The Road to Nowhere

Invitation

2010-09-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks for joining us on The Road to Nowhere.

We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing our travels with you through and now we would like to invite to our home to help us celebrate our return to the USA

When: saturday 18 September 2010

Where: our home; 9112 185th PL SW
Edmonds, WA 98026

Time: 3pm until we tire

contact info: kmarie66@hotmail.com, mathews_jeff@hotmail.com, timothyj22@gmail.com or 206-436-4707

We will provide the main course, if you will bring a salad, side dish and/or dessert to share. There will be beer and lemonade but if you want something different please bring it along. We will share photos and stories but really want to see you and say thank you for joining us.

Two Weeks in Paris Aug 13th - 27th

2010-08-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of our trip, but here we are driving into Paris on Friday the 13th in the rain. Turns out to be good luck since it is a condo we are checking into and it has two beds and one bedroom. First time in a bed for us for several weeks now. Dining room even has a table and chairs. Oh the luxury!!

We have two weeks to explore Paris so we decide to take our time and explore slowly (knowing we will miss some things). We still have our car until tuesday the 17th, and looking at the weather forecast we decide we shall drive to Versaille on saturday 14th August. This also gives us a chance to drive and discover the neighborhoods a bit.

We visit Versaille in the morning, unfortunately not arriving quite early enough to avoid long ques, almost an hour just to get tickets as we did not do this ahead of time online. We opt to visit the gardens first as the weather was nice (storm clouds looming) and the fountains were operating at this time. The shear size of the gardens are impressive and the to think they were for royalty and their guests is unfathomable. Sculptures of famous historical people, mythological animals and real ones, fountains depicting Greek Gods fetes are everywhere. We spend a lot of time exploring and walking the mazes in the gardens. We make our way to the two smaller palaces toward the back of the gardens. Marie Antionette was once a resident here and they do a good job with their information boards telling the history. The palace was primarily constructed out of a pink and yellow granite, not really to my liking, but impressive none-the-less. Of course the furnishings were very French, very ornate with colorful tapestries and gold. I must say it was very impressive. By 3:30 in the afternoon we are ready to tackle the que for the maIn Palace of Versaille, and lucky for us the line is much shorter than it was early this morning and we are inside in a short 10 minute wait. We get an audio guide for our visit and begin. We have not been in an overly tourist place in a long time and are overwhelmed by the number of people. We follow along, making our way through the beautiful Palace and apartments. We are thoroughly exhausted by the end of our visit and the vote was to return to our condo for a glass of wine and dinner.

We have rain for the next several days but take the opportunity to explore some of the markets on the outskirts of Paris and our own neighborhood of Vincennes. We return our car on tuesday and discover the Paris Metro, which has a station a short 10 minute walk from our place. We take ourselves in to Paris early wednesday to explore the Louvre! We arrive early buy a 6 day museum pass and begin exploring. We chose to find the Monna Lisa first, which of course is surrounded by people, but amazing! We continue on the 1st floor seeing much of it before (it is now mid afternoon) we decide we need fresh air and a break from the Louvre. The afternoon is lovely and we decide to walk the gardens toward the Arc de Triumph. Along the way we stop at the Musee de la Orangie which has Monet's Water Lillies and others impressionist paintings. We arrive at the Champs de Lessay, the grand boulevard, and walk along until we reach the Arc de Triumph. Gorgeous from the ground and the view from the top is fabulous.

We continue through the week and see Notre Dame; its Tower, Cathedral and Crypt, the Conciergy and St. Chapelle, the Musee of Maritime, Pantheon, Musee de Cluny, Chateau Vincennes, many of the Jardines (gardens) of the city and of course the Eiffel Tower. What can I say the Eiffel Tower is amazing! We take the stairs up, which is quite an easy task after we have spent the year walking, hiking and climbing stairs. We have chosen a most glorious day for this as the skies are true blue and we can see for miles. We arrive just at opening time and make our way up before the crowd is too large. Did you know the Eiffel Tower was constructed in 1 years time and was meant only to be temporary! They decided to keep it only after they began using it for antennas for radio. Could you imagine Paris without an Eiffel Tower. It would be like Seattle without the Space Needle, just not right. We also visited the old medieval part of Paris, Sacre Coure, many other churches and the Catacombes

We enjoy markets and Paris has many weekend "flea" markets and we discover a couple of them, no treasures but enjoyable. Tim, on the other hand does not join us for the markets but takes himself off across the city by train to a soccer field he spotted while we were atop the Eiffel Tower. Of course I was worried but he had a map and the desire, so off he went. We all had an enjoyable sunday. Jeff and I are off to Louvre once again but even after spending the better portion of the day we still do not come close to seeing half of it. Tim has taken off to play soccer once again saying he was "museumed out".

We cooked most of the time in Paris, but we also did eat out a couple of times and even got the chance to meet up with a young man we had met in Thailand. Philippe promised to take us out for Snails when we came to Paris and he was good to his word. We met him at one of his favorite restaurants for dinner; snails, duck pate, sausage made from pig intestine, steak and wine. Not to forget Tim and Philippe each had an enormous ice cream for dessert. Thank you Philippe for a lovely evening filled with good food and conversation, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our "Road to Nowhere" has come to an end, as I write this we are flying back to the USA and our many family and friends.

Cheers ~ Karen

Carcossone and France Aug 6 - Aug 13

2010-08-26T07:04:00.001-07:00

We left Spain and headed for France on the 6th of August. After driving about six hours (with stops), we arrived at the town of Carcassone. We drove around for a period, looking for a campground to stay in. We were turned away from the first one and were allowed to stay in the second for two nights (we were hoping for 3 - 4 nights). We settled in for the night and fixed dinner.

The next morning, we were up and off to explore the old medieval walled city. As you approach the old city, it looks like a fairy tale. The walled city sits on a hill above the river. The wall is punctuated by pointy topped turrets. Although there were a ton of tourists and the city is rather touristy (all the shops and restaurants are only for tourists), we enjoyed our self guided tour that took the entire day. We hiked along the wall, visited the castle, and wandered the streets. The fortress was started during the roman times and subsequently added on to and reinforced throughout time. A number of the towers on the wall are from the original roman construction.

The next day, we moved on without a plan. We visited the castles of Lastours. These were a group of four castles built in the 11th century and were occupied by supporters of the Cathars (a variant of Christianity that opposed the Roman Catholic church and accused it of corruption of the faith). Pope Innocent III (appears to not be so Innocent) decided to deal with the group by instigating the Albigensian Crusade. For 20 years from 1209 until about 1230, the crusade marched on and the Cathars were exterminated. The opening assault of the crusade was the massacre of the town of Beziers and 20,000 people within the town walls seeking shelter. Then things got nasty. The castles of Lastours held out for two years until they surrendered in 1211. The same defenders regained their castles in 1223 and held out until 1229 when they were finally defeated. The hike to the castle makes it clear why they could hold out for so long. They are located on the ridges of some very high hills in the steep valley. The nice thing about visiting these castles is that you can climb all over them and do pretty much anything you want. After the castle, we drove on to a very small town St. Afrique and stayed in the municipal camp ground.

Monday we were driving along and saw a sign for Roquefort and thought, we like the cheese, maybe we should see where it comes from. We took a quick turn and stopped to visit the town. We took two different tours in the town of the caves they use for the cheese. The town is located along a cliff that has massive caves with fissures that go deep in the ground and bring air up from the depths. This is where the caves that the cheese is aged. To be called Roquefort cheese, it must come from the area within a 200 meter line along the cliff. The story goes that the cheese making procedure came from a shepherd that left his sheep cheese and bread in a cave and found it a while later. The cheese had a blue mold on it, but had a wonderful taste. Thus began the process of making Roquefort cheese. They make the cheese out of sheep milk from the surrounding area and then place it in these caves with mold from loaves of bread that have been left in the same caves. In anywhere from three months to one year, the cheese is ready. We buy some for a snack and are amazed at the flavor. I have eaten "Roquefort" cheese at home, but it certainly wasn't real Roquefort. There is a massive difference.

After visiting the cheese makers, we drove on to a Medieval city called La Couvertuirade. It is another walled medieval town and is just amazing. The houses are the same houses from 700 - 800 years ago. We walked through the village and headed out of the walls to get pictures looking back. It is a very small village and from a military standpoint, it wasn't overly defensible. Primarily the walls were to protect the villagers from groups other than armies. Especially during the various periods of disease (The Black Plague, etc.). It was a great day and we found a place to sleep in Nant.

All through this period we are driving on narrow roads, through windy canyons. Sometimes the roads got so narrow that one car barely fit on them.

Tuesday we drove up to a town located on the top of a cliff nearby. The town in called Cantobre and is perched on a rocky point over the river. Again this is another medieval town. Very small. About 10 - 15 buildings and a church. We wander around and then move on to Abime De Bramabiau. This is a limestone cavern with a river running through it. Another beautiful place. We decided to stay in the town of Millau. On the way to the camp ground, we stopped at La Graufeesenque, the ruins of part of the Roman town that was the beginning of habitation in this area. This town was known for Roman pottery. Pieces of pottery from this town have been found throughout the Roman Empire. The ruins were of the area that contained the pottery kilns. After a long day, we settled down into our campsite and made dinner (BBQ Rabbit). While we were making dinner, a van drove through the camp ground selling veggies and 5 liter boxes of wine. Of course we had to buy a box of wine.

Wednesday was more castles in the gorges. We spent the day driving up the Gorges du Tarn. The river and surrounding area is beautiful. Reminds us a lot of home (other than the castles and the medieval villages sprinkled every where). Another tour of a castle on the hill, then we camp on the river. Tim and I go swimming in the river for a bit before dinner.

The next morning we drove north towards Paris and finally arrived on Friday the 13th. Although we are in the land of Friday the 13th, nothing ominous happens and we drive straight to our condo in Paris. We have completed our driving in Europe without much in the way of incidents and are now ready for our final adventure.

~Jeff~

Valencia, Sagunto and beyond July 31 - August 5

2010-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

We are thoroughly exhausted after our time at Pueblo Ingles and we need some rest from our holiday. We head to Valencia, the home of the Paella, of course we must indulge.

The drive to Valencia is quite easy, only about 3 hours, although the scenery was a bit dry (similar to driving through Eastern Washington). We arrive in the late afternoon after a late departure from Madrid. Tim still had many friends to say goodbye to, and emotions were running high. We find camping just south of the city in a small village, set up camp and head to the beach. Oops! this beach seems to be an alternative beach, meaning clothing optional. We find a spot well to the far side where there are many families. The sun feels nice and it is good to relax.

We visit Valencia on the Sunday and as many of you know much of Europe is "closed" on Sundays. Being closed means many things; first most grocery stores are typically closed all day, parking is free and some smaller tourist sites are closed. We easily find a shaded parking spot about in the middle of the sites we wish to visit in the old town and market, the Opera House, Aquarium, IMAX and parks. The Opera House, Aquarium, IMAX Theater all look like something out of Star Wars. They are surrounded by fountains and ponds and are quite the display of modern architecture. We end our evening with a fabulous Paella, salad and bottle of wine.

The next morning, we head 25km north of Valencia to the historic village of Sagunto. What we did not realize is in Spain the historical sites are closed on Mondays! We walk around town and up to the Roman Theatre; we will stay through tuesday to explore more. We spend the afternoon relaxing on the beach.

We are up early to visit the castle and the roman theatre before the heat of the day. Amazing, just amazing. It is so hard to imagine that these sights were all built so very long ago with out the help of "modern" inventions. We could still see the remains of the original Roman fort, temple and then the subsequent additions made over the centuries. definitely different yet they still used the old walls reinforcing and expanding as each subsequent group inhabited the hilltop.

We visit the beach of Port Sagunto, and thankfully this is a regular beach. Arriving back at our camp groung, we find the Gypsies have come and come in numbers. All seem very nice but ... we (like everyone around us) are a bit more watchful of our things. No worries.

We head north out of Sagunto keeping to the coast of Spain. We stop in the "small" village of Pineda de Mar. I say small because it is a small town but now it is the height of tourist season and people are everywhere. We find nice camping minutes from the beach and quickly decide we must stay two nights as they are having Paella the next day at 2pm. The photos here are great but the sight of it all was incredible. We purchased some Sangria and for 10 euro we got enough Paella to satisfy the three of us quite nicely. How lucky we are to have been here on this day in particular, as this is a once a year event! Jeff is working on plans of how to obtain a large pan to do a Paella party at home. We will see. Our last night in Sagunto, we meet the neighbors from Holland. It rains as we are making dinner. This is always a challenge for us since we sit on the ground outside our tent for cooking and eating. They come and invite us to eat under their covered front porch. Yes, they look like real campers as opposed to us who look more like Gypsies. It was very nice of them and we stay for drinks and talk into the evening. Many thanks to them for a wonderful night.

The next morning is dry and we pack up and are on our way to France. We hate to say goodbye to Spain, but are looking forward to saying hello to our old friend France.

~Karen & Jeff~

Granada July 23rd

2010-08-25T02:16:00.000-07:00

Oops, sorry we got a little ahead of ourselves with the Pueblo blog entry.

As Karen and I left Portugal, we needed to find a place to stay that was within several hours of the hotel we needed to be at for the Pueblo Ingles program. We looked at the map and decided we would stay somewhere around Granada. On the way to Granada, Karen read that they had a nice site to visit called the Alhambra, so we decided to try to see it. We arrived to town around 5:00 pm and decided to find somewhere to stay and see the Alhambra in the morning.

We found a nice little camp ground just off the freeway, literally off the freeway. We decided to eat at the restaurant and had a lovely dinner with a French/Thai family living in Vietnam in Spain on holiday. It was a wonderful evening chatting with them.

The next morning, Karen and I got to the Alhambra by 7:30 am. The ticket office opens at 8am with the grounds opening at 8:30 am. Apparently, it is hard to get tickets especially in the summer, but we get lucky and have no problems. Some times, accidents are better than anything you plan. The Alhambra is amazing

The Alcazaba, the Alhambra’s fortress, dates from the 11th – 13th centuries. History in this fortress is extensive. The Nasrid Palace was used by the Muslim rulers in the 13th-15th century and is the centerpiece of the Alhambra. Actually Granada has a history of 8 centuries as a Muslim capitol.

Today what you see is a Christian influence over the historic Muslim buildings, and I must say the beauty of it all is one of the most amazing sights. The site is built with direction of utmost importance and one can definitely see and feel the impact of the direction. We spent over 2 ½ hours exploring the palace alone and even then felt we could have spent longer. We visit the “fort” where the legions of soldiers lived and watched over the Alhambra, what a magnificent views they had of the surroundings

A quick visit to Charles V palace and we must be on our way. We have spent the entire morning here and we wanted more….. I guess that means we must visit once again. I hear the night visit is most spectacular.

A historical bit of trivia for you: the hall of ambassadors, which is in the Nasrid Palaceis the site in which Christopher Columbus received the “go ahead” from Ferdinand and Isabel for his journey to discover the new world.

~Jeff & Karen~

Pueblo Ingles

2010-08-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

Pueblo Ingles July 15 - 30

Pueblo Ingles is a program that is based out of Madrid. How the program works is, English speaking kids from, England, Ireland, Canada, the U.S., or any other English speaking countries sign up ahead of time. If they get accepted then they buy a ticket and head to Madrid for the program.

My program was a 2 week program, and my parents program was one week. So I had to show up in Madrid 1 week before they had to. I arrived at the hotel which is the hotel that Pueblo Ingles works out the kids from. I checked in and met my roommate for the night. After all of the bag dropping and room checking, we headed onto the bus and took a tour of 4 of the most famous squares in Madrid (names of the squares not known). After the tour we got back onto the bus and went to the hotel for dinner, after dinner we got our orientation on the program and got into our groups for the different camps. The next morning I had to be up at 7:00 am and downstairs ready to go at 7:30. After breakfast we got our bags and got onto our different buses. We then picked up the Spaniards that were going to the same camp as us. The bus ride was seven hours long; it was the longest ride to any of the camps.

Since I cannot tell you about everyday at the camp I will just tell you the schedule for a day at Priego(our camp name). First we got up at 8:30am and had breakfast at 9:00, after breakfast we would go for a warm up activity at 10:30am, a warm up would consist of stretches or a funny dance. After a warm up of 15 minutes we would have our first one to one at 10:45am. A one to one is when you take one Anglo, one Spaniard and the Anglo, and Spaniard just sit and talk for about 45 minutes. After the one to one was over we would have pool time. Pool time is, well pool time is pool time, and you go get your swimming trunks on and jump in. When pool time was finished we would have a group activity. At the camp we had different color teams, I was the yellow team, and in a group activity you would get an assignment, like to do a skit. The skit had to be in English, so the Spaniards had some tough times. Then after group activity was finished we had lunch. When lunch was finished we had free time which consisted of an hour and a half of anything the kids wanted to do. You could swim you could go onto the internet, you could have a nap or you could sit and talk with your friends. The next thing on the agenda is 2 more one to ones. After, we had a free choice activity. A free choice activity is when all the counselors have an activity, (your team gets points in the group activities or in every day life at camp for mixing with Spaniard and talking English all the time, but the Spaniard always got minus points for speaking Spanish) then how many points your team gets depends on what activity you yourself get to choose. If your team has the most points then you get to choose first if not, then you have to go in the order of how many points each team has from biggest to the least. After, we had dinner. When dinner was over we had a night activity which was from 10:00-11:30pm a night activity was something like capture the flag.

Every day at Priego was long, but tons of fun. By the end of camp most of the teens did not want to go home and were really sad to have to go, a lot of the girls cried. I met a lot of new people at that camp, and a lot of different people. But I know that I can keep in contact with them, and I know for sure I will try to go back to Pueblo Ingles again.

- Tim

Pueblo Ingles July 23 – July 30

Where do I start, we signed up for a program called Pueblo Ingles. Basically it is a program where native English speakers volunteer to spend a week with Spanish speakers trying to improve their English skills. We would be staying at a remote hotel in Spain (near Granada for us) with a group of Anglos and Spaniards. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect.

Since Karen and I spent the week before in Portugal, we decided not to drive back to Madrid to take the bus back down south (where we already were), so we drove ourselves and arrived about an hour before the group. We were a little nervous since the address for the hotel did not show up in map quest and the nearest spot it gave us was 40 minutes from the hotel. Needless to say, I drove a little too fast on a single lane mountain road to make sure we got there on time. No harm, no foul.

The program is not for the timid. From the moment we arrived until we left a week later, our time was spent with people conversing. Each day began at 9:00 am with breakfast (each table had two Spaniards and two Anglos), after that there would be one hour sessions that would range from one on one’s (you and a Spaniard to talk about whatever you wanted), two on two’s (same but more people), conference calls, telephone calls or presentations by the Spaniards. My favorite was the presentations. They were amazing, creative, informative and much more. At 2:00 pm we had lunch and then a siesta time until 5:00 pm (pool time for Karen and I). 5:00 – 8:00 was more activities (some group, some individual) and then 8:00 – 9:00 was entertainment (plays, presentations, etc.) . 9:00 pm- 10:00 pm was dinner and then 10:00 pm – 2:00 am was cocktail hour. Quite the busy schedule.

Over the course of the week, some close friendships developed. I enjoyed meeting and talking with all the Spaniards. We don’t get much time to talk to the Anglos, but enjoyed them as well. There were several people that I especially felt a connection with. I enjoyed talking rugby with Manuel and he even managed to talk Karen into letting me play when we return home (if I find an oldies team). I also spent a lot of time talking with Chema, Chema, Ignacio and Hannah (from London). They must have been ok with me hanging out as well since they made me an honorary member of the “tall” club. The last day I was overwhelmed by their generosity. Ignacio went to amazing lengths to buy me a Spanish World Cup Champions shirt and Manuel gave me a rugby shirt from his rugby club in Granada (which I have gotten many comments on since). I forged many more friendships than the examples mentioned above, but the entry would be too long if I mentioned them all.

I certainly went with the intention of helping people learn English. I might have helped a little, but instead I spent the week learning about the Spanish passion for life and living it to the fullest. Listening to everyone talk about their family and friends and how important they are to them made me think about how we have lost a lot of that back home in America. They also live enjoy themselves. They play games, eat out at restaurants and party much of the weekends. The night we had a dance, I thought this could be lame. I was thinking in the context of a group of Americans thrust into the same situation. Not for the Spanish. The music began and so did they. Everyone sang and danced. Not only danced, but danced incredibly well. The women (Graciela especially) were fantastic dancers, but it was the men that amazed me. Thank god more Spanish men did not visit the states when I was young, I would never have met anyone. Spending the week with everyone at the program has reinforced what I have been learning on the trip, I have changes to make when I get home. It is time to live life! Thanks to everyone for sharing with me and teaching me more than I taught you.

Campeones, Campeones Ole! Ole! Ole!

~Jeff~

Pueblo Ingles …. A fabulous program, thank you Bridget for giving us information about the program. As Jeff said it was a very intense week but one that we will not forget. I had wonderful time getting to know Spaniards and most of the Anglos. Many new friendships were formed and we hope that we will have visitors in Seattle.

Jeff explained the structure of the program to you so I shall let you know a little more detail. Most of the Spaniards want to improve their English for work opportunities. We had accountants, lawyers, a doctor, business executives, teachers and university students, the group was very diverse. I found that most of the Spaniards were far more comfortable writing rather than speaking. Apparently they learn English in school but only to the point of being able to read they really do not practice pronunciations. As we all know the pronunciations are not always as we think they might be, so we helped and explained some of the rules we use in English. Verb tense was also difficult for them, some words in Spanish are used for both male and female and they therefore have difficulty when speaking English using he/she correctly.

I continue to help as I am corresponding via email with some, correcting their use of words and verb tense. Pueblo Ingles is truly a wonderful program; it has taught us a lot about people and languages, how we are not really all that different in our desires in life but how we choose to live our lives.

I would recommend this program to you if want a different style of holiday, one in which you truly meet the people of the country. You can look the program up online at www.morethanenglish.com or www.puebloingle.com

Adios ~ Karen

Costa Brava July 10 - 14

2010-08-17T10:32:00.001-07:00

We entered Spain from two nice nights in France. We had slowly made our way from Italy along the southern coast of France to Spain. Our ultimate goal was Barcelona to watch the game, but as I mentioned in the World Cup entry, that was not a good choice, so we headed to the Spanish Riviera – Costs Brava.

Before heading to the coast, we made a brief visit to Girona. We wandered around the old town looking at the town wall, many old buildings, beautiful narrow streets that meander through the town and the old cathedral.

After our short stop in Girona, we headed for a small town named Palamos. A little less touristy than some of the other areas. We settled in a camp ground overlooking the Mediterranean. It is a fantastic camp ground within walking distance to the town and the beach. It’s also one of the most expensive camp grounds we have stayed at. We discussed it as a family and decided we were a bit tired and would use this as a rest stop for a little R & R. It takes a little while to get on Spanish time, all the shops and stores are closed from 2:00 pm- 5:00 pm. Restaurants (not that we went to any due to budget issues) didn’t open until 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm.

The four days spent here were not very exciting, but they were very enjoyable. We bought a beach umbrella and paddle ball and put them to good use. We headed to the beach for four or five hours each day, swam in the pool for another hour or two and then walked to the market to buy food to cook for dinner and did a little bit of other shopping. Because we didn’t have to pay for sites, we splurged a bit on the grocery side and had some very nice meals here.

We view both saturday and sundays World Cup finals here as I mentioned in my World Cup entry.

On the 14th we headed for Madrid and camped in a small town just outside of Madrid so that we could get Tim to his hotel for his two week Pueblo Ingles program. After almost 300 days together 24/7, it felt a bit strange to just drop your 15 year old son off at a hotel in Madrid and say we will see you in two weeks.

~Jeff~

A Little bit of Italy July 4 - 7

2010-08-16T06:02:00.001-07:00

Originally, we planned to spend a lot of time in Italy on this trip, and then we changed plans to visit friends and decided no time in Italy, now we have come full circle back to stopping in Italy. Italy was a good stopping point in our drive from Munich over to southern France.

The drive through the Alps in Austria, via Innsbruck, was beautiful, but no stops. As we came out of the Alps on the other side in Italy, the scenery was gorgeous. High mountains separated by a valley running through the middle. The valley is covered in vineyards. Various hilltops have castles situated on them overlooking the valley. Just amazing!

We decide to stay along the south western shore of Lago di Garda, a beautiful, large lake in northern Italy. Camping is nice in Italy but also expensive. A strange thing happened in the pool, we were required to wear a bathing cap! Odd as we have not encountered this at all in Europe but apparently in Italy this is normal.

We take our next day and venture in to Verona. Yes this is the home town of Juliet from Shakespeare’s; Romeo and Juliet. We visit Juliet’s home and see the famous balcony. Another highlight of Verona is the Roman Coliseum. We visit this amazing venue. They are setting up for a concert in the evening, it will be Stevie Wonder. I must say this must be a fantastic venue for a concert. They put on many performances here both dramatically and musically every year. Would be fun to see one, but that is for another trip.

We next head to Cinque Terre. Tim has recommended this to us as he really enjoyed his day here with his school class last summer. We set up camp in the town of Sestri Levante, which is in close proximity to the villages of Cinque Terre.
We begin at Sestri Levante station and take the train to the furthest most end of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. We begin our fabulous day. Amazing, beautiful, exhilarating, awe inspiring are just a few adjectives to describe our feelings. We hike 1km to Manarola, visit this village, which appears to be just waking up for the day. A1km hike on to Corniglia, enjoying a brief swim in the Mediterean Sea before we reach the town to visit and have a snack. We then hike on 4km to Vernazza. This is the village Tim visited last year and I must say it is the most spectacular. We swim in the small harbor, enjoy a cold drink, and explore the small shops before we take the train to Monteserosso.
The little villages of Cinque Terre perched on the cliffs above the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean are amazing. This is where Jeff and I spend our 7th anniversary. We couldn’t have planned for a better spot. Tim was so right it is truly wonderful.
This is definitely a place we will return to.

Now that we know who will be in the world cup finals, it is time to move on. It’s off to Spain and Barcelona.

~Karen~

2010-07-31T11:06:00.001-07:00

The World Cup June 11 – July 11

A quick diversion from the trip to explain a little about our trip within a trip. As all of you are aware, the World Cup of Football (soccer) started June 11th. The World Cup only happens every four years and we decided we would take advantage of the fact we are in Europe where this is a big deal. Every country we visited (that was in the world cup) cars were decorated and flags were hung outside of homes, pubs and businesses.

Within reason, a lot of our travels and sight seeing were geared around catching the big games in a good venue or one of the countries that was playing. To that end, we left Holland and traveled to Berlin to watch the first USA game versus England and the Germany v. Australia game. We found a nice local pub to view both games.

Within reason, a lot of our travels and sight seeing were geared around catching the big games in a good venue or one of the countries that was playing. To that end, we left Holland and traveled to Berlin to watch the first USA game versus England and the Germany v. Australia game. We found a nice local pub to view both games.

We continued to watch some of the lesser games whenever the opportunity arose as we traveled around the countryside. We managed to catch more than half the games and all the big match ups (Brazil v. Portugal, etc.). It was very fun and no matter who was playing, there were always people watching the games cheering for one side or the other.

We chose to leave Prague earlier than we had planned to make sure we made it to a town in Germany to watch the England v. Germany game. This was slated to be a classic match. We decided to stay in Bamberg. A little town several hours north of Munich. The town is very pretty and the old quarter has some wonderful buildings and history. This way we could see the game and sightsee. As we walked through town looking for a venue, we noticed all the young people going the same direction. In the main square they had set up a stage and a massive big screen tv. It cost two Euro to get in and then you could buy food or drinks in the venue. We waited about an hour for the game as the place filled up, around 3,000 people. The crowed had their faces painted, wearing flags (many of the girls had made dresses out of material in the colors of the flag), Germany hats and buttons. Germany dominated England in the match and the crowd went crazy with each goal. After the game, the streets were filled with people partying and cars driving up and down certain roads with flags out and horns honking. We wandered around town for several hours sightseeing and enjoying the party.

The next day we drove down to Munich to meet some friends we met in Vietnam. We had a wonderful time with them and decided to stay on to watch the Argentina v. Germany game. A very exciting and fun game, glad it was not any closer because Juergen might have had a heart attack. Very glad we stayed.

We had decided not to go to Italy earlier in the trip, but then decided that would be a good place to watch the next round to see who made it to the finals. Germany would be playing Spain and Netherlands v. Uruguay. We decided if Germany won, we would head back up to Germany. If Spain won, we would carry on to Spain. Italy became our holding spot. Europe was excited that the final might end up Germany v. The Netherlands. The Germans categorized this as a big rivalry and the Dutch claimed it would be a war and brought up memories of World War II. Football in Europe is about much more than just the sport. There are a lot of political, social and historical pieces to the football. We would discover this even more in our next leg.

As you know, Spain won and faced the Netherlands in the final, so not back to Germany. Instead, we decided to head to Barcelona to sight see and watch the game in a decent Spanish venue. The game was on July 11th and we needed to be in Madrid by the 15th for Tim to go to Pueblo Ingles. Once again the lack of a plan bit us in the rear end. Had I done a little research, I would have known that Barcelona is located in Catalonia and they do not like being part of Spain and for the most part do not support the Spain team in international events.

We decided to stay out on the coast on the Costa Brava (Spanish Riviera). We found a nice camp ground and watched the Germany v. Uruguay game. On the day of the finals, we hung out at the beach and then found a pub with tv’s on the sidewalk. There were maybe fifty people with a smattering of them dressed in orange supporting the Netherlands. It was an exciting game and the venue turned out to be fine. Spain won and a small party ensued in town. Around 800 people sang and danced in the streets, blocked traffic, lit off fireworks and had a great time. Around the edge of town people drove around honking their horns and waving flags. Not quite the party of several hundred thousand in Madrid, but a good time none the less.

Thus ended a side trip on the Road to Nowhere.

~Jeff~

Munich June 28 - July 3rd

2010-07-31T01:55:00.000-07:00

This is our second entry into Germany, this time in the south. We head towards Munich or perhaps I should say outside of Munich to the small village of Schondorf, where we stay with Juergen, Sabine and Frederick. We met this family on a snorkel trip in Nha Trang, Vietnam; they were on a short school break exploring part of Vietnam. They generously invited us to come and visit them if we were coming to Munich.
We arrive to their home on a Monday afternoon. School is still in session, so Frederick is not due home until 4pm, but as soon as he arrives we head to Lake Ammersee for a swim. The day is hot and the water is a refreshing 22*c. Juergen made a lovely dinner of roasted vegetables and seared loin of lamb; of course we had some nice wine to go along with it.

The next day we head to Garmisch Partenkirchen where we go for a hike in the Alps! Amazing, I know we are in Germany, but I cannot help thinking of the Sound of Music because the “hills” roll and they are just amazing and beautiful! We hike for about 4 hours and discover an amazing canyon that the river has carved out over the centuries. Photos really do not do justice, it is just amazingly gorgeous. The path winds along a meter or two above the water. In some places it is tunnels that have been carved to accommodate the path in others the path is at the base of the cliff.

We explore the nearby town of Landsberg on Wednesday, where I decide to finally have my hair cut…mistake. I need to do some work on it as it is not looking great. Juergen belongs to a sailing club, so he has reserved a sailboat for the day. We head out after 1pm when Frederick is out of school. This is my first real experience on a sailboat, and although the wind was not great we had a fabulous time. I even worry about the angle the boat takes and should we move…..I am not a sailor, but I am working on it and I had a great time.

Thursday it is into Munich. Juergen drives us in, shows us the Olympic Park, many of the historical sights such as a square where Hitler gave many speeches. We spend the day exploring the city and even find a river you can surf on. Tim is quite impressed! We have purchased truffles for dinner and Juergen makes a wonderful pasta with the truffles…wow! Another first, and I liked it very much. Sabine has had to work while we have been here but she is great and stays up late into the night talking with us.

We decide to stay close on Friday and Jeff and I discover the town of Schondorf and its beach. Tim stays “home” and heads to the beach with Frederick when he returns from school.

Saturday finds us on the road to Oberau, a little Bavarian town famous for their presentation of the play, The Passion (the death of Christ). They only present the play every 10 years and the people of the village who act in it, grow their hair and beards for the better part of a year or two in preparation for the roles. This happens to be the year the play is on, so the town is jammed with tourists. It is a nice town. Tim comments that it looks like Leavenworth. I would have to agree with him. Our actual destination is the Schloss Neuschwanstein in Fussen. . As we approach the town, you can see the castle on the hill. It is absolutely stunning. We check into taking a tour, but the timing won’t work for us to take a tour and make it back to watch the Germany v. Argentina game. We opt to wander around the grounds. It is one of the most beautiful settings I have every seen. Just like a fairy tale castle (In fact, it is. This is the castle used by Walt Disney to design Snow White’s castle.) The view from the castle is wonderful. There are some lakes down below in the low lands and the castle is surrounded by cliffs in the mountains. The castle looks across a small valley to a waterfall. This is somewhere we hope to come back to someday and spend an entire day exploring the area and looking at the castle from different angles and vantage points.

Back at the house, Germany wins versus Argentina and we celebrate with a fantastic barbeque and salads. A fantastic end to a wonderful visit. We look forward to seeing Juergen, Sabine and Frederick in Seattle and have the opportunity to show them around our corner of the world. We hate to leave on Sunday, but it is a quick drive through Austria on our way to Italy.

~Karen and Jeff~

Prague June 24 -26

2010-07-17T01:32:00.001-07:00

For years, I have been hearing from people that they think Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. With our limited running around so far in Europe, I would have to agree. The old buildings are amazing and every single street is a photo op. There is a lot of history in this city and because it did not suffer much damage during the Second World War, the city still has the majority of its old buildings. Prague is a must see for anyone that enjoys old architecture.

Our first day in Prague, we took the train into town from a mall near our campground and we wandered around town looking at the various buildings, squares and churches. We discovered that there was a three day music festival taking place around the river. You know us, not one to pass up a music festival. There was not much happening the first day, so we wandered on to the King George’s Bridge. This bridge is a famous landmark that shows up in most photos. It was beautiful and has magnificent statues lining both sides of the bridge. Presently, the bridge is Pedestrian traffic only, which in Prague means it is busier than heck. I think everyone must know this is an amazing city. Prague has more tourists than any other city we have been to on our trip, it is almost impossible to avoid them. We walk back into town to find a pub to watch the Brazil v. Portugal game. We find a nice pub with a good TV (and the nastiest wait staff ever). We watch the first half and then move to another pub that has a tiny TV and fantastic staff and customers.

Back into town by train the next morning. Today we start with the Castle and the surrounding area. The castle is not a medieval castle like we would think of, but a conglomeration of buildings on the hill that work as a walled palace and various palace buildings and churches. It is an enjoyable several hours and the view of the city below is fantastic. After a few hours, we need a break from the tourists and we head for the music festival. This is a nice break form the tourists. We find a stage to settle down at and play cards and listen to two bands. It’s not the Blues stage with Bob Shepherd, but it is still enjoyable. We wander on to another stage to listen to an Irish band. Having had our music fix, we head back at a reasonable hour to have dinner so that we can watch the USA v. Ghana game on the television at the camp bar. It was a good game, but very disappointing that the boys couldn’t keep it together in extra time. Luckily, the Czech beer is good and cheap. We were surprised to see that many of the people in the bar were cheering for the US team.

We had a nice visit to the Czech Republic and would like to have spent more time exploring the country, but we want to be in Germany for the England v. Germany game. Time to go.

~Jeff~

Krakow - Auschwitz June 21 -23

2010-07-16T15:03:00.001-07:00

A quick four hour drive from Wroclaw and we are in the former Polish Capital of Krakow. Karen navigates us to the neighborhood where we are couch surfing. Not much in the way of parking, but we find a spot and head off sightseeing. We walk to Wawel Castle, a 14th century castle. It is a magnificent castle, but we arrive too late to take a tour. We walk around the grounds and visit the fabled dragon cave.

Under the castle is a cave and the story goes that a dragon took up residence under the Castle and the king offered the Princess in marriage to anyone who could slay the dragon. Many knights tried and failed. Finally the local shoemaker tried by filling a dead sheep with sulphur. The dragon ate the sheep and then flew to the river to drink water. He drank and drank until he blew up. The shoemaker then made shoes out of the skin and married the Princess. Outside the cave is a metal sculpture of the dragon. If you send and sms from your phone, he breathes fire.

After the castle, we wander around the old Jewish quarter. During the war, this was walled off and turned into a ghetto containing the Jews until they were sent to the extermination camps. This is the area that Oscar Schindler obtained workers for his factory, thus saving them from the death camps (movie Schindler’s List). At 7:30 pm we go back to the flat to meet Stefan and get settled in. We all go to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants and have dinner and watch the World Cup. Nice time and great to talk to Stefan. He gives us a lot of suggestions of things to see and do.

Day two, we leave early to visit the Weiliczka Salt Mine. We take a tour that lasts several hours. It is amazing. I never knew what a salt mine was. This is salt from an old sea that has been compressed under the ground for millions of years. The compression creates what looks like stone, but if you shine a light on it, it is clearly all crystal. We are still unbelievers, so we each lick the cave wall. Pure salt! We descend a staircase of 378 steps down into the mine. The beginning of the tour is at 64 kilometers under ground. The tour takes you from one chamber to another chamber. Some of the chambers have exhibits which show how the mining took place and others have statues carved out of the salt made by the miners. The tour covers 2 kilometers of tunnels, and the entire complex is 300 kilometers of tunnels descending to a depth of 327 meters. The walls are supported with log structures that look like Lincoln logs. The logs have to be used for support because the salt will corrode any metal used. The various carvings are amazing, but at one point we visit and underground chapel, the Chapel of St Kinga, situated at 101 meters underground. The chapel was created by three miners in their off hours over many years. Amazing!

We spend the rest of the day exploring and shopping. Tim got new soccer boots, as he has signed up to play upon our return and he needs to be in shape to play straight away. We also cook one of our Thai curries for dinner and share a meal with Stefan in the flat before heading out to watch a World Cup game.

We have been having fun watching the World Cup here in Europe, the excitement is alive! Go USA! But it really doesn’t matter as we will watch all the games if we can.

Day 3 We depart fairly early from Krakow to visit Auschwitz. We drive through the country side to reach Auschwitz, and are amazed at the reality of life in the area. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, just another area. I guess that is what the Germans were aiming for in setting up their “camps”.
Once at Auschwitz 1, as they call the main camp, we take the tour which begins with a film before the guided tour. Jeff and I remember a much more detailed version of this from our high school history class and are a bit disappointed. We begin the tour and we are part of a group of perhaps 30. Our guide takes us through many of the buildings with a commentary, but we find ourselves wandering off exploring beyond her tour. We are about 3 hours on the tour and are quite over whelmed. The camp is in good shape at Auschwitz. The exhibits are lacking a lot of information and impact though. The holocaust museum in the US is much better. We then took the shuttle to Auschwitz 2, also known as Birkenau. This was the “extermination” camp, and the impact upon us was huge. The size of the camp is unbelievable. I was devastated……I truly could not believe the horrors that took place here. As I write this tears come to me as I recall the memories. I cannot believe what people can do to other people.
I will not say more as I am to emotional at the thoughts and will be able to share more with individuals once we are home. We return to Wroclaw and our dear friends home for once last night before heading on.
~Karen~

Trekking on the Polish Czech Border - June 18-20

2010-07-13T07:24:00.001-07:00

Beata organized a trekking excursion in the mountains of the Polish - Czech border. We went with our family, their family and Bartek (a friend of theirs) and his two children.

We left on Friday and drove to Szlarska Poreba. We left two cars there and one car in Karpacz, which will be where we finish the trek. It rains quite hard on our way to the towns, but lets up to a drizzle by time we hit the trail. The first day is a one hour and forty five minute hike up into the mountains. We arrive at the “shelter” where we will stay. All along the trail are these “shelters”. They are more what we would call a lodge. Our lodge was built in 1780. You can book a room from 4 – 10 people. The accommodation is very nice and basic, but the lodge itself is amazing. They each have a restaurant and bar, and the feeling of Alpine ski lodge. We have a wonderful evening eating, drinking Polish beer that we have carried up the hill (we are so cheap) and talking.

Day two, we hike for eight hours. We start paralleling the ridge. Much of the surroundings remind us of home. Part way through the day we proceed uphill and then walk along the ridge which is the actual border between Poland and the Czech Republic. Beautiful views and a number of large rock piles that Tim and the kids love to climb. In the late afternoon we stop at another lodge and have a wonderful Polish dinner, Pierogi, Bigos and Falsolka (a bean dish). We finished up our hike at another lodge that has an incredible view. Our lodge is up on the hill, there is another lodge below us at the base of a cirque next to a little lake. Another good evening finishing the beer and Buffalo Grass Vodka (will explain when I get home).

Our last morning we depart and hike for several hours down to Karpacz. We spend a little time exploring the town and then have dinner at a very nice restaurant. Almost all of us had pork ribs cooked in beer, which were fantastic. A well deserved meal after hiking over 30 kilometers. After dinner, Tim did a ropes course with rope bridges and zip lines. He enjoyed it.

It is an absolutely beautiful area! Thank you Beata for planning this weekend.

~Jeff & Karen~

Wroclaw, Poland June 14-17

2010-07-13T07:04:00.001-07:00

After leaving Berlin, we drove to Wroclaw (pronounced frotssauve) formerly Breslau when under German rule, to visit a family we met in Cairns, Australia. This is the only family we met that also took a year and traveled the world. We enjoyed spending time with them in Australia and then again in Saigon, Vietnam. You can take a look at their blog site by typing in this location (for whatever reason, I cannot make the link function work)

www.hoparoundtheglobe.com/English

We arrived around 7:00 pm and were greeted by Isha, Bernard, Beata and Blazej. We all sat down to dinner and a long conversation catching up on each others trips. They have been home from their trip now for over two months and it was interesting to hear from them how they have adjusted back into real life. Isha is 12yrs and Bernard is 7yrs and they both went straight back into classes in their schools. They enjoyed meeting with their friends once again and had a fairly easy time adjusting. Blazej went back to his old job in the computer world and Beata was exploring her options. During our visit her options became 2+ job offers, so she has to decide which she wants.

After a wonderful nights rest we are ready to explore Wroclaw and Beata shows us into town on the trolley system. We definitely see the remains of a communist time here in the buildings and the people. There are many kiosks that remind Jeff of his time in Mongolia, and the “grocery” stores are very abrupt. We explore this beautiful city and its many churches. The center area of a town in Poland is called Rynek, and in Wroclaw it is absolutely beautiful. People gather here and everything is happening in this spot. Wroclaw was a German town before World War II and was heavily damaged during the war (70% of all buildings were destroyed). After the war, the Germans were forced to move back to Germany and Russia took over a portion of Poland and forced the Polish residents to move to populate the towns vacated by the Germans. As a result, the old buildings are more German style than Polish. Still a very beautiful city and busy with a new found prosperity over the last 20 years (the end of communism). During our walk we toured a number of beautiful churches, including the church Beata and Blazej got married in.

Beata told us to watch for the gnomes in town and we found many. The gnomes were originally a symbol of the Orange movement, which was a nonviolent group that protested against the communist government. Apparently, many of their protests took the form of dressing up in costumes and protesting, then running from the police when the protest was broken up. One such costume was gnomes and another time a group dressed up as Santa Clause and were chased around by the Police.

We find our way home and enjoy another wonderful family evening. Beata cooks a very wonderful traditional meal for us; schnitzel, potatoes, and cooked cabbage. Over the course of several days, we visit the town a few times to sightsee, shop and visit some pubs in the evenings. We were even lucky enough to visit Blazej’s parents house to celebrate “name” day for his mother. They were very nice to let us join in the festivities and his mother made fantastic desert. In Poland, everyone has a day where their name is celebrated across the country. All people with this name has a special day similar to a birthday. Quite fun.

Beata was very kind and offered to make pierogi with me. Pierogi is one of my favorite foods that I remember from childhood. We make them together and she makes it seem so easy, and they were so good. We are so grateful to Beata and Blazej for sharing Polish food, history, details of life under communism and general life. We are indebted to them for their hospitality. We hope to repay the kindness in Seattle. It is nice to have such a family as our friends.

~Karen~

Hameln & Berlin June 10-13

2010-07-12T02:44:00.001-07:00

Our first night in Germany, we camped by the Rhine river in a small town just across the Border with the Netherlands. It was very pretty and quite enjoyable. After dinner, we sat on the deck of the restaurant and had drinks (beer for me) and played cards. It was real nice.

The next day we moved on to the town of Hameln. We find a nice camp ground and go explore the city. This town has a very old town center. The buildings look like they are in a fairy tale. In fact, this town is the center piece of the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. As the story goes, the Pied Piper was in this town and led all the rats away from town. The town did not pay him for his services, so he came back to town and led all the children away. This story is still the center piece of the town. Every where you go there are statues of rats and they are sold in all the souvenir shops. At the town hall, several times a day, the Glockenspiel goes and plays music and the story of the Pied Piper is played out by the glockenspiel. It was a nice day wandering around town.

The next day we moved on to Berlin where we couch surfed with Annie. She had a lovely flat in the heart of Berlin. She was kind enough to leave the keys at the local bakery and we got settled in and walked around the neighborhood to find a pub for the USA versus England World Cup match. We found a nice pub and enjoyed watching the US fight to a 1-1 draw with England. A good result. Go USA!!.

The next day we walked to the center of town. Our first stop was “Check Point Charlie”, the old border crossing from the American sector in Berlin to the Russian sector of East Berlin. Near the check point there are a lot of information boards which provided some history about the cold war and the Berlin wall that separated East and West Berlin. Next we ventured to a section of the wall that is still standing. It is hard to imagine life within a city separated like this and with two completely different life styles. We’ve heard quite a few stories from locals about the day that the wall came down. Sounds incredible and quite the party.

Our next stop was a new exhibit in Berlin called the Topography of Terror. This is a wonderful exhibit chronicling the rise of Nazi power in Germany through the course of the war until the fall of Berlin. I was surprised at the information regarding the end of the war and the amount of the Nazi leaders that were not punished after the war. Many were convicted of crimes and then released from their sentence early, spending only a few years in jail.

As you walk around Berlin, the results of the fighting in the city in World War II are still evident everywhere. In many areas you have new buildings where everything was destroyed and then rebuilt. When ever you see old buildings, there are parts that are new and the remaining parts have bullet and blast marks all around the windows and doors.

We cut our touring short to make sure we got back to the flat in time to make dinner and then return to the same pub as the night before to watch the Germany v. Australia game. This time the pub is full and we sit outside on the sidewalk. It is a great game and Germany dominates Australia 4 – 0. Every time Germany scores, you hear loud explosions. People set off fireworks on each goal. Even people from our pub run into the street and light off M-80’s. After the game, cars are driving by honking their horns and waving flags out the windows. Quite the celebration. During the game, we met a lovely family with a 13 year old daughter Lilly. We had a wonderful conversation with her and hope she comes to visit us in Seattle.

The next morning we pack to leave and then head back to the city center to catch a few more sights. We visit the Brandenburg Gate, the Bundestag (current Parliament building, formerly the Reichstag), and the memorial to the Holocaust.

The gate is wonderful, but full of tourists. The Bundestag is an amazing building. The construction is massive stone blocks. It was heavily damaged during the war, but even withstood the brunt of a major onslaught during the battle for Berlin. We toured around the outside, but decided not to wait several hours in the line to climb up into the glass dome covering the top of the Parliament room.

It was a short visit to Berlin, but we enjoyed it very much. Our evening and morning talks with Annie were fantastic and opened our eyes to a number of new ideas about some things. Always great to see and hear other peoples perspectives. Annie’s hospitality was wonderful.
~Jeff~

Holland June 7 -9

2010-07-02T23:45:00.001-07:00

We drove up to Rotterdam and decided to find the Tourist information office to gather details of where to go and stay during our visit. Unfortunately, we found the road signs very difficult to interpret and got lost in part of the more industrial part of downtown. While driving around trying to find our way, what looked like a police car (turned out to be customs) flagged us down and asked to see our papers for the car. Taking the advice of the car company we had not put the papers in the glove box, but instead had put them away somewhere. Neither of us could remember where. After 15 minutes of looking and not finding the papers, they ran our license plate through their computer and gathered we were not smart enough to be stealing cars, so they let us go. They suggested we carry on to Delft and not try to get into Rotterdam with the car.

The tourist information office in Delft didn’t have much information, you could purchase a map of the city, but that was about it. We decided to carry on up the road to find a place to stay. We set up camp in ??? a small town near the coast. We had dinner and then it began to rain. No worries, we played cards in the tent.

We explored Amsterdam for the next two days. We were given directions to a park and ride near Amsterdam. What a great deal. We were able to park and get three round trip train tickets for 6 Euros. This is how the Netherlands are trying to keep cars out of the city. Combined with very high parking prices in the city, the methodology is very effective. Our exploration of Amsterdam was hampered by a constant rain. We got a few breaks, but not much. Luckily, coming from Seattle, this is no big deal.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city with amazing canals and pretty buildings. Although the canals are everywhere, this should be known as the city of the bicycles. The Dutch are fantastic about using their bicycles. Young and old alike ride everywhere. The roads are laws are set up to give bikes the right of way in all situations. For us, it took some getting used to as a pedestrian to constantly watch for bikes.

We visited Anne Frank’s house and went through the exhibit. Karen had read the book in High School, but it made it more interesting to see it in person to give perspective. Tim will read the book in school next year. We walked through a number of nice flower markets with flowers and bulbs that we never see at home (Susan, you would have loved it). Of course, we had to visit a cheese shop or two.

The sites were lovely, but we had a few culinary treats that people had told us we must try. Our first day in Amsterdam, we tried the Matjes (young herring which have been stored in a salt brine). Essentially it is raw herring. We weren’t too sure at first, but loved them! Next, we had to confirm a Pulp Fictionism. John Travolta said they eat french fries in Holland smothered in Mayonnaise. We ordered the frites “with” and sure enough, they came smothered in Mayo. Finally, you can’t go to Holland without getting cheese. We had some lovely Gouda and smoked goats cheese.

On our way out of Holland, we went through Arnhem. This is the town featured in the movie “A Bridge Too Far”. During World War II, the allies staged an operation to retake Holland from the Germans. The final objective was the bridge in Arnhem. The British parachuted into the area around Arnhem and quickly moved to try to take the bridge. The German troops were much stronger than expected and the ground forces moving up from the South took much longer than planned. The result was an incredible battle in this town. We visited the museum, which is in a house that functioned as the British headquarters and we visited a museum near the bridge (this one is free!). Both were very interesting and matched up quite well with the movie.

We ended up not spending much time in Holland and missed quite a few sites we would like to see, but the weather was not very conducive for the sights and the cost of things in Holland was substantially beyond this trips budget. Consequently, this is on our return to visit on another trip list.

~Jeff~
draft

Belgium May 31 - June 6th

2010-07-01T23:53:00.000-07:00

Back on March 12th, we met two wonderful girls (Debbie and Katia) from Belgium in Laos. We met up again in Cambodia and Saigon. We hit it off and they invited us to come visit while we were in Europe. When we asked Tim where he wanted to spend his birthday, he said in Belgium with the girls, so here we are.

Debbie and Katia both live in Ghent. We arrived early in the afternoon and walked around the center of town checking out the amazing churches (there are three massive churches in the main square), the canals and the old buildings. In the evening we carried on to Debbie’s, where Katia was also awaiting our arrival. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of typical Belgian beef stew and fresh homemade French fries (frittes). It was great to catch up on the remainder of their trip and to meet Guido (Debbie’s man).

Tim’s birthday, started with a wonderful Belgian breakfast. Around 1:00 pm we met up with Katia at her flat and had Belgian pastries and made a walking tour of the outer areas of town that are not on the tourist map. Again some amazing buildings and a brief wander through Ghent’s red light district. A smaller version of Amsterdam’s red light district. A few drinks on a barge in the canal (Love those Belgian beers) and we traipse back to Debbie’s for birthday dinner. Tim requested Grandma Rita’s flank steak (we were close, but not quite) and mashed potatoes. A little Champers to celebrate entering his 15th year. He cleaned up on the edible gifts, two jars of Nutella (a chocolate flavored spread made of Hazelnuts – his new favorite breakfast item) and a large box of Belgian chocolates.

Off to Luxembourg the next morning for a two day side trip. We pass through the city of Luxembourg (definitely a city we want to return to) on our way to visit another war cemetery. Tim wanted to see George S. Patton’s grave. Another impressive American cemetery. From there we head over to Bastogne to visit the museum on the battle of the Bulge. At the site of the Museum is a fantastic memorial to the US soldiers that died in Bastogne and the surrounding area during the battle of the bulge. While we were at the memorial, I was pleased to see a local group of school children on a field trip visiting the memorial and learning about the battle.

On the return trip to Belgium, we visited the Hans caves. A massive series of limestone caverns. Very pretty and a well put together tour. They have been doing tours of the caves since the early 1800’s. A quick visit to a few local castles. We really enjoyed the ruins of Montalgrie Castle. We were the only ones visiting the site and you could climb around on any part of the castle you wanted. Our final stop for the day was the Waterloo battlefield. Belgium is littered with significant battlefields. It seems as though every major war in Europe takes place in Belgium. There are some nice exhibits at the site and a large mound you can climb to look at the battlefield (a bunch of farmers fields). While we were there, they were preparing the area for the anniversary of the Battle the next weekend when they will have a reenactment of the battle.

Saturday we toured more of the Ghent city center with the girls, visiting the castle which has been used, restored, used again and now restored to its former glory as a castle. We spent the afternoon and early evening at a local music festival. Some good bands and some not so good. I enjoyed the fact you could get a beer from the drink vendor and then sit anywhere. No need to be trapped in a beer garden with Tim stuck outside.

We head off to the city of Brugge on sunday. The weather has turned and we experience rain! We decide to begin with a tour of the Chocolate Museum. Yes, we do get a small sample of chocolate and I think we all chose a piece of dark chocolate. The city is still beautiful with all of its canals and we decide to do a canals tour in a boat. The sights are amazing, they compare this to Venice, on a smaller scale of course. The city center is quite lovely with the large center restored to its former glory, looking like a different time.

~ Jeff & Karen ~

LeHavre and Surrounds

2010-06-26T13:23:00.001-07:00

LeHavre is a beautiful town in Upper Normandy. We experience our second couchsurfing experience in Europe here. Eric Lallemond was our host for two nights. Eric is a high school teacher who loves to travel and host travelers when they come to his town. He shared with us his knowledge of the area with wonderful suggestions of places to visit in the local area.

Our first night found us at the beach eating at a wonderful restaurant, watching a lovely sunset. Afterwards, we explored the city at night. This was a great experience. Although we could not go inside any of the tourist attractions, it was wonderful to see them without tourists all around. We were the only ones out.

Day two found us in the port town of Honfleur (a charming old port town). We wandered around town and met an interesting man from Vancouver that has been sailing around the world for 19 years. We talked for a bit, but I’ll have to read his book to get the real scoop. Next was a picnic lunch (when in France, do as the French do) on the beach in the resort town of Deauville. Gorgeous beach and a town full of amazing old houses, many of which are weekend homes for rich people from Paris. We finished our touring that day with a visit to Ertetat and the cliffs surrounding the beach town. We lucked out with a beautiful day and hiked up the cliffs on both sides of the bay. Tim even walked through the cave that led from one beach to the other.

Upon our return to Eric’s flat, he commenced a cooking course in making crepes. We feasted the night away on a variety of crepes. Each of us took our turn making them and now are looking forward to making them at home. Thanks Eric!! You are a great teacher.

~Jeff~

NORMANDY

2010-06-26T12:59:00.001-07:00

In fourth or fifth grade, I watched my first war movie with my dad. It was the Longest Day, about the Normandy invasion. Ever since that night, I have been interested in World War II and the invasion. I finally have fulfilled a childhood dream of seeing the beaches. From all my reading and watching movies and documentaries, I had a vision of the area in Normandy. Now that I have been there, I realize my perceptions were wrong.

Our first day of visits are to St. Lo and St. Mere-Eglise. In St. Lo, we wandered around and looked at a few sites, but there isn’t much left in St.Lo. It is very evident that the town is different than all the towns we visited in Brittany. The buildings are on the newer side and not very attractive. During the invasion, the town was bombed by the US, shelled and attacked by both sides, leaving most of the town in ruins, including the cathedral. Battle scars are visible on all old buildings, especially the cathedral. In the center of town is a nice monument to the US forces that liberated the town.

After our quick visit to St. Lo, we headed up to St. Mere-Eglise, one of the towns where the whole invasion began. This was a main target for the US airborne forces which dropped in the wee hours of June 6th. Some of the forces missed their drop zone and landed in town, including paratrooper John Steele who landed on the church steeple and was stuck there for a number of hours. There is a wonderful museum in town dedicated to the US Airborne forces and details their activities during the invasion. This gives us our first insight into the magnitude of the invasion and a feeling for how amazing it was that the Allies were successful with this impossible task.

Day two of our Normandy visits took us to Caen and a fantastic museum that told about World War II leading up to the invasion and then focused on the invasion and the details about each of the beaches. After gathering some background information, we headed to La Pointe De Hoc and wandered around the old German battery that was located on this point protecting both Utah and Omaha beaches. The battery was heavily bombed and shelled prior to the US Rangers scaling the cliff wall and attacking the facility. Currently, the ground is pretty much like it was the day of the battle. Bomb craters everywhere and damaged bunkers as well as bunkers that were completely intact. Tim had a great time exploring the various bunkers. I enjoyed comparing the movie to reality. Looks like they did a good job on this one. That night, we camped on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach.

Day three, we headed down to the “Beach” itself. We looked at a few of the German bunkers that protected the beach and looked at the beach itself. I went out on the beach at low tide, similar to what it was during the invasion and was awed by the immense size of the beach. It took me over 60 seconds to jog into the edge of the beach from the water. It blows my mind thinking about making the same run with heavy equipment and loads of enemy shooting at you. Seeing a few of the pieces of the battle the Americans took part in makes me realize the impossible odds our countrymen and women were willing to take on and how they persevered that day. I will never look at June 6th the same again.

Our final stop brought all these pieces together and reinforced the sacrifice made by thousands of young men. We visited the American Cemetery located just above Omaha Beach. There are over 10,000 US servicemen and women buried in this little piece of land given to the US Government by the French Government. It is a fantastic facility created by our government and maintained by the US. A fitting tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in Europe. The rows and rows of white markers are overwhelming. I was surprised to see quite a number of French citizens (Grandparents, parents and kids) visiting the site with flowers, placing them on various graves. The older generation is definitely teaching the younger generation about the sacrifice that was made to free their country.

Over the few days visiting the sites, we certainly felt a sense of pride for the accomplishments that the US forces achieved and the results of the sacrifices they made. This will add to my thoughts on Memorial Day next year.

~Jeff~

Brittany May 24 -27th

2010-06-23T23:52:00.001-07:00

We travel up, around and through Brittany. Thanks to our friends for marking a map with some lovely destinations. Arandon and the beach was a lovely stop for a picnic lunch and some cards. The sun was warm and shining brightly and the scenery was even nicer.
A trip into Vannes to explore the old town (castle). It was a Sunday, and a holiday (Pentacost) so the town was very quiet and many things are not open but we explore and find a lot of beauty. This night we couch surf for the first time in Europe. A small village outside of Vannes, is where we stay. Francoise, Gerard and their 16 yr old son Paco are our hosts. They cook us a lovely barbecue dinner of fish, Greek tomato salad, fresh potatoes and homemade bread.

We head further north into Britanny, seeing many churches and small villages before we reach Perros Guirec. This area is famous for their pink granite cliffs. Yes they are indeed pink. It is absolutely beautiful scenery and Tim has a blast climbing on them. We camp this night, and although the night is cold and we had some rain, we did just fine.

We visit St Malo. Amazingly wonderful, the “old village” is a completely walled city sitting on a point that goes out on the water. When we arrived the tide was out and we took advantage and walked out to the bunker (an old German WWII bunker) and then the fort beyond. Truly amazing that the only access is had on foot at low tide. We must have been near the end of low tide because we just made it back as the tide was quickly rising. Tim had a fun time exploring the bunkers. Freshly baked baguettes and happy friendly faces at every turn, make this stop a wonderful adventure.

We greet our next morning with Mont St Michele. What a truly beautiful sight, and it was not even a particularly nice day weather wise. Mont St Michele is a walled city that rises seemingly out of the water. The imposing rock walls are simply amazing. I can hardly wait to explore this incredible looking “island”. We arrive early and the crowds of people from the tour buses are nowhere in sight. Lucky us, as we walk the cobbled roads just as the shops begin to open we get to experience the marvel of the place. We make our way up to the Cathedral and take the self guided tour. We explore, take photos and enjoy our morning. After we have explored for several hours we depart and find ourselves amongst a mob of tourists. So glad to have risen early to visit this wonderful place. Definitely a place we will return to spend an entire day exploring. Thanks Roy for recommending this stop and Alain for helping us map out both of these stops.

~Karen and Jeff~

Mont St Michel

We have gone to a lot of different churches so far in Europe, but Mont St Michel is by far the biggest, most historic and interesting. Mont St Michel is located on a little island that you used to have to get there by boat but now you can drive on the road out to it. Mont St Michel is a Catholic Church, and has a lot of religious statues and crucifixes. But there is also a small but very cool town on the island with the Church.The whole island was used during World War 2 as a German base.

The whole set up of the church is amazing, because there are nice gardens on terraces, and courtyards way up next to the church which is located at the peak of the island/mountain.
~Tim~

France May 19 - 23

2010-06-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry we have not posted in a while, time, computers and other things have caught up with us. We will improve.

We have been in France for over ten days now and have fallen in love with the country. The people are fantastic, food is lovely and the sights are amazing.
We began our journey out of Paris after two days waiting for our car to be ready. During that time, no sightseeing, Tim finished school! Hooray! He did very well this last semester and is quite proud of his accomplishments, as are we.
Luckily for us our car came equipped with GPS for France and we were able to navigate to Nantes, which is west and a bit south of Paris. A four hour journey to meet friends in the Château’s parking lot. We arrive by 4;15pm after passing two toll booths ( traveling by large motorway in France is expensive) to find Alain, Maryvonne and Anne-Charlotte Murgue waiting patiently. We met the Murgues while traveling in Peru back in October. We visited the Château and walked the many winding streets to discover the lovely church and charm of Nantes.

We spent the next five nights with our friends the Murgues. It was fantastic!! We spent our time enjoying incredible meals, meeting their friends (now our friends too), and going to various places in the area surrounding their home.

The Places

Day One; from Soullans we passed through the small town of Beavior and visited a very old roman church. On to Port de Bec which is called the Chinese Port, from here we saw the Aeolians also called windmills for the first time. They are using more & more windmills to produce electricity for the local areas and hope to provide 21% of needed electricity by 2012. We had lunch on the Ile de Noirmoutier, a lovely beach where the baguettes, ham, cheese and apples tasted better than any we have had before. We walked through the village and onto the beach, where we walked and walked. So very beautiful. Low tide is a special event off the Ile as there is a road to travel when the water is out! If I remember correctly its about 3km long, amazing!

Day Two; Today we travel to Croix de Vie, St Gilles, Bretignolles and on to Les Sables – D’olone. This is along the coast and we stop to visit the beaches, have a picnic lunch (a very common activity for the people in France) and walk on the beach. We discover many ports, seeing many fishing boats, small boats and luxury craft. This area really seems to enjoy their time in the Atlantic Ocean.

Day Three; We travel north today through Bois de Ciene, to Ile de Bouis, then onto Port les Brochets & Le Collet. We travel the coast on the local small roads through the country side passing Les Moutiers en Reitz, La Bernerie en Reitz before we stop for a picnic on the beach in La Fountaine-aux- Bretons. We walk along the custom trail towards Pornic. We see the new port (with all the fancy boats) and the “natural port” (where the boats are at buoys), we see beautiful homes (mostly vacation) and the Castle.

The Food

Alain and Maryvonne prepared the most fantastic meals. Every morning we had a wonderfull breakfast on the porch in the sun. Fresh Croisonts, fresh baguettes from the bakery, various meats and cheeses, fruit, the works. As we mentioned above, the afternoons saw a picnic somewhere with baguettes, meats and cheeses. The kinds of meats and cheeses available here are amazing. Each evening, we were treated to wonderful dinners, fantastic fish with herbs, seared beef, pork. Everything was wonderful. Even their friends were kind enough to share meals with us (See below). It is easy to put weight back on here. We will have to be careful as we continue on to not eat so much. French cuisine is amazing though.

Friends

Allain, Maryvonne and Anne-Charlotte were so gracious to introduce us to their friends. We met a lot of people who were kind enough to give us suggestions on places to visit, show us brochures and maps and help us plan for our sightseeing. We also enjoyed getting the opportunity to talk at length with everyone and their willingness to share their thoughts about things with us. It was not easy since we do not speak French. Everyone was very patient with us. They all spoke enough English for us to talk and we had a French/English dictionary for those times where none of us knew the word we were looking for.

Everyone was so kind to us that we extended our stay and visited Bernard and Danielle's house for lunch on Sunday (wonderful Morrocan dishes) and that evening we had dinner at Pierre and Dominique's house (salad and omelette).

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful hospitality, great conversation and fantastic food. We hope to see everyone in Seattle some day. (Technical difficulties, I am not able right now to post the other two photos I wanted to).

Our dear friends have been fabulous travel guides and we have seen much of the area surrounding their home.
A big thank you to Alain, Maryvonne and Anne Charlotte, you are most wonderful.

~Karen~

Khao Sok, Khoa Lak & Bangkok

2010-06-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

We are finished up in Asia now and I will briefly recall our last 10 days here.
We visited the National Park of Khao Sok, which was said to be quite nice and up in the mountains, a change from the beaches were have been the past couple of weeks. Definitely up in the mountains, and definitely much warmer than the beaches as the Andaman Sea keeps you cooler.
Khao Sok has a small village around it to accommodate travelers. The village although quite small, has quite a large opinion of itself. Prices in this village are very high, almost double of that in which we had been staying, and the treks and tours they offer are the highest priced of any we have seen in Asia. That being said we still opted to do a one day Lake Tour, which included long tail boat tour, trekking in jungle and caving. We began the day with a van ride to the lake. This lake was man made about 28 years ago, when they constructed a dam and then subsequently flooded the valley to create this vast lake. They use this dam for the creation of electricity for a wide area. We then boarded a long tail boat and made our way out to the floating bungalows, passing amongst beautiful limestone karsts along the way. The journey took about 1 hour and was interesting to see that there was still tree stumps protruding from the water after all the years the lake has been here. Lunch at the floating village, before we head a short distance from the village to a trail that leads to the cave. We trek about 45 minutes through the jungle to the cave. Our guides said it will rain soon and we must not delay in the cave as you are not to be in the cave when it’s raining, the water rises very quickly and is quite dangerous. Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, very large spiders and frogs were in the cave along with areas in which we could walk easily and others that required us to swim. We went along in the cave for about 1km before we came to the end and daylight once again. The most exciting part of this trek happened just as we were finishing our trek back to the long tail boat. The rain began just as we reached the boat, and rain it did. Not like the rain we have in Seattle, but rain like you turned on the fire hose full force. We made it back to the floating village, soaking wet of course, and were able to watch the storm as it passed. Jeff decided it would be nice to take a swim! He said, “It feels like a hot tub” you’ve got to try it. So Tim joined him in the lake! After about 45 minutes of downpour it stopped and we boarded the long tail boat to make our way back. As luck would have, with just about 5 minutes before we reached the dam the rain began once again!

Khao Lak

After our short stay in the National Park we moved back to the coast. Khao Lak was our last stop before heading back to Bangkok. Khao Lak sits on the Andaman Sea directly north of Phuket. As you may remember, a large tsunami hit the coast of Thailand 26 December 2004, and Khao Lak was the area of greatest loss of life that occurred in Thailand. We visited the Tsunami Museum there and saw photos of before and after the event. Most of Khao Lak was destroyed and what we see today is what was has been rebuilt. Talking to locals and foreign residents of the town we have heard all sorts of stories, including people returning, after having fled the devastation, to find that their land has been “bought”, taken over and they have no place any longer. Many large resorts now occupy the beaches, most if not all are foreign owned. Tourist season is essessentially over so much of the area shops are closed and we enjoy the quiet of this lovely rebuilt town for 3 nights. We spend our time with Tim doing school in the mornings and our afternoons on the beach exploring and relaxing. We have found a nice little “bar” on the beach where we can relax in a palapa, lounge under an umbrella, swim in the sea and enjoy a cold beverage and have a snack.
Our departure from Khao Lak is via the 2nd class night bus, which as it turns out, is one of the nicer buses we have been on. We arrive in Bangkok at 8am in the morning, find lodging and settle in for our last days in Thailand.

Bangkok

Prior to our return, we were hearing that the Red Shirt protests in Bangkok were over. An agreement had been reached and the Red Shirts were dismantling their barricades. When we reached Bangkok, we decided to splurge for our last three nights and get a nice hotel. We paid $37 per night for a room in the Khao San Palace. Our hotel has a pool on the roof top! This is very good thing as the temperature in Bangkok is right around 40* c, which is over 100* f. Tim is just finishing up his English course so he opts to continue working on this while Jeff and I go run a couple of errands. We head down to the shopping district as we want to pick up a couple of things we saw previously. Once down there we find the malls are still closed because of the protests! We take a walk through the encampment. Not much had changed at this point, everything still much the same as it had been our last time through (Jeff’s blog entry).
As many of you have probably heard Bangkok is now not the place to be as the riots have begun once again and many more people have lost their lives. They are definitely headed towards civil war and unfortunately I feel it is inevitable as the division between the two sides is quite large and seemingly insurmountable.
We enjoy our last days in Bangkok eating good, inexpensive street food, meeting fellow travelers while enjoying the pool.
Luckily for us we left Bangkok just hours before things started to heat up once again. The sad thing is this “civil war” will impact travel to this beautiful country of Thailand.

~Karen~

Khao Sok

I was really looking forward to this spot and thought we would finish our time in Thailand here. It is very beautiful and the national park is lovely, but we couldn’t get any internet to do school and the cost of everything was double or triple the cost of the rest of Asia so we moved on.

Khao Lak

In the old days, this was a good place to come to find cheap bungalows on the beach. I expected to find the same thing since the tsunami wiped out everything five years ago. When we arrived we wandered around looking for places to stay and were surprised to find so many fancy resorts and no places on the beach within our price range. We found a nice place to stay about ½ a mile from the beach. Khao Lak was still enjoyable, but a little disappointing to see the fancy development. In talking to a gentleman who used to live here before the tsunami, he said that many foreign companies came in after the tsunami and bought land from the government. This land had been taken from people who died and their ancestors could not prove they owned the land. Other people could not make a living off their land the first two years after the tsunami and had to sell their land to survive. I wish people had helped rather than jump on an opportunity caused by a catastrophe. A final note, I spent a moment pondering a friend of mine that worked for me in Hong Kong. Michelle and her husband had been vacationing here in Khao Lak when the tsunami hit. Neither her nor her husband were ever found. I hope they have found peace.

Bangkok

What can we say, timing is everything. We arrived to Bangkok 12 hours after the first riots where 21 people lost their lives and we left Bangkok less than a day before the next big battles. Since we left, there has been at 40 protesters killed and tensions have mounted substantially. The government assassinated an army general (that had joined the red shirts) during his interview with Western journalists. We had seen this general on our previous visit. He was signing autographs for other protesters. While we watched, there was a line of about 200 people waiting for an autograph and more kept getting in line. He was a very popular figure within the protesters. I hope things smooth over in Thailand, but I am having a difficult time seeing a way out of this mess for them.

~Jeff~

School Update

2010-05-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Tim is doing school via the internet while we are traveling. I just thought I would give you a quick update to school days on the road.

As we left Asia, Tim had finished two of his three classes more than a month ahead of schedule (A in English). He is hoping to complete Math in the next week or so. For most of our four months in Asia, we have done school for several hours in the morning and then went about our business the rest of the day. There are few days that were all school and a number of days without internet, so no school.

I won’t say it has been easy. Tim has done school work in tiny hotel rooms, internet cafes, restaurants, bars, beaches, buses, trains and a multitude of other places. (A big thanks to Callum and Caroline for letting us print all the study guides off while we were visiting in Hong Kong)

I think his most trying moment was trying to take a test in an internet café while an American girl next to him freaked out on her boyfriend over skype. For over an hour she cried, screamed, pleaded and begged loudly. Tim got an A on the test and discovered the kind of girl to stay away from (there should be extra credit in that somewhere).

He’s done a good job keeping up with his commitments and now is looking forward to an extra long summer in Europe without any school to do.

~Jeff~

Planes, Trains and Tuk Tuks?

2010-05-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Planes, Trains and Tuk Tuk’s

Well, here we are on a flight out of Asia. Over the last four months, we have been on quite the array of transportation. Many people wondered how we would get from here to there on our trip, so here is Asia transport in a nutshell. Plane, train, subway, tram, taxi, tuk tuk, bus, minivan, long tail boat, mototaxi, sidecar, pickup taxi, cyclo, bicycle, scooter, ferry boat (big and small), inner tube, kayak, elephant, bamboo raft and a lot of use of our feet.

Many of the modes of transport we took here, would not pass vehicle inspection back home, but at the same time, many of the types of transportation and how the systems worked here are more efficient and much more environmentally friendly than anything back home. For example, five people on a scooter is much more efficient than two people in an SUV.

Throughout Asia, there are many sights, vehicle wise, you would not see at home. In Laos, it is very common to see someone driving a wagon down the street using their tractor (looks like a roto-tiller without the tines) to pull the wagon. All throughout Asia, the motor bike is the most common form of transport and they certainly get the most out of their vehicles. Tim won the family bet of who can spot a motorbike with the most people. Tim won with a total of five people on one scooter. You will see motorcycles used like we would a pick up. Numerous times we saw people with ladders or stacks of items on their scooter. Our favorite was in Saigon when we were passed by a scooter with a full size sofa stood up on end tied to the back of his scooter. Other times, people pass you with crates and crates of eggs tied to their scooter. One hiccup and there will be a heck of a mess.

I always enjoy the transport in Asia; I think Tim has also developed an appreciation for the many different ways one could get around (although his favorite is driving his own scooter).

~Jeff~

Koh Pi Pi

2010-05-18T14:05:00.001-07:00

Koh Pi Pi Tour

One of the more popular destinations in the Andaman Sea is the island of Koh Pi Pi. This island and its surrounding islands were made famous in the Leonardo Dicaprio film “The Beach”. After we left Koh Jum (our paradise), we stayed in Krabi so we could join a day tour of the islands.

We took a speed boat tour out to the islands. Our first stop was a nice cove for snorkeling. We got into the water and snorkeled for about 40 minutes. Nice fish and the coral was pretty good. The next stop was the most amazing cove. The boat goes in through these two cliffs that are several hundred feet high. The water is an amazing turquoise color. The boat goes back quite a ways into this protected harbor. Very stunning other than the fact there is another 50 boats trying to get in and out of this same space. The third stop is the beach from “The Beach”. Another incredibly beautiful spot that had over 100 boats and so many people on the beach you couldn’t actually see the beach. The most enjoyable part was watching two large tour boats anchored in the bay disgorge their passengers for snorkeling. Most people in Asia can’t swim, therefore most of the tourists getting off the boat can’t swim and are wearing life preservers. We nick named it the Titanic. With several hundred people in red life preservers jumping off the boat, you would swear it was sinking. We moved on from the beach to have lunch in the main town on the island and then another snorkeling spot followed by a visit to Bamboo Island and hang out on the beach there.

We can now say that we have been there. Definitely not one of the highlights for our trip, but an okay day none the less.

~Jeff~

2010-05-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

Koh Jum is paradise. We have put up one of our hammocks in a palapa on the beach and I am sitting in it now as I write this blog entry. The sound of the sea, its waves gently lapping as the tide continues to come in. A nice warm breeze blows in my face and keeps me very comfortable. Soon it will be time for my morning swim.
Relaxing in paradise is amazing, with such beauty surrounding you it is difficult to remember what day it is. Sunsets have been amazing! This is our fourth and final day on this island, although I really do not want to leave, we must. Tim must log onto school every fifth day to meet state requirements and there is no internet on this island. In fact electricity has only been on this island for 5 months! I absolutely love it! Tourist season is over for now and rainy season is set to begin soon, so not many people on this island other than locals now.
We have met several other travelers while here 2 from Vancouver BC and 2 from Seattle! Such a small world we live in. We do hope one day to return to this paradise and hope not much has changed but things don’t always stay the same, sometimes they get even better. We shall hope for that.
~Karen~

I have found what I have been looking for the whole trip! This is the second place we have visited (first is Tad Lo) that I could stay indefinitely. The bungalows are lovely – not fancy.

Two of the four days, we are the only people at the bungalows and consequently, the only people on our beach. I say people, because there is a troop of monkeys that like to come down to the beach at the coconut grove next to us. We are also joined most days by Soda and Fanta, the two month old puppies that live at our bungalows. We all fall in love with them and can’t resist playing with them when they come out.

Right off the bat, we settle into a routine. Up for breakfast, then a walk on the beach. Back to the palapa to sit and read and watch the sea. Around noon, we walk down the beach and turn into the road at the Fu Bar. Another 3 minutes and we are at a lovely restaurant for iced coffees and a snack while we play cards. Back to the beach and our “job”, collecting sea shells. Somehow, Tim and I never know the right ones to collect, but given four days we do learn and some of ours survive the scrutiny by the boss. Back to the bungalows for a swim in the sea. More palapa. Then off to dinner at the restaurant next to our lunch place (they have a pool table and Tim spends more time playing the locals). It is a rough life for the four days, but we manage to handle it.

I will be back with some fishing gear and several bottles of sun screen. They will have a tough time getting me off the island at that point.

~Jeff~

Koh Lanta April 22 - 26

2010-05-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

Koh Lanta is a lovely small island in southern Thailand that sits in the Andaman Sea. We arrive to our guest house at 2:30pm after a long overnight trip by bus and mini van from Bangkok. Our accommodation is a bamboo hut with two beds and a fan, but they also have a swimming pool, so we jump right in.
We end up spending a total of 5 nights on this island and love every moment. The busy “season” is over now and the number of travelers is much smaller making it quite nice. We have a bit of rain while we are here, but the usually only rains hard for 30 minutes and then stops, of course if you are caught out in it you get drenched. Often coming with the rain is spectacular thunder and lightning.
Jeff, Tim and fellow traveler Mac (UK) take a fishing trip on a long tail boat. They leave by 8am and return around 3pm, bringing with them a King Mackerel and a Barracuda! Fresh fish for dinner! Our guest house cooks up the fish for us and we enjoy the feast.
Motorbikes! We finally rent motorbikes for the day. Jeff and Tim ride together and I take my own. We travel to “old town” which used to be the main pier and an important trade port, and then all the way to the southern tip of the island and then back up again all the way to SalaDan. We let Tim have a try at riding solo (several miles). I am so not ready for him to drive. He actually handles the bike quite well and he absolutely loves it and wonders why he cannot ride by himself the rest of the day. His point being there is no drivers license here and no age minimum either! We saw fairly young children (10 yrs) riding a motorbike all on their own! Life is different.
~Karen~

I really enjoyed Koh Lanta. It reminds me of old Thailand before it got so built up for tourism. This town is still very touristy, there are bungalows on the beach everywhere. The main difference between this and some of the other areas are these bungalows are still affordable and you don’t get hassled by beach vendors all the time.

We found a few nice places to eat, but mine and Tim’s favorite was a BBQ buffet. All you can eat meat and seafood that you can barbeque at your own table for $4 each. Quite the deal. We stay and eat longer than we might have since the skies decided to open up and give us a rain similar to what we faced in the Amazon. No way to ride the scooters in that rain, so we had to stay and eat.

The ride back to the hotel was interesting. Avoiding puddles that Tim pointed out because my glasses were fogging up from the steam coming off the road.

We spent most of our time walking on the beach and swimming. Nice to relax for a while and stay in one spot.

~Jeff~

One Day In Bangkok April 21

2010-05-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

We ventured South from Chiang Mai looking for beaches and some relaxation. In order to get there, we took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We arrived at 6:30 am and rushed over to catch an 8:00 am train. Unfortunately, the train was full and we could not get seats, so back to Khao San Road. We plopped down in a restaurant to have breakfast and wait for the travel agents to open. Around 9:00 am I checked with three different agents and booked a bus ticket for us from Bangkok to Koh Lanta leaving at 5:30 pm.

With all the admin done, we had the rest of the day in Bangkok. We decided to take care of some of the shopping we planned to do right before we leave Thailand (to save time). We wanted to go to some bookstores at the shopping mall and then head for China town to get a little something for a friend named Molly.

Side note for perspective – As many of you know, there are a number of problems in Thailand right now. The country has divided into two political factions (this began many years ago) the red shirts and the yellow shirts. The red shirts support the former prime minister that was removed in a military coup in 2006 (I think). The yellow shirts support the current prime minister that was put in power by the military. The red shirts are primarily blue collar workers and people from the rural countryside. The yellow shirts are primarily high income and middle class people from the cities (mostly Bangkok). There is a multitude of issues on both sides, I do not know which are the good guys and which aren’t. There were elections where the red shirt candidate won, but the results were set aside because the yellow shirts claimed there was voter fraud. Who knows. The current reality is that the red shirts came to Bangkok several months ago to protest the current government and demand elections. To get their way, they have set up barricades in various parts of town to disrupt normal life. On April 10th, the government broke up one of the camps and 21 people were killed in the ensuing riots.

Back to the story. We arrived at the shopping center midmorning to find that they were all closed. The redshirts had established their latest camp 3 weeks ago in the shopping district and the malls had been closed. Since the shopping was out of the question, we decided to walk through the protesters encampment and look around a little. We wandered along a number of streets. To enter, you pass through a barricade of tires and bamboo poles. Once inside, it looked like a carnival. There were vendors selling items, food stalls and a lot of people sitting around in groups talking.

Karen and Tim decided to take the train to Chinatown and I decided to look around some more. I continued wandering around, looking for the “front line”. As I wandered through the area I had a number of groups of people call me over to where they were sitting and ask me to sit down. I joined one group who gave me lunch and a bottle of water. There were groups that provided free food and water to the protesters every day. The government forces had drawn a line at the business district and set up a perimeter to keep the protesters out. Eventually I found the barricade that faced off against the soldiers. I wandered around the protester side for about an hour and then left through a gate and walked across the street to the government side.

The overhead skywalk had been closed and the soldiers had set up in this area with M16’s and shotguns. They also had razor wire set out that could be pulled across the road at a moments notice. Just past this area, there was a counter protest going on from supporters of the current government. I watched this rally for a time. On this side, lots of people were taking presents up to the soldiers and police giving them food, water and other items as a show of support.

Both sides are quite adamant about their position and it is hard to see a way out of the current predicament. As far as the protests affecting us, it may have stopped our shopping, but there is very little danger from violence. It will be very evident when the government decides to break up the camps and then you make sure you avoid the area of the protest. We have been surprised by all the tourists who are worried about going back to Bangkok. One of those things where they are making a mountain out of a molehill. Someday, this will become a dangerous situation, but that is still a number of months off.

After a while, I made my way back to Khao San Road to reunite with Karen and Tim. While we were waiting for our bus, we got a sample of how small a world it is. I was sitting on the step of the travel agent when a young woman came up and sat down. I could tell she was American and asked where she was from. “Philly” was her response. She asked where I was from and I said Seattle, then corrected to say Edmonds. “I know Edmonds,” she says. I did my student teaching there last year. Where? “Seaview Elementary with Miss Perry.” Small world.

~Jeff~

Chiang Mai Thailand April 11 - 20

2010-05-01T03:11:00.001-07:00

We are back in Thailand after having taken two flights; one from Saigon to Bangkok and the second from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We arrive on Sunday evening the 11th of April. We are here for the New Year festival of Songkran.

Songkran

Songkran, the Thai New Year celebration, officially is three days of “water celebrations”, which this year was April 13 – 15th. Thai people often times return to their home town for family celebrations. We chose to be in Chiang Mai for Songkran for this reason. We arrive to find the festivities have already begun! Fortunately for us we arrive in the evening and the water “festivities” end when the sun goes down, so we do not get soaked.
Lucky for us our arrival coincides with the Sunday Walking Market, this is a very large street market that encompasses 5 square blocks. We head out to market to find dinner and see what is happening. We find the most amazing Phad Thai for 25 baht (.75) and a lot of “special” performances happening throughout the market. We decide this particular market is aimed for locals as they post prices and have many items one doesn’t usually see at tourist markets. We enjoy this evening very much although we are a bit tired from traveling today.
April 12th, one day before the NY, Jeff heads off in the early morning to see about water pistols for us. He comes back soaking wet but with 2 water pistols and water backpack with pistol. We are set and by 1pm we head out to see what is happening. A lot is happening and we barely get out of our guest house before we are targets, soon we are soaked and it feels great! The temperature is likely above 100* today.
Chiang Mai is a city within a city. The old city has portions of the old city’s wall, four gates and moat surrounding it, with the newer part of the city spreading out in all directions from there. Celebrations happen everywhere in the city but the major area is both sides directly next to the moat. We make our way to this area and find a spot we enjoy, to play. There are some rules to the water fight, one being you do not get people wet when they are inside a pub or restaurant. This is one way to escape the party and watch, which I must say is enjoyable too.
April 13th the official start to Songkran. This means there will be parades and many more people participating because people are not working, a national holiday. We head to the river to watch one of the parades. New Years means many things but is seen as a time of renewal and the locals bring Buddhas and small Stupas out of their temples for “washing” in the parade. Saffron flower scented water is what is used for this purpose and can be bought all along the parade route. They use small bowls to pour or toss the water onto the Buddhas as well as the people parading along with the Buddhas. We enjoy the parade except for the one point when the “red shirts” push their way into the parade, honking and generally disrupting a nice parade.
(The red shirts are a group of people mostly from the north who disagree with the government and are pushing for a change. Most notably, on Saturday 10th April, they led a protest in which 21 people were killed and many more injured, in the streets of Bangkok)
April14th, this being our third day of celebration, we opt to make our way around the entire old city. We encounter an area in which we find several stages with live music, lots of great local food stands and virtually no westerners. We have a blast.
April 15th our final day of Songkran. Tim wants to hang out in an area we have gone every day, so we drop him off and head off walking to see what we can find. I prefer walking around rather than staying in one place, so we all have a very enjoyable day. I will let Tim say a bit about Songkran below.
~Karen~

In Chiang Mai Thailand they have the most wet and fun New Years, called Songkran. This New Year is celebrated for about 6-7 days, and your whole body is a prune by the end. Our fist day of the water fight we loaded our guns and marched out the door. We only made it about one hundred yards until we were drenched in water. Throughout the New Year celebration we almost everyday hung out at a place called the Blues Pub. It only took a day until we were friends with the owner, and the family. I had a blast during Songkran, there was a corner that I always was at pouring buckets of water on people. Later in the day when it cools off, the owner of the restaurant buys a huge block of ice. That makes the water below zero cold, and we keep on going but this time with freezing cold water. The peoples reactions are priceless, but the truck loads of people have ice water too so I get freezing cold just like everyone else. I was bummed when the celebrating was over, because then I was sweating during the day instead of having the water dumped on me. I am hoping next year or some time in the future I will come back with my parents or with some friends to celebrate and have some more fun.

-Tim-

3 Day Trek

We have decided to make a trek out of Chiang Mai and will stay in the Karen Villages. We are a group six people, ourselves and three 19 year old friends from the UK (James, Pippa & Zoë), with a guide (Abba –yes named after the band). We travel three hours by truck (yes we are targets of more water throwing) south out of Chiang Mai before we hit the trail. We hike for about three hours today up and down but mostly up before we come to a waterfall and our first nights stay. We have enjoyed our Abba for he has been very good about showing us jungle food and life. He has been collecting items for use in our dinner all day. Amazing what you can find in the jungle if you know what you are looking for. We take a nice refreshing swim and clean up before night falls and dinner. We enjoy a nice tom Yum soup cooked in a large piece of Bamboo on the fire and stir fried vegetables. After dinner we sit and play cards as a group, each teaching the other new games! Hooray we have two new games to play; Yaneve and ****head. Our cards are interrupted by Abba bearing a tray of Thai goodies.
The excitement for desert dwindles once we see it is a tray of various fried bugs. There are silk worm larvae, fried bamboo worms, fried crickets, fried grass hoppers and fried water bugs. Tim and Jeff decide this is where they seal the deal they made at the beginning of the trip that they would try some sort of bugs. Everyone has some silk worm larvae (they taste like juicy beans). Next is the bamboo worms (these are actually good and taste like crispy French fries). Tim and Jeff move on to the crickets. Very crispy and crunchy, but not too bad. Finally they get coaxed by James into eating the grass hoppers. These are much bigger and finish the boys off. James is not deterred and carries on to the water bug. Too big and gross for Jeff and Tim. Our foray into an Amazing Race challenge goes well and we pass with flying colors.
Day two on the trek is the long day and we head mostly up once again, but the trail is very good. We do lunch near an area that is currently burning, but it is okay, not like a forest fire at home. The fire here is smoldering on the jungle floor which is covered with fallen leaves, with only the already fallen trees burning. After arriving at another waterfall for a “shower” we head the last 30 minutes to the village for the night. I help Abba with some of the prepping for dinner. We have another soup and a jungle curry with chicken. Our nights are early as the sun usually down by 7pm and our only means of light are candles besides we are pretty tired from the days hike.
Up early the final morning, a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit and toast before we head off to meet our truck that takes us to the Elephants. We ride Elephants for one hour have lunch and then head to the river for bamboo rafting. The water level in the river is quite low and we discover that this is the last day of the Songkran week holiday (Sunday). The river is packed with locals out to enjoy a picnic and play in the water. It reminded me at times of a ride at Disneyland gone crazy, with boats jammed up together trying to get through one tiny rapid area that really doesn’t have enough water! It was great fun! We got totally drenched and laughed our heads off.
A truck ride back 11/2 hours and that was the end of our 3 day trek.

Cooking Class

We decided to take a cooking class here in Chiang Mai as they are well known for this. We opted for a school called Baan Thai. We each chose our own menu and then headed to the local market where they gave us a lesson on Thai ingredients and answered any questions we might have. We made Prawn Hot & Sour soup, Coconut Chicken Soup, Fried Spring Rolls, Fish Cakes, Phad Thai, Cashew Chicken, Peanang Pork Curry and Chiang Mai Noodles. Lots of yummy food and now we have more new recipes to share with our friends at home.

~Karen~

Easy Rider in Viet Nam April 6-8

2010-04-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Throughout our whole 3 weeks in the country of Vietnam we had done, and had seen some very interesting things. But, the most entertaining and amazing experience, was our easy rider motorbike tour. The town that we had this joyful experience was called Dalat, which is located in southern Vietnam. This is the town in Vietnam that I have seen that has the most beautiful scenery, and gardens. On our first day of our tour I was very exited because I really enjoy riding on the back of motor cycles. We did two days on the tour, on the first day we went and saw the strawberry, and flower farms (Dalat is famous for both). We also on the first day went to a very nice waterfall that is called the elephant water fall. For the last stop of our awesome journey was we went to a house called the crazy house. When I say crazy I mean, they had rooms that had giant eagles in them, and giraffe neck stair cases, it was pretty extreme.

On the second and our final day of our tour, we had already gone to a lot of the sights so we went to another different waterfall. This water fall was not as cool, but you were able to take a roller coaster cart down to the waterfall, and that was cool, by mid evening we mostly rode around the country and saw some nice scenery. To end our tour we stopped at a pit stop with a magic table. The table was seriously magic, it was pretty cool. By the time we were dropped off back at our hotel I had a blast and Jeff had a blister from the tail pipe of the motorbike. But I think that we got what we paid for and spent the time we did enjoying what Dalat, and Vietnam had to offer.

~Tim~

We arrived to Dalat from Nha Trang. Dalat used to be a sleepy little town that was a get away for people in Saigon. Now it has turned into a massive farm operation. The hills and surrounding areas have been cleared of their pine forests and in their place is hundreds of greenhouses made from bamboo and a thick plastic. They grow flowers in the green houses that are sold all over Vietnam as well as exported. In addition to the green houses the rest of the area is terraced and there are absolutely gorgeous gardens (yes we have major garden envy). They grow all kinds of vegetables that they can’t elsewhere in Vietnam. The weather in Dalat is about the same as summer in Seattle. We saw loads of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and (our favorite) strawberries. During our tour, we stopped at examples of each and some coffee and tea plantations. By the looks of the houses being built around town and just outside of town, the farming has become quite profitable as well. Many new large houses have sprung up and are extremely nice.

The town still earns a lot of its money from tourism, but mostly local tourists. Dalat is a big destination for newly married Vietnamese in the South. With the tourism geared more toward the locals, there were a number of unusual things to see. As Tim mentioned, the second waterfall had a roller coaster to get you to the bottom and then they had a pony and guys dressed up as American cowboys and a guy dressed up as a bear. You could pay money to get your picture with these various novelties. Plenty of people were.

Even with all the expansion, Dalat is still a good getaway from Saigon or in our case a nice pit stop on the way back.

~Jeff~

Beaches & the Easter Bunny April 2 - 5

2010-04-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

We arrived to Nha Trang by overnight bus at about 7:00 am. It looked like something was going on, many of the streets were closed and there were people everywhere. We got booked into the Nice Hotel and Karen and I headed back out to check out the goings on. Turns out it was the 35th Anniversary of the “Liberation” of Nha Trang (the end of the American Vietnam War in Nha Trang). There was a massive parade with many different military groups, school groups and groups from many of the big businesses in town. Afterwards, there was a dragon dance in the main square by the opera house. It was interesting to see the celebration and it gave Karen and I a chance to meet a few locals. Later that night, there was a huge fireworks display by the opera house as well. Loads of people were out that night at the beach and hanging out in town.

The beaches in Nha Trang are very pretty and the water is wonderful. On days we weren’t doing other things, we could be found at the beach.

We celebrated Easter in Nha Trang. The Easter Bunny did manage to find Tim, but not everything he left was as good as what he leaves at home. Not a lot of searching either. We started the morning with a snorkeling trip out to a few islands. It was nice snorkeling, although I managed to kill the water proof camera (turns out it was semi water proof). We saw a number of fish and the coral was pretty good. The tour ended with lunch in town and Karen and I talked with a lovely German couple and their son for a few hours. In the evening, we made our first big splurge of the Asia portion of our trip and walked to the Novotel to have dinner at their buffet. We hadn’t eaten much in the way of Western food and definitely not this quantity. We had leg of lamb, sushi, salmon, three kinds of cheese, seafood from the grill, numerous deserts, including several chocolate sundaes. Great dinner, but we were all food drunk the rest of the evening.

Our last day in Nha Trang, we took in a bit of the local flare. We played pool for several hours at a local pool hall. The locals loved Tim and enjoyed talking to him while we were playing. That evening, we found a fantastic local restaurant and ate dinner and played cards for three hours.

Overall, Nha Trang was a good stop. For me, it was nice to see the changes since 1997. When I visited at that time, the town was very seedy and a bit dangerous. If you went to the beach you might see ten people and no locals. Now the beaches are filled with locals, they have built parks all along the beach and it is very safe. Quite the turn around.

~Jeff~

We had the experience of riding bicycles through rush hour traffic which really means that the streets are full of cars, motorbikes, bicycles and people going in all directions. Really crazy but once you have been in the traffic it really does just flow and you go with it, of course yielding when necessary.

Hue

2010-04-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our journey from Saigon to Hue begins at 11:00pm at night. We are taking the train and we opted to go with the soft sleeper. A soft sleeper is a small compartment which has four beds, 2 up and lower bunks, with “soft” mattress. We find ours and we share with a local grandmother and her 5 year old grandson. They have a lower bunk, Tim takes the bunk above them and I sleep above Jeff. Since the train leaves so late at night we are happy to turn off the lights and sleep as soon as the train leaves the station. I would say we had a decent night sleep all things considered.
When we woke we were able to watch the countryside pass and was it ever gorgeous. We did encounter rain on our journey north but of course it did not bother us we were on the train rolling on down the line. We brought our own food onboard so were able to enjoy it at our leisure. The entire trip takes 18 hours, which gives us plenty of time to play cards, backgammon, read and catch up on our journals. When the train makes a stop you are able to hop off and buy something, so of course Jeff and Tim got their morning coffee. Jeff truly enjoys the way the Vietnamese do their coffee with the sweetened condensed milk.
We arrive in Hue and the weather is a bit drizzly but not enough to really get you wet. We find a room and head out to find dinner. We have misjudged where our hotel is on the map and have no idea what part of town we are in. Apparently we are across the river 10 minutes walk from the main downtown, but we did not figure this out until the next day. Well, we found dinner and it was our first adventure in dining. Menu had no English nor did anyone in the restaurant speak English. Using our travel book we attempt to order things we think we know. We get a beef hot pot, which was fabulous, and ordered a pork dish and some fried rice. We did not know how the pork was prepared and when it came to the table we wondered what part of the pig it could be???? Our best guess was it was the tail! So, we tried a bite but….did not really like it. So next was the fried rice. They brought 3 plates over! Now we have way too much food, good thing we have a fridge in the room and take the left over sack to our room.
After our adventuresome start our first evening, we rent bicycles from our hotel and head off to really discover Hue. We head with a map into the main town area. Riding a bicycle can be a challenge when the traffic (both cars and motorbikes) clog the streets. We make our way to the Citadel, which dates back to 1804 and Emperor Gia Long. The Citadel is a very large moat enclosed complex, with a imperial enclosure “Forbidden Purple City”, in which the emperor lived. Currently there is a lot of renovation happening at this site, and it appears they are doing quite a nice job as many areas that are complete are stunning.
After spending several hours exploring the gardens and ceremonial areas of the Citadel we bicycle 4km southwest to the Thien Mu Pagoda. This a lovely Pagoda with many Chinese influences sits on the banks of the Song Huong River. Jeff visited Hue 13 years ago and says although there are changes it has not really changes that much.

~Karen~

Hoi An

2010-04-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

We take the “open bus” (basically a hop on hop off bus) from Hue to Hoi An in the morning and arrive just after 12 noon. Always the first order of business is to find a room and today was Tim’s lucky day. I was able to find a hotel with a pool! also has 2 beds, bathroom, refrigerator with internet for only $12 a night. Everyone is happy and first thing Tim does is swim, which he does then for several hours. Jeff and I head out and explore Hoi An, which is relatively quite and quite colonial. It appears that they can make anything here from clothes to shoes and wood carvings, and have cooking classes at many of the restaurants.
We take a cooking class, (surprise surprise) the next morning. We begin our class with a trip to the local market where we purchase our ingredients. Our is instructor is Ly, she is a very nice young woman and is very good at answering all of questions. It is so nice to a native speaker with us in the market, really helpful in finding out what things are. We have chosen to make BBQ fish in bamboo leaves with lemon sauce, green mango salad with chicken, Cao Lau (special noodle soup of Hoi An), fresh spring rolls with shrimp and vinegar, and Hoi An fried pancake. Ly also makes us a fresh dish of jelly fish along with lots of fresh fruit. We have a wonderful time and have some new recipes we can now make at home. Yummy! A bonus for us came one evening when I asked and was allowed into the kitchen and was shown how to cook braised pork in a clay pot. We really enjoyed this dish so was very happy to learn how to make it.
Tim has had a pair of shoes made for himself. He was able to pick style and color and logo! He is very pleased. I went out and had some clothes made for myself. I had traditional Ao Dai and trousers made, along with cotton skirt and dress and then at my fitting opted to have a silk dress with embroidery done also! I only spent $65 total on all, and they fit me perfectly! Okay that did not fit in our budget but I could not resist and I usually have a hard time finding clothes I like and fit. Did I justify that enough?
We also bumped into George and Emily whom we originally met in Laos, but have now run into several times in the past month. We share an evening and a bottle of Dalat red wine.
Although we only spend 2 nights and 3 day here, we have thoroughly enjoyed Hoi Anh. We have made a plan to come back here with the idea of having an extra bag available for our clothing purchases. Anyone who wants to come along let us know, we can make it a group holiday.

~Karen~

Saigon ~ Ho Chi Minh March 24 -28

2010-04-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

Crossing the border into Viet Nam today and then on into Ho Chi Minh city, also known as Saigon. An interesting border crossing, much different than the other SE Asian countries. We need our visas prior to arrival and have obtained these in Phnom Phen. Once we boarded the bus in Phnom Phen we filled out our Vietnam arrival card and then handed over our passport with visa, Cambodian departure card, and they held onto these until we entered Vietnam. Very odd, but seemed to work okay.
We arrived in Saigon around 2pm, with our hotel already organized by our friends, all we needed to do was find it. Easy as the bus dropped us off in the same area. Wow! We have room with free wifi, two beds, fan, bathroom and a refrigerator for $15 a night and it includes breakfast! Our first two nights, we went to dinner with a Polish family we met in Australia and have kept in touch with since then. Great to see them and catch up. Bernard’s English is quite good now and Isha has grown into quite the young lady. The second night, Tim was nice enough to hang out with Bernard and Isha while Beata, Blazej, Karen and I got a chance to go out.

It’s been 13 years since I have been to Saigon and I don’t recognize it a bit. This is now the motorcycle capital of the world. Intersections look like the start of a motocross race every time a light changes. Everyone seems to have a motorcycle and they are used for everything – family station wagon, pickup truck, etc. The city itself has grown and been revitalized. There are beautiful parks that loads of people use. Fancy new houses, big office buildings and tons more construction going on. It is a wonderful city and the people are very nice. The majority of people speak some English and many speak quite a lot of English. The city is modern and seems quite European with an Asian overtone.

We visited the War Remnants Museum, which is a one sided look at the Vietnam war. Although it is one sided, it was well worth the visit and gave Karen, Tim and I a chance to talk about the war and the nasty things that happen in all wars on both sides. Inside the museum are a lot of photos from the war and numerous events are discussed. There are also various weapons and ammunition used by the US forces. A big focus is placed on the use of Agent Orange by the Americans and the long term effects that have been seen in Vietnam as a result. The amount of horrendous birth defects and the amount of cancer in the areas sprayed is significant. The Vietnamese government has been dealing with the effects ever since the war ended. Outside the museum is a number of US jets, helicopters and tanks. All in all, the museum was great to check out and to top it off, we ran into our friends from Argentina (Alex and Flora) again.

Day two, we took a trip out to the Tunnels of Cu Chi and the Cao Dai temple. Tim is going to cover the tunnels below. Suffice it to say, I was surprised at the changes to the area were the tunnels are. In 1997, it was the middle of nowhere, now there is a massive parking lot, tennis courts and all kinds of buildings. Still a good tour. The Cao Dai temple is a religion that started in the 1920’s. It is a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity and Islam. One of the three signatories of the Third Alliance between God and Man is French Poet Victor Hugo. The temple is very beautiful and ornate and the ceremonies with the priests in their various colored robes is rather striking. It made for an interesting visit.

Our third day was spent shopping at various markets, riding the local bus and generally looking about town until time to head to the train station. During our wanderings, we ended up at Notre Dame Cathedral, which was good since it was Palm Sunday masses (Saturday night).

All in all, an enjoyable visit and I look forward to our return to visit a few of the other museums.
~Jeff~

Cu-Chi Tunnels

There is only one place in Asia were you can see fascinating architecture, even better than the Empire State Building, or the Space Needle. That place is Saigon, Vietnam, were the Cu-Chi Tunnels are. When we got to the tunnels after a 1 1/2 hour drive we didn’t see anything, but when the guide moved some leaves you could see an entrance that is about as big as a 10-14 year old western boy. In that case it’s a tight fit, one of the many advantages in the tunnels the smaller Vietnamese people have. After we took a turn climbing into the entrance, we went over and our guide showed us a “termite mound”. He asked what we thought it was, and I said, termite mound. But it turns out that that so called termite mound was an oxygen tube so the VC could have oxygen when they are underground.

The original Cu-Chi tunnels ran underground for more than 200 kilometers, and went at the most 30 feet below the ground. All through the tunnels and above ground were booby traps that would be covered by earth to be camouflaged. When the U.S. troops couldn’t find the tunnels, they brought in German shepherds with them. They tried to sniff the entrances out. But the VC knew so they then used American soap and put American uniforms by the entrances to confuse the dogs to mistake it for a friendly. By the end of the tour I learned and saw a lot of very interesting ways of living. But if anyone is ever coming to Saigon you have to go to Cu-Chi, because it shows you how the VC lived, and how a handful of them survived in the tunnels.
~Tim~

Phnom Phen Mar 22-23

2010-04-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

For me, Phnom Penh was a chance to see the changes that have taken place over time. My last visit was in 1997 to see some friends Darryl and Jan who were living in Phnom Penh at the time. What a difference 13 years makes. The city has grown and prospered in that time (definitely not everyone, but in general a positive growth).

For Karen and Tim, it was a first visit and a chance to see and learn about some of the more difficult and tragic history of Cambodia. Prior to visiting, we watched the movie The Killing Fields.

Our first day started off with a visit to Tuol Sleng or S-21 as it was known. This is a school that was turned into a prison/torture chamber by the Khmer Rouge after they took over the country in April 1975. At that time, the soldiers made all the inhabitants of cities move into the country to become farmers. They also began a program to eliminate the educated and the elite. During this time, no one was safe. Anyone they suspected of disagreeing with the new government or anyone that was learned would be taken to a prison like S-21 and tortured until they confessed to their crimes and implicated others. Usually the crimes they confessed to were untrue and the others they implicated hadn’t done anything. S-21 has been left as it was found in 1978 when the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge and pushed them out of Phnom Penh. Like other sites of crimes against humanity it has been preserved for people to view, so that they do not forget what has happened. For us, it is difficult to see but is important to witness. I find myself wondering how people can do such things to each other and why we don’t learn from history. Somehow these things continue to repeat themselves. The prison has photos of the many people who entered the prison (only a seven left alive). It is estimated that 6,000 – 20,000 men, women and children passed through this prison to the killing fields located outside of town.

Our next stop was the killing fields themselves. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek is an area just outside of town where prisoners were executed and buried in mass graves. A number of the graves have been excavated, many others have not. It also is a very somber location. The center piece of the site is a memorial Stupa to the victims. It is a tower built to house some of the skulls found in the mass graves. It is difficult to look at and we do not stay long, but long enough to understand what people in this country have seen and endured. I have the utmost respect for anyone who can face such terrible times and endure to carry on their lives and build a new future.

The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was spent shopping in the various markets, eating at the stalls in the night market and exploring the city.

~Jeff~

I must add just a side note to say how much I really detest war and the atrocities that occur in war time. I came away from our time visiting the memorials in Phnom Penh feeling sad and terribly angry. Why do we not accept people for who they are and what they are and live in Peace?

~Karen~

Sihanoukville Mar 20-21

2010-04-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

The best laid plans seem to fail if you don’t lay them in the first place. As we have done for most of the trip, we decide where we are going and what we are doing on a day to day or minute to minute basis. In this case, we decided to take the night bus from Siem Reap all the way to Sihanoukville to hang out on the beaches of Bamboo Island.

The Bus trip worked out well and the bus was one of the best we have been on in South East Asia. We arrived to Sihanoukville around 7:00am and found a room at a guest house that was out of the way (“You will like it here, there are many other old people” our taxi driver said). Out for breakfast on the beach and then left Tim swimming in the ocean – 75+ degree water. Karen and I wandered off to sort out the Bamboo Island accommodations. Unfortunately, there is no room at the Inn. Turns out the islands are better known than we thought.

Oh well, change of plans. We found two of our Argentinean friends (Alex and Flora) we had met in Vang Vieng, Laos. That evening we met for dinner on the beach, drinks and a bit of adult entertainment for Karen and I – an evening at the Disco (there was even a pool at the disco). It was great fun. The restaurant had candles on the tables, the ocean lapping at your feet and great seafood. Tim was happy; turns out the vendors sell Roman Candles as well. He enjoyed shooting off a three foot long Roman Candle into the ocean.

We spent the next day lounging on the beach. Unfortunately, Sihanoukville has gotten very touristy and reminds us of the beaches in Mexico. Beach chairs for hire, little bars everywhere and tons of vendors to pester you to buy anything and everything. Tim found the best way to handle the girls trying to sell him bracelets was to challenge them to a game of pool. He spent a good portion of his day playing pool against a bunch of the local girls who were about 16 years old.

As for Karen and I, this wasn’t really our style. We decided to move on to Phnom Penh and work our way to Saigon to visit our friends Blazej, Beata, Isha, and Bernard (a Polish family we met traveling in Cairns Australia).

This was the first time our seat of the pants method didn’t work out, but spending two days with Alex and Flora was great.

~Jeff~

Angkor Wat March 16 & 17

2010-04-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Angkor Wat

Simply an amazing place. Angkor Wat is said to be the largest religious structure in the world. Built out of sandstone from 1113- 1140, Angkor Wat was a devotion to the Hindu deity Vishnu and is oriented in a westward direction and is surrounded by a moat 190m wide.
Around the outside of the central complex is a series of Bas relief’s which are to be followed in a counter clockwise manner. These are really quite amazing as they give descriptions of epic events, for example Vishnu Conquers the Demons.
Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are perhaps hundreds more, some of which still are likely hidden in the surrounding jungle. Angkor Thom is the next central temple and has many of the “famous” temples you may have seen photographs of (Bayon, Elephant Terrace and Terrace of the Leper King to name a few). Many more temples are in this general area, but you may also travel 20km or more to visit other sights. One of our favorite is Banteay Srei, about 16km NE from the main temples. Banteay Srei is considered by many as the “jewel in the crown” of Khmer art. Built in the late 10th century as a Hindu temple devoted to Shiva. This temple is of a much smaller scale in both size of site and size of the actual temple. I would say it has a very feminine feel, very delicate and intricate.
We began our exploration of Angkor in the early afternoon of our first full day in Siem Reap. We began with a small loop that included Sra Srang, Banteay Kdei, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm and concluded at Bayon in Angkor Thom for sunset. We hired a tuk tuk to take us around to the various temples as the distance between them is too great and the heat is a bit exhausting. Tim was impressed by the enormity of the temples. Jeff and I were saddened by some of the changes we saw, mainly the restoration of Ta Prohm. This particular temple had been “left” to the jungle and was most famous for the large trees growing in and on the temples and walls, but now is being restored. I do see why they are doing this but also miss the primitive feel having the jungle in the temples brings.
We begin day 2 with sunrise at Angkor Wat, with many other tourists who made the journey to the site by 5:30am. We watched the sun rise over the temple and then entered through the north east entrance to show Tim some of the Bas relief’s, one of which we have framed in our dining room (he recognized it when we showed it to him) We followed around the outside complex for a short while before entering into the central temple complex. We made our way to the third story of the central tower and enjoyed a beautiful view and a fabulous view. We spent around 3 hours this morning exploring this amazing temple.
One short stop at Bayon to walk from Baphoun through the Elephant Terrace thru to the Terrace of the Leper King before we head out to Kbal Spaen and its waterfall and stone carvings. We made this plan as to be able to have a break from the heat and a swim in the pools of the waterfall but alas there was not enough water! Only enough water was coming over the falls to get our heads wet to cool off. We were able to see all the amazing stone carvings and Lingas in the river bed. Off to Banteay Srei we go. They were restoring this site on our visit 5 years ago, so now we see it completely restored and it is as beautiful as we remember. Back now to the main temple area and a visit to Preah Kahn which was used mostly for “learning” perhaps an equivalent to university. This temple is in a reasonable state of restoration as they are doing “work” on it all the time. It’s really quite nice and we could likely spend hours exploring here but time is getting short and the sun shall set soon. We quickly head back to Angkor Wat to get a last few photographs as the sun sinks into the western horizon.
We are exhausted! Oh but it is St Patrick’s Day and that calls for a visit to the local Irish pub, Molly Malones for a Guinness. As many of you know I do not drink beer, so for Tim and I it was just to celebrate the day and we were joined by (Emily and George) friends we have met along our travels.
We finished our long day of walking at the temples with a very ticklish fish foot massage. Yes you read that correctly, the fish “massage” our feet, okay they actually are nibbling at our feet, eating off the dead skin!
~Karen~

Who Is Fluffy?

2010-04-02T00:45:00.000-07:00

We have had several people ask “who is this Fluffy you talk about in the blog?” Let us finally introduce every one to Fluffy. Fluffy is our mascot. He is a small, cute and fluffy brown bear that once was the sole property of Tim prior to our trip “the Road to Nowhere”.
Fluffy is pondering the notion of writing a children’s book about backpacking around the world. He has been our constant companion through the jungle in the Amazon and Inca Trail in Peru, to Queensland and our tramp around Lake Waikaremoana in New Zealand, to the Great Barrier Reef and bush camping with friends in Australia, to Hong Kong & Macau, and now in Asia to the streets of Bangkok, trekking in northern Laos, the temples at Angkor in Cambodia, and now in Vietnam! What a lucky bear he is!
He has made many friends along the way, most of which have been mascots of other travelers. But he has always attracted a lot of attention from the people in the street, or the market, or on the local transport. He is a great conversation starter, and we all know how people love to talk and what better way than with a stuffed animal.
Okay, so we have gone a bit overboard and have purchased clothing items for him in the countries he has visited. Maybe he didn’t really need the jumper in Peru but is was a bit chilly in Cuzco before we headed out on the Inca Trail, the t-shirt in NZ was mandatory as he loved NZ, and the sandals and swimsuit in Australia, well….I won’t go into his wardrobe in Asia so far but let’s just say he enjoys changing outfits as much as the rest of us.
~Karen~

Perceptions of Life in Laos

2010-03-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is mine and Karen’s second time to Laos. The previous visit was three years ago. Just in the last three years we have seen a significant amount of change. Tourism has soared and the Chinese seem to be investing vast quantities of money to help Laos develop its infrastructure.

Laos is still a very rural country with a lot of its population living in small villages along the road and rivers. All of these communities are agriculture based. People live in everything from bamboo huts to wood houses to new concrete and brick houses. Three years ago, except for the cities, the housing was bamboo and thatch. Now I would say at least 25% is new brick and concrete houses. Construction is going on everywhere. A sure sign of increasing prosperity.

This new found prosperity has led to a significant increase in costs here, some for tourists and some for the locals. Food and drink was a noticeable item for us. Dinners ran about $8 per day (double three years ago) and soda and beer is around a $1 – more than double before. For us this is not a big deal, but for the locals I am sure it is a shock. As for rooms for the tourists, we found most had tripled in cost or more. This is definitely a result of the massive increase in tourism. We averaged around $8 per night for a room (usually not as nice as we where we stayed three years ago). As an example, a room where we stayed in Luang Prabang was 100,000 kip and is now 300,000. We found even more increase in Vang Vieng. Where we stayed three years ago was 40,000 and is now 350,000.

With the inflow of tourist dollars and money from the Chinese, the locals seem to be doing pretty good. In the past, a normal mode of transportation was the family’s two wheeled tractor hooked up to a wagon. Although these are still a normal sight (see photo), most people are driving newly purchased scooters (also known as the family wagon) and there are growing percentage of cars and trucks (many quite nice – Lexus). So much for the bicycles from a few years ago.

The wealth has also led to a massive increase in technology as well. Most people seem to have cell phones. Internet is easier to find and cheaper to obtain here than in Australia or New Zealand. Finally, I am still stunned by the amount of satellite TV dishes there are. You can be in the most remote village with all bamboo huts and there will be 20% of the homes with a satellite dish for their TV. Between the TV and the computers, the world is becoming quite a small place (good and bad).

The primary crop farmed is rice, but we did notice significant portions of jungle have been cut down and rubber plantations have sprung up in place of the jungle. Our understanding is that the Chinese are financing the rubber plantations as well as the new road that runs from the border between China and Laos down through the center of the country to Cambodia. This is to become a major trade route from China through Laos.

One of the things that has stayed the same is the amount of children. Every where you look there are babies and kids of all ages. The average age in Laos is mid teens. One consequence of the baby boom is that the schools can’t keep up with the volume of students. As you move around the country, it is clear that not all kids get to go to school. Quite a lot are at home working on the farm or they get jobs in the city trying to sell things.

Another thing that hasn’t changed is how wonderful and friendly the people are. Everyone says hello as they walk down the street. Greetings of "Sabadee" are a constant sound. This is still our favorite place in South East Asia.

~Jeff~

4,000 Islands March 13-14

2010-03-22T06:21:00.001-07:00

We spent two nights in the 4,000 Islands, the very southernmost part of Laos. Truly there must be no less than 4,000 islands as it seems there is “island” after island throughout this area. We arrived on the island of Don Det via a short ferry ride from the main land. Yes the photograph of the car “ferry” was our boat! Found ourselves a guest house and promptly ran into several people we had met previously in Laos. We made plans with a couple from the UK, George and Emily to take a day trip on the Mekong River that included kayaking, waterfalls and the rare Irrawaddy Dolphin.
We were all very excited for the trip and we had an early start, 9:00am. Loaded into our two person kayaks, we set off down the Mekong. The river is quite low as they say they are at a twenty year low on water levels. We make our way through some areas that we must take great care as the rocks are hard to avoid. We land our kayaks and take a short walk through the bamboo to reach our first waterfall of the day, Li Phi. Very nice even though the water is low. A short but refreshing swim at the beach is enjoyed before we reboard the kayaks to continue our journey south. The day is quite hot and many times we splash each other to keep cool. We stop for lunch before we continue down to the border of Laos and Cambodia and the “rare” Irrawaddy fresh water Dolphins. We arrive and see them almost straight away. How lucky we are! The sighting was brief but indeed a sighting was had. I was not sure that we would see them again, but after a brief time they resurface once again this time we saw six all at one time in the area. It is not easy to get a photo of a dolphin swimming in the water, not quite sure where they might resurface next.
We then carry on south for a good bit further before we take the kayaks out of the water and take a tuk tuk to the Khanpenyon Waterfall, the largest (by water volume) in all of Southeast Asia. What a sight! The amount of water flowing over the falls is massive, much like Niagara Falls.
Exhausted was the word of the evening and the photograph of Tim at sunset was reflective of how we all felt after our day on the Mekong River. Wasn’t sunset gorgoues!
We are lucky enough to get a motor bike ride back to our guest house, much nicer than the 45 minute walk we were expecting. We each got to ride on the back of a scooter along the bumpy and dusty roads, yes we hung on.
A wonderful, tiring day was had by all.
~Karen~

We had a nice time in the islands, but didn’t get off to a great start. When we arrived to the island, I made the call that we would stay in bungalows by the old bridge. The book said this was near the end of the path and in a quieter area. Once we saw the conglomeration of guest houses at the arrival beach it confirmed our desire to stay further away. What the book didn’t mention is that it was over two kilometers to the bungalows I selected. We hiked the whole way with all of our gear. About 30 kilos each between our two bags. It would have been easy for the family to have a quick rebellion and lynch that day’s tour director, but they trudged on like troopers and we finally arrived. The good news was that the bungalows were much nicer than those that we passed. Tim was rewarded with a brownie from the Australian baker. Quite a treat since we have pretty much eliminated sweets from our diet.
~Jeff~

Tat Lo March 9 -10

2010-03-19T03:44:00.000-07:00

A Bit of Rural Lao

I finally got a bit of the Lao I was looking for. We arrived to Tat Lo via a local bus (two hour ride). As the bus leaves the station every seat is full, some multiple times and there are ten people on stools in the aisle. It was a great bus ride through the country side. We arrived at a guest house recommended to us and decide to splurge a little ($8.25 per night – double the cheap room) and get the nice room with a balcony overlooking the waterfall. The town is a small village on the Bolaven Plateau. There are several guest houses and a few lodges, but the town still retains its Lao identity and everyone goes about their normal daily life.

After we arrived, we head out for a walk to the waterfall, beautiful! A large waterfall cascading over volcanic rocks. The actual waterfall is quite wide, but the majority of the flow comes over one side into a big pool. A number of kids are fishing in the river just down from the pool. Their fishing consists of a mask and a homemade spear gun. At the waterfall, an older gentleman is fishing with a 30 foot bamboo pole. We watch for a bit and then hike further up the river to find a good swimming spot – success.

Later we wandered over to the Tad Lo Lodge. There were three elephants wandering about unattended. We walked up and pet them, fed them bananas and basically hung out for a little bit. It was wonderful. They are the sweetest animals ever. They love the physical contact and interaction. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to sign up for a ride the next day.

The only internet in town was quite expensive so Tim got a few days off school. The second day started with the elephant ride for an hour and a half. We climbed into the baskets on the elephants and were off at a very slow walk (we got passed by a bunch of local kids). The elephants prefer to take a few steps and then grab something to eat. The ride took us out past the second waterfall (even nicer than the lower falls) and to another small village. On the way back, Tim got to sit on the neck of his elephant like the mahouts (the driver essentially). He really enjoyed this part of the ride.

After the ride, we decided to beat the heat by hiking to the second waterfall. We spent more than three hours up here swimming and hanging out in the sun (oops, did get burned – forgot the malaria pills make us sensitive to the sun). During this entire time, we were the only ones there. Tim figured out a way he and I could swim behind the waterfall. Pretty cool in more ways than one. We were such exciting people that after several hours swimming in this waterfall, we headed back down to the Tad Lo lodge and the swimming hole in front of their place. Good place to jump off the rocks. You can only jump here after 3:00 pm. The river is controlled by a dam upstream that provides electricity to the area. They increase the flow every day starting at 3:00 to meet the evening demand for electricity. We are joined by bout 15 local kids that show up every day after school, strip down and swim for several hours.

I was sad to go the next morning. This is definitely a place I could have stayed a week and explored the surrounding areas. Many of the tourists here have rented a motorbike and are driving around the various towns on the Plateau.

~Jeff~

I wanted to add that we had the pleasure of being able to watch the elephants bathe in the river. Really quite amazing, these very large animals being taken under water their Mahout. The elephants seemed to enjoy their bath as we enjoyed watching.
~Karen~

Vientiane 5 - 7 Mar

2010-03-12T00:38:00.000-08:00

Capitol City of Laos

We arrive in Vientiane along the shore of the Mekong River around 2 in the afternoon. They are doing a massive construction project on the river front and wonder what it is like in the evening when they set up barbecue stands with tables and chairs. We take a tuk tuk and find our place we stayed our last trip and decide we will sta because it is out of town in a neighborhood away from the tourist scene. Different owners but still a nice place and we enjoyed our time here.
We explore the city by foot to reacquaint ourselves and make our way to Sala Sunset, a small pub at the far north end of the city, on the Mekong River. We hope to see a lovely sunset but alas the pollution from the cooking fires is too great and the sun disappears before the horizon. We find the most lovely family restaurant on our way back to our guest house and enjoy a light dinner. We actually return to this restaurant the following two nights and are pleased to watch and get tips on making a few dishes we love. We will be ready to try them out when we return home!
Vientiane is like any other city and we do some of the touristy things. Our one grand adventure was to take the local bus #14 out to Buddha Park. The bus was packed out with people, many got off at the Friendship Bridge (Thai Lao border), and we were the last off at Buddha Park. This park was established in the 1950’s by a monk and has many different Buddha’s, Vishnu’s, Naga’s and many other eastern idols and symbols. Interesting! Although time and the elements have taken a toll on the statues.
~Karen~

Excellent! Two Days of Fun 3-4 March

2010-03-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

There are some crazy places in the world but the craziest is the tubing river in Vang Vieng. I think its crazy awesome! Our first day of tubing was casual; we got our tubes and took a tuk tuk up to the first bar on the river. Once there, we then got in our tubes and floated down stream. After 10 seconds in the water, ropes weighted down with water bottles were being thrown at us. The ropes are used like fishing poles; they throw the line out and reel you back in to their bar. We stopped at the second bar. They were blasting music and giving free shots to people. But my favorite part of this bar was that they had a zip line that you hold onto instead of being strapped on. I went for a try and I succeeded. Jeff then tried, and since he didn’t have his glasses on he couldn’t see the end. So he hit the stopper and did a flip onto his back. After about an hour of “bar” hopping we got to a big bar and they had a huge slide, and a huge swing. I really wanted to try the slide but we had to buy something first, typical. After Jeff bought a drink it was off to the slide, only me of course. My first go was awesome and had a perfect landing, but the second time was not the best because I landed wrong and hurt my ankle. I did the slide a bunch more times, until we had to go return the tubes. Silly of us we didn’t know how far the town was so we decided to float back instead of taking a tuk tuk. That was not a good idea it took an hour and a half to get back, I was dead, but we made it back in time to get our entire deposit back.

The next day I really wanted to go tubing but mom and Jeff weren’t feeling that great, so we didn’t know if we could or not. After a good day of school, their stomachs got better so that meant we were off tubing. When we got all of our gear ready, we rented the tubes and did the same route down the river getting free fries and drinks. When we got to the big slide we bought a drink and off to the slide. Today was not as good as yesterday, because I came off the slide wrong and I went really high and far, but got the wind knocked out of me for a second. While I was recuperating off to the side, two couples from Argentina came and we started to talk to them. We all started laughing and having fun going off the slide. By the end of the day our whole group was tired out. We ended up taking a tuk tuk back to town and instead of returning our tubes at 6pm; we returned them at 7:30pm. I think it was worth 20,000 kip charge, because we met a lot of very nice people and had tons of fun doing so, which ended tubing with two thumbs up.
~Tim~

Once you arrive at the drop off point for tubing (four or five kilometers from town) you are at the first bar. Each bar is made of bamboo and has a tower for either, a trapeze swing, a zip line, a slide or all of the above. They blast music, serve drinks and food and try to entice you to stay a while. As you float down the river, there are about 20 such bars and as Tim mentioned, they fish for customers.

Karen and I had not even arrived at our first stop when Tim went sailing over our head on a zip line. The tower he started on is about 20 feet high and forty feet over the water. Where you let go it is about 15 feet to the water. After a few zip line runs for Tim, we sit and watch people on the trapeze swings. They have towers that range from 25 feet to about 45 feet in the air for a starting point. People swing down and then hopefully swing up and back around before dropping into the water. We see every possible entry method possible. Falling off at the beginning (strait down 40 feet to the water), falling off at the bottom of the swing, back flips executed well and back flips executed very poorly.

At our next stop, Tim tries out a swing with a tower that is about 30 feet up. He tries it twice, but decides it’s not his favorite thing, so we move on. Next stop the mud bar (mud volleyball), but no one is playing volleyball. Tim spots what he wants to try as we get back into the river. The next stop was our last. It has a slide that is about 20 feet above the water coming off a tower that is about 40-50 feet up. We watched someone go off and Tim decides he has to do it. His first run he sails about 30 feet out over the river before hitting the water. He screams all the way, but loves it. Back up for more. We spent the rest of our time on day one at the slide bar.

The float down the river for the last hour and a half was beautiful. The river winds through an area covered with limestone karsts. These beautiful, striking limestone cliffs jut up out of the shoreline and tower over us like giant watchmen. About 20 minutes before reaching town, I noticed a bunch of rocks in the river and tried to steer around them. As we got closer, it became apparent that they weren’t rocks. We floated a few feet away from a herd of Water Buffalo. Since this is one of my favorite animals, I loved it and made Karen take photos. As we near the end of our ride, the sun is setting behind a cluster of the Karsts and is bright red (lots of smoke from cooking fires). Day one was a hit and capped off with dinner with Leeor and Lirit at the restaurant Tim has been wanting to go to. They have multiple TVs and play reruns of the family guy.

Day two is more of the same. Tim doesn’t waste much time at other locations. A few zip lines and then straight for the slide bar. Early on, we met three groups of people. Two couples from Argentina (Leo and Victoria, Alexander and Flora), a group of guys from Portugal, and a group of five young ladies from Canada. All are wonderful and we talk and enjoy watching each of the groups go down the slide. At times, a small group will chant “Tim Tim Tim”, urging him down the slide. It was a great afternoon and as the day winds down, Leo introduces us to Adrian and Roseanna from the states. We have refreshments, talk, laugh and have a great time. Pretty soon we decide we should share a tuk tuk back to town. We manage to get a tuk tuk and then we meet Leo, Victoria, Alexander, Flora, Adrian and Roseanna for dinner. More fun times together. We hope to meet up with all of these folks again at some point in life.

~Jeff~

Luang Prabang 26 Feb - 1 Mar

2010-03-11T23:43:00.000-08:00

We love Luang Prabang. This was Jeff and my second visit to this lovely French colonial town on the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam Som Rivers. Luang Prabang has changed a lot since our visit three years ago. Mainly, the prices have skyrocketed. We had a bit of “sticker” shock when we first arrived. Instead of staying in the middle of town as before we opted to stay in the more local side of town. We stayed in a lovely guest house that was easy walking distance to everything, perhaps only 5 – 10 minutes longer walk. We explored old haunts and found new places also. Tim and I rented bicycles for a couple of hours one afternoon and rode all around the town. One our favorite places is a small bamboo restaurant/bar near the river, where we played backgammon and ate roasted cashew nuts. The night market is always a fun place and we ended up eating at the market stalls for a couple of our evenings, enjoying some of the local fare. Grilled whole fish, dried fried meat, curry, grilled pork were just some of the favorites. All in, dinner ranged from$3.50 - $8.00 for all three of us.
~Karen~

I still love Luang Prabang, but it certainly has changed. There is definitely a lot more money in the town now. Everywhere you look there is new construction going on and a lot of fancy new houses. Three years ago, we saw scooters, tuk tuks, a few cars and a lot of bicycles. Now you see heaps of brand new scooters, quite a few new cars and not so many bicycles. As for the costs, a room in the place we stayed last time was $10, this time, they wanted $42 per night. Beer has gone 50cents to $1.75 and other than the market, food costs are up as well. It’s still very inexpensive, but it was a shock to see things go up that quickly.

One thing that has not changed was Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. We road out with our friends Leeor and Lirit. The falls were just as we remembered them last time. It is a giant waterfall that then cascades down through limestone formations, creating pool after pool of turquoise water. Great place for swimming and Tim found a rope swing that he went off a lot of times. We were a little worried that the falls might not have much water. Currently, Laos is going through a drought. It is dry season, but it has been much drier than usual and for longer as well. Our other favorite waterfall near Luang Prabang (Tat Sae) did not have any water so we didn’t go.

~Jeff~

Jungle and Villages 23-25 Feb

2010-03-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

We headed out early on a Tuesday morning for a three day guided trek. The group turns out to be nine including us (Maisey and Miles form England, Damian from England, Ben from Portland USA, Leeor and Lirite from Israel). Due to the size of the group, we get two guides – Somphone and Itsom.

After a brief visit to the local market and a 30 minute van ride, we reach our jumping off point (or splashing off point as the case may be). Our trek begins with a river crossing on a bamboo raft. Everyone makes it across with a minimal amount of wetness. On the other side, we embark on our hiking odyssey. The trail leads up the large hillside and is a steep climb. When I say trail, I mean it in the loosest of terms. Someone has hacked a path straight up the hillside. In areas they have dug out places to put your feet as steps, but they are not steps. Once the trail levels out, we are cutting across the hillside. We are no longer climbing, but the path isn’t level (it is very much at an angle) and is difficult to walk on. It takes a toll on us old people’s knees. We are hiking through a bamboo jungle. Some of the stands of bamboo are massive. Pieces that are five months old are as big around as my wrist and 20 feet tall. It is incredible how quickly it grows. After hiking for several hours, we stop for lunch. The guides cut a bunch of banana leaves and make a picnic area and they also make some bowls out of other leaves. Lunch is sticky rice, a tomato sauce, cooked water buffalo meat, and Chinese Broccoli. Excellent food. After lunch, we hike to a big tree and Tim shows the group he is part monkey climbing up in it. More hiking up and down ending up at the river across from a village. This is where we will spend the night.

Tim is doing a fantastic job on the hike and leads the pack every day. Everyone comments about how he makes this look easy, and we thought he might never hike again after the Inca trail. He really is enjoying the hiking as well.

The village is primarily bamboo huts, with a few with wood walls. Technically, it is a hill tribe, but for the most part there is not any hill tribes left that do hunting and gathering. It has turned into a farming village. They clear the surrounding jungle and then farm the land. When we arrive, there are a ton of kids down by the river. We take a quick bath in the river to clean up (in our bathing suits and a sarong for Karen). Meanwhile, the kids are playing all around us. The girls are hanging out together and the boys are roughhousing. Many a wrestling match and jumping off each other’s shoulders into the water. It’s great fun. After our bath, it is up to the village and the house we are going to stay in. We sleep in one of the villager’s house. Before dinner, we wander around and check out the village. Tim especially likes all the little pigs. There are loads of pot belly pigs running around and getting in tussles. They especially like to come hang out by the fire. Dinner is served and Lao Lao (Local Whiskey is passed round). A nice finish to the evening is sitting around a campfire. A lot like a summer evening back home.

Day two starts off with a one hour hike up a creek bed in our flip flops. Not the easiest of hikes, but there is a nice little waterfall at the end. Next it is back up hill through more jungle and more “big” trees. A lot of the trees are impressively big. The hiking is not easy and by time we reach a clearing with a bamboo hut in it, we are ready for a break. We take lunch in the hut and a little nap afterwards (including Fluffy). The last half of the day is mostly downhill (a few ups thrown in for good measure). This takes a toll on Karen’s knee and by the end of the second day; she can barely bend her knee. Quite the trooper, she carries on and doesn’t slow the group.

The second night we stayed in a family’s hut that is about ten minutes from the next village. They have a really nice little farm on the river. We were watching all the chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs and cats wander about the place. Karen and I made comments about the ducks and about 10 minutes later, the farmer’s wife came out with one of the ducks minus his head. This became dinner and lunch the next day. It’s good to know where your food came from.

The next morning it is off to the village, this is a Lanten village, a tribe of people from China. We got to see examples of weaving and making paper out of bamboo. Interesting village, but we don’t stay long. The one thing that stuck out in my mind was how small a world it has become. Here we are in a “remote” village in Northern Laos, where they live in bamboo huts, but at least 25% of the houses have satellite dishes for TV. It is back onto the trail and up a major hill. Hard work, but much better than going down hill, which is next. What goes up, must come down. Another day of tough hiking (some down an old creek bed that is very muddy and slippery) and we finish at the river where we get to swim a while before piling into the van to head back to town.

Great trek. We saw very pretty countryside, got a taste of village life, swam in nice rivers and hiked with a wonderful group of people that we have seen a number of times since. Tim hit it off quite well with the group and has a number of long term friends out of the trip.

~Jeff~

To Laos We Go!

2010-03-02T19:34:00.001-08:00

North, to the border of Thailand and Laos. We travel by bus to Chiang Rai, a small town 2 hours from the border of Laos. We have one night to explore the night market and eat some northern Thai food before heading northeast to Laos. We arise early in the morning as to catch the 7am local bus that will take us the two hours to Chang Khong, Thailand We are able to watch the sun rise up over the rice paddy’s and experience early morning activities in the surrounding areas. The sun is usually orange/red at this time because of the morning cooking fires, so it is gorgeous. We arrive in Chang Khong and take a tuk tuk to the “ferry” crossing of the Mekong River. We go through customs and then board a long boat for a 3 minute crossing over the Mekong River into Laos.
We arrive in Laos and get our visas in order. This takes perhaps 45 minutes and $36 US dollars. Lucky Americans that we are, we get the most expensive visa fees. After we are all sorted out we head for the bus terminal to catch the last bus (12noon) to Luang Nam Tha. We decided to take the local bus so we could see how the locals travel……well this bus was full of westerners and just a few locals. The roads are being expanded and were in very poor shape for half of the 4+ hour ride.
Laos for me is a very peaceful place and I truly do love it here. Just crossing into to Laos was almost like relief, a peace came over me. We were very surprised to see such a large and “prosperous” town when we arrived in Luang Nam Tha. We were expecting a small village with perhaps a small percentage of tourists. This was not the case and we found that the local people are prospering greatly in this area. This was due to a couple of factors: tourism, Chinese (2 hours from Chinese Border), road construction. The Chinese government is improving the road from the border all the way down to Vientienne, Laos’ capitol city! This will become a major trade route from China!
~Karen~

First Capital 19 Feb

2010-03-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

First Capital

Starting in Bangkok, the current capital of Thailand, we have gone on to visit the other capitals in reverse order. We just came by bus (6 hours) from Ayuthaya, the second capital. Now we are in Sukhothai, considered by most to be the first capital of Thailand. Sukhothai operated as the capital from around 1250 until about 1350 when Ayuthaya wrested control of the country from this city.
The ruins of the ancient capital are a 30 minute bus ride from town. At the bus stop, we were able to rent bicycles to ride from ruin to ruin in the old city. It’s a great way to get around and Tim loves it.
We liked these ruins and current Wats in Sukhothai much better than those we toured in Ayuthaya. Most of the Wats are in the older Khmer style.
Our first stop was Wat Sri Chum. This is a massive sitting Buddha. This was a special stop since we have a photo of this Buddha in our living room at home, but we had never been here. It’s an amazing Buddha in a building without a roof. The building is slightly larger than the Buddha, but not by much. To give perspective on the size of the Buddha, Karen, Tim and I could easily sit in one hand of the statue. Next to this building is the ruins of another small temple with a sitting Buddha in it. Much smaller, but still impressive.
Our next stop is Wat Phra Phai Luang. This Wat has definite connections to Angkor Wat and the style of buildings in the Khmer temples. Looking at the ruins, it is clear that many things were added over time to this Wat and some modifications were made as well. In reading about the various ruins in the city, it is pointed out that a number of these started off as Hindu temples that were later converted to Buddhist temples. Prior to Sukhothai being the capital of Thailand, it was a Khmer outpost with a few small Wats for the residents.
We stop at a number of sights on our way to Wat Mahatat (the crown jewel of these temples). One of our stops is a chedi (pagoda shape) supported by the front halves of elephants all the way around the base of the chedi. Others were various Wats all with a slightly different twist.
Wat Mahatat is the biggest and most amazing complex in Sukhothai. It has a large multilevel chedi in the middle with two standing Buddhas on either side of it. Off to the side of the chedi and Buddha is the ruins of another temple that housed another seated Buddha. It is wonderful. On the way out of this complex, Tim spotted a four foot snake in the grass. We managed to make it to the exit of the Wat about the same time as the snake. It slithered up and over the wall as we took the more conventional exit.
A few more Wats and we wrapped up a great day of biking and sightseeing.
~Jeff~

Ayuthaya - 16 Feb

2010-02-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

Ancient City

Ayuthaya was one of Thailand’s earliest and most sacred kingdoms. Ayuthaya sits north of Bangkok and is surrounded by three rivers; Choa Praya, Pa Sak and Lompburi. We took a mini bus up to explore the city and its ancient ruins.
With our backpacks in tow we arrive at our first temple, Wat Phukhao Thong. The sun is still quite low on the eastern horizon and the Wat stands brilliantly white and amazingly tall. We are not on a tour but get the benefit of a guide as this is a stop short of the actual city. Ayuthaya dates back from 1350 – 1767 and is truly amazing. Our drop off point is Wat Thummikarat just at the city limits. We take advantage of the fact we are at this Wat before finding our room for the night. The Wat is more of the Angkor styling of the Khmer people (similar to Cambodian Wats).
After finding our room for the night we head by local bus (pick up truck with benches and a roof) to center of town and the night market. They are still celebrating Chinese New Year and we can see they will have a lot going on tonight. We find our way to Wat Mah That, right in the middle of town. This where we find the Buddha head encased in tree roots, its simply gorgeous. We also see Wat Rachaburana, which is another very large Wat right next to the city, then off to the night market.
We find loads of delicious food this night and are lucky enough to see a Dragon dance and then a dancing Elephants masquerading as a Tigers. This was the Chinese New Year celebration we were hoping to see in Bangkok but didn’t. It is a carnival atmosphere. A truly great party. What a treat for us!
We spend the entire next day exploring many more Wats around Ayuthaya, including Wat Yai Chaimongkhon, Wat Chaiwattanaran, and Wat Prah Si Samphet. Many of these Wats have been restored in some way or another, but you can still see the remains of some that have been left to nature.
~Karen~

Snakes and Tigers and Bears Oh My! 15 Feb

2010-02-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

You can do a lot of exotic things in Thailand, and a lot of natural everyday things. But we did a very exotic but touristy trip. First we started off in a van and after1 and half hours we were at the Floating Market. The whole market literally floats, but the bad thing is there are so many boats that it’s like bumper cars. We were given 1 hour to walk about before we left, and in that whole hour we walked around the different areas of the market that was on the land. About half way in on the hour we passed a man that had a 6 foot Python, and he was offering 200 baht for some one to hold it. Thanks to Jeff he bartered the price down to 50 baht, when I got the snake around my neck he curled up a little into a bow. The snake skin was very soft if I stroked with the grain, I thought that that was the coolest thing I probably have ever done (with reptiles). When we left the market we went by boat to a reptile house, when we got there we had a choice to see a reptile show. We chose to see the show and I think it was money well spent, because they had HUGE snakes. One of the first snakes they showed was a Cobra and a man went in and caught it. When he caught the snake he got a cup with saran wrap and then they stuck the Cobra fangs in it. The cobras venom they said was so poisonous, one drop of the venom could kill a full grow elephant. Then one of my favorite snakes was the jumping snake, the jumping snake can jump up to 2 meters high. Then one of the workers went into the ring with 3 Mangrove snakes and fought them all, and caught them all but one of the Mangrove snakes he caught with his mouth. After the snake farm we hopped in the van and drove for about 45 minutes to the highlight of the day, the tiger temple. The Tiger Temple is a home to about 20 Tigers, and a variety of other exotic animals. When we got to the temple we had to walk a couple of minutes to a little canyon were the Tigers were. There was not that long of lines which helped out, because the workers would snap pictures of you really fast and so you would be done in a matter of minutes. After we all got our pictures taken they said that the baby tigers would be going in a little while, so Jeff and I ran as fast as we could and when we got there the babies were not small babies they were probably 5 years old, but still they were cool to see. After we saw the babies that was the end of the day for the tour, but I wish that we could have spent more time to see more of the tigers. In the end I think it was money well spent, thank you Grandma Rita.
~Tim~

I must say really enjoyed the entire day, but my favorite time was with the Tigers! My nickname as a little girl was Tiger or Tigger, thanks Dad. Never in a millions years would I ever thought I would have the opportunity to hold a real Tiger by the tail, but I did just that! Amazing! They had close to a dozen Tigers in the canyon as we entered. They were of course chained up and most were sleeping. We were told not to wear red and orange colored tops before the tour and could not carry anything into the area with us. One person with one guide was lead into the area so you could have the opportunity to pet the Tigers. (We could not all 3 go in at once for a family photo with out paying 1000 baht or $30! and that was not in the budget.) I was still visiting the Tigers when Tim and Jeff went to see the baby Tigers, so I was kept behind because they needed to move to of the adult males to another area. They allowed us to follow as they walked the Tiger up, with a monk leading the Tiger. What a wonderful sight. I was able to meet up with my boys again at this point and that is when Jeff and I got our picture together with one of the male Tigers. Pretty cool if you ask me.
~Karen~

One of the parts of the tour I was looking forward to was going to the Bridge over the River Kwai. As a boy, that was a movie that made an impact on me. The bridge and the corresponding railroad was built by POW’s of the Japanese army. Mostly British soldiers and soldiers and citizens from various Asian countries. During the making of the bridge and the railway, thousands to a hundred thousand prisoners died. When this was all built it went through the jungle and the rugged mountains. I knew the bridge in the movie was not the same as the one actually built, but I still thought it would be out in the jungle. When we arrived, I realized a whole town has been built up around the bridge. It looks like any other old bridge in Thailand. Kind of disappointing. We still walked across it though and whistled the theme song to the movie.
~Jeff~

PS no bears accept fluffy (our stuffed bear mascot).

Old Friends, New Adventures 4 Feb - 10 Feb

2010-02-20T03:13:00.000-08:00

Landing in Hong Kong gives me that feeling of arriving at a home away from home. There is a familiarity that feels right. No matter how many times I visit, I am still amazed by the efficiency of this city. We landed at 7:30 am, by 11:30 am we were at our hotel in a second economic zone having passed through immigration twice, customs once, a train ride into the center of Hong Kong, a one hour ferry ride to Macau and a taxi to the hotel. Amazing.

We arrived back to Hong Kong on Saturday. An old friend from my Hong Kong days, Callum, is letting us stay at his and his wife’s Carolyns flat in the midlevels. We introduce Tim to Cal (Shrek) and get sorted out to go see the Causeway Bay Rugby team play. It was good to see a number of the boys still on the pitch (Phillip, Thomas, Kelvin) and see some of the others that are usually on the pitch (Will, Bailey, just missed George). Tim got to take part in a long standing Causeway Bay tradition, it was off to the pub after the game. We gathered at Carnegies, had some beers (sodas for Tim, although it seems everyone was trying to buy him one) and watched Bailey accept the man of the match award for the Pirates. The boys had organized a dinner for us that night. Fantastic food with Brian & Charlie, Charlie and Bonnie, Bailey and Kathy, Callum, Kelvin, Will and the three of us. It was a feast. Tim got to try a few things he had never had before, chicken feet and camel were two of them. Camel was great, the chicken feet were not his favorite, but he did eat them!

Sunday, we met some of the gang for Dim sum, another first for Tim. He tried everything and liked most of it. The jelly fish was a hit with him. After Dim sum, it was off to the Stanley Market. The ride over is half the fun, although after the buses in Peru, this was not the adventure it used to be. We purchased a few shirts and called it good.

The weather didn’t cooperate very well while we were in Hong Kong. It rained, and at times poured. As a result, we spent more time on school and less on sightseeing than we had planned. But as Tim kept saying, “we can see that when we come back again.”

Monday and Tuesday was more of the national past time in Hong Kong , shopping. We did manage to take Tim to one of mine and Karen’s favorite restaurants The American Peking. We ordered all the usual items (Shredded beef, mined chicken in lettuce leaves, fried egg plant, etc). Now Tim knows where we got the inspiration for a lot of the Chinese dishes we cook at home.

Tuesday night, it quit raining long enough for us to go to the Temple Night Market and on the way back, we stopped at the harbor on the Kowloon side to try to watch the light show we had heard about. The city lights are beautiful. Many of the buildings are decorated with lights for Chinese New Year. The light show is not all that exciting since the clouds are too low for the lights. The tops of many of the buildings are hidden in the clouds blocking the lasers on their roof tops. Even though the show wasn’t as great as it could be, seeing the lights on the buildings in the harbor is amazing. It’s moments like this that make you realize how big Hong Kong is.

On our last day, I got to go visit Lena (a friend from when I lived here) while Karen and Tim worked on school. It was great to see Lena again. I was able to catch up on 12 years of history and get her up to date on my life.

All in all, Hong Kong was wonderful, but our time was too short. There were a number of friends I wasn’t able to catch up with, some sights left unseen. I am hoping to see everyone we visited here at our home so we can repay the incredible hospitality we were given. Once again I am reminded that friends and family are the key to life’s pleasures for me.

~ Jeff ~

One Night in Bangkok 10 Feb - 15 Feb

2010-02-20T03:09:00.000-08:00

Okay it was actually five nights in Bangkok. We arrived to Bangkok on the 10th of February and made our way to the Thai Cozy House Hotel around the block from Khao San Road. Khao San Road is the “backpackers” hangout in Bangkok, lots of travelers from all over stay in this area. We dropped our backpacks and headed out into the night market on our street and the next. The market is full of people, sights, sounds and smells. There are stalls selling shirts, shoes, knick knacks, knives, Phad Thai, Curry and fried bugs (crickets, grubs, scorpions). Tim is knackered and heads back to the room to get some sleep. Jeff and I head off to Khao San Road and a favorite pub of ours (Doug it’s the same place you remember). We have a nice night chatting with people and refreshing ourselves with Sang Som (rum) and coke.

We spend our next few days visiting Bangkok’s Wats, Palaces, shopping and eating loads of great food. We took the water taxi on the Chao Phraya River, rode tuk tuks and even used the subway.

The Grand Palace, Wat Arun (covered in broken porcelain dishes) and Wat Pho (very large reclining Buddha) are amazing no matter how many times you visit. The buildings are so colorful, decorated with ceramic tiles, painted with bright colors and some “gold”.

Sunday the 14th was Chinese New Year and so we head to Chinatown. The main street is closed and decorated for the festivities with Tigers everywhere. We look for a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner, but they are all closed and settle for a place with so called “Chinese” food. We have been told of a parade scheduled for 7pm and we decided to wait along with all the other people. The event was expected to be really quite something and as we waited we got acquainted with others around us. They told us the Princess was here and she would soon follow. Great we thought the Princess and a parade for Chinese New Year…. Well not really, after waiting for 2 ½ hours, the Princess did make her way down the street surrounded by a large entourage, but there was no parade to follow. Apparently they cancelled the parade after the Princess took her time, actually stopping to eat and visit with the people. This came as no surprise or disappointment to the locals because hey got to see their Princess. We on the other hand were ready for the parade with Dragon and Lion dances, etc. everything you would expect at a CNY parade, but it was not to be and so that was the extent of our CNY in Bangkok.

~ Karen ~

Although the Chinese New Year parade was a bust, I enjoyed watching the Thai people patiently wait for their Princess. Several times the parade began only to stop when the Princess decided to buy gifts for some of the people or she decided to eat with some of the people. Back home, this would upset the crowd who were waiting. In Thailand, the royal family is everything and the people were all happy that she took time to give gifts to ordinary people and that she would eat with ordinary people. When she eventually went by on the parade route, there was an audible gasp, followed by a “Did you see here? Did you see her?” Quite impressive the devotion to the royal family.
~ Jeff ~

Asia we Begin

2010-02-18T02:03:00.000-08:00

We have arrived in Asia. Our first stop is 2 days in Macau. Jeff and I have both been here before and I for one am happy to return, the familiarity is comfortable. On our first day it was truly enjoyable to watch Jeff share with Tim the places he has been in years past. And then again it was fun to see Tim realize and put reality to stories he had heard over the years.
We took a Turbo Jet (large hydroplane) Boat made by Boeing from Hong Kong to Macau. The trip takes close to an hour; unfortunately the weather was a bit misty so the trip was not as scenic as it could be. Jeff and I were in Macau 2 years ago; this is where we purchased our Asian furniture. Not much has changed here as far as the way it looks but the store where we purchased and arranged our furniture shipment is no longer there. How sad that was and in talking to another shop we purchased items in they are selling the stock they have and closing down. The economy down turn has hurt.
As many of you may know Macau is a gamblers heaven. There are a lot of casinos including The Venetian, The Sands, Wynn and many other large casinos including many of the original ones from the old Macau days, like the Lisboa. Interesting fact; the Chinese head to Macau more often than Las Vegas for gambling. Well why not, it is much closer for them and they have Macanese food (a blending of Portuguese and Chinese)
We enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants of the world; Fernandos. Brilliant Portuguese food and as usual got the chance to say hello to Fernando himself. Fernando is very interesting man and always remembers Jeff, kinda fun after all the time that has gone by since Jeff lived in Hong Kong.
We spent a fair bit of time wandering about several forts and a temple in Macau. While we were there, the festivities for Chinese New Year were beginning. They decorate every where. It will be the year of the Tiger beginning Feb 14th and “Tigers” were out in force.

~ Karen ~

The Big Blue in the Land Down Under

2010-02-13T05:56:00.000-08:00

There are a bunch of things to do in Australia but my favorite was Body Boarding, and swimming in the Ocean. One of my most favorite beaches was in Torquay, which is a bit south of Melbourne. The beach is filled with sand for about half a mile. There are also cliffs on each side of the beach making it a very good photo spot. The waves on the beach are great; they range from small – medium waves, and are great for beginning surfers.
When I am riding a wave I can go on the wave for about 10 seconds just riding from one side of the wave to the other. The only bad part is that this beach is such a good surf beach that it is hard to get a long wave ride because you can run into somebody. I never hit anyone but came close. Once I had to swerve in between 4 groups of people then I had to flip to avoid some kids.
If you like being hit by the waves when you are going down the wave, you are like me because my second favorite beach is a public beach on the Lakes Entrance, Victoria, Australia. This beach has a very long stretch of sand and you can look down as far as the eye can see. The waves get very big during the middle of the day and can topple you in a second. We didn’t spend as much time here as we had to keep moving down towards Melbourne to see some of Jeff’s old friends. Every day at this beach was beautiful and well worth our time there. The only major difference between Torquay and lakes entrance is that the lakes entrance is less than half as busy as Torquay was, so you could get good waves and long rides which makes me very happy.
I spent only three weeks out of eight in the water or on the beach. Most of the days that we spent in the water or at the beach it was very, very hot out. I know that if I ever come back to Australia I will spend a lot of my time going to every well known beach, and every not well known beach, just to soak up the sun the whole time.
~Tim~

2010-02-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

A Few of Our Favorite Things

One of Tim’s favorite things in Australia was the beaches and body boarding. Of all the beaches, his top one was Bondi. A combination of the waves, the impressive sand and the loads of people made it memorable. Turns out we weren’t the only ones to love Bondi. When we met Tim’s Uncle David in Sydney, we headed out to Bondi to get in some body surfing.

One of my favorite things while we were driving around Australia was something that reminded me of road trips in America when I was a kid. Way back then (yes Tim we did have cars) driving across the US, we would run into large cowboy boots, hats, loggers, etc. All along the highway in Australia, the small towns tend to have a large “something” that represents their town. Coffs Harbour has a large banana. Other towns had large crabs, shrimp, snakes and mangos.

Another of my favorite things about Australia is their national motto: Slip, Slap, Slop. Since they have one of the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world, they have started a media campaign to educate the population on the advantages of using sunscreen every day. With all the ads, billboards and other information, even Fluffy (our traveling mascot) got into the spirit. We did notice that the sun in Australia is much stronger than home. You cannot possibly go out without sunscreen. Apparently, the thinner ozone layer is the big culprit for the stronger sun.

Finally, who could think of Australia and not think of the Bush. We drove through it for hours on end and then were lucky enough to go camping with Mel and Daryl in the real Bush. See our blog on bush camping. One of my favorite signs in Australia was usually found in the bush or camp grounds. I call it beware of large killer broccoli.

~ Jeff ~

Camping in the Australian Bush

2010-02-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to be able to head out into the Australian Bush to go camping. Our friends Mel and Daryl along with their three year old son Jack planned a camping trip into the Bush for us. We headed NNE out of Melbourne to a place called Sheepyard Flats. We drove 3 hours via country roads passing through some lovely small towns, eventually turning off onto a dirt gravel road that led to our destination. We found our Ford Falcon wagon was not the best vehicle but we made it, only scrapping the undercarriage of the car a couple of times!
Our chosen site was next to a creek that offered a refreshing break from the heat for both us and Mel & Daryl’s 2 dogs; Flip & Obi. We set up our tents and lucky for us Mel & Daryl have all the necessary equipment for bush camping; tables, rake, hatchet, wash basins, sun fly’s (notice it’s not a rain fly!) The boys set off to find fire wood so that we could have a fire in the fire circle. Jack brought out his gear and played and got good and dirty as any 3 year old boy would do. Jack absolutely loved camping, as much as the rest of us.
After an absolutely fabulous nights rest, we awoke to the sounds of the Bush. The Cockatiels are very friendly sorts and soon learned that we would definitely hand out food if they stuck around. They came round at meal time, both morning and night for their hand outs. Not as friendly but certainly as interesting, we sighted rare Black Macaws and then Gray Macaws, unfortunately a bit far away for great photos. We unfortunately did not have much in the way of other wild life out in the Bush.
Daryl loves to go off-roading so we all piled into his vehicle, Tim was in the back with the dogs, and off we went onto the tracks that wind through this area. Daryl’s vehicle is awesome and can take just about anything. We made our way to a historical hut, where we were able to learn a bit of what life would be like living in the bush in the 40’s and 50’s. After that we plow on until we reach an old abandoned slate mine atop the mountain. The views were spectacular, we could see for miles and miles. I collected several small pieces of slate to bring home! Yes I really did. We then continued on for a couple more hours’ off-roading through rivers and over hills. Once back at our camp site it was straight in the river for Tim and Jeff.
We absolutely love camping and have made a promise to ourselves we will do more after we return home.

~ Karen ~

People We Meet: Australia

2010-02-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

I am reminded of the Dr. Seuss book, “Oh the places you will go”. Australia is a land of some of the friendliest people. We traveled up and down the East coast, from Sydney up the Gold and Sunshine coasts to Cairns in Queensland, and from Sydney down the coast to southeastern Australia and through the wine country into Melbourne in Victoria and the beginning of the Great Ocean Road.
We met old friends and made new friends. Met families traveling and met my brother David. The most amazing thing while traveling is the ability to meet all sorts of different people from all over the world. Many of the people we have met, we hope to see again on our travels, in other parts of the world.
Katie and Oyvind, our very good friends in Seattle were finishing their trip in Oz upon our arrival. We were able to meet up with them twice in our first five days in Oz. Thanks you two for showing us around and treating us to a meal! We really enjoyed seeing you.
People, people, we met so many people at every stop we made. We made our way north up the coast, camping at Holiday Parks with our newly purchased tents and cooking with fellow campers in the camp kitchen. One of the first couples (Australians) we met had just finished a year traveling the world. We shared travel stories for hours. Once up in Cairns we stayed at a Holiday Park for many days and met fellow travelers and several families. Cairns is a very touristy area.
This is where we met a Polish family of four traveling around the world for one year. Blazej and Beata are traveling with their young daughter and son doing school on the road…sound familiar! It was lovely getting to know them and sharing many similar experiences in trying to accomplish a year of school while traveling. They are more than half way through their year so have many more months of experience under their belts, but many of the same challenges we have had. We hope to meet up with them again in SE Asia as this is where we both are heading, and most likely in Poland when we head to Europe in the summer.
We also met an Israeli family, living in Oz, out camping on holiday. Many of the people we met while staying in the Holiday Parks where fellow travelers like us and happy to share experiences and give recommendations, many of which we took. We found some great waves, thanks guys! We also met many Australians in the Holiday Parks as it was summer holidays and Aussies love to get out and camp. Teachers from Queensland schools shared what schools are like and what is happening in them. We had a great time chatting with teachers Jeff and Carolyn and their daughter Jessica. Good luck Jessica with your Javelin. Make that national team! The various teachers we have met have some pretty interesting ideas about furthering education, but of course they face some of the very same problems we do in the states.
We made it back down to Sydney for the holidays. Our best memory of this time was New Year Eve. Jeff and Tim went to the park early and set up camp. We met so many people, young and old alike from around the world. The girls from Brazil – Anna and Marianna and their friends. Martin (from the Netherlands) and his family. Pat from Sydney with her two lovely grand daughters. Everyone was there with the same purpose…to experience NYE in Sydney. It was amazing.
Once again we head off out of Sydney, this time south where the landscape differs from the north and reminds us wine country in CA. We find ourselves camping again at Holiday Parks, everyday meeting different people and even meeting a German couple at two of the same parks on consecutive days.
We met up with old friends of Jeff’s in Melbourne, Daryl, Mel and their 3 year old son Jack. The last time we saw them was in Seattle 11 years ago, when Tim was 3yrs and Jeff and I had just met. We met their family and friends and felt very much at home. Tim got to hang out with Yerri and Luca (thanks Wayne and Lucy).
We went down to Torquay and the beginning of the Great Ocean Road and stayed at the Holiday Park on the shore. Our neighbors Denny (the Horse) and Jackie were super nice and invited us and Tim over in the evening to meet their friends and share time. A fantastic evening that included some nice nibbles (Fried holoumi – greek cheese).
Australians are fabulously friendly and we enjoyed our 8 weeks, although it went by too fast.

~ Karen ~

For Karen and I, people are travel. Places are nice to visit, but without people, they are just that, places. What adds life to these places is the people and the different cultures. I would be quite happy traveling and not seeing a single site as long as I got to meet someone new every day.
I can’t possibly mention all the people we have met while we were in Australia, but as Karen said it is a very friendly place. Here are two quick examples.
On new years eve, I was trying to figure out how to get good pictures of the fireworks. Jack noticed that I had no idea and spent a ton of time trying to teach me how to use my camera. (He was a good teacher, but I wasn’t such a good pupil. I still didn’t get any good pictures of the fireworks.) At a holiday park outside of Sydney, I met Paul taking a couple of days off for surfing. We spent a lot of time talking about business, investing and politics. His insights were wonderful and made me think about things in a new way. I hope we can continue our conversation in Seattle at some point.
Our discussions with the various people we have met in Australia have given us a lot of different views on things and confirmed some of our own views. Australians have a wonderful view on life. Much more focus on living life rather than accumulating stuff. I hope Karen and I can feed off what we have been exposed to here to alter our life when we return. Family and friends are what make us happy and we need to make more time for them.

~ Jeff ~

PS – while putting this entry together we realized we hadn’t taken many pictures of the people we met in Australia. We will try to do better in Asia.

Wild OZ

2010-02-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Wild Oz

We have driven the east coast of Australia and the Southeastern Coast. We have missed quite a lot of areas that we were hoping to hit (the rain forest, the outback, Ayers Rock, the west coast and the north coast), but still have seen a very diverse country.

Flora – Leaving Sydney, we drove through large forests of Eucalyptus trees (gum trees). If it’s not farmland, it is covered with these forests. Very different from what we are used to. In the south, the forests had quite large trees with a little underbrush. In the north the forests had smaller trees and a lot more undergrowth. Over the last ten years Australia has gotten drier and as a result has faced a lot of wild fires. We saw several burning during our trip. What I found interesting was that the fires burn through and everything looks dead, but anywhere the fires were at least a year old, the trees have sprouted new leaves and branches. The fires will scorch them, burn off all the leaves and kill most of the limbs, but the main trunk of the tree rejuvenates in a year. As for farm land, we saw the spectrum from pastures for grazing cows and sheep (in the South) to sugar cane, pineapple fields and mangos (in the North).

Fauna – Everyone’s favorite, the animals. We have seen all kinds of animals since we got here. In Sydney, every night at dusk, the flying foxes (big bats) leave the botanical gardens and fly about. It gives you the impression you are staying in Gotham city. We didn’t manage to see any Koalas in the wild, but we did see them in the zoo. We certainly looked for them, but they sleep all day in the trees making it difficult to spot them.

All throughout the country, we have seen a number of different kinds of kangaroos and wallabies. They are always fun to watch. At one of the camps we stayed at, the kangaroos came out in the evening. Tim and Jess were walking to the car when they spotted a baby. Jess got within a few feet, then the mom came bouncing through to say “not so close to my baby!” The next day when we were leaving, we came upon six kangaroos by the road. They were not bothered by our presence, so Karen and I got out and took a bunch of photos.

One of my favorite things down under is the birds. One day, we had to stop for a flock of Emu’s to cross the road. They do have pigeons (punk rock version with a Mohawk), but they are not that common. What is common is all types of parrots and cockatoos. Birds that we only see in pet shops at home, fly around everywhere here. Our normal wake up call was from the parrots first thing in the morning. They tend to be quite loud. In the botanical gardens in Sydney, the white Cockatoos are friendly and will fly up and land on you looking for food. While we were camping in the bush, a group of parrots figured out we were suckers and would hang out on our tent every morning and evening looking for a handout. One of my favorite birds was the long beaks (our name for them). They are white with long legs and long curved black beaks. They walk a bit like big bird. I can’t help but smile when I them walk or run. They are everywhere throughout Australia. Finally, for Dick (Karens Dad), we ran into groups of ugly girls (Guinea Hens for the rest of you) many of the different places we stayed. It reminded us of our time at Grandpa’s.

Jessica was always on the lookout for reptiles and amphibians. At one of the caravan parks (the worst one we stayed at), Jessica found frogs. They had taken over the bathrooms. Jessie came out and warned us to look before going to the bathroom and not to flush without checking for her green frog friends. The next morning, I shared my shower with two frogs. At the same place, the owner came around to show Jess some of the poisonous cane toads. They have turned into a complete menace and everyone tries to kill them when they see them.

~ Jeff ~

Life on The Road to Nowhere - OZ Style

2010-02-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

Day to day life in the land of Oz varies a little, but in general follows the same pattern. Up early 6:00 am – 7:00 am. A lovely breakfast of toast, followed by packing up camp (see home below). Get in several hours of school (see school below), usually Karen and I grocery shop during this time. With School completed, it is on the road to the next destination or find waves for Tim to boogie board. Once we arrive at our destination, we set up camp and Karen and I start dinner. We generally go to bed fairly early (9:30pm) since it gets dark and we only have our headlamps for light.

School - Sometimes we can do school via a mobile internet connection, but quite often it is off to Maccers (McDonalds). After years of not letting the kids go to McDonalds, we now force them to go and sit there to do school for several hours. We have run into the same problems with internet in Australia that we had in New Zealand. No one has free internet and paid internet is very expensive ($3 - $5 per hour). McDonalds has free wifi, so here we sit with the other backpackers. In late December, we purchased a mobile broadband internet connection. This allowed us to get internet from various places, although the coverage wasn’t all that great. If we were out of town at all, we usually didn’t get coverage. School has been a big challenge in Australia because we fell behind the previous two months.

Home – Our home in Australia consists of Freddy (our 1992 Ford Falcon wagon we purchased) and two tents. One for the kids and one for Karen and me. We are primarily staying at Caravan/Holiday Parks. Unpowered tent sites range from $20 to $55. Most places have a camp kitchen we use for making dinner and breakfast. Now and then, we stay at places where all we have is our camp stove set up on the ground. All things considered, life out of a tent is not too bad. We quite enjoy it. A lot of the parks we stay in have a swimming pool. This is usually the first stop for Tim, while Karen and I set up camp. We have gotten to where we can arrive and set up in about 45 minutes. Taking everything down in the morning is about the same. In Cairns, we stayed at the holiday park for a week while the kids worked on school, but usually we were moving on every day.

On the Road – Freddy is nice, but is lacking some of the finer things in life (air con is the most noticeable). We drive with all the windows down and we usually have an arm out the window. Most of the time it isn’t a big deal not having the air conditioning, but there are a few days when the temperature hits 115 degrees that are difficult. On the really hot days, we use frozen water bottles to help keep us cool. You can always keep them in your lap and as they melt, you can drink the water to stay cool. Poor man’s air conditioning. The roads are pretty good, but not as nice as the states. Speed limit is generally 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph). The authorities are very vigilant about the speed limit and asked me to make a $200 contribution to the Queensland Government. Australia has a fair amount of accidents on their highways and they are putting in a lot of effort to get people to slow down and drive safe. All along the highway, there are creative signs telling you to slow down. Unfortunately, one particular day this was reinforced to us multiple times. First, we had to detour off the highway for an hour because of a fatality crash. Then later, with the other crash fresh in our mind, we came around a corner and spotted a car out in the field steaming and someone frantically waving for help. We stopped and helped out. Luckily, the young lady driving was not hurt even though she had rolled the car over at least once. Always wear your seat belt!! We make our own rule of trying to be off the road before nightfall. Once dusk arrives, there tends to be a lot of critters on the road. Kangaroos, Possums, Wallabies and more.

Meals – Just like we have most of the trip, we eat two meals a day. Breakfast and Dinner. Breakfast usually consists of toast and jam and some fruit. Dinner runs the spectrum and is dependant upon what Karen and I find in the market. Because our only refrigeration is the eski (cooler) we bought in New Zealand, we have to shop every day. Food in Australia is 2 – 3 times more expensive than home. We select our meals based upon what is in the meat clearance pile. The final day of clearance, the meat is 33% - 66% off. We’ve managed lamb, steak, hamburgers, sausages (this is a popular cheap food here) and some chicken. Chicken is usually the most expensive thing in the store. Chicken breasts usually run around $8 - $9 per pound. One of our methods for buying healthy food while keeping the cost down is stopping at fruit stands along the way. As you travel the length of the country, it is fun to see what is grown where. The north was a lot of fruit and some vegetable. The south was a lot more vegetable and various fruit depending upon the timing.

Overall, daily life on the road is good, but because you are essentially homeless for a year and tied to a tight budget, general life is tougher than at home. Life on the road requires a lot of hard work that we are not used to. For example, the kids have to do school when the opportunity presents itself as opposed to a set time every day. We also try to do some school every day of the week. Grocery shopping is much more difficult than at home. You have to do it every day. You are never sure what you are going to have until you are in the market. You don’t know where anything is in the store, so you usually have to wander around the store to find things. Laundry is done by hand and finally you have to find a place to stay every night. That being said, our new motto is the best things in life require hard work. If you want something out of life you have to go get it.

~ Jeff ~

New Year Eve Sydney Style

2010-01-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

We are in Sydney Australia and its NYE 2009-2010. Last year at this time being in Sydney at New Year was only a distant dream of “someday”. We are very lucky to be here this year especially to be staying at Kathy’s flat in Milsons Point, which happens to be on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Reference for those unfamiliar with Sydney, the Harbour Bridge is the place the big fireworks display on TV happens.
We rise early as there are many things to do this morning. Jeff and Tim leave to scout the park and decide they must claim “our spot” very soon. They say goodbye and good luck to Jessica, as this is her departure day and head to the park with our shelter, chairs, computer for school, games and the camera. Jessica and I head off at 9am for the airport by train. Once she is set, we say our goodbyes and I head back to the flat to get myself ready for the day.
My job is to pack the cooler with food and drink. Oh, I decide we are in need of a large quantity of popcorn to see us through the day and into the evening. Tim comes back to flat at noon and helps me carry our supply to our spot. “Bravo!” I say, our spot is fabulous. We are set just off the shoreline next to a 4’ wall so we won’t feel crowded. We settle in for the day. Jeff has already met many of our “neighbors”; they are from everywhere, not just Australia. Seems like many people share this dream.
There are fireworks at 9pm for the “kids” and these are nice but not the spectacular that happens at midnight. The crowd is massive. They actually stop letting people down into our area because there is no more space. One thing stands out to me and that is; everybody is happy and smiling.
This is incredible; the excitement is “electric” in the air. Cameras and videos are at the ready, the countdown begins. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bang, Bang, Happy New Year!
Whoops and hollers, hugs and kisses. The fireworks show is amazing and it goes on and on for about 15 minutes.
It’s 2010, may each and every one of you and your families have a happy and healthy new year!
Cheers~ Karen

I Found Nemo

2010-01-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

Early on the morning of December 15th, we woke and readied ourselves for what I imagined would be an amazing next two days.
A taxi took us to the Reef Pier in Cairns, Queensland Australia. Each of us had our small day pack on our back with a swimsuit, towel, overnight necessities and sunscreen loaded inside. Our adventure was about to begin, but not before signing a release of responsibility. The 50’ sailboat, The Rum Runner, set off under motor out of the harbor shortly before 8:00 am. Unsure of how I would do with the motion of the boat, I took ¼ of a tab of sturgeon forte pill (thanks Bob for the tip). Wow, it is beautiful as we move further and further away from land. I am not sure I feel great, but I certainly don’t feel bad. The orientation for snorkeling gave me a good distraction and before I knew it (3 hours later) we were on the reef.
A total of 16 people were on our boat including the crew of four. Seven others were divers and the rest of us were snorkelers (5), which was great because we were not crowded on the reef. The four of us snorkeled straight away. The color of the reef was amazing. We were able to see so many fish that I have seen before in fish tanks at the doctor & dentist offices (we found your fish Steve). There were times where we were completely surrounded by little fish, but I was on a mission to find Nemo (Dory had guided us out to the reef) so it was time to move on. I searched and searched until I finally found him. Nemo and two of his buddies were hanging out on the edge of the reef, darting in, out and around corals and sea anemones. We spent about 1 hour in the water before being called back to the boat for a nice lunch.
After lunch they moved the boat to another spot on the outer reef where we were able to once again explore. One reason we took the 2 day trip was to be given the opportunity to do a “introductory dive”. This is a dive for uncertified divers with all the gear, but you don’t go deeper than 20 meters and you stay with the instructor the whole time. Jeff is a certified diver, but chose to do the introductory dive with us. Tim was eager and couldn’t wait to get in and go down to the bottom. I made an attempt, but was unable to clear my ears, so was not successful (I snorkeled at this spot though). Jess opted not to give it a try.
We were able to explore the reef a total of 5 times over 2 days, plus a night dive for Jeff. Tim and Jeff decided to dive three more times as well. Jeff and I went snorkeling together and came quite close to a shark. The shark was a black tip reef shark and was about the size of me. I am very glad he didn’t seem hungry as he was probably no more than 10 feet from us. Yes I was scared!!
The time we spent on the Great Barrier Reef was fabulous, but I could have stayed out much longer. I guess this means I am okay with being out on a boat, even spending the night (look out Bob).
~Karen~
I thoroughly enjoyed watching my family experience the Great Barrier Reef. I was a little worried when we arrived and one of the boat captains reminded me of Captain Ron from the movie. Luckily we got Richie as our Captain and the trip was wonderful.
I was very proud of Tim. He took to the diving like a fish. They showed him how to use the equipment, strapped it on him, had him walk to the side of the boat and then told him to step out. No hesitation, he stepped off for the 5 foot drop. Once in the water, he was over to the bar for the check out and went straight down just like they talked about in the training session. First thing out of his mouth when he came out of the water was, “when can we go back in?”
My wife was amazing again. She is not fond of boats, does not like being on the water, not overly thrilled with snorkeling and has never been around sharks. She took everything head on. Turns out, she now likes boats and is comfortable with multi day trips. She tried diving and given time to practice clearing her ears (we didn’t have any because it was a big group) she would have no problem doing it. She handled being inspected by a shark without much of a flinch. We saw him on the reef about 100 feet away and then he proceeded to swim right towards us until he got about 5 feet away and then he turned. I got a photo at about 15 feet, but couldn’t get a shot when he got close because the camera wouldn’t focus. I thought Karen might walk on water back to the boat, instead she turned and faced the shark and then kept right on snorkeling after he left. On the way back to the boat we saw a barracuda as well.
The snorkeling and diving on the reef was wonderful. I saw tons of fish. Quite often I couldn’t see another person while we were on the reef and you felt like you were the only one that had been there. I got my first night dive which was cool. I saw a 6 foot Moray Eel, some sharks and sleeping Parrot fish (the sleep on the reef in a sack of vomit). They look dead, but aren’t.
Great time and well worth the money. I especially enjoyed meeting the other passengers. Two lovely couples that it turned out were both getting married a day apart in August, Allan from Shanghai, Jaunte from England, Meaghan from Canada and Isabelle from Germany. Some great conversations.
~Jeff~

Welcome to Australia

2010-01-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

We left the an inviting wonderful place to stay (Lorenzo’s home), got stuck in traffic, they moved the rental car drop off location in the month we were in New Zealand and we hadn’t bought our visas for Australia. Basically, barely made the flight after all of that. A fair bit of stress to start off Australia. Nice flight from Qantas though and Fluffy, Karen and I got to go in the cockpit after landing (kids were embarrassed and ran off).
We found our shuttle to the Globe Backpackers and took a long ride into town. Once we arrived at the Globe (in Kings Cross for those of you who know Sydney), they informed us we couldn’t stay because the kids we under 18. Karen and Jess jumped on the internet (best they could using McDonalds free internet with loads of tourists logged on) trying to find rooms and I walked around the area doing the same. Turns out several events were going on in town and it was hard to find a place to stay. I finally found a room for us in the Sugar Shack and we book it for the next four nights. Kings Cross is not the best part of town and it is a bit of an eye opening experience for the kids.

Karen and I spent the next four days purchasing a car and camping gear. School was difficult because our only option for the internet was the McDonalds on the main drag and there is loads going on in the street. Finally, Monday we are able to change the registration on the car, load up and hit the road north.

Won’t say the first four days were the greatest, but it had its highlights. We got to see Katy and Oyvind from Seattle they bought us a nice dinner and ice cream. Thanks!

Sydney is a wonderful city. I could live here in a heart beat. There are so many beautiful neighborhoods and areas. Every direction we drive we see nice areas. There are beautiful beaches, a wonderful downtown on the harbor, a good train system and a fantastic ferry system. The botanic garden is huge and amazing, right in downtown. My favorite part is the welcome sign that says: Please walk on the grass. Also feel free to hug a tree, talk to the birds and picnic anywhere.
Jeff