Happy New Year 2008

Today is New Years Eve for us! It is about 8pm. 6am in the US apparently. I am sitting in my hotel bathroom. This is the only outlet that works for my laptop! Lame and inconvenient—I am disgruntled with this Holiday Inn at the moment.

Granted, I’m tired after a long day of sightseeing, I am completely adjusted to this time zone. No jetlag at all. My sickness before I left never developed into anything luckily! (Pssh... Though some people were so sure I’d get sick) I won’t be so confident so quickly though, I still have days till my return. Each day is so action packed I feel like I’ve been here for 2 weeks already!

Kristina has not been so lucky this trip. She lost her digital camera the second day of our trip L. She was so upset, but has been handling the situation well... The next day she used her dad’s camera for photos and left all his camera gear in a bathroom (we got it back eventually, long story). When we were massaged the ladies did a few neck/back adjustments. Kris Believes she did something incorrect and it’s the cause of her extreme headaches. We’re taking it easy tonight, both having so much fun in our hotel room while the parentals are out to dinner. We 20 year olds can’t handle the pace of 50 year olds, sad. We aren’t complaining though, we are glad for a break. Being on the 20^th floor overlooking the beautiful city lights and magnificent fireworks of Thailand is an amazing sight to say the least! There are massive amounts of paper lanterns floating high in the night's sky that people everywhere released a couple hours before midnight. It looks like millions of fire flies twinkling about.

Earlier today:

This has been a much awaited day, Elephant rides!! Our encounter of the baby elephant the night before stirred much excitement for today as well. At first Kris and I were a bit timid about petting the elephants, but of course became friendly quickly. We fed them baby bananas and sugar cane sticks before we rode them. The trunk is so wet and weird feeling! We hopped on top of our huge elephant and our driver took us on an hour ride through the elephant came which also has a river running through it! It was so calming and breathtaking riding along listening to the babbling brook and seeing the abundant green scenery. Mama you would have LOVED the landscape! This has been my favorite day so far. But don’t take my word for it yet, I seem to systematically announce this each day! Haha, it just keeps getting better and better! The elephants took a bath in the river after their hard work. Those sneaky guys also stored water up in their trunks as we watched them bathe. When they came ashore they sprayed water all over spectators. Fools! I knew it was coming and ran for safety of my camera J Hehe.

After we watched an elephant show! They did many tricks: stood on two legs, spun hoola hoops with their trunks, painted, danced, etc. It was a cool show. I love eff-eh-lints! (as I affectionately call them). End of story. We took a cattle cart ride back to camp. After we ate lunch at the elephant camp we took a leisurely rafting trip along the Taeng River (which ran through the camp). At times there were waterfalls and exotic plants, felt like Hawaii. Kris and I got to steer the bamboo raft ourselves. I kid you not the 2 men sat down with Peg and Russ and we took over for about 5 minutes. It was way fun! Our van and guide met us at the end of the river and we headed to our next destination.

Our next stop was at a monkey school. There were cute, cute, baby monkeys and many other breeds. We fed them vegetables, they rejected some of them! “Monkey, are you here!!?” haha. A fun little show was set up to have the monkeys perform cool tricks.

This particular monkey picture is dedicated to my dad. Ha! Animals in Thailand are so talented!

Our last stop was at an orchid farm. This is the country’s most famous flower. There are over 13,000 wild varieties in Thailand! The colors were so rich and vibrant. There are even specifically hybrid orchids to have the aroma of chocolate! Incredible! Sorry Phil & Jenna Ma, I can’t get you one unfortunatly… Hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration!

Things that are enjoyable

It’s really comical & interesting to see white American 6’6” Russ speak Thai to the locals, they thought it was great. So far I have learned to say thank you, cold, hot, me, I want, and excuse me in Thai. It was specifically funny taking a cab to our hotel one night. Russ and his jovial personality first off saved us from getting ripped off by the cab, then second made conversation with the driver. We were talking about music, the driver didn’t speak much English but did know names of American musicians. It was pretty amusing when we mentioned names he responded, yes! Yes! He then proceeded to turn off the radio and put in his personal cassette tapes. Russ, Kris, the cab driver, and I all sang together the rest of the short ride home! Haha, random fun.

I think Kristina and I are annoying Peggy some times. We don’t mean to of course but we have a habit of making everything funny we do or talk about in some way. She says we act like teenagers together. We are too much for here sometimes. Its pretty funny. Hahaha. I don’t know what she’s talking about! ;) We have really been having a great time, we are working on controlling our frequent laughing outbursts everywhere we go, especially in places such as sacred shrines. And Kris quotes her mom: " I think that Jenna is a very enjoyable travel partner" So I don't think I'm to annoying. lol (Kris laughs)

Fruit, specifically watermelon, papaya, and pineapple are served after every meal as dessert. This of course is enjoyable to a fruit fiend such as myself. Thailand is Ammaaaaazing!

Fun Facts & Moments

December 30th...
I just want to note one more thing about Korea and our bond... Virtually EVERY car driven is a Hyundai! I like that! It was pretty rare to see anything other than Hyundai vehicles of every sort or some weird car brand I have never laid eyes upon in the States.

This morning I flew from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It is the second largest city in the Northern mountainous part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is much different from Bangkok. It is beautiful-- less crowded, cleaner, and just as I pictured as far as luscious green scenery. Our guide, Jaran, is my favorite guide so far! He is absolutely funny with a great sense of humor. He is Thai, speaks 5 languages (also different dialects of Thai), & he was a monk for 5 years of his life. For some reason I can’t remember his name unless thinking about the word ‘Geronimo’ so I asked him if I could call him Geronimo, he agreed. Hahah. This monk situation intrigued me, all I know is they can’t touch women... I learned that monks have 311 rules to follow, women 227. They wear 5 different colored robes symbolizing specific things. The monkhood (sangha) is about 250,000 strong. It is extremely offensive if one shows any sort of disrespect to the king or Buddhism.

Jaran took us ladies to Doi Suthep this afternoon. It is one of the most revered Buddhist shrines in Northern Thailand. It took forever to drive up the windy mountain road because so many locals, not only tourist, were there to pay their respects specifically before the New Year. Some just got out and walked up the mountain. The shrine was a steep 304 step climb, we took a cable car up and walked down after. There were many layers within layers of statues, halls, temples, etc. I was not considered to be dressed modest enough so I had to wear a wrap/skirt. Everyone also has to take their shoes off before entering the ‘vihara’ which are the entrances leading to the very center containing the stupa pagoda, ‘Central Chedi’. It is a striking gold structure. Several people walked around the stupa clockwise while praying. Buddhist burned incense and offered lotus buds and roses to the statues while chanting or praying.

Beautiful hand painted murals along the halls depicted scenes from the Buddha’s life. There are several types of Buddha’s and meanings I can’t keep up with it all! I did have a great and horrible experience here. The bathrooms were bidets. UGH. There were huge scary spiders that hung above your head, I was thankful I brought my own toilet paper. I did not enjoy this experience so much…

Peggy says Kristina and I are heartless. Tonight dinner included Thai dancers as entertainment, it was pretty awesome! After dinner us 3 girls went shopping at a night bazaar close to our hotel. I know Baht conversion to USD well, and I have a feel for what items should cost. Kristina and I bartered hard to get a bargain, after awhile it was more like a sport to us, hence being heartless. Hahaha. I turned down offers I didn’t like and slowly walked away and had some vendors chase me down agreeing to my price. Very niceee. Before we left we encountered a baby elephant on the corner! It was four years old, so adorable, and was interesting to feel! We fed him baby bananas J

Thailand continued

December 29th...
I haven’t had a chance to write in a while because lack of internet access. I was able to get the internet at our hotel today for 30 minutes at 200 Baht—what a rip off. Sad face.

Today Peg, Russ, Kristina and I started the day off with a boat ride down the river canals. It was quite a site. We even bought bread from a local that sold bread on the river and fed fish. . After we visited 3 temples, the Grand Palace, the Reclining Buddha, and another temple I forget the name of. There are over 40,000 temples in Thailand, and over 600 in Bangkok alone. The Reclining Buddha was extremely massive, 40m long & 15m high. People could make donations. The Grand Palace was a magnificent site! All the temples were extremely detail oriented. Lots of gold, tile, jewels, glass, etc. The architecture had many different influences such as Italian. The last one you could walk up steep stairs to the very top. We went to an awesome Thai market, tried some interesting food and shopped a little. Thailand has been so hot every day! In the evening we headed to dinner in front of a famous Thai puppet house. Russ got us a back stage pass before the show. The puppet masters were really good and funny. I did not like being kissed. . The show was amazing, though I didn’t understand the story line.
















At the end of the show the puppeteers came out into the audience and did funny things to people and I was so scared of them from them picking on me before the show, and they targeted me again! They picked up my purse with the puppet and ran on stage holding it hostage making me come get it. The three men that controlled the puppet wouldn’t give it back till I gave the puppet a kiss! They messed around with me at my expense, the audience was laughing, it was a really funny terrifying experience. They frighten me like clowns. I’m going to go to bed now and hopefully not have nightmares of creepy puppets.

Thailand!

Today we are in Thailand! The flight went well, we met our next guide, and he drove us to our Hotel in Bangkok were we met Russ-- Kristina’s dad. It is now about noon and Kristina is scheduled to have a Thai Massage lesson in an hour. Our guide drove Kristina, Peg, and I to the school, dropped Kris off and Peg and I were driven into town to see Thai fabrics! There was so much traffic because everyone was leaving town for the new year. We found a lot of amazing handmade crafts and other souvenirs. Peggy and I are pro’s at converting Baht by now! (1 USD = 33 Baht) Everyone seemed to be wearing bright yellow shirts. Our guide said that the King just celebrated his 61^st year as King of Thailand. The yellow promoted longevity, and combined with pink represented good health for him, since he has apparently been having some heart problems. EVERYWHERE you look, from the city decorations to local’s apparel notated honor of the king. This guide deeply respected his King. He was born in Massachusetts, and has been ruling since he was 19 years old—the longest ever for a Thai King. Thai people are very superstitious.There were numerous extravagant palaces and beautifully embellished buildings everywhere. The four of us had our first real Thai food experience for dinner. The food was amazing! There were many foreign people in Bangkok, especially Russian. Although, not in this restaurant! We all got funny looks, smiles, and giggles from most locals. After dinner Russ, Kristina, & I got 2 HOUR Thai massages!! It was amazing. I didn’t get all beat up like I expected, I actually fell asleep during it!

Korea/Cambodia

Kristina, Peggy, and myself left LAX when it was dark and arrived in Korea when it was dark. I am utterly tired. It is now… who knows what time… Korea is about a 17 hour difference. The flight was LONG, 13.5 hours to be exact. It felt like forever and a year! But us three ladies got through it, and of course had some fun too!
The flight surprisingly had good food! My neck hurt for sure after sleeping a majority of the flight. I was thankful Kristina was a masseuse specifically at this moment in life. As soon as we got off the flight we freshened up in the bathroom, which was way sweet and modern—just as the airport. Then we all headed out to tour the city of Seoul during our 12 hour layover in Korea. We took a bus tour which included numerous stops to visit along the way:

This is one of their largest modern museums in the country.
The War Memorial of Korea Below

(Kris and I got married in a traditional Korean Wedding Hall)
For the most part Seoul is a pretty westernized city with many similarities to downtown LA in some ways. This particular day was around 40-50 degrees , Kristina and I kept warm with these amazing heat packs Peggy got and lots of layers. Many people rode motorcycles to get around the busy city.It was interesting to see completely commercialized areas from the street, but just beyond the façade of tall buildings were hill sides of poor villages. After a couple stops we proceeded back to the airport. Apparently when we bought our bus tickets at the airport we misunderstood. We thought our tickets were round trip—not the case when we showed the bus driver our tickets. We had waited 25 minutes in the cold to discover this unfortunately. Luckily there was a bank right by the bus stop to exchange our money for Won, because at this point in our trip we payed for everything with USD or by credit card. Though we didn’t spend too much time in Korea we got a good feel for it. We’ll be back for another layover on our way home. I took over 250 pictures today! I know…

Every flight I have to fill visa forms, and other paper work, I almost have my passport number memorized. Korea is my first official visa stamp, which leads me to my second – Cambodia. It was a short quick flight from Korea to Phnom Phen, Cambodia. We were all exhausted from our day trip and slept a majority of the 5.5 hour flight.
We arrived in Phnom Phen (Cambodia’s largest city since the 1800’s) around 10PM their time, and met our guide Kousal. He was very nice, spoke English, and was quite knowledgeable about Cambodia. It took us about 20 minutes from the airport to our hotel during which Kousal explained some history of Cambodia, which he was very proud of... The streets were quite different from anything I have ever observed. Obviously extremely poor in some areas. Most everyone rode some sort of a motorcycle to get around, or trucks with free standing people in the bed. I thought there were a lot of motorcycles in Korea, Cambodia was no comparison! insert pic> The population is just around 2 million people—very small. Kousal says most people don’t drive or go out after 10pm. That seemed to be the case as I looked around at the desolated half standing buildings and various fruit stands scattered about. The towns were dark and eerie. I wouldn’t say I didn’t feel safe (don’t worry mom) but I was definitely uneasy about being in Cambodia for too long. Our hotel was quite nice. I didn’t feel any more comfortable once the news revealed Bhutto was assassinated earlier that day. I was just getting paranoid. Regardless, we were all SO glad to finally take a shower and not have to catch our sleep on a plane! Peggy and Kris are OUT! Which I should be too… our flight to Thailand tomorrow is an early one, but thank goodness the flight is only about an hour!

So Long!

Haha, my puppy Chew! You're travel size, but I can't take you with me unfortunately!

I would love to sneak him off to Thailand with me...
Today was awesome, sleeping in, presents, family time, and eating my favorite meal before departure, Thanks Mama!
So at this point I have 6 more hours till take off! 12:30am I leave LAX to arrive in Seoul, Korea 7:00AM... I hope I can last being in an airplane for 12 hours. eeek

About to Leave good 'ol USA

Tomorrow I depart for South East Asia for 15 days, and I'm not even packed! I'm highly skilled at procrastination. I am so stoked. Words can't even describe my enthusiasm. I'm traveling with a great friend and awesome parentals. I can't believe I'm going to be in South Korea Tomorrow! ...or the next day technically? Haha, I'm never gonna know what day/time it is. Thailand's time zone is switching our AM/PM and adding three hours. Oy Vey. 10:00AM here is 1:00PM there.
All my saving, and planning for the trip has finally reached its deadline! I look forward to riding elephants, seeing ancient ruins, temples, traveling deep into Cambodia, spending time with awesome people, learning lots of history, etc.

You can count on me to take pictures of anything and everything, your in for a visual treat! I'll miss all you family and friends!