Sharon and I left our cubicles nearly 5 months ago and are currently residing in our 6^th country of the trip. We’ve now entered a completely different phase of the trip, as we’ve settled down into an apartment in Seoul for the next few months. Now that our initial traveling portion of our trip is complete, I thought this would be as good as time as any to update you on our financial situation.

The quick summary is that things are going well. Below is a country breakdown of what we’ve spent so far. I’ve stripped some expenses and categorized them elsewhere to try and make things as comparable as possible. However, there are some shopping expenses in Thailand and “Mainland China #2″ that make those numbers slightly inflated.  In “Mainland China #2” we also had unusually high transportation costs due to a 24-hour train ride to Beijing and an overnight ferry to South Korea.

On an overall basis, we’re 38% through our year-long trip and have spent only 25% of our money. We continue to try and spend around $100 a day here in South Korea, which is far more difficult to do than it was in China or Southeast Asia.  Rent on our apartment, however, is a very reasonable $16 per day.  Factoring this into our expenses, we should be able to keep the overall budget.

If you’re curious as to where the “revenue” came from, I would love to tell you it’s from us working or this website, but unfortunately it’s essentially just Sharon’s and my own tax refund.

Finally, here are just a couple budget related thoughts:

• While I’m glad we have an overall budget per day goal of around $100, it would have been wiser to set country targets instead. It would have been irresponsible to spend $100 per day in Southeast Asia, but is definitely reasonable to spend that much in South Korea. Setting the country targets could have been done only after a couple days in each country, or could have been done arbitrarily based on some sort of percentage.
• While there are some expenses incurred which skew the data slightly, I believe the country order we show is accurate. The cheapest country we’ve visited was Vietnam followed by Cambodia, Thailand, and then China.
• I was surprised to find Thailand being relatively expensive. Food, alcohol and even housing just wasn’t that cheap in the cities we visited. Perhaps we could have eaten at less expensive places, but I believe with the amount of tourists that visit, prices have been inflated.

If you’re interested in seeing all of the detail (or perhaps just REALLY bored at work), our Trip Finances spreadsheet is available for download.

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I never thought I would have been so happy to have walked a teeny, miniscule portion of the Great Wall of China, but I was.  Partly because it was breathtaking in terms of its surroundings and history, and a much bigger part is because no one really tells you that it is a hardcore workout!  Clearly you don’t go into the Great Wall thinking it’s going to be a leisurely stroll down a perfectly paved sidewalk (although I somewhat did), but you also don’t think it will make you so sore that you can’t walk upright or with two straight legs.

Our recent trip to the Great Wall was quite lovely.  The sun was shining despite the snow on the ground, the tourists on the wall were few, and we had packed enough snacks to survive on for a week.  There had been many organized tours available for seeing the Great Wall, but being the budget travelers that we are, we decided to forgo paying the extra cost of having a group of people tagging along and wasting our flavor (aka “cramping our style”).  We, instead, organized our own personal tour of the wall that we had read about online.  It consisted of a 6.2 mile walk along the wall, starting at Jinshanling and ending at Simatai (for those of you who also want to do the hike yourself).  What is usually left out in the tourist information is the amount of uphill walking that this entails.  My hamhocks (thighs) were barking (sore) like crazy towards the end!

Apparently there are some portions of the wall that are in absolute shambles.  Unfortunately, we did not cross those sections.  The areas that we hiked were generally still paved, aside from many loose and broken stones.  The scary parts involved steep downhill/uphill treks. The problem with this was the fact that I am illogically paranoid of going downhill, mainly because as I age, I become extremely scared of injuring myself while doing such things as running (I could trip on my own feet and face plant, losing all my teeth and breaking my nose).  Or riding a bike downhill (I could accidentaly ride over a branch, causing the bike to throw me forward into the road).  And walking close to the edge of a tall height (I could lose my balance by turning around, thus causing a fall to my death).  And of course walking downhill (the tread on my shoes might be too thin and I’ll either fall onto my butt or slide down, skinning my hands).  Because of these safety anomalies that I have, I am already sympathetic towards my future children.

The scenery surrounding the wall was amazing; nothing but rolling hills, rice paddies, sky, and Chinese wall.  Walking on The Great Wall, I realized that it shows you just how ridiculous the Chinese are.  Who else would build a 5,500 mile wall made of STONE and EARTH along the tops of massive hills and mountains just to keep people out?  Crazy!  I also noticed that the Wall is very narrow.  All of those “you can see the Great Wall from the moon” beliefs are absolute garbage, and it was very apparent standing on the wall that the rumor was false.  In fact, the only way the Wall would be visible from the moon is if its color were completely different from its surroundings and only if it were 70 miles wide.  The widest section of the wall is 9.1 feet.  I always thought that the rumor seemed ridiculous, but now I REALLY sense a discrepancy in that belief.

Our friends Matt and McKenna told us of a friend of theirs who had actually walked the entire distance of the wall, all 5,500 miles of it.  Judging from how intense the minute portion of the wall was that we hiked (about 6 miles), this seemed like the craziest thing- and it was.  Apparently he had to take hospital breaks and had to rest for months at a time in between his hiking stints.  He also lost so much weight by the end that his bones were poking out of his face…  On second thought, maybe this can be my ‘Bikini Body by Summer’ plan.

To see our wonderful pictures of our day at The Great Wall, take a look at our Gallery!  As we stood on the wall, it was hard to imagine anybody taking a bad picture of the beautiful scenery.  Somehow we managed to take MANY bad pictures, so we only posted the decent ones for your sake.  You’re welcome.

Great Wall Quote of the Day: “I just farted and it smells like hash browns.” (Courtesy of Matt)

Note: All facts about The Great Wall were found on Wikipedia, our favorite site that makes us wonder what we ever did without it.

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A Visa is a document that allows visitors to enter and travel within a particular country. Visa processes and requirements vary greatly. Because of this, researching each country can be a real pain. In order to help with at least a few countries, I’ve gone ahead and done the research for most countries in Eastern Asia. See below for the length of time you’re permitted to stay on a Visa and what the countries’ particular Visa process is. There are links for additional information for each country as well.

Note: This is unfortunately only applicable if you’re a United States resident and of course subject to become out of date as soon as this article is published. Thankfully, the US government keeps an excellent and hard to find website. Here’s an extremely useful link for figuring out Visa information for every country in the world: http://travel.state.gov/travel/travel_1744.html (Scroll half-way down and click “A-Z Country Index”)

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Once upon a time, four American twenty-somethings found their way to Beijing via a… fascinating… overnight train experience.  There were only two beds reserved for the four travelers, not including two other seats located in some unknown area which they assumed to be the baggage car or the meat locker.  Luckily for them, they could easily share the two beds between the four of them, and that they did.

After falling peacefully asleep, we were waken by two unnecessarily loud train servants yelling at us in Chinese.  We figured they wanted us to stop being American and go back to our meat infested “seats” where we belonged.  Unfortunately, Matt and McKenna (our travel buddies that we initially met in Sanya, China and traveled to Beijing with) were poked and prodded like cattle to their seats.  They ended up in a packed car, not too dissimilar from a baggage car, where they were locked in with the rest as if they were planning a train massacre.  It must have been their blonde hair.

Beijing on Chinese New Year 2010 did not look like the same Beijing on Chinese New Year 2010 that we had envisioned in our minds before we arrived.  We were preparing for jam packed subway stations, people pushing and shoving, oceans of black hair on the streets, and crazy Chinese shenanigans on every street corner.  We learned that the pushing and shoving was just a Chinese thing to do all year round, and to our surprise the subways were fairly empty and there were no street parades with stereotypical dragons and fish lanterns as far as the eye could see.  Instead, it was a normal, clean and cold city.  How boring!

On the contrary, we had quite the New Years’ Eve.  The day before NYE, we were going about our daily business around town when I noted that in order to experience the “real” Chinese New Year, all we had to do was become best friends with a Chinese local that day and they would inevitably invite us to a NYE party and we would eat Chinese food and drink and be merry.  Easy enough, right?  Less than an hour later, we went to a supermarket and proceeded to befriend a Chinese local who quoted Mitch Hedberg and invited us to a NYE dumpling party where we would drink and eat Chinese food.

That night we were served ten different homemade dishes of Chinese food at a nice apartment and met some really friendly people.  Then we went outside to watch a serious amount of fireworks, some of which epitomized the sarcastic phrase that we coined, “Asians are #1 with safety”, as children lit fireworks and threw them at us.

We ultimately found a bar with fairly cheap drinks and danced the night away.  I also learned that no Chinese DJ will ever play anything that I request.  The first time, I requested a specific song to which they said something to me in Chinese, then never played it.  Then I requested a specific song by Michael Jackson, to which they said something to me in Chinese and held up one finger, then never played it.  The third time I requested “ANYTHING by Michael Jackson.  Just play Michael Jackson.  Any song of his.  A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G”, to which they nodded in acknowledgement, then never played it.

Nonetheless, the six of us foreigners ended up getting inebriated enough to either: A. black out while dancing, B. get into a fight, C. throw up in a taxi cab (one of the guys we were with, not us), or D. get back to our hostel in a safe and boring manner (us).  It was a fun night to be had by all.

Chinese New Year consists of fireworks for about two weeks straight, which to me was nothing less than annoying.  The first few days were exciting!  You could see fireworks during the day and can easily find them in the sky at night wherever you were.  Then after NYE, they kept going.  Then they lasted even longer than you thought.  And then they really didn’t stop.  And then you found out that they didn’t stop until February 28^th and it was only February 20^th.

Our general Chinese New Year experience was one to remember.  Most of this can be attributed to the fact that we were with our friends and were no longer two lonely losers who had no friends (Thailand was the exception to this).  Also, one of the most amazing experiences of my life happened on this trip to Beijing; hiking the Great Wall of China.  Stay tuned for my next post on the Great Wall that proved breathtakingly beautiful and made my legs so sore the next day that I walked like a constipated centaur.

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Building something “in-house” versus hiring a consultant and outsourcing seems like an age old business question. In this post, I explore this decision for my own future website, UnAnchor.com – an “app store” for travel itineraries.

Building it myself

The primary motivation to build the website myself boils down to learning the skills to build a web application. Building UnAnchor.com will require I learn a slew of web development skills, all of which will transcend beyond this initial website. They will help with any web application I choose to build in the future. Additionally, this skill could allow me to consult for building web applications or even apply for a web developer position (ideally for a startup).

The downside about building it myself is the amount of time it’s going to take. My knowledge in this area is little to none. I understand basic programming concepts, databases and some other web basics, but other than that, I’m a complete novice. Building this website will require a lot of time and most importantly, patience.

Hiring a Consultant

The primary benefit of hiring a consultant is the speed in which I would be able to get a website up and running. If I found the right consultant (a task within itself), I might be able to have a functioning website up in a matter of weeks. The sooner it’s up, the sooner I could start earning an income again. Additionally, it would be done by a professional and hopefully with professional standards – ensuring security and compatibility across different computers and browser types.

The downside about hiring a consultant is putting out additional money that I really don’t have. If I moved some things around, I’m sure I could find the money, but it doesn’t seem like the responsible thing to do at this time with no money coming in.

My Decision

At the end, the decision came down to this question: how sure am I that UnAnchor will be successful? If I was certain it would be a success, hiring a consultant would be the correct decision. I would ideally be able to recoup the consultant costs in a reasonable amount of time, as I would be off and running with a successful website. However, as with most things in life, I’m just not that certain. I’d rather hedge my bets, learn a new skill and build the website myself.

Final Thoughts

I’ve explored this decision discreetly, either to do it all myself or to hire a consultant, when in fact there are many ways I could blend the two together. I could hire someone to do the visual design for example. There is a good chance that as I get into building the website, I may hire a consultant to help with various pieces.

Yet another approach is to bring in a web development partner who is passionate about the idea and is willing to be compensated by future profits. However, for now, I’ve decided to build it on my own. I do, of course, reserve the right to change my mind.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts via email or in the comments on building it myself versus hiring a consultant, what’s your recommendation?

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As I write this post I am crammed in a sardine can of a sleeper train on our way to Beijing.  Each open compartment has six beds- three on each side of the walls, with the highest bed nearly touching the ceiling.  The size of the beds are smaller than a twin mattress and are about as soft as a stainless steel fridge.  The comforters, however, are surprisingly comfortable, and just the fact that we are back in an area where a comforter is needed plays in my mind like music from the heavens.  My favorite pajmina and knitted hat will finally come out of my backpack for use!

Two days ago we flew out of Southeast Asia only to find ourselves back in China, the land of staring.  Jason and I both found that we were sad to leave SE Asia, even more so than I would have thought.  We will never forget our first trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand (yes, we plan on visiting these countries again due to the fact that there were many places that we never got to visit due to timing issues).  The cost of living in SE Asia is plenty of reason alone to make us want to come back, but discovering the other qualities that we were not anticipating were equally as amazing.  For the most part, these three countries could have been fairly interchangeable when it came down to it.  There wasn’t much of a middle class anywhere; there wasn’t much in between the major cities which were very developed to the families living in wooden shacks on farmland.  However, we were able to spend enough time in each country to notice that each country did have their own distinct flavor.

Vietnam

Out of the three SE Asian countries that we visited, Vietnam was our favorite.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was our first experience with a heavy tourist population, therefore there was English everywhere (which, coming from China, was a huge breath of fresh Vietnamese air).  Maybe it had to do with the fact that not only was there English everywhere, but the people were so used to tourists that the staring was almost non-existent.  The Vietnamese people seemed more open to helping us when we needed help, whereas some of the Chinese people took some time to warm up to us after we established the initial ‘smile and hello’ (they don’t encounter as many tourists, so it is completely understandable why they would be more curious and inquisitive).  Maybe it had to do with the fact that the food was completely amazing.  Or the fact that we attended two weddings and even stayed at the parents’ home of our new hotel manager friend.  I think it was all of the above.

Cambodia

Speaking of nice people, if I had to create an award for the nicest people on earth, so nice to the point that it was ridiculous, the Cambodian people would win hands down.  No contest.  I had heard from one of my friends’ boyfriends that the Cambodian people were the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and this became apparent immediately.  The Khmer (the Cambodian word for… Cambodian) people are genuinely nice and the children are the most smiley kids you will find anywhere.  Every smile you give will be met with an even bigger Khmer smile, and this goes for grown men as well, something that I found extremely rare in other countries.  If you are sitting outside of your hotel, the owners will light a mosquito coil at your feet just to make sure you don’t get bites.  They will serve you food from their own family’s dinner table and are extremely happy when you eat it.  They will take the day off of work to drive you around the city and buy you dinner just because you’re their guest.

Thailand

Unfortunately we were only in Thailand for 13 days due to stomach and Visa issues (clearly those two problems are meant to be experienced together) but it was clear from the second we got off our minibus to Koh Chang that this would be the most populated country of tourism we may ever visit.  I mean it wasn’t a big newsflash for us- everyone wants to visit or has visited Thailand, it’s the ultimate exotic beach getaway equipped with western food at every restaurant and “lady bars” to suit every hairy Caucasian male above the age of 50.  It seemed like there were more tourists than locals and there was virtually no need to learn any of the Thai language.  It was like being in a country that was built for tourists.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against this unlike many other tourists.  I’m not one of those “get away from all the tourists” types and I enjoy being around other people who are doing the same thing.  The people of Thailand were also extremely friendly and welcoming, although I didn’t see as many kids as I did in Cambodia which made me sad, but if I had I’m sure they would have been just as smiley.

Random Quote of the Day: In Bangkok we met up with a friend (Jason, the cyclist traveling throughout Asia- What’s up, Jason?!) for 7-Eleven beers on the side of the road (classy) when a Thai prostitute who must have won the “Most Desperate Hooker” award grabbed every man in her sight in attempts to make some cash.  She then came up to Jason (my Jason) and attempted to seduce him.  After about thirty seconds of obvious rejection, Jason (the cyclist) saved the day by telling the woman, “Sweetie, we’ve only been together for 6 months, I don’t think I can handle the competition.”

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Our Southeast Asia leg of the trip has now come to an end. We’re headed to Beijing for Chinese New Year and could not be more excited about it. After Chinese New Year, we’ll be settling down for 6 months in South Korea (city still to be determined). While we’re not done traveling, it oddly feels like our vacation is coming to an end. Once in South Korea, it’s time for me to get serious about earning money.

There have been a few options I’ve been exploring in my pursuit of making money while traveling. They are as follows:

• Consulting – During my time in Finance, I spent a lot of time using Microsoft Excel. So much so, that I feel comfortable attempting to help others. I was able to find my first client using eLance, but I ended up passing on the project. I’ll discuss this in a future post, but it became  too difficult to manage without a reliable Internet connection.
• Niche Marketing – I’ve been reading a lot about this topic lately. As I understand it, the most common type of niche marketing is to build a search engine optimized webpage targeted towards a specific topic. You build a great website that explains the topic, but also contains links to related products and/or services where you earn a commission from sales. The beauty behind these sites is that they typically take a lot of work to do upfront, but once created should provide a steady flow of income with minimal maintenance – the much sought after passive income.
• Building an Online Business – My dream has always been to start a business; to turn an idea into reality, create value for my customers, and have the luxury of being my own boss. The question always was: what do I do?

Of these 3 options, I’ve decided to pursue building an online business.

Thanks to a great idea from a friend, I’ve decided to build an online website where fellow travelers can purchase travel itineraries.  I think of it as the “App Store” for itineraries. For example, if I were headed to Beijing for 10 days (which I am), I’d be able to purchase an extremely detailed itinerary of what I should do for the 10 days that I’m there. Or, if I were spending a month in Thailand, or 2-days in Prague there’d be an itinerary for that.

I plan on trying to recruit fellow travelers, also looking for ways to make money while traveling, to write the itineraries. Once written, I plan on selling the itineraries using Google Text Advertisements and through traditional searches.

The last thing I did was purchase a domain. It took a long time of searching, but I was very happy to find UnAnchor.com.  (There’s nothing there yet.) I’m looking forward to sharing the process as well as more on the idea in future posts.

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I never thought I’d say this, but Jason and I are officially PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water scuba divers.  We took a three day training course on a rather large island in Thailand called Koh Chang and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.

I’m just going to say this upfront: this is not going to be a post about some miraculous occurrence during our dive training.  In fact, in the scheme of scuba trainings it was probably a very average, non eventful course.  However, if you compare that to the fact that it was absolutely incredible for us, it says a lot about scuba diving in general.

To be perfectly honest I had never expected to become a certified diver in any sense, and neither had Jason.  It was just one of those things that we felt was necessary.  We were in Thailand, after all, and becoming certified back in the States is significantly more expensive (so we heard).  After a few days of deliberating whether it was foolish to spend that much money on something that we may never do again, we of course decided to do it.  Why not, right?

In a nutshell, on day one we found ourselves watching instructional videos, completing some tests, and then heading to a huge Olympic sized pool for our confined water training.  On day two we boarded the boat and completed two of our very first dives!  Day three we were back on the boat and completed two more dives to complete our total of four dives, then we took a final exam to pass the course.

The most startling moment of my experience was the very first breaths of air I took underwater.  Our instructor had told us that one of the most difficult things for first timers to get used to was simply breathing underwater since our bodies weren’t meant to do such a thing.  I took this very lightly since I didn’t understand how that could be possible with the security of a regulator (the piece of equipment that supplies the air into your mouth), but the second I descended into the wonderfully clean pool, I experienced a very strange freak out.  I understood EXACTLY what it meant to feel that feeling of ‘we weren’t meant to breathe underwater’.  I mildly panicked, held my breath, then mildly hyperventilated for a few breaths, then eventually started calming down.  The number one rule in scuba diving is to never ever hold your breath.  I would say that not holding your breath during your first scuba descent seems impossible to me since you have learned to hold your breath underwater since you were a child.  It only took about 30 seconds to get used to this alien feeling, but it was one of the most bizarre things I have ever felt in my life.

Our first dive in the ocean was a crazy mix of emotions; excitement, fear (the ocean scares the sh*t out of me), anxiety, happiness, tranquility, etc.  Once I got over my initial fear of being eaten by a shark on my first scuba dive, my biggest fear was the descent.  You know the feeling when your ears feel pressure as you swim into depths deeper than five feet?  That’s what happens when the outside water pressure squeezes the air spaces inside your body- in diving you must “equalize” to blow air into your air spaces as you descend.  Unfortunately, this freaked both of us out on our first descent.  Jason had to go back up to the surface after a small panic attack while descending, something that is common among first timers.  He experienced pain in his ears, causing a mild hyperventilation and then the panic set in.

For anyone out there thinking about scuba diving for the first time, my advice is to do it.  Whether you are planning on taking the full PADI Open Water course, or you just want to do what’s called a Discovery Dive where you just go out for one day, you will find that diving is even more amazing in person.  There are not that many things I have experienced that impressed me more than I anticipated; I tend to get overexcited about things only to be disappointed.  That is not the case with diving.  DO IT!

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Sharon and I have now wrapped up our 2+ week tour through Cambodia. The last few days were spent in Siem Reap touring the various Angkor temples. There was quite a buildup for the temples. We saw models and pictures of them in Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat is pictured on Cambodia’s money as well as their flag, and we heard great things from numerous other travelers. Once there, we were not in the least bit disappointed. The temple’s size, intricate details and uniqueness do not fail to amaze. In this post, I’ll give a quick background on the Angkor temples, offer advice on seeing the temples and also provide a 2 or 3 day Angkor itinerary.

Brief Angkor Temple Background

The temples of Angkor were built between 802AD and 1220AD by the Khmer civilization and “represent one of humankind’s most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements”¹. There are over one thousand temples, with the most magnificent one being Angkor Wat, literally meaning “city temple”. Many of the temples are still used today as Buddhist temples. The Angkor area is believed to have been populated by potentially one million people and is considered to be the largest preindustrial city in the world.²

General Angkor Advice

The temples should not be seen in one day. There are too many and too many great ones to pack into a few hours. While you might think you would get “templed” out, the uniqueness of each temple allows you to hold great interest in each new site. As you see more, it’s also enjoyable to contrast them as well as notice similar structures, stones, characters and faces.

Itinerary Advice

Our itinerary ended up being a really enjoyable experience. We purchased a 3-day pass. Our general plan was to take a tuk-tuk the first day and hit the main temples surrounding Angkor Wat and then the second day essentially bike around the “short route” and see the major temples of Angkor Wat, Thom and Prohm. Our third day was going to be used to see temples lying much further outside of the primary Angkor area.

Tip: They offer a 3-day pass which can be used on non-consecutive days. The Lonely Planet version that I read did not mention the non-consecutive 3-day pass , so it might be a new addition, and is great if you want to take a break between days of “templing”.

Recommended 2 or 3 day itinerary:

Day 1 – Hire a tuk-tuk to drive around the various sites – it’s a good way to familiarize yourself with Siem Reap and the temple area. Temples to see:

1. Preah Khan
2. Neak Pean
3. Ta Som
4. East Mebon
5. Banteay Samre (Recommend eating lunch on the longer drive either to or from this temple.)
6. Pre Rup
7. Banteay Kdei
8. Sras Srang

Notes on Day 1: This day could have been done on a bike, but it would be a long and rather exhausting day. With a tuk-tuk we had plenty of time to see each sight and we left the hotel at 10 and we were back by 4. Shorter days are typically our preference. We like to have relaxation and computer time built into our days.

For lunch on Day 1, I would recommend a restaurant along the road towards Banteay Samre. There looked to be a few places, and since Banteay Samre is slightly off the beaten path, I imagine the prices would have been far more reasonable.  (We did not do this and instead ate at a place right outside East Mebon — it was a relatively expensive and overall a very mediocre lunch. Plus, it would have been nice not to have four locals sitting with us in attempts to sell you a t-shirt or oversized pants.)

Day 2 – Rent bikes near your hotel–the earlier start, the better. Temples to see:

1. Angkor Wat
2. Angkor Thom
   1. Bayon
   2. Baphuon
   3. Phimeanakas
   4. Terrace of the Leper King
   5. Ta Prohm

Notes on Day 2: This was a longer day that had us biking back in the dark (thankfully, on a well lit rode). We left the hotel at 10, which was a little too late. It would have been nice to start this day earlier to have a choice of where to watch the sunset (I wouldn’t recommend Ta Prohm). Other than that, this was an excellent way to see the Temples.

Day 3 – Hire a tuk-tuk or motorbike driver. These temples are further, so a tuk-tuk is going to be more expensive.

1. Kbal Spean (River of a Thousand Lingas)
2. Banteay Srei
3. Beng Melea

Notes on Day 3: As mentioned, we did not get a chance to do our planned day 3. If we had more time in Siem Reap, ideally we would have taken a day off and then seen the outlying temples.

Regardless of being able to see the outlying temples, we had an amazing couple of days. If you’re ever in Thailand, Siem Reap is not far and well worth the bus ride over the border.

1 – http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html
2 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor

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We have finally made it to Thailand!  After spending over a month in Vietnam and then three weeks in Cambodia, we have finally crossed the border into the most heavily touristed country in Southeast Asia.  Unfortunately, we only have 13 days to spend here since a tourist Visa is only 15 days and we experienced an unexpected 2-day delay in Siem Reap.  We both contracted some strange flu-like sickness that caused our stomachs to be pissed at us for days (they’re still a bit testy).

Just to let everyone know, the three weeks we just spent in Cambodia proved to be the hardest three weeks of our trip to find a decent WiFi connection, let alone have internet in our own room.  The things that we do, the great lengths that we take for a decent WiFi connection are now typical.  I know I have not been responding to emails as quick as I usually do, nor have I been on Skype recently.  Not to worry, Cambodia is to blame!  For real, though, finding internet has been a difficult task for us the past few weeks.

On the bright side, we are currently on a charming island located on the Eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand called Koh Chang.  We recently had gone on a snorkeling boat tour in Cambodia where we met a nice American fellow, who happened to be the scuba dive instructor, who referred us to this island if we wanted to scuba dive.  Like the carefree youngsters that we are, we thought “sure, what the heck?” and decided to become PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified scuba divers!  To those of you who are now thinking, “but they’ve never been scuba diving in their life, nor have they ever expressed any interest in diving, in fact Sharon is scared of the ocean, and Jason is afraid of seaweed”, your thoughts are correct (except for Jason being afraid of seaweed).  However, we have met divers along our travels that all tell us the same thing: it’s nothing like anything you will ever experience in your life.  We took their advice and decided to utilize our beautiful surroundings for a purpose.  Plus, it’s  cheaper to become certified here in Thailand than it is in the States, so that’s nice.

More to come on our scuba adventures, but we have already gone through a day of scuba diving theory in an Olympic sized swimming pool today.  Let me just say that breathing underwater, even through a scuba diving regulator, is NOT as easy as it seems!  Tomorrow we dive in the ocean for the first time in our lives… EVER!  This day will be documented forever in our minds.

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Filed under: Travel: Cambodia
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