Jim And Dara Unplugged

Australia, Back to Sydney and Out (photos)

2005-07-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

5 May - 15 May

We woke up in Emerald Beach the next day, 5 May, and then drove in to Sydney. We went back to the same guesthouse as we stayed in before in Kings Cross, which is near the car market. We went over to the car market to get a sense of competition and prices and were a bit disappointed by what we saw. Lots of cars and everyone said it was very slow. We had the newest car and the only shiny red one and the only one with a spare tire on the roof so we thought we'd be OK. That night we went to a car wash and polished up Betty and then had canveyor belt sushi for dinner and beers on the guesthouse terrace.
The next day, 6 May, was our first day at the car market. It is in a underground parking garage and filled with people selling cars and cold and smelly and dark and miserable. We were in good spirits the first day, even though only one person looked at our car. That night we bought manila folders to make signs for our car, showing off the model year (1994) and the Western Australia registration (the best one to have).
The next day, 7 May, the second day we finally had some interest. An Irish guy actually asked to see the engine. I think he bought someone elses car. At the end of the eight hour day another Irish guy, who I could barely understand asked me what my "rock bottom" was. I wouldn't tell him. No cars sold and everyone was despressed. A couple vans sold though, and since the custom is to buy a carton of beer when you sell your car and hand them out to the other sellers, we had a couple free beers. That night we saw "Kingdom of Heaven", which was just like every other movie I've seen.
The next day, 8 May, the third day, we spent eight hours down there and there were maybe two buyers walking around the whole day. It was pretty bad. At this point our price was dropping one to two hundred dollars a day. We had the highest price since we had by far the newest car, but nothing was selling. We had pizza for dinner.
The next day, 9 May, the fourth day, a young Swedish couple looked at the car at the end of the day. Ohhh OOhhhh. Nothing. I expected them back the next day but never saw them again. It wasn't exactly fun, but we were having a pretty good time hanging out with all the other sellers. Conveyor belt sushi for dinner and beers on the terrace.
The next day, 10 May, we sat there all day and nothing happened. A car behind us failed inspection with almost no compression on cylinders 3 and 4. We had full compression on four cylinders, and 80% or so on the other two. We knew this. What was wrong? Price drop. Then, an English guy came up and asked about the car and took a look at the engine and, can you believe it, asked me to start it up. He went upstairs to ask about registration and came back and wanted to get it inspected the next morning. We knew it would be fine. Then, he made an offer, magically hitting our low and I countered for fifty dollars more to pay for the carton of beer, and I told him that the price would not change after the inspection and that he should not pay for it if he was going to try to get an even better price. We shook on it and arranged to meet the next day. We were pretty psyched. The price was AUD$350 less than what we paid for it. Just as we were leaving, an Irish couple (tons of Irish) came by and asked us about the car. They had just had another car inspected and it needed AUD$1600 worth of repairs. They were very interested but were too late since I had already shook on a deal. They wanted us to call them if anything changed. It looked like we were in a good position since I had a back-up if the other guy tried to lower the price. We went back to the guesthouse and ate dinner, soup I think.
The next day, 11 May, we met the car inspection guy, who had done the inspection for us when we bought, and the seller. The inspection went great. We had fixed some of the things that he had suggested when we bought and nothing else got worse. In fact, changing the fuel filter, or something else, brought our compression up from the previous inspection, so we had full compression on all six cylinders. The buyer had to go downtown to get money so we went OUTSIDE and ate lunch in the SUNSHINE. Then we waited around, he came back, signed some papers and then we got the money and Betty was no longer our car. We went out and bought a carton of beer, went back down and handed them out, hung out for just a little bit and then left the horrid place forever. That night we went out and met our Irish friend Helen that we had met in the Whitsundays. We met her and her boyfriend and two other Irish folks at a pub in Paddington and then went back to their place for dinner. We had a great time and drank a lot of beer and I learned some great jokes, which aren't as funny without the Irish accent but still work.
The next day, 12 May, we packed our stuff and got out of Kings Cross and moved to a nicer hotel downtown. Here is a view from the window.
The next day, 13 May, we confirmed our Air New Zealand tickets, took a bus to Bondi Junction and bought some jeans since NZ is cold. Then we headed back to the room and then to the subway station to meet John, our friend from Noosa, and went over to John and Larah's place, had some beers, went out for Mexican food (cheap at home, expensive in Australia) and then back to their place and then back to the room.
The next day, 14 May, we walked around an art market at The Rocks and then took a ferry to Manly Beach. Here is a surfer on the beach, and here is the beach. We came back toward downtown at sunset, which was crazy orange.
The next day, 15 May, we got up early, took a taxi to the airport, got on a plane and flew to New Zealand. I slept until the end, when Dara woke me up to see the view as we were landing.

Australia East, Part III (photos)

2005-07-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

24 March - 4 May

My notes are pretty scant for this section.

We left Gladstone on Sunday (24 March) and continued heading south, stopped in Agnes Waters for some pies and bought some ice. The pies here are something we enjoyed. They are an inexpensive lunch and are like a pot pie, filled with gravy and beef or chicken. My favorite were steak and mushroom. We ate them all the time. From there we headed toward Deep Water National Park, on the coast near Bundaberg. It was a long ride in through bumby gravelly road and we weren't sure we would get a spot since it was ANZAC Day (commemorating the Gallipoli landing by Australian and New Zealand troops). We rolled in and saw an unoccupied campsite that was reserved. Since it was pretty late in the day and toward the end of the holiday weekend, we figured we'd be safe to just snag it, so we did. When the ranger came around he noticed the name it was reserved under was the same as a big group on the other side of the grounds so he asked them and found out they didn't need the site so we were in. We set up and went down to the beach. It was a fantastic empty beach with big clear waves crashing against an outcrop of rocks. We were the only ones there. Back at the campsite a solemn looking man (with a beer in hand) walked up with his son and told us they would be having a ANZAC commemorative ceremony on the beach at 4:18am (I may have the time wrong). We figured it might be fun, since there was a full moon that night. We decided we would set out clock for it. Then, we made dinner and had a few beers and Dara saw a turkey in a tree and we went to bed. We didn't make it up for the ceremony.

The next day (25 March) we said goodbye to the beach and I caught Dara dancing. From there we headed out and south to Noosa, a great little riverside town. We got there and got a campsite right next to the river and watched the sunset over the river each night.

On the next day (26 March) we went on a coastal walk around a big point of land. Here is a view from the trail. We looped around and came to the point and sat down for a picnic lunch. There was a huge inlet below us and we could see turtles. Here I am enjoying lunch overlooking the inlet. We saw some great sunsets from our campsite and I spent that evening fishing. I didn't have any bait so I was using little bits of cooked pork sausage and they worked great. Here is a bream that I caught, just over 22cm, so a keeper (I let him go). The pelicans are keen to whats going on and as soon as they see the excitement of a catch, the pelicans come over to see if you'll give them the fish. That night we met an Australian couple, John and Larah and chatted with them for a bit.

The next day, 27 March, it was pretty rainy so we went into town and did some internet, had some pies and saw "The Interpretter", which was pretty lame. We did laundry that night.

The next day (28 April) we rented a boat and cruised around in the river. I'm sure some other stuff happened but I only have financial notes. He had burgers and wedges for lunch, I bought a pair of cheap sunglasses and we bought groceries (ice, tuna, coffee, cereal, mushrooms, tomatoes, lemon and garlic). That evening we watched the sunset and I fished again. That night we hung out for hours with John and Larah. I think it rained.

The next day, 29 March, we took a route suggested by John and Larah into the hinterland. We drove inland through the hills and had some great views. We didn't want to push the car too much on the hills since we were going to sell it soon. We stopped in a cute little town called Maleny and ate at a diner and read celebrity magazines. Then we carried on and got some sausages from a grocer and ended up at a campsite on the Somerset Dam. That night we had our second fire of the whole trip. There was a fire ban in most of the places we were.

The next day, 30 March, we woke up and had breakfast and saw a bunch of people near us looking up into a tree. I grabbed my camera and headed over there and saw that they were watching a koala sleep. We also saw him wake up.
From there we headed to Brisbane, more rain so we went to the mall. We had a couple of slices of pizza for lunch and went and saw "The Hostage". All movies seem to be the same these days. Not sure what else happened. My financial notes indicate that we bought a 30 pack of VB (Victoria Bitter) and a liter of milk.

The next day (1 May) we drove to the ferry and took a boat over to Moreton Island. It was a bit of a tourist trap and the weather wasn't so great but we spent three nights there. Not sure what happened. We went for a really long walk on 2 May and saw starfish. We rented DVDs and made food and did some walks. At night they had a dolphin feeding. They line up scores of tourists (mostly Japanese) and each person gets a single fish and then two people from the resort take you by each arm into the water then you give the fish to a dolphin. Someone videos it and sells it to you for thirty dollars or something. It was pretty obscene and we didn't do it. Not big marks for Moreton Island, but, it is the location of The Spooky Motel in the first Scooby Doo movie. Oh yea, they also feed the pelicans.

We left Moreton Island on 4 May and started the big drive to Sydney. We spent that night at Emerald Beach and camped right near the beach and ordered in pizzas. It was windy I think, and it rained.

Australia East, Part II (photos)

2005-07-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Sailing Whitsunday Magic
Whitsunday cruise
Whitsunday harbor
Hamilton Island Overlook
Whitehaven Beach
Jim and Dara
Whitehaven proposal
Whitehaven view
Whitehaven boat
Hamilton Island sunset
Cockatoos
One more cockatoo
Whitsunday overview
Whitsunday swirl
Heart Reef
Heart Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Whitsunday Islands
More Whitsunday Islands
Jim and Dara
The plane
Airlie Beach rainbow
Gladstone Beach

Australia East, Part I (photos)

2005-07-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

1 April - 16 April

Australia's East Coast

Cape Tribulation

This is a beautiful section of Australia. Cape Tribulation is a World Heritage Site, and it is the only place in the world where the rainforest meets the ocean. We camped right off the beach, and we went for a walk before it poured outside. We crossed the estuary during low tide so we could actually see crocodiles. Thankfully, no sighting. We continued to the rocks when the rain came down.

While leaving the campsite, we saw a hercules moth, the largest moth species in the world. It's lifespan is only for a day. Wild, huh? We then went on a tour of the rainforest. Fascinating overall. We also saw our first forest dragon. Here is another picture of him. Overall though, I liked the strangler trees. These trees use another tree as their host. Slowly, over a period of a couple hundred years, they suck the life out of the other tree. No picture though.

Driving South From Cape Tribulation
Mossman Gorge
Port Douglas
Hitchinbrook Island

Mission Beach

We spent the day driving down the coast from Cape Tribulation in the rain. Our guide book described Mission Beach as the perfect place to rest and relax. We were ready ... We were ready to get out of the rain. We splurged on this great beachfront hotel. The ocean view was fabulous, and the palm trees swayed in the wind and rain. We were out of the rain, warm and dry, enjoying cable. We stayed for three days. It was a little slice of heaven.

Finch Hatton Gorge

Our next step was to see the Whitsunday Islands. We made our plans and then took a side trip to Eungulla National Park for the platypus and Finch Hatton Gorge for the swimming holes. It was a lovely drive out there through the valley and the sugar cane fields . We passed through the small town of Finch Hatton towards Eungulla.

So, there was this huge mountain, and we decided that we could make it to the top. I was driving, of course, and the car started to overheat. I pulled over as soon as it was registering way too hot. We opened the hood, and steam was pouring out. We looked closer, and one of our radiator hoses sprung a leak. Worse yet, we were not close enough to town.

Thanks to Jim's quick thinking, we turned the car around, went back downhill and hoped to arrive in Finch Hatton without ruining the engine. We made it with no coolant left. We then waited in front of the mechanic shop on a Saturday. We had a long day waiting for Dave (the local mechanic) who ended up going camping for the weekend with his family. Thankfully though, Dave's dad was a mechanic too. He agreed to fix Betty the next morning. Yay!

We had a wild night hanging out with the locals in the pub. We ate some burgers and fries with gravy. We also played lots of pool and listened to some classic Australian tunes, like Silver Chair, Jet, AC/DC (which we just learned is from Australia, not England).

Early in the morning, Joe, our retired mechanic, started working on Betty. His eyes were not so good, but Jim helped him here and there. He fixed it though. $40 and Betty was as good as new.

After the car was running again, we decided against climbing the mountain to see the spectacular views from Eungulla National Park. Why risk it again? Instead, we crossed four flooded creeks to see Finch Hatton Gorge. We did finally swim in the refreshing, but freezing cold, water there.

Australia North, Part II (photos)

2005-06-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Drive Back to Australia's East Coast

There is not much along the road here from Kakudu National Park to the East Coast except too many miles (or kilometers for everyone else). The scenery is fabulous, and we enjoyed the peacefulness of the Outback.

We stopped the first night in Daly Waters. It was the first place that airplanes would land when they crossed from Asia. It is more popularly known for the colorful local pub. We decided to camp near the pub and treat ourselves to a little dinner. Little is not quite the right word. There was so much food, and we were sharing a burger and potato wedges. After a couple of beers and too much dinner, we went back to enjoy an evening under the Southern sky.

As we were walking back, an excited German man met us on the path. He found a snake near his camper. Of course, his camper is right next to our tent. When we neared the campsite, we saw his German wife and three blonde kids freaking out inside the camper.

I would like to think of myself as not a girly girl. But honestly, I was not in for hanging out and going on a snake hunt of all things. Jim, on the other hand, joined in the fun. Instead, I decided to hang out with Betty.

After a few misses and losing our friend Mr. Snake for 15 minutes, the snake was found in the engine. The locals were excited, because the python was larger than usual. The locals took him out to the nearby field - and let him go FREE.

Yes ... free ... even though I realize that pythons are not poisonous, I still did not sleep well that night.

More of the Outback

These are some great photos depicting the Outback. It is a great experience to drive and drive for miles with this scenery. I love the endless sky. The sunrises and sunsets are fabulous too. It is so peaceful.

State border crossing
The Outback
Clouds
Sunset
More sunset
A little more sunset

Overall, our longest day on the road was from Barkly Homestead up to Normanton. We could not find a campsite in town. The town seemed deserted. Instead, we decided to check out another nearby campsite. Before leaving though, Jim was pictured with the 28 foot Normanton crocodile. The crocodile was found near the town in the 1950's. It was killed, and later, displayed in the town center. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, we continued out of town past Normanton. Here I am driving and dodging toads on the road. I was never quite good at Frogger though.

Australia North, Part I (photos)

2005-06-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

March 23-31

Jim & I made a decision to head towards Darwin, which may have not been the best idea. We got there between the rainy season and the humid season, so when it wasn't raining, it was really hot and humid. I feel as if we gave the place a little bit of a chance though.

First of all, Darwin has a lovely location on the ocean. Unfortunately though, you cannot swim in the ocean for fear of being stung by these giant jellyfish. Their tentacles alone reach 9 feet, and they are invisible. If stung, death is possible for the weak hearted, but the scars are permanent and painful. They look like burn marks. We saw a picture of these red lashes on a woman's thigh. Could you imagine living on an ocean where you could not swim during the hottest times of the year? Why live on the ocean?

Then, there are the crocodiles. We thankfully did not see any of these. People die from being eaten by those. Most are found in the saltwater rivers along the estuaries. And according to one of the campsite owners, the crocs are fast. You would not be able to outrun them.

Aside from these minor nuisances, we were there during the end of rain season, and the temperatures were outrageously hot and humid. It was not our ideal weather for sleeping outdoors in a tent. We would either swim or shower before going to bed and immediately get out of the tent in the morning. We also found ourselves hanging out in the shopping malls and movie theaters to cool down. Sad, but true ... but then, we realized that we could leave ... we can hop in our car and get out of here. Of course, it takes a good three to four days. But, it was possible.

All was not lost though. There were a couple of good highlights for this region.

Katherine Gorge National Park

We would have missed out on one of the coolest animal moments. We camped in Katherine Gorge National Park, and there were wallabies (smaller version of a kangaroo) everywhere. Take a close look.

Mother and child
There is a little baby bulge in the pouch of the mother.
More mother and child
A little head is peaking out of the second photo.
A little more
It is starting to get dark, but there is a head outside of mom's pouch.

Litchfield National Park

A unique attraction in Litchfield National Park is the magnetic termite mounds. It was pretty interesting. Here is an explanation of the termite mounds. Check out the size of these termite mounds in comparison with Rover.

However, Litchfield National Park is better known for their beautiful clear natural swimming holes. Our favorite one was the Buley Rockhole, a clear creek with deep swimming holes. We would sit on the rocks and the water would flow over us. Or we could jump in the deeper clear swimming holes to cool down. This was one of our favorite places to relax and enjoy the day.

When we were leaving Buley Rockhole, we saw a good sized goanna. Jim was able to get a couple of great photos of him. Later, the same day, we had another goanna visiting our campsite. This one is hanging out under the table, and he continues towards our tent.

After a day of relaxing in the swimming holes, we did a little bit of the usual. We cooked a little grub and enjoyed a couple of beers, while watching this fabulous sunset. We also played another vicious game of scrabble. Jim probably won this game. That is the only reason that we have a picture of it. :)

Kakadu National Park

This is the biggest and the best of national parks in the Northern Territory of Australia. Unfortunately, for us, the major roads were closed due to flooding, and we only saw a few exhibits in the visitor center. We did get a picture of a sea eagle in a nearby parking lot. From here, we decided to get out of dodge and head for the East Coast.

Australia Red Center, Part II (photos)

2005-05-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

20 March - 23 March

On 20 March, we woke up in Kings Canyon and headed out for a hike. We pulled up and put on our fly hats and headed out. After a bit of up and down hiking you get to a huge cliff where you can lay on your belly and look over the edge. This is the view from edge. We hiked down to a water hole and back up, carefully sticking to the trail. It was a good hike, hot and buggy, as we were accustomed to.

After Kings Canyon we drove up to Alice Springs, the largest city in the red center. We pulled in to a caravan park, set up and had pizza for dinner. My notes indicate that we boiled eggs that night.

The next morning (21 March) we got up around 5:30am and headed west of town into the West McDonnell Ranges. We hit all the sites; Simpson's Gap, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge (where we saw Rock Wallabies), the Ochre Pits and Ormiston Gorge. We skipped Stanley Chasm because they were charging for entry. We ate egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
Afterwards, we headed back into town and checked out the shopping district. We went to a jeweller and checked out their opals. We learned all about the different kinds and which are most valuable (we had already learned about them in Coober Pedy, and the stories matched). Red is the most expensive and they had some great stuff, at much better prices than in Coober Pedy or Melbourne. Dara bought (actually, I was carrying the money, so I bought it for HER) a really nice necklace that has a little speck of red in it that glints when viewed from the right angle. Then we got groceries and headed back to the caravan park for dinner. That night, I re-organized the car.

The next day, 22 March, was a big drive. We burned lotsa gas (we bought 75 liters according to my financial records, and bought more gas first thing the next morning. Since we "forgot" to pay for camping that night, our only other expense for the day was AUD$3.30 on popsicles). Days driving in the outback all meld together, but I bet we saw some dead animals and eagles and excellent clouds and listened to Neil Young Harvest and The Frames and Josh Ritter and maybe even some Velvet Underground or White Stripes. We probably talked to some people when we stopped for gas, and we probably waved at all the cars going by as is the custom to always wave when you come upon another car in the outback. But, according to my notes, this is the day the we crossed the Topic of Capricorn. As I recall, Rover was particularly excited about the event. The next major excitement of the day was reaching Wycliffe Well, which is the UFO capital of Australia. We carried on and made it to the Devil's Marbles, arriving before sunset. We parked and put on our fly hats and headed out to take some photos. The Marbles are excellent especially at sunset and sunrise. They were obviously placed there by aliens.
We saw there was a wooden platform and assumed it was there to protect from snakes or scorpians or poisonous toads or something so we put our tent on top of it. We slept pretty well except for a violent wind that caved the tent in on us, making it easy to get up to see the sunrise on the rocks. Here is our camp at sunrise. Dara didn't like the flies, but she's pretty tough.

So, 23 March, we broke camp and headed north. We passed through Tennant Creek, Elliot and Daly Waters. Then, it started to get a bit greener and we stopped in at Mataranka and had a swim in a waterhole there. From there we pressed on to Katherine, which has a big gorge which is supposed to be great to go canoeing on. The clouds were great and we made it there just around sunset. It was pretty hot, and we had crossed from dry heat to wet heat, so it was pretty uncomfortable. That night, sitting at our table, we saw flying foxes for the first time. They are huge bats and you can hear them as they slowly flap their wings. They flew by in hordes. It was pretty cool.

That same night we saw the mother and child wallabies. It was one of the highlights. The baby, more of a toddler, was hanging out eating beside its mother, and then it decided to climb into her pouch. I saw it coming and I figured it was regressing to infancy or something because it looked like it never would fit. It was amazing. I filmed it. Photos in the next entry.

Australia Red Center, Part I (photos)

2005-05-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

14 March - 19 March

From Adelaide we headed north to Port Augusta, arriving there 14 March. We wanted to find a mechanic to fix a few things on the car and check it out again before we headed up into the outback. We were told that if you break down in the outback, it is so remote and desolate that you have no choice but to pack your bags and get on a bus since it costs more to tow a car than the car is worth. So, we wanted to be sure. We found an odd mechanic named Cootsie and had him check over the car. We replaced the oil pressure switch and the fuel filter and a couple of radiator hoses and flushed out the cooling system. We felt pretty good about things so we headed back to the caravan park and enjoyed a nice bottle of sparkling red wine. If you haven't tried this, you should. It's kind of like red champagne but tastes better and you can drink it like beer as opposed to drinking it like wine (e.g. quickly). The next step was to fill up our 40 liter fuel can and our 40 liter water bottles and all our other various water bottles and hit the road (on 16 March).

In the outback, you are on a two lane road and the one scary thing are the road trains, which are trucks carrying two to four trailers. They can't slow down and they take a long time to pass so no matter what your speed, they are scary.

We made good progress on the first day, making it all the way to Coober Pedy, which is an opal mining town. The place is so hot that most of the people who live there build their houses underground, dug into the sides of hills. We checked out the town for a bit and looked at some opal stores and then got some beer and went back to the caravan park. We set our tent up on some gravel and I found some bits of opal right under my feet. It was in Coober Pedy where we first encounter the outback black flies, which swarm you in search of moisture, which means they go for your eyes and nose and mouth. It's maddening. More on them later.

The next day (17 March) we woke up and packed up and went to The Old Timers Mine, where we went on tour of an opal mine. It was pretty interesting and they had seams of opal in there worth thousands. Then we headed north, passing opal mining fields. The next stop was The Breakaways which is where Mad Max Beyond Thunderdown was filmed. Here is a photo of us with Betty. It was here where we first started seeing the huge wedge-tailed eagles. Further along we would see them feeding on dead kangaroos. Sometimes we would even pass hugely bloated dead cows with eagles picking away at the carcass. Sometimes you would smell an awful smell and then you would see a deflated dead cow that just popped. It was pretty cool.

We made it all the way from Coober Pedy to Ayers Rock that day and enjoyed some beer in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. My notes don't say what we ate, but I bet it was pasta.

The next day (18 March) we woke up and drove out to The Olgas, seeing Ayers Rock for the first time seeing Ayers Rock for the first time on our way. We stopped at the car park where the hikes begin and got so attacked by flies that we retreated into the car and proceeded to kill the ones that came in with us. We sat there and watched people running across the parking lot to their cars. On account of the flies, and the fact that it was near noon and wicked hot, we decided to abort the mission and head back to the caravan park. We sat and had lunch and I was determined to save the eight dollars required to buy a fly hat. Our car had come with some mosquito netting and I made us some fly hats by stitching some string through it and tying it on top. Here is Dara modelling my creation.
After lunch we went over to the rock and went into the visitors center. It was about how the aboriginals used the land and found food in the area and the spiritual significance of the rock. We considered climbing it, but the locals consider it sacreligious and it was pretty windy and hot, and we didn't really feel like it, so we didn't. We decided instead to drive around the rock a couple times, once clockwise and once counter-clockwise. I have more film of this than I care to admit.

We went back to the caravan park, met some French people who sold us their New Zealand guide book and then we went to watch the sunset over the rock. The colors really come out in the sunset.

The next day (19 March), having learned our lesson the previous day, we went EARLY and with fly hats to hike the Olgas. Here is a nice shot of a valley. We were covered in flies, but we had our our fly hats on, so it wasn't so bad.

After our hike we had our final look at Ayers Rock and headed to Kings Canyon, arriving there and camping for the night.

Southern Australia (photos)

2005-05-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

March 7-10

The Grampians National Park

After driving down the Great Ocean Road, we moved inland to the Grampians National Park. It was a nice way to spend a couple of days. The weather was better too, although the temperatures were colder than normal for this season.

Being on an animal hunt and all, we learned that there were emus at the nearby golf course. Jim was able to get a couple of good close-up photos of emus. We decided to get their attention by waving a red dish towel at them. It worked for a few moments, and they moved a little closer. But then, they trotted away. Go figure.

We did a moderate hike up the pinnacle the next morning. It was a relatively steep climb up the mountain over flat-edged rocks. It took us about 2-3 hours overall (being out of shape and all), but the view was worth it.

After the hike, we decided to rest and eat a little lunch in the sun. We then journaled for a couple of hours. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Collection of Animal Signs

Yes, animal signs .... after the little penguin sign on Phillips Island, Jim started a collection of photographs of animal signs along the road. Lots of koalas, kangaroos, emus, cassowaries, etc, are often hit by drivers. In the case of cassowaries, there are only 40 noted in the Mission Beach area of Australia. We never saw one of those either. Anyway, this is the beginning of a rather large collection of animal signs.

Below are two of the signs found in the Grampians National Park:
a wombat
an emu

Mt. Gambier

From the Grampians National Park, we decided to cruise back down to the coast to catch some more ocean views. We passed through this little town known for their volcanic lakes. Mt. Gambier Lake was a nice place to eat lunch, but definitely nothing too spectacular.

Coorong National Park

This campsite was listed as one of the top 10 in Southern Australia. Definitely for a reason. Our campsite was on a small piece of land surrounded on three sides by water. A perfect location for the sunset and sunrise. There were so many birds resting near our campsite. The pelicans were fun to watch off shore too. A peaceful place to be ... better yet, we were the only ones in the campground.

That night, the wind was strong and cold as it traveled across the water. We actually postioned the car to block the wind for both our table and our tent.

Check out the sunset shots:
Sunset Dara & Dinner.
Sunset East
Sunset West

With the great location, we decided to wake up early and watch the sunrise. This is the reflection of the sun to the west. It was still a little cold. That is me underneath that blanket. Looks like Jim snuck in another picture of Betty.

Deep Creek Conservation Park

Well, we found another secluded campsite along the coast. This conservation park was overlooking the ocean from the hills. Just another spectacular view of the coast here in Australia. :)

Check out a couple of photos:
coastal views #1
coastal view #2

Australia Southeast, Part II (photos)

2005-05-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

March 1-6

Philip Island

Near Melbourne we stopped for a few days (1-2 Mar) on Phillip Island, which is famous for their "penguin parade." The penguin parade, which happens nightly, consists of herds of "fairy penguins" waddling up the beach after feeding out at sea for up to two weeks. They come in around 8pm every night. After the first one arrives, you can watch them storm the beach and rush to climb up into the bush to their burrows. It's pretty fun to see, but, due to the "touristic" appeal of the traffic, you end up paying a good bit of money to sit on concrete stadium-style stands and listen to a boring commentary until the floodlights come on. Even after PAYING, you have to be stealth if you want to video or take any photos. BUT, not to be negative, we were there, so I can't complain about it being touristic.... as the woman said to her husband when he arrived home complaining of rush-hour traffic: "you are the traffic."

Anyway, we also went to the location of the penguin parade during the day and they have an "interpretive" boardwalk which we walked on and we saw that the penguins were hanging out under the boardwalk. I got a photo of this penguin by hanging over the edge and filming underneath. Here's a profile of a penguin giving me the evil eye. When you leave, you need to check under you car for penguins before driving away.

Bending over the edge of boardwalk and stooping down to check under the car was more work than I'm used to, so when we got back to our "trailer park", I had a nap. That's our tent and table there and those big trees are Eucalyptus, which are the kind that koalas live in. AND, you may be surprised to learn that koalas attack. Everything is very dangerous in Australia. Even the cute little platypus has a venom-filled talon on its back foot. You also need to watch out for seagulls.

Melbourne

After Philip Island, we continued our clockwise journey and came into Melbourne. It's a nice city with some good old buildings, and we had a good time doing the self-guided walking tour. The Grand Prix was also there the same weekend, and on Thursday, you could get in for free, so we went and had a look. The cars go fast and you only see them for a split second. I don't get it. Here's a photo. We did a long walk and checked out the "alternative" part of town and had a great dinner at a place called "Deelish." We don't eat out much so it was nice.

Great Ocean Road

Melbourne is the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the coast to Port Campbell or so. It was fantastic with great views of roaring abandoned beaches. We were going clockwise. The first place we stopped was Torquay which is a famous surfing location. We don't surf so we didn't really care but we stopped in the visitor's center and got a brochure listing the interesting sites along the way. We read it, digested it, created a mental map of the journey and checked off the locations as we went along. We like doing things like that sometimes.
--- The first place we stopped was Torquay, another famous surfing spot. The ocean views were nice, and we watched some surfers. CHECK.
--- The next stop was in Anglesea. It was raining. We went to a golf course known for its population of kangaroos. We saw herds of them. And, as I said, everywhere in Australia is dangerous. Ok, kangaroos. CHECK.
--- My notes tell me we next saw a lighthouse, a big arch and some waterfalls. Probably took photos, but they aren't uploaded. CHECK.CHECK.CHECK.
--- Next stop, KOALAS! There was a little turn off near the town of Kennett River. We were instructed to turn left at the caravan park and head a couple kilometers up the road. Then, we were to look up into the gum trees. We weren't sure what size they were but once we saw one (I spotted it first, hah!) we knew what we were looking for. We saw probably twenty or thirty different koalas, some of them were even awake. I got some great video of one climbing... a rarity during the day (they sleep twenty hours a day). We later learned that the koala population is in danger because a lot of the females are infected with clamydia. As I said, Australia is a dangerous place. Here is a picture of Betty on the road in Kennett river and here is a picture of a koala. Allright, koalas, CHECK.
--- Next we stopped for the night in Marengo, which is right next to Apollo Bay. It was cold and stormy, and we hung out in the camp kitchen. When we arrived, there was a pretty cool rainbow. Apollo Bay, CHECK.

The next day, 6 March 2005, according to my notes, I showered. We left around 11:30am and headed to the Melba Gully and did a short hike. There was a sign at the beginning of the hike warning of snakes. Then, we continued along and made it to the vicinity of the Twelve Apostles. We stopped off at Gibson Beach, which is just before the apostles. Since they didn't have color photography in the time of the apostles, I shot some photos in black and white. Here is Dara walking on the beach and here is one of the apostles, as viewed from Gibson Beach in black and white. Here is a picture the two of us on Gibson Beach. Ok, Gibson Beach, CHECK.
--- Next stop was the Twelve Apostle viewing boardwalk. Here is a picture looking back at Gibson Beach. Here is the standard Twelve Apostle photo and here is a photo of us, in sepia. The sky was very overcast, so we decided that we would check out some of the other sites and head back for sunset. When we went back to the carpark, I noticed a lot of helicopters. We prefer wheels. Twelve Apostles, CHECK.
--- Next we went and checked out some big blowholes. The ocean had carved out a channel and roars into these narrow passages and spurts up when it hits the edge. This photo, in my opinion, fails to convey these features. Thunder Cave Blowhole, CHECK
--- Next, we went and climbed down to Loch Ard Gorge. It was pretty cool. Here is a photo of us at the gorge. Notice that the weather is clearing up. Gorge, CHECK
--- Next, the Seabrooke River. We saw a lot of rivers hitting the sea in Australia and they are always interesting battles between water forces. Here is Dara, backlit. Seabrooke River, CHECK.
That was it, we checked off just about everything on the list, time to go to the campground. We stayed in Port Campbell that night and saw this coastal view on the way. We set up our tent, and according to my notes, had cocktails. Then we went back to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. It was pretty cloudy. Back to Port Campbell. It rained, and we played cards in the camp kitchen.

Australia Southeast, Part I (photos)

2005-05-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

February 24-28

dara / We were off on the road and heading South along the ocean road. We wanted to see the main sights in Australia (the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, Ayers Rock & the Olgas in the Outback, The Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach). We also wanted to see all the fun Australian animals in their natural habitat.

In Saltwater Creek Camping Area in Ben Boyd National Park, there are tons of kangaroos . The kangaroos hopped around the tents and ate grass. Pretty wild. Then, Cape Conran National Park had these cool goannas in Australian speak or iguannas for the rest of us. They also had one of the best beaches, and it was deserted.

Wilsons Promontory is another national park along the Southern Ocean. We decided to camp here for a couple of days. There are great beaches and clear water perfect for snorkeling. We went for walks along the beach at sunset (romantic, huh?). We also enjoyed a little resting and relaxing after our first couple days on the road. I took an afternoon nap in Jim's hammock .

The birds are pretty cool in Australia too. Check out a kookaburra and an Australian parrot .

We like to cook dinner before it gets too dark. It just makes everything easier. Here is a picture of me when we are hanging out after dinner. We are catching up on our journals. It is a constant struggle for us to keep them updated. :)

Jim's favorite animal is the wombat . It is much bigger than this picture illustrates. They are a big, thick animal, that looks for food at night.

Apologies

2005-05-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity to update the blog. We wish that there was a good reason. The only real reason - there are not many internet cafes in the national parks and in the Outback. And once you fall behind, it is hard to catch up. In summary though, Australia was great. We are now traveling around New Zealand in a campervan. Life is good, and we are enjoying every minute, although we miss all of you (of course!). We are looking forward to seeing you soon. More importantly, we are updating tonight ... There might be more pictures than text for the second half of our Australian trip unless a description is warranted.

On the road in Australia (photos)

2005-03-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

February 19-23

dara / Jim & I spent the first couple of days checking out the backpacker car market in Sydney. It is this fabulous place where you can purchase a Ford Falcon, a camper van or a 4WD vehicle with all the backpacking gear. The idea is drive around Australia and when you are finished, come back and sell the car to another backpacker like yourself. Crazy, huh? Tons of travelers do it, since it is so much cheaper than renting the car.

Our plan for Australia is drive from Sydney down to Melbourne on the coastal roads. Then, we follow the Great Ocean Road over to Adelaide and check out wine country along the way. Next, we head up the middle from Adelaide through the Outback to Alice Springs. Then, we go northeast over to Darwin in the tropical north, and back across the Outback to the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, and back down the East Coast to Sydney.

Below are two fun pictures of Betty (our Ford Falcon):
Betty and Me
Jim's Organization

Our main plan is camping in the national parks. The national parks are absolutely beautiful! When it is raining, like the wet season in Darwin, or cold outside, like Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, or just because we need a break, we splurge on the luxury of the carvan parks. There is nothing better than hot & cold showers, swimming pools and laundry facilites.

Thailand, Part II

2005-03-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

February 1-18

dara / Jim & I decided to end our three months in Southeast Asia on the beaches of Koh Tao, Thailand. Koh Tao is this fabulous island with clear blue waters, nice sandy beaches, great snorkeling, and even better scuba diving. Snorkeling and scuba diving are the main attraction for visitors. It is also a cheap place to learn how to dive.

I have been wanting to get certified to scuba dive for awhile. Since Jim is already certified for the Open Water course, it would be more fun to dive together. :) While I was taking the Open Water course for four days, Jim relaxed in his hammock on our patio, and he spent some time reading in the seaside restaurant. He also enjoyed a couple of fun dives.

After finishing the Open Water scuba course, I did splurge on a spa day for a little rest and relaxation. The spa was situated in the hills overlooking Shark Bay on Koh Tao. The rooms were surrounded by these beautiful gardens and views of the bay. I enjoyed an herbal steam bath, an aloe vera wrap, a facial massage and a thai massage. It was a little over three hours of heaven! It was the perfect place to relax after four days of studying and diving.

Jim & I then decided to join the Advanced Open Water class together. The course focused on five different skills (night dive, peak performance bouyancy, navigation, naturalist and deep dive). It was alot of fun overall, and not quite as much classwork as the first course.

The deep dive (30 meters/90 feet) was my favorite dive. We went to Chumpon Pinnacle which were these cool rock formations underwater that were shaped like mountain peaks. There were lots of coral and sea life living on these formations. It was also one of our best dives for visibity. We could see for miles, or so it seemed.

As part of the class, our instructor Andrew took down an egg to show the pressure underwater. We broke open the egg and hit the yolk back and forth, similar to a ping pong ball. The bat fish love eating the eggs though, and a black bat fish ate the egg as soon as he could catch it.

More fun though, Jim participated in the Guiness Book of World Records for the Most People Scuba Diving Simultaneously. The new record is over 750 divers. Rover the Bear was there with him. The record was 570 divers in South Africa. Unfortunately for me, I was dealing with a little bit of food poisoning, and I missed out on the fun. I have a t-shirt though. :)

Scuba is pretty cool. There are lots of fabulous fish (barracuda, parrot fish, bat fish, banner fish, blue spotted sting rays, white-eyed moray eels and more)! We did between 9 and 11 dives in our final week, and we were pretty exhausted overall. Definitely worth it though!

Laos Revisited (photos)

2005-03-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

January 30 - February 1

Mekong River Rapids in Laos
Don Det
Long Tail
FYI --- Jim would like to buy a lawn mower motor and put it on our canoe.
Don Det #2
Don Det #3
Bus ride to Thailand
Bus Vendors
Chicken Bus
Bus Vendors and Rover
Border Crossing

Cambodia (photos)

2005-03-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

January 6 - February 1

I am in Australia, trying to remember the details of Cambodia relying on a shoddy journal, so I'm just going to loosely tie together the photos here and try to do better in the future. It might help to read Dara's Cambodia entry.

We came from Saigon to Phnom Penh and found a great guesthouse. The next day, we went to the S-21 museum which documented the Khmer Rouge's "Liberation" and their attempts to create an ideal agrarian society.

The Khmer Rouge, pretty much at the same time that North Vietnam stormed into the South after the Americans left, took over the city. The soldiers were mostly just kids. They made everyone leave the city, millions of people in just a couple of days. From what I understood, most people were neither for or against the Khmer Rouge. Some people were celebrating just because once the city was taken over, the war was over. Again, you need to read about it, I still haven't gotten a total sense of what happened and how.

Anyway, there's a museum there called S-21. It was a school that was turned into a prison. The presentation is totally raw, and you can still see blood stains on the tiles. The photos are extremely graphic. Everyone that came into the prison was photographed. The idea was to form an agrarian society. Peasants were honored and intellectuals were killed. If you wore glasses you were doomed. The way that they sought to create this new society was to empty the cities. Here is a map showing the dispersion from Phnom Penh.

A few days after we got there we took a tuk-tuk out to The Killing Fields, which was another bummer. Here are some of the pits they've undug. The government collected and placed the skulls they found in a huge tower in the center of the park. It was pretty gruesome.

So, since there was no way for us to experience Cambodia without first being confronted with these facts, I figured I should start with the topic. From there, it got fun.

We left the city and took a bus to the southern coast to a town named Sihanoukville. It was a nice beach town with cheap rooms, cheap food and cheap beer. We stayed there five nights and spent our days on the beach or cruising around on a motor bike. We watched the sunset almost every night. One day we drove over an hour on the motorbike to see some waterfalls. It was dry season, so the falls were dry. It was a nice ride though. Here is Dara crossing the bridge to the falls. We were only supposed to spend two nights in this town, but we got stuck relaxing.

From Sihanoukville, we headed back towards Phnom Penh, via Kampot. We were travelling with our friend Claus, who we had first met in Saigon and ended up on the same bus with to Phnom Penh and then hung out with in Sihanoukville. On the way, we saw huts. From Kampot, the three of us got a car (and driver) and headed up to Bokor Hill Station. Here is the abandoned church, and here is some misty scenery, we saw the sunset from the balcony of the abandoned hotel. We spent the night at the ranger station, going to bed early so that we could get up to see one of the legendary sunrises. We got up at sunrise and I walked outside into a misty rain with fog so thick that I literally could not see my hand in front of my face (at arm's lenght that is). So, we rode back to Kampot, had a crappy lunch and rented moto bikes. The ride from Kampot (famous for its black pepper) to Kep was huge fun, with loads of little kids running to the roadside to scream and wave hello. We have video of it. We drove through remote little villages and eventually got to Kep, where we saw monkeys, at crab and drank Coca-Cola. Then we drove back, and got to Kampot just in time to get a ride back to Phnon Penh. On the route, we saw this basket truck and got to experience Phnom Penh's rush hour and a nice sunset. As we got in to town we saw this guy pulling a cart. That night, Claus and I hung out "high school style", staying up late and drinking quart sized bottles of beer sitting on the curb of the main street near our guesthouse. The next day, Sunday, we went shooting and driving. Dara and I both shot the AK-47 (which I videoed but did not photograph) and Claus went for the 9mm and then we went go-kart racing. Here is Dara getting into her racing suit. I kept thinking I was going to flip, and therefore got out-driven by Claus. It was a nice way to spend the day.

OK... we gotta get out of here. The connecting verbage will now thin.

Here is a house outside Phnom Penh. And here are some guys in a hut. We went to Siem Reap, which is near Angkor Wat. In the market, I saw fish heads.

First day in Angkor wa...
Angkor Wat is the most famous of the temples, but the site is much larger and contains many different temples. We decided to approach it over two days, doing Angkor Wat itself on the second day, so as to build up to the finale.
So, on the first day, here is
Tah Prom gate, Dara and Claus, this reminded me of the poem Ozymandius, and here's rover in front of a Tah Prom temple. A shot of Claus through a window, some wooden support beams, and a huge tree growing through the ruins and then another tree growing through which Rover enjoyed. And then, another tree temple shot.

Then we saw Pre Rup, which had towers, even in the corners and Dara climbed around. Here's a gate tree head and another shot of that. Look kids, a bridge.

The next day, we got up very very early and went to the site before sunrise.
Here is Angkor Wat in the dark, and then barely visible and then at sunrise and then with the sun peaking through and there was a big pond in front of us. Here is the temple reflecting in the pond. Some monks on the steps. After exploring Angkor we went to The Bayon, which was our favorite. It's the one with the faces.
All in all, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat are a must-see. The town of Siem Reap has great food and good markets and Angkor is amazing.
From there, we went all the way over to Champong Cham, on the Mekong. It was mostly a transit town, but we crossed a really cool bamboo bridge and then went to a cemetary and saw a skinny Buddha. From there we took a boat up the Mekong, passing riverside huts and one with a tree. We got to Kratie, which is famous for its fresh water dolphins, but we more enjoyed the guesthouse balcony. Here is a sunset shot with me and Dara and Claus and English James (remember him, from Vietnam?)
One day, Claus and I went out for an all-day motorbike ride through the countryside, which was a blast. We saw a girl in a field, and stood by the Mekong and then took a ferry from one side to the other and then drove back on the other side, assuming there would be another ferry to the town. On the west side we saw some cows near a bridge and passed a guy washing his water buffalo. On the ferry back to town, there was a man with a bunch of chickens tied to his bike and we saw a houseboat. It was a great day.

From Kratie, we took a dusty bus ride to Sen Monorom, to the east. Once there, we got a guesthouse and the next day we rented motorbikes. We had a brutal ride out to a lame waterfall. We had no water, it was getting dark and we were dangerously low on gas. We started heading back, and Claus ran out of gas. Luckily I had bought a pair of pants in Vietnam that were too big and was using my hammock rope as a belt, so we pulled him to a town, where we met these kids. I videoed them with the viewscreen facing them and they loved it. Here is a still. At the waterfall, an English speaking Cambodian tourist (from the city) was on a hired bike that got a flat so he was riding with Claus and acting as our interpretter. After we got some more gas, we continued on, and then I got a flat tire. We stopped and only two minutes later a group of guys stopped and proceeded to put a new valve into my tire and glue it up and put it back together. They all travel with these supplies. My diligent financial notes state that I payed two dollars for this, and as I recall, I had tipped well. We got back after sunset and we ate, had a couple beers and walked back to the guesthouse.
The next day, we started our three day elephant trek. Here is the elephant Dara and I rode and here is the elephant driver's hut. Some of the huts were smaller, and there were kids watching us the whole time. There was one kid sitting in a chicken coop. Here is a profile shot of both elephants, and one of the driver. Here is Claus getting on to his elephant. Everyone watched as we rode away.
On the first day, we crossed rivers and went through the woods and crossed clearings. It was scary to get off the elephants, but they politely kneeled to make it easier.
We rode the whole day and came to a totally remote village which probably has not seen many tourists. The drivers took the carriages off the elephants and let them graze in the woods. We sat and the guide made dinner. The house we were sitting next to had a pig. (this is the pig that would follow you into the woods and eat whatever you might leave behind.) We ate pretty much the same thing we ate everyday in Cambodia and then slept under mosquito nets. The next day, we got back on the elephants as the villagers watched and went out for another day. We found some orchids and looked at them. When we next stopped, the elephants drank some water. Elephants are mammals. We spent the second night by some waterfalls. When we got there, we had a great swim and bath in the river and played under the falls and then we went and saw a bamboo bridge. Here is Dara on the bridge and a close-up of her foot. Here is a shot of Dara crossing the bridge and one of Claus crossing the bridge. I crossed it too, but don't have photos of it. It was pretty scary.

We went back to the campsite where the elephant driver was relaxing. The guide had already set up our beds and we had dinner. It was Claus' birthday that night, so we had whiskey and Cokes (not much whiskey since the guide had thrown my backpack off the elephant on the first night and broke one of the bottles) and afterward, we surprised Claus with a birthday cake, which was just four candles in a granola bar.
In the morning, we admired the falls one last time and watched the driver wash the elephants. The elephants and drivers stayed at the camp and we walked about five hours back to the village. It was hot and we realized that we much preferred riding to walking.
We got back to Sen Monorom and got a private car back to Kratie and spent one night and then we left Kratie on the fast boat to Stung Treng. We saw kids along the river and more kids along the river and then we got off the fast boat in Stung Treng and got straight onto a speed boat. Some of the people riding in speed boats wear helmets but we didn't have any. It was kind of dangerous, but we survived. It may have been because the driver was riding with his son. Here is another speed boat and here is the Cambodian exit post.
Then we were in no-mans-land. We got back on the boat and went to the Laos entry office, paid extra for overtime and then got on motos to the town and then a bus to another town and then a motorboat out to Don Det, where we got a room and spent the night. If you look at a map, we went from Sen Monorom (car, fast boat, speed boat, walking, speed boat, moto, bus, motorboat) to Don Det in one day. It was exhausting.

After a few days in Don Det, we decided to head back to Thailand to end our Southeast Asia trip in the islands. We headed west out of Laos by bus and then got a ride to the border, crossed and got another ride to the train station, caught a train to Bangkok and were in bed by 1am. Another exhausting day of travel.

Whew.

Cambodia, Part II

2005-02-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

January 22-29

dara / The travel in Cambodia has been fabulous! We have taken the bus a couple of times to Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. But overall, it has only cost a couple more dollars for the luxury of a private car. The three of us (our Danish friend Claus, Jim & I) have enjoyed nice rides with lots of leg room, and it takes less time to get there. My favorite transportation though is the fast boats up to Northeastern Cambodia on the Mekong River. We would sit on top of the boat and watch all the riverfront villages as we cruised on by .... I enjoyed watching the water buffalo relaxing with their heads peaking out over the water. Definitely one of my favorite animals along the ride! However, I did enjoy the fresh water dolphins in the Mekong too!

Claus, Jim and I all did a three day trek through the mountains in Eastern Cambodia. We spent two days traveling by elephant and one day hiking back. The ride on the elephant was fabulous! It was so much fun to watch the elephant push his way through the jungle, walk down into rivers, climb up steep hills, wash himself in the river, etc. I probably could have done without his spraying himself off (water, snot or whatever flying out of his trunk). That was gross! But overall, it was worth it.

We slept in a minority village on the first night. It was obvious not a minority village that has seen many Westerners. The children would watch us and see what we were up too. Jim would show him the wonders of his video camera and how they could film each other.

The next day, we wandered through the mountains again. It was so much fun to be on top of an elephant checking out the mountain scenery and feeling alone in the middle of the jungle without anyone else around ....

When we arrived at our campsite for the second night, we went for a swim in the waterfall. We also went climbing on this bamboo bridge over the river. That was a little more scary. It was not exactly strong by any stretch of the imagination. One piece of bamboo flew off as Jim was climbing down from the bridge. Our guide had to repair it for Claus and me to cross the bridge. Thankfully, we all made it across the bridge in one piece, and Jim has some great pictures and video of our crossing the river.

More importantly though, it was Claus's Birthday. We put some candles in a granola bar and sang "Happy Birthday" around the campfire. We then slept in hammocks covered by mosquito nets under the stars, next to the river and down from the waterfall on the second night. That was great fun!

Cambodia, Part I

2005-02-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

January 6-22

dara /As soon as I crossed the border, I fell in love with Cambodia. The countryside is peaceful with wood constructed homes, mostly on stilts with grass-thatched roofs. There are crops for miles, and life is simplier and slower.

We started our tour of Cambodia with the roughest part, the tours of the Killing Fields and S-21 Museum (an old school where hundreds of Cambodians were beaten and tortured during the Khmer Rouge reign from 1975-1979) in Phnom Penh. It is horrible, and all the deaths are well-documented (similar to the Nazis). There are pictures of all the prisoners, and some of the torturing too. There are still blood stains throughout the prison. It is all pretty raw.

Then, we spent some time resting and relaxing on the southern beaches in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It is quite peaceful. It is a more secluded beach with only a couple of grasshut restaurants along the beach. We found this great ice cream shop with homemade ice cream and hersey chocolate sauce. We never missed a sunset or a night sitting under the stars and listening to the waves crash on the shore.

We rented motos to see the coastline. As we would ride down the dirt roads on a moto, the children would run out, wave madly and yell "hello." The kids were so friendly. We spent hours on a moto wandering through the countryside and yelling back "hello." It would bring such a smile to our faces.

After traveling the Cambodian southern coast, we returned to Phnom Penh for a few more of life's simple comforts. We purchased yogurt & granola cereal for breakfast at the nearby Lucky Market (a real supermarket!). We even spent some time at the shooting range. Although I have never been a big fan of guns, I did shoot an AK-47 at a target about 10 meters away. That was rather wild! There was alot of pressure bouncing back from the shots and gun off my shoulder. We then ended the day with a race around the track in go-carts. I have not been in go-carts in quite awhile, but these little cars flew. It was quite fun overall.

The best part was the temples of Angkor. They are pretty amazing too! The temples date back from the 9th to 12th centuries. The sandstone detail is still well preserved, and my favorites temples include Bayon (all the different faces on each side, north, east, south and west, of the temples), Preah Kahn (an Indiana Jones type temple with tons of passageways to explore and climb) and Angkor Wat (the steep steps leading to the top of the temple is pretty cool, along with the views). We woke up early, and watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat and reflect on the pond as it rose over the temple. That was fabulous!

Vietnam, Part II (photos)

2005-02-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

December 18 - January 6

Ok, so I finished the last one with lunch near the tunnels in the dmz.
From there, we went down to Hue, which has a temple that we didn't see and some other stuff that we didn't see and I can't remember what we did there. I do remember a grand night out at the DMZ bar, which ended with Lisa riding off on a rickshaw. It was a pretty non-descript town though, but it broke up the bus rides, which, I think Dara mentioned, or I mentioned were painfully long. On one ride, my foot swelled up like an eggplant and I was convinced I had deep vein thrombosis, but anyway...
After Hue we went down to Hoi An, which is known for its tailor shops. It seemed the entire town was dedicated to selling tailor made clothing to foreigners. I had a tough time getting in to it, but eventually did. Despite being the kind of person whoe wears shorts and T-shirts to work, I bought a dark grey three-piece suit of Italian cashmere and a more modest brown suit, seven shirts and some pants. Dara got a pant suit and some blouses. We wanted to have a formal party with some of our friends (surprisingly, a number of previous acquaintances converged on Hoi An at the same time) but we shipped straight from Hoi An to the states, thereby getting rid of a lot of stuff we had been carrying.
So, after a grueling day of shopping, Paul (remember him?) and I sat at a bar and drank beers while Dara and Lisa (remember her?) went off shopping for tailor made shoes. While we were sitting there, a Chinese guy came up and asked if he could take a picture of me with his friend. This is the second time this happened. I agreed, only if I could get a picture of myself with his Chinese friend. Not much else happened there except that I bought the final elements of my coffe making kit, which I don't have a picture of but have to demonstrate at some time, since it is the only "cooking" that we are able to do. Oh yea, the guesthouse had a pool, which was nice. I think the rooms were expensive, maybe even over five dollars a night.

From there, with Christmas rapidly approaching, we stopped next at Nha Trang, which was our first beach town. It was nice enough and we had some fantastic seafood dinners, with Lisa and Paul and Christmas music playing everywhere. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, the very next day, you gave it away" That one got pretty annoying. So, we used an internet place across from our guesthouse run by a guy named, or rather, a guy who called himself, Phil. On Christmas Eve, he had free drinks and wrapped presents (I got a roll of Mentos) and there was an English (Manchester) guy there dressed as Santa. I think he stayed up all night because we saw him staggering down the street Christmas morning. We hung out there for a while, where this photo was taken (a photo of a photo sitting on a keyboard), and then we had slightly below average Christmas dinner at an English run cafe and then went to "The Sailing Club" for a night out. So that was our Christmas... pretty weird.

From Nha Trang, we headed down to Mui Ne, another beach town. The first night we stayed in a standard bungalow, but then Dara and I used a "Honeymoon Wildcard" and upgraded to a resort with a pool (since there wasn't much to do other than sit around). The beach was interesting, and as Dara noted, there were fishing villages interspersed between fancy resorts. Here is a boat and here are some cows walking along the beach. Here is Dara trying to decide if she should walk towards them. It was their aloof attitude that was frightening. Mui Ne is the place where we discovered the glory of the motoscooter. We rented one for a day and enjoyed the freedom so much that we rented it each day from then until we left. We rode up the the edge of town, which afforded this view of the boats in the harbour. The half-spheres in the foreground are also fishing boats. We also took a ride out to see the dunes that were nearby. Here is the two of us at the dunes. Some kids were there that rented sheets of plastic for sledding on the dunes. We didn't rent them, but we hung out with them for a bit. They were fascinated with my chest and belly hair. I have video of that... it's pretty funny.
We were in Mui Ne also for New Year's Eve. We had a good time on the porch in front of our room with our neighbors who were from Sydney and with Lisa and Paul. Eventually, our neighbors went to bed, Lisa fell asleep on the tiles and Dara went to the room. Paul and I decided to stay up for New Year's in London, which was 6am our time. We made it, and at sunrise, we went down to the beach where a group of people were pulling in a huge fishing net from the shore. There were two ropes coming in to shore from either end of the net with two lines of people, about 20 meteres apart, pulling in the ropes. Paul and I both helped, and since I didn't have one of the straps you used to lash around the rope, I was put in back, anchorman, with the rope wrapped around my waist. At first I pulled hard, but that annoyed the others, and I soon realized that you had to be slow, strong and consistent. The sun had risen a bit when the net came in and they all crouched around it to see what they got. There wasn't much. One large squid, a bunch of small fish and a handful of shrimp. They seemed pleased and I felt that it was an awful lot of work for so little payoff. A lady handed me a shrimp and I didn't know what she wanted me to do with it. At first I thought she wanted me to eat it or maybe just look at it, and then she made a throwing motion toward the sea and I realized she wanted me to throw it into the ocean, which I did. I was feeling pretty welcomed. Then, one of the older men was motioning to Paul, saying something that sounded like "twinkie". Neither Paul or I knew what he was talking about and then he wrote "20" in the sand. He wanted us to give him 20,000 dong. It ruined the mood for us so we left. I hate to say it, but that was what Vietnam was like. We were nothing but money to a lot of people. The experience was worth 20,000 dong (15,000 is a dollar), but we were helping, it was ten or twenty minutes of fairly hard work. I went to the room and went to bed, not making it for New Years on the East Coast. (by the way, I didn't have my camera for this)

Not sure what it was, probably too many nights of holiday cheer, but I got pretty sick after Mui Ne. We went next to Dalat, where I stayed close to the bathroom. I read "The Tunnels of Cu Chi" which was a non-fiction acount of the role of the tunnel system in the Vietnam war and then read "The Killing Fields" about the Khmer Rouge's revolution in Cambodia. Dara did some sightseeing. She went on a moto tour and saw the crazy house and got some good views of the valley. It sounded pretty fun.
Next stop was Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC, or Saigon. We spent a number of nights there and enjoyed it. Dara already mentioned Thong, the precocious Rock-Paper-Scissors player. We also ran into our Sydney friends from New Years and met up for dinner. Here we are with Lisa, Paul, Connel and Karen on our last night in Vietnam.

Vietnam, Part II

2005-02-04T04:39:00.000-08:00

December 29 - January 6

dara/Mui Ne was a beautiful beach in Southern Vietnam. Jim & I decided to upgrade to a nicer room for New Years. We found this wonderful resort with a swimming pool on the beach. We enjoyed the days resting and relaxing in the sun. The breeze was perfect off the water, and we could hear the waves hit the shore.

This resort town is unique in the fact that the fishing villages are found on prime real-estate. There are little fishing villages between the guesthouses, bungalows and resorts. You can spend the day watching the locals launch the smaller coconut-shaped boats, pull in their fishing nets with the recent catch, and cook dinner in a campfire.

We decided to rent a motorbike to see and enjoy the coastline. We took our new favorite form of transportation to the sites near Mui Ne. The drive was pretty spectacular! We passed the red dunes, and along the road were palm trees, coconut trees and cactus. As we got further away from the coastline, there was this beautiful blue lake resting at the bottom of the white sand dunes. Turns out, there are several lakes throughout the white dunes.

From there, Jim & I headed to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It is a fun place, and we stayed in the backpacker neighborhood. Lots of restaurants, bars and late nights.

We met this smart little kid selling cigarettes on the street. He would sell them for the average price (85 cents), or you could play him in rock, scissors and paper. If he wins, you pay one dollar. If you win, he sells them for 70 cents. He was a genius at the game, and he would come over and hang out with us every now and then.

We also went to the War Rememberance Museum (formerly known as the Museum of American War Crimes). It was pretty rough. Lots of documentation on the effects of Agent Orange, Napalm, etc. Lots of birth deformities and skin disease. Lots of additional pictures on the destruction.

Overall, Vietnam was not quite what we expected. The people were not as friendly as in Thailand, and it seems everyone (English, Irish, Danish, etc.) that we met felt the same way. We did enjoy seeing the country though.

Itinerary Changes

2005-01-24T04:03:00.000-08:00

Phase II
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
November 26 - February 18

Phase III
Australia
February 18 - May 15

Phase IV
New Zealand
May 15 - June 15

Phase V
Fiji, Cook Islands and Tahiti
June 15 - July 2

Phase VI
Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Winnipeg, Manitoba
July 3 - July 31

Back in Washington, DC
Early August

Vietnam, Part I (photos)

2005-01-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

December 10-18

On 10 December, we crossed from Laos to Vietnam on the road that goes from Ponsavan, Laos to Vinh, Vietnam. Here is a hut along the side of the road and some kids on the side of the road. I met the guy in this photo on the bus and he put his hat on my head (photo from screen of another camera). The women really do wear conical hats. Here is what modern Vietnamese writing looks like. We spent one night in Vinh and then headed north to Hanoi. It was a pretty hard couple days.

Hanoi has a big lake in the center and an island in the lake. Here is a photo of the island and a close up. There was a museum on another island in the lake with a temple. Here is a horse sculpture and a dog carving. We also went to see the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, but we couldn't go inside. On one day, we spent the entire afternoon walking around the lake, and on one side there was a sculpture garden. Here is a guy with an axe, and some kick boxers and a woman picking rice. We also saw these women by the lake. One evening, we went to see the famous and ancient art of Vetnamese water puppetry, which was invented by rice farmers long ago. Here is a depiction of a king getting a sword back from the lake in Hanoi from a giant golden turtle. All around the town, women walk around selling stuff. Here is how they carry their baskets. I had a stamp made for Rover the Bear. It was custom carved out of wood and has a picture of rover and his name on it. It took one day to get it and cost $2. Here I am with the stampmaker.

From Hanoi we headed east to Halong Bay. The scenery there was pretty nice. Here is a photo of a boat similar to the one we were on. Here is our boat, flying the Vietnamese flag. The base of each island showed erosion. Here we are chilling on the boat. The day we got there and the first night was Dara's birthday and we had a nice celebration with French wine and American whiskey. Her birthday cake was a cupcake with a red Buddhist prayer candle. We went back to look at the video just the other day, and it seems that something went wrong and it was over-recorded with footage of a not-very-exciting Jenga game. Not sure how it happened. But, we had a good time and met three English folks Alex, Albi and James, who we continued to see throughout Vietnam.

The next day was pretty hard. We did a two hour hike up to the top of Navy Peak. Paul has a great photo of the two of us sitting at the top. I think it is the worst photo I've ever taken.... I think I might be crying in it. Maybe I'll get a copy of it soon. The view was nice, but no one was feeling very good and we didn't stay up there too long. Later that day, some people from the boat went kayaking and we also went to see a cave. Here is a sunset shot from the last day.

From Halong Bay, we went back to Hanoi for a few days and then headed south to Hue. We took an overnight bus and arrived about 50km short of Hue in the Demilitarized Zone, near the city of Dong Ha. Even though we were exhausted from the trip, we took a tour of the DMZ area. Most of the area had been hit hard during the war, but there were huge forests of rubber trees that had been planted. Also, they used to grow coffee there, but now the big crop is black peppercorns. It was pretty strange being American in Vietnam, but we didn't really have any problems, probably because we showed up with money. But, the DMZ tour was one of the harder things to hear about (the worst though was probably the war museum in Saigon, which was named "The American War Crimes Museum" up until a little while ago). Anyway, here is Dara near some trees. We hiked up to a US base and on the hike you could see canvas from sandbags and old wrappers for rations. Then we saw this bridge crossing the Ben Hai river. It was on this bridge that I remembered that my camera did black and white. Here are the cables for the bridge. Here is the two of us on the bridge. Here is a house near the bridge. From there, we went and saw a US tank. Here I am crouching on top of it, looking very American. Next, we went to the Vinh Moc tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels, nears Saigon, are perhaps more famous, but the tunnels in Cu Chi had been destroyed and rebuilt, so seeing the Vinh Moc tunnels was nice since they are in their original state. Here is a map of the tunnel system. Here is Dara at the tunnel entrance and again, inside the tunnels. Here is a tunnel exit from inside, and me sitting in a tunnel exit and a view from that same exit. It was really hot inside and there was little air so it felt extremely uncomfortable, but it was a nice experience.

After the tunnels, we had lunch.

So, that is the first half or so of our Vietnam trip. We have dinner plans so I have to finish later, but tomorrow we are heading from Siem Reap up in to Laos and there's no telling what kind of connectivity we'll have. We loved Laos so much that we regret not spending more time there, so we're going back. Anyway, until next time...

Vietnam, Part I

2004-12-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

December 10-29

dara / My first impression of Hanoi --- there are motorcycles everywhere! There are few traffic signals, and motorcycles cross the intersections weaving around each other. It is crazy! It can take some time to cross the roads as a pedestrian. Better yet though, there are also markets everywhere. It would be a good place to buy gifts for the holidays. It is strange though, the same stores are selling the same items within the same couple of blocks. Business cannot be that easy when all your competitors are that close.

We went to the POW prison in Hanoi, the Hanoi Hilton. Most of the historic information is not about the American pilots that were kept in the prison. Most of the information focuses on how the French treated the Vietnamesse political prisoners. There is a small exhibit about the American pilots. A picture of John McCain. A glass cabinet display of John McCain's uniform, boots and flight gear. Lots of pictures of the happy lives of American prisoners here. I doubt if the conditions were quite as favorable as the pictures depict.

Jim took me to Halong Bay for the big 3-3 birthday. It was fun! We went on a three-day tour of a national park with 1,000s of rocky, uninhabited islands off the bay. On the first night, we toured around the island, hung out with our English friends, drank on the boat and finally, slept below in a cabin. Then, we stayed on the Cat Ba Island on the second night for some treking. The trek was brutal after a night of drinking and celebrating. But, in the end, the view was worth it!

After an overnight trip on the bus from Hanoi, we stopped in Dong Ha for breakfast. This town is located near the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone), the 17th parallel between North and South Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the International Cemetary and the Vinh Moc Tunnels. We spent the day seeing all the historic sites where alot of the destruction occurred.

The Vinh Moc Tunnels are pretty amazing. It is my understanding that the locals dug the underground tunnels as protection from the U.S. air raids. There were 95 small rooms for families to sleep off of one of the main hallways. A hospital where 17 babies were born. A bomb shelter further underneath the three levels of tunnels. The tunnels were small too. I could walk, but in most cases, I needed to hunch down on the tour.

FYI --- we did not tour the Cuchi Tunnels which are much smaller. A person would need to crawl on their hands and knees. These tunnels were a complex network of levels used by the Viet Cong near Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Our next destination was Hoi An. This fun little town is known for their tailor-made clothes. There are tons of shops everywhere. You walk into a shop, flip through current fashion magazines and design whatever you want for great prices. You can pick out whatever colors and material too. Jim actually purchased two suits with two sets of pants for each suit, three additional pairs of pants and six shirts. Can you believe it? :) He only owned one suit before then. My favorite purchase was a blue/gray jacket. :)

We spent Christmas with our English friends Lisa & Paul in Nha Trang, Vietnam. It is one of the beaches in Vietnam. There are a bunch of islands off the bay in the distance. We spent a couple hours each day hanging out in this restaurant, La Lousiane. The restaurant had grass huts, lounge chairs on the beach, and a swimming pool in the middle of the open air restaurant. If you cannot be with friends & family, it is not a bad way to celebrate the holidays.

Tsunami

2004-12-26T04:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, and, by the way, we are in Nha Trang, Vietnam... not Thailand.

Check out this photo again. This was the night that we decided to extend our Southeast Asia portion of the trip, thereby not flying to Australia on January 1st and thereby not spending Christmas on the Thai beaches, which was the original plan.

Laos (photos)

2004-12-13T23:57:00.000-08:00

December 5-10

On the 5th of December, we crossed from Thailand into Laos. Here is a map of Laos.
We crossed from Chiang Ria to Huay Xai, and of course, Rover was with us at the border. After crossing the border, we boarded a slowboat and made our way down the Mekong River toward Luang Prabang. The whole trip two full days, stopping overnight in Pakbeng.
On the first day, we stopped at a little riverside village. Here is how they dry fish there. We had some good views of the river and I climbed up into the village. Here are some boaters on the Mekong. We went all the way until sunset and then stopped in Pakbeng, which was a pretty remote place. I only got this photo of the river before it got too dark. We spent the night in a $2 room and had a great Indian (???) meal for dinner.

The next morning we set off for Luang Prabang. We were travelling with our English friends Lisa and Paul and our Dutch friend Jeanette. Here we are on the boat. We sat around and played with wooden puzzles and took turns asking each other riddles. It was a slow boat. The scenery was nice though, with mountains everywhere, and you would pass people on the shore. On the first day, a big group of English folks drank all the beer on the boat by 2pm, so on the second day we had no choice but to start early. We passed by a cave filled with miniature Buddahs, and before long, the the sun slowly went down, and down, and down. Soon after sunset we arrived in Luang Prabang.

We stayed in Luang Prabang for three nights. The town is a peninsula built at the confluence of the Mekong and another river. Here is Rover, with the other river behind him. We walked all around the peninsula. They don't use wheelbarrows to move dirt. Other interesting vehicles were a Mercedes, and a colorful tuk-tuk and another colorful tuk-tuk. We spent most evenings drinking Beer Lao and going to the night market. One evening, Dara and I bought a hand-sewn duvet cover. The woman we bought it from cooed like an Ewok and when we handed her the money, she tapped each of her items for sale with it for good luck. I wish I had video of it. One day we went to see a waterfall near Luang Prabang. We took a tuk-tuk from town through the mountains and got to the boat launch, where some kids were having a fire. We got to the boat stop and hiked up to see the falls. The falls were a series of shallow falls, and minerals in the water caked onto the trees. By the way, I wear sandals and a man-purse and I'm not ashamed. On the way back I took a picture of Dara (she has NOT grown green horns) and a picture of myself.

In Luang Prabang we said goodbye to Jeanette and headed to Phonsavan. Here is the bus we were on. We had two guys with us, each with an AK-47, one in front and one in back. Also, along the road were little outpost of paramilitary armed guards. I got the sense that maybe we were on a dangerous road. We stopped at a bus stop, and I saw people carrying sugar cane and a kid playing with a stool. We also saw some kids playing near the bus stop, and a typical roadside hut.

Eventually, we got to Phonsavan and crammed into a tuk-tuk. At the bus stop in Phonsavan, a woman who had a guesthouse seduced us with the promise of a bonfire, so we left with her. When we got there, we got on a mini-bus and headed to the Plain of Jars. The plain is filled with ancient crematory jars and also happens to be one of the most heavily bombed (by you know who) areas in the world, with Laos being the most heavily bombed country in the world. Here is Paul standing in a bomb crater, and Rover next to a MAG marker, signifying that the path has been cleared of landmines. Here is a photo of me and Dara and a bottle of Beer Lao, and Dara standing next to a jar. We were there for the sunset and then headed back to the guesthouse.

We had a nice meal by the fire and talked to the guesthouse owner about Laos history. He brought out a five-gallon water bottle filled with Lao-Lao, which is some kind of grain alcohol with bark floating in the bottom. I went into the kitchen to ask for another beer and saw them butchering up a bamboo rat for dinner. They said that we could have some, and I stood at the bar at picked at the cooked rat with all varieties of rusting bombs swaying on strings above my head. The guesthouse owner was teaching his son English, who came running toward the fire with a butcher knife saying "Big Knife". Dara went to bed early and I hung out by the fire with some Irish guy and then he went to bed and I was alone, so I went to bed too.

The next morning we got on a bus for Vinh, Vietnam. The border crossing was only opened to foreigners about two months ago, so it was pretty primitive. I was tired, and since we're married, Dara has to share her pillow.

Here is Rover at the Vietnam border.

Laos

2004-12-12T01:44:00.000-08:00

December 5-10

dara / What a beautiful country! It is so peaceful and slow moving. We floated down the Mekong River to Pakbeng on the first night and then, Luang Prabang on the second night. The scenery is amazing! The country is completely untouched with thick vegetation and mountains off in the distance turning into rolling hills at the riverbank. The river is so calm and peaceful even with the jagged rocks off to both sides of the river. Near the jagged rocks, there is a nice combination of sandy and rocky riverbanks. The tribes are spread out as we traveled down the river, and it is miles between each of the isolated villages. It was fun to see the adults planting along the riverbanks in the sand and fishing off their long, narrow wood boats. Their kids are often playing near the water and waving to us as we passed. There is no better way to spend two days of traveling. We just floated down the river, only 50 km in total.

Luang Prabang (a UNESCO World Heritage site) was just as beautiful as the trip down the river. The city itself is an incredible mixture of Buddhist and French colonial architecture clustered together on a small pennisula between two rivers and surrounded by mountains. It is easy to lose track of days wandering around the city, seeing the night market, enjoying cocktail hour, catching up on our journals, going back to the night market again, sitting under the stars and drinking our Beer Lao.

The prices are fabulous! Jim & I found a great dark green duvet cover with matching pillowscases, shirts for Jim, pants for me, silk scarves and fun handmade bags. We will need to ship soon, since there is not going to be enough room in our backpacks. :)

Life is slow in Laos. We welcomed the break from the hussle of Bangkok and Delhi. It is the perfect place to see, to experience and to relax in this calm, amazing environment. We even went to Tad Sae Falls (a wide waterfall flowing through trees and over rock cascading into teal-colored pools of water). We climbed around on the rock and played in the falls. It was secluded, and we (our English friends, Dutch friend and us) enjoyed the waterfall.

It is difficult to be in Laos as Americans though. I did not realize how much we bombed them during the Vietnam conflict. Between 1964 and 1973, we conducted one of the largest sustained aerial bombardments in history, flying 580,344 missions over Laos and dropping two million tons of bombs, costing US $2.2 million a day. And even with this in mind, the people are warm and welcoming towards us. It is hard to listen to the personal stories of all the bombings back then. We even went to one of the historical sites, the Plain of Jars, in Laos. The Plain of Jars are large granite jars used for burials dated as far back as 2000 BC. It was their burial spot for cremations. There were alot of round craters throughout the Plain of Jars from US bombs.

We are off to spend the next couple of weeks in Vietnam. We are planning on celebrating the holidays with our English friends on the beach. Then, we will probably head to Cambodia for New Years. Should be fun!

Thailand, Part I (photos)

2004-12-05T03:40:00.000-08:00

November 25 - December 5

We arrived in Bangkok from Delhi. We were there from day 42 to day 52 before heading into Laos. We are going back, but here is the photo record of those ten days.

We came in on Thursday, November 25th, and the next day was the full moon. The full moon is a big deal across this whole region. In Bangkok, there was a big festival near the river with dancers and singers. The thing to do, is to buy floating flower arrangements with candles that are lit and then the whole thing is sent down the river.

In the markets, you can buy crickets to eat.

We stayed on Kao San Road, which is the main tourist location. It's a constant party with loads of cafes on the street and people milling about and drinking. It's a good place to get CDs and DVDs for cheap. Anyway, here is a group of people who work for one of the bars and try to get people to come in for a drink.

Here is a great idea for outdoor flooring.

By day, we checked out some temples. In front of one was this statue that I thought looked like something from a Beatles movie.

Here is a close up on some temple art.

From Bangkok we took the night train north to Chiang Mai. The night market here is a blast, with tons of inexpensive carvings and clothing and games etc. I bought a full set of wooden puzzles and Dara got a bunch of clothes. There was no bathroom and the trick of going into McDonalds backfired since they charged 10 Dong to get in, so I bought a Pineapple Pie, which was pretty good. I think I was served by the employee of the month.

Chiang Mai is known for its market as well as a good place to take Thai cooking classes, get Thai massage or go trekking. After one night there, we went on a trek into the Hill Tribe villages. We had a guide from town and another man with us. As we walked, he carried a machete and sang really interesting hill tribe chant-songs. We stopped at a waterfall to cool off.
Here is a picture of the two of us on the first day. And another one of us in front of a mountain. Just before we got to the first village, we saw a water buffalo in the woods.
The first night was a big party around the campfire. Here is a bottle of samson. One of the locals and the group sang a bunch of songs. Some memorable ones were "Let It Be", but our friend changed it to "Lady Boy". I did a version of "The Ocean", which I taped and thought was brilliant, but the tape doesn't lie, it was pretty poor, except for our friend doing hill-tribe style vocal percussion and keeping time by slapping me on the knee. We had a good time later learning the names of the constellations in Dutch, Japanese and the local hill-tribe language. One of the stars near the Seven Sisters is called "the chicken star".

The next morning was pretty rough. We walked for hours and then got to the elephant camp. I saw one elephant with two trunks. We rode elephants for a while, which was pretty fun. Another elephant ride photo. Then we walked again to another village. Here is the hut we stayed in. I think palm trees always look nice in the sunset. Here is a house near the village. That night, some of the locals did a traditional dance and made us all participate.

The next day we hiked more and then came to the raft camp. Here is the two of us there. Here is a photo of our whole group before rafting, and another of the whole
group on the rafts. The ride was really nice, a great way to end the trip. Here is the river at the end of the rafting and a mellow
dog by the river.

When we got back, we went out with Blaine and Erin, who we had met and hung out with before the trek, along with most of the group from the trek. Here is a photo ofJim, Dara, Erin and Blaine. Note my Hmong-wear. Blaine is co-owner of a hostel (Home Hostel?) in Kimberley, BC, so you should stay there if you head that way. In Thailand, if you want a good strong beer, you drink Chang. It is a nearly an institution among travelers. Here is Rover with a Chang.

The trek was important as far as friends. We met two Canadians, Mark and Kristen, who had been travelling around with two English, Lisa and Paul. Mark and Kristen were saying goodbye and heading home for Christmas, and we ended up bumming around with Lisa and Paul up until now (Christmas), so you'll hear more about them later I suppose. Here is a group photo on Mark and Kristen's last night (Kristen, Lisa, Paul, Mark, Jim, Dara).

The next night, we went to the market again, and Dara and I bought a huge black and white painting (cost less than a CD in the States). Here we are with the artist.

Then, we took a bus up to Chiang Khong to cross into Laos. Here are some monks crossing the Mekong border with us.

Thailand, Part I

2004-12-04T07:23:00.000-08:00

November 25 - December 5

dara / What a fabulous place! Jim & I arrived in Bangkok on Thanksgiving day, and we met an English friend who gave us some great recommendations on travel and where to stay in Bangkok. Our hotel was on Khao Sam Road (a hip neighborhood with lots of backpackers everywhere). It even had a pool on the roof, and the view of Bangkok at night was great! It was the perfect place for cocktail hour. :)

We arrived in Thailand during the Full Moon Festival. Men were all dressed-up in traditional Thai clothing dancing with make-up and the longest nails that I have ever seen. There was lots of singing, dancing and fun to be had! The festival was on the river, and the Thai people sell floating floral arrangements with candles. Once the candle is lit, the candle is placed on the river. They float along and outline the edge of the river. All the boats and the main bridge were all decorated with colorful lights too. It was a fun time to arrive in Bangkok!

We also spent about four hours seeing the city by tuk-tuk. We went to alot of the temples, and we saw the Big Buddha, the Lucky Buddha and the Sleeping Buddha. We also checked out tailor-made clothes, and both purchased suits. The prices are reasonable, and from what we have heard, Vietnam has even cheaper prices for tailor-made clothes.

From Bangkok, we took a sleeper train to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. We found a good guesthouse for about $4 per night with hot water. Not a bad deal, huh? We went on a three-day trek through the jungle. That was fun! We did alot of hiking, cooled off in a waterfall, drank around the campfire, slept in grass huts on bamboo mats, rode an elephant, floated down the river on bamboo rafts and met some fabulous travelers from England, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan. We are hoping to do a trek in Vietnam too!

Chang Mai has the best prices too! Great prices on skirts, tops and pants. Jim found some cool wooden puzzles. If you are looking for a little pampering, massages, pedicures & manicures are about $2.50. Definitely looking forward to ending on the beaches with a little pampering!

We are off to Laos tomorrow. We are floating down the Mekong River on a slow boat. It takes about two days to arrive in Luang Prabang (a World Heritage site). We are looking forward to it!

India (photos)

2004-11-30T02:20:00.000-08:00

I finally got the memory uploaded. Here is some of what we saw in India. As Dara said, we stayed in Delhi for a few days and then did a little driving tour of some sights. Most people we've met since then are amazed that we only gave a week to India. It was definitely a mistake since it takes quite a while to acclimate to the culture. We really only started catching our stride right at the end, and then it was over. People spending months there note it as the best place they've been, and people spending less time often have less spectular reactions, but, it is definitely an interesting place.

I saw this in the airport and thought it was funny.

So there is one crappy street that most travellers end up on. Here we are at our hotel. On the street, you are constantly being harrassed, someone wanting to sell you something, or be your guide or give you a motor rickshaw ride. It took us the whole week to finally learn that if you say "no", you are acknowledging the person and they persist. The solution is to not even respond. It takes about a week to be able to do this without feeling rude. It's just how it works. But, the motor rickshaw rides are great. There are not traffic rules and huge numbers of vehicles nearly collide on each other at each intersection and everyone just muscles their way through. No one gets mad and no one gives way.

The best part was probably the food. The peanuts taste kind of funny though, kind of like farts or something.

Anyway, here is a pedal rickshaw and a man in front of a store and another guy.

After a few days in Delhi, we headed south to Jaipur, which was a nice. We didn't do much in the town. Most of our experience was just watching the landscape and people from the car. We spent 6-10 hours in the car each day. Here is a straw house and a guy giving bunny ears to a woman.

From Jaipur, we headed over to Pushkar, where there was a huge camel fare. The town was pretty busy with people bathing in the holy lake and markets and then we found the camels. It was a huge field full of them. There were women walking around collecting the turds (about the size of a billiard ball). They would lay them out in little sections of sand roped off with string. Each turd would be duly rotated for even drying. Then, they are carried off in shallow baskets carried on the head. I think they use them for fuel. I was standing there, watching a woman rotating the small turds, and then it dawned on me.

Peanuts.

Anyway, here are some photos from Pushkar. The connection here is too slow for me to look at the photos I uploaded, so I am just going by the file names. Camels and more camels.

A nice monkey family.

Here is Dara and a camel
and then Jim with a camel.

The camel fare.
And a wider view.

Some guys smoking.

Pushkar camels.
Camel fare.
Camel fare again.

A street scene in Pushkar and some Pushkar women. In India, it is very normal for men to hold hands.

Next, we went to see the Taj Mahal. Here is the two of us there. When we were there Albert Brooks was filming a movie. I was wearing a blue long sleeve shirt and think I should be in the background. But, I thought the big bald guy was Albert Brooks, so I took a picture of the wrong guy.

Here is sunset at the Taj.

Delhi, India

2004-11-29T02:00:00.000-08:00

November 19-25

dara / Jim & I arrived in Delhi on Friday, November 19. We toured around Delhi for about three days. We ate lots of fabulous Indian food and wandered the markets for hours. The markets are a fun place to watch cows wandering the streets, venders cooking up spicy foods, rickshaws flying past the market-goers, kids selling anything for a rupee, and Westerners ignoring other Westerners because they are trying to experience "the real" India. We would need to escape back to our room every now and then for a little peace. :)

We checked out all the main tourism sites outside of Delhi. We went to Pushkar for the Camel Fair. It is a 10-day festival where camels are bought and sold every year. The owners are walking around and showing off their camels, while the bidding process happens between the interested buyer and the owner. It is quite fun, and camels are everywhere! There was also a fabulous market place too!

We also went to Fatehpr Sikr and the Taj Mahal. Fatehpr Sikr is a large fort in good condition, and it was the capital for a short time. The Taj Mahal is absolutely beautiful marble memorial, and we were there for sunset. The sun cast hues of orange onto the white marble. The reflecting pool and the gardens were an amazing sight too.

I like India! I spent a month in India with Habitat for Humanity about nine years ago. It was a great way to be introduced to the food, the people and the culture. I was able to learn alot about the country in a short time. However, near Delhi, the tourism business is out of control. The people, the government, everyone is out to make a buck. If you are looking for good experience of India, I would recommend spending a little more than a week in India and checking out other parts of the country.

The Nebelhorn (mm)

2004-11-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

October 30

Ok, this goes way back to late late October, but if you have a good connection, here is some video from our 6 hour descent of
The Nebelhorn (30M)
as described earlier.

Happy Thanksgiving

2004-11-24T18:04:00.000-08:00

November 24

When we were in Rotterdam, we saw the church that the pilgrims prayed in before setting off to the New World. We met some people who said they were told the same thing about a church in Delft. So, I think the way the story goes is that they left from Delft in a boat that proved to be leaky, and then stopped in Delfshaven (Delft's port), which is part of modern day Rotterdam. Then, they prayed real hard and took off. Anyway, not sure what the real story is.

But, we'll be missing everyone on Thanksgiving.

We are in the airport in Delhi. We woke up at 3:45am to leave the hotel at 5:30am to catch a 8:45am flight which has been delayed for three hours. Luckily, they have broadband internet machines at the airport for only 50 rupees an hour (44 rupees = 1 dollar). I'm in a foul mood, so I won't write about India right now.

OK, so since we can't be there, here is a video of us enjoying cocktail hour in Venice (8.2 M).

Venice (photos)

2004-11-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

November 14-17

We are leaving India today (Thanksgiving) so more on that later, but here is an entry that I just discovered was saved as a draft.

We were told there would be flooding. The first night, I noticed
water in St. Marks square.
The next day it was flooded.
St. Mark's Basilica had good mosaic.
another one.

Here is Dara in front of St. Mark's (hires).

Nice canal shot.

we live on fat and salt... self-catered lunch(hires).

We went to a presentation of Leonardo Da Vinci machines.
These are too edgy (and too big) for roverthebear.blogspot.com, but
Cammed Anvil Machine (2.8M)
Rover Lives (3.5M)

Venice, Italy

2004-11-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

November 14-17

(dara) Jim & I are in Venice for three days. I have never been to Italy (aside for the brief entry over Slovenia's border). I love Venice! Jim, when are we coming back to Italy?!?

On a crazy note, Venice has been flooded for the past couple of days. It has only flooded for a couple of hours in the a.m. though. It is rather wild! We have been walking around on these small tables throughout San Marco Square. But honestly, it does not affect the beauty of the city in any way!

There are plenty of great churches, paintings, marble & wood carvings, and architecture. We enjoyed seeing Leonardo da Vinci's models yesterday. That was pretty cool. What a genius! We also checked out a special exhibit of Salvador Dali's work. My favorite paintings were The Madonna of Port Lligat, Soft Self Portrait with Fried Bacon, Gala's Christ (three dimensional), Fifty Abstract Paintings ... , Women Lying on the Sand and The First Days of Spring. Fun overall!

We are going to enjoy one more fine Italian meal tonight and a glass or two of wine. Then, we are off to Munich on an overnight train. We then will catch another train to Frankfurt at 6 a.m. Our flight to Mumbai leaves on Thursday afternoon from Frankfurt. We have a six-hour layover in Mumbai. Then, our flight to Delhi finally leaves Friday at 10 a.m. Should be a long couple of days! :)

Slovenia and Croatia (photos)

2004-11-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

November 6-14

see posting for details, but here are some photos:
here is the "other" pass of the Julian Alps
we had to take since they closed the road to film "Heidi" in our first choice

A Slovenian town.

On the Croatian coast, we stopped in Piran.
Here is the the view from our room.

A Croation roadside town.

We went down the middle of Croatia on a new hiway open only two months.
The rest stops weren't even done yet. Here is
the view from a rest stop.

Next was Makaraska, on the coast.
see family
row of facades
church

We crossed the
Bosnian border.
Here is a
Bosnian road sign.
and some islands.

We passed a place with orange stands.

Then we went to the medieval town of Dubrovnik.
Absolutely recommended.
We splurged on a nice hotel. Here is the town
as seen from the hotel terrace.
You can walk the walls of the town. Here,
looking east.
The town was heavily bombed during the war, but they fixed
all the roofs.
One night, walking through the old town of Dubrovnik, they were filming a movie.
It is Cassanova, produced by the BBC ??? (we were told).
Here is
the actress.
they were fixing her dress.

Dara got up early to take this sunrise shot and this one.

Slovenia and Croatia

2004-11-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

November 6-14

(dara) Jim & I met his parents in Vienna on Saturday, November 6. We decided to rent a car and drive through Slovenia and Croatia. What beautiful country! Slovenia has some amazing views! There are lots of rolling hills, snow-capped mountains (the Julian Alps), glacier lakes and teal-colored water running down the mountains into rocky river beds.

We went to Lake Bled, which is one of our favorite spots. It is a deep blue lake nestled in the mountains. There is a small island with a monastry on it, and the castle sits up on a cliff overlooking the lake. Quite peaceful and magical - really! One of those perfect places to let time slip away!

Another great location in Slovenia was Piran, a small town on the Adriatic Sea. There were fabulous narrow, stone walkways that winded through the town. The water was an amazing blue! And although it was on the cooler side, there was someone swimming in the water. Surprisingly though, the water was warmer than the air.

Croatia is a beautiful country too! There are over 1,000 islands off the coast, and the drive from Split to Dubrovnik is awe-inspiring. I would imagine the drive is similar to the Pacific Coast highway, except Croatia's view is of the islands, off in the distance. The mountains fall away into the Adriatic Sea, and the water are all shades of blue.

Dubrovnik is definitely worth a mention. "Enchanting" is how Jim's mom described it. She is right too! It is a walled-in castle city on the Adriatic Sea. The only one that exists today. It is a completely funtioning city with stores, restaurants, banks, etc. One of my favorite characteristics of the town is the red-tiled roofs, and how they look with the outer wall and the backdrop of the Adriatic Sea. Quite lovely!

There are plenty of fabulous views! Croatia just finished a major road from Rijeka to Split. The drive is all scenery, and the rocky hillside goes on for miles. There are a couple of fabulous lakes too. My favorite part is how the country is still untouched. You can drive for miles, and there are not any roadside towns built up yet. That is really what I love --- lots of fabulous scenery and no fast food restaurants off to the side of the road.

If you would like to see more on either country, check out any of the two upcoming two movies.

Movie #1
Heidi was being filmed on the major pass of the Julian Alps in Slovenia. We actually had to cross the border into Italy to continue on our route to the coast of Slovenia.

Movie #2
The BBC was filming Casanova while we were in Dubrovnik.

Art Movies (mm)

2004-11-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

October 21

Finally found a good upload connection, so these are oldies but goodies.

The warm, enchanting
Girl With Pearl Earring(4.5M)
by Vermeer.
c. 1665-1666 Oil
on canvas 44.5 x 39 cm (17 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)

The intricate, stupefying
Tower of Babel(18M)
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
c. 1563 Oil on panel 60 x 74.5 cm Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Prague (photos)

2004-11-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

November 3-6

In the center square, there is The Tyn.
Also, there is the an Astronomical Clock.
I will need to look it up to learn how it works, but here is some detail.
I recognize Saturn.
There are things carved all around it.
It's Jerry's face.
Each day is dedicated to someone, and some symbols.
This is the tower above the clock.

Also very cool is the Charles Bridge.
Here is the view from Charles Bridge Tower.
Here is Dara on the Charles Bridge.
You can read about it here.

Here is some random stuff:
Spires
Towers
Castle

Here is the View from outside out apartment door.

To keep our costs down, we drink beers in our room and play a lot of Yahztee.
I took the lead 9 to 8 today with a whopping 330, but Dara just tied it up.
Check out these Big Fives.

So, given the crazy astronomical clock, and the numeralogical significance of the bridge tower, check this out:
I wanted to create a view of the whole trip on one journal page.
The trip is 156 days, my journal has 26 rows, so I broke it into 6 parts. I laid it out on the page, evenly on either side of the middle,
and started filling in the days putting in the trip day number and the number of the month for each day.
Here is beginning,
and here is the end.
Check out where the middle is...
last day of first half...
first day of second half!!!

St. Vitus I presume?

Prague

2004-11-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

November 3-6

dara / Jim & I arrived in Prague on Wednesday afternoon. We found this one-bedroom apartment near Old Town. The location is fabulous, and it is only a couple of blocks from Old Town and the Charles Bridge. It is central to alot of the main sites in Prague.

On Thursday, Jim & I purchased fresh veggies from the local market and bought some juice, ham and eggs from the local grocery store. We were able to actually cook a meal for a change. What a treat! Honestly though, it gets old eating out day after day (especially if you happen to pick a bad meal on the menu).

We also decided on seeing Prague on a four-hour walk through town. The tour was a good overview of the city! We saw the Old Town Hall with a Gothic astronomical clock from 1410. We also toured around New Town, the Jewish Quarter, the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle. The Charles Bridge is one of my favorite sites, and from the tower, it is a great central location for fabulous views of the castle and Old Town.

Quite honestly though, it has been a relaxing visit. We have been hanging out, wandering around town, sitting in a cafe and enjoying the sites.

Don't miss Rover's latest update

2004-11-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

[jim]

Rover the Bear

And, if you are not seeing new updates, (then how could you see this?) you can hold down the Control key and press F5 to Refresh completely (this works on any page, clears cache or something).

Munich, All Saint's Day [day 18]

2004-11-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

November 1

[jim] we have a nice room here... we used the tourist office's room finding service, and we ended up with an excellent deal. and, the breakfast is great. they have cottage cheese. we decided to stay an extra day in munich because it's nice and we have CNN. We made the plan today, and we will train to Prague early on the third, so that we can walk election results on Tuesday night (we are six hours ahead) and then be on the train while America sleeps, and get to Prague around 2:30pm as America wakes. Then, the next step will be to find a hotel with CNN in English.

But, anyway, we figured all this out in front of the Neue Pinakothek.
Click on this link and then click Rundgang on the right and then click on any room to see what they have. Neue Pinakothek. Check it out.

Outside the museum, in a park near the Greek columned building museum, there was a chess board made from pavers, about 10" square. Next to the chess board, there was a bench, where the top hinged open and inside where very large wooden chess pieces. People pay big tax here.

I had a great dinner tonight:
Bayrisches Tellerfleisch - mit Gemusestreifen, frisch geriebonem Kren, Rahmwirsing und Salzkartofflen.

prime boiled beef with potatoes and horseradish with crazy cabbage on the side.

ToDo: get a german (bavarian) cookbook
ToDo: make giant chess board in backyard
ToDo: AudioTour of our house

Germany

2004-11-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

October 26 - November 3

dara / Jim & I took the train from Brussels to Frankfurt. Then, we hopped in the rental car and headed for Wurzburg (the beginning of the Romantic Road). The Romantic Road is this road with fabulous views of Bavaria, Germany. It starts in Wurzburg and ends in Fussen (near the Bavarian Alps). The countryside changes from farmland to valleys to hills to mountains. It is fall in Germany, and the trees are fabulous colors of red, orange and yellow. There are many cute and quaint untouched towns. Definitely a great way to spend a couple of days.

We did detour for a day to view half of the Castle Road. We went from Rottenberg to Heidelberg. There were tons of castles on rivers and above valleys. Some beautifully preserved, while others were a little more rundown. Pretty fabulous to view overall.

The best part, though, was our weekend. We spent the weekend in Oberstdorf in the Bavarian Alps. As I mentioned, it is fall, and the weather was perfect. We found this great room with a patio overlooking the mountains. It was off season, and there were plenty of reasonably priced rooms in the city.

On Saturday, we took the cable car to the top of the mountain and hiked down all day. The mountain was covered by clouds. At the top, the sun was shining down on the mountain tops and the clouds below. The mountain tops of the Bavarian Alps could be seen for miles. It was amazing! We hiked through the clouds to the forest below. A six hour hike in total. But, worth every minute of it.

On Sunday, we headed up to Munich. We stopped at Neuschwantstein (King Ludwig´s famous castle). It is the castle that Disney based their castle on. Pretty amazing detail and worth the trip (although full of tourists).

Jim & I are now hanging out in Munich. Tons of great architecture, great museums and great beer. We also found a good little hotel near the center for a good price. We went to Neue Pinakothek Museum (the 18th and 19th century museum with painting and sculptures). A couple more favorites are Van Gogh's The Weaver, Moritz Von Schwind's Wandering Minstrel Visiting a Hermit, David Wilke's Reading of the Will, Petrus Van Schendel's Market in Antwerp by Night, Adoph Von Menzel's Living Room with Artist's Sister, Johan Christian Dahl's Morning After a Stormy Night, Thomas Gainsborough's Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Hibbart and Johann Heidrich Fussli's Satan and Death Separated by Sin. We are planning on checking out two more art museums tomorrow (classics and modern art). Jim also wants to see the antiques museum. Should be fun!

More importantly, we have CNN to view the election coverage tomorrow, or actually, Wednesday morning. We will be up at the crack of dawn to check out the coverage. No worries though, we voted absentee for those friends and family concerned about our absence. From what we have heard on CNN, there are some election concerns about the ballots in both Ohio (hanging chads) and Florida (faulty computer systems due to the hurricanes).

We are off to Prague on Wednesday for three days. Then, we are meeting Jim's parents in Vienna this weekend. We are headed to Slovenia and Croatia for the following week. We are looking forward to it!

Germany (photos)

2004-10-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 28-30

Heidelberg : Dara
Heidelberg : Jim
Bavarian Alps, view from pull off
lake near Fussen
Nebelhorn - View from the top
Nebelhorn - the path begins
Nebelhorn - hour two
Nebelhorn - half way, looking back

The Netherlands and Brussels

2004-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

October 16-26

(dara) The art has been fabulous! I love it! We went to the Rijks Museum (Amsterdam), Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), Mauritshuis (Den Hague) and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam). My personal favorites include: Van Gogh's Branches of an Olive Tree Blossom, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and A View of Delft, Bruegel de Oude's Tower of Babel, Avercamp's winter ice skating scenes, Bosch's The Pedlar and Marriage of Cana, and the list goes on. I would definitely recommend it for those art lover out there.

Jim & I spent the weekend hanging out with Karen & Marshall in Brussels. It was a fun weekend with lots of good food, good beer and good chocolate! It was great to catch up with friends! It was even better to see how much their daughters have grown up. :) They are adorable.

We are off to Frankfurt tomorrow a.m. It is about a four hour train ride, and we are planning on renting a car for the week. After hauling our backpacks for the last week, it is going to be nice to put them in a car instead of walking with them. We are definitely looking forward to getting rid of some of our winter clothes in about three weeks. :)

Have a good week!

Brussels [day 9]

2004-10-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 23

brussels
saturday. down day
lotsa sleep. marshall makes big american style breakfast (eggs, bacon, potatoes, coffee)
hung out on back patio, internet, Dara and Karen on walk.
catalogued video tapes, long nap
wake, internet, dinner, beer, bed
spent zero money. thanks guys.

Rotterdam - Kinderdijk - Brussels [day 8]

2004-10-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 22

rotterdam - kinderdijk - brussels

breakfst poor. cold soft boiled egg. cheap coffee. good ham sandwich though

stored bags at use-it and to water, fast ferry to ridderdijk. off, wait, talked to dutch guy. Bush or Kerry? he asks.
slow ferry to kinderdijk. good wind.

windmills galore. very nice scene. good wind. you can see 18 windmills at one time, pretty cool. went in to one of them, climbed up. huge wooden gears, axles. very cool. got photos and video.

back to ridderdijk, rotterdam, uise-it, get bags, to centraal, tickets, train to brussels. guy across from me was wearing red pants.

brussels, wait for subway. guy tells us there is a strike. did we go to france by mistake?
long lines for taxi. taxi to karen and marshalls. hearty welcome, glasses of wine. tour of house, to dinner. seafood pasta, dutch beer. very nice.
exhausted. back, bed sleep

Delft - Rotterdam [day 7]

2004-10-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 21

left delft for rotterdam
went to Use-It tourist info
cool woman working there, tried to book us a room, but it is a holiday week and there is a big football match tonight, so finally got one after 5-8 tries.
walk to hotel, thru china town like area, nice street.
made cheese sandwiches for later.
1:12pm Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
VanGogh, Cezanne
Rodin: Eve (with man hips)
Tin and Pewter room. cool mug with metal over wood veneer
wood church sculpture, videoed with bizarre Patti Smith recording playing in background
Rembrandt The Man with the Red Cap and Titus at his Desk
Who Sues for a Cow... 1629

Tower of Babel - amazing. took long video. (Bruegel de Oude)

Jheronimus Bosch : St Christopher, The Pedlar, Marriage at Cana

3pm break at cafe

modern next

Dali, Magritte, Man Ray
good stuff.

video of Dali Le Grand paranoiaque

FREAKER FREAKER
look this up: Matthew Barney : Cremaster 4 (1994)
can't even begin to explain it.
I think he's supposed to be a sperm

5pm out, walk down Nieuwe Binneweg
cafe, beers
walk to Delshaven... where the pilgrims last prayed before coming to the new world
8pm dinner : Cafe Soif in Delshaven
bummer experience... bad fondue. price was per person. screwed. pissed.
tomato soup was good though.
back, walk, quick, room, watched video of art from today, read Brussels book
bed

Netherlands (photos)

2004-10-20T19:00:00.001-07:00

October 16-22

Delft: Market Area

Delft: New Kerk Tomb

Delft: New Kerk Vermeer Tomb

Delft: View used for Vermeer's View of Delft

Den Haag: Dara in front of Knight's Hall (near Mauritshuis)

Delft - Den Haag - Delft [day 6]

2004-10-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 20

Delft - Den Haag - Delft
9am - wake, bells, change pants
10am : bagel place, coffee
11:36am - 12 minutes wait for train to Den Haag
thru Binnenhof, very cool Ridderzaal
1:15pm - Mauritshuis
Mauritshuis link
(click collection up top, then items on left of next page)

Carel Fabritius exhibit
Mercury, Argus and Io
Self Portrait ca 1645
tronies
Goldfinch '54
The Sentry (took video of it)
View in Delft perspective box piece
took video of another perspective box by Pieter Janssens Elinga

Daughenise de Sinope - looking for an honest man
Rembrandt: Old Woman Reading in Lectionary (took video)
video of Haecht (the one with all the paintings in it)
more Avercamp winter scenes
Jan Steen, Ostade are favorites
Vermeer View of Delft and Girl with Pearl Earring (video)
pretty cool

sandwich

walk to Escher exhibit, but too late..... bummed

5:50pm - passed by singing carpenters, doing plaster work and finish carpentry

6:20pm - same pub, same beer, same effect as last night

nice dinner, walk back to room, they are setting up the square for a market tomorrow

9:40pm sleep

Amsterdam - Delft [day 5]

2004-10-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 19

9:20am up, to bf, room showers pack
11:10am check out, Centraal to Delft today
11:40am train to Sloterdijk, Leiden, DenHaag, Delft
train ride, Delft, hotel search.
Hotel Compagnons, right on main square.
rooom 14 overlooking Markt. to cafe on Markt, Het Wapen van Delft
had Pea Soup, called Erwtensoep. a local specialty. should look it up and make some this winter. Dutch Pea Soup.
walking about, Nieuw Kerk, Oude Kerk, Oostport (old city wall)
7pm beers at Locus Publicus:
Jim: Andrechs doppelbock 7°, .5L
Dara: Hoegaarden (better than home, as with all beers here)
weary
2 Andrechs were too much.
dinner at place with candlelight and forks attached to the wall
shared olives, tapenade and main of lamb chops. fantastic. named Volders Vier.

11pm to room. took video going up stairs. view of Markt, sleep sacks, top part over pillow, cold in room, slept in socks
bells ringing

Itinerary

2004-10-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Phase I
(Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovena and Croatia)
October 15 - November 18

Phase II
(India, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam)
November 19 - December 21

Phase III
(Australia)
December 22 - January 18

Phase IV
(New Zealand)
January 18 - February 16

Phase V
(Fiji, Tahiti, Cook Islands)
February 16 - March 19

Phase VI
(Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Winnipeg, Manitoba)
March 20 - April 12

Amsterdam [day 4]

2004-10-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 18

[jim] we have done a terrible job keeping hydrated. my water bottle was either left somewhere or stolen while I was walking. the tap water is better than DC, but we still aren't hydrating well.

9:3am breakfast with super cold apple juice. drank 7 cups. coffee, cereal

raining today. first time using raincoats. walked a bit, got drenched and ducked in to a cafe to warm up. J espresso D coco. Cafe Zwart. still working on plan for day 5. wrote in journals.

on to Van Gogh museum.
Liked/lookup:
October, Charles Daubigny
View of the Mediterranean at Maguelonne, Gustave Courbet
Woodcutters, Anton Mauve

then of van gogh...
always loved Potato Eaters
View of Paris has a foreshadowing heavy cloud.......
self-portrait as artist. check out the way he holds his paint/brushes
and my favorite, The Bedroom '88
Branches of an Olive Tree in Blossom (photorealistic)
and of course, Wheatfield with Crows '90
and Wheatfield under thunderclouds. this is a great one to see live... the heavy cloud top left is fun to look at.

my other favorite, which I used to have on my nameplate at work, is A Realist, Thomas Couture

out and back, raining, tram..... good facing seats
meal at De Waag (the weigh house) pastrami sandwiches and BACON SALAD

6pm at room. D showers and naps. I play with video cam. video of Oude Kerk and Rover, cut up guide pamphlets for scrap book, read guide book working on ideas for next few days.

8pm out. walk about, near Jordaan, cafe Il Panorama. big beers and antipasti salad. small hail storm, walk, in circle, get tram to centraal, thru wallen, near room, cafe elvis. big heineken D heuswein, Dylan live 66 on shuffle. people singing intermittently. a room full of Dylan fans in a little bar in Amsterdam. good stuff.
Fourth Time Around, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Desolation Row
curtains close about 1am, we leave around 1:40am, use side door.

Amsterdam [day 3]

2004-10-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 17

[jim] Sunday, nice breakfast, yogurt with cereal. hard boiled eggs. the dutch tipico. saturday room was too expensive so decided to move toward the Centraal for something closer in and cheaper. bags are heavy and spent over an hour before decided D should park at a cafe with the bags and J goes searching. found Hotel France, front room with canal view (albeit downstream from wallen) and view of the Oude Kerk (Old Church)... espresso at the cafe and then move to room. unload. tour office. bought "The Amsterdam Pass" (48hour) which got us on the tram and into the museums and on a canal ride. headed out for a long walk. it's all just like they say... a utopia of sorts with beautiful people bicycling along canal roads and fatastic architecture. went to the Rijksmuseum. huge, incredibly detailed line drawing of a naval battle, huge mural "Treaty of...", special exhibit on dollhouses, silverware.
Liked/lookup:
The Cattle Ferry, Esais van de Velde
Winter landscape with ice skaters, Hendrick Avercamp
Riverview by moonlight, Aert van der Neer

on way back experienced an anarchist flash mob. pretty scary. leader banging on door and large crowd of younger folks convening.

walked thru carnival. ferris wheel, carnival games, haunted house ride etc.

the city garbage trucks here pull up and use a vacuum to empty the trash cans.

mediocre dinner near hotel

9pm canal cruise. brought our own beers. fantastic place here.

day3: socks1, pants1, shirt1 and underwear2

Cochem [day 2]

2004-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 16

[jim] Saturday morning in Cochem. Jetlagged, up at 5am. dark, walk thru town. cool stone/brick arch gate. showers, breakfast (inc. w room), train station to check on afternoon options. walk, castle tour Reichsburg?, very nice, bricks built in between timber beams. nice furniture, panelling, plaster, doors. got video and photos.
back to train, train to Koblenz. off and got tickets to Amsterdam (thru Cologne (Cöln)). Got to Amsterdam. Saturday night. carnival ferris wheel, people. need to have been here to know what it's like. took two hours with heavy packs to find a room. off-season, but saturday. almost stayed at Hotel de Melodie. Don't bother looking them up on the internet... they claim that all of their traffic is being re-routed, and that is why there was no-one staying there.... maybe it was more that they were insane. documents all over the sitting room of Internic domain name searches with notes next to each one E.G. "this one owed by corrupt Greek politician"... "these people are part of the conspiracy I learned about in prison" etc. Lady there was on a mattress blocking the entrance talking about racism and video cameras in the street. cheap but no way. found something else in a hotel on a canal with nice normal reception and free water and breakfast. expensive though. they have very steep narrow stepped stairways here. we were on floor three. unloaded, dinner: pate, lambsteak salad and beers. afterdinner walked thru wallen and then back to hotel. nice room. they have excellent duvets here.

Frankfurt 8 [day 1]

2004-10-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

October 15, 2004

[jim] Friday the 15th, landed in Frankfurt in the morning. The plane ride was nice, we scored a row of four seats in the back and took turns laying flat. Good food (Indian) too.
Immediately got a train to Koblenz and then to Cochem. Took video of the ride along the Mossel river. Very nice.... putter putter putter, village, putter, castle, putter putter, village with castle, mountainside vineyards...

Cochem and walked (bags are heavy) to find room. Pension. drop bags, out for walk, view from bridge, castle there, cafe for beers, to dinner, J Sauerbraten D weiner schnitzel. started losing vision at dinner from lack of sleep/jet lag. 7pm to room. crashed until 5am.

Finally!

2004-10-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

October 14, 2004

[dara] We are finally ready to take off. Clean clothes (finally packed), visas, passports, tickets, money, cameras, film, etc. Flight leaves Chicago today at 6:55 p.m. We are pysched! Our first destination is Frankfurt. Then, we are headed to Belgium and the Netherlands. Looking forward to hanging out with Karen and Marshall in Brussels next weekend. Should be fun.

Everyone, this is Rover. Rover, everyone.

2004-10-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2004

My niece has a school project for Social Studies. Each student sewed a bear and the idea is for the bear to travel with other people and the kids learn from where the bear goes. We are in charge of the bear. He is brown and minimalistic, but he should have a good time on the road. His name is Rover, and he has a blog: http://roverthebear.blogspot.com.

I hope we don't accidentally kill him.

The beginning of the trip

2004-10-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

[jim]
We had a great going away party Thursday in DC. The room was crowded and I kept bumping in to people, and I knew everyone. Some good photos. People bought me bourbon.

We were supposed to leave on Friday, but it took all day to tie up all the loose ends. I stayed up until 2am and then Dara woke me up at 4:30am and we headed out at 6am on Saturday.

I slept at first, Dara said the sunrise was amazing, and we spent the next 10 hours enjoying the fall foliage of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

Family for the next few days. Final touches. Reading about Belgium. Food sounds good. Art sounds good. Soon soon.

Wedding Photos

2004-10-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Some select wedding photos:
http://www.geocities.com/jamespdann/wed01.html

Engagement Photos

2004-10-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.geocities.com/jamespdann/engaged.html

T minus 4

2004-10-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Leaving DC tonight. Still packing at 3:15pm. Just took the last truck load to the dump. Jeanne "The Rock" took the day off to help us. Almost there. It's been a long process.

2004-10-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Jim and Dara