Amsterdam

After a very long flight with a stop over in Frankfort, we finally arrived to Amsterdam. The girls were total troopers on the plane ride and enjoyed the meals and movies and coloring in coloring books. Arianna slept like a baby for most of the evening hours, while Mattea stayed up like a night owl watching movies.

We visited the Anne Frank Museum. There was no photography allowed but the memories of it will be ingrained in our minds forever. It's hard to believe such atrocities were committed such a short time ago, and even harder to believe that racism still exists today. Afterwards, we stumbled upon a park and the girls played on a tire swing with a Dutch girl who was about their same age. They couldn't understand each other, but nevertheless had fun taking turns pushing each other back and forth on the swing. Watching children from two different worlds delight in play together provided a small spark of hope that our world is slowly changing for the better. 

Later, we toured the Van Gogh Museum, where many of his famous painting are housed in a large multi-story building. It was fascinating to explore his mind through his works of art, and how his style of art changed from his happy go lucky early years, to his darker years where he suffered from depression. We enjoyed learning about the different techniques he used in his art. Photography was only allowed of one of his sunflower paintings, which the kids happily posed by.

The next day we caught a bus to the Keukenhof Gardens. The tulips only bloom for one month out of the year, and our timing was perfect. The entire garden was filled with hundreds of varieties and colors of tulips, and each section of the garden had its own unique design and layout. We enjoyed listening to music from an organ, and the kids snacked on hot dogs and fries. We're excited to plant the bulbs we purchased.

Our last day in Amsterdam we took a tour to a cheese factory, a wooden shoe manufacturer, and the windmills. The wooden shoes are made from a machine very similar to a key duplicating machine. The kids ended up each picking out a pair of unpainted shoes so they can add their own colors and designs to their new garden shoes when we get home. We really enjoyed seeing the old windmills that still function, and learned that they power much more than water pumps -- some were used for manufacturing.

We all really enjoyed Amsterdam -- the people were warm and friendly, the food was organic and very fresh, and the sites were amazing. Next, we're off to hop on a plane to Venezia!

Thailand -- Bangkok, Kata, Railay, Chiang Mai, and Pai

Bangkok

One word can easily describe Bangkok -- INSANE. After arriving from Cambodia, we experienced a major culture shock the second we stepped into Bangkok. The air is so polluted, you can see it, feel the weight of it, and taste the pollution every time you open your mouth. Many people walk or drive their mopeds with masks over their faces. We arrived at our hotel, the Baan Chantra, and we're amazed to find a small oasis in the heart of a big, crazy, loud city. We stepped foot into the hotel lobby, and were asked to remove our shoes, and were quickly greeted by ice cold water as we sat at the desk to check in. The owner at the front desk was extremely warm and welcoming, and she personally escorted us to our room on the top floor. Outside our room was a beautiful wooden deck, surrounded by lush plants, and the sounds of trickling waterfalls. However, once you stepped foot outside, you were immediately bombarded with the loud noises of tuk tuk taxis and cars zooming everywhere, driving sometimes head on into oncoming traffic. The worst thing about Bangkok is the scams. Everywhere you try to go, you are quickly approached by nicely dressed men, asking you if you need help finding something. They seem really nice at first, but then continue to inform you that the place you want to go to is "closed for aBuddhist holiday" and they recommend that you go with them to their friend's store, which is having a huge sale. Within the first 10 minutes, we were probably approached by 5 different people, asking us where we are going, if we would like a ride, informing us that the boat we want to catch is not running today, or the temple we want to visit is closed for a holiday. It became very tiring, very quickly. We saw a few temples in Bangkok, including the Grand Palace and the reclining Buddha, and cruised through part of the city via a river boat with locals. We visited Khao San Road, which is essentially a street designed to entertain foreigners -- it's full of cheap souvenirs, cheesy bars, loud music, and prostitutes. We quickly realized that was enough of Bangkok for us. The constant attempts at scams wore quickly on us and we were very excited to get out of there. On our second and last day in Bangkok, we got up early to go visit a floating market where vendors sell various foods and cheap souvenirs via boats in the canals. The hotel owner packed us a 'bag' breakfast to go, as we had to be out by 6:30am, which was half an hour before they begin to serve breakfast. The floating market was okay, but we really enjoyed the trip out there because we met a really cool British couple who had been traveling through Southeast Asia with their 3 year old son. We really enjoyed swapping travel stories and talking to them about anything from the war to the economy and everything in between. They expressed gratitude that we finally "got rid of the Bush era" and they referred to the new president as "Our Obama," stating the opinions of Americans were finally coming out of the gutters. We met numerous Europeans who stated they and others they knew have refused to travel to the States while Bush was in office. After visiting the floating market, we returned to our hotel and the hotel owner offered us to use our room to shower, even though it was hours past the time we checked out. We were really thankful for the shower, but most thankful to be finally leaving the chaos in Bangkok.

We arrived in the Bangkok Airport to catch our flight on Bangkok Airways to Phuket. I should mention that Bangkok Airways is my new favorite airline. We booked our flight the night before departing and paid only $60. Because we booked so late, our tickets were handwritten and personally dropped off at our hotel the evening before. Bangkok Airways offers all guests access to a beautiful lounge in the departure terminal, full of cushy sofas and chairs, free food (pastries, pineapple cake, coconut rice rolls, bean cakes, coffee, tea, and juices) and free internet and wifi access. They also give you a full meal on each flight, even if its just an hour flight. Wow! We didn't even get a bag of pretzels when we flew from LA to NY on United. The flight was great, and we even got to enjoy the sunset from the sky as we began our descent into Phuket.

Kata

We caught a ride to Kata from the airport in Phuket. Kata is a beach town in the southern part of Thailand. We had heard how beautiful the southern part of Thailand is, but were shocked to see how developed it had become. We checked into our hotel, the Sugar Palm Resort, which sat atop a hill overlooking the city of Kata. The hotel was modern and very chic but on the hill behind it you could see a bunch of garbage. We walked down the hill from our hotel into the town of Kata and were greeted by loud American music, Italian restaurants, prostitutes sitting outside bars luring in men, and Indian businessmen who owned shops who were constantly trying to shake men's hands and entice them into their stores to have custom silk suits made. It seems that after the tsunami the entire southern coast of Thailand was destroyed, and American, European, and Asian corporations or businesses came in to capitalize on the opportunity. Kata definitely caters toward American and European vacationers. Its essentially a huge resort town, with no Thai culture left at all. It was really quite sad. The beach was beautiful, but full of tourists. We managed to find some "Thai" food amongst all the Italian restaurants and bars, but the quality was disappointing. It was also quite awkward seeing the young Europeans next to us eating dinner with a Thai prostitute, who was probably in her late teens or early 20's.

We decided to catch a bus the next morning back to the Phuket bus terminal to head down to Krabi where we could catch a boat ride to Railay, another beach town in the southern part of Thailand. Before we got to the bus terminal, the bus stopped in a small local market and the driver accepted some money by a man who approached the bus and announced it was the end of the line, instructing everyone to get off. Unfortunately, we were still a mile or two from the bus terminal. We had to carry our luggage through the town, trying to locate the bus terminal, without a map. After walking about half an hour, we located what appeared to be a bus terminal, but was actually a privately run business chartering buses that looked legitimate, but probably weren't. Luckily we quickly found the real bus terminal and bought our tickets to Krabi. During the 3.5 hour ride from Phuket to Krabi , we stopped frequently and vendors walked onto the bus, trying to sell food or drinks. We made it to Krabi safely and then hailed a taxi from the bus station to the boat terminal. Once again, we were approached by more scam artists this time trying to tell us that the last boat of the day already left. We ended up paying much more than we should have to catch our own private long tail to Railay.

Railay

After a 45 minute boat ride, we approached the town of Railay. It was low tide at night, so the boat docked as close as it could to the cement sidewalk strip that leads up to the land. It was extremely slippery and I almost fell down in the water with my luggage.

Railay sits on a very narrow strip of land, surrounded by water on both sides. Although its not an island, because its surrounded by water on both sides, it has an island feel to it. You can walk from one side to the other in about 5 minutes, and because they allow no cars, you can only reach it by boat. The town of Railay is small and quaint, primarily small motels and guesthomes on the east side, and larger resorts on the west side. The beach was beautiful and we had a great time swimming in the warm water. We went for a short hike up some rocks (with the help of some ropes) to a view point of a lagoon. We even saw some cute monkeys in the trees. There wasn't much else to do there, besides enjoy the sunset and the beautiful beach. After two nights, we caught the long tail back to Krabi to catch our flight up to Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai

Although it's the 5th largest city in Thailand, Chiang Mai has somehow managed to retain some of its culture. Its not nearly as hectic as Bangkok and there are far fewer scam artists. We walked around town and saw some really cool temples in the middle of the city. Dave is really enjoying the food from the street vendors, even though he doesn't know what most of it is.

On our second to last day in Chiang Mai, the hotel owner started to talk to us about how "rish" we could become if we teamed up with him to sell his "precious gems" and his homemade medication that cures Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and also works as a "love medication." Urgh, more scams. Needless to say, we checked out the next morning, after hitting up a national park.

Pai

We caught a 4 hour bus ride to Pai and were surprised to find a quaint, laid back town in the very north of Thailand. Pai is filled with restaurants and cafes and not much more. We're staying at a really cute bungalow style room on stilts, overlooking the river. On our second day in Pai, we decided to take a long walk to a waterfall that was supposed to be 7 km each way, but because we got lost it ended up taking about 6 hours total round trip. At least we got to enjoy some of the countryside though. We managed to avoid the wild pack of dogs on foot, although I almost had a heart attack at one point when we were confronted by 5 barking and growling dogs in the middle of our path up the hill.

We found a great restaurant that serves awesome curries. The best part besides the food is that they keep a pet monkey in a cage in the back of the restaurant. I've been talking to him and holding his hand through the cage and I thought we had developed some sort of friendship. Then all of a sudden he grabbed the plastic ball at the end of my shoelace and managed to stretch my 4 inch elastic shoelace three feet long and put the tip into his mouth.

Today we rented a motorcycle and cruised all around the outskirts of Pai. We went to a natural hot springs and relaxed in the warm water. There were some people with bags of eggs in nets tied to the ends of bamboo sticks who were making hard boiled eggs in the hot springs. Tomorrow we'll catch a flight out of Pai on a single prop plane back to Chiang Mai. We have a long layover before catching our flight to Bangkok, through Tokyo and then back to LA.

Cambodia -- Siem Riep

We arrived in Cambodia and caught a taxi ride from the airport. The ride from the airport to the town of Siem Riep was fascinating. We saw people living in bamboo and hay homes alongside rivers. Everyone was hard at work, from kids as young as 5 years of age, to grandparents. We saw kids helping to dig ditches and haul cement. Even monks were outside doing heavy labor. Most people live off the land, either fishing or farming. There is very little other work, other than the limited tourist industry -- working in small hotels, roadside diners, or driving taxis.

Shortly after checking into our hotel we caught a "tuk tuk" (motorcycle attached to a wooden cart on wheels) to tour the sites. Our driver, Sanni, was awesome. He's 29 years old and lives on a farm with his wife who is 25 and their 3 year old son. After rice season, he moves away from his family and stays in Siem Reap, about 2 hours from his village. He rents a small room so he can work as a tuk tuk driver to help bring in more money. He speaks very good English, even though he didn't believe us. He hopes to save enough money to go to the university in Siem Reap to study English more and learn to type and use a computer so that he can someday get a better job, working in a restaurant, or as a professional tour guide to large groups.

Sanni drove us around for 4 days, about 12 hours per day, and explained a lot of the history to us. We toured Angkor Wat and all the surrounding temples. The temples were amazing. Some were built as early as the 9th century. It's amazing they are still standing. It's mind blowing to think they built these things without any modern machinery. They essentially hauled large rocks across miles of farmland and stacked them stories high, and then carved very detailed pictures on the faces of the buildings. Much of the temples are being restored and maintained by donations from Japan and Korea to pay salaries of local Cambodians. Angkor Wat is stunning, especially at sunset, where it has a magical glow to it.

We drove by a children's hospital where a Swiss doctor provides free care to children. Sanni pointed out that during malaria season ("river fever"), all the children line up outside the hospital the evening before to wait for the hospital to open. The next morning we drove by there was a huge line of families outside. This prompted us to go see a Cambodian doctor to get a prescription for Doxycycline for malaria prevention.

Next Sanni took us to tour a floating village. The houses are built on bamboo stilts and the entire town survives off fishing alone. After the floating village, Sanni hiked with us to the top of a mountain to enjoy a sunset over a view of the city.

We continued our journey with Sanni and next went to tour a land mine museum and a war museum. It's sad to see all the destruction and killing that these people had to endure. Every person there was affected personally by the war, and they still have a hard time talking about it to this day. The young man who gave us a tour through the land mine museum lost both his parents during the war. He is about 6 years younger than me and now lives with his uncle and works in the museum as a tour guide. He is missing three fingers and has a huge piece of shrapnel in his leg near one of the main arteries, and a smaller piece right next to his eye. He had two land mines go off in his presence during his lifetime. One killed his two childhood friends as they were walking around just outside their town, and the other resulted in his loss of fingers. He had a hard time telling the story to us but he explained it to us after we had a long conversation with him about war. After explaining his story to us, he gave us both a big hug and thanked us for listening. Sadly, many of the injured receive no health care support from the government, and rely upon donations and volunteers for support. They estimate there are still 2-3 million land mines buried in Cambodia.

After touring the land mine museum we went to a national park to hike up to a river where many of the stones on the bottom of the river have carvings centuries old. While he was waiting for us, Sanni picked some mushrooms to bring home to cook for dinner. We opted to eat at lunch at the restaurant. When we were driving back to town, we stopped on the side of the road to watch a family making sugar from palm trees on the side of the road. They offered us samples of brown sugar candies which were delicious. After that we went on a hike up to a temple that sits on the highest point in Siem Reap. We enjoyed the sunset at the top of the mountain. We went to an amazing buffet dinner and traditional dance show later that evening.

Our last day in Cambodia, we went to tour a stone carving school which provides free art education to people who are deaf and mute. The idea is they can attend the school for free, and once they learn to master the art, the school helps them set up a business where they can make carvings to sell. Following the tour of the stone carving school, Sanni drove us on the tuk tuk miles away from Siem Reap, the town we were staying in. We drove as far as we could on the tuk tuk, and when the dirt roads became too rough and narrow, we parked the tuk tuk at his friend's house and Dave and I each hopped on the back of a motorcycle to continue our journey to another floating village. Our ride out to the village was like nothing I've ever experienced. We hung on really tight as we bounced through dirt roads and muddy puddles. At one point, we approached a small river we had to cross, but our drivers made it through without falling over. We got a little wet and muddy, but it was so hot, we didn't mind. Dave stopped to take a photo of some rice farmers, and one of the women giggled and said in Cambodian to Dave "He has long hair, like a girl," which Sanni translated for Dave. I thought it was really funny. In the floating village, the entire family works together to fish out of the lake where their homes float. Even kids as young as five years old were doing what they could to help out with the work. One family invited us up onto their floating home and we watched as they sorted fish by sizes and types. Then they wait for large fishing boats to come and buy the fish off of them, to sell them to markets in Japan and Vietnam. Sanni purchased two fresh fish to take home for dinner. After touring the floating village, we hopped back onto the motorcycle to drive back to the village. When we were crossing back over the river, there were some farmers with a plow being pulled by bulls. The cattle and plow got stuck in the mud and Dave helped the other farmers try to push the plow out of the mud. Unfortunately, it was really stuck. After touring the floating village, we walked through a small town by the river. The village had no electricity and their water was supplied by wells sponsored by various countries, mostly from the U.S. and Japan. We went to visit a school and purchased books and pencils to deliver to the students, and each student thanked us. They were extremely grateful. After touring the village we went back to the motorcycle driver's home and he invited Dave and I to take a rest on their hammocks. They helped wash the mud off our shoes using water from their well. After a well deserved rest, it was off to the airport to fly to Bangkok.

The food in Cambodia was amazing -- spicy curries, excellent noodle dishes, and great beer (Angkor beer). The city of Siem Reap was a bit loud and people honk their horns as often as we use our turn signals. In contrast, the countryside is beautiful, very lush and green.

Somehow the people in Cambodia manage to make the most of what limited resources they have. Motorcycles fill up their tanks with gas from whiskey bottles being sold from stands on the side of the road, and people cook in woks outside their homes near the street. Its not uncommon to see families of 3-4 squished onto one motorcycle, and because there is no garbage service, people have to burn their garbage in the front of their homes. We got woken up numerous times each night to the sounds of dogs howling and barking while hunting for food in packs, and roosters announcing daybreak long before sunrise.

I must say, the people of Cambodia are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Everyone there was so friendly and warm, asking us where we are from, what we do for work, and everyone was happy to help show us around and teach us about their history. Although many people live below the poverty level, there was no threat of pick-pocketing. Everyone works really hard, but I never heard anyone complain about how hard their life is or how little they have. We became quite attached to Sanni and it was hard to say goodbye to him. We exchanged e-mail addresses and hope to stay in touch. When we get back to the States, we plan to mail him the photos we took of us together. I hope someday he gets to go back to the university to study more so that he can achieve his dreams. He really deserves it.