Holy Shit an Elephant Just walked By...

Good Evening!

If this makes any sense at all we will both be suprized. It is 9:00pm and we were up at 6:30 and haven't stopped since then.

Ok I was just reminded to tell about the great adventure we had on the way to the Airport in Edmonton. It went something like this. Hey my parents are here LETS GO!!!! So out we went , Dad "do we have time for a starbucks", us "sure" ... doo doo doo alright off we get at the airport say our good byes and then as we were about to check our bags when I realized that i did not have my purse... oh shit! So out i bolt to catch my parents because i obviously need something that is in my purse sitting at home on my couch! So I leave Tyson there with our bags and head back to the house, it wasn't time to freak out too badly because it was only 9:00am and our flight left at 11:00. Needless to say we made it back at 10:05 with plenty of time to catch the flight... but it was a little scary! Now i constantly check to make sure i have everything and I am sure i will be reminded several times to check if i have everything!


Since Sara slept through most fo teh flights I (Tyson) thought I would write this section. Flight to Vancouver, easy typical. Started watching Aladdin but obviously didn't finish it. Now some of you know that I was slightly concerned by the length of time we had in Vancouver before our transfer to JAL for a flight to Japan. However, there was no need to worry as a nice lady from JAL was waiting at the gate with a sign for us and a cart. We had to wait for some big wig flying from Calgary, but no matter we needed not to worry as we were in the control of JAL. The flight across the Pacific was good. A hot meal and a sandwich for means, plus snacks and drinks regularly. Now the smart thing would have been to try and sleep as soon as I got on the plane like Sara did, but I didn't I watched movies.. We arrived in Toyko Japan some 9 hours later and Sara was very very impressed by the singing toliets. We strolled through the gift shops for a bit and then boarded what seemed like a really long flight for what in our heads seems like not all that far (Toyko to Bangkok). On the map our flight deviated from a straigh or curved line by avoiding Tawain airspace. Not sure if that is true, but that is what it looked like. We finally arrived in Bangkok some 24 hours after we started travelling. Sara having slept on and off for the whole trip, Tyson not so much. The taxi from the airport had some difficultly finding the place and charged an arm and a leg. It is so hard when you are tired and just arrived to get the bargining mindset.

We are staying at the Reflections Room which is not in the tourist area which is nice and quiet! Our rooms (we are staying in different ones for different nights) are nice and relaxing. I enjoy! Tyson really likes the breakfast because it serves his type of breakfast food, rice, noodles, bacon, fresh fruit which i might add the pineapple is something to die for! There is a spa :) It gives full body massages, foot massages, etc. It smells like massage oils in the hotel lobby which is nice i think, Tyson thinks it is too overpowering! Anyways we will get a massage one day. For one hour full body it is 10 dollars canadian! Unbelievable!

Today we got up around 7:00am , showered, ate breakfast and then found the skytrain to take us to koah san road. The funny thing is, you can't go anywhere in this place without people stopping you every 5 blocks going "where are you going" then you tell them and then they ask you were you are from, and all this stuff and then they give you suggestions. I mean lovely people, really nice, but sometimes you just want to find it yourself! Short story is we never did make it to Koah San Road, we somehow made it to a tailor shop.

I accidently bumped into a lady who immedietly started to talk to us. She worked for the Government at the University and she spoke good english. She asked us what our plans were, and told us that it was WAY to early to be out it was 9:00am.. she said Koah San Road everyone would be sleeping and we said we needed to find a travel agent, well she pointed us to one. We eventually settled the deal with the travel agent for flights to Udon Thanni for tomorrow afternoon so then we can take a bus to Loas which is suppose to be 1-3 hours. After the travel agent we decided to take a slow boat to go see all the temples and the Grand Palace (we never made it there either). We did take the slow boat, but then got sidetracked when we walked out of the reclining buddah temple which was pretty amazing, the guy who stamps your ticket on the way out told us that every other temple was free today because it was a Buddhist Holiday, and then he circle a bunch on our map and got a tuk tuk driver to drive us around the city for 30 baht (1 dollar can) for all the temples. How could you refuse.

So we get to the first place, a temple devoited to luck. So we are tentive to walk in, not knowing the religion, one would have to affend anyone. At the same time a local is entering the temple. So we go in with him and get to talking. He says "this is a very small temple not many tourists know about it or come here, how do you know about it?" "Well some guy told us about a number of temples and places to go." Local guy "which other ones?" So we show him the map, which also has circled on it the Tailor shop. Local guy "how do you know about this shop? I was just there yesterday." The guy goes on to give a raving review of this shop. Now if this was a con it got us good. Because next stop was the tailor shop and usually I get into those places (any shop trying to sell that looks fancy, turn around and walk out) but not this time. I had a raving review from a complete stranger within the confines of a temple. Needless to say I decide to buy a tailored suit with shirt and tie. I won't quote the price just to cut down on the laugher if I was taken.

After that we tour a couple more temples and get the tuk tuk driver who is still with us (he asked and we accepted to also go and visit a jeweler making factory (he gets a coupon for free petrolum for taking us there)) and get him to drop us off at a restruant written up by the LP. We find the place, which turns out just to be a hole in the wall joint. Sara isn't too impressed, so we end up a couple of blocks up at a hostel restruant. The food isn't great and the veggy spring rolls we order are filled with pork. Sara is not pleased mainly at the misquitos and turned down the spring rolls, but all the same more for me. After that we kill a bit of time by visiting another temple, before turning down 5 tuk tuks who wouldn't drop there price to take us back to the tailors for my first fitting. (we didn't get a lower price, we came up). So back at the Tailors we try on the stuff, and while the price still stings and we are not sure if we were set up or not, the stuff looks good. After that we get stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get to the cloest skytrain stop to get us back to the hotel.

After wasting 15 minutes waiting in traffic we decide to walk the remaining blocks to the station. We ended up along the way in a massive mall around Siem. So we shopped, as things even in a mall like this are quite cheap. We bought some (what appear very much to be) Diesel jeans and Sara also got a Mr. Happy tee-shirt. The jeans were a difficult purchase, not because of price or trying to determine if they are real or not, but for Sara why are all the jeans in Asian shape.

When we came out it was pouring rain (which it hadn't done all day) and pitch black. It was 7 pm. We made our way back to the hotel, and went for dinner at the attached restruant. I had a large beer which was 10 Baht (30 cents) more than Sara's small beer and 300 milileters larger. As we tried not to fall asleep while eating dinner, Sara turns to me and says, "Holy shit there just went an elephant. I didn't believe her, till I turned around and saw a baby elephant being led down the street. Sara didn't think it was a baby, but because I have seen both before, I get the say in writting this, but it is disputed.

Other than that, the transition to traveling is ongoing. Trying to remember to bargin for everything. Look left right, up, down, and around again all the time (especially when stepping into the street), looking at where you are walking (for holes), the smells, having to do math whenever you are looking to buy, and going non stop for 9 plus hours a day in a climate that is abnormal to say the least.

Tomorrow we may walk around this area or go to Siem as we don't have enough time to go downtown before our 13:30 flight on Thai airways to Udan Thanni, from where we will take a bus to Vientianne in Loas.

Later,
Tyson and Sara