Betsy's Blog

  ' Choum Reap Sur' Hello Cambodia! '   Wow! This is the first time in the past three months that we fully unpacked. We arrived in this second-largest city 'Siam Reap' at a new, but empty airport. It is the gateway to the 9th-century ruins of Angkor, the seat of the Khmer Kingdom in the 9th-15th century. We were first off the plane and out of Customs in two minutes. Now that's a record! A tiny taxi 'Tuk Tuk' picked us up for our $9 ride into town. We drove past skinny cows in the surrounding rice fields. Our driver explained that cows have parasites and a poor diet which cause health problems here. Cows only cost $220 in Cambodia which is a low price. There are mostly working cows here that are not sold for meat.  Ten minutes later, we arrived at our next home away from home. We were greeted by the French owner of a large expat home. We met a British guest who works online here for months. We have  a poolside room with a refrigerator and two burners for ...

  After a six-hour flight from Bangkok, we landed at a tiny open-air airport on a tiny island in the Maldives. 💦We then proceeded to Customs where we needed an online Customs Form. Hmm...we never saw that on the Internet. So we found the QR code on the wall to fill out the form, but there was no Internet in the airport. Then an employee offered to complete our form on his phone and then we took a photo of the form. He had to do that for other passengers too. Luckily, we returned to Customs and passed through successfully. It was the beginning of our rough entrance to this country. Over an hour later, the boat captain ⛵showed up from the Ferry. He said he can't take us to the island for a couple of hours because of the rough sea. Then he told us to buy sea sickness pills at the airport pharmacy which was a mob scene. Ugh! We waited in the storm that was blowing rain into the airport. Things were about to get wilder! Finally, the ferry boat arrived at the airport dock!🛥 After ...

Sawadee Kha! 📿🛕🐉⿓ Eight months have gone by and we are back in Bangkok Thailand.🌄In my previous blog, "More Thank One Night in Bangkok", this bustling city had just reopened. Bangkok is still the 'Same, Same' as Thais say often. However, I have noticed some changes. Two years ago, Thailand closed its borders during the Covid 19 Pandemic. We saw the first Chinese tour bus return eight months ago when we were last in Thailand. The Chinese borders are wide open now. When our plane landed at midnight nights ago at the Bangkok Airport, there were long Custom lines and additional lines had to be opened. At our previous visit, the only places open in Bangkok were Starbucks and McDonald's. Last night, this resilient city was full of lights, loud music, and street crowds. I felt overwhelmed when I got out of the taxi at our downtown hotel. I just looked around in shock! Bangkok is back with a vengeance. It is almost too crowded for me.  It is still the "Land of Sm...