tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66900449718001294032024-03-13T14:37:27.570-07:00Boog & the Goonch Take OffSearching for perspective, we decided to go and see the world (or at least some of it).Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670514199884691628noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-83070462547030460282010-05-09T19:50:00.000-07:002010-05-09T20:11:22.350-07:00I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like ... Indonesia.I cannot WAIT to get out of this country. Okay, I tried to put a positive spin on our travels in Java and had high hopes for Bali, but jeez Louise, this place has worn both of us down and out! <br /><br />The very high point of our time in Indonesia was our time on the Gili Islands (we went to Trawangan and to Air)- they were spectacularly beautiful, the water is the clearest I have seen in my life, and the locals were really relaxed and friendly. We spent nearly two weeks reading, walking, swimming, and snorkelling there. I can highly recommend a visit if you fly right into Lombok, take a boat directly to the Gilis, and bypass Java and Bali. <br /><br />Tomorrow we fly to Singapore, (we promise not to spit on the sidewalks) and on Thursday, we return to Portland. <br /><br />This has been the most incredible adventure of my life, and I wouldn't trade anything for the experiences (the good and the not so good) we've had! See you all soon!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-82148513218476109372010-04-20T19:31:00.000-07:002010-04-20T20:23:54.485-07:00"But I need you today, oh mandi"I thought you all would enjoy that song on a continuous loop in <span style="font-style: italic;">your</span> heads. If I have to hear it constantly on my internal radio, you all should too. Share the joy, and all...<br /><br />We have been in Indonesia for 8 days and seen 4 cities and a lot of countryside. Our flight to Jakarta was uneventful, the line for immigrations was interminable (though we did end up chatting with a nice young man from Pittsburgh, a Penn State student of mathematics and Mandarin, who's been studying in Singapore for the past year and a half), the city was huge, and we only stayed overnight and left the next morning for Bogor to see the botanical gardens. The gardens were quite pretty, though not nearly as well signed as you'd think botanical gardens should be. They did have an impressive variety of bamboos, orchids, and palms. From there we took off to Bandung for just an overnight in order to catch the train to Yogyakarta. The ride was bee-you-tee-ful: up into the mountains, through verdant rice paddies and plantations, just lovely!<br /><br />Yogyakarta is supposedly the historical and cultural center of the island of Java, so we were looking forward to exploring the sights. When we arrived, we promptly got lost (between my already questionable sense of direction, the lack of street signs, the incorrect scale of our map, and our out of whack internal compasses from crossing the equator, we really didn't stand much of a chance) and spent an hour circumnavigating the train station and its surrounding neighborhoods searching for the street we wanted before giving in and relying on one of the local hotel touts to take us there. Best of all, it was only TWO BLOCKS from the train station! Anyway, we got a room and some dinner and an introduction to the batik industry for which "Yogya" is famous. Everywhere you go there are people selling batik everything. And you can't go to any of the sights without being invited to a "special gallery,<span style="font-style: italic;"> only </span>open the day you're there, the <span style="font-style: italic;">only</span> government sponsored school of batik," and so on. Between fending off these folks and the becak (bicycle trishaws) drivers, it's absolutely exhausting. We did manage a visit to the sultan's palace one day, where we saw traditional Javanese dance accompanied by a gamelan (orchestra) and some really good examples of batik in their museum. The orchestras are comprised of gongs, metal and wood xylophones, drums, and singers. Sound like an awful combo? Your would be wrong, it actually was really nice.<br /><br />The next day, we went to Borobudur, which is a 9th century Buddhist temple and a World Heritage site. It's from the same era as the temples of Angkor, but stylistically is completely different. The temple is 5 levels which rise like a stepped pyramid with a huge, central stupa. The scale is amazing! Like Angkor, all surfaces are carved, but the subjects are different, and the reliefs are much more deeply carved at Borobudur. It was, overall, mighty impressive.<br /><br />This afternoon we leave for Bali (a 15 hour bus ride and ferry combo, leave at noon, arrive at 7am tomorrow), so we will (hopefully) be able to say we spent our anniversary on Bali, sleeping off the aches associated with a long bus ride and the usual case of "bus butt" (itchy, bumpy, chicken skin on the lower cheeks- not to be confused with "crotch rot," from hiking too long in sweaty pants).<br /><br />Oh, since this is the first time we've been across the equator, here are a couple of notes: the days are getting shorter, I have no idea which direction is north, and, most importantly, the water in the sink whirls clockwise. My most scientific study involved toothpaste spit in the sink. Yes, I used the drainplug and let the foamy spit and water still before pulling the plug. And I repeated the experiment several times (one doesn't want icky breath) with the same result. And yes, I am easily amused!<br /><br />PS: mandi is Indonesian for bathroom!<br /><br />Toodles for now!!!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-46931753747406529852010-04-09T23:43:00.000-07:002010-04-10T01:09:37.788-07:00It's a zoo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitBTzgn2LUMasvRg7aoxaagG4KP9zczUu9mTsCQql6ZO489X6vMwaorPYWc3uw-jfr_MencaBhLssuMwXHsUZRRRr3OojHos-yNCaUkKoXxzTlK7mnDHV5N8qH-QAva65kO4Ok3c355o8/s1600/832411724_picture+021.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitBTzgn2LUMasvRg7aoxaagG4KP9zczUu9mTsCQql6ZO489X6vMwaorPYWc3uw-jfr_MencaBhLssuMwXHsUZRRRr3OojHos-yNCaUkKoXxzTlK7mnDHV5N8qH-QAva65kO4Ok3c355o8/s320/832411724_picture+021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458412748840495842" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSd_T3nrQRLLP72w54otIt5QassGLyAovrXCXUf0UUKiY35XKXGVz-ENXsW_tUV0FLhB9IFCKBJNSIVbhA_wegRsceQVd72-di8OuCGM4cDOzwp30VU50NHwqH6lyHeWCc3UQK09l1Es/s1600/832391670_picture+003.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSd_T3nrQRLLP72w54otIt5QassGLyAovrXCXUf0UUKiY35XKXGVz-ENXsW_tUV0FLhB9IFCKBJNSIVbhA_wegRsceQVd72-di8OuCGM4cDOzwp30VU50NHwqH6lyHeWCc3UQK09l1Es/s320/832391670_picture+003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458412735872348178" border="0" /></a><br />Formula 1 frenzy is over for the time being. Last weekend was the race at Sepang, which is about 25 miles from Kuala Lumpur. Colin went to the track Friday to watch the practice sessions, and both of us went Saturday and Sunday for qualifying and the actual race. It was quite an experience to be part of the festivities after seeing the races on television. The cars are smaller than I imagined, and the noise was DEAFENING!!! Fortunately, we both brought earplugs. Saturday, I tried (with reasonable success) to memorize the teams' car paint schemes (none of them have numbers) and drivers in preparation for the big event. This year's race was the first with no rain in its 12-year history at Sepang, and it finished without major incident or injury to any drivers. All in all, a loud, sweaty, fun weekend was had by all 97,000 spectators.<br />Since we'd already seen what we want to see of KL and had a week to kill before our flight to Indonesia, we took off on Monday for Taiping. It's a small city off the normal tourist trail, and for the first time since we arrived in Malaysia, we actually felt like strangers in a strange land (we encountered no other non-Asians during our stay). There's not a whole lot to do there besides look at the pretty Chinese storefronts and 100-plus year old government buildings, but it's really a nice, quiet, and relaxed town. Its jewel is the Lake Gardens, which were landscaped in the 1880s on an abandoned tin mine. The pair of lakes spread like fingers through the park, and the trees and flowers are beautiful! We saw many vividly colored birds, more than anywhere else, in the trees and hunting bugs in the grass as well. The real surprise was the zoo in the center of the park- we thought it would be a tiny one since we circled the outside perimeter looking for the entrance, but apparently it's in a wormhole and expands once you're inside. The zoo was pretty nice (it's not the NC zoo or the National zoo) and has mainly animals that are native to SE Asia and the subcontinent with some African lions, hippos, and rhinoceroses thrown in the mix. We were fortunate to be there during feeding hours, so everyone was out and about munching their snacks. The local troupe of macaques who live around the zoo but aren't <span style="font-style: italic;">part </span>of the zoo looked forlorn (what are we, chopped liver?!?! Oh, I guess that's the trade-off for being FREE!) when the zookeeper fed the animals in the enclosure below them<br />We're now back in GeorgeTown (yes, again!) until Tuesday, when we fly to Jakarta for the last leg of the trip (for now). We are bypassing Sumatra after all (it's raining, they just had yet another earthquake and more civil unrest in Aceh again. Call us wusses if you want, but we'd rather live to fight another day. Plus, Jakarta has a MUCH better reputation for stability- HA!). Our tentative itinerary includes Java, Bali, Lombok, and the Gili Islands, but it is subject to change with our whims.<br />We have uploaded the photos from Malacca, Kota Bharu, Kuantan, Kuala Lumpur, the Perhentians, and are working on Taiping (with a bunch from the zoo). Alas, you will need to look for Silat (the bizzarro martial art) examples yourselves- we deleted our movie (referenced in the previous blog post) in order to get photos uploaded. Anyway, toodles for now!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-69113442537101806292010-03-31T03:19:00.000-07:002010-04-09T23:43:13.546-07:00Slummin' in paradise<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU8x2gI7ONinQJu3Ai1OCgKCrM1Fa_3QeRj2gOBtIl04LyjU9s2g9zYEpF9DLd-jQCxN-UJkaGgCSDqYHNDbH9tKBAXRcr4AMAcYP5EqTgtt7O3b1pFvQ5HAcmf9T7CdjilW3qD8sdQak/s1600/830968346_picture+003.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU8x2gI7ONinQJu3Ai1OCgKCrM1Fa_3QeRj2gOBtIl04LyjU9s2g9zYEpF9DLd-jQCxN-UJkaGgCSDqYHNDbH9tKBAXRcr4AMAcYP5EqTgtt7O3b1pFvQ5HAcmf9T7CdjilW3qD8sdQak/s320/830968346_picture+003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458395094844903378" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ36rXAr2w5XYfwLF_69BVh6FXLoMU1mSFpVUrGHbQ5Y7E4Q2GTXUFOqBfTtUqob7dxy_uzvp_bBqEktzFP8FDLtbJaocRTpew4WqHY9iyr-0YM3UHHixKj8gM5oApBLu1hMZpv-vhz4Y/s1600/830968487_picture+016.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ36rXAr2w5XYfwLF_69BVh6FXLoMU1mSFpVUrGHbQ5Y7E4Q2GTXUFOqBfTtUqob7dxy_uzvp_bBqEktzFP8FDLtbJaocRTpew4WqHY9iyr-0YM3UHHixKj8gM5oApBLu1hMZpv-vhz4Y/s320/830968487_picture+016.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458395086892365202" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYMu-_uEokeUXpVbsJ_nN_W9jKpuLkpQ83_thgcmF98SdR826kOpgv8Nhfe5jWmaZrQN7_aihsOj0gVazzYerRTWC_RWpjCPV1MIg8p1k_DwwKDwlsO_PY5jdWaW9PzyHoDey4PIH0ww/s1600/830973193_picture+007.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYMu-_uEokeUXpVbsJ_nN_W9jKpuLkpQ83_thgcmF98SdR826kOpgv8Nhfe5jWmaZrQN7_aihsOj0gVazzYerRTWC_RWpjCPV1MIg8p1k_DwwKDwlsO_PY5jdWaW9PzyHoDey4PIH0ww/s320/830973193_picture+007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458395078309477282" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Last we chatted, we were in Kota Bharu. It's the very conservative, predominately Muslim, northeastern corner of Malaysia, a place with no malls, movie theaters, alcohol, or bowling. It is home to traditional Malay culture though, since the people were basically cut off from the rest of the country until fairly recently, when they built a road on the east coast. We went to the Kelantan State museum while we were there and saw an exhibit on the elaborate kites of the region. We also took in a performance that included a mock Silat fight (Silat is a Malay form of martial arts), which was one of the top ten oddest things we have witnessed. I won't try to describe it, you'll have to watch the movie when we get it uploaded. The musical accompaniment was by oboe (normally one of my favorite instruments, but in this scenario, think snake charmer, not symphony orchestra) and various drums and gongs. The oboe player was truly amazing - he could somehow play continuously without a single break in the sound- we have no idea how he did it. Before the Silat performance, another group of men played kertoks, which are drums made out of coconut husks with a wooden board attached to the top. You bang the board with a dowel wrapped in rubber bands (I got to try it, and yes, once again impressed Colin with my total lack of rhythm), and it make a lot of noise. I had fun!<br />The next day we took a speedboat the 16 miles to Pulau Kecil (Little Perhentian Island). You all would have <span style="font-style: italic;">hated</span> it! The island is really rustic- electricity by generator (our bungalows only had power from 6:30pm until 8:00am), no phones, no vehicles other than boats. There is almost no development on the island- just three sandy beaches, a few bungalows and dive shops on each, and one dirt path across the middle through dense jungle to connect them. Our bungalow was right next to the water (we would open the sliding door and watch the boats from the bed in the mornings). The water was so clear! We went snorkeling by swimming right out into the bay- we didn't even have to take a boat trip to get to live reef. The sea creatures were amazing: we saw giant clams (the clams themselves are really colorful, the shells have coral grown around them), huge parrot fish, gobies, sea cucumbers, and... NEMO (okay, his distant relations. They were clown fish and lived in anemone houses nonetheless.)! We also saw all sorts of colorful coral formations, a HUGE puffer fish, and other technicolor fish we couldn't identify.<br />As for other island fauna, our constant companions in the open cinderblock bathroom vent were a pair of tokay geckos (blue with orange spots), which we believe, accounted for the lack of mosquitoes in our bungalow. There are also monitor lizards of small to very large (5ft?) size strolling freely everywhere. The greatest excitement for everyone was when some of the local men caught a reticulated python that was probably 6ft long in a palm tree in front of our veranda. The men were talking animatedly about its barbecue potential (it was hard to tell whether or not they were joking; we had vegetarian dishes that evening for dinner).<br />After an epic boat to bus to bus to bus to hotel in Kuantan to bus to Kuala Lumpur journey, we're settling here in KL through the weekend for the F1 race (hopefully we won't get too waterlogged- rain is in the forecast, but <span style="font-style: italic;">it's a nice, warm deluge!</span>)and to plot our next move.Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-88376952671626735972010-03-22T01:19:00.000-07:002010-03-22T01:30:33.628-07:00Don't get your panties in a twist.When I said we are flying back on April 6th, what I <span style="font-style: italic;">meant</span> to say was May 13th. Actually, we've decided that this is still fun, and since we don't have to be anywhere anytime soon, we will continue our travels to either Sumatra or Borneo (haven't decided which, but either way, I see orangutans potential in our future). We're in Kota Bharu right now, heading for the Perhentians (<span style="font-style: italic;">finally</span>) tomorrow. <br /><br />The lack of new photos on smugmug is because we have yet to find an internet cafe that is set up for uploading photos. We will add them when we can. As someone once said, "patience is a virgin."<br /><br />And remember: it's good to be flexible.Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-54465798718335613622010-03-16T21:55:00.001-07:002010-03-16T22:38:51.070-07:00Coasting toward the finish lineLet's just say it's good to be flexible with one's traveling agenda. Instead of going to the Perhentians, we detoured to Kuala Lumpur (heretofore known as KL) for the purpose of obtaining Formula 1 tickets for the race at Sepang the first weekend in April. That will be our last hurrah since we have actually <i>committed</i> (with mixed emotions) to a return date of April 6 from Singapore to Portland. <i>sigh...</i><div>While in KL, we stayed in Chinatown on the main drag, Petaling Street, which is <i>the</i> place to get genueeeen (the shopkeepers say they're real, so mustn't they be?) Fendl or Louis Vittoon bags, Billadong t-shirts, and real Rolex watches for a very low price. It's chaotic and noisy: we were serenaded each night by our mega nightlight of a video screen with psycho soundtrack promoting Malaysia tourism (it served its purpose- it made us want to go anywhere else just to escape the noise). But it was fun. KL is an interesting mix of Moorish, colonial, and very sleek, modern architecture and has a multi-ethnic culture like much of the country. We spent one day in the National Museum learning about Malay culture and history and were both quite inspired by the spirit of cultural harmony that pervades the nation's independence. Unlike so many places that had long, bloody battles, here the three main ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese, and Indian) sat down together with the British and ... talked. How novel! We were there on what must have been an elementary school field trip day (permission slips must have read: "Dear parents, we will go to the National Museum for the day. The main activities will be running, squealing, and whistle blowing. Please ensure your child wears appropriate running shoes and brings his/her favorite noise maker.") . All I can say is, it must be much easier for Muslim girls to get away with things at school, because in their matching uniforms and head scarves, they all looked very similar. </div><div>We also went to the Petronas Towers (the tallest twin towers in the world and one of the tallest buildings overall) and took the elevator to the 41st floor skybridge for a panoramic view of the city. The elevator was actually the most amazing part of that trip- it took 41 ear-popping (literally) seconds to climb 41 floors. And in and amongst all of our really delicious regional meals, we had dinner at a <i>Papa John's</i> (<i>here they provide sit-down service with white tablecloths and china, but the garlic sauce</i> still<i> tastes like home!</i>) with dessert in leather club chairs at the <i>Krispy Kreme</i> next door! We really haven't eaten much western fast food on this trip, but every now and then, pizza and donuts is a nice, comforting addition to the culinary mix. </div><div>After KL, we took the bus to Melaka (or Malacca, both are correct) and have been here for 5 days. We've visited virtually every museum devoted to every darned thing here (we're officially getting museum-ed out). The old parts of the city have been beautifully restored- it's a colonial mishmash of Portuguese, Dutch, and British with Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian styles rolled into one city. We've seen the ruins of the Portuguese fort and Catholic church with its 400-year old head stones, the Dutch stadthuys (governor's home and town hall), the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia, the People's Museum (exhibits on traditional kite making and top-spinning as well as one on beauty practices like foot binding and lip plating), the Naval and Maritime Museums. Wow, that was a lot of sightseeing. We've also eaten a whole lot of great food (my pants still fit, though). Tomorrow we begin the journey to the northeastern part of the country to hit the Perhentian Islands for real this time. See you soon!</div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-22668218010847529652010-03-03T20:34:00.001-08:002010-03-16T21:51:54.601-07:00Chicken claws: they're not just for breakfast anymore!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ2QO26xktuf15Oyt6DP4VnP88sjC0bUz8v2KHNEBg8_eEAz9J9isZqBYIgCb_CCu8KwOIl8C7Vl8pUbVY_kPpHd40JWooXT5mXXL-9mCgnIHBhztYJEQU0SWtp44d5neBlAl0DdiuQg/s1600-h/802095390_p1010383.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJ2QO26xktuf15Oyt6DP4VnP88sjC0bUz8v2KHNEBg8_eEAz9J9isZqBYIgCb_CCu8KwOIl8C7Vl8pUbVY_kPpHd40JWooXT5mXXL-9mCgnIHBhztYJEQU0SWtp44d5neBlAl0DdiuQg/s320/802095390_p1010383.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445782541503312962" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9XVK9bPtLn6JB14JeeEf-HIG3QInVIIAk0w0IxV4v5Rq7XaCm0-OVE598UhciDuQ0bap09ILjE_tuudvRNBA-6G-XODrvL3sq_M4cRS7kDRhIgfrImV22hbu0SDoT_Y3WOZpx5uzX9c/s1600-h/801303832_p1010360.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9XVK9bPtLn6JB14JeeEf-HIG3QInVIIAk0w0IxV4v5Rq7XaCm0-OVE598UhciDuQ0bap09ILjE_tuudvRNBA-6G-XODrvL3sq_M4cRS7kDRhIgfrImV22hbu0SDoT_Y3WOZpx5uzX9c/s320/801303832_p1010360.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445782531540068466" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLj2JrpaK9ijGyBFjeLtpBBgAOjXOJfHm3Tctaxs6hOLXwVqEFNOkdN-PPgNX8XEi2oNNLnCKEhMobeNr6pqEwIdO2EyKNqpLpzrhq8mGi1YEVO4NqMZWF9_xt74s6H0dSgGdo3EqqeYc/s1600-h/801300889_p1010358.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLj2JrpaK9ijGyBFjeLtpBBgAOjXOJfHm3Tctaxs6hOLXwVqEFNOkdN-PPgNX8XEi2oNNLnCKEhMobeNr6pqEwIdO2EyKNqpLpzrhq8mGi1YEVO4NqMZWF9_xt74s6H0dSgGdo3EqqeYc/s320/801300889_p1010358.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445782519929958706" border="0" /></a><br />Well, Phuket (we now pronounce it, eeewwww) was not our cup of chowder. Two days was all it took to determine it is Thailand's answer to South Beach, Myrtle Beach, and Cancun wrapped up into one convenient, over-priced, crowded package. We <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> see plenty of large, leathery, old European tourists in speedos and other inappropriate attire, as well as at least four McDonald's in a twenty minute walk along the beach road. And... our pal Bernie from George Town was right where he said he'd be! We did have a nice afternoon chat with him while standing shoulder-deep in the Andaman Sea, so it wasn't all bad, but we did move the next morning. Since we enjoyed our extended stay in George Town, we decided to head toward Malaysia via Hat Yai (I've mentioned it before) for a couple of days.<br />There's really not much to do in Hat Yai besides plan an exit strategy to somewhere else, so we took the local bus to Songkhla, a nice, little city on the coast with some interesting sculptures, for the afternoon. After walking the shore picking up some really neat shells and taking photos of the sculptures, we decided to join the hordes of school children and locals in their quest for lunch from the food vendors lining the sidewalk. Lots of people were ordering what looked like salad with some kind of sea life (abalone maybe?) from one lady, so we went to investigate. I asked what it was, and she replied, "chicken foot," NOT what we wanted. The next tray had actual pieces of chicken meat, so I (thought I) ordered two salads with chicken, and we sat down on the grass to wait for lunch. When she handed me the first tray, it was... the chicken foot salad. Thinking it must have been my fault for ordering the wrong item, I accepted the tray with thanks (you'd be proud, Mom) and pointed at the chicken meat before she made the second one. Colin and I sat there looking at this tray of food in front of us, wondering what we're going to do with it. I have no earthly idea how exactly one prepares chicken feet to acquire such a ghastly appearance, but imagine floppy, irregularly shaped pieces of a pure, white substance with the texture of scaly chicken foot skin that looks like it's been soaking in a tub of lye for hours. Now imagine trying to put that between your lips. Our mantra is, if millions of people eat it, it can't be that bad...WE STAND CORRECTED. So Colin (not me) tried it. He managed to get it in his mouth, bit down and found something hard, either a claw or a piece of bone that somehow remained un-gelatinated by the cooking process. A horrible gagging sound emanated from Colin's mouth at the same time our lady turned to give us the second tray of food. I really thought he was going to spew, but he managed to keep the contents of his mouth between his lips until the nice lady turned back around and then he spat it into a tissue. I was impressed by his efforts but determined that no way, no how was I going to make the same mistake. The surrounding salad itself was quite tasty. After this and a nice walk back into town, we hopped the bus back to Hat Yai. That night, we went to the local market for dinner to have one of our favorite local meals, khao mok kai, which is a Muslim-Thai chicken and turmeric rice dish. It always comes with a bowl of clear soup with some vegetables in it. Well, when Colin put his spoon to the soup bowl, he asked, "is that what I think it is and if so, please remove it before I see it in its entirety." It was what he thought is was, another chicken foot, lurking at the bottom of the bowl under a piece of winter melon. If anyone had ever told me that there would be a day in our lives in which we'd have chicken feet in two meals in one day, I'd have said, "get outta here," (or something much less polite). Anyway, Colin survived, and I'm just glad to be old enough to ignore the two bite rule we had in our house growing up.<br />The next day, we took a minibus back to Georgetown. I am going to be really disgusted when we get back to the states and see gigantic SUVs with one person inside after this trip. Our minibus was a 4-row minivan with 10 adults and 3 kids plus luggage inside. The kids were well-behaved throughout, but unfortunately, the little boy sitting in his mother's lap next to me shot back two boxes of milk at the beginning of the journey and then happily bounced around for awhile. I knew the state of events was getting ready to change for the worse when he got very quiet and laid his head against the seat back in front of him. When he started gagging, I moved my bag to my lap (off the floor), and his mom gave him a towel to throw up in. Colin had an empty plastic grocery bag and handed that over to the boy, who promptly hooked one handle over each ear like a horse's feedbag (now <span style="font-style: italic;">why </span>didn't I think to do that in my younger days when I was Barfarella?). We thought it was ingenious until he started holding it up to his mouth and breathing into it. He was on the right side of natural selection that day and survived the remainder of the drive.<br />Anyway, we made it back home to George Town (they even gave us our old room back!!!!) and will be here until Monday. Then we go to the east coast to Kota Bharu and the Perhentian Islands for awhile. There are more photos on smugmug, including some from the end of the Chinese New Year celebration in George Town. We thought it was the year of the tiger, not the year of Tigger (see photo)!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-82077327578455014602010-02-21T20:29:00.000-08:002010-02-21T23:09:12.890-08:00Won't you take me to, Phuket Town?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAileML97zirJcKPjsTImzhCf_IzN3xdqkXfy6KHFG2QYilYfsfp9OTTIjxkNhTp9b-8IlEuZo7FU7QdFd4ejp9E4PXOKUkbYkgGZeRSC-Kx3NXqiNN6czFlpswHp64aAbuS-rBuA2NFg/s1600-h/P1010347.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440960759180438354" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAileML97zirJcKPjsTImzhCf_IzN3xdqkXfy6KHFG2QYilYfsfp9OTTIjxkNhTp9b-8IlEuZo7FU7QdFd4ejp9E4PXOKUkbYkgGZeRSC-Kx3NXqiNN6czFlpswHp64aAbuS-rBuA2NFg/s320/P1010347.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Sorry once again for being out of touch for better than a week, but we were busy lounging on Hat Sai Ree beach on Ko Tao (yes, that is Colin's knee in the photo, and that was our view). It's a scuba diving mecca (unfortunately, neither of us dives and were both waaayyy too busy reading under our favorite tree on the beach to bother getting certified) in the Gulf of Thailand. The water is a clear teal color- so clear that we could see the tan lines on our feet when standing in five feet of water. Our bungalow was about 75 feet from the water's edge with a nice "veranda," upon which we sat and watched the birds and the boats while eating our breakfast from the 7-11 (they are ubiquitous in Thailand and have cheap cereal and yogurt, which is of great value when staying in a bungalow on the beach- you HAVE to be able prioritize, you know..). When we felt the need, we took walks around the island, to the southern end and the east coast (which was UP and over the mountainous middle of the island- boy, am I out of shape...). In our original itinerary, our time in the islands was supposed to be spent figuring out what to do next, and we actually did some thinking (until our brains overheated and it got too difficult, then we got back in the water to cool our heads). It is really hard to make decisions about our futures when we have virtually no obligations! We may now have a plan for the next year or two (stay tuned for further developments, since our plans change more than the weather) that involves being out of the US when "Pol Pot" Palin is nominated as the presidential candidate representing the Teabaggers. (How can you NOT see the similarities when she and her ilk seem to think all educated city-dwellers are elitist and evil?!?!?!).<br />Yesterday we took the bus to Phuket (get your minds out of the gutter, it's pronounced poo-get) to see what islands on the west coast in the Andaman Sea look like. It's a big, affluent island province with lots of rubber and palm plantations and big, fancy resorts (we are not staying in one of those, though). We will be renting a motorbike for a couple of days to explore the island's beaches and do some snorkelling. Hopefully we'll also be able to locate our friend Bernie from George Town while we're here; he emailed me with the location of the beach near the police station where he likes to sit between specific hours of the afternoon (he's a character). We may still be here when our bowling partner Alan and his wife, Maggie arrive as well. Who knows, it may just turn into a big, happy reunion!</div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-20478626956111696172010-02-12T01:23:00.000-08:002010-02-21T23:28:40.191-08:00Bangkok, round two<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YZtCaM5XnhWU_2Ke0EvnRDhVxniS9sHg91mc5m62wuL5exsv5HLv7dMoT0qXs_01TSGuu8IV4rZYOKkRHPuT65tcGzoO2JYvBLtS1qngycQ0pJqg1gyHvf8GohHH_U45QKBpQZOBnak/s1600-h/P1010345.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440966168494411618" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YZtCaM5XnhWU_2Ke0EvnRDhVxniS9sHg91mc5m62wuL5exsv5HLv7dMoT0qXs_01TSGuu8IV4rZYOKkRHPuT65tcGzoO2JYvBLtS1qngycQ0pJqg1gyHvf8GohHH_U45QKBpQZOBnak/s320/P1010345.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxPcLHDStsTa_TZXwncIVcIdbEyfNgpU2NwnEy3w4DTj4j4f9g4W3yMtHsQvKoHuJuvRxKm8uPhqpRNcFXrGiFfQaf2fCim6mFem_TeUKw3SPeMJuP-ruRpzyAdVGobRreY8jZz49M2c/s1600-h/P1010272.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440966134627154514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxPcLHDStsTa_TZXwncIVcIdbEyfNgpU2NwnEy3w4DTj4j4f9g4W3yMtHsQvKoHuJuvRxKm8uPhqpRNcFXrGiFfQaf2fCim6mFem_TeUKw3SPeMJuP-ruRpzyAdVGobRreY8jZz49M2c/s320/P1010272.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div>Well, we've been in Bangkok for five days now, and I will say I didn't give it a fair chance on the first visit. The bus ride here was quite comfortable (on a VIP bus with blasting cold aircon, cushy, reclining seats, and lunch! <em>of course, everything is better with food included</em>), and arriving with at least somewhat of an idea where we were going helped as well. There are many spectacular sights in the city, and we've tried to take in a bunch of them. One day, we went to see Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace grounds. Wat Phra Kaew is the home of the Emerald Buddha, probably the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. It's not very big (about 26 inches high) but it's carved from a single piece of jade (not actually emerald). It's placed high up on an altar in the temple, and many people make pilgrimages here to see it. The building itself is really impressive in its over-the-top-ness; there's an abundance of mirrored mosaic tiles in primary colors and LOTS of gold. All of the doors and shutters are wood inlaid with intricate mother of pearl designs. We also went to Wat Pho, which is the oldest temple in Bangkok and home of the largest reclining Buddha (46 meters long!). The feet were the most amazing part, with the 108 auspicious virtues of the Buddha also inlaid in mother of pearl along with whorls on his toes (I think he may have needed corrective arches though, because the feet were as flat as could be).<br />Another day we walked to Dusit Park to see Vimanmek Palace, one of the homes of the former King, Rama V (the current one is Rama IX). It's a 72-room home built of golden teak with NO NAILS! It is a really beautiful building; Colin once again commented how good it is to be king. The other buildings on the grounds have exhibits on silk production, amazingly intricat bamboo and fern basketry, gold and silver traditions. There was also an exhibition of the "Masterpieces," created in honor of many different occasions in the monarchs' lives. It was all a bit more than our tastes could handle (Colin said if he was king, his first decree would be, "enough with the gold, already"). Today we went to the Jim Thompson House, which is actually six old teak houses put together, filled with antiques and artwork. Jim Thompson was the man who introduced Thai silk to the western world after WWII. They came to prominence after being featured in the movie, "The King and I," which our guide had never seen, since it's still banned in Thailand. Thompson disappeared in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia in 1967. No one knows what happened to him, but an astrologer warned him that his 61st year would be a bad one for someone born in the year of the horse, and he was 61 when he disappeared. Our guide warned Colin against traveling to Malaysia when he is 61 (he's also a horse...I'm a monkey, whoever would have guessed that). We don't have many photos of any of these places because cameras were forbidden within all of the buildings.<br />Enough about the cultural stuff. Bangkok has a seamy city, and we have seen some of that in our visit as well. We wandered Khao San Road, which is the tourist "ghetto" and didn't find it to our liking, although if anyone is in need of a diploma from Oxford or the London School of Economics and would rather blow the college fund on a trip to Thailand, you can buy one on Khao San Road (along with fake dreadlocks and an assortment of ugly t-shirts). Last night we had dinner at a Japanese steakhouse in Patpong, the seedy district favored by American GIs on R&R visits during the Vietnam War and now a night market and tourist trap. The restaurant looked (and smelled) like it hasn't changed since it opened 50+ years ago, and the food was terrific (you know us, it's all about the food).<br />Tomorrow we will take the train back to Chumpon and will hop a ferry to the island of Ko Tao (renowned for the snorkelling and diving), or maybe we'll go to Phuket to find our new friend from George Town, Bernie. We haven't decided, so we'll let you know when we get there!</div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-67482930275038878592010-02-04T22:35:00.000-08:002010-02-04T22:58:50.578-08:00Decisions, indecision...We've spent the past two weeks debating whether to continue traveling in Malaysia or to take the ferry to Sumatra for a few weeks. Each and every itinerary of the approximately 23 we came up with had its strong points, and after all that hemming and hawing, we decided to go to... THAILAND! Our original intent was to spend some time in peninsular Thailand in order to see some of the islands and do a little snorkeling, but because of the high frustration we experienced in Bangkok trying to get to the south, we bypassed everything we wanted to see in the southern half of the country. And on top of it, virtually everyone we've spoken with has told us that Bangkok is a really interesting city to spend a few days. Since we didn't give it a fair chance, we're going to head in that direction tomorrow and work our way back down the peninsula to Malaysia again, stopping off along the way when and where the fancy strikes us. We really enjoyed our extented time in George Town and most definitely will return to see other parts of the country (and maybe stop back in G-Town for just <em>one</em> more banana leaf lunch. Oh, and one more banana roti and a dim sum dinner also... okay, maybe we shouldn't go back for fear of <em>never leaving</em>!)<br /><br />Now that we've ended our stasis, be looking for more photos and blog posts. I'll try to overcome my sluggy habits and put more frequent updates on here!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-34451911212970135112010-01-30T03:47:00.000-08:002010-01-30T04:42:18.314-08:00Thaipusam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW_D4SYsfJRMbKqXLT9jPb8Kx_LM6DykH9fwCVBrTEC9GfRUm9pmYw3feYMZQc4NTdWRICuALEwgW-7MoQuJXEeeoPtYvRm7w3Hfz38LXk-kgNU6hsqLmSvF59iyY_H1mhCR-4R5h1bP8/s1600-h/P1010219.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW_D4SYsfJRMbKqXLT9jPb8Kx_LM6DykH9fwCVBrTEC9GfRUm9pmYw3feYMZQc4NTdWRICuALEwgW-7MoQuJXEeeoPtYvRm7w3Hfz38LXk-kgNU6hsqLmSvF59iyY_H1mhCR-4R5h1bP8/s320/P1010219.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432511015052193586" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsPm8fu7ZsH1gkp63lmamZdjMB4T6NeJzgzWQUfIEGuWIfT007i6n92e6ixparhbrdvv_05nSXj0wZOuaatvieghGchpNhC4e-LmZGmGynWx6ES93c-kncyCrSNKDHGzf4Zk8o1TxSzc/s1600-h/P1010224.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghsPm8fu7ZsH1gkp63lmamZdjMB4T6NeJzgzWQUfIEGuWIfT007i6n92e6ixparhbrdvv_05nSXj0wZOuaatvieghGchpNhC4e-LmZGmGynWx6ES93c-kncyCrSNKDHGzf4Zk8o1TxSzc/s320/P1010224.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432511003365881010" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzWphDNTcpt0fjMG0qhTNvcPl5TiCEpW_K45Z1RPdsCR1NhMfF7NVW1zrY3-8uuFR3SYYqWvFb2ZPLEjAzhO2NzCcBwJBcBWp1w6DghPt9hm6Zau7WrKFxSxzPo_ACty1u2hQtHY1HS8/s1600-h/P1010240.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzWphDNTcpt0fjMG0qhTNvcPl5TiCEpW_K45Z1RPdsCR1NhMfF7NVW1zrY3-8uuFR3SYYqWvFb2ZPLEjAzhO2NzCcBwJBcBWp1w6DghPt9hm6Zau7WrKFxSxzPo_ACty1u2hQtHY1HS8/s320/P1010240.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432510993221067106" border="0" /></a><br />Yesterday was the beginning of Thaipusam. We've said numerous times that we will stay in George Town until it's over, since opportunities to witness the festivities are few and far between. It was an interesting and very colorful experience! Colin is adding the pictures to the smugmug account as I write, so have a look-see to learn what all the hubbub is about!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-55117974694517021152010-01-28T04:51:00.000-08:002010-01-28T06:04:47.570-08:00Wasting away in Marg.. err George Town<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ff26YRrfU9Zjv5FTVDKUcHTmsy30cQH-Kv04Rfe9YyfQ7_oxWZJ9Q0eNQhsNiyQrefI8I0VX75xYtlcAtIE2Vk9rcjHRnbuMivRzsSED4gODvHmwZn_9nO5_OeQ3jsiaJQ6y8jNTqdo/s1600-h/P1010206.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ff26YRrfU9Zjv5FTVDKUcHTmsy30cQH-Kv04Rfe9YyfQ7_oxWZJ9Q0eNQhsNiyQrefI8I0VX75xYtlcAtIE2Vk9rcjHRnbuMivRzsSED4gODvHmwZn_9nO5_OeQ3jsiaJQ6y8jNTqdo/s320/P1010206.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431790111467915298" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK2cjDIWxVkaA5budyFxFv1biEchQlbrFH1CFGBePU3ONkw0klbBDq6-qbzm0QbkO5Gr4IiYoXRl6yAx7LMAExgH1enclyB6TOsPkk7oUiHBqzP1MvhYzeIjF3EkReHwdNvvlABvi-s4/s1600-h/P1010209.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK2cjDIWxVkaA5budyFxFv1biEchQlbrFH1CFGBePU3ONkw0klbBDq6-qbzm0QbkO5Gr4IiYoXRl6yAx7LMAExgH1enclyB6TOsPkk7oUiHBqzP1MvhYzeIjF3EkReHwdNvvlABvi-s4/s320/P1010209.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431790097524058594" border="0" /></a><br /> Yes, we are still in George Town, learning what it's like to be an expatriate from those around us. We've spent several days at the beach, read a bunch of books, sat on the veranda of our guesthouse chatting about life with the long-term and the rotating housemates, and taken up... bowling (see attached video of Bernie demonstrating proper technique). Alan from Manchester, Bernie from Bali by way of Baden-Baden (so nice, they named it twice), Colin, and I have spent a couple of hours several days over the past two weeks at the bowling alley improving our game. Dad, you would be proud-I finally crested a three-digit score today!<br /> We also went to see the absolute <span style="font-style: italic;">worst </span>excuse for a movie of all times, <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Case 39</span></span>, starring Renee <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Zellweger</span> (she must have a serious gambling debt to pay or the collections department from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Fingerhut</span> to get off her back- there is no reason for such lame drivel to be made otherwise). It's apparently <span style="font-style: italic;">so bad</span>, they won't even release it in her home country. But it only cost us a couple of dollars and an hour and a half of our lives that we can never get back... .<br /> Yesterday we went to the national park for a hike to the meromictic lake, which is one with both fresh and salt water sources. The salt water is denser and forms the lower layer, with the fresh water on top. It's the only one in Malaysia and one of few anywhere, and they get Ridley and green sea turtles nesting there each year. Unfortunately, we saw no turtles, and the lake is a smelly mud-clay puddle at this time of year due to the lack of rainfall. We, of course, <span style="font-style: italic;">had </span>to explore and see exactly what there is to see in a sort of dry lake bed (tons of empty seashells, lots of mud, and mudskippers was our conclusion). Oh, and mud. I tried to blaze a trail from dry spot to dry spot, and quite thoroughly missed, resulting in about 5 pounds of really stinky mud on each shoe. Colin, thinking he could do better, chose an alternate route and encumbered himself up to the knees in a different patch of smelly mud. I of course, had to laugh hysterically, not realizing at that point that he had lost both shoes and really was in a bit of a twist. Alas, there was no help for me to offer (besides moral support in the form of giggling, pointing, and picture-taking), and he eventually extricated himself<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"></span>. Things got even better when we were washing said shoes in the ocean to clean off some of the mud, and Colin apparently ran into a jellyfish with both feet. Fortunately, it wasn't one of those anaphylactic reaction causing ones, just super-annoying. I didn't have the Benadryl stick with me, so we used...Blistex (<span style="font-style: italic;">its stated purpose is as a topical analgesic for one's lips, and if you can put it on your mouth, surely it's okay to use on one's feet</span>). I'm not sure if it helped, but it did no harm. The hike back was long, hot, and hilly, but we did see monkeys. And I've determined that not all monkeys are scary- the really cute ones up in trees are quite nice. We saw two types: long-tailed macaques and silver leaf monkeys (langurs). I tried to get some pictures, but the ones of the langurs came out kind of blurry.<br /> Tomorrow is the start of Thaipusam, which is a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of Lord Murugan, one of Shiva's offspring. It's a time of thanksgiving for everything from the birth of a child to a new motorbike, and people say "thanks" by piercing themselves with spears and hooks and performing amazing feats of endurance. Since there is a large Indian population here in George Town, the festival is a <span style="font-weight: bold;">big</span> deal. We will be watching the festivities and expect to see some pretty interesting stuff. (<span style="font-style: italic;">hmmm...I see some freaky photos in your futures</span>).<br /> PS- we have added a few more pics to the Georgetown smugmug file.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwJ8cZqGXQdCV4Ry7F6In2rgm1k-QLQockxg3KqUwktoa6vY6lusoV3pwz4TWjlD8mQFUBT7CkDC3FLQ9Igmg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-38833951884053680832010-01-16T01:16:00.001-08:002010-01-16T01:55:51.856-08:00We needed a vacation from travelingWe're stiiiiillll in George Town! I think both of us are kind of travel weary, because neither has found a compelling reason to move on. In the last week and a half, we've seen three movies, been to the beach three days, and done some more milling about various tourist sites. The biggest surprise enjoyment was the Penang Butterfly Farm, which sounds like an average tourist trap, but I realized that I could become an amateur lepidopterist (butterfly geek) while there. Colin thinks that would be okay, and his next career move will be into the butterfly poaching business (he hears there's good money in it, <span style="font-style: italic;">and he would get to carry a net</span>). This place had thousands of Malaysian butterflies of many color schemes and sizes. We walked the paths gasping in amazement, calling. "ooh, wow, look at <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span> one," over and over. They also had a bunch of native insects, including various rhinoceros beetles (two and three-horned ones. People actually fight them and place bets- like cock fighting, only <span style="font-style: italic;">much</span> more lame, since they don't fight to the death, only to the "fall off the twig") and some gigantic stick bugs (there's a photo of one next to Colin's hand- the bug is <span style="font-weight: bold;">bigger</span>) as well as a number of different geckos (including Sal's leopard gecko kin). There are a bunch of photos on smugmug, sorry to bore you all... . We also spent a day at the Botanical Gardens, admiring some very large, tropical trees and avoiding the roaming bands of rhesus monkeys (<span style="font-style: italic;">whatever you do, <span style="font-weight: bold;">don't look them in the eyes!!!!!</span></span>). Along the way we picked up a dog, I initially labeled her our tour guide, but I when we came to the monkeys, she positioned Colin and me between herself and the monkeys. I think she was looking for some protection herself. In all seriousness, wild monkeys are unpredictable and not very nice company (and really, don't stare at them- they shriek and come at you).<br /> Nothing much new here, we're still trying to determine the next stop on the adventure train. All of our photos are now on smugmug, and I've gone back and labeled a lot of the older galleries, so you'll have an idea what you're looking at (as will we, when we get home).<br /> Toodles, til' next time!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-2443511797745925882010-01-09T20:15:00.000-08:002010-01-09T22:52:32.618-08:00I'm really glad we didn't go home<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2s7Dh7QvLI4Qdbh_ieV1SPAKFcKloXCKRZ41fgJFb1LHZyDmVDrqWKmOLqpyOVW6KQtYVBfv4q46PkWq_XNfLuVCKsixCBZ_VY3B1vaPrjEEpND0jpR_0_TTcbcgWbB06lw1EB5D8ejY/s1600-h/P1010083.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424998807141611618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2s7Dh7QvLI4Qdbh_ieV1SPAKFcKloXCKRZ41fgJFb1LHZyDmVDrqWKmOLqpyOVW6KQtYVBfv4q46PkWq_XNfLuVCKsixCBZ_VY3B1vaPrjEEpND0jpR_0_TTcbcgWbB06lw1EB5D8ejY/s320/P1010083.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_oA__Jc0-4gtmH_sFSRrfHn7u1EAm28v9jPis_DXHBcR8SikQP5diy7ferxUzUrz-VdCA7HW8fAcP8TzPpVY4LJ-45291mWNT-Nmanxt-2etwJhRtCl-7E9cvyp7jRqaOXdpJB-A1ng/s1600-h/P1010135.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424998798632215746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_oA__Jc0-4gtmH_sFSRrfHn7u1EAm28v9jPis_DXHBcR8SikQP5diy7ferxUzUrz-VdCA7HW8fAcP8TzPpVY4LJ-45291mWNT-Nmanxt-2etwJhRtCl-7E9cvyp7jRqaOXdpJB-A1ng/s320/P1010135.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVIclXNRrJP8hYYfZvypfwxFT3h91iZTxFW9zf1PB07sHF9oajv-qgt-Y9mbiEfi6ABakvgN3b_LlTzluLmr48mfZT7DONunBrUo7TSyJd92KLbb_ewLaIExQZn3NHjor0gbKONLICpk/s1600-h/P1010144.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424998791891164610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVIclXNRrJP8hYYfZvypfwxFT3h91iZTxFW9zf1PB07sHF9oajv-qgt-Y9mbiEfi6ABakvgN3b_LlTzluLmr48mfZT7DONunBrUo7TSyJd92KLbb_ewLaIExQZn3NHjor0gbKONLICpk/s320/P1010144.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div>We've been in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia for five days, and I now know where I'd live if I won the lottery. Penang is a fairly large island on the east coast (a 10 minute ferry ride from the mainland) of Malaysia that was obtained by the British East India Company in the late 18th century. It has a long history as a trading and shipping port and has a really interesting multicultural feel. The Brits brought people from China and southern India to work for them, and the old town still has vibrant Chinese and Indian sections as well as what is called Baba Nyonya (the Chinese settlers who intermarried with the Malay locals). The food is fabulous (Colin keeps admonishing me for hiding the glorious flavors of Indian food from him all these years), and the architecture and colors remind me alot of the Caribbean, as does the rather relaxed attitude of the people.<br />Neither one of us knew what to expect when we arrived, and we were both really surprised by the abundance of EVERYTHING modern here. Not only do they have an affordable public transport system that would make any major US city proud, but the tap water is also drinkable. We went to the MALL (they even have a Starbucks, but I like the local coffee better) and saw <strong>Avatar</strong> one evening (in English with Malay and Chinese subtitles). We also noticed that we could purchase the dvd of <strong>Avatar</strong> from several stores (hmmm... who knew it was available for home viewing already- <em>I wonder what the copyright folks would have to say about that</em>).<br />There is so much to do here- one day we took the bus to Penang Hill (elevation 800 metres), which was where the upper crust built their homes in the Victorian era because of its significantly cooler temperatures. I got to take my very first funicular ride there- it's a two stage deal with a stop and change of cars halfway up the hill. It wasn't the most exhilarating ride ever, but it was a scenic one. At the top are gardens, temples, a hotel, walking paths, beautiful vistas of the island and the sea, and... <em>the biggest spiders I have seen in my life</em>. The thorax on one of them was a big as my thumb, and the leg span must have been longer and wider than my palm. Fortunately, they seem to build their webs out of hair's way, so no shrieking was done (by me, anyway). We also spent parts of two days doing a walking tour of the old city, taking in the Penang State Museum, with its historical overview of the island and its settlers, Fort Cornwallis, the Chinese clan houses, Hindu temples, and Muslim mosques, enjoying and absorbing the atmosphere as we went. Yesterday we took the bus to the beach at Batu Ferringhi, about 15km from town. It is, by far, the cleanest beach we've been to in SE Asia. They have TRASH CANS, which is quite novel in this region of the world, and people <em>use</em> them instead of just dropping things wherever when they get tired of carrying them. The sand is the largest grain I've seen, but it brushes off your feet easily <em>and</em> makes a good exfoliant. We did get a bit pink, even slathered thoroughly with sunscreen (I forget we're only about 6 degrees from the equator).<br />As I said before, the food here is terrific. I could happily stay just to eat! We've tried a bunch of different Indian and Chinese meals, not knowing what to expect (even though I can read the words, they don't mean anything in my realm of experience), and everything is delicious. For those of you who like to paddle in your food, you should try a banana leaf meal (see the photo of Colin) next time you're at the Taj Mahal.<br />Anyway, I think we'll probably be here for another couple of days since the nice people at the border allow us to stay for up to 90 days, so there's no need to hurry. When we were in Bangkok, getting frustrated by our inability to get on a train and by the crowds of people, we both thought pretty seriously about heading home. I am really glad we persevered, because this was definitely worth the trouble!</div></div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-63722693106031330202010-01-08T00:55:00.000-08:002010-01-08T02:36:41.907-08:00Our own version of The Odyssey<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6CFCcDC3SgaTMW47vDkR8kKbLUfXwDWTHLXvoD_zxrClE5aVU8x9g6QVO9V1s5CXjp8uUbfQIrFS_PDtJGW3OtY17PiuJqrV_ZXmRr0V2wn5IYQOJEbPIAhWJ539KwP0V3I7nurErfs/s1600-h/P1010037.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6CFCcDC3SgaTMW47vDkR8kKbLUfXwDWTHLXvoD_zxrClE5aVU8x9g6QVO9V1s5CXjp8uUbfQIrFS_PDtJGW3OtY17PiuJqrV_ZXmRr0V2wn5IYQOJEbPIAhWJ539KwP0V3I7nurErfs/s320/P1010037.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424315303530563922" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVifx6KxB14PmnsYO1EkTkcUAbe3rKlEHYsprZfo_uH9NWoTOE91GCZAwyvD-bVsdFNqRnpr1JOexZZV4iuxCqRclf3cJEqY4eZVcsBzoyPNOUCFBhV7PXIp_mVVsA4vd-QzGCNtJvQcU/s1600-h/P1010065.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVifx6KxB14PmnsYO1EkTkcUAbe3rKlEHYsprZfo_uH9NWoTOE91GCZAwyvD-bVsdFNqRnpr1JOexZZV4iuxCqRclf3cJEqY4eZVcsBzoyPNOUCFBhV7PXIp_mVVsA4vd-QzGCNtJvQcU/s320/P1010065.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424313065229034610" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDK4vCVdO82eQUjueID9iE2H9aNnKjqUItS_cwaLqd91Z5lq74pMGnawogOH7QNhF2Hqcjsbegr_yK55v8xa3dchrB-d3ZWLk7Oiu7JsnKlm5eo3ZcHxZGYLbFdFSesXngOgDL3lq-TDk/s1600-h/P1010041.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDK4vCVdO82eQUjueID9iE2H9aNnKjqUItS_cwaLqd91Z5lq74pMGnawogOH7QNhF2Hqcjsbegr_yK55v8xa3dchrB-d3ZWLk7Oiu7JsnKlm5eo3ZcHxZGYLbFdFSesXngOgDL3lq-TDk/s320/P1010041.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424311000680079458" border="0" /></a><br />Okay, so I left off after a day in Kanchanaburi touring the WWII related sights. The next day we hopped on our rented motorbike and headed to Erawan Falls, which is a seven-tier waterfall 75km north of the city, reputedly one of the most spectacular in Thailand, and it was. We spent the afternoon hiking the trails upward, stopping along the way to take a dip in several of the crystal clear pools with the creepy, foot-fetish fishies. As soon as you step into the water, you feel raspy little fish lips kissing your feet and ankles, eating the dead skin. We saw places in Cambodia and elsewhere in Thailand with swimming pools full of the same fish where people would pay for the privilege of having their toes lipped. They apparently hit the mother lode with my feet, because I think there were about 30 of them munching away at one point. It was pretty icky but sort of became a test of will to see how long I could stand it, sort of like watching a mosquito bite you (outside of malarial areas, mind you). The BEST thing was watching other people discover the fishes! The next day, we rode out to see some Angkor-era ruins that were mightily unimpressive after seeing the real deal. We also went to see a very large monkey-pod tree, which is an acacia of some variety and must have been about 15 feet in diameter, and rode past some huge horse stables (seemed odd to me, I didn't know there were many equestrians here). The next day was the New Year, so we got back on the bus (having determined that yes, the Malaysia-bound trains from Bangkok were full through the 4th of January) and went to the city of Cha Am.<br /> Cham Am is on the Gulf of Thailand about two hours from Bangkok and is one of the places the locals go for beach time (not sunbathing, the locals stay in the shade of umbrellas and use whitening creams to remain as pale as possible). They also wear street clothes when they do get into the water (we saw this in Vietnam as well). Since the day was a holiday, the beach was <span style="font-style: italic;">packed</span>- it looked like photos from Coney Island in the mid-20th century. It was really neat to see, but we decided not to stay and went the next morning to Hua Hin (20 minutes south) to catch another bus to southern Thailand, only to learn that the bus station "is finish," which means closed, gone, not there anymore. Fortunately for us, a very nice lady waiting in the back of a <span style="font-style: italic;">songthaew</span> (a pickup truck with a roof over the bed and two rows of bench seats along the sides) told us it was going to her hometown of Pranburi, which has a big bus station, and to hop in. We did and<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">got a bus to</span> Songkhla in the south of Thailand, arriving 12 hours later, at around 11pm, without a map or a place to stay. We found both, along with a noodle soup midnight snack, and went to sleep. The next morning, since it was raining, we got on yet another bus and went to Hat Yai, which is where all roads and trains in southern Thailand meet. Since the train was full and the buses would arrive in Malaysia late in the evening, <span style="font-style: italic;">and </span>we were tired of sitting on buses anyway, we stayed the day and went to....McDonalds for dinner. Yes, we ate at McDonalds for the first time since September, and you know what? It tastes the same in Thailand as it does in the US! And you know all the super-size fries they can't sell at home because of the exhorbitant caloric content? They must have shipped all the packaging over here, because that's what we got and enjoyed each and every one of those delicious, crispy potato and grease angels.<br /> Finally, for the last leg of our epic journey, we got up the next morning at the uncivilized hour of 5am and were able to get tickets for the train to Butterworth, Malaysia. We were seated across from a Buddhist monk from Taiwan who was traveling to Kuala Lumpur. He started to giggle when he saw the book in my lap, Lonely Planet<span style="font-style: italic;"> Southeast Asia on a Shoestring</span>, and pulled the Chinese version of the same book from his bag- same edition, same photos even! Well, we made it to Malaysia on Tuesday and are now on the island of Penang, in the city of Georgetown and loving it here!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-55500243607494881772009-12-29T04:47:00.000-08:002009-12-29T05:47:51.642-08:00Thai'd up in Bangkok (Chestnuts roasting on an open wok)The Christmases that Colin and I have spent on our own, we have tried to do something particular to the location where we live. For example, when we lived in L.A., we spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park hiking in the desert. In Canyon City, we went sledding at Star Ridge and had a fireside picnic lunch. This year, we did as the locals do, and...took a bus ride. Being that neither of us was really in a beach-y mood, we nixed the plan to spend the holiday in Sihanoukville and instead opted for the fourteen-hour bus trip to Bangkok from Phnom Penh. It started out as okay as an all-day bus ride can, in apparently the only two seats (they assign seats on the buses in Cambodia and get really grouchy when you try to switch) on board that didn't recline. Knowing it was going to be a long day, we had baguettes and fresh mandarins, Ipods, and reading material. It was actually an uneventful ride to the Cambodia/Thailand border and hop back into Thailand. Once all the passengers finished at immigrations and customs, the driver guided us to a "minibus" for the remainder of the journey. This turned out to be a 13-passenger van stuffed with 13 passengers, ALL of our luggage, and the driver for the last 3-4 hours. All was going reasonably well until we hit the outskirts of Bangkok, when traffic began to slow to a crawl. Our slow speed did allow me to mentally process the COW (really, the BOVINE version) trotting counter-race toward us along the jersey (and I always thought it was for <span style="font-style: italic;">New Jersey</span>, not the cow variety) barrier on the superhighway into the city. While stopped for an hour and a half in city traffic, I heard the British guy in the last row of seats say, "I really could kill for a fag right now." Seeing as he was seated directly behind me, and not wanting to get between a desperate man and his nicotine habit, I opened the window and flung my seat forward so he could, literally, sit on the window ledge outside the van and smoke. The traffic finally did move, and we arrived in the Khao San Road district (the backpackers' ghetto) at about 9:00pm. Colin and I got to the guesthouse, dropped our packs, and ventured out to look for dinner. We found a middle-eastern restaurant and had chicken shwarma, falafel, and baba ganoush for Christmas dinner. It wasn't exactly traditional, but after a long, stressful day, it sure tasted GREAT. And, as a footnote, I realize that world peace ain't gonna happen in my lifetime, but I found a little glimmer of hope from the Israeli restaurant and the Lebanese restaurant coexisting harmoniously down a side alley in Bangkok!<br />Our plan for Bangkok was to spend a few of days seeing the sights and arranging our train travel (much more civilized than the bus!) to Malaysia. We did spend some time wandering through Chinatown (it smelled soooo good from all the spices!) and the market and did see several people cooking chestnuts in giant woks. ((And speaking of nuts, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WHY DID THAT GUY HAVE TO SEAR HIS DANGLY BITS IN THE NAME OF ALLAH IN HIS P.E.T. MANTIES ON THE AIRPLANE? DOESN'T HE KNOW THAT ALL HE'S GOING TO ACCOMPLISH IS TO GET UNIVERSAL FEEL-UPS FOR ALL AIRLINE PASSENGERS?!?!?! sorry, I digress, but it really doesn't make me want to hurry on home))<br />Unfortunately for us, everyone in Thailand is apparently trying to get elsewhere, and the southern trains are full. After spending a good chunk of two days at the train station, where the attendants seem to lack any curiosity about why the Thai Railway e-ticketing website shows sleeper berths available (but won't accept our credit cards online), yet they have none to sell us in person, we said, "screw it, let's get outta here," and took a bus to Kanchanaburi. We arrived here yesterday afternoon and found a lovely guesthouse right on the River Kwai to rest our heads. Today we went to the Death Railway Museum and the Cemetery where many of the Allied POWs are buried and to see the bridge itself. What a heartbreaking piece of history it all is. The museum does a really good job explaining the whos, hows, and whys of the period with a level of respect the people deserve.Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-65682030756054986862009-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:002009-12-29T05:50:29.432-08:00New pictures!!!Batteries dead in the new favorite toy? Run out of things to chitchat about with the relatives? If you're looking for something to fill your holiday time-glut, Colin loaded ALL of our photos on smugmug (<a href="http://colinandre.smugmug.com/">colinandre.smugmug.com</a>) before we left Phnom Penh. There are now over 400 new pictures in a variety of galleries, and I started labelling a bunch of them, but that's going to take some time to complete ( gotta go back through the notes and memory bank for some things ). We are in Kanchanaburi, Thailand and the surrounding area until after the new year. Happy viewing and a safe and happy new year to everyone! Rebekah<p><br />Sent from my iPhone</p>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12670514199884691628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-58015347384100442502009-12-21T22:55:00.000-08:002009-12-23T00:28:26.566-08:00Taken for a ride (to Phnom Penh)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf82J_NcpZV9DajQh_LcRkGy3Nl0K1PlYkAaCTeK_-ZAAGnT5IDH9RT8VnD0ZSp3NRjom8XiocyNOQ3bLaxejZT4Ke890cx1ozSsJ9zLdekqR9GGOiKNiHb2SjEZhBuA8wvbUAq_-P4qU/s1600-h/P1000829.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf82J_NcpZV9DajQh_LcRkGy3Nl0K1PlYkAaCTeK_-ZAAGnT5IDH9RT8VnD0ZSp3NRjom8XiocyNOQ3bLaxejZT4Ke890cx1ozSsJ9zLdekqR9GGOiKNiHb2SjEZhBuA8wvbUAq_-P4qU/s320/P1000829.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418345318689926130" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhga02ZVKB71ENBz33-TNKLcrQTCCL1MjazJUwg_wh1jsZj29yHHkY4iHOrVLhO4UnunMsqNAE80lF90_565PwLxUOBlZHi2c9vmB5rINZcqpDL-1HrT4A_c098wbr9VZAKq6dKghNCx84/s1600-h/P1000876.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhga02ZVKB71ENBz33-TNKLcrQTCCL1MjazJUwg_wh1jsZj29yHHkY4iHOrVLhO4UnunMsqNAE80lF90_565PwLxUOBlZHi2c9vmB5rINZcqpDL-1HrT4A_c098wbr9VZAKq6dKghNCx84/s320/P1000876.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418344514147329058" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRX-aDX2gZZWvDZFUJSVoY7KnKvVQ0IVJo9tUrr250zfzUDCYEPV_e70DV2PAFntGk475dwr9-H_U1ggrzK9miw24As_OTdYWqOdPW2VxQL-YvMgZSKlYMr0_mVCz94IJJmFn7Y5sk4/s1600-h/P1000817.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRX-aDX2gZZWvDZFUJSVoY7KnKvVQ0IVJo9tUrr250zfzUDCYEPV_e70DV2PAFntGk475dwr9-H_U1ggrzK9miw24As_OTdYWqOdPW2VxQL-YvMgZSKlYMr0_mVCz94IJJmFn7Y5sk4/s320/P1000817.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418342651591599426" border="0" /></a><br />To catch everyone up, we've been in Cambodia since December 9th. We felt relatively confident in our ability to cross the border from southern Thailand without too much trouble having gotten visas in advance to avoid the extra fee the Cambodian border officials reputedly try to collect. We did have to pay our "helpers,"" who got the arrival forms and filled them out for us and the doctor who took our temperatures (to make sure we weren't going to infect the nation with H1N1), and then went off in search of the bus to Phnom Penh. We arrived at the bus station (after being told we needed to hurry because the last bus was at 9:00am by the taxi driver) to be told that the last bus to Phnom Penh (P-P hereafter) for the day had already left, and we would either need to stay overnight in town or hire a taxi (mind you, it was 8:30am, the town of Krong Koh Khong looked like the set from a spaghetti western and has a reputation for smuggling and prostitution, and P-P was about 180 miles away). Two bus tickets the following day would cost the equivalent of $30, and the taxi drivers told us they could take us to P-P for $70 (<span style="font-style: italic;">way more than our entire daily budget for this whole trip</span>). We opted for the private taxi ride ("very comfortable, air conditioned, whole backseat to yourself," said the driver). So off we headed in a mid-90s Toyota Camry with the a/c blowing and the stereo blasting music that sounded like go go music from a <em>Flint</em> movie soundtrack with Khmer lyrics. Roughly halfway into the ride, we pulled off to the side of the road and were ushered out of the car and into another Camry, this one with three people across the front seat and one already in the rear. The driver made the woman in the back seat get up front also (FOUR adults in two bucket seats) since we paid to have the back to ourselves. I kept saying, "it's okay, sit back here," and patting the seat next to me, but no one would move (I <em>did</em> bathe <em>with</em> soap that morning). We arrived in P-P safely and got ourselves situated for the night and had dinner (having already totally blown the daily budget anyway, we figured we deserved at least one meal for the day). Later, after some further reading online, we learned that the buses don't actually leave from <span style="font-style: italic;">the bus <span style="font-weight: bold;">station</span></span>, the last one each day leaves at 8:30am from the <span style="font-style: italic;">bus</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">company <span style="font-weight: bold;">terminal </span> </span></span>in Krong Ko Khong, oops... and we thought the taxi driver was being helpful...<br />The next morning, we went out for a walk to orient ourselves and figure out what we wanted to see and do here. Unfortunately though, Colin wasn't over whatever he had in Ko Samet, so he stayed in the room and I went sightseeing for a couple of days. The Royal Palace is on many people's must see list, so I started there one morning. It was the king's residence and is actually where he was held, basically under house arrest, by the Khmer Rouge. Much of the grounds is off limits because he still spends time at the palace. The manicured gardens are just gorgeous, as are the buildings themselves. The Silver Pagoda, which is floored with pure silver tiles (the ones where you walk are covered with rugs, but you can still see many of them), has a solid gold Buddha statue that's about three feet tall (if the floor wasn't decadent enough on its own, but as Colin says, it must be good to be king).<br />The next afternoon, I went to Tuol Sleng, or S-21, a school that the Khmer Rouge took over to use for interrogation and torture. Only 7 people were found alive at Tuol Sleng when the regime was toppled. I can't adequately describe the feelings I had standing in the buildings looking at row upon row of "mugshot"photos of prisoners of all ages. To see a classroom with only a metal bedframe, leg shackles, a munitions box (used as a toilet by the prisoners), and a solitary photograph of a torture victim, knowing that was just one of many who died horribly, makes me wonder if people are inherently good or if most of us just try REALLY hard to overcome our evil tendencies. Anyway, it was a saddening and sickening experience. After that, I needed to see pretty things, so I went to Psar I Russei, one of several markets in the city. It's a dark, cramped, rabbit warren of stands selling foodstuffs, electronics, and housewares on the first floor and new clothes on the second. They save the best for last though, because the third floor is a drag queen and beauty pageant HEAVEN of silk, satin, lace, beads, sequins, push-up panties and shapers, shoes, and hair salons. I was obviously in the very wrong place to be shopping for myself, but it was really fun to see.<br />Once Colin felt better, we took the bus to Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat. The first day we did a walking tour of the town and plotted our 3-day visit to the temples. Siem Reap itself is built around the temple tourism industry, so there are lots of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops, but not much of substance. We did manage to find a guesthouse with a pool (yay), which was a welcome respite after tromping through the temples each day playing Lara Croft. Angkor Wat was one of the big highlights of our whole journey, and to see it in person was truly amazing. Every wall is decorated with carvings, inside and out. The craftspeople did some fine work a thousand years ago! We walked around tripping over stones because we were looking up at every surface around us saying, "Wow." We took a bazillion photos there, but they don't do it justice, Angkor needs to be seen in person.<br />We are back in P-P (it seems that all roads in Cambodia lead here!) and will be heading to Sihanoukville, which is on the coast, for a few days before going back to Thailand (Bangkok specifically). I can't believe it's almost Christmas. We have seen fake trees and Santas around here, but no snow (HA!). I hope you all have a very happy holiday, stay safe and warm, and be thankful for all that's good in life! RebekahRebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-75845184364015381582009-12-07T22:39:00.000-08:002009-12-08T01:06:41.569-08:00So, what did you do before you moved to Thailand?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiyxRkWD1FtxoyU8NZTgrYBAzlreu8aMjRRZ_pYm2LAaHLS103SgtbrmonwPQC1hC9JwwWQUQH5KBh68WvvdjjU4oVjW4B80fYjMRqmwRDzmawu1hwIzkg8hjkXYy2pnSMHrMF4pKy1jc/s1600-h/P1000774.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412788443843295426" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiyxRkWD1FtxoyU8NZTgrYBAzlreu8aMjRRZ_pYm2LAaHLS103SgtbrmonwPQC1hC9JwwWQUQH5KBh68WvvdjjU4oVjW4B80fYjMRqmwRDzmawu1hwIzkg8hjkXYy2pnSMHrMF4pKy1jc/s320/P1000774.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29QF9znUsKYaFaBn0C-asblM1hBfLn7cAfBO31iWlhjO_EKv6G4Jbe7rF0o0vvVJEaWeRKF9J-HrWN8vkHO3gQ9cDyTlLp5GQiOYgeUKequWvfG2jSFb2k6ImO-oKu_tufa3cLEZkyI8/s1600-h/P1000762.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412786390240512690" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29QF9znUsKYaFaBn0C-asblM1hBfLn7cAfBO31iWlhjO_EKv6G4Jbe7rF0o0vvVJEaWeRKF9J-HrWN8vkHO3gQ9cDyTlLp5GQiOYgeUKequWvfG2jSFb2k6ImO-oKu_tufa3cLEZkyI8/s320/P1000762.JPG" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEkKmoOuznxRAxmnebRbU6NCmnjxiw3m9O8bXZ4BCJdbTybNZh2hwg3MnLaK9WL8gYGxFyhRTuZV4T3Z5ocMHTJj0it0rN9wsM5QfnxlQpAV6pnCzlR2q3yfUNURxZ-aTyI1k37ZGNuM/s1600-h/P1000748.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412785776041650370" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibEkKmoOuznxRAxmnebRbU6NCmnjxiw3m9O8bXZ4BCJdbTybNZh2hwg3MnLaK9WL8gYGxFyhRTuZV4T3Z5ocMHTJj0it0rN9wsM5QfnxlQpAV6pnCzlR2q3yfUNURxZ-aTyI1k37ZGNuM/s320/P1000748.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDjvXHc-Caob4l809f5sf0UUxMkrA4e52OzeonEaVLmQIOM5R2NMy_yhFyUavYYItaVUW591qCH-iWouPjuko_SVuv4GaiCIIfSxbLWax_RCbDaMnGdfwy0QKS6YyWQij8QeLvaAGo-E/s1600-h/P1000738.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412785158756770786" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDjvXHc-Caob4l809f5sf0UUxMkrA4e52OzeonEaVLmQIOM5R2NMy_yhFyUavYYItaVUW591qCH-iWouPjuko_SVuv4GaiCIIfSxbLWax_RCbDaMnGdfwy0QKS6YyWQij8QeLvaAGo-E/s320/P1000738.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>Hi everyone, we're back in mainland Thailand after a week relaxing on the beaches of Ko Samet. Internet access on the island was very expensive and slowwwww, so I will try to summarize the past couple of weeks.<br />The trip from Chiang Mai to Lopburi was our inaugural train ride on the Royal Thai Railway. Even second-class express is pretty darned civilized, I must say. On a ten-hour trip, they fed us a breakfast <em>and</em> a lunch snack, and the car had a/c and reclining seats. Colin's favorite part of the journey was the hostess, whom he christened , "the rear admiral," because of her fancy uniform and her nice caboose. When she walked the aisle facing toward us, we noticed she bore a rather unfortunate resemblance to a Pekingese. Once we arrived in Lopburi, we found a guesthouse for the night and headed to the market to locate some dinner. We each had an interesting bowl of duck-part soup, which was tasty but had some unidentifiable and grisly bits. Colin did manage to eat <em>all</em> of his congealed blood this time, though I did not. The next morning, we ventured out to visit Wat Phra Prang Sam Yot, which is the 11th century ruins of a Khmer Buddist temple, famous for its community of monkeys. We paid our admission and entered unarmed, noticing that a number of people (who had obviously been there before) had monkey-hitting sticks and slingshots to fend off hungry monkeys. Fortunately for us, the annual celebratory monkey feast was held the previous evening, so most of them sat lazily munching on leftovers and left those of us without food in hand alone. After a wander about town, we got our bags and hopped on the bus to Ayutthaya.<br />Ayutthaya was once the capital of Thailand, which is reflected in the beautiful ruins and temples throughout the city. We rented a motorbike for the day and rode out to see several of the wats that are a distance from town. We went to one working temple that has been partially restored and where a community of Buddhist nuns live, as well as to the ruins of a 17th century temple. Both were beautiful, and in fact, we rode back to the ruins that evening to view them alit. My favorite spot in the city was the elephant kraal (of course). This is where the royal army elephants were trained but is now a home for rescued ones. At the kraal, you can buy baskets of vegetables to feed the elephants. As you can imagine, I went through several. They <em>loooove </em>cucumbers especially well (one of the big females took the basket out of my hands and wouldn't return it). We saw some of the huge bull elephants in town later in the day being bathed by their mahouts (one looked like he was only about 11 or 12 years old and, without a doubt, was in control) after giving rides. All in all, it was a good day of sightseeing.<br />The next day, we took the bus to the monorail above Bangkok (<strong>now</strong> we are excited about visiting Bangkok when we come back from Cambodia! It looks like a neat city from above!) to another bus to the ferry to Ko Samet, an island off the coast in the Gulf of Thailand. We struck up a conversation on the ferry with an American guy who lives in Pattaya (on the coast) and owns a burger shack on the beach. After finding out we were practically neighbors (he's from Tacoma, WA), he asked what we do for a living. We told him I was an xray tech and Colin was a prosecutor, and I in return, asked him what he did in the US of A, and how he managed to move to Thailand. He replied, "I was a professional marijuana grower, got caught, and spent two years in federal prison, after which, I went home, dug up my money from the yard, and moved here." That was a new one for me. He gave us his card and the location of his burger joint if we end up in Pattaya and was also kind enough to let us use his phone to find a guesthouse on the island. We spent the week reading (if anyone is looking for a really good read, <em>A Fraction of the Whole</em>, by Steve Tolz, is a fabulously hilarious book- contains some f-bombs and pretty heavy philosophical concepts, so maybe not appropriate yet, Judith Ann!!), swimming, and relaxing.<br />We are now in Trat, and tomorrow will cross into Cambodia for some amount of time. Will update when we have something to write about, probably when we get to Phnom Penh.</div></div></div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-38604881482868424652009-11-27T19:49:00.000-08:002009-11-27T21:29:40.323-08:00I'm confident it's either to the left or to the right...We made it safely back to Chiang Mai from a four day, 750-mile motorcycle adventure on a decidedly secondhand bike with a very well-worn suspension (the left forkleg disgorged its entire oily contents in the first 30 miles of the journey) and seat (it <em>did </em>have good tires, though). Within the the initial hour of the trip we felt the first rain since Cat Ba Island in Vietnam. Fortunately, it was just a minor drizzle and ended shortly. Our trip took us northwest through the town of Pai, a bit of a hippie enclave, where Colin started channelling John Belushi's character in <em>Animal House</em> when he spied two separate dread-locked guys riding bicycles with guitars on their back. We made it through to Mae Hong Son, a scenic mountain city, without incident to anyone, to find that there were no rooms at the inns (at least the ones catering to miserly..er.. thrifty foreigners). We did find accomodations at a clean, quiet hotel after searching farther off the tourist track and referring to the phrasebook alot, since the nice, young woman behind the counter spoke no English, and in fact, wrote the room specifics on a piece of paper for me in Thai. I am actually rather proud of the whole transaction, because not only did I score us a decent room, but I also got us an extra sheet (many places here have fitted sheets and blanket but no top sheet) <em>and </em>a DISCOUNT!<br /> Day two, we got up, had a delicious breakfast of rice noodle soup with pork and headed onward. The first stop was Tham Plaa, aka the fish cave. It's basically a crevice in the rocks where thousands of fish swim up an underground stream. The people who look after fish believe the mountain's spirit protects the fish, so they never catch them (there are some <em>BIG ones</em>). The park is really beautifully landscaped and peaceful (except when you feed the fish- then the river roils). We got back on the incredibly twisty road (literally thousands of turns) with huge elevation changes and pavement that resembles either I-80 through Youngstown after the spring thaw or the moon's surface. The scenery is spectacular; we rode through fields of wild sunflowers in bloom, tons of fruit plantantions and rice fields, past mountains that reminded me of the islands in Halong Bay. We also passed probably two hundred saffron-robed monks of all ages walking along the roadside in one several mile stretch. I don't have a clue where they were going, but it was a long walk from anywhere. Our last sightseeing stop of the day was a calcite cave with at least five chambers, each different and more impressive than the previous one (no photos allowed, so sorry, no pictures of the "farkling" walls). <br /> Day three involved more road twisties, tall, lush mountain scenery along the Thai-Burmese border and a whole lot of butt-burn (we're both out of long-distance riding shape). As we neared our destination for the night, Mae Sot, we saw what looked like a remote village of bamboo houses, but it kept going and going up the mountain from the road, and along the road for a couple of miles. From the signs we gathered that it is a camp for Karen tribe refugees from Burma. They cross into Thailand to escape their options at home: forced labor or persecution for rebellion against the government. They live in limbo, since they can't get ID cards from the Thai government so they can't travel beyond the immediate area or hold regular jobs, and they can't go home. Mae Sot was full of westerners who work for the NGOs helping refugees, and it had an interesting energy about it. We both would have liked to stay there longer, but we had to return the motorcycle the following day. <br /> The next morning we got up and left Thailand and crossed into Burma (it's unfortunately the easiest way to extend one's stay in Thailand). We nervously left our passports in the hands of the Burmese officials and wandered into the city of Myawaddy. While we felt safe enough, it was really a different world, between the men in sarongs, betel nut spit all over everywhere, scabby looking dogs, and whirling dust clouds. Our impression from our brief, 30-minute stay is that it is much wilder than Thailand. We reentered Thailand and got back on the motorcycle and returned to Chiang Mai, unscathed but with really sore bottoms.<br /> We took the train to Lopburi yesterday and are planning our next moves. Our new visas expire on December 9, after which we'll be heading for Cambodia for awhile. Hopefully the next week will involve a trip to an island somewhere along the Gulf of Thailand. Colin uploaded a bunch more photos to smugmug. Happy trails!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-54615512834962895082009-11-20T23:01:00.000-08:002009-11-27T19:49:23.894-08:00Poetry???<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNC4gkUOCBGbjMHRhpXnzfftIhGYZRU1EptJn8rpIp3lbztkRrombdkjHJo6yZuXlUSE1M5f6WSwlQYiOtqeLIV4j2LvpIGQXDe2JGCkCmR1bbCl1j07K9gA2sVAp4iY-N8TVpkTit4I/s1600/P1000576.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406469518926048162" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNC4gkUOCBGbjMHRhpXnzfftIhGYZRU1EptJn8rpIp3lbztkRrombdkjHJo6yZuXlUSE1M5f6WSwlQYiOtqeLIV4j2LvpIGQXDe2JGCkCmR1bbCl1j07K9gA2sVAp4iY-N8TVpkTit4I/s320/P1000576.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFLZLqtDWV9lMXlgXCG4QRq_D3C48Qn3RBlq8OiFnnnyVP7dLaAv0aEgFWzBU8uSeTThyphenhyphen1P2JxKDxtQRnzptuEc3RzXLzPbSYVQ96FeQP4EAMavMLi4od4p65sZ60iHg6u3Vk25NoEms/s1600/P1000624.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406469506306825490" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFLZLqtDWV9lMXlgXCG4QRq_D3C48Qn3RBlq8OiFnnnyVP7dLaAv0aEgFWzBU8uSeTThyphenhyphen1P2JxKDxtQRnzptuEc3RzXLzPbSYVQ96FeQP4EAMavMLi4od4p65sZ60iHg6u3Vk25NoEms/s320/P1000624.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiA0k1FQbD06PCWcI1ein72TLQrPyl2qLIQqo__S0C2wSMD7Uer5AVPUDJWjqJI28Sop2ldvidi9eGek_8c7_7LUJNXN1YhllWFs2z2CxwGleOuCHM0HbMGQy436RyikBNfLdVB1MG6zk/s1600/P1000633.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406469498479394258" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiA0k1FQbD06PCWcI1ein72TLQrPyl2qLIQqo__S0C2wSMD7Uer5AVPUDJWjqJI28Sop2ldvidi9eGek_8c7_7LUJNXN1YhllWFs2z2CxwGleOuCHM0HbMGQy436RyikBNfLdVB1MG6zk/s320/P1000633.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />We've been in Thailand for a week now. We spent several days in Chiang Rai, which is a fairly large city in the northern part of the country. It was kind of strange to be in a city after spending time in Laos. They actually have <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">real</span> stores (including a <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Boots</span> drugstore) and traffic! We visited the most important temple, Wat Phra Kaew, while we were there- the grounds are beautiful and calm. Colin agreed and commented that becoming a monk might not be too bad if he could hang out there for his three-month stint. We also went to the Hill Tribe Museum, which had rather interesting exhibits on the opium trade in the Golden Triangle and also on the infinite uses for bamboo. <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">I </span>want to grow a bamboo forest when we get home- it's so pretty growing in the wild, and it makes really nice walls <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">and </span>drinkware!<br />At the museum, we read about the hill tribe village where they allow visitors to watch what they do but without the rampant commercialism of so many villages in the region. It sounded like a good place to go, so we rented a motorbike the following day and headed north out of town. The ride was spectacular, passing pineapple plantations (the smelled sooooo good!!!!), rice paddies, waterfalls, and beautiful, lush mountains. The village, when we arrived, was, well... a disappointment (an understatement). The point of the village was to give tourists an opportunity to see a traditional village where people actually live and work, not simply selling handicrafts to busloads of tourists. Unfortunately, within moments of our arrival, five jeeps pulled up and disgorged their tourist contents. They were the worst kind of tourists- the literature at the entrance all said to be respectful of the people, not to give candy to the children, not to be loud, to ask before taking photos, and on and on. We apparently missed the message that it was <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">opposite day</span>, so we left in disgust and rode to see one of the large waterfalls in the area. The waterfall was supposed to be a good spot to admire the sunset, and we got to the parking lot at around 4 o'clock. A sign said the waterfall was 1400 metres away, and we thought, "not a problem," for the first 200 metres. Then, we crossed the woven bamboo bridge over the river and started to gain elevation. The path was packed, slick mud steps, up and around tree roots, under toppled stands of bamboo, and through REAL JUNGLE. It started getting dark before we got to the "waterfall 800 metres" sign, so we (the <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">royal</span> version) figured we needed to pick up the pace a bit. Colin started panting too hard to whistle the "Bridge on the River Kwai" theme, but we made it to the waterfall in time to see it before the sun set. It really was a gorgeous sight and definitely worth the trip.<br />We're now in Chiang Mai until tomorrow morning, when we rent a big motorcycle and head out for four days of riding in the countryside. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand, with nearly as many temples as Bangkok. Cities here seem much more relaxed than in Vietnam- they're much quieter (no blaring horns, no crowing chickens) and more orderly. The people are very polite, and all the women want to give Colin a massage...hmm... .<br />Although we enjoy our time in cities, we really want to get out and see more of the country on our own schedule. We will be out of web range for the next few days, so look for the next adventure post in about a week. Colin has uploaded a bunch more photos to smugmug, finishing the images from Luang Prabang, our Mekong boat trip, and has started adding images from Chiang Rai. Later taters, until next time!Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-4850629296686377992009-11-15T23:03:00.000-08:002009-11-16T00:42:58.926-08:00Why does the thatched roof smell like cat poop?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4roh_Zro2BOuNrbmxjDeS1EeGU7tMDRUTZGWw5iZLAaDbXyqfNAt6ABnIz_5a5xlLeZxoSWFlM0jk4DpyejXCJJ_xKrEtOa7O95jmvFilr75UCYqwTtIDSY0TPkYGlJRVXRxxznsvnU/s1600/P1000556.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404619165327046706" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4roh_Zro2BOuNrbmxjDeS1EeGU7tMDRUTZGWw5iZLAaDbXyqfNAt6ABnIz_5a5xlLeZxoSWFlM0jk4DpyejXCJJ_xKrEtOa7O95jmvFilr75UCYqwTtIDSY0TPkYGlJRVXRxxznsvnU/s320/P1000556.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOU8XNLkoS4gbDHCLpXs0Kxjxc3VW3BvbRCkVwk2us5nfxHpKAHMY7x75xr7bynBWH34ANUNC7KO4d_uStGhgh-Jb4G9PuN6TsBDr5b2U09aZB4ac5r0Zmv2IqI_7Ef3FtRVl2Q-LQng0/s1600/P1000554.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404619160776787442" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOU8XNLkoS4gbDHCLpXs0Kxjxc3VW3BvbRCkVwk2us5nfxHpKAHMY7x75xr7bynBWH34ANUNC7KO4d_uStGhgh-Jb4G9PuN6TsBDr5b2U09aZB4ac5r0Zmv2IqI_7Ef3FtRVl2Q-LQng0/s320/P1000554.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTxiZA7eCufY6mUkhCS5xO7DtzOUDUQwoT2Vd4NGDhEaCpTxzuZu_j2sGWAH_n_81dPFJQBVXYKZV7yfPhiVr1tnRi1p2TI-7VT9hZ38136ZqEJqEOOHpfAMSTYQn9tJ8Nnj6kP4wUijk/s1600/P1000565.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404619150689845602" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTxiZA7eCufY6mUkhCS5xO7DtzOUDUQwoT2Vd4NGDhEaCpTxzuZu_j2sGWAH_n_81dPFJQBVXYKZV7yfPhiVr1tnRi1p2TI-7VT9hZ38136ZqEJqEOOHpfAMSTYQn9tJ8Nnj6kP4wUijk/s320/P1000565.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div>After a two-day boat ride up the Mekong River, we made it to the city of Houay Xai, Laos. The guidebooks all say you should take the trip once in your lifetime, so we signed on (for quite a ride). The boat was about 60ft long, sat low in the water (you could drag your fingertips if you wanted) and had wooden bench seats that would make any church pew look absolutely deeee-luxe. We picked our seats (of course on the sunny side...again. Colin isn't allowed to select our seats anymore) and made ourselves comfortable (HA!). The scenery along the river is gorgeous; we saw tiny, isolated villages and long stretches with no signs of human habitation. If not for the discomfort felt in our ischial tuberosities (ie. butt bones), the sweltering heat, the fuel fumes, and the excessive decibels of the motor, it would have been a pleasant <em>nine-hour</em> trip. Plus, as an added bonus, I did not drink enough water (against Colin's sage advice) and found myself really sick when we stopped in Pakbeng for the night. While I was throwing up (and I didn't even realize I'd eaten <em>all </em>the ingredients of vomit), Colin found us the WORST guesthouse we've stayed in so far (and he swears it was the best of the four he looked at). They shut off the generators (there is no electricity in town otherwise), and thus, the fans, at midnight. Between the sounds of drunkards dry-heaving, wood furniture being rearranged overhead, and roosters crowing at all hours, we both had the worst night sleep of the trip. The morning of day two I found myself feeling much improved- it's amazing what a combination of focused, seething hatred of roosters and sufficient fluid consumption will do for the spirit! Things looked even brighter when we slid down the sand hill to see a different boat would carry us the rest of the way; this one had...VAN SEATS!!!!!!!!! Yes, we promptly laid claim to the last two cushioned seats and had much more comfortable journey: talking with several European travelers, taking pictures of the scenery, and staying adequately hydrated.<br />We got to Houay Xai on Thursday evening, found a much nicer guesthouse and some dinner, and relaxed. Friday, we wandered around town, ate ice cream, and I got a massage at the Lao Red Cross (gotta do my part to support a good cause). Saturday morning we packed and prepared to cross into Thailand. The border crossing was uneventful, although the Lao border agents seemed quite amused when the saw where we entered the country. Apparently we were correct in our assumption that they don''t see many westerners at that particular station.<br />We are now in Chiang Rai, after spending one day in Chiang Khong, which is the Thai city across the Mekong from Houay Xai. Our initial impression is that Thailand is a much more affluent country than Vietnam or especially, Laos. Colin commented that not only do people have cars here, but they have <em>rims</em> on their cars. I noticed for the first time in Asia, there are pet stores, with pet <em>food</em>. I take it for granted that we have enough money to actually buy special food for our animals and can get preventative and necessary veterinary care for them, but when you can hardly afford to feed your children and live in a boat under a tarp roof, animals' comforts are probably a pretty low priority. Colin and I both realize how truly fortunate we are to have been born where we were.<br />Our current plan is to stay in Chiang Rai for the next few days to see the sights in and around town (maybe rent a motorbike for a day). The food is spectacular, and our guesthouse's garden is a comfortable place to read, so we're in no hurry to move. Plus, the guesthouse has wifi, so I'm back to being an iPhone widow, <em>sigh...</em> (although I must admit, it is really nice to have it to call home). Colin is putting my elephant adventure photos on smugmug as I write this. After that, we'll be adding pictures to our previous blog posts, so scroll through them again for pics.<br /><br />PS- About the blog title: while sitting at an outdoor cafe, we noticed a cat scamper across from a metal roof to the thatched roof directly across the street from us. We thought at first it was chasing something when it started scratching in the thatch, but then,...oh.</div></div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-62526849764768017082009-11-09T03:38:00.000-08:002009-11-17T00:35:11.556-08:00Heffalumps!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBPXD6kH1x9FwlPRVZP4OuFjaJo3IjF-3-uWRJamA9mijWEyTbxGUFVFH49hh8btqwXLP8jRjxDTuqjZFvBLf_LeUZPidMObwBxQpgcAVLWF3D11X_smYt0FLT1c7r-D7Dzik4bPjg2qk/s1600/P1000529.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404987309232817650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBPXD6kH1x9FwlPRVZP4OuFjaJo3IjF-3-uWRJamA9mijWEyTbxGUFVFH49hh8btqwXLP8jRjxDTuqjZFvBLf_LeUZPidMObwBxQpgcAVLWF3D11X_smYt0FLT1c7r-D7Dzik4bPjg2qk/s320/P1000529.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_22uhf9wvoZSa7cPPV9WneUbRvLAyIpVTxMGtR8q3zOtoVq0nAVALKkIJZdAvVcYeG8MZkHx3Ahll9LnC8HqsqpBYNiXhJbq3P1OXO12NkMXAgphvZqqEk8P6VGdgmVxDC7C3k2OqtOw/s1600/P1000513.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404987302740548642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_22uhf9wvoZSa7cPPV9WneUbRvLAyIpVTxMGtR8q3zOtoVq0nAVALKkIJZdAvVcYeG8MZkHx3Ahll9LnC8HqsqpBYNiXhJbq3P1OXO12NkMXAgphvZqqEk8P6VGdgmVxDC7C3k2OqtOw/s320/P1000513.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPeuIiy8paOz5baMfvztZVY6sMdN2VDShqF52bMj5XuCmGScGSxmHslO5OQMlrC92lr72-ZQvXquoNpDPKUuF2OExAEeFHY4vSdfK1mddYNBDcy7QOZdQS8HfGJ9nJyr3P8lGafzFmRQ4/s1600/P1000500.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404987291611473650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPeuIiy8paOz5baMfvztZVY6sMdN2VDShqF52bMj5XuCmGScGSxmHslO5OQMlrC92lr72-ZQvXquoNpDPKUuF2OExAEeFHY4vSdfK1mddYNBDcy7QOZdQS8HfGJ9nJyr3P8lGafzFmRQ4/s320/P1000500.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div>I had my day with the elephants today (thanks Mom and Dad, I spent my birthday gift on it), and what a day it was! I went to the Elephant Village, a "retirement home" of sorts for elephants rescued from the logging industry, where I learned the basic commands used by mahouts to direct an elephant. My gal for the day was Mae Cot, a younger elephant with food issues (don't KEEP those papayas from her). I said, "soeung," and she knelt for me to hoist my butt onto her neck (glad it wasn't the other way around). We first rode around the yard to get our "elephant legs" before we headed down the path through the woods, down the hill, and into the river. After lunch we rode back to the river for... a bath. They didn't really tell us <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">how</span> to wash our elephants, or <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">where </span>they like to be scrubbed, but I did discover that Mae Cot likes to be scrubbed gently behind her large, floppy ears. After bath time ended, we rode back up the path, where Mae Cot rubbed her side along the hillside and got herself dirty again... . It was a GREAT day!<br />This morning at 6, we walked to the town center to view the daily alms giving, where saffron-robed monks of all ages (some of the "monkins" as Colin says, appeared as young as 10) receive sticky rice from the faithful who lined the street. It was a solemn, peaceful experience.<br />Saturday morning we volunteered with an organization, Big Brother Mouse, to help Lao students learn English pronunciation. We sat and chatted with a dozen or so high school and college students for several hours about anything and everything. Somehow, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">I</span> ended up in the street with a drawing of a truck and a motorbike naming all the parts, including lugnuts (who draws lugnuts on a truck?!?!). Three of the students didn't want to stop when the session officially ended, so we took them to the patio of our guesthouse and talked for another couple hours. Later that night, we met them again and helped them with their English homework. The students were Hmong from very rural villages who are studying at the teachers' college, with a goal of returning to their home villages to teach English. We both were surprised when the homework lesson referred to a refrigerator, and neither knew what it was. Since their villages don't have electricity, who needs a refrigerator? We were really impressed by their eagerness to learn and excitement over having someone to speak with, as well as their obvious love of their homes.<br />With the rest of our time in Luang Prabang, we've visited many wats (Buddhist temples), including one that was a cave that extended several hundred (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">I thought it was thousands</span>) feet into the mountainside. A guide unlocked the gate and led us through the cave with flashlights. It was hot, damp, slippery, and darker than the darkest closet corner you've ever been locked in. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan. But Colin, who is usually claustrophobic, thought it was a picnic.<br />Other than all of this, we also were witness to a slice of "the circle of life" pie yesterday afternoon. During a beverage stop at an open air cafe along the Mekong River, a cat caught a rat, but was in no hurry to kill it (since it's fun to play with our food, no matter what you say, MOM). The proprietress attempted to shoo the cat away, which only led to the cat dragging the rat under our table and then under another couple's table. More staff appeared with sticks and tried to shoo the cat away. But...the cat came back...with the rat, who was looking worse for the experience. Colin told me to look away, and keep looking away, when the proprietress reappeared with a small club. When the scene ended, Colin told me that the woman was trying to whack the rat with the club, but the rat was still in the cat's mouth. Every time she tried to whack the rat, the cat pulled it away. She resorted to holding the cat by the scruff so it would hold still while she put the rat out of its misery. What started as macabre became rather hilarious by the end of the scene.<br />Tomorrow we are heading to a local waterfall for a picnic and some swimming, and the day after, we leave for a two-day slooooowwww boat trip to the Thai border. We'll post again when we get to Thailand.</div></div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-58469621232962082392009-11-02T04:20:00.000-08:002009-11-17T00:51:13.141-08:00Phonsavan<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2K0r5oO4ddIEEu7d162xnmBWy3rRLf1qXObfjMV0XKMegFyQIpxJaq8456HMmqKr7UIa45MAG8TJS2NZA2nUJFvy8oV2yiUKMD_XtWWIBNZ2hirF7LFOZpoAbP6SVd-OrEd54Xhi-2sI/s1600/P1000394.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404991783801855618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2K0r5oO4ddIEEu7d162xnmBWy3rRLf1qXObfjMV0XKMegFyQIpxJaq8456HMmqKr7UIa45MAG8TJS2NZA2nUJFvy8oV2yiUKMD_XtWWIBNZ2hirF7LFOZpoAbP6SVd-OrEd54Xhi-2sI/s320/P1000394.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3AHTd3d-dYwfmsqWUKcb6RGN8raVhEMGOexg501QYEFzWsNpN8MI_G4WGbwJJW-uDYW8pqYH-uIcxibQSEKu-R-L9NY4m-IR4YH6vnsjl3MlmcpQFnV6jrdxK06lW7l0I0xI_dIIxnQM/s1600/P1000400.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404991775174614642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3AHTd3d-dYwfmsqWUKcb6RGN8raVhEMGOexg501QYEFzWsNpN8MI_G4WGbwJJW-uDYW8pqYH-uIcxibQSEKu-R-L9NY4m-IR4YH6vnsjl3MlmcpQFnV6jrdxK06lW7l0I0xI_dIIxnQM/s320/P1000400.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TAwneSQUjFmn5ptgInrailXQevpRLhY1XAZEsGnO5ZMQ94x2VCuL2SYWEpv_bGE2N8ElQ6ntW6itHyumo1bPNHJqgCrqS-_rPI40YDivJjNLc5Dm3DG6uqWCHnjOji0NLiNwfb0BWf8/s1600/P1000367.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404991763201545538" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TAwneSQUjFmn5ptgInrailXQevpRLhY1XAZEsGnO5ZMQ94x2VCuL2SYWEpv_bGE2N8ElQ6ntW6itHyumo1bPNHJqgCrqS-_rPI40YDivJjNLc5Dm3DG6uqWCHnjOji0NLiNwfb0BWf8/s320/P1000367.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div>We've now been in Phonsavan, Laos for two full days; it's small, quiet, and very friendly. Yesterday we decided to take it easy after our two days of traveling to get here. We went to the markets (of course) and wandered the main streets of the town. Last night, we went to the cafe across the street for a delicious BeerLao and met a group from the Ministry of (I think) Economy and Tourism, who are in town "studying" from Vientiane (the capitol of Laos). Two of the gentlemen spoke quite fluent English and struck up a conversation. Somehow, I also found myself sampling a salad made with green papaya and LOTS of <strong>HOT </strong>peppers that the Lao tourist dudes had the chef make for them. They were apparently baiting her to add more peppers and were most impressed that we ate at least some of what they offered us. This was possibly the hottest thing I've ever put in my mouth, and after several minutes of the burn creeping down my esophagus AND up into my sinuses, I thought my eardrums were going to burst into flames!<br />Today we got a map and walked to <a href="http://www.mulberries.org/">Mulberries silk farm</a>, where we learned about the silk-making process start to finish. They do everything from growing the mulberry trees to weaving gorgeous fabrics. Our guide showed us the building where the silkworms eat and grow for many days before they begin spinning their cocoons. You can actually hear them munching on the mulberry leaves- it sounded like a low sizzling noise. While in this building, we also saw the cocoons, and depending on the species of worm, they are either pure white or a beautiful golden color. When I pulled on the edge of one (yes, the man told me I could) it looked like spun gold in the light. This facility brings people from the surrounding villages to teach them how to raise silkworms and process their own silk. We spoke with the woman who founded the organization 16 years ago, and her goal is to give people an avenue to earn a fair wage. They sell some of their finished goods through 10,000 Villages shops in the US and at their own stores in Vientiane and Louang Prabang. They are a certified fair trade organization, and her goal is to be certified organic soon. We took some cool photos of the farm and some year, we will upload them!<br />This afternoon, we went to the <a href="http://www.maginternational.org/">MAG</a> office and watched the flim, Bombies, about the covert war in Laos and the ongoing effort to remove the millions of pieces of unexploded ordinance that the US dropped over 9 years. It was a sobering experience that made me ashamed of what our country did to the Lao people. People still die every year as a result of the cluster bombs we dropped 40 years ago. Huge sections of the countryside still cannot be used because of the danger of UXOs.<br />Tomorrow we go on a tour of the Plain of Jars and then on to Louang Prabang the next day (and we're paying the extra dollar each for the VIP bus!)</div></div></div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690044971800129403.post-21069547923629782892009-10-31T22:10:00.000-07:002009-11-16T00:46:23.394-08:00C:"What are we eating?" R: "I don't know, it's filled with something..."<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhint6V-4bEOcXXQ98C94EUlIe3oG8EC5gO-lO2rfRH6fRVMUMBJLcDZuMtILOtnjN-QM7-_exm-JDBMp37RacYL_Jb22e1YaEXe9YW3ISIY9sbjOg0N7YC-BFlEYZ5nDpCAW4rvxLK8Y8/s1600/P1000358.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404620074619756562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhint6V-4bEOcXXQ98C94EUlIe3oG8EC5gO-lO2rfRH6fRVMUMBJLcDZuMtILOtnjN-QM7-_exm-JDBMp37RacYL_Jb22e1YaEXe9YW3ISIY9sbjOg0N7YC-BFlEYZ5nDpCAW4rvxLK8Y8/s320/P1000358.JPG" /></a><br /><div>We left Cat Ba Island on Thursday for Vinh, which is supposedly a place to arrange a quicker bus ride to the Lao border than via Hanoi. And we'd both had about enough fun there the first time. After another rough ride on the night bus, we made it to Vinh at around 2:30am. The bus driver stopped at the far edge of town and booted us off rather unceremoniously after checking our tickets to make sure he was ejecting the right two foreigners. After watching him bless his bus, walking around it with incense sticks, we took off on foot in the direction he pointed when we asked where the bus station in Vinh is. We met probably the only honest motorcycle taxi rider in the entire nation, who stopped, asked where we were going, and motioned for us to put our bags in front of him and for us to both hop on behind. Two backpacks, two daypacks, and two good-sized westerners on the back of a 125cc scooter! He delivered us safely to the bus station at a very fair price, and I could only imagine what he told the other taxi drivers he spoke with when he dropped us off, but I heard a whole lot of laughter. We spent the rest of the morning sitting on the stoop under the lights at the bus station like real homeless people, er, adventurers... AND I peed in the parking lot like a real home...er...adventurer. We got a hotel around 7 after the town woke up and got a nap and shower and felt much better. We were apparently the ONLY westerners in this city of over 200,000 people, because people hung out of bus windows to stare as they passed us on the street, and we felt like celebrities everywhere we went. For a day we really weren't looking forward to, it was actually a lot of fun.<br />That evening we headed back to the bus station and arranged transportation through Mr Hai, who has a bus that runs periodically to Phonsavan, Laos. Saturday morning we boarded along with a handful of other people and took off for what turned out to be an eventful trip. First, we made a detour to a small town to pick up mattresses, bags of rice, and metal pots (which all got loaded onto the roof), then we picked up more passengers along the way. Stopping for lunch in an unknown small town, we noticed that there was brake fluid all over the front wheel. The bus crew worked on it while we ate lunch (we really have no idea what it was, maybe eel? Colin hopes the ribs were pork...all I can say is, whatever it was, the meat and the green things were tasty). Repairs made, the crew purchased two large jugs of brake fluid and we continued to the border. The ride was beautiful, through mountains, traditional villages with bamboo and stilt homes; I'm glad we didn't fly instead as many people do. We got to the border and were a bit nervous, not knowing the languages or the process. This border crossing isn't commonly used by westerners, and we were a novelty on both sides. Exiting Vietnam was uneventful, we changed currency and the guards made a quick glance through our bags (the one man took my sun hat out of the bag and put it on my head- they are serious about skin safety here). It was less formal on the Laos side, after crossing the bridge, we had to climb a steep, muddy hill, passing clucking chickens, to the border station. The officers took our passports and accompanying photos for our visas on arrival and got out the manual on how to issue the appropriate visa to Americans. After sweating for twenty minutes, our passports were stamped and visas were issued, and we were on our way once again. The celebration was short-lived, since we stopped about 10km inside the Laos border with a flat tire on the bus. Fortunately, we were in one of the few towns along the way, and after an hour and a half, the <strong>tube was patched</strong>, and we were once again, on our way. We finally arrived in Phonsavan at about 9pm (approximately 375km in 15 hours). We were glad to have brought crackers, fruit, and water with us on the bus. Even though the trip was long, we managed to keep our senses of humor about the situation and enjoyed the journey a lot.<br />Phonsavan, and Laos in general, is literally a breath of fresh air compared to Vietnam. It is blissfully quiet, the air is clear, noone hassles the few tourists here, and of course, the food is good. Tomorrow we are going to the Plain of Jars and then on to Louang Prabang in a couple of days.</div>Rebekahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08955360094886544738noreply@blogger.com0