Malaysia... stop 1

After leaving our new found friends, we headed south to Malaysia. We were hoping to take a train to the east coast... but strong warnings and recent murders convinced us to skip that area of Thailand. So instead we crossed over on a ferry to the Island of Langkawi, where we lounged on our final south east Asian beach. Oh well... it's been fun. The highlight of the Island was definitely the night food market, where we sampled all kinds of Malay dishes and rolled home so stuffed! Leaving the island was very disappointing, as our sandals and board shorts were stolen on the last night...

West Coast Thailand

After having such a great time in Koh Pha Ngan, our group could not bear to go our separate ways... so we didn't. We travelled en mass to the west coast and Railay Beach. It had to be one of the most stunning places we have seen to date and was the classic Thailand postcard. For 3 more days, we lazed around the beaches, got stung by jellyfish (Monica), and hung out at nights.
With us all about to disperse across the country in the morning, the last night seemed destined to be one to remember... and it did not disappoint. After most of the town shut down, our little party was just getting started. In fact, the Norwegians really raised the bar when they "treated" us to a few bottles of Moet and Chandon. For those of you that want to know the rest of the details, remember to ask us next time we see you. It's a doozy!

Norway, USA and East Coast Thailand

We ended up spending most of our time on the beaches of Thailand with an amazing group of people! We checked into our little bungalow on Bottle Beach (aka. THE BEST BEACH EVER!) located on Koh Pha Ngan. Flanking our place were two Norwegian girls on the right (Monica and Therese) and two American boys on the left (Tim and Brian). For a fun-filled ten days we bathed in the sun. Well, Brian from New York, lurked in the shadows after a mean sunburn. Poor Guy. In the meantime the Norwegians were baring enough skin to make up for our missing American. We shared meals, drinks and swam in some GORGEOUS phosphorescense in the early hours of the morning. We also experienced the debauchery that is the FULL MOON PARTY. That's Tim and Miranda in the picture with the bucket. That's what we drank out of...buckets. Good to experience, but never again.
We miss our new friends...but not to worry. More adventures with the group in the next post!

26 in Bangkok

What a great place to have a birthday! My lovely wife got me up at 6:30 am and rushed me off to an internet cafe first thing. When I got there, there was a whole party waiting for me via skype. As I was talking with our Toronto friends, Miranda snuck off to get what I assumed would be coffee. Nope. A large beer at 7 am. The party was followed by a delicious American breakfast. The cafe just opened, and they were so great, giving me a homemade candle as a present! (That's the owner and cook in the picture) We then checked into a nice hotel for a change but left our camera in the cab! That brought the mood of the day down for awhile and is the reason we have very few pictures! I ran out later to buy some custom leather shoes to match my vietnamese made suit and we hit the town for the evening. English pubs, rooftop patios, and super trendy clubs were on the ticket.

I've included some shots of the train south since we had no pictures in bangkok...

Saigon

What is officially Ho Chi Minh City, but still known to the people as Saigon, is full of mopeds, sketchy wiring, and history. We spent 5 days in the area and thouroughly enjoyed having Air-con and a TV. The vietnam war is still a vivid memory for the locals and we spent a day visiting the war museum and Cu Chi Tunnel system. The tunnels were insane... consisting of a 200 km network of crawlspaces, kitchen rooms, air vents and boobytraps. We crawled through one of the original tunnels for about 50 m and almost panicked from the claustrophobia. During the war, people lived in them!

DISASTER!

Our beautiful little camera spent the day sightseeing around bangkok on its own yesterday. Left in the back of a cab... #$&*

We spent just under a week in Cambodia. After an overnight, 22 hour journey from Northern Thailand we made it to Siem Reap, home to Angkor Wat. The temples were stunning and we thoroughly enjoyed bicycling though the vast complex.

From there, we made our way to the capitol city of Phnom Phen. We met up with a Canadian we had met in Bangkok and he introduced us to a little community of expats (mostly teaching english). At the killing fields and S-21 museum, we were shocked to learn what the country had been through in the late 1970's. The picture of the tower-like structure is a monument to all the Cambodians who were killed during the genocide and it is actually full of 8000 skulls. We ate omelette's on baguettes with Cambodian coffee (we loved the french influence!) every morning at Veasna's litte restaurant near our hotel. He enlightened us more on life in Cambodia and we had a great time talking to him. He is definitely one of the nicest people we have met.