It looks a little different...

Yup, my blog looks a little different. I was ready for a change. Plus, the change comes with a new adventure. It is set - I'm going to Europe. First stop Florence and then Sicily! I leave in just less than a month, April 20th! This will be an 7+week adventure with Katie. More to come soon!

The last 3 weeks of pictures

Okay, so it has taken a little time getting use to being in Seattle. Trying to figure out where I fit in has been hard, but I figured it out - I don't fit in, I'm just visiting. I'm slowly but surely starting to get together with people. The first few days were a little overwhelming with the idea of seeing people. I'm starting my search for tickets to Europe; it looks like I will be leaving at the end of April to meet up with Katie. In the mean time I am kicking back and maybe cleaning house while I am in town. If you want to get together while I'm in Seattle please give me a call or email me. Here are a few pictures from the last three weeks of my trip with my parents. The whole time I was looking for our next “holiday card” picture... here are a few of the contenders.

Halong Bay - This was as nice as it got (weather wise). Our first day was very mystical with fog. 

The bummer part of Halong Bay was how nasty the water was. Anyone want to go swimming?

The family!

Hoi An - this was just about the only site seeing we did... we did a lot of shopping.

The family in Hue.

Liz and Terry's first Tuk-tuk ride in Phnom Penh.

Yes, that is a baby and a monkey sleeping on the woman's lap. This woman was begging at a Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh. 

Terry tried to ask the monk to take a picture of the three of us but the monk thought we wanted a picture with him. Finally after a little hand signaling we got both. 

Angkor Wat! This was my second time. I learned a lot the second time around - we had a nice tour guide. 

My favorite is still (this one) Bayon. 

Ta Promh - the tomb raider one... 

Sunrise! 

The names of everything on the second day slip my mind... getting up at 4:40am wasn't great for site seeing the rest of the morning. So this is... family at another old Wat... 

I got sick of just smiling for pictures. 

Vera (social worker), Liz, Terry, and Tipporn (nurse). These were our wonderful tour guides in Bangkok. Vera and Tripporn came to Seattle over the summer to look at hospitals and met Liz. They were so happy with their trip to Seattle that they showed us a very good time. 

 

That's it for SE Asia right now... I might continue the blog for Europe - I will let you know via email. Thanks for following me on my adventures - it was nice to know that people were interested in where I was and what I was doing! 

Back in Seattle and it's a little strange

I’m back and I have to say it is a little strange. Today I was with my parents shopping for groceries and I was standing watching people and it felt so odd. I miss SE Asia. I just miss it.

The plane ride back was fine, 13+ hours of flying plus some waiting time. We had a semi bumpy flight from Taipei to Seattle – I’m not sure exactly how bumpy it was – I took a sleeping pill and was happy to wake up and find that I only had two hours left until we were in Seattle. I’m not sure what time zone my body is in right now. The last few nights I have taken sleeping pills to try and get back into Seattle time. I tend to be waking up early and ready for bed in the afternoon.

I am in hibernation mode. It is COLD! Already I have seen snow, rain, sun, and wind all in one day. Somehow I managed to get some sort of stomach bug during our last few days in Bangkok and brought it home with me so I don’t feel the best. I think it is funny that the sickest I have felt has been on the way home and not when I first got to SE Asia. It’s funny how some things work.

Traveling with my parents was great. We managed not to get sick of each other the whole time and I am still happy to be with them. This week Terry heads back to being a handyman while Liz heads back to the VA. I will be working on adjusting to being in the US as well as going through all my pictures! I’m trying to cut down my slideshow from 14+ hours to something a little more reasonable for my friends and family to sit through.

While I miss being in SE Asia there are some nice parts of being home – being able to drink tap/shower water. I really had to think about not opening my mouth in the shower while I was away. I guess I didn’t know how much I liked drinking shower water from the showerhead. I like having milk and hot, hot, hot showers. I finally feel clean after a few good scrubs. I have to remember that I can finally throw my toilet paper in the toilet bowl and not in a trashcan. I love being able to have safe water at a restaurant and not having to buy something to drink. It is the small things that I have missed that are the simple pleasures right now but how I would love be back there and wouldn’t even mind needing to remember to bring my own toilet paper or how dirty my feet would get. A hard thing being back is how much everything cost. I could eat three meals a day out on less than 10 dollars and here I don’t think I could do that and have nice meals. Oh, yesterday I found out how low gas prices have gotten and was flabbergasted. Somehow no one told me that I wouldn’t have to come back to paying four dollars a gallon on gas!

I’ve said it before but this was an amazing learning experience for me and I’m so happy that I went and did it. Thanks for all the support along the way. I haven’t figure out whether or not I will keep updating my blog. For the next week or two I will be low key and will be catching up with friends. My hope/plan is to meet up with my friend Katie in May in Europe. One thing that I have learned is that no matter what my plan is, it can change at any time, and that until I am doing it I can’t count on anything – so we will see what happens. More pictures of the last few weeks will come in the next few days.

Start to finish back to Bangkok I go

So... I'm doing a pretty good job of not thinking about Friday and coming home. I think in a lot of ways I didn't know that I could do this - travel on my own and be okay. Yes, the beginning was bumpy and I didn't know what I had gotten myself into, but now I am doing great and don't want the adventure to stop. This has been an amazing growing experience for me and I am so happy with myself for doing it. Having my parents here the last few weeks has been nice. I have been the one showing them around.

Yesterday we saw the sunrise at Angkor Wat - what a beautiful experience! And 5am is the perfect time to be up in this weather by 7:30am it is HOT! I think 2 days of seeing Wat after Wat had us a little exhausted - plus the heat makes us drop so much quicker. I thought that it was funny that some things had changed in the 3 weeks since I was last here. Wooden walk ways had been put in place in some places that weren't there last time. Today we are being lazy. I think more shopping at the market is what Terry and I are up for - I'm not sure Liz likes it as much as we do. And then this afternoon we are going to a spa. I will never be able to get a facial and hour massage for under 55 dollars at home! While we are wimping out in this heat I am very happy that I'm not in the snow. I'm going to go into shock getting off the plane coming from weather that is 30+ degrees C to 30+ degrees F!

Tomorrow we head to Bangkok for our last stop before home. Liz knows a few nurses who did an exchange at the VA so we will tour around with them one of the days. Other than that I plan to soak up the last amount of sun and warm weather by the pool before getting on a plane Friday night.

Pictures will come once I get home with at least one follow up entry to my blog and maybe what I will be doing next. If you know of anyone who needs someone do to odd jobs for them I'm available for hire just as long as the job is indoors! While I'm sad to be leaving this side of the world I'm looking forward to getting together with everyone once I am home.

Wats, wats, and more wats plus a Citadel

Boy oh boy is it hot! I didn't know that I could sweat this much!

We left Hoi An and took a private car to Hue. We had one full day there and we spent the morning at the Citadel and then took the afternoon off to rest. We had been busy in Hoi An and didn't really have any time to rest. From there flew to Phnom Penh (PP). PP is a place that I had been through but didn't really seen until now. We hired a car and saw so much in one day. 2 Wats, the Killing Fields, S-21, the Royal Palace... it was a full day but worth it. The Killing Fields were pretty in a very eery way - the memorial way very peaceful. S-21 on the other hand was very hard for me to look at. There are pictures of the people who were there and you see such young children who were killed. I found one picture that reminded me of a boy from CCPP - that was scary for me.

We took the six hour bus ride from PP to Siem Reap (SR). This was a bus ride that I had done before and as any bus ride was happy when it is done. SR is a funky little place. I really enjoy the size of the town. We hired a guide and car and saw the main places in and around Angkor Wat. At about 8am I was ready for a cold shower. We just came in from our day out and my next stop is a cold shower and then a nice cold beer... maybe some shopping afterwards.

I Love Tailors and Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An last night. We flew which was very nice because we are able to spend more time in both Hanoi and Hoi An. Hoi An is quiet a nice change from the busy city of Hanoi. Liz said she now understands why I liked the smaller places so much better. Today was a day spent looking at different tailors and figuring out what I wanted made. It has been very exciting! My first fittings when very well and I'm excited to see the end results. We might need another suit case. The weather has warmed up more to my liking which means that it is nice and hot. Having a pool is wonderful for a mid-afternoon cool down. Other than more fittings tomorrow I'm not sure what we will do.

Back from Halong Bay

So I think the next few blogs will be on the short side with no pictures. While we have a computer in our room (*exciting for me*) I think this computer has a bug on it and I'm not willing to find out the hard way by plugging my memory card into it. So pictures will come soon.

On Monday we left for Halong Bay via a tour. The weather wasn't horrible the whole time but overcast and misty - so we couldn't see all that far. However, it did give the area a cool mystical vibe. The weather has been slightly on the cold side for me, I have been having to bring a jacket just in case, but my parents think that this is warm coming from Seattle. I'm glad I got to see Halong Bay but am a little disappointed. One thing I can't get over is how dirty places are. The water on the bay was nasty. It looked like there had been an oil slick with bottles, bags, and other crap floating on the water. I had no desire to swim after seeing the water. Other than that we had a nice trip - lots of food.

This morning we saw Ho Chi Mihn's body and did a little touring of his things. While going through the mausoleum I was waiting for Ho's eyes to open and for him to sit up straight... it didn't happen though.

Tomorrow we fly to Danang and will spend a few days in HoiAn and Hue before going to Cambodia.

Terry still can't get over the traffic here. He says it is like playing on the freeway. They are getting better about being able to cross the street though. Liz says she just closes her eyes.