Team America

Boogie Nights

2007-06-06T06:12:00.001-07:00

Our final week in Europe, and the international portion of the trip, we danced. Never has so much sweat been shed onto dance floors in Germany and The Netherlands. Our second to last night in Berlin we met a friend of Maria's at a car dealership - not really expecting to dance. The showroom floor had several concept cars on display along with a space cleared out for a DJ and his accompanying saxophone player. At first it seemed like an odd pairing, but it worked really well. There were a handful of people on the dance floor, but were there as part of a pub crawl so left early. The four of us (Sara, Maria, Nicole, and I) took it upon ourselves to revive the dance crowd. Unfortunately, the Berlin dance community wasn't ready for us, especially Sara and I, and I think our intense style scared more people away than anything.That first night was just an unexpected warm up for the following night. We spent most of the day eating home cooked food and brushing up on our dance moves. Sara and Maria found an online database of verbal descriptions of popular dance moves. We took turns reading the descriptions while another acted out the dance and tried to guess the name of the dance move. The writing was pretty vague and some of the moves were new to me, but in general it was effective training. Before hitting the town we had some hair and make up prep time. Sara provided the hair assistance for the ladies and, for the first time ever, tried out some eye make up. Hot stuff, let me tell you. We destroyed the dance floor again, but, as with the previous night, I'm not sure Berlin was ready for us. I think we made it home around four or five AM. The sun was definitely on its way up.On Saturday we said our goodbye to Maria - an incredibly gracious host; thank you, again! - and drove across Germany to Amsterdam. The drive took a little longer than we expected and we didn't make it into the city until about 8:30pm. By the time we met up with Stephan at around 9 I thought the evening was about over - we were exhausted from two nights of dancing and a long car drive. But we wanted to catch up with Stephan and went out for some dinner. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but the night wasn't over until 5:00am the next morning. We started with a few drinks at a bar, met up with Reinier, and then Stephan took us to a club. We weren't exactly dressed for the club, but Stephan knew the owner and was able to get us in the door. It wasn't the most packed dance floor I've ever seen, but it was probably the hottest and most humid. By the end of the morning we were soaked in sweat from head to tow. Most of the clubs in town were shutting down as we left and the streets were packed with people heading home from a night on the town. The primary mode of transportation in Amsterdam is bicycle - I have never seen so many bikes! - and it was pretty comical watching people try to unlock their bikes and ride home. The sun was just starting to paint the sky a light blue and the city looked incredible in the early light.The next day we rented bikes and rode around the town with Stephan. Just cruising through the streets and canals was entertaining. We did some sight seeing along the way and took a break or two at a coffee shop for some, uh, coffee. Beautiful weather and great scenery. We were hoping to meet up with one of Stephan's friends who had a boat to cruise through the canals, but it didn't pan out so we took a tourist boat cruise. Although growing up in and around Amsterdam, Stephan had never been on one before so it was kind of fun for him, too. It was interesting how much more we noticed from the perspective of the canal. Maybe because it forces you to look up - you see the buildings a lot better and can appreciate the incredibly cramped architecture (one of the buildings was only as wide as a single window). That night we met up with Stephan's girlfriend for dinner and that was about it. We were pretty worn out from the last few evenings and enjoyed a laid back night.Our last day in Amsterdam started out slowly, but ended up being one of the best days of our trip! For most of the morning and early afternoon we just biked around the city stopping at a flea market, cruising by the Heineken brewery, and a couple other sights. It seemed like it was going to be a fairly anticlimactic end to our trip. We planned to meet up with Stephan and Reinier, but we had no idea Reinier was going to offer to take us out to his family windmill! Just to give you a little background on how absurdly amazing this is: there are 60 million people in Holland; about 1000 windmills still standing; only 100 of them are privately owned (most are state owned for historical preservation or tourism); and, according to Reinier, maybe 10 people who can actually operate them. The Reinier Windmill is one of those ten windmills. It was originally constructed in the mid 1800's and purchased by Reinier's Grandfather shortly after World War Two. The family uses it mostly as a vacation house - the inside of the windmill feels a bit like a beach cabin - but have made a huge effort to renovate the structure. Windmills are used for two purposes: pumping water out of irrigation ditches (because Holland is below sea level), and grinding wheat. Reiniers windmill is used for pumping water and accomplishes this using a giant screw turned by the windmill. One of the major renovations the family has completed was replacing the original screw. The old screw, basically a large tree trunk with iron blades mounted along its length, was still on his property and was in remarkably good shape considering it was about 150 years old. Reinier also gave us a tour of the building in which we were able to see how the gears interlock and how to operate the massive sails. He also let me and Stephan climb up one of the sails - very cool view.The surrounding countryside was all farm land - it would have been nice just to walk around that area, let alone seeing the windmill. After the tour we setup a table and some chairs and enjoyed the scenery with a couple bottles of wine. As the sun set we jumped into the river nearby for a quick swim. Unbelievable evening and yet a perfect example of the incredible luck and amazing people we've met along the trip. If you're reading this, thank you both so much for everything! Stephan, especially, for letting us crash at your apartment. Truly, a perfect ending to our trip.The next morning, Tuesday, we were up at about 5AM to drive to Dusseldorf for our flight back to the US. At the airport we were shocked that it was actually coming to an end. Saying goodbye to Sara was really hard - we had such so much fun over the last few weeks and the end crept up on us so fast that I think it caught us off guard. Sara, as with the other friends and family that we have traveled with on this trip (both in America and abroad) are the real reason we have been able to enjoy our time on the road. Thank you, also, Sara for everything. We wouldn't have lasted as long as we did without having Germany to look forward to. Without any doubt, the time together with her was very special and a memory we will always treasure.(I tried to get a nice picture of Sara, but she wouldn't smile....so this is what you get!)The picture below was taken in Dusseldorf airport just before taking off. We wanted to document the bags that we carried since November. Especially note the bag Nicole has been traveling with - it holds everything that she has needed throughout the trip. Impressive, to say the least and, without a doubt, the smallest bag I've seen anyone traveling with on our trip

Ich bin ein Berliner!

2007-05-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we drove from Trochtelfingen to Innsbruck, Austria to do some hiking in the Alps. The drive itself was absolutely gorgeous - green rolling hills; postcard perfect towns with German regulation red roofs and a singular church towering above all other buildings at the middle of town; blue sky and warm spring sun; the clear waters of Lake Constance. We stopped for lunch in Freierburg and sat by the lake while enjoying the cool breeze. Unfortunately the weather turned a bit darker once in Austria and most of the two hour drive was on a freeway through tunnels up to 11 kilometers in length. By the time we reached Innsbruck a lightning storm and heavy rains were settling into the valley. It was too late to do any hiking anyways, so we walked around the town was one of the sites of the 1964 and 1976 winter Olympics and was nice to just walk around the streets.The next day we hiked up Hefelekar Mountain where we had a great view of the city below and about forty peaks on the horizon. We were going to take a cable car to the top, but tickets weren't on sale when we arrived due to maintenance. They weren't sure when it would be operating again so we started hiking up one of trails. Of course it was about ten minutes into the hike that we saw the first car pass overhead. We were glad, though, that we hiked because we were able to spend most of the day outside and get some exercise. The weather cooperated just long enough for us to hike up most of the way and then back down to our car. That evening we drove back to Germany and stayed in Uberlinger, a town located on the Northern coast of Lake Constance. The next morning we rented bikes and road along a really nice bike path along the water. The weather could not have been better and it was another really nice day of being outdoors and enjoying the scenery. During the ride we also stopped for some delicious Curry Wurst and Radler.

That night we drove back to Trochtelfingen and spent another evening downing beer and hanging out by the backyard fire. It was really nice to be back 'home' at the Heinz House. We probably should have gone to bed earlier and with fewer drinks because we were up painfully early the next morning to drive to Ulm for a church service and the baptism of Solveig's niece. Nicole and I were debating up to the last minute wether to go, but were glad we pushed through the early morning pain. The service was really pleasant - even though niether of us understood a word. After the baptism we walked around the city with Sara and her friend Maria (whom we are staying with in Berlin). Nicole and I walked up the Ulm Munster Cathedral - the tallest church in the world! 732 steps and several nutt to butt decisions later, we had an amazing view of the country side - including two cooling towers....Nuke Power!! After a couple hours at a cafe we met back up with Solveig's family and had the opportunity to hang out with all seven of the siblings. It was a fun afternoon with tons of eating. (By popular request, the beard is gone)The next day we were up early again to say goodbye to Solveig - she flew back to the states - and drive up to Berlin. The drive marked the final leg of my infamous Bangkok to Berlin over land goal - a mostly absurd but, I think, a unique and interesting accomplishment. It was a fairly uneventful trip along the Autobahn and arriving in Berlin wasn't as climactic as I envisioned. Similar to Bangkok, there wasn't really a definitive cityscape or moment where we really felt like we had arrived. Actually, and this may be more of a sign that it's been almost seven months since we were in the US, the city feels a lot like being in Seattle or Brooklyn. We spent the evening walking around a trendy cafe district near Maria's apartment apartment and settled on some amazing Lebanese food.The next day we visited some of the major tourist attractions while walking through the city. The city has an incredible amount of history - especially during the 20th century. I think our favorite stop that day was The Checkpoin Charlie Museum - an odd collection of posters, escape devices, and documentary videos from the duration of The Wall. One of the most impressive displays was a full size VW Bug demonstrating an escape comparment located under the engine block used to transport someone from East to West Berlin. It was incredible to see some of the lengths people went to in order to escape East Berlin. Walking along the remanents of the wall and going to the museum was a powerful experience. Hard to believe how recently it was taken down.

Yesterday we took a break from tourism. Sara and Nicole went out in the town for some shopping while I accomplished the miraculous feat of taking a shower. That night we met up with several of Sara's friends - she seems to have inherited an international version of my mom's ability to know people everywhere - at a resturaunt and then some drinks. Today we spent about six hours in the German History Museum. It was a very well presented collection of over 2000 years of historical artifacts and correspoding explanations. More than half the exhibition was 20th century, but it was nice to learn about pre-20th century as well. We'll be in Berlin for another two days and then we're going to drive over to Amsterdam to meet up with Stephan and Reinier again. It will be an entirely wholesome weekend of family fun.

Trochtelfingen

2007-05-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

(this blog features guest commentary from Sara)
Our bus ride to Germany ended up relatively painless. The bus was not very full, so we were able to stretch out and get some sleep overnight. . . which ended up being a good thing, because we had a full day ahead of us! Sara and Solveig picked us up at the bus station (which seemed like a great luxury after months of arriving in a new place and immediately trying to navigate public transport). As it turns out, we arrived in Stuttgart the same day the local soccer team, VFB Stuttgart was playing for the German national championship. There was a closed off area and a viewing screen in the Schlossplatz- in the same style as what you saw on TV for the world cup. So, after lunch at a sidewalk cafe (and the corresponding Euro sticker shock) we headed to the square to watch the game. At first it seemed like a really sweet set up; a sunny day, cold beer, and an enthusiastic crowd. But, it turned out there was a little too much enthusiasm- the city planned for 20,000 people in the downtown area for the game and 100,000 showed up. It was too much for us, so we left before the game even started- although fighting our way out of the crowd was a feat in itself which took a good 45 minutes. (Sara says: for a while it looked like we would never make it to freedom, and then Solveig came up with the brilliant plan to huddle behind a huge German man who seemed to be making good progress. He just took very slow, steady steps, and he was so big no one could push him out of the way. He didn't notice us behind him until we got out of the crowd, but we thanked him profusely for leading us to safety)After the VFB experience we headed back to Solveig's home town of Trochtelfingen, to the Heinz house. Trochtelfingen is a picturesque German town in the Swabian Alps complete with narrow stone streets, old wooden buildings, red rooves, and of course a brewery. The Heinz house itself is an oasis of wonderful hospitality. It has been such a nice, relaxing place for us to wind down our trip. The first night we were there they had a 'Cultural Symposium' party. Five of the seven kids, the parents, and three freinds of the family came over to the house to barbeque. After the barbeque, during which a lot of beer was consumed, all of us squeezed into The Winzig, a small wooden fort in the backyard (Sara says: the fort was originally built when the Heinz offspring were just kids... but they have maintained, and added on to the fort and they still use it for birthday parties and the cultural symposium). The inside is setup like a bar, but its only about four feet tall, so it gets pretty tight - especially with fifteen people inside. In the past the family has done these symposiums but with a specific focus; one time an art exhibit and another a poetry recital. This time it was an open symposium so there were songs, stories, and an interpretive dance among other things. Fifteen people ranging in age from 20 to 60 crammed into a children's fort, singing songs, and drinking beer. A fun night to say the least and our first indication that this family was a little be different than most. (Sara says: Andrew was the one who provided the AMAZING interpretive dance - one to represent each country, or part of the world they have visited so far. It was truly spectacular and he became an instant Heinz family favorite afterwards. One of Solveig's brother even ran over and gave him a hug after he was done. If you see him when he get's back, you should definitely ask for a repeat performance)In addition to German beer, we have also had the opportunity to sample some home cooked traditional Swabian Food. (Note from Sara: both Andrew and Nicole were too lazy to finish this blog so I am doing it for them. From now on everything is from yours truly). Two particularly Swabian dishes have been Spätzle (home made noodles) and Knödel (a kind of mashed potato ball). Andrew and Nicole actually helped Solveig's mom make Spätzle, and she thought they were very cute. We have also had quite a few bbq meals around the fire pit in the backyard.Andrew and Nicole were pretty exhausted when they got here. I think they really appreciated the opportunity to just hang out with a family in a home and not have to be on the move all the time. It's actually been difficult for me to get them out of the house! I don't mind at all because the Heinz Disneyland (as I like to call it) is one of my favorite places in the world. We have managed to take a few day trips though - one afternoon wandering around Trochtelfingen. Solveig gave us a tour, and we stopped in a beer garden for a Radler (a summer time drink of beer mixed with sprite - it sounds wierd but it is delicious).Yesterday we went to Tübingen, a beautiful city and home to one of the oldest universities in Germany. It is a great city for just wandering - complete with winding stone streets, and a hilltop castle with an incredible view - and that is mostly what we did. After another beer garden Radler we rented a paddleboat and took a tour around the river. The weather was beautiful and since Andrew did most of the peddling we had a nice relaxing ride. We even stopped under the branches of a weeping willow for some Little Mermaid moments ;)Today we are heading out for Austria to do some hiking in the Alps. I'm having a hard time convincing Andrew and Nicole to leave the Heinz Disneyland, but I would feel remiss if I didn't take these two nature lovers to the Alps while they are here. I can't say I blame them though. The Heinz home and family are truly beyond words. Andrew also has a very intense table Fussball competition going on with Solveig's dad (don't tell him I told you, but as Reiner said, Andrew was: 'taken to town and stomped!' in the first bout), so we will definitely be coming back here for another few nights before we head for Berlin.

Polska is Sweetskie

2007-05-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

The morning after the Viking-Rock concert we took a bus from Tallinn to Warsaw, Poland. We arrived too late to really see much of the city, but what we saw of the countryside while passing through Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland was really nice. We spent our first day in Warsaw just walking through the city, hanging out in the parks, and eating. Nothing too spectacular, but it was nice to be able order food in English. I think we ate kebabs for every lunch and dinner while in Warsaw. The kebabs had, of course, a Polish flare and included cole slaw and a giant pickle along with the usual tomatoes, cucumber, and lamb. It was actually a good combo and the price was right due to the abundant competition. Some parts of town literally had three or four kebab stands lined up next to each other. The parks were perfect for people watching and the old town was a charming place to see a little of the history. The entire city was levelled during World War II, but it has been complete reconstructed to look as it did before the war.

On our second day we went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Dedicated to the people of Poland who fought against the German occupiers, it contained several war relics and information about their battle for independence. It portrayed their fight for freedom against the German Army as well as the eventual loss to Soviet Russia. Both the Occupation Museum in Tallinn and the Warsaw Uprising Museum demonstrated the dogged determination of the people of an occupied nation. The hostel in Warsaw filled up on Monday, so we were forced to train down to Krakow a day early. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Krakow is touted as "the new Prague" and is an incredibly backpacker-friendly city. We're staying in possibly the nicest hostel to date and the staff is unbelievably helpful. Along with nice accommodation, the city - especially in the old town - and surrounding area is full of rich history.Yesterday we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It was an emotionally difficult day and seeing those places first hand was overwhelming. For me the most powerful display was a shelf of two tons of hair - approximated to have been removed from at least 40,000 women after they were gassed. The hair was used as a supplement for clothing or other fabric production. Also displayed in the room was a roll of cloth that you could clearly see included hair. We were also shown the average living area for the prisoners. Even seeing the berthing, it was impossible to imagine how crowded it must have been. Something like 800 people were crammed into prefabricated barns originally designed to house 52 horses. Afterwards we were totally exhausted - it was pretty much all we did that day.Today we walked around the old town, Warwel Castle, and the Jewish District. Unfortunately the weather isn't cooperating and the cold drizzle (home sweet home) has driven us inside. We decided to come to Poland mostly a geographically convenient break between St Petersburg and Stuttgart, but it has become one of our favorite stops despite the so-so weather. There is something about Krakow, especially- green parks, beautiful buildings, interesting history, tons of young people- I can't say what exactly it is that gives the city such a nice feel. We will be here in Krakow for another day and a half and then take our final bus ride to Stuttgart to meet up with Sara! Having some problems uploading pictures at the moment. I'll try to get more up soon.

St. Petersburg to Warsaw

2007-05-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been a busy combination of celebrating, sight seeing, and traveling. The State Hermitage Museum was the most overwhelming tourist attraction that we've visited on the trip so far; the day spent getting lost in the myriad halls of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts was truly mind boggling. We mostly viewed oil paintings by just about every famous artists imaginable: Picasso, Van Gogh, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Monet just to name a few. It was too much to see in one day and we barely did the place justice, but obviously still worth every minute. Marilyn, Nicole decided she'll have to come back to St. Petersburg with you sometime to do the place justice!

Our last full day in Russia was May 9th, a huge holiday for Russians and celebration of their victory over Germany in 1945. We got up early hoping to see a parade of tanks and missile launchers, but all we found was a slightly busier than usual street and dismally wet weather. After camping out in a cafe near Nevsky street for a couple hours we gave up on our hopes of seeing a parade and returned to the hostel to rest up for the evening. We new for sure that there would be fireworks at night and hoped that more people would be out celebrating at that point. So we picked up some Oxotaca beers (2L plastic bottles of 8% alc/vol sludge...we affectionately pronounced it Exotica) and threw a small party in the hostel with Reinier, Stephan, Ron, and Sam (Ron and Sam are officers stationed in Japan that were on leave). Swigging down the Exotica, it didn't take long for us to be confident that we were going to have a good time that night regardless of the situation on the streets. So we piled out into the streets after some fine dining at a Carl's Jr. across the street...yeah, we're not in Asia anymore.

Nevsky street was crazy. I've honestly never seen that many people mobbed into a city street before. From what I've seen on TV it is reminiscent of New Year's Eve in New York City, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were even more than that. It took about 45 minutes to walk from our hostel to the Neva River, just next to The Hermitage. As far as we could see, both sides of the river were packed with people and car traffic was completely stopped. Being at almost 60 degrees North, the sun didn't set until after 10 PM and the fireworks didn't start until about 11. The crowd comprised of mostly young people and were predictably drunk and rowdy. Several people were trying to scramble up a nearby tree for a better view and the police tried, unsuccessfully, to stop them. The fireworks were nice, but nothing spectacular. It was mostly just fun being in a big crowd of excited people. After the fireworks almost everyone started walking back down Nevsky street; waving flags and singing songs sort of like a soccer match chant. The street was packed shoulder to shoulder all the way across and the column of people seemed to stretch on as far as we could see. It was one of those mob scenes where the line between riot and celebration was paper thin - the sound of glass bottles breaking, people climbing up light poles to steal flags, small scuffles, the dull roar of a crowd, and public urination. All the necessary elements of mild chaos and a hell of a good time.

The next morning we woke up early, and a bit hung over, to catch a bus to Tallinn, Estonia (yes, two n's). Fortunately, it was only a six hour bus ride and comfortable enough to sleep for most of the trip. Estonia ranks 2nd or 3rd in our list of random places we've been while traveling. I don't think I knew it existed before we started planning our way out of Russia a few weeks ago, but I'm not exactly a geographical wizard. It turned out to be a pleasant stop on our way to Germany. Even more European than St. Petersburg, the Medieval old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to St. Olav's Church (the tallest building in the World from 1549 to 1625). It's an attractive and interesting city with a tumultuous history. We spent most of the one day we were there in the Occupation Museum - an account of Soviet, then German and then Soviet (again) occupation during the better part of the 20th century.We noticed during the day that a stage being setup in the old town square early in the day and I made a point of returning later that night, a Friday, to see if there was any free music. The concert was one of the most hilarious live shows I've ever seen. I would call it, for lack of a better term, Viking-Metal-Rock. The smoke machine had just started pumping out its first few puffs when I arrived and there was some pre-show music playing along with a bit of green lighting. There was a small, but lively crowd of about 200 people packed up to the stage - a strange mix of tourists and rock enthusiasts. Nothing very interesting. The bass player walked out first and the crowd let out the usual mildly approving screams that a bass player usually gets. He picked up his bass and started playing some a few notes. The lead singer and drummer walked out next - more screams. It was at this point that I noticed that they were wearing tunics and chain mail. All three had long blond hair and the the lead guitar had some nice mutton chop side burns and a handlebar moustache. The three of them started playing a slow intro riff and I had seen just about enough when the fourth member of the band strutted onto stage, also wearing a tunic but no chain mail, with his electric bagpipe! That's when the crowed went ballistic and I noticed two men dancing in full mascot-like-costumes: one a giant orange fox and the other a man sized bunny rabbit. It was as if Spinal Tap, Rammstein, and a Viking had four children and they formed a band. Amazing. The bagpipe player also played a recorder and a lap harp and if you can rock those three things I think you can rock anything. It's hard to pick a favorite song, but they had an amazing Gregorian chant intro followed by early Metallica-esque thrash metal that I think takes the cake. All that combined with guteral Eastern European lyrics and rolled r's and was too good to be true.

The next day was spent entirely on a bus from Tallinn to Warsaw, Poland. Nothing exciting to report there, except that Poland is surprisingly reminiscent of Western Pennsylvania. On the whole, our time in Poland has been great. The weather is nice and it feels just like Spring at home. Nicole is out doing some shopping - throroughly enjoying the reasonably priced clothing stores. We'll probably spend another day in Warsaw and then head down to Krakow for a couple days before meeting Sara in Stuttgart this weekend! More pictures soon.

Mother Russia

2007-05-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

The Trans-Siberian ended up being an okay ride, if a little bit anti-climactic. Siberia IS really beautiful, but the part we saw is pretty much birch forests and wooden houses. . . for three full days. Interesting variety came from the change in seasons as we traveled north and south- some places where still covered in snow while others where quite green with even an occasional patch of flowers (that was exciting).

Monotony aside, there where a few definite highlights. The first day we shared the room with a Major in the Russian Army who is a tank commander. He was friendly and willing to try to communicate with us (he spoke a little English and we have a Russian phrase book). He introduced us to pine nuts eaten out of shell like sunflower seeds, and was generally a really good roommate. The language barrier was frustrating, though. We where so interested in hearing what he had to say, and he seemed interested in us, too- but the scope of conversation was sadly limited by the language.The language barrier continued to be a frustration for the rest of the trip. We ended up taking a local Russian train, which meant a lot of Russians. It was cool, but we wanted to talk to them and there was no way. I interacted most with a little girl from the cabin next door. It took her a little while to get up the courage to talk to me, and probably a full day for her to understand that I didn't speak Russian. But after that she came by a lot just to look (she especially liked watching me play solitaire). She also taught me the names of all the barnyard animals in one of her books in Russian (which I promptly forgot).

Some of the best monotony breakers where the vendors outside the train when we stopped. Women selling a wide variety of interesting food and drinks swarmed the trains with boiled potatoes, whole smoked fish, dumplings, bread, coleslaw, beer, pine nuts, and quite a few things that I could not identify. But it was fun to look, and to supplement our diet of cup-o-noodles.

After four days, we finally reached the big city bravado of Moscow, quite a change from the stiletto heels and mullets of Irkutsk (Scott, if you do ever make it to Baikal you won't need to spend much time in Irkutsk- Dostoevsky in exile and wooden houses aside it is pretty much just like the Big Town). An incredible city, but, unfortunately, also one of the most expensive in the world. We paid way to much for our hostel and, consequently, booked an onward ticket to St. Petersburg after only one day. We were still able to see most of the major attractions including St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, The Kremlin Armoury, and the Subway Stations. It may sound strange to list the subway as a major attraction, but it was amazing. Elaborate mosaics of Lenin and Soviet era workers line the ceiling of almost all of the major stations. It is easily the most ornate subway I've ever scene and also one of the most effective.We previously mentioned May 1 as a big holiday, but Russia is also in the midst of preparing for the 9th of May - celebrating it's victory over Germany in World War II. It's sort of a combination of Veterans Day and 4th of July. Statues of famous veterans crushing swastikas are all over both Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is understandably a major event considering the massive loss of life during the war (over 23 million as compared to 400,000 Americans). St. Petersburg was under siege for 900 days ; over 1 million people died of starvation. There is also a lot of news related to the Estonia-Russia conflict inflamed by a war memorial being moved out of the Estonian capital city of Tallinn - the Estonians say because it reminds them of Soviet occupation. The timing, however, has led to riots in Tallinn and Moscow as well as most companies in Russia banning Estonian made products.We arrived in St. Petersburg yesterday morning and have thoroughly enjoyed the European vibe of the city. We've spent most of the time walking up and down Nevsky Boulevard and have visited St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Fortress, and The Church of the Savior on Blood. Tomorrow we're going to The Hermitage. So much to do! We plan to stay until the 10th, both to see the rest of the city and to experience the 9th of May festivities. We met up with Stephan and Reinier again - the picture below was taken today in front of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Springtime in Siberia

2007-04-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

We left Ulan Bator on the 26th on an overnight train to Irkutsk, Russia. We where able to share a compartment with our Dutch travel companions from Mongolia, Stephan and Reinier, which made for a fun trip. A few bottles of Mongolian and Chinese beer and a deck of cards helped the first night pass quickly and painlessly. We did stop for about five hours at the Russian border, but since we didn't have to leave our compartment (excpet for it to be searched), it wasn't much of a hassle.

The next morning turned out to be a beautiful. The train was quiet (as most of the other passengers hit the vodka a little harder than we hit the beer and where sleeping in). It was a sunny spring day with bright blue skies, and we
had an incredible view of still frozen Lake Baikal. Add in some birtch forests, picturesque wooden houses with colorful windows, and snow covered mountains, and it was everything romantic I imangined about the Trans-Siberian. You could almost hear some sweeping score from Dr. Zvago in the background.

The obese vodka smelling Russian men who stood continuosly in the passageway (one of whom tried to pick my pocket- either that or he was copping a cheap feel, I'm not sure which is worse) took away from the romance a little bit, but I guess they added character in thier own way. It was a great ride.

We arrived in Irkutsk the following afternoon. Our first European/western style city in five months. I was ready to leave Asia, but I found myself missing it almost immediately once we got here. Wierd. I guess you don't know what you've got until it's gone.

Of our three days in Irkutsk, we spent a solid day and a half just trying to buy onward train tickets and get our visa registered. The train tickets where complicated by International Worker's Day on May 1. It is a pretty big deal here- a 4 day weekend and lots of people traveling. So we didn't get the train that we wanted and we had to pay more for it.

The holiday also made it harder for us to get our visa registered. Actually, the whole process is pretty bizzare. For some reason in Russia not only do you have to get a visa, but you have to get it registered within three working days and then every place you stay for more than 3 days. Since we are staying at a flat that doesn't register visas, here is the process: Go to a main hotel and wait for a blond lady named Olga to be at the desk. When she is there (and only if she is there), you can tell here that Jack sent you and give her the card, and she will register your visa (for a fee, of course). No other hotels (that we've found anyway) will register your visa unless you're staying there. Unfortunately Olga is not working over the holiday and all the travel agencies in town (which is 2)are closed for the holiday. So, after two days wasted dealing with all the B.S. we gave up. We'll do it in Moscow and hopefully they'll understand about the holiday. Otherwise you'll get to read and intersting blog on what it's like to be detained at the Russian border.

We also made a trip to Lake Baikal- which had actually melted in the two days since we had seen it on the train due to a spring rain. We had a delicious lunch of smoked fish and walked around. Lake Baikal is a fascinating place. It is the largest body of fresh water in the world (more than all the great lakes combined), and it will supposedly become the next ocean as the techtonic plates divide. It has a host of flora and fauna which are found nowhere else in the world, although we didn't see much of it due to the time of year.

Irkutsk itself is not famous for much. It was a trading post due to its fortuitous position on the southern tip of the lake, and a lot of exiles from the Decembrist Movement where sent there in the 1800s. It also has a lot more of those old wooden houses which are still used. They mostly have wood burning stoves and a well outside due to no internal plumbing. Yikes! Going outside to get water in the middle of winter here does not sound that sweet. And of couse, Irkustk is it's own country on the Risk board.

After an intersting and frustrating few days we are about to go check out of our hotel and get the 87 hour train to Moscow (also likely to be both intersting and frustrating). Due to the holiday it would actually have been cheaper to fly to Moscow. But my husband, who I love more than anything in the world, thinks that it would be giving up. Hmmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think I'll know better when we arrive in Moscow at 4AM four days from now.

Mongolia

2007-04-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today I'm writing from Ulaan Baatar - supposedly the coldest capital city in the world. Although Nicole had some desire to ride horses in Mongolia, we didn't really have any firm plns upon arrival. Within a couple hours, however, we were signed up to take a five day journey into the middle of the country with two Dutch travelers. Didn't get much of a chance to see the city on our first day since we spent most of it preparing for the trip. Generally speaking, though, the city is fairly dismal. Most of the buildings are run down and the roads are in bad shape. Although there are some people in the city that wear tranditional mongolian clothes, most of the people are noticeably stylish - much more coordinated (in the Western since at least) than we've seen in the rest of Asia. As I said, we didn't spend too much time walking around - especially after we talked to two different people at our guesthouse who had been robbed.The next morning we piled into the van with Stephan, Reinier, Dava (our translator), and our driver (can't remember his name). The van was Russian made, specifically chosen because it breaks down frequently. Well, not exactly. It does break down a lot, but it's easy to fix so they guesthouse prefers the Russian vans over the popular Japanese vans which are 'impossible' to fix. We soon learned first hand about fixing Russian vehicles after the driver pulled over to repair a leaking gasket on the oil sump 50km into the drive. Our driver, 'one of the best mechanics around,' cut a new gasket out of a used innertube and we were back on the road in minutes. I use the word 'road,' loosely. Pavement is used occasionally, but rarely serviced. Actually, driving off of the paved road was a smoother ride most of the time. As a result, the 'road' is wherever the driver decides to go. Which, when you're driving in an old Russian military van, is pretty much anywhere. We were prepared for long days of driving, but the bullride it turned out to be was much more punishing than either of us expected. Average speed for the trip was probably around 15 mph.The first day of driving put us firmly in the middle of nowhere - one of many Mongolian steppes. We arrived at the first homestay, a cluster of three gers, around 8 pm and the family prepared a beef-noodle dinner while we settled into our first night in a ger - Mongolian for yurt. The simple dome structure is a really cozy sleeping area, but the complete lack of electricity and running water wouldn't be very comfortable for long term living. In the middle of all the gers we stayed in was a wood stove for heating and cooking, as well as two support posts. The center of the ger is sacred and should not be crossed - we were asked to always walk around the ger in the clockwise direction. At the center of the roof is a whole for smoke to escape and represents the Sun and Moon. Entrances to the ger always face South and a small Tibetan Buddhist shrine was usually set up in inside on the North wall. To pay respect to the shrine we were told to sleep with our heads towards the shrine and our feet towards the door. Aside from learning about the ger, we also spent a good amount of time star gazing - probably the most stars we've been able to see since being at sea.The second day of driving was even longer and more violent than the first, but we survived. The second nights accomodations were similar to the first, except that the family didn't expect our van so they let us stay in they're ger. Kind of awkward to feel like we were kicking someone out of their own house, but they didn't seem to mind. That day was Stefan's birthday so we threw a ger-party with as many people as we could round up. The party consisted of, at various times, Mongolians, French, Americans, Dutch, Belgians, beer, and vodka. The Mongolian beer we bought came in 2L plastic bottles - looked a like a giant water bottle except brown. Although it looked a little scary it turned out to be the best beer I think we've had in Asia. Adding to the ambiance, we drank out of small bowls since the Mongolian families didn't have any cups. The family avoided the party for the most part, but occasionaly they'd pop in with a big grin on their face and say,"Vodka?" We were more than happy to share.Perhaps needless to say, we slept in the next morning. The weather took a decidely nasty turn for the worse and we were hesitant to ride horses in the morning. By about ten we mustered up the courage to brave the cold, but only after we piled on as many layers as possible. We were loaned some traditional Mongolian dels, but it was still bitterly cold - especially for our hands and feet. The hourse ride was initally a bit of a disspointment. The horses were pretty old and uninterested in moving. In fact, Reinier decided to walk and was actually faster on foot than we were on the horses. From the camp we rode about an hour to White Lake - frozen solid and, it seemed, even colder. It was kind of fun to walk around on the lake, but it was hard to enjoy the moment. Fed up with riding, we convinced the horse guide to let us walk the horses back to the camp. Walking the horses was really more like dragging the horses and after about half an hour the guide convinced us to get back on the horses. He figured out that we were sick of the cold and helped us motivate the horses up to a trot by smacking them in the ass with a thick rope. Trotting was much faster and a more fun, although a jarring, ride. After lunch break hudled around the stove and a short nap it was warm enough to hike out to a nearby volcano. The weather had cleared up enough to enjoy some impressive views of the country.Fortunately the next days drive was relatively short and it was much easier to enjoy the scenery. It's berthing season right now, so we got to see full sized and baby goats, yaks, and horses. That night a Mongolian throat singer gave us a personal performance in our ger. The singer played three different traditional instruments while singing: a morin khurr (horse fiddle), a short harp, and a flute (obviously didn't sing while playing this one). The perfomance was really impressive - the songs were mostly about various animals and Ghengis Khan (a popular guy in this country).Our final day was a short ride back to Ulaan Baatar. Along the way we stopped at a small sand dune ('mini Gobi') and the original capital of Mongolia - now a temple. We've seen a lot of Buddhist temples, but the imagery in this one was much more violent than anything to date. Interesting contrast to the rest of Asia. Today we bought train tickets to Irkutsk for tommorrow afternoon so we'll be in Russia by Friday.

Final Days in China

2007-04-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

The last four days in Beijing have been surprisingly full of sight seeing and high-production shows. Distances being a big as they were, walking took up most of our time. It was a nice way to see parts of the city tucked away from the more popular streets. Sounds and sights of construction are everywhere - not just renovation like we've seen before, but also reconstruction projects. The wide streets and sidewalks I mentioned in previous posts were made possible by wide scale demolition of older districts - districts that are now, I imagine due to increasing tourism and the fast approaching Olympics, being totally rebuilt to resemble the old style markets.We learned where the beefy Chinese models that we saw in Tienanmen Square hang out: Acrobatics and Kung Fu theatres. The young men and women flipping around the stage in tights were some of the most coordinated individuals I've ever seen, and they were built like tanks. Spectacular shows and incredible stunts. Nicole was seriously concerned for the safety and well being of the performers and several times gasped in shock with her hand over her mouth. We were both surprised at the high tech production value of the show - the stunts were accompanied by thumping techno music and flashy lights display. Great show. I was really looking forward to the Kung Fu show - not sure if I'm going to be able forgive myself for failing to fit the Shaolin Temple into our travel plans...really wanted to get my ass kicked by a Shaolin Monk - but it was a bit of a disappointment after seeing the acrobatics. There were some impressive moves, but it was relatively slow. The crowd was most excited by two of the monks who couldn't have been more than five or six years old. The crowd exploded into teenage squeals of excitement every time they were on stage.
On Saturday we visited the Summer Palace - noted as one of the most classical gardens in the world. As the name suggests, it's was used by the imperial family as a retreat from life inside the Forbidden City. Three quarters of the 726 acre park is water - a man made lake. Originally constructed in 12th century, it was expanded several times and, due to attacks in the late 19th century. The palace was more of a park than anything else and several families were having picnics among the trees and flowers. Just walking around the lakes and wandering through the gardens was a really pleasant way to spend an afternoon. There was also a lot of great buildings and a small collection of artifacts; mostly from the Qing and Ming dynasties.Today we took a stroll over to The Temple of Heaven. Built in 1420, it's actually bigger than the Forbidden City since, according to Travel China Guide, the Emperors, known as Sons of Heaven, dared not build their own dwelling bigger than a dwelling for heaven. The layout of the complex is full of complimentary circles and square - a common religious theme we've seen throughout Asia that represents the contrast between belief in a square Earth and round Heaven. As with the Summer Palace, it was obvious that many of the visitors were simply taking a break from the bustle of the big city. Music was everywhere - small groups of five or six playing traditional Chinese instruments for crowds or just practising. Cypress trees were everywhere - some reportedly planted more than 500 years ago - as well as hundreds of pink and purple blossoming flowers. Another beautiful Spring day in a beautiful park. It was a nice way to end our stay in Beijing.

This morning we were able to purchase tickets for the train to Ulan-Batar tomorrow. The crowd waiting for tickets was an interesting mix of Russians, Chinese, and Mongolians. We're looking forward to our first leg of the Trans-Mongolian Railway...a solid 29 hours. Hopefully no snoring. By the way, the pictures in this post are all from the internet because one of our memory cards was stolen. Fortunately we've most of the pictures backed up on DVD, but we lost a few.

Beibei Jinjing HuanHuan Yingying Nini

2007-04-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

Beijing huan ying ni! Translated: Welcome to Beijing! Get used to seeing Fuwa around; they're the official mascots of the 2008 Olympics and they're everywhere in China. You can learn all about them at the official Olympic website. The rhyming two- syllable names are a traditional way of expressing affection for children and also used for naming China's pandas. My favorite is Huanhuan because, according to the website, he's the big brother, the child of fire, open, inviting, and he excels at ball games.Our first impression of Beijing was basically what we expected: grey, huge, cold, and rainy. Our mood wasn't helped much by our fitful night of sleep on the train, so we decided to take a break by sleeping the morning away. By the time we woke up and finished some lunch the rain had passed over and the day turned decidedly pleasant. It was nice enough that we were able to walk from our hostel to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Fortunately, our first impression turned out to be a bit unfair. The streets and sidewalks are wide and clean and the air is reasonably fresh - I'm sure the recent rain helped that enormously. After the short walk from our hostel we were welcomed into the palace by a giant picture of Mao, made small by the palace gates, hanging above the entrance. I know the panoramas are coming out crooked, but I think it gives a good idea of the size.Although we had seen pictures of the Forbidden City before, there was nothing that could have prepared us for the massive fortress. We were only able to spend a few hours there, but we easily could have spent days wandering through the endless corridors. We took several pictures, but none of them really seemed to capture the overwhelming size and complexity of the grounds. None of them caught the combination of immense size and intricate detail. Every time we tried to show detail all perspective was lost and vice verse. As an example, the staircase shown below is the same one in the background of the picture of me above. Emperors were carried over the dragons, a symbol of their celestial power. Only they were allowed to pass over the top. The ramp and stairs are a single stone carving weighing about 200 tonnes. It was moved using logs in the summer and by pouring water along the way until it froze. It's just one of the components and yet a perfect example of the incredible magnitude of the palace.We were pretty worn out after a couple hours of walking, but fortunately there's a Starbucks right in the middle of the Forbidden City. Phew, that was close. It had been almost an hour since we had seen another Starbucks, but we would've had to pay another entrance fee to get coffee at that one! Juiced up on some fresh mocha latte, we were able to delve back into the maze.Directly South of The Forbidden City lies Tiananmen Square. It is labeled as the heart Beijing and the political center of China. Both of us have early memories of news flashes interrupting Saturday morning cartoons during the student protests and it was another, of many on this trip, surreal experience to be at the epicenter of those events. Consistent with the rest of Beijing, the square is huge. At 880 by 500 meters, Tiananmen is the largest urban square in the world and can accommodate one million people. Several people took advantage of the gusty spring winds by flying elaborate kites while others gazed at Mao's maosoleum. Unfortunately the maosoleum is being refurbished until September so we couldn't see his preserved body. Darn it! Our favorite part of the square were the sculptures. I don't know what they feed Communists, but these are the burliest Chinese men and women I've ever seen! Bruce Lee is really put to shame by these folks.Today we got up early for a trip out to one of the more remote sections of the Great Wall. There are two sections of the wall that are much closer, but all reports we've read suggest that they are too crowded to really enjoy. We were excited to see the weather was absolutely beautiful. The previous days rain had washed away any signs of pollution and were relieved to know we would be hiking the ten kilometers during a wonderfully warm spring day. We had somewhat prepared ourselves for a bit of a let down after reading so many rave reviews, but the wall far and away surpassed our expectations. Our first surprise was the impressive scenery - the mountain views and a complete lack of civilation were enough to justify the hike itself. Additionaly, neither of us were expecting enough visibility to appreciate the size of the wall.Instead, we could see the wall trailing off as far as the eye could see both to the East and West. Perhaps the only dissapointing aspect of the wall was the obvious futility of the project. I don't think it takes a military genius to realize the wall wouldn't stop a serious attack. And, as far as we know, it never did. As a tourist attraction, though, it was wonderful! Parts of the wall were in poor shape and navigating the rubble made the hike both challenging and fun. We spent four hours climing the ruins and enjoying the views. Couldn't ask for a better day. Don't have too much planned for the next few days as we wait until we can buy a train ticket to Mongolia. We'll probably take a trip to the Summer Palace, see an acrobatics show, and, hopefully, see a kung fu exhibition.

Shanghai

2007-04-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: acquire a Russian visa. Sounds easy enough. Until this point in the trip being an American citizen has been an advantage, but, unfortunately, we're not in good standings with the Russian embassy. Although we were originally planning to go straight to Beijing, we read that the embassy there doesn't issue visas to foreigners. Shanghai, therefore, became our next stop. The train ride was one of our best in terms of luxury, but Nicole's sleep was frequently disrupted by the painfully loud nasal gurgling from the guy below my rack. Some of the finest nose trumpeting I've ever heard.Fortunately for us, we were able to meet up with Allison(right of Nicole in picture above), a friend of mine from Oregon State (thank you Darin for the email address!), while we were there. Being able to hang out with someone who knows the area and speaks the language always makes traveling more fun and this was no exception. Allison has been living in China for four years and working in Shanghai for two, so she was able to give us the inside scoop on some good restaurants and local life. We also met, Helen, one of her good friends from China. We had a great time hanging out with both of them - mostly just hours and hours of talking over dinner! To be honest, though, our favorite night in Shanghai was spent watching Dreamgirls, eating Papa John's pizza, and gorging on popcorn and Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered raisins....mmmmm, so good. It was the capstone to an all-American day: McDonald's for breakfast, Starbucks coffee, and Burger King for lunch. Actually looking at that in print is pretty sickening and I can't believe we ate it all. It wasn't entirely American, though. Oh, yes, there was more food! In between Burger King and Papa John's, we managed to eat some local street food. Allison introduced us to a flat noodle with cilantro and peanut sauce, pineapple and banana pancake(the guy in the picture below is throwing the dough over his head), and an amazing deep fried vegetable cake that tasted a lot like an egg roll.When we weren't eating, we spent our time walking through the city streets and The Bund. We both really enjoyed the Shanghai Museum - definitely the most elaborate and well maintained museum we've seen in Asia and one of Nicole's favorite attractions in China. And, in keeping with every other city in China we've visited, Shanghai is full of construction and restoration projects in preparation for the Olympics. Just walking through the streets and stopping at local food stands made for a fun day. The only downside of the city was dealing with countless street vendors selling "watch-bag-dvd's-gucci-prada-sunglasses-what-you-want?" Mostly, though, they stuck to the whole brevity thing and just offered "watchbags" or "watchbagsDVD." It was funny and annoying at the same time. My favorite was when they just asked,"What you want, we have anything!" to which I would reply,"Do you have any watchbags?" Childish, yes, and it certainly didn't help the situation, but I couldn't help myself.The Russian visa ended up being very straight forward, but only because we've spent countless hours preparing. Mostly we've just read personal accounts and online references, but we also filled out several documents that, ultimately, ended in the garbage. In order to apply for a Russian visa you are required to be 'invited' by a Russian company or hotel. While that sounds ridiculous, it's pretty easy to get online from any number of websites. We were mostly worried because the application form that we downloaded asked the following questions:

1) Do you have any prior military service?
2) Do you have any specialties in nuclear, biological, or chemical activities? If yes, explain.
3) Have you ever been involved in a foreign conflict? If yes, explain.
4) List every foreign country, including the cities you visited and dates involved, that you have visited in the last 10 years.

Along with those questions we were also asked to list all of our educational background and prior employment (including addresses, phone numbers, and supervisors). On top of the absurd paperwork, the embassy only receives applications between 915 and 1215 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Additionally, the visas can only be picked up on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 1245 and 1315. Finally, since it's one of only three places in all of China that you can get a visa, the lines are long and people start showing up two to three hours before the embassy opens. Good times.

Fortunately, the only trouble we had was a funny look from the guy processing my application. Apparently he thought my clean shaven, military buzz haircut, 22 year old passport mug didn't quite match up with my current pissed off mountain man look. Strange. In the end all our preparation paid off and we picked up our passports, with Russian visa, on Wednesday afternoon! We've both had our doubts about passing through Siberia during the spring, but we were excited to hear from Chellis that we may have a potential connection in Russia. It's not finalized yet, and I'm not sure if I can give out full details, but we're crossing our fingers that we can meet up with this particular Russian during our travels!! Althought I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures on the Trans-Siberian Railway, it would make it that much more memorable to have a friend on the inside.After meeting with Allison one last time on Wednesday, we caught a night trian to Beijing and arrived this morning. Once again we were treated to the lovely tune of gurgling snot and spats of choking on said snot. Nicole slept through most of it, but this time I was unable to manage the noise. The worst part about listening to someone snoring is the knowledge that each brutal snort keeping you awake is an indication that the offender is solidly sleeping. Trust me, I tried everything. Poked him with a coat hanger at least a dozen times. Even beat him over the head with my pillow. Was finally able to rouse him by tugging on his pillow just hard enough that his head moved a little. The rule of thumb: if I could hear three consecutive snores through the pillows firmly clamped over my ears I gave him a tug. I justified my actions by telling myself I was helping Nicole sleep - which she was doing. It was enough to keep me sane at four in the morning.

Today we visited the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square and tommorrow we head out to The Great Wall. We've good access here so I will put up pictures and stories tommorrow!

Xi'an

2007-04-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

Finally had a nice train ride for the first time since our ride from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang. The guys we shared the room with kept to themselves for most of the trip and we all slept pretty much the entire time. We arrived in Xi'an rested and quickly settled at a hostel just inide the Southern gate of the imperial wall. Judging by the room here, I think we're going to be living in relative luxury for the rest of our time in China. The rooms are a bit more expensive, but still less than you would pay for a Motel 6.Took us awhile to get out to town, but eventually we rented some bikes and pedaled out to brave the traffic. Actually, riding bicycles in China is much easier and safer than in the US. As we saw in Kunming, both sides of the road have large barrier protected lanes for bikers and pedestrians as well as bridges for crossing major streets. After a few kilometers of wading through the crowds, we arrived at the Shaanxi History Museum to pick up some background information about the area. One of the more organzined museums we've been and it had some good exhibits. Spent the rest of the day biking through town and we picked up our train tickets to Shanghai. I've discovered that the funniest joke in town is called "Hello, nee hao," but the punch line really only works if you're not Chinese. Simply say the words "nee hao" and watch the waves of laughter spread through the crowd.Today we took a day trip out to see the Terracotta Army. The shear number and size of the monument is impressive, but the detail is what really makes it truly overwhelming. Each life sized warrior, for example, has a different face, carried real weapons, were colorfully painted, and wore custom made leather suits. There are also several chariots and horses in the pit. Several hundred 2,200 years old soldiers are currently visible and it's only partially excavated. Three pits have been found and only Pit 1 is mostly revealed. Along with the buried army, Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb is yet to be unconvered. According to Sima Qian's Historical Records, 700,000 labourers spent 36 years creating an imperial city below ground that included a river of mercury (including machinery to make the liquid flow), automatic crossbow defense mechanisms, and a bronze floor. This guy knew how to party and he kept it secret by having all the workers executed. Smooth.

Exit the Yunnan

2007-04-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Two days ago after completing the beautiful Tiger Leaping Gorge hike, it was sadly time to leave the Yunnan. Andrew has made it more or less a personal mission to take ground transportation all the way to Europe. So, at 8Am on Friday morning we left Lejiang for an 8 hour bus ride to the nearest train station. The bus ride was actually really beautiful; we got some last stunning views of mountains and green valleys. As we moved into the Sichuan province the countryside became gradually flatter and more populated, and it was punctuated more and more frequently with giant coal burning power plants and large (sometimes abandoned) factory buildings. There was also a really cute little Chinese boy on the bus who was fascinated by Andrew and his calculator watch. It was the best you could hope for in a bus ride.

We arrived in the city of Panzihua just in time to catch a taxi from the bus to the train station and get on the next train to Chengdu. Unfortunately, when we got to the front of the line and asked for a sleeper the clerk yelled "No! No! No!"- This is a common occurrence here it seems, and it is a little unnerving at first. Because it could mean any number of things- "you are in the wrong line", "the train doesn't have any more seats", "I don't understand your toneless Chinese and I have better things to do" or who knows what else. In this case it meant that there were no sleeper berths available and no soft seats either. So, we took the only available tickets for hard seats and settled in for the 13 hour ride. Needless to say it was a long night. Andrew kindly gave up his seat for a good portion of the night, though, which allowed me to curl up on our two seats and get some decent sleep. (I think he felt a little guilty for dragging me on his land journey crusade.)We arrived at Chengdu feeling surprisingly good after 24 hours on the road, but still spent most of the day resting. Chengdu is more of what we expected to see in China- a large industrial city with block after block of cookie cutter grey concrete buildings which blend into the grey polluted haze hanging over the city. Yesterday we walked to Wengshu Temple and enjoyed a good vegetarian meal before setting in for the night. This morning we went to visit the Chengdu Research Base of the Giant Panda Breeding. We got to see the pandas eating, sleeping and playing. It is pretty amazing- they are not graceful animals at all, and they are huge. But, somehow they still manage to climb up trees and all over the place. We also learned more than we ever needed to know about Panda mating.

That's about it for the last couple days. In about an hour we will move on by train again (this time in a sleeper car) to Xi'an and the Terracotta Army.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

2007-03-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

The past four days has had just about everything a traveler could hope for: absurd bus ride, beautiful scenery, and interesting people. Throw in a little of the unwanted, like a day spent snuggling up to the cold tile floor of a public bathroom, and you've really got a good story. But before I get ahead of myself, I should start at the end. We're safely back in Lijiang for the night and leaving for Chengdu tommorrow morning.

Tiger Leaping Gorge is quickly becoming one of the most visited sites in the country. The only means of getting through used to be one of two dirt paths used by the local Naxi villagers. The lower road has recently been paved due to Government interest in damning the Yangzi river and the explosion of tourism. Visitors can now take a bus directly from Lijiang via Qiatou, on the Western end of the gorge, through the entire length of the gorge. The more inclined travelers take the bus to Qiatou and hike across the upper path to one of the guesthouses on the East side and then bus back to Lijiang. Either of those would have been too easy.

Instead we took a local bus to Daju, an almost invisible town on the East side, and hiked across the upper path. Getting a ticket to Daju proved to be a bit of a hassle - our first real language barrier experience of the trip. We were a little disconcerted that we weren't given a receipt for the bus ride or the entry fee to the area. The only guarantee we got was a nod from the driver after I found the word for "trust" in our phrasebook. We were both surprised that we were the only tourists on the bus - everyone else locals with boxes of food, cooking supplies, toys, and small dogs.

The ride was fairly unremarkable until a white goo started leaking out from under our seat and into the aisle. At first it was small enough that nobody really noticed it, but eventually it got onto someone's leather coat and he brought the bus to a quick stop. Turns out the guy sitting two seats up was bringing four giant plastic bags of plaster back home - two of which were leaking into the bus. The man taking responsibility for the commotion handed out cigarettes to most of the bus. Being directly behind him, I was one of the lucky winners and couldn't refuse. Nicole read somewhere that it is custom to dole out cigarettes after a disruptive event, and I had also read that it's a bit rude to refuse a cigarette. I'm not a smoker, but I chalked it up to the experience. We've both been fascinated with Chinese smokers since arriving - they have a casual one-ness about the way the smoke that, I think, can only be achieved by someone who can live every moment of their life smoking. You don't see that in the US anymore. Perry Mason and Paul Drake used to smoke like that, but it's just not possible these days. I did my best impression of those around me by lodging the cigarette between my lips - just a bit off center - and sitting back as if I were contemplating some really intense Chinese chess maneuvers.
Delicious.After three hours of climbing through a beautifully jagged mountain pass we were dropped off at the Daju Children's Hospital and directed to the only guesthouse in town. Determined to find a ferry across the river that night we set out through the wheat fields towards the gorge. Our guidebook described the path to the ferry as an hour long, well marked road. Maybe we missed it, but we didn't see any signs, nor were we really on a road. After two hour of wandering through random fields and, seemingly, deserted clusters of buildings we gave up and started walking back to Daju. We were both feeling pretty dejected when, from behind us, we heard,"Nee hao! Where you going?" and saw a small straw hat poking out above a fence a couple hundred meters back. It was the same fence we passed twice before, but this time somebody noticed the ridiculously misplaced white people with backpacks walking by. Turned out to be the "ferry man" who, for 60 yuan, drove us the twenty minutes to the ferry, hiked down the gorge with us, and boated us across the water. Saved! The guesthouse we had been hoping to stay at was in reach - 1.7km up the side of the gorge and another 3km down a road.The river was an amazing emerald green color surrounded by cliffs soaring up to 200 meters above the water. Although pleasantly warm at the water, the peaks still had veins of white snow clinging to their tops. Breathtaking. The short hike to the guesthouse was, in itself, gorgeous. Settled into Sean's Guesthouse, looking forward to spending the next day hiking the area.

Unfortunately, I woke up at night in a cold sweat and knew I was going to be in for a rough day. The Andrew Jackson Purge Cycle is a painful and ugly event. Effective at getting whatever it is out, but painful. Nicole was able to take a hike and meet a lot of travelers passing through, but didn't venture too far in case I turned for the worse. It was nice to know that she was there to take care of me, but I felt guilty, too. A much more thorough bout than the one in Dali, I was out of commission for the entire day. The only real sleep I got was a forty five minute nap while lying face down in the muck on wonderfully cold tile floors. At some point in the day the owner noticed that I had spent several hours in the bathrooms (they were a group a four stall shared between several rooms) and gave Nicole a three ounce vile of medicine. The brown sludge inside was one of the most fowl smelling liquids I 've ever encountered - a strange combination of garlic, ginger, alcohol, and vinegar. I didn't really have any other options, so I slugged it down as soon as I felt like I'd be able to keep it down. Somehow it had a chalky texture that took an entire liter of water to rinse out of my mouth. Sure enough, though, stopped me up by morning.

Feeling better after a decent night of sleep, we left Sean's Guesthouse the next morning and hiked the high path towards the Naxi Family Guesthouse - estimated to be about eight hours away. Eight hours of some of the most painful hiking I've ever experienced. The terrain wasn't all that difficult, but I wasn't quite recovered from the day before. But, we safely made it in seven and a half hours. The views along the way were some of the most stunning I've ever seen - it has to rank among the most beautiful scenery on Earth.

Woke up this morning after a comfortable night at the Naxi Guesthouse and hiked the final two hours to Qiatou. A guy driving by offered to take us back to Lijiang for a good price so we jumped in - nice ending to a fun four days. We're looking forward to moving on to Chengdu, but we'll definitely miss the Yunnan. More pictures soon.

Dali

2007-03-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

Located on the Western shore of Lake Er Hai, Dali is a major Chinese tourist attraction - tempting those looking for the quaint old town, local Bai culture, and outdoor activities around the lake and Cangshan Mountain Range. The 'old town' is a collection of shops, travel agencies, restaurants, and hostels within an ancient imperial wall. Many of the attractions have been recently manufactured to draw more crowds and money. The large lake, looming 4000 meter peak, and abundant pine trees make it feel a lot like Central Oregon and Washington.

The farm land that we saw on the way to Dali was much different than the expansive crops of pineapple, bananas, coconut, and sugar cane that we saw on the way to Kunming. Instead, the farms were much smaller and diverse, as if they were used to feed a family rather than sold to a market. Villages were simple clusters of twenty or thirty houses until we reached Dali. Water buffalo were also much more prevalent. To give you an idea of the significance of water buffalo in the Yunnan, watch this video sent to me by Chellis. If you're interested, there's also a website here. To those of you who cry easily I recommend getting your tissues ready.

Unfortunately I came down with something that my body felt necessary to purge out both ends, so Nicole spent the morning reading while I wasted away in a coma. By the afternoon I had recovered so we set out to hike up the mountain nearby. On our way up we met Irene, on vacation from the Guogdong Province. She spoke perfect English and asked if she could hike with us. It was a tough hike considering we haven't seen many mountains in the past few months. The trail passed through several graveyards overlooking the city and distant lake - common in China for graves to have beautiful views. Passing overhead was a chair lift swiftly carrying the less inclined to the temple that we were slugging our way towards. A loudspeaker obnoxiusly repeated advertisements and Berlin's Take My Breath Away. Fairly accurate since we had to take breaks to catch our breath every ten or fifteen minutes.Finally made it to the temple, about half way up the mountain, after a couple hours and strolled around the grounds for a bit and taking in the scenery. A stone path carried on along the side of the mountain for another eleven kilometers, but we only ventured three or four - worried that some storm clouds blowing in might let loose. The sun was setting and we had our fill of exercises on the way up so opted for the chair lift on the way down. It was a fun ride with great views of the city with the lake as a backdrop.This morning we took a bus from Dali to Lijiang, about 150 kilometers North. Lijiang is popular for the same reasons as Dali, though it is also commonly used as a staging area for moving on to Tibet, via Zhongdian(more famously known as Shangri-La), and Tiger Leaping Gorge. Naxi is the dominant culture here and people dressed in the traditional clothing are everywhere. Traditional songs are performed occasionally in the town squares. Like Dali, Lijiang has an old town of cobble stoned streets lined with small shops selling jadeite, local clothing, tea, and other souvenirs. As we were wandering through the tight maze of alleys we stumbled on to Sinfang Sqaure, a relatively open space. A large red inflated tube arced across the square with "Eastern Oregon University Choir" printed in white block letters. I had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't crazy, but sure enough it was true. A handful of twenty or so college students in uniformed polo shirts were milling about the square having just finished a performance!The trips to Tibet are tempting, but a it's out of our price range and too time consuming. Instead, we head North to Tiger Leaping Gorge - touted as the longest, deepest, and narrowest gorge in the world - tommorrow morning. We're really looking forward to hiking for a couple days and seeing some of the Himalayan 'foothills'.

Enter the Yunnan

2007-03-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Sa Pa was a much needed break, but by Thursday we were ready to move on. Admittedly, both of us were anxious about crossing over to China. Our guide book and several people we've talked to along the way have implied that we should expect little more than a sea of concrete buildings, overbearing gray clouds or smog, and rude people with offensive hygiene habits who were unwilling to communicate. Within the first day after crossing the border, however, all of those warnings were proved dead wrong. The China that we have seen, albeit we've only been here for a few days, is an incredibly beautiful country and wonderful people! Perhaps best of all, we have yet to find food we didn't like - delicious and inexpensive(we were somehow able to order a good bowl of spicy noodles for less than a dollar from the street stall shown above)! I am completely enamoured with the country and feel (and I think Nicole, too) totally recharged to travel.

We crossed from Lao Cai to Hekou early Thursday morning - working our way through the first of many encounters with excessive paperwork. It was the first time that I can think of that we didn't see any other obvious foreigners. Being the only Caucasians walking around with backpacks was both unsettling and fun. The Vietnamese border guard spent a good ten minutes looking at our passports and even used an ultraviolet light to inspect our China visa. Not sure why, but border guards (at every country I've been, including the US) always make me feel like I'm smuggling something. On the other side of the bridge, the Chinese border guard had me seriously doubting that we would make it through. He spent five minutes on my passport and an additional fifteen minutes looking at Nicole's. Although I look nothing like my passport picture, it was Nicole that he gave a hard time - even turned to the only female guard present to confirm (I can only imagine because women can recognize another better than men??) that it was actually Nicole. He then had Nicole sign a blank customs form to match against her passport. Eventually, against his better judgement I'm sure, he let us through. And, in all fairness, the other guards in the station were very helpful in directing us.

The bus station was only a few meters away and we easily found our seats with time to spare. We still hadn't seen any other backpackers and were fairly certain, especially after we had our picture taken, that we were going to be the center of attention for the next twelve hours. Enter Korean-American Presbyterian missionaries. The same guy who took our picture turned out to be part of a father-son team from Philadelphia travelling through Southern China to visit Christian churches and they just so happened to be sitting behind us. Neither of them spoke Mandarin and so travelled with a guide who came in really handy when the bus almost left Nicole at a bathroom stop. I think I would have been able to get my point across, but I was still glad that he could yell along with me in a language the driver understood.

Initially hesitant about taking a day bus, the passing scenery was more than enough reward and the time easily passed. After a couple of hours undistinguished from what we had seen in Northern Vietnam some subtle difference began to creep into the landscape. Most noticeably, the same baskets we've seen strapped to motorbikes for the last three months were saddled on donkeys. The roads were lined with trucks being loaded with goods carried by the pack animals. Farmers could be seen leading a train of donkeys in the distant hills and the valley floor below. I initially thought that it was a issue of money, but, and I'm only speculating, it seems that using donkeys is the best way to get around. The terrain in Southern Yunnan is so much steeper and less paved than anything we've seen so far that a donkey could traverse from the mountainside farm to the sole paved road much faster(if at all) than a motorbike.We stopped for dinner at about 8:30PM at a buffet style cafeteria and we made our first venture into Yunnan's food. Language barrier was a none issue; a simple point and nod was all it took to build a plate of four different entrees and a bowl of rice. Delicious - even the vegetables were nicely flavored with a gentle spice. Nicole, a bit skeptical, let me dig into the first few bites, but was soon enjoying it as much as I. To go with the food, an awesome Kung Fu movie starring Chow Yun-Fat was playing on a small television in the corner. It was a much needed break before contiuning on. We finally made it to Kunming a little after midnight. As usual we were "helped" in our search for a bank and the hostel - long story, but it took an hour and a half for us to go three kilometers.Kunming is probably the most pleasant big city I've ever been. I'm not joking. Maybe it's because we've been hanging out in some of the biggest cities in Asia, but simply walking streets was interesting and entertainment enough. No tuk-tuks, a fraction of the motorbikes we're accustomed (almost all of which were electric powered), and a sparing use of horns made for the quietest city we've been in months! The heaviest traffic was in the bike lines - wide enough on both side of the three for five or six bikers abreast. The sidewalks were wide and not once were we harassed by street vendors, prostitutes, or drug dealers. Truly, a shocking experience for us South East Asian vets.Clear blue skies, a gentle breeze, and lively pedestrians inspired us to ditch our initial plan to visit the Kunming Museum and spend the day walking the streets. Cuihu Park was our favorite stop and most of the pictures on the blog were taken there. The three men with giant reels controlling kites almost too far away to be seen were a common site. And yes, that is a young girl inside a plastic bubble floating in a lake. I don't know how much fun she was having flopping around in the bubble, but the parents on shore who kept kicking her out into the lake were having a blast. Music was everywhere - mostly Chinese Opera style singing and instrumentals. Boing! So much fun to walk through the park. I could probably write about a million little experience throughout the day, but it would take too long. Odd because we haven't really done anything besides ride a bus and walk through the city and yet I feel like I have more to describe than I have in weeks.Today we took a train (hard seat train for $5/ticket...sweet) from Kunming to Dali. We were expecting, again thanks to our guide book, a rough ride. And, again, it was exactly the opposite. We had plenty of room and hot water to enjoy our giant cup of noodles(about three times as big as the standard cup 'o noodles from back home). I must be a scary looking dude because nobody said a word to us until the moment I left to go to the bathroom. By the time I got back to our seats Nicole was swarmed by five women teaching her Mandarin and practising their English. Apparently strong in numbers, they didn't stop when I came back and, instead, told me to take a different seat so they could sit next to Nicole! We spent three hours talking to the ladies in the picture and ended up exchanging email addresses. Ping Wang (the younger girl on the right) gave her bracelet to Nicole who, in return, gave Ping her necklace. The Chinese people sitting nearby looked on with knowing smiles like parents watching their children getting along with playmates. Needless to say, we were really glad we took the train.(By the way, Chellis, having pictures of us with you and your family and the little red packet your grandmother gave us have worked wonders for breaking the ice!)

The one frustration I've had so far has been Internet censorship. Last night, as Chellis mentioned in the comments, I was unable to access the blog (In addition to blospot, we are unable to view Google News or Wikipedia). According to articles I've read online the Chinese government has, without any given reason, universally blocked access to any www.blogspot/... address. Unofficially, the site has been blocked because Chinese citizens were using blogspot as a portal to access websites blocked by the Chinese firewall (called The Great Wall). Fortunately, I think we will be able to update and add posts, but we won't be able add comments or see the blog as you do(although there are ways that I have found to get around that ;). Your comments are automatically forwarded to our email address, so please continue to respond - we really do read an enjoy them all even if we don't always respond. In case there are any further interruptions, we'll email our posts to Chellis and she has, graciously, agreed to post them for us(thank you, again, Chellis!).

Sa Pa

2007-03-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

We've been holed up in the small mountain town of Sa Pa for the last three days - thoroughly enjoying the relative solitude and isolation. While not as long or frustrating as the train ride to Hanoi, it was still a rough night of sleep during the 9 hours from Hanoi to Lau Cai. Since it is cold enough here in the Northern hills, windows are left open and doors provide little shielding from the elements. For whatever reason the train seemed to stop and start more violently than the others. We were startled awake at midnight when my hand slammed into the wall as the the train jerked to a halt. Took me a minute to realize what was going on before I let out some swearing that, assuming they understood, our Vietnamese roommates didn't appreciate. Another hour and half bus ride from Lau Cai, and we were finally in the misty town of Sa Pa.

The area is very similar to Northern Laos and is a popular tourist attraction for trekking the limestone landscape and visiting local ethnic villages. Villagers in traditional garb wander the streets selling hand sewn clothing and other trinkets. Innocent looking women constantly approach us with handfuls of clothing or a basket-backpack of cloth. I can only imagine it's the facial hair, but I am also frequently confronted by the same sweet old ladies asking, in there high-pitched-voices,"Mare-uh-wana, okay! Hashish, you want? Good! O-p-um...okay. You want smoking? I have. Okay!"The weather has been very cold and damp and we've limited ourselves to brief walks through the surrounding area, hot baths, and eating. It's been very relaxing and we've both slept better in the last few days than we have in weeks. Yesterday we walked to a Hmong village in the valley below Sa Pa; descending a newly paved, single lane road that spirals down the hillside through hundreds of terraced rice fields. Hmong working parties manually tilled the land while dogs, goats, hogs, and water buffalo freely roam the hills. After only a few hundred meters, we were well below the fog level and much warmer - enabling us to comfortably enjoy a short walk along a forest trail.
We've been hoping that the fog would lift long enough for us to catch a glimpse of Fan Si Pa, the mountain our hostel supposedly has a view, but it has remained too thick so far. Tomorrow we will bus back to Lao Cai, cross into China, and take a twelve hour bus up to Kunming. On the road again...

Hanoi

2007-03-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Has been a rough few days for us here in Hanoi. Our hostel is situated in the middle of the Old Quarter - a place I first described as being great for people watching. Second impression: filthy (raw sewage everywhere), smelly (the sticky pungent aroma of rotting urine near vendors selling raw meat), crowded, and loud. Probably exactly what you would imagine as the stereotypical South East Asian big city. Being exhausted from our train ride (our friendly roommates got up at 345 and, apparently excited about getting to Hanoi, launched into an obnoxiously loud conversation) we weren't really excited about walking through garbage caked streets. Adding to our frustration, the streets are ridiculously unorganized and, literally, change names randomly. Random isn't really true because the street names are based on the market groupings. Names used to correspond to what was sold, but they're fairly unrelated these days. Great idea unless you're trying to read a map and have no idea where you are.

We spent the first day walking around the city and getting our bearings. That evening we watched a show at Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. I was prepared for the worst, but it was fairly entertaining and impressive. Instead of strings, the puppets are controlled by poles concealed under a pool of water while the actors are hidden behind a bamboo screen. Pretty cool effect.Yesterday it started raining - a constant drizzle similar to rains in the NW - making our walks through town fairly uncomfortable. After deciding against Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (the lines were too long - it didn't really seem worth waiting in the rain) we visited the Temple of Literature, an ancient university dedicated to Confucianism. Afterwards I went to the National Museum of Vietnamese History while Nicole did some shopping. Everything from 15th-20th century was being renovated, so the museum was a bit of a let down. Nicole found a nice silk blouse.As usual, we're not really enjoying the big city and ready to move on to Sa Pa - located in the Northern mountains just South of the Chinese border. I think we would have enjoyed the city had it been earlier in our travels. We're both feeling drained by the travelling lifestyle and struggling at times to find the motivation to keep going. I think it's just a combination of being tired and frustrations with the Vietnamese culture. It's not that we don't enjoy the people we meet or interact with, but there are certain aspects (smoking in closed spaces; extremely loud conversations while simultaneously playing music from cell phones, computers, stereos, and TVs; lack personal space; constant harassment by cyclo drivers) that are starting to take their toll on our patience. Hopefully a few days away from the city will help us get back into the groove.

Hue

2007-03-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

From Danang we went four hours North by train to Hue, the former capital city of Vietnam, home of the Imperial City, and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Scenery during the train ride ranged from stunning ocean views while crawling along the side of limestone cliffs to endless green rice fields tended by farmers wearing conical hats. We were on the East side of the train - perfectly situated to watch the landscape pass by.We only scheduled a day in Hue so quickly dropped our bags off and rented bikes to pedal out to the town. It was a perfect evening; cool breeze, nice bikes, and not much traffic (by Vietnam standards). We were able to cycle from our hotel to the outer walls of the Imperial City in about ten minutes and spent about two hours riding just outside the inner walls and people watching. Several soccer games were played throughout the fields within the the compound - the young energy and old buildings felt like a college campus. The lurking presence of old war vehicles displayed within a fenced museum and knowledge of fierce battles between French and American forces made us both feel, however, like we were treading through haunted grounds.We stopped at one of the gates to take a picture and overheard an American gentlemen graphically describing, in first person, battles that took place at the imperial city during the Tet Offensive. Both of us were intrigued by his enthusiastic retelling of the events, but felt awkward eavesdropping so we moved on. As with most of our travel in Vietnam, it is that sort of encounter that complicates the experience. After biking around for a few hours we hared a set menu of Hue's local cuisine at a restaurant featuring live local music. The candlelit dinner was a perfect end to a great day.

We were up the next morning at six and back on our bikes to see Tu Duc's Mausoleum - about five kilometers South of town. Getting up early always pays off because there are very few tourists up and about yet. No exception that morning; we were pretty much left to ourselves to wonder through the miniature version of the imperial city. Most of the stone structures were built around 1800 and still in use as recent as 1945, but they already looked like medieval castles.After the mausoleum we returned to the Imperial City; this time to explore the inner walls. Originally constructed in the early 1800's with 128 buildings, only 20 remain after battles in 1945 and 1968. The city is slowly being reconstructed by specialist in hopes to preserve the history and, I'm sure, to promote tourism. The structures remaining were fairly dilapidated, but still invoked an impressive image of what it must have been at one time. Again, it was odd to imagine the fierce battles that raged throughout the city walls. Also interesting was the increasing Chinese influence in both character and construction of the buildings. We're curious to see how it compares to the imperial city in Beijing.We could have spent several more days in Hue, but already booked our onward tickets to Hanoi. The overnight trip was much different than our first from Saigon to Danang. Instead of sprawling out in our own soft sleeper cabin, we shared a hard sleeper with four Vietnamese. The lack of space was too much for me so I hid in my bunk and read the entire time. Nicole, attempting the more social option, sat with them and chatted about the country. They absolutely lit up with excitement when she asked them to help her learn some Vietnamese words! Our roommates rewarded Nicole's curiosity with a couple hunks of mystery meat (even after eating the grey cubes we have no idea what it was) with her dinner. I could tell she wasn't pleased with the gift, but she powered through and ate it. Very impressive. I had fun watching from my perch.The train arrived in Hanoi a little before 6 this morning. Not quite as rested after this trip, we're going to take a day to settle in and get our bearings. Our hostel is situated in the middle of a lively street market - great for people watching, but a bit obnoxious with all the motorbike horns.

Danang and Hoi An

2007-03-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Immediately upon leaving Phu Quoc Island our travel resolve was tested. Because all the flights to Ho Chi Minh City were booked, we had to take a bus, a ferry, 3 different minivans, and a taxi to get back. Total travel time: 12 hours. To make matters worse, we encountered our first blatant anti-American comments on the long mini-van ride and had to sit next to a couple rude, self-righteous jerks for 5 hours. It's kind of ironic, too because we have been traveling overseas for 4 months now, we are in Vietnam (a place where I might expect some anti-American sentiment), and first real rudeness we have encountered (by local or fellow traveler) was by this German couple.
Andrew and I were both pretty disheartened by the incident, but it made us take a step back and realized how lucky we have been. Despite what people tell you about sewing a Canadian flag on your backpack and everything else, we have been welcomed almost universally with curiosity and kindness- even by those who are strongly opposed to American foreign policy.

As an example, the van ride itself was saved by the everyday kindness of the Vitnamese people on board who communicated with us in varying levels of english and sign language. One man in particular bought us rambutan and custard apple at the rest stop, wanting us to try some Vietnamese fruit. Then he offered to share a taxi from the bus station; after chatting for a few minutes about Vietnamese food, good places to visit, and how to make sure you don't get robbed he insisted on paying the entire fare himself. The price of the taxi ride and the fruit was very small, but that sort of kindness is in large part what has made this trip such an incredible experience.

In any case, we made it to Ho Chi Minh City alive and the next day took an overnight train to Danang, in the central coast. It was our first experience with train travel and we were impressed by how relaxing and comfortable it was. We arrived in Danang feeling well rested and ready for a day of checking out the surrounding area. Our first stop was the Cham sculpture museum (the Champa kingdom ruled parts of Vietnam between the 2nd and 15th centuries). Even to our untrained eyes, it was pretty interesting to see similarities and differences between artifacts of the same age from neighboring China and Cambodia.After the museum, we head to China Beach where we sipped a cold beer, and looked at the waves. It's hard to imagine what a bizarre alternate reality this peaceful beach must have seemed like for a combat Marine on R&R.Today we took a day trip to the historical city of Hoi An, where Japanese, Chinese and European trade flourished from the 16th to 18th centuries. The architecture of the old homes and assembly halls is a beautiful mix of cultural influences. Impressive craftsmanship and ingenuity (like a pulley system to get goods and furniture to the second floor) has allowed them to survive for centuries on a continuously flooding riverbank.
What really made Hoi An interesting for me, though, was the living culture. The ethnic Chinese community in particular has continued to use many of the same buildings. One home has been used by seven generations of the same family-a sixth generation woman helped explain the significance of some of the architecture and decoration. Similarly, an old assembly hall was in use for a large and gregarious lunch when we came to visit. We also saw a beautiful and moving traditional dance/music performance- probably my favorite "traditional" show since getting to Asia.
That's about it for the last few days. Above and below are some pictures of livestock on motorcycles, which we mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, we have not been fast enough to catch any of the motorcycles we have personally seen. But, while these are (obviously) not our pictures, I swear that they are not exaggerated for tourists in any way. Come to think of it, the least realistic thing is probably that the drivers are wearing helmets.

Phu Quoc Island

2007-03-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh, Phu Quoc Island. Phu Quoc Island sits in the Gulf of Thailand just below Cambodia (incidentaly, Cambodia claims it). It is pretty quiet these days. There are a few towns and tourist attractions here (like a fish sauce factory and pepper tree plantations), but we have mostly stuck to the long white sand beaches . . . an excellent place for us to recharge our travel batteries.The first two days here were spent on the beach in front of our hotel reading, playing chess, swimming and just vegging out. We are staying at an excellent place- $8 a night buys a simple but nice bungalow-type room about 50 feet from the ocean, $.65 buys an ice cold bottle of Saigon Beer, $2 buys a good meal, and the long beautiful (nearly abandoned) white sand beach out front is free. An excellent place to sit and enjoy complete peace and quiet. We were disturbed only by the occasional fruit vendor, a woman offering massages (I took her up on it), and a herd of cows.The Vietnam government has evidently recognized the earning power of this place-- and there are plans for further development (we saw quite a bit of construction), an international airport, and a visa-free zone. Can't blame people for trying to make a decent living, but we definitely feel lucky to have gotten here before it turns into Phuket.Unfortunately, the good weather did not last. The last two days have been unseasonably rainy and grey. No complaints, though- we have not seen any real rain since New Zealand. It was kind of comforting to sit under the veranda and listen to the rain and feel the ocean breeze. Today it was nice enough for us to rent a motorcycle and ride around the island a little. If you take a close look at the picture above, you may notice something new on Andrew's left wrist. . . here, let me give you a closer look:Yup, in a small market in a small town at a small booth in the Mekong Delta Andrew finally found the classic Cassio calculator watch he's been looking for. It's a brilliant fashion statement AND has a multitude of everyday uses (it has already been extremely handy for currency conversions.Tomorrow we will go back to Saigon and then head north up the coast. We're hoping this trip has added enough to our reserve of energy and enthusiasm to make it through the next few months and still be glad we're traveling. The distances we are planning to cover on the rest of our trip through Vietnam, China, Mongolia, and Russia are much greater than what we've gotten used to in Thailand, Lao and Cambodia. . . and we still plan to make it over land. It is a rewarding way to travel, but mostly it appeals to our stubborn (and cheap) sides. I have a feeling exhaustion or lack of time might cause us to pony up the extra cash for a flight somewhere in China.

Mekong Delta

2007-03-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

Just finished an amazing two day tour of the Mekong Delta. Although skeptical about signing up for another group tour, the package sounded good and we decided to take the gamble. Group size was pretty similar to our Cu Chi tour, but some small variations in our choices made for an incredible and unique experience. It was mostly our decision to stay at a rural farm home instead of a hotel in Can Tho that made the trip incredible.

We started with a two and a half hour bus ride from Saigon and then boarded a long boat on the Mekong. Our tour guide was mildly entertaining and provided some interesting information along the way, so it was a fairly painless ride. The first stop was a coconut candy shop along the water. We were able to watch a team of three people brew up some very tasty coconut taffy - plain, chocolate, or peanut. Nearby was another shop that made rice pancakes, and puffed rice.After cruising through the delta for a few hours we left the boat and jumped on bicycles for a short ride to lunch. Some decent fried rice with spring rolls along with the excellent company of a Dutch couple made for a nice break in the heat of the day. From lunch we rode back to the boat and spent another hour weaving through everything from small rivers to lake sized bodies of water. Beautiful scenery and incredible people watching as we cruised by countless homes along the river. People lined the banks and usually waved with a smile as we passed by - especially the small kids.By the end of our sweat-soaked day we briefly second guessed our decision to pass up an air conditioned hotel room, but our choice was immediately validated by the feeling of relief as we left the rest of the group. Nicole and I were immediately picked up from the hotel by two guys on scooters. While we did a little scooter riding in Thailand it was a totally different experience with a local at the wheel - much more familiar with the rules of the road and much less conservative than we were. Within about ten minutes we went from a bustling city to a single track dirt road along a river. Incredible!Any doubts were surely erased upon arriving at the rice farm after a short walk along a footpath in the middle of the forest. I have no idea how far we actually were from the city, but the only sounds we could hear were the steady hiss of crickets and a few distant motorboats. We were greeted with tea by Ken(at least that's what it sounded like), our host for the night, and spent a few minutes relaxing and chatting about his family and our travels. He then took us for a walk through his home and the family farm. The setting sun and cool evening breeze perfectly complimented the beautiful landscape. Ken talked with us for awhile and then let us alone on a bench to watch the sunset over the rice fields. I think Nicole finally had a sense of peace in the country after so much time in the city.
Two other travelers, and American and a German, showed up after dark and we sat down for the best meal I think we've had in Vietnam(Notice how excited Nicole is in the picture below!). All very basic stuff: rice cakes, steamed rice, pork, tofu, fish soup, and vegetables, but it was wonderfully seasoned and delicious! Ken ate with us and kept pouring shots of rice wine throughout dinner. We probably should have learned from Ken and patiently sipped the wine but the we, especially the German and I, were slamming them back in one gulp. So, in keeping with Asian hospitality, he would keep refilling our glass. Needless to say, we were all feeling pretty happy, as they say here, by the end of dinner.Got up the next morning for sunrise and took a long boat from the farm back to the Can Tho to meet up with rest of the tour group. While we were waiting we took the opportunity to try Vietnamese coffee at one of the morning markets. Coffee here is almost always served iced and very strong. A fun start to the day being the tourists in the market and sipping iced coffee with the locals. Couldn't really strike up a conversation, but it made for some good people watching.Joined the rest of the group and drove through the floating market - a collection of several hundred boats selling various fruits and vegetables. During the rainy season the market can stretch up to a kilometer. Each merchant displays what they are selling on a pole raised above the boat. Not much to actually buy, but fun to see.Spent another couple hours floating around and then caught a bus to Rach Gia. Actually got a lot of help from our guide and we are setup with a nice hotel tonight and ferry tickets to Phu Quoc in hand. Not sure how good the Internet connection will be on the island so it might be awhile until the next post. And if the Internet is fast I don't know if we'll have much to write about because we're planning on taking a break for a few days to enjoy a little beach time!

Cu Chi Tunnels and War Remnants Museum

2007-03-03T02:28:00.000-08:00

We started early with a two hour bus ride to the nearby Cu Chi Tunnels - a half day trip we organized the night before. Used extensively during combat with French and American forces, the tunnels were comprised of three networked levels ranging from 3, 6, and 9 meters below the surface. We signed up for the tour at our hotel, but joined a bus full of people who started from one of the travel agencies in the city. I think today was the first time we were part of a massive tour group being shuffled from place to place and hopefully our last. The first stop was at woodworking shop setup by the government to enable people disabled by Agent Orange to work. Most of crafts produced were lacquered wood carvings and paintings, but they also had various other items for sale. The artwork was beautiful, but it felt odd to be herded past the people while they were working and a bit like they were being exploited for their obvious deformities.From the wood working shop we were bused another half an hour to Cu Chi. Upon arrival we were shown a ten minute 'documentary' video about Viet Cong forces fighting in the area. Purely propaganda, the black and white video was primarily a series of staged clips portraying various heroes from the war. Kind of reminded me of old news reels. After the video we took a short walk through the forest (replanted in 1985 after being completely decimated by defoliants during the war) and shown various models of bamboo traps used against US soldiers. Similar to walking through the Toul Sleng prison, it was unsettling to see real life agents of torture - make no mistake that the traps were intended to painfully injure the victim rather than kill. Adding to the uneasy environment, machine gun fire could be heard from the nearby shooting range where tourists were given the opportunity to shoot a variety of automatic weapons. I will admit that I was tempted to fire a few rounds from an AK-47, but it didn't really seem appropriate. Check out my awesome cleavage.Actual tunnels used during the war were too small for most western body frames, so they built larger tunnels for tourists to crawl through. I have slightly claustrophobic tendencies, but usually only feel it when I can't move my arms. While I had some freedom of movement, the darkness in the tunnel really bothered me and I could only finish 30 of the 90 meter tunnel. Sound was also very disorienting - there were several times that Nicole said something that sounded like it was behind me or even above me when she was really several meters in front of me (really strange when it was too dark to see her). She helped me stay calm when it was pitch black and we made it through the tunnel in about ten minutes. After the tunnel we stopped by the shooting range, watched a woman demonstrate making rice paper, and lunched on tapioca root(very bland).The bus dropped us off near the War Remnants Museum(formerly the Museum of American War Crimes) back in Saigon and we braced ourselves for more propaganda. While it was one sided - nearly all of the pictures and events described were of American activities - the presentation didn't stray from factual description of the events. We spent most of the time in a special exhibit of pictures taken by international photographers that died during the war. Some of the most famous pictures of the war were included in the museum along with griping journal entries and articles. The whole experience was overwhelming and we both left feeling emotionally drained.

While there are significant differences in the scale of the Vietnam and Iraq wars, it is scary and frustrating that the more I learn about Vietnam the more similarities I see in the handling of the wars. Especially disheartening is a read through Robert McNamara's eleven lessons learned from his 1996(!) book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam:

We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
Our judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine…
We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening and why we were doing what we did.
We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.

Which one of those lessons did we actually learn?

Ho Chi Minh City

2007-03-02T02:50:00.000-08:00

We left Phnom Pehn yesterday at about 7am on a bus headed for Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). The ride was split in two segments; four hours to the Cambodia-Vietnam border followed by two more hours to HCMC. Leaving Cambodia was much smoother than entering, although we did fall for a scam. Upon entering the stamp station a guy in uniform(really just a glorified pair of coveralls) and sporting a badge waved us over to fill out some paperwork. We knew as soon as he started filling the paperwork out for us that it was going to cost. It was just a customs declaration form like every other country we've been to, but everyone going through the lines had to pass through these four guys. Most of the information on the paperwork was straight off our passports and anything else was simply a matter of their imagination. For example, Nicole is currently a Salesperson. She didn't even know it until yesterday. Pretty exciting. Apparently not looking as professional as Nicole, I became a student - must be the facial hair. It only cost a dollar each, but it was still annoying because we should have seen that one coming.

After passing through the visa checkpoint we had to wait in line to receive our Health Quarantine certificate. The very official looking document states: "Health quarantine service certifi[sic] that the health condition of this passenger is good, not infected with any infectious diseases. This certificate is hereby issued to exit/entry." The 'rigorous' medical inspection consisted of paying 2,000 dongs. If you don't have any dongs, you had to pay a dollar. One dollar is worth 16,000 dongs, so we were lucky because I had a few thousand dongs in my pocket. Once we got to the city it was easy to find an ATM and we took out about a million dongs.(My dad used to say that the only reason I took French in middle school was because I got to say "oui, oui" and not get in trouble.)

Past customs and entering into Vietnam was similar to returning to Thailand from Lao. We weren't in Cambodia for as long, but we both felt strangely uneasy and moving on felt really good. While we both feel a little odd being in a place that we only know from learning about the war, HCMC, at least, is very comfortable. The city is well lit and much more vibrant than anything in Cambodia - even a bit more than Bangkok. Motorbikes make up about 95% of the street traffic and we are constantly asked if we want a ride somewhere. It was getting a little old until we decided to imagine that,"Hey, man, you want motorbike?" or "You need book, man?" actually translates into,"Hello, how are you?" and that the appropriately polite response is,"No, thank you." For some reason it's a lot easier to say that 100 times with a smile on your face. All it takes is one no thank you to stop them from asking - not nearly as annoying as the Cambodian motorbikes.

Huge swarms of motorbikes make street crossing an adventure, too. There are some traffic lights, but somehow there is always a stream of motos flooding the streets. The only way to make it across is by slowly walking through the traffic and avoiding eye contact. If the rider knows you see them, it's your responsibility to move. Otherwise, they drive around you. Oddly, the system works really well. But it still takes a bit of nerve to walk out into the middle of traffic on a busy street.

Providing an interesting contrast, we saw the same after school scramble of parents picking up kids at the curb. Instead of minivans, however, hundreds of motos packed the streets, filled up with up to three kids and a driver and the scooted away.We spent our first evening finding a hotel, wandering the city, and investigating travel options. It's looking about all but certain that we're going to take the Trans-Mongolian railway rather than the Tibet-Nepal-India option we had earlier discussed. The route fits better with our time line and puts us very close to Germany in time to meet Sara. The Russian visa could be a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. Scott, it looks like your Lake Baikal comment could happen. The more we read about the trip, the better it sounds. Nicole has read some books about Mongolia during the trip and is really looking forward to some time there as well.

Today was more planning and orientation to the area - we're probably going to spend close to month in Vietnam so there's not much of a hurry. After a fairly slow start we made our way to the Reunification Palace and then the Museum of Fine Art. As our guide book so accurately describes, the palace looks like the lair of one of James Bond's arch enemies. The entire building has kept it's original 1960's style of plush lemon chiffon aplostry and golden rod carpent. Lovely. Add to that Batphone-esque telephones, stuffed tigers, and some abstract art and viola! A bonefied lair.Aside from the kitsch, we were given a tour of the building and shown a short documentary supposedly of the building, but really more about the war. The history lesson continues on our trip and this one will be, as with Cambodia, unpleasant. Similar to hearing the Lao version of the American War, there are a host of alternative perspectives from those commonly available in the US. On a positive note, the people here have been wonderful - on par with Thailand but not quite as burnt out on tourists as Thais in Bangkok. We've only been here a few hours, though, and nothing outside the city yet.

Three Days in Phnom Penh

2007-02-27T02:51:00.000-08:00

Nicole writing again (yes, I think it's the first time I've done two posts in a row the whole trip). Andrew and I are in Phnom Penh now for our third and final day. Big, dirty, dangerous Phnom Penh is like the other side of the Cambodia travel coin from small, safe, clean (for SE Asia, anyway) Siem Reap. Instead of magnificent ruins, the main tourist attractions here are the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeun Ek.

Our first day here (after the surprisingly hassle-free set up of our Vietnam visa) we visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. Tuol Sleng was a high school converted to a notorious prison and interrogation center (read, torture) during the Pol Pot regime. There were quite a few graphic (controversially so) displays, but the most moving parts where the first hand accounts of prisoners, families, and captors. A notable difference from something like the holocaust museum in D.C. was that the displays portrayed the "what" without delving into any of the "why?" that you cannot help but ask.

Our second day here the excitement in Phnom Penh was Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet's visit. On our way to visit the Royal Palace we stumbled upon a street lined with scores of uniformed school children and police. The children were carefully staged to cheer and wave Cambodian and Vietnamese flags when the president's motorcade drove through to the palace for a meeting with the king. Cambodia has something of a complicated history with Vietnam and there are plenty of less enthusiastic Cambodians. Of note where 50 robed monks who stood in silence outside the Vietnamese embassy to protest the lack of religious freedom in SW Vietnam (an area which used to be Cambodian and is ethnically similar). Luckily, there were 100 riot police with AK47s and stun guns to keep things from getting out of hand.

We did make it to the Grand Palace and the National Museum that day (along with many of the school children who I guess had the day off). The museum has some wonderful artifacts from Angkor Wat and preceding periods. The almost garish National Palace takes the cake in opulence, including a life size solid gold Buddha with over 2,000 diamonds (the largest one being 25 carats). There are no pictures because we were too cheap to pay the extra $3.00 for a camera ticket.

Today we are relaxing and trying to set up some travel plans for Vietnam and China. We just had an amazing Western style lunch (I like rice, but not for EVERY meal) on the breezy and relaxing terrace pictured below.

Tomorrow we will take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. This border crossing is supposed to be easier, but wish us luck.

There are a few more pictures I'll try to post later, internet connectivity is making it hard to upload.

More Angkor

2007-02-24T00:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it is about time for me (Nicole) to write something. Andrew has been doing a great job with the blog, but I am starting to feel a little bit lazy. So, today I am giving him a break from blog writing.
Today was our third and final day in the Angkor temples, and we decided to do the 34 km "Grand Tour" loop by bike. The major temple we had not seen is on that loop and we decided that a nice bike ride away from the city would do us good. After three weeks in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei, we have really enjoyed the simple pleasure of being on a rural road lined with trees. I guess the forest scenery was nothing spectacular, but little things like hearing birds and seeing butterflies made it a nice ride. Okay, it made the first 24 kilometers a nice ride. I probably could have done without the last 10, but it did feel good to get in a workout.The temples are hard to describe and equally difficult to do justice with pictures. The sheer size and the incredible detail applied throughout is amazing. They sort of rise out of the jungle in a dramatic, stereo-typical movie set kind of way (the temple we visited today was used as a set in Tomb Raider). The temples have been the subject of massive restoration projects and I am impressed by the ability to de-jungle and then puzzle the pieces back together, especially considering all that was lost and destroyed during revolutionary craziness.
Which I suppose brings me to my first impressions of Cambodia. Food is very important to me, and the food here is amazing (rivals Thailand). Today after our long bike ride we were rewarded by an incredible Khmer dish called Amoc- you could probably call it coconut curry with peanuts and chicken, but that would not describe the amazingly complex yet complimentary flavors. We have also had amazing fresh spring rolls, pumpkin and coconut soup, and Khmer curry. We were honestly considering extending our stay here just for the cheap and incredible food.
Food aside, there is a sort of uneasy feeling here. There are the surface issues, like the fact that we were extorted by a government official before we even got into the country, the daily power outages or the stiffling heat. Only slightly farther beneath the surface are the issues of horrible poverty and the history of genocide and war. It is eerie to be in a place where such an awful episode of history occurred and to interact every day with people who experienced it. It leaves me at times not knowing exactly how to feel or act.Tomorrow we are off to Phnom Penh by bus. Supposedly VIP. . .

Angkor Wat

2007-02-22T04:56:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention 'nail in the coffin' of Keith Gushard's soundtrack: Wind of Change by Scorpians. I forgot because I couldn't think of the name. Nicole, however, immediately knew the song name, band name, album, and year produced. Makes you'miss the good old days of black and white concert footage. Those lyrics still ring true today do they not? Judge for yourself:

Okay, so I do have something more interesting to talk about. Angkor Wat. We chose to use free bikes offered by our hostel to get to and around the temples - sounded like an opportunity to exercise, and save money. As one would geuss, the free bikes weren't in great shape, but we both felt it was still the best way to get around. Although riding through the dust and smog of Siep Reap wasn't fun, everything after the city was beautiful. By the time we bought our passes and actually made it to Angkor Wat it was about 1130 and we were sure we'd be stuck in crowds. Instead, all the big groups were being bused back to the city for lunch with their tour group making it much more enjoyable. There were still plenty of people in the ruins, but nothing compared to the hoards we saw piling in as we left.

Angkor Wat was one of the sites we definitely wanted to see on this trip and it lived up to the hype. Truly an amazing structure and testament to Khmer Empire. Interesting, also, to learn about the Kmer becuase they're not really brought up in popular history due to having little to do with any modern society. According to one of our books, however, the city of Angkor was at 1 million people while London was still only 50,000.

It's hard to due justice in description of he temple and I don't think the pictures really capture the entire scene, either. Nicole said that the structures were more impressive than Machu Pichu. We were both really impressed with the detail of the building and bas-reliefs. After wandering through Angor Wat for a few hours we biked to nearby Bayon. The Bayon temple lies in the middle of Angkor Thom, an ancient city surrounded by 12km of stone walls. In order to enter the city we had to bike across a stone bridge lined with giant stone figures holding a naga and then another 2kms to the temple. Famous for its hundreds of smiling gods, Bayon was slightly less overwhelming in size than Angkor Wat, but still impressive in detail. The crowds really started to pile in towards sunset so we headed back to town for dinner. We've got a three day pass so there'll be plenty more time to explore. The area has an amazing group of ruins and, believe it or not, we won't be able to see it all in three days. Publishing pictures here is slow here, so there aren't as many as I'd like to post. I'll try to add more in the next few days.

Bangkok to Siem Reap

2007-02-21T02:51:00.000-08:00

Finally left Bangkok for the last time! Good city for a few days, but we've had too much over the last month. On our last day we visited The Grand Palace - definitely the most extravagant and well maintained Wat we've seen in Thailand.

Up at 0445 this morning and caught a taxi to the bus station - arrived just in time to catch the 0600 bus to the Thai border. Fortunately, the bus was air conditioned and the seats were comfortable so we were able to relax for the first four hours of the trip. The fun really started when Nicole left her purse(passport included) on the tuk-tuk we took from the bus station to the border crossing. Luckily, in this case, we were dropped off at one of the 'guides' that worked with the tuk-tuk driver so we were able to recover the bag. Unluckily, afterwards, the guide then followed us through the entire border crossing and provided loads of "helpful and free" services like handing us the customs paper and directing us to places we already knew we needed to go by simply walking a few paces in front.

Our first impression of Cambodia jumped off to a great start when the customs officer charged us 1000 Baht instead of the $20USD as listed on the sign directly above the window - especially frustrating because we had converted money to dollars specifically for the border crossing. We then had to convert the dollars back to Baht at a horrible exchange rate, of course, and pay the fee. The first time we have been blatantly ripped off, but its tough to argue with the guy wearing a uniform and holstering a gun.

Once over the border we split a taxi with a couple from Stuttgart, Germany. We could have waited for a slightly cheaper bus, but it would have been a three hour wait and then a five hour bus ride rather than leaving immediately for a three hour taxi ride. We were immediately glad that we took the taxi after only a few minutes on possible the worst highway I've ever seen. Sure, we've seen some crap roads, but nobody tried to drive 80 km/h while dodging oncoming traffic in the middle of a dust cloud. Insane. I have to give the driver credit, though, he proved that a Camry is really all you need for some hardcore off road driving. A Camry with no suspension at that.

I also have to give credit to the Cambodian motobikers - they've really taken the art to the next level. I'm talking about livestock. We passed several scooters with over a dozen live chickens strapped to the back and a few that had full-grown, live hogs. I only wish I had my camera with me. The hogs were restrained in some kind of stretcher and mounted, on their backs, to the rear passenger seat. Occasionally they would flail about a little, but it didn't appear to phase the driver.

Topping off the jarring commute was the soundtrack. Personally, I considered it a form of psychological torture, but I think it amused Nicole. I'm pretty sure the driver picked up this tape of mostly 80's and 90's smooth rock to sooth his customers during the nail biting drive. He chose....poorly. I'm not just talking about original versions, either. Nooooo, covers of I Believe I Can Fly(R. Kelly), As Long As You Love Me (Backstreet Boys), and Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You (I don't care), . Covers so bad that even John Lennon's Imagine sounded cheesy (that takes effort). Kind of funny the first time through, but the second and third repetitions were brutal.

We survived the ride and now we're resting up before we explore Angkor Wat tomorrow. Food. Good. We ordered up some curry chicken, pumpkin soup, and fresh spring rolls - our first meal of the day so we were ready to eat! Nicole was very pleased. Tried some Angkor Beer, but nothing much to rave about there. I'll post some pictures soon.

Kowloon

2007-02-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

I have some shocking news. This blog is mostly about food. Since returning to Hong Kong from Macau we've spent most of our time walking around the city, eating, planning the rest of our trip, and eating. Last night we walked around Kowloon with Hobart, Chellis and her parents for a couple hours and then ate some dessert at The Sweet Dynasty. The desserts here have been some of our favorite food in Hong Kong. They have mostly been a combination of fruit, jello, and tofu. The tofu pudding was really good - especially with almond. Our other favorite dessert place that we have visited at least five times is Hui Lau Shan. They serve a variety of desserts, but we always ordered the cold fruit drinks. My favorite was honey jelly(more like jello) with pomelo and mango. Nicole liked the sago in mango and coconut milk. The straws served with the beverage are almost the diameter of my thumb so you can suck up the big fruit chunks and jelly. Again, it may sound weird, but it really was delicious.We also spent a few hours at the Hong Kong History Museum in Kowloon (the penninsula just North of the Hong Kong Island). Probably the best museum that we've been to in Asia in terms of content, production, and presentation. Afterwards we met up with Chellis and Hobart for lunch and then, sadly, said goodbye. I picked up some extra pictures from them and had to post the one below. Hobart and Andrew: Men in Macau.
On our last night we walked through the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park. Lunar New Year in China is like a combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year in the States. The fair was why the area we were staying, Causeway Bay, was so crowded. We held out from going all week because it looked insane - a sea of people shuffling through the streets waving inflatable pigs (the coming year is the year of the Golden Pig). By our last night, however, we convinced ourselves that we had to experience the madness and brave the crowds. The fair was only two blocks from our hostel, but it took twenty minutes to make it to the main event. Consisting of three aisles created by rows of booths setup up to sell good luck charms, food, and inflatable plastic toys. The aisles were so crowded that traffic was only allowed in one direction. Fortunately, I guess, the booths were essentially the same and were almost impossible to reach anyways so we didn't have to worry about missing out on our very own plastic pig. We did manage to pick up some tasty peanut brittle!Our return to Bangkok on Air India wasn't really very surprising - the fight was delayed over five hours and we didn't get to the hostel until midnight. Today we've just been running errands - finishing up our fittings with the suit tailor and shipping some stuff home. We're making our final plans for entering Cambodia and should be saying our final fairwell to Thailand on Wednesday.

Macau

2007-02-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Teaming up with Chellis and Hobart again, the four of us spent the last two days in nearby Macau, a Portugues colong until 1999 and best known for its casinos. Touted as the New Vegas, Macau posted higher gambling revenues than Vegas for the first time in 2006. While it's not yet as flashy as Vegas, it's well on its way. We went to see a bit of the Chinese gambling world, but mostly to see the Portuguese-Chinese fusion of culture and, of course, food.After settling into our hotel we spent the rest of the evening exploring the streets and, after dinner, the casinos. Vastly different than the big city bustle of Hong Kong, Macau felt more like a busy carnival. Extravagantly lit, rediculous casios shoulder up next to ancient Portugeuse archetecture and old world cobble stone meandering streets. The architectural contrast was interesting and bizarre. Besides the buildings, food was specifically Macaunese - noodles and rice from China combined with African chicken and cheese from Portugal. Available on the streets were almond biscuits, a kind of meat-roll-up (think fruit roll-up made of meat - sounds gross but was tasty), and egg custard tarts.The casinos weren't very busy and we looked totally out of place - the standard gambler in Macau is a cleancut middle aged business man wearing a suit. Instead of free alcoholic drinks, as is common in Vegas, gamblers are served complimentary tea or coffee. Except for an occasional outburst of cheering, the rooms were quiet compared to LV standards. The only game we recognized was black jack and the minimum bid of $12USD was too steep for us cheap travelers. Instead we stuck to slot machines and people watching.The highlight of the evening was easily the water foutain show outside the Wynn casino. Water and fireballs danced to the tune of "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler (you may remember from the movie Footloose) and we laughed. Just hearing the song makes me laugh because it reminds me of watching that movie a million times as a kid, but the added dramatic effect of the water and fire show was even more hilarious.

Being cheap, we resorted to playing cards in our hotel room with drinks from 7-11. Stay classy. We focused more on the cultural aspect of the city on our second day by visiting The Museum of Macau, Macau Museum of Art, and The Cathedral of St. Paul.On our way out of town we stopped at an arcade. Nicole and Chellis engaged in a fierce battle of Dance Dance Revolution and Hobart and I battled it out on Taiko: Drum Master.It was intense.

The Peak

2007-02-13T22:51:00.000-08:00

We spent our second full day in Hong Kong exploring the island with Chellis. After meeting Chellis at the central MTR stop we caught a bus to Stanely Peninsula - a small town on the south part of the island. Still recovering from the MSG overdose, we aimlessly wandered through the street shops for an hour or so. We stopped for some wanton noodle soup and sat for awhile on break on the shore walk.From Stanely we took the bus back to central and walked to The Peak tram. The hill south of the city is so steep that it felt like we were lying down for parts of the tram ride. Views from the top of the peak were spectacular and we relaxed over a cup of tea while overlooking the city. Chellis left for her great grandmother's birthday banquet while we waited for nightfall to see the city lights.

Ying Banquet

2007-02-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

After shopping for a couple hours, we met up with Chellis' cousin, Hobart, at her grandmother's house in Kowloon. They taught us how to play Mahjong - a fairly challenging game similar to gin rummy. We were supposed to be at the party by 7:30 but started receiving anxious phone calls around 6 from various relatives already at the party. Nicole and Chellis changed into their lovely evening clothes while Hobart and I remained in the same clothes we had been wearing all day.The Ying family is large - one that isn't possible in China any more due to the single child policy. Chellis' late grandfather had two wives - the first had four children and the second, Chellis' grandmother, had seven. The eleven siblings all have their own families, most of which were present that night. Chellis' parents, Bond and Eva (nice, huh?) Ying, were a generation of transition in that about half of the marriages were arranged. They were also a transitional generation because the one child policy was enacted in 1979. Most of the relatives lived in Hong Kong or outside China, however, so the policy didn't directly impact them. All told, five generations were present at the party.

Chellis grandfather was hugely successful in the bean curd industry - enough so that the family name is mentioned in one of the history museums in Hong Kong. As a result, Grandma Ying is very wealthy and influential in the area. Her 81rst birthday two years ago was actually announced on the radio because so many people were to attend. The party this year was much smaller than the 2,000 or so guests from that party, but it made it seem that much more special that we were invited.>We arrived at Yat Tung Heen, the restaurant, and were immediately offered a bowl of soup while being introduced to several relatives. Soon we were seated at our tables and the feast began. Menus were presented at the table - not as a range of choices, but a list of the twelve courses. Let me say that again: twelve courses. In the order they were served: 1) Wonton Soup 2) Roasted Whole Suckling Pig 3) Steamed Baby Lobster with Garlic 4) Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Crab Roe 5) Steamed Spotted Garoupa 6) Braised Whole Abalone with Black Mushrooms, Dried Oyster and Vegetables 7) Deep-fried Crispy Chicken with Crushed Garlic 8) Fried Glutinous Rice with Preserved Meat 9) Tossed Noodles with Ginger, Spring Onion, and Shrimp Roe in Albalone Sauce 10) Sweetened Ginger tea with Sago and Dumplings 11) Steamed Birthday Buns 12) Fresh Fruit Platter.

At one point in the evening groups from each table stood up to toast Grandmother and we got up to join suit. I knew it would be another opportunity to make up for my flubbed attempt at saying happy birthday earlier in the day. I had repeated "Ying lo tai, joke lei sung yut fei lok" (Loosely translated: Ying old woman, wish you happy birthday) about 200 times throughout the day and was ready. I made my way to grandmother and we clinked glasses together. I was able to repeat "joke lei sung yut fei lok" and she smiled...I think. A couple relatives around the table heard me and clapped so I think I got it out okay. It was the same reaction Nicole got earlier in the day when she said it, so I felt redeemed.

As we were walking away from the table, two women holding each other arm and arm (who turned out to be Chellis' aunts) approached Nicole about her dress. "Very beautiful dress. Traditional Chinese style. Oh, tailor made for you in Thailand? Silk? You are so beautiful!" Being the only Caucasians in the building gathered attention, but Nicole stood out even more in her dress.The toast happened sometime around the sixth course. Each course was presented by a parade of servers rushing out from the kitchen and dividing the main dish into individual plates. Each table also had a server who ensured that our drinks were always topped off and cleared plates removed. Eating was fast and furious when food was available - a carry over from days when food was scarce and your portion size was determined by how fast you could consume.

The dining started around 9PM and continued until almost midnight. We were all very full by the end of the night and ready for bed. We both felt lucky to have experience something so special and rare in Chinese culture. The food was great and we had a lot of fun at our table. Chellis said it was fun for her, too, because it made an event that has been repeated several times seem unique. Similar to any family gathering, I suppose, they can seem mundane to those always present. An outside perspective, however, can remind you how special it is for everyone to be together.

Hong Kong

2007-02-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

Having just spent a week in Bangkok we thought we would be ready for any big city. Hong Kong quickly proved that theory dead wrong. We started the easy travel day in Bangkok after breakfast with Chris and one of his college friends in town - an three hours flight on India Airlines. We landed at about 3 pm and made it to the bus station with little hassle. Getting around the airport and into town was, by far, the easiest experience we've had so far and several people helped us throughout the trip. In fact, a couple from New Zealand paid our bus fair to the train station - a very nice welcome to the city.

Nothing seemed out the ordinary until we debarked from the train and stepped into the most densely populated mass of people I've ever encountered. Having backpacks strapped to our backs didn't help the situation, but the shear volume of humanity was overwhelming in itself. Our hostel is located in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong island - only two stops from Central Hong Kong. We couldn't remember the name of our hostel, so it took some wandering around and more help from strangers before we finally found the building completely devoid of any kind of marking that would indicate that it was a hostel. Chellis met us at about eight and we went out for dinner and a couple drinks in the Lang Kwai Fang neighborhood. We didn't spend too much time out, though, because, Chellis was feeling the jet lag and her grandmother's birthday party was the next day (today). Instead we returned to our hostel and watched a bit of TV. None of the channels were in english, but that didn't matter because our favorite show didn't require any dialogue. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but four closed circuit video cameras are fed into one of our channels. There are two wonderfully entertaining qualities about these cameras: 1) People do not know that they are on camera in the elevator and 2) All four walls of the elevator are mirrored. Endless fun. This morning we met Chellis' grandmother at her apartment in Kowloon. Along the way we stopped at a beautiful flower market - especially lively during the Chinese New Year. We arrived at the apartment and were immediately greeted at the door by the entire extended family and asked to sit down for a snack. We had been practising how to say "happy birthday" in Cantonese since last night, but I totally froze. Nicole, however, was able to say very well while giving her our present (a silk scarf we bought in Thailand). We were offered boiled eggs in a light soup - according to Chellis it is supposed to provide us with the good fortune of having thousands of babies. Yikes....

After a few minutes we were asked to join the birthday group for Dim Sum at a local resturaunt. Chellis was surprised we were invited and we couldn't refuse! Nicole, Chellis, Grandmother, two of Grandmother's friends, and Chellis' Dad piled into a minivan drove over to the resturaunt. I'm not sure what the three women were talking about, but there was a lot of laughter among old friends.

The resturaunt was completely empty save for a small room in the back with a nicely set table and about fifteen people already sitting. The guests were all friends of Grandmother - some of which were childhood friends from her home village in mainland China. A tight nit group of Mahjong players, they were joining Grandmother for a morning snack before engaging in an all day tournament. They have all been playing each other for many many years and gamble large sums of money. Several bowls of dim sum arrived shortly after we sat down and the first feast of the day began. Being only a warm up, it was over rather quickly, but it was all delicious.

Nicole, Chellis, and I are walking aound the town right now(picture at the top of the page) - taking a break before the party resumes from dinner around 8 pm. Apparently that's when the real eating takes place....another rough day of gorging on wonderful food. Life is tough.

McRice Burger

2007-02-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

We've been in Bangkok, again, since Monday and met up with Chris on Tuesday. Although we haven't seen as much of the city as we initially hoped, we've been able to visit a couple sites and hang out with Chris and his friends from the Peace Corps. It's been fun meeting the other volunteers and hearing them talk about their time in the service. Surprisingly, it sounds a little bit like listening to people in the Navy talking to each other. A lot of acronyms and inside jokes about the culture and lifestyle of living in a foreign place. The only tourist location we've really made it to was the Bangkok National Museum. Definitely the best museum we've been in Thailand or Laos - the museum has seven enormous buildings, each with a different focus area. We spent most of the time in the history building.All three of us also did some suit shopping yesterday. Nicole and I met a guy outside the museum who recommended a temple that we should visit and a suit shop. I don't know if it was an elaborate scheme or what, but we also met a guy at the temple who knew about the suit shop and told us about how great it was. The suits were nice and the price was reasonable, though, so if it was a scheme we didn't really care. We were both fitted for suits and a few shirts. I've never had a tailor made suit and I'm looking forward to having a jacket that fits both my shoulders and my waist. Usually a suit that fits my shoulders looks rediculous barrel shapped through the body. Someday, we think, we'll use them for job interviews, but neither of us can remember what jobs are.After we finished our fitting, we met up with Chris at the shop he was at. On the way we stopped for a legendary McRice burger. A chicken patty just like the states, but the bun was made of rice instead of bread. I can't stand fast food, but I felt like this was a reasonable exception - part of the cultural experience. It was delicious...Nic was not impressed.

Chris went to a shop that one of his friends, Tom, recommended. Tom had been there all day helping other volunteers decide whether to get full leg lining, one pocket or two, stitching on the lapel, etc. Chris is also hoping to use his new suit for a job interview in the not so distant future.
After suit shopping we headed out for some bowling with a group of PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) at one of the shopping centers. I think Nicole ended up with the best score of the three of us, but the highlight of the night was a spontaneous Isan style dance party by the PCV's - shown below.
This week has been pretty laid back - a good rest stop before heading to Hong Kong to meet up with Chellis for her grandmothers birthday and the Chinese New Year. We can't wait!

National Palace Museum

2007-02-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

After saying goodbye to Audrey and Terrance in Taipei we had a day and a half to see a few sights on our own. The first night we visited the Taiwan Storyland, an underground town where it is supposed to still look like 1965. After an interesting visit there I went to the Shilin night market with an English girl I met in the hostel (Andrew was mercifully saved from more shopping-related activities). It was an excellent place for people watching and observing some unique fashions. I didn't buy anything, but I did enjoy the spectacle.We had almost a full day before our flight back to Bangkok the next day, so we decided to visit the famous National Palace Museum. There were artifacts all the way from the Neolithic age up to the final Q'ing dynasty. Archaeologist was one of longer lasting of the 20 or so professions I considered in college, and I loved wandering though the museum. It was incredible to see a beautifully carved cup or jade necklace or whatever and to think about the people who used it. . . and to still be able to appreciate its artistry 6,000 years later. There were some incredible pieces- my favorites were the elegant ceramics and jade. Andrew liked the calligraphy (I did not realize the extent to which calligraphy is not just a form of writing but a work of art).

We both also thought that these concentric ivory balls carved inside of each other where incredible. Seven concentric Ivory spheres were carved out of a single piece of ivory. The video below is a bit cheesy, but gives you an idea of what it looks like. The amount of work and attention to detail to create this piece is hard to imagine.

I found it pretty hilarious that among all this beauty one of the most famous and popular exhibits is the Meat-shaped stone, a masterfully rendered agate reproduction of a chunk of stewed pork (there is an even more famous jade head of bok choy cabbage with bugs on it).We are back in Bangkok now and plan to meet up with Chris in a few hours. This is our third time to Bangkok, but the other times we have just been traveling through. We are really looking forward to hanging out with Chris and getting a chance to see the city a little before we head to Hong Kong on Sunday.

Pankun and James

2007-02-04T04:28:00.000-08:00

Sunday started in a relaxing fashion. We spent the morning reading newspapers, talking, and generally lounging around the house. It was a slow morning partly because of a late night marathon of Pankun and James. Pankun and his faithful companion, James, are given various tasks to complete and the hilarity ensues as the two somehow convince people to let them on a bus or join a family picnic. Sometimes James gets mad and Pankun and chases him around, but eventually they make up. They're pretty much best friends.

Finally motivated enough to get out of the apartment, we went for a hike just outside the city. The original plan was to hike the trail to a tea plantation for some tasting and a demonstration of the tea making process. Unfortunately, we were too late, but the hike was fun and we met a friendly Taiwanese couple at the summit. They shared some much needed snack food with us: bananas, apples, and steamed peanuts. The steamed peanuts looked potentially terrible, but were actually really good. We also saw a fair amount of wildlife - mostly birds, butterflies, and huge spiders.

After the hike we went out to dinner at China Pa. Our favorite dishes were shark fin soup and friend shrimp with pineapple sauce. Nicole doesn't like shellfish, but even she liked the shrimp! On the way home I found the perfect beer can on the way home. A two liter can including a handle and dragonhead spout! I wasn't too confident about the spout, so I took the first drink in the bath tub in case of spills. After a couple very challenging swigs I decided that it wasn't designed for individual consumption, but rather for pouring glasses. So I had to get rid of the spout, but the can was still pretty sweet even without.
This morning we packed up and said our goodbyes to Terrance and Audrey. It was really good to see Audrey and meet Terrance and we enjoyed the opportunity to get a glimpse of their life overseas. We're staying at a hostel in a very crowded shopping district downtown. It wasn't our first choice, but after the drunk receptionist (complete with cigarette dangling from his lip) at our initial stop couldn't tell us whether he had any rooms available we decided to move on.The building we are in is basically a mall and outside is a huge Windows Vista festival rockin' out with techno music and various booths. The real reason one should use Windows Vista: scantily clad babes will talk to you about your sweet new operating system.

Taipei

2007-02-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

After 24 hours of traveling we arrived in Taipei, met Audrey and Terrance at the airport and, of course, went to dinner. On first impression, the city is very modern and clean. Even the taxis are spotless. You may notice from the pictures that it's also much cooler than we're accustomed. Audrey won an Olmstead scholarship through the Navy and, along with a six month course at the Defense Language Institute, is studying for a masters degree while stationed here over the next two years. She's taking almost all of her classes in Chinese and is, after only six months in country, able to conversationally interact in Mandarin. As with traveling with Chris, it is nice to be with someone who speaks one of the native languages. Part of her studies include history so it is also interesting to learn more about Taiwan's tumultous past.

For our first meal, they took us to a nice restaurant inside Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world. Similar to Thai dining, we ordered several plates of various meats and vegetables along with rice and hot tea. We also indulged in a lovely bowl of sea slugs. I think Terrance described them best as beef Jello - a bit of a beefy flavor with the texture of jello. Nicole was not impressed. I thought they were pretty tasty.

After dinner we went to Jurassic Restaurant, recognizable by several giant dinosaur skeletons crawling all over the building. Oddly, it's also known as the Indian Bar and has several stereotypical Native American decorations. The connection isn't quite clear, but it's popular. While the first floor was virtually empty, the second floor was packed with middle aged Chinese women squealing at a singer onstage while waving their arms above their heads in unison. The singer wore acid washed jean pants and a power suit. His hair was long, blond, and permed. The ladies loved him. Accompanying the singer was a clean cut man behind a keyboard wearing suit and tie. I think the biggest song of the night was,"It's so Easy to Fall In Love" by Linda Rhonstadt, but it may have also been the '80's jingle by Toyota,"It's So Easy to Love Tercel." Not sure.We were quickly ushered to the corner obviously used for hiding, or displaying depending on how you look at it I guess, the white people. Not wasting any time, we ordered up a 5 L keg of beer and a plate of fried bee larvae. Not joking. The keg was brought to the table with its own stand - literally a wood barrel with a spigot. Delicious. The bees arrived shortly after and looked just like fried anything except for the antennae and large bee heads sticking out of the batter. They also tasted like friend anything. Delicious. Nicole was not impressed. I thought they were pretty tasty.
On the wall next to our table was a poster explaining the fire escape procedure. I couldn't read the characters, but the pictures explained the process reasonably clear. In the case of a fire, simply break open the nearest window, construct an elaborate block and tackle device, harness your self to a rope, and lower yourself to safety. Easy. On the way home we saw a billboard with a huge bird sitting inside a pair of jeans. The advertisement translated to,"Even the biggest birds can fit in our pants." Handy. I guess that's the equivalent of a Big and Tall. Burning ghost money is another interesting ritual we've witnessed. The next day we did some shopping - our favorite stop being a specialty tea shop downtown. Initially we were just looking for some nice tea, but eventually found a beautiful tin jar used for storing tea leaves. Over 100 years old and so well machined that the lid slowly descended after being placed on the jar and created a small vacuum seal. I think it was our childlike fascination, but it may have been because it was a $200 item, that prompted the owner of the shop, a delicately older Chinese woman, to invite us to join her for tea. The pictures above shows her workbench of tea preparation equipment. Watching her prepare tea, one serving at a time, was captivating and beautiful. First she poured hot water into a clay pot containing the tea leaves. After waiting a few minutes, she then poured the brew through a dried gourd and into a small porcelain jug. She then served each of us by pouring the filtered tea into an even smaller cylindrical cup. We then poured our individual serving, probably two or three ounces, into a small saucer and, finally, drank the tea. Her presentation made the event seem unbelievably special and we all lost track of time - completely mesmerized by her movements.
After tea, we went to dinner at KaoChi for some dim sum. Although normally a breakfast or brunch meal, it is served 24 hours a day in Taipei. Each order is brought in large, stackable bamboo bowls that are also used to steam cook the dumplings. Using soy, vinegar, ginger, and chili we each made our own dipping sauce for the pastries. Definitely the best food we've had so far - wonderfully delicious combination of sweet and salt. The main servings had meat or vegetables and the deserts had a pudding or custard filling. So good and so not good for you. Mmmmmmm.
After dinner we went to a production by the National GuoGang Opera Company. Chinese Opera....where to start. The first half of the production was great. Although it was entirely in Chinese - even the subtitles projected on the side of the stage - we could follow along well enough. The characters interacted mostly by well choreographed fight scenes including flips, kicks, and weapons. The orchestra consisted of about eight instruments that summed up to, basically, a drum beat, symbol crash, 'boing' noise, oboe-ish sound, violin-ish sound, and a rapid-fire-knocking-on-hollow-wood sound. Generally a repetitive and annoying collection of sounds that correlated to various events that I never quite figured out. The costumes, on the other hand, were beautiful and the presentation, as a whole, was very professionally done.Unfortunately, the second half left us wishing that we had done some homework before the play so that we could at least follow along. There was very little interaction other than long monologues between characters and it was essentially impossible to figure out the relationships. Being an opera, I think they were singing. Hard to tell. The actors spoke in a very nasally, high pitched voice and flicked their beards a lot. There was a beheading and some robe slashing. We tried to keep an open mind, but it was tough.

It's been a unique and entertaining visit so far. Audrey and Nicole are really enjoying the opportunity to spend time together after so many years apart. Three more days in Taipei and then we head back to Bangkok for a week before Hong Kong. I think this is a good warm up to Chinese culture and we can't wait to see Hong Kong.

Doi Suthep-Pui National Park

2007-01-31T03:31:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Chiang Mai could not have been better. Up at 6:30, we packed our bags, ate a good breakfast and hopped on the scooter to head out into the mountains just North of the city. First we stopped at Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, probably the most famous wat in Northern Thailand. It was a packed with tourist, but, like the royal flower festival, it was an overwhelmingly Thai crowd. The temple lies near the summit of Doi Pui, about 9 km outside the city. A large staircase leads up to the temple and takes about 300 steps to reach the top - we were both breathing pretty heavily by the time we finished. Unlike the other wats we have visited, Doi Suthep was imacculately maintained and even the small details were meticulously attended. At the center of the inner square lies a giant golden stupa surrouded by several Buddha shrines. The inside of the wall is mural depicting the story of Buddha and statues line the perimeter. It was overwhelming compared to the relative simplicity, peace, and tranquility found in the other temples.

From the wat, we drove further up the mountain to Bhubing Palace, the royal winter residence. When the royal family isn't staying there, tourist - again, mostly Thai - are allowed to walk through the palace. As with Doi Suthep, the grounds are incredibly well maintained and actually looked for like what we thought the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek would look: flower gardens everywhere! The flowers were incredible and the palace seemed like it would be a great vacation house.

We took a short break for lunch and then continued further up the same road towards Doi Suthep National Park campground. The road twisted up another four kilometers from the palace and eventually turned to a steep gravel path just before the campgrounds. We were both immediately impressed with the facilities - they offered all kind of equipment for camping, mountain biking, and hiking. There was also a fairly extensive presentation of information on the park - wildlife, plant life, and composition of the earth. It was very much like park headquarters at a US national park with one exception: we were the only people there. We picked up a map from the office and started off on a track to the summit of Dui Poi. Although some of our friends may have made it to the top of bigger mountains, we were pretty excited about our 1,685m ascent. Rough. The trail was in pretty good condition, but I still managed to fall a few times and find some mud to splash around in. Good times.

We still had an hour or so before we had to turn the motorbike in so we went to the Chiang Mai Zoo. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Pandas - they were hinding - but we did get to see hippos, a lion, girrafes, and a lot of other animals considering we were only there for a little more than an hour. Neither of us are big zoo fans, but it was okay and a nice way to finish up an already full day.

From the zoo we turned in the bike, ate one last meal at the hostel and then caught our night bus to Bangkok. We're about to catch our flight to Taipei and will be in Taiwan by this evening.

Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2549

2007-01-29T06:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Monday, the 29th) was a full day at the flower festival just outside Chiang Mai. Dedicated to His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, the experience was a bit like going to Disneyland without the rides. The number in the title next to the festival is the year - according to the Thai Calendar. The festival started last December and continues until Wednesday. We didn't know about the event until just a day or two ago and were really glad that we got to go.

We also picked the perfect day after deciding not to go yesterday because it was cloudy. Today the skies were perfectly clear blue - almost too hot, a little bit draining to walk around all day, but really brought out the colors. The park was huge and we had to skip some segments of the walking track to finish in one day. The park is regularly visited by 3,000 people each day and recently reached its 2,000,000 visitor. Unlike most of the tourist locations we've been, we were clear the minority in the crowd - probably one of only a handful of farang. Most of the tourists were Thai and most were wearing their finest yellow shirts in celebration of the royal family. All of the exhibits involved the king - either in discussing how his majesty ingeniously invented this or magnificently implemented that, etc. According to one of the posters, the king invented biodiesel in 2001. Maybe something was lost in translation....

Joking aside, King Bhumibol has implemented some great programs, and has clearly focused on supporting the rural people of Thailand. Chris, perhaps you could provide a more critically accurate explanation of his involvement in the comments. The country clearly devotes a lot of time in honoring and celebrating his existence, so I only assume some of his accomplishments have been effective. From what we read, even despite the claim of inventing biodiesel, Thailands emphasis on alternative energy and developing resources beyond petroleum is impressive. The festival had an entire plot dedicated as the Biodiesel Garden - displaying various plants that are feasible, and also those that aren't, for vegetable oil production in Thailand.

Other than the flowers, we also saw a two presentations: one of a tribal dance, and the other a Spanish Flamenco. I don't know what the connection between Thailand and Spain is, but the week is National Spanish Week. At the Spanish international garden we picked up a flyer advertising Eva Yerbabuena's Flameco Company - they supposedly have a show tonight in Chiang Mai and were hoping to see the show tonight.

One of the funnier exhibits we saw was Rubber Land. Not that rubber trees are funny, but because of the two people dressed as cartoons characters outside the display. As you can see in the picture, the tree has a giant gash cut into its chest and a bucket nailed to its side to collect the sap. I don't have any issue with harvesting rubber from trees, but it becomes creepy when you put eyeballs, arms, legs, and a giant smile on the tree. That and watching kids snuggle up to be big gash wound with streaks of sap, that looked like blood, running down the front of its torso. By the time I took the picture, the people in the suits were taking a break - the head lying on the ground makes it look like the worker was decapitated while cutting open the tree. Judging by the smiles, though, everything is great and the kids loved it!

Monk Chat

2007-01-28T04:18:00.000-08:00

Today we visited two more temples. Chiang Mai has over 300 temples, or wats, within the city so we could theorhetically spend months doing this. We, however, are limiting ourselves to the major three or four. One of the temples was famous for being constructed of teak while the other for being one of the oldest wat in Chiang Mai. Most of the temples have been renovated relatively recently, but the excessive use of concrete and stucco along with an emphasis among the artisans to exactly mimic each other makes some of the temples a bit uninspiring. Wat Chedi Luang, however, actually looked like a six hundred year old brick building. Wat Chiang Man, the other we saw, is the oldest temple in the Chiang Mai, built in 1296 at the time of the city's founding. The temple served as the residence of Chiang Mai's founder, King Mengrai, for a time. The buildings are finely decorated in red lacquer, gold leaf and mosaics of tinted mirror, wonderful examples of Lanna style architecture.

We also went to Monk Chat at Wat Chedi Luang, a program for enabling tourists to interact with monks and allowing the monks to practise english. We spoke with a man who had been a monk for 12 years and taught english at a university. He spoke english fairly and we were able to ask him several questions and answer some of his. While monks lead a very regimented life - usually awake by four and eat only two meals that must be consumed before noon - they are not as sheltered as one might expect. They have access to email and television and most only practise for a year or less. Only a small minority stay in for their entire life. According to the monk we spoke with said that 80% of all Thai men are monks at some point in their life.

We also looked into The Royal Flora Ratchaphruek flower expo and plan on walking through the gardens tommorrow - over 7.2 km of trail through 8o hectres of land. Other than that it was a fairly laid back day. Watched the Austrailian Open men's final and are about to seek out some dinner.

Chaing Mai

2007-01-27T00:19:00.000-08:00

We've been in Chiang Mai since Wednesday and will probably be in the city or surrounding area until the first. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and located in the beautiful setting of Northern Thailand so there is plenty to keep us busy. So far we have spent most of our time getting acquainted with the area and some of the local history. On Thursday we visited a Tribal Museum - very organized and informational.

The native tribe is Lanna ("land of a million rice fields"), but several tribes have immigrated from nearby Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and China. It was interesting to learn not only about the tribes and their cultures, but also the way the Thai government managed to peacefully encourage progress, honor and respect their native cultures, incorporate them into Thai society, and recover native forests. Not sure how much is propaganda, but it was certainly a progressive approach to working with native inhabitants.

We have also invested a great deal of time in search of food that, as Nicole says,"hits the spot." It has been a difficult task, but we finally found an Israeli resturaunt,
Jerusalem Falafel, today that was amazing and it definitely "hit the spot."

Last night we watched Blood Diamond in the theatre - good movie despite the painful subject. Speaking of the king, before the movie we were asked to pay respects to the king by standing during a two minute video presentation of various pictures of the king. It was kind of like standing for a pre-game national athem - everybody in the theatre was standing and the soundtrack was very inspiring.

We've also been cautiously scootering around the town - actually, we usually just walk it on the sidewalk and I'm not sure why we rented it.

Luang Nam Tha and back to Thailand

2007-01-24T04:06:00.000-08:00

This post features pictures that Beth took during our three day trek. Another big thank you to Craig and Beth. Craig is finally pictured below, simultaneously sucking down some home brewed rice whiskey with Andrew. Tasty! Actually, it was pretty smooth. At the bottom of the shot you can see the mug used to refill the whisky with water. We were told to suck until the guy had to refill two cups of water which, when being pulled through long bamboo straws takes a lot of sucking. See Andrew suck. Makes it look easy.

Other than a beautiful shot of the river and surrounding scenery I'd also like to point out that you can see the back of the kayak partially submerged while Nicole rides a good foot above the water line. It's, uh, supposed to be like that and in no way motivates me to start shaving off some elbees.

The lady below cooked our meals and hauled water up from the river for cooking. Small fire pits are used by the villagers for cooking. Corn is hanging from the ceiling to dry and, eventually, to be used to feed their pigs. While we were there the woman had a huge vat of simmering corn slop bubbling away over some coals.
On Saturday(the 21rst) morning we left Laung Prabang on a bus for Luang Nam Tha, further north in Lao. Having a previous bad experience with the "VIP" bus, we agreed to take the local buses whenever possible (that way if we had a bad experience, at least we wouldn't have paid extra). The bus was just fine, although all buses here are maddeningly slow because of poorly constructed mountain roads. Unlike the states, driving through the mountains isn't just a matter crossing a pass. Instead, the roads repeatedly climb up and then descend through the karst landscape. In this case, eight hours worth of up, down, and side to side. Not to mention that much of the road is unpaved - providing the additional joy of bouncing and shaking. Just as with riding the school bus, the back seats get more bounce for the buck - kind of fun for us, but I think the vomiting villagers disagree. The problem with motion sickness is apparently not isolated to a few Lao villagers. It is routine for the bus conductors to hand out much-needed plastic bags.

We had planned on trekking in Luang Nam Tha, but ended up deciding against upon recommendation from Jasper and Roline, a Dutch couple we met during the bus ride. They mentioned that they were heading for The Gibbon Experience and suggested that instead. We couldn't get reservations, but are seriously considering heading back to Lao to check it out. Jasper and Roline were staying in the area for a couple days and we went "scooting" along with Jasper around the surrounding countryside in full body, chain mail reinforced leather jump suites (air bag capable), enormous helmets, and never exceeded 5 km/hr . It was incredibly beautiful there - several rice fields were being planted despite being the dry season. For the first time we saw a sea of green rice fields, all with huts for sheltering the tenders, and all being planted by hand. It is quite a thing to see. On an unfortunate note, I am not used to riding on the back of a motor bike. . . and was not aware of the danger of the hot tailpipe. So along with photos, I might have a nice scar to remember my trip by.

Getting back to Thailand was a relief to both of us for reasons we could not quite put our fingers on. Lao makes Thailand seem like a picture of order, modernity, and development. For example, the bus station we were at this morning used a computerized ticketing system, assigned seats, and tagged our luggage! Amazing.

In any case, we are in Chiang Mai now, and (due to the nicer Thai roads) no one was sick on our bus, so Andrew's fears were assuaged for the time being. We purchased another camera today, so we will be back to publishing recent and relevant pictures. Wish us luck - we're hoping this one survives longer than the last!

Spew Story

2007-01-23T03:58:00.000-08:00

***WARNING***

You may find this disgusting and/or offensive. As the title suggests, the story involves vomit. Nicole had nothing to do with this and, unfortunately, was not present to screen the contents. I shamelessly post this because I think it's funny. You have been warned.

***WARNING***

They are coming for me.

Each ride brings them closer.

The first culprits were faceless - ralphing noises and smells but unseen except for plastic bags of vomit rolling down the aisle or the unbelievably patient mother's shoulder covered in baby's breakfast. That time we laughed.

The next retch was two rows in front, but still well beyond range of the average barf. Only a freak shift of the winds could have possibly involved me. The unfortunate Dutch woman, whom we thought was German, was not so lucky. She sat adjacent to the burper and suffered their wrath. More than once. I am not a parent so I'm not sure why the mother aimed her child's spray into the lap of the German, who was, actually, Dutch, but she did. Twice. Using international sign language for "Please point your child's puke away from me," the Dutch woman was able to limit the bombardment to chance ricochet. Potent, still. That time we didn't laugh, but we knew it would be a good story later and we did laugh later with the Dutch couple whom we thought were German.

The third ride was neither funny then, nor later, because it was scary. The pattern became clear and I realized then that it was only a matter of time before I became a target. The initial passengers seemed safe - only one puker in the row in front. Her confident chucking of the full plastic bag across the bus, past a sleeping passenger, and out the window made me realize, though, that the threat did not have to be obvious. But then it really happened. The bus stopped to pick up three new villagers - one of which sat down in the aisle next to me and immediately hurled into a plastic bag just because she was nervous. Bags continued to be filled and then flung out the window throughout the six hour bus ride and we survived unscathed. That time I cried and the nightmares started.

My nightmares are reminiscent of a scene from the movie Stand By Me. Hundreds of Lao bus riders gather around our seat and simultaneously spew solid streams of rice, curry, and pork squarely into my face. After several minutes they stop, but only after a complete drenching. Then the bus starts and I marinate in my stew for the entire six hour bus ride while thinking about how I knew they were coming for me.

Recovery Days

2007-01-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

We're still hanging out in Luang Prabang to make sure Nicole's fully recovered before we attempt another bus ride. Finally developed a roll of pictures and scanned them onto our memory card. The camera doesn't capture colors as well as our digital camera did and I think some quality is lost in the scanning process, but I think we still took some decent shots. Nicole is feeling better each day and I think we'll start heading north towards Luang Namtha tommorrow.

We have spent the last couple days reading, watching movies, typing away on the internet. It's been nice to take a short break, but we're both looking forward to moving on. It feels like we've been here too long, but we don't want to take any chances with recorruing sickness. It's a luxury to have the time to rest like this while traveling, so we're making sure to take advantage of it while we can. Nicole arranged a trip to visit Audrey in Taipei, so we've officially added Taiwan to the itenerary. We fly out of Bangkok on the 2nd and will spend the weekend with Audrey and her husband, Terrance. With a flight to Hong Kong the weekend after, it looks like we'll be back into a more intense travel pace in February.

Luang Prabang and The Tiger Trail

2007-01-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

I have to start off this entry with a HUGE thank you to Craig and Beth, a couple from Reno that we traveled with during our three day trip. I only have pictures from Craig's camera for now, but hopefully we'll get some from Beth as well. Beth and our guide, Tom, are pictured with us above. We were really lucky to have them along on the trip - not just for the pictures but also their excellent company. Some of our guided trips have been negatively impacted by those that we were grouped with and it made a huge difference to have two people who were fun to travel with. The pictures on this blog are brought to you courtesy of them. In case you're reading this, guys, thanks again!

We just finished a three day trip biking, hiking, elephant riding, and kayaking in the country surrounding Luang Prabang. Like most of the places we've been in Lao, there are several different companies that offer tours and activities similar to the one we chose, but Tiger Trail (there aren't any Tigers around, so I'm not sure why Tiger Trail) has been around the longest and offered a trip that we liked.

The first day was supposed to be a 'moderate' mountain bike ride from the city office to The Elephant Park Project resort - home of four Asian elephants retired from the logging industry. We started on paved roads in heavy traffic, but were soon on a dirt road in an very rural area. The most advanced buildings were concrete with tin roofs, but most of them were thatched. The bikes we were given relatively nice and actually fit both of us, so we were initially excited.
Unfortunately, Nicole's bike chain broke after only about half an hour. Our guide, Tom, didn't have a single tool or any way of calling for help. He actually asked us if we had a cell phone! I thought we were going to end up walking the rest of the route, but somehow he was able to put the chain back together with a knife he borrowed from a local who just happened to be
walking by.
As we all expected, the chain only lasted until the next big hill before breaking again. Still determined to repair the bike, Tom somehow managed to fix the chain again. This time using a rock. Having fixed several chains myself (only with the help of specific tools), I couldn't believe what he was able to do. Still, he was only able to pedal for another five minutes before the entire rear derailleur was somehow tangled in the rear spokes. Fortunately, a couple guys on mopeds drove by and had a pair of pliers that he used to fix the bike for the third time.
After the derailleur incident, Tom decided it was time to give up on the ride and cross the river to a nearby village so he could call the office. The trail down to the river was the only single track biking we did that day, so it ended up being more fun than the dirt road. Finding a place to cross, however, was difficult and it took probably half an hour to find a guy with a boat to take us across. With everyone in and all the bike, the boat had about half an inch of clearance above the water line. We were all sure we were going to end up in the water. Well, I should say all of us were sure, because the three local guys in the boat were all standing up as if it were everyday routine.
Of course, once we made it to the village and he called the office there was nobody there! The Elephant park was only a few miles away, though, so Tom (who had taken the broken bike) pedalled on the flat stretches and walked up the hills. We still made it to the park in time for lunch, so it ended up just fine except that we were a little skeptical about the trip.

We left the resort on about a two hour hike to the Khmut village we were to stay at the first night. The path took us through some beautiful countryside, though there were obvious scars from years of slash and burn cultivation. The Lao government is currently developing new regulations to both enable the villages to continue and restrict slash and burn techniques. The villages are a popular draw for tourists, so there is incentive to enable them to continue farming. On the flip side, the smog generated makes the city unbearable - even for the locals.
The hike fairly easy and we arrived early enough to have a few hours before sunset to walk around and settle into the home stay room. About 250 people live in the village and most work as rice farmers, tending to fields nearby. None of the house have indoor plumbing and electricity is provided by a generator for one hour at sunset. The night we stayed, they ran the generator a bit longer in order for a large group to watch a movie in the building across from ours. The lack of facilities wasn't much of a damper on the mood as evidenced by the laughing children playing in the streets (some half clothed, and two who had to hold there pants up with one hand at all times). The villagers are currently building a new school building our of concrete - a big improvement from their smaller, wooden schoolhouse.

The second day was a full day of hiking in the country through two Hmong villages to our destination village near the Khan River. Most of the villages have spirit based religion, but there was one Christian village. I only mention that because it was Sunday and we could hear hymns being sung while we stopped for a break. It was an odd contrast after seeing so much Buddhist imagery and tradition to hear Christian hymns and a strumming guitar.

We stopped for lunch at a local Hmong villagers house and our guide prepared a noodle soup - basically a ramen style noodle with vegetables. As is usual for the area, chickens freely scurried in and out of the house along with a dog, cat, and a young girl. The woman who owned the house looked like she could be 100 years old, but hauled 2 gallons of water from a stream up a hill to the house (about 1/4 mile away) for our lunch.

After lunch we hiked another few hours before arriving at the final destination. The house we stayed at was celebrating the birth of a baby. It felt a bit like we interrupted until they asked us to join them at the table and started handing us shots of Lao Lao (rice whiskey). Nothing like ending seven hours of hiking in hot weather like pounding whiskey! I thought they were just giving us a shot to try, but they kept handing more and more shots to us. The four of us each had three or four before they then joined in with us - taking a shot, refilling, and then passing to the next person in the circle.
The father of the baby also brought a clay jar full of homemade rice whiskey and two bamboo shoots sticking out of the top. After they demonstrated how to suck the whiskey through the straw, we were then invited to drink with them! Craig tried to slow down the pace by ordering a couple bottles of Beer Lao, but they just added that to the drinks being passed around. This continued for about a half an hour before most of the people had to head home or, I assume, party somewhere else.
While Tom was preparing dinner we walked down to the river to shower. We've seen people showering in rivers ever since arriving in Lao, but that was our first time joining in the fun. There were probably a hundred people - men and women - bathing along the banks, while music played over loud speaker in the distance. Men wore underwear, women a long skirt tied just below there armpits, and children were either naked or in their underwear. Judging by the giggling, they had a good time watching us falangs (in Lao it's falang vice farang) splash around in the river. I thought the water felt great, but everyone else said it was too cold.
Sticky rice, beef, and vegetables for dinner and then off to bed for another night of listening to a wedding party (more people karaoke/screaming into microphones and speakers turned up to 11), snoring, babies crying, dogs yelping, roosters crowing (for some reason they only get to cock-a-doodle as if the final 'doo' is stuck in their throat), sleep talking, people going to the bath room, and nose snorting. There were about eight people in the room we slept in, but the walls were so thin that the whole village might as well have been there as well. I was totally congested as well - contributing my own nasal symphony to the mix.
Breakfast was a French bread loaf, marmalade, eggs, and tea like the first morning. After breakfast we hopped into a boat and road down to the Elephant Park Project. The park is home for four elephants and is funded by tourists. Asian elephants are slightly smaller than the more commonly recognized African elephant. They also have smaller ears and one less rib (in case you were curious). Even so, they are impressive animals both in size and strength. Historically they were used for logging and battle, but are now generally neglected. We rode an elephant for about an hour with a Mahout (elephant trainer). I'm pretty sure he was hung over - apparently Sunday is a big party night - because he put Nicole on the elephants neck to drive and promptly fell asleep. The ride was fun, but we both wished we could have interacted with the elephants rather than just ride
them.

After the elephant ride, we took another boat to the Tad Se Waterfall for a couple hours of relaxing and lunch before jumping into kayaks for a four and half hour paddle down the Khan River. The waterfalls were a beautiful - created by an array of overflowing pools within naturally formed shelves.
Tom gave us the option to drive us further down the river, but we opted to paddle the full distance. Nicole and I both thought it wouldn't be that bad since we were going downstream the whole time, but the low river and slow current made for a tough workout. Pain aside, it was a beautiful paddle with some small rapids. We were also greeted, from time to time, by children playing on sandbars and locals working along the shore.

It was a long day, but a good finish to a great trip. We were both really happy with the whole experience and, though this entry is long, can only barely begin to describe the things we saw.
Unfortunately, we think some river water got into Nicole's water bottle because she's was sick within a few hours of finishing the paddle. She's been sleeping most of the day, eating what she can, and has slowly been feeling better. Fortunately we don't have to go anywhere for a few days and there is a hospital just down the street if she continues to feel bad. We're both hopeful that it is just a 24 hour bug, but will probably test for anything lasting.

Vang Vien to Luang Prabang

2007-01-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

Vang Vien, Vang Vien. . .what to say about Vang Vien? It is a small town between Vientiane and Luang Prabang which has in the last five years has blown up as a tourist "chill out" spot. I went online to look for some photos (because, as will be explained later, our camera is officially dead). The article I found from 2002 described Vang Vien as "off the beaten path" and said a lot about it's authenticity. In 2007, the town center has many more "falangs" than Laos, and there is a crazy number of restaurants (all serving the same pseudo-western food), countless TV bars(apparently a few years ago one restaurant started showing the TV show Friends and now there are about 5 in the one block main stretch doing the same), and any number of activities and locations for designed consumption of Beer Lao. That said, it is beautiful here, the people seem to be incredibly friendly, and once you get outside of the few main tourist blocks it is a lot more like the villages we saw with Chris in Thailand.As for it being a "chill out spot", it certainly was that for us. We stayed for five days, and have been taking everything at a VERY slow pace. Our activities have been hiking, biking, reading, cross word puzzles (thanks for the book Chris), caving, tubing, and swimming. Good times.
The first day we floated about 3 km down the river in inflated tractor tire inter tubes. It was very beautiful, but unfortunately the "dry bag" that we rented was not actually water tight. Our camera ended up completely drenched and dead, which is a great pity considering the beautiful places we have seen in the last few days (not to mention the fact that we will have to buy a new one).
Yesterday we took a "VIP" bus to Luang Prabang. I'm not sure can fully describe the experience. First of all, the distance is only 230 km (about 145 miles) but the trip took about 8 hours. This was in large part due to the very windy, narrow roads going over the mountains along the way. It was also in part due to the frequent, unscheduled stops along the way to pick up or drop off numerous Lao villagers who were crammed into the aisles (as all the seats were full with tourists). This is pretty much standard for regular buses here, but we had payed an extra 8 dollars between the two of us to get the "direct, A/C, VIP bus" (which ended up being true only in the sense that it WAS actually a bus). For most of the ride I was sharing my seat; the man on the floor next to me was using my arm rest, and the woman next to me was using my leg room for a sack of oranges and hanging on the the hand hold on the seat in front of me. To really top things off, apparently having not ridden in cars for most of their lives, Lao villagers are more prone to motion sickness; at least 3 of the 20 or so people crammed into the aisle way were vomiting throughout the trip. It was awesome.

But, we finally made it to Luang Prabang, which seems like a really interesting city. Just walking around last night we saw an incredibly vibrant night market, beautiful French architecture and Lao wats (temples). We also had a delicious dinner and a few glasses of wine to shake off our trip before heading back to the guest house for an early night.

No sooner had we laid down than an incredibly loud Karaoke party started up in the street behind us. This was followed by unknown animal scratching through the thin bamboo thatched roof (okay, it didn't actually make it through, but that is what it sounded like). This was followed by roosters crowing (at 2AM-- aren't they supposed to wait until morning?). So, we finally drifted off to sleep around 2AM. . . only to be awakened at 4AM by what sounded like a couple of kids playing on a base drum and some symbols. I waited in bed thinking that some Thai person would get fed up and go outside to yell at them. Eventually Andrew got up to see what was going on- it was monks in the temple right across the street (ironically one of the things that made us think it might be quiet) using the gongs. This pretty much ruled out the option of anyone yelling at them. And they kept going . . for about twenty minutes. . . at 4AM. . . and I think the gonging woke up the roosters. . . . Also, Andrew had an allergic reaction to something in the room and woke up congested and very irritated eyes.
It was quite a day! I guess our first "zany" travel adventure day. I actually feel pretty lucky (knock on wood) that we've made it this far without more similar days.
And it was all pretty funny. . . in retrospect.

Vientiane

2007-01-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

We've spent the last four days in Vientiane, capital of Lao People's Democratic Republic. Most of our activities have centered around eating and we have essentially spent the days finding different ways to kill time before the next meal. Today, for example, our only accomplishment between breakfast and lunch was preparing lunch in a cooking class. More on that later.

The new year officially marks the fourth month since we left our home in Bremerton, WA. From everything we've read, most travelers experience a slump at this point and we are no exception. A combination of the post holiday blahs, sad farewell to Chris, and almost three weeks of sickness for Andrew has taken it's toll. But we press on, focusing on the good life we have and, most importantly, food and sleep!

Yesterday, the 2nd, we followed a Lonely Planet recommended walking tour of Vientiane. The tour, along with getting lost a couple times, made for a long and exhausting day. We did, however, manage to eat a lot of good food. We also made a game of trying to spot as many Lonely Planet guidebooks as possible and found eight by the end of the day. The picture above is of the Mekong River at sunset. We ended our trek with a nice dinner at a French restaurant and had our fill of bread, wine, salad, cheese, lactaid(for Nicole), and steak.During the walking tour we stopped at a guesthouse offering a cooking class and signed up for the next morning (today). The class included a trip to the local market to pick out fresh vegetables and our choice of three dishes to learn how to make. We chose to make chicken curry, spring rolls, and papaya salad. Papaya salad is probably the only dish you haven't had and is a Lao favorite. Chris includes it in his daily diet and most people we have met say it's their favorite food. It's tasty and we wanted to learn so we could someday make it for Chris in the states. We were also hoping to make some sticky rice, but it wasn't an option.

We were the only people in the class and had(also needed) the full attention of our instructor. The dishes were pretty easy to make and we're both excited to have some new options in our repertoire. And if you didn't think it was possible to look seductive in an apron, see below! Nothing like a mid-blink photo to turn up the heat. The giant mortar and pestle looking thing is actually specifically for making papaya salad....but I have proven it to work for crushing spices.

We finished the day at the Lao National History Museum. Being unfamiliar with the history of this region and it's involvement with the Vietnam War (American War as it's called here), we were fascinated with the information and perspective. The US, for example, was consistently referred to as 'the imperialistic US and its puppets.'

Pictures of 'imperialistic US atrocities' and artifact weapons 'brought by the imperialistic US to kill innocent citizens' were prevalent in the museum. We learned about the 'official' Lao perspective of Frances failure to colonize the region followed by the US failure to fight the communist rebellion. Meanwhile, communist soldiers were depicted as smiling farmers with a gun strapped to their back or women happily firing artillery cannons. Nicole recognized similarities from pictures she had seen in Nicaragua depicting the Sandinista during their revolution.

Considering Saddam's recent hanging, it was provoking to read of thousands of Laos being killed by chemical weapons deployed by US bombs. Lao, we have also learned, is the most bombed country per capita in history. According to our Lonely Planet guide, 1.5 times as many sorties were flown over Lao than Vietnam if you include the 'secret war' leading up to the Vietnam War. History will always be subject to perception, but it was eye opening to see Lao's government approved side. Needless to say, we're now communist. Okay, maybe not, but it did make us want to learn more.

But this is all too serious - it's time for dinner!

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T00:06:00.000-08:00

We stayed with Chris until the 30th and then headed towards Laos. It took a couple days of buses, tuk tuks, and border crossing hassles, but we made it into Vientiane on New Years Eve. It was exciting to get back on the road, but we were both sad to say goodbye to Chris. The last three weeks were amazing and it was harder than either of us expected to move on. The idea of this trip developed initially from planning to visit Chris, so, in a lot of ways, our stay at his village was the focus of this whole adventure. Fortunately, we will be seeing Chris again in Bangkok in February.

Until then we have a little over a month to explore Laos and Northern Thailand before catching a flight in Bangkok to meet Chellis in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year! Considering that we can eat for $2 a plate (and those are the fancy meals) and stay in guesthouses for $5/night (again the fancy places) I don't think we'll have any problem hanging out for the next month. Laos is a popular travel destination, too, and has a lot of outdoor activities and plenty of sight seeing. As with every other place we've been, we will probably end up feeling short on time.

The New Years Celebration was actually pretty tame last night. We had some really good Indian food and then hung out at a Tex-Mex restaurant for some 640ml, $1 Lao Beers. There were a few fireworks, but nothing special. This was the first New Years that neither of us has had work during or the day after in several years, though, so we considered that pretty special in itself.

At this point, we're planning on spending a few days in Vientiane (the capital of Laos and located along the Mekong River) and then heading North and eventually East back towards Thailand. It turned out to be a mixed blessing that we couldn't meet Lamont in Bangkok since there ended up being three terrorist bombings during the New Year celebration (http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/01Jan2007_news01.php). Hopefully we will have another opportunity to meet up with him along the way.

Not much else to write for now. We both hope everyone is having happy holidays!

'Aint No Party Like a Thai Party

2006-12-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

Thais know how to have a good time. And drink. Usually both at the same time. But before that, we have to talk about Christmas. Christmas Eve we invited some of Chris' friends over for dinner - farang style. He specifically told them not to bring food and to come over at about 6PM. So, at 7PM, they all showed up within about five minutes of each other with literally buckets of Thai food. For our guests, we prepared a salad, brochette, spaghetti, and fried apples with cinnamon for dessert.

All of them were, by our crazy western standards, delicious. For Thais, however, eating bread is probably a bit like the idea of eating dog for us. A couple of Chris' friends were brave enough to take the plunge, but they mostly stuck to their own food. We also had a bottle of wine, but they weren't having much of that either. Still, with the help of a few bottles of rum, we were having a good time. Chris did an amazing job of translating, but I'm sure it was exhausting having to bounce back and forth between languages and attempt to answer questions from both the Thais and us farangs. I'm not sure how he communicated the conversation, but somehow we started talking about Santa Claus and how we worship him in celebration of Jesus' birth. I'm not sure if Chris had studied words regarding pagan traditions but somehow we got through the evening.

Christmas was made possible by the loving friends and family that sent us decorations and gifts. We created a bubble of American Christmas in Chris' house. It was strange to leave the house - a perfectly normal Monday with kids at school, buses running all day, and people at work. But we were happy in our little bubble. Nicole and I managed to stay in the house all day, but Chris had to leave for a bit to run a couple errands. All said, though, we had a great Christmas complete with stockings, presents, and family.

As a random note, I felt like posting a picture of Chris taking out the garbage. As can be seen from the picture, taking out the garbage really means burn it in a plastic bag. Not much else you can do out here in the country. I really like this picture - something about the way Chris is looking at the fire really speaks to me.

So, back to partying. We were invited to a gift exchange at Chris' office party on the 27th. The event was a new year's party for all the local government workers. The bulk of the party was a stage for karaoke. At first people had to be pushed onto the stage and bashfully sang Thai songs while trying to avoid eye contact with the crowd.

The party started at about 11AM and the big wig officials from the district office arrived at about noon. They stayed long enough to make their presence known and exchange gifts with the local office workers. According to Chris, these officials have so many parties and events to attend that the entirety of their job is partying. Unsurprisingly, as soon as the big boss walked out the door the real party started. People who had been carefully sipping diluted mixed drinks and beer started slamming whiskey and double- fisting on the dance floor. It was great.

The stage became the cool place to be and groups of five or six crowded on to belt out, with pride, their favorite Thai songs. I should also point out that I've never heard amplification quite like this before. Not only was the volume turned up to 11, but even the most mild mannered Thai would scream into the microphone. Ear shattering fun! I forgot to mention the dancing. Thai dancing is pretty straight forward. Pretty much shuffle back and forth with an occasional leg kick while rolling your wrists and waving your arms. If you're really digging a song you can point your index finger in the air - the Thai equivalent to the devil horns. We were being pulled up to the dance floor constantly to shake our booties. No real booty shaking going on, though. We left at about 4PM, but word on the street was that the party lasted until about 2AM.

Another random note, I had to post a picture of an epic battle, a la Skull Island, featuring a giant lizard and a bat sized moth. Check out the battery for scale! This royal rumble took place in Chris' living room. Apparently the lizard is allowed to live under the couch in exchange for eating pests. Chris knew about his roommate, but didn't mention it to us. Didn't really bother me, I was just fired up to see the fight!

Team Farang

2006-12-22T01:16:00.000-08:00

We are still enjoying the simple life in Bahi, although today we are in Sakon Nihkon in order to do some Christmas shopping (food and gifts) and because there are legitimate Internet cafes here in the big city. The closest Internet cafe to Chris' house is a 30-45 bicycle ride away and is unreliable at best. In case you didn't notice, though, I was able to upload pictures from our time at the beach - they are in the first Thailand post.

The last time we posted we were leaving for dinner with Chris' host family at a Korean barbeque. The barbeque is a bucket of coals with a metal bowl seated on top. Cooking the meat and vegetables is up to the customer - kind of similar to a Mongolian grill, the food is presented in an all you can eat buffet line. Your choice of chicken, pork, fish, squid, and other unidentifiable tentacles is brought back to the table so you can cook it on your own grill. I think it was difficult for Nicole because the same chopsticks used for handling the raw meat were used to eat the cooked meat. The method for 'cleaning' the chopsticks off was to dip them in the boiling broth in the metal bowl....the same metal bowl used to cook the raw meat. The food was great and we experienced the truly amazing eating abilities of Thai men and women. I have always prided myself on being able to eat with the best, but I was put to shame by 80 lbs Thai women. The picture below isn't great, but you can see the grills in the middle of the table.
I say that we are living the simple life, but we have been surprisingly busy meeting Chris' friends and being invited out to dinner and lunch. It's tough...we have to wake up at the crack of noon in order to make it to lunch on time (joking, we're up at about 7 every morning). The little things seem to add up quickly - laundry and dishes are all done by hand and showers are without heat or water pressure. The picture below is of Chris' bathroom. The large vat of water on the left is for showering using the pink bucket. The smaller vat of water is for flushing the toilet seen on the right. The two spigots provide water, but they are only pressurized for a few hours in the morning and evening. Chris also has a clay barrel outside with it's own spigot to use for laundry and mopping. The only problem with this method of showering is the lack of heated water. Normally it's not much of an issue, but this time of year is pretty chilly and it becomes a psychological battle to overcome the fear of the initial splash. Otherwise, it's a pretty efficient way to shower and not much different than taking a "Navy shower." Going to the bathroom isn't bad either and you get a bit of a work out holding the squat position.

The last couple days has consisted of eating and helping Chris teach English to grade school children. Wednesday after lunch we went to the local elementary school (shown below) to help with a lesson about directions. Nicole and I took turns with blindfolds while the kids yelled out "turn left" or "go straight" in order to direct us to a chair. Since neither of us speak Thai the kids couldn't cheat...very much. After the blindfolds, they lined up to ask each of us a question (What is your name? or How old are you?) and we gave them chocolate for each question. Chris also taught them a couple Christmas carols - we sang a rousing rendition of Rudolf, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Nicole played volleyball with some of the kids after the class - shown in action below. The kids had a lot of fun playing with her - Chris and I almost had to leave her behind.

After dinner we went with Chris to another English class in the village with a different group of kids. This time I dressed up as Santa Claus while Chris and Nicole donned antlers. Several kids were waiting outside Chris' house - eagerly waiting to see what the farangs were up to. Farang is a Thai term for all westerners - pretty much anyone with white skin. Just biking through the village created a commotion. The lesson was basically the same as the morning class, but Chris also held a Q&A session between me (acting as Santa) and the kids. I felt a little awkward pretending to be Santa (some of them honestly believed), especially when they asked me if Thai children could get presents and chocolates and what they had to do to get them. I didn't really know what to say, but we ended up giving them chocolate in the end so I don't think they were too worried about the details.

Yesterday, Thursday, we were treated to our second meal with Chris' friends. This time we were taken to a seafood restaurant about 20 minutes from Bahi. The food shown in the pictures below was only part of the two and half hour lunch. Before the platters shown below were brought out, we had two curry soup dishes (one with shrimp, the other with fish) with rice. After the soup, two plates of crayfish and a fish covered in cashews, vegetables, and peppers was delivered (shown in the pictures). I couldn't believe they were serious about eating all of the food - I could only imagine that they were planning on taking left overs. Not only did we eat all of the food, but the women ordered a second fish!! And 'we' finished that as well. The food was delicious and spicy and their company was wonderful. We spent most of the lunch asking each other how to say different words in each language. Inevitably, I suppose, we were asked what worst swear word was in English. And, of course, it had to be repeated several times to make sure the pronunciation was perfect. Hearing three perfectly polite and proper Thai accountants calmly repeating,"Fuck you" was hilarious.

After lunch we went to a temple, Adjohn Fahn, dedicated to a monk famous for forest meditation. We also fed the fish protected in the river near the temple. The fish were huge - we spent about half an hour tossing fish food into the water and watching them swarm.

We made it home from the temple at about five and finished decorating the house - managing to use every last decoration, the house looks pretty festive. Hopefully we'll find some good farang food in town this weekend and cook up a good holiday feast. Until next time....

Bahi

2006-12-19T00:43:00.000-08:00

After four days on the beach we flew back to Bangkok and then took a 9 hour night bus from Bangkok to Chris' district capitol Sakon Nahkon. The bus didn't leave Bangkok until 8:45PM, so we had time to stoll through the city market - a 5 acre sprawl of every possible shopping need you could imagine. Nicole was able to find some really good deals and even talked down the price on some of the clothes she bought. It's amazing how much you can buy for a few dollars here.

The bus was very comfortable and all three of us slept well on the trip. We arrived in the city at about 6AM and had to wait a couple of hours before catching a ride into Bahi. One of Chris' coworkers gave us a ride into the village with her truck - a fortunate opportunity that enabled us to avoid another bus ride.

We arrived at Chris' house by about 9AM, and spent a couple hours unpacking, showering, and cleaning up. Chris hadn't been home for two weeks, so there was a good amount of sweeping and mopping to be done. Christmas music and decorations were almost immediately put into action - the goal is to use every possible ornament and piece of tinsel. Another night or two dedicated to decoration and we should have the place looking like home.

We are having some techincal difficulties with the pictures, so I'll have to put more up later. We're late to meet some of Chris' friends fro Korean Barbeque, but I'll put more up as soon as possible.

Goodbye New Zealand, Hello Thailand

2006-12-14T06:03:00.000-08:00

The trip from Auckland to Bangkok via Sydney wasn't as cool as we originally hoped. We intentionally chose a flight with a 10 hour layover in Sydney in hopes of walking around the harbour for a few hours. Unfortunately, my slight fever that started the night we stayed at John's had progressed into 104.8F. I was fluctuating between violent chills at about 101 to feeling slightly cold at the upper temperature. The cycle would last about four hours. I felt okay when we landed, though, so we decided to go into the city anyways. We did a little walking around, but I had to take a break and sit down every few minutes. We took a cruise of the harbor that was beautiful and interesting, but I slept through most of it.

Feeling exhausted, we chose to go back to the airport early and just wait for the plane. It was Nicole's vigilance of my temperature during this period that we knew my temperature was so high. At that point she convinced me to go see a doctor. He didn't really say anything profound, but gave us a prescription for Tylenol. There really wasn't much he could do other than advise us not to fly to Bangkok that day. We thought about it for probably two seconds and chose to fly anyway. I slept for the remaining couple of hours before the flight and went through about two more cycles before the fever completely went away. Unfortunately, it was at this point that the extremely painful gastrointestinal issues started. I think I spent the majority of the 8 hour flight in the bathroom. It was easily the worst flight of my life and I'm sure it was rough for Nicole, too.

The travel day started at 2AM New Zealand time, and we finally landed in Bangkok at 11PM. Chris met us at the airport - with a fever of his own - and we took a cab into the city. He had prearranged a room in a guest house (essentially a hostel) and we crashed into bed. The GI pain and associated bathroom visits lasted all night. The total travel day lasted about 26 hours.

We then spent a day hanging out at the guest house and wandered into the city for a massage and a little shopping. Tuesday we flew to Krabi and then took a taxi, truck, and boat ride to Railey Beach. We've been here for the last couple days, hanging out on the beach, hiking, kayaking, and relaxing.

Before we left Bangkok Chris visited his Peace Corps doctor and picked up recommendation for medication (prescriptions are not required in Thailand). I have been taking antibiotics for the last couple days and am doing much better. Chris' fever appears to have subsided. Nicole is doing well, but her knee is still sore. We're hanging in there and trying to make this a relaxing trip. I have to comment that Chris' doctor was impressed with my immune system having broken a 105F fever while travelling.

Nicole has really enjoyed the beach time and the outdoor activities. She especially enjoyed the fresh pineapple and coconut we ate while sitting on the beach - delicious. We've also hiked through a few caves and did a couple hours of sea kayaking earlier today. Thailand is a beautiful country and the area we are in know is just as impressive as New Zealand.

It's also been really fun for us to get a chance to hang out with Chris and hear about his experience. He speaks Thai extremely well and it's been awesome to hear him interact with Thais. They love talking to him and the ladies all flight with him and ask him if he has a Thai girlfriend yet. We'll be here, in Railey, for a couple more days before heading towards Chris' village.

Mount Doom

2006-12-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

"I can travel anywhere, except Cuba, and I will travel to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor and I will hike Mount Doom." ~Dwight K. Schrute (The Office)

Translated into real terms, the "Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor" is actually called the Tongariro Crossing and "Mount Doom" is Mount Ngauruhoe. Touted as the best single day hike in New Zealand, we went out of our way to squeeze the hike into our plans.

The day started in Kaikoura, a small pennisula town on the south island known. Our ferry didn't leave until 2PM so we visited a couple wineries on the way to Picton, the terminal. The first winery was very large and well maintained. The wine was pertty good, but nothing special. The second winery we visited was small and very charming. The hostess was outside gardening when we drove up. She was extrememly nice and the wine was great. Nicole found a wine that she really liked and we bought a bottle. It was a pleasant start to a fairly long travel day.

After crossing back over to the North island we drove straight from Wellington to National Park - about a four hour drive - and stayed at a hostel for the night. We planned on meeting Adam, Conner, and Tamara so we could hike the trail together. Nicole's knee was still not up to 100% so she opted out of the hike. She was awesome, though, and agreed to drop us off at the start and pick us up and the end of the hike. The trail is normally hiked by huge groups that use bus transportation, but we were able to totally avoid the crowds by starting and stopping at abnormal times. It also gave us the flexibility to hike up to Mount Doom.

Our original intention was only hike the Tongariro Crossing and leave it at that. But, Adam and I together tend to motivate each other to do, what most people consider stupid, things. On this occasion we were also motivated by the spirit of another friend of ours, Mike Rea. The last time the three of us were together we turned a 40 mile bicycle ride organized by Redhook Brewery into a 100 mile bycicle pub crawl. Anyways, we orginally walked by the mountain because it looked really hard and none of us had any real hiking boots on and it was an additional 3hours to add to an already 7-8 hour hike. So at the first pass we chose to hike on by. About 15 minutes later, however, we took a short break to eat some snacks and chat with a few of the other hikers. One in particular mentioned that he climbed to the top of Mount Doom. I think his words were something like,"I'm from Holland and we don't even have hills, but I had to hike Mount Doom. It wasn't too bad." That combined with the fact that he was wearing keds and a sweatshirt was about all the convincing we needed to hike back to the mountain and hike to the top.

I've done a lot of hiking and Adam has climbed both Mount Adams and Mount Kilimanjaro so I was confident that we would make it up to the top. What I didn't take into account was that the side of the mountain was enitrely loose sand and rock. It was so steep that we were on our hands and knees for the first half hour - they weren't joking around in the movie, it really is tough getting up that mountain! Eventually we figured out a way to walk on the difficult sand and volcanic stone. It took about another 45 minutes, but we finally made it to the top. The trip down was pretty smooth and the soft sand enabled us to sort of surf down the mountain. There was a portion at the top of the mountain covered in snow that we slid down as seen below (probably the most fun part of the hike).
From National Park, we drove to Waimara to visit John Willoughby - a Kiwi that we met at Jenny and T.C.'s wedding earlier this summer. He teaches about 15 students grades 3-6 in a two room school house right next to the ocean and lives next door in a house owned by the school. It is pretty amazing lifestyle and seems kind of like a different era. We were priveledged to feast on some New Zealand lamb. . . because the school lambs had just been butchered (John did the butchering). The school also has ewes and chickens, and we had fresh eggs for breakfast. In the morning we walked accross the paddock separating the school from the ocean, and took a walk on the beach. It is hard to describe what this place was like, but we definutely felt lucky to see it. We also had the pleasure of enjoying Monteith's Honey Spiced Summer Ale and Kathryn's Plum Sauce. The dinner was a traditional,"Meat and three veg" dinner and it was delicious.

Shown below is a very special car. According to John, the car, a yellow mini in case you can't tell, was the star of a movie that was, in New Zealand, as big as Star Wars. He picked the car up from the director of the movie and now drives it around town for fun. It's missing so many parts because the characters driving it in the movie had to sell them for gas money as they ran from the police. Don't know if you can find the movie in the states, but it might be worth it.

Having a Go at the Long Blow

2006-12-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is a phrase used by sheep shearers to describe the maneuver used to shave the side of the sheep- ineptly shown below. We spotted a sign Saturday that said,"Shear a Sheep...TODAY!!" So, of course, we pulled over and signed up for a tour of the sheep farm. The farmer consistently cares for about 5,000 sheep - using them for wool and meat production. The first hour of the tour was a car ride around the farm with one of the farmers. She explained the process to us and answered all of our questions (as silly as they probably seemed to her). It was interesting to hear her perspective on the farming industry and see a little behind the scenes operations. We've seen sheep pretty much constantly since arriving, so it was fun to see the farms up close and personal. Deer farming is also really big in New Zealand because of a huge demand from Japan. The horns from a deer - while still soft and fleshy - are used as an aphrodisiac.

Sheep shearing is HUGE in New Zealand and the guys who do it for a living travel all around the world, following the season. The farm we visited had a video of the world record setting day when a team of six men sheared about 5000 sheep in 9 hours. The world record holder can shear 720 sheep in 9 hours. I sheared about 3ft of one sheep in about four minutes. We also got to see the farmer work with a sheep dog while he demonstrated the dogs ability to herd the sheep from a huge field into the shearing barn.

From Waiau Downs Farm we continued South through Invercargill for lunch and on to Dunedin for the night. The next day, Sunday, we kayaked around the Otago Peninsula with a guide. The peninsula is most famous for its Albatross population, but we also saw penguins, a sea lion, and several fur seals. The weather wasn't great, but it was still fun to see so much wildlife. At one point one of the seals swam up right next to boat and looked at Nicole - probably about three feet away.

We stayed in Dunedin again Sunday night. Monday we drove from Dunedin up to Mount Cook National Park, one of the largest mountains in the New Zealand Southern Alps. Nicole was feeling a little under the weather so she picked a nice cafe to read while I 'hiked' up to one of the glaciers. While the pictures may look similar to the fjiordlands, it's a totally different environment than any of the west coast. While the fjiordlands are sort of like the Puget Sound and Olympic National Park - wet and green. At times almost tropical. Mount Cook was more like the Cascade Mountain range in Central Washington and Oregon - dry and rugged. The hike parralled the path of the Tasman Glacier - a much longer but flater glacier than either Fox or Franz Josef. I didn't have the equipement or guide to hike on the glacier, but the track was plenty close.

If you look closely at the picture below you can see a hawk that flew into the picture of me in front of the mountains. If you zoom even closer you can just barely make out that it is holding a piece of meat that it caught. I had seen the hawk a couple times before, but at the moment of the picture it was in the middle of flying three circles around me with the meat. Showing off a bit, I suppose.

We camped at the base of Mount Cook and hit the road again this morning. We're now in Kaikoura for the night - tired of driving and within range of wine country. Nicole is napping right now in preparation for a early start out to the wineries before we catch a ferry back over to the North Island.

Queenstown and The Fjiordlands

2006-12-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

From Franz Josef we drove about six hours to Queenstown. It was an exceptionally rainy day - apparently even for New Zealand standards - making what could have been a very scenic drive a very frustrating drive over a stormy mountain pass. We celebrated on the far side of the mountains by stopping at a fruit stand and gorging on - at least I gorged on - tons of fruit. I think we bought something like 15 lbs of fruit in various forms: leather, jam, whole fruit, chocolate covered, candied, etc.

We found a hostel and met up with Adam, Tamara, and Conner again. They were equally bummed about the weather, so we went to the bars. Determined to do something 'crazy' we paid a somewhat ridiculous amount of money to go to an ice bar. Everything, including the 'glasses,' were made of ice. Probably the best part was that they provided parkas, gloves, and booties. Though "we didn't HAVE to wear the booties," we (at least Adam and I) were pretty excited about them.

After a quick 134 meter bunjy jump in the morning, Nicole and I hit the road for the Fjiordlands National Park via Te Anau. Dad, you'll be pleased to know that we did some Rings sightseeing along the way and even ate at a restaurant that the actors frequented.

The park was, as just about everything else we've seen on the south island, unbelievable. As expected, it was absolutely pouring down rain when we got there. We pushed through the weather and made the best of a 3 kilometer day hike that ended in with a snowy mountain top. Even with the crappy weather, we could see some of the mountains peeking through the clouds and the forests were beautiful.

After the hike we drove into Milford Sound and camped at a hostel. This morning we woke up and took a boat tour around the sound. We were hoping to do some more kayaking, but ended up being pleased with the tour - the sound was really crowded with boats and it was nice to be able to just relax and enjoy the scenery. During the cruise we got to see penguins hopping around the rocks and a few seals sunbathing. The penguins were pretty funny - incredibly agile considering how they have to waddle around and jump from boulder to boulder.

Unlike yesterday, the weather was immaculate and we were able to do some more day hiking around the area after the boat ride. Tonight we're staying in Te Anau and from here heading east via the southern scenic route. Hope everyone is well. Thanks, again, for your posts! It's great to hear from you.

Nicole Says: Soemthing else cool about the fiordlands was seeing and hearing multiple avalanches on one of our hikes. It is spring here and had been raining a lot and warmed up. . . which caused bothe the avalanches and the flooded out path (that is why Andrew was carrying me) you can see in some of the pictures above we were in a valley surrouned by snow covered mountains. Probably about five times we heard the surprisingly loud sound of the avalnaches and looked up to see the cascading snow. You can also see above where we were forced to stop due to a mound of snow and rocks covering the path from a previos avalanch.

Ice Climbing Franz Josef Glacier

2006-11-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it is about time I (Nicole) put up a post. Yesterday afternoon we got to Franz Josef Glacier and did some great hikes near the two glaciers (Fox glacier is only about 25 kilometers away). The glaciers are special in that they extend into a rain forest at very low altitudes- Franz Josef extends down to about 24o meters above sea level. For some reason, the colors here seem to be exagerated just a little bit beyond what you expect in the real world. Last night was no exception, and despite the overcast weather we saw some incredible scenery.

We were also lucky to run into Adam (Andrew's friend from the Stennis), his girlfriend Tamara and his friend Conor. It was pretty cool to see some friends from the states (randomly) and hear about their travels over a few drinks.

This morning we got up early for our ice climbing trip. Franz Josef glacier is supposedly one of the few places in the world you can do this kind of trip because of its accessibility. It was a pretty crappy day, unfortunately, with rain from start to finish. Despite the weather, going out on the glacier was incredible. We got fitted out with crampons (I have no idea how to spell that, but they are basically metal spikes for your boots) which gave us amazing traction on the ice, but not so awesome traction on rock and slush. We travelled over and around some amazing caverns and walls. The whole thing was a little surreal. The glacier looks really out of place next to the rain forest and it is strange to see the curious (tropical looking) birds that wander onto the ice.

We are off to Queenstown tomorrow for a stopover and then on to Milford and Doubtful Sounds. Thanks to everyone who has been posting comments. . . we love hearing from you!

Abel Tasman

2006-11-25T23:32:00.000-08:00

We just finished three days in Abel Tasman National Park and then today in the Kahurangi National Park. Abel Tasman is the countries smallest national park, but also the most frequented. It's most famous for it's sea kayaking and coastal hiking track. We rented a kayak and spent two nights in at Bark Bay while kayaking around the coast during the day. The granite sand and sunny skies make for some of the most beautiful, clear blue water that I've ever seen. The first day was spent with a guide, Kyle, and two other travelers from England. Peak season is still a couple of weeks away and we were fortunate to have a smaller group. By the time we were paddling out of the park on Saturday most groups consisted of 8 or more people.

Kayaking was an extremely intimate way to see the park. During high tide we were easily able to paddle up several of the estuaries and streams feeding into the ocean. Several islands were also easily accessible including Tonga Island, the most popular, located in the wildlife reserve. Sea lions were all over the islands and the coast line - some of them sun bathing and others floating at the surface of the water balancing with one flap in the air. We snuck up a little too close to one and he growled at us a bit. On one occasion we saw a sea lion jumping out of the water and standing on its head. Birds were also more than abundant and we were able to cruise by a couple nests. We even spotted the Kiwi Experience drivers again - seems we're following a similar path through the country.

Since kayaking is an entirely upper body workout, we were also able to hike several miles of the coasal track in the evening - the combination was fun and exhausting. We were extremely lucky with the weather and spent most of all three days enjoying the most sun we've seen since being in New Zealand. I can't even begin to explain how overwhelmingly beautiful this place is and the pictures barely do it justice.

We finished kayaking Abel Tasman on Saturday and immediately started driving towards the west coast town of Westport. The weather quickly turned back to the standard downpour, but we decided to spend the next day hiking in the Oparara Basin within the Kaharungi National Park - a windy and rainy two hour drive North of Westport. We spent most of the day on short day hikes and exploring a couple sandstone arches and caves. The caves were our favorite part - not that the hikes were bad, but because it made the area unique. We saw more glow worms, New Zealands biggest spider, and some more wetas.

We're now in Greymouth and continuing South tommorrow towards Franz Josef - famous for two glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox). Adam Buckfelder (one of our friends from the Stennis) is supposed to be in town as well, so hopefully we get a chance to meet up. Nicole is set on doing some ice climbing tommorrow - a first for both of us!

On the road again.

2006-11-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

Drove from Rotorua to Palmerton North today while stopping at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and Hukka Falls along the way. The thermal springs were a collection of boiling pools of various colors based on the sediment - yellow for sulfur (and a wonderful smell) and red for manganese oxide. We also watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt and visited a local boiling mud pit. The geyser was ho-hum, but cool to watch. My favorite part was the mud pit - it was straight out of a scene from Labyrinth (I know at least a few of you have seen it). I know it sounds lame, but it was fun. Hukka falls was mostly impressive because of the water color - some of the bluest water I've ever seen, especially for a river. The water is used for something like 15% of the countries power generation.

Not much exciting to report. After spending the night in Palmerton North we drove to Wellington and have been hanging out in the city all day. We visited the Te Papa museum for several hours, ate dinner, and are about to head out into the city to check out some of the night life. Wellington is one of New Zealands biggest city and is supposedly more of a cultural center than Auckland so we're hoping to see some good live music and enjoy a few pints. Not too much though, because tommorrow we catch an early ferry to the South Island. Once we arrive in Picton we will drive up to Motueka for a night and then head into Abel Tasman National Park.

Team America

2006-11-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

The wait payed off and we were able to descend into the Ruakuri (Maori for 'den of dogs') Caves. The story goes that Maori hunters chased a pack of dogs into these caves 400-500 years ago, thus the name. The Black Water Rafting Co. has been tubing through the caves for about 20 years. We signed up for the Black Abyss - a combination of abseiling (New Zealanders use the German word for down rope, vice the French word we use; rappelling), tubing, jumping (off small ledges), flying fox, and climbing up small waterfalls within the caves.

We spent about 3 hours playing in the caves led by two guides in a group of seven. Luckily the group we were part of was a bunch of tour guides in training for Kiwi Experience buses. For three weeks they ride around New Zealand trying all of the tourist attractions and learning about the area so they can be good tour guides. They were a rowdy group fond of nicknames and quickly dubbed us Team America. We were treated to several renditions of the theme song from the movie and several F#%K eahs to boot. If you don't get the reference, I highly recommend renting the movie Team America.

We both had a blast in the caves and made it out safe, but exhausted. The group was able to move quickly, so we were able to accomplish a lot of extra ground than the average group. The water was very cold, but they brought coffee, tea, chocolate, and hot Gatorade (which makes for an interesting hot bath when poured down the back of a wetsuit). We both felt that it was well worth the wait. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the glow worms. Although not actually worms, the caves are famous for the insects that give off a relatively bright bio-luminescent glow. While floating down the caves on our back it was almost as if we were looking at a clear night sky. During the larval stage, their waste interacts with oxygen to create the light in order to attract insects to eat. They spend 6-7 months in this stage before becoming winged insects themselves, mating, and then dying about two days later. Pretty sweet life.

From the caves, we jumped back into the car and drove a couple hours to Rotorua - known mostly for skydiving and Maori Villages. Didn't get a chance to skydive, but we did go to a "traditional" Maori Village for a steam cooked dinner. It was entertaining, educational, and interesting to see some of the native customs - dancing, singing, etc. We were part of a huge group of tourists and it was obivous that the 'villagers' were a bit burned out on the performance. So it seemed a bit of a canned show. Still, worth the visit.

Left Lane, Left Lane, Left Lane!!

2006-11-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

Picked up our rental car today, The Chariot, and got our first taste of driving on the left side of the road. It definitely makes driving more interesting. Oddly, though, it was harder getting used to shifting with my left hand and signaling with the right hand that was more akward than simply driving on the left side. Have to admit, though, I did pull out into the right lane once dodged back into the left after seeing an oncoming car....that and Nicole screaming,"Left lane, left lane, left lane."

Our first destination was Waitomo for The Legendary Black Water rafting. It was suppoesd to be three hours of caving, tubing, and rappelling, but the river flooded the caves out. We're staying in the area tonight, though, so hopefully we'll have a chance tommorrow. The cancelled caving allowed us to see some of the less populated areas and we spent the afternoon driving to the coastal town of Marokopa while stopping at various trails along the way.

The trails were impresively well maintained considering we appeared to be the only people stopping - or even on the road for that matter. We stopped at Mangapohue Natural Bridge, Piripiri Caves, and Marokopa Falls. Each stop had about a 10 or 15 minute hike and some amazing scenery. It's hard to belive that these were just minor attractions. The entire area reminded me of Hobbiton - incredibly lush green fields full of quiet streams and hundreds of sheep.

Auckland Arrival

2006-11-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

We left from Seattle at 3:20PM, flew into San Francisco and immediately left for a 13 hour flight to Auckland, NZ. I (Andrew) watched 7 movies on the flight. They had all three Lord of the Rings available, but I already watch them back to back to back earliar this year, so I had to settle for some lesser known titles. I think Nicole watched a couple and got a few hours of sleep.

We landed in Auckland at about 5Am local time. After stumbling around the airport for a couple hours we finally caught a bus into the city. While Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, it feels smaller than Portland, OR. We found a hostel downtown, but the room wasn't availble for a couple hours so we wandered around the streets. It was quiet when we started - still about 6am at that point - but livened up after a few hours. I was only almost hit once. We were warned that the drivers weren't exactly pedestrian freindly in the city, but had to learn the hard way that I may as well have a target painted on my chest.

The picture above is from Victoria Park in Auckland. Personally, I think it is amazing that Nicole was able to lift me off the ground. We strolled through a market and some random stores waiting for our room. We're planning on hanging out in town tonight and then heading out in the morning with a rental car that we arranged at the hostel. Everything is going well so far, but we both agree that it feels disturbingly similar to the port calls we had in the Navy. We both feel exhausted from the plane flight and we're wandering around a somewhat large port city that seems foreign and yet similar (plenty of Burger Kings and Starbucks). We're hoping a good night sleep and some adventure tommorrow will break the spell.

We're off to journey onward!

2006-10-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

We're off! After years of separation and months of planning, we're finally leaving for New Zealand and beyond. Wish us luck keeping this travel blog up to date.