Around the World

Japan- almost the end

busyliz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:27:00 GMT

The first thing I noticed about Japan is that almost NO ONE speaks English. It is just as bad as China. I thought somehow it would be better. Also the technology is not very good, especially considering the cars and cell phones that are made, or at least designed, here. They don`t always take credit cards and the train systems are a little backward still. Hong Kong and Singapore were much more technically advanced. The train/subway lines are quite confusing because there are 3-4 different companies and each has its own payment system. The shopping is great if you want to shop at Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry etc. but even everything in all the regular stores in Tokyo is expensive. Kyoto is a little better. You can have dinner for less than $40 a person, not at a fast food place, and the clothes are more reasonable. I wonder what a teacher makes here, more than me I`d guess. Anyway, we`ve seen some great temples, palaces and gardens in Japan. I saw my first Zen garden today and walked around in the pretty fall leaves. It is so cold compared to South East Asis though, and Costa Rica. Winter in CA will be nothing after this. I had to buy a new coat(with a fake fur collar of course as is the fashion here). The trip is winding down and I am happy and sad. It`ll be great to not be living out of a suitcase for a while and catching up with everyone. Watch for your souveniers, all from Japan as it was the last place I went:) Thanks for tuning in!

Hong Kong

busyliz — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:46:00 GMT

In how many cities can you go above the tallest skyscrapers and look down? You can in Hong Kong from The Peak viewpoint. You can see all the lights and the harbour as well. Rob and I had a great time visiting the beaches around Repulse Bay, shopping in Chinatown areas and in the new malls, gambling in Macau (actually we just ate and watched the water show at the casino) and even visiting the tiny, lineless Hong Kong Disneyland. Now we're off to Japan, me via Sinapore and Bangkok.

Singapore and Malaysia

busyliz — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 12:08:00 GMT

I arrived two days ago to Singapore, which seems very safe and clean compared to the rest of southeast asia. There is still a little garbage on the streets, but people have fined for littering, smoking on the street etc. so it is much cleaner than most cities. On the subway the fine is $500 for eating and $1000 for smoking. The drug traffiking penalty is death. I went down to Orchard Rd. the modern shopping area, but I decided to buy a cheap watch from a street vendor (my old one was destroyed in the rain in Thailand) and it worked for less than 8 hours. I guess today I'll have to buy a real one:) There is every kind of food imaginable available from US chain restaurants, including Dunkin' Donuts and Orange Julius to Chinese, Indian and every other international food. I had dinner last night with two british guys in Little India, where hundreds of people (99% men) were out celebrating Deepvali, the Hindu festival.

During the day yesterday the 2 Brits and I took a bus to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, a town just 1 km across a causeway. It's where people go to buy DVDs, fake adidas, purses, watches etc. They were celebrating the holiday there also so it was a little different than normal people said. It was dirtier than Singapore, but not as bad as many border towns. We ate at a local place and for 2 pounds we 3 had cokes and food. Everything was very cheap. We took out 100 ringgits each and then couldn't spend it all. When we first arrived we didn't have the local money so a nice lady gave us 5 ringgits for the bus. She wouldn't take a dollar or Singapore money. She was so nice.

Phuket and Ko Phi Phi Island

busyliz — Thu, 8 Nov 2007 13:51:00 GMT

I had a great time down in Southern Thailand. It was mostly sunny and I stayed on Karon Beach which is a beautiful long beach with squishy white sand and not too many people. I was there for the beach volleyball world tour and watched the Thai girls lose to Germany and then watched the former American Olympic team Misty May and Kerri Walsh win their match. I sat with Misty's husband Matt who is a professional baseball player and chatted about traveling and stuff. He was really nice. Then I went out to Ko Phi Phi Island, where they filmed the movie The Beach. It was damaged badly by the tsunami, but has been rebuilt and is full of tourists, dive shops, restaurants etc. I dove one day in the marine park nearby and saw some cool fish and a leopard shark. Another day I went rock climbing on the rocks above the beach. It was hard, but fun. I met a nice girl named Antoinette who lives in Phuket and a young Canadian guy and hung out with them a lot. There was a beach music festival two of the nights to raise money to plant palm trees with live music. The owner of the bar lost his wife, sister and 2 daughters in the tsunami, but has rebuilt and tried to go on with his life. I met a ton of alternative Thai people with dreadlocks and stuff. It was interesting to talk to them. The last day I enjoyed a quiet beach day to get ready for the big city.

Trekking in Chiang Mai

busyliz — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 01:59:00 GMT

Yesterday and today I went on a trek to see several hill tribes in the area and ride elephants, whitewater raft, bamboo raft and visit a waterfall. I had quite the international group of 13. I got to speak spanish with a couple from Argentina and attempt to remember my italian with two italian guys and French with a girl from France. We also had Irish, Dutch, a guy from Belgium, a Thai girl who was great for translating and me. We only trekked (HIKED) about 4 hours the whole 2 days because 2 girls had upset stomachs and another had bad knees (why trekking then?), but we had fun riding in the back of a pick-up truck, playing soccer with the tribe's kids and making a huge bon fire. The Karen tribe are the ones who put brass rings on the women's necks to make them longer. An 11-year old girl told us they get about 8-10 to start and then one new one every 3 years. She said they hurt and her parents make her, but she still seemed happy. We played soccer with her and two younger girls and they sold us homemade scarves and tried to sell lots of other non-homemade stuff. Their "village" was more like a gift shop with an empty hut for us, but the food was delicious and the people really nice. The trek was terribly organized, we waited for hours, the bamboo raft almost sank and was covered with spiders and our whitewater guide got us stuck on every rock possible, but I still had a blast.

Laos

busyliz — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:23:00 GMT

Laos was such a treat after the noise and confusion of Vietnam. Luang Prabang is a small town with only one ATM and tons of nice people, good restaurant and cheap shopping. I happened to be there for the festival celebrating the river so there were tons of fireworks, a parade full of paper boats decorated with candles and even a guy breathing fire. It was an accident waiting to happen:), but even though I saw several people hit by small firecrackers no one seemed to get hurt. I ran into a couple I had met on a bus a few days ago and had a lao beer and watched the bright colored boats float by on the Mekong. It was so fortunate that I was there on that day. I went on an elephant tour the next day with kayaking and a trip to a waterfall as well. Today I went to an even bigger waterfall in a beautiful park with rescued tigers and bears. It was quite a 2 day experience and I am really glad I didn't skip Laos. It was heavenly to not hear horns and be pestered by vendors every minute.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

busyliz — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:18:00 GMT

I just got back to Hanoi from a 3 day, 2 night trip to the breathtaking Halong Bay. It's just 2 hours from Hanoi and is an area with thousands of limestone rocks jutting out of the sea. The pics are in the Part 2 of the snapfish pictures. It was hazy, but sunny all three days, and we swam in beautiful, empty beaches, climbed to the top of the (small) peaks and kayaking under a rock into a cool grotto. There was a huge cavern full of stalactites, but it had colored lights like Disneyland and seemed very fake. The water had quite a bit of trash in it, but the whole area was still really unique. We slept one night in a comfy room on the boat and another at a hotel on Cat Ba island, which looks very small from the dock, but is actually huge and full of tour groups. Next time I want to do a rock climbing and trekking trip that avoids the touristy places. Still I would totally recommend this experience...all for only $49...not including drinks.

Saigon and Nha Trang

busyliz — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:12:00 GMT

Arriving in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, was a lot easier than in Cambodia. The bus pulled in close to where we wanted to go and the drivers were less forceful. We walked to a traveler's cafe before deciding which of the dozens of places we should stay in. The rooms were $10 a night with A/C for a double so I stayed with a Spanish girl I'd met on the bus. We went to see the old southern president's office called Independence Hall now. It was called the Reunification Palace. It was interesting to see their perspective on the "American" war. We also went to the War Remnants Museum which had some really sad photos. We had Vietnamese noodle soup for dinner. The next day we got a bus to Nha Trang, a beach town with the best diving in Vietnam, although it is rainy season so the visibilty isn't good. We decided to stay at the hotel where the bus dropped us even though it was probably a dollar more a night as they get comission too. We had dinner and then drinks at a pub called Crazy Kim's, which is a school for street kids and a foundation to stop child sex crimes as well. I did two dives yesterday and saw a few fish and lots of coral. They had piles of the round mushroom coral and lots of sea stars and cucumbers. I saw a clownfish dad and baby. I got a little too close and the dad head butted me. I think that is the first time a fish has run into me while diving. Last night was one of the diving guys' birthdays, a 22-year-old from CA so my new friends and I went. It was a lot of fun. We ended up dancing at the Sailing Club right on the beach. Today I wanted to swim and lie by the pool but the weather is not cooperating. I am putting my pictures on snapfish so I will send a link. Tonight I am off to Hoi An, the tailoring capital of Vietnam and a nice little town, or so I've been told. Send me an email if you read this. Love to all.

Phonm Penh

busyliz — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:44:00 GMT

The second we stepped off the musty coffin like boat (we could sit in the sun on the roof though, and that was fabulous) we were surrounded by tuk tuk drivers all trying to take us to guesthouses for comission. One lone driver had a sign that said "I speak English, drive tuk tuk but I don't want to bother you" so we went with him. For $3 a night we stayed on the riverside. Our place had a little flooding and no lock on the bathroom door, but there was a great deck on the water with good food and constant movies. I met some cool girls from England and guys studying abroad for law school in Hong Kong. We went to the S21 museum which was a prison made from a high school. It was interesting to read the stories from the victims families and see pictures, but is was really sad as well. The killing fields were sad too, but disappointing because they just looked like flooded holes and there was very little information. They had a monument full of skulls which was really weird. We went over to the lakeside for drinks with a British couple we'd met and saw the fancier part of town. We were very ready to get the bus to Saigon the next day to escape the vendors and tuk tuk drivers.

Cambodia border and Siem Reap

busyliz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:57:00 GMT

Getting to Siem Reap yesterday was quite an adventure. We left at 7:30 AM and drove 3 hours after taking an extra hour to pick up people. We stopped at a restaurant near the border and ate lunch while they processed our visas for us for an extra $16. The travel agents insist in Bangkok you have to do it there, and then again at the border town..but you should be able to get it at the border yourself..granted usually for more than the $20 it would be at the airport. So they we get to the border and quickly process through the exit from Thailand...but spend almost 2 hours waiting to check into Cambodia with our visas in hand. Then we have to take a shuttle, after waiting another half hour, to a non-airconditioned bus (they told me the whole thing was a mini-bus with A/C) which stopped again after 10 minutes. At 5 pm we finally set off for a six hour drive on unpaved roads sometimes through thick mud. We stopped for dinner and didn't arrive until 11 PM (They said 7) and they took us to a guesthouse of their choice and refused to let us off in the center of town. I just got a tuk tuk back into town for $1 with a Canadian girl and Irish guy I met and we got our own place for $3 each a night. The scam from Thailand to hear is hard to avoid as the 2 sides claim not to know what the others do. At least I only paid about $15 instead of others who paid 30 for the one way. It was quite an adventure and in heavy rain can take up to 24 hours so I guess 15 was lucky:)

Siem Reap is a nice town and the temple area is huge. We decided to just do one day and see the highlights instead of 3. Our tuk tuk driver took us out and we saw the giant heads carved into Bayon and the untouched one with trees growing all over it where they filmed part of Tomb Raider. Angkor Wat itself wasn't that impressive. It was very black from all the rain..but the carvings are amazing. Tonight we are going to eat traditional Cambodian food and maybe see local dancing before we head by boat to Phnom Penh tomorrow to see the killing fields and the S21 museum.

Thailand

busyliz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:45:00 GMT

Hi all,

I have only spent a few days in Bangkok so far, but it is a lot of fun and very colorful and busy. I stayed in the infamous Khao San Road where hundreds of travelers stay. The street has dozens of travel agents, food stalls, bars, restaurant and shopping. The taxi drivers and tuk tuk motorcycle taxis hound you constantly to go with them. Most are nice although they try to take you gem shopping or to a tailor and we met two girls yesterday who had their bags stolen by a taxi driver. I went to the Grand Palace and Wat Po, the huge gold reclining Buddha with mother of pearl feet. The national museum was very well done with history of all the kings. His picture is all over the city. The food is good and really cheap..less than a dollar for Pad Thai on the street. I met some nice American guys from Chicago. One went to Harvad and works in Dubai so he was telling me all about living there. The excitement of the nights was two poor Irish guys who fell through a sliding glass door, got cut up and went to the hospital for stitches but were still out drinking and dripping blood. The pictures are a little slow to upload here but I'll put them up soon.

Gallery: Beijing and the Great Wall

busyliz — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:15:00 GMT

Gallery: Mongolia

busyliz — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:01:00 GMT

Beijing

busyliz — Sat, 6 Oct 2007 19:42:00 GMT

Beijing is loud, confusing and busy, and today very wet. We arrived last night and had a delicious Chinese food dinner of Peking duck and other specialties. Today we explored the Forbidden City in a little downpour. The temples were really big and impressive. We were excited to hear the listening guide narrated by Roger Moore (former 007), but they have a new one now. We couldn't see the body of Mao because it was closed for the day, but we went instead to see the Temple of Heaven, 3 beautiful buildings in a huge park. Tonight is the official last night of my tour so everyone is going out for dinner and drinks, including some guys we met on the train. It should be a lot of fun. I have three more days here including an exciting trip to the Great Wall.

Mongolia

busyliz — Wed, 3 Oct 2007 19:48:00 GMT

Ulan Bator is much more western than Russia. People speak English and signs are sometimes in English too. We went to a monastery and saw kids as young as 6 learning Tibetian Buddhism and little else. We also saw huge gold Buddah's and spun the 108 prayer wheels. Last night we went to a Ger camp, slept in gers (round tents on platforms with stoves for heat) and tried traditional yogurt, fermented mare's milk and other nomad specialties with a local family; the wife had on a hat with a nike swish and they had a refridgerator. We went horseback riding and got to gallop on the way back. I had a fun, feisty horse. It was a little dangerous, especially for the first time riders:), but a ton of fun. It was beautiful in the countryside. All the trees are changing for fall. Mongolia has been much friendlier, and tons cheaper, than Russia. We are sad to go on to China tomorrow.

Gallery: Lake Baikal/Train

busyliz — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:23:00 GMT

the train and Lake Baikal

busyliz — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:03:00 GMT

Getting to Lake Baikal took 4 nights and 3 days on the train, but it was worth it. The Lake is the the largest freshwater lake on earth. It's 623 km long and 25-80 km wide and 1.6 km deep in the middle. The only bigger still body of water is the Caspian Sea. There are snow capped mountains on the far side and trees changing to fall colors on the near side. We thought it would be cold, being Siberia, but it wasn't bad. We went for a boat ride, and hiked up to a viewpoint the first day. The second day we had a picnic dinner on the beach, saw a Baikal seal, the only type of freshwater seal, and went to a sauna 5 feet from the water so we could jump in between sessions. The water was cold, but not frigid. It was quite refreshing...for about 15-20 seconds. It was wonderful to be in the country after the train and the city and we took advantage of the good weather.

Life on the train was actually really fun, especially the first day or two. We would stay up late talking, playing cards and drinking a little vodka with our new friends, 2 vets from France and a slightly scary group of Russian teens....until our cute carriage attendant lady would come and put her folded hands next to her head to signal time for bed. The Aussies didn't like to be told it was time for bed so we'd stay up a little more and then sleep until noon or later. The train stayed on Moscow time so by the third day we were really 5 hours ahead of that which made it tricky to get up at 9 to get off the train. We had a blast playing a pre-made card game called backpacker, playing Chinese poker and making our noodles and dried mashed potatoes. One night we had a birthday party for the youngest member of our group who turned 22. Along the way we bought pastries filled with potatoes and cabbage, fruit and beer from the grandmas at the stations while trying not to miss the train at the 20 minute stops. The rocking made me sleep well and we didn't go too stir crazy until the last day.

Tonight we leave for two nights to go to Ulan Batar in Mongolia. It will seem short after last time. The border crossing may take 12 hours or more though. We'll see. My group is a ton of fun. There is a British nurse-guy John who is hilarious. He keeps us laughing all day and takes care of medical problems for us. There are two sisters my age from Amsterdam who I am good friends with and I'll go visit sometime. They want to come to CA too. There are two nice english couples, three Aussies who are always ready to have a party or do an Aussie impression. "That's not a knife...this is a knife, etc:)" I'll miss them at the end of the tour. Hi to everyone. I miss you all. Write sometime so I don't have an empty mailbox.

treasures in moscow

busyliz — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:55:00 GMT

Yesterday we went to the Kremlin and I went inside the Armory with all the state weapons, coronation outfits, gold plates and silver and gem covered Bibles. It was amazing how many riches the Russian Tsars had. I saw the double throne for the boy kings with a secret room for their tutor or their mom to whisper what to do, a dozen gold carriages, a wine fountain with 4 layers of gold and silver decorations and the best, a fabrege egg with a working model of the first trans-siberian railroad inside, a gift for Catherine the great. Also tons of horse armor and other cool stuff. We also saw the changing of the guard. They march by swinging their legs up really high and banging them down. It was really funny. I got whistled at twice for not following directions- once for sitting on a bench-like egde of a monument and once for walking outside of the ropes. They still have some Soviet things left. Today St. Basils, the craft market and to the Vodka museum.

more St. Petersburg and Moscow

busyliz — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:42:00 GMT

We went out to a fun bar that played American music on Tuesday night and played foosball with some local guys and danced. The club was fairly empty as it was a Tuesday, but we met a nice American guy from New York and an Australian.

Wednesday we went to Peterhoff, Peter the Great's summer palace which was like Versailles. It was a little cold but beautiful. We got the overnight train to Moscow. We had cute 4 bed berths and bathrooms with moving toliet seat covers, very snazzy.

We arrived today is Moscow to cold weather. We will go tonight to see a modern ballet of Ode to Joy. We saw the famous, crazy St. Basil's Cathedral today and walked past Lenin's body in the mausoleum. We'll go tomorrow to the Krelim. Everything is really neat, more soon.

Gallery: St. Petersburg, Moscow

busyliz — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:11:00 GMT