Matt keeps complaining that I haven't posted, so here goes...

First, I would like to tell everyone about Dubai. Actually, before we got to Dubai, we flew on a lovely airline called Emirates. It is the best airline I have ever flown and only wish that I had the need to fly around the Middle East more often. We had planned to get some sleep on the overnight flight, but it was just too good to sleep through. The best part is that Emirates is often cheaper, because they own their own fuel and don't heave on that hefty fuel surcharge.

We got to Dubai (as Matt mentioned, they didn't even check for Israeli stamps), and the first thing we noticed is it was HOT. Like really hot. Like 110 degrees HOT. But that wasn't a problem, because everything is very air-conditioned, and everyone avoids the outdoors as much as possible.

We got to our hotel, had a nap and a shower, and headed out to Friday brunch (Friday is like Sunday in Dubai). While we couldn't justify the expense of getting a room at the Burj al-Arab, we did manage to talk ourselves into eating there. Brunch was amazing. King crab legs, prawns, two kinds of lobster, six kinds of caviar, foie gras, asparagus with shaved truffles, the best tableside-carved roast beef I've ever tasted. I could go on and on. It was delicious and we were there for three and a half hours. The views from the 27th floor were outstanding as well. We were actually able to make out the Palm and the construction of the World. The lobby and atrium defied description. Arab opulence at its best. I loved every second of it.

From brunch we delved straight into the other Dubai pasttime - shopping. While it is a deal for most of the world to shop in Dubai, the prices are pretty much in line with (or maybe a slight bit more than) America. However, there are some things we needed that just couldn't wait (sunglasses, SLR camera), so we happily bought them duty-free in Dubai. The mall was nice, but now that we've seen the malls in Bangkok, I'm not as impressed.

The next day, we did the only other thing you can do in Dubai when it's that hot. We went to Wild Wadi Waterpark. It was great. The slides actually propel you up! It's like a roller-coaster in a tube. We had a ton of fun, and Matt worked at boogie-boarding on the fake waves. It looked a lot harder than I would have imagined. Wild Wadi is also a strange cultural experience. Obviously, there are a lot of conservative Muslims who prefer to remain fairly modestly dressed, so you saw lots of girls in t-shirts and lightweight capri pants on the slides. You also saw tons of Westerners in little bikinis. And lots of hairy men in speedos. I did see one woman in a full-on burkha walking her little boy around the park. She was not wet, so I guess the burkha is a little too much for the slides. They also have ladies' nights once a week, so I guess everyone gets their chance to enjoy the slides. All of this is in the shadow of the Burj al-Arab hotel.

That was about all we managed to do with our two days and one night in Dubai. After a shower back at the hotel, it was time to head to the airport for another overnight flight (2 overnight flights in 3 nights!) to Bangkok. Alas, it was on Thai Airways, not Emirates, so I did get some sleep.

As for everything we've done in Thailand since Matt posted about Bangkok and Koh Tao, it's pretty much been your basic beach vacation. We left Koh Tao and headed for the Indian Ocean side of Thailand. My birthday present was the resort we stayed at on Koh Phi Phi Don (actually a pretty good deal in the low season). We explored the island and Koh Phi Phi Ley (where Leonardo DiCaprio's "Beach" is located). We were generally just very lazy. A couple of days ago, we came to Railay Bay, which is back on the mainland. We took a Thai cooking class yesterday, so I can now make Tom Yum soup and Pad Thai. Matt is doing some rock-climbing today. I'll hit the spa soon (Thailand has the best value massages in the world). We want to go diving tomorrow. And Wednesday, we are going kayaking and snorkelling at Hong Island. And that's it. Thursday we fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We are staying for three nights just to visit Angkor Wat, then we're heading to Vietnam for the rest of July.

That was quite a post. I hope you (and Matt) liked it.

I was going to start this post with the traditional Thai greeting, "Swadeesomethingorother" but its honestly quite annoying so I won't do that. It has taken us a little bit of time to really get the hang of Thailand. When we got to Bangkok we were pretty tired and I was sick for a bit, so we stayed in Bangkok for eight days and didn't really do that much. We did see the two major temples, we went on a lovely dinner cruise on the river, and saw one of the infamous cabaret shows (Though to protect our sanity, we picked the family friendly one).

Other than that, we just hung out in the incredible malls and saw a few movies in what could possibly be the best movie theaters on the planet. There is a phenomenon in Bangkok called VIP theater seats. Instead of plain old movie theater seats, you get a big reclining massage chair and there is a full bar with service to your seat. Since the theaters are so nicely refrigerated, you get a nice big blanket and pillow for your chair. Some of the theaters even have people that come around and do neck and shoulder massages before and after the show. Unfortunately, the seat was so comfortable I slept through the first half of Over the Hedge.

The food courts also deserve a special mention. Thais love street food. Thais love air conditioning. Until the invention of the food court, this was a great irreconcilable problem, but no more. So pretty much everyone seems to be eating in the mall these days because you can pick from about 100 different food stalls in air-conditioned mall comfort. They even have clever little debit cards so you don't have to constantly fiddle with small change. It really is kind of odd that the famous giant open air market at Chatuchak (what one thinks of as traditional) is loaded with Chinese, Japanese and western tourists, and all the Thais are in the climate controlled embrace of the shopping malls.

We had some major irritations with cab drivers in Bangkok though. If you're within sight of a tourist destination, its impossible to get a cab driver to take you anywhere for the meter price and they always want to take you to a tailor shop in hopes of getting a comission. Its really irritating, we actually had to get out of six cabs the other day before we found a normal cab ride. When you do find them though, they're a really good deal, as they're a lot cheaper than tuk tuks, and far more survivable. Some even have working seat belts.

Anyhow, we did eventually escape Bangkok and for the last four days we've been diving off of Koh Tao which has been lovely, and I'm finally getting a bit better with air consumption! Tomorrow we head for Krabi and then on to Koh Phi Phi for Heather's birthday. Speaking of whom, it does seem like I've been doing the majority of the long posts recently doesn't it? She mentioned something about the fact that we never blogged anything about our 32 hours in Dubai so I'll see if I can't get her to write something about that. At the very least I'll get her to do a post on her birthday.

Thanks again for reading and especially for the comments and emails about the Africa pictures. That reminds me, we've heard from our parents and friends that there are at least a handful of people out there that are reading this journal that we might not be aware of. If you're one of them, would you mind sending us an email or posting a quick comment to say hello? It can be a bit lonely on the road and we really like hearing from people. There's nothing worse than sitting down in a hot internet cafe and having no e-mail to read. Thanks!

That's right. We spent many backbreaking, neck-aching hours in various hot and seedy Internet cafes, but every last picture of our trip through Africa is now online.

View them here.

Also, we've uploaded the video of Matt's Bunji Jump! It's really big, so download it on a fast connection, and make sure you have the sound on.

By the way, we are now in Bangkok, Thailand. More on that later. It's hot.