reflecting...

Hi everyone!

The plane leaves in just over 12 hours. Carmen and I are in a bittersweet mood, packing and thinking.

We've had an amazing past few days, starting our Nothern Thai experience way up there in Chaing Khan, which is a quaint little river town. Then we hopped on the bus to Chaing Mai. We enjoyed the laid back atmosphere in comparison to the bustle of Bangkok! The beautiful garden city was welcoming and atmospheric. It was in that city where we checked our e-mail to recieve a note from my sister that said "Hey, you guys are coming home!" When she was able to change our flights for us. What a funny turn of evens for a family member to tell us when we are coming home! So after that we knew we had just 10 days left to savor "the good life" before reality sets in...

An awesome memory is one of the Chaing Mai Zoo, which houses animals in such a way that interaction with them is facilitated. We were feeding hippos, watching lions and bears from relatively close distances without any fences in the way. Carmen absolutly loved the reptiles, which involved crocodiles, snakes, and turtles of all shapes and sizes. A higlight for me was the giant panda. To us, the animals seemed to be totally relaxed and loving life. We had giraffes reach their long necks over the fences to so their faces were within 2 feet of our own.

Random as random can get, the Zoo had a go-cart-style Luge track, so Carmen strapped on a helmet and went for a 1 km ride.

After Chaing Mai we explored the aincent ruin sites of Sukothai and Ayuthaya. The crumbling buildings have all taken on a unique beauty that is all their own. Pictures can only explain this. Carmen was teaching me some lessons on good ground engineering tactics that would have prevented the buildings to look all wabbly and tipsy like they did. It was beautiful and interesting and fun.

Ayuthaya is only an hour away from Bangkok, so after that we found ourselves in the heart of the city and looked for a place to stay. While the media shows you a picture of Bangkok in the heat of riots, we saw it from a "cooled down" perspective as everyone NOT wearing a red shirt was busy with buckets and supersoakers and water bottles, soaking eachother as goes the tradition of the Thai new year. We can't leave the hotel without getting soaking wet. Needless to say it has been interesting; a quirky twist to the end of a great adventure.

Amists all the celebrating we were sobered when we drove by the busses that had been set on fire. They were like charcoal pieces in the shapes of busses. With glass and debris all over the ground It looked like something out of an action movie had taken place. It was hard to believe this stuff happens in real life! The next day (yesterday) happy and happily armed soldiers had taken to the streets, standing guard in all public places. Without a red shirt around we felt perfectly safe to continue our last minute shopping in this big bustling city.

Although this is the last blog I will be writing while on this trip, I have a feeling some reflections of the trip will come oozing out of me, and I will use this blog as a venue for some of those thoughts. So anyone interested can check up from time to time.

Looking back on this trip as a whole, Carmen and I are both so happy we decided to take this time out to see the world and get to know eachother better. We both agree that this is not the end of our travels; I don't think you can ever stop once you have started; only it becomes more about mentality than location. Once you get out and see all the beauty that this world has to offer, you are left hooked. We hope our travels have encouraged other people to get out and see what kind of amazing world we live in!

See you soon!

Love Marcie+Carmen