Around the World in 105 Days

what are we doing now?

2009-02-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

briefly,

Alicia got a job coaching softball in Briarcliff Manor. Karla is looking for work in northern California, but most recently put up her own website that features her artwork. enjoy!

http://karlahargrave.com

email us:

alicia.collen@gmail.com
karla.hargrave@gmail.com

Exchange rates while abroad

2009-01-15T16:50:00.001-08:00

We thought it might be fun to post the exchange rates while we were abroad. The following were the rates at the time we were in each country:

$1 = 161.5 HUF (Hungarian Forint)
= 1.18 YTL (New Turkish Lira)
= 5.369 EGP(Egyptian Pound)
= 1200 TZS (Tanzanian Shilling)
= 49.62 INR(Indian Rupee)
= 35.7 THB (Thai Baht)
= 7.1 HKD (Hong Kong Dollar)
= 6.83 CNY (Chinese Yuan)

SUPERLATIVES

2008-12-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-19T14:29:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-18T16:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

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?!?!?

2008-12-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

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'

2008-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-08T03:45:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-08T03:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-04T02:35:00.000-08:00

Photos: India

2008-12-04T00:51:00.001-08:00

Photos: Tanzania

2008-12-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Day 90: December 3rd: Motorcycle Diaries

2008-12-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

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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2008-12-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

Day 89: December 2nd: Monkey Business

2008-12-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

We got off to an early start today, waking with Katie to see her off to school. We were efficient in getting out the door too, heading to the bus station. Once there, we clearly stated our destination of 'Lopburi', and got escorted to a bus, where we said to the attendant 'Lopburi', and it was repeated to us. We questioned the driver too, just for good measure.

The bus ride was supposed to take 3 hours, and we arrived at the terminal station about 5 minutes early, so we thought we were off to a good start. Although as a not-so-quick side note, the busses here are interesting...the drivers insist on BLASTING music, oftentimes accompanied by a video. Since the sound is so damn loud, all you can do is watch it. Today, however, a sort of variety show was on, so Karla slept through it, and I was relieved to not be subjected to bad dancing again. But by the time we got to the station, I really wished it had been Thai pop...the variety show was one of the most offensive programs I've seen in a long while. One of the scenes (by far the most extended...it was still going on when we got off the bus about 20 min after it started!) was one of a teacher welcoming a few of his new students, who were black. But as I watched more closely, saw the 'antics' of these characters, and listened to my fellow passengers in stitches, I was horrified to realize that these actors were in black-face! And actively making fun of black people. And it was so ok that no one on the bus (except myself...Karla was still snoozing) even thought something could potentially be wrong here. Needless to say, I was relieved to get off that bus.

We walked up to a taxi stand to ask how to get where we were going. After more than 5 minutes of repeating the name of the destination over and over again and talking to one of their friends on the phone who claimed to speak English, we gave up. Then it occurred to me that we may not in fact be where we thought we were. That is to say, if the taxi drivers and their English-speaking friend did not recognize the map that we showed them and did not recognized our butchered version of the Thai name, maybe we weren't in Lopburi at all.

So we walked back into the station, seeing on a sign that confirmed my hunch was correct. We were in a place called Saraburi. Luckily we were able to locate it on our Thailand map and realized that we were less than an hour from Lopburi, so we grabbed some snacks and hopped back on the bus.

45 minutes later, I woke Karla up upon seeing a sign for Lopburi and recognizing the traffic circle from the map. So we got up, asked the attendant if we were in Lopburi, and got off the bus when we received her affirmation. But I totally jumped the gun in my haste to get there - who would've thought there are 2 giant traffic circles in Lopburi!? - and we ended up walking about a kilometer to get to the bus station. Oh well. At least we saw some giant statues of monkeys! And some smaller ones drinking out of bottles and peeling bananas.

We verified that there was in fact a bus back to Suphanburi tonight, then took a public taxi/shuttle to the first temple, called Prang Sam Yot. It was a cool remnant of first a Hindu, then a Buddhist temple, and the ruins were literally crawling with monkeys (why Lopburi is the monkey city)! These small creatures (gibbons to be precise) clung to every brick, tumbled on every inch of the grass, slept in all the shade that these great ruins provided, and tried to jump on anyone who looked like they had a tasty snack on them. It was incredible.

But they were aggressive. On jumped on Karla as we were walking in and I thought perhaps it was because she was carrying a shiny object (the camera). But then inside the temple grounds, one leaped onto my back while I was watching her take pictures! They're creepy little devils.

We later saw people feeding them, which explains why they're so aggressive. The temple had seeds that the grounds keeper trys to sell to tourists for the monkeys. Someone didn't really think that all the way through...

We went inside the temple (mercifully monkey-free!) and felt a bit like zoo animals because the gibbons were hanging onto the bars on all sides of us, staring. They're eerie-looking up close.

We wanted to go to a palace museum next, but it was closed, so we walked through the closing market (which smelled like the end of the day...not good when we're talking about meat and fish), and tried to go into a temple. Well luck still wasn't on our side. We walked in and were greeted by a very big dog in a sweater. We didn't approach him of course, but he seemed friendly, so we kept walking. But as we walked closer, a street dog at the entrance to the building started to bark and growl. All of a sudden 10 more doggy-voices chimed in, and a pack of large rough-looking dogs appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Karla and I backed away slowly and escaped without harm.

We realized that must have been the back entrance when we saw a giant sign for the temple a little further down the street. We looked at the exterior of the Wat Sao Thong Thong (I kid you not), but it was closed so we couldn't go in.

We stumbled across more ruins on the other side of the street, and spent the remainder of our time there ruin-hopping and eating. But it seemed like the animals were out to get me! At one of the ruins, I nearly stepped on the decaying carcass of a dead cat (with the fur still on!). It was appalling. I then bought a couple of roasted bananas and was carrying the remaining half of one in my hand. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt a hand in mine and then the plastic bag which contained the banana was gone. I shrieked - I know, I know...I'm not proud of my reaction- and looked down. In front of me, a medium-sized gibbon stared me down before deftly taking the stick out of the bag, ripping open the plastic and popping what was left of MY snack into his mouth. The little jerk. Karla said he literally flew at me from behind (and was secretly very impressed). At least he was agile.

My last animal encounter occurred when crossing the railroad tracks to get to some more ruins...I looked down and saw a large rat about the size of my foot, dead on its back with its little teeth sticking out. Needless to say, I'll be dreaming of rats tonight.

Rodents and other pests aside, we ended on a good note, taking a bicycle rickshaw back to the station in time for our bus. We had to switch busses in Ang Thong, but our attendant was super nice and made sure that we got on the correct bus to take us back to Suphanburi. If there was a gold medal in carrying on conversations using only pantomime and proper nouns, we'd be sure to receive it. Cum laude.

We got back to Katie's and found her flopped on her bed watching 'Harry Potter' on TV. It was a delightful treat to end our day in what now feels like home with dinner and a movie!
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Day 88: December 1st: Hurry up and wait.

2008-12-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Today was interesting, although we did a lot of nothing.

We started off the day by saying goodbye to Katie before she left for work, anticipating leaving by the time she got home. We got moving, Karla hanging out in Katie's apartment while Alicia ran out to the internet cafe (Katie's internet is down) to check on the current situation in Bangkok, as well as to try to get us train tickets up to Chiang Mai tonight. She got a bunch of info (but not tickets), and hurried back to pack up.

We said goodbye to Katie's apartment, and grabbed lunch on our way to the bus station. We received a phone call from Alicia's dad, who had not realized that we were heading up north. He brought up a lot of good points about the current political climate in Thailand, and convinced us that it would be most prudent to stay put at Katie's until the situation in the airport stabilized.

Deciding we needed to do some research, we camped out in the internet cafe, researching all of our exit plans, so to speak. We also e-mailed Katie to tell her we'll be bumming around her place for a while. Being a gracious hostess, she not only assured us that she was happy we stayed, but she also cut out of work for about a half hour to let us back into her apartment.

We went for a little walk once we'd re-settled, and picked up Katie from work. We decided that we needed some supplies (mostly Katie), and went to the mall to do some shopping. But the Thai mall is nothing like the American mall: this mall had 1 floor of grocery store, a floor of electronics, a mish-mash floor and a sports wares/department store floor. It was interesting. And successful! Katie got a new phone, a hot-pot, and a tupperware bin to keep her food from the ants. We were all quite excited about these purchases.

We had dinner at the Pizza Company (again, not your typical experience, but lovely nonetheless), then walked back to Katie's apartment and turned in early after watching the news a bit. Still no progress at the airport. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
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Day 87: Nov. 30th: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2008-12-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

We saw some white and orange tigers in Delhi last weekend, but it just did not compare to this experience. Today, we went to the Tiger Temple, a kind of relaxed zoo run by buddhist monks. To get there we had to take a local bus to Kanchanaburi (where the light show was last night) and then take a cross between a tuk-tuk and a pick up truck for 40km. It took forever to get there (a total of three and a half hours) and when we did we were very hungry. Although the ticket was about $16 (not including $ for transportation), they were serving free hot soup. Of course there was a donation box though..

The Tiger Temple is quite a unique place. First of all, the monks don't have just tigers there. Once you walk in the gates you come across boars, cows, buffalo, deer, horses, and peacocks. They are all just left to wander in this park that's just a large hilly space with trees and dirt and some temples. We wondered what all the grazing animals grazed on. They must be fed somewhere.

The main "road" led first to the bigger tigers. We walked into a small canyon with a waterfall in the background. In front of the fall were over a dozen tigers of all sizes. They were all laying down, napping or lazily flicking their tails as people one by one were led around to pet them. And be photographed with the help of the workers. They were chained in case of emergency, but they didn't seem to be going anywhere. They looked as if they could be sedated, but apparently, they have been well trained and are always well fed before they are taken to greet visitors. It helps that they're in a Buddhist temple...this automatically means that they don't believe in killing, which makes them calmer. Phew.

When we walked up, we joined the line and waited our turn to be led around. You weren't allowed to touch their heads and the worker wouldn't let you spend more than a few seconds at each tiger. The funny thing was that you could go through the circuit of tigers as many times as you wanted. And so we did, three times. We were slightly disheartened by their show-pony lifestyle until we were told by an Australian volunteer what they do the rest of the day.

In the morning they are fed, and then excersized by swimming around and frolicking with their friends. Then of the 34 tigers there, some of them are taken to the waterfall to lay for three hours and be pet by tourists like us. Then in the afternoon they are taken back to their homes and fed and allowed to play some more. The cubs are taken to a different photo shoot as a way to slowly introduce them to being around people.

So that's were we headed next. To see the three to four month old cubs. They were sizable for their age, but what do we know about tiger development. They were just the greatest and cutest things! And they were even awake and walking around. Occasionally the workers would play with them and pull their tails or whatever else they could to get them a little riled up and used to people. Then as a reward they would bottle feed them milk. We took many pictures with the babies. We even got to lay down next to them for some close ups. Some came out better than others but we took a billion so we hope that there's one good one. It's not fair that the tigers look good no matter what they do.

Soon it was time to go, which was sad. But we'd spent pretty much as long as we could with the tigers so we were happy. If we wanted to, we could have paid another fifty bucks each to bottle feed and spend time with the infant cubs. Or we could come in the morning to have breakfast with the monks and swim with the tigers. All for a small fee. Katie and Brittany might go back, but we can't unfortunately. Brittany is even thinking about volunteering there for a month after she finishes the year of teaching. How awesome would that be?

It really doesn't seem like there could be another place like this in the world.

We grabbed some Thai snacks of tofu on a stick, spring rolls, roasted bananas, and best of all: sticky rice with mangos and coconut sauce. Mmmmm. It was a scrumptious bus ride home.

When we got back we watched a movie called "Freedom Writers." It was about gang violence in high school and was a really good movie.

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Day 86: Nov. 29th: New Flavors.

2008-11-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

This morning we went to the market for breakfast. As you well know, dear reader, we love markets. And as usual, this one was completely different from any other market we've been to. This market was filled with more unidentifiable foods than I've ever seen before. We experimented with fruits and cakes that looked interesting, sometimes successfully, and sometimes to the detriment of our appetite. Not in a good way. (We started the morning with what looked like a glazed donut hole on the outside but was in fact filled with an onion garlic bread mixture on the inside. Very interesting indeed.) Karla was especially pleased that she got her fill of fresh fruit though (pineapple to be exact).

Luckily we made it back to Katie's with our stomachs intact, and entertained ourselves with more laundry and playing around on the internet (a novelty!) for a bit while Katie had to work. Getting hungry, Karla and I went out for pad thai, then decided we might as well get another Thai massage while we're here and waiting around (they are so cheap! And we couldn't get back into the apartment until Katie got back). Alicia's was much more like a deep-tissue massage this time, but both were ultimately successful.

We got back to Katie's in time to head back out with her and a few of her friends to a nearby city called Kanchanaburi for a festival dedicated to the bridge over the River Kwai. We walked through (and ate dinner at) a little street fair before going to the Sound and Light show. Like you do. What is it with these countries and their Sound and Light shows? (Egypt, India...)

This show was very cool, despite the fact that it was narrated in Thai and we had to totally guess the story based on what we already knew and the sound effects. But it was interesting nonetheless: it was about WWII and the construction of the bridge (from what we gathered). Katie and Alicia really got a kick out of the end of the show in which the Japanese and Thai characters stop being at odds and dance around, waving flags of many nations. And then the first song to be played over the loudspeaker after the conclusion which was 'My Heart Will Go On'. Appropriate. And we were the only ones who were able to sing along. We're heading to bed now (back in Suphanburi), but will return to Kanchanburi tomorrow to go to the Tiger Temple! Where we get to (apparently) pet tigers. Don't worry, we won't let them claw/eat us.

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Day 85: November 28. Field trip.

2008-11-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

We got up this morning not knowing exactly what the day would hold; Katie had been informed by one of her friends last night that she may have a half-day today, but we weren't sure. So she emailed us from work as soon as she knew (she did!) and Karla and I bummed around for a while (relaxing-again!!!), waiting for Katie to go on our adventure.

We passed the morning checking email, talking to our families (it was still Thanksgiving for them!), watching the news, finishing 'Wizard of Oz', and of course listening to Christmas music. Katie came home promptly at 1 and we all got ready to head out the door.

We took a pleasant walk to the bus station, finding a bus to Ayuttaya, about an hour away. We bought snacks for the bus, and hopped on just as it was about to leave.

The ride was obviously much longer than an hour (almost 2 in fact!), but we had some delicious snacks, good conversation, and the rice fields that we passed to look at and keep us entertained (Karla fell alsleep for part of it-big surprise).

Once we got to Ayuttaya, we took a tuk-tuk to one of the ruins in the city. The first thing we saw was a giant lounging Buddha right in the middle of ruins. It was crazy to see this huge statue ostensibly in the middle of nowhere wrapped in sparkling golden robes.

We walked through these temple ruins from the middle ages, and essentially worked our way back to where the bus dropped us off on foot, seeing tons of ruins of temples, statues and mausoleums, as well as tuk-tuks passing and elephants in their elegant formal wear hanging out with their drivers. It was a very fun day trip!

It got a little stressful at the end of the day when we found our bus, and tried to communicate to him that we wanted to go back to Suphanburi tonight, and he seemed to be telling us only tomorrow. But luckily we were persistent, and it was finally communicated to us that there was a bus back in 15 minutes. That was close!

So we ran to get food from a vendor (incidentally the best pad thai yet!), and Karla ran back while Katie and Alicia were waiting for the food to hold the bus. We made it! And Katie and Karla slept most of the way home.

We got back to the apartment to freshen up before heading to a night market that turned out to be more of an evening market. Tired, we opted to head back home (after a snack stop at the 7-11) to watch 'Sense and Sensibility' into the early morning hours. Jane Austin has done it again!

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Day 84: Nov 27: Happy Thanksgiving from Thailand!

2008-11-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

The protest situation at the Bangkok international airport hasn't gotten better (though it still hasn't turned extremely violent at least), and what's worse is that we found that Mumbai had been attacked by terrorists. Thankfully, although one of our friends has been in and out of Mumbai for the last few months, he left some hours before the attacks began. We have so much to be thankful for!

We started the day off by sleeping late (the first time in a long while!), and when we did awaken, took our time over breakfast before staring the one thing on our list for the day (besides feasting): laundry. It was about darn time as it was since Tanzania that we've managed to do a substantial amount of it. We've been smelly for a while now (only Karla really)...but the good news was that Katie's apartment building has washing machines (a luxury!), and we were able to watch 'The Wizard of Oz' on her computer while we waited for our clothes to finish washing.

It took a while for us to hang all our clothes (no dryer), but we got inventive with the string and bungee that we'd brought and turned Katie's studio into a regular laundry line. Satisfied with our day's work, we left for lunch. We'd wanted to get a massage this afternoon, but unfortunately we couldn't find the hotel that offered this service, so we decided instead to reverse our day and take a tuk-tuk back to the Tesco Lotus (the Thai Costco).

At Tesco, we spent some time shopping for an egg-crate for Katie's bed (if she won't pamper herself, we've got to do it for her!), but the closest thing we could find resembled a grown-up, fluffy version of a baby's changing mat. We bought 2 to fit her king-sized bed. And two big pillows. Getting home in the tuk-tuk was quite amusing...

We stashed the stuff in the laundry room, then called Katie to let us in. Luckily she works about 2 min away (on foot), so we met her at school and took a quick jaunt to the hotel so we knew where we were going, before she let us into her apartment and she was on her merry way. We set up her new fluffy bed, then headed back out.

Our massages were delightful. Cheaper than the ones in India, these masseuses knew what they were doing...after an hour we felt limber and relaxed. Just what we needed after carrying our backpacks all day yesterday!

We trotted back to Katie's, feeling like a billion bhat. We gathered our things, and walked over to Katie's friend Mike's house (literally across the parking lot) for Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't exactly traditional, but it was delicious: we had French toast, pancakes (with real maple syrup!), omelets, sliced deli turkey with cranberry sauce and fruit salad. For dessert we had ice cream, chocolate cake, and cookie dough. We had a lovely little ex-pat crowd of a Canadian, a Brit, a handful of Americans and a couple of Aussies. But just having breakfast food again was a treat!

After dinner and some hilarious conversations, we headed back to Katie's. After a couple of Thanksgiving phone calls from families, we did what is appropriate for Thanksgiving evening: we kicked off the Christmas season by curling up in Katie's bed (in loose pants!) to watch 'Love Actually'.
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Day 83: November 26: Suphanburi

2008-11-28T04:34:00.000-08:00

We got up earlier trying to finally get to the Grand Palace before our bus to Suphanburi at 4pm.

We (not so efficiently) packed and ate breakfast, learning about the violence that is occurring in the international airport here. Thank goodness we arrived a couple days ago! We navigated the skytrain with our backpacks and (very efficiently) went through a number of taxis before we found one driver that spoke some English and was able to show us on the map the route he was going to take. This worked quite well as he didn't try anything funny with us. We got there in record time and paid so much less because he actually went straight to our destination.

We arrived at the Royal Hotel and left our luggage there for the day. We then strode over to the Palace. Knowing they are strict on clothing requirements, we brought along our scarves in case. They wouldn't let us in with our three quarter pants on, but by wrapping the shawl around our legs (which ended up covering just about as much leg as our capris) we were somehow ok. Confused by the logic, we walked through the giant complex. Here there were exhibits on arms, coinage, many royal valuables, and even an exhibition on what the (smallish) emerald Buddha wears in the hot, rainy, and cold seasons. So adorable! Other than some more ridiculously ornate temples (Alicia had 'Wizard of Oz' songs stuck in her head again! We can't believe that places like this actually exist!), we saw the royal palace and the coronation hall. We loved that the Thai entered for free and we had to pay five dollars. They get us every time!!! This would never happen at home. If we'd only looked Thai we could have gotten in...

It took us a while to see all of the buildings and when we finished looking at as many statues, paintings, and decorated temples we could, we walked to the nearby Khao San road for some safe and quick street food. We got chicken phad thai (good but greasy) and pineapple before grabbing water and heading back to the hotel for our stuff. We made it to the mini bus at half past three, and luckily there were plenty of seats left so that we could pay for a seat for our luggage. It was tight, but not so bad. The ride was short (only an hour and a half) and we got to see some of the countryside. We arrived at 5:15 and waited a little for Katie to get back from her run. She took us to her clean and new apartment and happily began to settle in and catch up.

After showering, we met up with her fellow American teacher and neighbor Britney and headed to eat dinner. After eating we all hilariously piled into a tuk-tuk to get to the Thai version of a Costco supermarket. It was insane! We both experienced culture shock as we walked around and looked fruitlessly for Thanksgiving pie-making ingredients. We were going to be getting together in a friend of Katie's apartment tomorrow to make a good old "American" breakfast with real maple syrup, pancakes, and eggs. We bought a lot of fresh fruit to make a salad (so exciting for Karla). We were sad we couldn't find cinnamon to make pumpkin pie, but we were still happy that we had cranberry sauce sent by Katie's mom in a care package.

Getting home was more difficult with the stuff and we had to split up into two rickshaws. Racing home (Alicia and Katie's won), we went upstairs and settled in. Night!
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Day 82: November 25. Constant Vigilance.

2008-11-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

Today was the day where we had to be on the LOOK-OUT. Although the Thai seem quiet, peaceful, and friendly, you must be careful. For the most part they are good, but then its always the quiet ones you need to watch out for.

Breakfast was great. Porridge and, wait for it, fresh fruit!!! We made some quick phone calls before hopping on the metro to its terminal stop at the national stadium.

While walking off the skytrain, Karla read in the guidebook about Jim Thompson's house. He was an American who had come to live in Thailand after falling in love with it while on assignment in the army. We were a little skeptical as to whether it would be too touristy (which it was ) but it was so amazing. He had not only revived the silk production in Thailand, but he had been an avid collector of traditional Thai art and even built his house in an almost completely traditional manner. It was sad that we couldn't take pictures because it was breathtaking inside. We got some great ideas for our own houses. The art was all so well displayed, and the woodwork around the house was so cool. The nice thing was that the tour was included in the admission price, and the not so nice thing was straining to hear what she was saying in her Thai sounding english. Once we got used to it wasn't so bad (we had only just gotten used to the Indian and Kiswahili English accent).

Next we decided to take a tuk-tuk so as to get to the other sites by the river much faster. As we found to be true with most drivers of any kind here, they don't know, or pretend not to know, how to get to where you want to go. This guy took us to a place to the south instead of west towards the river. Luckily we didn't lose that much money and learned that we were going to have to be vigilant. Constantly.

The plus side was that he dropped us in what seemed to be some sort of restaurant district. We were hungry for lunch anyway, so we randomly picked a place and sat down. We ordered chicken dishes, but Karla had to ask them to remember to put chicken in her dish (constant vigilance!). Once they gave her the chicken, we got out and this time took a metered taxi (somehow about the same price as a rickshaw) to the river (this time we had the map out and followed closely how he went). The down side was that we hit a lot of traffic and it took forever to get where we wanted to go.

When we finally got there we still only had time to walk through Wat Pho, a temple complex that looked even more like Munchkinland than the previous temple we visited. Its decorations and ornamentation were mind blowing. It was like something wed never seen before. If this was the first place wed visited on our trip we wouldn't know what to do. But being veteran temple goers, we just snapped as many photos as possible, imitating the hilarious dragon and wise men statues when it was appropriate (although we can't imagine it was ever so). The intricate mosaic outer shells of mirrors and colored tile on the buildings were filled with intricate paintings touched with gold paint inside. Not to mention there were hundreds of Buddha statues lining the walls. This complex also happened to house the largest reclining Buddha in the world. It was made of bricks and plaster and painted in gold, but the feet were most impressive with its black marble inlayed with mother of pearl designs. Everything we saw was just so over the top, and huge. I'm sure that the pictures we took won't even be able to describe this place.

It was getting late and we still had to visit the Emerald Temple that was closed the day before. Realizing we would have to put it off yet another day (because it had again closed), we instead revisited the royal gardens where the princess's (the king's sister) newly constructed cremation temple was. It was here that they played the same song over as the visitors stream in day after day in hordes. Apparently she had died nearly seven months prior but wasn't able to have a proper funeral for her cremated body until the temple was made. The funeral was apparently last weekend (why it was soooo crowded). But we didn't of course learn this until the next day, and Alicia spent most of her time there trying to figure out how long the Princess has been dead. It is just amazing how the Thai people love the royal family (in schools there are even wardrobes and days with special colors that have to be worn according to Katie Poor (Alicia's roommate from Wesleyan who is teaching north of Bangkok in Suphanburi)). There was a hundred and one days of mourning where people could only where black or white after she died. We couldn't imagine how sad the country would be if the 80+ King died.

Surrounding the gardens, there was what seemed to be a giant fair. People were selling food and pictures of the royal family like crazy. The food all looked so good (fresh fruits, meats on a stick, drinks, grilled anything, and who knows what else), but we didn't dare to chance it. There were even people giving thai massages on mats in the parking lots amongst families picnicking on shiny plastic sheets (I told you they love plastic).

After this experience we headed to Khao San Road, a road dedicated to the Western backpack culture (bars, cheap clothes, snack food, music stores...). It was rather overwhelming to see tons of white people jamming to Bob Marley or Sublime while downing beer and cocktails in the early afternoon. Oh well. We were there to find buses to Suphanburi to visit the aforementioned Katie Poor. We must have gone to seven places until we found out where the mini bus could be. Which was by the Royal Hotel. So we went there and asked. They pointed to a restaurant down the street. Finally on a side street we found the mini bus and chatted with the driver about coming tomorrow. Phew. That took forever.

Next was dinner. Long story short we walked back towards the river looking for a place that didn't exist. We sat down at one place thinking it was it, realized it wasn't, left, looked some more, couldn't find it and got fed up and ended up going back to the same place. We think that the waiters got a little confused (we'd said that we were meeting friends at the other place).

Of course after dinner we still had to navigate getting back to the skytrain via taxi. We asked a bunch if they spoke English until finding one that semi-understood. We again followed along with the map (having to redirect him once or twice). Don't they know where they are going at ALL???? Unfortunately it pays for them to get lost...we ended up at the metro station, so we just took the subway to the skytrain instead of trying to explain.

Back at the hotel we tried to see if we could watch one of their many free movies, but it turned out that the VHS player was broken (typical) and we had to settle with going to sleep.
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Day 81: November 24. Thailand? Or Disneyland?

2008-11-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

We landed in Bangkok this morning. It took us a while to leave the airport (we had to figure out where to stay so that we could avoid the protests against the government), but we finally got a cab to the hotel. Our first impression of Bangkok is that it's very western looking...there's tons of skyscrapers here! And it's so clean!

Of course, our room wasn't ready because it was only 10am and checkout isn't until noon, but that didn't really faze us, and we relaxed in the hammocks next to the tropical looking pool (much nicer than where we usually stay!) while we waited for our room. It was just what the doctor ordered after too little sleep...Alicia was able to take a short nap and Karla read up on pop culture in vogue magazine (soooo her). It helped us recooperate from the grueling plane-ride as we each had either a headache or a tummy ache.

The downside of this recoup time was that we didn't get going until around 2pm (we had to freshen up!). But we've started to show real growth since the first part of our trip because we finally accept that we won't be able to see everything and that unless we're somewhat well rested, we won't be able to see anything!

Hungry for a little pick me up from all the lounging, we stopped on our way to the skytrain at (gasp!) McDonald's for a mcflurry (we are ice cream deprived). Guilty pleasure. We were thankful we did though, because it took us a fair amount of time to find a restaurant after getting off the skytrain. When we did, it was a tiny little noodle shop that appeared clean...we crossed our fingers and ate their delicious soup (we think it was the only thing on the menu)! Sidenote - we did not in fact get sick. A result of our hardened stomaches after getting through Africa. By the way, we never technically got sick (other than Karla's motion sickness) in India (its a miracle!!!).

Reenergized, we resumed our long walk from public transportation to the sights. It took a lot longer than we anticipated to get to the old part of Bangkok by the river...we were walking for nearly 2 hours! Luckily we ran into a couple of sights en route, such as a giant red swing that had to be partially deconstructed because so many people died swinging on it when it was used in festivals etc, and this beautiful, albeit elaborate, temple called Wat Suthat. We felt as though it could have been munchkin land (we have amazing imaginations). There was also a giant golden statue of Buddha chilling inside, which was very impressive- and soon to be the standard. Taking yours shoes off before entering any temple is always a must. Although we found this fun in the beginning, after all the temples we've been too, its starting to wear on us...

We continued our walk to the Emerald Temple and the Grand Palace, but unfortunately it was closed for the day. The sun was beginning to set, so we walked through this memorial park that appeared to be set up for a princess who had recently passed away. The buildings were so elaborate and ornate that they really (sadly) reminded us of a Disney-rendition of palaces. It was also mobbed...and we were practically the only white people in sight. The other factor in our conclusion was that it was so clean! Perhaps people are hired to clean the streets here too...

Deciding that we'd see what the fuss is about tomorrow, and wanting to see the sun set over the river, we walked that way and were rewarded with a pretty view. Or anyway a pretty sunset over an industrial skyline.

We took a cab to the skytrain...we think he didn't understand where we wanted to go so despite being entirely new to the city, we had to give him directions. Oh well. From the skytrain we walked to a lovely little garden restaurant where all the proceeds go to HIV/AIDS education in Thailand. It was the perfect way to dine - great ambiance, live background Thai music, good food and a great cause! There were also statues of santa clause and superheros colored and covered with (parents plug your ears) condoms. Everyone who walked in exclaimed, we should have brought our camera! (we had). The restaurant had been awarded a prestigious international award for health awareness. How cool!
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Day 80: November 23. Indian hospitality

2008-11-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

We arose early, determined to make the most of our last day in India. After packing and checking out, Alicia went to the restaurant where we ate last night and ordered breakfast while Karla went looking for one last scarf, arriving empty handed (the shops weren't open yet) at the restaurant just before her porridge got too cold.

We had a tight schedule, as we were due at Gitsy's (a college friend who's from Delhi) parents' house by 1, so we hustled through the New Delhi train station (it seemed like the entire population of 1 billion was there!) toward the metro.

We arrived at the Red Fort, and were pleased to see that there were shops lining the entrance so that Karla could continue to look for her green scarf while Alicia visited the fort (Karla scampered in soon afterwards). Both were successful - Alicia wandered at her leisure, pretending not to speak English to escape those pesky teenaged boys, and Karla found what she was looking for with enough time to see the fort as a brisk clip (we were experienced fort goers by this point).

We headed back to our hotel and picked up our stuff and an autorickshaw to take to the Prasad's house. We were only going to be about 10 minutes late (which is very close to on time) but unfortunately no one we talked to knew where their house was. Luckily, Mrs. Prasad called (she'd been texting Alicia but Alicia canceled her text service for the trip!), and we arrived safely.

The Prasads were wonderful. We had a lovely luncheon with them outdoors at their club, and chattered away with them freely as they stuffed us full of rich Indian cuisine. We definitely weren't used to eating so much. By far the best part was the Indian ice cream - it tasted like frozen masala chai!

They dropped us off at another craft market (we are now experts at browsing), where we wandered for a while before getting a rickshaw to Humayan's Tomb (sp?). Unfortunately, we got there 20 min before closing time, and balked at the price (five dollars each!). We got a glimpse of it from outside the gate (while trying to ask the guard to let us in for five minutes) and figured not seeing it would give us an excuse to come back.

We took a rickshaw back to the Prasad's (not an easy task - they were all trying to overcharge us and laughed at us when we asked them to use the meter!), where we relaxed for a while, before having another full meal, this time home-made. We're not used to this!

Mr. Prasad helped us figure out our flight (which had miraculously changed times to almost an hour earlier from our itinerary...thank goodness we checked before we left!) and called us a cab. We thanked our generous hosts, and headed to the airport.

After checking in, we wandered around, trying to spend our last ruppees (around $3). It was harder than we anticipated, and we left the country with 19 Rs in our pockets. Luckily this is less than $0.50, but we were still disappointed because it could have bought us a pair of earrings or at least another chai! See you in Thailand.
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Day 79: November 22. Back to Delhi

2008-11-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

We awoke on the bus around 6am, freezing our little butts off. We said bye to Scott, then took a mini taxi (we bargained for a rickshaw, but I guess we got upgraded!) to our hotel in New Delhi. When we were almost there, our driver pulled over and said he couldn't get through the narrow streets, so luckily there 'happened' to be a rickshaw driver there who could get through and would take us the rest of the way for only 20 Rs. We put our foot down. We were cold, exhausted and too wise for this crap so we told the driver that not only had we been taken directly there in a car before, but that unless he took us himself he was not going to see a penny of the 200 Rs we had agreed upon. He thought long and hard (a little too long and hard for us), then finally took us. When we arrived at our hotel, we told him that his behavior was unacceptable, but somehow I don't think he learned his lesson.

We checked into a hotel and waited for our room to be ready by having breakfast on the roof, overlooking the sunrise. Mercifully, it's much much less smoggy now than it was 2 weeks ago. Our lungs are very much relieved.

After a shower and errands, we walked to the metro to head toward the zoo. The metro here is probably safer and cleaner than any other part of the city. You have to go through security (with a thorough frisking) before entering -this time we were thankful we were women because our line was about 30 min shorter than the men's! - and once you get inside, everything looks brand new and clean! It's such a refreshing change! (Karla thinks that there is something fishy going on. Its almost tooo clean).

We got off at our stop and started walking toward the National Zoological Park, passing a giant international trade fair along the way. We turned too early and accidentally found the Craft Museum, which was an outdoor craft market with a small museum attached. It was interesting, and we always love a good market. The only downside was that, as it's Saturday, all of the teenaged boys with nothing to do are out in full force, which means we got a fair amount of harassment and starring.

We finally arrived at the zoo and had lunch outside before venturing in. We were so happy that we got to see some of the animals we'd missed on our safari, such as leopards (who knew they were so big!), jaguars, Asian elephants (which we were immediately able to distinguish from African elephants), and tigers. We were also able to revisit our old friends the Cape buffalo, zebras, simbas and twigas. It felt like home! We were sad though that the rhinos weren't there (someday we will find one!)

Unfortunately, we experienced a fair amount of harassment here too. It sometimes felt like people were more interested in us than the animals! The boys came in big groups, and the better-behaved ones took photos of us (on their film cameras), while the worse-behaved ones shouted and whispered lewd comments at us. It wasn't threatening so much as disheartening to see that this is a culture that not only allows this kind of behavior toward women, but that it's not even seen as problematic. For example, not a single 'adult' came to our rescue when we were clearly being followed by these groups. At least we'd been in India long enough to know how to deal with it.

After we'd gotten our animal-fix, we took the metro back towards our hotel and meandered through the market, looking for last-minute gifts that we needed to pick up. We were fairly successful, taking a short break for dinner, where we made friends with an amiable waiter from Darjeeling. He promised to make the best pot of masala chai ever if we came back for breakfast. We then headed back to our hotel as the shops were closing, ready for bed!
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Day 78: Nov 21: Gorgeous, Glorious Day.

2008-11-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Today we woke up to an incredible scene. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky, dry, and we had crystal clear views of mountains we hadn't come close to seeing yesterday. What a treat. We even had breakfast on the roof accompanied by a laaarge pot of delicious chai measly as we watched hawks float by again and again and gusts of wind blow snow off of the distant peaks. Too many details? We don't care. Its all true. Its even slightly chilly, just the way Alicia likes it. Oh why do we have to go back to Delhi tonight!?

We decided to spend the morning exploring a little more of the countryside. The answer was to hike to Dal Lake, which was small and 'sacred' yet very very brown. The incredible Himalayan landscape behind it more than made up for the filthy lake. We just don't understand why people are ok with destroying/polluting sacred environments (here, the Nile, the fort in Jaislamer...the list is extensive!).

Next we visited the Children's Village up and around the corner. It just so happened that the a democratic conference on future of Tibet had been called while we were there, and was being held in the village! His Holiness wasn't there, but it was cool to stumble upon such an important event. It's called the Children's Village because it's where Tibetan refugee kids are boarded and allowed to be educated about their own culture (and not the Chinese culture) as well as learn important traditions (such as weaving) which will eventually be a source of income for them.

We walked back down the hill, ended up accidentally taking a short cut that passed by a big old church in the middle of nowhere (aptly named St. John's of the Wilderness) built by the British with neat colored windows, and were soon in need of a snack to carry us over to an early dinner. We checked out of hotel and ate baked goods with yet another delicious pot of tea on the roof. Here we got our last glimpses of the tallest of the visible range beyond the foothills.

We still wanted to grab a couple things (mostly just Karla looking for a shawl and knitted booties for the cold train rides) before checking out the monastery down a heap of winding steps on the edge of town. It's the Tsechokling Gompa, a monastery built to replace the original gompa destroyed in the 1987 Chinese Cultural Revolution. The temple was amazing: colorful and vibrant. It was also incredibly peaceful there (not too surprising). We both thought about how nice it was for the monks to be there unbothered by the Chinese. They also had posted an interesting statement on a bulletin board that discussed the desired independence of the Tibetans not as their own country but as an autonomous state that allows cultural and spiritual freedom.

Linner consisted of momo soup (pasta wrapped around spinach in a vegetable noodle soup. Scrumptious!) We realized why the Tibetans are so good at making soup once we stepped outside into the freezing weather afterwards (Alicia thinks it was only mildly chilly).

We powerwalked back to the hotel to grab our stuff. Scott happened to be leaving on the same bus and so walked with us to find where it was parked.

The bus ride was miserable. Not quite as bad as our first overnight train in the AC, but up there in terribleness. It was extremely extremely cold and drafty (Alicia's window wouldn't even shut properly), the seats would shift, and the bus rattled so badly that we thought it was going to fall apart. It didn't help that the breaks were squeaky (and no shocks), we were going down hill for a good four hours, and the road was littered with pot holes. Despite all this, we arrived in Delhi on time (or only half an hour late) and in one piece.
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Day 77: November 20. Clean Air. But really this time.

2008-11-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

We woke up to find ourselves in the foothills of the Himalayas. At night the hills were sparkling with lights but this morning they were caked in mist and fog. Apparently this was the first really cold day of the season. At hearing this Alicia got excited and Karla sighed longingly for summer again.

After a superb breakfast, we (mostly Karla) fiddled around the room as it started to sleet outside and heard it patter onto the tin roofs and tall pine trees. It just couldn't be more different here than from Rajasthan. Although we are just at the very base of the mountain range (at about 1700m), you can just feel the force of the great mountains beyond the highest visible ridges.

We began the day by, surprise, taking a short walk up into the "hills" in search of a good view and some peace and quiet. The hike up to Dharmakot was pretty great. First, it had stopped sleeting. Second, we got to see winterized baboons closer up than ever before (they have alien eyes as it turns out) and even were followed by two very adorable and healthy doggies. At the point where we had a stunning view of the valley and town below, we decided it was time for an official full body stretch. It was well overdue and felt amazing in the crisp fall like weather after a warming walk up.

On our way down we wandered down a few more roads. Reaching a cottage rent-by-month complex, we met a German couple having just arrived a few days before. They were going to be there for five months! And starting in the fall no less. This started a discussion between the two of us on the walk down about the mental and physical trials of backpacking and how different it would be to do as the German couple was doing. Although Alicia is enchanted with the idea of traveling, the thought of backpacking is slightly unnerving at times. On the otherhand, for Karla, the idea of backpacking and the mobility it allows is much less daunting than settling down permanently/semi permanently. And here we are, on a whirlwind of a trip. Its amazing how people adapt and get better at doing so.

As promised in the guidebook, there were wall to wall shops lining the streets in the hippie-Tibetan-Indian and Chinese (just food wise though) town of McLeod Ganj. We browsed, but we were in need of a snack break before long. After eating wonderful Tibetan soup (makes sense in the cold climate) and chatting with an Israeli girl our age who sat at our table, we headed down the hill to learn more about Tibet and its culture/religion. On the way to the Tibetan Tsuglagkhang Complex we had to force ourselves to stop peering into shops and comparing colors and prices. We were just so good at it but here it seemed no one hassles you!!!! I hope we don't get out of practice...

The Dalai Lama had apparently arrived in the morning from being in Japan for surgery. He also had recently released a statement that he does not forsee any sort of peaceful independence from China in his lifetime. It's an interesting and trying time that we have stumbled into. Going to the museum in the complex really educated us a lot on the history of the Tibetan struggle for peace and independence. It was very saddening and intense to see pictures and read about people's stories, but it such a great experience! We even had time for an hour long documentary upstairs in the museum. Called 'Red Flag Over Tibet', it was made in 1994 by an American reporter and aired on Frontline news.

Within the complex is also his Holiness' official residence. While in the past he has granted audience to foreigners, lately he's been pretty busy with dealing with spiritual and governmental matters and one can only see him maybe driving by in his car or at a public meeting or press conference. When we saw Scott later in the day, he told us that we saw him arrive. How cool!

The Tsuglagkhang Temple in the complex was our first up close and personal Buddhist experience. It was built in the spiritual likeness to the Jokhang Temple in Tibet, which was destroyed in the 80s during the "Chinese revolution." It was especially beautiful when we arrived as there were monks inside reciting their prayers. We wandered around a bit and even tried out spinning the mandalas in a clockwise direction.

After breezing through some more shops for warm shawls on the walk back to town above, we staked out some Indian food (harder than you think to find) in a cozy narrow restaurant with fun colored lamps and chill music (including 'Sweet Melissa'). On the walk home we finally noticed that there weren't many cows wandering the streets, which we think may be due to the fact that there is so much green (!) to be eaten here off of the roads. The one cow that we did see had vegetable greens on its back that someone had (cruely) put there. After we figured it wasn't so cruel because another cow would eat them off of it. Cows are hilarious.

After this, it was still early but definitely time for bed. Night!
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Day 76: Nov 19. Long Day's Journey into Night

2008-11-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

1:30am. Tipping the receptionist at the hotel, we walked the short distance back to the train station and waited for ours to arrive. Of course it was late (although only by a half hour which was a blessing!) and in the meantime we watched a playful puppy lick everything in site and a homeless man steal the flip flops of another homeless man while he slept. It was a sobering wait.

We finally made it onto the train and settled in before climbing onto our beds and passing out. Although this time we were in 2nd class sleeper, it was more comfortable than the A/C class because there was no A/C blowing into our faces (it got cold at night anyway as we headed north!), and because surprisingly, the beds were longer in this class, leaving us more room when we slept with our bags. It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as our first sleeper train in India.

When we awoke in the morning, we nibbled on some "breakfast," and passed the day dozing, looking out the window and reading. At one point while Karla was napping, Alicia was reading on her top bunk, and a woman across the way motioned her down. Alicia thought she was letting her sit in a more comfortable position, so she brought her book down, but the woman motioned her 21-year-old daughter over and had her practice her English! We had a lovely conversation about our lives, education, and a tiny bit of politics. She chastized me for not knowing that the governor of Louisiana is Indian. Oops!

This girl, whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember, was going with her family to move to a town in Punjabi state to teach Hindi at a secondary school. It was the first time she was leaving her state of Rajasthan (except for the 2 days she went to Delhi to interview for this position), and now she was going to be living in Punjabi for 3 years! Luckily, although her father and sister were just there to 'settle' her, her mother was making the move with her. Karla and I were jealous. Mommies, can you move with us?

Within the last hour of the train ride (around 3:30) the conductors came over to check our tickets for the third time! As we began to be irritated, they sat down and we figured out that they too just wanted to chat. They were very friendly, and wanted to exchange pens. Not about to part with our one remaining functioning pen, Karla rustled up a #2 pencil, sharpened it with her pocket knife, and thrilled them with tales of how all American schoolchildren had to use these pencils for every exam. They were impressed and happy that it was an American pencil. And we in turn received pens that say 'om shantra' which means 'peace within'. We are still trying to get them to write well...

We asked them one more time when our stop would be, then they left us. We finally got off the train in Pathankot at 4:50pm (!) and walked to the bus station, with a quick detour at a tourism office to make sure we knew where we were going.

As we walked into the bus station, the bus to Dharamsala was pulling away! We asked someone when the next bus would be, and it wasn't until 9:30pm, getting into Dharamsala around 1 am. Although we were disappointed that we missed the first one, we were relieved that there WAS another bus tonight, so we resigned ourselves to calling some hotels to make sure that we'd have a room as soon as we arrived.

While Karla was on the phone and Alicia was guarding the stuff, she was approached by an American man who asked if we'd be interested in sharing a cab with him up to McLeod Ganj, where our hotel was. Our only concern was the price, and neither of us had the energy to haggle, but Scott, the American, said he'd be happy to bargain, and he left his baggage in my charge while Karla procured a room for us.

Scott was successful. We got a cab for 500 Rs (just over $10) a person, including a generous tip. We made the 2.5 hour journey high up into the mountains in a nice cab with pleasant conversation and finally relaxed! We were sooo glad that we took a cab, especially since we arrived at our hotel 15 minutes before our bus would have left the station! Although it was 5 times more expensive to take the cab, sometimes that's what you have to do when you're on the road for 31 hours!

We said goodnight to Scott, (who thanked us again for being at the bus station - he was just as weary as we were!), settled into our hotel, and had dinner next door. Although it was cold out (finally! Alicia has had enough of summer weather - 6 months of feeling hot is excessive!), we both took hot showers, and finally tumbled into bed.
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Day 75: Nov 18. In which we both nearly get gored by a passing cow. Within 5 hours of each other.

2008-11-20T07:24:00.000-08:00

This morning got off to a bit of a rocky start with a tiff that lasted well through a delicious chocolate croissant breakfast at a German cafe and into the Palace museum. With the help of the space provided by the radio-silence of the audio tour, we both cooled off and were able to fully enjoy each other's company by the end of the day. Nothing like the entertainment of an audio tour to lighten the mood.

The Jaislamer Palace was beautiful, but not quite as impressive as the one in Jodhpur. What was spectacular was the views of the fort and city below - it really does look like a giant sandcastle!

After our audio tour, feeling much more civil, we walked through the streets of the fort again, this time knowing exactly what we wanted. We made a couple of small purchases, and were on our way out again, and were admiring some puppies, when a passing cow nudged Karla out of her way with her horns. Alicia thought that she was protecting the puppies, but Karla thought she just wanted to pick a fight.

On our way out of the fort, we stopped to look at another item in a shop. We had been in this store yesterday, without buying anything, and the owner came in saying, 'you come in yesterday, you don't buy. What do you want?!' So Alicia made the mistake of saying 'sir, are you unhappy?'

This launched a 20 minute discussion (and by discussion I mean lecture) about Jainism, inner peace, and accepting fate, as well as chokra, and the physical balance that helps one to achieve peace. Alicia really took it to heart after this morning, and felt (after she extricated herself - he would have talked for another hour!) that she really learned something about patience. And Karla got a great price on an item normally more than two times the amount she got it for. Perfect!

After our lesson, we stopped at a bakery to get snacks for our journey this afternoon, then picked up Alicia's backpack. Unfortunately, the tailor took it upon himself to not replace the zipper, as instructed, and to just 'fix' it. However, we'd gotten it 'fixed' like this 2 times before, and each time when we would put stuff in the pocket, the zipper would break again. But we didn't have time to get it fixed properly, so she'll have to make do until the next stop.

We walked back to the hotel and repacked on the roof while waiting for lunch. The owner of the hotel had procured bus and train tickets for us, and we sat on pins and needles waiting for them to arrive so we could make our bus! As soon as we got them, we paid and took a rickshaw to where we were told the bus would be. It wasn't there, so we had to pay double to be taken to the next place. Luckily our bus was there!

The ride was pleasant enough, and we arrived 6.5 hours later in a town called Bikaner. (At one rest stop, we were standing around waiting to reload the bus, and a cow tried to nudge Alicia out of her way (this time a little more forceful)! Everyone laughed, but karma came around because the same cow started eating a cardboard box (news paper is their main staple but cardboard is a close second) in the truck of the man who laughed at her!)

When we arrived in Bikaner, it was 9:00 pm, and our train wasn't until 2:15 am (although when we bought the tickets we were told the train would be at midnight...), so we went to a restaurant until they closed, then into a sweet shop until it closed, then walked to a local hotel and asked if we could sit on their couches in the lobby until our train.

At first the receptionist said no, but Karla realized that he didn't understand the question, so we simplified and asked again. This time he said yes, thought about it, and then asked if we wanted a room. We asked how much, and he said 'no', so we assumed he meant no charge and went on up. It was blissful to lie down for an hour and a half, and here I will leave you until tomorrow's entry.
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Day 74: Nov 17th. Sand Castle

2008-11-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

These days we always have so many errands to run. They are mostly because we love bargaining with shop keepers and also because there are things to do! Unfortunately Alicia has been having a case of the zippers. Although her case of the straps was cured yesterday, today we dropped into a tailors to have her zipper replaced. It was quite the hilarious interaction...the tailor didn't speak a word of English and of course Alicia's Hindi isn't the greatest, so business was conducted in a series of mimed actions. When she asked about the price, he showed her on his measuring tape. She bargained him down by doing the same, then he showed her what time the bag would be ready tomorrow.

Meanwhile, next door, Karla was spending quality bargaining time in a traditional textile store. He had all sorts of cool stuff and it was hard for her to make decisions (surprise!). The great thing is that we got the package sealed with linen and wax included in the price of her purchases. We even were able to stick some last minute things in the box.

We dropped the box off at the post office, but of course we didn't have enough money, so we left the package with the friendly postal worker, thinking we'd be trusting him with it in a matter of minutes anyway, and walked back toward town to find an ATM. Of course there was a line...but we made it back before the post office closed and hopefully Alicia's family will get it before Christmas!

As forts are the theme of this trip, next on our list was the fort. This one was different from the others in that there are well over five thousand people living in it. It is just amazingly beautiful to wind in between the streets. It's a shame that the fort is collapsing because of water use through occupation - it was not built to sustain plumbing at all because it's in the middle of the desert. Now, with all the waste water going through the city every day (in open sewers no less), the infrastructure of many of the buildings is completely deteriorated and beginning to collapse. Yet, walking around within the walls of the Jaislamer fort, it became very clear as to why these people aren't going to move without a fight. Everything is for the tourists. There were just so many restaurants and shops packed into such a small space it was incredible.

Soon it was snack time and we found a gorgeous yet deserted restaurant on wall of the fort looking over Jaislamer below. During all of our purchases and consuming of food, we tried as much as we could to support the businesses outside of the fort.

By the time we were done eating and shopping it was too late to go through the whole audio tour (supposedly comparable to our last one) at the fort's palace. So we slowly made our way down to our guest house instead, stopping at nearly every shop it seemed. We even tried out a fried ball of dough soaked in honey for fun (sorely missing our baklava days). We haven't been eating so many sweets lately, but we've been consuming masala chai like it's our job (it is). We both have this idea that someday we will have the perfect cup of chai and until that day, we try it every chance we get.

We had dinner at another rooftop restaurant overlooking Ghandi Chawk, the main square just inside the Old City gates at Jaislamer before making a beeline for bed.
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Day 73: Nov. 16: Jaislamer

2008-11-16T10:30:00.000-08:00

We finally have realized that the only way to get going at a reasonable hour in the morning is to wake up, order breakfast, get ready for the day/shower etc. and then, just maybe, your food will be ready. On account of our planning we left the guest house nearly an hour and a half earlier today. Efficiency efficiency efficiency.

We walked to the clock tower to get someone to fix Alicia's poor bag. A few straps had broken along with a zipper. Amazingly, within fifteen minutes both problems were fixed for only seventy five cents. Hooray! (Until we realized later in the day that the zipper must in fact be completely replaced-not hooray). We then tried a giant store of scarves but realized they weren't going to lower the price to a reasonable amount after looking through a billion scarves. We got evil eyes on the way out on account of the mess and no profit, but they shouldn't be so stubborn. They aren't going to make business with many (half smart) people at those prices. Sick of scarves, we tried the spice shop next and got some yummy chai masala and garam masala spices for what we were told by our guest house was a good price (obviously they charged us double automatically but we will never be able to buy it at the Indian price- maybe Hindu lessons and a few tanning sessions is the answer). Shopping at the clock tower was more of an experience and less of a successful shopping trip, but that's ok by us. There will be other markets.

We had wanted to send a package from Jodhpur but our guest house owner told us that there were too many Indian mafia people in the city (uhhh...) and that we should just wait until Jaislamer. Hopefully its safer there???

We went back to our room to collect our bags and pay our bill before taking a tuk-tuk (aka rickshaw) to the bus station for our 3:30 bus to Jaislamer. While loading our bags someone asked where we were staying. Somehow he guessed right away that Jack had recommended us to Hotel Deep Mahal (I'm starting to think we are the only white travelers around). He told us that it was in the fort and that we should stay at his brothers place instead (oh sure, sounds great!). We hadn't known that the recommended hotel was in the fort, but decided we shouldn't stay there after all. We had read in the book not to stay in the fort because it was falling apart because of the over crowding. In an effort to preserve it, the government has tried to encourage people to move out by offering them land etc. but everyone is stubborn and too proud (all details were explained by our current hotel guy). Also, many of the residents depend on the tourists and will live there as long as they keep getting business. So although our bed it hard as a rock, we are doing the right thing!

Upon arriving in Jaislamer we were bombarded like never before by a ton of guest house representatives (we really are the only tourists around to bother I guess), but we stood strong and headed out to find our own place. We ended up at Hotel Peacock. Clean, good food, and relatively hassle-free. No window to the outside world (which could be a blessing in disguise on account of the lovely open sewer systems running freely throughout the city), but we won't be here long and its only about $6.50 a night for the two of us.
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Day 72: Nov. 15: Exploring the Blue City

2008-11-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

After breakfast, we climbed the hill behind our guest house to the Meherangarh Fort. From the rooftop with a birds eye view it looks like it would be easy to find your way, but when your view is obstructed by tall buildings along narrow streets, you feel like you're a mouse in a maze. This fort is still run by the maharaja of Jodhpur who is more interested in preserving the tradition and culture behind the fort than anything else. I guess it isn't too hard when you live in a beautiful palace a few kilometers away. The fort is on a huge 125m high hill, and looks imposing from every angle. Inside the courtyards and many rooms are memorizing. The audio tour (yes, we gave in) was really quite helpful. Although it makes looking harder, this particular tour was super informative and interesting.

After walking through most of the fort, it starts to make sense why it was never taken by enemy forces. Perhaps the most striking yet subtle thing that there was to see in the fort were the sati marks (shown as relief hand prints left by the maharaja's widows) on the wall as you exited. Karla was previously unaware of this now illegal practice of being burned alive with your dead husband when Alicia explained it . After hearing about it, she figured it was better to die in child birth than in flames just because it was tradition. We both agreed we wanted to look into it more closely.

A relatively short walk away was the marble Jaswant Thada Tomb. It was "more simple" than other tombs, temples etc, but it had this feeling of greatness when you walked around. The outside was the most impressive, and for once the pigeons on the roof looked majestic instead of dirty and annoying.

Next stop was lunch at Michael Baba's Hill View Guest house, which took forever, didn't taste the greatest and involved someone thinking we also wanted a massage (simply not true). They even called Michael himself from town and he came a-runnin. Poor guy.

Then we walked to the clock tower at the central bazaar and took a rickshaw to the Palace where the current maharaja lives (also doubles as a hotel). We had heard his voice in the audio tour and thought we'd visit his place (and palace) as well. We took a rickshaw (Karla loves riding them so nothing was lost really) but got there and were unimpressed. We thought it looked too modern and too influenced by the western/British world. But hey, it was an important place. We asked two white girls whether it was worth it to see the museum for a dollar- it wasn't, and so we rickshawed it down to the bus stands to buy a bus ticket to Jaislamer.

Then we tried walking back to the clock tower to check out the shops. We kinda got lost which was good and bad. Good because Karla found some sweet scarves and bad because Alicia was feeling far too queasy to be patient enough for shopping. When we tried getting home on a rickshaw we found that we were a lot closer than we thought and so had only been driven 1 block when the rickshaw couldn't go any further because the streets were too narrow. We gave the driver half of what we were gonna give him. He made some protesting noises but we were strong and kept walking.

Ginger tea was the answer to our sickness prayers. Karla tried what she had had the night before to compare the cooking of the real cook versus the nephew, Jack. Honestly Jack's was better because it was less greasy and had more vegetables.

After din din was packing time. And then we blogged a bit (we are almost up to date!). We have quite a few things to do in the morning, good night.
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Day 71: November 14: Jodhpur

2008-11-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Breakfast was the usual, but after we did the unusual- we got a massage. It was cheap, but only O.K. and it left us thinking we should give it another shot with people who knew what they were doing. Too bad really since we've been waiting forever to get one...

After a quick shower and a quick pack, we paid up and hit the street shops. We both found what we were looking for in pretty much record time. Amazing considering Karla's indecisive skills.

We scurried back to the hostel, threw on our backpacks and did some skilled bargaining before getting an auto-rickshaw to take us to the bus. Of course it was the travel agency and not right where the bus was and so had to walk down a few hundred meters to get there. Darn it!
We were the first ones on, a striking contrast to how full it got leaving Udaipur. It was a private coach but it loved packing in far too large groups of people from the side of the road and transporting them a few kilometers. Further into the trip this happened with less frequency and things quieted down. We miraculously got there only 45 minutes late, and were happy to be picked up by our guesthouse. What service!

We were taken aback when we arrived at our guesthouse- it was lovely! And cheap too!
There were flowing fabrics and fun couches to lounge on. Best of all, their rooftop restaurant had a fantastic view. The kitchen was technically closed as the family was out at a wedding but their nephew whipped up a wonderful dinner for us. We knew what he had gone through to make the dishes and we were grateful. Plus, the tea was yummy.

Soon after we jumped into bed (it even had a blanket!) we were snoring loudly (only Karla really) before we knew it.
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Day 70: November 13: Indias country side

2008-11-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

Despite our late night last night, we woke up early to the same breakfast on the rooftop(we're starting to become old ladies with our routines!) and then hopped in a cab with two young Brits on their gap year before university. These chaps made good company (and made the cab cheaper!) on the 2+ hour drive up to the Kumbalgarh Fort.

The fort was MASSIVE - it has a 135 km circumference, and is the second longest wall in the world. It was a good warm-up to the Great Wall in a couple of weeks!

Not really knowing where to begin, we did what was natural for us, and went up first. Up we went to the highest point in the fort (the palace of course!) and got spectacular views of the rolling hills on the outside and the small villages, fields, and dozens and dozens of temples on the inside. As usual, we took a lot of pictures. Despite the fact that we both got extra memory cards hand delivered to us on this trip, we're starting to fear running out!

After we got the lay of the land from up top, we set out to explore as far and wide as we could before getting back to meet the Brits at the appointed time. We saw many temples, most of which appear to have been abandoned. We had a lunch of left-over bread and baked goods that we'd made ourselves with Shashi in the shade of one temple in a complex, completely out of sight of any other human. It was really refreshing given the number of people in any city in India.

After lunch, we walked toward a small village. There, we got more great views of the fort and mountains while some women and children looked on. They were just as curious about us as we were about them, if not more so. But as usual, they just waved and said 'namaste' and pretended to go about their business outdoors (which involved washing their small child in a bucket), while sneaking looks at us.

We walked back to meet the boys along the fort wall, then got back in the taxi to go to Ranakpur Temple. This ride was over an hour long, but we again passed some interesting scenery, which included beige and charcoal-colored monkeys sitting on a wall, eating and watching the cars go by. Their hunched position and their crumpled faces made them look exactly like little old men!

Upon arrival at the Temple, we bought our tickets and went inside to see a veritable complex of worship places with literally hundreds upon hundreds of columns, each intricately carved as though it was the only one. It was awe-inspiring.

Now you may wonder how we can continue to exude enthusiasm about the sight we see this far into the trip. But each place we go to is so singularly impressive that it's hard not to be struck by how much thought, time, and even love is poured into each monument. So we have to be enthusiastic!

We wandered around the rest of the complex, taking in the other temples, before we hopped back in the can for the 2 hour drive home. At least this time we were driving over paved roads, so the trip seemed to go a lot faster.

Back at the ranch, we had dinner at our guest house with our new British friends, and retired early.
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Day 69: November 12. Cooking Gurus

2008-11-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

We had the same breakfast this morning of porridge (milk oatmeal with bananas and honey) and chai masala, supplemented by an omlette on the rooftop. It's so darn good!

By the time we got going, it was almost 11, so we high-tailed it over to the Bagalore Ki Haveli museum, where we saw the traditional dancing last night, to see the actual house. It was simple, yet tastefully decorated for noble or royal blood, and was downright humble compared to the extravagant opulance that we saw in the City Palace yesterday. We saw another puppetshow in the interior courtyard of the haveli, then stopped through turban land where we were in the presence of the largest turban in the world (each side represented a different style in Rajasthan) and compared turban styles between professions and castes (Karla's fav was the carpenter's and Alicia liked the barber's). Then we went downstairs to the portion of the house converted into an art gallery. The most interesting section to Alicia was the Hungarian artist's exhibition. She had traveled extensively in India, converted to Hinduism, and adapted traditional painting methods to show her devotion. Karla was fascinated by the glazed sheet-metal pieces mounted on canvas. Big surprise.

After the Haveli museum, we meandered over to a roof-top restaurant (the only way to dine in Udaipur!) by way of our hotel. While we were waiting for our food to be prepared, Alicia ran down the street to pick up an album that she'd had made. Efficiency is a must on a busy day!

Next we walked to one of the markets in town. This was a silver, gold and textile market, and we were fascinated at how proficient the women were at picking out fabrics to match as pieces of saris, not to mention knowing how much fabric they wanted, and their measurements for the tailor. The fabric stores alone are a feast for the eyes: there are literally hundreds of fabrics in different colors and materials, some with sparkles and sequins, some without, folded neatly onto shelves, with shoeless men pulling them out haphazardly and flicking them onto the floor with flourish, where their female clients are sitting. It's such a colorful sight! We must have passed more than 2 dozen of these scenes on this one street alone! It was quite intimidating to attempt at getting something for ourselves. When we did finally walk in, they asked for our measurements. Uhhhh...we had no idea.

We found our way to the fruit and veggie market next by pure willpower. This too was colorful. Different again from any other produce market we'd been to, here the vendors were all seated on the ground with their wares laid out in baskets in front of them, and people pushed their way through the narrow gaps to try to find the freshest food. The women shopping and selling were wearing their best, moat colorful saris, which complemented the deep purple of the eggplants and the bright red of the tomato well.

After we had seen our fill of fruits and veggies (wishing it was safe to buy them), we started heading back toward our part of town. We weren't exactly sure where we were, but it didn't matter because we of course got distracted by another shop where Alicia did in fact buy herself a traditional outfit. And it's fantastic. By the time we were done bargaining, of course, we had to take a rickshaw back to be on time for our 6:00 Indian cooking lesson!

Our instructor, named Shashi, is awesome. She is a progressive Indian woman, doing her own small part to rebel against the caste system that, even at the top, works to oppress women and keep them confined to the home. Her story of how she started the cooking and learned english was inspiring. Not only is she interesting, but wow can she cook! We learned to make naan, chapati, vegetable masala, chai masala, pokara (fried veggie snack food)...and a variety of other dishes, all within 3 or so hours. We left her home stuffed, happy, and decked out with bindis on our foreheads and bells on our wrists. Now we're looking and cooking like real Indian women!
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Day 68: November 11: Breath of (relatively) fresh air.

2008-11-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

The alarms went off at 5:30 this morning, and we arose from our uncomfortable berths wondering if the train would actually stop at the appointed time of 6:10. Of course, it was running 2 hours late, but when we asked the first time, they told us we'd arrive at 7. Alicia was able to doze a short while longer before packing up, but Karla was too uncomfortable (and takes longer to pack).

We took a rickshaw to our guesthouse, and while we were waiting for people to check out at 10, we had a lovely breakfast on the rooftop. The guesthouse is laid out like a traditional haveli (Indian home), and has a beautiful decor and a family-run feel, which is a refreshing change! When we got our room, we dropped our stuff off, listened to the patron's schpeil about what there is to do in Udaipur, then set off to find the City Palace. We both felt like the train ride was just a nightmare.

We love this city. First of all, we can breathe again (well Karla's cold makes it harder so maybe only one of us can) - unlike Agra and Delhi, there is not a huge cloud of smog lingering over us at all time. Second, the streets are a lot cleaner and it's not as smelly. Third, we're harassed by vendors and rickshaw drivers much less frequently here (flash back to Luxor which was absolutely terrible in this regard). Last, it's beautiful. The city is situated on a lake (which has seen cleaner and less green days), and the houses and shops are painted in pastels. It's actually a pleasant place to be!

We found the City Palace and we decided to go into the museum. The museum essentially was the palace, and it showcased the ornate, and at times extravagant, decorations of the maharanas who lived there. The vast majority of the rooms were painted bright colors or were frescoed, and there was a fair amount of stained glass. It was really beautiful. Although definitely over-the-top.

We were both ravenous after walking through what seemed like a never-ending palace, so we went to lunch on another rooftop (don't tell our guesthouse! It would be jealous), where we watched women passing in their brightly-colored saris, along with the traffic of rickshaws, motorcycles, stray dogs, cows, and yes, even an elephant. It was a spectacle!

By the time lunch was over, it was close to 4:00 and we headed toward the Jagdish Temple, which is dedicated to Vishnu as Jagannath, Lord of the Universe. The exterior was beautifully carved with hundreds of little statues, and we walked around the whole exterior admiring the craftsmanship. We also admired a new kind of monkey that was hanging around the temple. These ones have funny eyebrows and look like old men when they sit and stare at you hunched over.

We really meant to make it to the Bagore-Ki-Haveli to explore before the cultural show, but we got distracted looking at shops that sold blank books covered in traditional materials because Karla had the brilliant idea of buying photo-album-type books to each make an album of our trip. Of course we then had to try to explain to the vendors that we loved the hand-made paper, but that we just wanted to buy the covers because the paper was too heavy...we both ended up finding ones we liked, although Alicia saw the fabric that she wanted in the corner of the room and commissioned the exact cover that she wanted. We'll pick it up tomorrow. Now we just have to get them home in one piece...and of course keep taking pictures to fill them up. But that's never been a problem.

We finally made it to the Haveli, but unfortunately the museum part closed an hour before we arrived, so we bought our cultural show tickets, and kept wandering the streets. But in a safe way. Karla actually bought some hilarious pants (look at us on our shopping spree!), then we went back to the Haveli.

The cultural show consisted mostly of folk dances from Rajasthan, although there was one puppet act thrown into the mix (this included a puppet who's trick was to throw his head around). The first and last dances were by far the most impressive; the first dance was performed by a young woman who shook what her mama gave her with fire in a pot on her head. The last act was a 60-ish woman who danced with 10 pots on her head! She really brought the house down (all 50 of us. Small venue).

Karla and I trotted home for dinner, which we ate on the roof again...who would have thought that it's only possible to eat on roofs in Rajasthan? We had every intention of getting to bed early tonight, but here it is, after 11 and we're still fussing about. Maybe we'll sleep in tomorrow.
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Day 67: November 10. 'The fog is so blinding!'

2008-11-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning before the sun rose, and scurried around to get to the Taj Mahal for the sunrise. We arrived around 6:10 and there was already quite a queue! Unfortunately, they didn't open the gates until around 6:45, and then they started screening everyone before allowing them to enter, so we didn't get in until nearly 7.

Unfortunately, it was a very foggy (or maybe smoggy?) day. You could barely see the Taj from the entrance gate. However, the sm/fog added a level of mystique to the building. After all, we figured, anyone can see the Taj Mahal on a crystal clear day. We saw something unique! Although it WAS unfortunate that we got up so darn early to see the sunrise reflected off the white marble. A good imagination can only get you but so far.

The Taj Mahal was built in the 1600's by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, who died while bearing their 14th child. Nowhere was it mentioned whether the child lived! As we stood admiring the huge edifice, more fog (if you can believe it) began to roll in from the river, until Karla and I couldn't see each other from 50 feet away! It was a cool experience. Especially since the fog was moving so quickly.

Admiring the Taj one more time, we walked back to our hotel for breakfast. We were hoping beyond hope that we would be able to see it from the roof, but of course we couldn't. Oh well.

Next we hired a rickshaw for about 6 hours, and took off to the Agra fort. The fort seems to have been a city within a city, and as many different rulers built their palaces here, there were many different architectural styles. The most interesting tidbit of info that we picked up was that Shah Jahan (you might remember him from the Taj Mahal) was actually overthrown by his son, and was imprisoned in the Agra fort for 8 years before his death. He is rumored to have spent his time there in his beautiful white marble octoganal porch overlooking his creation and his wife's final resting place (and his future resting place). Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned fog, we were not able to do the same. Blast!

Next on our list was the Itimad-Ud-Daulah, affectionately nick-named the Baby Taj. En route, our driver pulled out his little book that he has signed by happy customers, and we stumbled across one that said 'nice guy! Be cognizant of circuitous preambulations!' We found this hilarious (and wondered if the writer had gone to Wes), until we realized that we ourselves had been taken the REALLY long way to see the Baby Taj. Luckily we had pre-arranged a price and weren't going by the meter! He must have thought we'd like getting that much more exhaust in our lungs and he of course knew by looking at us that sitting in traffic was just our thing. Through clenched teeth we kindly asked him to be more direct in the future.

The Baby Taj was also right along the river, and by this time it was starting to clear up a bit, so we had a view! We saw tons of cows lounging on an island in the center of the river, which we thought was odd as there didn't seem to be much to eat, but prefer it to them in the middle of the city streets, holding up traffic. We enjoyed walking around and through the Baby Taj which was even more ornate than the big guy, then found our driver.

At this point, he took us to his 'nephew's shop', and looked a bit ticked when we didn't purchase any extravagantly priced textiles, but we carried on to lunch despite his mood. He then agreed to give us 30 minutes to look around the market, then drove us back to the hotel.

We decided to wander around the Taj Ganj area where our hotel was for a while, before going back down to the river to see the back view of the Taj Mahal again. It was fairly clear by now which was pleasant, and we enjoyed watching the monkeys eat bananas, the cows eat trash, and the dogs play.

We walked back to the hotel for a cup of chai and to say goodbye to the Taj before grabbing our stuff and a rickshaw and heading to the train station. Even though the platform was unmarked, we found our way to the right car (somehow!) and settled in. We were under the impression that dinner was served on the train (especially after they told us it was coming), but were mistaken, and the very nice middle-aged Indian couple we were sitting and chatting with offered us some Indian sweets left over from the wedding they were coming from to tide us over before bed. They were scrumptious! They even wrote down their names to make sure we could buy them.

Although the night was less-than-comfortable (we obeyed the guide book which said to take the top berth and sleep with your things!), due to the amount of crap that we were sharing our already-small beds with, and the fact that the A/C was blasting into our faces (Karla was wearing a hat and her heavy coat and Alicia had her scarf around her face) and the fact that we didn't know exactly when to get off the train, our first sleeper in India was an ok(at first) to terrible(while sleeping) experience. It didn't help that Alicia wasn't feeling well and Karla's cold was at its worst. And now we know what to expect of the rest of our time here in terms of trains! We think a bus might be the answer.
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Day 66: Nov 9th: Train of Events

2008-11-15T01:48:00.000-08:00

This morning we had breakfast at Sam's Cafe again, less because it was excellent, and more because it was close and a safe bet. Then we checked out of our hotel and walked to the train station.

We looked for our train on the board, and seeing one that said Agra City, we headed toward that platform. However, when we got there, we realized that the train number on our ticket didn't match the one on the board. So, weaving in and out of Indians with suitcases on their heads and children trailing close behind, we headed back downstairs to the main departure screen, and asked the guard. He told us a different track number. However, when we arrived at this new track, someone told us an entirely different story! When we got to this new track, we immediately approached these two women, asking if we were in the right place. It always seems like a better bet to approach women. Although they aren't as likely to speak English, they also aren't as likely to be scam artists, and will point you to someone who can help.

Anyway, it turns out that we were finally on the right track (literally!), so we headed towards our car number, stopping to help a lost Korean tourist going the same way.

Waiting for the train was much less pleasant than the train ride itself. The platform was crowded with families that looked like they never actually went anywhere, and the tracks were littered with human waste. The whole area, indeed the whole city, was covered in a smog so thick that it obscured the face of someone standing 100 meters away. But we would soon learn that it doesn't get too much better in the country-side!

The train ride was actually more pleasant than either of us had imagined. We were riding second class, but had assigned seats, which made the boarding process much less stressful. Although, while there were only supposed to be three to a bench, a fourth, then fifth person squeezed their way onto our bench. At least we could store our bags overhead, right where we could see them! We had opted to not buy the chains they were selling before you boarded.

When we arrived in Agra, we took an auto rickshaw to our hotel, listening to our driver pitch his full-day services. We checked in, then went up to the rooftop restaurant for linner, as by this time it was nearly 4! When we got to the top, we had a breathtaking view of the Taj Mahal. It's beautiful. We sat eating, looking at the view, and watching the monkeys leap across buildings and in and out of trees (and sometimes trying on peoples clean laundry).

After linner, we walked around the city a bit, making sure to arrive back at our hotel just before dark. We walked to the backside of the Taj, which faces the river, then headed back, walking right behind this cute family, and watching the monkeys play as we went. At one point we stopped to take a picture of the mini people (aka monkeys) and these three old men passing us told us worriedly and in a heightened voice, "don't touch..they bite!" We laughed and said we wouldn't. They were the cutest old men ever.

Back at the ranch, we settled in for an evening of catching up on blogs and attempting to view the Taj in the moonlight. Unfortunately, it was hidden by the smog. We did, however, see the tail end of a wedding parade and festivities, which was cool.
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Day 65: November 8. A Whole New World...

2008-11-15T01:46:00.001-08:00

We arrived in Delhi at 3:45 am. We wandered around airport, collecting our luggage and trying to figure out where we were going. The lock on Alicias bag was open probably from a security check and so Karla made her look through it for stashed drugs. You just can't be too sure. After telling her some horror stories about stashed drugs in boogie boards in Indonesia, she made a thorough search. We couldn't get our phones to work, so we found a pay phone, and called a hotel. Luckily they had room.

Heeding the warning about taxi scams over the loudspeaker, we hired a cab from the pre-pay booth in the airport, and arrived safely at our hotel. The time was 6:30 am. We passed out til noon.

When we awoke, we tried to plan out our stay in India. We got as far as planning the next 4 days. This is real progress for us!

Next, we went to the train station to get tickets for tomorrow. We almost fell victim to a tout, who tried to convince us that the ticket office was across from the train station, but remembering what we read in the book and what the man at our hotel had said, we walked into the train station one more time to find the right office. Phew! We booked tickets to Agra and Udaipur, then walked back toward our hotel.

On the way, we got distracted by the little shops selling all sorts of textiles. Karla bought a lamp-shade and pants, and Alicia bought herself a scarf. Not that she'll need it here...but its beautiful and cheap and awesome....

Next we went to dinner at a little touristy cafe called Sam's. We tried to be more adventurous, but we couldn't find the restaurant that we were aiming for. Oh well. We had a bit of a scare anyway because we ordered mango lassis after asking the waiter whether there was water in them. He (and another waiter) assured us that there was no water, but when we got them, we saw ice (after we started drinking!) But he again assured us that the ice was boiled water. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Karla was about to start taking antibiotics right away just to avoid being sick one more time. But turned out just fine.

Next on our list was a movie. We were already late, so we hired a bicycle rickshaw for about $0.50, and made our way to the theater. Getting in was quite a process - Alicia got frisked (by a female police woman), and Karla got all her snacks taken away after the most thorough bag-search either of us had ever seen. Both of our worst nightmares.

The movie was hilarious. We had intended to go to a traditional Bollywood film, but the names of the actors was all we had to go on, so we ended up seeing a modern Hindi comedy called 'Golmaal Returns'. It was super-dramatic and hilarious to try to follow along. And it was loong! There was even an intermission! We had fun, although we still want to see a Bollywood musical! At least there was an amazing group dance scene.

What an interesting first day in India...
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Day 64: November 7. On the Road Again.

2008-11-15T01:46:00.000-08:00

We woke up at 3:45 this morning to catch our 4:30 taxi to the airport. We stopped along the way to pick up our fellow traveler, Guy, with whom we were sharing a cab.

When we were dropped off at the Kilimanjaro airport, they weren't checking people into our flight yet, but we got the lady to look us up, just to make sure that we were in fact bumped to this Precision Air flight after our Air Tanzania flight was canceled. Not only were we not on the flight, but our names weren't even in the system for the waiting list! The woman at the counter patronizingly told us that our tickets were for Air Tanzania, so we were at the wrong counter and there was nothing she could do for us. Although it was not yet 6 am, we called our travel agent, Irene, to see if she could do anything for us by talking to this Precision Air rep in Swahili. All she got out of her was that we were now first on the waiting list for seats because we were the first people to arrive for that flight (thank goodness we got up so early!! (Although it appeared that only we were in this predicament)), but that we had to wait for Air Tanzania reps to get there to transfer the tickets for us. Oh the suspense!

After what felt like a very long wait, the Air Tanzania reps arrived, transferred our tickets, and advocated for us, and by some miracle, there were three seats on that plane, so we left at 7:30 for Dar!

Once there, it felt like noon but it was only 8:30 am. We left our luggage and got in touch with Hellen, who came shortly thereafter to pick us up, with Stephan in tow. It was such a happy reunion! We had missed her!

She took us back to Njia Health Center, where she proudly showed off the tiling that had been laid down in our absence, and we checked one last time for malaria (still clean!!) before heading into town for lunch. We are starting to like the finger prick...

We had a very pleasant lunch at the City Garden, before Hellen took us back to the airport. We got to talk to Apo and George from the village on the phone, which was really fun. They had taken such good care of us! Then we had to leave Hellen. It was a sad goodbye. We were also disappointed that we didn't get to say goodbye to Eric, who couldn't get out of work. Oh well. Karla doesn't like goodbyes anyway.

We boarded the plane to Qatar, and were seated next to Guy, which was fun. We had a pleasant flight, then landed in Qatar for 2 hours. We had a quick dinner at a fast food place and tried out perfumes at the duty-free shop before boarding the plane for Delhi and passing out. If only Alicia had put on more perfume, Karla wouldn't have had her first case of air sickness.
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Day 63: November 6: Lake Minyara

2008-11-15T01:45:00.000-08:00

Day three of the safari. We again awoke early, but this time we had to pack up before we set out and that took longer. Breakfast was good, with eggs, toast, fruit and all sorts of beverage selections. After stopping at Twiga camp on the way to the lake to drop the gear and our cook, we arrived at the gate of Lake Minyara National Park and waited quite a while for Emanuel to get his credit card to work. By the time we got inside the park it was 9:30. Luckily we saw some elephants really up close right away. Soon after that, Emanuel saw simba tracks in the sand and by some grand stroke of luck, we saw a few lionesses with their cubs (so adorable!!!!) in the bush.

We continued to see hippos, baboons, flamingos, twigas, and zebras in great abundance but still no leopards. Graham was especially disappointed but we all knew it would have taken a miracle.

When it was time to go, we headed back to Twiga Camp to pick up Mike the cook and to drive back to Arusha. When we arrived at the office, there were two other people who had just hiked Mt. Meru. The guy, whose name was Guy, was trying to settle his flights. We felt bad that his flight was canceled until we realized that it was our flight as well!!! We were angry that the airline hadn't called when it happened so that we could have booked with another company. Now that everything was closed as it was after 5pm, we had to call around. The only other flight going to Dar in the morning was full! We thought about the options, but in the end driving seemed the only solution until the travel agent called the other company and asked if we had been bumped automatically onto the full flight. And we had been! Hooray! Those insane frantic 45 stressful minutes were for nothing. Except that we still had to get there real early to make sure we had first priority, whatever that was supposed to mean. Getting up at 3:30 seemed daunting but we were relieved to be able to catch our flight out of Dar at 2:30 pm the next day. We always have problems leaving a country!

Back at the ranch, we busied ourselves getting ready for dinner and packing for the next morning. We were surprised but not surprised that Suzanne and Jan had organized a dinner party. It was lovely as usual although we didn't get to try out the dance mix that they had prepared for after dinner. It was late and we had a lot to do.

Goodbyes were sad, but we are kind of getting used to them. We know that we can always get in touch if we want to. Saying goodbye to Graham was much harder for Karla as she probably won't see him for another eight months to a year. He's off to Taiwan to teach English. Very exciting!
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Day 62: November 5. The Circle of Life

2008-11-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

Day two of the safari started off early! (But only because we wanted it so). We knew we had relatively little time in the crater and that the animals are out much more before the heat of the day. We drove the good hour down into the belly of the crater and arrived at 730am.

On our way into Ngorongoro, Alicia's sister Joce texted on our Tanzanian phone that Obama won! Alicia let out a whoop and we all cheered. It even made Karla feel better (descending was also helping). We happened to pass by some Americans that we had chatted with at breakfast time and shared the good news by shouting it to them as we drove by. They were super excited as well. We told Emanuel to say something over the radio so that everyone else would know. The rest of the day we occasionally heard his name mentioned. Tanzania was very happy.

Today was a great day for seeing a lot of different animals. We were most pleased to see simbas, jackels, hyenas, vultures and hippos up close and personal. Of course there were the usual waterbuffalo, zebras, wildabeasts, ostriches, and antelopes and gazelles around...

The main highlights of the day were:
•Around 9:30, Emanuel stealthily took us to a drying river around which there were herds of animals and safari vehicles gathered. Clearly there was something exciting going on. Just as we were pulling up we saw a lioness in the distance prowling the area. Then, another, and then a young lion! And a grown lion with his alpha female! And another male by the river! It was then that Emanuel pointed out the water buffalo carcass in the distance. Apparently the pride had recently killed it but had lost control of it when the waterbuffalo herd had chased them away. Every time they approached, the herd went after them. Eventually they walked back to the river to wait. It was extra cool because they had to cross the road where the cars were to get there. Some of them would stop and check out the cars while others would lay in their shade. Clearly they were used to seeing cars. The unfortunate (fortunate for us and for our observing purposes) thing was that while the herd chased the lions away, the jackels, hyenas, and vultures moved in on the kill.
•During these two hours we also got to see a giant group of hippos lounging about. It was especially fun to see the baby hippos and the adults when they yawned. They are so big (and cute)!
•Having to stop the car to pee etc. and hope that there weren't any predators around.
•Looking for leopards and rhinos and not seeing any (not a good highlight but important because we spent a good two hours looking).

We were sad it was over when we headed back to the camp on the rim for lunch. It was a delicious lunch, and were pleased.

The next step was to drive to camp Keratu to set up our tents. We got there rather early and so went to the bar that caters to tourists and watched the news on TV, hoping to get more details on the election. We saw Obama's victory speech(amazing), part of McCain's not victory speech (the funniest), and Bush's congratulations speech (also funny).

Dinner was great and relaxing as usual. We were told after dinner that there was "traditional" african dancing and music in a nearby courtyard. The dancing was quite impressive and covered a variety of African styles, but their outfits were a little, shall we say, stereotypical. They looked like the flintones. It must have been for the tourists because we've never seen Africans dress in that traditional style before...

Back to the tents we went. It was a good sleep except that in the middle of the night Alicia was convinced that there was a lion in the bathroom and so refused to go. Hahaha...
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Day 61: November 4. Day 1 of Safari, Tarengire

2008-11-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

We were collected this morning at 7:30 by our safari guide, Emanuel, to start our safari in Tarangire National Park.

Yesterday, before we bought the tickets at the office, they took us in our safari car to the bank. We had all piled in and sat waiting for the car to start. When it didn't, the two of us let out a big groan- not again!!! No way. They said it was the battery and took us in another car.

Today, while we were walking out to the car, we saw it being pushed and started as it was manual. We were angry/worried/thought it was not possible. Apparently they hadn't fixed it. Once on the road to go to the office to collect gear etc, Emanuel told us that they would change the battery when we got to the park. Luckily they had a battery and five guys ready to fix it waiting for us when we arrived at the office. It was dodgey for a bit but they got it working fine and dandy. Phew.

It took a few hours to drive there and we all took turns dozing and talking excitedly. We were all trying to recover from a light bout of nausea we had all woken up with. Suzanne had too and thought that maybe something we had eaten wasn't good. Luckily by the time we arrived at the park we were all doing much better.

The park was amazing. The neat thing about Tarengire is that there were plains, rolling hills, trees, rivers, and every thing in between. There wasn't a lake and there weren't any big mountains, but there were many many wildabeast and zebra. Twiga (giraffe), elephants, all kinds of funny looking birds, including an ostrich, many gazelles, buffalo, monkeys galore, and even a lioness in the distance thanks to our guide. Emanuel had superb eyes. His trick is when he sees something or knows something, he'll stop the car and look through his binoculars and wait to say anything until he's sure as to not get our hopes up.

Graham had brought binoculars and good thing he did because we used them a lot. Especially when we were watching two elephant families take their turns mud bathing in the same hole. We had a great lunch break overlooking the park. The fence in front of us with monkeys everywhere trying to steal people's food made it seem like a zoo. We were still getting used to the idea of being out in the wild...

One thing that was great was that mosquitos weren't an issue. Unfortunately the tsetse flies were out to get us. And they can carry sleeping sickness (who knows what that is...)!!! And on top of that, they hurt when they bite! Ouch.

In the early afternoon, much to our regret, we drove out of the park to camp on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. As we climbed up and up, Karla got sicker. Maybe it was the altitude combined with who knows what else. She had a rough night and following morning, which greatly contributed to her grumpy mood.

Setting up the tents was easy and fun and they were roomy. They looked like they were built to last because they had; since the forties.

Dinner was pleasantly spectacular. Starting off with a bowl of popcorn was a fabulous idea. There was beef, rice, soup, and vegetables. MMMM. Dessert was fresh fruit and hot chocolate.

Bed came soon after as we were all tired and gathering our strength for the next morning. We went to bed anxious about the results of the election. We would know at 7am our time the next morning.
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Day 60. November 3: Taking Care of Business

2008-11-14T05:16:00.000-08:00

After breakfast this morning (again with fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, and home-made bread!), we spoke to a safari operator who was sent straight to our door by Jan. His name was Abu, and while he came highly recommended in terms of knowledge about the animals, he was sub-par from a business standpoint. He seemed unsure of what to charge us, and finally said that we should 'drop by' his office, 4 km from there. We said we'd think about it.

We all got ready, then walked into town. Karla and I tried to figure out flights from Arusha to Dar for Friday (when we're flying out), while the boys talked to more safari companies. Karla and I settled on taking an Air Tanzania flight, but halfway through the transaction, we realized that Air Tanzania only takes cash. Jeez! So we had to walk about 5 min away to find an ATM that deals with more than just Visa, then stood in line for about 7 min to use the machine. But when it was our turn, the ATM didn't work, so we had to go across the street and wait on an even longer line (about 30 min) to use that machine. Luckily it worked!

We found the boys on our way back to Air Tanzania and they told us to wait to buy our tickets, because they found a safari operator that was also a travel agent and could get us a discount. (Don't worry, the operator was recommended by our guide book as a legitimate business!) We ended up being able to plan out our ideal safari with them and negotiate a price below what we'd been quoted before. We were sold! We were scheduled to leave the next morning at 7.

The company took us in one of their safari cars to the bank, then to the airline company to buy our tickets. Our important items of business taken care of, we parted ways with the boys again, this time to do some khanga-shopping. We realized very quickly, however, that our two items of business (khanga-shopping and going to the hospital) were in exact opposite directions, and that we were likely to miss the doctor if we waited much longer. So we headed toward home, arriving at the hospital in the nick of time to see the doctor to make sure we were 100% healthy, and to get a note from him to justify our flight change to the insurance company. Phew.

We walked back toward town, and this time were receptive to a young man who approached us, asking if we wanted to see his fabric shop. It was a bit of a hike, but it we both ended up finding almost exactly what we were looking for, and left happy.

Back at home, we freshened up and helped with dinner. Jan had of course prepared yet another extravagant meal, which we enjoyed with one guest who might be a contact for Graham and Chris to start volunteering. When the guest left, we were all in a jovial mood and danced for a while before packing for the safari and heading off to bed.
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Day 59: November 2. Baaaaah Savenyah...

2008-11-14T05:11:00.000-08:00

Today we slept in a bit. The safari yesterday must have taken more out of us than we thought. It was well worth it though. After a brunch of pancakes/crepes, bacon, fresh fruit and banana bread, we set out into town to use the internet machine. We have a few decisions ahead of us. As it looks right now, we are going to cancel our flight from Dar on Monday so we can keep recovering from malaria and take a safari before leaving from Kilimanjaro airport on Friday or Saturday. We will probably still fly into Delhi despite the recent terrorist attack to the east of Darjeeling in the northeast.

After using the internet, we went back to Shidolya safaris to talk about taking a 3-day one again. We got him to a price we liked, then told him we'd be back the next day to finalize and pay him. Which we had every intention of doing until we got home and talked to the people at the dinner party, who persuaded us to compare with more companies, as Shidolya wasn't the best.

The dinner party was really fun - the people in Suzanne's social circle are really interesting! We got more safari advice, and talked to a judge who was making a documentary about the Rwanda Tribunals, a U.S. social worker, a bioenergy engineer from Israel, and some people who worked on the tribunal. It was a great party!

Although we were tired when the party guests left, we had a hankering to watch 'The Lion King', seeing as there are so many Swahil words and names in it (and to get us in the mood for a safari!) so we had a screening before bedtime. Of course Suzanne couldn't help but make fun of us. Asante sana squashed banana...
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Day 58: November 1. Twiga what?

2008-11-14T04:28:00.000-08:00

After breakfast this morning, we scrambled around to get ready to go to Arusha National Park. We had to get out of the door in a timely manner because Suzanne was going to a conference practically next door to the park.

After dropping Suzanne off at her conference, Graham experimented with driving on the wrong side of the road, and got us safely to the park! Practically upon entering, we saw giraffes (twiga in Kiswahili) and zebras grazing in the distance. Knowing that we were about to take a walking safari through the park, we left the animals to graze.

If the walking safari had been marketed as a guided hike, we would have all felt better about it. Although Chris was excited to be getting some exercise, it was perhaps a tad on the strenuous side for those of us still recovering from malaria. At least Amari was a really good sport.

Anyway, the only animals we got up-close and personal with on our walk were the water buffalo (can kill lions if provoked) and the warthogs. To be fair, we really were comforted by the ranger with a gun when we were close to the water buffalo! The other thing worth mentioning on the walk was a beautiful waterfall.

After our little hike, we ate lunch before venturing off on our own (with the car). This was much cooler! First of all, we went the wrong way out of the parking lot, and just as we were about to turn around, we spotted more twigas literally right next to the road. We were so excited!

Once we found our way, we saw a whole little community of animals, including warthogs, twigas, water buffalo, zebras, and water bucks. We got out of the car (but not too close!) and noticed that they were just as interested in us as we were in them! A mari did a cart wheel at some point and sent the zebras running. They are beautiful.

Next we headed toward the lakes. There we saw flamingos and hippos! On our way to the crater, and then out of the park, we saw 3 kinds of monkeys - colobus monkeys, baboons, and one unidentified species - and guinea fowl, as well as many more twigas just chillin by the side of the road. It was so majestic!

We headed out of the park, picking up Suzanne along the way, and going home for a short time before heading back out to the Colobus Club (again with Amari) to see a Russian guitarist play. In reality, although the guitarist was quite talented, it was overzealous of us to go after a loong day of safari-ing. We didn't even make it through the first third of the performance before we all started falling asleep. Luckily it was Amari's bedtime, so we all had an excuse to go home. Sometimes it pays to hang out with a 12-year-old!
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Day 57: October 31. Dalla-dalla bills y'all

2008-11-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

Once again, again, breakfast was a very welcome site. We might start getting used to this and never want to leave! Luckily, the two of us usually feel uncomfortably restless when we start feeling too comfortable.

Shortly after the cozy meal we got ready for the day. Today we were going to meet up with Mathew, aTanzanian lad about our age who was recommended to us by Jan. He was going to take us to a beautiful lake outside of town (close but far enough to get really lost without him). We followed him to where we took a Dalla-dalla to Tangeru. It was Graham and Chris's first local bus ride in Africa. It was packed and Graham had to half stand half the way. Despite being much less discrete when traveling in a group, I feel like the local Arushans are much more accustomed to having white people around and even tried to catch the American football that Graham threw at them. Throwing it back always turned out interesting. So we slowly made our way towards the lake, paid an entry fee which we of course had to bargain down, and started walking.

The lake was beautiful and we had a great view of Mt. Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania. I believe it was then that Chris committed himself and Graham to climbing it before they leave in December. Soon after, we saw a monitor lizard slide into the lake and disappear. Then we passed by some white people catching spiders for research. When we asked them if they'd had any luck they grumbled a yes and carried on ruffling through the leaves. Must be rough for them. A little further down the path Mathew was leading and Karla was behind him. Mathew heard a rustling, paused, and let a rather large and deadly green mamba slither by. After holding our breathe a little waiting for more animals, we stumbled upon a bar that served flat Coke and ginger Stoneys. Soon we got hungary for real and headed back to Suzannes for lunch after a moment of, "maybe we can try this tiny restaurant...ok maybe not, it doesn't look safe.". We ended up walking to town to have a cheap but yummy meal with Mathew near where the dalla-dalla dropped us. When we got back to the house, Amari was there to greet us. It was a Friday and he had just come home from being at boarding school for the week. He's 12 and in the process of being adopted by Suzanne. He is fluent in English and Kiswahili and is a great little translator

It was Halloween night and Suzanne was going out for a party and we were unfortunately too tired to join her. Instead we had leftovers and watched 'My Best Friend's Wedding .' It was nice to relax on a comfy couch!
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Day 56: October 30. Market

2008-11-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today we got off to a slow start again. We woke up and ate breakfast before lounging around for a little while and going right back to sleep! It was the perfect way to do the 'bedrest' ordered by the doctor.

When we got up for real, we decided that, since it was market day, we should go! Luckily we stayed away from goats this time. It took a few tries to find it. No one really knew what we were talking about when we asked where the market was, which is hard to believe because it was quite big! It was packed with everything from kitchen-ware stores to fabric stores to fruit and veg stands and of course, butchers. It was Graham and Chris' first market and third/fourth day in Africa but they didn't seem fazed. We were delighted to walk through and realize that no market is quite the same as the next. We were in search of khangas- we were addicted to finding the right ones. Yet, we all grew hungry and weary before long and headed to grab a bite at the local Muzungu eatery. We met Suzanne there at Via Via (which we later found out was designed by Jan!) before she hurried back to the UN building where she has worked with the Rwanda Tribunals for nine years.

We started our walked home to relax and shower while Chris stayed behind to use the internet. We stopped in to check on flights to Dar es Salaam briefly on the way.

When we got back Suzanne asked if we wanted to go a movie with her. We said yes before we knew what it was. It turns out that it was about Jonestown. It was quite the experience. Some of us knew less about it than others and we all came out of the movie feeling either sad or depressed, but it was overall very informative. Suzanne offered to take us to dinner after and so we drove just a little further down the street to Stiggy's. Here we had very interesting and emotional conversations. The night ended with a few tiffs but in the end we all learned a lot from each other and about each other. We were definitely tired out from the long day.
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Day 55: October 29. Arusha

2008-11-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

We woke up rather early considering the previous day's excitement. We walked into the kitchen to find a delicious assortment of fresh fruit awaiting us. Most, if not all, came right from the garden. Coffee and homemade bread made it the perfect breakfast. After the village breakfasts, we were ready for anything. After breakfast, we opted for more dozing and relaxing. Suzanne's house was perfect for this. It was full of fun colors and comfy pillows. And there were a ton of interesting books to browse through.

Around one, we thought it would be good to look into some short safaris as we would be leaving on Sunday (as far as we knew at the time). It wasn't long before the two of us felt very tired and weak and so we abandoned our short safari search and made our way to the Arusha hospital to be tested one more time just in case. We were negative for malaria, but as we were waiting for results, Chris and Graham had struck up a conversation with the doctor that lead to finding out that we hadn't taken the proper medication in the correct order. Apparently, what we took, Malafin, was only used as a supplement to the normal four day medication, Cotecxin. He strongly suggested we take it immediately before we became resistant to it. Without question we of course got it.

We were both happy to get the right treatment but unhappy that we had to take more meds and get more rest. Resting is hard when the world is layed out before you.

We walked home for a late lunch of the delicious soup that Jan had made the night before (carrot ginger). It was a tough time for the two of us. I was just then realizing how delirious I had been at the hospital in the village and we were both exhausted. This was discouraging because we really wanted to go on the safari, but couldn't because of the medicine.

When Suzanne came home from work, she walked with us to show us the hotel nearby with a swimming pool in case we wanted to go there one day to relax (and a gym for the boys). Next we walked to the grocery store right across the street from the house to get some cereal and potato chips.

Dinner was a little quieter as Suzanne and Jan went out. It was the only night that Jan wasn't around to make his usual masterpiece. He is a true chef. We topped off the day with yet another relaxing activity- a movie! It was the first for us in a loong time. Of course 'My Best Friends Wedding' was the perfect solution.
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Today! November 9

2008-11-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating in a while. We didn't have data connection for the last couple of weeks in Tanzania, and we were just plain lazy about writing them because of our illness slash distraction. We're working on it, and we'll be fully up-to-date in a couple of days. Promise!

Love,
Us

PS - don't worry...we're healthy again!
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Day 54: October 28. You say goodbye and I say hello

2008-11-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Today we were released from the hospital. Graham and his friend Chris came to be our knights in shining armor and picked us up from the hospital to take us back to Arusha. Alicia finally stopped feeling as dizzy and Karla made a miraculous recovery.

We went home to Ubetu and packed our things, saying goodbye to all our friends who had quickly become like family. We were really sad to leave! Poor Graham and Chris were exhausted from the drive and couldn't understand why we weren't rushing to get back to Arusha. In our sick state, we hadn't had time to pack! Thankfully, they were patient and grew to love the place even during their short two hour stay.

We began the long long drive to Arusha around three in the afternoon. As the car was small, it couldn't handle the short cuts Hellen suggested. They were just far too bumpy. Leaving, we saw Kilimanjaro from new perspective.

We arrived at Suzanne's house - Graham's aunt- in Arusha and settled into the bungalow that Chris and Graham had already moved into. Soon, we were walking into the big house to meet Suzanne and Jan, her Belgian friend. They had prepared a lovely dinner for us, and we chatted away. After dinner Jan, knowing the way to our hearts, made us some scrumptious lemon-ginger tea, and we went to bed.
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Day 53: October 27. Malaria part II

2008-11-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

The day got off to a rough start. Karla and Alicia both woke up feeling ill. We found out that the car was beyond repair, and Hellen became very upset about all the things that were going wrong.

At least the lab techs were at the hospital bright and early today, so Alicia and Kar got tested for malaria - Alicia's came out clean (hooray! The drug worked! Bed rest for 4 days then she'll feel better!), but unfortunately Karla has malaria too. At least she doesn't have it as badly as Alicia, although her symptoms were much more violent.

It was a day of rest and recuperating, punctuated by Karla being confined to bed, a couple of IV's and Alicia taking her first weak steps toward recovery. Karla became delirious in her weak state and made all the staff as well as Hellen, upset. It was a cause for a lot of emotional pain for everyone until it was told that Karla didn't actually remember any of it. The rest of the day was thankfully more quiet as Karla slept for the first time. That night she was forced to eat as she finished her second IV. Poor Hellen gave up her bed and spent the cold night on a mattress on the floor. She's a saint!
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Day 52: October 26. Malaria

2008-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Alicia woke up in the hospital this morning, and Karla woke up in Ubetu, each acutely lonely for the other. Who would have thought?

Karla took a short walk around the plot after some tea and a bite of PB&J (making sure not to get lost) to shake the nausea out of her body. After gathering some things and laying down for a bit, she was suddenly dragged to possibly church, possibly the hospital. The boys didn't even know. We ended up stopping through both. By the time we had made it there we had about fifteen people walking behind us, curious as to why there was a Muzungu in their village. What a spectacle I made! The church was beautiful. Everyone was dressed up and singing loud and proud. We didn't actually get to go in as it was full, but it was fun as it was.

Alicia finally got tested around 10am, after her 2nd IV, and Hellen's suspicions were confirmed: it was in fact malaria. Alicia spent the day dozing and trying to feel better, while Hellen scurried around, telling people to bring supplies, and setting up a 'kitchen' in the hospital room to pump Alicia full of nutrients. (The best part of malaria is that you have to keep eating and eating!)

Karla walked down to visit with the boys for a little while before walking home and doing laundry by hand in buckets with Apo and Eric. She didn't know what was in store for her later.

Around dinner time, Felicissme brought a chicken with its head freshly cut off into the hospital room and began plucking it over a basin to catch the blood while Alicia watched from her bed. She giggled all the while, and poor Felicissme thought Alicia was laughing at him because he didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the situation. It didn't help that she only speaks English and he only speaks Swahili!

Plagued by their loneliness of the night before, Karla hopped on a motorcycle back to the hospital with her overnight things, and slept in the hospital bed with Alicia. Unfortunately, Karla too became violently ill... It didn't help that the bed was far too small. She spent practically the whole night making trips to the bathroom. By morning she felt drained and very weak.
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Day 51: October 25. They killed the goat for us.

2008-11-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

For breakfast this morning, we forwent the leftover goat intestines, opting instead for pb&j. After much fussing around (cleaning dishes is quite the process!), we hiked up the dirt road to Kilimanjaro at a slow pace, passing many khanga-clad women and children working in their fields or carrying giant bushels of grass or buckets of water on their heads. They would stop and look at us for a moment before picking up speed on the downhill. We could only climb so far until we reached the edge of the forest, where government officials apparently hide to fine people for trespassing. We're not quite sure we believe this...anyway, we played some games with Apo and Eric (learning what they do to entertain themselves with no tv etc), running around and expending our energy by throwing bottles of water like footballs and arm wrestling, until we started to feel rain drops and hurried back down the mountain and almost falling on our faces. Occasionally Karla would stop to snap a photo of the breathtaking landscape.

Miraculously, it stopped raining by the time we got back down to Apo's aunt's house and store. We hung out there for a while, sitting under tree drinking beer (for K) and Coke (for A, who was feeling a bit iffy). The boys tried to teach us Swahili until our brains hurt! 'Kiato' is shoe (Ks favorite) and door is 'mulango'.

After some drinking and a lot of excellent relaxing, Hellen called us over to the house, telling us that we were to be offered a gift, and that no matter what we must accept it graciously, whether or not we think we want to eat it. Jeez. With an intro like that, who can refuse?

So we walked into the interior courtyard of the house, and one of Apo's uncles walks in, trailing... a goat! We took pictures with it and pet it like they wanted us to, knowing full well what was to be its fate. And this time, we got to watch it. Karla even helped slaughter it, but after a short time of watching, Alicia hid her face, started to tear up, and seriously considered becoming a vegetarian. We both noted, however, that Apo is an expert goat-slaughterer.

While the goat was still warm (and painstakingly being cut into pieces), Alicia began to take ill, and, thinking she just needed a nap, lay down for a little while. But she started burning up, and Hellen (thankfully!) recognized the symptoms of malaria, and forced her to go to the hospital.

As it turns out, Alicia wasn't sick because of the goat. Luckily, it was malaria. She was very adamant about making sure our hosts knew this so as to not offend them.

In her delirium, Alicia fought going to the Moyo Safi Wa Maria hospital tooth and nail, especially when she realized that she was to be taken on the back of a motorcycle, without a helmet, over intensely bumpy roads, while dizzy. She thought that this was the way she was going to die...but thankfully she made it safely!

Because of the busted car, Karla couldn't get to the hospital right away (there weren't enough motorcycles around!), so she stayed at home with the boys, who tried to fix the radiator in the dark so they could come to the hospital to visit and bring supplies. Unfortunately, the apoxy didn't hold, so they had to abandon the car at the hospital, and walk an hour or more to get home! However, it was worth it, because Alicia was so relieved to see that Karla was alive and well! (Karla thinks its the other way around).

Back at the house we (Karla and the boys) sat solemnly around the kitchen, lit by a sole lantern. It was late and we were tired, but the boys were so so worried that I had to promise over and over that Alicia would be ok.
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Day 50: October 24: Market Day in the Village

2008-11-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Today we awoke to our first morning in the village. As it was rather late (8am) a plate of pork and plantains were thrust in front of us by Hellen, who had transformed herself from city women to village mother in Khan ga garb overnight. Immediately after, we were put to work (sort of), wrapped in a Khanga and given a bucket of water and slop for Alicia to put on her head for the pigs. The short walk in the forest to the pig pens was hilarious.

As we waited for Hellen to bathe, we took a stroll around the plot. If Eric hadn't been with us we would have been utterly lost as everything looked the same. Which was beautiful.

Walking back towards the house Hellen looked worried. We had been gone all of twenty minutes and she thought we were lost in the forest. We (secretly) got in a good laugh.

We got in the car, crossing our fingers that it would make it. We made what would be one of the car's last rides (you'll see) to the market. It was conveniently market day. It was like nothing wed ever seen. So full of life and colors. Hopefully our pictures (if you see them) will help describe the beautiful chaos. First order of business was to buy a goat. We had a choice of an indoor goat and an outdoor goat. Indoor ones are tastier (we couldn't tell) but more expensive because they are fed soda ash and grass. Then we grabbed some carrots, potatoes, water, and a red Khanga for Karla. When we approached the car and looked in the back, we didn't see the goat. Just as Alicia asked where he had gone, there was a blood curdling scream and banging from over our heads. Over the edge of the roof popped out the head of the goat as it struggled against the ropes. So what did we do? We took a picture and carried on our merry way.

When we arrived back at the house, we had some spare time as Hellen busied herself with something useful and the boys (Apo and Eric) wandered off. So, we gathered the many children who had been staring at us from around the village, fascinated with the white Muzungus. We decided to teach them duck duck goose (or moose as some said). It was quite fun and they caught on rather quickly. Before long it was time to peel plantains. While peeling, Hellen yelled at me for throwing a peel at Alicia. It went like this, "Karla! Hellen! Karla! Hellen, what!?" Apparently they stain. I would soon find out first hand as my shirt acquired some mysterious brown spots later. Karma. After we were through, our hands were so filthy and caked with dirt, that they had to be scrubbed and scrubbed (with a corn cob no less). Eric insisted on helping, and so Alicia ended up having her hands thoroughly and meticulously scrubbed. I watched and laughed.

While we were peeling, Apo had slaughtered the goat (right after I'd fed it some grass to make it happy for as long as possible). We walked over and saw the head laying there. He happily pointed out the different parts to us. We had been prepped by the slaughter houses in the markets in Zanzibar, so we were only disappointed we hadn't seen him kill it (we would get more than we bargained for the following day).

Dinner started with goat's blood soup cooked with carrots and intestines. Alicia was brave enough to actually eat the intestines. It was all Karla could do just drink it. We badly needed a Safari beer. But we did it. Yet by the time the second course came along, I, Karla tried to eat the meat, but mostly ugali/polenta was all I could force down. I was happy to give my portion to the boys/men (there were five of them). A grandmother, Patricia and a 102 year old grand father (Baba) lived there as well. Its hard to know who else lived there.

We were tuckered out and we soon settled into our surprisingly cozy bed. As we were on the mountain side, it got rather cold at night and it was nice to have the two of us to keep each other warm.
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Day 49: October 23. The road to Moshi is long

2008-11-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

This trip certainly keeps us on our toes. We woke up at 4am today to meet Hellen to drive to Moshi. We were supposed to take a taxi and meet her in neighboring Ubungo at 5am so that she could leave her house a little later, but seeing as she's wonder-woman and doesn't sleep, she picked us up at 4:30 directly from our hotel.

The car ride was long and especially stressful before dawn because there is only one road to Moshi, and it is only one narrow lane on either side, and the trucks often take the lion's share of road. But once the sun rose it was better and we made frequent stops, and we saw a lot of African scenery. For example, we saw a beautiful sunrise over some traditional houses made out of mudbrick and straw, much like the ones we saw yesterday at the Village Museum! Hellen said that despite the fact that these homes have to be rebuilt every three years, people still live here because they cannot afford homes made out of concrete or wood. We also saw the giant baobaob trees -which look like ghoulish haunted trees- coming out of the red earth, as well as Acacia trees (think Lion King and you'll be able to picture it), and those big termite hills that are the homes of colonies of termites.

We had breakfast at the priest's residence at a church in a small village, where Hellen knew the priest. It was a refreshing stop, and Hellen got to rest her eyes for a couple of minutes before we resumed our journey.

We did a surprising amount of 'shopping' en route. First, about 3 hours into the trip, our car was surrounded by orange vendors who sprinted alongside us until Hellen pulled over and bought 3 bags. Next, we saw a man standing again on the side of the road holding up bunches of catfish tied together at the mouth by a palm leaf. Again, we pulled over and bought some for dinner. These were tied to the front grill of the car, and Hellen and Eric (her brother who was accompanying us) assured us they'd be well cleaned. We also bought tomatos and onions at the side of the road, and as we were approaching Moshi, we bought several loaves of bread from a crowd of boys pushing it through the car windows. Karla and I thought this whole process was hilarious.

What wasn't so funny was the car trouble that followed. First, when we stopped in town for rice, we couldn't get the car to start. Hellen figured out that someone had stolen the starter plugs, so we had to find a mechanic and buy new ones. Next, when we were on the road again, the radiator started overheating, so we had to dump bottled water into the radiator every 20 minutes or so for the rest of the ride.

This last leg of the trip was very very bumpy, albeit scenic, but Alicia started to feel nauseous because of the bumps, as well as the smell of gas (which had spilled in the car) and fish (which we'd moved into the car when the radiator had started to go). But we finally arrived in the small village of Ubetu safe and sound.

As it was just about dusk when we arrived, we all scurried around trying to get dinner on the table. At this time, Karla and I realized that there was no electricity and no running water here!! So we lit kerosene lamps, and helped gut the fish with Eric by candlelight. Oh. And went to the 'bathroom' which makes an old-timey outhouse look like modern technology (think pit with walls around it). Before bed, we had to take showers to get all the dust of the day off...so Hellen boiled water and poured it into a plastic bucket, then we took turns going into the small room with a drain to splash all the dirt off our bodies. Hellen laughed when Alicia asked for confirmation that she was doing it right! Needless to say, we got to bed relatively early!
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Day 48: October 22

2008-11-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

After a leisurely breakfasti, we hopped on a bus from Posta to Mwenge to go to the Village Museum. While trying to figure out the right changei (change) with the dalla-dalla attendant, we missed our stop. We ended up in Mwenge, and asked how to get to the museum at a copy shop. A very nice girl said she was headed that way anyway, and took us to the right bus, then pointed out our stop. We made it!

The Village Museum is comprised of reconstructions of traditional homes for all of the tribes native to Tanzania. It was very interesting - we saw homes made out of mudbrick, straw, wood...there were probably 25 types of homes in all, varying in size, shape, and. Even who lived there. For example, some tribes had built separate living quarters for the young boys, and some had livestock living in the same room as them! We did the museum pretty thoroughly.

Getting hungry, we ate our packed lunch on a bench next to where some women were practicing the drums, ostensibly for a performance later on. They were just as interested in us as we were in them.

Next, we called Hellen to see what the plan was, and upon receiving instruction to wait where we were, we wandered through the craft market before sitting down for a Stoney's at the museum cafe. (Stoney's is like gingerale, but has a much more ginger-y taste)

We weren't sure how much more time we had before Hellen came, so we decided to try to walk to a nearby craft market. We didn't quite make it, but we found a gas station where we bought some ice cream, then were picked up by Hellen.

We had only one quick errand to do, and that was to pick up the dresses and shorts that we had had made. They're very cute. I have a feeling they'll get a lot of use here!

Hellen still had a lot to do, so she dropped us at a dalla-dalla stop, and sent us back to Posta. From there, we walked to the grocery store, then had dinner at Chef's Pride, before grabbing a cab back to the YMCA. Alicia washed out her smelly smelly sandals with a toothbrush, then we
both packed up and got to bed early.
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Day 47: October 21. Real life in Dar

2008-11-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

After breakfasti this morning (any guesses what 'breakfasti' is Swahili for?), we caught the dalla-dalla to Tabatta Segerea. We arrived at the school after our 20 minute walk, and found that it seemed eerily quiet. We walked into the head teacher's office and she looked surprised to see us! She apologized, explaining that she'd forgotten to tell us that there are 4th grade examinations today and tomorrow, so none of the other children have school. We were so surprised that no one mentioned this to us. The fifth grade teacher had even asked us to prepare a specific lesson for today! How could everyone neglect to tell us that there's no school today?

We were so disappointed, especially since this means that we're done teaching because we have to leave for Moshi early on Thursday morning with Hellen! There's a very small possibility that we could see the students again the morning before we fly out of Dar, but it doesn't seem likely.

We trudged back down to the dalla-dalla stop and waited for an hour for ours to come. Finally, we got on a bus, but ended up sitting in a ton of traffic. Hellen called and told us to just get off the bus where we were, but we had a miscommunication, and we weren't where she thought we were...at last, thanks to the help of a stranger that I put on the phone with her, she figured out where we were and came to get us.

Hellen took us with her to the Catholic Secretariat, where she had to file some paperwork to get tax exemption for a container of donations for the clinic. We were instructed to wait for an hour and a half for a letter to be typed and signed, so we decided to have lunch at the little cafeteria. We came back at the appointed time, and were informed that in fact, we'd have to wait until tomorrow for the letter to be completed. Hellen told us in the car that this was not at all uncommon in Tanzania; often you're told to wait for something, then are told that it's not possible in the way that you'd agreed upon. Lesson #2 of the day.

Our next errand took us to the Ministry of Health, where we went through a similar song and dance. Hellen is trying to get the government to approve the clinic so that it can receive financial support and serve people that cannot otherwise afford health care. She was told to come back tomorrow.

Next we went to a craft market to pick up little carvings of animals that Hellen ordered last week to sell at the next Life Project fundraiser. Of course, they weren't quite ready. So Karla and I wandered around while we waited, and then decided to help find some statues that we thought would be marketable in the US. We found some rhinos and giraffes that were beautifully made, and made the vendor's day when we told him we wanted 20 of each. We negotiated a price, then he told us to wait while he gathered them...people scurried around trying to collect these animals and sell us more, but I noticed that they were taking carvings of a lesser quality and varnishing them to look like the original that I had picked out. I explained that I wanted good quality wood and it took a while to get them to admit that the ones that they had been varnishing were different. Finally, the vendor told me that he'd have to make more statues, and that we could pick them up tomorrow. As for the giraffes, he complained that it cost 1000 TSH (around $1) more to make them than we had agreed upon, so he wanted to bargain upwards. Now why hadn't he thought of this when we first bargained? After all that effort, we didn't end up buying anything from him! As Hellen was not in the least surprised when I reported this transaction (or lack thereof) to her, we took this as a lesson in business.

We ended up buying everything we needed from one vendor, then made our way to dinner. En route we tried to find an ATM, but we couldn't find a single one that accepted our cards! What are the odds?

We worked up quite an appetite looking for money, so we really enjoyed dinner. Hellen took us to this nice place right on the water! We had a great time chatting with her and getting to know her better. And despite all the frustrations that today held, it was definitely gave us some insight into some of the frustrations and difficulties that arise for people living here, which may just be more valuable than a day in which everything runs smoothly!
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Day 44: October 18. Jambo! Karibu Zanzibar!

2008-10-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning feeling refreshed (we slept until 7:30!) We had breakfast on the roof of our hostel. Then we set out to explore Zanzibar and Stone Town.

Our first stop was the Anglican Church which was built over the site of a former slave market around 1837. Its the oldest Anglican church in the Zanzibar Archipelago. The book said there wasn't much to see, so we dodged the entrance fee and instead just read about it on the sign, and thought somberly about what had occurred in this place before moseying along.

Our next stop was a food market. It was smaller and more confined than the ones we've been seeing recently, but it was fun to wander around the outdoor vendors, looking at and smelling the fresh fruit they were selling. The indoor part was MUCH more exciting (maybe too exciting?)

We first walked in and took a right into the fish market, where vendors were laying out their catches (we THINK they were supposed to be fresh), which included squid, octapus, tuna, and various smaller fishes, which were all being bled into a gutter on the floor in front of where the customers walked. Needless to say, the flies were quite thick around us...

Next we turned around and went into the meat market. The flies were positively swarming now (sanitary? I think not...) as we watched butchers literally hack apart recognizable parts of animals - cow and goat heads with the fur still on, for example - with axes. I think this experience is the closest I've ever come to being a vegetarian in my life (says Alicia). I think it was the flies that put me over the top.

Thankful for some fresh air, we made our way to the coast, and went into the Palace Museum, where we learned a bit about Zanzibar's history and how (and when) it became Muslim (8th century). Next, we walked to the Old Dispensary, where we saw a tiny craft market, and I learned how to play an East African game similar to Mancala called Bao while Karla looked on anf rooted for the guy selling them (who claimed to be the top champion in Zanzibar). It turns out that he was able to lose on purpose in record time. I guess he reallly knows the game (or how to sell them).

Next, we made our way over to the House of Wonders, which is a silly name (or so Alicia claims) for the National Museum, housed in another palace next door to the first museum. It was the first building on Zanzibar to host electricity and an elevator. This was also really interesting as a museum, as it explainied many aspects of Swahili culture, dress, and culinary cuisine that had been puzzling us, and showcasing an exhibit on a traditional house. It also had a great exhibition on boats and marine life as well as the enviromental problems that are occuring over time. It even brushed over ecotourism and its benefits.

Grabbing a snack of local bread that tasted kindof like a soft pretzle, we wandered into the Old Fort. Here, while Karla bargained for batiks (for over an hour-typical), I challenged one of the merchants to a game of Bao. I think he was excited to have something to do on a slow day, and I was really psyched to try out my new skill! We ended in a stalemate when Karla wrapped up her purchase, then I got the hard sell to buy one of the Bao boards, but I stuck to my guns, and we were off again.

After all this bargaining, we needed another little pick-me-up, so we found a cafe and indulged in caffinated beverages and a giant brownie! Perfect.

With renewed energy, we shopped around for crafts and comparison shopped for a spice tour tomorrow. We finally found one, and ended up chatting with Charles, who we thought might be the owner, for quite some time about American and Tanzanian politics and lifestyles. It was interesting to get a local perspective on some of the things we were seeing from someone other than Hellen. He surprised us with his overall positive take on tourism and visitors. Of course its a part of his job to like tourists, but still.

We emerged from the Tourism office just as the sun was begining to set, so we walked to the nearest park overlooking the water on the western shore, and watched a gorgeous sunset. Better even than Santorini! The park was small but packed with locals playing soccer, diving in the water, or just watching the sunset. Although the occasional tourist "braved" the park, most sat up at the restaurant across the street, lining up on the railing and snapping away.

We ate dinner at the restaurant across from Monsoon (last nights restaurant), then went on a mission to find live local taarab music. It took us 3 or 4 tries, but we finally ended up back at Monsoon. At first they didn't want to let us in just for tea, but then they realized that no one else was coming for dinner (plus we told them we ate there last night), so we got to enjoy the music for about 15 min until the band packed up. We ended up just finding a regular band at a local bar, and listening to them play a little while, which was a little disappointing, but at least we found something!
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Day 46: October 20: Life in Dar

2008-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

The adventure started early this morning when after breakfast Karla and I tried to catch the dalla dalla (bus) to T/Segeria to go to school. We must have just missed one because we stood for over 20 minutes watching every other dalla dalla in Dar-Es-Salaam come and go before ours finally arrived.

The bus ride took almost an hour, and despite the smell of exhaust, wasn't unpleasant. We then walked about 20 minutes up a dirt road to get to school, only asking once for directions. It was nice to actually experience what school children experience every day; that is a long wait, followed by a long bus ride, followed by a long walk. Although it's more fun to be pampered by Hellen, it's much more real to get there this way.

Hellen wasn't yet at the clinic when we arrived, so we walked ourselves over to the school, and were scooped up within minutes by the substitute standard 6 teacher. (We think the regular teacher had her baby!) We taught 6A about the difference between a letter to a "penfriend" and a formal letter. It went well. We're getting many less blank stares these days!

Next, the standard 5 teacher found us and took us to the 5A class, whom we had not yet taught. So we repeated our standard 5 lesson from Thursday, which was about days, weeks, months and years. We were met with about 80% participation and a lot of enthusiasm which was awesome to see.

As we were leaving, a girl handed us a note, which we thought was just her "penfriend" letter left over from Friday, but it turns out that she wrote us to tell us that she's an orphan and needs a sponser to continue her education, which is quite expensive in Tanzania, even at the secondary level. We spoke to Hellen about her, and we're going to put her on the Life Project waiting list. It would be amazing if we were actually able to help her!

When we got back to Njia, we chatted with Stephan (Father Stephen's nephew) and ate PB&J while waiting for Hellen to arrive. We just got so sleepy that we had to lie down...and ended up taking a nap in the breezeway of the health center. Don't worry...it was completely socially appropriate! Even the receptionist joined us for a bit.

When Hellen arrived, we sat and chatted with her while she ate her lunch, then we piled in the car and drove to drop off our bags (which we had stored at the Health Center for the weekend) at the YMCA before going to the tailor. We all got fitted for dresses (we're using the material we bought on Friday), and they'll be ready on Wednesday! The fitting was quite an experience, as we first had to figure out what style we wanted, then had to be measured, then waited around for a long while for Hellen to negotiate the price for us...but it was yet another real glimpse into how things work here, so we were happy to have the experience.

Next, we accompanied Hellen to the wealthy section of Dar called Masaki, where we were getting an estimate on car repairs. Turns out that she knows the mechanic and his family through a priest at Alicia's church, and they welcomed us enthusiastically, then sat us down for tea.

On the way home, Hellen pointed out the embassies and all of the mansions of the wealthy government officials, and we talked again about the corruption that permeates Tanzanian politics. Apparently even a few weeks ago, there was a non-violent protest staged by impoverished Tanzanians, who lay down in front of the president's car and told him to run them over and kill them rather than make them suffer any longer. Apparently government officials have embezzled billions of dollars of aid money from the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands of Tanzanians are suffering because they can't buy food, while their elected officials buy more excessively large houses in gated areas. When I asked Hellen if she thought the system could change, she said maybe in 15-20 years. It was a very sobering conversation, and it explains a lot about why things work (or don't work) they way they do here.

We were dropped off at the YMCA and ran to the grocery store, before coming back here for dinner. Now all we have standing between us and our mosquito-net protected beds is lesson plans for tomorrow! (And grading some more papers.)
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Day 45: October 19. Things get a little spicy...

2008-10-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

I got up extra early this morning to go to mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral before our spice tour. I wanted to experience local spirituality, and Hellen had been telling me that going to church here is a very different experience than it is at home, so I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the 7 am mass was the English mass, and very very similar to home. Maybe next week we'll both make it to a Swahili mass!

I walked back to the hostel, and Karla and I had breakfast on the roof in a sudden rainstorm, which luckily cleared just as we were being picked up for our tour.

The tour itself was fantastic: it took us to 5 stops and showed us how dozens of spices are grown. We were a little skeptical at first because everything always seems so chaotic and disorganized. Once we got to the plantations things seemed to fall in place perfectly. My favorite sprice was cinnamon: the spice literally comes from the bark of the tree, and cinnamon sticks are just twigs from this tree. It's amazing that people figured this out! Karla's favorite was the jackfruit, which is this large fruit that is about as big as a watermelon, and which grows by dangling seemingly precariously from the trunk of the tree! We got to try the jackfruit later, and it tastes like a banana but more citrusy and had the consistancy of a pineapple. It's quite delicious.

We tried several other exotic fruits before lunch (one of which I had an extremely mild allergic reaction to...I'll have to be careful with fruit in the future!), all of which were interesting, to say the least. We had a lovely lunch of rice pliau with a coconut milk sauce and more of that delicious bread before heading back to Stone Town. There we had just enough time for a last spiced cuppa (tea for Karla and coffee for me) at Monsoon, before getting on our ferry back to Dar. They served every cup with a small piece of Kashata (or peanut fudge) that Karla loved. We actually went in search of it on our way to the ferry.

Let's just say the ride back wasn't exactly smooth. For some reason, we encountered very rough water, and poor Karla was violently ill for the whole 2.5 hour journey. All around us, people were sick, and everyone was offering us their personal remedy: one man offered motion sickness tablets, an Indian woman offered cloves to put on her tongue, and the porter just kept handing us plastic bags. Even I, though I have a very strong stomach -knock on wood - was feeling quite queasy by the end.

We made it back to the good ol' YMCA more or less in one piece, and Karla's sleeping it off. She was able to stomach a little rice and Coke. I think we've both gone through more Coke in the last week than either of us has consumed in the last 4 years! It's sad when you're more sure about soda than water...anyway I think Karla will be just fine in the morning! This is why I've written the last few entries (plus she's lazy haha).
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Day 43: October 17: Rats.

2008-10-20T01:50:00.000-07:00

This morning after breakfast we went to the port to buy ferry tickets for Zanzibar. As with most things here, it was quite a process involving two ferry companies and two different currencies. But we procured the tickets, and that's all that counts.

After a couple more errands, we wound up at the Njia Health Center, then walked over to school. We taught only 6th grade today, as we got there a little later this morning, but we had two very good classes. As with yesterday, we were much better at explaining ourselves to the second class! Also of note - in the second class as I was explaining something, I looked up and saw a rat crossing a ceiling beam! Luckily I held in my exclamation of surprise because I think the kids really would have laughed at me otherwise.

After class, we had another PB and J lunch in the storeroom with Hellen before going on more errands. This time we ended up going to a fabric store to get materials for Hellen to make sheets for the beds in the hospital. Karla and I found materials that we liked too and bought some to have dresses made this week! We're so excited! This will really expand our wardrobe.

After this errand, Hellen dropped us off at a park where we waited to board the ferry. The ferry ride itself was largely uneventful, but it was quite pretty. We couldn't believe we've already made it to the Indian Ocean!

Once on the island, we found a cab to take us to our hotel just as the sun was setting. We checked in, then began our search for dinner. We wandered all around the town, first walking through the night market, then meandering towards the water, but we couldn't find anything in our price range, or not *too* local. Finally, just as we were getting to the point of being grouchy with no return, we found the perfect place, called Monsoon. Not only was dinner delicious, but we also capped off our meal with Tanzanian tea brewed with local spices! If only we had found the place an hour earlier...it wasn't until our walk the next morning that we realized how close it was the water. Its amazing how darkness can disorient you (mostly Karla) when you are unfamilar with the area.

We then returned to our hotel safe and sound (and pleasantly full!). Our rooms are pretty great. Spacious and clean, with even a sink in the room!! Its also a pretty large hostel and seems very safe. We have a full day planned out (sort of) for tomorrow.
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Day 42: October 16

2008-10-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

This morning Hellen decided to pick us up from our hotel, instead of having us take the public bus to school. I think she was nervous about us finding our way. But it was much more pleasant to go with her, and she sat down and ate breakfast with us at the Y.

We drove together to the Njia Health Center, then Hellen walked us over to the school. We were greeted by a very pregnant woman, who introduced herself as the 6th grade English teacher. All four of us walked over to the classroom.

When we entered the room, 65 students arose from their benches and greeted us in unison, first in Swahili, then in English. The teacher greeted them back, herself sounding like she was reciting words that had lost their meaning, then told us to introduce ourselves. In the middle of the introduction, she called out something from the side of the room and the entire class said "Sank you, teacha" and sat down.

The lesson went fairly well...we were teaching them how to write a note and a friendly letter in English. It was a tad disjointed as we got accustomed to teaching, but overall we got people to participate, and it seemed like the understood us. Thank goodness there were two of us!

Next, we were scooped up by the 5th grade English teacher and accompanied to the next classroom. The greeting was repeated, but this time we were prepared, and I told the class to be seated before we introduced ourselves and began teaching. We too were rewarded with a "Sank you, teacha" as they sat. This lesson was much smoother than the first even though this time we were teaching about years, months and weeks. I think we knew more what to expect.

Immediately following 5th grade, we were ushered into the 6B classroom. We were much more on top of of things this time. Third time is always the charm. Although they still weren't as responsive as the 5th graders.

After we dismissed class, we headed over to the Njia clinic for a good old PB&J we'd made this morning. It hit the spot after the grueling morning.

After class and lunch, we headed out with Hellen to do more errands. We stopped at the drug store and multiple tile stores looking for stuff for the Njia clinic. We almost ventured into the market but Hellen got worried that we wouldn't make it back alive (kidding! I don't think she fully realizes how compotant we are!). Once we bought some, we headed BACK to the clinic to unload the tiles. Ok, well Alicia did. I just sat there and chated with one of the doctors about school and religion. Haha. I felt only a little bad.

After this, we got back in the car and headed towards a craft market to buy some elephant carvings for the fundraiser in November. Hellen didn't end up getting anything, but we did.

Because of the traffic leaving Dar, Hellen sent us back on a bus. She practically lifted us onto the bus, of which we were grateful because we had no idea where we were going. We arrived safe and sound of course. Before going back to the hotel, we had dinner at a restaurant called Chef's Pride, which was delicious. We got back to the hotel to plan another day of class. This time with a better idea of what to do. It would be impossible if we weren't doing it together.
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Day 41: Oct 15: Bumpy roads

2008-10-15T12:27:00.001-07:00

Breakfast this morning was a great change of pace...we had omlettes! And the Tanzanian tea and coffee is excellent as well.

Hellen picked us up from the YMCA this morning, after getting stuck in quite a bit of traffic, due to the torrential downpours this morning. Unfortunately, because of the awful traffic in Dar Es Salaam, she had to leave her house at 5:30 this morning and didn't get to us until nearly 10!

We experienced a bit of this traffic with her once we got in the car. Unlike Egypt, where people create 4-lane highways out of a 2-lane street and can take alternate routes in order to keep traffic flowing, it seems like in Tanzania there are very few main roads, and you just have to sit and be patient. Once you get out of the traffic, you're likely to be on dirt roads littered with potholes and bumps. Being a passenger on these roads literally feels like a rollercoaster. Here, the seatbelts prevent you from hitting your head on the roof.

We accompanied Hellen on a couple of errands, one of which was to the drugstore to obtain some medication for the clinic. This was an interesting experience as well. The drugstore was this bare room with plastic chairs and a bunch of employees with computers. There was a counter to one side, with a bunch of different products behind the salespeople, and in the middle of the room, some employees were sorting drugs into a basket on the floor. We waited for probably 20 minutes, during which time we didn't even get everything we had come for. In the middle of the wait, the power went out for a couple minutes, causing the employees to lose data on the computer etc. But this is a common occurance, and everyone just rolled their eyes and waited for the power to come back on. Incidently, Hellen mentioned that the clinic was in dire need of a back-up generator for such purposes. I can't even imagine the effect power outages on a hospital!

After a few more errands ( which included getting a cell phone and staking out an international ATM), we made our way across town to the hospital that Life Project funded. It's beautiful. It's located right next door to a busy school, and is off of one of those infamous roads. It's clean and brightly painted, and all it lacks are the patients. The clinic is currently waiting to be approved by the Tanzanian government in order to receive funding to provide affordable or free healthcare. Apparently the approval process is quite involved!

We got a tour of the lab, the observation rooms, the stockroom and the patient care rooms. In all, the clinic has 13 beds and 12 staff. While we were there, a 16 year old girl who is HIV positive came in for treatment. She was on some medication, but was not eating properly so the medication was not working. She was given IV, but while we were there, her condition worsened drastically. To make a long story short, she contracted a brain fungus in her weakened state, and needs medication from Nairobi in order to survive. Hellen has someone bringing the medicine tomorrow, but it's a 16 hour drive each way!

The primary purpose of the hospital will be to diagnose and treat malaria, which surprisingly kills far more Tanzanians than HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the clinic will host workshops to encourage mothers to be tested, as well as to educate them on mother/child tranmission of HIV. Apparently a huge problem with the epidemic is that people refuse to be tested for AIDS because if they test positive, there isn't anything that can be done for them. In fact, there's a lot of propoganda against being tested! They'll even write "my brother don't test" in Swahili on the windows of the dusty buses.

After our sobering experience, we walked across the street to the school. This was quite a contrast to the hospital because it was teeming with life. As we walked by the classrooms, little heads poked out to say "good morning!" We spoke with the "head teacher", who said we can start teaching English tomorrow, and then the 5th and 6th grade teachers were sent in to show us their English books. Essentially, they get the day off tomorrow, and Karla and I will just be teaching! We're excited, but a little nervous. We were introduced to the children, who were all standing in the courtyard (surprisingly well-behaved!), and they all welcomed us. They're probably pretty happy to have a change of pace tomorrow too!

Karla and I walked back to the clinic to meet Hellen, and she took us to the grocery store to get water and food. Then she dropped us off at the hotel, and we made ourselves a late lunch of good ol' PB and J (tastes like home!), before setting out on foot to explore the city a bit.

Back on the ranch just before sunset, we mapped out our lesson plans (we need you Becca!), and shared a dinner of chicken and chips. We overheard a very interesting convo between a Tanzanian and an American about whether or not politics are a good thing (the American said yes, the Tanzanian said no). It got us thinking a lot about the residual effects of colonization, which will be interesting to think about as we grow accustomed to the culture.
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Day 40: October 14. Below the Equator!

2008-10-14T10:16:00.001-07:00

It's been a long day. I'm currently sitting outside in the courtyard of our hostel, bathed in 100% DEET bug spray, and sticking to my clothes. But so far, Tanzania has been great!

We spent what feels like the majority of the day in transit. We had an overnight flight from Cairo to Ethiopia, which stopped in Sudan. But Karla and I slept right through that layover. In Ethiopia, we awakened from our stupor to change planes. We had been called to board and got on the bus to go to the airplane, when some airline attendants told us to get off the bus. Once everyone had gotten off, obtained a new boarding card and settled back into waiting at the gate, they called for our flight to board again. We still have no idea what that was about.
Anyway. This flight was more comfortable because our seats reclined (!) But less comfortable because we weren't sitting together and were both sitting in the middle. Oh well. At least we got some sleep.

Hellen, the Tanzanian coordinator of Life Project (www.lifeprojectafrica.org. Check it out!) picked is up from the airport and took us to lunch. There, we met one of the doctors who worked at the clinic built by Life Project, and who now teaches at the medical university in Dar Es Salaam. We relaxed and had a delicious meal of roast pig and bananas (plantains) in a tomato-based sauce. Annnnd, just like we'd read in our travel guide, we ate with our hands. I'm gonna love it here!

After lunch, Hellen took us to our hostel - it's fun to stay at the (everybody!) YMCA! Unfortunately, they're doing renovations on the bathroom literally across the hall from our room, which are EXTREMELY loud, but made Hellen far more upset than us. At least until they wake us up in the wee hours of the morning. If only those mosquito nets in our room would keep out noise too!

Hellen left us, and we decided to go for a quick walk before sunset. We walked down to the beach (a 10 minute walk), and just got a feel for the place before turning around and coming back to the YMCA. We've just finished dinner of rice, sauce and chicken (we ate with utensils. Like foreigners. I think we're going to need a tutorial when there's rice involved!), and I think bed is in the near future...
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Day 39: October 13. Old McDonald

2008-10-14T09:50:00.001-07:00

We both woke up ready to enjoy our last day in Cairo. Karam was supposed to pick us up at 9 so we could go see his relative's farm. We got a call from Noha around 10 saying he had been pulled over for talking on his cell phone while driving. Considering he is such a worry wort, it was pretty funny to us. So we just finished packing and downloaded some pictures onto the blog (yay!) while we waited.

He finally showed up to the house with a friend who lived out in the country (maybe now he won't get lost!). We chuckled when we that they were dressed to the nines to bring us to the farm. We think its a pride thing, showing that if they have the means they will dress well, no matter what the situation. On the way there we stopped for some delicious Egyptian tea by the Nile. It was nice to see such a peaceful place so close to hectic Cairo. We got to the farm and walked around looking at how they irrigated the fields and where they kept the cows and goats. It was really cool. Despite the fact that we waltzed onto this farm without an invitation (although Karam and Ahmed assured us it was ok), the farmer was very friendly and proud that these two Americans took interest in his work. Surprisingly, the animals (including the dogs) were very shy. Maybe we looked funny. All the while Karam they was complaining about how his shoes were getting dirty. Oh no! We all got a good laugh.

By the time we made it back to the house we were starving for the delicious koshary that Hayem had been working on all day. She's amazing! I think we ate too fast though.

Still itching to see more of Cairo, we went to the souq (market) again. It was in a part of the city called Khan al-Khalili. We wanted to go to this very old coffee shop called Fishawi's. It was a beautiful place and smelled wonderful. While we were walking around we picked up a scarf for Hayem. She had been just wonderful with us.

Our next goal before we got back to Noha's was to get her some flowers. We found out that she had to make a last minute trip to Alexandria and thought it might be nice to come home to some fresh flowers. We were very sad that we werent able to say goodbye but we look forward to seeing her when we are all back in the States.

After flowers, we went to a concert in Zamalek. There was a band and an Arabic singer who looked tearful and emotional while he belted his tunes out. It was interesting to see yet another side of Cairo. We then walked home hungry for some more koshary.

We packed our final belongings and drove to the airport (it took an hour less than coming from the airport). We were very sad to leave, and remarked how quickly our stay in Egypt had gone by. It seems to have gone by faster than even more so than the other countries. I guess we really had a blast!

We started to say our goodbyes to Karam and his sister's husband, Said (he came to help with directions). Then we had a slight security debocle when we went through a preliminary screening and didn't realize we couldn't go back out. We'd left some stuff with them and had to convince the guard that we had to go back to get it. Alicia was left as collateral, along with my passport, and I went back for our stuff. It was a close call. Thank goodness there were two of us!

Soon, we were on the road again. And waiting for our 230 am flight. We can't wait to get to Tanzania.
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Pictures

2008-10-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a brief description of the pictures that we just posted. You have to find which is which!

Turkey:
-Excercise machines, jazzersize! Our front cover. This is how we get in shape.
-2 of Goreme at sunset: weird mountain formations out of volcanic ash.
-Istanbul's Hagia Sofia.

Greece:
-Santorini, the volcanic island.

Egypt:
-Traditional garb at a mosque. We blend in so well.
-Alicia and the Pyramids. She's actually picking it up.
-Feluccas in Aswan on the Nile.
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Day 38: Oct 12th: expect the unexpected.

2008-10-14T07:37:00.001-07:00

Today we were expecting to get back to Cairo at 530 am, but it turns out that the train was delayed and we didn't arrive until 830 am. At least we got in a few more hours of sleep. It still doesn't make up for the fact that we were up and ready to go by 520 (we didn't trust them to actually wake us up after we had had a slight tiff about the cost of tea the night before). He had also reminded us to give him tips in the morning.

Noha's driver, Karam, was able to pick us up from the station, which was a huge help. That way we didn't have to deal with the annoying and untrustworthy taxi drivers. Once he met us, the taxi guys finally left us alone.

We got back to Nohas to shower and get ready for the day.

First on our list for Cairo part deux was to go to Ibn Tulun, the mosque we'd tried going to two times previously. Once it was closed for prayer, and then it was just closed after 3pm. It was one of the oldest intact mosques in Cairo, and it underwent restoration in 2000 AD. It was quite stunning with its decoration while showing its age. Its open center quartyard was large and inviting. After walking around, we decided to do what we always do: go up. So we climbed the mineret to get an amazing view of the city. The sounds and mix of old and new buildings and people walking, driving and riding donkeys was incredible. It was just such a rich view. We soon scurried down to check out the Gayer-Anderson house (now a museum) next door to the mosque. We were surprised to find a woman giving tours. Normally we would shoo the guides away, but as we are now sexist, we let her guide us. It was actually really great, and she spoke very good English. Amoung the many beautiful parlors and rooms dedicated to the arts and decorations of the East, there was a "secret" cabinet that led to a laticed balcony overlooking the men's room. Here, the women could check out the men from above without being seen. The guide hid Alicia there and I couldn't find her until I called Marco. Polo.

We then headed back to base camp (aka Noha's aka home) for a delicious and filling lunch of mini meat balls, potatoes with tomato sauce, and rice. Noha's helper Hayem is a fabulous cook. Tomorrow she is making koshary!

After browsing the guide book for last minute things to do, and realizing all museums were closed, we decided to check out the Mariott hotel. It was a formerly a palace that was preserved as it would have been during its hay day. Or so we think. It was quite elaboate and fancy, but we could definitly see why people would want to stay there.

Post-Marriot, we mosied over to the bridge to try to catch the sunset. We just ended up watching the feluccas light up as it got dark. It's such a unique sight. You can definitly tell that Ramadan is over though. There aren't boys line dancing and swirling their hips anymore.

We walked home and met Noha for a pleasant dinner. We chatted until late about our trip to Luxor and Aswan via cruise. Its so hard to stop talking when Noha is around. We always learn so much. We then started packing (we are leaving tomorrow!) and both of us called our parents on skype.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we held a baby crocodile in Aswan (don't worry, it had just been fed). It was awesome!
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2008-10-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

2008-10-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

2008-10-13T01:22:00.000-07:00

Day 37: Oct 11th: Rise and shine!

2008-10-11T08:47:00.001-07:00

Waking up at 3am was surprisingly easy. Maybe it was because we'd gone to bed around 8pm...

It is required that any tourists going to Abu Simbel travel with the police convoy. We went along with the 430am one. Luckily it wasn't the 330am one!

The minibus was quite full and so we were shoved in the back and in the middle aisle on these tiny fold out seats without much if any back support. Despite the heat and the discomfort of the 3 and a 1/2 hour bus ride, we arrived unscathed and ready to take on Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is the name of the mountain that holds the Great Temple of Ramses II as well as a smaller one dedicated to his wife, Nefertari. The former was, as promised, very beautiful and impressively large. It was discovered within the last few hundred years (I think) and so was still in very good condion. There were fantastic scenes of the Pharaoh fighting the Hittites in his chariot and of him before sacred boats of the gods Amun and Ra. The reliefs were relatively large, a liberty allowed probably because of the size of the temple. There were many side rooms inside, and it was fun exploring them for scenes we haven't seen before (a lot of things have seemed to repeat themselves throughout all the temples we've seen).

The second smaller temple was also fascinating. The reliefs appeared even larger, but maybe because the walls were smaller. There was a very beautiful and graceful scene of a cow on a boat surrounded by papyrus that caught my attention. Of course Rames was everywhere in this temple as well. He just couldn't help himself could he.

It's interesting to know that in the mid-sixties, UNESCO decided to save the temple from being flooded by the construction of Lake Nasser and cut the temple into 807 blocks and moved them inland. What is very impressive about this is an Italian architect designed a dome that would cover the temple and mimick the original mountain from which it was carved. You can't tell unless you know it's there because it's covered with rock and sand.

We got back to Aswan (having secured much better seats on the bus by getting there early) around 1:30pm and went back to get some koshary were we had gone last night. Our waiter was pleased that we had actually come back as he had mentioned should while leaving yesterday. We'd said "maybe." He looked hopeful that we would be back "maybe tomorrow" but we are catching the overnight train to Cairo this evening. We are both pleased with our visit to Upper Egypt but are excited to get back to Noha's for two more days in Cairo. Hectic!

We wandered around the market for a while after lunch, then settled in a park by the river for a bit. We were joined by two Egyptian ladies who we think moved closer to us just to get a better look, and hear us speak in English. But we didn't mind. And we discovered that Arabic, when spoken by women, sounds much less harsh and more musical!

The sunset was especially beautiful tonight as we caught glimpses of it through the buildings and trees while we passed out of Aswan on the train. It was very orange and red. Hopefully, despite the fact that we got more sleep today than the last couple of days combined, we'll be able to take advantage of our beds on the sleeper train!
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Day 36: October 10. Milking it for all it's worth.

2008-10-11T06:23:00.001-07:00

Our last breakfast on board the M/S Nile Symphony (with the Presidential Cruises) was a little sad this morning without Mark and Eleanor, who departed at three this morning to go see a temple called Abu Simbel. But it was delicious as usual, and we said goodbye to the friendly (and trickster) dining staff. They took fun in teasing us. For example, they might come over with a cup of tea and spill it on us, only to reveal that it was empty.

We decided to walk to the souq with Matthew and his family, just to see what the Aswan market was all about. As usual for our bazaar visits, we had to have something to shop for. This time it was traditional Egyptian tunics. Neither of us found what we were looking for, but we had fun browsing and trying them on!

We parted ways with Matthew and family and tried with no avail to find a hotel recommended by our guide book for ferrys to the west bank of the Nile. So we asked the felucca owners where to find a ferry. Eager for business, they of course told us that there was no ferry, so we decided to go back and ask at our ship.

While we were waiting for the hotel receptionist to check on a few options for us, I started to feel a bit woozy, due (we think) to my malaria meds. We decided to change our plans, and I went upstairs to the deck to lay down in the shade for a short while while Karla went into Aswan (don't worry parents-it was safe) to find us a hotel for the evening and get us some lunch from the market.

She returned within an hour, and we had lunch on the ship deck. I felt a lot better, so we decided to try to get to the Noble's Necropolis once again. We bartered with the felucca drivers right next to our ship, and got someone to take us across the Nile in our very own felucca.

We were rowed to a small island near the shore in a tiny rowboat, then escorted onto our felucca. Our captian reminded us of a little monkey: he leapt around preparing the ship to sail, and he spoke in an excited chatter in broken English, making faces and using exaggerrated gestures to make us understand. He was very funny.

We got to the other side without a problem (surprising since he let Karla steer and man the sail a bit), and climbed to the middle of a mountain, where we were let into the tombs of Noble peoples (mostly governors) which dated from around 2200 BC to the 1200's BC. They were little caves carved into the side of the hill, and had remained relatively intact. One of the things that we hadn't seen before was extensive heiroglyphics painted in detail. For example, the heiroglyphic character of an owl had a beak, two eyes and feathers! I can't imagine a written language that requires such detail. It was amazing to see the elaborate designs that decorated the final resting places of non-royalty. Cool!

We practically floated down the side of the cliff, running down the sand dunes, and hopped back in our felucca. This time our captain, after he nicely washed the donkey/camel dung that I had stepped in off in the Nile, started scooping out handfuls of water from the river directly into his mouth. He jokingly suggested that Karla and I should drink out of the Nile too, but we inwardly shuddered at the thought. He has a strong stomach!

On board again, we shared a final teatime with some of our fellow passengers, who joked that we would never leave the ship. We were tempted not to as we sipped our tea and watched the sunset one more time. So we re-said our goodbyes, and disembarked (for the last time!), humming the sappy panpipe soundtrack we had been listening to over and over again for the last 5 days. Our favorite track was Elton John's 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight". You can get the gist of the caliber of the rest of them.

We walked a short ways to our new hotel and checked in, before running a few errands, then wandering through the marketplace, looking for somewhere to eat dinner. Just when we had resigned ourselves to eating at a pizza place, we found a very clean-looking koshiri restaurant. It was perfect.

Once back at the hotel, we rounded out our meal with some beef that we had had leftover from Noha's (it had been refridgerated!), eating it with our hands on the only table we had available-the bed, and bemoaning how far we'd come from the luxurious river cruise.

Tomorrow we have to get up at 3 am for a long bus ride down to see the Temple of Abu Simbel. But we'll be ok...it looks like we'll be in bed by 8:15!
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Day 35: Oct 9th: Dam

2008-10-11T06:11:00.001-07:00

Today we woke at 6am (its starting to wear on us) to catch the Aswan Dams and the Temple of Isis before the heat could. The dams were quite impressive. The larger and older of the two was 4 kilometers long and 1 km wide! It was built with the help of an English engineer in 1902 and was the largest in the world at the time. The newer one was built with the Soviets in the second half of the twentieth century. Together they produce quite a bit of electricity for Egypt as well as for other countries. They also prevent flooding and make a larger agricultural area possible. It created Lake Nassar, the largest man-made lake in Egypt (most likely the largest in general). They were cool, but the Hoover dam is cooler in my opinion.

After a quick stop at the dams, we made our way to the Temple of Isis (aka Philae), which was formerly underwater, and was moved stone by stone to a man-made island in the 1800's. To get there we had to take a motorized (loud and smelly) version of a felucca (we had taken the real thing in Cairo) to even get to the temple. There were mobs of boats and people and salesmen, but it was still beautiful.

After a quick stop on the Symphony (our boat)we took a group felucca ride around Elephantine Island and the Botanical Gardens (former Kitchner's Island, another Englishman). It was quite beautiful and the breeze took some of the noon heat away.

We got back just in time for lunch at 1pm, which was as always a buffet- and a pretty good one at that. Since we've been feeling so much better these days, we've been able to appretiate the food more (although I'm still relying mostly on soup (its just so gooood)).

Post-mealtime we threw on the old bathing suits (an awesome one-piece for me) and hit the pool deck. We lounged, napped, took a dip, and then awaited tea time at sunset (around 5:10). We were lucky enough to be one of the boats tied on the outside (there were two other boats between us and land). We had an excellent view of the sun setting lazily over the feluccas carrying crowds of people. It was magical. But really.

Just then, one of the waiters (not the one in love with Alicia) came over to the table of Lebanese honeymooners to perform a magic trick. It was pretty cool, but we were skeptical as you might imagine. He held out a napkin and had them put in a wooden toothpick. He folded the napkin around it and then had them break it into pieces while it was in the napkin. Then they blew some magic on it and he unfolded the napkin to reveal a whole toothpick. Amazing! (How easily we are entertained).

Tonights entertainment was the "Nubian party." It was short but very fun and energetic. Not nearly as weird as the last one. They pulled all of us up onto the dance floor to dance to their drums. Then before we knew it, the show was all over and we were sitting in our seats staring at an empty stage listening to Dolly Parton sing/cry. I guess they had another show to do on the next boat.
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Day 34: Oct 8th: Dedicated to the ancient god, Horus

2008-10-10T09:51:00.001-07:00

In the night (around midnight) we went through the lock. There wasn't much to look at, but you could feel the boat knocking the side of the lock with a jolt during the hour it took to get two boats through. No wonder we were sitting at the lock for over 7 hours!

In the morning we awoke early to tour the temple of Edfu. This temple was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god. Again, we saw huge statues, colorful decorations and wall reliefs. It's hard to describe because all the temples are so different, but on paper (or in our cyber-world) they all sound the same!

We went back to the boat for a few hours to have a dip in the pool, lunch, shower, and have tea time before heading for a tour of Kom Ombo. This site was also very beautiful and packed with endless reliefs on the walls. It's dedicated to Horus and Sobek, the crocodile god of healing. We were there at sunset and saw the whole temple light up, first with the last rays of sunlight from across the Nile, then with the giant lights from the floor.

We rushed back to the ship to make it back before we set sail for Aswan. We shared yet another lovely dinner with Mark and Eleanor, before heading upstairs for the Galabaya party.
This was one of the weirdest parties that either of us had ever been to. The point was to dress up like an Egyptian. Of course, neither of us had bought traditional Egyptian clothing, and weren't comfortable covering our heads in the traditional Muslim manner, so we just wore shawls and kind of went along for the ride.

So the 'costume party' part did not make it weird. What made it weird was the crazy games that they had us playing. (And of course the fact that everyone spoke a different language). For exanple, one of the games was for the women to dance in a circle, and when the music stopped, to grab a spoon. Of course, there were casualties. Eleanor and I had the same idea to grab a spoon across the way and both ended up sliding for it at the same time...we both got minor floorburn - mine wasn't as bad seeing as I know how to properly slide :) - and I ended up winning some fruit juice. It was very exciting. Another game was "for couples", so Karla and I got up right away. The object was for her to mummify me with TP to the best of her ability in 5 minutes. We tied this game with Mark and Eleanor. We were all pretty proud of our table of champs!

After the Galabaya, Karla and I played ping pong with another friend, Matthew, that we had made from South Africa, and are now looking at very little sleep. Tomorrow's another early day!

We almost forgot to mention that upon returning to our rooms for lunch time, we found a nice surprise in our room. They had made a crocodile out of our towels. They were so proud of themselves when they came over to make sure we liked it. The day before they had made swans. Clearly they have far too much time on their hands.
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Day 33: Oct 7th: How you feeling? Hot, hot, hot!

2008-10-10T03:03:00.001-07:00

The wake up call was bright and early today: 5:30am. It would have been fine except that I was feeling quite terrible. Alicia made it down for breakfast, but I only managed to make it to the bus on time. Our first stop were the Colossus of Memnon. They were quite splendid and impressive, and reminded me of the sphinx the way they were falling apart and all. The birds were happy to call their faces home.

After this, we endured another short bus ride to the Valley of the Kings. We were there quite early but already the sun was starting to get very hot and the crowds were pouring in. After a brief but thorough introduction from our guide, we quickly made our way to the suggested tombs. First stop was Tuthmosis III (step son of Queen Hapshepsut). To get to this tomb we had to climb up a narrow metal staircase of 32 steps. As we waited to decend into the tomb, we saw people come pouring out just exhausted. We took one more breath of fresh air before climbing down alongside the people eager to exit. Upon entering, we crossed over a giant well used to dissuade robbers from entering. Once across this we walked down yet another ramp to get to the tomb chamber. The drawings everywhere were spectacular. They weren't as colorful or detailed as others (in fact most of them were almost stick-figures), but there were so many stories being told. They covered every inch of the rooms. The heat inside the tomb was surprisingly like a sauna. Not cooler at all.

With only an hour left before the bus departed, we hurried out to get to King Tut's tomb. This was far easier to get to and not crowded at all as it cost another 8 bucks to get in (for students). The tomb was much smaller, but the paintings were still beautiful. The scale of the paintings was much larger as well (individual figured covered an entire wall). Also in the tomb was one of the three gold mummy coffin shells and the mummy himself. It was interesting to see how young he looked compared to the ones we saw in the museum. At least he looked relatively peacefull being in his own tomb.

Next came the tomb of Ramses IV. This tomb wasn't too hard to enter, not counting the line. I was too weak to wait in the sun so Alicia graciously waited for the two of us. Once inside, we were greeted with colorful wall paintings and large hallways leading to the end room. The paintings were quite vivid as well.

After this we tried to go to one last tomb but we didn't have enough time and had to get back to the bus. Our next destination was the Temple of Hetshepsut only a short ways away. It was very impressive in size, and was made to look even more prominent with huge cliffs looming behind it. There were quite a few large scale statues still standing at the entrance, and the paintings inside were amazing and very beautiful. We'd say they may have been some of our favorite yet. It was amazing that as many colors had survived exposed to the sun for thousands of years. The story behind the temple was especially interesting. The queen wanted complete power in Egypt and so claimed to be the son of Amun-Ra instead of the Daughter of Ramses II. It was here that Tuthmosis III had defaced her image within the temple in order to claim it as his own. But even in its damaged state, it was a incredible temple.

Of course we couldn't go the whole day without being taken to a market where there was free tea, clean bathrooms, and of course an onyx and alabaster shop. While we took advantage of the two former, we left the latter to the adults. Whilst they were purchasing, we chatted with the Egyptians outside "working" the alabaster stone. I asked if they were actually making something or if they were just chipping away. Sure enough, they were just chipping. The next logical (to them) question to ask was of course if we were married. Alicia said yes as she had her "wedding ring" on and I said no, adding that I was worth over a hundred camels. We all laughed, knowing that everyone on the street trying to sell you something will often compare a woman to how many camels she's worth. Its of course completely ridiculous and quite disturbing, but you've just got to laugh. We ended the conversation with one of the demonstrators pulling out a picture of his wife and daughter. It's all a show, with a little truth behind it. Sadly.

We got back to the boat to do some relaxing by the pool. As you might imagine, this was a rather foreign concept to us, but we quickly settled into the routine and awaited tea time at sunset. We were sailing towards Aswan at this point, passing amazing scenery and small towns. The setting sun over the Nile is unlike any other sunset for sure. Especially when you catch the occasional nude bather (they were really far away don't worry) and the teenager washing his clothes (strange!)

Right around sunset we arrived at the lock in the river. There was quite the backup of boats and the Egyptian boat salesmen were benefiting. It was quite the spectacle. These small boats would come up right next to the ship and from way down below they would yell up trying to sell their shirts, scarves, and carpets. When they thought (it didn't matter if someone was or not) that someone was interested, they would put the item in a plastic bag and chuck it up on the sundeck. They even got one in the pool. Then it would be thrown back down to them after someone had looked at it and decided they didn't want it. We don't know how they would have ended up getting the money as no one on our boat made a purchase. It was very fun to watch.

As it was bingo night after dinner, we opted for the cozy bed (they are awesome!). Until tomorrow!
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Day 32: Oct 6: Luxor

2008-10-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived to Luxor via overnight train. We got in at 6:30 after a light breakfast of tea and cake. We both felt a little ill but we got everything together in time. I guess we didn't look ready because the guy kept coming back to make sure we were ready. Once off the train we were groggy and still waking up. Immediately upon stepping out of the station, cab drivers were basically at our throats like never before. We were not in the mood, and so put our angry faces and voices on. It didn't help, but we finally got someone to take us for a reasonable price to the Symphony cruise ship, one of many kilometers of boats along the banks of the Nile.

We arrived at our ship and checked in, trying to gather energy to explore Luxor. We grabbed a bite of apple and bread and headed towards the Luxor museum. It was really cool to see: there were dozens of statues recently excavated (within the last 50 years) from the Temples of Luxor and Karnak. There were also two mummies (!), one of Ramses I and one that we'd never heard of. It was cool to see the mummies, especially Ramses, who still had hair! But we weren't sure how we felt about putting someone's body in a glass case for everyone to examine, no matter how long he'd been dead.

After a couple of hours in the museum, my illness and fatigue started to hit me again, and we had to take a cab home. A nap before lunch did us well! We both had a very plain lunch, and felt a little better after eating. Thankfully, we were both feeling up to the afternoon's tours!

We boarded the tour bus (feeling a little out of place as we normally do all we can to avoid the big tours!), and made our way to the Temple of Karnak. The scale of the temple complex alone was impressive. It was massive! For example, in the entrance hall alone, there were 134 colossal columns in the shape of palm trees, which once supported the roof. There were hundreds of inscriptions and painted carvings on the walls, as well as 2 obelisks (thery're always made in pairs!) and a Sacred Lake where battles and performances were staged.

We left the Karnak Temple as the sun was setting over the Nile, and arrived at the Luxor Temple as dusk was falling. This was guarded by two gigantuan statues of Ramses II, and was the temple of his wife (whereas Karnak was his temple). As was traditional, Ramses II's temple was facing East-West, and his wifes was facing North-South, running along the lines of the Nile, representing fertility, and together forming the shape of a cross. The temple was especially cool to see as night fell and the lights were lit - it gave the place quite a magical feeling.

We climbed back on the bus and had a little time to kill before dinner, so Karla napped again, and I went off in search of electrolyte powder. (Successfully I might add...there must be a lot of sick foreigners in Luxor!)

Dinner was appetizing for me, but not so for Karla. It seems like she has the extended version of this thing. Poor kid. We made friends with this lovely Irish couple, who are also in our tour group, then met them upstairs after dinner for the bellydancing show. The first act was this man wearing a sort of hoop-skirt that remained suspended in mid-air, who spun continuously for 20 minutes. It made us dizzy just watching him! Next was the bellydancer. Despite the fact that neither of us has ever seen a live belly dancing show, we thought she was sub-par. At least she succeeded in making our new Irish friend dance, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching her boyfriend laugh at her. We didn't have enough energy to join in. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be well enough to fully participate in Bingo night. Who knew that we'd be on the senior citizen's cruise? Haha, not really.
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Day 31: October 5. The Pyramids.

2008-10-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

Today we got to see the pyramids! Karam took us to Giza (only stopping to ask directions twice!) and we wandered around the complex. The sphinx was really cool, although we all decided that its head is too small for its body, and his feet were way too big as well.

We of course can't leave out the fact that Alicia accidentally got on a camel as it made barking noises. At first of course he said to take a picture of him. Then he made the camel sit down and then through a series of hilarious events, Alicia was suddenly up in the air hanging on for dear life. All I got on film was her saying "put me down!" And when he did and we walked away, he wanted baksheesh (tips). Of course we didn't because he said it was free! Oh well, it wouldn't be a complete day without some Egyptian yelling at us.

We wandered around the three big pyramids in the complex. Strangely, it was only crowded around the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, and no one really ventured over to see the smaller ones. It was really hot, and kind of windy, so I guess people just didn't want to cross the sandy desert to get there. That didn't faze us! We even got to see a mock horse race in the sand.

We left Giza, stopping to buy two large, cold waters, and got driven to Suqqara, which was another temple and pyramid complex-the largest in Cairo. We saw the Step Pyramid, which was the first pyramid ever built! We also got to look into the tombs of some servants of the pharohs, which was cool because even they, while not nearly as large or imposing, are decorated with intricate carvings and colorful depictions of life and the after-life. It was very cool to see. Unfortunately we didn't get to see everything but we had to get back for the train (at least it was free to walk around).

We left around 4 and went back to Noha's house. We had a snack (and realized that we'd forgotten to eat lunch since it was so hot!), and packed up. Kit and Karam dropped us off at the train station (we will miss having Kit around), and now we're on board the sleeper train to Luxor. The car is very cool - we have a private room with 3 seats which pull out into bunk beds, and a little sink and table. This should be a much more comfortable way to travel than the night busses!

Tomorrow we will tour Luxor...
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Day 29: October 3. Welcome to Egypt!

2008-10-06T05:27:00.001-07:00

We intended to make an early start to the day, but got quite distracted by a pleasant breakfast and great conversation (Noha is so interesting to talk to!), and before we knew it, it was 10:00.

Noha allowed us to borrow her personal driver for the day to go practically anywhere we wanted to go. Amazing!!! Our only time contraint was getting back to Noha's house in time to meet Kit at 1pm (and for lunch of course) who was getting there from the airport. For those of you who don't know Kit, he was a classmate of ours at Wesleyan (also played baseball) who had studied in Cairo (actually happed to live right down the street from Noha in a dormatory (it's a small world!)). The plan was to go to the Citadel as well as the oldest mosque in Cairo before he arrived. The Citadel had a really great view of the city (you could even see the pyramids!) And housed a beautiful mosque, a lovely open-air mosque, the military museum, and Muhammad Ali's throne room inside the palace museum.

After this we made our way in the car (stopping often to ask for directions) to the Ibn Talun mosque, the oldest but not the biggest mosque in Cairo. Unfortunately we got there during the call to prayer and we couldn't wait to go in because we had to get back to meet Kit. We decided to go back later.

We got back to the house to find Kit having already arrived. It was a joyous reunion. We had a lovely home-cooked lunch of a traditional Egyptian soup, then were off to try to visit the Tulun mosque again. Unfortunately our driver, although extremely friendly and well-intentioned, has a terrible sense of direction, and doesn't know his way around Cairo all that well. At least he's not afraid to stop and ask for directions, something we did often.

When we finally made it to Ibn Tulun, it had closed for the day. We got ushered into a small mosque next door, fending off demands for baksheeh (tips). We stayed in there about 5 min, then asked our driver (whose name is Karam) to take us to this area of the city where the people sort the trash that comes in from all of Cairo, called Zuberia.

Karam really didn't want us to be there. We tried to explain that we were interested in seeing how garbage was sorted, but he didn't understand, and got pretty upset. He told us we had 5 minutes, and he wasn't happy about it. It turns out that he just gets very sad to see his fellow egyptians living in such poverty. Who can blame him?

We started walking through the Zuberia, watching the people literally sitting on top of garbage and sorting it to be recycled. They make a living selling the stuff they sort to be recycled, and they live there amongst all the flies, dirt and animals.

Karem drove through less than 3 minutes later and told us to get in the car. We drove through the main street, and he tried to explain that it made him sad to see people living like that, which is why he didn't want us going there. The whole experience was very enlightening.

At this point it was too late to go to Old Cairo, which had been our plan. The traffic was atrocious, and everyone was leaning on their horns, but we got the full Cairo experience! Karem still seemed to feel bad about Zuberia (as well as the fact that he got lost every 2 seconds!), and offered to take us out to dinner.

We tried hard to refuse, but he wouldn't have it, so he took us to...KFC! We think he thought that's what we would want, but when Kit pointed out that it was more expensive than some other restaurants, we explained to him that we would prefer to try Egyptian food.

We walked to a foule place (beans), and Kit and Karla tried sandwiches, while I had a dish. It was delicious! Since foule is not necessarily meant to be a main meal, we went to another restaurant to grab some koshiri. Koshiri is a delicious concoction of beans, rice, macaroni and tomato sauce. Karla and I loved it!

Next we went to a cafe right on the Nile to have tea. We watched to feluccas moving by and the colors of the boats and hotels reflected in the calm water. It was beautiful!

Because it was a nice night, we decided to walk back to Noha's. We're currently in the middle of the festival that comes at the end of Ramadan, so the streets were packed with people of all ages. It's amazing - we were treated like minor celebrities! Despite our attempts to blend in, we still stuck out, and people would stare at us as they passed (especially children!) and many many people yelled at us, "Welcome to Egypt!" It was kind of cool. One group of teenagers even asked to take a picture with us! It seems quite bizarre to me that in a major city with one of the ancient wonders of the world just minutes away, they would still make such a big deal about seeing a white person. But I guess a lot of people just take big tours, and don't really walk around much on their own.

Regardless, we enjoyed our little walk and got home virtually unscathed, except for Kit who got his butt pinched twice. But actually.
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Day 30: October 4. Walk like an Egyptian.

2008-10-06T05:27:00.000-07:00

We woke up early again this morning and had another leisurely breakfast with Noha, before setting out again. We decided this time to forgo the car, and take the metro. We rode it down to Old Cairo, which is the Christian area of the city. Along our way, we went into a Chrisitan graveyard, where I was quite surprised by the size of the tombs (more like mausoleums) and the number of epitaphs written in French. Kit gave us a brief lesson on how to read Arabic numbers, and we carried on to Old Cairo.

This area of the city, also known as Coptic Cairo, had a very distinct medieval feel to it. We wandered around for a while, poking our heads into churches and whistling through graveyards before wandering back towards the metro.

We were looking for a juice stand for some fresh-squeezed juice, but were unable to find the one we had passed on our way there. We ended up drinking some cold sugar cane juice, which was surprisingly delicious (despite its greenish hue), and tastes exactly like you would imagine it to taste.

Just as we neared the metro, we saw a mecca sent from the gods: a juice stand. We got aome mango juice, and the kind propriator found us some chairs so we could sit down and enjoy it. Because we weren't that close to Coptic Cairo at this point, we were an anomoly there too. Kit even noticed that a guy pointed us out to his wife so she could see the Westerners!

We took the metro back up to the main square, then took a cab to the souq (market). We decided to go to the Al -Azhar mosque first. As we were sitting outside reading about it in our book, an older man approached us and told us that he had taught there for many years (the mosque is also a learning center for Islam), and that he was a direct descendant from Mohammed. He told us about the history of the building, then invited us for tea. After tea, he showed us his friend's spice shop, and taught us quite a bit about all the spices and what they are used for. And then (we should have known this was coming!) he showed us his work shop where he and his son made boxes inlayed with mother-of-pearl. They were beautiful, but Kit and I were kicking ourselves a little bit for not anticipating the hard sell.

After this little diversion, we got into the mosque and looked around. It was actually quite different from the other mosques we've been to: instead of being a big open square space, it was more rectangular, and littered with columns. There was also a surprising number of men taking naps there, which I found bizarre, but it's apparently socially acceptable. I believe that we forgot to mention that we had to put on full robes in yesturday's open mosque. There are pictures.

Our next stop was lunch, and we had it at this "Egyptian pancake" restaurant...it was a cross between a crepe and a pizza. But quite good. After lunch, we wandered around the souq for a long while, each of us putting our haggling face on, and looking for presents for different people. The whole time we were there, people would shout at Kit "Two wives? Very lucky man!" One guy even shouted "I would kill my wife for you!" It's hilarious what people shout as they pass! (This last line is definitly up there with Turkey's "hey woman" and "yes please 1, 2, 3, 4" comments) We've also been "welcome(d) to Egypt" by just about everyone.

The souq had a very different feel from the bazaars in Turkey, but the bargaining was the same. On our way back to the center of town, we saw some sheep in the middle of the road, and as we turned our heads, we saw a man holding down one sheep, while it was twitching. We noticed that the street was dark with blood: we were watching a sheep be slaughtered right in the road!

We caught a cab to the heart of the city, and grabbed some koshiri (it's the new Greek pita!) for dinner. Soon, we met up with Karam, and he took us north to find a felucca. We ended up paying 70 Egyptian pounds for all 4 of us to rent out the boat for one hour. We spent a very peaceful hour watching the party feluccas and the Nile go by. By this time, it was quite late, so we called it a night. Pyramids tomorrow!
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Day 28: October 2. King Tut...buried with his donkey!

2008-10-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

Long day began with saying bye to my family in Greece in the wee hours, and flying from Athens to Cairo. We were met by the lovely Noha, who is our gracious and most generous hostess. She took us back to her appartment right in the center of the city and led us to a giant bedroom, and we immediately felt right at home!

After lunch, we took a cab to the Egyptian Museum. Talk about a way to get right into history! Our time there was far too short, but we got to see statues, mummified animals, jewelry, sarchophogi, and of course, King Tut! His rooms were by far the most sumptuous (which makes sense seeing as his was one of very few tombs that were not looted!), and it was really cool to see his sarcophogus and funeral mask in person!

Shortly after our audience with his grace the boy-king, the museum closed. Karla and I decided to walk back to Noha's, stopping along the way to watch the people dancing in the feluccas on the Nile. It was quite the spectacle with the music and dancing!

We spent a short time at Noha's before heading out to the pyramids (for the first time!!!) to see the Light and Sound show! The pyramids are every bit as breathtaking as people say. Even in the dark, and even though we were far away, I sat through most of the show in absolute awe of them. Of course I enjoyed the show too!

We then piled back in the car and went to dinner. Noha treated us to a feast of traditional foods, all of which we thoroughly enjoyed, despite our exhaustion from the long day. Walking home was the perfect nightcap...now off to get some rest for another big day tomorrow!
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Day 27: October 1.

2008-10-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

We sat around breakfast this morning trying to figure out what to do with our day. We decided to walk first to Likavittos Hill to ride the funicular to the top and see the view. We did just that.

Although the day was hazy, the view from the top was great. We stayed up there about half an hour, getting a feel for the layout of Athens, and stopping in the little church on the top of the hill.

We rode the funicular back down, then walked toward the center of town. Our next stop was the complex of the Temple of Zeus, the Roman baths and Hadrian's Arch. The temple was quite impressive: first of all, it's HUGE, and second, there's a great view of the Acropolis through the columns that remain standing. The Arch was pretty, and it was funny to think of it as one man's monument to himself (which is exactly what it is). And the baths, although not much remains of them, are still my favorite to look at. I've always been fascinated by the culture of the Roman bath.

Soon we were walking toward Hadrian's library (it's all about him today!) and stopped along the way for lunch. Karla and I felt quite at home eating the Anatolian cuisine (read: Turkish food), although Abigail struggled to pick something she liked from the menu. But I think she ended up happy.

Along the way to the library, we did some shopping in the Plaka marketplace. I was looking for some capris - to replace the ones I brought which unfortunately ripped - Karla was looking for a gift for our next hostess, and Aba wanted. a scarf. All having succeeded, we finally made it to Hadrian's library. What made this site unique was the fact that a church had been built over the library, but the the church was destroyed in the 1800's to try to uncover the library. So there was two eras of ruins right on top of each other.

The next stop was supposed to be the National Archaeological Museum. But we got there and decided that we were all a little museum-ed out, so we stopped to rest at a small cafe instead. I tried 'Greek coffee' which is kind of like a frappacino, except much stronger and less icy. And more delicious.

Caffinated and rejuvinated, we went for round 2 of shopping, before finding our way to the old Olympic stadium. This was where the first modern Games were held in the 1800's, right on the site of the ancient games. Unfortunately, they were setting up for a performance of some kind, so we couldn't go in. But we got to see it, and got to see a beautiful sunset over the Acropolis right behind us.

Soon we were hungry for dinner, so we went to a pleasant restaurant in the Plaka district, before walking back to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow we say goodbye to my family and move on to more adventures in a new country. Egypt, here we come!
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Day 26: Sept 30th:

2008-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

We (along with our three wonderful new travel buddies) awoke again to have some yummy greek yogurt. Once refueled, we gathered the troops and looked into car rentals so we could explore outside of the city.

We made our way through Athens' traffic in search of a way out so we could get to Corinth in Peloponnese. Driving along the water and the ports was really quite pretty. We had a couple of incidents in the modern city of Corinth, including trying to turn around in a narrow street, just as school was getting out for the day, and the street was flooded with hundreds of laughing Greek teenagers. They got quite a kick out of our predicament.

Upon arriving at our destination, we sought out the ancient city where Saint Paul had once traveled to preach. The city was impressive and in a way similar to Ephesus (another port city in Turkey) except that the actual ruins appeared smaller. There was a great view of the water which was a nice touch.

It was also nice to see Corinth with people who haven't been seeing a lot of ruins lately. They brought a green sense of awe to the day that was surprisingly refreshing!

We then made our way in the car to the beach. We had quite a little adventure getting there, passing through small villages, and seeing the largest grape bunches any of us had ever seen! (Pictures still to come. We promise!)

Like many other Greek beaches, the one we found was pebbly and beautiful. We still haven't found a beach quite as nice as the one we went to in Santorini. It's hard to beat the secluded, quiet, and clean beach with gorgeous scenery that we had.

From there we started to head back to Athens. We had a good view of the Ithmis Canal, which was quite impressive, when crossing between the Agean and Ionian seas.

Back in Athens we got some dinner (and baklava)and are now ready to tour Athens by foot tomorrow. Museums here we come!
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Day 25: Sept 29th: Don't touch the marble

2008-09-30T00:41:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how these centuries old ruins are so fragile. Even in their damaged state, its hard to think about them as deteriorating at a rapid rate. But indeed they are. The air pollution, the botched repairs, the tourists, mother nature. The list goes on. I guess its all about slowing the aging process down. But no matter how hard we try, someday there won't be many traces left. But in the meantime, don't touch the marble!

Today started off in the usual fashion: breakfast at the hotel (the Greek yogurt was fantastic!) followed by a quick exploration of the area surrounding our hotel. But, around 11, our travel pattern shifted when our visitors arrived: Alicia's parents and sister, Abigail. They were jetlagged and exhausted from not sleeping on the overnight flight, but being troopers, they rallied quickly and we were on our way!

Our first stop in Athens, (cliche I know) was the Acropolis. Shockingly (ok maybe not), we walked to the highest point first thing. The ruins were not nearly as extensive as I had envisioned (after seeing Ephesus in Turkey), but I needed to remind myself that many of these ruins have been around since before Roman times. Although they were maintained during Roman occupation, the ruins and the rest of the city went through so many changes and wars that it's a wonder any of it survived at all. Yet the Parthenon still stands (news flash!) and is impressive (even when wrapped in scaffolding). As we walked around and read the guidebook's explanations, we were struck by how many questions we still had. For example, how exactly was the transition in Athens from Greeks to Romans (other than the fact that the Romans loved to borrow their clothing, housing, and artistic styles)? We had all taken some sort of ancient Greek and Roman history class, but when the real thing is in front of you, everything you thought you knew goes out the window. You start saying: oh wait, but why is this like this?...I thought that it was.....and so on.

I so wanted my Roman Archeology professor there to make sense of all the chaos for me. They always made it look so easy. The museum explanations help a little by explaining the time periods and different styles, but they often fail to explain how the puzzle all fits together. Another example of this is found in the different painting styles throughout antiquity. Why is it that the ancient Roman and Greek artists are more successful in accurately representing the human body and face, as well as a sense of perspective, than medieval artists? Why is it that even in the same city, the manner of painting humans seems more rudimentary as time progresses from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and this style isn't rekindled until the Renaissance? The history of Athens is so long and so complicated; I don't know how anyone managed to put it all together.

After our heads (maybe it was just mine) were reeling, we walked mindlessly through the Plaka - the street markets - selling trinkets and scarves to tourists. I almost got a small bronze helmet but then realized that if it looked corny on the shelf in the store it would only look worse on my shelf. Maybe a scarf would be a better souvenir. Yet, I might hold off until India where it will be so much cheaper (Euros are really hurting us).

After exploring the shops around the Plaka, we headed back to the hotel to regroup before dinner. After a delicious meal, we headed out to seek our favorite treat- baklava. But as it turns out, out of the 15 shops we looked in, none of them sold it. We couldn't believe it. In Turkey it was found on every street corner. Sadly, we went back empty handed.

Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.
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Day 24: Sept 28: Ahoy!

2008-09-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

The first thing Alicia did this morning was try really really hard to upload pictures for your enjoyment. Much to our (mostly her) dismay, the computer session timed out mere seconds before we finished. It was a real nail-biter.

After a lovely breakfast on the roof top, we said good-bye to the donkey across the street (he wouldn't stop ringing the bell around his neck all night) and headed for Fira to explore the museum life. First, I should mention that Alicia had decided that she was sick of wearing capris and t shirts all the time and thought that a more colorful outfit consisting of her sleeping spandex, her bed sheet (a blue shawl) and bathing suit top would do the trick. And so it did.

The first museum was a room full of ceramics from Santorini from the 8th through 6th centuries BC. The explanations mentioned the date and the type of object. There was no history, nor was there any other informatiom on the pieces. Unsatisfied, we sought out the Museum of Prehistoric Thira, and found a really impressive museum. We learned more about the history and the way of life of the ancient people who occupied the island from the 4th milenium until early Roman occupation. Who knew that it is one of the most important archeological sites of a culture that existed before Pompeii's. The wall frescos and pottery pieces were stunning. After touring the barren island (except for grape vines and houses) it was hard to believe that there was much left in decent condition after the explosion around 1650 BC (that's what lonely planet and the museum said). All we saw were rocks and volcanic ash. But apparently, only about 5% of the Akrotiri site has been excavatedso far. Those archeologists better get cracking before another eruption covers everything with several more layers of volcanic matter. Seriously.

After this, we were hungry and it wasn't long before we were nestled on some park bench eating our 2€ pork gyros. I don't know what I'll do without them.

We then caught a bus to take us down to our 330 ferry (costing the equivalent of another dinner!) And piled on the bus with all of the other people following us to Athens.

Once on the boat we had our snack of a chocolate croissant (Alicia thought it was the best one she'd had outside of France-wow!) and watched the ferry pull away from shore. It was an overcast day and we decided we'd picked the best day for the beach two days previous and felt slightly bad for those who hadn't.

The boat's scheduled to get in at 1130pm and we have a few half plans of how to get to the hotel that we are meeting Alicias parents at when they get in in the morning.

We've thus far passed the time eating, reading, and solemnly staring at each other. Kidding of course! It's only ever boat loads of fun with us.

Ps, her sun burn is better thanks to me.

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Day 23: September 27. Biker chics.

2008-09-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

We started the day with an extremely quick breakfast, and dashed to make the 850 bus from Oia to Fira, which is the main city on Santorini. There we purchased our ferry tickets for tomorrow back to Athens (for real this time!) and we rented an ATV for the day! It was fairly cheap, and don't worry...the rental fee included helmets.

We started on our way, driving toward the lighthouse at the southern tip of the island. Alicia drove first, having had minimal experience driving one out in Minnesota as a kid. We took in the view of the whole island there, noting where we began in Oia and where we rented the ATV in Fira. From here, Karla took the handlebars and delivered us safely to the Red Beach.

Once we parked, we had to walk about 5 min to get to the actual beach, over and around the cliffs. The Red Beach gets its name from the giant red cliffs that are the backdrop to the beach. The sand itslef is even a muddy red tint! It was beautiful, but windy and a bit chilly, and much more crowded than our beach yesterday. We were thankful that we picked yesterday to be our beach day!

After a quick juice stop at a grocery store, we arrived in Pigros for lunch. Then we carried on to the highest mountain on Santorini, crowned by a monastary. It was unfortunately closed (we haven't been having much luck with religious edifaces here!), and we were very thankful that for once we hadn't walked up! We walked around the monastary to the bare rocks on top of the mountain, and took in the scenery for quite some time. We could see the ocean on 3 sides, and 3 other Greek islands!

We spent some time trying to figure out whether this panorama would make us believe the world was round or flat, the hopped back on our 4-wheeler, heading south again toward the town of Perissa. This beach was named as the nicest on the island by one of our tour books, but Karla and I still prefer our little isolated beach in Oia! Nonetheless, we relaxed there for a while, although it was by this time a bit too chilly to swim.

Next on our biker tour was a small vineyard in Megalochori called Antione's. We sampled a white, a red and a dessert wine. Shockingly, the dessert wine was by far the best...the white and the red were very lack-lustre and simple. Karla thought it must be because the conditions are so comparatively harsh here for grapes.

The wine tasting over, we went back to Fira to grab a quick bite before taking the ATV to a place we had scoped out along the caldera to watch the sunset. It was much cloudier this evening than last night, but our spot was ideal because we not only had a great view of the main event, but also of the volcanic island in the middle of the caldera.

After sunset, we returned our ATV and explored Fira on foot for a couple of hours. Fira too seemed much less crowded than Oia did that first night, but maybe we're just getting used to the tourist mob!

We took a bus back to Oia for our last night in Santorini. Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Athens!
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Day 22: Sept 26. A day of rest.

2008-09-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning on the terrace overlooking the Aegean, then meandered down to the beach, which is a 15 minute walk from our hostel in Oia. It was beautiful! The sea was a vivid aquamarine closest to the shore, and a deep blue further out. We (finally!) spent a fully relaxing day swimming, reading and napping in the bright sunshine between the cliffs.

We walked back up (another hill!) to our hostel around 530. There we rinsed off, then ate a quick dinner (those €2 gyros are keeping us going!), and walked back down toward the beach. Oia is known for its views of the sunset over the caldera, so we decided we had to see it at least one night! The sun seemed to melt into the horizon, becoming a vivid orange-red before it disappeared. We sat on the beach watching the last pinks and oranges of the sunset fade into the deep blue night sky, then walked back up to our hostel in the dark. But fear not, avid readers: we came prepared with our flashlights to light our way home!

We took care of some business this evening, and are now settling in for the night. Karla is currently icing down my back which got a tad sunburned despite my careful application and re-application of sunscreen. Come to think of it, Karla did my back...
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Day 21: Sept 25: If I could walk five hundred miles...

2008-09-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

I know you guys know we like to walk, but there does come a point were being tired and hungry and following a terrible map can make you crazy.

We got to that point.

So today we woke up earlyish to grab the complimentary breakfast of bread, cake, tea, and juice at 830. It was nice but not quite enough. Next time we'll grab yogurt the night before. We then took a bus to Fira/Thira where we could catch another bus to the southern part of the island. The bus rides themselves aren't that long, but between waiting for the buses and the connections it took a long time. Overall the bus system is not visitor friendly at all. No stops or roads are marked. To get to any other town not between you and Thira, you have to go to Thira first. The bus stops also don't have the schedules there most of the time. It could come every hour or half hour depending on the stop. We ran into a couple problems later, but not too bad since we were doing mostly walking (the special student discount ride). Actually riding is around a euro and a half each time you get on. It adds up.

Upon arriving at Perissa, a popular beach, we most immediately started walking up in the hot sun (not a cloud in the sky) with our long sleeve shirts on (someone had said it was going to rain all day) to the top of a barren 396 meter high mountain/hill towards what were supposedly Roman and ancient ruins. The oldest dating to the 3rd century BC. The Romans had discovered ruins from the Minoan civilization and built a city nearby. The giant eruption (one of the largest in history) was in 1650 BC and wiped out life on the island until around the 3rd century. Anyway, the ruins were actually really extensive. We were impressed after having walked so long with no sign of ruins. And, it was free!

By the time we were starving and decided we could get to food the fastest by walking down the other side of the mountain (which was the second highest point on the island). When we got to Kamari, another beach town, we downed juice, a cheese pie, and two delicious gyros. But they are just so good...

From here we tried getting into a couple of beautiful churches but they were locked. So we took a bus to the center of the island to check out some other cute towns. Of course, streets and towns were not marked (we had the map and were trying to be careful!) And we went too far. Being stubborn, we walked (after grabbing a delicious icecream) towards Pygros. Passing through some other towns, we didn't see nearly as many tourists, which was especially nice. When we got to Pygros (of course on a hill) we walked from one gorgeous really old church to the next, hoping to get at least a look inside one of them. No luck though. From the top we saw another larger and more promising church below and decided we had enough time before the sunset. We got lucky and were able to poke our heads in. It was very ornate, with darker colors in the frescos and dark wood furniture. We didn't stay long though and headed to the bus stop across the street hoping one would pass. When it didn't we decided to head back up closer to a bigger town. After finding another stop, we asked a couple local shop keepers when the next bus was. The only good answer we got was, "maybe around 8". And so we waited. Hoping. And it came! Amazing.

We rode back to Fira and then headed to Oia where our hostel is. We ate and then headed to our rooms. We are exhausted and are looking forward to beaching most of the day tomorrow.
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Day 20: September 24th. Transitions.

2008-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

The ferry ride from Athens to Santorini was beautiful. We could see Greek islands in the distance, surrounded by miles of deep blue ocean for pretty much the entire 8 hour journey.

We landed at the port of Athinios in Santorini, and jammed onto a crowded bus to Fira, the capital city of the island. From there, we took another bus to Oia at the northern tip of the island, and checked into a hostel that looks classically Santorini. It's just beautiful here: the tops of the churches really are painted a deep blue, and the cliffs drop dramatically into the ocean. In fact, the Greek isles in general are much more abrupt than I anticipated. There are no rolling beaches, no gradual slopes. There's the ocean, and then bam! There's a mountain! Granted, Santorini is the site of one of the biggest eruptions in the earth's history, but still.

Once we settled into our hostel, we explored Oia by foot. As we walked around, there were throngs of people lined up to see the sunset. We were overwhelmed by the crowd of tourists...overall we get a very different feel from them than we did from our fellow travelers in Turkey. This crowd seems much less likely to get up early to hike, less likely to seek out and talk to local people, and much more likely to spend all night partying, and buy a lot of useless crap. It's an interesting change of pace.

After a delicious pita dinner, we wandered the streets a bit more, trying to get our bearings. Luckily, we stumbled across a little bakery, so that we could try Greek baklava! It's in fact quite different from Turkish baklava: it's a lot thicker and heavier, and tastes of cinnamon and walnuts, instead of just walnuts and honey. The jury is still out on which is better.

Although it's still early, we're about to hit the hay...it's been a while since we slept horizontally!

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Day 19 continued

2008-09-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Oops. It sent before I finished.

...We got money out (€) and headed to find some dinner. After filling up on delicious pitas, we sat in the square waiting for the 1030 ferry. When the time came we got on and found some seats (much more comfy than the bus seats). We put our luggage away and tried the best we could to sleep.

We awoke on the 24th at 6am to tried to get off first and catch the 730 ferry to Santorini. When we got off, the Hellenic ferry booth was closed and we had no idea as to which part of the port we were at. Desperate, we asked a taxi driver where we could get tickets to Santorini (he was the only person who spoke english). Turns out we could take the free shuttle bus to the other side of the port where Blue Star Ferry Co was. We grabbed our deck seats and made a bee line for a table so we could eat our breakfast as the sun came up. Although it was a bit hazy, it was beautiful (hasn't rained since yesturday night). Now I'm just sitting here watching the beautiful scenery as Alicia naps across two chairs. She'd never been on such a big boat before last night. You'd think shed be more excited...haha.
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