Hong Kong Airport

We arrived in the incredible, new, Hong Kong International Airport. We had to confimr two seats for the next flight to Los Angeles and we werre able to do that no problem. That flight left in the afternoon and we had another 6 hours of time to kill at the Hong Kong Airport. We found a good place to catch a few zzzzz's and before you know it we were on a flight to Los Angeles.

This is one of those fun flights where you actually arrive in the United States at a time prior to when you take off! We finally get to make up for that lost day on the flight out to Fiji. Hollywood, here we come!

Delhi Airport, India

We arrived in Delhi three hours behind schedule and this meant we missed our connecting flight to Frankfurt and essentially began a 21 hour day in the Delhi airport. It was fileld with hours of trying desperately to get a straight answer on what other flights we could take en route to Los Angeles. We were told that we would have to wait until the next flights going to Europe left and that would be either in a few hours or the next day. There was only one person working at the airport to assist passengers with this process and he would often disappear for hours at a time only to show up for a few minutes and disappear again. Needless to say, we tried to be patient, but we were tired and just wanted to get ourselves booked on a flight so we knew where we would be going and when we would be leaving.

Probably around 2pm when this gentleman returned to the customer service counter (a great little desk that had no phone, paper, pencil, etc.) Jaci was able to work her magic and get things moving along. The customer service man told her, "I will take care of you and get you on a flight" and then he said come with me and we walked up some strange walkway and into a backroom where all of a sudden we sat down to a fantastic Indian lunch. It was all on the house and compliments of the mysterious customer service man who disappeared again.

Two hours later we finally had a breakthrough. He had agreed to allow us to fly to Hong Kong and then to Los Angeles! We had asked him if we could do this same plan hours ago and he declined saying we cannot go to Hong Kong and must go to Europe. I guess Jaci said all the right things and before you know it we have tickets in hand for a flight...in seven hours. We found a cafe to rest our heads for the next few hours. Matt fell asleep for about an hour. And to our suprise, the customer service man appeared again later that night and brought us back to the secret room where we were served the BEST vegetarian Indian meal we both had ever had. Our taste buds were out of control with excitement! Oh Delhi Airport!!!

Later that night we were finally at our gate and ready to go. The flight was delayed about two hours but at this point there was no stopping us - we were so close. During the flight delay Jaci made a great friend in a chinese buddhist monk. We tried very hard to maintain a dialogue and in the end made a very good friend. Then we finally took off and although we were beginning to feel a lot like Tom Hanks in The Terminal we ached to think what would four weeks in India have been like. As our stomachs were content with the taste of India in our bellies we both promised to return soon.

Bangkok, Thailand

After a week in Chiang Mai we took a night train back to Bangkok. this train was nicer then the train we had taken to/from Sapa and we really enjoyed having a cabin to ourselves. Our memory of this train ride will most likely be clouded with lots of laughing as we sat around most of the night and just reminisced about the travels we had enjoyed the past few months. Also, we really enjoyed Chiang Mai and hope to return to the city again.

In Bangkok we explored the city (which has over 7 million people living there by the way) for two days by feet, taxi, cyclo, skytrain, and their local bus system (cheap and great way to get around the city). We saw many sights including the Grand Palace, Wat Pho (which houses the temple of the Reclining Buddha), Wat Arun (one of the most visited temples in Bangkok), and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There were other sites as well but once we saw signs that Thailand was the host country for the Asian Cup (soccer here, football everywhere else) we took the skytrain to the nearest ticket counter and bought tickets to two games, one that evening and the other the next day. The first game was the tournament opener between Thailand and Iraq. We took a taxi to the new Rajamangala Stadium outside the city (about 40 minutes) and got settled in our seats only to realize we were sitting on the edge of the Thai / Iraq fanship border. it was an idela environment for us not to have a favorite team so we made friends on both sides and enjoyed a very competitive match in the pouring rain. Fans from both sides were singing and dancing, cheering their teams on to victory. Perhaps a moment we won't soon forget is when an Iraqi man and his son handed Matt their flag and asked him to cheer along with their group - of which Matt happily obliged. The match ended 1-1 and at the end of the match we were somehow able to grab a taxi back to our hotel.

At the hotel that night we were able to change our flight out of Bangkok to the next day where we would leave around 10pm and arrive into New Delhi, India the following morning. The we would take our flight from Delhi to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Albuquerque. All within the next day or so....we knew we were in for some long flights and sleepless days/nights. thanks to Charlie, our ticket consolidator, we knew we would be alright.

We woke up the next morning and packed our things for that evenings long trip home. After breakfast we went for a swim in the hotel pool and then got our things together for another taxi ride to Rajamangala Stadium to see Oman (actually its the Sultanate of Oman) take on Australia. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Oman, it is located on the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Matt was excited to see one of his Liverpool players, Harry Kewell (Australia) in action. Pre-game festivities included food, drinks (beer in a bag tied up with a rubber band), singing and the opportunity to meet up with people from all over the world who were fans of what Matt calls - the great game. Matt even found the Bangkok Liverpool Fanclub to cheer along with! By halftime two things had happened. First, the monsoon season was in full swing and compared to the night before we were very wet. But surprisingly, Oman had scored a late first half goal and held Australia scoreless and looked poised to pull off a major upset in the Asian Cup. At halftime, while we walked around the stadium facility, Matt started talking with a guy who ended up being a broadcaster for Oman National Radio who asked Matt to join him in the broadcast to share his point of view on the game. I guess Matt must have told him he was impressed with the way they were playing. Before you now it Matt is on Oman radio giving his analysis of the first half complete with statements like "Oman are playing with skill and precision, dominating the pitch both on the defensive side and throughout the midfield, it would be a travesty to see them not walk off the field glorious." Needless to say, the radio station ate it up and Matt savored every moment. Afterwords we were able to watch the game from the press box and keep a little drier. Australia fought hard in the second half and were lucky to secure a 1-1 draw compliments of a late goal from Tim Cahill. it was another good match and we had the time of our life!

After almost an hour or so of trying to hail down a cab in the POURING RAIN we finally got one and rode back to the hotel, changed our clothes, and grabbed our cab for the aiport. It looked like we would be bringing our monsoon soaked sandals back with us to the US.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Before taking a night train to Bangkok, we decided we would take a day trip into the hills to go visit the local hill tribes, go bamboo boat rafting, and also explore the region via elephant for an afternoon.

The elephant excursion was quite interesting most notably was watching how docile these large creatures are traversing steep, narrow inclines and declines. We also bought them food along the route and the elephants scarf down foot long pieces of sugar cane and bushels of 8-12 bananas in seconds. The elephants took us through the jungle and also across rivers until we finally stopped off for lunch in a local village.

The next trip was for us to go river rafting and as our bus arrived and we walked down to the river we were able to watch the locals put together about 8 pieces of bamboo by tying them together with a reed from a local tree. We hopped on our boat and since Matt was in the back he was quickly given a stick, told to stand (while everyone else sat down), and to steer! Well, as most of you who know Matt, a challenge like this is what he lives for and within minutes we are sailing down the river gliding perfectly between rocks and over falls all while he is somehow balancing himself up on the back of our "floating stick boat". Well, other boats thought Matt made it look to easy so they took shots at trying to knock him off by running into our raft and trying to pelt us with fruits from local trees - of which Matt just used the stick as a bat and knocked them away. All in all, our boat members stayed dry and we had one heck of a ride! It was lots of fun. After a full day we headed back to our hotel and had dinner before starting to pack for our trip to Bangkok.