Travel Journal

It's been a while!

2009-02-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, things have changed drastically since our last active posts to our website. We're still in Seattle, but now have a wonderful 3 year old and a great house in the Phinney/Greenwood area of town.Life is good.

Sunny Seattle?

2004-07-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true. Seattle is sunny in the summer. It's the area's best kept secret! We found a cute little rental house in a great location - close to the freeway, grocery store, and Greenlake (for dog walking and running). It's been fun settling in. Backpack travel for 2.5 years didn't seem so bad at the time. We are now living like most people our age with our own bathroom, bed, kitchen,

Moving...

2004-05-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

We flew down to Austin a week ago to begin the process of moving our stuff out of storage up to Seattle. Also, we're really excited to have seen our dog the other day at EJ & Gideon's. Our nephew Isaac is very cute and has a ton of blond hair. This past weekend we ventured over to Shreveport, LA to visit M's Dad and step-mom Barb. They took us out to a couple of great meals, and we really

Back in the USA and still traveling!

2004-04-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Our journey is now over and we are having some bittersweet feelings. On one hand, we are very happy to be back and moving on with our lives, and on the other hand a bit sad that our travels have ended. The past two weeks have flown by. It's pretty surreal to be sitting in a coffee shop at Lake Tahoe logged into the web and updating our site. We left Kuala Lumpur in time to attend a wedding

Last three days!

2004-03-23T06:29:00.000-08:00

We are now chilllin in Kuala Lumpur, simply called "KL" by those in the know. Much like downtown Bangkok and Hong Kong, KL is full of shopping malls and is pretty sprawled out. However, there doesn't seem to be as much pollution here. We are only in KL b/c we found a VERY cheap flight home originating here. So, we aren't doing much except a little shopping. It's been a while since we walked

Last Week of our trip - Beaching it!

2004-03-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

We weren't really sure how to beat our fabulous beach experience in Koh Bulone Lae (KBL). No other beach could possibly compare! We considered going back there for our last week of the trip, but decided that it would be better to explore another place. Fellow travelers were ripe with suggestions. We settled on going to Koh Phangan after we found an incredibly cheapo flight. This island is

Visit to an elephant conservation camp

2004-03-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Chiang Mai is filled with travel agents offering many types of hill-tribe treks, cooking school classes, and elephant camp visits. We decided not to go to one of the touristy elephant camps after learning about Elephant Heaven, an elephant conservation center. It turns out that most of these tourist outfits don't treat their elephants very well - overworked and controlled with ropes and chains.

Touristy in Bangkok

2004-03-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Despite many pitstops in this busy city, we hadn't seen too much of Bangkok on our short stop-overs. Street vendors that hawk anything imaginable (esp. fresh fruit), blaring car horns, scooters with no mufflers, and unrelenting tuk-tuk drivers soliciting business are a few things that make Bangkok unique. Think about how crazy we are about child seats/safety in America. Check out this kid

Pai, northern Thailand

2004-03-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

With only 5 days left in northern Thailand, we left behind the hustle and bustle of Chaing Mai for a small town called Pai. We were told that this would be a good place to chill for a few days, go on a hill-tribe trek, raft, and hike without being too touristy. The four hour ride halfway to the Burmese border from Chiang Mai was along the typical Thai roads - twisty and bumpy. The bus driver

Chiang Mai, Thailand

2004-03-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

Big town. Chaing Mai has been a traveler’s hub for centuries. It’s not challenging in the least for English speaking travelers to get around. Our plan was to stop in Chiang Mai for a day or two to organize a hill tribe visit and trek for several days then head east to float the Mekong River to Louang Prabang in Laos. Well our plans changed as they always do. We ended up getting sick again

The Ruins of Angkor Wat

2004-02-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

It was pretty easy to find a guesthouse. The internet and our used copy of Lonely Planet are pretty helpful. We didn't know whether or not to expect someone from the guesthouse to be waiting for us outside the airport. Our driver Preyta was waiting with a sign. Five star service at one star prices! We took the 20 minute drive past Angkor Wat to our guesthouse in an extremely comfortable moto

Pitstop in Bangkok

2004-02-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

Bangkok had become much hotter in the weeks we had spent down south. This humid, polluted, FAST city was quite a shock after quiet beach life. We spent a day figuring out how to get to Siem Reap, Cambodia and a day at the famous weekend market. We splurged one night and caught a movie (Cold Mountain) and ate some great Vietnamese food for dinner at the 7 story mall near our guesthouse. A

The long-haul from Paradise to craziness

2004-02-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

The journey took all day. So we found a cheap ticket (<$20) back to Bangkok from Phuket, a touristy island ~ 7 hours north of KBL. Our original intention was to stay on KBL for a week then work our way north towards Phuket, exploring the many islands along the way. So much for that!!! Why mess with perfection? We took the long-tail boat at 9am to meet the ferry for an hour’s ride to the pier

KBL part 2

2004-02-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

We must have needed a vacation after traveling so fast and furiously through Israel, Turkey, Africa, and Honk Kong for the past two months. We can't seem to leave our little paradise in Koh Bulon Lae (KBL). Nope, don't want to take a boat trip to another island, get on a train or plane. We just want to sit. And that's we are doing. It's even an effort for us to leave the area and walk 1K to

Koh Bulon Lae

2004-02-03T06:13:00.000-08:00

We are now doing absolutely nothing on a very small island in southern Thailand. We are pretty close to Malaysia on the Adaman Sea. The overnight train from Bangkok was much nicer than we expected. We upgraded to our own sleeper complete with a sink since Dave had such a hard time fitting in the dorm-style sleepers in Europe. We were a bit wary of the lovely chicken dinner included with our

Bangkok Joyride

2004-02-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

After grossly underestimating how long it would take to get to the train station, we missed our overnight train down the Thai peninsula to Had Yai. We thought that 1 hour would be plenty of time for our cab to navigate the 6km distance to the station. No Way! This is Bangkok traffic and we missed the train by 10 minutes. One of the info desk employees who saw our disappointment and look of

Finally made it to Thailand!

2004-01-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

We flew to Thailand this evening and are already in love. We are staying at a great little lodge not too far from the hustle and bustle but far enough so we can get some sleep. The food at the hotel is delicious, organic, and cheap! Our room and dinner only cost us $12. Perhaps we shouldn't have stayed in Europe so long (no regrets)... It's SO MUCH CHEAPER HERE!!! We plan to head very far

Hong Kong

2004-01-23T04:20:00.000-08:00

We spent half of our week in Hong Kong recovering from the worst jet lag experienced thus far on the trip and the other half of the week mad that everything was closed for the Chinese New Year Holidays! We recently read that it takes 1 day for each hour of flight (or time change?) to recover from jet lag. I guess we still have a few more days to go. We can't seem to get to sleep before 2am!!!

Johannesburg - Jan. 12th & 16th

2004-01-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

Our flights to Vic Falls were not that convenient and necessitated an overnight in Jo’burg at the front and back end. We found a local backpackers close to the airport that had a pool, laundry, and BBQ for $10!! Just what we needed…clean clothes! We really hit if off with the guy running the hostel for his son. Vince used to be a professional hunter, turned park ranger, and then became a

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

2004-01-15T12:03:00.000-08:00

If we spent all our time believing what we saw on TV, we wouldn’t have visited 7-8 countries on our list. Zimbabwe has horrible political problems, but Vic Falls is still a somewhat safe haven for travelers. We stayed at a backpackers within 2 miles of the falls and town and spent much time chatting with South Africans, Namibians, Zimbabweans, Aussies, and Zambians. The owner of the

Overall Safari Experience

2004-01-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

At both hotels, we’ve chatted with the staff about various things. Everyone we talked to commented on the fact the Brits and Americans stopped coming to East Africa unlike other nationalities. The government travel warnings have a very negative impact to local tourism. Kenyans, like the Turkish, don’t understand how Westerns can believe that Kenya is a war zone like Iraq. Just like 9/11, the

Masai Mara - Day 8 - 9

2004-01-10T06:20:00.000-08:00

We started the day very early again with a long drive south to the infamous Masai Mara. This was possibly the worst of all the roads, and the three of us arrived to the Masi Sopa Lodge pretty battered! The Masai tribe has had so many articles and books written about them unlike the Samburu. We visited with some Masai in Amboseli Park earlier in the week. At the Gates of every national park we

Drive to Lake Nakuru - Day 7

2004-01-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

We spent six hours driving south across the equator again, then headed west to Lake Nakuru which is in the Great Rift Valley (stretches from Lebanon to Malawi). Along the way, we passed through coffee and tea plantations, small towns, even smaller villages, and managed to see another rainbow. The country is very poor outside Nairobi, but everyone has a ready smile. We took some pics along the

Samburu National Game Reserve – Day 5-6

2004-01-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

Since we missed the leopard yesterday, our goal today was to spot one. Duncan’s plan was to try to reach the place we saw him yesterday where he had his kill in the tree. He was sure that the leopard wasn’t done eating. We beat two other vans to the site by a long shot, thanks to Duncan’s 17 years worth of knowledge of the back roads. The majestic leopard was lazily sprawled out on a tree in

Samburu National Game Reserve – Day 4

2004-01-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

Another four hours in the car this morning on horrid roads in order to reach our northern most destination – Samburu National Game Reserve. On the drive we passed through several small, impoverished towns and made a stop at the Equator. An industrious man was charging $2 to show tourists how on one side of the equator water flushes in one direction and goes the opposite way on the other side of