Feeling like Royalty in India

2 days into India... Bethany and I are getting spoiled! We feel like royalty because we've been staying with my father-in-law (Bethany's dad, duh) in 5 star hotels, complete with cocktail parties and fancy dinners with really yummy food. He's here on a business trip so everything is quite nice, long as we stay with him, haha. He flies off to China in a couple days, so then Bethany and I will be alone in India, back on our $10/day budget... bummer!

Yesterday we had a fun day touring around seeing the sights in Chennai, India's 4th largest city. Tonight we'll fly to Delhi, and then I'm not sure where...

A couple photos:

Dipping my feet in the beautiful "Bay of Bengal"

A cool rock and a few goats shading themselves:

Stairs:

Bethany and Dad:

I was totally impulsive in Bangkok a few days ago, and bought a custom tailored cashmere suit, for $200. In the US, it would cost well over $600, so I guess it's a good deal. It will come in handy for some of our weddings this summer too...
How do you think the "long hair/beard/wrinkly suit" look is looking on me? haha

Leaving SE Asia, onto India

We're once again in the Bangkok airport (free WiFi!) and our plane will take off to Chennai, India in a couple hours. We've been in SE Asia since the beginning of January and it has been wonderful!
Now we're onto India, then Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, and then a couple other places in China before we fly back to the states in May. Time is flying by!

We'll be meeting Bethany's dad in Chennai today, we're really excited about it!

I don't have much time to write now, so here are two random photos from yesterday. First is our awesome friends Mike and Andrea (Andrea is taking a pic of Mike's bald spot, haha), who we've been traveling with for the past 2 weeks. We had SO MUCH fun with them!

The second is just a snapshot with the 15mm fisheye on one of the many busy streetcorners in Bangkok. Bangkok is a HUGE city!!!

Tarutao National Park

We'll be in Tarutao National Park with our friends the Katzes for the next 4 days. Not sure if they have internet on the islands or not... but I'll try and update with some fun photos when we get back!

Happy birthday Colin!!!

It's my brothers birthday today, and my email isn't working here in Thailand... so Col I know you read my blog.... Happy 22nd birthday! Love ya.

I'm gonna try and dig up an old funny picture for good times sake... give me a couple days though.

Added 03/24/08: Better late than never!

Krabi, Thailand!

We're in south Thailand in Krabi, and loving it. We met up with our friends Mike and Andrea Katz and their friend Karen who lives in India, and it's been so fun to travel with all of them. Check out their website... they are 7 months into their 9 month journey around the world. Serious pros!

Anyway we've been putting around on our scooters, chillin on the beaches, jumping off rocks, and eating our way through the night markets. Mmmmm.

A beach we chilled at yesterday:

The 5 of us at a scooter stop. It's kinda funny how Bethany is the only one with her helmet on... she looks like the "special one" of the group who has to walk around in a helmet. haha.

Mikes rad pic of me diving off a rock at sunset:

And getting my fix of dirt (i realllly miss my dirtbike!):

koala bear encounter in Australia

A question I've been asked a few times during this trip (3.5 months into it) is "what has been the highlight of your trip so far?"

While we've had many incredible experiences, this one stands out the most!

We were driving along the great ocean road in Australia, keeping an eye out for koala bears. We spotted quite a few, but most were at least 50 feet up in trees, and they looked like a little speck in the tree. Then I spotted one that was only about 25 feet up, so I had to stop and get photos. I took some with my 200mm that were ok, but I wanted to get much closer. So I decided to climb the tree! Man I am so glad I did.

I ended up taking photos so close to him that I was using a 15mm fisheye right in his face. He didn't mind a bit. He actually seemed to love the company!

So after 30 mins of taking photos, I had to... I pet him! He was soo soft, and almost seemed to be purring like a cat. It was quite the experience, one both Bethany and I will never forget! She climbed up too, got to pet him, and take pics. :)

I took tons of photos, and even a cool video. So, here is the proof!

Video:


A few photos:

this guy makes me smile too...

but in a different way than the last guy in the last post.

pretty mean mullet eh? spotted on Khaosan Road in downtown Bangkok (where I am now)

Bethany has been sick all day and night (bad food last night) so I spent all day on a moto taxi looking for camera stores and repair shops in Bangkok. This place is crazy! I'm pretty bored right now, so I might find more to blog about. :)

this guy makes me smile

A nice old man in Myanmar. His friends laughed at him because I took his photo. Pretty funny.

Shoon Fatt

During this trip I've been taking snapshots of signs in English that make no sense at all, or just hilarious misspelled words you can find on on just about everything. Every other (permanent!) sign has a major misspelling in English. They tend to spell things exactly as they sound in their accent.

But the one that takes the cake, is this snack food in Myanmar called "Shoon Fatt" popcorn crackers. Awesome.

Professional photo store in Bangkok?

Anyone know of a professional camera store in Bangkok Thailand??? One of our 5D's totally crapped out and won't even turn on. Our 16-35mm lens fell apart too. I super glued it and it's really blurry on the edges, so we call it our "artistic" lens now.

So we need to find a store here to get new stuff ASAP, because were heading down to the south of Thailand really soon. If you know of one, or want to search around the net for me, leave a comment! Thanks!! :)

Myanmar internet is uh... interesting

Sorry about the lack of posting! Since my last post from Cambodia we've been in Laos, Thailand, and now we're in Myanmar (previously known as Burma) for the past week, and the internet here is crazy. There are of course lots of places with no internet at all, or just dialup that is like a thousand times slower than the dialup in America. A couple days ago I was able to access my email for the first time in 2 weeks, and it took over an hour to send 5 emails that were already typed! Haha. (no attachments either)
And to top it all off, there is electricity for a couple hours a day, and hot water only by firewood for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

We love it here though. The Myanmar people are sooo friendly and genuine, and that has really made it a really enjoyable country to visit.
Our favorite so far has been Inle Lake. We stayed there for a few days and got so many awesome photos.

I'll try add a few, but I'm not sure if it will work!