Kimberly Sokolofsky-- Joke Contest WINNER!!!!

Hey Kim! Thanks for your contest submission:
A monk and an elephant walk into a bar... and the bartender says, "Sorry, no shoes no service!"

For your highest-quality submission you will receive your own sedated chihuahua puppy (see photo) named TukTuk... or maybe something else that doesn't need to be quarantined at the airport for three months...maybe.

Bangkok- Check! On our way home!

We're about done with Bangkok now that we've seen the Emerald Buddha (very small and not actually emerald...hmph) and the Grand Palace (very large and certainly grand! - see below). We've kept ourselves further entertained with American movies at the famous MBK complex. Jessy now has a Bangkok-sized crush on Hugh Jackman and Alesha does too (sorry Mike...when the cat's away she'll go to the movies).

Can't wait to get home and share more stories and presents with all y'all! Happy New Year from the Land of Smiles!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

When celebrating our Christmas holiday on the Thai beach of Cham-am, we figured we ought to take matters into our own hands.

So, Jessy walked over to the internet cafe across the street and 'borrowed' their Christmas tree for a little merry making! We started a trend, and ended up attracting all farang (Westerners) to our celebratory Christmas photo shoot.

Merry Christmas to all friends and family-we love you guys! We can't wait to celebrate the New Year with you very, very soon.

Love, Jessy and Alesha

Treehouse adventures!

Hello followers,

Christmas time is approaching, and we're on track to be at the beach on Christmas Day! For now, we're in Khao Sok National Park, enjoying the jungle. We're staying in a lovely tree house at Khao Sok Valley Lodge, and it's owner is one of the nicest people we've met. There are large, well, everything around us! Large bugs, large plants, large Raffleasia flowers (largest flowers in the world). We don't think they are really flowers, though.

We've been super impressed with the kindness of Thai people...giving us rides, cooking us breakfast, flagging down buses as they fly past us, giving us good advice, and making sure we are actually going to the place we intend to go to. It's amazing! Expect for the one old dude that wanted to marry one of us...didn't matter which one as long as one of us agreed. We unfortunately declined.

We're headed to Cha-am Beach tomorrow night, and look forward to calling family and friends on Christmas! After Cha-am, we head to Phetchaburi for a few final days before our departure.

Love you guys!

J & A

Takraw: Thai Soccer

Check out this little clip of Thailand's most exciting sporting activity: Takraw! Don't worry, we'll be bringing this one back to Asheville. Practice from the Asheville Takraw League starts Jan 5. Please watch the video to prepare for our first practice...we're bringing the ratan balls and everything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXmjOMUdsPY

JOKE CONTEST!!!

Hi Friends and Family...here's your chance to win an amazing Thai treasure from our travels. Complete this joke:

A monk and an elephant walk into a bar...

Now you send us a punch line! A winner will be selected upon our return. Please post your entry as a Comment to this blog posting for all to enjoy and criticize :)

Railay Sunset

Th-eye Candy

Alesha at Diamond Cave pumpin' out her forearms hardcore!

At Thai-wand Wall-- Railay West behind us.

Jessy climbin' in her bikini top-- because we can!!
Thai-wand Wall

Climbing Thai-style

We find ourselves here in Railay Beach on the Adaman Sea. This is a world-class climbing destination, replete with climbers from all ends of the world, limestone caves, and local climbing guides who scale the cliffs like the monkeys in the palm trees below. This photo is the Thai-wand Wall. We hiked from the opposite side, through the cave (full of singing bats!!) you see in the middle of the far-right of the large rock face. There we impressed our guide, Rit, with our hardcore NC climbing skills (and alittle bit of hanging on the rope too!)...what a view :)

OBAMA!!!

Kao Yai National Park Lesson #1: the bed of a Thai pick up truck NEVER has too many people in it!

We were visiting Kao Yai N.P. a few days ago and quickly discovered that you really need a car in order to get around. As the video will show, you will see us on one of our many hitch hiking experiences-this one by far being the most fun. We've quickly learned while traveling in Thailand that when we mention that we are from the United States of America, people often shout enthusiastically, "Obama!"

We're currently in a small town called Railay, in the Krabi Province. Tomorrow we're off to go rock climbing and do some dangling over the emerald green Indian Ocean.

Talk to you later!

Gluttony in Thailand...

Here we are enjoying some of the various goodies in Thailand (as we do on a daily basis).

What is Jessy eating anyway? We like to call it 'Rice Cream Dog'. Alesha, as usual, is just drinking a beer (through a straw on the train).

Elephant in our midst!

Yesterday we went to Nam Nao Nat'l Park. We decided to hike one of the trails outside of the visitor center-- apparently no one else has ever done this. What initially appeared to be a more-or-less well-marked trail system immediately revealed itself for what it really was-- unmaintained, unmarked trails that never lead you to the "Sunset Viewpoint" they advertise. Have no fear, you know we are nothing if not resourceful! We left pieces of paper (the completely useless "trail guide") in strategic locations in case we got confused on the way back-- very Hansel and Gretel, we know. Maybe it shouldn't have been so surprising when we heard the distinctive snorting of an elephant very nearby considering that for the previous 20 mins we were following a "trail" mainly made up of very, VERY large animal tracks... and every once in awhile were stepping over large piles of fresh elephant dung. We snuck a little farther down the trail just in time to see the rear end of a wild elephant decend down the hillside!

Things Elephants Can Do

After following a Northern Thai man as he bushwhacked through random hillsides, followed elephant footprints in the mud, and walked through rediculously huge spider webs -- also known as TREKKING-- we have now arrived in Lampang. We went to the Elephant Conservation Center and watched as the amazing creatures showed off their skills. We now know that:

1) Elephants can swim
2) Elephants can paint (sooo artistic!!!)
3) Elephants can make music
4) Elephants can bow elegantly to recieve praise
5) Elephants can stack logs with their tusks/trunks
6) Elephants can use their trunks as elevators for humans who wish to mount them
7) Boy elephants have impressively large unmentionable parts (You'll see, Gary!)
8) Elephants understand human communication

9) When elephants eat sugar cane it sounds like they are snapping a 2x4 over their knees-- impressive!!

10) Elephants are much smarter than humans!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Nam Nao National Park where we can't wait to see some monkeys, jackals, and wild boars.

Alesha's favorite thing-POPCORN!

Okay, so Thailand also has popcorn! This place gets more and more perfect each day!

We also enjoyed $0.30 pad thai and tasty 'fish' soup. We're hoping to also upload a nice little video of Jessy eating a funky tasting 'fish' ball from a street vendor (see below). That a girl, Jessy!

We also shopped (a lot) and bought presents, too. The jewelry here is amazing-so much beautiful silver.

So, we know what you're thinking: "Why are they blogging SO much?" Hey, by the way, is anyone reading this??? Show us some love-become a "follower" or post some dang comments.

Well, folks don't get your hopes up. We're "about to be trekking" as Jessy would say...so we're hitting the jungle soon (although we're pretty sure they will still have internet cafe's there, too).

So, stay tuned for more exciting news from Thailand!

Deep Thoughts from Chiang Mai...

Did you know that monks can use the ATM, drive an SUV, talk on their cellphones in the temples (note: they have cell phones), drink Coca Cola, and shop at 7-Eleven?

Here's Jessy pondering what monks can do at Wat Doi Suthep.

Wat?

We've found a place to land in Chiang Mai (Julie Guesthouse!) and are enjoying a day of temple-seeing and city exploration. Looking forward to our Thai massages this evening and the King's birthday tomorrow. It's gonna be a par-tay (or else everything will be closed and there will be nothing to do...not sure yet!).

A Day in Taipei!

With sweet bean soup dessert for lunch, an official Taiwanese stamp in our passports, and many hours to kill in the Taipei airport we're starting our trip off with a bang! The government of Taiwan treated us to a lovely 4 hour city tour. We went to a temple, where Jessy 'wowed' the school children with her firey red hair and our guide really, really tried to get us to buy some things. Oh, and how to keep the evil away...

So, just in time for the court to oust the PM of Thailand, we're happy to report that we're moving in that direction this evening. We'll be flying into Chiang Mai tonight around 1am. Stay tuned for more news from Thailand!

Love,

Alesha and Jessy

Watch out, Chiang Mai!

Protected by our climbing gear and armed with Alesha's guide book from 1984 we're feeling Fired Up and Ready to Go!

Yup- we're going!

After postpoing our departure a few days, we've decided not to let the inaction and indecison of the Thai government/military/king/Prime Minister's brother-in-law get in the way of our adventuring! We leave tonight for Chiang Mai (decided not to even bother with Bangkok) and will finally arrive there on Thursday morning...

Stay tuned for pictures and postings of our Southeast Asian antics!