Bangkok, Thailand {Part 2}

Our next day in Bangkok, we started by taking a ferry across the river to visit Wat Arun. This is also known as the Temple of Dawn. We climbed to the top of this temple and were rewarded with some amazing views of Bangkok.

 

 

After this, we decided to head to the mall. It sounds lame maybe, but little shopping was done. We mainly went there so we could experience a 4D movie! There was only one option, Oblivion, so that's what we saw. You got to select your seats ahead of time and come back when the movie started. These shows sold out quick, so we had to wait around for a while before ours started. What an amazing experience. The seats shook you around - even throwing you forward to match with the scenes in the movie. There were wind, light, SMELL and smoke effects, moisture blown on you, things that poked to in the back...crazy awesome. It was expensive by Thailand standards ($15/person), but that is totally normal for us here in Dallas.

Somewhere between the tickets being bought and us going to get food while waiting for it to start, my credit card and driver's license had fallen out of our money pouch. Needless to say, that ruined part of the afternoon. We searched our path, but couldn't find it. I finally suggested going to the information desk where they ended up having my card...WHAT? I was kind of floored to be honest. Some amazing person turned it in. No driver's license though...

We went to watch the movie and after we got out, we figured we'd give it another shot. Guess what? They had my driver's license too. WOW, Thai people are amazing. Jason was equally as grateful since he was technically the one who lost both. My mom always says I have a lucky star hanging over my head - she just might be right!

Well, we had made it the whole day without getting wet. We even got on and off the metro rail unscathed. That is, until we walked on the street to our hotel. There were people with water buckets everywhere and they were prepared for us. Jason had a water bottle to fight back with, but I think we lost that round. Totally soaked but laughing was how we ended day 2.

The next morning, we had a flight really early out of a smaller airport in Bangkok. As we were checking out, we asked to have a taxi to take us to DMK airport. Our hotel called down and told us it would be waiting. We walked down, they said "airport", we said "DMK", "yes yes" and we were off. Problem: 15 minutes in, I see signs for the big airport - BKK. So I tell the cab driver, point to a map (which we will always do from now on) and then he proceeds to backtrack to where we came from. Then, in the middle of a downpour, he pulls over and tells us we have to take another cab because he is tired and "must rest". I make him hail us another cab before he leaves, but now we are starting to get close to that 1 hour check-in mark. After a 30 min stress-filled cab ride, we make it to the airport as they are doing last call. Once we checked in, we then had to run the entire length of the airport to our gate. Somehow we made it! Christy's luck part 2?

Thankfully, this stressful morning was followed by 4 days in Koh Samui, Thailand - up next!

Bangkok, Thailand {Part 1}

It's been a few days since we've gotten back and it's really taken a while to get readjusted for both of us. SE Asia is a full 12 hours ahead of Dallas, so it was a complete flip flop! It's even worse for Jason who is currently in Las Vegas for a work conference. Luckily, we didn't hit the jet lag on the way there.

We started our trip flying to SFO where we caught a Delta plane to Tokyo and then Bangkok. All I have to say is - THANK YOU DELTA! We got upgraded to Economy Comfort - which is essentially their business class. It was such a nice treat. We slept as much as possible on both flights and 21 hours later (eep!), we arrived!

We honestly had such a stroke of luck for our trip. It was unconsciously planned right during the middle of SE Asia's New Year's festival - Songkran. It definitely made some of the trips to their Wats (temples) crazy, but it ALSO gave us the experience of the biggest water fight in the world. No joke. Jason and I literally got soaked every day we were there. This was a blessing really since it was so hot - Houston in August hot.

Our first day began at the Grand Palace. This used to be the residence of the royal family until the 1920s. There are many different buildings, halls, and pavilions set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards. We spent a large part of the morning just exploring. It was so beautiful and ornate - really unlike anything we'd ever seen before. At one point, we were SO hot that Jason agreed to go into a museum about textiles, haha. Also, one little side note: since this is a functioning Wat, men and women must be covered at the shoulders and knees. For some reason, I was deemed acceptable, but Jason had to "rent" (via deposit) a pair of very stylish pants.

Next up, we went to Wat Pho which houses the famous Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. Unfortunately/fortunately for us, it was Songkran, so it was packed with vendors selling food/crafts, so no massages for us! One really interesting thing we saw people doing was placing coins into bowls. 108 bowls to be exact. This was supposed to signify the 108 vices the Buddha had to overcome to reach enlightenment.

 

 

We tried Jason's favorite food here as well - roti. We really haven't found a way to describe this yet. If a banana crepe and pancake had a baby, it would somewhat close to this. We even came back to this exact temple the next day to get more :) It was only $1.25, so we might have gotten 3...

We took a tuk tuk back to our hotel which was super fun mainly because we got drenched! Kids would take up stations along the sides of the road with super soakers, buckets of water and HOSES and spray anyone that passed. It is supposed to be a blessing, but honestly, I think it's more just about getting people soaked. We were prepared by our hotel and only had our water camera and photocopies of our passports, so all was good!

We ended the day at a little local place with Green Curry, Pad Thai and some Chang beers for about $6. Oh Thailand, thank you for being so cheap!

We're Off To: Southeast Asia

Hello all. I know we've been a little back and forth on our one "big" trip. We toyed around with the idea of the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Australia/New Zealand. After much research and many conversations including the phrases "oh my gosh, we can go there for HOW little?" and "let's just make a decision already", we have once again come back to the original plan of Southeast Asia! What it really came down to was that this was our first choice. All of those other options are still definitely on our constantly increasing wishlist.

Hotels have been booked (refundable, of course), visas obtained, and air travel is standby.

Our itinerary:

3 days in Bangkok, Thailand

4 days relaxing in paradise aka Koh Samui, Thailand

2 days in Hanoi, Vietnam

2 days cruising in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

3 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia

2 days of travel (really 3 due to time differences)

= 16 days in SE Asia!

People who are used to traveling in Europe and the Caribbean, beware! Visas are a pretty common thing for most other countries. The application process to obtain a visa for Vietnam is crazy. Either you go to a city with a consulate (Houston has one) between 9am-12pm Monday - Friday (so that's out), mail your passports, money order, and form to the consulate (I've heard horror stories of passports getting lost), or get your hotel to provide you with a Visa on Arrival for the "small" fee of $25/person. That doesn't include the stamping fee of $45/person. The whole ordeal probably took about 3 weeks to obtain.

By contrast, Cambodia's application is online and costs $23/person. We got our visas in 2 days. Thailand doesn't require a visa for tourist travel less than 30 days. Call me goofy, but I always ALWAYS check country information (http://travel.state.gov/) before traveling anywhere outside of the US. We might have been in big trouble otherwise!

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the planning process. We're even getting to knock off 2 items from our bucket list. We're in San Francisco right now, hoping to catch an early morning flight. On one hand, I'm getting crazy excited...on the other, I'm preparing myself for the realistic possibility that we might get there a day or two late. I don't think I will really allow myself to get excited until we're on that second flight to Bangkok.

Well, wish us luck, and hopefully we'll see you in 2 1/2 weeks USA!

Kansas City, MO

Jason and I had a wedding to attend for a college friend, so we took a quick weekend trip to the Midwest. Jason had been to Kansas City before, but only for work, so I went to scouring the internet for the best things to do in the few hours we would have before the wedding started.

First thing's first - we HAD to try some BBQ! Oklahoma Joe's seemed like the most-loved option. There was already a line when we arrived at 11am. It was honestly fine, but nothing special. I got the Z Man Sandwich with brisket and an onion ring, and while the idea was good, the brisket just wasn't up to "Texas" standards. Jason got some ribs which were quite yummy!

Next up, we did a tour of the Boulevard Brewing Company. Jason and I had been fans of this beer for a while, so we thought we could spend a perfect afternoon here. Holy waitlist! We quickly found out that tickets for the free tour are scooped up MONTHS (like 4) in advance. I'm glad I plan everything early because the Unfiltered Tour (paid) opened up to sales 1 month in advance. We got super lucky and snatched tickets to this before they sold out within 5 minutes! A girl on our tour said she tried for a year and 1/2 to get on our tour!

We arrived here after our BBQ lunch and the tour started at noon. There was a lady from the Kansas Star newspaper taking pictures of our tour, so we may be famous in a few weeks :) The tour lasted an hour and a 1/2 and in that time, we had 6 beers. We tried a beer not in production yet, 80 Acre hoppy wheat (my favorite), Tank 7 in their Smokestack Series, Long Strange Tripel, Dark Truth Stout, of course, their Unfiltered Wheat. I really enjoyed every single one. It was so fun and we're really glad we splurged for the paid tour. We even got a souvenir glass to take home.

After our beer tour, we headed over to see Kelly and Zach get married. It was a great night - congrats you two! For only having 1 night in KC, I think we did some great things! I think after this weekend, I will need a detox though...

The next morning, we caught a quick flight back to Dallas. Our weekend was short, but we had lots of fun. In just a few days, we are leaving on our big trip. Stay tuned to see what our plans are!