From Seattle to the World

Georgia Sports Culture

leelefever — Wed, 6 Dec 2006 01:51:00 GMT

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Georgia Tech Fans Not Allowed, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

A defining factor of Southern culture: college sports rivalries. We watched a bit of the Oklahoma/Nebraska game last night and heard that Wake Forest won the ACC championship and UNC beat #1 ranked Ohio State and Kentucky in basketball. My team is UNC and it's fun to have the American sports back on the agenda. I never did get into cricket really.

Paris Car Charger

leelefever — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 21:14:00 GMT

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This is the first time I've ever seen this, but somehow I doubt the last.

The Italian Post Office

leelefever — Fri, 3 Nov 2006 21:49:00 GMT

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Adventures with Poste Italiane, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

Sending packages home is how we manage to stay light, and usually it is not a problem. China, Vietnam and many other unexpected places make it a smooth, albeit paperwork laden, operation.

In Italy, where some things are so well designed and easy, the postal system seems to be a mess - at least for the traveler.

We needed to send home about 10 lbs of items and, as usual, found the post office near the train station in Milan. After waiting for 20 minutes, they could only sell us an oversized yellow box and the basic direction of another post office where we could send it. So, with our backpacks and a giant yellow box, we walked to the other station and waited again. It looked bad. There were 6 windows all blocked by glass - no place to pass over a big box. With a help of a very friendly Italian guy, we finally communicated that we wanted to send the box to America. At this point, she looked at us like we requested an express package to the moon. Neither post office was set up for sending packages - only items that could be slid under the glass sneeze guard. I wonder how Italians send a package?

When she asked about the contents of our giant yellow box, my translator communicated that one item was pasta. She shook her head and had to look up if it was OK to send pasta to the US. I just wanted to say "We're in Italy right? Is pasta a protected item here? Is the US concerned about ecological effects foreign pasta? C'mon"

After a lot of talking in Italian, it became clear that our 10lbs of goods would cost USD 90 and about 500 dollars of pure hassle. Our translator left us with solace by saying that even for Italians, the post office is always an adventure. Fortunately for them though, they don't have to schlep around 10 extra pounds wherever they go when it doesn't work out. Maybe it'll be easier in France.

Meeting Friends Abroad

leelefever — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:24:00 GMT

One of the things we miss about being on the road is contact with our friends and family and even a little contact with fellow Americans. Sachi was saying yesterday that she has gotten so used to English with an accent now that it sounds normal.

Luckily, we’ve had a few occasions to hang out with friends from Seattle to get our fix. What has made this extra special is that we never made specific plans to meet anyone – it was purely good timing. We both want to give a quick shout-out to a few folks that made the effort to meet us along the way…

A few days before arriving in Hong Kong, our friend Christi realized that we would be there at the same time as our mutual friend Kerry. Sure enough, we were there at almost the exact same time and spent a day and night together, including a little karaoke.

After that we heard from our friend Jake Ludington that he would be in Beijing for a conference and sight seeing and sure enough – the dates coincided nearly perfectly. We ate Peking Duck, drank beer over the Forbidden City (below) and in a couple of neighborhoods around Beijing.

With both Kerry and Jake, meeting them really made us feel like we made new friends. We knew them both before, but not very well. Now though, having shared international experiences together, we have great new friends.

Lastly is our friends in Amsterdam and The Netherlands. Betty and Josh got married months ago and planned an Amsterdam honeymoon. Once their date was set, so was ours and Amsterdam become a far off date for us to make. As it worked out, we had a great time with them over a few days, including a Heineken Experience.

I’m lumping Lilia and Robert into the Seattle people because Lilia lived there for a while last year. This is the same Lilia that also met us in Moscow. She and her Dutch husband Robert opened their home to us in the town of Enschede, Holland and we got a chance to meet their friends at a party for Lilia’s birthday. Their friends also included Ton Zylstra, a blogger that I’ve known online for a long time and finally got to meet in person. It was such a great experience to see a glimpse of their normal lives in Holland.

Sachi, Lilia and Ton at Bad Bentheim Castle near Enschede...

Our hospitable hosts, Lilia and Robert...

For the next couple of months we’ll be in Europe – so if anyone out there is visiting and would like to hook-up, please do contact us – we’d love to meet you…

Thoughts of Home

leelefever — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:07:00 GMT

With this post I'm adding a new tag to the "filed under" list: "goinghome". Our thoughts are increasingly looking to the end of the trip. We still have a couple of months which is a lot of time, but it really feels like home is just around the corner. The inevitable transition into a normal working life has been a big topic of discussion and one that we wish could wait another 6 months. We've also been considering what to do with this web site when we're finished. We're considering coming to a hard stop at the end of the year so we don't just fade away.

Two friends that we met on the Trans-Siberian train are at the very end of a mammoth 400+ days across 40+ countries. Kathy and Sharon are back in the UK and only days away from home. They remind us of the mix of excitement and sadness of going home. Check out their site- a truly incredible trip.

Alas we have a lot to think about now - like making it to Amsterdam today and meeting our Seattle friends Josh and Betty. Yup - mainland Europe and hopefully a respite from the ridiculous prices we've found in Scandinavia. Sachi has never been to Europe, so I think the last phase of the trip will be some of the European basics - and some rest. We've been moving constantly - every 2 days for weeks and it'll be nice to settle in for a week or so and regroup for the final push.

Besides the whole city being sold out of hotel rooms thanks to a soccer match, Copenhagen was awesome. One of the most interesting things to us is how diverse the populations are becoming as we move into mainland Europe. For most of the trip we've been in mostly homogenous societies (at least in appearance) - India, SE Asia, China, Japan, Russia, Scandinavia; everyone looks the same. Suddenly, it seems strange to see such diversity - and a little more like home. Did I mention home again?

Here are a couple of photos from Copenhagen...

This is "Nyhavn" - quite touristy, but also very cool.

One more from there...

Copenhagen has great cobblestone pedestrian walkways throughout the old city.

Drink Russian Vodka!

leelefever — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:17:00 GMT

Given the opportunity, we will choose to hang out with the locals and in nearly every instance. The vast majority of the time, it has been a rewarding and interesting experience. However, on the Trans-Siberian Railway we’ve learned that there are Russian locals that you don’t necessarily want to “experience” for 2 days on a train.

Peer pressure is an issue on the Trans-Siberian train with consistent reminders from other travelers that this is the “vodka train” and you must drink Russian vodka. This pressure is lost on the Russian locals though as they need no pressure whatsoever to drink on a train. It is a requirement for them and when mixing with foreign travelers the requirement is shared by all.

So we found ourselves in the dining car on the second night of a 48 hour journey from Irkustk to Ekaterineburg.

Between Slava, the gigantic ex-Russian Army captain with bullet wounds and Victor, the pudgy Belushi-esque ex-Mafia family man, we had our hands full. While our English friend Paul was busy being pressured by Slava into drinking more vodka than he wanted, I got a dose of vodka with Victor and his fellow Russian friends, who seemed to be complete blockheads. We drank more, became friends, toasted to health, arm wrestled and looking back I can say that I have never witnessed so many scars on so many people. I think these guys have had a hard life.

For some reason I accepted Victor’s invitation for me and Sachi to come to his room and drink more vodka. Not only did this end up with me losing a few hours of memory, but it caused Sachi to end up babysitting Victor’s Coke-spewing 4 year old child “Sergei” for over an hour. She was not happy and I had no idea why. What I did remember was Victor telling me at some point in the night that the wolf tattoo on his arm was from his 3 year prison term. Apparently had “only killed one person” while in the Russian mafia. Had I had my wits about me, I may have escaped at that point, but I didn’t.

The next day I awoke to a hangover, an upset wife and a half-drunk Russian ex-con banging on the door at 9AM with a 2 liter beer in his hand. We were still friends and he was clearly doing me a favor by bring over the beer. He started with the old Russian saying “A good friend drinks vodka with you yesterday, a great friend drinks vodka with you today!” as if I might appreciate the classical nature of the moment. I would have none of it, despite him barging in, pouring a glass, spilling it on the floor and insisting I drink no less than 15 times. Of course Sachi was now noticing that she would now clean up after both father and son in our compartment. I was at a loss for more ways to say “nyet” – nothing seemed to work. Sachi would later say that when he came in she wanted to kick him in the face. Of course, I was implicit in this frustration.

Later Victor hooked back up with the Blockheads and they formed a roaming band of drunk-in-the-morning Russian annoyances. They went from one end of the train to the other, peer-pressuring everyone from the night before to drink with them. One of them even forced his way into the compartment of understandably shaken American and Canadian girls. He would later be quite accurately called a stalker.

This band of drunks eventually caused the revelers from the night before to close their doors and hide out for the majority of the morning. Many, including Sachi and I ignored knocks at our doors. The foreigners on the train tried to memorize compartment numbers so we could visit one another without keeping a door open. There was talk of passwords being used. We were held hostage by the locals.

By about 1pm the drunk Russians had passed out – we could hear Victor snoring through the compartment walls and from that point the foreigners on the train began to appear like refugees after a bombing campaign. Shaken, annoyed and hungover, we stuck together and decided that drinking with the locals is fun, but sharing 2 days on a train with the same people is another story all together.

Watch the Video Here.

Allergic to China

leelefever — Sat, 9 Sep 2006 00:47:00 GMT

I do love my wife – but she is such a huge nerd. Did you know she has a degree in microbiology? You’d think with such knowledge, she would be more in tune with her own health. Before we left, Sachi saw an allergist and learned that she has allergies to trees and grasses – it affects her every year at home and her allergy medicine, which helps immensely, is in her backpack now. Sometimes Sachi needs a reminder about this fact.

For nearly the entire time that we’ve been in China so far (3 weeks) Sachi has had cold-like symptoms. In fact, I have acquired a cold and gotten over it while her symptoms persist. Just today, I asked Sachi about the possibility of her symptoms being related to her allergies and a light bulb went on. After weeks of sneezing 50 times a day and wiping a chapped nose, the cure seemed so obvious – in fact it was not much further than the pack on her back. As of this afternoon, Sachi has fully recovered from the “cold”, thanks to Zyrtec. DUH.

I do not know why Sachi can’t recognize her own allergies, but I am now on allergy alert on her behalf. Never again will I watch her suffer through weeks of a “cold” only to find that we’ve been sharing the room with the cure the whole time. So much for microbiology.

Line Breaking in China

leelefever — Sat, 2 Sep 2006 23:47:00 GMT

I had made a decision and I was going to act on it. Gone were the days of standing passively in line while Chinese people wedge themselves in front of me and place an order before I could react. I was going stand up for myself and try to be a little more Chinese.

This is not the kind of thing you can plan – it just has to happen and just last night, I had my chance. We were in the Shanghai subway terminal in line for our first subway card at a vending machine, as we’ve done so many times before in other cities. Just as the couple in front of me at the machine received their card and turned away, a young Chinese guy stepped directly in front of me. So, with great determination, I stepped in front of him enough to place my right shoulder at about his eye level and in a single motion stepped directly in front of the vending machine. It was mine! HAHA! I’ll show you line breaker! I’m no push-over tourist softy!

So there I was, with this foreign and unfamiliar machine staring me in the face. It was mine, yes, but I realized all too quickly that I had no idea how to use it. The instructions were in English and the #1 read “Select Fare”. Scratching my head with waves of embarrassment pending, I searched the machine for anything that said “Fare”. Nothing. I inquisitively pressed a couple of random buttons in the hopes that something would happen. Nothing. My pride was on the line here and I was blowing it! Thoughts of fleeing in shame entered my mind when I heard a voice over my shoulder, “Where do you need to go?” It was the line breaker politely asking a simple question that I couldn’t answer completely. All we knew was that we needed to go two stops on Line 2. He ended up doing the whole transaction for me and after many “thank yous” I left with our subway cards in hand and my pride more than a little crushed.

The moral here is that if you’re going to try to act like a local, be prepared for the entire event. Going off half-cocked is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

Qingping Market Guangzhou

leelefever — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:04:00 GMT

We’ve finally started our month-long journey through China, starting in the huge and industrial city of Guangzhou. This city greeted us with a couple of surprises.

Before we left I remember hearing about an amazing market in Guangzhou where you can find anything that can be eaten – including wild animals from all over China. Upon hearing about such a market, I made sure it was part of our itinerary. The market is called the Qingping Market and it is one of Chinas largest and most famous, for a few reasons.

Upon arriving in Guangzhou and the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island (US$50/night) I was happy to find that the Qingping Market was only a few blocks away to the north. We would make a long, 95(f) degree day of it.

We’ve seen our share of street markets over the last 8 months and Qingping is certainly the granddaddy of them all with an unimaginable assortment of anything that can be dried and eaten, from snake skin to deer tendon and bugs, lots of bugs. However, the market left me frustrated. For one thing, it is hard to understand where the market ends and the city begins- there are no maps or signs or information boards (not a big surprise of course). This set us wandering. Second – as hard as we looked and as many people as we asked, we simply could not find the animals. Where were the stacked cages of raccoons and civet cats? Where is the roasted dog? Everyone who has visited this place has been disgusted by it and dammit- we want to see why!

So we searched and asked more people and even got a map of the area that a person used to denote the location of such a place. This sent us many blocks out of the market on a less-then-figurative wild goose chase. We found nothing. Despite being amazed by buckets of live scorpions, eels, scary looking cats and meat hooks full of unidentifiable meat, we left disappointed that we didn’t find the animals.

It was a frustrating failure for two people who have grown to feel confident in such situations.

Then, upon consulting the Internet, the story began to coalesce. I saw my fist bit of evidence on this Flickr photo, which reads:

At one time, stores featured many exotic animals (for eating). Today after the SARS scare these are mostly gone, or at least hidden in back alleys.

HAH! This was it. It was the SARS virus! So, I looked on Google and found a little more information that actually painted the Qingping Market in a wicked light, from a microbial perspective.

This Environmental News article writes:

The Guangdong provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today that experts from Hong Kong and Guangdong have found a large quantity of the SARS-like coronavirus from civet cats and other wildlife collected from markets in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

National Geographic writes:

Many wild and exotic animals are sold as food in China, such as these raccoons in stacked cages at the Qingping Market in Guangzhou. Some scientists warn that such conditions are ideal for a virus to jump from animals to humans, which likely happened in the case of SARS.

Ahh sweet vindication (both for our search and the wild animals)! We had been frustrated because what we were looking for no longer exists or is too well hidden for travelers to find. We were not being rookies- we (and the people we talked to) lacked a specific piece of information about the recent history of the market. SARS had a very positive effect on the market overall, but one that caused us frustration for a day.

Hong Kong Efficiency

leelefever — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:32:00 GMT

After being in SE Asia for a while, Hong Kong was a bit like a trip home. While it is a very westernized city, it retains enough of the Chinese and general Asian “feel” to make it interesting and foreign. We fell in love with the city over about 6 days.

The incredible efficiency of Hong Kong was most fascinating to me. Looking around, there are so many things that I hope we’ll see in Seattle.

The first and coolest is the “Octopus Card”, which operates like a debit card and works for all city transit, 7-11s, McDonalds, drug stores, supermarkets etc. Anywhere you see the little Octopus card reader, you can press your card onto it and money will be deducted from your prepaid account. The first time I used it at a 7-11, the first words out of my mouth were “holy sh*t that's efficient!” You don’t even have to take the card out of a wallet or purse- just hold it over the reader and the money is zapped out.

Last night over dinner we talked to some locals who showed us their Octopus card which had their picture and information on it. For them, the card is used to open the door of their home and other places that require membership. They said that some schools even use Octopus cards for daily attendance. By their estimates, 90-95% of all Hong Kong people have one and most people love it. For people who are worried about privacy or Big Brother, they can choose to get a card with no personal connection. However, they lose some of the convenience. Seattle needs this.

In busy restaurants, the servers have wireless ear pieces that are used for constant communications among the staff. It’s invisible to the customer, but the communication makes service seem magical, as if they are almost reading your mind. You walk in the door and each server looks up and guides you along your way as you wind through the restaurant. The teamwork is remarkable.

The public busses are generally double decker. That’s all I have to say about that.

I’ve never waited so little for the subway. We never waited more than 2 minutes for the next MTR train to arrive and when it did, it would never get too packed with people. Because they run so regularly and often, as a train fills up, people often choose to wait for the next one instead of forcing their way into an already full train.

The world needs more escalators if you ask me. Hong Kong has hot weather and hills- a good recipe for putting escalators to good use. In the hills rising up from the Central area of downtown there are a system of covered escalators called the Mid-Levels, which efficiently shuttle people to and from their hillside high-rise residences and the hip café-culture neighborhood called Soho. The Mid-Levels system ascends 800 meters up the hill, running downhill in the morning and uphill in the afternoon.

Hong Kong must be one of the best air conditioned places on earth. We made up a couple of names for our interaction with the cool air:

AC Poaching – This is shopping in a store for the single purpose of cooling down.
The Hong Kong Arctic Wind – Shops blast cool air onto the sidewalk as an invitation to come inside for some AC poaching. In the dense retail areas of Kowloon the Arctic Wind seemed to lower the overall sidewalk temperature a few precious degrees.

Hong Kong even seems to have served one of my long standing culinary pet peeves. I have never understood why shrimp are served with the tail attached. You often see a nice grilled or sautéed shrimp arrive at your plate with the tail on; obscuring a section of meat and causing the consumer to have to clumsily remove the tail before eating it. So far in Hong Kong, my shrimps have arrived as whole shrimps, tails removed but hidden meat intact. Again, Hong Kong makes something more efficient.

Hong Kong’s efficiency is surely rooted in the money that flows through the city more quickly than almost any city in the world. Hong Kong is quite good at making it easy for people to depart with their money. When it comes in the form of something like the Octopus Card, I’m almost happy to see it go.

Street Hawkers

leelefever — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:33:00 GMT

Anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes on the streets of SE Asia knows the street hawkers – the people selling goods and services on the street. The most dominant and tenacious of the hawkers are the drivers- people offering rides on their tuk-tuk or motorcycle. Others include people selling sunglasses, drinks or any other tourist consumable. I would guarantee with absolute certainty that the two phrases I’ve heard most over the last two months are “Sir! Where you go?” and “Sir! You buy something?” This morning over breakfast we denied no fewer than 6 offers for the Saigon Times newspaper. We’ve gotten used to it, but sometimes we just want to throw all of our stuff on the ground and pitch a fit in the middle of the street screaming “I have had ENOUGH! NO! I DO NOT want a RIDE or a DRINK or a T-SHIRT and if I do, I WILL FIND YOU!!!! Most of the time though we just offer a polite “no thanks” and walk away. The situation is not unlike the story we all know of the boy that really, really likes a girl. The girl is not so into him, but politely talks to him and smiles at him politely. The smitten boy of course perceives any interaction as a move in the right direction and pursues the girl with tenacity. He asks her out on a date every time they meet and over time, the girl tires of his advances to the point of becoming annoyed. Little does he know it, but with each interaction he drives her further and further away. Eventually the girl learns that the only way to deal with the boy is to ignore him completely and be leery of other boys like him. Such is our situation with the street hawkers. With each offer, we find ourselves less and less likely to deal with them or even acknowledge that they exist. Like the smitten boy, they don’t realize it, but their tenacity is actually preventing more business than promoting it. See also: 10 Reasons Why Street Hawkers are Like Email Spam

Mountain Town

leelefever — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 20:06:00 GMT

We are suckers for cool places in the mountains. Da Lat, Vietnam lured us with temperatures in the 60's and the promise of experiencing Vietnam's vacation and honeymoon capital. What we found was an intersting look at Vietnamese vacation culture that perplexed us a bit.

In the last 50 years, Da Lat has grown from a sleepy hill station to a full blown tourist destination. In that growth, it seems that it's reputation may have preceded its progress by a few years. From our perspective, Da Lat is a place with a perfect climate that is desparately searching for something to keep the tourists busy. In these efforts, the city has grown into a mess of modern buildings, neon and crowds of people. It does have a nice golf course.

Yesterday we rented a motorbike and went to a ski-lift style gandola that descended to a lake just out of town. Our hopes were high. Though the gandola ride was nice, it's end left us wondering why it had been built- a gandola to what exactly? We found a garden variety pagoda and a trail down to a red clay beach surrounding a half-full lake. The trail to the lake ended by a sickly looking and very sad monkey on a chain. Not a highlight.

On the way back we realized that most Vietnamese never get a chance to ride in a gandola, so it is not only transportation, but an attraction itself. It may be no matter that the destination is an anti-climax.

The restaurant situation in Da Lat was also a bit strange to us. First, there are very few actual restaurants in Da Lat. Instead, there are cafes that have a very consistent menu consisting of eight pages of drinks and ice cream and one page of food, including, invariably, six kinds of spaghetti. Of course, there are also many street stalls offering baguettes, three varieties of snails, meat on sticks and pho. What we didn't find were any up-market Vietnamese restaurants. We found very few places to go out and get a nice Vietnamese dinner. The restaurants on offer focused mainly on western food with some Asian foods in the mix.

Being the honeymoon capital of Vietnam, we were left wondering if we were missing something. Where do the Vietnamese vacationers eat? In the end, we realized that Da Lat is not for us- it is not built around the needs and expectations of the Western traveler. The Vietnemese may not go out to eat Vietnamese food in nice restaurants to celebrate (or the places are well hidden). It is a Vietnamese place that serves the Vietnamese people first, as it should. While Da Lat may not have lived up to what we imagined, it offered a quirky, strange, cool and interesting look at Vietnamese vacation culture and for that we are thankful.

On a Bus from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap Cambodia

leelefever — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:56:00 GMT

3AM: Lee wakes up to watch last half of World Cup finals. Goes back to sleep happy for Italy and wishing bad, bad things for Zidane.
6:30AM: Wake up and pack.
7:05AM: Go to front desk to check out and order breakfast to go. Find only one worker- a bar keep. Order is placed as kitchen shows no signs of life.
7:15AM: Take bags to front desk... Food is being cooked slowly, checkout process begins, slowly. Feel anxiety about catching 7:45am bus.
7:35AM: Breakfast is done, but no takeaway containers. Must wait for someone to run next door. tick-tock tic-tock. Finally board the backs of two motorcycles (motos) for the bus station. Board bus with little fanfare.

8:15AM: Cambodian karaoke plays on the bus TV and sound system.
11:15AM: While arriving in Phnom Penh, Sachi notices a large stream of ants traveling up and down the window on her left as the woman beside me utilizes a third bus-supplied barf bag. Sachi feels thankful for motion patch.
11:55AM: Arrive at first bus station in Phnom Penh only to reboard same bus to go to main terminal to catch new bus for 6 hour ride to Siem Reap. Our bus to Siem Reap is full. Walk to other bus companies, find another 12:30 bus to Siem Reap for US$7 per person.
12:48PM: Depart Phnom Penh for Siem Reap with an ETA of 5:30pm. We'll see.
1:48PM: This bus smells like urine and the AC doesn't keep the sweat away.
3:35PM: Lee commences all out assault on bus toilet door, which swings open incessantly just feet from his seat. After closing it for the 12th time, resolves to find a solution. The urine smell will be defeated!
4:17PM: Lee breaks a new sweat with each close of the toilet door. No one seems to appreciate the effort.
5:43PM: Lee continues to be mocked by the bathroom door and it's rank smells. Despite fastening a canvas strap supplied by the bus people (a victorious solution), a steady flow of fellow passengers fail to recognize our plight and the door remains open for most of the time. Grrrrr. Lee admits defeat in the final moments.
6:10PM: Arrive in Siem Reap and into the typical SE Asian madhouse of tuk-tuk drivers, bags emerging from the belly of the bus and astounding inefficiency. We take a tuk-tuk to our hotel and retire for the evening after spending 10 hours on Cambodian busses.

Laos Dining Experience

leelefever — Sun, 9 Jul 2006 14:55:00 GMT

Lying between Thailand and Cambodia on our itinerary, Laos may have a disadvantage in being compared to seemingly richer countries. However, we were impressed with Laos overall – it was full of scenic beauty and the traveling was easier than we expected. between Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane. While we enjoyed the day trips to waterfalls and river rafting, the day’s end would bring a search for dinner in the towns.

As we walked by each restaurant and café, staff would inevitably not smile, but would instead stare to see if we chose one of their tables for a meal. Once we sat down, a menu was silently dropped in front of us and the server stood, still without a smile, staring to hear a request.

We understand that cultural cues can be very different between neighboring countries and we assume that restaurant staff in general didn’t feel we were an imposition on their evening, but after coming from Thailand – the Land of Smiles – we had to remind ourselves not to feel rushed to order and eat. The service was good and the Lao we met were kind and courteous, but often lacked the appearance of smiling friendliness.

In other Asian countries, I hadn’t felt that need to fall back on Western food, but the local Lao dishes for me seemed to lack much flavor with the exception of straight chilli peppers. We tried more than a few stir fried dishes, curries, spring rolls, meat and sticky rice on sticks, and a few handfuls of market favorites wrapped in banana leaves. It wasn’t nearly as delicious as Thai versions. Even the dipping sauces seemed watery and lacked the salty or sweet richness in flavor the spring rolls needed, though fresh mint added to the rolls were a nice touch. I can see why, at least for foreigners, there were many more cooking schools available for Thai cuisine.

In Vientiane, we ate well with French and Italian cuisine mixed in with a few Lao meals. It was a little embarrassing as we perceived our choices as those of “weak” travellers, but we greatly anticipated European food that wasn’t Spaghetti in tomato sauce. So, in the end, Vientiane’s lamb shank and caviar-salmon ravioli meals with smiling staff (3 course meals for 2 under US$10-12) were my favorites.

Read Your Guidebook Before Flying

leelefever — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:37:00 GMT

In Chiang Mai, we were offered two options to get to Luang Prabang, Laos. The slow boat would take a couple of days where you sit on a wooden plank for 10 hours per day and can't lean back on the metal siding because the sun makes it too hot to touch (though we've heard varied stories). Or fly in 50 minutes on Lao Airlines. We chose to fly.

As the plane took off I read our Rough Guide to Southeast Asia's instructions for getting around by planes. Here's what I read to Lee:

Most Western embassies still have travel advisories warning against flying Lao airlines. For some travellers flying Lao Airlines demonstrates bravado, but it's not really something you want to do unless you absolutely have to.

We made it just fine. Our bravado now seems to be unstoppable.

Currently Reading

leelefever — Fri, 9 Jun 2006 15:26:00 GMT

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Currently Reading, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

Throughout the trip I have been consuming one book after another. I set out to make the trip more interesting by reading books about the places we plan to visit and to varying degrees I've succeeded in that so far.

I started by leaving home with one-third read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. The first international book was chosen in a bookshop in New Zealand on a bit of a whim. I went in considering a book about Capt. James Cook and left with the book "Genghis Khan" by John Man. I read this book aloud to Sachi while in our rented campervan and we both enjoyed it immensely. We knew so little about the legendary man before and now we're hoping to see the Mongolian steppe (Ghengis' home) later this summer.

Next we bought a couple of smaller books in Australia (not a cheap place to buy books): A Travellers History of Japan and a book of memoirs of survivors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Both short and interesting reads, but nothing to write home about. Oops.

Taking a break from non-fiction, I then read Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, who consistently makes me laugh out loud and inspires me to try more satirical writing. Following that was a short book that sparked an interest in me that I didn't expect: Ben Franklin's autobiography. Short and frank, I found myself wanting it to be longer or more complete.

A book that was perfect for being in the tsunami-affected region was "Krakatoa", by Simon Winchester. A truly interesting event in history that I enjoyed learning about very much. Did you know that the shock wave of Krakatoa's volcanic explosion rippled around the earth 7 times?

Back on the Cambodia tip, I read "The Lost Executioner" by Nic Dunlop, which was about his search the commander of Tuol Sleng, the famous Cambodian death prison during the Khmer Rouge reign. I have a fascination with modern Cambodian history and plan to read a Pol Pot biography soon.

Just tonight I'm celebrating the finish of a book that is sitting unread at home in hardcover form: "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. I read his Pulitzer Prize winning "Guns, Germs and Steel" a while back and said that it made me smarter than any book I'd ever read before - particularly regarding the creation of civilization in the last 10,000 years. Collapse is equally as informative and focused on what has undone civilizations in the past. I would recommend this book for travelers interested in environmental conservation issues. Smart guy that Diamond- I'm a fan.

Just last night I bought "1776- America and Britain at War" by David McCullough. The abrupt and pre-war end of Ben Franklin's autobiography whetted my appetite I'm sure. Sachi also bought "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer, which is about the creepy side of mormonism. I'm sure l'll read that too.

If anyone is looking at these books and saying "I know some books Lee would like AND would be popular enough to find around world" please do let me know.

One Day: Travelling from Kanazawa to Takayama, Japan

leelefever — Fri, 26 May 2006 18:26:00 GMT

8:15AM: Wake up, shower, pack backpacks, post to TwinF.

9:08AM: Depart Kanazawa Garden Hotel for the beautiful Kanazawa train station (literally best exterior we've seen)- no train schedule to Takayama in hand.

9:22AM: Arrive at station, get coffee, breakfast, visit ticket counter. Ticket guy gives us ticket to Toyama (next town up) and says little but "change change change- change change change".

9:49AM: Board train to Toyama.

10:30AM: Arrive at Toyama, find schedule for next train to Takayama- see that next train leaves at 10:31 on Track 3.

10:31AM: Race to Track 3 in time to view the caboose of Takayama train mock us while departing station. Exasperate knowing former train guy could have let us know.

10:35AM: Visit ticket counter to discover meaning of "change change change". To get to Takayama, we must depart at 1:47PM (3 hours later), change to a bus, and then change back to train to arrive at 5:15PM. Feel pangs of discouragement.

10:47AM: Resolve to tour Toyama. Put bags in locker (US$5), rip out page in guidebook, which reads "The heavily industrialized city of Toyama has few tourist attractions." Roll eyes, take page with us.

11:21AM: While sitting on park swings at Toyama Castle Park, discuss Ben Franklin's public library idea and the naming of UPenn's Oxymoronic Fighting Quaker Marching Band (of which Sachi's brother Mark was percussion leader).

12:17PM: Eat ramen noodles for lunch next to Japanese businessmen. Despite delicious noodles, discussed our preference for the rich and hearty Southern Kyushu ramen.

1:44PM: Buy two giant maple cream puffs and salmon sushi. Board two-car train packed with Japanese school girls, which seem to make up at least 60% of the Japanese population on weekdays around 12-2. Wonder outloud- why aren't they in school right now? Why do they ALL have the same haircut?

2:35PM: Arrive in the tiny mountain town of Inotani having gobbled cream puffs and sushi. Oishi!

3:25PM: Depart Inotani on a small bus containing 3 people (us included) with legroom about 3 inches shorter than Lee's femur. Ride through the brand new 2.6 km Koshiji Tunnel. Even on the rickety mountain bus, an automated female voice reminds us of the stops in Japanese.

4:35PM: Arrive in the two-horse town of Tsunogawa to catch final train.

4:45PM: Depart Tsunogawa for Takayama in 2 car train, containing the same 3 people as the bus.

5:15PM: Arrive in Takayama- on time as usual. Pick up map from tourist office. Walk to first choice hotel- closed for renovation. Walk back to tourist office for more info. Walk to Rickshaw Inn (7 minutes) to find it is full- realize we should had the tourist office call first. Walk to Hotel Hana- get room for US$93 per night for 2 nights- expected. Relax.

6:05PM: Tour town on foot, laugh at our knack for walking streets after closing time.

6:45PM: Eat at tiny bar restaurant run by a friendly couple knowing little English. Have local specialty Hida Beef and sake. Sachi translates conversations about us between unsuspecting people at the bar.

8:15PM: Return to hotel for long hard night's sleep.

Lee Decodes a Japanese Sign

leelefever — Sat, 13 May 2006 00:50:00 GMT

Today we went on a little hike to the ruins of Tsuwano castle. On the way, Lee saw this sign and interpreted as follows:

1. Scrape the bottom of your shoe

2. Place scraped matter in your hand

3. And smoke it?

He only glanced at it, but it really was his first impression.

It's actually about cigarettes.

Roppongi Tokyo Nightlife

leelefever — Sat, 6 May 2006 09:45:00 GMT

We have to admit that the movie "Lost in Translation" has left an indelible mark on our expectations of what your supposed to do in Tokyo. There is surely no better place on earth to experience the karaoke phenomenon and last night we repeated the experience of the characters in the movie and rented a karaoke cube for two hours- from about 1:15-3:15AM at a cost of US$58 including a drink and two dishes of gyoza. (Karaoke is singing along to music videos you choose.)

Of course, you can't fully experience karoake without a few drinks, so we also went to have dinner and take part the famous Roppongi nightlife. Once again, Sachi's japanese skills enabled us to find restaurants that do not cater to foreigners and have menus that look like this:

We had sashimi.

Roppongi is known as a place where foreigners go for nightlife and there are hundreds of bars, taking up the first 5 stories of real estate for many blocks. For some surreal atomsphere- we went to a reggae bar (in Tokyo remember), where I played darts with a guy named "Hide". Later we went to the Motown Bar, where I couldn't believe the popularity of the Mexican beer Corona and the number of attentive bartenders. The service in Tokyo is amazing.

Having sufficiently found new courage, we were ready for karaoke, which I have to admit was very, very fun. I think Seattle needs a karaoke cube joint.

Here are selection of the songs we sang:

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
Dancing Queen - AbbA
My Life - Billy Joel
King of the Road - Roger Miller

Inquirys should be directed to our agent.

Thailand Rite of Passage

leelefever — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:57:00 GMT

We had just stopped the moped at a food cart to get some phad thai before heading home when we sat by a friendly Frenchman for a bit. He was on the tail end of a six month journey and had been in Thailand for a few weeks. In fact he had been to Phuket and a beach in Krabi, much like us. He said something simple that really struck me. He said, with a slight French accent, “You know, I have been to some of zee other places in Thailand, but sometimes zey feel like Southern Europe. In zhose places, I don’t feel like I’m in Thailand at all. Ahh but Ko Lanta, Ko Lanta feels like Thailand”

Looking back on our experience in Southern Thailand, I know what he means. We’ve had a wonderful time and each place we go teaches us about what we’re really looking for in Thailand. Like the Frenchman, we feel like we’ve reached a pinnacle in Ko Lanta and all the places before it were a sort of rite of passage for us. In fact, I honestly do not believe that we could appreciate Ko Lanta as we do without having gone to Phuket and Krabi first.

Don’t get me wrong, Phuket and Krabi are both absolutely beautiful places and there are gems to be found everywhere, like Baan Krating. However, what we’ve found is that we’d prefer a place that is not so developed with resorts and shopping malls. Railay Beach West was a good example. It was a stretch of beach that had one resort on top of another. It was almost impossible to get a feel for Railey Beach outside of how the resorts think you want to be treated. As it turns out, we don’t need the high-end resort treatment. It was busy, with kids running around, competition for beach chairs and higher-than-needed room rates. We thought it was great at the time, and it was superb, but we now have the advantage of hindsight and can feel confident that we will not go back. As the Frenchman said, “I don’t feel like I’m in Thailand at all.” (Note: Railay does have an east side that is more laid back and popular among rock-climbers, but lacks a beach)

And so our rite of passage continues. Ko Lanta is not efficient, but efficiency isn’t the goal, it’s not spotless, but clean where it matters (like the water), the service isn’t great, but always comes with a smile, some of the roads are unpaved, but they go no where. You might feel like a stranger in a strange but endearing land in Ko Lanta, but it is, if nothing else, Thailand- and we’ll be back for more.