It will come as no surprise to anyone from around here, but the winter/spring has not been kind to us Seattleites and the last few days of rain has done nothing but reinforce that 🙁 There is however a good cure for this problem and in what seems to now be our standard summer ritual it is off to SE Asia again!
We had made a commitment to Brooklyn for a trip when she graduated, but she decided to ‘bank it’ last summer because of the political situation in Bangkok, but still had her heart set on going back to Thailand and has decided that this is the time to cash it in. In situations like this it sucks to be a parent, but if I have to suck it up and chaperone her for a few weeks, then I guess that is what parenting is all about.
We are doing a couple of things differently this year to mix it up a bit. First, I decided to send Mrs. Columbus ahead on her own as sort of an advanced scouting party. I figure that she can go ahead and get the country all fired back up, because according to her most of the place completely closes down when we are not there. Second, I am hoping that we will have better internet connections as I am going to try and be much better at getting some photos online and integrated into this blog. And third, we are going to add a couple of new spots into our travels in addition to going back to a few of our old favorites.
In Thailand we are going to spend some time in Kanchanaburi which is in the ‘central’ area a couple of hours outside of Bangkok. We did a quick day trip out there a couple of years ago and realized that there was a lot more things to see and do out that way, and that it really needed a few days to scratch the surface.
Of more significance, I have finally convinced the great adventurer herself to give up a few valuable days to visit one of the neighboring countries. The first stop on our trip will be to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat! Ankgor Wat is a world heritage site and a must see in every SE Asia travel guide, and something I have wanted to see for a long time. I think we could easily spend several weeks exploring Cambodia, but this time we will just pop over to explore the ruins and leave the rest of the country for a future trip.
Brooklyn and I leave shortly and meet up with her cousin Russ who will be joining us again this year, and a paltry 16 hours in transit later we will meet up with Mrs. Columbus who will have certainly gotten the Thais back into shape and the country all opened up in preparation for out arrival.