Did you notice that Dave wrote that post there?? Big round of applause, it took 2 minutes of guilting and one bottle of water to get that to happen. Congratulations for bringing your namesake to this outfit.
After another early morning pick-up, we were off on another completely different Chaing Mai adventure. Today we were going to trekking camp. First thing we did when we got there was ride an elephant! We loved riding the elephant, and i think that the elephant liked it a lot too, because we fed it somewhere around 17,000 bananas. Dave even got to get down on the elephants neck and steer the elephant.
After elephant riding, we got to go to the Karen village, which was literally around 5 families who all lived within one acre of each other, on the steepest hill ever (think: cortona). It was interesting to see how these people lived but you got a feeling that a lot of this was for the tourists as we got to go through a market which might as well have been a gift shop on the way out.
After Karen we took a half hour to an hour long hike through the woods. Luckily for us we had gotten some magical bracelets that seemed to keep all the mosquitos away even though we forgot bug spary. We now wish, as we sit in the internet cafe being eaten alive, that we had those bracelets now, but as we talked about in an earlier post, time traveling has the same repercussions as teleportation, and it is still not a risk we are willing to take. We also made the wise choice before we left to get some great Dr. Scholls, so as we were gellin like magellan up and down the Thai Jungle, our feet were as comfy as could be.
Our destination of the hike was at a wonderful waterfall, where after climbing down what must have been 10 flights of the scariest stairs that were often composed of sloping mud, we reached the bottom of the falls. After hopping in the water, we played over at the mouth of the fall for quite some time before i got swept away by the waves. Dave being the hero that he is saved my life, after which, I prompltly hopped back in the water and floated away again. Needless to say we are both pretty scratched up STILL!
After drying off, and another hour long hike, we wound up a river, which we got to float down on a bamboo raft. While a Thai guy steered in the front and Dave helped in the back, I got to sit and enjoy the nice cool water that kept splashing onto my tush! After the ride started, I found it necessary to share my good fortune with Dave, so I took the opportunity to splash some water his way. He in turn retaliated by splashing me with the big bamboo oar, BIG MISTAKE! A water war has been started which will continue on far into the future. All I can tell you is, I am winning so far.
We rode down the increasingly complicated river and saw water buffalo, elephant, small riverside stilt villages and many children playing in the river. Two were so playful they jumped right on our raft and we we thought they were going to overturn it. After the raft ride, we and the others in our group literally poured ourselves in the van and rode back to the hotel, more stories to come soon!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Who knew that Thai food was so delicious?
Our second Chiang Mai adventure was at the Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School. Here, we would learn to cook a variety of Thai dishes, shop at a Thai market, and visit their on-location organic farm.
After an early morning pick-up, we met our fellow chefs: an Australian who worked in e-commerce (read: sells baby products on eBay) visiting with his mum, and a French woman on holiday with her teenage daughter. The daughter had just graduated from Flight Attendant U. (located near its sister schools Hamburger U. and Harvard).
After arriving at the local market, we learned about the various ingredients that go into Thai cooking, including pink easter eggs and pigs' heads. In all seriousness, the Thai market was pretty interesting, not at all like an American supermarket. It was more like a Thai farmer's market, there was even an video store farm. While we toured the market, the assistant purchased the goods we would need.
After a short trip through the Thai countryside, we arrived at the farm. We took a short tour around the farm seeing which site-grown ingredients would go into our dishes.
We got to make six courses, choosing from among three options for each. We made some delicious Thai dishes, including Chicken with Basil and Chicken with Cashew Nuts. We also made Pad See Eiw, though it tasted slightly better than our pre-trip dinner (we didn't have fish sauce), it was still not quite restaurant quality. For dessert, Molly made bananas in coconut milk (she describes it as the "best dessert ever"), and I made mangos with sticky rice.
We found it to be a very interesting experience, and look forward to cooking some of these dishes at home. Molly is especially excited to make a Green Chili curry with sticky rice and the bananas. Dave looks forward to an improved Pad See Eiw and Chicken with Cashews.
Long-time no blog...
Sorry about our absence of blogging, as any of you who know me from high school might recall, I was totally going to do it tomorrow. Anyways, first and foremost, check out our flickr, which we have totally updated, so you should be able to see all of our pictures up to today. We are at an internet cafe right now typing away at record speeds trying to get some good blog updates for you. Well I am feverishly typing a blog and Dave is reading some other blogs. He is trying to figure out who McCains VP is going to be, while our reliable sources (read: the internet) say Sarah Palin, he is still hoping it is going to be some sort of Hillary Clinton/Joe Lieberman hybrid. Hybrids are always good for the economy, right?
So lets talk about Chiang Mai, right after we last left you, we took an overnight train to Chaing Mai, which is much better than a 12 hour flight, but much worse than teleportation. However, the drawback to that is that in order for teleportation to occur, the old Molly and Dave would have been destroyed in order to recreate a new Molly and Dave in Chiang Mai, but we don't know if they would have been able to get around, so obviously that solution was out. When we arrived in the morning, we hopped in a cab, and a new friendship was formed between Molly-Lee (Thats our celebrity couple name) and Jack the Cabbie. Jack Dropped us at our hotel, and told us he would come back in an hour, so that he could take us to Doi Suithep (a temple on the top of a mountain). Dave had read in some terrible book that we would be able to climb the 14 km mountain to the the top on some footpath, and along the way see some cool forgotten Buddhist monistaries.
When Jack came to pick us up, we told him that we wanted to go to the base of the mountain so that we could make the climb. First Jack laughed, never a good sign. Then Jack got angry and kicked us out of his cab, because he never would have come back to pick us up if he had known that we didnt need a ride to the top. This ended our short friendship with Jack the cabbie, as drove away, he told us he was going to spend his day sitting at the base of the mountain just waiting for us to come down. And again I doubted Dave/Fodder's plan, yet still I followed him to the mountain. After talking to everyone at the base of the mountain it became clear that this magical footpath did not exist, and we were going to have to take the main road, which had no shade, with two small bottles of water up to the top. After a small fight, I decided to mope my way up the mountain just to prove Dave wrong. Just as I was starting to get into the climb; we had even taken several side trips to some near by sights and waterfalls-we ran out of water. We made it up an impressive seven kilometers not including our side trips, so either way we did pretty well.
Then we saw a temple, the end. See you next time on the Molly and Dave show.
So lets talk about Chiang Mai, right after we last left you, we took an overnight train to Chaing Mai, which is much better than a 12 hour flight, but much worse than teleportation. However, the drawback to that is that in order for teleportation to occur, the old Molly and Dave would have been destroyed in order to recreate a new Molly and Dave in Chiang Mai, but we don't know if they would have been able to get around, so obviously that solution was out. When we arrived in the morning, we hopped in a cab, and a new friendship was formed between Molly-Lee (Thats our celebrity couple name) and Jack the Cabbie. Jack Dropped us at our hotel, and told us he would come back in an hour, so that he could take us to Doi Suithep (a temple on the top of a mountain). Dave had read in some terrible book that we would be able to climb the 14 km mountain to the the top on some footpath, and along the way see some cool forgotten Buddhist monistaries.
When Jack came to pick us up, we told him that we wanted to go to the base of the mountain so that we could make the climb. First Jack laughed, never a good sign. Then Jack got angry and kicked us out of his cab, because he never would have come back to pick us up if he had known that we didnt need a ride to the top. This ended our short friendship with Jack the cabbie, as drove away, he told us he was going to spend his day sitting at the base of the mountain just waiting for us to come down. And again I doubted Dave/Fodder's plan, yet still I followed him to the mountain. After talking to everyone at the base of the mountain it became clear that this magical footpath did not exist, and we were going to have to take the main road, which had no shade, with two small bottles of water up to the top. After a small fight, I decided to mope my way up the mountain just to prove Dave wrong. Just as I was starting to get into the climb; we had even taken several side trips to some near by sights and waterfalls-we ran out of water. We made it up an impressive seven kilometers not including our side trips, so either way we did pretty well.
Then we saw a temple, the end. See you next time on the Molly and Dave show.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Bangkok...Round One
On our first of three seperate stays in Bangkok, we can categorically say that we LOVE this country. Thailand is amazing, in a completely different way than Japan was, in fact, the countries have very little in common at all. Thailand is a much more relaxed atmosphere, everything is up for negotiation-- and EVERYONE is trying to scam you out of something, but we still think it is such an incredible place. However, the streets are disgusting, the sidewalks are falling apart, and there are mangy dogs EVERYWHERE... today, three of them got in a fight two feet from our face, and while dave and I packed up our lunch and ran, all the locals just kept on with their conversations. I suppose they don't have traveler's insurance to deal with, but we mostly thought we were going to die.
Yesterday we had a great day, we went to see the Reclining Buddha, which is kind of far from us, but instead of taking a tuk-tuk or the train, we thought it would be fun to take the river taxi. It was really fun, sort of like a bus that floats down the river stopping at a bunch of different stops along the banks, and there is a guide talking over the loud speakers the whole time. There was this crazy lady (or so we thought) who walks around shaking this can and marking your tickets on the boat, who turned out to actually be collecting the 15 baht that the locals knew to pay, instead of our 250 baht tourist pass. There seem to be a lot of tourist rates around here, the good news is that even those are cheap!
At the reclining Buddha, it was really cool because it is the Largest Buddha in Thailand at over 150 meters long. The feet themselves were 10 meters-which promted Dave to switch shoes with him. The grounds themselves were weird, because they had a grade school that operated out of there. All of the classrooms were open, which we werent sure if it was for our benefit (to make more donations obviously) or for theirs, but it was cool to see how they taught. Mom I'm sure you could have swept in there and had them all adoring curious George before the day was over, and man were they well behaved. Not one of them looked up as hords of tourists passed by looking in and taking pictures.
After the Buddha we went to take Dave to his second suit fitting, and man are they looking sharp. He even shaved yesterday, so he went from hobo chic to Versace model in a matter of hours... he is putting together an informertial for his system as we speak. Set it and just try to forget it, baby!
This morning we have been wandering the city just looking around, we picked up some lunch from a couple of different street vendors, and went to this nice park. Then we almost got our face ripped off by dogs and decided to just keep walking. Well we are going to get daves suits finished up and then hop aboard a train for Chiang Mai now, we will keep you all up to date as soon as we have internet again! (Pictures to come soon!)
Yesterday we had a great day, we went to see the Reclining Buddha, which is kind of far from us, but instead of taking a tuk-tuk or the train, we thought it would be fun to take the river taxi. It was really fun, sort of like a bus that floats down the river stopping at a bunch of different stops along the banks, and there is a guide talking over the loud speakers the whole time. There was this crazy lady (or so we thought) who walks around shaking this can and marking your tickets on the boat, who turned out to actually be collecting the 15 baht that the locals knew to pay, instead of our 250 baht tourist pass. There seem to be a lot of tourist rates around here, the good news is that even those are cheap!
At the reclining Buddha, it was really cool because it is the Largest Buddha in Thailand at over 150 meters long. The feet themselves were 10 meters-which promted Dave to switch shoes with him. The grounds themselves were weird, because they had a grade school that operated out of there. All of the classrooms were open, which we werent sure if it was for our benefit (to make more donations obviously) or for theirs, but it was cool to see how they taught. Mom I'm sure you could have swept in there and had them all adoring curious George before the day was over, and man were they well behaved. Not one of them looked up as hords of tourists passed by looking in and taking pictures.
After the Buddha we went to take Dave to his second suit fitting, and man are they looking sharp. He even shaved yesterday, so he went from hobo chic to Versace model in a matter of hours... he is putting together an informertial for his system as we speak. Set it and just try to forget it, baby!
This morning we have been wandering the city just looking around, we picked up some lunch from a couple of different street vendors, and went to this nice park. Then we almost got our face ripped off by dogs and decided to just keep walking. Well we are going to get daves suits finished up and then hop aboard a train for Chiang Mai now, we will keep you all up to date as soon as we have internet again! (Pictures to come soon!)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
As a tip for the future, don't fly Japan Airlines if you're over 6 foot. With my butt all the way back in the seat, my knees were literally up against the seat in front of me. Luckily, she didn't decide to lean back. However, once we got off the plane, things got much better.
While we don't have anything to compare it to, Lub D seems amazing for a hostel. It is like a hybrid hostel/hotel/ikea. They have a bank of computers and a hangout area downstairs, and they are really nice and new. They also have several lounge areas where you can hang out and meet people, where we've already met some people from Australia. As it turns out, The Simpsons was correct: the ultimate punishment isn't the death penalty, rather a kicking with a GIANT boot!
In the morning we went to the "Yellow Donute Cafe", which is basically a big yellow, well, donut, and you go up to it and pay 80 thai baht, about 2.50 and they give you this huge breakfast, an egg, 2 pieces of toast, a croisant, a piece of fruit, milk, juice, and coffee. You can sit in the little dining area and they bring it to you, we were also able to grab some lunch for 1.50 for the both of us. It is so CHEAP! However, Dave almost burned his mouth off. It took a large thing of chocolate milk to cool it down.
While we don't have anything to compare it to, Lub D seems amazing for a hostel. It is like a hybrid hostel/hotel/ikea. They have a bank of computers and a hangout area downstairs, and they are really nice and new. They also have several lounge areas where you can hang out and meet people, where we've already met some people from Australia. As it turns out, The Simpsons was correct: the ultimate punishment isn't the death penalty, rather a kicking with a GIANT boot!
In the morning we went to the "Yellow Donute Cafe", which is basically a big yellow, well, donut, and you go up to it and pay 80 thai baht, about 2.50 and they give you this huge breakfast, an egg, 2 pieces of toast, a croisant, a piece of fruit, milk, juice, and coffee. You can sit in the little dining area and they bring it to you, we were also able to grab some lunch for 1.50 for the both of us. It is so CHEAP! However, Dave almost burned his mouth off. It took a large thing of chocolate milk to cool it down.
We went to the Travel agent this morning to pick up our tickets for our trip to Chaing Mai and Ayutthaya. We also looked into flying to Cambodia instead of taking the train, it was 350 round trip so we decided to opt out of that. We took a tuk-tuk to the travel agents, which is basically a motorcycle with a backseat, and a con-artist driving it. He wouldnt give us a flat rate, he asked us what we wanted to pay, and then tried to con us some more. He also tried to take us to this tailor who i guess he gets a kick back from and it was all kinds of crazy. Moral of the story, no more tuk-tuks.
Then we went to the tailor, Raja's, which came highly recommended. Dave got a great deal on some custom-made suits, shirts, and pants. If you're interested, let either of us know, as he comes to visit the US twice a year.
After hanging around the lobby and meeting the Australians, we went out for dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. For $10, we got 2 giant beers, 3 main dishes, rice, and dessert. We had the BEST chicken (possibly rotisserie?) that we've ever had (no offense moms!). Molly ate something she thought was a green bean. Instead, it was the hottest thing ever. Though she didn't have chocolate milk, coconut ice cream with green beans and pink specks served over rice really did the trick.
So far, Thailand is amazing. We can't recommend it any more highly.
Now that we're caught up on blogging (with a few picture updates to come), we're off to bed.
Stay tuned for further adventures from the world of tomorrow...tomorrow!
Sayonara Japan!
On our last day in Japan, August 18, our flight didn't take off till 4 in the afternoon, so we decided to take the morning to do a walking tour of Asakusa, the historical district that we were staying in. We got a chance to walk through their street markets, which we hadn't had a chance to see in other parts of Tokyo. We got an early start, so we were able to see all of the shops just opening up. Everything there was pretty similar to other street markets that you see in other countries, but it was interesting none the less to actually see them operate.
After the market, we made our way over to the Sensoji shrine, which is the oldest and biggest shrine in Tokyo. We took the opportunity to check out some of the really cool Buddhist rituals. There was a large incense burner right when you walked in, and you were supposed to rub the smoke all over you, concentrating in any area that you felt ill, and it was supposed to help lead to a speedy recovery.
We were lucky enough to go when they were leading services of some sort, even though they were behind a gated area, the beautiful singing permeated the entire temple. Molly decided to partake in a ritual, where for 100 yen you shake a can with a small hole filled with numbered bamboo sticks, and whichever stick falls out, corresponds to a numbered drawer, which you go to and pull out your fortune. Unfortunately, her stick contained a very bad fortune, saying she would be unhappy in employment, marriage and life. Luckily there was a way to negate the fortune by tying it to a special rack of strings outside the temple, unfortunately, Molly tore her fortune on the rack, so who knows what will happen.
After that, we picked up our bags for the trip to Narita. Luckily, we got there easily and in plenty of time. Dave was excited to learn that McDonald's Asia has a DOUBLE BIG MAC! Though we didn't eat there, he is excited to come back and try it.
Stay tuned for our exciting adventures in Thailand. Will we adopt a Thai baby? Will we find Blackbeard's gold? Anything could happen, except those two things...
After the market, we made our way over to the Sensoji shrine, which is the oldest and biggest shrine in Tokyo. We took the opportunity to check out some of the really cool Buddhist rituals. There was a large incense burner right when you walked in, and you were supposed to rub the smoke all over you, concentrating in any area that you felt ill, and it was supposed to help lead to a speedy recovery.
We were lucky enough to go when they were leading services of some sort, even though they were behind a gated area, the beautiful singing permeated the entire temple. Molly decided to partake in a ritual, where for 100 yen you shake a can with a small hole filled with numbered bamboo sticks, and whichever stick falls out, corresponds to a numbered drawer, which you go to and pull out your fortune. Unfortunately, her stick contained a very bad fortune, saying she would be unhappy in employment, marriage and life. Luckily there was a way to negate the fortune by tying it to a special rack of strings outside the temple, unfortunately, Molly tore her fortune on the rack, so who knows what will happen.
After that, we picked up our bags for the trip to Narita. Luckily, we got there easily and in plenty of time. Dave was excited to learn that McDonald's Asia has a DOUBLE BIG MAC! Though we didn't eat there, he is excited to come back and try it.
Stay tuned for our exciting adventures in Thailand. Will we adopt a Thai baby? Will we find Blackbeard's gold? Anything could happen, except those two things...
Turning Japanese-a Part Ni
After arriving back from our Kyoto adventure on the 16th, we went to find our bags in the Tokyo train station, only to find that we had no clue where they were. We remembered what it looked like, but unfortunately, as no one spoke english, we had a hard time trying to find where they were. Eventually after a little while of looking, we found someone that could help us find what we were looking for, and we got our back packs back.
After trying to navigate the Japanese metro system (we had one "Simple transfer" that had us walk almost a mile and climb up and down over 10 flights of stairs), we arrived at the capsule hotel, which we had been looking really forward to. Unfortunately, the owner spoke no english, the hotel was disgusting, and the guests were even worse, we promptly checked back out and found a hotel across the street. It was small and it was ugly, but after the capsule, we thought it to be heaven. We were staying in Asakusa, the historical district of Tokyo, which was really different than the Shinjuku district we had stayed in our first night there. It was much less glamourous, the first time we saw homeless people in Tokyo, and much more working class.
We woke up refreshed on the 17, and ready to 
start anew. We went to Ueno, which is like their version of the Smithsonian. We only had time to go into a few of the museums but they were great. We were able to check out some ancient buddhist artifacts, and we learned a lot about the development of buddhism and buddhist art in Japan. We were also able to see some other cultural artifacts, but none that we found quite as interesting as those.
start anew. We went to Ueno, which is like their version of the Smithsonian. We only had time to go into a few of the museums but they were great. We were able to check out some ancient buddhist artifacts, and we learned a lot about the development of buddhism and buddhist art in Japan. We were also able to see some other cultural artifacts, but none that we found quite as interesting as those. In the early afternoon, we went to the Harajuku district, and saw all the crazy school girls that you imagine when you think of Japan. We took a really cool walking tour, and while some of us may have enjoyed the "sights" a little more than the others, we both thought that it was really cool and interesting. We went into a couple of stores, one that was completely dedicated to toys, but novelty items, such as an entire hello kitty floor. We also went to one that was called Chicago, that only sold used American clothing, including a "Kiss my Grits" stocking cap for 20 dollars, and a wide array of Confederate flag memorabilia. There was also some sort of dancing festival going on in the big square, which we watched for a while. Unfortunately it was rainy so there weren't as many "Harajuku Girls" out.
In the evening, we went to ginza, which is like their version of Times Square. By this point we 
had the train system mastered, and they even let Dave drive one of them. We came home and got packed up, and got ready to come to Thailand the next day. More of our adventure continues in the next post....
had the train system mastered, and they even let Dave drive one of them. We came home and got packed up, and got ready to come to Thailand the next day. More of our adventure continues in the next post.... Moshi Moshi from Kyoto!
Kyoto was Dave's favorite part of
Japan. We took the Bullet train (Shinkansen) there and man it does go quick! We missed Mt Fuji on the way there, but we were able to catch it on the way home. We went to a lot of really cool historical sights. On August 15, our first day there, we went to the golden pavillion, which was beautiful, and we went to gion, which is the geisha district, and then a park behind gion, which is some sort of a massive shrine. There are something like 1600 shrines in Kyoto. We didnt plan on how little english there really is there, and have been had a bit of a hard time navigating, but we have managed to find our way thanks to the kindness of strangers.
We took a cab to the Golden
pavillion, and you wouldnt believe how nice they are here, the drivers wear suits and keep their cabs immaculate, and they think that tipping is considered offensive! Its like Dave's dream come true! Our driver loved America, and was telling us how he loved Clint Eastwood, Bing Crosby and Dorris Day, and lets not forget Rambo. He sang White Christmas for us.
The food was really REALLY terrible, but we have been really adventurous in trying a lot of different things. You have no idea how unnerving it is to eat things that you have ABSOLUTELY no idea what they are. We went for a traditional Japanese dinner in Kyoto. The setup was
beautiful, but the food was so icky. The shrimps still had heads, which was disturbing when Molly went to take a bite out of it. We ate something that turned out to be eel, which wasnt too bad, and a lot of things that were so gross, we didnt even eat a quarter of what they served. They even ruined white rice but putting what we think were worms on it.
On the 16, we saw the gold pavillions cousin, the silver pavillion. It was equally, if not more impressive! Dave thought that it was much more impressive. We were able to see these impressive sand sculptures, as well as some Buddhist artifacts. We also went on a little hike to see the grounds from a hill above, it was pretty incredible. We took a little stroll through the market, and then headed towards the philosophers walk, at which point we realized that we didnt have enough money to get home. We started a search for an ATM, but found out quickly that there were none to be had. After begging a cab driver to take a credit card we finally got back to the main part of town, and then had to try and find an ATM that spoke english.
We finally found an ATM that both spoke english and accepted non Japanese issued cards, and Molly literally fell to the ground and threw her arms around the machiene. When Dave said, "Are you kissing the machiene?" I replied, "Don't be silly, I'm hugging it. We were able to get money in time to get to the Bullet train, but we had more adventures to come... read on to find out what!
Japan. We took the Bullet train (Shinkansen) there and man it does go quick! We missed Mt Fuji on the way there, but we were able to catch it on the way home. We went to a lot of really cool historical sights. On August 15, our first day there, we went to the golden pavillion, which was beautiful, and we went to gion, which is the geisha district, and then a park behind gion, which is some sort of a massive shrine. There are something like 1600 shrines in Kyoto. We didnt plan on how little english there really is there, and have been had a bit of a hard time navigating, but we have managed to find our way thanks to the kindness of strangers.We took a cab to the Golden
pavillion, and you wouldnt believe how nice they are here, the drivers wear suits and keep their cabs immaculate, and they think that tipping is considered offensive! Its like Dave's dream come true! Our driver loved America, and was telling us how he loved Clint Eastwood, Bing Crosby and Dorris Day, and lets not forget Rambo. He sang White Christmas for us.The food was really REALLY terrible, but we have been really adventurous in trying a lot of different things. You have no idea how unnerving it is to eat things that you have ABSOLUTELY no idea what they are. We went for a traditional Japanese dinner in Kyoto. The setup was
beautiful, but the food was so icky. The shrimps still had heads, which was disturbing when Molly went to take a bite out of it. We ate something that turned out to be eel, which wasnt too bad, and a lot of things that were so gross, we didnt even eat a quarter of what they served. They even ruined white rice but putting what we think were worms on it.On the 16, we saw the gold pavillions cousin, the silver pavillion. It was equally, if not more impressive! Dave thought that it was much more impressive. We were able to see these impressive sand sculptures, as well as some Buddhist artifacts. We also went on a little hike to see the grounds from a hill above, it was pretty incredible. We took a little stroll through the market, and then headed towards the philosophers walk, at which point we realized that we didnt have enough money to get home. We started a search for an ATM, but found out quickly that there were none to be had. After begging a cab driver to take a credit card we finally got back to the main part of town, and then had to try and find an ATM that spoke english.
We finally found an ATM that both spoke english and accepted non Japanese issued cards, and Molly literally fell to the ground and threw her arms around the machiene. When Dave said, "Are you kissing the machiene?" I replied, "Don't be silly, I'm hugging it. We were able to get money in time to get to the Bullet train, but we had more adventures to come... read on to find out what!
Konichi Wa Tokyo! (Japan, Pt. 1)
We spent a whirlwhind four and one half days in Japan, split between one day in Kyoto, and the rest in Tokyo. Overall experience: Amazing. Sight-seeing: Unbelievable. Food: To die for from.
After flying with the sun for 11 hours, we arrived in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 14th. After getting checked into the hotel, we spent some time walking around Shinjuku, a young and trendy area, seeing a TON of young Japanese enjoying a pleasant Thursday night.
We hit an internet cafe/comicbook cafe/(sleeping cubicle?). It was very weird, each computer was in a tiny cubicle that had a comfortable seat, with a pair of slippers and a locker. In addition, there was a shower in case you had a REALLY epic WoW game.
After grabbing a quick bite (still not sure what we ordered), that we could hardly eat, we headed back to the hotel and conked out around 10.
After flying with the sun for 11 hours, we arrived in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 14th. After getting checked into the hotel, we spent some time walking around Shinjuku, a young and trendy area, seeing a TON of young Japanese enjoying a pleasant Thursday night.
We hit an internet cafe/comicbook cafe/(sleeping cubicle?). It was very weird, each computer was in a tiny cubicle that had a comfortable seat, with a pair of slippers and a locker. In addition, there was a shower in case you had a REALLY epic WoW game.
After grabbing a quick bite (still not sure what we ordered), that we could hardly eat, we headed back to the hotel and conked out around 10.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Welcome to Tokyo!
had wireless and appearantly the phone didn't work in japan because
they use a different kind of network. We are sitting here at Narita
airport waiting to go to thailand so I figured we would post a few
things to get caught up on the trip so far. Check out the next few
posts to see what we've been up to.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Arrival in Kyoto
We just arrived in Kyoto on the bullet train from Tokyo. Amazingly fast, but we missed Mt Fuji. Hopefully we will see it on the way back.
Lots of cool things to see in Kyoto, will update more when there is more time.
Unfortunately, none of our hotels so far have had wi-fi to give better updates.
Molly and Dave
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Dates...Cities...Activities
Aug 14-15...Tokyo
- Sleep City!
- Exploring the Golden Palace
- Downtown Gion (we think that may be Dave's evil twin in the picture), the largest geisha District in Japan
- Traditional Japanese tea ceremony
- Philosopher's Walk with Cherry Blossom Trees
- Kabuki Show
- Ueno Park, Like the Japanese Smithsonian
- Harajuku Square, the place that all those crazy Japanese
- Harjuku Gallery District, Design Festa
- Thai Spa Day
- Visiting the Reclining Buddha, the Largest Buddha in Thailand
- Walking Tour of the City
- Over Night Sleeper Train to Chiang Mai
- Thai Farm Cooking School, we go to a thai market in the morning and get the food we need for the day, and then we go to the farm, where they grow the rest of the ingredients, and learn some traditional thai cooking.
- Elephant Nature Park, Which is a haven for abused elephants, where we get to bathe, feed, and play with the elephants.
- Jungle Trek, including a trip to the long neck village of Karen, an elephant ride, and 2 walks around the jungle.
- Walking Tour of Chaing Mai
- Overnight Sleeper Train to Ayutthaya
- Walking Tour and Local Sight Seeing, Ayutthaya was the old capitol of Thailand
- Train Back to Bangkok
- Arrive From Ayutthaya at 9:00 pm
- Sleep...Sleep...Sleep
- Leave For Siem Reap, Cambodia at 4:00 am, train to Siem Reap, then driver takes us on a 3 hour taxi ride.
In Cambodia, we will be staying at a hotel that offers different trips, which we got to customize, so for this section we are going to breakdown our activities by the days and include the full description of our trips.
- Day One:
- Go to the Cambodian Land mine Museum
- Watch the sunset from a temple at the Angkor complex
- Return to hotel for special Khmer dinner.
- Day Two:
- Spending the day exploring the Ankor Wat temple plaza with our own personal guide.
- Head out to town and explore the many galleries, restaurants and cafes.
- Day Three:
- Leave the hotel at 6:00 am heading to the Ta Prohm, a very special temple, to watch the sunrise
- Head out to The National Silk Centre, take tour of the farm including breeding of Cambodian Silk Worms, silk extraction processes, and watch garments get made through to completion.
- Day Four:
- Day in the Life, spend a day shadowing a poor Cambodian Family, helping with their chores which may include rice planting, harvesting, making wine, or many other cambodian tasks. The proceeds are split between the family and the village.
- Day Five:
- 1/2 day trip to the stilted Village of Kompong Phhluk
- Thai spa day, part duex
- Relaxing
- Saying goodbye to the Thai!
Photos on Flickr
We just created a Flickr account so that you can see selected pictures from our trip. We'll try to upload pictures a few times over the course of the trip.
Here is the URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollydamsky/
Here is the URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollydamsky/
Dates...Cities...Hotels
Here is a list of the cities we will be visiting, where we will be staying and when we will be there.
(right: Bungalow from the Villas at Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Aug 13...Depart Chicago
Aug 14...Arrive Tokyo
Aug 14-15...Tokyo...Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
Aug 15-16...Kyoto...Karasuma Kyoto Hotel
Aug 16-18...Tokyo...Asakusa Capsule Hotel Tokyo
Aug 18-21...Bangkok...Lub D Hostel
Aug 21-Aug 25...Chiang Mai...Green Tulip House
Aug 26...Ayutthaya...Day Trip
Aug 26-27...Bangkok...Twin Towers Hotel Bangkok
Aug 27-Sept 1...Siem Reap, Cambodia...Villas at Siem Reap
Sept 1-Sept 3...Bangkok, Thailand...Peninsula Hotel Bangkok
Sept 3...Depart Bangkok
Sept 4...Arrive Chicago
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Molly and Dave's Asian Adventure
So, as you know we are going to be traveling through Asia in the next month, and we wanted to share exactly what we would be doing and when and where you can find us! If anyone needs to get in contact with us, please email us at Molly.Damsky@gmail.com or Lee.Dave.A@gmail.com or send us a message on Facebook, and we will get back to you!
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