Go Confidently...

Planes, Trains, Buses, Boats, Cars...

2009-06-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

To say that we've spent a lot of time getting from point A to point B in the past year is a bit of an understatement. Other than taking a major toll on the environment (we're going to buy a hybrid soon we promise!), these hours on board were a significant component of our adventure. Here's a look back at some of our favorites....

CARS
There's nothing like a good old fashioned road trip. Our aging Subaru was a champ making the journey up to Alaska and "Petunia" drove like a dream around the coasts of New Zealand.

BUSES

By far the most of our transportation hours were logged on buses.... bus travel is really the only way to truly experience a country. Bumping along with all walks of life through all the nooks and crannies of local towns and countrysides. We have a million stories and war wounds to share from our bus journeys but here are pictures from a few of the most memorable. Each journey provided its own special treats of humor, frustration, boredom, and new friends. We wouldn't want to have done it any other way.

BOATS
Boats are always fun. Well, unless it's a 10 hour ride on a smoke infested Indonesian ferry. Cruising through the rivers of Borneo on our private little houseboat was probably the highlight of our boat journeys...

PLANES
The major legs of our Round-the-World plane ticket were fairly uneventful. More note worthy were our numerous domestic flights - particularly hopping between the islands of Indonesia. 50 year old planes that are sent here to fly until they crash and burn.... Thankfully, we survived. Getting tested for Swine Flu on a domestic Burmese flight was also a strange and humorous affair.

TRAINS
Nader claims to have gotten his best nights sleep of the year on this luxury sleeper train in China. Even the hard sleepers provide a great rest and way to see the countryside. We wish we'd spent more time on trains -- maybe the Tran-Siberian will be our next adventure.

MOTORBIKES
Crusing around on the back of a bike can be the most freeing or harrowing experience. Allison preferred Nader as a driver to some of her other chauffers....

EVERYTHING ELSE
It's hard to keep track of all the other modes of transportation we took advantage of on our journey. If there's a tourist looking for a ride, there's a guy who's rigged something up to get you there. Some worked better than others but all were highly entertaining... When you're a backpacker on the road, getting there is certainly more than half the fun.

Chinese Signs

2009-06-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Chinese have a special talent for creative translation of their many signs posted throughout the country targeted towards tourists. Here are some of our favorites....

China Recommendations

2009-06-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Yuangshou
Yuangshou Culture House - Mr. Wei is wonderful host. Included with your room are three meals a day. Dinner is an amazing affair with a never ending stream of delicious dishes being brought to the table. He also teaches lessons for free - Chinese, Mahjong, Calligraphy.

Yuangshou Light Show - We try to avoid expensive touristy shows whenever possible but this one was worth every penny. Directed by Zhang Yimou (who did Hero and the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony). The perfect orchestration of 600 dances set on the water beneath the peaks. It was amazing.

Longsheng / Pingan
Countryside Inn in Pingan was a great place to stay in the Dragon's Backbone terraces. Definitely stay in the terraces (Pingan) rather than taking a day trip from Longsheng. At night and early morning, the terraces are most magical without all the masses of other tourists.

Kunming
Cloudland was a great hostel in Kunming.... all the standard hostel ammenities (including a champion ping pong player who Nader beat after 3 tough rounds), and the double rooms are really nice.

Lijiang
Panba Courtyard Guest House in Lijiang was a really nice place to stay. Set a little outside of town, it's quiet with great rooms. They also do a communal dinner which was delicious.

Western Sichuan
This was one of our most memorable journeys all year.... we highly recommend it (if you have a high tolerance for LONG bus rides with spitting and chain smoking cowboys :). Litang is the place you're going to want to spend a few nights along the way. Portola Inn wasn't a bad place to stay, probably the best in town. In Litang, you definitely want to find Mr. Zheng -- he speaks English (kind of) and can connect you with anything you want to see in town, including the Tibetian Sky Burial.

Chengdu
Sims Cozy Guesthouse - Maybe the best hostel we stayed at all year.... All the standard hostel bells and whistles, with DVD players and free movies to borrow. Run by a Japanese-Singapore couple so it's squeaky clean :)
Hotpot - Can't remember the name of the place we got ours, but it was very good... Sim's recommended it. Hotpots are a local specialty so they're all over. Serious spice.

Beijing
Our culinary tour through Beijing was led by local foodie friends.... So these places are all a notch above the backpacker budget, but so well worth it.

Dali Courtyard - Incredible Yunnan inspired cuisine. It's fixed price feast of dishes that just keep coming, no ordering necessary.
Liquin Roast Duck - For your requisite Beijing duck experience this is the place. The rest of the menu is astoundingly creative too so don't be afraid to add a few other dishes to your meal.
Bellagio Cafe - If you're looking for a delicious late night meal set amongst the young Chinese hipsters heading from or to the clubs, this is the place.

Shanghai
Yang's Stirfry Dumplings. Go here early and often. We recommend ordering at least 6 per person, 8 if you can handle it. Might be the best food we ate all year long.
Le Tour Traveler's Rest. This was a nice place to stay. In the private en suite rooms, the shower was actually in its own section which meant no wet room! (Wet rooms were a major frustration for Allison throughout China.... basically a shower head that just sits on the wall of the bathroom which means the floor, toilet, everything gets soaking wet).

May 27-June 3: Shanghai

2009-06-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

Our last stop. Five continents and almost exactly one year later, we've ended up in Shanghai (still sore from the great wall 'hike'). By this point we're more or less done sightseeing and Shanghai has a great place to transition back into normal life, with its metropolitan feel and a growing number of friends in town it almost feels like home.

While places like Western Sichuan might be considered the wild west, the true Chinese wild west is definitely Shanghai. Ten years ago there were no tall buildings, now you can drive for half an hour from downtown to Pudong airport and be on an elevated highway the entire time surrounded by skyscrapers. Everywhere you look there are dozens of cranes and major construction endeavors. Shanghai feels like an adolescent child entering puberty; it's clearly changing quickly, but it doesn't quite know where it's going.

This insane pace of development has led to a flood of opportunities and a booming expat scene. Everyone from photographers to DJs to consultants to bankers are arriving in droves. The most popular job in town seems to be the business to business middleman, ie someone who speaks some Chinese and can find the right Chinese company to satisfy an international (read American) company's needs. We got a good taste of the variety of the expat scene visiting our friends. Vicky, a friend of mine from high school and of Allison's from a prior job, lives with her husband and daughter out in the posher suburbs of Pudong. In an exclusively expat community, we went to an American burger joint for brunch and with the kids frolicking on the grass outside, it could have been Noe Valley. We also spent some time with some college friends Mike and Dan who live in the French Consession. Dan's a DJ and while Mike has an engineering day job he is infamous in Shanghai as the legendary "Roller Mike", the guy who throws the best party in town, a quarterly dj'd disco party at a roller rink. We were fortunate enough to be able to attend, and can attest first-hand that you can't go wrong with costumes, an open bar and roller skates.

Walking around town one afternoon we stumbled across a long of line of people waiting with small bills in hand outside a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. We soon discovered the glory of Yang's Fry Dumplings, quite possibly the best thing we've eaten all year. Pan-fried dumplings, with a perfect crusty bottom and delicate top, filled with minced pork and an amazing hot soup. The proper technique is to bite a little hole in the top and slurp up the soup, before going for the pork center proper. We were only partially successful and had a couple scalding soup face squirts, but it didn't matter. Incredibly good. The fact that you can get a pile of dumplings larger than you can eat for less than a dollar was just a bonus. We later discovered that there is actually somewhat of a cult following around these delicious morsels.

As we've made our way around the country we've been consistently resisting the urge to buy things as we'd have to lug everything around on our backs. Well Shanghai being our last stop changed that. We bought two suitcases and filled them with Chinese wares. As everything in the world is more or less made in China these days, for every legitimate brand, there is a Chinese factory right next door making the Chinese knockoff that is identical in quality at a fraction of the price. While we dabbled in technology and souvenirs, the real damage was done in custom tailored clothes. The process couldn't be easier. You show up at a mall exclusively filled with tailors, pick a style you like from a book of magazine clippings, pick some fabric, discuss details like cuffs and buttons, get measured and voila a few days later you have perfectly fitting clothes. I'm glad I held out on getting that tux til this trip.

As has become standard on our trip we are taking a highly circuitous route home. From Shanghai we fly 2.5 hours south to Hong Kong where we spend the night, before flying 3.5 hours directly north to Beijing, before heading back to San Francisco. But we're excited nonetheless. Excited to reintegrate, see our friends and families, and start up the next phase of our lives.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting some retrospective thoughts on the year, so stay tuned!

May 23 - 26: Beijing

2009-06-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Having local friends makes a world of difference when visiting large cities. In Beijing, we were blessed with Peikwen and Shanti as amazing hosts. They took us on a culinary tour of the city - from soup dumplings to fried lemon leaves to peking duck. After our pathetic efforts to order food in this country (often by marching into the kitchen and pointing at ingredients) it was a real treat to have fluent Mandarin speaking foodies in control of our cuisine for 3 days.

A highlight of our visit was attending China's first ever electronic music festival held in the 798 Art District. Home to a thriving new art community, the space is set among 50-year old decomissioned military factory buildings. Incredible art and young Chinese hipsters created an atmosphere more cutting edge than most anything we've seen all year.

The music festival, set admist the factory piping lit up as the sun went down, was super fun (perhaps thanks in part to the LARGE mojitos being served) with top notch DJs. Around 11 PM however, hip China on the brink was put back in check as the festival - which was meant to continue all night - was shut down for "security reasons". Nothing seemed out of control in the slightest and even the guards who were marched in to stave off any possible riots where caught snapping pictures of the momentus event. But for reasons unknown and likely unwarranted, everyone was sent home. So close to what it's about to become but not quite there yet...

Aside from eating and partying with Peikwen and Shanti, we did also manage to sneak in the big sites. Scared off by the crowds during our visit to the Forbidden City, we opted for an ultra adventurous day on The Great Wall, following a random tip we found on where to trek a truly unrestored and untrafficked secton of the wall. Our journey featured 5 hours of intense climbing -- some of it over sections that really required technical gear of which we had none. But the views were insanely beautiful and we saw not a single other hiker during our entire journey.... So it was well worth it.

May 16-22: Chengdu & Xi'an

2009-05-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

May 16th marked our one year annivesary of unemployment. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary to celebrate as every day is special, but it did get us thinking about coming home. We've been increasingly excited the last couple weeks to get back into things. I'm itching to start building things again and have been doing some preliminary designs for a couple iphone apps. Allison's similarly eager to jump back into education reform. This accompanied by the desire to try and find a house has made us change our travel plans and we're coming home a month early! That means we're cutting out Western China and Mongolia, which likely would have been amazing, but we'll just have to save them for another trip...

From the Tibetan plateau we bussed down, down, down to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu. Chengdu is famous for primarily two things, incredibly spicy food as it is the heart of Sichuan cuisine and as the home to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Since Indonesia our spice tolerance/addiction has gone way up, to the point where we're putting chili sauce on toast in the morning and are really looking for a spicy meal for every meal. We finally met our match with the Chengdu hotpot, a steaming oily broth filled with hundreds of chopped chili peppers, in which you dip and cook your veggies or meat; a kind of massochistic fondue. While incredibly delicious and fun, we did have to take a break from the spice the next day.

Giant pandas really are as cute as you think. With only 1000 left in the wild, the breeding center in Chengdu is the most cutting-edge Panda research center in the world attempting to keep the species around for future generations. Besides the obvious main problem of encroachment on their natural habitat, what makes things especially difficult is just how lazy these creatures are. They get so little nutrition from the bamboo that makes up the entirety of their diet, that they barely move all day and don't have the energy even to procreate! So the center is resorting to techniques as extreme as in vitro fertilization. It's not looking good for the giant panda's future. The less well known red panda is on the other hand decidedly not as cute, looking more like a raccoon's relative. There appears to be concensus on this, as the Chinese who are very adept at pricing things based on market forces, charge $150 to take a picture holding a baby giant panda, and only $7 for the same honor with the red panda.

We spent the rest of our time in Chengdu wandering through some serene temples and playing with a new mode we found on Allison's camera.

Xi'an, home to the infamous Army of the Terracotta Warriors, is one of the biggest tourist draws in China. It's really hard to grasp the immensity of the undertaking without seeing the site in person, with over 6000 life-sized figures in full battle formation, exquisitely detailed with every body and face completely unique, and the layout planned out as if there was a real battle, from flanking brigades, to a headquarters with generals facing each other as if discussing strategy. These were all so that Ying Zheng, the first emperor of China could rule in death as he did in life. What I found most intriguing was the incredible ego and vast swath of power this man must have wielded. Taking 40 years to complete and employing 720,000 people, his warriors and the rest of his mausoleum were only one of the gigantic projects he undertook. Beginning with the unification of all of China, which involved defeating five other countries, to building the Great Wall, this guy got things done. The fact that this vast citylike mausoleum was only discovered 25 years ago and by chance as a farmer was digging a well, must excite and inspire all fledgling archeologists, as they imagine what other treasures are still buried under modern civilization. Allison was most fascinated by the vast crowds, fighting each other to get the best photo angle :)

Besides it's most famous site, Xi'an isn't a bad place to spend a few days, wandering the muslim quarter with it's delicious lamb kebabs grilled on the street, and hiking up Hua Shan, the most sacred Taoist mountain. The latter is an incredibly steep ascent, all stairs for about three hours, sections of it so narrow and steep you are literally crawling on all fours. We climbed up on a hazy day so were not afforded the views the peak is famous for, but it was fun to be part of an important Chinese pilgrimage, the Chinese huffing and puffing their ways up having a ball of a time along the way.

As we cut a month out of our travel, we've decided to up our transportation budget. Here is us on the deluxe sleeper Z train, sharing a bottle of wine and slurping down some delicious and filling instant noodles. The best night's sleep I've had in months...

May 11 - 16: Tibetan Plateau, Western Sichuan

2009-05-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

Our adventure into western Sichuan, across the Tibetan plateau began in the town of Shangri-La. Emblematic of the Chinese tourist industry's way of blurring fiction with history with reality to attract the most yuan possible, the town was named after the fictional location descried in the novel The Last Horizon and not the other way around. Although not quite living up to the mysticism and paradise embodied in its name, Shangri-La was a pleasant stop over for a few nights. At 3,200 meters, it helped us acclimatize for the journey ahead and we enjoyed some delicious home cooked dinners at our guesthouse outside of town.

We spent three of the next four days - 29 hours total - on public buses. Each journey took us over harrowingly beautiful mountain passes and came complete with their own special mini-adventures. Day one featured two sections of the road that were massively under construction where 6 foot deep holes had to be temporarily refilled so that our bus could pass by. On day two, the driver needed to pull over every hour to air smoke out of the engine (which was inside the bus) and refill its water supply. On our final journey we were blessed with an especially chain smoking / spitting crowd as travel companions. The guy across the aisle had a routine of one cigarette followed by two massive halking spits, set on repeat every 15 minutes. We estimated he worked his way thru 35-40 cigarettes during our 9 hour trip.

But our 36 hours in Litang half-way through the journey made every minute on the bus well worth it. Litang sits at 4,000 meters making it one of the highest towns in the world. Although technically outside the "Tibetan Autonomous Zone", Litang is just about as Tibetan as it gets -- and without any of the travel restrictions or mobs of tourists that accompany a visit to Lhasa and its surroundings. On our first afternoon we explored the grounds of the local monestary, wandering up to a structure covered with prayer flags waving in the wind against the bluest sky you can imagine. The four monks handing out on the hill as we approached created an image that would almost seem too cliched if it wasn't the real deal.

As if our afternoon with the monks, prayer flags and Tibetan sky wasn't enough, we had the priviledge of witnessing a Tibetan Sky Burial the next morning. This was, without a doubt, the most intensely unique cultural experience either of us has ever seen. To "bury" their dead, Tibetans bring the body up to a hillside and watch as vultures eat every last scrap of meat off the bones. When this is finished, they grind the bones together with a flour paste and let the vultures have another go at it until all the remains have been consumed. As a testament to Tibetan buddhist belief in the cycle of life, this "burial" makes a great deal of sense with the passing of one creature nourishing another. A benefit of being the only four tourists in town meant that we were slowly welcomed into the ceremony by friends and relatives of the dead.... which means that we have some pictures to prove it if you're skeptical that we saw what we said we did (warning, they're a bit graphic)..

Our afternoon and evening were spent getting to know the people of Litang a bit more, playing with kids around the local stupa and hanging out with some nomads over beers in the evening. This town has a truely wild west feeling to it with rough and tumble but at the same time beautifully kind people.

Thinking about the expense and hassle of a travel to Lhasa, we feel very lucky to have stumbled upon this authentic Tibetan experience as an alternative. Thanks also to Sonny for being a wonderful travel companion this week and for tipping us off to the adventure.

May 7-10: Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge

2009-05-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

Back in the motherland, home of delicious dumplings and efficient transportation. After a couple weeks in Burma, China feels straight up luxurious. We reentered China in the Yunnan province in the southwest of China. Our first stop was the old town of Lijiang. As the railway doesn't go further west of Kunming we took our first overnight Chinese bus. Stripped of any seats, the bus is three rows of double-decker beds. Strangely, the length of each individual bed varies greatly and the Chinese seemingly know which ones are better than others, leaving us with the shortest ones. Not the best night's sleep, but not our worst either. For anyone considering this route, take an upper berth bed.

Arriving in town we experienced our most major language barrier snafu yet. Having neglected to have someone write down the name of our hotel in Chinese, we were stuck with only the name of the hotel in English. Knowing it was near an elementary school, we found another traveler who was volunteering at an elementary school and showed her scrap of paper with its name to the taxi driver. 30 minutes later we are in a completely different town at dawn with no one around. To make a long story short, three hours later we arrived at our hostel, after what should have been a 10 minute drive. We won't make that mistake again. The complete lack of English speakers in the west of China is a real shock at first. Even the simple phrase "Speak English?" draws a blank stare more often than not. The exact same thing would happen if someone said "Speak Chinese?" in Chinese in the US, it's just the first place on our travels where it's been this ubiquitous.

The old town of Lijiang takes you back to the China of past centuries, mazelike cobblestone alleys, stone bridges over narrow canals, tiled roofs, the picturesque Jade Dragon Snow Mountain looming in the background. If you get up around dawn you can watch men making fires to boil tea water, women shaving fresh rice noodles from a gelatinous mass and frying up the local Naxi bread. By about 9 AM, however, the Chinese tourists arrive en masse as part of tour groups, the trinket sellers take their places in the town squares, and the pseudo-indigenous women in pseudo-traditional garb begin their weaving, in front of whom the Han Chinese tourists enthusiastically take pictures for a small price. With its canal-side cafes and unexplored alleyways the charm is not completely gone, but it's quickly heading that way.

Lijiang wasn't our favorite stop but it was the jumping off point for a spectacular two day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. One of the deepest gorges in the world, the river flows 2000 meters (6600 feet) below the upper track of the gorge where we hiked. Every few kilometers there is a small family run restaurant or guest house, which means you can stop and rest wherever you get tired. We spent the night near the highpoint of the gorge, at a guesthouse with a terrace that practically floats above the gorge, a great place to enjoy a beer after a strenuous climb.

Here's the view from the open-air bathroom (hole in the floor):

One of the joys of traveling is the freedom to change your plans based on the advice you get from fellow travelers along the way. Our original plan was to head from Yunnan to Lhasa, but due to some riots surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile to India, travel to Tibet proper has been severely restricted to package tours where you must have a guide with you at all times. Which means you will only see the places that Beijing wants you to see. Accompanied by the exorbitant prices of these trips, this wasn't a very appealing option. Fortunately we ran into Sonny, a solo Brit, who faced with the same dillema introduced us to the idea of taking the "backdoor" into Sichuan via the rough and fairly untravelled road across the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau which not officially part of Tibet is open to foreigners (although just recently as their were riots there a few weeks back). So we've busted out our cold weather gear from the bottom of our packs for what should be many hours on a chicken bus, but a rare chance to see a bit of real Tibetan life.

April 30 - May 6: Inle Lake, Mandalay, Bagan

2009-05-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

Our emerging understanding of Burma - the beauty of its people juxtaposed with the tragedy of their political situation - was further solidified during our second week in the country. Because of our limited time and the travel restrictions, we've stuck to the popular traveller circuit: after Yangon and Kalaw we journeyed to Inle Lake, then Mandalay and finally onto Bagan.

As anticipated, Bagan proved to be the real highlight of our trip from a "sights" perspective. Lonely Planet aptly describes the scale of the region, "Gather all of Europe's medieval cathedrals onto Manhattan island and throw in a whole lot more for good measure, and you'll start to get a sense of the ambition of the temple-filled plain of Bagan". The majority of its temples were built in the 1000s to 1200s, during the time Bagan was the capital of the First Burmese Empire.

Our two days in Bagan consisted of sunrise and sunset explorations of the temples on bikes (when the light was most magical and the heat somewhat bearable). The awe which these temples inspires easily rivals that created by Machu Picchu or the Egyptian Pyramids. And yet, there was practially no one here. We often found ourselves entirely alone in the shadows of a giant budda while listening to chanting from a neighboring temple. It was truly magical.... And also so tragic as a stark depiction of how the govemental regime has impacted tourism here.

While visiting Burma, we read two books that were very influential on our view into this country. The first was Burmese Days by George Orwell, set in post WWI British colonial Burma. What struck us most about this book was how little had changed in the way life is lived. Men still wear longyis and chew betelnut. Water buffalos are the pervasive machinery of farming. Food is cooked over a wood fire. The "beastly heat" that Miss. Lackerstein describes in the book is just as palpably felt; with less than 2 hours of electricity a day realities of ice and fans are nearly as non-existent now as they were 80 years ago. And most tragically, the people are just as oppressed as they were under British rule, only this time without the pretenses of infrastructure development that came with colonialism.

The second book was Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. A description of one man's role in the economic "colonialism" that has defined much of the U.S. empire building in the last 50 years (trading infrastructure for crippling debts that require compliance with U.S. policies), the experiences recounted in this book come as no surprise. What is most frightening, however, is to think about the limitations of this strategy in the face of a decline of the U.S. economic stronghold. The U.S. response to the autrocities of the military junta in Burma has come in the form of economic sanctions. Well it turns out that U.S. sanctions carry very little weight in the world of Chinese investments. Burma's eastern neighbor is more than happy to keep fueling the junta if it in turn fuels the steady growth of the Chinese economy. In a changing global economy, here's hoping that the U.S. figures out another way to prioritize its influence in the world and that China rises to the challenge of being a responsible world superpower. Otherwise there doesn't seem to be much hope for the Burmese people.

A few last humerous elements of our Burma adventure -- first, was the mutual fascination in the new and unusual. We've encountered this phenomenon throughout all of our travels.... Us sneaking pictures of the indigenous women while their children sneak glances and giggles at us. In Burma we found that the monks and nuns wanted our picture just as much as we wanted theirs. The shot below was requested by this group of teenage monks, and so we decided to have one taken with our camera as well :)

And then, upon boarding our flight from Bagan to Mandalay we found ourselves subjegated to Swine Flu testing. The ridiculousness of this situation was two-fold. First, it was a domestic flight. Second, their method of testing was to stick the same thermometer into each person's ear as they passed through security. So if anyone on that flight had the Swine, you can be sure we now have it too...

Finally, the popular debate amongst backpackers these days regarding Burma is "should you go or not? Will your trip aid the junta's power?". Our opinion is definitely go. First, it's incredibly narcissistic and naive to think that your meager funds have any impact on the junta in the face of massive Chinese investments. Second (and more importantly), it's the local people who are being hurt by the downturn in tourism..... Every guide or guesthouse owner we spoke to had been hit hard. Obviously avoid government run hotels and tours but please go visit. Learning more about these beautiful people and their plight can only bring good things through increased exposure and international pressure.

April 23-29: Yangon & Kalaw, Myanmar (Burma)

2009-04-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Within minutes of landing in Myanmar, or Burma as it's better known, you immediately get the sense that this country is different from anywhere else in Southeast Asia. While the rest of the continent is racing into the 21st century, Burma feels stuck in the 1950s. Electricity in Yangon the capital (Rangoon back in the day) is off as much as it is on, and in other towns they're lucky to get 2 or 3 hours a day. Ice is manually shaved in the streets from big blocks, toast is made on wire mesh over coals, there is no credit card network or ATMs, and the most common car on the streets is a World War II era British jeep. Outside of every building in Yangon is a noisy generator keeping the fans running to deal with the 100F degree heat of April, the cruelest Burmese month. The poverty in Yangon is unmatched by anything I've seen besides maybe Delhi.

This situation and blame are perfectly clear. The military junta dictatorship has run the most corrupt government in the region for decades. The manufactured disparity and control is evident everywhere and the Burmese are eager to talk about once you are away from prying ears in the confines of their homes or car or alone on a trail. There is widespread belief that all post and phone conversations can be intercepted. The mobile phone chips that are required to operate on Burmese networks cost US $2000 while the average Burmese income is under US $200 annually, making it impossible for anyone outside of the government to use them. There are two television channels and two newspapers, both government run. The tax on cars is such that even if I was to give a Burmese a car for free, the taxes would be over US $10,000. Restrictions on international travel make it nearly impossible to leave the country without a significant bribe, and within the country foreigners like us, are only permitted to visit a handful of areas. Internet availability is spreading through the country, but many politically sensitive websites are blocked including blogger, the host of this website. (This post is seeing light post-facto from China - ironic, yes)

This is probably not news to many of you as Western countries are attempting to shed light on the situation through embargos and UN resolutions. (Though because of the 'special' relationship with China, these are for the most part futile.) What we have been consistently amazed by in our short time in this country, however, is not only the gentleness, warmth, and generosity of the Burmese, but also their incredible resourcefulness and self-sufficiency. Faced with taxes that return absolutely nothing to the people they are forced to create their own systems. When the government commandeers a water reserve, the monastery on the hill digs a well. With promises of power never realized, local villages pool money to build a hydro-electric power source (which provides power only for the 3 months of the rainy season). In the mountain town of Kalaw, the local bar (where a glass of whisky is 20 cents, there's always a troubadour belting out 80s ballads set to Burmese lyrics, and where a great time is guaranteed) collects donations for the poorest at the hospital. Throughout our travels we've witnessed the poor taking care of the very poor, but this is magnified here.

I don't mean to make it sound like we're not enjoying ourselves here. First of all the mangos are in season and they're the deliciously sweet Indian variety I remember from my childhood. Much better than the fried crickets. And the Shwedagon complex in Yangon with its 82 golden pagodas is a really atmospheric place to wander around barefoot as the sun is setting.

We also just got back from one of our best trips all year, a two day trek through the mountains of the Shan state near Kalaw, visiting Pao and Danu tribal villages along the way. We spent the night with an incredibly generous Pao family. The two daughters had just got back from selling fried sweet rice at a fireworks festival in a neighboring village. The festival involves each village putting together a massive homemade rocket that they try and shoot at a goal in the distance. We joined them on the second day of the festival the following morning. The mother cooked us the best food we've had in Burma yet, all over an indoor wood fire.

The anachronistic state of affairs also leads to some really comic situations. The money for example. Because there are no ATMs you have to bring in all the money you'll need for your time here in cash and exchange it in the black market as the official exchange rate is less than half what is widely available. More specifically you have to bring brand new, crisp hundred dollar US bills void of any creases, blemishes or nicks. In return for one of those bills you get a thick stack of the foulest, most torn-up currency you've ever seen. (The largest bill is worth about 90 cents.) There's also the strange state of cars. We sometimes joke that we're on the left-handed driving tour of the world, but Burma is the first place we've been where they drive on the right, but the driver is also on the right! This is because most of the cars are left over from British colonial times when the driving was on the left. So, in practice this means that every taxi/bus driver has a guy riding with him in shotgun, to tell him if he can pass or not.

Tomorrow we head to Inlay Lake, where the bus ride will be another adventure of continuous honking and Burmese soap operas played at deafening volumes. Fortunately, it's only three hours away. Much like how it takes two hours to get between any two points in New Hampshire, it takes 15 hours to get anywhere in Burma, Inlay Lake the one exception. Thankfully.

April 20 -22: Bangkok

2009-04-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Continuing our not so direct route around the world, we ended up with an impromptu stop in Thailand for a few days to get our Myanmar vias. Our journey was a little touch and go as political protests and riots broke out in Bangkok a few days after we bought our plane tickets and a few days before we were due to travel.... But peace returned in time for our trip.

Planning on the stop being not much more than logistical, we actually ended up having a wonderful few days - checking out temples while touring the city in a tuk-tuk, re-charging our backpacks with some cheap new clothes, and exploring the night markets. Oh yes, and eating some delicious food of course :)

April 11 - 19: Guangxi Province

2009-04-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our time in the southern province of Guangxi was filled with days spent biking, hiking and boating amidst the spectacular beauty of a truly remarkable countryside.... Karst peaks surrounding Guilin and Yangshou, staggaring rice terraces built on the "Dragon's Backbone" near Longsheng. It all set the backdrop for some amazing explorations that even a few rainy days couldn't damper.

I'll let the pictures tell the story of our explorations and focus this narrative (for anyone who reads it, we know most of you are just here for the pictures anyways :) on a few themes that seem to have emerged in our early days in China: touts, technology, tour groups and time.

Touts (or simply, people trying to sell you things you don't want or need) are a reality of travelling and have been a pervasive theme of much of our year. But the touts of China are of a unique ilk and we've found as much humor as annoyance in their presence. Firstly, they seem to be mostly women. After 6 weeks in Indonesia where women are often subjegated to more subservient roles due to religious beliefs, it's refreshing to see such enterprising ladies of all ages, many as old as 70 or 80 years it seems. Secondly, their tactics are diverse and at times quite creative. The two men who coaxed us into having a tea tasting with them at a local shop so they could "practice their English" (we knew they were trying to eventually sell us seats on their boat trip but enjoyed learning about the tea ritual all the same). The woman who followed us on our bikes at a respectable distance through the rice paddies of Yungshou and then just "happened to be there" when we needed directions (we never would have found the fabled Dragon Bridge we were searching for with out her and so also didn't mind her presence too much). And our favorite strategy of the street vendors -- when you tell them you're "just looking" in an attempt to get them to back off, the respond in turn screaming "JUST LOOKING!" or sometimes "LOOKING!" or occasionally "JUST!". Check back in a few weeks and we may have had our fill of these touts but so far they're mostly just a funny distraction along the way.

Technology is quite simply everywhere. Train and bus tickets are printed instantaneously from any random travel agent you visit. We have yet to stay in a hotel that didn't include WiFi in our room.... Yes, this includes our lodging in the small mountain town of Ping'an where there are no roads and traditional farming techniques are still used in the fields. The owner of our little guesthouse there appeared to be day trading in his free time. Our wonderful host in Yangshou, Mr. Wei was seeking advice from Nader on how he can better optimize his search capabilities on his guesthouse's website. Everyday technologies -- from how subway cards scan to the design of wall outlets are just a little smarter and better than those back home. Tic-toc goes the clock on the U.S. empire....

Chinese tour groups are also pervasive. The guide, with her little yellow or red flag and high-tech microphone system leads a group of 10-20 Chinese tourists who seem to be checking off the sites off there list of "must dos" with a quick photo and lots of chatter. This was a piece of China that I was most expecting and prepared to find terribly annoying. But, surprisingly, it's actually incredibly refreshing to see an country filled with it's own tourists. So much of our year has been spent in developing countries where the places we visit are too expensive for locals and have been turned into foreign playgrounds catering to young backpackers from richer nations. I'm reminded most starkly of the salt flats in Bolivia -- breathtakingly beautiful but not a single Bolivian amidst the droves of tourists. Here in China, the tour groups are a sign of the large and growing middle class. Sure, the crowds can be a bit tiresome at times (see if you can spot Nader hiding amdist the group below), but it's energizing to be in the presence of such growth and opportunity. Also, since they all seem to be following a prescribed route and the script of their tour guide, we've found that if you hike or bike about 15 minutes off the beaten path, you can still find the solitude of a beautiful countryside.

And finally, time. It's been our biggest asset this year. I'll never forget that freedom and excitement that we both felt on our last day of work and then when the movers came to take all our possessions into storage. Over the months that followed, we embraced this freedom of space and time as our new reality as the novelty wore off a bit. Though deeply enjoying and immersing ourselves in each new experience, we perhaps lost a bit of the appreciation for the gift of time. Without discussing it, we both have found ourselves in the last week cycling back to a feeling of gratefulness for the time and space that we have. With only 10 weeks left in our travels, each day starts to feel precious yet again.... Not only the sites that we will see but also those morning where we can lie in bed reading books or those afternoons spent on buses and trains watching the countryside roll by. We feel very lucky....

April 9-10: Guangzhou

2009-04-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in an underground internet cafe with about 200 gaming teenagers. The two girls to my right are furiously clicking away at a Chinese version of Dance Dance Revolution, while the guys to my left are watching movies while loudly video chatting and surfing the web at the same time. This is more or less a microcosm for what we expected all of China to be like. With the notable exception of places of congregation, like internet cafes and train stations, our first stop in China has been a pleasently surprising revelation.

So much of the experience of travel has to do with expectations. One of the main reasons people travel is to experience new things, whether that is a foreign culture, an awe-inspiring vista, or a curious meal. Over time a traveller's expectations become more and more concrete, because a) you've seen more of the world, b) the abundance of travel media, whether they take the form of travel guides, documentaries, or travel blogs, and c) the world is getting increasingly globalized and places are sadly (to the selfish traveller) losing some of their uniqueness. This is why travellers every year are searching out ever more remote locales.

We had done a decent amount of research into China, but at least based on our first two days, pretty much all of our expectations were wrong. Times like this are why I travel.

Guangzhou is a large city in southwestern China with 11 million people, one of the many cities in China with over 10 million people that most people have never heard of. We picked it as our entry point into China purely because it was in the region we wanted to start in and it had the cheapest flight from Singapore. (My China visa was about to expire so we came here before Burma.) I expected a brash, crowded, dirty, hectic city void of personality. There are a lot of people, but there is also plentiful common spaces, with large squares, wide sidewalks, numerous parks, and a nice walking strip by the river. It doesn't feel crowded. The metro system is probably the best I've been on anywhere in the world; a train comes every 2 minutes, it's clean, fast, cheap and goes everywhere you want to go, including inside the train station. The neighborhood we stayed in, Shamian, is leafy and calm, older women doing some form of synchronized paddle dancing in front of the colonial buildings in the mornings, people of all age using a badminton birdie as a hackeysack in the afternoons, middle aged guys using the public outdoor gyms. The focus on public exercise is pervasive.

Guangzhou is better known by it's former name, Canton, and is the heart of Chinese Cantonese culture. Which to us means we won't begin to learn the language, and more importantly delicious food. Every meal in China so far has been a treat, the majority of them from the various street stalls serving up delicious freshly cooked treats, from dumplings and buns, to pick your own ingrediant soups to mystery meats that we generally steer clear of. Every restaurant has a veritable zoo of caged animals outside. Some you wish you hadn't seen, like snakes and turtles, others you just really have no idea what they are, like some sort of spiky armadillo.

So far our favorite activity has been just walking the streets checking in on everyday life, sampling teas, watching calligraphers, joining the crowds around impromptu checkers matches and jesting with the hawkers. Guangzhou is large enough that nobody notices you, which is nice. We've had perfect spring weather and with the good value accomodation and food, we're really enjoying our time here so far.

April 3 -8: Singapore

2009-04-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

Air conditioning, a proper bed with clean sheets, hot showers, flushing toilets, drinkable water, cooking dinner, wine, scotch, yoga mat, elliptical machine, TV shows, movies, trashy magazines, fast internet connection, shopping malls.

Singapore seems to fall behind only one country in the world regarding hedonistic consumption.... Which makes it feel very much like home :)

It's been a wonderful little first world break as we're almost halfway through our Asia journey. THANK YOU to Crispin and Ali for letting us stay in their apartment while they're back home in South Africa.

Off to China on Wednesday.... Mixed reports on whether blogger is blocked there or not so it may be awhile until our next entry.

Indonesian Recommendations

2009-04-06T01:43:00.000-07:00

Bali (all in Ubud)

Honeymoon Guest House - a bit more expensive than a backpackers budget but still very reasonable with great breakfast and a nice pool area
Gusti Garden Bungalows - a cheaper hotel in Ubud which was still very nice
Sedona Spa - $8 massages in a beautifully clean and comfortable spa... Not bad.

Kalimantan
Borneo Expeditions - Organizes multi-day trips into Tanjung Putting National Park to see the Orangatuns. You pay a bit of a premium to book through them (versus spending a day hunting for a boat and guide down at the dock) but Danson, the guy in charge is extremely responsible and organized. He can also book your flights for you which proves invaluable if you don't speak Indonesian.

Flores
Reefseekers - an EXCELLENT dive shop for exploring Komodo National Park. We dove two days with Kath. It had been awhile since either of us had dove and she made us feel completely at ease, even with the currents that Komodo is famous for. She was incredibly knowledgable about the sea life and we loved the briefings before each dive. They are building upscale bungalows on an island in the area and we're already planning our next trip to Indonesia around returning to visit :)

Lombok (Kuta)

Surfer's Inn - is a great place to stay even if you're not a surfer (although, warning, you will be subjected to endless hours of surf videos at the bar and strange looks as you head off to the beach without your board in tow).
Ashtari Restaurant - an amazing vegetarian restaurant perched in the hills above Kuta. You'll need a motorbike to get there.

Lombok (Gili Air)
Blue Bar - Dean, the owner, is great. Wonderful sunset views.
Italian Restaurant - We can't remember the name but it's the only Italian restaurant on the island, recently opened (as of March 2009) and run by Italians who make their own pasta. It was a delicious break from Indonesian cuisine.

Sumatra (Danau Toba)
Samosir Cottages. We visited many of the hotels in town before settling on this one. Great swimming area and rooms
Jenny's Restaurant. Delicious food (especially the beef rendang) and Jenny was so nice.

Sumatra (Pulau Weh)
Norma's. Best place to stay and eat in Iboah. Norma and the rest of the folks there are a real treat to be around.

March 23 - April 3: Sumatra

2009-04-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Sumatra wasn't on our initial itinerary, but after meeting several travellers who said it was there favorite destination in Indonesia, we decided to add it to the mix. As it's the 6th largest island in the world, covering all of Sumatra in the two weeks we'd alloted would be a bit aggressive and so we decided to focus on the North. Getting from the airport in Medan to the bus station, we added a new form of transport to our lengthy list -- the sidecar motorbike, where we rode next to the driver in a covered seat with my pack strapped to the front.

Our first stop was Lake Danau Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. We spent 5 days on the island of Samosir (which itself is bigger than all of Singapore) located within the lake. At a higher altitude, the climate on Samosir was wonderfully mild and the lake was a refreshing temperature for our daily swims.

The people in the Lake Toba region are Batak, a traditional culture known for it's unique architecture and traditions, specifically regarding marriages and burials. We spent several of our days exploring the island on bikes. I got to join in with a traditional marriage dance demonstration which involved circling around a water buffalo while bowing in respect to each member of the other family (as an aside, I'm not quite sure why I always get sucked into these things while Nader sits back taking pictures.... that's going to change going forward I've decided :).

Due to Dutch and German missionary influences, most Bataks are devout Christians, and therefore very much in the minority within the staunchly Muslim island of Sumatra. At least partly stemming from this reality, the Bataks seem to embrace travellers in a more authentic manner than we'd experienced most anywhere else. We immediately felt welcomed and at home within this friendly community.

What was most interesting about Samosir was its existence as a traveller's ghost town. Huge hotel after huge hotel, most of them completely empty. There were approximately 50 travellers on the island while we were there. We estimated the capacity to be closer to 5,000. Danau Toba was a hotspot on the hippie travel trail back in the 60s and 70s. For whatever reason - perhaps the growth of party spots in Thailand and the number of disasters (both man made and natural) that have hit Indonesia recently - travel to the region has rapidly fallen off a cliff. Many of the travellers we did see where noticably older than who we usually encountered -- folks in their 50s who were perhaps coming back to revisit their memories of yesterday. It was a fascinatingly unique view on travel, and also meant that we (again) had a beautiful slice of Indonesia mostly to ourselves at a very cheap price.

After Danau Toba, we ventured into the Aceh region to the island of Pulah Weh, chasing what we'd heard was some of the best diving in Indonesia. The Aceh region has not exactly experienced happy times in recent history. The region has been highly instable since at least the 1970s when the Free Aceh Movement was formally established. Stemming primarily from a desire to control natural resources and Islamic law, Free Aceh members have fueled a separatist movement which fanned into a full fledged armed conflict in the early 2000s.

And then, the Tsunami hit in December 2004 with its epicenter just off the coast of Aceh devistating the region harder than anywhere else. It's hard to wrap your mind around the devistation caused by this disaster, even after visiting the region. 225,000 people died. That's 80x as many people who died in 9/11 and 120x as many people who died in Hurricane Katrina. We have visited the sites of both of these U.S. disasters, spending time at each taking formal tours and honoring the dead at memorials. In Banda Aceh, we found little in the way of formal rememberance -- apparently there is one museum but it's often closed according to other travellers. We did visit a massive oceanliner that still sits where it was carried by the storm, 7 km inland. Comparing the scale-to-response ratio of our national disasters versus those of this country was a stark contextualization of what it means to have the privledge of being born into one society rather than another.

The Tsunami sparked a tenuous peace agreement between Jakarta and the Free Aceh movement, one that's been in place since 2005 until the present day. For the past 4 years, Banda Aceh has had a relatively peaceful and international face -- with the myriad of international NGOs co-leading the reconstruction efforts. But now the region seems on the brink of entering it's third phase of recent history and it's anyone's guess how the cards will play out. This coming Thursday (April 9, 2009) are the Parlimentary elections in Indonesia. There is strong speculation that if the separatists win enough seats, they may launch another offensive. The military was increasing its presence in the region in anticipation. Coincidently - or not - most of the NGOs visas are also running out this week. Most foreigners were leaving the region just when we were for the dual purpose of renewing their visas and being off site for the elections in case any uprising ensued. It was an interesting time to be in the region and we'll be watching closely what happens.

The little town of Iboah where we based ourselves on the island of Pulau Weh was completely isolated from anything described above. Remarkably, Pulau Weh was mostly spared any devistation from the Tsunami. And being a small town mostly fueled by travellers, they are able to live outside the strict confines of Sharia Law, which has been in place in Aceh since 2003. (In an ironic relationship that often typifies this type of scenario, they buy their beer "for the tourists" from the police, paying a bribe which ensures they won't be caught). We stayed in a basic bungalow overhanging the ocean where we happily traded running water or a flushing toilet for a million dollar view. The diving was incredible and afternoons were spent lazing in the hammock. Norma who ran our guest house cooked up delicious communal meals for us in the evening.... It was a hard spot to leave.

Mar 13 - 22: Lombok

2009-03-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Vacation. After a couple weeks of roughing it across Kalimantan and Flores, that's what we were looking for in Lombok, Indonesia's second most visited island after Bali.

Vacation is what we found, but first we had to get there. Getting from Flores to Lombok ended up being the longest continuous journey we've taken yet, at about 30 hours door to door (8 hour ferry from Labuan Bajo that left 2 hours late, overnight bus across Sumbawa, early morning ferry to Lombok, back on the bus for another hour, and lastly a hired minivan for a couple hours). You meet way more interesting people using public overland transportation than you do flying and we met our share of characters. On the ferry we met a couple guys who in their words run a "local exim". After a little while we deduced that was short for export import. They take the 8 hour ferry each way twice a week, carrying oranges one way, and bananas the other, staying the night in an apartment they rent for $2 a month. By the way they were dressed this is apparently a very profitable line of business. We thought we'd get some rest on the overnight bus, but with the freezing air condition and blaring Indo rock music, we didn't have a chance. I had the good fortune of sitting next to an older man who had hiccups that manifested themselves as burps every three seconds. Just as the music is beginning to die down and we're beginning to fall asleep we stop for the promised "included dinner"...at 2:30 AM. Six women got on after dinner all screaming into the cell phones, and we completely forgot about sleep. As the sun was rising on the second ferry we talked to a guy who worked in Cleveland for two years and loved American casinos. He had been to them all and couldn't wait to go back. Atlantic City was curiously his favorite.

Our first of two stops in Lombok was in Kuta in the south of the island. Primarily a surf destination, it's been hit hard by the succession of bad luck Indonesia has had recently (Bali bombing followed by the tsunami). This meant magazine-cover beaches that we had to ourselves. Our daily routine was hopping on our motorcycle to drive to one beach in the morning, have lunch at a great vegeterian restaurant atop a hill with superb views, and then head to another amazing beach in the afternoon. Grilled fish caught that day every evening.

From there we head to the fabled Gili Islands. The Gilis are three tiny islands in between Bali and Lombok. Motor vehicles are not allowed on the islands which isn't a problem as you can walk around each in less than two hours. Every morning all the food and water are boated over along with any visitors. We liked it so much on Gili Air we stayed for a week, which is longer than we've stayed in any one place since Nosara, Costa Rica. After the lack of reliable toilets and cold water showers of Flores we were excited for a little accomodation luxury and I think we stayed at the nicest place on Gili Air. For $20 a night we stayed in a modern bungalow with an outdoor bathroom, beautiful pool and great snorkeling right out our doorstep. Breakfast brought to our deck in the morning, and walks over to the west side of the island to watch the sunset behind Bali's massive volcano in the evening. Good living...

Vacation's over and we're on our way to Sumatra. Back to the real Indonesia...

March 5 - 12: Flores

2009-03-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

Travel in Indonesia is slow going even when you're willing to pay for flights. Cottage airline businesses are a popular enterprise these days with over 10 domestic carriers running similar routes, some with only 1 or 2 planes under operation. The result is a jumbled map of very cheap flights, with not always the most logical connections. After our adventure in Tanjung Puting National Park our next destination was the eastern side of Flores. To traverse this distance of approximately 1,000 km took us five flights over two days. However our journey felt very small in comparison as we soon met some travellers who had taken a four day / four night ferry to cover the same distance.

Flores further rounded out our emerging sense that the only cohesiveness of Indonesia is the islands' geological proximity to one another. First Hindu Bali with it's luxury seeking tourists. Then Muslim Kalimantan with it's steamy jungle. And now Catholic Flores with it's spine of dramatic volcanos traversing the island. We've met travellers who have 6 months in this country and still can't fully experience it all. So for all you who thought Indonesia was just beaches, think again...

Our first stop on Flores was the small town of Moni to see the crater lakes atop Kelimutu. With it's primary source of income being tourism in a country that's been hit hard by a reduction in travellers, Moni was a bit depressing and hassling. But the sites of Kelimutu made the stop well worth it. As we watched the sunrise over the colored lakes, we learned that five of us eight travellers on top of the volcano were from California. Seeing as that's probably about as many American travellers as we've met in total all year, it was quite a remarkable coincidence. We traded stories of where in the world we were for election day and what $500,000 will buy you in the Bali real estate market versus back home. One of the Californians also happened to be working on updating the next version of Lonely Planet for Indonesia and so we felt some karma at work as we'd just been wanting to send in a complaint about our less than stellar accomodations in Moni.

Our next stop in Flores was the small town of Bajawa, set in the middle of the island. The area is known for a continued strength of its traditional Ngadha villages and culture. We were lucky to meet some travellers who had hired a fabulous guide, Florean, for the day and they let us tag along as he took us to several local villages including his own where we shared lunch with his family. Because he is himself so strongly committed to the beliefs this culture, Florean's descriptions were incredibly rich and at times intoxicating. He described the details of rituals still performed to this day -- such as the process of building a shrine to ones ancestors which involved the burial of a live pig, a duck and a chicken under the wooden structure. Perhaps most interesting was his description of how he had found peace in the harmony of still being deeply committed to the beliefs of his traditional religion while now also practicing as a devout Catholic. In all of the villages we visited, Catholic crosses - the result of Dutch missionary work - sat next to the traditional houses and ancestoral shrines.

Our third and final stop in Flores was Labuanbajo and the Komodo National Park where we did two days of absolutely incredible diving -- the best either of us had ever done. We also visited the island of Rinca to see the komodo dragons. Though interesting by virtue of being so unique to this part of the world, the dragons ended up paling in comparison to all the creatures down below the sea. A highlight was watching the giant (4-5 meter wingspan) manta rays surf through the "airstrip" where they come to be cleaned by fish and the coral was like none we had ever seen before, particularily at the dramatic Batu Bolong site. We also say black and white tipped reef sharks, greenback and leatherback turtles, porcupine rays, napolean fish, scorpion fish, barracuda...the list goes on and on... Ah, if diving all over the world was only as inexpensive as it is here in Indonesia...

February 26 - March 4: Kalimantan, Borneo

2009-03-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

From the early planning days of this trip, we've been really excited to venture into mysterious Borneo and see orangutans in their only natural habitat. Straddling the equator, Borneo is the world's third largest island, and is shared by three countries, Indonesia (the Kalimantan region), Malaysia, and the sultanate of Brunei.

Before heading into the jungle, we flew to the largest city in Kalimantan, Banjarmasin. Kalimantan is 90% muslim, a big change from Hindu Bali, and we felt the difference immediately, from the more conservative dress, to the lack of any alcohol, to the sometimes beautiful, sometimes annoying (at 5 AM), call to prayer. Banjarmasin is one of the more bizarre places I've ever been. Teenagers sell turtle oil on the side of the road, next to plastic bottles of gasoline. We heard some thumping music coming from a building and popped our heads in to see a room full of sweaty women doing aerobics, in full proper muslim garb, headscarf and all. We visited a mosque that looks like a spaceship, a seemingly out of place Taoist temple, and ate bountiful amounts of curious seafood.

The real weirdness begins though when you get off land and hop into a motorized canoe. Half of Kalimantan's million inhabitants live on the water in small canals in ramshackle one room wooden homes, either floating on bamboo, or balanced precariously on rickety stilts, with the water reaching about an inch below their floorboards. Within 5 minutes of checking into our hotel, the only guy who speaks any English in town (and not that well) found us and offered his services as a guide. While we generally like to go off on our own, we're finding in these remote parts where no one speaks English, a local guide is essential. So we spent the majority of the day with Tailah in his boat exploring the canals. Every house has an outhouse in front, where everything just ends up in the canals. Despite this we were surprised by the fastidious cleanliness, bordering on obsession, exhibited by everyone we saw. In the morning and late afternoon, everyone emerges from their homes and is at the water, bathing, washing dishes, the younger kids doing backflips off the bridges, girls splashing each other in the water, boys flying homemade kites. Every five buildings you find a tiny mosque made out of cardboard and sheet metal. It is a beautiful, cacophonous jumble of humanity. We also saw a massive Storm's Stork sitting on someone's deck, which only later did we discover is incredibly endangered with only 500 or so left in the world.

Tailah woke us at 5 AM to take us upriver to see the daily floating market that has been in continuous operation for 350 years. Farmers ride their boats up to 10 hours downriver to get to the outskirts of Banjarmasin to sell their goods to the cityfolk. Just about any food item is available from the stinky, spiky durian to fresh fish. Sellers who don't do well sleep in their boats and try again the next morning. At around 6:30 AM the breakfast boats shows up, where you grab a stick with a nail at the end and impale your selections.

We didn't see one other non-Indonesian in all of Banjarmasin. And everyone we meet that learns we're from America has the same reaction, "Obama!" with a big thumbs up.

From there we began our long journey to Tanjung Puting National Park to try and see the orangutans. A quick tangent on getting around in Indonesia. Indonesia has dozens of domestic discount airlines. They are for the most part mom and pop operations, often having a vat fleet of two planes and one route. Even the travel agents (when you can find them) don't know how to get to certain places. The one thing each of these airlines has in common is an invocation card in your seat pocket with muslim, catholic, protestant, hindu and buddhist prayers for a safe landing (in that order).

We had heard that the best way to experience the park is by staying on the Kalimantan version of a houseboat, called a klotok. In Pangkalan Bun we hired a guide (again the english speaking guy in town found us) along with a klotok driver and crew (cook and mysterious third guy, we were never really sure what he did) to take us slowly upriver. Four flights from Bali, on three airlines, various taxi rides and two days in a boat and we finally arrived at Camp Leaky, where Dr. Galdikas, a disciple of Louis Leaky, has been studying and living with the orangutans since 1971, the longest continuous study of one animal group anywhere. Her primary role is to rehabilitate orangutans that have been dislocated either through illegals captivity or more often loss of habitat, but her broader responsibility is educating and putting pressure on the world. The massive-scale illegal logging of the nineties has thankfully subsided through intense government intervention, but has been replaced by the tearing down of rain forest to build palm oil plantations. We spoke to her for a while and she is an interesting woman. The orangutan only gives birth to one child every eight years, the longest birth interval of any animal, and thus is especially prone to extinction. A child orangutan does not leave its mother's side for the first 6-7 years of its life. This is the most intense mother-child relationship in nature. Largely pessimistic about the future of orangutans in Borneo, Dr. Galdikas thinks that only the minority that live in the park have a chance at survival. 6,000 of the estimated 30,000 orangutans left in the world (mostly in Borneo, some in Sumatra) are in the park. You can find out more about her organization and work here: www.orangutan.org.

All of our expectations were blown out of the water and they were high to begin with. Some of the rehabilitated orangutans have a hard time giving up the free food from the park administrators so every day there is a feeding at designated stations in the park. This gave us a chance to see these magnificent creatures up close. We saw some orangutans from the boat, wild in the jungle, but nothing compares to seeing them up close. Looking into their eyes you feel an immediate connection. There is clearly so much thought going on. It is a little spine-tingling at first to have one stare at you, scoping you out, you doing the same to him or her. The juveniles and females swinging through the trees, bending small trees as they nimbly swing from branch to branch or scale vines is like the flying scene from Crouching Tiger. Watching a dominant male, at 250 lbs, doing the same, you feel like you are watching King Kong, huge trees bending, smaller ones snapping as he gracefully, yet forcefully moves anywhere he pleases. It is no accident that the best analogies I can find come from art, as it is really unlike anything I have experienced in life, and is one of the most awe-inspiring things I've even seen.

We spent three days on the klotok, and even withouth the orangutans, that would have been an amazing experience. Waking to the haunting arpeggio of gibbon calls at dawn, the rivers teaming with life, long-tail macaques and the Pinochio-like probuscis monkeys flying above you, kingfishers and hornbills darting across the water, giant butterflies all around, crocs patrolling the waters, and fireflies filling the night.

We got a little physically beat up our second day on the water when Allison got a nasty bee sting that made her right hand swell up like a balloon, and I found leeches on my stomach and calf, but the crew took good care of us, with great meals and a great mosquito netted mattress on the top deck for the nights.

All part of the great adventure.

February 19 - 25: Ubud, Bali

2009-02-25T00:03:00.000-08:00

Our first stop in Indonesia, Ubud is located in the hills on the island of Bali. Originally a small artist village, the town has grown significantly in recent years due to the number of tourists who are drawn to its multifaceted beauty -- art, gorgeous landscapes and wonderful people. Despite the hustle and bustle of tourists, we've loved our time here in Ubud and chose to use all our time on Bali here in this town (rather than exploring the beaches).

We were very fortunate to have our good friends Crispin and Ali come join us here for the weekend from Singapore with their amazing little daughter Clara. We hadn't seen them since Crispin and Allison finished business school 3 years ago so it was a wonderful reunion. Clara showed off her stellar swimming skills in our hotel's pool (look out for her in the 2024 Olympics!) and we enjoyed some great meals together, including a local hotspot for suckling pig. The food here in Bali has been delicious and we look forward to trying new dishes at every meal. Food was definitely not a highlight of our South American leg and so we're exciting that Asia is living up to our expectations so far.

After saying goodbye to Crispin, Ali and Clara we continued our exploration of Ubud and neighboring villages. A highlight has been several walks through the countryside. One such walk found us hopelessly lost in a beautiful river ravine. The farmer whose land we were crossing helped us to find our way, proudly showing us his plants of sweet potatoes and tapioca along the way.

Hindu is the predominant religion (95%) of the Balanese. A more ritualistic strand of Hinduism than that of India, the religion of the island is palpably felt in everyday life. Small offering are laid out each morning by housewives before they prepare the morning meal – palm leave constructed boxes filled with rice, flowers and burning incense. There’s a seamless transition in architecture between the temples and neighboring houses, each decorated with ornante wood carving and faces of the gods. Perhaps most significantly, the peace and kindness of all the people we’ve met is a testament to how their beliefs influence their daily business.

At 12,000 rupiah to the dollar, our funds are also going along way here in Bali: $3 for a full day scooter rental, $6 for an hour massage, $7 for an amazing dinner for two, $15 for a private bungalow in a small hotel with a pool. It's tempting to just settle into the relaxed luxury of this beautiful little town..... But alas, the jungle calls us. We're off to Borneo to see the Orangutans tomorrow. To a person, each Balinese that we've told we're headed that way has laughed at us in surprise and amazement. For the record, this part of the adventure is Nader's idea. But Allison was very glad he dragged her into the jungle in Costa Rica so she's hoping this one's worth the journey as well :)

February 18: Hong Kong

2009-02-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

With an 18 hour lay-over in Hong Kong between New Zealand and Indonesia, we decided to head into the city for the night (no, Hong Kong is not even remotely on the way between these two countries but according to our plane ticket it is).

Getting from the airport to city central was a mind boggling lesson in efficiency. $8 and one easy 15 minute high speed subway ride later we arrived. Coming back to the airport they actually will let you check into the flight and leave your baggage at the in-town stop before boarding the subway.

Wanting to keep within our lodging budget, we ended up being routed to "The Mansion". The mansion is a decrepit high rise building set in the center of the upscale Kowloon neighborhood. Each floor of the building is filled with several guesthouses each and we estimated there were approximately 5,000 beds inside. Expecting to the overrun with young Western backpackers, we were surprised by the international face of The Mansion's residents -- African and Middle Eastern predominantly -- many of whom seemed to be living in the building semi-permanently. A man who ran several of the guesthouses toured us around showing us numerous rooms which looked exactly the same but which he quoted for different prices. Each had two small single beds with a miniscule bathroom, the faint stale scent of curry wafting in through the windows. When asked why this one was more expensive his response was "more cleaner". We survived the night but have decided that if we return to Hong Kong we may be spending some of our precious Starwood points on a real hotel room. Somehow "roughing it" in a large city doesn't have the romatic appeal that it carries in the country side.

Aside from "The Mansion", Hong Kong was a great short stop. Vibrantly alive with colors and lights. The energy of a chaotic international hub where squalid dim sum joints sit next to lavish four star hotels. After perusing the latest technology for sale, we took advantage of the international cuisine with some great sushi and then headed back to the airport early the next morning.

New Zealand Recommendations

2009-02-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

Hotels
While in New Zealand we spent about 1/2 our nights camping and 1/2 in backpackers hostels. There are some great campsites and we highly recommend seeking out the Department of Conservation sites vs. the fully equipped "Holiday Park" types. If you're willing to trade in the services for solitude, you will have many of the sites completely to yourself. You can download a complete guide of all DOC sites from their website.

New Zealand has some really great backpackers for very reasonable prices (we were surprised). With a little marketing, many of them could advertise as "Bed and Breakfast"s and triple their prices. But let's just keep that between us :) The best source is Budget Backpacker Hostels New Zealand. Users rank the backpackers and we were very happy anywhere we stayed over 85% satisfaction. Two that it's worth changing your itinerary to stay at (we did):

Old Bones Backpackers. Set on the coast just outside of Oamaru this place is a true gem. Modern energy efficient space, great kitchen, very friendly owner.

Billy Brown's. Nothing around you but 600 sheep, a gorgeous ocean view, and Billie Holiday playing on the old record player. Change you plans to find this place. It's about 20 minutes outside of Dunedin on the East Coast.

Restaurants
Does raman noodles cooked on our camping stove count?? We really only ate out with Mom and Dad in Queenstown.... Fish Bones was very good.

Tour Operators
Ultimate Hikes - our Milford Track outfitter (the only way you can do a guided trip on the Milford Track). They were EXCELLENT. Not a backpackers budget option but very reasonable for what you were getting (at least that's what the people who paid the bill told me :).

February 13-17: West Coast

2009-02-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

The last 5 days have been a mad rush up the West Coast to get back to Auckland for our flight tomorrow morning. We didn't have as much time to explore the little places, but it felt like the West Coast was much more of a circuit with the same couple sites that everyone stops at. But again, that was probably just our limited time.

We did manage to squeeze in some fun, camping on yet another beautiful beach, kayaking through a bird sanctuary, and checking out New Zealand's most famous glacier, Franz Josef (which of course led to us calling each other Franz for a day or so. This is what happens when you spend half a year interacting primarily with one person.)

So, I think we've gotten to the bottom of New Zealand's problems. There are none really. It is just a simple society, people living contentedly within their means, without the desires or aspirations that drive the capitalistic growth we're used to in North America (and increasingly the rest of the world). Besides tourism, which overall is fairly low key, the major industries are sheep (wool and lamb) and fishing. With the exception of Auckland which has some internationally focused businesses, most people run the farms that their parents did, maybe try and save up for a little place on the beach. I'm torn. There is a part of this lifestyle that is incredibly appealing, to raise a family outside of the modern day rat race. But there is something I love about the entrepeneureal spirit that drives innovation back home, working hard to create something new and useful for the world. And everything that comes along with that, different ideas, people, etc. Greg Caimi, a friend from Hawaii, once said "Culture is for people with bad weather." The answer as with most things surely lies in the middle ground...

Tomorrow we shift gears. With significant exceptions, like Bolivia, we've spent the last 7 months exploringly and experiencing the beauty of the natural world, from Alaska to Patagonia to New Zealand. While this will always be something we look for and an environment we love being in, it's hard to say, but after so much beauty you do begin to get desensitized to it. (Who knew we would have seen so many glaciers this year?) So as we begin our foray into Asia, we're looking forward to a larger focus on experiencing different cultures, while I'm sure there will still be some natural beauty thrown in there.

Due to our weird round the world air ticket, the best way to get to Bali was through Hong Kong, which if you look at a map, is not at all on the way. So perhaps some quick dim sum in Hong Kong, before we head to Ubud to meet up with Crispin and Alizanne, our long lost friends now in Singapore, who are meeting us for the weekend.

Good Bye New Zealand. We'll see each other again soon.

February 5 - 12: Milford Track and Queenstown

2009-02-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

We spent a wonderful week with Allison's parents -- five days on the Milford Track with a day in Queenstown on either end. Self proclaimed as "one of the best walks in the world", the Milford Track had a lot of expectations to live up to.... It meet and exceeded all of them for us. Our first day on the track was mostly a transportation day from Queenstown through Te Anu and into the first hut with only a mile of walking. The real trek began on Day Two. 10 miles through a beautiful valley along the Clinton River. There was a swimming hole a few miles from the end of our day and we started a trend braving the frigid waters... Followed first by Yutaki, who according to our guide was the first of the many Japanese travellers on the track she'd seen go for a swim all season. Not to be outdone by his kids or the Japenese, Dad quickly joined in as well.

Around 4 pm we arrived at Pompolona, our second of three lodges along the track. A quick note on our trip which was organized through Ultimate Hikes. There are two options for doing the track -- independent hikers carry their own food and bedding, sleeping in basic huts along the way (how we would be living without Mom and Dad as travelling companions :). We were on the guided version which meant luxury huts complete with showers, 3 course dinners and wine at the end of the day. Thanks Mom and Dad!! It was an amazingly organized trip from start to finish --great guides and a wonderful group of travelling companions. The most noteworthy was 84 year old Jack from Australia who jogged down the steep descents on our trail and closed down the bar around midnight on our last night. An inspiration for us all to say the least.

Day two was the big one.... 9 miles over Mackinnon pass. A challenging hike in good weather, we woke to torrential downpours that didn't let up until late in the evening. The most magical parts of the Milford Track are all the waterfalls, many of which only show their true splendor when fed with a fresh rainfall. And so our dread of a day trudging through the rain quickly changed to wonder and amazement as we witnessed some of the most beautiful and unique scenery any of us had ever seen.

Our third and final day of hiking led us through another beautiful valley and near many beautiful waterfalls. The rain had cleared and so we had some bright sunny weather for our trek. Upon finishing the track, we were shuttled by boat over to our lodge for the night which had the most stunning views of Mitre Peak in the Milford Sound.

The next morning we took a boat cruise through Milford Sound before getting on the bus back to Queenstown. It was really an amazing journey..... I'm also very proud and impressed that my parents breezed through it without any trouble! We hope that at age 60 we can be doing the same :)

Our two days in Queenstown on either end of the trip were also lots of fun. Despite being 100% tourist gears, it's a very cute town set on Lake Wakatipu. Before heading out to the Milford Track, Mom Nader and I went paragliding which was so cool. You really feel like you're flying. We had a great dinner with JP and Kaki Smith, friends of my Aunt Coco and Uncle Steve who were also here in Queenstown to do the Milford Track. On our day after the track, I went bungy jumping (couldn't convince anyone else to join!) and we celebrated our last day with some wine tasting at a few local vineyards. Thanks again Mom and Dad for a wonderful week.... We had so much fun!!

Oh, and Nader is making me post these videos. If you watch the first one (I was a bit overserved the night before, thanks to JP!) please do watch the second one also.... I redeemed myself on the bungy :)

January 29 - February 4: Otago and Southland

2009-02-04T16:34:00.001-08:00

It is official. I am in love with this country. The past week we've been working our way down the east coast of the South Island where things have got progressively more remote, wild and beautiful. There is so much to see and do here, we've realized we could come for another month sometime and do a totally different trip.

From wine country we had a big driving day to get to the small coastal town of Oamaru, famous for the blue penguin colony that lives outside of town. The blue penguins are the smallest penguins in the world. We watched them climb out of the water at dusk after a full day of catching food for their young. A nearby yawning seal sent them fumbling back to the water to regroup which was comical. These little guys are less than a foot tall. Nearby there were also the rarest of penguins, the yellow-eyed penguin. We watched some of those from afar as well. Unfortunately taking photos of penguins is not recommended as they're afraid of humans, so no penguin photos.

Oamaru itself is an interesting little town, with a lot of intact 19th century buildings, a cool local jazz bar, and a great single malt whiskey brewery.

This is the beach in front of the great place we stayed at.

With all the sheep you would accept some great lamb. We cooked some up and indeed it was some of the most tender we've had.

From there we drove by the bizarre Moeraki Boulders, five million year old, perfectly spherical boulders, now lying on a beautiful beach.

On our way down to the Otago Peninsular, we drove further inland to check out the Otago Central Railway, a defunct railway line which has been converted into a 150 km long hiking/biking trail, going by tiny mostly abandoned settlements. We hiked one leg of it through, green hilly terrain and by a chilly yet refreshing river.

Allison's birthdays** fell over the time we were in the Otago Peninsula. This is a spectacular area, famous for its accessible wildlife. At the very tip of the peninsula is home to the only mainland royal albatross colony. With a 10 foot wing span, these are the largest flying birds in the world. Too fast for our camera though. We walked a beautiful beach dotted with lazy sea lions (although surprisingly active if you get too close) and went for a hike from a huge chasm down to a bay over steep duney terrain. The walk back up over the sand got us sweating. It reminded me fondly of the the 'big' dune at the beach in Saudi that we used to roll down into the sea. (For those that know what I'm talking about picture one 5 times bigger).

While exploring the Peninsula we stayed on a sheep farm a few kilometers away. Billy Brown, the hospitable owner educated us on the dwindling sheep business (we just missed the semi-annual shearing). We really enjoyed his woodstove and amazing record collection. They inspired us to pick up a player when we get back.

Here's the field of sheep out our window. No better way to wake up in the morning.

From there we head all the way south to the appropriately named region of Southland. Specifically we spent a couple days in the remote and unpopulated Catlins. Every turn off the road led to something spectacular.

A New Zealand traffic jam.

Beautiful Nugget Point. On both sides was a steep drop-off to rocks covered in frolicking seals. There were hundreds of them, teaching there pups to swim in little tidepools, the males play fighting.

Matai Falls.

Another amazing campsite.

Cooking our favorite camping meal, veggie fajitas.

A hike through rainforesty terrain, that reminded us of Corcovado in Costa Rica, minus the jaguars.

We stopped for lunch one day at Porpoise Bay and were treated to a full on dolphin show. They were playing in the waves and doing full flips completely out of the water. The photo doesn't do it justice.

At low-tide, at the very southern tip of New Zealand in Curio Bay, a 170 million year old petrified forest is revealed. An ancient volcano turned all the trees in this area to stone and you can still see the logs and stumps. To put that in perspective that is before there were any birds on the planets. Way older than the dinasours. Allison wasn't impressed :) Even without the historical significance it was a fun place to explore.

Another fun place to explore were the nearby Cathedral Caves, five massive caves extending 200 meters inland. If you walk in deep enough, past where natural light arrives, you'll feel some slimy things crawling over your feet. I felt like Indy.

** We realized on Feb 3rd, the day after her birthday, that it was Feb 2nd in the US and thus it was her actual birthday that day. So she got two celebrations. The benefits of living in the future...

January 24-28: Marlborough Region

2009-01-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

We've worked out most of the driving-on-the-left kinks by now. Thankfully Allison seems to be driving whenever we get to the ubiquitous roundabouts, which I can't figure out for the life of me. Whenever making a turn or going through an intersection we just look both ways continuously; that seems to be effective. It's hard to believe flashing a California license makes this legal.

Leaving Wellington, we drove Petunia onto the ferry, and set off for the South Island where we'll be spending the majority of our remaining time in New Zealand. A little behind on our planning we didn't really have a plan for where we were going to stay that night and as it was getting late on the scenic road to Nelson, luckily we stumbled across this campsite.

We are continually amazed at the beauty and isolation of this place. We've been sleeping at some of the most beautiful campsites we've ever stayed at and often have them to ourselves.

Nelson is known for its art community, but we hit it on a Sunday and everything was closed, so we missed out on that. But the region is known for their green-lipped mussels, so we picked some up and cooked up a delicious meal at our "backpackers" (what they call hostels in NZ). Yuan, here's a food picture for you.

The next day we started a two day kayak trip into the Marlborough Sound. The winds were strong and the waves choppier than we expected, so it turned into a strenuous three hour paddle. What we weren't expecting was half way accross the open-water section, a massive ferry was heading straight for us. We paddled extra hard and clearly survived, but got a little scare out of it. We were rewarded with a campsite in a beautiful bay that we again had all to ourselves and an amazing sunset. The nocturnal possums were a little aggressive once the sun went down, scavenging around looking for food, but we just hunkered down in the tent and pretended they weren't there.

Our last stop in the Marlborough region was in Renwick, the largest wine-producing region in the country. We stayed at a beautiful little place that felt more like a B&B than a hostel, playing tennis in the morning and renting bikes to go wine tasting in the afternoon. The wines were surprisingly consistently delicious, especially the Sauvignon Blancs and the Pinot Noirs, and the region (like everywhere else in New Zealand) beautiful. Some of our favorites were Allan Scott, Huia, and Cloudy Bay. Forrest Vineyards is a good place for a picnic and to play some lawn games. Most of the days we've been here it's been a perfect 75 degrees and clear with the occaisonal afternoon clouds.

We're trying to get under the belly of this country and figure out what its problems our. There must be something, we just haven't found it yet. But so far it seems a little, dare we say, perfect? Perhaps it is the low population and beautiful scenery, but everyone we've met so far is incredibly kind, taking significant time out of their day to help us with whatever it is we need help, and generally quite jolly. And literally every drive is a scenic drive. Even the race relations between the Maori and the European immigrants seem healthy, which given the initial bloodshed, akin to the American expansion into the Native American West in the 1800s, is surprising. Surely there is an undercurrent. We'll let you know if we find it.

January 21 - 23: Auckland to Wellington

2009-01-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

After a wonderful month with family and friends, we're back on the road. The second half of our year started with us skipping the most hopeful day in our nation's recent history as we crossed the international dateline from January 19, 2009 to January 21, 2009. But we heard he did just fine without us around :)

After landing in Auckland we picked up our cute little rental car for the month (a Nissan Pulsar whom we've named "Petunia") and headed south. Driving 5 hours on the left-side of the road after a red eye probably wasn't the smartest decision, but we survived. There's something comfortably familiar about taking a road trip - listening to our music and sleeping in our own tent - through this magical country.

Our first 48 hours in New Zealand have lived up to all the hype.... The scenery is insanely beautiful (For all you Lord of the Rings junkies, yesterday we hiked under the gaze of Mordor's Mount Doom). The people are wonderfully kind (from the woman who gave us a bowlful of plums just because, to the man who said he no longer was in the camping business but we could stay on his property anyways if we wanted to). And yes, there really are as many sheep as everyone says there are. We're regrouping in Wellington today before heading to the South Island tomorrow where we'll be spending most of our month here in this little slice of paradise...

South America Photos

2009-01-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I've uploaded the photos I took from this last leg of travel through South America up to my website.

www.iamnader.com

I recommend looking at the pictures in slideshow mode to get the fullscreen pictures. For those technically inclined, you can now also RSS subscribe to get updated whenever I add new photos.

Enjoy and Happy New Year.

Brazil Recommendations

2008-12-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few recommendations of our favorite hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc.

Hotels
Ihla Grande: Overnativa Hostel. Christina's cooking is the highlight of this place... great breakfasts are included and you can pay $3 for a delicious home cooked dinner.
Olinda: Pousada d'Olinda. Nice common space with a pool and grassy area. There's a huge difference in rooms.... Make sure you get one out back.
Gaibu: Aguas Marinhas. Right off the beach, amazing oceans views from the hammock up top. The Belgian owner is a bit strange but this may just have been a language barrier (well, maybe not as he did have Nader transcribe all the words to a Black Eyed Peas video he was trying to learn how to sing).

Restaurants
Rio: Livros e Cafe (at least that's what we think it was called). In Santa Teresa, a bookstore/cafe set up on a hill off the main street. We were drawn in by the ambiance (funky bookstore, live music, casual crowd) and ended up having the best pizza either of us had ever tasted. Sorry to not have better directions but do try to find this place if you can...

Tour Operators
Rio: Be a Local. Their favela tour was excellent... Our guide / owner of the company was very knowledgable and had a genuine respect for and commitment to the community.

December 7-13: Recife/Olinda & Gaibu

2008-12-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

We´ve spent the past week or so in the far northeast of Brazil, in the state of Pernambuco. This area has more of an African influence than any other part of Brazil as evidenced by the darker people, drum-influenced music and slightly spicier food. At the suggestion of a friend we spent some time in the Recife/Olinda area. This turned out to be one of our favorite spots in all of South America.

Olinda is a small colorful town, a few kilometers from the major city of Recife. It supposedly has one of the best carnivals in all of Recife as it is free, as opposed to Rio or Salvador´s where you buy a ticket and are sitting on bleachers. Olinda´s draws more than a million people all partying in the streets. As an old Portuguese colony, there are beautiful 17th century churches throughout town, that are still actively used. We made Olinda our homebase for exploring the area.

We unexpectedly stumbled into a week long art festival. Olinda has a very active art community with probably 50 or more artisans displaying their work. The whole place seems to revolve around carnival, with much of the art taking inspiration from it and everyone talking about it even though Carnival´s not til February. With few tourists, and therefore a lack of restaurants or hotels, the place had a great atmosphere. Almost ghostlike during the day, it comes to life in the early evening, as everyone walks the cobble-stoned streets, greeting their friends, drinking beer, playing music, dancing capoeira (Brazilian dance fighting)... Everywhere we went there was some form of live music, from the anyone-join-in African style forro beats we heard at a small concrete-floored club, to the couple sitting on their steps, guy playing guitar, woman singing to him, to the troop walking the streets practicing for carnival, while serenading old women. I had this impression of Carnival as raucous and almost violent, but these people where inclusive, loving and brought out the best in everyone they walked by way. We were almost brought to tears watching this maurading group sing to a 90 year old woman as she smiled appreciatingly through her gate. Another guy was sitting with his family having a beer on his stoop, when he got so excited he ran into grab his shirt to join the group. It was like this was all through town, like the pied piper they were picking people up as they went. By the end it was a group of about 100, all singing every word to every song.

At Barrett´s suggestion we checked out the Oficina Brennand, an old ceramics factory that Francisco Brennand inherited in the 60s and has turned into a surreal sculpture garden, filled with anatomically vague animals in sexually suggestive forms. In a forested area, with extensive grounds it was a really interesting place to spend a couple hours. Recife itself is like many other large cities, and besides the music scene is somewhat missable. There was some interesting architecture in the old part of city, but downtown was just another hectic South American city.

As our last spot in South America before heading home for a few weeks, we decided to just spend sometime by the beach. Based on one recommendation from a complete stranger we picked the town of Gaibu, about an hour down the coast from Recife.

Gaibu is a small town with not much going on, which is exactly what we were looking for. We are the only non-brazileans we've seen here these past four days. Our daily routine has been simple. Lots of swimming and reading. Watching the kids play soccer at low-tide and the men waist deep in the water fishing by net. Allison does some yoga in the afternoons, while I find some kids to play soccer volleyball with (just like regular volleyball, but using your legs and head) Due to a yet unexplained abhoration in global timezones, Pernambucu with is significantly east of Rio is an hour behind it. This means sunsets at 5 pm and early evenings out. We've spent each one sampling the street side bars (bar is an overstatement, I should say plastic table on the street), each competing for their patronage playing music videos louder than the next. We´ve had the same lunch and dinner most days. Fried fish on the beach for lunch; rice, beans and BBQ´d chicken with a healthy dose of hot sauce for dinner. Delicious. We recently discovered the one place in town with internet access (thus this blog post). The place is thronged with 12 year olds playing on Orkut, Google´s social networking application, with is apparently only big in Brazil. Mid-week I went scouring the only street in town for a TV tuned to the Champions League, sure that in Brazil they would be showing it. Every TV I found had music videos playing; a real testament to the love of music in this region.

Some views from the hammock...

Tomorrow we take an early flight back to Rio, where we´ll kill a few hours before a red-eye back to the US where we´ll spend some time with family before heading back to the Bay Area for a couple weeks then onto New Zealand.

December 3-6: Rio de Janeiro

2008-12-08T06:13:00.000-08:00

Rio was everything we had been told it would be... wild, beautiful and alive. Although we felt a little too old to truly appreciate all that the nightlife had to offer, we thoroughly enjoyed our three days in the city.

We were staying in the beach neighborhood of Ipanema. Despite having to pay above our budget for a somewhat moldy room in a ¨hostel village¨*, we loved being so close to the beach. Ipanema and it´s neighboring beach of Copacabana are like no where else on earth. Beautiful pristine beaches (just how do they keep them so clean?) right in the middle of a massive city. The flow between beach and city is truly seamless -- only in Rio can a man in a white speedo with no shoes on confidently saunter through the streets of his city. And these people know how to do the beach. For $2 you can rent a chair and umbrella for the day. From there, the endless stream of vendors saunters by selling caparinhas, beer, nuts, grilled shrimp, empanadas, coconuts, bathing suits, beach balls, hats, and anything else you can imagine. Sit back, people watch and enjoy.... Hardly a better way to spend an afternoon.

On our first morning in town, we ventured up the Sugarloaf monolith for some views of the city. We hiked halfway up through dense jungle terrain and then took the tram for the rest of the trip. Rio is a city built admist the jungle and from the top of Sugarloaf you can see the beautiful battle which ensues between the two with skyscraper highrises giving way to lush mountains throughout.... With the favelas claiming the gray space in between.

Speaking of the favelas, we decided to take a tour of them on our second morning in town. At first we were highly skeptical of these tours... Allison tried to imagine a tourist ¨tour¨ through West Oakland or Dorchester, MA and it sounded like a bad idea for about a million different reasons. But the favelas aren´t the inner city neighborhoods of the US. Although the realities of poverty and drug dealings are the same, the favelas represent something entirely different -- most notibly by the reality that they live completely off the grid of city infrastruture with their own neighborhood associations that coordinate trash pick up, mail, etc. and pirated electricity. Their scale is also staggering. 20% of all Rio residents (a rough estimate) live in Favelas. So if we were going to understand a bit of this city it seemed like an important exploration, skeptical as we were.

Our tour ended up being extremly well done. Well, that is, after we survived the beginning. As I mentioned earlier, most of the favelas have taken over the land between city and jungle which means they exist in the steep hills in between. So our tour started with motorcycle ¨taxis¨speeding us up to the top of the neighborhood each on the back of our separate bike. Passing buses as they sped closer to the curb, flying around corners all on the backs of a strange man shouting ¨gringo!¨as he passed his friends.... It was a bit harrowing, but we survived :) From there we wound our way down through the favela through the alleyways between makeshift houses, stopping along the way to meet residents, check out some art, and visit a daycare center that our tour agency supports. We were warned to not take any pictures if anyone with a ¨walkie-talkie or a machine gun crosses our path¨.... Um, ok, I think we´ll heed that advice. We did see one of the walkie talkie dudes on our travels, keeping watch for if the police came into town. Our guide, the owner of his small tour company, was excellent. He seemed to know everyone we passed and had a sincere passion and commitment to his work in the favelas. We can easily imagine how such a tour would be patrionizing at best and exploitative at worst. Ours was neither and we walked away with a better understanding for and respect of the communities that are built in these neighborhoods. (If you´ve never seen City of God, go rent it right now.... a beautiful movie about one of the other Rio favelas).

Later that same afternoon, we headed up to the bohemean neighborhood of Santa Teresa. Set in the hills above town, you take a streetcar/tram to get there. We were the last passangers to make a leaving streetcar and so found ourselves hanging off the sides as it wound its way up through town. Our second harrowing ride of the day after the motorcycles, but this one was a uniquely spectacular journey with beautiful views along the way. Santa Teresa was our favorite neighborhood in town. Local artists displaying their work, quaint cafes with casual live music, and a chilled out crowded that seemed much more our style than the flair of Rio´s beaches... we could have happy spent much more time here.

Our favela tour guide gave us a tip on a great local musician who was playing in Lapa that night... since a big interest of ours in visiting Brazil was to check out the music scene, we hopped on the chance to see this show. Doors opened at 10 with the show ¨starting¨ at 11. We showed up around 10:15 to a completely empty venue and realized that we may be in for a late night. Around 11:30 the first opening act went on, followed by a second opening and then the main guy around 1:30 Although we had to leave at 2 because we were so tired (again, too old to fully appreciate this city), the music and atmosphere was amazing to soak in. Seating for the show is set back from a large dance floor where couples danced samba.... everyone in this country seems to be an amazing dancer. It was also super cool to see hip young kids grooving to samba instead of sitting around drinking like their peers in the US are likely doing. I had a similar feeling to when we were at the Boca Juniors football match.... Partying is about passionate involvement in the things you love. People drink, sure. But it´s more of an after thought rather than the way that alchohol dominates such experiences in the US and other countries.

Off to the northern coast for a week of music, beaches, and off circuit travels before heading back to the US/Canada for the holidays and some greencard paperwork.... Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

*A quick side note on the hostel village experience: South America most certainly has a backpackers ¨circuit¨that we have found ourselves on and off over the course of our 3 months here. For anyone who´s travelled at all, you know what we´re talking about. Germans with big hiking boots, hungover young Australian girls, loud Isralis (I´d insert a cliche about Americans on the circuit but our cliche is that we don´t travel so we´re not really here). Anyways, the cluster of backpacker pads we dubbed the hostel village in Rio was the apex of the circuit.... We´re looking forward to a bit more off the circuit travel in Asia although it certainly has provided some entertainment and a few new friends when we´ve floated through it here.

November 28 - December 2: Parati & Ilha Grande

2008-12-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

We took our last South American overnight bus from Iguazu to Sao Paolo, where we killed a few hours in the early morning in the bus station before catching another bus to Parati. Parati is a little colonial town on the coast south of Rio. White-washed buildings, fishing boats in the bay, and snack stands on the beach. It´s a pretty town to stop in if you´re making your way up or down the coast, but with the increasing number of restaurants and boutiques it´s at risk of loosing its charm. To be fair we didn´t take a boat out to any islands, which are supposed to be a highlight and it was cloudy, so we may not have seen Parati at her finest. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our time there, walking the cobbled streets and enjoying our first beer on a Brazilian beach.

Ilha Grande on the other hand is a little slice of paradise. A two hour ferry ride off the coast, Ilha Grande is a large island (about the size of Brooklyn), mountainous, and covered in rain forest. While fairly close to Rio, the island was protected and was used as a prison til the mid-90s, which has kept it relatively undeveloped. Today the entire island is protected land with only one small village. No cars are allowed on the island and the only way to get around the island is by boat or by a series of trails connecting the various beaches. We hiked a cross the island to spend the afternoon at the white powdery surf beach of Lopes Mendez one afternoon. Another day we took a boat to a snorkeling spot. The best times, however, are just wandering the trails til you get to a georgious beach all to yourself.

November 24 - 27: Iguazu Falls

2008-12-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

One flight and a 16 hour bus ride later, we found ourselves in the steamy jungle on the border between Argentina and Brazil, home to the Iguazu Falls. With 270 falls spanning 1,600 meters wide, Iguazus falls are officially the largest in the world. According to Wikipedia, upon seeing Iguaçu, the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!". Although we had to fight through the masses of tourists and school groups a bit to see them, these falls were truly remarkable.

We ended up with an extra day to kill before our bus was leaving for the Brazillian coast, which we happily spent lazing by the pool at our hostel.... A great transition point from the mountains to the beach.

Argentina Recommendations

2008-11-26T06:45:00.001-08:00

Here are a few recommendations for our favorie hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc.

Hotels
Cafayate: El Balcon. Comfortable airy rooms, good kitchen, a really nice balcony (hence the name.....)
Chalten: Albergue Patagonia. We loved this cozy little lodge. Beautiful views, friendly staff. comfortable common space.
Ushuaia: La Posta. Clean comfortable rooms, good kitchen, friendly staff.

Restaurants
Mendoza: Tablao. The best lomito sandwich we had in Argentina... Lomitos (steak with fried egg, ham, cheese, and more) are heart-attacks on sliced bread but they are SO delicious. Ave. San Juan 165.
Buenos Aires: Cluny. Amazing food, service, ambiance. More expensive than your average Argentinean restaurant but well worth it...
Ushuaia: Rotiseria. This place has huge, deliciously cheap sandwich....great if you´re on a tight budget (together we barely finished one sandwich)

Tour Operators, etc.
Andesmar buses. Fully reclining leather seats (if you spulge for 1st class), flat screen TVs, decent food. Via Bariloche was great also.

Mendoza: Mr. Hugo´s bike rental for wine tasting.... A great reminder that it´s always best to go with the second most popular excursion company (Bikes & Wines is the most popular in this case). They´re scrappy and fighting to win your approval. Mr. Hugo was amazingly friendly, great bikes, and after our tour we were greeted with free carafes of wine while we waited for the bus. Carinae was our favorite vineyard. Small, run by a French couple.

Buenos Aires: Sabor a Tango. A wonderful dinner-tango show... Although more upscale than other shows if you´re on a budget. We recommend the lesson beforehand, it was actually very fun!

November 15-22: Tierra Del Fuego

2008-11-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

We´re now in Tierra Del Fuego, literally "Land of Fire", named by Magellan after observing the fires of the native "cannibals", when he first discovered his famous Straits, and finally a passage connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. Ushuaia, our base for exploration of this remote part of the world, was originally a penal colony based on the example of Australia, as Tierra Del Fuego is actually an island and was very difficult to get to in those days. The town´s location is spectacular on the water and surrounded by mountains. These days it is an interesting mix of independent trekkers and people getting ready to take a cruise to Antarctica. As the southernmost town in the world it is the most common starting point for trips to Antarctica.

While not as difficult to get here as it was in the penal colony days, it is still quite a journey. After leaving El Chalten, we took a van across the country to the Atlantic going through some very remote and beautiful land. We didn´t see anything for six hours, except for condors, guanacos (a Patagonian llama) and rheas (a Patagonian ostrich - who knew?). Our first stop was the small sea-side town of Puerto San Julian. Way off the beaten path, we didn´t see any other tourists the two days we spent there. Even Argentineans gave us weird looks when we tried to figure out how we could get to this town. Somewhere along the way we had picked up a little flyer saying you could see penguins in this town, and we were determined to see them. It ended up being a sleepy little town, with exactly one little cabin by the water offering anything remotely touristic, which was our trip to see penguins. They had a four person minimum, so the guy running the place told us to come back the next day, which we did to find there were still no other tourists in town, so he took us out for a private tour.

The Magellenic penguins are really cute at only 40 cms tall. It was a week or so before their eggs were meant to hatch, so couples were protectively nesting over their eggs, while others wobbled around awkwardly looking for a lost egg. Others were out fishing; They´re much more graceful in the water.

From there we started an epic 20 hour journey down to the end of the world. Because of various land disputes between Argentina and Chile, the trip down involves going through a narrow strip of Chile´s land, which unfortunately means four immigration and customs checks, out of Arg, into Chile, out of Chile, into Arg. That along with a ferry crossing meant almost as much time out of the bus as in the bus.

But it was worth it. We´ve been blessed with some amazing weather down here, and went on two magnificent hikes. Tierra Del Fuego National Park is breathtaking with its soaring peaks, the glassy Beagle Channel, and its forests covered in old man´s beard and habitated by geese, rabbits and beavers.

From town if you hike straight up you can get to a glacier, while not as impressive as Perito Moreno, the hike gives you a great view of the surroundings as well as a chance to do some fun scrambling.

We also took a couple extra days to get our lives in order a little, catching up on the news and planning our upcoming time in Brazil. While we have loved our time in Patagonia, after a couple months in the mountains we are looking forward to some beach time.

Hope everyone is well and happy thanksgiving if we don´t write before then.

November 8 - 14: El Calafate and El Chalten

2008-11-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

After a wonderfully relaxing week with the Akhnoukhs in Buenos Aires, we boarded a plane for Patagonia. Our first stop was the town of El Calafate or, more specifically, the Glacier Moreno which is the main draw of this gateway to Southern Patagonia. 6 months ago, neither of us had ever really seen a glacier. But after our journey through Alaska, we now considered ourselves somewhat of glacier connoseurs and, as such, were a bit skeptical of whether this new sighting would wow us at all. It did. The glacier is larger than all of Buenos Aires and positioned in a way that makes it very accessibly viewed. Yet perhaps more impressive than its size is the high level of activity. While there we witnessed a massive calving that sounded like a huge explosion and created a tidalwave of bobbing ice for a good 10 minutes to follow. We were impressed. It was also our first introduction to the ever changing and often extreme weather patterns that are Patagonia. Rain, sleet, snow and driving winds blessed our day at the glacier. Quite a change from 80 degrees and sunny in BA!

El Chalten was our second Patagonian stop, and one that we happly settled into for 5 days. A tiny (though ever growing) mountain village set near the base of the Fitz Roy range, El Chalten only officially became a town in the 1980s. We stayed in a charming little hostel (Albergue Patagonia) where we could cook our own meals and enjoy cozy afternoons curled up with a book in their living room loft. It reminded Allison of some of the New England ski lodges of her childhood. View from the dining area shown below.

With it´s sole purpose being as a base for trekking, El Chalten is surrounded by amazingly gorgeous and well maintained trails. Our days were spent hiking the region and getting views of the nearby ranges... Well, that and dealing with the wind. We´d read about the ¨November winds¨in others´ blog posts but didn´t give them much thought. They were, without a doubt, the most intense winds that either of us had ever experienced. On one hike we had to sit down on the trail to wait out a particularly strong blow for fear of being knocked over. We had toyed with renting gear for a backcountry trip, but were very happy to settle into our hostel each night after the hikes!

Our bus out of El Chalten left at 5:30 AM on a perfectly clear morning (a rarity in these parts). We were blessed with an amazing sunrise over the Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. We highly recommend an extended stay in El Chalten for anyone visiting the region.

Nov 1-8: Buenos Aires

2008-11-08T16:28:00.000-08:00

We´ve spent the last week exploring the various neighborhoods of Buenos Aires with my (Nader´s) parents. It´s been a blast spending some time with them in this amazing city; thanks again for coming Mom and Dad!

As the locals will be sure to tell you, Buenos feels more European than Latin American, with it´s sophisticated shops, broad avenues and statue-studded plazas. While this might be true at first appearance the more you get to know the city the more the Latin in it comes out, especially in the passion of its inhabitents towards everything they do.

We rented an apartment for the week in perhaps the hippest block in South America, in the heart of Palermo Soho, which resembles its namesake with plush indoor/outdoor cafes, top-class restaurants and parks, but friendlier and without any of the pretense. We spent our days exploring the various neighborhoods, like Recoleta with its glitzy stores and very impressive cemetary. It´s a veritable city of large mausoleums and walking through it is the best national history lesson you can get as all the famous presidents, generals, poets, etc are buried here.

Dad lingered a little longer at Evita´s resting spot.

La Boca and San Telmo were other favorites, with the outdoor cafes and tango shows, and the old mansions giving a sense for what Argentina was like back in the 1890s when it was one of the richest countries in the world.

At night we wined and dined, and caught a couple tango performances. A little bit of luxury after a couple months on the road. (Thanks again Mom and Dad) We even took some tango lessions, care of the flamboyant and exceptionally talented Hugo; and yes it is as hard as it looks.

We also took a day-trip to the sleepy sea-side town of Colonia in Uruguay. The historic district dates back to the 17th century and is beautiful place to spend an afternoon with the tree-lined lanes and musician´s playing in the plazas. Highly recommended.

The highlight of the week for me - and I´m likely speaking for myself here :) - was definitely attending a Boca Juniors match at La Bombonera. They say this is the best place to watch soccer in the world and we were not let down. There was a little bit of a mix up with the tickets and the four of us ended up in the standing room only ´popular´ section, which are the cheap seats with the rowdiest fans. We arrived a couple hours early for both reasons of safety and because our section is herded in like cattle before the visitors section is allowed in the stadium. Boca was playing San Lorenzo another team from Buenos Aires and the two shared the top position in the league, so the atmosphere was unlike anything I´ve seen, including English Premiere League matches in London. The singing is raucous and continuous from well before the beginning of the match til after the end, and we must have heard over 20 different songs, all laced with curses, and sung while jumping up and down with arms waving in the air. The effect is that from across the stadium it looks like a continually rolling sea. The air and ground are littered with bits of paper and smoke. The full band that resides in the stands plays continually the entire match. An amazing atmosphere. We also successfully avoided the potential hazards like getting mugged, a beating for rooting for the opponents or the bags of urine that are flung from the visitors section which is directly above the ´popular´ section.

The other highlight was the local and global reaction to Obama´s victory. Being in Argentina, we´ve received a lot of global coverage and it cannot be overstated how excited the entire world is about this. I´ve got a bright blue shirt with Obama´s face on it that I wore around the day after the election and every where I walked I´d get a thumbs up from strangers. We´re both very excited to represent a country where from the depths of despair, the strength of a singular idea, that America can always redefine itself, is once again revealing itself to the world, as it is so easy for that to get forgotten in low times.

After an early morning flight we´re now in El Calafate, a gateway town to Southern Patagonia where we´ll be for the next two weeks. (Click on the link to the satellite map of the nearby glacier on the right-side of this page in the Status section.) We´re about to head into the Fitz Roy range to do some trekking so will likely be offline and unreachable for a week or so.

October 23 - 31: Cafayate and Mendoza

2008-11-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

Before heading to Mendoza (the heart of wine country), we journeyed to the more remote town of Cafayate. With a charming central square, a number of vineyards nearby (specializing in the white torrentes), and a beautiful country side, Cafayate was the perfect place to spend a few days... After three wonderful weeks in Bolivia, we definitely felt like we were on vacation.

We spent one day hiking (or, more specifically, scrambling) up a riverbed to a swimming hole nearby. Other than that, it was lots of chilling sprinkled with some wine tasting along the way. Having found a hostel with a decent kitchen (not a common thing in Bolivia), it was also great to cook some dinners at "home" after so many nights eating out.

From Cafayate we headed to Mendoza on our first of the fabled Argentinean "cama" (sleeper) buses. They lived up to all we had been told to expect -- flat screen TVs, dinner with wine, AND if you ride the super posh line (which we took down to Buenos Aires), seats that go 180 degrees back and champagne after dinner. After 14 hours, we could have easily stayed on for longer :)

Mendoza is a city of about 100,000 people located not far from the Andes and the Chilean border. Before even considering all the beauty surrounding, the city itself is amazingly charming. Treelined streets, tons of hip cafes, and a 420-hectacre park in the middle of town... we could have easily spent a lot more time in this town.

We spent a day biking around to some of the local wineries which was lots of fun. The route we were on featured mostly small family run vineyards. Our favorite was run by a french couple who moved to the area knowing nothing about how to make wine just 10 years ago (anyone looking for inspiration?!).

Our other outing from Mendoza was to the town of Potrerillos which featured beautiful views of the nearby mountains and a lake where Nader braved the chilly waters for a dip.

So far Argentina is treating us very well... Off to an ex-pats election party tonight in Buenos Aires. Here's hoping for change.

Bolivia Recommendations

2008-10-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few recommendations of our favorite hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc.

Hotels
Copacabana: La Cupula. Great views of the lake (amazing sunsets), hammocks in the yard out front, clean comfortable rooms. We went to their restaurant one night and didn´t think it was that great.
La Paz: Wild Rover Backpacker. A quality manifestation of your classic ¨hostel¨experience. Fun bar, clean bathrooms and rooms. We lucked into a room well away from the bar... We heard that it gets noisy late at night if you´re too close.

Restaurants
Copacabana: Any of the trucha stands down by the lake. It doesn´t matter which one as they all serve the exact same deliciously cheap and fresh fish.
La Paz: La Comedie. Delicious french food with a great atmosphere. A ¨spluge¨by Bolivian standards, but really not very expensive.
Sucre: Cafe Mirador. Set near a Children´s Museum in the hills above down, this is a great spot for a drink at sunset.

Tour Operators, Etc.
Tours El Grano de Oro. Salt Flats tour operator out of Tupiza (we recommend starting in Tupiza over Uyuni). Great guide/driver (successfully changed 4 flat tires quickly, being a good mechanic is by far the most important criteria in your guide). Delicious food. Tip for your search in Salt Flat tour operators: try to find a husband-wife duo. Ours were married and great. Apparently some of the younger single guides drive too fast and often drunk...

October 16-22: Southwest Bolivia

2008-10-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

We´ve spent the past four days exploring Southwestern Bolivia by jeep with a great Irish couple, Sean and Michelle. This is an otherworldly place more reminiscent of an imaginary Martian landscape than anywhere else we´ve seen on Earth. Ranging from 3500-5200 meters (11000- 17000 ft) it is almost completely above the treeline and the temperatures ranged from subfreezing at night to warm during the days. This is also the highest either of us has ever been.

This is a land of deep red, bright green and brilliant white lakes, surreal desertscapes with pink and purple mountainsides and Dali-esque rock formations jutting out of nowhere. This is a land filled with herds of pecuñus (the llama´s fairer cousin), thousands of bright pink flamingos, and the occaisional Andean fox. We drove by many 20,000 ft volcanoes, some still active, geysers shooting up steam around splurting mud, and a well needed hot spring where we soaked our too-long-in-the-jeep aching bodies.

And finally, the highlight was the majestic Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. A blistering sea of white for as far as the eye could see. The salt was broken into geometric hexagonal shapes as if by design. The salt flat is dotted with a few coral islands habitated by giant cacti and long-tailed rabbits. We walked out a ways on to the salt and were met by absolute nothingness. Even the silence was complete.

I´m not sure words can really capture this truly unique part of the world, hopefully the pictures will do a better job.

For those considering visiting this part of the country we´d highly recommend starting your trip from Tupiza, instead of the more common Uyuni. Tupiza is actually a nice little town to spend some time in, it´s fairly warm and the countryside around it is spectactular. We spent a half day exploring it on horseback.

Also it is remote country that you are entering, ie no roads and very basic accomodation so the most important thing to get for the tour is a driver that is a good mechanic (we got 3 flat tires in 4 days).

A quick postscript on Bolivia. The media portrays the country as one in perpetual political turmoil and one with a hatred towards Americans. Well the former point is true. Bolivia is in a constant state of redefining itself. Almost everyone is involved in politics to some degree, every town has political propoganda, etc. The biggest issue now is that the state of Santa Cruz with a largely non-indigenous population wants to secede from the country as the current president Evo Morales is granting a lot of indiginous power. It was exciting to see a little bit of this in process. However, nowhere in this country did we feel at all endangered, and we encountered nothing but respect and generosity from Bolivians. Bolivians joke about Bush, but we felt nothing negative in their attitudes towards Americans. It´s a shame that the media portrays this differently, as we didn´t meet any other Americans in Bolivia and they´re really missing out on this amazing country.

October 11-15: Sucre and Potosi

2008-10-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

From La Paz to Tupiza we´ve been blessed with three Bolivian bus experiences. Each has come with it´s own flavor of excitement. Our first trip (overnight from La Paz to Sucre) was initially cancelled due to road blocks resulting from protests -- only to be then allowed to go at the last minute although on a cheaper version which is never a good alternative for overnight journeys. Trip #2 (from Sucre to Potosi) was on a bus driven by this kid pictured below. Trust us, he actually looks OLDER in this picture than he did in real life. On trip #3 (from Potosi to Tupiza yesterday) we tried to buy tickets on the most expensive bus available. Our agent informed us that that bus was ¨sold out¨ (translation: she had a deal with the cheaper company). So we ended up on this beauty below with ducktape holding the front window together. 7 hours into our trip we stumbled upon one of the infamous Bolivian road blocks - this one for road work instead of protests. Three hours later we were allowed to proceed.... It´s been said that you haven´t experienced Bolivia if you haven´t waited at a road block so now we are truly legit travelers thru this country!

Sucre was a beautiful little colonial town. The view from a hillside outside of town reminded us somewhat of looking down onto the Castro and the Mission from Dolores park in San Fran. Less we got too comfortable with the ease of this town, we decided to gamble our luck on a Bolivian ferris wheel in a park nearby.´

In the 16th and 17th century, Potosi was one of the richest cities in the world with silver from its mines funding the entire Spanish empire. The silver is long gone but Potosi remains a mining town with over 10,000 workers entering the mountain each day to mine ore and other minerals. The town is also the highest city in the world (4,060 meters). Although the workers in the mines are now part of mining cooperatives, rather than slaves as they were in the silver era, the work is still insanely difficult and unsafe with the average lifespan of a miner being between 40-50.

Our tour into the mines started with us signing our lives away. We then bought gifts for the miners we would meet (the favorite being pure alchohol which they drink in mass quantities every Friday afternoon, often while still below ground). Dynamite is also a popular gift for the miners as they are responsible for funding all their own equipment. Yes, anyone can buy dynamite in this town. We did.

From there we travelled deep and then deeper into the mountain. At the deepest point of the tour, our guide decided to tell us that engineers from the US did a study 12 years ago predicting that the entire mine would cave in within 5 years. The kind of information that you prefer to receive AFTER the tour.... Another guy on our tour casually asked what the white stuff was all over the walls. Asbestos. The pictures which came out here are from the mellower parts of the tour -- too much dust for the real intense ones to come out.

Our guide who was a miner for 3 years before having an accident said that he would ¨put dynamite up his son´s ass¨if he ever indicated an interest in the work. Speaking of dynamite, there was the dynamite demonstration at the end. Nader was chosen to make the bomb and tried to remain calm while it was lit under his shirt.... It´s a sad sad livelihood and we felt very fortunate to have seen a slice of these men´s lives to understand their hardships.

Off to find some saltenias for lunch....

October 8-10: La Paz

2008-10-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Built on the side of a canyon 3,500 meters above sea level, La Paz was remarkable to see coming in by bus from Copacabana.... We can only imagine what it must be like to fly into this city. We spent 3 days exploring around. Perhaps most importantly, we fell in love with saltenas -- a Bolivian speciality of heavenly pastries filled with meet and vegitables. The woman selling them outside the local market was very pleased to see us come back from round 2 on our second day.... (knock on wood) our stomachs seemed to handle this classic street foot just fine. At $0.40 each, the price was right as well.

Another highlight was the witches market where you could buy all different varieties of potions and such. Lama fetuses (yes, that is what´s shown in the picture below) are bought and buried under new houses for good luck. We were tempted to buy a few as presents but couldn´t quite work out the logistics of getting them back home...

As you may have read, Bolivia is in the process of negotiations with the opposition party who have caused some unrest in the eastern provinces in recent weeks. We were lucky to stumble upon full Bolivian political pomp and circumstance on our second day in town as the red carpet was rolled out (literally) for representatives from the UN who came to town to help facilitate the discussions. While waiting for whoever was arriving to arrive we chatted with a cute young Bolivian couple who was also there to witness the excitment. It´s facinating to see how connected all Bolivians (or at least those in bigger cities) are with their politics..... Although it does make sense when there is such a constant state of uncertainty and change.

Oh, and for any American considering visiting Bolivia, be sure you have your $135 ¨reciprocity fee¨ready at the border, which Nader - as a Canadian - didn´t have to pay. The US started charging Bolivia first and so they responded in turn..... Both countries have expelled each other´s ambassadors as of late. Diplomatic relations at their best :)

October 5-8: Copacabana & Isla de Sol

2008-10-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

We've been in western Bolivia for about 5 days now. The ride over from Cuzco was our first experience with cama bus service, with fully reclining seats. Much better than expected especially due to the thick wool blankets provided as it gets very cold at night in the altiplano (the elevated plateau that covers parts of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina).

So far Bolivia has been a land of extremes. Extreme elevation, extreme temperature shifts, etc. It's often too warm in the sun and too cold in the shade. We've spent the last few days in the Lake Titikaka area. The lake is the highest significant body of water in the world at 13,000 ft. Copacabana (the original, the Rio beach came later) is a small beach town popular with both locals and visitors as it's got the only public beach in landlocked Bolivia. We stayed at a great place above the beach where we enjoyed the sunsets and ate the local specialty fried whole rainbow trout every day.

The first thing we noticed in town was the MASSIVE bags of over-sized, semi-stale, semi-sweet popcorn being sold at every corner. Delicious, we've had a constant supply going.

Wandering up to the cathedral that dominates the center of town we stumbled onto another peculiarity. Dozens of cars around the cathedral decked out in flowers with a white-robed priest flinging holy water into the car and on the owners, while the owners are spraying champagne on the engine and in the trunk, and kids are setting off fireworks everywhere. Apparently this ritual of blessing new cars is to ensure the longevity of both car and driver. The combination of alcohol on the engine and fireworks didn't seem like the best idea to us, but who are we to judge.

We took a boat over to Isla del Sol, a beautiful island in the lake which is at the heart of the Inca creation story. The sun supposedly emerged from this island, and apparently this belief is still held by many locals who tend to blend the older indigenous beliefs with the more recent catholic ones brought over with the Spanish. We spent the day walking the entire length of the island along an Inca path over the spine of the island. Deep blue waters, and the snowcapped peaks in the distance made for an incredible hike.

Locating an ATM in this part of Bolivia has turned out to be more challenging than expected and we were down to our last 20 dollars, still needing to pay for our room, food, return boat and bus to La Paz. We got a kick out of the response we repeatedly got trying to change the dollars into bolivianos. We're on a remote island and the women running tiny little stores would tell us the US economy was in big trouble and they didn't want any dollars. We finally found someone willing to exchange some money at a greatly depressed rate and were able to get back to the mainland. We got dropped off about 20 km from Copa and took another great trek back along the perimeter of the lake past small farming communities and kids with sun-burnt cheeks.

The bus to La Paz was another exciting one, driving by the 20,000+ ft Cordilla range and the ever exciting river crossing where everyone gets off the bus so that it can be ferried across while the passengers take a far too small motor boat, not to mention the dramatic drop into La Paz itself as the city clings precipitously to the sides of its valley. I hope an earthquake never chooses this spot.

Off to explore some recommendations from Tara and Melissa. Snow is on the forecast for today!

Hasta luego.

PS. For those I didn´t tell I´ve revamped my photo website - www.iamnader.com - with a bunch of new photos from the first leg of our year. Enjoy!

Peru Recommendations

2008-10-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a few recommendations of our favorite hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc.

Hotels
Cusco: Casa Elena. We stumbled upon this place wandering the streets after the hostel we wanted was booked.... and we were very happy to have found it. Welcoming atmosphere, great breakfast.

Restaurants
Cusco: Juanita´s Sandwich shop. If you´re tired of the Peruvian set menu, this is a great alternative with seriously good sandwiches. It´s on the main strip in the San Blas neighborhood.

Tour Operators, etc.
Peru Treks. We did the Lares Valley trek with them and had an excellent experience. Great food, well organized, good gear (tent, sleeping bags) professional guide.

September 29 - October 2: Lares Valley trek and Machu Picchu

2008-10-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

As an alternative to the classic Inca Trail, we decided to do a trek through the Lares Valley and then onto Machu Picchu. We were a bit wary of all the crowds on the Inca Trail (500 people per day) and also remembered fondly our trek through the Atlas Mountains in Morrocco a few years ago which sounded similar to this Lares Valley trip -- walking through small mountain communities along the way. This trip was simply wonderful and we didn´t see any other hikers along the entire journey. We highly recommend it to anyone considering an alternative to the Inca Trail.

There was only one other couple on our trip -- Claire and Barry from London who were great travel companions. Roberto, our guide was wonderful as well. Our trip started off a bit rocky as the wrangler and the horses who were supposed to meet us at the trailhead never showed up after 2 hours of waiting.... we soon learned from other locals that he had broken his leg the day before. Living deep in the mountains far from any medical care this was something to be taken very seriously and our frustration quickly turned to sympathy for him and his family. So our first day of trekking actually turned into a day of driving to the next campsite where another wrangler could join us. A bit of a dissapointment, but we were lucky that the next site was accessible by ¨road¨ (just barely) and it was actually pouring rain for part of the day so maybe it was all for the best!

We camped that night next to the primary school of a small community. Along the way we saw a few other primary schools that had been recently built by a Dutch foundation. This same foundation built a secondary school that we passed on our third day. Students walked as far as three hours each way to get to this school every day. As we observed their lessons for a bit, the intensity of their focus was remarkable and a stark contrast to the classrooms Allison had spent time in over the past several years.... A reminder that motivation comes from within when the goals and purpose of ones education is clearly understood.

On day two we started our trekking early. We had beautiful weather and the scenery was breath taking. We passed several lakes and summited two major passes. Along the way we passed through serveral communities -- generally consisting of 8-10 families living in proximity to each other. Often when we passed through all the adults were out working while the few young children played at home along, some as young as 4 or 5 years old. All of the children spoke only Quechua and we all seemed to play the same role in our non-verbal exchanges of smiles and waves, each equally mesmorized by the foreignness of the other. We found ourselves in that same eternal debate whenever exposed to indegenous cultures. They have so little and their lives are so hard-- but is what lies on the other side really any better? This seems to be the debate that many of the parents are having as so many of the teenage children leave home for the cities. We didn´t see anyone between the ages of 18-30 really, which is an indication of how this way of life may be dissapearing.

We camped on the second night not far below our highest pass -- at around 4,100 meters. Unfortunately we were both struck with pretty bad altitude sickness (Allison worse than Nader) which made us a bit nervous for future high elevation stops along the way, but this had to have been one of the highest. Despite the sickness, the site was incredible. Our crew caught some trout in the lake which we ate for lunch the next day.

The third day of was fairly mellow -- mostly downhill. We were picked up in a small town (which felt massive after all the tiny communities we had walked through). Nader played soccer with some of the kids while we waited for our van... They dominated him with their high altitude running skills. From there we headed to Aguas Caliente where we spent the night to allow for early morning access to Machu Picchu.

Day four, Machu Picchu. The location alone is truly remarkable. We arrived early in the morning and it was awe inspiring to watch the mist dance in and out of the surrounding mountains through the light of the rising sun. It´s amazing to think that the Incan empire ruled this region relatively not that long ago -- just alongside the renaissance movement in Europe. Their worship of the natural world was remarkable and we wondered how their civilization here may have advanced had the Spainards never have arrived.

We´re now back in Cuzco regouping and planning... Off to Bolivia tonight. Oh, and a correction to our last entry which reflected some ignorance of high mountain animals on our part. Llamas and Alpacas are DIFFERENT animals -- were pretty sure that the ¨donkama¨was saw was actually an Alpaca, which come in many different varieties. Now we know :)

Sept 24 - 28: Lima and Cuzco

2008-09-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Lima was pretty much as expected -- a large overwhelming capital city. Since we had only a day there, we stuck to the outskirts. Ate some delicious ceviche and won $12 playing slots at the local casino (damn, if we'd only started with $300 on the line instead of $3.....)

From there it was up to Cuzco where we've been hanging out / acclimatizing for the past 4 days. Sitting at 11,000 feet, Cuzco is the jumping off point for anyone trekking and/or heading to Manchu Pichu. Despite being 100% fueled by tourists, the town still has a fair amount of charm. The neighorhood we're staying in (San Blas) is decidely more enjoyable and chill than the rest of the city if you're planning a visit.

With so many tourists, everyone's looking for a slice of the action which has resulted in steep competition amongst the many restaurants in town. It's sad to see so many empty tables and the quick deals they'll give you -- $3 for a three course meal with cocktail. We made a point to try the local specialties -- alpaca/llama (really good) and guinea pig (not that good, and it didn't help that Nader was taunting Allison with the claws and teeth as she tried to bolster the courage to try a bite).

Yesterday we hiked around some of the ruins in town, including Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman).... Along the way we saw lots of llamas, donkeys and an unidentifable animal which appears to be a mix of the two that we've dubbed a "donkama".

This morning we headed to the town of Pisac (about an hour away from Cuzco) for their weekly market. Despite having become a popular tourist activity, the market still did have a significant local draw. Watching a marriage procession leave the church nearby was a highlight of the trip.

Tomorrow we head off on our trek through the Lares Valley and then onto Manchu Picchu.... Hopefully our time chilling in Cuzco has us ready for the 15,000 ft pass we're heading for!

Sept 16 - 23: London and Barcelona

2008-09-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

On the night of our second wedding anniversary we flew to London where our official "Around the World" plane ticket began. (For anyone considering taking this adventure, the cheapest tickets start from London. So for us, even though we´re travelling west, it made sense to buy a flight to London and start there.) Plus, it gave us the chance to visit friends in London and check out a city - Barcelona - that neither of us had been to.

It was great to catch up with Kevin, Andrea, Vanessa, John and Delia in London. A huge thanks to Ned for lending us his flat (although we were sad to miss him!). We lucked into some beautiful Fall weather for our visit so days were spent mostly wandering the neighborhoods.

Allison tried to visit Barcelona three separate times when studying in France during college and was blocked by train strikes on all three occasions... So it was great to finally make it there! The city lived up to it´s reputation - beautiful architecture and lots of fun. Sadly, Barca didn't have a home game while we were there. But we watched an away game at a local pub with university students so Nader still had somewhat of a chance to soak in the energy. Late night dinners fit perfectly into our plan to not get too comfortable with European time zones since we were only coming back west in a few days -

We arrived in Lima last night after a marathon 14 hour flight. Our brief trip to UK/Europe was fun but our budget for the year is very happy to have finally reached cheaper South America!

Aug 22 - Sept 16: Whirlwind of a month

2008-09-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

After we crossed back into the Lower 48 it was all about getting back to the Bay Area as we had finally hit a wall with driving. We still made time to drive through the gorgeous prairie land of Central Oregon, sleep at the top of a volcano at National Volcano Monument and gaze into the impossibly blue waters of Crater Lake.

Since then it's been all about catching up with family, friends and weddings.

Some stats from our five week road trip:

Distance Driven: 9,200 miles (14,800 km)
Average Distance Driven Each Day: 280 miles (450 km)
Oil Changes: 2
Most Expensive Gas: $1.65/Liter ($6.60/Gallon) Remote Lodge in the Yukon Territory
Nights We Paid For Lodging: 3
Coldest Temperature: 25° F (-4° C) - morning of last day, waking up to an ice covered tent in Volcano National Monument
Hottest Temperature: 104° F (40° C) - afternoon of last day, driving through Northern California
Accidents: 0
Speeding Tickets: 0
Parking Tickets: 1 ($10 in Ashland, OR)
Bears seen from road: 9 (8 brown bears, 1 grizzly)
Bears encountered hiking/camping: 0
Weddings in the last 3 weeks: 3 (Kate & Andy in Madison, WI, Pippa & Mark in Norwich, VT, and Jess & Rishi, in Washington, DC. Congrats again guys!)

Apologies for the delay in posting, we should be back to our regular pace going forward. Next stop, London...

August 18 - 21: Cassiar Highway

2008-08-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Attempting to avoid backtracking as we passed back through Canada, we decided to take the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar is even more remote the Alaska Highway, with only a few outposts over it's 600 miles. We saw a handful of bears interspersed by rainbows; it was a beautiful drive.

Towards the end of the Cassiar we detoured west to the towns of Seward, Canada and Hyder, Alaska. Straddling the international border, these former mining towns were once prominent ports before World War II, with tens of thousands of inhabitants, but now they are closer to ghost towns with a population in the low hundreds. Like Seward, these towns are surrounded by mountains and glaciers, giving them a stunning location. We watched some massive salmon attempt to swim upstream through waters shallower than they are tall, perused the toaster museum, and had some beers with the estranged locals in Hyder, AK where they take Canadian currency, respect Canadian holidays, and are on BC's timezone (everywhere except the post office which is a federal building).

Then the rain began. We were planning a backcountry trip into Jasper National Park, but once it looked like the rain was here to stay we decided to just keep driving. We're now, somewhere across the US border in Idaho and should be back in the Bay Area in a couple days.

Oh and we finally have a good enough internet connection to upload this short digital camera video we took at the top of Mt. Rose in Denali. The sound is crackily due to the wind, but you should be able to get a sense of the land.

Pictures from Kenai Fjords National Park

2008-08-17T14:05:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics taken from the waters of Kenai Fjords National Park (map)

August 13 - 17: Anchorage and Denali

2008-08-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we headed north to Anchorage where we spent a day exploring the city (ok, we did also go to a movie... taking advantage of our only stop in a real city this month!). The Moose's Tooth lived up to Kent's recommendation, great microbrews and delicious pizzas.

Thursday it was Denali National Park take two, this time under perfect skies. The deliberateness with which Denali protects itself is truly amazing. Access into the park is only allowed on the park's system of buses. The 6 million acres of the park are broken up into 87 backcountry units -- each with a limit of just 2-12 people allowed to camp inside them for any given night. After watching the required safety video (which caused more bear anxiety for Allison!), we headed out into our private 9,000 acre slice of beauty. Most unique to Denali's approach is that there are no trails anywhere in the entire park. Hikers follow their own instincts and topographical maps to navigate and thereby preserve the wilderness. After some serious bushwacking, we ended up probably the most awe inspiring vista and camping site we'd ever experienced. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.... McKinley was just faintly visible from behind our campsite. All this beauty for the price of exactly $0.

From Denali we officially began the journey home, starting out on the Trans-Alaska pipeline highway which was built for the sole purpose of supporting the pipeline from Deadhorse to Valdez.... A very real and visual reminder of where 45% of this state's revenue comes from.

Friday night we returned a favorite camping spot 15 miles outside of the booming metropolis of Delta Junction (population 800). Only this time we made it over to the adjacent bar we'd somehow missed on our way up. Clearly the only spot in "town", each newcomer was welcomed with hugs, high-fives and the type of small town intimacy that had Allison musing about whether they might be able to live somewhere like this. A young waitress (daughter of the bar's owner) struck up a conversation with us, thirsty for interaction with non-locals. When asked about the winter here she described a full week of -55 degree whether last year which was doubly rough because it was hockey week and the rink wasn't heated. Ok, fantasy of small Alaskan town living has been taken off the list.

We're now back in the Yukon continuing south.... possibly with some detours into Jasper and/or Glacier National Park if time allows. Oh yeah, and the subaru is humming along like a champ -- so we decided to hold onto her vs. making the sale :)

August 8 - 12th: Yukon to Seward

2008-08-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

We made it to beautiful Alaska, where the days are long and the nights are cold.... Especially just south of Fairbanks where we spent our first night in this amazing state which aptly proclaims itself the "last frontier". The sun sets around 10:30 and rises again around 4:30 with a never fully dark twilight in between. The lightness adds to the expansiveness of this place with not only space but time feeling larger than life.

We woke to a frigid morning on Saturday which formed the perfect backdrop to our first stop of the day: The Northpole. The town reincorporated with a new name awhile back in an effort to lure the toymaking industry with "made in the Northpole" labels. The gimic didn't quite work but it was a cute little haven of kitch with all the letters written by kids and addressed to "The Northpole" ending up here and posted on the walls. Nader still owes Allison big time for making her pose in this picture with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

From there we headed north of Fairbanks to the Chena hotsprings, our most northern stop of the journey. The hotsprings were glorious -- although their true draw is as a wintertime destination where you can gaze at the northern lights while you soak. (After, that is, walking to the hotsprings in your bathingsuit in -30 degree whether...). They also have an ice museum/hotel at Chena. Everything in the museum/hotel is made of ice including the 4 bedrooms where for the price of $600 you can attempt to stay overnight wrapped in artic sleeping bags. About 30 couples have tried the adventure over the past 5 years but only 6 have made it through the whole night. The space is engineered to stay at 20 degrees all year long to maintain the sculptures inside... realizing as we froze during our 30 minute tour that it actually needs to be HEATED in the winter months to achieve this temperature, we felt very humbled by the strength that it takes to live in this part of the world during those long winter months.

Fairbanks was a fairly skipable pitstop (which we had been warned). From there it was down to Denali National Park, well almost. We woke in a wet tent and downpours that showed no sign of stopping and decided to push our backcountry adventure off by a week and head to the Kenai Peninsula and the town of Seward. The day cleared up past Anchorage (which we haven't yet explored, will do so on the way back up) and the drive was simply spectacular.

The weather gods who drowned out our Denali plans shown with all their glory yesterday. We took a day-long boat tour under shining sun that only hits these parts a handful of days each summer. What luck. We saw orcas, a humpback whale, dall's porpoises, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, bald eagle, puffins. And then there were the glaciers. Due to limited recent activity in the past week or so, our captain was able to navigate through the ice to get within 1/3 of a mile of one. We sat there for awhile watching and listening to the calving (when pieces of ice fall into the ocean). Like a storm rolling across a large pasture, the sound comes first as a slow thunderous rumble. The ice then splits as the departing chunk crashes into the sea below. Several moments later the wake of the fall would sway our boat. The awe of the experience silenced our boat of 100 some tourists for a good 15 minutes... a feat not to be underestimated. It was amazing. (Nader has better wildlife pictures than those shown here... he needs to fancify them, or whatever he does, and will upload them later).

One of Nader's colleagues from Tamale, Pete, happens to also be in Seward visiting his brother who's captain of one of the tour boats. Pete himself spent several summers in Seward working as part of the significant seasonal crew here to support the fishing and tourism. Through Pete and his brother Gary we've been able to check out some of the local flavor in town. Rain's in the forecast for the next several days so we're planning our next move... After many days of driving it's been great to take a little pause in this friendly town.

Oh, and Nader did get to see his grizzly just a few hours after the last post about wanting to see one. It ambled across a wide expanse next to the highway and we marveled at it's glory (Allison, very happy to be doing so from the car....).

August 4-7: British Columbia & Yukon Territory

2008-08-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

We're in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory right now, the largest town we've seen in many days. With a bustling population of 24,000, we've slowed our pace for the day to take advantage of the services, namely to get an oil change and pick up a mosquito net. The only reservations we could get in Denali National Park were a couple days earlier than we had originally planned, so we're generally on a torrid pace, averaging 400-500 miles a day on this leg.

The last few days have been a journey into the increasing remote wilderness of Northwestern Canada. (We're hoping to cross into Alaska today). Each day finds us at a more beautiful alpine lake and campsite then the last, deeper into Pillars of the Earth book on tape, and amidst stranger communities, if you can call them that. For the last couple days I'm not sure anything we've passed would qualify as a town, mostly lodges along the Alaska highway that sometimes offer gas, coffee, knives, guns and fur hats. We came close to running out of gas yesterday and have learned to try not to let the tank get below half full in these parts.

Some highlights from the past few days:
- We stumbled around Vancouver on a perfectly sunny Monday and it felt like a ghost town. Each neighborhood we walked through felt abandoned, and then we finally realized that it was a long weekend as Monday was BC day. We ended up at the beach at Stanley Park and found everybody. It was too packed to fully enjoy, but with the looming mountains, the cityscape and the glittering Pacific, it looked like an amazing place to spend an evening when the crowds weren't there. Vancouver does a great job of bringing the beach into their neighborhoods, San Francisco could learn from them.
- Swimming/bathing in alpine lakes and rivers multiple times a day. The water is very cold, but incredibly invigorating, especially with the snow-capped peaks all around.

- There are a couple not to be missed spots on the Alaska Highway. Both the Signpost Forest, thousands of sign from all over the world in the middle of nowhere), and the Liard Hot Springs were both well worth the stops. One of the hot springs was closed as a grizzly was apparently enjoying the waters...

- The animals...so far we've seen bison, caribou and mountain sheep on this drive. Still haven't seen a grizzly...I'm hoping to soon, Allison's not so sure...

July 31 - August 3: Vancouver Island

2008-08-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island is a pretty special little slice of paradise. It feels like New England meets California. Salt of the earth meets eco-conscious progressive thinking. If only we had more time... (Allison apologies to her parents for not remembering anything from her last trip here 20 years ago. It does make the "re"discovery all the more special however :). Most of our love of this island is owed to Josh and Sarah who graciously lent us there house here south of Nanaimo on the east coast. A beautiful retreat sloping down to the lake below, we see why they spend as much time here as humanly possible.

We spent Friday exploring the east coast. Hazelwood's Herb Farm where they grow more varieties of oregano and rosemary than you could ever imagine. The town of Chemainus where murals revitalized a dying economy 30 years ago. The cutest little fishing village of Cowichan Bay where we met a couple who ran a pottery studio and fishing company. Nader fantasized about trading in his tech job for their gig... Allison's down with the idea, but first we need to learn how to fish :). We then tested out a few of the local vineyards. Ranking highest on the personality scale and lowest on the taste scale was Divino Wine Studio. After we convinced him that we were worthy of tasting his wines, he proceeded on a 20 minute diatribe on the virtues of drinking red wine cold, why he didn't actually make his wines for sale, and something about his bazooka that we couldn't quite catch. Our day ended with a beautiful home cooked feast from our local adventures of the day -- complete with blueberry grunt for dessert in honor of the fact that we're missing summer in Dublin, NH this year.

Saturday we ventured across the island (via a beautiful drive through Cathedral Grove) to the West Coast. We had a great walk along the coast near the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve before checking out the surf town of Tofino where we loved the work of Roy Henry Vickers that we found in a local gallery. Driving back we saw a baby bear right by the side of the road!

Today - Sunday - happened to be the opening ceremonies for the North American Indigenous Games which are being hosted this year by the Cowichan Valley so we headed into nearby Duncan to check them out. With 6,000 athletes traveling from all over North America (100 canoes arrived from Alaska!) it was an amazing experience to be a part of. And now, as the sun begins to fall behind the mountains we're sitting outside at the Crow and Gate - Josh and Sarah's local pub - which, like everything else in this part of the world, is simply wonderful. Check out the pictures to see for yourselves. Tomorrow we're off for a day in Vancouver before the real driving begins. North, north north we go.

July 28 - 31: Seattle and Olympic National Park

2008-07-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

We spent a beautifully sunny Monday exploring all the tourist sites of Seattle. Elliot Bay Bookstore (which Nader remembered fondly from his summer spent here in college), Pikes Place fish market, the new library and new sculpture park in town. Having spent most of our traveling over the past several years in more rural locations, we reflected on how fun it was to have a day of urban exploration.

That night we had dinner with Allison's cousin Chester and his girlfriend Kate on their cute little houseboat.... They then showed us the new house they just bought where Chester is going to design their dream home. Damn, Chester now owns TWO houses and we can't get our act together to buy one! Well, on with the travels :)

After a low key regroup day on Tuesday, we headed to Olympic National Park on Wednesday morning where we hiked into Olympic Hot Springs for the night. The hot springs were glorious and our campsite was great... Met some folks from Portland, ME and Denver while we soaked. Yes, the urban exploration was fun but we are still mostly in love with our time spent out of doors....

July 26-27 Oregon

2008-07-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

After leaving Ashland in the afternoon we barreled up I-5 looking for a decent place to camp, passing nothing but places called "Lazy RV Village" and "RV Heaven". Expectations low, we pulled off the highway past Eugene and stumbled across Brownsville. Brownsville is a rare thing in the American West, a historic town void of kitsch. While driving up the California coast you are inundated with offers to buy a "Giant Redwood Indian" or stop by the "Trees of Mystery". This doesn't really detract from the majesty of the redwoods, and some might go as far as saying they add to the coast's charm, but I'd rather do without them. Brownsville is a real town with real people, celebrating their past while living in the day to day, without any attempts at self-marketing. We had a couple pints at the saloon, before camping by the river, next to two family reunions. Thankfully they gave us a little space.

The next morning we decided to sample some Oregon wines before making our way up to Portland. We took a wrong turn at Tangent, OR and stumbled across an antique car show. There were probably 300 people in the middle of nowhere, showing off their beauties while others were line-dancing and women were serving up a pancake breakfast. I (Nader) was excited by the photo opportunities.

Continuing on, we stopped at a couple Willamette Valley vineyards (now midday and a reasonable time to sample some wines) and tried the locals pinots. A much more laid back feel than either Napa or Sonoma. We had some award winning wines from Yamhill Valley Vineyard and the tasting room was in the owner's house.

Driving on, we arrived in Portland in time for a late lunch. Having only spent a few hours in Portland and only downtown on a Sunday, our impression of Portland was that it is decidedly bizarre. Within two minutes on one city block we passed a protest rally claiming the Environmental Protection Agency is corrupt, some Hari Krishnas ringing their bells, and overly pierced street kids with signs offering "Instant Karma". Walking through the park we stumbled upon a 30 person adult Alice in Wonderland party, everyone taking their characters very seriously, playing croquet with bowling balls and sledgehammers. We went to the open market and chatted with a cigarette smoking, guitar playing, jewelry maker who also happens to make hand-crafted bows and another guy who for a few bucks will make a ceramic representation of your face. I like Portland. It's kind of a smaller, weirder San Francisco.

A few more hours on the road and we were in Seattle, where Tim and Marnie have graciously let us take advantage of their beautiful home, while ironically, they're in San Francisco.

July 24 - 26 Oakland to Ashland

2008-07-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

We had a few delays on our departure out of the Bay.... You know, the usual setbacks. First Nader had to bleach his hair (don't worry Nahed, the mohawk here was just a transitional phase :). Then we had to take a two hour detour back into San Fran to get the title to our car in case we want to sell it when we get to Alaska. But four hours and one in-n-out stop later we were officially on the road.

Our first night was spent on the Lost Coast in Northern California. A beautiful spot that we discovered together several years ago, it was great to make another visit. This time we camped near Shelter Cove on the southern side of the range (last time on the beach near Petrolia which we would recommend highly for anyone making the trip).

Yesterday en route up the coast we stopped for a beautiful hike in Redwood National Forest (after the obligatory tourist picture in front of "Big Tree"). From there we continued into Oregon where gas prices dropped by 20 cents and you can talk on the cell phone while you drive! We're now chilling in Ashland for the afternoon after breakfast with Tim and Melissa who were in town for the Shakespeare festival. Life on the road is treating us well so far...

7/15-7/23: Bay Area

2008-07-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

We've spent the past week back in the Bay Area reconnecting, regrouping and celebrating. A huge congrats to both Josh and Regan AND Hillary and Tony for their weddings this past week... Hurray!!

Coming back to the bay and all the wonderful people who live here reminds us that even as we travel the world, this is our home.

We're launching off for Alaska and everything in between tomorrow morning. Assuming the subaru can make the drive, fun pictures and stories to come!