Jan. 28, 2007, San Diego

We got back home Jan. 24th and thanks to Jeff and Shelley our kitties are healthy and were happy to see us. Although, as typical cats they didn't love us immediately. Hannah was a little fussy. Taking them to the salon the next day to get their long hair shaved, might not have helped either. :-) Willis came out cute with a lion cut - hair around his head, on his paws, and tail. Instead, Hannah just came out with a shaved rear, tummy and tail - not so cute.

On the way home we stopped to see Liz's brother in LA which was nice. We rented a car for the drive down which was key as Liz's car was dead.

Surprisingly Liz found the LA traffic quite easy and pleasant. She feared the fast speeds would be nervewracking, but instead found the cars didn't honk and moved in very logical and in a predictable fashion. Signals, stoplights, center divides, and no animals and bicyclists, rick-shaws etc. on the freeway.

We've been back a few days now and Jeff has already built a bench/storage unit for our surfboards. He plans to tile the patio and then if time remains update the floor molding. House projects will keep us busy until we go back to work Feb. 12 (one week earlier than planned - we're a little broke!).

This is last update of our travels. Thanks for following along. We've had a great time. Love Liz and Jeff

Jan. 21, back in BKK

Greetings from Suk 11 in Bangkok. We arrived this morning at 6 AM after taking the "VIP" bus from Krabi which turned out to be a series of tourist buses. Kind of a sham, but we made it and fortunately were able to check in super early, sleep and even get free breakfast.

We also hit the weekend market, but didn't end up getting any "Mo Chit" as we hoped. Couldn't find the perfect spirit house, so I guess that means we'll have to come back to Thailand again. :-)
Our last few days at Tonsai were great. Didn't do much at all. Liz read about 3 books while Jeff spent one day climbing with a personal guide. The guide was great and taught him how to lead sport climb which he can do when we get home at Vertical Hold. Jeff was stoked since he was climbing routes rated 6c and 7a (or something like that) which translate to 5-11 and 5-12's in the US. We think the standard US rating scale is a lot harsher and more accurate, but it was fun for an ego boost.

That's about it. We are super tan and ready to come home. We'll be leaving here Wed. AM and flying back to LA. Hope all is well and look forward to seeing you soon. Love us

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(added later) - Jan. 22 the weather couldn't have been worse as we picked up Liz's wedding dress. It poured rain all morning and once we got the dress safely back to the hotel - we were soaked, but it was dry - the skies cleared. Check out the photo of Jeff holding Liz's dress.

Jan. 11, Hat Tonsai, Krabi Province - the beach

Jeff's in heaven watching these amazing climbers glide up glass overhangs rated 5-11 and 5-12 for a quick warmup! This one Japanese guy a 5-12 climb without even using his feet - so as if there was litterally zero foot holds and only finger pockets.

Needless to say we were unable to change our tickets to leave earlier and Jan. 24th, our ticketed day, is the first day out. Jan. 9th after checking out of the upscale Royal Benja (thanks Richard!) we went to Bugaloo and then caught the evening 7:10 PM first class bus to Krabi.

The buses here truly are amazing. This one had a foot rest that came out from the bottom making the seats into lazyboys. Plus with the backward reclining action they were almost like beds. We even got snacks, soda, and pillows and blankets. It was a comfy ride. Although, the bus system is odd. Even though you are ticketed for a bus at 7:10 that really means it doesn't show up until 7:20 and leave untili 7:50. The locals think it's quite odd if we seem panicked at 7:15 and constantly ask them if the next bus is ours. They literally have the same exact 1st class bus leaving to Krabi every 10-15 minutes that it would be quite easy to miss it or it could end up being parked elsewhere.

We arrived Jan. 10th at 6:30 AM and caught a truck-taxi to Ao Nang the beach about 22 km outside of Krabi. From there we caught a slow boat - 15 minute ride - to Tonsai which is the famous climber hangout near Railay Beach. While the beach here is a bit muddy, the night life, number of cheap bungalows, and climbing make up for it. We were really happy and lucky to find a 200 baht bungalow. Most everywhere else was either booked or 600 to start.

Yesterday we watched the climbers for hours. Swam in the water a little though it is colder than Goa. While it's warm down here it's not too much hotter than Bangkok and it's been a little overcast with short 5-10 minute cool-off showers.

We slept well in our little thatched hut last night and were happy to have a 1st class bug net. This thing is bullet proof and we did hear interesting different buggy noises last night! This morning Liz was psyched to go for a little run. After a few pots of coffee - here we are shaking and internetting.

It has been quite hard to find an internet place. That earthquake that happened the day John and Mary flew out in Taiwan has royally messed up the connection and overloads most working systems. Thus it's been hard and slow to upload photos. Here they say there are other sattellites down. Jeff jokes that it's all the bombs in "Bang"-kok. Ha! :-) So, we might not be able to internet again until we return to Bangkok. The plan is to take the overnight bus back the 22nd at the latest, and then we fly out the evening of the 24th.

That's it for now. Love Liz and Jeff - complete beach bums!

Jan. 9, Bangkok

We met the most energetic waiter / chef at the trainstation cafe in Vientainne. What a hoot! We got into teaching us how to make his own special vegetarian soup and spoke a mile a minute. The train ride to Bangkok went smoothly. The waiter had made us dinner to take on the train and given us extra Beerlao and water. We slept well and arrived at 6:30 AM.

It was Sunday so we went back out to the weekend market, at the Mo Chit sky way stop. We joked that we went to "More Shit" to buy ... :-) We did. Came back with bags of stuff. The prices there are unbeatable - about 1/3 to 1/4 at the other markets. Afterward we went to check on our wedding rings that we had made and were very pleased. Venus Jewelry on Wireless Road right next to the US Embassy came through again. We highly recommend them for custom work. When Richard saw Liz's ring, he said "You are your mother's daughter after all". It is definitely more bling bling than she would have guessed she would have, but Jeff kept upping the size of the diamonds surrounding the star sapphire. Jeff's star sapphire is huge as well - 9.04 carats (Liz's is 4.67).
Monday was fun as well. We went to Pinky's tailor (again another fantastic tailor recommendation from Liz's friends in Saudi) to see Liz's wedding dress. It's perfect. We bought the fabric in Varansi India and had it tailored. It's red!

Afterward we went by the Jim Thompson teak house. The American that really started the Thai silk business and made it world famous by introducing the fabric to Vogue. From there we hopped back on the super fast, super soaker, small speed boats and cruised the canals in search of the perfect wooden Spirit House. Jeff has been on the look out for one and we think we found it so will need to go back for the final bargaining. We joke that Jeff's turned part Indian while in India as his bargaining in amazing. He bargained for Richard on a few items and was able to get down the price tremendously. Of course it took about 30-45 minutes each time, but seeing that none of the 3 of us have an income that's fine.

Sadly Richard took off last night. We had a wonderful time and were able to go back to Cheap Charlie's road-side bar for one last cheer before he took of.
It's been so wonderful to hear from friends and family throughout our travels and to see Liz's family as well. Now that everyone's gone we are getting homesick and really miss our kitties. We are sort of thinking if we could get home earlier we might change our flights. Our surfboards are there and our friends. We inquired with Northwest this morning and it didn't look like we could. We'll see. If not, we'll be on the night bus to Krabi.

Miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon. Love Liz and Jeff

Jan. 6, Vientianne, Laos

Last we wrote we were debating to take the 9-hour night bus or day bus from Luang Prabang to Vientianne. Liz and Jeff decided to leave on the evening of Jan. 4th spending the night on the bus, whereas Richard preferred to soak in the scenery on the drive and not arrive at 4 AM and have to face finding a hotel. As it turns out we both felt that we made the right choice for each of us as Richard's bus broke down and he didn't get in until after dark, and Liz and Jeff somehow with money changing hands amongst the locals got switched off the nicer tourist bus to a local bus with feed sacks in the middle and people sleeping on them. Nonetheless we managed to sleep (thank goodness for sleeping pills) even though the ride was extremely curvy. The truck driver would practically have to stop to make the turns and many times Liz had to restrain Jeff from teaching the driver how to shift gears.

We arrived at 5 AM Jan. 5th and slept for another hour on a park bench while waiting for things to open. At 7 AM we got some coffee and then were able to check internet to meet up with Richard. From there we headed to the market to shop and check out the hand woven wall hangings. At about lunch time Liz and Jeff were zonked so we headed back for lunch and ran into Josh (the San Diegan on the speed boat) and then took a nap. Meanwhile Richard took a tuk tuk outside of town to see a Wat (temple). We regrouped in the evening to watch the sunset over the river, drink a few Beerlaos and a glass of red wine, then ate yummy Indian food and topped off the evening with a 1 hour traditional Lao massage for $3.50!

This morning we got up early and headed back to the Starbucks-like coffee place with free refills. Then went back to the market and Richard bought a few more handicrafts. We just ate lunch, great Lao food from a small street restaurant, and will each get another $3.50 / 1 hr massage before heading across the border to Thailand to catch our train back to Bangkok.

We've had a great time and trip in Laos. Richard has a couple days back in Bangkok before he leaves and then we are heading south to the beaches. Miss you all and look forward to catching up when we get back. Love Liz and Jeff

Jan. 3, Luang Prabang, Laos

We survived the speed boat and got another stamp in our passport, though the customs immigatration was quite lax. Just a guy with a bad hangover from New Year's directing us where to go.

The boat ride was fun, noisy, and bumpy. A little terrifying at first, but after realizing that we could catch air and bounce without flipping over as we've seen in boat shows, we felt more relaxed. We made it to Luang Prabang by 5 PM with a floating lunch stop. Jeff also made a new climbing buddy - we met a guy from Chula Vista that was in the south climbing and then will head off to Australia.

We arrived yesterday, just in time for a Beer Lao and to catch the sunset over the Mekhong River. Afterward, while Richard had a massage and sauna, Jeff and Liz had dinner at a nice restaurant next to a big lilly pond and then checked out the evening market. Today after breakfast, Liz and Jeff hiked up the zillion stairs to a temple overlooking the city and then met up with Richard at another temple. The Lao style is different than Thai in that the roofs almost touch the ground as they angle down.

Right now we are figuring out how to get to Ventianne. Richard is thinking about taking the day bus tomorrow and Liz and Jeff the night bus tomorrow evening. Luang Prabang is very heavily influenced by the French in terms of having colonial buildings, French bread and cuisine, and is very clean.

Happy New Year everyone. Love us

Jan. 1, 2007 - Chiang Khong

Dec. 31st we got 3 others to join us and share the taxi ride to the elephant training camp outside of Chiang Dao. Chiang Dao is a gorgeous nature area, but hasn't had many tourists yet and therefore finding a taxi is really difficult. Malee, the owner of the guest house, has to organize it all.

The elephants were great. We first fed them, being careful to feed them whole or at least 1/2 bunches as a time for fear that they lose patience as the sign said. Then watched them bathe and they litterally roll over on their backs and play. And afterward watched the show which had them transporting large teak logs. Initially the Chiang Dao region had been a teak lumber area utilizing the elephant for transportation. As teak grew endangered suddenly there were a lot of unemployed elephants. Some people in the group felt conflicted about riding them, but we all agreed that watching them do what they were initially trained to do and support them that way was beneficial. There were also some tribal people and kids and Liz bought a very colorful hat.

After the show, we headed back to Malees and had a wonderful 1.5-2 hour massage outside. It was heaven. The New Year's celebration was fun as well. Excellent BBQ, mashed potatoes (Jeff's fav), and games (stomp on each others baloons that are tied to their feet [Jeff really got into it]). Afterward we had a big bonfire and watched fire works from the more expensive lodge next door.

This morning we got off to an early start. Rose at 5:45, took the taxi into town with 3 others and Malee accompanied us. We went to a market to have coffee and then caught a 2.5 hour bus ride to Thaton where we hired a private boat to take us 3 hours to Chiang Rai and then caught another bus 2.5 hours to Chiang Khong. Needless to say we are pretty tired, and maybe a little stupid as we just signed up for a Laos boat ride and handed over our passports to some guy with a lot of money. He promises to get us the Laotian visa, but right next to Laos and the Burmese borders we are a little nervous. :-)

Tomorrow promises to be another full and noisy day as we've opted to go on the fast boat to Luang Prabang. We've heard helmets are mandatory and that the fast boat is going to be discontinued this year (though our guide assures us that it will take at least a couple of weeks into 2007 for the new law to come into effect) as it's dangerous and is harmful to the 300 kg catfish.

We're tired. Happy New Year! Good night - much love - Liz, Jeff and Richard