DAY 1 - NOvember 27, 2003 - Monument, CO to Narita, Japan Our long day started at 5 AM when Gennie awoke me to tell me that it had snowed overnight and we had to think about clearing the driveway before leaving. Together, we went out and in 20 minutes had cleaned it up. She went in to shower, I had a brief breakfast, fruit and coffee and then showered. We were out the door at ...
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DAY 2 - November 28, 2003 - Narita, Japan to Bangkok, Thailand We arrived at Narita Airport just outside of Tokyo and after landing, had the longest taxi to the terminal we have ever had and then parked on the tarmac. The shuttle bus took us back into the terminal where we had to go through security once again. It is here that I am working on the Journal - 1:33 in the morning - ...
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DAY 3 - November 28, 2003 - Bangkok to Angkor Watt/Siem Reap We were up long before the wake-up call came. At 6:30 we were up and showering. We went down for breakfast and the Thai menu is really different. They had the regular western breakfast but also the Oriental noodles and other such foods. The fresh fruit was fabulous, with the very sweet little bananas. I had an omelet ...
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DAY 4 - November 29, 2003 - Angkor Watt We got our wake-up call at 6 AM and we had showered and dressed and were going to breakfast at 6:45. We had the traditional buffet with lots of fruits, omelet bar, sweat breads, cereals and traditional Cambodian meals. After breakfast we stopped and checked in the internet and found out that Ted’s RPI team had beaten the #1 East seeded ...
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DAY 5 - November 30, 2003 - Siem Reap and Bangkok Our alarm went off at 7 AM so we had a lot of time for breakfast. By 8:30 we were out of town driving along the river through a residential area and markets busy with Monday morning shoppers. In the yard of each house are small spirit houses which are altars where the people burn incense and make offerings for the Buddhist ...
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DAY 6 - December 1, 2003 - Bangkok As we flew in from Cambodia last night, Gennie looked out the window of our turbo prop ART 72 and saw an aircraft with its company name on the side. PHUKET Airlines. She turned to me and said “Can you imagine telling people that you flew PHUKET AIRLINES?” I had not even thought of the phonetic spelling! And this from my wonderful wife of 30 years - ...
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DAY 7 - December 2, 2003 - Bangkok Our biological clocks are still a little off. We both were up before 6 AM, long before the alarm. We showered and went down for breakfast. We had an early start at breakfast and sat with David and Sharon from Atlanta. Sharon is a retired 8th grade science teacher and David was a professor biology and physics at Georgia Tech. It was very ...
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DAY 8 - December 3, 2003 - Bangkok to Kanchanaburi/River Kwai We were up at 5:30 AM to have an early start and try to beat the traffic our of Bangkok. Breakfast at the Impala has been very good and the bacon the best I have ever savored. Thick, salty and great peppery taste. YUM!!! Wonderful for my arteries. We went to the front desk and still no camera. We now have Anya involved in ...
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DAY 9 - December 4, 2003 - Kanchanaburi/River Kwai Once again we were up at 5:30, long before dawn . Our schedule called for us to be on the River Kwai by 6:30 to see the sunrise. What a surprise to find out that this morning, the breakfast was to be on a river barge, where we had everything for ourselves. We sat at a table and the flow of the river was very tranquil - it was ...
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DAY 10 - December 5, 2003 - Kanchanaburi to Phitsanulok We were able to sleep in a bit, the alarm went off at 6 AM. We finished packing and had our bags out on the porch and we were on our way to breakfast at the main lodge by 6:45. It seems many of our group are not feeling well today. After breakfast we identified our bags, turned in our keys, and got on the bus to leave at ...
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DAY 11 - December 6, 2003 - Phitsanulok to Phrae Both Gennie and I did not sleep well as we thought about Ted and RPI’s football game with Ithaca during the night. So at 5:45 we decide to get up, shower and be out of our room to go to the internet and check on any emails from Ted. Even though we had a very bad connection, our first email from him told us that RPI had WON!!! ...
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DAY 12 - December 7, 2003 - Phrae to Chiang Rai Early Monday morning - we were off to Chiang Rai and all the local people were off to work and the school. After a long weekend the traffic is heavy. It is overcast and the air is very polluted with diesel exhaust and open garbage burning. We turned off the main road and into a village close by to visit a school. The children had ...
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DAY 13 - November 8, 2003 - Chiang Rai Due to the internet connection, I am having trouble sending the pictures. When I have a decent one I will send them. Sorry. Breakfast this morning was a little different. We got there early, 6:40, and as we sat down they brought us three pieces of toast, butter, jelly, coffee, and juice. We did not know what to do. Then they came back ...
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DAY 14 - December 9, 2003 - Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai Even though we did not have to be out until 8:00 this morning, we still got up at 6:00. It was cool, but the sun was coming up over the golden rice fields and it was beautiful. We were on our way to Chiang Mai today - north and west of our stay last night. Our first stop of the day was at a temple close to Chiang Rai that ...
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DAY 15 - December 10, 2003 - Chiang Mai We had an early morning to see the elephants just after day break. We slept well and comfortably on the 9th floor of this very good hotel. Lots of hot water and a shower that showers! Breakfast was quite good with the usual watermelon and pineapple. No bananas at any of the places we have stopped. Anya has bought us the small sweet ones ...
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DAY 16 - December 11, 2003 - Chiang Mai We started a little later this morning as we chose not to go at 6 AM to give the Buddhist monks their morning meal. After breakfast, at 8 AM, we left the hotel to take a short city tour on our way to visit the Wat Jedi Luang temple and have a discussion with its Buddhist monks. We passed the old part of the city with its ancient walls and ...
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DAY 17 - December 12, 2003 - Chiang Mai - Train to Bangkok We got up at 6:30 to get our day going. We took our time getting ready and then went down to the buffet breakfast. We sat with Leonard and Nancy and we shared our home visit experiences. They seemed to be similar but we had the opportunity to see our host’s home and make our own salad. After breakfast we went to the ...
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DAY 18 - December 13, 2003 - Bangkok We got to the hotel at 7 AM and Anya asked us to go to have breakfast as the rooms would not be ready until 8:30 or so. As usual, a good breakfast with the group. After checking to see if there was an internet open at this time of the morning on Sunday - no success, we were able to get into our rooms about 8 AM. After a shower and a change ...
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Day 19 - December 14, 2003 - Bangkok to Home The alarm went off at 2:45 and the wake-up call came at 3 AM. We were packed and out of the room by 3:15 and to our great surprise the buffet restaurant was already for us. Most of us were still full from the dinner last night so coffee, juice and some fruit was all that I had. We sat with our early bird friends and spoke of the ...
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