(keep feeling) fascination

Macau - Non-Stop Eating Tour

2011-03-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

The last country I visited on my tour was Macau, just an hour or so ferry ride from Hong Kong. I went there with my cousins, Elisa and Kenny just for a day trip, which was plenty of time to explore the area and eat a ton of good food. We basically spent the whole day on a mission to try Macanese food, starting with lunch.

It was such a strange place; the old part of the city was really charming, with narrow streets, colorful colonial buildings and old signs written in Chinese and Portuguese. (Ironically, I understood the Portuguese, not the Chinese.) The new part of the city was dominated by towering casino buildings (some that were just eyesores *ahem* Grand Lisboa) and screaming neon lights. I only took a few touristy photos. The rest are of food!

Ruins of the Church of St. Paul

Close Up of the Ruins of the Church of St. Paul

Alright, let's get to the food...

Crab Congee
A whole crab in a big bowl of congee. What's not to like? We sat at these tables with plastic sheets on top so we could just chuck the shell bits on the table.

Deep Fried Frog Legs
Tasted like chicken.

Pork Burger
A pork chop in a mini French baguette bun.

Elisa and I Getting Our Pork Burger Grub On
Yeah, I was excited to eat it.

Elisa and Kenny with Teem Fun (Sweet Desserts)

Desserts Up Close
Water chestnut soup with mango ice cream, almond paste soup with mango ice cream, and something with sago and fresh mango (I can't remember!). They were surprisingly not very sugary and the quality was really good (not watered/sugar-watered down).

Pastéis de Nata
My only quest in Macau was complete. They were delish!

Shrimp on Toast and Portuguese Sausage

Galinha à portuguesa

Pasteis De Bacalhau (Portuguese Cod Fish Croquette)
This was my favorite dinner dish = fried potatoes and fish!

Serradura - Macau Sawdust Cake/Pudding
Almost like a tiramisu minus the liquor and chocolate.

On top of all this (for one day, remember), we walked into some specialty shops, where you could try all their good. They totally encouraged it cause they want you to buy it. I had a really good ginger chewy candy, almond cookies, phoenix rolls, and beef jerky. ::sigh:: All this writing about food makes me wish I was back in Macau...

Chiang Mai

2011-03-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

My last destination in SE Asia was Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. I booked a ticket from Bangkok to Hong Kong way in advance, so rather then visiting Bangkok for the third time this trip, I decided to check out Chiang Mai since everyone was raving about it. I was pretty excited too, because I heard it was a great place to just relax.

The best thing about this city was you had the option to do a ton of activities, or you could do nothing at all; either way was fine. I booked a couple nights at A Little Bird Guesthouse, inside the Old City. Good choice too. Not necessarily for the comfort (the mattresses were wrapped in plastic), but the staff was awesome and it was a great place to meet other backpackers. I ended up staying there for 10 nights! The longest I had stayed in one place, that's for sure.

So what did I actually do there? Well, here's 10 things...

1. Got my teeth checked and cleaned.

It was only 600 baht (20 USD)!

2. Tried Thai cooking at the Asia Scenic Cooking School

Som Tom by me!

Thai food is pretty easy to cook if you have all the ingredients! This was a fun class, but the full day with 7 courses was pretty exhausting (should have gone with the half day/5 courses). Our group couldn't eat everything we cooked, so we took our last two courses in take out boxes. We received a nice recipe book in the end, which I have not put to use yet in the States.

3. Visited Several Wats

Wat Umong
I liked this one because it was in a forest, with some pretty interesting spaces to wander around. There were meditation buildings, a fish pond, underground tunnels with Buddha statues and wall drawings, and some funny dog posters illustrating vices to avoid.

Remnants in the Forest

Buddha in the Tunnel

Emaciated Buddha

Did You Get That?

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep
This is the wat to go for the view of Chiang Mai city. Really nice, but super crowded. It was one of those temples that had vendors lined up along the front and the path to the temple. Touristy = yes.

A Little Dance Performance in the Wat Area

Inside with the Stupa

View of Chiang Mai

Mystery Wat

I can't remember the name of it, but most notable was this fake Donald Duck statue in front of the temple. Oh yeah, he's eating noodles!

4. Got Massages

SO worth it. Especially after walking all the time. I meant to get one every other day, but I only went three times.

5. Ate Muesli with Yogurt and Fruit

Papaya in Your Muesli and Yogurt? Yes, You're in Thailand!

This was a big deal, because western breakfast food was usually more expensive, and after eating mainly fried eggs for breakfast in Burma (probably 20 out of 25 days), it was refreshing to eat something more tasty and healthy.

6. Went to the Sunday Market

Nicolai Takes a Look at the Awesome Wooden Frogs

This was the mother of all markets in Chiang Mai. It spanned...I don't even know how far it extend, but it's HUGE. Great place to by some unique souvenirs, clothes, and food too. I went with 3 other friends, but ended up losing them amongst the crowds. I made out like a bandit though, with some goodies to take back to my family.

7. Ate McDonald's

Yeah, yeah I know. I had McD's breakfast in Singapore. And now, Fish-O-Filet in Chiang Mai. But I was with other Americans! We all caved in!

8. Jungle Zipline

I tried zip-lining in Nicaragua before, but I had more fun with this one. The guides from Jungle Flight were nuts! You can tell they have fun doing at their job and love doing it. We zipped to about 22 platforms...it was pretty rad. I felt so free up there doing the Superman move. At times, I kind of forgot how high up we were, but then I'd look down below and quickly up again. It's friggen high.

Our Crazy Guides

The Gang

9. Doi Tao Lake and Bua Tong Waterfalls

I kind of ended up in these places by accident. Some backpackers at the hostel were going to Doi Tao Lake, and ended up having an open spot, so I tagged along. It was about an hour motorcycle ride to get from Chiang Mai to Doi Tao Lake, but unfortunately, we got pulled over by the cops for not various reasons (not having a helmet on, no motorcycle license, and probably just being farang). Once we got to the edge of the lake, we had a little boat waiting for us to take our group to to these simple, but charming, floating bungalows. We only spent a night there, which consisted of kayaking, lots of food, beer, and skinny dipping under a bright moon.

Little Bungalows on the Lake

View of Doi Tao Lake

Dining Area

The next morning, we shipped off, but stopped by along the Bua Tong Waterfalls before heading back to Chiang Mai. I've never seen such clean, clear waters, rolling over limestone rocks. It was pretty amazing. We walked to down to the first series of falls, and it was great. And then we followed the stream down to an even better spot. It just got better and better each time we walked down to the next section.

So Clear!

Moto Caravan on the Way Back to Chiang Mai

And last, but not at the most least...

10. Met Some Awesome People!

My experience in Chiang Mai would not have been great if I hadn't met these people...

Nicolai (Denmark)

I met him in my dorm on my first day and after late night conversations of design, music, and life in general, I felt like he's a homie. I'm glad he was there for pretty much the whole duration of my stay in CM.

Carmen (UK)

A cool lady from the UK who had similar traveling/backpacking style as I did. She was laid back and up for whatever. We went to Doi Suthep together, but some how along the way, we got dropped off at the zoo and then ended up in a tourist village, thinking we were going to see a real Karin tribe. Ah well. We eventually made it to Doi Suthep and had a good laugh about it all.

Jesper (Sweden), Carmen (again), and Debi (UK)

Jesper was the most ambitious person I met on the trip. He biked (as in bicycled) all the way from Chiang Mai, Thailand, to Malaysia! That's at least 1,000 miles. He was a total sweet heart too. On our last day in the dorm room together, he surprised Carmen, Debi, and me with slices of cake from the bakery. How sweet is he?

Debi was a burst of energy and totally fun to be around with. She was a good shopping buddy in the markets; but too bad we never made it to the vintage stores!

Dave! (UK)

Dave worked at A Little Bird Guesthouse while I was there, and he was great at making everyone feel welcomed and like they were already a part of the guesthouse community. He was nice enough to let me tag along on the lake/waterfall excursion.

Sam (Belgium) (Ok, not his best picture. He looks maniacal here.)

Sam is definitely an interesting fellow. I couldn't guess where he was from initially, because he had an accent, but I would have never guessed he was from Belgium. He's really good friends with Dave, and for a second, I thought he worked at the guesthouse too, but he was just a long term resident. But he was a great resource on where to go in Chiang Mai - actually took me and another friend, Kyle, up to Wat Umong.

Jason and Kyle (US)

Alright, I already had an affinity for these fellas when they said they were from California. I had a blast hanging out late at night with these two, in search of a good hamburger in Chiang Mai...only to end up at McDonald's. How American of us. But seriously, McD's fries never tasted so good.

Other than these activities, I spent my time just walking around the city or hanging out at the guesthouse. I'm sure I could have done a lot more, but after 5 months of backpacking, I was pretty over doing stuff. Chiang Mai was the perfect place to end my backpacking trip.

Singapore

2011-03-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

I wasn't too excited to see Singapore itself, having heard there is not a lot to do except shop and the food was not as good as Malaysia. But my friend Simon just moved there, so it was a good reason to go (and to get another passport stamp!). The city is so modern and clean! Such a contrast to most of the SE Asian cities I had been to (aside from the metropolitan capitols).

I spent the first couple nights in the Chinatown area, at a hostel called Pillows & Toast (how cute is that name?). It was in a great location and pretty comfortable. I ended up staying in a dorm room and met a nice British fellow, Daniel, who came with me to eat dinner with Simon. I totally loved the hawker stalls in Singapore. I wish we had those in the US (well, we have food courts, but I wish there were Asian food ones).

In the Chinatown neighborhood...

Sri Mariamman Temple

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Chinatown

I couldn't leave Singapore without visiting it's mascot, the Merlion, a hybrid of a mermaid and a lion. But I was so disappointed there was construction around it! I took a picture of the mini one though.

The Majestic Merlion...Caged

Mini Merlion

Simon knew some friends in Singapore already, so he invited me to a housewarming party. Only it turned into a Valentine's Day party. With games. Now, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day normally, so I didn't even know what to expect. But we ended up playing games that involved having partners; it was pretty silly and fun. I had a good time meeting people who actually lived in Singapore.

Party in Singapore!

I stopped by the Singapore Art Museum, which was pretty awesome. The exhibits were pretty interesting, especially the one featuring Chinese painter Wu Guanzhong. I said hello to Walter the rabbit too.

Singapore Art Museum

Walter the Rabbit at the SAM (by Dawn Ng)

And finally, Simon and I went to Sentosa, the man-made island that was supposed to be "the southern most point of continental Asia". It was basically a tourist destination, with a Universal Studios and a Sentosa theme park. It was pretty laid back for a tourist place. I ate durian cendol for breakfast, met a super nice monkey, and tried out the luge ride.

Sentosa Beach

The Southern Most Point of Continental Asia

And that was pretty much Singapore!

Ku Ku in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2011-03-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

I was feeling pretty burnt out from traveling in Myanmar, so going to Kuala Lumpur was a relief for me. Modern conveniences everywhere: light rail transportation, malls galore, and all the American fast food joints right around the corner! Not that the city didn't have more things to offer. I checked out the National Art Museum, Islamic Art Museum, National Mosque (pretty cool, because they actually allow non-Muslims in during off-prayer times).

But really, the best thing about KL were the people I met (in chronological order)...

1. Weizhen

I met Weizhen while staying at the Reggae Guesthouse 2 in Chinatown, KL. It was my first day there, and she was heading out to the Batu Caves by herself, so I asked if I could tag along. Even though I had been traveling alone for a while, it's always nice to make friends in new places. It turns out we were in similar places in life, so not only was it nice to meet another solo female traveler, but also nice we understood each other pretty quickly. She was visiting from Taiwan, stopping over in KL on her way to Burma (where I just came back from) so we had some tips to share over our train ride out to the caves. She ended up showing me around Chinatown and went to check out some other hostels in the area, since I didn't book enough nights at RGH2. I only hung out with Weizhen for only a day, but she left a great impression on me.

Batu Caves

Jalan Petaling, Chinatown, KL

2. Memoria

I was fortunate to have met Memoria in Koh Tao, Thailand. Who knew we would cross paths again? I didn't plan to go to Kuala Lumpur, but I'm glad I did; and even better was knowing a familiar face there. He lives in the KL area and was kind enough to take me around a couple days. First night, we went out to some local hawker stalls in a suburb of KL and had some yummy grilled cuttlefish and fish. M taught me how to eat the dish properly with the curry and veggies: scoop some curry onto the rice, top a spoon of rice with the chili sauce, pickled veggie, and fish and eat! Then eat a bit of the fresh veggie. Didn't think there was an order to it, but there was. Afterwards, we went in search for teh tarik (pulled tea), Merdeka Square, and we tried to get a good view of the KL skyline from Sky Bar. Not a shabby night at all.

Merdeka Square

Petronas Towers

The following day, we took a ride out to the Berjaya Hills and visited Colmar Tropicale, which reminded me a little bit of Leavenworth, WA, only we were in Malaysia. The drive there was gorgeous...lush green hills with nice, clean air. I couldn't believe where I was. Memoria rolled down his car top, so we had an awesome convertible ride...until the rain came in. It was pretty hilarious. We thought we could ride it out, but it started pouring and we were getting drenched. It was all good though. We made it to the top of the hill and had a nice stroll around the "neighborhood".

Colmar Tropicale, Berjaya Hills, Malaysia

3. Sunshine Bedz KL Crew

I stayed in Chinatown the first couple nights, but after seeing there was not much of a nightlife there, I decided to check out the Bukit Bintang area (more known for it's shopping) and found myself at Sunshine Bedz KL . But it wasn't just any hostel...it felt like home away from home, like I was going to my aunt's house. The staff there was awesome! Isabelle, her daughter Alexandra, and co-manager Patrick were super welcoming and fun to hang out with. Having kaya toast for breakfast and chatting with Isabelle in the morning to hanging out with Patrick and Alexandra in the wee after hours at night were definitely highlights of my stay in KL. If I ever go back there, I'd definitely stay again...or at least make a visit and say hello to the family.

4. Dave

Yes...that's a shark behind him. Did I mention this is in a club?!

I couldn't have asked for a more awesome person to hang out with on my last day in KL. After I moved to Sunshine Bedz KL, I wasn't feeling too social at the time, but knowing that my backpacker lifestyle was coming to an end soon, I decided to go hang out in the reception area. I'm glad I changed my mind, because I wouldn't have met Dave or had as much fun if I didn't! He's from Baltimore, but had just come in from Australia. We were both thinking of going to the top of the Petronas Towers, so we decided to join forces and take on KL the following day. Another American, Esther, joined us as well. We ended up ditching the 3 hr wait line and skipped over to the
KL Craft Complex, which was pretty neat (my fav were the bird traps). Afterwards, we went for some Indian food at a nearby mall food court.

Petronas (Towers Day Time)

Esther + Dave + Indian Food

After that, Dave and I snagged a pair of KL Tower tickets for later that night, then went on to the Berjaya Times Square to check out the rollercoaster. Unfortunately, you couldn't buy a ticket just to ride the coaster; you'd have to pay for the entire park fee, which was kind of pricey. Had to pass on it, even though it looked pretty fun.

Berjaya Times Square

And then...part 2 of the day: night time! It was my last night in KL so I wanted to go all out. Dave was up for it, so we started off at the KL Tower.

KL Tower. We thought the view would be nice at night, but the souvenir shops' bright lights created reflections on the windows, so we barely got a nice night view :/

We walked back to Jalan P. Ramlee to check out the bars/clubs, but they all had a high cover (which included a "free" drink).(Alcohol is not cheap in KL since it is a Muslim country.) Fortunately, we ran into some other people staying at our hostel, who had gotten to one club free. We followed them back in and it turned out to be really fun! Our new friend Paula (Scotland) hung out with us until the club closed. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with Patrick at the hostel, and even made a run to McDonald's, in time for breakfast at 4am! Thanks to Dave for stickin' it out the whole night!

with Paula and Dave

Back in the States

2011-03-11T13:31:00.000-08:00

So...I didn't do that great of a job of keeping up this blog during my SE Asia trip. I was just caught up being wherever I was. It is a lot to process and write about everything and anything, because you are just THAT excited about where you are, and you want to share it with everyone! To tell you the truth though, you just had to be there.

But now that I am on (f)unemployment, I have the time to catch up on my thoughts and write some entries for the remaining countries. Stay tuned...

One Backpacker's Wishlist...

2011-02-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

When I was in Myanmar, I compiled a list of things I am looking forward to when I get home...

1. Showering without flip-flops on all the time, and without the hot water cutting out (actually, a shower with hot water would be a bonus already! It's such a luxury here.)
2. Not having any attention: not getting stared at, asked "where are you from", "are you married"...etc.
3. Wearing a nice dress and a pair of heels. Can't wait to feel like a lady!
4. Doing some yoga. Haven't really been able to do it yet, not even in Thailand. That might change when I get to Chiang Mai.
5. Using my MacBook Pro. I miss that lil guy! This netbook with Windows Starter 7 does not even compare.
6. Running. It has been almost 8 months since I ran :(

Food-wise, I can't wait to eat:
1. Stuff that isn't fried.
2. Mozzarella and any other good cheeses.
3. Dark chocolate...not Asian chocolate!
4. Fresh veggie salads, with a simple olive oil dressing.
5. Pasta done well. (Specifically from La Spiga in Seattle)
(The weirdest craving I had was for Tootsie Rolls, which is strange because I don't even like them.)

Yeah, not very long lists, but there were just simple things that I missed. I had to wash my own dishes from breakfast at a hostel one day, and as I was washing the dish, I was really enjoying it! It had been so long since I washed anything myself (except for maybe underwear), so it was a nice feeling being domestic and all.

All of these will be within my reach in a mere couple weeks...

What's in da Bag?

2011-02-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd take a photo of what I have been packin' in my 65L bag + little day pack. It's been interesting living out of one bag basically. This totals probably 14kg or so. Mainly clothes, but, as you can see, a crap-load of miscellaneous things as well.

Yes, I brought a hair dryer. It came in handy for drying clothes FYI.

12 tops, 6 bottoms, some acquired along the way

I did have to ship stuff back to Hong Kong a couple times to lighten the load and make more space. We'll see how my return luggage shapes up, after combining everything together.

I Survived...25 Days in Myanmar

2011-02-06T02:44:00.000-08:00

I left Yangon, Myanmar yesterday, after 25 days in the country. I have to say I feel pretty relieved right now. Towards the latter half of my stay, I finally got burnt out on traveling, mainly because traveling in Myanmar was just draining. It was not as easy to travel there, compared to the other SE Asian countries I had been too, and it finally took it's toll. By the 19th day in Myanmar (18.5 weeks/4 months into my trip to be exact), I just wanted to go home. We scrambled through 12 cities total during our 25 days. Maybe if we hadn't pushed to go everywhere, I wouldn't feel this way, but honestly, I don't think I would go back to Myanmar to spend more time there. Well, maybe to go to Mrauk-U, but that is a whole different travel situation.

Sagaing and Amarapura

2011-01-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

I actually set up my alarm today for the first time in a couple weeks, so we could get a start on seeing the 3 nearby cities of Mandalay: Sagaing, Inwa, and Amarapura. We met up with two other travelers, Jake from England, and Laurie, from America but living in England, to share a "blue" taxi for the day. The "blue" taxi is so cute! It looks like a toy truck. It costs K25,000 to rent one taxi for the entire day for the 3 cities, so the more people in it, the better price you will get.

Little Blue and our driver

Our first stop was Sagaing, 45 minutes away from Mandalay. On the drive over, we saw the view from across the Ayeyarwady River, and it looked like beautiful town; tons of golden stupas dotted the green hills, making it probably the most interesting "skyline" I had seen in a while. Our driver took us straight to Sagaing Hill, and dropped us off at a side entrance, so we could bypass the entry fee.
Upon entering the gates and seeing the hill of stairs looming in front of us, it just reminded me of our previous day on Mandalay Hill. Were we really going to make it to the top this time?

During the climb, Jake and I were walking a bit ahead of Laurie and Andi. At one point, we heard a loud scream, and I thought I heard someone say " Get them off me!" I didn't think it sounded like Andi or Laurie's voice, but it the girl spoke English, so Jake and I walked back down to see what happened. Next thing I know, we see all these people surrounding Andi, so we ran down to see if she was ok. Turns out she had walked on a side path, where she encountered some territorial dogs. They actually chased her and bit her! Luckily, she wasn't hurt and not bleeding, otherwise, she might have had to check for rabies or something. It was so strange, because so far, we noticed the dogs in Myanmar have seemed scared of people. I guess not these dogs.

We did eventually reach the top, after 380 steps, and the view was very nice, but the stupa at the top was under repair. Burmese temples are so glittery and colorful; lots of mirror mosaic tiles, lights (sometimes neon) highlighting the buddha image's head, and pastel colored tiles along the floor, walls, and columns. Makes me feel like I am in a religious Candy Land of some sort. We hung out at top for a little bit and then made our way back down (which is always shorter).

Next up was Inwa, but our driver stopped at a longyi making shop first (of course. Earlier, we stopped at a gold leaf making place, but we didn't check it out). We walked into a small, noisy weaving factory with 1-2 people working on at least one piece. I thought it was a little funny that one loom had pictures of teen heart throbs taped to the side. It's like a teenage locker space, or some one's cubicle...it is a working space after all.

When we got to the point to take a boat for Inwa, we were starving, so we stopped by the local restaurant. It was getting pretty late already, and with an additional cost for a boat and carriage ride (K1000 + K3000), we opted out of Inwa and headed for Amarapura to see the famous U Bien's Bridge, a 200-year old 1.2km teak bridge.

I was expecting the teak bridge to be delicate and fragile, and somewhat of a red type of wood with a nice dark finish, but it was totally opposite. It didn't look that much different from regular wood, and it was just rustic looking. There was certainly a lot of traffic - a lot of tourists and some locals passed through (even locals on their bikes). It was a nice and pretty peaceful walk across the river. Views included fishermen and women wading in the river (riding about mid-chest height), tourist boats floating across the river and under the bridge, oxen plowing through farm fields, and a couple stupas were scattered in the background. We stayed for sunset, where we managed to steal a few good photo shots from the fields below the bridge. It was nice to see a quaint, rural side of Myanmar, even if it was a little touristy.

Speaking of, there really are not a whole lot of tourists in Myanmar. On our first full day in Yangon, we probably only saw a handful of travelers. I have recognized several people traveling already, because we have been on the same route. It's different from traveling in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where even though there is the well traveled route, there are a lot of options of places you can go, as well as ways to get there. But Myanmar is still not as well traveled (probably due in part that foreigners have limited access to places to go around the country), so people tend to stick to the more traveled areas. Most travelers I have seen are from packaged tours, mainly middle-aged French or Korean.

We've definitely been getting a lot of stares as well. In Yangon, it was not so bad, but in Mandalay, we definitely stick out, and are constantly being asked if we need a taxi or a tri shaw.

Mandalay was ...alright. I thought it would be more developed than Yangon, having read that there is more Chinese investment in building here, but it didn't seem anymore developed than Yangon. I found it a little harder to orientate myself, despite the fact that the city is built on a grid. (Yet in Yangon, I got my bearings quite quick.)

After returning from our day trip, we had dinner at the Chapati Stand on 27th and 82nd for dinner again, but this time, Jake and Laurie joined us. Andi and I shared a potato curry, a vegetable curry, and the briyani with 2 chapatis (each)...yum! It came with this olive-tasting-but not-olive dish. I had a tea again, which came to a total of K1500. Such a good deal.

Mandalay

2011-01-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

We arrived at the Mandalay bus station at 6am, and it was not as scary or chaotic as it was when I first arrived in Saigon. Yes, there were people trying to solicit their hotel and trying to offer taxi rides, but I read on WikiTravel to just by pass this all and walk West outside of the station to take a pick up to the center of town. The ladies who were already waiting in the pick up said it was K300 to get into town, but everyone else was telling us K400. It was a little frustrating, because even a monk told us it was K400! So we just went along with it. After all, it was a fraction of the price of a taxi. We ended up getting door to door service, right to our hotel.

I had to take a nap, since I didn't sleep much on the bus, so we had a late start on our first day in Mandalay. We started off with a late lunch at this food stall we stumbled across. We had chicken curry and rice, which came with a vegetable soup, and several side dishes, like kimchi sprouts, boiled spinach, fresh cabbage/lettuce/cucumber/mint leaves, fried peanuts, and a few other dishes down the table I didn't get to try. All for K800! It was the cheapest meal we have had in Myanmar, but it came with so much stuff.

After that, we planned to go to two sights that day; the Mahamuni Paya and Mandalay Hill. But they happend to be at opposite ends of the town. Easiest way to get around? Rent a bike! Sure glad we did too, because it would have been one hell of a walk. Since it was later in the day too, the guy only charged us K1000 instead of K1500.

Mahamuni Paya was interesting to people watch. I'm starting to see a common theme of the Payas here....it's where locals just hang out, and where some pray. There are usually sections too where there are vendor shops or just vendors selling food (if not outside, it's inside the paya grounds). People will have lunch or a snack at the temples. Another thing we are learning, just carry your shoes when you have to take them off at the temples. Or else you have to pay K200. Oh, bike parking was K100.

Afterward, we biked all the way to Mandalay Hill, on the northern side of town. We were trying to get to the top by sunset, but the only thing that stood between us was the stairs. Oh...the stairs. The climb up the stairs was pretty tiring. We had to take our shoes off, so walking up on concrete stairs just got harder and harder on the feet. And at every platform, there was a Buddha image to see, with another flight of stairs waiting for you to get to the top. When we reached a (seemingly) top platform, we saw the sunset over Mandalay, but then learned we WEREN'T at the summit. Andi felt she had to just climb to the top, since we were there anyway, so I followed suite. Maybe after 10 minutes of stairs, we ran into Martin, the Czech traveler we shared a taxi with to Mandalay. He said it was about 15 more minutes to the top, but since it was after sunset, we figured it was best to start heading down since we would have to bike back to town in the dark (darn).

After getting back into town, we were pretty famished. We went to a popular chapati stand for dinner, and we had a great meal. I had the mutton curry, 2 chapatis, and tea for K1500. I am so glad the curries here aren't spicy. I was getting tired of ordering Thai food, only to find it was too spicy for my taste buds! But the curries here are just right for me :)

When we finished dinner, we took a walk down to the "Entertainment" district (I'm not sure what that describes, honestly) and caught The Mustache Brothers show in their little home garage theater. The comedy troupe had been performing for years (even performed for the Lady), but were arrested and even detained in prison for making jokes at the governments expense. They put on a comedy/cultural/dance show every night at 8:30pm for foreigners (they aren't allowed to perform in Burmese/for Burmese people). It costs K8000, but the proceeds go to political prisoners. It was pretty silly at times, but definitely entertaining and worth supporting. After the show, we took some pictures with the Brothers and chatted with them for a little bit.

Yangon Part 2

2011-01-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

We had about almost a full day left in Yangon, before our night bus to Mandalay. There did not seem like a whole lot left to do in Yangon, so our only goals were to visit the Botataung Paya and to see the view of Yangon from the Sakura Tower.

The Botataung Paya was...not as impressive as the Shewdagon Paya. (admission $2) (I am pretty sure this statement wil hold true, since the Shewdagon Paya is the most grand and famous paya in all of Myanmar). Usually, the zedi (stupas) are solid, but the neat thing about this one was that the zedi was hollow, and you can see the hair relic of Buddha. ( We didn't REALLY see it since it was enshrined and displayed at a distance.) Walking inside the zedi was a little overwhelming; it was completely painted in gold, and there were large gates guarding the shelves of little Buddha statues. It felt a little claustrophobic at times. And there were people asking for money as we walked around (even a monk! I couldn't believe it.)

Inside the zedi

We finally reached the Sakura Tower, but when we went to the top, we would have to pay a pretty penny just for the view. The meals were about 6 times as much as the street food. Not too surprised, we went back down and decided to go back a little early to catch up on email before going to Mandalay.

And speaking of internet, it is pretty darn slow in Myanmar. Our hotel was charging $1 USD per hour, but we found a place across the road for only 300K per hour (about $.038). We can access Gmail, but not Yahoo or Hotmail. Facebook is ok. Not really feeling the need to spend any money on internet just to check email makes me want to put it off. I wasn't going to check everyday cos I don't get much emails anyways. The occasional ones I send to family to let them know I am ok is fine enough.

And now, part 2 of the day....the bus ride.

Our bus to Mandalay was leaving at 7pm, with an arrival time of 7am (12 hour bus ride...wee! You'd never think of riding Greyhound in the US for that long, right?) . Our hotel told us it would take about an hour to get there, and it was already 5:45pm Andi, Martin (a Czech traveler), and I tried to catch a cab at the very last minute and managed to get one taxi for K6000 (K2000 each). The clock in the cab gave us a little scare, but we learned it was running fast. But before you know it, we got into the bus station early, at 6:30pm. This was probably the oddest station I had been in, because it seemed like another whole neighborhood! We entered through these gates, and usually, you will see a couple rows of buses, but instead, we saw tons of food and snack stands, with some buses spread out around every corner. It was huge. Our taxi driver had to ask where our bus was located, because it was really that big of a place.

Having taken long bus rides Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, I had some low expectations for Myanmar buses and roads (although I read the roads are better than Laos). But it turned out to be one of the more comfortable buses I had been on. They were old buses from Japan (I am guessing 1970s, based on decor), with plenty of leg room and seats that reclined for sleeping. Andi and I had the second to last row, with no one behind us (in the beginning), so it was a good set up.

I tried to stay awake so I would fall asleep at a normal time. This was a dumb idea, because little did I know, not only would we stop for multiple rest stops, but we would be forced to get off the bus during those stops as well. This doesn't sound like a bad thing in the beginning, but when you are just about to fall asleep, it's time for a stop, even at 4am. And the weather is probably 10 degrees cooler than the previous city. The last several buses I took in other countries didn't make you get out of the bus if you were sleeping.

Another thing, a couple of the bus workers went to the back seats to fall asleep, but one fellow in particular was super annoying, and just plain creepy. In the Buddhist countries, it's a big no-no to touch someone on the head, but apparently, this guy had no problem doing that to me and Andi. At first, I thought he was just being nice to us, because he would lightly push my head against the headrest, to indicate for me to go to sleep, but he did it so often, it got super annoying. At one point, he even smelled my head! It was so bizarre and just plain creepy! Later, I found out from Andi, he was trying to get her to lay in the backseat with him. Gross. I was so happy to get off the bus when we arrived. The ride was fine except for that guy and the rule to get off the bus.

Yangon - Part 1

2011-01-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Our first full day in Yangon went surprisingly well. Started off with a Myanmar breakfast (coconut gravey noodles) at our hotel and we were on our way to explore the center of the city, about a 20 minute walk from our hotel.

mohinga

First thing to note on traveling in Myanmar, there are not a lot of street signs. Not even in Burmese. We encountered a little fork in the road maybe 3 minutes into our walk, but luckily, we met Henry the Engineer, who prevented us from getting run over by a car and helped us with directions on going to the center of town. We chatted with him for a little bit over the next several blocks, until he saw us off from his destination.

Walking on Yangon side walks are such a trip. So many things are going on at once. As you're scoping out the area, you're also looking at people walking by, vendors and their goods, saying hi to people who shout hello at you, trying to avoid the men who run up to you and ask if you need to change money (similar to tuk tuk drivers asking you where you are going), and watching your step where you walk, because one mistep on the uneven curbside (I'm talking rubble, shifted cement tiles, missing side walk panels and gaping holes...all hazards) can lead to a twisted ankle or a trip into the sewer hole. We definitely took some time to get into the heart of the city.

When we did arrive to a big intersection, we came across a man named Toe, a bus guide who gave us direction/location of where we were. His English was really good, and he kept chatting with us and talked about the recent happenings in Myanmar, from the Lady being freed to the inaugaration of the new capitol. He seemed optimistic and hopeful for the people of Myanmar. He was full of information, and very friendly too. Didn't try to sell us that much on his bus services, which I appreciate.

We took a walk around central Yangon, passing the city hall, which looked like an abandoned building, the Sule Paya, which was under construction, so we couldn't actually see the stupa, and passed several colonial style buildings, most of them in disrepair. We criss crossed around the Indian Quarter as well, with vendors crowding the sidewalks and lots of people rushing through. The pace was definitely faster in Yangon than the other SE Asian cities.

Sule Paya

Little India

When it was time for lunch, we found a stall at the intersection of Shwedagon Paya Road and Mahabandoola Road. These two lovely ladies served several curries. I had the fish curry with the fixings: vegetable soup (spicy, a little sour, with daikon), plate of veggies (eggplant, okra, tomato, cucumber, bok choy), two dipping sauces (shrimp paste/chilli and another chilli pepper one) tea, and a little palm sugar candy for dessert (K 1000).

The women did not really speak English well, so they had an older Indian woman from the shop around the corner come translate for them. It was nice to chat with her; gave us some insight on the Burmese people. She emphasized that it was a poor country, but all they wanted was democracy. She said the women working at the curry stand show up at 3 or 4 am everyday to set up shop. She was happy to tell us how the Lady had recently been released and that she was at the Shwedagon Paya on Thursdays. It was interesting how when she talked about the Lady, she would lower her voice, as if someone were eavesdropping. We talked for a bit and then she left, only to return maybe 10 minutes later, with an enveloped photo of the Lady. She took out the photo but made sure to conceal it so no one else could see it but us.

After lunch, we still felt like our feet were super tired, so we tried our hand at public transportation with the #43 normal bus (K50) to avoid the 25 minute walk to the Shewdagon Paya. The trickey thing was that the bus numbers were all written in Burmese, so we asked a tour agent to write the number and the name of the stop in Burmese for us. It was easy to just had the note to the conductor of the bus. When we finally saw our bus number, we ran up to the bus, the conductor read our note and pulled us up right on board. I'm surprised the bus actually stopped, because we noticed the buses basically swings by curbside, and coasts along with people running on the side to jump in.

The bus dropped us off on 3rd Baya street. On the walk to Shewedagon, through 3rd Baya, saw several monk-robe sweat shops, crammed with women at sewing machines. It was a little strange.

Our first introduction to the Shewdagon Paya ($5) was during our scenic ride from the airport to our hotel. It was brightly light up at night and it looked fantastic. We timed it to see the Shwedagon for sunset, the nice golden hour to take photos. And it was great timing.

When we approached the entrance, we "had" to leave our shoes at the check-in (K200). (We could have really just carried our shoes in, but we though we had to check them in.) The Shwedagon is heralded as Myanmar's most famous temple, and even though it was the first paya I visited in Myanmar, I agree with that statement. I've seen a lot of temples by now, but I think this one is the most beautiful one I have seen, mainly because not only is it visually stunning, but it was nice to see people actual there praying and meditating. There were plenty of locals there utilaziing the temple, not just monks or tourists. There was a lot going on too; there was a buddha image everwhere you turned; if not housed in a temple, it was in a mosaic on the outside of a temple or represented in statue form just outside the main stupa. There was just so much to look at. Andi and I probably spent an hour and a half wandering through out the huge complex.

Afterwards, we took the #204 bus back to center of town (train station stop, K100). (I got pretty excited that we were learning how to read numbers in Burmese.) We walked by Ruby Market on the way back home, a big shopping complex with a bakery, supermarket, pharmacy, book store, electronics, etc. We stopped by to pick up some snacks for our bus trip to Mandalay the following evening. I didn't think much about it when we were there, but then I realized it might be somewhat government related or that I was probably giving some money to the government since I was spending money at a more "rich" establishment. Argh. Trying to be conscious about how I travel here, but it can be easy to slip.

For dinner, we stumbled across a food stall serving Korean hot pot noodles. This consisted of a variety of noodles in a hot pot mixed with veggies, 2 quail eggs, some light sausage (tasted like bologne/lunch meat), came with kimchee and a garlic/spinach side dish (K1000).

We had a pretty tiring full day of Yangon, but it felt like we saw most of what the city had to offer. We were ready to leave for Mandalay the next day.

Happy New Year from Thailand!

2011-01-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on updating...almost a month now :( But that is because I have been hopping around too many places with no time for the internet!

The last month of the year was great. I spent a majority of it in beautiful Vietnam. I had a great time exploring the coast from North to South and meeting a lot of great people along the way. More detailed entries will be made, I promise.

I rung in the new year last night at the Koh Phangan Full Moon Party (although there was no full moon). It was nuts! Thousands of people on the beach with music blasting from all areas. Probably the best fireworks show I had seen, only because it was right there in front of you. I stayed the whole night until 7am pretty much. I am still catching up on sleep....

So on that note, happy new year! I'll try to update more before I go to Myanmar on Jan.11, because internet there probably won't be as accessible...

Ho Chi Minh City! (aka Saigon)

2010-12-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

We took a night bus to get to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and arrived there at the lovely wee hour of 3:45am. We had no idea where the hell we were and all these drivers cornering us to take a moto or taxi ride with them for outrageous prices. It was pretty frustrating, especially after a long ass bus ride and little sleep. No one spoke English; it took us a bit to even figure out where we were in relation to the city center. They were all trying to rip us off, so Simon and I walked out of the bus station to find a more honest driver.

After haggling for 40 or so minutes, we found someone to take us to the backpacker district. Simon already had a place to stay since his friend, Martin, was in town, but I had to look for my own place. I wrote down the names of a few places I saw on hostelworld.com, and eventually checked into one at 5:30 in the morning.

When I finally started my day after a good 4 hours of sleep, I was so curious about this city. It was so much more developed than I thought it would be. I guess having been in Laos and Cambodia the past several weeks, where their capitols/major cities were not too big, Ho Chi Minh, was a nice change of scenery. There are motos EVERYWHERE; outnumbering the amount of cars for sure. Everyone seems to have one because they completely take over the road. And there aren't a lot of rules to driving, it seemed. Crossing an intersection as a pedestrian can be intimating, but it's fun at the same time. The trick is to not walk too fast and whatever you do, keep moving forward!

I met up with Simon and Martin at the Reunification Palace. The building itself was really nice. A good example of 1960s modern architecture. But the interior decorating was...pretty dated. There were some pieces I thought were fun and retro, like the furniture in the game room, but some stuff was just plain tacky.

The rest of the day was more tourist stuff. We managed to see a lot. We went to the War Remnants Museum (which, as an American, was very horrible to see because it the exhibits showcased what really happened on Vietnam soil), the Notre Dame Church, the post office (beautiful building), the Ho Chi Minh statue, and took a little boat ride on the Saigon River.

Notre Dame

Ho Chi Minh Statue

Boat Ride with Martin

At night, I met up with some of my cousin's friends, Norey, Jennie, and Jimmy. They were from the US too, but had been living in Saigon for a couple years now. We met them and a huge group for dinner and drinks. Had some really yummy food too. (I'll write another post later).We were supposed to go out with them after dinner but our taxi driver had no clue where he was going, so we just called it a night. It was ok by me since I wanted to sleep after a full day!

Norey and Jennie

The whole dinner gang

Kept in Kep

2010-12-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

I heard a lot of good things about Kep from other travelers. Many had said it was better than Sihanoukville because it was quieter and less touristy. I was pretty excited to go, but when I got there, I felt a little disappointed. I assumed the beach would be nicer, but that wasn't the case. It was a much smaller town and I can see how it could be relaxing, but...the beach was not even close to Sihanoukville. People didn't even hang out there. But that made deciding how long to stay easy.....only one night. It didn't look like there was much to do anyways.

We rented a moto for the day, since Simon knew how to drive one. Much faster than riding a bike. Things were actually pretty far apart in this town. We took a tour all around the area on the main road. It was really pretty and scenic...rice fields with a giant mountian in the back drop...very picturesque. We went to the top of Kep National Park to catch the sunset as well. That ride was so bumpy though. There were a couple times when I thought I was going to just flip over the moto because I was bouncing around so much. After a tour of the rest of the area, we planned on going to the Caves and the Pepper Farm the next day.

Squirrel Association?!

Aside from pepper, Kep is pretty famous for it's crab too.

For dinner, I treated myself to a crab with fresh pepper dinner. It was SO good...well worth it! It was cooked with this curry that tasted a little bit sweet, and it came with plenty of fresh pepper, which I don't think I have had before. Very tasty. The crab meat was sweet too. It was a lot of work to get the meat out, but I guess compared to the time I had to de-shell 1lb of craw fish for dinner, this was a better deal. I pretty much licked the plate clean because the curry was so yummy. Mmmm...I want some now.

Garnish in the front?! I am not a good food photographer.

The next day, we cruised on over to a pepper farm. Can't say I have ever seen a pepper tree, but here's what it looks like:

Then we rode out of town to get to the caves, shot gunned it a little to far, but found our way to the right place. It was nice, but there were all these kids trying to guide us with flashlights through the caves to get a donation. I hate to feel this way, but whenever a kid comes up and asks me what's my name and where I am from, all I think is, no, I am not going to give you money. It's not how their supposed to make a living...they're kids! They should be in school, playing or doing kid things. That's probably one thing I didn't like about Cambodia...I felt like a walking dollar sign a lot of times.

Anyways, that was Kep. We felt like we did everything we could in that town.
Up next, Vietnam!!

Si-Si-Sihanoukville

2010-12-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

Oh Sihanoukville, I wish I spent more time here. It's THE beach to go to in southern Cambodia. I should have spent less days in Phnom Penh and more here. Oh well. It was just nice to go to a beach, since I haven't been at one in SE Asia yet. The sand was nice and white and the water was a turquoise blue (and salty).

Simon (who met me in Phnom Penh) took the bus with me and the plan was to go to Sihanoukville so I could get my Vietnam visa, and then go to Kep, which was supposed to be a better place than Sihanoukville (more about Kep in the next entry).

We stayed at a hotel that was connected to a convenience market; just had to walk through the store to get to our room. It was right around the corner from the beach entrance, next to an awesome sandwich stand, and it was cheap...couldn't ask for a better place to stay. Oh yeah, right above the convenience mart was a great bakery/breakfast place. They were so cruel...they displayed all their baked goods in front, like carrot cake, banana cake, lemon meringue, brownies....I was in baked goods heaven! (Ever since Luang Prabang, Laos, I've been craving Western baked goods).

We just went to Ochheutel Beach (didn't make it to Otres, sadly. That one is supposed to be beautiful). And it was ok, but there was not a lot of sand to lay down on because the restuarants took over the area with their chairs and tables. Also, there was always someone trying to sell you something. It was so annoying. I missed sunset because some kids were in my way trying to sell me bracelets. (The streets kids were probably the worse in Cambodia so far. They should be in friggen school, not trying to hustle money.) We had to walk further down just to get to an area where we could sit without being hassled.

But the funniest thing we did was order a "happy" shake. Simon really wanted to get a pizza, but we decided to wait for our friend Rachel to share one. We went with a chocolate happy shake. I drank it with my meal and didn't think anything of it. Didn't taste obvious, didn't taste bad. Didn't noticing anything happening until maybe half an hour after I finished it. I started to get really paranoid and slow. And I noticed Simon was asking me all these questions, and I thought, he is affected too!

Happy Chocolate Shakes

After lunch, we went swimming on the beach, but the whole time, i kept watching our stuff to see if anyone was going to steal it. And I felt like swimming was so tiring....I didn't do a whole lot of it. After the swim, we sat at a restaurant to catch the sunset, but we both passed out in hour chairs. Pretty sure it was because of the shake. You know the feeling. It basically messed us up for the whole day. Simon said he stil felt it the next morning! Ha! It was fun. I would try it again if I had free day to do nothing.

Beach time

Oh, and surprise! We also got to reunite with some of the Spicy Laos gang over breakfast.

Kim, Preeti, and Simon

Simon, Boris, and Julia

And that was Sihanoukville.

Enroute to Sihanoukville

2010-11-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm on a bus to Sihanoukville right now. We just watched "The Expendables", funny to see Stallone speaking Khmer. I still get aggravated a little when the bus honks. The driver seriously honks 30 times per minute, no joke. He honks at oncoming traffic, motos and bikes he is about it pass...it's a headache. And on a 5 hour ride...ahhhhhh!! That would not go well in the US.

Almost one week in Phnom Penh..

2010-11-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

..and it was way too much time here -- 6 nights! I originally wanted to stay for only 2 nights, but things kept happening. I got in a day after the Water Festival bridge incident, so the city was in mourning, and several tourist sites were closed. It was enough reason for me to extend my stay. Then I found out Rachel and Marin (travelers I met in Laos) were coming in, and Simon was about to arrive; I had even more reason to stay.

There really is not much to do in Phnom Penh, though. The important sites (in my opinion) are the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. I read a little bit about the Khmer Rouge before arriving in Cambodia, but going to these sites gives you a better understanding of what happened and what Cambodians (currently around the ages of at least 40 years old) had experienced, and the horror of genocide. What's really crazy was this all happened in the mid to late 1970s. Really not long ago at all.

The Genocide Museum(S.21) located in the city of Phnom Penh. It used to be a high school, but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a holding pen for prisoners, until they were taken to the Killing Fields, about 40 min from the city. I was definitely feeling somber during the visits to both places. There were a lot of graphic pictures showing types of torture methods and tools used. The Killing Fields are nice and peaceful now, but imagining bodies in the pits was quite disturbing. I felt like I wanted to cry several times. And I had the eeriest feelings while walking through the holding pens in S.21. And all this was on my first day in Phnom Penh.

S.21

Killing Fields

The next several days were really chill, since I took my time. Let's see, I...

- went to check out some markets. The Orussey Market was selling these bad boys.

- walked around the waterfront. It's a nice area, and locals do hang out there, but it's very touristy.

- went to a CouchSurfing Meet Up. That was cool to meet some other travelers and locals in the area. We ended up bar hopping and then dancing to hip hop at the end of the night.

- ate an expensive dessert at the Foreigner's Correspondence Club (FCC). Twice.

Rich Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Figs Tart. You devil, you.

- got my bangs trimmed at a salon. That was fun, since the hair stylist couldn't speak English. They had a look book though, so that made it easier. Telling them to thin the bangs out was a little tough, but they got it right.

- went to tourist sites: Royal Palace, National Museum, and Wat Phnom.

Royal Palace

National Museum

Wat Phnom

- went to Sorya Mall. This place was a trip because there was a rollerblading rink upstairs, some sort of chicken restaurant on every floor (fried, grilled, baked....), a cinema, and a Swensens's Ice Cream shop (not sure why but these are premium ice cream shops in SE Asia. I didn't know of any other shops except in San Francisco).

at one of the chicken restaurants

rollerblades!

- fell in love with mangosteen. Even though it was expensive.

- had some good Cambodian desserts.

herbal jelly, coconut milk, simple syrup, and some sort of fruit.

And that is all about I can remember... It was nice to take my time though. Probably the more relaxing part of my trip. Sometimes you do need a vacation from vacation.

Thanksgiving in Phnom Penh

2010-11-25T22:42:00.000-08:00

I am supposed to be in Hong Kong today. Ideally spending Thanksgiving with my Step-Mom; not like Hong Kong celebrates Thanksgiving though. But nope, I decided to extend my stay, and I was by myself in Phnom Penh (PP). PP actually has a wide range of restaurants, from Indian, Malaysian, Italian, French, American, etc. I tried to find an American restaurant that was serving a Turkey dinner, that night, and walked into a place called Freebird (really). With the amount of ex-pats in PP, there were bound to be some Americans celebrating here. Yes, there were some Americans, but nope, no turkey.

So what did I decide to order? Eggs Benedict. It sounded good on the menu, and I love it (usually). But what's the one thing that can really mess up eggs Benedict? The Hollandaise sauce. This is tricky enough to get right in the US, so I don't know why I risked it in PP. It was pretty terrible. The sauce had too much lemon in it...I had to scrape it off the muffin. They kept the poached eggs separate from the Hollandaise sauce and the muffins, but the eggs were too undercooked, so the meal was just one big slimy plate. Excellent bacon though. That was the only saving grace.

Disappointed with my meal, and also not being able to chat it up with anyone at the Freebird, I went to the Foreginer's Correspondance Club (FCC), this western resturant that had great food (sandwiches, salads, pizza), but US prices (sandwich = $7). I had gone there for lunch the day before, and spotted a dessert I really wanted to try-- a rich chocolate tart made of hazelnuts, figs, and chocolate chips, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and candied oranges. After such a bad Thanksgiving meal, I deserved it. Plus, I wasn't ready to go home yet.

I plopped down on a bar stool along the edge of the balcony, overlooking the riverside. That's the good thing about FCC, it's in a great location with a nice, relaxing atmosphere. There were two guys sitting a couple chairs away and they noticed the dessert I ordered. We started to chat and it turned out they were from the US too, one from Boston and one from Carson City. They didin't realize what day it was until I said Happy Thanksgiving. We spent most of the night talking about SE Asia travels (they had been to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and just the sheer awesomeness of taking a long break to travel. It made me feel good about extending my trip :) They were good company. Glad I didn't have to spend my entire Thanksgiving meal alone.

Battambang: Part 2

2010-11-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

Determined to make the most of my 24hr stay, I got up early and went to a few sights outside of Battambang. I hired a tuktuk driver to take me out to the Banan Temple and Phnom Sampov, two temple sites with great views of the Battambang area. The rides themselves to the sites were lovely and scenic, with a nice glimpse of rural life.

The Banan Temple was a tough one. 358 steps to get to the top! But there was a nice view once you got up, and the ruins were simple - large blocks stacked up - but interesting to see how well the temples were still preserved.

The Phom Sampov/Killing Caves are located high on a hill, so my driver suggested I hire a local to lead me so I won't get lost. He connected me with Siephon (not sure how to correctly spell his name), who the tuktuk driver said "he's a man, but don't worry, he's a lady boy". Throughout my tour, the town people would see him and would laugh and tease him in a playful way. He didn't seem too annoyed by it; he was playing along with it. It was pretty entertaining to hang out with him. Our communication was so limited because he didn't speak that much English, only enough to tell me what sight was what and some directions on where to go. But he would bust out singing Khmer pop songs as we walked.

He definitely made my trip up to Phom Sampov brighter! Especially considering we were looking at the Killing Caves too. I wasn't sure if I was ready to come face to face with it, but I figured going to the Killing Caves would prepare me later for Phnom Penh's Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields from the Khmer Rouge period.

I wanted to go to the Pepsi Factory that was abandoned in the 70s, but the tuk tuk driver said they had closed the doors to the public. It would have been cool to take some pictures there, because I read that it has been left untouched; there are still full bottles of Pepsi left inside. Ah well. Would have been neat to see. But I'm glad I got to do and see more of Battambang, besides the Bamboo Train. Would've been a shame if that was my only impression of the area.

Bamboo (Battam)banger

2010-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

I stopped in Battambang on my way to Phnom Penh, for less than 24 hours, mainly for the Bamboo Train. This "train" is a raft made of bamboo with 2 axles/wheels and is powered by a motorcycle engine. There is only one railroad track for 2-way traffic, so whenever there is a jam, the lighter train would disassemble and move around the other train. Pretty ingenious.

When I got into town, I rented a bike and tried to find the Bamboo Train Station, but it took me forever. All I had was this to follow by:

Not quite the most descriptive map, but I could see why after riding around. The landmarks were obvious, but none of the roads were named! But after 45 minutes on the bike, and asking people if I was going in the right direction, I finally arrived at the station. It's run by the Tourist Police, so an officer greeted me and said the train would take me to a small village about 14km away, where I can walk around and get a refreshment. Sounded like a good time to me.

The ride itself was really fun. The train runs pretty fast with the motorcycle engine. It shakes so much and makes loud rickety noises as you are flying by the rice fields. There were the occasional oxen eating greens by the side, or sometimes locals would pop up from their walk through the rice fields. I probably stopped about 3 times to do a change/disassemble.

Bamboo Train Ride

Assembling the Bamboo Train

So...the "village" was really a few refreshment stands, where foreigners could by a pop or have a snack. And of course, right when you got in, they would call you over and try to buy from their stand. There were some tourists sitting around and hanging out, so I guess that was all you could do. I didn't see a path for you to walk around on, beyond the stalls. Kids were playing soccer a little further down, and that was about it. I talked to a nice Dutch couple and a lady from Australia.

The "Village"

Maybe about a half hour later, I could see that my train driver was ready to go.
On the way back, a couple locals had huge bags of hay to bring back into town. I was lucky enough that our train was stopping to pick them up...it turned out to be an even better ride back! We arrived at their stop, a crew of kids jumped on for the last stop of the ride. Sounds like a silly attraction, but it was a memorable experience.

Angkor Watted...

2010-11-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

Cambodia: Siem Reap with Meang

2010-11-23T22:39:00.000-08:00

I officially started solo travel entering Cambodia, since Simon and the Spicy Laos gang continued to travel through southern Laos. It was nice to just spend my time leisurely, without having to keep up with people or try to follow an agenda. I planned to stay in Siem Reap for a couple of days, but it turned out to be 5. Although Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat, there is not a whole lot to do in the city itself.

What was nice was meeting Meang, a manager at Prom Roth Guesthouse. Simon recommended this guesthouse, but after a couple email exchanges, the booking confirmation for my room slipped into my spam mail, so I didn't spend my first night there. On my second day, I checked out of my expensive hostel and wandered over to Prom Roth to see if there were any rooms available. Unfortunately, there weren't. Meang explained he was waiting for me to show up last night, but since I didn't, he booked the room for someone else. He felt so bad that he offered to help me find a guesthouse. And I don't mean just calling around to see what's open, but he took me on his motorbike and we looked at 3-4 hostels/guesthouses, before I settled at his friend's guesthouse. How nice is he?

After I got my stuff in, he asked what my plans were for my stay, and I told him I wanted to go to Angkor Wat at sunset that night. (You can enter the site from 5-6pm to catch sunset when you buy a pass for the next day.) He offered to take me that afternoon, since he was not busy. He said it's part of his job to show his guests around; not that I was even his guest though. I couldn't say no to such a super nice gesture.

Meang at Angkor Wat!

We went to Angkor Wat but didn't catch the sunset -- it was too cloudy. I figure I'll see nice colors the next day at sunrise. (I didn't. I'll talk about Angkor Wat in another post). Afterwards, we stopped by a local night "picnic" area. If Meang hadn't taken me there, there would have been no way I would have known about it. It was like a night market with a lot of food stalls. There was a section with "restuarants" -- bamboo mats lined along the road, where the cook would take your order, you sit on the mat, and they bring you your food when it's ready. I tried a banh cheu, a pancake/omlette with sprouts, eaten with a variety of herbs, and nohm banh jok, fresh rice noodles. It was a nice experience to see the local scene and eat local food on my second night there.

banh cheu

nohm banh jok

Over the course of my stay in Siem Reap, I would run into Meang on the street or over at his guesthouse when I was on my way to my guesthouse. It was neat to know a familiar face in a new city. And he treated me like I was a guest at his guesthouse, which next time I am ever in Siem Reap, I will stay at.

Laos Part 3: Luang Prabang

2010-11-21T23:05:00.000-08:00

Oh Luang Prabang...this was such a strange but an almost magical place. So many random, but fun things that happened. I was there for about 4 days and these were the most memorable things (in no particular order):

1. My Arrival
Simon had taken the bus from Vang Vien to Luang Prabang, while I had gone down to Vientiane and then flew up to Luang Prabang. We were only in contact by email, so I wasn't sure when and where I would actually meet up with him in LP. All I knew was the name of his hostel, not even the location. I told him I would arrive around 12pm so he had some expected time frame.

Since there were extra seats on the earlier plane, I arrived around 10:00am instead. At the airport, they were asking for $5 for a taxi ride into town (which is a lot), so I waited around to see if anyone wanted to share a cab. Eventually, a French couple and their nephew let me share one with them. As we got into town, I see Simon and a couple other people walking up the street! I asked the driver to pull over and I popped out of the taxi, probably scaring the crap out of Simon! It was such unbelievably good timing. If I didn't wait around for anyone to share a cab, I probably would have spent my first day in Luang Prabang searching for the hostel and Simon.

2. Spicy Laos Hostel
Didn't like it the first night AT ALL. There was one guy in my 10-person dorm who came in drunk, turned on the lights at 2am, and started ranting about how someone was in his bed and spilled water on his laptop. I thought, I need to get out of this place! It's a complete zoo!

But he left after that night, so it wasn't so bad. After all, I was staying at a UNESCO World Heritage House. The accommodation itself was nothing to write home about; showers and toilets were hidden around the house, and some beds were pretty lumpy (I got a good one though). It was more about the atmosphere. The hostel was very social, full of characters who had been traveling from as long as 1 year to just a few weeks (even met a person from Sacramento!). I had some good times meeting new people and just hanging out with Beer Laos on the porch at night.

3. Day with the Elephants
I joined a tour that took us to an "elephant camp" where we rode elephants into the jungle/forest and into the lake. It was definitely and awesome experience. The elephants are so sweet. The best part was getting in the water with them. They were playful, and like in a rodeo fashion, they would try to throw you off their backs so they could bathe freely. It freaked me out a little bit (since I can't really swim well), but I held on tight. One fellow got thrown off and lost his glasses! Some local kids dove around and found them though. Pretty amazing. The elephants were so nice and gentle. The mahouts (trainers) were ok. They weren't super mean to the elephants, but you can tell this was not a super ethical outfit running the tour. If I were to do it again, I'd pay more for a more ethical tour.

4. Waterfalls/Scenic Drive
The pools were such a lovely ice blue. Very fitting, because the water was cold! Glad I got to see the countryside of rice fields too. Lots of rolling mountains, lush green fields, and bamboo huts popping in and out of the scenery.

5. Alms Giving Ceremony
Every morning, the monks begin the alms giving ceremony around 6am. It's a really beautiful ritual, because the monks receive donations from the locals (rice, food, candy, etc.) and in turn, the monks give donations (that they just received) and blessings to those who are in need. It was really interesting to watch. Although unfortunately, it's become a tourist attraction. Some tourists were so disrespectful; they would walk right up in front of the monks and take photos (sometimes with flash). It's so intrusive on such a special ceremony.

6. Riding a bike around
I rented a bike and rode out to Ock Pop Tok, a textile center a little bit outside from the center of town. It was a really nice facility for weaving, basket making, and fabric dying, which women from the local area came to work. Afterwards, I stopped by the Phousi Market, and then to the Luang Prabang Red Cross for a massage. It was nice riding outside of the touristy area. Compared to the main strip of restaurants and shops in French colonial buildings, there's a much poorer side of Luang Prabang that I don't think foreigners see. Aside from walking, biking is still my favorite way to see a city.

Laos Part 2: Vientiane

2010-11-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

Spending about 3 days in Vang Vien only left me one day in Vientiane before my flight to Luang Prabang (northern Laos). Vientiane is the capitol of Laos, but has been described as very sleep and relaxing. There were not a lot of sights to see or things to do. The main sights I visited were Patuxai (the Lao version of Arc de Triomph), Pha That Luang (which I didn't go into since it was late), and a few Wats surrounding Pha That Luang. I got there a day or two before the 450th year celebration. Preparations were set up for the week long event, and I believe there already had been some pre-partying near Pha That Luang (the national symbol).

Pha That Luang

Patuxai

Since I was traveling alone in Vientiane, I messaged a CouchSurfer (CS), Carole, who was also in town, for a drink. I met her at the Spirit House by the riverside. She is French, but living in Ireland, and was in town with her son to visit her brother. She was a super nice lady, who made me feel at home with her and her family. She had traveled before to a lot of places by herself, which I found inspiring. She joined CS recently, so this was her first CS meeting as well. (This was my first coordinated meet up with an individual, not in an organized group function, like in Bangkok.)

Soon, several of her brother's friends joined us and it turned into a nice gathering. Everyone was speaking French most of the time, but it was fun to be in such a foreign environment. (Even though I am in a foreign country, I interact mostly with English speakers (for obvious reasons).) One of the friends, named Na, was Chinese, studied at a university in France, and is currently working in Vientiane. It was fun talking to her about her upbringing and her experiences. And Carole's son was adorable, especially when he was speaking French. It was definitely a pleasure to hang out with them. After a couple of glasses of wine, I called it a night, and headed home.

A very short, but sweet visit in Vientiane. I didn't give it a fair shot with only one day, but I had a good experience.

Laos in Nutshell - Pt. 1: Vang Vien

2010-11-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

I didn't really like Laos at first. I went to the main tourist cities, which did not seem representative of what I thought Laos would be like. I imagined it as pretty "pure", since I have been reading about how it's the last "real" Asia. You don't really see that until you are outside of the city; in the smaller towns and rural areas. I didn't have time to venture out too far, but I liked what I saw, especially on the drives outside of Luang Prabang. So here were my impressions of the 3 cities I visited: Vang Vien, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang.

Vang Vien
Good Lord. This place is a hedonistic party paradise. It was the train wreck you just couldn't stop looking at. But day time, the surrounding areas are gorgeous --lovely jagged mountains, rice fields, river views--with lots of nature-related activities to do. To get there, Simon and I had crossed from Nong Khai, Thailand over the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, Laos, and caught a 4hr bus ride (which made me feel pretty nauseous towards the end.)The bus dropped us off by an old airplane landing strip, which felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. But we followed some backpackers and found our way in the town center.

After we got in, we walked around a little bit. It only took us about 20 min to walk the whole center. There were bars playing "Friends", "Family Guy, or "South Park". It's like I never left America.

We only had about a day and half really (excluding travel time), so we booked a tour that included caving, trekking, and kayaking. Caving was really fun. We took tubes into these water caves and floated along inside until we reached a spot where we could climb out and wander around.

stacking stones

Trekking...was not really trekking. It was just walking to and from where we had to go :P Nice and scenic at times though.

And kayaking was a lovely way to see the Nam Song River, but it was super tiring. On our way back home, we stopped by one of the tubing bars. It was pretty surreal passing by crowds of people dancing to blasting music, seeing people jump off of tarzan swings into the water, or sliding down a water slide. I just kept thinking, who are these people?! We're in Laos???

Tubing in Vang Vien

Kayaking: Simon doing all the work. hehe.

End of our route

Night time was even more nuts. There's an area called "The Island", where there are about 4 bars that pretty much open one at a time. So when one closes, everyone moves over to the next one. To get to the Island, you have to cross this rickety wayward bridge that really messes with your head if you are tipsy or "happy".

Simon and I met these two nice ladies, Rachel (Ireland) and Marin (Estonia), from our day tour, and we ended up hanging out with them that night. We started off at Bucket Bar, since there were free buckets of drinks before 9:30pm. We met so many random travelers there (even one from San Diego!) who were just buzzing and having a good time. By 12 or so, they shut down the bar and we all moved next door to Limbo Bar. The main attraction here was (you guessed it), a limbo bar lit up with fire. Now combining this with drunk people...recipe for disaster. I tried it, but when the bar was at a decent height. There were several guys who went under the bar at a really low height, but got up too soon and had their hair caught on fire. I think that was the worse that I saw. We stayed up probably until 3am before stumbling back to the guesthouse.

Me, Marin, Rachel, and Simon

Bucket Bar

Limbo Bar - Rachel and I barely made it.

Oh and the nice thing was, once you went back across the bridge, there were Asian pancake/sandwich stalls just waiting for you. The pancakes here were different from the Thai ones. They were crispier and less greasy. Yay for banana nutella crepes after a long night!

Vang Vien was nice...for one time. I don't think I will need to go back there again. The highlight for me really was kayaking along the river, and the pancakes.

Checking In

2010-11-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Internet connection was pretty darn slow in Laos, so I didn't have a chance to blog. Pctures have been uploaded on my Flickr, so I'll get summaries of Vang Vien, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang up soon though.

I'm in Siem Reap, Cambodia right now, working on plans to extend my trip until end of February/beginning March 2011...it sounds like a long time, but I don't think it really is. There are still so many places I want to go. I do miss the comforts of home, but it's been interesting being on the go and living out of my backpack (which is carry-on size). There definitely have been moments when I just stop, smile, and think life is pretty f***ing good.

Vang Vien, Laos!

2010-11-11T04:32:00.000-08:00

I got up bright and early this morning at 6:15am to go to the Thailand-Laos border, with my fellow volunteer, Simon. In order to get to Laos, you have to cross over the Friendship Bridge on a bus (20 baht*). It was a pretty easy process to get the Lao visa. I filled out an application, my departure/arrival card, and submitted those forms with my US passport, $35USD fee, and passport photo, and was ready to go in 15 minutes.

After we passed immigration, we caught a local bus to Vientiane (5,000 kip), where we had to catch another bus to Vang Vien (30,000 kip). Thank goodness Simon had been to Vientiane before, because I was pretty confused about where to go and how much things were. I have to get used to using another currency (that hurts my brain in the beginning :P). But after walking around the bus station and grabbing some last minute snacks, we were off for a 4-hour bus ride.

I love being able to see the rural areas via bus, but this ride was a little bit tough. We had to get through some curvy and bumpy roads. I purposely didn't eat the whole ride, because I felt a little car sick during part of the ride. 4 hours later, we were dropped off on the side of the road, next to an old airplane landing strip, and the Vang Vien town center on the other side of it.

Simon and I checked out a couple of guest houses and then settled on Phouna Guesthouse, one that was a little hidden (there are still loud, obnoxious backpapers here. Darn.) Vang Vien is a very small town, but tons of backpackers come here to go tubing, kayaking, caving, rock climbing, and/or water rafting (I'm sure there are other sports that I am not aware of). Other than that, there's restaurants with "happy" items on the menu. We'll probably try something at one point. There's a row of bars/restuarants where (I swear) every other one was playing "Friends" or "Family Guy". I don't think I saw any other shows on besides those.

We'll be here for only 2 nights, but that will be plenty of time in this town. We're going on a tour tomorrow for hiking, kayaking, caving, and tubing. Let's hope we survive the whole day!

*I thought I would add some more details, if anyone is searching for more info.

Last Day in Nong Khai, Thailand

2010-11-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

Time flies by so fast! I can't believe it has already been four weeks. Today is my last day in the lovely city of Nong Khai. My Thailand 30-day visa expires on Friday, so I'm crossing over to Laos tomorrow.

I was getting pretty comfortable here in Nong Khai. I had a place to stay, knew my way around (to the food stalls-very important), had a routine schedule, recognized people I'd see around town, and I felt like I was part of the community through Isara. Since I didn't really have expectations for this town, I was really surprised how well it turned out. Who knew a sleepy town like Nong Khai could feel like home, even without looking for it. I am definitely going to miss everyone here and my life here.

But of course, right when you get comfortable, means it's time for a change. I'm going back into travel mode and will be hopping around in Laos (Vang Vien, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang), Cambodia (Siem Reap and Pnohm Penh), back to Bangkok, Thailand, and then back to Hong Kong, all in about 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing new things, trying new foods, and collecting a few more passport stamps :)

I'll update again when I get to Laos...

Sarnelli House

2010-11-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today, a group of us went to the Sarnelli House, an orphanage for children with AIDS/HIV, for a couple of hours to play with the kids. They were so fun to be around; just non stop energy. Right when we got out of the truck, this little boy ran straight to Andi, and jumped right into her arms as if he hadn't seen her in a very long time. Some boys followed suite and latched on to a few volunteers, while others (more so the girls) were a little more shy and waited til we started to play a game of Bang. I spent some time spinning one of the boys around in a circle, and got pretty dizzy after a few rounds and had to sit down! And while I was sitting, one of the teenagers braided my hair, and then one of the younger girls borrowed my camera and walked around the grounds, taking pictures of her friends. She had some really good shots! (Unfortunately, I couldn't remember her name :(

pic by Andrew L.

pic by little girl

pic by little girl

here's the little girl herself!

You couldn't tell at all that these kids were any different from any other kids. They were so full of life, so sweet, and eager to play; their energy was totally infectious. It was a little sad when we left, because you can tell how much some of them wanted to go with us. It was one of those drawn out goodbyes, where you both parties really didn't want the other to go. We were only there for a couple hours, but it was such a nice way to spend a time on a Saturday. We were all pretty wiped out by the time we got back home.

Isara - Mekong River Clean-up Campaign: Boat Project

2010-11-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Over the past week, Isara volunteers have been working on a boat built with recycled materials for the Mekong River Clean-up Campaign. The plan is to raise awareness about the Mekong River garbage problem to riverside communities, from areas in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. To get that message across, Kirk will be sailing down the Mekong on a boat built with recycled plastic bottles, recycled wood, solar panels, and electric engine. (I'm sure there are more parts, but I don't know what they are.) I'm pretty sure this is going to surprise a lot of the communities the project will reach out too.

I wish I could be there to see the boat set sail, but I will be in Laos or Cambodia by then. Unless, the days coincide with my dates in whichever area it will be. Either way, I'm cheering this project on from wherever I am. I feel fortunate to have worked on such a project with heart and impact (I'm sure of it).

Here are a few photos of the volunteers sanding and painting the wood. It's progressed a lot more since these photos, so for more photos and information on this project, go here at the Isara website. Please visit! Not only will you find out more about the boat, you will be instantly donating by viewing the webpage.

Food in Thailand - Sweets

2010-11-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

What? No post on food yet? Trust me, I have been eating A LOT. But, I don't always remember to take photos of the dishes/snacks; I just jump into eating! I've had some really tasty things, but my menu is limited since I can't read/speak Thai. Some of the volunteers (foreign and local) have taught me names of some dishes, but aside from that, pointing to food items can only get you so far at a food stall. Here are some foods I've sampled, starting with (what else)...sweets!

Guay Boh Chee
Banana, coconut milk, sugar. Very simple and delicious! Made by our lovely manager, Nok.

Roti Sai Mai
This is definitely my favorite Thai treat. It's like Thai cotton candy wrapped in a thin pancake. May, a Thai volunteer, calls it "sugar hair". It's so simple, but so good! You can't really go wrong if you have something dough-related plus sugar. They sell it at food stands in 2 parts: one bag with candy threads and one with crepes. Put it together at your convenience!

Bakery Buns
I fell in love with this bakery! Don't know the name yet, but will find out. The bun is as big as the size of your palm! The bread tastes like a sweet dinner roll, with a heap of filling inside. I've tried the Thai custard (pandan = favorite!), taro, young coconut (there's a slice of fresh coconut inside with the coconut custard), pineapple, and red bean. They also have savory ones that I have yet to try.

Banana Roti (Crepe)
Lauren, one of the first volunteers I met here, introduced me to the plain crepe at a food stall down the street from Isara. It's an egg flour crepe topped with sugar and condensed milk. (Thais order it with an egg inside as well.) It was so good, I thought I'd try to one-up it by adding bananas to my order. Good lord, it is SO sweet. Bananas here have more flavor, so adding that to the roti was amazing. Only downside was the first time I had it with banana, they added mayonnaise on top (I think the Kewpie one; it was a little sweeter). Not really a taste I want on my crepe. The next time I ordered, I requested the cook to not add it.

Other sweets I've had are (but no pictures):
- Glutinous rice balls with yellow bean filling in coconut milk
- Coconut pudding puffs with corn

One note though...Thai chocolate and some cupcakes are not that great. They have "chocolate flavor" items, instead of real chocolate (cocoa). And the cupcakes...I think it's the weather that affects the baking. All the cupcakes I have had are not moist. But it's okay, there are a lot of other sweets to eat!

Stay tuned for a savory foods...

Hasadee School

2010-11-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

3 of us Isara volunteers got up bright and early to go with Teacher Dave (also an Isara volunteer) to his full-time job at Hasadee School, located in Si Chiang Mai (about 40 min from Nong Khai). Even though I've been here for a few weeks, I haven't really had time to venture off outside of Nong Khai, so this was a good opportunity to see a little more of North Eastern Thailand.

We took a road alongside the Mekong River, and passed through rural areas. Dave mentioned that the area was completely flooded just a couple of years ago, but it must have done some good because everything was lush and green. Upon entering Si Chiang Mai, we passed by the city "sculpture park", consisting of manicured hedges shaped like animals, dinosaurs, and people. (Nothing like the Salakaewkoo.)

We sat in all of Dave's English classes throughout the school day. The kids there were so well behaved! The older ones were very polite, and several of them spoke English very well. We basically helped out by reviewing letter sounds, words, and grammar (depending on the level). Dave had us play some fun games with them to reinforce their lessons, including one that involved the winner bopping the losers on the head with an empty water bottle. It was pretty funny since the kids got really into it.

Getting into class

10 min brush-your-teeth time after lunch

Bottle Bop Review Game

Salakaewkoo - Sculpture Park

2010-11-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Salakaewkoo (Sculpture Park) is quite a strange, but beautiful place. With its towering, massive sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu figures, it felt surreal to be there. The sculptures were created by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a Laos mystic, whose remains are still in a temple inside the Salakaewkoo. We didn't go inside to see the remains, but I heard it's a little bizarre. (Apparently, they saved all his belongings because they believe(d) he would return from the dead.) It was a beautiful day to be out though. And it was a very good place to just let your mind relax and wander off.

Halloween at Isara

2010-10-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Instead of classes on Friday, Isara threw a Halloween party. It's not a holiday Thailand celebrates, so it was pretty much a DIY deal, from costumes to decorations.The kids had such a blast, they didn't even want to leave.

We had a costume contest for the boys...

...and girls.

Outside on the deck

Pumpkin carving

Jack O'Lanterns and snackies (pumpkins here are not quite like the ones at home)

I was pretty stoked about making some crafts. Made some mouse ears for me and some kids who didn't have costumes.

We played plenty of games. They were going nuts for the Balloon Stomp (above). I'm pretty sure the kids played 10 rounds. (We had A LOT of balloons.)

But overall, it was really fun! Great to see the kids having a good time.

Getting Ready for Halloween

2010-10-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

For once, I don't have to think about what am I going to do this year for Halloween in the States. I don't have to look for the best party to spend the night at, or try to think of a super creative costume for one of those nights that is totally hyped up, and usually a let down. But you know, I am a little sad I am going to miss it (especially dressing up! 3 costumes just for last year, aww yeah). Thailand does not celebrate Halloween; but why would they? It's a Buddhist country.

But...Isara is going to celebrate! We are throwing a party on Friday, instead of holding classes. I am more excited for the kids to celebrate it really. It's definitely a children's holiday. We spent a lot of time today decorating the main classroom by making posters, coloring cartoons and blowing up balloons. We only had one class today, but there were a lot of kids helped out. They are very excited for tomorrow.

Here are some photos of everyone getting ready....

I'll post pictures of the actual halloween party when they are ready.

Happy Halloween!!!

First Lessons

2010-10-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

Whew, made it through my first classes! On Monday, I taught an English class to six kids who were around 8-11 years old. I had a Thai teacher aide as well (thank goodness). The kids were so quiet in the beginning. I was a little worried that they weren't paying attention or understanding the content. But it turns out they were busy writing down the verbs and looking in their dictionaries to translate them at the same time. By the end of the class, I was able to get each student to (willingly on their own) come up to the board to fill in a blank in a sentence. It was nice to see them eager to show what they learned.

After that class, I feel lot more confident to teach. It was not as scary as I thought. I'm starting to develop my "teaching" voice too (haha..yes, me talking loud!). As much fun as it is, it is a lot of work. (Especially since I don't have a background in teaching at all.) Even planning a just a 1hr lesson takes me while, since I have to do research. Props to all you teachers and your hard work out there (i.e. Patricia)!

*I didn't take any pics of my first class but will try to take some today!

Nong Khai - Week 1

2010-10-24T01:57:00.001-07:00

One week down already? I don't feel like I have done a whole lot. But it is definitely much slower here. My day to day so far has been waking up around 10:30am, taking a bike ride out to Tesco (kind of like a Walmart/Target), and then maybe do some miscellaneous things to help out, until the kids come in for class in the afternoon. Pretty chill. I haven't had my own class to teach yet, but will be doing so this coming week.

But here are some random notes on living in Nong Khai:

1. Thai people here think I am Thai.
A lot of Asian people I have met since traveling have a hard time understanding that I am from the US. What usually follows is "but...you look Asian." When I was trying to find vitamins today, I had to do the "I don't speak Thai" statement/gestures, and the salesperson (who was Thai) said, "You look Thai". It's kind of amusing. I was talking to a new Thai friend from the school, who says that even though I am from the US, the way I behave seems very Asian, not American; I agree with that. (Remember this conversation, Rutsu?)

2. Thai language
Some words/sounds are very similar to Cantonese, so it has been a little easier to pick up so far (like "saam" = 3). I have only learned the name of some dishes, drinks, and the numbers 1-10.

3. 7-Eleven in any Asian country is really awesome; Asian food at your convenience!
Speaking of drinks, they sell Thai Ice Tea (Chai Yen) right from the soda dispensers! It's so good! Their fast food options are pretty tasty too. I've had:
- toasties: they use the sandwich-maker machine from the early 90s (remember those?)
- sticky rice burgers: pork patty sandwiched in between two "buns" made of sticky rice patties
- baos: every Asian country I have been in so far has baos in their 7-elevens...love it.

4. Riding a bike is rad for exploring a small town.
You can cover so much more ground, plus any breeze is excellent in this hot weather! (We would bike just a block just because of that. And it's fun.) The landscape here is flat, so my rides are pretty leisurely (that is, when I am not trying to catch up with someone else).

Hmmm...that's all I can write for now. Pictures to come soon, once I have uploaded them all!

Naga Fireball Festival

2010-10-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Naga Festival is held every year along the Mekong River on the last full moon in October. There is supposed to be a natural phenomenom of Naga (dragon) fireballs appearing at this time, and many towns along the Mekong celebrate this event, including Nong Khai.

While we didn't see any fireballs, there were plenty of lanterns being lit and released to the sky, and smaller ones were sent down sailing on the Mekong River. It was a pretty magical sight.

3-2-1!

2010-10-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a song one of the students kept playing on repeat. Gotta love pop music!

Nong Khai: Home For The Next 4 Weeks

2010-10-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

After traveling for weeks at a time, I'm finally in one place for more than 6 or so days. I'm in Nong Khai, in the northeastern part of Thailand, along the Mekong River, and right across from Laos. I'm volunteering at Isara, a wonderful organization that holds after school English and computer classes for kids. (Visit the website... each visit raises $0.01!) I'll be doing a whole mix of things, from helping out in class rooms, maybe some designing, and pretty much anything the organization might need help with.

On my first day, I pretty much just sat in some classes and watched the other volunteer teachers. I helped one of them out by drawing pictures to accompany some words (that was fun, trying to draw "sky"). Yesterday, I helped out with teaching a computer class, but I didn't feel too confident in it just yet, having it been my first time. I'm sure it will get better as I gain my confidence. A group of kids can be intimidating!

Nong Khai reminds me of when I was in Masaya, Nicaragua. It's small town, not that developed, and the pace of life here is very relaxed, which I am enjoying a lot. Since the new school term does not start until the end of the month, we are not as busy at the moment (but that will pick up). The other volunteers have been great and super nice. I'm staying at the school (upstairs are 4 bedrooms), so part of me feels like I'm back in a college dorm :P

During one of our conversations, my age slipped out, and someone asked if this was where I thought I would be at this age...ha! I would have never ever thought I would be living in Thailand for a month, that's for sure. Pretty amazing. But I'm taking it all in...from the bike rides around town to run errands and to the kids coming in for a class or just to hang out...I can't believe I am here and doing this.

Train Wreck!

2010-10-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

Good lord. What was supposed to be a 12hr overnight train ride turned into a 24hr ordeal. The train from Bangkok to Nong Khai departed on time, and I was supposed to arrive at 8:25am, but when I woke up, we were stopped and nowhere near Nong Khai. Due to heavy rains during the night, there was flooding along that tracks. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, due to language barriers. There was talk about waiting for a free shuttle to take us to the next train station, and then there was talk about paying for a truck to take you to the next town, and then there was talk about the train we were on would go back to Bangkok....it seemed like such a mess. You would think there was a standard procedure, but there didn't seem like one.

But in the end, I took the free shuttle, and was able to get on the next train, so total time delayed was probably 6 hours. I met a couple other travelers, so it wasn't so much of a lonely ride: one girl from Belgium and a couple from New Zealand.

When I finally arrived, the head of the volunteer organization, along with two other volunteers, were there to pick me up. They were kind enough to drive my new friends to a hostel as well.

So glad everything worked out!

Bangkok Day 3 - Chatuchak Weekend Market and Chinatown

2010-10-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

I was feeling pretty hung over, but it was my last day in Bangkok, so I had to make the most of it. I managed to wake up at 7:00am! Cathrine and I ended up going out the the Chatuchak Weekend Market. (Martin probably overslept, because we waited for him for about 45 min, but he didn't show up.) Yes, it was another market, selling the usual tourist trinkets, local foods, and other wares. But what I liked about this one was the local designers that sold their clothes for cheap, considering it was pretty well-made and unique. The stores were set up like boutiques, and it was neat to see what they could do with such a small space. There were even vintage clothes shops. (I didn't buy anything though, can you believe it?)

Vintage Dress Shopping ath Chatuchak

After the Chatuchak Weekend Market, Cathrine and I headed over to Chinatown, via the MRT (underground subway). There was only one line throughout the entire city. (There's the SkyTrain as well, but that is above ground and I believe there were about 3 lines for that.) For single ride, you pay for an electronic token that you tap to enter, and then deposit when you exit. First time I had seen that. Usually it's some form of paper ticket.

We eventually got to Chinatown, but I wasn't that thrilled about it. Maybe because I was so familiar with chinatowns growing up, but it was what I expected. I think I heard some people speaking Cantonese along the way. There was the Sampeng Lane market, which was extremely crowded and narrow. We only lasted one block of it. It was a little to much.

I finally got to ride a tuk tuk when we left Chinatown. It's funny how they try to scam foreigners, because Cathrine had taken one her first day. And for 40 baht, she had a personal driver for 3 hours. So when we tried to flag one down, the first one stated his price was 80 baht, for a ride that was probably only 20 minutes at the most. We talked him down to 40 baht, but he wouldn't go any lower so we passed. (A metered cab starts at 35 baht, so we knew that wasn't going to be worth it.) The next one we flagged down stated 20 baht, much more reasonable, and I tried to get him to take 10, but he wouldn't, so we just went for 20 baht. In USD, that's less than a $1 :P It was fun ride, and the timing was great because by the time we got back to our hostel area, it started to pour heavily.

Our last thing on our to-do list today was to get a foot massage. It was raining so hard though, we had to stand in front of a bank awning so we wouldn't get soaked. It seemed like it was taking forever, so when it started to get a teeny bit lighter, we ran over to the massage place. It was well deserved, after 2.5 full days of walking! After that, I went on my way to leave Bangkok and on to Nong Khai...

Bangkok Day 2 - Wat Phra Kaew, Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Museum of Siam, Sukhumvit, and RCA

2010-10-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

It was my last day in Bangkok, and boy was it full. We started off early at Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. I was wearing a dress with tights on, but apparently, my tights were too tight, so I had to rent a sarong to wear since it was on royal grounds. Kind of a hassle, but turned out to be fun, since it was like a dress change.

We saw the Wat Phra Kaew, home of the Emerald Buddha, and walked around the Grand Palace. The temples here are so ornate; things still look shiney and sparkly. We'd occasionally see people working on restoring the temples, buddha statues, and wall murals. It's amazing to see how well kept everything is.

We took a lunch break over at the Chao Phraya River with some fried rice and fresh pineapple.

Afterwards, we walked over to Wat Pho, housing the Reclining Buddha. I can't imagine having to build the temple around this thing. It's gynormous!! Good thing we went inside when we did, because it started to pour outside. And smart me, I decided at the last moment to ditch my windbreaker and umbrella right before leaving the hostel. We walked around the Wat Pho area to try to find the massage school, but we kept getting turned about, so we gave up.

Martin and I decided to check out the Museum of Siam, and it was pretty cool. The exhibits on Thai culture and history were interactive and fun. I went to the Hong Kong History Museum the day before I left for Thailand. It's pretty cool that these countries can trace their history way back into time, where as in the US, well, it's not even 300 years old yet.

When we left the Museum of Siam, it was still pouring, and without an umbrella or any cover up at all, I gave up and just headed back to the hostel to rest up. I made plans to have dinner with my cousin's friend, Joe, so it was time to nap.

Good thing I did, because it turned out to be a super fun night! It started a little bit off though. We planned to meet at this restaurant named Beach 22 out near the Sukhumvit area, but what was supposed to be a 1hr trip turned out to be almost 2 hours: 15 min cab ride to the SkyTrain, 15 min SkyTrain ride, and an 1.5 hr cab ride that went in all the wrong directions. We eventually made it though, with Joe and his girlfriend, Elle, waiting for us with food already on the table. They were super nice and great hosts. We ate some yummy (non-street) Thai food, although I had trouble with some dishes that were a bit too spicey for me. I kept choking and had to wash it down with some Singha beer!

Afterwards, we were deciding on what to do, whether to just go to a bar for a couple drinks, or go all out and go clubbing at Royal City Avenue (RCA). I was hesitant about going to RCA at first because it would be pricier, but when was I going to be in Bangkok again, and get to party with all these random people that became instant friends? It was a no brainer.

RCA was crazy fun...clubbing in Bangkok was pretty awesome because:
1. Martin had to rent shoes across from the club since his flip-flops were not allowed inside. They even provided socks for him! WTF? Where can you do that in the States?!

2. Everyone gets a table together with a bottle of whiskey (with mixers) to share. Communal drinking? So Asian. Good deal too.

3. The music was super fun...Joe mentioned most of the DJs were Thai, but were from the States.

4. LAZERS! Lazers were everywhere! Joe said it best. They party here like it's NYE all the time.

Only thing not so awesome, was the fact that there were tables throughout the entire floor. Meaning no real dance floor. People just danced around their tables. Such a shame, since the music being played was defintely dance your @ss off music.

After a semi-long cab ride home, our night wouldn't be complete without some street food after a night of drinking.

Unfortunately, that still didn't help out my hangover the next day :|

Bangkok Day 1 - Khao San Road, CS gathering, Suan-Lum Night Bazaar, Pat Pong Night Bazaar, Si Lom, Sri Mahamariammant Temple

2010-10-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

I felt a bit nervous about going to Bangkok. For the first time on this trip, I'm totally by myself in a foreign country. My cousin had put me in contact with her friend, but we had not made language barrier, but everything turned out really well!

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the early afternoon and took an Airport Express bus to my hostel, NapPark, in the Banglamphu area. It dropped me off just about 2 blocks away, very convenient. No one was in my dorm (of 8 beds) when I got in, but about half an hour later, I met Cathrine, a girl from Norway, making a stop in Bangkok for about the same amount of days as me. She was very friendly and sweet. She was also traveling by herself as well, so we made plans to grab dinner. I wasn't going to eat alone my first night in town, after all.

After a little bit of a wait, due to miscommunication, we were on our way out to explore Khao San. As we were stepping out, a fellow named Martin (from UK) asked if we were grabbing dinner, so we invited him to join us. He was traveling by himself as well and had only arrived the previous night.

We stopped by a pad thai stand for a quick meal and proceeded to find a bar for a drink. Unsure of where to go, we ended up buying a beer from a street vendor and just strolled around, which turned out to be a better option.

I remembered there was a Couch Surfing meet up that night going on at Silk Bar, so we decided to land there. I just joined Couch Surfing recently, with the intention of maybe finding a couch to surf on in Bangkok, but I was still a little hesitant about messaging someone to see if I could stay on their couch. Plus, it took time to research who you might want to stay with, which I didn't have a whole lot of. But after going to the meet up, I would try it. We met some really nice people and the great thing was, even if you don't do a couch exchange, at least you can find a fellow traveler to meet up. Such a benefit if you are traveling alone. Instant connection right there.

Khao San Road

Cathrine, Martin, and I felt a little bad that we brought our drinks into Silk Bar, and weren't planning on ordering anything, so with the advice of one of the CSers, we went in search of the Suan-Lum Night Market. I've been to several Asian markets by now, but this one was pretty cool in that there was one section where there was a giant stage set up with performers singing pop songs, with a full band and even dancers. The singing was a little bit like karaoke style, but I think they were more serious than that.

Next, we planned on going to Chinatown. We walked a bit and found ourselves on Thanon Silom, where was another night market going on on the sidewalk, along with several side streets filled with bars. We walked down one that had a couple gay bars, where Martin got a lot of stares haha. Eventually, we found ourselves in yet another night market, Patpong. Similar to other night markets, only it was sandwhiched in between bars and sex clubs. I can't tell you how many people came up to us with laminated lists of "sexy shows". And even just walking past the club doors, you can see about 20 or so women in bikinis just dancing on the stage. it was really strange for me to see. No thank you!

We wandered around some more, thinking we were in Chinatown, but it turned out to be in another direction, so we decided to head home. We stumbled across the Sri Mahamariammant Temple before we grabbed a taxi home. I'm glad they lit it up, because it just looked amazing.

Heading to Bangkok Today

2010-10-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Time is seriously going by so fast here! I've been in Asia for 3 weeks now. So far, my travel time increments have been about a week in each place, so at the moment, I'm not really grasping that I will be in traveling for the next month and a half. I will spend one month at Isara, the organization I will be volunteering at, but Laos and Cambodia for maybe 10 days total...haven't thought about a plan for that yet. (Although, I am definitely going.)

I'm looking forward to volunteering though. I haven't worked since end of June, and although I've been doing things for myself, I'll be glad to focus and apply myself towards something else. Plus, you can only sight-see and travel for so long. It will be nice to be in one place for a chunk of time.

Bye bye, Hong Kong!

KAWS at Harbor City

2010-10-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

I walked by the Kowloon ferry area today and saw the KAWS sculpture amongst a colorful, graphic background. Check it out (and the rest of the exhibit) if you are in Hong Kong too.

V=

Red Bull Flutag in Hong Kong

2010-10-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't really see much of a creative culture/sub-culture or a whole lot of individuality/unique self-expression here in Hong Kong. Maybe I am not sure where to look, but it's not as apparent here as it was in Tokyo.

That being said, I was happy to hear that the Red Bull Flutag was debuting for the first time in Asia in Hong Kong. It was at the Kowloon Heliport. Glory, an old high-school friend of mine, currently living in Hong Kong, told me about the event. I had seen it when it rolled through Portland, OR a couple years ago, so I thought it would be interesting to see what people would come up with here.

Turns out that inspiration here included a lot more cultural influences (very neat to see, but I couldn't get any good photos). Back in the States, I think it was more about pop culture-influence, instead of US culture/traditions. There was one based on a Chinese-style wedding, one on Mah Jong, and another on dim sum. There were pop culture ones to, like a Bruce Lee, Ding Dong (aka Doremon), and Lost. (Funny, because I had a Lost-related dream the night before. It was about how Jack's house was a time machine. WEIRD.)

I really thought the way the Lost plane and the Ding Dong plane were constructed were shoe-ins, but...they nose-dived right into the water! The wind was so strong that it knocked the Ding Dong plane before it even had a chance to launch. They ended up dismantling a few parts to get it going on the ramp, but it still fell short.

We ended up taking off before the last two or so since it started to rain. I didn't check to see who was the winner, but it was probably the ones we didn't watch.

Another thing I noticed: the crowd was SO tame. Glory blames it on the lack of beer (no one was selling it at the event, only Red Bulls, which were not free), but I think it is also because people here are so much more reserved and polite (? or passive? I'm not quite sure what it is). At the Portland one, people where squished side by side and tippy toe-ing, trying to get a glimpse of the flights, but here, we had a good amount of room, and the energy was completely mild. It's a little strange.

Still trying to understand what Hong Kong and the people here are about, but I'm not getting a whole lot yet...

PS. Excuse the crappy photos. Bad lighting, overcast, drizzly rain, bad angles.

It was bound to happen...

2010-10-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I feel sick :( I think I have a cold. It was bound to happen, with all the traveling, goingfrom hot/humidity to freezing A/C, and not sleeping enough. At least I am at a place where I can rest well, and I am glad this happened after Japan and before Thailand. It's given me time to catch up on blogging about my Japan trip and on some sleep.

Got to get ready for Thailand though...I'm going to Bangkok on Thursday and I STILL haven't booked a place to stay yet...

Japan Day 7: Tokyo - Last Day!

2010-10-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the day actually in the hotel. With Rick's executive level hotel room/service (thank you, Rick's travel points!), we got to use the spa; so great for our aching feet! The spa was Japanese style, so they had separate ones for men and women because swimsuits were not allowed. The great thing was that I had the spa all to myself.

After the spa, I walked around the Shinjuku area one last time, and grabbed some snacks for my shuttle ride over to the airport.

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

Even though my flight was at 6pm, the Narita International Airport is about an hour and a half away from Tokyo, so my last day was not very long. There is an express train to the airport, but it costs twice as much as a shuttle (also called airport limo). Having spent enough money in Japan, I opted for the limo, and it got me there in time and just fine. (Good thing I saved money from the ride over, because I spent the last of my yen on a small box of Tokyo Banana and Sakura Matcha Kit Kat at the airport!)

Overall, it was a great trip, and I would love to come back and see other parts of Japan and visit new friends too! Thank you, Japan!

Japan Day 6: Tokyo - The Pokemon Center, Asakusa, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku

2010-10-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

It was my last full day in Tokyo. I felt like I had done a lot already and didn't need to exhaust myself today, but thanks to my new, dear friend Seiko, she proved me wrong! There was still lots to see. I had only been introduced to Seiko through a friend via facebook a week before I left for Japan, but she turned out to be a super sweet lady, and great hostess.

Rick and I met Seiko at the Shinjuku train station. I specified where, but since Shinjuku is one of the busiest transit stations in the world, I didn't account that despite being specific, there is still chance of misunderstanding! And without a cellphone, all Rick and I could do was wait for Seiko to show up. Fortunately, Seiko found me and Rick within half an hour of our meet time.

I asked Seiko if we could stop by The Pokemon Center. Having been a former employee for the brand, I thought it'd be fun to check out. When we arrived upstairs, outside of the store, rows of people were lined up on the sides, playing the new Black & White game on their DS. Inside the store was not any less hectic. It was cool to see the new characters (didn't know the names though, since they were in Japanese), and there was a neat cross-breed stuffed animal of Pikachu + Ditto. I didn't buy anything though; I have too much Pokemon stuff from the old job!

Next, we headed over to Asakusa, a more traditional part of Tokyo. It was a nice contrast to the hustle and bustle of the more metropolitan areas. We walked over to the Senso-ji Complex area, which was beautifully lit up. The temple itself was closed, but there were plenty of people walking around the grounds. On the way to the temple, there was a market selling snacks, souvenirs, and other miscellaneous things. We stopped by this one vendor that was making fresh rice crackers. Never had it fresh before; it was really yummy! I had a wasabi one, wrapped in dried seaweed. I carelessly dropped a chunk on the floor though...doh!

Outside of the Senso-ji, there was an interesting music performance going on. Even a Harajuku girl was taking photos of it:

After Asakusa, we stopped by Shibuya to take a few more photos of the famous, busiest intersection. The ones I took from the previous night did not really capture the amount of people there; I don't think my second set turned out any better. Oh well. Here's a video instead:

We had already missed the costume portion of Harajuku, which occurs on Sunday mornings. We were about 9 hours too late :P (At least we saw one Harajuku girl in Asakusa.) We walked around the area instead, which was full of retail shops, from Forever 21 to a 3M store; Seiko said it's one of the best areas to shop in Tokyo. However, instead of shopping we spent most of our time finding the Citi Bank, so I could get some cash out. (ATMs in Tokyo are not as accessible, since most Japanese banks did not accept my US ATM card for withdrawal. Make sure you take enough out if you go!) Oh wait, I did buy something...I had a great strawberry and chocolate ice cream crepe :)

Rick, Seiko, and I were pretty much spent after a full day of walking. We ended up calling it an early night so we could just relax before leaving Japan the next day.

Japan Day 5: Tokyo - Part 3 - Nightlife in Shibuya

2010-10-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

It was Wendy's last night in Tokyo, so she needed a good girls' night, Tokyo-style. The Tokyo metro stops running at 1am, but clubs are open until 5am (the metro reopens again at 6am). Since our "catch-the-last-train/pay-too-much-for-taxi" incident in Osaka, the plan was to just head out late and stay up til the metro opens.

A friend recommended Club Ageha, but it required a shuttle ride from Roppongi. Rather than risk being stuck out in the boonies for the entire night, we aimed to go to WOMB and HARD @ Soft.

We started off at an izakaya, but with no English/pictures on the menu and the inability to verbally communicate with the staff, we only stayed for one dish each. I accidentally ordered skewered chicken liver, although Wendy saved it with her grilled mackerel dish (sake was honorable mention).

But off we went, in search of Soft. Figuring that the party at Soft would be more underground (read: small), we headed there first. (We wanted to save the WOMB party for the later hours, because that place looked crazy.) It took us a while to find Soft, but after several stops in convenience stores for directions, we go there. We stopped by the Am/Pm next door to grab a beverage because you can drink in public. Plus, drinking at a bar/club in Tokyo can get pretty pricey. The cheapest drink we found for the night was ¥500 (about USD $6). Kind of like NYC prices I guess. I got a nice peach fizzy drink and Wendy got a small bottle of whiskey and and a bottle of coke. Classy!

But thank god for this website, because HARD was such a great dance party! Really happy that I found this listed. The basement was small; it had a bar, a dance floor, mini stage, and a bathroom (tucked away in a corner. The entrance was pretty mysterious too). The DJs were playing excellent music (electro/dance/etc...the 3 DJs we saw were all sic), the energy level was high and positive, and the people were into the music and dancing. It didn't feel pretentious at all, considering how hip the place felt. If I lived in Tokyo, I would definitely hit this party up all the time. (Plus, it didn't hurt that there was a little eye-candy at the bar.)

At about 2ish, we decided to check out WOMB, in another part of Shibuya. I got directions from their website, but we just couldn't seem to find it. We stopped into more convenience stores (story of our night), but it just didn't happen. We did find the right area, and asked around about WOMB, but it sounded like it was wrapping up anyways (it was 3:30am at this point). We checked in with Club Asia, a hip hop club, but the cover was still ¥3500 (USD $42!! Apparently the average for the bigger, multi-story clubs.) We passed on that, and then came across Atom, which they were charging ¥3000. Since it was Wendy's last night (and probably the only time I would be out in Japan for the rest of the trip), we went in.

But the bouncer that greeted us asked Wendy where she was from, and ended up giving us a discount; it turned out to be ¥1000 each, including a drink ticket. Score! And let me say, Atom was CRAZY. It was only 2 floors (we had to take an elevator to get there), but it was packed, especially on the main room. I have never seen such an enthusiastic crowd at a club. We could have been at a concert and these people were the band's number one fans. Everyone was singing at the top of their lungs and dancing so hard to US and Japanese hits. It was intense! The other floor had good electro music, but there wasn't as much people and there seemed to be a group of white males on the prowl for Japanese girls. A bit creepy. We just danced on the other floor.

No pictures allowed. Oops.

Even though Atom had great energy, the vibe was way different from Soft. It was more meat-market; kinda gross. At the end, we closed the place down at 5am, and they kicked us out onto the elevators. (Can we say "fire hazard"?) There must have been at least 250 people waiting to take just the 2 elevators, no optional staircase.

When we stepped outside, it was daylight, and crowds of people were making their way back to the Shibuya station. It wasn't open yet, so we killed some time at a rice bowl place. It was the perfect post-clubbing meal.

I have to say, Tokyo is pretty safe (other than the elevator-fire hazard). When we were walking towards the station at 5:30am, there were a few guys, who you can tell had a late night drinking/clubbing, just passed on the sidewalk or at a storefront. They didn't look homeless at all, they just needed a place to rest. This was just amazing to me; it's THAT safe.

And that was our night-to-day out....thank you, Shibuya!

Japan Day 5: Tokyo - Part 2 - Akihabara and Shiodome

2010-10-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

My guide book described the Akihabara neighborhood as "techno-geek heaven", and they were totally right. Wendy and I arrived there before even the shops opened, and we saw guys (from teenagers to fully-grown men) lined up outside of stores for deals on computer-ware, games, and anime figures. I don't even do that on Black Friday in the States for anything. But it was definitely an interesting neighborhood. There were tons of teenage boys walking (with shopping bags full of stuff) among 5-story shops with everything electronic, game arcades, manga and toy stores; I felt like I was geeking out too.

The weirdest experience there was going to a maid cafe, called @home cafe. It was totally kitschy and disturbing at the same time. The "maids" were teenage girls dressed in maid costumes, who addressed you as master/mistress of the "house". (We weren't allowed to take photos, only if we paid for a photo with our "maid", which you see below.) Wendy, I, and maybe two other women were the only females, out of 25 or so customers. The rest were teenage boys to men in their 40s.

You can order a meal, drink, and/or dessert individually or as a package deal. The packages included a game you'd play with a maid, a picture with a maid (from which you can choose which maid you wanted to take a picture with), and a take home souvenir. I opted for a dessert (a cute little rare-cream cheese cake shaped as a bunny) and a photo with our maid.

It really was bizarre to see these girls play their role. They were very cutesy and flirty with the guys. Some guys just looked down-right creepy, but the girls maintained their role without missing a beat. Either Wendy or Dan compared the maid cafe to Hooters in the US. I'd have to agree, only the maid cafe seemed even more f'd up because this crossed the line of fetish.

In the end, I had fun though. Our maid was super cute and sweet, and I got a "Master Card", Lv.1 (Haha. If I had't worked for a game company, I would have no idea WTF "Lv.1" meant.)

After Akihabara, I hopped on the metro back to Tsukiji/Shiodome area to see the Advertising Museum. I'm usually good with directions/orientation, but the maps in my guidebook were not very detailed, so I probably spent almost 45min walking around, trying to find this museum. It turned out to be in this giant mall/building, with a small sign on the front, and a directory on the side. It was worth it, I suppose. Not so much for the featured exhibit (on the boom of American Advertising, inspired by Mad Men), but for the Japanese collection it housed and for the design of the exhibits. (Being in Asia and seeing visuals in Japan and Hong Kong have made it even more clear for me that design is so much more elegant when simple and clean.)

I went through the exhibit within and hour and then headed back to the Ginza metro station. They had opened the main avenue there for pedestrians, so it was nice to stroll around and take in the environment around me. I needed to ease my pace and rest up, because Wendy and I planned to be up all night partying in Shibuya.

Japan Day 5: Tokyo - Part 1 - Tsukiji Market

2010-10-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

This was the longest day on my trip so far. We got up at 5:30am to go see the Tsukiji fish market. This wasn't just any fish market; this was where sellers auction fresh fish to buyers, as early as 3:30am. We were not crazy enough to get up that early for the auction, but we did want to see the wholesale market and to eat some fresh fish for breakfast.

Yoshi and Yuko (Wendy's friends from the previous chicken-sashimi night) met up with us at the market bright and early. I'm so glad they came, because they knew just where to take us throughout the market and helped us find this awesome tiny restaurant that served the freshest chirashi bowl I have ever had. It was so worth getting up early for! (At least once).

I didn't like salmon roe until this bowl.

After breakfast, we walked around the Tsukiji backstreets, where vendors sold fruits, veggies, assorted fishcakes, tea, and many other things. I couldn't eat anymore after the chirashi bowl, but Rick bought several types of fishcakes that I sampled. The best was this fried fishcake with chopped onions, wrapped in bacon. So tasty!

"fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads/
fish heads, fish heads, eat them up. YUM!"

Yoshi and Yuko also brought us to the wholesale fish market in this giant wherehouse, where restaurant cooks and locals would buy their fresh fish. It was so hectic just trying to get around. The workers zipped around in these little individual standing carts (kind of reminded me of the Jetsons); there was even a traffic director at one intersection controlling the chaos. People had their jobs to do, and we were just tourists in their pathways. There were several times when Yuko had to pull me back from the street to avoid getting runover. It was fun to experience.

Japan Day 4: Part 2 - Tokyo

2010-10-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Going from Kyoto to Tokyo is like day to night. Kyoto was much more relaxed and easy to get around, while upon entering Tokyo Station, I could feel this was going to be such a different place. Looking at the metro map at the station was already confusing, since it was not really on a grid system, there were multiple rails we could take to get to one place, and the English equivalents were not as apparent as Kyoto, Osaka, or Hong Kong. Not to mention we had to go to Shinjuku station, which is one of the world's busiest stations.

Rick and I had to get to the Westin to drop off my stuff and meet Wendy for dinner with her friends at 7:30pm that day. We got into Rick's hotel around 5:00pm and figured we had enough time to take a short nap, and leave at 6pm to go to Wendy's. We didn't leave time for getting lost though! We scrambled to find the right direction towards the hotel, and when we finally did get there around 7:15pm, Wendy opens the door and says our reservation is at 8:30pm. Doh!

We all showed up in the Ginza neighborhood to meet Wendy's friends, Yoshi and Yuko. Once again, VERY glad we had a host in this city, because they knew where to take us for chicken sashimi. It was basically what you think it would taste like -- raw fish. Only it was chicken. We tried breast, thigh, and stomach (?). In that order, it went from least chewy to chewy. We had several other appetizers, like (cooked) chicken wings, tempura mushrooms (none of that button-mushroom stuff), a type of potato with fish cake, skewered chicken, and a plate of greens. To top it off, we had a hot pot/shabu shabu dish. It was probably the healthiest meal I had since arriving in Asia.

Chicken skewers, chicken sashimi,chicken wings...oh yeah, I'm year of the rooster!

Afterwards, Wendy and I were going to meet up with some Couchsurfers I talked to online at a club in Roppongi, but dinner ran a bit late, so we missed them. Plus, it was about USD $30 to get into the club, and with only an hour til the metro stopped running, we decided to pass. We walked around the area anyways to check it out. Roppongi was filled with foreigners and expats. It was so international, it could have been a night out in NYC. As neat as it was for the diversity, I didn't really want to go out to the bars/clubs there, because it didn't feel like Tokyo.
We ended up going home before the trains stopped running, because the next day, we had to get up super early (5:30am) for the Tsukiji fish market.

Japan Day 4: Part 1 - Kyoto

2010-10-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I didn't really have a full Kyoto experience, having only visited one temple when there were still numerous to be explored. So before we left for Tokyo in mid-day, I woke up earlier to visit Kiyomizu-dera by myself. The temple is open daily 6am-6pm, and I really considered getting up at 6am, but having gone to bed at 2am the previous night, I was pretty proud of myself for waking up at 7:15am. The 30-min walk over was very nice. The air was crisp and people were commuting to work or school. (The cyclists here really have a talent for riding on the sidewalk, avoiding pedestrians, and all the meantime, holding an umbrella up to shield the sun or rain.)

Looking back, I should have woken up to get there at 6am because by the time I arrived, there were hordes of school children on a field trip in Kiyomizu-dera. It was still a very beautiful place, with a great view of Kyoto in the background, but it was not as serene as it could have been, especially at 8am. I lingered a little longer after I finished walking the temple grounds to try to get a drink from the Sound of Feathers waterfall (for health) and attempt to walk the Jishu-jinja shrine (for love), but there were just too many kids in line, or in the way. I managed to get a drink, but there was no way I could do the Jishu-jinja one. Way too many distractions there (ain't that the truth!).

After a nice walk back to the hostel(with a matcha soft serve cone for breakfast), I packed up my stuff and Rick and I went back to the Kyoto Station for the same ramen place before taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo.

I was really excited to ride Shinkansen, just to feel how fast it went. The ride duration from Kyoto to Tokyo is 2hrs and 40min, going up to 186 mph. Pretty impressive, right? Plus, Sanrio just made him look so cute!

Here's the video I took from the window (no, I did not fast forward it). Look for the other Shinkansen train passing on the opposite side:

Cool things about the ride:
1. Maybe there was something about the speed or the movement of the train, because it seemed like everyone (including myself) just passed out and fell asleep on train.
2. There's a loud "whoomp" sound when another Shinkansen train passes on the opposite rail.
3. Train attendants always bow when they enter/leave the car (this happens on all trains, not just Shinkansen).

Not so cool:
A little pricey. It was ¥13,520 (USD $161). Almost as much as a one-way plane ticket, probably. Dang, I still owe Rick for this.

Japan Day 3: Kyoto

2010-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

We had a super slow start today due to our late light karaoke session and detour taxi ride from Kyoto from Osaka. Needless to say, we did not have ambition to do much. The only thing on our list was to see one temple (out of the 200 Kyoto has :P) and meet Rick's friend, Akane, for dinner.

Rick, Wendy, and I started our day with a nice, big bowl of ramen. The Kyoto Train Station's 10th floor is dedicated mainly to ramen (except for one random burger stand). We had a lot of options, but the one restaurant with the longest line got our attention. Plus, there were displays outside about the restaurant's awards, and they even had a trophy inside, right next to their pre-packaged noodles for sale.

The nice thing about Japan is that some restaurants use meal ticket dispensers to place your order. Most of them usually have pictures above the buttons, so in addition to the food displays on the front, you pretty much know what you are getting, without having to speak or read Japanese. AND some places even sell different meal sizes: mini, medium, and big! It's perfect because I can order the mini (apparently I eat like a bird) and save money. Win-win!

After getting our orders in, our ramen bowls arrived within a few minutes. The broth was pretty salty since it was miso-based, but the pork was tasty and the ramen was just right, not soggy at all. Rick already decided then he wanted to come back the next day (which we did).

Ramen with Pork, Onions, and a Raw Egg

Next, we rode the #100 bus from Kyoto Station to Sanjūsangen-dō, a temple housing 1,000 golden statues of Kannon, the goddess of compassion and mercy. (We couldn't take photos inside, though). It was pretty impressive in that the hall housing the statues was 400-ft long. What wasn't impressive was the bus ride to the temple. Turns out that this temple was just 2 blocks from our hostel! We could have easily walked. Oops.

So far, taking the metro and railways have been surprisingly easy in Japan. Both Osaka and Kyoto metro systems were very similar, and the maps were easy to read. There was a station a few blocks from our hostel, so it took us no time to get to Shijo-dori, near the Gion area, to meet Akane.

Akane was so nice! It is really great to have someone local show you around, even if it's for a little while. They know so much more about where to go and can communicate for you (which we really needed at times). We had dinner reservations for an modern okonomi-yaki place later in the evening, so in the mean time, she took us to Nishiki-koji, a great food market in narrow backstreets. Even though we were stalling for dinner, it didn't stop us from trying a few things, like sashimi and grilled fish (I can't remember the names, but were similar to hamachi and one was like eel, but it was a fish).

She also took us to the Daimaru food basement, which was just incredible. Lots of food, from sushi, to cakes, breads, teas, gyozas...it was a lot to take in. They had a great display for Milky, with Peko-chan! If only we didn't have reservations in a few minutes...we would have gladly tried some food there as well.

Cute Milky Packaging with Peko

But the okonomi-yaki place Akane brought us to was amazing! 100xs better than Donguri, because the mixed ingredients of eggs, leeks, cabbage, carrots, and onions were more balanced; not overly egg-y like an omelet. They had non-traditional sauce toppings. We tried one that contained avocado and shrimp and two with tomato and pork. I never really ate leeks that much, but I had of lot of it in Japan, and I like it a lot more now.

Okonomi-yaki with Avocado and Shrimp

To walk off our food coma, Akane took us to Gion, the traditional area of Kyoto, where geishas are often spotted. (Unfortunately, we did not come across any.) It was a beautiful area at night, with the lantern-lit cobblestone streets and women wearing kimonos walking around. It was a nice way to spend our last night in Kyoto.

Japan Day 2: Osaka

2010-09-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

Wendy made dinner plans with her friend, Tatsuya, in Osaka today and invited us all to come. We took the JR train back to Osaka from Kyoto (about half an hour) and aimed to see the Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle), see a bunraku (puppet) show and walk around Den Den Town (electronics/gadgets neighborhood) before we meet Tats for dinner.

Osaka-jo and its surrounding park were really nice. We took our time walking and once we got to the main park in front of the castle, we got to see a glimpse of Osaka-life happening around us. There were some school children running around and playing games, while some were sketching in their drawing pads. A lot of elderly people were out hanging out in the park too, as well as couples out on picnics with their children. It was enjoyable just to see the kinds of interactions going on.

We went inside the Osaka-jo, which was modernized into a history museum of the castle. There were some great displays of painted screens depicting Osaka life, and some well preserved artifacts like clothes and samurai armor from the 16th century. What was really cool were these viewing boxes that projected holographic scenes of the castle's creator, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, from his birth to his death. The view from the top of the castle was nice too, but Osaka does not have a prominent skyline.

National Bunraku Theater

Next, we took the metro to find the National Bunraku Theater in hopes of seeing a traditional Japanese puppet show. It took us a while to find it. Wendy can read some of the Kanji Japanese characters, since those are Chinese characters. So when she saw the character(s) for "show" on a poster (as in "puppet show"), we thought we had found it, only it turned out to be an "adult show"! The poster of a woman with no clothes on tipped us off that this was not the National Bunraku Theater :P But we eventually made it. Unfortunately, the puppet show turned out to be about USD$60 and 4-hours long. If we had more time, and more money to spare, it might have checked it out.

So, instead, we headed over to Den Den town, a neighborhood full of electronics/gadgets store. We walked into a store that had about 5 levels of electronics, ranging from digital cameras, to hair dryers, to massage chairs (see below). It was like Best Buy, but on crack x 100. Zany circus music was playing on the speakers overhead, probably 10secs long, looped. I'm not kidding. I don't know how the salespeople take it. I guess it's white noise to them. We ended up relaxing on some massage chairs, since we had a such a long day of walking around. The chairs we sat in costed as much as a small car! Funny too, because there were signs all over the chairs that apparently said "no sleeping". There were more shops, but we didn't have any time to see them.

After that, we finally met up with Tats and had Korean BBQ. According to my guidebook, Osaka had the largest amount of Koreans in Japan; there is even a Korea Town in the Tsuruhashi neighborhood. We didn't actually have K-BBQ there, but the place we went to (near the JR Loop Line station) was very good. The beef was so tender! I tried corn tea as well, which tasted....like corn.

Tats didn't let us leave Osaka yet without karaoking! He was such a fun host. We ended up karaoking for 3 hours! We sang mostly English songs (Wendy sang one Chinese song), but we couldn't manage to get Tats to sing a Japanese song. Darn. He kept calling up plenty of orders of sake though. Most memorable were: Tats: "It's My Life" (Bon Jovi), everyone: "Bad Romance" (Lady GaGa), Rick and me: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (Starship), and the grand finale by everyone: "Living on a Prayer" (Bon Jovi - we all pretty much wrecked our vocal chords screaming on that last one).

Me, Dan, Wendy, Rick, and Tats

We karaoked so late that we had to run for our last train back to Kyoto. Most of us were pretty tipsy, but we got onto our train. Little did we know though, that even if you catch the last train, it will not get you to your final destination. It will only get you to as far as it goes by closing time (1AM). We hadn't reached Kyoto at all when the trains stopped running. We got kicked off in a small town somewhere between Osaka and Kyoto and ended up taking a taxi ride back. Pretty expensive...it came out to almost ¥12,000, so each of us had to eat ¥3,000 (USD$35!). It was well worth it though.

Thank you, Osaka!

Japan Day 1: Kyoto

2010-09-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Rick, Wendy, Dan, and I got into Osaka Kansai Airport in the late evening. By the time we figured out how to take the JR train to Kyoto, ride the train for almost an hour, and then finally arrive in Kyoto, it was pretty late. We had a short 10-min walk from Kyoto train station to our hostel, K's House. After checking in, we went in search of food, and luckily, the hostel recommended a few late night spots in the area.

We checked into Donguri (about 2 blocks from K's House), where I had a Negi-yaki mix served on a warm grill that was the size of basically 80% of the table. The Kujo-leeks were yummy and refreshing. I felt like I hadn't eaten my vegetables in Hong Kong.

Afterwards, I split an ice cream sundae with Rick: 2 black sesame ice cream scoops, red beans, mochi balls, whipped cream, and a crunchy wafer/cookie all on top of a matcha cake. I liked the dessert better than my dinner.

Ohayo from Kyoto!

2010-09-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

We just got into Osaka, Japan last night. Hopped on the JR rail train and got to Kyoto in about an hour (wasn't the bullet train). Here's a little pic of the Kyoto Tower.

Today, we are heading back to Osaka for a little exploration, hopefully involving a castle, puppets, and gadgets! So excited to be in Japan :)

Lantern Festival And Fire Dragon Festival

2010-09-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

I arrived just in time to join the Mid-Autumn festivities. There was a Latern Carnival and Fire Dragon Festival in Tin Hau on the same night. It was already the second day of the three day celebration, but I'm glad I was able to even catch it at the right time.

The Fire Dragon Festival was really neat. A giant dragon is made out of thousands of incense sticks, which are lit, as volunteers parade around the grounds. I couldn't get a really good picture to capture the dragon; I wish I could have captured the smell too because the incense was very fragrant.

Right down the block was the Lantern Carnival in Victoria Park. I didn't understand the scope of this Carnival, but it was huge! The crowds were pretty overwhelming, especially having just arrived to HK that day, but I made it through and took some nice photos. All the kiddies had their own lanterns or other light-ups like glow sticks and wands. It's a cool family-fun event.

Cute little airplane lantern. And kid!

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon!

Hello From Hong Kong!

2010-09-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Whew, it is humid here! I missed the typhoon by a couple days, but the humidity is still lingering. There's the option of running into freezing AC buildings, although I hope I do not get sick from the jumping temperatures (*knock on wood*).

So, the back-story...I'm staying in Hong Kong at my Step-mom's place and using it as a hub between my travels to Japan and SE Asia for the next couple months. I will be in HK for about a week at a time for a total of 3 weeks. I have some family here, a friend who is visiting from Seattle for 5 days, and my Dad here for a couple weeks, but most of the time I will most likely explore on my own. This is my third visit to Hong Kong. Last time I was here in 2002, but it was part of a tour, so I didn't really get to take time and travel how I would like to. On this visit, I'm hoping to explore more parts of HK (other than the tourist spots), get to know my family better here, and practice my Cantonese (doing ok so far).

....My first day went pretty well. Didn't suffer much from jet lag at all (thanks to these no-jet-lag pills Katie gave me from our Europe trip), so after getting in at 6:30am, I took a short nap and was ready to hit the town with my Dad. My Step-mom had to work, but since it was the day of the Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival, she could leave work early (as in 4pm. Normally, she works until 9pm!). In the meantime, we met up with my dear cousin, Elisa, for an afternoon break in the Sheung Wan district, right by her office building. I had the shui gow dumplings with egg noodles, and of course, Hong Kong-style tea.

Dad on the MTR (subway)

Cousin Elisa

My shui gow dumplings+noodles and HK tea

After that, my Step-mom picked us up and we headed over to Tsim Sha Tsui to have dinner with her good friend, Joann. We walked along the waterfront before dinner, and saw Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side.

Peninsula Hotel and Kowloon Hotel Buildings

Bruce Lee statue along the waterfront

Step-mom, May, and Dad, Peter, getting grilled cuttlefish at the waterfront

Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong Island

After dinner, we made our way over to Tin Hau for the Lantern and Fire Dragon festival. Photos and more to come on next post!

NYC - Week 2 Recap

2010-09-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm, not sure how I will keep up on blogging for my Asia trip. It's very time consuming. I haven't even really written a lot about NYC, and now that I am back in the Bay Area for a minute, I feel like it's past time to write about it. BUT, can't leave you hanging right? Here we go!

NYC week 2 for me was all about just relaxing, especially after doing so much and going out a lot the previous week. I got to see more friends and even family this week, which was really nice. A friend once said that the key to living in NYC is to get out of the city ever so often. Really good advice, because the highlights of the week were taking long subway rides out of Manhattan, namely to Coney Island and to the US Open out in Queens (sporting event? whaaa??).

So...

Highlight #1 - Coney Island!!!

So glad I made it there with my girls, Jaizi and Kim! Couldn't have asked for a better crew to hang out with at this magical place. We aimed to get there just before sunset, and I have to say it was very picturesque and charming at that time. Although rides were kind of expensive, we managed to ride the infamous Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel, two must-dos if you are ever there. (The rides are part of different amusements parks, so you can't really buy discounted package tickets for these two rides.)

The Wonder Wheel was great! Make sure you go on a swinger car, because as the wheel turns during the ride, your car will slide down these rails and swing back and forth. Way better than a ferris wheel. I loved Jaizi's reaction...she made us all scream like little girls whenever our car moved.

The Cyclone was keraaaazzzy! I haven't been on a roller coaster in years! I'm glad I went on it this year, because had I been a year or two older, I am pretty sure I would have had a heart attack or serious whiplash. The drops were very steep and the ride in general was pretty rough and rocky, but SUPER FUN! I sat in a seat by myself (Jaizi and Kim were in the row behind me), and that ride flung me around side to side so many times, I don't even remember where I sat to begin with. I hope they never tear this ride down.

Highlight #2 - Going to the US Open

I'm not a tennis fan at all, but my friend Jason was in town and found cheap tickets on craigslist, so I thought, why not go check it out. It's not something I would do on my own; plus it was an opportunity to get out of town.

The US Open itself was an experience. It was interesting to see the people who went. Some people were really dressed up, while others were super casual. But Polo shirts were EVERYWHERE. We did not really sit in the stadium for a game very long. We had nosebleed seats, but we managed to watched a good chunk of the men's doubles match.

*the one shot of get of the court and there are no players on it!

I had more fun taking photos outside of the arena.

My favorite thing about this highlight really was taking the 7 Subway from Manhattan to Queens. It was nice getting to see other parts of NYC. There was an awesome block of graffiti along the ride.

Only regret was not going to Flushing for Asian food after. We were only one stop away. Golden Mall, I will find you some day!

Highlight #3 - Not Getting Bed Bugs!

I stayed at a hotel a couple nights, went to a movie theater, took a bus to Boston, and was in a lot of public spaces. Happy to report, no bed begs. I survived!

And now, on to get ready for my Asia trip. I am leaving on Monday night and am starting to pack. What to pack...what to pack...

Boston Day Trip

2010-09-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

The East Coast is awesome for traveling state to state because everything is so close. Since I was in NYC, I took a 4-hr bus ride to Boston for a day trip to visit Angie, my dear childhood best friend. Sad to say though, all my visits to Boston (all 3) have only been day trips. Even though it's a smaller city than NYC, I wouldn't mind staying a couple days in Boston just to have a change of pace. It turned out to be a nice little get away from Manhattan.

So with less then 24 hours in Boston, I managed to check out a couple bars, grab a late brunch, and take a stroll in Boston Common. I can't remember the name of the first bar we went to, but we ended the night at Middlesex, a bar with a dance floor, Cambridge. It was really fun! Great energy, awesome music (R&B/Hip Hop/Disco), and everyone was just having a good time dancing.

The next day, we had the perfect brunch at The Paramount in Beacon Hill. We split a simple stack of pancakes, eggs, hash, and sausage...couldn't ask for anything more for that meal.

After finishing brunch, we walked it off at Boston Common. It was a beautiful day in the park and everyone was out and about. I think we encounted at least 4 wedding parties walking around/taking photos.

All in all a lovely trip! Wish I could have stayed longer.

*Little Travel Note*
The last time I went to Boston from NYC, I took the Chinatown Fung Wah bus, but that wasn't a good experience. It was raining that night, and on a full bus, I happened to get the one seat where rain dripped onto my lap! Luckily, I had a plastic bag at the time and just had to sit with it on my lap for 4 hours. This time, I tried out BoltBus, which was just as cheap as the Chinatown buses, plus it included free wi-fi. The wi-fi didn't work on my bus up to Boston, but it did on the bus back to NYC. Overall, more comfortable than the Chinatown bus, so I'd take it again.

NYC - Eats

2010-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite thing about New York is all the food options here. Not only is the food good, but sometimes surprisingly cheap as well. Here are the standouts so far:

Magnolia Bakery - Key Lime Cheesecake

This bakery (of Sex in the City fame) is known for their cupcakes, but this little Key Lime Cheesecake was calling my name. It was pretty darn good. Not too dense or overly rich, with a hint of key lime. I sucked on the lime a little bit - bad idea.

Hampton Chutney - Masala Deluxe Dosa

This is it! This is my new favorite dish. It is a cross between a crepe and an injera (Ethiopian spongey bread), filled with yummy goodness. The Masala Deluxe had spinach, jack cheese and roasted tomato, and it came with your choice of chutney (we had cilantro - very refreshing). I shared one with my friend, so it was a perfect light dinner, but I could have easily eaten the whole thing. It was THAT good. Now I am going to have to find a dosa place in the Bay Area.

Soba-ya - Yuba Sashimi and Zaru Soba

Wow. One word: Fresh. My friend told me this place is best known for their hand-made noodles, and they did not disappoint. We started off with a few appetizers, but the Yuba Sashimi was outstanding. I could not believe how soft the tofu was. It was like silk. And my Zaru Soba was excellent. Very simple, just topped it off with Nori seaweed. So delicious!

Wah Mei Pork Chop Fast Food - Fried Chicken and Rice

I came here two visits ago. Sad I didn't get to eat this last time I was here, but made a trip this time around. Total hole-in-the-wall spot (barely any seating), but dang, this food is so good. Special super tasty gravy sauce with pickled vegetables over rice, little bit of cabbage, plus an egg on the side...mmmm. And the chicken leg? Nice crisp on the skin and the meat was moist. Yes, they are known for their pork chop, but please, try the chicken.

And that was Round 1 of NYC eats. More to come...

NYC - Week 1 Recap

2010-09-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

I finally have a chance to just sit and veg out here in NYC. I've been here for just about a week now and my legs are tired from walking so much! (Not that I am complaining, I'm just not used to it yet.) Freddy has been taking me everywhere...from East Village, to Chinatown, to SoHo, to the Lower East Side, to West Village...mainly in lower Manhattan. It's so easy to walk through so many neighborhoods. It's my 5th time here in NYC, so there is not a lot of touristy things I want to see. (Although I am still making it a priority to Coney Island on this visit.)

So what have I been doing? Mainly, eating at yummy places along our walks. Going out at night for some (expensive) drinks (I will miss Seattle for cheap drinks). Going to bed late and waking up late. (But it's ok, because I will be totally fine when I get back to the West Coast since 4am=1am and 1pm=10am. See?)

NYC is pretty fun, but overwhelming. Never really thought I would feel like that, since I have been here before and loved it, but I think I am getting old (!). I'm not sure if I could live here very long given the chance. Just being here makes me feel like I need to take advantage of all that NYC has to offer...which is a TON of stuff, from nightlife, to shopping, to dining, to culture...it's quite a lot. And of course, this stuff ain't all free. I am amazed that so many people live here and are able to sustain the lifestyle they have. I can't imagine what kind of income I'd have to make to live comfortably in NYC.

Anyways, I will post photos of the restaurant spots shortly.

Sushi Pillows!

2010-08-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

I received a nice surprise package from my old co-workers today....sushi pillows! They are by The Original Sushi Pillow. The salmon nigiri is probably my favorite, because of the "rice". The fabric they used was just perfect...white with a pattern of tiny, assorted-sized circles. Nice detail on that one! The salmon maki is great too because it can be used as a real pillow. Same with the edamame, but more like a stuff animal; it's very huggable!

Mmmmm sushi...if only they had a Sushi Land in they Bay Area...

SF - Taiyaki

2010-08-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

One place I always have to stop by whenever I am in Japantown is the little Taiyaki stand. (It's located in the Japan Center, where most of the restaurants are.) Taiyaki is basically a pastry treat made with waffle batter, which is poured into a fish-shaped mold, and a sweet filling. They have more flavors now, but since I haven't had one in a while, I had to get the original red bean filling. It was so good! Make sure to get yours heated, so you have a nice little crust and the filling is warm. So glad I stopped in to get one. I'll have to try the chocolate banana one next time.

MIA But Back Again

2010-08-04T17:59:00.001-07:00

has it really been a year since i posted? shame on me. not that there was not a lot going on. i just got lazy, and somewhat disinterested in what was going on in Seattle. but that is changing...i moved back to the Bay Area this past weekend for a change of scenery. i have not lived in this area since i was 18 (over 10 years!) so i am sure a lot has changed, meaning more new things to discover. i already have a few things i want to post about already, but i'll be organized and dedicate a post per topic.

i'm planning on traveling soon as well, so keep an eye out on where in the world is ewo...

*this picture i took is not of me, but of my dear friend, rutsu! it just happens to be a favorite right now and wanted to share.

Floaties

2008-11-13T23:27:00.001-08:00

it's been getting a little bit colder, so that means more time on the couch. and time to doodle.

NYC - Jeff Koons

2008-09-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

there was also an awesome rooftop exhibit at the Met of Jeff Koons's works. the balloon dog was totally my favorite. i want one in my backyard! or it would be neat if they made miniature ones. in different colors. that'd make me pretty happy.

me and freddy. 2 of hearts in 1.

NYC - Olafur Eliasson

2008-09-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

my my, it's been a while! i was over on the east coast for a bit in August and was able to check out several museums in NYC and see the Waterfalls too! lots of good stuff out there right now...

i made a couple attempts to view the NYC Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson the best i could, but i ended up just viewing it from the waterfront, which turned out nicely. other attempts included:

1. night time: the falls were supposed to look prettier lit up, but i didn't really think it made that much of a difference. and for some reason, the brooklyn bridge waterfall was off that night. my pictures didn't turn out that well anyways... had to go back to see them again for sure.
2. ferry ride: they had free tix, which would have been awesome because they bring you pretty close to the falls, but of course, tix were out the days i wanted to go.

nonetheless, i was satisfied with what i got to see...definitely beautiful. i loved the concept of placing nature in an urban context.

made it over to PS1 as well to see some more of his work. it was so fun taking photos of his exhibits....

giant round rotating mirror hanging from the ceiling:

and then this beautiful mist waterfall...with the light shining on it just right:

i wish i had time to go to the MOMA to see the rest of Eliasson's works, but unfortunately, i didn't have time. ah well....at least i got to go to NYC!

Salk Institute

2008-07-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Last year, I watched My Architect, a documentary on Louis Khan. It was a pretty compelling story about his path as an architect and his personal life between his 3 families. There were some amazing shots of his buildings.... most memorable were the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban in Bangladesh and the Salk Institute in La Jolla. I would definitely love to visit his buildings if I could...especially in India!

But on a recent visit to the San Diego area, I actually stayed in La Jolla. The Salk Insitute was close enough to walk to, so I trekked on over there. When I arrived, a campus security guard informed me the interior was closed to the public on the weekend, but I wormed my way in. A researcher on his way in to work was kind enough to let me in to take some photos. Really glad I did, because I would have missed out on seeing the "endless" fountain in person.

First impression of the Institute was how cold and warm it felt at the same time. The straight lines and edges of the buildings seemed utilitarian, but modern. The symmetry and balance of the buildings and elements made it so easy to take wonderful photos of the Institute.

If there is anything to see at all in La Jolla, it would be the Salk Institute.

PS. i AM going to NYC to see Olafur Eliasson's Waterfalls!

. . . . . . . . . . . ..

2008-07-24T01:07:00.001-07:00

this makes me happy.

Olafur Eliasson's "Waterfalls"

2008-06-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

this is probably not news anymore, but i'm excited about this...wish i could go to New York to see it for myself.

i saw Eliasson's "Take Your Time" exhibit at the SFMoMA last year, and was amazed. his observations and interpretations are so simply executed, but totally fascinating. (this exhibit is currently at the NYC MoMA and PS 1.)

this time, he's integrating waterfalls into the urban setting, which i think is quite a feat. i love the idea of "disrupting" the city with nature. read more about "Waterfalls" here.

and if you are NYC at the time, check it out! maybe i will make a little detour later in the summer...

Smokey!

2008-06-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

i am so hooked on this song right now!

Smokey Robinson - Tell Me Tomorrow

a little something about me

2008-06-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

"none of my friends here are like, 'LETS BAKE THEN GO PARTY!'"
-- jeanette

yup. that's how i roll.

Daedelus!

2008-06-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

this man is magic, i tell you. i really can't think of another artist that i can listen to at any moment and still appreciate it oh so much. he has a new music video for his single Make It So (featuring Michael Johnson). this will be released on his upcoming album, Love To Make Music To.

check out his other new songs on his MySpace page here.
and get a free download of his other single, Hrs:Mins:Secs, here.

bummer that he is not playing in Seattle soon, but he will be in Portland on June 13 at the Backspace.

James Pants

2008-06-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

i've been listening to this podcast, Music from the Forest, by James Pants and it is pretty friggen' awesome and eclectic. a half an hour mix with Too $hort, Kraftwerk, and Serge Gainsbourg (and more)? AND it sounds good?! i'm impressed. homeboy's got a good ear. did i mention he is from Spokane, WA? yep.

check out the podcast here or on iTunes under Stones Throw Podcast.
podcast tracklisting and songs from Welcome, his new album (fun stuff!) on his MySpace. even more info on James Pants here.

James Pants at Nectar (Seattle) on Saturday, June 21.

Dr. Strangelove loves

2008-06-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

i sort of watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb tonight. "Sort of" because:

1. upon the opening scene, i fell in love with the Pablo Ferro's title sequence because of the typography... so much that i watched it twice before really starting the movie:

2. i didn't pay attention to the rest of the film so much...

3. ...until the ending sequence, which was wonderful! such a great combination with the visuals and Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again". loved it:

i'll watch the movie in it's entirety once i get over the opening and final scenes. promise.

is summer finally starting?

2008-06-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

YESSSSSS!!!

happy june!

2008-06-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

went thrift shopping today and saw this cute little cover design. fun shapes and color combinations. the gold had a metallic sheen, which i couldn't really get with this shot (too bad it is blurry too). i'm guessing this book is about London. and maybe their churches (?).

favorite line for today

2008-05-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

"I'm playing some music that saved me from prog rock hell..."
-- Andy Weatherall, from the Fabric Podcast 02

i don't feel bad now for not knowing anything about Pink Floyd, or Rush, or...whoever else fits in that category.

the start of it all...

2008-05-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

i hate trying to come up with names whenever i start a new project, but this song just seems to suit what this blog is about... (although i do love them, this is not a Human League fan page...sorry!)

Day 8 - Managua/Another Side of Nicaragua

2006-11-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

We drove Christy to the Managua airport the next day at around 6 in the morning. It was sad to see El Capitan go, but it would be quite expensive for her to stay a little longer. So I’m the last visitor standing.

I was hoping we could see a little bit of Managua at some point, but there were too many things going on for Chris and Oliver. Plus, I had only about an hour and half of sleep the previous night, so I was not in the tourist mode. We mainly ran errands in Managua, so I did get to see the city in between my naps during the ride.

Compared to Masaya, Managua is a lot more “developed” in terms of having paved roads and wider streets, chain stores, and giant billboard ads…it felt like it could have been any modern city (at least the parts I had seen. There are many neighborhoods in Managua that are more rough and underdeveloped, since some areas were not rebuilt after the 1972 earthquake). At the same time, it’s not really developed, because, like the US, there is a lot of sprawl as well. As Oliver described it, “It’s like L.A.”

We ended up stopping by the mall for one of Oliver’s errands. I was actually curious to see what kind of people would be there. When we got there, it really felt like I could have been in any typical mall. There were a few familiar stores (Benetton, Radioshack, Nine West) and it was basically the same format as (name your local mall here). And yes, the rules of consumerism applies here too. Christmas is here early as well. Too bad it was early, because if there was a Santa line, I would have made Oliver take a picture with me.

Xmas

Xmas
Sponsored by Claro, a mobile phone network provider down here.

Day 7 - Laguna de Apoyo, Catarina, Coyotepe/Christy’s Last Night

2006-11-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

Another day of touring...but it was so nice! Oliver took me, Christy, Irené, and a new friend Betzeyda, to Laguna de Apoyo, a beautiful lake that lies in the crater of the Apoyo Volcano. It was pretty amazing to see yourself surrounded by a volcano! The water was clean, with little fish swimming around the shores.

* I forgot to mention, we ran into our Canadian/Costa Rican friend, Ryan here!

Look, I’m swimiming!!

On top of the crater in Catarina

After swimming in the lake, we drove up to the Catarina to see the view. I couldn’t really take a good photo of the entire lake, but it was really neat to see the lake from a different perspective. If you look really hard, you can see Granada in the background.

Betzetya, Christy, Irené, and me.

After Catarina, we went to Coyotepe, an old fort overlooking Masaya. We went on the underground tour to see the old cells, which are all graffitied on, and we even ran into a few bats.

Coyotepe

Coyotepe

Coyotepe

Tortugas!

Before going out that night, we stopped by Irené’s house. She had such an assortment of pets...turtles, toucans, parakeets, a dog, and I bet there were other animals hidden elsewhere too!

Snack Attack

It was the last hurrah night for Christy, so, of course, we had to go out. We went to Cafe Nuit, and for some reason, there sure were a lot of gringos that night. I guess when Christy and I walked in with Irené, Betzetya, Vanessa, and Meling (all local Masayan girls), these two American guys were completely confused. One of them came up to me and started asking me questions about why I was there and how I knew Christy (as if I can’t possiblely know other people than Chinese people?!) and how I knew the locals...it was funny to think of how he saw that. Oh yeah, and to explain things to him, I told him Christy and I were adopted sisters and we were in Nicaragua in search of our birth mother.

Cafe Nuit
Vanessa, Christy, Oliver, and Meling.
We all danced and Christy had a last run with the Nicaraguan club hits.

Day 6 - El Malecón and Jinotepe

2006-11-21T10:08:00.000-08:00

El Malécon

We had to really take it easy today, considering several of us only had a couple hours of sleep, and Christy, I think, only had about an hour of sleep. We just hung out in Masaya most of the day. Oliver took us to El Malecón, a vista point near the baseball stadium. You can see Volcán Masaya, which was letting off some black steam.
Aftewards, we met up with Meling at her house (one of Oliver’s friends…picture coming soon!) and had Mexican food for a late lunch/early dinner.

Oliver
He was in between talking to the taxi driver and Meling’s mother.

Navidad en Jinotepe
left to right: Me, Irené, Christy and Gabriela.

Irené, Oliver, and Chris’s friend, had invited us to her sister’s apartment for a tree lighting party in the town of Jinotepe, west of Masaya. Gabriela is studying at the the University of Nicaragua, Jinotepe. When we sat down at the table, we were surprised to see her tablemats had pictures of sushi on them. A lot of Nicaraguans we met don’t like Asian food at all; one guest had not seen what sushi looked like. But Gabriela mentioned there are a number of Japanese restaurants in the area because there is an small Asian community at the University.

We met some nice people at the party. Christy had her ear talked off about politics, but in Spanish...it was funny to watch (sorry Christy!). We ended up going to a local bar/disco by the end of the night and that was about it!

Day 5 - Las Isletas and Granada/ Joy’s Last Day

2006-11-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

This was such a fun day….we did so much and most of us barely slept! It was Joy’s last full day, so we were out to make the most of it.

We started the day off with a boat tour of Las Isletas, a group of about 365 islands that formed after Volcán Mombacho erupted about 20,000 years ago. Some are inhabited by wealthy Nicaraguans or foreigners, some were developed into hotel/resort properties, one island was an old fort, and another island is inhabited by monkeys, which were left on the small island by scientists who abandoned an experiment (see picture below). With a cooler of Toñas in hand, off we were to see the the various islands.

Las Isletas Boat Tour

mombocho

We had walked around the crater of Volcán Mombacho the day before. (Tip of the leftside of the volcano) It was too bad we weren’t able to see Las Isletas from that point, since the clouds were hanging low (like they are sort of doing here).

monkeys

These were the monkeys mentioned previously. They actually depend on people to feed them since there is no food on the small island and they cannot swim. Our driver didn’t pull the boat too close to the monkeys because once they heard the boat approaching, they tried to get close. The drivers used to let people feed them, but probably for precaution, they don’t allow it anymore.

After Las Isletas, we went back to Granada to see more of the central park area.

The Beginning...

They say the Rum in Nicaragua makes you crazy..boy were they right...

This was the beginning of a long night (especially for Christy!). Now, I know I haven’t written about nights in Nicaragua at all, but what it comes down to is, if you’re with good company, you can have fun anywhere….and thank god my friends are f—in great! And this, is definitely a night that all of us would remember. You really had to be there.

The night started off at El Tercer Ojos, a restuarant in Granada that Chris and Oliver frequented. It was off to quite a slow start because all of us had awoken from our naps and were not in the mood to be really doing much. But, it was Joy’s last night out, and we had yet to have a true Granada night, so we sucked it up and order a couple pitchers of Sangria. Unfortunately, that didn’t do much for us, since the fruit sucks up the alcohol. So someone decided to order us rounds of rum. How many? I really think I had 5 shots. That is insane if you know how I drink.

THE Australian...Full Circle!

There is a hilarious story behind this…

You must have heard the phrase “the dingo took my baby,” right? Well, when we were in San Juan del Sur, we caught the movie A Cry in the Dark with Meryl Streep (1988), explored the case of whether a dingo had taken the baby or of the mother was guilty of murder. The case had intense press coverage, so the movie was focusing on how that skewed the case. Anyways, it was a really long and slow movie, but for whatever reason, none of us could take our eyes off the tv….we wanted to know! The case has been closed, but of course it’s been open for debate.

But to make this all relevant, the restuarant owner wanted us to meet some other travelers, and what do you know, she was Australian!Oliver’s eyes grew wide as he shouted, “Full circle!” Being the drunks we were, it was such a riot! We started asking her if she REALLY thought the dingo took the baby and what she thought about it (a 20 year case, pretty much!). I think she got scared of us because she just politely stated her opinion and left. Wait, come to think of it, I don’t think she had an opinion. She just nodded and smiled…one of those things.

Tica Tica!
Our new Costa Rican friend, via Canada, Ryan, joined in our hammock of happiness. Christy looks like she’s in pain.

The restuarant owner, Glenda, also introduced us to a group from Costa Rica. They were on holiday so they came up to Nicaraga. When they came over, Ryan was so excited to meet us because we spoke English. He didn’t speak much Spanish, so he was getting frustrated with his travel buddies because even though they know English, they were mainly conversing in Spanish. Anyways, he moved down to Costa Rica from Alberta, Canada and is currently teaching pilates at a resort. He was super fun to talk to; just hearing about his experiences of Canada and how he is currently transistioning into Central America was interesting.

Designerds!
I don’t even think this was halfway into the night yet...too bad my camera battery died shortly after this shot because Oliver breakdanced at El Club.

We left El Tercer Ojos to go to El Club, a bar/restuarant/hotel, just down the street, and boy, it was SO MUCH FUN. The music was good, the company was excellent, and the crowd was awesome. You know you’ve gone out a lot when you start recognizing songs, even if you don’t know the language! I was done drinking for the night, but everyone else kept it going. Through out the night, we were dancing on tables, Joy got up on the bar, and Oliver did a breakdance battle with a friend of his (the floor was tiny too!). We met some new people at the bar who live in Granada, so after El Club closed, we all hopped into taxis and went down to the Kayakes for some after hour partying.

The place was literally right on Lake Nicaragua, with all outdoor seating and several hammocks, which I pretty much ran straight to. I was feeling pretty out of it and just had to lay down somewhere. I ended up passing out on the hammock for maybe half an hour, but was awakened with at least 5 mosquito bites all on my shoulder! At that point, I was ready to go. Joy had gotten attacked by mosquitos as well, so we managed to rally up our crew to grab a taxi. Oliver and Christy ended up staying while the rest of us went to Asia Latina, Oliver’s friend’s restaurant to sleep for the night. Yes. At a restaurant. The funny thing is, people who own businesses in these towns also live in the same building.

Sometime in the morning, I hear some shouting and loud pounding against the windows...turns out it was Oliver and Christy. They JUST got back. I could see daylight, but I knew it was still to early, so I went back to bed.

Probably and hour or so later, Joy comes in and tries to wake everyone up, because she had a plane to catch that morning, but we still had to drive to Masaya to pick up her luggage. Christy was passed out on this hard wooden bench, and man did she look dead! Oliver told us that they had stayed at the Kayakes until sunrise. Christy had apparently spent her time there just talking to the locals we had met at El Club, while Oliver had passed out on a hammock. Christy eventually woke him up because the sun was rising over the lake. But the funny thing was, Oliver said he had a beer in her hand! She asked him if he wanted a drink too, as she was waking him up...oh Christy!

In the end, we all made it back to Masaya ok, and Joy made her flight...but that was definitely a night to remember.

Day 4 - On the Road and Volcán Mombacho

2006-11-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

On the Road

Driving back to Masaya from San Juan del Sur was a bit of an adventure. I did mention how driving here is, right? Basically, driving “straight” on a road really means driving in zig-zags to avoid pot holes, animals, bikes, cars, buses, you name it. Add rain on top of that…you’ve got a pretty crazy real life video game going on. I don’t know how Chris and Oliver do it. It would stress me out. (Oh yes, stick shift too.)

Another thing about driving is that it’s common to pick up hitch hikers if you have a truck. They help each other out here. Although Oliver has a rule: He’ll only pull over to pick up children, women, and cops. It sounds insane to do that in the States, but not every household has a car (unlike the States, where it’s what, one per person (of driving age) at least?!).

Anyways, the highlight of that drive from San Juan del Sur to Mombacho was driving by this school, and a bunch of grade school kids were out by the side of the road, looking for a ride down the road to go home for lunch, so they don’t have to walk in the rain. So Chris pulled over, and all these kids come running to the truck screaming and clamoring onto the truck…it was completely precious! They were so excited, and a lot of them stood up on the truck bed, bracing against the wind and the rain. You can see a couple of faces in the above picture. I find it a little weird to see Joy and I smiling and wearing our big glasses, but really, it seemed everyone was excited as we were to be in the truck.

We eventually made it to Volcán Mombacho, an inactive volcano that yielded lush, tropical greenery, and even coffee beans. We drove up to the top of the crater for a short nature walk, but since the clouds hung so low, right above the top of the volcano, we did not really get a view of the surrounding areas (which I heard would have looked pretty awesome). You could smell the sulfur once you walked onto the sight, and there were geothermal vents in one section of the crater. The hike was really surprising because you see so many types of plants growing around, and then you realize, ‘I’m walking on a volcano!”

Volcán Mombacho - The Tunnel

Volcán Mombacho

Oliver the Brave, leading the pack. The clouds were sitting right on top of the Mombacho, so we didn’t have a view at all of Granada, Las Isletas, Lake Nicaragua, etc., but we did get to walk through clouds. Reminded me of hiking in the Bay Area.

Volcán Mombacho

Taking a sip of the coffee grown on Mombacho. I don’t even drink coffee, but I had a cup and it was damn good! Granted I poured a crap load of sugar in it, it had a great rich taste.

Day 3 - San Juan del Sur

2006-11-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

After coming back from the beach the previous day, we stayed at the Villas de Pallermas, where Chris (and Oliver sometimes) works. It is located in San Juan del Sur, but further up towards the hills, so there is an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean between the lush green hills. It was truly picturesque. And I got to see fireflys for the first time! We didn’t try to catch any, but it was a beautiful thing to see. I think I tried to get a video of it, but it was too dark to capture the quick blinks.

The next day, Oliver, Christy, Joy and I checked out Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour, where you are strapped in a harness and you get to zip over and through trees on a wire line (about two-kilometers total). It was so amazing! There were about 15 platform stations that you zip through. I think the longest one was about 330 meters. You basically zip your way down the hill, so as go across the lines, you get these awesome views aerial views of the forest and the Pacific Ocean. It was seriously such a thrill because you’re flying through the air just suspended on a wire,and when you look down, you can see how high up you are. You can’t even see the ground of the forest because it’s THAT high.

After the excitement of the zip tour, we went down to the beach and relaxed for a bit. Then, Oliver took us to a view point that over looked San Juan del Sur and the Pacific Ocean.

And with that, see the accompanying photos...

San Juan del Sur - Villas de Pallarmas

It was so nice to have air conditioning!

San Juan del Sur - Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour

Here we are, all geared up for the Canopy Tour. This was the starting point, at the top of the hill (mountain?). The view is over exposed, but in the background is the Pacific Ocean.

It’s a good thing we had those helmets because along some of the lines, there were branches/leaves jutting out from the trees. Oh, and the funny thing about this picture, there was a scorpion scare right before we got on the grass to take this picture. After we finished the tour, the guides asked us what Joy was screaming about earlier, and she mentioned She thought she saw a scorpion, but the guides said there are none in this area. The next day, we had lunch with Chris’s mom, who told us about the time when she got stung by a scorpion at the Villas (not far from the tour place at all!). Hmmm... I guess you DID see one, Joy!

San Juan del Sur - Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour

Joy on the zip line! Look at that perfect form. The neat thing was that sometimes, they would tell you not to brake or brake during some of the routes. If the route was very long (say 300 m), we weren’t supposed to brake, or else we’d slow down and get stuck. Other times, they would tell you to brake only at the end, which I had a problem with. I would sometimes brake a little to early, so I would stop about maybe a couple feet before I even landed on the platform. Then I’d have to have the guide pull me in, or I would have to pull myself in. It was a little embarrassing sometimes, just hanging there because you just couldn’t make it all the way!

San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

There is such a beautiful view from this vista point. Apparently, the property owner saved his best lot for God.

San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

This is the view from El Cruz of San Juan del Sur. Further past the horizon, you can actually see Costa Rica.

San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

“¿Te gusta zùo shè ma?”

2006-11-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

If you were able to read that, this is how I have been trying to communicate here. “Te gusta” is “do you like” in Spanish, and “zùo shè ma” is “to do [What]”. I have technically at least 7 years of Spanish under my belt (4 years in grade school and 3 years in highschool), but without practice and use, it’s pretty much gone down the drain. So when I am thinking of how to say something in Spanish to someone, I end up filling the blanks with Madarin or Cantonese because I studied those languages recently in the past 4 years. It sounds natural for me for some reason, even though it would only make sense to someone else who speaks Spanish, Cantonese, and Madarin. Luckily, Joy, who speaks Madarin, understood what I was talking about. Most of the time.

Day 2: Granada and San Juan del Sur

2006-11-17T18:35:00.000-08:00

Granada is about 20 minutes away from Masaya. Chris actually used to live in this town before the Masaya house and it’s where Oliver takes his Spanish classes. The town has a colonial feeling- there are still horse-drawn carriages driving in the streets. I particularly like this town because of the colorful buildings. We have yet to walk around in the Central Park, but I’m sure I’ll do that sometime while I am here.

The San Francisco Church

After brunch in Granada, we packed for an overnight trip to San Juan del Sur, which is where Chris (and Oliver sometimes) work. It was a 2 hour drive, but by the end of the drive, we would be at one of the most beautiful beaches on the western coast of Nicaragua. Instead of taking the highway, we took the more the “Chocolate” Road to get to the beach (”Chocolate’ because when it rains, the road gets muddy.) I don’t think I’ve mentioned driving in Nicaragua, but it’s pretty different from driving in the US. I don’t know how Chris and Oliver handle it because I would get stressed. Not all the roads are paved, and even if they are, there are still pot holes, dirt mounds, oxen/horse carriages, and plenty of other obstacles to avoid. But they do have a truck with 4-wheel drive, so they’re prepared to off-road.

The rural scenery of Nicaragua is gorgeous…lots of greenery, blue skys, and cloud formations that rival the Northwest (I was extremely impressed with the Seattle clouds, but I don’t know…the clouds down here have been amazing as well.) On the drive, you see school children walking to/from school, mothers and sisters walking with their children, men walking alone or in groups. You see some people working on the roads as well. It might sound a little silly when you read this, at how I am just observing people walking the distance to their destination, you don’t really see that in the States. Or at least I don’t. It’s mainly highways and freeways with the communities mainly on the otherside of a wall because it’s probably a sprawled community. You don’t really see daily life happening around you when you drive on your freeway/highway commute, do you? Granted it’s a rural setting and long stretches on the road in Nicaragua, it is pretty dynamic.

Another thing we saw a lot of were giant posters for Daniel Ortega, who recently ran (and won) the presidential election here in Nicaragua. He was previously president from 1985-1990, and was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL). He lead the FSNL against the US-backed Contras during his earlier term, so there was a lot of controversy surrounding his re-election, enough for me to change my ticket to arrive in Nicaragua a week later than my original date.

Daniel Ortega

Out of all the candidates who ran, it seems pretty much like Ortega spent the most on his ad campaign. There are huge billboards of the same ad above all over towns and it certainly was prevalent in the rural areas. I noticed a lot of houses that had mini-posters or the FSLN flag hung up on their front porches. I can’t say I have asked a lot of people what they think of Ortega (due to language comprehension!) but I hope hear some opinions by the time I leave.

After a pretty rough ride towards the end of the the Chocolate Road, we arrived at our destination. Oliver and Chris had described the beach as a fun hang out: there was a bar with hammocks, good music, and a beautiful beach to boot. But it was pretty darn quite and desolate, even for a Tuesday afternoon. Oliver and Chris went to check it out, and when they came back, they had the most disappointed look on their faces. It turns out the owners had decided to close down the beach to the public. Oliver had not gone to it that long ago, since he had gone with Vannyvy about several weeks ago, so it was a shock.

We ended up going to La Playa Madera, which was near by. There was a little surf shack/restuarant/bar off the shore so we grabbed some drinks and Oliver had (of all things) spaghetti. I thought the beach was pretty nice…the water was warm and the sand was soft. There were a lot of surfers hanging around the area.

Oliver

’Serious’ Chris

Christy

Joy

Me

Playa Madera, San Juan del Sur

Oliver and Chris's Place

2006-11-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

Tuesday: We woke up semi-refreshed. I shared an air mattress with Christy, so on top of the 2 hour time difference, not having slept that much the previous night, and then waking up in a new setting, I was feeling pretty disoriented. But it was such a nice scene to wake up to! Oliver down plays his apartment, but I think it’s pretty nice. See the photos below!

This is my “home” in Nicaragua for the next several weeks. I love this part of the place. There is an open space above the center of the apartment pretty much. You can see the blue (or grey) sky when you wake up, as well as the antenna and satellite dish! The room behind the cinderblocks is the kitchen, and adjacent to that is the entry/living room, although it is currently unfurnished. I heard in a few months that should change.

And by the way, Oliver best described his living situation as “it’s like camping, but in a house!”

Masaya-Oliver and Chris’s courtyard

Masaya-Oliver and Chris’s courtyard

Do you see the bright blue drum barrel? It reads “Methyne Chloride”. It’s empty, but I still have to ask the boys about that.

Masaya-”living room”

This is where they nerd it up. I mean make Hecho magic happen. (Hecho is their design company!)

I’m still alive! aka Day 1

2006-11-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

I haven’t had access to my laptop for the last couple days, so apologies for getting you all interested in this blog and not even posting right away :P But, things have been just incredible and I am enjoying every minute of it. Here’s a little run down…

Day 1: Arrived in Managua/Masaya

“Woke up” around 5:45 AM to catch my 8:30 AM flight to Houston, TX. “Woke up” in quotes because I could not sleep a wink because of anxiousness of missing a flight and excitement (of course). My rommate Katie, in all her awesomeness (!), drove me to the airport at 6 AM, and off I was to begin the trip.

The plane ride to Houston was only about 3 hours, but the best part was exiting the plane, because there was Christy, my old Sacramento friend, waiting at the gate! She’s on the same flight with me to Managua, but her departure date is about a week (although that will be TBD, I’m sure). We had about an hour and a half layover, but before we knew it, we were boarding on the plane to Managua.

After we arrive and go through customs, we walk to the baggage claim. First thing I thought was, “look for Oliver”, but when I turn my head to look out the window, all I see are so many people pressed up against the window looking for their loved ones and/or friends who had just gotten off the plane. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was quite overwhelming. (Later, Oliver said he laughed at Christy and I because of the expression on our faces, which was basically ‘Oh s—! Where are we?’). But by the time we walked outside, I see our friend Chris duck behind a wall, so I walked towards him and see Oliver and Joy standing there with wide grins on their faces. It was a relief to see such familiar faces in a completely new setting.

We hopped in their white Toyota truck and off we were to Masaya. Our hosts were gracious enough to welcome us with Toña, one of the Nicaraguan beers. First thing I learned about Nicaragua: there is structure, but not everyone follows the rules (this theme becomes more and more apparent). As we are driving along the main highway back to Masaya, Chris asks Christy and I if we could “name that smell”. I did notice something in the air, but couldn’t pinpoint it. Christy said it smelled like the Mission (in San Francisco): ‘pomade and trash’. I said ‘fish sauce’. But nope. It was the smell of burning trash. (How does fish sauce smell like burning trash? I don’t know. My sense of smell is not that great.)

We get back to Oliver and Chris’s apartment in Masaya. It’s right next to a school, which had a security guard walking around. It was night time, so we didn’t really get to see how the place looked, other than that there was a large room when we entered, a kitchen, a living room/entertainment room, an outdoor courtyard, 2 adjacent bedrooms, 2 adjacent toilet rooms, and one bathroom with a shower. (Pictures to follow.)

Oliver wanted to show us a night in town, so we rallied up several of his friends, Irené, Meiling, Rosa, and Ramón, and all made a drive to Granada to eat at Asia Latina. First night in Nicaragua and we eat Asian-fusion food (!). We met several of Chris and Oliver’s other friends at the restuarant as well. At that point, it was hard to tell where we were at…I didn’t feel like I was in Nicaragua yet because everything was just dark. After dinner, we went to a bar called Café Nuit. After a drink and some dancing, we were pretty tired afterwards, so we ended up just going to bed.

The Countdown…

2006-11-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

The countdown began quite a while ago, but for the record, 2 more days until I leave for Nicaragua. It’s a little surreal, seeing that I have been planning this trip for the past 5 or so months. I’ve been very anxious (but patient!) to have this finally happening. Señor Laptop will be accompanying me for the trip, so I hope to update this blog more often than not. (I can’t believe I am writing a blog to begin with!)