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After 3 days of travelling...

Were baaaackkkk

Day 17: In the mood for Banana Pancake?

And stuck in Bangkok? That's easy! Go back to town an hit the markets!
So we did!

The airline put us up for the night/day at a GORGEOUS hotel nearby...
Were talking real beds and toilets here people! Some may call us
"plush packers"... I say it's luck :) it's a place to chill and eat
free food while we work the standby lines at the airport for the next
day!

Is it ok to make a Jewish joke on a blog? Ok well here goes nothin'...
You know you're Jewish when you're excited by a flight cancelation for
the free hotel and food!! Yeeehawwww lol :)

I guess that only applies to the first 24 hours... Stuck here for a
week now:/

Day 16: What do you mean cancled?

2am we arrive at Bangkok Airport to be greeted with the knowledge that
our flight to Japan has been canceled... and get this... they don't
know when they will be able to reshedual us... Hummm not sure what
that means really? Get used to chillis?? Man I was really jonesen for
some sushi too!

Gunna stick to my 2 PBJ's... I'll keep ya posted :)

Final Days... Thaims Up :(

I cannot believe our trip is over! It has truely been amazing! We've
eaten some amazing things, met some amazing people and seen amazing
things! We had the perfect last day here in Bangkok walking around the
city once more. Tonight we sat in the JatuJak market eating and
drinking- shoppin and chillin... What more could you want?!?

We returned to our hotel to see if we could crash for a few hours
before heading to the airport... But they had no rooms available for
the night :( Good news though... The Dream Hotel down the street had a
room ready for us! What luck!

Now a little shut eye before we head out to the airport at 2am akkkk!

Thank you Thailand!!

Kop Koon Kahh
+ SawadeeKahhh!!

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Day 14: mmm coconut fritter fried yumminessss

If I could bottle up the sounds of the ocean at 5am I would! Not in
the same creepy way as a sharper image sound effects machine but in
the most natural and serene way possible!

So clearly were up at 5am yet again on out way back to the boat, back
to Surat Thani, back to the airport...back to Bangkok

Landed in Bangkok and of course had to wait for our ride :) ahhh never
on Thaim! We got settled in at our hotel and then took the skytrain
over to Silom Road (known for it's red light district) we just went
for some lunch at a restaurant we had heard about... And boy was it
delish!

Walked off our feast and now settling in for some much needed rest!

PS. Thanks jon for saving my life yesterday :)

Day 12/13: Rocky Road...

Not just an ice cream!

Took a high speed catamaran to Ko Tao yesterdy to meet up with friends
we had made during the cooking class in Chiang Mai.

I won't tell the story on blog (you'll have to ask yourself if you're
interested) but if you do go to Koh Tao... Word to the wise, please DO
NOT RENT A MOTORBIKE!!

... 3 hours later we finally made it up the rockiest and sandiest
mountain I'd ever seen... (Easily a double black diamond in vail) to
the place we were meeting our friends, called Posidon. Adorable place
full of beach bungalows, flowers, rocks and sand. This place put Samui
to shame on the peacuful paridise scale! Way less touristy, (no cars
cause they literaly cannot make it up the roads) and so serne.

We walked right in and right over the beach where we all sat until
sunset drinking beers and taking turns using the scuba equiptment. It
was well worth the trouble we went through to get here. We all
separated for a bit to go back to our bungalows and get cleaned up for
dinner... Us having no original plans to be staying here for the
night, didn't really need too much time getting ready!

Ill jumo back to earlier in the day... after we already bought our
tickets to come here, the woman tells us the next boat back isn't
until the next morning... So there you have it:) no big deal though...
they had a cute bungalow ready for us when we got to Posidon.

Sorry for the diversion...

Ok so we got cleaned up and met out friends back out on the beach at a
roof top bar for a few drinks... Slowly migrated next door for a fish
BBQ, then back to our roof top bar for a nigt cap. We all lay there on
mats looking up at the stars until it was time for some shut eye.

Loaded up on bug spray... and PASSED OUT!

Up now at 6am to watch the sunrise on the beach before the truck comes
to take us to the pier...

Ate breakfast on the beach with our friends and the saw us off when
our truck taxi arrived. They are truely such good and honorable
people! That's what I love about travelling... All the amazing people
you meet along that way that you realize no matter where they are
from, try are just like you!

Spent the day at Chaweng beach again getting massages and playing in
the ocean... Last night :( I'm gunna miss this!

Day 11: Thai me to the Moon

After some much needed rest we went out trying to find a place to eat.
The book had several reccomendations to which we followed up... They
were all a bit to high end for no reason and worst of all no one in
them! So we walked along the beach for a bit until we found a cute
restauraunt situated right on the shore line in the sand. We had a
great dinner and relaxed for a bit...

For those of you who have never been to Thailad, you must know that
everytime you're on the beach you WILL be solicited by bbq-ers,
manicurists and people selling jewellry. Usually very annoying
especially when you're trying to eat, sleep or read- but last night a
man came to us (still annoying but anyway...) with the lanterns they
use in Chiang Mai's festival of fire or lights. They light these
lanterns on the bottom and the balloon fills with so much heat they
fly up into the sky. (kindof te same technology as a hot air balloon)
The sight of one is pretty cool... Now imagine a sky full of them! So
naturally we bought a couple... Well see that US customs has to say
about it :)

Day 11: Another Gorgeous Day on the Beach

Another day trying to recover from my food poising incident... We
decided to take it easy and chill on the beach again today. Before I
go any further I must tell you that I checked the ingredients on the
soy milk I had on that fateful day and surprise surprise... The
ingredients read: "soybeans, whole milk, sugar"!!! (it might help to
know that I'm allergic to dairy!) I guess big food poising mystery
solved-OUCH!

So off we went on our motor bike to Lamai beach. Out first stop was to
a beach side resort, spa and restaurant that specialized in healthful,
nutritious and Ayurvedic foods (Frommers reccomended)... Not so fun
for Jon, but I was in heaven (especially after not eating for 2 days!)
We chilled and ate for a bit till we hit the beach. I relaxed on a
beach with a coconut full of watery goodness in hand, while Jon rented
a jetski. On our way back from the beach we decided to stop at the
same place we had eaten earlier for another healthful bite (what a
trooper he is :)) Oh yeah and the food was actually delicious and best
of all Thai priced... Not Island priced!

Now back at our cabana relaxing, napping and swimming.

Live music on fisherman's warf later...

And Ko Tao tomorrow to visit some friends we made while in Chiang Mai!

Day 10: Sick & Thai-erd

Ugh what a day... I'll avoid going into any detail but we stayed in
our gorgeous cabana today watching movies and eating bananas and toast
all day. It was a much needed "day off" after Jon got torched by the
sun yesterday and well... Me spending the better part of the night
SICCKKKK!

So unlike the other days... This was our view :)

Food Poisoning...

No idea what I ate ,but food poisoning for a night activity isn't fun!
Our other choice was to chill in the red light district... Hummm Ida
know what's worse? lol. A bit better now. Stickin to just rive for a
bit :)

Sorry of that was a TMI :)

Incredible beach day!

We spent the day at Chaweng beach and beautiful it was. Perfect
weather and emerald water made for one of the most memorable days of
vacation I remember. We then got on the bike and trucked up to the
islands highest point for the ultimate view of the entire place.
Sunburnt and worn out we went home for a snack and some rest so we can
properly celebrate the Chinese New Year, and Valentine's Day. Layta!

Beach front lunch...

Day 9: Waking up in Paradise

Nothin like waking up, making yourself a cup of tea and siting out on
the porch in the sun... If you havent tried it, I reccomend it! This
is the house we rented on Koh Samui...and of course our motor bike!

Day 8: Thaim to Chill

Been chilling on Koh Samui driving around on a motor bike that we
rented for the week. Grabbed a bite to eat on fisherman's wharf and
then drove around the whole island to scope out our next move. Just
got back from a midnight outting to Tesco in search for snacks... And
we found em! A full grocery cart later we finally buy our groceries
(for some deliciously small amount of money, including a supply of
booze) make it out to the car park where we then realize... Oh yeah we
have a scooter HA! so I strap em on to my arms and between us, and we
begin our journey back to our house. (which I'll tell you about
later). We finally make it back (I won't go into how we made the wrong
turn out of tesco and went the wrong way for about 15 minutes... ;)) I
wish I had taken a picture of everything we were carrying but I don't
think I could have held anything any longer!

Oh did I mention they sell gasoline by the liter glass bottle on the
side of the road for a dollar?!? Ha

Ok now back to our house. Most of the resorts here on Koh Samui have
beach and oceanfront bungalow huts but because of the Chinese new year
everything had been booked in advance... So we don't have an ocean
view but it's pretty close! We ended up with our own cabana resort
house! A few rooms, kitchen, new bath and a balcony! Not too shabby!
Now if only Thailand would hop on the "posture-pedic" train, we'd be
golden!

Day 8: Enroute to Ko Samui

A day of chillin and relaxing then back to it... Snorkeling and kite
surfing this week!

Bupa Tara: Chiang Mai

Our Guest house in Chiang Mai...
We even had a balcony penthouse!

For 200 Baht I'll be a high rolla :p

Day 7: E W I

What a day!
We did a 1 day trek through the jungle... First an elephant ride
deeper into the jungle. Then a couple hours of hiking and waterfalls.
We ate some rice and veggies with a tribe and the right back to the
jungle for bamboo rafting. Finally made it back to Chiang Mai for some
eats and sleeps!

Oh yeah if you ever come to Thailand, be sure to eaither have the
banana pankcake or choconut puff from the street vendors... Wowza!!

GOOD SHABB!!

Colini ouuuttt...

Day 6: Burn ya Twice

Up at 7 an onto a Songatew (caravan) headed for a farm right outside
of chiang Mai for a day long Thai cooking class at Thai Farm Cooking
School. We spent the day making different fresh curry pastes, papaya
salad, springrolls, pad thai and of course coconut desserts and mango
sticky rice! All the food was delicious of course (if Jonathan had
anything to do with making it...) not only that, but it was such a
cool experience to be able to see how the locals make their food and
where they get their ingredients from. The cooking class was located
on a farm where they grow all of the ingredients fresh... It pretty
much defines the concept of "farm to table"! Perfect mid eighties and
breezy weather... jealous yet?

After a Long day of cookig and eating, we made our way back into the
old city of chiang mai- Full o food with leftovers in hand! We ended
up going back to Mais bar for some drinks with a few friends...which
of course lead to more eating and more of Jonathan helping out Mai in
the kitchen! This woman is truely an inspiration! As a single mother
she opened this restaurant. Not only is she the chef and bartender,
but also the waitress and every other aspect of the restaurant. Really
gives new meaning to a one woman show!

Back to Bupa Tara guest house to relax before another night on the town!

When in Rome...

Alright! Ready to hit the town... Where to eat? Of course we went back
to our same restaurant! Only this time Mai was a little pressed for
time running the show herself so Jonathan went into the kitchen to
assist her... I say pretty damn cool to be able to have that
experience halfway around the world! We ate more curries, sandwiches
and sitcky noodle soup. After dinner, a group of 8 of us including the
cheffy went to a roof top bar right inthe old city. (side bar:
fantastic passion fruit mojito!!) Best part of travelling is meetng
people from all over the world! You realize how similar you actually
are!

Sleeppyy timee... Thai cooking class on a farm tomorrow!

Sorry about the poor image quality. Kinda though to use any kind of
tecnology around here. Oldly enough I like it! :) (within reason of
course! hehe)

Day 5: A Day with Scoots

(Jenna)
Up at 4 am...in the air enroute to Chiang Mai by 8. We landed to gorgeous weather; high eighties, breezy and NO SMOG! We were picked up by our guest house in the old city called Bupa Tara. After check in we decided to wander around. We began in one of the oldest market places with large varieties of fruits and vegetables all indigenous to Chiang Mai. Kept walking in search of a motor bike to rent, but instead found an quaint little restaurant with a tiki-thai feel. We decided it was cute enough and we should sit down and have a bite... It ended up being the best Thai food that we have had so far.

(Jon)
Fat rice noodles with long beans pork and one of the best curries I've ever eaten - besides mine (really, it gives me a run for my money).  Pork with holy basil and a ton of fresh was incendiary but impossible to stop eating.  That's gonna hurt later!

(Jenna)
The owner and chef, Mai, makes everything from scratch -made to order and it was devine!  We sat and shmoozed, met a few people and made plans with them to go out later.

We finally decided to get up after practically moving into the restaurant. Walked a few more blocks down the narrow old city roads to a bike rental place. Got ourselves a 125 Kawasaki and zipped through all of Chiang Mai with the wind in our hair. Returned to the same restaurant several hours later for a celebratory "thank g-d we didn't lose it to a psyco thai driver" cocktail!

Back to our guest house to get ready for a night on the town...

SCCAAAAMMM

Word to the wise, if you ever go to Thailand beware of the scam... In
fact I'm pretty sure that this new year is the year of the scam.

Just like in Disney world where the gift shop is at the exit...same
with any organized tour- once they have you trapped they can take you
anywhere! Bottom line we ended up having to watch a documentary on
Siam rubies. Hey at least there was free beer! Ahh the silver lining.

Up at 4 am tomorrow and off to Chaing Mai (northern Thailand)

Buh bye Bangkok!

Day 4: No I don't want to buy a plastic Elephant

A view from our boat at the floating market. Perfect weather- sunny
and breezy. People, food and souveniers everywhere. We ate fresh
rambutan, mangosteens and longan. The sweetest freshest fruits you can
imagine. Off to the Rose Garden...

Day 4: Never on Thai-m

Waiting on our caravan to the floating market...

A room with a view...

This is the living room of our place in Bangkok. We totally lucked out
on findig this place! Gorgeous apartment with air con for cheaper than
most Hirt houses! How can you go wrong?

Call me old fashioned...

But I'm not much for big tourist hotspots. We found a small cute
restaurant off of Kao San road. Drinking beers and havin a few laughs...

Sorry

The phone sent the last post before we had a chance to spell check.
You get the gist :)

Day 3:

Didnt go to the floating market today, we decided to explore the real
Bangkok and to go there and the rose garden tomorrow. Instead We
started off our day at a restaurant called cabbages and condoms. Ok so
the after dinner mint was a condom, but aside from that the place was
in a quaint outside terrace off of Sukamvit Road (business district).
The funny name comes from the Thai association for family planning and
all the money they make goes to that charity. Oh yeah and the food was
craaazzzeee! Spicy mixed mushroom soup, spicy seafood soup, seafood
with a lemongrass sauce and of course all types of sticky rice. Right
after our cabbage and condom experience we met a really nice Thai man
who gave us all sorts of tips for the rest of our trip here.

The tuk tuk drivers today were winy and didnt want to go where we
wanted... We even go kicked out of one! So we decided to walk back.
Made it to the water and found a boat-but that's where it all began.
We thought we were heading south but alas we weren't. Windy small
street reminicent of Venice's old city. Back allys of food carts,
children playing, slums and temples where you can hear praying from
beyond the gate. Our heart rates raising with each step until we
stumbled upon a familar street.

2 liters of water and all varieties of fruit later, we finally made it
home.

Chill time now then off to Kho San Road with loads of strews vendors,
markets and nightlife.

Sawadee

More from the tuk tuk

A picture of us on the golden mount... Proof we have been wearing
sunscreen! Can't see much else aside from us, but you'll have to
believe it's not just a green screen :).

Sorry it's blurry :)

Day 2: WT tuk tuk!

Sunday am = weekend market!
Vendors, food carts and clothes everywhere. The best omelette you've
ever had for less than a dollar. Spicier than anything you've ever had
before! Everyone told us us it would be the hottest weather we have
ever experienced but truthfully it's no hotter than miami - we did go
through a couple gallons of water though. After the market we found
ourselves a little tuk tuk driver to take us around the city. For
under 10 dollars he spent the day with us showing is all major temples
(wat), giant buddah, lucky buddah and the golden mount. We got back to
our place are 5pm and crashed from being out in the heat so long- no
issues with jet lag... Until now... At 3 am... as we watch Superman in
Thai... Not able to sleep anymore. Tomorrow were off to te floating
market and the rose gardens.
Still, and always hungry here in Bangkok... Today - the floating
market. YUM!

Day 1: midnght snack ($.90)!

3:30 am and we just "found" our place... Funny since we landed at 11pm
Saturday night. Let's go back a day... We got on what would be a 21
hour flight and without going into too much detail I'll just say...
Turbulance was bad! But we made it! So we find a taxi outside of the
airport but he wouldn't put on the meter and got fined so we had to
find a new taxi... He took us where he thought we wanted to go. I'll
skip to 3 taxis later when we FINALLY find our apartment and it's
ADORABLE! Pretty excited right now-just trying to mellow out and
sleep so we can wake early and hit the weekend market with over 11,000
stalls, most fortunately being food and crafts. Everyone here, even at
this early hour, is very sweet and accommodating. Gonna work on my
Thai tomorrow.

At the airport waiting foe the noon flight

Reading, charging devices for 21 hours of flying . Can't wait to bite into that exciting Thai cuisine! Chiles and garlic and fish sauce, oh my! Buhbye Umurica!

Flight Delayed

At the airport. All checked in. Only to find out our flight has been
delayed till 12pm. What a buzz kill.

Eatin

Can't wait

Bottle of wine, just waiting to leave

2 days and Counting

Packing and setting up our blog... Let the journey begin!