December 26, 2009 – Day 366 – Bangkok, Thailand

With our one year mark and a new travel mate in hand, we set out to start out Thailand sightseeing right. We hopped on the public ferry and rode the river to the skytrain.

View down the river

December 25, 2009 – Day 365 – Bangkok, Thailand

Happy One Year on the Road! We’ve been traveling and blogging for a whole year now and we can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly. Can you? It really has been an amazing year. We have had a thousand memories that we wouldn’t trade the world for. A big thank you to everyone who has donated us money, encourgaed us along the way, and lived this last year with us through the site.

Thanks!

December 24, 2009 – Day 364 – Bangkok, Thailand

Feeling pretty bad today so slept most of the day in efforts to get better before Latham comes to visit. Made mistake of getting a room with a window so we hear thumping music from Khao San Road’s 24 hour nightlife. At least we have a great location—a side street leading onto the center of Khao San. Proximity to endless amounts of great street food, bars, 711s galore, and more crazy drunken foreigners than you can shake a stick at. Wow, it’s nice to see and show some skin freely after coming from India. It’s like a weight was lifted from our shoulders and we can really live a little. Shorts, tank tops and dresses here we come!

Crazy Khao San Road

December 23, 2009 – Day 363 – Bangkok, Thailand

Feeling at least well enough to leave our room, we ventured outside and chowed on some oily pad thai from one of the many street carts. We walked around Khao San Road and much of the surrounding area, mostly just marveling at the amazingly organized traffic, the abundance of supermarkets, the gregarious use of air conditioning and the fact that Thais have wonderful attitudes and manners.

Tasty street food

We are delaying any major sightseeing because Saben’s brother Latham is flying in on the 25th to visit us for a couple of weeks. Until then we are planning to fully enjoy some great food, some great people, and some great air conditioning (well, at least whenever we pop in a 711….which is as often as possible).

December 22, 2009 – Day 362 – Bangkok, Thailand

We made it out alive! Now we’re in the most fabulous place we could possibly be after such a long tiring last several months. A true vacation spot: Thailand! It is so beautiful, so organized, so clean, the people are so happy and friendly, and everything is so bright and colorful. Even our plane here was nicely decorated with saffron, fuschia, and deep purple seats with smiling Thai ladies in traditional dresses. Fantastic!

The view down Koh San road

Although we have officially survived India, it sent us with a parting gift of the typical Indian variety. So even though we didn’t get to go out and see much of anything, we are both extremely happy to be here.

Hmm, what to say about India? Did we like it? Yes. Did we hate it? Yes. Sometimes both in the same day. Did we love it? No. We can both honestly say that, while we may not have thoroughly enjoyed all of our time in India, we are both glad to have gone and experienced it. We both agree that there is no desire to ever return either.
Read the rest of this entry »

December 21, 2009 – Day 361 – Chennai, India

Our last day in India! We took a walk down to the water front, Chennai’s beach, to have a look and contemplate our last day here. And what a way to spend it! Since we are about to leave here, we were feeling a little nostalgic about the past 3 months we have lived in this country.

Anything but beautiful Chennai Beach

December 19-20, 2009 – Day 359-360 – Chennai, India

To do a bit of last minute souvenir shopping we headed off to Pondy Bazzar and found a few neat things. The market is not a touristy place since it caters more to locals than foreigners. You can find street stalls lining the road in front of stores selling endless kinds of sari fabric, household wares, a supermarket or two, and so on.

Fortune teller bird in the market

December 18, 2009 – Day 358 – Chennai, India

Today we did a spot of last minute India shopping. Spencer Plaza is a typical Indian shopping mall and if you are looking for cheap clothes (Indian or western), sari fabric, home goods, you can find it all here. We were under the impression that it was a good place for souvenir-type items but that’s not quite the case. We bought some “Australian” cookies instead!

December 17, 2009 – Day 357 – Chennai, India

Got into Chennai around 7am and were met by the Zombie Brigade at the central bus stand. The rickshaw drivers were more than ready to take us into town and they were so competitive it was like a pack of zombies fighting over the last human morsel.

Our swanky bus to Chennai