A little Travel

A couple (Josh and Randi Dookhie) that I went to CMU with just finished teaching English in Bangkok, Thailand and wanted to travel before they go home to Winnipeg. So I joined them from April 27-May 13 and also my roommate (Chris Vines) from CMU and Josh's cousin Caleb flew in from Canada for this adventure.

So we stayed in Bangkok for a few days for Caleb and Chris to beat their Jet lag and for the Dookhie's to show us around a little. Bangkok is a lot like Manila where it is a clash of new and old culture. The new being mega malls and everything western and the old being the street markets and street vendors selling traditional dishes. After our Bangkok experience we took the over night train to Chang Mai. In Chang Mai we went to an Elephant sanctuary where you could pet, feed, and ride the elephants which was real awesome. Elephants are such an amazing creator. After that we went to a snake show which was ridiculous. They had, rat snakes, pythons, jumping snakes, cobras and king cobras. The king cobra was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. I love snakes but the things guys were doing with them was insane. Cobras are very poisonous and the trainers (I use that term loosely) would put their finger on the cobra's nose and then they upped the ante and kissed them on the face. We were sitting so close to them that I would say we were in some sort of danger. There are no safety regulations over here but I think I like it Better that way. Also for all those Rambo fans this snake place is where Rambo 4 was filmed. I feel that much closer to Stallone now and it feels pretty good.

After Chang Mai we trained back to Bangkok and took a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. From there we went to see Angkor Wat, at sunrise non-the-less. Angkor Wat are ruins/temples of a lost empire. They were built in the 12th century if I remember correctly. They are the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. I just can't understand how they built them with such little technology. After that we bussed down to Sounooke Ville, which is a small beach town down in the south. We stayed there 2 night there and then crossed the boarder again back into Thailand and went to the island of Koh Chang where we stayed for 3 nights. Then we bussed back to Bangkok where I flew back to Manila and the other 4 made there way down to Malaysia.

All in all it was an awesome trip. One of great refreshment and re-connection with old friends. Thanks for the prayers while I was gone. May God Bless you all.

Jared