Wanderlust

As I said in the last blog post, bittersweet is the correct feeling for both of us today. We are happy to be headed home to see our family and friends again (especially our cat, Loki) but we are sad to leave these crazy countries and adventures we are having every day. Our biggest obstacle/stress today was our flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. To save money, we booked that flight separately from the Bangkok part. We had it all set up nicely with a 2.5-hour layover until they moved the timing of this last flight up. Now, we only had about 50 minutes to make our connecting flight. We thought we might be able to do it but it was going to take some luck to happen. Anyway, this was on our minds all day. Packing up was pretty easy considering there wasn’t space to unpack anything in the room. We took all our gear to the bakery and had croissants again. It was a math problem figuring out how much money we needed for trains, how much money for breakfast, and how much money for snack...

Lacey and I slept pretty well considering we were basically sleeping on plywood. We had blanket issues (turns out we had it turned the wrong way….) so we alternated being cold through the night. After more food debating (this is one of the most frustrating parts of traveling, deciding where to eat), we decided to get some croissants at a chain bakery. They were sooooo good. We love our carbs. Our first stop of the day was Chatuchak Weekend Market. It’s one of the biggest markets in all of Southeast Asia. There are 1000’s of stalls of people selling all sorts of things. We took the BTS Sky Train (above ground, modern subway). It was very efficient and pretty cheap. Simply by chance, we got to the market just a little bit after it opened so it wasn’t all that busy. We walked around A LOT. Lacey ended up buying a pair of sandals. The market reminded me of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, lots of stalls and tight quarters in the walkways. Another comparison: it’s like Mall of America...

Our hostel offers two main tours of the Angkor Wat temple complex. We already did the sunset tour on Tuesday and did the sunrise tour today. The sunrise tour includes going to the real jewel of the temple complex, the actual Angkor Wat temple, to watch the sunrise then go to 4 other temples. After that, we would pack up and go back to Bangkok. We were completely exhausted from the motorbike tour yesterday so we went to bed pretty early (like 9pm or something) so we could sleep enough before our very early wake-up call of 4am. For the sunset tour a few days ago, we did a private tour where it was just us and a driver in a tuk-tuk. This tour, we decided to do the super cheap ($12 total) sharing tour for sunrise. We thought we would be getting into a white van with a bunch of other people and driving around to everything. Turns out the sharing tour just means sharing a small tuk-tuk with 2 other people. Needless to say, we wish we would have just done the private tour again. The ...

We had to wake up kind of early again today because we were going to go for a long motorbike ride in the Cambodian jungle and mountains. We decided the day before to hire a company called Khmer Ways to give us a tour. All of their reviews online were positive and we were excited for an adventure. We didn't know what we were getting in to (both good and bad). Us on our cool rides Time kind of got away from us in the morning so we were rushing to pack up and leave. Our guide was waiting for us in the lobby and he had a tuk-tuk give us a ride over to their place. Their little area is basically a house on the edge of town where they store all their motorbikes. We got on the bikes and drove around their yard for a little bit just doing small oval shapes so we could get a handle on accelerating slowly and braking. After about 15 minutes, we worked our way up to driving down their alleyway which had some obstacles to avoid and a long stretch of road so we could go faster.  ...

With the AC that didn't work, my sleep was just okay. I was so tired from our huge day yesterday that it didn't matter for the first few hours but eventually, I did wake up sweaty a couple times. I got up kind of early and went across the street to do some blogging. The lobby area of this hostel is comfortable for me so I didn't mind hanging out. I got a banana shake while I waited for Lacey to get up. Broken Down Tuk Tuk We had breakfast and talked about what to do today. We have a plan for the next couple days. We'll do an adventurous motorbike tour up a mountain on Thursday and see the sunrise at Angkor Wat on Friday before we fly back to Bangkok. That just left us with questions for today. After some research, we decided to go to Beng Mealea. It's a mildly ruined temple farrrr out from the city (about 50 miles). The distance from the city means very few crowds but also limited options to get there. It's $30 to use a tuk-tuk and $65 to use a car. We...

Off to Cambodia! I was surprised at how few people we talked to in the islands area and Bangkok had planned to go to Cambodia. I have read that it is a beautiful country and they use US dollars as their currency so it's easy to navigate. There's one primary reason we intended to head there: Angkor Wat. It's a giant area of temples, some reconstructed and some left in disrepair. ***This is a long post*** Famous Tree at Ta Som Temple When we booked our flight at 6:20am we were concerned about how early it was. Turns out that on this trip we just get up really early all the time no matter what so it was easy haha. Our hotel was only about a 10-minute walk to the airport but they have a free shuttle so we took it. Getting through security and stuff was easy (after 5 flights so far this trip, this is old hat). We got pastries for breakfast and my almond croissant was delicious.  The flight was uneventful (no one leaned their seat back this time!!!). The sunrise was...

Today was our super exciting, awesome Elephant Sanctuary day. We woke up early (although we always do) and got breakfast at our hotel. The breakfast wasn't as good as at Railay but it was included in the room so we couldn't argue with the price. The elephant sanctuary tour is one of the most expensive things we'll do in Thailand but we have been looking forward to it ever since we booked the tickets. The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary company was started in 2015 with just 1 camp of elephants in Northern Thailand. Now there are 9 camps in the North and 3 camps in the South. They help over 150 elephants. All I'm saying is that it's a great cause and we're happy to pay whatever it takes. A pickup truck outfitted with benches in the truck bed picked us up at our hotel at 7am. We drove around the area and picked up some other people from other hotels as well. There was a youngish couple from Norwich, England who were super nice and fun that got on right after us. W...