Maui - Mom's 60th Birthday!

Arrived home, 2 days to settle down, and then back onto a plane to Maui!

- Celebrating Mom's 60th Birthday!
- Road to Hana
- Beach time
- Pineapple Grill
- Met with Bakul Uncle
- Snorkeling

Hong Kong

Stuff we did in Hong Kong
- Dim Sum
- Shopping
- Cable Car Ride
- Fireworks along the river

The Las Vegas of the East

From Langkawi we flew back to Bangkok, where our friend Will picked us up and treated us to a gourmet dinner at KFC :) Some may not believe it but KFC in Thailand was actually pretty good.  Seeing Will, our good friend from back home, all settled and living it up in Bangkok was pretty crazy! He was so great to us, and we really appreciated all the hospitality he showed us while we were in Bangkok.  We only had 1 night in Bangkok before we got back onto a plane for Macau and Hong Kong.

Flights from Bangkok were cheaper to Macau then Hong Kong, and since we love Vegas back home, we knew we had to take the opportunity to visit the Vegas of the East!  We treated ourselves to a night at the Wynn Hotel. It was amazing!!

Gambling in Macau was a very different experience.  People would crowd around you as you played at a black jack table, and if you were winning, people could bet on you winning again...they could even bet on your losing....very odd, and so much pressure!!!   We played a little on the tables, but it was all stressing us out, so decided to stick to slots and keep site seeing.   We left the Wynn and took a cab down to the new strip area of Macau.  We wanted to see the Venetian Hotel that was just built, and it was crazy big!! When we got into the casino floor, if you stood in the center of the room, and looked left and right, you couldn't see to the end, it was that big.

The next day we did some site seeing in Macau before we took the ferry over to Hong Kong.  Macau was beautiful.  The mix of culture there was very evident in the architecture. It didn't look like Asia, it looked like Italy :)

We walked through the town and tried the Portuguese Egg Custard Tarts. These tarts are a little different from the Chinese version, and were very yummy!! After all our site seeing, we took the ferry over to Hong Kong.

Alby Khan....the next Don!

So we are finally done with our work in Bangkok!!! HOORAY! It was sad to say good bye to all our new friends in Bangkok, but it has been a busy few months and we were ready for a break. Our first stop was Langkawi, Malaysia. Langkawi is a group of islands in the Andaman Sea just south of the border from Thailand. For this part of our trip, Alby and I just wanted to veg out, and lucky for us Langkawi was the perfect place to relax. We stayed at the Westin located near Kuah Town. Although the beach here wasn't ideal, the resort had 3 really nice pools for us to use.

One day we adventured out and rented a car. It was Alby's first time driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. He had a hard time reminding himself which lane to turn into. The island is pretty small, and we could easily drive around it in a single day. One of the major sites to see is the Cable Car to the tops of Gunung Mat Cincang at 705 m above sea level. The views from the top were amazing, and while we were up there we found ourselves in the middle of clouds. For those Bollywood fans out there, the fight scene at the end of the movie on the suspension bridge as filmed here at the top of the Cable Car. (We are total bollywood junkies and actually watched the movie on DVD while we were in Langkawi)

Since our hotel does not have a great beach, we decided to go out and search for a beach. We drove all over the island, but couldn't find a beach that would work for us. Some were small with an non-existent beach side. Some had no shade for me to hide under, while Alby tried to catch the rays. When we did finally find a nice beach, it was at the Four Seasons Hotel, and they apparently don't like to share their beaches with non-guests :) but they were nice enough to let us take some pictures and get some ice cream at their cafe.

Here are the pictures:

Langkawi

Cambodia and the 'Tomb RaiderTemple' and Angkor Wat

For our last weekend excursion, we headed to Cambodia. We had heard from many people that Angkor Wat was amazing, but we really didn't grasp how amazing until we got there. I am so glad we were able to make this trip happen, it was definitely a once in a lifetime trip, and one that Alby and I both will always remember. We had pre-arranged for a car and driver and a tour guide to take us around Angkor Wat for the day. Our guide was just too cute, he could never remember our names, so he always called us some combination of "Miss Sherry and Friend" and "Mr. & Mrs. Sherry". He might not have had our names right, but he was a great guide. Here is a map of Angkor. The first main temple we visited was the Bayon Temple. This was the first temple we were able to walk through and view. The temple structures were definitely aging, now about 900 years old, but we could still see the main areas of the temple, and the carvings made into the walls.

From there we went to the 'Tomb Raider Temple' aka Ta Prohm. This was just an amazing temple. The jungles have over time started to take over the buildings, and now they are literally one. We took many pictures here which you can see in the album at the end of this entry. If the temple looks familiar to you, its because this is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. People in Angkor referred to this temple as the Angelina Jolie Temple or the Tomb Raider Temple.

From here we went to the main attraction, Angkor Wat. This picture is an aerial picture of Angkor Wat. It blows my mind to try to comprehend how something like this was built 900+ years ago. The carvings on the walls here were great, one whole side depicted the Hindu epic, Ramayana, and the other whole side told the story of the Mahabharata. A whole other wall showed the story of how Angkor Wat was built. The carvings are in such good shape, I wish we could have captured them better on film.

After our day of exploring the Wats of Cambodia, we went back to our hotel to freshen up. Our guide and driver would be picking us up in the evening to go to a Cambodia culture show and dinner.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Ladies and Gentlemen....and LadyBoys?

So one thing that Thailand/Bangkok is known for are the 'Lady Boys'. These are the men/women that liven up the city. The best way to experience this side of Bangkok is by going to a cabaret show and that's what we did. The show we decided to go to was Calypso Cabaret. The show was pretty amazing, and I had to try really hard to remind myself that these beautiful women were really men. Here are some pictures, check it out for yourself.

Bangkok - Calypso Caberet