Christian November 25th, 2009
The drive to Page, Az took an hour less than we had thought it would, so we decided to grab some lunch first at Subway. There are a couple of things that you notice about Page when you arrive there. One is that there is a large number of churches for such a small population. Apparently, they could not get the churches to set up shop during the construction of the dam so they offered the churches free land surronding the high school. When word of this got out, churches of all types came running to build on free land. One of the other main things that you will notice is that you are in the middle of nowhere. Continue Reading »
Christian November 25th, 2009
The drive to Monument Valley was long and boring. However, when we got closer to it, we started to see the buttes looming in the distance. We paid the entry fee for the park and checked into “The View” hotel. It definitly lived up to its name. Looking out of our balcony, we had the most amazing view of the landscape that defined classic Western Films. It was very cool. We relaxed for a bit, and then headed out to explore the hotel. The hotel was really nice and had sweeping views of the park. We found out that there was a few ways to see the park. One was to complete a hike in the heat around West Mittens Butte, another was on a guided tour in the back of a pickup truck, or you could take your own car on the unpaved self drive loop. Since we spent the extra $22 a day on the extra rental insurance, we figured what the hell and decided on venturing out on the 17 mile loop around the park. Continue Reading »
Christian November 25th, 2009
The drive out to the Grand Canyon was about 4.5 hours. We stopped at a view point that looked over Lake Mead. As we crossed over the Hoover Dam, we got some pretty cool glimpses of it. The drive through the desert proved to be very interesting. The road was very straight for the most part and shimmered in the heat. We passed some horror film quality hitch hikers and a guy running through the desert carrying a huge American Flag. The scenery did change along the way as we climbed elevation, with more trees present. At one point we saw a rainstorm on the horizon. When we reached it, it was much worse than it looked. Our rental car was pelted by hail, and rain flooded the roadways with inches of water. Many people pulled over to wait it out, but we pushed on and within 10 minutes it was back to sunny skies. Passing through the town of Williams, we stopped at the Safeway grocery store to pick up some essentials for the Grand Canyon. We bought tons of snacks, drinks, and a bottle of rum to last us through the next couple of remote stops on our itinerary. It was about an hour from there to the Grand Canyon. We were very happy that we had decided to stay closer to the Gran Canyon and spend a bit more money then having to drive an hour to get to the park. Our hotel was decent, but for the money there should have been a couple of things that were advertised that should have been fixed. The internet was down and the ice machine on our floor was broken (We are sounding picky, I know). First thing first after check in, was to get some lunch. We tried to go to the local “cafeteria”, but we could not justify spending almost $10 on a sandwich when there was a Wendy’s next door. The line was long, but we waited it out and grabbed some lunch. We headed back to the room to get our things together for a trip into the park. Continue Reading »
Christian September 24th, 2009
Finally on the road again! Even if it is only for 11 days, it should feel great to get out and see some amazing things. This time we decided to see some of our own country. We decided that the Southwest had a lot to offer within a small area, so we started our trip with a flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas, the city of lights. Getting to the airport was an adventure. Continue Reading »
Christian August 29th, 2009
This post is way overdue. Sorry for getting away from the blog for so long. The trip to Hawaii was very long and took forever. We flew from Phuket to South Korea to Tokyo to Hawaii. The flight time was over twenty hours. However, we were at least able to enjoy some time in Tokyo. Okay, it may have just been the airport, but still had a ton of really cool electronics, toys, and strange food. It really is a shame that we had to cut out Japan from our trip, but we home to make it back there some day. After eight hours in the Tokyo airport, we were ready to continue on. Continue Reading »
Christian December 27th, 2008
First off, sorry for the delay in our last two postings. It has been crazy since we got home last week. We will post another couple of posts this coming week. We took a van from the Jolly Frog Guesthouse to Bangkok. We were both stuffed in the front seat with the driver, but that did not matter much since it was even cheaper than the second class bus + taxi into town would have been. Sitting in the front seat we could really see all of those “close calls” with other cars/ motorcycles, but I guess that is all part of the the experience. When we got to Bangkok, we were happy that the guesthouse that we had booked for the following night had a room available a day early, we hate switching rooms when we don’t have to. We actually sat down for a bit before venturing out and getting our bearings. We walked down the infamous Khao San Road to see what kind of merchandise is on sale, testing the waters on how low the prices can go. Continue Reading »
Christian December 8th, 2008
The trip from Ko Tao to Kanchanaburi was terrible. When we woke up, the rain still had not stopped and it was pouring buckets outside. To get to the truck that would transfer us to the dock, we had to walk through a knee high puddle, drenching our shoes. As we neared the dock the pickup truck that we were sitting in the bed of hit a huge pot hole, making the seven of us in the back fly forward. The truck was stuck, so we got out and walked the last 100 meters. By the time we made it to the checkin counter, we were completely soaked. Our waterproof pack covers could not even keep out the rain. The ferry ended up being about an hour late. When we were finally on the ferry, the air conditioners were on full blast and dripping water all over me. We found the only other two seats next two a wierdo, but decided it would be better than getting anymore wet. When we reached Chumporn, the boat stopped at the end of the longest, rickty dock I have ever seen. It was at least a ten minute walk in the rain over missing boards and nails sticking out. Continue Reading »
Christian December 2nd, 2008
The flight to Ko Samui was great. Bangkok Airways fed us snacks while we waited for boarding and fed us a meal on our forty minute flight. It was a breath of fresh air from all of the super budget airlines we have been flying, while still cheap at $50. As we decended through the dark clouds, our hopes for good weather were slowly dwindling. On the ground we were told that the cheaper minibus option was not available and that we would have to fork over 500 baht (around $15) for a fifteen minute taxi ride. In Thailand, that fare is just crazy so we proceeded to try and walk from the airport towards our bungalows and catch a cab on the way.
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Christian November 22nd, 2008
We arrived Tueday afternoon to Ao Nang after waking up at 5:45am to catch a series of 2 flights, and a shuttle to reach our destination. Once out of the airport we were greeted to blue skies and hot and humid weather. We didn’t know where we were staying and ended up in our 2nd choice and decided to pay the extra $6 to have air conditioning. We were also happy to have a mini fridge and HBO (our only channel) in our room. We each took a quick shower and by now it was after 2pm and we had yet to have a meal so we happily hit up the local McDonald’s. We then walked around town checking out all the tour agencies for the cheapest price on an island tour. Continue Reading »
Christian November 20th, 2008
Bangkok is busy, bustling, loud, and chaotic. This is why we have decided to leave it for last. We flew into Bangkok late on Thursday evening from Melbourne and decided to stay close to the airport since we had a flight out to Chiang Mai early the next morning. Our fancy airport hotel cost us a mere $23 dollars a night. This included breakfast, cable tv, 24 hour room and spa service, and a balcony. We called home and looked up a few things about Chiang Mai on the internet before going to bed. The next morning, we had to leave the hotel early for our one hour flight to Chiang Mai. Upon arrival we grabbed a taxi to our guesthouse, located on the East side of the Ping River. We were impressed by the value for the money. For $15 we had air conditioning, cable tv, and a private bath. The Hollanda Montri guesthouse turned out to be an oasis away from the business of the inner city. Continue Reading »
