Kuehls On The Road

Parting Thoughts on a Year Long Trip Around the World

2010-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

54 weeks on the road in foreign lands changes a person.

We have experienced quite a bit. We have laughed in happiness and laughed in uneasiness. We have cried in happiness and cried in frustration.

Places that once seemed far off now seem close and familiar. We now have photos of our own to match the picturesque beaches and mountains found on wall calendars. News headlines from distant countries now appear with the names of places we have visited and with faces that look recognizable.

We have wandered through vast unfamiliar countrysides and intimidating crowded urban city centers. Along the way we have met some amazing people who have shared part of their day with us, and for that we are grateful. People have been incredibly open and inviting; whether it was some fruit on a crowded African bus, stories of mountain legends during a trek in Nepal or a comfy spare bedroom to rest for the night.

We have embraced the spirit of many we have met who only have the few possessions they carry on their back (items they are usually offering to share) and who are simply living to see what each new day brings.

We have witnessed many things that have allowed us to further realize how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing country. Our aspirations are not limited in life by our sex, where we were born, who are parents are or what our economic situation might be. Basic education is a given to us and we openly decide where we will work, whom we will marry and where we will choose to live. The American Dream is alive and well and we must never forget that. It is truly unique in the world, even when considering other highly developed countries.

We have experienced all of this together, as a couple, as best friends. We have been through situations and felt emotions that we might never experience in a lifetime within the confines of our normal everyday lives.

We are moving forward in life, somewhat reluctant to let go of the trip, but refreshed and enlightened. We have never been ones to get too comfortable. We like the unknown and the excitement of walking into a new place; whether it be the next border crossing while traveling or seeking out a new corner pub or park the next neighborhood over.

We are different people than when we left. We are better global citizens, seeking out the origins of products we buy and supporting causes we have witnessed in action improving communities we visited during the last year. The adventure does continue; we are living in a new town (Denver, CO(actually since we posted this we have now relocated from Denver to Seattle, WA!)) and seeking out new employers and revised goals in life. Discussions of purchasing tangible material items are now weighed against new life experiences and helping others. We are not saints by any stretch, but we hope we can make a larger difference moving forward.

Thank you for sharing on this amazing adventure with us. We have always told ourselves that this is a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' and just to shake the 'travel bug.' We have now realized there is no reason to limit something to 'once in a lifetime' given our amazing experiences and the opportunity to do so much more in many of the countries we visited. We now wish we might have done more goodwill in our travels and hope that we may do so in the future. So until we meet again, whether it is on the blog or in person, live life well.

'And in the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.'

~Abraham Lincoln

-Chad & Colleen

Global Beer Wrap-up

2010-03-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Before we post our final thoughts on the trip, I want to post a conclusion to the informal beer odyssey we partook during our 12 months of wandering. We had previously posted a beer blog at the 6 month mark so we will now give a short update on what we found on the second half of our trip.

Our last beer post ended with us heading to Laos to enjoy the much famed Beer Laos. This we did, enjoying one of the best lagers of the trip (we had A LOT of average tasting yellow lager) drank out of large bottles as we floated down a river in intertubes on a hot sunny afternoon. From there the trip moved on to Singapore where we found craft beer abound as a result of the British colonial influence in the 19th century. There we were also able to visit our largest brewery of the trip, Asia Pacific Breweries, the brewers of the much famed Tiger Beer and also licensed to produce the global brands of Heineken and Guinness. The last two stops of our Asian leg found us in Mongolia and Japan, both delivering unexpected high quality brews. The Mongolian capital of Ullanbaatar had no less than a half dozen craft breweries and Japan exposed us to a country full of beer enthusiasts and the Asian powerhouses of Asahi and Kirin.

From there we took a long flight eastward. If there was one surprise for us on the global beer map it had to be the variety and quality of beer presently produced in South American countries. We sampled everything from small batch beer produced in the countryside to major labels producing $1 large liter bottles in major metropolises. There were exotic beers as well; beer in Bolivia brewed with the infamous cocoa leaf and beer in Patagonia produced with the native calafate berry (think blueberry meets juniper flavors). We were lucky enough to help produce a batch of beer on Thanksgiving Day at the world’s highest brewery in La Paz, Bolivia and we also rode our bikes through the hop fields of El Bolson, Argentina stopping at breweries as we found them along the way.

Some final stats on our beer endeavor. We sampled a total of 292 beers from 33 different countries (the only places we found no domestic beer was in the Muslim state of Brunei and Botswana & Kenya due to time constraints). Argentina lead the way with 53 beers (there seems to be a craft beer revolution going on there, especially in the Lakes Region) followed by Chile with 24 beers, Mongolia with 20 beers and Vietnam with 18.

We were also able to visit 26 working breweries along the way in 11 different countries, again with Argentina leading the way with 8 breweries visited. In Chile and Japan we were also treated to beer museums outlining their local beer histories.

We are now back in the USA and greatly enjoying what we believe are the best craft beers in the world but we do miss the excitement of discovering new brews nearly every day. It was most definitely an enlightening and enjoyable year exploring this wonderful beverage.

Mission Complete

2010-02-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

After a flight path that took us from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo to London and finally to Chicago, we made it back to the USA just over a week ago. After 374 days gone on the road, it was a bit surreal to land at O’Hare in the same place we had started our journey. We have spent the past week catching up with family and friends and getting things in order while we try to plan out our next moves in life. Our options are endless on where to head to next, which is a good thing but also makes the decision all the more difficult.

We are gathering our final thoughts on the trip which we hope to post in a few days. For now, we wanted to share some numbers and facts that we hope all of you will find interesting!

Trip length: 374 days
Flights Flown: 31
Trains Taken: 22
Buses Ridden: 122
Boats Boarded: 31
Ho(s)tels: 187 (some cleaner than others)
Countries Visited: 35 (5 continents!)
Days of Rain: 42

Some of the ‘longest’ items of the trip:
-Longest Train Ride: Beijing, China to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: 31 hours
-Longest Bus Ride: Rio de Janerio, Brazil to Foz de Igazu,Brazil: 24 hours
-Longest Flight: Tokyo, Japan to Sao Paulo, Brazil: 25 hours
-Longest Boat Ride: Monkey Bay, Malawi to Nkhata Bay, Malawi: 58 hours

We were also fortunate enough to visit with and stay with some great friends along the way (THANK YOU Paul, Bala & Kumaran & Subhash, Norm & Elodie & Max, Pedro & the Chaib Family). Thanks to our friends and some long days/nights on transportation we actually had 51 nights of free lodging:
-Transit (Plane, Train, Bus) - 33 nights
-Friends - 9 nights
-Marriott Hotel Rewards - 5 nights
-Free Campsites - 4 nights

Unfortunately we also had the experience of spending 24 nights in dormitory style lodging, mostly due to price (Tokyo) or availability (Patagonia). We were lucky to spend 42 amazing nights camping in a tent under the stars in Africa and Patagonia.

Thankfully, we managed to stay safe on the trip, no successful robberies (although a couple attempts) and no trips to the hospital. We did manage to lose a few things along the way though:
-Chad’s watch: Somewhere in London Heathrow
-Colleen’s water bottle: Over Augrabies Falls, South Africa
-Headlamp: On the shores of Lake Malawi
-Mongolian Beer Mugs: US Customs in a postal package from Brazil
And we had to replace these multiple times:
-4 watches (Colleen only one)
-7 pairs of flip flops
-4 pairs of sunglasses (Chad only one)

A couple of our favorites from the past year:

Top 5 Beaches
1. Kendwa Beach - Zanzibar, Tanzania
2. Longs Beach, Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
3.Vilankulos, Mozambique
4. Punta del Este, Uruguay
5. Mabul Island, Malaysia

Top 5 Islands
1. Ilha de Mocambique, Mozambique
2. Zanzibar, Tanzania
3. Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
4. Islands of Halong Bay, Vietnam
5. Borneo, Malaysia

Top 5 Large Towns
1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. London, England
3. Kampala, Uganda
4. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
5. Quito, Ecuador

Top 5 ‘Smaller’ Towns
1. McCleod Ganj, India
2. Luang Prabang, Laos
3. Samaipata, Bolivia
4. Pokhara, Nepal
5. Rhodes, South Africa

Top 5 Man Made Sites
1. Petra, Jordan
2. Taj Mahal, India
3. Machu Picchu, Peru
4. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
5. The Great Wall, China

Top 5 Natural Wonders
1. Sossusvlei, Namibia
2. The Gobi, Mongolia
3. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
4. Halong Bay, Vietnam
5. Table Mountain, South Africa

Top 8 Experiences - We could not narrow it down to just 5!
1. Ger to Ger Camping, Mongolia
2. The W Trail, Torres del Paine, Chile
3. Seeing the Dalai Lama (twice!), India
4. Orangutans in the Wild, Malaysia
5. Car Rental and camping in Africa
6. Annapurna Trekking, Nepal
7. Kerala Houseboat, India
8. The Chaib Coffee Farm, Brazil

Top 5 Sunsets
1. Chitwan National Park, Nepal
2. Addo Elephant Reserve, South Africa
3. Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar
4. Punta del Este, Uruguay
5. The Gobi, Mongolia

Top 5 Countries to Re-Visit in the Future
1. Uganda
2. Northern Namibia & Botswana
3. The UK
4. Nepal - More Trekking!
5. South Africa

Favorite Country
Colleen: Mozambique
Chad: Nepal
Both: Mongolia

Friendliest People by Continent
Africa: Mozambique, honorable mention to Lesotho
Asia: Nepal, Laos, Mongolia
South America: Bolivia

Best Countries to Have a Drink: Mozambique, Vietnam, Mongolia, Argentina

Top 5 Countries Next On Our List
1. Ethiopia
2. Anywhere in the Middle East
3. Bhutan
4. The Stans - Central Asia
5. The USA - yes we live there but we haven’t seen much of it!

One thing we learned - Our fellow travelers are a little different - We have realized we are no exception!

The Beaches of Uruguay

2010-02-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

Uruguay made a fitting last country for us. We decided to head there some months ago when we realized that a few days at the beach would be a nice way to end this crazy year. Luckily it is extremely easy to get to, a quick 1-3 hour ferry ride (depending on the cost of your ticket) from Buenos Aires. We bought our tickets a few weeks in advance online, and were able to get a great deal. The great deal meant we were on the 3 hour ferry, but it was very nice, including onboard entertainment which reminded us how extremely uncomfortable we would be on a cruise ship. We were told that Americans had to pay a $40 entrance fee for Uruguay but we exited the boat with no questioning or passport stamps. We made a feeble attempt at finding immigration and then decided, why press our luck?, and headed quickly out the front doors with $80 still in our pockets.

The ferry arrived in the beautiful waterfront city of Colonia. There seems to be a nice beach in every coastal city of Uruguay, and Colonia was no different. We checked into our B&B and headed to the beach for what would be our first of eight straight days in the sand. The city was extremely laid back, with not much to do but wander the old town, go to the beach and pet stray dogs. Needless to say, it was right up our alley.

Uruguay is currently in the highest of their high seasons. Hotel prices are double or even triple what they are in low season and everything is booked solid. We spent a few hours searching the internet trying to find a place to stay at the multiple beachside towns further up the coast but to no avail. We finally decided to throw our beach hopping plans out the window and head to the town of Punta del Este, about 5 hours north of Colonia. Punta del Este is what they call an “international beach town”. People come from all over South America and the World to party at the famous clubs and show off their new plastic surgery on the many beaches that surround the city. Nope, doesn’t sound like us at all, but it was the only place where we could find a private room for less than $100 a night and we ended up very happy with our decision.

After a morning on buses we arrived in the downtown of Punta and caught a local bus out to the tiny village of Manantiales, about 15 km away. Here we had reserved a room at what we thought was just a beat up old hostel but was really a full fledged hippy commune, complete with a tent city in the back yard. Are you familiar with the movie “The Beach“? The people looked like extras straight out of the movie and I think every material utilized to build the place was recycled and taken from another building. There were no signs to mark the place, just some indiscriminate bird drawings carved into local telephone poles to lead you there. Let’s just call it interesting, but it did start to grow on us as we spent each day at the beach, playing in the waves and watching the surfers. Every night we sat on the deck and watched the sunset and the stars come out over a bottle of wine. It was beyond relaxed there and the beaches were absolutely beautiful. After two nights we bid farewell to the commune and traveled back to downtown Punta to stay in a hostel. The beaches in town were just as spectacular as the ones outside, and we spent another two days lounging on the beach there. We tried to enjoy every single second of the warm weather, knowing that in a few short days we will be arriving in the freezing cold Midwest.

We finally tore ourselves away from Punta to head to our last stop in Uruguay, the capitol of Montevideo. Carnival was upon us and we had read that there would be some good celebrations in the city. Well it turns out that most people from Montevideo head north to the beaches (where we just were) for Carnival. The city was empty. A parade did pass our hostel on the first night, with floats and lots of drumming, so we ran outside to watch the action from the streets and finished off the viewing from our roof.
With the city empty and most shops closed as it was the weekend and Carnival we spent our time doing the exact same thing we did in Punta, running and going to the beach. Montevideo’s beaches are nothing spectacular, but they are a great way to pass some time. This morning we caught a bus to the fast ferry (1 hour!) back to Buenos Aires and entered back into Argentina for our fourth and final time. Tomorrow we begin our long journey (via Brazil and London) back to the USA.

Grapes, Bikes and Steaks

2010-02-12T16:57:00.000-08:00

We bid our final farewell to Chile and boarded an early morning bus out of Santiago which unfortunately left before the free breakfast was served at our guesthouse (after traveling for a year, a free breakfast is a nice treat). Our route took us up out of Buenos Aires and toward the border with Argentina. The bus ascended switch back after switch back as we passed Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas) as well as the famed Portillo ski resort.

Our last border crossing between Argentina and Chile turned out to be a long one. We spent a ridiculously long time sitting at the border, it was a Saturday in the middle of the summer and the resulting crowds were out in force. We spent a full 3 hours waiting in line outside our bus, the longest border crossing of our trip, in order to be processed. There were no less than a dozen windows processing applicants and the whole task seemed so incredibly simple and straight forward that we had to question what the hold up was (the Argentineans take periodic breaks to drink this funky looking tea called ‘mate’ out of wooden cups and that was the prime suspect for the delays). After the agents searched every single person’s bag, we finally re-boarded the bus and arrived in Mendoza, Argentina a few hours later.

Mendoza is home to the wine industry of Argentina (chances are if you drink an Argentina wine it is from there) and we had been looking forward to our visit for quite awhile. We had already been wine tasting in South Africa and Peru on this trip, and knew that Mendoza would be a great experience. After two nights in town we decided to head out into proper wine country and stay on the “wine route”, where all visitors head to taste the wine that this region has made famous. While Chile had it’s unique Carmeneres, Argentina has it‘s full flavored Malbecs. We were new to the Malbec grape but found that it produced inky dark robust wines, even more so than Cabernet. Malbec is commonly blended in other parts of the world but Argentina has begun making 100% Malbec varietel wines.

With the recommendation and gift of a family member we had booked two nights at a lodge on the wine route with the hopes of treating ourselves; the end of the trip was nearing and two weeks camping in cold/wet/rainy Patagonia had worn us a little thin. The lodge was beautiful, tucked snugly between a couple of small family run wineries and we were treated to some comforts for a couple days including our first private bathroom in over a month. The highlight of our stay was renting bicycles and touring the wineries for an afternoon. We had really enjoyed biking around New Zealand wine country a few years ago and again we had a wonderful experience as we peddled our way from tasting room to tasting room. We left Mendoza rested and in high spirits heading toward the coast for what would be our final two weeks of the trip.

We arrived in Buenos Aires via bus (our 115 bus ride of the trip!) and headed to the Palermo neighborhood. As has been the theme of late, we were encountering large crowds and difficult accommodation bookings in Buenos Aires and opted to once again spend a few extra bucks to stay in a B&B in a trendy neighborhood. The other option was a crowded dorm room in the backpacker ghetto of town; the last thing we wanted at the end of the trip was yet another frustrating (yet entertaining) night in a shared dorm room. Buenos Aires is deservingly one of the most highly touted and appreciated cities of the world. It has vast manicured parks, infinite streetside cafes and clubs open 24 hours a day, enough stores to satisfy the most serious of shopaholics, beautiful architecture that has you thinking you are in a European metropolis and all the history to go with it. We spent our days there taking long jogs in the park (only to return later for a beer on blanket under a tree), wandering aimlessly through different neighborhoods viewing sites and touring local street markets. Our final night in town was the 8th anniversary of our first date (yes you know the anniversary of your first date when you dated for 5 years) and we headed out to what was said by the guidebook and our hotel to be the top steakhouse for the money in the city. I had not had a steak in over a year; this is saying a lot for a guy that grew up in Eldridge, Iowa eating red meat multiple times a week. I think Colleen was actually anticipating my meal more than myself and I was just happy that there was a vegetarian option for her to enjoy (when traveling this long you really start to look out for each other, even more than usual). The meal was amazing, my ribeye came with no less than a dozen dipping sauces and condiments and Colleen’s pasta came in an obnoxiously large bowl allowing me to finish off her leftovers. I can’t say it was the best steak I ever had (that still goes to Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue, WA ) but it was better than most and at $12 you can’t really go wrong! We headed out the following morning on the ferry to Uruguay and our final country of our long journey.

Patagonia Continued

2010-02-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

It comes as no surprise that Patagonia is a draw to many travelers for various different reasons. There are loads of Americans, Europeans, Israelis and Australians down here. I like to call Patagonia the place where people come with too much money and too little vacation time. The prices for tourists activities, transportation, hotels, etc. reflect this. We have actually run into many of the same people at every site as we move around the Patagonia circuit, decked out in high-end goretex and wandering around town carrying hiking poles (why people feel the need to carry these everywhere is beyond me). It makes for an interesting dynamic in these small towns, but also makes you feel like you are on some sort of big tour as you pile in and out of the same buses.

The sights here are extraordinary though, and it is easy to see why so many people have chosen to come, us included. After resting up in Puerto Natales for a night after our big hike, we headed back over the Argentine border to the small town of El Calafate. Calafate is a tourist town to it’s bones and there is only one reason to go there, to see the dynamic Perito Moreno Glacier located 80 km away in Parque National Los Glaciers. We had planned to spend 2 nights in Calafate but after a sleepless night in a creaky dorm room, we opted to head out early to spend the day at the glacier and then continue to our next destination via a late afternoon bus. It was quite pricey to get into the national park (they raise the fees during high season for foreigners) and with the rain coming in and out we hoped the glacier would be worth it. It did not disappoint.

Perito Moreno Glacier measures 30 km long, 5 km wide and up to 60 meters high. It is considered stable in a time when most of the world’s icebergs are receding. What makes it more exceptional is that it is actually advancing, up to 2 meters per day, which in turn causes constant calving of icebergs from it’s face down into the blue waters below. The sound of ice falling and hitting the water is exhilarating, like a massive clap of thunder. We wandered the walkways for a few hours and spent a fair amount of time staring intently at the glacier, waiting for the next giant piece to peal off. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning and still allowed us to catch the bus back to town and another bus, 3 hours further north in Argentina to the village of El Chalten.

Where do I start with El Chalten? It is Argentina’s newest town, founded in 1985 to cement Argentina’s hold on that particular part of the border with Chile. The village swells to 1800 people in the summer tourist season and it virtually shuts down in winter months. Want to claim something as your country? Build a town! Apparently it is working and El Chalten now exists solely on tourism as it sits strategically at the base of the Fitz Roy mountain range. It is considered to be a world class climbing destination and people come from all over the world to summit Mt Fitz Roy and Mt. Torre (said to be the most difficult climb in the world, mas or minus). We intended to do some more hiking and camping but the good old Patagonia weather continued to have her way with us. We spent the first 2 nights camped in town, while 50mph winds gusted around us. I have no idea how our tent did not collapse on the spot (we counted no less than a half dozen tents with snapped poles in our campground alone). Our first hike of the area started off well, but an hour and a half into it the rains came and they did not let up. We called it quits, hiked back to our tent, changed clothes and decided that what we needed was a good beer to combat the horrible weather. Luckily for us this tiny town had a small brewery, so off we went and tucked ourselves inside for the night, enjoying a beer, popcorn and a pizza.

The next morning we awoke to bluebird skies, very little wind, and no rain in sight. In Patagonia you have to seize good weather opportunities so we packed up our stuff and headed into the mountains for one last night of camping. We hiked in 12 km to a campground at the base of Mt. Fitz Roy, enjoying the jagged mountain top peaks of the Fitz Roy range as we did side hikes to multiple lookouts. We slept in the tent for our last time that night and again the weather felt the need to send us off in style. We awoke at 6:30AM hoping to break camp and hike out early, but the rains had come. We sat the next three hours huddled in our small tent waiting for a break to no avail. Finally we folded our cards and packed up our belongings, disassembled our tent in record time and headed on a long 2 hour sprint in the pouring rain back to El Chalten for our final night in town, spent comfortably in a well equipped hostel.

We had one last stop prior to heading on a flight back north, the town of Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is at the far southern tip of Chile, about as far south as you can go in the world without reaching Antarctica. The city thrives mostly on tourists heading to and from the national parks an is a pleasant enough place for a traveler to stay for a couple days. We caught up on some laundry from our previous days of camping and took advantage of the local supermarket and hostel kitchen to make some great meals. We had one other stop in town, the local animal shelter which we had read about online. Punta Arenas has a SERIOUS dog problem; a city of 140,000 people and 20,000 stray dogs. Can you imagine if there was one stray dog for every 7 people in your neighborhood? We hopped a local shared taxi to the edge of town and hiked up a gravel road to the shelter. We were welcomed by the two full time workers who showed us around and got some humor out of our broken Spanish. They gave Chad some coveralls and assigned him to poop patrol (it is amazing how much ‘caca’ 87 dogs can produce in a day) and I took care of some much needed dog petting duties. It was truly uplifting to see the service the shelter was providing for these deprived animals and inspiring that it was all done on such a small budget (local and federal governments provide no money toward animal control in Chile). We made a donation, thanked the staff and wished them the best as they are fighting an uphill battle.

The following morning we said goodbye to Patagonia. We were able to spend 8/16 nights in the region camping and indulging ourselves in everything the area has to offer. The landscape, people and animals have definitely left their mark on us

Torres del Paine

2010-01-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

A domestic flight south from Santiago brought us to the town of Punta Arenas in the southern tip of Chile and officially into the region of Patagonia. Similar to Borneo and Mongolia, Patagonia is one of those places you hear quite a bit about but you are not really sure what to expect when you arrive. We landed surrounded by barren hills and grasslands, wind and rain. We learned quickly that what makes Patagonia so extreme is not the landscape (which is amazing) but the climate (which is the most unpredictable weather I have ever seen).

The skies cleared and the scenery was beautiful as we hopped a 3 hour bus northward to the village of Puerto Natales. We had set aside our first days in Patagonia to prepare for and hike the ‘W’ trail in Torres del Paine National Park. After referencing our guidebooks and talking to a guide company, we settled on our route. The ‘W ’ route is named for the shape the trail takes through the park as it winds up and back down three valleys taking in the dramatic lakes, glaciers, towers, spires and jagged cliffs that are iconic Patagonia. The route classically takes 5 days but we opted to customize our own route and lengthen the hike to 6 days.

We loaded our tent, sleeping bags and gear into our backpacks along with a stove and pot we rented for the week. We headed out to the park via a two hour shuttle bus and arrived around noon on our first day. There are three options for accessing the ’W’ and the sights of the park. Most popularly, you can take a second shuttle down the only road that touches the trail to begin your hike. Secondly, you can opt for a crowded catamaran that makes a 30 minute dash across a lake for a $23 fee. Lastly, you can hike in what is referred to as the ’tail’ of the route, a 18 kilometer side trail that allows you to take in all of the scenic views from far off prior to seeing them close up on the ‘W’. Of course we opted for hiking in, thus lengthening our stay and giving us panoramic views of the landscape that most others never get to take in.

The Torres del Paine are quite unique. They are a small mountain system completely independent from the Patagonian Andes Range. They were formed when magma (yep magma!) penetrated through a crack in the earthen basin pushing sedimentary rock upward. The surrounding landscape is comprised of grasslands and granite hills and the Torres del Paine appears almost as some sort of addition to the landscape. They are stunning and quite remarkable. You can actually just sit and stare at them in appreciation for quite some time.

The large shuttle bus made it’s first two stops dropping off passengers at the park entrance and the catamaran and then drove the remaining 6 of us to the far end of the park for the hike in. We exited the bus, opened up our map and headed down trail with the entire park laid out before us. We had a stunningly beautiful day to hike. Bright blue skies and endless sunshine. We completed the ‘tail’ and set up camp for the first night at one of the park refugios. Camping in the park has two options, there are free backcountry sites as well as refugios which cost around $8 a person. The refugios offer toilets, showers, and hot water for washing and cooking. We felt it was best to spend our first night camping in the relative comfort of the refugio testing our equipment before heading into the backcountry.

We awoke to our second day (the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at 10:30am so the days are LONG!) and broke camp to head up valley, and thus uphill, on what would turn out to be the most difficult day of our hike. Our packs were at their heaviest point of the hike (30+ lbs each but luckily they would get lighter as we went through our food and fuel). Our destination was the massive Glacier Grey, part of the Patagonian Ice Field which is the third largest ice field on earth (behind Antarctica and Greenland). We made it over a small mountain pass and the glacier came into sight, quite amazing as it barrels for kilometers down the valley in the distance only to fragment into three separate arms all depositing into a bright blue lake in front us. The mountain pass brought the wind along with the beautiful views so we took a moment to rest and then began the second half of our hike. The trail initially descended down the backside of the pass only to head further uphill making the last few windy kilometers of the hike more difficult than the first dozen. A 30 lb pack in the Patagonian wind (up to 60 km/h gusts the week we were there) acts like a sail and on uneven trail can be quite difficult to manage. You spend a good portion of the time walking bent over, trying to counterbalance the winds. Then they stop for absolutely no reason and you frantically try to right yourself before you topple over. We made it to our backcountry campsite that night, our most remote spot of the hike, and enjoyed some solidarity as we slept alongside the glacier as it let out occasional ’booms’ or calving as ice sheared off its face and into the lake below.

Our third day found us hiking much more comfortably down the valley we had ascended the day before and toward the Valle de Frances. It would be our longest day of the trip, covering 23 kilometers of trail, but favorable winds and blue skies made the hike enjoyable. We set up camp again in the backcountry and woke early the next morning to hike up the Valle de Frances. The valley comprises the middle line of the ‘W’ and offers views of towers and spires to either side. Unfortunately we awoke to thick fog and a light drizzle which eventually turned to snow, a theme that would continue during the remainder of our hike, and were unable to see the valley in all of it’s entirety. Some patches of blue skies gave us small beautiful glimpses of the scenery but we were forced to return to camp in spitting rain where we grabbed our bags and headed several hours further back down trail to a refugio campground for the night. Luckily by this time our packs were beginning to lighten a little as we alternated through either soup or pasta each night for dinner and oatmeal each day for breakfast (we did ‘one armed’ lunches of granola as we hiked). We had a shower that night for the first time in days and headed out the following morning for our final destination and the parks namesake, the ‘Torres’ or ‘Towers’.

The rain was taking a liking to us so it decided to welcome us to the trail the next morning as we ascended nearly 2500 ft over the 17 kilometers leading us to our final backcountry camping site. We took it in good stride and we were rewarded for our efforts as some clear skies opened up over camp. We hurriedly set up our tent and as somewhat of an ‘insurance’ decided to head up trail to the Torres for a sunset in case they were not viewable the next morning. The final push to the Torres is the steepest trail segment of the ‘W’ taking nearly 40 minutes to cover a single kilometer. We caught fleeting glimpses of the Towers as we dodged across streams (There are many, many streams on the trail. I think we ended up jumping over about 50 by the end of the week.) and behind groves of forest as we headed up valley and then nearly all at once they came into spectacular view. The trail sits to the east of the formation so the colors on the rock were not what we hoped to see the following morning but the site was none the less rewarding. As with the glacier, we had a bit of solidarity as we sat quietly staring at the beautiful formations. We headed down quite happy with our decision to make the extra journey and crawled into our tent with great anticipation of the next morning.

We awoke at 4:30am the following morning, along with nearly everyone else in our camp, and headed up the trail in the dark with headlamps. It appeared somewhat cloudy but it was difficult to tell as there was no sun in sight. As the sun gradually rose and we approached the end of the trail it immediately became apparent that there would not be the famous show of blues and reds of sunlight on the rocks that morning. The clouds were not only thick and covering but somewhat threatening. We decided to cut our losses and turned around to head back to camp. We hurriedly made oatmeal and coffee (Colleen still does not drink the stuff) and packed up camp. It was our final day on the trail and our destination was the only road that touches a part of the trail, a few hours down valley. About midway down the rains caught us and they caught us good. A solid downpour onto us and our belongings ensued for the next couple hours and we arrived to the refugio cold and soaked to the bone a full 4 hours prior to our scheduled shuttle. We found a couple heaters in the lobby to warm up by and ordered a cup of hot chocolate and had a good laugh. We were cold and tired but pretty damn happy at what we had just seen and accomplished over the past 6 days on our 103 kilometer hike.

We made it back to Puerto Natales that night and enjoyed a hot shower and some dry clothes. We tended to our blisters and worn bodies as the storm raged on, but luckily this time we were indoors. After not having a drink in 10 days I must admit that $2.50 Chilean boxed wine by a fire place never tasted so good!

Santiago and a Side Trip to Little San Francisco

2010-01-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

Before we left on this trip, everyone we met raved about the buses in Chile and Argentina. After multiple bus rides all we can say is, really????? Clearly everyone is paid by the hour as it is extremely important that we go as slow as possible and stop for a good 45 minutes at each station, even in a town of 3,000 people. In addition we seem to always get the two seats that had to have been occupied by really messy eaters before us. Not just a few crumbs here and there, I would be surprised if any food actually made it into their mouths. Not that we are complaining, we have been on some bad buses over the past year, but bad usually equals entertaining. These buses can just get frustrating.

We bought a connecting bus ticket in El Bolson, taking us through Bariloche where we would change buses and continue on to Osorno, Chile where we were hoping to catch an overnight bus to Santiago. Our bus left El Bolson 30 minutes late, arriving in Bariloche late as well. We were worried about our connection time, but it turns out there was no need for that. When we went to check on the bus they told us it was an hour and a half late. So we waited….and waited. Turns out the bus was 4 hours late. When it finally showed we drove to the border, waited there for awhile and finally arrived in Osorno at 11:30pm. Luckily we were able to catch the last bus out of town at 11:50, and arrived in Santiago the following day at noon.

Our long travel day continued as we wandered around Santiago for 3 hours with our full packs on trying to find a hostel that had a bed open, turns out they were all full. As we sat on a street bench wondering what to do next a man approached us and told us about a new hostel in an unmarked building right behind us. We figured we had nothing to lose and checked it out. Not sure if it was really a hostel or someone who was just renting out one of their three bedrooms, but we ended up staying. With a place to sleep we were finally able to check out Santiago. We spent a lot of time walking around, touring the plazas, presidential palace and people watching. We also went on some long runs, exploring some of the many parks in the city. After 2 nights in Santiago we decided to head out to the port city of Valparaiso. We had two more return trips scheduled for Santiago and wanted to move on to something a little different.

Valparaiso definitely satisfied our interest in finding something new and different. It is a town of 250,000 people, just 2 hours away from Santiago and some call it “Little San Francisco” due to its physical attributes as well as the port traffic it received prior to the opening of the Panama Canal. I am not sure how much it resembled San Francisco, but we loved it. The city has loads of character. All of the housing is perched on steep hills and cliffs surrounding the port and there are funiculars (part elevator part cable car) that carry people up and down the inclines. The city has multiple cafes, restaurants and bars as well as open air graffiti museums and best of all, a running path directly on the water where the local dogs met us each morning to enjoy our runs with us. Most of the lodging options in town are unique, and ours did not disappoint, with wooden spiral staircases and a trapeze in the middle of the common hangout room. Valparaiso turned out to be a great place to experience some Chilean culture for a few days including really good but affordable Chilean wine!

We are now off to Patagonia, something we have been looking forward to since we started planning this trip. There is a certain sense of solitude and adventure that comes to mind when you hear the word Patagonia. We will update on the journey when we get the chance.

The Lakes District of Chile and Argentina

2010-01-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like camping in the Lakes District of Chile and Argentina to keep you procrastinating on writing a blog post!

We flew into Santiago from Quito on an overnight flight arriving the day after Christmas and caught a local bus to the city center where we booked our next long haul bus south. The airport and bus stations were surprisingly busy for Christmas and we were a little anxious to get south before the New Years crowds arrived on holiday.

We arrived in Valdivia, Chile late afternoon on an overcast day and searched out a hostel to catch up on rest after our long days of travel. Unfortunately, the rains had arrived with us and nixed our camping aspirations. It is rainy season in Chile but the full day long showers we were receiving are not the norm and our afternoon highs were 10 degrees below average! We dug out our rain jackets and long sleeves and opted for a few more days in a cozy hostel in the hopes of dryer and warmer days to come.

Historically Valdivia acted as the seat of German immigration to the region in the 1850s and 60s. Large droves of immigrants arrived during this time and their influence remains very evident today . The architecture of the homes as we entered the district were in stark contrast to what we had seen elsewhere in South America, resembling something out of a northern European countryside picture book. Valdivia today is an active riverside university town with German style taverns and beer halls perched on street corners next to chocolate shops and fondue restaurants. We were able to get in our daily runs along the water and balanced that with a couple of beers from local taverns and the comforts of a westernized supermarket before heading west to the border with Argentina.

No issues at the boarder crossing besides a slow bus driver who must have been getting paid by the hour. Argentina actually recently joined Brazil, Bolivia and Chile in charging Americans a $135 reciprocal fee for entering their country but luckily they are only charging at airports and we skirted this by taking a land crossing. As we crossed the political border we also got our first up close experience with the physical border between the two countries, the stunning Andes Mountains. The road wound up through steep valleys and crossed raging mountain rivers before dumping us out on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the tourism hot spot of Bariloche. Bariloche is best known as a premier winter ski destination but also lures mass crowds during the summer months (now!), families looking for a week at the lake and rugged outdoorsmen looking to scale the many surrounding peaks. The rains followed us to Bariloche but luckily cleared on our second day and we found our way to a campground a few kilometers from town away from crowds. We set up camp and headed out on a hike up the shores of the lake. Lucky for us, Bariloche has much of the same German influence as Valdivia and we encountered three microbreweries along the shores of our 12 kilometer hike! The following day we broke camp and headed into town for NYE. The town was now completely packed with people but we had prebooked a private room in a hostel instead of doing our usual wandering. We headed out for an evening drink but we were surprised to find that at 8PM nowhere was open. Either the bars don’t celebrate NYE or they all open up late at night. After nearly an hour of searching we found an open pub (not surprising, it was owned by a guy from Chicago) where we were able to get a pint. From there we retired to our hostel with a bottle of champagne and celebrated everything we had experienced in the past year and welcomed in 2010.

The scenery kept getting better the further south we headed so we pushed on to the town of El Bolson, at the Northern tip of the famed Patagonia region. El Bolson is a town of 20,000 inhabitants that actually feels much smaller. The locals pride themselves on their open-minded ‘alternative’ lifestyle and have deemed the town an ‘ecological municipality‘ and a ‘nuclear free zone‘ (not sure what exactly qualifies it as either). The town is situated along a river at the base of jagged mountains tops and spires, the type that have made the scenery in this part of the world so famous. Forest surrounds much of the village while fields producing fresh produce and hops for beer also abound. We searched out a campground on the edge of town and checked in for 4 nights. Our camping neighbors were quite the motley crew. To the left we had a climber and guide from the Yukon Territory and to the right we had a long hair fully bearded climber from the Bavarian Alps. These guys were serious with their gear; expedition tents, ice axes, crampons, basically all that really cool gear you see at the sports store and would like to buy but know you would never legitimately use. They made great company during our stay as we swapped stories and cooked over campfires.

As with many South American towns, one of the main attractions of El Bolson is their weekly outdoor market. El Bolson’s actually occurs three times weekly and starts a little later in the morning (the laid back lifestyle allows for sleeping in). This market is actually quite different from any other we have seen; it is light on livestock and produce but heavy on crafts. Woodcarvers, welders, sculptors, and knitters all sell their goods as well as musicians, chefs and craft brewers. The market is massive, there must have been well over 100 vendors lined up around the lake in the city park. We wandered the aisles, eventually settling on a wood carved cheese board for $3, some craft beer for $2.50 a pint and some gourmet pizza for $1 a slice. The following day we headed out on a hike up the valley rim to an overlook of town and the next day we hired bikes and road out through the hop fields outside of town to a high mountain lake about 15 miles away.

After 4 nights of camping (and two broken tent poles we were luckily able to repair with a trip to the local gas piping store) we shifted to a hostel with wifi to watch the Iowa Bowl game. Accommodations were extremely crowded so we had to sleep in a 6-person dorm but we convinced the staff to let us stay in the lobby until after hours (the game ended at 2AM here!) as we cheered on the Hawkeyes and enjoyed a little slice of back home to compliment our great experiences the days before.

Side Note: If anyone ever makes it to Valdivia, be sure to check out the abnormally large seals on the rivers edge. They must be some sort of freak of nature (actually I think the fisherman at the market feed them too many scraps) because they make the seals at Pier 39 in SF look like Chihuahuas.

Ecuador - Cuenca, Quilotoa, Quito & The Middle of The Earth

2009-12-27T05:55:00.000-08:00

Ecuador was the final stop on our overland swipe across the middle of South America before heading south to Chile. The Peru/Ecuador border was listed as the ‘most corrupt border crossing in South America’ by our guidebook and multiple stories from travelers online had confirmed this statement. We arrived by bus with some nervousness but were processed and granted entry into Ecuador with nothing more than a couple of questions.

From the border we headed north 6 hours to the historic town of Cuenca. We spent 3 nights resting (I was fighting off food poisoning, likely a result of bad water used to make coffee as Colleen was untouched) and wandering narrow cobblestone streets rimmed with colonial mansions and churches built by the colonial Spaniards beginning in the 16th century.

We left Cuenca appropriately rested for our next adventure, the Quilotoa Loop in central Ecuador. The Loop is a series of small Ecuadorian Andean villages connected by dirt roads and hiking trails. The appeal of the route is the opportunity to observe the rural indigenous people going about their traditional daily lives, working with livestock, tending fields and taking their produce to market. Plus the countryside has some amazing views. We caught a local bus from the regional hub of Latacunga and were surprised to find that we were the only foreigners aboard. Our counterparts on the bus would have been right at home in many African countries as they seemed to get enjoyment out of the overcrowded standing room only mode of transportation! About a mile outside of Latacunga we turned off the pavement and onto a bumpy dirt road that would be our entertainment for the next 4 hours as we wound our way around mountains, along steep cliffs and through picturesque valleys.

We arrived at our destination, the small village of Isinlivi and checked into our hostel. The establishment was said to be run by an English speaking Dutch couple but we were greeted at the door by a young local woman who turned out to be the hostel cook. She would be the only person we had interaction with (broken Spanish and hand gestures) during our stay. It turns out there were no other guests for the night and the owners were out of town. It was early afternoon so we headed out on a hike into the hills surrounding the village taking us up hillsides and across meadows before returning for a wonderful 4 course vegetarian meal included with our stay.

We studied some maps and notes from previous travelers the next morning and headed out on a hike to the village of Chugchilan, some 15+ kilometers away across the valley. The terrain was difficult and steep as we wandered down unmaintained paths and crossed log bridges over full streams. Unfortunately, we had a ’helper’ with us along the entire route. The hostel dog (actually more of a puppy) had taken it upon himself to head out of town with us. We discouraged him and chased him away in fear he would not find his way back home but it was to no avail. He was unshakable as he energetically followed us on our day long hike, getting dirtier and increasingly panicky along the way. We felt sorry for the guy but really had no option but to continue on our hike and hope he either would change his mind or we would find a passerby to lead him back to his village.

We arrived in Chugchilan in a late afternoon drizzle and the dog parted with us to introduce himself to some of the local dogs. We checked into a hostel, dried off and found our way to the common room where we huddled around a black stove and spent the evening comparing stories with fellow travelers.

We awoke early the next morning to a hearty breakfast provided by the hostel and hitched a ride on the back of a local pickup heading toward the highlight of the Loop, the Quilotoa Crater. The crater is actually an active volcano that is filled with iridescent blue water. It is absolutely stunning.. Most choose to view the crater from one of the cliffside hotels or by taking a hike down the steep slopes to the shore. Of course this was not enough for our hiking appetite so we decided to take on the full 8 mile hike around the crater rim. Well, we bit off more than we could chew and unfortunately did not realize it until we were on the opposite side of the crater in a dense fog. The rim trail actually takes an exhausting indirect route climbing and falling multiple times up and down the jagged cliffs of the crater. No step of the hike seems to be on solid ground as the brittle rock crumbles into sand with each step. We both swore that we had never had a more difficult day hike in our lives! 5 hours and only 8 miles later (plus detours and multiple slips and falls and a crazed dog that bit Colleen‘s shoe) we found ourselves wandering back onto the main road leading to/from the crater. As we were catching our breath we heard a loud booming horn in the distance which we recognized as a departing bus. Buses only visit the crater a couple times a day so we immediately began a fatigued run blindly in the foggy mist. We reached the bus just as it was pulling away and luckily it was direct back to Latacunga where we had stored our luggage during our 3 days of hiking.

From Latacunga we headed further north to the capital city of Quito to spend Christmas. Upon arriving at the Quito bus station we ran into acquaintances from our hiking who told us that our formal hostel had been informed that their dog was wandering around the village across the valley and that the owners were now actively looking for the dog (this put us a little at ease as by this point we felt as though we were responsible for making a dog homeless). Given the holiday season, we had booked ahead for three nights in Quito and quickly found ourselves at ease in the backpacker friendly ‘new’ part of town. We took day trips to ‘old town’ Quito and explored cathedrals, parks and the country’s colonial past. We climbed rickety steps to the top spire of the famed Basilica del Voto Nacional cathedral for some amazing views(they don’t worry too much about liability is this country) and made a trip to the main market where I sampled some delicious corvina (sea bass) receiving twice as much fish for 1/10 the cost of back home. We also made a side trip an hour north of town to the official site of the Equator where we took some token tourist photos and learned some interesting facts. Who knew that the earth had an ‘equatorial bulge’ that placed the earths surface at the equator a full 11 miles further from the center of the earth than the north and south poles? And who knew that because of this bulge that there are volcanoes in Ecuador that are nearly 2 miles closer to the moon than Mt Everest? Crazy stuff!

Our first two months in South America have been full of amazing experiences. This continent has intriguing and sometimes challenging sites and activities yet the countries maintain a friendliness and flexibility towards travelers allowing for amazing rewards if one puts in the effort. If this is any indication of what we have in store for our last two months in South America (and on the trip), we are in for an enjoyable finale.

Feliz Navidad and Happy New Year!

2009-12-25T06:51:00.001-08:00

To everyone at home or wherever you may be, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope everyone is enjoying time with family and friends and traveling safe. It is hard to believe it is already the end of 2009. It feels like we started on this adventure a short time ago. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in a few months but are extremely excited for the countries and experiences that remain.

We don’t mean to brag, but it is 85 degrees and sunny at the equator. Flying tonight to our next destination: Santiago, Chile.

On the Trail of Gringos

2009-12-17T16:12:00.000-08:00

Peru is the IT place to travel right now. There are people everywhere. Tons of Americans, which we have not seen in such high numbers since we started this trip 10 months ago, as well as the ever present English, Irish, Australian and surprisingly, a massive number of French. Of course everyone comes to see mythical Machu Picchu, but there are tons of other activities to do in Peru, which brings in the crowds. We spent a lot of time discussing where all these people had came from and decided that we might as well ’join the party’. After Cusco we hopped on the aptly named ‘Gringo Trail’ with the masses that move in both directions between Cusco and Lima.

First up, the Nazca Lines. Spread over 500 sq km of land, the Nazca Lines form a network of over 800 lines, 300 geometric figures, and about 70 animal and plant drawings in the Peruvian desert. Now a Unesco World Heritage Site, the lines remain shrouded in mystery. There is no absolute idea of who created them or why, only theories,. To properly see the lines your must view them from overhead by flight in a small, light aircraft. We decided you couldn’t come to Peru and not see the lines, plus who doesn’t want the adventure of a small plane ride, so we immediately added a visit to our itinerary. The town of Nazca is a dry, dirty place, not really where you want to linger around for long,. We arrived by 13 hour overnight bus from Cusco, and immediately hoped in a cab and headed to the tiny airport with a New Zealand girl we had met on our bus. With three of us we hoped to have some bargaining power on the price of flights, and 15 minutes after arriving we where signed up for a 35 minute over flight for an affordable $40/person in a 4-seater plane (Cesna 172) that left immediately. Talk about quick. As the plane took off, I was a bit nervous as I hadn’t been in an aircraft this small since I was a child. It did not help that one of our passenger doors popped open just as we were heading down the runway, but Chad helped calm my nerves. The flight was amazing. I absolutely loved being up in the air in such a tiny plane and it gave me a feeling of freedom that we rarely feel trapped in all the long haul buses on the ground. There is a certain sense of peace up in the air, and it reminded me of my dad. And the lines, well, they were interesting and odd. The lines are truly unique and are unlike anything we have seen on this trip. Most of all, they are simply puzzling. The pilot flew us in tight circles, banking on both sides of the plane so everyone could get a good view and in the process making Chad feel a little nauseous!

With the excitement of the flight over, we caught the next bus 2 hours north to the town of Ica. Ica is famous for one thing, a liquor distilled from wine grapes called Pisco. We decided to stay 5 KM outside Ica in the small town of Huacachina (pop. 200), completely surrounded by sand dunes and sitting on a tiny lagoon. Our guidebook said it was THE place for backpackers to hang out, so we decided to join in on the relaxed atmosphere. So, maybe it was a little too relaxed! Such a small town with literally only a couple of streets and chock full of travelers begins to feel claustrophobic. On our second day we rented sandboards and headed up on our own into the dunes for a little adventure. Neither of us had ever tried sand boarding before but discovered that it was a bit different from our beloved snowboarding and we got a good laugh out of each other falling down the dunes. That same day we decided to get a break from the small town and hired a taxi for the afternoon to take us Pisco tasting in some of the surrounding bodegas (wineries). We visited three bodegas in all, ranging from the oldest winery in South America founded by the Spaniards in 1640 to a small family run bodega which only produces a few thousand cases of wine per year. We sampled some great wine, and some that was so-so. The wine is all stored in centuries old large ceramic jars resembling WWII bombs and we were able to taste directly from the containers. All of the tastings were free so we bought a bottle at the conclusion of each bodega and that with the cost of the taxi only came out to $25 total for the afternoon. If only Napa were that cheap!

We then pointed ourselves further northward on a 4 hour bus to the capital city of Lima. We booked a hostel room in the trendy Miraflores neighborhood on the ocean and spent the next 3 days going on long runs along the cliffs by the ocean and eating at the very impressive westernized local supermarkets.

Relaxed and refreshed we boarded an 18 hour overnight bus northward to the Peruvian surf town of Mancora. Peru has surprisingly impressive beaches in the North accompanied with throngs of local and international tourists and surfers. We checked into a hotel and paid a couple extra dollars to have a oceanside balcony where we had the endless entertainment of the massive ocean waves and energetic surfers. We had planned to do some surfing ourselves but a recent storm in the pacific had brought with it 8-10 ft surf and all surfing lessons were canceled for our days at the beach. We took a rain check (maybe Uruguay?), bought a liter of boxed wine and enjoyed the view from the balcony, concluding our days in Peru.

Machu Picchu - In Pictures

2009-12-13T07:38:00.001-08:00

Our first glimpse at Machu Picchu really wasn’t much. In fact we couldn’t see more than a handful of feet in front of us due to the rain and fog. We hightailed it up trail to a thatched roof hut and huddled inside for the next 2 and a half hours, trying to dry ourselves off, warm ourselves up and hoping all along that the rain would stop, the fog would clear and we would finally see something. Luckily for us, around 9AM, we were rewarded. First the rain stopped, then the sun fought it’s way through the clouds and eventually, what lay before us was this:

And suddenly, all the cold, rain and wind were worth it.

With our new found clarity, we spent the next 7 hours wandering and exploring the amazing Inka ‘lost city’. We had arrived early enough in the day to score one of the coveted 400 spots to climb Wayna Picchu, a set of hilltop ruins with an amazing overall view of the site. It is hard to put the beauty of Machu Picchu in words, we only hope the pictures below can do it some justice.

At the end of the day we hiked back down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, where we took the easy way out and caught the ‘backpacker’ train to a town called Ollantaytambo. From there a shared mini bus brought us the last 2 hours to Cusco where we had started a few short days earlier. Our way of doing Machu Picchu may have been different than the traditional route, but it definitely was an adventure and highlight of Peru.

The Trail Less Traveled

2009-12-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Another day, another border crossing. Lake Titicaca straddles the Bolivian/Peruvian border and we had purchased a bus ticket which would fist take us to the boarder crossing and then to a second bus that would drive us through the night to the city of Cusco, Peru. Upon arriving we were told that the upgraded seat we had purchased (upgraded in the fact that it reclines) was not available and that no refund would be given for the difference in prices we had paid. I ended up exiting the bus to argue with the bus agent while Colleen kept an eye on our seats and bags and received a small refund but had to cut my losses as the bus was beginning to pull away without me. We crossed the border with no hassles in a torrential downpour but were told that the bus company now needed additional money for the second bus, a bus we had already paid in full, due to a ‘strike’ among the bus drivers. Of course this was a load of crap and a scam but what choice do you have, either pay up or get off the bus in the middle of nowhere at midnight in a thunderstorm.

We arrived prior to sunrise in Cusco and waited for some daylight before sharing a cab with 2 German girls to a local hostel. Cusco is a beautiful town. It is famously known to most travelers as the staging point for trips to the ruins of Machu Picchu but it is also a sight in itself. It is said to be the longest continually inhabited city (and the head of the Inka Empire) in the Americas and offers wide plazas to compliment narrow cobblestone streets, centuries old churches and the backpacker comforts of cheap markets and corner pubs.

We had a couple main tasks at hand in Cusco. First, we wanted to pick up sleeping bags and a tent to do some camping over the last couple months of the trip, namely in Chile and Argentina. We had read Chile is quite pricey and limited on selection when it comes to equipment so we decided with all the tour operators in Cusco that we should take advantage of the selection. We ended up picking up two new North Face sleeping bags (absolutely fake but the agent insisted they were real) along with a high end used 2 person mountaineering tent at very respectable prices.

The second task at hand, of course, was to search out when/where/how we could reach Manchu Picchu. There are three main options when it comes to reaching this wonder of the world. The most well known option is to hike the historical Inka trail, 33 kilometers over 4 days at a staggering cost of $430 per person all inclusive. Option 2 is to take one of the available ‘side trails’ with a tour company and guide and pay around $250 for the experience. The third option is to go at it alone without a guide or company. For this final option, you must decide on which ‘side trail’ you wish to trek as the famous ‘Inka Trail’ has hiker quotas and permits required. Given the trails are well marked, our respectable experience trekking and finding our own way numerous times on this trip, we decided to go at it alone. Why would we pay several hundred dollars each just to have a guide show us to the nearest restaurant or hotel and point us in the general direction of the trail?

We settled on what is known as the ‘back door’ to Machu Picchu. The route is not highly advertised or mentioned in guidebooks but is a well known path for tour operators who sell the route to travelers on a tighter budget. We headed out on a 7-hour early morning bus to essentially circumnavigate the mountain range thus reaching the start of the ‘backdoor’ route. We crossed mountain passes nearing 15,000 ft and arrived at the dusty town of Santa Maria from where we caught an hour long taxi with a bunch of school kids using the taxi as a bus service to the village of Santa Teresa and our accommodation for the night. We awoke early the next morning, grabbed some local cheese empanadas to-go for breakfast and began our hike. The first leg of the hike had us descending down a cliff out of the village and across a small suspension bridge to a dirt path across the valley. From there is was a 2 hour hike following the river until we reached a hydroelectric damn. To the side of the hydroelectric damn we found the set of railroad tracks we were looking for and knew we were on the right track. We then followed the railroad for about three hours, twisting and turning our way up canyons, crisscrossing bridges and walking through multiple tunnels.

After a total of 5 hours and just over 20 kilometers of hiking, the village of Aguas Calientes came into sight around a bend,. We had spent $9 each on public transit to reach our destination and enjoyed the adventure of a lightly used path. The small community is only accessible by hiking trail or railroad and acts as the launching point for day treks to/from Machu Picchu. We quickly found accommodation for the evening in one of the numerous guesthouses and headed to the market for some much needed food.

Machu Picchu is perched on a mountaintop high above Aguas Calientes and is accessible either by a costly minibus or by way of a steep 6 kilometer hiking trail. Of course we opted for the hiking trail and found ourselves up before dawn the following day and hitting the trail with our headlamps. The trail was quite steep and midway up the mountain a storm moved in and a massive downpour began. Now we were wet, cold and could not see through the dense clouds how close we were to our destination. We trudged on upward through switchback after switchback and just as daylight was beginning to show we reached the ticket counter but were told Machu Picchu did not open for another 30 minutes. So we waited exhausted, soaked and shaking as the first busload of fresh, dry and cheery tourists appeared up the road. We must have been quite the site to them huddled in our wet clothes munching on some day old bread! Finally, the gates opened and we squished through the fog and into Machu Picchu…

The World’s Highest Everything

2009-12-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Our overnight bus turned and twisted its way through switchbacks all night long until we were greeted by a sunrise over the valley containing the Bolivian capital of La Paz. Entering La Paz in itself is an experience. The capital is nestled in a steep walled canyon at over 12000 ft above sea level and is known for having the ‘highest everything‘ in the world, from the highest sushi restaurant to the highest Irish pub . The economic center of the city lies in the valley bottom while the housing clings to the cliffs bordering the metropolis.

Our bus dropped us on the canyon edge and we walked downhill using a rough map to point us in the general direction of our hostel. Our destination was the ‘Brew Hostel’, an establishment that had caught my eye during our research. The name of the hostel is derived from the fact that it is hooked onto the Saya Beer Microbrewery (who of course has a claim at the highest microbrewery in the world). It was too early to check into our hotel (not unusual when arriving by overnight bus) so we had a handful of hours to wander around the city somewhat drowsy. We immediately found that La Paz is not only impressive to look at but the people are also cheerful and friendly. We meandered through the markets buying some produce and bread for lunch and eventually made it back to the hotel for our check-in. That night we headed to the 5th floor rooftop pub for $0.75 drafts of some of the best microbrewed beer we have sampled this year along with an equally impressive sunset view.

Over conversation with a retired pilot from Pittsburg who spent the past few decades transporting inmates from prison to prison (yes you meet some odd ones while traveling) I was introduced to the head brewer, Jack. Jack was a former Penn State student from Dallas and was wearing an 82nd Airborne Army cap, a good conversation point as I had worked with the 101st Airborne Rangers during a summer job in Italy during college. Between that and a love for beer we immediately hit it off well. Jack invited me to a Thanksgiving Day brew session at the brewery along with a Turkey dinner and I was pretty excited to say the least.

Thanksgiving day arrived and Colleen and I spent the morning wandering the streets of La Paz, viewing centuries old cathedrals and political buildings (the notorious PM from Iran was actually in town causing quite a bit of chatter on the streets and in the news). We arrived back at the hostel to find that the brewing yeast had not propagated properly and that brewing would not be possible for another day. Jack also informed us that Turkeys were apparently a rarity in La Paz, not surprising, so we would have to look into other options for dinner. We decided to kill two birds with one stone and spice up some already finished beer into a ‘Thanksgiving Spice Ale’ thus giving us some time in the brewery and a Thanksgiving treat as well.

Jack was a great teacher and showed me around the brewery as we boiled up a concoction of nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla and added it to a finished keg of Saya Colonial Golden Ale. The resulting product was delicious and I was given a free pint for assisting in the effort of carrying the 150 lb keg up 4 flights of stairs, tough to say the least at this altitude! We spent the rest of the day going over the blue prints for a new brewery expansion and paging through brewery supply catalogs making parts lists. Colleen joined us again in the evening for a couple pints and we completed what was a truly unique Thanksgiving.

We headed out the next morning north to the village of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca traveling even further uphill to an elevation of 12600 ft. Copacabana sits attractively on the lake shore, slightly overcrowded with tour operators yet still retaining its traditional ways of life and small town charm. Our main goal in heading to Copacabana was to view the lake and head out to the island of Isla del Sol. The normal route to the island is to catch the direct two hour ferry from Copacabana but of course that seemed too simple for our adventurous spirit. We learned the next sizeable village up the shoreline was 17 kilometers away and from there we might be able to hire a boat to head out to the island. On top of this we were told the walk offered beautiful views of the lake and countryside; we were sold.

We headed out at day break the next morning and the walk did not disappoint. We wound our way through small communities and steep shoreline terrain with beautiful views. About two kilometers outside our destination we were approached by a local farmer out of his fields who in a combination of broken English (and our broken Spanish) and drawing with a stick in the sand, offered to take us by his boat to the island. We obliged, happy to give some side business to the local man and found ourselves on the shores of Isla del Sol a little over an hour later.

Isla de Sol is famous due to its Inca roots where it is said to be the birthplace of the sun. We were able to view multiple ruins on our walk from the shoreline to the main hilltop village where we found some of our best accommodation to date in South America. For $14 we received a spotless room with views out over the lake from three sides, a private bathroom and free breakfast. The plan was to wake early the next morning to circumnavigate the island touring numerous Inca sites but we awoke to a torrential downpour. We hedged our bets and boarded the morning ferry back to Copacabana as the island paths can be dangerously muddy in the rain and no big surprise, Colleen had already taken a tumble the day before.

Most travelers head to the Peru side of Lake Titicaca next, but we decided to go straight up to Cusco, thus ending our time in Bolivia. We loved the uniqueness of the country and the people’s hard work and resourcefulness in this high land of the western hemisphere.

The Beauty of Bolivia

2009-11-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

The transportation push to the border of Brazil/Bolivia was a long one. We took a 15 hour overnight bus, then bought a second bus ticket and an hour later boarded an 8 hour bus that took us to the border town of Corumba. Unfortunately we arrived too late as the border had closed for the day (who closes a border at 1PM?). We awoke the next day and headed to the bus station where Brazilian immigration gave us our exit stamp (why it is not done at the actual border I have no idea), and then caught a local bus to the Bolivian border.

We had heard horror stories about Americans crossing into Bolivia. At the end of 2007 Bolivia decided that Americans should pay a $135 fee to enter and word on the street was that if you did not have all of your correct paperwork (copy of passport, yellow fever vaccination, proof of sufficient funds, onward travel documentation, etc.) in hand that they would demand an even higher sum. We were not about to let that happen, so we came prepared. Surprisingly, absolutely none of our prep work was necessary. As we walked into the immigration office the ’officials’ looked up, asked for our passports and then broke out huge smiles. “American!” they yelled. “You must pay $135 each!!!!” When we nodded ‘yes’ expressionless. They seemed even more excited that we did not put up a fight and gave us the visa paperwork to fill out. As we handed over the cash there was much happy chatter accompanied by even bigger smiles as the official smelled the money, held it up in the air and yelled triumphantly, “dollars!” That was when we realized that every worker in the room was going home with A LOT of money that day. Obviously they don’t get many Americans through this border crossing. Aside from that, the workers were very nice to us, even asking Chad to translate some English writing for them from another person's application. We walked out of the office and into Bolivia $270 poorer but with a valid 5 year visa, just in case we want to book a return visit!

A quick 15 minute cab ride brought us to the dusty quiet town of Quijarro where “The Death Train” was waiting on it’s tracks to take us to Santa Cruz. Yes, our next mode of transportation was nicknamed “The Death Train”. We were lucky enough to get on the train that afternoon and avoided another night at the border. We were welcomed by a broken air conditioner in our carriage and hordes of sweaty people transporting all sorts of goods. Lucky for us, that was the worst of our journey and the ‘Death Train’ had more bark than bite. It was slightly entertaining as it rattled down the tracks at an incredibly slow pace, shaking and swaying as if it would fall to one side at any minute. We spent 15 hours bouncing about, but we did get to enjoy a few Hollywood movies dubbed over in Spanish and a freezing cold night as the air conditioner finally decided it was going to work overtime.

We arrived in Santa Cruz, the second largest city in Bolivia, completely exhausted from our past week and in need of some decent sleep and a shower. We were excited to finally be in Bolivia and even more excited to see a good friend of ours Brian Asby, who happened to be working in Santa Cruz for a few weeks. We could not believe our luck that the timing worked out and we decided to spend a few extra days in Santa Cruz to catch up. Santa Cruz was a pleasant city with a central plaza and streetside cafes. The weather was nice and we were able to catch up on internet, laundry and some good meals. We met up with Brian a couple different nights and shared travel stories and got updates on life back in the USA. It actually felt like a little slice of home as we sipped some cold beers and reminisced, something I think all three of us really appreciated!

Santa Cruz was pleasant and comfortable but we bid Brian farewell and decided to head into the countryside to see a different side of Bolivia. Our destination was the small village of Samaipata, tucked into the Bolivian mountains a 3 hour taxi ride outside Santa Cruz (total cost of taxi was about $7!). Upon arrival in Samaipata we immediately felt like we may have found a future home for us. Within our first hours of being in town we had gone for a run and found a cozy little bar serving microbrews and Samaipata jumped to one of our favorite small towns of the trip without trying. The town was picture perfect in every way, a village that had not been found yet by the masses of backpackers roaming South America.

We spent 3 days in Samaipata, and loved every single second if it. We visited the local market daily, buying fruit and vegetables from the indigenous women. We wandered up and down the cobbelstone streets, petting the many sleeping dogs, popping into cafes and shops, sitting in the park plaza and taking photos of the old buildings and churches. At night there were some very cool pubs to visit and we treated ourselves to one of the best meals of our trip at a local restaurant that served fresh, organic vegetarian food. We didn’t just stick in town though. We ventured to a nearby national park on a tour with a Spanish speaking guide and three 50 year olds from Spain. The views were amazing and the hiking trails great, but let’s just say that we don’t speak Spanish and were in MUCH better shape than the chain smoking Spaniards.

Samaipata solidified our love for Bolivia. The country is dirt cheap, the people are friendly, the food is decent (okay not decent if you are a vegetarian), there are more things to do than days in the month and they produce wine in the southwest that can be had for under 3 dollars a bottle. Bolivia has definitely caught our attention. Maybe we will be using that 5 year visa in the future after all.

Breathtaking Iguazu

2009-11-20T04:23:00.001-08:00

There have only been a few individual sights that have left us absolutely in awe on this trip. We have witnessed some amazing things; the moment Iguazu Falls came into our view we knew we were seeing something truly special. After missing Victoria Falls in Africa, it became a priority to make it to Iguazu. We made the trip to the Brazil and Argentina border, and boy, the falls did not disappoint.

We arrived in the town of Foz do Iguazu after a 24 hour bus ride from Rio and immediately realized the place was packed with other backpackers and tour groups. We searched for a place to stay for a few hours but ended up sharing a triple with a German women because it was the only option available that would not break our budget. Let’s just say it was an interesting accommodation experience. The next morning we caught an early bus out to the park to view the falls. We decided to see the falls from the Brazilian side only although many people choose to view it from both countries. The Brazilian side gives you an overall view of the falls, a panorama picture that displays the enormity of the area. The Argentinean side is described as an up close view which made us worry that we might now get a close encounter from the Brazil shore. Fortunately this was not the case.

The Falls are absolutely spectacular. Yes, we did get the panorama view but we were also able to go out on walkways and viewing platforms into “The Devil’s Throat” to get an intimate experience with the power of the falls. The walkways were crowded with large tour groups but that didn’t lessen the experience. The falls are so massive they are capable of really entertaining a large crowd of viewers. Their power and beauty is a rush on the senses and can be seen, felt, heard, smelled and tasted (I guess you could taste the mist if you really wanted to). Viewing the falls together definitely enhanced the experience as we both were quite giddy at the beautiful sight.

We spent a half day viewing the falls and surrounding park before heading back to the city. We needed to stack up on some supplies, change some money and prepare ourselves for the big transportation push to the border and on to Bolivia.

Coffee, Sand and a Redeemer - Welcome to Brazil

2009-11-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

Brazil has a split personality when it comes to a traveler’s budget. Our flight to Sao Paulo brought with it $50 rooms (triple our normal lodging budget) which have become the norm for the rest of our stay here. Transportation completes the double financial whammy with day long bus rides costing around $40 and overnight rides as high as $85. On top of all this, Brazil also welcomes you with an Americans only visa fee of $135; in the Brazilian’s defense it is a ‘reciprocal’ fee of what we charge them so there is not much room to complain! The saving grace, besides the beautiful sites and people, is that food here is dirt cheap, like India cheap. Our daily budget for food and drink is sub $10 with the potential of being the most affordable country on our trip when it comes to filling our stomachs.

With our heads adjusted to this new country (and continent) we left Sao Paulo after two days and headed inland 5 hours by bus to the countryside village of Carmo de Minas. A former manager of mine, Victor, is married to a wonderful Brazilian, Maria, and we were lucky enough to be able to visit Maria’s family for a few days during our trip. To make things sweeter, it should be noted that Maria’s family, the Chaib’s, are sixth generation coffee farmers and above all, wonderful people with sitcom like humor.

We arrived to the regional hub of Sao Laurencao on a Monday evening and were welcomed by Maria’s brother, Pedro. Immediately we felt like we were visiting old friends as Pedro gave us a quick tour of their small hometown village and drove us to the Chaib household. There we were welcomed by Pedro’s parents, Marly and Ibraim, as well as his sisters, Nazira and Dinha. Marly had prepared a welcome meal for us and we immediately felt at home as we attempted to polish up our Portuguese over a delicious meal.

We had three nights in Carmo de Minas and would be staying at the Chaib coffee ‘farm’. The family owns the home in the village where they live but also have a second home or farm house 5 kilometers outside of town on the coffee plantation. Pedro drove us out that first night and we were filled with excitement as we wound down dirt roads over hills and through fields to arrive at the farm. We were welcomed by the guard dog, Nero, who is a Brazilian Fila (cross between a mastiff/bloodhound/bulldog) and would act as our housemate for our stay. The farm consists of a house and multiple buildings with coffee equipment, a woodshop, silo, lab and stable complete with horses and cows wandering about. The home itself has 3 bedrooms and Colleen and I settled in quite comfortably.

Our days at the farm were spent learning about the coffee industry and what goes into running a successful coffee plantation (the Chaib’s coffee has won awards beating out all other farms in a country that produces more coffee than any other in the world). Ibraim took us out in his vintage Gurgel automobile into the plantation fields and showed us how they plant, maintain (he jokingly put us to work cutting weeds) and harvest the beans. Ibraim kept me constantly entertained with his sense of humor as he polished his English and I attempted to speak my blend of Spanish influenced Portuguese. Pedro showed us around the various buildings and demonstrated how they dehusk, sort and transport the beans to the local co-op where they are then rated for quality and stored until sale. On the final day we even sorted our own batch of beans, then roasted them for the coffee we drank (yes we, Colleen even sampled!) for breakfast on our final day. I must again mention the delicious food we had at the farm! Each morning we had fresh baked bread cooked on a woodburing stove, fresh made cheese, fruits, yogurt and Marly’s famous granola. Lunches are the big meal each day in Brazil and we would head back into the village around noon for a large sit-down meal. I can say with certainty that we have not eaten better on our trip!

We could not have asked for more welcoming hosts and a more unique experience than we had at Carmo de Minas. On top of all this we learned so much about an industry that I had never took enough time to really think about (how the coffee I drink every day gets into my cup?). We hope some day to have a return visit to the farm but hopefully before then we can repay the Chaib’s hospitality stateside and welcome them into our home.

On a Saturday morning we waved goodbye to the Chaib’s and hopped on a bus headed for Rio de Janeiro. 6 hours later we arrived at a slightly chaotic bus station, hopped a cab to a cable car, and after an hour and a half of riding the wrong line, finally arrived at our guesthouse. We have heard from multiple travelers that Rio is the most beautiful city in the world and while it was attractive, San Francisco still holds that honor in my eyes. We stayed for 4 days in the hills in the artist neighborhood of Santa Teresa where we had a mini apartment to cook meals and enjoyed a Brazilian beer or two at local cafes. We took day trips to both Copacabana and Ipanema beaches; they were both beautiful and lined with the urban landscape as a back drop. We also discovered that people at the beaches, and Rio streets for that matter, tend to lean toward ‘less is more’ when it comes to clothes and swimsuits. We also spent a very hot long day at Christ the Redeemer. The lines were quite long for the tram ride to the top and it turned into one of the more expensive sites we have visited on the trip. Colleen questioned whether the long wait and crowded viewpoint (it was a Sunday) were worth the trip but I disagree. The view from 700 meters above the streets and beaches is inspiring and it gives you a full view of the metropolis. It is a must do when visiting Rio and if you can get past the hordes of people posing like JC in front of the statue for pictures, it makes for a worthwhile afternoon break up out of the city.

Lost in Tokyo

2009-11-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Tokyo is a massive city, with millions of people all heading in different directions. We spent 4 days in Tokyo and nearly every single second there we were lost. There are infinite streets, neighborhoods, buildings, etc. and it is not hard to lose your way. Even though we didn’t have a guidebook and navigated off a small map from our hostel, we must admit that being lost in Tokyo is not a terrible thing. The city is safe, the subway system is good, and we eventually always made it home.

Besides Tokyo being physically large, it is also expensive leading to us spending 4 nights in a dorm room of a popular backpacker‘s hostel. We arrived on a flight from Ulaanbaatar connecting via Beijing and were welcomed on the hostel front porch by a Halloween costumes party (commencing an entire 4 nights early!). There were hordes of 18-20 year olds lounging in the common areas and that is when we officially started to feel old and also remembered why we don’t stay in dorms, ever. A nice young man spent the next 4 nights snoring like a chainsaw. Needless to say, we don’t have any plans to stay in dorms in South America.

So what did we do in Tokyo?
-Rode the complex subway system a lot....sometimes getting lost.
-Visited the Shibuya area of town and crossed the street at the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world.
-Wandered around the gardens of the Imperial Palace, although we could never really figure out how to get a close look.
-Spent a morning at the largest fish market in the world, staring in wonder at the shear quantity and different sizes of fish available for purchase.
-Chad broke his vegetarian streak and sampled some of the local sushi!
-Last but not least, visited the Yebisu Beer Museum to taste some of the local beer and attempted to read Japanese while looking at the museum displays.

It was an insightful 4 days in Tokyo and we only hope that we will be able to visit again to experience the rest of the country. On November 1st we boarded a 25 hour flight that would take us 11,494 miles to our final continent and to the country of Brazil. We spent a total of 5 months in Asia and it was time for a change.

Into the Great Wide Open

2009-11-04T02:02:00.001-08:00

The presence of snow in Mongolia in mid October came as a surprise to us. Yes, we knew we would be toying with the beginning of winter and of course Mongolia receives snow storms quite often throughout the season, but for some reason we were surprised to encounter it during our visit. Our newly purchased layers from the black market kept our bodies and legs warm but we had neglected to give enough thought to our feet. Nearly 9 months into the trip, our shoes are running a little thin and now the cold white stuff seemed to find its way into every crack and crevice of our shoes numbing our feet as we bounced our way down the road in our tour van.

Our group stood at 6 travelers plus a local guide and driver. Colleen and I shared the back bench seat of the van with a Frenchman, Siso, who was on a journey of personal enlightenment. Then there was Whe, a Trader Joe’s worker from San Jose, and Stuart and Lesley from Ireland sharing the middle seat. Stuart was actually on a year long leave of absence from Accenture (same former employer as Chad) and was traveling with his girlfriend Lesley who had left her job as well. Our driver, Baterdene, was a man of few words but endless smiles and our guide, Hurlee, was a recent graduate of a Mongolian university who was using her knowledge of her country and respectable English ability to advance herself.

The decision to sign up for this specific tour was a combination of knowing what we wanted to see and then making the rounds at the various guesthouses to see what tours were scheduled this late in the season. We lucked out in the fact that our selected tour was at the 6 person maximum thus minimizing the shared costs. For $33 per person per day we got our driver, guide, van, gas, food, accommodation, park fees, road fees and activities paid for. It turned out to be some of the best value for our money we have seen on our trip.

Our tour was 10 days of ‘ger to ger’ touring throughout the countryside. We first headed south into the Gobi desert. The desert, it turns out, was covered with snow, not the landscape one imagines when thinking of the Gobi. As we moved further south the snow cover slowly lifted and we continued to be surprised by what the land had to offer. The Gobi Desert is actually quite diverse offering snow topped jagged mountains, vast rock outcroppings, rolling hills and patches of shrubbery along with the occasional sand dune and periodic water oasis’s one would expect.

The path/direction we followed was not really dictated by any sort of road but more so by Baterdene’s knowledge of the land. In some sections there were light tire ruts that we seemed to follow for a short while only to suddenly turn off into a vast nothingness and continue on. There was no pavement, shoulder/ditch or road markers at any point. Essentially you felt like you were driving hundreds of kilometers each day through open fields. At first we wondered if we were just missing some markers or if the driver was lost but this trend of driving continued throughout our tour.

At the end of every day we would pull up to a ger camp and our guide would go in to ask the family if we could stay in their extra ger. We would then tumble out of our van to claim our beds, with the ones closest to the fire being most valuable. The families we stayed with were wonderful and cheerful, showing us great hospitality, binging us tea and coming in every night and early morning to stoke the fire. Each morning, prior to departing, we would present any children in the family with the coloring books and pencils we had brought with us from Ulaanbaatar and it was magical to see their face light up in joy from such a simple gift.

The hardest part of the entire trip was not the cold or traveling with people we didn’t know for 10 days, it was the food. Mongolians love meat, and in particular they love mutton (lamb). Besides Chad and myself, there were two other people who claimed to be vegetarian on the trip. I thought that would make everything easier, but it turns out they were ‘pretend’ vegetarians, willing to eat meat whenever they felt inclined. Unfortunately that makes people think that all vegetarians are this way and I spent a few meals watching everyone else eat.

The Mongolian landscape is extremely diverse. There are over 34 million head of livestock and only 2.5 million people. We encountered countless animals with their herders during our travels. The herders were interesting people. Like the rest of Mongolia, they had moved forward with some modern advancements but still held on to their traditional way of life. We would see them on horseback or camel, but it was not uncommon for them to be on a motorbike and all the while talking on their cellphone. Half of the Mongolian population lives in gers (many in cities), but these traditional houses are almost always equipped with solar panels and satellite tv! It was quite a site to pass a ger in the middle of nowhere, fully decked out with some modern technology Another interesting fact - only people that live in Ulaanbaatar own land (and this just came about a few years ago). Everyone else claims land by moving their ger to an open part of land, whether it be in the countryside or towns.

During the 10 days we made a few stops to see families that our driver and guide knew, just to say hello and introduce us. We would sit inside the ger, and the family would offer us airag (fermented mare’s milk) and homemade vodka made from yogurt. It is considered offensive to turn down a gift, so we would all take sips and pass around the bowls, sometimes for hours. It was a great way to see how people lived and meet the families who find great satisfaction in entertaining guests, especially from the western world. At one point a local man actually produced two fish from his dal (traditional overcoat) and presented them to us as a gift! All families also have big huge, Mongolian dogs. We were warned in advance many times about the dogs in the countryside. They are not considered pets but are working dogs. They protect the flocks and families, keeping wolves and strangers away as no gers have fences. We were told to be very careful of them, that they are mean, ferocious dogs that would bite you if given the chance. Turns out the were big softies that couldn’t have been more different. The dogs were massive, but extremely friendly and loved a nice belly rub. They would trot up, sniff you to make sure you were not intruding, then sleep outside the gers at night, barking at the birds and sometimes chasing the cars that would pass by.

Our days weren’t all filled with driving and visits to the small towns in the countryside. We spent a full day riding camels at the Khongor sand dunes. Unlike the camels we rode in Jordan, these camels were shorter and have 2 humps. They were great fun and filled with personality. The old women who guided them sang to her animals and hugged them whenever we got off. She truly loved her camels, which is understandable as we were told she made the equivalent of 30,000USD in the summer high season from tourists! We also spent a morning on a horseback, although I would opt for a camel any day. The horses are all semi-wild in Mongolia. The day we were to ride we had to wait as the handler went out to “catch them”. They are famous for throwing riders and dragging them as they gallop away. None of that excitement happened to us, but they were very interesting creatures to ride.

The last night of our countryside adventure was Chad’s birthday as well as a driver and a guide from another group that had been traveling on and off with us so a celebration was in order. There was a big feast for dinner and the drivers and guides gave Chad a nice birthday present, a bottle of local vodka! Of course that had to be drunk along with airag, wine and more vodka! Drinking is definitely a group event here, no one drinks on their own, but everything is communal and passed around in a circle. After dinner a local traditional Mongolian throat singer wandered into our ger and played for us, even singing Chad a song for his birthday. It was one to remember and I have no idea how I will be able to top it next year!

We returned to Ulaanbaatar tired and in great need of a shower (we had only had 1 on the trip at a public shower house) but extremely happy and it was evident that we had fallen in love with Mongolia. It is a simply amazing country, with some of the most breathtaking landscape and friendliest people that we have encountered. The journey to get here is long and expensive but worth every bit of effort. The people and their country have been incredible hosts in sharing their culture and ways of life with us and we are very thankful for that.

*The Mongolian pictures are up. Check them out to get the full image of Mongolia!

Discovering Mongolia

2009-10-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

Simply put, Mongolia is Eastern by ethnicity and Western by culture. The dynamic here is something to observe. Women in designer jeans and high heeled boots mingling with businessmen in traditional Mongolian full body overcoats known as ‘dals‘. Even within Asia, Mongolians have a completely unique language, music and food balanced with Western TV programming, upscale bars, shopping plazas and European SUVs.

At first sight the capital city seemed a little bizarre but a look into the country’s history helps to sort things out. In most minds the looming historical reference of Mongolia is usually attached to the name ‘Chinggis Khaan’ (yes, it is Chinggis and not Ghengis). From our childhood education as well as references in pop culture, we know Chinggis and his band of Mongols to be ruthless, heartless thugs who slaughtered their way to one of the greatest empires known to man, covering 90% of Asia. Yes, indeed they were ruthless but no more than any other empire or crusade the world has known. Chinggis was actually well ahead of his time preaching religious tolerance, promoting education, enacting fair tax laws to promote trade and building up his empire’s infrastructure beyond his own front door. Fast forward several centuries to 1937 and Mongolia found itself at the center of what is referred to as the ‘Russian Purge.’ Essentially the Soviet Union absorbed Mongolia into it’s own empire and in the process destroyed much of the Mongolian culture. All Buddhist Temples were destroyed (Mongolia is 80% Buddhist) and monks were murdered or sent to the streets, museums and government buildings destroyed, cultural relics were shipped off and any references to their beloved Chinggis Khaan were banned. This all came to an end with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 and Mongolia struggled for the following decade to stand on its own, independent of Soviet subsidies and support. Lucky for Mongolia, they have a solid foot planted in their historic past and much of their culture is vividly present today with new statues of Chinggis everywhere (as well as the odd Beatles monument). They continue to hold on to their traditional beliefs, traditions and housing but practice modern economics and business.

Mongolia is VAST. It is the second largest land locked country and is the least densely populated country in the world! Points of interest are scattered around the country and we immediately knew that if we were to see much in our 15 days that we would need to be organized. We talked of two smaller trips but settled on one large 10 day trip that would take us south into the Gobi Desert and then back north into the forests, mountains and grasslands of central Mongolia.

Another thing that was immediately evident as we stepped off the train in Ulaanbaatar, it is freaking cold this time of year! We had recently spent time on the beaches of SE Asia and we were not prepared in any way as we saw snow falling on our first morning in the city. Lucky for us, Ulaanbaatar has a very healthy blackmarket where you can pick up everything from livestock (live or dead) to school supplies to secondhand clothing and electronics and even everything you need to make a traditional ger. The whole big party goes on every day on the edge of town in a massive parking lot with makeshift blue tarp tents covering tables of goods. We hiked the 4 kilometers out in the snow, shaking cold with thin layers of clothing, and returned home warm with 6 pairs of wool socks, 2 pairs of long underwear, 1 sweater, 1 flannel, 2 pairs of gloves and some coloring books and colored pencils (for the kids of the families we were to stay with in the countryside). All of this was had for a meager $15USD.

The next morning the Soviet relic below pulled up in front of our guesthouse. It would be our mode of transport for the next 10 days and we knew we were in for an adventure.

Trans-Mongolian Beauty

2009-10-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of our journey we both marked countries that we anticipated to be highlights of our year on the road. We both noted the entire continent of Africa and were not disappointed. Colleen achieved a dream and visited Borneo. I marked Nepal, a place which I was anxious to return to and also noted Mongolia, more out of curiosity and intrigue than anything.

We were slightly anxious to get out of Beijing. Kudos to their blossoming economy but the resulting tradeoff including neglect of the environment and a spotty human rights record left us hoping for more changes in the future.

Our long road out of Beijing was actually a train track, most commonly known as the Trans-Mongolian Railway and ends in the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The journey took us 31 hours and oddly we were the only two souls (plus one guard) on our train carriage. Nearly the whole rest of the train was completely empty. The scenery was amazing; some of the best of our trip thus far. We passed vast open fields, desolate desert, mountains ranges and small villages with their tidy train stations proudly proclaiming their names. We watched as foxes, wild horses, hawks, wild dogs, geep (goats/sheep), herders and cattle passed outside our window appearing almost as some sort of film reel for our constant entertainment.

The border crossing took place in the middle of the night. First the Chinese officials came on the train, searched our cabin and left wordless with our passports. Polite but very brisk and directed. They eventually returned with our passports and the train moved for 15 minutes. The train then sat idle another 2 hours while they changed the track gauges as the Mongolian tracks run on Russian gauge, which is slightly larger (I remember that they had to do this when crossing from Sweden to Finland as well). Next the Mongolian officials entered. They were friendly, smiled, spoke English and when they returned our passports to turned our lights off, shut the door and told us “sleepy, bye-bye”. We knew we were going to love this country.

China Revisited

2009-10-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

*China loves blocking websites, including this one, so we were unable to post while we were there. We put up 2 posts in the last day and lots of new pictures, so be sure to check them out!

The last time I had visited Beijing was over 5 years ago. At that time, I had just come overland on a series of buses and trains from Tibet and had mixed feelings on the country as a whole. I had encountered great hospitality on the part of the people in restaurants, shops and hotels but had quite a large amount of discontent for the government and what seemed to be a suppressed Tibet and Chinese society as a whole. At the time, Beijing seemed to be lifeless to me, somewhat dirty and in need of a good jolt of emotion and some freshening up. Evidently the recent success of Chinese markets, and likely the Olympics, had done a good deal to turn things around.

Surprisingly, we received our Chinese visas painlessly, aside from parting with $130 each, and arrived to a newly revamped Beijing airport. I was quite impressed with the new structure but again was met with the odd silence and expressionless faces as hundreds of people queued up to pass immigration. Again, no hassles with immigration and we grabbed our packs and boarded a local bus for the trip into town. Immediately I could sense a change in scenery from what I had experienced only a handful of years ago. The highways and overpasses were new construction, bright flowers decorated the medians and intersections, new high-rise condos towered overhead and hardly any trash was to be seen along the sidewalks and roadways. Again Colleen had searched out a great accommodation deal online and we checked into a corporate apartment for our 4 night stay.

Our agenda for Beijing was quite straightforward. We wanted to see the Forbidden City and the adjacent Tiananmen Square, tour a section of the Great Wall and hopefully catch some of the Iowa football game (a Saturday night game at home meant an early Sunday morning game in Beijing!). We headed out on foot, making a stop to pick up train tickets to Mongolia before heading to view the Forbidden City. Nearing the city center we began to encounter large crowds. By the time we reached the Forbidden City we had to stay within a few feet of each other in fear of getting lost in the congestion. It was quite the scene to behold. Everyone was holding waving miniature Chinese flags, children were adorned with beads and necklaces with large plastic medallions, huge megatron TVs were setup at intersections displaying speeches recently given by governmental leaders, bright banners hung overhead and Tiananmen Square looked somewhat like a carnival packed with decorations and tens of thousand of people. We knew that the Peoples Republic of China had celebrated it’s 60th anniversary the week prior and the hugely popular Autumn Festival was taking place the week of our stay. It seems the government had decided to combine the two into one big two week long celebration. We were not prepared.

It was immediately evident from the huge throng of people exiting the Forbidden City gate (think Boston Marathon but they were walking and everyone was Chinese) that entering would be difficult. Across the street Tiananmen Square was so imposing with it’s own crowds that we did not even attempt to enter. On top of this there were guards everywhere adding some uneasiness to the event. Every 20 or 30 feet there seemed to be another dozen of them, some joking with each other and wrestling while others performed some sort of marching routines for onlookers. Their presence was overwhelming and I was not sure whether to observe them in a serious manner or smile at their antics. We observed the whole circus for probably an hour, took some pictures, and then decided it was time to move on. We got a very good sense of the mindset of the Chinese people, their national pride and the constant presence of their government during this time and traded this experience for the historical significance of a tour of the Forbidden City. On a side note, there were no birds in sight. Apparently the government had been trapping all of the birds since mid-September because they did not want anything flying over Tiananmen Square during the official celebration. They said they were keeping them in cages awaiting , but I am guessing they are all pretty much dead now. Talk about controlling everything!

The next morning we awoke to an early alarm clock. It was likely our only chance to view college football this season and we had made a trip to the beer store the night before in hopes of getting an authentic feel the day of. Our hotel had promised satellite TV with ESPN but of course this was not the case. Luckily we were able to catch a live streaming of the game online and we cherished a bit of our normal Saturday fall routine back home.

An even earlier wakeup call the next morning found us heading in the dark to a hostel 2 kilometers away to meet up with a tour heading to the Great Wall. We had no idea the sun would be rising so late in the day and we were greeted by a toothless bus driver smoking cigarettes

(second side note, EVERYONE in China smokes) who directed us to board his bus in a language that we did not understand. It was odd as the bus was empty, but an hour later we had made a handful of stops to pick up other tourists as well as an English speaking guide.

We had chosen to hike a part of the wall which had only been partially rebuilt. There are rebuilt sections that are more easily toured and to some may appear more picturesque but to us

visiting these sections is kind of like saying you have seen an authentic medieval castle because you visited Disney World. Our tour actually included two sections of the wall, Jinshanling and Simatai, along with a 12 kilometer wall hike that connected the two. The wall is simply beautiful. Having visited before, I had a large amount of joy seeing Colleen’s eyes light up as the wall came into view overhead through the trees. The fist thing she commented, and I remembered thinking to myself on my first visit, was how steep the area of land was that they built the wall. They could have easily chosen a simpler route but building right up the imposing mountains and cliffs worked to further impede any would be invaders. The wall was relatively uncrowned, another reason we chose the section we did, and we spent the next 4 hours hiking the 12 kilometers. It was a lot of steps up followed by a lot of steps down over and over again with over 90 guard towers placed periodically along the way.

We left the wall pretty exhausted. It was a good thing. The following morning we had yet another early alarm to wake to (this time we ordered a taxi) in order to head to the train station and board the Trans-Mongolian train northward.

The Waiting Game

2009-10-14T03:53:00.000-07:00

Visas are an important part of any trip and luckily we have been able to get most of our visas at border crossings and airports. We have had to get a few in advance, India in San Francisco and Vietnam in Cambodia, and knew we would need to spend a few days in a major town collecting our final 2 ‘advance’ visas, Brazil and China. Brazil is an odd visa, you have to get it within 90 days of your arrival in their country, but you are required to obtain it in your home country. Basically, this means if you are 8 months into an around the world trip, you are going to have some troubles, and that is exactly what happened to us when we arrived back in Singapore.

We were going back and forth on which visa to get in Singapore and which to get in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is said to be the easiest place in the world to get a China visa, so we opted to attempt Brazil in Singapore. We arrived at the Brazil consulate early on a Monday morning, with applications and all supporting documents that they might need. As soon as we opened our mouths we were shot down. We were not permanent residents of Singapore so we could not get a visa there we were told. The consulate worker went as far as to tell us to “thank Bush” for our problem. Clearly that did not go over well with us but we bit our tongues and asked him to reconsider. I even threw in a few tears hoping they would help the situation. Eventually the worker told us he would send a telegram(do people still use these??) to Brazil asking for special permission. At this point we even questioned wanting to go to Brazil, but our around the world ticket had us landing in Sao Paulo and we had no other options for flights. We were told to come back the next day. No updates the following day and it seemed they were just stringing us along. Frustrations mounted at this point and we decided to hit up a local microbrewery to let off some steam. We had only had one drink, bought at a corner market, in the previous three weeks of travel in Malaysia so we figured this was as good of time as any for a cold one. We were happily informed on arrival that Canadian brewer had just released his ‘Oktoberfest’ beer and we had an afternoon fest of our own while discussing our options for moving forward with the visas.

On the third day we headed back to the consulate, hoping to get some answers. By this time we had already spent a total of 6 nights in Singapore and we were becoming impatient. We had planned to head up to Malaysia to a tiny little island off the coast for the week, but the visa was more important, so we had to cancel our reservations. After being given no update and sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, they finally decided to give us visas. Victory! Did we mention the visa few for Americans is $142? Reciprocity fee.

We had four nights remaining before our flight to Hong Kong and we knew we needed a break from Singapore. The easiest option was an hour ferry ride off the coast to the small Indonesian island of Bintan. We had not expected to visit Indonesia on the trip but the opportunity presented itself and we hopped on the ferry with no reservations or real knowledge of the place we were heading. Unaware to us, while on the ferry a large earthquake hit Indonesia. The news was broadcast worldwide and we had no idea anything had happened. We were on the ferry and felt nothing and the island sustained no damage. We had no email connection during our four day stay and unfortunately this lead to a storm of worried emails from friends and family. The island turned out to be relaxing and rather quiet. Our resort was rural and rather simple but had an authentic feel and was run by local townspeople. We stayed in a wood bungalow, perched on stilts over the water and spent the days and nights reading, playing cards, and enjoying some great local beer.

Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. For once we were not questioned at check-in as we had converted our paper tickets to electronic tickets at the American Airlines office in Singapore. Due to high accommodation costs in HK we spend our first night in the YWCA before transferring to one of our nicer hotels of the trip. We had caught a web special for multi-night stays and we were actually upgraded at check-in. Once again, bright and early we found ourselves waiting in a massive line outside the Chinese consulate. We were extremely worried about this visa. We had a flight 5 days later and Chad already had a cancelled Chinese visa in his passport from his trip to Tibet 5 years ago. We waited patiently in line and when we finally made it upstairs handed our application in with no issues. They didn’t even want any of the supporting documents that we had spent a few hours putting together the night before. They told us to come back on Thursday and off we went. No drama or problems, what a difference from Brazil. We now had another 4 days stretching ahead of us while we waited to pick up our passports.

Hong Kong is a pretty amazing city. High-rises control the skyline and fancy malls line the streets. All this working on passports in already expensive cities was starting to take a beating on our wallets, so we spent hours wandering around the city. We found free internet at the local library, browsed some high end malls, rode the historic tram to the peak overlooking the city, hopped the low cost ferry and subway system around town, and put together meals from the local supermarket. On our third night in town we met up with a friend from college, Brian, and his wife Elodie for drinks. The couple had moved to HK on a 2 year commitment with work and were now entering their second year in the city. They really had enjoyed their time in the city, had started a family and were actually looking into extending their stay. They played great hosts to us treating us to a night at a local brewery, inviting us to the historic horse tracks the following evening and allowing us to crash at their apartment our final night in town. Once again, friends on the other side of the world have shown us such great hospitality and we are truly grateful.

(Don’t) Climb Every Mountain…

2009-10-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

We have been carrying a copy of the Lonely Planet SE Asia on a Shoestring with us since the beginning of our trip. Colleen does most of the research around the destinations that we visit and at some point in paging through the guidebook she came across a few paragraphs on climbing Mt Kinabalu in Borneo. The peak is the highest point in SE Asia and the tallest thing between Himalayas and New Guinea. The trekking and hiking we have done in previous countries has been some of the highlights of the trip thus far so we knew this was something we should look into.

Still battling crowds and reservation issues due to Ramadan (does this holiday ever end?), we gave a call to Kinabalu National park and were able to secure two slots for the climb. Then we got ‘sticker price shock’ for one of the few times on the trip. The guide book had made the 2day/1night endeavor seem like a relatively affordable activity, after all the book is designed for shoestring budgets. A package that we thought would cost around $150 total ended up being double that, including a $90 charge per person to stay in an unheated dorm mid mountain! We almost balked but then reconsidered knowing this type of activity was something we both highly enjoyed (we have talked many times about how we hope to do more camping and hiking once back in the States).

We arrived outside the park a day early and spent the night in a guest house reminiscent of the tea houses in Nepal. The next morning, in an attempt to hitchhike the 3 kilometers up mountain to the park entrance, I took a nasty fall rolling into a ditch and broke my 3rd watch of the trip. Luckily I had no serious injuries and had saved parts from broken watch #2 to make repairs (I currently have multiple spare parts for Casio F-91W watches if anyone needs any).
We made it in one piece to the park headquarters and while in queue at check-in we made friends with a pair of traveling friends from Australia, Denver and Lindsey. I asked them if they wanted to split the required cost of a guide and with that we had a group of 4. We signed in, grabbed a packed lunch, headed to the trail and started our upward climb.

The trail is split into two days of hiking covering 19 kilometer roundtrip and topping out at 13,500ft . Day 1 covers 7 kilometers and rises steeply in elevation from 5,000ft to 11,000 ft. We completed this task in just over 4 hours, checked in, took a cold shower, ate and went to sleep in our unheated dorm room. We barely slept in anticipation of the next day’s climb and awoke at 1:45AM for some snacks before hitting the trail with our guide at 2:30AM for what we were told would be a 4 hour hike to the summit. The trail was pitch black except for the narrow rays of light given off by our head lamps. The wind was blowing heavily bringing with it fog and moisture. To make matters more difficult, the final 2.5 kilometers to the summit rose another 3000ft mostly through the aide of secured ropes.

Lindsey was worn from the previous day’s hike and having better foresight than the rest of us, decided to stay in bed and abort the summit hike. The three of us and our guide trudged upward getting ever colder and wetter as we went. I had followed Colleen’s lead in packing the day before and brought extra clothes knowing the predawn hike would be a cold one. We both had on 4 layers including a rain jacket but it seemed to do no good. The wind sliced through our layers and somehow reached our skin and the dampness penetrated our now well worn travel shoes. The worst part of the cold was on exposed hands as we hauled our selves of up secured ropes. Our saving grace was a hiker who was descending the day before and gifted to us a pair of cheep gloves now being worn by Colleen.
A little over two hours later we arrived at the summit (did we hike that fast?), a full 90 minutes prior to the sunrise. Although our guide had been working the mountain for 3 years and only spoke a little English, he seemed surprised at the earliness of our arrival. We were the only ones there, having not seen other hikers in well over an hour, and we were shivering cold in the dark. We could not see anything, neither the sky nor the valley below through the fog and the guide instructed us to huddle behind a rock and wait it out until the sunrise.

The wait turned out to be some of the longest minutes of the trip. I sat hugging Colleen with our arms wrapped around each other shaking uncontrollably. We were too cold and exhausted to even talk but both had serious thoughts of exactly how dangerous of a situation we were in. I felt the worst for Denver, he had no hat or gloves and only a flimsy poncho to shelter him from the wind and rain. A few hours later back at mid mountain we would see a thermometer that read 42 degrees F in the sunlight and Denver informed me that he was watching small icicles form on my jacket as we huddled mountaintop. Psychologically we focused on the warm that would come with the sunrise only to be disappointed a little over an hour later when we emerged from behind our rock to a sunrise that was blocked out by dense fog and no postcard view from the peak. We took a quick picture at the sign posted on the summit and headed down.

Ascending quickly put all of us in a better mood and the movement along with a little sunlight quickly warmed our bodies. We reached mid mountain, packed our bags, ate breakfast and started the hike back down to the park headquarters. From there we shared a taxi back to the town of Kota Kinabalu and said goodbye to our Australian friends. We had a flight the next afternoon, back to Singapore, and we bid farewell to Borneo.

Where The Orangutans Roam - Our Adventures in Borneo

2009-09-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Animals are a big thing in our life. We absolutely love them and there is nothing better than seeing a wild animal in it’s natural habitat (besides seeing our adopted seal, Orkney, in the SF Zoo). That was our main goal in coming to Borneo, to see as many animals as possible in their native land.

It has been my dream to see orangutans out in the wild since I was little. They are my favorite animal, period. They only exist in the wild in Malaysia and Indonesia and Chad agreed to come along with my dream and head to Borneo. Malaysian Borneo is a fascinating place. You could literally spend months on the island exploring everything from coral to caves to jungle. We had 2 weeks to explore the island and given Ramadan was coming to an end, and with it a 3 day celebration, we had to plan out everything well in advance (an anomaly on this trip as usually we only book activities only a day or two in advance).

Our first task was a 10 hour bus ride from Kota Kinabalu in the west to the town of Semporna on the far eastern side of the island. Semporna is not much of a town, but it is famous for it’s world class diving. Off the coast lie a handful of islands that have arguably the best diving in the world. Since neither of us are PADI certified we could not check out the scuba diving, but we did book a one day snorkeling tour of the area. We spent an entire day under the water at multiple sights, dodging jellyfish, checking out multi-colored coral and fish, and best of all - swimming with sea turtles as they scrounged for food an surfaced for air. It was amazing and only the beginning of our Borneo adventures.

Back to the original reason we included Borneo on our trip, orangutans. The island offers the unique opportunity of seeing some of the last remaining wild orangutans (less than 45,000 left in the world!) by staying near their natural habit, far from any major town or city. The lodge we booked was located on the Kinabatangan River, 500+ steps up on top of a hill surrounded by dense jungle. It was a small lodge, only 4 guest rooms, and as we hiked up the stairs I joked that hopefully an orangutan would show up outside of breakfast. The very next day that happened. Apparently the lodge sits on a orangutan family feeding route, amazing. That was not our only encounter with a wild one, we also found a mother and baby on one of our daily boat cruises. She wasn’t as happy to see us as we were to see her and starting throwing large branches down at us. They are very territorial. Not only were we treated to orangutans, we also spotted hundreds of proboscis and macaque monkeys heading to their water source at the river. It is truly amazing to see the animals out in the wild when we have spent most of our lives only viewing them in zoos.

We weren’t done with the orangutans yet. After 3 wonderful days in the jungle which included 2 boat trips up the river and 1 jungle trek for ultimate animal spotting, we headed to the town of Sepolik to visit one of only 4 orangutan rehabilitation centers in the world. The animals at the rehab center are usually brought in as babies, orphaned when palm oil plantations tear down the jungle and kill or separate them from their parents. Palm oil plantations are a major problem in Sabah, the northern section of Borneo. Borneo produces 47% of the worlds palm oil, an ingredient that goes into everything from cooking oils to sunscreen. Given the recent economic hardships, the government and landowners have turned to the dependable revenue generated by these massive plantations built on clear cut virgin jungle land. As always, money rules and unfortunately these plantations are taking precedence over the environment and wildlife. The WWF is doing it’s best to buy up land and save the animals but it is a never ending struggle as the land is essentially a patchwork of alternating plots of palm plantations and protected land with no corridors linking sections. We saw the destruction first hand from our hill top lodge and nearly everywhere we traveled around the country, it is heartbreaking.

We decided to stay out by the sanctuary to maximize our orangutan time and spent one entire day watching these amazing creatures in their refuge. There are 2 feeding times for the public and most people attend one of these, watch for 20 minutes and then take off. We went to both and were able to see about 10 different orangutans wrestling, playing, eating and swinging gracefully around the jungle. Between feedings we decided to use the hiking trails in the sanctuary. Apparently we are the only people who have used these lately as the trails were all over grown and they locked us in! Our exit consisted of climbing over fences, crawling through locked gates and one extremely scary face off with a troop of about 30 macaque monkeys. They were not interested in letting us out and we fled running and terrified in the other direction as the alpha male chased us with his massive teeth out.

Seeing the orangutans in the wild was even better then we had expected. It also exposed us to the fight to save the lives of so many different species and the virgin rainforest. But Borneo is so much more than just animals, and we have loved every second we have spent on this beautiful island. We are leaving with vivid memories and a renewed environmental consciousness.

Brunei and Beyond

2009-09-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

Malaysian Borneo was high on our list of ‘must sees’ for the trip but our round-the-world ticket alliance offered no routes to the island. The low cost airline Air Asia offered the best solution with a flight to the mid coast city of Miri from Kuala Lumpur. An afternoon bus ride from Singapore had us in Kuala Lumpur 2 days prior to our flight. We had hoped to catch up with some of my old work buddies staffed in Kuala Lumpur but of course this was the week they were off on their own vacation. So we had 2 full days to explore the city and passed most of the time on long walks and runs around town taking in the urban scenery.

The dominant focal point of the cityscape is the Petronas Towers, the skyscrapers which took over the title of ’tallest buildings in the world’ from the Sears Tower in 1996 only to lose it in 2004. The buildings are magnificent. It is one thing to design and build such a large structure but to do it twice simultaneously is quite the accomplishment. To cap it off, the towers are attractive, wrapped in ribbons of stainless steel, and are now considered the crown jewel of the city.

The two hour flight out from the mainland had us in Miri by noontime and from there we needed to head north to reach the activities we had planned. The small nation of Brunei laid in our path. The island of Borneo is geographically spit in two with Malaysia occupying the western part and Indonesia covering the eastern half. Then there is the country of Brunei, appearing as some sort of small geographic afterthought sandwiched by Malaysian Borneo on three sides and the ocean on the fourth. The tiny Islamic nation consists of less than 400,000 people and is headed by one of the most wealthy persons in the world, the Sultan of Brunei.

We caught a shared taxi north from Miri to the Brunei capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), along the way stopping at the Malaysia/Brunei border for what turned out to be one of our oddest border crossings yet. For starters we did not exit the car or speak to anyone. Our driver simply pulled up to a drive thru style window to both exit Malaysia and enter Borneo and handed over our passports for stamping. In between the two checkpoints we did have to stop at a small shed for a mandatory H1N1 full body temperature scan. Evidently it was a slow day at the checkpoint as the medical staff had to take a break from watching ‘The Naked Gun 33 1/3’ on the flat screen mounted to the wall in order to take our temperature.

BSB is a sleepy capital, with well paved roads and manicured lawns. Entering Brunei had stirred up thoughts similar to what one thinks of when mentioning the excesses of Dubai but we found this oil rich country to be quite the contrary. The city center consisted of low rising buildings and is dominated by the beautiful Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque but offers nothing extraordinary from a visitors perspective other than a pleasant stroll beside the water. The sale of alcohol is banned in Brunei and most of the restaurants looked quiet (it was the Islamic month long period of Ramadan and much of the country was fasting during daylight hours). We caught a tour of the Royal Regalia museum which housed many gifts given to the Sultan of Brunei over the years from world dignitaries. What do you give a man with such wealth? The answer is anything made of gold including statues, daggers, models of buildings, vases, etc.

We must mention that our path out of Brunei involved two ferries with a night layover on the island of Labuan. If you like duty free shopping, head to Labuan. We left a country where alcohol was banned and entered an island where cans of beer cost 50 cents (about ¼ of the normal cost in Malaysia). The island of Labuan is some 100 km offshore but due to difficult terrain on Borneo, it acts as the main corridor of travel over the northern border between Brunei and Malaysia.

The main island of Borneo actually played a critical role in the later part of World War II, mostly due to it‘s strategic location. Initially reinforced by Australian regiments, it was then sacked by the Japanese prior to the Allies retaking control again in mid 1945. We were somewhat surprised to spot a World War II Memorial on the map of the small island Labuan, a handful of kilometers outside of the main town, and figured it made a good destination for an evening run. We reached the oceanside memorial and were immediately filled with a emotion. The memorial was actually the final resting place for over 3900 Allied soldiers, mostly from Australian infantry and engineering units. Simple but tasteful plaques informed us that a majority of the dead were a result of the Japanese ‘death marches’. The death marches were a last ditch effort by the Japanese in early 1945 to kill off the remaining POWs before losing control of the Borneo. The marches sent already weak soldiers on a march 250 km into dense jungle. Out of the 2500+ POWs that started the march, only 260 survived, all of which died of disease and starvation once reaching the destination camp.

We wandered the rows of white gravestones for nearly an hour as the sun set. Families of soldiers were able to engrave a last goodbye on the headstones and it was touching to have the opportunity to read these farewells. I was somewhat taken back by the fact that nearly half of the gravesites were of unknown soldiers, simply marked with ’Known only by God’. We treasured our quiet time at the memorial and were reminded that the freedom that we have to do such an amazing trip through so many countries is nothing to be taken for granted.

Beaches and Visitors in Thailand

2009-09-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Good old Marriott. After months of staying in budget rooms, we decided an upgrade was in order and the perfect place to do that was an island off Thailand called Ko Samui. We had one free night that we receive every year burning a hole in our account and decided to add another night on with points, so 2 nights free at the Renaissance was in order. We flew south from Bangkok and caught a ferry out to Ko Samui, arriving after dark to a crazy scene. Ko Samui was nuts! Not at all like we pictured a quite Thai island to be. The main town of Chaweng had crowds of people, stores, nightclubs, restaurants, exotic animals, bars, call girls, ladyboys, restaurants, etc. everywhere. We spent the first night at a cheap hotel and while we were there for only 10 short hours we were approached by mutilple people wanting us to feed their monkey or iguanas on the leash at their sides. It was odd. Luckily the Marriott was much removed from the madness on a quite secluded beach and we arrived there the next morning and spent a blissful 48 hours lounging on the beach or in the pool, sipping wine on our porch and enjoying the cleanliness of a comfy bed and room. The staff was nice enough to great us with a bottle of red wine, upgrade our room to an ocean view with a jacuzzi on our private porch and they even added on a daily buffet breakfast. Needless to say, it was heaven and exactly what we needed!

We said a sad goodbye to the wonderful Marriott and headed back to the mainland where we bussed it to the opposite coast to meet up with our very first visitor of the trip, my sister Hilary. Chad and I were thrilled that she was coming and couldn’t wait to see her. Hilary showed up at our guesthouse in the coastal town of Krabi the following day and we immediately threw her into the world of budget travel. As a flight attendant with United, Hilary is used to staying in pretty nice hotels but she had no problem fitting in with our thrifty ways. She also brought a few MUCH needed supplies from the US that we just haven’t been able to find in other parts of the world.

The weather, as always (the monsoon), wasn’t fully cooperating with us, but we decided to go ahead with our plan and head out to the island of Ko Phi Phi for a few days to introduce Hilary to Thai beaches. Ko Phi Phi is truly paradise. The island is tiny and there is only one town, but the beaches are beautiful and the people are friendly. Ko Phi Phi was completely destroyed in the 2004 Tsunami, thousands were killed and the wave washed away most of the buildings. Even today the town is working on rebuilding itself and the emotional scars on the people remain with the physical scars of the landscape. Nearly every shop owner had a story to tell on a sign or the back of a menu and the town was still in the process of reconstructing walkways and buildings.

We spent a full four days/nights oceanside at Long’s Beach in our 3 person beach bungalow. Our days were passed catching up in beach lounge chairs and at night we dined out accompanied by sunsets. On the night of a full moon we even introduced Hilary to the infamous Thai buckets of whiskey. We cherished our time in Ko Phi Phi and to be able to experience it with Hilary is something that we will have for a lifetime.

No trip to Thailand is complete without a stop in Bangkok so we returned there for the 3rd and final time of our trip. We caught an overnight bus (another treat for Hilary) to the back packer haven of Koh San Road. We spent two nights there, stocking up on much needed supplies, drinking cheap Chang beers, touring Buddhist temples and taking in all that Bangkok has to offer. Hilary even got a $3 haircut to match the one I had gotten a few weeks earlier.

Hilary decided to continue the trip with us, and we all hopped on a short 2 hour flight to Singapore. Singapore is expensive! To save some much needed cash we decided to stay in a dorm room of a hostel, for only the second time on the trip. We checked in to a 3 bed dorm and to our great surprise were greeted with one of the wonderful sides of backpacker travel, bedbugs! Fortunately this is the first time we have ever encountered them, but unfortunately they really came out at 1AM and we had to switch rooms after a minor freakout. On our last day with Hilary we decided to head out for a Tiger Brewery Tour and a stop at one of the microbreweries in town. It was a great last day and the next morning we went our separate ways with a sad goodbye. We are so thankful to have been able to share this wonderful experience with Hilary and we look forward to many more in the future!

Laid Back Laos

2009-09-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

Laos is full of cheerful people. As we emerged from our hotel on our first morning in the country, we ventured out onto the streets of the historic town of Luang Prabang to bustling crowds of smiling faces. On the prop plane we had read in an airline magazine that we would be arriving on the eve of a large festival but we were not prepared for the hoards of people roaming the streets. The main streets in town were shutdown as Laos families wandered from stall to stall buying everything from meat on a stick to toy guns and helium filled balloons. Lucky for us, most of those in town for the festival were staying with friends and relatives so the guesthouses and restaurants remained relatively uncrowded.

The mighty Mekong River ran along the edge of town and the highlight of the festival is the boat races taking place on a neighboring tributary. We had our morning run on a backstreet to avoid the crowds, grabbed a Vietnamese style sandwich from a street vendor and headed to the races. It turned out to be a family event with children everywhere (all the boys playing with realistic looking toy guns) interspersed with a handful of tourists. We grabbed a table and a large Beer Lao and took in the atmosphere. Laos people are naturally pleasant and the festival brought it out with kids playing, parents eating and drinking and everyone cheering for their favorite boat. The races themselves consisted of long wooden boats comprising of 50-60 rowers per boat rowing on command. Two boats would race head-to-head down stream over a quarter mile course with the winners returning upstream to race again. Most of the boats were from a particular village and sections of the sidelines would erupt as boats past. The enthusiasm the communities had for their individual boas was something to witness. That evening we wandered the streets of town, browsing the night markets as the winning boats were loaded on trailers and paraded through town. The night markets of Luang Prabang are said to be some of the best in southeast Asia and contained everything from t-shirts to pillow covers, wood carvings, sandals, bowls, jewelry, purses and paintings. The festival and the night market, along with the Buddhist monks and temples that the town is known for (it is a UNESCO world heritage city), made Luang Probing a highlight of our trip. On our final day there, we were able to meet up with an English couple from our Halong Bay boat cruise, Ollie and Kim. We all headed out to a local waterfall and bear sanctuary and it was nice to spend a day we some familiar faces.

A trip to Laos is not complete without a day in an intertube floating down a river. If you have ever talked to a person that visited Laos, this is likely the first thing they will tell you about. The small town of Vang Vieng is the capital of this phenomenon and was the next stop on our 9 day tour of the country. We arrived to an array of overpriced and under-cleaned guest houses. After touring about a dozen places we settled on a cheap option (better to be cheap and dirty than expensive and dirty) and booked 3 nights. Now a slight digression to the second phenomenon of Vang Vieng, reruns of ‘Friends’ episodes in every café and bar. Walking down the street you are constantly barraged with the echoing chorus of the ‘Friends’ theme song and the familiar cast voices. If I was mayor of town I would push for ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘.Cheers’ but ‘Friends’ it was and we got our full of no less than 10 episodes during our three day stay. Day two brought with it clouds and overcast weather so we placed all our chips on day three for our tubing adventure.

Day 3 was blue skies scattered with puffy clouds. We got in a morning run, grabbed a bite to eat and caught a ’Friends’ episode and headed out. First stop was the tube rental shack. The total cost for transport to the river and tube was around $14, $7 of which you were refunded if you brought the tube back by 6PM. From there it was into the back of a small pickup truck with 8 others, tubes and all. A 10 minute ride had us outside town and at the rivers edge. It was noon and we were the first group of the day. All seemed calm and there were 3 bars welcoming us at the start of the float. We headed down to bar #3 and ordered up a bucket to drink. On a previous trip to Thailand I had engaged in the wonderful experience of drinking a bucket but for Colleen it was something knew. We picked our poison (a 375 ml bottle local Laos whiskey) paid a small amount ($4). The whiskey was they dumped into a plastic bucket (the type kids use to build sand castles…I recall ours being pink in color) with ice and topped off with a can of Coke and a can of Redbull. This was essentially our jumpstart to the day, the equivalent to taking a beer bong at the start of an Iowa tailgater.

It was not long before I was eyeing the rope swing hanging out the front of the bar. With some caution from Colleen I climbed the 20 foot ladder to the launching pad, grabbed ahold of the bar attached to the end of the rope, and launched myself some 30 ft up and out and into the river. Amazing. I came to slightly dazed with a local boy throwing a rope to me to pull me back into shore. Colleen had a good laugh and we grabbed our tubes and entered the water. We only made it about 50 meters downstream and we were out of the water at bar #4. This time we passed on the bucket and opted for a large Beer Laos and then it was Colleen’s turn. This bar favored the zip line over the rope swing and after some initial hesitation, Colleen was speeding down the line and flinging herself into the river. This trend continued the rest of the day. Any time we wanted a break from floating, a local would launch a rope into the river and pull us over to their makeshift bar. We would float a little, drink a little, and then take our risk on the rope/zipline/waterslide that each given bar had constructed. Most of these contraptions looked like they were the creation of some ill advised freshman engineering class but this added to our excitement. We met another American couple from NYC, vacationing and in between jobs, and the four of us spent the rest of the afternoon comparing stories of home and travels and enjoying ourselves immensely. As night fell and we rounded a bend in the river, Vang Vieng came into site and we exited the river, returned our tubes just in time to collect our deposit, ordered a bucket and a pizza and called it a night.

The Laos capital of Vientiane was our final stop. We dubbed it the sleepiest capital city yet of our trip. All around a very pleasant place but very quiet and uneventful. We had a look at a couple points of interest, visited the expat supermarket that seems to accompany every capitol city abroad, and headed out on an overnight bus to Bangkok.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try a Prop Plane

2009-08-23T04:03:00.000-07:00

When we last wrote we were heading to a little used border on the Vietnam/Laos border. The trip was going to take 3 days and it would include a couple of bus rides and an all day boat journey. We thought it would be a good way to see Northern Laos, and avoid a $150 one way flight from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, our destination of choice in Laos. Hmmm....it seemed like a good idea at the time. The journey started off well. We took an 8 hour mini bus from Sapa, Vietnam to Dien Bien Phu (DBP), Vietnam, technically the border town with Laos. The ride was pretty uneventful except for a lunch stop at the dog meat restaurant, complete with sad little dogs in cages in the back. While the other Vietnamese on our bus happily ate, Chad and I fumed. Needless to say, we did not buy one thing from them. When we arrived in Dien Bien Phu we were met with a somewhat chaotic bus terminal. We grabbed our bags and fought our way to the ticket window. I believe the conversation with the ticket counter went something like this:

Chad: We need to buy tickets on the 5:30AM bus to Laos for tomorrow.
Ticket Women: No bus tomorrow.
Chad: What?? Why no bus tomorrow?
TW: Road closed, border closed.
Chad: What about the day after tomorrow?
TW: Road closed, border closed.
Chad: So when will the next bus be?
The ticket women shrugged, and that was the end of that conversation. So apparently little used=closes easily. We were not happy and Chad was battling the tail end of a 3 day bout with the flu. We went through other options, including hiring someone to drive us to Laos (not possible with the roads) to looking up possible flights. No luck. Our only option was to take an overnight bus back east to Hanoi and try to catch the next flight out to Laos. We were only off the bus for an hour in DBP before we got on another 14 hour bus to Hanoi. Sometimes you just have to role with the punches. Did I mention that the Vietnamese have a small problem with motion sickness? And by small problem I mean massive. It is discussed by other travelers constantly around here because no one wants to end up with a puking person next to them on a 14 hour ride. The buses all hand out little black bags on every trip. We had gone about 5 feet outside the bus terminal when it started and it continued for the entire bus ride. The best part is when there is a stop for dinner and all the sick passengers get off, stuff themselves with food, then get back on to get sick again. Someone needs to start importing Dramamine to this country, they would make millions.

Groggy and exhausted with arrived once again back in the city of Hanoi at 6:00AM. We hightailed it back to the cafe where we had booked our cruise to see if they could buy tickets for us on the next Laos airlines flight. $300 poorer we landed in the city of Luang Prabang at 8:00pm that night after a entertaining flight aboard a prop plane, the jury is still out on whether it was Russian or Chinese built? It was a relief to finally be in Laos.
Laos is completely different than the other SE Asia countries we have visited. It is laid back and calm. The people are friendly and the countryside is beautiful. No one honks at us during our daily runs and we even had a local tell us 'sorry for bothering' the other day after we declined his tour services while eating at a cafe. Laos is definitely a breath of fresh air.

106 Bottles (or drafts if you are lucky) of Beer on the Wall

2009-08-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

If you are uninterested in beer then it might be best to save yourself 5 minutes and skip this post!
Having lived in Northern California for nearly 5 years, we have caught the beer bug and have been longing for cold drafts of west coast microbrew throughout the trip. Often we reminisce of the happy hours in San Francisco at Rogue Ale House, Vesuvio, Kennedy’s and of course, The Buccaneer.

Being beer enthusiasts we have made a point to sample the domestically produced beer in each country that we have visited in the hopes of learning not only what styles are preferred but also what role this wonderful drink plays abroad. Six months in we have visited 18 countries and sampled 106 domestically produced beers. The styles and tastes preferred have varied as well as the role that beer plays in each culture.

The world of beer styles is essentially split into two groups. ales and lagers. The essential difference is the yeast used in production, top fermenting vs bottom fermenting, and outside of that, both styles can offer a wide array of beers. Colleen and I are ale drinkers. Unless it is an early Saturday morning with Miller Lite during college football season (go Hawks!) or the conclusion of a long bike or run, we usually find ourselves sipping a cold pint or bottle of ale of some sort. Interestingly enough, the rest of the world heavily prefers the lager style of beer.
Availability of different labels has varied greatly from country to country. In Vietnam we have been treated to 18 different labels of beers while in Lesotho we were only able to track down one, the national lager called Mulati.

Over 70% of the beer we have sampled has been lager with the occasional surprise of an ale every now and then. If you like lagers such as Budweiser or Heineken, you would be in good company in most parts of the world. Most all the lagers we have sampled are fairly straight forward, light in color, lower in alcohol, and not much malt flavor or mouth feel outside of the presence of a slight alcohol taste. Most all contain adjuncts of some sort, usually rice or corn (or as they call it everywhere else, maize). Many add a fair amount of sugar prior to fermentation to boost alcohol levels (but impart no taste) and in Eastern Africa they even add unfermentable sugars to the mix resulting in a beer that can only be described as a Budweiser with a tablespoon of sugar added. There have been some great finds though, including the wonderful Laurentina Clara in Mozambique, the all natural Windhoek of Namibia, and the high alcohol Kingfisher Red of India. Rwanda, moving forward since the tragedies of the mid 1990s brought with it a tasteful Primus Lager served in traditional Belgian glassware, a reminder of it's colonial past.

Nearly all of the ales we have found have been in Ireland, the UK and South Africa. We were treated to unpasturized 'live ale' in London, a special treat that is hand drawn at traditional pubs. We also spent a fair amount of time with 750 ml bottles of Castle Milk Stout while camping in South Africa and we have also enjoyed half liters of dark ales recently in Vietnam.

I have found it very interesting the amount of mass produced large label beer available throughout the world. Carlsberg and Heineken are mainstays in most every country we have visited. We have actually had Carlsberg (Danish) that was produced domestically in Malawi as well as Amstel (Dutch) produced in Jordan and Lowenbrau (German) produced in Nepal.

We have been lucky enough to visit a total of 8 microbreweries so far getting a taste for small batch beer in each continent we have visited. Vietnam has been the surprise of the group boasting a microbrewery in a majority of all sizable towns we have visited. A stop for a beer at Legends microbrewery of Hanoi turned into and afternoon of discussion with the German Brewmaster. He introduced himself as I was seated at the bar staring at the brewing equipment and asked if I was Australian. I responded and clarified that I was American and asked him if he was Czec. It was a good way to break the ice and lead to an afternoon of beers he refused to let us pay for. Turns out his name was Werner and he was from Ramstein Germany and had been working in breweries since he was 13 (he was now in his mid 50s) eventually moving to Africa to brew and now to Vietnam. He was the owner and turned out to be very open to discussing his operation: he ships in a container of malt and hops from Germany every 3 months and brews 40 times per month on his 10 barrel system. He regularly sold 1500 liters of beer a day in his 400 person beer hall and distributed what was left over. I told him I thought he needed a larger brewing system to which he replied that the his Vietnamese investors would not approve it. So for now, he brews at least once a day, seven days a week.

Beer prices and packaging have also varied greatly from country to country. The most costly place we have drank was our first stop, Dublin, where we paid up to $6 USD for a pint of Kilkenny on draft. Africa brought with it low prices for beer (always by the bottle, never available by draft) where we bought 750 ml bottles of domestic beer for as little as $0.60 in Uganda. All in all, draft beer has only been found in about 1/4 of the places we have visited and the preference seems to be toward large bottles (deposit required in Africa) over cans.

The closest thing I have found to homebrew abroad has been the street beer of Vietnam, known as 'bia hoi'. Always served by draft out of a shabby looking keg placed curbside, bia hoi has been easy on the pocketbook as you can sit on the sidewalk in a plastic chair drinking low alcohol draft beer for around $0.25 a glass. There was also the homemade Tibetan beer offered in Nepal which consisted of a scoops of fermented millet grain placed in a large metal stein and topped off with steaming hot water. The bitter fruit wine like drink was then sipped through a metal straw and each stein refilled multiple times with hot water until all of the alcohol and flavor had been extracted from the fermented millet.

The role beer plays in each country has varied greatly. In the largely Muslim state of Jordan it is almost non existent outsite of the tourist areas. We did not see beer for sale or have a drink for nearly 2 weeks prior to trudging through a downpour to the other side of town for a cool draft of Amstel. In Africa, beer drinking was usually reserved for the men who began drinking in the early afternoon on roughly welded bar stools placed outside wood shacks roadside. In SE Asia, drinking is done at all times of day, and it is not uncommon to see businessmen having a drink by early afternoon. Unfortunately in many countries the drinking has become a curse of the poor and I wonder how a man with thread bare clothes and no shoes can be drinking beer after beer. Then I have to remind myself that the same thing occurs back home and unfortunately there is no help for these people. Beer, as always, accompanies celebration as well in most countries. Whether it was the completion of a long work week in Ireland, a Saturday night in Capetown, a wedding in India or locals on vacation in Vietnam, there was usually a person to be found enjoying a cold one.

Tonight we have our first sips of Beer Laos, the much famed national brew of the new country we have entered.

Playing Frogger In The Streets of Vietnam

2009-08-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

North Vietnam is a dangerous place. The second we stepped off our overnight train from Hoi An, we were almost hit by people on motorbikes, and that continued over our 4 day stay in Hanoi. We walked everywhere in Hanoi. Literally mile after mile, sightseeing, searching for a supermarket, hitting up microbreweries, etc. All that time crossing the streets gave the Vietnamese plenty of opportunity to take a go at us on their bikes. I think our final count of how many times we have been hit by some part of a motorbike is 8. You are a moving target and they will go out of their way to run you over. Chad is the leader, and I follow behind, clutching his hand with my eyes closed. Besides that, we found Hanoi to be a pleasant place. We had originally planned to stay for 2 days, then take a cruise out on Halong Bay before heading north to Sapa. Two days turned into four as the company we chose to cruise with did not have an opening until then. We were able to catch a few sights during the 4 days. Besides our unsuccessful visit to see Ho Chi Minh we took in the museum that holds what remains of the "Hanoi Hilton", the infamous prison where American pilots that were captured during the war were held (John McCain’s flight suit is on display there). The Vietnamese put a good face on it all, showing the prisoners in happy situations including feeding chickens, playing volleyball and basketball, cooking Christmas dinner, painting, sending and receiving packages, etc. It sure looked like the POW's enjoyed their time there!

One funny bit about Vietnamese currency. They quote everything in US dollar then require you to pay in Dong (local currency) while giving you a horrible exchange rate in order to make a few extra bucks in the sale. We tried to dodge the system by changing dong for dollar at the bank, but the multiple banks we went to told us the government does not allow them to sell US dollars. Odd given that they list the rate you could buy it at IF they sold it. After hours of looking for a place to buy US dollars we ended up in a shady gold and silver jewelry shop that you would find in the backstreets of any major US city. They gave us a crap exchange rate as well, but we needed dollars for border crossings so you have to take what you can get.

We then headed out to Halong Bay for a 3 day, 2 night cruise aboard a junk boat with 12 other people. After our reasonably priced Indian adventure on our own ship, Halong seemed pretty expensive but we had heard from multiple people that you get what you pay for so we went a little over budget to go with a trusted company. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and we spent the 3 days cruising around the multiple islands with 2 stops to view massive caves and a few stops on islands. The other travelers on our boat were great, and we enjoyed hanging out with others for a few days. Unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate and we never saw sun but that did not take away from the beauty of the area. The area prides itself on seafood, and the cook felt it was necessary to include me, attempting to feed me "fake" meat and seafood for all meals, an interesting idea but I never tried any of it.

Our days on the boat ended just in time to catch an overnight train to the mountain town of Sapa in Northern Vietnam. This area of the country is where many different hill tribes live and is famous for trekking. The town is completely different than any other we have experienced in Vietnam, and reminds us of towns in Nepal. The local women come down from the villages everyday in traditional outfits carrying their babies on their backs while selling hand woven handicrafts to the tourists. It is a sight to see. We arrived here planning to spend 3 nights with most of the time spent trekking but the weather has not cooperated and we have been rained on constantly. We were able to take a small trek today in the rain to a local village and waterfall which resulted in one of my most spectacular falls of the trip(trust me, there have been many). That cut the trek a bit short and after all of this rain we decided it was time to head to Laos. Tomorrow we leave on a early bus to begin the trek to a little used Laos border crossing that opened in 2007. We thought it was time to get off the beaten track again, we hope we are up to the challenge.

Half Way

2009-08-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 6 month mark of being on the road. We decided to celebrate the day by visiting Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum Complex in Hanoi where we are hanging out for a few days waiting for our cruise in Halong Bay. Unfortunately when we showed up the sign said you were not able to view the body on Mondays and Fridays, so that plan was out, no viewing of dead communist leaders today. The next best idea at 10:00AM on a Monday? Walk 5 miles to a microbrewery that we had read about online. Did I mention that it was 105 degrees out?

We can hardly believe that 6 months have passed. It seems like yesterday that we were at the O'Hare airport with my mom, waving goodbye. When I think about all we have done though, I can't believe we have only been gone for 6 months. It seems like years. We are having the experience of a lifetime, and are so fortunate to experience it together. Sometimes in SF we were lucky to catch up on weekends when Chad was traveling but we have now had the treat of 6 months of days spent together, enjoying life and the road.

What do we miss from home?
First off, family and friends. It is hard to keep in touch over email, and we miss everyone very much.

Cooking our own food. For 2 people who never ate out at home it is tough to eat out every meal(especially when you are vegetarian and you have no idea how they are preparing food).

Crossing the street without taking your life in your hands. Motorbikes are crazy everywhere. They go out of their way to try and hit you.

Not having to bargain for EVERYTHING on a daily basis.

Drinking water from the tap. Yep, we have not done that in 6 months.

Showering without sandals on...and not over a toilet in a cramped bathroom with a hand held shower head.

Chad wanted me to add that he also misses wearing blue jeans...and lets add washing machines while we are at it. 6 months of hand washing takes a toll.

What are our plans when we get home?
Our plans are still up in the air, but first thing: getting a dog…..after we decide where to move, find an apartment and get jobs of course.

South Vietnam Summary

2009-08-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Saigon! No struggles at the border this time and our bus actually dropped us off in the city center near the backpacker district. At the end of the war (referred to here as the American War) the city was rebranded Ho Chi Minh City but the city center where we stayed was still referred to as Saigon. Accommodation in Saigon is interesting, they call themselves mini-hotels and the buildings are usually 4-5 floors tall with 10-12 rooms total. Inevitably we end up being shown the rooms on the top floors as we lug our bags around checking out what we can get for our money. At least we get in a small leg workout!

The city center of Saigon is quite welcoming to travelers. There is plenty of accommodation for around $10 a night, street food and beer, parks, supermarkets, transportation, pretty much everything you need. We settled in our room and hit the streets in search of some food and drink. Vietnamese sandwiches can be found at street stands for around 60 cents and street beer, referred to locally as 'Bia Hoi', can be had for a quarter. Needless to say, I have enjoyed many 85 cent sandwich/bia hoi combos. Vietnam is also friendly to vegetarians, you simply look for the word 'chay' as part of the restaurant title and you know they will have some vegetarian fare on their menu, although the preparation and sanitation is sometimes questionable.

Most of the sites around Saigon are related to the Vietnam War. First we made a trip to the Reunification Palace to view the actual site where the gate crashed and 'Saigon Fell' in April 1975, the same day the last Americans were airlifted from the US Embassy. Then we headed across the street to the War Remnants museum. Inside the entrance gate we were greeted by a plethora of Vietnam era American planes, jets and helicopters. It struck me a little odd that there were no Vietnamese vehicles on display. Inside we found two floors containing displays, stories and artifacts from the war. There was no doubt a lot of thought put into the displays and they effectively told the stories intended. The odd thing was each display concentrated on something the American soldiers did that was wrong or controversial (killing of civilians, agent orange, burning of villages, rapes). It was one story and display after another. I expected to reach the part of the museum that told of the Viet Cong side of the story, what their side did right/wrong, how they succeeded in certain battles, who their key leaders were, etc but those displays never came. I realize actions and decisions were made during the war by US soldiers (and Viet Cong) that were not correct/ethical, whether obvious at the time or now in hindsight. But I also understand it was a war environment. Even given we were in Saigon, it did seem a little odd that this building was labeled 'war remnants' but it seemed only to shed poor light on the US forces.

The next day we took a tour about an hour outside the city to the Cu Chi tunnels, built by the Viet Cong fighters during the war. We managed to view the tunnels, although our guide stated that 'fat Americans might not make it', and took in some propaganda films of the war. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the people during the war was quite impressive, everything from how they prepared their meals to the tactics they used to evade American troops in the dense jungle. Before we headed back to the city center we had a side trip to the gun range (Colleen loved it!) so that any wanting persons could fire off some war era munitions(needless to say we DID NOT take part).

With Saigon behind us we headed out to the beach town of Mui Ne for three days. We had hoped to get in some time in the sand and maybe try some kite surfing but the weather had different ideas. We are still in the monsoon season for another month and although we had patches of blue skies, it was mixed with gusts of wind, rain and heavy surf. We rented bikes for a day and did a ride down the coast stopping at roadside stands along the way and ending at a microbrewery we had seen on the way into town. From Mui Ne it was an overnight bus trip north to the historical port town of Hoi An. Our bus was interesting as we had reserved individual sleeper beds but as the bus arrived we were informed that we would be sharing a 5 person bed at the rear of the bus with 3 locals. Luckily Colleen was able to secure a window while my body created a protective barrier from the overweight shirtless man next to us and we arrived at Hoi An 18 hours later.

Hoi An has turned out to be an amazing little town to spend time in. Historically a port town, it is now known for its tailors and custom clothing shops. Colleen picked up a handbag while I had a tailored suit made (have to look good for job interviews upon returning home) and snatched up some new board shorts. We have been continuing our daily runs, working up to 5K jaunts in the sweltering heat. It has been nice to get some regular exercise outside of our flip flop walking excursions around cities. After 3 nights, we are now waiting for a taxi to transport us 45 minutes north to the metropolis of Danang (historically it is where the first American troops landed) where we will catch an 18 hour overnight train to Hanoi and our first taste of North Vietnam.

Welcome to Today’s Program

2009-07-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you sign up for a program and don’t realize it. As we boarded a morning bus for the Thai/Cambodian border we were met in broken English with the greeting ‘Welcome to today’s program.’ We both looked at each other, questioning what we had inadvertently signed up for.
We tend to take local buses from destination to destination. It is very common to be the only foreigner on a bus and usually it enhances the journey as you are able to observe the local daily life. The backbacker Mecca of Koh San Road in Bangkok brought with it hordes of fellow travelers and the tour companies that follow. Rather than trekking across town to the local bus station we opted to board a local ‘tourist bus’ where we were now being told we were part of a ‘program’. We don’t really do programs well.

First the program director wanted us to buy our Cambodian visa through them. Yeah right. They wanted 1200 baht (around $36USD) when the visa only cost $20USD at the border. Cambodian borders are notorious for corruption and we knew we might have to fight to pay the right amount, but we were going for it any way. It took us 4 hours to get to the border and the whole while the tour company people came up and down the bus aisles convincing everyone that they would have to pay even more than their 1200 baht rate at the border so everyone should go through them. And most people did. About 90% of the bus. When we finally made it through the swine flu check and to the guards we handed over our passports and paperwork with a $20 bill. The guy tried to give them back to us and said ‘1000 baht.’ We said no and gave them back. Then he said ‘ok, 200 baht more’. This whole time we are standing under a sign that says a visa is 20USD. It was laughable. By this time a small scene had started as a few other travelers had joined our cause. Now they just wanted us gone so they could bribe the next group that came through, so they processed our passports and we were off. VICTORY! HA.

With the crossing behind us we just wanted to get to Siem Reap and we did, about 7 hours later in the pouring rain (trip should have taken 3 hours). With our program complete we fought off the pesky tour company as they prodded us to go to their chosen guest house. Needless to say we were not their ideal clients as we did not buy into the ‘extras‘ they offered.

On to Angkor Wat. Chad had previously been there and was excited to show me around. We arranged a driver to pick us up the next day to buy tickets and watch the sunset. Instead of hiring 2 motobike drivers we went with a relatively new mode of transport, a remorque-moto. See the picture below to get the full idea but it is basically a cart pulled by a motobike. Our driver Duk picked us up and we headed out for my first glimpse of Angkor. We hiked to the top of a hill with about 300 of our closest friends, and decided we weren’t crowd people and explored a couple ruins before heading back home for the night. The next day we headed out early, around 4:30AM and were the first people into Angkor Wat to

watch the sunrise. It was a bit early to be walking through the temple in the pitch black with bats flying around your head, but we were rewarded with a quiet solitude and a beautiful sunrise. We spent the rest of the day exploring the ancient temples and ruins while trying to dodge the multiple Japanese tour groups parading behind flagged leaders. We had a blast and managed to cover everything we wanted to see. Angkor Wat is truly amazing. It is a magical place that has to be seen to be believed. We ended the day with 50 cent draft beers at one of the MANY local cafes and bars.

A visit to Cambodia would not be complete though without acknowledging it’s dark past and the Khmer Rouge. From 1975-1979 the Khmer Rouge and it’s leader Pol Pot essentially destroyed their own country to create a ‘pure’ state. 2 million people were murdered, mostly the educated middle and upper class as well as peasants (they targeted people for such things as wearing glasses). There are two main sites that serve as reminders to this tragedy in the Phnom Penh area: the security prison S-21 and the infamous Killing Fields. We first visited the former high school turned prison of S-21, a short walk from our hotel. Over 20,000 persons were imprisoned, questioned and tortured here over a 4 year period. Of those numbers, only 7 prisoners survived to walk freely when the killing ended. After the interrogations and torture of S-21 the actual murders took place 10 kilometers outside the city center at the Killing Fields. We took a remorque-moto into the country side and visited the site. A memorial now stands in an open field containing the skulls of some 8,000 victims. Open pits where bodies were removed exist as a somber reminder to the scale of the murders. Signs displaying the numbers of bodies removed from each pit and noting trees which children were slammed against to their death are also noted. Again as with our visit to Rwanda, it is shocking to behold what some persons are capable of doing to other human beings.

Your Flight Has Been Delayed 11 Hours

2009-07-21T02:32:00.000-07:00

We left Nepal in high spirits. The country had rejuvenated us physically and mentally and we headed to the airport excited for the coming months of travel in SE Asia. We had three flights scheduled for the day. The first was from Kathmandu to Delhi, followed by a Delhi to Mumbai flight which landed at 1AM in time to connect to a 4AM flight to Bangkok. We were dealing with 3 different airlines so we had no false hope of all 3 flights and connections going off without a hitch. The first two flights went off as planned but as we entered the check-in queue at Mumbai we were told our flight was delayed until 3PM. I had previously spent the night in Mumbai airport, there are certainly worse places to be, but the thought of sleeping on a dirty floor after a long day of travel was not appealing.

We reached the front of the line, received the details of the delayed flight (pilot had fallen ill) and were pleasantly surprised to be told we were getting put up in Mumbai’s finest, the Intercontinental Hotel. Two hours later we had caught a shuttle and checked into the hotel. Silk sheets (no sleep sheets needed!), aircon, hot water, hair dryer, flat screen TVs...it was somewhat of a huge treat midway through our trip. The next morning we headed downstairs to our free breakfast. The variety of food was somewhat staggering, larger than I have ever seen at a hotel or restaurant. As we relished in our cereal and milk for the first time in 5 months, the headlines of the Jakarta bombings came across the TV. It was an eerie feeling: we were in the nicest hotel of our trip, in a city with a recent history of terrorism/bombings, eating breakfast in the lobby...very similar to the scenario they were describing on TV. You prepare yourself of pick-pockets, thieves and such but for the first time on our trip we were pondering the reality of safety issues of a different type.

We arrived to Bangkok the next day, met another American in the taxi queue at the airport and shared a ride to the infamous backpacker district of Koh San Road. Turns out he was from Chicago but living in DC. He was a tech consultant and had recently been laid off and during his few week stint in Thailand was now pondering whether he should hit up grad school or start a job search once back home. As at home, the current state of the economy is always a point of discussion during our travels.

We have enjoyed the past 4 days in Bangkok. Power outages and operating by candle light were a daily ritual in all of Nepal and many parts of India. Bangkok has brought us some comforts we have not experienced since the first weeks of the trip. There are 7-11s (fountain pop for Colleen and coffee for me), street vendors, cold beer, pharmacies, sidewalks, clean cheap accommodation, stoplights, and many fold more travelers than we have seen anywhere else on our trip. As of late we have been longing for our regular runs along Marina Green in SF that were a staple of our life for the past 5 years. That feeling of a good workout lead us to the nearest shopping mall in Bangkok where we each picked up a new pair of New Balances, workout shorts and a running tank top (Colleen assured me that it was OK to wear a tank top for exercise purposes). We have ran each of the last 3 mornings and have enjoyed the journey through the local neighborhoods although the heat here is a bit stifling. After the runs we hit up 7-11 for milk and cereal and a small part of the whole process actually feels a little bit like home.

Tomorrow mornings run will be early as we have a 7AM 12-hour bus ride to Cambodia and the next segment of the trip.

Elephants and Rhinos

2009-07-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

We are supposed to be in Tibet right now, but we're not. After arriving in Kathmandu from Pokhara we knew that we had to set up our Tibet trip before doing anything else in Nepal. China now requires everyone who travels to Tibet to be part of an organized group and there is no individual traveling allowed. What does this mean for China? Lots of extra money in their pockets. For an American citizen to visit Tibet the visa is a whopping $142 for a visitors permit (all other countries pay $45), plus you must buy another Chinese visa ($130 more) as well if you plan to visit China, which we are doing in the future to get to Mongolia. The planned group itineraries now run nearly $900 per person for a week long tour; just 5 years ago I had paid less than $300 for the same tour. Essentially the tour fee has only went up slightly but the grand total has increased with the new visa fees and a new requirement that all persons who drive in must fly out back to Kathmandu. Of course the flight is on the China government owned airlines (the one hour one way flight makes up $370 of the package). So after shopping around and realizing we were basically making a large donation to the Chinese government exploiting Tibet we decided to pass and thus move our flights up one week early to leave for SE Asia.

With that decision behind us we had 10 days left in Nepal and after a couple days in the bustling backpacker neighborhood of Thamel in Kathmandu we headed 6 hours south by bus to Chitwan National Park. The park sits nestled in Southern Nepal on the Indian border and contains the largest remaining refuge for the great one horned rhino. The rhino had eluded us in Africa and we were enthused by the opportunity to safari yet again in a new part of the world. We arrived to the city of Sauraha on the edge of the park (of course the bus stand was 1 mile outside of town and we had to hike in) and found our way to a guest house that I had previously visited. We were welcomed by the owner Govinda who was highly enthused to see a return customer 5 years later.

First things first, Colleen had to bathe an elephant. The town of Sauraha is bustling with elephant traffic, around 200 elephants call the area home. Most elephants are government owned while others are owned by the many parkside lodges. Every morning the elephants hike down to the (croc infested) river for their morning baths. As a visitor you can pay a $1.25 and help dumbo get the dirt out from behind his ears. If you know Colleen then you know this is reason for excitement. We followed the train of elephants to the banks of the river and Colleen selected her elephant based off of who had the smallest stick/pick used to control their elephant. His name was Muti and we were told he was the second largest elephant in the village. Muti had already anxiously entered the edge of the water and his handler now had him back up to the shore and kneel down so Colleen could hop aboard. I had enjoyed the same ritual on my previous visit to the park but I had to admit that seeing Colleen aboard a much larger elephant wading out into the murky river waters struck a little nerve in me but all was well. Muti turned out to be quite the showman as he first doused her multiple times with gallons of water from his trunk and followed that up with multiple barrel roles into the water throwing her from his back in the process. 10 minutes later they emerged thoroughly soaked, and slightly cleaner, from the river and Colleen produced her payment which Muti gladly took with his trunk and delivered to the handler.

The next morning we headed out on foot into the park on a safari. Most parks in the world that have predatory animals (in this case tigers) forbid safari on foot but Chitwan is an exception. Tiger attacks on groups are not unheard of but the trained guides are very apt at preventing such encounters. That being said I was slightly uncomfortable as we departed in a wood canoe with two guides who were each carrying no more than a 4 foot stick for defense. After an hour long float sighting multiple crocodiles we exited the boat and headed into thick jungle, much thicker than we had planned. At times we felt like we were breaking trail as our shoes muddied and leaves and thorns sliced at our skin. Then about an hour in we heard it, a very deep throated grunt. It sounded like a cross between a large hog and a grizzly bear. Then the sound came again, this time from the opposite direction. Our guide informed us we were standing between two rhinos (neither we could see through the 10 ft tall grass) and likely one was a bull. We were told to be still and silent. My heart jumped and I was actually frightened for the first time on the trip. I knew rhinos had pour sight and rely heavily on smell but if there was one on each side of you then by default you were likely downwind from one of them. After pausing for about a minute, and reanalyzing in my head again how thin our guides sticks were and wondering if we could out run them, we were instructed to move forward slowly. After a few minutes we exited the grasslands into a dense forest where we were later able to spot two rhinos bathing from a safe distance.

The following day we headed out again on safari, this time by elephant. We were able to spot much wildlife, including two rhinos at close range, and we enjoyed the safety, minus comfort, of elephant travel. We also rented bikes and toured the countryside and villages surrounding the park and relaxed in the garden area of our guest house sipping on milk tea in the mornings and Nepalese lagers at night. Govinda and his wife, daughter and son were excellent hosts and a great temporary family during our stay. Colleen also made friends with the stray dogs of the village, this has become a trend on the trip. During our stay 1 dog and 1 cat met their dismal end with the river crocodiles and we dubbed our favorite stray with the name 'Crocodile Food'. We are not sure if he liked the name but he followed us for days around the village.

The past few days we have spent back in Kathmandu, taking in the sights, sounds and culture of this vibrant city. Today we have 3 flights getting us to Bangkok sometime tomorrow afternoon after a night in the Mumbai airport. Nepal has been amazing, we have learned much and highly enjoyed our time here. We had hoped to make it into Tibet but that leaves reason to return again in the future!

Climb Every Mountain, Or At Least Catch a View

2009-07-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

So how do you get out of India quickly as I so desperately wanted? Take an overnight bus to an overnight train with a quick stop in Varanasi to see the Ganges river, to a 6 hour morning train (which broke down) to a 3 hour bus (yep broke down again) to the Nepal border just in time to catch another overnight bus. By the time we arrived in Pokhara, our first stop in Nepal, we were exhausted but extremely happy to be out of India. Let's just say it was a trying month there and I had hit my limit a few days earlier on India as a whole. We were more than ready for the peaceful town of Pokhara.

Nepal is a small country with the tallest mountain in the world. In fact it holds many tall mountains and our goal in Pokhara was to find a group trek to view some of these mountains. Unfortunately, good old monsoon season stood in our way. Usually you can see the mountains from town, but the monsoon brings in daily rains and the clouds never lift. Undaunted, we decided to head out on a trek with the hopes of seeing something, and if not then the quiet time in the mountains would do us some good.

We arranged a porter through our backpackers. With the monsoon comes low season and very few tourists to fill group treks so Chad and I were on our own with the porter. The day before we were to head out we hiked 4 hours to the World Peace Pagoda, high atop a hillside outside of Pokhara. No views from there but on the way down we did get hit by the other wonderful part of monsoon season, leeches. Leeches are everywhere during the monsoon and they quickly latched on to Chad's legs and shoes, but surprisingly did not touch me. Maybe Chad is secretly a leech?

The next day we met our porter, Dhan, and headed out on a two hour bus ride to the trail head in the Annapurna Conservation Area. Dhan was an interesting man. He was the married father of two and ran a small shop selling chips and cigarettes when he was not filling time as a porter. He was part of the lower local 'caste' and scraped by on what he could earn off of the tourism industry in order to put his kids through college (he had two college aged kids and he was 37...Nepalese marry young). He enjoyed his nightly cup of local moonshine when on the trail and emphatically told us very seriously that the yeti did in fact exist (he had not seen one but many of his friends and family had found footprints and had lost livestock to the yeti). Dhan had been a porter for the past 13 years and besides hauling most of our weight, he left us feeling safe and secure as there had historically been numerous muggings on the trails during low season.

Our four day trek started out at 3000 ft and wound its way up to near 11000 ft by the third day. The final day and a half would then be spent winding our way back down the valley via a different trail to our starting point. Along the way, communities of locals were spread across the valley in numerous small villages, usually containing no more than a dozen buildings. When were tired, we stopped to rest at trailside stands and drank milk tea (I now actually enjoy the stuff) and snacked on granola. At night we stayed at local 'tea houses' on the trail. The tea houses were no more than small simple hotels with an adjoining kitchen for food. The rooms were simple to say the least and cost $1-$3 a night for the both of us! We spent the evenings sipping tea around a pot belly stove and eating dal bhat, the local curry of lentils and beans, along with rice. Dhan would tell stories of growing up in a small mountain village, helping out on the farm and hunting snow leopards (or tigers as he continuously called them). If anyone ever visits Pokhara and see's a man in a Sports Basement tee, it is no doubt Dhan as Chad gave him his.

The mountains stayed hidden behind the clouds for most of our trek. The downfall of visiting in the off-season is the rain and clouds but the upside is that we had the countryside to ourselves. Trails that normally received 250+ new trekkers daily in high season were lucky to have 10 this time of year. We welcomed the peace and serenity as we plotted along. We awoke before dawn on day 3 to attempt a nearby hill that had 360 degree views of the Annapurna mountains, but found a torrential downpour outside. By the end of day 3 we had only been able to view the huge peaks for a handful of seconds in between cloud cover but on the fourth morning Dhan woke us up at sunrise to beautiful mountain views of the surrounding mountains, some reaching over 25,000 ft tall! Overall the trek was definitely something neither of us will ever forget. It was a excellent way to relax after our month in India.

Oh, and in case you were wondering.......
Final Leech Count Chad: 5
Final Leech Count Colleen: 5
Number of leeches we pulled off our shoes with salt sticks before they were able to attach to our skin: hundreds

Africa Pictures Are Up!

2009-07-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

We completed loading the rest of our Africa pictures up on our Picasa page. There are a number of new galleries along with captions. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/TheKuehls

Chance Encounters with the Dalai Lama

2009-07-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

But first…animals have been giving Colleen a hard go at it lately. First she was head butted (in her side) by a passing cow in the streets of Udaipur. I got a good laugh out of it but she felt bad and wanted to know ’why the cow did not like her’ because she does not even eat cows. This was followed up by a stray monkey chasing her down the hallway and up the stairs in our hotel in Agra. For someone who loves animals so much lets hope her luck turns for the better.

With the beauty of the Taj Mahal fresh on our minds we headed northward, a quick day stopover in Dehli followed by a night bus 12 hours north to the city of Dharmasala. From there it was a 5 kilometer taxi ride straight up a mountain side to the small town of McLeod Ganj. Our reason for visiting was that since 1959 it has been the home of the Tibetan Government in exile including the Dalai Lama (thumbs up to India for welcoming the Tibetan refugees to the area).

We settled into our $8 guest house with a private balcony overlooking the valley and headed out on foot to explore the village. As has been customary on this trip, when possible Colleen enjoys her Diet Coke and Chad enjoys his daily coffee (or in this part of the world, chai). As we searched the streets for a good deal on Diet Coke (regular soda is always a set price but a premium is charged for diet) we noticed a large crowd had begun to line the main town intersection. The crowd was set a few people deep and everyone seemed to be focused on the traffic coming down the single lane road from uphill. We overheard talk of a ‘Lama’ but figured there was no chance of the Dalai Lama passing by and thought most likely it to be a lower ranking Lama in the community. Then it happened. A patrol car passed by followed by a gold colored sedan with the broad smiled Dalai Lama waving out the passenger side window. We sat there somewhat mesmerized. Neither of us follows the Buddhist faith (although we see much to be learned by its teachings) but we are big fans of the Dalai Lamas writings and work. We had no idea he was even home within the city and to watch him pass by within a few feet of us was a special treat.

Volunteering has been difficult so far on the trip. That seems like an odd thing to say but most NGOs and other opportunities want at least several weeks, if not months, worth of commitment. Without that commitment they say that the time is more about the experience for the volunteer than the work they are actually contributing. That is good and well but we would like to spread our time and efforts over several continents so the ’challenge’ of volunteering has presented itself. By chance, in Mozambique, we were approached while sitting in a café by local teens who needed assistance in converting their resumes from their local language to English. They worked in the local museum and hoped to send their resumes off to museums in the UK and receive sponsorship in order to travel and work overseas. So we spent the evening helping them with the translations and grammar, it was a chance encounter but definitely rewarding for both sides.

The main volunteer opportunities in McLeod Ganj are with the constant incoming flow of Tibetan refugees. Opportunities include helping document new arrivals and helping them set up their new life in a new town. Again these opportunities all require multiple months worth of commitment. We figured our best bet was to come up with a way on our own of how we could help the community in a matter of a days worth of time. We decided to keep it simple and pick up litter. Definitely a generic task but with the amount of visitors visiting the region on a daily basis, the surrounding hillsides are littered with plastic bottles.

We set out on foot on a 5 mile trek uphill out of town. Out destination was a small remote lake atop a mountain. As we went we picked up any and all plastic bottles we could find, emptying them into bins as our bags became full. We reached the lake after a couple hours time and began to head back down via an alternate route. The work was quite messy. We were loading the plastic bottles into our day packs (trash bags are not available in the community) and had no plastic gloves. Many of the bottles were in ditches and water ways which had all forms of human and animal products running down them. About halfway back down we decided to take a break, and have a sip of water. We were standing there on the side of the road, sweaty and covered with mud, when a familiar vehicle came around the turn from uphill. I immediately recognized it as the escort vehicle we had seen the day before and muttered something on the order of ‘I think he is coming again’. And of course, following the patrol car was the gold sedan and again the smiling Dalai Lama. He was seated shotgun on our side of the road and as he strolled past he gave us a slow nod and a hand wave. He probably wondered what these two westerners were doing with on the back gravel roads, covered in dirt and sweat and holding overflowing backpacks of plastic bottles. We could not be more thrilled.

It was our own private encounter with the Dalai Lama. No one around but us and him and his chauffer. Definitely something we will cherish for a long time…and we picked up 151 plastic bottles in the process!

Hot Times

2009-06-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

We turned travel soft and bought some plane tickets. After Hampi we knew we wanted to get up north as quickly as possible, but the state of Rajasthan was a 2 day train ride away and all the tickets were booked out anyways. After a quick look on the internet we discovered that one of the many of the cheap airlines in India had decently priced tickets to Udaipur(still way more than it would have cost to get there by train) and we decided to jump on it. In our fit of ticket buying we also purchased flights back from Nepal to catch our next RTW flight to Thailand at the end of July. No long days of train/bus riding for these legs of the trip and I was extremely happy about this!

After 2 quick flights we arrived in Udaipur and found the famed city side lake to be dry. The normally picturesque island containing the Palace Hotel (made famous in the Bond flick 'Octopussy') was no more than a hill in a cow pasture. None the less we found the city to be relatively charming and relaxed as we toured the centuries old palace of the Raja's (old colonial state governors) and spent a couple nights in a top floor room over looking the dry lake bed.

We continued our trend of avoiding the train tracks and headed out of town on our first Indian bus. Overnight Indian buses are different than anything we have seen yet. They actually have full sized beds for two on the second level above the normal chair seating. Unfortunately you could not sit straight up in the double bed, so we spent 16 hours (supposed to be 12) laying down. We headed to Agra where we arrived to heat like neither of us have ever experienced. Highs of 48 degrees C...that is over 115 degrees F! and no aircon in the guest houses

After touring a couple guest houses we settled on a roof top room with a circular bed and a toilet view of the Taj Mahal (Agra guest houses are kind of odd). We awoke early the next morning to catch the Taj at sunrise. We were some of the first visitors to enter and found the setting to be magical as the morning’s first rays cascaded off of the white marble. I was pretty much gasping with a huge grin the whole time and Chad stated he was even more impressed viewing the Taj for his second time. On our way out of Agra a shifty train ticket seller sold us 2nd class seats (although we had requested 1st class) telling us that we must upgrade on the train. Well the day arrived and 1st class was full so we spent a day long train ride in 2nd class sharing our seat with others who had not bought tickets, sweating and watching babies without diapers pee on the floor. After 140 days of traveling we are appreciating life on the road more and more, but India is definitely starting to wear on us and our thoughts are turning towards upcoming countries.

Friends in Bangalore

2009-06-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

It is nice to meet up with friends while traveling. A little slice of normalcy and a familiar face are always welcomed and this was our reason to head to the city of Bangalore.

We left the houseboat behind and headed out of Kerala on our 3rd overnight train in the past 10 days. Our travels by train have mostly been in the 3AC train compartments. Basically an 8 person configuration of bunkbed style beds and seating in an aircon carriage. Comfortable compared to Africa travels but definitely nothing to envy!

Bangalore is known to most Americans as the epicenter of the Indian IT boom of the past two decades. In fact our connection to the city was IT related. Chad spent 10 months in 2006/07 leading a software team in Vancouver that consisted of a handful of members from the Bangalore office. Over the 10 month stint the team became close and Chad vowed to see them next on their side of the ocean during future travels. That time had now arrived and we were sure to follow through with the promise!

Our hosts during our stay in Bangalore were Kumaran, Subhash and Bala, all former co-workers of Chad. Kumaran and Subhash had kept in regular contact after the end of the project and helped to coordinate our stay. Bala graciously offered up a bedroom in his apartment and his wife's wonderful cooking (thank you so much!) as well as his children's endless entertainment. We spent much of the time wandering the urban IT sprawl of the outskirts of Bangalore. Just a handful of years prior the land was farmland but had now been converted into condos and office buildings that would not have looked out of place in San Francisco. The Accenture building (Chad's former employer) was situated in a massive business development flanked on one side by Intel and by AOL on the other. It definitely looked similar to the sights seen while driving down highway 101 through San Jose. Our hosts treated us to meals in their home and at restaurants, took us to historical sights, and showered us with gifts. We really cannot thank them enough in any way and our hope is that they will make it to the USA in the future so that we can show them the same hospitality that they bestowed on us. We are grateful, thank you so much!

From Bangalore we decided it was time to head north. Hours of waiting at the station and another overnight train took us north to the 500+ year old ruins of the town of Hampi. We stepped off the train to find the usual array of rickshaw drivers who really wanted to take us to our destination. Endless rounds of bargaining had us heading the 30 minutes out to Hampi. 500 meters outside the town and around a sharp hill(so we couldn't see the town) 2 men jumped out of the bushes and handed us a ticket for a "tourist vehicle fee". Sure, hand the white people a tourist ticket for a rickshaw. It was only for 10 rupees (25 cents), but come on. We have been traveling long enough to know it was crap. I handed the ticket back to the guy and we grabbed our bags and told them we would walk. Our driver was in disbelief as he was also in on the scam and now knew he wouldn't be able to try to get commission off of whatever guesthouse we chose to stay at. "Very far", the men kept saying, "2 kilometers". "Very strong" we told them, "we will walk." And so we did. Just up the short hill around the corner was the town. And so our stay in India continues on the this path. There is a constant pestering to buy things, take a rickshaw, see a different guest house, pay double what the locals pay, etc. It is exhausting, but adds to the unique travel experience of this dynamic country. (as we write this post we are sitting in a non-aircon hotel next to the Taj Mahal and it is 111 degrees outside. whoo!)

Exit Africa, Hello India

2009-06-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

Of course exiting Africa would be difficult...a fitting way to end a highly rewarding yet challenging continent. After jumping a plane from Zanzibar (on a South African airline called 1 Time...more like 1 Time Only) to Johannesburg and a quick one night layover at a backpackers (the website made it out to be city center accommodation yet it was a done up farm in the countryside) we headed to the airport for our flight to Asia. Round-the-world plane ticket rules and regulations can be tricky. Paper tickets are a rarity these days and difficult to manage. We have the double whammy of a paper round-the-world ticket. We showed up at check-in and received the now common look of frightened awe over the face of the airline representative as we produced our paper ticket vouchers. We were then told that Colleen was on the flight but that my ticket was no where to be found. To summarize, our next 4 flights were on Cathay Pacific and they had for some reason cancelled all of my tickets. They were not able to completely explain why but told me they would put me on standby for the flight to Hong Kong and the onward flight to Mumbai, India. We told them I had paid in full, confirmed by phone and email, had a receipt and that there was no way I was going to hang around two different airports hoping to get on standby. For some reason they did not understand why I would not wait behind and send my wife on ahead without me and when Colleen insisted she would not leave either, they were really confused. Luckily we had arrived to the airport early and after a couple hours of talking with management and some calls to headquarters in Hong Kong we had things straightened out. On to Mumbai...

Colleen had been prepping for India. After the challenges of Africa and a fair amount of my forewarning we hit the streets of Mumbai. Auto-rickshaws, people, dogs, taxis, cows, smells of curry and delicious food, burning throats from exhaust, strange looks and curious people everywhere. India was as I remembered it plus more. We spent two nights in Mumbai before heading south to Goa for some time on the beach.

Hello monsoon season....yeah so we did not plan that well. We arrived in India on June 1st, the official first day of the monsoon season, and were greeted by the rains just as we reached the beaches of Goa. We made the best of it and splurged on nicer than usual accommodation and actually had a pool to help pass some time. We met up with Linda and Kira, a traveling mother daughter combo from Denver and spent time comparing travel stories. Kira had recently graduated high school early and spent the past 5 month volunteering in India while Linda had spent time earlier in life volunteering in refugee camps in Thailand during the Cambodia genocide. We sampled much of the Indian cuisine we have been highly anticipating (Linda, thanks again for dinner!) and after 3 days headed further south.

We ended up in the town of Alleppey in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The region is known for easy going socialists (yep communists), beaches, coconut trees and fine cuisine. After a night in town we booked a houseboat to tour the backwaters for 3 days. The trip turned out to be a highlight thus far as we cruised the canals and waterways in our boat with our two man crew. The houseboat is essentially a flat bottomed barge/boat with a native wood and reed house for shelter. Our driver maneuvered us through tiny rural villages and our cook kept us full with splendid meals. When there were sights to see we pulled over to shore and made short hikes to markets and churches/temples (a petite 4 ft nun blessed us, our marriage, our families and our jobs...hopefully that carries over to our job search when we return). We spent the rest of the time on our private balcony atop the boat viewing the world as it passed by.

Changing continents and spending our first week in India had revitalized our spirits. Traveling for a full year is no doubt a challenge but the changes in scenery and culture have provided a much needed lift.

Africa Round Up

2009-06-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

We have completed the Africa segment of our trip. 88 days and 9 countries. Countless memories and more stories than we will ever be able to tell. We have shared a small fraction of our experiences with this blog and have captured further sights with our pictures. Regardless, neither the blog or our pictures can holistically capture the experience we have had over the last three months. Words can't fully explain and most often cameras and pictures were not an acceptable thing with locals, so we will have the experiences in our mind to share with all of you when we meet again. We have put together the lists below as a summary of our experiences and we hope you enjoy!

Things We Learned
-Chad is an extremely hard name to pronounce for Africans, Colleen is rather easy (odd as there is an African country named Chad)
-Africans Love Enrique Eglesias (especially cab drivers), and Rihanna and Beyonce....a lot...other western pop music you will hardly hear but they love those three
-Rwandans in the capital of Kigali LOVE buffets
-If someone tells you to turn left you have a 50/50 chance of going the right direction (thank goodness for hand gestures)
-Che is idolized everywhere...he is currently pictured on a book cover in our hotel next to Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela
-African oranges are green
-Muzungu is everyone's favorite word (means whitey, and people reminded us we were white every chance they got)
-Just because you pay for a plane ticket, have a confirmation and receipt doesn't mean you actually have a ticket
-Your chances of surviving a Tanzanian bus trip are pretty low, they drive over 90 MPH and the busses look like something out of the Mad Max movies
-You can barter any clothes item if you run out of money
-If you are hungry enough lemons can be eaten as a meal
-Don't take a good pair of sandals for granted
-When there are no other options, your body and mind are able to overcome unthinkable situations
-Never underestimate the value of human kindness from complete strangers
-Never have more than 1 beer in a local bar (trust us, we learned)
-Only eat in restaurants that are crowded....high turnover means less chance of getting sick
-Word of mouth is HUGE in the travel circle in Africa, learn from other's mistakes...and try not to make them again yourself
-There is always room for one more on a Mozambique bus if they have money
-African babies don't cry. Our hypothesis is that they are conditioned to not receiving what they want.
-You don't need much to be happy in life...pretty much we were reassured this every day we met people

Top Africa Lists
Favorite Sight: Soussevlei (Sand Dunes), Namibia
Best Sunset: Addo Elephant Park, South Africa
Favorite Food: Zanzibar
Friendliest People: Lesotho
Best Beach: Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar
Favorite Big City: Cape Town, South Africa
Favorite Small City: Rhodes, South Africa (Chad enjoyed the small town fly fishing crowd more than Colleen)
Least Favorite Town: Nampula, Mozambique
Best Beer Selection: Mozambique...actually found something besides light lager there
Worst Touts: Nhkata Bay, Malawi & Tanzanian Bus Stations
Place We Wish We Had More Time In: Uganda
Place We Could Have Spent Less Time In: Malawi (that darn ferry)
First On Our List for Our Next Visit: Ethiopia
Cheapest Room: $4.22, Colleen's birthday night
Longest Bus Journey: 17 hours (honorable mention to the 58 hour ferry which does not qualify)
Number of times Colleen ate beef byproducts: 1 (damn beef gluten in South African jelly beans)
Countries we were awaken by the morning call to prayer: 9, every one!
Most Expensive Country: Botswana at $121.32 per day, this number is slightly skewed as we were only there 2 days and had the rental car and expensive lodging
Least Expensive Country: Mozambique at $60.58 per day, days are cheap when you cant find much food!
Current Average Cost Per Trip Day: $79.22, well below our $100 a day budget which is a relief

Currently we are in Goa, India and enjoying every minute of our first country in a new continent. Internet is more prevalent here than in Africa and we will be in touch.

-Chad& Colleen

Zanzibar - the True Beach Paradise

2009-05-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

***In addition to this new post we also updated some older posts with additional pictures and uploaded numerous new albums with captions on our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/TheKuehls

Enjoy!
Chad & Colleen

Zanzibar, we made it. After 3 months in Africa we have arrived at our final destination. From Kigali we caught a bus to the border with Tanzania, then bargained for a shared taxi to take us another 3 hours into Tanzania to the town of Kahama, the nearest town with a bus connection to Dar. After a night in small town Kahama we caught an early morning bus to Dar, arriving 13 hours later.

Sounds easy right? It would have gone relatively smooth if it wasn't for the horrible case of food poisoning I caught in Kigali. We ate at a buffet....first and last of the trip...enough said. Not the wisest decision and I paid for it over the next 4 days and eventually had to take a course of antibiotics to get rid of it. Colleen food sickness: 2, Chad (stomach of steel!): 0. We stayed in Dar for 3 nights, mainly so I could recover, and to be honest, there isn't much to do or see in Dar. It is the biggest city in Tanzania (although it is not the capital) and there wasn't even a supermarket bigger than the corner mini mart. It was a good place to recover though, and from Dar it is very easy to catch a ferry to Zanzibar. I said it was easy to take the ferry, unfortunately it was not easy to buy tickets. Tanzania is filled with touts, more than any other country we have seen so far. We were constantly telling people "no, we don't need your help. No we don't want to buy anything No you cannot carry our baggage. No, no, no". It is exhausting and buying transportation tickets of any kind is an experience as the touters jockey for position in order to claim a commission on your purchase (even if they did not help you to begin with).

After 3 nights in Dar, and I fully recovered, we fought our way through the touts dockside and onto the Zanzibar Ferry. We paid a premium to get on the high speed morning ferry and 2 hours later we were exiting on the shores of Zanzibar (had to get our passports stamped and go through immigration although they are technically part of Tanzania)...weaving through more touts on our way to a taxi. We checked into a guesthouse in historical Stonetown, the main town on Zanzibar. Stonetown is beautiful, with narrow winding alleyways and streets, you can get lost for hours there. The population on Zanzibar is mainly Muslim and the women fully covered their bodies and heads with beautiful materials, something we had not encountered since the small rural towns of Jordan. We spent 2 nights in Stonetown enjoying the old world feel before catching a mini bus out to what Zanzibar is famous for, the beach. There are many beaches to choose from in Zanzibar and one was recommended to us by a few people so we headed that way. We traveled by local minibus which meant exiting on the side of a road and hiking several kilometers with our packs down a marked dirt road to the beach side backpackers. We had a confirmed reservation at a recommended resort but upon arriving found that they had lost the reservation and their quoted prices were now inconsistent with what our reservation stated. We took it as a sign and headed out. Given the temperature and our heavy packs, we checked in just down the road for one night and spent the remainder of the morning doing a round robin of the neighboring resorts finding the best one suited for us and made a reservation there for the remaining 3 nights.

We chose to end our tour of Africa in Zanzibar because of a deal we found on airplane flights back to Johannesburg. It turns out the island was the perfect place to unwind and reminisce about the past several months of travel and prepare for the road ahead of us in Asia. The weather is perfect, not too hot and not too cold (think those warm San Francisco days we get a handful of each summer) with a light refreshing shower each afternoon. The beaches had the whitest sand either of us had ever seen and the turquoise blue waters were somewhat hypnotic as we spent afternoons gazing out on the Indian Ocean and the islands offshore. The nights were spent touring the local beachside restaurants sampling multiple curries, pastas and seafood for Chad. One particular night we gathered at a local open air beach pub to watch the Champions League soccer final between Manchester United and Barcelona. We arrived early and as game time grew nearer the crowd drew larger and larger. The bar owner had installed a new projection TV that day and was casting the game on an oversized (10+ ft) screen hanging from the rafters. As the bar was open air the crowd grew outside and it was a site to behold. There was a large group of Masai (the native people of Tanzania) decorated in their elaborate historical dress, in addition to locals ranging in age from the very young to adults, and of course the local touts and beachboys. It was a site to remember watching them sitting motionless and memorized on the beach in anticipation of the match. We did a bit of snorkeling on the last day on one of the many offshore islands and finished the night off with a glass of wine on the beach watching the sunset. Zanzibar is amazing.

We are in transit for the next few days, heading first to Johannesburg, then to Hong Kong before finally arriving in India. The flights will be long but after many hours on buses in Africa we are looking forward to the relative comfort of a plane.

Rwanda

2009-05-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

When we first decided to go to Rwanda we hadn't done much research as to what to expect. All either of us knew about it was the 1994 genocide between the Hutu and the Tutsi. What would the country be like now? Would the people be full of hope or would signs of tragedy still be everywhere? After a 9 hour bus ride down from Kampala and a somewhat long border crossing where they dug through people’s luggage for plastic bags(they aren't allowed in the country and must be confiscated at the border), we arrived into the capital city of Kigali at dusk.

Rwanda is a breathtakingly beautiful country covered by lush vegetation, hills and volcanoes. There are over 8 million people in a very small country and every inch of land and hillside is cultivated, making it look somewhat like Nepal. Kigali city center sits on top of a hill, with magnificent views over the outlying areas. We caught a moto-taxi to a couple different guest houses before deciding on one in the city center, we think we were their only guests.

The next morning we headed out to explore the city. Our first priority was to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center situated on the outskirts of town. Again we were not sure what to expect...would it be similar to the WWII death camp memorials or the killing fields of Cambodia? Our nervousness and uneasiness was somewhat calmed as we arrived at the site and found it to be a serene white building surrounded by a garden and a simple fountain. Nerves calmed, we passed through security (Chad felt kind of dumb as he had brought his pocket knife on him) and entered the building. Immediately we were greeted by memorial representatives speaking in a very low tone with almost no expression on their face. We knew this was a sensitive and sacred site and the actions of the workers further emphasized these thoughts.

The first section of the museum covered the history of Rwanda and the events leading up to the genocide; the Belgian colonization and the subsequent socioeconomic (not ethnic) classification of all citizens into the Hutu or Tutsi class (initially based off of how many cows one owned) and the eventual build up of tension and colonial favoritism of first the minority Tutsi then the majority Hutu. Belgium slowly lost grip and Rwanda gained independence in the 1960s. The tension flowed over into the new country in subsequent years leading to the eventual genocide of the Tutsi in 1994.

The second and most disturbing and emotional section of the museum dealt with the genocide itself. Following the gunning down of a plane carrying the plane of the Rwanda and Burundi presidents, road blocks we set up within hours and the genocide was set into motion. No one knows who exactly shot down the plane, many thing it was the presidents own people in order to set off the genocide. The aftermath that followed was so swift and sickly efficient that no one can claim that it was not premeditated and well thought out. Tutsi were slaughtered. At road intersections, schools, churches and in their own homes. They were thrown in latrines and septic tanks and stoned to death. The actions were carried out by a branch of the Rwanda military, neighbors, friends and children. The killers did not differentiate between men, women, children or infants. The chosen mode of death seemed to be the machete to the head or by stoning. This section of the museum was particularly difficult with still pictures and videos depicting the events. When it was all over, over 1 million people were dead in 100 days. It was difficult to imagine 10,000 people being murdered by their own every day for 100 days. We were left dead minded.

The final section of the memorial covered a history of genocides in other parts of the world. As we excited the building we entered the gardens which were homes to mass graves of over 250,000 people who lost their lives during the genocide.

Our time in Rwanda was moving and weighed heavily on our minds. Visible signs of the genocide still exist today, 15 years later. Walking around town we saw multiple people missing limbs and in wheelchairs. Construction and modernization around the city and country is booming though, and the people are filled with hope and optimism and are focused on the future. Our stay was short in Rwanda, only 3 days but it’s impact will stay with us forever.

The Pearl of Africa

2009-05-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Churchill coined Uganda the 'Pearl of Africa'. The small, somewhat circular shaped country is nestled nicely between Kenya, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Lake Victoria. The country is home to the highest mountain range in Africa, contains the source of the great Nile River and is home to the highest concentration of primates in the world. Essentially it is Africa condensed.

Our time in Uganda is short. Upon receiving an unexpected multiple entry visa into Tanzania we then had the opportunity for some side trips into neighboring countries. We decided to sidetrack into both Uganda and Rwanda by bus via Kenya. Both countries were mysterious to us and the lure of the unknown definitely swayed our decision. Prior to making our decision we did some research and talked to a couple other travelers and discovered that there was actually a lightly treaded 'backpackers' route through the two countries. We also found that both countries were actually extremely safe today following much violence and hardship the past couple decades.

We left Arusha, Tanzania (still never saw Mt Kilimanjaro completely through the clouds) on an afternoon bus. Our 20 hour overnight bus ride had a midnight connection in Nairobi, Kenya and then arrived in the Ugandan Capital of Kampala the following day. The bus ride was relatively comfortable and en route we were treated to a bridge crossing over the Nile River at its source, Lake Victoria. It was pretty amazing to imagine the thousands of miles northward the river winds before eventually empting into the Mediterranean. We arrived in Kampala around noon time and hopped on the back of two motorcycles who taxied us to our backpackers lodging on the edge of town. We decided to spend our first night outside of the town center while we oriented ourselves and did some homework on what we would be seeing and how we would be traveling over the next week.

Following a good nights sleep and some conversation over beers with other travelers we headed into the chaotic city center of Kampala. Kampala is a city of 1.2 million that is known for its crowded streets active nightlife. After exiting our taxi and trudging through the crowded streets we were able to find a centrally located hotel. From there we spent the next 3 days exploring the capital city. Since the war, unrest and strife that plagued the country in the 70s and 80s, Uganda has been on the rebound and is quite impressive. Kampala itself sports multiple universities in addition to primary and secondary schools (more than we have seen anywhere in Africa) as well as supermarkets, banks and many street side cafes. The streets are chaotic but remain safe and we wandered around freely discovering new sites as we went.

On our third day we took a side trip an hour outside of the city to the Uganda Wildlife Education Center. The center is a wildlife refuge for animals that have been recovered from poachers and traffickers. We were able to view native chimpanzees for the first time which was a huge treat and Colleen was able to get her animal fix.

From here we head south on a day long journey to Rwanda and the capital city of Kigali. Again, we are not sure what to expect but know most of our time there will be focused on memorials and sites relating to the 1994 genocide. Rwanda today extremely safe but there is the uneasiness that comes with visiting an area that experienced so much pain and emotion so recently.

One If By Land, Two If By Sea

2009-05-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

We chose two...and we chose wrong.

The Ilala Ferry is a beast of a boat, some 170 ft of fun and enjoyment spread over 3 passenger levels . She was built by the colonial English in 1950 (although her wear and tear indicate an older age) and has been ferrying passengers north and south on Lake Malawi for the past half century. The guidebook indicated that this was an 'experience that was not to be missed' and was the 'highlight of many travelers visit to Malawi'.

Upon arriving at the dock a day early to buy our tickets, we were told to be to the boat an hour early of the 10AM departure and that we would be arriving at our final destination of Nhkata Bay at 1AM some 39 hours later. We took caution and booked 1st class tickets for the next day.

The next morning we arrived at the ferry just prior to 9AM and boarded soon after. We found the first class section (the top deck of the boat) to be entirely open air with the only coverage being a small canopy and some safety rails. The section was surprisingly empty except for a couple of locals plus the other 4 persons that would make up our small group on the journey. There was Dave and Hadi from Brooklyn as well as CJ and Sasha from England. Glad to be in good company with these four we anxiously awaited our departure and the adventure ahead. After and hour or so, more people started appearing up the stairwell heading directly to the small bar area at the front of the deck. Interestingly enough this bar was attached directly to the ferry wheelhouse. Soon thereafter we learned these additional persons were the boat crew and the ringleader with the bottle of gin was actually the boat captain! Six hours later (the crew needed 3 hours to drink and 3 hours to recover/nap) we left port. The first day went by quite smoothly. The customs agent on the boat had given me a couple of warm local beers as a gift (he was drinking too and not sure why he gave me his beer as I was reading my book) as he checked our passports for valid visas. We slept nicely the first night out under the stars right on the deck floor as the boat chugged from port to port.

Awaking on Day 2 we found ourselves some 12 hours behind schedule and getting a little restless. We had brought food and water from shore but were beginning to run a little short. We had ventured down to the lower portions of the boat only to find the kitchen inadequate and overpriced and the 2nd class deck to be overflowing with locals. You name it, they brought it aboard as cargo...couches, tires, scrap metal, tomatoes, chickens, cardboard, spare car engines, jerrycans (of course), peanuts and bicycles. Most of the ports we arrived at were too shallow to enter so the people and cargo were ferried out to the ferry (sometimes in row boats). We hit a new port every handful of hours and spent the subsequent handful of hours there...the crew continuing to drink throughout the trip. Early in the morning of our second night on the boat we awoke to the jeers and drunken yelling of some new passengers in 1st class. The night had already been a rough one as rats had decided to have their way running across our sleep sacks and chewing a hole in one of our bags. Turns out these locals who apparently come on board to drink and party and then just before the ferry leaves, they head back in to shore. A fun night out on the town for them, unfortunately that wasn't the case for us.

Now some 15 hours behind schedule, we trudged through the 3rd day, hungry, dirty (no showers) and tired, only to be told be would be arriving later and later. Don't worry though, the crew kept up the partying for the whole trip. Glad to see someone was having a good time. The one saving grace were the great people we had with us to weather the storm. It was nice to catch up with fellow travelers and I doubt any of us would have made it through the trip as easily with out the others. After 60 hours, we finally arrived at our destination to find mass chaos awaiting at the poorly lit port. Luckily we had pre-booked a place a few days before on advice from another traveler, and after 20 minutes of pushing and shoving, we exited the boat to find a man from our backpackers waiting for us. After a 10 minute boat ride(yep, we got back on a boat), we arrived at Mayoka Village, an oasis on the shores of Nhkata Bay. We unpacked in our beautiful chalet on a small cliff directly on the lake, grabbed dinner and had a few celebratory drinks with our fellow ferry friends. Our next 4 days went bay quickly as we snorkeled, ate local food, hiked and hung out in the small village. We had warm showers lit by fire each night and some enjoyable compost toilets as well.

Upon checkout from the village we were told that there was a mixup and our taxi to the bus stand had somehow left without us. As we discussed our next move we were approached by a middle aged man who asked about our final destination. His name was Rod and he was heading to Karonga (our final destination) and he offered to give us a lift the full way there. A break from crowded minivans and buses to ride in an aircon pickup truck was almost too good to be true. The day long drive was pleasant as we exchanged stories and spoke about the little news of the world that each of us knew. Turns out Rod was quite the character, a uranium miner from Australia working on a 2 year stint in Malawi. We took a quick detour to visit a mountaintop 19th century mission setup by the original European missionaries to the region and made it to Karonga by nightfall where we bid a much appreciated farewell to Rod. The stories of travelers helping travelers seem to be a constant on our journey.

The next morning we headed the remaining 40 km to the Malawi/Tanzania border. We found the Tanzanian immigration counter to be staffed by women and Colleen took the lead to get our visas issued. Standard issue for Americans at the border is a 90 day single entry visa but somehow Colleen ended up with 6 month multiple entry visas. Women in this part of the world definitely take to speaking with her and it has been an unexpected highlight of my trip to see her interact with them.

We spent one night in the boarder town of Mbeya before heading north on a 17 hour bus ride to the town of Moshi in the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro and have been here now for a few days. Thus far the buses and food in Tanzania have been a relief as we are eating better and traveling more comfortably. No sight of the nearby mountain yet as the clouds have not parted but hopefully we will be rewarded soon. From here we head to the 'pearl of Africa'.

Biking the Border

2009-05-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

Mozambique decided that she wasn't done with us yet, and after 5 relaxing days on Ilha we hopped into a chappa and headed back to the dreaded city of Nampula. We bought train tickets for the next day and checked into a hotel for the night. Unfortunately they were out of running water and after back and forth with the management we were able to get a small refund and showered with a bucket. Our train left at 5:00AM the next day and to our surprise, it left right on time. We had a 10 hour train ride to a city called Cuamba, which was in turn, a 4 hour bus ride from the border of Malawi. The train ride went smoothly and we hopped off to began our search for a bus to Mandimba. Here is where the craziness started. Bus and chappa people started grabbing and pulling at us, trying to get us to go with them. As they were grabbing Chad they were punching each other and pulling on my bag trying to get it off. The bus we wanted to go on threw Chad on the bus, leaving me back in the scuffle, until they realized that Chad was yelling at them to get me too. There were a few tense moments and a full on wrestling/fist fight broke out outside the bus, but the passengers on the bus were friendly and assured us that we were heading the right way. It was almost as if this was a common occurrence for them.

We weren't too thrilled about spending the night in a border town, but hoped to get in a big day of travel in Malawi the next day. We arrived at the border in Mandimba after the 10 hour train ride and 4 hour bus ride to find 100 people standing outside the bus trying to change money with us/take us to the border/sell us things. We were exhausted and walked to the closest resthouse where we spent another night with no running water and no dinner (Chad actually had an egg for dinner! yummy!).

We awoke the next morning knowing we had a full day ahead of us. Our goal was to cross into Malawi and, after a series of transfers, arrive on the shores of Lake Malawi some 200 km away by night fall. First things first, we had to get through the boarder. We exited our resthouse out into the madness that makes up all boarder towns. First we changed some money and then, after attracting a small crowd, selected two young men to pedal us across the boarder via bike taxi. Bike taxis are a way of life in northern Mozambique and southern Malawi. Simply put, people cant afford cars or petrol and a simple bike allows the boys and young men to make a living. We boarded the bikes sitting behind the driver on the small rack over the rear wheel (wearing our 40 lb packs) and headed for the boarder. It was a 8 km ride to the Mozambique border and from there another 7 km to the Malawi border (what about the space in between?!? not sure.) We paid the men well for their work and it was amazing to see the enthusiasm and effort they put into transporting us around. After getting our Malawi visas we then changed more money and hopped in the back of a pickup truck for an hour long ride to the regional hub of Mangochi. We hit up an ATM (the only one we have seen in 10 days in Malawi) and flagged down a bus leaving town that had our destination posted across the front. We boarded the bus to find there were no seats left and the passengers were all local missionary women on a retreat. Very entertaining ride and after we dropped off the missionaries at a camp (Chad unloaded their bags) and it was then on to our final destination of Monkey Bay.

As we exited the bus there was no lake in site. The town was spread out and we spent the next 2 hours in the hot sun searching for a place to stay. The first place we had noted no longer existed and the second place was run by a bunch of "beach boys". The beach boys of Malawi are mostly concerned with reggae music and smoking various things and have become a regular occurrence/nuisance in Malawi. They offered us a dirty room at about 10 times the price quoted in the guide book and then came down considerably as we balked and exited the hotel. Frustration set in and we were not sure what to do next as the small town was spread out over multiple kilometers, it was nearly 100 degrees out, and we were carrying our packs. It was only 3PM and we decided to head to our next destination, Cape McClear that day. After an hour of waiting for a mini bus to fill and an hour and a half ride to go 21K, we finally found a backpackers directly on the lake and showered for the first time in a few days. We spent 4 days at Cape McClear enjoying some delicious local dishes, kayaking and relaxing on the lake. It was a nice introduction to Malawi and a great place to spend my birthday. The lake is beautiful and we decided a few more days hanging out on it further north would be a good idea.......if only we had known the journey to our next location would be so difficult.

Ilha De Mocambique

2009-04-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

We don’t consider ourselves ‘off the beaten track’ travelers. Sure we are traveling for a year and seeing some far off places but for the most part we stick to the backpacker routes and use the “bibles” (Lonely Planet books) as a general guide for travel. We thoroughly enjoy the unexpected and also highly anticipate many of the journeys more so than the destinations but for the most part we tread our path with at least a small amount of guidance or advance knowledge of the areas we visit. Northern Mozambique does not fit the Kuehl travel status quo.

The Portuguese landed in Ilha De Mocambique in 1498. As we write this post we are sitting in a hotel room of a building built within a year or two of their arrival. The island sits 4 kilometers off the mainland in northern Mozambique, a handful of hours from the Tanzanian border. Roughly a couple kilometers long by a couple hundred meters wide, the island community is small and tight knit, centered around the ocean, fishing and tourism. As we noted in our last post, unless you are traveling with a loose budget and can charter in a small plane, the only real way to reach the island is by a series of several day long bus rides north of the beaches and cities that populate southern Mozambique. For this reason alone, tourism to the island is somewhat limited in numbers but as the locals will tell you, ’No trip to Mozambique is complete without a trip to Ilha’.
We have been anxiously anticipating the island for a couple weeks now. We arrived to the nearest large city in the mainland, Nampula, several days ago. Nampula is the capital of the providence and bustling with energy. As our bus entered the city we witnessed several skirmishes on the street and although we had heard no forewarning, we knew the city was one to proceed with caution (all is well but it will definitely be included in our end of trip ‘incidents’ post). From Nampula it was a 3 hour chappa ride to the coast and then across a very long, narrow and unmaintained bridge to Ilha de Mocambique.

Upon exiting the chappa we were befriended by a young man by the name of Mohammed (the island contains Christian Churches, Muslim Mosques and Hindu Temples) who was able to point us in the right direction of the hotels we hoped to look at. We toured every pensao (budget hotel) on the island and settled on the nicest one we found. We had told ourselves that our days on the island would be to relax after the long challenging journey north and even had labeled our time here as a mini vacation within our trip. Our hotel was by far the nicest one we have stayed at in Mozambique, with air conditioning, a pool, and a toilet seat! Trust me, those are not common.
Ilha seems to be an island where time stops and it is in somewhat of a time warp. Everyone does not have a cell phone as in other parts of Mozambique and people lead of pretty simple life. The people here are very friendly and you can wander around with a relative sense of security. The buildings were all built in the 16th century, which makes for beautiful landscapes and the island boasts the oldest European colonial fort and church in the southern hemisphere. It was easy to spend 5 days here, wandering around the streets, playing with the kids (they like to touch our hair and arms), lazing by the pool, helping teenagers with their resumes and buying treats off the island women. Yesterday we rented a dhow (hand hewn wood single-sail boat) to take us to a nearby deserted island. Unfortunately it was a bit windy and we ended up on a different island, but after a 20 minute hike we were able to find a beautiful beach to enjoy for a couple hours. It was a great way to end our stay on Ilha.

Today we head back to Nampula before catching a train to take us close to the Malawi border. After 3 weeks in Mozambique we feel that it is time to move on. It has been a challenging and enjoyable country, and we have learned more about ourselves and the country as a whole then we every imagined. Mozambique is really on the move, and the country is quickly recovering from their 17 year civil war that ended in 1994.

A Day in the Life of a Mozambique Bus Ride

2009-04-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned in our last post, riding the buses in Mozambique is tough, probably the hardest traveling Chad and I have ever done. They are interesting though, and over the past week we have spent countless hours working our way north on buses of all sizes. One particular bus ride was extremely challenging and we took notes throughout the day as we thought it would be a good example to pass on to all of you. There are many moments we wish we could document with our camera on the trip, but out of respect for the people, we have to abstain. You can’t exactly snap a photo of a group of tired bus passengers and expect no one to protest, and others you do not want to advertise to that you have a camera.

On the day prior to the bus trip in the port town of Beira, we boarded a chappa (a local bus/taxi stuffed with 15 people) to the bus stand to buy tickets to our next destination, the town of Quelimane. You must buy all tickets ahead of time here, as all buses leave anywhere between 3am and 5am. The bus stand turned out to be in a ramshackle industrial building on the outskirts of town, not a great start and something that would foreshadow the day ahead. While buying the tickets we asked how long it would take, 12 hours he said. 12 hours is not that bad, but we had a horrid 11 hour bus trip the day before and our guide book said the trip should take 9. I had prepared myself for 9. No choice but to push through and buy the tickets. And so begins the bus ride from hell.

3:04 AM - Alarm goes off, we finish packing and head out the door to our prearranged taxi
3:36 AM - Arrive at the industrial park to find everyone else is already there. Turns out they all spent the night there because it is too dangerous to come that early in the day…..good to know.
3:37 AM - Catch first glimpse of the bus, a 30 seater. Not a minibus this time, an actual old school bus. They throw our backpacks on the top with the numerous jerry cans, tires, bags of vegetables, bikes, etc. that litter all buses here
4:15 AM - Board the bus and head to our assigned seat. We grab our 2 person bench (once again over the wheel well, we can’t catch a break) and wait to see how many people pile on. For a split second we think there might not be anyone in the isle next to us, but too late, the attendant places jerry cans in the isles between the benches so they can accommodate more passengers. (Again we are the only ‘blancos’ or ‘whites’ on the journey)
4:40 AM - Bus departs, they usually leave pretty on schedule here. Total count of the people on the 30 seat bus, 41, including 4 babies. We then stop to pick up a few more passengers as we exist town.
5:15 AM - The women on the jerry can next to me tries to share my part of the bench and my shoulder to sleep on. I put my head in Chad’s lap to try and get a little sleep and she see’s this as an opportunity to sleep on my back.
6:15 AM - Sunrise
6:45 AM - First break - here is where things get interesting on bus rides. People surround the bus selling everything you can possible think of: oranges, nuts, bananas, live chickens, eggs, dead chickens, bed comforters, brooms, everything! They shove things that do and don’t fit through the windows with the hopes of enticing a sale.
10:45 AM - Another break. We get off the bus to stand for a little and give our aching butts a break. An old women from the bus comes out of the bushes next to me with a pair of bloody goat legs. No idea where she bought those as we are in the middle of no where. Tries to take them on the bus, but gets denied, they throw them on the roof.
11:40 AM - Out of gas, sounds like a perfect time for everyone to eat lunch, and boy, is lunch interesting around here!
12:15 PM - Stop so people can change babies in the brush outside the bus, no diapers around here but they carry extra plastic bags in case they are needed.
12:40 PM - Bus breaks down for 20 minutes
1:15 PM - Arrive at the Zambezi River. Turns out they have been building a bridge over the river for years now and it is not done. We must take a ferry across which is shut down until 2:00. While we wait the driver loads huge bags of rice on the roof.
3:20 PM - Board ferry
3:30 PM - Exit ferry
4:00 PM - Bus stops to load 15 hot water heater sized bags of coal onto the roof
4:45 PM - Driver stops to sell said rice and coal in a local village
6:00 PM - Sunset…still on the bus…we have exited a total of two times during day light
7:15 PM - Arrive in Quelimane, our destination, and we let out a huge sigh of relief as we chug down the main street
7:18 PM - Bus breaks down 2 kilometers from the bus station. Our first instinct is to get out and hail a taxi (this city is known for only have bicycle taxis…not sure how the 90 lb kid will like pedaling the blancos with our huge bags) but the taxi is not an option as our bags are secured to the roof under produce, animals, jerry cans, goat legs, etc
8:05 PM - We still have not moved. Unlucky for us we broke down outside a bar (can’t enter as we need to watch our bags) and the locals are enjoying joking with all of us sitting on the bus although we cannot understand anyone and no one can understand us. English is not spoken here…the bar is blaring Enrique Iglesias on repeat and we sit and wait.
8:15 PM- After an hour of waiting, and nearly 16 hours on the bus with two breaks, a second bus arrives and tows our bus to the bus station…the tow rope only snaps once during this time.
8:35 PM- We arrive at our hotel with our bags. The hotel is way overpriced and full of mosquitoes but we are just happy to be off the bus. It is dark and too late to go anywhere safely so dinner is bottled water, crackers and peanut butter!

The bus rides in Mozambique are an attack on all senses. Others who have competed round the world trips have commented that the most difficult transportation they encountered was in Mozambique. The sights of live/dead/decapitated animals on the seats next to you, the feeling and smell of perspiration as people stick to you for hours on end, the sounds of babies crying and passengers arguing and the taste of the dirt road in your mouth. For these reasons most travelers hit up the capital city and the beaches in the south and then make the 2 day dash for the boarder with Malawi. We on the other hand hoped we would experience more of the genuine Mozambique by continuing northward. At the end of the day you almost have to just laugh, wipe the dirt from your eyes and nose, and be happy you have made it in one piece and have a roof over your head for the night. It has been tough, but extremely rewarding. We also had the destination of Ilha de Mocambique, the famed once capital of Portuguese colonial Africa, in our sights. It will take us 5 additional days to reach the island, and we are hoping for some rest and relaxation once we arrive.

Beaches, Buses and Avocados - Our Introduction to Mozambique

2009-04-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

We have run into relatively few Americans during our travels thus far. In Ireland and the UK they were no doubt present but there were very few to be found in Jordan and even less so once we arrived in Africa. Touring southern Africa in the rental car for a month lead to some encounters but probably less than we could count on two hands. Now that we have crossed the boarder into Mozambique and are solely relying on public transportation, encounters are even fewer. On our initial cross boarder bus from Johannesburg to the capital city of Maputo we had a handful of American foreign exchange students on Easter/Spring break heading north to the beaches of Mozambique. After two nights in Maputo we headed north to our first sample of the beaches and into the holiday crowds at the coastal town of Tofo. Easter break meant packed hotels and higher prices but it was nice to be around some larger crowds for the three days we spent there.

Since leaving Tofo 5 days ago we have spent nearly 20 total hours on 1 bus, 2 chappas (local taxi bus/mini van) and 1 boat (riding the bus here is a whole different post, think seats for 20 but 30+++ people on board). We have shared these vehicles with some 150+ people and we have been the only non-locals aboard. Yep, ebony and ivory, Chad and Colleen and the locals. We have been assured that the public transit is safe but the looks, or more so stares, that we receive are somewhat intriguing. Mostly they come from the young girls aboard the buses staring at Colleen with blank faces for minutes at a time.

The few Americans we have run into have had admirable actions that have brought them to this part of the world. We have run into multiple Peace Core volunteers who all seem to be working in neighboring Zambia. Then there was the girl from Vermont who was on break working at a startup non-profit in Kenya helping with women’s rights and the education of young girls. Then there was the chance run in with a girl from Washington DC who had left her job at a top financial firm on the east coast to work for one year in micro-financing in Tanzania. Then there was the guy who left his job in IT project management to work for 6 months in Namibia teaching technology to local high-schoolers. People in this part of the world love the USA for the New York Yankees and Hollywood (Jean Claude van Dam?) . But it is more than that. There are Americans here who have placed life on hold and selflessly left their high paying jobs and careers behind for a short while in the hopes of doing more. And for this reason Africans appreciate us as Americans. They respect us, love to speak the English they know (in Mozambique they speak Portuguese, and very little English the farer north we head), and have generally been very polite to us as guests in their country.

Today’s public transport via a 30 seater mini bus was particularly rough. No vehicle break downs as we had in previous days, but too many people for the actual space and we were positioned over a wheel well so we had our feet in the air with our knees to our chest for 11 hours. Add to that a missed alarm this morning and a 4AM sprint up a sand road to make the 4:30 bus. Besides that, the past week has been peaceful with 3 days in Tofo at the beach and 3 days in Vilankulo at the beach, and we were thrown back into the frenzy of Africa today. We are currently in Beira, the 2nd largest city in Mozambique, with the ultimate destination of Ilha de Mocambique in mind before cutting over to Malawi. Ilha is a whole 3 days of African transport away though, so I am sure we will have many more stories of bus rides ahead.

Our diets as of late have been rather simple. Meat is hard to come by and very expensive ($4 meat in a tube). When you do find meat it is then questionable where it came from and how it has been stored. I have therefore joined Colleen on the vegetarian train for the past 10 days and will probably remain so for much of the rest of Africa. Our typical daily run to the local market stalls supplies us with fresh bread, tomatoes, bananas, avocados (my saving grace), oranges, cookies, cheese (again rare and expensive and we rarely have it) and crackers. We also try to carry a jar of peanut butter with us when available. Usually our daily treat is a orange Fanta sold by the kids out of coolers on the side of the road. Restaurants tend to be pricey as well ($20 a meal for two) but we are getting by with our market visits for around $10 a day. Our stomachs are anxiously looking forward to the curries of India a couple months from now!

The bus rides are long and the meals not always optimal but the country of Mozambique continues to be an experience that we enjoy. The destinations, and the journeys in between, have been rewarding and observing the locals in their environment has been enlightening.

Back to South Africa

2009-04-07T00:54:00.001-07:00

The border crossing back into South Africa from Botswana was our shortest one yet. This time the guard told us he was going to be the second black president of the USA 8 years from now when Obama was finished. We did not want to burst his bubble and tell him it was an impossible feat as he was not born in the USA.

We headed south and west from the border and into the capital city of Pretoria. Our destination was the Mozambique Consulate with the goal of securing our visas. We arrived only to be told we were 20 minutes too late and had to return the next day. We had the full day ahead of us so we headed to the local university area of town for some shopping and hit up an actual laundromat for the first time in weeks. We hoped to camp near the friendly university area but heard through the grapevine that the backpackers we intended to stay at had a reputation for theft so we headed outside town to a campground.

The next day we were granted our Mozambique visas (the cost was over 2 times what the guide book listed but at least it was processed the same day!) and headed south for our last few nights camping with the rental car. Our destination was the town of Clarens in the most well known mountain range in South Africa, the Drakensburgs. If the Drakensburgs were the Rockies of South Africa then you could call Clarens the Aspen. We arrived to find the quaint town we expected tucked against the mountains but were a little overwhelmed at the number of high end accommodation present. We spent 2 days in Clarens, hiking and hanging out. The town even had a small microbrewery, which made Chad extremely happy. We had 1 night left before we had to head to Johannesburg to return the car, so we decided to go to a national park that a couple had recommended to us farther south in the mountains, Royal Natal. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and we were able to fit in a 5 hour hike up a gorge. All in all it was an excellent park and we wished that we had a few more days to spend there.

After 30 days of living the high life in the Land Rover, the time had come to return him. We have been so lucky to have such a safe and reliable car for the past month and it has afforded us countless opportunities that we never would have had with a tiny 2 wheel drive. Camping for 30 days was not nearly as hard as we had expected, and it has been nice to wake up every day outside. Tomorrow we head to Mozambique and the next leg of our African journey. We are extremely excited for the next 2 months and have no idea what to expect. What we do know is that internet is going to be very scarce, so there probably won’t be a lot of pictures posted. Stick with us though, we will post when we can and you can expect a massive upload of pictures when we arrive in Asia.

Car/Camping Stats:
Kilometers Driven in Dougie (yes Colleen named the car): 8,635
Countries Visited: 4
Highest Road Toll Paid: $9
Number of Birds Hit: 5 (they fly into cars so they actually hit us)
Average Bed Time: 8:30pm(hey it gets dark here early and there are a lot of bugs!)
Average Wake Up Time: 6:45am(easy to get up early when you go to bed early)
Average Hours of Sleep: We’re guessing 5, the ground is really, really hard here
Times we were asked what nationality we were then when we told them they tripled the price of entrance or accommodation: Around 10

Botswana

2009-04-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

The border crossings are beginning to become somewhat of a routine. Three hours outside of the Namibian capital of Windhoek we pulled up to the boarder checkpoint, presented our documents, paid a small entry fee, had the car searched and listened to a guard comment in admiration about Obama.

Given our limited time with the vehicle, Botswana had not received the highest priority (most all there is to do and see in Botswana is in the far north) and we were using it mostly as a transitional point from eastern Namibia back into northern South Africa. Once through the border, we headed out across the vast flat open space that is the Kalahari. The desert covers a good portion of northern South Africa as well as all of southern Botswana. During our 400 mile trek across the desert, rest stops and towns were few and even cross roads were a rarity. One thing that was plentiful was the livestock in the road. We were not really sure who they belonged to (there were no sheppards in sight) but every handful of minutes we had to slow to a complete stop to let the cow, donkey, geep (yes I said geep = part goat part sheep), cross the road. It kept the drive entertaining and comical as there was no radio and our only other entertainment was adjusting the air condition.

Despite the uneventful drive, the scenery was beautiful with vast desert shrubbery stretching uninterrupted by houses, fences or other roads. We had the town of Kang noted about 300 miles into our drive arrived by mid afternoon only to find the town was only a petrol station with camp sites (gravel parking lot) in the back. We had camped next to petrol stations before but this one seemed to have too many people standing around with nothing to do besides eye us and our car so we headed further down the highway. There were no towns marked on the map for the following couple hours and before we knew it we were watching the sun set in the rear view mirror as we headed east. We began to get slightly worried as we had no idea where to head for the night. We were within a couple hours of the capital but heading into an unfamiliar large city late at night was not an attractive option. We came across a petrol station sometime around 8PM whose owner offered to let us stay behind the station for free (again too many people standing around with nothing to do staring at us) but also noted a hotel further down the road that should have rooms open. Although we had the tent and the hotel cost 4 times the normal cost of a campground, we decided not to break our cardinal rule (compromising safety) and grabbed a room. After camping for 4 weeks sleeping in a tent on hard ground, the warm bed and hot shower were a treat.

We awoke the next morning refreshed and headed into the Botswana capital of Gaborone to stock up on some much needed supplies. Gaborone is more of a business center than a sight seeing destination but the downtown business area sported some tall buildings and well groomed parks. Botswana gained independence in the 60s and not too long after, diamond deposits were found and the economy has been riding that wave of wealth for the past couple decades. The conversation today is around how they will transition much of their economy now that the diamonds have run dry.

From the capital we headed south to our destination for the day, Mokolodi Nature reserve, and arrived just before noon time. We were lucky as the day prior and day after they were booked full but we were able to secure a site for one night and by early afternoon we were out on a self guided tour of the reserve. About 20 minutes into our drive down a rocky dirt road we came across a group of giraffes feeding. It was quite the rush to see the creatures in the wild for the first time as one blocked our path forward down the road while others loomed 20 ft tall far above our heads. From there we moved on through the park and had our first glimpses of wildebeests and zebra. Just as we were arriving back at camp at sunset we stumbled upon a small pack of elephants to cap off the day! The rhino and hippo are still eluding us but we hope to spot them in the coming weeks.

Our time in Botswana was short lived but we hope to return again and see the sights that the northern half of this beautiful country has to offer.

Good Luck Turns Expensive - Namibia

2009-03-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

As we travel North through Namibia, we are slowly encountering more people one the road. Namibia has an interesting road system. There are 3 types of roads. B roads, which are tarred(around 5). C roads which are gravel, but hard packed. And D roads, these you really shouldn’t drive on unless you have a good 4 wheel drive car. That’s it, nothing more.

After 4 days in Namibia we encountered some small crowds at Namibia’s #1 tourist destination, the Namib Sand Dunes. This 32,000 sq kilometer sand sea contains the worlds oldest and highest dunes, and more importantly, Sossusvlei the most assessable of these. We rolled up to the national park once again hoping in wouldn’t be full, only to find they had camping available and even better yet the Namibia Wildlife Resorts were charging half price until the end of March. Excellent we thought. Then they told us the cost, the equivalent of 30 USD a night to camp plus 17USD to get into the park. Pricey, and that was half off!!!!!! We were told from multiple people in SA that we had to see Sossusvlei at sunrise and the only way to do that is to stay inside the park, so we grudgingly paid and we were rewarded The camp site was pretty impressive and we awoke the next morning at 5:30am to see the sunrise. After an hour drive out with some crazy sand off-roading and a 25 minute hike, we arrived to magnificent views of sand for days with the sun rising and the reflecting colors of the sand changing.

After our hike down the dunes it was back to break camp and head back out onto the gravel. About an hour out into our drive we heard a loud “ping/pssffff”. First thought was, “that was an odd sound” immediately followed by “that odd sound sounded like a tire blow out”. A quick stop and glance out the window by Colleen confirmed our thoughts. As we changed the tire in the dust and dirt of the gravel road our mood was almost upbeat. We had made it 5000+ kilometers on mostly unpaved roads and this was our first incident with the rental car. Immediately it was evident the flat was a sidewall blowout and the tire was not patchable and would need to be replaced. We had a quick tire change with the full size spare and we were on again on our way.

We arrived in our much anticipated destination of Swakopmund early that afternoon. It had been nearly a week since we entered a city of any notable size and we were immediately energized to see a Pick & Pay Supermarket and multiple choices of accommodation. We settled on a low key backpackers that had camping available for $15 USD and headed out into town to get some much needed supplies and do some tire browsing.

Swakopmund is one of the largest cities in Namibia with 25,000 people. The local economy is heavily weighted toward tourism feeding off the German heritage and architecture of years gone by. Given the large size relative to most Namibian towns, it is a center of commerce and offers internet, multiple supermarkets, a small shopping mall and even a beach with a light house. Out first task was to hit up the supermarket and some internet followed by some hand laundry and tire shopping.

And so the great tire odyssey began…Swakopmund has three main tire shops. The first was the name brand tire shop that we needed but required one week to get the tire and at a cost of $280 USD. The second shop had claimed to have the tire in stock but quoted the price at $365. The third and final shop actually had the tire currently in stock (turns out the second shop was actually buying from the third) at a cost of $290. Who knew spare tires cost so much in Namibia? Turns out the Land Rover Discovery 3 that we are driving is the only model using a 27035R17 tire and not too many people in Namibia drive Land Rovers. After a quick couple calls to tire shops in the capital city of Windhoek 4 hours away and no leads, we settled on biting the bullet and going with the third shop. We figured we could gamble and look more but the one shop actually having the tire in stock could sell the one it had and the thought of having another blowout on a dusty Namibian road with no spare was not too appealing!

We spent 3 days in Swakopmund walking the beach, catching up on to-do’s, drinking happy hour pints of AfriBeer(a new beer that was on special) and recharging out batteries. We are currently in the capitol city of Windhoek, a relativity new town, with nice shopping and sights. We are spending a few days here before we head into Botswana. After much debate we have decided to take the Trans-Kalahari highway through Botswana and back to South Africa. We are reluctantly skipping out on the highly popular Etosha NP and the Okavango Delta to the North. We are saving our money to spend on a safari in Tanzania and hope we will be back to this beautiful and intriguing country again in the future.

Waterfalls and Canyons

2009-03-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

The border crossing from Lesotho back into South Africa was extremely quick. In fact, they didn’t even bother to check both of our passports. After crossing back in, we decided the best route into Namibia would be driving straight west, all the way back across South Africa to enter Namibia from the south. After 2 long days of driving and a quick 1 night stop in Kimberly (known for having the biggest manually dug hole in the world), we arrived in Augrabies. Augrabies is a small town, but it sits outside Augrabies National Park, known for its cascading waterfalls. We hit the park at an optimal time as the floods in the north had brought large volumes of water into the gorge leading to a handful of individual side waterfalls in addition to the main falls. We spent two nights camping outside the park in wine country sandwiched between grape vines and lime trees.

From Augrabies it was a 2 hour jaunt northward to Namibia (again we selected a small remote dirt/gravel road boarder crossing). For the first time our vehicle was actually searched at the boarder and after 45 minutes of paperwork, investigating, and being told the USA was only full of rich people, we moved into Namibia. A majority of Namibians live in the northern third of the country, in the capital of Windhoek or settled in the north along the Angola boarder. It was immediately evident as we entered from the south that we were in desolate, but beautiful country. Namibia is slightly larger than Texas but boasts less than 2 million people. Most are scattered across the country side and only the capital city boasts a population above 50,000 people. On our third day in Namibia during a 5 hour stretch driving in the south we only encountered one other vehicle!

Our first destination was to hit up Fish River Canyon. It was high on Colleen’s things to see in Namibia, and like SA, everything says that you must book in advance. We did not know when we would be arriving, so we took the chance and just showed up. There were only 4 other people there. It is entering high season and the Easter Holiday yet the crowds have been low as of late. Fish River Canyon is the largest canyon in the Southern Hemisphere, and the views were spectacular. After Fish River we had big plans to drive to Luderitz, a small German settlement 2 hours from any other towns on the south-west coast. Namibia has a big German history as they used to be a German colony and only got their independence in 1990. We arrived after a long day of driving to Luderitz and wouldn’t you know it, it was their Independence Day. Of course in the USA everyone has big BBQ’s and parties on our Independence Day, here not so much. We found one person having a small braai and the temperature had dropped from 35 degrees C at 30 KM outside of town to only 14 degrees in the city. It was a ghost town. No one was around, all the shops were closed for the holiday and at the one camping spot we couldn’t find anyone to pay. We took this as a sign and decided our best bet was to grab a quick beer at the only pub open in town and head out back the way we came. The nearest town was Aus and we camped at the only garage/market/petrol station in town. It was nice, cheap, clean and sunny!

Namibia has been an experience so far. LOTS of wide open space and you don’t see others for hours. The scenery is magnificent, it seems to change drastically every hour and the trip is definitely about the journey here, not the destination.

The Heavenly Kingdom of Lesotho

2009-03-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

There are multiple options for crossing the border into Lesotho from South Africa. Some are well worn while others not so much. We broke camp in Rhodes, South Africa and headed north to the nearest border crossing, Tele Bridge. The road from Rhodes to Tele bridge is a mountain pass of gravel/dirt and it took 3+ hours to cover the 60 mile trek. The boarder crossing was uneventful outside of the guards inquiry on Barack Obama (Do we know him? Where does he live?).

Once across the boarder we hopped on a paved road, the first in 2 days of driving, and headed north. Lesotho is a small country, surrounded entirely by South Africa. The guide book pointed out that 45% of the country is unemployed, 25% is malnourished and 30%+ are living with HIV/AIDS. Add some political instability to the mix and the country has struggled as of late. We found Lesotho to be a beautiful and interesting country, amazing mountain scenery with friendly, smiling people. We stayed at the Malealea Lodge, in Malealea, known for its pony trekking and out of the way solitude. Lesotho also has amazing hiking, and we thought it would be a good place to fit in a day long trek. The lodge recommends that you hire a guide to do the 6 hour gorge hike we decided on, both to employ the local people and also to keep the guests safe as the hike is rather confusing and strenuous. We opted out of this, thinking it would be nice to have some solitude in such a beautiful location. Hiring a guide might have been a good idea. We spent the next 6 hours clamoring over slippery rocks, jumping down 6 foot waterfalls and climbing up sides of cliffs. At the end of the day we probable spent a good 2+ hours of the 6 hour hike lost, but we really enjoyed ourselves and ended up tipping a guide along the way for some well needed directions. The end of the hike lead us through some of the local villages where the kids came running out to greet us with alphabet songs and calls for “sweets”.

Lesotho was an excellent experience. The lodge where we camped was perched on the top of a mountain, where we woke every morning with calls from the many birds and other animals that flowed into and out of the lodge grounds. Each evening we were treated to the local village choir singing native songs as well as a small band of locals playing home made instruments. The nights were quiet and spent sipping South African wine and the local Lesotho beers in the lodge pub. As with many of the destinations we have visited thus far in southern Africa, the crowds are smaller than expected for this time of year and most point out the culprit as the slumping global economy. It is no doubt an interesting time to be traveling the world.

Where The Elephants Roam

2009-03-18T04:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delayed postings, internet access in rural South Africa and Lesotho has been non-existent so we are a little behind in posting. The pictures of our first week in South Africa are up on the slideshow….

We departed our hilltop farm campground in the coastal town of Wilderness and made a quick one night stopover in Jeffrey’s Bay. JBay is a coastal surf mecca where flip flops and board shorts are the norm. We camped out one night in the back of a hostel on a cliff overlooking the main beach and then it was on to Addo Elephant Reserve further down the coast.

We arrived at Addo, checked into our camp for two nights (the only reservation we have had thus far in Africa), and then headed out in the Land Rover to see what the park had to offer. The camp area is separated from the animal reserve area by large electric fences so we negotiated another checkpoint and then we were out on exploring on our own. The animals are allowed to roam freely throughout the 250,000 acre reserve and we were unsure at the onset if we would even be lucky enough to see any of the game that the park had to offer. Within the first few minutes in the park we spotted a massive male elephant, and from then on, there were animals everywhere. There are over 450 elephants in the park, and it was easy to spot herds of them, some containing up to 50 elephants. At one point elephants emerged onto the road 3 feet from our car and caused me to panic a little as I had flashbacks of that car commercial at home where the elephant sits on the car. I was convinced they where going to do that, so I began backing up which freaked the elephants out more. Luckily Chad was the voice of reason and calmed me down. Those creatures are huge!!!!

We enjoyed the rest of that day and the next riding through the park spotting animals. We were able to see lions, water buffalos, jackals, tortoises, kudu, a few varieties of deer, the famous flightless dung beetle (they have the right away on the roads there) and many, many warthogs. The zebras, rhinos and hyenas alluded us but hopefully we can catch them next time. No need to pay for an expensive safari when you can self drive all of these amazing parks. We saw more elephants than we could count and it was breathtaking to see them in their natural environment enjoying all of the watering holes in the near 100 degree heat.

At the camp we meet a nice couple from outside Durban, in eastern South Africa, who went over Southern Africa with us and gave us some ideas of where to head to next. They were super helpful and nice and it was great to get some insider knowledge of SA and Namibia.

We left the park with the thought of driving north for a few hours, but never really came across a good place to stop for the night and ended up driving for 7 hours. We saw an advertisement for a small town just south of Lesotho called Rhodes, known for it’s dirt biking trails and fly fishing, things we have zero interest in, but on a whim decided that was where we were going to go. Rhodes turned out to be a over an hour from the closest paved road at an elevation of 6000 ft! We arrived well after dark and skipped the tent setup and spent the next 2 nights sleeping in the back of the Land Rover. Being a very small town far away from any big cities, Rhodes turned out to be very interesting and had very old school African thoughts about division of race, etc. We had a few beers in the one bar with some of the local fly fisherman who were very interested in our thoughts on Obama and what is happening in our county. Rhodes turned out to be a unique experience, one we definitely would not have been able to experience if we did not have our own car.

Sometimes You Get Lucky…….

2009-03-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

You reserve and pay for a Ford Fiesta and get this, packed full with camping gear for 30 days in Southern Africa.

We headed out of Camp Town in our Land Rover rental, and after a few quick stops on the Cape Peninsula coast to see the small towns and the native penguins, we headed to wine country and a small university town called Stellenbosch. We were able to camp 2 nights behind a local backpackers in town, and spent a day wine tasting. After 4 and a half years of living in San Francisco close to some of the best wine in the world, we were shocked by how CHEAP it is to buy wine here. Wine tastings ranged from 1-4 USD and bottles from 4-6 USD. Ridiculously cheap, even on a backpackers budget.

We are currently in a small town on the Garden Route coast called Wilderness, named because it is well, wild. There is a national park here where we canoed and hiked up to a waterfall today, and are camping at a backpackers on top of a hill with gorgeous views of the water and surrounding area.

Today is officially our 1 month anniversary of traveling and we cannot believe how quickly time is moving. We realize each day how lucky we are to do be experiencing this adventure together and are thankful for these times and everything we have. With the car we are now planning most of our travels 2-3 days in advance. Tomorrow we head to Jeffrey’s Bay, a world renowned South Africa surf town, and from there we are heading to Addo Elephant Reserve for two nights of wildlife.

Barcelona pictures are uploaded. All of our pictures can be accessed by clicking on the Picasa slideshow to the right. The first South Africa pictures will be up soon!

Into Africa

2009-03-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

We have updated the picture slideshow with all photos from Aqaba, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. The Jauntlet travel map itinerary has also be updated with our tentative future plans. Take a look at both! Over the past week since our last post we have:

-Spent a couple days relaxing in the Aqaba sun (although we never went in the Red Sea)
-Survived 2 days in a torrential rain/hail storm in Amman, including a long, cold and wet walk in the rain to taste our first Jordanian draft beer. We were seated in front of a fire by the staff to dry ourselves. A poster of The Doors to our left and Nirvana to our right, good company!
-Enjoyed 2 days eating tapas, drinking sangria and hiking all over Barcelona
-Endured 25 hours of straight travel from Barcelona to Cape Town including 2 flights with a layover in Heathrow.

We arrived safely in Cape Town on the 4th and absolutely love it! The atmosphere and vibe is really laid back, it reminds of Santa Cruz CA and the surf towns of Australia and although we are staying at a party hostel and feeling a bit old as the average age here is 20, it has been a great time. Yesterday we took some time to explore a couple of museums relating to Cape Town’s past: the Slave Lodge and the District 6th Museum. Both were extremely moving and gave us greater knowledge of the history here. In the afternoon we decided to hike to Table Mountain, take the cable car up and hike back down. Did I mention that Cape Town is in the middle of a massive heat wave? It was long and very hot and we were relieved to complete the hike back into town and sit down to 75 cent happy hour beers!

We have decided to rent a car and camp the next 30 days in Southern Africa. We caught a lucky break at the car rental place and got upgraded from a Ford to a Volvo and they threw in camping gear for free. We pick up the car in about an hour so we will see if the deal is too good to be true. We have reservations for our first two nights camping in South African wine country and from there we will head along the southern shore dubbed the ‘Garden Route’ for a week until we head north to Lesotho. We have no real set plan or itinerary, and are really looking forward to the freedom of the car. So for now it is bye to Cape Town, we will definitely be back again!

Tea, Tea and More Tea

2009-02-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

Our next destination in Jordan was south so we left the comfort of the Petra Marriott and caught a cab to the bus station. The bus driver informed us there would not be a bus today as there were not enough passengers but we could pay $20 (double price) and the bus could leave immediately. Sensing that something did not feel right we told him we would wait until the scheduled departure time to see if any other passengers showed up. We were erring on the side of caution showing up and hour early so why would one expect more passengers to already be there? Our wait in the hot sun was actually quite entertaining. Numerous taxi drivers and others approached us inquiring about who we were, where we are from and what we were doing. Most tourists in Jordan book packaged tours that put them on large buses which cart the them from site to site. Those who choose to go at it alone usually book private taxis. Then there is us trying to catch the local bus from destination to destination, not in a huge hurry and trying to stay on budget. Locals find this peculiar but it gives us time to see different sides of the country which we would not experience from a tour bus or a private taxi. While standing curbside and drinking a Turkish coffee at the bus station (no building present just an empty parking lot) we heard the following ring tones from locals (everyone has at least 2 cell phones) phones:
1. Bryan Adams - Please Forgive Me
2. Britney Spears - Oops I did it Again
3. Shakira - Underneath Your Clothes

Mind you that all of these came from grown men's phones who themselves hardly spoke any English. An hour later we had a total of 5 persons and yet the bus driver was reluctant to leave and still wanted each of us to pitch in an extra dollar to get the bus moving. After a bit of negotiating we were on the road and by the time we reached the southern port city of Aqaba 2 hours later, the bus was nearly full.

Aqaba sits on the shores of the Red Sea. It is the nearest thing that Jordan has to a resort town and it does a fair job at holding this title. The city sits on a sliver of land that existed after the middle east boarders were drawn and re-drawn multiple times in the mid 20th century. From the city center, Saudi Arabia sits 10 miles to the east and Israel sits 3 miles to the west. As with the rest of Jordan, there is a very large Palestinian population and influence.

We settled on a hotel situated about a block from the water across the street from the main Mosque (call to prayer wake-up calls each day at 5AM) with an ocean view balcony for $21 USD. We then set about trying to find next day departures for the local bus to Wadi Rum. As is usual, none of the hotels seemed to know departure times and even told us that the local buses did not exist. The usual response was to ask us which tour group we were with or to refer us to a local travel agent around the corner. After speaking to numerous people we settled on showing up at the bus station early in the morning and just waiting to see when the first bus left, a couple people had said one one would be leaving around 8AM. We then grabbed some falafel, hummus and babba ghanoosh and called it an early night.

We awoke the next day and headed tot the bus station at 7AM only to be told that there would only be one bus that day which arrived at 8AM but would not leave until it was full or 1PM, whichever came first (strange how information changes from day to day). It is hard to get concrete answers because most drivers are looking out for their own personal interest and there are not actual stations or ticket booths in Jordan in which to buy tickets. We figured we would cut our losses and get a taxi the 30 miles to the Wadi Rum desert. Our driver connected us with a friend, Mohammed, who was a tour operator and offered a fair price for a 2 day camping trip into the desert.

Mohammed operates his business out of his house where he lives with his wife and has raised 11 children. We drank tea and discussed options for our trip. He had one other couple scheduled to arrive that day so we decided to team up with them and share a 4WD. After a couple hour wait the other couple arrived and we were happy to find them outgoing recently married Canadian/Americans. David was studying to be a rabbi in neighboring Israel and his wife Rebbecca was studying through a fellowship in Jerusalem.

We headed out in the jeep with our local Bedouin guide. The Bedouins are the native nomadic desert persons of Jordan. A few still live traditional lives as nomadic herders while others have moved away to the city or have taken up jobs as guides. We toured the Wadi Rum desert and took in the sites, essentially raw desert and rock formations as far as the eye could see. They claim it to be the most beautiful desert landscape in the world and we could not argue. Many of the sites were related to Lawrence of Arabia who actually spent time living there while helping to lead the Arabic revolution while also expanding British influence in the region. Our drive ended at our camp perched on a hillside with great views of the landscape around us. We took in a quick hike just the two of us and then took in an amazing sunset. It was nice to be reminded how many stars exist when you are in the countryside far off from any city lights.
Once the sun was down the desert cooled off very quickly and we found ourselves in the round communal tent with some of the local Bedouins drinking tea fireside. The Bedouins love their tea, even calling it Bedouin whiskey, and I had no less than 20 cups of it over our 2 day trip. The camp cook, a friendly Sudanese man, cooked us a small feast of rice, potatoes, stew and chicken. We later learned from Mohammed that the cook had left Sudan a few months ago in search of work and had ended up in Jordan. He was now living in the desert on an 18 shift (the only permanent resident of the camp) and sending money home to his family. The food was wonderful.

We topped off the night with some more tea (Colleen was actually drinking it at this point) and retreated to our tent. The tent consisted of multiple layers of canvas outer and nothing inside but some thick blankets and two mats on opposite sides of the tent. We pushed the two mats together and pulled out our sleep sacks and called it a night. We actually slept very well and found ourselves awake the next day at 6AM and enjoying a delicious breakfast. David and Rebbecca had already left in the 4WD as they had to catch an early boarder crossing back to Israel and we had arranged to trek the remaining 11 km back to the village by camel. The Bedouin say camels are easier to guide than a horse, which proved true, and the only hitch we had was Colleen's camel constantly attempting to eat at the dry brush we passed. Camels surprisingly move very gracefully with little sound and it was amazing to take in the landscape in this fashion. A little over two hours later we were back in the village. We settled up with Mohammed and caught a taxi back into Aqaba where we checked into the same hotel and room we had previously stayed in.

Now we are in Aqaba with 2 days of relaxing before heading the 5 hours north back north to Amman. From there we plan to take a day trip to the dead sea and then it is off to Barcelona!

South to Petra

2009-02-23T00:49:00.000-08:00

Jordan sits in a precarious position geographically in the middle east. This was evident as our bus pulled out of Amman on the way to Petra. The roadside signs pointed out directions and distances to Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

We arrived in Wadi Musa, the city where Petra is located. One of the residual benefits of working as a consultant the past 4 years are the hotel and airline points you build up. We knew given the city and country we were in that we would be spending most of our evenings indoors so we figured we would use points and treat ourselves to a stay at the local Marriott. We had originally planned two nights but changed it to three after our flight out of Jordan was pushed back. As our taxi drew up to the front door of the Marriott we knew we were in for a treat! The hotel is perched high on a hillside/cliff over looking the city and the valley that contains Petra, making for some great scenery and photos. Given our point status they placed us in the corner room on the top floor and then sent us a cheese plate and a half bottle of wine, definitely a nice welcome. Turns out after a week into our travels in Jordan, that half bottle of wine is all the alcohol we have consumed and we still have not seen any beer in any of the stores. We have enjoyed our stay in the Marriott: free buffet breakfast each morning, catching up on laundry in our large bathroom, and enjoying the comforts of a nice bed and clean sheets!

After awaking the first morning we grabbed breakfast and caught the first shuttle bus into Petra. We purchased a two day pass which cost $72 USD total for the two of us. For those who are not familiar, Petra is ancient ruins built in a remote part of Jordan. It was constructed by the native Nabataean people from around 200 BC to 100AD. The Romans then took over and added on some buildings of their own and at one point the area was occupied by the Christian Crusaders. Eventually all left the area and from 1200AD until the early 19th century, Petra was a forgotten outpost until it was once again 're-discovered'. Most of the excavation and reconstruction did not actually begin until the 1950's and continues today as they estimate only %5 of the total ruins has been unearthed.

Enough with the history lesson for this post. The entrance to Petra is grand as you walk down a 1 mile path that narrows down to 10 feet in some places will 200 meter high walls and shooting straight up. 'The Siq' as they call it is not a gorge (formed by water) as most people think but was actually created by a tectonic shift and one side of The Siq matches the opposite wall like a puzzle. We descended The Siq alone as one of the first people in that day, taking pictures along the way. Towards the end of The Siq you begin to catch glimpses of an opening and you get flashes of something that you can feel is grand but can't quite make out exactly what it is. They there is a bright flash of light from the sun and you are in a large opening and in front of you sits the Treasury of Petra. The Treasury cannot properly be described so we will post a picture and you can view the slide show in the sidebar for more pictures. The site literally freezes you in your steps and locks in your eyes. Simply amazing!

From the Treasury we moved onto the explore the other sites of Petra: the Monastery, the Theatre, temples, places of sacrifice, churches and numerous tombs. Tombs are actually some of the most common and grandest of the unearthed ruins to date. The original dwellers of Petra, the Nabateae people, actually lived in tents. Therefore the ruins are explicitly places of business or worship and then tombs. We covered most all of the sites over our two day ticket and even took some side hikes to high overlooks and up narrow canyons where we did not see another person for hours. By our estimates we did about 15 hours and 25+ miles of hiking during our time in Petra. Petra is truly amazing. Take a minute to look at our slideshow, we are so incredibly lucky to have seen this in person.

We leave in a few hours to head south to Jordan's only port city, Aqaba, on the Red Sea. We hope to head up to the desert from there, and maybe do some camel riding and camping.

To The Middle East

2009-02-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Before we flew to Jordan we had to get through London Heathrow. Seemed straight forward until we realized one of the flights on our RTW ticket had been changed with no notification. Our return flight out of Jordan to Spain was now marked for March 1st and we had booked it for February 26. Turns out Royal Jordanian Airlines canceled flights to Barcelona for that full week and the earliest we could depart is March 1st. Not a huge deal but our stay in Barcelona was scheduled to be a short one leaving on March 2nd. So after nearly 2 hours of speaking with Nigel the airline representative(his first day back after a month off, he really loved us!) we had rebooked our flight out of Barcelona for a day later and confirmed our flight out of Jordan on the 1st. So the stay in Barcelona got shorter and our days in Jordan got longer. It seems nothing is easy to update when you are dealing with a 16 leg paper ticket.

Our flight into Jordan was enjoyable. We had an amazing view of the Alps as we flew over Europe and enjoyed the best airline food we had ever been served. I was reminded that we were entering a Muslim country by the digital compass pointing to Mecca displayed on the monitor on the back of each airplane seat. One minute you are staring at the Mecca compass and the next minute you are watching Wall E. Good times.

We landed in Amman and paid our first Visa fees ($14 per person) of the trip after exchanging some British Pounds into Jordanian Dinar. By the time we picked up our bags and made it through customs it was nearly midnight. We had prebooked a hotel and taxi online and found the driver waiting for us curbside.

The drive in from the airport was 35 km and it gave us time to soak up the countryside before entering the capital city. Driving through the country was a bit eerie. There was not much to be seen on the side of the road but abandoned buildings and closed shops with metal garage doors hiding their contents. Nothing could be seen on the horizon except the glowing of green fluorescent lights hung from the towers of the mosques in the distance. Green is one of the colors in the Jordanian flag and I think it is kind of their ‘red, white and blue’. Strangely enough there was not the usual glow in the sky that indicates you are approaching a metropolis. For a city of over 1 million people, it seemed very sleepy and quiet even given the time of night.

We eventually entered the city and drove down a large valley and pulled up to our hotel which was not immediately evident as it was concealed down a poorly lit alleyway. Colleen was not thrilled but I assured her all was well. She handled our first hours in this strange new country very well and I was impressed. To me it vaguely resembled India in feel and structure but to her it was all a completely foreign experience. We checked into our hotel and grabbed a cup of tea with the owner before heading up to the room. Upon entering the room we found that we had two small separated beds and a setup that would not meet most hygiene standards. The carpet needed a serious cleaning and room temp was quite cold. There was no shower curtain or stall, just a shower head in the corner of the bathroom where mold covered the entire ceiling and the toilets were middle eastern style (no toilet paper just a bucket and a spray hose that I usually associate with washing dishes). But the sheets seemed mostly clean, there was a small plug-in heater, hot water available during the morning and evening hours and the owner was extremely welcoming and helpful. We pushed the beds together and acknowledged that you take the good with the bad when paying $15 a night for a hotel.

For the first time on our trip we pulled out our sleep sheets. They are basically a cocoon like silk liner we crawl into when unsure of the cleanliness of the beds we are sleeping in. We actually found the beds to be quite comfortable and slept heavily but were awakened before sunrise by the first ‘call to prayer’ of the day. The Muslims are called to prayer 5 times a day over loud speakers that hang from the towers of the Mosques. If I were a business man in Amman I would sell green fluorescent lamps and speakers. The prayer and chanting usually lasts 5-10 minutes and then people continue on with their day.

We spent the next two days in Amman exploring the city. We visited an ancient theater and a castle overlooking the city called the Citadel. Most of the ruins were built around 200AD by the Romans.. Jordan is 95% Muslim and although there are a couple very rare bars serving alcohol, there are no alcoholic drinks available in the markets. We spent our evenings eating falafel and humus and enjoying great meals for around $4 USD total.

From here we head south to Petra, one of the seven modern wonders of the world and one of our most anticipated destinations of the trip.

Note: We have updated our pictures from Ireland and the UK. Click on the slideshow on the right to view.

Tiny Hotel Rooms in London

2009-02-18T03:06:00.000-08:00

London really surprised us. We had been told over and over how expensive London is, but we were surprised to find it reasonably priced compared to what we had built up in our minds. We spent our two nights here in the EasyHotel, a brand of hotels known for cheap prices, but very small rooms. It did not disappoint. No windows and the walls touched the bed on three full sides and half of the fourth side. Not much room, but a great value in a great part of the city, Earls Court. Having troubles uploading pictures currently but will try to have an album up tomorrow sometime.

We had two full days to explore London before we had to head back to Heathrow to officially start our RTW ticket. We headed out on foot as we normally do. Exploring new places on foot allows you to bump into the unexpected along the way and avoid the feeling of being on a strict sight seeing itinerary. We try to avoid the Chevy Chase National Lampoons European vacation experience. With that said, we picked up the free London map at the Easy Hotel the day we arrived and circled some spots of interest and then essentially played connect the dots. We hit up Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament & Big Ben, London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge. We stepped off the beaten path along the way and found ourselves on some cobblestone alleyways built before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

The first night was spent drinking a beer and eating some supermarket food on our hotel bed and the second night we met up with a friend Ryan for some pints of cask conditioned beer (hard to find in the US but very common in England pubs) and dinner. Ryan is a friend of a friend from San Francisco we met through our good friends Rob and Betsy. He has been in London working for Gap the past few years and was kind enough to give us the heads up on EasyHotel and also ideas of what to see around London. Thanks Ryan!

We head to Jordan tonight for the next week, looking forward to our first taste of the Middle East. We expect the stories and experiences to pick up as we enter our first unfamiliar country!

Off to Ireland!

2009-02-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

No hitches with our first flight out of the US other than a final few manic minutes as Chad lost his wallet on the way out of the house. Thanks Grandma for pulling your couch out to look for it, luckily we somehow found it between a magazine rack and the counter.

We arrived in Dublin early in the AM Wednesday and caught the city bus to our hotel. Not too shabby but nothing fancy, I guess what you can expect for $50 USD in Dublin. We spent the next 2 days and nights exploring the city on foot. Many cold and wet miles were logged between the sites including Trinity University, the Guinness Brewery and Jamison Distillery. We trimmed ourselves short on the guided tours due to the high cost and some input we had received from others. We enjoyed the sites, architecture, music, churches and of course the classic Irish pubs. All in all it was a enjoyable couple days and a nice introduction to Ireland and our next year on the road!

We caught a Friday morning bus up to Belfast, leaving Dublin as we found it, cold and rainy. It is a quick 3 hour jaunt up to Belfast and the ride was pleasant as we got our first taste of the Irish country side. We pulled into the Belfast bus terminal to find Chad's friend Paul waiting for us. Chad and Paul met 5 years ago in a chance meeting in Kathmandu. Paul was with a good friend Bill (both from N. Ireland) on a year long RTW trip and Chad was traveling solo on his way to eventually meet up with Colleen who was working in Australia. Chad, Paul and Bill spent the next week traveling together in Nepal and eventually met up again later in Thailand. They have kept in touch over the past couple years, even meeting up a few times in the states. Paul was gracious enough to help us with purchasing our RTW ticket from the UK and also hosting us in his home. Unfortunately Bill was out of town for the weekend, hopefully we will see him next time around!

Paul has spoiled us over the past couple of days, taking us to a comedy show in Belfast, out to eat at a few pubs, driving us around the countryside and letting us stay at his home in Bangor, 30 minutes outside of Belfast. We are so grateful for his hospitality, we doubt we will be treated any better on this trip. It is amazing how friendships formed while traveling are accelerated. It seems as though a short time spent together traveling in foreign places leads to feeling as though you have known someone for years. It is no doubt this way with Paul and he will be a friend for life.

A few interesting notes from our days in Ireland:
-In our 6 days we have had 1 day of sunshine!
-We dove lightly into politics with Paul and friends in Belfast. Seems as though most young people today don't give heavy thought to the protestant vs catholic troubles. They say it was a small number who were the source of the violence and these days they are more concentrated on work, life and moving forward.
-Coors Light is HUGE in Ireland. Evidently this is only over the past couple years but I think we saw it on every pub tap line we visited.
-Colleen came down with a cold/cough the first day of the trip. Now on day 6 she is starting to feel better. Chad's throat is now a little scratchy...to be continued...
-Dublin in the south operates on the Euro vs the British pound in the north in Belfast. Dublin was crazy expensive ($6.50 USD pints) and we were relieved to see costs in the north were much cheaper.

We are currently in Belfast International Airport awaiting our flight to London where we will spend the next couple days before heading off to Jordan. We are very happy and excited to be traveling again together and anxious to see what the next year holds!

Leaving San Francisco

2009-02-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have always thought it is good to leave places you love while you still love them. I think we accomplished this with San Francisco.

After 4.5 years in SF we left as we arrived, heading down I-80 unemployed in a Penske truck unsure of what exactly the future would hold. We left heavy hearted with many memories. We spent our entire time in SF at 900 Bay St, Apt 6. Whether it was walking to the financial district for work, heading up Russian Hill to visit Tyson, drinks in North Beach, a quick swim in the bay in the aquatic park or down to the Marina Green for a run, we felt as though we had the ideal location. Many of you have visited us and most who have no doubt shared in a drink or two on our roof and maybe played a game of bags. We will miss SF. Other cities might be better suited for our future goals but I doubt any city will align to our beliefs or give us more than SF did in those 4.5 years.

Our friends threw us a going away party at our favorite bar, Rogue Ale House the Saturday before we left. Prior to that we had our last drink at The Buccaneer and said goodbye to the best happy hour and juke box in town; though we spared playing House of the Rising Sun one last time. The following Thursday we headed out barely fitting everything in the rental truck. Thanks to our friend Ryan who came over and saved the day. A 12 foot truck isn’t as big as we originally thought. It took us 3 days to drive back across the country, and we have spent the last week and a half splitting time between Eldridge, IA and Naperville, IL visiting family and friends.

After another going away party in Chicago this past weekend and a quick stop to Ms. Stevenson’s (Colleen’s Mom’s) third grade class, we are now ready to depart. Thank you to all of our friends for the great going away parties. We already miss all of you SO MUCH and we look forward to seeing all of you soon (whether it be somewhere along the trip or back home).

First leg is Chicago to Dublin at 630PM tonight….anxious and excited to get started!