My favorite area by far was the Arab quarter, which was bustling without being overcrowded and had a neat mix of textile stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all frequented by locals. Even though we were only 2 hours away from breakfast, we tried some Muslim food (advertised as the best in the city), and indeed found it quite tasty. Little India was not quite as quaint, and I was traumatized by a lunch experience in which I think we were “taken” by our waiter and were served about 4 times as much food as we needed for about 4 times the price; couldn’t even make a dent and then had to go to the ATM to cover the bill. Nonetheless, the rest of the walk was enjoyable and interesting and by the end of the day I was back to raving about Singapore.
]]> Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=10229 0 1.2930556 103.8558333 What a trip it’s been though! Carl’s working on some superlatives, and so far I entirely agree with them. I’ve enjoyed seeing so many beautiful places, and specifically have enjoyed thinking about how different nature’s beauty is in different parts of the world. I’ve also come to appreciate more the value of short-term relationships; many of the people we’ve met I probably won’t see again, but I have really enjoyed our time together all the same.

So what’s next? To Boston for Angie Peluse’s wedding, then to Minneapolis for some time with Carl’s family, and then he drives west to start work! And I head south to begin establishing myself into Chicago. In some ways I can’t believe it’s time for that already; in others, school seems like it was an eon ago and so much has happened in between. I’ve enjoyed this time in part because I know there are good things to come after it, and I am starting to get excited for those next steps, as different as they will be. Onward!
]]> Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=10228 0 19.72972 -155.09 We arrived in Darwin, Australia intent on visiting world-famous Kakadu National Park and perhaps other surrounding parks. We hit an immediate hiccup in that it was a school holiday at the time and many Australians were on the road making a similar circuit as we were. As a result, our “play it by ear” plan ran into some availability issues that put us in Darwin itself for an extra day while we waited for a camper van to become available through Wicked Campers. Two days after arriving, however, we were packed into a –crazily-painted converted van packed with groceries and were on our way to the park.

We made good time (4 hours) and arrived just in time to check out some of the Aboriginal (“Traditional Owners”) rock paintings for sunset. True to in-town warnings, there were many people there, but the park was big enough for our experience not to be hampered by the presence of so many others. The artwork was very cool (ranging from 20-years old to thousands of years old), and the vistas were spectacular.

The next day began with a 9am cruise of the yellow river. Although it was pretty pricey ($55/person), it was very cool. Over the course of 2 hours we saw numerous crocs (from a safe distance and the security of a boat), and a lot of neat birds. It was also cool to cruise the floodplains, which are an interesting geological feature in and of themselves.

We spent the rest of the day touring a few of the other sites of the park, including another Aboriginal painting site, a lookout or two, and a long washboarded dirt road out to our camp area. We arrived there just as the sun was setting and booked it up a short hike to some croc-safe pools at the top of a mountain – gorgeous view, and for the small price of hiking back down nearly in the dark, we got a pretty secluded experience.

On the whole I would say Kakadu was very good, though I am infinitely glad we did it on our own power and not with a tour; otherwise, I think it would really have felt like a ton of driving for some good (but not really spectacular) photo points amongst many other tour groups.

Our next stop was Litchfield Park, another park in the area that’s less known world-wide but was supposed to be beautiful. We planned a climbing stop along the way and successfully made an afternoon at Robin Falls, a small turnoff with some beautiful falls and decent slab climbing (and only 1 or 2 other groups there, none of whom were on the wall). It was fun to do a different kind of climbing and a nice way to break up the drive from Kakadu to Litchfield.

The next day we entered Litchfield, which is most known for its many swimming holes. (Litchfield is more or less croc-safe because its water access is not from the ocean). We drove to several beautiful areas, but more or less made a bee line for our target camping area so we could have some down time in the afternoon.

We had planned to camp for the night at a less crowded pool accessible only by four wheel drive (which our little van supposedly had), but hesitated because it turned out the road involved a river crossing that looked fairly formidable, and our van had no snorkel. After carefully measuring our clearance against the .6 meters that the depth stick was registering, we decided to wait to see if others came by, and within minutes a new Nissan arrived and barreled right through it, then hollered from the other side that he would wait to make sure we made it. Note that there was another croc warning sign, which again seemed “unlikely”, but it was interesting to think about what exactly a contingency plan would entail if we got stuck. Carl put the car in gear and powered right through it though! It was very exciting.

The successful crossing led us then to a camping area with only one spot left (we grabbed it, and then shared with another car that came in a little later – we’re such nice people). We packed up our reading materials and hiked out to the local swimming hole, but found it plagued with flies and much colder than others we’d passed, so after a quick dip and courageous (because it was cold; this one was asserted croc free) swim to the falls, we headed back to camp for some bug repellent and dinner.

The drive out the next morning was also exciting because we couldn’t really get the car into 4WD (or we couldn’t be sure that it had worked) and we no longer had an escort for the crossing. We made it, though once on the other side the car wouldn’t go into 2-wheel drive for a while, making horrible grinding noises whenever we changed gears. Thankfully, it worked itself out though, and we proceeded on to our last Litchfield stop: “Lost City.” This place is basically a big boulder field, and we found a nice traverse that kept us busy for a few hours and left us worked and ready to just drive again at the end. We refreshed ourselves at yet another swimming hole on the way out (this one was sort of a terraced stream), and then headed for Darwin again.

Our last night there was rough in we had to return the van in the morning, but our flight was at 6am. So we slept in the parking lot, which I found nerve-wracking because it wasn’t in a great area of town. It worked though: no incidents, and our taxi showed up on schedule at 4:15 to pick us up. Next stop: the Great Barrier Reef!
]]> Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=10227 0 -12.4666667 130.8333333 Carl and I had a great time in Thailand – so much so that we increased our stay there by three days. He had been there for several weeks already so had the climbing scene all spec’d out for us. He met me at that airport (in a heroic journey that actually took more time than it took for me to get from my hotel in Bangkok to Krabi), and then we took the taxi/boat combination that he had arranged to get us back to Rai Lay beach. (No slippery treks through the downpour for me!). We spent the first afternoon climbing on a wall right behind the hotel we were staying at and then over the course of the next week and a half hit 4-5 other areas around the island, and it was great. The rock was solid, the climbs led to extraordinary beach overlooks, and if you were smart about the shade (and Carl had scouted this as well) it was possible to do all this without overheating. The areas usually didn’t have a lot of what I would call “easy” climbs, so my warm-up usually felt someone abbreviated, but it all worked out – no further injuries, and some great climbing.

The daily rhythm outside of climbing was quite chill. I picked up a copy of Harry Potter 7 in Bangkok, and Carl had first dibs on that because I was still finishing my review of the previous books. So we spent a lot of time reading, ate all our meal’s at Mom’s Kitchen (which was cheap, tasty and reliably safe), and wandered around the island a bit.

The one other adventure we had was renting a kayak and paddling to one of the neighboring islands. The goal was to find a hawker-free, quiet beach, and we thoroughly succeeded, finding a deserted stretch of good sand with a great view of other islands (and the storms that were circling but never really got us). I read, Carl napped, and then we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the water on our paddle back – good fun!

Having been wanting to climb with Carl in Thailand ever since I went there in 2000, these were a great 2 weeks. The world was calling, however, so we moved on to other adventures.

Thanks to the fare incentives of Singapore-based Tiger Airways, we had a 20-hour layover in Singapore on our way from Krabi to Darwin, in Australia. We thought we’d check the city out, and were quite glad we did, because it was very cool! Singapore is clean and modern, with a fantastic mix of ethnicities (felt like an Asia melting pot). We spent our one day there doing a walking tour of the city, hitting the Arab, Indian and Chinese quarters, with miscellaneous city architecture in between. (The only downside to the visit was that we came through on a Sunday and much of the city was shut down).

My favorite area by far was the Arab quarter, which was bustling without being overcrowded and had a neat mix of textile stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all frequented by locals. Even though we were only 2 hours away from breakfast, we tried some Muslim food (advertised as the best in the city), and indeed found it quite tasty. Little India was not quite as quaint, and I was traumatized by a lunch experience in which I think we were “taken” by our waiter and were served about 4 times as much food as we needed for about 4 times the price; couldn’t even make a dent and then had to go to the ATM to cover the bill. Nonetheless, the rest of the walk was enjoyable and interesting and by the end of the day I was back to raving about Singapore.
]]> Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=10226 0 8.0666667 98.9166667 The long house experience was also pretty cool, though the transportation required to get us there was not so cool. "It's all about expectations!" We heard that many times in school in our MO classes, and I firmly believe it anyway. We thought the transportation was going to be a 4-5-hour bus ride; instead it was a 3 hour bus ride that was made into a 6 hour bus ride because we had a guide who decided/was instructed to stop a number of times on the way to see (what in my and most of the group's opinion were) trivial/annoying tourist sites. Then despite voicing an interest in getting to the Hilton resort more quickly, we continued with the stops and then missed the 3pm boat and had to wait for the 4pm boat to get across the lake to the resort. Mutiny. I had a brief go at some mediation between cranky co-workers and the leaders, with mild success; everyone was also better after a swim and an excellent buffet dinner.

The long house itself was pretty interesting. To some extent it replicated some of the other hill tribe tours we've done (akin to a human zoo). However, this group had a chief who seemed like the real deal. When long house tribe chiefs first become chief, they tour around to the various villages under their purview and at each point hear a different part of lore from the village elders and with that exchange receive a tattoo. By the end of the tour their entire upper body is covered, as was the current 73-year-old chief's. He seemed like a pretty extraordinary guy, though my attempts at communicating with him through our guide (who was still annoyed with us from our "pushiness" the previous day) were rebuffed. (Every time I would ask the guide to ask the chief something, the guide would answer for him, regardless of how much I clarified that I understood the precedent but was interested in hearing this chief's exact words (and watching his reactions, etc.)). I was mostly interested in hearing how he has seen his leadership responsibilities change over the course of the decades as his tribe went from head hunting (yup, like some of the Indonesian tribes, these practiced raids of their neighbors and staked the skulls of their enemies at the village entrance) to tour hosting (every day welcoming another group of farangs (foreigners, usually white people). He seemed genuinely pleased to have us there and excited to show us their ways. Most of the women seemed very angry all the time, though the guide insisted that they were happy, despite their dark faces.

The Hilton was also a nice break. We swam, lounged, played pool, played mafia and generally relaxed. I also discovered a minor travel crisis in which my flights from Kuching to KL and then to Bangkok were booked with 5 minutes of layover time. Oops. So I asked Kris and Seth whether I could jump on with the Canadians for the early shuttle to the airport. Instead, the whole group rallied to leave the resort early - I think it fit others' schedules, but no doubt it was also to make my life easier, and I greatly appreciated that. In the end, I was able to go on an earlier flight (purchased an entirely new ticket; nice, Air Asia), made my connection to Bangkok, and one hour after landing was checked into the ridiculously nice Novotel, where I spent only 10 hours (don't figure out the hourly rate), but got very clean and had an excellent night sleep.

Then, on to Krabi and my long lost boyfriend!]]> Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=10173 0 13.75 100.5166667 Douglas, and then caught a sizable boat out to the "outer reef", which is supposed to be one of the better (untouched) regions. Neither he nor I had ever done this before, so we went for the heavily shepherded "introductory dives", in which we went down with 1-2 other newbies and 1 instructor, never more than 12m deep. The instructor helped us with our boyancy and monitored our air levels, so we just had to deal with mobility, steady breathing, ear clearing and if necessary mask clearing. Quite manageable, and very cool. I had some very close encounters with a Malabar (?) cod - about 3-4 feet long and fairly big. He came within a foot of my face and stared at me, I think looking for food, because when I held up empty hands, he swooshed off. We also saw some very colorful coral, a pineapple sea cucumber (huge! and aptly named), the Nemo clownfish, and many other amazingly bright creatures that I didn't catch the name of. It was a pretty fantastic day though - a bit windy and therefore cold above deck, but otherwise ok, and the diving was really fantastic! We took an underwater camera down - hopefully some pictures will turn out.

We're still plotting what to do with our last two days Down Under - hopefully some climbing. And then it's off to home soil!
]]> Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=9924 0 -16.9166667 145.7666667 Darwin, Australia early tomorrow morning for Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, our last stop before departing this part of the world. I haven't checked in since I left Malaysia, and that's just a testament to how great the trip's been! It was fantastic to be reunited with Carl in Thailand. We had a great week climbing and relaxing there (actually extended the trip by a few days). Next was Singapore, which was terrific even though we only were there for 20 hours - what a cool city!!! And then into Darwin, where we rented a "wicked van" (spray painted with numerous irreverent sayings and pictures, $77AUS a day and outfitted to camp out of and sleep in). It served us well, as we cruised through Kakadu and another local park (Litchfield). All beautiful, all great, all fun. Back in the US on the 10th and back with my laptop - will do more pictures and blogging then if not sooner! Hope everyone's well - getting excited to catch up soon!]]> Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=9890 0 -12.4666667 130.8333333 Updates since the last blog:

On Saturday we went to the market. While in some ways a typical Asian market, this one was particularly fun because we had a local guide, Min (a man), who's great. It was mostly a food market, though it also had some other stuff (junk), and Min led us in a lot of sampling. My favorites included some fried falafal-like things that were Indian, peanut pancakes (crepe with butter and peanuts), and fresh pineapple. I also found another new fruit (langan?) that I am allergic to. Other than that we saw a ton of fresh vegetables, many of them new to me, as well as some jellyfish and interesting forms of meat. All told we spent over an hour there and I greatly enjoyed it.

While waiting to move on to dinner, I also got to hear from Min more about Habitat in general; highlights included learning that they are not exclusively Christian in the sense if the recipients are Muslim, as Eddie and Katie are, they receive a Koran (instead of a bible) with the keys to the house. Interesting, and in my opinion appropriate. Later that night we also went out as a group for the first time - tons of fun. It's interesting hanging out with people of such different ages - makes for a neat dynamic.

Sunday morning began with a 7:30am pilates session (Andrea, one of the BCG Stanford grads, is an instructor back home and several of us were interested in trying her class, so we rented out the hotel conference room for an hour). It was ridiculously hard - so much so that I really couldn't do much of it and didn't even really get a workout because I spent most of the time in a failure state. Nonetheless, it was fun, and it was a great prequel to the next event: the spa. I got a 1-hour massage and then some stim on the left side of my neck to try to adjust the chronic sleep-induced ache that has returned.

That afternoon we went to the rainforest wold music festival, which was awesome. I had low expectations going into it, and it turned out to be very cool. The afternoon started out with 2 workshops; I chose feuding fiddles and an introduction to Afghani music, which I thought I was going to hate and ended up really liking. They had a drummer that was unbelievable (and drums that were unbelieveable). One was sort of a tom tom with a little iron plate in the middle that allowed the player to make about 15 different sounds, and he had incredibly fast hands.

We took a 2-hour break to eat some good ethnic food, and then that night there was a big concert with 11 bands from all over the world - local to kick it off, then Afghanistan, Poland, UK, Vietnam, Tuva (which I deduced and have since confirmed is near Mongolia), Kuala Lumpur, Italy, South America and Madegascar. Each group played for between 15 and 60 minutes each, and it was really interesting. The Vietnamese group had some crazy instruments including clapping their hands in front of pipes (like you can do on your mouth). (The woman actually started out by playing a song on her mouth (something we all knew so we could see it was working)). They also had some ... weird ones - hard to describe, but cool. The polish band ("Shannon") is also worth looking up - almost Dave Matthews like, but different (same same but different!). The fiddler was great though - had seen him in the afternoon workshop too. We left the concert at about 12:30 and then bussed back for an hour.

Monday we got started late because we were up late the night before, but still made good progress, and today we finished up our work on the house! Eric, our foreman, said we did well - were ahead of schedule (and hopefully made a house that won't fall down). We finished all the brickwork except for a tricky spot in what will be the ceiling of the bathroom, and plastered several of the walls (turns out plastering is my favorite task). We're in the process of assembling pictures, so I will have some soon, but suffice it to say that we build a house! Pretty cool.

Tonight we have our local farewell dinner with the affiliate and then tomorrow we leave for the country to visit a long house hill tribe for 2 days. Then Friday we depart! It's gone quite quickly (I seem to say that about every location) but has been a great time (also say that about every location). Again as usual though, I am really looking forward to the next stage too! ]]> Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=9087 0 1.55 110.3333333 The trip is going well. I really like the group - a great group of individuals with mix of laid back-ness and interesting-ness. We are making decent progress on the house too. The daily rhythm is something like this: leave the hotel at 8am, drive 45 minutes to the village, working by 9am. Break at 10:30 for 10-15 minutes, work until 12:30. Break for 30-60-minute lunch, work until 3ish, maybe another quick break, then finish at 4:30.

After a day or so of framing and dirt shoveling, we were ready to pour concrete. The first day of that was all manual mixing, which is very, very hard! On the way to the internet cafe tonight I passed a pile of sand beside a pile of gravel and it gave me the shivers. My back was nearly broken for the first day or so despite decent efforts to use my legs, but it seems to be recovering. We also found a great massage place nearby that's $15US per hour! Very therapeutic.

Today, thanks to a wonderful new invention (the cement mixer), our work didn't involve manual mixing - such a treat! We carted wheelbarrow-fulls of this to the site this morning and finished pouring the floor of the house. Then we formed human chains to move many bricks and started on the walls.

Aaron, one of the Irish lads and I also played soccer against the local kids at lunch today - that was a ton of fun, though in 90+ degree heat, it wiped me out for the afternoon. Hopefully we will repeat that, without the dehydration factor. Eddie, the husband in the couple we're building the house for, played on our team as did one of the young girls; the other 12 were against us, and when they come up to your hip height, it's quite a challenge not to send bodies flying!

Every night we congregate around 7 for a group dinner, then have free time (though by then most of us are eager to crawl into bed - long days!). It's a good rhythm - lots of fun! And now, off to dinner...]]> Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8911 0 1.4166667 110.3333333 The house itself is coming along nicely, considering 1+ days of work. The roof was already built, so we are working on preparing the foundation. I have become somewhat of an expert in rebar bending and tying, and my posture is perfect right now in order to protect a very sore back (shoveling gravel and sand). A group of local kids is perpetually hanging around, and we all get a great kick out of shouting hello back and forth to each other and giggling in between.

The couple for whom we are building the house is currently living in the house next door with 8 adult relatives. That clan cooks lunch for us, and it's fun to sit around smiling at each other. Today I tried what turned out to be homemade chewing gum (sort-of; I wouldn't have recognized it as such without being told).

Tomorrow we pour concrete and while it's drying have the afternoon off to do some shopping. I am going to try to pick up some extra t-shirts as I am tearing through my wardrobe. Although it isn't as hot as I expected it to be (discomfort-wise), I still sweat out pounds every hour (drank 4 liters of water today during our 9-5 workday!).

It's great fun though, and very rewarding - Eddie works with us and he and Katie seem like very nice people. Katie's 8 months pregnant, so I think they will get good use out of their new house!]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8649 0 5.9666667 100.55 At any rate...

When we planned to go to Angkorwat, I'd say Carl and Viv were driving the process and I was following along to stay with them; at the time it seemed like a lot of travel and money for some cool temples. In retrospect, it was very much worth it, except we wish we'd had another day or two.

Cambodia was not at all what I'd expected. I had heard that Angkorwat was completely tourist-ridden and nearby Siem Reap overrun with junk souvenier shops. Instead, we found it a small town with nice, courteous people (plenty of shopping "opportunities", but they didn't force themselves on you like they have in other places. And the temples were ... amazing.

I didn't know this at first, but Angkorwat is actually a collection of more than 100 temples. Many of them are small, but it was pretty incredible to imagine the area hundreds of years ago without tourists and speckled with temples everywhere. Granted, most of the thousands of people who lived there didn't worship at the temples, just built them for the king. Nonetheless is was pretty cool to think about.

We started the day at the "Tomb Raider" temple. Although the day was full of fantastic sights, this ended up my favorite place, I think because of the interaction between nature and the temples. I haven't seen Tomb Raider, but I heard Viv comment that she thought the movie had been digitally engineered to show trees in and amongst the ruins - turns out, it's real! Extraordinary. We also had the luck of getting there before the multitudes of packed tour buses arrived. (We didn't try for a sunrise visit because it's rainy season and we were likely to be clouded in; instead, we got started just after 8 and still beat many of the crowds at our first stop).

We later saw the temple of happy faces - also very cool. Each spire has four faces on it, representing the Buddhist tenets of compassion, sympathy, calmess and charity. Another stop was at the king's temple, which overlooked a 125m swimming pool in which his 4,000 concubines would bathe. Every night he would climb the (ridiculously steep) stairs - on belay! - to have sex with one of them. The burdens of ruling....

How long did that chiseling take??

We finished the day at Angkorwat itself. Although very cool, don't get me wrong, it actually was less dramatic to me than some of the others. I should note that I was on the point of exhaustion though (due to poor laundry management I was down to just one very hot thick cotton t-shirt, and despite drinking 2 liters of water throughout the day, had to rest every few steps in order to make it through).

With the addition of two pleasant dinners, it was a great stop!]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8411 0 13.3666667 103.85 1) Mysterious ankle injury set in in Ha Long Bay - could it have been from the back flips off the top of the boat?! Not helped by the fact that we never get a walking-free day, but he was managing well enough.

2) Cold. Who gets a cold when it's 100 degrees out? Acutally it's now around 70, so perhaps it was the climate change of going from the ridiculous heat of everywhere else in this country to the moderately pleasant constant drizzle of Da Lat. That was yesterday.

3) Mountain biking mishap (he's ok though - I'll state that up front). We postponed the excursion one day to give his cold a full day of rest and recuperation, but this morning on a particularly nasty steep downhill (and did I mention muddy? Very muddy) he lept acrobatically off of his bike and in an attempt to save stressing the ankle somehow tweaked the heck out of his back. We were just about at the farthest point on the trail, so he had a limpy 2-hour walk back to the sealed road, poor fella. Yes, strike three, and Carl is in traction. (I don't actually know what that term means - in reality, he's drugged up on advil watching mindless television upstairs).

The good news is he'll make it (he's a strong one). It's also nice that yesterday we decided to give ourselves a break and upgraded to the Novitel (the 2nd nicest hotel in town), so we are relaxing in relative luxury (we even ordered room service for lunch!). The bad news is he's down for the count (we're thinking of renting a DVD player). Unfortunately we have a flight to Cambodia tomorrow, so hopefully he will have a rapid recovery - go Carl!!!

Other than this minor tragedy, the ride was actually very fun - extremely wet and slippery, but (except for that one spot) not too steep in either direction. The bikes were decent, and the temperature perfect (got a little chilly when it started to rain; again, poor Carl walking home in the rain a day after spending the day in bed with a cold). We also had the fun coincidence of our two Irish friends booking the same ride as we did even though our attempts failed at passing them a note through their hotel telling them where we'd booked. So we had a fun group and a good adventure. Viv has a few "body illustrations" of a few of her escapades, but I will leave that to her telling - my contribution is this: it wasn't easy biking!

Now off to play paparazzi with some Vietnamese propaganda posters...fascinating...]]> Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8288 0 11.9333333 108.4166667 Yesterday, however, we did check out the golf course. For a mere $90 you can play what looks like a fairly well tended and potentially interesting course. I think we are going to try it either tomorrow or Sunday for their twighlight special (on $40). We did hit on the range though, which was a lot of fun (just knowing we were playing golf in Vietnam!).

Despite

We also visited "crazy house", which was designed in Alice in Wonderland style by the 2nd daughter of the 2nd president after Ho Chi Min. Crazy indeed.

All the beds had mirrors above them...weird. But cool for goup photos!

Vivian and i are going through the local market soon. (carl is elevating his ankle - mysterious pretty serious strain). Tomorrow we are still hoping to go mountain biking.
]]> Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8243 0 11.9333333 108.4166667 We're wrapping up two quick days in Nha Trang, a beach down just south of the demilitarized zone. Despite its potential historical intrigue, Nha Trang has been a place of semi-relaxation for us (or at least attempted relaxation as we have continued to Battle hawkers. The honking is significantly less here though, and there are some alternative cuisines that have temporarily staved off my despair at eating bland dishes and hoping to avoid MSG).

Our beautiful sunny beach day...

...turned to rain (but those thatched umbrellas are really effective!)

Highlights so far first include the company: we overlapped with Brendan and Allison for a day here, and it was great to catch up and bit and swap some stories. We also hit some mud baths today that were quite an experience - my skin is silky soft now (in theory at least).

Tomorrow we grab a bus to head into the mountains of Dalat for a few days. There, gasp, we may even need fleeces at night! Dalat boasts many outdoor attractions including good trekking, mountain biking, some climbing, and semi-natural water slides. Should be a fun change of pace. And from there, it's on to Cambodia to revel in the magnificence of Angkor Wat!]]> Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8164 0 12.25 109.1833333 Hanoi, however, didn't really welcome us back - no incidents, but we were ready to move on so we changed our flights to go down to Danang/Hoi An one day ahead of time. So far this town is much better suited towards me - a good bit less busy, fewer people, less honking, etc. We booked a functional hotel for our first night and then Carl and Viv scouted a great hotel that will host us for our remaining three days here.

The main point of Hoi An (its "brand", if you will), is tailoring. This morning we went to a shop that had been recommended by some friends and spent about an hour looking through catalogues and selecting a few tester items. Measurements were made, fabric selected, and tomorrow morning at 11am we will see whether this is going to work! It's pretty fun...

And now, off to the pool!]]> Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=8030 0 15.5 108.2833333 I think it was the same route I did years ago when I was here, but it was remarkable how much things have changed. Sa Pa itself is much busier, most notably in the motor bike and car traffic, all of which comes with almost perpetual honking and a good bit of exhaust. Given that tourism seems to be the main economic force here, I think it's extremely unfortunate that this has happened to the city because it really negatively affects the experience. I would expect it to permeate the guidebooks soon. The hill tribe sales forces are also quite aggressive, to the point of harrassment. I might actually be interested in shopping their wares, but I am afraid of what might happen if I show the slightest interest.

Our guide this time was "Pit", and she was a funny girl (19?). She was very light on the educational aspect of the trip, and didn't keep pace with us one of the days, but was relatively pleasant. We were speculating that her general apathy, however, was indicative of the increased tourism in the area. I asked her at one point if she had been the guide for our friends a week earlier (Matt, Neda, Tanuka and Jeff coincidentally used the same company), and she shrugged and said she doesn't remember names - too many people come through. Mai, my guide from 2000, was much better! Nevertheless, she didn't get us lost.

To the highlights, though: the scenery is still fantastic. I am so impressed that they have turned such rugged countryside into productive farmland! The first day was supposedly ~15km long but only took us 3ish hours; the same with the second. There were many other people on the trail the first day, but fewer the second (much more desirable).

I also had the opportunity to work in a paddy - great fun, exclusively because when my back got too tired I could stop. What hard work! I went with Pit and the mother of the household in which we were staying - about a 5 minute walk from the house to a 10-tiered steppe. I learned that the paddies are cut out of the mountain by hand. Each ends up being about 5-6 feet wide and 30-100 feet long. Somehow they flood them, and then water buffalo are used to dredge the inside of the paddy so it's relatively level and well tilled.

The first stage of the process involves spreading rice seeds by hand across the top. The rice then grows in like thick grass. Once it's relatively tall and green, but before it produces rice, it's then pulled by hand and relocated to new paddies with a good bit of space in between each stalk, apparently so it grows better and can be more easily harvested. The replant is the part of the process that I participated in.

On the way to the paddy, we passed some men working on the edge of one of the paddies, and they pulled out of the ground what looked like a 1-foot snake. I asked Pit if it was a snake, and she said no. "Are you sure?" "Yes, it's not a snake." "What is it?" "I don't know the word for it in English." "I do: snake!" We then bantered a little more about maybe it was a leech or a lizard; I maintain snake, she maintained it wasn't a problem, so I put it out of my mind.

We walked around to the far side and then descended along some pretty steep grass, left our sandals on the side, and then stepped into the paddy. The mud was extremely soft, slightly warm, and up to my upper calves/knees. She gave me a bunch of the rice and we got to work. Turns out I'm not a bad rice planter! I required some guidance (my natural instinct was to plant the rice too far apart). She also taught me how to lead with my fingers so that the rice roots are better planted and so the stalks stand up straight. I got the hang of it, though I was very slow - I was planting about 2 feet to her 4.

We did 1 paddy, and then stepped up to the next. The transitions were tricky though, because the boundaries between the paddies are about 8 inches wide and still fairly soft mud. I hopped up relatively readily, but keeping my balance wasn't easy, particularly when part of the wall collapsed. There goes the white girl, into the other paddy, already planted! Fortunately, they were laughing at me as I scrambled out and tried to fix the rice for them. Then I had an incident in which I started to tip again, but instead of stepping into the paddy, reached across the other side with both hands, successfully not falling, but then catching myself in the bridge position with no obvious next move. (I somehow tipped myself up and got out of that one). I think part of my challenge was that I outweigh most of them, plus am obviously not used to flying around on these tiny muddy tracks.

We planted two more half-paddies. Other animal highlights included a large bulbous spider (I kept my cool), and a tangerine size ball of frogs eggs (if I understand the translation correctly). It was quite an experience.

I did the first paddy without too much trouble, then when we turned to the second, decided I could hang if they could. Also managed the third, despite a cramping back. But then I finally had to admit that these tiny women were far stronger than I (I could barely stand up straight), and declined my next batch of rice.

They seemed relatively pleased with my stamina though, and I felt good about contributing a bit. (Though I also felt a good bit of pressure knowing that this was their food we were growing! (All subsitence farming)). Unfortunately there are no pictures of the event - my broken camera was too much for Pit to manage, so I just have the memories. I was given a tradiational hat to wear, though, for those of you trying to picture it!

The rest of the evening was equally eventful, mostly because of the 13 (small) shots of rice wine they "offered" us. Led to some good times, including Aaron renting a duck to chase, then buying it for $10USD, then deciding not to chase it after we learned that it would be eaten the next morning if we did (I had declared myself on the duck's side and was prepared to run active interference). The family (who was leading the drinking) also had a fun toy: a badminton-sized racquet with electric strings that would zap mosquitos when you swung it at them. All in all it was a good time, though the next morning I was feeling a bit sub-par.

(Side note: there have been far fewer mosquitos on the trip than I anticipated. Since we've started, I've gotten about 8 bites, 5 of which were on one of the climbing days in Chiang Mai. So far in Vietnam, 0!)

The next day we walked for another few hours and ended up at a waterfall. The fall itself was relatively short - 12 feet maybe? But the current was quite strong, and initially very cold. We got in, swam closer to the waterfall to get a look at how crazy the kayaking landing would have been (giant rock that you would have nosed right into), and then scouted an area for some cliff jumping. Carl displayed his usual routine of back flips, and I did my usual routine of pencil jumps. Good times. Last night was far more mellow as we all categorically refused the offers of more rice wine.

Today we woke up to clouds and the prospect of a steep climb back up the same trail we had come in on. We opted for the motorbike option instead, which then turned into quite an adventure when the clouds broke into rain. In general, we were going slowly enough that a fall would only have meant mud and a few bruises (we were all riding behind local drivers). Nevertheless, it was quite exciting. One "highlight": we stopped for no apparent reason, then asked Pit what the matter was. "They are building the road" (accompanied by a poof gesture with her hands). "They're dynamiting?!" we clarified incredulously. A minute later: BOOM! from up ahead, as limestone flew into the air in some not so small chunks. We waited for a few more blasts and then continued on our merry way. Note that the communication system between the guy stopping us and the dynamiters was a series of whistles. As I said, quite the adventure. We had originally planned to rent bikes when we returned to Sa Pa and then explore Pit's village, but given the weather we opted out of that in favor of a long internet session!

Next stop: Halong Bay. Fingers crossed for some more good weather - this is a place I have been looking forward to revisiting...]]> Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=7836 0 22.35 103.8666667 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=7796 0 22.35 103.8666667 Carl and I returned to the Crazy Horse Buttress crag for the third time in our Chiang Mai stays, this time again with Viv and with newcomers Aaron and Ben. We rented a car, successfully navigated our way out there, and had a great morning of climbing. Viv did her first lead ever (and did it quite well, I may add. Yay Viv!), and Aaron and Ben both learned quickly on both the belay and climbing side.

We went to lunch at the local spot (delicious, once again), and when we returned to the crag decided we were too full to climb right away, so we did some exploring. While searching for a local troupe of monkeys, we happened upon our first cool discovery: a monk hill camp, complete with monk hard at work (we left him undisturbed) (we never found the monkeys unfortunately).

Next we explored Aircon cave: a giant cavern that according to the book rises 80m above the floor! (It was very dark, difficult to verify the height). Then we returned to the wall, did one quick warm-up climb prior to the next chosen adventure: a new route up the inside of a big archway. As I descended from the warm-up, however, we noticed incredibly black storm clouds rolling in. At first glance, it seemed like we would likely get rain within the hour; 2 minutes later, it was clear it was going to be much faster than that; 5 minutes later we were huddled inside the archway marveling at the galeforce winds that were suddenly whipping through the area; 5 minutes later we were in a torrential downpour. Crazy!

We dashed back to one of the bamboo huts to see if it was going to blow through. Other than watching in awe the force of the sudden storm, the excitement there was when a giant (5-6 inches long) toad hopped up beside me. We named him Solomon (arbitrarily), and after a dramatic initial entrance, he just watched us.

The rain was relentless for about 20 minutes and then started to let up. Carl and I went to check out the archway and found it dry! So, we proceeded with the plan. Carl led the climb quite competently considering we had no route map and the light was weak with lingering storm effects. Aaron went next and for a first-ish day climbing did an awesome job. Viv then followed, and also did a great job, making it through the first 2 cruxes of the climb. In doing so, however, she had the first "bat" encounter: about 12 feet off the ground, suddenly snatched her hand back with a yelp (not falling, she would like me to note), saying that "something's in there!" We chuckled and encouraged her to forge on without using that pocket.

My turn next. I got to the same pocket, and, knowing there was someone at home, but knowing I needed the hold, I inserted just the first two "pads" (to the first knuckle) of two fingers into the pocket. Despite my care, I was immediately barked at (BAKKAW!!!!), loudly enough that everyone below heard loud and clear. Our best guess is a bat, though we never saw it. It was certainly a noise I have never heard before, with a meaning all too clear. (Footnote: I recognize that it wasn't as close to a bite as the monkey bite was, but the repeated close encounters beg for a tad of hyperbole). In the fading light, I finished the climb, which was "way cool". Aaron took pictures - hope to upload those soon.

Such great adventures! Chiang Mai has been a definite highlight so far....]]> Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=7777 0 18.7902778 98.9816667 We departed Chiang Mai today and flew to Bangkok, spending part of our 3-hour layover researching places to stay in Hanoi. We arrived in Vietnam armed with a phone number for our selected hotel. After a bit of wandering we found a public telephone that didn't require a special credit card and placed the call, aided by a kind gentlemen (hint 1: "kind gentleman") who helped us dial. Carl made the reservation, during which time the kind gent showed us a card for a guest house of a friend of his in the same area of town we were targeting. We took the card, thanked him, and told him we were heading to the first hotel but that if the rooms weren't good, we would check out his friend's place. Hint 2: the woman behind him made eye contact with Viv and mumbled "no good" and made a face. At that time, we didn't know whether that meant the place, the man, or the deal.

We exited the airport, heading for the Airport Taxis that the Kind Gent instructed us to take (advice that seemed verified by the other Farange's (foreigners) filing into other taxis in front of us). 30 ridiculous minutes later (driving in Vietnam appears to be one constant horn-honking fest; immediate headache), we arrived at what appeared to be the backpacker strip. At an intersection, to my recollection, suddenly the taxi driver gestured to the side, as a fellow stepped up to Carl's front seat window to tell him that while we were there, the hotel was full. All three of us were confused: the hotel he was pointing at didn't say Golden Lotus, but the driver seemed to corroborate that we were there. The man was telling us not to worry, there was another hotel owned by the same company that was just around the corner and they had room. Carl asked again where the Golden Lotus was, the man pointed again at something that didn't look like the Golden Lotus, then opened my door and asked if he could get in with us. I said no, there's no room! (There wasn't, really, and the request seemed too weird). So he then said, "ok, I meet you there" and closed the door.

We exchanged another "what's going on" as the taxi took off again, and minutes later pulled up at another hotel. As we got out of the car, our bags were being whisked inside, leaving us to catch up. They offered to show us the room; Viv and Carl went up while I watched the bags and tried to figure out where we were on the map. They returned from upstairs with a shrug, confirming that at least it was clean and seemed relatively secure. So, we booked.

At some point we mentioned we had other friends coming into the city, and the folks at the Star hotel were excited to get them lined up to. We hedged, and they then said "here's our card - you show them?". (Sinister music). It was the same card the guy at the airport had showed us of his friend's place. Duped.

Our best guess is that the "kind gentleman" from the airport called a friend of his and told him that there were three of us headed to the Golden Lotus. Said friend then intercepted our cab (somehow before we reached the Golden Lotus - either the cab driver was in on it (seemed unlikely as he was making disapproving noises when he drove us from the first to the second hotel) or we were close, and they spotted us (we do stand out)). So then we got rerouted, and hustled along enough that we never got to catch up because we were too preoccupied watching ourselves and our stuff.

Knowing that somehow we'd gotten nailed, we then went to the Golden Lotus on foot, confirmed that they were not booked and in fact had our reservation and were waiting for us. Taking a lesson my dad taught Carl a few years back, we decided to consider the $20 we had paid to the Star hotel "F@%^ You Money", checked out 30 minutes after we had checked in, and went straight to the Golden Lotus hotel, where we were greeting with sympathy and even some anger towards fellow countrymen and feel we are being treated well. Chalk it up once more as the costs of ignorance; annoying/upsetting, but in this case pretty painless in exchange for toughening us up a bit. Welcome to Vietnam!

We just booked our next two adventures, and I am very excited. We're getting the heck out of this noisy, busy city and head tomorrow night by overnight train to Sapa, in northwest Vietnam. We'll do a 25km trek over two days, staying with hill tribes both nights, and then returning to Hanoi also by overnight train. We'll turn right around that morning and head out to Halong Bay for a 3-day excursion there. I have been to both places, found them breathtakingly gorgeous and a lot of fun - looking forward to continued adventures!
]]> Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=7774 0 21.0333333 105.85

Joc and Carl prior to starting Thai cooking lessons

The resort was a great find too - it opened 3 weeks ago and wasn't quite fully complete. We were the biggest group to stay there yet, so Sompon was there the whole time to make sure it went well. He's a funny guy - doesn't smile much until he teases slightly, and then he breaks into a huge grin. I think he liked us, and we certainly were treated like royalty. He has a pool that we spent a lot of time in, the rooms were great, and when we finally were hungry (the second day I disciplined myself better and didn't nearly die of gluttony), he cooked us an amazing meal that included several local flavors we hadn't had yet. It was truly fantastic.

Carl, Jennie and I did 2 days of it and then came back into the city for today and hired a driver to go back to the climbing area, where we enjoyed five hours of great climbing. I led a 5.10b/c cleanly (my hardest lead ever, which is pretty cool given we haven't been climbing. The power of visualization).

The Chapmans left today to fly back to the states. We'll miss them - they were a great addition to the trip! We did pick up Ben Johnson again (friend we'd last seen in Indonesia) and Aaron Verstraete (who will be doing the Bain habitat trip with me). Jennie and Christie go to Laos tomorrow, and Ben, Aaron, Viv, Carl and I are planning to rent a car and do another climbing day as well as a Wat (temple) around here. I'm looking forward to it.

Then Wednesday morning we head for Hanoi for the next country! We decided to skip Laos to be moving a little less frequently, though now we're thinking of trekking in Sapa (Northwest Vietnam, and I stop that had not previously been on the itinerary). Since we didn't end up trekking here (the minitrek didn't count) I think it would be fun to add. Then to Halong Bay, which I have been looking forward to revisiting ever since I left there 6 years ago. Very exciting.

Now, off to feast!

Hope everyone's doing well ...]]> Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=885 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=7654 0 18.7902778 98.9816667