all I ever wanted

was for Elinor and Colonel Brandon to be the ones in love for the whole of Sense and Sensibility.

Edward was kind of a dud and those two were the only kiddos with sense in the first place.
I will say that finishing a book like this, a book that I'd always planned to read, but never had, felt as good as eating comfort food AND finally checking everything off your to-do list in one day.

"I don't want your sorry, I want your money."

A little girl said this while she was chasing after me trying to sell bracelets and postcards and scarves. I was apologizing for being out of money and also to Greg who was convinced I was spending our life savings. Here I am buying all their wares in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

There were little children everywhere, following us, rattling off state capitals and the names of President Obama's daughters. They even stumped greg on the capital of New Mexico:)
Cute cambodian children






Angkor Wat was really incredible. We took a small plane over from Bangkok
Here's Greg, a happy traveler...


and the last photos of Bangkok I'll post. (promise)




We got scammed, or lied to or something the first time we tried to go to the Grand palace during our first couple days stay in the city. Even my guidebook told me not to listen to he tuk tuk drivers who tell you the palace is closed for a few hours so they can bring you to their sister's, aunt's, or mother's souvenir shop. We avoided this, but even as we walked up to the gates there are people saying you can't wear what you're wearing and you have to buy new clothes to completely cover yourself. (This is true, but clothes are available to borrow inside.) Then, after all of this, the guards at the gate tell you you can't come in because the King was visiting. I've never been so deterred with so much effort from a gigantic tourist site. We gave up that day but am so glad we tried to visit again, it was really really worth it. Visiting the emerald buddha (small, anticlimactic.) and then walking around the beautiful, beautiful grounds. I was beside myself, breathing in all the beauty and ornate decor. augh. I had to include some pics.

Ok so afterwards we flew into Siem Reap, a little town with an airport basically so people can visit the UNESCO world Heritage site of 13th century temple. It was a little hassle with buying visas for 2 days, finding hotels, and not in our original plans to get over here, but I'm so glad we did. Thanks to Jack and my Grandpa for speaking so highly of it- and especially for Jack's advice not to travel there by bus on the the unpaved roads:


Here are pictures of the main temple






and the smiling faces at Bayon

I was most looking forward to seeing Ta Prohm- the temple that has most stayed in its original found state, with trees and rubble all mixed in together. It was also in a scene of tomb raider and we discovered a very strong international love for Angelina Jolie. I did not want to crush our tuk tuk driver's dreams and tell him she is probably a full foot taller than he is.




We miss you family, friends and are thinking of you since thanksgiving is coming up, and they're starting to play Christmas music at the hotels :)

Also, Happy Birthday Aunt Molly!! xo

un elephante

This is a song my mom used to sing to us in our bedroom before we went to sleep. it's in spanish and talked about an elephant balancing on the web of a spider... and then another comes.. and another, until the web breaks and the end.
do you remember this song, sisters??

well I was singing it in my head with glee while I was riding this elephant with greg.

and still singing when i was watching the elephants but had to really kep my eye on this snake wrapped around my head.

Good thing for people like me, who are born tourists and convulse when they hear things like- 'i give you good price!' and then pay out the wazoo for staged photographs with exotic animals. No joke, this morning we were waiting to take a boat from one island to another and a man came by with a monkey. it was just the cutest thing I have ever seen, and I begged greg to take a picture with it. He reminded me of when I begged him to take a picture with the above yellow snake and then it hissed at me- aggressively hissed- and I said I would never take a picture with another 'trained' wild animal. But then I saw this monkey and thought I would die if I couldn't hug it, fleas and all, and have my picture taken. By the time we were done with the conversation the monkey had boarded a little longtail boat and took all my dreams of tourist photo-opps with it.

But back to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

We took a sleeper train to Chiang Mai-

about a 14 our trip, but only because it's so slow-going. I think it's only about 400-ish miles north of Bangkok-

and then we traveled to Chiang Rai-another 3 hour bus ride North- We were close to the golden triangle where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet to do drugs. (just kidding!)
***I read a very informative pamphlet on the efforts going towards making that area NOT known for drug trafficking, so I am not going to endorse that at all... ***mmm so after the train and bus we arrived at Naga Hill- endorsed to us by breckan-(her adventure-of-a-lifetime blog) and we were so impressed with everything there- we felt like we were finally in the Thailand I'd been imagining I'd visit all these years

great little bungalow
peace out greg


super food and lush green all around us


From Chiang Rai we took a boat ride along the river



...to see these elephants and feed them sugar cane and bananas.


I was peeling the bananas one by one before I fed them, and a guy told me that elephants don't care about skin. He proceeded to throw a whole bunch in the mouth of that giant pachyderm all at once! wouldn't you know it.

afterwards we were up in the 'hill country' and took a little walk to see the hilltribes. I especially wanted to see the Karen people, so after seeing these ladies from the Yao and Asha tribes



we went to a karen village-
they place gold rings around their neck starting at age 5. The rings look like they're stretching the necks- but really they weigh down and impede the growth of their collar bones and ribcage to make the women look like they have exceedingly long necks.


they seem to survive here, off sales of their scarves (I bought one for you, carla-roo) and it made me feel like I was at a zoo, watching them, invading their space. I do not know if there are still karen tribes in the wild that annoying tourists like us haven't trampled through to take photographs. It was pretty sad. {link to the firt article I found on hill tribes in chiang mai- there are probably better articles than one from a tourism bureau...}

we glamorously exited the city in one of these


oh- here is the website with the words to that elephant song

check ya later.

love,

what I've been dreaming about

When I try to think about a book i read a long time ago, I can remember the story by thinking back to what I was doing while I read it- or where I was or lived. This also works inversely when I think about places I've been, or things I've done and can remember the book I was reading at that time and my memory is heightened again....

moreso my dreams are also heightened because all of a sudden every night I get into the plots of my novels and am the hero or pervert, or crime detective I am reading about in the daytime. strange, i know. My dreams are very vivid.
analyze that.

We've been on many planes and trains and a few boat rides where reading is the only thing that can keep me from thinking about how hot or cold or sleepless I am presently. It seems like everything in Thailand is super, SUPER air conditioned to compensate for the sweltering heat- and then all of a sudden i am wearing the puffy down jacket to bed on a train- the one I'd stuffed at the bottom of my backpack thinking I was done with it after france. ho- hum.

So these are the books I've just finished- and managed to pick of for free or for too many Baht at supermalls and at various hotels and bungalows:

Reading Lolita in broad daylight made me feel like a creep

but I ended up liking it, and then felt guilty for the sympathy and pity I felt for the main character; a pedophile.


Bought this one in Bangkok because it reminded me of you, shea, and this post I remember reading right before Gigi came:)

Had no idea i could be brought right back to 9th grade when I read Catcher in the rye the first time. Why does Salinger speak to the to me and mke me think I am in spiritual crisis? hmmm

and then I also read
which I loved, really really loved because it made me think about Sweden and how cool it is and that i want to go there again when it is not light for only 3 hours each day- and made me guess until the very last page. this book is a thriller/novel- and miranda recommended it to me not because she read it, but because she saw everyone reading it in the airport in the late summer and I am a total crowd follower.

This is by no means any trip documentation that family and friends are interested in, but I just want to remember what i read a lot better than I have been.
i'm going to write a real blog post now.

Bangkok

Here are some photos of Bangkok. I took about a million so there may be almost that many in this blog post.



I was in sensory overload here. The smells were different- all the food stands along every road- and exhaust fumes from the noisy tuk tuks and motorcycles.

Here's greg in a tuk tuk. He was so enamored with them he wants to import one over to the states and drive his little sisters around from Alpine to Pleasant Grove

motorcycle row- they all creep up to the front of the line at every stoplight. only to be passed again as soon at it's green....

me with yummy street food. I have had kale every morning, along with eggs and banana pancakes, rotating. very very good.


The people were so so friendly- and colorful. We watched these girls do traditional dances by a shrine at the corners of a main intersection:

As the cars and busses passed, everyone bows their heads with their palms together at chest level as a sign of respect- this is called wai. Also speaking of respect- there is a framed picture of the King on display in every business, hotel, office building, etc. etc. He is so revered here- as is the national anthem. We stood for it at the beginning of a movie at the cinema- and at 8 in the morning in the park- and again at six at night on the sidewalk while the flag was raised and lowered.

We took a riverboat to see the temple of dawn:

and Wat Pho


which holds the giant reclining Buddha


A monk outside the grand palace


and my 5 dollar pedicure/knee and below massage. i know it's so great when people post pictures of their feet. sick.


I just had to write about the money we are spending. Things are cheap cheap cheap. We had a big dinner for two for around $10 and massages are cheap, and taxi rides across the entire city for $3. You can also stay at certain places for around$20 in the city- and even cheaper outside... but it's super easy to keep spending money because of this.
Let it be known also, that I am not particularly known for my bargain shopping, but there are tons of custom tailor shops lining the roads with thai silk and Greg had two beautiful suits and shirts and ties made for around$200... so this is a small victory for my pocketbook

i also had some skirts sewn too and am so excited. the shopping is killer- as are the mega-malls, but I was ready to head out of the hustle bustle. Chiang Mai/Rai is next...

and one more golden buddha for your viewing pleasure

a woman named olive

and all her counterparts transfixed me the last couple of weeks while we bean our big trip in Connecticut and France.
The book is a compilation of short stories involving people who occupy a small coastal town in Maine

I have never really thought from a middle aged woman's perspective except to think that that is what i'll become in a few years? I think often about the elderly when I am at work and afterwards- of the injustices they deal with, and how their bodies and minds do not work together, but middle aged woman who is angry was hard for me...

I told my mom that I hated this book in the middle of it because she had read it too, and wanted to know what I thought. Olive was unbearable at times. mean and bitter. her judgement and family woes hit too close to home sometimes, and made me feel embarrassed for her- it seemed like her life was filled with resentment and the regret of an inappropriate and unfulfilled love held for a man long dead that wasn't her husband.

Overall, it made me feel something, so I would not, not recommend it. does that make sense? There were parts that were funny, and honest inside too, just be prepared with another book right afterwards so you're not feeling so blue at the end

Paris, je t'aime

Here are some last photos form our visit to Paris. I am not sick of it yet. We are definitely eating enough to preserve the memories. in the butts of our jeans.

On Halloween we went to Pere Lachaise cemetery

and visited Jim Morrison's grave along with the rest of the tourists


Greg and I went on a walk down memory lane-
our old apartment complex-

and metro line-


Some more park pictures



and Sacre Coeur

There was a huge fabric market in montmartre that i hadn't visited yet-

Greg almost choked when i asked to buy some fabric for 55 euros/yard. we moved along our way:)

We also went to this Renoir exhibit at the Grand Palais


and that's all she wrote.


I'm so glad we got to visit. After a 7 hour flight to Bahrain, and then another 7 hour overnighter to Bangkok, we're on the second leg of this big fat journey. Bangkok is gigantic. Alarmingly gigantic. There are high end massive shopping centers piled on top of the sweetest street vendors next to beautiful Buddha shrines and traditional dancers. I am overwhelmed a little but ready to go be Carmen Sandiego.
loves

manger means to eat

Just some shots of the food, for my visceral memory's sake....
Greg and our seafood at Montparnasse

and at a boulangerie


Me at La Duree- home to france's best macarons-

here is what they look like:


Buying a baguette at the boulangerie

and our breakfast the last morning: raspberry tart and a mille feuilles (1,000 sheets)


a candy stand...


and Crepes by the eiffel tower:


Here was our first course at dinner on our last night:

real, live french onion soup. not live really. but real.

ok bye.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

le cercle de la vie

It is good to be here again. Greg and I have been visiting all our old haunts; the grocery stores, markets, boulangeries for fresh baguettes and pattisseries for mille feuilles galore. We've been walking and taking the metro, and letting the memories hit us like a ton of bricks

Here is my old school

and Greg at our old crepe stop.

The weather has been beautiful, so everyone is still out. I love the parks here- accessible and always full. We've seen so many artists, a french version of our pinewood derby, soccer games, boat racing and musicians. I have been on the lookout for the sartorialist, especially at Jardin des Tuileries, but no luck.
cafe at Jardin du Luxembourg

view of the Pantheon

Boat racing


I am having trouble speaking. Speaking in general and speaking up. I feel like I am in the land of the sexypants, so I'm getting nervous using my French. I forgot that everyone here is so sexy. An effortless, sylish, pardonnez-moi, sexy. Even the little children are my style icons. I am like a mute, cherry colored sore thumb in my track jacket sticking out here amidst their riding boots and sea of chic black.
example: me on metro in cherry red jacket. oops

but i still love it.

Here's greg at Notre Dame.

and at Saint-Michel metro stop. Our fave for eating and student-watching

I know it is awkward and boring to look at other people's vacation photos, but this is what we are doing...
Fallen leaves along the Seine

The Louvre at night


Greg brought croissants to our hotel room in the morning

a french man with his french dog


We visited the Eiffel Tower today to see the shimmering lights and tried to take a 'hello how are you' video. i may post that later. I will not post it tonight because i am trying to edit it because i dropped it in the mud and squealed.

Also today we went to see Le Roi Lion- Lion king on Paris Broadway or the equivalent. I don't know if the coming full circle/circle of life analogy would be appropriate here because I think it is used in terms of changing, but then coming back to your beginnings. And we did not begin here by any means. I am sure though, that coming here was a really special thing for both of us to do at the beginning of our marriage. we got to make plans and make dreams and be by ourselves, really by ourselves for a little bit. So I am grateful I am such a huge sap and thought the Lion King was speaking directly to me this afternoon. and I am sounding more and more like my mom every day of my life:)

ok, i'll post again soon. Our last day here is tomorrow. Sorry for the late catch up.

fifty nifty

Happy Big Birthday to my Uncle Tommy-

We started it off with hypothermia and good clean patriotism at the West Point/Rutgers football game.
Man those guys and dolls know how to march!

Tailgating

Saturday morning the guys went shooting. How manly! Greg only got a photo of Grandpa, but wouldn't you know that my Dad put up the targets to add elegant decor and healthy competition to the party room.
Here he is

and here they are. straightshooters.

the ladies in the kitchen


Uncle Tom's party was a grand success:




John's undefeated Pop Warner football team was also successful against Weston. Good Job Johnny!

more group shots :)




But we were still missing

SO

MANY

OF

YOU

GUYS

Love to all the family, and especially you, Uncle Tom
xox