Angkor Wat

From Thailand we moved on into Cambodia. Our first stop was Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Our friend Sarah also joined us for these temples. For those of you who are more pop culture than ancient history, this is where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider. We spent 3 days exploring the temples and ruins, and I didn't find any ancient treasures the entire time.

Tigers and Cobras, oh my

And I'm back making posts to the blog after a brief vacation from my "job" while on the trip. Pam and Mike joined us in Singapore where we travelled up through Malaysia to Thailand. As he posted, Jaymin joined us in Bangkok while Pam returned to the States. Mike is traveling with Mark and I throughout Asia. As a quick intro to the people appearing in pics for those who don't know everybody, Jaymin, Mike, and Pam are friends from NC, with Jaymin having friend senority as Mark and I have known him since preschool. While in Bangkok we saw the Emerald Buddha at the Grand Palace, and then decided to get a little more adventurous.

From there Jaymin, Mike, Mark and I went shopping on the water at the floating market, crossed the bridge over the River Kwai, and adopted some tigers for pets. We also watched a cobra show where different men got in a pit with a cobra and avoided its bite for a bit before capturing it. These guys made a cobra look slow! One guy went in the pit with 3 cobras, and caught the last one with his teeth!

Jaymin arrives in Thailand (posted by Jaymin)

I arrived in Bangkok,Thailand on May 13th. Mark and Dave have spared no expense in ensuring that my accomidations are nothing but the best. Our domicile in Bankok cost 160 baht per night. To put this in context, a snickers bar cost 40 baht. Essentially, my sleeping quarters cost 4 snicker bars per night. Perhaps Americans just have a comparative advantage in producing rich milk chocolate candy bars filled peanut butter nougat, roasted peanuts, and caramel. Anyways, everything is going well so far, and we'll update more regularly from here on out.

Four Americans, the beach, and a Full Moon.....by Pam

Ah the joys of Thailand. After a couple days in Singapore and Malaysia, we made a mad sprint to an island off of the Western Coast to attend the Full Moon Party. The attendance of this party is an average of 6,000 people crammed on Hat Rin beach, and the average age of patrons is 23. I of course, had no problem blending right in. The guys however had to shave that evening before leaving so they could relive their youth.

We prepared ourselves in the days before, by designating training days. Day 1 of training was "Beer Day". Day 2 was "Liquor Day". Mark notably pointed out that we are pretty old if we have to train our livers for a big party. I'm not going to lie, after day 2 I was hurting. The hopes of attending this party with a bunch of 21 year olds with energy and vibrance looked dismal (this picture is from dinner a few blocks from the party). We ordered coffee and are faking these lovely smiles.


We finally made it, and the beats were bumping and the madness ensued. There were probably 10 different DJ's spinning on the island, and a tropical depression was forming off of the coast so the waves were rough and it was raining. We found the quietest bar on the beach, sat and sipped slowly and watched the craziness from afar. We then decided to quit acting like senior citizens, and take a stroll into "The Jungle"...

If you can't beat them, join them. Basically we were forced into buying the famous buckets of the Full Moon Party, and that my friends, is when we had arrived....

Mark was so happy he decided to give himself a hug after swimming in the ocean between dance moves...

I think Mike looks 21 in this picture, no?

I am displaying my thirstiness, and Mike is upset that the bucket is empty. Mark, who we shall compare to Yoda for his quick thinking and wisdom, energetically realizes that there are more buckets less than 10 feet away from us....

We continued to dance the night away, do some jump roping, fell in the sand, thought about napping in the "Sleeping area" (that had guards) and finally watched the sun come up. The party was still going strong into the next afternoon from what we were told.... I'm pretty jealous the guys have many full moons left in Thailand :)...