Happy Holidays from South Africa!

We are sitting at our hotel at the Johannesburg airport, about to meet up with the Johnston family and head out for safari, Christmas and New Years. We apologize for the lack of recent posts, but beleive it or not (likely not...), we actually have written posts for our time in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Namibia and Victoria Falls! However, our new excuse is that we have had pretty spotty internet access over the last two weeks and haven't been able to upload the 100 or so pictures we'd ultimately like to post. So bear with us and expect a flurry of posts early in 2015 when we will be spending about 3 weeks in Cape Town (assuming the wifi works at our AirBnB apartment, of course!). In the meantime, we've managed to post a few pictures here and there on Instagram, where you can find us at "alexisdjohnston" and "miguelitolanger." Happy holidays and happy new year!

Love,
Alexis and Mike

How they do Christmas trees in Bali:

And Scout celebrating her first Chanukah (thanks to Scott Langer for the photos!):

Needless to say, her stufffed dreidels didn't last long.

Cambodia...aka 40+ Pictures of the Angkor Temples

Even at the early stages of our trip, we both knew that this was going to be one of the harder posts to write. The Angkor temples - outisde of the northern Cambodian city of Siem Reap - are the most impressive collection of ruins we've seen to date (and are also unlikely to be surpassed). The scale is impossible to describe or capture on camera, but as always, we'll do our best. Oh, and we also spent a few days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, which is a fantastic city in its own right.

But before we get there, the approaching holiday season has been a bit strange for us. When we run into scenes like this at the Bangkok airport...

Thailand Beaches

Other than food, Thailand is probably best known for its beaches, so we had no choice but to check out a few! We focused our time on three beaches on the Andaman Sea: Krabi, Koh Lanta and Phuket.

From Chiang Mai, we flew to the resort town of Krabi. Our hotel was beautiful, so we were pretty content to relax by the pool and beach during the day.

Chiang Mai

Before heading down to Thailand's famous beaches, we spent a few days in Chiang Mai. The most popular destination in northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is known for its temples, elephants, and (of course) food.

Beyond these Chaing Mai "basics," our first night in Chiang Mai coincided with the annual Lantern Festival, Yi Peng. We were extremely lucky in the timing of our visit, as the exact date of the festival isn't announced until just a few weeks in advance.

The main event is the release of thousands of lighted lanterns into the sky while making a wish. The resulting scene is really spectacular as the lanterns light up the sky for miles. Photos don't really do it justice, but we'll at least give it a try.

Laos

After a long hiatus...it's a two post day, so don't miss Northern Vietnam below as well!

Landlocked, and not as popular with tourists, Laos has a significantly more laid back vibe than the rest of SE Asia. We spent our time in 3 cities - Vientiane (the real capital), Vang Vieng (the tubing capital), and Luang Prabang (the tourist capital).

We travelled between these cities by bus...our first true SE Asian bus experience (the long delay was intentional). Though the distances aren't far, the road conditions make for a long journey. We will spare you the details, but while the scenery is beautiful, the terrain is mountainous and the roads are extremely windy and in poor condition. Let's just say we considered ourselves lucky to be in the fewer than 50% of passengers who made the trip without using vomit bags.

The roads:

Northern Vietnam

Our last stops in Vietnam were in the north, where we spent two days in the capital, Hanoi, sandwiched around a two day trip to Halong Bay.

Hanoi, while similar in size and pace to Ho Chi Minh City, seemed somewhat less "western-ized," i.e., we didn't see McDonalds or any other major chain stores or restaurants. Upon our arrival, we were treated to the most impressive honeymoon display to date in our hotel room.

Suppose they don't call it the "Hanoi Charming Hotel 2" for nothing.