Retour à la case départ en passant par Koweit City

Bien arrivé à 18 h30 heure locale, après donc environ une trentaine d'heure de voyage, en passant par Koweit et par Rome.

Le moral est bon, on était à peine fatigués bien qu'on a du dormir que 2 heures en tout et pour tout.

A Koweit, on avait 5 heures de transit, donc on en à profiter pour visiter. on a pris un visa (moins cher pour les Américains que pour les Français - je me demande pourquoi !) et on pris un taxi.

Le problème est que le conducteur ne parlait pas anglais, ce qui a créer quelques malentendus !

On ne savait pas où aller, donc on a demander le centre ville comme tout bon français, mais toutes les villes dans le monde n'ont pas forcément un centre ville (ex la plupart des villes américaines, il n'ya rien à voir en centre ville, tout est en banlieue). Comme le chauffeur ne comprenait pas, on lui a demandé qu'il nous amène aux fameuses trois tous avec une boules au sommet (vous vous souvenez de la première guerre du Golf ?) car on pensait que ce n'était pas loin du centre.

Donc sur la route, on se croyait presque aux USA

On y va et déception, tout est fermé. Il faut qu'il est 7 heures de matin !

on fait quelques photos, et on redemande à aller au centre ville (City center). Là le chauffeur comprend et nous emène au City center qui est en fait un centre commercial en banlieue qui s'appelle City Center et qui bien sur est fermé, car il est 8 heure du mat. *

Donc on demande à aller à la Freedom tower, tour de télécommunication très haute construite récemment. Enfin, on passe enfin dans une sorte de centre ville et on demande de s'arrêter pour predre un petit déjeuner. On trouve un resto indien ouvert et on se retrouve à manger des chapatis et des poids chiches à 9 heures du matin en buvant du café.

Enfin le chauffeur nous à ramener à l'aéroport à temps pour prendre notre vol,

En tout cas , on aura bien rigolé !! plus que si on était resté en transit.

Bilan : très bonne impression, habitants super sympas, très relax, accueillants etc..

Le reste du voyage d'une banalité attendue et depuis hier soir, nous sommes aux petits soins de mon frère et de sa femme. En quelques sortes, les vacances semblent continuer....

all good things must come to an end

So, in an hour we take our taxi to the airport. Sigh.

For our last day, some sightseeing: the great Palace (think the Versailles of Thailand) and the great National Temple (think Notre Dame plus the Sainte Chapelle). Except, since thailand was never a colony of anybody, hasn't really been invaded, or had a French revolution where they destroy the statues and take off the gold, everything is intact--and it's amazing. Our pictures don't do it justice--you simply cannot imagine the effect of tons of buildings in gold mosaic and porcelain, all the paintings perfectly maintained, in such a small thing as a picture window.

By 10 am, it was blazing, sweltering heat. so humid, that in-breaths felt like drinking water. This I don't remember from georgia! And not a single fountain or garden--just one tree, taken from the sapling of THE famous bodhi tree in India where Buddha attained Enlightement. Here's the two of us in full tourist regalia complete with audioguides, melting in the heat:

Unlike seeing monuments in europe, this site was alive with people of all sorts USING the space, to make offerings to buddha or the king (same thing, I think, for Thai people), kneel, pray, school children, people meeting, talking--living history. This below is one little Buddha statue in the palace: Thais offer pieces of gold leaf, which don't perfectly stick on right away, thus the fluttering papers of gold.

On the way back home to pack, we stopped off at a favorite cafe (main criteria: packed full of Thai and we are the only white people) for one last Pad Thai noodle, thai iced tea, and a frozen guava smoothie.

Our flight leaves at the excellent hour of 3 am- let's hope the pilot has had lots of coffee! about 6 hours to Kuwait City--then we have the morning there, hoping to leave the airport and go have a look around, make sure the Americans did a good job liberating the country!

then at lunch time, back on a plane to cold and grey Paris, where JeanYves' lovely family will pick us up, take us in, and make a fire to keep us warm! For the first time in a month, I have shoes on my feet to be ready for the cold- and it feels like my feet are in prison.

Don't ask us yet what is the end result of all this travel, what it means, how it's changed us: for that we'll have to wait till we get back and see what percolates up, I think. we miss our friends and family and cat, that's for sure. And I'm nostalgic for some spiced winter apple cider. But...., well, we'll see.

Lots of love to you all, thanks for following the adventure, and for those of you In Toulouse, get ready for the dinner party buffet where we use you as guinea pigs to test our new recipies and bore you to death with all our pictures. :)

love,

Cyn and JY

Another Night in Bangkok

On our last day in Krabi, we slept in, then rode elephants in a river--very cool! They are REALLY BIG, but slow and kind.

Today in Bangkok was a first ever: the entire day inside one shopping mall FIVE STORIES TALL. It is SOOOO much cheaper here, and often (but not always) for better quality compared to what we can find at the cheapie stores in France, that we shopped literally till we dropped. Jean Yves desperately needed some basic clothes to interview and go to work! I think we saved enough money to cover the cost of one plane ticket. Inside, there was also a Starbuck's, KFC, McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, Swensen's....if you closed your eyes, you could just be in the US.

tomorrow tha palace and temple, then catching a plane to Kuwait! and Paris!

Veni, Vidi, Mangé

On the schedule of fun for today, Valentine's Day, was our Thai cooking class!

Yes, the old classic is true, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"

Excellent---start to finish. Only thing I'd have changed, is that I feel uncomfortable with the deference of some Thai serving tourists, getting out of the car to open the doors for us, apologizing all the time, bowing....

After selecting our menu that we wanted to cook (6 dishes in all!), we got to work, sweating in the afternoon heat over the stove. First up: Pad Thai for JY and sweet and sour veggies for me.

Our instructor was great, patient, making jokes, apologizing for her English, explaining the difference between the three kinds of basil, why you have to use cold water not hot water for rice noodles...

(Our instructor explaining to Jean Yves--that's our classmate Karen in the picture)

What we didn't realize was that we would eat EVERY COURSE in between! This gave them the time to set up the next course and clean up. But I'd made the mistake of eating lunch before coming. Combined with the heat, it was rough! Jean Yves did his country proud, explaining that he had trained for years thanks to 7 course French meals, on how to keep stuffing himself when he wasn't hungry.....

We hammered and chopped, ground paste in a mortar and pestle, made spring rolls from scratch, learned to deep-fry in a wok, stirred, simmered, and sniffed. We learned that if it's too spicy, add sugar and salt to correct the sauce. You can substitute western basil for Thai basil, but not western ginger for Thai ginger. All in all, we are now ready to have you all over for dinner!

And, you'll be happy to know, Jean Yves and I successfully, happily, harmoniously, cooked together for the first time, in what we hope will be a trend for the future. :)

We Love Krabi!

We are thrilled to be back in what has become our favorite town in Thailand: friendly people, being the only whites in a restaurant, cheap internet and hotel rooms, good food.

I was finally able to soak up some beach time, spending all day between beach chair and water--It's warm and clear and fabulous. (Jean Yves' beach plan is to go only from 4-6 pm). Me working on my glorious, three-weeks-in-Thailand tan....

The Thai girls said everyone would be jealous of my white skin! (Here, instead of the self-tanning creams we use to be brown like them, they use "whitening creams" to be like us!)

Our bungalow just on the beach in Ko Lanta- honeymoon cliche here we come! What you can't see is Jean Yves inside in the AC, watching cricket on the TV.....

I should clarify something: when I said I missed home and wintery things like snow and fires and mulled wine, it didn't mean I actually WANT to come home. In fact, as D-Day approaches, I'm filled with some apprehension and perhaps dread. Of returning to routine, bills to pay, plus the pressure to finally find some sort of job/ career, "be responsible"..... because all the time after my PhD was just treading water waiting for Jean-Yves. Now I have no excuse! I also feel like I am supposed to have "learned something," had some meaningful life transformation, but don't feel anything of the kind so far. What I think I meant was just wanting to be cold instead of hot!

And, you can actually miss familiarity: sleeping in your own bed, food you recognize, people who love you or at least know your past, rather than seeing you as a walking, talking cash machine. :) So, it's a mixed bag. But when I feel the warm breeze on my skin, being able to sit outside at night with a drink, shorts, and no shoes and be comfortable, watching the sunset, and not having to go to work the next day, there's no contest! :)

Love,

cyn

Changement de plage

On a encore bougé, pour deux jours, une plage plus touristique mais plus belle. Notre promotion se terminait dans l'autre hôtel, et on ne voulait pas rentrer tout de suite sur Krabi, donc on profite de la plage au max (surtour Cynthia)

et c'est bientôt la fin, donc on va remonter doucement sur Bangkok. Le programme est le suivant

- demain , transfert vers Krabi
- le 13, cours de cuisine Thaï toute la journée

- le 14, excursion à Ko Phi Phi (dernier jour de plage)

- le 15, départ pour Bankok, train de nuit de Surethani, donc bus avant entre Krabi et Surethani

- le 16, 17, 18 Bangkok, shopping et visite de temples et palais Royale

- le 19, décollage le matin pour Paris, arrêt 6 heures à Koweit City (on espère pouvoir aller visiter) et le soir arrivée à Charles de Gaulle.

Visite de Old Town à Koh Lanta

Petit village qui est resté tranquille loin des 'resort', 'spas' et autres, car la plage est pourrie. Ambiance relax, presque américaine, on a tous les deux ressentis cela, genre mid-west, mais on ne sait pas exactement pourquoi, peut-être les rues, les voitures pick-up, la nonchalance des gens... On a bien aimé.

A Day in the Life

I'm in such a zombie, chilled out state, that I can't find words anymore (Jean Michel will be happy). So here's some pictures. The hotel is in the middle of an ORCHID farm-- literally millions of them, plus hibiscus like this one here...

Eating mangoes on the beach and watching the sunset-yes, we're in paradise!

The heat, as we're eating lunch, makes me feel like I will faint. Luckily, the kind Thai have already thought of this problem and, on their menu, you can find "Chilled wet towel"---which I immediately order without even looking at the price. It even had essential oils added to it! Hmmmmmmm

To beat the heat, we decided to get a massage. Here we are, in all our glory. They give you purple! Thai fisherman pants to wear- a bit like hospital pants, but cuter on your bum. (And yes, I HAVE spent almost three weeks in Thailand and am still white as a sheet-it's that milky English complexion...)



As some post-PhD pampering, I treated myself (or rahter, my parents treated me- thanks guys!) to all those spa treatments you drool about at home but can never afford: for three hours, I got a Thai massage, a body scrub of coconut, then a coconut body mask (felt like coconut yogurt), then body oil, then a facial with more coconut, something with bananas, frozen cucumber mask, and finished off with a hot bubbly foot soak. There wasn't a signel vegetable or fruit left alive. and the whole thing for like 32 euros. Just makes you sick, doesn't it?

And to finish, the view from the restaurant where we had lunch. :)

But, believe it or not, I am actually looking forward to being in my own bed, eating familiar food, puttering around my house on Sunday morning with coffee and a paper. !

Rien à dire, tout va bien

voilà, tout le monde est content, et on pense bien à vous. Merci à tout ceux qui ont contribué à ce voyage, nous sommes très reconnaissant.

JY

Paradise Found

Hello!
Well, what goes down must go up!
So I found a resort with a deal by the glorious internet and moved us in today--still on Koh Lanta. We have a pool and AC and TV and a glorious sunset view, clean comfortable bed, all the little mod cons. Even better, the place is run by gardeners, because it is also an orchid farm! Litterally everywhere there are orchids- they even put orchid blossoms in our fruit smoothies. And at night I hear gecko lizards (Joel, where are you?) and the place smells heavenly of jasmine or some other fabulous flower I can't distinguish.

In other bright news, Jean Yves feels better, at 90 % I'd say, and so do I (especially after Ashtanga Yoga this morning on the beach at our old place-must do that when I come home!).

Our fellow vacationers seem to be almost all retired (or nearly so) German couples, and they as well as the Thai workers go to bed and close down by 10 pm-perfect! So, for the next six days we stay here as slugs, eating our fill, sleeping by the pool, and reading. There's a great way of exchanging books with fellow travellers or in your hotel, which means that you read things you would've have thought of at home.
My reading list so far:
-Freedom in Exile, by the Dalai Lama
-Old Path, White Clouds, (biography of the Buddha)
-Two Steven Saylor historical mysteries during the Roman Empire
-Seven Years in Tibet
-Agatha Christie, the ABC Murders (In French!)
-Three Musketeers, A. Dumas (In English!)
-Marie Claire, Biba, and some Men's magazine from Singapore
Tomorrow I'm starting Obama's biography, Dreams of my Father.

Voila!! les vacances :)
Pictures tomorrow after charging the camera batteries.
love
cyn