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10 June - First full day in Thailand. Katie and Eric and I all arrived safely. I came through Hong Kong. They came through Tokyo. Today we toured the Jim Thompson House (museum), did some shopping, and had a 60 minute aromatic oil massage (very relaxing). Tonight we are planning to go to Vientienne Kitchen for some Isan style Thai food along with traditional Northeastern Thai music and dancing. |
 The star female imperosonator of the Mambo Cabaret and Don, posing for photo after the show |
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11 June Took the skytrain to the Chao Phraya river and then took a river boat to Wat Po, where we saw a reclining Buddha 43 meters long. Took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun. Saw great musical dance review at night called Mambo. All of the entertainers are female impersenators (transgender illusionists), or "katoeys" as they are known in Thailand. |
 Amazing Thailand |
 Katie and Eric at Siem Reap Airport in Cambodia |
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12 June Departed Bangkok for Siem Reap, Cambodia where the temples of Angkor are located. Met my old driver Boeun from my 2000 trip at the airport. We all got a fantastic foot massage at Apsara Reflexology. We went out to a Phnom Bakheng around sunset which overlooks Angkor Wat. As we were descending the hill the sky opened up and it rained most of the night. |
 Katie and Eric on top of Phnom Bakeng - a temple on top of a hill where a lot of people go in the late afternoon to watch the sunset and Angkor Wat |
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13 June We toured The Bayon and some related temples this morning. It is hotter than the soles of Dante's sandals here; hotter than a Laredo parking lot. But we are having a great time. The town is flat as a pancake and we have rented bikes for $1 per day each. When I came here the first time in 2000 there were no stop lights; now there are two. Everything moves at a nice, slow pace here. We had torrential rains this evening. |
 Ta Phrom |
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14 June Toured Ta Phrom, which is a really unique temple in that they have not cleared away the giant fig trees that have virtually destroyed it. In the afternoon we toured Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure in stone. It was constructed at around the same time as the Notre Dame cathederal in Paris. Last night we went to a cello concert of Bach music by Dr. Beat (Beatocello) Richner, a Swiss doctor who runs a children's hospital here in Sime Reap. He is a great humanitarian, and he is also a great cellist. |
 Katie at Angkor Wat |
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15 June We went to Bantey Srei about 35 clicks north of Siem Reap - a small temple but renowned for the excellent quality of its carvings. In the afternoon we drove down to the floating village on the Tonle Sap lake, rented a boat and toured the fishing village. It is an amazing place. The fishing village people are about 40 percent Vietnamese and 60 percent Khmer. They each have their own style of floating house. We saw a floating Roman Catholic Church (for the Vietnamese), floating school, floating pig farm, floating you name it. There is just no way to describe this place, but I have taken over 300 digital photos so far and 8 hours of video. In the evening we convinced our driver, and good friend, Boeun, to bring his wife and son to join us for a traditional Khmer dancing show and buffet. Boeun and his son came along, but Mrs. Boeun was a little under the weather from some dodgy food she ate earlier in the day. Boeun is a really nice guy, and he works very hard. He has a very cute son, who is two and smart as a whip. He can count to 20 in English and to 50 in Khmer. The situation is really grave right now in Siem Reap, which is heavily dependent on tourism. Cambodia is SARS free, but the tourists are staying away in droves nonetheless. It is also the run up before the election next month, and tourists are worried that the instability and skirmishes between the 3 main parites that broke out in 1997 will happen again. Hopefully things will improve after the election. We arrived in Siem Reap on June 12, and we were Boeun's first client all month. The car drivers only charge $20 for the entire day, and the moto drivers $5. |
 Katie and a Cambodian Buddhist monk at Angkor Wat |
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16 June packing up and travelling - Siem Reap to Bangkok to Ko Samui |
 Ko Samui |
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17 June Eric and I rented motorbikes while Katie took a refresher scuba lesson in-the-pool before our scuba & snorkeling outing on 18 June. Eric and I tried to drive across the island on a dirt road but we kept sliding out part way up the mountain, so we had to abandon that plan. We also went to see Phra Yai (the Big Buddha), Hin Ta and Hin Ya (father rock and mother rock), and the Mummy Monk at Wat Kunaram. We were on the motorbikes from 11am until 7pm, so we had a full day. We arrived on Ko Samui (Samui Island) yesterday from Cambodia by way of Bangkok. It is beautiful here - white sand beaches - coconut trees everywhere - and, with the sea breeze, a good deal cooler than in Siem Reap. We went all out on dinner last night and ate at a nice seafood restaurant where they have all the fresh seafood iced down in a small boat out front. You pay so much per kilo for whatever you want and they charcoal grill it or prepare it one of several different ways. |
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18 June We left for the boat around 7am and were on the boat for about 2 hours until we reached the dive site, which is called sail rock. It was mostly scuba divers, including Katie. Only Eric and I, and a few others went along for snorkeling. This was only my 3rd time to snorkel (twice before at Molokini Crater on Maui), but this place far surpassed Maui. We saw all sorts of beautiful fish and plants - even a moray eel. |
 Katie and Eric in the pool at the Nara Garden Resort on Ko Samui |
 Katie and Eric at the Big Buddha |
 Mummy Monk at Wat Kunaram |
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19 June We are moving to the north side of the island for the last 2 nights on Ko Samui - to a resort that is much more secluded and away from the nightly hustle and bustle along Chaweng Beach Road. |
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20 June We are now at Nara Garden Resort at Big Buddha Beach on the north side of Ko Samui. It is very tranquil and we are among only a handful of guests at the resort right now. SARS is definitely having an impact on the tourist trade over here in Asia. Katie had a massage by Ms. Tong, a Cambodian lady who hangs out on the beach in front of our resort, and I had two - one yesterday and today. She uses coconut oil and some sort of menthol cream, like tiger balm - and works you for over an hour. It is very relaxing and therapeutic. For the past two days we have just relaxed - swam in the pool - drank a lot of fruit shakes, especially watermelon fruit shakes - and naam manao (fresh limeades). Tomorrow we are travelling to the far north of Thailand to Chiang Mai for 4 nights there before returning to Bangkok for a couple of nights before heading back. Tonight we ate at a place called the Red Snapper. They featured some Mexican dishes and had a Thai folk singing duo that did songs from the 60's and 70's - Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, etc. It was a lot of fun. We are going for the signature dessert at Montien House - a hollowed out coconut with ice cream, watermelon, pineapple, shaved coconut, cashew nuts. It is, as they say in Thai, arroy ti sud (the most delicious). |
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21 June We packed up and left the beautiful island of Ko Samui and headed north to Chiang Mai by way of Bangkok. This is the place to go if you want to stretch your dollars. An air-con room with hot shower is 10 bucks. Breakfast is a buck. Everything here is a good deal cheaper than on the resort islands. Katie got measured for a custom tailored jacket, pants, and skirt, which will be ready by the time we leave Chiang Mai to return to Bangkok. |
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22 June Katie and Eric are following in Zack and my footsteps and are taking a Thai cooking course today at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. We have booked a half day tour of the Doi Suthep Temple tomorrow, and a day trek for the following day, which includes a visit to 3 hilltribe villages, an hour and a half elephant ride (I swore I would never ride one again) and bamboo rafting. The rafts are made of long large diameter bamboo poles that are lashed together. You stand on the raft and steer with smaller bamboo poles. |
 Katie and Eric at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School |
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23 June Katie and Eric gave cooking school "two thumbs up". This morning we went with a guide named Pop up to a Meo Hill Tribe Village, the King's Winter Palace, and to the premier temple of the north, Wat Doi Suthep. Pop was a good guide but a lousy driver, and everyone came back with motion sickness. The road up to Doi Suthep was very steep and curvy; not unlike the famous Hana Highway on the north side of Maui. The famous guitar player, Took, was not playing at his restaurant last night. He had taken a few days off to go home to visit his mother. They had a very good Thai duo singing American folk songs however. |
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24 June We went trekking today - an all-inclusive one day trek that included a hike up a mountain, a visit to two hill tribe villages, about an hour long ride on elephants, a swim in a really nice waterfall, and an hour or so of bamboo rafting down a river. We had a great time. |
 Katie, Eric and another trekker bamboo rafting on a day trek north of Chiang Mai |
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25 June We flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok this morning and took a bus over to Khao San Road - the largest backpacker enclave in the world. It is hard to imagine how many cheap hotels and guesthouses are packed into this small area. Late afternoon we jumped in a cab to head over to The Banyan Tree, a ritzy hotel with a rooftop bar on the 60th floor to meet J.T. (aka James Thomas, aka Suun Suun Jet) and watch the sunset from way up high. The cab ride was hellish - over an hour - but we made it in time. Eric and I were precluded from going in until we agreed to put on some loaner pants over our shorts. The largest pair they had for me was a size 35 & 1/2 waist, so I had to leave them unzipped with my shirt tail out. But it was worth it; the view was spectacular. After dinner with J.T., we headed back over to Khao San Road, which had been turned into a pedestrian mall like Sixth Street in Austin or Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It was a very festive atmosphere dominated by young people from all over the world. |
 Hogs being hauled to market on the back of the motorbikes in Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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26 June I got bumped into first class from business class for the 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, which was was a nice perk. Cleared customs in L.A. and took a short flight to San Francisco, arriving home around 6:15pm. I am sitting in the Cathay Pacific business class lounge at Bangkok International Airport, waiting for my flight to board in an hour. Katie and Eric have one more full day in Bangkok and a very early flight tomorrow. It has been a great vacation. I think I took 600 or so digital pictures and 10 hours of video, so it was a well-documented trip as well as a fun trip. |
 Red hot chili peppers at the market in Siem Reap, Cambodia |
 Don and Chang, a moto driver and good friend, from the Chenla Guest House in Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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26 June I got bumped into first class from business class for the 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, which was was a nice perk. Cleared customs in L.A. and took a short flight to San Francisco, arriving home around 6:15pm. I am sitting in the Cathay Pacific business class lounge at Bangkok International Airport, waiting for my flight to board in an hour. Katie and Eric have one more full day in Bangkok and a very early flight tomorrow. It has been a great vacation. I think I took 600 or so digital pictures and 10 hours of video, so it was a well-documented trip as well as a fun trip. |
 Katie whacking Eric with her purse for no apparent reason (it's the Irish temper) |
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27 June Katie and Eric arrived back in San Francisco from Bangkok by way of Tokyo. |
 at the Bayon temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia |
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 Another C.R.A.F.T Club production by The Donger |
