finally

For all those who don't know, I'm home safely...finally. Man, now I remember why not very many Americans go to Asia, it's FAR!

12 hour layover...

Sounds pretty aweful..but 2 nice men from St. Louis happened to be looking for the American Airlines gate with me and got me into the Admirals club here. I just had my first REAL cheddar cheese in 4 1/2 months! MMMMMM it was so good. It's so sweet in here! Free internet, lots of comfy seating (napping for me), free showers, free snacks, beverages, drinks...need i go on? I think i might be able to come and go too, which means sushi for me! It never hurts to be friendly, even if you are totally spaced out cause you just took a red eye flight and go zero sleep.

I can't believe i'm on my way home. When i stepped off the plane here the cold air hit me so hard, it's def a shocker. I wasn't prepared for that. I think i'll go sleep now, or try to. I'm sure i'll post more later since i have 12 hours and all the free internet i could ever want. YEY!

Engaged! (but not married)

We got engaged at the beach this week. We tried to elope because Alex is jealous of Todd and Suzy, but of course everything is harder in Asia. It would have been great tho: Monks, elephant rides, beach... too bad we would have had to go all the way back to Bangkok to make it legal before actually getting married... so My Pen Rei (whatever). Sorry to my family for not telling you over the phone first (mostly to you mom), it's hard to get access to international phones at the beach. I'll call you when I get back to Bangkok or home...on Sunday! Don't ask about our wedding plans cause we have none for now. Maybe another destination wedding. See you all soon!

...waiting...

Today was a strange one. The anxiety of waiting for Alex is starting to really get to me, I'm literally counting the hours. I couldn't sleep last night, tossed and turned until about 4am. Then woke up early to call alex and make sure everything was okay before he left. But he's on a plane now! yea!!!

I was soooo tired this morning and started off just laying around watching stupid movies, but then I gave in and decided to go to the weekend market as I had planned. It was a good idea, I really love Asian markets...especially this one. I think it's the best thing about Bangkok. TONS of locals, crazy good street food, animals for sale, and the best stuff you can find in Thailand. I think it's the best market in SE Asia...not the most beautiful...but the best. I think Luang Prubang gets the prize for the most beautiful market, it's worth going to Laos just to see it!

So I can't decide how to feel right now, cause I really enjoyed the market but I was really anxious, especially on the way home. This whole bomb thing has me not even wanting to go out. Last night I went to the night market in Lumpini Park with the canadian couple and there were cops with a bomb sniffing dog. They're everywhere, which is really good...but a constant reminder. It also doesn't help that i have CNN in my room...CNN's worse than a scary movie. It's just strange, cause we are constantly aware of the state of the terrible things in the world in the states, but really...chances are there's gonna be something that happens in another country. I've never really felt THAT concerned about getting on a subway or walking around a market. That said, the events here in Thailand are very different from what is going on in the rest of the world...it's all about Thailand and it's own politics, from what I have gathered from the locals and the papers anyway. Who REALLY knows? So the market is fantastic, but the entire metro ride home I was freiked out by any man with a large bag. I couldn't wait to get off. Then my stupid taxi driver drove like I did when I was learning to drive a stick. I swear, he'd never driven before or something. Blah.

So in conclusion, even though there is lots of cool stuff to do here, I'm SOOOO done with Bangcrack. As soon as I realized this walking back to my hotel from where the taxi dropped me, I stepped in dog poop. See, I'm really done. So Alex needs to hurry up and get here so I can forget that most of the people in this area are crazy and go to the beach already.

BTW, i'm just ranting cause I can't find the canadians and don't have anyone to talk to...haha...poor me. That's all for now. Don't feel sorry for me. I think tomorrow I'll get a facial, pedicure and thai massage.

Chiang Dao

I'll let pictures do the talking of this amazing place in northern Thailand...

tiger photo

See, all cats are cuddly...just like moosh and ali! I wanted to lay down with them but you know...there's that chance they could scratch my face off...and yes, i had to sign a waiver to enter the temple!

Every Catlover's Dream

I'd heard about the monks and tigers. I've always said I wished I could tame a tiger to have a pet. Well, some monks did and I got to pet them!

So I am actually having a nice time in Bangkok, it just took some strategy as far as how I do things. After Lauren left I met this really nice Canadian girl who is travelling with her boyfriend. They just spent 2 months in India and are really happy to be in Thailand. I couldn't believe it, India was the first foreign country her boyfriend had been to! To me, India is for super seasoned travellers...a step just below Africa. So anyway, I've ended up hanging out with them every night and it's been really nice. They are my age and kind of in the same place in life as Alex and I...as in, I could actually be friends with them in real life. They renovate houses and are traveling for 5 months while waiting for a house they just bought to be ready. They live on an island just off Vancouver Island...sounds really beautiful...we'll have to visit when we move to Portland.

So anyway, on Wednesday I figured out how to get around Bangkok without inhaling tons of exhaust or sitting in a taxi for 2 hours. There is a taxi boat i can take from here to get to the sky train. It was great! I felt like a local getting around, jsut like in Chiang Mai, city livin! I checked out Sukhimvit 55, a fantastic street with some ultra modern interior shops that Alex is gonna geek out over...i was geeking out! The bonus is they are all on the same street...i can't wait to take him there. It might even be possible to get a couple light fixures cause they fold up into a box that you could carry on the plane. My favorite shop is www.lamptitude.com or .net but their web site is down right now. It's soooo cool!

So yesterday I had to get up at 6am for my tour. I only really cared about seeing the Tiger Temple, but had to go on a big tour to see it. It began at a really contrived floating market, it was so ridiculously touristy...not a local buying a thing in sight. I was really glad Lauren and I went to some in Vietnam that were so authentic. The only thing that was really great was my excellent noodle soup for breakfast and that I got to try Mangostein. I've heard it's the best fruit in the world but it went out of season as soon as we got here. Somehow they had them at the floating market, guess they're back in season. They are soooo good, I bought extra so Alex can try. Then we went to a really lame WW2 museum...snoooze...museums in Asia really are lacking. I haven't been impressed by a single one. Lesson learned, stick to the temples....very impressive.

But it all came together when we got the the tiger temple. My heart jumped when I saw all the tigers in this open canyon area. They were behind a rope and there are volunteers who take people in one by one to come and pet them. They are very tame and just kinda slept or layed there the whole time. So I got to go in and a volunteer would hold my hand as I walked up to the tigers. Then, another volunteer would take my picture as I pet them...they were soooo cute!

They also had some tiger cubs and leapard cubs in cages and a black bear too! It was really great, totally worth the 3 hour car ride back!

Defining moments

I only have 11 minutes left on my internet but I have so much to say...they'll never be able to break my 1000 baht here though. I'll just have to make do for now.

I wanted to write about Chiang Dao, so beautiful, serene, peaceful, nearly perfect. It's hard to think of it now though, I'm in Bangkok...and Lauren just left. I came straight to the internet cafe because sad as it is, that is my comfort. Noone can really talk right now cause it's workin time at home. So what's a girl to do.

Lauren and I had a great day though, after yesterday which may have been the absolute worst day of the entire trip...NOTHING went right. But I'll save that for later. So we went to see Jim Thompson's house, Siam Square Shopping center and Lumpini park. Then we finished it with a fantastic meal...our first good one in Bangkok. Finally. I have to say, after nearly four months of travelling through SE Asia, my opinion of Bangkok has not changed one bit. Polluted, rude, dirty, traffic, noisy, smelly, tastless...I'm not so crazy about it. But I have a week to learn to love it or find a hotel with a swimming pool to hide out in.

As soon as we got off the night train from chiang mai to Ayuttha the people were instantly rude and seemingly miserable. What is it about the center of these countries? Central Vietnam was the same way. Loved the north and the south, but the people in the center were generally unpleasant (there's always a few exceptions of coarse). I'm def going to try and make the best of it, but I already miss Lauren. It's hard to believe, but aside from here thai massage coarse and a few other random days, we spent the entire last 4 months together! It's pretty crazy. I guess I have a reason to go to Florida now :)

So my next posting is going to be all about Chiang Dao and how much we loved it! I'll be just fine, after all...i have alex to look forward to!

New Year's Eve...in thailand

This week was the first time on this trip we didn't have internet access...and it was great. Lauren and I just got back from Chiang Dao and are getting ready to decend back to Bangkok. It's been an amazing week filled with some serious ups and downs, but mostly tons of fun and relaxation...i'll backtrack.

New Year's Eve in Thailand. We didn't know what to expect, but there was supposed to be a ton of fireworks...and that there were. Lauren and I got all geared up after a fun day and facials, trying to look pretty for once in our dark dank hotel room. Me with my new jeans (i was VERY excited to wear jeans again) and lauren with her very cute hilltribe dress. It's hard to feel presentable when traveling and you have 1 outfit for cool weather. So we just hit the street heading to where the big celebration was, it was great. They set off paper lanterns on fire every night here, but on new years it looked like there were orange stars all night long! It was so amazing, and yes, a huge fire hazard...and yes, we did see one hit a power line! but hey, it's asia...whatcha gonna do? That's what we always say anyway.

But anyway, it was beautiful. So we decided to grab our favorite street waffles and walk along the top of the moat wall since you could only do it that night. Then we wandered in and out of bars, where i was told i looked like Lindsey Lohan by this middle-aged thai woman...right! That was too funny. Oh, i forgot to mention, we bought tierras earlier in the day and they ended up being a huge hit. All the thais just loved it and it just made the street party seem that much friendlier. So right, wandering around going to bars...about to head to the center of the crowd to watch the fireworks...then we heard about Bangkok. 7 bombs. Bangkoks celebration was canceled. We were a little freiked out and had NO desire to be in any sort of crowd. We decided to call our boyfriends and tell them we were okay and then ran quickly through the crowd and headed to a bar across the street to watch the fireworks, they were really amazing. It ended up being a really fun night and pretty bizarre, as everything always seems to be on this trip. The terrorist scare was pretty crappy, but nothing ended up being a problem so no worries. Apparently there was a bomb found in Chiang Mai at the one Mosque here, but it was diffused. What's wrong with this world..really? Stupid terrorists.

The next morning was rough, we had to check out early. We caught train to Chiang Dao expecting greatness...that we found.