SUPERLATIVES

It’s not the end just yet. We wrote these on the trip back home.

(They are a little out of order but they are fun anyway…)

Most famous Monuments:

•The Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)

•The Taj Mahal (India)

•The Great Wall of China (guess!)

Oceans/Waterways:

•The Aegean Sea

•The Mediterranean Sea
•The Indian Ocean

•The Pacific Ocean

•The Nile River

•The Ganges River

Biggest Cities:
•Hong Kong (China)
•Delhi (India)
•Istanbul (Turkey)
•Beijing (China)

Dirtiest cities:
1. Delhi (India)
2. Agra (India)
3. Cairo (Egypt)

Best weather:
•Dharamsala (India) - day we went to Children's Village
•Goreme (Turkey) - day we took tour
•Ayutthaya (Thailand) – day we saw the ruins
•Ubetu (Tanzania) – days in the hospital

Hottest country:
•Egypt

Coldest country:
•China

Nicest weather overall:
•Turkey

Rainy days (5):
•Hungry - half day
•Greece - morning showers
•Tanzania - drizzle after 'hiking' in Ubetu, afternoon showers after safari, night rains at Suzanne's

Most relaxing days:
•Beach day in Santorini (Greece)
•Malaria days (Tanzania)
•Suzanne's house (Tanzania)
•Thanksgiving day (Thailand)

Most Stressful Days
•The day we left Hungary (catching the plane)
•Thailand - trying to figure out a way out while the airport was taken over by government protestors!

Number of Airports visited
•13

Number of countries
•9 (including our 2 hour trip to Slovakia)

Best food
•India (Karla and Alicia)

•Turkey (Alicia)

Worst food
•Hungary (most nondescript)

Spiciest food experiences:
•Hungary (the green pepper)
•Thailand (when you forgot to ask for non spicy food)

Most Sick
•Day we visited the Pyramids

•On the Ferry from Zanzibar (Karla)

•Malaria (both)

Modes of Transportation:
•plane
•bus
•train
•bicycle rickshaw
•autorickshaw (aka tuktuk)
•camel
•student discount bus (walking!)
•safari jeep
•motorcycle
•motorcycle with sidecar (A's favorite!)
•ferry
•longboat
•felucca
•cruise ship
•car
•taxi
•subway
•Tram

Cheapest Country:
•India

Most Expensive Country:
•Greece

Countries where we made most friends:
•Turkey

•Egypt

•Tanzania

Where we made the least friends:
•India

•Greece

Cutest babies:
•Asia

Friendliest People:
•Tanzania, India, China

Least friendly:
1. Greece
2. Hungary

First place to re-visit:
1. India
2.Turkey

Worst bathroom experience:
•India (while taking a bus to Jodhpur)

Cleanest/Most organized city:
•Hong Kong

Worst smog EVER:
•Delhi
•Beijing
•Agra

Coolest skyline:
•Hong Kong
•Istanbul

Worst/Most annoying vendors:
•Egypt

•India

Best tea:
1. India (chai masala with milk)
2. Turkey (apple tea)

Best coffee:
•Turkey or Tanzania

Most animals:
•Tanzania (safaris) and India (in the streets)

Favorite word in new language:
•muzungu (Swahili- foreigner aka someone who’s not from Africa)

•aroi (Thai- delicious)

•farang (Thai- foreigner)

•imshee (Arabic- go away child!)

Number of marriage proposals:
•too many to count (in Egypt)

Favorite street animal:
•cow, dog, and monkey

Weirdest street animal:
•Elephant

•Cow

Best natural land formations:
•Mount Kilimanjaro
•The Himalayan Mountains
•The Goreme caves in Turkey

Best sunsets:
•Zanzibar
•Over caves in Goreme
•On the fort in Jaislamer
•over Hong Kong
•over Nile in Cairo on the first night
•from our cruise ship on Nile (with tea!)

Longest flight:
•HKG-JFK (16 hrs)

Longest lay-over:
•Tanzania (also most fun layover as we got to leave the airport)

Weirdest happenings/experiences:
•When our empty water bottle magically refilled half way at a restaurant in Hungary
•Seeing Guy in the SOK safari office and figuring out our flight was cancelled at the last minute
•When Hellen told us the day after that we drank goat's blood soup

Cultural idiosyncrasies that we still don't understand:
•urinating in public
•groping women in crowds
•not using toilet paper
•littering!!!
•smoking...on the Great Wall
•the art of bargaining
•cutting people in lines
•how all non-native English speakers have the same phrases world-wide
•why Turkish people are afraid of taking the train
•the Chill
•why rickshaw drivers won't take us for a more than fair price
•love/hate relationship with cows in India
•why roads are always undergoing construction but are never completed in Tanzania
•how you could possibly like goats blood and intestine soup
•Asian spitting through teeth
•Men’s long pinkie nail (Egypt and Asia)
•snot-rocketing everywhere (India)
•not feeding people in the hospital
•Walking around with your naked child to beg for money

Funniest cultural habits:
•babies with split pants as to avoid needing diapers
•peace sign for photos (China)
•Men running in the streets not for exercise (Turkey)
•street vendors teaching dogs in tutus to do tricks
•biker hand warmers
•saying yes and then walking away when they don't understand

Cutest cultural habits:
•hand-holding amongst the elders everywhere and all Indian men
•getting up to give your seat to an elder

Weirdest foods:
•Ayran (yogurt milk drink)
•goat innards (nothing goes to waste)
•Turkish delight sweets (they taste like plastic with nuts)

Best new skill:
•Bargaining

Religions we've learned about:
•Islam
•Tibetan Buddhism
•Ancestor worship
•Buddhism
•Hinduism

Favorite traditional outfits:
•Khanga (India)
•Sari (India)

Best purchase:
•African shorts we had tailored

Best bargains:
•India and China

Most important lessons learned:
•generosity
•patience

Strangest person we've met:
•woman in Tanzania when fixing the car. She kept talking in gibberish about snakes and such.

Most unexpectedly interesting person we stumbled upon:
•Carpet vendor named Ali (Turkey)

Languages we've learned:
•Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Swahili, Hindi, Thai, Cantonese, Mandarin

Language we learned the most of:
1. Swahili
2. Arabic

Coolest things we've done:
•Pet tigers (Thailand)
•Sailed felucca (Aswan- Egypt)
•Climbed Great Wall (China)

Place where we felt most at home:
•Noha's in Egypt

•Katie's in Thailand
• Lucy's in Beijing

Shortest time in a country or province:
•Slovakia

•Zanzibar

•Hong Kong

Longest time in a country:
•Tanzania

Tallest travelers we met:
•Daniel and Jake (Turkey)

Shortest traveler:
•cute baby sitting next to us on the plane from Beijing to Hong Kong

Funniest experiences:
•saying goodbye to Daniel and he was on A's shoulders while K was on Jake's
•impromptu group picture on the Great Wall

Tallest mountain:
•Kilimanjaro

Highest we've been
•Ngorongoro (only about 3,000 meters)

Scariest moment
•finding out about the Mumbai attacks while stranded in Thailand
•A Lost K at the airport
•Almost missing our flight in Hungary

Best new taste
•Fruit curry (India)

Worst new taste
•Blood soup (Tanzania)
•Mold cookies (China)

Best dessert:
•Baklava (Turkey)

Places we want to go next!
•Laos, Cambodia, Tibet, Nepal, Spain (K), Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Madagascar, all of South and Central America...the list goes on!

Special thanks to...
•Our hostel owner for giving us a good introduction to traveling (Hungary); Irmak and Ugur for being great hosts (Turkey); Noha and Karam for taking us in and driving us everywhere (Egypt); Hellen, Eric, Apo and George for helping us live with Malaria and for showing us how to live with just enough (Tanzania); Suzanne, Graham, and Chris for saving us from Malaria and letting us stay in the oasis of Arusha (Tanzania); Mr. and Mrs. Prasad for pampering us on our last day in India; Katie and Mike for taking care of us in Thailand and making Thanksgiving a reality; Lucy for being so generous, Karen for helping us get around Beijing, and Mr. Li for patiently driving us around (China).
•Our most faithful and loving companions: Diego and Fernando (our backpacks)
•Our families and our faithful blog readers
•And of course to all the new friends we've made on the road.

So THANK YOU all again for helping us make this trip! (Don’t mind the misspellings)

ke se nem (Hungarian)

teshekewr (Turkish)

efhiristo (Greek)

shokran (Arabic)

asante (Swahili)

shukriya (Urdu)

duniwaad (Hindu)

kap kun kaa (Thai)

m goih (Cantanese)

xie xie (Mandarin)

Day 105: December 18. Homeward Bound.

What a long day! We woke up at 6:30 and scurried around finishing packing and cleaning up after ourselves, before hopping in a cab to the airport.

We checked in and enjoyed our flight immensely because there was a really cute baby sitting next to us. It didn't matter that he only spoke Mandarin and we obviously don't...he still liked playing with us!

Our layover passed quickly with all the errands that we had to do: exchange money, eat lunch, spray ourselves with perfume, and of course write a list of the wonderful things we didn't want to forget.

Then came the long plane ride. Luckily we had personal TVs to keep us company...we each watched 4 movies! Hey, we had to figure out some way to pass 15.5 hours!

We had some delays coming in, and then were taxiing after landing for a half hour, then there was a long customs line, then we had to wait quite some time for our bags to come...and then suddenly we were surrounded by our families and four months worth of questions and embraces. And somehow, without ceremony, it was all over. Karla and Alicia went their separate ways to separate states.

The End.
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Day 104: December 17th. Perfect Finish

We were on time for Mr Li today! After breakfast we were driven to Beihai Park, which, in keeping with our park experiences, was positively alive on a winter's morning. We saw some impressive music and dancing, fancy sword maneuvers, various sports, intense card games, and vigorous walkers. The park was on the big lake you could see from the top of the hill of Jingshan Park.

There were also some beautiful temples and even a cool man made cave where the emperor used to practice his kung fu. One of the courtyards leading to the temple had bedrooms and living rooms surrounding it filled with what looked like replicas of how the rooms used to appear. This style of display was different from the other bedroom displays we've been seeing where they have the room set up with what's left of the old actual furniture. You get to see the real stuff but its also nice to see what they actually could have looked like.

We had a couple more places to see while we still had the car. So we visited the Cow Street Mosque, the biggest mosque in Beijing. It said in the guidebook that the mosque had Chinese influence, and it was so Chinese looking that you could barely tell it was a mosque except for the Arabic written on the building and the graves. We made another stop just around the corner at the Fayuan Temple. Karla liked this one a lot. The complex was well laid out, not too big or busy, and was beautifully decorated inside and out. The trees must be beautiful in the summertime. Being expert temple goers, we swiftly made the rounds and where on our way to our final drop off point of the day-the Drum and Bell Towers north of the forbidden city.

When we got out of the car we managed to communicate that we would take a cab home from here (we wanted to walk around the hutong at leisure) and would be leaving the following day. With the words tomorrow, bye-bye, taxi and the hand signal of an airplane, he shook his head happily having understood, shook our hands, and pulled away.

We had lunch at a small restaurant, and thought we were ordering the dumpling soup. What came out was a fish soup with the whole tail in it! Karla, with her stuffy nose, loved it, and Alicia could only take so much of the extreme fishyness. Ironic we know.

After lunch, we visited the Drum Tower. We walked up a very large flight of stairs to get to the floor with the drums. We had just missed the demonstration and so walked around reading about the history of drums and time keeping and looking at the great views of the city while we waited. It was short but interesting to watch them beat these huge red barreled drums with great precision. Back down the stairs we went. To get up to the Bell Tower across the courtyard we had to climb yet another giant flight of stairs. Perfect. If we weren't sore from the Wall before, our legs definitely reminded us now. Upstairs was a very large bell cast as one piece. It was quite impressive.

We were still waiting to hear from Shanshan when we started to wander through the hutong. She is Chinese but studied at Alicia's sister's university. We had thought we could meet up with her to walk around but in the end we were going to meet her for a very traditional Chinese dinner. We explored the hutong quite thoroughly and we saw where they sell bicycle and motorcycle hand warmers. They are basically like giant mittens with a hole in the side that fits over the handles. They look pretty hilarious. It's such a great idea though, and all the rage here! Exploration complete, we made our way to the subway (after stopping a an ATM of course).

Dinner with Shanshan was a success. We ate hotpots, a meal that you essentially cook yourself. You pick the broth, the dipping sauce, the meat, the vegetables, and whatever traditional snack you want. She had a lot of fun explaining to us what this meal was all about. Apparently lamb was a warm meat, eaten during the winter. We got a garlic dipping sauce and a peanut buttery sauce as well. We got one spicy and one non spicy broth. We also ordered traditional chinese sweet tea and some preserved mini crab apple things they usually sell on a stick in the streets. Shanshan told us that she loves coming to Beijing because she loves to eat. We now see why- the food is very yummy! One thing we were supposed to have was Peking Duck. We know, we know, but you can't do everything! And we did have tofu Peking Duck with Lucy...

Overall, the meal was delicious. Unfortunately Karla's sense of taste wasn't all there due to another cold, but she enjoyed it if not for its process. Although putting your meat in the boiling pot and then trying to fish it out with chop sticks wasn't the fastest of processes, you still got very full even when eating slowly. We left dinner nearly three and a half hours later!!! It was fun to talk to someone who has lived in China most of their life- another reason it took so long.

After dinner Alicia put on her new biker gloves and we headed home to pack. It took us nearly an hour to get home and Karla even dozed in the subway while Alicia remained vigilant, but upon arriving at the apartment we put ourselves to work packing, listening to Christmas songs, and enjoying our celebratory Dragon Seal bottle of wine (our last night!). Packing took only twice as long for Karla as it did for Alicia (her excuse is that everything has to fit "just right" or else it won't fit at all). Regardless it was late when we finished but we spent a few minutes unwinding in front of the TV before passing out. We had to get up around 630, as our flight was at 10am. It's going to be a looooong day.
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Day 103: December 16th. All in a Day's Wall-k

This morning we were only 10 minutes late for Mr Li. This is a real improvement for us! He took us promptly to the Great Wall. It only took about an hour and a half to get there.

We took a cable car up to the entrance, and started walking. We figured that this would give us more face time on the wall. It turned out to be a lot warmer out than we had anticipated and soon were carrying most of our layers. Better safe than sorry I suppose. We soon decided that it was less crowded going the other way, not to mention that the lighting was better, so we about-faced and started walking in the opposite direction. It looked steep, but we were up for the challenge.

The Wall is certainly all it's cracked up to be, great because of the way it snakes around the hills, following the contours of the land. It stretches on as far as you can see...impressive not because of it's height but because of how long it is! Even though a lot of it is in disrepair, the crumbling bits are just as fun to try to follow along. Because the wall follows the mountain side, it's pretty darn steep in parts. It's especially impressive when it looks like its going straight up.

We had heard that this was the way the wall looked in places but you can't really believe it until you see it for yourself. It was downhill (mostly) and slippery when there weren't stairs (Karlas shoes have long since lost their tread) on the way there. Of course we made friends along the way. I think it was national photograph a white person day. At least they always asked with a giant smile on their face.

Anyway. We went as far as we could on that part of the wall (about an hour and a half of mixed walking, shuffling, picture snapping, and jogging). When we reached the end, there was a group of Chinese people applauding us and waiting for us to reach the top! We took group pictures and everyone else in the group exchanged phone numbers and emails, and we all went on our merry way. Karla couldn't stop doubling over with laughter at the peace signs they posed with when she was taking the picture. Alicia even joined in on the fun.

The hike back up sure looked extremely daunting. You have to see the pictures. Shockingly it wasn't nearly as hard as it appeared! In fact, it took us only a little over an hour to hike back up. Step by step we got there. Although our butts were a bit sore afterwards, it was an amazing walk. We really felt a sense of accomplishment, especially since our new friends took the mini train back up!

We did take the cable car back down to the parking lot (you'd be insane not to) and climbed back in the car with Mr Li, who took us back into Beijing. Although it was almost dusk and tried telling us that our desired destination was closed, he dropped us off at the Temple of Heaven Park. It was too late to go into the temple, but we walked around the park til sunset (one can pretty much guess what the temple looks like from the outside), then crossed the street to the Pearl Market to finish our Christmas shopping.

A very jolly cab driver took us home to sort out what we're doing tomorrow with Karen (our amazing and patient translator), who of course had to call Mr Li and tell him the plan. Once we had the rest of our trip planned out (yikes!), we walked to The Place shopping center across the street to grab dinner. We found a quick cheap place and had a delicious meal.

At home we watched yet another corny movie (good work hallmark), then hit the sack. Hope we're not too sore tomorrow!

PS - Please note the triple-entendre in our title. Now that's rare!
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Day 102: December 15. Busy Bees!

We ate eggs for breakfast this morning, then scurried around packing lunch so that we could have a more efficient day. Time is running short!

Mr Li picked us up from Lucy's and we drove to the Summer Palace. This was the summer residence of one of the Empresses, and was built (then burned down and built again) around this giant lake. It was a (relatively) warm day, so we walked around the periphery of the water, stopping to go over bridges and see temples, and of course to walk on the ice for a bit. It was just beautiful! There was more than one photo opportunity...

We took the (not-so) short cut around the lake because we wanted to have time to explore some of the dozens of temples and buildings near the entrance to the compound, and ended up climbing through some caves and rock formations to approach this fantastic three-tiered temple from the back side. Although the temple itself was a bit of a disappointment (they only let us in to the first tier even after we had to pay extra!), we were able to take in the view over the lake and walk down the front side through an elaborately painted tunnel of stairs. But we've come to realize that a lot of these temples look the same...

We ate our packed lunch of PBJ in the car on our way to the Old Summer Palace and walked around there for an hour and a half, looking for ruins. We found some, but we couldn't find the entrance to the 'good' ruins...at least we got to see them from the top of a hill.

Mr Li next dropped us off in a 'hutong', which is a kind of small neighborhood connected by alleys in China. We had wanted to see another temple, but it was already closed, so we wandered around the 'hutong' instead. This was the best decision we made all day! We saw courtyards to houses with the laundry all hung out (and nearly frozen), people zooming by on mopeds, a couple of small fruit and veggie (and in the back, meat!) markets and a man pressing dough into noodles, as well as a bunch of storefronts with their salespeople outside greeting their neighbors.

We purchased some delicious clementines (Graham: who says there isn't fresh fruit in China) and Karla immediately consumed one (she's craving citrus as she has a cold coming on). Delicious! The woman even let us pose with her bigger-than-we've-ever -seen grapefruits. In fact we also saw some humungous cucumbers and horseradishes. When we tried taking pictures we realized that almost every fruit or vegetable was somehow oversized and so there would be no way to tell how big the foods in fact were. It reminded us of the ridiculously oversized map that Daniel bought in Turkey. We took a picture of him with it but realized he was so tall that in the end the map didn't look so big. It was nearly five feet long afterall. Is the size of the veggies and fruits a product of genetic engineering or are they just really good at growing things? We may never know.

In front of the noodle making shop we stood mesmorized for a bit watching the father-daughter team making and selling their raw noodles. They were covered head to toe in white flour. Putting the dough through the machine at lightning speed didn't stop him from smoking a cigarette at the same time. We didn't know whether to be amazed at his skill or disgusted at the ashes falling in the dough. After having them laugh at us for a while and after another guy on the street pointed at the noodles and pantomimed eating to show us what the funny looking white stuff was for (thanks dude), we continued on our way.

We decided to be adventurous and tried a couple of cookies being sold from a small store. Karla took a large bite out of a rectangular one that looked like one cracker was vanilla, one chocolate, and a marshmellow-like filling. She immediately gagged and practically sprinted down the street to spit it out. Drastic measures, thought Alicia. Alicia asked to taste it, and Karla shook her head vehemently. Alicia asked what it tasted like, and Karla replied 'basement mold'. Alicia of course wanted to taste it herself, and took a delicate bite. Indeed, we had purchased mold cookies. Yum.

When we decided that we'd had enough of new tastes for a while, we hopped in a cab to the Pearl Market, which was much like the Silk Market. Counterfeit goods intermingled with hand-made Chinese arts. It's interesting when the vendors look at us and immediately think we want 'Gucci' bags or 'Polo' shirts. Especially cause we still look like backpackers, whether or not we're staying in a nice apartment!

We (aka Karla) lost track of time and had to take a cab home and were nearly late to meet Mr Li who was picking us up to go to the doctor. So we sprinted across the shopping mall across the street and came tearing around the corner and Mr Li just laughed (he has an amazing patience). We haven't been on time for him yet!

We met Lucy's friend Karen (she's chinese but speaks near perfect english) at the doctor's, and before going in to see him, she took us to see where all the traditional medicines are prepared. The herbs are taken out of these drawers and thrown on big sheets of paper, then wrapped up for people to take home and boil and drink. It was really cool to see and amazing to think about how many kinds of medicines everyone had to remember.

We were lead into the doctor's office, and Alicia explained her hip issue, with Karen translating when necessary. The doctor immediately found the exact spot that was aching and without Alicia saying anything, he found every other sports injury she had ever sustained on her leg. He then poked and prodded the muscle back into place, telling her it needs to be rested (ok fine. When we get home!), and that it needs to be massaged back into a non-inflamed state. He didn't look to pleased that we would be hiking the great wall the next day. She walked without pain for the rest of the night, so she'll have to find a traditionalist when she gets home!

While Alicia had a huge needle sticking into her backside (acupuncture), Karla had the doctor see about her cold (he said it could be cured even though the cold is uncurable-but it can't hurt to try). He massaged her sinuses and chased her evil spirits away, and Karla felt a little better (her headache went away). In the end it was worth it. It's amazing how physical this kind of medicine is.

We shared a cab home with Karen, thanking her for staying with us, then walked across the street to The Place to get food for dinner. We had a weird meal of eggs and bread (Karla) and eggs and Singaporan meat (Alicia) while watching another weird but captivating movie on the Hallmark Channel. Unfortunately this one wasn't Christmas themed...
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Day 101: December 14. Action Packed

The bakery run was more efficient this morning as we knew where we were going! And it was a little warmer today which helped.

We ate at Lucy's, enjoying the warmth of the baked goods, tea and hospitality before saying goodbye to Lucy, who flew back to the States for Christmas this afternoon, and thanking her profusely for her generosity.

We walked to a neighborhood park, called Ritan Park, and walked around. We saw the whole city there! People were practicing Tai Chi, playing hackey-sack, exercising on these little metal machines, stretching, playing cards, singing, playing the flute, playing badmitton...and that was just the adults! We had a great time just walking around and people-watching. Although we did play hackey-sack for a little while with one of the groups of adults. The park itself was beautiful too...there were pagodas and frozen ponds, hills and rock formations, evergreens and stark trees all around. We were struck by how alive it was, even in the dead of winter!

Although it would have taken a very long time indeed to tire of watching Beijing go by at Ritan Park, we had to get a move on to keep to our busy little schedule. So we walked to the Dongyue Temple. This was a smallish complex, but it was jam-packed with things to see. The draw of this particular temple is that it has dozens of halls with statues of deities and demons who deal with certain situations, according to Taoist Buddhists. For example, there was the Hall of River Gods and Goddesses, Hall of Mountain Gods, Hall of Eternal Damnation, Hall of Controlling Demons, Hall of Justice, Hall of Adultery etc etc. It was really interesting!

We rushed home to make tuna sandwiches for lunch, then moved out again to go to the Olympic complex. We saw the Bird's Nest and the Bubble, as well as some other stadiums that neither of us recognized. Alicia bombarded Karla with questions about which building was which, but we ended up not knowing much about the complex. Oh well. It was cool to see anyway!

Next we were driven to the Lama Temple, which is a huge series of Tibetan Buddhist temples. We saw many large statues of the Buddha, and a couple of interesting exhibitions on Buddhist relics.

Feeling lucky, we next headed to the Weekend Market again. Tis the season. And we can't come home and just go to the mall after being around the world...let's just say we made some good deals!

We got dropped off at home and said goodnight to our driver, Mr. Li. Then we did a quick turnaround and walked toward a theater to try to get tickets to an Acrobatic show. Success! We had a little more than an hour before show time so we had a quick dinner at a sushi restaurant (which was delectable!-thank goodness because it was the only restaurant around) then headed back to the theater.

The 'Flying Acrobatics Show' was awesome. It had a little something for everyone. The hour was packed with dance numbers (very corny), mind-blowing acrobatic tricks and body contortions ((but seriously. How do they BEND like that? (and usually while balancing on something moving)), and our favorite, the poses. After every athletic or acrobatic feat, the performers would strike a pose. It was hilarious, probably mainly because, despite our choice to get the cheapest seats, we were literally front and center (VIP) and close enough to see the makeup and the goofy expressions caked on their faces. Fantastic.

After the show, we took a cab home. We weren't quite tired yet, so we enjoyed some ginger tea and an awful Christmas movie, courtesy of the Hallmark Channel (hey it's China...we'll take what we can get!) Right before bed we saw Michael Phelps on Leno...we saw where he won all 8 of those medals today! Good timing us!
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Day 100: December 13. We're already on Day 100?!?!?

The trouble with staying close by a bakery is that there's no choice but to get there early to take advantage of the fresh baked goods. Lucy went yesterday morning but now we have taken over this responsibility (gladly!). They have the best chocolate croissants covered in almond goodness. A perfect breakfast treat. We can even make eggs to go with it. With steaming hot tea, a delicious breakfast and the news on, we were starting the day off great.

Lucy had her day off from work today and so we hopped in the car and she showed us the weekend market. At this point we've seen almost everything, but it was still very unique. There was a block or two of small shops and stalls beneath a tall roof. We wound up and down the aisles, scanning the pottery, bronze status, and jade jewelry with trained and experienced eyes. We both found a few small things right away, and after an hour or so of more browsing, the cold forced our frozen fingers to seek the car. It was not only cold, but windy today.

Next Lucy was going to treat us to foot massages at her regular neighborhood parlor, but first we had to make a quick stop at the Silk Market. This five story building is infamous for its annoying and loud vendors and for its extensive collection of fake brand name purses, shoes, and clothes. Being surrounded by copyright lawyers and daughters of intellectual property lawyers, we all quickly tired of riding the escalator and finding nothing worth pretending to buy. Although I'm sure that there were some interesting purchases to be made, we had done enough shopping by that point.

The foot massage was overall spectacular. We had been walking a lot this past week so it was just what we needed. They definitely knew what they were doing, but unfortunately Alicia had the luck of getting the sleeper. Apparently Lucy has learned to stay away from this guy because she's been there enough times to know better. It was a little annoying and a little funny, but more than that it was sad to see that this man was working so hard that he was just simply not able to keep his eyes open while he was working. He's clearly not sleeping enough.

All that massaging made us hungary. Lucy we suggested we stop at the Starbucks by the grocery store. We were slightly skeptical about this, but soon decided that their turkey sandwiches were delicious, and that the hot chocolate and coffee (guess who got what) was the perfect thing for a day like today. After eating we went downstairs to load up on some groceries to get us through the week. Lucy surprised us by getting them for us. We were grateful but both thinking that she shouldn't be so thoughtful. Is it possible to be too nice and generous?

We jumped in the car and swung by home to make a pit stop and let Lucy go before heading to Jingshan Park. This park was just north of the Forbidden City and provided amazing views of the city from the hill at its center. We stayed there until sunset, observing the park life and the communities of people talking, playing cards, or playing musical instruments. It's hard not to fall in love with a Chinese park after even just walking through. You find a sense of community not found in many places in the world. We were impressed with the number of people out in the waning winter sun to be with their community and enjoy each other's company outdoors!

On the way back from the park we wanted to drop off some postcards. It was a little challenging as the driver cannot speak or understand any English. We pointed to the word post office in the guidebook, but thankfully realized after he'd starting making a phone call that he had thought we were pointing to the world police. OOPS.

We returned home in time to have some tea and get ready for dinner. We were going to Lucy's favorite restaurant in the entire world, Pure Lotus. Lucy's friend and translator Karen (and husband) met us there. The menus were insane as the restaurant was vegetarian and had to come up with creative ways to make shark fin, chicken, and Peking duck a vegan dish. Thankfully Lucy and Karen ordered and we enjoyed every morsel we tried. The endless supply of tea was delightful and was great for washing down the rich food.

We arrived home exhausted. We planned out our day for tomorrow and passed out.
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Day 99: December 12. Baby it's Cold Outside...

The first order of business this morning was to get our laundry going. Although we only have a couple of days left, there are certain items that even we, weary, dirty backpackers will not wear dirty. Impressive I know.

Lucy was nice enough to brave the cold and run to a French bakery to get coffee and fresh, hot pastries while we got ourselves ready for the day. Boy were they scrumptious!

We moved our wash into the dryer and headed out on foot. All bundled up, Karla's toes got chilly quickly but Alicia stayed toasty for at least a little while! We walked to the famous CCTV tower, a skyscraper that was built in a sort of broken-arch form. From the front, it looks "M" shaped, but the middle part is parallel to the ground. We marveled that not only does the middle part stay suspended in mid-air, but people actually have enough faith in the structure to work there!

Taking one last glance at the tower, we found our way to the nearest metro station and headed to Tiannamen Square. It took us a little while to find the square, and we first walked in the wrong direction. But when we turned around, we realized that the subway had dumped us out so close to those famous red walls that we couldn't see the bigger picture!

The square was huge and mobbed (mostly with Chinese people-theres just so many of them!). We walked a ways before we had to pay an admission fee, which was a pleasant change. But we paid the fee and gained access to the Forbidden City. We're lucky we weren't born in the previous centuries, because it would have been, well, forbidden!

The City was magnificent - it was a huge red palace with traditional Chinese architecture and impressive halls where the emperors and empresses would make important decisions and entertain important guests. And it went on forever...we ended up walking around the complex for four and a half hours! There was so much to see: throne halls, bedrooms, gardens, the treasury, the Clock Museum (Alicia's favorite - there were dozens of elaborate-to-the-point-of-being-gaudy clocks in all shapes colors and sizes!), and passage-way after passageway of buildings that are no longer in use or off limits to the public. Every explanation of a different section or hall in the city started by saying how many times it had been burned to the ground and then rebuilt. Clearly the hundreds of giant vats they used to put out fires weren't very effective.

We paused about halfway through our visit for lunch and were shocked to find a great little cafe that was far from overpriced and had delicious food. It was perfect because we needed a little break from the cold almost as much as we needed lunch!

After thoroughly visiting the Forbidden City (or maybe when they kicked us out) for over four hours, we walked across the street to what turned out to be more Tiannamen Square. There we saw a crowd gathered around the flag waiting for something to happen...but we had no idea what or why and didn't stick around to find out (later we learned it was a flag ceremony). Instead we checked out the Monument to the People's Heros and the Front Gate, which at a mere 48-point-something meters high is the tallest gate in the city. We also meandered across another street to check out another gate, and ended up in what appeared to be deserted, yet crowded, modern yet traditional, shopping center. It was very bizarre and we couldn't figure it out! Maybe it was built for the Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics, the city is just full of left over advertisements and other physical evidence of the games. Tomorrow we'll go see some of the stadiums that were used.

We took the subway back toward Lucy's, and on the ride a young Chinese woman took the opportunity to clean Alicia's coat of the lint that had been covering it. It was weird, and we couldn't figure out whether she just really wanted to be nice or if she wanted an excuse to touch a white person. Whatever the motive, Alicia's coat is newly clean!

The walk home took a lot longer than it should have, due to the fact that we weren't quite sure where we were staying! If it hadn't been for the new translated signs, we would have had to take a taxi. That's definitely one disadvantage of not staying at a hotel or hostel: it's neither clearly marked on the map, nor is it something the average person on the street would have heard of. But thanks to our persistence and a good sense of direction (mostly Alicia's), we made it back in one piece.

By the time we got back to Lucy's it was time for tea and 'our' soap opera (yes, we're hooked already!). She had a conference call to make after the show, so Karla and I set out on our own to rustle up some grub. Luckily we were both pleased with our selections! All we have left to do tonight is plan tomorrow. And take our last load of laundry out of the dryer...
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Day 98: Dec. 11th: It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!

Today we were on the road again. This time we were going to find us some real Christmas weather.

We grabbed some fresh hot pastries from a bakery down the street before gathering our backpacks and heading to the bus stop. Just as we arrived, our bus pulled in, and everything was going according to plan.

We checked in with only a small scare when the woman at the Cathay Pacific counter looked at us like we were crazy when we handed her our passports. Turns out that we were on a Cathay flight that was being run by another airline and we had to check in there. It's always something.

But the rest of our journey went without a hitch, and we boarded our flight after we soaked up a few more rays of warmth. They weren't hard to find; it was super sunny in Hong Kong today!

We arrived in Beijing around 4pm and were greeted by a driver sent by Lucy, the American woman who has opened her home to us. We watched the winter sun set over Beijing as we drove toward the city, and Alicia reveled in the cold weather! To Karla's chagrin, apparently it was nice out until just a few days ago.

We arrived at Lucky Nichols' lovely apartment just as she was coming down to tell the guard about us, which saved us from the fun game of trying to communicate why we were there.

Lucy ushered us up to her spotless apartment, and showed us our bedroom, our shower, and where we could cook and do laundry (with a dryer!) She's very welcoming, and made us feel at home right away.

After spending a few minutes settling in, we walked to dinner at an Indian restaurant, which tasted authentic to us! We rushed back to Lucy's for a very important date: a nightly episode of a Korean soap opera that Lucy is addicted to. And it was fantastic! (and hilarious as you could imagine)

We said goodnight shortly after the soap opera ended, and spend some time blogging and reading. We're going to try to keep up our early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine for the rest of our trip to maximize the winter sunlight!
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Day 98: Dec. 11th: It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!

Today we were on the road again. This time we were going to find us some real Christmas weather.

We grabbed some fresh hot pastries from a bakery down the street before gathering our backpacks and heading to the bus stop. Just as we arrived, our bus pulled in, and everything was going according to plan.

We checked in with only a small scare when the woman at the Cathay Pacific counter looked at us like we were crazy when we handed her our passports. Turns out that we were on a Cathay flight that was being run by another airline and we had to check in there. It's always something.

But the rest of our journey went without a hitch, and we boarded our flight after we soaked up a few more rays of warmth. They weren't hard to find; it was super sunny in Hong Kong today!

We arrived in Beijing around 4pm and were greeted by a driver sent by Lucy, the American woman who has opened her home to us. We watched the winter sun set over Beijing as we drove toward the city, and Alicia reveled in the cold weather! To Karla's chagrin, apparently it was nice out until just a few days ago.

We arrived at Lucky Nichols' lovely apartment just as she was coming down to tell the guard about us, which saved us from the fun game of trying to communicate why we were there.

Lucy ushered us up to her spotless apartment, and showed us our bedroom, our shower, and where we could cook and do laundry (with a dryer!) She's very welcoming, and made us feel at home right away.

After spending a few minutes settling in, we walked to dinner at an Indian restaurant, which tasted authentic to us! We rushed back to Lucy's for a very important date: a nightly episode of a Korean soap opera that Lucy is addicted to. And it was fantastic!

We said goodnight shortly after the soap opera ended, and spend some time blogging and reading. We're going to try to keep up our early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine for the rest of our trip to maximize the winter sunlight!
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Day 97: Dec. 10th. Island Fever

We found a cute tiny cafe playing Alicia Keys this morning and were both happy. They made a pretty good breakfast and didn't mind that Karla had her own banana.

We took the tram to Central and the ferry to Kowloon to see the Museum of Art (free on Wednesdays). The contemporary exhibit on Antionio Mak included his own works as well as those made by others in response to his work. Mak's work consisted of very impressive and very expressive bronze sculptures. Karla really liked a piece made out of branches, masking tape and brown wrapping paper. Another accumulation artist who uses found objects and likes to wrap them. Turns out that there are more crazies out there! Alicia liked a small bronze figure of a man folding into pieces like and accordion. We both liked Mak's love of big cats. There was even a room with four giant screens showing a tiger really close up.

The other exhibits of antiquities, traditional flower paintings, horse painting and ceramics were very interesting and provided a few hours of entertainment. Anything that keeps us off the streets is a good thing.

We then grabbed a so-so sandwich to go and hopped on a ferry to get back to Central, where we took yet another ferry to the small island of Lamma. No cars are allowed on the island and they depend largely on fishing. We arrived at one port and walked an hour and a half to the next, stopping for a few minutes at the beach to cool our feet off in the pacific ocean. No big deal or anything.

We were accompanied by Mike from Denmark, a pilot of charter planes who we met on the ferry. It turns out that he was more lost than us (although we are quite good at navigating if I do say so myself). It was kind of random but that's how it always is when you meet people while traveling. He was good company and had the great idea of having the most delicious seafood meal you could imagine. Unfortunately we didn't get to the fruit course with enough time as we had to grab the 5:30 ferry to get to Kowloon in time to see the sound and light show over Hong Kong island at 8pm. Before the show we realized that we needed to get money out, and so went on a wild goose chase to get some. Unfortunately it took too long and Mike was no where to be seen when we got back. Hopefully he didn't think we were trying to ditch him, but we figured that he just had to meet his friend for dinner earlier than he thought and had to go. That's how it is on this trip. One minute you meet someone and the next they are just a mere memory. It's sad when you think about all of the people who we have met who we will never see again.

After the show we took a ferry back across and then a tram to the hotel and then walked around to try to find where we were to catch the bus from to get to the airport. We liked the view on the way in and thought it was nicer to take the hour bus (it was also a quarter of the price of the airport metro). We ended the night by packing for Beijing tomorrow and listened to the Blackberry belt out Christmas tunes.
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Day 96: Dec 9th: Over the hills and through the woods...

Our hearty breakfast this morning still seemed like a luxury, and we didn't want to cut it short! Although the restaurant owners did look at K funny when she started chopping a banana that she'd brought into her oatmeal - excuse me, 'porridge' - in the end they decided it was amusing. Maybe tomorrow we'll bring our own coffee too (they seem to like over roasting their beans here)!

We took the ferry to Lantau Island, which is the bigger of the two islands that we were told we must see. Although there are many sights here, the first thing we did after regaining our land-legs was make the short walk to the beach. It was a perfect day, around 73 degrees (Farenheight of course. I'm still not sure I'm able to translate that into Celcius!), and we rejoiced in actually having made it to the other side of the world, and took photos touching the Pacific Ocean to celebrate!

We tore ourselves away from the bright blue ocean and boarded a bus to the top peak of the island, called Ngong Ping. Here we found the biggest bronze sitting Buddha in the world (we've seen bigger, but not in bronze). The statue was impressive in the hills and a postcard we saw proved how cool an areal shot would look.

Lunch was at a restaurant that looks like it would be right in town according to the way it was advertised. Clearly they didn't translate "only a twenty minute walk" into english.

Next on the list was to catch a bus to Tai O, a small fishing village on the other side of the island. It was gorgeous out and so we just walked around the back streets along the water. It was quaint but clean and very beautiful.

We lost track of time, and ended up running back through the village to catch the last bus back to Ngong Ping. Luckily Karla is still young and spry enough to run...Alicia had to resign herself to speed walking because of her bum hip. We took the bus back up to the top of the island at 5pm to take a sunset cable car ride to the other side of the hills where you can easily take a metro back to Hong Kong island. It was both cheaper and much faster. It was also dark already and so we werent missing any great views underground.

Dinner was at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Karla finally ate a meal with actual meat pieces and we even got a serving of steamed lettuce with the rice. What a complete meal! Although Alicia wasn't quite satisfied this time...we can't win here!

Back at the hotel, we watched TV and waited for Natasha to call after her law school exam. She was an '04 Wes grad and friends with Jake, who you may remember from Turkey!

We walked together to a bar with peanuts everywhere and caught her up on life at Wesleyan University. We basically spent the whole time exchanging stories and reminiscing and it was a great night.

We all were very sleepy around midnight and headed home. She was just so friendly. And its always fun to meet other Wes grads. They have this way about them that makes them fun to be around.
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Day 95. December 8. At least we live on 'Fashion Walk'

Breakfast was another hearty meal today. We had porridge and an egg sandwich! I'm pretty sure that someone finally understands that you need a decent breakfast in the morning to function.

On the way to the pier to catch the ferry we tried to detour by a 7-story window nearby that the Lonely Planet suggested we see. We that thought such a big window wouldn't be that hard to find, and when we did get close to finding it, we found that it was undergoing construction. We do think we saw it from the outside when crossing to Kowloon and it pretty much looked like just an oversized window. Wow!

Whereas yesterday we had a view from above, today we had a wonderful view from below on the ferry. It was a short and smooth ride and luckily neither of us fell ill.

We were dropped a few steps from yet another spectacular view looking at Hong Kong. We looked in the book and saw that Hong Kong island has a nightly light show that we will have to see at some point. Next we walked down Nathan Rd. It was shopping central, but a little too nice for us.

We took a left and suddenly we were in Kowloon Park, with goldfish ponds and cute old couples. It was here that we decided to stretch it out. We always like a good dose of funny looks.

Lunch was terrible (for K) because she thought that sweet and sour pork would include some sort of meat. Not so. All she got was fried dough.

Next we walked north towards the jade market. Before we got there, we passed by an incense-filled temple much like the one yesterday. It's just amazing to see so many coils of incense hanging from the roof and slowly giving off smoke. It definitely succeeds in setting the right mood.

The jade market was mostly just an educational experience about what real jade doesn't look like. We ended up spending a good two hours here learning the prices and looking for the occasional real jade. We learned that there are three main classes of jade. A, B, and C. A is real, B is real but enhanced in color with resin, and C is just some stone injected with this bright neon-ish green color. You can spot it right away. The only things we bought were some beads we found in a bin of odds and ends. They look real and they were a good price. Unfortunately Alicia had to wait a bit for indecisive Karla to finish looking around. Her hip was having a bad day.

We took the metro home instead of the ferry, thus saving time and money. The views were much less interesting though .

Alicia walked down the street (it's actually called Fashion Walk-perfect for us who have been wearing the same 3 T-shirts for 3 months!) to the hotel and Karla ran next door to check out 'Computer World' in hopes of finding the new Skype phone. It turns out that she was the only female in the entire store and that Hong Kong did not in fact carry such a device.

We both sat around a little delaying the inevitable hunt for dinner before giving into our grumbling tummies. We zigzagged a bit but found a decent place. Karla had bad luck again but she really thinks her it will change tomorrow. We will see. We made up for it by buying a hefty tub of ice cream to chow on while watching bad TV at the hostel. We are living in luxury!
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Day 94: December 7. Hong Kong

Breakfast today was surprisingly good and filling...we were unsure of what to expect of Cantonese breakfasts after Thai breakfasts had proven to be just like lunch and dinner!

After stuffing our faces at breakfast - some more than others, guess which one! - we walked to the tram, which we took to the 'peak tram' which is really a funicular. The ride up was 'gravity-defying'...we were pretty much at 45 degree angle the whole way up. Good thing we didn't try standing!

The peak was stunning. Well not the peak itself, but the view below of Hong Kong is nothing short of spectacular. We walked all around the tower that the tram delivers you to, but we couldn't find our way out! They try to capture you here so that you buy stuff. Jerks.

When we finally did find our way out, we saw a crowd gathered on the patio of the Peak Tower. We craned our necks to see, and who was there? Well we didn't know, all we saw were a few vans filled with Chinese people. So Karla took a picture to document our brush with fame. We saw on the news later that night that they were the first Chinese astronauts to walk on the moon. We really were in the right place at the right time!

We walked up the road a bit to take in the view (and of course to snap some pictures!), then decided to brave the Tower again for the sake of quelling our hunger. We grabbed a bite at a little cafe, then found our way outside (much more easily this time!), and began our walk around the periphery of the peak. We got about a third of the way and were disappointed because we were in the woods, and didn't have a view of down below at all! But as soon as we started to doubt, we turned a corner and were greeted with a scenic overlook. From then on out, we had more view than we knew what to do with.

When we'd had our fill of the peak, we began our descent. Instead of taking the tram, we walked down Old Peak Rd, which was almost as steep as the tram ride in certain places! We walked down to the HK Botanical and Zoological Gardens, before realizing that neither of us really wanted to be there and walking toward the coast.

We walked through several markets in SoHo, ending up at the Western Market which was mostly closed. That didn't stop us from perusing the fabrics on the textile floor, and looking longingly at the wedding happening upstairs. It would have been so cool to peek in...unfortunately there was a woman guarding the entrance. And we did NOT blend in.

Dinner was next, followed by tea at a tea house. Although they put weird gelatanous balls at the bottom of our cups, we enjoyed the tea and the ambiance that we provided for ourselves by paying Christmas music on the Blackberry. It's quite Christmas-y feeling here...there are decorations everywhere, and of course it's cooler (and cleaner) here than in Thailand. Although the weather feels more like Halloween than Christmas. But it's a start!

We took the tram home, then relaxed and watched 'X-Men' on TV (don't judge our movie taste...there's only one English channel!) before passing out. The end.
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Day 93: Dec 6th. Without a glitch.

We got up a mere two-and-a-half hours after laying our heads on the pillow, and packed our things before hopping in the cab exactly at 7am. Unlike in our college days, we both felt the repercussions of not getting enough shut-eye. We're getting old!

We made one last stop at the 7-Eleven before dozing all the way to the airport. We arrived 4 hours before our flight (!) and everything went swimmingly. After all that, there was no flight delay, no moment of thinking we weren't going to be on the flight...the airport didn't even seem that crowded! Not that we're complaining. We were just surprised.

We spent our extra time taking 'showers' by testing out the perfume section of the duty-free shop, then spending our last baht on breakfast. The good news about being ridiculously early for our flight was that we could give into our fatigue and move slowly!

We napped outside the security check, and Karla watched the Animal Planet show on TV dedicated to elephants and how they are beloved in Asia and Africa. How appropriate! Luckily Karla had not yet fallen asleep when the final boarding call for our flight was announced 45 minutes before our scheduled take-off! We got on the plane and waited those 45 minutes. We figure they were tricking us because the plane was so big that they wanted everyone on well before take-off.

Alicia slept the whole flight, and Karla dozed until lunch-time. The food was surprisingly good for the airplane! We landed on time, and took a while to get out of the airport. Once we did, we took the airbus to our hotel in Causeway Bay. The Hong Kong skyline was just breathtaking. Even though Alicia has been here before (but she was only 5), neither of us expected it to be this beautiful. In fact we weren't expecting much more than just a big city overflowing with asians, farang, and muzungus. We crossed bridges and went under the harbor to get to our hostel. We got quite the deal (by HK standards) for the 5 nights we'll be here.

Once we settled our things, we went back out for dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant, and it was scrumptious. Then we bundled up and walked back. It's much cooler here than Thailand, but it's pleasantly tolerable with a sweatshirt and pants.

Before getting back to our hotel we made a grocery stop at a store in the basement of a skyscraper. At first it looked like a tiny store, but when we got inside, it kept going and going! We love exploring grocery stores to see what kind of weird things they sell that people actually buy! Trust me, we've seen everything (Thailand was a fan of gift baskets that included hilariously matched items -one had a disney princess puzzle, cereal, and a bottle of whiskey together). People are crazy.

We meant to get to bed early, but our hostel room has a working TV (what!?!?!) and 'Bad Boys' was on. So we obviously watched it before taking (hot!) showers and hitting the sack.
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Day 92: December 5th. Happy Birthday to the King! How old are you now...

Katie and her friends left for the beach before sunrise, and we stumbled out of bed to say goodbye to them. It was very sad to see Katie go - staying with her was definitely the silver lining to all of our travel issues. When we got up for real, we changed rooms (a process as usual), then headed out to breakfast.

We ate breakfast at a place called Crepes and Co. and guess what we had? The crepes were overpriced, but yummy. The only serious bad news about the restaurant was that it must have been built directly on a swamp because there were tons of mosquitos. At least we're used to being covered in bites (ug).

Breakfast was followed by quite a journey. We took a sky train to the river pier. From there we took an hour-long ferry boat to the northern most part of the city. It was a gorgeous day, and we really enjoyed watching the city skyline (on both sides of the river!) go by. We even got splashed. A true water ride indeed.

We reached the end of ferry route, but not the end of our journey. We still had a 30 minute-long boat ride to Ko Kret island to go, which we were able to share with some other Western tourists to cut the cost. Its always easy to spot the lost farang.

We arrived hungry, so our first task on the island was to find some lunch. We had some fantastic pad seou, and that mission accomplished, we were able to wander around and enjoy what the island had to offer.

Ko Kret is inhabited by the Mon people, a group indigenous to the territory formerly known as Siam (present-day Thailand). They are known for their skills in creating pottery. As we looked around the crowded market, we noticed that as usual the craftsmen had lost their creativity in order to appeal to the tourists. All of the pottery at every stall looked the same! It was kind of sad, because it wasn't even the same traditional forms. The potters favored making clay mugs in the shape of Hello Kitty and other equally cheesy trademarked characters. People all over the market were drinking through straws out of these clay Hello Kitty mugs. It was bizarre. And a little creepy.

In between looking at different shops selling the same pottery, we saw some old wats (temples)with shrines where people put food. For example, one shrine had pizza and an open juice box laid out before the figure of the god. The one temple we went into was very simple, but in a way its simplicity made the figure of the Buddha inside much more striking than all the elaborate wats we've come across so far.

When we were shopped and watted out, we took a ferry across to mainland, with the help of an adorable Thai family. They made sure that we were on the right ferry, then negotiated transport to the bus for us, pat us on our heads, (even bargained for us,) and sent us off on our merry way. They clearly love farang.

We had a long ride to the center of Bangkok, and although we wanted to go to the Royal Gardens, the bus attendant assumed that we, as every farang in Thailand who looked slightly dirty and smelly, wanted to go to Khao San road (aka backpacker road). So we were dropped off there. And good thing! Because of the King's birthday, the whole road was a giant festival! We were handed candles (yellow - the King's color) and paper flags, and invited to watch the ceremony honoring His Highness on TV in the middle of the street. We did for a while, happily waving our Thai and Royal flags, then carried on down Khao San to see what else was going on.

There was a performance at the end of the road, so we grabbed some pad thai and sat down to watch. the performance consisted of several dance acts, and it was awful! None of the dancers knew which move came next and they were all looking at each other helplessly...I'm just glad the King wasn't there to see it! At least their outfits were super sparkley and hilarious.

While the fireworks went off over the road, Karla and I just took in the loving devotion of the Thai people to their King. Everyone had candles lit, and was singing along to the TV. It was quite the sight.

After dinner, we walked toward the Royal Gardens where we saw the Princess memorial last week. People were streaming away...I guess the main ceremony was over. But there were still 3 performances (or more) taking place simultaneously on big stages! The first was traditional dance, the second was Muay Tay (Thai boxing), and the third was a pop singer performance. There was no good dancing here either. Everything was lit up like crazy, the music was loud, and their outfits were hilarious.
We walked through the park on our way home and noticed that the whole huge monument erected 2 weeks before to honor the late Princess had been taken down! It was especially shocking, considering it had taken over five months to put up...

We grabbed a taxi to the metro, and took that to the skytrain to get back to our hostel. We've used almost every form of transportation imaginable today! We took a quick bathroom break, dropped our stuff off, and went out! We just had to check out the nightlife in Bangkok because we'd hear so much about it...and ended up staying out far too late and getting very little sleep. Thankfully we can (try to) sleep on the plane tomorrow!
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Day 91: Dec 4th. Logistics

We had a lot of things we wanted to do, but as Suphanburi isn't really a tourist destination, we didn't exactly find the elephant riding and meditation classes in English that we wanted. The plus side to being in a totally unfamiliar place is that doing anything takes nearly forever (which means we can never be bored) because you have to figure out how to do it. It's even harder when you don't really know what you are looking for.

We started by trying to get in touch with Cathay Pacific to make sure our flight was still going to happen. It was a lot harder than you'd think. We Skyped, called on a payphone, and surfed their website. We were confirmed, cancelled and back on another flight by lunchtime. A major headache but we were happy that we were leaving. It unfortunately stopped us from going to Chiang Mai, but what can you do when there's government protests that have taken over the airport and forced the prime minister to step down.

In between visiting wats searching for someone who spoke English, we found the Rice Farmer's Museum. Only half of the information in the museum was translated into English, but at least we learned a bit about the farms that we saw every time we took a bus!

Hungry after looking at all that rice, we stopped for lunch before heading back to Katie's to upload some pictures to our blog. (Check it out below!)

Around 4 we went to Sanguan Ying, the school where Katie works, to shadow her after-school class. It was so much fun! She's a wonderful teacher...enthusiastic, funny and energetic. It's was so cool to see one of our friends in a completely different context - at a job - and especially cool to see that she's great at her job!

The three of us walked back to Katie's and got our stuff together to go to Bangkok. The van ride was bumpy, but much funnier this time with 3 additional farang (non-Thais). Muzungu is still our favorite word though. Once in Bangkok, we took 2 cabs to the hotel, and did a quick turn-around for dinner and dessert of mango sticky rice! YUMM. A quick stop at seven eleven and then, to bed!
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Photos: Thailand

Photos: India

Photos: Tanzania

Day 90: December 3rd: Motorcycle Diaries

After what's happened the past couple of days, today we subconsciously took the approach of expecting the unexpected while at the same time not expecting a super incredible outing. We are bummed that Chiang Mai didn't work out but we're hopeful that the guidebook was right in saying that Kanchanaburi came in second in terms of beauty and activities if you couldn't make it to Chiang Mai.

We awoke with Katie and walked to the bus station as she walked to school. We were hoping to maybe see some more of the beautiful landscape of Kanchanaburi while aboard an elephant or at least a bamboo raft. We arrived around noon and tuk-tuked it to a reliable tour operator. We showed up, realized that we were hungry, asked if there were any places to eat, disappeared for a bit, and then returned to finally figure out what we wanted to accomplish that day. They did have day trips to see a national park and a waterfall, to ride an elephant, and kayak down the River Kwai. Unfortunately it was too late for that and a two hour kayak trip would be our only option. After long thought, we decided that it was a no go on the kayaks, but did they happen to know how to get to a cave temple outside of town?

Before we knew it we were seated in the side car bolted securely onto a motorcycle (which provided the most freeing visual experience on a mode of transportation thus far on our trip; by far Alicia's favorite mode of transportation). The driver was unexpectedly wonderful. He took us everywhere we wanted to go and happily waited for us and even came along at some parts to point us in the right direction. All in all we had a wonderful day trip.

We started by visiting a temple cave called Wat Tham Khao Pun; it was used during WWII to house the Japanese military. The caves also held POWs and were sometimes used as places of torture. It is also where a British tourist was killed in 1995 by a drug-addicted monk, or so our faithful guidebook tells us. All in all the cave had a lot of eerie history behind it, but was a wonderful and fun experience. It was so different from other caves that we have seen on our travels. This one was quite extensive and looked very worn and like many people had lived there at some point.

The scenery on the way to the Chung Kai Allied War Cemetery had gorgeous views of the river (sooooo much cleaner than any in India or Egypt). We didn't see too much of the cemetery, but admired the river instead.

After we swept through town to visit another temple (called Wat Tham Mangkon Thong) nestled amongst the hills. The hills here in Asia have this look that is just so distinct. We both find them (even the small ones) just so lovely and pleasing to the eye with their sharp curves and jagged edges. The temple itself wasn't all that interesting, but to get inside we had to shimmy up a rocky cave, which made it fun to get there!

After this we went back into town to see the Allied War Cemetery. The grounds were spotless, beautiful, and well kept.

Our last stop was the JEATH War Museum. It was described at heart warming in the guidebook but heart wrenching might have been a better description. Reading about the POW's stories was fascinating but at the same time really sad. We could have gone on reading all afternoon if we had the time.

After the museum, we headed back to the bus station. We asked 3 or 4 times what time the bus was and kept getting different answers. Finally, we got the same answer a couple of times in a row, and realized that we had a half hour to kill, so we wandered through the adjacent market, finding snacks for the bus (including our favorite of all time: mango sticky rice!).

By the time we got back to the bus station (with 10 minutes to spare) the bus had already gone! We asked people where it was, until finally a bicycle rickshaw driver sped us over to the bus' first stop as fast as his legs could carry us. Luckily we made it. But it was infuriating that not only did we ask for the correct information, but we asked several times and got the same answer over and over. How does this keep happening?

We settled in to our bus ride and squished ourselves into a seat on a packed bus with a boy who appeared to be sniffing glue. But once the bus cleared out a little, we were able to move seats and enjoy some scrumptious mango and sticky rice.

Back in Suphanburi, we found Katie out at dinner with Brittany, and sat down to join them. We stopped at 7-Eleven on the way home for dessert and to see the adorable puppies (like you do). Then we relaxed at home, monitoring the airport situation and watching the news.

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