An inauspicious beginning

When we found out that J had a ten day break in October, it was quickly and unanimously decided that we had to go to Thailand. We bought our tickets to Bangkok, and we were ready to start planning ourselves a trip. I, however, decided that one country in ten days was not good enough and began campaigning that we hop over to Cambodia while we were there. J was not in agreement with me about this; he felt that would be rushing things too much [blah, blah, blah..] Needless to say, I was the victor in that argument, and now you can read below about just how right I was. [I feel like I should probably tone down the smugness there, but I really don't want to.]

A little eighth wonder of the world, anyone?

Ok, I got a little ahead of myself. We really need to begin with how we got there...

Like I said, we bought tickets into Bangkok from Shanghai. We went to the airport to catch our 11:00pm flight, where we encountered our first dilemma. We hadn't had time to eat dinner, and the only food option that was open after we got through security was KFC.  For those of you who don't already know this I detest KFC. I think it is disgusting. I promised myself years ago after a very unfortunate experience (involving those despicable "bowl" creations that mushed corn, potatoes friend chicken bits, you name it- into a single eating entity. you remember.) there that I would never ever eat there again, and I had no intention of breaking that promise in China of all places.  The problem was, I was starving, so I agreed to make this one exception.

I used the picture menu that they hand to foreigners to order (if you haven't done this before, they basically hand you a laminated copy of what's on the board and ask you to point to what you want). I ordered the smallest chicken sandwich on the menu that said "snack size." If I had to eat KFC I wanted to do it minimally. Ten minutes later they bring out my sandwich, it looks harmless enough, so I take a bite: THE HORROR. What have I just put in my mouth? The textures I am chewing do not make sense, so I steal a glance at the "chicken" "sandwich" I have just partaken of. I see...bits of green, orange, yellow and white fluff. It appears to be some kind of hodge podge of frozen vegetables and indeterminate protein? maybe?...

And it's time to board.

Now we're traveling on the cheap as best we can, so we've booked the discount fare that has an overnight layover (1:30AM to 5:30AM) in the Shantou airport (still in China). We'd already prepared ourselves for sleeping in the airport, clutching our bags. At least we'd be through security, right? Wrong. It turns out that the Shantou "International Airport" is about 100 square feet and closes down at 2AM. They kicked us out right as we arrived. So we were stranded with nothing but a bunch of con artists taxi drivers to, ahem, help us.

It's a very frustrating thing to know that you're being screwed over and having zero power to do anything about it. I won't go into all the details of this terrible evening. To sum up: When bargaining is the m.o. for an economy it's not a good thing for you when the person you're bargaining with knows without a doubt that they are your only option for transport and/or shelter.

We make it back to the airport in the morning, catch our flight and arrive in Bangkok before lunch. We take a hot pink Corolla taxi to the bus station across town and make it just in time for the 1:30 bus. Woo hoo! Things are looking up. We grab a quick lunch- some kind of delicious, fresh local curry, and get on board. The bus is nice, air conditioned, and the scenery is beautiful.

View out of our window as we were leaving Bangkok.

On the bus. Eventually he'll learn that by refusing to smile he's only hurting himself. eventually.

After a five hour ride we eventually come to Poipet where we catch a tuk-tuk to take us to the border. They stop once to try to scam us into buying fake visas but we were prepared for that so we staged a protest and insisted on being taken to the real border.

I liked his decorations. Those lights actually light up when he breaks and such.

 After about an hour there of figuring out who the real police were and who we could trust (as it turns out, the answers were "everyone" and "no one" respectively) and walking way too far with our backpacks in an attempt to find the real taxi station that had shut down for the night as good luck would have it, we finally settled into a cab that took us to Siem Reap, where we booked a room at the Garden Village Inn for $7 a night.

Our hostel from the entrance.

Bare bones, but the bed was extremely comfortable.

Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode: Day Two: Angkor Wat.

Whisk, a love story.

I have been terribly remiss, and I must apologize.

You know how when you have two best friends and you hang out with each of them so much and you love both of them so much that when you all show up at a party together they end up introducing each other because the fact that they haven't met yet is unfathomable to you so you don't think to do it yourself? You just assumed that because you love each of them and spend time with each of them that they would also be best friends. Well, this is a lot like that. I'm sorry that it's taken so long, because I so rudely forgot to do so, but I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Whisk.

Whisk is a piece of heaven here in Shanghai that specializes in chocolate. Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Gelato, Chocolate Churros, (and yes I'm Capitalizing their names on Purpose because they are Important and Important things get Capital Letters) and it's all one hundred percent perfection.

Chocolate Mousse

Inside the ramikin is what chili's molten cake wants to be when it grows up.

Warm Chocolate Liqueur

My SIL, Rachel, was the one who originally told me about this place. Hearing about its delictible chocolately goodness from a connoisseur such as herself was half the reason I decided to come here.

Joel with his churros and chocolate dipping sauce.

If you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. Legit breakdown of coming here: 45% proximity and availability of cool traveling, 50% Whisk's chocolatey goodness, 5% money saving/new fun life overseas in China adventure. (Slight fib- there was a much longer, more reasonably appropriated list for making the decision to come in the first place, but this revised version is what actually got me to board the plane-and that's the truth.)

So for all of you who were thinking about coming to visit but weren't quite sure- now you too can have a fabulous reason to visit! Because I will take you!

Moon Festival

I spent the majority of last week being sick. Boo.  I didn't even let myself update the blog because, as many of you have surely experienced, being sick far from home just makes you homesick and I didn't want to send out any gloomy tidings by posting when I was in "such a state." By the end of the week I had pathetically lost any sense I may have brought here with me having convinced myself that I was probably going to die here on my couch if I couldn't get home to America before the Chinese germs got me for good.

Needless to say, they did not get me (I only had tonsillitis and a stomach bug in the first place) and I'm feeling tons better thank you very much.  It was really nice timing too that the first day I was able to leave the apartment the weather here had magically snapped into fall paradise. Fall is my absolute favorite. I've heard it doesn't last long here, so I'm glad I was out and about to experience it from day one.

Here were are on Lujiazui

Joel had Wed-Fri off from school in celebration of the Autumn Moon Festival. Last night we went downtown with two of our favorite people here to do a little picture taking and sightseeing. It was a beautiful night, and we had delightful company.

Downtown at the Bund

The full moon was beautiful over the skyline. It almost looked like they'd planned the cityscape to compliment the sky at this exact time of year. I can't express to you how many people were down at the Bund cramming into each other trying to get the closest spot to the water for pictures...it was intense. But I can't blame them- the moon really was in fine form.

Skyline under the Autumn Full Moon

After our pictures somehow a fun little game of "take pictures with the foreigner" got started.  I've never really understood why that's such a fun pastime over here. I just don't get the appeal. Back home I've never had the desire to take my picture with a stranger, but who knows, maybe after a year here that will change.

Please note: I'm not noticeably taller, and I'm wearing heels.

The boy in the middle was extremely polite and we had a good conversation during which I feel certain that he used ALL the English phrases he knew. If I said something outside of his script he became very puzzled.

This guy was just awkward.

Unfortunately having three days off in the middle of the break means that Joel will have to work this Sat and Sun, but we think it was worth it. We got to explore the city together yesterday and today. We found a few used book stores that we were excited to find. Granted, the vast majority of shelves were filled with yellowing copies of Danielle Steel novels, but we think that a little rummaging might produce better results.

We've also discovered a new and intriguing treat from McDonalds. I give you the flavor-piped soft-serve cone!

Tada!

They come in green, pink, brown and purple. So far we've tried three out of four flavors with mostly good reviews. This afternoon Joel and I ordered a pink and brown cone each respectively and our English speaking cashier confirmed that we had ordered "chocolate" and "strawberry" which, we agreed made sense. Come to find out the flavors were actually mocha and raspberry, but we were still quite pleased. The green flavor is some kind of lime. I haven't tried it personally yet, but my friend said that it was actually a bit tart. Interesting!