Sawadee Ka!

Sawadee Ka/Kap means hello (ka=woman, kap=man)...That and thank you are about the only phrases we have picked up in our 3 weeks in Thailand...Whether it's because we are lazy or because the Thai people are just better English speakers in general, I don't know. :)

Perhaps we'll get a little better at our Thai though, because we have decided to extend our stay! We are heading to Burma (aka Myanmar) on the 25th to basically get our passports stamped there, and then hop on a ferry back to Thailand. This little maneuver will cost us a little more than we expected, but we figured it's worth it to have the option of being in Thailand another 30 days.

So, after that hop, skip, and jump to a country I've barely heard of, we will head to the island of Ko Chang for a brief visit just to get one last glimpse of beautiful ocean before heading on up to Bangkok.  I haven't been too excited for Bangkok, but after the past couple months of traveling with the same 2 shirts, dress, and shorts, I am excited to do some cheap shopping! And to buy a couple books (damn you, Kindle.....). Hoping that Borders or Barnes & Noble have some sort of Thai sister store that actually sells English books. 

A little glimpse of where we are, and where we're heading

 Then, we will trek north into Chiang Mai- affectionately known as The Rose of the North- and Chiang Rai (two supposedly beautiful and authentic local towns). That's where we are going to climb on some elephants and ride around like real foreigners. We have heard some horror stories about certain elephant "sanctuaries" being nothing more than glorified abuse centers, so we are going to have to do some research and go to a legit place.

We figure we will be in Thailand until the first or second week of November, and then we head into Laos, where we will go tubing down the epic river, Vang Vieng, sleep in some huts, and then go into Cambodia...Angkor Wat and maybe another beach await us there, and then it's onto our final destination: Vietnam! 

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since we left (October 26th (Happy bday Chels!) is our halfway point of the trip)...Time has really flown by here, and we are just trying to enjoy all of the little moments. When they hit you, they really hit you. 

Exhibit A: The other night, after dinner, we went for a stroll on the beach and ended up underneath this horizontal palm tree, and just took it all in---how beautiful the dark hills were all around us, with little lights glowing from the houses nestled amongst the palm trees, the dark ocean as far as we could see..and just how lucky we feel to be on such an incredible adventure.

Same tree, but in the daytime (not quite as majestic as at night but you get the idea :)