International News from the Subcontinent

Read an article in the paper the other day about a flight from Bangkok to New Dehli (which we took as well). A drunk Mexican on the plane punched a fellow passenger and then threatened to blow up the plane. The plane then made an emergency landing in Kolkata and the Mexican was quickly arrested upon landing. He didn't have any bomb equipment on him. I'm sure he spent a lovely time in an Indian prison, and we thought our accommodations were bad! Tequila!

In other news, the Cricket World Cup is on right now. Cricket is THE sport here in India. Unfortunately, India lost to both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the group phase and their one victory against Bermuda was not enough to move them through to the next round. Pakistan also lost in the group phase and are out as well. Cricket is also extremely popular in Pakistan. The coach of the Pakistani team was found dead in his hotel room shortly after the team was ousted from contention. He died of strangulation and foul play is definitely at hand. They haven't identified a suspect yet (as far as I know, I may be a bit behind on the story), but do have some leads. The Cricket World Cup is being played in Jamaica.

That's all for the international news from the subcontinent! We're in Jaipur right now, heading to Udaipur on Friday.

Attaining nirvana with Roger Moore

This may be a bit late, but India was nuts! The filth on the streets really started to get to us after a while. We did enjoy it though. We searched for nirvana in Bodhgaya which was quite peaceful. The bus from Agra to Jaipur hurled us into the princely state of Rajasthan where the weather heated up and dried out. Rajasthan is the only Indian state that can claim it was never conquered. Jaipur is the bustling capital of Rajasthan and our stay there turned into a bit of a shopping spree! CJ now has a new wardrobe and I got to enjoy some free tea and air-conditioned respite from the draining dry heat.

After Jaipur we lugged our now larger bags on the train to Udaipur...the nicest train ride we had in India, a short overnighter that was comfortable and on time. Udaipur is known for the 1982 Bond film Octopussy starring Roger Moore and the rickshaw driver that we caught from the train station to our hotel didn't let the city down and let us know right away. Nearly every hotel shows the movie just about every night so of course on our 2nd night we enjoyed a rooftop dinner with Roger Moore seducing Bond girls left and right...not much plot in those films and Austin Powers sure nailed the spoof on the Bond series.

We really enjoyed Udaipur as well, its a quieter town with some nice scenery. There's a nice lake that splits the city and the Lake Palace, while out of our budget for accommodation, is still nice to look at during the day and when its lit up at night. We saw some great traditional Rajasthani dancing on our first night including a lady dancing with about 9 or 10 bowls on her head, which is how the women carry there water in the drought ridden state.

The next day we got a cooking lesson so hopefully we can re-create some Indian dishes in our kitchen in the future. The spices alone are spectacular...bright red chili powder, orange turmeric, and golden coriander mixed with sizzling cumin seeds are the basic spices ingredients along a healthy dose of salt. We learned how to make Palak Paneer, Aloo Mehti, Channa Masala and naan bread, but we'll see how much we retained when we return and don't have a true Indian in the kitchen to help out.

We avoided a 24-hour train ride from Udaipur to Mumbai and instead took a 1-hour flight...much nicer. Mumbai feels like a true international city. No cows blocking traffic, no cowpies to avoid on the streets, actual sidewalks, and taxis instead of rickshaws in the city center. We spent 4 days in Mumbai exploring the sights and doing some more shopping. We saw the house that Gandhi called home while in Mumbai, Chowpatty Beach, the Colaba district and the historic Leopold's Cafe, made famous by the book Shantaram that I started to read before I left, but decided not to lug around with me. I'll finish it when I return with a better sense of the Mumbai geography. We saw a free classical dance show in which the Governor of Maharashtra attended as did a Bollywood star and the Indian paparazzi were out in full force and making sure everyone knew they were there with their shutters popping every few seconds. It was good.

We caught an eeeeearly flight from Mumbai to Istanbul with a 3 hour layover in Bahrain. Unfortunately, we didn't get to leave the airport, but the city was abuzz with the anticipation of the Gulf Air Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix which is on the weekend of April 13-15.

thats all for now....see you in Europa!

CJ at the Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Bodhgaya

CJ negotiating with a rickshaw driver

Sun setting in Udaipur
Dancing with water pots on your head is fun!

Catch UP!

Hello Friends from Agra, India... city of the Taj Mahal. Sorry we haven't posted in a while. I had my best post yet go down a Thai gutter one night. We attempted several posts but lost every draft in some freak computer bird flu virus. Looks like we're a few countries behind! After Cambodia, we were in Thailand for 10 days. Once we were in Bangkok we decided to put our knowledge of remote tropical islands to use in having a look at Ko Phi Phi, the island where the movie "The Beach"was filmed. Yes, it was beautiful and seeing pictures of the island after the tsunami blew us away. We really wanted to go scuba diving, but unfortunately I was still sick (the second time in a month) and my ears couldn't take it. They have a feisty army of "sea lice" that attacked us when we went snorkeling too, so I took that as a sign we weren't meant to scuba. We did see the biggest parrot fish ever though, about 4 feet long! And that's no fish tale!
We stayed in a budget hostel in Phuket Town, which was the crappiest accomodation yet, although it only cost like $2.50 a night... it was also where the dorm scenes were filmed for "The Beach" so we just told ourselves that they purposely made the hostel dingy in the name of art and theater. And if it was good enough for Leo Dicaprio.... well who are we to complain!
We headed to Bangkok and had just a few more days on Khao San Road. They sell mango with sticky rice every 10 yards and Pad thai for about 30 cents. As long as you look through the flies and not at the cleanliness of the cook's hands, it's awesome. We thought about going to northern Thailand but the train would be long and there were health hazards due to brush fires lingering in the air. I read in the paper that the govt was going to fly planes over Chiang Mai and Rai with water and some rain-inducing chemical to clear the air out. So, we decided to stick with the dangers and grit of Khao San Road instead.
We flew from Bangkok to Delhi and were really glad to have an airport pick up because it was late at night, there were hundreds of male indians staring at us as we walked out from the airport, and we were ready for bed. India has been the toughest travel for us so far. I think partially because we are staying in budget places, so we're not in the safest, cleanest, or friendliest of places. Actually, we have yet to find places that are safe, clean or friendly just yet. But we are looking!
We took the train to Varanasi, per recommendation from my step bro Nic who was there just a few days before us filming his next documentary. (I'll try to post the link to his site) and he warned us about crazy monkeys. He wasn't kidding, we stayed far away, I think they must have Rabies and we didn't get that vaccination! We also saw more that we (shall I say that I) was prepared for. It's a holy city on the Ganges and many people want to be cremated on the banks in funeral pyres. They purchase various types of wood, sandalwood (the most expensive) banyan, etc. and there are multiple fires alight all times of the day and night. We could see the flames and huge plume of smoke from the hostel and accidently saw the inner workings of the cremation site while walking. We then went to Bodhgaya, the one place I told myself "if I ever went to india"that's where I'd go. It's the site where Siddartha Gautama sat under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment. It was awesome! Tibetan monks in exhile encircling the tree, pilgrims from all over the world come here to see this holiest of Buddhist sites. THe Dalai Lama comes down from Dharamsala December and January every year. IT's been the highlight of India so far for me. Also, we stayed in a guest house away from the main part of town and overlooking a cow field, which was nice. and quiet!
We took a 16 hour train ride from Gaya to Agra, which is where we are now. It's the home of a sight you might have heard of.... the Taj Mahal. It's nice, looks just like it does in pictures. For Indians to get in, it's 20 rupees, or less than 50 cents. For foreigners, it was 1500 rupees for the both of us! Quite expensive when you factor in that we are paying 250 rupees per night for our hostel. We are showering out of a bucket though...

We haven't yet found a computer in India that has USB for us to upload pictures yet. We've got plenty though! Luckily neither of us have contracted Delhi Belly which is a miracle considering the hygiene here!!!!!! (that's a six exclamation point phrase!) We are headed by bus to Jaipur tomorrow, part of the golden triangle. Hope you are all well!

slow boat ride on the Mother Ganges River in Varanasi

Beard Envy

I knew India was going to be a wild place when the pilot on our flight from Bangkok to New Dehli stated that the time change was 1 hour and 30 minutes...huh!!?? How does that work?? Don't ask me, even crazier is that I think Nepal is another 15 minutes off!! I think they're all just trying to mess with each other. Beats me.

We hadn't seen much facial hair throughout Southeast Asia...asians simply don't grow it well. So I knew we were in a completely different part of the world when we disembarked in New Dehli. I instantly had beard envy. They certainly know how to grow them here! They start at such a young age that by the time they get to be my age or older the beards are so long than many can twist them and wrap them up into their turbans. Mighty impressive!

Overall our impressions of India have been overshadowed by the strong stench of urine in every street we walk through. We haven't gotten over that yet. A lot of the cities we've been to remind of how I picture the middle ages were. Small stores lining the narrow streets with all sorts of people walking through and various farm animals lurking around every corner. It has been interesting to say the least.

That's all for now, we'll try to keep you posted more often.

One night in Bangkok

Ok so we had 10 days in Thailand, but that song was in my head for most of the trip! So we've tried to post this blog a couple times now. The computers we've had to deal with on this trip have been frustrating. Between power outages, computer crashes and smiple lost information, itz amazing we've posted as much as we have! Anyway, I see CJ is filling in some blanks so I'll move on to another topic...in another post.

CJ on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand

Magnificent Cambodia

We were still glowing the next morning from our family visit, at least emotionally. Physically I didn't feel so hot as I didn't get much sleep and I had probably drank 5 or 6 beers the day before. Nevertheless, we ate breakfast and walked across the street to catch our bus for the Mekong Delta. We had booked a two day tour of the Mekong Delta, then boat ride to Phnom Penh. The bus took us to a boat which took us around a floating market and into some villages along the Mekong Delta. We watched folks make coconut candies, rice paper, rice crispy treats, sweet popped corn, and other tasty delights. We then stopped for lunch and watched a music concert given by locals. The banks of the delta are lined with houses on stilts and there are numerous houseboats that reside on the waters of the delta. After lunch we took the bus north to Chau Doc near the Cambodian border and slept.

We woke up early the next morning and took a boat from Chau Doc up the Mekong River towards Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The border crossing took some time as we had to go through both

Vietnamese passport control, then go up river 10 minutes to the Cambodian passport control. We eventually made it though. After a grand total of about 8 hours on various boats and a bus, we finally made it to our final destination...Phnom Penh. It was late so we found a hotel, ate dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we set out to see the sights of Phnom Penh. We only had one full day so we wanted to see as much as possible. We started with a tour of the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. Traumatic and sickening are the best words to describe the Pol Pot era in Cambodia. Pol Pot wanted to return the country to its glory days of rice production by forcing everyone out of the cities and into the rice fields to work. Anyone who slacked or disobeyed was killed. His attempt at a utopian agrarian society wound up with nearly 2 millions people dead by either murder, starvation, or disease. Many of the country's educated were specifically targeted. It was a rough morning for sure.

After touring these atrocious sites, we went to the Royal Palace, which is all glitz and gold, quite a difference from the rest of the city. We checked out some markets around town and got some food. It was a long day and we slept well. I was particularly excited about our next destination...Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor. We arrived in Siem Reap by bus and had a hotel tuk tuk driver waiting to pick us up at the bus station. We unloaded our things at the hotel and walked into town for dinner.

The next morning we rented 2 bicycles for our first day exploring the temples. Only cost $1/day and we had the freedom to go where we wanted. We bought a 3-day Temple pass and were determined to get our money's worth. We started off big and went straight to Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world. It is amazingly impressive. Huge moat followed by another long walkway across grass until finally reaching the structure. Angkor Wat was built after the mythical Mt. Meru of the Hindu religion. It is stunning. Next we rode on to Angkor Thom which has numerous interesting structures including the outer wall, which impresses as you enter, and the Bayon, with its over 200 faces peacefully staring at you. We stopped several times for cold drinks and CJ bought a t-shirt and I bought a traditional Cambodian khrama scarf. We spent the afternoon touring several more temples on our bicycles. The bicycles worked out great as we were able to ride around several of the temples. By the afternoon though, our asses were paying the price! Those $1/day bikes had no cushion on the seat! From our last temple at Ta Som back to Siem Reap was about 16km of sore bum bike riding! We were beat when we arrived and went straight to dinner. After a nice big Khmer meal, we rode back to the hotel and crashed.

The second day we had a nice big breakfast (as we had the first day) then proceeded to rent cushier $4/day electric bicycles! These were even better than the regular bikes. The only drawback was ensuring the charge didn't get too low. There were many electric bike stations around the temples to swap out batteries, you just needed to make sure you got a good battery! We toured many of the same temples again on

Day 2 and several that we missed the day before. A couple of times we nearly ran out of juice, but made it to a station, until the end of the day. At the end of the day CJ had to pull me along to make the last station where we got fresh batteries and made it the rest of the way to town. We had visited Ta Prohm where scenes from Tomb Raider were filmed.

The last day we hired a Tuk Tuk to take us to Banteay Srei Temple because it was too far to ride a bike to. Banteay Srei is a pretty small temple, but the detail in the carvings is spectacular. We also saw some tiny, tiny frogs jumping around, pretty cool. Our driver then took us back to town where we bought a couple t-shirts, got cleaned up, and made our way to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. Thoroughly enjoyed Cambodia and hope it rises from its dark recent history. Next stop Thailand!

Meet the family

We arrived in Saigon in the evening and quickly found a hotel room, got cleaned up, and had some dinner. We strolled around a bit before heading to bed. The next morning we toured the city by foot. We checked out the huge market near our hotel and then kept on going until we found ourselves at the reunification palace. We toured the reunification palace, the basement was the most interesting with maps and phones and other relics from the Vietnam-American war. When done, we strolled back towards our hotel and had some food. We had a big day the next day so we tried to get some rest.

After breakfast the next morning, CJ's Uncle Vang and Cousin Cuc picked us up at the hotel and drove us out to Bien Hoa where the family lives. CJs mother is Vietnamese so she has all kinds of relatives in Bien Hoa. None of them speak English well at all so we were in for an interesting day of communication. We drove down a dirt alley as we neared our destination. Several turns down the alley later and we arrived. A number of people awaited our arrival at the house...again, none spoke english. The house was quite nice with a small outdoor patio and nice living room. We sat down and more people cam into the room to greet us. One introduced himself in English and said that the family had asked him to come by to interpret for us. We were relieved because our nods and hand gestures weren't getting us very far! Drinks and fruit were then presented and we started introducing ourselves. Many remembered CJ from her visit 10 years earlier and tears began to flow. We caught up and met everyone over fruit and beers. Of course I was meeting all these people for the first time, and it was fantastic. We sat down for a nice lunch of rice, veggies and fish. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

After a while at Uncle Vang's we all hopped on motorbikes and went to Uncle Ut's house to meet more family. After the 6 or 7 bike caravan we arrived and went straight upstairs to say a prayer and light some incense for CJs grandmother and grandfather who have both passed away. We sat in the living room and shared more stories and took heaps of photos. Next we piled back onto the motorbikes and drove through town to a cafe. After more beers and snacks at the cafe we headed back to Uncle Vang's house before taking a cab back to Saigon. It was a fantastic visit. I was really taken back by the welcome and the emotion felt by us and the family. Really an amazing feeling to meet up with new family in a foreign country at 32 years old! Even if a translator was needed to communicate, you could feel the love in the air. Photos to come soon I hope!















Most of the family...not all of them though!















CJ with some of the female cousins














RJ with some of the male cousins















Riding the scooters...














...and the motorcycles!

Nha Trang, Dalat, Mui Ne, SAIGON!

Nha Trang was just so-so...we did a tour of 4 of the outer islands and we barely got off the boat. The snorkeling was decent despite the worthless gear provided. We did some walking around the sitting and saw the largest sitting Buddha in the world, that was pretty cool.

After Nha Trang we bussed it to Dalat. Dalat is up in the hills of Central Vietnam, a pretty nice bus ride with some good views. As has become typical, we did a lot of walking around Dalat. We saw the summer palace of Bao Dai, who was one of the last feudal kings of the Nguyen Dynasty in the early 20th Century...somewhat interesting. The highlight of Dalat was drinking 2500 Dong beers (that's about 15 cents) with some locals...priceless.

Then we sped back to the coast and spent a night in Mui Ne. Quite a nice little beach town spread along about 10km of coastline. Lots of kitesurfing and windsurfing going on this area as the winds really pick up in the afternoon. Again we walked a lot. Some pretty swanky hotels and resorts along the southern part of the beach.

After a night in Mui Ne it was time for us to head to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)!! Photos to come...