OHHHH BUDDY!!!

Signing off. This is it. The end. Tomorrow is Wednesday and we get on a place at 8:15am, travel for about 22 ish hours and then land in LA at 11:15am -STILL Wednesday. Cool huh. We're just going to pretend that we're flying on a concord jet and it will only take us 3 hours to get home...

So we went to Angkor Wat on Friday. A-mazing. It was honest-to-goodness ancient ruins. I kept expecting Indiana Jones to come swinging from a tree or something, you know like at Disneyland, only this was for real. So cool. But... Also one of the saddest things I've ever seen happened this day. As usual, people everywhere are trying to sell you things- scarfs, t-shirts, postcards etc. Well, this time, it was children. Cambodia is still a struggling country and there are LOTS of REALLY poor people, especially children. So they all wait for tourists at the exits of the tourist attractions and just completely swarm you with souvenirs- "postcards?" "you buy?" "please, I need to go to school" We read that it is not recommended to give them money because it doesn't help them, they have to give it to their parents or guardians and it's better to give them food. Anyways, I think Kristina and I must have looked especially vulnerable because they seriously swarmed us and walked with us until our tuk tuk driver rescued us. I can not adequately tell you how horrible it feels to keep saying "no thank you" to so many gorgeous, poor, starving children. I know we all hear about poverty and Save the Children and all that but when there are 20 of them in your face personally begging you to help them, it honestly breaks your heart. By the time we got in our tuk tuk, we both had tears in our eyes and she had bought some postcards, and I bought some bracelets. What could we do?

In The Lonely Planet (our guidebook for this trip) it has lists of restaurants and shops that donate to good causes in the area so we looked up a cafe in Siem Reap called The Singing Tree Cafe. It's an organic, vegetarian cafe that also has yoga classes and a childrens center. The kids can go there (a lot of them are orphans) and learn and play and paint and then they sell the paintings in the cafe. Also- all of the profits from the cafe go back to help the kids. SO, that's where we went for dinner that night. And we spent some time in the gift shop and did not feel bad about spending a little money in there because we knew it would directly help some of those kids. We felt so much better knowing that we had done SOMETHING to help. Even if it was a small something.

So the next day was travel day and the road from Siem Reap to Bangkok is notoriously bad and it can take as long as 14 hours! But luckily the road has been improved and it was actually a lot better than some of the other roads we've been on. So we were not as terrified about this trip. We got on this nice, cool, air-conditioned bus, ready for a 7-8 hour drive and about 20 minutes into the trip the driver turns off the A/C.

I'll pause to let you think about that.

Needless to say everyone starts looking around going "uh, I thought this was an air conditioned bus" but the driver didn't speak any English and what are we gonna do? "hey buddy, drop my off here in the middle of this rice paddy, I'll just ride a cow to Bangkok" So we all opened our windows and sweat it out, literally. Imagine 40 sweaty, (mostly European...) tourists crammed on an old rusty bus with (not real) leather seats that stick to every part of your body. Yeah eww. PLUS there was no under-the-bus storage so they just used the front seat to put ALL the luggage. It was like the Leaning Tower of Luggage right next to our seat... They even put some of the bags on the floor of the bus in the isles...Fire Department, eat your heart out. (i'm pretty sure that's what the driver was thinking as he smoked his cigarette ON THE BUS-not a joke)

The drive to the border is about 4-5 hours and after an 1.5 hours in immigration (and more starving/begging children, only this time they had nothing to sell, they were just holding out their hands... can you believe it? luckily I remembered I had a box of granola bars in my bag so when they came over to us we just handed them out...they probably thought it was so gross, they're used to eating fried crickets...) we got on another bus- It was like we had all died and gone to heaven. I will never take air conditioning for granted again. I promise.

So we have been in Bangkok living it up since Saturday! We love this city. We spent all day yesterday in a mall that has a floor with Lamborghini's on it! Porches, you name it. There was also a food court that would do the entire city of LA shame.

Yes, I'll have a Porsche and a pair of Jimmy Choos please. Done.

Only in Bangkok.

Then to treat ourselves and our poor travel ridden bodies, went to the spa and got mani's, pedi's and facials. FOR UNDER 20 DOLLARS PEOPLE!!! not a joke.

That brings us to tonight. We just have to pack all our treasures and hop on a plane! So SAD to say goodbye to Thailand but SO HAPPY to say hello to America, our family and friends, and our own beds!
It has been an AMAZING trip and I will miss my travel companion dearly- I loved spending every minute with you Kris, even the hard ones.

Thanks for traveling with me everyone, I love you all!

I'm coming Jack!

Did I scare ya?

Sorry it's been a few days. We've been moving around a lot the last few days and Internet is not as plentiful in Cambodia. The day after we went to the War Remnants museum we went on a tour of the Mekong Delta- It was really cool. There are actually FOUR islands in the Mekong and we visited two of them and ate fresh honey and fruit and coconut candy which are all actually ploys to get you to buy stuff because you eat it and go "mmmmm... I want that." They fed us lunch and then they let you lay in hammocks or borrow a bicycle to ride through the little village. Kristina and I did both, we took a nap in a hammock and then we rode on a bike- through a village- on an Island- in the Mekong Delta. Yeah, I know. The next day we went on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels which are tunnels that the Vietnamese used to live in when they were bombed during the War.
Ok, now I know I don't know a lot about the Vietnam War- I admit it, I'm very ignorant. However- This was an experience that any American would feel uncomfortable in, I think. They start by showing this video that was made in 1967 about the war and the brave men, woman, and child soldiers who fought off the Enemy (us). It said NOTHING about the other Vietnamese they were fighting against. This is a direct quote from the video- "bunch of American devils". Then they showed us the types of traps they used to hurt or kill American soldiers. On the wall behind the exhibit was a mural of all the different traps with American soldiers being impaled and blood spurting- not a joke- I will post pictures. There is also a tank with a plaque on it that said "American tank destroyed by landmine". Kristina and I were the only Americans on this tour and needless to say we felt a little weird... or a lot weird.
We left Vietnam on Wednesday- 6 hours on a bus on really really bad rodes...again. The worst part actually isn't the roads, it's the honking. They don't really follow the same traffic laws we do and the basic traffic rule is yield to the biggest vehicle. So any time we come up behind a motorbike or other slower moving vehicle, which is about every 10 seconds, he honks. And I'm pretty sure these are not your standard horns, they must be like left-over fog horns or something. Kristina and I were sitting in the back of the bus and it still startled us every time he honked. It was like noise torture. I just kept thinking about how quiet my parents street is and how much I wanted to sit out there at night and just listen to the quiet.
Anywho, we went to the killing fields yesterday and spent the night in Phnom Penh and then hopped on a bus this morning and drove ANOTHER 6 hours to Siem Reap. It's only about 250 kilometers but it takes really long because the road is one step up from a dirt road, the whole way. So we made it to Siem Reap and tomorrow we take a tuk tuk to the Temples of Angkor!!! This is probably the only reason we came to Cambodia, I am so excited. The pictures of this place are mind blowing, I can't wait to see it for real. The "thing to do" is go at sunrise because it's supposed to be amazing so we have to leave our hotel at 5am...
If you're curious about the Killing Fields, you should probably look it up because I am not the one to ask and if you want to know what it was like I am also not the one to ask because there are no words to describe it. In very brief terms it is a place that the Khmer Rouge, a group of communist rebels, used to torture and execute hundreds of thousands of Cambodians in the space of four years. It looks like a grassy field except that there are 129 mass graves and a stupa (religious monument) that rises above the field holding over 9000 human skulls found during the excavations. There are still pieces of clothing half buried in the dirt.
I hope that my writing about this doesn't make light of what happened in any way. It was a harrowing experience but one that I think is important to have.

More confused than before.

Yeah, the War Remnants Museum did NOT help our understanding of the Vietnam War. It basically was about how Americans are barbarians...and Vietnam just wanted it's Independance. There weren't really any actual facts. Just horribly brutal pictures and descriptions. We left feeling confused, empty, and nauseous insead of respectfully enlightened. Oh well. It was an experience.
Today we had traditional Vietnam breakfast, well Kristina did, I couldn't do it. It was beefsteak meatballs, pate, and eggs fried in oil...mmmmm. Just kidding. Kristina said it was pretty good. The only non beef option was fried chicken and rice.. HIT THE SPOT!!! Nothing like a nice light fried chicken for breakfast. Just kidding again. It was good, just not my typical breakfast food.

Funny story: (hopefully one that won't freak mom out... not sure) So we were supposed to meet a friend of Kristina's that moved out here with his wife who is Vietnamese for breakfast. So he came to our guesthouse and we got a taxi and he told our driver where to take us and then he rode his motorbike...
So our driver stops and points to this place and we pay him (too much, he jipped us...still getting used to the money here) and he drives away and we wait for Kristina's friend but he doesn't show for like 5...10...15 minutes and we know he should have been there by now so we start looking for a phone (Kristina's cell doesn't work, not sure why) and all the phones require a phone card which we didn't have and didn't know where to get one... sooooo Kristina asks someone and they send her down the street but someone needed to wait by the restaurant in case he showed up so I stayed and she went looking for a phone card... So I'm standing there wathcing crazy crazy traffic and they're all staring at me (of course, we're like aliens out here) And I don't know how much time has passed but I start to worry, How long has it been? Should I have gone with Kristina? Oh my gosh, am I by myself, are we seperated? Has she been kidnapped? Aaahhh!! (we literally have not been seperated this whole trip, we do have an emergency plan though, we're not that stupid)
It was probably only like 2 minutes but I freaked enough to start looking for her and walked in the direction she had gone until I came to this really nice hotel and thought "that's where I would go if I needed help" and sure enough Kristina came out the door right then and told me the receptionist had called another taxi and that he'd just taken us to the wrong one, apparently there are two locations. So we found her friend and had delicious beefsteak for breakfast!! Mmmm.
We spent the rest of the day just walking around. We found a really cool park and there were tons of kids playing and a group of teens doing some organized dance and there was a sculpture garden and picknickers and make-outers.
It was just a lovely Sunday in the Park.
Vietnam Style.

"They sending me...to Viet-nam...Its this whole otha country"

If you don't know what that's from then you don't know me well enough... Just kidding. I am safely in Ho Chi Min, Vietnam. Yesterday was a travel day, so not very fun but we flew from Phuket to Bangkok and then Bangkok to Ho Chi Min. Both flights were only about an hour long but there was a lot of stuff to do like Visas and immigration. We were both glad we flew though because it would have been sooooooo much longer on a bus and so much more miserable. At least yesterday we got to spend a few hours in the Bangkok Airlines Lounge and take a nap and they fed us popcorn and Tang (which they think is orange juice).
Anywho... our Visa worked out and we made it to the My My Art House (our hostel) last night and we got some delicious noodles for dinner (mom and dad, you know that soup that you buy from Saigon and you put been sprouts and mint in it? yeah that but better) and they fed us free breakfast this morning of fresh French bread and omelet that smelled suspiciously of fish...
Happy Fourth!! Today we are going to the War remnants museum- we know it will not be a happy experience but we also know it's important to see. So as you all eat your BBQ chicken and hot dogs, and watch fireworks, Kristina and I will be in Ho Chi Min City, trying to gain a little more understanding of a war we know almost nothing about.

More pics

These pictures begin in Koh Lanta, about a week ago.
Scooter ride. A little scary because I kept forgetting to drive on the opposite side of the road... This is Kristi's view as passenger.
Our mission to find banana fried rice failed, the restaurant that sold it was closed for slow season. Sad. Instead we stopped at this place and a very nice man fried us up some rice and green curry. It was one of the best meals of my life. And again, no one in the restaurant- slow season.
Little bum.
Safely back at our bungalow.
Our bungalow on Ko Lanta Island. There wasn't much of a beach because the waves crashed right on the sand and sometimes even up onto the restaurant but there was an amazing pool.
Coke LIGHT. SO DELISH.
Yesssssssssss.

So glad to be on the ground. Seriously.
Monkey girl.
Thai cooking course in Phi Phi
Me and my dish: Pad Thai with egg and chicken.
Kristi frying up some veggies like she was born with a wok.
Our teachers at our Thai cooking course. They were the sweetest.
Our bungalow in Phi Phi. The stairs were steep!!
Just before leaving Ko Phi Phi. You can see my lunch in my hands: mango, pineapple, watermelon smoothie and ritz crackers. The crackers turned out to be a good call because we both got a little ill on the ferryboat to Phuket...

Phuket Beach lunch yesterday. Hawaiian pizza. Duh.BBQ corn on the cob. Sold by a boy on the beach for less than a dollar.
Chocolate ice cream, chocolate bar, chocolate soymilk
A-mazing resort we walked to today. Probably costs a little more than ours...
Bookstore. Used books that cost as much as new ones, go figure.
Dinner... sort of.
Cool fountain. Elephants. This is the most recent picture we took, so just pretend you saw me today, ok mom?