Part 1: Trip Overview

I've decided to split this post up so there will actually be 4 or 5. Seems better that way.

Attention anyone travelling to Thailand...some advice to make the trip go smoothly.

What to pack in Canada:
- IPOD!!!
- digital camera (bring computer cord, memory sticks to back up pics)
- proper outlet adapter for ipod, batteries, etc.
- sunscreen...and if you like a particular brand, take extra, they don't have the same stuff over there
- bugspray (even 20% Deet was working fine)
- clothes
--- silky sports shirts or golf shirts
--- silk boxers are great
--- button up shirts offer the best ventilation (wide open)
--- long pants (mosquitos and you need them for some temples)
--- long sleeved shirt (optional for up north)
- first aid kit
--- antibiotics
--- antibiotic ointment
--- bandaides
--- lots of advil
--- stomach and diarrhea meds
- silk sleeper
- travel towel
- Lonely Planet Thailand book
- books (you'll read a lot while travelling, Sudoku is also nice)
- good hiking sandles
- roll of toilet paper
- bathroom kit
- travel clock/alarm
- LED flashlight
- half dozen ziplock bags (very handy)
- passport holder
- alligator clip for money
- sign up for a Skype account (3 cents per min back to Canada)
- get traveller's insurance (I paid for mine in one day of hospital fees)

What to buy when you get there:
- sunglasses (if you want good ones buy from Canada)
- flip-flops
- extra t-shirts, button shirts, sleeveless shirts, shorts

Stuff you may or may not use:
- rain cover for backpack (depends more on the season)
- wire mesh to lock backpack (we only really used it once)
- buying a hammock there is nice but bulky to carry

This is just to get you started as you plan your trip. Read up on it lots in your Lonely Planet book before (also they EyeWitness Thailand book is very good to read before but not as helpful while IN Thailand). I think 3 weeks would be sufficient to see the best parts of Thailand, a week in each of the main areas I'll describe in the next posts. You could pack more stops into your trip but you'll find that too much of your time will be spent travelling. The places I'll recommend have a lot to see in a small area and you'll feel very satisfied at the end. I'll also add a few "extra" stops that should be next on the list for those with more vacation time.

Day 92: Last from Thailand, goodnight and good luck!

Alright, well, it's been a few days since we last wrote. We're back in Bangkok now, well into the return leg of our trip. Right now it's Friday afternoon, and we have almost exactly two days left until we take off for Kuala Lumpur. The recent terrorist scare could make our air travel a bit hectic, and hopefully we can successfully make all our connecting flights. I don't really feel like being stuck in LAX with all this hairy mess going on.

So last time we wrote we were still in Ko Samet. Things have changed since then. We are now deeply immersed in the urban sprawl, with a firm plant in the shopping district of Bangkok. It's actually quite an amazing district. Four different shopping complexes including one very cheaply priced one where we have managed to spend most of our time. We walk through the real stores, more just to oggle at the real stuff than anything else. Once we get that over and done with, we always seem to end up back at the cheap mall (MBK) where the deals are good, and the knockoffs are spectacular. I might actually make it back to Canada with some hint of style.

Over the past few days it's pretty much been a shop till you drop extravaganza. Three very full days of shopping, with a little bit in the way of sight seeing breaks thrown into the mix. For those of you who know me, know that if I find a good deal, it's a real problem getting me to back away. That would make MBK my heaven, and my pocketbook's hell. Everything is so cheap here, that I'm surprised I have any money left over. I'm pretty glad Mike and Nevin are here to calm me down, although they seem to be going at the same buying pace that I am.

Yesterday morning we decided to break away from the MBK stream, and head over to Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn) for a bit of sightseeing. It's really an amazing Temple. The whole structure is decorated with chipped pieces of ceramic. This dates back to when the chinese used the ceramic and porcelain as ballast in their merchant ships. At the middle is a towering 80-some metre spire. All in all, it was a pretty breathtaking sight.

After the sightseeing, it was off to Ko Sahn Road, to make a visit to the place where our whole journey began. We were NOT disappointed. We made a few not so small purchases, and soon, our backpacks and hands were full. One of the things I enjoyed the most was actually being able to see and discern between the two types of travellers. There were the ones who clearly were just starting a vacation, strapped securely with a money belt, no tan, a timid smile, and very wary eyes. We however are now fit into the category of the more experienced traveller. Seasoned barterers in all respects, nice light brown hue on the skin, no money belt to be seen, pockets of surf shorts loaded down with what remains of our funding, and willing to talk it up with all the street lackeys peddling their wares.

We found more than a few things that were cheaper on Ko Sahn than at MBK, so we loaded ourselves down for the day, managing once again to spend more money than we had budgeted. Why is it that spending so much money actually makes you feel like you saved even more?? If someone has a bright answer for that, please share, because I'm sure I could use it while trying to explain to the parents why giving me money is somehow in their best interest. After that we headed back to the good malls to peruse the real stores for a while. I know more than a few people that would be in heaven here. This is an abbreviated list of the stores I was in, just to get you salivating: Gucci, Armani, Coach, Burberry, Energie, Miss Sixty, Diesel, Rip Curl, Lacoste, Tag Heuer, DSquared... and the list goes on. We decided to relax a bit more that night, and went to check out Nascar 3D at the Imax theatre. It was pretty intense for me being that I've never seen a 3D movie before, but I think Nevin had it right when he complained about the movie. Pretty short, and although it gives a good intro to NASCAR, it's pretty much child's play if you know anything about the sport. It was entertaining though.

This morning we headed off to a site that Mike desperately wanted to see. His book said that there was a view point on top of the Shangri La Hotel, from which you can see all of Bangkok. It's supposed to be quite the picture opportunity. We arrived at the Shangri La only to find out that no such deck existed, although there was another hotel not too far away that had a restaurant at the top that we should be able to take pictures from, so off we went. Arrived at this hotel, fittingly much taller than the Shangri La, and about twenty metres from the door my sandal breaks. I decided to put some of that engineering knowledge to work and rig up a system with a luggage lock and put it back together. All in all, I would say that it was a stroke of genius. The sandal worked like a charm.

We then headed inside to see about making it to the top floor. At the elevator bank, we are greeted with the following sign:

No Sport or thong sandals
No Shorts or dirty trousers
No luggage of any sort
No ripped articles of clothing
Mens shirts must have collars and sleeves

What were we wearing you might ask?

Cut off t shirts, backpacks, surf shorts, and flip flops, not to mention that mine had a lock securing one side of them to the base. Quite the ramshackle crew to be heading to a five star restaurant. Needless to say, they didn't let us in. Another early morning wake up that was found to be completely useless. (Note: Picture is from Hard Rock Cafe Bangkok...not the nice hotel)

After that, we came back to MBK to finish up the rest of our shopping. I can say now that we are actually.... completely... utterly... DONE!!! If any of you want us to get you anything, wire the money, because the accounts are tapped. We've thrown in the towel, and we are now officially poor. Well, not poor enough to stop us from going to the outback steakhouse tonight for supper.

If any of you are wondering why we haven't been calling, the explanation goes like this. Skype won't let any of us put any more credits on the account with our credit cards, therefore, none of you get to hear our sparkling voices until we get home. Sorry to disappoint. We confirmed all our flights, and barring any unforseen difficulties, we should be home when we planned.

This looks like our last blog from Thailand, although Mike is going to put up some travelling hints once we get home. All three of us want to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy working days to read up on our exploits and live moderately vicariously through us. I know we didn't get as crazy as some of you may have hoped, but at the same time, broke the crazy meter for others. Overall, I hope that everyone was impressed at how we spent our last three months. I know I was. It's going to be hard leaving such a beautiful place, but I'm sure that coming home to see everyone again will make up for it and more. We all can't wait to see everyone again, and thanks once again for reading our ramblings. See you on the other side of the world.

Day 84: The Ultimate Backpackers..... Finally!

Well, it only took us three months, but we finally had a day that resembled what real backpackers are doing on their holidays. We don't try to hide the fact that we're fakers. We all know that most of the stuff we've been doing is the easy way in comparison to how we could be travelling. Our trip to Cambodia has been much more "traveller" than anything we've done to this point.

It all started in Kata Beach. Horrible day of rain, on what was to be our last beach day there. We decided to pick up and leave around noon, since there isn't much to do in a beach town with no sun to speak of. Off to Phuket Town we went. Last time we headed through the town, we noticed that there was a movie theater there. What better to do on a day of rain than take in a movie. Before the movie, we of course took advantage of the chance to get some more western food, so we stopped in at the Pizza Company to gorge ourselves on non stop pop and fantastic pizza.

For the movie, we decided to take in the only english soundtrack film there was. Miami Vice. I'd be lying if I said that this film is going to win awards for its fantastic dialogue. Think 'Fast and the Furious' crossed with 'Mighty Ducks.'It was a pretty entertaining film, but the fact that we had to lug our huge backpacks around for the whole day made it a bit worse. The other problem was the air conditioning in the theater. Being that we're relatively used to these warm climates, sitting in a room at 20C for two hours is a bit cold. Nevin and I both came out shivering, without feeling in our feet.

After that, it was the taxi to the airport. We got to the bus station to take a bus, so we had to climb into the back of a car to get there. If you've ever heard the song "Piece of Sh*t Car" by Adam Sandler, that's pretty much what we were in. A very rustic Toyota Tercel, with AC, but there was more heat and exhaust coming into the cab than cold air. There was a couple times I was pretty sure that we'd end up at the side of the road dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Made it to the airport in one piece, with plenty of time to spare before our flight.

Spent the next couple hours playing cards until our plane took off. Pretty good flight to Bangkok from Phuket, especially considering that it only cost us $33 each, including taxes. Tip to the wise- If you are heading to Thailand, be sure to book Air Asia flights a couple weeks in advance, as it is unbelievably cheap. Arrived at Bangkok around 1 in the morning, and there were no buses leaving for Aranya Prathet (Thailand side of the Cambodian border) until 5 in the morning. We decided to crash at the airport. We picked a place with more than a few other people sleeping on the floor, and decided to follow suit. Tried desperately to sleep for a few hours with CNN blaring in the background. By the way, if you didn't know, Fidel Castro has temporarily passed power of Cuba to his brother Raul. According to sources in Venezuela he is recovering well from his surgery.

At four in the morning, we caught a taxi over to the bus station. Jumped on the first bus, 5:00 AM, and man did that feel early after maybe sneaking thirty minutes of sleep the night before. Arrived at the Cambodian border around 9, and proceeded to be hustled through the border. $25 and an hour later, we were into Cambodian territory. This is a completely different world, being that they don't have much in the way of paved roads, and traffic in Bangkok looks serene comparitively speaking. Scooter drivers don't scare easily when they spend their lives surrounded by land mines. We met an Irish guy, and decided to split a car with him for the journey to Seam Reap. This is the city beside Angkor Wat, which apparently isn't enough of a reason to pave the roads to it.

The car ride was pretty insane. Zooming along at forty kilometres per hour, on a road littered with potholes that you could easily get lost in, with an ox cart a foot from you on your right, and oncoming traffic half a foot away on the left. More than a few hairy moments. At one point, we actually had to turn around and take a detour to avoid a rollover that happened ahead of us. Apparently this is a pretty normal occurence, and based on the fact that we saw a quarter ton ford truck with a load in the back towering at least 10 feet off the truck bed, I can see why. If you've ever seen how they loaded up the Grinch's sled in the animated classic, then you know exactly what I speak of.

Arrived at Seam Reap, and found a nice guest house, with Tuk Tuk drivers in abundance. Talked one of them into taking is on a tour the next day of all the temples for $18. If you ask me, $6 each for a day long tour all over the country side is pretty good. One of the biggest problems we had was waking up. Mike and I both fell asleep at around 6:30 in the afternoon, and Nevin crashed around 9. you'd think it would be fine waking up at 6 after that, but apparently it was harder than we assumed. The tour left at 7, so when I finally rolled over at 6:45, I was a little bit surprised. We skipped the breakfast ritual and opted instead for bananas and cookies that we bought the day before. A pretty good breakfast considering.

It cost $20 entrance into the area, and it was worth at least that much. To see so much history confined in such a small area was amazing. Angkor Wat was the obvious highlight, but there are so many other temples there that are equally as amazing. We took loads of pictures, so you'll all be able to sit through a long showing if you want. It will be tough explaining the day without the pictures to go along with it, so I'll sum it up by saying this: Many temples, many sights, and all of them worth the gruelling car ride to get here.

We head back tomorrow for beaches and sun. Hopefully my nose is done burning from its last encounter with the sun by the time we get there. Apparently overly cloudy days is no excuse to go without sunscreen. It seems like just yesterday the journey started, but here we are, just ten days from heading home, and it feels like we just got here. We're going to wrap up by trying to stretch out on the beach for three more days, and then head into the fray of Bangkok to get all our shopping done before the long trip home. Still feel free to send any emails if you do want us to pick something up for you, as long as it isn't heavy or too expensive, we're already pretty non existent in the money department as it is.