about 6-7 days, of which we'll do a 3-4 day "trek" through hill tribe communities in the mountainside and jungles, camp in bungalows with a guide type tour, ride elephants, see waterfalls, rice fields, etc. etc.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

First Full day in Bangkok, Thailand-already spoiled

So it looks like I'm going to get really really spoiled

was an amazing first full day in Bangkok!

we had great breakfast, meet our couchsurfing friends (locals-Ben and Deneree) they bought us a lunch FIEST consisting of spicy mango salad, fried chicken, fish, super spicy spinach and beans (nose running goodness), sticky rice, and grande beers- gorged ourselves on amazing food. went to a fun park- took a walk, chatted. they are such good people and had so much to share. it was a great experience! we loved it. Ben is a structural engineer here and Deneree a teacher.  We really had a lot in common.

took a nap, went to hotel's rooftop pool,
had spicey fried rice and chicken for dinner, christina had pad thai--- all street food, about 8 large 20 oz beers (buhahah), and then each of us got an hour long foot and leg and back massage right there on the street while drinking.  There are literally 1000's of people doing exactly like us, so there are friendly people everywhere, all just chilling out.
total cost for evening- about $22 for dinner, both massages and many many large beers.

this morning, had fresh juice, big toast slices with jam and butter warmed over coals and thai chili fried rice w/ egg and vegatable for breakfast- total about $2.20 (and we both ate on that)
:)
we're in freakin heaven

we're headed to meet friends again today, going shopping for cheap sunglasses, cheap cell phone and to see the golden buddha as big as a house.

got Christinasized today..C made me get up and run (ughhhh)
... so we got our exercise on and ran through an amazing public park not too far away- it was very lush, and people were doing thai chi (Mr. Miaggi style) and running also and they had free blood pressure readings, weight benches, workout areas with machines, all free to public- great idea.
we also ran past the Grand Palace- wow! colorful- huge, probably 4 city blocks long in all directions- we'll snap some more pics of this.
-found our next guest house also this morning, moving day forus, going to stay here for 2 more days then head north to Chaing Mai.  room was $12 per night w/ AC for a double--heheheheheheh....lovin it.

mostly- I'm diggin the food, and low prices of everything, and how friendly everyone is, its been very very easy to navigate and get anything we need.

T&C

Friday, January 21, 2011

Tired Cheeks to Hong Kong, China

Hey All,
Greetings from Hong Kong :)

Mom just sent me a pic from back home, ugghhh.
looks cold in the Boro. looks like perfect weather to start that fire-place and read a good book.

We had a couple hours layover waiting to catch the flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok.

We just landed in hong kong airport, it is about 4pm your time on Thursday but it is actually 9pm on Friday here.
feel like I'm in an episode of "LOST".  Time warping and all.
funny to think you're still working on yesterday and we're almost finished with Friday.

the flight was AOK, pretty nice airline (Cathay Pacific), free food, free booze, snacks, drinks, little more leg room but not much, just a long time to pretty much sit on your butt, thus the tired cheeks.

each seat had its own monitor with 100's of movies and tv shows and games to choose and play.

flight from LA to Hong Kong was 15.5 hrs and we each probably spent 10 hrs watching movies to pass the time.  Had a little twerp kid sitting behind me kicking my chair and I had to open a small can of whoop-arse on him, but no real harm done.

been up for about 24 hrs now, trying to make ourselves super tired, so when we get to bangkok in 4 hrs we'll just crash to sleep and start really adjusting to their time.

had some typical pizza at the hong kong airport, other than things being written in chinese and english both, and a greater % of asian folks, you can't really tell the difference than a typical US airport (except the food stalls are different). But they did have a McD's also and Starbucks serving the same burgers and fries as always. Airport here is overpriced just like everywhere else...so some things don't change it appears.

Somebody make a good snowman or snowangels and send us the pic.

T&C

Monday, January 17, 2011

Off Off and Away...

Off to Bangkok, Thailand in 2 days.
Heading to LA tomorrow night.

Let the packing begin.  Hard to believe my life will consist of the stuff in this pic inside that pack for a year. Crazy.

Hopefully we'll be filling our lives with new experiences and friendships to last a lifetime.

So what am I packing? (Christina is packing pretty similar)
4 pair socks, 4 pair underwear, 2 tee shirts, 1 sweater, 2 button up shirts, 2 shorts, 1 pair jeans, few books, some bathroom supplies, a belt, a rain jacket & pants, tennis shoes, quick dry towel, buckwheat pillow, laptop, earbuds, passport, 1 credit card, 1 debit card, moneybelt, pair of slides (flipflops).

Total pack weight = about 40 lbs. , not that much really.


Todd's 90 Liter Osprey pack.  Yes it all fits actually. After arriving in Thailand, I still could have done with about 40% less than I brought. Hard to believe.

1/2 Marathon, Phoenix

OK, Mission Accomplished TEAM TACO!!!!
Team Taco was our self-adopted nick-name.
Ben and Krista (brother-in-law and sister), Christina and I, all drove up to Phoenix this Sunday to compete in the PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon and 1/2 Marathon.  The largest in the country, with slightly over 30,000 runners.  It was crazy looking at the sea of people.  It was so big we had to be sectiond off in 27 different corrals, each holding maybe 1000-1500 people.  The corrals were divided by your estimated time you would pace your miles at.  So we were nearer the end :) just to be safe.  It was perfect weather, 75 and sunny, but the morning was pretty chilly, low 40's, so we stopped the day before and got some sweet Salvation Army Clothing for cheap that we could just use to keep ourselves warm during the early stages and just ditch along the road when we didn't need them.  No worries, the clothes make their way to homeless folks or back to the Salvation Army (see pic 2 for my sweet afghan poncho and Ben's Hugh Heffneresk bath robe----classic!)
We opted for the 1/2 marathon not the full, a whopping 13.1 miles start to finish.  If you can run a marathon you are a stud in my mind-sheesh.  This was my first and the others 2nd 1/2 marathon.  We had a really great time.  We headed up a day early to do the pre-race check-in, get our bib numbers, our swag bags, and walk through the convention center full of all types of running companies and gear.  We snagged a great 4 star hotel nearby (thanks Priceline.com), and enjoyed a serious carb-up dinner of pastas, salad, tuna, and more pasta.  Chilled in the hot-tub a bit the night before, then off to bed early.  The run started at 8:30 and our awesome hotel transported us right to the starting area.  And....off we went.  We all made it, with no walking involved.  Ben and Krista had a few bathroom stops (pretty common for over 2 hrs of running) but no injuries or anything like that occurred.  Todd's time = 2:16, Christina finished at 2:26, Ben and Krista 2:43 (but inclusive of 4 bathroom breaks, so still awesome).
I must say, seeing the finish line was over-whelming awesome, such a sense of accomplishment you just can't get many places.   Sidenote: out of 30,000 participants, only 20,000 actually finished, a full 1/3rd drop off or don't finish- which is crazy but believable.  It's tough, but if I can do it, anybody can.  Really happy we did this together, it made it a truly great experience.
After grabbing our medals at the finish line and every available orange slice, banana, frozen yogurt, free granola bars and fruit cups we could, we head back to the hotel for some quick showers and checked out, so we could go eat some real grub.
Of course, we found the nearest Mexican place and TEAM TACO, celebrated by gorging ourselves on many Dos Equis beers, nachos supreme, chips chips chips and salsa, jalapeno poppers, steak tacos, bean and cheese burritos, more beer, and more chips chips please.
We made it back to Tucson, but I must admit, my freaking legs were soar and my joints ached.  Took some ibuprofen and went to bed really early to get the recovery on.  Today is the day after, and although we're all a little sore, we're pretty recovered and back to normal. 
After $135 entry fee, hotel fee, gas, dinners, 2 hrs of exercise....I can finally say....I got my free tee-shirt!



Got them thar medals, yep, mmhmm
Team Taco Members: Todd and Ben, pre-race Salvation Army garb. To be later shed at about mile 3 once the sun popped out.

Krista and Ben after finishing.  Great experience together.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tucson, Arizona

Millay Family
Christina and Nieces: Abbie & Grace

Todd and I touched down in Tucson, AZ at approximately 3:30AM, after a four hour layover in Denver due to a winter storm on December 20th, 2010. We arrived earlier than expected to help Krista (Todd's sister) and Ben (our future Brother in-law) get ready for their “at home” wedding on New Year's Eve. All the Millay’s, Venema’s and close friends of the couple participated in the celebration and despite the abnormally cold temperatures it was a wonderful celebration. Above is a photo of the Millay family and a few other favorites from that night.


After we had done our duties for the wedding, it was time to enjoy the increasingly warm Tucson weather with some new friends! Hikes into Sabino and Araviapa Canyon, a few trail runs, yoga and several appetizing meals served at local Tucson hot spots like Poca Cosa and Little Poca Cosa. A good majority of our meal have been prepared by Ben, our gracious house host, and/or his parents Mr. and Mrs. Venema, who are visiting in their rental home next door and have taken us in like one of the family.

Needless to say, life changes drastically when you are not working a job or maintaining a household. For instance, I haven’t driven a car since 12/20/10 or set an alarm for that matter. We’ve been cohabiting with relatives since 10/15/10, so housework is offering a helping hand but by no means mandatory or even expected outside of keeping your own belongings picked up. We have maybe twenty articles of clothing in our possession therefore the daily dilemma of what to wear is not a question and laundry is a max of two loads a week. Those of you who know Todd and me best probably find it hard to believe we’re not pulling our hair out looking for things to keep us occupied, but we’ve really tried to adjust to our new freedom and enjoy this precious time in our lives together.

Above are pictures from the last couple of weeks here in Tucson. January 18th, 2010 we board an overnight sleeper train to LA to catch our flight on January 20th to Bangkok, Thailand. Hopefully we’ll get some time to look around LA since neither Todd nor I have ever been there. Stay tuned….:- ) and thanks for following!