Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Hawaii
Hawaii is lovely and has been a nice re-introduction to the US. We've enjoyed doing some cooking -- Thai cooking day is Tuesday!
When we arrived, we put on two of Rae's African house dresses and put ALL of our clothes into the laundry! We are SO looking forward to having more choices when we get back to Seattle. It might be a while before I wear any of these clothes again!
We've shared some stories and pictures with Mari's parents and are hoping to go through our pictures and make a short i-movie to share with everyone. For those of you who want more than the short video version, we're happy to share all the pictures as well :)
When we arrived, we put on two of Rae's African house dresses and put ALL of our clothes into the laundry! We are SO looking forward to having more choices when we get back to Seattle. It might be a while before I wear any of these clothes again!
We've shared some stories and pictures with Mari's parents and are hoping to go through our pictures and make a short i-movie to share with everyone. For those of you who want more than the short video version, we're happy to share all the pictures as well :)
Fiji Part 2 - Making it Official and partying with the Aussies
Making it Official -
Although Mari and I have been together for long enough that most people consider us an old married couple, we decided that we needed a moment together to say our vows, and what better place than on a small island surrounded by palm trees at sunset? So, on August 3rd, after relaxing by the pool for the day, Mari and I dressed in the nicest clothes we had (not exactly typical wedding outfits) and walked out to one of the "islands" near our resort. The stars had aligned and we had the BEST sunset of our trip that night. We set up the camera on a little tripod and took quite a few pictures, said our vows, and exchanged stand-in shell rings (until we find some that we really like). We really enjoyed the moment and then walked to one of the nicer restaurants at the resort for a fancy chinese dinner which finished with delicious coconut fried ice cream. We hope to share the moment with everyone at some sort of reception, but nothing is planned yet.
Partying with the Aussies--
The next day, Aug 4 was spent lounging at the pool again, and then we had reservations at the 2nd resort restaurant where we had a nice dinner (I had Mahi Mahi and Mari had steak) and then as we were waiting to order dessert, we struck up a conversation with three Aussie couples at the table next to ours. They invited us to join them, so we sat and drank wine, talked about rugby and why we had chosen NOT to go to Australia on our trip around the world (they didn't think it was a good decision!). I guess we got a little loud because the staff had to ask us to be quiet and then I guess they asked us to head to the bar when we didn't quiet down enough. At the bar, the couples reunited with some of their children (who had been at kid's club during dinner) and we continued drinking and danced with the kids for a while. I guess I didn't realize how much I had been drinking, thanks to the free-flowing all inclusive wine, and I didn't remember the walk back to our room the next day. I also felt a little rough the next day and although I managed to go MOST of the day without any more drinking, by 2, the Aussie's would have no more of my protests and started handing me diet coke WITH rum instead of my requested diet coke. Aug 5 was our last day at the resort and was rainy all day. We chatted with our new Aussie friends (thanks to their hospitality, we were able to eat lunch even though the hotel had taken our bracelets at 10am during checkout).
At 5:30, the bus picked us up to take us back to Nadi, where we again stayed at the Novotel. Because they remembered us from our 1st night in Fiji, they put us in a nicer room :)
The next day, we golfed (Mari already blogged about the hilarity of THAT) and then we shopped in town before heading to the airport to fly to Hawaii. We had a time traveling experience as we left Fiji at 9 pm on August 6th and landed in Samoa at 11:30 pm on Aug 5th. We continued our flight to Honolulu and landed there at 7 am on Aug 6. :)
Although Mari and I have been together for long enough that most people consider us an old married couple, we decided that we needed a moment together to say our vows, and what better place than on a small island surrounded by palm trees at sunset? So, on August 3rd, after relaxing by the pool for the day, Mari and I dressed in the nicest clothes we had (not exactly typical wedding outfits) and walked out to one of the "islands" near our resort. The stars had aligned and we had the BEST sunset of our trip that night. We set up the camera on a little tripod and took quite a few pictures, said our vows, and exchanged stand-in shell rings (until we find some that we really like). We really enjoyed the moment and then walked to one of the nicer restaurants at the resort for a fancy chinese dinner which finished with delicious coconut fried ice cream. We hope to share the moment with everyone at some sort of reception, but nothing is planned yet.
Partying with the Aussies--
The next day, Aug 4 was spent lounging at the pool again, and then we had reservations at the 2nd resort restaurant where we had a nice dinner (I had Mahi Mahi and Mari had steak) and then as we were waiting to order dessert, we struck up a conversation with three Aussie couples at the table next to ours. They invited us to join them, so we sat and drank wine, talked about rugby and why we had chosen NOT to go to Australia on our trip around the world (they didn't think it was a good decision!). I guess we got a little loud because the staff had to ask us to be quiet and then I guess they asked us to head to the bar when we didn't quiet down enough. At the bar, the couples reunited with some of their children (who had been at kid's club during dinner) and we continued drinking and danced with the kids for a while. I guess I didn't realize how much I had been drinking, thanks to the free-flowing all inclusive wine, and I didn't remember the walk back to our room the next day. I also felt a little rough the next day and although I managed to go MOST of the day without any more drinking, by 2, the Aussie's would have no more of my protests and started handing me diet coke WITH rum instead of my requested diet coke. Aug 5 was our last day at the resort and was rainy all day. We chatted with our new Aussie friends (thanks to their hospitality, we were able to eat lunch even though the hotel had taken our bracelets at 10am during checkout).
At 5:30, the bus picked us up to take us back to Nadi, where we again stayed at the Novotel. Because they remembered us from our 1st night in Fiji, they put us in a nicer room :)
The next day, we golfed (Mari already blogged about the hilarity of THAT) and then we shopped in town before heading to the airport to fly to Hawaii. We had a time traveling experience as we left Fiji at 9 pm on August 6th and landed in Samoa at 11:30 pm on Aug 5th. We continued our flight to Honolulu and landed there at 7 am on Aug 6. :)
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Lazy Bums in Fiji
Well we arrived back in the US yesterday morning and my parents gave us a great greeting but before we talk about that we're try to catch you up on our time in Fiji.
We did get the itinerary to print and everything worked out at the Naviti Resort. In New Zealand we had decided to book at this resort because the reviews were pretty good and it was cheaper than going to another island. We were able to use our credit card reward points to pay for the all-inclusive package at this resort so it was really nice to have that all taken care of and not have to think about how much anything cost! The resort itself wasn't particularly fancy but it was still quite nice and we spent most of our time lounging by the pool anyway. The only trouble with that was that we read so much that we ran out of books and had to buy one and then found a place to trade a couple more!
We did try to do some active things during our time at the Naviti but decided on the first day that we weren't going to do any tours or anything like that and that we'd just be happy to stay put and relax. But since we had the all inclusive package at the resort we could use the sea kayaks for free which we did one afternoon for an hour or so. Of course we weren't content to paddle around the little walled off part of the resort and wanted to go explore the reef area a bit so we headed off down the coast. It wasn't until we were almost back to the resort area that we were met by one of the rec guys telling us we weren't supposed to go there and that the village people could call the police on us! (oops!)
We also went on a few runs on the beach which was a bit of an adventure because of the changing tides and varying stability of the sand, but we did it. We even did a couple of sprint workouts on one particular stretch of beach. We saw that stretch of the beach from the kayak and Michelle goes "oh, there's sprinting beach" as though that was it's official name. =) Oh and we also paid $5 to use tennis rackets and played around for a bit. We were both pretty awful and gave up after a few games and decided to play cooperative tennis and see how many volleys we could get going--it was pretty sad that we could barely get to 10 and our record was 14! I also convinced Michelle to golf with me one day (not til we got back to our first hotel in Nadi) which was pretty hiarious. The course was completely empty and our rented clubs ($5 & no green fees) were half lefty and didn't include a putter, but we had fun anyway. We were both pretty terrible but since I promised Marty I would golf with her for her birthday next week I figured I needed to at least golf once before that since I haven't golfed in over 10 years!
The food at the buffets was pretty decent and we were happy that our first night the buffet was Indian--the dahl soup was the highlight. And after dinner that night they had a kava ceremony show. Michelle and I were staying towards the back when they were giving people kava to drink. Then when it seemed like that part was done we decided it was "safe" to sit on the grass mats they had on the floor to watch the rest of the ceremony. Then next thing we know they say "another round!" and we both had to try it. First you have to clap your hands and then they hand you this little bowl with kava and you have to drink it fast like a shot. It basically tastes like muddy water and then it makes your tongue and mouth feel a little numb.
This post is getting a little long so I'll write more about our time in Fiji in another post or two...
We did get the itinerary to print and everything worked out at the Naviti Resort. In New Zealand we had decided to book at this resort because the reviews were pretty good and it was cheaper than going to another island. We were able to use our credit card reward points to pay for the all-inclusive package at this resort so it was really nice to have that all taken care of and not have to think about how much anything cost! The resort itself wasn't particularly fancy but it was still quite nice and we spent most of our time lounging by the pool anyway. The only trouble with that was that we read so much that we ran out of books and had to buy one and then found a place to trade a couple more!
We did try to do some active things during our time at the Naviti but decided on the first day that we weren't going to do any tours or anything like that and that we'd just be happy to stay put and relax. But since we had the all inclusive package at the resort we could use the sea kayaks for free which we did one afternoon for an hour or so. Of course we weren't content to paddle around the little walled off part of the resort and wanted to go explore the reef area a bit so we headed off down the coast. It wasn't until we were almost back to the resort area that we were met by one of the rec guys telling us we weren't supposed to go there and that the village people could call the police on us! (oops!)
We also went on a few runs on the beach which was a bit of an adventure because of the changing tides and varying stability of the sand, but we did it. We even did a couple of sprint workouts on one particular stretch of beach. We saw that stretch of the beach from the kayak and Michelle goes "oh, there's sprinting beach" as though that was it's official name. =) Oh and we also paid $5 to use tennis rackets and played around for a bit. We were both pretty awful and gave up after a few games and decided to play cooperative tennis and see how many volleys we could get going--it was pretty sad that we could barely get to 10 and our record was 14! I also convinced Michelle to golf with me one day (not til we got back to our first hotel in Nadi) which was pretty hiarious. The course was completely empty and our rented clubs ($5 & no green fees) were half lefty and didn't include a putter, but we had fun anyway. We were both pretty terrible but since I promised Marty I would golf with her for her birthday next week I figured I needed to at least golf once before that since I haven't golfed in over 10 years!
The food at the buffets was pretty decent and we were happy that our first night the buffet was Indian--the dahl soup was the highlight. And after dinner that night they had a kava ceremony show. Michelle and I were staying towards the back when they were giving people kava to drink. Then when it seemed like that part was done we decided it was "safe" to sit on the grass mats they had on the floor to watch the rest of the ceremony. Then next thing we know they say "another round!" and we both had to try it. First you have to clap your hands and then they hand you this little bowl with kava and you have to drink it fast like a shot. It basically tastes like muddy water and then it makes your tongue and mouth feel a little numb.
This post is getting a little long so I'll write more about our time in Fiji in another post or two...
Enjoying the Fijian Tropical paradise
(Well, I guess this post only saved as a draft and didn't actually post from Fiji so here it is)
Just a quick note to let everyone know we arrived in Fiji. We might not have a ton of internet since it looks like the hotel computers are the only option and they are NOT cheap! Plus we're trying to just relax while we're here so not probably not much to write about anyway.
We arrived yesterday at 5 pm and stayed at a hotel near the airport. It was nice, but definitely not a place to stay the whole time. We enjoyed a nice dinner under the palm trees, watched a movie and went to bed. This morning we were up early for a quick breakfast before catching the bus to the Naviti resort. We are in the process of checking in now and for some reason they need us to print our confirmation even though they already have records in their computer, so we're not really sure what's going on. ugh. At least they let us on the computer, right?
Hopefully we'll be lounging by the pool soon!
-M & M
Just a quick note to let everyone know we arrived in Fiji. We might not have a ton of internet since it looks like the hotel computers are the only option and they are NOT cheap! Plus we're trying to just relax while we're here so not probably not much to write about anyway.
We arrived yesterday at 5 pm and stayed at a hotel near the airport. It was nice, but definitely not a place to stay the whole time. We enjoyed a nice dinner under the palm trees, watched a movie and went to bed. This morning we were up early for a quick breakfast before catching the bus to the Naviti resort. We are in the process of checking in now and for some reason they need us to print our confirmation even though they already have records in their computer, so we're not really sure what's going on. ugh. At least they let us on the computer, right?
Hopefully we'll be lounging by the pool soon!
-M & M
Saturday, July 31, 2010
back in Christchurch - 7/31
Yesterday morning we had a lazy morning in Queenstown before packing up and heading to Christchurch. We did enjoy a nice walk in the Queenstown gardens and a little drive around town, but that's pretty much all we did before our 12:55 flight back to Christchurch.
In Christchurch, we took a bus back to Hotel SO (wake up and sleep lights again!) and set out to explore the city. First stop was the Christchurh Cathedral. It's a beautiful building, but my favorite part was the ceiling. It was all wood and designed to look like the hull of a ship.
After the Cathedral, we explored along the river, noticing the British influence on the architecture and design of the city. We wandered toward Hadley park where the Christchurch botanic gardens is located. We were hoping to catch a local rugby match and weren't disappointed. As soon as we started walking along the path in the park, we heard screaming and cheering. We made our way closer and closer and realized that it was a high school match.
If you remember back to when we were in Picton and stayed at the Villa backpacker hostel, I forgot to mention that the proprietor's brother is one of the boys hs coaches at Kent high school outside of Seattle. He mentioned that the Kent team had come to New Zealand a couple of years back and gotten absolutely killed in all of their matches. Watching the hs match in Christchurch, we could see how that would happen. I mean...it certainly wasn't the best rugby we'd ever seen...it was still clear that we were watching high school kids, but...
After the match, we walked back to the hotel for a small half-dinner and a workout before heading out to watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies on the HUGE screen at the Holy Grail (home to the Canterbury Crusaders). The Holy Grail was a pretty great place to watch a rugby game. There were two levels of balconies and the game was played on a screen about the size of the screen in a smaller movie theater. (there were tv's all over with the game on as well) At first we thought we were going to have to stand, but it turned out we got there at JUST the right moment. The second level was the restaurant section, so they weren't letting people in to watch the game and then while we were standing there, the restaurant closed and they started letting people in. We ended up with a front row table on the first balcony!
It was really quite the experience to be around that many people yelling and screaming and cheering about a rugby match on tv! :) The game was pretty fun to watch too...lots of scoring! We couldn't believe there were back-to-back blocked kicks and resulting tries!
The match ended around midnight here and we needed a second small meal (that shared dinner at 5 wasn't enough!) We grabbed a kebab with all the drunk revelers and then went to the hotel and to bed!
This morning (8/1) I did NOT appreciate the wake up sun light! I told Mari "ok cheery cheery, you can go get breakfast!" and then pulled the covers over my head. It didn't work. We got up, did a quick workout and now that I've finished the blog, are heading out to do a few last minute things before our flight to Nadi, Fiji this afternoon.
We might be out of communication while we're there, but fly to Hawaii on Aug 6, so you'll definitely hear from us then!
In Christchurch, we took a bus back to Hotel SO (wake up and sleep lights again!) and set out to explore the city. First stop was the Christchurh Cathedral. It's a beautiful building, but my favorite part was the ceiling. It was all wood and designed to look like the hull of a ship.
After the Cathedral, we explored along the river, noticing the British influence on the architecture and design of the city. We wandered toward Hadley park where the Christchurch botanic gardens is located. We were hoping to catch a local rugby match and weren't disappointed. As soon as we started walking along the path in the park, we heard screaming and cheering. We made our way closer and closer and realized that it was a high school match.
If you remember back to when we were in Picton and stayed at the Villa backpacker hostel, I forgot to mention that the proprietor's brother is one of the boys hs coaches at Kent high school outside of Seattle. He mentioned that the Kent team had come to New Zealand a couple of years back and gotten absolutely killed in all of their matches. Watching the hs match in Christchurch, we could see how that would happen. I mean...it certainly wasn't the best rugby we'd ever seen...it was still clear that we were watching high school kids, but...
After the match, we walked back to the hotel for a small half-dinner and a workout before heading out to watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies on the HUGE screen at the Holy Grail (home to the Canterbury Crusaders). The Holy Grail was a pretty great place to watch a rugby game. There were two levels of balconies and the game was played on a screen about the size of the screen in a smaller movie theater. (there were tv's all over with the game on as well) At first we thought we were going to have to stand, but it turned out we got there at JUST the right moment. The second level was the restaurant section, so they weren't letting people in to watch the game and then while we were standing there, the restaurant closed and they started letting people in. We ended up with a front row table on the first balcony!
It was really quite the experience to be around that many people yelling and screaming and cheering about a rugby match on tv! :) The game was pretty fun to watch too...lots of scoring! We couldn't believe there were back-to-back blocked kicks and resulting tries!
The match ended around midnight here and we needed a second small meal (that shared dinner at 5 wasn't enough!) We grabbed a kebab with all the drunk revelers and then went to the hotel and to bed!
This morning (8/1) I did NOT appreciate the wake up sun light! I told Mari "ok cheery cheery, you can go get breakfast!" and then pulled the covers over my head. It didn't work. We got up, did a quick workout and now that I've finished the blog, are heading out to do a few last minute things before our flight to Nadi, Fiji this afternoon.
We might be out of communication while we're there, but fly to Hawaii on Aug 6, so you'll definitely hear from us then!
Milford Sound 7/30
We were a little nervous on our Milford Sound day because of rumors that bad weather was on its way. We kept our fingers crossed that the sun would prevail, and it did! When we first arrived in Qeueenstown, we booked a coach-cruise-coach trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound with Eco-tours. We met them at 7:40 am and began our bus ride to the sound (which is actually a fjord, but...)
The bus ride was stunning. We drove on more windy roads through huge beautiful snow-capped mountains. The bus had a glass roof, so when the road got narrow and tree-lined, we could still look up at the mountains. On the way there, we stopped at a few places for picture-taking and the bus driver provided commentary on what we were seeing and about some of the native birds of New Zealand. It was actually really interesting and I really enjoyed having the narration! At 1:15 we arrived in Milford and boarded our cruise. It was a small boat, which is ideal for navigating the sound, and although it was quite cold, free coffee and tea were provided and the sun was shining, so we were able to enjoy it and get out on deck for picture taking.
Back to the whole Fjord vs. Sound discrepency. Milford Sound was NAMED before they realized that it was in fact a fjord (carved by glaciers, not a river) and they decided to just leave the name alone because too many things would have to change. We both enjoyed the cruise (we were a teeny bit disappointed that because of their dry winter the waterfalls were minimized). The best part came very close to the end when we spotted a pod of bottle nose dolphins! The boat drove up close to them for pictures and we saw some mom and baby dolphins swimming together! One dolphin swam at the front of the boat in the wake...I was within 5 ft of it! We have some pictures, but they don't really do it justice!
After the cruise, we boarded the bus again. For the drive home, there were fewer stops and no commentary. Instead, they played two New Zealand-made films, Whale Rider and The World's Fastest Indian. Mari had seen Whale Rider, but I hadn't and I really enjoyed it (highly recommend renting it if you haven't seen it). The other movie was good as well and having the movies made the trip go much faster.
Back in Queenstown and exhausted from the long day, we had a glass of wine and went to bed (probably asleep by 9:30!)
The bus ride was stunning. We drove on more windy roads through huge beautiful snow-capped mountains. The bus had a glass roof, so when the road got narrow and tree-lined, we could still look up at the mountains. On the way there, we stopped at a few places for picture-taking and the bus driver provided commentary on what we were seeing and about some of the native birds of New Zealand. It was actually really interesting and I really enjoyed having the narration! At 1:15 we arrived in Milford and boarded our cruise. It was a small boat, which is ideal for navigating the sound, and although it was quite cold, free coffee and tea were provided and the sun was shining, so we were able to enjoy it and get out on deck for picture taking.
Back to the whole Fjord vs. Sound discrepency. Milford Sound was NAMED before they realized that it was in fact a fjord (carved by glaciers, not a river) and they decided to just leave the name alone because too many things would have to change. We both enjoyed the cruise (we were a teeny bit disappointed that because of their dry winter the waterfalls were minimized). The best part came very close to the end when we spotted a pod of bottle nose dolphins! The boat drove up close to them for pictures and we saw some mom and baby dolphins swimming together! One dolphin swam at the front of the boat in the wake...I was within 5 ft of it! We have some pictures, but they don't really do it justice!
After the cruise, we boarded the bus again. For the drive home, there were fewer stops and no commentary. Instead, they played two New Zealand-made films, Whale Rider and The World's Fastest Indian. Mari had seen Whale Rider, but I hadn't and I really enjoyed it (highly recommend renting it if you haven't seen it). The other movie was good as well and having the movies made the trip go much faster.
Back in Queenstown and exhausted from the long day, we had a glass of wine and went to bed (probably asleep by 9:30!)
Q-town & glacier country
Okay, now that we're back at the fabulous Hotel SO in Christchurch with it's free internet I'll try to pick up where we left off. So, since we got a couple comments on the sleep/wake lighting I will tell you that it is GREAT and I will be seriously considering the natural alarm clocks or whatever they're called at Sharper Image.
We arrived in Queenstown mid morning, rented a car and basically just explored the town for the day. We walked down the hill from our hotel and just wandered around for a few hours looking at the restaurant menus and browsing the shops. Queenstown is definitely known as the adrenaline capitol because there are endless fear-inducing activities here like the original bungee jump, skydiving, ziplines, jetboating and many many more! We were definitely the oddballs since we weren't there for the crazy adventures or skiing/boarding like everyone else. But we enjoyed Queenstown a lot; it reminded us a lot of Whistler up in BC. The town is literally surrounded by mountains and sits on the edge of a big lake so everywhere you look it's gorgeous!
After wandering around and splitting a giant burger we drove about 20 minutes to Arrowtown which was originally a gold-mining town. We did a short hike outside Arrowtown that gave us great views of the entire valley. We definitely had to negotiate some mud but it was nice to be outside. When we got back to town we grabbed some soup and delicous garlic bread for dinner and had another early night. We debated joining one of the infamous Q-town pub crawls but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it! =)
July 28th--
Got up early to start the drive north to glacier country. The drive was gorgeous as we drove through the Otago wine country and it's rolling hills with mountains in the background (reminded us of eastern Oregon a bit). We stopped after a couple hours at Lake Wanaka to try a cafe we'd read about--Kai Whaka Pai--where we thoroughly enjoyed a couple of delicous desserts and some tea. The next part of the drive took us between lake Wanaka and lake Hawea (I think those are right but not totally sure!) and then through Mt. Aspiring National Park. We stopped to do a quick hike to see the "blue pools" which were quite pretty and a couple times for bathroom breaks (Michelle shouldn't have had so much tea!!) We finally made it up to Fox Glacier town around 3pm, checked into our hotel and immediately got back in the car to drive the additional 27km north to Franz Josef. We got there just in time to do the glacier view hike before dark and got within 60m of the terminal face of the glacier...and "face" is the right word for this one because it has three slits in it that look like two eyes and a mouth. After that we drove back to Fox to try a cafe that the guidebook said had won the NZ beef/lamb award a couple years ago. Unfortunately everyone and their brother showed up at Cafe Neve at the same time and we had to wait forever for our food. We were really debating an apricot pizza vs the steak special but since they'd won the award and the waiter recommended it we decided to go with the special; it was fine but definitely not award winning by any means and we wish we'd gotten the pizza!
July 29th--
I said we got up early yesterday, but today was REALLY early! We'd read in the guidebook that it was great to see Lake Matheson at sunrise so we decided to set our alarm for 5:30 (front desk said sunrise was around 6:30/6:45) so we'd be sure to catch it. We also decided to try running around the lake which we thought was probably 5-7km or so. We looked absolutely ridiculous wearing long underwear and running shorts and our fleeces but it was dark and we were the only ones there so we didn't really care! It really didn't look like sunrise was coming any time soon and it was cold out so we sat in the car for maybe 15-10 minutes before venturing out to the path. Armed with the camera bag and a little LED light we'd bought at REI we finally headed out on our adventure. We walked the first part until we were sure the path was pretty even and were thankful for the little LED and the almost full moon and decided to try running. It was actually kind of fun and since we had to pay so much attention to our path we didn't really notice the running part. =)
We got to the first viewpoint and you could just start to see light in the eastern sky so we decided to keep running and come back to it later. We stopped at one or two other viewpoints to take pics but it was still pretty dark so we kept running. We were about thirty minutes in and running down a slight incline when BAM, my right ankle completely rolls and I crash to the ground in pretty significant pain. =( After a couple minutes I was able to limp on and turned down Michelle's offer of a piggy back ride. I encouraged Michelle to keep running since we were having such a good run so she just kept running out and back to me for a while. The trail eventually led us by this foggy cow pasture which was kind of ethereal with the mountains behind. My ankle wasn't hurting as much after a while and I insisted on walking back around to the first lookout spot because it was the best for pictures and we got some great shots of the mountains reflecting in the lake that I can't wait to post for you all!
When we got back to the hotel and showered I taped my ankle up and we hopped in the car to drive down to see the Fox Glacier. We'd planned on a hike but decided driving down the glacier view road would suffice and be better for my sad little ankle. Then we continued our drive south stopping at a couple of quick viewpoints and a waterfall. The drive back went faster without all the bathroom stops and we were happy to make it back to Otago wine country before all the wineries had closed! So we stopped at a few different places and really enjoyed the Wooing Tree, Mt. Difficulty and the Chard Farm wineries. The guy at the Chard Farm was great because they closed at 5 and we got there at like 4:58 just hoping to try like one thing and he gave us the full tasting and chatted our ears off until like 5:45! We bought too much wine and aren't totally sure we'll be able to get it all back! We still need to look into the US and Fiji restrictions and may end up having to pay a bit of tax on them but are hoping for a friendly customs officer. =)
I think that pretty much sums up Queenstown and glacier country and Michelle is writing about our trip to Milford Sound and today. Not sure when that will go up though because she just wrote the whole post and then the computer she was on froze. =( Hope this gives all of you some good reading material in the meantime.
We're heading out now to go watch the All Blacks take on the Wallabies in the tri-nations test match! Woohoo!
We arrived in Queenstown mid morning, rented a car and basically just explored the town for the day. We walked down the hill from our hotel and just wandered around for a few hours looking at the restaurant menus and browsing the shops. Queenstown is definitely known as the adrenaline capitol because there are endless fear-inducing activities here like the original bungee jump, skydiving, ziplines, jetboating and many many more! We were definitely the oddballs since we weren't there for the crazy adventures or skiing/boarding like everyone else. But we enjoyed Queenstown a lot; it reminded us a lot of Whistler up in BC. The town is literally surrounded by mountains and sits on the edge of a big lake so everywhere you look it's gorgeous!
After wandering around and splitting a giant burger we drove about 20 minutes to Arrowtown which was originally a gold-mining town. We did a short hike outside Arrowtown that gave us great views of the entire valley. We definitely had to negotiate some mud but it was nice to be outside. When we got back to town we grabbed some soup and delicous garlic bread for dinner and had another early night. We debated joining one of the infamous Q-town pub crawls but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it! =)
July 28th--
Got up early to start the drive north to glacier country. The drive was gorgeous as we drove through the Otago wine country and it's rolling hills with mountains in the background (reminded us of eastern Oregon a bit). We stopped after a couple hours at Lake Wanaka to try a cafe we'd read about--Kai Whaka Pai--where we thoroughly enjoyed a couple of delicous desserts and some tea. The next part of the drive took us between lake Wanaka and lake Hawea (I think those are right but not totally sure!) and then through Mt. Aspiring National Park. We stopped to do a quick hike to see the "blue pools" which were quite pretty and a couple times for bathroom breaks (Michelle shouldn't have had so much tea!!) We finally made it up to Fox Glacier town around 3pm, checked into our hotel and immediately got back in the car to drive the additional 27km north to Franz Josef. We got there just in time to do the glacier view hike before dark and got within 60m of the terminal face of the glacier...and "face" is the right word for this one because it has three slits in it that look like two eyes and a mouth. After that we drove back to Fox to try a cafe that the guidebook said had won the NZ beef/lamb award a couple years ago. Unfortunately everyone and their brother showed up at Cafe Neve at the same time and we had to wait forever for our food. We were really debating an apricot pizza vs the steak special but since they'd won the award and the waiter recommended it we decided to go with the special; it was fine but definitely not award winning by any means and we wish we'd gotten the pizza!
July 29th--
I said we got up early yesterday, but today was REALLY early! We'd read in the guidebook that it was great to see Lake Matheson at sunrise so we decided to set our alarm for 5:30 (front desk said sunrise was around 6:30/6:45) so we'd be sure to catch it. We also decided to try running around the lake which we thought was probably 5-7km or so. We looked absolutely ridiculous wearing long underwear and running shorts and our fleeces but it was dark and we were the only ones there so we didn't really care! It really didn't look like sunrise was coming any time soon and it was cold out so we sat in the car for maybe 15-10 minutes before venturing out to the path. Armed with the camera bag and a little LED light we'd bought at REI we finally headed out on our adventure. We walked the first part until we were sure the path was pretty even and were thankful for the little LED and the almost full moon and decided to try running. It was actually kind of fun and since we had to pay so much attention to our path we didn't really notice the running part. =)
We got to the first viewpoint and you could just start to see light in the eastern sky so we decided to keep running and come back to it later. We stopped at one or two other viewpoints to take pics but it was still pretty dark so we kept running. We were about thirty minutes in and running down a slight incline when BAM, my right ankle completely rolls and I crash to the ground in pretty significant pain. =( After a couple minutes I was able to limp on and turned down Michelle's offer of a piggy back ride. I encouraged Michelle to keep running since we were having such a good run so she just kept running out and back to me for a while. The trail eventually led us by this foggy cow pasture which was kind of ethereal with the mountains behind. My ankle wasn't hurting as much after a while and I insisted on walking back around to the first lookout spot because it was the best for pictures and we got some great shots of the mountains reflecting in the lake that I can't wait to post for you all!
When we got back to the hotel and showered I taped my ankle up and we hopped in the car to drive down to see the Fox Glacier. We'd planned on a hike but decided driving down the glacier view road would suffice and be better for my sad little ankle. Then we continued our drive south stopping at a couple of quick viewpoints and a waterfall. The drive back went faster without all the bathroom stops and we were happy to make it back to Otago wine country before all the wineries had closed! So we stopped at a few different places and really enjoyed the Wooing Tree, Mt. Difficulty and the Chard Farm wineries. The guy at the Chard Farm was great because they closed at 5 and we got there at like 4:58 just hoping to try like one thing and he gave us the full tasting and chatted our ears off until like 5:45! We bought too much wine and aren't totally sure we'll be able to get it all back! We still need to look into the US and Fiji restrictions and may end up having to pay a bit of tax on them but are hoping for a friendly customs officer. =)
I think that pretty much sums up Queenstown and glacier country and Michelle is writing about our trip to Milford Sound and today. Not sure when that will go up though because she just wrote the whole post and then the computer she was on froze. =( Hope this gives all of you some good reading material in the meantime.
We're heading out now to go watch the All Blacks take on the Wallabies in the tri-nations test match! Woohoo!
Friday, July 30, 2010
last 24 hours in NZ!
We'll catch up a bit more later tonight when we get back to Hotel SO in Christchurch (free internet) but wanted to let everyone know we're still alive and well. =) We've had a great time on the South Island and have enjoyed our time in Queenstown. We are hopping on a quick flight to Christchurch now and have the next 24 hours to explore the city before leaving for Fiji tomorrow at 1pm. We are excited for tonight because the All Blacks play the Wallabies tonight at 10pm and we're going to go watch it at the Holy Grail Sports Bar with lots of crazy kiwi fans. =)
Hard to believe our time in NZ is almost up but we've enjoyed our time here! More later..
Hard to believe our time in NZ is almost up but we've enjoyed our time here! More later..
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wine Tasting and Whale Watching
more W's...man, NZ must be the land of W's....
Anyway, yesterday (7/25) we woke up in Picton, booked our whale watching trip for 7/26, rented a car, and headed for Marlborough wine country. When we got close to the winery area, we decided that since the sun was shining we should rent some bikes to get some exercise and fresh air during our wine tasting. We found a backpacker's hostel and adventure center called Swampy's with bikes for hire. It took a while to find the person in charge, but we finally found him (Swampy, himself). We rented our bikes for $25 each, ate a PBJ lunch and rode off toward the wineries. 5 wineries later we were a little worse for wear and it had little to do with the wine tasting. The sun had disappeared and the wind picked up and suddenly, the bikes didn't seem like such a good idea. We decided we'd check out a couple more places and then call Swampy to pick us up! :) Our favorite winery in NZ so far was the 2nd one on our tour, Cloudy Bay. I fell in love with the place before we even tried the wine, and then the wine didn't disappoint. Mari and I both liked SO MANY that we even considered shipping some home (the hefty price tag brought us back to our senses, but SERIOUSLY...it was good). There was just something a little...different about all the wines. There wasn't ONE we sipped and said, "this tastes like a typical ______ (insert wine varietal here)." We ended up purchasing a DESSERT wine and anyone who knows MY taste in wine knows that it MUST have been impressive because I do NOT LIKE dessert wine!
After our last winery, we called Swampy and he was happy to pick us up. He asked if we were in a rush and we said no, so he stopped by his son's house and we met his son, his son's wife and their two boys (6 & 1). The kids were adorable and it was pretty fun to just be sitting in a house with a family and chatting!
Eventually we hit the road and made it to Kaikoura around 7. It's a very small town and when we asked at the hotel where we should eat dinner, he said "well there won't be much open now..." YIKES...at 7??? So, we picked up a burger and an order of fish and chips and ate it back at the hotel. We were in bed by 8:30. whoa.
7/26-
Today was whale watching day!! We woke up early (easy to do when you go to bed at 8:30) and went for a run, ate breakfast (with more instant coffee) in our room and drove to the whale watching center. After a quick walk on the beach and a safety briefing, we boarded the bus, which took us to the boat. The water was really calm (perfect because we were a little nervous about being sea-sick). Whale watching was GREAT!! We saw 6 or 7 sperm whales. They were huge and when they left the surface to dive really deep for food, their tales came out of the water for PERFECT picture taking :) We also caught a glimpse of a humpback, some seals and a few albatross. It was a very successful trip!
After whale watching, we drove back North about 20 minutes to see a viewpoint recommended by the woman at the hostel in Picton (it was dark the night before, so we couldn't see it then). We saw SO MANY seals there!!! The ones near the ocean were mostly just basking on rocks, but there were literally hundreds! Then we hiked up a bit along a freshwater stream to a waterfall. Along the way, we saw a few seals playing in the stream and even got within 3 ft of one basking on the path! When we reached the waterfall, we saw at least 50 more seals playing in the pool at the base of the falls. They were jumping and spinning all over the place. It was so fun to watch them! It was a good thing that it was quite chilly out or we never would have left!
Finally we got back on the road for our drive to Christchurch. PBJ for lunch again. (getting kind of sick of PBJ at this point) We stopped at a winery about 40 min North of Christchurch and enjoyed a tasting. We bought a light Pinot Noir. It was good, but not SO AMAZING. We won't be transporting this one home...it's definitely for drinking in NZ. Unfortunately, the cafe at the winery (it advertised fancy gourmet pies) was closed, so we had to press on to Christchurch before we could get dinner.
Arriving in Christchurch was stressful. We tried to check in at our hotel only to realize that we had accidentally booked for the 25th...and it was the 26th. After a stressfull 30 -40 min, we just decided to stop worrying, rebook for tonight and just...let the mistake go. It's hard to make that kind of mistake, but the money just wasn't worth the stress.
After checking in, we walked around looking for a place for dinner, but decided to just get food at the hotel and it turned out to be a great idea as the pasta dishes we ordered were DELICIOUS! We opened our wine to enjoy some with dinner and it was quite lovely.
Our room here is pretty great. I feel like I can't describe it well, so we'll post pics at some point, but just so you get an idea, there's sleep lighting and wake up lighting. SO you can set an alarm for...say 6am, and it starts getting a little lighter a little before 6 am...just gradually and then the TV comes on to some nature scene, like a beach with crashing waves or something. The reverse is true for the sleep lighting. When you set the sleep timer, it starts bright and gets gradually darker, lulling you to sleep. It's pretty great...we'll let you know how it works after tomorrow!
Good night from Christchurch!
Anyway, yesterday (7/25) we woke up in Picton, booked our whale watching trip for 7/26, rented a car, and headed for Marlborough wine country. When we got close to the winery area, we decided that since the sun was shining we should rent some bikes to get some exercise and fresh air during our wine tasting. We found a backpacker's hostel and adventure center called Swampy's with bikes for hire. It took a while to find the person in charge, but we finally found him (Swampy, himself). We rented our bikes for $25 each, ate a PBJ lunch and rode off toward the wineries. 5 wineries later we were a little worse for wear and it had little to do with the wine tasting. The sun had disappeared and the wind picked up and suddenly, the bikes didn't seem like such a good idea. We decided we'd check out a couple more places and then call Swampy to pick us up! :) Our favorite winery in NZ so far was the 2nd one on our tour, Cloudy Bay. I fell in love with the place before we even tried the wine, and then the wine didn't disappoint. Mari and I both liked SO MANY that we even considered shipping some home (the hefty price tag brought us back to our senses, but SERIOUSLY...it was good). There was just something a little...different about all the wines. There wasn't ONE we sipped and said, "this tastes like a typical ______ (insert wine varietal here)." We ended up purchasing a DESSERT wine and anyone who knows MY taste in wine knows that it MUST have been impressive because I do NOT LIKE dessert wine!
After our last winery, we called Swampy and he was happy to pick us up. He asked if we were in a rush and we said no, so he stopped by his son's house and we met his son, his son's wife and their two boys (6 & 1). The kids were adorable and it was pretty fun to just be sitting in a house with a family and chatting!
Eventually we hit the road and made it to Kaikoura around 7. It's a very small town and when we asked at the hotel where we should eat dinner, he said "well there won't be much open now..." YIKES...at 7??? So, we picked up a burger and an order of fish and chips and ate it back at the hotel. We were in bed by 8:30. whoa.
7/26-
Today was whale watching day!! We woke up early (easy to do when you go to bed at 8:30) and went for a run, ate breakfast (with more instant coffee) in our room and drove to the whale watching center. After a quick walk on the beach and a safety briefing, we boarded the bus, which took us to the boat. The water was really calm (perfect because we were a little nervous about being sea-sick). Whale watching was GREAT!! We saw 6 or 7 sperm whales. They were huge and when they left the surface to dive really deep for food, their tales came out of the water for PERFECT picture taking :) We also caught a glimpse of a humpback, some seals and a few albatross. It was a very successful trip!
After whale watching, we drove back North about 20 minutes to see a viewpoint recommended by the woman at the hostel in Picton (it was dark the night before, so we couldn't see it then). We saw SO MANY seals there!!! The ones near the ocean were mostly just basking on rocks, but there were literally hundreds! Then we hiked up a bit along a freshwater stream to a waterfall. Along the way, we saw a few seals playing in the stream and even got within 3 ft of one basking on the path! When we reached the waterfall, we saw at least 50 more seals playing in the pool at the base of the falls. They were jumping and spinning all over the place. It was so fun to watch them! It was a good thing that it was quite chilly out or we never would have left!
Finally we got back on the road for our drive to Christchurch. PBJ for lunch again. (getting kind of sick of PBJ at this point) We stopped at a winery about 40 min North of Christchurch and enjoyed a tasting. We bought a light Pinot Noir. It was good, but not SO AMAZING. We won't be transporting this one home...it's definitely for drinking in NZ. Unfortunately, the cafe at the winery (it advertised fancy gourmet pies) was closed, so we had to press on to Christchurch before we could get dinner.
Arriving in Christchurch was stressful. We tried to check in at our hotel only to realize that we had accidentally booked for the 25th...and it was the 26th. After a stressfull 30 -40 min, we just decided to stop worrying, rebook for tonight and just...let the mistake go. It's hard to make that kind of mistake, but the money just wasn't worth the stress.
After checking in, we walked around looking for a place for dinner, but decided to just get food at the hotel and it turned out to be a great idea as the pasta dishes we ordered were DELICIOUS! We opened our wine to enjoy some with dinner and it was quite lovely.
Our room here is pretty great. I feel like I can't describe it well, so we'll post pics at some point, but just so you get an idea, there's sleep lighting and wake up lighting. SO you can set an alarm for...say 6am, and it starts getting a little lighter a little before 6 am...just gradually and then the TV comes on to some nature scene, like a beach with crashing waves or something. The reverse is true for the sleep lighting. When you set the sleep timer, it starts bright and gets gradually darker, lulling you to sleep. It's pretty great...we'll let you know how it works after tomorrow!
Good night from Christchurch!
Missing key and Ferry ride
July 24 - the morning started with a lovely breakfast with Mel and Bryce and went SWIFTLY downhill when we realized that we couldn't find the rental car key. After 2 hr of looking -- Mari tried to break into the car for over an hour and Michelle spent time on the phone with AA and a locksmith -- Michelle found the key in the purse that had already been emptied TWICE while looking. We decided it had too many pockets!! We were relieved to find it, but sad that we had lost so much time. We lost a little more while trying to find a gas station so that we could return the car with a full tank, but in finding a gas station, we also found our first pie. Happy Barney?? I have to admit that it tasted like a hot pocket, so I wasn't too thrilled, but I can imagine that if drunk, I would have found it much more delicious! :)
After dropping the car, we rode the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and walked back down to the city and then to the Te Papa museum. It had a LOT of interesting information about Maori culture, so Mari and I both enjoyed it. There was an exhibit called Tapa cloth made from the bark of trees and used by many islanders. It was pretty amazing. After the museum we met Mel and Bryce for a quick trip to the Ferry. We were freezing at the time and hoping the ferry would be warmer!
The ferry WAS warmer, but a little rocky (Mari wasn't a fan). Originally, rugby was on TV, so we were just sitting in the cafe area enjoying that, but it went off as soon as we started moving. :( At the same time, we realized that we had two bottles of wine in our checked baggage...we hadn't done ANYTHING to protect it. Although we knew there was NOTHING we could do, we couldn't stop thinking and worrying about it, so we decided to splurge and bought $12 (NZ dollar = 71 cents US) tickets to the cinema on board. Turned out we were the only ones, so we had the theater to ourselves for a showing of Sex and the City 2. While not very thought-provoking, the movie was quite entertaining and time definitely passed more quickly.
We arrived in Picton 3 hrs after boarding the ferry and were picked up by a shuttle to our hostel -- Villa Backpackers. It was nice... definitely a backpacker place, but well cared for. We were given hot apple crisp with ice cream after check in, and made some lovely instant coffee to go with it (we are becoming instant coffee connoisseurs on this trip!!) . Then we popped some laundry in and walked to the TV room to turn on the Australia v. S. Africa tri-nations match. It was a good game despite Australia having quite a lead at the beginning.
With some clean clothes and happy bellies, we went to bed kinda late our first night in Picton, but we were only planning on driving the couple hours from Picton to Kaikoura the next day, so we weren't in a big rush. We enjoyed our night at the backpacker's inn, but are looking forward to some hotels with private baths in the coming week. (spoiled, I know.)
After dropping the car, we rode the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and walked back down to the city and then to the Te Papa museum. It had a LOT of interesting information about Maori culture, so Mari and I both enjoyed it. There was an exhibit called Tapa cloth made from the bark of trees and used by many islanders. It was pretty amazing. After the museum we met Mel and Bryce for a quick trip to the Ferry. We were freezing at the time and hoping the ferry would be warmer!
The ferry WAS warmer, but a little rocky (Mari wasn't a fan). Originally, rugby was on TV, so we were just sitting in the cafe area enjoying that, but it went off as soon as we started moving. :( At the same time, we realized that we had two bottles of wine in our checked baggage...we hadn't done ANYTHING to protect it. Although we knew there was NOTHING we could do, we couldn't stop thinking and worrying about it, so we decided to splurge and bought $12 (NZ dollar = 71 cents US) tickets to the cinema on board. Turned out we were the only ones, so we had the theater to ourselves for a showing of Sex and the City 2. While not very thought-provoking, the movie was quite entertaining and time definitely passed more quickly.
We arrived in Picton 3 hrs after boarding the ferry and were picked up by a shuttle to our hostel -- Villa Backpackers. It was nice... definitely a backpacker place, but well cared for. We were given hot apple crisp with ice cream after check in, and made some lovely instant coffee to go with it (we are becoming instant coffee connoisseurs on this trip!!) . Then we popped some laundry in and walked to the TV room to turn on the Australia v. S. Africa tri-nations match. It was a good game despite Australia having quite a lead at the beginning.
With some clean clothes and happy bellies, we went to bed kinda late our first night in Picton, but we were only planning on driving the couple hours from Picton to Kaikoura the next day, so we weren't in a big rush. We enjoyed our night at the backpacker's inn, but are looking forward to some hotels with private baths in the coming week. (spoiled, I know.)
Friday, July 23, 2010
wet weather on the winding woads to wellington
like my alliteration? I was planning this title during our drive today and meant to say "wet weather on the winding roads to wellington," but what actually came out was the title above...guess alliteration just takes over sometimes!
We woke up this morning to a gorgeous sunrise in Napier (that makes it sound like we were really on top of things and up early, but it was 7:30). We went for a run on the waterfront and then to the gym across the street from the hotel for some extra workout. I didn't want to, but I remembered Barney telling us not to be lazy, so I did it. Mari was actually able to run with a taped up foot, so that was exciting!
After our workout, we went back to the hotel and ate a quick breakfast (yet another cereal and yogurt day) and then headed off on the drive from Napier to Wellington. We were following the wine trail and had plans to stop at a couple wineries along the way. We were sad to drive away from the sunshine in Napier...as soon as we got out of town, the cloud cover and wind started up and in the afternoon, rain came as well. It made the drive take a little longer and we only made it to two wineries before they closed, but we enjoyed the first one a lot and ended up buying two bottles. (one for our hosts in Wellington!)
We drove into Wellington around 5:30 and met with Mel and Bryce (friends of Ruth and Keira). It's so nice to have a "home" to stay at for tonight with excellent hosts. We drove down into the city for dinner at a Mexican restaurant...passionfruit margaritas!! After dinner Mel took us to her favorite gelato place. We are STUFFED now! We had a great time and really enjoyed chatting about our travels and showing off some trip pictures.
We're going to do some exploring in Wellington tomorrow before taking the ferry to South Island. Looking forward to the beautiful scenery, but not the drop in temperature. We're already wearing most of our layers...today we both have a tank top, a tshirt, and a long sleeve shirt on (in addition to our fleeces and sometimes our rain jackets). The long underwear haven't made an appearance yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of a couple days. We've been hunting for something cheap to add to our wardrobe...a jacket, vest or sweatshirt, but have been failing so far.
Wish we could put up some pictures, but somewhere between Chiang Mai and Auckland, we seem to have misplaced our USB card reader. :( We'll have to share the remaining pics from home.
Time to say goodnight! Although we know we should get up and run in the morning, we're lying in bed right now listening to the wind and rain and thinking that sleeping in sounds a whole lot better. Maybe the weather will clear for an afternoon hike??
miss you!
We woke up this morning to a gorgeous sunrise in Napier (that makes it sound like we were really on top of things and up early, but it was 7:30). We went for a run on the waterfront and then to the gym across the street from the hotel for some extra workout. I didn't want to, but I remembered Barney telling us not to be lazy, so I did it. Mari was actually able to run with a taped up foot, so that was exciting!
After our workout, we went back to the hotel and ate a quick breakfast (yet another cereal and yogurt day) and then headed off on the drive from Napier to Wellington. We were following the wine trail and had plans to stop at a couple wineries along the way. We were sad to drive away from the sunshine in Napier...as soon as we got out of town, the cloud cover and wind started up and in the afternoon, rain came as well. It made the drive take a little longer and we only made it to two wineries before they closed, but we enjoyed the first one a lot and ended up buying two bottles. (one for our hosts in Wellington!)
We drove into Wellington around 5:30 and met with Mel and Bryce (friends of Ruth and Keira). It's so nice to have a "home" to stay at for tonight with excellent hosts. We drove down into the city for dinner at a Mexican restaurant...passionfruit margaritas!! After dinner Mel took us to her favorite gelato place. We are STUFFED now! We had a great time and really enjoyed chatting about our travels and showing off some trip pictures.
We're going to do some exploring in Wellington tomorrow before taking the ferry to South Island. Looking forward to the beautiful scenery, but not the drop in temperature. We're already wearing most of our layers...today we both have a tank top, a tshirt, and a long sleeve shirt on (in addition to our fleeces and sometimes our rain jackets). The long underwear haven't made an appearance yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of a couple days. We've been hunting for something cheap to add to our wardrobe...a jacket, vest or sweatshirt, but have been failing so far.
Wish we could put up some pictures, but somewhere between Chiang Mai and Auckland, we seem to have misplaced our USB card reader. :( We'll have to share the remaining pics from home.
Time to say goodnight! Although we know we should get up and run in the morning, we're lying in bed right now listening to the wind and rain and thinking that sleeping in sounds a whole lot better. Maybe the weather will clear for an afternoon hike??
miss you!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
anti-clockwise and press ups
July 21 and 22-
On the 21st, we woke up around 7 and I went for a run (I've promised to work out more in NZ, where it's not a million degrees) while Mari packed up our stuff and got some food ready. After eating a quick breakfast in our room, we started our drive to Rotorua. We went to Whakareware Thermal Village and a Maori guide gave us a tour of the village. We were so impressed with the kitchen part! It was a communal kitchen. The "microwave" was a box in the ground that used the steam from the thermal vents and anything that couldn't be cooked there was thrown in some sort of bag with a string attached and tossed into the thermal pools until it's cooked!
After the tour, we drove around a bit trying to find our hotel. We saw a shopping center and thought we'd stop in and see if we could find some sort of Target-ish store so we could get winter hats and gloves. What we found was even better! A $2 store!! We picked up New Zealand beanies and belts for our jeans there. We also found $2 gloves at a different store and grabbed some groceries. After settling in at the hotel and buying dinner, we went to the Polynesian Spa. It was a bunch of Geothermal pools at varying temperatures 38 - 42 degrees C. It was LOVELY and so relaxing!
This morning, we got up and started driving again. We drove to Napier via Taupo with a stop at Waiotapu Geothermal wonderland on our way out of town. :) We stood in the pouring rain to watch the Knox Geyser erupt and then hiked out to see the Champagne pool and other craters and pools. There was one that was the color of...how to describe it... it was...somewhere between a yellow and a green highlighter. Even seeing it in person, we couldn't believe that was a natural color, so I'm sure you won't believe the pictures either! We also stopped quickly at Huka Falls outside of Taupo. The water at the falls was a gorgeous blue-green color!
It was still gray and rainy when we got to Taupo, so we just continued our drive. The drive from Taupo to Napier was gorgeous! We got off the road at a "scenic lookout" (it had no other signage OR a mention in the guidebook) to find a HUGE beautiful waterfall. We were so happy we had pulled off to see it!
On our way into Napier, we stopped at Esk Valley Estates Winery. The woman there, Sue, was very friendly, and we chatted more about traveling than about wine, but we tasted 7 different wines and were shocked to find that our favorite was the Chardonnay. We bought a bottle and drove into town to get the winery map. Sadly, we learned that most of the tasting rooms closed at 5 and it was 4. We rushed to one more, Mission Estate Winery (the oldest winery in NZ). We tasted quite a few there (Mari more than me...I can't handle the sweet wines, called "stickies" here). We didn't buy a bottle there as the really good ones were a little pricey AND they sell the less expensive wines in grocery stores all over NZ for about $10, so we figured we'd stop and get one later on.
Even though we figured it would be closed, we drove out to one more, Craggy Range Winery, because the picture looked so pretty. The drive was longer than we thought, but it WAS gorgeous. The winery itself was very pretty, but the mountain range backlit by the setting sun was even more amazing! We drove back to Napier and ate at a Turkish place suggested by the person from Mission Estates winery. It was great food and not too expensive, so we were happy with it. We stopped here at this internet cafe to check in and now we're off to bed.
Tomorrow's plan is to drive to Wellington and catch up with Ruth and Keira's friend, Mel. We're excited to meet her!
OH! I realize I forgot to explain the title. When Mari and I played for ORSU, Jarred always made us do press ups and would have us run clockwise and anti-clockwise. Now that we're here, we're the odd ones who push ups and counterclockwise! :)
On the 21st, we woke up around 7 and I went for a run (I've promised to work out more in NZ, where it's not a million degrees) while Mari packed up our stuff and got some food ready. After eating a quick breakfast in our room, we started our drive to Rotorua. We went to Whakareware Thermal Village and a Maori guide gave us a tour of the village. We were so impressed with the kitchen part! It was a communal kitchen. The "microwave" was a box in the ground that used the steam from the thermal vents and anything that couldn't be cooked there was thrown in some sort of bag with a string attached and tossed into the thermal pools until it's cooked!
After the tour, we drove around a bit trying to find our hotel. We saw a shopping center and thought we'd stop in and see if we could find some sort of Target-ish store so we could get winter hats and gloves. What we found was even better! A $2 store!! We picked up New Zealand beanies and belts for our jeans there. We also found $2 gloves at a different store and grabbed some groceries. After settling in at the hotel and buying dinner, we went to the Polynesian Spa. It was a bunch of Geothermal pools at varying temperatures 38 - 42 degrees C. It was LOVELY and so relaxing!
This morning, we got up and started driving again. We drove to Napier via Taupo with a stop at Waiotapu Geothermal wonderland on our way out of town. :) We stood in the pouring rain to watch the Knox Geyser erupt and then hiked out to see the Champagne pool and other craters and pools. There was one that was the color of...how to describe it... it was...somewhere between a yellow and a green highlighter. Even seeing it in person, we couldn't believe that was a natural color, so I'm sure you won't believe the pictures either! We also stopped quickly at Huka Falls outside of Taupo. The water at the falls was a gorgeous blue-green color!
It was still gray and rainy when we got to Taupo, so we just continued our drive. The drive from Taupo to Napier was gorgeous! We got off the road at a "scenic lookout" (it had no other signage OR a mention in the guidebook) to find a HUGE beautiful waterfall. We were so happy we had pulled off to see it!
On our way into Napier, we stopped at Esk Valley Estates Winery. The woman there, Sue, was very friendly, and we chatted more about traveling than about wine, but we tasted 7 different wines and were shocked to find that our favorite was the Chardonnay. We bought a bottle and drove into town to get the winery map. Sadly, we learned that most of the tasting rooms closed at 5 and it was 4. We rushed to one more, Mission Estate Winery (the oldest winery in NZ). We tasted quite a few there (Mari more than me...I can't handle the sweet wines, called "stickies" here). We didn't buy a bottle there as the really good ones were a little pricey AND they sell the less expensive wines in grocery stores all over NZ for about $10, so we figured we'd stop and get one later on.
Even though we figured it would be closed, we drove out to one more, Craggy Range Winery, because the picture looked so pretty. The drive was longer than we thought, but it WAS gorgeous. The winery itself was very pretty, but the mountain range backlit by the setting sun was even more amazing! We drove back to Napier and ate at a Turkish place suggested by the person from Mission Estates winery. It was great food and not too expensive, so we were happy with it. We stopped here at this internet cafe to check in and now we're off to bed.
Tomorrow's plan is to drive to Wellington and catch up with Ruth and Keira's friend, Mel. We're excited to meet her!
OH! I realize I forgot to explain the title. When Mari and I played for ORSU, Jarred always made us do press ups and would have us run clockwise and anti-clockwise. Now that we're here, we're the odd ones who push ups and counterclockwise! :)
Bangkok to Auckland
July 18th (cont...) After sightseeing during the day, we went to backpacker central, Koh San Rd. We felt like we had to at least SEE it. It was, as expected, full of souvenir stands, hotels, and hostels, but also some CHEAP street food. We were quite excited to find spring rolls for 10B each and mango sticky rice for 25B (an ENTIRE mango was cut up on top...all for less than a dollar).
We then walked (and it was NOT close) all the way to the fancy mall in Bangkok, the Siam Paragon. Both Matt and Ton had told us about going to see a movie there and paying US prices, but having an open bar and some food included. WELL...we went, and read all the signs and asked 3 or 4 employees to explain the tickets to us. After about 35 minutes, we gave up. Although we both realized that this was NOT a big deal, I think homesickness set in a bit at this point. The frustration of not being able to communicate and not being in charge of our own transportation (unless we walked) and just living in the unfamiliar just seemed overwhelming at that moment. We calmed ourselves with a huge diet coke and an hour at an internet cafe.
Then we decided that we were going to have fun despite our setback and we walked into a 7-11 and bought quite a few treats that we would NOT find at a 7-11 in the states. We enjoyed the treats and some Thai wine coolers (it was the best we could do at 7-11) in our hotel room while playing yahtze. It was pretty hilarious.
July 19th-
Quick summary - we shopped.
A little more detail - we figured if we were going to shop, Thailand was the place to do it, so we had a Thai shopping spree day. We picked up some souvenirs and both bought jeans for NZ. Mari liked so many that she finally narrowed it down to 3 (that's right. Mari bought 3 pairs of Thai jeans). They tailor them right at the shop, and her tailoring turned into a fiasco. They were too short, then they fixed them...still too short. They ended up giving her new pairs of all 3 and shoving her out of the shop. They're a little long, but I guess we'll fix that at home. :)
We left Bangkok at 7:30 pm for our 12 hour flight to Bangkok. We LOVED Thai airlines and wish we were flying with them again.: great service, great Thai food and screens at each seat for movie watching, game playing, etc...It turned out to be great for me because, despite being a great sleeper on this trip, I did NOT sleep on this flight. (maybe ONE hour) Mari and I both watched Alice in Wonderland and the Temple Grandin movie. I also watched a TV program about Thai cooking and a couple other things. In the morning, we started Avatar, but didn't have time to finish it before we landed.
Our first day in NZ was pretty relaxed. We took our time getting organized at the airport and talked to the visitor information booth people about our plans. Then we went to rent a car...Mari agreed to take the first driving shift. Driving on the left hasn't been TOO bad for either of us. The hardest thing for BOTH of us is remembering that the turn signal lever is on the other side of the steering wheel. We always turn the wipers on when we want to turn!
In Auckland, we drove toward Mt. Eden and grabbed a sandwich and some soup at a deli on our way. Our first intro to NZ was a good one. The women at the deli gave us two DELICIOUS blueberry, lemon muffins for free! We took our food up to Mt. Eden and enjoyed watching the sun begin to set over Auckland. We both spied Eden Park Stadium from there and thought about how great it would be if the US had rugby stadiums... :)
Other than a little more driving around, that's pretty much all we did in Auckland. We are SO glad we have jeans. It's quite cold and only going to get colder as we drive further South.
We then walked (and it was NOT close) all the way to the fancy mall in Bangkok, the Siam Paragon. Both Matt and Ton had told us about going to see a movie there and paying US prices, but having an open bar and some food included. WELL...we went, and read all the signs and asked 3 or 4 employees to explain the tickets to us. After about 35 minutes, we gave up. Although we both realized that this was NOT a big deal, I think homesickness set in a bit at this point. The frustration of not being able to communicate and not being in charge of our own transportation (unless we walked) and just living in the unfamiliar just seemed overwhelming at that moment. We calmed ourselves with a huge diet coke and an hour at an internet cafe.
Then we decided that we were going to have fun despite our setback and we walked into a 7-11 and bought quite a few treats that we would NOT find at a 7-11 in the states. We enjoyed the treats and some Thai wine coolers (it was the best we could do at 7-11) in our hotel room while playing yahtze. It was pretty hilarious.
July 19th-
Quick summary - we shopped.
A little more detail - we figured if we were going to shop, Thailand was the place to do it, so we had a Thai shopping spree day. We picked up some souvenirs and both bought jeans for NZ. Mari liked so many that she finally narrowed it down to 3 (that's right. Mari bought 3 pairs of Thai jeans). They tailor them right at the shop, and her tailoring turned into a fiasco. They were too short, then they fixed them...still too short. They ended up giving her new pairs of all 3 and shoving her out of the shop. They're a little long, but I guess we'll fix that at home. :)
We left Bangkok at 7:30 pm for our 12 hour flight to Bangkok. We LOVED Thai airlines and wish we were flying with them again.: great service, great Thai food and screens at each seat for movie watching, game playing, etc...It turned out to be great for me because, despite being a great sleeper on this trip, I did NOT sleep on this flight. (maybe ONE hour) Mari and I both watched Alice in Wonderland and the Temple Grandin movie. I also watched a TV program about Thai cooking and a couple other things. In the morning, we started Avatar, but didn't have time to finish it before we landed.
Our first day in NZ was pretty relaxed. We took our time getting organized at the airport and talked to the visitor information booth people about our plans. Then we went to rent a car...Mari agreed to take the first driving shift. Driving on the left hasn't been TOO bad for either of us. The hardest thing for BOTH of us is remembering that the turn signal lever is on the other side of the steering wheel. We always turn the wipers on when we want to turn!
In Auckland, we drove toward Mt. Eden and grabbed a sandwich and some soup at a deli on our way. Our first intro to NZ was a good one. The women at the deli gave us two DELICIOUS blueberry, lemon muffins for free! We took our food up to Mt. Eden and enjoyed watching the sun begin to set over Auckland. We both spied Eden Park Stadium from there and thought about how great it would be if the US had rugby stadiums... :)
Other than a little more driving around, that's pretty much all we did in Auckland. We are SO glad we have jeans. It's quite cold and only going to get colder as we drive further South.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
catching up on Thailand
This is going to be a bit condensed but I do have the notebook so I'll fill you in on the rest of our time in Thailand as best I can. We got up the morning of the 16th and walked over to the beach for a couple hours just to read and relax (still in the shade b/c of our burn). Then back to the hotel to pack up and head out. Stopped for a great lunch at a little stand and had the best pad thai and papaya salad for lunch. We both thought it was the best pad thai we'd ever had so we got another order to take with us.
Next was the crazy longtail boatride to Ao Nang! It was kind of rainy and cloudy and the sea was pretty choppy when there were finally enough people to fill our boat. Our boatman knew what he was doing but even so it was a little nerve-wracking and we got more than a little wet. Once in Ao Nang we walked around and found a guesthouse-PK mansion for 400B with A/C. We wandered around Ao Nang in the evening, did a little shopping and ate at a collection of street vendors. After dinner we were craving mango and sticky rice which was hard to find and cost more than our dinner by double!! But it was delicious and worth it!
July 17th--
This was basically one long travel day. Got up and took a nice walk on the beach and then at 10 we got in a songthaew (pick up with bench seats again) to take us to the Krabi bus station. From there we boarded a big bus (yay) to Surat Thani. It was a nasty rainy day and at one point it was pouring and the bus windows were leaky so suddenly Michelle was getting soaking wet. We switched for a bit since I had board shorts on but after a few minutes it was just too much and we moved to new seats farther back that were dry. We got dropped at a minor bus station in Surat Thani and of course got pounced on by tuk tuk drivers. We asked a travel agent aout getting to the train station later and she said there was a public bus that left after 30min so we should just go walk around the markets nearby. Unfortunately it was still pouring so that idea was not appealing! But in our quest to find food we stumbled onto a mall that had a KFC which worked out great. We'd been wanting to try their green curry chicken dish anyway so we got that and a spicy chicken with a dry curry rub. Both were actually quite delicious and better than anything we've had at KFC in the states. Since the rain continued KFC ended up being our refuge for the next 3 hours while we did a bunch of New Zealand planning.
At around 7pm we decided to head towards the train station. Unfortunately when we got to the bus station we were informed by 3 tuk tuk drivers that the bus didn't run after 7. We doubted them at first thinking they just wanted to trick us but after waiting 20 minutes and being told by yet another person that the bus was finished we decided to suck it up and take the songthaew. The first price they offered was 400B and we were like "no way" and started walking figuring we could get it cheaper if we weren't by the bus stop. About two blocks later the same drive tracked us down and said 100B for both. =) Sadly when we got to the train station we found out our train was delayed by an hour.
When we finally got on thr train we were a little sad to see that it wasn't as nice as our first train. The curtains were pink so they let in a lot of light and the train ride overall was quite rough...lots more jerking around. Neither of us slept much that night and were a little worse for wear when we finally made it back to Bangkok at 10am on the 18th.
July 18th-
Our travel woes weren't quite finished because we had trouble getting a taxi driver who would use his meter at the train station and decided to start walking to our hotel. It was probably a couple miles away and after maybe 3/4 of a mile we decided to try to flag down a taxi again. He did use his meter BUT didn't know where our hotel was and ended up dropping us off on the other end of the Old City! =( Argh! We'd both had it by then and stopped to ask where we were at a hotel. Luckily our next taxi driver did know the hotel and took us right there. The hotel was...well...worn is a nice way to put it. Despite being super exhausted we knew we had limited time in Bangkok so we dropped our bags and headed out to see the Old City highlights.
We went to the National Museum...not really worth it except for seeing these elaborate and HUGE funeral chariots. Next was the Royal Palace which was pretty cool to see and is just incredibly decked out in gold and super shiny. We'll post pictures at some point. Our last stop was at Wat Po to see the GIANT reclining buddha...SO HUGE!!
internet time is up! ah!
Next was the crazy longtail boatride to Ao Nang! It was kind of rainy and cloudy and the sea was pretty choppy when there were finally enough people to fill our boat. Our boatman knew what he was doing but even so it was a little nerve-wracking and we got more than a little wet. Once in Ao Nang we walked around and found a guesthouse-PK mansion for 400B with A/C. We wandered around Ao Nang in the evening, did a little shopping and ate at a collection of street vendors. After dinner we were craving mango and sticky rice which was hard to find and cost more than our dinner by double!! But it was delicious and worth it!
July 17th--
This was basically one long travel day. Got up and took a nice walk on the beach and then at 10 we got in a songthaew (pick up with bench seats again) to take us to the Krabi bus station. From there we boarded a big bus (yay) to Surat Thani. It was a nasty rainy day and at one point it was pouring and the bus windows were leaky so suddenly Michelle was getting soaking wet. We switched for a bit since I had board shorts on but after a few minutes it was just too much and we moved to new seats farther back that were dry. We got dropped at a minor bus station in Surat Thani and of course got pounced on by tuk tuk drivers. We asked a travel agent aout getting to the train station later and she said there was a public bus that left after 30min so we should just go walk around the markets nearby. Unfortunately it was still pouring so that idea was not appealing! But in our quest to find food we stumbled onto a mall that had a KFC which worked out great. We'd been wanting to try their green curry chicken dish anyway so we got that and a spicy chicken with a dry curry rub. Both were actually quite delicious and better than anything we've had at KFC in the states. Since the rain continued KFC ended up being our refuge for the next 3 hours while we did a bunch of New Zealand planning.
At around 7pm we decided to head towards the train station. Unfortunately when we got to the bus station we were informed by 3 tuk tuk drivers that the bus didn't run after 7. We doubted them at first thinking they just wanted to trick us but after waiting 20 minutes and being told by yet another person that the bus was finished we decided to suck it up and take the songthaew. The first price they offered was 400B and we were like "no way" and started walking figuring we could get it cheaper if we weren't by the bus stop. About two blocks later the same drive tracked us down and said 100B for both. =) Sadly when we got to the train station we found out our train was delayed by an hour.
When we finally got on thr train we were a little sad to see that it wasn't as nice as our first train. The curtains were pink so they let in a lot of light and the train ride overall was quite rough...lots more jerking around. Neither of us slept much that night and were a little worse for wear when we finally made it back to Bangkok at 10am on the 18th.
July 18th-
Our travel woes weren't quite finished because we had trouble getting a taxi driver who would use his meter at the train station and decided to start walking to our hotel. It was probably a couple miles away and after maybe 3/4 of a mile we decided to try to flag down a taxi again. He did use his meter BUT didn't know where our hotel was and ended up dropping us off on the other end of the Old City! =( Argh! We'd both had it by then and stopped to ask where we were at a hotel. Luckily our next taxi driver did know the hotel and took us right there. The hotel was...well...worn is a nice way to put it. Despite being super exhausted we knew we had limited time in Bangkok so we dropped our bags and headed out to see the Old City highlights.
We went to the National Museum...not really worth it except for seeing these elaborate and HUGE funeral chariots. Next was the Royal Palace which was pretty cool to see and is just incredibly decked out in gold and super shiny. We'll post pictures at some point. Our last stop was at Wat Po to see the GIANT reclining buddha...SO HUGE!!
internet time is up! ah!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Temperature shock here we come!
Well we are officially in New Zealand! Airport entry process took us like 2 hours because of the biosecurity process but we made it. Briefly uing a free internet terminal at the airport to find the best rate for a rental car! This is going to be an experience for sure--first time driving on the left!
We hope to have more internet access but not sure how soon. We've been taking notes in our notebook so we can catch you all up!
bye for now,
mari
We hope to have more internet access but not sure how soon. We've been taking notes in our notebook so we can catch you all up!
bye for now,
mari
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Back in Bangkok
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the lack of blogging. Internet keeps getting harder to come by. We're writing the stories down, but it might be a while before blogging again as we leave for New Zealand tomorrow and our 12-day itinerary is jam packed!! Really...we keep trying to cut things out so we have time to relax, but it's SO hard to prioritize! If you have suggestions, send us texts!!
We'll be back in the states Aug 6...hopefully you'll hear from us before that though!
Sorry for the lack of blogging. Internet keeps getting harder to come by. We're writing the stories down, but it might be a while before blogging again as we leave for New Zealand tomorrow and our 12-day itinerary is jam packed!! Really...we keep trying to cut things out so we have time to relax, but it's SO hard to prioritize! If you have suggestions, send us texts!!
We'll be back in the states Aug 6...hopefully you'll hear from us before that though!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Rai Leh...beach town
Michelle is simultaneously blogging about the travels south and the day before we arrived in the Pranang Cape area, specifically Rai Leh beaches. We had a fabulous boat trip to Ko Phi Phi and arrived at Rai Leh west around 3:30pm with our shoulders burnt to a crisp despite many many applications of sunscreen. =( This of course meant that schlepping our packs around felt just ducky! We didn't have place to stay yet so we just wandered around Rai Leh east (cheaper, not as nice side of the peninsula) looking at like 8 or 10 places and asking prices. We traipsed all over for almost 2 hours and then ironically settled on the first place we looked at splurging for an A/C bungalow for 500baht (~$15).
Once we showered and settled in we headed back to Rai Leh west to watch the sun set and relax before wandering back in search of food. Since this was really our first "beach town" experience we decided to go all out and enjoy the night life as well. =) We shared some coconut curry and a Songsam bucket (basically Thai rum and coke--we said no to the Red Bull!) sitting at a comfy little table at the Skunk bar. A couple of girls who were in our Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai stopped to check the menu so we said hi and invited them to join us. They are Canadians but one of them is currently teaching in Vietnam and it was nice to chat with them. After dinner we walked up the beach a bit to the Last Bar that had been advertising live music and a fire show. We shared another songsam bucket and really enjoyed the "mai thai" band. It was quite nice and relaxing and after the first set the fire show started. And that was AWESOME! Three or four different guys were involved and did fire dancing to hip hop or techno music. They put the the luau fire show guys to shame they were so good! I got a few great pics on the camera that we'll post at some point...but not now since we're paying more for internet here than anywhere else we've been so far.
Today we slept in and then went on a great adventure up to a viewpoint over Rai Leh and to see a saltwater lagoon. You'll see it when we post pics but basically this peninsula is all limestone cliffs that are gorgeous...it's a rock climbers paradise! So what the guidebook described as a "steep hike" was much more like a combination rock scramble/free climb/bouldering/hiking combo that was a bit intimidating at first but was actually very fun! It was also quite dirty since the mud was red and we had a LOT of cleaning to do when we got back! It was possible to climb down to the lagoon but the descent (and then subsequent ascent) down the 15ft cliff with just a muddy rope was a bit too much for us so we had to be content with a sliver of a view between cliffs.
After cleaning our shoes and clothes and purifying some more water we walked over to Pranang cave and beach to relax for a couple hours this afternoon. Pranang cave wasn't super exciting and is kind of funny because fisherman made offerings there and for whatever reason the offering are all phalluses. =) So it's basically a big penis shrine which is pretty strange! The beach was gorgeous surrounded by the cliffs and looking out on a bunch of little islands off the coast. We strategically placed our little towel to keep our sunburned top halves in the shade and our pasty white legs in the sun. =)
Tonight we were pretty hungry so we splurged and split a BBQ skewer from our hotel restaurant that was basically a chicken kabob but came with salad, soup, corn & a baked potato for 120baht. We think that tomorrow we'll go check out the last beach in this area and then take a longtail boat to Ao Nang and try to find a guesthouse there. On the 17th we have to make our way back to Surat Thani for our overnight train back to Bangkok. We probably won't be back online til we're back in Bangkok.
Okay, I should wrap this up and finish a couple more things online before we head to bed! Thanks again to everyone who has been texting or commenting on the blog. =)
-mari
Once we showered and settled in we headed back to Rai Leh west to watch the sun set and relax before wandering back in search of food. Since this was really our first "beach town" experience we decided to go all out and enjoy the night life as well. =) We shared some coconut curry and a Songsam bucket (basically Thai rum and coke--we said no to the Red Bull!) sitting at a comfy little table at the Skunk bar. A couple of girls who were in our Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai stopped to check the menu so we said hi and invited them to join us. They are Canadians but one of them is currently teaching in Vietnam and it was nice to chat with them. After dinner we walked up the beach a bit to the Last Bar that had been advertising live music and a fire show. We shared another songsam bucket and really enjoyed the "mai thai" band. It was quite nice and relaxing and after the first set the fire show started. And that was AWESOME! Three or four different guys were involved and did fire dancing to hip hop or techno music. They put the the luau fire show guys to shame they were so good! I got a few great pics on the camera that we'll post at some point...but not now since we're paying more for internet here than anywhere else we've been so far.
Today we slept in and then went on a great adventure up to a viewpoint over Rai Leh and to see a saltwater lagoon. You'll see it when we post pics but basically this peninsula is all limestone cliffs that are gorgeous...it's a rock climbers paradise! So what the guidebook described as a "steep hike" was much more like a combination rock scramble/free climb/bouldering/hiking combo that was a bit intimidating at first but was actually very fun! It was also quite dirty since the mud was red and we had a LOT of cleaning to do when we got back! It was possible to climb down to the lagoon but the descent (and then subsequent ascent) down the 15ft cliff with just a muddy rope was a bit too much for us so we had to be content with a sliver of a view between cliffs.
After cleaning our shoes and clothes and purifying some more water we walked over to Pranang cave and beach to relax for a couple hours this afternoon. Pranang cave wasn't super exciting and is kind of funny because fisherman made offerings there and for whatever reason the offering are all phalluses. =) So it's basically a big penis shrine which is pretty strange! The beach was gorgeous surrounded by the cliffs and looking out on a bunch of little islands off the coast. We strategically placed our little towel to keep our sunburned top halves in the shade and our pasty white legs in the sun. =)
Tonight we were pretty hungry so we splurged and split a BBQ skewer from our hotel restaurant that was basically a chicken kabob but came with salad, soup, corn & a baked potato for 120baht. We think that tomorrow we'll go check out the last beach in this area and then take a longtail boat to Ao Nang and try to find a guesthouse there. On the 17th we have to make our way back to Surat Thani for our overnight train back to Bangkok. We probably won't be back online til we're back in Bangkok.
Okay, I should wrap this up and finish a couple more things online before we head to bed! Thanks again to everyone who has been texting or commenting on the blog. =)
-mari
Bangkok and Krabi - 7/12 & 7/13
On the 12th we left Chiang Mai to head back to Bangkok. Our plan was to catch a movie VIP style, but we did something much more practical...we went to the "mall" and bought a small suitcase...there's NO WAY our souvenirs will fit in these backpacks. :) Then we went to the train station, packed all our cold weather clothes and souvenirs in the suitcase and stored it at the luggage storage section in the train station. We won't need any of it in Southern Thailand!
We took an overnight train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and it was pretty great. We chose 2nd class AC and had to share the train car a bit before the train staff pulled down the beds, but once the beds were down, we had our own private little bunks complete with reading lights and shelves for books, valuables, ipods, etc. We both slept well and enjoyed the experience. Once we got OFF the train around 8 am in Surat Thani, however, the experience was a little less fun. We ignored the touts who were shuttling people to the coastal areas and went to the information desk to find out how to catch a bus to Krabi. UNFORTUNATELY, he just sent us back to the touts. We thought "oh, I guess we were judging too soon...maybe they really ARE just trying to help"...turns out we should trust our first instinct. We paid our 280 Baht and hopped on a huge bus with AC...but that was only to drive us to the travel agent. Then we were told to wait 20 min for our minivan to Krabi. Got on that minivan and they took us to yet ANOTHER travel agency where we waited over an hour before finally getting in a minivan that took us to Krabi. Of course...it dropped us 10 min outside of town, so then we had to take a taxi into town. :( It was quite the hassle and we weren't in the best mood as we tramped around town with our backpacks trying to find a place to stay.
We looked at 5 or 6 different places and decided to stay for cheap...200 Baht (~$6)... it was a shared bath and no AC, but we figured we could do it! We honestly didn't do much in Krabi besides walk around and eat cheap Thai food, so there's not much to tell. We looked at TONS of brochures advertising tourist things to do, but it really seemed like you had to talk to a travel agent to get any real information, so we stopped at one that was recommended by a guide book and booked a speed boat tour of Ko Phi Phi national park (a group of islands, pronounced "pee pee")
We had a quiet night in Krabi and got up early to pack our bags, eat breakfast and head out on our island adventure. It started with a drive around Krabi to pick up everyone else, then a drive to Ao Nang (another town close by) From Ao Nang, we split into groups and hopped onto our boats. The trip was AMAZING. I will post pics when I can, but imagine huge limestone rock formations just sticking out of the ocean all over. It was so pretty and then when you got close to them, you noticed the emerald water and the gorgeous white sand beaches. We visited...hmm...maybe 4 islands...maybe 5. The first was bamboo island and the swimming there was great. I didn't want to leave. Then we drove in and out of lagoons, did some snorkeling (Mari and I jumped off the front of the boat to snorkel in the lagoon) , visited Maya Beach (the setting for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach...I haven't seen it...)
We stopped for lunch on Phi Phi Don, which is the biggest island in the park, and basically a HUGE tourist destination, full of resorts and shops selling swim suits and sarongs and jewelry... We're glad we're not staying there, but it was nice to wander through the streets a bit.
We ended the trip with an option to snorkel in the middle of the sea, but neither of us got off the boat because there were so many HUGE jellyfish!!!
I asked if they would drop us at Railay (or Rai Leh) where we planned to spend the night, and they said ok, so we saved some $$ that we would have spent on the boat taxi. As we pulled up to Railay, we were so impressed. Dramatic cliffs and beautiful beaches :)
Mari's going to take it from here. Miss you all!!
-Michelle
We took an overnight train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and it was pretty great. We chose 2nd class AC and had to share the train car a bit before the train staff pulled down the beds, but once the beds were down, we had our own private little bunks complete with reading lights and shelves for books, valuables, ipods, etc. We both slept well and enjoyed the experience. Once we got OFF the train around 8 am in Surat Thani, however, the experience was a little less fun. We ignored the touts who were shuttling people to the coastal areas and went to the information desk to find out how to catch a bus to Krabi. UNFORTUNATELY, he just sent us back to the touts. We thought "oh, I guess we were judging too soon...maybe they really ARE just trying to help"...turns out we should trust our first instinct. We paid our 280 Baht and hopped on a huge bus with AC...but that was only to drive us to the travel agent. Then we were told to wait 20 min for our minivan to Krabi. Got on that minivan and they took us to yet ANOTHER travel agency where we waited over an hour before finally getting in a minivan that took us to Krabi. Of course...it dropped us 10 min outside of town, so then we had to take a taxi into town. :( It was quite the hassle and we weren't in the best mood as we tramped around town with our backpacks trying to find a place to stay.
We looked at 5 or 6 different places and decided to stay for cheap...200 Baht (~$6)... it was a shared bath and no AC, but we figured we could do it! We honestly didn't do much in Krabi besides walk around and eat cheap Thai food, so there's not much to tell. We looked at TONS of brochures advertising tourist things to do, but it really seemed like you had to talk to a travel agent to get any real information, so we stopped at one that was recommended by a guide book and booked a speed boat tour of Ko Phi Phi national park (a group of islands, pronounced "pee pee")
We had a quiet night in Krabi and got up early to pack our bags, eat breakfast and head out on our island adventure. It started with a drive around Krabi to pick up everyone else, then a drive to Ao Nang (another town close by) From Ao Nang, we split into groups and hopped onto our boats. The trip was AMAZING. I will post pics when I can, but imagine huge limestone rock formations just sticking out of the ocean all over. It was so pretty and then when you got close to them, you noticed the emerald water and the gorgeous white sand beaches. We visited...hmm...maybe 4 islands...maybe 5. The first was bamboo island and the swimming there was great. I didn't want to leave. Then we drove in and out of lagoons, did some snorkeling (Mari and I jumped off the front of the boat to snorkel in the lagoon) , visited Maya Beach (the setting for the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach...I haven't seen it...)
We stopped for lunch on Phi Phi Don, which is the biggest island in the park, and basically a HUGE tourist destination, full of resorts and shops selling swim suits and sarongs and jewelry... We're glad we're not staying there, but it was nice to wander through the streets a bit.
We ended the trip with an option to snorkel in the middle of the sea, but neither of us got off the boat because there were so many HUGE jellyfish!!!
I asked if they would drop us at Railay (or Rai Leh) where we planned to spend the night, and they said ok, so we saved some $$ that we would have spent on the boat taxi. As we pulled up to Railay, we were so impressed. Dramatic cliffs and beautiful beaches :)
Mari's going to take it from here. Miss you all!!
-Michelle
Sunday, July 11, 2010
last day in Chiang Mai...and a LONG one at that!
It's now 3am here and we're 70 min into the world cup final with the score still 0-0. We are both kind of surprised we're still awake but we pretty much tailored our day around staying up for this match. We slept in a bit and then did a little workout on the treadmill and elliptical and then finished in the pool. After that Ton and his dad took us to the train station to inquire about train tickets from Bangkok to southern Thailand. Thanks to his dad we now have tickets both to and from Surat Thani (one way didn't have openings in the class we wanted but somehow he worked his magic and got us tickets!)
Then they dropped us off at Lila massage again and we treated ourselves to the 2.25 hour combo deal for 500baht (~$15). It started with a 30min foot reflexology massage followed by maybe an hour Thai massage, 15 minute head massage and finished with a 30 minute hot compress massage. The hot compress was an interesting experience but both of us had to squirm or ask them to move them a couple times because we felt like we were getting burned! Those compresses were HOT! After our massage we grabbed Kho Soi for lunch and walked back to Ton's house where we did a little more planning both for our 6 hours in Bangkok tomorrow and for our 4 days in the south.
Around 6pm Ton, Michelle ad I headed out to grab dinner at Salsa Kitchen and stuffed ourselves with delicious mexican food. After dinner we went to the Sunday night market which was packed with people! Both sides of the street and the middle were jammed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Michelle found a cute hand made t-shirt and we found a couple of little gifts as well. At the daily night market (practically deserted since so many people were at the Sunday market) we actually found a woman who was selling duvet covers and pillow shams. We had tossed out the idea of trying to find that here since Thai silk is nice and reasonably priced (and since ours is sooooo dirty) but until tonight we'd only found square pillow cases and bed covers. We looked at a bunch of them and debated the pros and cons of having to carry it but decided to buy it...it remains to be seen how well it will fit in our backpacks! We walked all the way back through both markets because we were all still feeling full from dinner and because we needed to kill more time or we knew we'd never stay up for this match!
We watched the first half of the match from a bar near Ton's house (lots of Spain fans there) and decided to head back here for the second half which I'm very glad we did especially now that the match has gone into overtime! I've been cheering for the Netherlands just because my parents are in Amsterdam right now and I think it would be fun for them if they win. =) I'm just ready for them to score so we can go to bed! =)
Tomorrow we'll finish packing and head to the airport. Our flight leaves around 12 tomorrow. Our big plan for tomorrow is to go see a movie at one of the fancy Thai cineplexes (Matt's suggestion) and then take an overnight train to Surat Thani. We don't know where we're staying yet or how great our internet options will be so it might be a few days before we can update.
Signing off with 15min still to go in overtime!
Then they dropped us off at Lila massage again and we treated ourselves to the 2.25 hour combo deal for 500baht (~$15). It started with a 30min foot reflexology massage followed by maybe an hour Thai massage, 15 minute head massage and finished with a 30 minute hot compress massage. The hot compress was an interesting experience but both of us had to squirm or ask them to move them a couple times because we felt like we were getting burned! Those compresses were HOT! After our massage we grabbed Kho Soi for lunch and walked back to Ton's house where we did a little more planning both for our 6 hours in Bangkok tomorrow and for our 4 days in the south.
Around 6pm Ton, Michelle ad I headed out to grab dinner at Salsa Kitchen and stuffed ourselves with delicious mexican food. After dinner we went to the Sunday night market which was packed with people! Both sides of the street and the middle were jammed with vendors selling all sorts of stuff. Michelle found a cute hand made t-shirt and we found a couple of little gifts as well. At the daily night market (practically deserted since so many people were at the Sunday market) we actually found a woman who was selling duvet covers and pillow shams. We had tossed out the idea of trying to find that here since Thai silk is nice and reasonably priced (and since ours is sooooo dirty) but until tonight we'd only found square pillow cases and bed covers. We looked at a bunch of them and debated the pros and cons of having to carry it but decided to buy it...it remains to be seen how well it will fit in our backpacks! We walked all the way back through both markets because we were all still feeling full from dinner and because we needed to kill more time or we knew we'd never stay up for this match!
We watched the first half of the match from a bar near Ton's house (lots of Spain fans there) and decided to head back here for the second half which I'm very glad we did especially now that the match has gone into overtime! I've been cheering for the Netherlands just because my parents are in Amsterdam right now and I think it would be fun for them if they win. =) I'm just ready for them to score so we can go to bed! =)
Tomorrow we'll finish packing and head to the airport. Our flight leaves around 12 tomorrow. Our big plan for tomorrow is to go see a movie at one of the fancy Thai cineplexes (Matt's suggestion) and then take an overnight train to Surat Thani. We don't know where we're staying yet or how great our internet options will be so it might be a few days before we can update.
Signing off with 15min still to go in overtime!
Thai Cooking (and eating)
Well our plan was to wake up at 7, work out and head to cooking class. Instead, we rolled out of bed at 8, did some push-ups, sit-ups, and planks, grabbed a quick breakfast (dragonfruit again!) and ran out the door.
We took our cooking class at Baan Thai ("baan" means "home"). We each chose from 3 dishes for each course: an appetizer, soup, a stir-fry, a curry paste, a curry dish, and dessert. We decided that we should never pick the same things because then we'd learn more! Mari's choices: spring rolls, tom kha soup (chicken coconut), pad thai, panang curry paste, pork with panang curry, and fried bananas. I chose fried fish cakes, hot and sour prawn soup, cashew chicken, red curry paste, chiang mai noodles (khao soi), and mango sticky rice.
First, we sat down at a table with a group of 8. We introduced ourselves and sat around drinking water for a bit before heading to the market. The market tour was nice...we had to embrace our touristy-ness a little traveling with a group of 8 white people carrying silly baskets to the market, but it wasn't so bad. At the market we learned about different types of basil, eggplant, ginger and garlic and were also introduced to the ingredients that would be the most unfamiliar (like coriander root). Some of the other students had clearly eaten less Thai food in their lives than we had as they'd never had sweet chili or fish sauce!
We walked back from the market and we had some snacks (I don't know WHY we needed them as we were about to cook and eat a 5 course meal). There were two other rooms of classes going at the same time, so when it was time to start cooking, we separated into different kitchens based on the dish we'd chosen. After cooking, we'd regroup in our original room for eating. Mari and I were happy with our choice to cook different things because when it was time to eat, we each got to sample the other dish as well. :)
During our half hour break around 1pm, we dashed back to a spot near the market where we had seen mojitos and frozen mojitos advertised for 60 and 80 B, respectively. (that's like $2 and $2.75) They took FOREVER to make, so we had to suck them down!! Mari got a HORRIBLE cold headache, but the mojitos were pretty delicious. We power walked back to class and were 5 min late, but everyone was still sitting around chatting. Phew.
We were so full after a couple of courses that we decided to take home leftovers of our main curry dishes...the dessert wouldn't keep as well. :) We really enjoyed everything we made and can't wait to cook for you!!
After cooking class, we wandered a bit before meeting Ton at his uncle's silver shop. I bought 2 prs of earrings and Mari bought one. Then we wandered the Saturday market a bit and Ton bought a delicious chocolate cashew waffle (we had to try it!!)
It was a fabulous culinary day, but we are REALLY going to have to work out from now on. Send motivating thoughts!
-Michelle
Friday, July 9, 2010
The 20 year plan?
Michelle and I are loving Chiang Mai and have both said that we could see ourselves living here. =) I think it's a nice mix of things that are very foreign but also many things that are quite familiar. It's a big city that feels like a small town to us. Lots of tropical plants and flowers and birds so in some ways it reminds us of Hawaii. Oh, and the food is delicious & cheap!
Ton and his family are amazing and have been taking VERY good care of us. Their house is so beautiful and they have graciously taken us all over the place. Today Ton's dad come home from Bangkok where he works during the week most and drove us up the mountain to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The drive up the mountain was very curvy and both Ton and his dad have distinct memories of learning to drive on the mountain roads! There is a cable car up to the temple or you can tough it out like we did and walk up the steps. We counted the steps on the way down and although all of our numbers were a bit off the average was 303 (the guidebook says there are 306...we all thought counting those steps would be a good task for the Amazing Race!) Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way out of Chiang Mai we passed the zoo and Ton and his dad decided we all needed to go see the pandas in person. Have I mentioned the 24 hour live "panda tv" channel they have here?! The mom and baby were sleeping so although they were cute they were kind of boring! The dad was awake and literally sitting on a chair at a table and eating breakfast. =)
After the temple we stopped for lunch at this place that serves a special Chiang Mai dish that is a specific type of noodle in a red curry. It was delicious and I'm very sad that we don't see it in the US! But don't despair because tomorrow we're taking a Thai cooking class and that's one of the things we can make! (of course, who knows if we'll be able to find the ingredients in the US!)
This afternoon we decided to test out one of the Thai massage places we read about in the guide book. It is staffed by former female prisoners who learned Thai massage as part of their re-training program. It was a very nice facility and the massage was great as well. We made the women giggle a lot because we kept messing things up! First they give you a shirt and pants to change into and we couldn't figure out how to tie the pants to make them stay up! (turns out we put them on backwards too which cracked them up!) If you've never had a Thai massage you should! It's definitely different but was kind of a combination of stretching, massage and accupressure. The women make very good use of their entire body often using their knees and feet even! Oh, and the best part...our one hour massages cost $6 each!! We're going to try to make time to go back on Sunday for the 2.5 hour combo package for 500baht or $15!!
After our massages we wandered around the old city for a bit and then walked back to Ton's house to meet up with them and head to dinner. Tonight we went to Vietnamese and it was interesting to compare to the Vietnamese in Seattle. It was definitely a little different, but some things were similar for sure. As usual there was a ton of food and many different tastes. We both felt like we were maybe losing a little weight in Africa and India but that trend is reversing here because Ton's family is so generous and is taking us to so many delicious restaurants! And the food is soooo delicious that we can't stop eating! Oh, speaking of delicious, I forgot to mention our stop at this dessert food cart in our quest to find these little coconut pancakes we had in Bangkok. Ton and his dad said this place was the best and the owners were very cute and made a fresh batch just for us! They told us that the name is ba bin but we can't find the right thing online so we're going to ask tomorrow at the cooking school. We'd really like to get a recipe for these little bites of heaven. =) We also tried like 4 other Thai desserts from the cart and our favorite was like a crispy little pancake in the shape of a taco with coconut cream and lemon zest in the middle.
Our plan for tonight when we got home was to do some planning for the rest of our time in Thailand, but blogging and putting captions on pictures has taken a lot longer than we thought and we need to get to bed so we're well rested for our big day tomorrow! And we're going to try to get up and work out in the morning since we'll be eating all day at the cooking class and then going out to dinner again tomorrow night!
Here's a link to a picasa album with pics from Ethiopia, India and Thailand! Photo Album2 More Thailand still to come!
I can't believe it's after midnight...time for me to go to bed. :)
-Mari
Thursday, July 8, 2010
amazing and busy day in Chiang Mai
I think I need some new adjectives that are synonymous with amazing because I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but today was truly amazing! Despite being packed with activities, we never felt rushed and even took some time to relax with a coffee this morning and take a dip in the pool this evening.
We woke up to scrambled eggs, bacon and croissants...YUM. Then it was off to visit two temples. The Thai architecture is interesting and the temples are so ornate. The first one we saw had an older part made out of stone that had been partially destroyed by the Burmese, but has been restored enough for us to enjoy looking at it. :) It had carved stone elephants and intimidating dragons on it!
After the temples, we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up breakfast foods for the rest of the week and enjoyed some delicious iced coffee. We ate a quick lunch at an Italian place and then it was elephant camp time. Our plan was to go back to the house after lunch to drop off groceries and change, but we forgot and were halfway to the park before we remembered. We decided to continue on, so the elephants got to see me in a dress :)
I really enjoyed the elephant camp. When we arrived, there was still time before the show, so we walked toward the elephant feeding area and spent time feeding bananas and sugar cane to the elephants there. It was quite the experience to get so close and actually touch elephants!! Their skin is quite rough with little bristly hairs and their trunks are much stronger than I thought they'd be! The elephants had gotten into the world cup spirit and many had flags of participating countries painted on their foreheads and sides.
After the feeding, we watched the elephants "bathe" in the river. I don't think they'd really do this in the wild, but they were trained to lie down in the water and it was funny to see them with just their trunks sticking out! Then it was show time. These elephants do much more than walk around a ring with someone on their back. They danced, played soccer, challenged an audience member to a game of darts (aiming for balloons), and even painted!! Seriously...the paintings were way better than I could do (I suppose that doesn't say much, but when we get the pics loaded, you'll see!)
When the show was over, we walked around the camp and read a LOT about elephants. We also wandered to the nursery where we saw a mama and baby elephant. The baby was surprisingly little and had much longer hairs all over his back than the adults. He was quite social and came over and let us pet him! We were sad that we had no more bananas to share with him!
We left the elephant camp and decided to pull off the road where we saw a sign for a waterfall. It turned out to be a national park hike with a series of 10 waterfalls. It was definitely my first time hiking in a dress AND I don't think I've sweat THAT much since playing touch rugby with the Bombers on summer evenings in St. Louis...it was like every pore in my body was crying, BUT it was really nice to get out and move and enjoy the beauty of the country! :)
It was quite refreshing to ride back to town in an air conditioned car and when we arrived back at the house, we jumped right into the beautiful pool. (Thanks again to Ton and his family for welcoming us) After a quick dip, we were joined by Ton's mom and sister for dinner at a nice Thai restaurant (tried some dishes of northern Thailand and they were delicious). It feels like we are always full here, but that's cuz all the food is so good!
After dinner, Ton's mom dropped us all off at the Chiang Mai night bazaar where I bought a skirt and a couple other souvenirs (not too much, cuz we still have to pack light!) Then we finished off our walk at a fish spa.
Yes...that's right. A fish spa. Ton's been wanting to try it, so he convinced us to join him. I was...nervous (for a "tough" rugby player, I'm pretty much a wimp). So...we walked in, had our feet washed and then we were sent to the fish tanks...there were seats with lots of pillows and windows for looking out over the night bazaar. I was still not feeling so good about sticking my feet in a tank with a bunch of sucker fish. As you can see in the picture, I kept my feet out until everyone else started! Mari was taunting me A LOT...calling me a wimp and telling me to get tough(all friendly teasing, of course). Ton and his sister were laughing (not at ME, but at the sensation). So, I finally took the plunge...and started squealing. I think I repeated over and over "I do not like this, I do not like this" all the while, laughing and squealing.
After about 10 min, they brought us some juice and I started to get used to the feeling...it was...kind of like putting your feet into a very bubbly jacuzzi or something. I GUESS the idea is that the fish (who do not have teeth, just intense "suckers") feed off the dead skin on your feet. It seems pretty gross, but our feet do actually feel softer :) I even went so far as to put my hands in the tank. Mari was impressed that I got over my initial dislike!
We're back at the house now and it's getting pretty late, so I should head to bed, but a couple side notes...
1) today we tried longong and dragonfruit and loved them both. I'm planning on having dragonfruit for breakfast!
2) I tried to stay up for the Germany v. Spain match and FAILED last night (Mari made it for the first 30 min), BUT we will be watching the final on Monday morning (1:30am) somewhere in Chiang Mai before heading back to Bangkok and then on to somewhere else in Thailand.
ok...I'm failing to sound interesting at this point, so I think it's bed time!
Good night!
-Michelle
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai
Two day Post: 7/7 - 7/8
The airport wasn't eventful. I wasn't feeling great...maybe that lime soda had some water in it?? The flight was an easy one (around 4 hrs) to Bangkok. As the flight was preparing to depart, the moisture in the air made the plane all steamy; it was slightly unnerving, but we were assured that it was normal. The person in the seat behind me thought it was a great idea to DRUM with his fingers on the back of my seat, which was GREAT. :( We had individual little tv screens though, so Mari and I both watched a FABULOUS Bollywood film!! The Bangkok airport was the most modern we'd been through in a while. It was the first time we used an actual jetway since leaving Chicago.
We met the hotel shuttle and when we arrived, we realized that somehow our reservation didn't go through. We were able to get a room for around $30 anyway, and we were happy to have a place to relax for the night before leaving for Chiang Mai.
This morning, we packed up again, left our bags at the hotel and headed out to do a little exploring in Bangkok. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport and the free city link from there to downtown. Unfortunately, that link wasn't on our map, so we weren't exactly sure where we were going to end up. We figured it out after a couple conversations with workers at the station and made our way to the Victory monument and the surrounding markets, where I purchased a new shirt for 20 Baht (61 cents). In Bangkok, we saw our first Starbucks since leaving the US and a ridiculous number of Dunkin Donuts and 7-Elevens. Jess-- I guess that means you could live in Thailand. We took a picture for you! :)
We got up the nerve to grab some street food and ended up with some chicken satay and DELICIOUS coconut pancake things (need to find out what they're called). Then Mari found an adidas bike jersey for 180 Baht. We hopped on the SkyTrain and went to see the Erawan Shrine, which was near the area where the protests had taken place recently. We saw the damage done to one of the shopping malls and also many signs and t-shirts saying "Together We Can". It seems that things are pretty much back to normal and that they're really working toward reconciliation here.
We wandered into one of the huge malls with many EXPENSIVE stores--fancy cars, jewelry, nice restaurants, etc. After a frozen yogurt treat, we took off for the airport and our flight to Chiang Mai. The flight was so quick-- 1 hr. It was nice to have someone picking us up at the airport (Thanks Ton!). So nice to not have to plan and figure everything out on our own here. Went for a Thai dinner and some sorbet with Ton, then back to his house (which is BEAUTIFUL...nice wood floors, beautiful decorations, and a pool...a lovely retreat).
Attempting to stay up and watch the Germany v. Spain match, but it shows at 1:30 am. 12:30 right now and I'm fading! Tomorrow should be a great day! Going to see a couple temples, then and elephant camp and the Chiang Mai night market in the evening.
Hopefully easy internet access over the next 4 days means we'll have more pictures for you soon!
-Michelle
Catching up--last day in India 7-5-10
Well our last day in India started very early because our hired van was waiting for us at 5am to take us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal! The drive to Agra took about 3 hours and although we both slept for part of it, there was plenty to see when we were awake. It was interesting to drive outside of Delhi through the "suburbs." There was a lot of construction including extensions of the metro and quite a few newer buildings. Michelle and I both noticed quite a few schools and academies along the drive, many technology related. About 40k from Agra we got stuck in a traffic jam that was the result of a big driver strike protesting increased fuel costs; drivers of trucks and buses basically just stopped their big vehicles in the road and got out and protested. Once he found out what the problem was our driver managed to turn around and took the van over a 12-18 inch "curb" thoroughly scraping the bottom of the van and worked his way up what was basically a frontage road until we got past the strike.
Once we made it to Agra we stopped and picked up our "complimentary" guide before heading to the Taj. You have to walk about half a mile to the Taj because there's a "no car zone" around it to try to keep it protected. We were warned about all the people hawking Taj trinkets but it wasn't as bad as we expected. The Taj Mahal is definitely impressive and more so when you think about the fact that it was all built by hand. Although we were all a little dubious about our guide, it was actually nice to learn more about it and was worth the extra hassles. I think the most impressive part of the Taj to me was all the inlaid stonework in the marble. After the Taj we went to a marble school to see the process that has been passed down through the generations. They are still using the same tools and you really couldn't believe how small they grind these stones down and then glue them into the marble that they have scratched out by hand; they showed us one flower like they have at the Taj and it was maybe 1.5" in diameter and was made of like 30 individual pieces of stone/gems! The Taj has extensive inlay work inside and out but inside they used more and more precious stones/gems including one called firestone that glows when light shines through it.
After the marble school we stopped for lunch at "Quality Restaurant" which actually was quite good. Michelle had a sweet lime soda and I had lassi, a yogurt drink. We went with the waiter's food recommendation which was 10 fruit/vege korma...it was interesting and kind of reminded me of a hawaiian trail mix with papaya, pineapple, cashews but with some curry.
Agra fort was the next stop and it was very similar to the Red fort in Delhi but better preserved/restored and fancier courtesy of Shah Jehan (taj guy) who made it into a palace and covered much of it with white marble and added royal living quarters. From the palace part of the fort there were some nice views of the Taj across the yemen river. The Shah was actually held prisoner in his palace at the Agra fort by his son for the last 8 years of his life. It sounds like his son felt like he had to put a stop to his father who was planning to build a black Taj across the river from the current one and his son didn't want his dad to spend all their fortune on it, especially since the black onyx he was going to make it out of was even more expensive than the white marble! The last thing on the agenda was Akbar's Mausoleum which was interesting because of the blue and gold designs on the ceiling and because there were "deer" grazing on the grounds.
The drive home ended up taking us about 5 hours because the traffic outside of and in Delhi was a complete disaster because of the strike. Our driver was aggressively weaving in and out of traffic, honking his horn constantly making for a pretty harrowing last couple hours of the drive1 Oh, did I mention it was dark and raining and there are constantly pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles on the roads?! I had to start chewing gum because my jaw was hurting from being clenched the whole time! We were very happy to make it back to the Wood Castle and get some food! Other travellers said it was actually a good day to be out of Delhi because the strike made getting around the city virtually impossible.
Knock one of the seven wonders off our "bucket list" =)
-mari
Once we made it to Agra we stopped and picked up our "complimentary" guide before heading to the Taj. You have to walk about half a mile to the Taj because there's a "no car zone" around it to try to keep it protected. We were warned about all the people hawking Taj trinkets but it wasn't as bad as we expected. The Taj Mahal is definitely impressive and more so when you think about the fact that it was all built by hand. Although we were all a little dubious about our guide, it was actually nice to learn more about it and was worth the extra hassles. I think the most impressive part of the Taj to me was all the inlaid stonework in the marble. After the Taj we went to a marble school to see the process that has been passed down through the generations. They are still using the same tools and you really couldn't believe how small they grind these stones down and then glue them into the marble that they have scratched out by hand; they showed us one flower like they have at the Taj and it was maybe 1.5" in diameter and was made of like 30 individual pieces of stone/gems! The Taj has extensive inlay work inside and out but inside they used more and more precious stones/gems including one called firestone that glows when light shines through it.
After the marble school we stopped for lunch at "Quality Restaurant" which actually was quite good. Michelle had a sweet lime soda and I had lassi, a yogurt drink. We went with the waiter's food recommendation which was 10 fruit/vege korma...it was interesting and kind of reminded me of a hawaiian trail mix with papaya, pineapple, cashews but with some curry.
Agra fort was the next stop and it was very similar to the Red fort in Delhi but better preserved/restored and fancier courtesy of Shah Jehan (taj guy) who made it into a palace and covered much of it with white marble and added royal living quarters. From the palace part of the fort there were some nice views of the Taj across the yemen river. The Shah was actually held prisoner in his palace at the Agra fort by his son for the last 8 years of his life. It sounds like his son felt like he had to put a stop to his father who was planning to build a black Taj across the river from the current one and his son didn't want his dad to spend all their fortune on it, especially since the black onyx he was going to make it out of was even more expensive than the white marble! The last thing on the agenda was Akbar's Mausoleum which was interesting because of the blue and gold designs on the ceiling and because there were "deer" grazing on the grounds.
The drive home ended up taking us about 5 hours because the traffic outside of and in Delhi was a complete disaster because of the strike. Our driver was aggressively weaving in and out of traffic, honking his horn constantly making for a pretty harrowing last couple hours of the drive1 Oh, did I mention it was dark and raining and there are constantly pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles on the roads?! I had to start chewing gum because my jaw was hurting from being clenched the whole time! We were very happy to make it back to the Wood Castle and get some food! Other travellers said it was actually a good day to be out of Delhi because the strike made getting around the city virtually impossible.
Knock one of the seven wonders off our "bucket list" =)
-mari
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
made it to Thailand
We'll have to get back to this in the next couple days and write about our last day in India but thought we'd let everyone know that we have arrived in Bangkok. We are only here overnight and leave tomorrow evening for Chiang Mai where we'll stay with Ton and his family. Ton was a foreign exchange student who lived with my family in Wisconsin. We haven't seen him in a few years so it will be great to see him and meet his family!
Lost a couple more hours today so it's now 10:30pm here and 8:30am in Seattle! Kinda crazy!
Hopefully we'll have more internet at Ton's and can catch up! Again, we love the comments and emails and texts since they help us still feel connected to home so keep them coming!
-mari
Lost a couple more hours today so it's now 10:30pm here and 8:30am in Seattle! Kinda crazy!
Hopefully we'll have more internet at Ton's and can catch up! Again, we love the comments and emails and texts since they help us still feel connected to home so keep them coming!
-mari
Sunday, July 4, 2010
monkeys, monkeys, monkeys!
We were up late again last night at the hotel social hour connecting with some other travelers and making plans to visit the Taj Mahal and other sites in and around Agra. Last night we settled on taking the train with other folks and planned to go to the train stations this morning. Neither of us wanted to get up this morning and after some more research this morning the group decided to just hire a car to take us there and around to the different sites. It's going to cost 1350 rupees each (about $30) plus the entrance fees, but you can't be this close and not go to one of the seven wonders of the world!
Today we hopped on the metro again, this time to explore New Delhi sites. We went to the India gate war memorial; it's huge but being renovated so lots of scaffolding around it. Took a couple pics and then got asked to be in a few pics with other people. =) It's pretty funny really...either people ask us to be in their pics or we'll just be walking by and people will not-so-subtly be taking our picture. After that we walked to the National Museum repeatedly telling the many auto rickshaws that we didn't want a ride and were happy walking! (That was partially a lie because we were really very hot and sweaty but determined to tough it out and holding out hope for A/C at the museum!) Sadly, most of the museum was not air conditioned and I thought Michelle might cry when she realized that! Actually, a few exhibits were a bit air conditioned and our body temperatures were almost back to normal by the time we left! The museum was quite big and had lots of cool archaeological things from the Indus valley and as old as the ancient Egyptians. I was really impressed with the intricacy of the carvings and the detailed, organized city plans. There were some great brass, terra cotta and wood sculptures and carvings.
Then we walked up a nice big boulevard to the Parliament building and the Presidential palace but there wasn't much to see there so we continued on south to find the Indira Gandhi memorial museum. There were lots of round-a-bouts and the free city map and the guidebook maps were not exactly the same so we ended up walking quite a ways out of our way. By this time (maybe 3pm) I was tired of walking and STARVING (we hadn't eaten since one egg at breakfast) and was getting pretty crabby. But I was distracted from my agony as soon as the first monkey crossed the road in front of us! Then we looked up and saw that the whole tree ahead of us was full of monkeys! We saw maybe a total of 20 monkeys in the tree and walking along the fence or road. The coolest part was seeing 3 or 4 momma monkeys with little babies! We stopped and took a bunch of pictures and the security guard at the compound across the street was laughing at us I think. But I didn't care; I could've sat there for an hour watching them! But I as hungry and holding out hope that there would be food carts selling food to the tourists at the museum so on we walked. =) Sadly, I was wrong and there were no carts by the museum. We did enjoy the museum despite being tired and hungry!
We walked a different way back towards the presidential palace and were so relieved to get to the metro and sit down in the air conditioning for a few minutes. We snagged a 15 rupee sandwich at the metro stop and walked back to our hotel. We'd planned to go to a local restaurant for dinner but once we hit the AC of our hotel we decided to just order in and shower instead! The shower felt great and the food was yummy (we got dal mahkani and butter paneer masala). We're back down in the lobby again to check in online and write this blog but will have to work hard to not get sucked into the social hour for too long because our car leaves for Agra tomorrow morning at 5am! And before we go to bed we need to do a lot of laundry using our extra shower water so that we have clean clothes to take to Thailand.
Oh yeah, happy 4th of July!
-mari
Today we hopped on the metro again, this time to explore New Delhi sites. We went to the India gate war memorial; it's huge but being renovated so lots of scaffolding around it. Took a couple pics and then got asked to be in a few pics with other people. =) It's pretty funny really...either people ask us to be in their pics or we'll just be walking by and people will not-so-subtly be taking our picture. After that we walked to the National Museum repeatedly telling the many auto rickshaws that we didn't want a ride and were happy walking! (That was partially a lie because we were really very hot and sweaty but determined to tough it out and holding out hope for A/C at the museum!) Sadly, most of the museum was not air conditioned and I thought Michelle might cry when she realized that! Actually, a few exhibits were a bit air conditioned and our body temperatures were almost back to normal by the time we left! The museum was quite big and had lots of cool archaeological things from the Indus valley and as old as the ancient Egyptians. I was really impressed with the intricacy of the carvings and the detailed, organized city plans. There were some great brass, terra cotta and wood sculptures and carvings.
Then we walked up a nice big boulevard to the Parliament building and the Presidential palace but there wasn't much to see there so we continued on south to find the Indira Gandhi memorial museum. There were lots of round-a-bouts and the free city map and the guidebook maps were not exactly the same so we ended up walking quite a ways out of our way. By this time (maybe 3pm) I was tired of walking and STARVING (we hadn't eaten since one egg at breakfast) and was getting pretty crabby. But I was distracted from my agony as soon as the first monkey crossed the road in front of us! Then we looked up and saw that the whole tree ahead of us was full of monkeys! We saw maybe a total of 20 monkeys in the tree and walking along the fence or road. The coolest part was seeing 3 or 4 momma monkeys with little babies! We stopped and took a bunch of pictures and the security guard at the compound across the street was laughing at us I think. But I didn't care; I could've sat there for an hour watching them! But I as hungry and holding out hope that there would be food carts selling food to the tourists at the museum so on we walked. =) Sadly, I was wrong and there were no carts by the museum. We did enjoy the museum despite being tired and hungry!
We walked a different way back towards the presidential palace and were so relieved to get to the metro and sit down in the air conditioning for a few minutes. We snagged a 15 rupee sandwich at the metro stop and walked back to our hotel. We'd planned to go to a local restaurant for dinner but once we hit the AC of our hotel we decided to just order in and shower instead! The shower felt great and the food was yummy (we got dal mahkani and butter paneer masala). We're back down in the lobby again to check in online and write this blog but will have to work hard to not get sucked into the social hour for too long because our car leaves for Agra tomorrow morning at 5am! And before we go to bed we need to do a lot of laundry using our extra shower water so that we have clean clothes to take to Thailand.
Oh yeah, happy 4th of July!
-mari
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Delhi Day 2-- exploring
We woke up this morning and jumped right into a workout (yesterday's didn't happen due to the liberal pours at the hotel social hour...) It's not much when you're working out in your hotel room, but we were able to get in some ab work, push ups, wall sits, etc... TRYING to get into rugby shape, but it's tough during 100 degree + days!
After workout, we walked to the metro and grabbed a spicy cheese sandwich from a street vendor for breakfast. It cost 10 rupees, which is 21 cents...not bad, huh? Then we were off to explore the Red Fort and Jama Masjid (the biggest Mosque in Delhi). We managed to navigate a bustling street to the Red Fort. It was much bigger than we expected, but we both just kept thinking about how grand it must have been back when it was actually used! There were all sorts of...not troughs really cuz that just doesn't sound beautiful...but a lot of the structures had sections that were probably filled with water with fountains during their day, but now they're just dry. WE imagined the garden beds full of flowers and the buildings beautifully painted. It must have been gorgeous.
We were so so so hot after exploring the Red Fort. In the morning, I decided that I would stop saying "I'm so hot" because it was OBVIOUS and seemed like unnecessary complaining. Neither of us could stop though!!! It was almost like we needed to VENT about it. As guilty as I feel about admitting it, we went to McDonalds for lunch. In our defense, McDonalds had AC AND they have an awesome veggie burger, the McAloo Tikki sandwich for 25 rupees and 10 rupee vanilla ice cream cones!! The 2 Diet Cokes we drank can't really be justified as they were the most expensive part of our meal!
After lunch, we meandered through crowded streets to the Jama Masjid. It is an adventure to wander the streets of Delhi because EVERY intersection you must cross becomes a huge challenge...we're getting better at reading what the different types of "honks" mean. It is somewhat shocking to see some of the motorcycles driving around Delhi with women on the back sitting side-saddle...that doesn't seem stable at ALL!! We decided not to go in the mosque but took some pictures of the outside and wandered the streets a little more. Ended up in a market area with many card shops...most for the wedding industry in India. As we traveled a little farther down the street, we saw copper shops and plumbing shops. It was a really nice walk and because it wasn't touristy, it was nice to just be able to wander and look without touts beckoning for us to come see something! We passed some AMAZING looking street food, and were sad that we were still full from lunch!
Then we took the metro back to Connaught place to go purchase our tour to Agra and were sad to find that the office closed at 2pm. We're not sure how we're going to get there now, but we're going to. WE have 2 options at this point: 1) go to the train station tomorrow and HOPE there are seats on a train to Agra on Monday or 2) pay $150 to have our hotel arrange a tour in a car for us. We'd rather take the train, so we'll see.
We had a couple of hours before hotel social hour, so we popped into a restaurant at Connaught place that was recommended in the lonely planet guide we're using. They described it as Moulin Rouge-esque and it certainly was! Lots of velvet, crystals and mirrors! Mari took a sponge bath in the bathroom because she felt so gross from the day! It was a bit pricey, so we just got a couple of juices and a delicious cheese, onion, cilantro bread thing...so yummy. I ordered a Mast Guava, which was guava juice, cilantro, tabasco, limca(lime soda) and rock salt. I was intrigued and it turned out to be SO delicious! We decided that we'll try making them at home with vodka or tequila...maybe we'll have a party to experiment and come up with the perfect combination. Who's in?
Time for world cup and relaxing in the hotel. Keep your fingers crossed that our Agra trip works out!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Day 1 in Delhi
well we had another overnight flight, so today has been a tired day in Delhi.
Random comment that isn't REALLY related to today: I love that the world cup is going on while we are traveling. It is connecting our travels in an amazing way. Everywhere we go, we have SOMETHING to talk about because everyone has world cup fever. All the bars and restaurants show all the games! Right now we're cheering for Ghana (cuz...well...the world cup is in Africa, so you have to cheer for an African team) and the Netherlands (who are currently tied with Brazil!!) because we THINK Mark and Rae (Mari's parents) will be in Amsterdam during the final, and that would be pretty amazing!
ok...so...Delhi. Our flight was delayed coming in, so we didn't arrive until after 10 am. The airport went smoothly...easy immigration, customs, bought a voucher for a pre-paid taxi...got in the taxi and traveled to the Karol Bagh area of Delhi, where our hotel is. Unfortunately, when we got close, our driver started to pull the..."where are you staying? how much did you pay? I can get you a better hotel..." schtick, but we knew better and INSISTED adamantly that he take us to the hotel we had ALREADY paid for. Well, of course he couldn't find it...and to give him some credit, it was hard to find and construction was blocking some roads. FINALLY we spotted the hotel.
We were pleasantly surprised when we walked into the air conditioned lobby and were greeted with Chai. Our room was really nice. The hotel feels like...an upscale hostel. It has a...communal feel and travelers hang out in the lobby chatting, but we have our own room (with ac) and bathroom, so that's nice. The bathroom's funny because it has a shower just...kind of...in the bathroom...no tub or anything...just a drain in the bathroom floor. Haven't tried it yet, but I will soon!
We took a quick nap and then ventured out. We took the Metro (and were quite proud of ourselves for navigating on our own) to Connaught Place which is under A LOT of construction because the Commonwealth Games (cricket, I think) are coming in October and they want everything to look good for that. We ended up holing up in a mexican restaurant (of all places) and enjoyed the food and drinks (all you can drink included in a world cup special) while planning our 4 days in Delhi. It was nice, but kinda strange to be eating Mexican in India.
Then back to the hotel for hotel social hour in the lobby. :) Free beer and Indian snacks (and chicken nuggets...hilarious) :) Chatting with a couple from Toronto who have been teaching English in S. Korea and are now on their journey home (they're stretching it out quite a bit!!)
I'm already enjoying Delhi a lot and I look forward to seeing the sites tomorrow. Thinking it's red fort day...not sure what else. We'll keep you posted though.
Keep emails, texts and comments coming. It's so nice to hear from home!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Addis Ababa
Well, we're almost done with our two days in Addis Ababa. For some reason we can't get to our blog from this internet cafe so I'm hoping this email thing works. As I'm sitting here I feel like I have nothing to write even though I feel like it's been a bit of a whirlwind here.
Addis is very green and mountainous compared to Dakar and from up on Entoto mountain looking out it it looks a bit like areas outside Seattle...but up close that is definitely not the case because I don't remember the last time I ran into a donkey walking or driving around Seattle! =) There are LOTS of donkeys here which makes sense with all the hills and mountains I guess. The weather is also much more like Seattle than Dakar and for most of the time here we've been wearing long pants and long sleeves...and rain coats because we got here at the beginning of the rainy season. Today hasn't been too bad, just a few sprinkles, but yesterday there were a couple of good downpours! The thing is when it rains here all the "sidewalks" get really muddy so our shoes and the bottoms of our pants are a mess from walking around the city today!
When we arrived on Tuesday night we had to stand in some pretty long lines to get a visa and go through customs. We were happy to find that our hotel had a booth in the airport and the shuttle was very easy. The Harmony hotel is very nice and probably like a 3 or 3.5 star hotel in the US. One funny thing about the hotel is that the nightstand next to the bed has like 6 switches on it that control various lights around the room as well as a "do not disturb" light that comes on outside your room. =) Weds morning we called this guy who's number we'd gotten from the hotel person at the airport to arrange a tour of the city. It was not very cheap and ended up being like $60 but it was easier so we did it anyway. First we stopped at the National Museum and saw some historical things including Lucy (no longer the oldest, but probably the most famous ancient homosapien). There was a school field trip there at the same time and all the kids wanted to shake our hands and say hello which was cute.
Next we drove up to Entoto mountain and had some nice views of the city and surrounding area. Lots of eucalyptus trees (not native...came from Australia) as well as some native evergreens. There were lots of people walking up and down the mountain, many women carrying big loads of branches or leaves on their backs. We asked about it but didn't really understand what it was or what it's used for. The "rich farmers" use donkeys to carry their loads and some would have groups of like 8 donkeys headed up the mountains. On Entoto mountain we saw another museum and Menelik II's old palace. We saw the outside of many old churches and paid to go into one with floor to ceiling paintings that we will post pictures of at some point. That same church had an older stone church that was carved out by hand many years ago. Ethiopia has a long history of Christianity and is primarily Orthodox. There are LOTS of churches here! Our guide, Afework said there has been an increase in Islam but only about 47% of the population is Islamic and he said relations are very good. On the way back to the hotel we drove by the merkato, the largest open air market in Africa; it was VERY busy and trafficky and we saw LOTS of market stalls. Open market stalls are everywhere here like in Senegal, but not as much microcommerce with people carrying their goods and selling to the cars. The funniest thing was that while we were driving through the market we saw a man wearing a Saint Louis University Billikens sweatshirt! Oh, and in Ethiopia white people are called "ferengi" (sp?) and it's funny cuz they'll just call it out as you walk by.
Today we had the option to have Afework drive us outside of the city but it was kind of expensive and we decided to just relax a bit and explore the city on our own a little more. We worked out at the hotel gym this morning (Scooter, that's for you!) and checked out of the hotel but stored our bags with them. We happened to run into Afework coming to get the rest of his money and he drove us to the Ethnological museum at Addis Ababa University. It was a very nice museum actually and quite informative. Then we decided to be very brave and walk back towards our hotel and only get a cab if we didn't recognize where we were. (No guidebook, printed map without the hotel marked, and very few street signs made this a little difficult!) We finally made it to a place we recognized (after a couple of doubtful moments where we considered getting a taxi but didn't see one) and are killing a little time online and then headed back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the airport! We're looking forward to Delhi and being somewhere we havea guidebook for!
Oh a couple of random things before we go... Ethiopia runs on a different time schedule...so when it's 6am they call it 0 hours and noon is 6. Kind of strange! And instead of a plethora of mangoes, here they have million bananas; they are everywhere!! The internet is cheap (like $1/hr) but there are people waiting and we need to get something to eat before we go!
Keep the comments coming! And if you do text messaging, we can receive texts for free and it's just a nice connection to home. We have to pay to send them though so sorry we can't respond! =) (Thanks Marty, Jess & Denise for the text updates!)
-Mari & Michelle
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