Scratch Angkor Wat off the list

Most people have a list of places they would like to visit.  Mine goes something like this:

• Spain (Granada specifically)
• North Korea
• Burma/Myanmar (scheduled for spring 2011)
• The Moon (scheduled for July 2019 because moon tickets are surprisingly cheaper in the summer)
• Africa (the entire continent, but not Egypt, because that's politically the Middle East)
• Egypt (to find King Tut's staff)

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• And of course, inside the human body, specifically Martin Short's. 

One place that is not on that list is Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  The reason it is not on that list is because I was able to finally make it to this amazing place a few weekends ago.  Becky had already been before, but since places you go before you are married don't count, she had to do it again.  Sorry Becky, looks like those 40 European countries you visited in college don't count.  Here we come cheese museum of Switzerland!

But seriously, none of those places count for her.

Back to Angkor.  For those of you who don't know where Angkor is, it is in Cambodia.  For those of you that are still confused, Cambodia is a country.  Actually, its a country only three hours from Bangkok by car.  And Siem Reap/Angkor Wat are only three hours more once you cross the border.  You could also fly there in 45 minutes, but where is the adventure in that.  Also, it would have been like $400 more to fly.  

The weekend visit was really awesome.  It completely lived up to the hype for me.  I was really blown away by the scope of the entire place.  Angkor Wat itself is one of the most impressive human creations I've ever seen.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Becky's list:

• Egypt
• Africa (also the entire continent)
• Jordan
• Peru
• Argentina
• Greece, the musical!

What is your list?


*I wanted to title this post 'Angkor What', but it just seemed too easy and predictable.

  

Collages - A visit from Justin T. Strickland

Justin Strickland is many things.  Afraid of the camera, he is not.  Justin took over 600 pictures in his seven days in Thailand. If you include all the deletes and retakes, this number might be more like 700.  Because Justin wants to get that perfect shot, there are many retakes and duplicates of nearly the same shot.  I thought the best way to show a vacation from JStrick would be through a series of collages...with some commentary, of course.

Justin arrived on Monday, but we had to work. :(  So, Justin went and got his Bangkok temples on.

We all met downtown to check out the Bangkok nightlife.  Since Thailand is such a tourist destination, every night of the week is a party night, even Monday.

Tuesday and Wednesday, we had to work again.

But, we did have time to eat...

Finally, after a grueling three-day work week, we all three took off for Krabi on Wednesday after school.  One of the coolest parts of Railay Beach is that long tail boats are the only way in and out.  It is on a peninsula that has no roads connecting to the mainland due to the limestone formations.  This is also one of the most famous rock climbing destinations in the world.

They welcomed us by adding a dish named in our honor to the menu.

The next day, we played on the beach....

and watch monkeys do it (or so Justin claims, you be the judge)...

and got massages...

and had a contest to see who had the vainest arms.  I won. My prize - disgusting arms.

After a good night rest, we woke up to watch the Fightin' Texas Aggies beat the hell outta t.u.

Image from sports.ap.org (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

After an emotional morning, we took it easy the next few hours and went to the beach, you know, instead of working like I should have been.  Let me take a moment here to fully endorse the five day weekend.  After recovering a bit from the game, we took a sunset snorkel cruise.

I just thought Justin looked hilarious in this picture.

These pictures are in order.

This snorkel trip easily had to be the highlight of the trip.  Why?  Was it because of all the beautiful coral and tropical fish?  Perhaps the sunset completely blew us away? Maybe the bbq on the beach was magical?  Could it have been the phosphorescence that lit up the water as we swam in it?  While all of those things were great, there were two key developments on this snorkel trip that made it unforgettable.

The first was a young woman who thought it would be a good idea to wear, wait for it, a thong to snorkel in.  Please see the picture below.

Who the heck snorkels in a thong?

The second thing that made this cruise so awesome was immediately following the BBQ dinner.  We had dinner on three small islands that are all connected by sandbars, so you can walk between the islands.  Because of the tide, only a half the people could take the small boat back to the larger boat at a time.  We got stuck waiting.  In the mean time, God unleashed his fury with some of the loudest and brightest thunder and lightening I have ever heard.  And then the torrents came.

Fortunately, we made it back to the boat, and back to the beach safely.

The last day in Railay called for more beach time.  But first, we had to complete a ritual for anyone visiting Thailand: getting some tailored clothes.

Once we made it to the beach, we decided to swim out to a couple of small limestone islands just off the beach.

The view looking at Railay.

That night, we checked out the night life.

The weather was great to us the whole trip, but we woke up to rain on Sunday morning.  Thankfully, we were leaving.  Bye Bye Railay.

With only a few hours left in Thailand before Justin left, I thought I would show him our local market where Becky and I buy most of our food.

And with that, we said goodbye.  If you are keeping track at home, Justin is the first pre-marriage friend visitor I have had.  Emily Q. made it last year, as Becky's pre-marriage friend.  Katie, Dr. and Mrs. Kyle also have made the trip east.  So step it up friends and get your butts to Asia.

See you soon.

iBeck

Hacked

Let me begin by saying that I consider my father to be one of the smartest people I know.  Now that that is out of the way, we can begin our story.

Becky's email was hacked last night.  This is the harrowing story of how I was able to find out this information almost immediately, alert the authorities and have the culprits caught, jailed and killed (or so I presume, it is communist China after all).* Actually, I found out immediately, did nothing and went to bed forgetting even to tell Becky.  Oooops.

Scene: Isaac is sitting at the table, in a towel, hair damp from the warm shower he just enjoyed.  (Bear with me, I am setting the scene...that's why it said "Scene:").  Curtains open to Isaac at the end of his Skype conversation with his Dad...

Dad: Well, tell Becky we love her - Oh, I got her email. 

Isaac: What? What did she email you about?

Dad: Oh nothing, she just sent me a link.

Isaac: A link? What kind of a link? To what? [Suspicious]

Dad: Uhh, nothing, she was just telling me where she got her knew iPh...

Isaac: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't click the link!

Dad: ...one. Huh?

Isaac: It's evil Dad.  Not the iPhone, well, yes, the iPhone too, but, the link.  (That is a lot of commas...I teach English!)

Dad: Oh, OK.

Isaac: Did you click the link?

Dad: [Sigh] Yeah.  But I think I clicked out in time.

Isaac: I'm sure you did.

End Scene.

I immediately logged into Becky's email (yeah, we know each others passwords. Is that normal?  I think it is.  It's normal to us.  Stop getting me off track!). I saw that many, perhaps even you, were lucky enough to find out where Becky got her new iPhone.  Too bad Becky wasn't lucky enough to get a new iPhone.  I made a mental note to tell Becky, who had gone to bed while I chatted with my Dad, about said hackery.  So with that mental note, I went up the stairs, forgetting entirely by the third step.  These are the things Becky loves about me.

The next morning Becky g-chatted me that Gmail had emailed her about her account being accessed from China.

In closing, if you got an email from Becky about her new iPhone and clicked the link, it is only right that you admit to this in the comments section of this blog post.  Own up to it.  Maybe I will write a disclaimer about how I think you are one of the smartest people I know.  Although that is unlikely as the list includes me, my Dad and Dr. Kyle.  See, I told you I am smart, sucking up to my genius father in law...oh and Becky...whew, that was close.

*This portion of the blog will be replaced with the following if Becky and I secure employment in China next year: "This is the harrowing story of how I was able to find out this information almost immediately, alert the authorities only to find that the Chinese police had already resolved this issue completely and the criminals will have full rights to a trial by their peers(or so I presume, it is glorious China after all).

Celebrity

Since Isaac and I started dating, I have been told by many friends that Isaac looks like certain famous celebrities. Some say he looks like Hayden Cristensen. Others think he looks like Andy Sandberg (ok only Justin says that). Still others, believe that he bears an uncanny resemblance to James Franco, or as Katie likes to call him: The dude who plays Harry in Spiderman.

I have to admit that I am a little jealous that people identify him with attractive male celebrities. I never get told I look like someone famous except for this one time in 9th grade when my friend Eric told me I looked like Blossom. I went home and cried myself to sleep. It was good practice for marriage.

Woah!

Anyway, enough about my issues.

I believed that Isaac is far more attractive than any of the celebrities that people compare him to, UNTIL I realized who his TRUE celebrity look-alike is. If you are a loyal reader of the blog, as you all should be, you will know that Isaac is currently growing a mustache in honor of Movember and prostate and testicular cancer. Wait, he's not growing it in support of those cancers but to raise money to get rid of them. Sorry prostate and testicular cancer, we do NOT support you!

Ok so stay with me. He's got a mustache that has been growing for a month so he looks a little better than a pre-pubescent Mexican boy. Also, his jheri (yes, I had to look up how to spell that) curl has gotten exceptionally awesome. After Isaac's mustache began to take full force, I noticed that he reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite pinpoint who. Then, today he said "hello" to me in the break room and I KNEW! My husband is the white version of Lionel Richie! Yes, Dad, THE Lionel Richie. Your favorite musician/artistic genius!

Isaac decided to use his internets skills for good use to paste himself into the Lionel Richie "Hello" music video. Since there is no way you'll be able to figure out where Isaac is in this video, I'll tell you that it's during the least creepy part of the video when Lionel calls a blind girl on the phone and says: "Hello, is it me you're looking for"? and then immediately hangs up. I can't tell you how many times men have romantically called me like that. Wait, yes I can. ZERO! Isaac has never called me before we knew each other to say "hello" or breathe heavily into the phone or ANYTHING! Jeez Isaac! What does it take for me to get a little romance?! All you single guys reading this, feel free to take this advice.

Ok in closing let me say:

Excuse me but, there's something going on in this video. I think you oughta check it out!

It is worth watching up to the 3:49 mark!

Hello! and goodbye,

The Curreys

Click Here to donate to Movember.

In case YouTube takes down the audio, here is it on Vimeo.  Same as above.

Hello from Isaac Currey on Vimeo.

Harry Potter

"Harry Potter," as my friend Ben Raley likes to say, "is the reason I love to read."  Right on Ben.  On Saturday night, Becky, I and several other friends went to watch Harry, Hermione and Ron battle Voldemort on the big screen.

Expecto Patronum

After somebody slipped us some love potion.  

Expelliarmus

Magical Mustache..."Riddikulus"

iBecky Readers:  Donate to Movember here.  It raises money for prostate cancer and testicular cancer research.  It is also a great excuse for me to grow an entirely ridiculous mustache.

Japan Part Two - Kyoto

After spending a couple of days in Tokyo, we made our way south to Kyoto.

I only want to travel on things that have 'bullet' in the description.

We couldn't take any pictures inside of this 'castle', but it was very cool.  I felt like Tom Cruise in 'The Last Samurai', only less crazy and taller.

Sakeeeeeeeeee

Look how excited the lower half of Becky's face is!

Pagoda.  Tallest in Japan.  Guess who just checked something off his bucket list?

Emily, Becky, and Erin.

Howdy.  I like to spread Aggie spirit to the world when I travel.

This picture deserves to be clicked on to get a better look.  The girls in the first row got VERY excited when I took out the camera.  Stupidly, I did not go and get in this picture.  My biggest regret of the trip.

Lots of Japanese tourists here.  Lots of school groups.  Lots of English practice.

PLEASE CLICK THIS PIC.  Read the blue thank you note.

Old Kyoto was awesome.

This is supposedly the most beautiful street in Asia.

What do you think?

See ya Kyoto...next stop, Hiroshima.