Smith Adventures

Angkor Wat Temple If we had drafted a plan to visit Asia before Shannon and Jim moved here, Cambodia likely would not have been on it. Now, we’d say YOU MUST COME HERE! In a similar fashion to our discovery of Romania, Cambodia is a country first off of beautiful people. They smile a lot. And why? Us at sunset Not so long ago, during our lifetime you will remember Po Pot, a Khmer Rouge dictator, who ruled the country and was responsible for the ‘killing fields’, eliminating anyone who appeared to resist his dictatorship. Now today the country is an emerging democracy, still in infancy, but with promise. And as we’ve witnessed here is where the UN has done some good work along with the EU, devoting time, energy and money to helping this country develop. Cambodia is a country that shares coastline with Thailand to its west, Vietnam to its east and Laos to its north. The Mekong river runs south out of Laos across Cambodia and into Vietnam before emptying into the Sou...

Ready to Go Here’s a little insight into how Shannon’s kids have matured. After coming back from the Safari we all head for the remainder of the afternoon at the beach. On arrival we see several of the catamarans sitting on the beach. Kaden and Riley ask if I’d take them both sailing, so I said we’d see if they were available. Talked with the crew chief of the area and he said they were all booked to other people. So we go back down to the beach and Kaden begins muttering about how stupid that was, that others could reserve them, and then not use them and he wondered if they might let us use one if no one claimed them after a certain amount of time. So I thought it was worth it for him to try, one because Thai’s love children, and, his request wouldn’t appear to be the challenge to an adult in the same manner that as adult and adult discussion might be, and he had such a logical argument.    So I left him to it, and he came back with the statement ‘So here’s how i...

Really they cross here! Here’s an activity and a company that is very well organized. We booked on line to save the extra pick up costs since we are up island. We have now driven the island 4 times up and down. Our 11:00 am tour included a training session on the elephants, a feeding of two smaller elephants, and another training session on how to mount the elephants and where they come from. These are Asia elephants instead of African elephants which means they are smaller and with larger heads and smaller ears. Total weight would be 3000 kg for a full grown elephant versus 5000 kgs.for the African elephants. Enjoying the Day  The drivers are brought in from Tibet and basically live with the elephants at the facility. These animals all appeared to be very well cared for and the staff professional. We’d highly recommend them.  Probably the greatest moment for everyone is during the walk through the jungle you climb a point that provides a gorgeous vista out...

There are no bad pics on Phi Phi Islands, colors are amazing Landed on Phuket and Jim negotiated a mega van to haul all 9 of us to the hotel. No airport shuttles here. I’ve been suffering from a cough which I caught from a little old lady sleeping behind me on the “Day in the Sky”. Not fun being sick while in hot weather and lots to do. I crash for a couple of hours and Sandra and the grandkids enjoy the pool. Abbey the shy retiring little girl, Yeah right! This Marriott is really first class and Sandra and I compare it to our Porto Fico hotel on Lefkada island, of course that was at ¼ the cost. Jim wants to go to the Phi Phi islands to see them and snorkel, which is great, and the kids all got gear for Christmas so that got arranged for Dec. 23 rd . During a brief period of time that I was feeling better, thanks to an Advil ( I think I could do a testimonial), Kaden and I went down and booked taking out a catamaran for Christmas eve day ( which is today as I write th...

Petronas Towers and Us Hong Kong Airport CLEAN!! So this trip is so different from our motorcycle travels that we wanted to share our thoughts and experiences and many of our family and friends have asked for it as well. The first of which is the fact that the flight is in the order of 14000 kms,  divided into a 13 ½ flight to Hong Kong followed by a 3 ½ hr flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL). And contrary to what we all might think it is mostly over land as the plane flies north over BC, Alaska, Russia, and  China. We were able to fly business class this time courtesy of our daughter and husband, and we began musing about how  we were living in the air at 40000 ft for most of a day .  Our hats go off to the Air Canada/Malaysian Air staff in Hong Kong who linked our luggage through to KL without us having to exit the secure area or go through immigration. And our first impressions of the Chinese in Hong Kong was very professional and friendly. Wo...