Ah, Doraemon! You like?

We have arrived in Taipei and about to board the plane to SanFran. 

Mom left her pillow in Vietnam, so we had no pillow for the flight home. We have looked all over Thailand and Cambodia to try to find one. Well, evidently 

they don't use pillows over here in Asia because there is no where you can buy them. So we were walking through the airport today and were on the search for something we could use as a pillow. We came across these circled, stuffed, cat face, pillow thing that we decided to buy. We have gotten tons of attention from these things. Doraemon is the cats name and he is a hot commodity in Japan. At least 10 people have stopped us and asked if we liked Doraemon. I just look at them and tell them I don't know what they are talking about.

Next stop San Francisco, USA!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Today is our last full day in Thailand. Many have said that Thailand is gorgeous and that the people are stunning. Well I am here (in Thailand) to tell you that I disagree. Don't get me wrong the people are averagely pretty but nothing compared to the people of Cambodia or Vietnam. As for the atmosphere it's a dirty Myrtle with Thai speaking people. The beaches aren't as pretty as the ones in Chuck and they are lined with beach chairs. It's just a tourist mecca, no local charm.

We did however ride an elephant yesterday (did you know they had hair). Our guide that mom booked had the reputation of being the best; everything on Trip Adviser said that he was wonderful and by far the best. He drove me and mom crazy! He didn't listen to a thing you said and in the middle of your sentence he would just start talking over you until you were quite. He informed me and mom that if he was to choose a religion he would be Buddhist because the monks only had three things: their robe, man purse, and something else I don't remember. He was basically a self-centered, ignorant, punk.

Today was way better thatn yesterday. We went to a Thai cooking class. We were taught how to make six different things: Tom Kha Kai (coconut soup w/ chicken), spring rolls, a spicy vermicelli salad, panaeng curry w/ pork (we even made the curry paste), sweet & sour vegetables w/ shrimp, and pumpkin in coconut milk. It was a lot of food. The tom kha kai was my favorite and my least favorite was the curry. It happened that the lady that came to pick us up was the owner (we didn't figure that out til later). She offered to take us to buy pearls after the class, so we went.

Once back at the hotel we had facials then ate our left overs (from the cooking class) for lunch. Our first plane leaves at 1 tomorrow.

"America. President Obama. America. Next to Canada & Mexico..."

Cambodia was wonderful. It's definitely one of my top favorite places. As I said before the place was flooded. It was like a snow day in Charleston to these people. Little kids were floating down the streets, people were just watching the water flow through the river and the cars/tuk tuks couldn't make it down some roads (particularly the one to get to our hotel). The flood water didn't hold us back though.

After we got up we went and had breakfast on the rooftop of our wonderful hotel (Viroth). We then went to a Cambodian cooking class. Yit was our chief/guide. He took us to a local market and showed us all the different fruits and veggies and gave a brief description of them. Me and mom were even brave enough to try some fried bananas from a street vender... they were so good! After the visit to the market we went back to begin the cooking part of the class. It was 3 courses plus a drink. Oh, and he showed us how to cut/design a banana leave (lets just say I could never make paper snowflakes).The dishes included: Banana Flower Salad (kind of like a slaw), Khmer Amok Fish (yumminess in a bowl), Sweet Potato w/ Sago & Coconut Milk, and lastly Cambodian Hibiscus Tea. We bought a cook book and had Yit (mom kept thinking it was Yip) sign it for us. We left there and went to visit Angkor Wat. We saw the two main temples but it all started to look like a whole bunch of rock so we decided to forgo seeing all the rest. We did however get attacked by kids trying to sell us stuff when we walked out. It all started when mom decided to by one book from one boy. Then two more kids came over trying to sell bracelets, magnets, or what have you. About this time we saw our tuk tuk driver and started walking fastly towards him. when we sat down in our seats the tuk tuk was surrounded by kids trying to get us to by stuff. If you told them no or you didn't want it they would just lower the price (imagine being in a pond with hungry piranhas and telling them not to bite you). Needless to say, we got two books, five bracelets, and two magnets before we were airlifted (or tuk tuk driven) out of there.

On the way back to the hotel the tuk tuk driver took us by the Children's Hospital. We walked around for a few minuets. It was relatively nice. Once the we got back to the hotel and regrouped we swam (I mean walked) to the Old Market. It was probably the nicest market we've been to so far. A lot of good local stuff. Afterwords we went and grabbed something to drink at a side street cafe. While sitting there a little boy walks up and tries to sell us a book. We say no but he stays and ask were we are from when we tell him America he turns into a instant fact book and tells us about the population, government, geography, etc. (I guess he thinks that will score him some points). Once again we tell him no because we all ready have the books he was trying to sell us. He then says they are the "same, same but different" (in other words yes you do have this same book but it's not exactly the same because it didn't come from him). He laughs and then we laugh. He tried a few more things then he finally said that he would leave us alone if we bought a book so mom asked if we gave him a dollar would he leave. He said yes so she did and he left. Evidently he went and told some of his friends that there are two American girls that will give you money if you don't leave them alone because two little girls walked up and tried the same thing. They even followed us for a good 15 minuets trying to get us to buy "ten bracelets for one dollar" but we finally ignored them and they left us alone.

We ended the day by going to the night market. After being there for about 10 minuets the power went out so it was truly a night market. We couldn't see anything. We walked around trying to see but eventually left and went to Khmer Kitchen. It was really good (and cheap). We brought our leftovers back to the hotel and gave it to the guy at the front desk and he had a smile from ear to ear. The next morning we got up and walked around a bit. On the way to the airport we tried to stop by the silk farm but it was completely flooded so we went on to the airport to fly to Thailand.

Offical Name Change: Bay & Pink Panther's Irreverent Cambodia & Thailand Blog

(Mom waiting for our ride)

As the Chucktown crew went to the left so they could go to gate 17 (headed back home) me and mom took a right and said bye bye to the cruise ship as we boarded our plan to Cambodia. No more herding us around like cattle, we are on our own. It has been quit an experience so far. Getting through the airport and customs was a brezze but once we stepped out of the airport the adventure started. We had no clue if someone from the hotel would be waiting for us to drive us so when we walked out wwe scanned the couple of signs and saw no familiar names. So, we go to the taxi station and tell them were we are going (Vilroth Hotel) and they bring us a taxi around. The taxi driver couldn't be nicer. He informed us that were our hotel is located is completely flooded. He was then nice enough to let us borrow his phone so we could call and make sure that the hotel wasn't flooded/closed; it wasn't (thank God!). He had originally told us that he wouldn't be able to drive us all the way and we would have to walk. He was right in the fact that he could not drive us all the way but we did not walk. He dropped us off at a gas station and informed us that someone from the hotel would be there in a sec to pick us up and not to move. We waited for about 10 mins then got scared and decided to get another Tut Tut to take us. We could have never walked not only was is way to far but we didn't have the slightest clue of were it was located. So we rode the Tut Tut (imagine a motorized pedicab) through the thigh deep water to our hotel were they had put sandbags at the entrance so the water wouldn't come in. Mom said she choose this hotel because it was in the center of town and you could walk to a bunch of cool restaurants. I'm not quit sure why she didn't take into concederation that a typhoon would come a flood everthing and instead of walking we would be swimming from restaurant to restaurant (good thing we have albenazole). Speaking of restaurants we had dinner at an amazing place. We had a baked pumpkin type dish (their pumpkin = our squash, some type of curry, shrimp and veggies w/ sweet & sour sauce, and 3 cokes for a grand total of $12.


(the view from the hotel entrance)

Tomorrow we will go to a Cambodian cooking class and I'm not sure what else.

As The Waves Roll In, We Roll Out

Today is the last day (yay!). It has been fun but all good thing must come to an end. Tomorrow all the Seacoasters will go back to America except for me and mom. We will be on our way to Cambodia. But enough about tomorrow lets talk about today and yesterday...

The past two days can be summed up in two words massages & surfing. Jordan and Micheal are very grateful for the swells that were brought in post typhoon. They woke up bright and early then surfed all day yesterday. After their surf sess. they went across the street and got a $10, 60 min, massage. Right about now JB is waiting for his 4th massage (I was in the middle of writing this and realized that I was late for my massage). He says that he just gets all these massages because he wants the cultural experience (whatever we all know he likes those girls touching him). While JB & Micheal were surfing the girls (and Jack) went to a smelly market. It was a straight local market. We didn't stay but 10 mins then we came back and got massages. Today kindof went the same the boys got up to go surfing (they woke me up to go take pictures but i went back to sleep) and the girls (and Jack) went shopping in a cool little town down the road a bit. When we got back me, mom, and Cyn went and got a intenese massage from the place across the street. Me and mom followed that up by going to get another massage with JB, Michael, and Jack (I swear there was literally nothing else to do besides eat).

We have to leave the airport at 1130 in the morning. Me and the boys from room 335 (Jb & M) are utilizing the free wifi in the lounge.