Day 1 -- We wake up early and pack up at Baan Boo Loo. We are picked up for the airport in the VIP tuk tuk and are enjoying the cool early morning breeze as much as the prospect of moving on. At Orn’s suggestion we leave sufficient time in our travel to accommodate the congestion to the airport and the mandatory 2 hour check-in for international flights (not a real thing). Luckily there’s not much traffic so we arrive at the airport at 7:45 for our 10:10am flight to BKK then to Cambodia. We are alerted to an international lounge with wi-fi which helps pass the time much more quickly. We leave on time for Bangkok and the play in the BKK airport for another 2 hours. Megan falls in love with the free mini-tuna sandwiches in yet another lounge and actually run into the Swiss traveler from our jungle trek. He tells us how he rode on a bus for 10 hours to get from CNX to BKK, which of course is nothing compared to his 36 hour bus ride in Latin America. Unluckily for him...
Read MoreI heart Thai Airlines. I also heart 1 hour flights. The plane is another huge one, 9 seats across, and we had the middle three seats to ourselves. Aisle seat for Megan, whoo woot! We are on time, have a full selection of recent movies, a decent snack, land easily, grab our bags, and immediately see the wooden Baan Boo Loo sign at the exit. Mr Veera takes us in the large, freshly painted VIP tuk tuk to the resort/guest house. Expecting a jungle town a bit off the beaten path, we're booth a bit bummed to find a bustling metropolis of 150k people with what seems to be another 100k Japanese and western tourist. We are further alarmed to wind through dense urban alleys to arrive at a very rustic abandoned lot. We catch our breath turnaround and look across the street. Ah yes all the tree houses from the pictures we saw efficiently placed on a gated lot surrounded by apartment buildings. Ok… so this isn’t going to be the jungle getaway we had in mind...
Read MoreDay 1 -- We wake up early again in Beijing and decide to see the Lama Temple before cabbing it to the airport. Beautiful grounds, temples, and the world's largest Buddha built from a single Sandalwood tree. We stumble into 15-20 monks chanting in one of the main temples, am I in Eat, Pray, Love? This is so cool. There are fruit and flower and candle offerings all along the altar and the monks sit on low cushions chanting and occasionally ringing instruments and blowing horns. After the temple we head back to the hotel and take a taxi to the airport. We arrive quickly and the Beijing airport is very organized. After our bust in the night market we are ready to eat, why not The Lucky Shamrock that has burgers, beer, and 90's American music playing. Megan's burger seems...
Read MoreDay 1 -- All travel. JFK was very crowded and we were welcomed into a long security line and Chinese passengers with 10 plus plastic bags of carry ons. When we got to the gate it was already boarding time. We were surprised that the plane was so big! (At least Megan was) The seats felt slightly less spacious after 8 hours when trying to sleep. Nonetheless we had a pleasant flight, good food on the plane (beef rice and chicken noodle), and an adventurous spirit. Lots of fun watching the map as we flew into Canada, over the Arctic Circle, and down through Russia. A little trouble when we arrived in Beijing as we had to show proof that we were only staying 72 hour stay so that we could go sans visa. We made it work thanks to the Bayer data plan and no jerk points were gained! We pretty quickly exchanged money, bought train tickets, and headed in to the next mode of transportation...
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