photos in toe‏

hum...well, that last story about us motorbiking in the city, i had the rest of it written and was planning on sending it now but ha, poof it seems ot have disapeared.  Not to worry, the motorbike did break down and cause some trouble but we lived through it.
 
Any who that was a while ago.  Right now Rachael and I are on one of probably our coooolest adventures ever.  In Hanio, Vietnam along with two friends we rented little 125cc honda motorcycles and headed north into the mts.  Absolutly amazing!!  The roads just wind up and over mountain passes and through the greenest valleys imaginable.  We've been staying in little towns where no one speaks even one word of enghish and so we are mastering our mima-sations.  Even though it seems like it should be easy we are finding one of the most difficult things is to find food.  There are resturants in every town but they arn't always marked and menus dont exist so we keep ending up with double deep fried whole minoes (little fish), bones head and all they are actually tastier then one would imagine.
Yesterday we drove up and over one of the most incrediable passes, with out exaduration i would guess that just on the way up the mountain there were 100 switchbacks, and the pavement was quite good!  The motorbike driving was so fun i was actually laughing most of the time.
I wanted to end with another to be continued...but i can't think of any. so instead i'll atach some fun photos.
 
love micah and Rachael

Monkies on the Roof‏

as i was saying...Rachael insisted the two foot wide dirt track we were following wasn't going to take us all the way back to town and that instead we were going to end up in some farmers front yard.  I didn't necessarly disagree but the track was so much fun to ride the motorbike on and the view of the river and the farms was so stunning i figured we at least had to see where it ended up, for all we knew there might be a big pot of gold waiting for us.  As it winded past smiling families under there stilted bamboo homes the track got narrower until infact we did end up right in some farmers front yard, just as Rachael had predicted.  The whole extended family was under the house, escaping the hottest part of the day, staring right at us.  It was difficult to look like we knew where we were going, i tired to pretend like i didnt' even notice them as i scanned to the left and then to the right of the house hoping the track continued...but it didn't.  So we gave them all big smiles and said one of the few words we'd learned in Cambodian, "Suesday!"  Which is silly really since even the farmers who dont' speak any english use the word hello to answer the phone and to great eachother, but you can tell everyone appreciates us at least trying.  
Moments later we were under the house with the whole family eating their local qua-zeen (possible spelling error there) a sort of lady finger banana coated in sweat rice and beans and then all wrapped up and steamed in a banana leaf.  They were suprizingly good and we each ate one, only after eating one they wanted us to eat another, which we did, and guess what they wanted us to eat yet another...you get the idea
We spent the better part of an hour sitting on a big wooded table under the house with the family, there was the father, 3 daughters and a number of the daughters kids as well as some of the neighbors kids.  One of the daughters about our age could speak a little english as she had just started studding so it was only really with her we spoke, everyone else we just smiled with.  She was so excited to have a chance to practice the english she'd been studding.  She showed us her wedding photos and we were invited back to dinner the next night, although we had to decline as we were leaving the next day.  
It was really great to meet a local family,  the experience alone definately upped Cambodia on to our list of "Places You Must Visit!" (Yes i mean YOU!)
We snapped a photo of us with some of the family (more then half of them were to shy to get in the photo) that we are going to send them a copy of when we get home.  
 
5 days in Bangkok, which we actually enjoyed a lot more then we thought we were going to, 2 days in Battembang, Cambodia, where we met the family, 8 hours on a boat past fishermen and floating villages, 3 days in Siem Reap checking out the ancient temples and we've found ourselves in the very crouded, very busy, not so nice city of Penom Pene.  Actually lots of travelers say they really like the place, maybe we are just over cities.  We'd have probably just left for Vietnam the same day we arrived but our visas don't start until the 13th so we've been forced to hang out here for a couple of days.  There are a lot of things most the the travelers do, like visit a genicide museum that has 8,000 skulls on display, (does not appeal to us in the least, i dont' want to see one executed persons skull let alone thousands) go to a range were you can test out your skills with an ak47,( also does not appeal to us), visit another palace (nap), see more temples (no).  So we've decided to create our own adventure.
Dispite the fact that our first evening here we actually wittnessed two separate motorbikest being hit by cars we decided to rent a motorbike and get out of the city.  Only 20 minutes after renting the thing it stalled out and...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(to be continued next time)
 
i wanted to send photos but these computers won't let me...next time
 
Love Micah and Rachael

Fly Fishing

Hello Awesome everybody!!!
Rachael and Micah again.  That was awesome, we just checked my inbox after not using the internet for quite some time and we had something like 25 new emails.  thanks everybody for writing back, it is great to hear what yalls up to.
 
I was really glad to see that anyone had actually read the last email as after sending it i felt kind of bad.  I know exactly what it is like to get messages from friends and family boasting about how much dam fun their having traveling while you read the email at work and think, 'those bastards'. Yes i did say bastards, i know this email is going to a variety of age groups and that maybe the word 'bastard' is not entirely approprate but what the hell, yes i said hell, i cant help my self, that is how my mind thinks.  (if you dont like it you'll have to write to my parents and consult them about my unruly upbringing, the'll love that)  I actually tried erasing the word bastard and yes the word hell as whell and replacing them with words like baddies and heck but it just sounds like shit when i do that, so bastards, hell and shit it is.
 
Back to it...i was saying i felt bad writing my last email.  Today i tried thinking about how to fix that, should i write an email, down playing just how much fun we are having, should i lie and say Rachael got her leg removed after getting gang-green and that last night we were robbed at gun point, not to mention the melaria.  Hum...naa that really wouldn't be right, i'd be lying and swaring at the same time.  Instead i've decided i'm gunna tell it just how it is and if you don't lik it ...well then you can go online and order a guide book to Thailand your self and get your ars over here!!
The little of southeast asia we've seen so far is amazing, the people are the friendliest on the plant, the food is utterly amazing and conviently it is guitfully cheap, almost to cheap.  You can eat for $1 a meal and get hour messages on the beach for $5.  Wooooooo
 
Right now wé are sitting in a park on the edge of the major water way through the city of Bangkok at dusk.  Relaxing on a park bench watching the most rediculous display of arobics you have ever seen. The instructor, a young man, looks like a jumping bean on speed while 40 mothers struggle to mimic even a single one of his eratic moves.  It is so funny i've just jumped up and taken a video clip i'll try and attach to this email. (this is a journal excert so obviously the term 'right now' which the paragraph begins with is actually a different right now then you may be living, Right Now.) ha
 
After spending 2 weeks on Thailands southern islands we made our way back north to Bankok, 5 days there getting our visas for Vietnam and now we are in Cambodia.  Spent our first night in  Battembang, a town close to the Thai boarder.  At first we were like...ewww...it is so dirty and dusty and poor and everyone looks like they are struggling, what have we gotten oursleves into, maybe we should have skipped this country.  But the next day we rented a motorbike and headed our into the country side, puttering down country roads sourounded by farms, farmers and Huge Smiles.  It was beautiful, the dirt and dust were gone and people didnt' look so poor, they were just happy farmers living off the land like thed been doing for the past couple thousand years.  Randomly we turned down a dirt track following the edge of the river.  It wasn't a road but we saw another motorbike drive down it so we figured we check it out.  Rachael insisted it wasn't going to take us where we wanted to go and that we were going to end up in someones back...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(TO BE CONTINUED)
 
Thanks again to everyone who wrote back, it made our day
 
 
Love Rachael and Micah!!!

Southeast Asia

Hum...It's Micah here if you hadn't already guessed...I've been wanting very much to write an email to all me friends and family, and its not that i havn't had a chance, i've had pleanty, infact all we've been doing for the past two weeks is relaxing on the beach and chowing down on amazing food.  

Typically while Rachael and I are traveling my emails are about among other things, getting altude sickness on my birthday on a 6000m peak in mexico, loosing 25 lbs from ecoli, getting stung by a sting ray on a deserted beach in elsalvador and havning locals poor boiling water on the wound...you get the idea, narrawly excaping death, disaster and disease.  Those are the things i like writing about.  Its easy, all i have to do is tell the story, maybe embelish it a bit to make Rachael and i look like super heroes, but its easy.  

This on the other hand, basking in the sun, getting messages, hiking in the jungle, snorkeling, eating out 3 meals a day, living the high life.. how am i suppoed to write about that. haha

Maybe first i'll jump back to the beginning and clue everyone in to where we are writing from.  

Lets start at the beginning...i was born in Rumney, NH, my parents were ostrage farmers selling eggs at the local...maybe not that far back.

After getting married this summer Rachael and i stayed around NH working for the family.  Kept ourselves busy driling hundreds of holes in the outside of the apartment buildings and blowing in celulose insulation (thats chopped newspaper coated with fire retardant if you didn't know).  Really it wasn't that bad, infact it was even fun at times.  Especially sicne we were failrly sure we were going to leave right after christmas...right after Rachael passed her NCLEX (US national nursing exam).  She studdied for months and unfortunatly didnt' pass.  It wasn't the end of the world (although it felt like it for Rachael for quite some time) she was allowed to retake the test 6 weeks later after giving them another 500 buck.  Only problem was this meant we couldn't leave, arrr.  

In the long run i am glad, not that she failed her exam but that we were able to stick around NH for a good part of the winter.  It was awesome, lot of snow, lots of friends, insane amounts of back country sledding and we bought new backcountry ski setups that we used 3 or 4 days a week.  WooHoo go winter.

Back to the current story.  After another couple months of studding Rachael retook her exam...and bloody passed.  It was quite a sight, we hooted and hollared and danced around for days.  The dark cloud that had been looming over our heads for so long had lifted, we were free again!!!

The winter was great but the temptation for warmpth and something was different greater.  

A couple of days after passing her exam Rachael and I bought return plane tickets to Bangkok, Thailand.  THree and a half months in southeast asia sounded like just what we were looking for...

Thirty six hours later we landed... (TO BE CONTINUED)

 hope everyone is awesome!!!

Love Micah and Rachael