Oct 29, 2008 - The Long Flight to Thailand

Well, today's the day. I'm heading out to the airport for the longest flight I have ever taken. Orlando to Bangkok. I've got multiple hops. Orlando to Los Angeles, to Hong Kong, to Bangkok. I've packed appropriately. 2 small bags. One for check and one for carryon. Making sure I have at least 1 days' change of clothing in my carryon with all my camera equipment, reading material and snacks. I'll arrive in Bangkok on the 31st at 11:00 am. I wonder if they celebrate Halloween there? Psyching myself up. Go, Go, Go... Till next time...

Oct 30, 2008 - Missing Connections

Well so far I can't get my computer network connected so this is coming from my iphone. I left Orlando at 6:45pm on Oct 29 and finally got to my hotel at 6:00pm on oct 31. My flight out of LAX was delayed so finally got out at 2:30 am (arrived@9:00p, supposed to depart at 1:00am) 14 hours later I landed in Hong Kong 15 min too late for my connecting flight. Cathay Pacific was pretty good. Nearly all the people on the flight missed their connection, so as soon as we deplaned, they had associates there with our new tickets and a lunch voucher. I got rescheduled to 2:45 in the afternoon. So while I waited in Hong Kong, found a pay shower location so I was able to refresh with a warm shower, change of clothes and brush my teeth. Yeah. Well worth the $20. The afternoon flight out of Hong Kong, was delayed as well, but only by a few minutes as we waited for a crew. I arrived in Bangkok about 4:30pm. Now in Thailand, I am relaxing at a nice 5 star Swisshotel in the center of Bangkok. My roomate gets in about midnight. We'll be up at 7:00a to have breakfast, meet the rest of the people on the trip and head out to the Bangkok Royal Palace tomorrow. Chow for now.

Nov 1, 2008 - First Day in Bangkok

Hi again. My roommate finally made it in at 1 am. We had a wakeup call for 7:30 am for breakfast, met the rest of the group, our tour guide, then head out to our bus. We are all travel agents on this trip except for 2 couples. 1 from Canada who decided to join our group so they wouldn't have to travel alone, and another couple who were friends of the agents. 11 of us total. Today we visited the Royal Palace of the original first 5 kings of Thailand. Absolutely georgous. All inlaid tiles imported from Italy. Beautiful golden statues. You will see in future pics. This country is predominantly Buddest. Over 40,000 chapels ( or Wats) are all over the country. Traffic is very bad. After the Palace, we visited the Temple of the Reclining Budda. Over 40 meters in length all gold leaf and mother of pearl designs on the bottom of the feet. We saw many Stupas (mausoleum) for the storage of the deads ashes. We then headed to a buffet lunch on a floating ship on the Chapaya River. Thai food is very spicy but good. Trying all kinds of strange things. After lunch we boarded a long boat and took a quick trip down the river to see more of the buildings from the river side, how the river people live, how they sell to each other with little boats, and more. Next we visited a Tailor and some men got fitted for suits, some women for dresses or blouses. I chose a nice pair of pants made from silk and cashmere. Great price! Delivered to our hotel in 1 day! One very important note... Only go to the tailor the guide recommends. They are very, very good. If you deviate, lord only knows what you will get. Once everyone finished with their measurements, we headed out to do some duty free shopping, enjoy another huge buffet dinner with every kind of Thai food possible, then finally a wonderful Thai puppet show! It's now past 8 pm heading back to the hotel ( more traffic) to hit the bed. Tomorrow a 5 am wake up call to head to the River Kwai. G'nite!

Nov 2, 2008 - On to Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Up at 5:00 am and out to an early breakfast this morn at 7 am. On the bus to head out of the hotel by 8. We headed straight out of Bangkok south to a small village on our way to Kanchanaburi to see how they make coconut sugar and candy. It was very sweet. They also soak nuts making it taste like brickle. Here we saw 2 Kamodo Dragons in the wild. About 3-4 feet in length. And, naturally, do a little shopping. We then continued south to the Damnoen Saduak where you see the floating market where everyone (people, vendors, restaurants,etc) all selling from small shallow boats. Pictures will be the only way to do this justice. It was amazing, interesting and hot! Then we went to a local popular restaurant for lunch. Many interesting choices of dishes our guide selected in advance was brought to the table. White rice, whole fish baked, whole fish fried, giant prawns, veg, fish cakes, chicken, mushroom soup, spicy shrimp soup, then fruit for desert. Too much food! We then continue onward to Kamchanaburi to the cemetary of the men who died as POW's while the building of the railroad through Siam (Thailand) to Burma during 1941-1944 (WW2). Over 6,000 Dutch, British and Australian men died in the construction of this railroad. This was also depicted in more detail in the War Museum giving you a full account of what happened. It was horrible. We then climbed into some Long Boats and motored up the River Kwai to see the famous Bridge Over The River Kwai from the river. Here we disembarked and were able to walk across it before the train came. Yes, you can be on the bridge as the train goes by taking many peope and locals to the waterfall. Near the bridge was many markets as well for shopping, but be very careful. Some do try to sell you gemstones that are not real. Dinner was in a nice restaurant right next to the river with the same kind of Thai foods as lunch. Our hotel is right across on the banks of the river next to the bridge. It's a lovely hotel, with very beautiful gardens and fountains. Mosquitoes are bad in the evening. Running to the room for lock down and bug killing before sleep. G'nite

Nov 3, 2008 - Back to Bangkok

Today was another early morn. We had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel before leaving. We headed out to the Elephant Camp near the mountains outside of Kanchanaburi. Here was an interesting time visiting the elephants of Thailand. We all road 2 up on a chair on the elephants back with a guide. He took us down a small hill to the river, with water halfway up the elephants body. Of couse we had to get a picture taken. The one we rode was 20 yrs and was on her 2nd baby which followed us around. They do about 30 tourist rides a week. We rode through the woods for about 1/2 hour. We then had a choice to take a bamboo raft trip. They used a long boat to tow us up the river then floated back down river to where we entered. We saw several iguanas on the river bank. The group then brought in a junior elephant and it put on a show for us. The elephant show consisted of it walking on 2 legs, sat up like a dog, and I got a massage from him where he stomped on my back and for the guys, he stomped on their front. All the Thai elephants are smaller not like African ones. Leaving the camp, we headed back toward Bangkok stopping at a family restaurant (a friend of the guide). His restaurant is in the middle of a paddi (rice) field. They grow Jasmine Rice. The food was the best yet. Authentic Thai food. Fish, fried pork, seaweed soup, veg with shrimp, beef with oyster sauce, rice, and more. As we headed back to Bangkok we hit lots of traffic again. Our hotel, the Montien was in the center of town. 24 hour shopping, eating, dancing (yes ballroom style), and kariokee. My roomate and I were still full from lunch, so instead of getting dinner we just sat at a coffee shop on the main street and watched people for a couple hours, had coffee, tea and dessert then headed to bed. Tomorrow is another full day as we head to Pattaya visiting gardens, cultural dance show, elephant show, Thai massage and cabaret show. G'nite. Anna

Nov 4, 2008 - Leaving Bangkok to Pattaya, Thailand

Today was the day we left Bangkok again and this time headed out to Pattaya. Pattaya is located on the Gulf of Thailand approx 145 km south of Bangkok. After a 2 1/2 hour drive out of Bangkok we stopped shortly to hit a restroom. While there we popped into a mini-mart to pick up some TP for the bus (none of the bathrooms have toilet paper so bring your own) and some Thai cookies and candy. A quick trip up the road brought us to a Gem Factory. We got a tour of the plant showing us what they gems they look like in their raw form before cutting, the gem cutting demonstration, explaination of how the gems are mined in Thailand. The gems most mined here is the blue saphire, ruby, and jade. Their store was packed full of over 30,000 pieces of jewelry and loose stones. It's a jewelry shoppers paradise. And the prices.... really good. From here we went to a huge place called The Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens. About 30 min outside the city of Pattaya. Beautiful rock and oriental gardens. After a quick buffet lunch we attended their cultural dance show which had some beautiful costumes, great dance coreography including live elephants as a part of the show. Once it was over, we moved on next door to the open air theater for the live elephant show. They were so adorable. Playing soccer, basketball, darts, bowling, dancing, and painting. You could get a t-shirt or a poster painted by one of the elephants! This took up most of the day. We wish we had a little more time to be able to tour all the gardens. But we had another appointment for the afternoon and we had to get checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Nusa Playa Hotel and Spa on the 24th floor with balconies overlooking the Gulf of Thailand. What a georgeous sunset. The last thing for today was to get a traditional Thai massage. They put us all in one large room, we changed into a set of pajamas and got a great massage for 2 hours for $20! Wow! What a deal. We all will sleep great tonight! G-nite! Anna

Nov 5, 2008 - Pattaya - Beach Day

Today was a relaxing day. We had a quick breakfast in the hotel. Grabbed our swimsuits and towels and headed out. Our bus took us about 30 min into the town of Pattaya to the beach to catch our speedboat to Coral Island Resort. On our way we stopped for a few minutes to let some people in our group parasail. This was like mass production. As soon as they strapped a person up with the chute, one was landing. They had 6 platforms in the middle of the water all doing this. I've never seen so many parachutes in the air at one time. When we finished there we continued to Coral Island and the beach. Most of us just sat around on the beach chairs and fell asleep. All this activity does catch up with you. The water was nice and just slightly cool. There were many other activities like jet-ski's and Banana Boats if you wanted to do more. We sat in the sun all day, swam a little, and had lunch. Lunch was good. It consisted of a seafood bar-b-q with huge prawns, crabs, tempura shimp, and lots more. Filled up again. About 2:30 we headed back on the speed boat to the beach to catch our bus back to the hotel to get ready for the Cabaret Show tonight and a local dinner. The show was interesting, not professional performers, but ok. All the performers (men & umm... women) were all men or boys. We were told many of the women performers were previously men. As I said.....interesting. Wait for the pics. Heading to bed now. Early morn tomorrow. Flying to Seim Reap, Cambodia. Later...Anna

Nov 6, 2008 - Pattaya - Bangkok - Siem Reap

This was a really early morning, and a quick breakfast as we hopped on the bus and headed back to Bangkok to catch our flights. Here the group split up. Some went to Hong Kong or a tour extension, and myself and roommate went on to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was a quick 1 hour flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia on Bangkok Airways. Upon our arrival we were met by our guide, Mr. Tep Prasith. He and our driver took us to our hotel to relax for a couple of hours. Le Residence de Angkor. An absolutely georgous boutique 5 star hotel in the center of town on the river. Our room is fantastic. It fits the ambiance of the country. Infinity pool, exercise room, bar, etc. We met at 2:30p to head out to the first set of temples. Angkor Thom was one of the original locations within the city of Angkor with the temple Bayon. This is a buddest monument where you could see the 4 smiling faces of budda on each of the towers. There were 52 total towers. Just outside of the temple was a giant Budda where the monks came to pray. We walked down toward where the original royal palace used to be. It is all so imense. Angkor Thom is approx 9 square kilometers. All of Angkor is over 200 hectacres. We saw the sun was setting so our guide quickly took us to Bakheng on the top of a huge hill to get the sunset pictures with the temple. We then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant. Great food. Back to the hotel for our complimentary drink, shower, and bed. It is so muggy here, not super hot, but it is the end of the rainey season so it is raining here off and on during the day. Not like Thailand. Tomorrow we will see the temple from the movie Tomb Raider and Angkor Wat. For now, g'nite. Anna

Nov 7, 2008 - Siem Reap and the Temples

We started out early today after breakfast to our first temple called Banteay Srei (dedicated to the hindu god Shiva)1 hour north of Angkor. Here it is noted for it's pink sandstone and over the door carvings. From there to Banteay Samre. Each one of the temples is so unique in it's own right. This next one was not on our schedule but our guide knew we couldn't miss it. It was Ta Prohm. Here the arecheologists left everything untouched. This is the one where they filmed Laura Croft Tomb Raiders. This one has all the fig, banyan and kapok trees with their roots flowing down the walls and all around taking over. It was cool! We felt like we were tomb raiding! Tons of amazing pics.A quick traditional lunch then on to the main, and most famous temple, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat stands 65 meters high. The tallest and biggest temple in all of Cambodia and the prime attraction for visitors. It has been on the list as one of the 7 wonders of the world and is now at 14. These are based on imenseness and age. Here is also where the filmed the floating village on the lake in front on Angkor Wat showing it in the background. Inside was where she talked with the monk and drank the sacred drink. This temple has the best showing of Khmer architecture. It's also the symbol on the Cambodian Flag. We left just in the nick of time before the rainstorm came. We headed to south of SeimReap to the real floating village on the lake. Here we saw many of the locals, their small boats, children, and floating restaurants. We stopped at one to see the tanks of fish they catch from the lake and the crocodiles. We just made it in again before the rains came. Dinner in the evening was buffet with a show and Apsara dancers doing local folk dances. This is it. The end to an absolutely wonderful trip. I wish we would have planned another day. The Angkor complex has over 209 different temples. They sell the tickets in 1 day, 3 days, or 1 week. There is so much to see. It's now time to pack. I'm heading back home in the morning, but my roommate is on her way to Hong Kong for another couple of days. G'nite. Anna

Nov 8, 2008 - Heading back Home

The trip home was uneventful. My flights were: Seim Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand, then Hong Kong, onward to Los Angeles, Ca, and finally Orlando, Florida. Over 20 hours of flying. I did Ok though. Slept when I was supposed to and stayed awake during the day. Overall no jet lag. This was a great trip. Try it sometime or call me and I'll book it for you.Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

Anna Cann
Travel Specialist
Travel Without Limits
407-467-4569