We arrived safely in Kathmandu yesterday. It was extremely beautiful flying in over the hills that surround the valley that makes up Kathmandu.

Arriving at the airport it was immediately apparent that we were in a different country -- from a walk down stairs to get off the plane to a very long wait to get through a manual visa process. We were met outside by people holding a sign up with my name on it and they took us to our hotel.

On the way we picked up Dhan who is going to be our guide while we trek on the Annapurna circuit. We decided to spend a little more time here since our Visa is good for 60 days and our plane ticket is good for 45 days. So we are going to do a 27 day trek. That includes the Annapurna Circuit as well as a trek up to the Annapurna Base Camp. Both are going to be specatcular experiences.

We wandered around Thamal last evening with Dhan as our tour guide -- and stopped for some scrumptious pizza before heading back and crashing to sleep. Tomorrow morning at 7am we catch the bus to Pokhura (sp?) and then from there we start our trek.

It was quite an experience trying to get the money together for paying the trekking company. It just took a lot of work -- ATMs kept crashing and we had a fun experience trying to place a charge on my card (not knowing what my limit was). Hardly any of the trekking companies have credit card machines so everything is handled through cash. It felt strange walking around with 60,000 in cash. Especially when the largest bill is a 1000 and they don't have a lot of those (so you are walking around with TONS of 100's). But that all got taken care of (even after Tree crashed 2 ATM machines).

Then a lunch "on the house" (the trekking company paid for our lunch today) with a great traditional Nepali dish that I totally can't remember the name of. Today is "Worldwide Tourist Day" or something like that -- so all the streets in Thamal are closed to regular traffic with lots of guards walking about with bamboo poles to keep traffic away. It's making it a lot less hectic walking around as Nepal has even fewer driving laws then Thailand did (apparently). The law of the road here apparently is who has the louder horn and can get people to move out of the way. It was hilarious as Tree avoided walking into a motorcycle only to stop bare centimeters from the car that had suddenly stopped in front of her. I don't know who would've had more damage as she woulda just kicked the bumper in or some crazyness like that!

Anywase, thats about it from Kathmandu! We might be able to get online tomorrow when we arrive at Pokhura but if not, don't expect to hear from me for 27 days!!

Catch all ya'all on the flipside!
BuhBye

We visited monkeys today!! How awesome is that?
The hotel we stayed in was a pretty run down place but it was cool -- it was just a nights sleep. Then it was on to visit some temples. Dedicated to Monkeys!! But they weren't the scary type that throw feces at you. They were really awesome. Just chill -- minding their own business -- copulating, eating, grooming, nursing...

A long train ride back to Bangkok and we picked up our tickets for Nepal. Then it was back to Asha Guest House where we are just chillin' like villins right now.

Anywase, here are pictures:
Central Thailand

Ok -- this computer I'm on has a unique keyboard. THe keys are incredibly hard to type on so I am not going to worry about correcting things too much.

We are waiting on a train -- well, we missed one that was *shock* on time today. We were walking up to the train station RIGHT as it was leaving. Ah well. The next one is in about an hour.

The day was spent wandering around ayuthera. We visited several Wat's -- some very beutiful. Some very run down. One was particularly cool in that it was attached to a monistary that had Buddhist Monks and buddhist Nuns. They were very friendly and the monistary was incredibly peacefull.

I got some amazing pictures that I will post tomorrow when we get back to Bangkok in the evening.

We also went to an elephant sanctuary and got to see tons of really cool elephants. we were shown around by a nice lady who was slightly crazy. She reminded me of one of those people who spent too much time around animals and no longer really thought like a human worm baby. But she was still cool.

The ruins of the old palace were impressive -- but we could only photograph them from a distance. All in all, this is much more the type of experience I was hoping for in terms of visiting another country. Much more culture -- much friendlier people -- much better prices.

We ate dinner and lunch at the same small restaraunt. A little girl was our waitress and when we came back for lunch today a big smile broke out on her face and she remembered that we wanted a sprite and a pepsi for drinks. It was really cool.

I'm even learning some Thai. mai is no. krup is yes (for males -- it's ka for females). Sudi krup is hello. And uhmmmm -- crap -- I just forgot thank you. We even had a taxi driver that was helping us learn the numbers between one and ten. ung, somethin somethin somethin -- ah well. Most thai's english is much better then my thai.

Tonight we will catch a train up to uhmmmm... Lopburi which looks to be about 1hr farther north of here. That means a two hour train ride back to Bangkok tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the train because they are really awesome -- very old-school looking -- metal shutters -- subway style seating -- and engines that you can almost hear groan as they leave each station house. But they are super cheap!

In Lopburi the guidbook warns about factions. Not human factions. Monkey factions. The splinter faction left the temple where they were worshipped and now randomly throw feces and scream at people on the street. They are lead by a half blind dominant male. The temple monkeys are -- well -- just your regular monkeys. Unfortunately we are going to miss the local festival where they set out table after table for the monkeys to eat. The locals believe that they are good luck because they bring all the tourists. Hah! But I think we get a room with A/C tonight! We'll see whats available and for what prices.

Anywase -- I think thats about it from this side of the pacific. I'll update tomorrow when we are back in Bangkok and hopefully will post pictures as well!

Hi all!
Pictures from Tree's and my camera are uploaded. Sorry gymDan -- no pictures of any newspapers yet. It was raining last night when we thought of it and were around a local news stand. But we'll get you one! Just so you know that we are being held against our will in this country.

Pictures are available here.

Enjoy!

We successfully navigated Bangkok yesterday. Well not 100% succesfully. And we ended up going someplace copletely not intended. We had been shooting for a day trip out of Bangkok. We took the sky train out the subway to the main train station. Only to find out we needed to be at little bangkok's train station across the river.

So a quick look in the guide book and we decided to visit China town. it was quite an experience -- we did the walking tour recomended in the Lonely Planet. It was amazing! These super crowded streets with vendors of all shapes and sizes. Selling everything from local fish to tea to stuff that I didn't want to know what it was.

Then it was on a river boat over to little Bangkok where we never did find the train station -- but we did discover a little side alley that was worth exploring. We even ate local! We went into a little restaruant that looked like it had good food and the kind owner just had us sit down and brought us some food. It was super nums!

We followed that up with a river taxi back to the sky train and over to the "shopping area" part of Bangkok where they had the larger department stores. It was really interesting seeing how, for example, Robinsons was over here. Not a whole lot different unless you looked at things closely. Then there were all sorts of minor diferences.

A quick walk up a street full of merchants lead us back to the sky train and back to home.
Today we are headed out to Ayutthaya for a day or two. Then probably down to the floating market before returning to Bangkok on Sunday. Monday we leave for Nepal.

The guest house where we are staying is kinda out of the way -- but in many ways it's nicer that way. It might cost us a little more up front to get to and from the place -- but feeling safe and having it be a little quieter at night is well worth it. We're going to store our packs here while we are gone and then come back to this spot as our "base headquarters." This will make it very easy for us to store stuff which is one less headache that we will have to worry about.

Ok! Off to pack for Ayutthaya!

So the day started off decently -- we had to track down our lady that sold us the plane tickets and get them changed to Monday -- and on Royal Nepal. But that went smoother then I was expecting.

Then it was on to the Royal Palace which was way cool -- and I got lots of cool pictures from that -- so once I have some energy I'll offload them from the camera and onto my laptop.

That is about when things started getting crazy for us. We stopped by to get our clothes fitted and all that type of great stuff -- and then we decided to live on the wild side and take the subway back to our place.

Well we had gotten directions from the guys at the taylors and we got quite a wase down the line and even managed to get off at the correct point. And thats when things went crazy for us. We first had to get help to figure out which of four exits to leave the subway station from. Then we got up to the ground level only to find out that the sky's had opened up (it's still rainign now) and that it was just pooooooouring outside. So we decided to attempt to head over to the other side in the hopes of catching a taxi. Well traffic on the other side of the road wasn't moving. So in my one great idea for the day mode, I spotted a restaraunt that was open. It was over to there for dinner (Korean BBQ which you cooked yourself at your own table) before heading out to try and find our way home.

We thought we could just walk down this one street (which was quite flooded in spots). Only that didn't quite work out. So we hopped in a taxi where we learned to count to 10 in Thai and drove what seemed like a really LONG ways to get back to our guest house.

Now I'm gonna go have a drink and collapse on the bed where I'm sure to sleep until the late hours of the morning.

Yesterday we spent the day starting off with a lovely continental breakfast that was from our local guest house. Then on to the Sky Train which took us to a water taxi... from there it was up to Kao Sahn Road (parden me as I completely mispell everything)...

Only we got stopped by a nice little Thai lady who got us sidetracked and we took a Tuk Tuk at her recomendation. It was off to a Tourist Agency where we got some nights planned for when we arrive back in BKK after Nepal. That was good and we got booked in an actual hotel for the flower festival in Chang Mai in November. We also have 4 days in a hotel in Phuket -- and travel to the appropiate locations already taken care of.

So then it was on to the Lucky Budda, the Sitting Budda, the Standing Budda, and we even stopped at a local custom tailor shop where I was talked into two custom made suits. Hey -- I rationalize it by saying that the suit costs just as much as just a jacket in the US. And if I don't like it then I don't have to pay. But that'll be interesting to see how they fit.

We also attempted to get tickets for flying to Nepal -- only after investigating the receipt this morning we realized that the flight arrives the next day -- with something like a 20hr layover in Bangladesh. Not wanting to deal with that we called the travel agent back and are in the progress of attempting to get that straightened out.

This morning we stopped by and got sim cards for both of our cell phones. I can now be reached by dialing:
101-6868-011-66-6-0797433
Lots of numbers but hey -- it might work!

It should be free incoming minutes to call me so give me a call and say hi! We are somewhere around 14hours different from the US so keep that in mind when calling!!

ok -- I'm off to investigate what to do around the Bangkok area if we end up being here until Sunday (we were hoping to leave on Friday originally...).

Have I mentioned how humid it is here? It's like you can take bites out of the air. It makes me all sleepy.

Anywase, I'm outsa here for now!

Well... 16 hours in planes later and we have arrived in Bangkok. we're in a little hole-in-the-wall internet cafe a couple blocks from our guest house. I'm exhausted but it's 4pm and I'm going to attempt to stay awake until around 8pm to adjust to the local time.

The guy that runs our guest house is a cool guy from England. It's going to be very odd not hearing english all over. And I'm already learning some Thai (how to say thank you, yes, and iced tea -- oh and ok (which is pronounced ohh kay over here).

My semi-lucid thought as we landed in Taiwan was, "It looks just like someplace in the US" -- which just drives home how much once society looks like the other -- at least from a distance. Of course I haven't ever seen an advertisement for a "Smart Toilet" before today -- so there are definitely differences.

Now that I'm actually here I'm kinda scared. Going in to a restaraunt or store where they do not speak any english just makes me realize how much I take for granted having other people around me speak the same language. It's also quite funny to be in a massive crowd wandering down the street, feeling like a giant. Everyone here is Sarah's size!

We got lost trying to find the Sky Train terminal (I think that was the name of it -- I'm so exhausted right now that I don't know if it is or not). Not really Lost lost -- just made a right where we should have made a left. It turned out really cool tho. We were going deeper and deeper into a local residential neighborhood. The street got narrower and narrower as we wandered around following this twisting road. Some locals (I guess EVERYONE is local here) turned us around and got us going back in the right direction.

We stopped for some food and then wandered up and down one of the busiest streets i've ever seen -- and it's not rush hour and it's not one of the major major roads in the town. Now I'm in a super hot internet/game room where Tree and I are the only adults (besides the proprieters) -- everyone else is kids playing games.

Tomorrow we plan to take the water taxi up to kos san mahn road (sp?) and get tickets for Nepal -- plus a sim card for the cell phone my brother is loaning me. Then I'll be able to receive phone calls! Plus maybe some shopping -- since if we buy anythign here and ship it the slow way home it'll take 3 months. So it should arrive just in time for christmas!

*yawn*
is it naptime yet?

I'm in my last hour here at work today.

I feel like I have about a gazillion things to do and nowhere near enough time!

Gah!
*deep breath*
GAH!

Climbing at Iron Works tonight. Zachary's for pizza. w00p!

Testing MovableType 3.2

From a website describing the approach to a climbing area on Phi Phi in Thailand:
Count twenty minutes on foot. Go to the Western end of the coconut tree plantation behind the little hospital to the right of Tonsai Tower. Walk to a faint trail heading traight up a hill for about 200 yards then follow same trail on flats through jungle to the wall.

It's been interesting -- packing up for traveling followed by moving. I've been struggling with the deep questions of, "Is this trash?" and, "Will this serve a purpose down the road?" At the same time there are so many memories associated with little tidbits of junk. How does one rate what is junk with some good memories and what is junk with memories important enough to not toss the piece of junk?

The process of sorting -- of trashing -- of organizing has been an emotional one. I've come across cards from past relationships apologizing for hiding smoking pot from me. I've come across pictures long forgotten. I've come across awards received and reprimands purposefully forgotten. Each one pulling me back to a time and a place that is neither here nor now.

I've often wanted someone else around to share the memories with. "Look -- this was me back in High School dressed up as the White Rabbit while dancing and singing with Clash at a competition... yes... I made the front page of the local paper the next day... and I still get people asking me if I'm was the White Rabbit from the paper when I visit back down in that region."

Other times I just take a shakey breath and put the emotion aside -- knowing that I don't have the time to or emotional strength to relive emotional scars that have scabbed over. These ones end up in a special pile. I then quickly sort through them once more and toss 90% of them. Is it wrong to prefer to forget?

I'm taking one of my cats, zOrg, down to Missy this weekend. While he can be one of the most annoying cats ever, and while he is by far one of the least intelligent cats I've ever met, I'm going to miss him terribly. Just thinking about it makes my throat constrict and my eyes get watery.

*sigh*