Hello
Friends and Family,
We
would like to thank you for continuing to follow our blog. It makes spending
time writing and uploading pictures all worth it when we hear so many of you
are enjoying reading about our journey.
In our
last episode of “Where in the World are the Bear-in-a-Den’s?”, we were
finishing up our adventures through Indonesia. On July 2nd, we said
our goodbyes to Indonesia and headed to Singapore for an extended layover and
quick visit with our Denver friend, Piper.
We were
only in Singapore for three days but we were fortunate enough to meet up with
Piper who was in Singapore on a business trip. Her company was putting her up at
The Marina Bay Sands; home to the highest infinity pool in the world!
We
feasted on some incredible Dim Sum for dinner and enjoyed catching up on months’
worth of news and stories.
Later
that night, Piper took us up to the 57th floor of her hotel to
witness the beautiful view. It was amazing!!!
It was
sad to say goodbye but we loved seeing you, Piper!
During
our visit to Singapore we were lucky enough to stay with a fellow CouchSurfer
friend by the name of Fiona. Believe
it or not, we met Fiona while we were at the hot springs in Lovina, Indonesia.
We wrote about the hot springs a few posts ago. You know, the place with the
scary, green looking water? We started chatting with Fiona and her friend Kate
while taking a dip in the hot springs. We mentioned that we were heading to
Singapore next and as luck would have it, she told us that she is currently a
teacher in Singapore. Crazy, huh? We found out she is a member of the
CouchSurfing community and she offered to host us for two nights during our
stay in Singapore. She was a wonderful host! She had a small dinner party and made
some delicious pasta and salad. We were craving some greens because salads are
not common menu items around the world. We can’t thank you enough, Fiona, for
such a wonderful stay. We hope that our paths cross again soon. Thanks for
everything!
Because
we were only in Singapore for such a limited time, we really didn’t get a
chance to experience much. We ate good food, rode the train, visited some
cultural neighborhoods and spent time with old and new friends.
On July
5th, it was Bangkok or bust. The airport in Singapore has three main
terminals that are beautifully decorated. There is also a fourth terminal that
you have to take a bus to and it is kindly reffered to as “The Budget
Terminal”. Can you take a wild guess which terminal we were flying out of?
That’s right, nothing but quality and class for us as we headed to the Budget
Terminal.
It was
only a short 2-hour flight and we landed in Thailand. Welcome to Thailand!
We hopped in a cab and
made our way to a guesthouse in Bangkok. While in the cab, we spent time
laughing at the following sign posted on the window:
Apparently, you can’t
bring in any dog/foxes, guns, flatulence, utensils, alcohol/poison,
bombs/durians or cigarettes into this temple called a cab. This is just one
example of the many comical signs that you see posted throughout Thailand.
We packed
in a ton of sightseeing during our five days in Bangkok.
First, we started with some much needed beers!
Wat Pho – The Reclining Buddha
The
size of this statue was overwhelming.
Riding the Public Ferry
For only
50 cents per person you can ride almost anywhere in Bangkok.
Taking a Tuk-Tuk Ride
More
expensive but one of the best ways to travel in Thailand!
The Weekend Market
Street Food
Eating
Pad Thai in Thailand!
It’s after midnight and the streets are packed!
Wat Arun - The Temple of Dawn
We also
took a full-day tour since it was an easy and cheap way to see multiple attractions.
The itinerary included stops at the floating market, the bridge over River Kwai
and the Tiger Temple.
The Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market
Definitely
touristy but still fun to see.
We floated past one
of Josh’s fellow alumni from Texas A&M. Clearly this guy was also a
graduate of the Class of 1998.
Bridge Over the River Kwai
We were able to pet a
tortoise and leopard. (Why there were animals here, we will never know). It’s
not everyday that you get to pet a leopard.
Tiger Temple
There aren’t many places in the world
where you can get up close and personal with a tiger. The Buddhist monks at the
Tiger Temple in Thailand allow you to participate in this amazing experience.
A
little background for those opposed to the idea of visiting a tiger sanctuary:
Since
1999, the monks have been taking care of the tigers that have been rescued from
poachers in the nearby Thai-Burmese border jungle. There have been rumors that
the tigers are drugged to make them docile enough for visitors to pet.
Volunteers at the temple insisted that the tigers are not drugged. It is
stated that they’ve all been hand reared so they’re used to human contact. Besides,
tigers are known to sleep over 18 hours a day. It’s in their nature to snooze
all afternoon when it’s hot and that’s why they’re so sleepy in the
afternoons.
Monks
who run the sanctuary are in the process of raising money for a nature reserve
in the hope that they could eventually be released. At the moment, if the
tigers were released into the wild, they would likely be killed by poachers.
It’s a catch-22 situation. They can’t be released while they’re being raised by
hand at the temple but there’s really no chance they’d survive in the wild
anyway. It’s pretty much the same argument for zoos. Do you visit them or not? Well,
we got married at a zoo.
We had
to sign a form saying we wouldn’t sue if we were injured or killed by the
tigers. On the one hand you get to pet a tiger. That’s pretty cool and who
doesn’t want to pet a tiger? But on the other hand, they are wild animals. To calm your
fears, the tigers were chained because let’s face it….they’re TIGERS!
We're
not ashamed to say that we really enjoyed this once in a lifetime opportunity
of petting and playing with tigers.
While in
Bangkok we came to three major realizations:
1) Leanne’s
nose is a worldly phenomenon. In Indonesia she was told her nose was too big
for her to be from America. In Thailand a gentleman told her she had a “good
luck nose”. What does that even mean? One thing’s for sure, her nose is a sight
to be seen around the world. We should seriously start charging money for
people to make comments about her nose. Who knows, maybe our million-dollar
idea is literally right under her big nose?
Here’s a
picture of number 2 and 3 combined.
We are now
making our way to Ao Nang (Southern Thailand) via a 15-hour bus ride for only
$16 per person. This travel situation should make for an interesting next post.
As always, thanks
for following us!
Cheers,
Leanne and
Josh
