Around the World with the Browns

That's All Folks!

2010-05-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that this adventure has come to an end. It seems like just yesterday that we boarded our flight for Japan. This trip has changed me more than words can express. I have learned so much about me and what more I want to with my life. You cannot go to a country and not learn something about yourself. And, with an open mind, you realize good things and bad things about your own way of life. From this trip, I have learned that I don't need half the things I own. I want to live simpler. I don't know why we break ourselves to get so many "things". This trip has taught me that I have been spinning my wheels, accumulating crap that means nothing. I am so blessed that Bruce feels the same way. We know now that we can not go back to the "same ol same ol".
This trip has also given us memories that we will never forget. I know that 20 years from now, we will sit and laugh about "that one time in (blank) country".

Private joke

Each place has given us some memorable things...some good and some bad. Overall, we were horribly blessed with how smoothly this trip went. We didn't have lost/delayed/stolen luggage, we never got sick from drinking water or eating local foods and we were never victims of any petty crimes (other that crooked taxi drivers). We are truly blessed. Its hard to summarize the best things about this journey but I will sure try. Here goes:

Efficiency: We can really learn a thing or two about the efficency of other countries. I've heard friends fret over going to a "foreign" airport but NOTHING can be worse than our own, poorly run, attitude-filled airports here in the good ol USA. We counted, and we've taken over 30 flights in the past six months. We were treated the worst at the airport in MIAMI! Seriously? We were in Sri Lanka during a political coup and we still got treated better than we did by security in Miami. I hope that we can learn lessons from them. Maybe we should send our TSA people to sensitivity training in a thrid world country?

You don't need it!: I have learned how much of my life at home is really superfluous. I haven't carried a purse, cell phone or put on make up in over six months. It is so liberating not to have to worry about if you hair is just so or if your lipstick has run. It feels good, being natural and not worring about things like purses matching outfits.

You were right!: This is a special shout out to our trip guru's, Rich and Ana who just completed a one year, round the world journey. They gave us insight on how to pack and how NOT to over-pack. I tried to listen but I did go over just a bit. We did not pay for a stitch in overweight baggage thanks to our strict "Don't buy not a damn thing" rule but we still had extra crap we coulda jettisoned. Ana told me to be wise with my choices. You were right! I estimated that we wore probably 70-80% of our clothing, the rest was just dead weight. I lived in my "convertable" pants and a comfy shirt and long johns in Europe and shorts/flip flops in our beach destinations. Even though we kept our bags less than 23kg it woulda been nice to have them under 20kg...hindsight is 20/20....ah well...

Simple Life: If someone would have told me that my most important things in life woulda been my flip flops, a bathing suit and a T-shirt I'm sure I woulda done a double take. But after spending time in the Philippines, Thailand and Belize, I know now that I have been living a lie. There is nothing more refreshing than waking up, brushing your teeth and face, throwing on a bikini, shorts and t-shirt (all thouroughly worn) and going for a swim...So simple, so beautiful and I wouldn't change a thing about it. Consider this my notice Ladies, all the purses, the MAC makeup, the perfume...FOR SALE!!!

Toilet Ettiquette: I am the master of the squat now. I haven't really had the opportunity to use a normal "Western-Style" toilet in months. Asia is my all time favorite. Looking for a sign for "non-squat toilet" is my new favorite talent. Even still, I can do some amazing, Olympic style squatting, with my pack on...I'm sure that talent wil come in handy in the future :)

How to use the bathroom...in case you forgot...

A total circumnavigation of the globe. Started in Los Angeles, to Asia, Europe, South American then Central America....

For those of you who would like a quick and dirty summary of our past several months...(Thanks, Rich for letting me "borrow" this idea:))

Technically, we have been gone for five months total:
We left Phoenix for Sydney, Australia on November 25, 2009
Met our Travel Muses, Rich and Ana on December 5th who gave us the crazy idea to travel round the world, courtesy of the One World Round the World Program
Came back to Phoenix on December 13, 2009...started the Plan
Quit our jobs, packed for 5 weeks
Left Phoenix on January 28, 2010
Visited 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belize, Cayman Islands, Denmark, England, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines. Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand...whew!

Longest Travel Day: 26 hour day which included a car, a boat, 3 plane rides, a long layover, three countries and a subway ride. Truly, Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

Too Old for this Crap....

Worst Moment in Travel: Anytime we had long ass flights. Specifically Hong Kong to London...painful and the airport in Copenhagen...ugh!

Catching ZZZ's

Best Airlines: JAL...the flight attendents are beyond polite and bow!!! Can you imagine the Southwest Airlines flight crew doing that?!
Most Expensive Country: Anywhere in Europe, hands down. Sent us a tad over budget...
Biggest Splurge: Diving in Thailand in the Similan Islands. Took 3 hours to get to the dive site by boat, but worth every penny!!! and the over water bungaloo for one night in the Maldives

One night in heaven

Over water bungaloo in Maldives

Only Purchases: four T-shirts (two for Bruce, two for me)...
Best Souveneirs: I got postcards from every city and every country we visited!
Best Moments: Watching sunset on a deserted beach in the Maldives...

Our "Island" in the Maldives

Biggest Achievement: Diving with sharks, finally getting our Advanced Open Water Certification (after 10 years of scuba diving) and Nitrox training

Best Thing About the Trip: Diving! We have had the opportunity to visit some of the worlds best dive sites and do things I thought I would never do!

Diving in New Zealand

Our favorite hobby!!! DIVING!

Coldest Moment: Zaanse Schans, Netherlands

Just a little chilly....

Best Food: I can't decide!!!

Indian Food!

Spanish Paella!

Worst Moment: Going Home to Reality...At least we only have six weeks before our next big adventure!!!!

For those of you who don't know, we decided to continue the adventure and move to one of the destinations that we visited...stay posted!!!

I would like to thank everyone who supported us, read our rantings and kept up with us during our adventures. I hope that you have enjoyed it!!! We sure did!!!

Un Belize-able

2010-04-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have to start this blog with a big, ol THANK YOU to Bruce. This has been rough! From planes, trains and boat ferries and automobiles we have now circumnavigated the globe. Bruce and I were ready to throw in the towel and head back home, a full month earlier than we had planned. But then, after canceling our trek to Machu Picchu, we decided to try to end our trip on a high note. We wanted to come back to somewhere tropical, where we could decompress on a beach, chill and dive. We decided on Belize after the multiple positive comments that we'd heard from my brother, Brien. He loves this place and has told us multiple times how great the people are, how good the food is and how nice the beaches are. We were sold. We booked a flight and one week later, we were here in Belize.
Belize is NOT for everyone. In fact, it is not for most of you. I love all of ya'll following this (friends and family) and I'm not trying to insult, i just know that most of ya'll couldn't tolerate a place like this. Belize is SLOW....you don't have the "modern" comforts of stuff like shopping malls, TV, cable, air conditioning, electricity (it is kinda fickle), etc. I know for a fact that my mom and sister wouldn't make it a day here! :) Getting here was a bitch, too! Its easy to get to Belize City, but that wasn't our final destination. We flew from Lima to Miami then Miami to Belize City. The "International" airport in Belize City was not much more than a couple of runways, with a small building at the end. It was not at all what you'd expect from an international airport. Next, we had to catch a local plane to San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye. It was not a plane by any stretch of the imagination. It was more like a flying box. No seat assingments, no nothing. Just get in where you fit in. Carry on's went on your lap. It was crazy. I could reach up and touch the pilot. To go on that flight seemed like an idiot idea but it was worth it. We were rewarded with a 15 minute flight over the second largest barrier reef in the world.

This would not go over well with the FAA-You can reach out and touch your pilot

The MesoAmerican Reef, second largest in the world

After seeing the "international" airport, i shoulda known that the San Pedro Airstrip would be suspect at best. Upon landing we went into a house and in the garage out the back a guy was unloading our luggage onto a wheelbarrow, contraption to bring bags over. It was surreal.

Baggage carosel, Belizian style

It would help security if the fence actually worked

Downtown San Pedro...in rush hour traffic

Rush hour traffic in downtown San Pedro on Ambergris Caye

The first thing I noticed about San Pedro was that there were only a couple of cars. The "taxi's" were sometimes just golf carts. Golf carts are the main mode of transportation in Belize. In fact, there are several areas of the island which are inaccessable via car. Once again, because we were planning on staying for about 3 weeks, we decided to rent a room in a lady's house rather than a hotel. We totally lucked up and found a room at the cutest place! The owner, Julie is an amazing expat from Vermont. She bought an old house on the beach 12 years ago, tore it down and built a cute 7 room beach house in its place. We couldn't have found a more perfect place. With only 7 room in the place, we felt more like a family than "guests" at a hotel. We had the opportunity to meet her crazy companion, Captain Baxter, an old grizzled Belizian guy who told us the craziest stories about everything!

Arriving at the house that we stayed at

The cool thing about Belize is that the people are very diverse. Everyone thought we were locals and after being there a couple of weeks, we learned the names of all the neigborhood characters. I also dubbed them nicknames that they may not know about. Crazy Capt'n, Weed man Todd, Meth Man Clinton, Old Street Lady, Bru Man, Coconut Leo and Big Sexy. Seriously, half these people used these as their actual names!

Coconut Leo, heading up to harvest coconuts...note the lack of safety gear...

Crazy Coconut Leo

Crazy Coconut Leo showing Bruce the art of coconut cracking

I also love the Belizan way of life. It is so "Don't worry be happy". There are no safety rules, kids run around without supervision, its like back when we were growing up and you could play outside without a GPS on or an amber alert. Its also interesting to see the ways people transport their kids here. Did you know it is completely fine to ride with you baby in your arms as you drive a golf cart down an unpaved road? Yep! As long as the kid has some head control, its ok! Also, it is completely acceptable to have 6 children in a golf cart. The back seat should be reserved for kids over 5 but the front seat is for the two and three year old...oh and don't forget your 6 month old that you hold in one arm while you steer with the other...Also, allowing your five year old to swim off of a boat pier while you have a drink at the bar across the street is cool...as long as you can see him from the bar stool. I swear, this is the ONLY place I would raise a child. These kids never get hurt, they don't get snached off the street and they don't need expensive stuff like bike helmets, knee pads or safety gear! You save money on raising kids!!!

Three little boys going out in the ocean to fish...probably will bring back 100lbs of fish!

Baby in the front seat of a golf cart...makes me think of all the money we waste on car seats...

Our boat captain, driving Belizian style

Being in Belize was like taking 20 years off of our lives. We didn't do anything all day but lay around, drink and every now and then, muster the energy to go eat. The food was amazing, a blend of Mexican, African and Carribean flavors with the best seafood you can imagine. Every day was fish or conch. Fish curry, fish tacos, fish pupusas, fish stew...you get the picture.

This was taken at 10AM one day, right after i had my first beer of the day!

My new work ethic..i'm going to put this sign up in my office

After chilling in Belize for almost two weeks, we got the energy up to dive. Actually, we were waiting for Bruce to fully recover from his pneumonia. We went out with a local Belizian dive shop to several local reefs that were rife with life...big life. We saw tons of big Southern stingrays, eagle rays, big tarpon, huge 30+ lb grouper, snapper and my favorite, nurse sharks. Any one that dives knows that one of the first things that you are taught as a diver was to not molest the sea life. Well, these folk in Belize didn't get that memo. They were molesting the hell outta those sea creatures. I saw a dive master grab a nurse shark by its dorsal fin and hitch a ride, then he flipped it over and began petting it like a dog. He beckoned me over, while he's holding the 200+lb shark in his arms and what did I do? Go over, like an idiot and pet the shark! (Hey, you only live once!!!) It was awesome, to be so close to something so big and scary!

We also decided to venture out and see some of the country. Our first foray into the "country" was a 30 minute boat ride over to the next island of Caye Cauker. Now, remember, I told you that Ambergris Caye had only a couple of cars, people mostly walked and used golf carts. It was a slow, quiet way of life. Well, Caye Cauker made Ambergris Caye look like Manhattan. You can't imagine how quiet the island was! You could walk the entire lenght of the island in less than 30 minutes. There were no hotels, only guest houses and rooms for rent. Everyone walked and we didn't see any golf carts. As we strolled down the main beach road in Caye Cauker I thought, "I really needed this break from Ambergris Caye, all the golf cart traffic and huge population of 12,000 people was starting to get to me"....

Hotel option in Caye Cauker

Fast food, Belizian style

Me and the Cake Lady on Caye Cauker

Room accomodations on the cheap!

We had to indulge in the lazy Belizian days and the Palapa bar was a good way to do it! We found this lonely bar, riding a golf cart up a dirt road. It stood over the water and had the most ingenious idea! Let your patrons swim in the ocean and hand them beers and alcohol down via bucket so they don't have to sober up enough to walk up the stairs! Brilliant! Needless to say, we spent hours adrift outside of the bar.

After I read the sign, I was ready to take them up on the offer!

It was a busy day...laying around

We also decided to go to the mainland of Belize to see the ancient Mayan ruins of Lamani. I knew it was an all day trip but I wasn't quite prepared for the all day-ness of it. It was hard for me to actually wake up to an alarm and be somewhere for a scheduled boat. The trip to Lamanai was long but well worth it. It started with a 1 hour boat ride to Belize City, followed by a 1 hour car ride up into the country about 40 miles away from the Mexican border, followed by another one hour boat ride up a river, thru mangrove forests and jungle in oppressive heat to reach the Mayan ruins of Lamanai. It was worth the three hour journey.

Boat ride down the New River in Belize, on the way to the Lamanai ruins

Our "bus" that we took to the dock...I felt like I was going back to the 1970's

You felt like you had stumbled upon an Indiana Jones movie set. After leaving the river dock, we walked thru jungle to a series of perfectly hidden Mayan ruins dating back to 200 BC. Everyone has their ideas about Mayan culture, but if you recall, they were one of the most scientifically advanced cultures in prehistoric times. They developed the perfect calendar (2012 here we come!!!), astrology, medicine and even a written language. To see the ruins of their civilization was humbling. I had touched the Great Wall of China, seen great works of art in Europe and now, I got to scale a 212 foot monument over 2,000 years old! Scaling the monument was also logged under the Dumbest-things-i've-ever-done list. What made me think that climbing up the near vertical face of a 2000 year old monument using just a rope as a "fail-safe", in the middle of a jungle, in a third world country, 3 hours away from the nearest hospital was probably not the brightest thing i've done. But like i said, you only live once! For the 20 minute climb in 100 degree jungle heat we were rewarded with views of the jungle canopy and the river that stretched on for miles. I am not a fan of jungles, mostly because of its main residents, bugs. This jungle was truly alive. We were screamed at by howeler monkeys and kowati, scrambling across the trail. We saw lizards and colorful toucans and thankfully, no spiders! It was a successful day in the jungle!!!!

The Jaguar Mayan Ruin

The Great Lamanai Ruin, standing 212 feet above the ground

The view of the river from the top of the ruin

We made it!!

So now that I got up here...how the hell do i get down?

What goes up, must CLIMB down a tiny ass rope

This had to be one of the best locations EVER! This was the perfect end to an amazing journey around the world. Now that we've finished our trip around the world I can say that this would be my favorite place to live! It has everything we've ever wanted: a slow pace of life, a beach, people that appreciate life and living, diving and an amazing reef and alcohol!!! I never realized how much you don't need in life and what is important. Restauraunts should have dirt floors, no windows and dogs wandering around, a nice restauraunt should require a shirt but not shoes, children should be able to run free, everyone should know each other, streets should be made of sand and not concrete and evenings should be spent listening to the ocean breezes in the palm trees. I haven't put on anything but shorts and flip flops in almost a month and I don't miss anything. I don't need air conditioning, stores, TV, fast food or fancy clothes. This is the way I believe that life should be. You better Belize it!

Check out the pics from our last country, Belize by clicking here

BS in South America

2010-04-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, this will be one of my shortest blogs (lucky you!). I don't have a lot to say about our three weeks in South America. Pretty much, a lot went wrong but not horribly wrong (Thank God!).

The original plan was to leave Spain and take the last long journey across the Atlantic to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The flight was long and painful, even more so because I was still getting over my Spanish Flu. In the airport, I had a nice fever and almost fainted after walking down to our gate! After the flight, we had to make it thru the hell of more immigration and customs in Argentina. The nice icing on the cake? Argentina slaps a HUGE "entry fee" onto people from the US, UK and Australia. We had to come up with $240 just to get in!!! We were pissed. What the hell did we do to get charged so much? (That is a rhetorical question, you KNOW that the US did something to those people for us to get slapped with a nice, F-U fine) Ok, so after the surprise fee we get to luggage, then to change in some money into Argentine pesos. Another surprise! A big ass long line that took me almost 30 minutes to get thru! Ok after the drama, we get into a taxi and take a ride to our apartment. We decided that if you're going to be in a country for a long period of time, it doesn't make financial sense to try to stay in a hotel. Even a B&B is going to cost. Since we had almost 3 weeks in Buenos Aires, we decided to rent an apartment in one of the cool districts of Buenos Aires. Palermo and Ricoleta are two of the nicest areas to live in the city. They are both known for shops and restauraunts, old architecture and very "old world" neighborhood charm. We chose to stay in Palermo neighborhood because it is known for the young, trendy, hip shops and boutiques and all of the new restaraunts. While in the cab, we were tired but excited to see our new digs. We drove and drove and finally got to a neighborhood and started slowing down...uh...this place didn't look so nice. It looked hella run down, several buildings down the street were boarded up, it didn't look too great....Bruce looked at me, and I gave him a reassuring smile and we gathered our bags to go in. Inside the burgler bars we were pleasantly surprised. It seems that the person that owned this apartment gutted an old building and turned it into a modern, new apartment. It was perfect with a nice kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. Perfect to say in for a long visit! It even had a roof top garden that gave an interesting view of the other apartments. Once settled, we decided that we had to give the place a chance. We set out walking and discovered that the Palermo neighborhood is everything that they described. Cool little boutiques, neighborhood stores and shops, great cafe's and my new favorite, a parilla! A parilla is a meat restaruant. They have meat on grills, with juices sizzling....every type of meat you could imagine! Gotta love the Argentinians and their love of meat!!!

Meat!!!

It was a very cool, laid back vibe in Argentina. We pretty much walked around, ate and drank every day UNTIL....Bruce got the Spanish Flu (courtesy of my kisses!!!). Of course, I felt fine but poor Bruce got real sick! I made several trips to the local Farmacia and stores to get OJ, tissues, NyQuil, everything that you would need to nurse a sickie back to health. I have to admit, I got a little scared a couple of days because he had such difficulty with breathing. We were actually considering taking him to the hospital at one point. He had developed a mild pneumonia but thank goodness we had antibiotics that we had brought with us that we were saving for a diarrhea that we never got! The good news was that we had nice, long days of doing nothing at all. Just laying around the apartment, watching TV. I even got a chance to cook!!! Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE to cook and being on the road this long has deprived me of my pots and pans. Being in an apartment for so long gave me the chance to feel "normal" again.
Although Bruce was ill, we did get a chance to make it out to a tango show at the famous Carlos Gaudel Theater in Buenos Aires. The show was spectacular!!! I never knew that Tango was so important to the culture of the city! They are serious about the dance! Carlos Gaudel is a famous Tango dancer from the early 1900's that went on to open one of the most famous schools in Buenos Aires. Tango has roots in a combination of African, Caribbean and Spanish dance styles. It was originally thought of as a "sinful" dance style, only done at cabarets or clubs frequented by sailors on shore leave. When it caught on with the "refined" people of Buenos Aires, it was cleaned up and adopted by the upper class as the national dance style of the country. It was excellent, but I think that I like the fierce passion of the Flamenco in Spain better!

On our way to the Tango show

The famous Carlos Gaudel Theater, home of the Tango dance

The city of Buenos Aires itself is pretty amazing in that it is a collection of little neighborhoods that are pretty self contained. You literally have NO reason to leave you own neighborhood unless you really want to. You have several stores, restauraunts, cafe's and parillas that keep you happy. No one needs a car and we walked everywhere we needed to go.

Tree lined streets of the Palermo neigborhood

The Argentinian Flag

The Football museum outside the stadium

The National Congress Building

The history of the city was very interesting and the influence of French and Italian is very obvious in culture, cuisine and architecture. Unfortunately, Buenos Aires is very DIRTY. There are almost 13 million people living in the Buenos Aires metro area and boy, do you notice it!!! There were tons of people on the streeets, in cars, in cabs in buses and there was tons of exhaust and fumes that made the air less than pleasant on hot spring days. My other complaint? The dog shit!!! I have never seen a city with so many dogs! Argentenians love dogs. That's nice. We saw lots of dog walkers, doggie boutiques and vet offices. I also saw all of the shit produced by these lovely pooches. Walking down the street to the store was like walking thur a Cambodian mine field. Crap was everywhere!!! Damn people!!! Curb your dog! ugh!
The rest of the folly of errors occured during our last several days in Buenos Aires. We were supposed to go to Peru to see the famous Machu Picchu. Mother nature decided that via deluge, she would wipe out the only railway to get to the famous ruins. Months after the flood/mudslide, the train was only partially open. We learned that our train tickets were no good and that we would have to take a 3.5 bus ride from another city up to Machu Picchu that they wouldn't pay for. After the drama and the weather reports of more rain in Peru, we decided to scrap Machu Picchu. We still had to go to Lima and stay for a couple of days to catch a flight to Miami (yes, we were in the US) before we could go to our next destination, Belize!

We added Belize on as a last minute, what-the-hell, place since we had more time to waste.
We did some research in Buenos Aires and decided that we wanted to go somewhere slow, with good diving and not very touristy for out last month of freedom. Belize fit the bill. We considered the more "traditional" places in the Caribbean but we didn't want to be bombarded by "American" life so soon. We wanted to avoid all semblance of our former lives until we absolutely had to come back!

It was nice to get to slow down and re-charge our batteries for a while. This stop over came at the perfect time. Unfortunately, being sick kinda hindered our opportunity to go out and explore the countryside but we really needed the rest. It was good to take it slow for a couple of weeks before we were off to our last country...
Check back soon for a full breakdown on our last country before we come back home

You can check out all of the pics from Buenos Aires and Lima, Peru by clicking here

Spanish Fly

2010-04-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

After our wonderful Italian getaway, we were off to the cool city of Barcelona. Barcelona was the complete opposite of Italy. It was young, hip and very modern. The contrasts of the city were great. In one area you would have an old home built in the 19th century next to a modern sculpture/building designed by Gaudi.

Typical Barcelona: Old statue with new construction around it

Old Barcelona-Placa d'Espanya

Now if you don't know about Antoni Gaudi, coming to Barcelona you will be innudated with Gaudi images. The Spanish are very proud of him. Not only was he an amazing architect but he is responsible for designing several huge structures and parks around Barcelona. You see references to Gaudi everywhere in Barcelona. He is definitely the Barcelona patron saint! I want to be honest. I never thought very much about Gaudi's style of architecture/design. It struck me as a Dr. Seuss on LSD with a math degree from MIT kinda design style. I just didn't get it. I'm sure if I saw some of these building in 1960's with some mushrooms/acid on board they would be more awesome. Actually, I have a much better appreciation for his style now. Especially after realizing that it takes a true mathematical genius to make these structure. Bruce (being the engineer in the family) really enjoyed the Gaudi exhibitions.

Example of Gaudi's architecture

Parc Guell, an amazing park designed by Gaudi

A building in Gaudi's park...very Dr. Seuss-y

Arriving in Barcelona I started to notice that I didn't feel too hot. I figured that I just needed a little rest and all of the travel, ripping and running was wearing me down. We had been in the coldest of the cold for the past month and the sunshine and relative heat of Barcelona was a welcome change. Barcelona wasn't hot by any stretch of the imagination but it was a balmy 65 degrees on most days. This is how I figured out the Spanish were crazy....We are staying right on one of the famous beaches in South Barcelona, called Platja Barceloneta and one day, we decided to take a walk down the boardwalk. I had on my fleece jacket, and a scarf and pants, Bruce had on the same...The Barcelonans on the beach? BUTT ASS NAKID! Seriously people? I have so many issues with this! First of all, I'm not adverse to nudity. If (and ONLY IF) you look decent nude. I'm no supermodel but gravity has been kind, thus far. I have two rules about nakedness or skimpy clothing. Spandex is a privlidge, not a right and if any part of your body falls down to cover any other part, you should NOT be naked! Our first Butt Naked Barcelonan was seen early in the morning when the temperature could not have been more than 55 degrees....Ouch. Secondly, he was an old man, with a saggy.....everything...yuk. He was totally stretching and exercising and bending over (OMG!) in front of God and the world. At first, Bruce and I thought he may be the resident bum/schizo/nutty dude. We even were on our way to find a police man to let him know there was a naked man running around. Imagine our shock, surprise and dismay when we stumbled upon an entire herd of elderly, shriveled Barcelonan men and women farther down the beach. Needless to say, we decided to walk on the street.

Amazing view of the beaches in Barcelona

We were supposed to have a great time in Barcelona but my Flu decided otherwise. By then end of our first day in Barcelona, I had a full blown fever complete with chills, muscle aches and pains. Wonderful! I was NOT about to let a little H1N1 ruin my trip! Thank God for the European sensibility and over-the-counter drugs! We were able to get all sorts of goodies to help me thru the worst of it. I just had to bundle up a couple of times to brave the sights of the city.
We decided to take a bus (the cheapest route) around the city. With a bus pass, we had the flexibility to check out lots of tourist spots. We knew we wanted to hit a couple of "famous" Barcelona sights. Like I said before, Barcelona is pretty famous for its favorite architect/artist in residence, Antoni Gaudi. One of our first stops was his famous church, La Sagrada Familia. This church was started back in 1882 and is STILL being built to this day! Gaudi knew that his brain child was so intricate and so big that it would not be completed in his lifetime. So now, over 100+ years later, public donations are funding the continued construction of the church. Now we've seen hundereds of famous churches, cathedrals, etc all over Europe and South America but this one was truly special. The sheer uniqueness of the design and the amout of symbolism in all of the carvings is truly breathtaking. It kinda looked like a melting candle on one side and on another facade were literally hundereds of intricate statues and carvings.

The melty-candle waxy facade of La Sagrada Familia

As we have noted before, me and Bruce are NOT cold weather people. We thought that Barcelona was a welcome change from the sub-zero temps of Denmark. At a balmy 60 degrees, we were loving life. But, thanks to the flu and a violent 30mph wind from northern Europe, our "warm" reprieve of Barcelona turned out to be a lot chillier than we hoped. No worries, we know how to layer. So, the morning we decided to brave the crowds of tourists to see La Sagrada Familia we had on long johns, scarves, hats and gloves. I noticed that people snickered when they saw us bundled up and we laughed at their asses too, with thier short sleeves, thin coats and flip flops. When that wind hit and the temperature dropped, we were the ones that had the last laugh. A lady in front of us who had on a fabulous black skirt and flip flops initially turned her nose up at us. We did look like a couple of homeless bumbs. Bruce had on the equivalent of a ski mask and I had my beloved 6 foot fleece scarf/pashma/sheet that I use to wrap up like the holiest Saudi Arabian princess. We did look crazy. But, after an hour in the whipping wind, our friend, Miss High and Mighty sought refuge in a store and came out in a silly pair of MC Hammer tourist pants she bought at the 7-11 on the corner! After the hour long wait, we were rewarded with awesome views of Gaudi's church.

La Sagrada Familia-Gaudi's crowning accomplishment

My highlight of the trip was seeing an authentic Flamenco show in a exquisite recreated Spanish village. I had only a peripheral knowledge of the Flamenco dance. I knew about the costumes and the fact it was a kinda sexy dance. I wasn't prepared for this amazing show. It was a tribute to one of the most famous Flamenco dancers of all times, Carmen (whoo-hoo!) Amaya, a gypsy born in 1913 who was an amazing dancer. She was beautiful, exotic, sexy and a great dancer. (I was describing me, but she was all of those things too:)) She was so good that she danced for the Spanish king, Alfonso XIII. The show is dedicated to her memory and the great Flamenco dance style. If you haven't seen Flamenco, its a very interesting combination of singing, guitar riffs, passion, emotion and dance steps that are a combination of African and Spanish. It is beautiful! The show was moving and it could not have been more perfect! Hopefully, we will be able to load a couple of segments of the show.

Flamenco dancer

Flamenco singer...don't know what the hell she was saying, but I know she FELT it!!!

The passion and feeling was evident in the dancers

What tour to Barcelona would be complete without a stop at a local cafe for some serious paella? Bruce had some of the best paella I've ever seen. The hallmark of good paella is good rice and lots of mystery meat. My new rule: If you can't recognize the meat in the dish, don't ask, just enjoy!

Our usual food porn...Spanish Paella this time!

Although our time in Barcelona was plagued with the plague, butt naked old men on the beach and the return of the whipping cold, we got the opportunity to rest and live like "locals". I really enjoyed the history and the culture of the city and would love to venture back to explore more (minus the fever).

You can check out all of our pictures from Barcelona (minus the naked old men) by clicking here

What do you Feel Like Eating? Italian or Italian?

2010-04-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

This had to be the place I was anticipating the most. I had always wanted to go to Italy since I was a little girl. I think it was a combination of the lure of the people, the romantic history, the amazing art and of course, the FOOD! Like all women, I had seen movies like "Roman Holiday" and "Under the Tuscan Sun" and dreamed about my Italian get away. We really agonized on where we should hit in Italy. We immediately crossed Rome off the list because we had heard horror stories about how the city is crowded and dirty and how rude the people could be. I am not one to believe stereotypes about people or places but my rule is that if more than 3 independent sources tell you the same thing, i'm inclined to believe it. Needless to say, Rome got crossed off...quick. Bruce and I had always wanted to go to Venice. Especially since the city is essentially dying. Venice in the 1960-1970's actually had a robust population of over 500K inhabitants. Now, the number has dwindled to less than 60K full time inhabitants. Even worse, continued flooding and rising water levels has threatened to wipe the 1500 year old city off of the map. We decided Venice or Venezia as it is known in Italian was a "must see" place.
We arrived in Venice after another day of long travel from London. Venice and London aren't that far apart in distance, but we wanted the cheapest route possible. That meant flying from Copenhagen (our last destination) to London (a one hour flight) followed by a 7 hour layover in London, followed by another short flight from London to Venice.
We arrived in Venice and immediately remembered that this is a city of water. We landed at the airport and realized that there was NO way to our hotel via land. We would have to take either a water taxi (Vaporretti) or the public water bus. We were tired, our bags weighing us down and we both wanted to just take the private taxi...then we found out the price...$90 per person!!!! HELL TO THA NAW (just like Whitney Houston would say!) For $90 per person, I should get a foot and back massage and big, half naked man carrying me around on his back!!! DAMN! Ok, we are so public water bus people. There was nothing wrong with the public water bus. It was nice, clean but of course, the hitch...the 10-15minute ride from the airport to the area of our hotel was stretched out to about 90 minutes. We stopped everywhere in Venice and then some. I fell asleep, it took forever but it only cost us $26!

Water "streets" of Venice

So we arrived at our stop, in front of the famous San Marco Piazza in Venice. If you didn't know, this is the heart of the "tourist" city. The location of St. Mark's Basilica, the Dodge's Palace and all of the best museums. We were armed with a map and a clear sense of where our hotel should be. Or so we thought!
Why didn't someone tell us that alleys are considered streets in Venice..AND they don't have signs. After hauling our big, heavy crapy over several bridges and down cobblestone streets we were ready to give up. I know its hard to imagine but there are NO CARS in Venice. No taxis around to help you, nothing. All the streets are narrow, like only able to accomodate two people walking shoulder to shoulder! Just when the idea of sleeping in an alley seemed like a good idea, the Angel of Travel told me to look up. Just like that, I saw a random sign pointing the way to our hotel. The only problem was that the damn sign was pointing down a dark alley. "Is that a street?", I said? Hell, after an a two hour water bus ride and another hour of hauling luggage down cobblestone streets I didn't give a hell about being jacked, knifed or killed. I figured that we'd had enough fun to die.

The narrow "street" leading towards our hotel

We turned down the alley, then followed another sign down another alley and found ourselves into a small, dead-end courtyard with our hotel tucked into the corner. It was completely dark except for the lights from the hotel. THANK GOD! Just the beginning of our Venetian adventure...

Our hotel, tucked into the corner of a piazza

After a great night of sleep (thanks to exhaustion and pain) we woke up to a crappy, cloudy, Venetian day. And it was cold...awesome. Honestly, I didn't care about the weather. In fact, it really gives you the opportunity to appreciate a city. If you can love a place when it is cold and dreary, you really love it. (Kinda like loving someone when they are young and fine and then they get old and fat)....

In front of San Maria di Salute

Bruce in the famed Piazza di San Marco

We had a map of the city, but it was useless. Every street had side alleys which were not named on the map but happened to hide little treasures like authentic "mom and pop" restaurants and shops. It was fun ducking in and out little stores and alleys. It was like you were discovering the city for the first time.

We found our way to a restaurant for lunch and had the most amazing, authentic Italian food! (what'd you expect?) Herein is where the problem lies. Me and Bruce are early risers. We need our breakfast to start the day. Half of the free world doesn't eat breakfast. Not what we call breakfast at least. Our first experience with Italian breakfast they tried to give us a crossaint and coffee. What am I supposed to do with that?! That's like a breafast appetizer! Where are the eggs? Bacon? More carbs? When I asked for something else, he offered me a chocolate crossaint. Ok, after explaining to him we needed more "food" food, the man smiled nicely and offered us a panini. Ok, more like what I was talking about but WTF on the price!!! A ham an cheese panini with coffee at a little alley cafe came out to $20! That is not a breakfast! Thank God, lunch and dinner more than made up for it. My favorite thing about Italians is how they eat...Dinner is a long, drawn out event that can take hours. Please don't go there and get impatient because the waiter hasn't come over within 5 minutes of you sitting down. They don't believe that a meal should be a timed Olympic event like we do in the US. A meal is something that should be savored, relished and enjoyed with friends and family. I think as Americans we are so used to the Chili's waitress brining the check with the entree that we can't fathom sitting for an hour, just talking after dinner is finished. Either that or we are so busy trying to make it home to clean, pack lunch, check email, pay bills and watch TV before the next day of work. Italians truly have a better way of looking at meal time! A typical Italian meal schedule looks like this:
7-Arrive at restaurant
730-800-Talk to you family/friends
8-815-Order/argue over what everyone gets
815-830-Talk some more
830-900-Eat antipasti
9-915-Talk some more
915-930-Eat First course of meal
930-10-Eat second course of meal
10-1030-use toothpicks to pick out rest of meal, re-digest it and talk some more over coffee and grappa
1030-11-Talk about things you haven't talked about yet
11-1130-Go home because the restaurant is closing

Bruce enjoying his seafood pasta

Its not just the quality of the meal time but the sheer quantity of food that they give you. Who in the hell can eat all of this!? We sat down and the first menu has antipasti. Usually, cheese, meats or "finger foods" that we would call an appetizer. Ok, we got one. It took about 30 minutes for our cold meat and cheese platter to get to us...I'm trying to stay in the "Italian mind set" but I was wondering after 20 minutes...did they have to go milk a cow to make the cheese? Damn! After we killed our antipasti, we get another menu for the "First course". What is a first course? We asked, and were told "Itsa first course". Ok, that cleared a lot up. The first course looked like what we consider "main". Mostly pastas. So we ordered our pasta dishes thinking this was it. Two giant bowls of pasta arrived (30 minutes later..they had to make the pasta fresh...for real!). We made it thru and sat back, fully fat and happy from our Italian meal. Or so we thought. Then the waiter magically appears with the "Main Course" menu...WTF? I can't eat anything else! I thought the pasta was it!!! After some mild harrassment and the mention that the meal was for everything....not just some, we figured we mine as well suck it up and order our due course. Now, you know i'm greedy but I was actually worried that they would make me eat more after the main. We some how implored them not to make us eat two desserts but did have the coffee. After approximately 2 hours of waiting and about 30 minutes of eating, we still had to wrangle our waiter for the check. They seemed shocked that we wanted to leave after a short 3 hour meal....Gotta love the Italians!
I truly thought Venice was an amazingly beautiful city. It is old!!! Like traveling back in time. We saw a home that was in the same family continuously since the 1400's (my family can't even keep a phone number more than 5 years!). The culture and rich artwork is apparent everywhere you go. Of course, we had to wander into one of the famous museums and had the opporutnity to see art and paintings dating back to the 2nd century. It was amazing and we are not big museum people. Our favorite part of the city was just walking. Every street, every alley told a story and held some type of history. We could actually see the effect of the rising waters in the city. In fact, it is now illegal to rent or live in an apartment on the ground floor in Venice since the flooding is so common and getting worse.

Quiet waterway in Venice

Venice was also a city of amazing contrasts. It was crazy to see a building built in 1300 with a Burberry shop and a Gucci shop in it. These people like to shop and they love to be fashionable. I'm really not sure if they were native Italians or just tourists but everyone was dressing their asses off! We looked like homeless slobs next to 90% of the population in Venice. We actually almost starved to death not because we couldn't find somewhere open (like in Amsterdam or Copenhagen) but because we weren't dressed nice enough to eat in most establishments. We didn't come on this trip to go to nice, fancy restaurants. In fact, we specifically left dress clothes at home. I brought one dress from Old Navy (not dressy by any strech of the imagination) and Bruce had one dress shirt but no slacks. None of our little wardrobe pieces could get us into the "nice" restauraunts. We didn't care. We were all about the bootleg, mom and pop establishments.

Old building, new shops-Italians love their designers!

Aside from our aimless wandering and our museum visits we did take a boat to the nearby island of Murano, home of the famous Venetian glass blowers. I'm not going to lie, in my ignorance I didn't know that Venice was famous for its glass art but we had the opportunity to learn about the rich history and see some of the works of one of its most famous artists. We toured a factory in Muran and actually got to see a master glass blower at work. In front of our eyes, within the span of 10 minutes, he made an amazing glass horse with just his mouth and a couple of rudimentary tools! Amazing!

Master Glassblower in Murano, Italy

The finished product! A little Glass horse

Master Glassblower making a vase in Murano, Italy

We spend 4 magical days in the rainy, cloudy city of Venice (I'm so thankful for the lack of heat and crowds, i can't complain about weather) and we were off to the area of Tuscany. Now many of you don't realize that Tuscany is NOT a city. You can't buy a ticket to "Tuscany". It s a region, like the "South" of the United States. You can't get on Orbitz and put in "South" as a destination. Tuscany is considered the region of mid Italy which includes Florence (its major city), Siena and literally hundereds of hill towns around the area. It is of couse, famous for its wine region (Chianti), food (olives, cheeses) and amazingly well preserved hill fortresses and towns. To get to the Tuscan region, we chose to stay in Florence, the main city. Once again, to save money and months on our lives, we decided to take a train from Venice to Florence rather than fly. The train was only 2hrs long and because it was a intra-Italy train, we had no security, no lines, no hassle...or so we thought. The train system in Italy was much better than the one in Denmark or Sweden by a long shot but it was still a pain in the ass. Mostly because you had no idea of where to get on the train. We could easily find which train but finding which car on the train we were supposed to sit on was a whole 'nother issue. Also, there is no common sense in boarding a train. People would get on from either direction, pushing and shoving. There were no signs and it was literally impossible to find you "assigned" seat. Despite or rocky start, we made it to Florence relatively easily. We also met an awesome couple from North Carolina on the train, Kathy and Randy. (hi, yall!!!). Had a great time talking to them and it was nice to meet someone from back home since Americans had been very few and far between in our journeys thus far....

FLORENCE and TUSCANY
Florence is so similar but so very different from Venice. Florence was more "hip" and "young". Evidenced by all of the much younger people in town. We were told that Florence is the home a huge university and thus, you have a much better night life and more diversity. For our first time since being in Italy, we found a non-Italian restaruant! It was still a little like finding a needle in a haystack but we found one. Our plan for Florence was to hit at least one famous museum and then to use it as a "home base" to explore the Tuscan countryside. Our first day in Florence, we decided we were going to go to the famous Uffizi Gallery. Now, like I said, we are not big museum people but we knew we had to do this one. Not only does it house some of the greatest classical works like Botticelli, Rembrant, Rafael and Michealangelo but it also had and amazing collection of Roman and Greek works from BC! The galley is so popular that hotels and tourist chains sell "reservations" to the museum. Its just like going to a movie! You have to get there at your assigned time to get in. You pay and extra $10 euro for the service but if you could have seen the line, you woulda paid too!! We spent a couple of hours in the museum, saw the big impressive paintings like Botticelli's Venus and several sketches by Leonardo di Vinci but then we decided we were museumed out. We figured this out when we found ourselves, tired on a bench staring at a huge marble statue of some Greek god trying to figure out how does one find the correct instrument to chisel an ass crack....:)
Ok, time to leave the Uffizi!

Intricate ceiling paintings inside of the Duomo

City of Florence with the Duomo in the background

TUSCANY HERE WE COME!
The next day we planned an all day affair in the famous Tuscan countryside. Our one goal was to visit a couple of vineyards in Chianti and small hillside villages where we could sample some local, traditional Tuscan cuisine. When planning a tour around the Tuscan countryside you have several options: you could rent a car and make it on your own with maps, you could do the huge tour group with a big bus or you could spend the xtra $$$ and hire a private guide. Now, this is not a "splurge" vacation, contrary to popular belief. We have a strict budget and we saved the money for the entire trip before we left. Because it is not a splurge we cannot buy things-no souveneirs,no clothes and our meals must be chosen wisely, etc. However, because we both wanted to enjoy this region, we splurged and hired a private tour guide. That turned out to be the best idea we've had! We chose to go with a small, solo tour outfit called Tours Around Tuscany. Gianni was the owner, operator and our tour guide extrodinare! Gianni had a intimate knowledge of his country becase he was born and raised in Siena, the largest and most populous cities in the Tuscan region, outside of Florence. Gianni was probably the best tour guide we have ever had and well worth the money. After picking us up from the train station in Siena, he immediately gave us an orientation of the area, including a discussion of the climate and history of the area. The benifit of going with Gianni was that we were with a native, we were able to make it to smaller, off the map villages and he was horribly knowledeble about everything about Tuscany. Our first stop was an amazingly well preserved village called San Gusme. The place looked like something out of a movie. Only 100 people lived there, there were no cars because the streets were cobblestone and narrow and quaint. There was no supermarket, no tourist shop, no pharmacy. Just locally owned businesses and small storefronts. It was breathtaking. Even more amazing, we were the only ones in the village. There were no big groups of tourists, no bus parked outside, just us and Gianni, walking around the village on a quiet day. The best part of the village was our opportunity to visit a local vinter. This man was 84 years old and had spent his entire life making a bottling Chianti Classico wine. His "winery" was a little warehouse with bottles stacked everywhere! It was unreal. While we were marveling over the tiny warehouse with wine eveywhere, the little old man comes out with an apron on, muttering and cursing about something in Italian. When he sees us, he smiles, then continues to chatter, opening us a newly sealed bottle of his newest vintage, a 2006 Chianti Classico. The wine was smooth and full and probably one of the best i'd ever had! The kicker? The man was actually bottling the wine while we were there, we were probably the first people in the WORLD to try that particular wine!! Oh, you want better? How about the bottle was a horribly expensive $6!!!! I love this place!!!!

Bruce inside of the small, family owned winery

Learning about Chianti Classico grapes from our guide, Gianni

After having a wonderful wine tasting experience we were off to learn about more history of the Italian countryside. We stopped at several other villages, each smaller and cuter than the last. In fact, the first village we went to was the "biggest" with a robust population of 100 people. The subsequent ones had 50 and then 30 people, still living within them! It felt like we actually went through a time warp!

Small Tuscan village town of Gaiole in the Chianti region

We got the opportunity to visit an actual castle which was still inhabited by the original family since the 1400's!!! Who lives in a castle?! It was amazing and of course, because it was a castle, it had an amazing view of the rest of the countryside.

Entrance to Castle di Brolio

In front of the private residences of Castle di Brolio

We stopped at several other vineyards, sampled more amazing Chianti Classico wine then stopped for lunch at a local spot. Now you know, when no one in the joint speaks English, you KNOW the food is gonna be good!!!! We had the biggest, best lunch i've ever had! We started with two fresh homemade pastas as the first course and the second course had to be the best ribs i've ever had in my life!!! Now you know, me being from the South, saying that those were the BEST ribs ever is HUGE! But they were!!! No sauce, just bbq meat goodness!!! GOD, i LOVE this place!!!

BBQ, Italian style! MMM!

The best thing about our day in the countryside was the fact that we learned so much about Italy, its history and its food but even more, we didn't feel like tourists. We never saw a trace of any other tourists and the day was beautiful. I really appreciate our tour guide, Gianni for showing us his country and making us feel at home!

Bruce and I in the Brolio Vineyards in the Chianti region

I know this is a long blog, but I had to include a couple of closing thoughts about Italy:

Like most places on this earth, no where is perfect. There were several things that I gotta tell you about:

1) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER go to Venice or any other "tourist trap" city during the summer peak time. Most places don't have air conditioning and besides that, the crowds are horrific. Imagine the worst crowd you've ever seen, then cram them all into a street that you can only get thru while walking side by side, then take away deodarant from half of them, add humidity and heat and then you can imagine Venice in the summer. I thought we had it bad with the "mini throngs" of people but I would never change my time in Venice, even though it rained and was cold for a sunny day in June! Remember people, off season is your friend!
2) Bells are not your friend. Italy is a very Catholic country. We knew that. What we did not expect was the sheer number of churches. There were churches on every block. Some very ornate and beautiful, some very plain but no less historic. The problem is the damn church bell. It was really cute, the first couple of times we heard it, very awe inspiring and beautiful. But that beauty gets really old at 6 am when the damn bells are ringing six times to remind you that it is 6 oclock. Does the church know that i'm on vacation? It took me two months of traveling to NOT wake up at 5am like I was going to work! Not like there is any reason to wake up that early anyway! Not like you can get breakfast around here! Stop ringing the damn bell before 8 AM!!!!
3) Italians have one of the most widely spread and most imitated cusine in the world. I have been to the most random spots (Boracay, Philippines) and seen an "authentic" Italian restaurant. They are a little paternalistic about their food. So if you do not like Italian...I mean LOVE Italian--like you could eat it breakfast, lunch and dinner--then Italy may not be the best place for you. We walked all over Venice and could not find more than one or two non-Italian restaurants! I don't know if its illegal to open something different or what but you will die if you don't like Italian food. Bruce acually said "I'm tired of eating Italian" and Italian is one of his favorite foods!!! We went on the eqivalent of a scavenger hunt, trying in vain to find something other than Italian food. Don't get me wrong, Italy is more than just pizza and pasta but the seasoning for meats, fish, and pasta are very similar in certain regions. After three days of Italian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we had a mini-breakdown and went on a hunt for some sort of alternative. What did we find? A Burger King!!!
I was embarassed to go in, but after smelling the sweet french fry grease and the sizzle of the flame broiler I didn't give a damn about what Italians thought about our "horrible" American cuisine!!!

I enjoyed our time in Italy and I am lucky that we got the opportunity to go (off season!) when we did. From the tight little alley ways in Venice to the rambling cobblestone squares in Florence and the horrible church bells that start at 6am, it was an amazing experience in history, culture and FOOD!
Ciao!!!!

I can't explain how beautiful the country is but take a look at all of our pictures from Italy

Great Danes and Sweet Swedes

2010-03-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

So we left the winter "wonderland" of the Netherlands to move even further north to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. We chose to come here based on several recommendations from random people that we had met on our travels and it came very highly recommended by my brother, Brien. He had gone to Copenhagen last year for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and had an awesome time and told us that Denmark was a "must see". So we decided to head up to one of the three countries that makes up Scandinavia.

City of Copenhagen

We arrived in Denmark and immediately headed to our hotel located near the city center. First thing we noted was the horrible, bitter cold. I'm not sure which was colder, the Netherlands or Denmark but who cares? Everyone knows that I HATE COLD! Our hotel was interesting at best because it was more like someone's house than a hotel. The "desk" was never attended and they didn't have any hotel staff other than a couple of desk clerks (once again, never around) and some maids. The most interesting thing about the hotel was the configuration of our bathroom. I wish I had taken a picure but the shower! It was actually just a faucet, stuck in the wall and there was a curtain to partition the "shower" from the toilet. There was nothing to step into, no rim--nothing to prevent water from going onto the unlucky soul sitting on the toilet while you took your shower. The partition created by the shower curtain gave you just enough room to turn around--but only if you held your arms down, sucked in your belly and tucked your ass in....ugh...So everytime you took a shower, the entire bathroom floor would have water all over it. Needless to say, showering was a complete pain in the ass.
The plus was that we had windows that opened so we could get some fresh, frozen Danish air in in the room. Yes, you are right, I said it was cold outside but for some reason the hotel decided to combat the cold by turning the heat on to the "Fires of Hell" setting so we were suffocating at night. The windows being able to open was the only thing that saved us from heat stroke...

Ok, so now we decided to bundle up and head out and see what the city of Copenhagen has to offer. Copenhagen, like most other European cities is incredibly well planned out. You can walk/bike or take public transportation eveywhere. It is so nice to go visit somewhere and not once have to worry about how to find a cab or rent a car. We struck out and walked downtown to the famed Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the world. Of course they have replaced a lot of rides over the years, but the park still sits on the same spot as it did over the past hundreds of years. Unfortunately, we arrived just two short weeks before the opening of the amusement park.

Tivoli Gardens

Walking around the city, we noticed a couple of things: 1) Copenhagen is a very cosmopolitan, sleek city. It has the best of old and new but because it is the heart of commerce and business it is super automated and very modern. You really feel that you are in any big city in the US. 2) The city is more diverse than we ever expected. Copenhagen is a very multiethnic city. We met people from Turkey, Estonia, Thailand, Africa, etc. Anywhere you can imagine. They all told us that they felt very welcome and easily found jobs. I was most impressed with a waitress at a Thai restauraunt that we met. Not only does she speak Thai but she is also fluent in English and Dutch. This is not uncommon in Europe. Most people that we meet speak on average two sometimes three or more languages!!! It really makes me feel stupid. I figured that I can speak 1.5 languages (according to Bruce, my English is debatable) but the idea of people knowing two and three languages fluently is impressive! Danish is a Scandinavian language which sounds a hell of a lot like German and Dutch to me (a lot of gutteral sounds and coughing) but it isn't. From what I've been told that people from Norway and Sweden can all understand each other since the languages have the same common development. I'm always impressed with people that can speak multiple languages.

Another thing that Copenhagen is famous for is their love of jazz and blues. They put on one of the largest Jazz Festivals in Europe in July every year. I wish we were able to go but alas, we have to be here now. We did see quite a few jazz and blues clubs all thru downtown.
We also got the chance to see the Hans Christian Anderson park and saw the famous statue, "The Little Mermaid".

The Little Mermaid statue

In front of the Queen's residence...Where is the security?!

The most intersting thing was going to see the Royal Palace with the changing of the guard. Now, I"m not a big Palace person and honestly, I forgot that Denmark was a constitutional monarchy. Their current Queen is Queen Margrethe. She is elderly and it looks like her son, Crown Prince Frederik is about to get the "keys to the kingdom". Anyway, we go to see the changing of the guard and we're standing there and we're told that we are standing in front of the queen's residence. Ok, I saw NO serious security. I could see into some of the rooms!!! (By the way, that's a nice lamp you have on the table there, Queen) I can't believe how lax they are about security! I guess it must be nice to be royal when you know that no one is out to get you!!!

Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is very similar to Amsterdam in that the vast majority of the population prefers the bike as the main type of transportation. Copenhagen prides itself on being very "green" and the entire city has very big bike lanes for commuters to use.

"Green" electric car..plugs are found all over the city for these

In fact, we noticed that bicycles have lanes and sometimes pedestrians don't!!! The bike lanes are serious, too. They have turn lanes, thier own stoplights and even a "passing" lane!!! For whatever dumb reason, we decided that we could see the city more effectively if we had bikes. So we rented a couple and set off for a drive around the city. Now, I used to be a serious bicycle queen. USED to be! I thought about it, i think it had been almost 20 years since I had been on a bike!! So, probably not a good idea to put my wobbly ass on a bike in "rush hour" bike traffice with the scary Danish people flying past me going 40+mph!!! Oh, and did I mention it was cold? We got suckered like other Europeans, we saw a little sun come out and assumed that the temperature went up...WRONG! It was still about 0 degrees, maybe 1 and sunny. That was the only difference. So riding around the city on a bike while the wind is ripping your face off wasn't such a good idea. I was wobbly, scared and slow and almost caused a fare share of accidents. Plus, it didn't help that we didn't know where we were going. Every couple of miles, we'd stop, look at a map and then have to turn around or head in a different direction.

Bruce using pedal power

After two days of racing around Copenhagen, we decided to do a little country hopping. Anyone who has ever been to Europe knows that it is very easy to cross borders and go somewhere else. We learned that Sweden was just a bus/train ride away. In fact, a lot of Danish lived in Sweden because it was cheaper (much cheaper) than living in Denmark and many Swedes come over and work in Denmark because the wages are higher. So we head to the train station to take the quick 30 min train ride over to Sweden. First of all, the train system in Denmark is not at all as user friendly as the trains in Asia. In fact, its easier to take the train in Japan than it is in Denmark!!! Why? Well, first of all the Danish aren't big fans of the English language. The signs are all in Danish, the announcements are in Danish, NOTHING is written or spoken in English. So taking the train to Sweden took all of our collective intelligence to get from point A to point B. We accidently got off at the wrong stop but thankfully, ended up in the town square of Malmo, Sweden.

Arriving in Malmo, Sweden

And we thought our parking lots were full!

Street scene in downtown Malmo, Sweden

Malmo is the third biggest city in Sweden--Stockholm being the largest and the capital. Upon arriving to Malmo, we immediately noticed that it was actually more diverse than Copenhagen and the people were generally nicer. Everyone we met smiled at us and several went out of their way to help us with directions, etc. We decided to have a hot chocolate at a cafe and were met with warm welcomes and smiles. What was more hilarious was that the girls behind the counter had their ipod playing "This is Why I"m Hot" by MIMS. So here I am, in Sweden, light years away from my home and the cafe is blasting rap music! Wow! Shows you how small the world is now!!! The most embarrasing thing was was that Bruce and I are so old and out of touch with "young folk" that we didn't recognize the rapper on the song....God, we are old....
Anyway, after spending the day walking around the town of Malmo, we decided to head back to our temporary "home" of Copenhagen.

I learned a lot of surprising things about Denmark and Sweden on this brief trip. First, I want to come back when it is warmer!!!! I really think that these are very nice countries that seem to be welcoming of immigrants and embrace diversity. The people are nice and I'm sure they get nicer---when they thaw out. Maybe one day, we'll swing back thru and do another tour of Scandinavia!

Check out more pics from Denmark and Sweden by clicking here

A Great Place? by BBrown, MD

2010-03-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry I am lagging behind on the bloggging. We have been on a furious pace the last couple of weeks and it is hard to get the energy to get myself together. I am suprised how tired I am, all the eating, drinking, talking, and touring are killing me! Seriously though, I do miss my own bed and I am sick of this damn luggage, the pissy people in the airports, the stone faced immigration officers who all want to find any excuse to anal probe me! It's so stressfull waiting in that line yall, trying to not look like a threat. I'm thinking,"Please let this guy be getting along with his wife. Or I hope I don't look like this officer's deadbeat ex husband. Damn she's gritting on me, oh no I'm gonna get the probe!" Plus Carmen gets on my nerves, she's so damn happy all the time.... "Let's go here, let's try this, look at this picture, take this picture, sure you can cut in front of me (to stranger's at the airport), let's eat here, etc, etc, etc.." Ok I'm finished complaining, cause I sure could be in the hospital at 3 am getting cursed out by a patient because I won't prescribe them 1000 Vicodin for a broken toe nail:)!

We left Hong Kong for Great Britain. I have always thought how dare a country have the nerve to call itself "Great?" in its proper name... I know, now the country's proper name is the United Kingdom for politcal correctness, but I distinctly remember reading that in my social studies class in elementary school and thinking the country is so small, and we beat them in the Revolutionary War, why should they be called "Great"? Well, when I grew up and learned that just because you loose sometimes it doesn't mean you can't be Great, plus there is always more to a story than you think. We all lose sometime, if you don't you are a damn cheat! The true measure of a person, is what you do after you lose, can you dig it?... Did we (USA) win or did Britain lose? They made some bad mistakes politically and militarily, and we had some help (French) though we don't like to admit it! Anyway, it made me study this country thoroughly...whatever you think of Imperialism (it is/was wrong), this country can surely be classified as "Great". For such a smallish country with a limited gene pool to be able to dominate upwards of 65% of the world's population for so long is an incredible feat. Also, all of the technological and scientific contributions to humanity are incredible when put into perspective. I will not go into the UK's history, after all, we all know Britain's history due to the aforementioned "world domination". Let's talk about what we did...

We caught the train then taxi to the hotel. My bag doesn't have wheels, so I'm lugging 55 lbs (26kg) on my back, and that sucks when you are walking through a huge airport like Heathrow, then to the train, then up the stairs and out into the cold to the cab. My back is killing me! I am still glad I did it, because saving weight on the wheels gives you a couple of extra pair of clean underwear as well as longjohns! I haven't worn longjohns since the Washington DC snowstorm of 1994! But we needed it! That London wind tried to cut my face off! It was wet, windy and cold (about 3 degrees Celcius) and we had just left the Phillippines where it was 39 degrees Celcius dammitt! I understand why they wanted to dominate the world now, this damn island is cold and wet! If I lived here in the 1600s with no thermal underwear, no heat or hot chocolate, I would've got on one those damn boats and tried to squat on somebody else's land too! I've been trying to figure out how to squat on one of those islands in the Maldives ever since I left!

We had decided to stay in London for only 2.5 days, so we jammed it with a day of insider sightseeing with Adrian, a new friend from our dive trip in Australia; and an 8 hour commercial tour that let's you cut all the lines. I hate being led around like a 3rd grader, but it is worth the cost in these touristy cities just so you can cut the lines at museums, castles, etc. Why did we only do a couple of days in London? Because we knew how expensive it is, and we have a few friends in London, so it is almost guarenteed we'll be back. This trip is about discovery; London's history and culture is really "our" history and culture. Even though I had to keep translating "real" English to Carmen who is used to mostly "Southern American" and/or "Spanglish":) Going to London is like going to your grandmother's house. It looks, smells, and works basically like your parent's home. Indeed, it does, London to me is a cross between my hometown D.C. and New York city. Some of our governmental buildings are replicas of buildings I saw in London. Even the people looked the same. Beautiful, intelligent, diverse, sophisticated, self absorbed, self important people rushing around trying either to save the world or conquer it. It was a relief to get from under the microscope and do a little people watching ourselves, one of our favorite pastimes.

Adrian, who we feel like we've known for 10 years, graciously agreed to show us around to some of his favorite spots in London. We started at a historic coffee shop somewhere near Picadilily, good eats. Get your belly full, as Adrian and I hashed out the new developments in British politics (the Toreys are losing ground). Then he took us to Sir John Soane museum, which was absolutely incredible! Soane was a wealthy architect who travelled the world collecting treasures from every corner. He had Roman statues next to an Egyptian sarcophagus next to French masterpiece oil paintings next to preserved animal specimans from the 16th century! It was crammed tightly into his 5 story home, and you got to be up close and personal with his priceless collection. This was a truly unique experience and it was my favorite part of our stay in London. Yes, better than the Tower of London.... http://www.soane.org/. Then we went to the cool bar, "Ye Old Chesire Cheese" that was something out of a movie. The bar was built originally who knows when, but had been rebuilt and continuously operating since the Great London Fire of 1666! Holy crap! I'm sitting in and breathing the same foul air as some peasant from the 1600s! Wow! We got thouroughly drunk there while Adrian educated us about England, Scotland, and Ireland.

After stumbiling out of the bar, we tried to make it to the British Museum...too slow. So we went for an apetizer at a famous London restaraunt, which was packed. Carmen is greedy as you know, and had shown that on the diveboat in Australia, so Adrian showed us to a spot that should've sparked her interest. They served every part of the pig, from the root to the toot..baby! Delicacies such as bone marrow pate', pig toe nail soup, and a snout sandwich :)! Damn you got to love the Brits, so 'civilized', but they have 'Neanderthal' palates!!!!!!!!! I opted for the Bone Marrow pate' and it was fatty, salty and delicous. The texure was too much for Carmen. In other words, she punked out:)! Do you know how demoralizing it is when your beautiful wife can out eat you? I'm not a small man, and I have a competitive nature, it's depressing when you eat three full plates at the buffet and can't move another step, but your wife goes for two more!!! You resort to excuses like,"Your stomach has more folds than mine,etc.,etc!) I got her this time yall! Mind over matter, I put that marrow down and Carmen had to watch in defeat!

I didn't realize when I ordered it, that the marrow would still be in the damn cow femur! They don't even do this is Georgia, incredible! Most travelling Americans will go to London sometime, you have to try this place! After our apetizer we went to dinner at a restaraunt in the Theater district. Again, beautiful people everywhere. The food was nice, the drink better, and the company even better. Thanks Adrian for a great time!

The next day was with the tour company. We did all the typical things: Tower of London, Guided ferry down the Thames, Parliment, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, etc.. I have to admit all of these sites were awe inspiring, but the most entertaining part of the whole day was our tour guide. He was in his best Brooks Brothers suit complete with leather trench, posing and speaking in his best 'high' English like he was in a Shakesperean masterpiece!

London was a great time overall, and I wish I would've had the opportunity to visit when I was younger and had the patience to put up with all the 'pomp'. That has nothing to do with London, I don't do well with it at home or anywhere for that matter. I don't understand the fascination with royalty or warfare as sport for the upperclasses. When you look at these monuments and giant architectual structures, remember something: there were millions of real lives that were sacarificed so that Prince Charles can looked down upon us peasants from Buckingham Palace with no real sacarifice of his own! Don't be such sheep people, your life has just as much value as his, greatness is earned...... not given!

We had a great time and we saw what we were supposed to, but no time to really connect and feel the 'soul' of the country. Next time. You can see the pics by clicking here

Off to Copenhagen, Denmark and Sweden!

Going Dutch

2010-03-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

So after our short adventure in London, we are off to the Netherlands. Some of you may know it better as "Holland". Either way, its the country known for ships, canals, dykes and windmills. We made sure that we were going to see all of the above during our trip. We arrived in Amsterdam without too much difficulty except for trying to pronounce where we were headed to the guy at the information desk...Dutch is a very throaty language and some words sound more like you are trying to clear your throat. The address to our hotel was on a street called Prisengracht. Pronounced PRITZEN-GRAAAKKKKTT. (To say it correctly, you must sound angry, and cough loudly at the end). After finally showing the driver where we were headed, we were off to our little hotel on the canal in the Prisengracht area. Being in Amsterdam is like heading back in time. Our hotel wasnt really a new hotel but a collection 17th century buildings that had been fashioned into a hotel. Because of the renovation, no two rooms were the same and the size of the rooms could vary wildly. We lucked up and got a room in the attic. Sounded scary but it wasy light, big and airy and had the original beams from the 1600's still up!!!

Bruce in our attic room

Amsterdam is also known for a huge number of people on bikes. Everyone is pedaling around everywhere. Its facinating to see cars swerve out of the way from a biker going 10 miles faster. Everyone yields to the bikers. They are fast and dangerous and totally ingenious. Have you ever seen a mom drive her three kids to school in the morning? Its not intersting if she's in a Tahoe. Imagine that same mom (probably 50lb lighter because of the biking) pedaling three kids on her bike to school!! No joke. They have bicycyles with carts in the front with two "baby seats" and then a baby seat behind the mom! Facinating!!! There were more people biking than walking and way more of bikers and walkers than drivers.

Bruce walking the city...see all the bicycles?

There are lots of sights to see in Amsterdam. My favorite is the layout of the city. It is amazing to be able to walk around an entire city without needing a car or a bike. Each street is narrow and quaint and lined with building after building of shops and cafes and bars.

One of the famous houseboats on a canal in Amsterdam

Flower bulbs for sale at the famous Flower Market

You won't find a mega-mall or a supermarket in Amsterdam. Everything is very "mom and pop". After walking for a couple of hours we wanted to get some good ol Dutch food. My favorite thing is the pancakes! These aren't just the normal pancakes we have in the US...These are big, huge light cakes, almost like a crepe, usually piled with all sorts of goodies. They have sweet ones with apples or bananas or chocolate on them or they have "savory" with salty goods on them like bacon, sausage or cheese. Now, you know I love food (thank GOD we had to walk several miles to get to the Pancake House) so I was ready to try a big Dutch pancake. I ordered one of the more common ones...Apple and Bacon. Sounds gross? It wasn't!!! Its got the sweet salty thing going!!! Believe me, try it...you'll see.

My apple-bacon pancake...MMM

Most people associate the Netherlands with the canals. It is very similar to New Orleans, a city under water. However, the Dutch built a series of dams, dykes and canals that has preserved the city since the 1300's. Obviously, with time, they have been fixed and reinforced and they are blessed with not having to worry about hurricanes or tropical storms that could breech the dykes. It is still amazing to see how a city is completely "cut up" by a series of canals and waterways. I think most people think of Venice as a water city but Amsterdam is too. We used the "canal bus" which is like public transportation to get around the city via the waterways. It gives you a good opportunity to see the houses along the canals and cut around the vicious bikers

The next day, we left Amsterdam to head out to the northern part of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is acutally a very small country and it is easy to drive from one end to another in 3 hours or less. We wanted to go to some of the smaller, more "authentic" Dutch towns where people still practice and work like they did hundreds of years ago. We started off in the windmill town of Zaanse Schans, which was one of the oldest industrial areas of the world. The first windmills were built in the 1600's and when people figured out what they could be used for, the city grew into a large industrial area, able to process wheat, meal and paper, all using the energy fromt he windmills. The town only has 100 people still living there but they had a wooden clog maker and a cheese maker in the town still working today!

Yes, I'm cold

Bruce on the "main street" of one of the super cute tiny town of Hakkleaarsbrug

After Zaanse Schans, we headed further north to the "cheese town" of Edam then on to the fishing village of Markham. When I say village, I mean village! I have never seen anything so quaint in my life!!! The buildings are all still original to the 1600's, there are narrow, cobblestone streets and little shops. Its amazing how we felt like we weren't in the 21st century anymore.

A main road in town

My only complaint about visiting the northland was the weather. OMG!!! I'm from Atlanta, born and raised. I think I may have felt cold a couple of moments in my life. Never anything horribly bitter or bone shaking. I really thought I was going to die from exposure out there. It was hard to sightsee when you are bundled up like an dog sledder in Antartica. I had on 4 layers of clothes INCLUDING long johns and I was still cold!!! Oh, and about the long johns, I have to give Bruce praise on that call too! I remember being in the sporting goods store back home and him picking up a couple of pairs of long johns and me looking at him, saying "Why do we need those?"...God, I'm glad I listened now!!! So with my long johns, my pants, two pair of socks, a tank top, a sweater, a fleece coat, a windbreaker, hat, scarf and gloves on...i'm still COLD! People from there were wearing jackets without hats or gloves and they were looking at us like we were crazy. It started to get on my nerves but then I realized, its all about what you are conditioned to. I bet if I took one of their frozen asses to Phoenix in July they would shrivel up like a raisin....At first, Bruce tried to tease me about being from the South and not being able to handle the cold, but by the time we got to the coast, he was freezing and all outta jokes:

I'm cold

Yep, He's cold too!

The quaint fishing town of Maarkam

On our way back to the city, we had the opportunity to see the "summer homes" of the rich Dutch people. Back in the 1600's living in the city in the summer was pretty horrible. The canals were filthy, there were lots of flies and it was congested. The rich built summer homes in the Dutch countryside and lived there for several months out of the year. While they weren't at their summer homes, they were actually working farms, and the farmer and his family cared for the house and fields during the winter months. These homes are still standing today and some of them actually have the date they were built over the doors. It was so beautiful out there, I would love to have a farm house mansion like that!!!!

My dream farm/mansion..built in the 1600's

Ok, wonderful time but I do have one complaint about the Netherlands. You can starve to death there!!!! Yes, I know I showed you amazing pictures of spare ribs and pancakes but we were LUCKY!!! The Dutch do not believe in waking up early. In fact, the "breakfast" restauraunt opened for breakfast on a weekday at 8 or 9am!!! Shouldn't you be at work by then? How exactly can one go to breakfast AND go to work? Seems like the Dutch don't have to worry about the latter....why? Cause NOTHING opens until after 10am!!! Oh and the icing on the cake? Everything closes by 4 or 5PM!!! Dinner was the most stressful for us because most restauraunts closed by 9pm....sucks for you if you are not hungry by then. We never were hungry at the "normal" Dutch dinner time. How could you be if you have breakfast at 10am and lunch at 4PM? I don't know much Dutch but one word i know by heart now is Gesloten...That means "CLOSED". In fact, I have no idea what the Dutch word is for OPEN!!! Everything was always Gesloten!!! Random shops and restuarants would be closed, for no apparent reason at random times. We thought it was a holiday or something at first but its actually just a very laissez faire attitude of the Dutch. I tell you one thing...if you want to have a cake ass work schedule, get up around 9, work from 10-4 and then go home...you should move to the Netherlands.

After freezing my butt off, pigging out on pancakes with bacon and walking from one end of the country to the next, we are off to our next stop, even colder Denmark. I even bought another pair of long johns!

You can check out all of our pics from the Netherlands by clicking here

Bye Holland!

Cheers!

2010-03-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

So after yet another hellishly long flight from Asia to Europe, we are in the hub of the Western world, London, UK. I have to admit, I was excited to get back to an English speaking country. Not that the people in Asia weren't great (and they all spoke English) but anything more than a simple "Can I have some more beer" would be met with serious confusion. I thought it would be different in the UK. Not so much.
We arrived at 5am at the famed London Heathrow Airport. Little did we know, their equivalent of "Border Control" was on strike and we were met with a skeleton crew of 3 souls to work thru 100+ jet lagged people to get thru immigration. Lovely. After the 1 hour of sheer hell in the line, we easily find the train station and schlepped all of our stuff onto the "Underground" into the heart of town.

All of our lives are in these bags

By the time we get to the Paddington Train Station, we decide we are hungry. I see a Burger King sign (whoo-hoo) and can't wait to get a big ol sausage, egg, and cheese crossaint. Ok, this is where I was completely fooled by my English skills. The guy at the counter started talking to us and I swear, I only understood every other word. The only way I was able to order was by "listening in context". That's where you think about where you are and what you are doing and try to pick out words that make sense. The conversation that I heard was like this:

Him: "Ello Dall, whatch like for brekky taday?"
Me: Uhhh, crossaint?
Him: "K, Lave, ya want taters are beans wit that?"
Me: Uhh, taters?
Him: "K Lave, I gotcha far one sausage brekky meal wit taters, that all fer ya Lave?"
Me: Uhh, yeah

Ok, I thought that going to the home of the English language would be easier than this. Little did I know that understanding some of my English bretheren would be similar to some of ya'll listening to my Southern twang...(I know, we are hard to understand)
Needless to say, we made it, breakfast in hand to our final destination in the heart of London.
After a quick power nap, we were lucky enough to have a guide, our friend Adrian that we met on a dive vacation while in Austraila back in December. Like a perfect English gentlemen, Adrian promised that if we were ever in London he would show us his town. Like typical American tourists, we took him up on the offer! How much better can it get?! Having a local show you his favorite places?

Bruce and Adrian, a little lost in London

I have to say a special THANK YOU to Adrian for an amazing day of sighseeing. Thanks!

Adrian and I at the pub

I'll let Bruce detail the highlights of the day with Adrian but I have to say, we had a very interesting time! (It involved walking, drinking with Charles Dickens, going into a dead man's house, eating bone marrow, more drinking and passing out at a bar in theater district....AWESOME day!)

The next day, we woke up nice and early for our "tourist tour" of London. Like typical tourists, we decided the best way to maximize our time in London was to do a tour. Now, I really HATE those big tour groups where you have 20-30 people wandering aimlessly around trying to take sucky pictures and not listening to the history or background of the location. We are total nerds. We want to know about the history, the people, how they lived...basically, we want the Discovery Channel special. Once again, we lucked out. Because of the time of the year (cold ass off season) we had a very intimate tour group of about 10 people. Our tour guide, Mark was a character, very animated and very knowledgeable about his history! We drove around the city, seeing all of the major sites including a private tour of the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels!

Outside of the vault holding the Crown Jewels

The Tower of London was amazing, its awesome to actually touch and walk were people actually lived some 400-500 years ago! It is amazing to know that most of their buildings and history is OLDER than our country!!! The Crown Jewels were awesome and we were lucky to see them while the museum was still closed. I steamed up the case with the Cullinan I Diamond, also know as the "First Star of Africa". The diamond is set in the Sceptre of the Cross. In its unpolished, original state it was about 3,000 carats but polished and shaped it is actually over 500 CARATS!!! That one desereved a second look!!! Not to be outdone, the Cullinan II Diamond, the "Second Star of Africa" weighed in at a "smaller" 317 carats and is mounted in the Imperial Crown, in the next case. Bruce was less than impressed but I couldn't leave the vault...too much shiny stuff....

Headed into the Tower of London

Anyway, we had the opportunity to take river cruise on the river Thames, visit Buckingham Palace and see the amazing sights of the London Eye and Big Ben.

Me and Big Ben

We ended the day my favorite way, with food!!! We went to Harrod's one of the largest and oldest department stores in London. Some of you may not know, but on the ground floor are five rooms of sheer food porn!!!! It is like every kind of food you can imagine, under one roof!!! And to make things better, there are restauraunts down there too!!! I wandered around, Bruce in tow, taking pictures of one food case after another...Who does that? A FOODIE!!! This place was better than watching Food TV in high definition!!!

OOOH.....

Inside the grocery store at Harrod's in London

We ended the day in style, having afternoon tea and scones at Harrod's!

London was an awesome city. I don't know of many places on Earth where you can have a drink in a 17th century pub, followed by a Broadway show down the street. It is an amazing mish-mash of people from all over, all races, all backgrounds jam packed into a city with a loud pulse and a spirit that thrives.
I regret not having an entire week to explore London, but I know this is somewhere that I will want to come back to! Thanks Reine, you were right!!!!!

Check out all of our pics from London by clicking here

Goodbye Asia, I'm Gonna Miss You

2010-03-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

We are at the airport in Hong Kong, toiling away another long layover before we venture out of Asia into Europe. I can't help to think back on all of the amazing times that I have had on this continent. If someone had of asked me years ago, where did I think that I would end up and feel most comfortable, I'm pretty sure Asia woulda been far down on the list. The place was just so big and so foreign to me. It seemed like a world away. Now, after spending almost six weeks with her, I will never be the same. There are so many things that I love and a lot of things I DONT love about it here but I would come back in a heartbeat and call many of these places home. Even though we spent what seemed like a lifetime here, I feel like I have only touched the tip of a vast iceberg. This continent cannot be canvased in a month or 6 months. I truly believe a "trip" can't do it justice. From the huge bustling cities like Beijing and Tokyo to the sleepy little back-water beach towns in Thailand and the Philippines. This place will get into your psyche and change you for good.
The people have been a mix of different colors and looks but I always felt welcome and comfortable. People were eager to teach us about their history and culture and there was always a sense of pride in their way of life and values. I will always appreciate that.

On a lighter note, this place is hilarious. The same nice people have such a interesting way of expressing everything and just living life in general. There were so many characters that we've met and so many funny situations it was hard to cover in each blog. I figured the best way to do the continent justice is to give "awards" for the best of the best. (In the spirit of the award season!)

Best Airport: Originally this was going to be a tie between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong International but Hong Kong has a Popye's chicken and an AWESOME "traveler's lounge" where you can pay a fee, go in, relax in comfy chairs and for a little more chill in a little private "bedroom"!!! OMG! The airports in Japan and Hong Kong are so advanced, so nice, so spacious and so people friendly it makes you wish we had airports like that in the US. I can't understand that it is easier to navigate an airport in Japan and China than it is to get around Dallas-Fort Worth Airport!!!! We could learn a lot in airport design....

This is the "traveler's sleep room" at the airport that you can catch a quick nap at!! I wish we had these in the US!!!!!!

This is a pic of the mall INSIDE the Hong Kong Airport. Check out the Prada store! This is like our nicest mall back home!!!

Worst Airport Security Screening: In the US, we are used to horribly thorough screening, requiring long lines, patience and occasionally, body cavity searches. In most Asian countries, security starts OUTSIDE the airport. In Phuket, Male and Sri Lanka we had to line up outside to get screened to get INSIDE the airport. Then had to go thru one to two more security lines. Sounds good, right? Not so much. Here is where it gets weird. I actually learned that they will allow you to put huge bottles of liquid thru the xray scanner...as long as its scanned...I didn't know that we had come so far in detecting dangerous liquids that you can just xray them now.....

Best and Worst Toilets: Anywhere in Asia, especially the more remote you will see some interesting dungeons. China takes the cake for the worst squat holes I've ever seen...Ladies, if you don't have good thigh muscles for squatting, don't go to any far away Asian locales. And the bucket of water next to the toilet? That's for rinsing yourself cause there is NO toilet tissue. Best Toilet goes to Japan. This is the home of the "heated toilet seat"! This man or woman who invented this deserves a Nobel Peace Prize or something. There is nothing better on a cold Japanese night or day than to rest on a seat heated to a toasty 98 degrees!!!

Best Massages for under $20: Anywhere in Asia but I'll have to give Thailand this one. I have NEVER had a massage so good in my life! I almost went into a coma and should have had a breathing machine next to me...it was that good!!! Bruce agrees, he had two little Thai ladies stretching him like he was a rubber band. We were both loving life after that one!!!!

Best Beach Eats: Also, anywhere in Asia but Thailand takes the cake. Anytime you can eat on the beach, hearing the sounds of waves, sitting barefoot at a picnic table while crabs skitter around your feet (and then onto your plate) COUNT ME IN!!! I know that eating al fresco (without silly things like forks, napkins) is not for all of us but I figured, lick your fingers, then rinse them in the ocean! Brilliant! Outdoor eating also comes with its own perils. At one of our "hangouts" in on Kuk Kak beach in Thailand, you were greeted by the waiter with a citronella candle in a empty beer bottle and free and liberal use of some type of super effective bug spray. We are pretty sure the stuff in that bottle was flammable and probably carcinogenic and I'm sure I'll develop several types of cancer from exposure to it, but hey, it was worth it! The mosquitoes in Thailand are vicious and will stop at nothing until you are drained of blood.

Our favorite Thai Restauraunt

Best Lazy Day on the Beach: White Beach (Borocay) in the Philippines. You can lay on the beach, someone brings you a big icy bucket of beer, you give them $2 and then you shed a tear thinking..."how much better could this be?" Oh wait, there are some big huge shrimp on a grill being sold for $4....It just got better...

Things I thought I could never get used to but are now totally "normal":

-Ants...who knew that little buggies that I used to be mildly revolted by would be so second nature to me? Ants are a part of life in most places. Ants on my toilet paper? No problem, shake em off (unless you're into that sort of thing). Ants in your food? Eat around them, squish them or eat them (its protein), Ants on your body? As long at they are the tiny little ones and not the vicious biters, let em wander.
-Squatting...I guess those Asian genes really do "kick in". I can maintain a perfect 90 degree squat with my 15 lb backpack on my back for at least 30 seconds. Squatting is also handy when chairs are not avialable. Used to kill my knees but i've adapted..
-Nose Picking...I used to be amazed and revolted by the sheer number of folks "diggin for gold" in public. Now I realized that its their nose, whatever they find is theirs too keep and as long as it is not flicked in my direction, we are all good
-Staring...Everyone stares...to different degrees. I realize that when you travel "off the beaten path" there are going to be people who have NEVER seen someone like you. They are interested and excited to meet you. Its nothing mean and not meant to offend. Most cases, if you make eye contact, you will be met with a smile and conversation.
-Automated everything...Contrary to some belief, certain cities in Asia (Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo) are light years ahead of us in everything from transportation to snack machines. I have never seen so many cool designs. I could go on and on about the perfectly easy and super advanced train systems in Japan and Hong Kong and the hotels are some of the nicest ones I've ever seen. For those of you who don't want to "rough it" or you can't stand the idea of going one day without internet access or a shopping mall then there are places in Asia perfect for you!

Overall, I am so thankful for the time I got to spend in Asia. I think the people are warm and genuine and I wish I had more time to explore. I highly recommend to anyone to make the trip across the globe to Asia. You won't regret it. I didn't.
Goodbye Asia!!! We'll be back!

Returning to my Birthplace

2010-03-08T02:15:00.000-08:00

The first time I realized that I was "different" was in second grade when my friend Donald screamed out,"You have a zebra family!" All the other kids at the bus stop started laughing out loud. He was making an observation about my Filipino mother who was walking with my younger brother toward us whom she had just picked up from kindergarten. Kids can be cruel, right? But so can adults... My siblings and I had a tough time growing up "mixed-race" because we were never "fully" accepted by either culture. I can't speak for my brother and sister, but my way of coping was to hide in my "blackness". It was much easier for me because I don't really look mixed until you look at me real hard (as many a Filipino does when I tell them).You could say I was passing as "Black American" because it was easier than trying to explain that I was Filipino-Black then trying to win acceptance. Ironic..huh? MTV has made it cool to be "mixed" these days, but when I was growing up it definately wasn't cool, especially growing up in Northeast Washington, DC, which is 98% black. Black folks can be as prejudiced as white folks... I think that is part of the reason I loved it so much when my father was stationed overseas, because people were far more tolerant on base (where there were other mixed kids) than in my grandparents "hood" where people rarely venture outside of the city limits. My poor mother, I can only imagine what she had to endure when she came to D.C. back in 1971! My mother made it easy for us to hide because she was so busy learning to be American (she went to citizenship school, even though it wasn't required due to her marriage; she knows more about U.S. history and government than most of you!); that she neglected to teach my brother and I Tagalog (Phillippines' national language). I also think she thought it would make our lives easier, since it was already going to be hard being lower middle class (I don't like to use the word poor after what I've seen in South Africa, Brazil, and Southeast Asia) and "non-white". I understand her decision, but I truly regret it.

I didn't reallly start to identify myself as Filipino until I was about 13 or so. I was sitting watching football in the basement with my grandfather. He was drunk on Johnny Walker, teaching me about women (how to get them); when he suddenly got somber and started talking about the "big one" - World War II. My grandpa was a griseled old Navy Veteran who served in the Pacific during the war. He didn't talk much about it, except when he was really, really drunk. I was the only grandchild who had the patience to wait him out, because it would take hours for him to get that drunk. He would want to wrestle and box and sing and talk and talk and talk. But if you endured, you would get rewarded, he would pull out his "knot" and break you off about $20 and maybe $50 if it was payday! Luckily, I was a tough kid and I could take the pounding he dished out. I learned a lot from my grandpa in the basement, among those lessons was why I was the "toughest" grandchild. He told me it was because I was half Filipino. He would tell me, "Your father is tough, but your mother is tougher! Them damn"Flips" are the toughest little sons of guns you ever seen!" You see he was in the Phillippines for some of the worse fighting of the war. He would tell me gory details of the fighting between the joint American-Filipino forces against the Japanese when the latter invaded the Phillippines in 1941. The Japanese initially defeated "our" forces and occupied the Phillippines for 4 years until General MacArthur made his famous "return" in 1945 landing on the beaches of Leyte not far from where my mother was born. One million Filipinos gave their lives in WW2, 6% of the population !, 300,000 Japanese and 68,000 Americans just during the campaign in the Phillippines (so much lost talent). After the war, many (including my grandfather) thought the Phillippines would become our 49th state! That's right people read your history, the Phillippines had been a U.S. territory since 1898 after the Spanish-American war, when we annexed the Phillippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as territories after defeating Spain and beginning our dangerous path of colonialism. The Filipinos liked the ideals of freedom, education, and equality for all (after we persuaded them- American-Phillippine War:) . They adopted our ideals and our culture, and fought with us to preserve those ideals during the World War II. Unfortunately, the politics of the day were not in favor of making the Phillippines our 49th state. It is our loss; these are a beautiful, passionate, gregarious, resourceful, tenacious people who would've been a great asset to the USA. Ferdinand Marcos took power in 1965 and allowed us to use the Phillippines as our military headquarters during the Vietnam War. That's when a young, black soldier at the tip of the "American spear" fell in love with a fiery Filipino woman from Samar, Phillippines in 1970 is where my story begins.... I was born outside of Clark Air Base, Phillippines not long after they met:)

Link to a map of the 7,107 Phillippine Islands: http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/asia/Philippines/PhilippinesPhysical.png

Now that you know my background, you can anticipate my emotions on the flight from Hong Kong to Manila (Phillippine capital). It took me 39 years to get back to my birthplace! After all the stories from my grandfather, mom, dad, brother, sister, and aunts; after all my reading about Phillippine culture and history, I was finally on my way back to the place where I first witnessed the world.

When we landed it was sunny and bright. I started to hear that familiar, distinctive, accented "Filipino English" over the loudspeaker and from the people walking around us. It put me at ease. That's one thing you will appreciate in the P.I., almost everyone speaks English, even the television is a mix of English and Tagalog. Every major street sign is in English, just like Hong Kong. And you could easily use american dollars for all of your purchases if you chose too. On the ride to our hotel, I saw the Jeepneys which are famously unique to the Phillippines. They arose as a common mode of transport after WW2 when creative entrepenuers revamped old wartime Jeeps into large taxis for the countrys poor to ride to work in. Much more efficient and manuveurable than a bus. And much easier to pimp out!

We arrived at our hotel in the Makati business district, and we were shocked by the level of security. There were armed soldiers with bomb sniffing dogs at the entrance! They even had airport style metal detectors. Carmen and I are pretty adventurous, but after speaking to my parents, I thought it best to hang low in Manila. We did finally get stir crazy and ventured to the mall, but that was it. What you have to understand is that the P.I. is a third world country with crushing poverty and a lot of corruption. Manila is a city of over 20 million with some of the worst slums I've ever seen. You combine that with the wealth of foreign businessman from China, Korea, and the U.S., it is a recipe for disaster. With the Presidential election coming soon, my mom says its a perfect time for fringe groups to make a statement. We did see plenty of tourists venturing out from our hotel and returning without a problem. Our friends Rich & Ana also travelled all over the Phillippines about 6 weeks ago without any problems. But my family doesn't have any money to pay ransom if I get kidnapped; and the way my mom used to whoop my tail as a kid, I could only imagine what some filipino fringe group had in store for me if they didn't pay!:) Carmen's family would've mortgaged everything to get her out and I would've been left to suffer in some hot, humid jungle camp...no thanks!

We took a flight on a small propeller plane to Boracay, P.I. Our bags were overweight by 15kg, but we only had to pay $20! Awesome! Our bags were overweight by 10kg in Australia, we had to pay $400 dammit! And their beaches are no where near as nice. The flight was comfortable with plenty of legroom and only lasted 50 minutes. The airport in Catilan was a bit scary. You could see residential shacks with the owner's laundry hanging outside right next to the runway!

While the airport was really third world, the people were friendly and efficient. It took about 8 minutes to unload the plane and get the bags! You could actually watch your bags get unloaded from the plane. The baggage claim was exactly 60 meters from the runway. A porter took our bags to the pre arranged taxi which then took us to a boat, which took us to the actual island of Borocay. Then the hotel van took us through town to the hotel which was a block from the beach. I felt like a total rock star being whisked from one mode of transport to the next. I saw the hapless 20 something year old backpackers haggling with taxi drivers and boat captains and thanked my lucky stars that I waited to do this when I could afford to do it right:) I highly recommend going with a hotel that will pick you up from the airport: Shangri-La, Borcay Mandarin, Regency Borocay, Asya Borocay, Crown Regency Borocay, and I'm sure there will be others to come. These luxury hotels average cost is about $130 per night! If you don't you'd better be prepared to haggle... This is what we saw when we arrived on Borocay:

Wow! I still say that the most beautiful beaches are in the Maldives, but Borocay are a close 2nd! For some people it may be more enjoyable. White Beach is the third world version of Venice Beach. There are all kinds of people walking the beach selling things like jewelry and art work. There are small "mom and pop" restaraunts and bed & breakfasts' right next to large scale modern hotels. And yes, the good lord delivered me from fat folks in speedos! The caliber of body was much nicer in Borocay than almost anywhere we've been except Brazil or maybe South Beach. There were fine ass Asian women in skimpy bikinis, and muscle bound European men (I guess this is where they come). What could be better? 50 cents beers, cheap seafood and fried pork, transvestite fire dancers, and super rich Chinese/Koreans with hip hop gear on walking with swagger like they were in one of Jay-Z's rap video! They were live filipino cover bands performing rock songs and hip-hop/ techno night clubs to party in all night long. The massages on the beach averaged $7 and a sunset sail on a catamaran costs about $20 including tip. We were in the middle of it all once again. Instant celebrity status when the locals found out I was half Filipino. Of course, I sometimes had to prove it by showing pictures of my family, but that's ok I'm used to it. After they were sufficiently convinced, I was introduced as "my big brother" and "our Filipino cousin". Everytime the revelation set off a barrage of loud Tagalog and stares of amazement. But even when we didn't tell people we were treated with warmth and kindness. We asked the police if we could take pictures of them, and they insisted that I pose with them. I've never been treated that well by police in the states!

The sand was soft, the water was clear and the diving was excellent. We did about six dives while in Borocay and we enjoyed them all. Our first couple of dives revealed a unique coral reef that was different from anyother we've ever seen. The soft coral were huge, and were in unique colors of purple, fluorescent green, and bright orange/red. Gorgonian Fan coral bigger than us! Large gardens of barrel coral (look like giant tulips about 5 feet tall with pastel colors) and giant sponges that looked 100s of years old. There were thousands of small fish everywhere. They were so numerous you had to swat them out of the way so you could see! Sea worms, nudie branches, and frog fish were plentiful. I even had a remora try to attach itself to my leg (very unerving)! Carmen was lagging behind on one of our dives as usual. I turned around to see what she was doing, her back was to me and she seemed to be playing with a small clown fish (nemo). I got irritated because she was not keeping up, so I went back to get her. As I reprimanded her in underwater sign language, the freaking clown fish swims from around her and comes straight at me! I didn't realize he was attacking her. That bugger went straight for my mask! I swatted, but he kept coming; so I kicked at him with my fin and he dropped down below me and came again! Carmen was laughing out loud as she made her get away! I swam as fast as I good after her. Attacked by Nemo, I can't believe it.. While the Maldives was great for large fish life, the Phillippines wins for coral and smaller life. We didn't take pics, but to get an idea, here is a link: http://www.diverosa.com/categories/Coral.htm We did the wold famous Yapak Reef dive. This reef is famous for the large Gray reef and Whitetip sharks. It was fun because the current was fierce, but not moreso than we were used to after Thailand and the Maldives!:) We descended into the deep blue with no reef in sight until we got to about 35 meters/110 feet which is the deepest we've ever gone. When we got near the reef you could see two large Gray reef sharks just chilling at the edge of the wall. I checked on Carmen behind me, she was drafting like a pro, we both got nice positions on the reef right at the drop off. It was a sunny day and the visibility was at leat 60 meters. The sharks were hovering above us about 5 meteres/15 feet just chilling in the current. There was a large octopus off the edge of the wall swimming out in the open which is very rare. I turned to smile at Carmen, and I saw the swelling in her face. Sometimes at deep depths you can get a high pressure build up in your scuba mask, but it can be relieved by breathing air from your nares into your mask. I happen to know that she doesn't like to fool around with her mask, but I signalled her to put air in to equalize the pressure. She looked bad yall, like she had been in a fight with Mike Tyson bad! Her eyes were almost swollen shut! I kept thinking to myself, I'm glad this is a short dive. The divemaster signalled us to let go and the whole group floated in the current as we slowly ascended to meet the boat. It was great, all of us floating in the deep blue/green as if we were flying. When we got on the boat, Carmen looked a mess. Her eyes were swollen to be damned and her conjuctival capillaries were all ruptured. She looked like a zombie (think the movie "28 Days Later") who got into a fight with Mike Tyson! That was our last dive, cause people are going to think I've been beating you! Alas, our hunt for the elusive whaleshark was stymied again. No matter, we will be back no doubt. We missed a couple of jungle tours and a volcano tour. We were just too tired and hung over from the cheap beers and good eats. The Phillippines is very affordable and easier to get to than anywhere in Asia except maybe Japan. MY people are warm, friendly, and they love to dance, sing, and eat! Goodbye my brethren......

To see more pics click here

There's No Place Like (Bruce's) Home

2010-03-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular belief, I was not born in Asia. I totally feel that my spirit was. I like Asia. I am going to be sad next week when it is time to say goodbye to the largest continent on earth. I was comfortable in China, Thailand and Hong Kong. I loved being in the Maldives but I SWEAR no where is more like home than the Philippines! For those of you who didn't know, this is Bruce's birthplace. We had heard some really good things about the Philippines. Specifically the low cost of nice travel. Also, we had heard that White Beach in Boracay was one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We also researched and found that it has some very good dive sites. All of those things prompted us to head farther down the "less trodden" path.

We arrived in the Philippines and planned on staying in Manila for a couple of days. The city is big and populous (like most B. A. A. C-Big Ass Asian Cities). Lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of people racing around 2-4 people deep on mopeds....Anyway, we land and find a ride to our hotel which is in the central business district of Makati. I was excited to be in Manila. We planned on doing some sightseeing, eating, drinking and relaxing. On our way to the hotel, i got the opportunity to see the main way of transport around the city, the Jeepney. The Jeepney is pretty much like a minibus/go cart which is pimped out beyond belief in wild colors with serious hubcaps, etc. People will pack themselves into these rides, hanging out of the back, holding on for dear life. The way it works is if you get close to your stop, you yell, they will slow down to a respectable 5-10 miles per hour and you jump out. Talk about bus "stop"!!! Some are "regular" but most look like something out of a rap video. I wondered if they had hydraulics? Here are a couple of Jeepney's in rush hour traffic:

My first idea that something could be wrong was the security at the entrance to the hotel. Now, I've seen armed soldiers before (checkpoints in Thailand, Sri Lanka). No big deal. As long as the AK-47 is not pointed towards me, we have no problem. We arrived at our hotel which was smack in the downtown area. The first check point involved two armed guards, a trunk search and a bomb sniffing dog...WTF? Ok, i'm intrigued. Why, pray tell do we need a bomb sniffing canine in the front of my hotel? The next layer of security was the front door of our hotel. Everything seemed normal as the cabbie helped us out with our bags, however, at the door of our hotel was a security line complete with a bag check and metal detectors!!! WTF? To check in?! Once in the lobby we notice several more security guards with the little CIA/MI-5 ear buds in watching the elevators and checking people coming in....Bruce and I looked at each other and decided "Guess we're not going out sight-seeing"....

Ok, enough of that. By day two, I was stir crazy. I wanted to take my chances of being a byline in the newspaper. "American woman from Phoenix killed in tragic shooting/bombing outside a Manila hotel"
We decided to venture out to the mall. That was interesting. The mall was this strange juxtaposition of super nice and bootleg/local stuff. We entered on one side (after clearing more security and bag checks) and saw the usual high end mall shops (Prada, Coach, blah, blah). We walked around, found a bar (which had $1 beers...waayy more expensive then normal) and walked some more. Nothing interesting. Thank God we asked a local where was the closest drug store. They directed us to a nearby shop. We start walking in the oppressive heat (Jeez, it felt like 1000 degrees!) and all of a sudden, got swept up in a huge crowd of locals. Eveyone was headed to this "drug store". We walk in the doors (after another security/bag check) and end up in a huge, tri level departement store which was a cross between Big Lots/Sam's Club/Wal Mart/Sear's..ALL on steroids. There were hundreds of people, pushing, shoving, shopping, talking, standing, etc. We could barely make it down certain aisles. We had to do a search and rescue type of shopping method. "Bruce, you head due south, get the lotion, I'll double back, head west and find toothpaste"
I found everything we needed despite having to criss cross a huge store the size of a small country. All of our finds came to a grand total of $3 (I Love it here!!).
Everything seemed back to normal until we decided that we need to stop by the bank to cash a couple of travelers checques...We ride up to the bank and we see this:

Guess we'll be using the credit cards....

After an uneventful stay in Manila, we were headed off to Boracay. Boracay is a very small island in the region of Caticlan, about 200 miles south of Manila. For anyone who doesn't know, the Philippines is a huge chain of islands. Most people use a combination of planes, ferries, buses to get around. We started our day at the domestic terminal in Manila. I knew that we had to fly a crop duster to Boracay and I knew that our big bags were going to go over the weight requirements (which is only 20lbs) and we were mentally prepared to pay. We had to check two bags, plus pay for overweight fees which came to a grand total of $20!! ( I love this place!) Our crop duster (i.e. super small prop plane) only had 20 seats.

Our "airplane" to Boracay

View of Boracay from the air

I watched nervously as the propellers choked to life (is the left turning slower than the right?) and then we were up in the air for our short 30 min flight to Boracay. One thing I had heard is that if the weather/wind is bad then flights could be re-routed to the next closes "airport" in Kalibo. Now that is NOT what you want to happen because that will put you a 2 hour bus ride plus a 45 minute ferry ride away from Boracay. We lucked out and ended up landing on a little "strip" of land in Boracay. Now, I have landed in crop dusters before. They make me nervous. I'm not scared of flying but I really hate tiny turbo props...Our airport was nothing more than a strip of road with a big hut next to it with an "airport" sign over it. What made it more fun was the baggage claim area:

After the scary flight we were driven 5 minutes down the street to the dock where we were put on a speed boat, taken to another part of the island, put on another bus to our final destination. We decided to save money not to stay on the beach. We figured that we were close enough to walk and it would be more quiet.
Our hotel did not disappoint! It was small (only 20 rooms) and very homey feel. We had a clean, quiet room with air conditioning!!! whoo-hoo!!! We were a short 1-2minute walk to the famous White Beach where all the shops/restauraunts are...

The other thing is Boracay is so very laid back! It is very primitive. Flip flops and shorts are part of everyone's daily uniform. People ride 3-4 deep on mopeds or on moped "taxi's". Life is like it was 50 years ago.

Regular rush hour traffic

Scenes from the city of Boracay

Here are pics of our little hotel:

White Beach is a huge, long stretch of sugar white sand and crystal clear water on the south side of the island of Boracay. The water was just as clear, if not clearer than in the Maldives! I've never seen water that clear!!! You could walk in 4-6 feet deep and still see the tips of your toes!!! (Complete with the fishies swimming around them!!!) It also had tons of massage shops, bootleg peddlers, bars, dive shops, etc.

Now these are the reasons why the Philippines reminds me so much of my home:

1) These people love some pork!!!-Oink-oink baby!!!. Any decent person from the south knows that there are five basic food groups: 1) Sweet tea 2) Coke 3) Corn products (corn bread, fried corn, corn on the cob, corn fritters, etc) 4) BBQ and Fried Foods 5) Pork. Now, if you can appreciate at least 3 outta 5, you can consider yourself a semi-southerner. Only a person prepared to accept and welcome all into their lives can be considered "real". Now, I won't eat everything off the pig (unless my mom cooks it or if it looks good or if you don't tell me what it is ahead of time) but I appreciate PORK! So do Filipinos!!! LOVE IT!! My first Filipino breakfast was the BEST EVER!!! I had 3 different kinds of meat with eggs and rice! Chorizo (spicy pork sausage), fried fish and pork tocino. Pork tocino is basically BBQ pork (I have no idea what part of the pig, nor do I care...Its GOOD!!!) I can easily love and embrace people who love food like I do!!!!

My new favorite dish, Pork tocino (think, sweet and sour pork!)

2) They have my favorite food: Sio Pao.. Different cultures call it different things...Manapua (Hawaii), Steamed bao buns (Hong Kong), Xiao Pao (China)...They are ALL GOOD! All it is a sweet BBQ pulled pork meat in a steamed, slightly sweet bun!!! MMM, MMM!!!! Its like an Asian Hot Pocket! Anyway, I love them so much and I got hooked in Hawaii. They have Sio Pao on every corner in the Philippines. I can't starve here

3) It cheap and I'm cheap!!! Anytime you can go somewhere an get a whole, fresh fried snapper for $5 or shrimp the size of a dinner plate for $3 you can go ahead and count me IN!!!! We walked around and saw tons of seafood restauraunts offering shrimp, crab and fish for $1 to $5!!! We even saw lobster that were about $10-15 dollars for a POUND!!! OMG! (My sister is gonna want to move here!!)

These are the fresh grilled prawns (big as some small lobster) and fish. Total cost for dinner on the beach for two? $20!!!!

4) People are laid back and friendly. There is serious hospitality here. The people smile and speak. People say hello if they make eye contact, no one rushes (in Boracay...at all!!!). Folks just seem to want to sit back and watch the world go by....

We of course had to do some diving while we were here. I will let Bruce tell you all the fun details about that. We had some good fun and saw some amazing life. One of my favorite dives, called Friday's Rock was so fun because I didn't notice how weird the fish were until we were in the middle of the dive. We had the task of identifying different fish and I was busy looking at my underwater slate to find a fish I had just seen. All of a sudden, I realized that something kept getting in my eyes. As a habit, I waved my hands in front of me like it was a mosquito or something. It was actually a huge school of different fish literally up in my face!!! The fish had unfortunately been hand fed by other divers in the past and were really used to being around divers. They were in my hair, under my arms, everywhere!! So close that my eyes were crossed trying to see what was in front of me!!
My other scary dive was when I got bitten by a fish!!!

Ok, i didn't get bit by him, we ate this one!!!

Actually, I was swimming along, minding my own business and all of a sudden a cute little fish swam up and bit me on the finger!! It didn't hurt and I was totally amused because the fish was NEMO!! (ask your kids if you don't know who Nemo is...). Anyway, I guess I had gotten too close to his little hideout and he wanted to show me who was boss!!! I was laughing and trying to catch Bruce's attention when the little shit came at me again and nipped me a second time!!! That time, it wasn't as funny. He came at me again and I had to clunk his little ass with my dive computer to make him stop. He didn't!!! This time, Bruce saw me struggling and came over to see what was up. As I pointed at little Nemo, he attacked Bruce!!! At this point, I did what any self respecting wife would do: I left my husband behind to fight for me!!!! Luckily, neither one of us were seriously injured by the 3 inch fish! :)

Overall, we had an awesome time in the Philippines. It is a country of complete contradictions. In the face of abject poverty, you will find beauty. The culture is rich and alive and the people are warm, welcoming and friendly. Like all places (but perhaps a bit more), I will miss the Philippines.

We'll Be Back!!!!!

Check out all of our pics from the Philippines by clicking here

Hong Kong

2010-02-24T02:54:00.000-08:00

Hey All,
Just doing a quick report from Hong Kong. We've been here for three days and not too much to tell about. Hong Kong is pretty much very similar to other B.A.A.C's .Big Ass Asian Cities).

We've been to Beijing, Bangkok and Tokyo and they are pretty similar. They all have awesome train systems (our main way of getting around) and the people and food are great!!! When I say that the train system is great, you can't understand how efficient it is!!! There are automated ticket counters pretty much everywhere in the stations so that there are no lines, there are "customer service" people wandering around to help us folk who look/act lost and the trains are simple enough that Forrest Gump could get around!!!! I love Asian trains!!! We were able to navigate all around the city with no pain! My absolute favorite part? The Airport Express line. It is a dedicated train line all the way out to the airport (normally a 1hr drive with light traffic). The best part? They put airport check in desks at the train station!!!! WTF?! I wish NYC/DC would do the same!!! So our hotel was directly over one of the main train stations. All we did is go downstairs, check our bags at the airline desk, got our boarding passes and then got on the train for the smooth, 20min ride to the airport. That meant no check in counter, just straight to security...I swear, these people are brilliant!

For those who aren't familiar, Hong Kong is a small city/state in the southern portion of mainland China. It used to be a British Colony (until recently) but then reverted back to the control of mainland China. Its very obvious that there was a long history of British colonization here. Almost everyone speaks English and lots of street signs are in English too. Most people also speak Cantonese and Cantonese food and culture are still very profound. But to echo what Bruce says, some of my non-adventerous friends and family would really like it here. They even had a Popeye's chicken in the mall!!!!! Its half a world away but feels remarkably the same. (Except for the 20 million Asian people and the occational dead ducks/chickens hanging in windows)

MMM, MMM GOOD!!!

We got here after a hellish day of travel from the Maldives. It literally took us a boat, a plane, a 10 hour layover in Sri Lanka, another plane, another 3 hour layover in Bangkok, a 2 hour plane trip to Hong Kong followed by a 30 minute train ride. It was quite a long day. When we arrived here we didn't smell too fresh, we were hungry and exhausted. Our first day in Hong Kong was pretty much spent at the famous Victoria Harbor and then in our room. After a nice hot shower and some noodles we were DONE! We slept for over 12 hours, which is rare for us. I haven't done that since medical school!

The next day, we did the typical tourist stuff. We started out from our hotel, and got on the train at the famous Kowloon station. Can I just tell you, the train stations in Hong Kong are the BEST!!!! OMG! Its like every train station have a 5 star mall/shopping center in it!!! I cannot be any more convenient. We weren't even looking for shops but somehow you just "fall" into one after getting off of the train!
The train system in Asia is something we should all aspire to have. There is no reason to own a car in either Hong Kong or Tokyo! We literally got from one end of the city to the other with no problem! And we don't speak a lick of Cantonese!!! The stations are well lit, very easy to read instructions and pretty much idiot proof. Here is a picture of Bruce looking at the station map:

We ventured a ways out of the city to the Ngong Ping Village which is home to the worlds largest outdoor Buddha and a monestary. It also has a long cable car ride that gives you a spectacular view of the city beyond.

After our time there we ventured back into the city to check out the Temple Street Markets. These are local markets where everything under the sun, real and fake is for sale. It is a very gritty place (to put it nicely).

Upon entering the Temple Street Market, you are assaulted by lights, sights and sounds (some not so nice). The markets are unreal. Think of it as the worlds largest outdoor flea market/street fair with millions of people wandering around. I have to admit, it was the exact opposite of the sterility and the super clean shops markets in the "nice" parts of Hong Kong. People had laundry hanging out of 40 story windows, there were people cleaning fish in alleys, and folk just hanging out, watching the world go by. It reminded me of the heart of any big city. (Once again, except for the dead poultry in every window...DELISH!!)
It was still fun and I got some nice Bvlgari shades for only $5! (Do you think that they are real?...hmm?)
The plan was to eat at a local establishment in the heart of the "local" area. There were all kinds of street stalls and very "ma and pop" restauraunts all over the markets. None of the menus were in English (not too many tourists around here) but they all had pictures. I am a point and eat kind of girl...I will eat ANYTHING!!! And like Bruce says, if i'm hungry and you're in my way, you will get left (or eaten). Needless to say, my fearless leader Bruce, chickened out big time about eating in a local food stall. He gave some excuse about smelling decaying something or other. I'm a carnivore...I have a heightend sense of smell. I could smell the good roast duck and fried crab smell OVER the decaying smell... Any good carnivore should be able to do that! Starvation is NOT an option! Anyway, we found our way back to the train station (did I mention that you cannot get lost in Hong Kong?) and headed back to the food safety and security of the harbor (for Bruce).

Picture of the famous, busy Victoria Harbor

We ended our long day of sightseeing with a big ol Thai meal (can you tell that we love Thai food?).
We are off to the Philippines in the morning, Bruce's birthplace and home of some seriously cheap eats!!!
We will keep you all posted!!!

Check out the rest of our pictures from Hong Kong here.

Hong Kong Dreamin'

2010-02-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone just touching base... We have been in Hong Kong for 3 days trying to do a rush job of seeing everything.

There is not too much to say. It is another overcrowded asian city. Although, everything is very, very effiicient and getting around on the subway is very easy. Listen up ladies: If you like to shop this is the place to be. Probably a little better than Tokyo, because it has Mainland China to import from right across the way and definitely not as expensive. When I was in High School in DC, a lot of the rich girls I knew, would come her with their mother to shop. The reason why is that this island has been under British control since 1851 and has a very British way of life. That means even though it is connected to Mainland China, it is very much westernized. So they wear the same clothes, and have a penchant for consumerism just like US citizens. In every subway stop there seems to be any retail store you can think of.... Why do you need a Cartier and a Hermes in the subway stop (as opposed to a proper store in the mall; is Cartier jewelry or a Hermes scarf really an impulsive buy on your way home from work on the subway)? It wouldn't be there if someone was buying this crap! The shopping at the Temple Street market was excellent because you could haggle and get good deals on almost anything you wanted. However there is a lot of fake merchandise in the outdoor markets, so be careful if you want authentic merchandise. It is very raw down there, with high rise ghettos right next to the market that look like Cabrini Green in Chicago! This is one of the most densly populated places on earth, so you will feel claustephobic when walking or on the subway. Carmen and I tried to find a place to eat in the outdoor market, but I chickened out. Visions of drying laundry hanging from 40 story balconies over my fish or crab just wasn't that appealing to me! The pollution was also starting to affect me, I wasn't feeling so good after trekking all over the city all day. Of course Carmen was undeterred. For those of you who know her, she was in full hunt mode, like the female leader of a lion pride, she was pointing out her prey. "Look, there is a duck in the window. Oooh, how about that wildabeast carcass in the middle of street!" She is so greedy yall; and can be very dangerous when she is hungry. So I made the quick decision to remind her of nice restaraunts that we saw near our hotel (they were indoors in the ac). I could tell by the look on her face, she had already imagined what she would eat when we got there, then sprung into action,
"OK let's move. The subway station is this one block up and to the left. Get it into gear!"
My response, " Please don't run, I have on dress shoes!"
Carmen,"Ok, you are gonna get left dammitt".
"Ok baby I'm doing my best, you know I have old sports injuries". I gotta make those excuses or she'll leave me for dead somewhere while she is on the hunt! You'll never starve when you're with Carmen......:)

If you are not very adventurous and want to feel Asia, this is a good place to start. There are night clubs and shopping just like he US. You can get a burger anywhere, and have a nice dinner at Ruth Chris' Steakhouse. It is the crossroads between the far east and the west. There is no jungle and very safe, with malls and suburbia. Not my cup of tea, but I know many of my friends would enjoy this city because its close enough to the American way of life that you get almost anything you want from home right here in the city. They have Disneyworld, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Toys R Us! So ladies save some room in your bags, because you will be buying a lot. Fake quality LV purses go for $15!

What is ironic is they have a cable car ride that takes you high up into the mountains to the largest Buddha statue in asia. Buddhaism is a religion that is very close to nature, and they shun consumerism and teach you to do without the material wealth that life has to offer. Only minutes away from unlimited shopping! Wow, what a world we live in? Overall, I liked Hong Kong, but would never live here. Might as well stay in NYC or Miami or LA. This is also the first time we met any americans on the trip. A nice couple from San Francisco we met drinking in the hotel. Shout out to Stephanie and Charles. Good luck on your move to Hong Kong guys!

Check out the rest of the pictures from Hong Kong by clicking here

Holla later headed to the Phillippines tommorow...

Peace and Hairgrease:)

We Swam with Giant Manta Rays:)

2010-02-21T11:10:00.000-08:00

We are sitting in an airport lounge in Colombo waiting on our flight. The inconvenience of these "One World" tickets is that sometimes to stay within the flight network you have a long layover here or there. Fortunately, some HSBC customers get access to the business lounge. That is really important in some third world airports. These airports are not like home; carpeting everywhere, restaraunts and bars to lounge in, shopping areas are basically non existent. If you have a long lay over you could be in real trouble. Some waiting areas have only 5 or 6 chairs that everyone is fighting over! Some areas have no air conditioner (now I understand why some airline passengers from equatorial countries can smell a bit ripe!). No food on a 6 hour layover can be tough on some folks. Fortunately we have granola and power bars in our carry ons, as well as a stash of chocalate covered almonds that Carmen told me not to buy, but I fortunately did not listen;)

We just left the Maldives after a week of diving. And yes, I will not keep you in suspense, we saw and swam with Giant Manta Rays (up to 15 foot wingspan) on three different occasions and have pics and video to prove it! Two down (Great White shark and Mantas) and one more to go (Whale Shark). We didn't find the whale sharks for some reason, not even the divemasters could understand this. We had such a great time, I don't feel that disappointed. Even if they did see 15 of them last week dammitt!!!!

First things, first. The Maldives is an Islamic Republic about 100 miles north of the equator in the middle of the Indian Ocean just south of, you guessed it, India. It consists of about 1200 tiny coral islands with a volcanic base (about 4000 meters below). The major islands stretch north to south about 82 km and 120 km west to east. 202 islands are inhabited and 87 are exclusive resort islands. There are about 300,000 Maldivians and quite a few Sri Lankans and Indians. Maldivians have inhabited the islands for about 3,000 years and are of African, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Sri Lankan descent. Their skin is darker than either Carmen or I, but their hair is straighter than most of my caucasian friends. A phenotype that is pretty rare, even in the multicultural USA. Below is the picture of our dive instructor "Waloo" who taught us how to dive with "Nitrox", which is an extra certification that allows longer dives.

The native tongue is called Dhivehi, a mix of Arabic and Indoasian, and it sounds beautiful with a lot of "v" and "f" sounds. Of course, most people speak English and the US greenback is the curency of choice even though they have the Rufiyaa as their national currency. Like I said, "They love us over here". Especially after they have to deal with a dose of overweight rich, rude, Russians in Speedos! Here we go again dammitt! Why do they have to stand so close with their legs cocked up on a chair when they speak to you? As if me catching a glimpse of your saggy ball sack is going to help me believe whatever it is your broken english is trying to tell me!!!! Lord please deliver me from these godforsaken speedos! The literacy rate in the Maldives is 98%. The diet is mostly fish and vegetables, and curry is the seasoning of choice. So if you don't like fish and can't handle spicy food, you'd better pick your resort after some research phone calls, because some resorts don't have burgers or steak and definitely no swine! It is illegal for foreigners to bring in alcohol or tobacco, so don't buy any in duty free. They do serve it on the resorts and dive boats at great expense to your pocket because of the import taxes, etc... The only way to get here is through India, Sri Lanka, or Bangkok, and it is a 22 hour flight from the states minimum. So you can see why they rarely see Americans. That may change because Starwood just opened the W ($1200 / night) and the Sheraton ($500 /night), and some other american joint ventures will soon be starting. This kind of investment usually precedes direct flights.

If you haven't guessed Carmen and I are ocean people. We love anything that has to do with the ocean. We dive, sail, snorkel, boogie board, attempt to water ski or kite board. We usually try to include a stop at the beach anywhere we go because we live in the dessert, so we have seen some beaches. I was born in the Phillippines, lived in Hawaii, Panama, and Florida. Been to the world famous Manley and Bondi beaches in Australia, New Zealand's 100 mile beach, Copa Cabana in Rio, Camps Bay South Africa, beaches all over the Carribean (7 mile beach) and Mexico; there is a point to this list and I am getting to it.... the Maldives has the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen hands down ladies and gentlemen! Sorry mom, I know the Phillipines has some pristine beaches and sorry Dad, I know you favor Oahu, Hawaii's east coast (Bellows beach, Lanikai). But the Maldives is pristine and unique. The water changes color right before your eyes! Different hues of blue and green that frame the sugary, white, soft sand. The waves are small, with no undertow and the coral reefs are so close to shore you can spit on them from your beach chair! They fringe every atoll (island) and give the water a dark green tinge, then just past the reef you can see the deep blue as the reef slowly slopes into the abyss, but suddenly the deep blue disappears to reveal a light blue then light green, then dark green, then clear white, then sand again... Another atoll! Not even a stones throw away! Oh my god, it's gorgeous and unique. The stuff of postcards and screensavers people. No wonder this is the realm of the rich and famous. You can't help but look good against this backdrop. Speedboat and Sea planes are the only mode of transport; so the paparazzi can't get into the resorts. It is so quiet and romantic, that it makes you horny everyday! Not that I need any help with that, but I'm just saying...... This is the perfect place for a honeymoon, 10 to 50 year anniversary, a reconciliation vacation, or "I'm gonna make her fall in love vacation"! Look at our pics on Picassa or just do some web browsing to try to get a sense of what I'm saying.. This is off the back of our over water bungalow we splurged on at the Sheraton for one dreamy night! You can see another atoll off the the right.

The Maldives differs from Hawaii in that it is flat as a pancake. The highest point in the entire country is 8 feet above sea level (not good for them if the seas really are rising)! So if you are looking for hiking or mountain climbing it's not the place for you. The Maldives is about beaches, and water life. Now, you don't necessarily have to be a pop star, or an investment banker to make to the Maldives. Save up your credit card miles and get to Tokyo or Hong Kong. Then buy a cheaper ticket on Sri Lankan Airways from there to Male, Maldives' capitol. You can stay on a dive safari boat for about for about $2000-$3000 per couple per week and that includes meals that are excellent I might add. They will take you around to some of the other far reaching atolls for great snorkeling and dive sites. Even to some uninhabited islands where you can lounge all day and have a whole island to yourself! Try to find that in the carribean for less than $5000 a day! There isn't a place, I've already done the research. Hell, you can't even get a patch of sand to yourself on our side of the world. They set up a barbecue for us after we lounged and snorkelled with Mantas and Octopi all day:)! Our dive boat had salsa lessons, of which Carmen and I tried to learn, but struggled mightily because of the fatigue of diving 3 times a day (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Even if you don't dive this is the way to go, cause a decent resort is gonna cost you $500 a night plus about $50 per meal per person, then for watersports it costs extra. As you can see, it can add up quick! The way we did it was on par with any nice resort package in the Carribean or Hawaii. Some of you reading this have spent much more on trips to Jamaica or the Bahamas. C'mon yall, get your primary care doc to right you a valium and make the painful flight out here, these folks love Americans! My best friend, Al, told me that we inspire him (thanks bro:), that's exactly why we take the time to write this blog. To inspire you all. It may not be in the next year or even the next five, but make plans; to go somewhere you never thought you would. It will change you for the better, we promise:)

Now, about the diving and the underwater life. Excellent, excellent, incredible, excellent, superb, excellent:) Overall my favorite dive destination. We have been blessed to dive Poor Knights Island in New Zealand (Jacques Cousteau's favorite), the Great Barrier Reef, The Cayman Islands, Cancun, Florida Keys, Similan Islands in Thailand as you recently read. Beats them all by a long ways. It has something for everyone. Thousands of fish: Trigger fish, snapper, blue and yellow fin tuna, grouper, jack fish, fusiliers, sharks, octopus, turtles galore, nudie branches, starfish, sea cucumbers, giant clams, flatworms, pipefish, moray eels, lobster, ghost shrimp, etc., etc., etc. The numbers were amazing! Schools of fish everywhere and they would come so close. We observed hunting behaviors in the daylight. Sharks hunting tuna, tuna hunting jacks, and jacks hunting fusilier,etc. The water was clear on most days and it was warm 26-29 degrees celcius (77-85 degrees F). We saw so many fish and critters that I was scared to get in at night because there was no telling what would come out! Hell a sea dragon or something! I definitely didn't want to have to explain to Carmen's family that she was swallowed whole by a giant sea serpent! We did deep dives of up to 96 feet and we did shallow dives. We did strong current dives that changed direction at different depth and at different times during the same dive! Wow it was challenging and exhilarating. Because the currents flowed in and out between the atolls, they would speed up and slow down accordingly. The coral was gorgeous, like a five year old child went crazy with a crayola box underwater. So many different shades of pink, yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and orange. Soft and hard corals stacked over millions of years. Sheer drops like the Caymans and Coral gardens like the Great Barrier reef. Swim throughs and arches, and these crazy "overhangs" where the reef fish gathered to hide from the sharks. I would swim in and just hang in there with them! They were more afraid of the sharks than me, so they just hovered all around me. The big fish loved our air bubbles, so Carmen always had a few hovering above her head. There's nothing like doing a belly role and swimming facing the surface to see a 50 pound Wrasse or Trigger fish swimming above you trying to be tickled by your bubbles:) We even witnessed a turtle go after the dive master's BC (dive vest). he came out of nowhere! We tried to warn him, but he didn't turn around in time. He must have saw the green in his vest and thought it was a big patch of algae! This is very rare behavior, turtles are very shy and terrified of divers. We didn't see any dolphins underwater, but I heard them and we saw giant pods with baby dolphins jumping out of the water from the boat. I wasn't keen to see them underwater, cause the males have a tendency to get sexually aroused and frisky with divers. No thanks.

There are a few dives I will never forget. Dive #1 was the check dive. Meaning the first dive of the trip was to "check" your skill level by the dive masters. It was as soon as we boarded the boat in late afternoon. No problem with the entry, or the equipment and the dive was going smooth against the backdrop of a gently sloping reef not to far from the airport. Towards the end of the 45 minute dive I saw a bright flash. At first I thought it was another dive group taking pictures which is pretty common. Then I realized there was no one else in the water but our group of 4 divers and two divemasters. I looked up and there it was again. Dammit, it is starting to lightning and rain! The ocean got dark and cold all of a sudden. Our divemaster who is a native saw it and immediately signalled for us to ascend and do our requisite "safety stop" at 15 feet. While we did this, he pulled out his safety balloon and inflated it so it would bob on the surface for the diveboat to see and come pick us up. Which is the modus operandi in the Maldives because of the strong currents (you can't swim back against them). We surfaced after 3 minutes, no dive boat, crap! It was raining so hard and it was darker than a thousand midnights in a cypress swamp (Carmen's saying not mine)! To make matters worse, the ocean began to swell about 5 feet. I looked over at the Chinese couple who was diving with us (they were about 20 yards away) and they looked worried. I wan't surprised they looked a bit inexperienced underwater, so I knew this might shake them. I looked at Carmen and she was smiling and so was Waloo our divemaster. He reassured us the boat was on its way. We waited for about 10 minutes (of course it seemed like an hour!) before I asked Carmen how she was doing. She was still smiling, but feeling a bit cold. I felt pretty good but the swells were bothering me cause I don't float so well. I had to go to the snorkel cause I kept sinking under. It's because of my muscle density and not because of my head dammit! I figured in this situation, Carmen would have to save me, cause she can swim and tread longer than I. So I made sure I stayed close. The BCs were inflated and were doing there job (they are like life jackets on steroids, you can fill them with air). Please don't get a leak now! I looked over at our soon to be Chinese friends and could no longer see them. Oh, oh...you know what that means? Strong currents! We are at the 20 minute mark now and I'm starting to look for land or lights or something. I look at Waloo's face, I see a bit of worry on his face. He catches me looking at him, and he admits the dhoni (small dive boat) is having problems seeing us. "Don't worry as he points in the distance, the big dive yacht sees us, they are flashing their lights at us, you see!" At that point I knew we were ok, as long as we didn't float into the boating lanes, which was a distinct possibility. Carmen whispers to me "there is an island over there we can swim to if we have to", with a smile on her pretty face. What she doesn't know is, we'd have to swim across the boating lanes, I already peeped the marker buoys. The large dive yacht can't get us because we are too close to the reef. I was running scenarios as I often do many times a day. Best case: Back stroke it out away from the reef into the deep blue and risk the current so the big dive yacht could get us before another boat plows us. Seemed like decent odds. As I started to make that suggestion, because I was starting to get cold and Carmen's big smile was gone because the rain was trying to reverse drown us, the dhonni appeared out of the rain filled sky! Oh thank you lord. Our Chinese friends were scooped up after us, looking shell shocked! We couldn't help but laugh out loud! Shout out to Cindy Li Yu and Peter Zhao. That may be why they took to us so quickly. These two crazy ass americans laugh in the face of death!!!!

The next memorable dive was on day #3 off of Rasdhoo Kandu reef. I say "off of" because this day was not for reef diving. We were going to look for hammerhead sharks. These unique creatures do not come all the way to the reef. They stay in the deep "blue" off of the reef and hunt the large tuna and jackfish and snapper that hang off the reef in the currents. What made this dive special was that we were going to swim out from the edge of the reef very fast at a depth of about 90 - 95 feet. We were in my element. I am a deep blue swimmer. I swim fast and I swim strong, I can't float and I don't tread or breast stroke. I cut my teeth swimming with my samoan and tongan friends in Hawaii spear fishing. Diving is usually relaxed and about conserving energy so you don't suck your tank dry too fast. Not this one, we were on the hunt and time and distance were of the essence. I told Carmen to get behind me and draft her way out so she didn't use up her tank (which she tends to do). The divemasters told everyone to stay in formation and keep the correct depth. Waloo took the lead and Ali and Evo flanked the group of 8 of us from behind, keeping watch for stragglers and strugglers. I took the left edge of the group and stayed a bit off the pace. I wanted to save something for the middle and end, just in case. It was a great swim out. The water was dark blue, and there were fluorescent blue plankton floating everywhere. It looked like we were in space and the plankton were stars. It was 6am, so it was still dark, the time hammerheads are out hunting. What a rush! No reef to reference and no bottom to see, just deep blue ocean baby!:) I kept looking back to make sure Carmen was ok. She looked good. I looked at the other divers, most looked ok, but one of the Italians was falling apart. Up and down, he couldn't keep his depth right. His stroke was off. C'mon man this is not the time to fall apart! You can get lost out here real easy in the dark. Carmen and I can read our compasses pretty well, and we knew what direction the reef was in. Any trouble swim like hell to the west baby! Istopped watching the Italian diver struggle to start looking for sharks and whatever else might come out of the abyss? Maybe a whale shark? Maybe a dolphin or an Orca? Maybe a friggin tiger shark!!! I steadily scanned in a 180 degree arc below me while I lengthened my kick and settled in. I checked my dive computer, at about the 20 minute mark, I saw something down below me in the shadows. At first I thought it was one of the big tuna that had passed us by. But it wasn't that shiny. Maybe it was a big wrasse. But it moved to gracefully, not clumsy like a Maori wrasse. I turned more to the left and descended another three feet or so. Then I saw it clearly.... A large adult hammerhead about 20-25 feet below us! I started to point like a damn beagle, shouting in my head, there it is, there it is! It came into view then out of view. It was doing a sort of figure 8 to the left of the group checking us out. I turned to Carmen and she had already saw me pointing. She obviously saw it because her eyes were as big as saucers, which is not uncommon for her underwater. She helped me flagged down Evo, who was in the back. The rest of the group was oblivious. They just kept swimming and weren't turning too see me doing my underwater YMCA dance. Finally, Evo saw us going nuts and he turned and looked right at it. he shot to the front to try to stop Waloo, but he was already turning to the right to make the wide arc and start the swim back. So Evo used his underwater "jingler" to get his attention. The shark heard it and made a quick exit to the depths. It was about 6 foot long, a nice thick, healthy specimen. and it moved gracefully and powerfully. We were the only 3 divers to see her! I've seen hammerheads while deep sea fishing as a kid in Hawaii. This was quite a bit different as you can imagine. I was proud to be the one to spot her.

Finally, the reason we came to dive in the Indian Ocean. We came to see God's most graceful creature, the giant Manta Ray. We were diving a reef called Rasfari Corner, which is a famous "cleaning Station" for manta. They tend to get parasites so they come into the shallows to let the small specialized fish eat the parasites off of their skin. This group of possibly 75-100 Manta take turns coming to the cleaning reef during this time of year. We did the first part of the dive looking at the reef and its fish deeper down. Then we came up to a depth of about 15 feet and swam on the bottom and started looking for manta. This time I was following behind Carmen when I saw her head snap back. I looked around her and saw this big black "cloud" coming straight toward her and Waloo. She whipped her head around to look at me. Her eyes were as big as saucers once again. Waloo signalled us to get low and grab a rock because the current will thrash you in the shallows. The last thing you want to do is to get thrashed into one of these things. You may spook them all and piss off all of the other divers! Cold shoulder for the rest of the trip. We hunkered down for the show. And what a show it was! The first large one swooped in about 10 feet away. She was a pretty white underside with brown "freckles", then the next one swooped in right behind. They looked smooth and silky and moved unlike any other creature I've ever seen. Smoother than any bird, or snake or anything I've ever seen on television. Better than computer animation. Just amazingly effortless! Then there was one we'll call "Stubby" because his tail was gone. He swooped in really close to us both. Hovered at eye level and just stayed there for a 3 minute span. Both of us were letting the bubbles fly! We couldn't maintain our breathing or buoyancy or anything. Just too exciting! Scientists have done experiments that show Manta like certain divers. They will let you grab on to them and swim with them, but not all divers. The scientists try to see if this was by coincidence; so they covered the divers' eyes on subsequent dives. The mantas wouldn't go to any of the divers, even if they had on the dive suits they were wearing when the manta let them grab on. They proved the mantas recognized the divers' eyes (and not the dive suit or color) and showed a preference for a specific diver. They still don't know why they choose, just that they do. So imagine this beautiful creature hovering right next to you, inviting you to swim with them. Stubby came back to us again and again. Hovering at eye level each time. While he did that, the others started to show up. They were everywhere, all around us, I counted at least 12 within a 50 foot vicinity!!!! Ranged in size from 7 to 15 feet wingspan. It was like having an affirmation from God. A creature so beautiful, chooses you out of 20 divers and snorkelers in the water, and it wants you to swim with him/her!!! As a matter of fact, the next day we were at a different reef a few miles away where were saw Stubby and his companion again. It was super obvious that he preferred us. Because the two mantas were hovering near another dive group when we appeared. Waloo had taken Carmen and I over to look at something else, on our way back we saw the mantas hovering over the group as we came over a ridge. Waloo stopped us where we were. I was disappointed because I wanted to get closer. Turns out we didn't have to, they came straight over to us! We immediately recognized Stubby! It was kind of embarassing that they hovered near us away from the group so long. This time he came even closer. Literally, 2 feet away, it was all I could do not to grab him and ride him into the blue! Carmen saw me getting revved up to do it; and she shook her head no. Dammitt! She always spoils my fun:( We have a saying that we learned in Australia, "Peace on the Reef". It means do not disturb the animals. This is not our realm and we are merely visitors in their world. We don't know what our contact does to these creatures and as a scientist it goes against my professional ethics. Maybe we are good people after all.:) The picture below was taken by our friend Peter who was in the group across the ridge. We also have video taken by Waloo. Can't wait to see it on the big screen!

There is so much more to tell... About the barbecue on the uninhabited island, our new friends from Beijing and Singapore, England, India and Sri Lanka. Can I just tell you, the Brits have to be some of the funniest people I have ever met! They have this clever sarcastic humor, that just tickles us to death. I tend to be hard on Europeans, but it's only fair, they are hard on us Americans. But the Brits have a way of making you laugh out loud about yourself and everyone else without being offensive. Shout out to Gavin and Jason. Jean our seasoned diver with the way too young girlfriend from Italy who knew 4 languages fluently and was the resident translator. He kept telling me how "big" I was and telling me how beautiful my body was in this crazy english with a half french half italian accent. He would even tell Carmen and his girlfriend how beautiful I was; As most of you know, I am not that big nor am I that fine, but I understand.... Jean has been looking at middle aged, overweight European men in speedos his whole life, his image of fineness is way out of whack! Our one day in Male, the capital city, was very interesting. How and why we were treated like pop stars at the Sheraton:) We can't put it all in the blog... You have to wait for the book, "Middle Aged Backpacking for Dummies"

Gotta go. Getting ready to board the plane for Hong Kong. Relaxation time over for now. It's time to take in the sights, and show Hong Kong how the Browns do it!!! Carmen where is my pink, ruffled salsa shirt!!!!

Check out pics from the Maldives by clicking here http://picasaweb.google.com/bruceandcarmen/Maldives?feat=directlink

"USA Number 1 !"

2010-02-21T04:09:00.000-08:00

Ok we left beautiful, affable, peaceful Thailand to go to the Maldives. We had to pass through Sri Lanka (otherwise known as Ceylon by the Dutch and British colonizers of the 15th and 17th centuries) for a day. This was an adventure and certainly not for the novice or leisure vacationer. As we were packing to leave from Thailand, we saw on the BBC that the government had to imprison its leading general and hero of the 20 year civil war for planning a military coup!!!! Of course, General Fonseca's supporters were in the streets of downtown Colombo in violent protest. If we were at home, this would be another one of those far off news stories about people we don't know that has no bearing on our lives. But we are not at home and we are landing in the middle of this crisis! I tried not to show it, but I was worried. I had done some reading about this civil war and it was long and there were definately some bloodshed. As a matter of fact, they do the "Off with your head" thing around here quite frequently! Anyhow, when we got to the gate, there were plenty of Asians and the requisite crazy ass European backpackers going for vacation in a war torn country. Anyway, they didn't look too worried, so I played right along with them. But we definately had a back up plan, just in case.... We called our travel agent to have other flights ready just in case an internet flash came across my phone saying that martial law had been called in Sri Lanka. That is a good piece of advice, when travelling overseas (besides Canada or the peaceful parts of the Carribean), I would use a travel agent. It's worth the extra $50-$100 for emergency situations like this when you need a quick change or help with a screw up at a hotel or a pre paid tour or something.

We got on board where I noticed a fashionably dressed kid with a blackberry sitting next to me across the aisle. He looked typically Sri Lankan, very dark skinned with straight black hair. But he spoke remarkably clear english with an american accent rather than British. He kept smiling at us and nodding. So I finally spoke to him. Talk about a small world! Turns out the kid went to Mercer College in Macon, GA on a tennis scholarship! He works for a multi national firm and travels to California quite a bit, so he was practically American. Great, we talked awhile about Georgia and California, and Sri Lanka. he told us not to worry about the protests or the civil war. Sri Lankans save their violence for each other (sound familiar?) and pretty much understand that touching westerners is a big no - no. I told him desperate people do desperate things, a 20 year civil war sounds like desperate times? He assured me, if it was going to happen it would've a long time ago. Besides there was nothing to gain from either side for doing something like kidnapping tourists; both sides want our money!;) That was enough for me, I relaxed and settled in.

Upon arrival to the airport we were greeted with the hardest stares I've ever encountered on my travels. All through baggage claim and outside waiting for taxis, these people studied us like we were a damn Physics book! They really stared at Carmen. It was almost like they were leering at her. I got all the attention in Thailand. The women always giggled and whispered when I passed by,"Wow, big man, big man". Of course because where we were they had never seen an african american man, and there men tend to be smaller than us steroid fed americans. Here in Sri Lanka, the phrase was always directed at Carmen," where are you from Madam? or Wow what do we have here?" I started to say a beautiful sister who happens to be my wife, so back the hell up and give her some space. But I refrained from reverting to the ghetto. I like to consider myself a traveller (not a vacationer, I'll explain later) and a renaissance man, I have three degrees, I find it more challenging to think myself out of bad situations rather than just knocking people the f--- out! However, I started to feel that swagger coming on. the hair on my neck was standing up and I could sense Carmen was becoming more uncomfortable with every new stare. We got in the cab and drove out of the airport. There were soldiers posted at the exit and entrance of the airport checking passports. Teenage boys with AK-47s strapped on are the soldiers posted at the checkpoints. He looked at our passports, then at us and said,"USA #1" and smiled with the whitest pearly whites. he dapped me up and nodded at me, "USA has best technology, USA #1". What a relief! It all came together, these folks love us! Especially African Americans. That's why all of the stares. They have only seen Will Smith, Denzel, or Beyonce on their televisions. Nobody like these larger than life characters in real life! I'm sure the men wondered if Carmen could move like Beyonce or sing like Alicia Keys? They probably wondered what she smelled like, hell, I wondered what she smelled like the first time I saw her :) So ladies, remember when you come to Sri Lanka the stares will be in awe not in contempt. And please where something conservative, they don't need to see your bosom or butt crack to think you are beautiul. They are muslim or hindi, they probably couldn't handle seeing a sister like that in real life (they are used to the European women walking around half naked). I later befriended a Sri Lankan in the Maldives and he explained to me that even though his country and the Maldives for that matter are Muslim countrys, they love America. they think of us as the "good guys". they don't know about slavery and our history of colonization like they do the Europeans. This is the reputation that George Bush damaged that hopefully Obama will restore. They love our movies, our music, our clothes, our freedom. They love that we come to the aid of other people, like we did after the 2004 Tsunami, like we are doing in Haiti, etc.. The power of the media and art, huh? They think we are all rich and powerful and can do almost anything we want. They really only see the best of us. The only americans that come here are engineers coming to work on their dams and power grid. They may see the occasional statesman and his entourage. All they know is that I-phones, most airplanes, guns, and computers come from the good ole' USA. So remember this the next time you are in a third world country and they are trying to swindle you out of a couple of dollars. They think you can spare it:) I usually let them do it, after all paying an extra five bucks for an item, is a small price to pay to be thought of as "the good guys". Besides, it'll come back to you. Carmen and I got the royal treatment upon arrival to the Taj Hotel which is the only five star near the airport, it was a whopping $80/ night!They put us in the Royal Palace suite and the hotel manager came out of his office to personally escort us! The star treatment! We will definately be back to Sri Lanka. I must admit, I've been down on my homeland because of all the trouble lately. Today, in Sri Lanka, I miss her... I miss the USA that my military father, uncles, brother, cousins, and grandgather fought for, the USA that my ancestors built, the USA where hard work and sacarifice meant something, the USA that cares about people and their freedom and not just their oil or copper or magnesium, the USA I thought I would inherit.......

We found where God lives...

2010-02-20T08:21:00.000-08:00

There are few places in the world that can stimulate ooohs and ahhhs and make you ponder life like the Maldives does. I don't think there could be anywhere more beautiful. I don't know if its the giant chain of small islands dotting the Indian Ocean or the huge smiles of the Maldivian people or the water than is so clear you can see fish 10 feet below you...Whatever it is the Maldives is heaven on earth. We came here because of the diving. In fact, this is one of the best places to see the amazing manta rays and the huge whale shark. This is also the home of the "overwater resorts" like this one that we passed by:

I snapped this pic as the "water taxi" took off past one of the many resorts.

So we came to do a 7 day dive trip all over the northern atolls of the Maldives. We were met by our dive boat at the airport last week. The divemasters were awesome and they immediately took us all to our new home for the next week, a 110 ft boat named "Carpe Diem".

For those of you who don't know about scuba diving "liveaboards" its like a floating, all inclusive hotel. The whole purpose to to allow divers access to reefs and dive spots that are too far out to get to from the shore. The schedule is pretty hectic. Normally the schedule is like this:

6 am-wake up

Dive

Eat

Dive

Eat

Dive

Eat

?maybe dive again

Sleep!!!

We had the greatest time! We even got the opportunity to dive with Manta Rays!!! OMG, these creatures are beautful. Imagine a VW bug, gracefully floating around underwater!!! Mantas are know to be very intelligent and they will come close to divers to play in the scuba bubbles and look you in the eye!!! If they take a liking to you, BE STILL!!!! They will continue to swoop in closer and closer to satisfy their curiosity. For whatever reason, a couple of BIG rays took a liking to me and Bruce and decided to hover over us for 10 minutes. They swooped around and came eye to eye with us several times. It was so amazing to be that close to an animal that big and graceful. The biggest one was almost 12 feet across!!!

That's me and Bruce!!!

The liveaboard was excellent, mostly because of our wonderful dive staff. They even took us to a deserted island where we had a Maldivian style BBQ (pretty much anything in the ocean that can swim goes on the grill). Our crew even serenaded us with tradtional Maldivian drum songs and chants!!!

There is so much to tell about the Maldives but I think that the pictures will speak volumes. This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. I am so blessed that I got the opportunity to step foot on their land. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Click here to check out all of the picutres from the Maldives

Dumb Things We Do

2010-02-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Bruce and I were relaxing on the beach, talking about the not-so-smart things we have done. When my parents read this they are going to crap a brick! You have to understand that I'm a statistical thinker..I think about dangerous things based on the idea "What are the chances that I'll get killed doing _____ (fill in the blank)?" I know that going into a cage with a cheetah was probably a dumb idea, but i figured "what the hell?" How often do you hear about some tourist getting mauled and killed by a captive cheetah? We also take major risks on food. We think its a brilliant idea to eat where the locals eat. So when I see fly paper hanging in the restaurant and dogs wandering around inside, i KNOW the food is gonna be good!!! I'm gonna try it!!! So that's the way I think.
I kept thinking in my statistical mode while we were in Thailand, packing getting ready to come to the Maldives. We didn't have a straight flight to the Maldives, in fact, we had an overnight stopover in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I wouldn't have batted an eye but on the BBC News, two days before we were leaving Thailand, we see on the news violent protests in the streets of downtown Colombo protesting the arrest of the opposition leader to the current president. It wasn't just minor protests...The news reported it as "like a war zone" and "tear gas cannons shot" and "several protesters injured"...Me and Bruce calmly watched the news show, looked at each other and then shrugged and said..."I'm sure we'll be fine"
We decided to continue on and not only fly to Colombo as scheduled but leave the airport to go to a nearby hotel! I don't complain about a lot of the places that we go, in fact, i think that it is quite funny when we get the obligatory stares that come with the territory of traveling to parts unknown but DAMN!!!!! If staring at me could have been a Olympic competition then the men of Sri Lanka would get GOLD MEDALS!!!! Jeez!! Bruce thought it was funny, at first and then it started to unnverve him too. We are totally unsure as to why I was the favorite thing to leer at. I know better than to go to a muslim country dressed like a street walker. In fact, i purposely sweated it out in long pants and a long sleeved shirt despite 90 degreee heat because I wanted to be respectful of the culture. So they weren't staring at any "uncovered flesh". We have several ideas about why i was so interesting to them but I'll let Bruce tell you his silly thoughts on his blog...
Needless to say, we were leaving the airport and we see several teenaged soldiers armed with AK-47 assult rifles in and outside the airport...Now, any persons with common sense would probably stay their asses in the airport but we were like "screw it!" we wanted to lay down for a while. So we threw common sense and caution to the wind and got a ride to the closest (nice) airport hotel. It was very interesting driving thru the military check points, complete with more young soldiers with their assault rifles slung across them. We were also loving the 20 foot high cut out bilboards to their president all over the city. We giggled to think about what would happen to a 20 foot likeness of Obama in the city (ha!)
The hotel was very nice, very clean and the people treated us like a million dollars. They even put us in their nicest room which ran us a whopping $80!

In the morning, we headed back to the interesting airport, past more security and more lines....
Oh, a note about the lines...Once again, this shows the huge differences in culture between the US and Asians. There is an unspoken rule about lines, breaking lines and controlled chaos. My favorite is the cutting in line. In many Asian countries, people will cut and most folk will let them. Usually, the only protests about cutting are from either Americans or Europeans. We Westeners complain about everything!!!
My other favorite experience is the controlled chaos in the airport. There is no "boarding by rows" in Asia. It it more like "On you mark, get set, GO!" People stampede the door (in a polite, non crazy way with just minor jostling and shoving) and the plane gets boarded in record time!!! We wished we could use the concept in the US but we know that our people would fight...we are a lot more violent :) Also, traveling in Asia is so much easier when you are worried about your baggage weight. That is because Asians will have 8-10 pieces of luggage per person, each weighing 50-100lbs each. It is totally entertaining to stand in line and see women trying to manuever those massive carts, luggage stacked so high they can't see..Also, you can't forget the "pack anything, living or dead" rule. We were standing in line, getting our boarding passes and all of a sudden, a box a lady just put on the conveyor belt bursts open. The smell was horrible. They stopped the belt and went to inspect the box. They lady had actually packed FISH (no ice, just wrapped up in plastic) and put it in a box to be shipped as luggage!!! SERIOUSLY?!! We were laughing our asses off!!! It was more funny because we have seen it all. The guy in Japan that brought a huge icebox as a carryon then proceeded to open it in the airport and serve a picnic lunch to his family of 4....(Awesome). Or our ultimate favorite...customs in Los Angeles! Because LA is the "gateway from Asia" you see some doozies in customs. Like the lady in front of us who had a baby tree in her suitcase she had brough with her from Vietnam, or the family from China that bough 3 boxes full of bootleg tapes/CDs with them...funny!! I love the exasperated look on the Customs agent's faces....its classic.
Anyway, we made it safe out of Colombo and now we are in the beautiful Maldives. This country is so beautiful it hurts. Anytime the water off the the main pier and dock is so clear that you can see to the bottom you know that the place is pristine.

We arrived in Male, the captial of the Republic of the Maldives on yesterday. The Maldives is as close to heaven as people can get. The country is actually a collection of almost 2000 small islands and atolls stretched over hundreds of miles in the Indian Ocean. The other thing that it is well known for is its flat topography. There is no where in the entire country that is more than 7 feet above sea level!!! The water is known for being "gin clear" and you can literally see straight to the bottom in shallow water. It is very unique in that the airport is located on a very small island by itself. In fact, aside from the airport, the landing strip

(that's all it is...see the picture?) and an airport hotel, the island doesn't have anything else on it. You can see the capital city of Male across the water but it requires a water taxi or ferry to get there. Most of the islands are connected by water taxi. The surprising thing about the Maldives is that is is a Islamic country (i totally didn't know that) and the people are an interesting mix of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangledeshi. These are some of the darkest people of Asian descent I have ever seen! They have their own language which is a mix between Asiatic and Arabic although everyone speaks English and the US dollar is totally accepted.
We are only here for one day before we take off on our dive safari in the Indian Ocean but we are already regretting not spending more time here (like we had an option, this place is HELLA EXPENSIVE!!!) In fact, we booked the cheapest room we could find at the airport hotel, not on the cool overwater bungalos on a private island like you see on the TV. No, we have a room at the hotel so close to the airport we hear the jets taking off and landing all day and night and that room is $300!!!!! OMG! You don't want to know how much one of the "swanky" resorts cost...ugh. Needless to say, this place is very interesting. We will catch you up with all of the sights and fun stuff about here when we come back from our dive trip next week...

Elephants, Tigers, and Manta Rays! Part 2

2010-02-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well we are back from diving the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea 200 miles off the west coast of Thailand. The islands consist of 9 islands that are part of a National Park that has been protected for over 30 years. The Islands are incredible, unlike any other we've ever seen. Giant boulders dotting pristine beaches where turtles lay thousands of eggs every year:) I surmise that the boulders were thrust up through the magma a few thousand years ago. Then sand, water and wind did their job making them smooth and beautiful just for us to take these nice pics....

The reason we went through all the trouble to get out to these remote islands was to dive with Manta Rays. This is one of the the best places in the world to see them. For divers there is the holy trinity: Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, or a "real shark" (Great White, Tiger, or Mako). Hopefully we would scratch #2 and maybe #3 off the list. The first dive was off an island called Koh Ban. Have mercy! The water was warm and beautiful at first; but as we started our decent I felt the current slap me in the face! As we were struggling to grip the mooring line, waiting for other divers to go down, we were getting thrashed against the side of the boat! The current was so strong that we were flung to the other side of the boat and got thrashed against the other side for good measure. After finally getting down to about 60 feet we let go of the line and began kicking for dear life! There were billions of plankton and tiny white creatures, single celled jelly fish stinging, and thermaclimbs (cold water coming up from the depths) mixing together to create this surreal vision of life that is probably the closest way to get an LSD trip without taking it! The fish were everywhere! More schooling fish than anywhere we've ever dove, even more than the Great Barrier Reef! The colors were absolutely brilliant. Trigger fish, giant snapper, sea turtles, moray eels, file fish, barracuda, grouper, parrot fish, sea snakes were all partaking in the feast. But the guest of honor never showed for lunch! We didn't last too long in that current, Carmen ran out of air at 25 minutes (half usual time) cause I later learned she sucked her air dry after she was stung in the face by a killer single celled jellyfish:)! No one in the group lasted long and the whole boat was huffing and puffing like chain smokers at the top of Mt. Everest! Divergence: What is it with 300 lb Europeans in Speedos? Damn that can ruin a perfectly good afternoon on a boat!

We did three more dives which were much easier than the first. The reefs got even more brilliant, the day even more sunny, and the fish more abundant. The numbers were spectacular! And they came so close! A turtle almost ran right into me! He was looking the other way and when he turned around we were eye to eye! He jumped and changed direction as quick as he could.. The group got a kick out of that one:) No really big fish (except one very fat 6 foot barracuda with a shrimp in its mouth cleaning its teeth), and disappointingly no Manta Rays nor Whalesharks. It goes that way sometimes;( Oh well, we had two great days of diving in one of the remote places of the world. Met some great people who regaled us with their travel stories and even better dive stories. Like the guy who says oceanic whitetip sharks in the Indian Ocean bumped him twice while he was trying to get a picture of him! Wait a minute... where's my knife? Shout out to Neal and Giles. Great times:)

Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time....

2010-02-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, this should be the "phrase of the day" for our trip. I don't think that we are that adventerous (not as spontaneous and fun like Rich and Ana!) but we have done our fair share of "interesting" things..
So far our dining has been the most spontaneous thing we can muster. Honestly, in this hot Thai sun, eating and sleeping is the only thing we can do! We were totally boring our first couple of days here, only eating at the hotel restauraunts. I cannot tell you how good the food is here! Of course, if you have indigenous people in the kitchen, even if it is at a hotel, its gonna be GOOD. So we had no complaints, just the cost. We are on a budget for this trip and we can't spluge all of the time. Thailand is cheap. Really cheap. Like 30 cents for a big 20 ounce cold beer cheap! Our hotel dinners were running us like $40! That is too much! So after meeting a great German couple from Munich, we got directions to a great, local beach restaurant. I shoulda known that any directions that include "go over the bridge in the mangrove swamp" I should have stopped listening! But the lure of $4 shrimp dinners and 50cent beer was too much. So, like idiots, at night, we set out for our Thai dinner. Walking down the beach in pitch blackness to the restaraunt. After some scary moments with larger crabs skittering out of our way, we started to see light up ahead. It was the bridge over the swamp....Now bridge I think is a loosely used term. It was more like pieces of driftwood, lashed together with floss, seaweed, rope or anything else that would tie. I thought it was hilarious. I was hungry...here we are on the "bridge"

We move on to the restauraunt. Now, once again, i think we over used the word "restauraunt". It was more like a couple of open air shacks with some bootleg electricity. There was no bathroom, just a bunch of chairs on the sand and picnic tables. Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I will eat ANYTHING! The only requisites: 1) Must be dead 2) Must not be slimy. Other than that, bottoms up!!! So we come it, grab some "chairs" and are immediately ushered over to their equivalent of the viewing tank at a fancy restaurant to pick our fish. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!!!??? After I saw the fresh catch that was about to be my dinner, I didn't even notice the fly paper hanging over our table, the staff walking around with bug zappers or the complimentary bug spray that was given to us with our drinks....
Bruce had a newly killed, deep fried red snapper and i had some banging shrimp something. Our entire meal, with beer and drinks came to $20. Did I mention that I love Thailand?

After our wonderful meal we decided that little beach side spot would be our "hang out". We went for lunch and dinner every day! Today, they came in with fresh prawns that were the size of small dogs!!!! Keep in mind, the prawns were about 1/2lb each!!! And a lunch of bbq prawns would run you about $6!!!! Did I mention that I LOVE Thailand?

Around this time, we also decided that we needed to do laundry. You can't be gone for 5 months and not expect to do laundry. We assumed it would be easy but who knew that no one in the Khao Lak area had a washer machine? In fact, the hotels were pretty much the only ones that had washing machines, let alone a dryer. What they did have was a multitude of family run laundry spots where you are charged either per kilo of clothing or per piece. Per piece of clothing ran us about 10 cents! Now, remember, no one in the area has a washing machine...so after we dropped our clothes off and start to wander back over the "bridge" over the mangrove swamp I start to wonder "How are they going to wash our clothes?"...All of a sudden, Bruce and I looked upstream into the mangroves...We saw little plastic buckets and stuff on one of the banks...So, our clothes got washed, old school style in a stream! Did I mention that I LOVE Thailand!!!!
Tomorrow we are leaving my new favorite spot. I won't forget the beautiful beaches, the kind people and the awesome diving. I'm sure there will be other places in the future, but I can truly say, Thailand will always have a place in my heart! Ko khawp khun! (Thank you!!!)

Elephants, Tigers, and Manta Rays! Part 1

2010-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

I usually don't read Carmen's blog on a place until I write mine, so we can give objective individual accounts. But I couldn't help myself when it came to the elephant ride! I had to know what she wrote... She almost fainted out there in that jungle yall! LMAO!

We are outside of a village name Khao Lak, Thailand, which is 2 hours north of Phuket through rubber tree plantations and jungle. It's a wonderful place. There is a flawless beach with absolutley no people in sight. Beautiful Thai people who love Americans in general, and they seemed to be enamored by Americans of African descent! When we arrived to the edge of the jungle (only a 45 minute ride) the elephant crew was outside in the sweltering heat in basically a thatch hut. There were a folks from Northern Europe milling around waiting on transport back to their lodging. The workers smiled and bowed and said "sawadee" which means welcome or hello. I could see the polite stares and looks of bewildermint begin. You see Carmen and I have been a few places where they haven't seen "brown" people. We can now recognize when people have never seen us, no matter how they try to hide it. It comes with the territory when you go places that our folks don't go:) You have to remember, some of these people do not read and don't have television or go to movies (in cities like Bangok and Phuket they do). They don't know about Lebron or Beyonce or about President Obama! We find it incredibilly humbling because it's like we are ambassadors for our country and ethnicity. In China we couldn't go anywhere without a crowd forming, even on the Great Wall of China! Here in Thailand, they are more subdued about it, but their curiosity finally gets the best of them:) They know about the USA as this far away power that basically influences peoples lives in the city and as a great military power with the world's best technology (they are a military ally). But most Thai people where we are haven't met an American, let alone AOAD (Americans of African Descent). The elephant driver finally asked after 5 minutes on the elephant, "Where from?". Everyone at the hotel had already asked so we we're prepared. "Where do you think we're from?" Reply with utter confusion followed by a blank look then, "South Africa????" We giggle to ourselves because its obvious the only dark skinned people they've seen are probably African fisherman who frequent the Indian ocean or African government officials in the newspaper. We tell him America and at first he shows disbelief. I think he is convinced because because of the full jungle gear we have on and how different our english is compared to the northern Europeans he is used to hearing. We just look and sound very different, period. Now he is smiling and pushing branches away for Carmen as we rumble through the jungle in style on top of a 12 foot elephant! I feel invincible. I can see why Hannibel preferred to use elephants instead of horses! After we let our guide ask us a few questions, we started in on him. We hit him with a barrage. Carmen first, then me, then Carment again. I could see he was getting dizzy because of the quickness and fierceness of the questioning. His english was failing him, but we didn't care, we need to know everything now and its as simple as that! He was saved when he saw a small tree snake napping in a branch about 2 feet to my immediate left. I judged the snake, no bad colors (poison snakes have certain colors or markers), so I felt no need to move. But I heard Carmen's breathing speed up and her grip on my arm tighten. The guide sees her reaction and giggles. She start saying ok, ok, it's a snake let's keep moving in a nervous voice. I began my pep talk, " You swim with sharks! You've petted cheetahs! It's a small snake get it together! We are too high in the air for any foolishness. Their is a cliff to your right dammitt! Get it together. Plus it's too hot for you to be draped all over me!" I nod to the guide to keep going. Unfortunately, it just got worse as we moved forward. He points to Carmen's side on the right. "You see spider?" Oh hell, here we go. I would rather have seen a tiger than a spider, Camen's nemesis! The serious breathing and whimpering begin. She is backing into me coiling up readying for launch! I am panicking now cause I can't get between her and the spider. Her wiimpering and shaking and adrenaline stench will frighten and maybe panick the elephant! I pull her towards me and wrap my arms aroung her in a light hug so I can quickly restrain her if I have to. I speak softly in her ear, " It's ok. It's not that big (a damn lie, that thing was huge!), and it's more scared of you than you are of it (another lie, she looked pale like she was about to go down yall! Just pass out on this elephant!) I told her to take a picture of it. Because as we got closer, I couldn't help but be impressed by the size of the web, at least 12 feet in diameter! It could've caught a sparrow in that net!!!!! The spider was juicy and huge, bigger by far than any spider I've seen. At least a foot long! She bravely got out the camera, and got a quick shot in as she tried to fight her hands from shaking from the fear. She clicked then grabbed me and turned away quickly as we went by. He laughingly joined in, "It's ok, no bite, no jump, It's ok, no jump". My sphincter loosened as we went further cause I knew the elephant was affected by Camen's histrionics! We left our elephant to rest and we had a short hike to paradise. A clearing with a lagoon and waterfall... It looked like heavan. I said I wasn't getting into any damn river in the middle of the jungle! I don't want dysentary or some strange parasite; but it was sooo beautiful, I just couldn't help myself. It was so hot that day, at leat 105 degrees F with incredible humidity. I just had to get in that waterfall. I'll deal with the consequences later!

After a quick dip and a few moments of reflection in the middle of all of nature's beauty. We hike back to the elephant and start the ride back. Our guide, who I'm getting to know pretty well by now, let's me drive the elephant back to camp! What a rush! He grabs the camera from Carmen and walks in front of us, calling out commands to the elephant in Thai. He tells me to use my legs behind his ears to steer him. It's similar to a hores's reins. A gentle nudge foward will make him speed up. It was awesome. I was petting her and whispering to this beautiful creature, praying she didn't smash me against a tree! We made it back in one piece and spent some quality time with our elephant, "Gay". We petted and talked and fed her bananas. She was so smart and you could see the thoughts and soul in her eyes. I saw a tear come out of her eye, and I couldn't help but kiss her........

I could Thai here

2010-02-07T03:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know. I say I love everywhere. In fact, those of you following our blog can probably keep a count on how many times I say "I LOVE this place". I will at least try not to be redundant with the same reasons: 1) nice beach 2) nice people, blah, blah. I will try to be specific. So this is why Thailand is an awesome place to be...

We arrrived here after yet another long day of travel from Japan. The flight was hellish not for the distance/time (it was 6-1/2 hours) but because I was seated next to a guy who was convinced that nose picking is an Olympic sport and Bruce sat next to a guy who not only snored loud but snorted and grunted. (God knows what he was dreaming about!) Needless to say, we arrived in Bangkok and ended up having to do some minor dashing to catch our next flight. It could have been an fiasco if it were not for the excellent service that Asian airlines give you. Because our flight from Tokyo was a tad late, we were met at the gate by uniformed agent for our next airlines who HAND DELIVERED us to the service desk to get our boarding passes and to get ushered thru immigration! I mean seriously?! Can you imgaine one of the pissed off gate agents in the US doing that for anyone? I"m really going to miss the service in Asia....ah well....
We arrived at our gate for our Phuket flight and noted that of course, it was delayed by 40min. Perfect!
A smooth 1 hr flight later, we arrived in Phuket. But this is not our final destination. We were headed to Khao Lak, a small Thai town 1-1/2 hours north of the party city of Phuket. We drove thru rubber plantations and tiny towns to get the beautiful area of Khao Lak. Pristine beaches, people few and far between and of course, excellent service. We were greeted by smiles and "Sawadee" (that means Hello/Welcome in Thai), cold washcloths and iced green tea!

We chose to stay in such a remote place because Khao Lak is the closest area to get to our dream dive site, the Similan Islands. The Similan Islands are also the best sights in Thailand for seeing the gigantic manta rays and even larger, whale shark!

Our first day in Khao Lak, Bruce wanted to do a elephant safari in the jungles near Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park. Like an idiot, I agreed. How often do you get to ride an elephant thru a jungle? We arrived to the park, met our guide who spoke little to no English and got on top of an elephant to ride off into the jungle. My gut started telling me that it was a bad idea. It was hot as hell, Bruce was sweating so hard i'm sure he lost a gallon of water from his body. Then, our perch on top of the elephant was a bootleg, home made contraption made up of some kind of wood and rope. Our "safety belt" was a piece of rope covered with garden hose (for comfort)...Now i'm feeling more nervous.

We head out into the jungle and for whatever reason, i didnt realize how thick and scary jungle could be. Our guide, who sat on the elephants neck, would pull branches out of the way while we passed (so we would get smacked off the back). The trail was so narrow...i couldn't believe how close the branches were. It was starting to freak me out becuase I have only one major phobia...bug/spiders, etc. Yep, this from a chick who went on a little boat in South Africa to see great white sharks, went diving in the famed "Stingray City" so I could touch stingrays and let them swim over me, and even more dangerous, went to high school in Southwest Atlanta!!! (I gotta death wish::)) Needless to say, i'm not scared of much but anything that has more eyes and legs than me. So here I am, on the back of an elephant, riding thru a jungle in Thailand with trees and branches surrounding me. I'm freaking out slowly because I'm imagining thousands of spiders and bugs watching me and waiting for their chance to get me...So our guide, in his best broken English sees a snake, curled up in a tree directly next to us about 8 feet off of the ground...

For me, the only reason why i'm concerned because i'm thinking "if the snake jumps, spooks the elephant, its going to veer into bushes and i'll be covered in spiders"...Honestly, i don't care about snakes...not really scared of them at all. Poor Bruce was less than a foot away. He's not that scared either but it was a crappy place to be! We continued on top of our elephant and wouldn't you friggin know it...The guide stops the elephant and in his cute, broken English i hear the most hated of all words "See, spider?"...WTF!!!!????
For my medicine friends, my heart rate was thru the roof, i started breathing 30 times/minute and seriously considered dying...The crappy thing about it is I COULDN'T LOOK AWAY. On a gigantic 3-4 foot web, not more than 12 inches from us was the biggest damn spider I have ever seen!!! Can you find it in the picture??? Just to give you an idea, we cropped most of the web in the picture so you can see the spider in the middle of the picture! It was a huge web and a bigger frickin spider!!!

So what do you think a college educated, mid aged, physician would do? I started whimpering like a friggin stupid baby... I dont know why i'm so freaked by spiders? I couldn't keep it together. Bruce was giggling his ass off (like it was funny) and the guide, even thought he could bearly speak English, laughed at me to. The whole time these idiots are laughing, WE ARE NOT MOVING!!! The damn spider is sitting there, chilling, probably looking at me...Right before I started a full on panic attack complete with a Indiana Jones style jump from the back of a elephant, we started moving. Oh now, its too late. I'm feeling that creepy crawly feeling like something is on me and I can't relax...Thank God we were almost to our destination which was a deserted waterfall/pool in the middle of the jungle. Unfortunately, the last portion of the journey was too steep for the elephant and we had to walk about a half a mile to the waterfall. Wouldn't you know it? ANOTHER FRIGGIN SPIDER ON THE WAY! I seriously thought that that was the day i was going to die. But you know what? I talked my way thru the extrodinary fear and walked by the damn thing. Bruce estimted that the spider was probably 1 foot across! (and insisted on telling me every little thing about the stupid thing.Like how huge the web was, how juicy the body of the spider is, oh and my favorite..how big the fangs were...he was killing me!)
All the trauma of the day culminated in the beauty of a cool deserted waterfall and pool. It was so cool and refreshing! I couldn't believe how nice this place was! I enjoyed sitting there, relaxing and reflecting on how I almost died....:)

After all of the fear of the day, we made it back to camp safe and sound. I had to reward our elephant with her favorite treat! Bananas! Overall, it was a great fun day in Thailand. I didn't die, I faced a huge phobia and got the opportunity to do something i'll remember for the rest of my life...

Tomorrow, we head off to the Similan Islands to do some diving and hopefully see the famed manta rays!!!

Check out our pics from our trip in Thailand

Tokyo on My Mind

2010-02-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

I had been to Tokyo when I was 14. I snuck off with the Air Force basketball team when my dad was stationed in Hawaii. A different story for a different day...:)

A lot about Tokyo was the same, but much has changed! Or maybe I changed (matured)? I remember a lot of staring and people not really being that friendly. This time people were polite, smiled a lot, were very helpful. I think we both regret not staying in Tokyo longer than 3 days:(

We arrived after that hellish flight from San Francisco. We immediately notice how people move briskly, but politely. Not like us, no pushing, elbowing to get off the plane. Just brisk purposeful movement. The airport was clean, bright, and freaking efficient. The luggage came out in 5 minutes! I couldn't believe it, the plane was huge with hundreds of people, they must've have had robots unloading or something. We get our luggage and walk outside into the crisp, cold Japanese air. I hate cold, but this seemed different. It was crisp and clean, like a nice glass of iced Patron (tequila) on a 110 degree day in Phoenix! We got on the transport bus to the hotel (taxis are way too expensive), which was comfortable, clean and quiet. I fell asleep immediately and woke up two hours later in Tokyo's city center. The driver unloaded our luggage and I went to tip him, but he refused. Lesson #1: It was explained to me that Japanese dont believe in tips, because you should take pride in your job and the service you provide to your fellow man; and not be motivated by something as trivial as a "tip". What a concept....

Upon entering the Sheraton we were greeted with the "bowing" and the smiles and the service. It was great! I felt like a movie star or something. The hotel was beautiful, clean and comfortable. We chose to eat in the hotel restaraunt. We were both disappointed about the taste and the cost of the meal. I think it may have been "dumbed down" for westerners. I could see it in her eyes, Carmen eat reflex kicking in. I knew tommorow I would be eating raw fish, pork stewed noodles, sea cucumbers, seaweed and god knows what else she had read about. I unpacked the pepto for tommorow to prophylax myself!

The tour bus was scheduled to arrive at 0745 and that's damn sure when it arrived. More bowing and more smiling. Rode around picking up other people and switch to a motorcoach. The day was sunny and bright with clean snow everwhere. We watched the quick moving Tokyoins going to work after getting off the train. Reminded me of home (Washington DC), but just in a parallel universe. They are so different, but yet so similar. Everyone in their conservative work clothes, umbrellas, ipods, and cofee in hand.

We did the Mt. Fuji tour and it was beautiful, clear day. A good omen for the rest of the trip! Tadashi our tour guide taught us alot about Japanese history, as well as its present. He spoke of the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Japan. It was my favorite part of our stay. He answered so many questions in my mind. I wont go into details because a lot of his discusion was very political and this is not the forum. I will tell you this...the Japanese are reevaluating their embracement of our culture and whether it really works for them.

Mt Fuji is a volcano and the area around it still has many active volcanos. We visited some quaint towns up in the volcanic region where there was a lake within a caldera (volcano crater) and ate a traditional Japanese lunch. I ate about 15 different small things that were beautifully arranged, and could only recognize the tuna! I went to the gift shop and bought some chocolate for the ride back. I knew that stuff I ate wouldnt hold me over. No wonder they are so damn thin!

We caught the bullet train back to Tokyo. Damn that was neat. 200mph and it was smoother than anything Ive ever rode in! We changed trains two more times to get back to hotel. It was pretty easy. Most signs were in English and Japanese. And when we got a bit confused, a subway employee noticed then helped us. Then again we were helped by a businessman get to the correct side of the platform. No pushing and shoving like the old days. People smiled and bowed and kept about their way. It was great people watching on the train. The japanese are very stylish people. Their appearance seems very important to them. The young people really have a flair for combining traditional Japanese style and contemporary american styles such as hip hop styles or urban country stuff like ed hardy. It was really cool. I wish we could've gone to a club to do more watching.

As we ate dinner and I reflected on the last day and a half, and wondered how in the world did we defeat these people in WW2? Their culture is based on honor, pride, discipline, sacarafice for the group, and precision. Being a left brained person, I really admire their society and how they just want to do things with perfection. When you say you'll be somewhere at 10am, be there dammitt. This is a whole society of people like me! Type A, perfectionists who pursue that perfection irregardless if someone else is watching and they do it with consistency and not at the expense of someone else. If you are science or math inclined, make sure you put Japan on your list! With that said, they probably need to loosen up a bit. The pressure of perfection can be great evidenced by my high blood pressure! They should think about going Shark diving with us!:)

Let's Get this Party Started!

2010-02-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

Alright, Alright I know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and this journey is something most people will not be able to do; but I was getting hesitant. No.. let me not lie, I was getting scared! That's right, I know it's hard to believe that I would fear anything, all the dumb stuff I've done over the years, but this is different. I was scared first of all that I didn't have the stamina to make the trip. It's a lot to inflict on oneself: away from the comforts of home for 5 months! My beloved bed, my bar with all my favorite remedies, my backyard where I lay on the fake turf with my dogs to try to solve the worlds problems, and my one splurge in life - my hottub! For those of you who don't know, I have some physical ailments that I've accumulated over the years from sports, pledging (getting hazed), and general abuse of my body over the years. I know, I know, I look chiseled, but trust me I'm like a 1956 Corvette....looks good on the outside but you really don't want to ride in it cause the ac doesnt work and the seat springs are constantly digging into your ass! Well that's my body. When it is prepared and it's time to push it, the adrenaline kicks in to numb the pain and this body will do anything I tell it in world class fashion. However, I pay for it later. Thus the hot tub, cognac, and celebrex (my favorite anti inflammatory:)! Well you can't prepare your body for a 12 hour plane flight in economy! On top of that I'm hyper and hate to be closed in with other people that long. You start hearing the sneezing, coughing, snoring, and it gets louder and louder and louder! I usually start losing it around hour six, Thats when Carmen starts the pep talks,"Baby, you ok? You want a drink? How about some food? Please don't strangle that dude next to you who's been grunting and snorting the whole trip." To which I reply,"Dammitt don't ask me if I'm ok, you know I'm not ok. My inferior iliac bone has eroded through my gluteus maximus (my ass bones are poking through my ass cheeks). My knees feel like they've been hit by a sledge hammer because this damn chair in front of me is pressed up against them. My neck feels like there is a samuri sword sticking right through it, and my lower back has been in spasm for the last three hours! Dont pep talk me, just give me one last kiss. Cause after I strangle this guy next to me, I'm sure the air marshalls are going to taze me to death! They better, because if they don't I'm going to open the plane door and take everyone with me; cause baby, Im not gonna make it another hour on this plane and I'm too pissed off to go by myself dammitt!" Can the airlines just charge us the extra $15 and make the economy seats a little bigger? By hour 12, I'm usually wishing I was on a slave ship in the middle of the Atlantic, at least they got to lay down! So now you see my mindset the day we were leaving. Carmen is buzzing around the house like a bumblebee. Checking her packing list (30 times over), yip yapping about this tour and that tour, giving my mom instructions about the dogs and showing her where everything is in the house. Meanwhile I'm in the bathroom throwing up and chain smoking the last of my cuban cigars. I can't believe I paid $4k to subject myself to 25 flights in 5 months! Thats just the flights yall, I didnt mention airport security. The proposition of having to submit to a cavity search is a real possibilty for a brother these days since this Christmas day bombing attempt. Now yall know I am not submitting. Can you imagine? "Dr. Brown we are gonna have to check your colon for bombs sir. " Did yall see Indiana Jones Temple of Doom when the Indian priest reached straight through his enemy's chest bone to pull his beating heart out in his hand? Well I feel for the TSA officer who tells me he has to do a cavity search on me! I've been to 6 continents in the last 2 years and still get scared. I have dove with Great White sharks and still get scared. I grew up in Washington, DC in the 1980s and still get scared. I have hiked through the densest jungles and I still get scared. Ain't that what its all about yall? Overcoming your fears and your comforts to become something better than you ever thought you could be? Self actualization period......

Needless to say, I got myself together, loaded the bags and kissed my home and my momma goodbye! Popped Willie Nelson on the Ipod, "On the Road Again"...

Turning Japanese

2010-02-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

I love Japan...I didnt expect to, not with the crowds and the "big city" atmosphere but I think we fell in love with the place. It honestly comes down to my simple principles of life...the people are amazingly polite and kind, the food was good (big ol plus) and it was really clean. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a mild OCD when it comes to cleaning. I don't walk barefoot, sheets must be clean, etc. Well, I must have found heaven in Tokyo! Our room was so clean, it was like being at home!! The staff was so nice and I really got used to the bowing...The piece de la resistance was the awesome automated toilet in our room...There is NOTHING better in life than a heated toilet seat!!!! It was wonderfully cold in Tokyo, complete with snow on the ground. We arrived in Tokyo after a long, painful 12 hour flight from San Francisco. Although we were exhausted, we were excited to start our journey. The first thing we noted was the efficency of the airport. The customs and immigration line was non-existant and it was complete with nice policemen to usher you to the shortest line. Our luggage came out within minutes of us hitting the baggage claim and we actually easily found transportation to our hotel! Simple! The only hitch was the ride to the hotel. I had no idea that the Tokyo-Narita airport is actaully no where near Tokyo...Seems like the airport name is a misnomer. I think the airport was actually closer to Hawaii than to central Tokyo. We got on a nice, heated motorcoach and proceeded to drive 2 hours into central Tokyo...oh well, it was still a smooth trip thus far.
The next thing I noticed was the bowing and the extreme politeness of everyone. Anyone that you made eye contact with immediately folllowed with a nice bow. From the time we exited the bus at the front of the hotel to the time we made it to the reservations deck I bowed no less than 10 times to random people. I think the thing in Japan is service above all else. There were people, standing around at the hotel who's sole purpose was to look out for any log-jams, lines or anything that could annoy you and immediately make it better. We never stood in a line. We kept getting ushered from one place to the next. It was awesome. (Bow, bow)
We also got a shocking dose of reality on our first meal in Japan. That place is expensive!!! Whew! We decided that after a $100 noodle dinner we would walk around more and price compare!

On our second day, we decided to do a day trip to Mt Fuji and a small village, Hokone. We had an cute little tour guide, Tadashi, who entertained us on the way up about Japanese Shogun history and information about the mountain. Mt. Fuji is the tallest point in Japan and also a huge volcano. The special thing about the mountain is that it is usally very hard to see because of the beautiful cloud cover but winter time is the best opportunity to see the peak. We had a dose of amazing luck that day. Not only did we see the peak without clouds but it was such a clear, cold day!! It had just snowed and it looked like the set of a Japanese movie. It was a memorable day. We actually dressed right for the weather!!!! Here is our pic with the beautiful Mt. Fuji in the background.

On the long trip back into Tokyo, our guide, Tadashi kept us entertained with oragami paper tricks. We both tried our hand at the art of paper folding...see:

The most fun of the day was riding the famed Japanese "Bullet Train" back into the city of Tokyo from Hokone. Normally it is a 3 hour drive by car but the Bullet Train turned that into a quick 30min ride. We were armed with directions on how to ride the train and did just fine by ourselves, even though we had to make 3 connections. Once again, the Japanese were horribly nice and helped us several times navagate the station when we looked lost. One business man actually walked us to our train and almost missed his!

My only gripe about Japan? The toilets. I cannot tell you how happy i was to see "Western style Toilets". The alternative?

Overall, I wasn't ready to leave Tokyo. I really thought that it would be fun to explore a little more...I really thought the people were nice, the city was big and clean and I really loved the super punctuality of everyone!!! No sitting around waiting for no reason here! I'm sure one day, we may come back, but only if I can find Western Toilets!

Check out our pictures of Japan: Bruce and Carmen in Japan

Away We GO!

2010-01-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, for anyone who wants to find us (or notify the US Embassy where we were last...hee-hee) this is our final, crazy itineary...
A couple of things...
1) We know that we can't see everything we want. This is pretty much the formula of the locations we've chosen...

WOW Factor+If it is in our "bible" (1,000 Places to See Before you Die)+Cheapness+Distance from our "new home" in New Zealand

We know that there are so many places not listed that we wanted to see..(India, France, China) but we are happy with the final round draft picks!

2) The trip is pretty whirlwind. It may seem pretty difficult to lots, but anyone who knows us will agree....We don't tire very quickly and we bore very easily. We figured it would do no good to hang out in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai for a week each because lets face it...most big Asian cities have a lot in common. Also we wanted to maximize culture. We really wanted to try to go "off the beaten path" and explore less common vacation destinations. Of course, there are the exceptions to the rule...We are doing London and Tuscany but we are also adding the "huh?" places of Copenhagen, Khao Lak and Maldives...(yes, I had to check a map, too)
So this is it...the Crazy Browns trip itinearay

Jan 31...Get the Hell Out...(via San Francisco)

FEB:
Tokyo Japan(3 days)...see Mt Fuji, tower over Japanese people, etc

Khao Lak, Thailand...Dive the Similan Islands, See whale sharks, avoid getting killed by sea creatures, etc

Colombo, Sri Lanka (2 days)...Make sure the US Embassy knows we're there..Avoid death

Male, Maldives (9 days)...Liveaboard a boat, dive all day and all night..avoid getting killed by sea creatures

MARCH:
Hong Kong (2 days)...rest, enjoy city life, eat recently dead things

Philippines(9 days)...See the family, not understand the family, go to Boracay, enjoy the beach, live like king/queen because its so awesomely cheap!!!!

London(3 days)...Do the London thing, ride the tube (Mind the Gap, Reine!), see Big Ben, eat everything at Harrods

Amsterdam/Brussels...Recharge,relax, you know....

Copenhagen...Not sure, but my brother LOVES this place...

Venice(4 days)...See St. Marks Square, don't get wet...eat lots of carbs
Tuscany(4 days)....drink Chianti in Chianti, drink anything they give me...continue carb loading

APRIL
Barcelona(7+ days)...Rest, recharge, hang out, party hard, eat late
Buenos Aires(7+days)...More rest, party, drinking and eating
Peru(5 days)...Hit Lima, Cuzco and Machu Picchu...hopefully, they don't hit back
Miami, Florida (quick one day stop...had to go back thru...)

MAY
Panama...see the Panama Canal, remember my Spanish, be stuck translating....
Aruba....dive, dive, dive!!!!
Somewhere else in the Caribbean...more drinking, diving, not in that order

Consider coming home....We'll see...

I didn't include exact dates because we may decide to stay longer in some places or leave sooner from others...that is the beauty of the One World Round the World Pass...Totally changeable...Gives us a little wiggle room to be spontaneous....Hard to believe that we are spontaneous, huh?

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.....

2010-01-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Ok! We are at countdown! Today is my next to LAST day at work and i am battling a strong urge to flee...Don't get me wrong, I love the people I work with and I love what I do but the call of the Boeing 777 to Tokyo is WAAAY more seductive..
Needless to say, last night i tried to pack. It was a fiasco. Maybe I'm trying to make this into a scientific endeavor. I had a list that I compiled from my travel guru, Ana and from my new favorite site, http://www.onebag.com/ According to this man, I should be able to travel the world with some toothpaste, three pairs of panties and some flip flops. Ok, not really but he is really strict about packing. In fact, he has wonderful, gut churning articles about how often luggage goes stolen and missing everywhere in the world. His belief? A checked bag is a stolen bag. Why did i read that?! ugh! Anyway, i'm packing and i'm trying to keep the weight in check, being realistic on how much crap I really need. I keep repeating the mantra "I can buy what I need when i'm there"....Right? WRONG!!! Unless i have just magically morphed into my tiny Asian genes I will be SCREWED if I have to buy anything while we are in Asia. I know this from experience. Our first foray into overseas travel (and my first time out of the country) found us in Beijing, China. It was a wonderful trip except for the fact that our bags never left "Lost" Angeles Aiport. No worries, I packed about 3 days worth of clothes in my carry on. On day number 3, we decided it would be fun to go out and buy a couple of new things. We went to the closest Chinese mall and despite the SERIOUS language barrier were able to understand 3 things...1) I'm considered a cross between Yao Ming and the tallest woman that ever lived. 2) I'm fat by Chinese standards 3) Hip hop lives on in China, evidenced by the fact that Bruce had a multitude of stores selling everything from Ecko, Sean Jean, Phat Farm, etc. It was like we went into a mall in China and ended up in a urban clothing store in South Central LA! However, whenever we went to a store and pointed at clothes and pointed at me, I was greeted with a frown, rapid discussion then a wonderfully broken English reply of "too big, no clothes for her". Now I am 40lb lighter, i want to travel back to China just to show them that i'm not "too big"! Needless to say, my horrible anxiety of buying things in Asia has lead me to staring at an open suitcase at 9'oclock at night trying to figure out what is too important to leave behind. Will I be able to buy drawers in Denmark? or pants in Peru? Toothpaste in Thailand?...ok, now i'm fixating...
After another couple of hours of useless staring and internal arguments and conversations, I abandoned the packing. I'll try again today.

She is killing me!

2010-01-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. This is my foray into the blogosphere. I don't know why I haven't done this sooner, since I like to talk so much trash and have people listen:)! Thanks Rich and Ana for the inspiration; and thanks for unleashing my wife on this trip. I swear she is like a pitbull when she gets a hold of something she wants:)

Needless to say, this has been a dream of ours since we went on our honeymoon. I knew the very first day in Cancun when I told Carmen I signed us up for Scuba lessons, and she initially refused, then changed her mind immediately when I said I was going to do it without her, that she was a "ride or die chic". Now I am the one being dragged around like lifeless cabbage patch doll!!!!! Literally everyday since we left Australia she has been on the web researching places and things to do and how much this and that costs. I try to argue why we can't do this or that, but she always has a rebuttal and in the end I realize that this is "our" time. The stars have aligned so that we have the time and the money to realize our dream of seeing the world on our terms.

I agree with Carmen totally when she says,"I thought this was suppose to be fun?" It gave me terrible flashbacks of medical school. Up late at night with the dry erase board, countless travel books and magazines, our bible (A Thousand Places to See Before You Die), and the web, trying to figure out where and when we would go. Who argues about whether to go to Bali vs the Maldives? Bruce & Carmen the hyper type A personalities thats who! Don't say it....we are silly and spoiled for arguing about it; but this is probably our last chance to do this, and we want to get it right!:) We finally hammered out the itinerary (15 countries) in about a week (wheeew!), then we got the tickets purchased (special shout out to Wally our travel agent for going through that ordeal with me), then it was off to shop for our clothes and gear... More disagreements in the Sports Authority and Cabellas about this backpack vs that backpack and how many convertible pants I could get! Cmon man! She complains about me wearing the same jeans everyday and how I always wear gray or shades of gray. I actually picked up green pants and pastel colored shirts and she still balked! I love convertible pants. They are for real men. Men who get dirty and sweaty and wet dammit! One pair of my pants has 8 pockets with zippers and velcro! It would take a robber 30 minutes to find my money, he's liable to give up! As far as I'm concerned you can never have to many convertible pants, in the end she let me get 4 pair:) I lost the battle for the waterproof pack because the color scheme was all wrong for my baby's ensemble. Cmon man! Ladies does it have to match? Especially since Im gonna end up carrying it anyway?! Needless to say, when her stuff is wet from our ferry rides in asia, she is not getting to wear any of my dry convertible pants! Seriously though, the logistics of this trip are hell. With all the different climates, the different social norms(casual vs formal), and airline weight requirements. I give up! I'm going to throw what I want in the suitcase and jettison stuff along the way!

I am indeed excited, scared and humbled by this opportunity. To my family and friends: If I should fall off the face of a mountain, get eaten by a shark, die from altitude sickness, liver failure from drinking rusty moonshine in a 3rd world country, kidnapped by a terrorist; remember this blog....It is what I want with everything in me! I believe in the circle of life! I'd rather die living than live dying! To Carmen's family: Nothing will happen to Carmen cause her survival instinct is too strong! I know you've seen her escape a dog, but have you seen her walk on water trying to get away from a 6 foot moray eel! Damn she can move! Seriously, if she can survive the mean streets of Atlanta, she can survive anywhere:) Baby, thank you for putting this together and thank you for being my "Ride or Die Chic". Its been a wonderful 14 years and I can't wait to see what tommorow brings! I LOVE YOU, ALWAYS HAVE.............................................
PS-Look out world...Here come the Browns!

What the Hell is Waterproof?!

2010-01-18T20:15:00.000-08:00

So, we are going around the world...I'm excited, Bruce is excited, the tickets are purchased (ouch!) and we are ready to go!
Now, all we have to do is pack...Should be easy. Once again, I have found that something that is supposed to be fun and simple is ridiculously hard!
Its mostly my fault...i'm a planner. I thrive on minutia and little details...it keeps me going. Bruce is more of a "plan-till-I-get-tired-then-let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may" kinda guy. So here I am, charged with the duty of packing our lives up and making it fit into a suitcase/backpack contraption that cannot weigh more than 23kg. That is not a random number either...That is the minimum weight of a bag for all of the air carriers that we are using on this trip. Like a nerd, I took the time and researched the baggage allowance size and weights for all of the carriers that we will be on on this 4 month journey. American Airlines, Bangkok Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Cimber Sterling, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Philippines Airlines, SAS and Sri Lanka Airlines...whew!!! So after all of that wonderful work, I've found that we must cram our lives down to a mere 23kg...We can do it!!!! I think...

The First Challenge...Find a Zip Lock Bag
We need a bag...Something that we can use as a carry-on but something that will be lightweight and easy for me to carry. Bruce already had his backpack, i didn't have an "appropriate" backpack. Actually, I do have a backpack/carry-on but I had failed Bruce's "Can-You-Carry-This-By-Yourself" Test, twice. Pretty much this equation is:

How many times i've used the bag

MINUS

How many times he's had to carry it for me

Needless to say, I needed a new bag. So we were off to finding a backpack. We hit all of the major sporting goods stores in Phoenix and came away each time empty handed...Either they were too big, too small, not enough pockets, etc. The biggest issue was finding a waterproof bag...why waterproof? Well, I'll lay blame this on our Type A personality digestion of small facts and information. We would have gone into any sports store and found a basically good backpack if it wasn't for the blog entry from our friends, Rich and Ana who were in the Philippines at the time. According to Rich, their stuff got soaked on a ferry boat ride between islands in the Philippines. I don't know why we focused on that one detail of their trip, but we did. Now, we were on the hunt for a WATERPROOF backpack. Water resistant wouldn't cut it. On our last stop, we go to Dick's Sporting Goods, a big mega store in Phoenix to find the fabeled "waterproof" backpack. We go to the camping section and ask the man to get us a waterproff backpack. He pulls down what looks like a large garbage bag/zip lock bag...with straps. I immediately frown...it doesn't even resemble a backpack. It is literally a big, black ziplock bag...with straps! "I'm not wearing that", was my immediate statement. It looked bulky, hot, and ridiculosly waterproof. What the hell? We're not rafting around the world?! This isn't Deliverance! I'm not wearing the black ziplock bag! After some moments of discussion, with me pointing out that aside from not being a backpack (in the normal sense of the word) it didn't have exterior pockets or anything that would make carrying a laptop, camera, papers, etc easy. Bruce agreed, even though he really liked the zip lock part. Moments later, we found a horribly bright, orange, normal sized "WATER RESISTANT" backpack. It was perfect (except for color, ugh), it was light, comfy and roomy. Score!

We left the camping section, feeling like we really had won a battle. Now off to the clothing section! More waterproof stuff to buy!

What the Hell are Convertable Pants?
We are on the hunt for convertable pants. What are they you ask? Oh, the best invention in the world next to sliced bread and plasma transfusions. Pretty much they are pants that you can zip off the bottom 1/2 and make them into shorts!!! Brilliant!!!! I have to admit, this was Bruce's idea. He had gotten a pair during our travels in China and I made fun of them. It seemed really too "Indiana Jones" for me. Too many pockets and secret stash locations, zippers and etc. Too much work. Bruce on the other hand, loved them. I have to admit, I was jealous when we were climbing along the Great Wall and the sun got hotter and hotter and he was able to zip off his legs to cool off...Ok, good idea after all. So now it was my turn to get my own "Indiana Jones" gear. We both decided that convertable pants and quick dry stuff was the way to go (advice from Rich!). So here we are, picking through fishing, camping and hiking clothes trying to find the fabeled "convertable pants". The problem is, there are not a lot of convertable pants options for ladies. After a while, i decided to raid the guys section...I mean why not? I'm sure I could find a pair of guys pants that would fit me. I grabbed a couple of small mens pants and headed off to the fitting room. Boy, am I glad I tried them on first!!!! Yikes! First of all, men's clothes are mens clothes for a reason. They are fitted for men. i.e, no room for butt or hips! The first pair I tried on looked like I was auditioning for a role in "The Biggest Loser" as a BEFORE candidate! How in the HELL could a men's small NOT fit me! Bruce came over and smiled. He even made a nice little "riiiiiiiiippp" sound when I attempted to bend over...NOT HELPING. Ok, so no men's small in that stupid brand (who shall remain nameless) I tried a couple others and before long had two perfectly good pairs of men's convertable pants. Cheaper than the women's pants by $30!!! Who knew that guys had it so easy with shopping?
We walked out of the store, a couple of hundred dollars poorer but now we had GEAR! We had bought Indiana Jones pants 2 for me, 2 for Bruce, a couple of long sleeved quick dry shirts, thermal undies and my backpack!!! We are ready to pack!!!
23kilos, here we come!!!!!!

Planning a Trip Can Be Hell!

2010-01-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

I have to give credit where credit is due...This incredibly fun idea came from an amazing couple that Bruce and I met on a dive trip in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. Ana and Rich were the most amazing people! They had decided to give up on "normal" life and sell most of their worldly goods to travel the world for a year!!! A YEAR! I think that they thought I was their #1 stalker by the end of the trip. I bothered them with incessant chains of questions..."What made you do this?", "Where is your favorite place?", "What is your itenearary?"...Ana and Rich answered each one patiently and enthusiastically. They were my kind of people!
I remember that night, I hounded Bruce about the idea. I wanted to know what was stopping us from doing the same thing? We had already quit our jobs and decided to move overseas. We were currently in a "holding" pattern before we moved. What was stopping us? After several weeks of furious research and using my favorite sources (Thanks again, Ana and Rich!) we were officially planning our trip!

FIRST THINGS FIRST
Ok, I'm excited. Anyone who knows me, if you give me a task, i'm gonna hold on to it like a bulldog puppy!!There was no letting up. I spent hours researching weather, places, etc. The biggest question was: Where did we want to go? We already decided to go to the Philippines so Bruce could see where he was born but that was just one place...After some brainstorming, we decided that we definitely wanted to go to Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and South America. Then all we had to do was choose countries to visit. Sounds easy, right? WRONG! Seems that Bruce and I had a couple of different ideas on what was considered "must see" in the world. I was insistent on Italy (specifically Tuscany), France, Spain and England in Europe. In Southeast Asia I knew I wanted to go to Thailand and Indonesia. South Pacific was a must! I dreamt about small islands in crystal clear water! I had seen an article in a travel magazine about a little known island called Aitutaki and I KNEW that I was going to go there. We also are scuba divers so we knew that a famous diving destination was important. Thats how we chose Palau, a small island in the South Pacific well known for awesome diving. For South America, we both agreed on Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Peru (Macchu Pichu).
Ok, so we have our places and now we started researching. The biggest thing is that we were trying to avoid the rainy season in Southeast Asia and make sure we were NOT going to be anywhere during the hellish "peak" tourist seasons. So we decided based on weather that we should travel around the world going west to east. That meant, hitting Asia then Europe and finishing up in South America. Easy...now all we do is pick cities!

EENIE MEENIE MINEY WHAT?!

Ok, you would think that nothing would be more fun than picking cities to visit all over the world, right? Wrong again! We had taken the advice of our travel gurus, Rich and Ana and purchased their tickets on the One World Round the World Program. Its actually pretty awesome deal. Instead of buying a bunch of individual tickets or use a program that bases the price on mileage, the One World Round the World program is one set price based on how many continents that you visit. You can do 3, 4 or 5 continents for one flat price. Sounds great BUT the rules are friggin crazy! I mean, you need an advanced degree in engineering, quantam mechanics and astrophysics to figure out how to book a damned trip! I mean seriously!!!!? Ok, these are some of my favorite rules:

1) All travel must be in a east-west direction or vice versa but you can back track throughout the continent..
2) You can't cross the Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean more than once. No matter what you learned in geography, the One World people have a very different definition of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans...It seems like any liquid around a country on the East side of the world can be the Atlantic Ocean and any wet stuff on the west side of the world is a Pacific....
3) You can only use 16 flights to get around the world...Each flight is a "segment". Since you only have 16 "segments" it doesn't make sense to fly from Paris to London for example, because your using up one of your segments and you can easily find transportation from one to the other...BUT they foil you with the next rule..
4) You can't arrive in one airport and then depart from an airport in another city/country or you will be charged a "segment". They call it a "land segment"...Dammit!
5) You have to be able to say the alphabet backwards in 30 seconds while hopping on one leg backwards

It was a real pain in the butt. Over the span of two weeks our itenerary changed no less than 5 times. We dropped Indonesia (time issuses), dropped Palau (couldn't figure out how to get there to save our lives), dropped France, Chile and Uruguay (couldn't make the time work), added Maldives (diving!) and added Denmark (my brother's recommendation). Now, four short weeks after we got the inspiration, we have a round the world itenearary planned!!!!

February:
Japan-Tokyo and Mount Fuji
Thailand-Phuket and Khao Lak
Maldives-Liveaboard diving trip for a week!!!!
Hong Kong-Quick city tour
Philippines-Manila and Boracay

March:
London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Venice and Tuscany and Barcelona

April:
Peru-Machu Picchu
Argentina-Buenos Aires
Honduras-Utila for more diving!!!! Whale Shark season!!!

Ok, we are set! Now to packing and fine tuning! Should be fun!!! Right?