Shane and Kerri's Adventure Travel Blog

The Thailand Two-Week Shuffle, Northern Malaysia

2009-03-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

After we made our decision to leave Laos and head south, we woke up eager the next morning to bicycle across the Thailand-Laos friendship bridge and start heading south. Unfortunately for me, I woke up with an eyelid the was crusted shut and a case of the runs (not related). Apparently, one of my long, beautiful, eyelashes got caught in my eye while I was sleeping (long eyelashes and drooling are common Gillispie problems). I said, "don't worry Kerri, I am WFR certified, I know how to handle this one", so I ran in to the bathroom and stuck my head under the faucet.

Kerri's patience ran out after an hour and she suggested we go to a doctor. A doctor? Are you serious? That sounded a little crazy to me, after all we were in Laos, how good could their health care system be? Since I was desperate, I let her convince me that we could just go there and check it out and if it was as bad as we suspected, we could just run away.

I made the five minute walk to the hospital with one eye and we walked up to the first person we saw there, a security guard, and I pointed to my red, irritated eye. He nodded and ushered us over to another, beautiful, old, French-colonial building that said "Ophthalmology". Good sign. We entered the building looking for a reception desk, which we never found, so we just decided to walk around until somebody helped us or kicked us out. We finally made it to the second floor and stumbled in to a room with a doctor and a nurse. We all stood silently blinking at each other (me, with my one eye) for a few moments before they sat me down in front of some nice, new looking equipment for examining eyeballs. The doctor deftly flipped my eyelid inside out and searched for the foreign object. She didn't find it, I think I got it with my hour of flushing, but she was concerned by the irritation and misdiagnosed it as conjunctivitis. Fair enough, I couldn't explain to her that I had been poking at it all morning. Once she put my eyelid back where it belonged they sent us on our way. No questions, no bills, no hassles, definitely the best hospital visit I have experienced.

The next day, we managed to wake up and leave Laos, ride the 30 kilometers to the bridge to Thailand and ride our bikes across the border. Once we arrived in Thailand, we were granted a fifteen-day visa, and since we had seen a lot of the north already, we decided to catch a bust to Bangkok and continue south from there. The twelve hour bus ride reminded us all over again why we like traveling by bikes, so we were excited when we finally got out of Bangkok the next day and continued cycling to the south. On our short bus ride to get out of Bangkok, we struck up conversation with two American girls. After a few minutes of conversing, we figured out we were both from the bay area and finally after another ten minutes, one of the girls heard us talking about our friend named Ramsey and asked if it was the same Ramsey that was friends with their friend Chris Geist. In fact, it is the same Ramsey and we are also friends with Chris as well. We figured out eventually that the girls had heard of Chris' two friends (us) traveling through Thailand and he was going to get them in touch with us. Small world.

After getting out of Bangkok, we jumped off the bus with our bikes and started riding. The main road south from Thailand, however, was an unwelcome surprise after we had adjusted to riding the quiet, nearly deserted roads of northern Laos, so we alternated riding and taking buses until we made it to the town of Surat Thani in southern Thailand.

We found Surat Thani to be a very underrated town in a country full of overrated tourist ghettos. We stayed one night there and found a very lively night market where we ate local specialties such as muslim curried chicken with rice, sweet sticky rice cooked in bamboo, seafood pad thai, and various bite-size rice pancakes with different sweet and savoury fillings.

The next day we woke up early to tackle the 130 kilometers out to Khao Sok National Park. The first ten kilometers weren't exceptional, but after that, we found ourselves riding on one of the most beautiful, memorable rides of our trip. The landscape was completely different from northern Thailand and Laos, with large, limestone karst formations sticking out of lush, jungle vegetation. The ride had the perfect amount of rolling hills to keep you interested and the air was sticky and hot. Very different from anything we had experienced up to this point.

We arrived in Khao Sok in the evening and settled in to a quiet bamboo bungalow in a jungle setting. Our first order of business was to sit on our candle-lit patio for cocktail hour, while listening to sounds of the jungle at night. Always a great way to end a ride.

We stayed in Khao Sok for two days hiking in the rain forest, where Kerri made me go in front and scare all the snakes off the trail. We only had a few close calls, and I'm not sure that the old saying about the snake being more afraid than you is true, you should have heard Kerri's yelps. We celebrated my birthday by playing in a waterfall that we had completely to ourselves in the middle of one of the oldest rain forests in the world. Jealous?

From Khoa Sok, we followed to road west and then turned south towards Phan Nga. The ride was beautiful rolling jungle landscape again and the weather was even hotter. We had to take cover around three in the afternoon as it poured rain for about 20 minutes. This is the first rain we had seen in two months, and it has rained every day since then.

From Phan Nga, we made the 95 kilometers to Krabi town and we had to ride the last 20 kilometers in the rain. On top of that, my front derailer cable broke and we threw away Kerri's annoying front mud flap the day before, which it turns out is very essential to keeping muddy water out of your face while you ride. Oh yeah, I also had a loose bottom bracket. Boo hoo. Still jealous? After working on the bikes the next day (surprise bonus insert for those reading this far: the first person who can tell me from the pictures how I fixed Kerri's front mudflap wins a very special prize), we rode out of the city to explore a wat (temple) with a Buddha statue 600 meters (1200 stairs) on top of one of the limestone spires. We managed to make it to the top just after sunset and were rewarded with breathtaking views over Krabi province and the ocean beyond.

The next day, we decided to take our chances and visit one of the more touristy locations in Thailand. Tourist locations are touristy for a reason, but this location also has world class rock climbing, which happens to be right over some of the most beautiful beaches and warm emerald water. We rode from Krabi to Ao Nang, where we threw the bikes in a long tail boat and caught a ride out to Ton Sai, a rock climber haven near the world famous Railay beach.

Before arriving in Ton Sai, we had our expectations beat down by various reviews, so we were thrilled when we found the agreeable atmosphere, cheap bungalows, BBQ chicken with sticky rice, and beautiful scenery, not to mention the constant climbing show visible from the beach. After one of our yoga sessions, led by our new Austrian best friends Susie and Charley, I stood on the beach for a half hour with my neck craned watching six separate climbers leading various routes up cliffs right over the beach.

Kerri and I stayed for three days, climbing, relaxing, looking at other people's six packs (you would understand if you had been there), and getting our asses kicked by Thai masseuses (thanks for the birthday present, Kerri). We managed to climb for two full days and Kerri even led one of the routes while I was on belay! It was awesome. There's nothing quite as exciting looking down while swinging from a top rope 100 feet above your 110 pound girlfriend who is belaying you. I think I'm hooked.

We managed finally to leave Ton Sai on the morning of the day our visas expired so we caught a bus to Hat Yai in southern Thailand and then a tuk tuk to the border. We read some travel warnings about southern Thailand separatist movements, but after talking to a few locals and other tourists, we decided we were okay passing through, and we actually felt very safe while we were there. The people couldn't have been friendlier. Tourism in the area has taken a big hit, and it seems the locals are trying to revive it.

Once we crossed out of Thailand for the last time, we hopped on the bikes and rode to the Malaysian side, where the border guard proceeded to laugh at us as we pulled into the scooter lane and handed him our documents. We were shuffled through in about 3 minutes and just when we thought we were in the clear, a border guard waved us down. As soon as we pulled up, the biggest smile erupted on his face and he asked us questions about our bikes and our bike trip in excellent English before sending us on our way with a few hotel recommendations.

We were welcomed to Malaysia by a huge, post-thunderstorm, rainbow across the sky as we rode the 10 kilometers down the highway to our hotel. After two more days of riding, and one night in Alor Star, we made it the 150 kilometers to George Town, AKA Penang. This is a beautiful city with one of the more unique histories and mixtures of cultures we have seen. Originally taken as a British outpost for the East India Company back in the 1700's, it become a commercial center and attracted a wide variety of entrepreneurs, mainly from southern India, China, Thailand, as well as the Europeans. The city has a rich history that is still evident in the people on the streets. We have also been enjoying the delicious, cheap, Indian food! A welcome change from bowl after bowl of noodle soup for the last few months.

The Malaysian people have been incredibly nice and welcoming and we have been really impressed by how well they speak English. We have had several people take it upon themselves to personally welcome us to their country.

We put in our application today for a two month visa for Indonesia, since we keep hearing such amazing things about it. It has over 17,000 islands and we just didn't think a one month visa would do.

After 189 days on this trip (and 3,000 kilometers on bikes) we are still loving life and enjoying ourselves. We are trying hard to realize now how unique this experience is and take advantage of it now, especially since we only have 43 days left on this side of the world.

Here are the latest pictures:

Thailand and Malaysia

Laos

2009-02-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

We made it to Laos after riding every possible hill we could find in northern Thailand. We fell in love with the scenery and the people in northern Thailand thanks, in part, to some great advice from Shane's good friend Nicole Ripley, AKA Ripper (Shane told me to write that). We zigzagged our way through northern Thailand using an increasingly battered email printout from Nicole that contained the names of the best towns to visit as well as some key phrases for a couple of lost, hungry farangs. Nicole's email guided us to some of our favorite stops on this trip, including, Chiang Dao, Thaton, and Mae Salong, a beautiful hill tribe village nestled way up in the mountains. Thanks Nicole!

We passed the 2,000 km mark on our bike trip (insert little victory dance)! We entered Laos from Chiang Khong, Thailand by hopping on a tiny little boat to cross the quarter mile wide Mekong. The contrast between the countries was immediately visible. Laos seemed so much more poor and less developed than any other country we've seen so far, especially compared to prosperous Thailand. The roads vary between perfect condition at best and dirt filled mountain biking trails at worst, but we have both fallen in love with this place and are sad to leave it.

The far north of Laos is way off the beaten track, particularly the road we chose, which is the northernmost route and generally used as a truck route from China and Vietnam to Thailand. The scenery was gorgeous. Most of our day would be spent cycling by jungle-like vegetation, interrupted occasionally by a tiny village of stilted houses. I loved passing through these villages because we would be swarmed by half-naked cute little kids that rush to the road and yell "Sabadii!" or "Hello!" and run along us to give high fives and giggle with their friends. The villagers would be so friendly as we cycled by, but the moment we would stop to buy water, their smiles would disappear and they would stand about 3 feet from us and just stare. It was so funny, and I'm sad I didn't get it on video because Shane would be buying water (we learned how to count and say 'water' in Laos, which shocked the hell out of most people) and he would be completely enclosed in a circle of gawking little kids and young women who wouldn't say a thing or return a smile, but just look at him like he was an alien...which he kind of looked like compared to their beautiful dark skin and dark hair. However, the moment we got back on our bikes and said "bye bye!" the smiles returned and it was back to normal.

We were in such a remote area of the country that on the first night we nearly blew past our "guest house" without knowing any better. It was nearing sunset and we entered the village that another cyclist had told us contained the only guest house within 200 km, when we passed a convenient store with 2 guys lazily hanging out in front. Just as we were beginning to question whether we had misunderstood the directions, one of the guys at the convenient store yelled "Hey! You want sleep?" and made the 'sleeping on a pillow' motion with his hands. After assuring him that sleep is exactly what we wanted, he showed us to the back of his house which contained 3 small rooms on a balcony overlooking a river. The room was...less than clean (which is why sleeping bag liners are my new best friend), but the family was really nice and they cooked us a yummy dinner -- so fresh we saw the chicken before it was dead -- and also a delicious breakfast, and they even had cold beer :)

The rest of our time cycling through the north was roughly the same. Tons of gorgeous scenery, even more little villages with even more tiny kids yelling "Sabadi!", and lots more staring at us like we're aliens. We became accustomed to being the only 'falangs' (a term originally meaning French, but now refers to all foriegners) in the villages we slept in or passed through and we actually managed to pick up more words in Laos.

In case you're wondering what our cycling trip has been like on a daily basis, here's a general rundown of what we do. Get up around 6:30 more or less and grab a breakfast of noodle soup and coffee (Laos coffee is delicious, by the way, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to drink coffee without a cup of sweetened condensed milk in it ever again). Then we pack up, and try to hit the road before 8 am. We'll ride for about an hour or so, take a snack and stretch break and then ride as much as possible in the morning while it's still cool. Once it gets hot (around 12:45), we'll either post up at a noodle shop, or in the shade on the side of the road if we've packed food the night before, and eat a long lunch. Then we'll start cycling again, taking snack and stretch breaks until we get to a good place to stop for the night. We ride about 85-115 km a day, which is 50-71 miles, and we will usually take a rest day every 3 or 4 days, especially if we like the place. We'll take longer breaks in bigger cities like Luang Prabang, or Vientienne, where we are now. In general, it's a lot like backpacking, except you eat at restaurants for almost every meal and sleep in hotels at night.

It feels amazing to be fit and strong, and I'm already going twice as fast as I could in the beginning. I'm kind of surprised that I like cycling as much as I do. In fact, I was dreading the cycling portion of our trip for a while, especially when the first part was so freaking difficult. But now I can't imagine traveling any other way. We had to catch a bus once because a spoke on my back tire snapped, and the whole experience of finding a ride, and waiting for a bus was exhausting. The driver dropped us half-way to where we were going (which was in the middle of nowhere, of course), and we had to pay some guys driving a truck full of green beans to take us and our bikes in the back, and drive us the rest of the way. It's so nice to not worry about transportation, and just hop on our bikes whenever we're ready to leave. Long gone are the days of hassling with tuk-tuk drivers or having our bags puked on by carsick locals :)

Now we're in Vientienne, Laos, a huge city by Laos standards and we are freaking out about how little time we have left. As I write this, Shane is purchasing our flight tickets home. It looks like we'll be arriving in Seattle on April 25th! Reality has started to hit us pretty hard...mostly because I'm broke, but also because we're excited to get home and see our friends and family (we miss you guys!!). It's really incredible that we will have been gone for 8 months, and how much has changed during that time!

Speaking of a dose of reality...I got a job leading kids on wilderness trips in different parts of the world this summer with RLT! Woo Hoo! It's the same program that Shane did last summer when he went Costa Rica and Nicaragua, though I won't find out where I'm going until the end of April. Shane is going to be doing it again as well, so one of the first things we'll do when we get home is to leave again.

Due to the time crunch we're feeling we decided a few hours ago to head back in to Thailand tomorrow and book it south, so we are going to have to get used to riding on the left side of the road all over again. We have heard wonderful things about cycling and diving in Indonesia and want to spend as much time there as possible! Only 2 months left and we've got to live it up as much as possible.

Here are some older pictures of our trip with Ramsey, that include some awesome scuba shots.

And here are our latest pictures...hope you like them!

Thailand and Laos

Thailandia!

2009-01-28T00:57:00.000-08:00

(If you only like pictures skip to the end, although there's some good stuff in here)

We've spent the past month traveling Thailand from Phuket, in the south, all the way up to the northernmost point, Mae Sai, on the Burmese border. Here's a summary of what we've seen and done in between.

After Ramsey (better known as Ramrod to many of you) flew in to Bangkok, we spent a very quiet New Years chatting in Shanti Lodge, while sipping some of Thailand's finest brews. After catching up on life and filling Ramrod in on our travels, we went to bed early, got up early and took a plane (weird) down to Phuket. After the most comfortable 45 minutes of travel in my entire life, we landed in Phuket. Ramrod and I studied the tourist map and, decided on a random destination for a hotel on the island. We headed for Kata, and couldn't have picked a more touristy spot. It worked out in the end, after Kerri was able to explain the complex relationship that she had with the seemingly related blond boys and that it would be okay if we shared one bed between the three of us.

After one day in Kata, we decided to splurge on a four-day SCUBA trip to the Similan Islands of the west coast of Thailand. We headed off for our boat one evening, arriving just in time to eat some delicious Pad Thai before setting off for the islands at night.

All three of us had just finished our certification courses, and while we took our certification course in Cambodia, where the visibility was pretty bad (~6 meters), Ramrod learned to dive off the coast in California where he couldn't barely see his own hands in the water and had to wear two wetsuits to keep from getting hypothermia while practicing the mundane exercises underwater.

We awoke the next morning at sunrise (you have to start early to squeeze in four deep dives), stepped out of our rooms to a sparkling green/teal color that I can't even really describe. I looked over the edge of the boat and realized that I could see all the way to the coral and white sand beneath us. The forty meter visibility was breathtaking and we hadn't even dipped below the water.

We spent the next four days following our instructor, Darren, who was wearing a full-length spiderman wetsuit. This turned out to be a good thing, as some of the sites were very crowded with other divers and its easy to get disoriented under water. Darren would swim along slowly kicking his fins in a froglike motion, and every so often would stop, bang his metal pointer on his tank to command our attention, and point at some unbelievable small, rare fish that was usually motionless and write its name on his chalkboard. Some of the highlights of the underwater life were sea turtles, leopard shark, sea horse, frog fish, octopus (who knew they could change color in and instant!? crazy), squid, clown fish, trigger fish, angel fish, and a ten foot MANTA RAY - awesome.

After we made it back to land, we were so broke from the dive trip, we told Ramrod that we were willing to do 20 straight hours on a bus to save fifty bucks on plane tickets to get to the north.

Twenty-four hours, and 2,000 kilometers later, we arrived sleepy-eyed and freezing cold (someone explain the deal the the air conditioning in hot climates) in Chiang Mai, a beautiful walled city with a moat in northern Thailand. We spent a day exploring Chiang Mai and hunting down bikes for Kerri and Ramsey, since I was lucky enough to buy one used in Bangkok (thanks Andrew). Making large purchases at the end of a large trip is a difficult thing to do and it usually means that you (or maybe its just me) will spend hours to find the best price.

We visited four or five bike shops until we saw a french traveler on a bike that looked like it would be perfect for Kerri, so she went up and asked him if he wanted to sell it. He didn't, but it turned out he bought it from a Chinese shop in Chiang Mai and drew us a map and explained in french how to get there. We said "merci" as best we could and took off with our chicken scratch map to find the bike shop.

We got lost. One hour later, I saw a guy with the same bike and asked him where we could buy it. He wrote me a note in Thai, told me to go down a street and show it to people until I found the bike shop. It worked! Thai people are super nice and friendly, even if they don't speak any English, they are always willing to help.

After we got Kerri hooked up with none other than the LA Spectrum for a bike, we rented Ramsey a bike, and I hopped on the Asama Sabotage, and we took off for Chiang Dao, a town in the mountains about 70 kilometers north of Chiang Mai. We arrived around sunset and settled in to a cute little guest house called Chiang Dao Rainbow, with a breathtaking view of the mountain. We celebrated Ramrod's birthday that night with some delicious cake-like thing that we bought at 7-11 and had a smashing time. The guest house was so nice and because Ramrod was sick, we hung out there all day enjoying the view of the mountain and watching the corn grow.

We left Chiang Dao and took another two days to complete our trip back to Chiang Mai on some very remote, rural roads. Our first mini bike trip with Ramsey was success and Kerri and I were getting ready to head off on a longer one after a few more days getting miscellaneous odds and ends in order in Chiang Mai. Two days later, we headed southwest to do the popular motorcycle route known as the Mae Hong Son loop.

We couldn't acquire any real topo maps of Thailand, so we settled for a road map of the whole country on a 1:1,500,000 scale with some shaded relief which was useful for picking out mountains and ridges in a very cartoonish way. It turns out, when you shrink something down to one million five hundred thousand times, you leave out some details. We soon realized that the road we were on (route 108, for the curious google mappers) was too busy, so we turned towards the mountains about 20 kilometers out of the city.

We couldn't have chosen a more difficult route if we tried. Literally. After two more days of struggling up some hills that Lance Armstrong would have been walking his bike up (or at least my bike, with fifty extra pounds on the back), we found ourselves on the highest road in Thailand. Seriously, this was the highest road we could have gone on, we were up around 2,300 meters on Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand.

At one of our toughest points physically and emotionally (I promised Kerri I would spare the details) a man stopped his car and walked towards us looking very intimidating in a full camo military outfit. I was sure we were in trouble somehow, but just before we made a break for it, he started smiling and asked where we were going. He quickly realized how lost we were, and after a half hour of talking to us, he drew us a map and told us where we could find tents and a hot shower. Just when we thought the Thai people couldn't get any nicer, he pulled out a new trick that we hadn't seen, popped open his trunk and proceeded to pull out a beautiful bunch of roses and hand them to us. We had been riding uphill all day at this point, and I was tired, dehydrated, and starting to question my sanity when I saw the friendly military man hand us the bouquet of flowers from his trunk. Ahh, Thailand.

The route we took to get there was so obscure, that we managed to sneak into the most prized national park in Thailand without paying. We learned this from a friendly English fellow in a restaurant and he also informed us that we were headed for more hilly trouble (and a possible national park fee) if we didn't head back to the main road. He didn't have to tell us twice, in fact, I don't think he even told Kerri once, she heard the word hill and immediately was overcome by some of the intense emotions that she experienced the previous two days and tuned him out. Actually she did a really good job, especially considering how tiny her legs are and how heavy the LA Spectrum really is.

We booked it out of the mountains, and managed to loose all of the elevation that we had gained through our blood, sweat, and Kerri's tears over the past two days in just 30 kilometers and it only took 45 minutes.

To speed it up a little, we got back on the Mae Hong Son loop, very confident that we were in for easy street compared to what we had been doing. It didn't take us long to find some more hills just outside of Mae Sariang, so we pushed it to there and took a rest day. Over the next three days, we rode from Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son and then over to Pai, where, at Sam Grant's request, we visited his old friend Sandot at Tacome Pai and stayed two nights in a bamboo hut that was straight out of a fairy tale. We had an outdoor bathroom and the hut was entirely constructed out of bamboo or other types of wood from the area, even the sinks! It felt a little more like a tree house than a bungalow.

From Pai, we rode to the east and then turned north again and stayed another night in Chiang Dao, where we had stayed with Ramsey. After our experience on the Mae Hong Son loop, we realized why it is only popular with motorcyclists, but we were pleasantly surprised by how flat the hills felt back up to Chiang Dao. I would be cruising uphill at a good pace and sometimes I would hear Kerri's little bell ringing just before she would blow past me.

The bike trip has proven to be an amazingly positive part of our trip and we are discovering that it is a great way to travel. Local people are always so curious when you approach on bikes, you have an instant connection with them. You aren't the typical farang (as they say here) traveling by tourist bus that speeds through their town spewing diesel smoke. We have seen such amazing acts of kindness (i.e. flowers above), we average somewhere between one and two occasions a day where people go out of their way to give us free fruit and drinks and often ask us if we need help when we are just resting on the side of the road. We even had one guy pull over, jump out of his car and start running along side us so he wouldn't slow us down as he handed off ice-cold bottled water on a hot afternoon.

We made it all the way north to Tha Ton and we just passed the 1,000 kilometer mark. The legs are feeling great. We had to make a run to the Burmese border yesterday and we ended up spending a few minutes in Burma. We are having a little R&R here before getting back on those seats tomorrow and heading to Mae Salong and then farther to the northeast and eventually into Laos via Chiang Khong.

Check out the map, as well (bottom of page), the bike trip with Ramsey is shown in green and the other in red. I spent a lot of time clicking around the corners through the hilliest parts of the road.

Here are the pictures:

Thailand

4 Months and Counting

2008-12-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

It may be a little premature to say that we've been traveling for 4 months already, since we started on the 7th of September and today is only the 30th of December...but it's damn close. So far we have been in 6 different countries: Mongolia, Russia, (Mongolia again, which doesn't really count twice, does it?), China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, our present location.

Since we haven't updated the blog for a while (shocking, I know), here's a little run-down of what we've been up to lately.

Cambodia
We finished our SCUBA certification course -- Wooo hooo! It was a blast. Well, the first day kind of sucked, actually. It consisted of 1 long afternoon of watching a cheesy dvd on SCUBA safety, and taking 4 or 5 multiple choice tests. Luckily, Shane is a bit of a nerd and likes looking at graphs, and I'm really competitive and like beating Shane. Needless to say, somehow we managed :)

The cool part was the confined water portion of the course. They took us to a small island that was home to about 20 Khmer families where the SCUBA shop had a little stilt house right over the ocean. The water was gorgeous -- all shades of turquoise and blue, and the local residents were so friendly and full of smiles. We swam around learning the basics and got to eat yummy fresh seafood for our meals. We spent one night in the stilted house and slept hearing the waves crash below our bed. It was so strange and wonderful! We did about 5 practice dives and by the end of the 2nd day we were pretty tired. On our last day we spend over 3 hours diving!

After the SCUBA class we headed to a small riverside town called Kampot. The town itself was so so , but we found a wonderful guesthouse about 7 or 8 km outside of town that we fell in love with. It was another stilted contraption built right over the river, and was run by a crazy (in the best way imaginable) German man and his lovely Cambodian wife. We were the only people staying there and had a blast exploring the area and hearing stories from the spliff smoking German (btw, avoid going to a Tokyo prison at all costs, it sounds terrifying). We also loved playing on the rope swing which hung from a palm tree across the river from our guesthouse.

The other great thing about Kampot was the pepper! It is supposedly the best pepper in the world. They say you can't find a gourmet French restaurant without Kampot pepper on the table, and I believe it. The stuff is out of this world. It's so rich with flavor it made the spicy food there irresistible. I spent a lot of time leering over the shoulder of the cook at our guesthouse trying to learn the secret to "Chicken Lok Lak", and I think I've got it down :)

It took a lot of will power, but after 5 full days of hiking and lounging around Kampot we finally headed out to the North to see Siem Reap and the amazing temples of Angkor Wat. If you're wondering whether Angkor Wat is all that it's hyped up to be, the answer is an emphatic "hell yes". Angkor Wat, and the surrounding temples are spectacular. We spent 3 days roaming around via bicycle, catching some breath taking sunsets, 1 mediocre sunrise (it was cloudy), and lots and lots of pictures.

I was beginning to feel a little homesick on Christmas because my whole family was together, which doesn't happen very often, and it was snowing at home, which also doesn't happen very often! So, I consoled myself by singing "Jingle Bells" while ringing the bell of my bicycle as we rode around the temples, dripping with sweat. We had a fun Christmas feast of Indian food with our Quebec friends, Mylene and Rudy. And topped the night off by having our feet sucked clean by some fish (see attached photos for more clarification).

The next day we caught a free Cello Concert put on by a Swiss guy named Dr. Beat. The concert turned in to more of an information session on his work as a doctor in Cambodia. He worked as a pediatrician in Cambodia in the 1970's at the height of the Khmer Rouge reign. He fell in love with Cambodians and Cambodia and returned a few years later to open up a free children's hospital. Since then he has opened 6 children's hospitals all over Cambodia where the offer all of their services free of charge! It is an incredibly inspirational story, and I suggest that you check it out if you have time. 85% of their budget comes from private donations, and 20% of those donations come from the free concerts he gives in Siem Reap! Because of that, he asked that people donate either money or blood, or both. Since we didn't have alot of extra cash to give away, we decided blood would have to do. So we both left 1/2 a liter of blood in Cambodia and even got 2 free sodas and free t-shirts out of the deal :)

Moving on to Thailand
Unfortunately for us, Thailand recently changed its visa policy to declare that people crossing into Thailand by land receive a 15 day visa maximum. The only way to get a 30 day visa in to Thailand now a days is to arrive by plane, or apply ahead of time, but who plans ahead, really? This came as a big problem because we're meeting Ramsey in Thailand for 2 weeks and don't want to waste time making a border run to Burma just to extend our visas for another 15 days. It's also a problem because taking a bus is only $13 but taking a plane is a whopping $160 -- a big difference when you're trying to spend $20 each per day. Also, we hadn't taken a plane since arriving in Ulaanbaatar in September and kind of enjoyed making this trip an airplane free journey. BUT we were running out of time. So, we splurged and took a flight. It felt so strange to be on an airplane after so many shitty 18 hour bus rides, I kept waiting for someone to realize that were way too smelly and uncivilized to be on a fancy plane and kick us off. Luckily, the 55 minute plane ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok went swimmingly, and we were able to get the treasured 30 day visa without a problem.

We've now been in Thailand for about 30 hours, and so far it's been awesome. We've already eaten our weight in Pad Thai served fresh from the street vendors. We started off the day by walking around, until we were cornered by a really sweet Thai high school teacher who told us that today was the best day of the year to be in Thailand because you can take a Tuk Tuk around the city all day long for only 10 Baht (about 30 cents)! He was so excited for us, that he planned out our whole itinerary and hailed a Tuk Tuk for us to use. Of course it turned in to an event similar to the "free cello concert" except that we didn't have to give anyone our blood. We just had to go to different stores that were giving Tuk Tuk drivers gas coupons and pretend that we were interested in buying whatever crap they were selling. To his credit, the Tuk Tuk driver also took us to see some sweet temples and a few other attractions along the way. In the end, we didn't even have to pay our 10 Baht, the driver just ditched us at a temple after we had scooped up all the free gas coupons in town. It sounds a little more painful than it was. We actually had a great time Tuk Tuk-ing our way around Bangkok, and after a while it felt like a really intricate scavenger hunt.

Now we're patiently waiting for Ramsey to arrive in the next few hours. We'll spend "Happy New Year" here in Bangkok and then try to head south for some SCUBA action.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We feel very lucky to be doing this trip, and even luckier to have friends and family that we love so much. Thanks for reading our silly blog and loving us back!

Here are the latest pictures:

Cambodia II

Catch Up, Again

2008-12-12T03:11:00.000-08:00

Well, at the risk of starting this blog entry the way we start most of them, I'm sorry it takes us so long to update it. I know reading our blog falls somewhere in your daily routine between your first cup of coffee and dropping the kids off at the pool, so you all must have started biting your nails by day number 20 without a new update. Well, you can get rid of those new nervous tics that you have developed without an update, because this one's gonna be good. We've got pictures and videos (some that go all the way back to China).

After our last update, we rented the crappiest bicycles I have ever ridden, strapped small day packs to the rack on the back, and took off on a three-day bike trip from Ninh Binh to Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam, about 65 kilometers. We spent some time convincing the hotel staff in Ninh Binh that we weren't crazy before they let us take their bikes.

The first ten kilometers of the ride wasn't spectacular. We hugged the shoulder and tried not to breathe as fully loaded eighteen wheeler trucks blasted past us spewing black exhaust. I think Asia is due for some smog checks, I can understand why everyone wears little face masks when they are out and about, we need to get some of those.

We made it the first 45 kilometers, all the way to the park entrance, in about 3 hours. Not bad considering our bicycles. The next day, we rode the last 20 kilometers to the center of the park. This was the most spectacular portion of the ride (see video below). The road was alive with butterflies, lizards, and flowers. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. We checked in to our stilted house in the jungle and went off on foot to explore some more. The next day, we woke up early to tackle the 65 kilometer trip back, and found to our surprise, that steel bicycles that weigh 50 pounds are a lot quicker going downhill. We made it back in about four hours.

After Ninh Binh, we spent four days in Hoi An, on the central coast of Vietnam. Hoi An is famous for its tailored clothing and after a full day of convincing Kerri that she didn't need to buy anything, I decided it was pointless, and told her that she really did need three new dresses, two new jackets, three new dress shirts and a suit. After all, who would even think of hiring a professional young woman without a pant suit? I even splurged myself. I know, Kellen, you are shocked, that's where the money went that I was saving as a kid. All those M&Ms that went unpurchased as I exercised my amazing will power as a ten year old. It's paying off now.

Next, we set off on another wonderful 20 hour bus ride to the "Alps of Vietnam", a town called Da Lat. We found a nice two-star hotel with a view of the valley, which turned out to be more like rolling hills with pine trees rather than snow-capped peaks, but we weren't disappointed, it was really nice to see pine trees for the first time in a few months.

From Da Lat, we spent a few days exploring a the countryside and took a tour around a silk factory and learned how silk is made from start to finish. I didn't really believe it came from worms until I saw it, I thought it was just an advertising trick that Marco Polo used to get Europeans to buy it. I don't know if you can really call them worms, though, they are more like the kind of oversized maggots that Bear Grills eats to gross people out. It turns out, the worms are a large part of the diet of the people who work at the silk factory. Apparently they taste just like nuts. Check out our pictures of the factory.

Once we had our fill of the alps, we hopped on a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), formerly known as Saigon, before Ho Chi Minh rolled over the South Vietnamese forces in Saigon, during the American War, as it is referred to in Vietnam.

We met up with our Canadian travel buddies Jen, Lyle, Darious, and Nick (who we met in China), as well as one of Michiko's (Kerri's sister) friends who lives in HCMC, Nhan (sp?), pronounced "Nyoung". It was great to meet up with someone who could speak the language and he was incredibly generous and showed us all around the city.

Since the Canadians had a hankering for snake, he took us to a restaurant where they brought out a live Cobra, chopped its head off, ripped out the heart and gall bladder and put them in shot glasses. Since nobody was volunteering for the heart, I threw it down the hatch. Kerri got stuck with the gall bladder, which is about twice as big and slimy. Once we got that over with, the waiters held the beheaded snake upside down and funneled the blood into a bottle of vodka, which we all shared in shot glasses. Yum.

Next up was porcupine followed by fried crickets. I wouldn't recommend the porcupine, I would have preferred chewing on my dirty shoes. The crickets, however, were awesome, very nutty and crunchy.

We went out with a bang in HCMC and spent the last of our Dong before we were off to Cambodia on the 6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh seems like a pretty busy and bustling city, so we only spent one day there before going to Sihanoukville, where we are now. It's a beautiful beach town, but a little touristy for our tastes, lots of white, short term, intoxicated, vanilla-faced vacationers here. No offense to any vanilla faces out there.

Tomorrow, we start our first day of our PADI Open Water SCUBA class. We are going to be certified divers!

We love you all.

Check out these videos:

Rocky VII, Great Wall, China

In case it doesn't work, click here

Heeeeelllllloooooo! Kids at the Panda Rescue Center, Chengdu, China

In case it doesn't work, click here

Cutest Kids Ever, Tiger Leaping Gorge, China (Kerri almost ate them)

In case it doesn't work, click here

Motorcycling in Northern Vietnam

In case it doesn't work, click here

Halong Bay, Vietnam

In case it doesn't work, click here

Biking through Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam

In case it doesn't work, click here

Here are the photos:

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Cambodia

Catch Up

2008-11-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the sporadic blog entries. We've been racing time as of late, trying to see as much of Vietnam as possible before our 30 day visa runs out. The countdown is now T-minus 16 days.

After our motorcycle trip in Sapa in the North we headed to Hanoi (btw mom, they fill you up with gas and oil at the same time when you drive a shitty old Russian motorcycle-- they just pour both into the gas tank at the same time and shake it around). Hanoi was, well, busy. I loved it! We took an overnight train which arrived in Hanoi around 4:30 a.m. Of course there was nothing open, and nearly every guide book we had read warned travelers of the rip-off scams that people do to weary travelers arriving in the early morning hours. Mostly they just drive you around in circles before dropping you off to a hotel that will later pay the taxi driver commission for giving them business. It was hilarious to look around the train station after all the locals had hopped into a cab and all that were left was a large group of around 20 or so foreigners huddled together, too scared to attempt a taxi ride, but not sure what the alternative would be. Apparently they had read the same warning as us.

Luckily, we had a master plan. Share a taxi with 2 other people (hey, if we're 'ginna get ripped off anyway, we might as well split the cost with others) and get dropped of near the general vicinity of where hotels are located. Turns out it wasn't as genius a plan as we had hoped. We forgot to compensate for the fact that absolutely nothing would be open at that hour. We ended up wandering the streets for a while until we stumbled upon an open street vendor selling pho', and ate our breakfast while we watched the city wake up. It was a great way to start. You can't imagine the transformation the streets of the Old District in Hanoi make changing from zero occupancy to being literally packed full of motor-bikes and pedestrians.

We found a great little hotel right near all the action and posted up for 3 days, exploring the city, eating, and dodging motor-bikes. We also managed to find a theater playing the new James Bond movie and got our Hollywood/pop culture fix :)

The women in my family may be surprised to hear that I didn't buy any clothes in Hanoi, despite all my years of training as a Fjeld! We did buy 2 silk sleeping bag liners (of questionable quality) and ditched the heavy sheets we've been carrying around with us, which was good. Not that I've become a saint and rejected all worldly possessions...I'm mostly saving it for Hoi An. All the other travelers we've met say it's the place to have clothing tailored for you. Even Shane is thinking of having a suite made, though I keep telling him that Amish Men with beards like his just wear suspenders to work the fields :)

From Hanoi we wanted to go to Halong Bay. Again there were dozens of warnings to watch out for rip-offs. We decided to skip the Lonely Planet's advice of booking a tour of the Bay from Hanoi and took a local bus on our own, figuring out the details along the way. It worked out surprisingly well! The only problem was being overcharged for our bus tickets (sidenote: when the women selling tickets to you says "I'll give you a deal but don't tell ANYONE else how much you pay because it's WAY less than usual, the joke is on you, dumbass).

Once we arrived at Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay we booked a really great overnight boat trip which was supposed to be for 4 people, but the 2 others bailed out at the last minute and Shane and I had a whole boat to ourselves with a crew to serve us yummy sea-food meals as we cruised around the Bay. The first day entailed lots for cruising around, swimming to small island beaches, kayaking through cool little hidden caves, and eating fresh fish. It was awesome! That night we slept on the boat and were so grateful for our new silk sleeping bad liners because there was a bit of a cockroach problem, and we were happy to have a place to hide.

The next day, our little private tour came to an abrupt end when we realized we had been sold off to another boat which had about 9 other people on it already. I guess the crew decided that they were loosing too much money on us and radioed in for some help. So we packed our things and hopped aboard with a bunch of Germans. Even though it ended prematurely, the day of privacy was well worth the cost. What a great experience! We ended up cruising around with the new boat for the rest of the day doing more of the same, before heading back to Cat Ba island in the evening.

The next day we did a hike through the national park on the island. It was so beautiful! It's accurately described as a scene straight out of Jurassic Park, with tons of lush vegetation covering steep limestone karst formations. The guide said we trekked 18 kilometers, but it felt more like half that. Either way it was great. We had lunch in a local village about 3 hours in to the trek and finished at another end of the island, taking a boat back to the main harbor.

That was yesterday, and today we took a bus to a small city called Ninh Binh, just south of where we were in Halong Bay. The surrounding countryside is supposed to be amazing here, but the weather kind of sucks at the moment, and we're thinking of leaving tomorrow evening on an overnight bus to head further south. Right now the plan is roughly:

-head to Hoi An, a beach town about 12 hours south of here for a few days
-from there go to Danang, a mountain town to do some hiking
-hop on a train toward Saigon, or HMC and explore the city for a few days before moving over to Cambodia.

Any suggestions?

Here are the latest pictures

Vietnam

Motorcycle Diaries

2008-11-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hello faithful followers!

We have survived our first ten days in Vietnam!

After taking the overnight bus from Kunming, we arrived at the Vietnamese border town of Lao Cai, walked across the border and jumped onto a minibus to Sapa. After and hour of sitting and waiting for the bus to fill, we finally took off for Sapa.

Once in Sapa, we did the familiar "haul the bags to every single hotel and look at the rooms in order to find the best deal" before we finally decided on a place, threw our bags down, kicked off our shoes, and passed out from exhaustion after (surprisingly) not being able to sleep at all on an overnight bus where your bed is only five feet long, a foot and a half wide, and the people across from you are smoking. Ahhh, the joys of budget traveling.

After a whole day of recovery, we managed to get out of bed early on the second day and rent a motorcycle. :). Kerri was very trusting and it didn't even phase her when I confessed that the last time a really rode a motorcycle I was ten years old and my feet couldn't touch the ground. Side note: being tall enough to touch the ground really makes riding a lot easier.

We had so much fun on your motorcycle that, after one beautiful day of trekking through the villages around Sapa, we decided to rent a motorcycle for three days and do our own tour through northern Vietnam. We were feeling pretty confident after the first day of riding on windy roads, passing trucks and pedestrians, so we convinced the guy who owns the bike to let us take it without a guide and just ride off on our own. I looked over the map with him and explained the route we wanted to take and he said no problem.

We show up on the morning to rent the motorcycle and he shows us our "new bike", which is an old Minsk that looks like its been through a lot. Of course I made sure the horn, blinkers and headlight were working, the speedometer and tachometer were broken, but who needs those, right? I took it for a quick test drive and decided to give it a shot.

Kerri and I took off around 10:30 am and rode for three hours before we hit our first real town. We (mostly me, I guess) attracted a lot of stares. I don't think a lot of tourists visit these places. There weren't any hotels in the town, and since it was still relatively early, we decided to push it to the next town, another four hours.

We set off around 2 p.m. after a few wrong turns and confusing interactions with Vietnamese people who had no idea what we were doing when we waved our map in their face. The road in the afternoon was beautiful, green valleys with limestone spires. Our progress was hindered by the occasional water buffalo (these things are massive) in the road, little kids playing, and roadwork. After a few hours, we were getting a little worried we weren't on the right road so we started asking for directions again. We finally found someone who we could communicate with and confirmed we were on the right track. Reassured and excited, we started cruising again as the sun was starting to set. We crested on hill, passed a massive truck taking up the whole road, rounded a corner and the road went straight into a massive river. More confusion. A barge being pushed by a tugboat came over and we packed ourselves on.

Once on the other side of the river, it was a race off of the barge before the trucks, breathing diesel sucks. Side note: don't mess with Vietnamese people on motorcycles, or any Asians for that matter, they were born (literally) on one and they are better riders.

We climbed over a pass just in time to see the sun dip below the horizon, so I really started pushing it on the way down. We were making really good time when we were slowed by a gravel road. The gravel road turned into a dirt path about four feet wide with little water channels running through it. We found a dirt trail that looked no different from a walking path (except for the obvious motorcycle tracks). After a few minutes of deliberations, three H'mong (minority locals) women walked up and reassured us that this was the only way after triple and quadruple checking.

A few minutes later, a man came running over to help as I was getting ready to cross the shittiest make-shift bridge I have ever seen. He was helping me push the bike when I slammed on the breaks before we got on the bridge so I could inspect. It was bamboo, that looked like it was tied together with reeds. I pointed at the bridge and said the only word that we could both understand "OK?" He gave me a nod and pushed again. When we reached the other side, he pushed me out of the way, jumped on, revved the engine to a degree that I have not heard, and proceeded to burn the clutch/drive/walk the bike up the remainder of the steep, single track dirt path.

Running to catch up with him, I was pondering how much I should tip this angel for helping us. He answered that question by demanding that we pay him 50,000 Dong ($3)! After some arguing, not because its too much money, but because I hate getting ripped off, we gave in after he kept pointing at the marvelous feet of engineering that was his bridge.

Once we finally saw the town, we pulled over, went into a little restaurant and yelled "hotel" - we were a little pumped from the adrenaline, this might have seemed a little strange to them. Luckily, an equally strange man named Le, was there and decided to take us under his wing. "You come with me", he said. We obeyed.

The next morning, we woke up to find that the bike was leaking oil and the electrical system was entirely shot, the kill switch didn't work. I had to turn it off by holding the break and letting out the clutch. Easy enough.

We took off around 10 am with bellies full of Pho and high spirits. We were pretty confident considering we rigorously studied the maps the night before, we didn't want any surprises this time. We were surprised early when we realized that our destination wasn't really called Lai Chau, like we thought, but the name recently changed to Muong Lai, and is twice as far as we thought.

We rode through a windy, mostly gravel, road, dodging water buffalo, trucks, kids, heavy machinery, and potholes for four hours before we made it to Lai Chua, which is now Muong Lai. Not impressed by the town and confident that we could make it all the way back, we looked at each other, gave the nod and said, "let's do this".

We took off from Muong Lai at around 2 pm and cruised through the hot, flat river valley towards Pa Tan, and then turning towards Sapa, our destination, from there. After two hours of making really good time, cruising mostly in fourth gear (a big deal on this bike and these roads) we made it to Pa Tan.

We finally made it to Lai Chau and realized that it used to be called Tam Duong, the town we were looking for, and the government renamed it when they decided to start construction on a damn that would eventually flood the old town of Lai Chau and the whole valley that we rode through.

It was good timing to ride through that valley as we probably won't ever have a chance to see it again before it fills with water.

The next morning, we got on the bike and realized that there were three police officers pulling people over right next to the hotel. We packed our bag and strapped it on to the bike and set off.

We pulled out slowly, but not too slowly, I didn't want to give the officers too much time to see that the needles for the speedometer and tachometer were bouncing around. Besides, I don't have a motorcycle license and I wanted to get away from them before they had too much time to contemplate how much money they could suck out of us foreigners.

We made it the next few hours back to Sapa, turned in the bike, and checked back into our favorite hotel room and relaxed until it was time to catch the train to Hanoi.

Before leaving or Hanoi, we read several accounts of foreigners being ripped off by taxi drivers and hotels.

We arrived in Hanoi at 4:30 in the morning and stood amongsWe have been in Hanoi now for two days

The end of China

2008-11-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

After hiking Emei Shan, we hopped on a train south towards Kunming. We decided to get the hard sleepers for our 12 hour ride. When we found our beds there were six Chinese people sitting on them. After we managed to squeeze our big packs in and then sit down, we pulled out our trusty phrase book and tried to make some polite conversation. This is usually the point where we try and say a few words that are spelled phonetically in English, but usually after we get the first few syllables out the laughter drowns out the rest of our attempts. We have found, however, it is not really necessary to actually speak Chinese to have people talk to you. An old, slightly intoxicated, Chinese man kept slapping me on the knee, waving his finger in my face (probably not very polite in China, either), and continued ranting and laughing for an hour straight. At this point my cheeks began to hurt and my throat was horse from fained laughter, so Kerri and I started playing cards in hopes that he would lose interest. This however, attracts more attention from Chinese people than my blond hair and blue eyes, and in no time we had almost a dozen people watching our crazy card game.

After 12 hours on the train, we hopped off at 7 am in a small town where we heard we could catch a bus to our destination, Lijiang. We got off the train, cursing ourselves for not making reservations for a bus when suddenly a woman ran up to us and shouted "Lijiang", grabbed me by the arm and threw us on a bus. How did she know?

We were laughing at our good luck on the bus, and we happily slept for the first hour. I noticed that I was having trouble sleeping because of a familiar smell, when I woke up with a jolt suddenly recognizing the unmistakable scent of vomit and realizing that the floor was slippery. The woman directly behind us had been puking on the floor and it flowed under our seat and soaked the bottom of my backpack. For the next six hours of the bus ride I held the backpack on my lap in the only position where I wouldn't touch the puke. The inside of the bus ride was such a contrast to the exquisite scenery we were passing on the twisty road. The entire drive we wound our way through a canyon of gorgeous rice paddy fields and small villages. Unfortunately the puking was contageous and others around us starting throwing up. I can confidently say it was the longest bus ride of my life.

We arrived in Lijiang and found a super cute little hotel with a view of the city. It looked so nice, we thought about just walking by, but we decided to go in and take a look just in case. We asked the price of a super cute, clean room, and when we heard it was 60 Yuan ($9) we struggled not to smile and Kerri said, "60 as in six, zero?" and I said "60 Yuan, total?" At this point we decided not to ask any more questions and jumped at the opportunity for a hot shower and clean room.

We found Lijiang a little like Disneyland, too cute to be real. But it is quite a site with cobbled roads and bridges over flowing crystal clear little water channels and canals with a snow-capped mountain in the background.

We spent one full day in Lijiang and left the next day for Tiger Leaping Gorge. Not knowing what we were getting into, I was trying desperately to take pictures of the snow-capped mountains from the bus. After using my whole battery and taking 20 crappy pictures with blurry trees obscuring the mountains, when I realized that we were heading straight for them and that they are in fact part of Tiger Leaping Gorge. We arrived at the trailhead at 3:30 in the afternoon and hiked two hours up to "Naxi Family Guest House", which had a beautiful little courtyard and tables with a view of the mountains changing color with the sunset. We both agreed that it couldn't get any better than that.

I found it hard to look at the trail while I was hiking, the view of the mountains was stunning. I managed to convince myself to look at the trail after we hiked passed a few ledges with nearly 3000-foot drop offs to the river at the bottom of the gorge.

We arrived at "Halfway House" guest house that afternoon which had a roof deck with 360-degree view of the mountains and a little farming community. It also has spectacular views out of the bedrooms and the toilets. I had to wear my sunglasses in the toilet the next morning while doing my business so I could look at the mountains. We were so taken by Halfway House that we decided to stay two nights and do day hikes around the area before heading out to Kunming to get our visas for Vietnam.

We are in Kunming right now and heading to Vietnam on a bus in a few hours. After we cross the border, we are going to try and head to a small mountain town called Sapa and do some more trekking.

Here are the latest pictures, videos coming soon....

China, Part Three

China, Part Two

2008-10-28T02:31:00.000-07:00

It has been way too long since we've updated this blog! Since our last entry we've moved further south in China, slowly working our way down to Vietnam. Here are some highlights (new pictures and videos are posted below):

Train Ride to Pingyao -- The Hard Seater (aka worst decision, ever)

In an effort to save money we decided to take the hard seater tickets for our 12 hour train ride to Pingyao. Terrible idea. Not only did we squeeze 4 people in a 3 person seat...there we literally people occupying every free space on the train. People were squeezed so tightly together, they just stood for hours at a time all along the isles and in between the cars. It was the most insane thing I'd ever seen. There was one guy that I couldn't stop staring at. He was wearing a full suite, holding a briefcase in his hand, and looked like he was on a short 10 minute subway ride. This guy stood in the same damn position holding the briefcase for 5 hours! I didn't go pee for 12 hours because the toilet looked like a disgusting pile of 150 people's poo, and I probably couldn't have climbed over all the people to reach the door anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure an old lady would have stolen my seat. We slept a cumulative 1 hour while sitting completely upright, sandwiched between strangers that were way too close for comfort. Whew! But, it's like Kirstin said to me, even the rough days of traveling are blessings...even if you came frighteningly close to pooping your pants and freaking out from claustrophobia :) I like to look at it as training for India, if we ever make it there.

Pingyao, Shanxi Province

One of the most well-preserved walled in cities remaining in China. A cool little city, that could pretty accurately be described as a mini-Forbidden City with people still living in it. It looks like the set of a movie. All the streets are lined in cobblestones and red lanterns hang from every doorway. It's beautiful. A little touristy, which is difficult for Shane because Chinese tourists LOVE to take pictures with him. The crumbling old rock walls give the city an ancient feeling, but the people within the city make it extremely colorful, especially all the cute little kids. They like to yell "HELLOOO!" at us as they pass us from the back of their parent's bicycles and motorcycles. Our hostel was inside the old governor's residence, and it had oodles of charm. It had a classic courtyard that lead to all the rooms, and beautiful antique furnishings in each room, that give it a funky new-meets-old vibe.

Chengdu, Sichuan Province -- Where the Panda Roams

Chengdu is a cool city, as far as big cities go, but we kind of used it as a transition city on our way to the mountains. We did get to see some really cute Giant Pandas! I was hoping to meet the author of "Wild Swans" a controversial book on the Cultural Revolution and Mao's policies. Unfortunately, we didn't see her. But we did eat lots of fatty pork, drank lots of beer and played Uno.

Oh yeah, we also finally got to experience a tea house that overlooked a pretty lake at sunset. It was a really peaceful, beautiful experience, and then a really old Chinese guy sat next to us and started listening to really loud early 90's Madonna music from his cell phone. Ha! I love the Chinese.

Mt. Emei Shan

Day 1: Soooooooo many stairs

After a 2.5 hour bus ride from Chengdu, we arrived at a little mountain town at the base of Mt. Emei. Mt. Emei is one of the 4 sacred mountains in China and supposedly one of the most beautiful. We decided take about 3 days to climb it, sleeping in one of the many Buddhist monasteries along the way. It was such an amazing experience! We climbed about 6.5 hours the first day - and when I say climb, I mean step by step. Every trail on this mountain is covered in rock stairs. At any point on the mountain you are either climbing up, or climbing down. By the last day I looked like a crazy old mountain man coming down from a gold digging expedition, I was so sore I could hardly move!

Day 2: The Summit

On the 2nd day we woke up at 5am so that we could climb to the top before sunrise, and beat the throng of Chinese tourists who take a cable car to the top. It was so misty and dark we could hardly see the stairs we were climbing. As we climbed higher we could hear the sounds of the monasteries waking up as we passed them on the trail. It was so surreal to be hiking in the dark, hearing chanting and drum beats somewhere in the fog. When we finally reached the top, we weren't really sure we had made it because it was too misty to see anything. We could barely make out the temple at the "Golden Summit" but we beat the crowd! We had a few precious moments of silence at the summit of this beautiful mountain to ourselves right before the sun began to rise. It was so misty, we couldn't grasp the height of the severe cliff we were overlooking. Slowly the mist around us lightened and we were able to make out the golden elephant statues that surrounded us, and the giant Buddha that stood behind us. It was a trip.

The climb back down to our hotel passed in what seemed like 5 minutes, though the hike up took at least an hour and a half. Once we reached the hotel it seemed like a dream. Like it never happened. It still kind of feels like that.

Day 2 continued: I got jumped by a monkey

The rest of that day we spent hiking toward the monastery where we would sleep. They warned us at our hostel to use our bamboo walking sticks to ward off monkeys, but I didn't believe them. Of course, I got jumped by a monkey the size of a large toddler. At first he looked really cute and we were joking that we made a friend because he was walking down the path with us. Then before I knew it he was walking toward me with his beady monkey eyes and started climbing up my leg. I'd like to say that I kept my cool and used my stick to do some kung fu defensive techniques, but I basically fell into a ditch and screamed for Shane to help me. Thank god he was there! Otherwise I seriously would have hired a guide to walk with me for the entire length of the trip just to ward off monkeys. I now hate monkeys.

We slept that night at a beautiful old monastery in possibly the crappiest room they had. The guy at the counter showed us pictures of their rooms before we paid, but the room we got couldn't have been further from the version in the picture. But, a bed was a bed, and we were so tired from our climb and all the monkey adrenalin had worn off so we were ready to crash for the night. We had a delicious vegetarian dinner with all the workers in the monastery and the monks. There was a little confusion over the bill (they kept saying "3" when really they meant "30") and finally a short monk with a sweet face told us to follow him, which was hard to do because he was really fast and took us through the labyrinth of the monastery before pointing to a bench and instructing us to sit. When he returned he gave us 20 yuan, presumably from his personal stash, because he thought we didn't have any money to pay for the food. It was really humbling.

Day 3: The hike down

More monkeys, unfortunately. This time I had the sense to keep rocks in my hand and not hesitate to point my stick of fury in their direction. The mist finally started to clear and we could see more of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. The final part of the hike was the most beautiful and also the least crowded. When we finally finished and left the park, we were sad to be done.

Now we're relaxing at a hotel at the base of the mountain. Tomorrow we leave for Tiger Leaping Gorge for a few days, and then on to Kunming to get our Vietnam Visas!

Here are our latest pictures:

China 2

Here are the latest videos:

Kerri found gold in them hills!

Narrow canyon hike

Kerri powering up the stairs

Pictures from Beijing (and some Mongolia stragglers)

2008-10-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

After almost a week here in Beijing, we have decided to head off to Pingyao tomorrow night. Beijing is a beautiful city and we have enjoyed walking across its enormity (one block = 1/4 mile), taking the subway, ordering food by pointing at other tables, eating dumplings on the street, and walking through the historic hutongs, or old alleyways.

Two days ago, we woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 am to make the trek to the great wall. We jumped in a very cramped bus and drove for three hours before arriving at Jinshanling where we started our walk. We walked for about 10km on the wall all the way to Simatai. The scenery was breathtaking and we took about an hour to do the first two kilometers until we caught up with our guide who promptly scolded us for walking so slowly. Some parts of the wall were more like climbing a ladder than walking up steps, but we were rewarded after four hours with a zipline over a reservoir to the finish in Simatai.

Other Beijing highlights include the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Beihei park, seeing our french-canadian friends Andre and Tonny and sharing a whole delicious roasted duck, crepe-ish egg and dumpling street food for 2.5 yuan, roughly 40 cents (so good we thought we would mention that again), riding bikes around the city, and the beautiful weather.

Check out our latest pictures:

China

We are in Beijing!

2008-10-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We made it safely to China. Whew! The train ride was a long 30h adventure and we got here yesterday night and were immediately picked up by our friend here in Beijing, Rebecca, and brought in to her college classroom at the University of Beijing where she teaches English and we were the center of a classroom conversation for the rest of class. Exhausting but fun and very interesting.

We spent the night on the University campus, but it smelled strongly of paint and was very dusty because it was under construction. I guess it helped that we hadn't slept more than 3 hours the night before (vodka + long train ride = disaster). We made a quick decision to switch to a hostel in the lama temple district of Beijing. We found a very nice hostel when a guy named Lee took pity on us carrying our backpacks down the street looking like lost tourists and offered to have us at his hostel. We are sitting in the hostel bar drinking our first Beijing beer and feeling much more relaxed already.

We were offered the equivalent of $100 to give a lecture for 2 hours in front of a group of 200 students about the US economy and the presidential election. What crazy experience!

Nijow, China! Here we come

2008-10-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

A quick update on what we've been doing:

After returning from our tour of the West we decided to apply for our Chinese Visa's and discovered that the consulate was closed all week due to Chinese National Day. The Chinese Consulate in Mongolia is only open 3 days a week for 2 hours a day anyway...so having a whole week off set our ambitious plans back by a lot. We then decided that the most logical course of action to was to mooch off of Sam's free apartment, catch up on sleep, and play lots of games of chess while drinking cheap Mongolian beer. Mission accomplished. We even managed to squeeze a few other activities in to our busy schedule. We hiked around the mountains south of the city and got a great view of Zaisan Memorial. I volunteered at an orphanage run by an Australian ex-pat where I made necklaces out of cereal and fell in love with Mongolian children-- they're sooooo cute! They are also incredibly well behaved. I was expecting to leave the orphanage covered with sticky globs of cereal in my hair and all over the unwashed jeans I had been wearing for 2 weeks straight. But the kids all worked methodically and carefully, cleaning after themselves as they played. They made American children seem like crazy entitled little drunk people. I think my presence confused them because I look really Mongolian but respond with a blank, dumbfounded expression on my face whenever they spoke to me in Mongolian. I'm pretty sure they were thinking "who's the weird mute Mongolian chick that's eating all the cereal?"

Last weekend we were lucky enough to be here for micro-finance day. Sam Grant invited us to come and "celebrate" with his bank in one of the suburbs of Ulaanbaatar. In true Sam Grant style we were assured that micro-finance day is one of the most fun days of the year and we could not miss it. After two and a half hours of standing in the cold, watching Mongolians speak Mongolian on stage, and Shane being told that he was Osama Bin Ladin and then Ghengis Khan, and then his brother by a middle-aged vodka-loving Mongolian man, we decided to leave early to go eat homemade mutton with rice with one of our Mongolian friends.

This week we focused on the whole Visa fiasco. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to get a Chinese Visa from the US and over 4 hours of pushing and shoving in the freezing cold weather outside the Chinese Consulate in Ulaanbaatar, we finally got our f-ing Chinese Visas-- whew! I have never seen such a crazy crowd. I felt bad for the poor Mongolian security guard who's only leverage against the mob of foreigners trying to push their way in was a thin metal door which he would push his whole body against to slam shut, only letting in a small group of people every hour.

Now with our Visa's and 2 first class train tickets in hand (they were sold out of every other seat) we are ready to leave Mongolia and start the next portion of our trip. We're a little sad to leave. Hanging out with Sam Grant has been awesome, and experiencing the countryside was such a unique experience. We've also grown to love Sam's 3 Mongolian roomates who, when combined with Sam, are the most hilarious group of individuals you could cram into such a small and, until recently, filthy apartment.

We are going to try and extend our 30 day Chinese Visa for another 2 months and head South by either riding bikes, taking trains, or doing a little bit of both to Vietnam. As for where we're staying in Beijing (or anywhere in China for that matter) we're still not sure. Our friend in Beijing, Rebecca, has found an apartment on the Beijing University Campus for us to rent for a month, but spending a whole month in Beijing might be a little too much city for us. If anyone has friends in China would you mind passing their information along? All we know how to say is "hello" and "thank you", so meeting friends along the way would make things so much more fun!

We are still alive

2008-09-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

In the last two and a half weeks, Kerri and I went to Lake Baikal in Russia, horseback riding in the Mongolian steppe, and camel riding in the desert on a six-day tour through western Mongolia.

Russia was an amazing country. After a 26 hour train ride from Ulaan Baatar, Kerri, Nate, Sam and I arrived in Irkutsk dazed and confused. We hopped on a tram headed the wrong way, but eventually made it into the heart of the city. It was and odd feeling to be in Asia, but in a city with a very European feel. We joined a four-day tour of Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal and we met up with four French Canadians (Anna, Jean Louis, Toni, and Adre). Lake Baikal is incredibly beautiful and also incredibly large. Looking north from Lake Baikal, you can't see the other end because of the curvature of the earth. We spent our days in Russia hiking, swimming (trying to swim), throwing rocks, eating Russian cuisine, drinking vodka, and sweating in a wood-fired sauna.

We finally got a train headed back to Ulaan Baatar, which ended up taking about 36-hours. We arrived in UB at about six in the morning and headed out in the afternoon to a Ger (Mongolian yurt) camp to ride horses. We rode for five hours the next day, visited a Mongolian family's ger, watched horses get milked, and drank fermented horse milk, a Mongolian specialty called airak.

We got back to UB at night and left the next morning on a six day tour throughout western Mongolia. We visited hot springs, rode camels, swam in a freezing cold lake, stumbled upon a grave yard with human bones on a ground, and spent countless hours bouncing around on pot-holed, Mongolian dirt highways with our four French Canadian friends from Russia.

Now, we are back in UB trying to convince the Chinese government to let us in to their country. We have taken over Sam's apartment and I think his three Mongolian roommates are starting to wonder if we are ever going to leave.

So far, its only been three weeks, but we have already met traveling friends that have invited us to come stay in their homes from Tokyo, Quebec, to Cortes Island in British Columbia. We are having a great time and we are excited about the adventure still to come!

Check out these pictures and videos from our trip:

Latest Pictures:

Our Travel Photos

Latest Video:

Fun on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Throwing Rocks into Lake Baikal

Mongolian Ger Experience

Sunset Camel Ride

Kerri Camel Dismount

Shane Camel Dismount

We made it!

2008-09-08T00:00:00.001-07:00

Well, the adventure is finally beginning. Kerri and I made it about 24 hours ago after roughly 30 hours of traveling. We only had one setback in China when we had to land at a different airport and sit there for an hour and a half before taking off for Beijing. We only suffered a couple of bloodshot eyes and two extremely swollen ankles (a.k.a cankles, video coming soon).

We made it here and met up with Sam at an Irish pub and brought our stuff back to his semi-clean apartment before heading out to meet his friends and party in Ulaanbataar. We also met up with Kangaroo Mouse (Nate Upham) who has been sampling pastries all over town.

For those of you who grew up playing (fighting over) Risk games as a kid, you might be interested in the fact that we are taking a train up to Irkutsk, Russia tomorrow and eventually visiting the oldest and deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal. It is over a mile deep and holds roughly 20% of the worlds fresh water.

Now we are off to host a Tortillas and Vodka party as Sam's apartment with his three Mongolian roommates and international friends.

Check out these videos of Costa Rica

2008-09-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Kerri on the Tarzan Swing

Shane on the Tarzan Swing

Kerri Stuck in the Mud

Is it weird that we are sharing a website?

2008-08-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday, August 24, 2008. Kerri and I are leaving for Mongolia on September 5. We haven't unpacked from our trip in Costa Rica, our passports are at the Russian consulate and hopefully we will get them back in time with our visas ready to go.

So, we don't really know exactly where we are going, how we are going to get there, how long we are going to be gone, or how much it will cost. Sounds like a great idea to me.