Outside of Bangkok - Kanchanaburi & Ayuthaya

Biking around the ruins of what used to be the capital of Thailand... Ayuthaya. Very cool! But we had to hit a local swimming pool later that day to cool off.

Ruins - much prefered over the temples (Wats) which all look the same to us....

Biking ( Brandon, Franz-Josef, and Jesse)

In Kanchanabury (which we found to be mostly a

tourist trap, but at least we were trapped with some cool

travelers) we enjoyed our trip to the 7 falls the best -

this pic is looking down into the national park.

Swimming in the falls - if you wern't quick to get out

of the water the fish would suck on your feet (not a fan!)

Tiger temple... tourist trap but still an experience...

At least where we stayed in Kanchanaburi was

awesome - A house on the River Khwae

Our first experience "river rafting" pretty chill...

Ride on the "death train" (built by WWII POWs)

River Khwae bridge and tracks

(also where we spotted our first elephant)

This floating market was the first tourist trap we encountered.. and while it only sells goods to

tourists now it is still quite a sight and indicator of what used to be.


We finally made our way out of Bangkok... to the Kanchanaburi Provence and then to Ayuthaya. Kanchanaburi was quite the tourist trap because it's difficult to get around without a car - we joked that they trade tourists like the stock market....and it's pretty accurate. Ayuthaya was better and we met some cool Austrians/Germans on the trip and traveled with them for a few days so that was nice.

Arrival in Bangkok

After a 25 hour trip that included transport by car, bus, train, plane, and finally a taxi - we made it to the lively streets of Khao San (backpacker's spot in Bangkok). After walking around a bit and smelling all there is to smell at 3am on a street with very interesting street vendors, drunks, and stray cats we found a simple guest house ... Rainbow Guest house (very simple!)



Our first day consisted of the usual - observing the people, trying some authentic food, getting a feel for the con-artists, and visiting a few temples ("wats"), oh and walking A LOT! Perhaps the most important was Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. Afterwards we took a tuk tuk (motor taxi) to the shopping meca called MBK and Siem Square... we had to keep reminding ourselves that we're traveling for 10 weeks, and to pace ourselves. We are off to Kanchanaburi tomorrow for three days of activities then up to Chaing Mai (and around) for treking, elephant training, rafting, and zip line!! We'll keep you posted : )

Itenerary

I think we finally decided on our travel itenerary, well, the outline anyway. After landing in Bangkok, the plan is to head north to Chang Mai where Leah is really excited to hang out with elephants in both an elephant camp and on a trek. We'll probably spend two weeks on this northern excursion before returning to Bangkok and then down toward Cambodia. I think we want to jet down to the southeastern Thailand coast on our way to Cambodia.

Week four will start in Cambodia around March 12th or 13th with Siem Reap being our first destination. We have a friend to meet up with there that should help to firm up our Cambodian destinations but I'm excited to tour the jungle and ruins by motorcycle on dirt roads. We want to make it to Phnom Penh by the 25th of March or so to get down to the coast for a couple of days before we double back to fly south.

Around April 2nd we'll catch a flight from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the 2009 Formula 1 Grand Prix season opener. The race is the 3rd, 4th, & 5th and then we'll head north to explore a little of the Thailand peninsula, Kho Phi Phi & Phuket for a week. This island hopping excursion will continue down to Java, Bali, and Lombook in Indonesia for the next two weeks.

We'll have to wind down our island hopping at the end of April and head back up to Bangkok to catch our flight out on May 4th. We'll be back in the San Francisco on May 5th, 2009.

Stay tuned for more detailed info and maps!

Cheers,
Brandon