Where are we?

Wrap up

2007-07-30T08:04:00.001-07:00

List of favorites and curiosities.

In Mostar we saw a car parked on the sidewalk on the way out on a walk. On the way back, we saw the same car being removed from the sidewalk. I have a recurring fantasy where speeding cars, or cars which run red lights are simply plucked from the road by a giant claw and crushed. No hassle over tickets or re offending. Car gone. The giant claw would look something like this.

Uh oh, a list of favorite things. I can hear the question already - how many of these favorite things will involve bicycles? A lot! Senior cyclists in Croatia at the market. How fabulous to be able to get around without a car when you're older. You stay fit, save money, interact with people more (even annoying tourists taking your photo), and can park easily.

Great public spaces. In Kosice in Slovakia the main pedestrian mall had everything. Shops,

museums,

a smooth path for cyclists and baby carriages,

and of course the Dancing Fountains. Great public spaces like this are so rare in the US. Most US cites would have given most of the space over to the movement and parking of cars.

Another great public space in Wroclaw, Poland. A small square,

and the large main square. There was a man selling carved wooden figures, and a group of crazed football supporters singing songs while wearing their team blankets.

Two words. Czech beer.

Fall colors and Czech beer. Beer stops that are marked on the hiking routes.

Mass transit that transported the masses easily and quickly. This photo of a bus lane in Vienna makes my heart happy. Look, no cars in the bus lane (except for one right turner in the distance.) What's so hard about this? Why are we in the US so resistant to moving people efficiently? Things that work all over the world are treated as pie in the sky notions here in the land of the automobile.

Also in Vienna, an add on bike lane under a bridge.

Working bikes, or cargo bikes. We saw these all over India, Vietnam, China and Japan. The rider, or drivers, must have super strong legs as there were no gears evident on the bikes. But what a great low impact way to move cargo around. This one is at a train station in India.

Here is one in Hue Vietnam - delivering TVs by bike.

And here in Kunming, China. Without disrupting the fan dancers with the sound of a loud engine this cardboard collector rides right through the park.

In NZ and Australia almost every restaurant you go to has water in heavy cold glass bottles that they put on your table automatically. No fancy and wasteful bottled water, just cold tap water. So easy, so smart. So going to do that at home.

Hotels all around SE Asia have a system where the electricity in the hotel only goes on when you put your door key in a slot by the door. That way, when you leave the room and take your door key with you, the lights and AC go out and no electricity is wasted. Simple and smart. No photo of that one though.

Sun umbrellas. Not such a good option here in windy SF, but a really good thing to keep in mind for use on hot sunny days. Millions of Chinese and Japanese ladies are on to a good thing with their sun umbrellas.

I adapted quickly to this idea, but I am more sun phobic then most.

My new bike umbrella attachment may send me flying down the street, or knock me over with our summer wind. But I love the idea.

Conveyor belt sushi

2007-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Some of the most stressful times we endured in China and Japan were when trying to get food. As you may have noticed over the year, we tend to avoid the easy tourist spots in favour of local restaurants. Sure, we could have found a KFC or Pizza Hut in a lot of the places we went to, but what's the point? (OK, we did go to a Pizza Hut once in China when we had reached meltdown stage.)

What's the secret to eating out when you don't speak the language? Picture menus!

Or pointing to the plastic food in the window. But that's a bit awkward. Street vendor food is always pretty straightforward. The Takoyaki (octopus balls) were a big hit with Rich in Japan.

Set meals were always a nice break too. When someone just brings you a bunch of food, puts it in front of you, and leaves. This was a Buddhist guest house we stayed at in Koya-San. It is vegan Shojin temple food, like the restaurant "Medicine", in SF.

The tempura and the sesame tofu were particularly great.

Hands down though, my favorite dinner in Japan was at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Kyoto. So low stress. You just sit and watch the sushi go by and pick up the plates you want. You order beer from the roving waitstaff and they count up the number of plates you have in front of you and you take your ticket to the register to pay. When they bring you a beer they bring you a yellow plate to put on your stack to show you had a beer. Or in our case, a few beers.

There is soy sauce and big boxes of pickled ginger in front of you, and if you don't see what you want you can request it from one of the many sushi chefs. We went to the same place twice, that's how much fun it was.

The second time we went, Rich was having a silent eat-off with the two growing teenage boys to his left. They eyed his stack of plates when they sat down and then proceeded to eat so much sushi it was amazing. Even at only 137 Yen (about $1.25)per plate two teenaged boys can do some serious damage. The two of us ate about 22 plates of sushi, together. The boys must have done about 35 or 40 between the two of them.

When you travel you occasionally go to a place and wish you had a specific friend there. A friend who you know would just love whatever it is you're doing. At the sushi place, about twenty plates in, Rich already had eaten all kinds of things that we couldn't identify and had never tried before, he looked at me and said "Know who would love this?" "Leif" We both said in unison. Leif is a friend through my brother who once came through SF for work and we had a fun sushi fest with him at Godzilla Sushi. Leif is great because he'll try anything, and like Rich, can eat a lot. At conveyor belt sushi I stop eating a lot sooner then Rich and sit there picking at pickled ginger while he keeps saying - oh! That looks good! and plucking more plates from the conveyor belt.

And about the wasabi - anyone who's been to sushi with me knows what a pain I am - the wasabi has to be on the side because I don't like wasabi. I thought. Turns out I don't like the green horseradish passed off as wasabi in the US. In Japan the wasabi is real wasabi and tastes different. To test this new theory we went to a wasabi farm and even ate wasabi ice cream.

The wasabi grows in gravel beds in cold running water under shade tarps.

The root is grated or ground up and the stems are made into pickles.

I'm now a big fan of wasabi. So is Rich.

Oh yeah, we're actually home in SF now. Looking for jobs and an apartment. There's no place like home.

Beautiful Japan

2007-07-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

My favorite things about Japan? Well, that's an easy question - almost everything. But the top of the list would be the people.

Great people that we met and got to know, like our new friends Takeshi and Kaoru. And all the people who were just so nice and patient with us. People offered to take our photo more in Japan then anywhere else in the world. And they got in the photos with us.

From cute young women in Osaka, to business men in Masomoto out for dinner and beer after work. They were all super nice, even though we could only exchange about five words. These guys came to our rescue to make sure we got draft beer, and not bottled beer.

Here comes the predictable part - wait for it - some of the most fun we had was while riding bikes.

The casual atitude towards cycling was so refreshing. We've really run the gamut on this trip, from countries where cycling is dangerous and not fun, with mandatory helmet laws and the sense that it is just not safe, to Japan, where kids in child bike seats rarely even wear helmets.

And families ride home together after dark.

Bike rental shops don't offer helmets to you when you rent a bike, but they do offer you sun hats.

Makes sense to me. I'm much more worried about skin cancer then hitting my head after falling off my bike. I was pretty envious of the casual bike culture. How fun would it have been as a school kid to get to and from school with your friends like this?

Homeward bound!

2007-06-27T23:05:00.001-07:00

Wow, it`s finally time to go home. 300 days later here we are in Tokyo Narita airport waiting for our flight home. There have been a few times in the last two weeks when frustration just got the better of both of us and fits worthy of a two year old threatened `I just want to go home!` said in a petulant voice usually got us laughing.

Japan has been such a great place to spend our last three weeks. I love so much about this country. The gardens. The bicycle culture. The people and how enthusiastic and friendly they are. And the trains. My god the trains. The Japanese train system is so easy to use and well designed and well run that even a day of three trains is no big deal at all.

When we get back to SF we`ll up load the rest of the photos and I`ll do another Japan post, too many good photos to share.

Now, it`s wait for the plane twitching in anticipation of being home in SF!

A what what now?

2007-06-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Volcano? As in eruption and flowing lava?

Oh well, at least we got to take the ropeway up and down Mt Ashidake, due to snow and bears on the trail.

Snow and bears. If it had been one or the other we might have walked, but both?
Round trip ticket please.

We are having so much fun in Japan. It is such an amazing county. Clean, beautiful, people are so polite and nice. Tokyo is one of the best run cities we`ve been to, on the list with Vienna and Hong Kong. The subway is a dream, even if it does get a bit crowded. I have my new motto, thanks to a Tokyo subway sign.

Even when crowded the subway is so orderly. Everyone waits for the exiting people to get off the cars before entering, they walk to the left in the corridors, and stand left on the escalators. It makes things run much more smoothly.

Rich was in heaven. It`s an engineers delight.

We were on the 32nd floor of the Tokyo Park Hotel. It was so fun just watching the trains come and go, and wondering when the office workers in the buildings we could see would go home. Built in entertainment.

It`s hard to believe that we go home in less then two weeks. But I gotta get Rich out before he adapts too well and starts hanging out at the arcade all day.

Can you stop progress? Should you?

2007-06-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

In every Chinese City we have visited we see the progress.

The big projects in Shanghai where your map says a bit of `old town` should be are now giant construction zones.

In Kunming bits of old town have so far escaped the wrecking ball, although we saw one small house on a dirt track between two projects, one completed and one a huge multi block pit under construction. The house was on the old street grid which had been no grid at all, and through luck or destiny had turned out to be just off the path of both projects.

It makes you sad to see so much history disappearing, and at the Urban Planning musuem in Shanghai they called it refurbishment, the replacing of the old with more modern buildings.

There is no doubt about it, these streets are organic and alive. You see everything from an old lady sewing and watching the street,

to a kitten eating fish guts.

Yeah, that photo is kinda gross. But the streets and alleys of Shanghai offer it all. Kids learning to ride bikes to anything you need to buy.

How, we thought, can they let all of this be lost, replaced, refurbished? But, as with anything, it`s never as black and white as you think. On our last night in Shanghai instead of walking on the bund

or Nanjing street

we headed to some of the alleys left in Shangahi. Those not yet refurbished.

We didn`t even get many photos. It felt too much like an intrusion on peoples lives. The living was close, the smell of human waste was very strong and we saw many slop buckets being emptied into the collection doors on the sides of the public toilet buildings. Many of the homes have no indoor plumbing, and the kitchen at ground level is shared by the entire two or three story building.　The rooms at ground floor that we could see into were packed tight. A loft style bed would contain a child or two, a table and chair and tv underneath, laundry hanging everywhere, people brushing their teeth and washing their hair outside on the street.
This was a street where the people would perhaps welcome refurbishment? But can you refurbish and keep the sense of community that obviously exists. And at what point does my tourist desire to see a `real old Shanghai` street collide with the government desire and responsibility to provide clean and safe housing for their people. A fire in these streets would have been catastrophic.

The Urban Planing Musuem had interesting exhibits on the city, and how it will look in the future.

But it will certainly be a shame to lose every old street in the name of progress.

Now we are in Japan, currently loving Tokyo. Three weeks to home.

He really was scared - Look.

2007-06-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Bubbling Hot Pot of Death

2007-06-04T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is the first time that Rich has ever admitted to being afraid of food. I was terrified, but I have a healthy fear of over spiced dishes in general - although this trip has helped cure me of any spice fear. Now I'm the one reaching for the pepper oil in the restaurants. But this, this looked terrifying. Chengdu hot pot.

It didn't help that of course we went to a hot pot place where not only was no English spoken, but they didn't even do the "not so hot" hot pot that we had the word for in our guide book. So, oh well, give us the regular cauldron of death.

The other must do in Chengdu is a visit to the Panda Breeding Center. No words other then "Awww....how cute" are necessary.

The adults pandas are cute sure, but the baby pandas just about knock you out with their fuzzy antics.

After Chengdu it was on to Xi'an where we had a good time walking around and not going to the major tourist site, the Terra Cotta Warriors. We wandered around the Muslim Quarter and ate street food and chatted with the animals.

And of course we had some more great food. We are now big fans of the Western Chinese cuisine.

After Xi'an it was on to Beijing, where we actually did some touristy things - the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.

Is everyone tired of seeing my bike riding outfit yet? Same skirt, same shirt, same hat. I know I am.

We hiked about 12 km of the Wall in the rain. Although it was wet, cold and windy, the rain kept the other tourists away. The wall looked like a dream someone who'd had too much hot pot was having, it kept disappearing into the mist and then dramatically re-appearing.

We're now in Shanghai for two more days before flying on to Japan. Japan is our last stop before heading back to SF. We return to SF on June 28. Oh, I'd be so lying if I denied being pretty anxious to get home again. I miss all my friends and family. I miss knowing my way around where I am - map reading gets really old. Everyone who knows us is saying to themselves - what? When has Cheryl ever read a map? Rich does that. And they are correct, so maybe I should say watching Rich read maps never gets old, but I'm still looking forward to being home and having friends to hang out with.

But first - Japan!

China. So far so fun.

2007-05-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

Places are never what we expect, and China is fast living up to that maxim. We did expect great food, and we've found it, from wonderful dumplings in Dali where we ate our way down one street of dumpling vendors:

More dumplings please.

To amazing Naxi food in Lijiang.

All the ingredients are so fresh.

And of course nothing is made until you order it, but then the food arrives so quickly. Such a relief after Australia where we sometimes waited 45 minutes for our food.

And now for the cute critters. An integral part of any post.

We called him Nano pup. This was in Baisha, a village outside Lijiang. We ordered our lunch and he showed up to mooch some food. We fed him bits of tofu and the Naxi woman tending the restaurant smiled.

This guy would be right at home with my nieces in Colorado. They would have him hitched up to a pony cart in no time flat.

In Lijiang the restaurants line up along the canals, and over the rooftops well above the crowds cats have their own secret freeway to travel from window to window.

Lijiang is a very popular tourist spot with Chinese tourists, it's a cross between Disneyland and Venice. No cars in the central old town, everything is delivered by bike or on foot. I love a city center with no cars.

The night scene is amazing.

And as usual we got out and about on some rental bikes.

It's our favorite way to see the countryside. You see things and vistas that most tourists will never find.

It helps if your travel companion is Rich, or I like to call him, the tour guide for Ricky's no frills seldom supported adventure tours.

You never know where you'll end up.

Or who you'll have lunch with.

See Rich's blog for the full story on this lunch:
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/TravelRich/

Birds of a feather

2007-05-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Some times it really pays to use your feet. Muscles over motors. I may be one of the laziest humans known to man kind - why do you think I ride my bike? So I don't have to walk to transit! But I do know that when you want to see amazing stuff you have to leave the engines and the motors behind.

So, up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney we walked. First a note on how fabulous it is to be able to get somewhere like the Blue Mountains by train from Sydney. Big City, two hours on a train that runs every few hours, and ah wilderness. Yeah for trains! And seeing the ten k of traffic jam caused by a sunday afternoon car crash just made us feel even more grateful that we hadn't rented a car and driven. Why drive when you can take the train?

And why take the cable car or "worlds steepest train" down into the canyon when you can walk down the incredibly steeps stairs....and wait a minute...back up again?

Up how many steps?

700 steps! Up? However, with the effort comes the reward. In this case in the form of a flock of sulpher crested cockatoos about 50 strong. We first saw them bathing in the falls and I was twitching with frustration at not being closer, or not having dragged a pair of binoculars around the world with me.

The noise they make. Like teenagers on cell phones they cannot move without communicating with one another. We wtched them play in the waterfall for a while and then something startled them and they took off in a loud cloud of white.

And landed right near us! The trail was very steep and the trees tops on which they landed were just about eye level with our sweaty selves.

Motto of the story? Muscles not motors. Take the stairs.

And then at the top of the stairs, bonus echidnea!

Hong Kong Transit

2007-04-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

This post is out of order, we were in Hong Kong before going to New Zealand. But NZ was so fun and busy that Hong Kong got lost in the shuffle.

Hong Kong - what can I say about your transit system except that You Rock!

Not only are your maps and signage close to perfect;

but you've also tapped into a little used transit option.

Escalators.

The Central Escalators run down the hill from 6 am to 10:30, then switches and runs up the hill from 10:30 to midnight. It's about 800 meters of escalators and moving walkways. You can window shop while commuting. You can pick a restaurant or bar.

This was the last bar on the mid levels escalator, so of course we stopped. And watched the escalator commuters go by.

For anyone who can't get enough of Hong Kong transit, go to flickr.com and type in hktransit under tags for all the great transit photos.

And for those who care more about cats, here you go.

Or maybe goldfish?

Going to the birds in Sydney, Australia

2007-04-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Who's an adorable parrot who landed on our balcony? This guy.
Who fed him? Me.
Was it a good idea? No.
Did he and his buddies show up every half hour screeching for more food for the entire morning? Yes.

But still adorable.

Rich and I are in Sydney, staying in a apartment just up from Bronte Beach. Every morning we go to the beach to swim, either in the Bogey Hole, which is protected from the surf by rocks, or in the salt water swimming pool.

The coast around Sydney is beautiful, thankfully we got out and saw a lot before the rain started. It's been raining for about three days now.

Australia has had ten years of drought, but this stretch of coast gets more then its fair share of rain. Unfortunately it just runs into the ocean, doing the rest of the state and country no good.

We did a great walk from Split to Manley with our friend Mike who was in Australia for work. Sun and lizards, what more could you ask for?

So what's it like staying in one place for so long? Weird, after so much traveling. We emptied the trash for the first time in 8 months. We had to change the toilet paper roll! We bought groceries for more then just two days worth of eating. We have our weekly transit passes and we figured out the bus system and the train system. It's very nice. I give Rich two more days before he's itching to move again.

Seaweed and Sheep

2007-04-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

After our friends Mike and Nancy went back to SF Rich and I rented a car to head up north on the South Island. We wanted to hike and visit the wine country. The areas of New Zealand that have only one main road are not the best for bicycle touring so we decided that a car was the way to go. And we wanted to hike. To get to many of the hikes you have to drive up dirt roads and park on or near private farms or ranches.

These majestic looking sheep were guardians at the trail head of a hike we did up to SawCut gorge. The trail is just a walk up the river, in the river, with an occasional scramble over bigger boulders. The gorge is beautiful and can only be walked through during low water times.

Rich went for a chilly swim au natural, I stayed on the river bank taking photos.

New Zealand is just lousy with great walks, hikes, and tramps of varying length, vistas, and weather. One particular favorite was along the shore of the Kaikoura Peninsula. If you walk the shore around low tide you can make it past all the bluffs at water level - you will be sharing the rocks with red beaked gulls and fur seals, both of which will feel threatened if you get too close. The gulls retaliate by dive bombing you, the fur seals retaliate by scaring the pants off you as what you thought was a rock barks and makes a dash for the water.

The varieties of seaweed along the walk were amazing,

And of course it was New Zealand so there were sheep on this walk as well.

The sign says it all, watch out for sheep everywhere.

We're in Australia now, with our bikes, and after five days in Melbourne we're heading off to Victoria's High Country and then to Sydney.

Push me, pull you.

2007-03-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

Cycling in New Zealand has a been a lesson in love versus hate, or desire versus reality. My hatred of going fast downhill (or fear) is outweighed by my desire to coast as far as possible on the bike loaded with gear.

My fear of New Zealand drivers, including the very able and aptly named Sonic Shuttles (so named because at any moment they may actually break the sound barrier) has twice won over my hatred of cycling 70 km into a headwind with rain threatening at any moment.

(note on NZ drivers - they go fast. They don't like to move out of their lane, even if no cars are coming towards them in the easily visible and straight opposite lane. yes, even if it means buzzing a cyclist at 100kmh with less then 1 meter to spare.)

But, the love of cycling with friends and Rich definitely wins out over every hardship we've encountered so far. Yeah I know, boo hoo, poor us!

And the sheep viewing never gets old!

Or the kitty petting.

The dogs are all friendly.

And the beer is always cold.

Turning over the pedals in NZ

2007-03-11T00:57:00.000-08:00

Boy am I tired. All I can say is that NZ sure has some hills. Or are those mountains? Our friends Mike and Nancy are here and we are all cycling on the South Island.

Today was an 80+km day with warm weather and uphill (not all the way but a lot!). My back hurt and Rich claims his ears hurt from hearing me complain about my back.

However, this is NZ so a fantastic glass of white wine made me feel much better.
It's great to be back on our bikes.

Hong Kong and Hello Kitty

2007-03-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

This one is for you Cecily!

And lest you think that is a small little window display of Hello Kitty and her gay vague love interest, Darling Daniel, (Darling Daniel or Darling David - I can't remember) here is the duo with crowd added for scale.

And the poster from the subway. Apparently you could call and get Hello Kitty messages on your cell phone!

I haven't gone online to check - but it appears that Hello Kitty has been married off to this charming little kitty, Daniel. Come on, he does look kinda gay vague.

More on Hong Kong later, it is a wonderful city, (the public transit is the best in the world as far as I can tell) but I had to get these photos out to show what lofty thoughts I pursue on my year off.

The perfect vehicle

2007-02-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

Before coming to Vietnam I already thought the bicycle was the perfect form of transportation. Suitable for all ages:

Now I am more convinced of this then ever. Bikes are a great way to meet people and chat with them:

They can carry much more of a load then most people think. Especially when the terrain is flat.

And no form of transport can match the sociability aspects of bikes. As you pedal along you see a friend. You can either ride along with them:

Or have them hop on:

Excuse the poor framing on some of these shots, most were taken by me while riding a bike. All the urban bike riding we do at home sure comes in handy when trying to negotiate a sea of bikes and scooters, and the occasional car or bus, one handed while taking photos. (You didn't read that Dad!)

That's why you mostly see the back of Rich in these photos. If he sees me riding one handed while taking photos he get a bit nervous. So I lurk behind him and take pics, and occasionally make him stop when we see something scenic.

Getting out on a bike is not only a great way to meet people and see things off the beaten track, but we've had some of our best food when out biking. You get tired and hungry and try places that you would never see otherwise. Or wouldn't be brave enough to try. And you realize that people are just people, and most are friendly and nice.

vietnam

2007-02-11T17:10:00.001-08:00

As much as Rich and I don't like organized trips while traveling, we signed up for a Junk Boat trip on Ha Long bay. It is one of those "must dos" that most of the tourists to Vietnam take part in. We arrived at the cafe in Hanoi where the mini van would leave from, worrying about our fellow tour groupies - would we like them? Would they be lame? and immediately meet a lovely couple from Australia and thought, oh good, people we get along with. All of us were thrilled...up until the point we got put into different vans because they were doing two nights on a boat and we were one night on a boat and one in a hotel. Oh well. It was a brief, very brief friendship.

The dock at Ha Long City is littered with boats. The boats are double and quadruple parked. In order to get onto our boat we had climb across three other boats.

At this point I'm wondering what type of tourist hell we've agreed to for two nights and three days, but the reality was quite nice. Although there were dozens and dozens of boats, once we headed out into the bay, with its thousand or so islands, and the boats thinned out, the magic of Ha Long Bay appeared.

We spent one day kayaking which is a great way to really appreciate the enormity of the rocks jutting up out of the water. The water is clear and cool and there are lagoons totally enclosed by the rocks except at low tide when you can kayak through to the inner lagoon.

After lunch on the kayaking day we paddled to the floating village.

The village has 1,000 people and probably 3,000 dogs and a few pissed off cats. On the plus side of being a cat on a floating village - lots of fish. The negatives? Surrounded by water and dogs.

The village used to have over 20,000 people, but they lived a subsistence life, catching fish and burning wood from the islands. The government realized that the area was being damaged by the way of life and switched people to an aqua culture life. Now, the villagers farm dogfish and grouper in pens created from plastic drums lashed together with 3x4s. The dogs run along the boards like teenage gymnasts on the balance beam, and skitter to a stop at the edge to bark ferociously at the kayaks. We were waiting for a dog to jump in and swim after us, or to leap on the kayak but none did. I was in the rear of our double kayak and had control of the rudder so I kept us about six feet from the dogs, figuring they couldn't jump that far.

What started out seeming to be a group tourist trip from hell ended up being very nice.

There are more photos on the flickr site, just click on one of the photos to go the whole set on line.

Beach cottage in a box

2007-02-01T22:16:00.001-08:00

After a total of about two weeks on the Islands of Thailand I feel confident in my ability to offer a product which will allow the masses to recreate that "beach cottage" feeling we got so effortlessly in our Bungalow on Koh Phi Phi.

Beach cottage in a box contents:

Three stands of fishing line strung with random shells and bits of coral to hang from the eaves.
Five to six geckos who will appear at eye level anywhere in your cottage at any time.

One bottle of salt water to spray on your curtains, your sheets, your clothing, and your spouse for that salty island breeze feeling.
Two bottles of sand to sprinkle in your bed and on your floor.

One powerful heater to re-create the feel of the relentless mid day sun beating down on your bungalow.
One tiny air conditioner to try and combat the fierce heat.

Take a look at the YouTube video of Rich on the beach to get the true feeling of the beach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GoeghcVfL8

Next: Vietnam.

Kennel Cough

2007-01-24T01:08:00.000-08:00

A lot of good it did me not cuddling the pets at the Chatuchak Weekend market. Don't touch anything, I warned Rich, no matter how cute they are, all those puppies and kittens and baby squirrels. I know that my sister who is a vet would shake her head and intone the names of several diseases which a good portion of the critters would have. So, there was no petting, no picking up, no snuggling. And I got sick the very next day. Kennel Cough.

OK, so it's probably not kennel cough, but for a cold it really wiped me out.

Thankfully Bangkok has pretty good public transit, so we stuck to things along the Sky Train route for a few days. The sky train is Air Conditioned to a temp slightly above frigid, so the continual shock of going from hot to cold is probably not helping my kennel cough.

We visited the Jim Thompson House, a museum created from the home of a US born architect who helped to revitalize the Thai silk weaving industry in the 40s and 50s. His home was created from several traditional Thai village houses, transported and put back together with a few western touches. He vanished in the jungles of Malaysia in 1967.

It's a beautiful place to visit. http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/

Also on the Sky Train routes are quite a few shopping malls.

Loaded with a variety of new and different shops.... and a bunch of the same old stuff with a new twist. Like Ronald making a Wai, the traditional Thai greeting. Rich could not be stopped from joining in.

Short post, still feeling a bit under the weather but the Kennel Cough is clearing up slowly. We've been so lucky in Bangkok to have friends to stay with. First it was Charlie and Lizzie, friends through my Sister-in-law, and now Kathy, a former co-worker of mine. It's been a great break to stay in a home again. And such fun high rises! Great views.

City LIfe

2007-01-17T00:48:00.000-08:00

We left Laos via a boat trip up the Mekong River. It was a fancy pants boat, complete with lunch on board and a bar, and the trip took two days. The alternatives were the bare bones boats, which would have been fine, or the speedboats, for which you wear helmets and life vests and hope for the best. Apparently they are quite prone to flipping over and oh...killing their passengers. Whee!

Many of the villages along the river are accessible only by river, and what a river! This is the low water season so you can really get a good idea of how tricky this river is to navigate. The rocks reach up from the bottom of the river looking like giant teeth waiting to eat the bottom of a boat. The water runs brown like the Mighty Mississippi with a strong fast current and the banks on both side are about 10 to 15 meters below the trees, it gets that much higher during the wet season. The exposed sandy riverbanks are planted with crops near the villages, peanuts and sweet potatoes mostly.

We came back into Thailand and went first to Chiang Rai, where I fell in love with a hedgehog at the night market. I was persuaded that travel with a hedgehog would be difficult so I eased the pain of separation with much shopping for silly cute things that only a pre-teen girl would love. Thankfully, we have about five of those back in the US who will be getting packages from Bangkok so I'll be able to close my backpack again. From Chiang Rai we went up to the mountains, near the border with Burma, the tea growing region of Thailand. It was nice, but a bit dull, so we hightailed it to Chiang Mai, where we've been for six nights now.

What do we do when we get to a City? Go out to dinner, go to movies, ride around on bikes, shop, all the usual. But wait, I hear you say, why did you leave SF 'cause that's pretty much what you did there? Uh, yes... yes it is. We saw three Hollywood movies in five days. (Night at the Musuem, funny, American Haunting, stupid, and Holiday, sweet chick flick complete with crying SNAGS, sensitive new age guys.) The air conditioned shopping mall/ movie complex is a good place to be during the hot part of the day and the food court serves some of the best Thai food we've had, and definitely the best Pad Thai. I said to one of the owners of the first guesthouse we stayed at that we were going to a movie for the hot part of the day and he gave me a puzzled look, "Hot? It's not hot in January." It is if you're a weak blooded westerner.

A word on shopping in Thailand. Hello size extra-large. Most of the teeny tiny little women in the department store where I went to try and buy underwear (mine was holding together by mere threads after five months) would have had to shop in the children's section in the US. The poor saleswomen helping me finally found some that were XL and didn't look like big granny pants. I stocked up. The t-shirt I bought? Size XL. The Capri length sweats to bike in since my Capris are falling apart and are held up at the waist with a safety pin that keeps stabbing me? Size XL. And I've lost weight since we started traveling. Sheesh.

Apparently there is big bussiness in having suits made for you when in Thailand. Loads of shops offer 24 hour turn around. They do dresses too, but everything looked too much like something one would wear to a job, if one had a job, and it freaked me out. So instead I went to a little shop run by a brother sister team - he designs, she sews, and bought two dresses and a top (one size fits all thank you very much!) and then shocked Rich by actually having new clothes on when he got back from a bike ride.

Floating along In Laos

2006-12-31T21:43:00.000-08:00

Viang Vien is a little town on a river that has become quite a little tourist mecca. The mountains that rise up from the river plain are limestone and riddled with amazing caves.

There is kayaking and inner tubing on the river, although more drinking at the riverside bars seems to go then actual inner tube sitting. The bars are built of wood and bamboo and rise up off the river banks seeming to defy gravity. Employees of the bars fish you out of the river with long bamboo poles as you drift by so you can climb up, collapse on a bamboo pavilion and drink BeerLao. Yes, we did the tubing. And yes, large BeerLaos were consumed. Another very popular feature of the riverside bars are the swings and zip lines that swing or zip you out over the river, hopefully over a deep part, and then send you plunging down into the river, hopefully missing the other tubers and kayakers. Rich did a zip line but we both passed on the really high and long swing from which younger tubers then us were doing flips and massive belly flops. I didn't want to have to go up the bar and order "a BeerLao and two ibuprofen please."

As you travel you make discoveries about yourself, some surprising, some not so much. One of the not surprising discoveries about myself is that I will not become a professional spelunker. For one thing, real spelunkers don't wear skirts.

We went into four caves while in Viang Vien and at no point did I feel a burning desire to go further into the caves. And at every point, when we got back to the place where you see the light from the mouth of the cave my brain reacted as if I had been trapped in the cave for weeks - Oh thank goodness, there's the exit! Two of the caves we visited were with guides on a kayak/cave trek day trip. Both were in one spot and out another, and one of the outs involved a little crack through which you had to crawl. Oh boy! Crawling through a crack to get out of a cave! I was third in line to get out of the cave and had to stop to watch my six foot five husband try to wedge himself through the little crack. Our guide, Air, kept saying to Rich, put your right leg back all the way. This is all the way, Rich said. Air is about five foot five and could have done a tango in the crack. Rich got out with only a skinned knee. The caves are amazing inside. Huge caverns carved out by water running through the limestone. In the wet season a lot of them still have water pouring through them, and we had to wade through streams in one.

Luang Prabang has been more calm, no tubing or kayaking for us here, although both are offered. We rented bikes and did another Rich Coffin adventure tours bike ride, complete with lunch stop at a small roadside resturant.

It is a really beautiful town with a French Colonial feel to it.

It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, and has some damn fine poodles running around.

There was a big festival going on for New Years eve at a spot along our bike ride, I stopped and got a photo of Rich with two girls in local festive dress.

It burns, it burns!

2006-12-25T05:08:00.001-08:00

Lessons learned.

In India, I can buy a skirt for less then a glass of wine. No, I'm not good at bargaining, they lower the price when you say you'll think about it and walk away, but usually I bargain very little to none. But the irony of paying 100 RS for a skirt, and then ten minutes later paying 250 RS for a glass of cold white wine makes me laugh. The skirt was too long so I cut the bottom off and used the fabric to make a hat band and a belt for my jeans. The jeans had been held up with a boot string, I think the flowered fabric is much nicer. The jeans themselves have now become shorts hacked off at the knee with my folding knife. Not evenly hacked off, but cooler.

When you throw sticks for dogs in India, they think you are trying to hit them and they run away. To them, it's not a game of fetch. Even if the dog seems like a nice friendly well adjusted 'sure I'll follow you up the mountain because I have nothing better to do' type of dog, it still thinks you are chasing it away. It makes you feel bad when the dog cringes and runs.

The great Snake Brand Powder sold to combat prickly heat in Thailand feels pretty funny if you accidentally get in on sensitive areas of your body. Rich and I can both attest to that.

The Spicy Beef in Laos is really spicy. Yam siin ngao it's called. And whichever word means spicy really should be in capital letters. I was sure that I had steam coming out of my ears and fire shooting from my mouth like a cartoon character. So I kept eating more, it really hurts when you stop.

Being a slow cyclist on a knee masher clunky bike is a great way to spot the best street food vendors, including our new addiction, Kanom Krok, otherwise known as those yummy little coconut cakes - oh my god stop, pull over, more coconut cakes! Rich with Kanom Krok.

And Kanom Krok being made at the Night Market in Chompong.

When riding bikes out in the countryside of Thailand, get ready to wave and shout hello at pretty much everyone. If the people of Thailand were any nicer and friendlier I'm not sure that we could have made any progress on our bike ride. When stopping at small roadside restaurants where there is no menu and no English spoken, it's easy if you just make sure to stop where other people are eating. You just point at something that looks good and point to yourself, nod and smile. That's how we ended up with the most amazing octopus dish. It was fresh, it was good, and the locals were eating it too.

Ah, Thailand.

In love with Thailand

2006-12-19T21:03:00.001-08:00

We've been in Thailand for about 9 days, having what we call a vacation from our sabbatical. We flew from Mumbai to Bangkok to Sura Thani, and spent four nights on Koh Samui and four nights on Koh Tao. (see Rich's blog for a great description of leaving India http://blogs.bootsnall.com/TravelRich/ )

There was a very stormy ferry ride in between the two islands which I would like never to repeat, but the islands themselves are wonderful. Blue waters, white sand beaches, great food and sweet happy friendly people.

We are in an area known for it's scuba diving, but neither of us dive and neither of us wanted to sign up for a dive course - a four day commitment? Too much like work. There are loads of Northern European tourists here, mostly Finnish it seems. Some of the dive courses are offered in Finnish. Although it is December the weather is still very warm and during the hottest part of the day those of us not out on dive boats or submerged in resort swimming pools learning how to dive are in the shade.

The beach is lined with restaurants and bars, all open to the ocean and littered with tourists reclining in the shade on the triangular backed Thai pillows. The tourists look like jetsam washed up with the high tide, marooned on the decks of the pavilion style restaurants. They all seem as if they can barely raise their drinks to their mouths, many are simply prone and possibly asleep or done in by 3rd degree sunburn. The breeze coming through the resturant does nothing to stir them, it merely ruffles the pages of their abandonded books. Although Rich and I are not the oldest tourists on this stretch of beach, we are pushing the upper limits. I do feel like the nagging mother of the beach. As exposed flesh around us becomes pink and then red, I adjust my hat and make sure that not one inch of skin is exposed to the sun that is not liberally covered in sun block. I want to warn the pale blondes who make me look swarthy complexioned that that sun is stronger then it feels, sweetie, and don't even think about getting a tattoo...do you kids know where those needles have been? Does the word hepatitis mean anything to you? I'm channeling my father as they bake in the sun and plan their evenings.

About an hour before sunset all the beach bars start coming to life, laying out cushions and digging pits in the sand for beer bottles filled with kerosene and lit with a rag. All along the beach people stake out a spot to watch the sun go down. The happy hour beers are 50 bahts, about $1.50. The fire pits are lit, the strings of lights wrapped around the palm trees go on and the lanterns hung in the trees start to come alive with spots of color. It is a beautiful sight.

Last day in India

2006-12-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Well this is it, our last day in India. We are in Mumbai, our plane for Thailand is tonight at about midnight. I'm so glad we came to India, I know we never would have made it here on a usual 2 week vacation from work. I think I can best sum up my time in India by borrowing a quote from Ruth Prawar Jhabvala that was used in May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, a book about women in Inida. Jhabvala said that being a visitor in India was like being strapped to giant wheel, sometimes you are up, sometimes you are down.

Wow, is that an elephant? Up.

Child beggars. Down.

Beautiful views. Up.

And so it goes.

Farewell India.

Food and Trains

2006-12-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

I always knew we were spoiled when it came to food. How could you not be living in San Francisco? It really hit home when we spent about two and a half weeks in Italy two summers ago and both Rich and I were tired of Italian food. My sister in law Claire thought it was pretty funny, and it was. We love Italian food. But we got tired of it, we just wanted some variety. So, I hear questions out there, how long did it take us to get tired of Indian food? About 10 days. But, and this is a big but, we both got sick, and when you get sick your mind associates it with the food, and your brain and stomach rebel. We had rented apartments a lot while traveling in Central Europe, so we got to cook for ourselves. Here in India we haven't been able to do that at all. That means four weeks of eating out at resturants. Four weeks of breakfast, lunch, and dinner out. Four weeks of menus, and ordering, and trying to get the bill, and getting change, etc etc etc. It is draining.

So what do we eat? Well, we were lucky that when we went to the mountains we got a lot of Tibetin and Chinese food. We both loved the Tibetian food, love those momos!, and I could eat veggie chow mein for a long time. In Manali there was great resturant attached to the hotel, Johnsons Cafe, and we ate every meal there for two days. Breakfast is never a problem, toast is universal I guess. But, tonight, both of us at our limit on Indian food, we are looking for pizza. And how sick of pizza were we in Croatia? Very. Travel is funny.

I think Rich covered the cockroach train from Varanasi to Jahnsi in his blog. The train that led me to declare "No more night trains!". How long did my ban last? About one and half weeks. After the car and driver we hired left us in McLeod Ganj we had to get to Delhi to get anywhere, so Rich booked a night train for us, 1AC, the highest class available. We got a two person compartment to ourselves and proceeded to settle in, strewing luggage everywhere, getting the rum and fruit juice on deck for cocktails. "A mouse!" Rich announces. Not really, you're joking I hope? No joke, one little mouse. We named him Irwin and decided that one mouse was much better then the hundreds of cockroaches we had endured on our last night train. Live and let live. Coexist. Pass the rum and fruit juice.

Monkeys, Red Pandas, and Monks! Oh My!

2006-12-02T01:48:00.001-08:00

Cute critters do a lot to make a place great, in my book. So the sighting of Red Pandas that we had the other day on a hike out of McLeod Ganj kept me going for about two days. Rich and I were on a trail amazingly free of people or trash (India has a big litter problem, more on that later.) when he saw a dark shape dash away down a slope. I got the camera out and we stalked the elusive shape, well, ok, we continued to walk up the trail, but quietly. We discussed what we thought the creature was, it looked like a pine martin, a member of the weasel family, only larger and with a bushier tail. We were pretty sure it wasn't a cat type creature, the body shape was wrong, and it wasn't one of the many monkeys, wrong color and wrong behavior.

Around the corner on the trail and there it was again, dashing away up the slope, then another one dashed as well and we got a better look at it when it curiously peered back down at us. Red Pandas. Also known as Indian Raccoons. They are reddish golden on their backs with darker legs and belly, and a ringed tail. The faces have white mask markings, like our US raccoons but they are larger and longer. We walked a little farther and heard a horrible fighting noise coming from a tree, and two more ran down the tree and we watched them skirt around us. I got one photo where you can actually see the fast moving thing. Very exciting.

Monkeys and trash. As I mentioned, India has a litter problem. A big litter problem. It is everywhere, spilling down slopes in towns, covering the train tracks, in piles along the main streets of small and big towns. We see people just drop trash where they stand, and there aren't many options for them. Some of the hill towns are making a concentrated effort to clean up, like Simla, and have trash cans which say Use Me, but in most places the only option is to toss stuff down. I have been amazed at the length and breadth of the litter and here in McLeod Ganj, but part of the puzzle was solved. Monkeys and dumpsters.

We watched a gang of monkeys puling trash out of dumpster and dragging it all over the hill. Potato chip bags, plastic bags, bottles, you name it, the monkeys wanted a closer look. The dumpster lids are propped open so the monkeys have easy access. There would be a market for monkey proof dumpsters here in India, like the ones Yosemite uses to foil the bears. And today I saw a cow pick up the end of a trash bag in her mouth, lift, and shake. The trash that had been neatly contained, perhaps awaiting pickup, was now spread all over the street. Monkey and cow proof dumpsters would help a lot. A friend did point out that tradionally most of the trash would have been recycled by the cows into fuel; cow dung. But with so much plastic and other non-cow-munchable trash now in the packaging stream, the trash has no where to go.

Yesterday we did about a 14 mile hike up the ridge above town to get a better view of the Himalaya mountains. It was a great hike and the view was totally worth is. As a bonus we also had another question answered. (India generates a lot of questions.) McLeod Ganj is the residence of His Holiness the Dali Lama, and of the Tibetan government in exile so there are many Buddhist monks and disciples. Where there are Buddhists there are strings of prayer flags. Now, a string of prayer flags hung from a railing or balcony or small tree is pretty, but a string of prayer flags hung from forty feet up a pine tree, or thirty feet up a cliff is pretty amazing. How did they do that? Rich advocated for the rock tossing method, tying one end of the prayer flag string around a rock and tossing it into the tree, much like we did hanging our food bags from bears in the Sierras before the invention of bear proof canisters (there is theme of animal proofing going on here). On our hike yesterday we heard voices from around a bend in the trail, above the trail really. We stopped and looked up and saw the distinctive red robes of a Buddhist monk high in a tree, dragging a string of prayer flags after him. You didn't have to know the language to recognize that there was an argument going on. The Monk on the ground was yelling at the Monk in the tree. Probably to go higher. The Monk in the tree was yelling back. Probably to piss off. We kept hiking. Nothing we could do to help there.

Here, there, and everywhere.

2006-11-28T03:34:00.000-08:00

There are so many things to tell you all about India. The bad times, the good times. The times Rich refrained from sending me home on the next plane and instead waited until my foul mood had passed. In most photos, one of us is either sick, cranky, or fed up. This photo from the Taj Mahal has one sick Rich, one cranky Me. We had gotten up for the 6 am visit to beat the crowds.

India is a tough place to travel, and just when you have decided to heck with it, I'm over this country, India sends out the secret weapon: the people. Especially the kids.

We are in the mountains, and we currently have a car and driver (ok, confession; we are being driven around India in an SUV - how the mighty have fallen.). Our first night out of Simla was wonderful. Tattapani is a little town on a river with natural hot springs. Rich got giggles from every school girl who walked by the table where we sat to read and drink tea. The scene goes like this. Us, sitting and drinking tea. The dirt road to the school is between us and the river, the dozens and dozens of school kids would drift by in clumps of five to ten kids. In each clump the staring eyes would fix on us as the kids walked by. One of us would smile and wave. One of the braver kids would call out "hullo", Hello, Rich would reply. The giggling would start and keep going through the brave "goodbye" one of the them would call out. More giggles. Repeat this scene about twenty times in one evening.

Tattapani was also where we met Kurt. Kurt is great. He is traveling around India on a rented motorbike, and back home in Salt Lake City he works as a bike mechanic and sign painter. He promised to come visit us in SF and experience the wonderfulness that is SF bike culture.

In Naggar, another mountain town where the temperature inside our concrete hotel was probably fifteen degrees colder then outside, we walked up the dirt roads that wound past what I called a living ethnographic museum. The area is mostly orchards and corn and livestock. The traditional houses are made from wood with slate roofs. The slate roofs are covered with drying laundry, corn, and chile peppers. Again, it's hard to stay mad at a country that has little kids popping up above the railings of the balconies and waving and calling "hello goodbye". As fascinated as we are by them, we get it back tenfold. Rich and I are in a few vacation photo albums now as we have teenage girls and honeymooning couples asking to take a photo with us.

Today our driver Rana drove us up toward the Rohtang pass. The pass is closed for the winter, it is at about 4,000 meters, he let us out when the road starting getting dodgy with snow and we walked a few kilometers up to admire the mountains and the eagles soaring overhead. The broad river valley is dotted with small villages that look as if they fight a never ending battle with the river.

The people in the mountains are so nice, and all seem so happy. The living here is more subsistence living, with easy access to clean (looking) water that flows off the mountains. Yesterday, a day when the sun declined to shine, we went into the restaurant attached to our hotel here in Manali where we ran into a British couple we had been chatting with that morning in Naggar. We all realized about the same time that a wood burning stove near the windows was actually hot and we huddled around it defrosting our hands and feet. An older Indian Gentleman seated near the stove turned and said "I can't believe what I am seeing, I thought you people were impervious to the cold!" We laughed. Impervious, yeah, right.

Backtrack to Vienna

2006-11-19T01:44:00.000-08:00

VBonus post, Rich got some photos uploaded so I can't resist this photo of me bidding the wines of Europe goodbye.

For the record, it has been 10 days since my last glass of wine, and about 8 since the last bite of yummy chocolate. (Picture The Scream when you read that.) Oh, that is my new haircut. I'm not sure if the woman was just not a great stylist, or my German was really that bad. Rich got a haircut too. His is also not fantastic, he misses Leo, his barber.

And here is my honey, chilling with his Vienna CityBike. The best travel companion I could have, the one who puts up with me and does ALL the arrangements. My job? Try to complain as little as possible and make him laugh when it all gets to be too much.

Me, and my shadows...

2006-11-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

Hanging at the river at Orchha.

The kids come running when the camera comes out, and they all want to see their photo on the screen of the digital camera. The kids who are not selling anything are happy to chat, ask where I'm from, my name, and hang for a little while until we walk along. Those who are selling things are impervious to rejection and will follow you along continuing their pitch, until, like a cat in the city who reaches the limit of known territory, they finally turn back, but await your return trip.

Our boat ride on the Ganges at Varanasi was somewhat overwhelming. I am currently reading Slowly Down the Ganges by Eric Newby, written in 1966, and from his descriptions the only things that have really changed are the advent of mobile phones and the plastic waste.

It was disconcerting to be a witness to the multitudes who pray and wash in the river, and to see the cremation fires.

It has happened.

2006-11-17T00:12:00.000-08:00

Every time Rich and I have been in a tough or uncomfortable situation so far, like biking over Loveland Pass in August, or on our day of three trains in Slovakia, one of us will turn to the other and say, hey, quit bitching, would you rather be at work right now? The answer has always been no. We both really liked our jobs and our co-workers, but the point of a year off is a year off from everything. And we always knew we would never get to these places on our 2 or 3 week trips during our working lives.

Well, last night, as I lay shivering in bed with a tummy thing in our hotel room in Orchha, Rich said to me, well, would you rather be at work right now? YES! I said. What are you nuts, I could be in my cozy little cubicle, with a grande awake tea from Starbucks and a lemon scone. There would be a nice bathroom down the hall, clean drinking water, and my lovely co-workers to go out to lunch with. Heck, I'd even rather be in a staff meeting!

So, let me backtrack a bit and give you a run down of our time in India so far. We landed in Dehli, from Vienna (Vienna is lovely, one of the nicest cities we've been to.), and spent one night in Delhi. We wandered around with our backpacks until our train left the next day at 4 pm or so. The Delhi train station was quite a scene. We were on a night train, Sleeper AC 1st class, pretty nice. We went to Varanasi, on the Ganges river. It is a holy place where people go to pray and wash in the river - 60,000 people a day go down to the river. Bodies are burned at two different locations, or Ghats, on the river. Our hotel was on the river, accessible only through the alleyways. The day we arrived a movie was being filmed right outside our hotel, it was fascinating to watch, but it made it very difficult to get into the hotel.

The alleys are amazing. From about seven feet wide to less then four they are lined with small shops, housing, silk factories, anything you can think of. Although the alleys are too narrow for bike rickshaws, scooters and motorbikes do use them, as do the cows and the goats. It is quite amazing to turn the corner and see the entire alley taken up by a large cow, laying sideways in the alley. We learned that when you get lost in the alleys, which you will, it is impossible not to, listen to the locals. They will point you in the correct direction. Or ask a little boy to guide you to your destination and give him 10 Rs. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.

From Varanasi we went to Orchha, on the Cockroach non-express night train. It was a night to forget, but we probably won't. We passed the time playing increasingly silly versions of Gin Rummy and killing cockroaches. I told Rich later that I would have gladly traded a kidney to be off that train about 8 hours before we were. Maybe even half of a liver. Orchha is amazing. They are in the process of restoring many of the temple and palaces here along the river, and the town is small and friendly, without much of the touting and begging we found in Varanasi.

But still, but still. What is it that makes me feel unsettled? Is it the poverty? Or that fact that since arriving in India we haven't had enough exercise? We'd been walking about 5 to 10 miles per day, but where we've been here in India that is just not possible. Is it the water bottles? Although we bought MicroPur, the silver ionized water purification tablets that allegedly don't taste at all, we haven't used them yet. We've probably gone through more plastic bottles of water in one week in India then the two of did in SF over five years. We both hate the waste and pollution factor of bottled water so at home we use the same bottles over and over, re-fillng them with pure sweet Hetch Hetchy water. OK, maybe the fresh pomegranate juice at the little restaurant in Orchha was not a good idea and that is why I'm now taking loperamide and an antibiotic for my tummy.

Well, cutting to the chase, we are considering a shorter stay in India then we had planned. Rich is looking into getting us to Thailand a week early or so. So, enjoy your coffee and tea and nice drinking water on demand. We'll keep you posted. Everyone in the travel forums says to give India a few weeks, you settle into it. Maybe we will. I'll keep you posted.

We're going where?

2006-11-09T04:56:00.000-08:00

So it's good bye Vienna and hello India tomorrow. Goodbye yummy beer, hello Indian food (which we are really looking forward to).

Rich found a place for us to stay in Dehli, the plane gets in at midnight, and he arranged for airport pick up. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Czech borders and beer

2006-11-04T03:37:00.000-08:00

Getting from Poland to the Czech Republic was an interesting event. We had left Wroclaw looking for a quiet place for Rich to recover from a nasty cold that gave him a bad cough. We would have liked to stay with our Servas hosts for another night, but Rich was feeling lousy, and coughing a lot, so we hopped a bus to Jelena Gora for two quiet days of rest, gentle walks, and picnic lunchs. And hugging odd carved statues in the woods.

We took a bus from Jelena Gora to the border. Note that I say to the border, not over the border. Why not? Well, for some reason the bus stopped about 100 meters shy of the border and we got to walk across. Rich was in sandals. It was cold. I like to imagine what people are thinking as they see us. Did the border guards call out to each other, check out the crazy american in sandals?

We knew we would like the Czech Republic when the first opportunity to buy Pivo, that’s beer to you and me, was about 40 meters past the border.

And we didn’t even have to walk on the road to the next town, there was a well marked trail to Harrachov.

And in Harrachov there was a brewery combo glass factory. What’s not to love about this town?

We ran into a Rick Steves Czech Beer tour group at this brewery. I bet they didn’t get to walk across any borders. Behind me in this photo is the glass blowing floor. You can’t see in this photo but most of the workers had a pint of beer somewhere in their work area. We assume it was Friday afternoon thing...but maybe not. Maybe they do it when they need to replenish the stock of seconds for sale.

Harrachov was a town of hiking and drinking beer. We took the ski lift up the mountain and hiked and drank beer.

After a cold hike there is nothing like relaxing with a cold beer.

Two days later we took a little chugger train from Harrochov to a slightly larger town, Tanvald, to catch the train to Prague. This was a Sunday.

The train to Prague was pretty empty when it left Tanvald, but at the next station a big group of boy scouts got on. They must have been camping and were heading back to Prague. It got very crowded, with kids standing in the corridors, and backpacks everywhere. Rich had the pleasure of sitting next to a little boy we call ADD Kid. The little guy could not sit still. To top it off, the heat in our compartment was stuck on full blast and it was raining outside so the window couldn’t be left open to combat the fierce heat. Well, we thought, maybe it will put little Mr. Ants in his Pants to sleep. No such luck. He went out in the corridor and stuck his head out that window, got soaking wet, and came and sat back down. But, the kids were actually quite well behaved. As the train continued on more and kids piled on at each station. Cars were added to the train, but still it was standing room in the corridors only. Then, the train stopped and we were all piled onto busses for a ten minute ride to another train station where we all piled back on a different train.

Rich on the Charles Bridge in Prague.

Poland, we love you.

2006-11-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

Poland was a joy. The people are so friendly. Bus drivers, taxi drivers, everyone we interacted with was so nice. Yes, I am bit biased as my family on my Mothers side is Polish. Her father left Poland in 1910.

Krakow is a beautiful City, here is Rich at Castle Hill in front of the amazing Cathedral.

Warsaw is a huge city. We walked our feet off and still felt that we didn't really get a grasp of the City. It is simply too big, and has no center that you can point to. The Warsaw Rising museum was amazing though. It chronicles the almost 2 month long fight of the people of Warsaw against the Nazis near the end of WWII (not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which was earlier in the war, when the Jews decided to fight back.).

The Polish Home Army fought hard, hoping for Ally help, but ultimately lost control of the City again, and Warsaw was bombed into oblivion. The Rising memorial depicts the heroic fight. Here a solder descends into the sewer tunnels which were used to travel and communicate during the battle. Museum website: www.1944.pl

Then it was on to Wroclaw, where we stayed with a Servas family. Wroclaw was the most rewarding stop of our time in Poland. Not only were Wojliech, Malgorzata and Carolina fun to talk to and very hospitable, but we went to the school where Malgorsata teaches and spoke to two of her English classes. She teaches at XII Liceum in Wroclaw and the kids in both classes, III fgh and IE2, were lovely. Rich and I talked about San Francisco and our lives while Malgorzata quizzed the kids and encouraged them to speak up. I talk so fast that I'm amazed they kept up, but they did. English is becoming an even more important second language for a lot of people.

Kids, if you're reading this, keep up the English. You were all wonderful and made our stay in your beautiful city even more fun. Come visit us in SF, we will be signed up as Servas hosts when we return.

To top off our great stay, we discovered that Rich and Malgorzata share a birthday, Oct 24th.

Lessons in language and blending in.

2006-10-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

When in Croatia we did fairly well at learning some useful words, but in Hungary, where we said on the train heading into the country, this time we are really making an effort - we sucked. That is one tough language. Slovakian had more in common with Croatian then it did Hungarian, so we did pretty well in Slovakia. We spent two days hiking in the Slovakian Paradise, a gorgeous mountain range where the fall colors are really coming out in force (uh, 'cause it's getting really COLD!). The hikers we encountered were nice, everyone greets everyone with a cheerful Dobry den (that's phonetic, means good day, the actual spelling is quite different). Teach me a phrase, send me up a mountain where I will pass umpteen hikers on a Sunday, and I will use it. Oh yes, I will use it. Dobry den, dobry den! The hills were alive with the sound of me greeting hikers.

We stayed at a nice hotel where there was a wedding going on Saturday evening. The mother of all weddings, I might add. We saw dressed up members of the wedding party at 11 am saturday, and heard drunk singing wedding guests at 4:30 am sunday. The reception started at about 5 pm Sat. We sat in the hotel bar and got to watch and hear the traditional band perform. The guests were in it for the long haul, we could tell by their faces that they knew they were in for at least another ten hours of fun. We walked over the hill to a restaurant at another hotel where, what a surprise, another wedding was going on. We got in some really good people watching that night, even if we didn't get huge amounts of sleep. The small children running up and down the stairs at 2:30 were annoying, but the drunk singing guys in the garden at 4:30 actually sounded really good, according to Rich. I slept through them.

The area of Slovakia we were in is one of the last where you still see people, mostly older women, in traditional dress. The headscarf tied under the chin, the petticoat and skirt, the apron. We got a few photos, without being really obnoxious (I hope), and will post them when we can.

The hiking was wonderful, and the trail building was creative. Where the river had cut a path through the limestone that some would call a cliff, the Slovakians merely attach a few metal platforms and a chain and call it a trail.

So how well do we blend in? What really seems to set up apart and out us as Americans now that we are off the main tourist routes? Well, Rich is taller then most people by about two feet, and taller then almost anyone we saw. Especially in Hungary. There are some teenage boys who look like they may top six foot two given a good diet and lots of sleep, but not yet. The big American with the sunglasses attracts loads of attention from the teen boys. They study his every item of clothing and watch every move. It's quite fun to watch.

Sunglasses. No one seems to wear them except us. It's not like we're kidding ourselves that we blend in, but it is interesting to note the obvious differences. Not many eyeglasses either. We're not sure if the people of Hungary and Slovakia are of superior genetic material and don't need glasses, or they wear contact lenses, or they simply don't get eye tests (which could explain some of the driving we saw), but the trendy Haight Street glasses on Rich are unusual.

My shoes. Now that it's cold I am wearing my Keens exclusively. With Smartwool socks. They are the Keens that are fairly strap intensive, but still partly open, not a total closed shoe, more of a sport utility sandal. I've only seen one other pair so far, in a train station in Poland, on a woman who must have been American. Well, as far as I can tell, the Croatian, Hungarian, and Slovakian women are not very impressed with my footwear. They are a fairly stylish bunch, these women, and these shoes are high in comfort, but perhaps not so high in style. Oh well, they did get me through a six hour hike with no blisters, so no complaining on my part. Well, a little complaining...I am getting sick of them. Again, with the cold weather, it's getting down to about 35 or 40 at night and in the evening, about 55 or 60 during the day, so I'm wearing my one pair of jeans and my one sweater every day. Yup, everyday. Thankfully we have a heated towel rack at this place so I can wash them tonight and hang then over the heated rack to dry, hopefully, by morning. Was that too much detail about my laundry habits? I hope not. I'll take a photo so you can all see what it's like as a light traveler in a cold climate. I've already ditched one skirt and haven't worn the other for two weeks. I'm hanging on to it for India. Bought two t-shirts in Budapest, at a Zara clothing store, which we have one of in SF (ah the virtual downtown...), here in Poland I will buy gloves and a scarf. Oh boy, some new clothing!

Dancing fountains, awesome!

2006-10-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

So let me catch up, Budapest for eight days which was very fun. We stayed in an apartment for four days, then a room in the same building, same floor, with a common kitchen. Meet a great Australian couple, Criag and CJ, had dinner with them. It was very nice to talk to them, not that Rich and I get sick of each others company, but....it was nice.

Rich tried out a goate, decided it wasn't for him and shaved it off a few days later.

We went on to Eger, still in Hungary, and did a Servas stay with a family who were wonderful. Wine caves, wine tasting, and three great nights with Attila and Alice, and their two daughters Bogi and Dora.

Our next stop was another small town in Hungary where we went to the thermal baths that were partially in caves. Cave baths! Imagine Hugh Hefners grotto, only extensive, and not full of bunnies. The average age was a bit older, about 60 or 70. We spent about three hours lounging around in various temperature pools and drifting through the caves, and getting pounded under more elephant washer jets of water. Once again my bad German came in handy at the Pension, the woman behind the counter spoke Hungarian and a bit more German then me, but we got through it. She and I had a good laugh everytime one of us managed to remember a word.

Now we are in Slovakia, in Kosice, which has a great brewpub, Golem, where Rich and I sat and drank beer and ate beer cheese. Beer cheese is marinated in beer, garlic, and soemthing really stinky. It is served on a plate with raw onions and sprinkled with paprika. Our waiter looked a little dubious that we actually wanted to try it, but we polished off the entire hunk. I think it probably evolved through men trying to get out of arguing with their wives when they stayed out too late at the bar. Before going home they would eat stinky beer cheese and the wife couldn't bear the bad breath and would postpone the arguement. That's my theory.

The dancing fountains are also in Kosice, near the big catherdral. Another Cathedral, yawn. Dancing fountains! Oh boy! We first heard amplified Bee Gees music and then found the park in the middle of the long pedestrian street. The fountains are great, the jets dance with the music, and at night they are lit up with colored lights. Who needs Vegas baby?

Today we are taking a train towards the Slovakian Paradise, up in the mountains. The weather is getting colder and by the time we get to Poland we will have to buy some warmer clothing.

I can't bike...I'm too old!

2006-10-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

This post is for all my biking buddies, in honor of all the public meetings we've been to in SF to fight for better biking conditions. At these meetings we frequently hear from a few seniors that it would be unfair or unrealistic to remove a lane of traffic, or remove a few parking spaces, or slow traffic down to make cycling safer and eaiser, because old people can't bike. "It's for younger people, I can't ride a bike." A perfectly healthy senior will say.

Well of course you can't, you got into a car 50 years ago and never got out! That is what we want to avoid by making cycling so safe in SF that I will be biking all the years of my life, like these folks in Verazdin. Verazdin is a lovely town in Croatia, a potential UNESCO world heritage site, where the baroque old town is mostly closed to motor vehicles.

Rich and I sat at a cafe and calculated the average age of the cyclists go about their business, it was over 50 so these photos are not unusual. Maybe these folks were only going from the market to home, a kilometer or two, but they were doing it by bike.

Bike on!

And never stop fighting for better biking wherever you live.

This army runs on its stomach.

2006-10-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

I must agree with Napolean, food is important. Since we arrived in Budapest four nights ago we've had Thai, Greek, Mexican, cooked pasta for ourselves, and went to a continential style resturant, the Soul Cafe, for yuppie type food. As much as we loved Croatia we were getting awfully tired of the food. That happened to us in Italy as well. As much as we both love Italian food, our fickle San Franciscan palettes are used to munching our way around the world in the course of a week. Thai, Ethiopian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, brewpubs, veggie resturants, middle eastern....ok, now I'm making myself miss SF. One more word - burritos. Ummmm....burritos.

The hits so far while traveling:

France, lunch in Samoens with Hannah and Erik. Three of us had a yummy baked cheese dish with ham, pear and bread. Also the tartaflec that Hannah made. We easily could have eatten a dish twice a large, she wisely did not make the large size.

Geneva
Tomato fondue while sitting at a sidewalk table of a little resturant. It was not the right season or weather for fondue, but it was wonderful. The tomatoes turned the fondue a paler shade then tomato soup. There were few tomato chunks, just the taste of cheese and tomatos. While were eating a group of school children walked by with their teacher, their little eyes were table level and the chorus of "Oh, fondue!" rang out, along with many little voices piping up "Bon appetit!" Obviously a hit with the pre teen crowd. While the lunch was fantastic, the prices in Geneva are sky high. We had a starter of assorted chacueterie, the fondue, and a half liter of white wine for lunch for 80 dollars. Good thing we didn't want to do all of our traveling in europe, we would run out of money in a month or two.

Kotor, Montenegro
Grilled local fish at a resturant inside the old city walls. The waiter was one of the more outgoing we had encounted so far, he reeled off the names of hollywood stars when he found out we were from California. He kept pausing, as if expecting us to say, oh yes, we know them well. There is a salad in Croatia and Montenegro, and probaly Bosnia, that I love. It is called chopped salad, shopski, in phonetic Croatian, and it is cucumbers, tomatoes, onions or peppers and cheese all diced up into little cubes. The version in Sarajevo was good, but in Montenegro the local cheese was softer and less salty then the Sarajeven version. It made the salad so perfect. I miss that salad.

Singing Dalmatians on my b day

2006-09-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no photos, we haven't been able to upload our photos off the camera. (photos added on Oct 7th) But, I will help you imagine what it looks like here in Hvar. The sea is blue, very very clear, and warm. The town wraps around a harbor and up the hills. There are no cars allowed on most of the streets around the harbor so except for the sounds of the cafes and clubs after dark it is a lovely quiet town. It is a more upscale vacation town then anywhere else we've been in Croatia. Yachts are moored along the waterfront and fancy cafes and bars with new minimalist decor keep watch. It won't be long before P. Diddy is mooring his yacht here.

On on first night in town we saw a poster for a concert, the top vocal group on the Dalmation Coast was performing in the 17th century monastery cloister. I know, visions of singing dalmatian dogs danced in my mind too, but it was a group of three tenors, two baritones, and three bass singers, all male. Two of the bass singers had the deepest bass voices I'd ever heard. They sang unaccompanied for the first half, then with only a guitar. All Dalmatian folk songs.

It was dark and the monastery was lit up, underlighting the bats which flew overhead. The songs were wonderful, even without understanding any of the words we enjoyed them. The group is called a Klappa, we means they are a group of friends who sing for fun together. As one of the bass singers translated for the audience, it is all about wine, friends, and singing. They do it not because they are professionals, but because they love it. I teased Rich on the walk over that they were most likely the Tom Jones of the Dalmatian Coast, the darlings of the Croatian housewives, who would scream and throw panties on the stage. Any panty chucking and I'm out of here, Rich said.

No panties were thrown, the concert was great, and we have spent the rest of our time walking around and swimming. We are staying up the hill a bit in a room with a terrace and a view of the harbor and the islands. Today we catch the ferry to Split.

Catch up to Croatia

2006-09-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

We are now in Croatia, on the Island of Korčula.

We went from Montenegro to Dubrovnik (photo above) on the bus, stayed in a nice little apartment close to the beach in the Lapa neighborhood, which was a short bus ride from the old city of Dubrovnik. The rain finally let up our second day in Dubrovnik (we resisted buying an umbrella) and we got to walk the city walls in sunshine and without crowds. We discovered that as long as you get where you want to be before about 9:30 the hoards of bus tourists will not be there yet. The walls around the old city are 2 km long and six meters thick on parts of the land side. We visited the musuem where I was, frankly, disappointed by the dungeon. It is called the dragon dungeon, and was a real active dungeon. I turned to Rich and said, it's not very cold in here. I always thought dungeons were really cold, and damp. It's not very damp either. So, Rich said, you're saying that the dungeon is a disappointment.

Here in Croatia the monetary unit is the Kuna. The exchange rate is about 6 kuna to the dollar. Knowing my off the cuff math skills as most of you probably do, you can imagine how much fun I am having trying to calculate things into dollars. For example, we walked down to the beach from our apartment and decided to sit for a while. You can rent beach chairs and umbrellas which are controlled by the various cafes. Our two beach chairs cost 20 Kuna, which my brain registers as a lot of money. Yeah, not really.

Here's a photo for the cat people, cats in Split.

Mostar club maddness

2006-09-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

So Rich and I? We like stayed out until like 2? And then we like, were so late for the bus? We had to run, and we're so hung over ...

Ok, that wasn't us, but it seemed to have happened to some kids who were on our bus from Mostar to Dubrovnik. And I have embellished, they were British, not valley girls. Rich and I stayed out until a whopping 9:30 on our second night in Mostar. How quickly a routine develops. We scope out the town on our first evening, Rich agonizes over which resturant to eat at, while I keep saying "oh, this looks good, let's eat here!" Rich then comes up with one of his many reasons why that resturant is surely inferior to ten other resturants that may be around the corner and are vastly better. I teased him that there is one big kitchen under Mostar with pnuematic tubes delivering the food (I think that was in an Augustine Burroughs book, referring to Chinese food in NYC, and our friend Naomi claims it about the Indian resturants on a street in NYC, minus the pnuematic tubes.)

Rich has resturant radar. I don't. I wanted the one that had the cutest stray cats slinking around the tables. Or the one that is closest to where I am standing. So, we circle and circle and circle, and end up going back to the second one we saw. It's kind of like what happened on family camping trips when I was young. Dad would drop off a child at each possible campsite as he drove through the campground, to save the spot. You'd sit on the picnic table and wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually the station wagon or Chevy Surburban would come back and we'd set up camp, or a sibling would come back to fetch you. But, every campsite must be viewed and judged compared to the other sites. Wait a minute, Rich does that too.

As much as I tease him, Rich does have good resturant radar. He usually settles on a good one, and Mostar was no exception. Veal Kabobs while sitting on a terrace above a creek burbling down to the river, a swirling symphony of bats wheeling overhead. Perfection.

Mostar is quickly becoming a tourist destination/Disney-fied version of itself. The rebuilt bridge has launched a slew of new resturants and clubs. Bus loads of tourists arrive morning noon and evening, but most leave before nightfall, leaving the town a little emptier. New clubs and bars opening up. All in all, a fascinating place and well worth a visit.

The day of religion.

2006-09-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

On our last full day in Sarajevo we went to the Greek Othodox Church and Musuem, the Jewish Museum, and the Muslim Mosque. You have to be pretty proactive when attempting to find and visit the various musuems, signage is not good, and then figuring out where you buy tickets is not easy.

The Mosque is beautiful. As long as you are modestly dressed, and remove your shoes, and for women have a headscarf, you can walk around and look at the amazing detail. The Mosque suffered about 100 direct hits during the siege but the walls are 3 meters thick so it was damaged but not destroyed.

The food has been great. Yesterday was lunch at Sarajevo's brewery, and dinner was at a little resturant in the old quarter. The range of our meal costs have been about $37 for a nice dinner with wine, appetizers, entree, and after dinner drink, to last night and our $10 dinner for a huge plate of grilled lamp in pita with onions and mineral water. Followed by ice cream, which is hugely popular and costs .50 KM, which is about 35 cents. So, Rich is not having withdrawls from my home made ice cream. At 35 cents he can eat all he wants. Sometimes it a bit of mystery if you choose a flavor you don't recogize.

We are packing to leave for Mostar today, so more when we find another internet connection. And one more photo, of Rich with a map!

The Hills of Sarajevo

2006-09-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

As Rich tells me, we have uphill and we have downhill, and on some walks we are all out of down. But, in Sarajevo, our hotel is not very far up the hill, so when we walk up, we must come down. It is a city of hills and a river valley.

We arrived at the Sarajevo airport on Monday Sept 11th. To see the war scars on the buildings near the airport, and on many other buildings in the City, is a grim reminder of what Sarajevo went through, and what other cities and towns are going through in the Middle East because of my country and our mis guided war on an abstract notion.

There is a long pedestrian street which is crowded with shoppers and strollers. It starts in the old town with narrow streets and cobblestones. Young muslim women wearing headscarves and modest clothing also wear make up and carry handbags. The young muslim men blend right in with everyone else. Yesterday evening we heard the evening call to prayers broadcast over a loudspeaker from a mosque, and then as we were walking by the mosque we saw teenage boys running, late for prayers, pulling off their shoes at the entrance and getting inside as fast as they could. On the old street shoppers walked eating ice cream cones. It is an amazing City.

Haute Savior

2006-09-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

That's France to you and me.

We are with our good friends Hannah and Erik, and their two boys Finn and Frank in the Vallee Verte. It has been wonderful to see them all again, it's been about five years since we've seen them all, they were in Norway the last time. New country, new language.

Great cycling, easy trip over. Cyclists, fly Luftansa. So simple with the bikes.

One more photo and a promise of more later. This is everything that went with us. Oh, and Rich as well.

Dancing

2006-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Dancing together for 9 years.

Dancing together for 50 years.

That's my Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary.

We leave tonight for Geneva, as excited as I am it's difficult to realize I won't see my family and friends for 10 months. We will miss so much in their lives; happiness, sadness, babies arriving and kids growing up. I know it's only a year, less really, but for such a homebody like me, it's a lot.

The next post will be from an internet cafe somewhere in France.

The cyclist went over the mountains...

2006-08-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Thoughts while riding my bicycle (Precious) over the Rockies:

Day one, Glenwood Springs to Edwards, 45 miles, average speed 10.4 MPH. Boy, I should have done some training for this ride. Oh yeah, I was going to lose 10 pounds before doing this - yup - would have been easier. Glenwood Canyon is beautiful, out of the canyon - very dry and sunny.

Day two, Edwards to Frisco, over Vail Pass, 42 miles, average speed 8 MPH. Nice bus driver in Vail - no, I didn't cheat and take the bus, he saw us looking for a bike shop (I left my helmet on the train so I had to buy one before we hit the downhill side of Vail Pass) and gave us a deli recommendation. The climb up the pass is tough, but it's all on separated bike path. I can go very slowly without falling over. How slow? 3.2 MPH. I can't take my hands off the handlebars at that speed, but I'm still moving. Down to Frisco rocked, downhill almost all the way.

Day three, Frisco to Idaho Springs, about 50 miles, average speed 8.7 MPH. We had hoped to get all the way to Golden, but called my brother and he picked us up in Idaho Springs. Loveland Pass kicked my tushy. Ouch ouch ouch. 3 1/2 hours to go up, 10 minutes to come down.

And why do Colorado cyclists seem to all be kinda rude? Barely a good morning or hey how 'ya doing? out of them. When my friend Nancy and I ride in the Bay Area with just one pannier each, to carry our lunches and extra clothing, we get so many people asking where we're going, what we're doing etc, that it's funny. We joke that we should just start saying "We're going to Canada." no matter what.

In Colorado we had only two other cyclists ask us where we were going, one was from Wyoming, one was from Idaho I think. The Colorado cyclists just whizzed on by. They are a fit bunch, we figure they must all be training for triathalons or whatever and are in super competitive mode. But brother, when I'm suffering up Loveland Pass at 3.4 MPH and you go by doing 8 or 9, the least you could do is say "hi". No camaraderie of the road. So, kudos to the nice Bay Area cyclists.

This train is bound for...where?

2006-08-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

We took Amtrack to Colorado on Thursday 17th and were lucky enough to be on the same train as our friend Josh, who is headed to Britain for grad school - read his blog at: http://web.mac.com/joshuahart

The train was fun, but slow. My sister Kathy picked us up at the Grand Junction train station so we could spend two nights with her and her husband, Chris, and their two girls. The nieces view Rich as an exotic climbing wall, which is fun to watch. We ate, swam in the creek, rode in the pony cart, ate, had a blast, ate some more, played with the girls, and then ate again. Chris is a wonderful cook.

We are headed to Longmont, where my brother Steve and his wife Claire live. My parents are already there, we are all gathering to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We are getting to Longmont via bicycles over the Rockies. Yes, ouch. That's next.

Adult swim!

2006-08-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Hmm...we thought the kids would like the pool, so why are the adults in the pool and the kids not? Moses and I were chillin' our ankles, Naomi and Owen were happy to throw the toys in. They did go in later.

East Coast Wrap up.

After our time in Boston we went up to New Hampshire to see Moses and Rebecca and the two cutest kids in all of New England. Rich and Moses grew up together in Hingham. Food, talking, trip to the beach, picking veggies and blueberries in the garden, it was a blast.

Then, off to see Craig and Lisa on the farm.

We were a little lazy about photos on this trip, but here is Yankee Village - actually Old Sturbridge Village, but I prefer Yankee Village. I'm a sucker for the living history stuff and the buildings at Old Sturbridge are great.

Favorite New York activities: A bike ride with Naomi, we went out to Orchard Beach, about 45 miles round trip. The guy in the bike rental store was a bit shocked, I don't think his rental bikes ever went further then Central Park before. Blue Pig Ice Cream in Brooklyn, the Doughnut Plant, and the Tenement museum in the Lower East Side. Yum, yum, and wow.

Right after New York we stayed with Jon and Rachael. Because, you know, getting married isn't enough to think about - let's throw some houseguests in the mix the week before. They were wonderful to have us stay and we are so happy for them. Their wedding was the reason for the entire east coast trip, expanding it to three weeks to see all our friends was just another benefit of being un-employed.

Hopped over to the Hartford area next to see Michelle and Alan, who have just moved from Memphis to Conn. How lazy were we with photos? Not one photo of Michelle and Alan or their little dog, Scout. We went tubing on the Farmington River, Alan took the day off work but Michelle couldn't. We told her it was no fun, but we lied. It was great. A really hot day and nothing to do but float down the river with your butt in cold water. Perfect. Again, digging the un-employment.

The slow road to Boston

2006-07-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sure we could have taken the turnpike from Northhampton to Boston, but looking at trees and asphalt for the entire drive sounded kind of boring (along with our dislike of large vehicles is a dislike of actual driving), so we took route 9 the entire way. The perfect route it turned out, since it took us right from Northhampton to Jamaica Plain, where we were staying with Jim for two nights. On our route 9 drive we got really good at figuring out which small towns were within spitting distance of a Walmart. The check list goes something like this: Oddly empty downtown? Boarded up shop windows? A grocery store with a going out of business sign?
Ladies and Gentlemen - you are the proud recipients of a huge (negative) tax generator, traffic creating, soul sucking, downtown killing, less then living wage paying - Walmart. (cue the band and the fireworks.)

The old villages and towns that were too far away from a Walmart to reap the benefits of cheap goods from China were a sad sight indeed. I'm not sure how their residents could possibly think that their vibrant little main street with small shops and pedestrians, trees and kids riding bikes, tax revenue generating shops that actually encouraged a driver to stop and walk around could possibly compete with 20 acres of parking lot baking in the sun.

The two things that I want to mention about Boston (besides what a great host Jim was and how much fun we had going out with him, there he is above): the Boston Museum of Fine Arts rocks! What a good collection they have of early American art and furniture, and a good modern collection that they are working to improve with a lot of recent acquisitions. Oh sure, you can build a fancy building and get a lot of press (cough cough de Young), but if the collection isn't great all you have is a fancy building and nice bathrooms. The de Young has great bathrooms.

The piece of art that made the biggest impression on me was an Edward Hopper called A room in Brooklyn. What tickled my fancy was the placard with the description of the piece. The official description said something about depicting the loneliness of Brooklyn..someone had crossed out loneliness and substituted beauty and tranquility. Rich and I laughed at the image of someone from Brooklyn seeing that and thinking - hey! You 'dissing Brooklyn? and pulling out a ball point pen and improving the official version.

The other thing that made us sit up and take notice were the performers at Jacques
http://www.jacquescabaret.com/
and reactions of the audience. Since we live in SF we certainly have the opportunity to see drag performances, they are fun and great to watch. At Jacques it was more interesting to watch the audience then the performers. Jacques seems to have captured the bachelorette party business - I guess the women feel it's a non-threatening environment and the groom is probably happy that the bride isn't at a Chippendale type place with male strippers. So, the next time you're in Boston check out Jacques. We had fun.

When we get back to SF I'll add some photos to the entries.

Hot and humid?

2006-07-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

I promise to never again make fun of the phrase people use when it's hot..."Well, at least it's a dry heat..." I know we're spoiled in SF, and in California in general but the past week has really made me appreciate it. We flew into Washington DC and rented a car for the three weeks we're bouncing around New England. Of course the nice man at the car rental counter "hooked us up" with a mid-size car - we reserved a compact - and all who know us know perfectly well that we like our cars small, like our.....oh, tried and failed to think of something cheeky there...like our underwear - no, doesn't work, like our credit card bill? Oh well, if you think of something funny that would have worked, please say it to yourself. Anyway, we held out for a compact, a Chevy Cobalt, better gas mileage, easier to park - all of which I of course explained to the rental car guy, none of which he cared about. Making friends, sharing the gospel of small cars and fuel efficiency.

We drove to Gettysburg PA to spend one night on our way to MA. We had just enough time to check out the battlefields (and sweat), walk around town (yes, more sweat), have a good Italian dinner (AC, now I understand you), and do the cool retro 1950's style electric map in the visitors center. The map is really useful in understanding how the battle of Gettysburg progressed, and why it was such a watershed moment in the Civil War, even though the war went on for another ...3 years I think? Sad to think of how many lives were affected. The display on battlefield medical treatment was gruesome.

It was on to visit Rich's cousin Lori in Northhampton next. Northhampton must be the Berkeley of MA, we felt right at home. Took a nice walk around the town and campus of Smith College and had a great brewpub dinner. Lori has traveled a lot so we had lots of great travel talk. We are now considering re-arranging the itinerary to go to Turkey, both Lori and my brother-in-law Christopher speak very highly of Istanbul, as did a woman we meet last night out with friends. So, who knows....

next entry, Boston and a great night out with Jim. Two words: drag queens. After that, an amazing farm in MA and a hot and humid NYC.

Packing up and saying goodbyes.

2006-07-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

Although we don't leave on our big adventure until Sept. 1st, we will be on a 3 week trip to the East Coast starting Wednesday, and then a trip to Colorado for a week. So, not much time left in SF, and not much time to pack up the apartment. We've started to pack up and since we will have house sitters staying at our place we need to leave it neat and tidy. That means the current state of chaos needs to be cleaned up. As we found when we moved into our 600 Sq Ft rental cottage - there isn't much room for boxes! Well, not if you actually want to walk around. So, today will be re-org day. When you live in a small place you spend a lot of time re-orging.

Yesterday Rich's step-mother Julie had a lovely going away party for us. She had a map marked with our stops and solicited travel tips from the guests. We got some great advice and some lovely gifts - a travel clothesline and some soap were my favorite. We intend to be doing a lot of laundry in hotel sinks!

By popular demand....the itinerary.

2006-07-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

Rich and Cheryl’s Itinerary, dates are subject to change.
East Coast trip beginning on July 19th.
Colorado trip beginning on Aug 17th.

Leave for Geneva on Sept 1st.

After we return to SF in June 07 we intend to go back to Europe to do some bike touring.

To Munich and on to Geneva:

Flight: LH 459 operated by: LUFTHANSA
from: SAN FRANCISCO CA INTL, TERMINAL INTL
to: MUNICH DE FRANZ J STRAUSS, TERMINAL 2
Departure: 01. September, 21:55 h
Arrival: 02. September, 18:00 h
Class: Business Class (D), confirmed

Flight: LH 3690 operated by: LUFTHANSA CITYLINE
from: MUNICH DE FRANZ J STRAUSS, TERMINAL 2
to: GENEVA CH, TERMINAL M
Departure: 02. September, 18:45 h
Arrival: 02. September, 19:55 h
Class: Business Class (D), confirmed

From Geneva through Vienna and on to Sarajevo:

Flight: OS 572 operated by: TYROLEAN AIRWAYS
from: GENEVA CH, TERMINAL M
to: VIENNA AT VIENNA INTL
Departure: 11. September, 10:35 h
Arrival: 11. September, 12:20 h
Class: Business Class (D), confirmed

Flight: OS 757 operated by: AUSTRIAN
from: VIENNA AT VIENNA INTL
to: SARAJEVO BA BUTMIR
Departure: 11. September, 13:30 h
Arrival: 11. September, 14:40 h
Class: Business Class (D), confirmed

We’ll travel through Eastern Europe, starting south with the good weather and going north back to Vienna and then on to India:

Flight: OS 33 operated by: AUSTRIAN
from: VIENNA AT VIENNA INTL
to: DELHI IN INDIRA GANDHI INTL, TERMINAL 2
Departure: 09. November, 11:10 h
Arrival: 09. November, 23:10 h
Class: Business Class (D), confirmed

We’ll stay in India until Dec 11 then on to Thailand:

Flight: TG 318 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: MUMBAI IN CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI, TERMINAL 2C
to: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL 1
Departure: 11. December, 23:00 h
Arrival: 12. December, 04:50 h
Class: D, confirmed

Flight: TG 253 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL DOM
to: SURAT THANI TH
Departure: 12. December, 10:40 h
Arrival: 12. December, 11:55 h
Class: C, confirmed

Then from Thailand to Vietnam:

Flight: TG 697 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: PHNOM PENH KH POCHENTONG, TERMINAL INTL
to: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL 1
Departure: 01. February, 10:30 h
Arrival: 01. February, 11:35 h
Class: D, confirmed

Flight: TG 684 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL 1
to: HANOI VN NOIBAI, TERMINAL INTL
Departure: 01. February, 17:50 h
Arrival: 01. February, 19:40 h
Class: D, confirmed

On to Hong Kong:

Flight: UA 862 operated by: UNITED AIRLINES
from: HO CHI MINH CITY VN TAN SON NH
to: HONG KONG HK HONG KONG INTL
Departure: 23. February, 06:05 h
Arrival: 23. February, 09:40 h
Class: D, confirmed

Flight: NZ 38 operated by: AIR NEW ZEALAND
from: HONG KONG HK HONG KONG INTL
to: AUCKLAND NZ, TERMINAL INTL
Departure: 01. March, 19:00 h
Arrival: 02. March, 10:45 h
Class: D, confirmed

And on to New Zealand:

Flight: NZ 531 operated by: AIR NEW ZEALAND
from: AUCKLAND NZ, TERMINAL DOM
to: CHRISTCHURCH NZ, TERMINAL M
Departure: 02. March, 12:30 h
Arrival: 02. March, 13:50 h
Class: M, confirmed

Then to Austrailia,

Flight: NZ 793 operated by: FREEDOM AIR / FULL AIRNZ SERVICE
from: CHRISTCHURCH NZ, TERMINAL M
to: MELBOURNE VI TULLAMARINE, TERMINAL 2
Departure: 30. March, 15:35 h
Arrival: 30. March, 17:25 h
Class: D, confirmed

To Singapore:

Flight: SQ 232 operated by: SINGAPORE AIRLINES
from: SYDNEY NS KINGSFORDSMITH, TERMINAL 1
to: SINGAPORE SG CHANGI, TERMINAL 2
Departure: 26. April, 12:55 h
Arrival: 26. April, 17:50 h
Class: D, confirmed

Then to China

Flight: TG 402 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: SINGAPORE SG CHANGI, TERMINAL 1
to: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL 1
Departure: 04. May, 08:15 h
Arrival: 04. May, 09:35 h
Class: D, confirmed

Flight: TG 612 operated by: THAI AIRWAYS INTL
from: BANGKOK TH BANGKOK INTL, TERMINAL 1
to: KUNMING CN, TERMINAL INTL
Departure: 04. May, 10:50 h
Arrival: 04. May, 14:05 h
Class: D, confirmed

The flight home is open.

from: SHANGHAI CN PU DONG
to: TOKYO JP NARITA
Class: D, open

from: TOKYO JP NARITA
to: SAN FRANCISCO CA INTL
Class: D, open

Who wouldn't miss this crew?

2006-07-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Group photo from my going away lunch of Thai food and chocolate cake. People said nice things, which was sweet. This is why I never aspired to work from home.

Is Rich getting happy? See below for an idea.

Cubicle with a view

2006-06-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

I've worked at my current job for five years and 9 months. It's a big company in downtown SF, my cubicle on the 28th floor has a great view down Market Street.

I gave notice Friday the 9th of June. My last day at Big Company will be Thursday July 6th. I haven't dared to start this blog before I gave notice - I didn't want to become one of those internet stories - "Woman loses job by blogging about plans to leave".

Back in August when Rich and I hatched this plan it seemed so far away. Ten months of planning and plotting and not telling. First there was sale of the condo to get through, complete with staging and open houses and keeping the darn place clean during it all. Then the move from a 1,900 sq ft place to a 600 sq ft rental cottage. The getting rid of all the stuff that wouldn't fit in a 600 sq ft cottage. Getting rid of more stuff that fit, but was in the way. And then getting rid of a little more so there would be room to turn around. And of course trying not to accumulate more stuff. It was a good lesson in what's necessary for happiness.

Here we are. 11 more days of work left for me, 12 for Rich. Big Company is more generous with the holidays then his work place. Fourth of July means the Monday and Tuesday off for me, just the Tuesday for him. Until then, I'll continue to enjoy my cubicle with a view and the morning coffee runs with my co-workers.

2006-05-22T14:04:00.000-07:00