Beautiful Strange Bangkok!

FLOATING MARKET

We made it to Bangkok last night! It was an easy trip and we're ready to see the city but it means the trips coming to an end soon :( 

Since we only have a couple of days here we set out to see it all as fast as we can! Our fist stop was the beautiful floating market and the Tiger Temple.  We took a boat along the market waterways.  It was a game of bumper cars but allowed us to see how the market has conducted business for centuries.  There were slow boats and speedboats along this tiny waterway which made for some interesting maneuvers for everyone!

 Men and woman cooked in their boats while paddling along the canals.  They carried small hooking sticks to snag your boat and pull you alongside them to sell their goods.

A little snack along the way shared boat to boat.  Probably the best spring rolls of the trip.

Tiger Time!!!!!

We visited Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Buang, in western Thailand. This is a Buddhist Temple that the monks have turned into an animal sanctuary to house all kinds of poached or injured animals. Among them of course are the famous Indochinese Tigers in these pictures. It was pretty scary and exciting to get this close to these amazing huge animals! The littlest move made you jump when you were petting them. I had one roll over onto my foot while kneeling next to him, scary! (Shea).

Baby tiger cub taking a snooze :) 

Here's the view from our balcony back in Bangkok! We went out for a night on the town and met some interesting characters :) 

Spencer tried some crazy CRAZY foods! Grilled scorpion and toasted crickets, no thank you!

Lady-boys Vegas Style

Waiting for the show to begin.... 

No trip to Bangkok would be complete without seeing a Ladyboy show! We chose one of the tamer Vegas style shows to check out. Even though we didn't understand what was happening in most of the acts because they were in Thai, we enjoyed the show of dancing and singing.

Spencer was in heaven when we found a Dunkin' Donuts later that night. Yay for some 'normal' food!

 
Our last morning in Bangkok we tried traditional Thai Massages. Onward to Koh Samet! 

The not-so fun parts :(

We were talking the other night about how amazing the trip has been and then started talking about all the things we've learned in our travels. There are so many things that are a normal part of our every day routine while traveling that most of you may not think of. We thought those things deserved a blog post! 

Here are a few of our 'hiccups' along the way that were caught on camera as well as a few of the things that are our 'normal' for traveling :) Hope they make you laugh! 

Interesting potty signs... You cannot flush TP anywhere in Southeast Asia. Imagine breaking that habit! lol

The ice risk! Everywhere you can find these delicious fresh fruit smoothies for around $.90. But there's the hidden risk.... they are all made with local ice which is a big no no. Lets just say we've enjoyed our smoothies and our daily dose of pepto. What can we say, totally worth it! 

Carsick Adventures! 

Keeping photo journals of all injuries in case they change in color or size! 

 Here is our bus broken down on the side of the road! Never a good sign when your driver gets out and walks
to the back of the bus with a wrench!

 Purell, oh the Purell. This little gem is basically used as many times a day as we can think about it. I feel like Gus from Big Fat Greek Wedding with the Windex. We put purell on everything!

Oh here's a good one! This is the color of the water coming out of our sink and shower at one of our hotels. Even better, it was HOT! You know how sometimes you've had to shower with no hot water? Well, we had never thought of this one...in this hotel we had no cold water! Pretty impossible to shower in without bottling it up and letting it cool lol. 

All in all, these are just some of the things that add to our adventures and memories of these trips! Hope you enjoy reading our adventures and misadventures! 

Cambodia- Floating Village and New Friends

We visited this floating village near Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's a fishing village that houses a hundred or so people. All of the houses float on the water on bamboo rafts or big empty barrels. The kids of the area attend school on a big boat as well! They just hop onto their own little kayak boats and paddle on over. It was scary to see these little tiny babies and kids leaning over the water to wash dishes or play! I guess they all learn to swim at a young age in the village.

Instead of having one big store or market for the area, they have little 'convenient store' type boats that go house to house offering to sell all kinds of goods.

While we were in this town, we used the same Tuk Tuk (taxi) driver the whole time so we got to know him pretty well. He had learned lots of English from an Australian so he spoke in a perfect Aussie accent. He wanted us to see his family so he brought us to his village and welcomed us into his home one of the afternoons we were riding with him. He has six children and his wife and mother in law living in a 10x11ft house. While we were there we met some of the younger kids and he explained their schooling system to us. The kids can go to school for free from age 3-12. But after 12 they have to pay the teachers. So most of the children stop at that age and learn a trade instead of finishing their education. This little girl on the top right is his oldest daughter who got sponsored to attend an English school for $10 a month. He brought us to meet some of his sons at their school as well (pictured below with some classmates).

We visited a few other areas in his village then went back to his house before leaving. His wife stays home and sells foods from their house during the day and he offered for us to try some. He was so proud of it, we felt we should at least try it. Well, that is until we realized what it was. Then I took pictures while Spencer got a taste lol. Its a food that they say 'makes you stronger'. Warning: anytime someone tells you that its not a yummy food! ;) This is a duck egg that was taken and roasted in the sun right before it was to hatch. I wont go into detail here but even Spencer couldn't finish it. Good try babe, and thank you Mr. Poulock for the hospitality!

The local people were so amazing here! We met our new friend Banja in the picture above working at our hotel. He's been learning English for some time and was so excited to practice with us. On the last night of our time in Cambodia, he invited us to his home to meet his family and learn to cook a few local dishes. We had an amazing time learning a few words in Cambodia, trying new foods, seeing how the locals live, and making some new friends :). Sad to leave this beautiful place! 

Muay Thai fight, Khmer Dancing and street market

                                                                       STREET FOOD

 Siem Reap has had some really yummy street food.  You can find vendors on every corner offering a local taste for very cheap.  Banana pancakes and sticky rice banana roasted in banana leaf were some good options for us.  We also sat down for a Khmer BBQ where we were able to cook our own food and chose between a variety of exotic meats.

                                                                   KHMER DANCING


There were a number of Khmer style dance shows to take in.  Many of them offered a dinner and dance show late in to the evening.  This a mix of bright colors and ancient traditional dancing.  It is difficult to find this style anywhere else in the world.

                                                    KHUN KHMER STYLE FIGHTS

We were able to get tickets to a local Khun Khmer Boran fight.  This is a very similar style to Muay Thai, but was explained to us to be much faster pace.  We made a friend at the ticket counter and were moved up to the VIP section ringside.  It was a very exciting time.  The seating reminded you of something from the movie Blood Sport.  We were able to record some very nice knockouts.

                                                             STREET MARKET

While shopping along the street market we stopped for a fish and foot massage.  These little guys attacked us and hilarity ensued!   The big ones tickled more than you can handle.  It was a very cheap and fun time.