Sarah & Sean's Asian Invasion

Two Days on a Vietnamese Junk

2008-12-03T20:26:00.000+09:00

We left Ha Noi after a couple of days for two days in Ha Long Bay. We started by boarding a mini bus for a four hour ride to the bay during which, we had the requisite stop at the craft shop. Once we got there we were shown to our 'Vietnamese Junk'. We booked this trip in Ha Noi so we were really nervous that we were going to get stuck with a really terrible boat but when we got on, everything looked ok.

Most of the rooms were on the first level, the restaurant was on the second level and there was a sundeck on top where you could lounge and look at all of the lovely karst formations. We lucked out and got one of the 'honeymoon' suites on the second floor which featured a large window overlooking the bay- it was lovely!

One of the first stops the boat made was at a floating fish market. The people there had caught fish out of the bay and we were offered the opportunity to buy any extra seafood that we wanted to go with our lunch. We weren't willing to eat anything that we had met personally so we passed. Some of the other passengers bought fish though and I must say that the execution was pretty brutal!

Next we stopped at a cave. This was kind of cool but very touristy. I thought that the ceiling was some kind of crazy rock formation but it just turned out to be covered in cement! Very disappointing.

We then parked the boat in one of the little coves for the night. Sean jumped into the seawater from the top of the boat along with some British guys. No way was I jumping in there- it was freezing!

We spent the evening on the boat eating, drinking and enjoying the scenery. It was really some of the most breathtaking scenery that I have ever seen. It was also really funny because all day we had these 'floating 7-11s' coming around trying to sell us snacks, batteries, etc. It was pretty amazing because we were pretty far away from any towns and these people would show up with a row boat full of stuff.

The next day we went to the only island in the bay that is inhabited. We hiked up to one of the peaks on the island for a pretty amazing view of the bay. By the time we got to the bottom I was exhausted-- fortunately, there was someone waiting at the bottom of the trail, in the middle of the forest, with a cooler full of ice cream to sell us. Of course, we bought two!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach and walking around the little town. We boarded the junk early the next morning and were in Ha Noi again by nightfall.

Introduction to Ha Noi

2007-11-27T21:02:00.000+09:00

We ended up flying directly from Nha Trang to Ha Noi because the entire central coast of Vietnam was flooded thanks to a couple of back to back typhoons. It was really too bad because we'd heard that that area of the country is really beautiful... and also has some great shopping! Too bad...

We ran into a couple from Australia/Taiwan in Da Lat and have kind of been traveling with them ever since. Not on purpose exactly, we just happen to be traveling the same route that we are. It's kind of nice to have a couple of travel buddies for awhile and we all ended up on the same flight to Ha Noi. We all checked into the same hotel in Ha Noi and after walking around for awhile, we went to see the water puppet show.

This show was really cool- nothing lame like we expected. The stage was a small pond and the puppet masters all worked from behind a curtain. I guess they must have worn wetsuits because the curtained off area was still about four feet underwater. They controlled the puppets with long sticks so that that danced and moved along the water's surface. There were people, fish, water buffalo, dogs and all kinds of other puppets all interacting with one another. It was all accompanied with traditional music and song- although we couldn't understand anything that they were saying.

The next day we wanted to go visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum but he was in Moscow for a cleaning so we went to the ethnography museum instead. We were able to see the crafts produced by and the types of housing used by all the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. There are lots of different types of tribes so we ended up spending pretty much the entire day there.

That evening, we went shopping and I filled up the rest of the space that we available in our extra suitcase :) Sean is just loving this!

Dalat & Nhe Trang

2007-11-23T12:26:00.000+09:00

We we rounded off our tour of Southern 'Nam with the two villages of Nhe Trang and Dalat.

Dalat is a mountain village that was built by the French as a sort of vacation spot for the French occupationalist soldiers. It definitely has a french appeal with little chateaus and french architectural buildings everywhere. We decided to book a city tour here and covered the sites in one day. We went to a world famous meditation temple overlooking a very picturesque valley. From there we went to the old King's mountain cottage, which again looked more like some kind a pad straight out of the 60s. It was built in the 1930s, and our guide reminded us that when it was built the Vietnamese people were starving in the street. Also interesting is that the royal family left in 1946 and none of them have return, choosing instead to live in Paris.

After lunch we went to a hill tribe village where we met the chief. He spoke to us in incomprehensible English, and shared his stash of village hooch. Sarah wouldn't drink it because we were sharing the same straw, but it tasted pretty good, like a sweet after dinner wine.

From there we took the day bus to Nhe Trang, which took 6 hours to cover 200 kilometers. Also on this trip and in Dalat we met an Australian guy and his Taiwanese girlfriend--Cameron and Sherry. Cameron had been living in Taiwan for 2 1/2 years and was pretty fluent in Chinese, both reading and speaking, a fact that Sarah and I found fascinating--it's a pretty difficult language for westerners, the tones make it tricky.

The highlight of Nhe Trang was the mud bath and spa. We spent the day first soaking in some kind of mineral mud then bathing in natural spring water--it was very relaxing.

The next day we went on a four island cruise which was completely forgettable except when the ship guys sang us all songs. They sang a song for each nationality that was present on the boat. They didn't know an American song so they decided on one from the Beatles. They said "England and USA are same same". Also, on the one beach we went to we saw this extremely drunk English guy have a fight with a beach chair--the chair won. We caught up with the guy later and it looked like he had been canned across the back, he was also unable to walk straight, but the Vietnamese guides seemed to be taking care of him.

We flew from Nhe Trang to Hanoi due to typhoons and typhoon activity on the central coast. Cameron and Sherry were on our plane which was pretty cool and we ended up traveling with them for about two weeks altogether. We also found out that while in Nhe Trang, Cameron had been robbed. Someone took about USD$500 from out of his bag in his hotel room. He filed a police report, but the police seemed more interested in pinning the whole thing on Sherry and this made her very upset! They were very happy to get on the plane to Ha Noi.

The Mekong Delta

2007-11-21T15:33:00.000+09:00

We couldn't visit Vietnam without taking a trip down the Mekong so we headed South from Saigon. We booked a tour and ended up seeing several people from our Cu Chi tunnels tour which was kind of fun. It took about two hours to drive the 75km from Saigon to the delta- fantastic roads! It was ok though because our guide was really entertaining. He told us all kinds of stories including one that was a bit disturbing...

When he was about 8 year old, the stream that ran in front of his house turned red. He walked upstream to investigate and found a dead American soldier laying in the water which was red with blood. He reached inside the soldier's pocket and took his lighter which had been engraved with hateful phrases about Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. He still has the lighter today.

Once we arrived at the Mekong, we boarded a small boat which took across the wide part of the river and into some of the canals that snake off into the delta. From there we made two stops. The first was at a village that makes coconut candy. They showed us how they crack open the coconuts and then grind up the meat. They then boiled it down into a thick paste. This is pounded and cooled into little strips of chewy candy. It was delicious and of course we bought some!

Next we rode bicycles down little paths through the jungle, passing through a couple of villages along the way. We ended in a village that raised honey bees. We had a delicious green tea with honey. They also had a huge boa constrictor for some reason so of course Sean wrapped him around his shoulders.

The next stop was lunch, which was supposed to be included but instead they handed us a bunch of menus with really high prices. Some people ordered entrees but others (us included) kept asking about the free lunch. Turns out they were keeping that hidden until after we ordered! Scams, scams everywhere! One guy had ordered a snake which he said was pretty good. When they brought it out they mentioned that it was 170 grams. Why would they mention that? Well, when it came time to pay they said the already high price on the menu was for 150 grams so he had to pay more!

After lunch we got into these little canoes and paddled downstream where a feast of fruit was laid out. We ate all we could while listening to traditional Vietnamese music.

We boarded our boat again and headed back to the river bank. After another two hours in the van, we were back in the hectic center of Saigon. Fantastic day- and all for $8 each!

Cu Chi Tunnels

2007-11-20T14:52:00.000+09:00

Our second day in Saigon we spent on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. These were a series of 250 miles of under ground tunnels built by the vietcong during the war. Absolutely amazing, they had kitchens, wells, traps, air holes, all in these hand dug tunnels. They were also so small. They did this on purpose, of course, because they are much smaller than us. They had a sample hidden entrance set us and I couldn't fit inside, not past my shoulders. A Swiss guy tried it and got in, but the park ranger started yelling at him so he got out. Seems a poisonous snake got into the tunnel the day before and they weren't sure if he had come out yet.

Before the tour they showed us a film about the tunnels and the war in general. They showed the villagers working in the rice fields during the day, then planting mines and traps for the Americans during the course of their field work, "just doing his part for independence." Showed women with AK-47s fighting along side the men. We would start bombing and they would run and hide in the tunnels, setting traps that they made for our patrols. I don't know... it was really hard to stomach being the bad guys.

Near the end they had a wider entrance leading down into the tunnels for tourists. Is was so claustrophobic in there. I had to duck walk with my chest down at my knees and my back still scraped the ceiling, and we only went 20 yards, those guys lived down there for weeks at a time.

At the end of the tour they had a shooting range where you could shoot an AK-47 or M-16. We decided to pass, but the shooting in the background during the tour did add to the experience. When someone was really going at it our guide would hold up his hands and yell, "Don't shoot, I'm not an American." Our guide was also really lame because he spent the night before drinking until 4 am. When we would reach an area he would tell us to just listen to the guy in front of us. We finally yelled at him so he went back and covered a few spots that we had missed and then actually started doing his job.

Day in Saigon

2007-11-19T14:25:00.000+09:00

We began our time in Vietnam with a visit to the war museum where we learned just how much the US sucked while we had troops in Vietnam. The museum went remarkably easy on the US invaders though you could still tell how much pain we caused the people here. Nearly all of the photos were from US and other non-Vietnamese journalists as were the articles. They did a great job of remaining pretty impartial.

Then we went to the section that detailed the results of using Agent Orange and other types of chemical warfare. It was disturbing and I truly cannot believe that our country did that. But we did.

Seriously, the whole time we were thinking, "what in the hell were we doing here?" It was really heart wrenching, pictures of hospitals and schools that were bombed, children and infants, dead, scarred, disfigured from Napalm, agent orange, other types of bombs, like a nail bomb that explodes thousands of nails everywhere, which were dropped in schools...what the hell???

From there we went to Independence Palace. This was the presidential palace during the war; also it was where the American Generals fought the war. The original was bombed by the French in the 1950s and this one was built in 1962. It hasn't been touched since the fall of Saigon in 1975. It is straight out of the 60s. I kept waiting for Austin Powers to jump out from behind a couch, "goovy baby, yeah!" They even had a rumpus room!

At the end of the tour we watched a film about the palace and the war. One of the guys being interviewed was a Vietcong spy during the war and actually infiltrated the south Vietnamese president's inner circle and was a ranking advisor. He was found out in 1969 and sent to life in prison. He said that after he was sentenced the president told him, that he was sad to see him go and he still trusted the spy more that the Americans.

The video also kept referring to the 'American Imperialist Invaders'. It was really interesting to hear about the war from the Vietnamese perspective and see some of their footage. The people here really love Ho Chi Minh (the pro-communism president during the war) and even renamed Saigon after him once the war was over.

From Cambodia to Vietnam

2007-11-17T13:40:00.000+09:00

We spent one very depressing day in Phnom Penh on our way from Siem Reap to Vietnam. We visited the killing fields and the prison used by the Khmer Rouge to torture and kill anyone who opposed them. It was very much like visiting the concentration camps. Terrible but we are glad that we went and learned a little more about what went on here during the Khmer Rouge regime.

The next morning we got on a bus headed for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (formerly Saigon). It takes forever to go even a short distance here because the roads are in such poor condition. Also, the drivers here are insane so they're always cutting each other off and swerving in and out of traffic- I think this slows things down more than speeds them up. Anyway, we spent the next 7-8 hours on the bus. We did get to see some beautiful scenery though.

The countryside looked pretty much the same after crossing the boarder into Vietnam except that most people that we saw really were wearing conical hats! Just like you see in the movies!

We got off of the bus and quickly settled into a hotel. Then we set off in search of pho- the national dish. It's a brothy noodle soup that you can get with beef, chicken or just veggies. They also give you a plate of sprouts, lime, onion, etc. that you can add to your soup along with a variety of sauces. The Vietnamese eat this all day long and we can see why- it's delicious! We've already eaten it at least a dozen times.

Tomorrow, we're up for another depressing day as we're visiting the war museum...

The Mother of All Wats

2007-11-10T13:36:00.000+09:00

Well we made the pilgrimage and saw it. The largest temple complex in the world. What's that Notre Dame Cathedral, Vatican City, you say? They got nothing on Angkor Wat. In Khmer it means Great Temple and boy is it. We spent three days seeing it and probably only saw about 40% of the temples...for some reason Sarah didn't want to see the ones with mines around them...go figure.

We saw the main one which is Angkor Wat, the actual temple built and added onto between 800 and 1200 AD. The whole temple complex is staggering in its size as well as its intricately carved stone works.

Next was Angkor Thom, which means Great City (yeah not creative with the names). This was where the Capital city, King's palace and plazas and that sort of things were. We then went to three of the larger temples in the area.

Some interesting sights within the temples:

In Angkor Thom there is a temple called Bayon and all the surrounding towers are covered with carved faces of the King all with this little smile like he knows something you don't know. The King was Jayavarman VII, and he was the guy who built the most during this period.

In the same area there is also a plaza dedicated to a King who they think suffered from Leprosy.

The French began restoring one of the largest of the temples in the city in the 60s, which involved taking it completely apart so that they could fix some of the broken pieces, etc. Then the civil war broke out and the Khmer Rouge reigned. Another one of the brilliant moves on the Khmer Rouge's part, was to destroy the plans for the temple- so now no one really knows how to put this building back together. They're figuring out the world's largest jigsaw puzzle then by looking at the one wall that hadn't been taken apart. By looking at that wall and studying other surrounding buildings, they've been able to work out how to put this thing back together again...for the most part.

There are also several areas that have been overtaken by the surrounding jungle. The trees have taken root on the walls of the temples and are pretty impressive themselves.

While we were in Siem Reap, Sarah got pretty sick. The hotel we were staying in everyone was really nice and helpful. They made us never ending tea and took great care of us. Of course, we were eating all of our meals in their restaurant, which I'm sure they didn't mid at all.

Also, we hired a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to all the temples for each day and the guy only charged us $10 a day (his price) and took us all over, and he was really nice as well. They Cambodian people were fantastic!

Happy Pizza, Anyone?

2007-11-08T13:27:00.000+09:00

Well, Sean almost got drugged in Cambodia.

We were staying in the 'tourist ghetto' in Phnom Penh so there were lots of hotels, restaurants and touts around. There were all these guys asking us if we wanted to buy pot, opium, heroin and just about anything else you could think of. Of course, we said no and went into a restaurant.

So, Sean orders a pizza and the waiter asks if he wants the happy pizza. We spent awhile trying to figure out what that was and eventually Sean just decides that whatever it is, he'll try it. Well, just about then, I remembered that another place that we had been in offered happy shakes. What are the chances that two places are going to serve something called happy? That's when I figured out that the happy part of the pizza wasn't going to be oregano! Sean quickly changed his order. Good thing too because we later heard about some tourists having unpleasant experiences with drugs in Cambodia.

The French Man in Cambodia

2007-11-01T22:26:00.000+09:00

We flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as soon as we got our bags this French guy came up to us. He told us that he was American and was really happy to hook up with other Americans even though he had this very strong French accent. Whatever. He was really paranoid about being in Cambodia and wanted to share a cab with us to the touristy part of the city. We didn't really care so we said ok. He said that he had done some research on the best part of the city to stay in and we hadn't so we went where he wanted to go. On the way there, he mentioned something about doing searches for the red light district and prostitutes to find his hotel... we thought he was joking. He wasn't.

We went to the hotel that he suggested first. We walked into the 'lobby' which was really a bar full of half clothed girls. Fortunately, there was only one room so we figured that we'd let him have it and leave. But noooo! He didn't want to split up. We looked at several other hotel/brothels before insisting that we go over to the part of town that we wanted to go to in the first place.

We ended up on the lake and there were plenty of little guesthouses and restaurants all around- plenty to choose from. Jean Michel (yup, really his name) was all freaked out because some of the streets were a little dark. I pointed out that there were lots of families with their young children hanging out and eating and they all looked very relaxed. I figured that if it was safe enough for the locals to have their kids there, then it was fine. He said he didn't want families, he wanted women! We told him he could go back to the other side of town! What a perv!

Sarah is being nice about this guy. He was sickening. The girls in these brothels looked about 16 years old, and he was hitting on them and asking if they were going to be the lucky ones spending the night with him.

We spent the next afternoon checking out the city. We visited the Royal Palace and the National Museum. They both housed some pretty impressive artifacts but the real treasure here is the people. Everyone is amazingly nice and helpful. Cambodia went through some very tragic and bloody times in the late 1970's at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. A lot of people were killed and tortured but they've really managed to overcome it. This is one of the friendliest countries that we've ever been in despite also being one of the poorest. We are really enjoying ourselves here and would recommend it to any of you.

Gay Thailand

2007-10-25T20:48:00.000+09:00

We decided to splurge on a hotel in Phuket. We felt like we needed a vacation from our vacation after three weeks in India so we started looking for a place. We ended up booking a room at CC Bloom's in Karon which is right next to Phuket. It's absolutely beautiful and we love it!

What we didn't realize when we booked is that it's a hotel that caters primarily to the gay community! We really should have realized this after looking at their website but for some reason it just didn't click.

It actually turned out to be the best place for us! After the leers in India, we're very happy to be in a place where I could walk ad naked if I wanted to and no one would care. Not only that but it's everything that India is not- clean, quiet and we can eat all the fruit and dairy we want without fear of explosive diarrhea!

Escape from India

2007-10-24T14:34:00.000+09:00

We are standing on the Train platform in Gaya India at 1:00 in the morning, our train was supposed to leave at 11:15. It is dark, there are about 50 Indian men standing around us staring. The entire place smells like urine and feces, because in an Indian train station you just let your bladder go right there on the tracks.

Our guidebook and the people we have talked to said that the train takes 8 hours to get from Gaya to Calcutta and our plane leaves at noon. We had a buffer of about 5 hours from the time the train was supposed to arrive in Calcutta, 7am, and the time our plane left, noon. That time has evaporated.

The train arrives at 2 am, and leaves at 2:15, three hours late. Our book also states that it takes between 1 and 2 hours to cross Calcutta to get to the airport. We have resigned ourselves that we are going to miss our flight. Which brings another problem, we have already paid for a connecting flight in Bangkok to Phuket at 9pm. So we think we are going to have to pay for another Bangkok flight, and hope that we still make our next flight.

After a sleepless night on the train we pull into the Calcutta station at exactly 10:30 am, 3 hours and 15 minutes late. We run through the station and find a taxi driver on the other side and ask him how much to the airport, he states 350 rupees, about 3 times the rate, I state, "Fine, but hurry we are late for our flight." He quickly runs us to his car, and takes off as fast as his old, clunky Ambassador taxi can take us. We fly across town, almost running over three people, two cows, a herd of goats, and a near head on collision with a bus. We arrive at the airport at 11:20. I hand the driver a 500 rupee note and ask for change, as a true Indian, he states, holding the note, "tip for fast driving" with a big grin. Whatever!

We dash through the airport, the airline manager quickly prints out our ticket. They waive us through to the front of the line for Immigration, and the customs Inspector shows us the escalator to our departure gate, with out even glancing at our bags. After a half-assed security check we are standing at our gate at 11:35, just before pre-boarding, wondering how in the hell we made it...

Good Bye India! Hello Thailand!

Holy Shit!...and Cities

2007-10-22T17:37:00.000+09:00

For our last stops in India we went to two very different holy cities. The first was Varanassi, the holy city of the Ganges. Hindus are expected to make a pilgrimage here at least once in their lives as to them the river is a living god. The other city was Bodhgaya. The MOST important pilgrimage site for Buddhists. Here is where the prince Siddhartha found enlightenment under the bodhi tree and became the Buddha (or the enlightened one).

Varanassi was very beautiful, but absolutely disgusting at the same time. As soon as you leave the train you are assaulted by taxi wallahs, and rickshaw drivers to go with them to a "good hotel" "very cheap". The setting of the town along the Ganges lined with 80 ghats, or spiritual temples along the river. However, under the surface are two big problems, pollution and the never ending Indian torture of listening to touts hound you every step with:

Boat

Rickshaw

Massage

Haircut

One Ruppee

Postcard

Smoke, Smoke, Hash

Take a look

Nice Price for you

Want to see temple

Just to name a few...

We did go on a very nice boat ride down the Ganges at sunrise. We did not see any of the body burning ghats, or any dead people in the water. We did see plenty of Indians and a few westerners swimming in the toxic cesspool...I mean water of the river.

The highlight was meeting a fantastic Spanish couple, Milena and Danny. We really enjoyed their company, and we were able to keep a conversation in Spanish, so I guess we aren't as rusty as we thought.

Bodhgaya is very nice and much smaller city. It is very interesting because this is the homeland of Buddha and it is crawling with Buddhists from other countries. In fact, if you want to see what Buddhism looks like in other countries, you can do a tour of all the temples here, pretty cool. We stayed in the monastery of Butan. It was wonderfully quiet, devoid of touts and very simple. We just had two plain beds in our minimalistic room but it was still lovely. Especially after the hoopla of Varanassi.

Was I In A Porno?

2007-10-18T14:18:00.000+09:00

I think that I must have been in a porno and every guy in India has seen it. I don't remember ever being a porn star though...

It's amazing how many guys will stare at me (and every other Western girl around). This isn't the curious stare of women and children or even the hard stare of the Chinese, this is a lustful, mouth half open kind of stare. It's disgusting! They form large groups to stare which isn't to say that they won't stare when they're alone- they do that too. We had a group of about 35 of them staring at us in the train station the other day. It seems to start from about the age of 12 and gets worse from there.

At least I haven't been groped. We met a Spanish girl who was traveling alone and she had already been groped three times! She slapped each of them and screamed at them but they still didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with grabbing her. According to our driver, Anil, the majority of Indian men believe that Western women are either prostitutes or will sleep with anyone just for the heck of it. And that's how they treat us.

It's given me a bit of an inferiority complex because I really can't raise my eyes from the ground. An Indian woman will not hold the gaze of a man unless she is a prostitute- that's how the men tell the difference. Well, of course Western women don't automatically look away and often hold their gaze to mean "stop looking at me!". This is another reason that Western women are thought of as prostitutes. Anyway, I've missed quite a few interesting things now because I have to keep looking down (I guess I would have to anyway though since the streets are covered in cow shit). Sean keeps asking me if I noticed something and I never do because I was looking down!

The other odd thing is how affectionate the men are with one another. Sean and I think that this is because they can't show any affection towards women in public (or anywhere else for that matter). There are no girlfriends- a woman is either your sister or your wife. They literally hang all over one another, hold hands, hang on to one another's butts when on motorcycles, etc. Everything that a guy would normally do with his girlfriend, they do with one another. Except kiss- they don't do that. Very different from the Western world.

As terrible as the Indian men are the Indian women are totally the opposite. Every single one that we've met has been very helpful, nice and immaculately clean (something they should really teach the men how to do). It amazes me that they can keep their beautiful saris clean in all of the dust and grime but they do. Plus their hair and makeup are always perfect and they nearly all wear beautiful jewelry. It's a pretty stark contrast.

The Roadways of India

2007-10-17T16:32:00.000+09:00

So, we just spent the last 11 days driving around India and we've noticed a few things along the way...

The Driving

I think that Indians might be some of the most insane drivers that I've ever come across. Now, this could be skewed because we normally travel be train or bus rather than car so maybe I haven't taken proper notice before. Here's basically how it works: You can drive on any part of the road that you can fit in. That could be the shoulder, your lane, the lane of oncoming traffic or right down the center line. It really doesn't matter as long as you LAY on your horn for at least a full 30 seconds whenever someone else is in the road. I say someone else rather than another car because this could be anything- anything.

There is also a hierarchy here, on the bottom are pedestrians, they just need to beware. Next bycicles and rickshaws, who just try and weave thru traffic. Next motorcycles and auto-rickshaws, who weave in and out of traffic. Then cars, drivers drive with one hand on the horn and the other up their nose. Finally, the trucks and buses, just drive all over the rode and stop for one thing and one thing only...cows, who rule the road.

The Motorcycles

There are three types of groups that you might find on motorcycles here:

Just the man- this isn't really notable except that they all seem to have a death wish so are constantly swerving in from of cars with out signaling or anything.

The man and woman- this is kind of odd because the men always wear helmets and the women never do. Our driver, Anil says that this is because the men are required by law to wear helmets and the women are not. They tried to make the women wear helmets too, but they protested because it would mess up their hair and makeup so now only the men wear helmets. Weird huh?

The entire family- this one is hilarious if somewhat frightening. There can be up to 6 people on a motorcycle, kids included. I'm still not quite sure how they all fit... but they manage to pull it off somehow.

The Roadblocks

These are sponsored by the local mafia and supported by the local police. We would come to one every once in a while and they would say that it was some kind of tourist fee. Our driver would have to pay because the mafia gives half of their profits to the local police so you won't get anywhere by refusing. Ah, India!

The Wrecks

Despite the horrific driving, we saw relatively few wrecks- only about 20 or so. We would see all kinds of things wrecked on the side of the road- cars, trucks, tractors, cars, you name it! We did pass by one really bad one though. A lorry (large truck) carrying something that smelled like paint thinner, had overturned on the side of the road and fluids were running everywhere. It totally scorched my nose and we had to drive right by it, through the highly flammable liquids! Good thing none of us smoked. We stopped to tell the local police about it (the driver had run away long ago) any they said that they had already set up a barricade. Apparently, the police guarding the spill were worried about it blowing up too so they just took off!

Traffic Crossings

I must admit, the traffic crossings here are hilarious! I guess not traffic crossings really, just whatever wanders into the road. Cows, carts, camels, monkeys, motorcycles, grain trucks, trucks full of cow shit, you name it!

Rajasthan Safari

2007-10-14T18:44:00.000+09:00

As Sarah said in the last post we decided to book an 11 day tour thru India's northwest state of Rajasthan. The state is really diverse with the northern part being plains, west part desert, and southern part jungle. We started our tour in the capital city of Jaipur, also called the Pink City because all the buildings in the old city are painted pink, the Indian color for welcoming. As all city's in this state, it has a Palace, a fort, and some mosques. One cool thing was we got to ride an Elephant up to fort. However, I do not think these elephants were that well taken care of--they had some sores and rub marks.

After Jaipur, we drove to Jodhpur. This is the blue city, and it has a palace and city fort...but this fort was really cool, and the entrance ticket came with a very good audio guide. One thing about all the cities in Rajasthan was that they didn't really put up a fight...here is the story of every city: they are fierce people living in a fierce land, they fought the invading Mohguls (Muslims) in the 16th century but eventually made an agreement with them. The when the British came in the 18th century, they didn't fight just signed a "peace promise".

After Jodhpur, our driver insisted that we change our plans and go to a small little town called Ranakpur. It was a little relaxing town. Our driver says that he wants to someday build a hotel in this area. It is very green with a pretty lake and lots of monkeys hanging around. It also has a really cool temple, with crazy intricate designs carved all over it. It has something like 1,444 columns and no two of them is carved alike.

After Ranakpur we went to the romantic city of Udaipur. Voted to be one of the most romantic cities in India. This city has a palace in the center of the lake, which was actually used in the James Bond movie Octopussy. We ended our stay at a very nice restaurant, having a candle-lite dinner overlooking the palace and the lake.

From Udaipur we went to the dusty little town of Pushkar. This town also has a lake in the middle but it is said to be holy. The god Brama is said to have charmed his second wife there, dropping a lotus flower to earth, which became the lake. Brama's first wife Pavarti became angry and declared that Pushkar would be the only place where he would be worshipped and there is a beautiful temple there dedicated to him. Other than temples and holy places this town is also full of touts selling everything to scammers trying to get you to book camel safari tours. They did have a cheap Bazaar where Sarah bought some stuff. After Pushkar we went back to Jaipur where Sarah and I bought another hand made carpet for ourselves as well as one for Jeff and Debbie.

Last stop on our tour was Agra and the Taj Mahal. Agra is very dirty and the people are not so nice. This is such a stark contrast because the Taj Mahal is so beautiful, but the city it is in is soooo ugly. The Taj was absolutely one of the highlights--it was so much better than any photograph. The symmetry is so detailed that if you look at a block of marble on one side the block is the same size on the other three...I think it may be the closest thing to perfection that I have ever seen. In contrast, after the Taj, we went to the Agra Fort and it was a disaster. Half the fort was closed, and there were these roving gangs of teenage boys aggressively hounding and leering at Sarah for a picture of her. At one point a group of boys surrounded us, all yelling at us for a photo, I seriously thought we were going to be assaulted. I put Sarah behind me and started yelling at them, "Back the fuck off! No fucking photo!" Of course no security personnel came to our rescue and I thought I was going to have to bust out the old Army moves. Thankfully I think I scared them with my hulking frame : ) Too bad I've lost 25 lbs or I could have threatened to sit on them ;)

Tonight we say goodbye to Anil, our trusty driver and board the night bus to Varanasi. Hopefully we have better luck on our way to Calcutta.

A Week in Kashmir

2007-10-06T22:08:00.000+09:00

We booked a trip to Kashmir at the last minute without really realizing the controversy that has been going on there. Turns out that it's been a hotbed of political unrest for the past 50 years or so. We found this out later that evening and began to question our decision to visit the region.

But we went. The airport was a full on military zone and we had to go through several security checks and fill out several forms to gain entry. Well Sean had to fill out several forms, I was just his +1. Turns out that women don't count for much there so I didn't have to fill out anything and none of the men would talk to me or really acknowledge my presence while Sean was around. If I was alone they would talk to me only grudgingly.

We went from the airport to a beautiful houseboat where we were to stay. The guy who ran the boat immediately tried to gouge us on tour prices (treks, boat rides, etc) so we said that we'd think about it. Turns out that it didn't matter though because we both immediately got sick and couldn't leave the boat. We think it was probably that nasty street in Delhi. Anyway, I got better and after a course of antibiotics, Sean got better too. It was a nice place to be sick too, clean, beautiful and we had an endless supply of tea. Unfortunately, we made a terrible discovery after all that flushing... it was going straight into the lake!

Our final day in Kashmir, we were well enough to ride around the lake on a boat and buy a Kashmir rug. The next morning we boarded a plane back to Delhi.

One thing--we met a guy from New Zealand who was also staying on our houseboat. He went on a four day three night trek in the Himalayas. On the last night one of his group's pony-horses was killed and eaten by a Snow Leopard!!!

Welcome to India

2007-10-03T21:50:00.000+09:00

So we made it into India. We touched down in Calcutta for about an hour before securing a flight to Delhi. That was the quickest flight that I've ever purchased! We walked over to the domestic terminal (they're separate) and went around trying to figure out which airline was leaving in the next couple of hours. We found one that was leaving in about 30 minutes so we said ok and hauled ass through the airport. Of course, in typical India style, the girl at the airline counter ripped me off for about 400 rupees ($10). Anyway, we made it to the flight about 20 minutes after it was to have taken off... it didn't actually leave for another 30 minutes or so though so we were ok.

Once we got to Delhi we caught a cab (which tried to drop us off at his preferred hotel) and walked over to the backpacker area of town- Main Bazaar. Turns out that this is the armpit of Delhi. Disgusting! There were a ton of people shoving for space in the street along with quite a few cows which meant that you had to be especially careful where you stepped. The sights, sounds and smells were total overload.

We were quickly rounded up by a friendly tout who took us to his hotel, all the while lying about the prices. When we said we would stay, he doubled the price! We left. We ended up in one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed in...

That evening, we ran across a tour operator who actually seemed pretty decent. We decided to take his tour around Delhi to try him out and go from there. Our driver and the car were both fantastic! We had a good time checking out the city and decided to book the next leg of our trip with him. When we went back to book Western India, he somehow talked us into booking a tour to Kashmir...

The Lamest Scam Ever

2007-09-30T22:02:00.000+09:00

In Bangkok one of the scams you run into is when a tuk-tuk driver (a motorcycle taxi), picks you up for a cheap fare but takes you to a jewelry or tailor shop on the way "just to look" because the shop gives him a gas coupon. The shop then uses high pressure techniques to get you to buy.

We were only in Bangkok a few days, waiting for a flight to Calcutta, so we wanted to see some sights and do some shopping. On our last day we decided to see the National Palace. We find what we think is the entry way, but a few policemen were standing inside and told us to go around. One guy runs out and stops us. He tells us that it is Sunday and the Palace is open in the afternoon and it was only 11 am. He also tells us that he can get us a Tuk-Tuk for very cheap to show us a few of the temples. One is a large reclining gold Buddha that is only open on Sundays, and the other is on the largest hill in Bangkok and has a great view of the city. We agree and he waves down a Tuk Tuk and talks to the guy in Thai and tells us that the fee will be 40 Baht, which is like $1.25. We decided we'd do it because even if this was a scam, $1.25 is pretty cheap and they were sights that we wanted to see anyway.

After the first sight the driver asks us to go into a jewlery shop along the way, just for 5 min. We go into the shop and they have some nice stuff, like a sapphire neclace with diamond studs for $150. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to look at. The driver then takes us to the temple overlooking the city and after we are finished our driver has disappeared...and we haven't even payed him. We looked around for him for a little while but couldn't find him anywhere. We take a taxi back to the palace and it cost us 40 baht anyway...so we don't understand what exactly happened? This must have been some sort of scam between the guy at the palace and the driver, but why? Are they that hard up for gas coupons? We were too tired to see the palace, but we will be back anyway after India.

What's a Wat?...You Monkey

2007-09-27T21:34:00.000+09:00

Our second stop in Northern Thailand is a place called Ayutthaya (don't worry if you can't pronounce it, neither can we). The main attraction here are some 500-600 year old Wats. A Wat is a Southeast Asia Buddhist Temple. Generally it has a large steeple with what look like tires surrounding it. There are about 27 of these things around Ayutthaya, which are in very good condition. Sarah and I spent a very hot afternoon on a couple of bikes cruising to several Wats. We even saw one where a Buddha's head had been separated from its body and the roots from a tree had over grown everything but the head, which they seemed to cradle very mysteriously...just chance or is it the spirit of the Buddha?

For our second day in Ayutthaya, we decided to take a day trip to Lopburi. The main attraction here are a band of mischievous monkeys who hang out by another of these Wats in the middle of the downtown area. They were absolutely hi-larious. It is pretty funny when you walk down into the middle of just seemingly ordinary town and then a monkey comes angling toward you; turn the corner and suddenly there are like 1,000 monkeys; climbing into cars, over buildings, just making a general nuisance out of themselves--right there in the middle of town, downtown, two blocks from the train station; we even saw a monkey climbing into the back of a truck while stopped at a red light. I also bought a pack of sunflower seeds that they sell in the temple, which I fed to them, a baby monkey even started swinging on the leg of my shorts to try and get a few more seeds. We saw several other tourists trying to hide their food from the monkeys only to have the little buggers crawl all over them--on monkey even punched this German guy in the face!

Sean & the Lady Boys

2007-09-25T16:09:00.000+09:00

After the trek we were really looking forward to a nice massage. We opted for the Thai massage and we weren't disappointed, although it was very different from the kinds of massages that we're familiar with. They seriously climb right on you and stretch you out! It looks kinds strange but feels really good. They also do some of the more traditional things that we associate with massage. All for 150 Bhat an hour or about $4.50!

Last night Sean and the guys from the trek decided that they wanted to go see a Thai boxing fight. None of the girls wanted to go...

The Thai boxing matches were really cool. There were 9 fights on the card and the main event was a Norwegian guy fighting the local champ and the Norwegian guy won! He even posed for picture with us. Right after we took this picture the guy literally collapsed from exhaustion.

we went shopping instead! We all shared a tuk tuk over to the area where the match was to take place and were greeted by several Thai girls in short skirts and low cut tops. The girls were all a little put off by this until we realized that they were actually all men! The famous 'lady boys' of Thailand. The guys all stood around looking scared of the lady boys for awhile before relaxing and heading into the fight.

OK we weren't actually scared...it's just strange because you are told that you are going to a boxing match and you are greeted by men dressed up like women...we kept asking them "Fighting, right" "we want to see thai boxing" but everything was cool. They were really nice and even sat us by a table in front of their bar/dressing area which was well...interesting. The picture here was taken after we gave a donation for one of the "girls" to have her "operation".

Treking in Thailand

2007-09-23T15:35:00.000+09:00

Well, we've totally gone off of the planned itinerary and ended up in Thailand! We were planning on being in Nepal or India around now but we couldn't get in from China. The India/China boarder is closed to travelers so the flights were super expensive...but the flights into Thailand were pretty cheap. So, here we are in Chiang Mai!

We are loving Thailand! The people here are really friendly and the landscape and food are fantastic. Our first day in Chiang Mai we checked out a couple of wats, rode in tuk tuks and looked at a couple of tours. We ended up booking a trek in the mountains to visit a hill tribe.

The trek ended up being really cool. Our group was pretty big but everyone was really nice. We were the only Americans- everyone else was European. We started the trek by cramming into a truck with our new friends for an hour or so and driving out to the trail head. Our trek was gorgeous and we were able to see a beautiful waterfall, amazing views and hike through rice paddies. Good thing we got those Japanese Encephalitis shots too as we ended up hiking through the dreaded combination of pigs, standing water and rice fields. Guess that was money well spent!

We spent the night at the hill tribe village and our guide managed to make us a really nice meal in a little hut with no electricity! We spent the evening around the fire in the middle of nowhere. One of the villagers joined us and although he didn't speak any English, he was proficient in magic tricks which he used to entertain everyone in exchange for beer.

We woke up early the next morning and hiked for another hour or so before coming to a gorgeous waterfall. It was one of the largest I've ever been in and you could even step behind the water so that you were in a cave of sorts. We could have easily spent all day there.

Our next stop was on a river where we 'rafted' on bamboo rafts. Our raft ended up breaking apart and Sean ended up in the river! We ended the day with a visit to an elephant camp where we were able to feed and ride on the elephants. Sean even got to ride on the elephant's head like a mahmout (elephant trainer)!

SouthWest China & A Bowl of Pig's Knuckles

2007-09-21T12:41:00.000+09:00

We booked a plane ticket from Chengdu to Lijiang. We decided that a 1 hour plane ride beat a 22 hour train/bus journey. Lijiang is a beautiful canaled city, with picturesque cobble-stoned streets. It is also at the base of the Himalayas, called the "foothills", they are only around 15,000 to 16,000 feet tall. It also houses a large Tibetan population, so we felt it would give us a good "feel" for Tibet. However, the one thing we wanted to do there, Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world, was closed due to the rain. It had been raining for the past three weeks straight and someone had just died in the gorge due to a land slide, so it was closed. Despite the set back we did see some spectacular things, like the Black Dragon pool, and just walking thru the beautiful streets. Plus we did get to see a drunk Chinese guy fall into the canal when we were coming home from eating!

From Lijiang we wanted to get plane tickets to India, however, we ran into a snag. The borders are closed between China and India--they just don't like each other, so it is impossible to fly directly. We would either had to fly to Hong Kong, 800 miles in the opposite direction, then to Calcutta, or fly to Bangkok, 500 miles south, then fly to Calcutta. We ended up taking an all day bus ride thru some amazing views in the mountains to get to Kunming, a larger city, and Hub in hopes of getting a flight out from there... but the picture there was the same. In the end, we decided to fly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, then work our way to Bangkok and catch a flight there to either Delhi or Calcutta--what a freaking mess.

OK so we make it to Kunming around dinner time and we are starving, we haven't eaten anything all day except some potato chips. We check into our hotel, which takes about three hours because of the language problem and then we head out to get something to eat. We are on the main thoroughfare in town, so we think we'll just walk up the street and stop at the first restaurant we see. Two miles and two hours later, still nothing--finally we see a hotel with a restaurant! We dash in and order the first thing on the menu that looks good-- a pork dish with some vegetables. It comes to our table and I swear I see a pig hoof in there or knuckle or whatever you call the foot of a pig. They are just large hunks of fat with toes, tendons, joints, bones, and maybe a little sliver of meat on each part. We quickly pay and leave the restaurant before we gag. Just when we think we are going to bed hungry I spot them, small at first, down the street, a couple blocks farther-- The Golden Arches!!!! I never thought I would be so happy to see a McDonald's in my life.

Lazy Days & A Big Buddha

2007-09-15T20:40:00.000+09:00

We took the train to Chengdu a couple of days ago and it was SO much better than the bus. It was actually pretty comfortable and we passed through some amazing scenery. The only downside was all of the snoring! I had an old man next to me snoring his head off, Sean above doing the same and two other guys in our bunk area contributing to the orchestra! Fortunately, I had a pair of earplugs (thanks dad!) which worked great.

We checked into a lovely hostel and settled in for a few days. That evening we went out to try "hotpot" a regional dish. We ended up going into some restaurant that was full of Chinese people- we figured that if it was so crowded it MUST be good. So we sat down and tried to order. We didn't speak any Chinese, she spoke very little English- it was a bit of a mess. We told her to decide everything for us which ended up being a pretty good move. It was delicious! They had a big tank of live fish swimming around and she chose our fish for us and then brought out our big bowl of bothy fish soup. The only down side was the big fish head that kept popping out of our broth to glare at us every once in awhile.

The next morning we got up early and went to go visit the giant panda research center/reserve. We were the first ones in the park and got there just in time for their feeding. The big ones were super cute but mostly just lazed around and ate bamboo. The young ones (1-2 years) were hilarious! They were roughhousing with each other, falling out of the trees and pushing each other off of their play scape! We were afraid that they would get hurt at first but they took it all in stride. One even ran into a pole at full speed! He just shook his head and went off to push someone else out of a tree!

We found a Tex-Mex restaurant listed in our guide and just couldn't resist going there for lunch. The inside was actually really great- felt like home. The food on the other hand... Hopefully, we won't have to break out the Imodium after this.

Today, we went to go see the giant Buddha. It's crazy tall (230 feet) and carved into the face of a cliff. This monk, hundreds of years ago decided to carve out the Buddha to pacify the river because people kept drowning in it. Amazingly, it worked and the river has been much calmer ever since. Of course, this also could have been because they threw tons of rock into the river after carving out the Buddha, but who are we to question?

We were planning on entering Tibet from here but it looks like we're going to have to change our plans. Thanks to a demonstration to free Tibet on Mt. Everest by a few students, it's become really difficult to get in (I was going to post a photo here, but all images related to Tibet protests have been blocked by the government). We were looking at a 10 day wait plus about 6 permits which were going to cost quite a lot. We've decided to go further Southwest in China where we should still be able to get a pretty good taste of Tibetan culture.

Terra-Cotta Warriors

2007-09-11T17:50:00.000+09:00

I have been waiting to see these guys since we first started planning our trip. They didn't disappoint. First a little history lesson for those of you who don't know what I am talking about.

Way back in 300 bc, China was divided into 7 warring states and this guy Qin (pronounced Chin) was put on the throne of his empire when he was 13. For 20 years he fought and conquered the other states and unified China for the first time. Right after being named Emporer Qin worked for the next 20 years on public works projects, like roads and aqueducts, but he also started building his Tomb. The area took another 30 years to complete, and he was put in 2 years after his death, and all the artisans, and workers who saw the final product were buried alive so that they could not betray its secrets. The actual tomb has never been excavated and is now just a giant (125 foot high) mound. His actual tomb is said to be encased with gold, jade and silver, but is surrounded by a river of mercury. Therefore if you opened it the mercury would poison and kill everything in the area.

Now the Terra-Cotta warriors. In 1976, a farmer was digging a well about 1 KM east of Qin's tomb and he uncovered a life sized warrior made out of Terra-cotta, or pottery. He gave it to the local museum and thousands of Archaeologists came to the area and started excavating. They have uncovered three rooms so far. An officers, or command area of about 1,200 warriors, a sacrificial area of about 70, and a vanguard force area of about 6,000. Two schools of thought here, one is that the warriors are to protect Qin in the afterlife from the people he had killed, the other is that he thought that this way he could lead his army in death as he did in life--the guy was a total megalomaniac. All the warriors are carved in meticoulious detail, every chink of armor, every shoe, even down to their faces--no two faces or soldiers heights are exactly the same. They say that they are representations of Qin's actal army.

Now as for the tour--our guides name was Lucky and she was a drill Sergeant. "You have 4-minutes rest, then I tell story!" "You wait 15 minutes more, then toilet break!" "Everyone go to toilet now!" Then she look at you with these huge eyes, very tensely. She even told us about a famous sculpture of one of China's emperors, in a chariot behind 6 "exquisitely" hand carved horses, but "two of the horses are not in China, they are in AMERICA!" then she glared at Sarah and I for like a full minute. Everyone else in the tour were Europeans, and they (just jokingly) started giving us a hard time. Finally I said that we didn't have them at our house.

On the way back from visiting the warriors, Lucky told us that we would be taking a tour of a silk factory. Well, we really didn't want to have a bunch of people try to sell us silk for 30 minutes so Sean started asking the other people on the tour with us if they wanted to go. Everyone said no. So, we nominated a spokesperson, the Canadian guy behind us, to broach the subject with Lucky. She totally didn't understand why we wouldn't want to go! After about 10 minutes of everyone saying that they didn't want to go, she finally told us that if they brought tourists to the factory, they would get a coupon for free gas. We could identify with the free gas and thus the coup was quashed!

On the way back Lucky told us that we had a forty minute drive back to the hostel and so in that time "EVERYONE" (full eye-glare) will sing a song. Nobody wanted to sing. She first told the Canadians that they had to sing and they argued for a really long time, then finally they sang their national anthem O'Canada. Everyone else did the same, the germans, the dutch and the swedes...again we refused...we really got a glare, but Lucky decided to let us go without singing. I believe this was so that she could sing two or three chinese opera songs...oh Lucky.

One last thing--I am not sure if any of you now this, but I am a Spaniard. According to the Chinese, all Americans have either light hair or light eyes--so, since I have dark hair and dark eyes I must be from Spain. I have had three vendors, in the street markets mind you, come up to me and speak Spanish. Very weird!

The Road to Xi'an

2007-09-09T15:59:00.000+09:00

We got on a sleeper bus from Beijing to Xi'an on Thursday and it was literally a sleeper bus! The entire bus was full of beds- 32 of them. It was one of the funniest things that we'd seen! I got a bottom bunk and Sean a top. Our "pillows" were these metal bumps that the person behind you could slide their feet under. It was pretty comfortable but not nearly long enough for either of us and Sean's shoulders were totally crunched together.

About an hour out of Beijing, our bus broke down. We should have expected it I guess. We all piled out of the bus and the girls headed to the bushes to pee while the guys stood around and looked at the engine. One of the passengers dove right in and emerged about an hour later covered in grease- but the bus started right up!

Our next stop was for 'dinner'. We walked into a trucker restaurant where everyone stared at us the whole time. For dinner, we had our choice of duck heads or an entire fish, scales, head and all. We went back out to the bus and went to sleep.

We both slept for the majority of the night which was pretty good considering the amount of snoring, smoking and LOUD farting that was going on! What got us though, was the horn. The bus driver would lay on his horn for a full minute before passing anyone- I guess that was because everyone drove in the center of the road and he needed to tell them to move over. He had like, three different types of horn that he would use, they were all loud. We gave up at about 6am and got up.

We stopped a couple of hours later for a bathroom break. I wouldn't have gone if I had known what I was about to find but I didn't. It looked a lot like the image to the right except that there were no dividing walls. There were a bunch of women all squatting together and, you guessed it, watching me! Terrible!

We finally rolled into Xi'an, about 18 hours after leaving Beijing (this was to have been a 12 hour bus ride). We were both very happy to check into our hostel. It has great food, lovely courtyards and we're VERY happy to be off of the bus.

Another Brick in the Wall

2007-09-08T16:17:00.000+09:00

It has been really hard to post lately...we can't log into our account, and it sometimes boots us out for no reason. Word on the street is that the Chinese government is blocking all blogs and chat rooms, or at least trying to, and you know Sarah and I...without any chinese language ability, we really have our finger on the pulse of the country : ).

Well we did it...we climbed the Wall. We saw the monstrosity in Badaling, which is the more touristy section, but it was still really cool. Neither one of use wanted to try and climb over broken sections, and this part has had the most extensive remodeling. Sarah was even asked by a chinese guy if she could pose for a picture with him and his father...that was pretty funny.

The wall itself is really hard to describe unless you've been there. It is just that, a huge wall/fort. It was about 60 feet high and 30 to 40 feet thick with watch towers and defensive positions all over it. The area is a little mountainous, and it snakes off thru the hill just like any post card. It was so gorgeous, really breathtaking.

Next to the wall they have a erected a huge Beijing Olympics 2008 sign. They are really pumped about the upcoming games. I hope it goes ok for them, but I am not sure if they have the transportation down. Should be interesting anyway. I just envision taxis lined thru the streets, but they can't really go anywhere because there all these chinese merchants trying to sell t-shirts, hats, and bottles of water.

After the wall we stopped in this small cafe to sit outside in the shade. I ordered a beer and Sarah ordered a coke. Both were served warm and we were given some dirty glasses to pour them into. "I would like a warm beer served in a dirty glass.....perfect!" Ahhh, China.

Forbidden City

2007-09-07T15:37:00.000+09:00

Today in Beijing it is cool sunny, and clear..the polution is bad, you can see a rather healthy smog on the city, but it is just like Mexico City on a bad day. I had a sinus headache at the beginning of today, but it went away by mid morning and I haven't had any breathing problems.

So this is a city in the middle of Beijing where the Ming and Qing emporers held court. It is a 100,00 sq meters collassus. We thought that we would be done in about half a day...we spent 7 hours there and had to skip a few spots. We were able to see most of it, but had to skip the far eastern edge. The place is divided up into separate courts and mini halls and palaces and all is breathtakingly amazing.

All the buildings and walls are painted red, and the roofs are covered with ornate animals and painted gold--this combination of gold and red was reserved only for the Palace grounds.The front entrance is huge, with multiple enomouse courtyards, each at least a few football field long and deep. Hear the armies would gather before going off to war, at the center are two lavishly ornate building where the emporer would hang out and give directives--all decisions final, no appeal.

The whole area is divided up into separate courtyards, where there would be rooms, and stages. Most are where the Emporer had his concubines. Three times a year he would select multiple girls from the daughters of his court people. They say that most had between 2,000 and 3,000 concubines. Now some of those girls where just for decoration, like ladies in waiting, and the emporer just had a few with whom he shared "relations" I meant the guy wasn't Wilt Chamberlin. From there the girls could actually work their way up to emporess, or cheif concubine, both with tremendous power.

Another cool fact was that although the emporer's official residence was the biggest and grandest Palace in the center of the city, or called the Palace ofLongevity, some of them would choose to live in a small palace in one of the corners of the city, just because he liked it there, or one of them lived in one of the pavilions in the garden aftyer he retired to write poetry.

Oh yeah, the garden, it was mostly made up of these weird shaped rock formations and these strange hybrid trees that they developed and was surrounded by 400 year old chinese cypress trees.

After we left the Forbidden City, we ran into these really nice chinese girls who started talking to us. They asked us where we were going, and we said to get something to eat--they asked if they could join us, we said yes. They took us to this Tea House. We all drank tea and watched a tea ceremony, ate some dumplings and chicken wings...then the bill came and it was 2,000 yuan or about $260. The girls said that they would split it, so we paid $130 for some tea and snacks. I have this gift credit card from selling copiers that we were able to use, so it really didn't cost us anything, but it was a good leason learned.

A Few Of Our Favorite Things

2007-09-06T21:58:00.000+09:00

All in all, we really like China but there are a few things that annoy us...

The Staring
I kind of know what it feels like to be famous here... I don't really like it. I guess it's the blond hair and blue eyes but everyone here STARES at me. I'm talking slack jawed, head turned, flat out staring! This doesn't just happen every once in a while but everywhere we go (except in our gringo hotel). It's not too bad in the touristy places but when we take the subways or buses (anywhere where there aren't a lot of tourists) I have about 10 eyes on me. Today, a few people asked to have their picture taken with me! I've taken to wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses just about everywhere so that I can hide a bit!

The Spitting
The spitting here is pretty crazy. I'd heard about the spitting before but I didn't really expect this. The men here have perfected the lugie- it begins with a hacking sound that comes from deep within and ends in a flying ball of spit. Gross, I know. We get to hear this sound about 20 times a day and you really have to watch where you set your bag down. We've heard that Beijing has instated a spitting fine to encourage people to stop spitting before the Olympics happens but we haven't actually seen anyone get fined.

The Mosh Pits
There are no such thing as lines here. If you want to get on the bus or place an order for something, you body slam the counter along with everyone else. We really haven't gotten used to this yet, so we loose our place in line a lot. Sean did elbow some lady who was trying to shove him out of the way to get on the bus today though! I know that sounds mean, but you totally have to do it or you'll never get anywhere.

The Touts
These are the people who try to sell you stuff. All kinds of stuff- postcards, underwear, silk, you name it. We definitely look like tourists here, so everyone hits us up. We hear hello, hello everywhere we go. Hey, sir! and Hey, laaaadddy! are another two that are really common. Sean has had several women grab his arm and try to pull him into their shops! Like that is going to make him want to buy something! I am having a lot of fun haggling though :)

The Long, Long Boat Trip

2007-09-03T21:54:00.001+09:00

Well, we made it to China- barely.

We awoke the morning that our boat was leaving to HEAVY rain in Kyoto. We had to make it from our hostel to the train station which was only a 15 minute walk away but the rain was a pretty big deterrent. We also really had to leave on this boat since they only sail once a week and Friday was the day. We checked out the taxis and they were all booked because of the rain so the only option left was to walk. So, we hung around the hotel for as long as possible and just as we were about to give up and get soaked there was a break in the rain! We RAN to the train station with all of our luggage and caught a train about 20 minutes later.

This was incredibly lucky as we later found out because rather than taking 30 minutes as the guide book said it took about an hour. We also had to find an ATM and change trains before arriving at the port. By the time we actually made it to the port, they were frantically waving us in! We got on the boat and it shoved off a few minutes later, 30 minutes ahead of schedule!

The boat was a really odd mix between a cruise boat and a cargo ship. I'm not really sure how to describe it but lets just say that the charm wore off after the first hour or so. We spent that afternoon sitting on the deck in two of the 10 or so chairs available and watching the crew paint the deck below us. We were introduced to Chinese cuisine later that evening- goat head, bird eggs (not the kind from chickens) and some other odd looking dishes. We went with the rice and veggies for the entire trip.

The next day, we ran into a bit of rough weather. As we were eating breakfast and watching the waves, we heard a bunch of screaming. We looked outside to see what the commotion was all about and saw three men clinging to buoys in the water! Seriously. It took a lot of manoeuvring to get close enough to the men to pull them out of the water because the boat was making a pretty strong current. After about two hours, the crew managed to pull all three of them in. The two younger men were ok but the older man drowned as they were trying to pull him out of the water. They gave him CPR for about 20 minutes but it was too late. They had been in the water for about 15 hours at that point and I guess it was just too much. We don't really know how they ended up in the water but our guess is that they were washed off of Korean fishing boat since we were in Korean waters and they were holding on to fishing net buoys. The Korean cost guard later came to pick them up and take them back to Korea.

That afternoon we hit some serous waves and just about everyone took to their bunks. I'd gotten a patch for seasickness before we left so I stuck that on and felt fine the entire time. After about an hour or so of the waves, people began running for the bathrooms. All of the sinks and toilets were full ALL NIGHT. Some really great sound effects there.

The next day the sea had calmed down and we were scheduled to dock at 2pm so everyone was in a much better mood. We had lost quite a bit of time rescuing the Koreans so we got to the dock late and lost our place in line. We ended up sitting there until about 9:30pm. We did eventually make it off of the boat and easily breezed through customs. That was fantastic because we'd heard that the Chinese government was confiscation guidebooks that did not recognize Taiwan as a part of China and we were really worried that ours would be taken. We would be totally lost without that book!

We had docked so late that all of the trains and buses had stopped running from the port to Beijing so a group of us decided to go in on a taxi. We settled on a price with a super aggressive woman who touted her large car. She did have a big trunk that fit all of our stuff so we got in. She drove us around for about 15 minutes, talking on her three cell phones all of the way before telling us that we would have to transfer cars! We REALLY put up a fight about this but she'd taken us to an empty stretch of highway where two more cars were waiting and we really didn't have any other options. We ended up switching to a sports car with a tiny trunk and no seat belts! Before loading all of our stuff into the trunk, the guy took off his licence plate and threw it into the trunk with our bags. We're not sure if this was because he was an illegal cab or because of the way that he was planning on driving... That driver was INSANE and I was pretty sure that we were all going to die in China. We were passing trucks on the shoulder at 120km per hour (about 80mph), swerving in and out of traffic and cutting everyone off! Thankfully, we did make it to our hotel in one piece. I'm still not really sure how...

Once we got to our "hostel" we were totally blown away. It's this really nice hotel in the center of downtown with marble floors, down blankets, etc. for about $24 a night. Amazing! A very nice ending to a harrowing day.

Taking The Slow Boat to China

2007-08-30T13:46:00.001+09:00

We're getting on a boat tomorrow and heading over to China. Hopefully, this will be a great experience and not the 'slow boat' we've all heard so much about...

The pic to the right shows all of the routes by sea from Japan to its neighboring countries. We'll be going from Kobe to Tianjin. I think that it should be pretty cool because we'll be navigating through the Japanese islands during our first day on the boat. The second day might be kinda boring because we'll just be at sea. Hopefully, there will be some other westerners around that speak English.

We'll let you know how it goes!

Last Rainy Days in Japan

2007-08-30T13:37:00.000+09:00

"You will return, like rain to the rice fields at the end of every Summer". That was a line in the book that I am reading right now, which takes place in Southern Japan, and it must apply because it has rained the last couple of days. We did not let that deter us and still kept on schedule...at least yesterday, today the rain beat us and we retreated to the internet cafe.

We started the day at Nijo Castle. This castle was built in 1603 by the first Shogun of the Edo period. It actually has never burned down or been destroyed, one of the few. It is a very large sprawling one story castle made of wood with paper windows. This guy was so paranoid that someone was going to assasinate him that he made all the floorboards slightly loose, so that they sang--called nightingale floors. Plus he had hidden compartments where his bodyguards would hide in case he was attacked. Behind this castle was another built in the same mold around the same time called, Hamaru Castle. Hamaru was actually brought here from Tokyo and was where the Emporer stayed when his Tokyo castle burned down.

We saw the amazing Arisheyama--or the Bamboo forest. It was pretty cool with these forty foot bamboo trees packed in all over the place. It also contained a sort of convent/temple/shrine of purification, all of the Emporer's unmarried daughters had to spend a year there before marriage to purify themselves.

Today, our last day, before catching the boat to China, we went to the temple of Inari. Surrounding this temple ar thousands of Toriis or gates. All of them are side by side and cover the walk ways. They have 2.6 kilometers of them, mostly they are donations from companies and individuals. The temple is dedicated to a Budhist God--probably Kannon, goddess of mercy, but has tons of fox statues since the fox was considered to be a sacred animal and messanger of the gods.

We are lookingforward to China but will miss Japan. This is an amazing country and I feel as though we have only scratched the surface. I would highly reccomend this country to anyone, it is rich in culture, history and food. Plus it is remarkably safe and clean. We also did not find to be outragously expensive like everyone was telling us. Prices are very close to those in the United States and actually, since the yen has fallen some, a little cheaper.

Japanese People

2007-08-29T15:44:00.000+09:00

The Japanese people have been very interesting. I just thought I would give you some quick observations.

Cleanliness
These must be the cleanest people on Earth. Everything is scrubbed spotless everyday. You could eat some noodles off the subway car floor. Our hotel room in Tokyo had a shared bathroom and the lady who cleaned it would use a toothbrush to get the grout on the floor.

Bikes on the sidewalk.
This drives me crazy. I found out the other day that they were supposed to drive these things on the rode, but they don't. You are just strolling along looking at a Budhist shrine, when you hear a ring ring behind you. Usually it is an eighty year old lady with a very shaky grip on the handl bars, weaving in and out of walkers. I told Sarah that if soneone hits me with their bike, I am going to punch them in the nose--unless it is an eighty year old lady, who I'd probably just help up.

Politeness
They are exceedingly polite. Always bowing, wishing you welcome, and thank you, and good luck, all the time. They have reserve seats on all trains and subways for the elderly, handicapped, pregnant women and women with babies.

Texting
This is a national obsession. You see everyone texting everywhere. At least they are not blabbing on the phones, but man, the sidewalks are very crowded and half the people are walking at a snail`s pace while they text their friends.

Teenage T-shirts
All of the teenagers have these tee-shirts written in English that don't make any sense.
some examples we have remembered: "I Love Pillows. Am I Evil?" "House Dust" "Sexy Right Sweet Mouse"

Temple Hopping in Kyoto

2007-08-28T16:38:00.000+09:00

It took us about 2.5 hours to go from Tokyo to Kyoto by bullet train- isn't that amazing? We traveled at over 250 miles per hour and the train felt like it was barely moving. In fact, I thought that we were still stationary after leaving one station after we had already started traveling again. The bullet trains here are on magnetic tracks so they hover and it makes for a very smooth ride.

So we arrived in Kyoto and checked into our hotel with no problem. We ended up meeting this Swedish guy who was just checking out so we went to have lunch with him. He had just returned from a monestary where he had been living for the last two months! He had done it to learn Japanese but didn't really end up learning all that much because the monks meditated more than that talked and when he wasn't with the monks he and the other students all went out drinking! So, when we ordered at the restaurant he really couldn't speak much more than we can (and we only know three words).

He left for Tokyo and we went out to see the city. By the time we were all checked in, it was already dark out so we headed over to a downtown street that hasn't really changed much over the last hundred years or so. It's very narrow (only two or three people can walk abreast at once) and there are no street lights. All of the light on the street came from little lanterns that were put out by restaurants to draw attention to their place. There were also many women dressed in kimonos walking around! This is also a good place to spot geisha but we didn't see any. We're thinking about going back there before we leave to see if our luck improves any...

The next day we started temple hopping. These temples are all really funny because they've all burned down several times and have since been rebuilt! They're all still a couple hundred years old though so still pretty impressive by American standards. First we went over to the 'golden temple'. This one was burned down pretty recently (in the 50's, I think) by a monk who had fallen so in love with it that he just had to set it on fire. Can't really understand his thinking here... Anyway, it was rebuilt exactly as the original had been and it was quite beautiful. It also has some amazing gardens surrounding the temple.

Next, we visited the Zen rock garden temple. Also beautiful, but in a very minimalistic kind of way. It has 15 rocks in the garden but you aren't ever able to see all 15 at once. You have to visualize them--- very zen :)

Here's a pic of Sean thinking deep thoughts alongside the rocks...

We then hopped on a bus and went over to the Emperor's Palace. This is the one that he doesn't use- the real one is in Tokyo and you can only visit on New Years and on his birthday. Anyway, we signed up for the only tour that they have for the day. I guess we were pretty lucky because there were only about 80 people on our tour with us- the limit is 300!

One other thing about this castle. I has burned down so many times that they actually built another castle nearby so that the reigning Emporer could stay there while his castle was being rebuilt. The standby castle has amazingly never burned down and is around 500 years old.

Our final stop was the temple that was recently nominated as one of the new wonders of the world. I can't remember now what it was called, but it was beautiful.

Kyomizu Temple

Toilet Observations

2007-08-25T19:46:00.000+09:00

I am in constant amazement at Japan's bathrooms. This may sound odd since our own restrooms are so mundane but there is a surprising variety here. First off all, everyone should know that they are amazingly clean. I'm talking eat off of the floor kind of clean- totally different set of standards.

There are two different types of restrooms here, high tech and low tech. The high tech ones are usually the Western style toilets that we're used to but they come with an entire control panel just for the toilet! You can change the temperature of the seat, use different angles of water for the bidet function as well as change the water temperature and strength. There is also a fake flushing sound that you can activate if you don't want others in the restroom to know what is going on in your stall! I broke out laughing when I saw that one but I've since heard several people use it. There are some other buttons too but since they're all labeled in Japanese, I haven't figured out what they do yet.

There are also the very low tech type of toilets. I've taken to calling these squatters. Yup, you actually get to squat over these to do your business. I'm really glad that I've gone camping a lot so I have plenty of practice :) I'm savoring the Western toilets now because I'm pretty sure I'll only have access to the squatters once we leave Japan. These are also tough if you have bad knees which Sean is a little worried about.

There are two other things of interest in the bathrooms here. One is that the more high tech sinks automatically give you soapy water first before switching to plain water- ingenious. The other is also a great idea. In many of the women's stalls there is a high chair looking thing on one of the walls so that women can pee in peace with out trying to juggle their baby along with the toilet paper. Man, all bathrooms should have one of those!

Walking Around Tokyo

2007-08-25T19:28:00.000+09:00

Man, my feet hurt and I've got a blister on my heal thanks to all of the walking that we did today! We started out this morning in the Tsukiji fish market which was really cool. It's this place in downtown Tokyo where all of the fishermen bring in their catch and display it for restaurants to buy. It's pretty amazing how many kinds of fish are available not to mention the octopus, squid, clams, shrimp, etc. A lot of it was still flopping around! There was so much action going on- people buying and selling, rickshaw type things bringing in more fish and these crazy little cars that kept trying to run us over. Unfortunately, we both got splashed with fishy water but other than that it was very cool.

After making our way through the market we went across the street where there are lots of restaurants serving incredibly fresh sushi. There were big crowds outside of most of them so we picked one and joined in. It was a really cute little place where the chefs cut and wrapped everything right in front of you and this little old lady went around serving tea. We got the set plate for about $20 which included 8 pieces of sushi and 3 rolls. Unfortunately for me, I discovered that I really don't like raw sushi when it's not rolled in something. I kept gagging on the big pieces or raw fish! Sean loved it though and helped me out by finishing off my squid tentacle, fish eggs and one other piece. It was a really cool experience though and I'm glad we did it.

Sean: This was the freshest sushi I have ever eaten. The fish practically melted in your mouth. One of the pieces was octopus, which is usually chewy. This one was firm and just broke apart when you chomped down...man that was good.

We were probably still stinking of fish when we went over to one of the nicest areas of town, Ginza which is compared to Park Avenue in our guide book. We window shopped for awhile and got some coffee before checking out the Sony building. It was full 8 floors of all of the latest stuff from Sony, lots of things I had no idea that they had. Once we'd had our fill of glitz, we got back on the train and went down to Koen park, home to the national museum. The museum housed an impressive display of Asian art with a focus on Buddhism through the ages. We saw lots of carvings, kimono, masks and scrolls. It was also air conditioned and a nice escape from the heat and humidity.

Sean: One of the exhibits had all the armour and weaponary used by Samurais throughout the ages. One of the Swords they had on display was made in the 13th Century by a man thought to be one of the greatest sword makers who ever lived. That sword was in use and passed down from Samurai to Samurai for over three hundred years until it was given to the Shogun of the time as a present from its owner in the late 16th Century. The sword even had its own name. I'll bet you could take it off the wall and chop up some firewood even today.

We ended the day back in our neighborhood with a makeshift dinner. We discovered a place that sells lots of different kinds of prepared foods so we were able to sample different dumplings, salad and skewered meats. All of it was really good but we have no idea what we actually ate since we ordered by just pointing to each thing that we wanted!

The Catastrophic Costs of Mt. Fuji

2007-08-24T21:44:00.000+09:00

I want to start this post off by stating that most of our experiences in Japan have been positive...this one just so happened to not go so well.

The other day we decided to go to Mt. Fuji to get some pictures and maybe go on a hike to Japan's most famous mountain/Volcano. We first used our Japan Rail pass to get to the end of our first leg then we were just going to hop onto the next train when the ticket person made us pay a $20 fare because this train was operated by a different company...no sweat, we payed, Fuji awaits.
We finally arrive at Kuchigoku, the town with a supposedly fantastic view of the mountain, a charming lake in front, reflecting Fuji off of the water. One problem, we get there and the mountain isn't there. We look at our map, glance at the place where the cylinder-shaped Fuji should be and just see a large mess of clouds and no sign of getting clearer--we are also about 10 miles from the base of the mountain.

Undeterred we look into any transport to the base for a closer inspection. Without batting an eye, $25 each to go to the 5th station (halfway up), $40 round trip...and we may or may not be able to see the top. The cost doesn't bother us as much as the fact that once we get to the 5th station we can hike 4 hours over gravel and sand to get to the crater...where visibility may only be 30 feet, not ideal for photos. The only pic we were able to get of Fuji is the one to the right, which is one of their manhole covers.

OK as a side note, we are not obsessed with money, but we are on a budget and unemployed...and our cash has to last us about another 115 days, so just throwing wads of Yen at bus drivers is not what we want to do here.

We decide to switch to plan B; we are flexible and Fuji-san has decided not to cooperate. Plan B was to soak in one of the local Onsens, or thermal pools in the area...we heard that they were beautiful and relaxing, plus a long hot soak sounded ideal to us. We also decided to stop at the shrine that Buddhist pilgrims dedicated to Fuji around 700 AD, which means hopping on a local bus. One thing you need to know the buses here work a little differently. You get on the bus and pay before exiting. It's like a giant taxi, where all the fares are calculated on a giant board above the driver depending on the stop you get on. For example, you get on the bus look at the board, box 6 is the last one with a number in it, you watch that number as you go, then pay the amount shown in that box when you exit.

We get off the bus at what we think is the shrine (pic below), take some pics, then get back on the next bus. Then we pass what is the actual shrine, we ask the driver to stop, but he passed the stop by about 50 feet and was stopped at a red light. We figured it would be no problem to just open the door since we were at a full stop anyway but he refused to let us off. "No, next stop". The Japanese are not very flexible we are finding out...we end up going 3 or 4 miles up and down big hills, he stops, then opens the door for us, we decide to stay on the bus, the hot springs were sounding better by the minute. Now we got on the bus on stop 4, and we think this town is only a few miles down the road. We end up riding for another hour and go about 35 miles farther...By the time we reach our destination box four is up to 1,450 yen, about $14, and we are very salty. We try to get off at the bus station and the driver says "ok you pay number three", we tell him no, it's number 4. "Hey! Hey you! You pay number three!" this goes on for like 5 minutes--I really think this guy was from New York; we relent pay the extra $5 difference--the ole Japanese nickel and dime.

We then go over to the town map and discover that the baths that we want are 10 miles back the way we came, then another 5 miles up another road. So to get to the bath we would have to take two buses there, two buses back and it was getting kind of late and we weren't sure just how long we would be able to soak anyway....then we would have to get back to Tokyo...all and all we would be looking at around $100 each to just ride a bunch of buses all over the Japanese countryside, and who the hell knows what the thermal pools would be like. I then looked up at the station and noticed that it ran a train, that we could use our pass on, back to Tokyo...we decided to cut our loses...Damn you Fuji!

After we got back to Tokyo, we headed over to an area known for it's hyperactivity. There were tons of people out on the streets- everyone from young teenagers to businessmen to kimono clad women. It was a great people watching experience and as the day faded to night, the lights of Tokyo began to come on.

The Cost of Japan

2007-08-24T20:26:00.000+09:00

We're finding that Japan is not nearly as expensive as everyone says. We heard all kinds of crazy things before leaving on our trip but we've found it to be pretty similar to the US. The exception is the transportation which is prohibitively expensive. Foreigners can get around this buy buying a Japan Rail Pass before arriving in Japan and even though you may balk at the price, it's totally worth it. Here's a breakdown of what things cost:

Hotel: $50 per night
We have a shared bathroom and we're not staying in the touristy part of town but we're able to get anywhere in the city with our trusty JR pass so it's not a big deal.

Food: $5 - $20 per meal per person
This totally depends on where you eat. You can get a tasty bowl of Ramen for $5 or a sushi meal for $20. There are also lots and lots of pricier places but I'm just saying that there are definitely lots of other options.

Entertainment: depends
We've been going to lots of typical tourist places- temples, shrines, etc as well as seeing a lot of things that are free like the shopping districts, Mt. Fuji, etc. These charge the expected admission prices, something like $5 - $20pp. If you were to go clubbing you could easily spend a lot.

Transportation: $400 each for 2 weeks
This is because we bought the Japan Rail (JR) pass. We can use the JR lines to get almost everywhere but we do usually spend about $10/day on the subway which isn't included in the pass. We also spent a whopping $25 for the two of us on a 20 minute bus ride (check out the Mt. Fuji post for details)! This is definitely the most expensive part of Japan. The up side is that there aren't any bums riding around on the trains with you :)

So, don't let the rumors deter you- visit Japan!

NIKKO

2007-08-24T08:24:00.000+09:00

The other day we took a trip to a little town outside Tokyo called Nikko. It was recommended as a nice day trip by our guide book. This is a town about an hour and a half away by train. We heard that it was a really cool place, with a temple and shrine area set back in a pristine forest environment.

The temple is a Buddhist temple built in the 7th Century AD, destroyed by an earthquake, then rebuilt again in the 1600s. It's a beautiful complex tucked away in this picturesque place. Steep mountains covered in 100 foot cypress pine trees and clear blue river running thru it. The Buddhist temple is dedicated to mercy and peace.

Behind the temple is a shrine dedicated to Ieyushu Takugawa, who was entombed there as a god in 1643. Takugawa was the shogunate who consolidated all of Japan into one country at the beginning of the 17th century. It was during his rule that Japan was turned into a Feudal state,and practiced a strict policy of isolation. No one was allowed to leave the country, and the merchants could only trade with China, Korea and the Dutch. Even the Dutch only could dock on a separate island, which only contained hotels, restaurants and brothels--those crazy dutch. His rule would set up the next 250 years, which is called the Edo period.

The shrine was absolutely beautiful, with intricate gold carvings, containing dragons, images of gods, and even some dancing girls--hey Takugawa did not live on bread alone. They even put in one of the pillars upside down so that the gods would not be jealous of its perfection. In front of the shrine is a small stable with carvings of monkeys around the top, this contains the famous hear no, see no, speak no evil monkeys on it. Inside the stable is a totally white horse--a gift from the New Zealand government. Also in the complex is a five story pagoda (pic at top of post)that does not have a foundation, it is held in place with a long pole down the center to make it earthquake-proof (see the Japanese were crafty even back then).

Also on these grounds is an immaculate tea garden, and museum behind it. The museum used to be a guest house. Ulysses S. Grant stayed there in the 1880s--I asked the lady at the gate where they kept his whiskey while he stayed--she pretended not to understand, but I saw her glance at the storehouse. This was also the place where the Emperor stayed during WWII.

In addition to these mentioned there are other temples and shrines, but there is a lack of English at these sights, and no English tours available. There would be a long plaque by these sights with long explanations in Japanese, but it wouldn't say anything in English. However we did find out that there was a guide map in English available by the ticket counter after we were set to leave--just a heads up for any of you who head to Japan.

On our way out of the complex we were stopped by a group of schoolgirls who wanted to practice their English on us. They were there with their teacher and one of their mothers who filmed us the entire time. We agreed if they would pose for a picture with us. As we were leaving they each gave us a bag of little origami animals that they had made as a thank you.

Introduction to Japan

2007-08-23T08:32:00.000+09:00

We woke up at about 5am this morning, thanks to the jet lag. We had anticipated this and had a plan ready- we were going to check out the fish market! This is supposed to be a really cool area where all of the fishermen bring their catch to sell to restaurants etc. only we don't actually know because we didn't get to see it. We were off of the train by 6am and rather than taking a subway one stop, we decided to walk it. This was a terrible decision! If you can't read the street signs and aren't really sure where you're going, don't try to walk! After about an hour of wondering around, we eventually came across a subway entrance and happily boarded the subway. Two minutes later, we were there.

As were were leaving the subway, we noticed a sign that said "Fish Market Closed Today". Our guide book hadn't said anything about this and since we really wanted to see the market, we denied the possibility that this could be true and went up to the market area. Unfortunately, all that we found were a few tourists wondering around! Lame!

We got lost AGAIN trying to take an alternate route back to the subway but we did eventually get back on and made our way over to the Imperial Palace. You can't actually go into the palace but you can wonder around the grounds which are lovely. The Japanese have also come up with a great idea to combat the heat- cooling rooms. Scattered around the park were air conditioned rooms that you could hang out in and recover from the heat. These were a lifesaver! They made the entire experience so much more pleasant.

After the palace, we went over to one of the shrines here. The story is that a fishermen was fishing one day when he hooked something strange. It turned out to be a little statue which everyone deemed a holy object. The statue hasn't been moved since that day and now there is a big temple built up around it so that people have a place to go to pray. There is also quite a lot of good shopping that has sprung up around the temple as well as some good restaurants. We had lunch here which was delicious- I had some kind of battered shrimp.

The jet lag was catching up with us by then so we went back to the hotel to crash.

We're Here!

2007-08-22T10:03:00.000+09:00

We arrived in Japan at 2pm but it felt like 2am to us. We hadn't slept much on the plane but the exhilaration of finally being here kept us going for quite awhile. Once we were off of the plane we went through customs without a hitch and made our way over to the Japan Rail (JR) office to pick up our rail passes. They gave us the passes and tickets into Tokyo and sent us on our way. What they didn't tell us is that the tickets couldn't be used like everyone else was using their tickets so rather than inserting our tickets and passing easily through the turnstile/gate we had them close on our legs. Eventually we discovered that we just needed to show the guards our pass and ignore the actual ticket all together. We're getting much better at the rail system now. Anyway, after a train change, we made it to our neighborhood Ikebukuro and our hotel House Ikebukuro.

The hotel is really cute and we get to sleep on traditional Japanese mats. They sound like they might be pretty uncomfortable but they're really not. What we didn't expect is the heat! It's about 95 degrees or so here and very humid. Our room has air conditioning but we sweat everywhere else we go. We thought we were leaving this behind in Texas!

We were pretty hungry when we got to the hotel so after checking in we went out to search for something to eat. We found several little streets with restaurants and discovered something amazing-- even though everything is in Japanese, the restaurants put little plastic models of all of their food in display cases so that we could actually see what we would be eating. This made it pretty easy to rule a few places out and find one that looked good. We walked into the one that we had decided on right after a couple of Japanese girls and saw them go over to a vending machine. We were totally confused by what was going on but we then figured out that you supposed to insert your money and select your meal from the vending machine! It spits out two tickets and gives you your change and then you take your seat. Our waitress came over, took our tickets, gave us some tea and said something in Japanese. We looked at her blankly. She eventually gave up on us and left. She went back into the kitchen (where we could see them laughing and looking over at us) and came back a little later with our food. Even with all of the assistance that we had, it still wasn't really what we were expecting but it was really good!

San Francisco

2007-08-20T11:17:00.000+09:00

San Francisco was fantastic thanks to our amazing hosts/tour guides, Jeff and Cata. We met Jeff and Cata on our last long trip- we met in San Miguel and then got together again in Austin, Peru and Ecuador... and now San Francisco. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. We arrived on Thursday morning and went down to Fishermen's Wharf and the Ferry Building to check out all of the touristy stuff. We saw the sea lions in the harbor and ate clam chowder on the pier. It was a cool area to spend the day in but not the kind of place that you would want to visit over and over. After J & C were finished working, they drove us around to see some of the more famous neighborhoods and see the crazy, hilly streets of the city, including Lambard St. We also picked up our rail passes for Japan- $400 each! We're still a little shocked by this but their supposed to be worth it. We'll let you know.

We got up early the next morning to take a tour of Alcatraz. It was actually really cool and came with a great audio tour. Other than the expected info on the famous criminals, prison breaks and daily life, we also learned that the island was claimed by Native Americans in the late sixties and early seventies. Turns out that they have claim to any unused government land and since the prison was shut down they took over. This was the act that prompted people to start celebrating their Native American roots and has had a huge impact on the Native American population. After that we hopped a trolley to Chinatown for a little taste of what was to come. I'm a little worried about communicating now.... We had lunch in a place where no one spoke English and I'm really surprised that we both ended up getting what we wanted to eat. This does not bode well for the actual China.

One of J & C's friends works at google so we went to google's campus to meet her for dinner. That place is amazing! They have multiple restaurants and cafes serving different types of food which is all free to employees and their guests! We rode beach cruisers over to the restaurant which we wanted (they have multiple restaurants) and feasted on organic pastas, veggies, juices, fish... you name it, they had it! As we were walking over to try out the heated bidet toilets we had heard so much about, and we ran into the owner of the company! He chatted with the girl who works there for a bit and went on his way. I thought he was a friend of hers!

Saturday, we had a late breakfast at a local cafe (you should all try Swedish oatmeal pancakes sometime- delicious!) and went off to see some of SF's famous neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Bridge.

For our last day in SF, we headed out of the city and into wine country- Napa! It was only a 45 minute drive but the climate and scenery changed drastically. It was considerably warmer and dryer and we began to see rows and rows of grape vines. We had come at a great time of year- the grapes were just about to be harvested. As a last step, the leaves had been pruned away from the grapes so that they could be exposed to the sun. As a result, all of these beautiful purple grapes hung off of the vines in perfect clusters!

Sean wanted to try the Coppola winery so we went there first. We were greeted by a red carpet and valet service before heading inside where we sampled five different types of wine. Delicious! We added our names to the list for a late tour and went off to try another vineyard's wines. There we tried even more wine and took a tour of the production process. Their wine is stored in underground caves which they had carved out of the neighboring hill. This keeps the wine at the ideal temperature all of the time and saves them a bundle in cooling costs! We ended the day with steaks and ribs at a local restaurant before heading back to the city. Tomorrow, we fly to Asia!