Namibia - August 2008

Sossusvlei - Dune 45

Namibia is definitely on our list of top trips we have ever done - just incredible.  We had originally planned to go to Vietnam/Cambodia with Charlie and Melissa, but Charlie's work and exams got in the way.  So this was the make-up trip.  We did spend more than usual on accommodations/activities (much to Melissa's influence) but with only a week there, we also needed to optimize our time so we treated ourselves to an organized trip through Scott Dunn, a travel company based in London that Melissa discovered.

Accommodations:

Onguma Tree Top Camp

Onguma Tree Top Camp
This is the location of Shawna's favorite shower...ever.  The Tree Top Camp is a set of 8 huts on stilts, 4 extending each side of the common area.  The rooms are tents, but not in any traditional sense of the word. These are permanent huts, with huge king beds and nice appointments, some of which is certainly nicer than our bedroom at home.  The huts are in a straight row, and all overlook a pond behind the camp where all sorts of wildlife come in to drink: including giraffe, zebra, and lions.  The shower is outside (yet private), is attached to the bedroom, and also looks over the pond - so as you are showering, you get to watch all the wildlife (and they get to watch you).  During the day, the wall of the tent was opened so that we had amazing views of the wildlife. 

Sossusvlei Wilderness Lodge

Sossusvlei Wilderness (now called Mountain Homestead)
This is a beautiful lodge that overlooks a valley.  The place only has 9 guest rooms, each with a "plunge pool" - though these pools were so crazy cold and quite small that Shawna and I never went in.  We used this place as the gateway to the sand dunes. 

Skeleton Coast Safaris
Three nights of the trip were spent camping along the Skeleton Coast with this family-owned company.  The camp sites were quite rustic, but the location can't be beat.  In each tent, we had cots and a small table.  They did bring hot water for your shower which was attached to the side of the tent.

Mowani Mountain Lodge

Mowani Mountain Lodge
This was a great capstone to the trip, with our own huts.  The lodge is nestled among beautiful, red boulders, overlooking a valley.  There is an amazing rock ledge where everyone can gather for a drink - we ordered champagne service, watched the stars, and loudly tried to agree which star was Venus - much to the chagrin of the other guests looking for a romantic evening. 

Activities:
The routing from Raleigh to Namibia was brutal.  We first flew from RDU to Frankfurt overnight (via DC), arriving in the morning and with a 10 hour layover.  In order to try and quickly get over our jet lag, we put our luggage in storage and took a train into the city.  We first did a guided tour of the city, and then wandered around to blow some time.  We headed back to the airport to catch another overnight flight to Johannesburg, where we met Charlie and Melissa at a cafe in the airport.  From there, we all caught a flight from Joburg to Windhoek where we were met by someone who escorted us to a small 6-person Cessna that flew us to Onguma.

After checking in at Onguma Tree Top Camp, we headed out for a evening safari and saw some lions.  The following day, we went on a full day safari in Etosha National Park.  Etosha is mostly a massive salt pan that extends 75 miles.  It is generally dry, but has a huge congregation of wildlife.  In the park, among the animals we saw included lions, zebras, springbok, giraffes, peacocks, and birds of all kinds (including a Kingfisher).

Elephant in Etosha

Lion in Etosha

Our next destination was Sossusvlei, site of the massive Namibian sand dunes - and famous for Dune 45, reputed to be the famous dune shown on one of the Microsoft screen savers.  The first morning here, we got up early and drove to the entrance of the Namib-Naukluft National Park.  The dunes are best seen and photographed early in the morning as the light is best.  After walking around and taking a heap of photos, we jumped in the car and headed off to some of the larger sand dunes. 

Deadvlei

We drove up sand dune alley, a 60-mile surface road where you see massive dunes on each side.  We stopped at Big Daddy dune, with Shawna, Charlie, and Keith all hiking to the top while Melissa took a bit of a short cut.  The dune is about 1000 feet high which does not sound hard, but since it is one step up and two steps back, it takes quite a long time.  Once at the top we rested, admired the views, and then "skied' down the slope all the way to the bottom.  Well, at least Keith and Charlie did - Shawna was a bit more tentative in her decent!  At the bottom was Deadvlei, a salt pan with ancient dead Acacia trees - stark and stunning.  After a long day at the dunes, we retired back to the hotel for dinner. 

On Top of Big Daddy

Hot Air Balloon Ride
Over the Dunes

The next day the four of us decided to do an "extra" - a balloon flight over the dunes.  Keith and Shawna had done two other balloon trips (Turkey and New Zealand) and this far surpassed those amazing trips.  We started off in the cold of the morning, shivering in our fleece.  The only thing that warmed us was the hot blast of the fuel warming the air in the two balloons.  After about half an hour of the balloons filling up, a large group piled into the two crafts and we took off.  The scene was magical - we followed wildlife running across the earth, with the massive dunes in the distance.  An hour or so later, we landed, where the balloon company had set up a huge, beautiful breakfast buffet, complete with a champagne welcome.  This is definitely the life.  The rest of the day was a bit more relaxing - we went for a walk around the hotel. 

Skeleton Coast

After a couple of nights at Wilderness Lodge, we were ready to start the "roughing it" part of the trip - a four day flying safari up the Skeleton Coast with Skeleton Coast Safaris (Safari A).  We waited at the small dirt/stone landing strip about 3 miles from the lodge, and amazingly on time, a small Cessna landed piloted by Andrew, our guide for the next few days.  It was quick work to pack our gear in the six-seater plane - then we were off.  We first flew over the dunes we had visited the day before.  We then traveled to the coast where we saw our first wreck, the Eduard Bohlen, wrecked in 1909.  The entire cost is littered with the remains of ships that landed there over the last hundred years.  We headed north up the coast over Conception Bay, Walvis Bay, and into Swakopmund.  Our flight up the coast was done at 200 feet above the water, so we had amazing views of all the wildlife: birds, massive seal colonies, and some stunning whale sightings (mother with calf). 

We landed in Swakopmund, where the claim to fame is that baby Shiloh (of Brad and Angelina fame) was born.  Brad had taken flying lessons here while they were waiting for the baby to be born, so our (distant) brush with fame was that we hung out at the same airport!  After re-fueling we headed north again over Cape Cross seal colony, past the wreck of the Winston, and then landed for a lunch on the beach.  Yes, that's right - we just landed the little plane on the beach and grabbed a sandwich lunch!  We continued on and landed in a valley surrounded by really old rocks and went for a short hike.  It is here that Charlie and Keith tested their manlihood in an Oryx poop spitting contest - you can see why the ladies sat this one out!  We then flew to our accommodation, Kuidas camp in the Huab River Valley.  

Roaring Sand Dunes

The next day, we explored the area via Land Rover, seeing colorful red lava and yellow sandstone.  Following lunch at the camp, we flew over Terrace Bay along the coast where we say more shipwrecks.  Keith and Charlie got to take turns flying which was great fun for them and nerve wrecking for Shawna and Melissa.  From the coast, we drove to the roaring sand dunes which was really cool!  You slide down the dunes on your butt and it makes a deep, roaring sound that echoes through the area.  What we did not know is that what goes down must come up - we had to hike back up to get to the top of the dune.  It was so much fun going down that we had to do it twice!  That night we stayed at the Leylandsdrift camp in the Hoarusib Valley in the Kunene Region.

Himba Tribe Woman

The following day, we took a scenic drive in the Hoarusib Valley where we saw more wildlife - mainly monkeys and cows.  We visited a settlement of the nomadic Himba tribe which was really interesting - the woman care for the huts and children all day while the men are out hunting.  They live in mud huts and paint their skin with a paste made from the clay dirt in order to protect their skin from the elements.  Charlie got to prove that he really is a doctor as he cleaned and cared for a really awful burn that was on one of the kid's feet.  After this stop, we flew to our next camp Kunene River camp which is on the Kunene River that borders Angola.  In the afternoon, we took a scenic drive through the mountains and dunes in the area.

On our last morning of the Skeleton Coast, we took a boat trip on the Kunene River, seeing crocodiles along the way.  We stopped and hiked for a bit in Angola (no passport was needed for this entry).  The scenery was stunning with mountains surrounding the river.  After lunch, we flew to the landing strip near our last stay at the Mowani Mountain Lodge.  There we had to say our goodbyes to Andrew as we watched him fly over us.  Charlie got a little misty-eyed as he had developed a 'man crush' on Andrew!  When we arrived a the lodge, we took a short tour of the surrounding valley where we saw beautiful red boulders and cave carvings.  Later that night, we had a wonderful dinner at the lodge.

In Angola

Our last morning, we woke up early to fly back to Windhoek where we caught our flights back home.  We were quite sad to leave as it was truly an amazing trip!

For more photos of this trip:

Italy - July 2008

Cinque Terre - Monterosso

For the July 4th week this year, we headed off to Italy for a week of hiking with Kim and Tom (sans children!). This is the third time we have done a vacation with Kim and Tom one year after one of their kids were born - this one was following Riley's birth.  During this trip, we visited Cinque Terre, Portofino, Cogne (which is in the mountains) and Milan.

Accommodations:

Hotel Margherita (Monterosso) - This is a functional hotel in the center of town with easy access to everything.

Portofino Kulm (Portofino) - We didn't realize this when we booked this hotel but it is about 45 minutes outside of town which would explain why it was so much cheaper than other hotels.  The hotel is rather nice and large but there were not many guests there - it reminded us of the movie The Shining!

Hotel Miramonti (Cogne) - This is a 45 room hotel across the road from a city park.  It is a beautiful hotel with rustic interior.  

Westin Palace Milan (Milan) - Of course free on points, this was a amazing accommodation to wrap up the trip.

Activities:

Our flight took us from New York directly to Milan, where we arrived reasonably early in the morning.  We had a car rented for the four of us - Tom and I got to pick which one so we opted for a Jaguar!  So we piled all our luggage in the trunk and immediately headed off to Monterosso, the northern most town of Cinque Terre.  It was about a three hour drive to get there, via Genova.  The last half of the drive hugged the coast.  We arrived in Monterosso, driving down a steep hill to a cul-d-sac where we dropped off the luggage.  Keith then drove the car back up the hill about a mile of so to the first parking space available, then ran back down to meet the group.  After checking in at the hotel we scouted the town.  It was a fairly early night as we were wrecked from the flight.

The next day we spent walking Cinque Terre which is the hike between the five towns of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  The walk only takes about five hours in total at a reasonable pace, but we stopped in each to check out the towns, eat pizza and gelatto, and of course have a few glasses of wine.  When we arrived in Riomaggiore, we found the boat to take the ferry back to Monterosso, seeing all the towns from the water.  

Hike Along Cinque Terre

The following day we took the train back to Riomaggiore and did an extension hike south from there to Portovenere.  This was a gorgeous hike that took a few hours longer to hike than the day before - with the added benefit that there were far fewer people on the trail.  We descended into Portovenere and walked around the fort.  After grabbing a bite to eat and another gelatto (we had lots of this while we were there), we made our way to the ferry that headed north up the coast, stopping at each of the cinque terra - it was gorgeous views from the water as you see the beautifully painted buildings hugging the cliffs. 

Portofino

The next day we packed up our stuff and headed up to Portofino - which was a new definition of rich for the four of us.  Driving into town, we passed yachts that were far bigger than our houses.  We walked up and down the beaches, watching all the Italians relax, men seeming way too comfortable in their banana hammocks. We stayed the night in Portofino, then headed four hours north to Cogne for the mountain part of the week.

Cogne is a half hour drive up the Aosta Valley from the A25, on the northern border of the Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso.  The town really reminded us of Kandersteg in Switzerland, with the quaint hotels in a small valley surrounded by high peaks.  The day we arrived we walked around town just to get to know the place.  While there we did two days of hiking in the dramatic mountains, with one of the days heading up Valnontey to the Refugio Vittorio Sella hut - an absolutely stunning hike.  The path is steep but the views are amazing!  We also drove one day to Courmayeur to see Mont Blanc - however, it was raining that day so we couldn't see the mountain and thus, we walked around the cute town instead.

Hiking in Cogne

Cathedral in Milan

The trip was wrapped up with a day in Milan, where we walked all over the place and saw all the typical places, including the cathedral.  While we generally avoid doing church tours of Europe, we have to say that this is gorgeous architecture.  We also visited the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele where we saw all lots of things we'd never ever buy, as well as Castello Sforzesco, a huge castle.

Restaurants:

We had wonderful meals in Cinque Terre and in Cogne - although we cannot remember the names of the restaurants, they truly were all great.  You really can't go wrong with Italian food and wine!

Ristorante Miky (Monterosso) - Really nice restaurant - awesome food!

Restaurant at Hotel Miramonti (Cogne) - Nice restaurant - rustic, wooden interior.  Food is more Swiss style.
Ristorante quattroMori (Milan) - Kim's dad recommended this place and it was delicious - we sat outside in the garden and had the whole fish entree (salt-crusted branzino).  We couldn't believe that we found this place as Kim's dad could not rememer where it was nor even the name - he had written on a napkin that it was by a bus station with lots of plants around it and with this information, we actually found it!

For more photos of this trip:

Washington DC - April 2008

Jefferson Monument

We went to DC for the weekend with John and Joanna to see the cherry blossoms.

Accommodation:

Hyatt - Took advantage of Keith's points and stayed for free.

Activities:

John and Joanna drove to DC while Keith flew in from Denver and Shawna flew in from Raleigh.  We all arrived on Friday evening in time to go out for dinner and drinks.  We met up with Marcy, a friend of Joanna's from undergrad.

Cherry Blossom

On Saturday, we mostly walked around the basin to see the monuments and the cherry blossoms which were beautiful.  That evening, we met up with Jim, a friend from Fuqua, for dinner and drinks.

On Sunday, we slept in and had a quick lunch before heading out.  Shawna drove home with John and Joanna while Keith flew back out to Denver.

Jim and Keith at Clyde's

Restaurants / Bars:

Brickskeller - Famous bar in DC with plenty of beer options.

Habana Village - Had great Cuban food here for dinner.

Madam's Organ - Another famous bar in DC.  We stopped by for a drink after dinner.  There was a Relay for Life fundraiser event so we donated by paying the 'entry' fee.  

Cosi - had lunch here.  Yummy sandwiches.

Harry's - went here for lunch - not great.

Tony & Joe's Seafood - met here for drinks along the Waterfront in Georgetown.

Clyde's - had dinner at this Georgetown restaurant.  Had to wait a long time for a table so had plenty of drinks at the bar.

The Tombs - A famous bar in Georgetown and Shawna's old stomping ground from when she went to undergrad here.  We stopped by for drinks.

Washington DC - March 2008

We decided to meet Keith's parents in DC for Easter weekend. Keith's parents arrived around noon on the Thursday, while Keith arrived at 4:45 from Atlanta. Shawna was to arrive at the same time but her flight was delayed.

We met at 7:30 and walked along to one of the best French restaurants in Georgetown – La Chaumiere. Shawna joined us at the restaurant but didn’t eat as she was too late. We stayed overnight at the Park Hyatt on Keith's points.

The next day, we walked across the road to get our Starbucks fix, then walked into downtown Washington DC past the White House to meet the Wises. We had a great meal and visit at Legal Seafoods. We then walked to get tickets for the International Spy Museum and while we waited for our time, we looked round the National Portrait museum. We spent a couple of hours in the museum and then walked to a fantastic Indian restaurant in DC – The Bombay Club. After dinner, we walked to the Reagan building to see the political satire the Capitol Steps. We got back to the hotel at 10:30 having been gone almost all day.

On Saturday, the weather looked as if it could rain, so we decided to eat in Georgetown and delay our trip out to the Shenandoah Mountains. We walked round Georgetown University where Shawna went to college and had a great lunch at Clyde’s. We then got a taxi to Reagan airport and got the rental car to go out to Virginia. As the weather still didn’t look great, instead of doing a hike, we checked in to the Hampton Inn in Front Royal (somewhat of a lesser hotel than the night before!!) and went to look round Luray Caverns – one of the best caverns in the East US. They also had an impressive antique automobile collection. We went back to our hotel to get changed ready for the highlight of the weekend – dinner at Inn of Little Washington. We got to the restaurant about 9:00 pm and it was still crowded. We had a stunning meal accompanied by two bottles of Duckhorn merlot and left at 11:30 pm.

The next morning, we tried to go to the Starbucks in the local Target but it was closed for Easter so we had to settle for gas station coffee and some granola bars (quite a come down from the previous day’s dining!!)!! We drove 40 miles down the SkylineDrive in Shenandoah National Park with spectacular overlooks and got to the trail head for the hike to Whiteoak Canyon. It is one of the prettier hikes in the park ending up at a series of waterfalls, the first being an 86 ft fall. We went as far as the second waterfall and then hiked back to the car. It was about 5 miles round trip and 1400 ft altitude drop to the second waterfall. We decided to head straight back to the airport and eat again at Legal Seafoods in the airport. The timing worked out great as we all left the airport at about the same time.

Boston - St Patrick's Day - March 2008

Boston Waterfront

This was our second year carrying on the tradition of celebrating St. Patrick's Day in another city with John and JoAnna.  This year, we decided to go to Boston.

Shawna, JoAnna and John took a cheap flight with Skybus from Greensboro to Portsmouth, NH and then took a bus into the city.  Keith was traveling for work and met them there.

Accommodation:
Hyatt - We used Keith's points and shared a room at this hotel, located downtown.

Activities:

Sam Adams Grave

We arrived late on Thursday night and met Keith at the hotel.  We kicked off the weekend with a few drinks at JJ Foley’s.

On Friday, we walked the Freedom Trail - we did it leisurely as we stopped along the way for beer.  The highlight of the trail was visiting the Park Street Church Granary (where Sam Adams and Paul Revere are buried) and drinking a Sam Adams across the street at Beantown Pub while looking at Sam Adams tomb.  Along the trail, we saw Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market (where we stopped for a beer at Cheers).  We didn’t make the last stop (Bunker Hill) on the tour, but instead took the Ferry from the Charlestown Navy Yard back to Long Wharf. 

State House

From there, we ate and drank our way through downtown Boston.  We walked back to Faneuil Hall Market and had chowder and appetizers at the Salty Dog Seafood Bar & Grille.  After that, we headed toward the Garden to catch the Duke/Belmont game.  On the way, we stopped for a few beers at the Purple Shamrock and the Bell In Hand.  Following the game, we had more beer and appetizers at The Fours and then stopped at Hurricane O'Reilly's for beer and hurricanes.  We met Nick (JoAnna's brother) and his friends at the Boston Beer Works.  At one of the bars, JoAnna and Shawna scored Leinenkugel tukes (knit hats) which they seemed quite excited about.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a night cap at Jose McIntyre's for beers and margaritas.

John, JoAnna and Keith at Cheers

On Saturday, we went to Legal Seafood for lunch, and then went to find a bar to watch the Duke/West Virginia game.  We stopped in several bars like the Black Rose and Coogan’s, but finally settled on Clarke’s.  They had everything you could ever want on the appetizer menu, but all we had was beer.  Nick and his friends joined us again.

JoAnna and Shawna Sporting Their Tukes

That evening, we headed to North End for dinner at Al Dente’s.  After dinner, we wandered around North End and ended up at Modern Pastry where we met up with Nick and his friends for dessert.

Is That Beer?

On Sunday, we went to Quincy market for lunch and had a yummy mac-n-cheese dish which prompted Shawna to want to open a mac-n-cheese restaurant in Chapel Hill until we did the math and determined it would not be a huge money maker.  After lunch, we went to the Aquarium.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at JJ Foley’s for a final beer.

Keith, JoAnna, John - Looking Happy

Due to all of the calories consumed, it definitely took us a few weeks to recover from the weekend!

Restaurants and Bars:
JJ Foley's Bar and Grill - Located close to our hotel - we had a few drinks here.

Beantown Pub - A very popular pub.  You can drink a Sam Adams while looking at Sam Adams tomb across the street.

Cheers - Where everybody knows your name.

Salty Dog Seafood Bar & Grille - Located in Faneuil Hall - we had apps and chowder here.

Purple Shamrock - Irish pub - had a few beers here.

Bell in Hand - Irish pub - had more beer here.

The Fours - We had some appetizers here.

Hurricane O'Reilly's - Had to try the hurricanes.

Boston Beer Works - More beer and appetizers.

Jose McIntyre's - Mexican themed Irish pub - go figure.  Had beer and margaritas.

Legal Seafood - Located on the waterfront - had lunch here.  Good food.

Black Rose - Another Irish pub.

Coogan's - Another Irish pub.

Clarke's - A sports bar located at Faneuil Hall Market.

Al Dente's -- Located in the North End.  We had an awesome Italian dinner here.

Thailand - Dec/Jan 2008

Sukhothai

Thailand was the first trip we decided to take over the Christmas holidays: work is slow at this time of year so it is easier to get away.  It is also the first time we decided to try a fancy-pants resort, recommended by David, a work colleague of Keith's. 

Accommodations:

Hyatt (Bangkok) - This hotel is perfectly central to what we needed in Bangkok.  It is a very standard business hotel (and because it was free on points it is hard to beat!).  The best part is the concierge lounge where they offer complimentary appetizers and drinks.  We turned this into our complimentary dinner - many trips back to the buffet and lots of rounds of wine.  I am sure that the waiters were turning their noses up at us!

Tharaburi Resort (Sukhothai) - Very quaint, with the rooms decked with teak beds and the shower partly outdoors with candles and orchids.

dusitD2 (Chiang Mai) - The hotel is quite a swanky place: while not too expensive it has a cool vibe to it.  The concierge button on the phone is called the "desires" button.  We clearly did not fit in! 

Banyan Tree (Phuket) -  Wow - this place is incredible.  It is the first report we have stayed at where you get your own villa.  The tsunami had only hit the area a year earlier, but there was no sign of it here. 

Banyon Tree Hotel - Phuket

Activities:

Bangkok
After almost 30 hours of travel, we arrived in Bangkok on Dec. 23rd close to midnight.  We mostly relaxed at the Hyatt for two nights and didn't really see much of Bangkok at all since we were both jet lagged.  We did, however, go to the Mandarin Oriental, famous for it's exceptional service, for the Christmas Eve buffet.  We were quite surprised at how Americanized it was.  It was funny to hear the Thai people singing Christmas carols -- it reminded Shawna of the movie "The Christmas Story" when the family ate at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas day and sang "Deck the halls with bows of horry - fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra".  There was even a Santa Claus -- a gay Thai guy dressed as Santa, dancing to "Dancing Queen" and chasing after the little boys.  The meal was really good, we sat outside along the river with stunning views, and the entertainment was 'entertaining'.

The other thing we had to do in Bangkok was shop for clothes for Shawna.  The airline had lost her suitcase - we eventually found that they had put the wrong tag on it, taking the bag to Arkansas instead of Bangkok (we only got the suitcase once we returned home).  Since Shawna had nothing with her, she had to buy some clothes -- talk about a downer when you have to try on clothes in a country where everyone is a size 0 or 2.  Of course Keith's level of patience with shopping did not help things either!

Sukhothai

Sukhothai

The first leg of our trip took us to Sukhothai for one night where we saw some really old temples dating back to 13th century when Thailand separated itself from the Khmer.  As Americans do, we say the whole park in about 2 hours. 

Chaing Mai
We then flew to Chiang Mai and stayed one night before we started our 3 day hike.  We mostly spent the afternoon walking around the market where there were all sorts of souvenirs from colorful scarves to carved wooden trinkets to beautiful candles.  

The following day, we drove about two hours to get to the start of our hike.  Along the way we stopped to see an old cave discovered by Burmese monks.  With us on the hike was our guide, Mr. Kan, who spoke reasonably good English and who liked to refer to himself in the third person.  We were also accompanied by a local guide who did not speak much English but knew how to find our way through the jungle -- which is a really good thing since there were no sign posts showing the way.  When we started out, we were a little worried when Mr. Kan pulled out a rather large machete -- it didn't calm Shawna's fears much when he told us it was for the snakes! 

Hike

We hiked for about three hours through a thick bamboo forest.  It was really beautiful and serene.  The only person we ran into was an old man who lived in the forest by himself -- he seemed reasonably nice but we were told later that he is a little crazy since he got in a motorcycle accident and injured his head.  Our first night was spent in a village with the Karen tribe.  Our five star accommodation consisted of a one room house made of bamboo on stilts and a thin mattress on the floor -- we had the house all to ourselves -- all 300 square feet.  The owners were very nice to set up a mosquito tent for us.  Of course the toilets were the usual squat toilets in a small enclosure to the side of the house -- this one even had the shower in the same place.  Keith was excited that he could shower and go to the bathroom at the same time!  It was an interesting juxtaposition to the resort where we stayed in Phuket.  Our guide cooked us a really yummy meal of chicken curry and stir fried vegetables -- we were amazed at how well we eat on these remote hikes.  Since there is not much to do after it gets dark, we read using our head torches and went to sleep around 8pm.  This was also a good thing as we had our wake up call at 2am by the roosters who then woke up the pigs who then woke up the dogs -- an animal orchestra was playing until 6am.

Elephant Taxi

On the second day, we hiked for about 5 hours -- through corn fields and the jungle.  Our guide gave Keith the nickname "Mr. Long Legs" since he could more easily scramble over logs and rocks.  The guide, like many of the people here, is only a couple of inches taller than Shawna.  We had a wonderful lunch eating stir fried noodles in bamboo cups right next to a waterfall.  For the last hour of the hike, we rode on a 45 year old elephant to the village where we spent the second night.  We had to climb up the back of the elephant to sit on the top and just as Shawna started to climb his hind leg, the elephant let out a big one -- Keith was even impressed!  The ride was fun after you got used to being up so high.  The village where we slept is part of the Palong tribe -- it is quite a metropolis with about 140 residents.  The accommodation was equally as impressive but this time we stayed in the same house as the family -- so, we not only were awakened by the animals but also the family snoring.  Our dinner was very good -- similar to the night before but using different spices and coconut milk for the curry.  Before retiring to some more reading, we walked around the village -- there is no electricity in the village but was quite impressed to see that one house had a large satellite dish out front.  It was also interesting to see the locals in their colorful garments talking on their cell phones.

Accommodaton on Hike

The last day, we only hiked about an hour and then drove to a place where we rode on a bamboo raft for an hour down the Ping River.  We also went to see the Long Neck tribe where the women wear gold rings around their neck which extends their neck.  Never quite got the real story as to why this tradition started.  The tribe descends from Burma, only a few miles over the mountains.  Our last stop was to see a beautiful orchid and butterfly garden.

After the trek, we checked back into the hotel in Chiang Mai where we spent a couple more days.  We toured the city and saw several old wats (temples).  There were so many Thai people making their "New Year's Wishes" at the temples, donating money, lighting candles, and floating flowers in holy water - I guess their tradition is different than ours of eating black eyed peas!   We also took a tour outside of the city to the oldest temple in the region and to a local tribe village that grows opium for "tourist reasons"! 

Temple in Chiang Mai

We had to go to a mall to buy Shawna a bathing suit -- what an interesting experience -- it was quite the sensory overload.  In addition to the stores, there were tons of video games and entertainment venues such as a karaoke place where you can rent out a room with a couch, sing karaoke and tape yourself.  We did not partake in the karaoke but we did, however, go to two movies (I Am Legend and National Treasure, both Keith's selections) which were in English with Thai subtitles.  The major difference in the movies were the Thai commercials in between the previews and the homage to the King where everyone stood up to a video and song about the King right before the movie began.

Temple in Chiang Mai

Phuket
The last leg of the trip was to spend a few days in paradise at the Banyan Tree.  We spent our time doing almost nothing... wake up, sit by the pool and read, have a late breakfast, sit by the pool some more, work out, have a massage, have dinner, go to bed...next day, wake up, sit by the pool and read...you get the picture!  The resort is spectacular -- there are no words to describe it.  Each room is it's own house...some of them have their own pools (not ours).  Other than walking around the beach and the lagoon area (where there are about 6 hotels all owned by the same company), we pretty much stayed at our hotel.  The dinners were fabulous, ranging from a seafood buffet, to Thai, to fresh seafood, and to a French/Vietnamese.  Dinners were always preceded by two mojitos each while sitting near the pool.  We will be forever in search of mojitos that were as good as these.   We each got two massages on separate days -- they were both the strongest massages we have ever had.  For such small women, they surely do have strong hands!   

Restaurants:

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok - This hotel has an amazing location on the river.  We were here for the Christmas Eve buffet which was fantastic

Mandarin Oriental Chiang Mai - We spent our New Year's Eve enjoying the buffet dinner at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Chiang Mai, possibly the most beautiful hotel we have ever seen.  We regretted not going earlier in the day to see it during daylight.  The dinner was much better and more extensive than the one in Bangkok and the entertainment was much nicer - in fact this is the best buffet either of us has ever seen.  In addition to traditional dance, there was a band that played mostly American songs and we each got to light a crepe paper hot air balloon that sent our wishes for the New Year off into the sky.

For more photos of this trip: