Well, we’ve been home for over 2 months now and time is flying by.  Our wedding day is quickly approaching and the details are starting to come together! (We think!)  Right now, Kate is in Virginia with her family spending countless hours bringing the wedding together, applying for scholarships, and enjoying time with her family.  I’m here in Kokomo with my parents working on my parts of the wedding, training for a sprint triathlon (eeek), and applying for jobs in Chicago!  It’s an exciting time!

I’m going to forego the usual blogger apology for lack of recent updates and I’m not going to promise anything for the near future because quite frankly we’re both preoccupied with other things that have to take precedence right now.  But Rest assured that once we are settled in Chicago and have a bit more time to devote to this we’ll be uploading many more photos and videos from the end of our travels and the past few months.  We’re on a pretty amazing ride right now and can’t wait to share it with you!  So, please excuse the hiatus…

For now, here are a few pictures from the recent months…

For more detailed descriptions view on flickr – click here!

For those of you who don’t know, Kate and I were stranded in Paris because of the Icelandic Volcano.  We stayed there for 3 extra days then took bus to Barcelona and on to Madrid where we got a flight home.  It was an adventure and it was ridiculous (and annoying).  Now we’re fighting battles with the travel insurance company which is very frustrating but in the end it was a nice bonus to get to see spain a bit!

Enjoy the Pictures,  We’ll be back soon!

We can’t wait to see some of you at the wedding in a few weeks!

-Chad

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Hello from Cambodia,
We’re in Siem Reap, home of the Temples of Angkor, for one more night then off to Bangkok and Paris!  We’ve been here for 4 days and have enjoyed exploring the ancient temples and cities (and the great food).  We haven’t had much chance to upload any more photos but trust me, we’ve taken a lot and they will be up someday soon

A very quick update: Since we last wrote…
The overnight Bus was not comfortable and we didn’t sleep much…
Hue was interesting and the Nguyen Dynasty tombs were really great…
The train to Danang was beautiful!  Coast on our left, mountains on our right.  Reminded us of Korea…
Hoi an was unfortunately pretty forgettable.  Mostly attributable to our poor planning, but it was reallllly touristy and mostly consisted of shopping and eating (which we like, but weren’t in the mood for just that).  Our hotel was great though and we had a nice bike ride through the country-side…
Booked the wrong day train tickets to Ho Chi Minh City so our Hotel in Hoi An had to help us rebook them.  All we could get was a Soft Seat (but we ended up on a better train, time-wise) and we didn’t loose any extra money…
The train ride was uncomfortable but an experience …
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was busy and crowded but not as much as Hanoi.  We enjoyed about 36 hours there and visited the War Atrocities museum about the Vietnam War.  Not the best museum but still eye opening.  They had a large exhibit about Agent Orange victims…
Took a bus over the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia…
That same day we visited the Killing Fields and S-21 (a high school turned “security center” where the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed over tens of thousands people before sending them to the Killing Fields).  So, a long and depressing day…
The next day we took another bus to Siem Reap…
Rode bikes to the Temples of Angkor and toured Angkor Thom in the morning and Angkor Wat in the afternoon.  It’s realllly hot so we take a siesta around noon :)  …
Hired a Tuk-tuk to drive us around the “grand tour” temples (further away than the day before).  Started at Sunrise – 5AM!! …
Visited the Ruluos Temples (the oldest in the area) and were back to our hostel by 10:30am…
Took a cooking class and learned to cook some Amazing Khmer recipes! Can’t wait to share…

That brings us up to date!

We’ll spend one night in Bangkok then fly to Paris at 5:20 the next evening.
More when we get to Paris…  hopefully with more pictures…
Chad

Hello all!
We’ve had some great adventures since our last update but little access to internet (at least internet with a real keyboard). We’re in the least planned part of our trip so most of the time when we have wifi or a computer we use it to plan our next move.
Since our last update…
We finished at Biofarm and headed into Shanghai for one night. Stayed at a great hostel called the Mingtown for less than 10 dollars! The next afternoon we took an overnight train to Hong Kong. The train was great although we were on the top bunk which was a bit cramped. We met some nice people and arrived without a hitch.
Hong Kong was great! A nice breather before we jumped back into full-on Asia. We ate great food, listened to Asians with Brittish Accents and had some great conversations with our fantastic Couch Surfing host, Kirk. We also got to spend a good amount of time with my friend Marc from the Recording department at IU and his girlfriend Hanni. We went to their apartment on Lamma Island and wandered around Hong Kong. Marc plays with the Hong Kong Symphony so he’s knows the ins and outs and showed us around.
After a few days we headed off again towards Vietnam…
We took a train to Guangzhou (2 hours) and from there, transfered to the other train station and boarded another overnight train to Nanning, China. We arrived at 5:30am and transfered over to a bus station and took an 8 hour bus over the boarder to Hanoi, Vietnam! So, exhausted an icky we quickly found our Couch Surfing host’s apartment and settled in. Heidi, a Unesco employee from Finland hosted us and showed us around the CRAZY Hanoi. She was wonderful and really made us feel welcome (on her first time hosting!). Hanoi was crazy but a lot of fun. Motorcycles everywhere, lots of haggling with merchants, and some great food. We even bought a piece of art! Pictures will follow someday
Now we are in Ninh Binh. This town is the hub for a number for famous sights such as Tam Coc and some temples. We took a day tour from Hanoi this morning and are staying here until 9pm when we get on an overnight Bus down the coast to Hue. Exausting…
The plan as of now is…
Hue for 1 night, to Hoi An the next day, one night in Hoi An, then the train to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), a day there, then off to Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a day, then on to Siem Reap – home of Angkor Wat!! We’ll stay there for 3 days then off to Bangkok for a night and then… PARIS!!

Here are a few more pictures… I’ll try to keep uploading more as soon as possible….

Enjoy and we can’t wait to see you all soon!
-Chad

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