Tango en La Boca

La Boca es muy bonita

Mi esposa es muy bonita

Evita

The famous sarcophagus of Evita. Molly's gonna be singing musicals
all night.

BM in BA

Having a burning man flashback in Buenos Aires.

Hi Dante!!

Dulce!

Dulce de leche is my new favorite breakfast food!

I love Latin America

Vino y lomo en buenos aires

We have arrived. Steak (tenderloin,in fact) and vino tinto for
lunch. The wine is named after the area of BA where we are staying,
San telmo. It is good and cheap! Off to explore the city
next...after a siesta of course. P.S. Iphones rock

Estamos en Argentina

You know you're in Argentina when you see tango statues in the airport.

Honeymoon part 2

Heading south with cleaned laundry and shortened hair. Next stop,
Buenos Aires.

Got our iPhones

During our little layover here, the apple store finally had iPhones in
stock. Hopefully we'll be able to post more easily, although the text
will be brief until I can sharpen my fingertips for the little keyboard.

Whirlwind tour of Hong Kong

Mol and I have been hitting the highlights of HK using just about every form of transport available. First, we took a ride on the double decker tram (like a SF streetcar). The trams are tall and skinny. Everything in this town is very vertical. The skyscrapers. The mountains. The people. Ok, maybe not the people...

Next, we toured the beautiful Hong Kong park and took a walk through the forest canopy in the aviary. Then, we took a ride up the mountain in the Peak Tram (like a SF cable car). The view of the top is amazing (pics coming soon).

Back in town, we crossed the harbor on the Star Ferry. Then took a tour on a Junk Boat. Back to mainland for some chinese food at a classic Chinese diner. And then a couple drink stops at some posh clubs. A taxi got us home in record time. Even though it's not a tram, he drove it like it was on rails.

A quick ride on the ultra modern metro will take us back to the airport, as we prepare for the longest day ever. 16 hours of flying later, we'll be back in the U.S. for some clean underwear (or pants as the Brits call them). Woohoo!

Filling up the passport

The Indochina portion of our trip is done. Now we're in China. Sort of. Flew into Hong Kong yesterday, which is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. Thankfully, it's much easier to get a visa (i.e. on the spot) in HK than in China. Then we hopped on the ultra modern and ultra clean metro train to the ferry terminal. We departed Hong Kong, and took the turbo jet ferry to Macau, which is another SAR of China. Both areas have their own special currency and stamp your passport upon entry.

Macau has been controlled by the Portuguese for over 300 years. It started as a major trading port, and has spent time as an artisan area, firecracker manufacturer, and now tourist area. Shortly after the Brits turned Hong Kong over to China, the Portuguese turned Macau over to China. Macau has recently opened its doors to mainland China and has recently allowed foreign investors to build casinos. It's an explosive mix, and this place is booming. Mol and I scored tix to the latest Cirque du Soleil production, ZaIa last night at The Venetian. What a show!!! Crazy aerial acrobatics made possible by by a crazy theater design. Loads of fun.

The Fung Shei protection of the casino areas protected our wallets for the night, and we broke even. The casino area was huge, just like vegas if you substitute smoking white folks with smoking Asians.

We spent today walking the streets of Macau. The Chinese / Portuguese combination is a nice transition from SE Asia to the upcoming S American portion of our trip. We can almost understand the signs around here. We're really looking forward to being able to say more than hello and thank you!

Temple Hopping at the crack of dawn

We spent 12 hours today checking out 9 of the 100 temples in the Angkor area. Leaving the hotel at 4:45am was extremely painful. After crossing the moat in the dark, walking half a kilometer, and scaring away the temple dogs, we found a fine place to park it and await the sun. We were treated to an amazing sunrise over the awesome Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is stunning in its size, the intricacy of the stone carvings, its symmetry, and its ability to withstand the elements for nearly 1000 years (although quite a bit of restoration work has been done and continues). Other temples haven't been so lucky, being assaulted by the weather and the TREES!!!

8-Legged Dining in Cambodia

After speaking with the English students, we went upstairs for a traditional Khmer meal. It was fantastic, with delicious Khmer curry, beef noodles with vegetables, steamed vegetables and of course, steamed rice. Then, we were treated to a "specialty" which was...yes...fried tarantulas!! AHHHHHHHH!

Teaching English in Cambodia

We got the opportunity on Monday night to attend an English class at our guide's house before having dinner with his family. Brent and I met with 3 young girls, (9, 9 and 15) who spoke remarkably good English. The 15 year old answered almost every question, but they were doing great overall. When we asked if they could count to ten, she said "I can count to 100" and then she proceeded to count to 100...one by one. She was very proud of herself. So we were, since we can still only barely say hello and thank you in Khmer, the local language! As for the dinner, check our next post titled "8-Legged Dining in Cambodia"

Fun with underwater camera

	Our hotel in Siem Reap has a wonderful pool and we finally got to test out my underwater camera! Silly, but fun...

Killing Fields

We visited the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh and the nearby Cheuong Ek Killing Fields. It's impossible to do justice to these places in words. The flowering vegetation has added an ironic beauty to the Killing Fields, but like most cemetaries, it actually seems right in the final resting ground for over 20,000 men, women, and children. A stupa was erected to commemorate the victims. The inside of the stupa is stacked with shelves upon shelves lined with human skulls excavated from the mass graves.

Trying to comprehend the brutality of the Khmer Rouge boggles the mind. The regime executed over 2 million of their own people out of a country of 7 million during 1975 - 1979. This has had a profound impact on the population of Cambodia. 50 percent of the population is younger than 18 years old. The country is recovering, but it is still plagued with problems. Poverty is apparent throughout the streets of Phnom Penh.

Tonight we visit the temples of Angkor, built between the 8th and 13th centuries. Siem Reap had a population of a million people during this time, while London had only 50,000. It's remarkable what kind of changes a country can go through.

Night out in Saigon

Lynsey, Kirsty, Jamie, Molly, and I decided to do it up for our last night in Saigon. We donned our custom tailored clothes and hit some bars in the fancy Opera House section of town. Our first stop was the top floor bar of the Caravelle hotel. We enjoyed champagne and some swanky Saigon cocktails. The British girls rivaled the dance moves of the coverband girls playing some fine ABBA tunes.

Next stop was the Sheraton bar, which had a better view, but an awful security guard and even worse drinks. We quickly moved on to Apocalypse Now for some sweaty booty shakin. Loads of fun until we had to wake up early for a 6 hour bus ride into Cambodia.

Cuttlefish anyone?

In one way, it's nice to see the food before it's prepared for you. But in this case (especially with the little flies on it), I think I'll pass.

A Proper Date, Finally

Brent finally took his new wife out on a proper date (we're learning lots of good british verbage from English blokes on our tour) on Friday night in Saigon. We went for traditional Vietnamese pho (yes, we've had lots of it) and then to the Galaxy Cinema in Saigon's version of Central Park. It was a fancy cinema with a huge arcade where we raced motorcycles (easy to do after all the inspiration from the crazy traffic here), then purchased two actual beers and popcorn. Bonus for me was that their popcorn is actually kettlekorn - and anybody who has been to the Breckenridge Farmer's Market with me knows how much I like the kettlekorn.

The cinema plays music videos before the movie starts and they were all Backstreet Boys videos - straight from 1993. Hysterical! Then a series of commercials started and we laughed at those almost as much as at the movie. They were just so different in their acting, their language (obviously), their music and the products. It all just looked slightly different and, we thought, very funny.

Then to the movie, Hancock, which was entertaining, though we can't say much for the ending. hmmm....but, dinner and a movie and I'm a happy wife in Vietnam!

Cu Chi Tunnels

We took a tour today of the tunnel network used by NLF guerillas during the vietnam war. The guerillas built over 200 km of tunnels, which gave them a decisive advantage during the war. The tour started with a low quality black and white propoganda video talking about the simple and peaceful life of the peasants before the "crazy devils" (Americans) came in and started killing everyone. The peasants rose to the occasion and even little school girls would follow the mantra of "a plow in one hand and a rifle in the other" (bring on video of school girl turned Rambo).

Next, we were shown one of the tunnel entrances. I'm sure half the American soliders wouldn't even fit into these entrances (I barely fit in, myself). Then came the displays of all the different traps with barbed spikes used by the guerillas. Ouch!

Molly's least favorite part (and my favorite) was the shooting range. I got to shoot an M16. Jamie (our Scottish bloke who just got back from Afghanistan) tried out the M60 aka Rambo gun. Fun stuff, but terribly loud, and a bit nerve wrattling.

After the shooting range, we crawled our way through about 100m of underground tunnels. They were enlarged a little bit for the tourists, and had a couple dim lights in them, but were still rather dark, dank, and claustrophobic. The guerillas spent their days in the tunnels and would move around at night. I'd surrender....

Pho

It's our last day in Vietnam, so we had to make one last stop for Pho. Pho 24 is like Vietnam's version of McDonald's, but so much better. I might have to check if they'd like to franchise in the U.S.

Cooking Class in Vietnam

Brent is really trying to teach his new wife how to cook, so we enrolled in another cooking course, this time in Vietnam. We made spring rolls, tiger prawns with tamarind sauce, fish in a clay pot and fried water spinach with garlic. Not as good as our Thai cooking course, but still a good time! It was also accompanied by a 3 hour bicycle tour through Hoi An where we rode on sidewalks, alleyways (roads don't seem to mean much here), back roads and even a walkway through a rice field. It was hot hot hot but a great way to see the sights.

Cyclo ride in Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) last night and took a Cyclo tour of the city. Cyclos are like the bike version of the tuk tuk. A slower way to manuever through the streets, but still a little crazy. Our tour included stops at the mini Notre Dame, a beautiful post office, and the city hall. The French influence really shows in all these buildings. The sidewalks are much more pedestrian friendly near all these buildings, which makes it so much more enjoyable.

Getting a custom wardrobe in Hoi An

Hoi An is the epicenter of tailor shops in Vietnam. You can't take more than two steps without someone tapping you on the shoulder and saying, "hello... you want new suit??" (you also can't take more than two steps without hearing a motorbike honking at you).

With over 200 tailor shops in town, it's hard to choose which shop to go into. We tried one shop, but their clothes were all a bit frumpy. The lady told us to look through a catalog for something we liked, but it was basically an outdated edition of England's version of JC Penney's. So we kept walking until we saw a shop with something cool on a mannequin. The woman was really nice, and the shirts and dresses are really cheap. Makes it hard to say no. One day later, we have new custom tailored clothes!

Ahh...beach time

We arrived in Hoi An to find that we were in a beach town! We went scuba diving on Wednesday, then sat on the beach last night for the sunset. Heavenly! After all the rain we've had up until now, we really needed some relaxing time on a beach with a breeze, and we got it. Ahhhh....

Cruising in Vientiane, Laos

[back in Laos, Aug 4... ] Mol and I rented some fine cruising machines. They were pretty heavy and clunky and my first bike's rear tire went flat. But after switching out bikes to another one (with at least 20 psi in the tires), we were rolling through the streets and on our way to see the sights. Once again, the traffic was pretty crazy and hair raising. We're thankful buddhists respect living creatures because we felt like pieces of china in a stampede of bulls.

B52 Bomber Boats

Back in Laos (finally got a chance to upload some pix), we had a homestay in village perched on the river bank. The locals have found a good way to recycle B52 Bomber fuel casings left over from the hundreds of thousands of bombing missions flown over Laos. The casings have been cut up and converted into boats. They're a bit tipsy, but the locals can maneuver them quite well. Our group went for a sunset cruise up the river. Great views of the jungle and rice fields!

Motor Bike tour of Hue

After cursing all the honking motor bikes (scooters with bigger tires) in Hanoi for a couple days, we've finally come to appreciate their versatility on a fun motor bike tour of Hue. It was a pretty frightening proposition to hop on the back of a motor bike after seeing the way they swerve and weave past each other on the streets. But our tour group "pre-screened" these drivers (still had to sign an extra waiver), so we got some good ones.

What an adventure! All 13 of us got our own driver who took us through city streets, back alleys, sidewalks (think Italian Job), dirt paths, and more. I lucked out with the tour guide, Tam, as my driver. He's a crack up. Quite fluent in English, American music, and jokes. Tam took us to the citadel, where kings have lived for hundreds of years. Then we hit some country roads and damns through the verdant rice fields. We stopped in to see a woman making rice paddy hats with interesting patterns sandwhiched between the layers of leaves. Then we had a tasty vegetarian lunch prepared by buddhist nuns.

Following lunch, we took some singletrack trails for a view of the river and Hamburger Hill. We popped over to the complex housing the tomb of one of the kings. An incense stick maker taught us how to roll an incense stick. A quick detour took us to an old coloseum where tigers were starved and tortured so elephants would triumph in their ultimate battle. Then we zipped over to a boat, which took us to a temple and pagoda. And then a river trip back to our drivers who took us back to our hotel.

Phew! With the scooters, we managed to pack in three times more stuff than we could have managed on big tour buses. And we'd never get the fear for your life exhileration that only a motor bike can provide.

37 Hour Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my birthday earlier than ever, since we're 13 hours ahead of mountain time. And it only seemed proper to keep celebrating until midnight mountain time...

I actually wasn't quite sure if I'd live to see 35. The traffic in Hanoi is INSANE. There are scooters every where, and traffic signals are optional. The scooters just swerve around each other, constantly beeping their horns. Crossing the street takes an act of faith. You just start to cross the street slowly, and even though there's a horde of scooters heading straight towards you, they all manage to avoid you at the last minute.

For my birthday, we started the day with a visit to Ho Chi Minh (or Uncle Ho as the locals call him). Despite his wishes to be cremated, they preserved his body in a big mausoleum. Hundreds of tourists and locals line up to see him. Army dudes with big bayonetted guns kept everyone quiet and prodded us along like cattle. Kinda creepy, but Uncle Ho's a big deal in this country.

Then we went out for lunch at the Happy House, and Molly and I paddled along the lake in a little swan boat. Very romantic. And sweaty. Mol fulfilled my wish for a cheap Asian massage. And then we went out with our travel crew, all sporting big local (think rice paddy) hats at the Cyclo Bar. Cyclos are big seats mounted in front of a bicycle, and this restaurant uses them for chairs. Then we walked through the rain (the big hat also functions as an umbrella) to the Polite Bar for some beers and shots. Fun fun!

Continuing my b-day on the 10th (but really the 9th mountain time), we did some silk shopping and had some tasty Pho (beef and rice noodle soup with fresh mint). A great way to spend my birthday!

Happy Birthday Brent

Brent's getting a cheap Asian massage today and preparing his first inaugural address, since he's now old enough to run for president.

Goooood mooooorrrrnnniiinnnngggg Vietnam!

After a somewhat sleepless homestay night in a Lao village, pushing our bus up a monsoon muddy hill, and waiting an hour at the border crossing, we're in Vietnam! The mountainous scenery has been cool, but that's the most exciting thing to report. We've spent about 10 hours riding on a cramped bus today. Our lunch stop was a bit funky, and my fried noodles for dinner were really ramen noodles. I'm still awaiting my first authentic bowl of Pho.

Actually, the bus ride was rather exciting. In a fear for your own life as well as the lives of all scooter drivers and bike riders on the road kind of way. We thought the traffic in Bali was insane, but out here, multiply the size of vehicles by three and the vehicle speed by three. Molly closed her bus curtain to avoid looking at the near misses. But everyone honks at everyone as they pass within inches and cut them off. Honking seems to be so ingrained in the drivers psyches that some have gotten especially loud and multi-pitched air horns. You can't avoid hearing how close they are nor feeling the bus shake in the wake of the traffic. The scooter riders are left to fend for themselves.

Tomorrow, we head up to Halong Bay for an overnight ride in a Junk Boat. We're hoping it's a bit more calm...

TukTruk

TukTuks come in many forms. The most common form is the previously mentioned motorcycle turned into a tricycle with a bench seat thrown on the back. The other day, we rode to a water fall outside Luang Prabang in a vehicle with a truck for the front end. It still has the pimpin' tuktuk paint job, and it also lacks any kind of exhaust system (catalytic converter and muffler, which makes you rather woozy after inhaling the fumes for 28 km).


As if the fumes weren't bad enough, the road was nice and curvy. But we were treated to views of wildlife, or rather livestock life, on the side of the road. Even saw a few good candidates for a dowry, although I doubt they could yodel.

The waterfall was impressive. Because of all the monsoon rain, the water was flowing high and brown. Turns out this is a boon for the leeches, as Molly and Kirsty found out the hard way.

Early morning in Luang Prabang

Brent and I rose early yesterday, at 4:40am to be exact, to the sound of rain on the roof. I wanted to bail, but B pushed me out of bed and said it was lightening up, which it actually was. grrrr. So, we crawled out of bed before 5am on our honeymoon, grabbed our 5:00am tuk-tuk which we had arranged the night before and headed to Mount Phousi. This is a temple in the middle of Luang Prabang that we had visited the night before around sunset. We heard that sunrise was even more beautiful though, so we decided to check it out.

We hiked up in the dark before sunrise (all 328 steps to the top) and got up there to find it completely empty, which was great. It was fairly crowded the evening before. We wandered around, but it started to rain while we were there and we never actually saw the sunrise due to the clouds. But we got a great early morning hike in and enjoyed it all the same. Then we hiked down the other side of Mt. Phousi (and, just to be completely accurate, you do not pronounce the "h" in Phousi...hehehe) to see the monks taking their daily alms from the faithful people in the village.

They proceed out from their temples in long lines and walk the streets of Luang Prabang and receive offerings from the local people. We weren't exactly sure where to stand and we saw a line of monks about a block down from where we were, so in order to see them, we ran down an alley. Then we caught ourselves and laughed because you're not even supposed to look directly at the monks, or take photos of them too close to them, and here we are chasing them at 6 in the morning down an alley!!! Whoops. We walked quickly instead. And eventually we did get to a perfect viewing spot where we sat down (in the rain) and watched them walk by and receive the offerings. We saw hundreds of them, ranging from about 6-7 years old up to very, very old and wise looking.
It was an amazing sight and we're very glad we witnessed it. Even if we had to get up at 4:40am. Honestly.