26 July 2006

Imagine hearing the waves crash against the sand, your eyes are closed, you are laying on your back and a Thai lady is using all her body weight to massage you. This was Jr and I two days ago. We spent our last day in Ko Samui in a very relaxed state. We woke up, had breakfast by the beach, sat in our lawn chairs, under two umbrellas (I was quite burned from the snorkeling trip and didn't want any more sun) with our books, and got up a few times to get in the water and cool down. All the lounging was followed by a Thai massage by the beach.

We are now back in Bangkok. We will be here until our flight leaves on the 28th. This will probably be the last blog for our honeymoon, but we will probably upload more photos when we return. We hope you have enjoyed our trip updates as we have enjoyed our trip greatly.

Until next time...Leslie and Robert Jr.

PS. I tried to upload photos, but for some reason they wouldn't load. Sorry. I wanted you to see the relaxed states that we were in during our massages.

July 22, 2006

Hello all,

We are still in Ko Samui. Having a nice relaxing time. The weather here is beautiful with only a few rainshowers that have luckily occurred at night. Cools things down and gets rid of the bugs for a few minutes. Anyhow, we were able to upload some pictures today, so this post will have a few.

Yesterday we spent our day sea kayaking at the national marine park close to this island. It was a little harded than I (leslie) thought, but I made it through. The water is very blue and sometimes clear. So beautiful. We had several stops at a few islands to look at some viewpoints and do variuos things. On one of the islands we saw wild monkeys just chillin in a tree, which was so cool to see. I thought that they were used to people because they didn't really move, but a guide came over and tried to get really close and they didn't much like that.

In Ko Samui we have had some interesting dining experiences. Last night we were eating at a restaurant and then all of a sudden all the workers (even the cooks and dishwashers) from our restaurant and the workers from the neighboring restaurant stopped what they were doing and went into the street and did a choreographed dance to "I like to move it, move it. I like to move it...." We don't know the rest of the song. Then tonight we went to a Brazilian grill and there were Brazilian dancers and a bottle juggler that came out toward the end of our meal. I guess they like to spice up the dining experiences here.
Us with the Brazilian Dancers.

Dinner at the Brazilian Restaurant

Today we spent our day on the beach all day. We got up to get in the water and to grab some lunch. It was very nice. The resort that we are staying in provides lawn chairs with padding, an umbrella and towels, so we were so comfortable that we stayed all day with our books. It was nice to do absolutely nothing. Got a little burned, but not too much.

Our view all day today.

When we were in Chiang Mai we talked with a monk about their daily life and helped him to work on his English. This is a pic from that day. It was quite nice. After the chat we went and listened to about 50 monks chant. It was beautiful.

20 July 2006

Hello all. We have made it Ko Samui. This is an island in the Gulf of Thailand. The water is blue, the sand white, and the sun hot. It is very beautiful. We have spent the last few days on an island north of here. We stayed in a beach bungalow away from the hustle of a city. It was difficult to find cheap taxis there, so we rented a scooter to get around. It was quite fun. Leslie was the drive and Jr looked like a stud in the rearview mirror. We really just spent our time on the beach and did some sightseeing to some dry water falls.

We went to this island for the half moon party. There is a huge party on this island for the full moon and the half moon. It was very nice sitting out on the beach watching fire throwers and watching people get totally blitz on cheap Thai whiskey. We thought we were at the party, but as we were getting a taxi back to our villa at 2 in the morning, we realized we were not at the half moon party. The party was in the jungle. Needless to say we were pretty tired and didn't make it to the party in the jungle, but did have quite a bit of fun on the beach.

We spent the rest of our time on the beach. Today in Ko Samui, we will do the same. We have booked some days to go snorkeling and sea kayaking, so we will update you on those later. Hope you all are donig well.

Cheers to all....Leslie and Robert

PS. Sorry no pictures again. It's hard to find places to upload them from our SDcard. We will try to find somewhere in the next few days.

14 July 2006

We are still in Chiang Mai...heading down south tomorrow. Yesterday we spent our day white water river rafting on the Mae Ping (spelling unsure) River. It was quite an experience. The water was moving rapidly and there were several very scary parts. However we only lost one out of the boat but he was recovered quickly by Jr. and the 'skipper', our expert guide. While rafting a rain shower came through, which was a nice referesher, and we were blessed to see many muddy waterfalls. We also came across an elephant in the middle of the river when we came around a bend in the river. This made me very uneasy as the guide on our trekking trip had told me a story about him rafting and an elephant chasing after him, hitting him off the raft with his trunk. The elephant didn't chase us, although it did give a nice stare, before it was shooed off by a guide. (We wish we had pictures to upload, but we don't.)

Today we spent the day travelling to a few more temples and to some factories where variuos things are made: thai silk items, paper umbrellas, lacquered woodwork, and rugs. It seemed to be this was a way to get tourists out to a village to buy things that were overpriced. Needless to say, we bought nothing, however it was nice to see the process of how things are made.

Tomorrow will be an easy day. Just relaxing before catching our train. We are heading to the islands down south...can't wait to see the beautiful beaches.

Until next time...
Leslie and Robert

We've made it through the jungle of Thailand

12 July 2006

We are now in Chiang Mai, which in nortwest Thaliand. It is quite a different pace from Bangkok, one we both quite enjoy. After arriving we took off on a three day two night trek through the jungle. It was quite amazing. We hiked through the rainforest, rode elephants and ended our trek by bamboo rafting down a river. We began our hike by trekking to a waterfall where we "showered" in to cool off. Then off to hike to a village where we slept on bamboo mats with mosquito nets draped over us. With the sounds of frogs in the background and all the night sounds of the jungle. We learned new tricks from the local villagers all so we could buy them a beer. The second day we hiked for about six hours stopping at various waterfalls along the way to cool off and eat lunch. Ending at another village that seemed bigger and more spread out. The last day we rode elephants through the jungle again and rafted, with Jr as one of the rowers, down the river. It was all very fun.

Today we took a Thai cooking class together. We learned how to make several Thai dishes, including Pad Thai. Tomorrow we are off to do some white water rafting which should be great.

Hope this finds you all well. More to come...

Leslie and Jr.

July 5, 2006

Hello all,

Well, we have been in Bangkok for three days now. It is very hot and humid, but we find fans and a\c periodically to get a flash of cool air. We are still trying to get over our jetlag. We tend to crash around 6 o'clock every evening. Is that our tiredness from the flight or the heat we can't figure out yet, but I guess we will as time goes on.

Bangkok is full of people and cars. There is more traffic here than I have ever seen, including New York city. Cars are lined up from the am to the pm trying to get to places. Somewhere you would think you could go in about 15-20 minutes takes about 40-60. Cabs are cheap, luckily, so it only costs a few dollars or less to get from point A to point B. We have been to many Wats here in Bangkok. Wats are Buddhist temples. There are so many of them that it is hard to keep track of the names. We are taking lots of pictures, but not sure if we'll remember the names as we are scrapbooking (or should I say as I (leslie) am scrapbooking.

Today we went up to Ayutthaya by bus. This is a small town (200,000 people) north of Bangkok with more Wats to see. We also saw an (h)elephant farm that was quite impressive. I sat close to one for a posed photograph. Very spikey hair. We then visited more wats and palaces. After the wat visits, we made our way to a pier where we took a river cruise back to Bangkok. We had a buffet lunch of different foods and fruits, drank coffee and looked at the various dwellings of Thai people. It's amazing some of the homes both very ritzy looking and others very run down looking. Again we saw more wats on the river.


This afternoon we saw our first big rain storm from our hotel room. It rained and rained and rained. Tomorrow we are headed up north to Sukothai to do some more exploring. Be looking for more postings. We will continue to update. Wish we had photos to upload, but haven't figured that out yet.

Love to you all,
Leslie and Robert

June 30, 2006

Well, we are all packed up and ready to go. We embark on our journey early in the morning. We are both very excited and a little anxious. We'll be in touch.

Leslie and Robert