The Adventures of Dave, Lindsay, Cora and Edie

Here are some photos of our two days in Siem Reap, Cambodia touring the Angkor Wat complex of temples with our trusty 20-year old tuk-tuk driver whose name we still can't pronounce, let alone spell. The temples were all very unique and truly amazing, especially when you consider their lack of modern tools and technology at the time of building. Angkor Wat itself is the largest religious building in the world and was built centuries ago. The final picture gives you just a glimpse of the sales pitches we received constantly from small, adorable children selling bracelets, postcards, books and all sorts of other things. We bought a few but couldn't buy from everyone. And the monk photo is in one of the temples quite a ways outside of town. He is wearing the traditional orange robe and was carrying a bright yellow umbrella to escape the relentless sun. I couldn't resist a photo since I'm fascinated by the monks of SE Asia. It's been fun to meet people from all over the ...

Well...it's Christmas Day (it's actually almost over because of the significant time difference) and it has definitely been a memorable holiday for us. Very strange, but memorable. We flew into Phnom Phen, Cambodia yesterday and made our way down the crazy streets to our guesthouse in the center of town. It was hot and humid like you wouldn't believe. With only a short amount of time here, we headed out right away for an afternoon of touring the Royal Palace, making our way around the National Museum, trying the local beer, Angkor Beer, and finally, settling in at a mellow restaurant serving local cuisine along the river. Ironically, we ran into a great guy from NY, Jim, who was on our flight and enjoyed dinner with him and a new line of conversation now that it wasn't just the two of us. This city is busy and insane. Crossing the street is an experience in itself and you literally have to just step out in traffic to get it done. Today, along with our new friend, we de...

Our time in Vang Vieng was very interesting. This little river town is a bohemian hot spot. We weren't sure what the draw was, but after a few minutes walking down Main Street, we soon figured it out. Bob Marley, dreadlocks and restaurants that serve opium tea... this was a place for the young backpacker hippie crowd. (Mostly Australian and Europeans.) It was so hip in fact, someone decided that naming their restaurant "Jack Johnson Inn" would help draw in the crowd. Did I mention we're in a very small town in the middle of Laos? We passed on the opium tea, but decided we had to try floating the river in a good ol' fashion inner tube. Again, if you're from the NW US, you've done this before. No big deal, right? Not so fast. This was hippie land. The river was lined with bamboo huts blaring Bob Marley and serving the national beer, Beerlao. The also served an awful concoction called lao lao. Rice whiskey. In the states we would probably use it to clean wou...

A new day and a new country. After leaving Chiang Mai, we took a short flight to Luang Prabang, Laos. It's a smaller city in the Northern part of Laos and it was recently named a UNESCO world heritage site because of it's charm and character. We didn't have reservations when we arrived but easily found a nice little guesthouse right on the Mekong River for a moderate price of $15/day. We were just happy to have a private bathroom and hot showers, which is not always easy to find. As would be expected, the city is filled with many beautiful temples and numerous monks of all ages wandering around in their orange robes. We tried to get up this morning to observe their morning alms but realized when we went downstairs that we were actually locked in our guesthouse. Maybe next time.... Yesterday, we decided to skip the tours and treks and just walk all over town taking in the sights. We had a very "farang", aka foreigner, breakfast of bagels and coffee and then set out...

Well...things have gone an entirely new direction since Dave wrote the last posting. A few days in Chiang Mai, Thailand has put us in a much better place and now we truly love Thailand. Since we will have to return to Bangkok for a few more days here and there between flights, we will try to start over and give it another chance now that we understand how it all works. In Bangkok, you don't trust anyone and get really good at saying "No, Thank You!" Chiang Mai is a wonderful place in Northern Thailand. It's laid-back, a little cooler, and the people are genuinely friendly and helpful. A great little guesthouse was recommended to us and tonight will be our 4th night staying here. It's owned by a local couple - An English man and Thai woman - and they only have 3 guestrooms. We've met a lot of English, Australian and European travels since we arrived. We have enjoyed one adventure after another. Our first day was a little crazy because we decided...

The Thai translation for 'Bangkok' should be "Hell on Earth." Only a few minutes after leaving the airport, we were being misled and overcharged. Yes, we're Americans. Our dollar is worth a lot here. But these people are absolutely corrupt. "The meter is broken." Every taxi in town has a busted meter. Convenient. The worst are the Tuk Tuk drivers. Get into a Tuk Tuk (3 wheel motor bike used like a fast, cheap taxi.) and they'll charge you double. But before they let you out, they take you to 3 different traps and sweet talk you into shopping for gems made of glass and overpriced tailored suits. They get a little kickback if you spend 5 minutes looking around and wondering, "What the hell are we doing in this place?" So, we realized after a few hard lessons, the entire city is in on it. That makes about 8 million people out to get you. As we walked down the street, trying to take in the sights, we ran into a very nice stranger who wan...

Well...after 18 hours of flying, a quick stop in the Tokyo airport (including some tasty ramen noodles and dumplings), 3 airplane meals (plus an ice cream sandwich and bottomless green tea), 4 movies, on-flight trivia and a few moments of sleep, we have finally arrived in Bangkok. It's 1:30am on Thursday here right now and we're about to crash in our simple little guest house in central Bangkok. Tomorrow, the adventure really begins. Pictures to come soon....

On our way through Idaho, we stopped in Boise for a few days to visit friends and enjoyed the hospitality of our good friend, Mike Coleman. Dave has a large crew of friends in the area so we spent a little time with everyone and enjoyed relaxing. And on Friday, we made the long trek through snow and ice to Portland for a few days of unpacking, repacking and getting organized before we fly to Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday. A Summary of Part I of our trip - The Roadtrip: Total miles (since leaving MT) - 8,881 Total $ spent on gas - $936.67 (Ouch!) Number of national parks visited - 15 Favorite national parks - Yosemite (CA); Joshua Tree (CA); Black Canyon of the Gunnison (CO) Trip highlights - Visiting friends and family; CA wine country; Flagstaff, AZ; Santa Fe, NM; Southwestern Colorado (Million Dollar Highway); Lander, WY; All of the national parks we visited Towns we'd consider living in - Arcata, CA; Flagstaff, AZ; Ouray, CO; Rigby, ID (the Blue Heron Inn, to be preci...

We left behind the beautiful peaks of Grand Teton National Park this morning and headed around the mountains for our first ski day of the season (and probably one of the only). Grand Targhee outside of Driggs, ID (but the ski resort is actually located in Wyoming) was the place to be with a 70 inch base and 6 new inches in 24 hours. Unfortunately....it rained this morning so our day wasn't quite what we had hoped but we made due on our rented K2 skis and did as many runs as our roadtrip legs could handle. It was nice to just be on the snow and finally use the ski gear we've been hauling around for 4 1/2 weeks! And tonight we've had a special treat. Our dear friend, who is known as Reverend Klingler to many of you, is from Idaho Falls and his parents own and run a beautiful Inn. It's located on the Snake River and the setting and Inn itself are amazing. And that is where we will be spending the night. http://www.idahoblueheron.com/ . What a nice change after so ma...

As we left Rocky Mountain National Park, we headed for Steamboat Springs for a night in "Ski Town USA." It was great. Sadly the skiing wasn't. But we will definitely head back when we know the conditions are right. http://www.strawberryhotsprings.com/2005/ We hit Strawberry Hot Springs just outside Steamboat for some relaxation in a very cool spot. We loved it. Then we headed off to Lander, WY to see what all the talk was about. This little town came highly recommended by some good friends. We quickly learned why. This town is as much like a Norman Rockwell painting as you can get. It's a small western town surrounded by gorgeous wilderness. The downtown is full of some hip shops and some old school businesses as well. (You can see by the photo that business owners have to be smart to stay alive in such a small town.) We stayed at a great B&B called the Blue Spruce Inn. http://www.bluespruceinn.com/ The Inn keepers were all that you'd hope for in such a grea...

We are currently enjoying a few nights in Estes Park, CO and are enjoying the winter wonderland we've stumbled upon. Cold, crisp and....overcast. After 4 weeks of sunshine we were actually pretty thrilled to have some winter weather. Rocky Mountain National Park was beautiful with a layer of snow covering the peaks and then we drove down the scenic byway through Nederland and eventually ended up in Boulder for dinner at the Boulder Tea House( http://www.boulderteahouse.com/ ). Highlights included dinner with our friends Julie and Howard (and Noah, of course) in Denver and spending the day with our dear friend, Sara Boilen.

A night in Moab and a quick trip to Arches National Park before we hit the road towards Denver...

The four hour drive from the Salt Lake area to southern Utah's National Parks is an amazing change in scenery. We visited Bryce, Zion and Capitol Reef on our way to Moab. The Red Rocks of the Colorado Plateau seem to go for ever. We did stumble across a very effective and inexpensive way to keep people from speeding in some of Utah's smallest towns. There were a couple of these officers on patrol. We couldn't resist a quick snapshot.

We enjoyed some downtime at Lindsay's Dad's place in Midway, UT and got to spend time with her siblings, nieces and nephews. Unfortunately, no snow in the mountains so we didn't slip in any Utah ski days. But Dave did play in a little Turkey bowl with Lindsay's brothers and cousins! Needless to say, he's still a little sore.

We pulled into Durango, CO a little late so we couldn't see the gorgeous mountains around us until the next day. We headed north and enjoyed taking in the views along the "Million Dollar Highway" between Silverton and Ouray, both tiny towns tucked into the mountains. We highly recommend the drive and the San Juan Mountains are truly breathtaking. We made a quick excursion to check out Telluride and then pulled into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in time to drive a portion of the South Rim. We didn't know what to expect with the Black Canyon NP but it blew us away. Similar to the Grand Canyon, actually, but it's a relatively new national park with a small number of annual visitors in comparison. We would have loved more time but the sun was going down and we had a long drive ahead of us....

We just dipped into the northwest corner of New Mexico, but that was more than enough to keep us busy and very happy. Albuquerque was a short stay (yes, shorter than usual) only because we had Santa Fe waiting for us. We ate, drank and wandered our way through this artsy town and enjoyed every minute of it. With recommendations from a few friends, we found great spots to eat. We might have enjoyed the local quisine a little too much... no beans and tortillas for a while. But we did fit in a great hike with views from over 9,000 feet. The high desert air is unreal. Santa Fe is definitely doing it's own thing. From there we headed up to Chaco Culture National Historic Park. We didn't know what to expect, but were blown away with this little spot in the middle of nowhere. Thousand year old buildings and strange petroglyphs. We're glad we found it.

We were pleasantly surprised by the great towns of Northern Arizona - Prescott, Sedona and Flagstaff specifically. We will definitely be back when we have more time to explore.

After two weeks in California, we have finally arrived in Arizona. Stopped off in Prescott, AZ and are staying at a unique historic hotel in the center of town ( http://www.hassayampainn.com/ ). Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area! We've been on the road for two weeks now and wanted to summarize the trip to date: Mileage (since leaving Montana) - 3,872 Montana plate sightings - 2 Highest gas price paid - $3.98/gallon in Leggett, CA Highlights - Yosemite NP, Big Sur, Disneyland (at least for Lindsay!) and Joshua Tree NP Favorite road snack - Hummus and whatever we can find to dip in it.... Thankful to have with us - single burner camp stove, down comforter, spanish language CDs, iPod, Thule roof rack (Thanks, Mom & Randy) Favorite meal - sushi in San Diego, Ethiopian in Sacramento, Chocolate covered banana in Disneyland Favorite accomodations - camping in Joshua Tree, Yurts in Big Sur Best toilet paper - Joshua Tree NP campground Favorite (and only) Wildli...

After a quick stop in Pomona to visit our friends, Nate and Kira, we headed into Joshua Tree NP. The desert scenery is totally unique and mysterious. The Joshua Trees are like nothing we've ever seen in the Northwest. We did a short hike to take in the views and enjoyed a night of camping in the desert, under the stars. It was hard not to think about the local wildlife while lying in the tent....UGH!

Why bother with southern California if you don't spend a day at the Happiest Place on Earth? Lindsay's Mom flew in for the day and we met up with her brothers who both live in So Cal. 13 hours later we had covered the highlights of both Disneyland and California Adventure Park....

The clouds were low so we couldn't see all the views but we saw lots of BIG trees!