Last Day in "Paradise"

We started our Thailand journey in Koh Chang on Monday, Oct 20. We stayed at the Amari Spa and Resort in Koh Chang. After our whirlwind tours of pagoda's and temples, we were definitely ready to finally get some R&R. With a cold beverage by our side and a good game of Scrabble...this is how the Ham's relax! :P The three days we were at Amari were pretty uneventful.... just the way we wanted it. We experienced some pretty gnarly afternoon thundershowers, that cracked ear bleeding thunder over our heads, and dropped rain by the bucketful. Good thing they came as fast as they went. A quick jaunt back to the hotel room for shelter and we were right back where we started 30 min later, poolside, with a cold beverage in hand and another round of Scrabble. I guess we also got a few games of Uno in too. One of the highlights of Koh Chang was meeting James Brown. No, not, "I feel good...Oww!" James Brown, but this little guy....
A shih-tzu at a tailor shop near our hotel. It was the perfect time to meet him as by this time (2 weeks in), we both miss our little Feefy so much. The shop owner and I compared notes on our shih-tzu's and realized they are all so much alike in so many ways. This guy has got to have one of the cutest names ever! Farewell James Brown!
We left Koh Chang for Phuket on a 5:30am wake up call on Friday, Oct 24.
If paradise really exists, some may call Sala Spa & Resort on Phuket Island "it". This resort is truly a modern form of paradise. It is peaceful, calm, gentle, and relaxing; the perfect place to end our honeymoon. Even though it rained pretty consistently the first two (of 4) days we were here, we both agreed it was certainly the one place we didn't mind being "stranded" at. From the moment we drove up to the lobby, we knew this place was special. Here is a picture of the outdoor lobby area, where we were cheerfully and respectfully greeted with a cold refreshing towel (its muggy here!), a chilled cup of herbal tea, and a sweet smelling wrist garland.

This has definitely been the best "hotel" i've ever stayed at. The food has been amazing, the service impeccable, and our villa.....well, a picture speaks a thousand words.
Yup, that's right....our own private pool! How awesome is that? Luckily we are here during the low season, because come November the rates triple, and we would never have been able to afford this. It is our last night here in Phuket and we're off to Hong Kong for a full day of shopping before heading home. There hasn't been much to buy so far, so we are looking forward to getting our shop on:P I must say, it is the perfect place to stimulate the economy. We took a peek at the hotel we are staying at in HK, and I don't think we could have planned this any better. I'll leave today with a link to the supermall/hotel we're at in HK. Cheers!

Farewell Cambodia.....we'll be back!

We're leaving Cambodia today for Thailand. We had an amazing time here, and we both agree, there's so much more to see here, that without a doubt, we want to come back. The entire Angkor area is amazingly majestic and beautiful. Rich with culture and history. The people of Cambodia is of the most genuinely nicest people we've ever met on earth. I'm sad we don't have more time here.
Here is just a glimpse of the few temple's we saw, including Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, and Banteay Srei. There are over 1300 temples in Cambodia and ~800 just in the Angkor area. The pictures do not do its justice....you must come here to feel and see the how grand these temples are. This visit has definitely changed me in some way.
Angkor Wat- click this link to view Angkor Wat in Google Maps


The perimeter of Angkor Wat is lined with Buddah's. But you'll notice that almost all (if not all) the Buddah heads are missing. They have been stolen by collectors over the years! This is true for many of the statues found in all the Angkor temples. A few statues have been reconstructed but most of them remain faceless and headless. It was only until 1992 did the UNESCO started documenting all the artifacts. This has enabled them to verify stolen artifacts post 1992. But there is no record of anything before then, so no one knows exactly what has been stolen before 1992, so there is no way of recovering any items or catching these thieves. What a shame!!!




Here is a picture of an entrance way at Banteay Srei Temple, also known as the Pink Temple, or translated to 'Citadel of the Women'. It is the only temple made from pink sandstone. This temple has the most delicate and intricate carvings of all of the temples, all carved by hand! The detail is breathtaking. Again, the pictures do not do its justice. Its really amazing how these carvings tell the entire story of each temple. You could literally spend years learning about and reading all the carvings on the temples. They're all such complicated stories, its really facinating! We purchased a guidebook to learn more about these facinating stories from one of the local childern selling souvenirs in front of one of the temples. I talked her down from $7 to $5....what a bargain! Later to be offered the same book at another temple for $1!! hahah!!



Last, here's a picture of Ta Promh or as many people call it, "The Tomb Raider Temple" because part of the movie was filmed here in 2000. It's a spectacular place, with several trees literally growing out of what's left of the sandstone structure. This is the only temple that has been left in most of its original state; basically overgrown by the jungle. All the other temples, such as Angkor Wat have been excavated for tourists to visit and marvel over. We have several pretty amazing pictures that we'll post when we get home (too large to upload on this slow connection!). Sadly this was the last temple we visited on our memorable trip to Cambodia, but we definitely plan to return some day!

Next stop....Cambodia

We finished our tour of Vietnam today. We had a great time and also had a chance to meet up with Noogie and Art which was super cool! I still can't believe she's living out here now. Although, I must say, they have it pretty nice in Vietnam. The US dollar definitely goes a long way out here. Here we are in front of the Saigon/HCM City Hall.



And here's a picture of us eating snails!!! We had a feast that night, and the total bill came out to $37 US!! Unbelievable.


Hands down the most interesting and fascinating thing we saw in Vietnam was the Cu Chi Tunnels. Its amazing how elaborate and far these tunnels go. In some area's they are 3 levels deep, with sleeping quarters, kitchens, and meeting rooms! We had a chance to crawl through one of the tunnels, which by the way, has been enlarged for tourists. Sam, being a little claustrophobic, tried to crawl through, but ended up having to go back up. I give him credit for trying though, it was pretty tight down there even for me! Check out this picture....can you imagine the tunnels being smaller than that?!?



And we're off to Cambodia......
Today, we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I knew very little about Cambodia, and was surprised to learn it has a lot of Thai and India influences, especially in the food and religion. We only had a few hours to check out the King's Palace, Buddhist Temple and the National Museum. But, the architecture of everything we've seen has been beautiful. Here is a picture of the palace, where the current King still lives.

Tomorrow, we have a 6:45am flight to Siem Reap, yikes! Which means we need to be up at about 4:30am. Its about 10:10 pm now.... Time for bed!

Ham's hit Southeast Asia

(the pictures from this blog was taken from our little point and shoot camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01). This is just a glimpse of our trip as we've taken a ton more pictures that we'll post when we get home)

We're off to Southeast Asia on our honeymoon!! Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand to be exact. We flew into Hong Kong on Tues 10/7. Wow, United Airlines business class is the way to fly!!! Fully reclined massage chairs and of course your own flat screen tv. Here's a picture Sam took of me catching some Z's on the 14 hour flight (yes, the teddy bear made it on this trip...she's a world traveller!)


We only had 1 night in Hong Kong before we started our tour of Vietnam. But it was enough time for us to get Shanghai dumplings and dim sum!! We'll get another 2 days in Hong Kong to do some serious shopping on our way home, so lets put Hong Kong on hold right now. Here are some pics from HK.















Our first stop in Vietnam was Hanoi, the capital. We had a private tour guide and his name was Ruby. He was fantastic! Super cool guy and he had an iPhone- match made in heaven!! We stayed at the Hotel Sofitel Metropole and what a beautiful hotel this was! On our first day we toured around the city in a tuk-tuk and visited Ho Chi Mihn's mosoleum (pictures of the mosoleum was taken on the SLR, so we'll have to post those later). Almost everyone rides a motorbike and they only obey the traffic signals when there is a "traffic warden" around. That means, most of the time there are people zooming around with no regard to the direction of traffic or traffic signals. Its pretty crazy, although, i'd call it controlled chaos, cuz everyone seems to understand this madness and there is little to no accidents in the city. Pretty amazing, you'd have to see it to believe it!

The next day we headed off to one of the newest 7 wonders of the world, Halong Bay. It was a 3 hour car ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay City. And there we took a 4 hour boat trip to see a few of the 1300 islands. Amazing stuff! Will have to post pictures later as they are on the SLR.

We had the most amazing seafood extravaganza meal on the boat. Probably one of the freshest meals we've ever had, it was "nga lamp", meaning...DELICIOUS! The fresh crab was to die for. Caught that day!


Currently, we are in Hoi An in central Vietnam. Its muggy and rainy. Ick! Its very different here from Hanoi. There's hardly anyone on the road and it just seems much more relaxed- must be the beach town community. We are staying in an ocean front "bungalow" called Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort. Too bad its raining because the beach looks beautiful! Here's a picture of us in front of the Fukan Pagoda.


Tomorrow we head off to Hue. Hopefully we'll get free wifi again so I can post more. Its almost time for dinner now, so see ya soon!!!