Round They Go

One Year Later

2007-02-14T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are...one year to the day after we left on our around the world adventure. It really does not seem like it was 365 days ago that we were sitting in the Los Angeles airport getting ready to head west across the international date line (completely skipping February 15 by the way) to our first destination, Auckland, New Zealand. So what's happened since last Valentine's Day? We've visited twenty-two different countries...spent time in fourteen capital cities...jet boated....rode elephants and camels...swam with sharks...hiked along the Great Wall of China...stood in wonder and awe of the Taj Mahal...been to a wedding in the South of France...seen more monkeys than I can count...rode waves in the Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Andamman Sea...made new friends in random places (Mike and Vinnie, Carolyn and Mike, Uta and Axel)...visited historic monuments to man's darkest side (TS-21, the Killing Fields, War Remnants Museum, the Terror House, Auschwitz)...taken in some of mankind's most amazing houses of worship (Wat Pha Kro in Bangkok, Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, the Forbidden City in Beijing, Marble Mountains in Da Nang, the Jama Masjid in Delhi, the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, San Marco's in Venice, St. Domnius Cathedral in Split, St. Stephen's Cathedral in Budapest, St. Mary's in Krakow, St. Nicholas' in Prague, St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague, Yorkminister Abbey in York, England and dozens of others...I could literally go on for pages and pages and that would just be the first six months of the last year. Since we got back to Atlanta we've moved twice, bought a house, gotten pregnant (just Cece...not me), fought off viral meningitis (again, just Cece), began teaching (okay that one's me), and much more. We've also had a lot of time to go over our pictures from the trip and try and recapture some of the memories and experiences. We'd like to go back periodically and post our memories and stories as we reflect back on the adventure. We hope you'll enjoy reading some of our tales again during your spare internet time. If not, you can always go to youtube and search for monkeys falling out of trees or kids breaking their arm doing stupid skateboard tricks. It's all good. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble so I better sign off. Thanks again to everyone who read the blog while we were away and posted comments or sent us emails. You'll never know how much it meant to get those messages; how good it felt to know we could still connect with the people we loved and missed. So without further ado I give you Matt and Cece: Valentine's Day 2006. [okay...there is supposed to be a picture of me and Cece at LAX last Valentine's Day here but blogger is acting up]

These are a few of our favorite things....

2006-10-16T21:03:00.000-04:00

Okay, slowly but surely we are adding more stories to the blog. And this is one of our favorites, quite literally. On our final round of flights, we took some time and wrote a list of some of the highs (and some lows) of the trip. For any of you out there planning an around the world trip, you might want to take notes!

Airlines
Best meal: Thai Airways (those people will feed you even if you are in the air for only 15 minutes, for those on a budget, this is awesome)
Worst meal: an un-identifiable sandwich on Air China
Best audio/video: Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines
Best drinks: Singapore Airlines where you can get Tiger beer and a Singapore Sling

Hikes
Best: Freycinet National Park in Tasmania, Australia Wineglass Bay and the Hazards
Worst: Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic, we were just 1km from the top of the mountain when we had to turn around because of rain. Absolutely no view that day.

Days
Cheapest: $0 Our free days when staying with friends and family in Oz, France, and Denmark
Most expensive: Our Amazing Race Day. Leaving Megan and Jeremy's house in Germany, riding five different trains, two buses, and a car with a Dutch stranger to reach the most expensive overnight ferry ever to Hull. A total distance of about 120 miles that cost over $500. That one really hurt, but we did finally make it there!

Hotels:
Best hostel/guesthouse: Hoi An, Vietnam The Thien Thanh (Blue Sky Hotel)
Worst hotel/hostel: Bangalore, India
Most social: Leo Hostel in Beijing, China

Trains:
Best: the express from Agra to Delhi, India complete with dinner service
Worst: the train from Hospet to Hubli India where the lady told us that we didn't need to reserve tickets...we ended up standing for 3 hours surrounded by 100 or so of our newest, closest Indian friends

Favorite Foods found on the trip:
Arnott's BBQ Shapes, Uncle Toby's granola bars, and chunky caramel KitKats from Australia
White Magnum- practically everywhere, but the US!
Any fresh fruit in Asia
Yogurt with fruit jam
Banana Pancakes - I was pretty sure Matt was going to turn into a banana pancake!

Beds slept in:
70 different beds
4 overnight buses
8 overnight trains
5 nights camping
2 overnight boats
2 overnight planes
51 Free nights stay at friends and family (we couldn't have made it without that!)

Coldest night: Camping in New Norfolk, Tasmania ended up switching to sleep in the car for warmth
Hottest night: Last night in Bangkok, we decided to save money and get a room with a fan and no air conditioning

Cheapest Night's stay: Hampi, India 250 rupee or $5
Most expensive night's stay: Ferry to Hull $250

Showers
Best free shower: Marlys and Joel's house in Coolum, Australia, words can't even describe how great it was
Best paid shower: That same hotel in Hoi An, the Thien Thanh
Worst: "the Mansion" on Nathan Road in Hong Kong
Most inconvenient: Bombay, India. We should have taken a closer look at the shower when they showed it to us. Who knew that we should have looked for a showerhead? A bucket shower does work though.

Meals
Best:
Pizza: the BBQ chicken pizza from Margee's place in King's Cross in Sydney
Meat: Our meat lover's meal in Cesky Krumlov with the best turkey, hotdog, and pork, we have ever had.
Veggie: Colva, India best curry we have ever had during a tropical storm. Made Matt even ask for a veggie meal!
Grill out: Denmark, either at Stine and Soren's or Heinrick and Dianna's
Longest and most elegant: Lisa and Duncan's wedding

Best gin rummy player
CECE!!!
That's what you get if you are the one that writes the blog entries!

And we're back!

2006-09-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, we are back and alive in the U S of A! And what a crazy month and a half it has been.

First off, we arrived back to the US in celebrity fashion. While checking in for our flight at the Dublin airport, I happened to mention in casual conversation that we were on the final leg of a six month trip around the world and oh, by the way, it is also our two year anniversary. Nothing came of that at the check-in counter, however, once we got to the gate, we heard our names being called over the speaker. We walked up to the front, and sure enough we had been upgraded. We couldn't believe it. We had joked the whole trip about getting upgraded on our final flight, and it was really happening. Of course, it couldn't all be perfect. The video wasn't working on the plane and there was a screaming kid sitting across the aisle, but nonetheless, we were sitting in really comfortable seats drinking beer and you can't ask for much more than that.

We were greeted at the airport by Dianne (Matt's mom), Jenny (Matt's sister) and Livie (our niece). It was so great to be welcomed home by family. Of course, after flights all over the world and not losing a single bag, two of our bags were lost on the flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta. The lady at the airline told me that the bags weren't lost, they just didn't make the flight. Apparently, they were at the airport bar and just didn't hear the call for the flight. After many calls back to the airport, we were finally reunited with our bags the next day.

I must say that first week back was a whirlwind. We got back to our condo and it looked exactly the same. Suzanne did an excellent job on the upkeep while we were gone. We had heard horror stories from other people who had rented out their place and I was so thankful that Suzanne was staying at ours. Actually, Atlanta pretty much looked the same too. There were some new condo buildings around, but for the most part things were the same. Even some of the billboards were the same. We keep joking that the only way that we could tell time had passed was that kids had changed, our niece Livie had changed so much in the 6 months that we were gone, and our friend Kim had changed. She became pregant with triplets right after we left, so she definitely looked different when we came back. Other than that, everything looked the same.

We quickly had to go look for an apartment since we were going to close on selling the condo in just 6 days. Looking for an apartment was pretty amusing. When people asked us for a contact phone number we would say, yeah, we were thinking about getting one of those, our plan is to go and get phones tonight. They looked at us like we were crazy, how could these people be surviving without a phone. Of course, we did soon learn that our lifeline of internet was going to have to be replaced with a phone. And so it was.

We did manage to find an apartment. Matt's parents, in a brief lack of judgement, agreed to come to Atlanta and help us move. Thank God they did. Matt and I may have made it around the world with each other and been with each other 24/7 for 6 months, but I honestly don't think that we would have survived the move. It was grueling. The apartment that we moved into leaves a little to be desired, but of course, after the places that we have stayed over the past 6 months, it is the Taj Mahal!

The really crazy thing is what happened next. I started work on the Monday, one week after we had returned. We also sold the condo that day at noon. I noticed that I started to get a few headaches when I woke up in the morning that week. By Tuesday when I came home from work, I went straight to bed and slept through to the next morning. After 12 hrs in bed, my headache had still not gone away. So, we decided that we had to go to urgent care. I felt really bad because here it was my 3rd day after returning to work and I was going to call in sick. I didn't feel so bad later that day when urgent care told me I had to go to the ER and the ER had determined that I had viral meningitis, and subsequently checked me into the hospital. Yes, I went all around the world and then ended up in the hospital 10 days after my return. The Dr.s told me that I had probably contracted it in the States too. Can you believe it? So, that meant that I didn't really work all the next week. But at least I was getting paid not to work this time. And the best part was the health insurance. See, Matt and I had gone the week in between returning and me starting work without health insurance, which made me very nervous, but there wasn't much we could do about it. Thank goodness, I stuck out the illness until I started work.

I am fully recovered now. We are just working on our shopping list now, which looks a little bit like this, car, washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner, another car, house. Not exactly the itesm that you check off your list at Target. But we just keep remembering all that we learned on our trip, and we know that we can make it just fine with what we have right now. We have learned lots of tricks to get things done without the "necessities" that we thought we once needed. So slowly, but surely we will acclimate to our "real" life again, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I hope it takes quite some time to get back to "real" life. I don't want to lose what we gained in these six months, which was love, understanding, and respect, for each other, our lives, and the lives of everyone else around us.

3 days and counting

2006-08-11T12:26:00.000-04:00

Well, we are officially three nights away from sleeping in our own bed again (before packing that bed up at the end of the week and moving it somewhere else!). We have just spent the last few days in Edinburgh at the Fringe, a huge comedy and arts festival. It has been fantastic. We have seen 4 free comedy shows and three of them, at least, were really good!

For those of you wondering, we are flying tomorrow....through London Heathrow. So, that should be an adventure in itself with all the new regulations. We will be sure to write about that when we get back to the States. The good news is that tomorrow we are just flying to Dublin and our transatlantic flight is out of Dublin on Monday. We have just read that in the UK that you cannot take anything other than necessary items on board with you, so we will be packing everything up for checked baggage tonight. Only our passports and tickets will be with us.

So, with only three days left, we probably won't have much time to post more things, however we don't want any of you out there to think that the blog is over when we get back to US soil. We have lots of stories that we haven't had time to write yet, plus I am sure there will be some good re-patriation stories too! Actually, we will probably be better at posting once we get back. That is of course after we move, find a new house, and Matt finds a job!

So, thanks for sticking with us around the world and we hope you keep checking for new stories every once in a while! This has been incredible and since it is not quite over yet, we are off to enjoy our last night in Edinburgh!

Love and God Bless!
Matt and Cecelia

TFR: The Border, Part III

2006-08-09T11:02:00.000-04:00

(Editor's note...okay, so it's been over a month since I last wrote about the Great Vietnamese Train Incident of '06. Sorry about that. I guess I've just been enjoying myself too much for the last month or so. Anyway, I figured I should start this one off by recapping the end of the last entry, so I just copied and pasted the last paragraph. Here are the important facts - we are in a small Vietnamese town...we just missed the train we had tickets for...the last train out of town is leaving in less than a half hour...we have next to no money to buy new tickets...that pretty much sums it up. Here we go.)

The next few minutes are a bit of a blur because, to be honest, the panic was starting to make itself felt. After catching up to the guy who'd walked away from us I was able to assertain that we had a couple of options. We could hop on the back of two motorbikes, fully loaded down with our backpacks, and chase the train to the next stop...a mere 40 kilometers down the road. For the briefest of moments this actually sounded plausible to us. We even went outside the station with the guy and found a couple of motorbike drivers willing to take on the job. Then our sanity returned and we thought about a few pertinent facts of the situation. 1) We didn't have nearly enough money to pay the drivers for the 40 km ride.

And really, who wants to stiff a couple of hardened Vietnamese motorbike taxi drivers in a small train station with no one around to hear you scream?? And 2) 40 km on the back of a motorbike with a big backpack in the dark of night on tiny backroads is just not a good idea. So we scrapped that idea and huddled up. We decided our best option was to obtain some cash and buy new tickets on the 9:15, no matter the cost. Naturally I hopped on the back of a motorbike and took off from the train station, leaving Cece there to figure out the situation with the tickets.

As we sped (I say sped...in reality I chose the guy with the slowest motorbike in all of Southeast Asia. An old lady in a walker and a three toed sloth racing two snails passed us on the road) towards town I thought to myself, "Self...this is a little crazy. You just left your wife standing in a railroad station where only one or two people speak any English and you're heading toward town by yourself in an attempt to take enough money out of the ATM to pay a Vietnamese motorbike driver's salary for two or three months". But I told myself it was all worth it because of our extreme desire to get on that train and out of Lao Cai.

After what seemed like an interminable amount of time (probably just five minutes or so) we entered the town and found a bank with an ATM. I hopped off and let out a sigh of relief when I saw the Visa logo on the bank window. I stepped inside and confidently made my way up to the cash machine. I chose to communicate with the machine in English and told it how many dong I needed. After a few seconds of thinking it told me that a connection with my bank could not be made. I just kind of stood there dumbfounded. I reinserted my card and tried again, this time asking for a smaller amount on the withdrawal. Again...nothing. I asked the girl behind the desk (yes, there was actually someone working there at 9:00 at night...Wait, it's 9:00!? The train leaves in fifteen minutes!!) if she could try it. Sure enough, she puts her card in and withdrawals some cash. The ATM works...it just doesn't like me. So this is it. We're stuck here in a town where the ATMs won't take our cards and we're just going to have to become tenant farmers and work till we can afford to buy motorbikes of our own and drive back to the big city on them in a few years. As we left the bank and started back to the train station I looked at my watch. It was 9:10. The train was going to be leaving in ten minutes without us.

When we pulled back up in front of the train station Cece was frantically waving at me and telling me to hurry up. As she pulled me up to the ticket counter I tried to tell her that I wasn't able to get any cash out and that we would just have to start looking for a nice farm to work. She was a bit confused at that statement but she told me that there might be another way to get tickets for the 9:15, which was now getting ready to leave. One of the guys that we had been talking to earlier was saying something about exchanging our tickets for the first train for cheaper tickets on the later train. Poor Cece had this exasperated look on her face like "why didn't you mention this a half hour ago??" but we weren't really in a position to ask questions. Before we knew it, the lady behind the counter handed us a pair of tickets and we were being hurried through the door, just as the guard was locking it up for the night, and made our way to the train. Apparently, the guy with the tickets had called the travel agency who sold us our tickets and they told him to buy us the cheap seats on the later train. Only he didn't bother to mention that to us. The only thing we knew was that we were getting on the train. Surely the worst was over now.

Well, not so fast my friends. We walked through the train to the very last car and found our seats. They were the last two seats in the chair car. The "non air-conditioned, packed to the rafters, we're the only two Westerners in here" chair car. So now all the stories about backpackers getting their passports and cash stolen while they slept started creeping into our heads. We vowed to make it through the night without sleeping and proceeded to set the alarm on our watch to go off every forty-five minutes to ensure we would be awake throughout the ride. Of course I didn't really need the alarm for the first few hours because I was too busy watching the guy who had been eyeing us from the second we got onboard. He looked kind of shady and kept looking back over his shoulder at us. About thirty minutes into the ride he got up and moved into the seat across the aisle from me. So now I'm sure he's just waiting for us to fall asleep so he can grab our possessions and make off like a bandit. After a few minutes of casing the area he whips out his cell phone and starts playing music...really loud music. I start to think, "well, if he is trying to put me to sleep he's not doing a very smart thing, blaring that loud Vietnamese music two feet from my ears". Eventually he stops listening to his cell phone and even nods off a few times. But I still kept my eyes on him.

The next occurence just kept with the theme of strange goings on. When we were scrambling around with the ticket problems before the train left there was another passenger who was in a heated discussion with the train staff. He was a Frenchman (apparently the only Frenchie who likes confrontation...ba-doom boom) who was supposed to be in First Class but had been "relegated" to lowly sleeper class. Anyway, he and Cece had talked about our ticket issues while I was off putting around Lo Cai on the slowest motorbike in Vietnam. After the train started toward Hanoi he came back to the cattle car to find us and see how we were doing. He told me that I should just go find someone who worked on the train and yell at them until they gave us a sleeper room. So I got up with Jacque or Pierre or Henri and went looking for someone to cuss out. Well, I was actually hoping Francis or Thierry or Andre would do the yelling for me and get me a bed to sleep in because at this point I was just too tired to get worked up about anything. After walking the length of the train, we finally found a group of conductors who were just standing around talking. Mr. Frenchy just starts ripping all these folks a new one, demanding a new room for himself and saying he's not leaving until he gets one. He leans over and tells me that I just need to start yelling and I'll get a room too. Of course as soon as I say one word, this little Dragon Lady jumps down my throat and asks to see my tickets. I show her my crappy, back of the train tickets and try to explain that the reason I have these tickets is because there was a mix up with my original tickets and I was supposed to have a sleeping car on the last train. She's not buying any of it. She shoves the tickets back in my hand and just starts shaking her head when I try to ask about getting upgraded. "No! No room for you!" is about all I get out of her. Feeling totally defeated I told Messiour Moulin Rouge that I was done arguing and was just going to head back and see if Cece was still wide awake, staring at the creepy guy across the aisle.

When I got back to our car I had to pick my way through the dark because all the lights had been turned off, even the ones in the little passageway between the cars that was right behind our seats. Cece explained that a conductor had walked to the back of the car, stood right next to her, taken off his shirt and shoes, laid cardboard boxes down in the passageway, turned off the lights, and plopped down to go to sleep! I honestly couldn't believe it. I had to stand up and look through the window to see it for myself. Sure enough, there he was, snoozing away while the greedy thief seated to my right now had the cover of total darkness to plan his mugging. Of course the bandit was pretending to be peacefully asleep and had done a good job of disguising himself as a normal, law abiding train passenger at this point. He was good I tell you...good.

Finally, Cece and I gave in and started to nod off in short little naps. Of course every forty-five minutes the watch alarm went off, waking us and all the people within ten feet of us (I'm certain we were very popular with our fellow travellers). Once, about ten minutes past God-knows-when, the lights came on throughout the car and a crew of four or five conductors started working their way through the crowd, back toward our area. I was thinking, "surely they aren't going to start checking tickets now". But seriously, so many bizarre things had happened so far that night I was ready for anything. Anyway, the conductors came all the way through the car, opened up the door behind us and started to wake their comatose co-worker with subtle foot nudges (I volunteered to help out) and teasing taunts. After a while he awoke, groggily stood and re-dressed, and followed the other conductors out the way they came in. As soon as he was gone I hopped up and turned the light back on in the passageway. No way was I gonna let that thief/nice man next to me get any sleep tonight! Cece and I laughed as we pictured the lazy conductor getting chewed out for sleeping on the job. Maybe they'd even fire him on the spot and toss him off the train at the next town we went through. Just as we decided that they had made him start to clean up all the appalling bathrooms on the train for his transgressions he walked back in the car, strode past us, took off his shirt again, turned off the lights, and went right back to sleep in his little "bed". So much for swift justice.

The rest of the night was rather uneventful. We nodded off a few times, only to be awakened by our trusty watch alarm. Upon arrival in Hanoi we flagged down a couple of motorbike drivers to take us back to the travel agency that sold us the train tickets. After waiting three hours for the owner to show up (the train got into town around five am) we demanded a refund for our mis"printed" train tickets and argued for a while about whose fault it was. Finally we got about $18 back and decided that was the best deal we were going to get.

Thus concludes the lengthy and totally accurate account of the Great Vietnamese Train Incident of '06. Now, if you think this sounds like the travel day from Hades, just wait till I tell you all about last Saturday and our one car, five train, one bus, one minivan with a stranger seven hour struggle to get 200 km from Cologne to Rotterdam in order to catch a ferry to England. Ho hum, just another day in paradise.

Some pictures from Asia

2006-07-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

Here are some older pics from Asia, I am finally on a computer where I can post pictures and I am so excited!
The floating markets in Thailand
When Melissa came to visit us in Thailand, we actually had someone other than each other to talk to!
A typical intersection in Vietnam
Sitting in the little plastic chairs and drinking bia hoi (new beer) on the streets of Saigon. Each liter cost about 30 cents.

Some pictures from Europe

2006-07-27T17:14:00.000-04:00

From the top:
1. Matt's greatest fear....man capris are spanning continents and generations
2. Exploring some silver mines in miner's gear in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
3. On a bike tour in Krakow (with 5 Aussies)
4. In front of the Chain Bridge also in Budapest
5. On top of St. Stephen's Basillca (also in Budapest)

The Re-entry process has begun!

2006-07-27T16:55:00.000-04:00

Well, with just a little over two weeks left in the trip, we are starting the process of re-entering our "real" lives. Two major things have happened over the past couple of weeks which is making this all seem even more real!

First off, after about a year on the market, we have sold our condo (pending a couple of inspection items)! I waiting forever to put something on the blog, because I didn't want to jinx it, so I hope I haven't now! Not only did we get one offer, but two offers on the same day. We came to an agreement with the higher of the two and are scheduled to close on August 21. For those of you keeping track that is one week to the day after we arrive back in the US. The buyers had originally asked for a closing date of the 15th, but we told them we didn't think we could get packed up and moved overnight. So, we have one week to find a place to live, and move all of our stuff there. We will probably look into a temporary solution like an apartment for a few months until we get settled back into life in the US again. So, that was a giant weight off our shoulders. Of course, by this point in the trip, we had convinced ourselves that it wouldn't sell, so we were actually looking forward to going back there, but we will take this scenario instead. We will have one week there and that should be enough.

Second, I have accepted a job which coincidentally also starts on August 21 (same day as the closing). That is going to be one busy day! The job is with Kimberly-Clark again, but in a different role. I am really looking forward to it and it is definitely re-assuring knowing that income will start coming in again shortly after we get back. Matt is going to make a career change when we get back, so it was definitely easier for me to find something while we were away than him. For those that might not know, Matt has decided to go into teaching when we get back. He is hoping to teach biology/life sciences at the high school level (following in the footsteps of his good friend James!). So that is really exciting, just a little hard to job search from Europe. We have heard about some new schools opening up and biology is what they call a need subject in Georgia, so that gives us hope that something could still work out for this school year even though we are getting back so late.

So, that is our big news. It has been crazy sorting all this out, but exciting as well. We definitely think it is all good stuff and are not complaining at all about having one heck of a crazy week when we get back. Not to mention that we only own one car right now which is in Huntsville, but lucky for us Matt's parents are going to loan us a car for a while so that car shopping doesn't have to be the first thing we do on the way home from the airport.

So, as soon as we know where we will be living after August 21, we will let you all know. Although, I am sure it will probably be an address to write in your address book in pencil as it will likely change one more time before the year is up!

Hope everyone in the US is doing well and we look forward to seeing all our stateside family and friends again soon!

Pencils ready?? Quiz time!

2006-07-17T15:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, Cece and I are now in Vienna, Austria after about ten days in the Czech Republic. So the quiz will be about the Czech. First part: the Czech Republic is made up of two different "areas" that were separate kingdoms centuries ago. The larger of the two is Bohemia, with its capital in Prague. What is the name of the second area, and what is its capital?

Second part: After dealing with the hordes of tourists in Prague (which brags on itself that it is the sixth most visited city in the world!) we headed down south to the small town of Cesky Krumlov for five days of relaxing and rafting and tubing. The question is, what river were we lazying around on as we slowly circled the Old Town of Cesky Krumlov?

Again, past winners aren't eligible for prizes but we look forward to seeing everyone's answers.

Good luck!

Matt and Cece

Looking Worse for the Wear

2006-07-12T05:44:00.000-04:00

Now that we are just 5 weeks from coming home, and we are still wearing all the same clothes that we started with, we are starting to look a bit haggered. You know those travelers whose white shirts just don't look that white and whose shorts don't look exactly clean....that's us!

I meant to put a post in the beginning of what we had packed. Basically, it was not too much. For me:
2 pairs of shoes (Tevas and tennis shoes)
2 pairs of shorts
1 skirt
3 pairs of pants (including a pair of female capri pants)
1 tank top
5 short sleeve shirts
3 long sleeve shirts
1 fleece
1 light jacket
plus the obligatory undergarments and socks.

Matt had a similar assortment of clothes minus man capris.

So, we figured out the other day that we have been on the road for about 145 days. That means that with 5 short sleeve shirts, I would have worn each shirt approximately 29 times. So over the 5 months that we have been traveling, each shirt has been worn for about a month! Thankfully, not consecutively. Of course, we have picked up a few things that we needed on the road, and some other things have been put to rest. We used some of our more worn out shirts as padding for packages that we sent home.

Our clothes really took a beating in India....quite literally. One of the main ways of washing clothes in India is still to beat them on a rock in the river. In Asia, the travelers were a lot more relaxed about clothes.....and about washing them. Now that we are in Europe and around people who are only traveling for 2-3 weeks at a time, we look a bit disheveled.

The worst part is definitely our shoes. The Tevas have developed a smell that we can't quite get rid of. I think that we are going to ceremoniously burn them the day that we get back to the States.

You all will be able to see the progression of our clothes in our pictures when we return home. The blue t-shirt in Australia....the blue t-shirt in India.....the blue t-shirt in Croatia.

We are really looking forward to putting on some other clothes when we return home!

Bird flu or malaria?????

2006-07-07T14:51:00.000-04:00

Well, it was bound to happen at least once on 6 months on the road. We got sick....I am really sick. It all started when we got to Prague. We arrived in Prague on Wednesday morning July 5. We were both worn out because we had taken the overnight train from Krakow to Prague. There were quite a few people in our compartment so we didn't really have a chance to get much sleep. We headed straight for our hostel, which is part of a Prague dormitory that they rent out during the summer. Except it is slightly smaller than dorms that I have seen in the US if you can imagine. We headed straight for bed for a little nap. When the alarm went off at noon, we both had a harder than usual time getting up. We thought it was because of lack of sleep, but we soon realized that it was probably the start of the flu.

We dragged ourselves into town and started looking around. We were definitely not our normal sight-seer selves. We kept stopping to get a drink or sit or whatever. Matt got the chills first. He kept going from hot to cold and back again. A few hours later it started on me. We had tried to stay in town to watch the soccer game, but after one half, we both looked like death warmed over so we headed back on the metro and got back to the hostel as fast as we could.

Lucky for us, we have been carrying around a small pharmacy for the last 6 months complete with Tami-flu in case we had caught the bird flu in SE Asia. We took two of those and proceeded to go straight to bed. We both walk up around 2am. We had been going back and forth between the chills and burning up. Neither of us could fall back asleep so we started discussing if we thought we had bird flu or malaria. We were trying to recall all of the symptoms we had read about before we left home. After all, we really were around more live chickens in SE Asia than I had ever seen in my whole life, and we had stopped taking our malaria medication when we arrived in Europe even though it said to continue for 4 more weeks. At 2am (and probably more than half-way out of it), we were regretting that decision as malaria seemed like it definitely could be the culprit.

Alas, we slept for about 14 hours and then proceeded to spend another 5 in bed just trying to get the energy up to take a shower. We finally ventured out that day around 6pm and that was just to do laundry and try to get some food. Four hours walking among the living was about all we could take and headed straight back home to bed.

So this morning, we woke up, and lucky for me, I think I am over it. I think my fever broke last night because I woke up in the middle of the night with a totally wet T-shirt sweating like crazy. Matt seems a little worse today than yesterday as we seem to just keep passing it back and forth to each other. We did manage to leave the hostel today out of sheer desperation to get out of our little box. The fresh air seems to be doing us a world of good though and I think the worst is over.

This is by far the sickest we have been on the whole trip. I really thought we would have had a spell in Asia. I had even planned on writing a blog entry about how we had escaped bird flu even though we had seen so many live chickens all over Asia, (and we had told everyone not to worry because we would never be around them). Even India wasn't this bad. I thought that I was going to enter the Guinness book of World Records as being the only person to go to India and get constipated instead of getting the Delhi Belly! But alas, we knew our luck would run out at some point, but one day in bed on a 6 month trip isn't really all that bad.

Stay healthy everyone!

Connect the Dots

2006-07-02T13:23:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to give a quick update on the travels of late. We've been making our way north through Central Europe and are currently in Krakow, Poland. We left Italy a little over two weeks ago, spending a fun filled evening on a bus from Trieste in the extreme northeastern corner of the country down to Dubrovnik, on the southernmost tip of Croatia (crossing borders into Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovinia just for kicks). From there we took a ferry to the spectacular island of Korcula and after a few sun soaked days we travelled to Split, again by ferry. Another bus ride, this one in the daytime, brought us to the capital of Crotia, Zagreb. I can't imagine too many Americans mark it down as a "must see" destination in Europe, but we found it nice. It's not too big, has a very easy to manage public transportation system (easy to manage could also be read as "easy to use without paying"), and loads of outdoor cafes in the central part of the city. It's definitely not in a class with Venice, Paris, or London but it was definitely worth a quick stopover for us. I mean, it's not like we have much a of a schedule to stick to.

After Croatia we took the train north and made our way to Budapest, the capital and heart of Hungary. This was a cool city people. It has all the advantages of a Western metropolis with plenty of medieval history and sights to keep you busy. We spent two and a half days sightseeing and still couldn't check all the biggies off our list. The one we really wish we had time to see is Statue Park. It is a park a little outside of the city where the Hungarians took all the Communist propaganda statues from around the city and depostited them. The places we did make it to included the Royal Palace, the Old Town, St. Mathias Church, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Opera House, one of the thermal baths, the Terror House (more on this one in a minute) and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting. We took a walking tour of Pest (the city is actually divided into two pretty much separate parts - Buda and Pest - by the Danube) one night and got to hear some historical stories, legends, and anecdotes. The most interesting, and at the same time disturbing, place we saw was the Terror House. It is a museum based at the site of the Secret Police (Hungarian version of the KGB) from the Communist Era. It had exhibits detailing the torture, fear mongering, and brainwashing the Communists doled out in the years they were in power. It was truly frightening to see what supposedly intelligent people are capable of. To be honest though, it wasn't exactly shocking after what we saw in Cambodia. Basically, Communist leaders use torture and fear to stay in power. At least that's my take.

So, two days ago we hopped on an overnight train from Budapest to Krakow and we've been taking in the sights of Poland's royal city and historic capital since then. Yesterday we wandered around on foot and today we took a bike tour of the city. Our tour guide was a Canadian/Pole and we were joined on the tour by five Australian guys who are traveling Europe after watching their beloved Socceroos get bounced from the World Cup. Krakow is another city we both would say is definitely worth a visit. There is plenty of history to learn about, from the ancient Polish kingdoms to Oskar Schindler's factory, right here in Krakow.

Well, we still have another day or two in Poland (we don't really have any idea about the trains from here to Prague, our next destination) so we'll be taking that ever so happy trip to Auschwitz next, either tomorrow or the next day and maybe do some hiking in the Tatra mountains on the Slovakian border.

We hope everyone has a great Fourth of July. We'll raise a glass of Polish or Czech beer in honor of Uncle Sam. And I promise to finish up the Vietnam train story soon!

TFR: The Border, Part II

2006-06-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

(Editor's note. Sorry to keep you all hanging but Croatia is a really beautiful place and the views from the beaches are a lot nicer than the ones from the internet cafes.)

Where was I? Oh yes, we were in line, confidently walking towards the ticket taker. I handed our tickets to her and she started to punch them and let us through. Then she made an odd face, handed the tickets back to me, and pointed to a guy who wasn't wearing any sort of official uniform. We started to get upset and demanded to know what was wrong. Unfortunately the ticket taker didn't speak any more English than we spoke Vietnamese. So we moved on to the guy we'd been directed to. He looked to be about 21 years old and he spoke English passably well. Well enough to tell us that our tickets were for the train that left at 8:30 anyway.

After taking that information in and digesting it for a few seconds I said, "I'm sorry, did you say these were for the 8:30 train?" The answer seemed so obvious and self evident to him. At least it must have, given the way he looked at me and said yes. So now we have to start to deal with a little bit of panic that is slowly creeping in on us. We asked him to please elaborate further. I showed him the time on the ticket that said "9:20". In turn, he pointed to the line that said Train Number: SP2 and then pointed to the time table on the wall. Sure enough, right there in black and white it said Train SP2 - 8:30, Train SP4 - 9:15. We looked at our tickets again in disbelief. See, we had never checked the train number. The first thing printed on the ticket was the time and that's all we'd looked at. The panic had increased it's approach from a slow creep to a steady gait at this point.

Next, we tried our patented approach in these types of situations, we played dumb (easier for me than Cece). I pointed to the time and said, "but is says right here that it doesn't leave until 9:20". He looked at the ticket I was showing him, then flipped to the second one, which was stapled to the back of the first one. He pointed to the time on that one, which, sure enough, said 8:30. So that was the issue. The people at the train station or travel agency or wherever the ticket had been issued wrote the wrong time on the ticket that was stapled on top. We had never bothered to look at the second ticket because they were stapled together. I felt my face go flush with embarrassment as I stood there, thinking I was the single stupidest person on the face of the earth. Cece took a different approach. She decided to get persuasive. She told the guy it wasn't our fault that someone wrote the wrong time on the ticket. Then she told him that someone needed to take care of the mix up because we were getting on that train that was now about 15 minutes away from heading out of the station (it was a good thing she was around, because at this point I was speechless). The guy we'd been talking to apparently didn't take very kindly to her tone of voice and went into a hissy fit, which caused both of us to back up a little, then he stalked off. We sort of looked at each other with surpised faces because we sure didn't see that coming.

The next few minutes are a bit of a blur because, to be honest, the panic was starting to make itself felt. After catching up to the guy who'd walked away from us I was able to assertain that we had a couple of options. We could hop on the back of two motorbikes, fully loaded down with our backpacks, and chase the train to the next stop...a mere 40 kilometers down the road. For the briefest of moments this actually sounded plausible to us. We even went outside the station with the guy and found a couple of motorbike drivers willing to take on the job. Then our sanity returned and we thought about a few pertinent facts of the situation. 1) We didn't have nearly enough money to pay the drivers for the 40 km ride.

DRAT...time is up for now. Another to be continued!!

The game that unites

2006-06-24T11:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I know that there are some major sports fans in the U.S. Some might even think that we are sports obsessed. Other countries are also known for their sports obsessions....like Australia. Although, that might have to do with the fact that they are allowed to bet money on the games, so they need to find out how their team did. But now I know that I have seen the biggest sports fans in the world. They are all in Europe right now for the World Cup. And I guess I shouldn't really say that it is a sports obsession, because it is really just a football (soccer) obsession. I knew that Europe was football crazy from living in the U.K. but I didn't realize that I should multiply that love by 100 for the World Cup. Even my dear husband's love for his Auburn Tigers does not compare to this.

Matt and I were trying to think of something that is this big in the States. The Superbowl is definitely big, but unless your team is playing, most people just watch it for fun. The World Cup, on the other hand, unites a whole country for what can be a heartwrenching 90 minutes.

We are in Croatia right now and were able to watch their final two games at some local bars. On the days that they played everyone in the streets was dressed in their Croatia T-shirts. From the waiters, to the store clerks, to the guys drinking at the pub waiting for the game. (For those not familiar with the Croatia uniform, it reminds me of a shirt my Dad had when working at Ralston Purina...red and white checkerboard).

Pubs set up projection screens and whole families come out to watch the games together. (Not sure if it is World Cup thing or if kids are normally allowed in pubs, but they were there.) I don't believe that there was anyone in Croatia not watching their final game against Australia the other night. When Croatia scored first, flares started going off all around us in the streets. People were hugging, jumping, praying, you name it, they were truly on top of the world. Unfortunately, they ended up drawing so Croatia doesn't progress to the next round. I would have loved to have seen the victory celebration if they had made it through.

We have talked to some people that went to Germany for some of the games. Apparently, it is pure pandemonium there. Most of the people we talked to didn't have tickets, they just went to be near the action. There are also people rearranging their trips around the world to coincide with how their team does.

It is definitely a great time to be in Europe (I can't imagine how much more intense it is in Germany itself). You just can't help but to get caught up in all of it. And Matt is in heaven because every pub shows all the games....every night. I think I could leave him in a pub for a week. Too bad for him the beers not cheaper here so that he really could do that.

Tales From the Rails

2006-06-19T13:34:00.000-04:00

(Editor's note...this is going to be an ongoing series where I pass along some amusing stories from our travels by train on the trip. So far we've taken train rides in Vietnam, India, France, and Italy. Hopefully you'll all be able to see the humor in them...even if we did almost get stranded in a small Vietnamese town on the Chinese border.)

Chapter I: The Border

You know how it is. You're on the back of a moped speeding through the streets of a small Vietnamese town on the Chinese border, going from one ATM to another because none of them will accept your bank card. Your wife is five kilometers away at the train station, trying to figure out a way to get on the last train out of town. You have about 25,000 dong in your pocket (about $1.65) and two tickets for the 8:30 train. Unfortunately it is now ten after nine and the last train back to Hanoi leaves in five minutes. I mean really, we've all had days like this, right?

As crazy as it sounds, we actually did find ourselves in this predicament just about two months ago. Cece and I decided to visit the town of Sapa in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam to do some hiking. After spending two wonderful days trekking in the shadows of Mt. Fansipan, Vietnam's highest peak, we were heading back to Hanoi on the overnight train. As we had taken the overnight train up there from Hanoi with no problems we thought we were in for an easy time. Yeah, well we were wrong.

The evening started out smoothly as our bus from Sapa to the town of Lau Cai (home to the train station) arrived in plenty of time. We got to the area around the bus station just before 8:00 and our tickets said we didn't leave until 9:20. So we sat at a little cafe with other travellers and talked about our trekking adventures and about the details surrounding a death of a foreigner that had taken place while were in Sapa. We all watched as three Scandanavian girls argued with the shuttle bus driver after they found out their tickets were booked for the following night's train instead of that night. "Wow...glad that's not happening to us" I said to Cece as I rechecked that our tickets had the right date on them. Sure enough, right there on the front of the ticket it said Sunday, April 23, 21:20.

After walking around a little we decided to head up to the train station. We got inside in time to watch the last stragglers for the 8:30 train go through security and head to the train. A few minutes later the 8:30 pulled out of the station (short by two passengers as we were soon to find out) and made its way to Hanoi. A couple of minutes later the rail station staff opened up the doors and started letting people get onto the 9:15 train. Now, I had noticed when we first walked up to the train station that there was not a 9:20 train. Instead there was an 8:30 and a 9:15. I just assumed (I know, I know) that the train's time had changed or the people at the ticket office in Hanoi had just written the number slightly wrong. So, as we made our way through the line, we had no idea that anything was wrong.

To be continued...

Happy Father's Day

2006-06-18T11:19:00.000-04:00

A very special Father's Day wish to my Dad, Homer, Pop, and Big Daddy. We are thinking of all of you and wish that we could be there to celebrate with you!!! Thanks for everything you have done for us!

Happy Father's Day to all of the new or soon to be new Father's we know...and that's a lot....Raymond, Scott, Jim, Sam, and the list goes on for some repeat members like Brad and Graig!

A vacation within a vacation

2006-06-14T16:08:00.000-04:00

So, we have finally arrived on our final continent in Europe, and our first week here was one of the best weeks of the entire trip so far. It was a vacation within our very long vacation.

As some of you know, we were headed straight to France once in Europe to go to the wedding of my friend Lisa, who is a French girl that I worked with while in the UK. Not only that, but Lisa had asked me to be one of her witnesses at the wedding (a kind of French bridesmaid). It took less than a second for us to work this into the trip when we found out that Lisa and her fiance Duncan were getting married. They had been able to come to our wedding in 2004, plus, they were getting married in the South of France in June....and who could really pass that up? ;)

We arrived and Lisa carted us from the Nice airport to her home village of St. Jeannet. This is definitely one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places that we have been on this trip. The view from her parents house was absolutely incredible. You could look up to their village which was set up against a mountain, and if you turned around the other way, there was the coast and the sea. When you went to the village, it was like a scene from a movies, narrow cobblestone streets, local bakeries, and a centuries old church where Lisa and Duncan were to be married. Matt and I were in heaven. All of this natural beauty, not to mention the fact that we were once again with great friends and their families.

The wedding was a union between Lisa's French heritage and Duncan's Scottish\British. This meant that the wedding procession through the streets of St. Jeannet was led by a bagpiper and that the ceremonies were done in a mixture of French and English. I say, ceremonies, because there are actually two times that you "get married" in France. The first is a civil ceremony, which Lisa's father performed since he is a council member. This was great, they put on the French flag belts and everything. Second, you go to the church. It was the quaintest church that I have ever seen and it was filled to the gills with people from the village.

Next came the reception, which of course, overlooked the Mediterrenean and the coast. We had heard that French weddings went until 4am, and this is exactly the time that theirs ended. You hardly noticed that you were up that late though. There are many courses to the meal, but they are broken up by toasts, dancing, and the like. I almost fell over when Matt told me that we were sitting down to the main course at 11:30pm that night. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been too.

The parities went all weekend, and before we knew it, we had been at Lisa's parents house for a week. I am pretty sure we both gained about 10 lbs while we were there too. No meal was less than 3 courses and this included lunch too! Lisa's parents don't speak English, and we don't speak French, but we still managed to get along quite well with them and we are invited back....as long as we learn some French. They were tremendous and generous hosts. One of our favorite pasttimes while there....picking cherries off the tree in their yard. Without a doubt, the best cherries, I have ever had.

All in all, it is good to be back in Europe. We both loved Asia and we definitely want to go back to Asia, but it was nice to get back to some of the comforts of home. The bed at Lisa's parents house was probably thicker than all of the mattresses that we slept on in India combined. We had some of the best sleep that we have had since we left Australia.

Now we are in Padova, Italy with our friend Pietro. He cooked an amazing Risotto tonight and once again we are getting spoiled. On Friday, we will be on our own again in Croatia, but until then, we are loving a little company!

It's a small world after all

2006-06-14T15:57:00.000-04:00

Okay so this post is for Melissa Brown who believes that Newburgh, Indiana is the center of the universe because she thinks I know everyone and always run into people in the strangest places. For all you ChemE's from Purdue, you are going to love this one.

Walking through the Dehli airport last week, Matt heard someone running up behind us. He thought that maybe we dropped something and someone had picked it up. Instead it was a guy that I knew who was a ChemE at Purdue, Sanjay Reddy. He just happened to see me walk past and even though we had not seen each other for 8 years, he said he recognized me right away. It was so funny because as soon as I saw him, I knew exactly who he was too. He lives in Hydrabad, India now and just happened to be in Dehli. Now, I figured at some point in the trip, we would have a crazy experience like this, but I did not in my wildest dreams think that it was going to happen in India.

Sanjay and I did a quick catch-up on all the old ChemE crew, he says Hi to all by the way. He even invited us to Hydrabad to visit he and his new bride, but unfortunately we were leaving India the next day. I was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day though because I was so excited that I saw someone I knew.

So, as the song goes, it turns out it really is a small world after all! Just goes to show how mobile people are these days.

A Little Help Here People

2006-06-06T03:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, not that either of us are overly superstitious or anything, but today is June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) and we are flying from Delhi to Bombay tonight on Air Deccan Flight 666. So, if anyone would like to offer up a prayer that our pilot's name isn't Damien, we'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks and have a great day.

I'm Melting

2006-06-06T02:52:00.000-04:00

Okay Bangkok, you have officially been usurped as the hot, hot, hottest destination on the Sharp World Tour 2006 by...North Central India! Congratulations go out to Delhi and Agra where we have been cooked by temperatures ranging somewhere between the boiling point of mercury and the surface of the sun over the last couple of days. At breakfast this morning our butter was melting in it's dish...inside with fans blasting. And I don't mean "slowly getting soft" melting. I mean, "we could have tossed in some asparagus and sauteed it up" melting. So you could say we're looking forward to the expected temps in Europe when we get there Thursday morning. Except that I saw the weather report for Germany this morning on BBC World and it was only 44 in Dusseldorf and 48 in Cologne. Can't we get some moderate temperatures here people???

Quiz #2

2006-06-04T10:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, time for another quiz to see who all is checking in with us out there. And just so all the goodies don't get shipped off to beautiful upstate New York, previous winners (ahem, Shoemakers) are not eligible to win (don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you guys...a postcard from India is on the way).

So, our favorite place in India so far (by a mile and a half) was the tiny village of Hampi, located in the central part of the state of Karnataka. This was a cool place to chill out for a few days amid the ruins of the Vijayanagar Hindu empire that ruled in the 13th to 15th centuries in Southern India. The town is centered around a large temple with a 50 meter high entrance gate that dominates all the views from town. Can you tell me the name of this temple? Also, there is a World Heritage designated site around another temple, this one in ruins, near Hampi. Can anyone tell us the name of the ruined temple. I'll give you a little hint. They both start with the letter V.

Good luck!

Poverty

2006-06-04T09:56:00.000-04:00

Poverty has definitely been a theme of many of the countries that we have visited on this trip. Starting way back in China, we quickly grasped how truly fortunate we are, not in regards to money, but also in the opportunities that we have, just from being born in the West and specifically, the United States.

There was definitely poverty in China, Vietnam, and Thailand, but I don't think any of those places compare to Cambodia and India. It is sad to say, but I am sort of getting used to seeing children begging in the streets and seeing whole families on the side of the road sleeping at night.

Everyone said that India would be the worst, but for me it will always be Cambodia. That may be because Cambodia was the place that we went first. Plus Cambodia has such a tragic recent history with the atrocities that they suffered under the Khmer Rouge. We heard from several people that every person in Cambodia probably had at least one family member killed by that awful regime. They have suffered so much and are still trying to find their footing. Children begging in the streets is such a common sight that you have to become immune to it, or else it would totally consume you. For me, I started giving out pocket change when we first got there, but I soon realized, I could give away all my money and I don't think it would have significantly changed anyone's situation. Plus you hear stories about how the children have to take the money back to a "pimp" type person who then probably doesn't even give them enough of the money to buy a meal. So you start thinking about giving away your food, drink, or water instead. And then you eventually realize that giving to a charity who supports education, or infrustructure, or feeding the hungry is probably the best way to spend your money. It is just so hard though when you have a child or someone missing a limb, right in front of you begging you to help them now. I was really upset one night when a little girl of about 5yrs old grabbed my hand and held on begging for money for about 100yds down the road. Eventually a cop came up and told her to let go, but it about broke my heart. I just kept thinking about our nieces and the life that they lead compared to this little girl.

We have seen much of the same in India. In Mumbai the other night, a part of a covered sidewalk turned into a sleeping complex once the sun went down. The children are much more bold here too. They come up to your rickshaw when you are stopped at a light, and anywhere else they can get to you. However, there are actually signs in some of the towns that we have gone to in India that discourage tourists from giving money, sweets, or treats to children. The signs say "Protect their future, don't give money to children". We actually had one little boy get angry at us when we didn't have any "school pens" for him and wouldn't give him our watch. I think the government is smart to discourage it. I guess they figure that once the children see that begging works, they will continue to do it, but then what happens when they aren't the cute little kid that pulls at the heart strings anymore? They are just one of the other beggers on the street. India has a million in one ways to volunteer or to give money to NGO's (non-government agencies). Again, probably the better use of your money.

One light hearted story about what we have seen (yes, I think there can be some smiles even with such a sad topic). While in Phnom Penh in Cambodia, I was at a market with my cousin, Margee, and her friend, Kim. I had just bought a Diet Coke and was standing there while Margee and Kim bought some DVD's. Two little boys came up to me and started asking me for money. Then they started asking for my coke. Although, I realize that diet coke is not really part of the four food groups, I felt bad standing there drinking it while they had nothing. So, I handed it to one of the boys and told him to share with his brother. The little boy promptly took his absolutely filthy shirt and wiped off the mouth of the can! Kim, Margee and I started dying laughing. No matter how bad this boy had it, he definitely didn't want anything that the Westerner was going to give him. He smiled and walked away.

So with that, I hope that Matt and I are learning to appreciate what we have. We certainly aren't stressing about things at home the way we were at the beginning of the trip. It just doesn't seem right to worry about selling the house when we at least own one to sell.

Once you are exposed to this kind of poverty, it is almost overwhelming because you know there is no way to help everyone. The struggle will be to find the right balance and figure out a way to give some help to those less fortunate. This will be one part of the trip that will stay with us for a long time.

Taking Stock at the Halfway Point (two weeks late)

2006-06-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I know it's June 1 and the halfway point was actually May 14. I fully intended to write this post back then in Chiang Mai, Thailand but several conspiratorial forces combined to thwart my attempts. Chiefly among them were a power outage and a drunken Scotsman named Mickey. So, without further ado, let's get some stats going here. And just so you know, I'm counting all travel up to this point.

Countries Visited: Nine
New Zealand
Australia
Singapore
China
Hong Kong (we are counting this as separate from China)
Vietnam
Thailand
Cambodia
India

Capital Cities Visited: Seven
Canberra
Singapore
Beijing
Hong Kong
Hanoi
Bangkok
Phnom Penh

Plane flights taken: Nineteen
LA-Auckland
Auckland-Sydney
Melbourne-Hobart (RT)
Sydney-Cairns (RT)
Sydney-Singapore
Singapore-Beijing
Beijing-Hong Kong
Hong Kong-Bangkok
Bangkok-Hanoi
Hanoi-Danang
Danang-Saigon
Saigon-Bangkok
Bangkok-Phuket (RT)
Bangkok-Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh-Bangkok
Bangkok-Bangalore

Airlines Flown: Seven
Air New Zealand
Jet Star
Singapore Airlines
Air China
Thai International
Pacific Airlines
One, Two, Go!

Modes of Transport: Ten
Airplane
Boat
Automobile
Train
Motorbike
Rickshaw
Tuk Tuk
Zorb ball
Elephant
Bungee cord (it might have only been a 150 foot trip, but it counts!)

Buckets of Alcohol consumed: Three
All three consisted of rum, coke, and Red Bull. It's all Melissa's fault.

Towers of Beer consumed (same night): One
I suppose I should take parital blame for that one. But the accountant in the group (Cece) made us finish it. And by us, I mean me.

Toilets puked in (that night): One
And it wasn't me!

Total pukings: Four
Each of us owe one to the demons of alcohol (see the comment about the drunken Scotsmen above) and I've had two heaves because of not having enough food with my anti malarial medicine.

Elephants encountered: Three
We rode one in Thailand. We avoided one at a Buddhist temple in Cambodia. And we got blessed by one at a Hindu temple in India.

Monkeys spotted: Countless
We've seen more monkeys on this trip than anyone should ever have the pleasure of encountering. From Thailand to Cambodia to India, the monkeys have made their presence felt.

Drat...my hour is up. More to come.

Storm Looms Over Goa

2006-06-01T04:02:00.000-04:00

That was the front page headline in the English language newspaper in Goa the day we arrived. The picture that accompanied the story was of a huge shipping freighter which had been beached by the storm. The next story on the front page was titled "Margao Prepares for Flooding". Take a wild guess in which city we got off the train (which was two hours late because of all the rain). We got dumped on running from the train to the station (which was dark because the power was out). I got soaked to the bone waiting to get a taxi. Then we proceeded to spend the next hour driving from guest house to hotel to resort looking for a place that wasn't trying to charge through the nose for a flooded, rat-hole of a room. It took a while because of the torrential rainfall and all the downed trees and power lines we had to avoid. All we wanted was a few days at the beach to relax...was that too much to ask?

In the end we found a decent beach resort that had by far the cleanest rooms we'd seen and was reasonably priced. Of course the electricity was out (and according to today's newspaper it still is...three days later) so we carried around our little flashlight and used candles to light the room after dark. We found a really good vegetarian restaurant for lunch and a little bar full of Englishmen where we downed a few cold beers to pass the time. To borrow a phrase from Mr. Costanza, 'the sea was angry that day my friends. Like an old man trying to send soup back at a diner'. We spent about ten minutes standing on the beach watching the frothy water whip back and forth as the wind blew the coconut palms halfway to the ground. We dipped our toes in the Arabian Sea as images of calm water and sunny skies danced in our minds. Then the Indian lifeguard started blowing his whistle and yelling at people to get out of the water (no one was more than knee deep and this guy was going nuts shouting at people). So we made our way back to our room and read some more.

So, among the lessons we've discovered on the trip so far we'll put this one near the top: this whole "monsoon season" thing they always talk about in Asia isn't made up. Monsoon is derived from a Malay word meaning wind. It should come from a word that means "never-ending downpour that drenches Western tourists who show up during the wrong time of the year". Actually, in our defense the monsoon wasn't supposed to start until June. It just kicked in a few days too early.

Well, now that our beach vacation has been tossed aside we're trying to make our way up to Bombay to continue our journey. Hopefully we'll get on the overnight train this evening and arrive in Bombay sometime tomorrow morning. I say hopefully for a couple of reasons. First, we're on a wait list for our tickets. We did the same thing on the train from Bangalore to Hampi and it worked out fine. We just have to check with the train station this afternoon to see if our number has come up due to cancellations. Second, the train has been running a wee bit late the last few days due to the rain. In fact, yesterday's Konkan Kanya Express (the one we want to be on) which is supposed to leave Goa at 6:00 PM was scheduled to leave around 6:30...this morning. The guy at the reservation office said they hoped today's delays wouldn't be nearly as long. Ironically the morning trains are only running a couple of hours behind. So if we don't make it off the wait list on tonight's train we might leave just a couple of hours later on tomorrow morning's train instead. Ahh, the joys of travelling in India.

Stay tuned for the forthcoming story of our exciting train journey from Hospet to Hubli. I'll leave you with this teaser. You know when you see those headlines in the paper that say "Commuter Train Wreck in India: hundreds dead, 10,000 injured"? And you think to yourself, "10,000 people!!?? That's a small city, not the number of people on a train". You're wrong. They do fit that many people on a train. We've been part of it and Cece even had to pull our little French travelling companion onto the train as it started to roll out of the station.

Until next time...

Thinking about Asia

2006-05-18T07:32:00.000-04:00

I started this post a while ago when we arrived in China, but I haven't had a chance to finish it until this rainy day in Bangkok.

I don't think Singapore really counted as our big introduction to Asia. It was way too Western for what I thought Asia would be. That is why I was so excited when we arrived in China. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. As we were flying in, I kept thinking about a lunch we had with my mom before we left the States. She was telling us how wonderful she thought our trip was and then was recounting how my grandmother had always wanted to travel. She and my grandfather were going to go to Europe one summer, but she died the December before she could go. I am sure China had never even crossed her mind as a place to visit because it was basically cut off from the world after WWII until the late 70's. My mom has traveled internationally around Europe and Australia. And now here I am, going to places that people two generations ago wouldn't have even thought about visiting. So, I began to ponder these thoughts (a very philosophical moment for me) and wondered where my children or grandchildren might go, maybe Iraq or Afghanistan, or the moon...who knows.

As we arrived in China, I could see all of the billboards from the window of the plane. Symbols that I had no idea what they meant or even what sound to make if I wanted to try to pronounce it. It was the first time that I had been in a place where I did not recognize anything, and I must say it was a weird feeling. So, I continued to think about how strange the course of history had been. That China had cut people off for so long, and now they were welcoming tourists (especially Western tourists) with open arms.

Of course, all of these really deep thoughts came to an abrupt end when we walked through customs and the first thing that we see is.....a Starbucks sign! Ah, progress. Those universal symbols, Starbucks, McDonald's arches...etc. There are some symbols that everyone knows the meaning of.

Despite the jolt back to the Western Hemisphere produced by the Starbuck's sign. I still found China to be like no place I had ever been. It was my first communist country. And you could definitely feel a difference in the air of the people. Disenchanted workers waiting in stores, pouncing on anyone who walked in the door. Men in uniforms, so many different uniforms, we didn't know who was army, cop, security, or something else. And of course, the ever presence of Mao...the one who led them to communism. Whether it was his picture hanging over Tienamen Square or the millions of older Chinese, all with their matching baseball caps, waiting to catch a glimpse of the man or at least his corpse. (I am not really sure who thought up the great idea to put communist leaders corpses on display. We didn't go see Mao because the line was too long, but we did see Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. Nothing like starting your day looking at a communist that died decades ago!)

Beijing is a pretty dirty city. They say the Gobi desert is slowing creaping into the city and leaving a dust over everything in it. You could definitely see it as you walked around the city. Not sure how that will affect the Olympics. You sensed that the city was trying to live up to its potential, but was not quite there yet. For instance, instead of real flowers, there were fake flowers everywhere, and we didn't see any grass for days. Every major tourist spot was covered in scaffolding. All to put their best foot forward in 2008.

I am really glad that we went to China now. I think it will be interesting to see how it changes over the coming years. Our take from visiting Beijing is that China appears to be at a crossroads, and it is really hard to say which way it will go.

Commemerating the half way point

2006-05-17T04:23:00.000-04:00

So you have been traveling the world for 3 months and you have 3 months to go. You want to do something special to mark the occasion of being half way....what do you do????

BUNGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we finally did what every round-the-world traveler does once on the journey...bungy jump. And I must say, it was pretty thrilling.

We first started contemplating it back in Taupo, NZ. There was a beautiful bungy jump out over the Waikato River. The scene was just beautiful....much better than from a crane on some beach in Florida. But, due to finances and maybe some hesitation from me, we decided not to do it. I have been regretting that ever since. I started telling Matt that if we could find one over water again, that I would do it.

Enter Chaing Mai, Thailand. We heard there was a bungy....it was over water....it was pretty cheap....and we needed to celebrate being half way through our trip.

We took a bus out to the site with two Aussie guys. One who had jumped before and one who hadn't. The one who hadn't went first....and he took a long time to jump. Matt went next. I must say I was thoroughly impressed with how quickly he jumped once at the top. He got to the edge, took a couple of breaths and just went for it. I decided I needed to be next because I thought I might chicken out if I was last. I had to ride up the crane with the little Thai guy who called himself, Tarzan. Just me and Tarzan, 50 meters above the earth. I looked down at Matt and the other two guys and I thought "I am going to land on them instead of over the water if I jump". Tarzan came up to give me a hand. He was trying to take my hands off the handrails and every time he got one up, I put the other one back down. I told him to give me ten seconds and I would go. I asked him if I let go of both the handrails if he was going to push me and he said "Yes". Can you imagine that in the US? People would be getting sued right and left? So, I took both hands off, leaned over and went. I really don't remember the first part. I don't think that I was that scared then, it was just getting myself to actually jump that was the hard part. And then for some reason half way down, I went to hold my nose...as if I was going into the water below. That really made Matt and the Aussies laugh!

It was definitely worth it, although I almost think we need to do it again so that we can remember it better. We have some great pictures, video, and a T-shirt to rmemeber it by. I am sure you will all have to watch it at some point!!!

Halfway Point Pictures

2006-05-17T03:29:00.000-04:00

Well...we're a shade over halfway through the trip and we thought we'd share a few pics. We've taken well over a thousand photos so far (we have four cd's full and a full 1 Gig disk in our camera right now) and at least a couple of them are pretty good! We hope you like them.

Standing in front of the Twelve Apostles rock formation along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Wearing our green for St. Patrick's Day

Proudly displaying our tools of surfing mastery

Riding atop our cool camel, Stan the Man

Standing at the easternmost point in Australia in Byron Bay

We'll try and add some more soon!

Happy Mother's Day (a day early)

2006-05-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

We would like to send our warmest wishes out to all the moms in our lives on this wonderful Mother's Day weekend! We're currently in Chiang Mai up in Northern Thailand and we'll be off in the jungle trekking, riding elephants, and surfing rapids on bamboo rafts for the next two days, so we needed to send our greetings out a little early. So here we go...

Happy Mother's Day to our beautiful and loving mothers, Dianne and Pat, and also to my sweet Nana. And also to our sisters who are the greatest moms to our little nieces and nephews. We love you Ann, Kady, Sandy and Dawn and Paige and Jenny! And special Mother's Day wishes go out to our newest little mommy Anne Cannata (give little Pina our love) and our soon to be mommies, Elizabeth Livingston and Kim Anderson, Kim Anderson, and Kim Anderson (yup...her and Scott are expecting triplets)!!

To all the other moms in our circle of friends and family we salute you! Live it up on your special day and make dad and the kids treat you like the princess you are!

Love,
matt and cece

Lobster Boy in Thailand

2006-05-11T09:52:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, the world famous Lobster Boy has taken a break from his frequent visits to the Gulf Coast and my parent's back yard pool to make an appearance halfway around the world. Let me say this, the sun on the Andaman Coast of Thailand requires a sunscreen with an SPF of something north of 15. I'm like a nice filet mignon right now...pink in the middle and giving off some heat.

Other than my little sunburn (as Vic used to say, that's a personal problem) I can't say enough about how much we love Phuket. We were a bit disappointed upon arrival, but things have definitely taken a turn for the better. Here's a brief recap...

On the approach into Phuket International Airport you fly over rock islands and stunning limestone formations in Phang Na Bay. This is a good sign. Upon landing, as we walked off the plane, you could see the ocean. Again, good. Then we got on our mini bus and things took a slightly downhill turn. First we got herded into the rear of the van and had to watch as the driver shoved all the luggage into the small space between us and the rear hatch. Later, the Dane fellow sitting next to me reached back, checked his bag, and mockingly said "nothing broken yet". About halfway from the airport to the beach we made a short stop at the "office" where the staff had to confirm our destination. We didn't book any accomadations before we left Bangkok so we had to keep giving telling them "no we don't have a place to stay but it's okay...we'll find our own". I really didn't need to hear their sales pitch on the resorts they get commissions from. After that we made our way to the West coast of Phuket and the glorious beaches on the Andaman Sea.

Our first stop was Patong. It is the largest of the beach cities and the place we figured we'd find the best deal on rooms. So we got off here. The fact that everyone else on our minibus was continuing on to either Karon or Kata should have been a sign. A big, flashing neon sign. Instead, we stuck with our original plan and got out in Patong. After searching the main little drag of hostels we settled on a "triple" (Cece's friend Melissa had joined us in Bangkok and was traveling with us for a week or so) at the Crown Hostel. It was actually two rooms, one a double, the other a single, that shared an air conditioning unit through a gap in the wall. Fair enough. It wasn't too expensive and we were at the beach, right? Well, we were at the beach all right, but not exactly what we were looking for.

We took a quick stroll around Patong and decided it was a little Bangkok with a beach. It was Daytona and Panama City and we were looking for something a little slower and more relaxed. There were more bars, clubs, and European styled restaurants than you could possibly imagine. After a couple of hours we decided to take a trip down the road. So we hopped in a tuk tuk and took took off for Karon, about five kilometers down the road. Luckily for us it might as well have been five hundred miles away. Karon is quiet and peaceful. The long strip of gorgeous beach is almost deserted this time of year. We walked around town and ended up eating dinner at the Green Chili restaurant. The guy running the place was an expat from England who had given us some tips on the town (all of which were dead on) plus the food wasn't too expensive and the place has a beach view. After just an hour or so, we made the decision to leave our hostel in Paton first thing in the morning, get ourselves down to Karon, and spend the next three days in this little slice of heaven. The guest house next door to the Green Chili had an open room that was a suite at the Ritz compared to our hovel in Patong...for only 50 baht more per night (about $1.20). Our new room had ocean views, a patio, a clean private shower, and cable tv. We dreamed all that night that we were already at the new place.

Luckily for us the bars in Patong shut it down early that night (probably around 1:00 am) so we were able to get a few hours sleep after listening to the Bon Jovi tribute band rocking the house just a block from our room. The next morning we paid whatever it took to get out of Patong and down to Karon. After checking in at our guesthouse we put on our suits and hastily made our way fifty yards from our door to the beach. That was what can only be described as a lazy day. We booked a snorkeling trip in the morning and spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach. The waves were perfect for some good body surfing and the sun stayed out all day. That night we had yet another satisfying seafood feast (the food in Thailand has been superb...and quite easy on the ledger) and Cece and Melissa spent some time catching up and reminiscing about the old days (with the help of some refreshing adult beverages). We also started our little friendship with one of the local street dogs that night. We pretty much adopted him as our own little fella (he's got a long, low tan- colored basset body and a little lab like face with perky ears) and even gave him a name, Archie. Cece and Melissa then spent some of the later parts of the evening buying skewers of meat from street vendors and feeding Archie and his friends.

The next day we took a full day snorkeling excursion to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee) and we will just have to post the pictures to do that place some justice. We snorkeled in three different locations, all of which featured colorful coral, an abundance of tropical fishes, and sublime scenery, stuffed ourselves at a beachfront buffet on an island resort, and watched monkeys catch bananas thrown from our boat at Monkey Beach. I'm not joking. Monkeys in trees catching bananas thrown from our boat. I'm pretty sure that alone made Melissa's trip from Chicago including her six hour layover tonight in Bangkok worth it. One little monkey even hopped up onto the bow of our boat and took a banana from the hand of our tour guide. The last stop on our trip featured a diversity of coral that matched right up there with what we saw at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Plus we got some great pictures of us feeding bananas to a mob of fish. Who would have thought fish would go crazy for bananas and banana peels?? Apparently the Thais.

We returned to the Green Chili to dine again on some succulent seafood and chat again with the friendly Englishman, Tony. We asked him some questions about the tsunami and got quite a lesson in how the news is presented. I'm sure most of you would agree that after seeing the news about the tsunami you would have thought that all of Phuket was virtually devastated. Not so, according to our local. In fact, the beach we are staying at wasn't affected at all. It is a deep water bay and the wave never went any further than the beach. Amazingly the town of Karon never even experienced any power outages. In Patong, which sits on a shallower bay, the wave did a significant amount of damage on the beach road, but was turned back by all the concrete buildings and resorts along the beach road. Only a few people were killed in Patong. This is not to say that the tsunami didn't affect certain parts of Phuket. Other beaches were destroyed and hundreds of people lost their lives. On Ko Phi Phi the wave reached heights of 13 meters (about forty feet) and killed thousands of people, tourists and locals. But it was a freak accident that didn't need to destroy the tourism industry here the way it did. This is an absolutely breathtaking island with beautiful scenery and picture perfect sunsets over the Andaman. (getting off soap box now)

Today was a bit bittersweet for Cece and I. We got another day to relax on the golden beach (and bake in the scorching sun), but we also had to say good bye to Melissa. She took off for Bangkok around lunchtime and is still sitting in the business class lounge at the airport waiting for her midnight departure for Osaka. After another four hour layover she'll hop on a trans-Pacific flight to take her home to the Windy City. We cannot express enough to her how much we enjoyed her company and how glad we were to have her as a travel companion through Bangkok and Phuket.

But I gotta say, the sunset today was SPECTACULAR. So it wasn't all that bad of a way to spend a Thursday. Is it Thursday?? Okay, I think I can actually hear all of the nasty words and thoughts being tossed my way right now so I'll wrap this one up.

We thoroughly loved our time in Karon and would definitely offer up a strong endorsement for anyone we know to visit here in the future. Tomorrow we fly back to Bangkok and then head to the bus station to catch an overnight, ten hour bus to Chiang Mai (now who wants to trade places with us???) where we'll be doing some more mountain trekking and also take some elephant rides. Won't those be fun pictures!

Signing off from Phuket.

Scary transportation stories

2006-05-08T11:22:00.000-04:00

Okay, so we have taken some interesting forms of transportation on this journey. Boat, plane, car, bus, mini-bus, motorbike, taxi, tuk tuk.....just to name a few. But today definitely takes the cake for the scariest drive of my life.

As some of you know, my friend Melissa from college, has just joined us for a week in Thailand. We were in Bangkok for a couple of days and were catching a flight to Phuket today. After breakfast, I went to find a taxi while Matt and Melissa paid. Find the taxi was bizarre enough. Four or five taxi drivers surrounded me. They weren't competing for my business, they were just all talking to me at 100 miles an hour and at the same time. The whole thing was a bit strange so I walked away, but one of the guys and run to get in his taxi and pulls up outside our hostel. He agreed to the price we were asking, so we got it, but I mentioned to Melissa that the whole thing was a bit strange.

Our "driver" wore dark sunglasses and a wide-brimmed straw hat. First off, he started talking a mile a minute. We are unsure exactly what he was saying, but he just kept talking. Melissa and I were starting to get a bit nervous. I thought he might be on drugs. Matt, on the other hand, was not feeling well and was still feeling the effects of the ambien sleeping pill he had taken the night before. He apparently thought our driver was making perfect sense. They started talking about the war in Vietnam, Thailand tourism, and I am not really sure what else.

Then the real "driving" began. The taxi driver ran a red light and cut in front of two lanes of traffic. At this point, Melissa asked if we should get out of the car. She later confessed that she had visions of us just opening the doors and rolling out. We asked Matt what he thought, and he said he thought the driver was fine and that there was nothing to worry about. So we kept going and I just kept thinking that every minute was one more minute closer to the airport and closer to safety.

We have seen some crazy driving during this trip, but most of the time you feel safe because everyone is driving the same way. This guy was in a class all his own. He drove 90% of the way there with one of the turn signals on...didn't really matter which one, he wasn't using it to tell people where he was going. He often used the emergency break to stop and didn't seem to be really bothered by the use of just one lane at a time. Melissa and I swear at the end that he was just trying to see how much he could scare us by swerving around the airport. There was a girl at the airport who was going to hop in his cab after us and we honestly wished we had told her to run.

I am so glad that Melissa was with us though, because Matt still doesn't believe that it was the scariest drive of our lives. Maybe I will start taking ambien the next time that we have to get into a taxi!! Just another day on the road.

So far in Vietnam

2006-04-29T23:32:00.000-04:00

Well, if someone had asked me how I liked Vietnam after our first 5 days, I would have said that it was my least favorite country that I have ever been too. We arrived in Hanoi with high expectations of loving the land and loving the people after hearing such glowing reports from others that had been here.

Unfortunately, our first few days were not all that great. We did book a great place to stay in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The room was great, the bathroom was great, and it was all very inexpensive. These were all the pluses. Then little things started to happen and by the end of our time in Hanoi I was more than happy to leave. Just a couple of examples. Turning our laundry in and getting it back one day later than promised and getting half of the things back soaking wet. Being pressured by our hotel to book tours through them instead of less expensive ones down the street. Booking our tours and having used salesman for tour guides who could not answer a direct question even if it was "What is your name?" Getting stuck in a border town near China with no money and the wrong train tickets from our booking company. Agreeing to a price with a cyclo driver and then having him have no change even though we saw him with money before, and the topper, getting spit on by a motor bike driver when he wanted more money than we had agreed to.

I was hoping that we were just having a string of bad luck. Vietnam has recently really started getting into tourism so everyone and their brother has set up a shop. Since there are no trademarks and the such in Vietnam, all of the places have similar names so you don't know if you are dealing with the reputable branch or their ugly brother. I knew that we just needed to get out and meet "real" Vietnemese people. And now that we have, I don't want to leave.

We have had two stand out experiences during our time here. The first was in Sapa in the north. Sapa is a village town very near the small ethnic villages that the north is known for. We went on a two day trek through the ethnic minority villages and had the most incredible guide. Her name was Ban (a sounds like ahhh). She is a Black Hmong. She is 21 yrs old, has never gone to school, has been married for 5 years and has a 2 year old daughter. She spoke incredible English and was self taught simply from talking to tourists. She seriously has a gift for languages. She spoke with no accent and could answer any question that we threw at her. It was seriously two of the most enjoyable days of our trip. We saw people working in the rice paddies and simply going about their daily life-a very different daily life than in the States. Ban explained life in the village to us, and took us through bamboo forests and up and down many hills. I think she was getting a kick out of us Westerners in our tennis shoes and she in her little jelly sandles fumbling around the country side. We were slipping and sliding up the hills, while she got through everything with no problem. She was so sweet and even brought her daughter back to the village to meet us before we left on the train. She was truly one of the most worldly people I have ever met, and she has never even been as far as Hanoi in her own country. We joked with her that she didn't need to travel because the world came to her. She was 5 feet of pure goodness.

Our second great experience was pure luck. After Hanoi, we went to Hoi an. Our first night, we found a restaurant down by the river to eat at. A Vietnemese guy struck up a conversation with us. He was "kind of" working at the restaurant, but not really. He just used it as a place to meet tourists. He started a little business of taking tourists to his village a few years ago and used the restaurant to approach people. We were a little skeptical at first, but then he had a book of 3 years worth of testimonials from people who had done it. They all raved about how it was their favorite day in Vietnam, so we decided to give it a try. He said it was only $10/pp, so we thought we would give it a go. It was the "non-touristy" thing we had been looking for. So, Phong and another motorbike driver picked us up around 9am and we rode the 15km to Phong's village. We were welcomed into his home where he sat us down and gave us a lesson on Vietnam history, including the war (Phong was a S. Vietnam soldier), religion, family life, and any other subject we could think to ask him about. Then he took us for a walk through his village. We met his friends, went to a school, and hung out at the local barber shop for a while. We also met his uncle who is a registered communist (there actually aren't many officially in the party). It was good for Phong that his uncle was a communist because after the war he only had to be in a "re-education camp" for one year because of his good family history. From there, his wife cooked up a feast of a meal and we ate until we were stuffed. Needless to say, we added a glowing testimonial to his notebook. If anyone is ever going to Hoi An, I will send you to Phong's restaurant. That is a day, I will never forget.

So, now, as we get ready to leave Vietnam, and I don't want to go. The first week was definitely tough, but once we figured out how things worked and met people outside of typical tourism, we had a fabulous time. We will definitely be back!

Can't Get No...

2006-04-28T05:47:00.000-04:00

Satisfaction. Apparently Mick Jagger was kicking it around Hoi An last night looking for a little Brown Sugar, or maybe some Honky Tonk Women. We didn't see him, but we heard from an Aussie at the restaurant we had dinner at that he was only one block away walking around town. Oh well, maybe we'll run into him tonight and end up singing Stones tunes together at one of the hundred and seventy-six karaoke bars packed into this little town. I'll be sure to keep you all informed and updated.

Not one, not two, but three

2006-04-22T20:55:00.000-04:00

Well, the long arm of the law reached out to us again....and again! We received word when we were in Hong Kong that Aunt Cece received two more speeding tickets for us. Apparently, we were going for the trifecta and got tickets in 3 of the 5 states that we drove in. Canberra, New South Wales, and Victoria all nailed us. (What's wrong Tasmania and Queensland? Are you waiting to send us the bills or did your speed cameras not have any film?)

To be fair to us though, I would hardly call doing 109kmh in a 100kmh worthy of a speeding ticket. Much less a speeding ticket over $100. So, we shall see if they decide to all gang up on us and come after us in the States. Hopefully, we will sell the condo before they get us.

Next time we are in Australia we will have to just rent a car from 1986 like we did in Tasmania. Ruby never thought about reaching 100kmh much less exceeding it.

Man Capri Update

2006-04-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

The crafty Asian market has designed version 2.0 of Man Capris. We saw them in a market in Hong Kong. They look like regular man pants but they have two sets of leg zippers. One to cut them down to man capris and one to cut them down to shorts. The revolution is coming. Watch out!

Worst of the worst: Showers

2006-04-22T06:39:00.000-04:00

We've been meaning to post an entry about our accomodations. Which ones were nice, which ones were ratty, which ones catered to septagenarian Danish gymnasts (I know it sounds weird, but it happened). I'll start off by giving a description of our showers.

For the most part the showers in New Zealand and Australia were all right. There was a pretty standard and universal shower head we saw all over both countries. It wasn't the Ritz, but we usually had a pretty reliable flow of warm water with good pressure. Things changed a bit in Asia.

Our hostel in Singapore had mostly ensuite rooms (private shower and toilet attached to your room). But we chose to stay in a double with shared bathroom to save a little money after going overbudget in Oz and NZ. It actually turned out to not be that bad because most everyone had their own bathrooms. I never saw anyone else in the one I used and the cleaning crew came through every day and hosed it down pretty good. Water pressure was decent and there was plenty of warm water. Things went downhill in China.

Our hostel in Beijing was quaint and friendly. It had a popular common area with bar and DVD player which attracted folks from other hostels. Every night the place was packed with backpackers swapping stories about their trip to the Great Wall or the Forbidden City. Because the dollar is pretty strong against the Chinese Yuan and China is cheap to start with we were able to get a private double ensuite. The room was fine. The shower...not so much. It was clean, I'll give it that. But there was absolutely zero water pressure, slowing down to a trickle at times, and the water temp ranged from sub zero to scorching nuclear waste, changing without warning or reason. The daily shower became an object of intense focus as we had to take them. Beijing is the dustiest city in the world and we were picking dirt out of our ears by the time we returned to the hostel each night. So, we took turns putting ourselves through the Chinese Water Torture. Some days we were pleasantly surprised, some days, not so much. But I'm pretty sure I would have kept my Beijing shower had I known what was in store in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is Tokyo, New York, and Las Vegas all rolled into one. We arrived at approximately 10:00 PM on Easter night and the main drag in Kowloon (part of the city but not on Hong Kong Island) was lit up and buzzing with people. As soon as we stepped off our bus dozens of touts ran up, offering cheap accomadation to everyone with a suitcase or backpack. We had already booked a room so we just kept saying no thanks, no thanks, no thanks, get away, I already have a room, please leave me alone, get away dirtbag, no thanks (this became a common occurence/annoyance over the next couple of days as there are guys trying to sell fake watches and suits every ten steps in the tourist and restaurant areas). After a quick detour to another hostel on the same floor of the building as ours we checked in and got to our room. Even though we'd paid for a shared bathroom they put us in a private room with ensuite. Of course, calling it ensuite is being pretty generous. It was a room the size of a small closet with THREE beds in it and an absolutely TINY "bathroom" with a toilet, airplane bathroom sink, and a shower head in a bucket. No kidding. And that wasn't the bad shower.

The next day they moved us into the room we paid for. It was a small closet with two beds and we had to share a bathroom with four or five other rooms. This bathroom would move my mom and sisters to tears. There was actually a bathtub/shower combo but the shower head was again resting in a bucket. The water pressure was beyond non-existent and the temperature was a Beijing-like metamorphosis of arctic to solar flare and back again in the span of seconds. It was almost impossible to clean oneself without laughing or crying. I couldn't figure out which one I should be doing. But mercifully we left Hong Kong a day early to get to Vietnam. The pictures of the place we booked in Hanoi looked so much nicer than the rat hole in Hong Kong. Surely the shower would be nicer, right?

To be fair, the bathroom at the Old Darling Hotel was much cleaner and bigger than the one in Hong Kong. In fact the room itself was gargantuan in comparison. The showerhead was nicer and much more powerful. The floor was clean. There was a clean hook to hang your towel. It was just that the hot water tank emptied fairly quickly. This was where I invented my "hokey pokey shower". I had nary a drop of warm water and therefore I had to soap and rinse in a "you put your right arm in, you take your right arm out" kinda fashion. Luckily the next day we both had plenty of hot water.

So now you're caught up on our shower experiences. Hopefully we'll add a couple more soon about food and lodging.

We're off to Sapa in northwest Vietnam tonight on the overnight train.

Thrillseekers...thy Mecca is Hanoi

2006-04-22T06:12:00.000-04:00

I was fully intending to write a blog entry about how Beijing should displace Queenstown, New Zealand as the capital for extreme sports seekers. Sure, the Kiwis invented bungee jumping and jet boating down there. But after riding a minivan through Beijing at rush hour, dodging cars, 18 wheelers, bikes, pedestrians, tractors, backhoes, squirrels on scooters and all other forms of mobile transportation I figured the bungee jumping or canyoning in NZ must be childs play. No, Beijing at rush hour is child's play and NZ is for wimps. Hanoi is the center of the universe for the most dangerous, extreme sport I've ever seen...motorbike dodging.

There are approximately 3.5 million inhabitants in Hanoi, and roughly 3 motorbikes per person. You honestly can't help but laugh when you first see it. For us, it was on a minibus from the airport at 9:00 PM. As we left the airport area and started to get closer to town we noticed helmetless crazies scooting in and out of the traffic with the cars and trucks. There was a fairly steady stream around us, but they only outnumbered the cars 10:1. Once you get into the city it bypasses comical and heads for surreal. I'm not exaggerating when I say that in the heart of town there are literally one to two hundred motorbikes for every car... at night. During the day the ratio soars as everyone, everywhere gets around on these little rattletraps. You have to just sit back and take it all in at first. The sight of hundreds upon hundreds of Vietnamese ranging in age from ten eight to eighty zipping down little two lane city streets on a Honda (if they're lucky) or cheaper Chinese or Vietnamese scooter in the span of seconds is just hysterical. And you think to yourself, surely a light is going to change somewhere down the road and the flow will stop. Uh-uh. No luck. Actually, I should be more specific. A light very well might have changed down the road but that doesn't have any effect on the flow of traffic. I'm sure most of you have heard the expression about some city that traffic signals there are merely a suggestion instead of a law. I can honestly say that description fits Hanoi perfectly.

Intersections are the best. As George Costanza once said about auto repair shops "It's lawless there...it's like Thunderdome!" If you hesitate you lose. No one stops when they come to an intersection. They just weave their way through traffic. This goes for cars and buses as well. I could plop down in a plastic chair with a cooler full of cold beer and have a grand old time just watching traffic in Hanoi. But you know it's always better to participate in something than just to watch it. So, do you think we rented a couple of hot rods and joined the crowd?? Okay, no. But we did haggle with a couple of guys to give us a xe om (motorbike taxi) ride from the Old Quarter to the Temple of Literature. Oh, it's exhilirating. It's actually not bad at all once you're on the bike and in the flow of things. Everything takes on a Matrix-like feel. You see all the traffic moving around you in slow motion. You anticipate what the traffic is going to be like as you prepare to fly through an intersection with hundreds of bikes headed in all directions. It's a religious experience. And not just because I could see Cece praying on the back of her bike.

I keep telling her we're going to have to rent our own motorbike one of these days. Maybe we'll start slow and hire a couple down in Hoi An to take a day trip up to the My Son temple ruins or out to China Beach. That should get us ready for the real adventure...Saigon. Supposedly there are even more motorbikes and even more insane traffic there compared to Hanoi. If so, I might have found a new home.

Starting the Asian Part of the World Tour- First stop Singapore

2006-04-13T07:10:00.000-04:00

Well, we have arrived in Asia. It is quite a bit different to Australia and NZ, that is for sure. Australia and NZ was all about the beautiful scenery. We were constantly doing hikes and other things outdoors. Seeing gorgeous water (waterfalls, lakes, rivers, harbours, ocean), gorgeous beaches, mountains, fun new little animals and birds to look at. And I can't forget one of my favorite, looking at the stars at night. The sheer number is enough to have you staring into the sky for hours and getting a neck cramp.

And now we are in Asia. Ancient Civilizations, new languages, new customs. It is going to be a lot different than where we just were, but we are ready. Our first stop was Singapore which was probably a good introduction to Asia. They have a large Chinese and Malay culture, but it is such a cosmopolitan city that even though the ex-Pat population is small, everything is in English. It was a nice little ice-breaker for us.

We spent two days in Singapore, which is probably about right. After all it is a fairly small island. The thing that I loved about it though was that we went to our first Hindu Temple, our first Muslim Mosque, and our first Buddist Temple all in the same day. A good intro to religions that I am sure we will learn much more about as we move across Asia. The man outside the Muslim Mosque was so kind and gave us all kinds of brochures when we left. He made sure to tell us he wasn't trying to convert us, but wanted us to understand his religion. And we figured that is what is really needed. We will have to add a picture of that trip to the blog later because Matt had to wear one of the traditional robes since his knees were exposed in shorts. Classic photo. All in all, it was eye-opening to see how different people worship and how their temples are set up.

On a totally different note, another highlight of Singapore was their night time zoo. They set things up for nocturnal animals, but there is still enough light for you to see them. Very cool. We got some of the otters pretty fired up when they figured out we didn't have any food for them!

And we can't forget the food. Singapore is known for their Chinese and Indian food. We had lunch at the Little India Arcade. We had no idea what we were ordering, but it was one of the dishes at every stall, so we figured it was the "hamburger" of India. It was called, Mee Goreng (basically eggs and noodles), and luckily, we both really liked it. We also had a couple of dinners on the Singapore River. There are tons of outdoor restaurants lined up along the river. All of the hosts are lined up offering free drinks if you come into their restaurant. Imagine a restaurant in Atlanta begging for you to come in and giving you free beer...and then serving great food!

You Know You're Chinese if...

2006-04-13T07:04:00.001-04:00

A. You hauck up gigantic lugies and spit them anywhere and everywhere

B. You have nothing else to do so you join large tour groups all over Beijing, wearing matching colored hats and following around a 25 year old holding a flag on a fishing rod

C. You follow every Westerner you see offering to sell Gucci bags, Rolex watches, taxis to the Great Wall, North Face jackets, jade trinkets, and anything else under the sun at "best price in China"

D. You're a poor art student who had to come to the city to make money so you offer to usher foreigners through the FREE art gallery and tell them about the paintings (for a small fee of course)

E. All of the Above

For those keeping track on the map!

2006-04-13T07:04:00.000-04:00

For those following us on the map, here are some towns to look for (these are all the ones that we stayed the night in):

In NZ, we went to:
Auckland
Bay of Islands (Paihia and Russell)
Rotorua
Taupo

In Australia:
Canberra
Sydney
Brisbane
Port Macquarie
Tasmania (basically, the whole thing)
Melbourne
Great Ocean Road (Apollo Bay and Warnambool)
Coolum

And now in Asia, (so far at least):
Singapore
Beijing

We are keeping track of all of the different number of beds, tent sites etc that we have spelt at. I think we might hit 100 by the time we get home! Now that we are in Asia, we should be moving around quite a bit so there will be more countries to mark on the maps!

Good luck finding the small towns!
Love,
Matt and Cecelia

Big Brother Was Watching

2006-04-13T06:58:00.000-04:00

The long arm of the Australian law reached out and took a bit of our travel kitty right out of our pockets a few weeks ago. Apparently there was a speed and red light camera set up in Canberra right where the speed limit drops 20 km/h and the five-oh snapped a photo of our little Honda Civic cruising through at the old speed limit. They sent a nice little note to Aunt Cece and Uncle Harry to inform them of the infraction committed by their vehicle. My Cece had to complete the paperwork acknowledging that it was us, not the Kayes, who were driving. Hopefully the Australian authorities won't go to the trouble to send us a bill all the way in Atlanta. At least Aunt Cece called us as soon as they got the letter to tell us to watch out for the speed cameras. Lucky for us, we haven't been driving too much since then.

We just want to say Thank you!!!

2006-04-13T06:49:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a while since we have been on the blog. It has been a very good 3 weeks. We are now in Beijing and have started the Asian part of our tour, but before we write about that, we have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped us out in Australia.

For some free lodging, we have Flicker's aunt and uncle in Coolum, Queensland to Thank. They have an absolutely beautiful home up against a mountain and looking over the beach. They treated us like royalty and for those that know Flicker, they are hoping that he comes to visit them soon and brings friends. I would hop on that train if I were you! Marlys, thanks for a great walk on the beech and Joel, thanks for taking Matt golfing! We had a great time!!!

Now on to thanking the relatives! You would think they would sort of have to help out since we are related, but the Kayes went above and beyond the family obligation!

My "little, baby" cousin, John Kaye (who is about 6'4") and his cute little girlfriend Carly for hosting us in Brisbane and taking us up the Sunshine Coast. We had a great time watching people get knocked down in the crazy surf from Cyclone Larry!

My cousin Margee and her boyfriend Rohan (aka Buzz) for all of their hospitatility in Sydney and for daring to spend some of their vacation time with us in the Great Barrier Reef. We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing them again for more "vacation with the Sharps" in Cambodia!

And last but by know means least is my Aunt Cece and Uncle Harry. From taking us to fabulous dinners, cooking us fabulous dinners, letting us have their car for 5 weeks (in which I got a speeding ticket and the windshield got hit by two rocks), to giving us a tent so that we could stay cheap when we were away from them, and putting up with us coming and going through Canberra (not just to do our laundry:). We had such a great time and were so blessed with your hospitality. I am sure once some of the other Leary cousins read this, you will have a line out the door to come to Australia! We were honestly spoiled by you!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Matt and Cece's Wild Safari

2006-03-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

Okay...time to go over a list of some of the animals we've seen on our little trip so far. I'll try and distinguish between which animals we saw in the wild and which ones we saw in captivity. Pictures are included where available.

NEW ZEALAND
Kiwis - we saw these little flightless birds in a habitat at a Maori cultural center and geothermal park in Rotorua. They are extremely endangered and are nocturnal so they're not really easy to see in the wild. Also, they wouldn't let us take pictures in the habitat so you'll have to take our word that we saw these guys.

Dolphins - we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming alongside our boat as we cruised around the Huraiki Gulf in Auckland's harbor.

Sheep and cows - they're everywhere.

AUSTRALIA
Okay, things really pick up a little here.

Kangaroos - the animal most people associate with Australia. I was fortunate enough to see 40-50 bouncing around a golf course in Canberra with Cece's Uncle Harry (Cece was at a quilting party). They ranged in height from around two feet tall all the way to six feet tall. They were used to humans being around them but are still wild animals so they started hopping away from us when we got within about 30-40 yards away. We also saw a couple at an animal park in Tasmania. These guys were pretty tame. They come around the animal park during the day for some lunch and water and then take off again at night. The fences at the park aren't very tall so they just hop right out.

Koalas - the other animal you probably think about when you hear "Australia". We have seen these guys both in captivity and in the wild. There were three living at the animal park in Tasmania. They were pretty lazy. They just hung out in their little enclosure. They slept most of the time but they woke up a few times to munch on some eucalyptus leaves. The ones in the wild were much more active and fun. There's a little town on the Great Ocean Road down in Victoria called Kennett's River. If you turn off the main road and drive about 500 meters up the road into the woods you're surrounded by gum trees. We saw a family standing around their car gawking at something above their heads. Sure enough, there was a little koala about fifteen feet off the ground, just munching away on some leaves. We parked quickly and joined the gawking family. As we checked out our little friend we noticed another, bigger fella hanging out not too far away. He was a little more shy and started climbing up the tree. Let me tell you, koalas are a heck of a lot faster than I thought. This guy got up to the top of that gum tree in a hurry. As we scanned the trees we spotted another one about 30 meters into the woods. He just sat in the same spot and didn't move too much though.

Wallabies - other than birds, this would be the little animal we've seen the most of. We spotted our first little wallabies (they look like miniature kangaroos) on the trail we walked in Freycinet National Park in Tasmania, less than five minutes from the beach at Wineglass Bay. Cece spotted a little guy standing on our path. As she snapped some pictures he hopped into the bush, where he met up with another little friend. We saw a few more on that hike and several more feeding along the side of the road that night. We then saw several more at a city park in Launceston and Cece got up close and personal with a fella named Hopper in Lake St. Clair National Park. There were also several at the animal park.

Pademelons - these guys are like pygmie wallabies. They had a little orphan at the animal park and Cece got to pet him. We saw a few more at Mt. Field National Park just a few minutes later when we went to see Russell Falls.

Tasmanian Devils - unfortunately these little guys are being devastated in the wild by a facial tumor. Hopefully the vets and wildlife scientists will find a cure soon. So we were only able to see a family of devils at the animal park. The park we went to is part of a state wide breeding program that will help repopulate the wild with healthy devils.

Platypus - the little duckbilled mammals live all over Australia, but we saw ours in Tasmania. The wildlife park we went to backs up to a river and a family of platypus live in the river. We saw one little guy swim across the water and do a little dive down for some food.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid...Part I

2006-03-21T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Man Capris are coming, the Man Capris are coming!

I'm playing the role of a 21st Century Paul Revere here. If my observations in the past two years or so are any indication then men's fashion in the States is about to be besieged by the awful half pants, half shorts I like to refer to as "man capris".

I first spotted man capris in Lenox Mall in Atlanta about 20-25 months ago. At first I thought there must be a convention of clam diggers in town. There's always some crazy convention going on in Atlanta, so clam diggers didn't really seem so far fetched at the time. I mean, why else would any self respecting man wear pants that stop halfway between the tops of his feet and the bottom of his knees? It just doesn't make any sense. But as I continued to see more and more of these "pants" I surmised the wearer's weren't clam diggers at all. Instead they were far more sinister. They were Europeans. You can imagine my horror when I realized that not only was Atlanta being overrun by men wearing half pants but that the attackers were also from across the pond.

Luckily, the numbers of the man capri wearers in the ATL never really took off. I thought to myself, "whew...we dodged a bullet there". But then, in the fall of 2005, Cece and I journeyed to London and Paris for a little vacation. The man capris were once again on display. This time the numbers were multiplied. They were everywhere. Men ranging in age from their teens to the early thirties were sporting them. Again, I stood by in shock as I thought about a world overrun by people in these pants. But I made it through that trip, mainly because I knew in my heart that surely those pants would die a slow and painful death in Europe and never really make an impact elsewhere. Boy, was I wrong.

Upon landing in Auckland last month I could feel something in the air. At first I just thought it was the odd feeling of the Southern Hemisphere oxygen. It was so clean and pure. But as we ventured out into the city I realized I was again about to be besieged by images of men wearing capris. They were everywhere. My terror increased when I heard the voices of those who would try and conquer us. They weren't just speaking French, Italian, and German (nationalities known for bad taste in men's fashion). I heard Aussie and Kiwi accents coming from the man capri nation. I was devastated. I had so much hope for the Australians and New Zealanders. I thought they could escape the influence of the Evil Empire (Europe). Unfortunately, the claws of deceit and bad fashion have imbedded themselves down here and the man capris are everywhere. Walking by stores you can see racks and racks of them, in all colors and sizes. I see kids wearing them. I see teenagers wearing them. I see old men wearing them. I am afraid. I am afraid for the generations of boys and men who will grow up wearing these awful things, thinking they look good. I am afraid for the poor girls and women who must date and eventually marry these "chick pant" wearing guys. But most of all, I am afraid for America.

So I put it to all of the men out there reading this: if you see a pair of man capris in a store, walk away. If you see a friend wearing them, kindly tell him to put on a pair of real pants or start looking for new friends. If you wife or girlfriend buys you a pair, tell her to please leave the chick pants to the chicks. And please, don't scoff at this post. The man capris are out there. They've overtaken most of the world and they'll be heading to the States soon. Be vigilant and be strong.

One month down

2006-03-18T01:32:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe that we are already one month into our trip. I knew that it would go fast! We have been trying to keep up on some of our adventures on the blog, but it is harder than we thought. There are so many little things to capture.

The free-for-all crosswalks in Auckland, where pedistrians reign and all cars in all directions stop.
The free hostel food that you wouldn't eat, but since you are on a budget you think "this isn't so bad".
The various foms of public transportation that you figure out to get you where you need to go.
Figuring out the system for taking a shower with Tevas on, but then still being able to wash the bottom of your feet.
Remembering all of the things to take to the shower!
Figuring out that hostels really are better than hotels sometimes especially because you can cook your own food. Cooking with 20 strangers in the same kitchen can be fun!
Seeing things that you have never seen before whether that be vegetable, mineral, or animal.
Seeing the most beautiful colors in the sky, the water, and in the whole enviroment.
STARS, almost forgot what they were...so many, all over the night sky.

If I had written this after New Zealand, I would have told you all how we were really falling into the backpacker lifestyle. However, then we came to Australia where I have family and we are totally getting spoiled. We get to take showers without wearing our shoes, we get home cooked meals, a car to drive, free place to do laundry. I think that we might be getting a little soft! We will have to toughen up before heading back out on our own in April!

All in all though, the first month is definitely what we were hoping for out of this trip. We have met all kinds of people...Germans, Israelis, English, and on and on. We have hiked, biked, and walked around so many new places. Been exposed to new and different cultures. Learned geography, geology, and marine biology and so on.

It is so hard to capture everything. Every time, I think I am done with a posting I think of more things that have happened, characters we have met, etc. I guess that will leave us a few stories to tell you all in person when we get home though.

The Trip to Tasmania

2006-03-18T00:54:00.000-05:00

Well, Tasmania certainly did deliver on just what we wanted. Beautiful scenery, good hikes, and laid back people.

For those not familiar with Australia's island state, it is off the south coast of the mainland. There are not a whole lot of people on the island. On the airport shuttle, all the people were joking how Tasmania's biggest export was Tasmanians! So it may be small, but they have certainly found their niche is promoting it as a tourist destination. They have scenic drives to lead you all of the island and Matt and I saw almost all of the island in our 6 days there.

To start off, we rented a car. We went with one of the low cost "older" car options. They call it Rent-a-bomb in some areas. Anyways, we went to pick up our 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca on the rainy Monday morning that we arrived. No, I did not make a typo, it was an 86. This car was made before Matt or I could even drive. It was a red five-speed little hatchback. Since she was red, we named her Ruby. She was old, but she was mighty. She got us all over the island including up and down the mountains. There were a few times when we weren't sure if she was going to make it. We had to go up hills in second gear and let me tell you, people were not that excited to find themselves behind us going through the mountains. Matt is pretty sure that we may be the last people to ever use Ruby. He is pretty sure she fell apart a couple of hours after we dropped her off. She went out with a bang if that did indeed happen!

While in Tasmania, we went to several of their national parks. Freycinet Nat'l Park on the east coast has the beautiful Wineglass Bay. If you have never heard of it, google it, and make plans to go there if you are ever down this way. Matt and I did a four hour hike to the Bay and then around the Hazards, the rocky mountains also in the park. Absolutely beautiful! From there we headed up the coast to the Bay of Fires. I honestly have never seen water this beautful. There weren't many people around either so you practically felt like you owned the place. I wanted to stay there forever. But we knew there was more good stuff in the center of the island. That is where Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair National Park is. The picture in the previous posting is from Cradle Mountain. Again, an incredible hike to see clear lakes, and mountains. There was even one part that had a chain for you to hang on to while you hiked up, so it was a little steep in parts.

We headed back to the capital of Hobart from there. First we stopped at a place called "Something Wild". It was a small animal park that rescues animals hit by cars or orphaned. We got to see koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, pademelons, tasmanian devils, and a platypus. And I can't forget my favorite, the wombat. Since it was just a small place, the people working there were very informative and would bring out some of the babies that were still being bottle fed so that you could pet them. That was really fun.

From there we stopped in New Norfolk and did a jet boat ride on the Derwent River. We missed doing that in New Zealand, so we decided to try it hear. We got there for the first ride of the morning. They had told us that they only needed two adults to go. It turned out no one else came that early, so we had our very own personal jet boat ride. The driver told us you felt the fishtailing the most in the back, so of course, that is where Matt headed. We were soaking wet when it was all said and done, and it was pretty cold so we couldn't feel our faces for a while, but it was all worth it. The ride was really fun and I think the driver threw in a few extra spins since it was just the two of us.

We then spent the day at the Salmanaca markets in Hobart. Looking at all of the Tasmanian goods. Tasmania seemed really in to being Tasmania. It reminded me of how Texas is really into being Texas. Tasmania first, state of Australia second.

One other funny story, we arrived late to a hostel on our second night in Bicheno on the east coast. It was about 7:45pm. We hadn't booked, but we knew there was one there. The guy let us in and guessed that we were American. He said that the Americans are always the ones that turn up late. He checked us in and then said "I assume you have eaten". We said no and that we had planned to go to town after checking in. He laughed and then taught us a lesson that I was glad we learned early, he said, "You all need to remember that you are in rural Australia, not only that, but you are in rural Tasmania. Last call for food is 7:30 at most places and grocery stores close before 6pm most places. Everyone is at home and off the roads by 8pm. That's why I moved here." We said thanks so much, put our sheets on our bed and ran to town to beg someone to feed us. Luckily we found a place that took pity on us. The next morning we went to a grocery store to make sure that we always had some kind of food on hand.

We also camped a few nights because Aunt Cece and Uncle Harry loaned us a tent. The only bad part about that was we packed warm weather sleeping bags, so it got a bit cold at night. Not to mention that we kept picking the nights that it rained and was really windy to camp. Plus we didn't have a thermarest or anything to put on the ground, so it was just us and the ground. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep those nights, but we did save quite a bit of money on lodging. At one point, we even got into Ruby to sleep the last few hours of the morning. It wasn't a Hilton, but it will do in a pinch!

There are so many other little stories, but this posting is getting a bit long, so I better move on. We will try to add some pictures to the post later!

Greetings from Oz!

2006-03-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

The Happy Travellers at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, Australia.

And in Sydney at the Harbor Bridge!

A Very Australian Day

2006-03-16T17:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had an authentic Aussie experience. First, Aunt Cece and Uncle Harry took us just out of town to the Showgrounds to watch some of the Australian National Sheep Dog Trials. There are sheep all over this giant island (at least the parts we've been to) and behind any good sheep farmer is a whole pack of smart, hard working sheep dogs. Their job is to keep the sheep in line and not let any of them get too far away from the herd.

At the National Trials the dogs have to execute a series of tasks within a time limit to score points. We watched about three or four dogs give it a go. First, three sheep are let out of a pen at the far end of the grounds (a large circle about 100 meters or so in diameter). The dog has to circle around behind them and get them to move all the way to a semi-circle of space at the near end of the grounds. Then he has to push them all the way back down to the other end and get them to walk, move, shuffle around two poles. After that he has to herd them through a little chute about 3 meters wide and 5 meters long. Next, he has to get them to go through another chute. This time there is a "bridge" in the chute and it is about 8-10 meters long. This part caused a lot of trouble for the dogs because the sheep just didn't want to walk over that bridge. Finally, the dog had to get the sheep to walk across the grounds and get them into a pen where his handler would shut the gate.

Like I said, we watched only a handful of dogs as these tasks could be very time consuming. If you didn't know before watching these activities that sheep aren't the brightest animals on earth, you would certainly know afterwards. They just kind of stumble around following each other. It was a mix between the Keystone Cops and the Three Stooges. You could sense the frustration as the dogs were doing everything they could possibly do and the darn sheep just wouldn't go where they were supposed to go. But we enjoyed ourselves and go to see two dogs complete all the tasks. Our favorite was a little fella named Buddy. We also "met" a dog that was featured in the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony. Apparently she jumped out of box and did a polka dance or something. Actually I made that up because I can't remember what she really did.

After the sheep dog trials, we went and partook in one of Uncle Harry's favorite pastimes - lawn bowling. It is a game played on a flat area of grass, cut close like a green on a golf course. Each player has four weighted bowling balls that are rolled down the lawn in an attempt to get closest to a marker, the jack. You can play teams or singles. Each player takes turns bowling and you are allowed to knock any of the balls that have already been bowled from their resting spot. The winner of each "end" is the person who has a ball closest to the jack. It was a pretty good way to spend an hour or so in the sun. Both Cece and I got the hang of it pretty quickly and we had a fun little match.

So that was our little Oz experience on our last day in Canberra. This morning we are packing up the car and heading to Sydney for a couple of days before we drive up the coast to Queensland. Hopefully we'll get a chance to pick up a board and learn how to surf in the next few days. Wish us luck!

Geography Quiz for the Kids

2006-03-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, whoever provides the correct answers first gets a special, as yet to be determined, prize from Down Under.

Today, we are traveling from Canberra, Australia's capital, up the East Coast. So far we have visited three of Australia's states: New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. By the end of this week we will have visited a fourth, Queensland. So the trivia questions is: What are the capitals of the four Australian states we are visiting: New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and Queensland? Bonus points if you can name all six state capitals and the two territorial capitals.

Good luck!

A reflection on the Kiwis

2006-03-04T06:31:00.000-05:00

Before we get too caught up in being in Australia now, I thought I would take some time to reflect on the Kiwis, and by Kiwis of course, I mean the New Zealand people and not the bird (at least in this instance).

Matt and I found New Zealand to be an absolutely wonderful place to visit. It is truly spectacular and apparently we were even on the uglier of the two islands. I will tell you this though, if the North Island is the uglier of the two islands, I would like to be the ugly sister in that family any time!

We had asked around for hints from people that had been to NZ. We got a couple, but not a lot of information, so we went ahead and booked our flights into Auckland on the North Island. As soon as we did that, we heard from everyone...."I can't believe you are going to the North Island, the South Island is soooo much better." Matt and I finally agreed that it is kind of like going to the States, if you told someone that you were going to New York, Chicago, and Seattle, someone would probably say that they couldn't believe you weren't going to San Franscisco or something like that.

Anyways, as I said, for how many people were dogging the North Island, we found it to be very beautiful and had a great time. We knew we would be cutting NZ short and we certainly did, so NZ is on the list of places that we have to go again, and we definitely won't skip the South Island the next time, or suffer the wrath of other backpackers.

One of those reasons we like NZ so much is the NZ people. I must say they are some of the friendliest and most laid back people on earth. Every question is answered with 'no worries', and nothing is off limits to ask. On our first day in Auckland, we were looking at a map. A girl walked by, asked us if we needed help, and proceeded to look at our map with us to help us figure out where we were going. One of my favorites too, was riding the bus in Rotorua. We picked up the bus at a bus stop, but apparently you don't have to get dropped off at a bus stop. While we were riding the bus, other passengers would just tell the bus driver "yeah, my house is the 3rd one on the left if you can just drop me off in front of it" or "can you just pull over here and drop me off across from the hotel?" The bus driver was so accommodating, he would just stop whenever and wherever. The amazing part was the buses still seemed to be running on time. We got on the bus one time and told the driver we needed a grocery store. He took very good care of us. He knew we were backpackers so he took us to the least expensive store. The customer service in this country was incredible. You honestly got treated so well everywhere you went. Hostels, restaurants, everywhere.

So with that, you can see that I had a great time and think a lot of Kiwis. Now I will let you all in on the thing that drove me nuts about Kiwis. They don't wear shoes!! And when I say they don't wear shoes, I don't mean just like at the beach or somewhere else where it might be normal. They don't wear shoes anywhere...the post office in Auckland, the grocery store in the Bay Islands, the bakery in Rotorua. And the one that totally grossed me out, the girl in the gas station who had just been in the bathroom. Apparently, some kids don't even wear them to school. I guess it is fine if you are used to it, but I couldn't help but notice all the dirty feet and cracked heels. I am not asking for brand new shoes, just some flip flops or something, especially at the grocery store and the gas station.

A little funny story. Matt decided he was going to go "Kiwi" on me one night and took off his shoes. This worked okay when we walked through a grass field, but I told him to put them back on before we got to the sidewalk of the hostel. Of course, he didn't and ended up getting two splinters in his foot in the 15 feet to our room. Apparently his American feet weren't ready to be full-on Kiwi.

But to sum it up, if any of you have ever thought of going to NZ, my suggestion is to go. If you never have thought to go there, add it to your list. You will find it well worth it. We might even go back with you.

Changing on the Fly

2006-03-02T02:22:00.000-05:00

Our original Australian itinerary included a quick trip out to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) to see what has been described as the best sunrise and sunset view in the world. However, the plane tickets out that way are a little out of our budget range. Therefore, we're changing course a bit and heading down to Tasmania instead. We chose Tasmania for a couple of reasons: 1) a lot of people told us it looks very much like the South Island of New Zealand and it supposedly has some beautiful mountains and lakes and is filled with good day hikes...and 2) March is Free Devil Month, so we get a free Tasmanian devil with our airline ticket! Okay, the last part is just wishful thinking on my part. The little devil has been added to the list of animals/pets/new friends I want to bring back with me. It joins the kangaroo, the koala, the wombat, the penguin, the kiwi, and a host of others I'm sure to discover along the way.

The almost accident

2006-02-22T22:43:00.000-05:00

Okay, first off, let me tell you all that we are having a wonderful time in New Zealand.

Now, I will tell you about a little near miss we had in the car the other day. Our parents may want to avert their eyes. Thought we should post it on the blog because Matt had sent out a short email, but you know how these stories can grow.

We have spent the last week exploring the North Island of NZ, and it is spectacular. We were lucky enough to hook up with Syd, a guy that I worked with in the UK, and Laura, his girlfriend while we were in Auckland. They had just rented a car and were heading up to the norther part of the North Island the next day, so they gave us a ride. Turned out they were also heading south when we were so they gave us a ride again. This was great for us, because 1. they are great company, and 2. it saved us a lot of bus fairs.

Before I get to the near accident, I have to give you a picture of us in the car though. The car was a Toyota Levin. No, they don't make them in the States, but if you picture one of the older Nissan 240, it looked a lot like that. Needless to say, not a lot of room for 4 people and their luggage. However, you will find that when you are on a budget, these things start to look like Rolls Royces! Anyways, on the first trip, we didn't pack the trunk very well, so Matt and I were sitting with my big backpack in between us in the back. He had a small backpack at his feet and so did Laura in the front seat. We packed a little better for the second journey. Still had the small backpacks at the feet, but we traded the large backpack in the backseat for Laua and Syd's box of food. Much more comfortable.

So, Tuesday, we were headed from the Bay of Islands to Rotorua. Not very far as the crow flies, but quite a drive on the NZ "motorway". Motorway is used loosely down here as their main road was mostly two lane.

Anyways, I know I have kept you all waiting on the accident part. We had driven about 5 hours and were only 25km outside of Rotorua when we came upon a gravel part of the road where they were doing construction. Syd and I had been chatting about our jobs at KC and Laura was driving. At the same time, I hear Laura and Matt yell. I look up and the car that was coming towards us had lost control on the gravel and started spinning out of control towards us. It was one of those times when everything went into slow motion. The car was headed for us, so Laura moved into the other lane to avoid it. The car went past us, but sprayed tons of rock on Matt and Syd's side of the car. I thought we had been hit because of all the racket from the rocks, but knew that we were okay when I saw Matt was still in his seat just fine. There was a moment there were we couldn't see, but once the dust settled, we were all okay with not a scratch on us or the car....thankfully! We pulled over and Matt ran out of the car to see if the people in the wrecked car were okay. The car had spun and hit the rock/earth embankment that was on the side of the road. They were already out by the time that we got out of our car. Thankfully, they were all okay.

Knowing we were all okay was comforting, but we were all a little shaken up. The group on the side of the road was quite the cast of characters too. We surmised that it was a father, mother, and son. We were not sure if it was the father or son that was driving. The first thing I noticed was that the son had an IV back. We figured out it was a cathater because it was coming from his pant leg. Then the mom got out and had a crutch with her. They said they were okay, but a little shaken. We flagged down the next van that went by because none of us had a phone. 3 men in a white van stopped. One Maori, and two other Kiwis. One of the guys had a prosthetic leg when he jumped out to help. I wondered what start had crossed to get us all on the side of the road at this point in time. Everyone was very nice, if not a touch odd. I think it was scarier waiting on the side of the road with cars going by then the actual spinning car coming towards us. We were on the side of the road for a while, getting the phone calls sorted and calling the police. We stayed until the police came. We had a laugh then too because the police woman sat in her car for 5 minutes when she first parked and then ran out later asking if everyone was alright. Seemed like a delayed reaction to me.

So, at the end of the day, we were all fine. Laura did a tremendous job of driving and staying calm and thankfully, the people in the other car were all okay. It turns out they had wrecked by the Jesus rock. I didn't notice at first because it was facing the other direction, but in a large rock was carved "Jesus will return soon".

Greetings from a land Down Under

2006-02-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

Well, we're in NZ. We had a very safe and uneventful trip down here (the Air New Zealand flight had on demand movies, tv, music, and games all the way back in the cheap seats!) and have had a great experience so far. We arrived in Auckland around 5:30 am on Thursday, February 16. It only took us about an hour to get through customs and immigration and out to our bus. We had a little bit of a laugh when the "food sniffing" dog (a very cute little beagle) tuned his little nose into my day pack. He was convinced I was trying to smuggle some outside food into NZ. His handler kept asking me if I was sure I hadn't left any food in there on accident. I kept laughing and saying "no...sorry, no food". She pulled everything out of it and didn't find anything. I guess the little guy was at the end of his shift and his sniffer was tired. Apparently NZ and Australia are extremely stringent about keeping any outside food and vegetation out of their country. They even make you clean your shoes/hiking boots if they find mud on them. And if they catch you "lying" about whether or not you have said mud on your shoes, they'll fine you up to NZ$2,000 (about US$1,400). Luckily, my shoes were mud free.

We spent two days sight seeing in Auckland. We took a harbour cruise and made our way out to One Tree Hill with sweeping views of the Auckland area, from Manuaka Harbour in the south all across the Hurakai Gulf (please don't hold me to either spelling...I don't have my guide book open right now). On Friday we met up with one of Cece's former co workers from KC in the UK. Sid and his girlfriend Laura are on month four of a six month RTW trip of their own. They arrived a day ahead of us here in NZ and have just spent two months living out of a car in Australia. They are much more budget conscience than us! After a good lunch of chicken sandwiches (bird flu free!) we took the extremely fast elevator up the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm pretty sure the observation deck is around 180 meters off the ground. They have some glass panels in the floor so you can look straight down about 650 feet or so. You can also "bungee" jump down from an observation level a little higher than the one we were on. I thought about it, but it cost NZ$175...a little rich for our daily budget. We met up with Sid and Laura again for a few drinks after dinner and took them up on an offer to drive us up to the Bay of Islands on Saturday morning. They were heading up to the tip of the North Island to stay at Laura's uncle's house and our planned stopping point was on the way.

The drive up from Auckland to Paihia (pronounced pie-HEE-uh) wound through lush forests with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful scenery to help pass away the three hours. Once in Paihia we looked around for a room, finally locating a room in a house about ten minutes from the main part of town. It turns out we are sharing the house with two British couples on separate trips. (commence quick blogging four days later...)

Bay of Islands was beautiful. Quiet, serene little beaches and scenic vistas out to sea. Went on a big jet boat ride out to the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett and did some sea kayaking off Urupukapuka Island.

Syd and Laura gave us a lift down to Rotorua on Tuesday. About 10 km outside of Rotorua we narrowly avoided a nasty accident. A little hatchback (about the size of Paige's old Silver Bullet) spun out in some gravel (after hitting the brakes too hard) and crashed right in front, to the side of, and behind us. Cece will fill you in on the details.

Rotorua is on a big lake and there is the center of the Maori cultural experience in NZ. We took in one of the geothermal valleys with big geysers (Pohutu) and a Maori cultural show today. It was great fun. Yesterday we went Zorbing (Google it!) and had a blast. We rode down together in a "Hydro Zorb".

Tomorrow we're off to Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere. It was created by a gigantic volcanic explosion 26,000 years ago. Hopefully, it will stay dormant for a couple of days! After that we'll head back up to Auckland and get ready to leave for Australia! We are really excited about doing some laundry in Sydney. I know, we're so exciting aren't we.

Cheers!

A Dozen States in a Dozen Days

2006-02-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

The most common question we've heard since we started telling people about the trip is "where all are you going?". I believe Cece did a bang up job answering that question with her last post. The second most frequent query we've received is "when do you leave?". And the answer to that one is a two parter. We had to explain to everyone that we were leaving Atlanta on February 1st and leaving the country February 14th. Even though we live less than fifteen miles from one of the busiest airports in the world we would be driving cross country to fly out of Los Angeles. The reasoning behind this decision had nothing to do with our intense and unrequited love for the Heather Locklear television show LAX (shocking, I know). We actually figured that we could visit quite a few people before leaving on our big adventure.

(Now Cece is taking over the writing of this one!)
We didn't take the most direct route to LA. Instead, we took the route with the most free lodging! ha ha

We left Atlanta on Feb 1 to head to Huntsville. We had to take both cars over to Huntsville, so Matt left a little before me. I spent a lot of time walking around the house and saying good-bye (maybe). We still haven't sold the condo,but it is on the market, so we may or may not ever see it again. This was something that was weighing heavily on me, but apparently not on Matt as he ran out the door to try to make it to Huntsville in time to have lunch with Jeremy. So I took a few extra moments reflecting on my first home purchase, our first home together, and then departed Atlanta thinking about the last four years since I had moved there. Yes, you can tell, I am a hell of a lot more sentimental than my husband.

I digress regarding our journey though. As I said, the first stop was Huntsville to see Matt's family. We got to spend lots of quality family time and they even through us a little gathering so that we could see extended family and friends. Plus, we got to see Anna Grace do the Blossomwood News at school on Friday. All in all in, it was a great few days.

We then headed to Evansville to visit my Mom and Pop. We enjoyed many of the local Evansville restaurant establishments, such as the Stockwell Inn and the Roc-a-Bar for some great food. We got to hook up with some of the SBB's too, some of who drove in town just to see us off! We were honored. I can't talk about those two days without noting that I also got my first bridge lesson from Pop. He was teaching a class and I dropped the average age of the participants by about 30 years! Again, a great and busy time in Indiana.

Next it was on to Kansas City, to visit my sister, Kady, and her family. We had a great time hanging out with the family and the nephews and niece are always entertaining. We got to go to their schools and even see one of the winning inventions by Jay for his science fair project. On to the city competition for him! Go Jay! Also got to see Aunt Judy, Uncle Tim, Connie, Cassie, and Amanda. Bonus in Kansas City with the extended family. And I can't forget getting to see Reggie, who Jared lovingly renamed, the Reginator!

After that was the beautiful drive through west Kansas to Denver. Oops, did I saw beautiful...I meant to say boring drive. No offense to Kansas folks and all, but I am pretty sure they know that their state is flat....and boring to drive through. Matt drove the whole way too. I asked him if he was getting tired, but he said keeping the car pointed straight wasn't all that hard.

Denver with Dad and Rheta was really fun. We got to see my cousin, Tony P. too. We even took a day trip to Rocky Mtn National Park and Estes Park. All very pretty and also the last day that we are going to use our winter coats for over 6 months! Yeah!

Then we were off on the longest part of our journey. The Saturday that we left Longmont, CO, we were in the car for 13 hours. We went south through CO into NM. Very pretty to see the different terrain of New Mexico. Neither of us had ever been there before. However, there were a couple of times that we thought we were going to run out of gas before the next service station. After doing that a couple of times, we decided if we were under half a tank and saw a gas station...we stopped!

We made it all the way to Williams, Arizona after that 13 hours in the car. We ate at a local restaurant and headed straight for bed. The next day, we took a little detour from the road to go up and see the Grand Canyon. Again, a first for both and it was incredible. Although, Matt thinks that we saw more Chinese people at the Grand Canyon then we are going to see in all of China. We were behind a couple of giant tour busses, but somehow I think there will still be more in China.

After that, we had the last push into LA. Another 9 hours in the car. Lucky for us Stacey and Sam Chambliss hosted us and Stacey made us her famous Chicken a la King. Matt thought the drive across country was worth it just for that. We also got to see Allison and Jason for some good Italian dinner. Very fun two days there.

And dare I forget that we sold our precious car once we got to LA. I must admit I wasn't too sad to sell it after spending so much time in it over those two weeks in the US. However, when the day came and it was my last time driving my "first" car, I was a little sad. Again, me sentimental...Matt, not so much. I was using every feature of the car on the last drive, the sunroof, the stereo, the windows, anything that I could get my hands on. Then we got to Carmax and they gave us a great deal on the car...so I sold it in an instant and we were outta there. So much for me being sentimental.

So, without a car and no more room to drive farther west, Matt and I hopped on the plane for the Southern Hemisphere. I will let him fill you all in on that though.

It is harder than we thought to keep up with the blog. So much to do in the first few days...all so exciting though.

The Revised Itinerary

2006-01-29T16:33:00.000-05:00

Well, we haven't even left yet, but we are making changes to the itinerary....all for very good reason though! My friend, Lisa, who lives in Paris has announced that she is going to marry her wonderful boyfriend, Duncan on the 10th of June. They will marry in the village that she grew up in, Saint-Jeannet, in the south of France. Matt and my original itinerary had us arriving in Europe on June 19th. Of course, we are moving that date up now, so that we can be in the south of France for the wedding. Lisa has also asked me to be one of her witnesses to stand up with her at the wedding, so I am Extremely excited about that! This also means we will be starting our European tour in the south and working our way north instead of our original plan to go south, again, all of these changes are going to make our trip even better.

So with that, here is the latest dates and itinerary. Make notes so you all can decide where to meet up now! I have put the cities that we fly in and out of, but obviously we will be doing some exploring past those cities.

New Zealand (Auckland) - Feb 14-Feb 27
Australia (Sydney) - Feb 27-Apr 7
Singapore - Apr 7-Apr 10
China(Beijing) - Apr 10-Apr 16
Hong Kong - Apr 16-Apr 20
Vietnam (into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh) - Apr 20-May 4
Thailand (Bangkok) - May 4 - May 19
Cambodia (Phnom Penh) - May 19 - May 25
India (into Bangalore and out of Mumbai) - May 25-June 8
South of France - June 8 - June 12
Venice Italy - June 12- ? (Catch a ride over with Pietro after Lisa's wedding)
Central Europe - June 12 - July 19ish
During this month, we will be traveling by land to various spots. Our plan right now is to hit the following places in approximately this order, spending about a week or so in each, and other little stops along the way. Croatia, Budapest, Krakow, Prague, and Vienna.
Denmark (Copenhagen) - July 19 - Aug 1ish
Amsterdam and Cologne, Germany - Aug 1ish- Aug 6ish
Hull, England - Aug 6 - Aug 9
Edinburgh - Aug 9 - Aug 11
Dublin - Aug 11 - Aug 14

The dates in Europe are still being worked out. Since we are traveling by land, we are pretty flexible, so we don't have a specific plan. We will see where the trains take us. So those of you wanting to meet us somewhere over there, start looking into tickets. We will work with you to meet up!

Of course, the more I read, the more that I think 6 months won't be enough time to see all of the places that we want too, so you never know, we might extend things a week or two depending on how money is going. That is my plan at least, now I just need to tell Matt! :)

Throwing it all away

2006-01-12T20:28:00.000-05:00

So if you have read some of the other postings on here, you know that we still own our condo, and that our friend Suzanne is moving in at the end of the month. We haven't sent anything to storage yet, so we definitely need to make some room for Suzanne. So during the holidays, we (I) started going through things to take them to the local Salvation Army. In total when it was all said and done, we took 12 FULL garbage bags of clothes, bags, and miscelleneous other things. Mostly clothes though.

I am embarrased to say that I actually had a hard time giving up some things. Having put things into storage before when I moved to the UK, I knew that you should not put any clothes into storage. If you didn't like it enough to take it with you, you are not going to want to wear it when you come back. Now this time is a little different in that most of the clothes that Matt and I take are going to be easy wash, no wrinkle clothing. So, I did decide to keep some "work" clothing so that I would have something to wear when we come back and I hopefully get a job fairly quickly!

I would not consider myself a material person, so I was a little surprised at how hard it was to give some things up. I mean, really, these were just clothes. If I held it in my hand for more than five seconds, I would immediately tell myself to throw it in the donation pile. So my closet went to half the size that it was before (which it probably needed). I had two conflicting thoughts during the whole process. On the one hand, I would think about the fact that Matt and I would be penny pinching when we got back, so maybe I should keep some things, versus thinking about the fact that Matt and I would visit cultures where people will never see a closet like mine in their life. The latter won out and I got rid of as much as I could.

The other funny thing is that we have taken all of the really important things from our life back to our parents' house. The things that we took back...pictures, and gifts from our grandparents. It is in a process like this that you figure out what is important.

Happy New Year

2006-01-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

Well, 2006 is here. It is surreal to think that Cece and I will only spend six months of this year in the United States. Things are starting to creep up on us as we prepare for the trip. As of now we have twenty-nine days before we leave Atlanta and start the North American leg of the World Tour. That means we only have twenty-one work days left. Then we have a seven month weekend. It's not often you get to say that. Keep thinking about us as we finalize our preparations and get ready to embark on the trip of our lives!

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

2005-12-29T12:18:00.000-05:00

Loss is an essential part of life, right? I know we all have to experience loss. People and possessions don't stay with us forever. Some say it's how we deal with this loss that defines us as humans. Can we adjust and move on? Do we sit around and dwell on the heartache, refusing to go on with our lives? Well, this trip has caused me to suffer a devestating loss of my own. And now I must stand up and face this trial of life. The Fumigator shirt...is gone.

[Farewell Fumigator...farewell]
Weep not for me, my friends. Weep for the Fumigator. For it has been folded neatly, kissed goodbye, and placed in a Hefty kitchen sized garbage bag. Today it will be delivered to the Salvation Army by my wife and tomorrow or the next day or the next day (or never) it will be placed on a shelf in a thrift store with a price tag on it. What price though?? Can you put a price on a shirt you can see through? Can anyone truly assess monetary value to an article of clothing that has seen me through countless Auburn/Florida games (more losses than wins unfortunately)? That shirt is older than some of the players currently on the Auburn roster! It used to belong to my sister Paige, who bought it when she was but a bright eyed, young college student. It was handed down to me, so that I might carry on the tradition. I'm not sure exactly what the tradition is, other than owning a really old, really soft, really see through t-shirt...but I digress.

The point of all this is to say that life goes on. When you are faced with the inevitable separation from a dearly loved personal possession, you have to suck it it up, remember the good times, and say goodbye to that soft old Fumigator shirt. However, if Cece thinks I'm getting rid of my lucky underwear (the ones that have seen me through four consecutive wins over Alabama) she can kiss my foot!
[Who Cares?? We all care about the Fumigator!]

Mr. and Mrs. Pin Cushion

2005-12-22T21:31:00.000-05:00

Well, as I'm sure you are aware, when you travel overseas for an extended period of time you need a battery of immunizations to (hopefully) keep you from contracting some horrible disease. Cece and I require a round of SHOTS including hepatitis A and B immunization (three shot series), polio vaccination, typhoid immunization, tetanus booster, and a flu shot. We went to the Fulton County Health Department's Travel Clinic yesterday to begin the process (Cece actually got her flu shot last week at KC's health center...surprisingly incident free). The Health Department was definitely the place to go for the traveler on a budget. The series of shots will end up costing us well less than half what a private travel clinic would charge us, and you know how much we love a bargain (especially when it comes to having sharp objects jabbed into us).

After going over reams of paperwork supplied by the nurse as to what deadly viruses and bacteria we'd be snuggling up with on our journey we prepared ourselves for the "Invasion of the Giant Needles". As I was sitting closest to the nurse I became what we will refer to hereafter as Victim #1. The mean old hag (okay, she was actually quite pleasant and friendly...but she was weilding HUGE needles man!) came at my left arm with the hepatitis twinrix, the polio, and the flu shot. The last one, the darn flu shot, is the only one I really felt. And I felt it deep in the muscle (play along as if I actually had muscles in my arm). This attack on my person was actually met with ambivalence and manly bravery by me. My wife on the other hand...she was visibly shaken as she saw her husband, her loving partner for life stuck like a human pin cushion. I laughed as the blood fled her face and she winced as if someone was poking her in the ribs. I turned around in the chair and let Typhoid Mary complete her brutalization of my arms with the final two punctures.

Cece and I switched seats and my beautiful wife proceeded to explain her bionic arm to the nurse. Most of you know that Cece broke her arm in a snowboarding accident about five years ago (five years ago this week I think...eerie) and had a metal plate and nine screws imbedded along the upper half of her left arm. She is very sensitive along that arm, especially the scar, and the nurse decided to only give one of the shots in that arm and the remaining three in the right arm. I think Cece was already a little gunshy after watching my shots and her mind started working against her body immediately. She winced a little at the first shot and then made a face that showed me she wasn't enjoying this...at all.

[seriously, aren't camera phones awesome].

After the first poke, Cece took a couple of seconds before rolling up her other sleeve. During this little break, our prescient nurse slipped a smelling salt in my hand. I laughed thinking we wouldn't be needing this. Mary then proceeded to give Cece the ol' double jab on the second shot and moved quickly to stick her again. As needle #3 plunged into her shoulder, Cece tried to move. This is where things went into slow motion...for me anyway. Mary said, "now don't move away from me honey." Cece went to put her head down on the arm of the chair (or so I thought) and started to say something. I started to stand up (not really sure why I was standing, just thought it was the right thing to do) and Cece's head began to wobble on the arm of the chair and she started speaking in tongues. I came to a realization, "Holy cow, my wife just passed out." Mary grabbed the smelling salt out of my hand, broke it, and waved it in front of Cece's nose as I gently lifted my gorgeous wife by her shoulders. Her hair was all hanging in front of her face and she kept mumbling. All of sudden she was about 80% back into coherence and she said, "I just passed out didn't I?" (total elapsed pass out time - 3.6 seconds). Her second sentence let me know my practical, efficient little engineer was back in charge of her faculties - "Did she at least give me the last shot while I was passed out?"

Mary fetched her a "juicy juice" (a knock off, imitation Capri-Sun...come on, it was the county health department, what do you expect?) and waited until she was fully aware and had some blood back in her face before she administered the final immunization. At this point Cece was sweating profusely so I opened an exterior door to try and get some air into the room. Mary was nice enough to explain that Cece had suffered from a vaso-vegal (or vasal vegal) episode. Apparently it is a rapid drop in blood pressure which leads to a fainting spell. I definitely have to say that my unbelievably loving and sweet wife had a good attitude about the whole thing. She was able to laugh about it while we were still at the clinic and she even thought the picture was kind of funny.

Hopefully our next trip to visit Nurse Ratchett will be less exciting. We go back January 23rd for our second round of hepatitis shots.

The Condo - We Still Own It

2005-12-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

Another part of our trip planning was the condo that we own - what to do with that? We couldn't really just fold it up and put it in a backpack to take with us. We decided that we would sell the party pad and figure something out when we got back. Even if we came back to Atlanta, it would probably be time to find a bigger place. Plus, our friends Kim and Scott had said that we could move in with them if we sold it before February and not have to worry about a short term lease. So we tried to time it right so that we would sell it in enough time to feel good, but not have to wear out our welcome with Kim and Scott.

Well, it turns out that we waited too long and are now in an oversaturated condo market where nothing is moving. And we mean nothing. It is now December 22 and we still haven't sold our place, nor does it look like we will before we leave. This stressed me out for quite a while, I thought that we might have to delay the trip or cancel it altogether. We had planned for the worst case scenario - no jobs and still owning the condo - I was just hoping that the worst case wouldn't happen. We did all the things they say will help you sell your house, too. We went out and bought a little St. Joseph figurine [Matt here - I like to call him our little Biblical action figure!] and said the novena (and are still saying it). We didn't put St. Joseph in the yard though because we don't have one; maybe that is what is wrong, he is not in a yard, nor upside down. He is on our coffee table. This made the lady at the Catholic store much happier though. She was not a big fan of the practice of burying the earthly father of our Lord and Savior upside down in a yard.

Matt said under no circumstances were we going to delay the trip though, so we started moving on to Plan B. We had our name on the list for renters, but so far are not at the top (only so many condos can be rented out at one time). So we started to think about dropping the price, maybe moving our stuff out into storage when we left, and keeping it on the market; however, it turned out we would be better off keeping it for the tax break than dropping the price a substantial amount. Then our prayers were answered, just not the way that we thought they would be(aren't most prayers answered this way?).

Our friend Suzanne, who is a PhD student at Emory, was hoping to move to Midtown (our neighborhood in Atlanta), but was trying to find something relatively inexpensive in the area. We started formulating a plan. Matt and I met Suzanne for dinner one night at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur for some food and a few beers. We talked about how we might be able to work something out for her to live at our place while we were gone. Suzanne said that she could pay us an amount that was about half of what we could probably "rent" it out for and she would pay the utilities, etc. Plus, she said that we could keep the place on the market since spring is a better time to sell (we hope). She would just find another place to live if we sold it. Suzanne is a free spirit and I love her for that. We could not have anybody else more flexible! We decided then that this would work (have you noticed that all decisions made about this trip are made at a bar? I am not sure if that is good or not) . Suzanne would be our "housesitter" (read: "not a renter"). We would leave our furniture for her and leave the place up for sale. If it sells while we are gone she will find someplace else to live (and some really, really nice friends/family members will get the opportunity to "supervise" the move out), and if it doesn't sell we will move back in when we get back. Matt and I had to fight over who was going to kiss her feet first. It was sorted thankfully. Prayer 95% answered and I was less stressed about money....which meant Matt's prayers were 100% answered!

Our Jobs or Lack Thereof

2005-12-22T15:26:00.000-05:00

So now you all know how we came about this idea. Now for some of the little details that have led us to the place where we are right now. Once we decided that we were going to go for it, we needed a plan (well, at least I did, I am definitely the planner of the two of us...much to my frustration sometimes). Anyways, the first thought was "what were we going to do about our jobs"? When we first started planning back in 2004, Matt was actually searching for a new, more challenging job. He found one in January of '05. Knowing that we were going to leave in February '06, there wasn't really much to think about with that one. Matt would just quit the job when it was time to leave and see what he could find when we got back.

I, on the other hand, had worked for Kimberly-Clark for seven years. They moved me across the Atlantic Ocean two times and spent time and money training me. I really do like my current job and I have enjoyed working at KC, so we decided that I would ask for a leave of absence. Having worked for KC in the UK, I knew they had given leaves of absence or sabbaticals (whatever you want to call them) to several people. There was no salary involved while the people were gone, just the knowledge that they would come back to a job upon their return. The challenge was I didn't know anyone with KC in the US who had done this.

I approached my current boss in April figuring that if we could work something out, it would probably take a while. He was open to the idea and went to talk to HR. They told him that I should quit with an option to re-hire when I got back. However, my boss wanted me to have a little more than that to hold on to, so he decided that he was going to take it to his boss. He sent a letter to his boss in October asking for a seven month leave for me. His boss denied it and also said that I should just quit with an option to re-hire.

So with that, Matt and I will both be turning in our resignations in January. Mine will actually go in January 2 which is not too far away. Like I said, they have encouraged me to do a re-hire when I get back and everyone is being very nice and encouraging about it. I would definitely consider returning to KC. For extra insurance though, I am looking forward to looking for a new job too when we return. I have been exposed to market research in my most recent job, and I plan to look into jobs related to that. I am excited about the new doors that are opening. It is exciting to think that Matt and I could end up doing anything (and maybe anywhere if we sell the condo!).

Cecelia's story

2005-12-08T21:46:00.000-05:00

So here is my version of how this whole crazy idea came about. I think most of my friends and family will be surprised to hear when I think the idea and the love of travel first came to me. I am the youngest of 3 girls. The oldest two are only 16 months apart, but I am 10 and 12 years behind them. When I was 6 years old, my oldest sister was graduating from high school. I had heard all about how Ann, my oldest sister, had been working hard through high school at the local roller skating rink to earn enough money to go and live with my aunt in Australia for 6 months after graduation. When you are 6 years old and this is the first person that you know graduating from high school, you sort of assume that this is the norm. Doesn't everyone have the goal to go to another country for 6 months? And for that matter, doesn't everyone have an aunt who lives in another country? This all seemed very normal to me and it wasn't until I was in high school that I realized, Ann was very unique. It turned out that not everyone postponed college for a year to go to live in another country. In fact, I didn't know a single person who had even contemplated it. But I was far too influenced by my childhood memories at this point to change my perspective. This, of course, is not where I first had the idea to one day quit my job and travel the world, but traveling to different countries had always been presented to me as a wonderful thing, and even if I wasn't going to put off college for a year to go to another country, I knew that I wanted to travel and learn all about different cultures and ways of doing things.

I had other influences of course too. At a young age, my parents divorced and my father eventually moved to Colorado. I stayed in Indiana with my mother. I believe my first flight (at least one that I remember) was when I was around 8 years old. I flew by myself from St. Louis to Denver. That was when I learned that it wasn't scary to travel alone (especially if all the flight attendants fawn all over you and think you are so cute. I don't get that much anymore, but it was good while it lasted!).

Another influence was my grandfather (my step-father's father). I met my grandfather when I was quite young and one of the first things I remember knowing about him was that he was Danish. And when I say Danish, I don't just mean that he was of Danish descent, he was Danish. He came over on a boat when he was in his early 20's and his entire family was still in Denmark. His entire family that is, aside from the family that he started in the United States with my grandmother, his wife of 68 years. Growing up, I remember, one of his brothers coming over to visit. Even though my grandfather had left Denmark some 60 years earlier, you would have thought that they saw each other every day, and not every 10 years or so. This meant that you could still stay in touch with people a continent away. This knowledge would become very important to me when I was in my early 20's.

And I cannot forget the influence of my Aunt Cece (that aunt that my sister went to live with in Australia). My aunt had gone to Australia on a two year teaching assignment the year I was born. She never lived in the States again. She met my Uncle Harry and they married in Hawaii. Again, didn't everyone have an aunt who did this? That is what I thought growing up. My aunt made a commitment to come back to the States every 5 years or more often to see her family. So even though they lived an ocean away, I got to know my aunt, uncle, and Australian cousins very well. When they would come to town, all of my friends would want to come down and meet the family with the funny accent. I am sure it was the first exposure most of them had to Australians. I know I didn't know any others. I learned a lot from those visits. What was so funny about a fanny pack anyways? I learned that it really made my Australian cousins laugh. ....I eventually found out why!

So with all of those positive influences, I don't think that it is any surprise that I was more than eager to go on my first Transatlantic flight when I was 18. My step-father wanted to spend his 60th birthday with his family in Denmark who he had first met a few years earlier. His 60th birthday coordinated with my high school graduation, so my gift from my mom and him was a 3 week trip to Denmark. Denmark is about the same size as my home state of Indiana, so in that 3 weeks, I really got to know Denmark. I met all kinds of family and learned all kinds of Danish traditions. There were cousins who were my age and took me out to do typical "Danish" teenager things. It was fantastic! It was everything I thought it would be and better. I was hooked on traveling.

That is why I jumped at the chance to study abroad when I was in college. I was a chemical engineering student and I did a summer abroad at the University College London in between my junior and senior years. People told me that I should do an internship that summer instead to make sure that I had a job when I graduated, but I didn't care. I wanted to work for the company that valued my international experience. So I went. It was incredible. I flew over by myself. I spent some time before my classes visiting the family in Denmark as well as my friend, Allison and her family who were living in the Netherlands. I remember taking the Chunnel from Belgium to London. I got off the tube at the Warren Street station, carried my huge suitcase, walked onto the street, looked around, and thought, this won't be a bad place to live for 6 weeks. And it definitely wasn't. I fell in love with England, London, and the English. It was an incredible summer. After our classes, a friend from Purdue, Sandy, and I traveled around to France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. I was gone for over 9 weeks, and even though I missed my family terribly, I loved the adventure of going to new countries. It was just so fun!

That summer abroad influenced me to take a job with Kimbelry-Clark in Neenah, Wisconsin after graduation from Purdue. They offered me a position in one of their international divisions and that made the choice for me. I knew that I wanted to work internationally. I went over to one of the diaper plants in England several times that first year. Then, after working in Wisconsin for two years, I was given the opportunity to move to England for a year to 18 months. It took me about a second to say yes, and I was there for almost 2 years. It was an incredible experience. I visited 14 countries in the 20 months that I was there. I also made lifelong friends from many different culutres. I can remember having a game night at a friend's house one time, there was a French girl, an Irish girl, a Scottish guy, a Dutch guy, an Italian guy, and me, the American. I remember taking a moment just to soak it all in and try to figure out how in the heck that we all got to meet in Hull, England. There was no explanation for it. Hull is also where I met my friend, Andy Windsor. I am sure Andy will be very excited to get some credit for this crazy trip. When I met Andy, he had just returned from a year trip around the world. He showed me pictures from the trip and told me stories about all the places that he visited. He was the one to first introduce me to around-the-world plane tickets. I had never heard of them before, but once I did, I knew that one day, I would have to buy one and try this out for myself. In the five+ years that I have known Andy, he has been trying to talk me into this for the past 5. He is excited that I am actually going for it. I don't think he thought I would.

I left England to return to the US, and to a new location with my job. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia. I had never lived in a city before, but I knew that I wanted to try it. That is where I met the love of my life. Matt and I met through mutual friends. We started dating in the summer of 2002 and by the end of that summer, I knew that we would get married. For the next few years, we got caught up in dating, getting engaged, and getting married in the summer of 2004. We had saved money for a year to pay for our wedding and were so happy to be able to pay for everything on the day. We got used to a lifestyle of putting money away, and we didn't really miss the money once it was saved. That is when we started thinking about this trip. Could we save enough to take this trip? I always had it in the back of my head, and I would mention it every once in a while. Matt had actually never been "overseas." He had been in the Caribbean on cruises, but not to Europe or Australia, like I had. The crazy part is that he probably knows 10x more about the countries that I had been to than I do because he remembers absolutely everything from his History classes. The amount of facts in that boy's head continues to amaze me.

So shortly after we were married, we were at a Happy Hour at Meehan's Irish Pub in Vinings, Georgia. As I said before, we had been tossing the idea around, but it was there at the bar that night that I asked if we were really going to do it-go around the world. I wanted to take 12 months to travel. I had found out some costs from Andy and I thought that we could do it. Matt said, he wasn't sure about a year, but that he would do 6 months. After much checking that we were both serious and there was no beer influence, I asked if we were really going to do this. He said, yes we were. We shook on it (even though we are married, it seemed like the thing to do on a decision like this), and that was that. We continued saving money just like we had for the wedding. We then decided that it would take us about 18 months to save what we thought we would need. We also figured out that this would put us in a good position to have a 6 month summer if we stated in Feb 2006 and went to Australia first, ending in Europe in August. So that is the plan, and in less than 2 months we will start this adventure. There is much more to write about the preparation, but I think this is enough for tonight. I should end with a Thank you though. For all those great experiences overseas and for all of the support from family and friends, I thank you for helping to make our dream a reality. If we didn't have your support, I don't think that we could do this. We love you!

The Idea

2005-10-30T21:51:00.000-05:00

Cece and I have decided to take our marriage on a world tour, not unlike a Bon Jovi or Def Leppard concert tour in the 80's. We can have cool t-shirts made up with the names of all the cities we visit. We'll be bigger in Asia than Whitesnake (and I don't think I need to tell you how much the little Asian women loved David Coverdale). Just like any good 80's tour we're going to kick it off in the heartland of the good old U.S. of A. We'll travel in style, our tour bus a 1998 Acura Integra. There might not be enough room for a crew of roadies and groupies but we'll make do. The U.S. leg of the tour will include stops in Huntsville, Evansville, Kansas City, Denver, the Grand Canyon and the continental finale in L.A.

Ahhh yes, Los Angeles, the City of Angels, and the birthplace of your faithful storyteller. We figured, what better place to start a fairy tale adventure than the home of Hollywood. I anticipate our journey will include many storylines that sound like they're straight out of a big budget Hollywood screenplay; whether it's a cheesy adventure flick with tons of stunts and special effects (bungee jumping in New Zealand, surfing in Australia, skateboarding over the Great Wall of China - wait, that's been done), a laugh a minute comedy (me asking every single New Zealander I meet where I can find a Hobbit, Cece asking for a hair dryer in Cambodia), or a taut, gripping international thriller (careening across Europe in an effort to save the world from a diabolical madman bent on mass destruction - and yes Dr. Lowe, his name will be Larry). Anyway, I'm supposed to be telling a story here...

I guess my mission with this post is to tell the story of how I came to be part of this journey. As you can tell by my wife's first post, she's been thinking about a trip like this for awhile. Well, I haven't exactly been planning/thinking about/dreaming about a 'round the world journey since I escaped from the womb like her, but I do enjoy a good vacation. I guess you can say I've wanted to visit a lot of our destinations for a long time, I just never figured I'd knock 'em all out on one trip. I remember reading as a kid that the Great Wall of China is the only man made object you can see from space. I thought, "Hmmmm, so when I'm an astronaut I'll be able to see it for myself". Sooo, I might not be an astronaut, but I think seeing the Great Wall up close and in person might be a little better than hovering about two hundred miles above it. I've also always loved the history associated with World War II. I'm fascinated by the stories of espionage and daring battlefield decisions and the epic struggle between good and evil (yes I know I'm quite the dork). When we were in London this October I marvelled at the endless amount of details and minutiae preserved in the Winston Churchill Museum located at the War Cabinet Museum (Cece was a trooper and let me while away a couple of hours here, trapped a few stories below street level while all of the hustle and bustle of London was available over our heads). Well, most of our history of the war, at least from an American perspective, is based on the Western European theatre, Normandy, Italy, and into Germany. This trip is going to give me a glimpse into Eastern Europe and how these cities/countries reacted to and survived the devastation of the Third Reich. I also want to take a trip to one of the concentration camps. I visited the sites of both the Oklahoma City bombing and Ground Zero in New York and I can only imagine how standing among the remains of a concentration will impact me.

Okay, now that I've officially bummed myself out I'm going to give a quick thought or comment on something I want to do or see in every country on the itinerary.

New Zealand: find a hobbit and ride in a jet boat (perhaps with a hobbit)...and bungee jump

Australia: get my picture taken with a kangaroo, talk like the Crocodile Hunter to annoy Cece, and scuba dive/snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef

Singapore: on Big Daddy's advice I think I'm going to get a pedicure and possibly a massage. They're also supposed to have excellent Chinese food; even better than the Chinese restaurant in the Heart of Auburn motel!

China: touch the Great Wall (I don't think I'll be able to walk through it like David Copperfield...but I might try) and find General Tsao so I can tell him I love his chicken

Hong Kong: do some stunts with Jackie Chan and pay homage at the grave of the greatest martial arts expert the world has ever known - Bruce Lee

Vietnam: ride in a rickshaw (okay, so these are Chinese but I'm pretty sure they use them in Vietnam too) and wake up Cece one day by yelling, "GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Thailand: go bird watching...at a spot...in Thailand (bonus points for anyone who gets that obscure reference), sun myself on a beach like a lazy American, say over and over again, "Oh Jack talk Thai, Jack talk Thai real well"

Cambodia: visit the Angkor Wat temples and avoid any places where chickens are slaughtered

India: ride an elephant...I let Mookie ride an elephant when Meredith and I took him and Man to see the circus in Auburn...he had the best time and I want to experience that. I also want to find someone there named Sam or Brian or Allison. Anytime I call a customer service number that is routed to India the person who answers always sounds like Apu from the Simpsons but says their name is Bob or Iesha (true story...ask Cece). I ain't buying it.

Germany: see a World Cup game and make fun of a dude in lederhosen. Perhaps get drunk and belligerently brag about kicking Hitler's ass in WWII.

France: celebrate Lisa and Duncan's marriage (hopefully Cece will let me wear a kilt in honor of the groom). Play baccarat at a casino on the Riviera. When someone asks my name I'll say, "Bond...James Bond".

Poland: visit a concentration camp and pray that the world never sees another mass genocide on that scale ever again.

Czech Republic: drink a giant beer that costs a few pennies (according to Rob) and visit the churches and museums of Prague

Hungary: give props to the Zongor clan! Bore Cece to death by detailing how the city of Budapest was actually two cities, Buda and Pest, until they built a bridge over the Danube (pronounced Duh-nooby), thus creating the largest city in Europe at the time. Asleep yet?

Austria: the only thing that comes to mind about Austria is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I want to go back in time with them and find Sigmund Freud (Frood dude).

Croatia: I really want to see the city of Dubrovnik on the sea and take a ride on a sailboat looking back at the city from the water. Dubrovnik is also supposed to be home to the largest medieval wall still standing in all of Europe. Again, I acknowledge my dorkitude.

Denmark: visit the city that inspired a brand of smokeless tobacco. Find those silver skates that Hans Christian Andersen wrote about. They've got to be worth some serious cash.

Holland: ask for directions to the Netherlands. Make fun of all the hippies and American college students partaking of the wacky tobaccy in Amsterdam.

England: knock back a few at Cece's local pub in Hull. See if Hull really is the worst city in England.

Scotland: talk like Sean Connery berating Alex Trebek on Celebrity Jeopardy, "Ahhh rough, just the way your mother likes it Trebek!". Visit a castle and yell "They can take our lives, but they can never take our...FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ireland: knock back a Guinness and find a leprechaun. I'm gonna need the pot of gold to buy Cece new clothes and jewels to make up for all the annoying things I've done to her since we left the country!