8 Weeks In Asia!

8 Weeks, 8 Countries, 8,000 Miles

2008-08-18T11:57:00.003-04:00

The Final Count...

We spent our last full day in China on 08-08-08, and coincidentally, many of our total calculations would up being "8" as well. 8 weeks later, we have arrived home having visited 8 new countries, traveling 8,000 on a plane to China where we then traveled 8,000 miles on land.

In China the number 8 is representative of prosperity. We are both currently unemployed, (and anything but wealthy) but we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience.

8 Weeks:
We left home on June 12 and arrived back home on August 9.

59 days of traveling (including Chicago)
52 days in Asia

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8 Countries:
China
Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
Singapore

View Larger Map

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8,000 Miles:
The distance we traveled by bus, train and boat on our route from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur. Once we arrived in China, we traveled all the way through to Singapore, and back up to KL without flying. Needless to say, we were constantly on-the-go and we quickly learned how to sleep while sitting upright!
We spent 342 hours on transportation (the equivalent of 14 straight days) and in total, 13 over-nights on buses

We will certainly never complain on a road trip, ever.
In addition, our flight to China was approximately 8,000 miles each way.
And our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou was over 2,000 miles.
That brings our total mileage to around 26,000 miles!

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Chris predicted that Jennifer would take 17,500 pictures, which at the end of the trip was not a bad guess. The final photo count is...

12,510 pictures taken by Jennifer
619 pictures taken by Chris

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The most time we spent in any city was 4 nights (Hong Kong).
We stayed 3 nights in only 3 different cities (Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, and Kuala Lumpur).

In total, we stayed in 26 different hotel rooms (some better than others!).

"many a backpackers' nightmare"... Chungking Mansion

We definitely mastered the art of living out of our packs, rearranging our clothes like pros!

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Just to give you an idea of our budget and expenses...
Starting out, we had a living budget of $20 a day each (not including transportation). The most we ever spent on accommodation was $25 for both of us per night, and the least was $3 for both of us. Food expenses almost never pushed us over budget. Meals were anywhere from $1 each to $5 each depending on how nice of a meal we chose to eat (given: we never ate at a 5-star restaurant). At the end of the trip, not including our many splurges at markets along the way, we stayed under our budget.
The change Jenn received after buying ice cream... they didn't have a 200 dong coin, so they just threw in a stick of Doublemint!

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All said and done, the trip was a success.
We visited incredible places, saw indescribable things, and met amazing people. The realization that we just traveled for 8 weeks through 8 completely foreign countries is only just settling in.

We survived an esophageal ulcer, stomach flu, 100-degree fever, a cut-open toe, jelly fish stings and managed to never get malaria or Japanese Encephalitis. Phew!

Jennifer surviving a stomach flu atop an Angkor temple.

We endured a 17-hour local bus, dodged millions of motorbikes, survived the decrepit Chungking Mansion, trekked through cow dung, tasted foreign fruits, and explored a closed country.

We certainly had luck on our side while catching a train leaving within minutes, getting a refund for the train we actually missed, finding a taxis at 5am after being dropped in a dark bus stop, and surviving crazy Vietnamese bus drivers on winding country roads.

We learned more about the world, and about ourselves, than any classroom experience during 4 years of college. We survived lessons on patience, priorities, friendship, values, vanity, money, time, acceptance, pain... and so much more.

A lesson in losing vanity :)

We learned about foreign customs, religious rituals, and cultural norms in a place vastly different from America. We let down our guard and realized that in some areas we could make people's day by just smiling, waving, and saying "hello" in their native language. We learned to take pleasure in simple luxuries, like the occasional warm shower, or semi-clean clothes. It was the best thing either of us could have done straight out of college, and we hope you have learned from our experiences too.
Most people have not seen the things that we have seen, but we hope through pictures and stories you will understand a fraction of the things we have learned. We hope in some way this will either motivate you to travel for yourself, or change your ideas of living. Now that you know traveling for an extended period of time in a foreign country is not only possible, but affordable, practical, and incomparable, we hope you are open to the possibility of traveling there, too. And maybe next time we travel Asia all the tourists and backpackers won't be Australian or European- maybe, just maybe, we'll run into a few more Americans along the way!

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
-Miriam Beard

5 Senses Review: MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE

2008-08-15T12:22:00.001-04:00

Sight: The Petronas Towers glowing through the night sky in Kuala Lumpur; What a marvelous sight. The Islamic architecture really stood out as the towers each display two interlocking squares with circles on each intersection. All of the details are brilliantly lit up to display its beauty amongst the calm night sky.

Sound: While we missed the opportunity to hear the cry of the Gibbon in the wild while in Laos/Thailand, we did hear it in the Singapore Zoo! As Chris said, "it sounds like the squeal of a teenage girl." The monkeys would talk back and forth, and swing through the jungle as they belted out their unique song. The noise was mesmerizing; I could have listened to them all day.

Taste: Cheesy Nan bread dipped in sweetened condensed milk while eating at the mamak on the streets of Kelana Jaya, Malaysia with Sam. Slightly non-traditional, definitely like no other Asian cuisine we had tried, but uniquely Malay and so delicious.

Touch: The touch of newly-printed train tickets from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (after missing the original train). The part that stands out the most would be the relief we felt from holding those new tickets in our nervous hands. How nice it was to feel such hospitality and graciousness from the stationmaster.

Smell: As we explored Little India in KL with Sam, the smell of unique curries filled each breathe with new scents. We were able to taste several delicious curries at lunch. In addition, we enjoyed the familiar and wonderful smell of our lunch at Nando's. The smell of peri peri spices brought back many memories from our time in Australia.

The Final Leg of our Amazing Race

2008-08-11T06:55:00.000-04:00

TUESDAY, August 5:
In order to fit in 8 countries in 8 weeks, we have been constantly traveling, always on-the-go, and we keep finding ourselves in 'Amazing Race'-type situations. These last 5 days, full of adventures, is no different. At the end of the last post were in a pickle at the Singapore train station having missed our train, but we made the best of the 8 hour layover until the next train and relaxed at a nearby mall. We successfully updated the blog, had a great cup of coffee, spent the remainder of our Singapore dollars, and boarded our train extra early at 3pm. The 7 hour train arrived by 10:30pm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We no longer book guesthouses or hotels before arriving in a new city; now we just get off the bus/train, walk around for less than 30 minutes with our packs and bags, and find a decent guesthouse to stay the night. This time was no different, managing the streets of our new destination like pros, we quickly found a room for the night, dropped off our bags, and headed out into the Chinatown area to explore a little before crashing. Immediately we appreciated the incredibly clean streets of Singapore, but also looked forward to exploring all the KL had to offer. We found our first Nando's of the trip (for any of our OZ friends, you will know how excited we were after not seeing one for over a year now!!)... and since it was closed we walked a bit further near Little India and found a local place to rest our feet and eat a delicious dinner of roti, rice, and curry chicken. We were able to spot the Petronas Towers lighting up the sky on our walk, but saved that adventure for another night.

WEDNESDAY, August 6:
We woke up and got going by 8am to see as much of Kuala Lumpur as we could! We made a stop near our guesthouse in Chinatown for a fun local breakfast. Chris ate noodle soup and Jennifer had a coffee and dumpling.

Local Malay food, as we soon learned, is a combination of traditional local Malay dishes, Chinese food, and Indian food..., which means we pretty much love Malaysian food. After breakfast, we ventured across some rather busy intersection without traffic lights to visit the National Mosque.

The mosque has a gorgeous blue twelve-point star roof covering a detailed mosaic temple. We had to see it from the entrance ways, as non-Muslims are not allowed inside. We had to sport some pretty styling purple ropes to walk the premises though!
Next, we navigated back across the busy intersections and walked to ante mosque, Masjid Jamek. The temple was beautiful, decorated with traditional Muslim domes and open areas for prayer. We walked around the temple (again, because we weren't allowed inside) and while Chris was welcome in his t-shirt and shorts, Jennifer had to wear a robe and full head-covering. After our visit there, we headed into the Central Market where we browsed the little shops and picked up a couple postcards. At 12:30pm, we met Chris's good friend Sam, who we both met while studying abroad at UTS in Sydney. Since he now works downtown KL, he was able to meet us on his lunch break for a quick bite to eat! After a great reunion by the McDonald's, we walked into Little India and followed Sam to the upstairs room of a local place where we ordered us food in Malay. Anxious to find out what he had ordered us, he explained that we were going to eat a traditional Banana Leaf meal-- where they place a huge banana leaf in front of you as a plate and fill it with rice, curry, chopped cucumbers, and as assortment of other veggies and sauces. Then we chose four different meat dishes to share (a variety of chicken and prawn). It was great to have Sam there to help us discover the real local side of KL.
We walked with Sam back to his office and parted ways, agreeing to meet up again for dinner. We then continued exploring the city, heading over to the Golden Triangle where we wandered some of the huge Megamalls KL is infamous for. First we walked through Sangai Wang, then over to Times Square mall... both enormous. Times Square even had an indoor theme park!! A good bit of window shopping, and then headed back to Chinatown near our guesthouse and met up with Sam again at 8pm. We took the LRT train to the end of the line to Kelana Jaya, where Sam grew up. He then drove us to a nearby shopping center in his fun little suburb of KL (actually its own city). In this strip-mall type center, he explained to us that we were going to eat at a Mamak, which serves a mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese foods, and typically has card tables and plastic chairs set up on the street. This particular mamak was obviously the most popular around, as the tables spread out on the sidewalk for some 50 meters down the shopping center. Sam, once again, ordered our local food in Malay and we waited anxiously to see what came out of the kitchen! We each picked our favorite fruit (Jenn- mango, Chris- pineapple) and they created a slushy drink served in a mason jar. For dinner we ate these delicious cheese and garlic nan breads, prawn fried rice, and chicken Chinese noodle dish. All so filling and yummy! Next, Sam took us across the street to a fruit stand, selling durian. It is a local fruit. which Sam told us we had to try! We watched as they cut open the fragrant fruit and revealed the fruit inside. The only hesitation was that the fragrance wasn't exactly appetizing. In fact the durian is known for it's unpleasant pungent smell. Sam told us we would either love it or hate it... well, we didn't love it. It was kind of creamy, definitely flavorful, and a taste we won't forget for a while. Sam loves it though, so he ate the rest! haha. We had so much fun exploring Kelana Jaya with Sam- something we could have never conquered without him! Then we took the LRT back into KL and fell asleep quickly at the guesthouse.

THURSDAY, August 7:
We woke early again for our last non-travel day of our trip. Our nostalgia is kicking in, savoring every minute of exploration and constantly reminiscing about the incredible journey so far. We left the guesthouse by 8am and took the LRT to KLCC (city center) where we stood in a huge line to get free tickets to visit the bridge of the Petronas Towers. We finally made it to the front and chose to come back at 5pm to visit the bridge. As we walked outside, we strained our necks to admire the gorgeous twin towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world, and the 3rd tallest building- sparing no detail, the Islamic-inspired buildings were gorgeous. We walked across the street and relaxed a while, staring at the towers. Then we continued to explore and headed to the Menara Tower, the 5th tallest tower in the world. From the top of the Menara KL you could overlook the entire city of Kuala Lumpur, including an impressive view of the Petronas Towers. We listened to our audio guides and took the tour around the tower seeing all parts of the city, and then headed back down the tower and walked to meet Sam for lunch. We took Sam to Nando's for a delicious Peri chicken lunch. It was so great to taste our favorite 'fast food' from Sydney :)So then, we walked to the Chinatown market and browsed the many stalls filled mainly with purses, watches and scarves. As we were wandering, the sky rumbled and it started to pour! The rain was so intense, forcing many market stalls to bundle up in plastic to protect their goods, and water would roll off the roofs, flooding the streets quickly. We took refuge in a nearby cafe and treated ourselves to bananas and ice cream. After realizing the rain wasn't letting up, we made the short trek through the showers to our hotel to change clothes for dinner... followed by braving the rain as we headed for the LRT station. We made it to the Petronas Towers just in time for our 5pm appointment to visit the tower bridge! First we were shown a 3D video about the towers, and then given official-looking passes to visit the bridge, and finally we were taken to the speedy elevator! We were so excited to explore the beautiful towers up close. Up on the 42nd floor, even through the rainy weather, the view was exceptional. After plenty of pictures we headed back down (we were only allowed on the bridge for 10 minutes) and we browsed the KLCC shopping. Sam met us there for dinner at Madam Kwan's to eat some great Malaysian food. Jennifer had Nazim Lamak (coconut rice) and chicken and Chris had the local noodle dish... both delicious! Next Sam took us to his favorite bar, with the best view of the Petronas Towers in the city. We thought the towers were impressive during the day, but all lit-up, they filled the sky with light, and radiated through the night. We went to the top floor of the nearby Traders hotel for a cocktail while enjoying an incredible view of the Petronas Towers. We thank Sam for the local advice and fun hangouts he took us to... they all exceeded our expectations and gave us such a wonderful impression of KL :)
We managed to catch the last LRT home around 11:30pm, packed up our bags, and went to sleep for just a few hours...

FRIDAY, August 8:
After our recent issues with oversleeping we were not taking chances today since we had a flight booked from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Shanghai, China for 8:00am! We had the reception of our hostel bang on our door at 3:30am (after just a couple hours of sleep) to ensure that we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We left by 4am, easily caught a taxi to the bus station and got on the 4:30am bus to the airport. It all went as smoothly as we could have hoped! I suppose we've become backpacking veterans by now... just in time to head back home! We arrived at the airport before 6am and piled into fairly unorganized lines as we finally found a counter with a piece of hand-written paper reading "Air Asia flight D7 2602"... very official. We checked our packs and proceeded to security check, where we luckily bypassed the carry-on luggage scale (because we a positive that our newest addition souvenir bag is heavier than 7kg). And we made our way into the mass waiting room for a little break before our flight boarded, saying our final goodbyes to Malaysia. Before we knew it though they were calling our flight number and we walked out to the Air Asia plane. Our entire concept of travel-time has completely changed... a 5-hour flight? air conditioning? no one sitting in the aisles? Piece of cake.We couldn't believe that after a short nap, and relaxing a bit we were already beginning to descend into Hangzhou, China. That's right, Hangzhou, not actually Shanghai, but 3 hours outside the city. We figured actually flying into the Shanghai airport would be too simple, and Air Asia likes to complicate things, so we flew to Hangzhou instead.

I was mind-boggling to imagine that we had just retraced our entire 8 weeks of traveling with a simple 5-hour flight. I mean, we have spent hours upon hours on buses, trains, tuk tuks, taxis, motos,... and it was all undone with a short plane ride. The realization that we were actually ending this adventure started to sink in. But, we were armed and ready with experience and ready to conquer the last 24 hours in China. Through all 8 countries, we both agree that China is by far the most difficult language barrier to overcome. But we soon realized that with all we had learned while traveling, communicating via hand signals and a minor Chinese vocabulary was a lot easier than we found it 8 weeks ago. In fact, we got off the plane, easily made our way through customs, found our bags waiting on us, and bought tickets for a bus leaving in 30 minutes with incredible ease. We smiled at the thought that we finally knew what we were doing. The bus arrived at a random bus station in Shanghai around 5:45pm after several intense police checkpoints (security is intense due to the Olympics starting, even though we are in Shanghai and not Beijing). With the help of a very nice local, we found the nearby metro station, and figured out the correct trains we needed to take to get to the hostel we first stayed at 8 weeks ago in Shanghai. As we arrived at the East Nanjing Road station, we found ourselves in a bizarre time warp.

With the anticipation of our homecoming on the back of both our minds, we had not considered how odd our arrival back in Shanghai, where it all began, would feel. It was a firsthand look at how much we had learned, how much we had change since the beginning of our journey. We emerged from the metro station on Nanjing Road, much like we had back in June, only this time we could see Shanghai with new eyes. On one hand seeing that same exact image we had seen upon first arriving; it was without a doubt the same metro station exit we had taken the first time. On the other hand, it was a city we both immediately recognized after exploring it for only 2 days, 8 weeks ago! We had discussed while on the train that we wish wee had a map because we were not confident that we could find the hostel (some 15-minute walk from the station) without guidance. But when we stepped on Nanjing Rd, we both knew exactly where to go.
Also bizarre was the change Shanghai went through. In 8 weeks China cleaned the streets, cut down on motorbikes, and clamped down on the selling on fake goods; the change was apparent. We arrived at Mingtown Hikers Hostel and greeted the same reception staff as before. They told us we would have to wait until 10pm to see if they had a vacancy, but if they didn't we could sleep on the sofas in the lobby. Another change we noticed in ourselves was not only the fact that we hadn't reserved a room before arriving, but that sleeping on the lobby sofas sounded appealing to both of us. So we left our bags at reception and headed out to explore the city on our last night in Asia.
We took the metro to French Concession, an area of town we had yet to visit. We wandered around and finally found a local restaurant with a TV playing the opening ceremony, so we entered in hops of having a fun last Chinese meal. The waitress translated the all-Chinese menu for us in broken English and we ordered chicken noodles, and dumplings. As we ate our meal (which wound up being chicken-blood pieces, which we removed...) the waitress stood next to our table the whole time, telling us about the Chinese officials shown on the TV and chatting with us in broken English. She even insisted that we take pictures with her... she was so fun!
After dinner we headed down the street in French Concession in search of another fun local hangout. All along the street there were random televisions with locals all stopped to watch the Olympics! So fun to see how much they loved it!
As we walked along we eventually walked past this deserted restaurant where we noticed a television upstairs, what looked like a few locals crowded around, and the bottom floor completely empty except for one lady. We walked in, and without a single word we communicated that we wanted a drink, she typed the price into the calculator, we agreed, and she led us upstairs! So simple! For the next 3 hours, we sat at this small table directly in front of this small television playing the Olympic opening ceremony. The small crowd that was there already was actually just the wait staff hanging out, but before too long there was this huge Chinese family that rushed in and filled the three tables surrounding us (we would have felt popular, but we're pretty sure they were interested in the television, not us). Without speaking to each other, we started getting to know that family, and as we cheered for the USA team entering the Birds Nest stadium, they realized where we were from. They soon loved us and we had so much fun with them! They were completely crowded around our table to watch the games, just like we were part of the family :)
After the ceremony, we unsuccessfully searched for a taxi home, but after a while we just decided to walk. It was a LONG way, so when a local on a moto offered us a ride, we obviously have become braver throughout our journey, because we agreed and hopped on! As Jenn took picture while riding in the middle (of course) he smiled for the camera- so funny! We returned to the hostel to be assigned a 6-share room, moved our stuff upstairs and went to sleep for our last night.

SATURDAY, August 9:
We woke up and left the hotel by 8:15am to fit in one last exploration before heading to the airport. We walked down Nanjing Road to People's Square for a visit to the Shanghai Museum, which we didn't get to fit in last time. We walked through the various exhibits after waiting in line for an hour. Great to see some ancient Chinese artifacts one last time-- really helped us appreciate for the final time how vastly different Asia is from the Americas, and remind us about their incredible history.
We then headed back to the hostel, stopping at some last minute souvenir stores, Olympic shops, and enjoying the local feel of the old Chinese couple dancing along the street. We then took just 20 minutes to completely stuff our packs with the recent purchases and everything we had accumulated over the 8-week journey. Then we checked out of the hotel by 12:20pm, and began the 15-minute walk in the extreme heat with all our stuff back to that East Nanjing Road metro stop. After going through security and changing trains a few times we arrived at Longyand Rd. station, where we first arrived 52 days ago without a clue! This time we knew of an alternative to the hour bus- the Maglev train! It is one-of-a-kind in the world... a levitated magnetic train. Just 8 minutes later we found ourselves at the airport!!! The train got up to 431 km/hr... if only trains like this existed throughout China we would have gotten around Asia a lot quicker! We loved the last adventure before our final plane journey. We final checked in for our flight, got through security and arrived at our gate with a couple hours to spare. Jennifer was able to find her friend from school, Ke, who was departing for America at the gate next door! It was great for them to catch up. Chris found the Olympics playing on a television in the terminal. By 3:30 we were boarding the plane, getting cozy in our first class seats once again :)
As we got comfy, we realized that our stewardess friend from before was once again abroad the flight! It was very full-circle to see her! The flight went smoothly, in fact even if we had been forced to sit in the aisle, or stuffed back in the luggage compartment we wouldn't have complained after everything we've been through. Any 15-hour trip seems so simple and easy; having a chair that folds into a bed was actually nicer than some of the hotels we stayed in. It was almost too easy- watch 3 movies, eat some great food, take a short nap, chat about our trip with the stewardess... and before we knew it we had landed in Chicago!
As we pulled up to the gate we were told that the US Customs' computer was down, and we weren't allowed off the flight. Jennifer was nervous because she had a close connection back to Atlanta, but 45 minutes later we were allowed off, only to realize her fight was delayed anyway. We used the time to divide up our souvenir bag... she was like our third traveler- she weighed as much as a person, well, not really, but filled to the brim, of course. As we got off the plane, we were soon separated out as "citizens" and forced to stand in line with all the people who actually spoke English and didn't have a fun accent... how boring! We knew immediately that the reverse culture shock was kicking in and our need for adventure was not going to be fulfilled.
But without any problems we waited in the domestic terminal, our connecting flights were delayed a couple hours, but in the end what is a couple hours of waiting in an air-conditioned terminal? We said our final good-bye as Jennifer headed to Atlanta and Chris returned to Tulsa.
Before we knew it we were back in our parents' arms and comfy at home, but filled with new perspectives and ideas about life. Stay tuned for a conclusion post and updates! Thanks for reading and caring, we love you all. Also- comments should now be easier to post, we changed some settings we didn't know existed. Thanks for everything :)

5 Senses Review: THAILAND

2008-08-10T17:34:00.001-04:00

Sight:
My favorite sight would have to be the peaceful underwater paradise that I had a chance to explore. The beautiful coral and colorful fish created an unbelievably relaxing environment. Watching each unique fish on its unknown journey through the reef, and seeing sea snakes and Moray eels wander amongst the coral was incredible... as I am sure Chris' shark encounter was as well!

Sound:
We happened to arrive in Bangkok on a public holiday at the start of the Buddhist Lent. As we visited temples crowded with locals, the huge rooms would echo with the clanking of coins. Each person would walk along the wall and drop coins in little metal buckets as an offering. The unique sound filled the room.

Touch:
Rough, scaly, whisker-filled and wrinkly: Nothing is quite like the feeling of an elephant's skin. We enjoyed a day of feeding and riding elephants, but an amazing part of the day was just feeling their tough skin.

Taste:
There is no question that the taste of Thailand has to be Pad Thai. Not only can you find it everywhere, but it is simply delicious! And lucky for our families, we learned how to cook the sweet and flavorful noodle dish at our cooking class, so I'm sure we'll be trying our hand at cooking our own at home!

Smell:
Tough choice for smells of Thailand... a room on a ferry full of 70 sleeping tourists and locals, the sweat and blood of Muay Thai boxers fighting each other, local markets throughout Bangkok filled with unique foods, sweet banana pancakes with chocolate and condensed milk cooking on the streets, and the salty/fishy scent of the underwater coral reefs (just kidding, you shouldn't try to smell while underwater). It's the mixture of all of those things and so many more that remind me of this beautiful country.

Adding Our 8th Country & Island Explorations

2008-08-04T22:58:00.001-04:00

MONDAY, July 28:
After updating the blog in Bangkok for a couple hours we headed back to the train station to catch our 1pm train to Chumphon, Thailand. From there we were planning to take a ferry to Koh Tao- one of the islands off the east coast of Thailand. So we enjoyed the 9 hour train ride (even 2nd class trains are luxury compared to any bus!) and we got off the train at 10pm. We quickly found a guesthouse to stay in that was willing to book our ferry/bus ticket to anywhere we wanted to go! We got a lot of information about the surrounding area and decided to plan a little adventure for tomorrow, and then we were off for an early nights sleep...

TUESDAY, July 29:
We've gotten a bit brave to say the least after the last 7 weeks of traveling... and we've realized that Lonely Planet's advice is usually conservative (providing extra precautions in most cases). Soooo, if Lonely Planet tells us that is is fairly simple to visit Myanmar, than we figured we had to try for ourselves. We decided to adventure a couple hours away to the nearby border in hopes that we could cross into Kawthong, Myanmar (Burma) without difficulty. We woke up around 5am, hoping to catch the 5:30am bus, but we arrived at the bus station to find out that there isn't really a 5:30am bus like advertised... but we were able to catch the "Visa Express" minibus to the border through the hotel at 5:45am. Since Thailand only lets you in the country without a visa for 30 days, a lot of long-term travelers have to stamp-out of the country on their passports and re-enter in order to avoid overstay fees... so we joined the group of people headed to renew their visas. As we got to Ranang, Thailand, we stayed with the group, taking the Visa Ferry across to Kawthong, Myanmar. As we stood in line to stamp our passports we realized that not too many foreigners attempt to stay in this city- it's typically just meant for re-stamping Thailand passports. We had trouble getting the immigration office there to take our US $20 bill... they require you to pay US $10 each to enter, but they didn't want to take our bill because it was folded in half and it had the tiniest little tear at the top. Finally, we figured out another option, and headed into Burma! As we watched the Visa Express Ferry pull out of the harbour we realized all eyes were on us. On the docks in Kawthong we were definitely a little apprehensive, but as we walked through the city you could immediately tell the difference from the cities in Thailand we just left. The town was situated between mountains, so we headed to this hilltop temple overlooking the town and sea. It only took us 30 minutes in Burma to realize we made a great decision deciding to visit this 8th country on our trip. It was so vastly different, yet standing atop this gorgeous temple, overlooking the quaint yet undeveloped town, it was so refreshing from everything we had seen lately. We also realized that all the people staring at us where so warm-hearted and just wanted to say "hello!" We really were American celebrities... we met a guy named Jo Jo who taught us how to say "hello" and "thank you" in Burmese, and we headed through the temple and into the town greeting each person we met with our new phrases. It was fantastic- everyone was so happy to say "hello" back with the biggest smiles :) This group of teenagers said "hello" to Jennifer and then all laughed... later Jo Jo said they wanted her to take a picture of them, and a little while later we'd had a whole photo shoot and they loved it- got to see the pictures on the screen afterwards and they were so happy! As we walked through the town the moms would literally prop up their children for us to take pictures of them, never expecting anything in return, just so open-hearted and loving (compared to Thai and Lao kids who exploit themselves to get money after you take their picture!!). It was all so refreshing. We also met this man originally from India who loved Chris- bought both of us cokes to drink, tried to give us all kinds of stuff from his shop, gave Chris 3 of his phone numbers, was willing to let us borrow his motorbike!... it was so generous. Eventually we realized we needed to make our way back to Chumphon to catch the night ferry to Koh Tao, so we took a little local long tail boat back to Thailand, stamped officially back into the country we'd just left this morning and got a local bus back to our hotel. We ate some delicious Pad Thai, check email a bit, and then boarded our 7:30pm ferry to the beautiful island of Koh Tao (Turtle Island). We both feel asleep before too long, rocked to sleep by the waves.

WEDNESDAY, July 30:
We docked in Koh Tao by 2am, but they let us sleep on the ferry until just after 6am. Not a bad view to wake up to!

We then made our way to land and figured out where we were going to stay... we'd been recommended to stay at this place "Ban's Diving Resort" and we got them to pick us up from the docks and take us to their resort right on the beach! Jennifer really wanted to get scuba certified, and Koh Tao is suppose to be the best/cheapest place to do it! Plus, with your certification you get free accommodation! So we rested at the restaurant right on the beach until we could check in, them we rested a bit more until Jennifer started her dive school at noon. A few hours of videos, a little scuba diving in the swimming pool, and another bit of classroom lessons by her private instructor Paul! Chris decided to walk along Sairee Beach enjoying the picturesque beach boardwalk, looking for ferry/bus tickets down to Singapore (since we're always on the go!). He stopped for some awesome pork-noodle soup along the way. Afterwards Chris did a little bit of swimming by the Ban's resort, and laid-out to work on his tan a bit. He met some fun new English friends along the beach and invited them to Chopper's Grill to watch some cricket. They never showed. Chris is really good at meeting quality friends, just kidding. That night we met up in town where Chris had found cricket playing on television, and then we relaxed until deciding to check out the Muay Thai boxing match in town. Joined by new friends we found the boxing ring just in time to get great seats. The boxing was crazy- kicking, punching-- nothing was off-limits. Six fights later, we got really into the whole thing, yelling "oh!" along with the locals at each hard kick. We finally made the walk back on the boardwalk to our resort by midnight.

THURSDAY, July 31:
Jennifer had an early start, meeting Paul (her private dive instructor) at 7:45 for the first open water dive! We caught the dive boat at the pier and headed to Twin Peaks for a 50-minute dive. Before the dive, Paul would draw out a map of the dive site on the table (picture below) to give Jenn an idea of where they'd be swimming around! It only took 5 minutes for Jennifer to fall in love with diving though. With just a little experience diving in the past (Australia, and Caribbean she knew she wanted to get certified, but had no idea how addicted she would become!). This dive spot had some of the best coral and fish near Koh Tao... multiple White-eyed Moray Eels, tons of fish, a family of Panda Clown fish, heaps of Angelfish and Butterfly fish, Masked Porcupine fish, gobies and their blind shrimp friends... it was all so peaceful underwater. Next, we moved to the second dive spot, White Rock. After a break, they were back in the water- in search for the sea turtle that had been spotted in the area last week. The fish were just as abundant, more Moray Eels, a Banded Sea Snake(!!), ton of Christmas Tree Worms on display on the sides of the coral, Titan Triggerfish, Harlequin Sweetlips, and at the very end of the dive we finally spotted the 1-metre sea turtle! And were the only people on the dive boat to spot it! Back from diving around noon, and after a rest, Jennifer met back up with Paul for a couple hours of lessons and her PADI dive test, and all she has left is 2 dives tomorrow and she'll be certified!

Chris woke up by 8am to catch a moto with a local Thai lady to the docks where he boarded a deep-sea fishing ship. On board he met a Danish guy and 3 Dutch guys. For the next 6 hours, they were able to try their luck at 3 different sites. Chris caught 10 fish including Red Snapper, Yellow Fish, Tiger Fish and Grouper. They provided a rice, egg, and meat lunch aboard the ship. He had to eat lunch bite-by-bite because the huge choppy ocean was not kind to his stomach. But after a 20-minute rest he was back in action. The other guys also caught Travali, Spotted Grouper and Big-Eye Fish. The guide caught a massive rare Barracuda too! As they were trolling along, they spotted a huge fish nearby on the surface and the guide attempted to scoop it up with fishing net! haha, but they were unsuccessful. Beaten and tired they arrived back to the harbour around 4pm and were taken in a truck back to Ban's...

We met back up at Ban's for a well-deserved ice cream sundae break right on the ocean! After cleaning up we headed into town to explore a bit more... such a cute beach town. We both had Pad Se-Ew (Jenn's fav) and then at 10pm went to a "Lady Boy" show called "The Queens." One of the best things we have done so far-- absolutely hilarious. It was about 10 of the local he-shes all dressed up and ready to perform! Dancing, lip-syncing, elaborate costumes, and some pretty-legit looking ladies added to a night we won't forget anytime soon. Afterwards we went back to Ban's for an early night after Jennifer ate a banana pancake on the street, as always :)

FRIDAY, August 1:
We cannot believe that we only have ONE WEEK until we fly up to China from today! It all flies by so quickly. This morning Jennifer had to meet Paul at 7:45am again for her 3rd and 4th dives.

The first dive spot was Mango Bay where we fit in a 58-minute dive! Finishing all tasks for the certification, and making a massive loop of the bay, they managed to see loads of cool fish. More Moral Eels, Titan Triggerfish, a small stingray, a beautiful clown fish, and this massive school of fish, bigger than two of our hotel rooms, just hanging out and swimming along together... swimming underneath the school was so unreal. An hour break and then back in the water for her 4th and final dive in Koh Tao... back to Twin Peaks, but this time the goal was to fit 18m depth. After some convincing, Paul got Jenn to lie on the ground next to this massive coral to see a huge blue-spotted stingray just taking a nap on the floor. Tons of fish, more Triggerfish, and finally a gorgeous Yellow Box fish! Arriving back from the dive at noontime they finished up paperwork, and Jennifer was officially PADI Scuba Certified! A quick nap and then Jennifer was off to book our tickets to Singapore. Then some relaxation time at Ban's cafe until Chris got back...
Chris was picked up by 8:40am for a full day of snorkeling and island site-seeing trip. They went to 5 different snorkeling spots, including Thian Og Bay (Shark Bay). The reef had tons of branch coral, but the highlight was seeing a 6-foot black tip reef shark in just 4-foot-deep water! Next was off to Lang Khaai Bay and Hin Wong Bay... both had beautiful marine life, giant clams, brain coral. The boat offered free tea, coffee, watermelon, pineapple, and served delicious rice, chicken and cucumber lunch. Next was Mango Bay with schools of crocodile needle fish, tiger fish, and more coral. And finally he visited Nangyuan Island (next to Twin Peaks where Jenn went diving). It was a beautiful island and Chris had the chance to hike to the top for some great views. Then back on the boat where he met Jenn at Ban's around 4pm...
We headed back to the town to have a pad thai dinner (we are really going to miss Thai food!)... We rested until around 8pm when the truck picked us up for our night ferry. All packed up, we hopped aboard and headed to the harbour. Little did we know that the ferry was just one massive room of mattresses (for 70 people!) and along the wall were numbers 2-feel apart, telling you where to sleep! We had a good laugh, Jennifer managed to pick up one late banana pancake, and then we went to sleep in the bed with 35 other travelers.
SATURDAY, August 2:
The Ferry arrived in Suratthani, Thailand at 5am where we were ushered into town. We waited until 7am, when they divided us into groups by our destinations and sent us off towards Singapore... Four hours in a speedy minibus to Hat Yai, followed by another 3 1/2 hours in a different minibus, and finally we had crossed the border into Malaysia! We were dropped off in Butterworth, Malaysia at 2:30pm and told that our connecting bus departed at 10:00pm. We would have been upset by the unseen delay, but we had thought we would be on a bus until tomorrow morning, so having 8 hours to just relax was fine by us, since the night bus was scheduled to arrive at the same time! We took a taxi into Georgetown and found the Megamall where we were both very excited to see the new Batman movie was playing! After confirming that the movie was played in English, we bought ticket for 5:45pm for under US $3 each! Then we rested in the mall, ate ice cream, eventually had an early Chinese dinner of noodle soup, and then leisurely made out way to the movie at 5:30... and were told that the movie had started already! Apparently no one told us that there was an hour time change when we crossed into Malaysia, but we figured it is better than we missed part of the movie than miss our 10pm bus!! So, we watched the remainder of the movie and then headed via taxi back to the bus. A decent AC bus left at 10pm sharp and carried us to the Singapore border...

SUNDAY, August 3:
We woke up on the bus around 7am for border formalities. Eventually we arrived in Singapore, but as we exited Singapore customs, we realized our bus left us at the border! We finally figured out the local bus system and made our way to a hotel by 10:30am. We decided to fit as much in as we could, so we headed out towards Orchard Rd... but managed to get side-tracked by Starbucks along the way. Then we kept walking and found Orchard Rd, filled with malls, shops and shopping centers to explore. Around the area were some gorgeous parks as well; we love the clean city! From there we hopped on the MRT to Little India where the atmosphere completely changed. The culture was amazing; it felt like we were actually in India. We stopped for a delicious lunch of Chicken Tikka Masala, Calaloo, Curry Aloo, Chopped Cucumber, rice and roti. The little sections of town all have brightly colored terrace houses, each so unique and fun to walk along. After that we took the MRT to Kallang and caught a free shuttle to the Singapore Indoor Stadium for City Harvest Church's annual Festival of Praise. Tonight was the third of three nights, and we were very excited to get to catch part of the festival. Reuben Morgan from Hillsong in Sydney and the Hillsong team along with Parachute Band played for the worship, and Mark Conner from Melbourne, AU spoke. The auditorium was filled with tons of locals (about 8,000!)... what a sight to see. It lasted from 7:30pm until after 10:30pm... the engery was captivating. We both had such a blast especially hearing songs from the new Hillsong album "This is Our God." Afterwards we took the bus and MRT back to our hostel.

MONDAY, August 4:
We got up an hour late but got going quickly to City Hall where we caught the MRT to Ang Mo Kio station near the Singapore Zoo where we took a local bus the rest of the way. We had heard the zoo was a must-see, but we had no idea how great it really was! There was every animal you could imagine. We got there just in time to see a "Splash" show with manatees, penguins, sea lions and pelicans... then another show was cancelled due to rain, but we still got to see the elephant feeding. Next we walked around for hours (seriously it was a massive zoo) and saw heaps of snakes including Taipan Snake, King Cobra, massive pythons, and so many more... Also saw white tigers, gibbons screaming at the top of their lungs (so cool to hear!), lions, jaguars, leopards, orangutans, chimpanzees, komodo dragon, giant turtle... then saw the polar bear, rhino , and lion feedings. We stayed until around 2:30pm, loving the open atmosphere of the zoo, not a whole lot of cages per se, mostly just small fences and ditches (that doesn't really sound comforting, but it still felt safe!). Afterwards we took a bus to Choa Chu Kang station and caught the MRT to the railway station where we bought train tickets for tomorrow morning back into Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur. Then we decided to walk the rest of the day so we started the long trek to Chinatown where there was a fun night market opening up. The streets were colorful as always and lined with Chinese architecture. The market streets were decorated with string lanterns- all decorate and festive. As we headed out of Chinatown, we ran across the Sri Mariamman Temple (the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore) where they were having some sort of festival/ritual/chanting...? Then we continued on our walk to Marina Bay where we say the Merlion statue and had some great views of the city. We finally saw the business district, which has some impressive architecture. We snaked along the Singapore River where we hit the Boat Quay, and eventually up to Clarke Quay where we ate some pad thai along the riverside. Then we headed into Clarke Quay, which had an incredible atmosphere, even on a Monday night. We settled in Brewerkz, a restaurant and brewery where Jennifer had the "sampler" to try a variety of their house beers (so good!)... after relaxing a while we made our way back to the cozy hostel.

TUESDAY, August 5:
Long story short, we're updating the blog from Singapore waiting for our 3:30pm train, after missing the 7:40am train. We blame it on the room without a window, the blackberry alarm that ran out of battery and our recent trend of oversleeping/being late to things. Luckily, the incredibly nice train master let us transfer our tickets to the next train for free! *Given, we were only 5 minutes late, so he cut us some slack :)
In the meantime we got a nice cup of coffee and picked out our pictures to post on the blog! So lucky for all of you still reading, we got a chance to update! Miss you all, cannot believe we're heading to China in 3 days and back to the states in just 4 more nights.

5 Senses Review: LAOS

2008-08-02T06:49:00.001-04:00

Sight:

Incomparable is the sight of the mountains surrounding Vang Vieng. Whether relaxing in the town or kayaking down the Nam Song River, the limestone cliffs are always right around the corner. One of my favorite things about Laos, hands down.

Sound:

The roaring waters of the Tad Sae waterfall. As we made our way down the river in a rather tipsy long tail boat, you could hear the powerful falls before seeing them. We knew the sight of them would be extraordinary before even laying eyes on them.

Taste:

Many delicious foods found in Laos, but the most traditional and unique was the Luang Prabang Stew. A thick mixture of eggplant, chicken, peas, green beans, mushrooms, galanga ginger, and lemongrass all over a healthy serving of rice was a favorite taste of Laos.

Touch:

One of our top guilty pleasures of Laos was spending time (and money) in the Luang Prabang night market. As we browsed the various tents filled with incredible handmade items (shirts, souvenirs, fisherman pants, etc.) we felt each product for quality and bargained for the best price. Such a fun 'touch' of Laos.

Smell:
The 17-hour local bus is a memory I will not soon forget- in particular would be the smell. The combination of locals caked in mud from the tires, various people who slept on my shoulder, stagnant air, not to mention Chris and me by the end of the journey- all made for a unique smell to remember.

Laos, local buses & limestone cliffs

2008-07-27T20:56:00.002-04:00

SUNDAY, July 20:

We last left you in Vientiane, Laos where we were excited about exploring

Laos

for 6 days or so... After sleeping in a little, we packed up and headed to catch our 10am bus to Vang Vieng. Luckily, the bus was not full so we had the chance to spread out a bit (a luxury these days). Jennifer took pictures of all the fun villages we passed, and Chris feel asleep- both typical.

It is currently rainy season, so not only do we run into rain just about every day, but the roads are usually flooded or in awful condition. So as usual, we had to cross a few rivers along the way!

All part of the adventure! (Note: we have been saying that a lot in

Laos

).We arrived in Vang Vieng around 2:30pm, got a tuk tuk ride into town, and found our cheapest guesthouse yet (only $3)! We loved how chill the town was and sandwiched between limestone mountains it was quite the sight to see.

The town is known for its Nam Song River, which you can rent a tube and float down (in fact it is a must for southeast-Asia backpackers). However, since the rain was not letting up, the river was running too strong to tube. The good news is that all the bars & restaurants have these lounge booths, cheap food, and TV shows playing! Most places just keep FRIENDS running non-stop, but we switched it up after a few episodes and watched Prison Break a while too. Jennifer ate banana pancakes and Chris ate noodle soup- typical again.

After rotating TV bars, meeting some fun backpackers, and booking kayaking for tomorrow we headed to bed before too late.

MONDAY, July 21:
We rode in the bed of a truck with 7 other travelers up the Nam Song River to a drop point about 20 km up stream. We had debated whether to kayak or not, since the river current was so strong, but decided to brave it. We definitely made a good decision- it was such a beautiful river surrounded by limestone mountains. We quickly strapped on our life jackets and boarded our kayak. Before we knew it we reached our first stretch of rough water, only a couple minutes down stream!

The first rapids almost dumped us, but after that it was all smooth paddling. We stopped after a little ways to trek through Snail Cave... And by trek, I mean walk waist deep in water through a cave for about 20 minutes... and since it was dark, they gave us "head lamps"... aka a small car battery attached to a headband with a light bulb. We felt really safe while walking through water! Then we went to Elephant Cave, and then had a delicious lunch alongside the river before heading further downstream. We both now love whitewater kayaking, especially when the scenery is so breathtaking. Along the way, we stopped once more at one of the many riverside bars where they had a huge swing that you could hold on to and fly across the whole river! Jennifer of course took the opportunity to fling herself into another body of water. Then we kept kayaking along the river back into Vang Vieng. We could not take pictures through the best parts since we had to paddle and all, but just take our word for it! We met new American friends: Christi from Kentucky and a couple from Chicago- first Americans we met really since

China

. We meet them for dinner at a riverside restaurant after resting up and then had a fun time out in the town with Christi and Irish friends we met the night before...
TUESDAY, July 22:
Our bus left Vang Vieng at 9am for Luang Prabang (a city further north in

Laos

). The 6 1/2 hour trip was beautiful! The road snaked through the mountains- very picturesque. The bus arrived by 3:30pm and dropped us off just far enough outside of town that we had to hire a tuk tuk to take us to a guesthouse (we have learned they do this in most cities). We arrived in town and searched for a guesthouse on a street overlooking the nearby Mekong River. Just 5 minutes of walking around and we already loved this city. It was almost exactly the opposite as Vang Vieng-- swapping gorgeous scenery for a gorgeous city. In Luang Prabang the old French influence was so refreshing- it seemed as though we were in Europe. Even our backpacking-budget guesthouse had vaulted ceilings with dark wood trimmings, wooden post beds, and a thick wooden door with antique handle. In order to soak up the essence of our room, we decided to rest up from the winding bus trip and we took a short nap before heading back into town for dinner and a look at the night market. We had NO idea that Luang Prabang was going to be an amazing shopping town! We walked through the market on our way to get dinner at our favorite western restaurant of Laos, Joma, and spent 2 hours just browsing the market. It was so overwhelming, filled with all sort of quality handmade crafts and souvenirs. We scouted out a bunch of stuff, but saved the buying for tomorrow. We loved how all the vendors had matching red tents, each with a single light bulb hanging down, causing the whole market street to glow. Then we finally made it to Joma for a dinner of fresh salads (first in 6 weeks!) and we met an American girl, Mary. We stayed at Joma until they closed down around us and then Mary joined us as we headed to a cafe, where we stayed as late as we could (which in Luang Prabang was hardly past 11pm).

WEDNESDAY, July 23: We left the hotel by 9am with a mission to find bus tickets to Chiang Mai for tomorrow. We walked around town a bit and Chris had noodle soup for breakfast.

Jennifer stuck with Joma and treated herself to another western meal- yum! Then we finally found a travel company that was offering a good deal on bus tickets for tomorrow, which would take us all the way into

Thailand-

. We would be taking a northern route through Laos and then head West into Thailand to reach our next destination, Chiang Mai. We considered flying, but we decided that the scenic roads are part of the whole experience, so we opted for the bus (foreshadowing: not such a big fan of "scenic roads" anymore). Next, we decided to take the afternoon to visit the Tad Sae Waterfall. We hired a tuk tuk to take us 30 minutes through the mountains to the river, where we were squeezed on this tiny little boat which took us up the river about 10 minutes... the boat felt like it was going to tip the entire time, and we were both told to sit on one little piece of wood, yikes! We realized the ride was worth it though as we laid eyes on the gorgeous waterfall. We had never seen anything like it- so unique with layer after layer of smooth, rounded falls. Pictures don't even do it justice.

Since it was overcast/raining, there were hardly any other tourists there. Jennifer made a couple friends swimming around the falls, and of course had to find the highest point to jump off...We enjoying the waterfall for a while, and then followed the bamboo boardwalk up along the river a ways. These pictures can't even begin to show how far the falls just keep going on and on. After exploring a while, we took the boat and tuk tuk back into town where we climbed up to the top of a temple in the center of the town. From the top, we could overlook everything around us! We walked around the hill for a while, through various temples and wats where monks were wandering amongst us. That evening, we headed into town for a traditional Lao meal of "Luang Prabang Stew" which was filled with chicken, eggplant, beans, peas, bamboo, and unique seasonings. It was so delicious. Then, we finally got to shop in the market we scoped out last night! We had such fun bargaining through the whole thing for a couple hours. We really got into the whole swing of things and got some great deals... needless to say, we finally added another bag to our collection, expanding beyond our packs! Then we rested in a cafe with coffee shakes a while before heading to sleep.

THURSDAY, July 24:
We woke up around 6:30am and rolled out of bed in hopes to see the monks wandering town like we had heard- but after realizing they get up even earlier than that, Chris headed back to sleep. Jennifer wandered town in search of early morning sights... she found a fun local street market where all kinds of food was being sold.Mostly live animals (fish, crabs, chickens...) and tons of fruits and vegetables. Many fun sights to be seen, then we met back up at 8am when we met the tour we had booked to visit the Pak Ou Caves. After waiting sufficiently long enough we were put in a group and taken on a 2-hour boat up the Mekong River through gorgeous cliffs and mountains. We finally stopped alongside this massive limestone cliff...We got off the boat and climbed inside the caves on the side of the cliff to find thousands of Buddha statues. Locals started putting statues there centuries ago and they now filled the caves. Another cave we visited was pitch-black with just as many statues inside. Outside the children all around tried to sell us little caged up birds! Then we headed downstream back to town where we visited the largest temple in town, split a yummy Indian lunch, packed up and then left at 4pm for what turned out to be the longest travel-day yet...We sure were going to miss Laos though. Above is a perfect representation of the relaxed atmosphere here. The tuk tuk drivers would just fall asleep all over (better than harassing you for a ride like they did in Vietnam!).

A tuk tuk picked us up from the guesthouse at 4pm and took us to the bus station where we watched our bags being hoisted to the roof of the old local bus (our home for the next SEVENTEEN hours).

We were told the trip to the Thailand border would take about 13 hours, and we've already handled over 7 overnight bus trips so we figured it would be a piece of cake... well, we were wrong. We were supposed to depart by 5pm, but off to a bad start we pulled out of the station by 6:15pm. The bus held 45 people comfortably, but as we drove along the road for the first 30 minutes, we stopped every 5 minutes to pick up even more locals. Before we knew it, all the seats were filled and they were putting little plastic stools all up and down the aisle for more locals to squeeze in. There were at least 10 people sitting in the aisles and at time 10 more people standing in the very front. Chris managed to sleep against the window for the bulk of this trip so Jennifer will continue telling her adventures of the longest bus ever.
The trip started with local music blasting from the speakers. At first it was these girl pop singers with karaoke words at the bottom- they even had the English letters to pronounce the Lao words! The old Lao man next to me pointed to the screen and said "It’s better with beer." haha. With the plastic stool in the aisle, my neighbor constantly was changing as locals got on and off the bus. First, it was a young girl, then a guy who fell asleep on my shoulder, and then a family of 4 on just 2 stools. The best parts though happened well into the journey...

FRIDAY, July 25:
As the wee hours of the night rolled around, the bus ride got interesting. Every 15 minutes of travel we had through the mountains, another 15 minutes was spent stuck in the mud. With dark roads, sheer cliffs and rainy season it made for awful driving conditions, especially in our us bogged down with twice as many people as it should hold. The worst time we were stuck for about 30 minutes- long enough for some of us to get off the bus and walk around. The best part was seen the locals in action. Every time we were stuck, they would pile off the bus, grab the huge pieces of wood from the cargo hold, and wedge the wood underneath the tires to free us from the mud. Teamwork at its finest- they were pros! After finally breaking free from the huge ditch, we all hopped back on board. Having the locals covered in mud really helped the smell on board. My favorite part though, was after the mud problems when the guys in the aisle were finally able to fall asleep... at the time there was a guy slightly in front of me and a guy slightly behind me. The former would fall asleep sitting upright so that his head would roll as he passed out, in perfect proximity for his hair to sweep my face. The latter would lean forward to sleep on my headrest and more times than not he would just sleep on my head. Don't worry; I took a picture in attempt to capture the moment.
There were even more tales from that incredible bus journey, but to save time we will continue with the day... We FINALLY arrived at the border at 11:15am where we had hopes of jumping on the next bus to Chiang Mai where we could officially rest in just five more hours. However, the company that told us that buses run every hour apparently had not checked the buses in a while. The bus company informed us that since we missed the 10:30am bus we would have to wait until 6:30pm for the next one. Jennifer was not feeling so well after the bus ride and had a pretty bad fever, so we finally argued to get some of our money back, crossed the border on our own, and met back up with some fellow backpackers from the local bus. We jumped on a 1pm bus to Chiang Rai, and then spent from 3-5:30pm there until we finally caught a bus to Chiang Mai. We enjoyed Chiang Rai though and even got to explore a bit, see the local markets and eat some much-deserved ice cream :)THIRTY hours after leaving our guesthouse in Luang Prabang, we arrived at a hotel in Chiang Mai! We had just enough energy left to find some pad thai dinner at a street vendor and then crash at our hotel.
SATURDAY, July 26:
We slept the latest we have ever slept, 10am! Jennifer has been sick though so it was necessary. We booked train tickets to Chumphon, Thailand for tomorrow and then decided to see some temples and book a cooking class for tonight. We headed out into the city after some local thai food for lunch.

We walked towards Wat Phra Singh, one of the biggest temples in town, but along the way there were temples lining the streets- it's amazing how many there are, each so gorgeous.It was cool to see the Burmese influence with lion rock sculptures in front of Wat Phra Singh. Buddhist 'words of wisdom' were posted through out the grounds. To escape the rain we each took cover in separate buildings, and Jennifer even met a Lao monk. It was a beautiful temple to visit. Then we headed back towards the hotel where we were picked up at 4pm for our Thai cooking class! "The Best Thai Cookery School," took us to a local market where the chef taught us about all the local herbs, spices, and vegetables. It was so great to finally learn about the spices we had tasted for the past couple of weeks. Then at the school we each made Thai soup, stir-fry vegetables, panang curry chicken, pad thai, and sweet sticky rice with mango! Seriously more food than we have eaten in all of Asia. Basically, all we have done today is sleep and eat... this is more like vacation; love it!
We learned a lot, and cannot wait to cook more back home- get ready moms!
Then we were dropped off at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar where we shopped quite a bit more. The markets were huge, and we wandered for hours, picking up a few new additions to our load. We love the local markets! Then we found an internet cafe where we both hooked up our skype and finally got a good chat with our families :)

SUNDAY, July 27:
Planning on leaving the hotel around 8am, but woke a little late, and then as we checked out the front desk asked if we wanted our meal ticket for today... which they never told us when we checked in that it was included! So we stayed to eat our free breakfast, of course,

and then jumped on a tuk tuk to the bus station and got a bus to the Elephant Conservation Center. Jennifer's big goal of Asia has been to ride an elephant... Chris' big goal of Asia is to avoid being stomped on by an elephant (as seen on world's craziest videos in Chicago). We are happy to report both goals were met! We arrived just in time to see the elephant show, where the elephants painted pictures! They also played music on xylophones! The center was nice; included in the complex was an elephant hospital and a nursery, so we were able to visit the baby elephants. Jennifer bought some sugarcane and hand-fed them; it was so much fun! Then, of course, we decided to take a 30-minute elephant ride through the jungle... we hopped in the wooden 'saddle' and went on quite a ride. We walked around a while, enjoying all the various elephants, then went back out to the highway where we flagged down the local bus (we are getting good at this whole thing!)... And rode back to the city. We then bargained for a tuk tuk back to the hotel, where we were jammed, yet again, into a tight space with the locals. After complaining about our lack of free breakfast yesterday, we got free lunch of yellow chicken curry! Yay! haha, and then headed to the train station where we caught our overnight train to Bangkok... never been so happy to have a train!We have now arrived back in Bangkok where we are waiting for our next train in just one hour to Chumphon, and then off to the eastern islands of Thailand. Thanks for reading! We cannot believe that we have been away from home for almost 7 weeks, and that we have less than two to go! Very bitter sweet :)

5 Senses Review: CAMBODIA

2008-07-24T00:49:00.001-04:00

Sight:

The killing fields in Phnom Penh stood out as the most rare sight. Seeing human bones certainly isn't something you do everyday & seeing 9,000 skulls was just shocking. Many of the skulls were crushed in, showing the brutality of the deaths.

Sound:
The lizards are certainly unique over here, but the geckos in Cambodia are loud! They make this clicking noise and you hear them all over the place. It took us a while to figure out what was making the sounds, but now you hear them all the time. My favorite is when they are in your room somewhere and they wake you up before the roosters.

Taste:

While eating at the best Mexican restaurant in Indochina ranks near the top, I took pleasure in simple foods in Cambodia. My favorite, or well, most surprisingly delicious food found was scrambled eggs and toast. While in a slightly westernized cafe in Siem Reap I had the fluffiest eggs and richest buttered toast- quite a wonderful find.

Touch:

The sight of the Angkor temples was incredible, but actually touching something built in the 5th century was unreal. Rough rocks lined the temples, moss grew around the edges, the age was a apparent. It really places you amongst history.

Smell:
There seems to be a distinct smell in all markets we've visited, but the local market we happened upon in Phnom Penh is the winner for the smell contest. The mixture of human sewage, salted fish, rare vegetables, and sweat from the locals all hustling around town was definitely unique.

Gettin' Riel in Cambodia

2008-07-18T07:34:00.001-04:00

It has been a week since we've been able to find free time and reliable internet at the same place, but we've finally found both! We last updated in Vietnam, and now 3 countries later we're in Laos ready to explore our 5th new country! We know that our moms are eagerly awaiting the updates (thanks for the comments, we know yall are out there...)

SATURDAY, July 12:
Yet another early start, leaving on a bus by 7:15am for a 2-day tour of the Mekong Delta. 2 1/2 hours later we were in Cai Be, a small city in Vietnam on the Mekong River known for its floating markets. We were soon split into groups according to the amount we paid (aka- we were separated as usual into the cheap group! haha). We took a Vietnamese motorboat to cruise the Mekong River a while, seeing some of the markets, and making stops to see the local candy being made. Below is the rice paper being made- used for wrapping vegetable rolls, etc. We got to sample the coconut candy and the popped rice (like popped corn, crazy to see!). Then another boat ride for a bit until we stopped for lunch at a riverside village. We ate some rice and veggies, as usual and relaxed for bit. They had bicycles for us to ride, so we adventured a bit on the nearby road where we saw plenty of crops and tiny houses (nothing too scenic). We relaxed in hammocks a but while our crazy tour guide played with the pet python! Then we continued on another 45-minute boat ride to Chau Doc where we were taken to our hotel. There were 5 of us on the tour staying there, and at 6:30 we all ate dinner together in the hotel. Dinner was included in the tour, so of course it consisted of basic noodles and veggies, but good enough for us. Afterwards we took a stroll around the fairly quiet town, found internet for under 20 cents an hour, and then hungout a while with the English-speaking girl at the hotel reception who told us a lot about the area.

SUNDAY, July 13:

Rooster outside our window woke us before our tour guide even banged on our door at 6am sharp. Downstairs for breakfast in the hotel before heading our by 7am. Another day of touring the Mekong and cruising on boats before arriving in Cambodia in the afternoon! We soon boarded a boat and visited part of the floating fishing village. It was a community of houseboats which each have cages underneath them that house thousands of fish in them! Each small house has over 100,000 fish living beneath it- adding to the worst fish smell we have ever encountered. We watched as the guide threw in buckets of fish food and the fish went crazy all trying to eat- water splashing everywhere! Next was a stop at the Islamic minority village near the Cambodia-Vietnam border where we toured a Mosque and cute little kids tried to sell us freshly baked goods. Then came the time we realized that the slow-going boat we were currently touring around on was the boat we would be riding on for the next 3 hours to the Cambodia border. Moving 15 mph at the fastest, we snaked along the Mekong River passing tons of small villages along the way. The kids would run out of their houses and wave hello as we passed. We also passed ox hanging out in the river, locals bathing, family gatherings and many more cultural sites.

One of the many little kids waving to us as we passed by!

We had an hour break at the border, received two more stamps in each of our passports, and then boarded an equally slow boat with 15 other people to continue on our journey into Cambodia. At the Vietnam customs our guide had a wait a minute to get our bags x-rayed, but then came back and said, "they are sleeping, we go now." haha. So 4 hours later we got off the boat and straight into a mini-bus for another 1 1/2 bus trip, turned 2 1/2 hours since our bus broke down for a while! We made friends with some of the local kids though, and eventually another minibus came and towed us into Phnom Penh. Quite a long day, we quickly found a hotel, adjusted to the newest currency (Riel), ate dinner nearby with our Australian traveling friends, and headed back to sleep.

MONDAY, July 14:
Cambodian history is something neither of us really researched before planning our visit, but we began to unravel the tragic past. If you don't know about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide that occurred during the late 70s, please take a minute to do a little googling. We woke up this morning and headed out to learn for ourselves about the events. We arrived at the killing field (just one of hundreds in the country) by 9am and toured the mass graves just outside of Phnom Penh, where over 17,000 people died. Then a tuk tuk (moto-taxi) back into the city where we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which was the S-21 prison during the Khmer Rouge occupation. It used to be a primary school, but soon turned into a brutal prison where the most educated of citizens were murdered. The classrooms were divided into cells, and the playground was turned into a torture device. There were mugshots of each of the victims posted in the museum, and many powerful photos like the one above which shows skulls with blindfolds still around them, and wire remaining around the bones.

After the museum we rested some and treated ourselves to some wonderful milkshakes nearby, as it was ridiculously hot outside. We then went through the Russian Markets for an hour or so and bargained for souvenirs that we would soon be cramming into our over-stuffed packs. Next we took a tuk tuk to the National Museum where there was rows of ancient statues and ruins. Completely ignoring their significance, we enjoyed taking funny pictures amongst them (but mom, I promise we learned a lot, too). We then headed to the river front and through some interesting local markets, and finally settled into a cafe for a cool drink and some much-needed people watching. A bit later we headed to dinner on River Street to what Lonely Planet claims the "best Mexican food in Indochina"... after a burrito, guacamole and chips we have to agree that it's the best we've found so far! Then a tuk tuk back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

TUESDAY, July 15:
Down in the hotel lobby by 6:30am for our bus to Siem Reap- we have a long way to go in just 3 1/2 weeks, so it seems like we are changing cities at least every-other day now. A fairly decent bus with A.C. is all we can ask for, so we had a smooth 6-hour ride. Along the way we stopped at a small market where they had grilled spiders! Behind those cooked ones was a Styrofoam cooler covered with a cloth where live ones were hanging out! We arrived in Siem Reap at 1pm and a tuk tuk agreed to take us around to find a good hotel. After visiting a couple we finally settled into one and then head out to see the nearby market. Definitely a backpacker town, there were lots of fun hangouts and places to visit. We bought some more souvenirs at the market and then rested in a cafe. After a couple rounds of pool, then across the street to have a pasta dinner, we headed back to the hotel.

WEDNESDAY, July 16:

4am is an hour neither of have seen in quite a while, but sunrise at Angkor is suppose to be the best, so we braved the early hour. We had agreed with a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 4:40am where we road about 30 minutes in the silent darkness to Angkor Wat. Angkor is the group of ancient ruins outside Siem Reap which you can see from the picture was worth waking early to see. As we arrived the sky began to show color and we hurried amongst the growing crowd to watch the sunrise. Purples, blues, and reds appeared over Angkor Wat as we both took plenty of pictures. After exploring there a while we had our driver, Sham, take us to breakfast at one of the food stalls near Angkor Thom. Outside Angkor Wat we even saw a wild monkey running around! A strong coffee for Jennifer and foreign cola for Chris kept us going as we ventured into Bayon, within Angkor Thom. With hundreds of faces carved into the stone, this was Jennifer's favorite. We then visited the temple of the Leper King, Preah Khan, Thommanon, and Chau Say Tevoda. We wandered through each, exploring their uniqueness and beauty. Then Shaum drove us to Ta Keo, where we climbed stairs as steep as a ladder and rested on top, enjoying the view. We also saw our Australian friends from the Mekong tour, who we've managed to run into every day since we left the tour! Here is Chris and our Aussie mates tackling the the huge stairs.

Then our final temple to visit was Ta Prohm, the temple from the movie "Tomb Raiders." This was Chris' favorite, with trees growing out of the temple it was quit a sight to see. We luckily hit all the ones on our agenda right as it started to pour, so we headed back in the tuk tuk to Siem Reap where we arrived to our hotel by 2:30pm. Quite a long day since we had such an early start, so we took the afternoon off to rest up. Dinner of pho down the street and then our hotel played the movie "The Killing Fields" for us on their outside patio (mosquite central) where we learned even more about the Cambodian past.

THURSDAY, July 17:
Down in the hotel waiting for our next bus by 7am, but as usual they didn't pick us up until 8am, and even then the bus didn't leave until 8:30am. I wish the leaving time was the worst part, but in addition it turned out to be non-AC, and no under-bus storage- so the bags were all piled high behind the back row (leaving no visibility) and the remaining bags stacked in the aisles. As we began on the journey we found out that the road was somewhat paved, but mostly just compact dirt, making for quite a dust storm in the bus with all the windows open. But the journey is half the fun, right? So we survived that 6-hour leg, barely. Jennifer had no idea that a spray-on dirt tan was included in the ticket, she was almost as dark as Chris when she hoped off that bus. But Jennifer of course took the opportunity to take fun pictures on-the-go through her open, dust-filled window. We then crossed the border at Poi Pet into Thailand and waited for our who group to get through customs before getting on another 5 1/2 bus to Bangkok. Luckily this leg of the trip we had a better bus- a Little Mermaid bus!? Jennifer's Disney princess! Not sure why most of the buses in Thailand are cartoon-themed, but as long as they aren't dirt-themed, we're happy with them. Arriving at 10pm in Bangkok we walked to find a guesthouse nearby, and then wandered the streets a bit, exploring a night market. We both enjoyed pad thai dinner on the street- something Jennifer has been eagerly awaiting! As we sat at a cafe and people-watched a bit a baby elephant came walking by! A picture op for tourists of course, but we couldn't help but get excited. Then Jennifer indulged in another street vendor treat- crepes with chocolate and banana, yum! We then had a chance to check internet and call home before heading to bed by 1am.

FRIDAY, July 18th:
Leaving the hotel by 9am we booked yet another bus ticket for tonight to head north into Laos. Only having one full day in Bangkok (with more time possibly as we head back south) we wanted to fit in as much as possible... First we walked by the big palace in the Ko Ratanakosin area but in order to conserve time/money we opted to visit a small temple, Wat Pho, nearby instead. We managed to be in Bangkok on a big public holiday so many things were closed or prices were raised. Inside Wat Pho was Thailand's biggest reclining Budda, quite a sight to see! And then further inside the complex was a temple where we saw all the monks entering and receiving offereings to Budda. We wandered the streets for a bit, exploring the street vendors and food stalls as we went. We walked through Chinatown some, and then found our way to the river where we took a express boat to Central Bangkok. We ate at Lonely Planet recommendation "Muslim Restaurant" and then after walking a bit took another express boat back to Banglamphu, where we were staying. We rested a bit, checked internet, and headed to catch our next bus by 7pm... which of course didn't leave till just after 8pm. But the double-decker bus, which blasted AC and wasn't completely full was quite a treat after our recent bus experiences. Another night on a bus...
SATURDAY, July 19:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! Arriving at the Laos border around 8am, it took about an hour for our bus to go through customs. We were very on top of the game already having gotten our visas in Hong Kong- everyone else had to wait in long lines to get theirs! Just a 30 minute bus ride later and we were in Vientiane, Laos- our home for the night. We found a guesthouse for just about $5 a night for the both of us- one of the cheapest prices of the trip- and then splurged at a air-conditioned bakery nearby that had delicious western food and nice coffee for about $4 each (we guess it all evens out in the end). We sat there for a couple hours enjoying the atmosphere, figuring out our plan for Laos, updating journals, and appreciating seats that throwing us about while flying down a road. Around 2pm we set off to see the sights around Vientiane. We used our good bargaining skills to find a tuk tuk to take us to some must-see spots. First we visited Pha That Luang, an important Laos monument which appears on most Kip bills (our newest currency). After wandering around a bit we then took our tuk tuk to Patuxai, an Arc de Triomphe replica built from cement given to Laos from America for the construction of a new airport (referred to as the "vertical runway"). We climbed to the top to enjoy the view of the city and appreciate the architecture. Now we have come back into town and found an internet cafe where we have spent way too much time updating this!

For those of you still reading- or even still scrolling through pictures at this point- thank you! We appreciate your time and thank you in advance for commenting so we don't feel like we're writing to ourselves in Asia. Really, you are too sweet to comment. Also, we thought we'd mention that we may still be wearing the same clothes seen in the last 2 days of pictures, don't judge us. On a better note, our clean laundry is awaiting us in the hotel as we speak! Off to change out of our matching outfits.

Bus to Vang Vieng, Laos in the morning! Much love to all our friends and family!

5 Senses Review: VIETNAM

2008-07-15T09:25:00.001-04:00

Sight:

The sight we saw the most of has to be the view from inside a bus. As boring as that may sound. the things I saw while looking out the window are on the top of my list of sights for Vietnam. Tiny villages with children laughing & playing, gorgeous mountains meeting the edge of the South China Sea (as the bus narrowly curves to avoid the 100-foot drop-off nearby), countless skinny cows grazing, even more rice fields, the Vietnamese workers in their cone-shaped hats, motos packed full of people and supplies (I saw a couple motos that fit their whole family of 5 on board, and plenty of others that stacked their catch-of-the-day in cages whether it be pigs, chickens, or dogs). It was truly a drive-by view of Vietnam.

Sound:
The never ending sound of cars beeping their horns. Not the typical noise but rather a two-toned rhythm of beeping, used for every time a bus wishes to even pass a motorbike (which is every 30 sec at least). Additionally are the tunes the cars play while they back up... the music-box version of "happy birthday" or other classic tunes are belted out by cars everywhere.

Taste:

One word: Pho. The wonderful Vietnamese traditional meal is as simple as they come- just rice noodles, sprouts, a few veggies, and flavored broth. They can make it right there on the street for you in a matter of seconds for less than $1. From our first night to our last we loved the delicious noodles!

Touch:

At the end of each day I cannot wait to take a (typically cold) shower to clean off all the dirt from from the day (which some days is a lot more than others!). But as a birthday treat we actually wanted to get muddy-- we spent the better part of an afternoon at a natural mud spa! So much fun- the feeling of the gritty and watery mud that coated my skin was definitely refreshing, especially the feeling of my skin afterwards- the softest it will be in a very long time!!

Smell:
Nothing truly positive comes to mind. The most unique smell was the mixture of sweat and dirt that you could not avoid while climbing through the Cu Chi Tunnels (used by the Viet Cong). While hunched over trying to make it to the 30 meter exit point it was not a smell you could forget.

Changing Routes

2008-07-12T08:10:00.001-04:00

The last post shows our latest travels, but here is a new map of our plan to come.
We don't really, officially have a "plan" but if we were to actually stick on a schedule (which we never do) then here is our updated route...

View Larger Map

Yellow = places we've been
Green = places we're planning on going!

The Bumpy Road South: Vietnam

2008-07-11T12:52:00.000-04:00

First things first... we've been working on our itinerary some and realizing how tight we are on time we booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur back up to Shanghai to catch our flight home. So now we have until Aug. 8th to get to Malaysia without having to back-track, which is still a TON of territory to cover in just a month! Our new map itinerary will be posted as soon as the internet stops freaking out! ah!

SUNDAY, July 6:
After an early morning of updating the blog we heading into Hoi An with expectations of riding bikes to the beach before taking an overnight bus south... but by now we should know that expectations never pan out. We found out that the bus was full, so in the spirit of winging-it we decided to take up the recommendation of another traveler from a few days back to head to China Beach. A stop we didn't think we had time for, but so glad fate intervened. For the rest of the morning we relaxed in Hoi An, picked up Jennifer's custom-made dress (picture later in the post!), and then caught the 2pm bus to China Beach. We stumbled off the bus in the middle of nowhere it seemed but after a small adventure we found our way to Hoa's Place where we had called ahead to book a night. We had heard it was a little bit outside of actual China Beach, but away from tourists, which was perfect. Hoa himself greeted us and showed us to our room (which there were only 4 rooms in the whole place!). Then Hoa, the old Vietnamese guy, insisted that we join him for a beer and he chatted away for at least an hour about running the hotel for 14 years now- such a great guy.
We walked 2 minutes down this little side street to the beach and relaxed for while on the deserted beach- except for a few Vietnamese people enjoying the waves. Jennifer walked in the water up to her waist, saw a jelly fish, and decided to stick to the shores for now! Then we got cleaned up for dinner at 6:30. At Hoa's everyone eats together in family style dinner. So we quickly became friends with the 5 other people staying there. An older couple from US/Korea and their daughter, and our newest friends Steph & Laine, from Canada. It turned out that Steph is 1/2 Trinidadian! Small world! After our wonderful meal of Vietnamese Cuisine we decided we all wanted to find the Wimbledon Championships on TV... an interesting decision since we were at a deserted beach... but we got Hoa's Place to call a cab who agreed to drive us into Da Nang and wait for us there to take us back to Hoa's! 30 minutes later we were searching Da Nang for any bar/restaurant with satellite... and finally we happened upon a place labeled "pub" and made ourselves cozy in front of the TV and a big fan. An hour later we were the only people in the place... and 4 hours later we had made friends with the wait staff, gotten to know our new friends even better, and thoroughly enjoyed some quality tennis. A fun night with great friends and a wonderful start to Jennifer's birthday celebration.

MONDAY, July 7:
Happy 22nd Jennifer!! Not the birthday plan we started with, but that just means we had to spread out the celebration, which Jennifer loves to do anyway! haha. Breakfast at Hoa's around 10am, with Jennifer's favorite Vietnamese dish- Banana Pancakes!! Then relaxing on the beach all morning where the only other people around were Vietnamese fishermen in their cup-shaped dingy. That afternoon we had lunch at Hoa's (hamburgers!!), relaxed a bit more, and finally had to say "goodbye" to our new friends as we headed in a taxi back to Hoi An. Luckily we left with time to spare because our taxi broke down on the way, but his friend picked us up and took us the rest of the way- quite an adventure as always.
We arrived in Hoi An with a little time to walk around, then caught out 6:30 pm bus down to Nha Trang. For the next 12 hours we attempted to rest on our "sleeper bus" along the bumpy roads of Vietnam.
TUESDAY, July 8:

We arrived in Nha Trang at 6am sharp, awoken by loud music over the speakers of the bus. It felt good to walk around the stretch our legs, even if we were up at sunrise. We walked a bit and found a hotel not too far away. We checked out scuba diving, but opted instead for a day at the spa we had heard a lot about. Another morning of banana pancakes for Jennifer as we found a fun oceanside restaurant to hangout at. Chris took advantage of the opportunity to rest his eyes for a bit... haha. Jennifer went to the beach a while to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings, and then that afternoon we hopped on the back of motobikes and adventured to the mineral springs spa! For a birthday splurge we each got the mud bath package along with a 45 minute massage for only $11 each! What a deal! It was so much fun- hot mineral water showers, mineral mud bath, jet-spray mineral water, and a hot tub to soak in. After all we've been through lately we had no idea we could be so clean! After all that we each got a 45 minute massage (slightly painful for Jennifer with a sun-burnt back!) but a great treat. And then another thrilling motobike ride back into town. Then back to gorgeous Nha Trang- where the Miss Universe Pageant will be held this week! We had no idea! We had another splurge of ice cream sundaes to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. While eating at a restaurant kids were constantly begging us to buy cigarettes and gum... here is one example.

Then showers and out for a fun dinner to a Mexican restaurant where we had huge burritos (another fun splurge!). This is Jennifer at the restaurant in her fun new dress made in Hoi An :)
WEDNESDAY, July 9:
On the move again, we were back on another bus by 7:30am heading towards Saigon. We slept some, listened to music, and watched the gorgeous countryside pass by outside our windows... village after village, children running through the ride fields, chickens running amongst the houses, cows so skinny you could clearly see their rib cages. We plowed along the long and twisty road- seriously our driver must not have know where the brake was. Then we approached Mui Ne, a gorgeous beach town, and the sand dunes surrounded the road. A 30 minute stop for a noodle lunch and then we hoped back aboard for the second half of our journey... the last leg was suppose to just be 4 hours, but with traffic it turned into 5 1/2. 11 hours in total sums up another successful travel day... arriving at 7:30pm, we found a guesthouse after a few minutes of walking, and settles into the backpackers district of Saigon, Pham Ngu Lao. We wandered a bit, picked up a bunch of travel brochures to start planning our time in Saigon, and ate pho dinner at a night market, then sat down in the refreshing air conditioning of "Highland Coffee" where we had some cool coffee drinks and looked through brochures before calling it a night.

THURSDAY, July 10:
Last night we booked a full-day tour for today, starting at 8am. Back on another bus for a 3 hour trip to the Cao Dai Temple... we're getting better at sleeping on buses, but having the back seat, on back roads made for an extra-bumpy ride. We arrived around 11:30 to the temple, where we quickly got to walk around the temple before the noon mass began. We watched from the balcony as the colorful temple filled with monks. The religion is a mix between Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The music played, worshipping began, and it was so unique to be able to watch. Next we headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch break where we met more people from around the world, and then off for another 1 1/2 bus to the Cu Chi Tunnels. So surreal to see the strategy behind the Viet Cong... All the traps and tunnels used in the war. We had the opportunity to shoot machine guns, which we declined, but even hearing the shots in the nearby field really put things in perspective. We also got to climb down into a 100m stretch of the tunnel, which was tiny enough- but that has been enlarged for tourists! Great to be able to see... then another 1 1/2 bus back to Saigon. After showers we went out to enjoy Saigon a bit. We found a fun restaurant where we grabbed a balcony seat and ate a delicious pizza. We wandered the backpackers district a bit more then headed to bed by midnight.

FRIDAY, July 11:
Our only full day to explore Saigon, so we got going around 8am to see all we could. We made it to the post office (the best place to make international phone calls) where we caught up with our parents and Jennifer got a letter from her mom :)

(THANKS MOM!)...
Jennifer grabbed breakfast from a street vendor... in this cart she fried up an egg, cut open a fresh baguette and spread on some laughing cow cheese- delicious! Then we wandered over to the Notre Dame Cathedral where we enjoyed the neon-lights around the statues. Afterwards we walked to the Was Remnant Museum where there were tons of pictures and mementos from the Vietnam War. Powerful to see- some great photography in the exhibit along with helicopters, tanks and planes. Then over to the Ben Thanh Markets where they had anything you could imagine!! We did a bit of souvenir shopping, wandered the fresh fruits and meat section, and ate some pho at the restaurant section- the markets were huge! Next we walked to the Reunification Palace where we enjoyed the 60s decor and a free hour-long tour... mostly we enjoyed the refreshing AC in the theater at the end of the tour (just kidding- it wasn't our favorite part, but still near the top). We headed back to the backpackers quarter through the busy street. We stopped in the center of the main round-about to take in the craziness.

Seriously though, none of the pictures capture how crowded the streets are... no matter what time of the day the motos are everywhere. There are 10 million people in Saigon and 3 million motos to put it in perspective a bit- so crazy here. Crossing the street is an art. Then we went and relaxed at a pub for a bit where we caught up on journals and Jennifer took advantage of the incredible Vietnamese coffee (maybe that is why I'm still awake at 1am rewriting this blog entry for the 3rd time after it keeps deleting!!). Anyway... we then found a great place with cheap chicken burgers for dinner where we relaxed for even longer and enjoyed the Saigon surroundings. Now bed time as we have more traveling early tomorrow.

A tour of the Mekong Delta and then into Cambodia we go!

The Vin Family Reunion

2008-07-05T20:38:00.000-04:00

WEDNESDAY, July 2:
We woke up around 9ish ready for our full day of exploring Hanoi, Vietnam! We opted for another bowl of pho for breakfast (they eat it for every meal, so we decided to join them). This time we got to sit at a tiny little table with a bunch of locals, adding to the experience. We wandered the streets some, Lonely Planet in hand, and found a couple sites we were searching for, like the Bach Ma temple. Then we decided to squeeze into a bicycle tuk tuk for a 30 minute ride. We weren't sure what we got ourselves into as this guy peddled us through crowded streets of motorbikes and buses, but after a day, the rules of the road kind of make sense to us.

It is basically like a small river, and just like boats, you tend to stick to the right side but other than that you can weave and swerve and avoid pedestrians when possible.

We were dropped off at the lake area and walked a little to the Ngoc Son temple in the middle of the Hoan Kiem lake (the center-point of Hanoi). We rested a while, enjoying the views of the lake and then walked some more to our next destination on the map: the Hoa Lo prison. It was the prison in which John McCain was kept when he was a POW. Very educational and interesting to see- crazy to think of all the things that happened inside those walls.

Then we had some ice cream as we walked around the lake, towards St. Joseph's cathedral. We weren't able to go inside, just view it from the outside, but it was so unique sitting there in Hanoi. Much of Vietnam is French-influenced, but this in particular was very European, and somewhat out of place.

Then we wandered through a food market- filled with crazy foods, meats, HUGE cucumbers, chicken guts, animal brain & heart, and lots of other bizarre delicacies. After a stop for snacks, & enjoying the atmosphere of Hanoi a bit more, we headed back to the hotel for a rest, and showers before meeting our Canadian friends at 7:30 for dinner. We walked to a place where there were Hot Pot places lined up back-to-back in a street. Partly covered by an awning, but mostly just in a street- so we negotiated a price for the 4 of us and sat down to enjoy a delicious vegetarian hot pot! As the pot boiled we threw in veggies, noodles, tofu... all so good! We decided, along with Heather and Sara to find a fun place to relax for the night, and as we wandered we found the "Bia Hoi" section of town our Lonely Planet had raved about. These shops basically put out little children's chairs on the street and you could sit amongst locals and travellers and drink 20 cent beer. There was one intersection where each corner had a couple, so the whole place was filled with fun people. We met 2 older couples from Amsterdam who had great travelling advice, then a couple guys from Denmark, then we met this guy from Russia and 2 guys from New Zealand who we hung out with for a while. So fun to meet people from all over the world on a side street in Hanoi! We followed the Russian guy (who had lived in Vietnam for 15 years) to a couple places after that- he knew all the local hangout. After a while we called it a night, knowing we had another full day ahead of us!

THURSDAY, July 3:

Our bus left around 8:00 for a 2-day, 1-night trip to Halong Bay. It is a gorgeous part of Vietnam on the coast where over 300 limestone rocks jut out of the bay! We crammed on a mini-bus with about 20 other travellers, and 3 hours later arrived at Halong Bay. As we unloaded from the bus with all the bags, we stood amongst tons of other bus loads of people ready to board boats as well. It all felt a little like cattle herding onto the hundreds of boats in the harbour in front of us. But somehow our guide singled us out and told us to follow him, and put us in a group of 14 Vietnamese people. We were then escorted with them to a ship... just us and Vietnamese people. We have no idea where all the crowds of tourist went, we just knew they were out of sight. We had a good laugh about it, and talked to our new tour guide, Chung, who was really cool. We were a little weary about the whole thing since no one seemed to speak English, the old man in the group laughed at us, and we weren't served lunch for a while after them... hmm. But then a couple people joined our table for lunch, and chatted with them in broken English to find out that the whole group was a family- we were literally crashing the Vin family reunion! haha. That is pronounced Vaughn, kind of like the Von Trapp family! So yes, we got to know a few of them, and they seemed nice. Then we docked to go touring through these huge caves up in a mountain.

Jennifer couldn't help but take a picture of another tiny foreign man holding Chris's hand :)

In there we ran into our New Zealand friends we met last night- so funny. After exploring the huge caves for a bit we returned to join the Vin family reunion. It was a gorgeous day with a few clouds and bright blue skies so we lounged on the top deck a while, soaking in our surroundings. That afternoon we arrived at a floating dock with kayaks! Jennifer was so excited, she had wanted to kayak around Halong Bay for weeks now. We paddled around for about 30 minutes, enjoying the view from down on the water- making the cliffs seem so much larger, putting things in perspective a bit. As we docked, the old man from the family was swimming so Jennifer decided to dive in and join him. He thought it was funny, and signaled that we should dive in together and race. Instead, just playing around, Jennifer did a flip into the water instead, which the whole family loved. So then the old man wanted a diving competition... so we continued to dive in, and the funniest one was when Jennifer did a back flip in and then he proceeded to do a huge back-flop! haha.

After that the family loved us! And it turned out that a bunch of them did speak English. As the boat pulled away from the dock and into a little open water it was swimming time- more flips off the side of the boat, and jumping from the top deck. Tons of fun. As Jennifer swam near the ladder waiting to climb up at the end of swim-time, she felt a shock, and then another and hopped onto the ladder as fast as possible. The water cleared fast as 3 people on the ship were stung by jelly fish. (Seriously one of the most painful things I've ever encountered- and it got me twice!). So after resting a bit it felt a lot better, and our new family was so welcoming now! The old man even offered up some of his beer stash. Then it was dinner of plates full of food, where our table-mates were downing this really strong liquor they called wine which they were pouring from a 7-up bottle. Such a fun family! Then we relaxed after sunset beneath the stars and then headed to bed early.

FRIDAY, July 4th:

Woke up at 7am and joined the family for breakfast in the dinning area. By 9am we docked at Cat Ba Island and said "Goodbye!" to the Vins, our wonderful Vietnamese family. We hopped back on the ship with the people we rode to Halong with, and sailed for a couple hours back to the docks. We met tons of new friends from England and Norway who we ate lunch with back on shore. Then we played hacky sac a bit with a little birdie disk thing, and then another 3 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. Back to the hotel around 4ish, where we had 2 hours to shower and rest before our overnight bus to Hoi An (south down the Vietnam coast). The Sleeper Bus wasn't bad- 3 rows of bunk beds all down the bus, big enough to barely sleep. Other than the loud Vietnamese music blasting from the speakers along with the music videos playing on the TV, and a neighbor who sang along, the trip wasn't too bad. Not the traditional way to spend 4th of July, but all in all a successful day of travelling.

SATURDAY, July 5th:

After sleeping on and off throughout the night we finally arrived in Hue around 8:30am. Our plan to spend the day there and take the afternoon bus the rest of the way to Hoi An was changed when the afternoon bus was all booked up... so we jumped straight on another buss (seats, not sleeper) and headed towards Hoi An. This stretch of the coast was suppose to be gorgeous, so Jennifer was ready with camera in hand. Chris didn't luck out so much, as the bus filled up he was stuck with a tiny plastic stool to sit in the aisle. We travelled through the mountains, along the coast for 4 hours. Eventually we arrived in Hoi An around 1pm. We quickly figured out a place to stay and went out to explore the city a bit. This is the place where you can get any clothes custom-made, so Jennifer set out with vision in mind to get a dress made. After going to 3 different shops she made a decent deal and got measured. Hopefully it fits! Then we enjoyed the city, walking along the shore of the river, loving the peaceful streets of our first small town. It was quiet which we are not used to, but wonderful. The buildings are all worn around the edges which makes this city feel comfortable. After a snack and walked through their local food market, and then headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. Then we sat outside a cafe for a couple hours as Jennifer updated her journal and we both enjoyed the street-side location, where they were playing Jack Johnson (a perfect touch!). A walk back over by the river for a noodle dinner, and then headed to bed before midnight.

Much more to come... we're heading to Nha Trang tonight to spend Jennifer's birthday there! Can't wait to see what comes next :)

5 Senses Review: HONG KONG

2008-07-05T20:25:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite BIG cities. Everything about this place was just so fun and refreshing, so it was hard to pick out tops for for 5 senses, but here it goes!

SIGHT: First seeing the Hong Kong skyline on our first day was breathtaking. I had seen it on postcards and in pictures but actually seeing the dramatic skyline squeezed in the tiny piece of land between the mountains and the harbour was my favorite sight of Hong Kong.

SOUND: As we soared between mountains and up into the clouds on the Ngong Ping cable car the rain started pelting the sides of the car, and the wind whistled through the air vents. It was the sound of flying.

TOUCH: As I browsed the night markets on the last night in HK, I carefully felt each of the purses and watches, searching for quality amongst the lot of fake products, ha. But after time you could start to feel the difference between the various stalls, and I bought a semi-decent new purse!

TASTE: Our adventure to the sushi restaurant guaranteed some new tastes. But I was looking forward to the seafood since I'd heard how fresh it was in HK. Between the eel and squid we sampled, along with tuna, salmon and shrimp, some raw, some cooked, we tasted such a variety of new cuisine. All delicious!

SMELL: As we roamed the Buddhist temples and even strolled through some markets, the fragrant smell of incense filled the air. You could smell the temples before you even got near them, and as you arrived the incense smell was accompanied with heavy smoke from other ceremonial burnings.

Hong Kong & Hanoi-ing Travels

2008-07-01T10:55:00.000-04:00

Last time we updated was in Beijing, and you can see from our map (in the first post) that we are a long way from Beijing now! We had no idea that you could fit so much in each day, but we are packing every minute with adventures and soaking up as much culture as we can!

WEDNESDAY, June 25:

Our last day in Beijing we got an early start around 7am to fit in one last adventure before our train left at noon. In hindsight this was probably squeezing in a tad too much, but we'll get to that in a minute. We started the morning off right with a delicious dumpling breakfast. Several guides we read had recommended this in order to experience a traditional Chinese meal, and we are glad we followed the recommendation. A girl working at our hostel translated for us and we confirmed that we were eating the best kind of dumplings, filled with pork. After filling our stomachs we headed via subway to Hou Hai lake in a quaint little park in Beijing. We walked along the lake watching the early risers getting their morning exercise; groups practicing thai chi, people swimming laps in the lake, and the old men playing cards under the trees. It was all so peaceful, I am definitely glad we made time for this excursion. We realized we had to hurry through though since our train departure time was only 3 hours away! We strolled through the Hutongs of this area (the old sections of town with lots of bicycles and market-type shops) and then caught a taxi back to our hostel. Leaving Beijing was our first time leaving a city that we won't have a chance to go back to (this trip at least, and since we fly home out of Shanghai we will be returning to catch the sites we missed). We knew going into this fast-paced trip that we can't see EVERYTHING, but we have adopted the sad motto of "if only we had one more day!" Back at the hostel we quickly packed up our clothes (which are mostly spotted and damp thanks to the hostel's washing) and proceeded with our packs to hail a taxi to the train station. If you didn't see this one coming, well, here is the story of our first bad train station experience... after being rejected by at least 10 taxis we finally found one willing to take us. Then, arriving slightly later than we had planned, we hurried to find our gate, and people rushed us from one side of the station to the other; from outside the terminals, through security, inside, and then back outside again. The language barrier created a mess where we knew we had to figure things out quickly since that departure time was creeping closer and closer. With the help of a few wonderful cops, some willing locals, and pure miracle, we managed to find the correct door- "Customs" at the last possible second. They closed the doors after we walked in and locked them (seriously, people were outside banging!). So we hurried through customs, since we were technically departing China and the customs agent politely asked, "you haven't done this before, no?"It was such a great feeling to lay down in that bunk bed, even if it was 3 levels high. A much needed nap, many rounds of Rummy card games, countless iPod songs, one sketchy meal from the dinning car, and a 12-hour night sleep later, we arrived in Hong Kong!

THURSDAY, June 26:

It felt so good to rest up on the train without feeling like we were wasting our limited time in a city. We even met new friends- one French guy who knew HK pretty well, and one American guy from Emory. These are our new friends on our journey through Hong Kong.

We joined up with them as we got off the train and our French friend led the way to the location of our hostel. After walking a while we took a taxi to "Mirador Mansion"... my expectation were not exactly reality as we pulled up to a city building filled with people hawking all kinds of goods. We fought through the crowds and waited for the lift to the 13th floor where our "hostel" guide took us to the next building over... our newest home "Chung King Mansion." It too should not be called a "mansion," and I will steal an accurate depiction from my Lonely Planet guide which calls it "authentically decrepit." home sweet home.

That was our room, first door on the right.These were the elevators to our new home, where we were always sure to wait in line for a lift.

We managed to take different elevators as our new friends from the train and unfortunately never saw them again! (I guess it was sort of a mansion). We put our stuff down in our room and headed out to enjoy the city. The train got in around 2pm, and by the time we got checked in and all it was nearing 5pm. We wandered towards the harbour, not knowing what to expect, but it truly was gorgeous. We stayed in Kowloon, which is across from HK Island, and offers incredible views of the skyline. We took tons of pictures (well, Jennifer did) and walked the Hollywood Street along the water with hand prints of Jackie Chan and the like. We were exhausted from the adventure, so we stuck around Kowloon exploring a bit more, and then made sure to watch the nightly laser show over the city, where the sky comes alive dancing to music and each building lights up in sequence- quite a sight to see! Back to Chung king where the international crowd harassed us to choose their restaurant for dinner. We stood there with at least 12 flyers in hand from Indian/Pakistani restaurants and finally choose one called "Pakistani Mess"... appropriately named. After dinner we braved the tough/interesting/sketchy/intense crowd that lingered around our building at night (don't worry mom, we survived it!) and locked our door tightly at night.

FRIDAY, June 27:

Without a window in our room it made it hard to wake up at the crack of dawn like we planned, but we still got a pretty early start. ... but of course it was raining yet again. We had breakfast near our hostel of eggs, toast and bacon- such a treat! Being in Hong Kong was vastly different than the previous stops. Having English and Chinese both as official languages made it so easy to get around. The international vibe throughout the city was refreshing, and it felt like Sydney in a way- especially with the harbour. Today wasn't so much for touring as it was for business- we had to get 3 more visas in order to continue on our journey.

*Side note: we also have realized how fortunate we are to have multiple entry visas into China, which apparently with the Olympics has been hard for American travelers to get, and we had no idea it was such a valued commodity! Many people we met couldn't go to HK because that would be their one exit from the country (if they only have a double entry)... and since HK is kept so separated from China, it counts as leaving.*

So we first went to the Cambodia consulate and didn't have a problem.Then we took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island where we tracked down the Vietnam Consulate. We also made a stop by the post office, where Chris found his twin! haha, this guy was so tiny!! Minor delays in our plan as we got distracted in the Time Square mall. Several hours later we decided our motto for HK was "indulgence"... Jennifer bought some new clothes (necessary since many didn't fit and the hostel wash put spots on the rest). We both bought some official Olympic shirts and had a coffee treat. Then we headed across town to the Laos Consulate where we realized how champion we are at map skills (seriously, you should see us). It felt wonderful to officially have all the visas we need for the rest of our trip! We spent a good while admiring all the new stickers and stamps in our passports. Around 6pm we took the Peak Tram up the mountain behind HK. It was a steep train that ended with an incredible view back down over the city. We hung out on top of the mountain for a couple hours, watching the sun set over HK, and waiting as the lights slowly lit up around the city (and taking tons of pictures, of course). After heading down the mountain we walked to the IFC mall where we had an incredible sushi dinner at sen-ryo. *Thanks for that recommendation Bella* Jennifer's roommate from Australia, Bella, who lives in HK wrote an awesome list that we continued to follow throughout the weekend... we wish she was here with us!! At sushi we tried all kinds of fun things- eel, crab, squid, shrimp, tuna, salmon...! After a filling dinner we wandered to a fun part of town called "Lan Kwai Fong." If you go to HK, you HAVE to go here! It was so fun-- a walking street with bars lining the way and tons of people from all over the world! We had fun people watching and absorbing the incredible atmosphere. We caught the last MTR (their subway) back to Kowloon where we again braved our Chungking neighbors.

SATURDAY, June 28:

Another morning of oversleep in our window-less room, but without a worry since we decided the night before to turn our 3 nights here into 4. We both love this city so much already, and since we spent so much time getting Visas situated, we wanted to make sure we fit everything in without being super rushed. So we grabbed a danish breakfast in the MTR station and headed to Tung Chung on Lantau Island. It is the island just to the west of HK Island where Bella recommended we visit the Big Budda, and explore a bit! As usual, it was raining again today, but with stylish ponchos in our bags we were ready to handle anything. We took the 25-minute cable car, called the Ngong Ping 360, up to the top of a mountain as soon as the rain died down enough for the cars to start running again! The cable car lifted straight over a small bay, and up into the mountains and with the clouds hanging low it felt like we were flying. We literally sailed through the mountains, in the clouds. We went to the Po Lin monastery where we looked through the monastery, watched the locals burning incense and praying to the many statues surrounding us. We ate lunch there of vegetarian noodles and egg rolls and enjoyed the cultural experience. Afterwards we climbed to the top of the peak where the big Budda sat. It is the largest bronze sitting budda in the world, that's right! :) It was easy to enjoy as I loved equally the giant statue that lingered amongst the clouds and the surrounding mountains- what a view! As Jennifer's camera ran out of battery and the clouds drifted in, we headed back down in the drizzle. Considering the poor weather we have done a great job dodging the rain when possible and enjoying the few dry moments. As we sat near the cable cars, eating our free ice cream (with coupons from the cable car!) we watched the clouds rolling through, thick enough to eventually hide the Budda completely from our sight. We then enjoyed the 25-minute ride back down, and headed back to the hostel for a rest. We decided to eat dinner in our hostel (because obviously the ambiance of our closet-sized room was so appealing that we just couldn't help ourselves)... actually, we were enticed by the Indian food in the lobby of our mansion and since it was to-go only we opted to eat behind a locked door. After the rain subsided for a bit we braved the city once again, taking the MTR back to Lan Kwai Fong to enjoy the night life scene. We rode the long escalator through Soho for a while and then settled in Fong for a drink amongst the crowds. We even met some friends- students studying in HK who had some great advice for southeast Asia! We followed them to a club nearby which was on the 30th floor, offering amazing views. After enjoying the scene for a bit we caught the MTR back "home" to Chungking once again.

SUNDAY, June 29:

Another early start and off across to HK on the MTR. We browsed the classy IFC mall a bit and then ate brunch at the "city super"- a Whole Foods type grocery that offered fresh pastries and deli sandwiches. Then we opted to take the bus to Repulse Bay to see the other side of HK Island. Bella's recommendations were wonderful again, leading us to a beach sandwiched between lush mountains. Even on such an overcast day, many locals flocked to the beach. It began to sprinkle and the crowds simply took out their umbrellas and continued their beach fun. As the light rain turned to a down pour we quickly headed to the street where we found our oasis: Starbucks. A splurge we had been avoiding thus far, but it was the perfect escape from the rain and necessary caffeine jolt. We hung out there a while while Jennifer caught up journaling and Chris took advantage of his blackberry internet access which wouldn't connect in the city, and then he took a nap, ha. After a while we walked around the statues by the bay, ... and then took the bus further to Stanley Bay where we walked through the markets and along the water. The air was muggy after the rain, and the streets were still fairly crowded, but it didn't feel quite so touristy, the market seemed a lot like home. It was a long and twisty bus ride back to the city and then MTR back to Kowloon. A quick rest at Chung king (we just couldn't stay away from the place) and then headed up Nathan Rd. to the night market. Not sure what to expect we were pleasantly surprised by the rows of stalls set up. We ate an authentic dinner in the middle of the market- some yummy Singapore noodles with shrimp and ham. Then we proceeded to spend the rest of our HK money on some last minute souvenirs and gifts. Favorite items bought: Jennifer's new "nike" watch. Without a cell phone she can't even sleep through the night without worrying about what time it is, especially in Chungking! Chris found some Trinidadian flag patches that can be ironed on. An unexpected find for this part of the world. We headed home around midnight satisfied with our purchases and incredible experiences in Hong Kong!

MONDAY, June 30:

What a day. *sigh of relief* We knew starting this leg would be a tough one... we have 4 separate buses/trains to catch in order to connect Hong Kong and Hanoi, but it didn't quite go as smoothly as we would have liked. Although we did finally get to say goodbye to Chungking Mansion, which neither of us will even really miss. We left Hong Kong on an 11am train to Guangzhou... this 2-hour train was a piece of cake, and they even gave us bottles of water, a pleasant surprise. But as we made our way via subway to a different train station we realized the crowds and the rain were a bit overwhelming. An hour search of an ATM later, Jennifer was exhausted... only to find out that the train we were planning on taking was booked. We finally just booked the train for tomorrow, giving up hope of arriving in Hanoi on time, and submitting to the fact that we would have to spend a night in Guangzhou. As we walked, defeated by the city, and kicked slightly back into culture shock after being spoiled with the English signs and speakers in HK, we searched for a hotel for the night. By a miracle we wandered into a bus station and found a wonderful lady who spoke enough English to escort us into the "Members Only" waiting room and she found a bus for us tonight to Nanning! That is our next stop on this journey to Hanoi. So pleased with our discovery, we felt like we were on Amazing Race and we just found the fast forward, haha. After Chris returned our train tickets for tomorrow we bought tickets leaving at 8pm, giving us time to enjoy the Members Only waiting room and check some internet. The nine-hour bus ride was not as comfy as a sleep-car would have been, but it got us to Nanning before the train we had wanted.

TUESDAY, July 1:

We slept as much as possible in the semi-roomy seats, and enjoyed the two rest stops where Chris spotted the Southern Cross- a favorite constellation finally back in sight. We arrived in Nanning at 5:30am to a fairly sketchy bus station. We found our way in the dark to the taxis and paid slightly more than normal just to get out of that place. Thanks to Jennifer's overly organized planner, equipped with cute little pictures, we were able to point to a clip art picture of a train and 20 minutes later, the driver had taken us to the exact place we needed to be. Arriving with plenty of time we booked our next leg to Pingxiang, China, right next to the Vietnam border. Quite a cultural experience that turned out to be. Benches in seat of seats, and crowds of locals carrying boxes and crates of who knows what surrounded us. 3 1/2 hours later we arrived in our last Chinese destination until we return in August! The scenery was gorgeous though, making us even more excited to cross into Vietnam. We made friends with the only other English speaking people on the train, two girls from Canada, Sara and Heather. The four of us bargained with the aggressive motor-bike salesmen and eventually got to ride in the back of an open motorcycle cart to the Vietnam border. A short talk to the Friendship Crossing, an hour of formalities to get passports stamped and we had officially arrived in Vietnam! Just one short leg of traveling left before we were to arrive in Hanoi. Teamed with Sara and Heather, we got a taxi cab to take us to Long Son, where we haggled for a cheap mini-bus ride into the city. In the end of the bargaining we wound up on the ride of our life with a driver who didn't care to stay on the right side of the road. But somehow we arrived almost 3 hours later to Hanoi! We were dropped off at a hostel (not the one we booked) and aware of scams and such we were ready to leave for the hostel we had booked online, but as the rain picked up and we took a look at the rooms at the "Blue Sky Hotel" we were standing in, we realized that for just $5 a night the rooms were amazing (especially compared with Chung King!!). We were relieved to have a spacious room, clean bed, private bathroom, aircon, refrigerator, cable tv, and a clean enough floor to walk on without shoes! We cleaned up a bit and then met Sara and Heather to eat dinner and explore the city a bit. A Lonely Planet rec, we found "Pho" and for less than $1 each we had a great noodle dinner. We wandered around the Old Quarter where we are staying, found some night markets, dodged the motorbikes, and enjoyed our introduction to Hanoi. The two of us split a small tub of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream for less than $1 also, quite a nice splurge considering what a long day it had been!

A couple nights here and then heading south along the Vietnam coast. If you have any advice let us know, we're pretty flexible and looking forward to enjoying it all! All pictures are now uploaded, so enjoy!

5 Senses Review: BEIJING

2008-06-27T21:46:00.001-04:00

We have arrived safely in Hong Kong for 4 nights! Continuing to have amazing adventures as always, here are my thoughts on Beijing.

SIGHT: As I am sure you all read in the last blog entry... we encountered some heavy rain and hail as we scurried along the top of the Great Wall, heading for the nearest covering. I hustled quickly to keep up with the group, but at the same time I couldn't help but take in the beauty of my surroundings. The one sight that stood out was watching the rain fall down from above. It was completely foreign to see the rain below me as we pranced amongst the clouds.

TOUCH: As we wandered around the Summer Palace I could not help but to run my hand across the many marble railings lining Kunming Lake. The rough feel of the worn marble showed the age and history of the place we were standing, but the rare smooth spot was a wonderful reminder of the luxurious life the royalty had at the Summer Palace.

SMELL: As I huffed and puffed up the steep trail leading to the Great Wall I became very away that the smog that had surrounded me for days had dissipated. Along with the fresh air was the smell of sweet white flowers that naturally emerged from amongst the brush. It was all so very refreshing.

TASTE: A "must" according to Lonely Planet was to have a dumpling breakfast. So we followed the locals one day and found a place that had 10 dumplings for 5 rmb (70 cents-ish). As we sat surrounded by old Chinese men, I savored the flavor of the authentic breakfast food. Unique spices, and a mixture of pork (and who knows what else), all embedded in a soft doughy layer was surprisingly my favorite food in Beijing.

SOUND: The pleasant singing and chanting of local women's choirs as we strolled through numerous parks. The local feel, gorgeous voices, and accompanying flute made me feel like I was truly in China. (I would post a video I recorded but the computer I am using dates back to the DOS ages and there isn't a USB port)...

Alright... Another update soon from Hong Kong. We expect you to be waiting on the edge of your seats for these pictures (and stories, obviously) because this city is both of our favorites so far.

Beijing and Beyond...

2008-06-24T09:08:00.000-04:00

We last left y'all with our stories of Shanghai. On Saturday we woke up and packed up our belongings because we had to check out of the hostel by noon. We wandered the city for bit- just checking out People's Square a bit more, using the free international phone calls from an expensive hotel (apparently we blend in), and having one last snack at McDonald's. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hostel, clean up a bit and take a taxi to the train station.

Goodbye Shanghai!!

Boarding the train to Beijing!

We boarded the train right on time, unsure of what the proper "train etiquette" was, but we soon met our cabin-mates, a couple guys from Sweden who worked for H&M. After chatting about great places to visit in Beijing and meeting other train friends, we ate a quick dinner in the dining car. We soon met even more international friends, but we were so exhausted that we crashed by 11pm.

SUNDAY: We arrived in Beijing around 7am, stood in a ridiculously long line for a taxi, breathed in even worse smog than Shanghai, and eventually found our way to Leo Hostel, only "750 meters from Tienanmen Square"...

Note the construction below... lots to do in the next 2 months for the Olympics!!

We got situated in our room, gave them our laundry to do, and set out to explore our home for three nights. We were not far from Tienanmen Square at all, so after walking through there we wound up spending the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon in the Forbidden City. There are 999 rooms in the place, not a small place to explore, but we did our best in the 4 or 5 hours we allotted. Wonderful architecture, amazing history and unbelievable decor.

It was obviously laundry day, as seen by Chris' matching socks.

Jennifer met a friend in the Forbidden City... they sat and waved a while.
The crowds at the Forbidden City, escaping the sun in the shade of the building.

Afterward we headed via subway to Ritan Park, on a whim from a recommendation Jennifer had from a magazine before leaving. Although the restaurant didn't pan our exactly, Chris had a chance to play Table Tennis in the park with an outdoor rec center. Below is Chris showing off quick paddle-skills against his 10-year-old opponent. Down the street we had a beer and dinner at the Oriental Taipan. The bartender spoke very little broken English, but we had fun getting him to circle fun spots to visit in Beijing for us. Unfortunately we lost that map before Monday, but it was fun nonetheless. On our walk home from the park, after a stop in a market area of town, we ran into Jennifer's friend Drew on the street! Such a wonderful surprise, especially for half-way around the world :)

Jennifer and Drew!

MONDAY: A 7:30am start, but in hindsight it was well worth it. This was our Great Wall day, and we were so very excited! We joined a group of 8 other travelers from our hostel on "Leo's Secret Great Wall Tour." A thrilling 2-hour van drive, and several near-death turns later, we pulled into this remote village where an old man hopped in right next to Jennifer. Another ten minutes and we were let out of the van and before we knew it, the van drove away. The ten of us (plus the 70-something Chinese man that did not speak a word of English) were in the middle of these huge mountains with what seemed like nothing around but brush. We quickly found out that our tour guide was quite the machine. We followed him along a narrow path through the jungle surroundings for what seemed like forever. Eventually we got a glimpse at our destination- the abandoned and untouched section of the Great Wall. Spiders, centipedes, snakes all around, but we could only focus on the Wall above us. After 45-minutes we reached the wall.

We hiked along The Great Wall for around 2 hours. We kept on moving, stopping along the way to take in the beauty. As we continued, the view kept on growing, revealing further stretches of the Great Wall. At one point we reached the highest point around us and as we climbed into the old fortress there was a man with a table of souvenirs to sell. haha. Considering there were no other tours that day to this section of the wall, it was quite a surprising find. The most awe-inspiring part was to see the wall from the highest point, where you could see it snake along the spine of the mountains for miles and miles. Towards the end of our hike we heard loud thunder, and before we knew it, the skies began to pour... and then hail. We hurried along the wall, eventually arriving at a covered fortress. After it died down some we continued with caution, as the non-restored wall did not have much of a ledge, and sections we had left were rather steep. At one point the guide decided to assist Chris, as seen below. Quite the Kodak moment.

After the hike we were soaked to the bone, and exhausted, but luckily they brought us straight into a remote village and cooked us a huge meal of local cuisine.

Our gross shoes after the hike through mud.

The group shared travel stories, which was lots of fun. Our newest friends were from Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and Israel. Another 2-hours van ride home, and then some down-time at the hostel.

The street our hostel is on.

We then ate dinner across the street from the hostel. We had Peking Duck, a Beijing specialty. We both thoroughly enjoyed the feast!

TUESDAY: Our last full day in Beijing, today we started early knowing we had a lot to fit in. We bought out our train tickets for tomorrow (off to Hong Kong tomorrow!), then took the subway to the Temple of Heaven Park. We spend a couple hours meandering through the crowds. But it was pleasantly different- the crowds were not tourists, but locals practicing Thai Chi, playing hacky sac, and working out in the outdoor recreation area. We took plenty of pictures of the temple, and then headed on to our next stop.

Next, we took the subway to the Olympic Park (actually, the stop was about a mile walk away because the new subway line is not open yet). As we ran into many closed gates and dead ends, things finally payed off as we turned another corner to find the soon-to-be-infamous Birds nest stadium. After hopping a fence, befriending some locals trying to get a close-up shot as well, and getting shoo-ed away by the Chinese police, we wound up with some pretty great photos. One thing is for sure- it will be a very different scene there in 2 short months. It was surprisingly desolate and filled with construction dust. Next was a taxi ride to the Summer Palace where we spent a few hours exploring the massive grounds and enjoying the beauty of the lake. The weather was slightly overcast, but we appreciated the break from the muggy weather in Shanghai. There was on huge lake, and small pagodas with towers along the edges.

We stayed until it looked like rain and then we took a long bus ride back to our hostel. We commented on how even after 3 days the city feels comfortable. Places that were foreign just 48 hours ago even are now familiar landmarks as we find our way back to the hostel. It would be wonderful to stay another day or more, but off we go to Hong Kong to keep up with our schedule. Last night's dinner was in an Aussie bar, but still we ate Chinese food- some chicken & curry fried rice and veggie stir fry. Yum! We're definitely becoming more familiar with the chop sticks as the days go by. As for now we better get some sleep so we can enjoy our last few hours tomorrow morning in Beijing tomorrow morning. Then we will get some much needed down-time on our 24 hour train ride south!

Thanks for reading and of course we appreciate all the comments. By the way- that is 7 comments for Jennifer and zero for Chris *cough cough*...

Until next time. Peace from China,

Jenn & Chris

5 Senses Review: SHANGHAI

2008-06-23T19:40:00.002-04:00

So it has occurred to me (Jennifer) over the past few days that this blog truly is not capable of expressing everything I have experienced over here, even thus far. Seven days into the journey and I have already seen, heard, felt, smelled and tasted hundreds of new things. I have decided that after each city I am going to go through the five senses and pick one thing that stood out to me, as a way of reflecting and in an attempt to paint a picture of each city for all of those reading this...

SIGHT: Nanjing Road (I don't have a picture handy, you can google it if you want)... It is one of the most crowded spots in Shanghai, but at night this place turns into a sea of lights. The view down this walking street is so uniquely Shanghai. The foreign signs made me realize how far away from home I really was, but the crowds made me feel somewhat at home. The street came alive and the view of the lights glowing through the thick smog was one of my favorite sights in Shanghai.

TOUCH: The food has been wonderful so far, but more than that was the touch of those smooth wooden chop sticks. Each meal is unique, but they are all accompanied by those foreign eating utensils. At first a little awkward but they are already becoming a normality.

SMELL: This I must say will probably not be a positive category of the "5 Senses Review" posts. In Shanghai the smell that you cannot avoid is the whiffs of trash and rotten food throughout the streets and marketplaces. One bad incident included a trash truck, which I am still trying to clear my nostrils from.

TASTE: In order to give you an accurate portrayal of my time in Shanghai, I would love to tell about the fun and exotic cuisines we have eaten so far, but that is not what came first to my mind. The 'taste' pick has to be the McDonalds ice cream cones. At only 2.5 rmb a piece, the 40 cent snack has become a part of our routine. Yet at the same time it doesn't taste exactly like it would back home- slightly foreign but wonderfully familiar.

SOUNDS: Many sounds come to mind from Shanghai, but undoubtedly the strangest to get used to is the language. The constant murmur of unfamiliar words is still just setting in. I love how different it is than American though, and look forward to picking up other small sayings along the way.

That's all folks. Another update with pictures and all from Beijing coming soon.
Love you and Miss you all :)
Jenn

Can Anyone Say "Culture Shock?"

2008-06-20T11:23:00.000-04:00

I know you all have been waiting in anticipation, we can tell by the overwhelming amount of comments, but no worries, we have made it to Shanghai alive. Thanks for at least looking at the pictures folks. For those of you actually reading this thing (thanks, Mom) here is what we have been up to for the last 3 intense days.

In hindsight, our last night in the states wasn't nearly sufficient for taking in the amenities of America. But, in brief, we hit the Rock n' Roll McDonald's in Chicago, moved hotels to near the airport, hiked the ghetto of Chicago with our packs after dark, both completely repacked, and managed to fit in a mere 2 hours of sleep.

WEDNESDAY: We woke up early and took the 7:35am shuttle to O'hare airport. We were definitely crossing our fingers to get tickets on standby, but we were even luckier than we thought... 2 first class seats! Luxuries included a six-course meal, concluded with an ice cream sundae, seats folding down into beds, movies on demand, gin & tonics, and the flight attendant even gave us mini bottles of Skyy for 'sterilizing' things (THANK YOU!).Three movies, two meals, fours hours of sleep, fourteen hours of flying and abundant amounts of tap water later, we arrived in Shanghai! I think we were pretty much in shock that we actually did this thing. As most of you know, we talk big game, but actually breathing in the thick smoggy air made us both realize how real this whole trip is. The one and only word to describe the first day in China: overwhelming. We definitely need to get back into the swing of being backpackers after our first class flight and six nights in the Hilton.

When we walked out of the airport and easily boarded the bus labeled "3" (also equally labeled in Chinese, of course), it almost seemed too easy. But we quickly became aware of the uniqueness of our voices. As we would talk on the crowded bus, I began hearing how foreign I must sound to the ears of the Chinese natives. Thanks to some helpful people along the way, we finally made it to the Longyang metro station, onto the correct train and eventually we emerged from underground in the middle of downtown Shanghai. As helpful as several people attempted to be, the unhelpfulness of the hostel's tiny print-out map, paired with thousands motorcyclists who fail to follow traffic signals and the sudden rain storm all made for a very challenging excursion. Through sweat and smog we finally found our hostel on Middle Jiangxi. We checked in smoothly and after swapping some stories with our roommates from California, we rested for a bit in the cool air conditioning. Before too long we decided to brave the city again. The best advice we were given: Get the front desk at the hostel to write down the Chinese characters of what you need in the city and then take the note with you and get people to read it. As we walked one block down and handed the transit office the note we asked the hostel for, it worked smoothly enough to purchase tickets on the Bullet Train to Beijing for Saturday night. To ease the bit of culture shock we were having, we happened upon a very Americanize mall and wandered in to rest for a little while. We explored some more, ran a couple errands in the city and rested once again back at our hostel.

Just after dark we decided to head out for food before it got too late, as the jet-lag was definitely kicking in. Our Lonely Planet suggested a restaurant nearby but it was either closed down or at the end of a dark alley, so we decided to find another place on our own. Eventually we found ourselves on Nanjing Rd- filled with bright lights and tons of people! After rejecting all the nearby options of American fast food chains we found a place called the Old Shanghai Restaurant. It was on the seventh floor of a building overlooking the brightest part of Nanjing Rd. and for only $7 we shared a beef stir-fry, fried rice and had bottled water. We walked home afterward and quickly fell asleep after a much-needed shower.

FRIDAY: With a new map in hand we felt confident in our abilities to navigate the city with greater ease and less frustration.

Right outside our hostel is this street-market thing with some sketchy raw fish, etc.

We also learned that pedestrians never have the right-of-way, and people stare at Americans like it's their job (in fact several have asked to take pictures with us... awkward?). We left the hotel by 7:30am ready to make the most of the day.

We walked through Nanjing Rd again and even before 8am huge groups of people were doing Thai Chi on the streets!

Our first mission was to find something to eat! Jennifer braved a flat-bread off a street vendor, Chris opted for a Starbucks cinnamon roll, and both had a 30-cent McDonald's ice cream cone (really healthy mom, I swear).While heading towards the People's Square we had a rough itinerary in our minds for the day, but of course we were thrown off track fairly quickly.

View from the People's Square

While taking pictures a Chinese man asked us to take a picture of him and his cousin. Well, one thing led to another and we took them up on the offer to join them for a Tea Culture Fair. Our new friends Hester and Alfred were happy to practice some English and have some company. Hester was visiting her cousin in Shanghai after finishing her high school exams and they made wonderful company. We wound up going to the old section of Shanghai where we sat in a little room and sampled two different teas.

The entrance to the Tea Room, but we couldn't take pictures inside because Buddha was present...?

For a while we weren't sure what we got ourselves into, but our friends translated every bit to us and we both got a wonderful education and a chance to taste authentic Chinese tea. After one Ginseng tea and one Fruit & Flowers tea we said "goodbye" to our new friends.We adventured to the traditional part of Old Shanghai and into the Yuyuan Gardens and shopping market. This ancient district offered wonderful scenery, traditional Chinese buildings, and tons of people wanting to sell us watches and purses (we look like we need those apparently). Our Chinese friends taught us how to say "no, thank you," but considering our accent, most people just laughed at us... but at least they stopped harassing us. By the way, phonetically that one is "Poo She She"... just in case you want to try your hand at that.

Our first coca-cola purchase... at least we're hoping that's what those symbols meant.

We made our first souvenir purchase, learning a thing or too about bargaining on the street (hint: start at a quarter of the offering price, at least).

An unknowing suspect of Jenn's stealthy photography in a street market

After a while we walked over to the Bund which has great views of the city across the river.

We decided to splurge on a boat ride on the Huangpu River to get even better views of the infamous skyline. After that relaxing excursion, we went back to the hostel to do a little travel business, planning the itinerary for next week. For dinner we went back out to Old Shanghai and found a restaurant called "Noodle 78" where we enjoyed our first Hot Pot and some delicious Dumplings. Once again we only spent a total of $7 for the whole dinner, and spent a while relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere (we're getting good at that one).

Hot Pot!

Then we took a stroll along the Bund at night to see the city all lit up. It was hopping with locals and tourists both... hopping kind of like a fifth grade roller skating party (thanks Chris for that amazing analogy). Jennifer racked up the photo count a bit more (possibly rounding the 400 mark)(but all incredible, obviously)... and we once again went back to the hostel to call it a night. (Chris would also like to add that the estimated total for Jenn's final picture count over the next 50 days would be 17,500) (Jennifer would like to add that Chris has only taken 36 photos).

Well now we are hanging out in the hostel using up our fair share of free internet. We already took showers after a long day of walking in the smog, but tomorrow calls for another day in the city and then off to Beijing on a nine-hour over-night direct Bullet train... we cannot wait to continue on our journey. We will update you when we can from Beijing.

If you sent our photo to CNN, just tell them to put it on reserve over the next 7 1/2 weeks... and keep checking back here for updates. Thanks in advance for the overwhelming amount of in-depth comments to this incredible first post from Asia.

Much Love,
Jenn & Chris.

Chicago Aussie Reunion

2008-06-17T19:03:00.000-04:00

Chicago has been treating us well. We left off on Friday night when our reunion began to form as Sandra arrived at 2am at our hotel in downtown Chicago. She had quite an adventure braving the "el" from the airport but we are glad she finally made it!

Saturday: We rested Saturday morning and caught lunch at a bakery right underneath the train tracks (quaint, sort of). We wondered the city a little until Char arrived around 1:30pm and we met her on Michigan Ave. It was so great to officially begin our reunion. After getting settled in took the girls through Millennium Park and toured around "the bean" and water fountains. We walked up Michigan Avenue and decided to go up into the Hancock Building to get a great view of the city. Great views (especially from the bathrooms!) and we relaxed on the 96th floor for a while.

View from the Hancock Tower

Then we walked over the Gino's East for their famous Deep-Dish Pizza. Who knew you could have pizza with a cornbread crust? We still aren't too sure about that meal.

Our Gino's East pizza.

We tried to make it to the Navy Pier fireworks show but wound up catching the finale from the park on the way there (we're really good at timing things, ha).

The one firework captured.

Afterwards we had a night on the town hanging out at a dive bar we happened upon called Rossi's.

Sunday: After wondering around the city a bit, we had lunch at the infamous Billy Goat's Tavern. Those wonderful SNL lines were then quoted for the next 48 hours. "No Fries Chips" "No Pepsi Coke"... and we ate some great double cheezborgers. yum!

Our awesome Cheezborgers.

It was a gorgeous day so we walked down to Navy Pier and mingled amongst the crowds. We all loved the ambiance and views of the city as we relaxed at the tip of the pier for an hour or so. View of the city from Navy Pier.

The gang at Navy Pier.

Eventually we took a bus back into the city where we sat at ESPNzone long enough to realize the note on our table saying "because of the excitement of today's game there will be a minimum charge of $10 per person, per hour." So it didn't take us long to finish a beer and get to Harry Caray's before the start of the Lakers game. We hungout there for the basketball game and then headed on home... we wanted to get an early nights rest because of the Cubs game on Monday...

Monday: Well, there was no Cubs game. After traveling up to Wrigleyville and noticing the lack of additional Cubs fans, we figured out that we had the schedule wrong. We asked around though and found a great sports bar called Murphy's right beside the stadium that had awesome burgers and tots.

After a while, we took the "el" back towards the city where we stopped in Lincoln Park for some shopping and relaxing. Then we made several stops at fun parts of town and eventually stopped back by the hotel to change for our last dinner together :(

By 10pm we arrived at Giordano's for another dinner of Deep-Dish (luck for us this time the crust was not made of cornbread). We had a fabulous time reminiscing and eating lots of pizza. By lots of pizza we mean 1 slice, because it is seriously soooo filling, but delicious. We went back to our favorite bar Rossi's and explored a couple new places around Michigan Ave before heading back to the Hilton.
*Stay tuned for updated pictures from this day: we're having some technical difficulties.

Tuesday: We had to check out today by noon, so we all had a bunch of packing to do. Then we had a short excursion to Buckingham Fountain after a breakfast at Jamba Juice and Baci's. We made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit in the gorgeous lobby before having to say goodbye to Sandra, and then Char.

The sad conclusion to our reunion.

It was so sad to see them go- best reunion ever (thanks for coming Scott). We've just been hanging out, running some last minute errands for the trip and saying our goodbyes to Chicago. We cannnnnnot believe we leave for CHINA tomorrow! Our flight is Wednesday at 10:30am (hopefully), so keep us in your thoughts.

Email this picture to CNN if you haven't heard from us in a week.

We will update again once we're in Asia! Cannot wait!

Cubs v. Braves, & Chicago Adventures

2008-06-13T19:22:00.003-04:00

We are officially in Chicago! We arrived yesterday morning (Thursday) and checked into the best hotel ever... the Palmerhouse Hilton in downtown Chicago (thank you hotwire.com).

The Atrium of our Hotel.

And we have already gotten the hang of the "el," riding it wherever our hearts desire. The first step of our adventure was braving Wrigleyville in the madness of Cubs fans. Even though the Braves lost in the 11th inning (heartbreak) we still got to enjoy a 4-hour game in Wrigley Field for only $15 stand-room-only seats and we managed to sit for the whole game in awesome seats off of 1st base (thank you people who don't show up to games).

Rivals, but we remained civil.

Our awesome seats... or someone's awesome seats that we sat in :)

We made it back to the hotel through the sea of cheering Cubs fans and met up with Chris's cousin Lauren. After an Italian dinner at Exchequers, she showed us around the city a little bit as dusk, which made for some great photos. We crashed early after a long day of travel and site-seeing.

Night views around Chicago River.

Chris and Lauren in Millennium Park.

Today we left the hotel today (Friday) by 11am to do a bit of exploring. First stop was Millennium Park where we saw "the bean" and overheard an orchestra practicing for a concert in the outdoor amphitheater.

"The Bean" in Millennium Park.

We mossied into the Chicago Cultural Center for a 20-min gander around the impressive architecture and art exhibitions. Next was the trek up Michigan Ave. where we sat outside with our classic Starbucks drinks and people-watched the busy street. After some discussion we decided it would be culturally appropriate to take the "el" down to Chinatown for a look into our near future. We decided we really like the signs which include English translations under the Chinese characters... umm, we don't that will be custom when abroad. We also decided to save our appetite as we passed on preserved egg danishes and sea eel entrees (can't wait for local delicacies).

Chinatown!

Chris isn't so sure about the eel...

Then we hopped back on the "el" and stopped near Museum of Contemporary Photography which was closed for repair until July (thank you hotel tour map). So to begin our impromptu walking tour we headed to the nearby Buckingham Fountain for some photo opps and great views at the city.

Jenn and Chris in front of Buckingham Fountain.

Then we took the walking path along Lake Shore Drive (with great views of Lake Michigan) up to Navy Pier where we cut back into the city to make a must-needed stop for internet at the Apple store and explored the Garmin store on the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue. Our handy hotel map recommended the Ghirardelli cafe and Hershey's store where we again sat outside for some people-watching beside the Historic Water Tower. We wandered into the Borders next door and happened upon the Asian Travel Book section. After both (separately) being told that it was a fire hazard to sit on the floor and read books (oops), we relaxed for an hour in the Borders cafe reading up on our future travel plans. Jennifer successfully researched all train tickets along our Malaysia and Thailand path, while Chris checked updates on the US Open scores on his Blackberry.
After looking for two separate piano bars and realizing our tourist attire was probably not appropriate, we wandered into the Embassy Suites and low and behold their door to the internet/computer room was open! So here we are sketchily hanging out in this hotel...

Free Internet!!

Tonight we gain a new face to our Chicago reunion and tomorrow morning even one more! We cannot wait for Sandra and Char to join!!

A Work in Progress...

2008-06-03T18:54:00.001-04:00

Below is our tentative map and plan for the 8 week adventure, which is sure to change daily. We will update as we go! Enjoy :)

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