Dec. 30, Chiang Dao

We took a 1.5 hr local bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Dao arriving at Malee's Guest House at about lunch time. Our bungalow retreat is 6 km from town in the jungle. It's beautiful and there are about 6-7 friendly doggies there. The hotel is fully booked for the holiday weekend so we are lucky to have a room.

This afternoon the 3 of us trekked from our lodge up and down on a slipppery trail to the large Chiang Dao cave which is quite the underground complex. There are several rooms, hidden passage ways which we had to crawl through, and amphitheaters. We hired a local woman to show us the way and carrying a lantern. Otherwise we would have gotten lost for sure and hopefully not down the 30 meter hole she pointed out.

Tomorrow we hope to visit the elephant training center and ring in 2007 with a BBQ back at Malee's GH. Happy 2007!

Dec. 29, Chiang Mai

Greetings from Northern Thailand. The night bus from Bangkok was scheduled to depart at 9:50 PM, but instead re-parked a few spaces down, started a very C-rated Thai flick, and served cookies and milk and waited for an hour for us to digest before actually heading out. We joked that many people might have enjoyed the entertainment and meal while staying stationery.

Chiang Mai is the 2nd largest city in Thailand, but is a lot smaller than Bangkok and less noisy. We are staying at Pun, Pun Guest House which is on the river a little outside of town, but still within walking distance. Yesterday the 3 of us walked around Chiang Mai. Had lunch at a British Pub and then Richard treated us to massages. We are getting spoiled having Liz's parents around which is very nice! In the evening Jeff climbed the huge climbing wall - he boogied up to the top within 2 minutes and since the harder routes were only for lead climbing decided instead to save his climbing baht budget for the beaches. Afterward we went to the night market, ate and walked around.

Because the food at the night market was so good we are actually here again eating tonight. Today Jeff and Liz went on an all-day trek outside of town. The trek went by a number of waterfalls. Liz swam or should I saw dipped and froze in one of them. We also went by two villages that had seen too many tourists as the kids were asking for money and one pesky one kept trying to pick-pocket Jeff. Lastly we saw a bat cave that was really neat. We walked far inside and could hear the bats surrounding us. Jeff thought it was pretty cool until our guide pointed out a huge spider that was much closer to us. Today Liz's Dad went to another market in Chiang Mai and ended up talking to a guy that recommended he go this annual flower show out from town where Asian countries have their typical gardens and flowers on display. He said it was huge and analogous to Epcott Center.

Tomorrow we leave for Chiang Dao by local bus. Hopefully we can update the blog again soon. We'll be in Chiang Dao for the New Year and have already gotten emails from various hostels there asking if we'd like to book our New Year's Eve celebration with them.

Happy holidays - Love Liz and Jeff

Dec. 27, Bangkok Departures

We've had a great Christmas holiday, but the time has gone by too fast. John and Mary just left with an extra 100 pounds of Liz and Jeff's purchases - the brass Ganesh, a wooden buddha, Jeff's wedding outfit he bought in Delhi, the bedspread, etc. and very little gifts for them. We felt guilty showing everyone our treasures when we hadn't bought much for anyone else. Liz's mom leaves just past mid-night so Richard, Jeff and Liz will help take her out to the airport this evening before catching an evening train to Chiang Mai.

We went to a Catholic mass on Christmas Eve, followed by a tour of Wat Pho and a massage there. That evening we went to the backpacker area of Banglapou (or something like that - Liz's Dad just calls it "Bugaloo"). We had a hair raising tuk tuk ride back to Central Pier. Mary and Ann were both terrified, while John, Richard, and Jeff acted like 15 year-old boys egging the drivers on to race. Liz likes to think she acted "normally". :-)

Christmas day we exchanged small gifts, but had agreed not to get much as the trip in itself was a big deal. Liz's parents paid for the hotel stay which was very nice. After a leisurely morning relaxing by the pool, we went to see the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha (fortunately we were able to get in as the King was arriving and we did have to wait awhile to buy tickets) and then went on a 2 hour long fast boat ride of the residential canals. Mary and John treated to Christmas dinner at a great Thai restaurant near Central Pier (one of Nancy Chandler's bold recommendations on her famous map).

Recently it was the beloved King's birthday so most people are walking around in yellow shirts in honor of that. It's pretty neat to see. Also every day at 6 PM they play the national anthem and everyone just stops and stands and attention.

We have also been back to check on our rings that we are having made. Liz's parents got to see the star sapphires and the settings which have been started. That was fun and we took photos. We also have been by the tailor to get Liz's wedding dress fitted. And had lunch at "Cabbages and Condoms" a restaurant that is working toward helping reduce population growth and prevent AIDS transmission.

The Marriott has been wonderful with it's own private boat to transport us between the resort and Central Pier/Sky Train which leads to the franetic city. It's going to be quite a change - back to the shared bathroom down the hall. Tonight Jeff, Liz and Richard leave for Chiang Mai, then onto Chiang Dao and over into Laos. We'll all 3 return to BKK from Vientienne on Dec. 7th and then Liz and Jeff will continue south to the beaches. We've decided to save Cambodia for another trip and just veg out for awhile.

Happy New Year! Love Liz and Jeff

Dec. 23, Bangkok, Thailand

Everyone arrived for Christmas - though John (Liz's brother) and his girlfriend Mary had a stressful flight. Everything seemed fine leaving LA and fortunately they hadn't yet popped their sleeping pills as the airplane hit a metal cart and damaged the engine backing out. John said they couldn't even feel it. So they ended up unloading everyone and urging the 500 passengers to the Hilton to wait as they fixed the plane. Instead, John and Mary and a few hundred others stormed the Air China counter demanding to be re-routed. They were scheduled to fly to Taipei and then onto BKK arriving at 1 AM on Dec. 22. Instead, they ended up leaving LA about 12 hours later - on pins and needles waiting the whole 12 hours as only 14 people made it onto a later flight (their initial plane was still not repaired) and arrived in BKK around 1 PM on Dec. 22. Their bags didn't make it - and hopefully will be at our hotel when we get back today.

Dec. 22nd was Liz's parents 39th anniversary. Liz's Dad - Richard - treated all 6 of us to a massage and then Liz and John treated for an Anniversary dinner at a outside restaurant with live music. Today Mary and John lounged at the very nice Marriott Spa and Resort pool, while Ann, Richard, Liz and Jeff explored the weekend market - complete with puppies, clothes, food, and handicrafts. Liz and Jeff bought another large wooden item to haul back to the US - a 3-piece buddha wall hanging. This afternoon all 6 of us went to Wat Pho temple to see the large reclining buddha and get a massage at their massage school.

Tomorrow we plan to go to a Catholic mass at 10 AM followed by another trip to the weekend market. It's great having family here for the holidays and unfortunately we know the time will fly by too fast. I'm not sure if we'll update the blog again until afterward when Liz, Jeff, and Richard head north to Chiang Mai.

Much love, Liz and Jeff

PS - We almost forgot - Liz and Jeff bought their wedding rings at Venus Jewelry (Liz's Dad's connection) on Dec. 21st. Tuesday we'll go to see Jeff's ring to make sure it's how he wants it before they set in the blue star sapphire and Liz's ring will be ready in January when we get back from Laos.

Dec. 20 - BEEF IN BANGKOK!

The Mc Donalds visit yesterday deserves it's own entry. After going nearly two months without beef, Jeff was ecstatic to be back in a country where the cow is killed and celebrated by eating 3 beef burgers. Liz has never been to Mc Donalds so many times in her life, but was happy to see oreo Mc Flurry on the menu.

Dec. 20, Bangkok Thailand

Bangkok is so clean!!! Compared to Varanasi and Delhi!

Leaving India was traumatic as shortly before leaving we decided to buy a 10 kg brass Ganesh statue (which we plan to hide in Liz's mom's suitcase to carry back - ha!) and were grossly overweight. Fearing this, we overloaded our carry-ons making them each about 15 kg so that the checked bags would be near the 44 kg limit, which we were, but the man checking us in - we think annoyed from the start by young kids able to travel the world - said that our carryons were over the weight limit (mind you not over the size limit) and had to be checked which made us 24 kg over weight. At $10 a kilo we were freaking. At any rate, in the end he ended up charging us $70, but since we had to change money back into rupies it ended up costing us closer to $80. The most madening part was that we saw plenty of Indians overweight on their checked luggage and also carrying multiple carryons one of which was 12 kg, plus a purse, bag, etc. So after paying the money, we then checked what we thought would be carryons - which included our most favorite purchases we didn't want damaged/lost - so then spent the flight time worrying that we hadn't packed them well enough, that they would be stolen, yadda-yadda.

Then the 2nd panic was the realization as we were taking off that we were on an Indian-made plane flown by Indian drivers. This might sound obvious, but after spending a month with the nuttiest drivers and people who don't care about safety - it was a little scary. The disabled line at the train station is often the longest line and the disabled car often the most packed. I think we mentioned, during our trip we saw 3 dogs hit, a number of fender-benders, and rickshaw bumps. Despite the brakes locking the landing and the side-ways skid we made it to BKK safely as did our luggage.

Bummed by the $80 loss we were happy that we didn't have to buy a Thai visa - for some reason we heard it was $25 each - probably for other nationalities.

We are staying off Sukhumivit at the Suk 11 hostel which is great! It's a wooden multi-story house with gardens, little plank walk-ways inside across little man-made rivers (even on the 2nd floor!). We recommend it highly - www.suk11.com - It's budget, $17/night for a double, big breakfast included, internet, TV room, gardens, roof top deck, and small library.

We are off to do some gem shopping. Tomorrow we check into the Marriott Resort and Liz's parents arrive from Hanoi, Vietnam. Liz's brother and his girlfriend arrive Dec. 22 (Liz's parents 39th anniversary).

If we don't update the blog again until after Christmas, we wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and send our love. Liz and Jeff

Dec. 16, Delhi

Greetings from Delhi. We actually wrote a long post last night, but then somehow the Indian internet connection lost it. We arrived in Delhi yesterday around noon after a pleasant, but dusty 20 hour train ride from Jaisalmer.

We did a 2 night camel safari in Jaisalmer through Ganesh travel (highly recommend them) with Raju, the "Camel Man". We had a great time, though Liz freaked out a bit after having got the worst, most stubborn, farty, disobedient juvenile male camel that liked to run others over and stomp a lot. The 2nd day Liz opted to ride with "Camel Boy", "Desert Man", "Maharaja Man" - Jeff. Jeff earned a lot of nicnames for being able to control the camel - get it to sit, stand, harness it, hobble it, and make it turn, run, etc. by making weird mouth sounds. For most of the trip he also wore a red tye-dyed turban.

The first day we had about 20 people in our group which was fun as we heard great travel stories. The 2nd day, it there was 3 of us, Maggie an American from Kansas who is doing volunteer work south of Agra in an orphanage who needed to take a break, us and Raju. The 2nd night Raju had us rolling telling us stories of his other trips. We especially liked the one about the woman who liked her food super spicy which ended up giving her diahrrea and then when she used up all her toilet paper, Raju politely tried to help by suggesting she use sand, water, or her turban which is what she did.

The night time stars were amazing. We saw shooting stars about every 3 minutes. The moon was really bright and would light up the dunes. There were also a lot of desert dogs that would follow us hoping for scraps of food and then sleep by us at night. Also - Jeff's favorite - the large black beetles which would invariably end up crawling over us.

December 13th, Liz's Mom's 60th birthday, we left the desert for Jaisalmer. We were lucky to witness a huge wedding procession outside the fort at about 7 PM. It was really neat - they had boys walking around them carrying halogen lights which were connected together and then to a big battery so we could all see the action. The camels at the front were draped in gold fabric. Then was the noisy Indian rock music blaring from a truck followed by the groom on top of a donkey. Then about 8 drummers. This man who looked like money would throw money on the ground and the drummers would kneel down to bite the money off the ground - often missing and licking the pavement - while not missing a beat. After that were the ladies all dripping in jewels, painted with henna and in gorgeous embroidered lenghas and saris. There were also fireworks. After they passed we ate dinner and kept hearing fireworks in different parts of the town.

The next day we saw the wedding procession again. The groom was still on top of the donkey, but this time the bride was in a covered carriage being carried by men. We asked a shop keeper how much Indian weddings cost and he said that at a minimum people pay about 50,000 rs (about $1200) and can go up to 2-3 lak (1 lak = 100,000 rs)).

We did a little shopping in Jaisalmer - bought a gorgeous hand woven bed cover and Jeff bought another turban.

That's it for our news. We fly to Bangkok on December 19th. Right now the hotel is reconfirming our airline tickets which we hope are fine as it seemed like a process to buy them in Kathmandu - took a few hours which lowered our confidence. Happy holidays! Love Liz and Jeff

December 10, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

Greetings from the Indian desert in the small sandy town of Jaisalmer located about 60 km from the Pakistan border. After we last wrote, we toured the Jodphur Fort which was very impressive and educational as the cost of admission came with English headsets that were very informative. Details such as the golden handprints of the widows of the Maharajas taken just before their were burned to death on top of their late husbands body would have been missed. Along with the fact that to ward off evil spirits a man agreed to be buried alive inside the walls. The Fort was never taken over by an enemy and you could see why with the care that went into creating the doors with spikes on them built at right angles, etc.

We arrived in Jaislamer around 2 PM (after taking a dust shower inside the train cabin) to hordes of persistant hotel touts and had to haggle for a rickshaw driver. You know you've been in India too long when you start feeling royally ripped off and yelling when the driver has the audacity to charge 10 rs (15 cents) more than the equitable fare. Fortunately we met a guy in Goa that gave us a good recommendation for a non-touristy camel safari company so we went there first and then they recommended the hotel. Hotel Calcutta anyplace other than India would sound like a dump, but here it's quite nice and cheap so we are happy. After checking in Jeff bought a red-printed Rajasthani turban which he proudly wore around town. He had the shop keeper tie it on and his camel driver has promised to help him learn on the safari. Liz thinks he looks pretty good as do the other people in town.

Our train was an hour late leaving Jodphur which made us think that except for the train from Varansi all the trains have been late. Maybe trains to Varansi are on time because that's how they transport all the bodies for cremation? Morbid thought - huh? How do they all get there? A lot of people travel to Varanasi to die, but not the majority.

Internet here is super slow, so we won't be writing again until we are in Delhi. We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM for our 3 day 2 night safari. Our train leaves Dec. 14th for Delhi and we get in the 15th.

Before we forget, the looniest tourists we met were in Jodphur. The woman was nuttier than her boyfriend, but both cases. She's travelling with 4.5 liters of Ganges water with her! She's also doing a lot of very noble things and charity work, but to hear her talk about stepping in cow shit was like meeting Mother Theresa in person. We thought it was funny, especially since we both cringed at the thought of her dumping Ganges water on us to annoint us - which she offered.

Anyway - we are off to walk the narrow streets in the Old City some more. Our hotel is inside the Fort Walls which is really neat - though contributing to the water shortage. Hope all is well with you all. Love Liz and Jeff

December 8, Jodphur, Rajasthan

We are back in the state of Rajasthan in the Blue City of Jodphur which is made blue by all the painted houses. Historically only the Brahim, or leading caste, could paint their house this periwinkle/light blue color, but now anyone can and people believe that it keeps away mosquitoes. It makes it quite pretty.

From Goa we took a 12 hour train ride to Bombay arriving at 10:30 PM which meant after checking in and rushing to Mc Donalds we were still able to order fries and ice cream! What a treat. Snacks that we carry on the train get old, and we aren't about to try the local cuisine they sell. Again we stayed at the Prince Hotel which is very basic, but cheap by Bombay standards - 350 rs a night for a double.

Our train left Bombay at 1:30 PM the following day and from reading the timetable we assumed we'd get in at 11:45 AM the next day. So you can imagine our surprise when Jeff was woken up at 6:30 AM by our cabin mate telling us we would be in Jodphur in 10 minutes. The ride was probably the worst - we had 2 small undisciplined kids aged 5 and 4 that would play, scream, jump on our laps, push, etc., and then ocassionally get the crap smacked out of them until they would cry. Unpleasant. It was odd to watch - they would play slap the kids across the face continually until the blow would get to hard, leave welts, and the kid would cry. At one point they realized their kids were being obnoxious, so feeling bad, they offered Jeff to share in their dinner. Jeff said it was very good - veggies in bread fried (veg paratha?) and aloo gobi (potato curry).

We are staying at a very nice hotel here in Jodphur which some how we got for a steal as their were no other guests staying there. It's 150 rs a night with our own shower, king size bed, huge clean room, and a fan. The hotel has a roof top restaurant with a view of the large fort, Meherangarh Fort. We ate lunch up there and watched the acrobatic monkeys jump from roof top to roof top.

This afternoon we did a little shopping for Jeff so that he has something to wear for Christmas. We also looked at fabrics, but that takes a lot of patience and after the noisy and long train rides we are both wiped out. Jeff has a cold bug and Liz is getting it. Hopefully we'll feel better tomorrow to take on the hagglers and get some good deals, plus see the fort.

Have fun at all your Holiday Parties and know that we are thinking of you. Love, Liz and Jeff

PS - We forgot to mention the most embarrassing thing to date - Liz was in the market and this woman just couldn't resist coming over to undress Liz and re-tie her sari. The whole process took about 5 minutes and drew a huge crowd of about 40-50 people. Liz was pretty embarrassed being stripped down to her sari undergarments and Jeff just pretended not to notice and continue to read the Lonely Planet.

December 5, Palolem Goa

Greetings from the backpacker beach of Palolem in the southern part of Goa. After spending a few days in Colva and renting a motorcycle to explore the area, we decided that Palolem was where we wanted to be (50 km south). Palolem has a wider beach which is lined with small sleeping, eating and bar huts - less touristy than Colva. Tonight will be our 3rd night here; tomorrow we train back to Bombay and onto Jodphur.

Actually buying train tickets was more difficult than expected as most of the popular routes are booked. After spending an hour at the train station with a long angry cue behind us, we figured out the rest of our stay in India. From here back to the state of Rajasthan. First to Jodphur (via Mumbai) - the blue city, then Jaisalmer - the golden desert city, and back to Delhi.

That's it for now. Love us

December 1, Colva, Goa

After 31 hours of train ride and one night in Bombay we've made it to the Arabian Sea. It's gorgeous here and the water is very warm - about 80 degrees. We thought that Goa would be more expensive than Rajasthan, but it's actually cheaper and much easier to find a beer, eggs for breakfast and chicken! We got in last night at 7:30 PM and unfortunately Liz got a 24-hour belly bug, but 3 Cipros later it's much better. Just wanted to let you all know that we made it here, despite riding in the scariest cab ride ever while in Bombay. Who say's you can't drive on sidewalks! No joke. Which reminds us, the most random thing someone tried to sell Liz was ear cleaning, with the gnarliest black Q-tip and rag while in Delhi at Connaught Place. Yuck!

We're off for pasta and plan to explore the area tomorrow. Love, Liz and Jeff