As I write from my Dad's place in Quincy, MA, Carl and Joc are are about one hour in on their 20 hour flight to Sydney. Jennie and I are making final preparations as we're leaving first thing in the morning for Hong Kong on Tuesday (15th), before meeting up with Carl and Joc, and our other friends Dave and Maddy in Melbourne in another week or so. 'Til then...wheeeee!
After days of shopping (ask Jennie about her new winter coat...yes, Hong Kong is in the tropics...), some time up in Victoria Peak - highest point in Hong Kong - via a tram dating back to 1888, a 25 minute cable car ride to visit the largest Buddha structure in the world, a trip to the Hong Kong Disneyland, and did I mention lots of good eating (?), I dropped J-Mac off at the airport train this afternoon and off to Bangkok she went. I'm sure she'll have a lot more to say about her time here in Hong Kong when she gets back online...yup, another case of viv-laziness. ;)
I'm off to Melbourne tomorrow afternoon on a red-eye through Singapore and will be catching up with Carl, Joc, Dave, and Maddy. I bet they'll be really excited when I burst into their rooms at 7am and start jumping on their beds... J-Mac will join us in about T-4 days.
Some pictures...
Perhaps the best part about the cabin was that it was located on a kangaroo sanctuary, despite being called the Emu Holiday Park... We got up close and personal with some joeys and slightly older 'roos. Will post pictures soon. The crew hopped onto the Great Ocean Road from the Grampians yesterday morning and have just been roadtripping away and doing some sightseeing. Off to do more of it... :)
I won't write too much since Carl and Joc have been furiously typing away for the past couple of hours while I took care of a few other things (yes, MERP, anything for you!). I'm enjoying my time here and transitioning nicely to SE Asia after my time in Australia. Being back in this region reminds me of how much fun it is to get lost exploring the winding roads of the town (while avoiding the motorcycles racing around you of course!). It's been also great to catch up with my friend Migs and his wife Saori. Migs dates back to my undergrad days and has been working out of the World Bank's Jakarta office for the last few years. It's been fun catching up and having a quasi-expert of the area around - and great timing since he's headed back to the DC headquarters in a few months.
Anyhoo, have fun checking out pictures up until this point - thanks to Joc for loading up multiple cameras' worth! And a big Happy Birthday to Joc too! Carl, Joc, and I are off to the beach. Life is tough for us right now...
Our main lesson yesterday was an introduction to the basic Thai ingredients (basil - 3 types, galanga, coconut milk, chillies, palm sugar, etc.) in a classroom setting before we struck out on our own at individual "wok" stations to prepare 6 dishes over the course of the day. Today's lesson was all about curry...and just how many types are out there! Everyone learned how to make red curry from scratch using dried spices and fresh herbs using a mortar and pestle. Once that was done, we all cooked our own chicken red curry - YUM!! We then went on to make 5 additional dishes. Did I mention that we eat everything that we cook? Talk about needing to rub my belly... =)
I followed up cooking school with another day of climbing with Carl, Joc, and new to the rock Ben and Aaron. We rented a car and found our way back to where I'd spent my first full day in Chiang Mai climbing and where Carl, Joc, and Jennie had spent the prior day when Aaron, Ben, and I were cooking up a storm. It was great fun all around. My extra pounds from eating non stop for three days luckily didn't hold me back too much. ;) Big thanks to Carl and Joc for continuing to mentor me on the ways of the rock. Joc taught me the basics of lead climbing and talked me through my first lead climb ever. Whee!
After a brief stop at a delicious local restaurant (and by restaurant I think it was the back of someone's house) that Carl, Joc, and I had been introduced to by our guides the first time out to the rock, we went back to Crazy Horse and kept climbing. We didn't let the ominous black cloud that then let forth intense rain hold us back. Well, ok, it trapped us under a bamboo hut for a while. We climbed a route under a rock archway where both Joc and I were barked at from a hole that we wanted to use for a hold by something...a bat? an insanely large insect? Let's just say I didn't hold on long enough to find out. I made it about 2/3 of the way up before I could go no further. Literally hugging a large piece of rock, trying to move laterally right and having nothing below me, and feeling no hand holds or foot holds (sigh), I conceded to the rock. I got to enjoy a few moments of swinging around and pushing off the rock before Carl finally lowered me all the way down. Good times. :)
Carl, Joc, Ben, Aaron, and I wrapped up our 3 day trek in Sapa and are heading back to Hanoi tonight on an overnight to meet with Jennie and Katie in the morning at which point we hop on another bus to get us out to Halong Bay. I'm excited to exit the city and hopefully get some calm on the bay.
More to come. (The good thing about being beaten to the punch on blogging Sapa and Hanoi is that Carl and Joc have just about covered everything I would - and specifically the "happy water" (aka rice wine) consumption that then led to duck preservation (Joc) or chasing (Aaron/Carl). Happy reading... :)) Some illustrations to help.
Cleaned up, we all hopped on an 8:30am bus to Ha Long Bay (a 3 hour ride from Hanoi) where we jumped on a junk boat. (We bid farewell to Ben who had to take a shorter tour so that he could get back in time to catch his flights out of the country that would ultimately land him in Israel. Miss you BJ!) We spent the next couple of days puttering around on the water taking swimming breaks, hiking through the largest cave in the bay (a little cheesy giving the colorful lighting on the walls), kayaking in and out of lagoons (beautiful scenery and great to be active), and plain lounging about on deck - boy was the sun powerful! Night one was spent on the boat - luckily no one got seasick! - and night two was spent on Cat Ba island, one of the larger islands found in the bay. I thought we'd left behind all the people wanting to sell us things at the ferry; I was wrong. People with row boats full of goods were constantly approaching our boat. Pretty amazing.
Hoi An is known for its tailoring and has over 200 shops. Thus far, we've hit up a recommended tailor and put in some "test" orders. After flipping through a number of catelogs, I decided to go for a long linen skirt, a sun dress, and a bathing suit. It's all a gamble, particularly the last item for me, when it comes to tailor made, but a number of our friends who have already gone through these parts have had at least partial success, and it's all comparatively inexpensive. JMac picked up a dress, Katie ordered several, and Joc ordered jeans, pants, and a jacket...Carl just watched and provided input. (Fear not, we got a rather large beer in him before we dragged him along for the experience.) We try on our items tomorrow...yup, that's right a 24 hour turnaround...sit for any alterations and that's that. Fingers crossed as if everything works out, orders for suits will be forthcoming by Joc and Jennie. I, on the other hand, have more suits from my previous life than I know what to do with. Anyone??
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