Happy New year!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Sorry I haven't written about Laos, or northern Thailand, but I've been busy. I just wanted everyone to know I am ok. In case you didn't know, I'm in Bangkok right now and several bombs exploded last night. I was nowhere near them and I am doing just fine. I should be leaveing today. I'll stay safe!

I'm in Cambodia!

Cam.bodia is definitly a change from China! First off, the Viet.nam thing never happened. Instead, we came to Si.em Re.ap early. I'm glad we did. The temples of An.kgor W.at are absolutly amazing. Basically, it's a city of temples. The main ones were 12th century or something like that. We have been here for 3 days and seen the most amazing temples! You would not believe them. Some are massively tall, others are surrounded by moats, and still others are hidden back in the woods, seldom visited by tourists. one of the crazy busy ones that was completely packed was the one that to.mb Raid.er was filmed at. We went buy, but couldn't stand the crowds. The only bad thing about the temples are the people trying to sell you stuff. They don't take no for an answer and there are so many of them. "You buy t-shirt? Buy from me, ok? I give good price!" Substitue t-shirt for bracelet, book, cold drink, scarf, wooden carving of temples, post cards, etc and that is what you hear all day! The worst are the little children that try to guilt you. "if i dont' make money, i no go to school..." it just makes you want to cry because they are just so cute, but you still say no! oh I'm not heartless or anything. i have give the little ones 100 of their money(which is a few cents of ours) and some food, but it's a total lie. Our driver told us that school is free here. They just don't go! We went to a school today with the guy from the hotel. he volunteers there in the daytime. i have pictures. Tomorrow we go to our driver's father's village outside of town. No tourist ever go there, so it should be interesting. he said "i'll show you how people really live in cambodia." it should be interesting. plus there are a few temples we will hit on the way.

They Guesthouse is very nice. It's definitly not the 3 story, 5 bedroom condo we stayed at in China, but you can't have friends everywhere, right? The front is a little bar/resturant with a pretty garden. The rooms are small, but confortable, even with the bathroom being a closet! But hey, what can you complain about for $8 a night? When we first arrived, we met this guy who workes there. He is from england and just here for a little bit. He suggested we have a drink at this place called the Ware.house. Well, we do and we meet some of the staff, in cluding the manager, this scotish woman. Well, they have been so great and have looked out for us the whole time. We have met all of these english people and they keep trying to get us to go out drinking with them. my friend goes, but i've just been going to bed early. How else do i have the energy to fight off the little children at the temples. LOL!

I'm In China!

EDIT: I almost forgot to tell ya'll... Why are most toilets a whole in the ground???? It takes balance and a good aim! I got too happy when I went to pee a the spa and it was a regular toilet.


This trip has been crazy so far. I don't have much time, so I'll just hit the high lights. At the airport we(L and myself) found out that we needed a visa to go to Viet.nam. Who knew? So, we had to figure it out along the way. Lucky, out first stop was Ho.ng Ko.ng, then on to Viet.nam next. We flew in to Ho.ng Ko.ng on a very long LONG 15 hour flight(9am or so we landed) and planned to speak to someone here about it. After the flight was delayed, we didn't get the Viet.nam thing settled AND we missed the ferry to Ma.cau. We had to take a bus to Ho.ng Ko.ng city and take another shuttle over. There we met with L's friend's father. He then proceeded to take us around the city of Mac.au(not mainland china and not HK) until 7pm. Did I mention that I didnt' sleep at all on the flight and was completely exausted. So, then we waited for his girlfriend to get off work because we had to go through customs yet again to get to mainland china. That is 3 trips through customs in one day! All in all, we didn't get to his house until 10:45pm! I thought I was going to DIE! Along our sight seeing, we ate some excellent food. When we first arrived, it was dumplings/Dim Sum. Yummy! For a snack, we had some great noodle soup with shrimp dumplings. And For dinner, we had a ton of stuff. They do everything family style here. Since L and I will eat anything, they just order for us. I was actually served chicken feet in a very nice black bean sauce and pigeon, fried like chicken wings. Not bad. I've made it a point to try everything at least once. I dont' know if that will come back to bite me in the ass later or not! LOL!

The next day, we went sight seeing around mainland china. It has been cold and cloudy, but still good. We did the coolest thing. We went to a Tea shop. Shelly, you'll have to tell MN all about it! It's basically a little cubby hole of a shop with a wooden table with holes in it and a bunch of carved wooden stools. One of the guys we were with was buying tea. So they bring out this vaccume sealed bad of tea and cut it open. They poured it into a little tin for him to look at, and smell. Then they poured 4 little cups of it for us, about half the size of a shot glass. they explained how tea works. Aparently, you can use the same tea leaves 5 to 6 times. The first time you pour water in, you dump it immediently. It is no good, aparently. The second time is the best time, but you can do it 3 to 4 more times. We did this with green tea and oolong tea. I LOVED it! I have pictures of the whole setup. I am not really explaining it that well, but that's because I only have a little bit of time to write. Sorry. Well, after all that, we ended up going to dinner very late. After dinner, the DR(Guy we are staying with's girlfriend) took us to some Hot Springs. OMG! It was amazing! We arrived at midnight. It was so cold out but the water was 40-41.5 degrees C. There were various pools, some of wish were infused with chinese herbs to cure stuff. And there was tea and juice bars everywhere. We even napped on this warm stone. Ok, everyone has been to Cold Stone right? Well, imagine a marble slab like that, but large enough for 20 people to lay down next to each other and heated to a nice temp. We napped on that and it was excellent.

We got home at 5 am and prombly passed out. This morning, we are at a spa with the guy we are staying with's brother in law and his wife. This is the first time we have been on the internet. I'd better run now, but this is the update so far!

BYE!

Callie

Sorry I have been so bad about posting. I'll try to keep you better updated. ON the first day in LA, it was dinner with Mom and Dad and a quick drive around the new/old neighborhoond. We were going to do the tourist thing in Hollywood the next day, but couldn't be bothered to get out of bed.

Saturday, we went to visit my family my aunt and cousins in San Diego. San Diego was good. Tico got to meet my extended family. He even said "Your family is CRAZY", so I know it's not just me thinking it! We saw my aunt and 5 of her kids(everyone couldn't make it!) and 3 of their kids. My cousin Jr tried to threaten him a bit, but it didn't really work. My baby's too tough for that.

The next day we did the LA thing. I think we got in the things he wanted to see. We did the Hollywood sign, Gruman's Chinese Theater, and saw the stars on the ground. We also drove down Rodeo drive(Drove because we can't afford to walk down it!) and did a little driving tour of Beverly hills. We went o Olvera Street and had a nice lunch. It's the first mexican settlement and they were having some sort of fair type thing. It was nice.

Over all the visit was good. It was nice to see mom and dad and they both liked Tico. The neighborhood has really gone down, but it's still aright. And seeing the mountains again was great. You forget how beautiful they are when you live in a place like Florida where it's soooo flat! Today at 5 I fly up to San Francisco and tonight we go to Hong Kong. Wish me luck!

Who's gonna help me pack????

Alright people, I'm cool to travel! I thought I was gonna die over the weekend, but I am feeling much better now. I still have a nasty cough, but other than that, I feel much better.

Tico and I disussed the whole trip thing and he understands how much I want to go. He did tell me not to call on Christmas or New Years eve though. He'll be mad those days...

So, today I pack, tomorrow it's off to LA! Woo Hoo!

South East Asia?

My trip is fast approaching and I am still not prepared. I know, me procrastinating??? NO!!

I leave on the 7th for LA to spend a week with the folks. From there, I got to San Fran, then on to Asia. I have yet to pack, let alone decide what to take with me. Plus, I'm really, REALLY sick right now. I know what you are thinking. "Is it safe for you to travel while sick?" Well, I was asking myself that same question. With all the illnesses you can get from that part of the country anyway, I don't want to risk going with a weak immune system. So, I called my DR on Friday when I first started getting sick and she told me some stuff to do and said to call back Monday if I wasn't any better. Well, I'm not! It hurts to swallow, I'm all stuffy, I'm achey, and a have a bad cough.

Here's my delima. One the one hand, I would feel horrible about canceling the trip because my girl is depeneding on me. It's just me and her going, and she wouldn't be able to go alone if I pulled out. Plus, Tico keeps giving me soooo much shit about going that sometime I feel like even if I shouldn't, I want to go anyway just so he knows I won't cater to him or give in while he is bitching.

On the other hand, I am sick. What if I catch something over there because my immune system is weak? And of course, I would love to spend the holidays with Tico. Wouldn't you know that the first christmas/New Years in a long LONG time that I am with someone, I am going away!

About the trip itself, I have mixed feelings. I am excited to be going to all of these places, but I'm also a bit worried because I didn't do any of the planning and I dont' even know where we are staying. I love to travel, but I'm concerned about being 2 women alone in some of those countries. And I keep thinking about when I come back. I'll have to start thinking about what I want to do with my life. I mean, that really is the reason I took off and my excuse for the trip. When I come back I'll have to face reality...

So much going on in such a little amount of time. When I know something, so will you...