The 1st picture everrrr taken of me & Mark… haha
Our first trip ever was in June 2006 to Miami #ThrowbackThursday
Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
Mom,
I hope you are having a relaxing day in Florida by the pool cause you deserve it!!! 
Thank you for always being there for me & for everything you’ve done for me! You are the BEST Mother a daughter could have! You are the smartest woman I know & I love your advice you give. You have a great outlook on life. You always know how to brighten up a room… you know how to have a good time & laugh! I cherish every minute we spend together. You are always thinking of everyone else. Because of you everyone you love is safe & happy around you. You are my BEST FRIEND! Thank you are your love & support!! You mean the world to me.
I miss you A LOT & LOVE you more than anything <3
Thanks for always making me laugh Mom Hope this makes you laugh. I Love You!
Boats & Buddahs in Bangkok
This was my last stop of all my India & Southeast Asia travels. Check out India, Malaysia, Singapore, Bali, the Thailand beaches & Cambodia. The capital city of Thailand is very busy & very hot! Our 1st morning we left early for the long drive (1 hour 30 minutes) to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. You float by docks where people have their “stores” selling all sorts of souvenirs like t-shirts, buddah figures & paintings. Boats passing by with fruit for sale, others have warm pat tai & vegetable spring rolls if you’re hungry for lunch.
We traveled down one canal & got out to go inside a temple. When we entered we were greeted by a Thai Buddhist woman who handed us 3 stamp-sized gold leaves. These are valued for its purity as a religious offering and for its power to placate spirits & request favors. We placed the gold leaf on parts of the Buddha statues.
Jim Thompson who was a famous Thai Silk Designer, had his house turned into a museum. You can read about him HERE. He has a pretty interesting story. We took the tour through his home. You check your shoes & bag at the front door & the tour guide tells you about what’s in each room & the design of the house.
On, what Mark would call “the hottest day of our travels” we went to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It is known as the most sacred Buddhist Temple. You can not take pictures of the buddha from inside (you can get pictures from the outside). It’s a small (26 inches tall) dark green statue that’s carved from a single jade stone. The complex is full of colorful buildings. You like Mark’s elephant pants? He couldn’t go in with shorts on so he picked those out
Cambodia… the Country & the People
The people of Cambodia are soft spoken, gracious & the sweetest people I’ve ever met! Right away you can feel the good vibes the people give off that reflect on the country. Everyone is all smiley & children came running up to me so excited just to say “hi.” They speak great English as well. Walking around my hotel there were a good amount of US citizens here on vacation. The hotels are large buildings sitting back from the main road. Laying out at the hotel’s clean over-sized pools makes you forget about the dusty roads you take from the airport.
You can spot the popular lotus flower all over. Either women balancing baskets on their head with the dried green seed cups (that contain the lotus fruit in them) to seeing damp, muddy lands just full of these flowers on side of the road. I stopped at one woman’s lotus farm. She was so excited to show that before becoming a flower there’s actually an edible fruit inside. She took off her shoes & jumped in the swamp-like land to pick one & give it to me to try. It looked like an almond but didn’t have much of a taste.
We walked through Angkor Wat. More temples There are tour guides right outside the temple to walk through & tell you about them. After that we bought some gifts from some children selling bracelets they made.
Out of all my India & Southeast Asia travels Cambodia was by far my favorite! The people made my travels here unforgettable. It was not what I expected. I will definitely be back one day!
The Beaches of Thailand
The beaches of Thailand are the hottest beaches I’ve been to! The temperatures were in the 90′s. They’re clean, white sandy beaches with beautiful blue water. The water was like bath water. All I did was take a million pictures.
First I spent a few days in Phuket. About an hour from the airport is a nice beach called Kata Beach. Packed with people from all over on “holiday.” The water is similar to when Mark & I were at Kaanapali Beach in Maui. Waves come crashing up on shore making it fun to ride the waves in. Some people not paying attention get tumbled over by the powerful waves… ha! Mark was having a blast in the water. I laid under an umbrella & tried a “Phuket Paradise” cocktail. The sun is so strong here… seriously! This is the most important tip if you want to travel to these beaches: WEAR SUNSCREEN & DO NOT BE IN THE SUN VERY LONG. At breakfast Mark saw a family of 4 that all get sunburned. The 2 children were so burnt, he said it looked like they had 3rd degree burns. People who live here & lay out do not get tan, they get black. I suggest you wear SPF 50 & don’t stay in the sun for more than an hour. I’ve never seen so many burnt people in my life!
Take a 2-hour boat ride & you reach the Phi Phi Islands. We stayed on Phi Phi Don where all the nice resorts are located. You can’t leave your resort unless you want to take a boat into town to pick up some groceries but that’s about all that’s there. Of course the resorts all have restaurants & bars on location.They are beautiful beaches to see!
I never made it to Phi Phi Leh where the movie The Beach staring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. No one lives on this island. You can take a boat to Phi Phi Leh’s Maya Bay for some snorkeling & pictures on the beach.
Ubud, Indonesia – Where Eat Pray Love Was Filmed
Walking through the airport you see lots of surfers arriving & departing with their long boards underneath one arm. This is a popular island for surfing. The beaches are not so much beautiful but it’s the waves that bring surfers here from all over. The rainy season is November through March. I thought arriving at the end of March I’d miss the rain but it’s still in effect. The sun is super strong here with even just the rays coming in through the clouds make it HOT! Laying by the pool my skin got a little too much sun. The temperature mixed with the humidity & being so close to the equator makes it hard to lay out.
The town of Ubud is about an hour drive from the airport. After getting through traffic in the center of Bali, passing through foothills and rice fields to reach the quaint town where the movie, Eat Pray Love was filmed with Julia Roberts. It’s very peaceful. I would recommend this place for anyone who wants to get away & totally relax & meditate. We stopped by Ketut Liyer’s home where he reads people’s fortunes. You have to have an appointment with him & there were 2 people who he was reading so I just got some pictures of him.
The people of Bali are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. To every house that is built they build a temple for good luck & to pray to their Gods 3x a day (picture of the lady waving). I was here for the Hari Nyepi Cakra which is a day of silence, fasting & meditation. Women walk from their homes to the village temples balancing baskets of offerings on their heads that they bring to their Gods. The offerings contain fruits & flowers. People parade down the streets dressed in their holiday attire.
Singapore
We took a 5-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. If you’re in KL it’s worth the trip. Singapore is sometimes referred to as the Chicago of Asia. It’s a big city on the water, expensive, great shopping & lots of wealth here.
We spent an evening at the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It’s just like a hotel off the Vegas strip with it’s massive size. The three towers are sky high and the main attraction is the infinity pool on the top that connect the three. You can buy a $20 ticket to go up to the observation deck or you can do what we did & just take the elevator up to the rooftop restaurant & buy a $20 drink. I ordered a Singapore Sling (a mixture of gin, brandy, a liqueur, triple sec, pineapple juice, grenadine, lemon juice & bitters). And only hotel guest have access to the rooftop infinity pool.
The casino is located underground. You walked past all high end shops & jewelery stores. Gambling is different than how you play in the states. For example, Mark played blackjack & people can put money on your hand while you tell the dealer if you want to “hit” or “stay”. That’s just one of the many differences about gambling in Asia.
During the day you want to check out the Botanical Gardens. It’s free to get in. The morning I was there I noticed how many Singaporeans are there walking their dogs around the park, practicing yoga in the park area, parents take their kids there to play. There was a $5 entrance fee into the main attraction – The Orchid Gardens with a collection of more than 1,000 species. They were really pretty to see. It is the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen! I highly recommend this if you ever travel to Singapore.
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
This city is like a peaceful paradise coming from India. If you’re coming straight from the US you’ll feel like you landed in an American city. The roads are clean & drivers here actually obey all traffic signs & lights.
What makes it Malaysia is on the side of the road you get a great view of the over sized palm trees that canopy over hills. It’s like a forest of palm trees. They are the biggest palm trees I’ve ever seen!
It’s about a 45 minute ride from the airport to the city. The city is very big. Lots of skyscrapers. The city reminds me a little bit of New York with all the shopping that has a large variety of high end to the little inexpensive shops. The mall & shops along the main streets are Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Farragamo & Burberry. Then you travel to “Petaling Street” (Chinatown) where you can buy knockoffs of all kinds. KL is like the shopping of NYC with the people & city vibe of L.A. If you love shopping this is where you need to be.
Some streets you drive down in the middle of downtown are lined with lush tropical plants & trees. Something else I’ve never seen, some streets in the middle of the city have little villages with shack houses.
While in Kuala Lumpur you have to visit the famous Petronas Towers. The way ticketing works is you have to buy your ticket the same day you plan to go up them. Whatever time is left available is what you get to pick from. We got in line at 9am & the next time that was available was 4pm. So we left & got on the “hop-on-hop-off” bus that picks you up in front of the Towers.
After that we got back 10 minutes before 4pm & took the elevator up to the 42nd floor. There you walk across the bridge & take pictures & video. Then you take another elevator to the 86th floor where they have models of the architecture of the building & the story behind building it. You get a great view of just how big the city is.
Although it’s such a big city there isn’t that much to do here. Like I said, if you love to shop this is the place for you.
India’s Golden Triangle
After experiencing the capital city of Delhi we were off to see Agra & Jaipur. We rented a car & Sanjay was our driver who came along with us visiting the other 2 cities that make up India’s “Golden Triangle” I read it’s called “golden” for the extraordinary wealth of cultural & history.
The 5-hour drive to Agra was down a main road that would hit busy parts of little cities & villages along the way. The horns were honking constantly through the traffic jams, people on each sides of the road, mopeds pull up next to my window leaving a foot between us. Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal is more crowded, more poverty & more people than what I saw in Delhi… which was hard to believe. Arrived just around sunset, when the Taj closes so we drove & stopped on the side of the road to see it from the distance. That was the extent of our 1st night in Agra. The drive was exhausting.
The next morning we were off to the Taj Mahal! We got a tour guide to walk us through and tell us stories about it. The Taj is made out of all white marble with flower details on the walls & sanskrit writings etched around the doorways. It’s something to see from a distance and up close. I was surprised to see more locals than tourists in line to get a ticket into the Taj. They go in barefoot & say a pray.
After the quick but memorable visit to Agra we were off to the 3rd city, Jaipur. This drive was different than the drive to Agra. This was more of a freeway without hitting any traffic along the way. I got to see India’s country side. Lots of workers in the fields gathering hay/wheat/grass on their heads walking through the fields. Women walking on the side of the road with jugs of waters being balanced on their heads. I’ve noticed that no matter what these people are doing they are smiling.
Jaipur was my favorite city of the 3. There were lots more animals here. More camels (I love camels!) & elephants on the roads. We took an elephant ride up Amber Fort that sits on top a mountain. The views were amazing! I felt like I was somewhere in the Middle East with it’s red sandstone & dry landscape for miles.
My travels through the sub continent reflected their culture. It was splendid chaos of memorable people and places with little sleep. You know when you go to the pool and you dip your toes in to test the waters. That doesn’t happen when you step foot in India. India is the pool and you get pushed right in!
