Ireland

From Ireland

We were excited to finally go to a country where the locals spoke the same language as us. Well our hopes were fruitless. In Ireland they speak something that resembles english, but is very hard for us to understand. It took us a few days to figure out what "feck" meant. You may think that Ireland is the land of lepracauns, football brawls, drunks, and all this with an average of 3 days of sun per year. If this is how you envision Ireland then you are completely correct.

Ireland has green pastures, big cities and tons and tons of beer. Not only do they have beer, they have serious beer drinkers. This is no pastime, this is real business to the average pub local. There are distinct rules of engagement that have to be followed when at a pub. Especially when rounds of drinks are being purchased. When in a local pub you must always be careful about talking about politics, religeon, and especially football (aka soccer). If you make a wrong comment you may find yourself on the recieving end of beating. I think we may have been close to some bloodshead on the night of the European cup championships. It was great watching the big game in a real Irish pub. We even spent a couple evenings enjoying drinks and food at a pub that was started in 1198. Quite and old establishment.

Jason, Heather and I had a great time in Ireland. The highlights were visiting St. Patricks Cathedral, the Guiness factory, drinking guiness for breakfast, drinking guiness for lunch, and drinking guiness for dinner. We took a day trip out to the countryside to visit some anchient pagan burial/ ritual sights. This included going inside of a 5,000 year old house that was built of stone and is still standing. The three of us really enjoyed the Irish countryside and the chance to see the tiny villages and green hills.

Other then not understanding the local language, and waking up and smelling like the village drunk every morning we all really enjoyed Ireland. Unfortunately Ireland was the last stop on our round the world trip and with a heavy heart we boareded a plane and flew home. We are still in a state of jetlag and will post a final blog posting in a few days.

Photos

Some of you have been requesting more photos to be posted with our blogs. This will happen but probably not until after we get home....which is in just a few days. I will try to make albums of each group of pics that go with each blog and post them where they belong. So patience my friends, patience and you will be able to see our ugly mugs in all these places we've been soon enough.

Thanks for keeping up with us and following our all too short journey. We'll be home on Saturday. Pretty crazy it's all coming to an end.

Miss you all and see you soon!!!....oh and we will be adding stories from Dublin soon.


Update July 2015:  Here are some working links.  Blogger and Picasa has changed quite a bit since we wrote this.

Jordan

Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Poland...

Poland

CzechRepublic

Netherlands

Ireland

More Hungary

And now that I just did that I see some of the links in previous posts do work.  Oh well.  Sorry for the double pictures post.

Amsterdam

From Netherlands

From Netherlands

Amsterdam,

Wow what a great city full of fun things and beautiful scenery. We were very fortunate to have a freind available to give us a nice place to stay and show us around (thanks Sabine) We got to Amsterdam one day before Jason did so we got used some of our time and went to visit the Anne Frank house. I had been there before, but it still was a moving experience. It brought both Heather and I to tears. Our friend Sabine is half Jewish and some of her family was deported to Auschwitz with Anne Frank. When at the museum you could see their names listed below the Frank family. It added an additional personal connection to the entire holocaust history for us.

After the Ann Frank house we met Jason at Dam square in central Amsterdam at a cafe. It was nice to see a familiar face from home after 6 months on the road. We relaxed at the cafe for a while in traditional European fasion drinking beer and coffee before heading off to Sabines house to drop off Jasons stuff.

Jason had a direct flight from SFO to Amsterdam and had been traveling for around 9 hours, but it was only noon in Amsterdam so he had to push on through the rest of the day in order to adjust to the time change. He did good, we managed to drag him around town visiting the red light district and coffee shop area. This is the main tourist area in Amsterdam. We went to dinner at a local Tapas place and Jason held tough all the way to midninght before going to bed.

The next morning we headed off for the Van Gough museum. It was a rainy day and so we really took our time in the museum. We spend over 4 hours wandering around the various artworks and exhibits. I have no artistic ability whatsoever and it is truely amazing to me to see so much natural ability spread out on the various canvases. We spend the remainded of the day wandering Amsterdam just explorling the beautiful city with the wonderful canals, at the same time trying to dodge the endless groups of bicyclist as they pedal around the city.

On Sunday Sabine spent the day with us and was able to take us around the city and show us some neat stuff from a locals point of view. We did go on the hop on hop off canal ferry tour which meanders around the various city canals and is a easy way to see a large part of the city from the water. This was a really neat experience. Afterwards we went to a local cafe that served some of the best apple pie any of us have ever had. In the evening Sabine drove us out to a local beach that had a hippie sort of resteraut/ cafe that has live music every sunday evening. It was a jam session and the musicians were very impressive. At least they were impressive to me since i have no musical talent at all.

Monday Sabine took us to a local market that sold antiques clothes etc. Heather could have spent quite a bit of time and money at this place. We then drove to the local small town of Utrecht where there is an impressive cathedral and quant streets and of course canals. On the drive out to Utrecht we saw so many beautiful Dutch houses and farms. The Dutch really do have a wonderful way of life.

Our time in Holland was way too short and it really was one of the highlights of our trip. I think anywhere you go is better with the help of a local. It was also nice to travel with Jason. It added a different energy to our travels. Holland is deffinately on our list of countries we would like to revisit someday.

Czech Republic

From Czech Republic

We said fairwell to Poland and took a night train to Prague. We ended up having a full compartment so it was very cozy. Its difficult to fit 6 grown adults and all their baggage in a train cabin. It was a very tight squeeze and we are thankfull that it was our last night train experience. We arrived in Prague, took the metro to our hostel which was situated outside of the city center in a more residential type neighborhood. It was early in the morning so we left our baggage at the hostel until our room was ready and we headed out on the town.

I had been to Prague 4 years ago so I could somewhat help get us around town. We had a typical European breakfast and capiccino in the central square overlooking the famous clock tower. We checked out the old town and walked around getting a feel for the city before heading back to our hostel to relax for a while.

On day 2 we woke up early went to charles bridge, the castle on the hill and the church. One of the attractions of the church is to climb the 260 steps of the spiral staircase to the top of the belltower. The climb was arduous, but the view was worth it. Prague is an amazing town and has so much charachter and history. We ate our normal lunch in the park consisting of cheese, meat, baguette and a bottle of wine. We never really indulged in the Czech cuisine since it is more or less the same as Slovakia and Hungary.

On our 3rd day in Prague we took a day trip to the town of Kunta Hora. Here they have another very impressive church that rivals the one in Prague. They also have the bone church. It is a very strange place where the bodies of 40,000 people were burried durring the great plague. A couple hundred years ago the bodies were unearthed and the bones were arranged into strange ornaments in the church. their is a royal coat of arms made of bones, light fixtures, etc. A very odd place. We also go to see a slice of rural Czech replublic while in Kunta Hora and I even bought myself a beautiful Gnome as a momento of our time in the Czech Republic.

Our last day in Prague we went and visited the local jewish part of town. There are a number of very old Synagogues and a very old Jewish cemetary that dates to the 1400's. We also visited the Synagogue where the Golam was supposedly burried.

Zacopane

From Poland

So we're a bit behind in blogging but we'll try to catch up. We have already gone through Prague and are currently in Amsterdam with Jason!!! But lets start from where we left off, shall we?

After our intense time in Krakow we needed an energy booster and they way to do that for us is head for the mountains. We headed to the snowy peaks of Zacopane, which is just 100km away from Krakow. It's actually a part of the Tatra mountain range. We took an easy and scenic bus ride and landed in the town center. We had no accomodation booked and thought we'd just head to a couple of hostels we heard about and check them out. As soon as we got off the bus there were two different people offering a Pokoje, or room. Now in the States you'd be very weary of taking up this offer thinking you might end up in their torture chamber in thier basement but in Europe it's much more common. After having a complete conversation in no common language with a local lady, we were wisked away in a car and off to our room. It was heavenly!!! Our own room, our own space...not a dorm!!! It was a cute little room at the top of their attic, so the ceiling was low and slanted in some area but so cozy.

We immediately headed for the hill, literally. We went straight to the gondola that takes you to the top of the mountian. It's very much like the ones at Squaw Valley. We had to stand in line for a bit with a mix of tourists and skiers. I think that this place is a very popular vacation town for the Polish because we heard no English being spoken and really not many signs in English. That just makes everything more interesting.

As with many of our sights the ride up was just truely amazing. So beautiful. It was exactly what we needed to give us this burst of energy for this last bit of our journey. As we went further up, and with one gondola change, the scenery changed from green pine trees to snowy cliffs. It was so wonderful and different from anything we've seen lately.

We got off and hiked in the snow, with our regular shoes so I should say slid around to the top of the peak. There you could stand with half of your body in Poland and half of your body in Slovakia. Can't say I've ever been in two countries at the same time. We stayed outside as long as we could. It was sooooo cold and we began to turn pink. We looked like a couple of balls of cotton candy. The grins on our faces couldn't be wider.

We headed back down the mountain and enjoyed the rest of our time there just bumping around town.

I must go. We are headed out for our canal tour in Amsterdam. We'll be back to update you some more. Hopefully soon.

Auschwitz

From Poland

We visited Auschwitz in southern Poland a few days ago. We didnt realize that Auschwitz is actually made up of 3 different camps. The original Auschwitz was a small military baracks that was converted into a prison and torture camp in 1939. Once the Nazi's decided they were going to exterminate people in mass they needed a larger camp. This is when they built Burchenau AKA Auschwitz 2. We started the tour by visiting the original camp that is completely intact as it was 60 years ago. It is fairly small and was mainly used for political prisoners, prisoners of war and a few Jews. Over the entry to the camp is the words in German "work will set you free" A very misleading saying.

We spent a few hours at the first camp and then we took the free shuttle bus the 3 Kilometers to Auschwitz 2. As you drive towards the camp the huge fenced off area comes into view. It is amazing how large it is. Almost 500 acres of torture, terror, and death. Many of the wooden buildings have deteriorated over time and all that remains are the brick chimneys. This just adds to eerieness of the place.

We were let off in front of the famous brick entry know as the gate of death. Through this gate the train cars rolled into the compound to the unloading dock. The Jewish passangers were then unloaded and seperated into 2 groups by the Nazi SS guards. Those that were to live and become slave laborers were stripped of their clothing shaved bald deloused and given striped uniforms. Those that were destined to die were taken straight to the gas chambers. Approximately 75 percent of the people that arrived were taken right to the gas chambers.

The place is absolutely horrible. I cant image a worst place on the planet. Up to 2 million people were murdered at this small part of the world. I had chills running up my spine on numerous occasions. We walked up to gas chambers 4 and 5 and stood in the trees where people had to wait to be led into their death. In any other part of the world it would be a beutiful spot, but knowing the horrors that took place here. It is so unreal.

About 30 or so of the original barracks surrived and are open to walk through. Some of them still have their original bunks in them. Up to 1000 people were shoved into each one. The horror of it is too hard to express with words. I stood looking out one of the windows thinking about all the people 60 years ago who stood right where I was standing, looking out this window upon all the horror and wishing it was just a bad halucination. But it wasnt, it was reality for them. It is very unlikely that any of the prisoners looking out that window surrvived. Absolutely terrible.

Romania, Slovakia, Austria

From Europe

OK in this post I have the rare opportunity to talk about 3 countries that we visited in the last week. We visited the town of Sighiosara in central Romania. Being in Romania is like taking a step back in time. you travel through all these small towns where the economy is completely supported by local commerce. Agriculture is king and you see very few modern machines to do the labor. Horse carts, old men and women with traditional clothing working the fields is the norm. Many houses still had outhouses. Of course this is in the countryside. The bigger cities had indoor plumbing, but the cars still had to share the road with the horses.

Sighiosara has to be one of the most authentic medival towns in Europe. It hasnt been bombed, restored or preserved in any way. Its remote location and poor inhabitants keep people from modifying or changing anything. We wandered down dirt roads gazing at 500 year old houses and buildings, remnants of castle walls and ancient churches. It really is mind blowing to think that not much has changed here in the last few hundred years. An incredible day full of amazing sights.

We headed out of Romania and went to Bratislava, Slovakia. It is a small country that used to be the other half of the Czech Republic. Bratislava is the capital city and has a very small but interesting downtown. There is also a castle on the adjoining hill, but it was "restored" in the 1950's by the communist goverment. Needless to say the restoration has to be redone already and instead of restoring to the original style its just a large concrete block looking structure.

From Slovakia we went to Vienna Austria. Home to huge museums, music halls, and all things cultural. We only had a day in Vienna, which was fine since we are getting a bit used to the sight of huge amazing 200 year old buildings. Its the same sort of feeling we had in Asia. After a while all the incredible Bhuddist temples look the same. The 2 highlights for us in Vienna was a visit to St. Michaels church. Its an amazing gothic era church with amazing details and an evening trip to a 350 year old basement wine bar/ resteraunt.

Next stop for us is Krakow, Poland.

May Day and Romania

Heather and I have moved on to Romania. We are currently in the northern city of Cluj and tomorrow we go to sighisoara both of which are in Transylvania. Sighisoara is the birhtplace of Vlad the Impaler AKA Count Dracula. It is also know as one of the best preserved medival towns in Europe.

On our last day in Hungary we celebrated May Day with the locals. As far as we can tell may day is like their version labor day. They seem to make a much bigger production of it then we do in the states. The festival we went to had pony rides, food, traditional dancing and a fireworks finale. Strangely enough there were also quite a few Native American music groups playing and trying to sell CDs. It was very strange to wander around Budapest and see dark skinned American Indians dressed with mocassins leather outfits, headresses and face paint playing and chanting. I think some were even singing in Hungarian. All Heather and I can figure out is that the US Goverment secretly shipped off a bunch of native americans to Hungary durring the Indian wars.

Our train ride to Romania was a 8 hour journey that took us from the flat farmlands of Hungary into the mountains of Northern Romania. The scenery was very much like the sierra nevada foothills. The weather is colder here and we barely have enought warm clothes with us. Its quite a drastic change from 107 in Egypt to here. The boarder crossing was a breeze, except for the fact that we realized we may not have enough room left in our passports if every country we plan on going to on the next 3 weeks stamps us in and out. This is not a problem we really ever thought of before. The US passport has 2 pages in the back that are supposed to be used for "additional attatchments" so hopefully this area can be used for stamping in a pinch.

So as I said only 3 weeks left. We are having a blast, but we are both also looking forward to coming home. We are very excited about what the future has in store for us. This trip has really given us a different perspective in life and an insight to so many things in this world.

Eger

So yesterday we took a 2 hour train ride northeast of Budapest to the town of Eger. It is known as their wine region. Their regional specialty is a wine called "bulls blood" mainly because of the color.

When we arrived our first challenge was to find the guest house that we had booked. We had no map to speak of, just a rough sketch from the internet. We found the town center and the tourist information office, where they gave us a map that helped us find our accomodation. We had to go up hill, but behind, no less, a castle. It was a tiring and sweaty (at least for me) walk up hill, but we made it. I think this will be the nicest place we'll be staying in all of Europe. It's an equivalent of a bed and breakfast at home. Just a room in someone's house with our own bathroom!!! Much better than the dorms we have and will continue to stay in.

After a brief rest we were able to walk around the town and enjoy the sites. Once again, everything is very, very old and ornate, though the buildings here are a bit more quaint. Our first stop along the cobblestoned streets was lunch. There we had a yummy leek soup and paparika chicken on an olive salad. It was so nice to get some veggies in us, not just bread, cheese and meat.

From there we walked just a tad bit further and stopped at a wine shop/ bar. There we got a sampler of 6 different wines and some cheese. None of the wines were all that thrilling but it was nice to just sit out on the street and watch the world go by while sipping on wine. They even had blankets if you were a bit chilly...which I was.

We continued through the rest of the day like that...strolling along and taking a break, strolling along and taking a break. It's my favorite part about Europe so far. We found a little place to have a decent pasta dinner and headed home.

Today was our big wine tasting day. The valley is just a short 15 minute walk from the city center. Once you go up and over a hill and decend into the valley, you start to notice vent pipes coming out of the ground on the hills. Then you realize that you are actually standing on top of wine cellars that were built into the hill sides in the 1700's. Such a trip. It is here they make, store and sell the wines. Once you get into the more developed area this is where the cellars are open to the public for tastings. Their system is a bit different then ours. You can ask for tasting, for free or order glasses by the decaliter. They also have varieties that are straight from the barrel...or more of thier table wines...or bottled wine which costs more. Then if you want to purchase straight from the barrel you can buy it in amounts of 2, 2.2 or 5 litters. You can bring your own bottle or purchase a bottle there...and they are plastic bottles. Not much different than a soda 2 liter bottle. Needless to say we will now be carrying around 4 liters of wine. I think we can finish that in the next 25 days. 2 liters cost us just over $6 and it tastes better than the equivalent wine at home. It was just incredible sipping wine in these hundreds of year old caves and watching the locals come in, on their lunch break, and get 15 liters of wine at a time. They bring in their empty plastic containers and lug out brimming to the top containers. It is a holiday tomorrow. How fun would it be if we could buy wine that way at home? Gotta love it. It might go against everything the California wine community (or wine snobs) stand for. Wine in plastic jugs..hmphf. Like I said, if you have to, you can buy the nicer wine in bottles. And like I said, it's much better wine then the kind you buy in the box or jug at home.

We eventually had to call it quits. They don't really have spit buckets here. I think they might be offended if you spit our their wine here...now that I think about it. We still needed to be able to make it back to town with out falling down the hill. Fun times.

So tomorrow we head back to Budapest for one night...the only place we could find afordable accomodations because of the holiday. So much for trying to wing it. And we get to share a bed in a bunkbed. I feel sorry for our bunkmate. It's just for one night. After that we head for a short jaunt into Romania....I think. Stay posted to find out.

We've landed in Europe

We left Cairo the day before yesterday and speaking for both of us...I think we were really ready for a change. After a quick 4 hour flight on Egypt Air, we landed in Budapest, Hungary. It really made us realize, once again, how small the world is. Budapest and Cairo are both big cities but they seem like completely different worlds. Chris and I have been traveling in developing countries for the past 3 months and I think we were really happy to be somewhere different. Some of the things I1ve been appreciative of:

-toilet paper
-being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet, not throw it in a can
-being able to cross the street without having your life flash in front of your eyes each time
-cars stop at a red light
-sidewalks
-not avoiding stepping in "puddles" on the sidewalk....ie.."puddles" were usually something gross
-much cooler weather without all the humidity...or dryness of the desert
-paying the actual price on an item...not bargaining
-parks

We're not complaining at all...just appreciative of what we have at home and what we're experiencing now.

So with in the first couple of hours of us being in Budapest I decided I love it!!!! You can basically walk everywhere and if you get tired there1s decent public transportation, including an underground. The buildings here are amazing...hundreds of years old and so ornate. Just incredible. Walking around and going nowhere in particular is nice enough on it's own. It's like being in San Francisco but older, cleaner and not very hilly. Like I said...I love it!!!

Costs are now going up for us, so we'll be sleeping in quite a few dorms from here on out. This first one we're at is a small one and we're in a 6 person room, but it's not completely filled. Finding it was interesting. We had found it on the map but just couldn't seem to find it in reality. We walked up and down the street several times. Then we decided to sit on a bench and figure out what to do next. As we were sitting on the bench we stared at the number on the door. This should be the place...right in front of our faces...but there is no sign. We walked up to the door and saw the name of the hostel on the list of businesses in the building. We pushed the correct buttons and got buzzed in. It's at the top floor of a who knows how old building. At least we found it.

So here's a quick run down on the sights we saw yesterday...parliment, Buda Castle Royal Palace...well, all of the Castle Hill area in Buda (it's just that, a castle on a hill overlooking the Danube and the Pest area, the Chain Bridge, and the Opera House.

On our trip home we found their version of a wine bar. It's just that, a bar that serves wine. More of where a blue colar crowd would go, not our version of fancy wine bars in the states. It was in the basement of this...yes, old building. Looked almost like a wine cellar. There was no English spoken so we just had to grunt and point at what we wanted. It worked out just fine and we got 4 glasses (very, very small glasses) for about $3. It may have been their version of a dive bar but it was just great.

Today we went to a place called statue park...and it's just that, a park filled with several of the old communist statues that used to be around the town. Some of the pieces had been damaged during various times in history. There are Stalin's boots and his platform he used to speak from. There's definately a cold and impersonal style to many of the statues. What's interesting is it feels like the many of the Hungarian people don't think of the park as a negative thing but more of a kitche type of place. They can view these things with a smile on their face.

The park is just out of town, so once we headed into town it was time for our lunch. The sun is shining and we packed a picnic. We layed out a sarong and set up our baguette, brie, salami and wine lunch. Perfect. We weren't alone on that style of lunch. Several people were enjoying themselves and the sun. So much so that shirts we're coming off of people, both men and women. Very different than at home and very, very different from where we've been the last few month. I just had to smile. No one here bats an eye.

Then we headed to the Holocaust Museum. Not really the happy thing to do after that wonderful lunch. The museum is well designed and thought out but it didn't really move either of us. It's mostly photos, videos and ALOT of reading. The one in L.A. is much better. It takes you through an experience more than being told about it. I'm not saying this was a bad one. It's good to have any at all. The museum ends in a synagogue. It was the first one that Chris had ever been inside of, so that was a new experience.

We have one more day here in Budapest and then we move onto the wine area of Eger in Hungary for 2 nights. Obviouly we'll let you know how that goes.

Cairo

Since the last time we checked in we have moved on to Cairo. Our flight out of Amman was interesting in that Jordan is the right next to Iraq so quite a few soldiers and other folks related to the war either travel through Jordan or spend their leave time in Jordan. So the airport was full of soldiers from various countries heading off back to Bagdahd. We felt very out of place amoungst the sea of soldiers, goverment subcontractors, reporters, diplomats, spooks, mercenaries, missionaries, and all the other misc. type of folks that gravitate towards a war zone. There was every type of person involved in the war business heading off to Iraq and it appears that business right now for them is good.

Cairo is another huge city full of energy that never seems to sleep or cool down. We are staying in a Hostel that is fairly centered in town. The Nile river and the Egyptian museum are just right down the street. We spent our first day just walking around getting a feeling for the city and taking it all in. The seccond day we spent at the Egyptian museum. All items of signifigance have been removed from the pyramids and are on display at the museum. It must have been quite a feat to bring all the large sarcofoguses ( or is it sarcofogi) and statues, carvings etc. into the building. Some items were excavated so long ago and placed into displays that the display cases are antiques themselves complete with turn of the century wavy glass. All I can say is it is very surreal to stare at 5,000 year old carvings, papyrus, jewelry etc. One of the hightlights of the museum for me was the room full of King Tuts jewelry. He was found in his tomb with his complete ensamble of headress clothing, gold and jewls.

Today we hired a driver to take us to 3 of the pyramid sights. Of course up until today the weather in Egypt has been OK. Today it was 107.....That is not a miss-print it was 107 today. I did OK, and Heather was quite a trooper even though she really hates the heat. The first location we went to was Giza with the 3 most famous and largets pyramids as well as the sphynx. It is such a large area to walk around we decided to hire a local guide and go horseback. It was really cool. Riding horseback in the Egyptian desert with our headwraps on around the pyramids. Needless to say we have quite a few awesome pictures. While on the plateau with the pyramids we heard the prayer calls from the numerous Mosques in Cairo (they are very loud and seem to go off every hour in every city of the middle east) They were all sounding in unison and added this hauntingly creepy element to the pyramid experience.

We spent around 3 hours at Giza and then headed off to Saquara. It is also known as the stepped pyramid. The pyramid is currently being stabalized so you cant get as close to it as the Giza pyramids, but the tombs around the pyramid is accessable and you can climb in and see what it was like to be laid to rest for a few thousand years under the desert.

The last sight of the day was Memphis. Not much remains of the buildings in this area it is more like a small museum with more various antiquaties. By this point in the day we were worn out. 8 Eight hours in over 100 degree weather is pretty draining. We drank bottle after bottle of water today and I dont think either of us had to use the toilet once.

Tomorrow we plan to explore the old parts of Cairo. The anchient Christian and Muslum sections of town. So much history exists in this city you could spend weeks here and not see everything.

Desert Safari

We left Wadi Musa (Petra) and bumbed a ride with a couple that had a rental car down to Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a huge desolate but beautiful desert that has been the home to Bedouins for thousands of years. It is also the area where Lawrence of Arabia fought and lived. They also filed the movie Lawrence of Arabia there as well. We hooked up with our Bedouin guide and we headed out into the desert in his vintage Toyota Land Cruiser. The local town is filled with Vintage Toyotas. It seems to be the only vehicle that can take the constant abuse in the desert. Ours was set up with a hardcab in the front and a pickup type bed in the back with troop seats and canvas roof to keep the harsh sun off our heads.

Our trip in the desert was once again undescribeable. So many amazing colors and beautiful rock formations. This isnt the type of desert that you see in Nevada with large stretches of white sand. The desert here is red sand with gigantic red rock formations up to 30 stories tall that are decomposing and look like melting plastic. The life in the desert for the bedouins is harsh to say the least. Its a very spartan existance.

At night we camped out in the desert with the Bedoiuns in a tent. The sunset was amazing, casting a bright glow over the rocks and sand. Just unbelievable. I was looking forward to seeing the stars at night, but we had a full moon. There were hardly and stars out, but the moon did glow so bright that you could clearly see everything almost as clear as day. We didnt need a flashlight, we could even see the hills way accross the valley. The desert at night has to be the quitest place on earth so peaceful and serene. I would highly recomend a desert trek to anyone going to the middle east. It may have been better then Petra.

yesterday we made the trek down to Aqaba. The southern most city in Jordan. It is only 3 KM from Saudi Arabia and right across the red sea from Egypt. We caught a ride with a man from Lebanon and his wife. While driving south we came upon one of the many military checkpoints in Jordan. We had to show our passports to the guards and ended up having us pull over and go to an office for additional questioning. I think it is because we were with the man from Lebanon. After a few questions we were on our way again. At some point in this checkpoint ordeal a very friendly soilder was questioning me with his machine gun pointed at my stomach. It wasnt in a mean or menacing way, but I didnt really feel too good about it. He had it just thrown over his shoulder haphazardly. I guess when you live here you get used to things like that. For instance on the beach at the red sea in Aqaba instead of 19 year old lifeguards patrolling the beaches on quads, you have 19 year soilders patrolling the beaches in Toyota trucks with 50 calaber machine guns. We should feel very fortunate at home to not live under the same fears that they do here.

Tomorrow we are off to Egypt the land of Pyaramids. We will post again soon.

Petra

We'll see how this blog goes because we're both extremely tired from hiking around Petra for 2 days now.

We came to Wadi Musa, which is the name of the town at Petra, via the Kings Highway. We ended up sharing a taxi ride with a mother and daughter from England. They had visited Syria first and then came to Jordan. They were great fun to have in the car for the day. The mother loved to carry on conversations about just about anything.

One of the stops we had was at the castle of Karak. This is a castle built on the top of the hill and had great view of all around. A great defensive sight. The history of it was so hard to keep track of because it's switched hands from so many different groups of people over the last bazillion years. Very interesting to look at.

We arrived at Petra around 5 p.m. and were dropped off at our hotel the Cleopetra. Moseleh is the extremely friendly personality of the place. We got a welcome pot of tea, sat, relaxed and eventually got the keys to our room. Now he said we did not really get the nicest room but hey, whatever. It's a very interesting place to say the least, not the worst place we've stay..i.e. no rats. but I'm not sure when the last time the carpet was cleaned...if ever. The bathroom is funny too. You have to sit sideways on the toilet because the wall is right there at the front of the bowl. Another oh well. But the hospitality and free pick up and delivery each day has more then made up for it.

Now Petra is another amazing place. Yesterday we mainly focused on the main path with one side excursion. The place looks like what I imagine parts of Moab, Utah or Idaho look like. Extremely beautiful rock formations and canyons, but then the ancient people carved into the sides of the hill and mountains and created a whole town. There is a treasury building, a shopping area, several homes, tombs and the biggest of all, the monastary. To get to the monastary you must hike a few hours, uphill...I think they said it's 800 stairs to get there. But these are nice neat stairs, they are carved into the rocks and you have to scramble over a few and make sure you carefully place your feet. Back in the day it was considered a place people made a pilgramage to. I am throughly impressed with all the tourists who make it each day. It is work but well worth it. If you do grow tired you can pay to ride a donkey up and back, but it's not cheap and looks really uncomfortable. And the lucky walkers get to avoid donkey poo the whole way up and down.

I really think you should Google Petra to see what it looks like because words don't do it justice. Apparently it was used in the first Indiana Jones movie, so you can see it there. The colors and formations are just amazing. And how they carved into the mountains is another mind boggling feat. There are still a few Bedouins that live in the caves of Petra. They are in better shape than I. I highly recommend coming here. It's there version of Ankor Wat and just as impressive if not more. Instead of pretending you are Laura Croft from Tomb Raider you can be Indiana Jones and run all over the place. If you have the energy!! We love it.

So tomorrow we head to Wadi Rum and will sleep in the desert with a Bedouin guide. Lawrence of Arabia was filmed there. Apparenly we're in the Hollywood of the middle east and we didn't even know it until we got here. You learn something new every day.

So we keep on truckin'!

The middle east

We are now safely in Madaba Jordan. We flew from Bangkok yesterday. We savored our last days in Thailand enjoying every Thai meal and beer Chang. We left Thailand on the first day of the Thai new year. It is celebrated over a 4 day period and is known as the water festival. It basically is a large countrywide water fight with water balloons, water guns,buckets of water, hoses, etc. I definately got wet a couple times but in the 92 degree Bangkok heat it felt great. There is also the street side karaoke that sprouts up all over the place. Some of the Thai singers were quite good and others were very very bad. But look whos talking, I cant hold a tune in English or Thai.

Our flight to Jordan was uneventful. We had a layover in a small place called Oman, in the country of Qatar. Qatar is this little finger of land that sticks out into the persian gulf. From the air it is quite beautiful looking. The closer to land we realized that there is nothing but sand in the entire country. They seemed like they are doing pretty well financially thought. Aparently they are the #1 exporter in the world of Natural Gas. On our takeoff from the airport we flew through a sandstorm. It sounded like people were throwing BB's against the plane. Probably not very good on the old jet engines.

Today we took a trip to Mt. Nebo. It is the final resting place for Moses. Apparently he lived on the top of Mt. Nebo because it has a view accross the Jordan plains over the dead sea and onto Jarusalem. He was able to see the entire Israelite promised land from the top of the mountain. It was very interesting seeing the remains of the various temples/ churches that were erected in Moses' honor and thinking of all the history that took place on the lands we were gazing on.

We also went down to the dead sea and floated in the incredibaly salty water. Some people rub the black mud from the bottom of the sea on their bodies. There were a few people completely covered with black tarlike mud. We decided this was a novelty we could skip.

Tomorrow we travle down the "kings highway" stopping at the various remains of centuries old churches, temples, and castles. We will then spend the next 3 days hiking around Petra.

Good Bye South East Asia...sniff, sniff

Tomorrow we leave Bangkok for Jordan. Though we are happy to experience somthing totally new, we are a bit sad to be leaving the place we've spent so much time at. Also, we're missing the biggest part of their New Years...or Sakgrom. We got to experience a little of it last night.

We had to go to Kho San Road (the major backpacker area of Bangkok) to exchange books. We read them all in the islands. There was just the beginning of the celebration. It's a water festival combined with the New Years so you walk down the street and get assaulted by people with water guns and cups and buckets of water...whether you like it or not. Most businesses are closed for the next three days, which sucks because we've got stinky laundry that needs to be done and with no way to do it by the time we leave tomorrow morning. Oh well, so is life on the road.

One thing I must say, we are leaving during the best time weather wise. It has started to get unbelievably hot and uncomfortable here. It even rained today, which we thought it was the dry season.

Gin Rummy

Hey all...it's me Heather!! Haven't heard from me for a while and I guess it's been kinda nice. Blogging is hard work, or something. You know while Chris is blogging I just get to play about on the computer and do nothing important. But on to what we're doing now.

We are currently at a fairly remote beach on the east side of Koh Tao...so no beautiful sunsets, but that's o.k. We've been doing alot of reading and teaching ourselves new card games...hence the Gin Rummy title. We've kinda gotten addicted to it and we're not even sure we're playing correctly. We picked up an abandoned card game book from the previous bungalows and have learned from there. Now I like it because it's a game I can actually win. So I usually win the rounds, meaning I score higher points, but Chris wins more hands. So what does that mean? I don't know. Does anybody. I mean by the rules I still win. Yes, I'm the winner. Whoo hooo! I"m sorry. That's not very nice. Chris is a great opponant. Now if I could just spell that word. Too bad the spell check doesn't work on this thing.

We had to get a "taxi" (a toyota 4x4 with benches in the back along the sides, so you need to watch your head on low hanging power lines and trees) to get more money, supplies and internet. Where we're staying has a very swimmable beach and a coral reef. We spent yesterday snorkeling and just being in awe of all the underwater formations. The fish were pretty cool too. Chris thinks he saw a reef shark and got a bit spooked. I'm glad I didn't see it. I'd be high tailing to the shore...which I was doing any ways. Unfortunately the rental equipment isn't all that great and we spent a good deal of our time treading water and fixed various problems with our masks and snorkels, but it's still good.

We've seen quite a bit of wild life in and around our bungalow. We have a big gecko that sings to us through the night, remindind us his name, "gecko, gecko, gecko" and a snake that lives in the water tank under our bungalow....oh and the cockroaches that somehow find it into the bathroom. We've got one currently trapped right now and haven't figured out how to dispose of it.

o.k. i've got to go now. the "taxi" is leaving. we'll write more in bangkok.

Lazy Days

Warning if you are the type of person to easily get jealous do not read the following blog. Also my keyboard that I am using really sucks and some of keys are broken.

We have been spending the last........I dont know really how many days we have been here. Time has taken on no meaning at all really. Anyway a bunch of days ago we left Bangkok and took an overnight sleeper train to the southern part of Thailand. We then took a ferry to the island of Ko Phangan. Once in Ko Phangan we took a taxi to the north of Ko Phangan and took small fishing boat to an isolated beach known as bottle beach. Only way to get there is by boat.

We stayed at bottle beach for maybe 5 days. The accommodation was very rugged but the setting was amazing. Simple bamboo bungalow right on the beach under palm trees. Each bungalow had a small front porch where you could hang your hammocks in the shade. Electricity was sporadic since it was provided by a generator. Our first night was less then pleasant since our bungalow had rats. At night they were scurrying around on the headboard and ate some of our soap. We didnt sleep so well. The next night we changed to a different bungalow and had no problems with rats after that.

One evening the staff decided to have a barbecue. It was great. Fresh seafood. Red snapper white snapper octopus prawns etc. etc. They also brought out some crazy fireworks to shoot off over the water. They started with mortar launched rockets. For anyone that was out our going away party in Sunnyvale and were witness to the great rocket display by Jason you know the type of fireworks we are talking about. But then things got strange. They brought out this 10' length of 3" PVC pipe. No joke TEN FOOT TALL MORTAR TUBE. It took 2 guys to hold it steady while another person carried out a 3' long projectile. It looked like it had a warhead on the top with a long thin tail with fins on it like a bazooka round. He lit it and dropped it into the PVC mortar and ran like hell while the 2 guys holding the tube just ducked their heads and probably prayed that the thing didnt blow up inside the pipe. Then it launched. It launched way into the sky and exploded like a surface to air missile. It was huge really really huge. They must have bought the thing at one of the markets in Cambodia. I can picture it now... on isle 3 next to the landmines and RPG's

Our days at bottle beach were very very relaxing. No Internet no markets not many tourist. Just lazy days on the beach. We eventually had to leave bottle beach. We went to Haad Yao on Ko Phangan and spend another couple days on that beach. Nothing to remarkable there just more lounging in the sun and water with more civilization.

Two days ago we took a high speed catamaran to Ko Tao. We have spent the last 2 days here once again lounging on the beach swimming eating sleeping playing cards chess reading books. Doing just about nothing really. I think our favorite thing of all is people watching on the beach.

Once again we seem to be the only American anywhere in sight. There seem to be many many Germans and British. I guess the Euro and Pound are so strong its really cheap for them to travel right now. While in bottle beach we became friendly with a German Couple and 2 girls from Switzerland. After a few days and feeling like we were comfortable enough I asked them did they like David Hasselhoff. The answer "oh yes he's great". "we love night rider and bay watch". So very very strange.

Anyway I have to go. There is going to be another picture perfect sunset in an hour or so and Heather and I need to grab a couple beers and sit on the beach and watch it go down. Just another day in paradise.

Vietnam Part 3

The Imperial City of Hue in central Vietnam was formerly the capital of Vietnam until the French colinization. The Citadel is the former capital building in the heart of Hue. Its a huge castle with a large moat surrounding it. In 1968 the NVA invaded Hue and captured the city. It took the US and South Vietnam Army 3 weeks to retake the city.

Hue is just south of the DMZ which was the official dividing line between North and South Vietnam. This is the region that saw alot of the fighting durring the war. A local told me that many water buffalow are still killed when they step on a mine or unexploded bombs. This seems to be a reocurring theme in South East Asia.

We took a day long bus tour of the DMZ and some of the surrounding battlefields. On our tour was a American Vet who flew Cobra gunship hellicopters in 1970-71. This was his first trip back to Vietnam since 1971. He brought along his original map of the DMZ area from the war. Since he was a chopper pilot he had a birds eye view of the area and was able to point out alot of the sites. He was a better tour guide then out tour guide was. He shared stories with us of his life and death experiences. It was quite interesting.

We drove accross the DMZ into North Vietnam throught the flat rice patties which still have huge craters from the 5-52 Archlight bombing missions. We visited some more NVA caves and drove back to the south and visited Firebase Alpha 1 and Alpha 2, the Rockpile, and finally Khe Sanh. The hills around the DMZ are still bare from all the Agent Orange that was dropped to help reduce the folliage that hid the NVA soilders. Plants are only now starting to regrow.

After another day or so in Hue we traveled back down to Da Nang and caught a flight to Bangkok. We have now been in Bangkok for 6 days. Basically just lounging around and shopping. Today we sent back our 6th box full of stuff home. We cant wait to get home it will be like Christmas when we open all the boxes.

Tonight we take an overnight train to the south of Thailand. We plan on spending the next 2 1/2 weeks on the southern Island of Kho Pagn Nan and Kho Tao. Then back to Bangkok for 2 or 3 nights and off to the middle east. Our time in South East Asia has been fun, but we are about ready for a change of scenery and food. We love the cuisine here, but you can only eat so much rice and noodles before you want a good old American Hamburger.

Vietnam Continued

From the Na Trang we took a 12 hour overnight bus ride to the town of Hoi An. The overnight buses in South East Asia have a top and bottom row of sleeping berths. Since the buses are designed and manufactured in Asia, they are built for Asian sized people. Heather had no problem fitting into the 5'11" berth. I obviously had and extra 4" of me that didnt fit no matter how hard I tried of what angle I layed at. You cant even curl up since the berth is too narrow and you cant bend your legs at the knees with your knees in the air since there is a pocket you legs and feet fit into. So I had to just let my legs hang out the side of the berth and into the isle. Fortunately for me I had a bottom bunk. I ended up getting an amazing 6 hours of sleep. Not bad consicering the circumstances. I think Hether didnt fare as well. She had a top bunk and they seem harder to sleep in due to the distance from the road to the bunk. Every turn of the bus and bump in the road is magnified at that height.

Hoi An is a world heritage listed city and is well known for its architecture. The city itself is quite charming and is fun to just stroll around in and look at. It is also famous for its large number of quality Tailors. Heather had 2 wool jackets custom made for her for $30 each. We spent a couple days in Hoi An and then moved up to Hue.

Uncle Ho, KFC, Etc. Etc.

So we are back in Bangkok for the time being. We apologize for not being able to post on the blog for the last couple weeks. It wasn't for lack of trying. Unfortunately it seems the Vietnamese government doesn't approve of free speech or freedom of the press. While in Vietnam we couldn't post on the blog or read blogs or do anything with our blog. It also seemed that there was a sort of choking off of the news. No CNN, no BBC etc. We were still able to read our email and check Yahoo, so it isn't quite as oppressive as other places in the world.

So I am going to try and just run through the highlights of our time in Vietnam. Overall we found it a very beautiful country full of amazing hill, mountains, and jungles. The country is obviously struggling to find a balance between their Communist philosophies and the necessity of allowing free market capitalism to exist. It seems the leaders of Vietnam have seen the dollars associated with the world market, tourism, etc. and have slowly allowed it to creep back into Vietnamese society. You still see the obvious signs of a strict Communist ideology. Some towns have loudspeakers that start up at 5:30 in the morning blaring propaganda all day. The most obvious sign though is the thousands of posters and billboards with the picture of Ho Chi Minh, the patriarch of Communist Vietnam. He looks a little like a Vietnamese version of Colonel Sanders, with his prominent white beard. And just like KFC he has great marketing. Instead of pushing fried chicken legs and biscuits with gravy its hardcore communism that uncle Ho has for sale. Just like KFC, uncle Ho's face is on everything. Even all the currency. My favorite are the propaganda posters. I don't speak any Vietnamese but from what I can tell the posters tell of Uncle Ho single handedly defeating the Americans during the Vietnam war, building orphanages, curing the blind, and even helping to stop the spread of AIDS. I should of course mention that Ho Chi Mihn died in 1969 prior to the end of the war or the existance of AIDS.

So after leaving Ho Chi Minh City or as most of the southerners still call it "Saigon" we headed up north to the small beach town of Mui Nea. It is a getaway spot for the well to do of Saigon. We stayed in a brand new guest house that had the distinction of also being the local distributor for all the beer of the area. So needless to the say the beer was plentiful and very very cheap. We decided live it up and we paid the huge sum of $12 per night for the penthouse suite with a beautiful ocean view. Of course the place was only 2 stories tall, but it was still the best room in the place.

Mui Nea is known for its huge sand dunes. Heather was feeling under the weather so I rented a motorcycle from our hotel and drove out to the red sand dunes. It was maybe 15 Km from town and less then impressive. The sand dunes had quite a few local kids trying to sell postcards, gum and other crap. I ended up striking up a conversation with a 12 year old girl who spoke English very well. She really didn't have the same sort of pushy sales tactic as the other kids and she was really sweet. After a while she offered to show me how to get to some sand dunes that were supposedly way better then the red sand dunes. We discussed a price and we were off, with her hanging on the back of the motorcycle helmet less. Being 12 years old she didn't have the best grasp of distances and told me it was like 10KM away. After driving maybe 30KM I began to get nervous. Not too far she told me. Eventually we made it and it was a very impressive place. Huge sand dunes with the wind whipping over top and blowing sand and creating wind lips like in the snow.

We hung out in Mui Nea for a couple days before heading up the coast to Nha Trang. Another beach side town but larger then Mui Nea. Nothing exciting happened here except hanging out on the beach and meeting a local Dutch man who collected vintage vespas and had them sitting out in from of his shop. We talked scooters for a while and admired his collection.

Well enough for now. I will post more about our time in Vietnam within the next few days. We are going to the movies today, so I have to go.

Round 2 of pictures

These pics include Australia, Thailand and Laos...on the first album there are some Laos tubing pics. When we put them on discs they loaded out of order. Oh well. THANK YOU MOM FOR HELPING US OUT!! I think it will take a life time to put captions on all of them. If you have any questions, just ask us...we'll be happy to answer them. Fun times! P.S. The Saigon posting below is new. Check it out.

Chris&Heather round2 disk1a

https://picasaweb.google.com/115036798208469437797/MoreAustralia

Chris&Heather round2 disk1b

https://picasaweb.google.com/115036798208469437797/AustraliaToThailand

Chris&Heather round2 disk2a

https://picasaweb.google.com/115036798208469437797/ThailandToLaos

Chris&Heather round2 disk2b

https://picasaweb.google.com/115036798208469437797/Laos

Heather's Mom Says....

This is Maggie posting for Chris and Heather. They are in Vietnam and have not been able to access blogger from there. They will be back in Thailand in about a week and will update you on all their activities then.

I've received another set of CDs with photos from them and will post them here in a few days.

Saigon

Here's what Chris tried to publish in Vietnam...It is actually Tuesday the 18th of March here but because he wrote it earlier it will show up where it belongs. My suspicion is that Vietnam's government blocks Blogger, but I could be wrong. We'll update more of our Vietnam adventures soon...above the pics. We are in Bangkok for the next few days until we head to the islands for some R&R just before we hit Amman, Jordan. Looks like the rest of our trip is pretty well planned out (we're even spending a few days in Dublin, Ireland on our way home) and we will be home a bit early, on Sat. May 25th...or whatever that Sat. is. Who wants to pick us up from the airport? :) Time is flying by. And back to the blog:



We said goodbye to Pnom Phen a few days ago and took a bus ride across the border into Vietnam. This border crossing was much less eventfull then the one into Cambodia. Saigon is a huge city, with over 9 million people and 6 million motorcycles. Crossing the street is a real challange. You just slowly walk across and the never ending stream of bikes just flows around you. It takes a bit of getting used to. Saigon is a crazy place with so many sounds and lights. It is a Communist country, but once again you could never tell by looking at it. Business is alive and well here. Its nothing like the Communism I saw in Europe.

We took a day trip out to the Chu Chi tunnels on the outskirts of Saigon. They were a network of tunnels used by the Vietcong durring the war. We were able to climb into some of the larger tunnels and see what the conditions were like for the soilders underground. It is amazing that they could live like that. I am a tall person and it was very hard for me to climb around in them. I think Heather even had a tough time. Towards the end of the tour is a shooting range where for some extra money you can shoot off your choice of weapons. They had AK-47's, M-16's, and even M-60 maching guns.

We were lucky enough to have a actual veteran with us on the tour. He wasnt an American veteran, he was a former North Vietnamese Soilder. While some of the other tourists were off shooting I sat down with the vet and started talking with him. He spoke no English so his grandaughter had to translate. It was very strange sitting there talking with him as machine guns cracked off in the background. He showed Heather and I his shrapnel scars on his legs and arms. His trigger finger on his right had was all twisted and arthritic from so much shooting. He told us about the fighting and being in the tunnels. He said coming to this place made him feel light headed and dizzy. It was obviously a tough day for him. It was strange talking to this former enemy of the United States. This sweet inocent looking man was a Charlie.

Back in Saigon later that day I took a motorcycle to the post office to mail home a package. My driver started talking to me and asked where I was from. I told him USA. He said "I love America, USA is #1" Turns out he was a South Vietnamese soilder during the war and fought with the Americans. He said that "Ho Chi Minh is not my friend, VC is very bad" and that he was so happy when the US came to help South Vietnam and bomb Hanoi. Then his tone changed and he said that "Americans had to leave, I had to stay. I had no choice. I went to prison for fighing with America, America left me"

So in the same day I got to meet both a vet from the North and the South. One of them was on the winning side, the other from the losing. But at a human level I dont think either one of them could be considered having won anything. They both have lingering emotional and physical scars. It was an interesting day.

Killing Fields

We took a bus from Shionokville to Penom Phen yesterday. It was a less eventfull bus ride then last time. Penom Phen makes Bangkok look like childs play. Bangkok has more smog and is busier, but all of Cambodia is lawless so it stands to reason that the capital city of Cambodia would be just one large out of control place. Durring our time in Cambodia we have witnesed one car accident a day. So far in Penom Phen we have seen two in 24 hours.

In Bangkok the drivers operate under some sort loose set of rules and regulations that end up falling into place creating a sort of controlled chaos. Cambodia dosent seem to have even the loosest set of traffic laws. The police seem to be in place merely to extort the citezenry and tourist out of small portions of cash. I assume they would get involved if some sort of serious crime were to take place, but Im not sure. Our guidebook even said not to worry about miscelaneous gunfire in the city. Apparently its usually just some average every day local celebrating some event with shots into the air. They also seem to think that when there is a thunderstorm that gunshots into the clouds will make the storm go away. Some well travled Australians we met said that Cambodia is a small scale India in terms of sights sounds and intensity. I dont know if that is true but it has been an overwealming experience for us so far.

So today we took a tour of both the Toul Sak prison in the center of the city and then drove out to one of the killing fields. The prison is an erie place and you can feel the horors that took place there. The mass graves of the killing field is only one of over 500 such fields in Cambodia.

The prison originally was a high school prior to the KR taking control. They changed it into a prison where nobody ever was parolled. They were interigated using the most crude and barbaric means and devices possible. The prison remains just as it was when it was liberated in 1980. The walls still have blood splatter, and the floors are perminantly stained. Each torture room still has its original bed, chains, and torture tools. The prison kept detailed photos of all its inmates and they are on display in one of the buildings. You can see the fear in their eyes.

Once a prisoner had been tortured and confessed to whatever it was the KR wanted them to say the prisoners were then transported to the killing fields on the outside of town. The first few years they were executed with bullets, but after a while in order to save amunition other more hands-on means of execution were used mainly invloving hand tools.

There is a large glass stupa 5 stories tall that is piled with the skulls of the victims that were found here. Not all the human remains have been exhumed so as you walk around the field there are pieces of human bone sticking out of the ground. But for some reason even more shocking to us then the bones was all the clothing that is hanging out of the ground. You can see parts of sandals and shirts and pants, some of it blood stained.

Overall not a day full of happy emotions but we needed to see it. So much senseless cruelty. The real shame is that so far none of the KR leaders have been convicted. The trials are just starting and most of the leaders have already died of old age. Even the ring leader Pol Pot lived out his days in relative safety of Thailand. It would be as if the world let Hittler, Georbles, and Himmler live in Switzerland for the rest of their lives.

So I wish I had a positive note to end this post on, but unfortunately i dont. We will stay one more full day in the city and travel by bus to Saigon in Vietnam. Our next post should be from there.

Angkor Wat

Hello all,

After our tough time at the boarder we stayed a few days in the Town of Siem Reap which was our base camp for visting the temple of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples as well. Our first day in town we ended up just sleeping in and taking it easy. We needed some rest after our 27 hours of being on the road and sleeping on a night train. In the evening of day 1 we took a trip out to the tallest temple in the region and watched the sunset over the temples and countryside. Cambodia is much flatter then Laos or Thailand, the weather has also been getting hotter. I thinks its a combonation of us moving southwards and we are also getting towards the hot season of the region.

On day 2 we hired a driver/ tourguide for the day and split the cost with an Austrian guy we met at the boarder. So $15 divided by 3 is $5 each for a full day driver and tour guide. Not bad. He picked us up at 5:30 AM and we went to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. As with so many other things we have seen and experienced on this trip no words can summarize how amazingly beautiful the temple is. The sheer size, the vast amounts of labor it took, the engineering, and the attention to detail is overwealming. It shows what humans are capable of if they take their love for their religeon and channel it into good and constructive endevours. On day 2 we ended up seeing Angkor Wat, Bayon, and the overgrown temple (forgot its name) that was the setting for the movie Tomb Raider. This was our favorite temple of the day since it mixes the beauty of man and nature. It was a very full day and we all went home exhausted.

Day 3 we arranged to be picked up at 9:00. This gave us a chance to sleep in. Our Austrian friend decided that 1 day of temples was enough for him, so Heather and I set off with our driver. We ended up seeing more of the remote and less visited temples. Some of them also grown over by the forrest. I should also note that all the temples including Angkor Wat have been weathered over time by the elements, and have also been vandalized by the Khmer Rouge. They removed all the heads off the Buhda statues and carvings, and also used some temples for target practice. All cambodian monks were executed by the KR as well. All this in the name of a perfect communist society.

Mixed with the splendor and beauty of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, we also saw the deep sorrow and despair that still thrives in Cambodia. You can get accustomed to the men and women who have missing legs due to the mines. Seeing the children who are often the victoms is much harder to face. The bamboo constructed orphanages that need to support themselves by selling the childrens artwork, the homeless and the needy is very sureal when juxtaposed with the large Japanese tour groups, and western backpackers. Seeing it day to day becomes very hard. You would have to entirely detatch yourself from all human emotion to not be moved by it all. Heather and I finally broke on our last day near the temples. In our freshly washed western clothes and our personal driver we drove past the local childrens hospital ( the only one in Northern Cambodia) out front waited maybe 100 babies and their nervous mothers waiting to be seen by a doctor. They sometimes wait for 2 days to get in. There is a epedemic of Dengue Fever that is hitting the kids especially hard. The KR executed all the doctors and educated Cambodians in their attempt at a totally eaqual pesant nation. So the hospital totally relies on Foriegn Doctors. Our driver told me that the childern come from very far away, many days journey to be seen. Heather and I finally broke down.

We knew that the journey for us would not always be easy. We have experienced the entire range of human emotion in the last couple months. So far Cambodia has been a very heavy experience for us. We needed a break. Yesterday we took the express bus south and we are now in Shionokville. Its a beach side town with all the luxaries that we need, but at Cambodian prices. We will probably rest here for a week before heading up to Phom Phen for a few, then off to Vietnam.

To end this post on a more positive note I will share our experience of the express bus misadventure. After having been on it for maybe 10 minutes the fan belt broke and the engine overheated. We had to pull over and call for a replacement fan belt to be brought out. After maybe 20 minutes a motor bike pulls up with a new fan belt. Well it was actully only new to us, it was a used fan belt with a large split in it. With no choice but to put it on the driver installed it. He first took his lighter our and tried to melt the split belt back together. He fired the old bus up and within maybe 20 secconds the engine started throwing pieces of rubber around and the belt broke. So after some more phone calls and staring at the engine a man showed up with a piece of rope or cord. It was a thin strong cord like they use on parachutes. One of the locals standing next to me told me that this was not and uncommon repair but usually only for small engines not a large bus. He also told me that this bus was Chineese made and they are always totally crappy. He tries to ride on only Japanese made buses. So they ended up tieing this cord around the pulleys and after sinching it really tight and burning the ends so it wouldnt fray they fired up the engine. It seemed to work OK but it due to the large knot it was off ballance and made alot of noise. The driver rightfully decided this was not a good fix.

So we waited another 20 minutes and a bus pulled up and out jumped the driver with a whole stack of belts. He dropped them on the ground and took off. Fortunately the correct belt was amoungst the tangle. After a few minutes we were off. And luckly for us it made it the whole way down.

Expanding Bladders and Shrinking Stomachs

So we have made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Yeah!!!! Only after 27 hours of straight travel and a, let's say, challenging border crossing. (By the way, Lonely Planet still sucks.)

We started of in Vientiane, Laos and borded the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge bus. A bus that takes about 1 1/2 hours and takes you through and across both borders. Once across the border back in Thailand we got on an overnight train. To save a few dollars we booked the fan sleeper car instead of the aircon...it really hasn't been that hot to need aircon. Well, go figure, when you pay for aircon you also get a nicer car with wider sleeping compartments. Since Chris doesn't really fit in the top compartment, I get to sleep up there. And I think those tracks haven't been maintained since they were built. We rocked and rolled the whold night. Luckily they have these seatbelt saftey straps that keep you in locked in, otherwise I would have landed straight...flop...on the floor. Let's just say I maybe slept 3 hours. So at 5:30 in the a.m. they get everyone up by yelling "orange juice, orange juice". I think they should sing a lovely good morning song like my mom sang to me. Geez!!

So off the train and on to food!! We hadn't eaten a good meal for at least 14 hours. Let the stomach shrinking begin. From there we took a taxi to the bus station and borded a bus to the Cambodian border. That bus was the nicest we've been on so far. A/C, decent leg room, no blaring music or dvd's, no funny smells, but for 5 hours they did not stop for food or the bathroom....and there was not bathroom on board. Begin, expanding bladders. Luckily I had packed some yogurt, nut, and fruit, so we survived. Once let off at the bus station, we ate...oh and I picked up a better fitting pair of army pants for $5. I needed a replacement.

Then a tuk-tuk to the Thai-Cambodian border. Things looked different immediately. People trying to sell us visas, umbrellas, and passports. We're pretty happy with what we've got, so we moved on. Check out was easy on the Thai side...then before you cross officially to Poipet, Cambodia...in no man's land. There are various casinos everywhere and people trying to "help" you. We made it to the visa window. There's a big sign that reads "Tourist Visa $20" and our book (the lovely Lonely Planet) confirmed it. Lonely Planet also said they'd take 1000 Baht...about $33 in thai money, but it's cheaper to use US....um, no. The visa folks refused to take US and wanted the Baht. What can you do? You're at their border, so we paid the Baht.

Next step, Immigration. That took almost 2 hours. Hot, sweaty and well, can you tell it was a fun line? I think this was the point that my fatigue started setting in and my mood began to change...and we still had a 3-5 hour ride to Siem Reap. In line we started talking with other Australian travelers about getting a share taxi to Siem Reap, because that's what the guide book says to do. It also says to ignore anyone trying to help you, but there is a free shuttle from the border to the bus station/ taxi stand. Well, we got on the "free shuttle" to find a bus or taxi...our Australian friends went with the bus. So our shuttle dropped us off at a tourist office where they wanted us to change money to Riel (the country opperates on US $$ and the ATM's even dispense US) and to go on their overcrowded bus or one of thier taxis. Ugghhh!! Then one guy that worked there told us to go around the corner and he'd arange a taxi for us for cheaper. By then we had picked up an Austrian traveler. So he starts telling us they overcharge for the bus and taxis there and after they get just a little out of town the taxi's and buses stop and demand more money from people. Whether to believe him or not? AAgghhh, again. Chris worked his international business skills magic, getting personal with the people, findig out about their families..etc.. and negotiated a fair price for the 3 of us, a relative of the drivers was coming with us and we were off. I was happy because it was getting dark and the whole border crossing had already taken about 4 hours. We never did find the real bus stop and taxi stand that book said was so easy to find. And mind you there was no toilet use or meals...really working on expanding that bladder and shrinking that stomach!! Welcome to Cambodia!!

The relative that came with us spoke English and worked for the Tourist Police, which really doesn't do anything as far as we can tell. He was part of this whole swindle. The road between Poipet and Siem Reap can be compared to the roads in Costa Rica, mostly unpaved, huge holes, many detours and incredibly dusty. At times it was like driving in Central Valley fog. Top that off with the dark, other cars, motorbikes, bicycles driving without lights...oh and our driving talking on the cellphone (something he really shouldn't do--almost took out 2 stopped motorbikes). It appears they are working on paving the road. It does have some patches of pavement and some patches of areas that are being graded...but it's a huge project.

We made one stop along the way where Chris made friends with a 12 year old local girl named Lisa selling postcards to help pay for her school, $5 a month. She wished us luck on our travels and we were off again. We dropped off our Tourist Police guy at his home just outside of Siem Reap and then we were in town. It's crazy how you go from dusty dirty roads to all of a sudden this row of huge luxury hotels. Our driver didn't speak english and didn't know his way around Siem Reap, so he pulled over and called a tuk-tuk. The tuk-tuk came got us and had a very nice, happy, and positive helper. They helped us find accomdations in our price range and wished us well.

Yeah, a soft bed. I couldn't be happier...oh a toilet too!!! We headed out for food but got stopped on the way out because they owner of our guest house was having a party. They instantly handed us glasses and started filling it with Johnny Walker and soda water..and wouldn't take no for an answer. We explained we needed food so they handed us some fresh spring rolls. Yum, whiskey on an empty stomach. After a dance or two, four spring rolls and many polite refusals on refills, we escaped and got some food.

With that last bit of kindess and hospitality I can really say....

Welcome to Cambodia.

A farewell to Laos

We are currently in Viantienne, the capital of Laos. We are moving on this afternoon to Bangkok via a bus across the boarder, then a overnight train. Once in Bangkok we travel via bus into Cambodia.

Since we last checked in with everyone we finished our time in Vang Vieng and participated in some of the watersports that they are know well for. We spent a wonderful day kayaking down the river enjoying the beautiful scenery and watching the day to day lives of the local fishermen that live along the banks. Heather and I had our own guide for the day, we even went by his house and got to meet his son. They live 6 people, representing 3 generations of family in a small bamboo framed house with a thatched roof. Very modest accomodations, and he makes a good living as a guide compared to the average local. Other local guides we met take the money they earn and pay for their brothers or sisters education. We had a wonderful day on the water and it was quite a work out as well. It left our arms and back muscles very sore for a couple days.

We also spent a day floating down the river in tubes. It's concidered a right of passage on the South East Asia backpacker circuit to tube down the Vang Vieng. If you havent floated in Laos and gotten the T-shirt, then you are not cool. So we decided to float, even thougth it was overcast and a little cool out. The tubing is very similar to the tubing in Chico. Their is a never ending string of tubes floating down the river and of course the locals being entrepenurial have set up many bars along the side of the river for the backpackers to stop at. The bars have all the usual attractions music, DJ's, and huge, huge, huge rope swings, zip lines, diving platforms, slides, etc.

The first bar is only 100 meters downstream from the starting point. Our Canadian friends started in the mid-morning, floated the 100 meters, got out at the first bar and stayed their till it was dark and had to take a taxi back into town. As you could imagine they were in rough shape but the Canadians seem to be a heartier breed then us when it comes to beer consumption.

We on the other hand made it to the 3rd or 4th bar downstread. Had a few Beer Lao (the only beer in Laos, but at $1 per 22 OZ why not have 3 or 4 for breakfast lunch and dinner) and with some new found Australian and English friends (notice the theme, we have met almost no Americans anywhere so far) we took to the rope swing. Heather went first and lived, this seemed to inspire everyone else to give it a try. It is hard to describe how totally insanely large this rope swing was. It wasnt built off a tree, no that would be too safe and small for this country. It was built off a huge platform made up of bamboo poles, old pallets, and some left over metal scraps for rigidity. After you climb up the 15-20 steps up to the top of the tower and look down you begin to wonder if you have just made a huge mistake. But of course a little liquid courage helps take the edge off. I can now attest to how hard water can be from 20-30 feet up. The impact mabe the bottom of my feet sore and shot water up my nose. It took me an hour or so to get it all out. It also tore Heathers swimsuit top and bottom off. So much fun.

After a couple hours at the bar we decided it would be a good idea to start floating back towards town. After about an hour of floating and seeing the sun setting we realized we might be in a bit of trouble. So with our new found friends from Australia we were able to get a local with a boat to fish us out and take us downstream into town. We gladly paid the $3 he wanted since it was cold and getting dark.

We left Vang Vieng and traveled here to Vientiene. It's the capital city and has to be the smallest capital I have ever been to. Not much to see or do here. We took the oportunity to mail another large package home full of merchandise we have purchased along the way. We also sent another CD home with pictures, so keep your eyes peeled on this website for that. Really Vientiene is stop over for travelers headed north or south.

So now our time in Laos is coming to an end. It has been a great experience and I hope someday to come back. No mix of words can adequately describe how great the people of this country are. It's as if they have something in life that we are missing out on, even though we, as westerners have so many material posessions, an abundance of food, and comparative wealth. It's this intangable spirit and glow within the populace that has made our experience here amazing.

Gun Laws and Carpet Bombing

Snappy headline eh. So I am a little confused by the gun laws in this country. The police and military seem to be totally un-armed. But as you travel throught the countryside you see a few (4-5 a day) pesant looking farmers with dirty worn clothing and an AK-47 thrown over their solder and a vest full of ammo. Not sure what that is all about, but it would make most Texans jealous. Communism seems to have its benefits, semi-legalized marajuana, mushrooms, and opium, cheap massages, and the right to carry fully automatic weapons throughout the countyside with no restrictions.

So we took a 2 day side trip to the town of Ponsavan. It is located in the middle of the plane of jars region. The plane of jars is the Stonehenge of Asia. There are these huge jars, some of which are taller then me that are carved out of solid stone. They had to be transported here from far away since no stone of that size or type is available in the region. They date the jars to over 3000 years ago and the reason for them is still unknown. Everyone seems to have their theory, but they will probably never know.

The region is also know as having been the battleground for the Loation Civil war from 1960-1972. The area changed hands practically every year. The Russians backed one side and the USA backed the other. The scars of war are still evident everywhere. The US and Russians flew bombing missions and would carpet bomb the region back and forth. Everywhere you look for miles there are huge craters everywhere. So many bombs were droped that there still is quite a danger from unexploded ordenance. They are working full time at cleaning up the debris and predict it will be safe in 5 more years. While touring the plane of jars you have to stay on the marked path for fear of left over munitions.

The locals have become quite resoucefull in their usage of the left over debris of war. Here are some examples.

Helicoper door: Wall of a house

Tailgate from a shot down cargo plane: Bridge

Unexploded and defused 500LB bomb: cut in half and use as a planter, a bench, fenceposts, stilts for a house, decoration, etc.

Aluminum fusalage from shot down aircraft: melt down and make spoons

Helicoper prop: make into a bench

Tank turret: Chicken Coop

Army Helmet: use as a bucket

Tank wheels: wheels for a cart

Everywhere you look the signs of war are evident, except in the eyes, minds, and hearts of the people. This is a young country due to the mass casualties of the war and they seem eager to put it all behind them and enter the 21st century with no hard feelings. Laos is a county I would encourage everyone to visit. Its not necessarlly a vacation spot, more of an adventure. But the local people more then make up for any hardships the traveler may have to endure.

We move again tomorrow

So we've been in Vieng Vien for two days now and are loving it here. Yesterday we found a bar overlookingk the river with little bungalows and hammocks. We grabbed a beer, watched the sunset, and the bats come out to eat. In fact, we had one that kept flying through our bunglow. A little creepy but also super cool. Do you think they make good pets. A bat might make a vast improvement over our cat Lolita, but Piper might just think it's a squirell and go insane trying to chase it. Hmm, not. It was the ultimate moment of relaxation. Then we wandered back into town to find some dinner. Chris's ear led him to a pizza place playing reggae and who was there, our friends the Canadians. We meet again. We ate, hung out and then went back to the bar where they had 2 bon fires and music. It was a big party full of wasted, crazy kids. It was fun for a night but not something we'd be up for everynight. It just so weird being in another country but not feeling like you're in another country. Why? Why not? Fun times though and we were with fun people.

The weather was pretty crappy today, so we didn't go tubing or kayaking but will on our way back through. It's definately a party town. Within the first few minutes of being here we saw people stumbling, puking and peeing out in public...oh and a girl crying. Probably too many shots of lao-lao (rice whiskey), buckets, or too many "happy" shakes. Anything goes in this communist country. Most of the time we forget that it's communist. Go figure...except for the fact that all this partying must stop at midnight. That's when the curfew starts. So last night we shut the place down...whooohooo. And paid the price today. Chris managed to get up the energy to rent a bike and go on a 30 km bike ride....on a bike that was made for someone a foot shorter than him, but he made it work. He rode out to some caves and as he was riding along the road different villagers, kids, women, whoever, were waving and saying, "Saiwadee (hello)" to the oversized white guy with an afro on a bike. He loved it. Then he got off and walked to the caves. The first cave was filled with several budahs and budah's footprint. The second cave was led by a guide. I should let him tell you about it, since he experienced it, but he's burnt out from the trip and is currently laying in bed. Just resting his eyes...so he says.

So we've decided the Laos Lonely Planet book sucks. The prices are too low, directions are wrong and it uses terms such as "suposedly" and "it's rumored". Um, do your research and be sure. It has led us astray a few times and it says it was just published 5 months ago. I know things have been changing quickly here but it really feels like they are years behind. How Chris found the caves with their directions is a miracle, but he seems to work miracles when he needs...very resourceful guy that Chris. And I'm ending that rant on a positive note.

So tomorrow we move on to Ponsavaun to see the Plain of Jars and one of the most heavily bombed areas of Laos. It'll be a return trip for me but for Chris it'll be all new. I think he'll just think it's the bees knees. I'm not looking forward to the 7-8 hour public bus ride. On the public buses here you get your own security...some guy with an AK-47. Also, potty breaks are just the bus pulling over and you pee off the side of the road...no bushes or anything. It does usually have one lunch break at a rode side stand with a pay toilet which is a wet concrete slab squat toilet. I can't wait!!! Hey it's only 7 hours, not 13, but I forsee that in our near future. Oh, and the public bus pulls over for everyone and anyone on the side of the road. Not to metion the 2-3 motor bikes strapped to the roof and they get them up there with no ramp. That's a fun sight to see. What we've learned here, when it comes to transportation is, anything goes.

Until next time....H

Crazieness

Alot has happened since we last posted. We are currently in Luang Praban, Laos. The internet service here is incredibly slow. I have to remember we are in the middle of Laos, so any internet is just great. So much has happened recently I dont have enought time or space here to explain it all. The various stories are best left told over a few beers when we get home. I will however jot down some of the highlights in chronological order to the best of my recolection.

Fleeing Chaing Mai, Thailand with some Canadians we met to cross the Laotian border due to their Visa expiring in 12 hours.

Two part crowded bus trip to the boarder crossing.

Checking out of Thailand and crossing the Mekong river into Laos at the most sparse and unsecure boarder crossing imaginable.

Staying overnight in a remote yet fun Laotian town. Partying the night away with Canadians and Australians. The locals are so nice and fun.

Day 1 of a 2 day slow boat trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The Canadians somehow purchased a used cooler from a local and filled it with beer and ice for the boat trip. We turned what otherwise would have been hours of torture into the Mekong Booze Cruise.

Day 1 boat #1 overfilled at the docks with people. Designed to hold 60-70 they filled it with over 100. After a near riot and capsizing the captain decided to load up a 2nd boat. So over the side we went into the adjacent boat tied up next to us. Of course all our bags were already packed into boat #1 and couldnt be retrieved. We didnt worry too much as long as the beer made it over we were OK.

Day 1 boat #2. So much fun, I have vague recolections of poker games, climbing on the roof of the boat, and no less then 40 beers consumed by us. The locals on the boat were quite ammused by us. I think they are used to seeing the traveling white man in extreme discomfort on this boat ride. Not us...It was a blast. Then somewhere in the middle of the jungle the engine decided to blow. I guess that happens when you take an old Toyota truck engine and transmission strap it down in the bottom of a boat and connnect a propeller to it.

Day 1 boat #3. We would have been in big trouble if an empty boat hadn't of come by when it did. I doubt any of the folks living in the bamboo shacks along the Mekong had the appropriate parts to fix our engine. So after just a few minutes of sitting idle we hopped onto boat #3. Start the party all over again.

We pulled into Pax Bang and spent the night. We were at the halfway point in our journey. This town was desinged to fleece the tourist. Absolute rip off. Still only $10 a night for accomodation, but it should have been more like $5 or so.

Day 2 boat #4. For some reason we are trasfered to the 4th boat of our trip. Maybe boat #3 sank in the middle of the night..who knows. Uneventful trip, everyone recovering from the day before. Undescribeable beauty along the Mekong. Absolutely unreal.

Luang Prabang. 4 days of absolute fun. By far our favorite town so far on our trip. Remnants of French architecture, beautiful Mekong river, awesome waterfall adventure and hike, cheap night market full of handmade local textiles.

Tomorrow we move 6 hours to the south to Vang Vien. Known for its beautiful streams and rivers we will be doing some tubing and kayaking. Cant wait.

Catch you on the flip side.

Night Trains and Chiang Mai

So our night train really wast that bad. At least for me anyway. I seem to be able to sleep just about anywhere. My sleeping birth was designed for someone of average Thai size which about 18" shorter then me. I guess really everything here is built for people 18" shorter then me. My head hits the roof when I have to stand inside the public train and inside the water taxi. It kinda gross really since my hair is basically scrubbing things that havent been cleaned since Nixon was president. Anyway I digress. The night train was fine, it might have been the multiple Beer Chaings I had, but I slept fine. It was a bit of a rought trip for Heather, but we lived.

Yesterday we visited the temple on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai and went out to Hmong tribe. The Hmong (pronounced Mong) are one of the many indigenous tribes that live in Southeast Asia. Just like indigenous people all over the world they have been segregated and treated as lesser citizens for years. It is only with the recent growth of tourism that has helped them tear away from their prior form of income which was the illegal growth and manufacure of opium. But this newfound tourism comes a price. It seems strange wandering through a village that has lived the same way for centuries staring at them as though we were at a zoo. And of course they all want to sell you something. But it was overall a good experience. The Hmong actualy have quite a large community in California stretching from Fresno to Chico. Durring the Vietnam war the CIA and Special Forces trained the Hmong as guirilla fighters to combat the North Vietnamese Army and Kahmir Rouge. Of course when the US withdred the Hmong had to stay and suffer the consequences of their assistance to us. So the US allowed any that could get out a chance at assylum in sunny California. I have no I idea why Fresno, it seems alot different then the climate here in the mountains of Northers Thailand.

So today was our Thai cooking class. Im not sure if we will be able to remember all that we learned today, But I hope so. It lasted all day and we of course ate everything we made. It was alot of food and soooooo good. We still struggle with controlling how spicy things get. My mouth deffinately burned after a few of the dishes.

Tomorrow we take a bus to the norther bordern town of Chiang Khong. We spend the night there then take a boat across the Mekong River. Then upstream into Laos. After that who knows. No plans. We havent even bought our plane tickets to Egypt yet. We totally take it day by day. So far I love Thailand.