February 13-14, 2010 – Day 415-416 – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Lunar New Year!

As with most holidays on the road, it can be pretty tough to have a proper celebration. For Valentine’s Day, we splurged on chocolate covered almonds from the 711 down the street and a couple cans of Fanta. Romance at it’s finest!

Soap flower in the market

February 12, 2010 – Day 414 – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Mama pajama rolled outta bed and went down to the station…Well, actually we both did and hopped on a bus to Chiang Mai. It was 10 hours and the closer we got to our destination the more the landscape began to resemble the Appalachians in our motherland. Well after dark we got an overpriced tuk tuk to Loi Kohn, the street where loads of guest houses are (and all the foreigners to match) to find a place to lay our weary bums for the night. Convenient as it is, Loi Kohn is Chiang Mai’s version of Khao San Road in Bangkok. Anyway it will do for now and there is certainly no shortage of good places to eat. Glad to be off a bus for a while!!

Eating waffles like a starving Belgian

February 10-11, 2010 – Day 412-413 – Bangkok, Thailand

Spent two glorious days lounging in beautiful Bangkok. We enjoyed some of Cambodia but really were not crazy over it. We wanted a couple of days to rest before taking another very long bus north to Chiang Mai. We restocked some supplies we could not get in Cambodia, ate some great cheap food (hurray for baht! paying with dollars in Cambodia was a real budget killer), and did a lot of walking around to stretch our legs. We never would have imagined how much sitting traveling the world really requires!

Saben getting a hair cut

On a scale of 1 to 10 we would place Cambodia at a firm …. eh. Its ok but didn’t really live up to the hype. Angkor was amazing and Kep was a little slice of paradise but inbetween that is very little besides flat plains that extend forever with only the occational dusty town along the path.

Granted we saw very little of this country and we hear that the north east is beautiful but we just were not feeling it. Its not that we disliked Cambodia it is more that it was rather bland and uninteresting. We really have no idea where all of this praise is coming from when we talk to people who “love” Phnom Pehn or S’ville. It just didnt’t work for us.

(Check out the Cambodia Photo Gallery here)

Read the rest of this entry »

February 9, 2010 – Day 411 – Bangkok, Thailand

“Get ready to feel like an asshole.” We looked at each other and got out of the tuk tuk and onto the idling bus pulled alongside the road. Waiting. For us. Against our usual protocol, we had booked a bus ticket all the way from Phnom Penh back to Bangkok thinking it was a bit cheaper than all the separate tickets.

Traffic in Phnom Pehn

February 8, 2010 – Day 410 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Well, in terms of Operation Super Bowl 2010, we definitely had an epic failure. We watched 2 sports channels from 6AM-10PM and absolutely so sign or even single word about one of the biggest games of the year! At any rate, we were happy for the Saints to win their very first Super Bowl but we are pretty bummed that we didn’t get to watch the game. At any rate, Saben’s birthday was today and we celebrated with a massive English breakfast and a massive amounts of sports watching and beer drinking!

Saben working on his old man scowl

February 7, 2010 – Day 409 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ten minutes to noon we made a split decision to rush back to Phnom Penh so we could catch the Super Bowl. Already that morning we had walked the entire length of Kep and all the way into Kep City to the market seeking a decent place for breakfast. We never did get any breakfast and ended up grabbing a bit of lunch about 15 minutes before our 12:45 bus back to Phnom Penh arrived. We really loved visiting Kep but we also really love watching the Super Bowl and have never missed one yet. If it turns out right, we should be watching this year’s awesome game between our own Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints!

Saben on a motodrop back from the market

February 6, 2010 – Day 408 – Kep, Cambodia

Swinging in a seaside hammock watching a bright pink and red sunset after a fat crab dinner drowned in Kampot pepper sauce and ice cold Angkor beer…we could get used to this kind of life.

Kampot Pepper Crab

February 5, 2010 – Day 407 – Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Sihanoukville is not our favorite place. The beaches are so-so, the food is pretty good but a little pricey, and there are a few too many loud-spoken foreigners eager to brag about their own humanitarian activities here. A little disappointed that we traveled all the way down here for this but you can’t win all the time. Heading to Kep tomorrow morning to have a look and eat some fresh crabs and try the famous Kampot pepper.

Road to the beach

February 4, 2010 – Day 406 – Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Bussing south to the beach from the less picturesque city of Phnom Penh sounds like a pretty nice endeavor. We were heading to Otres Beach in Sihanoukville, known to be a quiet and relaxing beach. We arrived in a tuk tuk via a dirt and sand covered path with alternating giant rocks and giant holes.

Ahhh.. beer and icecream