Shangri-La

The Kingdom of Angkor.... here it is. We have so many pictures it was really hard to decide which ones to put on the blog. Unfortunately I was also really disappointed with how a lot of them actually looked after I posted them. For some reason they looked really washed out. This first photo is the famous Angkor Wat at sunrise. It was an early wake-up and a long wait, but well worth the effort.

It was by far one of the most amazing temples due to the size and detail of the place. We were blown away with the carvings on the walls of all the temples. Literally all the walls were engraved with pictures and stories of ancient history.

We explored Angkor Wat for about 2 hours it was so huge. It has many buildings and they let you climb all over it, which made things very interesting. Many countries from around the world have decided to help with the restoration of certain temples. So many of the temples were under construction while we were exploring them which was a little frustrating when trying to get pictures. I had to be careful to avoid scaffolding.

This is the entry way through a wall that surrounds a large section of the city. I always thought that that was the face of Buddha but it is actually the face of the King.

The king had his face all over this temple, the Bayon. I think we counted about 50.

So many elephants, this is called the parade of elephants.

Some of the steps got too tiny and steep (and were covered in a fine dust) I didn't dare go up this one after our tuktuk driver told us a man from Korea fell last week and had to be air lifted to the hospital. For those of you who remember the Mooney Falls episode I had, remember I do not do well with heights.

The Silk Wood trees were my favorite they really add to the mystique of the temples. We felt like Indiana Jones.

Isn't it amazing how large these trees have grown since the city has fallen?

I wish these pictures didn't get so small and washed out this picture is beautiful. My blog doesn't do it justice.

Another favorite spot.

Peter really wanted to try a coconut because everyone said that they were delicious. So we decided we need to try one and thats when we found out coconut juice is terrible. I had to throw it out of the tuktuk because neither one of us was willing to drink it and it was splashing everywhere, they hold a lot of juice.

This was a door way.

This sight was amazing. Although it was extremely far away, required a long hike and led to an interesting argument with our tuk tuk driver it was worth the effort. The river was engraved with religious symbols for ritual purposes.

"I ain't lyin' , it's the Bayon." Peter was really wanting that to post his new catch phrase. Don't tell him but I don't think its that funny. Cambodia was our favorite part of the trip we have so many stories and details about the temples that I was not willing to write out. I really just wanted everyone to see the pictures and get an idea of the adventures that we had. I am sure Peter will go back and edit my post and input information about all the temples.

Mekong Delta Mama Blues

Immediately after arriving in Vietnam at the Siagon airport Peter and I knew Vietnam was going to be a difficult leg of our adventure. While at the Visa station they gave us an incorrect currency exchange, from yen to dollars. So Peter was already in a bad mood, then we tried to pull cash out of our bank account containing most of our money to use on this trip, and it didn't work. Come to find out our bank card had expired 1 month before our trip (the one thing we forgot to check). This made for a very interesting trip. Finally, while trying to catch a taxi we found out that Vietnam is a very aggressive and sassy country. Nobody would cut us a break. They all wanted to overcharge us for their services. We had only been in the country for 2 hours but we were already exhausted.

Our first day out was spent exploring the Cu Chi tunnels. This is me getting into one of their entrances. As you can see, it was extremely small. I was the only one brave enough to do it.

Although, you can't really see how small these tunnels are they are super tiny, you had to squat to walk through. They have even been enlarged to allow us oversized westerners to crawl through them. Unfortunately, due to my fear of small spaces and some really strong B.O. coming from the couple in front of us Peter and I weren't able to make it all the way through the tunnel. These tunnels were used by the Vietcong to hide from the American soldiers. It was a very difficult place to visit being the only Americans on our tour and having a tour guide that openly hated Americans. But we love America and held our hands high when our tour guide asked, "Are there any Americans here today?"

After an extremely disturbing stop at the Vietnam War Museum (Seriously, I really don't even like talking about it. I thought that it was terrible and completely biased) we took a ride on a couple of cyclos. I was really enjoying being among the chaos of the streets of Siagon, but Peter was very suspicious about his driver (notice the furrowed brow). That guy ended up short changing Peter by giving him back 4000 dong instead of the 40,000 dong he owed him. It's really the difference of like 2 dollars, but that's not the point.

The streets of Siagon are out of control. They say there are 10 million people in Siagon and 8 million motorcycles. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the number of motorcycles was blowing our minds. Crossing the street would just about give anyone a heart attack. No one ever stops. You just have to throw caution to the wind and walk while the motorcycle swerve around you. You would see 5 or 6 people on one scooter (i.e. a dad driving, a mom behind him with an infant in her arms, a toddler in very front standing between the dads legs, a child pinched between the mom and dad and quite possibly another child behind the mom holding a dog.

Ever seen a cock fight? We have. Don't worry it wasn't to the death, but it sure was strange.

While on our tour of the Mekong Delta we stopped by a couple island villages. This one is big on raising snakes to eat and make into cute wallets or snake skin boots.

Peter is the cutest. Just look at that beard. Isn't it beautiful? This photo was taken while riding from island to island on long boats. I now understand why these hats are worn all throughout Asia. They are extremely functional.

Vietnam's love of Ho Chi Minh was out of control. Doesn't he kinda look like C3PO in this photo?

We were able to visit a floating market. The kids are extremely cute, but their parents use them as a marketing tool to lure foreigners in. And, of course, our sympathies made us all buy at least one bushel of bananas from them.

Better late than never on the vacation posts I will try and get the Cambodia section up soon.

To Live Is To Fly

Even at 4 o'clock in the morning, the only word that could describe Lacy's feelings about leaving Japan on our big vacation was "jazzed". Notice the hand.

This was our first day in Bangkok. All we had with us was our travel guide and our backpacks. Like any other first-timers, we made our way to Khao San Rd. where we found a decent enough guesthouse to stay in and a melting pot of international travelers. With street venders taking up every inch of the sidewalk, it felt a bit crowded; but the spread of cheap pad thai, fresh fruit, and excellent turkish kabobs made Khao San Rd. a Dangerford favorite.

Getting lost was something that happened a lot, but no matter where we got lost there was always something amazing to see ... or eat. This is just one of the great neighborhoods that we stumbled upon while wondering around. I loved how colorful it was and the big trees.

Had we thoroughly read through Lonely Planet we would have known how to better deal with tuk tuk (kind of like a taxi) drivers. Unfortunately, we believed the man that told us Chinatown was closed until 11 am and let him take us all over town. After the tailor shop he did take us to "the giant buddha" which was neat.

Unlucky for me, that unfortunate experience with the tuktuk driver made Peter ridiculously paranoid that everyone was trying to screw him over. He was very hesitant the rest of the trip to trust anyone (sometimes it was a good thing).

We finally made it to Chinatown and realized how foolish we were to believe that it was closed. Its a town! I think we were just a little overwhelmed and probably a little tired. The first night we spent in Bangkok they had fireworks going on literally right above our hostel till 3am, it was shaking the building.

Here is a picture of a tuktuk. When the owner of this vehicle saw me taking a picture of it he proceeded to tell us that the license plate for his tuktuk cost 100,000,000 baht (thai currency). Converted into dollars that is over 3 million dollars. I think he wanted me to pay him for taking the picture.

The next day in Bangkok we set out to find the Grand Palace, again we were told "it's closed for... eating and praying things." We decided to check it out for ourselves and found that it was open.

The entire palace is covered in gold.

Sorry for taking so long to post about our trip we have been pretty busy. Part 2 "The Depths Of The Cuchi Tunnels" will hopefully be up soon.