July 31 - to the Big Island and then home

Sorry that we've been lax in updating our journey. We're keeping busy from morning to night here in beautiful Hawaii. In 15 minutes we leave for our last sidetrip before returning to the mainland. On the Big Island, we'll see volcanoes and waterfalls in a quick trip before our return to Honolulu for the flight back tomorrow evening.

Here, we've seen the city and the beaches, the Dole Plantation, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, with the Arizona Memorial, the Bowfin sub, and the Mighty Missouri battleship. We also visited the National Cemetery in the Punchbowl crater, and quickly saw the inside of Diamondhead crater. Chris even took us to the Navy Exchange! You'll see and hear much more later!

July 28 - Honolulu and Waikiki

Joyce and I are enjoying Hawaii, for lots of reasons. Chief, of course, is to reconnect with friends Chris and Donna. It's also especially nice to hear English spoken most everywhere, to be able to read the signs, and to generally know the "rules". This clearly isn't Indiana, but it does feel much more like home than where we've been.

The scenery is just outstanding! We're out and on the go a lot, and I'm using our hosts dial-up for this quick post, but I'll try to add some photos before we leave. For now, take my word for it if you haven't been here...the colors are out of this world.

Today we head for the middle of the island. We'll stop by the Dole Plantation this morning, and spend the bulk of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Tomorrow, Chris will guide us through the Arizona Memorial and the Mighty Mo at Pearl Harbor. Then it's off to the Big Island to see volcanoes on our last day of sightseeing before returning to the Mainland.

It's been a great trip! We'll fill in the gaps of our blog upon our return so that we have an account of all the fabulous things we've seen and done.

Most Recent Postings

The most recent postings to this blog are for July 26 and 27 as well as a bunch of pictures from earlier in the trip with "Hello" (It's great to have time and a fast internet connection here at the airport!). Previous to that in the last week, we updated July 20 and 21. We're filling in the gaps as we have the time and energy.

I have a lot of pictures to go through, not surprisingly. I'm over 4000 total as of now.

July 27 – Travel Day

It’s hard to call this day the 27th, since we got out of bed at 2:30 am Bangkok time to make the final push to get to the airport in time for our 6 am flight. Quick showers and shoving the last few things into the suitcases was accomplished early and we were off on schedule. Fred drove his car, and Jane went with us. There was little traffic at that time of the morning, but we did pass a small “parade” of farmers in their version of tractors on the highway. They had been in town to protest the farmers’ debt, asking the government to do something about it. I later saw in the Bangkok paper on the plane that the Prime Minister had agreed to personally take charge of the situation.

We left Thailand with a couple more bags than we came with, but while full, they were all well under the weight limitations. We were plenty early, partly because we beat the “2-hours-ahead-of-time” crowd by about ten minutes, putting us at the front of the line. The plane was a bit late taking off, but was uneventful, and as short as a 6-hour flight could be. Arrival in Tokyo was a bit early, and in spite of the recent typhoon that came through here, the sky is bright blue.

The flight to Honolulu doesn’t leave for another 6 hours, so we’ve got some time to kill now.

Getting to some of the temples meant negotiating very steep, very narrow steps.
Posted by Picasa

Everywhere you look in the Angkor ruins, there are doors and windows, perfectly aligned. Most of these temples were built between 700 and 1000 years ago!
Posted by Picasa

One of the temples in Angkor Thom that is undergoing some reconstruction, mostly using existing stones that have fallen from the structure.
Posted by Picasa

One of the many children in and around Angkor Thom.
Posted by Picasa

Alan, comparing his profile with one of the Hindu gods.
Posted by Picasa

Sharon and Joyce learn more about carvings from Chanthla.
Posted by Picasa

Our guide, Chanthla, giving us a description and history of some of the carvings.
Posted by Picasa

Some of the amazing carvings at Angkor Thom. Practically every inch of the many temples and buildings are covered with carvings.
Posted by Picasa

Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom. This temple has more than 50 towers that represent the Hindu god, Brahmin. Each tower has 4 faces.
Posted by Picasa

The main entry bridge into Angkor Thom. Some of the heads are original, and others are replacements (amazingly, the ones that don't look so good are probably the replacements!)
Posted by Picasa

The "hardware store" stall at the Siem Reap Old Market.
Posted by Picasa

Recent Purdue Chemistry graduate, Emma Doud, met Alan and Joyce and cousins for dinner to share and compare Thai stories.
Posted by Picasa

Fruit drinks, fruit shakes, and iced tea with milk became favorite drink choices of the Indiana crew.
Posted by Picasa

Throughout SouthEast Asia, we were constantly being told to Mind our Step, or Mind our Head, or mind something. Did our mothers call ahead and tell them we might have a problem minding?
Posted by Picasa

Joyce and Alan helping one of the Royal Guards keep watch at the Grand Palace.
Posted by Picasa

Getting a demonstration of how to fold lotus blossoms at the Grand Palace.
Posted by Picasa

Naga heads helping to protect one of the major structures at the Grand Palace.
Posted by Picasa

Lotus flowers are everywhere. This one was at the Grand Palace.
Posted by Picasa

This was a fairly typical street scene about anywhere we went in Bangkok. Here a tuk tuk is loaded with vegetables for transport.
Posted by Picasa

Traditional Thai massage being performed on the street to one of the kick boxers in Bangalampoo.
Posted by Picasa

Some of the stupas at Wat Po. The remains (ashes) of individual special people are contained in these larger stupas. Stupas that are bigger than this are known as pagodas.
Posted by Picasa

A stone guardian at Wat Po
Posted by Picasa

Roast Duck in a shop window in Chinatown.
Posted by Picasa

Learn English and Thai while waiting at the bus stop!
Posted by Picasa

July 26 - Final Details in Bangkok

It's hard to believe that our time in Bangkok is finally coming to a close. When we first started talking about this trip, we knew that we needed to spend three weeks "to get our money's worth" for the plane tickets. Yet, we wondered what we would do for three weeks. We'd never spent that long away from home and in a different place. Today, as we were taking care of last minute errands, we had quite a list of things that hadn't been done.

We spent the morning with laundry and gathering up the things from throughout the apartment that had been separated from our room. Alan worked at getting the packing organized and begun. We knew we'd need the extra duffel bags to get our souvenir purchases home, but when it came down to getting them all together, there were some tense moments.

Alan went for another massage downstairs. A different woman did it this time, and her technique was somewhat different. She actually spent more time on the muscle groups that need stretching and on the back, which felt great. I wonder if niece Emily would consider taking some Thai Massage classes as a part of her physical therapy training. I felt like what I got from the massage therapists here was at least as helpful and probably much more helpful than what I found from physical therapy in the States. My therapist seemed to understand the muscle groups and their working quite well.

Alan and Joyce both went downtown one last time to handle some of those errands that had to wait until the last minute. We went to our old friend MBK, as well as Amarin Center and Central Department stores. There are so many other places we could have explored, but we knew those places well enough to get what we wanted without too much delay.

After returning home, we did more packing and then met Fred at a local Thai seafood restaurant. The food was very good, and the service was excellent. The English lacked a little bit, but the enthusiasm made up for it. Fred and Jane had suggested it for last night, but we elected to go Italian instead!

Upon our return to the apartment, Alan and Fred had a good heart-to-heart talk about life issues in the computer room while Joyce and Jane held forth in the living room. It was finally time to put the finishing touches on the packing, and now it's time to get a little sleep before our 3:30 am departure for the airport tomorrow morning. If things go well, we'll spend some of our long layover in Tokyo getting the blog updated for past days. Otherwise, the next post is likely to come from the United States, albeit Hawaii.

Wow

Nipaporn's nickname is Wow. Here are some pictures of our wonderful visit. More to come later!

July 21 - Train to Phitsanulok

We’ve taken planes, cars, taxis, rapid transit, taxi boats, bamboo rafts, tuk tuks, and even an elephant. Today we added train and pickup taxi.

Our day started with oversleeping for the first time. Fortunately, we had done the vast majority of packing the previous evening, so we were able to make up for lost time pretty quickly and get back on schedule after eating breakfast in the hotel.

We had been told by the Tourisma person the first night that we should have the bellman get us a cab at 7 which would give us enough time to get to the train station before boarding. Next up in our set of misunderstandings, or misleadings, was that the cabbies were still sleeping at that time (We got that from the bellman who laid his head over his hands, as if sleeping. There was less English in Chiang Mai than the other places we’ve been.) The bellman was able to find us a private car for 200 baht, and we felt that we didn’t have much choice.

So we arrived at the train station and found that all was in order, and we were an hour plus early for the train. Again, there was very little English in the station, so when an Australian bloke struck up a conversation, we had a pleasant diversion. He was accompanying a Thai woman back to Australia after about 4 weeks in northern Thailand, and was glad to have some English conversation for a change, even if he found our accent to be a bit funny.

The train was a little late, but it was very pleasant, with a great view of the mountains and valleys on the way to Phitsanulok. The trip took a bit more than 6 hours, but we got fed a couple of times, the car was air conditioned, and we had more room than the plane.

When we arrived at Phitsanulok, we were supposed to be met by one of the Compassion workers who would take us to the hotel. We didn’t know where the reservation had been made for us, so we were sort of stuck. Joyce called our Compassion contact, and she quickly gave us the name of the hotel and the contact for tomorrow. Our correspondence had clearly said that we would be met on arrival, so here was another misunderstanding/misinformation piece. There was a taxi driver nearby who had talked with me a couple of times, so he offered to take us for only 50 baht, and wouldn’t negotiate. Again, we didn’t have a lot of choices, since his English would turn out to be the best we’d hear today, other than from our Australian traveling comrade. The hotel was relatively close (probably no more than 5 to 10 minutes from the train station), and we got the view from the back of a taxi/pickup for the first time.

Once at the hotel, we apparently didn’t have a reservation, and only the manager seemed to know any English. We also apparently scared the front desk staff by speaking English. The manager was able to say enough that we understood that we were getting a deluxe room for 790 baht a night, including breakfast (less than $20 American). The hotel seemed clean and nice enough, and again, what choice did we have?

We were pretty worn out, and definitely felt like aliens, so we elected to stay in the room. It began to rain, so that seemed like a good choice. We watched a movie and slept a bit, and finally felt brave enough to venture out. A few blocks away, we saw a sign for KFC, so headed that direction. Joyce was still a bit timid after her recent bout with intestinal trouble, so something American sounding seemed like a pretty safe thing. It turned out that it was part of a large department store/mall complex. So we were able to purchase the towels we wanted for Nipaporn’s family. So with our purchases complete and supper in a sack, we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

I wanted to try and post this and some other pictures, but wasn’t able to figure out how to make a connection to an outside line, and a call to the front desk proved completely fruitless. My lack of Thai and their lack of English didn’t create any connection. Getting back to Bangkok is looking pretty appealing right now. But tomorrow is one of the day’s we’ve been anticipating, so barring any more misstatements, on with the show!

July 20 - Doi Suthep

This morning Jo, our guide, picked us up and took us to an old temple inside the walled portion of Old Chiang Mai. The grounds were covered with school children who were opening the Buddhist Lent holiday. Tomorrow is the first day of a 4 day holiday beginning the Buddhist Lent. During this several week period the monks are required to stay at the temple to pray and meditate. Large yellow decorative candles are presented as gifts to the monks as symbols of the days they would have needed the candles to pray and study.

Jo then drove us up the mountain called Doi Suthep to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the most revered Buddhist shrine in northern Thailand. A white elephant is believed to have carried a sacred relic of Buddha up the mountain to this spot. The temple was crowded with people lighting incense, receiving blessings from the monks and giving the monks gifts of food for the Lenten season. The temple had many Buddha statues, numerous carvings and a pagoda covered in gold leaf. Normally there is a great view of Chiang Mai from the temple grounds, but low clouds prevented our viewing of the city from above.

On our way back to the car we stopped at a jade factory. We watched a short movie about the different kinds of jade and then saw several workers carving statues and setting jade stones in jewelry. There was a large jewelry store connected to the factory. Jade is mined in many colors, from the green we normally see to lavender, gold and white. We looked at several pendants and earrings combining lavender jade with blue sapphires. They were very beautiful, but the cost was more than we wanted to pay.

We left the jade factory, and drove down the mountain, stopping at a small waterfall. It started to rain, so we didn’t stay long. It was close to noon and I was getting hungry. I had eaten only toast and tea for breakfast as my first food since my bout with intestinal trouble. Jo suggested a small restaurant. I was leary as Thai food didn’t sound, wise at this point. We went and Jo helped me order a clear soup with broth, coconut milk, chicken and vegetables, but no spices. The waitress looked at me a question in her eyes, but wrote it down. The manager came over and asked if we were sure we wanted no spices. Alan had Pad Thai and Jo has a basil dish with fish. The soup was very good and was not spiced, except for slices of ginger, with I could avoid. With a side of rice it was filling and bland, which was good. Alan enjoyed the Pad Thai as well. Of course, we had the fruit shakes as well.

The afternoon tour was to cover the factories producing the various traditional Thai crafts; sapphire and ruby jewelry, silverware, and silk weaving. We have heard from several people that you needed to buy from the factories to make sure you were buying authentic items. We quickly discovered the factory tours were quick surface looks at the production process on the way to large showrooms of merchandise for purchase. We came to Thailand hoping to find sapphire jewelry for my upcoming “special birthday”. We saw a very beautiful pendant with blue, yellow, pink and white sapphires that we came close to purchasing. While it was truly unique with sapphires of clarity better than I’ve ever seen, neither of us could spend the money required. I would have only been comfortable wearing it on very special occasions! We visited the other showrooms and purchased a couple scarves and a pearl bracelet, both inexpensive thanks in part to the rising value of the dollar in comparison to the Thai baht. We specifically asked to see the weavers and were able to see the silk woven on hand looms.

Purchasing anything at a market or in a factory showroom is quite an experience. No prices are marked. At a market, the attendant of each stall speaks to you and picks up anything your eyes land on for more than a few seconds. They open packages and lay the item out fully for you to look at. Any excuse is used to tell you the item is discounted, such as you are their first customer of the evening, if you buy, they will be lucky, etc. If you refuse the price, they ask you what you will pay. You need to be careful here, as you need to be sure you will pay what you say or go considerably lower so they will counter. At the factory showrooms, you have one, two, or three personal attendants that follow you around the store to show you anything you show the slightest interest in and suggest other colors if you put something back and start to walk on. Prices are supposed to be fixed, but almost every time, our attendant would tell us that, but say she would talk to her manager. The manager comes over and gives you a lower price. If you say no, you praise the item and thank them for the price, assuring them you know the item is worth the price, but it’s still more than you can pay. As you leave, your attendant will stop you near the door, tell you they want you to be happy, and ask you to give them a price to take back to their manager. The next time I become frustrated in a US store when there is no one available to help me, I hope I remember to stop and appreciate the ability to look and think about potential purchases in silence!

After the factory tours, we went back to the hotel for a short nap. We then visited the night market for a few final gifts. We decided to eat at Burger King as we had eaten Thai food for lunch. The milkshake was a familiar treat. We washed out some clothes to dry over night and packed as we leave Chiang Mai early tomorrow morning.

Night Bazaar near our hotel in Chiang Mai.
Posted by Picasa

July 19 - Elephants!

Elephant training

Elephant riding

Hill tribe shopping

Ox Cart riding

Lunch

Bamboo rafting

Orchid and Butterfly farm



Night Bazaar

July 18 - In Chiang Mai

Just a quick update to let you know that we're in Chiang Mai at the Chiang Mai Plaza. It's a beautiful hotel, but as always, there's a story that we'll put up in a day or so.

We have some blog notes from our trip to Cambodia, but I don't know when we will get them posted for you. It was an amazing trip...completely unlike anything we've done before....wait a minute, this whole trip is unlike anything we've done before. The ancient ruins we saw will only come to life with the stories that go along with the amazing carvings, so we'll need to get them straight in our heads before we can help you understand. We'll probably try to do it with pictures and captions, but that might also take a while.

Off to ride the elephants tomorrow!

July 17 - Last Cambodian Tour day

Preah Khan

Neak Pean

Eastern Mebon

Prerup

Break and lunch

Artisans d’ Angkor

Floating village
























Dinner with Chanthla and his wife

July 16 - More Angkor Temples

Drive to Banteay Srey

Cambodian country side –As we drove the approximate one hour to Banteay Srey, we drove through the Cambodian country side. Jungle at one time, the land is now divided into small rice fields, surrounded by earth dams. Though it is the rainy season, Cambodia is currently experiencing a drought. The fields need to be wet to plant rice, so most of the fields are not planted. Around the fields are sugar palm trees and brush. Water buffalo and cattle graze in fields.






Cambodian village – On the drive, we came to a village along the road. Most houses are one or two rooms and sit on stilts, one story up. Most of the houses had thatched roofs and outer walls, made of palm branches in a bamboo frame. The houses had windows without glass or screens. Often the windows and porch had a tarp covering it to protect from the sun and rain. Under the houses were motor bikes, hammocks, etc. The yard was dirt. Most houses had a dog, chickens and a cow or two. Some had pigs.

Banteay Samre

Break and lunch

Prasat Kravan

Ta Prohm

Ta Keo

Toumanoun Temple

Victory Gate



Balloon ride












Sunset at Phnom Bakeng – This temple is built on a hill. There are three ways to get up the hill. You could climb up a straight up stone path with stairs in some places, or ride an elephant up or walk the elephant path. Alan chose the stone path and Joyce chose to walk the elephant path. Sharon wanted to ride the elephant up, but elephant rides were for two people, so she walked with Joyce and Chanthla.

Rain storm

Drying out