Nothing comes close to the Gold Coast!

March 29, 2017

From Tokyo, we headed Down Under. Our red-eye from Narita landed in Gold Coast early morning, and we hopped on a bus and a train to get to Brisbane. We had excellent hosts in Brisbane- our friends Heidi and Shari that we met in Scotland!

On Friday afternoon, Shari dropped us in South Bank (across the river from Brisbane City), and Jeff and I wandered around for a few hours. We walked through an amazing city park called the Parklands. They have a man-made beach right in the middle of the city! They also had a cute rainforest walk and a random Nepalese temple. Jeff and I were fascinated by the different birds in the park since they all looked so exotic to us.

We walked across the river to see downtown Brisbane and wandered through the Museum of Brisbane. It is in the City Hall building, and was just the right price- free! The building was beautiful, and we got a free tour of the clock tower. If you are ever in Brisbane, I suggest checking it out. I thought it was pretty cool for a free museum. We learned about Brisbane’s origins as a penal colony, and how it progressed to what it is today. Same old story- white Europeans come and take over the native’s land. Speaking of white Europeans- the girls took us to the German Club on Friday night, and we had excellent beer and bratwurst. However, the best part of the night was Andrew- the one-man band who kept us entertained!

On Saturday morning, we were up bright and early, and on our way to the beach we stopped at the chiropractor so I could get adjusted. It sounds like a weird thing to mention in a blogpost, but when you haven’t seen any health care professional in 10 months, it’s a big deal!!!!! Dr. Laura was awesome, and after countless flights, all of our random adventures, and 10 months of being out of alignment- I feel so much better!

After the pit stop at the chiro, we headed to Gold Coast to soak up some sun!

Then we grabbed a picnic lunch from the grocery store and headed to Lamington National Park. The girls took us on a great bushwalk after lunch- we went about 12k! You know how they say that everything in Australia is trying to kill you? As in, all of the animals are poisonous and scary? Well…it’s true. We knew this going in, but didn’t actually expect to see nature on our first bushwalk. We definitely got more than we bargained for!

We couldn’t quite get pictures of the 2 wallabies we saw (they look like miniature kangaroos). They were pretty cute! We also didn’t have any koala sightings, despite all of the ‘koala crossing’ signs we saw. It was an awesome Saturday hike through the rainforest:

On the way back into Brisbane, we stopped and picked up some Aussie pies for dinner!

The next day, we packed up our swimsuits again and caught a ferry to Coochimudlo island just off the coast. We walked around the small island, got in the water at a few beaches, and had some fish and chips before heading back to the mainland. That night we had tacos- hello chips and salsa! And relaxed before getting on our flight to Sydney the next day.

To Heidi and Shari- thank you both so much for spending the weekend showing us around! We had an absolute blast!

-Cara

P.S.: Thanks for introducing us to Vegemite!

These are the places we are going to explore over the next few weeks:

View Australia in a full screen map

Southeast Asia in Summary

March 27, 2017

In order to understand comparisons in this blog, the following language tip may help: ‘same-same’ = ‘same’ and ‘same-same but different’ = ‘similar.’ We have not heard anyone in SE Asia say the word ‘similar,’ things are always described as ‘same-same’ or ‘same-same, but different.’ In SE Asia, we visited Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia (in that order). Singapore is extremely developed, and we only spent 1 day in Malaysia, so this is strictly a comparison between Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Regardless of which country you travel to, there was not a language barrier, so you don’t need to be worried about not speaking the local language. It’s amazing at how many people speak English!

Haircuts

I think we will let the pictures talk for themselves. The first two are Jeff's street buzz in Vietnam, then Jeff and Cara in Thailand, and finally Jeff in the middle of a market in Cambodia:

Signs and Advertisements:

Shopping

I’m basing the shopping in each country on the amount and quality of knock-off/possibly real name brand goods each place had available. If you look at the labels on the clothes in your closet, most things are probably made in Vietnam, Thailand, or Cambodia. (All pics below are from Vietnam- in the first picture Bri is admiring Marie's new 100% tailored leather boots, or her butt..not sure.)

When we landed in Vietnam, we immediately saw ‘Made in Vietnam’ stores. They sold all different versions of NorthFace and Columbia gear. Some looked better than others. You could tell the quality by how low you could bargain for. A raincoat for $5 was probably a cheap fake, but if they would only sell for minimum $10-15, you may have found a gem! Ray Ban, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Prada, and all the other high-end bag companies for that matter, were available there. You could pick up a good looking Fjallraven Kanken backpack for less than $15.

We had a much harder time finding brand-name goods in Thailand. Thailand was all about it’s night markets though! Every night there seemed to be a different option for a night market. Some local crafts were available, but mostly they sold cute-sy tourist souvenirs.

I was holding out hope that Cambodia would have more shopping similar to Vietnam since they are geographically closer. Gap products are made in Cambodia, and we found some Gap t-shirts in the markets. Judging by the Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch clothes we found, I think those companies make things in Cambodia as well. Here, we found some decent knock off bags, but not as many as were in Vietnam. I did buy an Anello backpack; it is a Japanese brand that is more popular in Asia than Fjallraven Kanken:

Above: my $12 Anello bag from Cambodia, and my $5 polarized Ray Bans from Vietnam

Winner: Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi in Northern Vietnam had many more quality knock-offs (I could be convinced that many were actually the real deal), than we found in Ho Chi Minh City (South Vietnam).

Massage

Spa culture seemed to be a big part of life in SE Asia. Lucky for us, massages were extremely inexpensive and I got a full body massage in each country! You have to get over the fact that you might not get any relaxing spa music- more likely your masseuse will be playing with their phone, and answer calls, in the middle of your massage. In Vietnam, we paid $6 for an hour. It was very similar to any massage you would get in the States if you went to a large chain massage place. Except for the fact that you got naked on a table with 4 other people in the room at the same time… They used oil for massaging in Vietnam. It was pretty relaxing. Right as you were about to fall asleep at the end of your 60 minutes, the masseuse lathers her hands in Tiger Balm, and then covers your face with them. (Tiger Balm is like a more intense version of Icy-Hot). Needless to say, at the end of a Vietnamese massage, you are wide awake and your sinus are clear.

Thai massage was very different to anything I had experienced before. Again, we were in a communal space (no private rooms!), but they had us change into hospital scrubs first. Since they don’t use oil, they just massage you through the scrubs. Jeff and I were laying on the same table- it was more like a large raised platform- and the masseuse was right on the table with you. A lot of feet and elbows were used, and they used a lot of pressure to relieve knots in the muscle. They also did a bit of back cracking and a lot of intense stretching.

Khmer (Cambodian) massage is same-same, but different to Thai massage. I got a full body massage for 90-minutes for $8. It was pretty relaxing, and the lady more of a pressure point technique than an all-over rubbing. Even though I changed into scrubs (no oil used), I was glad that no one else was in the room with us. I spent a lot of time trying not to giggle because this Cambodian woman definitely climbed all over me. This was not for the faint of heart; her hands and feet were all up in my lady business most of the time, and I’m pretty sure that at one point my hands were also in her crotch. Similar to Thai massage, more time was spent massaging the legs than anything else, and a lot of stretching was involved. You definitely have to participate instead of lying there like a lunk. I didn’t really know how flexible I was until she folded me up into a pretzel!

My get-up for the Thai massage. I wore similar scrubs during my massage in Cambodia

Best massage: 60-min Thai massage for just under $6. Definitely not as good as the massages I have had in the States, but for $6, I don’t care if someone just touches my back for an hour.

Food

Vietnam was the land of fresh herbs. We seemed to be served an entire plate of fresh cilantro, basil and mint with every meal, no matter what we were eating. Bowl of soup? Vietnamese pancake? Here is your daily dose of fresh greens! It was delicious! Our favorite meal in Vietnam was in Hanoi at ‘Bun bo Nam Bo,’ and we tell everyone about it if they mention they are traveling there! Jeff enjoyed the food in Vietnam more than I did, because restaurants normally had very few choices on a menu and it didn’t take long to decide what we wanted (Jeff’s note: I also think that most restaurants that only have a couple options are really good at those options. I also really enjoy just sitting down and getting food sometimes, without worrying if that place makes that dish well or what their best option is). It’s also worth mentioning that the coffee culture in Vietnam is the best in SE Asia!

One of our favorite things in Thailand was doing a cooking class with my brother Phil. We ate as much green curry, pad thai, and mango sticky rice as we could handle while in Thailand. I enjoyed the food more in Thailand than I did in Vietnam because there always seemed to be more options. The street food was extremely plentiful and the variety was awesome. Thailand was more into tea, specifically milk tea (tea with sweet and condensed milk), than they were into coffee - but due to western tourists, you can get a decent cup of coffee anywhere.

Cambodia continued to be the land of curry, which was fine by me! Jeff is not a huge fan and seemed to have flashbacks to India every time I ordered curry, so he tried to stick to BBQ and other meat dishes. We didn’t find anything particularly amazing or unique about Cambodian food, and any sort of coffee or tea culture doesn’t really exist outside of western coffee shops. The amount of street food available fell right in between Thailand (most street food) and Vietnam (a few sandwiches available on the street).

Cara’s winner: Thailand, favorite dish: green curry and mango fruitshake

Jeff’s winner: Vietnam, favorite dish: any sort of Bun (cha (pork), bo (beef), or whatever meat they serve. Noodles, a little broth, some sprouts, a few herbs, the perfect dish!), favorite drink: egg coffee

Sightseeing

Vietnam was a perfect place for people who love being outdoors. Ha Long Bay was amazing and we had a great time exploring caves in Phong Nha. The jungle is easily accessible throughout the country. We didn’t get to explore the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, but have heard good things. Below: Ha Long Bay, Caving in Phong Nha, and exploring the ancient temples of My Son.

Thailand has some beautiful temples, beaches and jungle that are all easily accessible. If you are looking for a trip that includes a lot of partying and beach-going, then Thailand is the place for you! Jeff and I weren’t really looking for those things during our time there, so while we did some sightseeing, we spent a lot of our time living like locals and planning our future travels. Below: Rainforest, Sactuary of Truth, and giant Buhdda in Thailand:

Angkor Wat. It’s the reason that most people go to Cambodia. And it did not disappoint!!!! Every temple we saw seemed even better than the last one - and they were all different!

Winner: Vietnam, followed by Cambodia. There is still a lot we want to explore in Vietnam, but we feel like visiting Angkor Wat once in your lifetime is completely worth it, but sufficient. We felt that Thailand was overrun by tourists and we were not able to get as much of an authentic cultural experience there as we were in the other two countries.

Ease of transportation

It is really easy, and inexpensive to travel around SE Asia. The budget airline, Air Asia, normally has flights well under $100 anywhere you want to go (once you get to the continent)!

In Vietnam, there were travel agencies on every corner in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. All you had to do was walk in and book a bus for the same or next day. It really couldn’t have been any easier! Scooters ruled the road, and we felt safe enough to rent them in multiple cities. Uber is also available here, and made getting to and from the airport a breeze.

Thailand didn’t seem to have as many travel agencies, but there was much more information online about where to buy bus tickets or book tours if you needed to. There were less scooters in Thailand than in Vietnam, but we still felt safe renting them in Chiang Mai. Uber is available here also, so that’s a plus!

Cambodia had the best tuk-tuks. They were big, the ones in Phnom Penh had ghetto-rigged gas tanks, some were obviously paid off by advertisers (see above), and I even saw one that was covered (even the outside) in astro turf. Points for character!

Cambodia had a few more scooters on the road than Thailand, but there were more cars than in Vietnam. We did not rent scooters here, but we did take tuk-tuks everywhere. No Uber in Cambodia, and taxis were few and far between. The tuk-tuks were reasonably priced, and can get you anywhere! There were quite a few travel agencies in the bigger cities, and we opted to take the nicer buses for transport around the country. The buses in Cambodia were the nicest we found in SE Asia, and the rest stops were the cleanest!

Winner: Vietnam for ease of booking, Thailand and Cambodia for cleanliness!

Cara and Jeff’s favorite country in SE Asia…DRUMROLL PLEASE… is Vietnam!

This country surprised us the most, in the best way. We already plan on returning someday. The shopping, food, and beautiful countryside are reason enough, but when you add in how inexpensive it is to visit Vietnam, it’s a no-brainer. Who wants to go back with us???

Final award: Best Pool goes to our hotel in Chiang Mai!

Drifting Through Tokyo

March 24, 2017

Our final destination in Japan was Tokyo, and we felt that we barely scratched the surface. This place is huge, and I mean a giant city on a whole other scale. Every area seems to have its own claim to fame and reasons to visit, so I think you could spend a lifetime here and still find new places. I think we added just as many things to our ‘next time’ list as we crossed off on this visit, but that is okay with us!

Since we spent more time checking out Kyoto on the day we left, we didn’t end up getting to our Airbnb until after 7 in the evening. Our host here came and met us at the train station and walked us the few minutes to the apartment, then when we asked what was good to eat in the neighborhood and where the supermarket was, he took us for a walk around a few blocks. Then he took us into a small neighborhood joint where we got to try a bunch of different Kushikatsu, which is deep fried stuff on a stick. The batter here is much lighter than most things in the States and doesn’t seem as greasy or leave you feeling as gross. Or maybe we have just been eating too much junk for the last 9 months… but let’s not talk about that. Overall the stay here was our favorite apartment, and reinforced why we like staying in Airbnb’s.

The next day we were planning on checking out a few areas of Tokyo on our own and then we heard back from Kristen, who is someone we knew through friends in Virginia Beach. She has been working in Japan for just over 3 years and was coming into town for the day and graciously volunteered to play tour guide for us. She showed us Harajuku shopping street, the Meiji Jungu shrine (which is in a huge park in downtown Tokyo), Yoyogi National Stadium, Shibuya crossing (the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world), the Yebisu beer museum, and we had appetizers and a drink in one restaurant and then some Okinawan food at another place she knew and liked. It was a great day checking out the city and seeing lots of places we would not have found on our own, especially the restaurants and the brewery museum. The restaurant was a tiny hole in the wall that didn’t even have a sign out front unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, and we definitely didn’t! It’s always better to have someone show you around that knows where they are going, and we are very grateful that Kristen showed us all over.

Dinner was through that doorway. Never would have found it on our own!

Turns out there are copper roofs outside the UP too!

One of interesting sites is a statue of a dog outside Shibuya station that is a memorial to a dog that kept coming back to the station every day waiting for its owner to come back from work, long after the owner had passed away. It is a symbol of loyalty and fidelity to the Japanese people. My other favorite part of the day was the brewery museum, which is for Yebisu, one of Japan’s oldest breweries. For 500 yen (less than $5), you got a tour of their gallery which tells the story of the company (this isn’t a brewery tour, it’s more of a tasting room and true museum for the brand, plus the tour was in Japanese, but the pictures had English captions too and you could get the basic understanding) and 2 beers. We had to wait for the tour upon arrival, so we also tried a beer before the tour. The really interesting part was when they showed you how to pour a Japanese beer, which is basically maximizing the head on the beer. For some reason they enjoy their beer with a very large frothy head on every glass, and have special taps to add the foam after filling most of the glass. I guess all my college practice on the perfect pour with zero head was wasted here…

The next day, we got up and went to check out the Tsukiji market, which is where they auction off fresh tuna and other fish everyday and is the major market for most of the sushi restaurants. They limit the number of people that get to watch the tuna auctions and apparently even if you line up at 3:30 in the morning there is no guarantee you’ll get to see it, so we didn’t try. Unfortunately, we were misled by some of the articles we read, and we thought the market kept going for most of the morning but when we got down there around noon, the actual market was closing up and cleaning the stalls for the day. There were some surrounding vendors that were still selling goods, but the big wholesale area was all done. We were a little frustrated and both needed a little time to ourselves, and luckily we were in a safe city/country so we didn’t feel bad about going our own ways for a few hours. I headed back to the apartment and did some travel planning and relaxing and Cara went for some retail therapy and just to check out some more shopping districts.

Once she came back we made some fresh spring rolls for dinner with some tuna and salmon we picked up at the store and some greens. It was a fun experiment blending what we had learned in our cooking classes with the food that was readily available in Japan!

The next day was the big one, and by big one I mean the day Cara had been dreaming about since we had first mentioned coming to Japan a long time ago… We went to Tokyo Disney Sea (next door to Tokyo Disneyland). It was quite the… experience…Read about it here.

We ended up spending over 12 hours at Disney, plus a long train ride each way, so we slept in the next day and then spent some time making sure we had everything ready for the next leg of our journey. We got to Skype with both our parents and relax, which was great since we knew we would be going non-stop for a while after, as we have a lot planned in the beginning of our Australian trip, not to mention the long journey there and the road trip in New Zealand after.

On our last day in Tokyo we headed back to the Tsujiki Fish Market much earlier in an effort to see some more fish. Unfortunately, they don’t open up to the public until 10 am, which leaves a pretty small window to really see the fish for sale before everything is cleaned up for the day. We killed time wandering through the nearby markets and grabbed some really fresh sushi (probably the best of our stay in Japan) before strolling through the market. The variety of fish and the size of the tuna was impressive! After the fish market, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which has free observation rooms on one of the top floors. It was an awesome view of the city and they have volunteers that want to practice English there to tell you about the building and some of the things you can see. Of course our guide asked us about Trump, seems like everyone in the world is watching his antics.

After the observation towers, we made our final stop in Japan, and I think it was one of Cara’s favorites. We went by the Toto showroom! If you don’t know Toto, they make toilets (and all other kinds of bathroom and home stuff) and they have two floors in a building downtown set up as a sales and showroom showing the latest and greatest in toilet tech. I think everyone else there was actually shopping for bathroom goods, but we just played tourists. The things you do for your wife…

We caught an afternoon train out to the airport and had one last bowl of noodles before getting on our redeye flight to Australia. Overall, Japan was awesome and we definitely want to go back and explore some more.

-Jeff

Japan Recap:

Total Amount Spent (including flight into Osaka): $2,579.07

Average Per Day (14 Days): $184.22

Modes of Transportation: Train, Ferry, Street Car, and Bus

Japan was an expensive stop, but not quite as bad as we had thought it might be. Food is not cheap, but lodging wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be. Staying in Airbnb’s was much cheaper than the hotels we could find, and we could buy at least a few groceries and make breakfast for ourselves. Overall Japan was about the same price as Europe, but the trains were more expensive than some of the budget airline flights we got to bounce around Europe.

Taking care of Business

March 22, 2017

I have been so fascinated by bathroom culture in Japan, that I felt the need to write this post. I was going to call this post ‘Toilet Time,’ but figured no one would read it. Do I have your interest yet? Public health and wastewater treatment are right up my alley. I spent an entire year of college studying latrines- and it was awesome. I know it’s just me. The other day I asked Jeff, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could see garbage from a bunch of different countries? You could learn so much from analyzing a society’s trash.’ He didn’t agree.

After squatting in developing countries for the last few months, I think that using the nice bathroom in the airport when we landed in Osaka would have haven nice no matter what. However, this particular toilet had a heated seat. A HEATED TOILET SEAT!

What makes me even happier? This is common. It’s been so chilly here that most of the time when I tell Jeff I have to go pee, I really just want to go warm my bum up. TMI?

While we were in Osaka, I noticed that all of the women washed their hands after using the toilet, but no one used the air dryer. There isn’t paper towel in any of the restrooms, but everyone seems to carry a small towel in their purse to wipe their wet hands on. After a day or two of feeling like a wierdo using the hand dryer, I threw a washcloth in my pocket to fit in.

In most of the Airbnb's we stayed in, the toilets were environmentally friendly. They had a faucet on top of the tank so you could wash your hands and then the grey water was recycled to flush with!

Other fun features of Japanese toilets? Flushing music plays when you enter the stall, and you can adjust the volume to cover up embarrassing noises. There are a half dozen bidet options, and sometimes there are so manybuttons that I don’t have a clue how to flush. I have yet to be in a stall that is out of TP. And many of the stalls have baby holders, so you don’t have to worry about your child running around while you take care of business.

Don’t even get me started on the train toilets. They were a far cry from the train toilets in India, where you needed to be extra careful not to drop anything down the hole that went right onto the tracks. They had changing tables in the train toilets!

Public restrooms seem to be around every corner- and they are all free!

So many options for activities in these public restrooms! Looks like you can either have you adult diaper changed, or get adjusted by a chiropractor....

On our last day in Tokyo, Jeff figured out where the Toto Showroom was and took me there. He’s a real romantic. I thought it was awesome!

If you find yourself in Japan, have no fear-you’ll be able to conduct your business in comfort!

-Cara

Where dreams really do come true

March 20, 2017

Since last year, when we had decided we were going to visit Japan, I have been excited to visit Tokyo Disney. I think it was in our trip budget before the Kilimanjaro climb was. So it was no wonder that I couldn’t sleep the night before we went- I was like a kid on Christmas Eve!

We originally thought we would go to Tokyo Disneyland, but after a little more research, we decided to go to the other park in Japan: Tokyo Disneysea. And it was awesome! For you Disney World people, it was like MGM Studios meets Epcot, and for my So. Cal friends, it was similar to California Adventure. After over an hour on the commuter trains from our Airbnb in Tokyo, we arrived! And our day ended up being more of a cultural experience than anything else- but magical just the same!

We weren’t sure how many people to expect at the park; it was a Tuesday, Japanese school was in session, and it was freezing cold (mid 40’s) with a chance of rain. We should know better; weird weather does not deter Disney die-hards. I can’t imagine what the parks are like during the summer months here; because there were a ton of people there in winter! Lines for the more popular rides were about 170 minutes each. No thank you! We ended up getting Fastpasses for the bigger attractions if we could, but you still had to wait in line…

Fastpass line for the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride

We were able to ride all of the rides we wanted to, and saw most of the shows. For the most part, the shows were in Japanese, but it was pretty easy to catch on. We went and saw one outdoor show called, ‘A Table is Waiting,’ where Mickey showed off food from around the world. I about lost it when ‘Spice Up Your Life’ started playing to Daisy Duck dancing about Indian curry. Picture it: Japanese dancers, lip syncing Spice Girls, dressed in Disney-Indian garb. It got even better (I know, I didn’t think it was possible either), when Goofy came out and sang to us about Japanese bento boxes. Apparently, we were all supposed to know the song:

In case you were wondering, America’s food was the cheeseburger. (We have learned that the cheeseburger is all other country’s think of our cuisine. Fair enough.) Of course, all of the shows were wonderful! We were surprised that one of the shows was completely in English (it was in the NYC section of the park, so I guess it made sense), and were even more surprised to see American actors in the show. I think this park must be where they send the people who can’t cut it in Orlando since they all looked a little older…

Anyway, visiting Disneysea taught us so much about Japanese Disney culture. Everything in the parks are a photo op for you and your friends! And I’m not talking about taking pictures with the characters. There were long lines formed around the park to take pictures with the scenery. It seemed like they specifically designed the park to have random photogenic backdrops (more than in any other park I’ve seen!).

The selfie game is strong here, and so are the peace signs. I tried out my peace sign with Goofy, and got some giggles from the people in line behind us. Mistake: my fingers are pointed in, instead of outwards. I agree- this does look gangsta (possible product of growing up near Detroit, or spending too much time in OV). I'm pretty sure this is the equivalent of throwing the middle finger. Sorry Goofy. I hope I didn’t offend anyone! I spent the rest of the day trying to make up for it:

In front of the Tower of Terror, with a proper peace sign

Going to Disney with your friends is all about looking good! Jeff and I totally missed the memo. I was in and out of the restrooms in 1/100th of the time of most women, because it seemed to be a requirement to spend at least 10 minutes in front of the mirror applying makeup and making sure your hair was right. No complaints here- everyone has seriously beautiful hair in this country! Apparently, we were supposed to show up in matching outfits- Disney-themed is optional. Whether you are going with one friend, or 5, it seemed like a requirement for everyone (boys included) to dress the same. I’m talking down to matching socks people:

This was seriously impressive. And helpful! Since Jeff and I were two, of the maybe ten westerners we saw at the park, it helped us know who was with whom. Instead of accidentally splitting up a group of teeny-boppers going into a show, we would just look at who was standing in front of us, and if the people behind us were wearing the same outfit, we knew we were standing in the middle of their group! Jeff and I froze our butts off all day (I was wearing 2 pairs of pants and was still chilly), but most of the girls were running around in short skirts. The people watching was phenomenal, and fun fact: fishnets seem to be making a strong comeback!

Souvenirs in the park were ungodly expensive, just like at home. People were going nuts in the shops right when the park opened! I just wonder where they keep all of their souvenirs…most of the homes and apartments in Japan are smaller than tiny homes. But what was pleasantly surprising was that most of the food was reasonable! And tasted good! We could buy steamed buns in the park for 500 Yen (just under $5), and that was what we would buy them on the street for!

Popcorn is extremely popular here, and everyone was walking around with souvenir popcorn holders hanging from their necks. With 7 different flavors, we had to try some! We opted for white chocolate and black pepper (not at the same time). Flavors change with the seasons here, but others available included: caramel, salted, cappuccino, curry, and milk chocolate.

Whenever my family goes to Disney, we always get Mickey Ears- the klondike bar in the shape of Mickey's ears stuck on a popsicle stick. Even though it was a cold day, we were on the search for ice cream! I was a little disappointed when we found limited ice cream options. We settled for a tiramisu ice cream sandwich since the only other options were popsicles or a vanilla ice cream bar. It didn't even come close to Mickey Ears, so later we just ate more popcorn!

We stayed until the park closed, and caught the last show of the night with Mickey. Disneysea is mostly around a huge manmade lake (hence Epcot), so there were a ton of lights, pyrotechnics and water spraying everywhere! We had a magical time that didn’t break the bank. We spent just under $190 for the whole day, including park tickets, food and train tickets to get there and back from our place in Tokyo!

-Cara

Has anyone heard of Duffy? Is this a new thing? Duffy and ShellieMay are the two most popular characters in the park! Duffy is Mickey Mouse's teddy bear, and ShellieMay is Minnie's...

Kyoto

March 18, 2017

From Hiroshima, we took our next bullet train to Kyoto. We were really excited to see Kyoto. Our friends Matt and Rebekkah had been here about a year ago, and had great things to say. After doing a little research about things to see we had a full itinerary. Whenever I heard about Kyoto, I always thought about the Kyoto Protocol. Anyone else? The Protocol is an international treaty that was signed by nations committed to reducing greenhouse gasses (not fun fact: the US didn’t sign). Read more about the Kyoto Protocol here. Anyway, now that we have actually been to Kyoto, I will definitely have different thoughts!

We spent 3 nights in Kyoto, and stayed in an Airbnb on the west side of the city. We used our JR Rail passes a few times, but they weren’t super convienent to get around the city center. We bought 1-day city bus passes, which were 500 Yen each (about $4.50).

The Kyoto City bus was easy to use, and each stop had a sign that told us when our bus was approaching!

We used the bus to get down to the Gion district. This is the area of town to see Geisha’s! We didn’t see any, but we did see a lot of tourists. If you are going to visit Kyoto, you need to be prepared for many other people, and ready to fight off the other Asian tourists performing photo shoots on every corner. Most Asian tourists rented kimonos. Don't confuse them with the actual geisha's! For about $30 you could rent a kimono for the day, and if you paid a little more, you could get your hair and makeup done too. Jeff and I passed on the kimonos, but I did pay about $20 to attend a traditional tea ceremony. It sounded very expensive to me for a 45-minute tea ceremony and only 1 cup of tea. But I am so glad I went! You pay more for the cultural experience than the tea, and to me, that was completely worth it. (Below: sights from the tea room.)

The lady running the tea house took 2 other couples, plus myself (Jeff opted out), upstairs to her tea room and explained the tea ceremony to us. She asked if we all had tried matcha (powdered green tea) before and if we liked it. Everyone, except for me, said that they liked matcha. I told her that I had made my own cup of tea using matcha powder, so it was probably due to ‘user error’ that I didn’t like it. I love all kinds of tea! Then she performed the tea ceremony, while the rest of us sat silently and watched. It was almost meditative- we were told that listening to the sounds (water, mixing of tea) of making the tea should be very relaxing. And it was! She presented the bowl of matcha to me in order to change my mind about green tea! I was very surprised at what the matcha looked like. It was vibrant green, and very frothy. This was due to the way the tea was made. She added matcha powder to the bowl, and then used a bamboo whisk to dissolve the tea powder after the hot water was added. It was served in a bowl- not a cup!

After I drank the bowl of matcha (it is polite in Japan, and a compliment to the chef, to completely finish your food and drink), she had each of us in the room prepare our own bowl of tea. She served it to us with a small Japanese sweet. Since the matcha isn’t sweet, you usually have a sweet right before, or while you consume your tea. While I still prefer black tea (English breakfast to be exact), I was pleasantly surprised by matcha, and my experience during the tea ceremony!

We packed many touristy sights into Kyoto. On our second day in town, we went out to Arashiyama to see the Bamboo Forrest- a small park just outside of town.

We also visited Fushimi Inari Shrine. It is famous for its thousands of vermillion torii gates! Again- be ready to walk with bunch of tourists. We walked halfway up the mountain in order to get a good view over Kyoto- it was worth it!

That night, we stumbled upon a lantern festival. There were hundreds of lanterns lining the streets in the Gion district, and many beautiful flower sculptures that were lit up:

For us, Kyoto was the city of ramen. It’s been cold in Japan, and we are pretty much wearing all of the clothes in our backpacks every day. So it makes sense that a hot bowl of soup sounds good after walking around all day! Jeff has never been a fan of soup (or hot beverages). I was really surprised that he was excited about eating it 2 days in a row! On our second night in Kyoto we ate at a ramen shop that had many options. While they had an English menu, both of us had never eaten ramen before, so we took a stab at what we thought looked good (thankfully the Japanese love putting full photos of food on the menu). The ramen we got was great! I ordered a regular (?) bowl, and Jeff’s ended up being spicy. It was delicious! Also, the table was covered with things to add to our ramen...we stayed away since we didn't know what any of the condiments were!

The next night, by the time we got hungry while walking around, the nearest restaurant in our budget happened to be another ramen shop. We were the only ones in the restaurant around 5:30pm- the Japanese seem to eat a little later. Since we got prime spots at the counter, we were able to see how our bowls were put together. Not sure how long the pot of stock had been boiling for (years maybe?), but we watched our noodles cook, and then get added along with broth, beef, bean sprouts, and a lot of onion to our bowls. These bowls were even better than the night before!

We didn’t leave Kyoto until 3:30pm on our last day there, so we spent the morning at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens and walked around the Imperial Palace before heading back to the train station.

I am in love with all of the ornamental cabbage I have seen around Japan!

Getting food to eat before getting on the trains seems to be extremely common in Japan. There are plenty of restaurants and food counters in all of the train stations and they are always packed with people! We didn’t want to be left out, so we picked up two bento boxes of food at Kyoto Station before we got on the train- yum!

Overall, we enjoyed Kyoto, but found it to be extremely touristy- much more than Hiroshima. I would definitely suggest visiting the Bamboo Forrest and the Torri Gates, just be prepared for all of the tourists. We haven't encountered too many Western tourists in Japan, but in Kyoto, there were many other Asian tourists. You would see people everywhere in rented kimonos- and it was pretty obvious that they were not locals.

-Cara

Hiroshima

March 08, 2017

We took a fast Shinkansen train from Osaka to Hiroshima, where we would spend 2 nights. Before coming to Japan, Jeff and I purchased 7-Day JR Rail passes. Jeff did a lot of research, making sure that it was the most economical option for us. At well over $200 each, we wanted to make sure that we were going to get our money’s worth! We have been really happy with our decision to use them. The JR trains are on time, extremely clean, get us from place to place, and we have made an effort to get the most use out of all of the lines that the JR company has to offer in each city we visit (the local subways and trains can be confusing in Japan, there are multiple companies in each city and you have to buy tickets for them separately. It was nice to have one company we didn't have to get tickets for, at least for some of our stay). Below: bullet trains, snack cart, and how to use the trains politely!

Many of the places that we have visited in the past year have been spur of the moment, or a happy coincidence due to cheap plane tickets or friend’s vacations. However, when we started planning this trip, Japan was always on the list, and Hiroshima was a place that Jeff really wanted to visit.

After we dropped our bags at our Airbnb, we walked around the corner and grabbed lunch. I ordered Japanese curry, and Jeff had salmon. The place had set lunch menus with limited choices but you got a drink and soup too!

This curry (above, left) was very different from the curries I have been eating in the past few months. (Jeff disagrees- he says that all curries taste like curry). To me, this was more like a sweet beef stew with a mild curry flavor.

Hiroshima is an extremely walkable city, and nothing seemed very far apart. After we ate, we walked a few short blocks to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Park. Entrance to the museum was only 200 Yen (less than $2 per person), and was completely worth it. We spent about 2 hours walking through the small displays in the museum. I thought that it was put together very well, and was surprised that each year, people bring thousands of items and heirlooms that were affected by the a-bomb to the museum that have been passed down in their families.

On the other side of the memorial park is the A-bomb dome. The hypocenter of the bomb was actually detonated over a hospital. Of all the information presented to us in Hiroshima about the A-bomb, I was really surprised that none of it was one-sided, and did not seem to infer any resentment towards America for completely decimating their city. I understand that it was war, but there seriously didn’t seem to be any hard feelings towards the US. Really the only mention to the US was this:

The A-bomb Dome was left as a reminder to show the disastrous effects of nuclear weapons

The overall message was more about the horrors of atomic warfare and the consequences, pushing the message of peace and ensuring that this doesn't happen again, rather than point fingers or complain.

We also walked around the Hiroshima Castle grounds, which were beautiful. And some plum blossoms were out!

The next day we went for a morning jog, and later that afternoon we used our JR rail passes to get out to Miyajima Island. For our Michigan friends: I would consider Miyajima Island to be pretty similar to Mackinaw Island. It was extremely touristy and we only walked around for about an hour before catching the ferry back to the mainland. I think there are probably many more people crawling around here during the summer, so I guess it’s a good thing that we had chilly weather and small crowds!

There is a large Torri Gate near the island, that at high tide looks like it is floating in the water. A special delicacy of the Hiroshima area, especially from Miyajima, are small maple cakes that have filling. Jeff tried a crème filled cake (good choice), and I tried the traditional red bean paste filled cake. I just can’t come around to considering beans a dessert option.

For dinner that night, we decided to go into a little local okonomiyaki place next to our Airbnb. The pictures below are of okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese pancake thing, usually stuffed or cooked with some sort of cabbage or vegetables and meat, sometimes topped with barbeque sauce or other condiment. We had quite a few different varieties of these during our stay! It was the kind of place where all heads turn and stare when you walk in the door if you aren’t a local. We quite obviously are not locals. We settled at a small table in the back (the bar stools were full of locals enjoying drinks), and were waited on by the friendly couple who seemed to run the place. While we were waiting for our food, one of the locals from the bar came over and sat with us. We enjoyed a fabulous conversation in broken English about everything from our jobs (or lack thereof), Trump (a popular topic with foreigners), and geography (mostly of the States). By the time we were done eating our meal (which was good-but not as good as the company), we felt like we were regulars, and we were asked to sign the restaurant wall on the way out. In permanent marker! I felt like a celebrity.

Before getting on our afternoon train to Kyoto the next day, we walked up to the Peace Pagoda. It had a beautiful view of the city. It’s amazing to think about what this city looked like after the bomb exploded. We had an amazing time in Hiroshima, and the city had a much slower pace than Osaka, which both Jeff and I appreciated.

-Cara

Konnichiwa Japan!

March 05, 2017

After our long layover in Kuala Lumpur, we made it Osaka, Japan. We successfully navigated immigration, grabbed our bags, and figured out how to buy a metro ticket into town. There are so many rail lines in Japan that you really have to pay attention to which lines go where! Google maps has been pretty helpful, and we’re not afraid to ask questions (which normally ends in a lot of pointing from the helpful railway staff). Jeff’s note: so far the Japanese people aren’t afraid to talk your ear off and explain everything, even when they clearly know you can’t understand a word you’re saying. My favorite so far was the train station attendant that greeted us with a cheerful ‘Hi’ and then it turned out that was the limit of his English, but definitely not the end of the conversation. Even with the language barrier, the people are extremely friendly and we haven’t had any real issues finding out way.

We found our Airbnb, and headed out to find some food. We ended up walking into a small diner. No one seemed to speak English, and they didn’t have any English menus- but they did have pictures! We had a good meal at a restaurant I would call ‘the Denny’s of Japan’ and we did so without being able to speak any Japanese. We did say ‘Arigato!’ ‘Thank you!’ Note: always learn how to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in the language of any country you travel to - it goes a long way!

The next day we bought day tickets for the local trains and headed to downtown Osaka. We got off the train near the Tenjinbashisuji shopping arcade - it was 2.6 kilometers long. We also walked around Osaka Castle and found that the plum and apricot trees were blooming! We saw a few cherry trees in early bloom, but for the most part we seem to be here a few weeks early.

Once we started to get hangry, Jeff took me to get conveyor belt sushi. It was our first time at a place like this, but I had been looking forward to eating sushi for months! After a short wait, we were seated at the conveyor belt. We tried to watch the locals and see what they did, and then followed suit. You could either pull plates from the belt, or order sushi from the fancy ipad they had at each seat. I did some of both. It was kind of a surprise when you ordered on the ipad, since it was all in Japanese and the pictures didn’t necessarily look exactly like what you got. Each plate was 100 Yen, or a little less than $1, which is a pretty good price. We only spent $16 and were pretty full when we left. Considering how much we used to spend on sushi when we went out in Virginia, this was an extra good deal.

We then walked around the Dontonbori district in Osaka- which seemed like walking around Times Square. There were just as many lights and people there! Jeff was a trooper and let me go shopping. I needed to buy mittens and leggings for our 2 weeks here. Call me a sissy, but I got used to hanging out in my bathing suit in 90-degree weather in Cambodia, so 40-50 degree weather is frigid!

To cap our Saturday night off, we headed to the arcade. Japan has a large gaming culture (I think my mind is going to be blown when we get to Tokyo), and it was impressive to watch some locals play video games. Jeff and I took a stab at Mario Cart. If you are looking for other ways to spend your money in Japan, there seem to be slot machines and pachinko games on every corner. Jeff and I aren’t gamblers, but if you are - I found your place! Even the quiet neighborhood we were staying at had 2 pachinko places on one block. The photos below are from the arcade. The picture with the most pink in it is a 'girls only' room. Not sure what was going on in there, but I'm pretty sure it was just a bunch of photo booths where you could heavily edit yourself to look more beautiful...

Since we had another full day in Osaka (we stayed there for 3 nights), we bought another day ticket for the local train and headed back downtown. We walked around a few local parks and explored Sumiyoshi Taisha Temple.

Then we went to Kuromon Ichiba Market and ate some takoyaki (a ball shaped snack made out of wheat batter with diced octopus) and okonomiyaki (savory pancake- ours was egg based with cabbage and pork). They top these snacks with barbeque sauce and pork floss. You can’t go wrong when it’s topped with bacon- they were delicious!

So far, we have been extremely impressed with Japan. I’m not going to lie- it’s really, really, really nice to be back in a developed country. We feel extremely safe here and it’s so clean! We have been chasing summer around the globe, so this is the first dose of winter (ok, ok- it’s really like early spring weather) that we have had in about a year. Most people seem to speak some English, and those who don’t, seem very receptive to my smiling, nodding and excessive hand motions. We are looking forward to spending 2 weeks in Japan!

-Cara

16 Hours in Malaysia

March 03, 2017

When you book the cheap flights on budget airlines, most of the time you get stuck with crappy flight times and weird layovers. Jeff and I have been really lucky so far, and have minimal layovers on most of our flights. However, the cheapest flight we could find from Cambodia to Japan took us through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about 16 hours. Luckily for us, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the morning and didn’t leave until the red-eye super late that night.

Even though the KL airport is one of the nicest in the world, we didn’t want to hang out in an airport all day. Especially since we were there only a few days after the mysterious Kim Jong-nam fiasco (wah-wah). Anyway, we stored our luggage, and bought tickets to get into town on the train and then take the hop-on, hop-off bus around town. This was our first hop-on, hop-off bus for our entire trip!

We wouldn’t really recommend the hop-on, hop-off bus because the pickups were unreliable and the information provided was pretty lame. The bus route ends at 8pm, and they mean 8pm. We were in the middle of the bus route and got kicked off quite a way from the train station to the airport. But it did make pretty good financial sense because the bus ticket included a train ticket to and from the airport to Kuala Lumpur city. We saw most of the major sites in the city including the Petronas twin towers, KL observation tower, Merdeka Square, and ate at the Central Market.

Kuala Lumpur was just another big city to us, except it had much more Islamic influence than any other Asian city we had been to. I would say it is very similar to Singapore, which makes sense since they are neighbors, but KL seemed a little older and dirtier to me.

We spent a total of $78.82 in Kuala Lumpur on the hop-on, hop-off tickets and food for the day. We didn’t have to spend all day in the airport and we got one more stamp in our passports!

-Cara

Ancient Angkor

February 27, 2017

If you travel to Cambodia, most likely you will include a visit to Angkor Wat. Before arriving in Siem Reap, Jeff and I didn’t really understand how extensive the temples were. We bought a 3-day pass (the prices were raised to $62/pp just before we arrived), and still didn’t see every temple! If you purchase an Angkor Wat ticket and enter the ticketed area near the temples after 5 pm, they don’t charge you for that day. So basically, we got to see a free sunset at Angkor Wat! Angkor Wat is the largest and most famous of the temples. I was so impressed when we got there, I kept walking slow and ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ahh-ing’ while Jeff was trying to rush me along. I didn’t understand why, until I realized that I was just ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ahh-ing’ at the outer temple wall. Once he got me inside the complex, I understood what he really wanted to go see!

The view of Angkor Wat....once you get through the fascinating outer gate. There were always a ton of people there!

Sunset at the Angkor Wat complex:

We woke up super early the next morning and met our tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Sarath, at 5am to go back to the Angkor Wat complex to see the sunrise. After sunrise and exploring some of the actual Angkor Wat complex, we hopped back in the tuk tuk and headed to the temples much further away, riding about 25 kilometers outside town to see a large temple area and some carvings along a waterfall in the same area. We hit a few more temples on the way back into town and we were both getting really tired so we called it a day, thinking we quit to early in the afternoon because it was about 3 pm. Then we remembered we had gotten up into a tuk tuk at 5 am for sunrise and didn’t feel to bad about a 10 hour day. On that first day we visited: Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean waterfall, Prerup, and Ta Prohm (where they filmed Tomb Raider).

Our hotel offered bike rentals for $2/day, so we figured we would get some exercise and see temples! We used bikes to get around for our last 2 temple days. It allowed us to make a pit stop outside of town at Wat Thmey, which was used by the Khmer Rouge as a prison and killing field. The bones on display are a stark reminder of the Cambodia’s history. NOT fun fact: during the Vietnam War (‘65-’73), the US dropped more bombs on Cambodia than the entire Allied forces dropped during all of WWII. It’s crazy to think that after all of that, the Cambodian people faced the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. We spent a lot of time at the genocide museum in Phnom Penh, but I am glad we stopped at Wat Thmey in Siem Reap also. I like to think that Cambodia is way beyond its dark period, but I think it still has a ways to go. We have seen a lot of poverty during our travels, and while I wouldn’t say Jeff and I are immune to it, we understand it is common in parts of the world we have traveled through. But that afternoon outside of one of the temples I saw three little street urchins hunting through trash to collect water bottles (they can get money for recycle). I watched one of the little girls, maybe 5 yrs old, find a discarded smoothie in the trash and then tried to use the straw to slurp up any remaining piddles of liquid. Broke my damn heart.

On our bikes over 2 days, we visited: Bakheng Hill, Deads Gate, everything in the Angkor Thom complex, Bayon, Ta Keo, Spean Thma, Ta Keo, Chapelle de l'Hopital East and Angkor Wat again.

On a lighter note, every temple we visited was amazing. To claim that the Angkor area is a wonder of the world is accurate. Cambodia definitely has a gem, and seems to be working to repair damage to temples and ensure that future visitors will be able to see the temples. We spent 2 days on bikes and were able to get off the beaten path - literally, we were in places that the tuk-tuks couldn’t get to. This meant that we got some of the temples all to ourselves!

On one of our last nights in Cambodia, we took a tuk-tuk outside of town and saw Phare, Cambodian Circus. It was worth a visit! Not quite as impressive as circuses we have seen in the States, but they did have an artist who was painting part of the story line during the whole show and it was impressive! I thought it was really unique to incorporate that kind of art into a circus.

-Cara

Cambodia Summary:

Total Amount Spent in Cambodia (including PADI Open Water Certifications and flight into Phnom Penh): $2262.06

Modes of transportation: Tuk-tuk, bus, boat, bike, fins (while diving)

Avg: $113.10 per day

Because we spent quite a bit on diving, Cambodia because one of our more expensive stops. If you removed the diving costs, our average per day would fall to about $75, which would be right between Vietnam and Thailand. The temple price went up at the beginning of February too, increasing from $40 to $62, and considering that most days we spent less than $20 for both of us to eat for the day, that change made a significant impact too. We definitely did some cheaper options (renting a bike ($2) vs getting a tuk tuk for the day ($15-20) and eating mostly street food instead of in the tourist and fancier restaurants), but we also spent a little more to stay at a nicer place in Siem Reap instead of the bare bones backpacker hostel (still only a little over $20 a night) and went to the circus. I feel like we got a really good picture of Cambodia and saw most of the big-ticket items. Overall I would put the cost of Cambodia right on par with Thailand and Vietnam, and like most places the big costs come in lodging and transportation so depending on how many places you want to go and how high class you want to be while you’re there.

Any of the temples seemed to be a very popular place for wedding photos!

Supposedly, Angelina Jolie was in Cambodia at the same time we were, promoting a film or adopting children. All I could think about was what she would think of this office trying to sell glasses:

Cambodian Delicacies

February 24, 2017

Khmer food is so different from Western food, that all of the things we have been eating for the past 3 weeks deserve their own blogpost!

I have been surprised at how similar, but very different (aka same same but different!), the food has been between Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Here we have been eating a lot of Lok Lak, which is a traditional beef dish. Its varies everywhere you go! It is marinated beef that is served in a tomato sauce with rice. Sometimes you get an egg on top!

Another traditional Khmer dish is Amok. Amok is usually served with fish (although you can order it with other types of meat). Fish is popular in Cambodia, but Jeff and I haven’t been eating much of it. Both of us are too lazy to pick all of the meat off the bones since they are normally served whole. I wasn’t so sure what to expect from fish amok, but wanted to try it! I was pleasantly surprised! It ended up being one of my favorite Cambodian dishes. It is a light-yellow coconut curry with fish and vegetables, served with rice. I also ordered it quite a few times with chicken- delicious!

The street food scene isn’t as good as it was in Thailand, but Jeff and I walked around Siem Reap until we could find budget friendly options that would fill us up. As carnivores, we judge a good street food scene based on the amount of meat available. Meat on a stick was popular in Thailand, but finding grilled meat is harder to do in Cambodia. On Valentine’s Day we spent a very romantic night visiting multiple food stands and eating in the street. We spent a whopping total of $4 and got: fried noodles (2 different dishes), 1 fried leek cake, fried coconut balls and 2 bottles of water.

There is plenty of other street food available, even if there isn’t as much meat on a stick as we would like to find; some of my favorite things are the pre-cut fruit you can find all over SE Asia. In Cambodia I loved the pineapple, cut right in front of you!

A good snack for 75 cents! Prices went up as we got to Angkor Wat. I paid $1 for a pineapple there. We did find one meat lady on the street in Siem Reap- and we frequented her cart almost every night:

One of our most authentic meals was lunch on our first full day of seeing the temples. We told our tuk-tuk driver that we wanted to get some local food. So, he stopped at a little roadside shack! (Shack is a generous term, perhaps ‘lean-to’ is more appropriate.) The ladies who ran this stall had already cooked multiple dishes, and we just walked up, looked in each pot, and then pointed to what we wanted. We both chose rice with vegetables and meat. Don’t ask us exactly what it was, the lady didn’t speak English, but it was pretty good! We also think there were some jokes made about white people eating on the side of the road - but since the conversation was in Khmer, I’ll assume they were just complementing our food choices….

The best part of this meal was the sausage I asked for after we had almost eaten all of our rice. They had been sitting on the grill next to the whole fish (head on). Jeff didn’t think they were edible at first, but after our tuk-tuk driver ate one, we figured they were safe. I don’t know how to describe this meat, except to say it was ‘dessert sausage.’ Delicious! Like candied bacon in sausage form! We found similar sausages at the market the next day. No idea how long they had been hanging there next to the dried fish for....

On our second day of visiting temples, we ran into Isaac. He is from California, but is traveling after serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana. We had a great time chatting with him about his experiences and exchanging travel stories. I know it’s common for us to thank members of the military for their service (rightfully so!), but I’ve never heard anyone specifically thank Peace Corps volunteers. Thank you all of you who have served, or are serving in the Peace Corps. Your passion, dedication and wiliness to help other cultures truly makes the world a better place.

We met up with Isaac a few nights later for dinner at a local Khmer BBQ place.

Jeff and I weren’t so brave- we ordered beef and chicken BBQ skewers. Isaac ordered beef and ants. I had read that ants were a local delicacy here, but we hadn’t seen them on the menu anywhere! And they were good! The beef was stir-fried with a delicious sauce and the ants were right in there too! I also ordered a delicious banana flower salad. They had julienned the banana flower and dressed it with a sweet vinaigrette. (Pics above: ants and beef, banana flower salad, and chicken pineapple bbq.)

Close up: ANTS....it's what's for dinner...

The locals DO eat bugs here. We saw a few ladies set up on the side of the road with huge platters piled with crickets and roaches. A common afternoon snack are small snails. We saw all of the school children buy a bag full of shells and suck the snails out of them. On Pub Street in Siem Reap, they had tarantulas for sale for the tourists. They are supposedly a delicacy, but we didn't see them offered on any menu. We opted for a photo instead of eating one:

One of our most expensive meals in Siem Reap was this:

$10 bottle of wine, $4.50 for tortilla chips, and $4.50 for salsa. Worth it! For the record, we started with $5 worth of meat from the one good grill cart we found in town.

We are really going to miss being able to eat on the side of the road whenever hunger strikes. And being able to do it for so cheap!

-Cara

Street food scenes: A man's cart attached to his moto, a 'Cambodian cannoli,' and white noodles topped with egg. These were our favorite noodles in Cambodia! On our first night in-country, we ate these. At first, I was afraid we were getting served some sort of stir-fried worms...

On the Road Again

February 21, 2017

While I was sad to leave my idea of tropical paradise on that little Cambodian island, I think Jeff was glad. He was still feeling a little ill from the jellyfish sting, and hanging out in salt water and sand really isn’t his jam. Late one afternoon we took the Dive Shop boat back to Sihanoukville. It was an extremely rough 3 hours back to the mainland (hello Dramamine), but the sunset was gorgeous and we got to see some cool looking boats. We were curious about the navy ships we saw off the coast and took note of the hull numbers to look up later, they looked too big and nice to be Cambodian navy ships, but we couldn’t see any flags. Turns out they were US Navy ships!

We have been traveling in Asia long enough to be sick of rice and noodles with every meal. (Literally EVERY meal- noodle soup is popular for breakfast.) The entire week we were on the island I had been dreaming about the hamburgers they served at the hostel we were staying at in Sihanoukville, as we saw some people order them when we stayed there before going out to the island. They did not disappoint once we were back in town!

The next morning, we boarded a bus back to Phnom Penh. We split up our trip to Siem Reap (Ankgor Wat) because we wanted to split up the long bus rides, as we have done enough all day rides on this trip. After what was supposed to be a short 4 hour bus (thank you to the 2 older English ladies who had us stop 2 extra times to pee), we made it back to Phnom Penh in 6 hours. I talked Jeff into early dinner and ice cream!

I had Bailey's flavored ice cream. I'm pretty sure they just froze pure Bailey's- it was delicous!

The entertainment that accompanied our ice cream was fabulous:

Group exercise was happening in the park!

Early the next day we got on a bus to Siem Reap. This was (fingers crossed) our last long bus ride for awhile. We made it from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap in just under 6 hours thanks to the maniac driver after the lunch stop. Note: Cambodian rest stops are soooooo much nicer than Vietnamese rest stops- in case you were keeping track, and they are also much nicer than those in Africa and India. Jeff even ordered lunch at one stop! Basically the nicest we have seen, even better than some we’ve been to in the USA (everybody knows that nasty gas station you only stopped at because you had too).

What does a couple have to talk about if they spend every waking moment together? Well, most of the time I ask Jeff weird questions to keep the conversation going. The other day I asked. ‘Do you think that because we have been traveling for so long that each place we go isn’t as exciting as it would be if we had just gone there for a week-long vacation?’

Our answer: Yes.

Why? Well, we have been trying to spend longer in certain places in order to save money, and reduce burn out. If we moved quickly and tried to see all of the tourist highlights in each country we have visited we would be broke and exhausted. Staying in a town for at least a week is perfect for us because we have time to explore, relax and plenty of time to plan the logistics for our next stops. I realize we haven’t talked much about our travel planning on this blog because, it’s well…boring. My brother Phil asked us what we were going to do for the 8 days we stayed in Thailand after he left. He was kind of shocked and thought we were crazy when we told him we weren’t going to do anything for that week. No motobiking, no seeing more waterfalls, no temples, no other touristy sights. Granted we did still explore town a little, but mostly we took the time to figure out what we were doing a few months out. In those 9 days, we planned and made reservations for a 14-day trip to Japan, a 3-week trip to Australia and a 2-week trip to New Zealand (well, at least some of the Australia and New Zealand stuff got done…). So while we didn’t do everything most tourists would have done in Thailand (or Singapore, or Dubai, or Tanzania…..the list goes on), we feel like we got enough out of our time there.

We are doing the exact same thing in Siem Reap- home of Angkor Wat. We have 9 nights here. We will not be exploring ancient temples the whole time, instead we opted for a 3 day pass to the temples. We will get a chance to experience local flavor, see a few of the other sights around town (like the circus!) and have a time to catch up on travel planning (and blog writing like I’m doing now!).

-Cara

More sights from around Phnom Penh:

PADI Open Water Diver Course

February 18, 2017

Cara and I did a Discover Scuba Dive in Greece and to be honest, I really didn’t like it. I’m not one for water sports in general, especially salt water, and I really didn’t think scuba diving was for me. Cara loved it though, so since then she has been planning on getting her PADI cert. Our original plan was for her to dive in Singapore, but that didn’t end up working out. As time went on I decided I wanted the opportunity to dive the Great Barrier Reef in Australia when we visit there, so we found another opportunity to get some diving done.

We contacted quite a few dive companies in Cambodia and ended up going with The Dive Shop Cambodia, and we were super happy with our choice. Their main office is in Sihanoukville on the main land, but they do their diving off of Koh Rong Samloem, a fairly large island off the coast. We got signed up for their PADI Open Water Diver course and once in Cambodia made our way to them. We spent 5 nights on the island, and our experiences outside of diving can be found here.

On the day we arrived we were introduced to the other 3 people that would be taking the course with us, got shown to their “classroom”, and seated in front of a small portable DVD player and given our instruction booklets. We then watched 4 movies from PADI, essentially the same thing as if we had done the course online. At the end of each movie you answered some questions in the booklet and you could follow along with what they were showing in the movies. The “teacher” checked in periodically, but all 5 of us were a little disappointed in the first day. The “teacher” did check our answers in the booklets and give us 4 more quizzes at the end of the day that we then went over as a group, but the level of instruction was very low to none.

On the morning of day two we got shown all of our equipment and were taught how to set it up and break it down, which we did multiple times. Then one of our classmates was introduced to his separate instructor, leaving us as 4 divers to our one teacher, Alex (a different instructor than the person who showed us the video). Eventually we made it out onto the beach in our gear and walked into the water to start our confined water dive. According to the PADI plan, there are 5 confined water dives and in each one you do different skills. A lot of dive shops do these dives in a pool, but since we were on a fairly remote island in a third world country, we did them in the bay. In the morning we did dives 1-3 all at once, and in the afternoon we did dives 4 and 5. The first dives went smoothly, and the water was pretty calm. One of our classmates did not enjoy it at all though and decided not to continue the course. We were now down to 3!

After lunch we re-entered the bay, but the waves had gotten much worse and the visibility was pretty low. This made the afternoon’s skills much more challenging, but still manageable and probably taught us a lot more than if we were in a pool. Taking our scuba kit off and getting in back on in relatively rough water was a challenge for sure. By the end of the day I was extremely tired and really not sure I made the right decision in signing up for the course, but we had paid for it and I wasn’t backing down. (Cara’s note: I’m really not a fan of taking my mask on and off underwater. I probably gave our instructor some grief since when he asked me to do this in 8 feet of water I would freak out, spit my reg out of my mouth, choke on a few gallons of sea water, and immediately kick to the surface. Pretty much everything you are NOT supposed to do. This happened about 3 times before we gave up on it in shallow water.) By this time in the afternoon the water for our ‘confined dives’ was extremely choppy. I’m kind of glad we did them in the ocean though, because we wouldn’t have gotten as much realistic practice with current and waves if we had been in a pool!

The next day we went out on The Dive Shop boat for open water dives 1 and 2, where you build on the skills you learn in confined water and practice some of them again, doing things like clearing a flooded mask. As these dives went on I was really tired of being in the water and by the end of the second dive I really wanted to be off the boat. Luckily, Cara is super supportive and she was having a few issues too, so we helped each other through them. The last day you do open water dives 3 and 4, and 3 is really practicing all the things you have learned and 4 is just a fun dive. None of the individual tasks bothered me and I had no problem taking my mask off under water or doing any of the skills, but I still don’t like salt water. Something about it just makes me feel sick to my stomach when I have to taste it, but by the end of our 4th open water dive, that feeling was just about gone. I still won’t say I really enjoy diving, but I’m glad I did the course and I’m much more comfortable in the water now. I am looking forward to diving in Australia, but other than that I’m not sure how much scuba diving will be in my future. (Cara’s note: On day 4 of the course, I successfully removed and replaced my mask in 6 meters of water! Crushed it.) Below: Jeff, Alex (from Manchester), Cara and Tom (from Luxembourg).

Oh, and I was getting into the boat at the end of the last dive I was visited by a friendly, bright purple jellyfish. And by friendly, I mean it wrapped around my bicep and left me a nice burn. Jerk. I didn’t have a camera handy right when it happened, but it swelled up pretty bad and left me feeling pretty rough overall. This photo was over 24 hours later, and it still burned and itched pretty bad. (Cara’s note: They didn’t really have a first aid kit on the boat, so when we got back to the island bar we treated Jeff’s sting with vinegar. Followed by a shot of Beam.)

-Jeff

Living Life on Island Time

February 17, 2017

In order to get our PADI open water diver certs, we traveled to Koh Rong Samloem, an island off the coast of Cambodia. Fun fact! The islands off of the Cambodian coast were the place of the last battle of Vietnam War. We had 3 nights included in The Dive Shop’s dormitory as part of our course, but we decided to spend another 2 nights after the course in a bungalow, relaxing on the beach. Most of the first 4 days were taken up by the PADI course, so we didn’t do much besides dive, recover, and eat. One of the things I enjoyed about the island is that we only had power for a few hours a day while they ran their generator (usually about 5-11 pm), we didn’t have cell phone service, and there was no internet connection on our side of the island. If you went across the island (about a 30 minute hike), there were some more resorts and supposedly internet available, but we never made the trek. The bonus of the power only being on until about 11 pm was that pretty much everyone was in bed by about that time, so even the nights in the dorm were pretty quiet.

There were 4 “resorts” on our side of the island. The dive shop we did our course with was attached to the Happa Garden resort which has some small bungalows, and this is where we stayed for our last 2 nights. Off to one side of the bay was Robinson Resort, which had some bungalows, tents, and almost yurt-like accommodations (much lighter than any yurt I’ve seen, but the structure was similar). On the other side of Happa was Sleepy Trees and Huba Huba. Both of these places had a variety of accomadation, and Sleepy Trees also had some of the tents that get suspended from a few trees that you could rent for a night. Definitely the budget way to do a beach vacation ($29/night)! These 4 resorts were also the only 4 choices for food, and we tried them all. Since there was no cell service or internet available, we left our phones off for most of the week, so we didn’t get many pictures of our food.

One of our favorite meals was at Sleepy Trees though, where they vary the menu every night and just serve up one big course family style. We went on barbeque night and were offered a feast of grilled fish, squid, pork, chicken, and beef (all of which was delicious), a potato au gratin, a cauliflower and potato au gratin, and a salad. There would have been a ton of leftovers, except that there were 3 large German boys at our table that cleaned up most of the food on our table and then moved to other table to finish that off too. It was fun to sit with a large group of people and get to know them a little and share a great meal.

The only downside to the food on the island was that there was very little Khmer food, as most of the resorts served western food for the majority of their dishes, although we stuck mostly to BBQ for dinners.

On the night of our last day diving, there was a full moon party in the jungle, so we decided to check it out. We asked our diving instructor and he said they were a lot of fun, but that people normally didn’t go until around midnight. We put on our bigboy/girl pants, tried to take a nap, and went for a trek into the jungle way past our normal bedtime (11:30 pm). This party was on top of the hill behind our resort and it was definitely a trek to get there, it took us about 25 minutes. We arrived and we were a little disappointed in the number of people there, but not by the people watching. It was a jungle dance party/rave and we had a drink and hung out for probably 45 minutes before making our way back down through the jungle to bed. Unfortunately the water wasn’t working when we got back, so we couldn’t rinse off all the sweat from hiking through the jungle at 1 in the morning… I was also really feeling the after effects of the jellyfish sting, and I was pretty achy and feeling sick, so unfortunately I made Cara come home earlier than she probably wanted to. When I woke up the next morning the music was still going until almost 8 am. (Cara’s note: I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a true ‘rave’ before, but this was just about 70 white people- way less than we thought there would be- trying to dance to bad techno music in the middle of the Cambodian jungle. In my opinion, there were not enough drugs, alcohol or glow sticks present to make this a fantastic party. We hung out for about an hour and after one drink, we hiked back down to our bungalow. If people were inebriated, I have no idea how they made it down this trail. Thankfully, the full moon made for nicer night hike!)

The next day we had intended on walking to the other side of the island, but instead we were lazy all day. I really still didn’t feel good until the early evening, and Cara loves the beach so it wasn’t hard to get her to stay there all day. We ate some food and played some games and just relaxed. I was really glad to not be back in the water after 3 straight days of spending hours in it. (Cara’s note: I swam all day!)

Overall our visit to Koh Rong Samloem was mostly about diving, but we did get some good food in too, and spent some time enjoying the beach, which was nice. I wouldn’t recommend visiting the island if you want a normal resort experience since there aren’t a ton of amenities, but if you’re traveling through Southeast Asia and want to take a little break and enjoy some quiet time, it was a great place to spend a few days.

-Jeff

A Quick Stop in Phnom Penh

February 13, 2017

When we left Thailand, we flew into Phnom Penh, the largest city in Cambodia. Thankfully our Airbnb hosts arranged a Tuk Tuk to meet us at the airport, because Grab and Uber are not available here, and the addresses aren’t very consistent or accurate, so getting to a place like an apartment can be tricky when you don’t know exactly where you are going. This can be the downside of staying at Airbnb’s, because most drivers don’t know every road in a big city and it’s not like a big name hotel where you can just tell them the name and they know, but luckily it worked out great here. We were also only a few blocks from a major market that all the tuk tuk drivers did know, so when we needed to catch a ride back we could just ask them to take us there and walk the last bit. Also, the tuk tuks here are different than anywhere we have seen, and while we saw a few of the three wheeled vehicles we’re used to, the vast majority were trailers attached to small scooters. Yes, scooters here pull trailers for you to ride in. They also have small scooters pulling large trailers for construction and other delivery services. Apparently, the tow capacity of a tiny scooter is actually pretty good. Below: Our ride from the airport, us on the way to our Airbnb, and a sweet tuk tuk we rode in the next day!

We have never had Cambodian food before, but dove in head-first for our first meal. We walked to the market and found street vendors set up. We sat down on some stools and ordered what we thought were fried noodles. Cara thought they looked like wor… — We have never had Cambodian food before, but dove in head-first for our first meal. We walked to the market and found street vendors set up. We sat down on some stools and ordered what we thought were fried noodles. Cara thought they looked like worms. Good thing they were noodles! Served with an egg on top, some veggies and mysterious lunchmeat that tasted ok. Cost for 2 plates and full stomachs: $3.

While in the capital city, we ate a ton of different foods (of course!) and explored town a bit. We hadn’t heard a lot of great things about Phnom Penh, and we would have to agree. It’s just a big city and it’s pretty dirty, but the people are fairly friendly and it’s not difficult to get around, once you understand that the street numbering doesn’t make sense a lot of the time and you just need to ask where landmarks are that are near your destination.

We spent our first day in town buying rail passes for Japan (which you have to do outside the country) and getting the bus tickets we needed for the duration of our stay here. We went with the higher-class bus that targets westerners and provides snacks and drinks instead of the cheaper local buses, so we had to spend a whopping $13 per ticket (average). Hopefully the service lives up to the reviews it has gotten, and we aren’t getting hustled. After we took care of travel logistics, we went to the Central Market.

We spent the second day walking a bit more of the city and visiting the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum, which documents a lot of the atrocities that happened in the country during the 4 years the Khmer Rouge regime was in power. We’ve all heard of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, but we weren’t really familiar with the genocide that happened in Cambodia right around the time America left Vietnam. Because of the lack of records and amount of records that were destroyed and how much turmoil the country was in before, during, and after this period, there are a lot of number thrown around about deaths, but here is the basics of what we heard. At the single secret prison we visited (which was one of almost 200 similar locations) somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 people were tortured and sent to their deaths in the killing fields. As a whole, over a million people were killed during these 4 years, and some reports list over 1.7 million. Roughly 1 in 5 people died over this span. A telling statistic now is that 70% of the Cambodian population was born after 1979, the year the Khmer Rouge were ousted. Quite a few Europeans came and visited the regime while they were in power and were shown only what those in power wanted, and made to think that Cambodia was a communist paradise. As a result, the Westerners spoke out against the refugees that managed to escape and were telling the horrors of what was actually happening. This lead to a lot of mis-information being presented in the world media and many people still not knowing how much tragedy took place here. The UN still recognized and allowed many of the Khmer Rouge representatives to act for their country, even though their party was no longer in power, for decades after the conflict ended. Trials for those in power have only taken place within the last 10 years, and the country is still trying to rebound and recover.

We spent almost 3 hours at the museum, and they had an excellent audio guide that walked us through the site. Cara’s note: This experience was similar to our visit to Dachau concentration camp in Germany, in terms of learning about how ugly the human race can be. But what made it more uncomfortable for me is that the Khmer Rouge were torturing and killing people during our parent’s lifetime, and trials for crimes committed did not begin until 2006 when the UN funding and judges were finally sworn in. That makes all of this extremely recent history.

Cambodia is definitely the least developed country in Southeast Asia that we have visited, but so far the people and the food have been great. We are looking forward to the next couple weeks here! These are the places we will visit while in Cambodia:

View Cambodia in a full screen map

-Jeff

Bye Bye Bangkok

February 10, 2017

We took a short flight from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok on the last day of January. We spent 3 nights in Bangkok before flying to Cambodia. While we were back in town we relaxed, ate street food and I got a little bit of retail therapy in. (Below: adventures in malls!)

I liked the shopping in Vietnam better than Thailand because of all of the knockoff bags/clothes/shoes that were in Vietnam. Thailand seemed to have poor (if any) knockoff goods. They did have pretty swanky shopping malls though, with name brand stores in them. There was a really nice mall close to our Airbnb, and it had a giant food court. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have eaten in a food court in the States. But here, the food is actually really good, and extremely affordable! Below are photos from the malls, and of street food that we picked up on the way back to our apartment. Second dinner happened frequently for us- which is extremely acceptable when you only spend $3 total!

Near the last place we stayed in Bangkok there was a new market/hotel/event center. It was a very strange building, we took the elevator up to what was supposed to be the upper floor of the market and it was still under construction. Also only a few of the stalls in the market had shops in them. There were also animatronic dinosaurs around the outside, and little ones that you could pay a couple bucks to ride around the parking lot. It was a very, very strange place...

Last year in October, Thailand’s king passed away after ruling for over 70 years. The country was in morning and no celebrations were allowed for awhile, and government employees are wearing black for 1 year. While we were in Bangkok we saw people leaving the Grand Palace (Thailand’s royal palace) who had just payed their respects to the late King. This is ongoing while the King lies in state for 1 year, so the whole country has time to attend. They even have food outside the palace free for the mourners. There are photos of the King all over the country, and there seem to be memorials on every city block:

If you liked the posts about our time in Thailand, check out this blog: http://thaidyedliz.blogspot.com/ Mrs. Wagner (Liz) is who we visited in Pattaya, and she and her husband have been living in Thailand for over 2 years!

-Cara

Thailand summary:

Transport used: Uber, Grab, car, red truck, bus, motoscooter, water taxi, skytrain, subway

Total amount spent in Thailand (including flight into Bangkok): $1469.34

Avg.: $69.97 per day

Thailand ended up being a little cheaper than Vietnam even, mostly because Cara and I laid really low for a week after Phil left. Our nice studio apartment was about $20 a night, we made breakfast for ourselves and snacks and dinner out everyday at the local places were only a few dollars. Southeast Asia is definitely helping the bottom line of our trip, and while Cambodia is going to be a little more because we are going diving, hopefully we will still continue to lower our daily average since we have some expensive locations coming up after that!

-Jeff

Chiang Mai - Round 5

February 08, 2017

This is our final blogpost for Chiang Mai- the knockout round. Actually, I have no idea if there are KO’s in Muay Thai fights… I only know there are 5 rounds….

Anyway, after Phil left us in Chiang Mai, we spent most of our week at an Airbnb catching up on travel planning. We stayed just outside of the Old City (touristy area), across the street from the hospital and medical university. We love staying in places where we really feel like locals! We ventured out and found a nearby market so we could cook breakfast for ourselves. During our first trip to the market, we suddenly noticed that there was no traffic on the major road we were walking on, and that there were policemen in uniform standing in the street. It was kind of creepy at first, and then I noticed that there were some shopkeepers coming out of their shops and standing on the edge of the road. Jeff and I walked a few more blocks, and then we stopped and I asked someone what was going on. They told me that the princess was coming! So, we waited on the road with everyone else and got to see the Princess of Thailand! Well, we saw her motorcade…. and I’m not 100% certain which princess it was, but I think it was the eldest daughter of the late king (more on that in the next post). My assumption is pretty accurate because I saw her on the news later that day handing out diplomas for graduation! (Below: the main street without cars getting ready for the motorcade.)

We did see a lot of people in caps and gowns too!

Eating out is so cheap in Thailand, that we didn’t ever bother to cook ourselves dinner, we just found a new restaurant or street vendor every night! Lots of pork, noodles and rice. We also averaged about 1 mango fruitshake a day and I tried green milk tea a few times. One of the best meals we had in Chiang Mai was at a restaurant called 'Rosy Cheeks,' and we had a pho-ritto (pic lower right corner). It combined Vietnamese pho with a burritto- amazing!

When we weren’t shoving our faces with food, or planning our future adventures, we got some exercise in! CrossFit was a huge part of our lives in Virginia, but since we’ve been on the road we haven’t made exercise a priority. Both of us have lost most of our muscle mass and the clothes we bought for this trip don’t really fit anymore- we are really glad we both have belts to keep our pants up! I know, I know, this is not something that I should be complaining about…. My point was, we are extremely out of shape. So, I was a little nervous about dropping into a CrossFit gym. We hadn’t been to one in 8 months, and I wasn’t even sure if I would like it anymore.

Still drinking the kool aid friends, it’s like riding a bicycle, but with soft baby hands that tear after 5 clean and jerks! Many thanks to CrossFit Chiang Mai for letting us hang out with you for a week!

-Cara

Just a couple bonus images! We were in Chiang Mai for Chinese New Year and caught a show (we were hoping for dragon dancing, instead got 'Toddlers and Tiara's, Asian Edition), saw some more temples in town, and saw some sweet street art! Who doesn't love minions?

Chiang Mai - Round 4

February 06, 2017

The best memories from our travels are from when family and friends come meet us on the road. Our time in Thailand was no exception- Cara’s brother, Phil, met us in Bangkok and then we traveled around the country together for a week and a half. We asked him to write a blog post for us- so here it is! Our first guest blog post! Featuring the beers of Thailand:

Chok Dee (Cheers/Good Luck)

**The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the original creators of the blog (but I think they are pretty well on board if they posted it). **

There are two things in this world that I am good at: eating food and drinking beer. This blog post covers the latter because the previous updates have done a nice job of giving you a food tour.

There are three main Thai beers that I became intimately acquainted with during my time with Cara and Jeff in Thailand:

Chang: This was my favorite beer. It is light and drinkable. After a few 630ml bottles you are well on your way.

Singha: Cara and Jeff liked this beer the best. This 5% pale lager is a bit dry but can be refreshing.

Leo (sorry, no photo): This is the Bud Light/little sister (shout out to my U of M fans who know the feeling) of Singha. Though it is the cheaper option of the three beers, it is not the most desired.

Beer will cost about 150 baht for a 3 pack of 630ml bottles at a convenience store (which is under $5 USD). However, at the bar it will cost 70-100 Baht for a beer. As always, drink in excess before going to the bar.

We ran into some issues purchasing beer as Thailand has abnormal hours in which you can purchase alcohol.

But when we asked the cashier, he said if we went to a different store around the block they would sell to us (and did). So after a 15 minute walk I was happy with a beer in my hand. Apparently laws are as flexible as I have been told in Bangkok.

I had been itching to go to Khaosan Road since I had read about it, so going there in the afternoon for one beer was a tease. Since it was a Saturday night and I knew it would be mayhem, Megan and I made sure to drink plenty of Chang before leaving. And let me tell you, this street does not disappoint.

Khaosan Road is blocked by police for car traffic and lined with bars. Each establishment blasts music so as you walk 100 feet to the next bar, another club belter is on. To say the party spills into the street is an understatement. The party IS IN the street. Everyone is on the street dancing and partying to whichever track can be heard at that certain spot. The beauty of this road is that you can taste the vibes from every bar on the street as you walk through the throngs of people. Westerners were the majority, but there were Thais mixed into the crowd. Simply pick where you want to buy a drink and walk through the party aimlessly. You can buy just about any knick-knack you want on the street. Possibly the worst drunk purchase I have witnessed was Megan’s Pikachu balloon. Gone in 60 seconds describes its demise.

Once the bars began closing around 2:30am, the street began to clear out. As we left Khaosan Road there were street vendors selling food. Since this is a good business model we happily donated to their cause.

This was definitely the party that I wanted out of Bangkok. Yes it was a sweaty, sloppy, drunken affair but that was my expectation for the night. Drunk Thai street food = fulfilling.

-Phil

Phil currently lives in Chicago, where he works for the man by day, and lights up Wicker Park by night. He enjoys long walks along Lake Michigan, good food and beer in mass quantities. If he's not in the local bar watching Premiere League soccer, he's probably at the gym pumping iron (he did the best he could with the outdoor excersise parks in Thailand- pictured above).

Phil thought he could find cheap Nike's in Asia....but we quickly found out that locals don't wear size 14...

Chiang Mai - Round 3

February 03, 2017

Cara's Salon Adventure!

Over the past few months, we have posted about Jeff’s experiences with haircuts. There was the time he got a military ‘high and tight’ in Ireland, the time he was practically razor burned in Africa from such a close cut, and his street style in Vietnam. Most recently he walked into a random barber in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We’ve noticed that there is quite a ‘spa culture’ in SE Asia. Just like in Vietnam, there are multiple massage parlors on every block, and hair and nail salons everywhere in Thailand. It’s been 8 months since I had a haircut, so I figured that it was finally my turn to find a salon! I also wanted to go big and get a perm so my hair might actually look good without styling it. Note: I have never treated, colored or permed my hair before. Go big or go home!

I wandered around Chiang Mai trying to find a salon that looked decent, and that had a reasonable price for a cut and perm. I eventually found one that told me it would be 2,000 Baht (about $66). So, I sat down in the chair and asked the stylist if she had ever permed blonde hair like mine before. She said, ‘No.’ Looking back, I probably should have gotten up and left then, but lately I have been noticing how many strangers we put our trust in daily. The random taxi driver we trust with our lives, staying in other people’s homes, following some guy on a motorbike to a bus station when he never asked to see your ticket….trusting people with my hair is just another adventure on the list!

Anyway, I asked what type of perm she was going to do on my hair. Sidenote: I use the term ‘she’ loosely. My stylist may have been a man-lady, which are pretty common in Thailand. She had a deep voice, extremely large hands and a potential mustache. None of this matters of course, and I digress… Her response to my perm question was ‘digital perm.’ Momma didn’t raise an idiot, and I had done some research on perms. Digital perm = for Asian hair. My hair is pretty much the exact opposite (blonde and pretty thin). I expressed my concern, but she was adamant that digital perm would work with my hair. So, I let her go with it.

Step 1: haircut. She cut my hair while it was pretty much dry, minus my sweat- it’s hot here in Thailand!

Step 2: they send you in the back to the shampoo girl. You pretty much lay down on a table and lay your head in the sink. It’s way more comfortable than the awkward chair things we have in the States!

Step 3: Blow dry. The stylist and the shampoo girl tag teamed my hair with 2 blow dryers to do the job. Which in my opinion is a bit excessive considering I don’t have that much hair.

Step 4: Then came the perm. Those of you who have had a perm before will have to tell me if this is normal, since now I can only tell you how digital perms go…She separated strands and gooped my hair up, then I waited for awhile. Then she put the curlers in, more waiting. Then she attached them to the heat machine, more waiting, then she poured more chemicals over the curlers after they had cooled, more waiting, then they took the curlers out…….and…….

Nothing happened. Not surprisingly, my white girl hair didn’t respond to the Asian product. The look on the girls face when she took my first few curlers out was priceless. I’m not sure what she said to the stylist since it was in Thai, but I’m imagining it was something like, ‘Um… I don’t think this is supposed ot look like this.’

I’ll be honest, I went into the salon with zero expectations. Hair grows back. I wasn’t really that upset that the perm didn’t take. I think I surprised the stylist because I laughed when they found out it didn’t work. My hair is ‘same-same’ as it was before I walked into the salon, except now I just have an Asian hairstyle- a pretty blunt cut (no layers). After she washed out the chemicals (do the chemicals actually ever go away?), she blew dried and styled my hair nicely. It probably ended up being the nicest my hair has looked in 8 months!

Before and after. My selfie game isn't that strong....

At least I had a nice 'do for dinner that night!

Hopefully I will still have a full head of hair in all future photos. If I start losing hair, at least now you all know why!

My adventure wasn't a complete loss! I found this art fair going on at the Chiang Mai University, and bought myself a cute pair of earrings from the tent on the left!

-Cara

Chiang Mai - Round 2

February 01, 2017

Phil was most excited to try all of the food in Thailand while he was here. Jeff and I love to eat, so it wasn’t really a hardship for us! We all signed up for a cooking class on the Sunday that Phil was here, and we are so glad we did! It ran from 9 am until 2 pm, so we had a full day of cooking and eating.

First, we were taken to the market, and given explanations about Thai produce.

The round green things above are Thai eggplant! even the very small pea-looking things in the bag. Eggplant is used in green curry. Yum!

At first, we were all skeptical about this cooking class. There were so many options of dishes to choose from and our cook informed us that we all could choose different dishes to cook. It ended up working outgreat!

For the first course, I made pad thai and the boys made cashew nut chicken with rice. Then Jeff made stuffed cabbage soup and Phil and I made coconut chicken soup. After we made these two dishes, we sat down with the class to eat them!

Course 1: My chicken pad thai (on plate), and coconut soup with chicken

The boy’s cashew nut chicken was the winner here. I added too many baby shrimps to my pad thai and it gave it a pretty overpowering taste. I am not a huge fan of fish sauce, and they seem to add it liberally to every dish here!

Baby shrimps smell like cat food. Too many of them in pad thai make for a less desirable dish...

Fish sauce on the left, and oyster sauce on the right

After we ate our first round of food, we made some mango sticky rice for dessert later. It was much different than the mango sticky rice we made in Vietnam. You still have to soak the rice (it is a different type of rice than the normal stuff we would buy for dinner), but in Thailand they add a sweet coconut sauce to the cooked rice and pour a salted coconut cream over the top and serve mango on the side. Below: the rice steaming an a bamboo basket, and making the salted coconut cream to top the dessert. The green things in the pan are pieces of Asian vanilla leaf to give it flavor!

I prefer the rice we made in Vietnam (there was rum in it!), while Jeff preferred the Thai version. Next we made fresh spring rolls, and then Phil and I made green curry, while Jeff made Khao Soi. We made our curry paste from scratch- hence the photo of Phil getting an arm workout with the giant mortar and pestle.

This cooking class had definitely been one of the major highlights of our time in Thailand. If you are ever in Chiang Mai, check out Zabb-E-Lee’s cooking classes!

Our instructor's name was Art. This captures his personality perfectly! He was great! Below: green curry that Phil and I made. We ate it with rice. On the right is Jeff's Khao Soi (red curry) with his spring roll, and mango sticky rice in the to-go … — Our instructor's name was Art. This captures his personality perfectly! He was great! Below: green curry that Phil and I made. We ate it with rice. On the right is Jeff's Khao Soi (red curry) with his spring roll, and mango sticky rice in the to-go box. We poured the coconut cream (in the little baggie) on top of the mango and rice.

That night, Phil picked up some shirts he had tailored in town, and then we headed to the Sunday night market. It was pretty much the same thing as every other night market, except on a different street!

Phil left us the next morning (tear), but someone had to get back to the real world! After seeing him off to the airport, Jeff and I made our way outside of Old City to an AirBnB where we spent the next week in Chiang Mai!

-Cara