6 Months Around the World..and then some

Bavaria cont.

2010-06-24T16:17:00.002-04:00

From Berchtesgaden we headed west and decided that we would base ourselves in the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Once again we didn't have a reservation and just picked a gastehaus at random. Thankfully the first one didn't have any rooms b/c the second one we found was truly wonderful. We must be living right b/c after our good fortune with Karl and Erna this was just to good to be true. The gastehaus was actually in Partenkirchen. It had about a dozen rooms and when we drove up Frau Reise offered us the nicest one in the place. It was actually a suite with two rooms and three beds and a wrap around balcony with views of the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitz. Too bad about the cold rain or we would have spent a bit of time out there. Frau Reise ran a tight ship but was a great hostess. We lucked out and ran into a woman who spoke great english thanks to her time in the German army and the occupation. She had grown up in Partenkirchen and was full of recommendations. Our breakfast tablemates, two guys about my age, one from Berlin and one from Finland who had come to to hike every day, were also a great help.

Our first day we took advantage of a lull in the rain and went for a ~3 hour hike. It started with a trek through the Partnachklamm Gorge and ended with a great cable car ride down. In between...a lot of UP hill terrain :-). I was proud of my mom!

That night we decided to go explore the town of Oberammergau. We got there about 6pm, only significant because that's when the Passion Play lets out. Apparently the town has been performing this 5-hour long religious play, 5 days a week for a few months in the summer, every decade since he 17th century. It's their promise to God for saving them from the effects of the plague. Around 2,000, or over half of the people in the town, are actors in the play and catholics from far and wide travel to take in the play. We went for the shopping and for the famous "Luftmalerei" (visual illusions) on the facades of numerous buildings in town. We also lucked out and found another great Brauhaus with a pork and cheese spaetzle dish that was to die for! At dinner we enjoyed our view of the locals' table which grew in numbers through the night. Men of all types (I swear the town doctor and drunk were just a few seats away from each other) found their way to this table for a beer or two. I really wish I could have understood German to know what they all talked about for hours.

On our second day we visited briefly the neighboring town of Mittenwald. It's famous for its history of violin making thanks to a man named Matthias Klotz who brought the violin trade north from Italy in the 17th century. We visited the local violin making museum.
From there we headed to King Ludwig's Linderhof palace with a stop off at the Ettal Cloisters. The cloisters are still home to 50 – 60 Benedictine monks whose claim to fame is apparently a liqueur that they still brew.

Linderhof, both the residence and the surrounding gardens, was truly impressive. Ludwig reigned in the late 19th century and was thought to be a bit mad. Mad or not he certainly had a passion for ornate castles. The interior of Linderhof (sorry no pics allowed) was not very large but decorated in an elaborate Rococo style it was just over the top. Easy to believe it was the vision of an eccentric personality. The tour was a great introduction to the history of Ludwig's life which would come in handy the next day.

On our third day we had booked tickets to visit the famous castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau was actually built by Ludwig's father as a country home for hunting trips and was more understated.

Neuschwanstein is known as the model for the castle at Disney World. Ludwig oversaw the construction of it, just up the mountainside, while living as a young King at Hohenschwangau. After Linderhof we weren't sure what to expect. Apparently he didn't have the finances for quite the same level of finishes though. While quite a vision, only 1/3 of the interiors were completed before Ludwig died. The décor was almost Moroccan inspired. Ludwig must have had an obsession with this style as he had built both a tea house and one other out-building on the Linderhof property that were impressively decorated in a Moroccan motif.

The fourth and final day it just poured buckets so among other things we checked out the Army's resort Edelweiss. The highlight was definitely our salad at lunch...three cheers for vegetables (a endangered species in German food). It's the little things we've been missing. Not a drop of peanut butter, for example, since we left home.

Baiviers head to Bavaria

2010-06-24T16:00:00.002-04:00

From Salzburg we headed into Germany for the Bavarian part of our vacation. Headed back to the small towns of southern Germany had us really excited. Other than the cold rain for over a week we had an amazing time and if we had known we probably would have spent more time in this region and less in the cities.

We based ourselves in a town called Berchtesgaden for two nights. Our first day we did the Eagle's Nest and Obersalzburger mountain tour. We used a great tour company (thanks Rick Steves) and learned a lot about Hitler, his attraction to the region and the compound he and his top officers created on the mountain. Most of the original buildings have been destroyed but the underground bunkers are still in tact. For Hitler's 50th birthday, his officers had the mountain top building called Eagle's Nest built. It was used as a place for day retreats but contained no bedrooms. Turns out Hitler was afraid of heights and was claustrophobic so he didn't much like the tunnel in, the elevator up or the views from the top. He only visited 14 times but Eva Brown spent considerable time there. Today the building is just a restaurant as, for obvious reasons, there can not be anything remotely close to a memorial to Hitler.

That first night we found a gem in town, the local Brewhouse or Brauhaus. The food and beer was great. Half the town it seemed was there in agreement. We went back on our second night!

To continue with the WWII focus in this region, we spent our second day north of Munich at the Dachau Concentration Camp. Here we sprung for the 3 euro tour which lasted 2.5 hours. The best 3 euros we have or will ever spend! The tour and our guide was incredibly detailed and really brought to life the stories of what visually is a bleak, gray, stone-covered compound with just a few buildings still standing. I can't do the proper justice to the memorial with my stories but I will just say that we learned a lot about the use of these camps in Hitler's rise to power. For example, this particular camp was built in the 1933 and was used as a labor camp for political dissidents or social outcasts. Locking up anyone is these categories bolstered Hitler's rise to power. It's use for systematic extermination is not documented but that certainly would seem unlikely

On our final day in this SE region we thought we would head to Bad Reichenall to “take the cure.” aka. a spa day. Bad = Bath fyi. Turns out there was a great “therme” right in Berchtesgaden so we stayed in town for this interesting adventure. This therme was like a big YMCA with an elaborate sauna space. The woman at the front desk tried her best to help and explain the system but there was a lot of learning along the way. We just have nothing like it in the US. Well we lucked out that Mondays is ladies day in the sauna. Nudity is definitely the norm so I guess it's an interesting place on co-ed days! Oh and ladies day didn't exclude the 25 year old guy who apparently works the bar inside the sauna...interesting! So this sauna is a space that has a whirlpool, 6 different saunas at different temperatures, a room to just fall asleep in lounge chairs, an outdoor COLD pool and lots of outdoor lounge chairs as well. I think the idea is to move between hot and cold but who knows. We enjoyed it in our way but everyone there definitely had a system. I liked the system of the five women in robes, out in the cold with beers.

2010-06-23T17:18:00.002-04:00

My apologies for the huge void in posts. I suppose you can blame it on the world cup b/c every night when I should be writing I get sucked in to watching the 8:30 match. Today we took trains from Frankfurt to Bordeaux which means I had no excuse to get caught up. I'll post a few times over the next couple days to keep from posting one long novel right now.

So....

I left off at our departure from Vienna. After a week in big cities we were more than ready to set out for the country. Yes I appreciate the irony of living in one of the largest cities in the world but far preferring to travel in the small towns and villages of a country. My mom agrees and we just say that we're not church or museum people! Really we just agree that it's easier to get a taste of a country and its culture with the country folk.

Between Vienna and Salzburg are two beautiful regions of Austria. First is the Wachau valley which runs along much of the river between the two cities. Outside of Salzburg and south of the river is the Lake Region. We spent two days enjoying both by car, stopping when we got the urge to do so. West out of Vienna we stopped in Durnstein, one of the most picturesque little towns along the river. The shores along the Wachau are covered with Apricot trees and this little town sold every apricot product known to man. We decided to head for a city called Steyr for the night. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what we had envisioned (too big) so we back peddled a few kilometers to a town that we both had noticed out on a high hill in the distance. It had a gorgeous white church and just seemed to call our name. We headed down one country road thinking we were in the right direction but we just couldn't quite sort out how to get “over there.” We pulled into a “Gasthaus” along the road, resigned to stay there for the night. A couple were walking out to their car so we asked the if it was a nice place and if they had rooms. They looked at us with puzzled faces and said “no” there are no rooms here. Why would there be? Turns out Gasthaus does not mean Guesthouse but rather an informal restaurant sort-of. “Gast” as is gastronomy I suppose. Whoops. So we managed with their english skills to ask for another recommendation of where to find a room or “zimmer” as they are called. Their first idea was with a farmer in some remote location. We didn't quite like the sound of that but then they offered to have us follow them in their car to another place they could think of. 5km later there we were in the center of that gorgeous hilltop town at a Gastehaus which, it turns out, means Guesthouse. I guess two dots over an “a” and that extra e has a drasticaly different meaning! They thought our confusion was pretty endearing. We bought the couple a drink and had dinner from the kitchen at the Gastehaus. That's when we learned from our guesthouse owner that the couple we had met were great cooks and that they had a restaurant in the next town over. I might not be doing a great job of conveying it but this couple was so kind to us and so helpful that we said we would definitely come out for lunch the next day. I know they didn't believe us b/c we had to be in Salzburg that night (a bit of a drive) but we did, we drove waaaay out into the sticks for what was a great local experience and the best meal of our trip so far. This couple were Karl and Erna. Turns out Karl is the cook and he made an amazing grilled fish and this highly regional dish that was two enormous dumplings (the size of softballs) filled with a deliciously flavored combo of pork and veal. We tried our best to finish it but the homemade brown bread and sheep's milk from a neighboring farm as our starter didn't help the cause. I'm sure you've seen the pics by now but the view from their restaurant was as wonderful as the food. Their entire family's hospitality (her daughter and grandson also came to our table for a visit) was incredible. THIS is the kind of experience we had been excited for and finally felt like the heart of our vaca had begun.

Fat and happy from Karl's lunch we headed for a picturesque town called Hallstatt. It sits at a remote end of a lake and we were happy to have the opportunity to explore it after all of the tourists had gone home. The pictures really say it all about this town.

That night we eventually rolled into Salzburg where we would spend two full days.
As a city, Salzburg is actually pretty sophisticated. Like a mini Vienna I guess.
On our first day we enjoyed a Sound of Music bus tour where we got to visit a number of the locations where the film was taped. In the evening we took in a violin/piano duet performance at the Mirabell Palace. We couldn't leave Salzburg without a little Mozart! On our second day we visited the homes where Mozart lived and toured the Mozart museum. We both really enjoyed this as we admittedly knew very little about him. On our second night we took in a performance of SOM (can't get enough!) at the Marionette Theater. This may sound corny but it was SO cool. The puppeteers were incredible and after a while you almost forgot you were watching wood figures. It's a must-do for all ages.

Vienna - in short

2010-06-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

My guidebook repeatedly described Vienna as a place that “feeds off imperial nostalgia” thanks to the incredible reign of the Habsburg dynasty. I didn't quite know what that would feel like and I'm still not quite sure I could put it better but....it's incredibly true. An air of elegance and formality seemed to pervade our time in Vienna. It was night and day from Prague. Twice the population, twice as big and twice as advanced. Don't get the wrong idea about our hotel but it was essentially right off of the Newbury St. or Fifth Ave. drag in the downtown. I'm pretty certain there wasn't an Hermes in Prague!

Overall we enjoyed the city but really the highlights were either related to the Habsburg history or to the cultural aspects of the city. Our first day was all about choreography...first the horses and then the actors! We were able to score last minute tickets to the Spanish Riding School performance at the Hofburg palace (the Habsburg's city place). We thought we didn't have a chance as they apparently book up months in advance but we settled for waving at each other across the room just to get in the doors and have seats. The short story on the riding school is that it came about from the Habsburg's initial breeding of stallions in the 1500s to serve in their cavalry and as show horses. Today the pure white horses are still bred (only for show of course) and it apparently takes decades for a stallion to be a top performer. The venue was beautiful and the performance was quite impressive (see pics).

Our first night we also headed to the ballet at one of the two national theatres in town. It happened to be the Nutcracker which was nice as we at least roughly recalled the plot. It was definitely a new-age version of the story and sadly it lacked the soldiers that fall like dominos but the music was fantastic and the dancing impressive.

On our second and last day in Vienna we headed out to the near “suburbs” to tour Schonbrunn, the Habsburg's summer palace. They were prepping for a free Vienna Philharmonic concert the next night (we were bummed we'd miss it) so there was equipment everywhere but the palace and the grounds were lovely. The highlight of the palace was the ornate Rococo style rooms (sorry no pics allowed)...truly royal!

I'm going to leave the Vienna entry there b/c I'm far more excited to share what has happened over the last two days as we've driven from Vienna to Salzburg. We both definitely prefer to just explore the small towns of a country and have already had a few fun adventures so stay tuned!

Off to a great start!

2010-06-07T17:27:00.001-04:00

As I write this the Czech countryside is whizzing by the train windows. Our trip is off to a great start and after 2.5 days in Prague we're off to Austria. I admit that when we first stepped off the plane in Prague our first thoughts were of how happy we were to have packed those jeans at the last minute.” You all might be sweating it out in 90 degrees back home but summer seemed to have not yet arrived in these parts. Sure we checked the weather before leaving home but how quickly we forget what rainy and 65 means! We successfully navigated the incredibly brusque (“give me your money”) information/ticket lady at the airport then the bus-metro-tram connections from the airport. After a short battle between our suitcases and the cobblestone streets we arrived at our hotel in the heart of the city. We were the only guests in our hotel the first night so over a plate of goulash and czech sausage w/delicious sauerkraut we hoped that maybe just maybe the economy was hurting Prague more than we expected (perverse but true). Despite the cold and rainy conditions we were up and at it the next day after sleeping off some serious jetlag. Alas neither the rain nor the economy has kept tourists away from Prague. It's not a big city but the tourist per square meter (or whatever) is among the highest I've experienced. We had been warned of this and over the two days tried hard to seek out quiet, more local corners of what is really a charming city.

Prague is divided down the center by the Vlatva river. On our first day we headed to the east side. After taking care of a few logistical items, like a train ticket to Vienna, we embarked on a walking tour of the Stare Mesto area of downtown. This was really the “old” town and to us the architecture was the best part. Our afternoon stop at the Municipal building, where we lingered in a grand old cafe to give our feet a rest was certainly a highlight. We also timed our stop in the old main town square just right to join hundreds of other tourists watch the Astronomical clock chime 6:00 at which time two little doors opened, a series of wooden saints popped out then the door shut again and hundreds of tourists laughed with disappointment. Clearly everyone was hoping for a bigger show. The whole day was really just an exploration of the narrow streets and alleyways of the old town. Over the course of the day we decided our token souvenirs needed to be one of the traditional painted easter eggs so after popping into numerous stores of all kinds we settled on ones that we liked and headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. That night we ended up at a Balkan restaurant oddly enough (a girl can only handle so much sausage and we've still got Austria and Germany ahead of us). We tried two regional specialties (read: meat, potatoes and cheese in different forms), Serbian wine (better than expected) and called it a night. Well actually we spent a good few hours trying to sort out how we will be getting from Germany to Bordeaux and our biggest lesson is that we must be some of the only people who desire to go from Munich to Paris in under 10 hours and for less than $400. Such high standards I know! We think we've finally got it figured out.

On day 2 we focused on the west bank. We started early with a ride on the funicular up Petrin Hill for a spectacular view of the entire city. I should say the weather did a 180 and finally we've got sun and 70s. From the top of the hill we walked from the lookout tower, past a lovely monastery to the Prague Castle compound. We unintentionally arrived just before the grand changing of the guard ceremony at noon. Mom would agree that our military is a more than a bit more impressive. I was just happy to see one woman among the ranks. Inside the grounds is an odd collection of buildings from throughout history. At the center sits St. Vitus cathedral. This cathedral dominates the Prague skyline and was equally impressive inside. Surrounding the castle, we also visited the old palace itself, taking in a very comprehensive exhibit on the 1,000 years of the castle's history. We decided just to get the last 200 years sorted out. It sorely made me wish I had taken more history courses in college.

From the castle we walked back down to the center of town and decided to enjoy a refreshment and partake in the cafe lifestyle at a beautiful spot along the river. What a serene getaway from all of the tourists! We didn't want to leave. Eventually, however, we wandered our way through the streets of Mala Strana back to the street where we had eaten the night before. In true form my mom and I had stumbled upon a wine bar down in the cellar of a rowhouse on our walk home and were back to try out some good Czech/Austrian wine. Turns out we had found the local hotspot but managed to find two seats in the cellar for some regional red wine, meat and cheese. Our goal was to escape the tourists and find a piece of real Prague life....success!

Back at it!

2010-06-01T09:24:00.001-04:00

A test run to make sure I remember how to work this thing! Hopefully we'll have stories of confusing German conversations or wonderful beer and cheesy spaetzle to come shortly!

The End....and yet such The Beginning

2008-08-24T23:42:00.010-04:00

As I've been back home I've had so many requests to really wrap up this blog and give my overall impressions from my trip.
The most popular question is always, "what was your favorite place?" I can't pick just one and with hindsight I wouldn't choose to not visit any of the locations. That said, I think Cambodia, Laos, Istanbul and SW France top my list. If I could tell someone to go to any one place it would be to either Cambodia or Laos and particularly in the next 5-10 years, before they become more and more like Vietnam and Thailand.

The further I get from my travels the more and more thankful I am to have had the opportunity to walk away from life as I knew it for 6 months. In a way I feel like it was a gift from my Dad as his death certainly has given me perspective on my own life.

I am renewed and refreshed and SO excited to be starting my next chapter. I've been told repeatedly that it will be the best two years of my life. I'm excited to find out!

My CBS orientation started last weekend. The class is roughly 540 people at the moment but we will be joined by ~160 more in January. We are divided up into clusters of roughly 70 people and I am now a proud Cluster A! member. Orientation is all about building the Cluster A family feeling and Cluster A pride. Each cluster is assigned a team of Peer Advisors (2nd years) to help facilitate the entire week. We are also divided into learning teams of 5 or 6 people. Somehow my learning team is 7 strong. We are convinced that we are the guinea pigs for some social experiment but so far so good. There's been a lot of information thrown at us, most of which I hope to digest in the weeks to come. There's also been a TON of social activities (see Flickr). My liver is crying out for help and I've stayed up until 3am more nights than I can ever remember before (I went to Wellesley remember). Cluster A at the moment really stands out as one of the closest clusters which I feel really happy about. After all, this experience is at least 50% about the people and networks I will build.

I'm really happy to be back in NYC and will surely have more stories to tell in the coming weeks and months. I will continue to post pictures to Flickr, unfortunately, I just won't have the time to keep blogging. So here is where it all ends. I hope you have all enjoyed reading as it has been great fun writing.

THE END

Ciao!

2008-08-24T23:39:00.002-04:00

Italy was the last stop on my whirlwind trip. I connected with my mom in Rome where we had four very busy days seeing the sights of the city. We joined a few organized tours through the USO which given the size of the city turned out to be a very efficient way to explore everything. The history is also rich and honestly neither she nor I know as much as we should about Roman and Christian history so the added commentary from guides was much appreciated. Oh and one other small detail...tourists descend upon Rome en masse in the late summer and with a tour guide you get to jump to the front of lines. So yes I am a bit ashamed to say that I have now been one of those people following a flag but it was always well worth it!

We stayed just outside the Vatican City and actually visited St. Peter's Basilica three separate times. The first included a tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. The second time we climbed the 320 steps to the top of the cupola and the third time we took a tour of the crypts underneath St. Peter's. Each time we discovered something new inside the church. It's really enormous and full of so many beautiful and interesting elements. For me the most impressive aspect is that there is not a single painting inside the basilica. Every surface is either covered in marble or a mosaic of different stones etc. Michaelangelo's Pieta is also breathtaking. It's one of his four Pieta sculptures. Sadly it was attacked a while back (Mary lost a few fingers) and so it is kept behind a glass wall. The crypt of Pope John Paul II was also wonderful to see. He and the pope before him are buried underneath a simple slab of marble which, given that all the other popes have been interred in ornate sarcophogi, is a bit of a let down.

We also visited all of the major monuments from ancient Rome. We spent time touring the Forum and then moved on to the Colosseum. While the Forum can look like a pile of rocks with a few columns standing here and there, it's interesting to envision the place as the center of society that it was and frankly just stand in awe that anything from the 6th century BC (i think?)still exists. The Colosseum is such an iconic building that you can't help but imagine the events that occurred there as you stand around the center ring. As an ironic aside, last time I visited the Colosseum was the summer the movie The Gladiator was released. This summer, gladiator sandals are all the rage in fashion. Coincidence? I think not.

We opted to only visit one art museum, the Gallerie Borghese. Cardinal Scipioni Borghese began accumulating Roman art and sculpture in the 17th century. While much of his collection was sold off by subsequent generations, what remains is really impressive. We learned much about Classical, neo classical and baroque styles of sculpture. We also were taken through a huge array of works by Bernini as the collection is full of his work. The villa where the museum is housed is beyond ornate and is a must-see.

We did a lot of other sight seeing but Rome just wasn't the highlight of our time in Italy and I've already given it too much airtime.

From Rome we took a day trip to Pompeii, en route to Sorrento. I really did not know what to expect at Pompeii. First, it's incredibly expansive. I understood that it was an entire town but still it was larger than I had pictured in my mind. The quality of the preservation is also impressive. Sure they've unearthed entire homes but the little things like the engraving of "Welcome" in the ground in front of a home ,(the first welcome mat maybe??) are what made the experience for me.

In Sorrento we stayed just on the southern outskirts of town at La Tonnarella. The view from this hotel was just breathtaking. Our balcony and the restaurant where we ate most meals sat out on a rocky cliff looking back at the five towns of Sorrento. Down below the hotel was a little private beach. We spent our third day almost exclusively at this beach, taking a break before what would be a week of A LOT of walking. I am getting ahead of myself though....
On our first day in Sorrento we took a day trip out to the Isle of Capri (CApri, not caPRI as we American's like to say). Capri has two main towns, Capri and Ana Capri. We took a minibus all the way up to Ana Capri and from there we rode up a chair lift to the highest point of the island. The 360 degree view was beautiful. Both towns were lined with shops and restaurants. The target audience, however, is clearly rich. Capri is where, as I like to say, the pretty people vacation. It wasn't Valentino but we did find the best homemade lemon granita on Capri. After checking out both towns we chose to take a boat tour around the island. We opted to forgo the long line at the Blue Grotto and were happy with our choice.

On our second day in Sorrento we took a fast ferry down to the town of Amalfi. From Amalfi we took the public bus up to the town of Ravello. Ravello was by far my mom's favorite spot on the Amalfi coast. It was just so quaint and quiet. It seemed to be THE source for Italian ceramics. After Ravello we went back to Amalfi to explore the town. It was really just one main strip of touristy spots so we didn't stay long. From Amalfi we once again took the public bus to Positano. Positano is just beautifully situated in a crevice along the mountainous shore. We quickly discovered that it's really a town to vacation in but not one with much to just visit. There aren't many touristy things to see and do. It's all about families beaching it.

If the Amalfi coast was the vacation within our vacation then the next week would be our workout. From Sorrento we took a car to Naples and then the train from Naples up to Florence. We spent a day in Florence and then were picked up by our guide for five days of walking through Tuscany and other parts of Northern Italy. The company we used was Club Toscana and because we were the first and only people to request our tour on our particular week, it was just mom, me and our guide Peter. We started in the heart of the Chianti region, walking through tiny villages, all of the names of which I can't remember at the moment. By day two we had learned one thing...what goes up must come down, and the down is more uncomfortable than the up. We traipsed through vineyards and dirt paths over hills and what often seemed like mountains. Along the way we enjoyed wine tasting and tours of villas, castles and monestaries. In Tuscany we stayed most of our nights at Podere Terreno, a villa with quite a few guest rooms. Each night after many miles of walking we would share in a family style dinner with the other guests as well as the owners of the villa, Sylvie and Roberto. The first night the table was segregated by French, Italian and English and yet we all enjoyed each others' company. They served jugs of their own wine and we never seemed to have trouble finishing it off. The dinners here were also some, if not the, best we ate in our whole stay. Yum!

From the heart of Tuscany we transfered up to the Cinque Terre region. The cinque terre are 5 villages that sit on the cliff side of the Italian riviera (northern coast). You can walk from one end to the other in one day so that's what we did on day 4. It was a total of 14km but I have to note that most of that was directly up or down hill. Mom is really proud to have completed it and I was incredibly impressed by her seeming ease at doing so. The villages were all picturesque, tucked into the hillside and full of color. I honestly can't imagine staying in any one of them for an extended time but they were beautiful in passing.

On our last day we transfered once again up to the heart of the Italian riviera region, near Portofino. Our hotel was in the city of Santa Marguerita Ligure (SML), just down the coast from Portofino. This region was really just so beautiful and the type of place where I would go for a destination vacation. From SML we started our final day of walking by checking out a local market. Then we set out for Portofino. Portofino is like Capri, a vacation spot for the wealthy. The small port was dotted with yachts and the restaurants were filled with people watchers. Kind of ironic to be walking around in tank tops and sports bras! From Portofino we hiked a ways to a town called San Fruttuoso. At San Fruttuoso we called it quits for the week and took a ferry back to SML. We ate well in SML and on our last day we spent a few hours on the beach as a reward to ourselves. Mom likes the irony of the fact that as a child she hated to walk with her grandma to the home of a family friend and now we were paying to walk! All in all it was a great experience.

From Italy I flew back to London for a night and then it was off to Seattle. I got the chance to catch up with a very old friend of mine, Kate, before flying out to my grandparents' home in Kettle Falls, WA.

Then from WA I had two weeks back in Fairfax, tying up loose end before moving back to NYC and starting at CBS, Columbia Business School.

Anybody home?

2008-07-22T12:18:00.002-04:00

Don't worry we haven't died. My post on Rome is 3/4 written and hey the pics are posted! If you've been to Rome before then enjoy. If not, well enjoy and I'll explain more about them later.

The problem is just that Italy gets a big F for its internet access. Also there's been the whole problem of finding time to write. We have had a very full stay so far. 4 days in Rome, 4 days on the Amalfi coast and now we are literally walking through Tuscany (Radda in Chianti has this great internet cafe). It's all been a blast. I'm afraid you just might have to wait to hear about it. Think of it as the grande finale of posts....worth the wait!!

Istanbul

2008-07-08T18:10:00.006-04:00

You can add Istanbul to the list of cities that does not disappoint! The last three days here have been great and really very multidimensional.
Istanbul is two hours ahead of London and that combined with a midnight arrival time has had my body clock all screwed up. Fortunately it's put me right in sync with the Instanbullus who who have a joie de vivre that gives the French a run for their money. You'll understand what I mean soon enough.

I spent my first day here mosque hopping. I stayed in the old city of Sultanahmet and both the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya (Hagia Sofia) were just a few hundred meters away. I found the Blue Mosque to be just breathtaking. The scale certainly was impressive but the use of Iznik tiles on nearly every surface was truly beautiful. To enter you have to take off your shoes and cover your shoulders and arms (not necessarily your head) out of respect for the Muslims in the space. I hadn't been there for 20 minutes when everyone was being shooed out. Turns out the 1:20 prayer call was imminent. From the Blue Mosque I crossed the street and spent a few hours at Aya Sofya. Built in the 6th century as a Christian church, Aya Sofya was then converted to a mosque in the 15th century when the Ottoman Turks conquered the city. It was transformed again in the 1930s, that time into a museum. When you consider the year in which is was built (the first of three times) just the mere fact that the dome stands more than 50 meters high is astonishing. They are restoring the dome so sadly there is an enormous piece of scaffolding that consumes 1/3 of the space. Still, the sheer scale, the mosaics and the huge medallions with Arabic symbols are awesome. After the mosques I took a turn through the well preserved Basilica Cistern. The cistern's original purpose was to store water underground for the Palace.

After spending most of the day in the old city I ventured over to the “new” city to check out the nightlife (okay, late evening life). I took a stroll down Istiklal Cadessi, the main pedestrian drag lined with today's most fashionable shops and restaurants. It's here that you can see the true transition taking place in this city. Let's face it, the Muslims here aren't extremely devout. The alcohol flows and the people-watching at cafes, particularly on Nevizade Sokak, is great. With some wine and a few mezes I observed from a terrace for a bit. Coming together with friends and family is very important to the people here. I'm sure the crowds were out into the morning. It reminded me of the hoards of families that I saw picnicking and barbequeing in the parks along the waterside as I was riding in from the airport on my first night. And well, remember my comment about my arrival time. This is what I mean about a joie de vivre. It's just an enormously social city. I admit this is one place where I wish I wasn't traveling alone.

Back in Sultanahmet later that evening I had to take a few snaps of the Blue Mosque at night. As the 10:35 evening call to prayer rang out a number of locals scurried past. As I stood by the steps taking it in, a girl came up to me and said in perfect english “so are you a tourist too?” She was wearing a scarf and looked Turkish so I was a bit taken aback. Turns out she is Turkish but has lived her whole life in Stockholm. While the guidebooks say you can't be in a mosque during prayer she took me in with her to watch. The men stand at the front while the women are in a screened off section in the back. She informed me that this is to prevent the men from seeing the women and becoming distracted from prayer. Given my natural first impression of the segregation I rather enjoyed the true explanation.

Day two, like day one, started with breakfast on the rooftop terrace of my hotel. The view from the roof was just spectacular, facing the Bosphorus and the southern shore of the European side. Well fueled I walked over to the Topkapi Palace. I had been warned that it would take a few hours to half a day to cover the palace and they weren't kidding. The gardens were lovely and the tour of the Harem (where the Sultan, his concubines, queen mother and children lived) and the Treasury (the jewels) were the highlights. Also not to be missed were the breathtaking views at the NE corner out over the Golden Horn and the Bosphorous. See the pics to understand what I mean. From Topkapi I headed for the Spice Bazaar. Along the way I stopped in at the shop where the decendants of the man who invented lokum (turkish delight) still make and sell the sweets. It is said their lokum is the best in the world so I figured no better place to try it. I was skeptical of the gooey squares but YUM! Even better....chocolate covered YUM! The spice market was visually appealing and bustling with locals. It was right about 6:00 and the spice market sits right behind the Eminonu pier. I went over to the pier for a view of the Beyoglu shore, Galata tower and Galata bridge. As a transportation hub it was just a really vibrant area. Some folks racing for buses, others stopping in for a fish sandwich from the docked restaurant boats. All of the hustle bustle exciting.

Back at my hotel I was relaxing on the rooftop just as the 8:39 calls to prayer began to echo out. Down at street level you can hear the calls from the closest 1 or 2 mosques but up on the roof you can hear calls for what seems like miles. They all blend together and seem to blanket the city. It emphasized to me the unifying force of religion in the country. Very powerful. The view of the sunset from the rooftop about an hour later was also glorious. You have to see the pics!

On my last day in Istanbul I indulged in a few things. Over the course of my stay I have been on the lookout for just the perfect central asian textile. More specifically I was drawn to the traditional Suzani embroidered items from Uzbekistan. Of course the design and colors had to be just so which led to much hunting through different shops. Finally I found THE one. It's not exactly like this one but you can get the gist.

source: http://www.marlamallett.com
I found it at the Grand Bazaar which has nearly 5,500 different stalls. Not all textiles of course. In fact I'm not sure there isn't anything you CAN'T find at the Grand Bazaar.

My second indulgence was a trip to a traditional Turkish hammam, the Cagaloglu Hamam to be exact. This particular hammam was built in 1741 and is even listed in the “1,000 places to see before you die” book. The setting was one for the movies (Indiana Jones apparently) and the experience was certainly interesting. I won't be shy in sharing. After changing into a pestemal (small cloth) in a dressing room off a large internal courtyard space, a woman led me back to the hot, steamy common bathing room. Here's a pic to give you a sense for what it looked like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ca%C4%9Falo%C4%9FluHamam%C4%B1.jpg It was constructed entirely of marble or quartz and the floors were heated. After kindly helping me do away with my pestemal (no modesty here!) the woman left me to relax and I suppose to allow my pores to open for about 15 minutes. I was given my own sink along the outer wall and a bowl for dousing should I get too hot. Eventually my bather/masseuse returned and took me out into the center for my bath. I had to lay down on the floor and she essentially took a pumicey rag to my whole body. Then I got what I would lightly call a massage. I don't want to think about the fact that the bottles of massage oil actually said “sonnogram gel” No kidding. Then the bather accompanied me back to my sink, washed my hair as I sat on the floor in front of her and then rinsed me off. It was honestly a bit like being a grown baby getting washed in the kitchen sink. For as far back as my memory goes though, I've never had an experience like it.

So now I'm squeaky clean and ready for the next adventure. It's back to london for a night (darn BA with it's hub and spoke flight patterns!) and then the dynamic duo will be back together. I meet my mom in Rome on Friday!!

Vin, vin and more vin

2008-07-03T14:40:00.003-04:00

I've spent the last week hiding out in SW France. Before I get into things, I just have to exclaim that I have had SO much fun speaking/struggling to speak french in my time down here. Sure, my last formal french class was in 1997 but I think Madame Huff would be proud of my conversational skills. What really matters is that I have successfully understood nearly everything others have said to me. Unlike in my prior trips to France, I found that the locals in this region were very content to let you muddle your way through whatever you were trying to say even if they spoke fine english themselves. At one point I even had a tour guide sort of snap at me about “didn't I speak French” even though he had initiated English with me!

I should say that I decided to come to this region after meeting a bunch of French men on Koh Samui in Thailand. They ran the dive company and over beers after a day of diving they convinced me of the beauty of the region. I started my stay in the region's main city, Bordeaux. Visually, Bordeaux has a skyline of very old, hommogenous, cream/gray stone buildings. There is really no color to this city but I suppose that's what the people add (awww...I should write the tourism pamphlet)! I didn't know it until I had already decided to come and was looking for a hotel but my stay coincided with the city's Fete-le-vin. This wine festival for the public (as opposed to professionals) is held only every other year and is a very big deal. Thankfully I found a place to stay fairly easily. I spent my first day just exploring the city center and putting together the rest of my stay in the area. There really aren't major tourist attractions (i.e. churches and monuments) but there is a cute old city and the beautiful river front. Oh I should say that apparently this week and next coincide with the yearly big sale at clothing stores in the area. My pack doesn't have much space but that hasn't seemed to deter my bargain hunting. The one thing I still lack is a minidress and leggings. EVERY woman here, and in Stockholm I might add, wears them.

On my second day in Bordeaux I took an organized wine tour up into the Medoc region NW of the city. I thought I was going to the Graves region SW of the city but that's another story. Despite my surprise upon meeting the bus I went along for the ride. We visited Chateau Giscours, Beychevelle and Lascombes. It was really a nice introduction to the region and started what has been a very educational visit. As an aside, how is this for evidence of how small the world is: At lunch I was sitting at a table of all french speakers though one couple, from Paris, did speak some English. I noticed about halfway that the husband of that couple was wearing an Army Navy Country Club hat. I couldn't believe it. Apparently his brother lives in Alexandria and for some reason is a member. For those out there who don't understand, my mom lives about a mile from the club and my dad used to golf there every weekend and it's where we held his celebration of life. The world gets smaller every day!

After a day in wine country what better than a few hours tasting wine at the Fete? As the night set in I swear the entire city of Bordeaux showed up. It was just packed as you can see from my pics. At 10:30 there was a concert on a major plaza with the local symphony and opera. It was followed up with a nice little fireworks display on the river. For certain the French have a culture of late nights as restaurants don't even open for dinner until 7pm but still the crowd at midnight was impressive, kids and all.

On day two I decided to get smart about all this wine tasting by attending a two hour wine tasting course at the Wine School the next morning. We learned more about the proper process for how to taste a wine. We used bottles of concentrated aromas to train our noses to pick up on certain elements. Then we put it to work on a dry white, rose and red. I also learned valuable info on what exactly comprises a Bordeaux or the local appelations(types) of Margaux, Pauillac, St. Emilion etc. You can laugh at me but you know when you look at the French wine section at the store and wonder “well that's great that it's a Chateaux XYZ wine but what the heck does that mean about the grapes inside??” Well now I am happy to have more of a clue. For example, a medoc wine will be 50/50 up to 70/30 of Cab Sauv/Merlot while a St. Emilion will be the inverse and with Cab Franc instead of Sauvignon.

Armed with this great knowledge I headed to the Fete again. I had bought a pass for 12 tastings and while I made some more progress on my ticket book I was aware that I would have to drive 150kms that evening to Sarlat. The regional food at the Fete also has to be noted. I got a cheese tasting plate that was absolutely fantastic.

After picking up my rental car I drove as far East as I would go on this trip to Sarlat. The countryside along the way was picturesque and at numerous bends in the road beautiful chateaus and castles would come into view high up on mountain sides. It was a glorious day as well so of course I had to stop and take pics. After checking in to my hotel in Sarlat I dined on a picnic dinner in a local park, strolled through the village streets again taking advantage of the evening light for pics and hit the sack for the next morning's market. Sarlat is known as having one, if not the best weekly market in the region. On Saturday the cobblestone streets, alleyways and squares of this 1,000+ year old village are packed with vendors of everything you can imagine. It's targeted at locals and tourists alike which is nice. As a society that shops just-in-time this is a major source for weekend meal prep as NOTHING in this country is open on Sunday and very little on Monday. I happened upon a nice man who recommended a local cheese I just had to try as well as the best foie gras stand among the 50+ that had set up shop. I think Sarlat must be the foie gras capital at least of the region b/c every other shop there sells it. After the market I rented a bike and saw a bit more of the countryside from a different vantage point.

From Sarlat I headed back west to the town of Bergerac. I have to admit that Bergerac was rather disappointing. It was the only town I visited that was right on the river and I found a great running trail but there's just really very little in the village to see. Luckily the chambre d'hote (b&b) that I booked was with a fantastic woman, Janette, who happened to live in the oldest home in the entire town. She was just a lively woman who despite having been married to an american for almost 10 years (he died last year) knew very little English. Apparently she helped him become fluent in French but he never returned the favor. The house had so much charm and since everything was closed I settled into her living room for the Euro 2008 final.

From Bergerac I meandered through the countryside visiting Monpazier, one of the best preserved bastide towns, and a set of Gallo-Roman ruins from 300 - 400AD in Moncaret that were just discovered in the '20s and are still being unearthed and preserved. Finally I made it to St. Emilion and settled into a wine bar with wifi that stayed open long after the town shut down. In St. Emilion I stayed in a “chateau” chambre d'hote which was really a very quaint old farm house. There wasn't much interaction with the owners but it was certainly in a picturesque setting among vineyards.
On my full day in St. Emilion I took a really long walk to explore all of the chateaus that surround the city proper and then scooted over to the tourist bureau for a tour of a few must-sees downtown. The guide took us to the cave where St. Emilion lived as a hermit, the Benedictine monks' catacombs, and the monolithic church that they carved into the limestone cliff side. The church was huge (at least three stories and I don't know, maybe 50 yards wide) and just amazing considering the way in which it was constructed. The church essentially served as a quarry and the stones have been used to build chateaus and even part of the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux. I wish I could show you pictures but b/c all of the sites are privately owned they were forbidden.
In the afternoon I meandered through what is very sleepy village lined with wine shops, macaroon bakeries and other french boutiques. I also visited Chateau Belair just outside of the walled city area of St. Emilion. Other than being a Premiere class wine, it is most famous because it uses part of the 250km+ of tunnels (like the church, they were mined by the monks) that are under St. Emilion for its barrel and private collection storage. Sadly the family that owns Belair has just had to sell it to a company that is notorious for only opening its vineyard to professionals. Also, the tunnels need a lot of stabilization work (they're made from very porous limestone) so they will have to be closed for at least 15 years and really it's unlikely the public will ever see them again. I feel lucky to have gotten in when I did.

Yesterday it was back to the Medoc (NW of Bordeaux) for three vineyard tours that I had set up when I thought my group tour the week before would be to Graves. This time I drove myself and I booked a few higher classification chateaus including Premiere class Mouton-Rothschild). At one, Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, I happened to be the only one with a reservation at my time and I arrived just as a friend or colleague of Robert Parker (of the preeminent wine guides) was leaving. The tour guide was my age and we had a good time so she brought out all of the bottles that they had opened for the Parker guy. I got to taste some VERY expensive wine (i.e. the 2005 vintage of their first wine which goes for at least $600+/bottle and it's still 20 years too early to drink) and loved every second of it. After this week I truly have an understanding for why this regions wines are “fine.”

I head back on the train to London tomorrow. My friend Carl happens to be marketing in Europe and our schedules will coincide for at least a drink, which is just great since he lives in CA. After a night I turn around and head back out to Istanbul.

Sadly today marks the one month from when I will return to DC and it's less than a month from when I leave Europe (I'm going to see my grandparents after Italy). I am not tired at all of the constant packing and moving and am really happy with the overall duration of my trip. It doesn't feel like a chore at all and I'm still very engaged in every new place.
I probably miss my own bed far more than I realize and it will surely to take a while to readjust to a more stationary lifestyle but I'm not thinking about those things just yet!

Two for the Price of One

2008-06-24T16:15:00.003-04:00

Yep so I'm behind on the posting again. There's actually two new posts below. Happy reading!

Dead Ringer

2008-06-23T05:27:00.004-04:00

That's me! Dead ringer for a Swedish girl that is. I just spent three days in Stockholm and nearly every local tried to speak Swedish with me. While we might like to think that all Swedes are tall blondes, it's clearly not the case so perhaps all tourists have the same experience. Nevertheless I surely got a kick out of it.

I didn't know it when I chose the last few days for my trip to Stockholm but I happened to arrive mid-day on what they call Midsummer's Eve. Technically midsummer is June 24, the longest day of the year here, but they celebrated the holiday this weekend. Last year my friend Jessica, who has a love for all things Swedish, took me to the NYC Swedish midsummer celebration so I had a bit of an idea of what to expect. My hostel, which by the way looked like a showroom at Ikea, advised that I go to Skansen to enjoy the Midsummer festivities. Skansen is an old swedish village (ala Williamsburg) which they transformed into the center of celebrations. There was a maypole where hundreds of locals danced and sang traditional folk songs. They also had a group that performed traditional children's dances accompanied by a group of fiddlers. Around the grounds families spread out their picnics and relaxed in the grass. Men and women alike wore crowns of flowers and other greenery and a few even came dressed up in traditional Swedish garb. It was all very quaint and innocent in a way.

I should back up and just mention for those who may not know (myself included before this trip) that Stockholm is an archipelago. The heart of the city is concentrated on 3 or 4 islands and there's certainly good reason to call it the Venice of the north. In one word this city is lovely. The waterways and the architecture are just gorgeous. It's clean and the early summer weather was sunny but crisp leaving me with such a pleasant impression. Oddly it's also a fairly empty city. Apparently Stockholm only has 1m people so the city is literally really quiet.

I took a trip to the Modern Art Museum. What can one say about a modern art museum? Well it was certainly interesting. I enjoyed much of it and much of it went over my head. I just felt it was compulsory in a city that's such a heart of modern design.

One afternoon I met up with Emily, the only friend I know who lives in Stockholm, and she took us for lunch at a great waterfront spot that seemed to epitomize Stockholm chic. It was a sea of massive couches and just a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday. The restaurant was on the same island as Stockholm's most famous park. I took a nice long stroll after lunch and got a bit lost but eventually found my way out.

I spent another afternoon exploring Gamla Stan, which is the old city. It's a maze of cute cobblestone alleyways full of Swedish kitsch, clothes, art, antiques restaurants etc. Since the sun barely even goes down this time of year I also partook in an evening glass of wine along the water. Oh the life!

The city had set up a huge screen in one of its plazas where the football games were broadcast every night. Of course I had the pleasure of joining in the Turkish mayhem as they advanced another step. The whole experience took me back to Wellesley and movies on Severance Green. Well I suppose the gender ratio was inverted :-) but still my college friends will know what that means.

Over the few days I managed to hunt down excellent Swedish meatballs, reindeer meet and potato pancakes as well as my fair share of salmon. Everything here has a cream sauce or mayonnaise or gravy. Thank goodness the city is completely walkable and I crossed it more than a few times but still...my diet starts tomorrow!

I am posting this from Bordeaux, France. More to come!

A Proper Dodgy Bloke

2008-06-23T05:26:00.003-04:00

Those are my favorite British words!

I can't believe how quickly my time in London passed. I guess the old adage is true b/c I have thoroughly enjoyed this city. I lucked out with the weather which certainly helped. Posing as a local alongside playing tourist has also been a great balance. On the tourist side, I hit up quite a number of the main attractions. My favorites by far came later in my stay. I went to the Cabinet War Room museum which is in the underground bunker where Churchill and his cabinet retreated to during WWII. They show the cabinet's meeting room with maps (and map doodle drawings of Hitler) along with the sleeping quarters and communication rooms just as they were on the day the war ended. I highly recommend it! One of my other favorite experiences was Evensong at Westminster Abbey. The Anglican Church holds a unique service every day at 5pm where “the music, readings and prayers create a setting in which you, whatever your own faith, may unite with others to offer worship.” It was a magnificent way to take in the beauty and atmosphere of the church. Other highlights include watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham, cruising the Thames river for a great view of Tower Bridge, and surely finding my way around the maze that is Harrods.

On local side of things, I was able to get out and run in the local park, get my hair cut and catch up over lunch with a friend, Tracey, who I know from Wellesley and Fidelity. I won't get into it but I also spent a good bit of time sorting out different “real life” matters. As a note to the public: DON'T ever have anything shipped by boat where you are responsible for finding a shipping agent and taking care of customs. It is a royal pain in the butt and the wallet. Unfortunately I REALLY love the antique chinese doors that I bought in Singapore so I (and my WONDERFUL mother) have put up with the run around.

So maybe I've slacked a bit but I'm very happy with the way I've learned about this city. I can't believe this is my first visit but I WILL be back!

Cheerio

2008-06-15T18:13:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note to say that I am having a smashing time so far in London. I actually really like the city and could definitely see myself living here (my litmus test for any place). It has a big city feel without the big city look. The buildings are smaller and there is so much park land. I have been spoiled though in that the weather has been pretty nice, sunny and cool every day. Actually, on my first day I was almost cold. I had almost forgotten what the cold felt like. Haven't had a goose bump in months!!

I am staying for about a week with my VERY generous friend from college, Meredith (and her flatmates). Thanks again Meredith!!! She lives in what I suppose would be like the Brooklyn of London and it's really such a cute part of town. I've had a great time exploring. Just as an aside, her immediate neighborhood is primarily a Turkish part of town and anyone who is following Euro2008 knows that they just beat the Czechs tonight. It's utter mayhem. The car horns and hollering hasn't stopped for hours!!

I've spent part of my days being a tourist and part of them hanging out in Meredith's world (which at the moment is all football all the time). I got a view into the sophisticated legal scene at a cocktail party at Meredith's office (we won't discuss what percentage of my attire that evening actually belonged to Meredith!) as well as the insane football fever that is displayed at pubs every night.

I am very proud to say that on my second day here I managed to see the Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla AND Prince William!!! The queen's 82nd birthday was on Saturday and I got into Central London after the formal festivities had ended. I stumbled upon the back entrance of St. James' palace (near where Charles and Camilla live), however, just in time to see the three (ex the Queen) driving away. Ok well they were chauffeured away. Then I meandered down to Buckingham and noticed a crowd forming at one of the gates. I realized that the flag which signals that the Queen is in residence was flying and sure enough about 15 minutes later out came a Range Rover with her in the back. Immediately afterward the flag was replaced with a simple British flag. I tried to snap pics but all I got was blurry pictures of cars. Guess I'm not cut out for the paparazzi.

There's a ton of sites to see in the city. So far I've managed Buckingham, St. James' palace and park, Big Ben and Parliament (though I am going back to hopefully see a debate or a session of PM questioning), Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Spitalfield's market. Unfortunately I have been given a pretty large amount of pre-MBA work and online course exemption tests that have to be finished by August 1 and which I would personally like to have behind me when I head to Stockholm. Ahhhhhh what a reminder that yes all good things must come to an end!! As a result I have been splitting my time.

All in all staying with a friend has been the best way to truly see and experience a city.

You might have noticed my mention of Stockholm. Well, my itinerary has been turned upside down and inside out. If you are really curious check out the link on the right. It's now looking like Stockholm, SW France and Istanbul instead of Edinburgh, Lisbon and Athens. I've made the changes based on a lot of recommendations I've received throughout my travels.

Pics to follow soon.

So Long Far East!

2008-06-10T08:28:00.002-04:00

I almost can''t believe that I am leaving Asia. I am so happy that I was able to extend my time here b/c I have thoroughly enjoyed Laos. Having heard not-so-stellar stories about the capital Vientiane and knowing my aversion to capital cities, I decided to base myself out of the northern city of Luang Prabang. The town of LP is actually a UNESCO world heritage site and is really very charming. It sits on a peninsula with the Mekong river on one side and the smaller Nam Kahn river on the other. There is really one main drag through town but the surrounding alley ways and smaller streets are picturesque yet still filled with local color. There are a number of French colonial style buildings remaining that really give the city a feel of the perfect Asian/European blend. LP have numerous cafes and is just an ideal town for relaxing. I had a whole week in and around LP so my days were never very rushed.

On my plane into LP I befriended two other Americans who happened to both have an association with Cornell's b-school but who had never met before either. Peter had just graduated (and was thus decked out in Johnson school paraphernalia) and Bonnie was once a professor there. Bonnie actually had a whole guided trip arranged and was very nice to invite us along on her first day's itinerary. We took a long boat ride up the Mekong River passing numerous villages and fisherman along the way. After about an hour and a half we arrived at the Pak Ou caves. The caves hold thousands of Buddhas from the 16th century. The most valuable have been removed or were pilfered but it's still quite full.
On our ride back down the Mekong we stopped at a village where they brew the famous Mekong whisky. It tasted pretty horrible but apparently it's a big deal around here and can pack quite a punch.

Luang Prabang has over a dozen wats in a fairly small area and everywhere you look there are monks in their bright orange or saffron robes. It's forbidden for them to touch women so at times I felt like I was dodging them left and right on the sidewalks. One of the neatest aspects of LP is the town's continued tradition of morning alms. At 6am the monks begin a procession down the main street in town and the locals will sit along the route (so as to be lower than the monks) waiting to give each monk a bit of rice. This is to be used for the monks' meals that day. That early in the morning the city is just extremely calm and I found the whole process really beautiful. On the not so traditional side of monk life, I got such a kick out of seeing the monks in the internet cafes. I'm not sure how the web fits into their life of minimalism and they aren't supposed to have money to pay for the access but its clearly a normal part of their lives here.

The night market in LP was just great. For once it wasn't full of watch and jewelery knock offs or other useless nicknack's. While there are certainly a lot of t-shirt vendors, the market is full of Hmong women (a particular hilltribe in Laos) who have traveled in to sell their genuine local crafts. The Hmong people are known for a particular decorative style that they use primarily on bags and bed coverlets. It's difficult to describe so just check out the pics. The city really fills up at night for the market and the local food stalls open up. There's nothing like a fresh spring roll, bbqed sticky rice or fish/chicken on a stick! It all shuts down promptly at 9 however as the city has to be quiet by 10:0pm (it's the law).

After a few days in LP I decided to take a trip out to the famous Plain of Jars which is also a UNESCO world heritage site. The closest city to the Plain is called Phonsavanh and it is over 200km from LP. There are planes to Phonsavanh but only from Vientiane. You can guess what that means....two fantastic bus rides! Oh yes the roughly 8 hour ride (one way) was quite an adventure. On the bus to Phonsavanh, four enormous tractor tires occupied the four back seats along with other sacks of agricultural products. Oh and I can't forget to mention the guinea pig who sadly had to ride in the luggage compartment under the bus. I learned on the ride that northern Laos is incredibly mountainous and sparsely populated. The roads are in good shape but they are very windy. Unfortunately the locals across the board have an extreme difficulty stomaching the ride. At one point a guy just threw up into the aisle and the girl next to me even quietly got sick into a plastic bag. The sounds of the bus also included non-stop throat clearing. I'm not sure how this habit developed in Asia but wow it's mildly annoying and frankly it sounds painful. The final element of the bus soundtrack was the Laos music and karoke dvds that blared most of the way. To the foreign ear it all sounds pretty much alike and I'll be honest it's a bit grating. The trip's scenery was really lovely with a hilltribe village seated along the road every 5 or 10km. The parents were out farming but grandparents and kids were everywhere playing along the road. They have become used to large vehicles whizzing by within feet of them and don't even flinch at the sound of the bus horn. The huts in the village were more primitive than the homes I saw in Cambodia. Corrugated tin roofs are far less widespread but I think that might be because the villagers forgo them for huge satellite dishes. It's sad but true. Next to nearly every bamboo and grass hut was a huge dish. Also along the road was a plethora of livestock. Cows, water buffalo, pigs, dogs etc....they all seem to prefer the asphalt to the green hillsides. We had a few bathroom breaks which meant squatting behind some brush on the side of the road but eventually we made it to and from Phonsavanh without any problems.

There's really nothing in Phonsavanh other than the Plain of Jars. Well there is a great Indian restaurant but that's not going to put the town on the map. In my one day there we visited two of the Jar sites and our tour included a stop at few other historical spots in the old city where the impact of Vietnam war bombings is visible. The jars are all made of stone and clay. They say some may weigh between 5 and 6 tons and that they are at least two thousand years old. No one knows for sure, however, who built them or why they were built. One of the jars has an engraving of a human body which supports the most widely held belief that they are urns. The Jars aren't the kind of site that will blow you away but I still found the plain really interesting. Oh I have to mention the MAG office in Phonsavanh. MAG is an organization that is leading the effort to remove UXOs (unexploded ordinances) i.e. big bombs as well as “bombies” from of the Laos countryside. They show two documentaries that I found really insightful. I don't recall the facts but suffice it to say that thousands have died from the remains of the Vietnam war. Did you kow that Laos is actually the most bombed country in the world? I didn't but apparently that's the case b/c of its proximity to Vietnam and the fact that the Ho Chi Minh trail went through much of southern Laos. These bombies (think small round grenade looking device...the size of an apple) are the most dangerous threat to farmers and their children. I don't have the right terminology but in the war the US used bomb casings that in mid air would open up and release hundreds of these bombies. Apparently 10 – 30% of these bombies did not explode upon contact and so today there are, I believe, millions of these live bombies still out there. Scrap metal collecting has become a large trade in Laos and many children have been killed trying to find metal to help their families' incomes. I'll stop now before I begin to rant about the stupidity of these bombies.

Back from Phonsavanh I just relaxed in LP for a day and am now at the Bangkok airport headed for London. I have my Australian equivalents of People and US weekly prepared for the flight! May the next, significantly more expensive, chapter of this trip begin. In case you were wondering, yes Asia has made me really cheap. I know I'm in for a wake up call. No more guest houses for $3/night.

A low point in history / A high point in my trip

2008-06-05T03:09:00.007-04:00

Now I know that my grandmother loves that I blog and Grams I would do this for you alone but what has happened to comments? I fear I've become boring.

I traveled the 6 hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh by “limo” bus. I got such a kick out of the bus station which was essentially a dirty/dusty clearing with row after row of buses. When my tuk tuk drove up the little kids were right there to sell me a baguette and cheese (a holdover from the French) for the ride. On the bus I had the neat opportunity to sit next to a British woman who had just finished 8 weeks of volunteering with the organization Globalteer. Having loved my time in Siem Reap so much, after talking to her I seriously considered going back myself for a few weeks instead of heading to Europe. For a number of reasons I've now decided not to do that but I have decided to extend my time in Asia in another way (gotta make it to the end to see where I am now).

The bus ride really wasn't too bad. At about the half way point we made a bathroom/cricket stop. You see in Cambodia (and I believe other parts of Asia) a roasted cricket or roach or some sort of insect is considered a delicious snack. On our trek in Chiang Mai one of the guides took joy in snatching the bugs out of mid air and throwing them in the fire. The other riders on the bus loaded up on bags of the critters. I've tried lots of local food in Cambodia but I fear that is one I can't go near.

The best part of the ride was the opportunity to see the real Cambodia, the countryside. As I said in my last post it's so easy to miss the essence of Cambodia in the cities that I was happy to have even this brief view of the heart of the country. The one-room homes were nearly all built on high stilts presumably to help with the heat and also flooding in the wet season. The doorways to many of the homes also had shiny cellophane streamers (think Happy Birthday banner) hanging from them. I thought they were just decoration but in reading the book The Killing Fields (which I HIGHLY recommend) in prep for Phnom Penh I learned that the purpose of the banners is to ward off evil spirits. In the front yards of many homes were large pieces of plastic draped over a bamboo frame. I learned these are set up to catch rain fall. Smart idea. I saw kids playing tag where the boy who was “it” would jump on one leg, groups playing volleyball, plenty of little boys running around naked, hoards of school kids riding their bikes home, farmers corralling cattle and bustling village markets.

Finally in Phnom Penh I was accosted by a herd of tuk tuk drivers as I exited the bus. This first impression reminded me of how I have enjoyed capital cities the least of all on this trip. The least abrasive driver earned my business and I made it to my guesthouse room on the Tonle Sap river. That night I had dinner (a traditional Fish Amok dish) at a great local spot. I took The Killing Fields with me to finish and rather poignantly, just as I finished a passage about an amputee I looked up to see a man with one leg outside of my restaurant just peering in at the diners with his selection of books for sale. I'm thinking “ why not just tear my heart out right here?” This evening would certainly set the stage for a tough two days in and around this city.

Here's where I warn you that the stories from my next two days are rather depressing and the picks on Flickr are a bit graphic. On my first full day in Phnom Penh I visited the Genocide Museum which is housed in the former high school that was turned into the famous S-21 prison by the Khmer Rouge. The government really hasn't made many changes to the building and it almost feel like the “liberators” just picked up and left yesterday. The first thing I noticed was how large the complex was. The information said that between 10,00 and 16,000 Cambodians were there at some point between '75 and '79. The staff totaled 1,720 and at any one time there were between 1,200 and 1,500 prisoners. The external corridors of the school were covered in barbed wire to prevent suicide jumps. On the first and second floors of a few buildings I saw the individual brick and wooden cells where primarily men were held. On the top floor were rooms where prisoners were held en masse, connected to each other at the feet by a central rod. They had displays of the contraptions used to torture prisoners including a box used to clamp down a person's arm while their fingernails were pulled out. There were boards with pictures of the tagged inmates (the KR kept incredible biographical records of everyone), some of them in a tortured state. The museum also had displays with the stories of numerous Cambodians, both survivors of the prison (there were only 7, the rest were taken to the killing fields) and members of the Khmer Rouge. Those who have come forward as a part of the Khmer Rouge were either children who at the time were effectively brainwashed or older individuals who knew that joining was essential for their personal survival. Interestingly a few noted that in their villages today they are still labeled as former KR. They will always carry the burden despite having not been involved directly in the killings.

On my second day in Phnom Penh I hired a tuk tuk to take me out to the Choeung Euk Killing Fields site roughly 15km outside of PP. It's important to note that this was just one of many killing fields. They have erected a memorial building at the site that holds the skulls of hundreds of the Cambodians found in the mass graves. They have grouped them by sex and age. Around the memorial you can walk amongst the craters that once held hundreds of bodies. I read that in fact at some of the fields (not this one in particular) that actual bomb craters were used as grave sites. The thought that weekly trucks of 20 to 30 people arrived at this site and that thousands of Cambodians were senselessly put to death is just incomprehensible. As with any genocide you can't even begin to understand what was in the minds of the killers.

I've read quite a bit about the Khmer Rouge regime in my time here and I really encourage everyone to do the same. I honestly knew very little about the details before coming here but have found this piece of history to be rather fascinating. As Americans I think we know far more about Vietnam than this little country. At the high end it's estimated that Cambodia lost half of its population during this time. I feel bad that I was so ignorant to the details of why and how this occurred.

Okay before I verge on full fledged ranting I will move on.

As I said at the beginning, I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted more time in Asia. After talking with so many other travelers I have chosen to follow up my stay in Cambodia with a week in Laos. I've been here two days already and am so very happy that I made the change in my itinerary. I am in the city of Luang Prabang and I can't rave enough about it. More next time but I am so happy that I will leave Asia on this note.

A Contradiction of sorts

2008-05-31T22:25:00.001-04:00

I arrived in Siem Reap along with a few thousand Japanese (no joke), whizzed through immigration thanks to my evisa (go figure...this undeveloped country offers online visas) and after two failed attempts at booked or overpriced hotels I settled in at a cute boutique hotel just along the river in the center of town. It was already late so I ate my Bangkok Airways sandwich and got ready for an early start the next morning.

At 7:15 the next morning my tour guide, Ro, and taxi driver were waiting to head north to the temple complexes. We actually started at the eastern, or rear, entrance to Angkor Wat. Interestingly Angkor Wat is the only temple that is entered from the west. While entering from the back doesn't have the same impact as the breathtaking western entrance, we did avoid hoards of tourists. My first reaction was awe over the fact that the city and temple were built in the 12th century and had survived the ravaging of the Khmer Rouge. Then when I stopped and thought that the Khmer people had the technology and capability to build such an amazing structure over 900 years ago I was even more amazed. It was similar to my feelings when I visited the Great Wall in China.

From Angkor Wat we moved on to visit Angkor Thom. I should say that Angkor means “city” because there were actually hundreds of thousands of Khmer people living inside the walls of both Angkor Wat (“city with a temple”) and Angkor Thom (“great city” b/c of it's size, over 1sq mile). At the center of Angkor Thom was the buddhist temple called Bayon. Bayon is most famous for its carved smiling faces. They are said to represent compassion but also the face of Jayavarman VII, the temple's builder. My tour guide had a blast taking pictures of me in a whole number of crazy poses. He fancies himself quite a photographer. I've included only a few on Flickr. The others were utterly ridiculous.

From Angkor Thom we visited The Elephant Terrace which was a long terrace with reliefs of elephants (go figure!) where the king would watch parades of soldiers. Next to it was the Terrace of the Leper King which really wasn't much other than a very elaborate interior corridor covered in carvings.

Things heated up a bit with the visit to our last temple, Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is probably most widely known as the set of the movie Tomb Raider (with Angelina Jolie...prob when she got the idea to adopt Madox). The walls and structures of the temple have been overgrown with what's called a Spoong tree (see the pics). We had been at the temple for maybe 5 minutes when all of a sudden there was the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard. I am not kidding. There was no warning. No dark clouds etc. Apparently there was a bolt of lightning that hit a tree which then knocked down a bit of the temple. A local woman was either frightened and fainted from the incident or she was potentially hurt. We never found out for sure but a huge hoard of villagers ran after the ambulance that took her away. Crazy and honestly a little bit scary. It brings up a topic though that I found interesting which is that the locals really use the temples. They either just leisurely spend time in them or I even saw a few women cooking around the grounds.

By around 3pm both Ro and I were dragging but he and the driver agreed to take me back to Angkor Wat for a few minutes b/c in the morning the eastern sun cast the front of the temple in shadow and my pictures were horrible. The afternoon light was far better for the western facing temple.

The temple tramping did me in. I took a dip in my hotel pool and a short nap before heading to the central market area for dinner. I enjoyed a traditional Khmer meal called fish amok at a little hole in the wall. Then I indulged in a foot massage. The recipe for a good night's sleep!

My second day in Siem Reap was what really shaped my view of this city/country and its people. When you arrive as a tourist the first thing you notice is the plethora of 4 and 5 star hotels lining the road from the airport. The tourist services in Siem Reap are really over developed. I mean this is the first city in months where I could readily find whole grain bread b/c the markets cater so directly to westerners. The restaurants look like they were plucked out of NYC yet the entrees are $3. I was able to escape this warped view with a visit to the Angkor Children's Hospital. I initially went to just give blood (I had read much about the needs of this region's overloaded free hospitals) but afterwards they gave me a whole tour of the facility. It was odd that the hospital was so open. At one point I was practically standing in the ICU. When the tour was over I was even allowed to roam at will. I sat with a few kids and colored for a while and met a young boy that a volunteer was working with in play therapy. The hospital is part of the org Friends without Borders (not to be confused with the doctors) and it's budget is roughly $1.4m/year. Currently they see around 350 kids per day. The wait to get in was long and the number of families around the hospital was high. It was neat to see the preventative measure they are pursuing like nutrition and hygiene classes with parents but overall the site of the extremely poor families and sick kids was tough.

After the hospital I just meandered the streets of Siem Reap taking in whatever I could. The funniest sight was their roadside “gas stations” where low grade gas is set out in Johnnie Walker and soda bottles. I believe it's technically illegal to buy (but maybe not to sell? b/c they're everywhere) this fuel but that hasn't hurt the industry.

I leave you with a few other observations. The first is that all over the city the people hawking goods like photocopied books, bracelets and postcards are kids. I have rarely had an adult try to sell me anything just on the street. Ro told me that something like 37% of Cambodians live on a dollar a day. It's tough to know what to do b/c on one hand the NGOs will recommend that you don't just give handouts to homeless but on the other hand what's $1 to me? I'm working to find my personal balance on the matter. .

The other is that despite the poverty I can't believe the number of Lexus RX300s (that's the SUV) on the road. I still have to figure this one out. I thought that maybe this is where they all get shipped to die but they actually appear to be in really good shape.

I'm actually posting this from Pnom Phen but I'll hold off on the bus trip story for next time.

The Land of Smiles

2008-05-28T05:31:00.009-04:00

Northern Thailand has been one adventure after another and is certainly the highlight of my time in Asia.

The adventures started at the airport in Chiang Mai when three sets of couples ran past us, each trailed by a camera guy and an audio guy. We are pretty sure that they were part of the show The Amazing Race but when we asked them all one guy could say was "I don't know what you're talking about." Yeah, right.

So back to us...

On our first night in Chiang Mai we decided to take in a few matches of Muay Thai boxing. Going in we didn't know much about it and I'm still not sure I fully comprehend how one boxer wins. I'm pretty sure it has to do with how much contact he/she can make with feet, knees and fists. What we really weren't expecting was to see numerous bouts between what seemed like 8 year olds and quite a few young women. Nevertheless we enjoyed making small bets with the 3 guys next to us on who would win based entirely on looks and pre-fight rituals.

Chiang Mai is the hub for trekking tours in Northern Thailand. We had thought we would do a 3 day, 2 night trek but on the recommendation of our hotel we shortened it to 2 days (and thank goodness we did!...read on), heading out on our first full day in town. Our trekking group was 8 people strong on the first day. 2 Danes, 2 NYCers, 1 Brit and the 3 of us. We started off in a truck (covered, no windows, seated facing each other) and drove out of the city about 30km to a butterfly and orchid farm. The tours all have to do their part to help the tourist economy but I'm pretty sure nobody bought anything. From the farms we drove on to two hill tribes. The first was the Mong people, native to Thailand. The Mong people's dress is just beautiful and extremely colorful. We toured their village including the inside of their homes and saw them at work in the rice fields. At first I thought they only dressed in the traditional garb for our sake but I have since seen the Mong people outside of a tour setting and they were still dressed in the heavy material.
After the Mong people we visited a village of the Karen longneck people, originally from Burma. We learned the origin of the gold neck rings (to protect women from Tigers while men were out in the fields) and were shown the women's traditional silk weaving craft. In exploring the village I also came upon two adorable girls that were practicing their penmanship. Great photo ops!

From the hilltribe visits we stopped briefly at a market so our tour guide could could buy the fixings for dinner and then it was on to the elephant camp. As we approached the camp we spotted two elephants coming down the mountain and our excitement sky rocketed. There were a few other groups ahead of us so we ate a good lunch of Pad Thai and then were left to play with the one elephant who wasn't out on a tour. She was very well trained and extremely friendly. She didn't even need to be kept chained up like the other two. We decided to buy a bunch of bananas from the ladies at the camp and attempted to give the elephant a pre-ride treat. It took me a while to get the hang of it b/c I was honestly a little scared to just let it use its trunk to pick the banana out of my palm but eventually I got the hang of it. A few funny pics came out of the whole episode. Eventually it was our groups turn to take a ride. Because there was three of us I volunteered to actually sit on the elephant's neck with my legs tucked behind it's ears. I got a bit of mud and elephant spit sprayed on my legs but it was such a neat experience. After more photo ops and feeding of the elephants we headed out for what turned out to be a 3 hour hike. Normally I wouldn't bat an eye at that but I swear 90% of the hike was straight up hill. Ironically the two NYCers in our group had a bit of a tough time with the hiking (the girl looked like she wanted to kill her boyfriend). We hiked through rice paddies, over rivers and through hill tribe villages passing a few lovely waterfalls along the way. Eventually we reached the top of the mountain where our camp would be for the evening. The camp was essentially one large bamboo hut with a row of mats and mosquito nets. There were also outhouses and showers! Hey, we were prepared for no showers and sleeping on the ground so to find that AND cold beer was a pleasant surprise. After a nice cool sleep in the mountains we headed out the next morning for another 3 hour hike to a small village where we would eat lunch. Along the way we stopped for a swim at a waterfall. After lunch we hopped in a van and headed to a river for a little white water rafting and then a bit of bamboo rafting. The white water rafting was what you would expect but the bamboo rafts were just bizarre. The raft was submerged a few inches and we just floated down the river. It didn't help matters to see a water snake along the way.
By the end of the whole trekking experience we looked pretty rough but I would highly recommend it to anyone!

After the trekking we took a day to do some shopping in Chiang Mai and to treat ourselves to a wonderful spa day. We decided to splurge on a spa that was relatively pretty expensive by Thai standards but I'd say that $60 for a 2.5 hour body scrub, mud wrap and hot oil massage is a pretty good absolute deal. Jess and Lindsey even went in for 4 hours of bliss!
Completely relaxed we headed out to the great Sunday market. It only takes place one day a week and is really comprehensive. A big downpour put a bit of a damper on the market as quite a few vendors packed up and went home early but still it was a haggler's dream.

Our last adventure in the Chiang Mai area was a 100 mile motorbike trip up to the town of Pai. We had so many recommendations about driving our own bikes that we couldn't resist. I actually think we caught on pretty quickly to the bikes and were pros by the time we hit the steep and windy roads of the mountain just before Pai. The ride to Pai is half of the fun of going there. Along the way we stopped at two national park sites. The first was a triple waterfall and bat caves where we cooled off from the muggy weather. The second was a geyser and natural hot springs.
Pai is a real hippie town where vegetarian and vegan restaurants abound. I am embarrassed to admit that we succumbed to our cravings for mexican food but it was actually pretty good. We successfully stayed in Pai for $10 total and the next morning headed back to Chiang Mai. We tried to stop at a national park and go for a hike but apparently the park had no hiking and was really just a conference center....odd.

Back in Chiang Mai we closed out our Thailand visit with a traditional Thai Kantoke dinner and dance performance.

I'm now alone again and I've successfully made it to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I look forward to touring the Angkor Wat area tomorrow and the next day.

Thailand

2008-05-21T09:15:00.001-04:00

We left Vietnam and were transported forward in time by at least 50 years when we arrived in Bangkok. Bangkok is a huge Asian metropolis though it certainly lags say Hong Kong in its modernity.

Unfortunately our first experience off the plane was an aggravating one. The guide books do a terrific job at fostering paranoia about being ripped off by cab drivers at the airport who don't use their meter etc. Somehow the language barrier between us and our assigned cabbie escalated from a general confused conversation to an all out screaming match where he was doing all of the yelling. He wanted to know all of this information about us and we just were asking him why when all of a sudden he starts mocking us by repeatedly yelling “why” back at us. Then he got even more mad when we were adamant about the meter. I'm still not sure how or why but he ended up taking us into the city and you could sense how pissed off he seemed to be the whole way there. Welcome to Thailand!

Our hostel in Bangkok was in a terrific location in an area called Sukhumvit. There wasn't much actually in Sukhumvit other than hotels, restaurants and shopping but the sky train and subway were all very accessible from there. On our first afternoon/evening we decided to explore the city's Chinatown. It took us a while to actually find the gates to the town from the subway stop but eventually we found ourselves in the throws of the evening food markets. Hungry ourselves we decided on a particular corner where on either side there were competing seafood shops. One team in red, one in green. We went with the green team primarily b/c they could seat us right away. This meal was our first lesson in just how spicy thai food can be. At the end of the meal we looked like we had run a marathon, dripping wet but very satisfied from tom ka kai (i think), barbecued prawns and a green veggie sauteed in loads of chillies.

From Chinatown we headed for Silom Rd. which has pockets of what you might call a red light district. While what they call “sex tourism” is a big phenomenon in Bangkok the area really wasn't very seedy at all. Frankly you can't experience Bangkok without venturing into this area if just to observe. We happened upon a lady boy beauty contest down one street and I have to say I was really impressed with how much some of the guys looked like full fledged women. There were also night markets all over Silom Rd. where I haggled myself a few really good bargains.

On our second day in Bangkok we took the water taxi all the way from the S to N to the Old Quarter, home of Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. As wats are buddhist temples we were accompanied on the taxi by hoards of young monks effectively going to schooling at these and other wats across the city. Wat Pho is known for its enormous gold reclining buddha and Wat Phra Kaew is known for its ornate emerald buddha. Both wats were really large compounds of numerous temples and buildings all decorated very ornately. The Grand Palace is where the monarchy lives. The Thai King is so revered by the public that it is almost funny because his picture and signs proclaiming “long live the king” are on billboards and buildings all over the city.

Unable to digest another wat or historical site I spent my afternoon exploring the fantastic shopping that Bangkok offers. I'd say that Bangkok's malls rival those of of Singapore but there aren't as many of them. It's pretty amazing to observe how the mall life is a huge part of the evening culture here. We actually tried to find a recommended food court for dinner that night in one of the malls but were too late and found most of the vendors shutting down.

From Bangkok it had been our plan to take an overnight train then a bus and then a ferry to the southern island of Koh Samui. When we got to Bangkok however, we found out that the sleeper cabins were fully booked on nearly every train so we had to fly instead. DARN! That meant we got to Koh Samui a day ahead of schedule and promptly settled into our vacation from our vacation. We stayed in a very cute hotel with bungalows that is in the fisherman's village on Boh Put beach on the north side of Samui. The bungalows were very cute and came complete with an outdoor shower. The jury's still out on whether that was a nice thing or not because it is in the 90s with high humidity here.
We spent our first day on Samui enjoying the beach and the hotel pool as well as exploring the cute village to find the good eats, thai massage parlors and in our case a good spot to get our laundry done ($1 per pound!) On our second day Lindsey amused herself by renting a motorbike and exploring the island while Jess and I went diving for the day. The diving really wasn't very good (poor visibility and a dying reef) but it was really nice to be out on the water and the dive operation was full of great guys. We motored up to Koh Tao, about 1.5 hours north of Samui to do our two dives. Apparently Koh Tao is where 25% of all PADI certifications are issued. When we got there it was no surprise. There were dive boats all over the place and the dive sites were crowded. When we got back to Samui, our dive master who is also a partial owner of the dive company, treated us and the crew to a few rounds of beers. The dive trip was also an excellent source of tips for traveling in France. Two of the other owners and one of the divers on the boat were french and the other diver even offered up his paris apartment since he won't be there when I plan to travel. So much for the French not being friendly!

We left Koh Samui for Koh Phangan yesterday b/c Koh Phangan is the site of a monthly Full Moon Party. This party started as a yearly tradition and has since become monthly. It's probably one of the most insane events I have ever been to. It is one massive beach party where between 8k and 30k people show up depending on the season. Each bar along the beach has a dj playing different kinds of music. The party will go until 11 the next morning and I can tell you that when we left at 6am everything was going strong. You would have thought it was still midnight and everyone was just getting started. While those of you who know me know that I don't exactly live for this kind of thing but I had a blast. We joined in on the “fun bucket” tradition and made a wise pit stop for pizza around 4am. We're doing surprisingly well today considering the circumstances.

Tomorrow we fly from Koh Samui up to Chang Mai via Bangkok.

Good Morning Vietnam (I couldn't resist)

2008-05-14T21:00:00.004-04:00

Sorry to keep anyone waiting. I've been in Thailand now for two days and haven't even posted on the rest of Vietnam. Access has been spotty and days have been long. But without further ado...

After leaving Saigon, we spent a few days in the central Vietnam cities of Hoi An and Hue. We actually flew from Saigon to Danang which is roughly between the two and then took a cab, along with Ron, an Australian man, down to Hoi An. We didn't have a hotel in Hoi An but were lucky that the one we picked near the center of town had one room left. Ron had to go searching unfortunately.

Hoi An used to be a very prosperous port town, one of the largest in Asia I believe. It no longer holds that status and today is just a quaint little fishing village. We ended up staying in Hoi An for 2 nights. I know I said that Saigon was hot but Hoi An took things to another level. After we checked in on the first day we ventured out around the city but we didn't make it very far before being enticed by 3,000dong (20cent) beers at a cafe along the river. Honestly the next day and a half was a series of beers interspersed with a walking tour through the lanes and alley ways of the city center. Don't worry it was the local stuff...mostly water anyways. Alongside our walking tour we took advantage of a ticket that the town sells which gives you access to one museum, one historical family home and one assembly hall. We also discovered what Hoi An is most famous for, it's silk production and it's enormous number of tailors that can whip you up a suit or a coat or a ball gown in 24 hours. I thought about a couple coats that I saw and Jess considered a bridesmaid's dress for her sister's wedding but in the end neither of us wanted to carry them around asia and with the cost of shipping it home you might as well have just bought it in the US. At night in Hoi An there was a little strip of restaurants and bars that catered to tourists. One had a great bar and pool table where one night we played endless games with an american mom and daughter duo (daughter works for an NGO in pakistan and they met up for a vacation) and three british boys who are traveling after just finishing university or “uni” as they and now I have taken to calling it. Good times.

On our second full day in Hoi An we booked a tour ($5) out to the My Son (“mee sun”) ruins. Unfortunately the guided tour was light on guidance but from what I remember without my guidebook in front of me they date back to the 13th century and unfortunately have sustained quite a bit of destruction from the war.

From Hoi An we took a 4 hour and $4 bus ride up to Hue. The countryside was really very beautiful with endless rice fields and little fishing huts scattered about along the coast. About an hour outside of Hoi An it started to rain and really didn't stop for our entire stay in Hue. Despite the weather Hue was a town full of adventures for us. After battling the motorbikes for days we decided to join them and booked a motorbike tour of the countryside including visits to two emperors' tombs, two buddhist temples, the Imperial Palace and a few other far-off places. In total we rode for 60km. We each had a driver and I swear they know their way around the back roads and alleys like you wouldn't believe. We were soaked by the end but had a complete blast. So far it's been my favorite experience. Oh wait, how could I forget to share that on the tour we rode past a family carving up a dog they had just finished roasting. You hear the stories and now we have proof!
After our motorbike tour Lindsey decided we should get massages. Here's where I am going to share with you my friend Jess's writeup of the experience that she sent in an email to her family and friends. My experience was almost identical.

Jess:
“Ah yes, the massage. That was yesterday and I'm still sore. Very sore. Let me set the scene- We all walk upstairs and enter our own rooms. A little odd, I thought, as I noticed the massage table set against a wall. How was he going to maneuver around the other side? My question was answered VERY quickly. He barely introduced himself before he was on top of me, straddling my back asking my name and marital status. What followed reminded me of a childhood game called Rose Garden. You took another unsuspecting child's forearm and slapped it, pinched it and rubbed it until it had a pinkish color. Well this was a full body game of Rose Garden. I found myself peeking at my watch the way I do during my spinning classes. Only 15 more minutes- I can do this! There was a brief pause. Yes, almost done. I glance back and see him standing on the table. Then I feel a lot of pressure on my hamstrings. He's standing on me! Now he's standing on my lower back, then mid-back, then upper back. Quick thoughts of me become paralyzed right there flashed through my head.”

I thought she did a much better job than I could have. I hope you enjoyed. We all had quite a few laughs sharing our own personal variation of the above.

We flew from Hue up to Hanoi, where in hindsight we wish we had had another day. All the books and many people said that Hanoi would be a much more traditional city, stuck in time a bit, unlike Saigon. I have to say that after my brief stay I would very much disagree with that. It certainly lacks the extreme hustle and bustle of Saigon but I think that is a huge positive and it was really very modern (If Saigon is NYC then Hanoi is Boston). The city is centered around Hoan Kiem Lake which we all felt really shaped the community and general life in Hanoi. In the morning the older folks were out doing their tai chi and aerobics by the water. At night the teenagers were out “talking” to one another and families with their small children were just enjoying the public spaces. On our first afternoon we walked around the lake and explored a bit of the Old Quarter but didn't really do anything extremely touristy.

We spent our second and third days out at Halong Bay which is 3 hours east of Hanoi. I'm just going to direct you to my pictures to get a sense for the scenery of the Bay. It was a bit overcast so the pictures aren't great but hopefully you can understand the beauty of the nearly 2,000 limestone pillars in the bay. The Vietnamese are trying to get it declared as a natural wonder. We booked a tour and stayed overnight on a “junk” boat. There are hundreds of junk operators and I'd say ours was really quite nice. In addition to sailing through the bay we had the chance to take kayaks through a cave and into a beautiful lagoon. We also explored Surprise Cave which is a massive cut out in one of the pillars with beautiful stalagmite and stalactite structures. There were 14 guests and everyone really enjoyed each others' company. The 4 aussies led the way in terms of hydration (if you get my drift) and were good sports during karaoke at night. Ah yes, how vividly I still remember my rendition of “Come On Eileen” (too ra loo ra too ra loo ra lay!)

We've made it safe and sound to Thailand and have enjoyed a day and a half already in Bangkok. We are already enjoying the food so much more. I guess I hadn't really had much Vietnamese food before this trip and I have to honestly say that I think it is only capable of being so good. We tried cheap dives and moderately priced spots but never could rave about it. A good bowl of Pho is hard to beat but really this noodle and chicken soup is the highlight of the cuisine in my humble opinion.

We're not in Kansas anymore

2008-05-07T14:10:00.000-04:00

I think I have to start by describing Saigon as hotter than heck and frenetic. The motorbike traffic is really indicative of the entire feel of this city. Jess, Lindsey and I have had a packed two days. They were great sports and hit the ground running after arriving mid-day yesterday. We headed for some lunch to the famous Pho 2000. Pho refers to the ubiquitous noodle soup here in Vietnam. We had a big bowl and spring rolls...yum! From there we headed up to the Reunification Palace. The Palace was the center of the southern Vietnam government, the home of the president and the location of the central war command rooms. It is known best for its role in the fall of Saigon. It's where the North Vietnamese tanks knocked down the gates and hung their flag on the balcony in 1975. The current building on the site was completed in 1966 and is a very modern (aka stark) building. As a major governmental building we were a bit unimpressed. It just wasn't quite palatial but I think it's due to the modern design.
From the Palace we headed for the Ben Thanh Market. The market sells the whole gamet of products: luggage clothes, jewelery, home goods, food and kitchy souvenir. The vendors are very persistent as you might imagine and don't hesitate to reach out and touch your arm etc. Jess and Lindsey hit a wall about 30 minutes into our market trip (they had been traveling for 24 hours after all) so we headed back to the hotel for a nap and then went back out to dinner. We tried a place that apparently is a real institution in the city. It's a large restaurant and the atmostphere was a bit chaotic but exciting. Apparently we showed up a bit late because they were out of nearly the entire menu and the menu was 10+ pages! What we were able to order was great, especially with a nice cold Tiger beer along side.

Today we took a tour out to the Cu Chi tunnels which are about 70 km outside of the city. With the traffic in Saigon that translates to almost a 2 hour drive. On the way to the tunnels we stopped off at a Handicapped Handicrafts market where the government is employing those suffering from the effects of agent orange and other handicapped individuals. They produce lacquered products with egg shell and pearl inlays that were really quite beautiful.

At the tunnels we got a whole synopsis of how expansive they are, how they were built and how great the vietnamese were for defeating the “American killing soldier.” Don't be fooled, we are NOT painted in a good light here though most Vietnamese today have moved beyond the war issue and admitting your from America is not a dangerous thing in any way. So the tunnels are roughly 270 km long and run along three different depths below ground. The first set of tunnels (70km) were built and used in the war against the French and then the remaining 200km followed and were used against the Americans. The first set is too small to actually crawl through (the vietnamese were clearly very small people) but they have set up a 90m stretch of the second tunnels that tourists can crouch down and crawl/walk through. When you stop and think about what they were able to accomplish with picks and baskets it's pretty impressive.

When we got back to Ho Chi Minh we headed for the War Remnants Museum. The museum isn't solely focused on the Vietnam War (“American War” over here), it also has photography exhibits meant to send a message about the general atrocities of war. That said, the images and displays on the Vietnam War were really rather vivid and the message were certainly anti-American (though contained to that particular period).

From the Museum we decided to “splurge” on a haute-vietnamese dinner at Xu. It was fantastic! After two days of vietnamese food we all agreed that we needed a meal to sort of reset our insides. Eating foreign foods based in rice and noodles all day long can leave you feeling empty and never very satisfied.

Tomorrow we fly to Danang and then drive up to Hoi An and then over to Hue for a few days. I'll be back when I can!

Saigon

2008-05-05T09:27:00.002-04:00

I made it successfully to Saigon this evening. The plane ride was far less dangerous than the taxi cab ride to my hotel. The streets of this town are the most organized chaos I've ever seen with motorbikes as far as the eye can see and no recognizable driving laws other than eventually stopping for red lights when opposing traffic finally gets too close. It's way worse than Shanghai was in China and that was pretty shocking. I haven't done much yet but since I spent 30cents on my hour of internet I thought I might as well post something. I did meander the streets around my hotel, successfully crossing one of them to go looking for bottled water. The quidebook was right, if you slowly step out into traffic and continue forward without stopping the motorbikes will part ways for you. My other discover for the evening: Aquafina has a big portion of the water market cornered as far as I can tell.
Jess and Lindsey get here tomorrow morn so more in a few days.

Small world and small city

2008-05-04T05:13:00.003-04:00

I headed out this morning with the post office as my destination. The only one open on Sunday is on Orchard Rd., down a way from my hostel. Orchard Rd. is known as the prime shopping street in Singapore and is lined up and down with malls. I putzed around picking up a few things here and there. I finally reached the post office and in line ahead of me was two American guys in their mid 20s. I asked where they were from and they said Madison, WI (half of my family is from WI). Then after a little more discussion I found out that one of the guys is actually waiting to hear from Columbia about b-school admission (to those reading who might not know...that's where I'm headed in the fall). I'm thinking wow...small world at this point. I said good luck and went on my merry way. I prefer to shop in places that aren't so planned or really just like what I could find in NYC so I decided to leave Orchard and go up to Newton Circus for lunch. Again it was a place recommended by my mom's friend. Sunday afternoon must not be a peak time to go because 75% of the stalls were closed and it definitely wasn't a circus. Nevertheless the garlic prawns were delicious. After lunch I headed back down to the area near my hostel. I popped into a shopping center near by and was checking out t-shirts in a store when in walked the same guy from the post office. I'm thinking...no way! We were a good distance from the post office and it had been a few hours. He has been traveling for a few months so we sat down and had a chat about Thailand and he downloaded all of his advice for me. It was really, really helpful and has me even more excited about going. I am of course ignoring his story about having food poisoning 4 times, once requiring hospitalization.

After our chat I headed back to the hostel and cleaned up for a visit to Raffles. Yesterday the woman from the antique shop told me that I should probably be a bit dressed up but of course the place was packed with tourists and expats in casual wear. I toured the hotel for a bit and then headed for the famous Long Bar. This is the bar where the Singapore Sling became popular. For those of you who have visited the Long Bar in a past life you might be disappointed that now there's actually two Long Bars, one upstairs and one down. The downstairs was getting full and I just didn't feel comfortable by myself. So, I mozied on upstairs and pulled up a bar stool. Suvit and Kevin behind the bar were extremely friendly and happy to chat. Suvit admitted he's tired of basically ONLY making Slings. I can imagine that takes the fun out of bar tending a bit. I actually went to Raffles intending to forgo the Sling. I had read that today they make it from a machine and that it cost $19. When I got there I was shocked to learn that it now costs $25. Hello inflation! I told Suvit the only way I was paying that was if he mixed it for me himself from scratch. He agreed and now you can call me a sucker. Hey, it's a gin drink and we all know my feelings about gin...hard to pass up. Suvit actually poured me a bit of the mix and it really did taste different. I'm not sure what the diff was but I think mine was better (or at least I'm telling myself that). I had some satay (on recommendation) with my drink and a little bit later settled in to enjoy the live music. Kevin kept serving me gin and tonics (at no cost I might mention) so I stayed a little bit longer than I might have otherwise. All in all a great Long Bar experience. Too bad I wasn't looking to get "pissed as the Aussies would say b/c I think Kevin was happy to oblige.

Tonight I'm packing as tomorrow morning I head to Vietnam. I have one night and then Jess and Lindsey fly in the next day (Tues).
I have no clue what kind of internet will be avail in Vietnam but hopefully you'll hear from me soon.

Out and About

2008-05-03T21:20:00.003-04:00

This starbucks' wifi sure is doing wonders for my blogging! I'm afraid I'm setting you all up for disappointment when I head to Vietnam next.

Yesterday was another fun day of exploring the city. After searching for a laundromat (i'm convinced they don't exist here) I walked up to Little India. The locals were out and about in numbers enjoying the weekend. Ready for lunch I headed to a place called Komala Vilas for a vegetarian meal. As many of you know I absolutely love chickpeas so the fact that I had chana masala for dinner the night before did not stop me from having it again. The food was excellent and cheap ($4). I get a kick out of watching the locals watch me eat. I admit I wasn't quite sure what to do with the balloon of bread (see pics) on my plate but I have learned by now to just dig in with my hands sans silverware. After lunch I walked up and down the main drag. From the sari shops to the jewelery stores to the stalls selling prayer flowers, the colors of Little India are just beautiful. As a side note, I was amazed by the number of people out shopping for gold. Perhaps everyone was just browsing but the stores were full. Maybe they're just playing the gold markets :-)
The heat was zapping my energy and well I'm a bit sore (the treadmill remember!) so I took the MRT back to Chinatown to do a second round of shopping. I had seen things the day before but was hesitant to buy and I had to go back to the antique shop to sort out shipping the chinese window screens. Before getting to the shops I popped into an internet store b/c i needed a printer (starbucks has a lot of things but a printer is not one of them). After being turned away from the first internet shop (no free computers) the second one had one station for me. I now know what seemingly half of the children in this country do on the weekends. They partake in online gaming for hours if not days.
I was able to sort out the screen shipping and since they're going in a cubic meter crate on a ship I was actually able to send the other items I bought in the same crate. That was a real stroke of luck b/c I was nervous about the regular mail.
I wanted to go from Chinatown to Raffles but apparently I was under-dressed so instead I headed back to Clarke Quay and then my hostel and again fell right to sleep. The heat here is really intense and exhausting after being on my feet for 10+ hours.
Today I'm exploring orchard rd. and then I plan to indulge in a singapore sling at Raffles. Guess I'll have to break out the one decent dress I brought with me.

Singapore

2008-05-02T21:38:00.002-04:00

I made it to Singapore without a problem. I'm staying at the YMCA International at the start of Orchard Rd. which has really turned out to be a very central and convenient location. Another plus is it has a gym and a pool. The treadmill and I are getting reacquainted. I need it far more than it needs me!

I got into Singapore around 8pm so didn't do much other than find the free wifi at starbucks.
On my first full day I decided to head out and explore Chinatown. Seeing as the Chinese make up over 75% of this country it's a considerable sized neighborhood. My mom has a friend who used to live in Singapore so armed with her recommendations and my guidebook I started the day at the quasi department stores exploring asian furniture and art as well as other handicrafts. At the back of one of the buildings I found a large food court and since I was hungry for lunch I surveyed the scene and chose the stall with the longest line. I also checked out what the people in the surrounding tables seemed to be eating and it looked alright though until I started chatting with two business men behind me I didn't actually know what I might end up with in my bowl. Turns out it was a noodle curry with chicken and tofu and fish cakes. Fueled up I headed for the little streets and alleyways of Chinatown to explore more antique vendors and other small shops. I found a few window screens (you know the wood carved ones that the Chinese would back with rice paper) from the Ching dynasty era that if I can figure out how to ship will be mine very soon! After the markets I explored a building called People's place which has vendors of everything locals might need from jewelery to rice cookers to foot reflexologists. I stopped in for a badly needed pedicure and an hour later (yep...flip flops for two month will do that to you) I made my way to Clarke Quay for dinner. Clarke Quay is a very developed area of the riverfront with shops and tons of restaurants. Unfortunately the options were all very americanized or fancy, neither of which I was interested in. So, I headed over to Boat Quay, further down the river. I wasn't sure how far it was so I decided to take a rickshaw even if just for the experience. I haggled him from $10 to $5 but then when he didn't have change for me he started yelling at me to give him the $10. I mean screaming at me. Luckily I was saved by a spanish couple passing by who broke my $10. Maybe I should have just given him the $10 but really the screaming put me off. After dinner at Boat Quay in an indian restaurant recommended by mom's friend I headed home on the MRT and passed out.

Today I'm off to explore Little India.

Australian finale

2008-05-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that the past week will be one of the most memorable of my trip. It is certainly a great note on which to be leaving Australia. I spent the week aboard the Nimrod Explorer diving on the Great Barrier Reef and Osprey Reef. Simply put, the diving, the group of passengers and the crew were all amazing. I talked about this after the Turks & Caicos liveaboard but the mix of people is key to having a good experience while stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean for a week. I lucked out! My trip was actually a combination of two itineraries and mid-week a number of the passengers turned over. There was, however, a core group of 6 of us that were on for the entire week. The six consisted of Adam, a 35 year old American whose fiance had given him this trip as a gift (note to self: find a fiance who would do the same!), Ryan, a 25 year old Canadian (ahh yes I do ask myself when these things will stop!), Jenni and Klaus, a Danish couple in their late 20s and Line (“Lena”), a 30 year old Danish woman and also my roommate. The 6 of us just really clicked and while we were in buddy pairs we basically dove together in a small group for the majority of the week.

Overall the GBR was spectacular but I was surprised at the almost lack of small fish life at a number of sites. I say this as a comparison to say Fiji or Bonaire. A few spots were just chocked full of critters to see and explore but the hard coral and underwater structures here are a major part of the attraction. I haven't actually looked on a map to see just where we dove but the trip was split between the GBR and Osprey reef. On the GBR we dove primarily along the Ribbon Reefs and then also Cod Hole. We saw a few very rare small creatures like pygmy seahorses and mantis shrimp. We also saw some amazing large life like a few manta rays, and 4 or 5 sleeping turtles that were bigger than any I've ever seen before. We dove a site with heaps of sea snakes and then one with dozens of huge potato cod. Osprey was roughly 110 (I think) nautical miles from the reef so we had a few nights of steaming out in the rocky ocean waters. The night out and the night back were really tough on a few folks and many had troubles sleeping...thankfully not myself. A true navy brat I am! Osprey is not technically part of the GBR but is equally spectacular and known for its sharks. We did a shark “attract” there and actually had an oceanic white tip come in. I learned after the fact that they are responsible for the most human fatalities. Really, the sharks were entirely uninterested in us so while the pics are potentially fear-inducing it wasn't bad from behind the camera.
Hopefully the pictures do both sites justice.
I almost forgot, I decided to get my PADI Advanced Open Water certification while on the boat. Technically now I can go 30 feet deeper than before but really it doesn't change that much. I just felt that if people with 20 dives are AOW certified then with nearly 100 I should be too. I had to pay for the cert so as one instructor put it, PADI = Put Another Dollar In.

Getting back to the people on the boat, the crew consisted of a skipper, an engineer, 2 dive instructors a cook and a hostess. The instructors were a funny Irishman and a totally insane Englishman. I've realized that every boat has to have one nutty instructor to keep things fun and Dan was that guy. Everyone else was Australian. The crew work 2 weeks on and 1 week off and at the end of our week the skipper, the engineer and Dan, the instructor, had the week off. They invited the 6 of us to meet them out at the bars on Tuesday night when we got back on land and then the engineer invited us over to his house for what would be a 7 hour long bbq on wednesday afternoon. I thought I would just be bumming around Cairns for two days before leaving for Singapore so this was just awesome.

Line and Ryan decided to join me at the hostel I had pre-booked and because Ryan had been driving the country in a van he was able to drive us to the bbq.

As I travel the thing I dislike the most is how I will meet someone, enjoy a few hours with them and then never see them again. This crew however is really a group I plan to keep in touch with. For example, Ryan is a triathlete and he has an ironman in Nice in mid June and since I already am planning to be in France at that time we are hoping to meet up. Before anyone's mind goes racing...he's gay.

Now it's off to Singapore for 4 nights before meeting Jess and Lindsey in Vietnam.

And then there was one

2008-04-21T23:57:00.003-04:00

I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning and this afternoon (really in just a few minutes) I have to head to the offices of the liveaboard I will be diving on for the next week.

I'm sorry that my tight schedule today hasn't left me the time to properly write up our adventures in the Whitsunday islands or Cairns but I have loaded almost all of the pics so you can imagine it for now.

I'll be mia for a week now...back on land on what is the 28th in the states.

Pictures

2008-04-17T22:31:00.002-04:00

In case you caught the last blog post before all of the corresponding pics were uploaded I thought I'd let you know that they're up now.

Movin on up....the east coast

2008-04-17T04:04:00.001-04:00

At our homestay in Bellingen we met two other couples that had been in the area for a few days. Over breakfast they both suggested that before leaving town we should go out to the neighboring town of Dorrigo and explore the rainforest. We figured we had a few hours to spare so we followed their advice. At the Dorrigo National Park there is a “skywalk” where you can walk out over the tops of the trees. It's not for those afraid of heights. At the park we also took an hour walk through the forest to a fantastic waterfall. The cliff underneath the falls has been eroded so far the you could actually walk behind the falls. In all of the forest walks we've done the one thing that is hard to communicate is the cacophony of bird calls we hear along the way. The birds are actually a part of the experience here even outside of our windows every morning. They are so loud and colorful...nothing ike a sparrow.

After Bellingen and Dorrigo we got as far as Coolangatta at the southern tip of what's called the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast is like Florida in that it's a string of beaches with highrise condos and hotels dotting the coast.

After a night in Coolangatta our destination was Hervey Bay because the next day we would be leaving from there for our two day tour of Fraser Island. On the way to Hervey Bay we stopped off for a few hours at Australia Zoo, famous as the home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. At the zoo we got up and close with kangaroos and wallabies. I forgot to mention it but our first real kangaroo sighting was out in front of the last vineyard on our Hunter Valley tour. It was off in the distance (maybe 150m?) and the guide really wasn't keen on us getting too close. Then, as we've driven, there have been kangaroos sitting along the side of the road but as soon as we'd slow down and try to take a pic they'd run off...very skittish. SO, when we got to Australia Zoo we were initially very apprehensive about getting close to the roos for fear one would leap up and I don't know...punch or kick us. It became quickly apparent that they are entirely used to being petted and prodded all day long. You could probably hug one and it wouldn't budge. It was the middle of the day so the roos were relaxing in the shade and conserving energy (you typically see them active at dawn and dusk). My pictures are actually kind of funny because half of them look dead but they're just all sprawled out on the ground napping. We also saw more koalas and were able to pet one. For those who are curious, kangaroos are softer than koalas. We discovered what a wombat, an emu and an echidna actually look like. The wombat we encountered was out on a walk (leash and all) of the zoo with a few of its keepers. We also took in the alligators, crocs, birds of prey, waterfoul, asian elephants and bengal tigers before getting back on the road.

In Hervey Bay we stayed at a cute B&B that would let us store our stuff and our car while we went out to Fraser Island. Before going too far I should explain a bit about Fraser Island. First, it is very large at 120km by 15km. It is made entirely of sand and an organic matter they call coffee rock which has formed from compressed sand over many years. Despite being made of sand it is covered with trees and other vegetation. The eastern rim of the island at low tide is an expansive beach which is actually the world's longest sand highway and landing strip. Across the island are many fresh water lakes (the bottoms are that coffee rock) and freshwater streams (running from the underground water table). We toured the island over two days with a group of 13 people in a vehicle that what some sort of atv equipped for sand driving. Our group was really diverse: 2 scotts (could only understand about 10% of what they said), 2 irish, 2 welsh, 3 brits, 2 italians and us. We stopped at Lake Wobby and Lake Mackenzie. Lake Wobby is interesting in that it has formed behind a huge sand dune while Lake Mackenzie is a perch lake right at the top of the island. Lake Mackenzie is the jewel of the island with gorgeous white sands and crystal clear water. The sand is actually 98% silica which makes it ideal for polishing jewelery and exfoliating your skin. Kind of funny to watch everyone on the beach scrubbing themselves down. We also visited Eli Creek, one of the largest on the island, flowing more fresh water into the ocean than the entire city of Brisbane uses in a day (what a waste!). At first the creek looks muddy but then you realize that it's actually so clear that what you perceive as mud is the sand on the bottom. Finally we drove along the coast and took in the Pinnacle colored sands and what's called Indian Head, an amazing lookout spot near the top of the island. While the sandy shores were easy driving, the roads back into the island were a different story. Sand roads and rainfall don't mix!

Back from an exhausting two days we had one more night at Hervey Bay then hit the sack because yesterday would have to be a very long 900km (11 hours with stops) drive up to the Whitsunday Islands. We saw a lot of sugar cane and little else but at least it wasn't the NJ Turnpike for hours!

Down Under

2008-04-11T21:15:00.003-04:00

First my apologies...I know it's been over a week at this point. Our days have just been very long and I'm too tuckered out to write at night. That also means another long post...

So we left New Zealand on Friday the 4th and headed for Melbourne. I wasn't quite sure just how metropolitan Melbourne would be but it was really bustling on a Friday night. My first reaction was that it felt a bit size wise like Boston but the nightlife was very much NYC. There were people young and old spilling out of bars on every corner and up every alleyway. We joined in for a drink and then explored their Chinatown (near our hotel) for dinner.

On our first full day in Melbourne we headed straight for Victoria Market in the morning. They say Victoria Market has well over 500 stalls selling everything from meat, produce, breads and cheese to clothes and art. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was HUGE and so fun to explore. It puts the Eastern Market in DC to shame. I just kept wondering how anyone ever decides which of the hundreds of vendors to buy grapes from, for example.

From Victoria we headed east a bit to the Carlton Gardens. We had met another mother/daughter duo at our hotel who were up from Sydney specifically for a flower and garden show at the Garden so we figured it must be sort of a big deal. The show certainly drew a huge crowd but admittedly it wasn't entirely what we expected. We were thinking impressive landscaping and it was more about ornate floral arrangement as well as diy gardening. We didn't stay long at the garden and from there we hopped on the free tourist shuttle around town for a quick tour and a ride to Federation Square where we wanted to pick up tickets for the evening's Australian Rules Football (“footy”) game. My guide books talks about how sports crazed Melbournians are and we figured that if footy is to them what rugby is to New Zealanders then taking in a game would be fun. It turns out that you have to buy general admission tickets (25,000 seats they set aside) at the MCG (“Melbourne Cricket Ground”) where the game was to be played. The MCG is like Fenway, just on the edge of town and an easy walk/tram ride away. We headed over, settled into a few seats and were slowly surrounded by both Carlton and Essenden fans. Both teams come from the outlying suburbs and boy do fans have strong allegiances. The MCG seats just under 100,000 and that night there were just shy of 64,000 in attendance. We asked around and got a good tutorial of the rules from a guy with his two sons and then another group of men behind us kindly helped with the play by play when there were fouls or anything really that got the crowd riled up. I won't even try to explain the rules (they're convoluted) but suffice it to say that the game if more like rugby and a bit barbaric. To add to the atmosphere we had one of those guys behind us who has a colorful thought about every umpire call or about how useless a few of the players on his team are. There's one in every crowd! The game was really long (four quarters that each ran about 30 minutes) so we left after three quarters with the score 107 to 108 and were just happy to have caught a good game. Never mind that one team ran away with it in Q4.

On our second day we arranged a tour of The Great Ocean Road. It's a road that starts about 100km outside of Melbourne and runs along the southern coast of the country. Along the way we saw Victorian koalas (larger and not friendly at all) up in the trees. We were able to spot them because apparently lots of dead gum trees is a sign of koalas in the area as they eat gum tree leaves, stripping every last one from the tree before moving on. We also saw our first kangaroo jumping along the road. No pics of it though as the guide didn't even slow down for it. Kangaroos are the equivalent of deer to aussies. We started at 7:30 am and by the afternoon we had reached the famous Twelve Apostles sandstone formations on the coast. We sprung for the helicopter ride and it was worth all 7 minutes. We also visited the famous Loch Ard gorge and London Bridge. Check out the picks in flickr. In total we were on the road for 14 hours...quite a day and I'm thankful we weren't driving!

On our last day in Melbourne we putzed around Brunswick St. (Melbourne's East Village if you will) and then checked out the modern Southpark (shops and restaurants downtown on the river). At Southpark I found a piece of Aboriginal art that I really loved and of which I am now the proud owner. It was interesting to learn that there are a few artists who command quite a bit and have become very famous.

Overall I certainly could have spent more time in Melbourne and if this was a destination vacation it would be on my list. It's just the perfect size to explore on foot with a bit of bigger city flare.

From Melbourne it was off to Sydney. Everyone had told us to not spend much time in Sydney because it's just a big city. We followed that advice and had just 1.5 days there. We stayed in “The Rocks” district which is right up by the Harbor Bridge and a short walk to Circular Quay (their ferry marina) and the Opera House. We were really fortunate to find a cute place above one of the most famous pubs in the area, the Australian Hotel. While the location was great I would only recommend this place during the week, weekends would be too loud and rowdy. Freda, the woman who does breakfast and housekeeping etc was so lovey and let us do laundry in her machines. We love people like her!!!

We started our first day in Sydney with a walk across the Harbor bridge. It had been downpouring all night but the sun came out in the morning just for us. The views back to the opera house and downtown were lovely. From the bridge we meandered through the streets of The Rocks and then took a ferry out to Manly beach. Most of you will have probably heard of Bondi beach. Manly is slightly smaller but still good for surfing and you get to take the ferry and see the harbor on the way there versus driving on land to Bondi. Back at our hotel we hung out in the parlor room and befriended a lovely English woman from York.

On our second morning in Sydney we toured the Opera House and were even able to catch the symphony rehearsing. Quick trivia: the opera house is THE most recognizable building in the world (they say 2/3 of people can identify it). In the afternoon we picked up our rental car and started the drive north up the coast.

Our first stop would be Hunter Valley but we took a little detour to the site of ancient aboriginal carvings. There is a huge slab of rock not far off the road and the national parks have set up a walkway with descriptions of the carvings. I find this type of thing to be simple yet SO interesting.

Hunter Valley is a huge wine producing region in Australia and has over 100 vineyards. We booked a tour just as we had done in New Zealand and tasted six different wineries over the course of the day. While the region is best known for its Shiraz and Semillon, each winery presented us with a full range of both whites and reds. I won't go into the details by label but again we have a great case headed back to the states! What didn't fit is in the trunk of our car. Restaurants here are very frequently byo.

Until we reach Fraser island which is a few 100km north of Brisbane we won't really be spending more than a night in one place, We left Hunter Valley headed for a town called Bellingen. Along the way we stopped in at a Koala hospital. The hospital is a non profit and at the moment they have a number of patients with chlamydia (apparently a big problem among koalas), a number of blind koalas injured by car accidents, a few orphans and a couple that are just getting old (arthritic etc.). Bellingen turned out to be a really really cute town. It has the charm of a small rural town but clearly serves the brisbane and sydney weekenders. We found another guesthouse which is the type of accommodation we are really starting to love.

We head further north again today so that's all for now!

Mountains, Valleys and Shores

2008-04-02T02:12:00.001-04:00

I left off last time in the rainy weather of Nelson. Luckily our second day in Nelson was a big improvement over the first b/c we spent the entire day up in the Abel Tasman National Park. On the way to Abel Tasman (AT) we stopped off in Motueka for their weekly market (a few great finds there) and to make a water taxi reservation for up in AT. The AT park has a long trail running N to S not far from the coast that spans the entire length of the park. If you're a serious backpacker it takes 3-4 days to complete the entire walk. For the more average tourist there are aqua taxi companies that will take you up the coast to any of the bays and then you walk back down the trail to a more southern bay or all the way back to Marahau, the village at the base of the park. I've uploaded photos already of the aqua taxi experience which I swear must only happen in NZ. They pull the boat from the offices on a trailer behind a tractor. Then the tractor drives into the ocean but since it's fairly shallow water for a ways the tractor drives out much further than seems right. Eventually the boat slides off the trailer and off you go. So we took the taxi up to Barks Bay, along the way passing Pinnacle Island where there is a colony of seals. At the Bay the taxi backs up to the shoreline and if you've got a long stride and good timing you can leap off without getting wet. If not you take off your shoes to get off. From Barks we walked about 2.5 hours south to Torrent Bay. Since we had to meet the last taxi of the day in Torrent and we had 3 hours to get there we didn't mess around. It had rained so much in the days prior that it felt like a rainforest along most of the trail. About midway there was a huge suspension bridge. On the water taxi ride back to Marahau the driver drove past the famous Split Apple Rock. It's a huge, nearly perfectly spherical rock that's just landed in the middle of one of the bays and is split down the middle. It looks a bit like pacman. As with the pancake rocks, no one knows how it got there. All in all we both really loved the hike and the whole day's experience.

The day after our AT hike we drove east to the fishing village of Picton. We made it just in time to find a hotel for the night (we didn't have a reservation b/c the weather was so bad in Nelson that we weren't sure whether we'd want to stay or leave...we left) and then rush off to the Queen Charlotte sound cruise. The cruise we booked was with the Beachcomber company, which has the only contract for delivering mail and other goods to the permanent residents in the sound. There are hundreds of homes scattered about but only 5% of them are permanent residents. Along our tour we'd pull into bays and deliver/pick up mail from these folks. It was clear after a few stops that the average person/family living out in the sound is not so average after all. One guy was a single man, living alone, building a home that is now on the market for $4.8m. Another was a couple, aptly described as humble, that met our boat in their row boat and then our captain told us they have only left their home three times in the last 30 years! Along the 4 hour tour we were also extremely lucky to have two separate big schools/pods of bottlenose dolphins come up and swim in the wake of the boat. They were jumping and having a grand old time. The couple next to us on the boat were from Aukland and we spent half the tour just chatting with them about the country (healthcare to politics to schooling). The husband was upset to hear that we weren't going to be visiting Aukland b/c they were anxious to show us around. One of the guys I was chatting with around the pool in Fiji told me that I would find two long lost friends in NZ, meaning that the people are just so friendly. I think this Aukland couple embodied what he was talking about.

On our second day in Picton we actually went on a tour of the Marlborough (the name of the NE region) wineries. A tour bus picked us up at 9:30 and we headed south a bit to Blenheim, the town at the heart of wine country. We were joined by two other couples (one from Belgium and one from Sydney). The driver was really well versed in the region and always had answers to our questions. One bit of info that we found particularly interesting was that the wine business hinges entirely on backpackers who work seasonally in order to pay for their travels. Apparently every year there are enough of them to help run the picking and the pruning (many vineyards are still hand picked for quality). He has also learned over the years which wineries most tours enjoy so I feel like we probably got to see the best of the region. The region really only produces white wine and pinot noir. Their sauvignon blancs put them on the map and the pinot gris and gewurztraminers are also really good. For anyone reading this who might want to know exactly which wineries we visited and my reviews(note I'm an amateur white wine drinker so beware)...here goes:
-Drylands (owned by Constellation brands). 1.4m cases/year. Average across the board with one really unique Ice wine (Selaks brand)
-Cloudy Bay (owned by Louise Vuitton (LVMH)): 180k cases/year. They put Sauv. blanc on the map. readily available in the USA. We really liked both of their Pelorus brand sparkling wines (one called “NV” and one called “Vintage 2004.” The vintage had more pinot and less chardonnay)
-Huia: 15k cases. This was our favorite cellar door. The woman behind the counter was an extremely well versed sommelier. Their Pinot Gris was amazing, very full bodied (this coming from an oaky white or red drinker).
-Mahi: Everything here was fermented entirely in oak barrels and you could taste the diff. We liked the whole range from sauv. blanc to pinot noir.
-Spy Valley: 120k cases. the consensus was their wines are average. They did, however, have a very unique “'07 Noble Chardonnay” dessert wine that we really liked.
-Seresin: the only totally organic winery in the valley. We loved their chardonnay, very oaky. They also make olive oil that was great. Their winery puppy came out to greet us. I went to take a picture of him and he charged the camera and jumped all over me...so cute.
-Kathy Lynskey: 6k cases. With the exception of Huia's pinot gris, this winery took the cake for the day. Their sauv. blancs have won so many awards it's ridiculous and their pinot gris was one of the best of the day as well.
-Bouldevines. They had both a Pinot Blanc (the only one in the valley) and a Pinot Rose that we thought were very interesting. The rest was average.

SO...we have a case being shipped back to the USA. White wine drinkers...SPEAK UP!!!

Today is a very relaxed day with nothing planned. We walked a long trail out into the sound this morning that had terrific views and we've spent all morning and early afternoon on our balcony overlooking the harbor, watching the interisland ferries come and go.

As always I hope everyone is doing well. Keep the comments coming and remember the pics are on Flickr (link to the right).

Compromise

2008-03-31T06:38:00.002-04:00

Sadly I am giving up my attempts to include photos in my blog text. It just takes too long b/c the pictures I take are such large files. My compromise is that in Flickr I will title each of the pictures to clearly indicate what you're looking at. So, just click on the Flickr link over there on the right and select any given organized set.

I owe you another NZ update which will hopefully come tomorrow night. Needless to say we are still having a great time.

New Zealand

2008-03-30T16:04:00.003-04:00

Photos from our stay so far in New Zealand are up on Flickr (link to the right)!

At Last

2008-03-29T04:57:00.001-04:00

I have finally! uploaded my Fiji pics to Flickr and I will try to also intersperse choice photos into my entries below soon. Pics from NZ are also on their way.
Enjoy!

Kiwiland

2008-03-29T04:54:00.004-04:00

I enjoyed my second and last day at the hostel in Nadi (read: sunny day by the pool meeting interesting people). On Tuesday though I was off to Christchurch on the southern island of New Zealand. Surprisingly and happily I was greeted by my mother at the airport. Immediately I got my first taste of driving on both the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness we rented an automatic...shifting with your left hand was beyond our realm of imagination plus remember...i can't drive stick. We had a few scares and moments of confusion making our way into the city and to our hotel but we made it. I didn't get in until the evening so I got the driving tour of Christchurch, we had dinner at a pizza place with the most bizarre topping combinations and called it a night.

On our first full day in Christchurch we hit the pavement hard. It was a dry but dreary, cold day...quite a change from Fiji where I swear I was sweating 24/7. We found a great little cafe for breakfast (Cafe Stir). We actually liked it so much that we went back for the subsequent two days as well. Then we meandered around the city discovering Victoria Sq. where the Avon river runs picturesquely through town. Continuing west we meandered into the city's botanical gardens. The gardens were absolutely lovely. The highlights for us were the rose garden and both the orchid and begonia exhibit in the conservatory. Considering that it is fall down here the number of plants in bloom was impressive. It is also national potato month or some such thing so there was an exhibit on potatoes. Apparently something like 95% of NZers eat potatoes and around 60% of them eat 4-5 servings per week. Clearly Atkins never caught on here! We exited the gardens right at the corner of what is called the City Art center. City Art occupies what once was the campus of Canterburry Univetsity (it has since moved to the suburbs) in very traditional british looking buildings. The City Art complex houses resident artists, a variety of art shops, multiple cinemas and cafes. I was hoping to find incredible art but wasn't moved by anything I came across. The majority of the goods were wool, wood or pottery based. Nevertheless we spent a good bit of time exploring the complex. From City Art we walked to the central Cathedral Square and toured the Anglican Christ Church. After a little more time exploring the downtown we settled into a glass of wine and cheese by the river as a prelude to dinner and the end of our day.

Having pretty much exhausted the city of Christchurch, on day two we drove east out onto Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa. The day was beautiful as was the drive. We met our fair share of hairpin turns and were constantly distracted by herds of sheep in the pastures and clinging to the cliffs along the road. Gone are the days of thousand of sheep being herded across the road (mom was really hoping for this) but we were taken with them nevertheless. I stopped the car countless times hoping for a good shot before these extremely skittish creatures were scared off by just the beeps of my camera.

Akaroa itself is a pretty seaside village where locals are known to vacation in the summer. We indulged in a great fish & chips lunch and explored the little local shops but overall we'd say that it's no Cabot Cove. The drive was really the highlight of the day rather than the end destination.

In Fiji I had been told that when driving around the south island we should really move in a clockwise direction b/c the pulloffs are all on the coastal side of the road or the left side (where they drive) when moving clockwise....am I making sense? Since we had made all of our reservations moving counterclockwise we made a flurry of phone calls and changed everything when we got to Christchurch. Thank goodness we're just out of the high season or I'm not sure we could have been so flexible. Having made these changes we headed west through the mountains and over Arthur's Pass. It was remarkable how much drier the east side of the mountains was than the west. We were also taken by the variety of farm animals (or at least animals being farmed) along the road. They included cows, sheep, pigs, alpacas, deer, elk (oddly enough we saw pens of them) and goats. At the summit of Arthur's Pass we took a break for about an hour long hike up to what was a gorgeous set of falls streaming out of the mountain.

In the mountains the low brake fluid level warning came on in our car so when we reached the west coast we were delayed by having to switch out cars at the Hertz office. Back in business we headed north up the coast towards Westport where we would be staying for the night. The road and the coastline reminded us a lot of a mix between California's Hwy 1 and the volcanic mountains of HI. Along the way we stopped at Punakaiki (pancake rocks), an interesting piece of the shoreline where the wind and waves have eroded the limestone rocks so that they look like stacks of pancakes. According to the signs, no one is sure why this phenomenon has occurred. At Punakaiki we also got really excited b/c we thought we had finally spotted a kiwi bird. We were hooting and hollering in the car only to find out that what we had seen was a wiki, the short billed cousin of the kiwi, also known as a woodhen. We're still on a hunt for the mysterious bird!

Finally we reached Wesport and checked into our homestay. Both mom and I were really looking forward to this night in the home of locals. Jan and Ian, the couple who own the home, rent out their two guest rooms and that night we were the only guests. They recommended a local pub/restaurant, Denniston Dog, where we went for dinner. They only had availability at the bar so that's where we ate. The evening was really the best local flavor we've had so far. The Canterbury Crusaders were playing the Wellington Hurricane and the bar was rather full. I'm talking of course about rugby, THE national sport. A man at the bar helped me to a lesson in rugby and we eventually caught on enough to enjoy it. After dinner we stayed up chatting with Ian and Jan then retired for the night.

This morning we got up early and started our drive to the town of Nelson. We made it in time to enjoy the large local market. We experienced our first meat pie (think portable pot pie) and then meandered around the rest of town. Unfortunately it has been raining for the last two days and it's pretty chilly here so after seeing the downtown sites we checked into our hotel, booked our plans for the next few days (a harbor tour and a day of wine tasting) then headed for a seafood spot right on the water. As I write this we are just relaxing and enjoying the rainy yet lovely view.

Sorry for the long post. Wireless hasn't been as prevalent as I might have expected but I will do my best to stay more up to date with things.

Hope you're all well!

Vinaka "Thank you" Fiji!

2008-03-23T19:07:00.006-04:00

Today I'm writing to you from a hostel back in Nadi, one of the major cities on the main island of Viti Levu. I flew in yesterday, Easter Sunday, checked into my room and had the cab driver wait to take me into the downtown area before the shops would all close. Unfortunately, today, Monday, is a public holiday here and believe it or not even fewer shops are open than yesterday. After browsing the downtown strip the cab driver took me to the curry house where the locals eat. It's just on the edge of town and is less than half the cost of the spot in town. I bought him lunch ($4) as a thanks for the local tip. I suppose I should mention that half of the population here is indo-fijian. The indians came in the 19th century as laborers on the primarily sugar cane fields and then never left.

Backing up...I left off my last post sick as a dog. Luckily I was out of commission for just the one day and then it was back to diving on Wed and Thurs. Both days we encountered a pretty strong current underwater and so we did drift dives. On one hand, when the current is strong the soft coral and fish are out to feed but on the other hand, when you're flying by everything it's difficult to take pictures or really look closely for small things. All in all the diving lived up to my high expectations and I can't wait to see how it compares to the great barrier reef.

On Wed the resort brought in an authentic wood mask carver. One of my goals for this trip is to accumulate a lot of art for that home I will have again some day so I had him make me one in a darker wood. Now that I am in Nadi and see what is being sold to tourists I am so thrilled I had one hand made by a local.

Friday was our big outing day b/c we weren't diving. Florentina, Judy, Darcy, Bryant (my crew) and I ventured to the other side of the island to a village called Lavena. The first 30 minutes of the cab ride were on a sealed road but the hour after that was on a drit road and wow was it a bumpy ride in a van without shocks. When we got to the village we set out on kayaks down the coast to an inlet that was unreachable by foot. Now I rowed on the crew team in college but that kayak trip was immensely more difficult that I imaged it would be. We were in double kayaks and frankly my other half wasn't the most able body but we eventually made it. We left the kayaks on the shore and hiked a bit to a triple waterfall (one on top of the other). It was just absolutely beautiful...everything you'd imagine a fijian waterfall to be.

Bryant was the first brave sould to climb up and jump off but I folowed after him and for some reason our guide took me to an even higher platform for jumping. After convincing myself that I could jump out far enough to not kill myself on the rocks below I went for it. SO FUN.

We swam around a bit longer and then went back to the kayaks. From there we paddled back up the coast to another inlet with a waterfall. It appeared to be only one waterfall but once we swam in there was a second fall hidden off to the side.

We left the kayaks at the second falls and then hiked along a 5k trail back to the village. We crossed a neat suspension bridge and our guide pointed out birds, plants etc. along the way. We were totally beat by the end of our trip but had such a great time.

The rest of my scuba group, Darcy and Bryant all left on saturday afternoon. I had a massage to work out the kinks from the day before and then made a few new friends. A peace corps volunteer couple along with an Austrian kid and a Korean guy staying on another island had all checked in. That night the new group of folks and I decided to go to the late night Easter mass down at the catholic mission. It started at 9pm and went for THREE whole hours. I couldn't believe it really. It was all in Fijian so I had no clue what they were saying. There were thousands of Fijians there including very young kids and at the times when we all lit candles it was beatufil. I couldn't help but notice how well behaved all the kids were throughout the whole thing and how they all managed to stay awake. The peace corps couple told me that at school they are very strict with the kids (a class of 50 second graders entirely silent for example...imagine that Lesley!) and that Fijians never sleep because it's cooler at night.

Sunday I left early for Nadi and that brings me full circle. I am just hanging out around the hostel today (it's actually very nice...two pools) and I leave tomorrow for New Zealand. I am meeting my mom there.

Hopefully I will fill in pics soon. They've got DSL here but no wireless so I can't get my own computer online.

Taveuni

2008-03-17T18:45:00.003-04:00

The island I am staying on, Taveuni, is known as the Garden Island. I wish I was able to post pictures but take my word for it, this island is incredibly lush and beautiful. The people here are equally as lovely and friendly. "Bula" is their word for Hi, Welcome etc. It's a bit like Aloha. Everywhere we have been greeted with a Bula and a big smile.

I didn't know much about the group that I am traveling with but so far I am really enjoying their company. In addition to the 8 of us, there is a couple on their honeymoon who is on our dive boat. They've been a lot of fun and have joined us for all of the non-diving activities (more on that later).

So our trip includes 5 days of diving with 2 dives/day. We head out on the boat at 8:30 and return to the resort around 1. After lunch, our afternoons are ours to either go shore diving or explore other island attractions. While I'm here to do lots of diving I have opted to just do the 2 dives each day.

On our first day here (Saturday) we didn't actually dive but 3 of the other women and I decided to just take a walk and see what we could discover. Along the road we were greeted by tons of kids who just came to check us out.

We eventually passed through a shopping area (i.e. two stores) and then found ourselves at the historic Wairiki Catholic Mission. I had read about the mission in my guidebook but had no idea it was so close. The mission is also home to a boys boarding school and nearly every boy was out on the field playing rugby. The mission and the field with the backdrop of the water was just gorgeous. I plan to go back for Easter Sunday mass. I've been told that the singing is just incredible.

On Sunday morning I went for a walk/run around 6:30 and since mass at the mission begins at 7:00 there were countless families walking down the road, in their finest, carrying branches and flowers to church. As always they broke into huge smiles once I offered up a Bula. Sunday also seems to be the day for kids to be out and about. I ran into a girl that we had seen the day before on our walk (probably 2 miles from where I first saw her). It's just refreshing to see kids out playing and wandering around.

Sunday was our first day of diving. I have been very anxious to see just how different the South Pacific is from the Caribbean and wow I was not disappointed. The colors here are just amazing and the variety of fish and soft coral that I have never seen before is incredible. I think I referred to Bonaire as God's fish tank…I spoke too soon. My new camera housing has been working well and I'm afraid you'll just have to wait for pictures to really understand what I'm talking about. I think this is about as good as it gets though in terms of diving around the world.

I, along with two other women and the newlyweds have been keeping busy in the afternoons. On Sunday we hiked up to a set of natural waterslides. Sunday is THE day to go to the waterslides because they are packed with local kids. These waterslides are essentially a series of waterfalls and rock chutes that have been worn down over time by the water. The newlyweds and I were the only ones brave enough to have a go so we managed our way to the top amid lots of looks and laughs from the kids. I should insert here that next to no one, including kids wears shoes here so they are extremely adepts at scaling the rocks….as tourist we were not so graceful. The waterslides weren't too bad on our backsides but at one point I took a bit of a spill and dinged up my elbow.

On Monday afternoon we went on a "village tour." We weren't sure what to expect but they took us to the village of Duivosavosa where the chief's family has a compound of houses. The chief's family demonstrated broom and basket making as well as mat weaving. They also showed us how they build and cook in earthen ovens (a man's job I should note) then served us three different dishes derived from the taro plant. From there we saw how they produce coconut milk and cream in which they cook prawns. Finally they brought us back to a sort of central hut where they made the traditional drink, kava, for everyone. Now everyone had tasted kava on our first night at the resort and had concluded that it tasted pretty gross so I declined to partake in it again. Apparently if you drink enough kava you can have a pretty interesting experience…it's a bit of a halucinogen. After the kava there was dancing and a then they performed a goodbye song with guitars.

The one unfortunate event so far is that I seem to have come down with strep throat. On Monday I woke up with a soar throat but I attributed it to the a/c in my room. I got really chilled after our first dive and then probably stupidly decided to dive the second dive as well. When I got back to the boat I was physically shaking, teeth chattering…the whole bit. I warmed back up on land and made it through the village tour that afternoon but all night I felt pretty horrible. This morning I felt 75% but my throat was still killing so I decided to forgo diving (very upset about that) and took a trip to the local private doctor. She took one look at me and handed over the antibiotics. I had to laugh though because her sign said "Children $10, Adults $15, Tourists $50." At least the meds were only $10. As I write this I am feeling better and at least I will likely nip it in the bud before any infection moves up into my ears. I am not having any problems clearing so hopefully I'll be back in the water tomorrow.

Briefly

2008-03-14T21:07:00.002-04:00

It was a long couple days of traveling but I'm happy to say that I made it to Fiji and the island of Taveuni in one piece and with all of my luggage. I took a little 15 seater puddle jumper from Nadi on the main island to Taveuni with a stop in between at Savusavu. It was a wonderful aerial tour of the country and a great way to start my vacation. I have amazing photos already but here's the bad news. My resort only has one terminal and even it is running on dial up. Needless to say you won't be hearing much from me and pictures will have to wait. sorry.

Going out with a BANG!

2008-03-12T23:21:00.005-04:00

I'm all packed and ready to go. I am rather proud to say that I fit all 5 months of gear in this backpack. Well, my scuba gear has its own bag but still...impressive if I do say so myself.
I've got a flight to LA in the morning and then an 11, yes 11, hour layover before I leave for Fiji tomorrow night.

This evening I received some VERY exciting news. An admissions officer from Kellogg (Northwestern's b-school) called to tell me that I have been ACCEPTED! WOO HOO!!
Could this phone call have come on a more opportune night?...I don't think so. Kellogg has a great real estate school that I am very excited about. Also, knowing where I will be going when I get back from this trip is only going to make it that much sweeter.

Just call me Aunt Meghan

2008-03-09T08:58:00.024-04:00

I left off my last post about to head to a wedding. My friend Katelyn and her now husband Mark were wed at Lehigh and the reception was in NJ. Katelyn, if you're out there reading, you looked absolutely incredible! I thought the whole night was lovely and the best part was the music...I danced my little heart out!

After the wedding I got a good last minute deal from BWI to visit my friend Christi, her husband Ricardo and their two kids Hannah and Ryan down in Charlotte. Hannah is a smart, beautiful, independent, assertive and FUN 3 year old. Ryan is just the sweetest 8 month old. He's clearly got rhythm and is very talkative and was just a lot of fun to play with. With two kids the days were never dull and always full. We visited the easter bunny on one day which was a big hit for both kids.

The highlight, however, had to be a trip to this place called Monkey Joes. It's a big wharehouse space that they have filled with 6 or 7 HUGE inflatable jumping/climbing/sliding rides. You know, like the ones at carnivals that always seem to be shaped like a castle. The person who devised this business is a genius. It's $8.50/kid (up from $5 which was apparently too cheap) and parents play for free. Hannah did not stop for an hour straight. Ryan even got a kick out of the baby section. Christi and I took turns trailing Hannah, working up a sweat.

When I got back to BWI I decided to head back north to visit my friend Justine, who just had her first child, a boy named Jonas, a month ago. Unfortunately my plans were postponed by the alternator on the Explorer which chose to die right ahead of the toll plaza heading into the harbor tunnel in Baltimore. I could not have asked for a better location to break down (better than IN the tunnel!). I safely coasted to the shoulder and then waited for a few hours for a tow truck that would drive me and my car back down to Fairfax. It was an interesting ride to say the least with a guy who alternated his musical selection between Motown and Ludacris.

The next day I tried the trip again and this time was successful.
Justine is doing great, looks amazing and is a wonderful mommy. Jonas too is a happy baby and is just a big bundle of cuteness. I got lots of smiles and few little giggles. I have to admit...I think he really liked me :-) Luckily it was a gorgeous day so we got out of the house for a few hours and I got the grand tour of Ardmore, PA. I can't believe that the next time I will see Jonas he will be 6 months old!

Now I'm back in Fairfax, wrapping up all of my last minute details.
It absolutely hasn't sunk in that I will be gone for nearly 5 months.

A World Away

2008-02-29T22:33:00.003-05:00

Yep that's the white stuff coming down right outside of my apartment in NYC.

I've had a great couple of days up here. My aunt and uncle stayed in my apartment for a week and my friend Jessica and I were able to go out with them on Thursday, their last night in town. After numerous margaritas at Zarela's (the best margs in nyc in my opin) there are many incriminating pictures. If you're lucky I will share later.

I've got a wedding in NJ tomorrow so this is my last day/night in the city for a very long time. boo hiss :-(

Pictures of Bonaire have been posted

2008-02-26T12:36:00.004-05:00

What an adjustment I've had to make to the dreary, cold weather back in Fairfax. The first day home I thought what? I have to put on pants and a sweater? Send me back to the Caribbean!!!

I just finished loading and organizing my pictures into Flickr. I hope you enjoy. I only rented the camera for one day and tried to pack in as much as possible by doing four dives that day. The highlight was definitely the hawksbill turtle swimming up close to the boat.

My friends from spinning have informed me that I need to post more frequently. I will try my best!

I mailed off my broken housing to Ikelite yesterday and my fingers are crossed that they will agree the damage was not due to user error. I have reinvested in the Canon A720IS since they no longer make the A710. I have been really happy with the quality of my pictures even without using a strobe light so I figure I shouldn't fix what isn't broken...well figuratively since literally yes it is broken!

Bonaire

2008-02-24T23:48:00.001-05:00

Once again I find myself typing away in an airport. I am starting this as my 10 hour layover in San Juan nears its end. I was actually able to store my luggage and spend a few hours in Old San Juan today and am now about to head back to VA for a few weeks.

My time in Bonaire was extremely enjoyable. For the sake of honesty, I have to say that I did not enjoy it as much as Turks (I'll get into why) but nevertheless it was a fantastic trip.

My local dive shop put this trip together and just over 30 people were in tow. I'm pretty sure I never met all 30 but I found a good core group to dive and dine with. I was in a condo with 4 other people and my roomate was the owner of the dive shop, Dave. We had one condo-mate that just annoyed everyone and he was unfortunately also a weak diver. The nervous nelly type which isn't good underwater. Somehow he got certified as an advanced open water diver...no one could understand that. The story of him actually brings up a good point about diving which is that when you're on a trip like this you have no really good way to judge the quality of other divers up front. Sure, everyone is technically certified but there's just a competence and comfort with diving that many people lack. Luckily, my primary buddy all week was another condo-mate, Susan. She logged her 300^th dive on this trip. I'm a strong diver but have only logged 80 or so to-date....25 of which were just last week! We were a dynamic duo and had a lot of fun through the week.

Bonaire is the “B” of the ABC islands, just off of Venezuela. It has historically been a Dutch territory but apparently it just became a Dutch a city which is expected to have a transformative impact on the island in coming years. Quick....buy that vacation home now! Dutch as well as the local language, Papiamentu, are spoken there, in addition to English. I haven't really had much exposure to Dutch but I found both it and Papiamentu to be just lovely languages.

Bonaire, not surprisingly, means “good air” because of the tradewinds it experiences. My opinion is it should have been labeled “God's fish tank.” I had read before the trip that Bonaire was considered to have one of the most well preserved reefs in the Caribbean and boy they weren't kidding. It's difficult to communicate what that means but essentially it was chocked full of soft coral that was all very much alive and there was a plethora of small marine life. I saw a slew of small fish such as spotted drums and juvenile trunk fish as well as a ton of juvenile and adult morrays. To contrast it with the large life I saw in Turks, we only saw two turtles and one stingray this week. Bonaire is very strict and takes distinct measures to ensure divers will not touch and destroy their reefs. I had to do a checkup dive to demonstrate that I could control my buoyancy and I had a whole orientation to the reef and the marine park before I could dive. They also do things like prohibit the wearing of gloves b/c of the temptation to touch the reef that comes with gloves. Clearly their efforts have paid off. When I get settled at home I'll post my pics to flickr...check back soon.

Along the west coast of Bonaire, the reef begins roughly 20-30 yards from the shore. As a result, most of our diving was shore diving versus boat diving. I admit I had been spoiled on the liveaboard but shore diving is an onerous process (schleping gear and tanks all over and setting up in the back of a pickup) and part of what influenced my overall opinion of the trip. There is a small uninhabited island called Klein Bonaire just off the west coast that you need a boat to get to but you could dive three times a day for two weeks just by shore diving. Our resort rented trucks and of course they were all stick. I had a few lessons on stick way back when and I conceptually understand it but luckily we had enough drivers and cars that there was always someone for me to join. Everyone boasts about how much freedom you have to dive whenever and wherever you want in Bonaire. Of course it's my own fault but I didn't share that feeling.

I ended up renting a camera for a day and packed in as many pics as possible. Underwater, the best photography is taken from one arm's length away so while I have tried to capture the underwater world in Bonaire through wider shots, I acknowledge that they aren't of the highest quality. The best experience of my trip was luckilly captured on film...I mean my SD card. As I was heading back to the boat at the end of a morning dive on Wednesday, I noticed a hawks bill turtle up at the surface. Without, as they say, molesting the marine life, I headed over to take some pics of it. It turned out to be extremely friendly and literally looked me straight in the eye, just inches from my mask. They do bite so I had to be careful but I just love the pictures I got from about 10 minutes of swimminng with him/her. Check out flickr for more.

Every night after wrapping up our dives, we typically had a crew of 8 or so that headed out to dinner. For being primarilly a diver's haven, I was really impressed by Bonaire's “downtown” area. One night we had lebanese! Mid-week the couple who used to own my dive shop and who now run the photo business at our resort invited a group of us over for cocktails. It was neat to see their home and how they've successfully transitioned to island life. Their 25 year old daughter actually moved to the island first and married a Bonairian.

In the end, Bonaire is a pristine place to dive and the week was full of new experiences.

I'm back in the states for 3 weeks now, pulling together details for the next few months. I will try to keep putting something up here even if it's not travel related.

Turks and Caicos

2008-02-17T01:45:00.004-05:00

I barely know where to start. I had such an amazing week in the Turks & Caicos. It flew by and I was sad to leave.

There was a total of 19 passengers on the boat and we picked it up in the Caicos marina. 7 of the bunch were tame (ok...boring) Floridians but then there was a rowdy and hysterical bunch of 7 from NY and a few odd lots including myself who were good fun. You realize after a few days how critical the mix of people can be for the total experience of a liveaboard. Our group was just great. The crew of the boat consisted of the captain, 3 dive instructors, 2 engineers, 1 pursar and a chef. Only the captain was an American. The rest were a mix of Brits, Canadians and a Turks Islander. They all got along well which is pretty important and made our experience really enjoyable. Tim, one of the instructors, and I hit it off. Tony you were right...I met a cute guy! Certainly made the week more fun! Believe it or not, even with 26 people on board the boat never felt crowded.

Our schedule every day looked like this.

Eat
Dive 1
Snack
Dive 2
Eat
Dive 3
Snack
Dive 4
Eat
Night Dive 5
Sleep

We had the option to dive a total of 27 times and I got in 24 because I opted out on a few night dives. I have a love/hate relationship with night dives. Down in the T&C, the wind causes the boat to swing around the mooring pin along a pretty large arc so navigating back to the boat in the dark with a flashlight can be a bit disconcerting.

The health of the coral and abundance of marine life, both large and small, was extremely impressive at every single dive site of the week. We spent a few days off of Providenciales then moved to West Caicos and finally dove around an uninhabited island called French Cay.

My dive buddy for the week was Leonard, a man from the Philly area. We made a good pair between his compass skills and my sharp eye for noticing life along the reef (some people just see things and others don't). Two other men, Rob from Cleveland and Alan from Oklahoma were my other buddies when Leonard didn't dive and considering that on every dive one or the other was my backup life support, I always felt comfortable diving alongside them.

I'll spare you the details of each dive b/c honestly they start to blend together but I've posted a slew of pics to flickr for everyone to check out. I've labeled each of the pics with the fish or coral name. As a teaser I'll mention that we saw numerous spotted eagle rays, reef sharks and sea turtles throughout the week. My favorite smaller life finds were a lion fish, a juvenile and an adult spotted drum fish and an octopus (during the day).

The one very unfortunate event of the week involved my camera. The camera and housing were taking really good photos all week then on a Thursday afternoon dive I went to take a pic and basically part of my Ikelite housing fell off. I thought ok, I'll just put it back on when I get back to the boat but then looked down to realize that the housing was slowly flooding. I was down at about 40ft. and we always have to make a safety stop for 3 minutes between 20 and 10 feet. I moved up to 15ft as quickly but safely as possible but still had the 3 minutes to wait. When I got back on the boat the housing was sufficiently full that it killed my camera. Tim, who is a scuba technician, said he's never seen an Ikelite flood in the last 8 years. It's insured but needless to say I'm pretty bummed. I don't want to just rush out in my 24 hours in Miami to buy a new camera and housing so unfortunately my pics from Bonaire will have to come from other divers if I don't just rent a camera down there.

I'm in Miami right now b/c it's the only way to get from T&C to Bonaire. I'm happy to be here though b/c I get to spent a good day with Jess. I've hit up the local scuba shop and picked up a few items I have realized I will really need next week and into the future. I'm all ready to go!

2008-02-09T12:56:00.001-05:00

I lied. The bar next to my hotel in Provo has wireless and I've actually had a noteworthy 24 hours. I had to stay in a hotel last night b/c I can't board the boat until today at 3.

My first night on the island of Providenciales (one of many islands in the Turks & Caicos) far exceeded my expectations. I landed around 5 and the drive from the airport was a great insight into the island. It is far less developed than I was expecting. Nassau is verging on over-developed but the strip that the driver called the center of town was maybe five run down buildings. No market, no pharmacy...nada. When I got to my hotel I was really disoriented but eventually got my bearings and headed down the hill to Turtle Cove Marina. The cove sits about midway down the eastern side of the island. Here's a pic of the cove from my hotel.

Further south along the coast is the famous Grace Bay. Most of the resorts run along this side of the island. While checking in I ran into a Swedish woman who told me that her favorite of the few places down the road was Aqua. Following her advice that's where I headed for dinner. I sat down at the bar next to another woman who I then found out was also by herself. Kelly is an artist from Dallas and we had a good time chatting it up. After about an hour a man named Jim walked in and sat down next to us. He lives here 7 months a year and has been coming here since 1969...quite a visionary I'd say. He was just a nice older (70s?) man. I really know how to reel 'em in :-) He invited Kelly and I to breakfast at a place called Si Bonne. It's his favorite spot on the island. Seeing as I might not see any other part of the island while I'm here and Kelly would be along for the ride and...he's in his 70s! I said hey why not. I also met quite a few other locals (apparently it's their hangout) who were primarily developers on the island. The view is definitely mixed on whether living in paradise is a great thing or not.

This morning I went for a run and when I got back to he hotel this guy offered to cut down a coconut for me. How nice!

Later I met Kelly down by Aqua and we waited for Jim for nearly a half hour. He never showed and we were pretty surprised. Maybe he forgot b/c he seemed pretty excited to have our company the night before. Another younger guy was also by the road waiting for some bus but Kelly had been told that it no longer ran on a schedule. We had been told that the only real way to get around is to hitchhike. Mom don't read this part...

A man who had just dropped off his wife at the retaurant pulled down the driveway so you know me....I asked him if he'd take us up the road to Grace Bay and Si Bonne. He was happy to. 10 minutes later I discovered perhaps the most lovely shoreline I have ever seen in my life. It looked airburshed it was such a perfect color of turqoise. Below are pics of the restaurant and the shore it overlooked.

Kelly wanted to stay at the beach but i had to get back and checkout. I decided to walk out to the road and would only get in a car with a woman. Well I only had to wait two cars and a lovely woman with her 10 year old son picked me up. We stopped for another lady a few miles down the road. This is just the way things operate here. They don't expect to be paid but I gave them a few bucks.

This time it's really the end for at least another week. I'm off to the boat.

Where has the time gone?

2008-02-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the Nassau airport getting ready to head to the Turks & Caicos islands. There is so much to tell you about the last 4 days. The first is that the internet connection on the island was so incredibly painful that my pics took forever to load so i just abandoned the blog for a while...sorry.

So our superbowl plans were as expected. We joined probably 30 other guests to watch the game poolside. The crowd was clearly for NY. My opinion (if you care) is that sure NY played a better game but the better team lost.

On Monday afternoon we made our way into downtown Nassau to check out the shopping. We walked back from downtown and just before the bridge back to Paradise Island we stopped into the Green Parrot for an early dinner. It's on the harbor side of the island and the view is just great.
We didn't know that we were in for a bit of an adventure. The Green Parrot is the hot spot for boaters who have anchored out in the harbor. Well this guy who had just sailed down from FL came up and joined us for a chat. He was an interesting guy. Very friendly but we weren't quite sure what to make of him. He said he was just biding time until his ex and son came down later in the week and that if we wanted to come take out his kayaks or motor over to another smaller island he'd be happy to take us. While it sounded fun we could just see the headlines of the next day's paper: Two idiot tourists disappear...etc.
He even offered to let me crew his boat for a week's charter for free in July. That I'm still considering.
Eventually we went to pay and mom couldn't find her credit card. Slight panic ensued and we decided that we had left it at a bar the night before. So, this guy offers us a ride in his dinghy the other side of the harbor which would be much faster than walking. We took him up on it.
-view of the harbor bridges from the dinghy

We called our next day Super Fat Birthday Tuesday. Yes Mom's 30th birthday was on Tuesday and we had a great time. Took it easy all day and then went out to dinner with three other couples that we'd become good friends with. Here's the view from the restaurant.
On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning we decided to rent a car and take a trip to explore the rest of New Providence (the main island, of which Nassau is the capital). This was our lovely car.
Our first stop was the famous Graycliff's cigar factory. They make the best Bahamain cigars and Mom wanted to take a bunch back to the guy's in her office. The factory was basically a room full of desks where half a dozen cuban men were rolling away. They helped us pick out the best/most cuban-like stogies and showed us how everything works.
From Graycliff's we headed west around the end of the island. We happened upon this monument or some type of ritual grounds. Our taxi driver today told us that a local artist created the project but we still don't know much about it. Next to the carved trees which had a sign that read "Genesis" there was a "Prayer place" with tree stumps as chairs.
On the east end of the island the beaches and shoreline were just gorgeous.

After dropping off the car we ventured back into the downtown area and did some shopping which means bargaining here at the "straw market." When I was a kid they sold only straw goods here (bags etc.) but the knock off leather goods have finally made there way into the market.

I've forgotten now when we ventured over to the beaches on Paradise island but they are just beautiful and expansive so I wanted to share.

Finally, on Thursday night we got dressed up and went out to this fabulous restaurant on the main island called Luciano's. We have made good friends with another couple from Burke (Marla and Stephen) and the four of us had a great time. The restauarant is in an old home of a wealthy businessman. It sat on the harbor so again the views were just lovely.

alright i'm about to board my flight. hope you enjoyed our bahama adventures. i will be on a boat for the next week so you won't hear from me until my layover in miami on saturday.
hope you're all well!

Paradise Indeed

2008-02-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

Well we made it to the Bahamas without any trouble. We're staying at a timeshare on Paradise Island (near Nassau). Our timeshare is one of the last holdouts that hasn't sold to Kerzner's Atlantis Resort. Mom and I go for a long walk every morning and I took this today as we headed back over the bridge from the main island. I shot a little video but it seems too big to upload quickly so this pic will have to do.

So far we've had amazing weather! This time of year it should only be in the low 70s but I'm sure we've hit 80 every day with bright blue skies. With ideal conditions we've pretty much lounged by the pool everyday for a few hours.

The resort sits right on the Atlantis marina where there are just a few dinghies parked...ha!
We were impressed by this boat (10 crew, over $200k/week to charter and it sleeps 12)

until this thing rolled in yesterday.

It was quite a sight...everyone was out with their cameras. Last night we were having drinks and ceviche at a bar and a casino manager from the Atlantis happened to sit down next to us. First he got the bartender to make Mom's drink a little stronger and then he hinted that "maybe" the owner of the boat was from CA. We wish we had brought binoculars.

Here is a pic of our lovely digs....they suit us just fine and are NOT $200,000.

As I was saying before, we took a walk over the bridge this morning. On the Nassau side there are nearly 40 of these fish and conch huts/shacks where you can actually get amazing local food.

In the morning it's neat to watch the guys unloading today's fresh catch.

Tonight is the Superbowl and we're still not sure where we want to watch it. The Atlantis party is booked so we'll probably watch it poolside with our other timesharers. This might be the one day we miss the giant screen in Mom's living room.

Itinerary

2008-01-28T21:02:00.000-05:00

I keep getting this question so I thought I might just point out the link over yonder ------>>>> to my itinerary.

I visited my local, friendly infectious disease clinic today. Typhoid, HepA, Tetanus and Malaria...you've got nothing on me!
I couldn't help but wonder what a patient who's not there for travel purposes might have. Even more than that I wondered why someone (like the receptionist) would want to work in an infectious disease office. Would you?

Let's get this party started: technology!

2008-01-27T21:41:00.000-05:00

Ok I admit it, this blog idea has turned me into a little tech geek. I've acquired a few toys without which this blog wouldn't be possible so what better to share in my first post.

I started out searching for used laptops b/c I figured if something happened to it along the way I wouldn't be devastated by its loss. Craigslist had plenty to offer but they were all old and HEAVY. Packing is already going to be a challenge so I turned my search to "mini computers." Not knowing what I might find, I was excited to stumble onto reviews of Asus's EEE PC. The eee is a 2-lb, 7" screen pc run on linux. I believe it was originally designed for kids but no (Justine) it's not one of those hand-cranked ones I've seen being sent to third world countries. It's loaded with all the basics for internet access, picture and video management and word processing etc. It has a wireless LAN and all around is exactly what I was looking for. Did I mention it weights only 2 pounds! oh and it's really very cheap.

Have a look:

-that's a DVD box

This nifty computer comes equipped with a webcam. Never had one of those before!

For those interested in my camera (Annie), I'll be taking along my Canon A710IS. It's not a fancy dSLR or anything but most importantly, I was able to have an Ikelite underwater housing made for it so that I can take good underwater photography and video.