On the road again...

how we wish we were on the road again. Life has a way of beating one upside the head and recently that's been the way Reg and I have been feeling.

After our last post, things got crazy: Reg went back to work, my siblings came up and we attempted to clean my childhood home, Cross-Country practice started, Reg went away for a day or two because of work, school started (and oh, how I could go into that...but I'd probably get fired).

That's not to say its been all bad, in fact I can honestly say that because of the trip I have a much better outlook upon life. Things that would have seemed important a few months ago are no longer so. From Rina and Fitri in Indonesia I have come to understand the importance both of money but also of enjoying life and the simple things. I'd like to say money isn't important but I've come to the conclusion that though it can make things easier, going for a walk, sitting by the fire pit, or coaching my team are much more important.

Don't think I've gone soft, trust me, I could go off on any number of things but the one thing I could rant about might get me in serious trouble with the powers that be at my job. Suffice to say, I enjoy when I actually get to teach, the rest of the stuff...well, ummm, yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Now, back to travel stuff, because that's what this is about. It's time for some tops.

Top Place I Ate:
Hai Scout Cafe, Hoi An, Vietnam. This was THE meal of the trip. It was our first meal in Hoi An and first outside of Ho Chi Minh City in SEA. There were delicious fried spring rolls, a shaved chicken over rice, and a lemon-grass beef wrapped in banana leaf. It was the one meal that spoiled all others. The service was phenomenal, the food excellent, and the ambiance of sitting outside, underneath stars and a nice bamboo grove gave it the tropical feel. It was so awesome that we signed up for a cooking class run by the restaurant.

Top animal:

Elephant. Could it be anything else? I got to ride one. In second place were the butterflies of Kbal Spean.

Top place we stayed:
Okay, this is cheating, but the junk we stayed on, Indochina Sails 2 is my answer to this. So what if it was a semi-luxury junk, I stayed 1 night on it, in a teak-walled cabin, with a granite bathroom, awesome air-conditioning, and a deck where one could see the stars, enjoy a drink, and just hang out. Yeah, top pick.

Best interaction(s) with locals:
Easy, Banda Aceh, with Rina and her family. Discovering the Acehnese way of life, where family and friends are the most important things in one's life was awesome. The hospitality, food, coffee, coffee, coffee, beach on a rainy day, and her dad's driving were all very much appreciated.

Now for 5 pictures, one from each country and then a favorite of Reg's:

Malaysia: The Petronas Towers at night.




















Vietnam: Ha Long Bay from the top of Titop Island...all 424 stairs up.

















Cambodia: Angkor Wat at sunrise on my birthday...complete with dog.
















Indonesia: Pulau Weh: a view from our bed out towards the Straits of Malacca, including our hammock. Oh, life was hard.
















Last, but not least, what may be the photo of the trip, courtesy of Reg and an unsuspecting me, because let's face it, I hate my picture being taken:




We'll be back with more soon, we promise.

"Only in America"

We have arrived back in the good ole U. S. of A. and to celebrate we are doing our first joint post!

On Saturday we went to the Brooks and Dunn Last Rodeo concert.

Being at the show reminded us of all the things that are great about America and also all the reasons why the rest of the world hates us. Being able to kiss your girlfriend in public is great; groping her as you lay her down across a picnic table in the concessions area, markedly less so. Freedom is great, but common sense is better. Perhaps it's that our last stops on the trip were in conservative Muslim areas. Perhaps we were experiencing jet-lag and culture shock. Perhaps Philadelphia country music fans have no class or style. Either way, there should have been fashion police at this thing.

For example:

If I can see your ass-cheeks when you walk, what you're wearing is a shirt, not a dress, and you need to put on some pants.

Dude wearing jeans overalls and no shirt: you look like and escaped convict from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Hey drunk girl: Your belt should never be wider than your inseam is long. Especially when you are too drunk to figure out how a belt works.

You know it was bad when among the best dressed people we saw all night was the guy in the cut-off Liverpool jersey.

The opening act was Justin Bieber...with a mullet.

Honey, your cleavage, though very impressive, if a bit in need of better support, is NOT an acceptable place to store your cell phone or camera.


On Sunday, we were out and about running some errands and engaging in the great American pastime: spending money! While out, we noticed 5 Vietnamese restaurants within a 7-10 minute drive from our house. We decided to go eat at Phơ Hoa, a Vietnamese chain in Adams Plaza. Our waiter was amazed that we had been to Vietnam and then proceeded to grill us as he's leaving in 2 weeks himself. Good food was had, and though not as cheap as it would've been in Vietnam, still very very affordable.

We do plan on continuing the blog for a bit longer. We plan on putting some of our pictures on it as well as some other things including our Best and Worst lists that many people have asked for.

Weeeeee'rrrreeee baaaccckkkk

Well now, where to start? Here? Okay, we'll start in KL.

They like to say KL (Kuala Lumpur) is multi-cultural. It was started by rich Chinese miners, brought in some Malays and Indians, and then the Brits came to colonize. All true. That said, like America, multicultural does not mean non-exclusive. If you walk into many areas of America you can see many different races/ethnicities but normally segregated, often de-facto. The same can be said here. Though you run into many Chinese, Malay, and Indians, they are all almost always separated. There's nothing wrong with it unless you are the Malaysian government and keep promoting this united Malaysia. Its an interesting concept that deal with rule of law, respect and a shared vision of progress. They put it in the newspapers and its talked about on tv. They do seem to get along rather well, with the main Hindu temple located in Chinatown as a prime example.

The Petronas Towers are here in KL. You may recall that they had been the tallest buildings in the world back in the mid-90s. Some building in the UAE now has the title, but it is my understanding that they are still the tallest twin-buildings in the world. They give out only 1640 tickets a day to go up to the Skybridge that connects the two towers. Sadly, we have not been able to secure tickets so we have walked around the complex, stared longingly at them, and are currently in the mall at the bottom on the computer. Super-cool structures, especially at night.

Speaking on being on computers, there is a serious lack of interet cafes here. We've looked, trust me, we've looked. Our hotel does not have any computers (but does have some major issues in terms of noise). There's plenty of free wifi, but trying to blog from my IPod is a major pain in the backside.

That noise you hear, its the alarm going off at the department store under the hotel. Yes, its gone off 3 times the last 2 nights. No you haven't slept particularly well. What? That's not happened to you? Oh right, yeah, that's what has happened to us. It SUCKS. In addition to the noise, they've got this amazing shower at the hotel, except that no matter how well the door is shut, it still leaks and there is plenty of water all over the bathroom floor. Its maddening.

The trip is about over, in fact at this time tomorrow, we'll be somewhere over India I think, or some other Asian country that is north of Malaysia. I'm not sure I'm ready for it to be over and all the things that await back home. School, Cross-Country, the garden, laundry, etc. Its not that I don't like home, I do. Its great, but at the same time, this trip has been so relaxing (even if frustrating at times, like today when we couldn't get tickets to go up the Towers. Yes, I'm still bitter) and I'm not quite ready to come back. The near 20 hours of flying that will commence at 9am my time (9pm East Coast, US-time) certainly has something to do with it. Really, 20 hours on a plane. 13 to London and another 7 back to JFK. Joy! I'll probably have read the entirety of "Red Storm Rising" by the time I land.

I haven't gone into our time with Rina because I was going to save that for Reg. As we both can't be logged in and blogging at the same time, I'll go into it a little now, with the rest to be blogged at some later point.

Day 1 in Aceh: Land, wait an hour to get through Immigration. Why an hour for one plane? Well, there was 1 person taking Indonesian passports and one doing foreign passports. When the half of the plane that just had to go and smile and be waved through were done, the Officer who was doing the Indonesian passports just sat there and wouldn't take anyone else. One guy, doing about 35 people. Still, we got through with no problems. Rina was jumping up and down with excitement and her sister and father were just laughing in bemusement. They drove us around, got some food (hot, hot, hot!!!) and coffee, and then were dropped off for the ferry ride to Weh. Upon arriving at our hotel in Weh, we were shown to Bungalow 8, where we got to sit in a hammock, relax looking out at the crystal clear water in front of us and then we promptly got changed and dove in. AWESOME!!!The waves were light, the sand was soft, and the breeze glorious.

Day 2: Wake up, lay around, eat, go down to go in the water, do some snorkeling, get a little seasick from letting the waves take me wherever, take a nap, go back to the beach, read, eat, read, sleep.

Day 3: Must kill wild dogs (loose ones more like it) who fought all night. That said, go eat, go to the beach, snorkel, nap, eat, read, eat, nap, go to beach, sleep.

Day 4: Back on a ferry to Banda Aceh and Rina. What? No, Rina at the terminal? Hmmmm. Okay, 10 minutes late but thankfully Reg no longer has to endure the stares of people who've obviously never seen such a pale, fair-haired, busty woman! Drive around with Rina's sister and brother-in-law. Coffee, food, food, food, food, food. Stop at the house to meet her mom, take a nap, eat some food, and then off to the beach. The weather was breezy and cloudy, some drizzle, but into the water we went. The beach was followed by eating the best grilled fish I've ever had right next to the sand, then back to the house to eat some more. Did I mention we ate? Then we went off for some coffee.

Day 5: Eat, sleep, eat, go to an engagement party, eat, nap, eat, go around town, get some food, drink some coffee, eat, eat, talk, talk, eat.

There's plenty to talk about but I need to get going. Aceh will be done deeper sometime soon. As for now, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my time on vacation.

Terima Kasih.

N

Alive and well in Aceh

We are with Rina in Banda Aceh now and are a-ok. Will write more either tomorrow or Monday. Just know that the coffeesos good, the food full of hot chili peppers, and the company fantastic. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to learn how to cook Acehnese food.

Until next time,
N

Away in Aceh

If you don't hear from us for a few days (almost a week) week it's because we'll be in Aceh, Indonesia. We'll be on Pulau Weh until Saturday and then with Rina until monday. We've no idea what our Internet situation will be like. If we can get on we will but there is no gaurantee.

Until we blog again selamat malam.

N

Can I get a wat-wat? And a story of love and loss

Our time in Cambodia has come to an end. Angkor was stunning and magnificent; it alone would have been worth the trip. Phnom Penh was an ideal place to unwind after four days of touring the temples from dawn til dusk.  There's enough to see but not too much to see. 

We went to the National Museum which has some great artifacts from Angkor and other sites (although many of them were without descriptions or their descriptions read: unknown male divinity, unknown location, date unknown. I thougt it hilarious; Nick found it irritating and kept saying he wanted his $3 back.)

We went to the Central Market which is an Art Deco ziggurat with a large dome. The market was worth seeing just to see how all those attributes were possible in a single building. Sure enough, it fit all those descriptors and is among the oddest buildings I've ever seen. 

We went to the Russian Market which has eveything you can imagine. I beleive you could build an entire motorbike out of the parts you could find in just one row of stalls at the market. We named one area Tom Alley; it was full of wires, switches, and outlets. You could buy all 20 seasons of The Simpsons (bootlegged, of course) for $30.  Or some fresh-out-of-the-factory Adidas or American Eagle at a 90% discount. Or silk. Or casters. Or these hideous harem pants with bells that every merchant tried to push on me. It was awesome and exhausting.

But mostly Phnom Penh is about Wats. Most of what is worth seeing are the Pagodas/temples.  Today we went to the Silver Pagoda and saw monks and tourists alike gawking at the 90 kg Buddha with thousands of encrusted diamonds. 

And now for the story of love and loss:
In Hoi An,  I decided I needed a big floppy hat to help shield me from the tropical sun. I found an awesome blue and white ribbon hat and, after I haggled down to an acceptable price($2.50 from $3), Nick bought it for me.  I wore it everywhere: to the beach, hiking up temples, used it as a fan in museums. It was a great hat, crushable and of really good quality (direct from the Lane Bryant factory with price tag attached!) 

I discovered it had fallen out of my bag when we were taking Nick's birthday ride on top of an elephant at Angkor. Heartbroken. We went back to the places we'd been so far that morning (one temple and a wc) but still couldn't find it. So sad.

But there's a happy ending to this story. Although I never found my hat, I did find a nearly identical hat in a market in Phnom Penh which I haggled down to $2. Not as awesome as the original, but a fine replacement.

Safely arrived in Kuala Lumpur, where we'll be for 16 hours before we leave to see Aceh, Pulau Weh, and RINA!!!!!  
      

There's a Blizzard in Cambodia!

We've survived torrential downpours, severe heat, disgusting humidity but we never thought we'd have to deal with a Blizzard.

Welcome to "Global Warming"?

No! There's a Dairy Queen at the airport and as a treat to ourselves we each got a Blizzard.

Hope you're enjoying your weather as much as we are.

N