I couldn’t believe it when that struck me today.

For me (Ray’s had a different story but here’s my experience), because I spent pretty much 2 months of that on an awesome roadtrip through the States, seeing a surprising LOT of my best friends early on (who are scattered all over the Western US – Arizona, California, Washington, Idaho…), as well as various other friends and relatives along the way, catching up on all my favorite foods, visiting some of my very favorite and most-missed places as well as exploring some incredible new ones, and not to mention attending two of the best conferences in the entire world – one that was at a ski resort in Colorado and one in Portland…that time has really flown by.

And this was by design. Not for the time to go quickly (or to delay getting home to the Nest and settled for so long – sorry Mom!), but to have a smooth (as possible), non-traumatizing or depressing, and even fun and exciting transition from a life and an experience that was pretty darn hard to top, leave, or even conceive of, to a place that was theoretically home but probably wouldn’t seem it, people who would be excited to see me and expect me to be or act a certain way (like, likewise) but I knew I’d let them down (at least initially) by being so inwardly turned and focused instead, and just a new life in general.

It’s not that Asia life was so superior and the USA life paled. It’s always this way when you transition between two whole and separate Lives. But in the 12 years since I left home for college, this was the longest continuous one I’d had, with absolutely indescribable experiences over a massive scope of time and growth and development for me. So I knew I had to do it carefully, so as not to let the experience on either end look disproportionately amazing or crappy. I WAS excited to go back…but I knew it would take time – a fair amount of it, and a certain way of doing it to ease into that so that fact wouldn’t suddenly alter in my flipped-upside-down mind, and leave me looking regretfully back at the life and continent I’d left behind. I was still happy there, very much so. But it WAS time to come back, if for nothing else at least a visit (and a reasonably extended one), given that I’d not even seen my MOM for almost 3 years.

The transition thing is a source of plenty of literature online amongst the expats and travelers of the world, and for good reason. It’s something I’ll definitely get more into later, now that I have a pretty good view of what it was like for me, this time especially with such a long and different trip from my previous ones. For me, it was really awesome, and almost seamless. If you look at the comments of any “re-entry” or “repatriation” articles online, you’ll see a loooot of people who are truly miserable coming back. They don’t cope or deal well, get depressed, even suicidal. It’s definitely an interesting experience, and one that I found with my own, CAN be pretty well (though not entirely, no matter how much and how well you prepare) mitigated.

But before I start definitively arcing this blog away from our personal experiences with this Asia trip though, I’m going to spend some time over the next few days recapping what the return Home has been like on my end, what I’ve done, who I’ve seen, what it made me think, how I felt, and just generally what it was all like. I was going to do it today as tribute to the 3-month mark being back in the States, but I realized it’s going to take wayyyy longer to write out than I have tonight. So we’ll make it a series, and keep the blog going that little bit longer. :)

I’ve known I wanted to write this update (or “these” updates) for a while. I knew when we were leaving I’d write one last update/recap on past and current events from “the other side”, then give it some time to be able to comment with authority on what the experience of Coming Home was after all of this. I think it’ll be a fun process to finally write that, and round off this personal blog that we started with our very first entry on May 26, 2009, before evolving it into its next (professional) form.

That shall be forthcoming, soon.

Home! Part 1 of…uh…however many I need. is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

We are so overdue on an update it’s ridiculous. I’ve struggled with doing so, both for being so engrossed in the trip, and because…well, how do you follow up a post like the last one from the Killing Fields in November?

But as I sit on the plane from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo, where TOMORROW (!!!) we’ll catch our flight HOME to the USA for the first time in almost three years, I realize today is the last chance to bring things up to speed about the trip before being on the other end of it. So, better late than too late!

Over the next many months after we get home, as we work on turning this blog into a usable website about backpacking Asia for other travelers or people interested in the region, we will retroactively fill in some of the details which really make the story worth telling. I’ve learned as a writer (perhaps as a person as well) I’m fairly all-or-nothing, which is the other thing that explains the relative dearth of posts on here as compared to the millions of things that were so worth sharing along the way.

To make up for it, I will be working on a book of stories and experiences that Asia has given (sometimes with great force!) at us these past 2 years, 9 months, and 9 days of backpacking through this incredible region. I decided a while back that will be the best forum for really sharing what we have to share in the way I can best share it. If you would like to be put on the list to be notified when the book is going to be available, you can put your email here and I will let you know!

That being said, this will just be a quick run-through of the basics of the past year or so since our last proper (or even semi-proper) catch-up, to at least round off the blog as we finish off the trip instead of leaving it awkwardly hanging back in November.

Ready? Hold on to your seats, a lot has happened! And remember, for the dirty details – of which there are plenty – sign up to buy the book!

Living in Malaysia

After the frantic and tragic days of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, where we were then doing a snowboarding season along with 12 or so other seasonnaires at our lodge, our plans were just subtly yet drastically changed. We left with our lodge friends Joel and Andy to think things over and evaluate our options (on the beach in Thailand, of course!), which is about where we left off on the last semi-proper catch-up.

We had been meant to finish the last two weeks of the season then re-up our visa with a run to Korea in time to meet my then 13-year-old cousin Sam and travel for a month or so in Japan, which would effectively kill off the rest of our savings from Tucson.

Even in addition to Japan, we still had six countries left to go on the itinerary (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, and we had decided to add Burma to our original plan), which meant we’d have to figure out something for money. Most likely we were looking at 3-12 months working in South Korea to get our savings back up at the end of the Japan travels.

In fact, just by eliminating that month or so of travels in Japan (and its necessary visa run), that left us with enough money to finish our Southeast Asia itinerary – all six countries. Yes, it’s really that much more affordable than one month and a visa run in Japan.

But the good season to visit most of those places wasn’t until September, three months after our stint in the beach hut and subsequent travels through Malaysia for three weeks with Joel and an Arizonan friend I knew from studying abroad in Italy eight years ago, Hillary. So Ray and I decided to try to keep our current savings – enough to finish the itinerary – in tact for those three months, and try to offset the cost of living and hopefully even earn more in that time, by living somewhere cheap and doing little more than working online during that time.

We chose Malaysia because it had an easy 90-day stay for Americans, as opposed to the hoops you had to jump through for Thailand, Vietnam, or Indonesia. There was really little interest in Malaysia other than that, and it seemed reasonably inexpensive, which we both have felt bad about saying now that we’ve come to love and appreciate it so much!

Malaysia was actually a great choice, and I’m so glad we got to experience it the way we did. Now it’s Home to us, not just the quick somewhat obligatory blip on the radar for a few days or a couple of weeks, just for the sake of being part of Asia, that it might have been otherwise. The standard of living vs. cost ratio is quite possibly one of the best on Earth; certainly the best we experienced in our 19 countries we visited on this trip. The people were some of the nicest, the food some of the best, and the culture, especially where we were in Penang where there was a good mix of ethnic Malay, Chinese and southern Indian – plus a fair amount (though not overbearingly so) of expats of other nationalities, was always interesting. Living right next to the state mosque and within earshot of at least 23 others – as I was always reminded of at about 6:30am during the morning call to prayer that would ring out across the landscape ten stories below our condo every day…fortunately I was almost always awake still and it never bothered us in our room even if we weren’t – will always be one of the fondest memories and most memorable experiences of my life, not to mention the trip.

While we loved many aspects of living in Malaysia, probably the highlight for me was the opportunity to individually tutor a few Korean students, which was made possible by our friend James. I absolutely loved those kids and teaching them. They really made my life in Penang feel like home. So much so that instead of leaving in Sept as we planned to go travel Indonesia, we altered it a bit to go in August, when Sjoerd came to visit, then come back for the month of September so I could teach them again before we moved on in our travels.

Indonesia – mostly August
(Sjoerd Visit)

Jakarta – a visit to the awesome Taman Mini architecture park showcasing all the various forms of traditional architecture throughout the massively diverse country, the fantastic national museum, and despite being taken on the most ridiculous rip-off taxi ride of the trip (joke was on him when he ran out of gas trying to run up the meter on us though…!), enjoying the capital much more than we though we would, given all the rants and criticisms, and staying in a new hostel with the nicest proprietor lady ever.

Yogyakarta – all things cultural, most notably the awesome batik and one of the famous Shadow Puppet shows, and purchasing my very first true piece of art: a handcrafted and painted Shadow Puppet of my very own. Expensive, but priceless.

Borobudur – getting to see one of my most prominent magazine clipping photos that had adorned my bedroom wall right by my bed in Tucson for more than a year, and having it turn out to be way better than even expected, taking tons of photos, wearing the required skirt thing and loving the fact that Ray and Sjoerd had to, too

Prambanan – visiting this ancient Hindu site after seeing the ancient Buddhist one at Borobudur and after a delicious buffet dinner in view of the temple, taking in an incredible open-air Ramayana ballet under the full moon, with the ancient temple lit up in the background – amazing! Sjoerd even explained the story as it went on, and taught me to, for the first time, understand this form of performance art (and thus the Shadow Puppets as well!). Very cool. Thanks, Sjoerd!

Gili Air – Sjoerd’s friend getting us an awesome chalet just off the beach, complete with waterfall shower in the open-air bathroom, massive monitor lizards out front, delicious free rooftop breakfast overlooking the beach, great snorkeling right off shore with turtles, my third degree sunburn (unheard of!) thanks to the side effects of our anti-malarial Doxycycline (Whities TAKE NOTE – if it can happen to me, it can KILL you!) and my two wonderful best friends so gently applying 43 necessary layers of aloe to my crispy back while tears and beers worked to soothe the trauma of it all.

5-day, 4-night Perama Boat trip to Komodo and Rinca islands for KOMODO DRAGONS!!! – being scared to death of boat in some truly massive and frightening waves (there were tears – and I’m a water person!), horrible rough 1st night for me and Ray on deck, all of it still somehow made worthwhile by great snorkeling en route and getting to see TONS of wild dragons on BOTH Komodo and Rinca – amazing!!!

Bali:

Ubud – awesome cultural place from food (the pig place was my favorite! [Warung Ibu Oka is the name] and there was even some AMAZING Mexican food, the best in Asia – much appreciated for us Arizonans) to museums to the little shops to the massive traditional homes turned to guesthouses and art galleries, to the dance and performing arts (the Kecak version of the Ramayana was really a sight to behold!), the incredible arts and crafts, and the awesome, awesome masks…one of which soon became my second-ever real art purchase…

Seminyak – while I was interested in seeing the infamous Kuta Beach, we didn’t get a chance to, or see much of Seminyak either. We basically just had time to meet up with Dan Andrews of the TMBA internship we’d applied for a couple of times for his interesting Pool Party in his great backyard, but that was definitely a fun and worthwhile use of the time to meet him and some other really interesting entrepreneurs.

Leaving Malaysia

Had another great month tutoring the kids almost primarily in the month of September, and we capped it off with a really fun day all of us together (and Ray finally got to meet them) visiting an amazing temple, playing soccer, water basketpolo in their swimming pool, and video games. One more lesson, and then I said goodbye to Max, Tony, Rick, Alex, Nexon and James, and Mrs. Kim. I was sad to leave them but so glad they were all on Facebook and easy enough to stay in touch with. I’m really glad to have grown up in this internet generation. There are tradeoffs, but these benefits sure make those ok!

Vietnam Oct 6

Hanoi – We left from Penang and met up with our old lodge and travel friend Joel in Hanoi, after he’d spent a little time at home in Australia and another snowboard season in my old “snowboarding alma mater”: Queenstown, New Zealand. We really enjoyed Hanoi and our awesome accommodations for dirt cheap. We visited the great museums and other sights, including the “Hanoi Hilton”, the POW prison where John McCain was held – and wow was the (completely false) propaganda AMAZING there. I’m curious now to read his and other POWs takes on their time there, but somehow I doubt they actually threw Christmas parties for them and had so much fun doing crafts and playing basketball with their friends. The food – both Vietnamese and Western alike – was amazing in Hanoi and we had so much fun seeking it out, and the water puppet show was absolutely fantastic.

Halong Bay – a fun and memorable 3-day, 2-night cruise aboard the lovely Imperial Junk (that’s a special type of boat, not a social commentary!). Islands, caves, bike rides in the countryside, water buffalo, karaoke with the nice Chinese people, sneaking our rum and Coke in the boat’s beer cans (Ray and G, keepin it classy) and my favorite…sitting at the hull of the boat with my legs dangling above the water, just enjoying the scenery and just living the good life and hanging out with my awesome travel friends Ray and Joel, as life in our 20s, out exploring the world, enveloped us.

Sapa – an amazing, muddy, slogging rice paddy trek, assisted by 25 cent bamboo poles and a troupe of the smallest, surest-footed little hilltribe ladies you ever did see (Hmong people will forever hold a special place in our heart!). And let me tell you about the 25 cent rice whiskey….

Sapa-Hoi An – a train journey especially worth mention because we were stuck on there for 12 long hours more than the 12 hours we already expected the journey to take. When the tracks got flooded along with a good portion of that part of the country, rumor was circulating we could be stuck on there for days.

Hoi An – some of the most delicious food in the entire world, great lanterns, nice UNESCO World Heritage town, and a nice hotel stay, marred, sadly, only by what we suspect was the only theft of the entire trip

Saigon – My 29th birthday party at the Buddhist Theme Park and a dinner meet-up with a few other fellow bloggers; visiting the incredible Cu Chi tunnels and the war museums and sites; learning about a new religion we’d never heard of and seeing it at the source; sending Joel off for his (random?) trip to India for two weeks (SOLO!) to see the F1 and Metallica and do a little India exploring, including the Pushkar Camel Fair, at our insistence! “Joel, you leave us a boy. When you return, you shall be a man…”

Mekong Delta trip – We decided to take the adventurous route of a 3-day, 2-night bus, boat, boat, horse cart, boat, bus, homestay, etc. journey through the Mekong Delta to get to Cambodia, rather than just the much more straightforward, much more easy, and much more boring 6-hour some bus journey across the border to Phnom Penh. It was a pretty full-on tour with having to constantly climb into these boats with all our bags, especially Ray’s 450-pound backpack of electronics/our lives, and trying to step from one floating, wobbly boat onto another that is hell-bent on floating away from you right as you are straddled perfectly between the two. But it was definitely cool to be able to visit all these floating markets, island weaving villages, tropical fruit orchards, coconut candy making places, and rice noodle-making factories, drinking rice wine, riding horse carts and bicycles, waving at the kids along the backwaters, staying at a homestay and walking out among the fields first thing in the morning to catch that quintessential bright red rising sun view through the palm trees that you see in the Vietnam War movies. An adventurous, and sometimes somewhat inconvenient way to transit to Cambodia…but well worth it, in the end. And SO CHEAP!!!

Cambodia

Phnom Penh – Phnom Penh surprisingly ended up being one of, if not THE, singularly most memorable and touching experiences of the entire trip. I didn’t expect much from it as I knew nothing, but the day we spent visiting the S21 Prison and the Killing Fields, in conjunction with meeting not just one but quite serendipitously BOTH of the two remaining survivors of that most terrible prison (only 7 out of the 14,000+ people who went there survived), was absolutely gripping, mind-blowing and completely unforgettable.

Phnom Penh was actually quite nice in itself as well, at least the small corner we visited. They’ve done up the riverside very nicely and we even, rather oddly, saw a man walking his unrestrained elephant down the main drag full of traffic. We’d not seen elephants walking in the streets like that since India (and I’m not sure that it was exactly commonplace there either), so that was fun to see.

Angkor Wat/Siem Reap – We had a great couple of days exploring the Angkor Wat area and its multitude of temples. Even being very well “templed out” by that point, we really enjoyed our explorations because they were all so different and just the spirit of adventure in driving around to each of them in our rickshaw, knowing we were encompassed by so much history and marvel, was so much fun. The food and lodging there was great too.

Thailand – BKK-CR nov 11

Chiang Rai – a quick stop in Bangkok which was experiencing some terrible flooding, though not in the area we usually stay in, then up to Chiang Rai to meet up with our boys again: Joel, back from India; Andy rejoining us after getting settled in his new life in Sydney; and Andy’s Welsh friend from Sydney, Simon, who would be joining us for a couple weeks of our travels.

The next day, the five of us headed out to see the beautiful, unique, and interesting contemporary White Temple. Ray and I had visited it back in April 2010 when we were in Thailand the first time, but our photos from that and the rest of our Laos/Burma border trip were some of the casualties of our tragic hard drive crash of 2010. So it was good to get to go back and get pics again, especially with our new camera that we’d upgraded to since then, our beloved Canon S95.

Sadly they don’t allow photos inside so we don’t have any from either then or now of the interior, which is painted in a most curious fashion with depictions of current pop culture: events and characters ranging from 9/11 and conflicts for oil to Avatar, Osama bin Laden, Neo from the Matrix, Spiderman, Doraeman, and more. Osama bin Laden USED to be there, anyway. Interestingly, despite having a notoriously terrible memory, I definitely remembered bin Laden’s picture being painted on the wall there before. But it wasn’t there this time. I was surprised on two counts, that they weren’t just continuously adding to the mural (it’s very clearly still being painted, some of it still blank on the side walls, with scaffolding and paint buckets), but also that they removed such an evocative persona from this mural of modern times. I wonder why they took it off, and if/when/how they’ll replace it. I’m pretty sure the burning Twin Towers were different as well. We bought a book this time that does have pics of the inside so I’ll scan those and post them when we get home and you can at least see what it looked like at the time of the book’s publication, anyway.

Laos

2-day Slowboat Trip to Laos – From Chiang Rai, we headed to the border and caught the long anticipated two-day slow boat to Laos. When I was planning this trip back from Tucson, I’d never even heard of Laos, but in researching it, I read about this journey being beautiful so I’d been looking forward to doing it ever since then. If you’ll recall from our original itinerary, this leg was supposed to be done some two years ago or so! But better late than never, and even better that now we got to do it with our friends. It was indeed a beautiful journey, and considerably more comfortable than the stories I’d read about online, now that the boats are equipped with cushioned car/van seats. I can’t imagine doing it on the old wooden benches, which is what I think we’d have been doing had we gone on it two years ago as planned.

The overnight stop in Pakbeng was far less frontier than I imagined as well, and we easily got nice walk-in accommodation, and ended up having an unexpected big night on the town together, which made the next day’s 8-some hour journey to Luang Prabang in Laos go by in a bit of a blur…

Luang Prabang – we had some awesome times in Luang Prabang, the five of us. We did some lounging and relaxed sightseeing around town. We also rented motorbikes and drove them out to the waterfalls for a frolic, which was great fun, both for the ride there and back and for the falls themselves. Ray and I were glad for our previous experience on the scooters in Goa (India) and Ko Tao (Thailand), as while the other guys were a little nervous sorting them out for the first time themselves, we felt quite confident. I was even able to give Joel a ride back on mine going back to town, which was cool. We also did a bike trip, which was meant to be a “beginner’s” trip but I think they meant “evil” instead. More long and steep hills the entire day than I ever thought even existed. Few things truly suck but that bike ride really did. Fortunately the whole trip wasn’t awful as we did make a nice trip to the elephant park and I got to see an elephant walking through the river giving a couple ladies a ride, and we had a nice frolic in the other waterfalls which were pretty cool, very Havasupai-esque, for those familiar with the falls in the Grand Canyon.

Vang Vieng – few towns in the world will draw as much ire and debate from travelers (or people who just read the articles about another traveler who died or got hurt there) as Vang Vieng, but the truth is, we fell in the camp that loved it. And in truth after reading all the debate, I was expecting much, much, much worse and was almost kind of disappointed it wasn’t nearly the raucous spring break Girls Gone Wild crazy bar scene I had in my mind (almost – except I still cringe when that scene is present in other countries). The main draw here is the tubing, similar to the Salt River tube float in AZ, but with a number of bars along the banks that throw ropes to you and drag you in for drinks, free shots, even…special…items to imbibe (though personally we think booze + water with current can be enough to try to regulate safely) and generally feature any number of insane features to entertain you – and every year kills one or a handful of people. But still, even with the bars and towers, air cushions, rope swings, slides and zip lines of doom, it was a pretty cool place if you know what to expect and take it for what it is and are VERY careful (Ray and I were careful but still both managed some nice injuries on an air cushion and rope swing, respectively – but then again I ride park on a snowboard and nearly kill myself on a daily basis, plus we both play hockey, so nothing new there). I do see how travelers, even careful ones, could get hurt or worse. But if done responsibly, and knowing that regulations are NOT in place and you do everything at your own risk (like for real, not like the U.S.’s bullshit “at your own risk” with drinking a cup of McDonald’s coffee), it’s fun and also a good chance to check and hone your limits, and calibrate them with your sense of adventure and lack of almost insulting regulation that is so present in the States and other Western countries. There is certainly plenty of controversy and things to consider with a place like Vang Vieng, and we’ll examine those more later on…but if done tastefully and responsibly, a good time can definitely be had in Vang Vieng, and our group definitely did.

Vientiane – our time in Vientiane was short but sweet; having just enough time to enjoy some delicious ribs and have a beer together on the steps overlooking a would-be river, if it weren’t pretty much dried up, but still a nice promenade with lots of people out and about, exercising, line dancing, sitting and chilling. We also got to see the beautiful Pha That Luang, the most important monument in Laos, a golden Buddhist stupa which also features on the country’s currency (always fun to see those things). We were also able to do a quick scoot out to the very interesting and slightly eclectic “Buddha Park” full of interesting and odd statues, some of them absolutely massive, before catching our bus for our Laos Stray Tour, a suggestion made (rather emphatically) by Joel, who had done the trip after he left us in Malaysia in April. It was one of the only organized tours we’ve done of the trip, but definitely a worthwhile one.

Laos Stray Tour – so many things, but the main highlights were camping and beering at the beautiful Tad Leuk waterfall, the crazy 7-km long cave at Kong lor, one of the most memorable experiences ever – an overnight village stay in a tiny village where we were only like the 4th or 5th group of White people they’d ever seen and we had a cool ceremony (we’re still wearing our bracelets, 6 mos later!) drank with the village chiefs and had an awesome riverside view of the stars; temple visits and a stop at Mr. Coffee and helped him pick coffee beans from his trees which he then showed us how they are made into coffee; an overnight at Tad Lo waterfall where we communed with an elephant and frolicked in the river above the falls; karaoke with the locals in Pakse where in a nice twist of social fate the women were all over the boys and showering them with affection and liquor; and finally ending the trip in Don Det where we saw river dolphins and massive waterfalls and drank shakes by the river before heading back to Thailand on the overnight train.

Burma

Yangon – Man, Burma was something else. It didn’t feature on our original itinerary because of the turmoil of the country; I wasn’t sure if we should contribute to the military junta by going there and I also wasn’t sure if it would be safe so we just left it off. But I’m glad some travelers we met along the way (including a Burmese who had lived many years in America) convinced us to go. After a quick stop in Bangkok to try to get visas, we were successful and booked our flights to Yangon. It was like stepping into another world; in league, in that regard, with only India. The massive, golden Shwedagon Pagoda was simply mind-blowing, and our first meal there together was definitely a fun and memorable dining experience.

Mandalay – you can’t think of Mandalay without thinking of the Moustache Brothers, and I’m so glad we made the trip out to see this strange, unique, and politically incredible show. That’ll deserve an entry of its own.

Mandalay-Bagan – a really awesome boat ride (aside from me falling down the slippery metal stairs and cutting myself all up), fun for hanging out with the guys and playing chess or iPad games together, and absolutely unreal to come upon ancient Bagan and its literally thousands of spired temples rising out of the landscape as the sun set. That the taxis from the hotel which met us were two horse-drawn carts with the driver holding a sign with our names was just fantastic. Such was life in Bagan, as we were about to discover.

Bagan – best days ever, exploring by horse cart soooo many different temples. Again, even having seen so many temples by this point, this experience was still special, memorable, fun, and wonderful. It was fun to do with our friends, and it was really unique for how many there were and how untouristed they were. We generally had the whole thousands-of-years-old structures to ourselves. The sunset views over the landscape were absolutely unworldly.

Inle lake – one of the worst bus rides of the trip to cross from Bagan to Inle (Andy left us from Bagan by prop-plane to go to Bangkok and back to Sydney), but again well worth the trouble – and believe me, I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to be possible after that ride. But it was great fun and gorgeous and interesting scenery, touring the lake, getting to know the people in the small town, and seeing the boatmen’s extremely unique method of rowing their boats with their legs.

Thailand

Ko Chang – As we were about to end our long tenure in Asia, what better way to end it but then at a beach hut on the beach!? The three of us headed to Ko Chang for its proximity to Bangkok and reasonably awesome strands of sand with at least possibilities for huts on that sand. The first night had us in basically a shack (though a nice enough one!) off a rocky area – close but not quite, but the next few nights put us right by the sand. Joel, Ray and I did have to share a double bed to get it but, you know…sacrifices. It’s surprising the things you can get used to and not really even think twice about while backpacking. There’s a reason you bond so much and so quickly with travel friends – three people in a double bed in a beach hut on a beautiful beach in Thailand is one of them!

Japan (Sam Visit) – Dec 20

Tokyo – and so, a few months later than originally planned, young cousin Sam (now 14) was able to come and join us to travel Japan after all! We started him out in Tokyo and he had his first experience in a hostel and we also got to experience a capsule hotel for a night – a first me and Ray as well! We took him to see the Tsukiji fish market and a very strange experience, a Maid Cafe – both also firsts for us – and stroll around to see some of the cool sights of Tokyo.

Kyoto – we spent Christmas and several days in Kyoto and saw so much awesome stuff: the excellent Manga museum and Geisha district again, the Golden Temple, the Zen Rock garden, the bamboo forest, the incredible orange shrines of Fushimi Inari, and more. It was made all the better by our great little guesthouse at Peace House Sakura, in which we were pretty much the only Westerners and we got to celebrate Christmas with Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean folks over a delicious meal of homemade sukiyaki – a really special experience for all of us!

Hiroshima – this was a special stop for me, as it sort of made for a full circle for me, as ten years ago I had lived for a summer in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was built. I had visited the museum there at the time and was fascinated by some of the compelling comments left by visitors to the museum, especially the Japanese. I read the book Hiroshima by John Hersey before we got to Hiroshima (and had Sam and Ray read it as well) and was really glad I had; it really gave a lot of context to this terrible event in history. We got a personal tour of the hypocenter and the melted marble gravestones by an “in-utero survivor” which was pretty incredible, and visited the museum, which was reasonably well done. It’s a nice, vibrant city now, and holds no ill-will against Americans, which I found almost mind-boggling and has given me much to think about. We also took a nice day trip out to see the floating shrine a day trip away.

Nagasaki – Nagasaki wasn’t quite as compelling as Hiroshima, which is perhaps a testament to its somewhat understated but also devastating place in history. I was still glad to get to go see it in person as well.

Tokyo – finally, we ended 2011 and the trip with Sam by – oddly, again – ringing in the new year just as we had from 2010-2011, standing (or rather, getting shoved around by the masses) at the Shibuya crossing for New Year’s celebrations. We took Sam to see the emperor on the 3rd as we had previously as well, and then sent him on his way back home, with lots of adventures and great memories shared by all.

Winter – Jan 4

G: Hakuba, Japan – I went back to the lodge in Hakuba for a second snowboarding season, as did Joel, and my park buddy from last year, Rich, came back and joined us for 3.5 weeks in February, as well as another friend from last year who came for a couple of weeks in there too. I stayed out of the park this year, preferring the mountain riding (and, specifically, the not being injured the entire season) and had a great time hanging out with my travel buddy and getting to know him better now as a close friend, a roommate and a boarding partner too.

Ray: Bangkok/Penang/Singapore – meanwhile, Ray opted to spend his funds and time on a new computer and setting up his new software company, and he caught a flight from Tokyo back to Bangkok for a few days then the train down to Penang. He got our room back at the apt with Zac and worked there til I got back at the end of the season, and also took up teaching English with the kids which he enjoyed a lot and was great experience for him.

Malaysia – March 19

Penang – we reunited in Malaysia at the end of March and had a good month and a half there living together, catching up, charting out the course of our future together and individually now and after the trip, and having a good time together, enjoying all our favorite things about life in Penang.

Perhentian Islands – to round off the whole trip together, Ray and I took off from Penang for one more getaway and adventure with each other. We splurged (SPLURGED, by our standards!) and got a gorgeous beach chalet with the works – AC, hot water in the bathroom, a fridge, even satellite TV. We actually didn’t want all the extras, but it was the only place we could make a reservation to be sure we got the beachfront porch, view, and awesome-snorkeling-right-off-the-beach combo we wanted for this last beach hut stint. The only thing it was missing, being Muslim country of course, was cheap tropical drinks. But we made do with our 14% strong beers one night and general sobriety the rest of the time. We spent our time snorkeling, eating lobster, crab and beef, drinking banana-chocolate and Snickers shakes, and playing our newly-bought Pokemon card game (long story). It was a total blast, absolutely gorgeous, and a perfect way to end the trip.

Perhentians-KL-Tokyo-LAX-ABQ-Phx:

And so now we’re on this very last leg of the journey, flying Tokyo-LAX, where we’ll meet up with my cousin Gwen till our evening train to Albuquerque (gotta keep the adventurous spirit – never really traveled by train in the States before!), get Ray’s car, and finally drive back to Arizona, where this all began. More adventures to follow, but that will mark the end of this one.

We’ll catch you on the flipside. Thanks for joining us for this journey – it’s been every bit the amazing, incredible ride we hoped and dreamed it would be when we started planning, saving, and putting it together 5 years ago.

Adventure on!

ONE last LONG OVERDUE UPDATE from ASIA!! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Today was one of those days.

A trip to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum/S21 Prison and The Killing Fields in Cambodia

I’m still far too much in digesting mode (forget processing – that will take months), but I feel like something about this day and the things we’ve seen, learned, and experienced today needs to be acknowledged, shared, and SOMEthing put out there, now. Immediately. Yesterday. Five years ago.

To begin with, since my own pieces on the subject and experience will be long in the making, please check out these links to familiarize yourself with what I’m about to talk about. They’re not too long and are fairly digestible while still being incredibly educational.

Chances are, you may have never even heard about this. The bigger chance is, even if you’ve heard of it…something…you had no idea the half of it. I certainly didn’t.

I should have.

We should. You should.

There’s much more that goes into this, but this will give you a good starting point and you can read more if you are so interested in understanding the context. Eventually after I return home, I will have something on here to put the pieces together in a simplified form.

For now, start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields

Those are the two places we went today.

When we got home tonight, I wanted to sit and write a post or a journal or SOMEthing, but as I did some searches to get more details, context, and a bigger picture of everything now that we’d seen and experienced the places in person, I found myself feeling fairly agitated.

I wanted to talk to someone about it, but whom? I know not many of my friends and contemporaries would know about this enough to fully appreciate the magnitude of what I really wanted to share, one major part of the day and the experience, and I wouldn’t expect them to.

Fortunately, my good friend Scott was on, and he was just the person I needed to talk to.

I’m still feeling too antsy about today to really adapt this into much of a coherent post, but maybe this sort of thing is better that little bit raw anyway.

He wasn’t anticipating it being a public conversation, so I’ve edited it to just my parts of the dialogue, and it may be too much of a bitch to read in this format. If so, don’t worry about it…there will be a proper post (probably several) eventually. But for now, this is what I got, so I thought I’d give it to you:

me: i always think when we visit places like this that it should be mandatory to visit at least one if not several as part of one’s higher education
at any rate this was NOT given due study in school, especially given that it JUST OCCURRED IN 1979
wikipedia says In all, an estimated 1,700,000–2,500,000 people died under his leadership
i just feel like, for as terrible as the holocaust was, the way they (cambodians) carried theirs out just seems so much more brutal
pure torture
that was pretty much all they did
i’m not making the comparison to belittle one or the other, rather to say how shocked i am that something was actually at least as bad, perhaps even more acute

me: yeah even i didn’t (have any idea about cambodia) until starting to plan this trip, and really, even until today
i knew roughly something had happened…that there was something to learn about it, it was bad, maybe really bad, and that i’d be learning about it soon
that was the extent of it til today pretty much
but today it was so mind-blowing (and after everything we’ve seen, done and learned about the past two years, both good and bad, that’s saying a LOT), i actually took pages and pages of NOTES, which i never do
in addition to the 675 photos
fortunately they let you take pictures of EVERYTHING, so i will definitely be sharing it

me: yeah we actually hired a guide to take us around the prison and i’m SO GLAD we did
usually we just walk around stuff like this, just to see it… usually that’s fine. this was worth it for sure
there are still bloodstains on the floor in some spots
i even found a bloody handprint on one of the walls
it’s an empty room whereas most others at least had a bed (actual one left from the torture) and a photo of the last corpse found there… so since the room was empty, most people didn’t walk in
i was pretty shocked when i found it, as the guide didn’t even point it out (he pointed out the stains on the floor in another of the buildings that we may or may not have noticed)
that made it pretty real
you could still see the prints, like fingerprints, from the hand

me: and you want to know the most unexpected thing? the thing that i find myself, now that we’re back and i have some time to process, is totally spinning my head? not the stacks and stacks and stacks of skulls and bones, or the horrible photos or the blood….
there were at least 14,000 people who came through S21 and all were severely tortured (btw it got HELLA creepy in there when it started getting dark…and i’m not usually spooked by such things – but it did start feeling different)

[edit: this is my own current understanding/interpretation (and simplification for personal understanding) of what I've read and from the visits; don't take it as gospel]

they were basically tortured to extract a “confession” to wrongdoing, to justify killing them
because basically pol pot was trying to cull everyone who was educated or had any ties to the western world or mentality (including nothing more than living in the city)
he needed only 1 million to fulfill his agrarian utopia dream
the rest needed to go, so that’s why he was culling those people
so basically this prison was just the way to extract a “legal” and political justification, right, then once the confession was signed, off they went to the killing field
dropped off from a truck, blindfolded, handcuffed, nationalistic music playing full blast to cover up the screams so no one arriving would panic and fight back
they perched them on the edge of the ditches and beat their skulls in to kill them to save bullets
babies got their heads beat against a tree, or tossed up in the air and sliced by the bayonets
torture, then killing fields, boom… they excavated only 86 of 129 sites i think it was (will give you exact figures later)
but that still uncovered almost 9k corpses
there are like 300 of these fields elsewhere in cambodia too
walking around….
i thought it would just be like you go and look over some barely looking like anything field, from faraway
walking around…they’ve left things pretty preserved
they excavated almost 9k skeletons and skulls but left who knows how many still buried
and even from the pits they excavated………
as the soils shift from rain, flooding, etc…. bone fragments, teeth, and clothes still surface
they leave them there (and ask visitors to do the same obviously), and the staff goes around every 2-3 months and picks them all up
but until they do that, they just lay there – so i saw teeth, bones, and the scraps of clothes used for binding their hands and their blindfolds
saw the tree where they’d beat the babies heads against before throwing them in the adjacent pit
when the site was found, that tree was covered in bone, skin, hair, and brains

me: so that was the killing fields….to back up a little, so before they go there, they’re tortured
listen to some of this  
i’ve heard of torture stuff
i went to a torture museum or two, saw the hanoi hilton
this was new shit i’d never even heard of
there was the classic waterboarding and other dunking stuff
they used the school’s (the prison was formerly a school) thing, you know where they have a rope that you climb up for PE?
they’d tie the prisoner’s hands behind their back and winch them up on there that way…from the picture, it looked like they’d winch them up from their bound hands BEHIND THEIR BACK
then flip them upside down and dunk them
they had to shit in ammo boxes and pee in jugs
if they spilled, they had to clean it up off the floor with their tongues
after their 6 second every-4-days “bath”, they had to clean that up with their tongues
(those were just living conditions) the actual tortures…things like pulling off their fingernails and pouring alcohol on it…or this one was new:
for women, they’d pull off their nipples with pliers… and then sting them in the wound with scorpion venom and centipedes
oh and the babies wouldn’t always make it to the killing fields… they all got their pictures taken when they arrived at the prison, and if the baby cried at that time, the guard would take it then and there and do the tree or bayonet thing in front of the mother
they would also have electric wire stuck in their ear and shocked, stuff like that
so, some 14,000 people at least passed through this place with these things being done to every one of them
wikipedia says 17,000
it’s hard to say for sure, but figure at least around there
of those….there were 7 survivors
the only reason they weren’t killed was because they were useful
a mechanic, a painter, etc.
(had to paint pol pot in his perfect likeness, you know)
yeah. SEVEN.
so like i was saying earlier, all this shit that i’ve seen, done, read, heard, walked on, etc. today
what’s still kinda freakin me out the most right now…
after our tour of the prison, the tour guide says…

Would you like to meet one of the survivors?

me: i was shell-shocked. uh. YES???
i couldn’t really believe what he was asking though; it was so unexpected.
when i was doing all my research last night i saw there were 7 that survived, 3 of which were still living (at the time the articles i was reading were written)
during the tour, the guide said now only 2 of them were still living
and one of them was there

Indeed, Mr. Bou Meng was there at the prison, and he had copies of a book about his life that had been written last year by a researcher. We not only got to meet him, shake his hand, talk to him, but we got to take a piece of it and one of the most harrowing, horrible, and mind-blowing pieces of history with us: a book of his story, signed by him.

AND he was so happy we both wanted a copy, he even gave me a kiss on the cheek! (Ray’s cheeks apparently weren’t as kissable though.)

He was happy to take pictures with us and though I wasn’t sure whether we should smile or look solemn, I looked over at him to see and he had a big smile (close-lipped…almost all of his teeth were bashed out of his face during his tortures at the prison).

I suppose in retrospect the moment was brief, a few minutes, compared to the many minutes that make up a lifetime. But that experience will stay with me the rest of my life. Those few minutes worked like glue to help me put together both the tour we’d just had of the prison/school/torture chambers/cells/museum, the ghastly fields we visited just after this encounter, and the haunting roaming around we did to take it all in on our own when we again returned to the museum a few hours later, after seeing the fields.

The Khmer Rouge, the genocide, the Killing Fields, Tuol Sleng/S21, they all – unbelievably, unexpectedly and amazingly – now have a face to me. A moving, breathing, smiling, talking, touching, cheek-kissing face. It was only a moment, but it was a moment that made it all a whole lot less History book, news article, or Wikipedia article…and very much more personal.

I can tell you one thing, with regards to how this personally changes my life directly: forevermore, if I’m having a “bad day” or if something makes me nervous or uncomfortable or worried…this is my benchmark. This is what a PROBLEM is. This is what a BAD DAY is, the shit I saw today. What people went through. What my few-minutes/forevermore friend went through. I’ve learned about problems before, both historical and modern (all the moreso since traveling through India and Asia). I generally try to reflect on those to keep perspective anyway. But this is a new level – and perhaps most importantly…one I can connect with.

Our guide kindly offered to translate if we wanted to talk but I was still so stunned to be able to be having this opportunity at all that the best I could muster was, um, “Hello.” (brilliant) and “I’m sorry for what happened,” to which he replied (first, hello – thank you so much for coming, he was really glad we were there), and that he hoped we would tell many people about the story of this place and his story. He wanted people to know what had happened to Cambodia, and in Cambodia.

I don’t blame him.

I do, too.

I’ll leave you with a few links to learn more about this man’s story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/world/asia/17cambo.html
http://khmernz.blogspot.com/2009/07/bou-meng-long-term-detainee-in-s-21.html
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/selected_features/bou_meng.htm

Also, the Khmer documented their victims in detail. The museum is filled with hundreds of these photos, taken right after the blindfold is taken off the victim upon their arrival, confused, not knowing why they were arrested and taken away, and not knowing what is in store. You can see some of the photos we saw today here:
http://tuolsleng.com/photographs.php?photographsPage=1

The photographer was only a young teenager himself, striving to do his assignment perfectly to avoid execution. Also worth a read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/world/asia/27cambo.html

This Changes Everything. is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

It’s amazing to think that we just celebrated another year traveling, and now another birthday in strange new lands! It’s something special indeed and I just wanted to commemorate it here and now. G has been an amazing travel partner and my bestest friend. I feel extremely fortunate to be able to celebrate another birthday of hers while on the road, even with her T-Rex impersonations!

G, every moment has been priceless, and I can’t thank you enough for the awesomeness that we’ve been able to experience together. Happy Birthday, with lots of hugs, I hope you have an awesome day today!!

Happy Birthday G! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Today was our last day in Hoi An. We decided to take it easy, savor the amazing local foods, and chill with a couple of drinks before leaving on the night train to Ho Chi Minh City. All was well… until we had to pay the hostel tab.

We had to pull out some money, as we usually do, prior to traveling to another location. The first bank I went to told me that “The request cannot be processed”. I did this a couple of times thinking it was a limit issue, since most ATMs here let you only pull out a max equivalent of $200 USD. I gave up after setting for the lowest value I was willing to pull out for a service charge before moving on to another bank. Same thing. I figured I might have mixed up my pin, so I rearranged the possible offending numbers. No dice. As I had wasted a bunch of time already, I ran to another ATM to try again, and got an error saying “cannot be processed” and to “call bank”. The rest of which was in Vietnamese. Problem was, I never got my card back. After pushing all the buttons, and hitting cancel a couple of times with my fist, I decided to compose myself before I started kicking the machine out of frustration and rage. During the time of running back and forth between ATMs, G mentions that our minibus was there and waiting to take us to our 9:56p departure train. It was 8:30pm and the station was 45 minutes away. I’d gotten lax, this was a total rookie mistake, waiting until the last 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave before pulling out cash. Doh!

While the card issue was annoying, we did have some USD on us, so I figured we could pay with that. We keep the USD on hand for visas and other unexpected needs, plus money we’d gotten elsewhere and held onto to use when we go through those countries again, rather than losing on the exchange.

The hostel lady recalculated the bill in USD, and I went to pull out the leg stash that holds our American dinero, and suddenly things went from annoying to frantic.

No leg stash.

Not in any of the backpacks.

I tore everything apart looking for the leg stash and it was nowhere to be found. Now we had no ATM card, and no cash to settle the hostel bill and train tickets with. Not to mention the minibus (with two other customers) has been waiting for 20 minutes during my frantic scurryings, and if we didn’t make the train we’d lose out on another $100 for the tickets. AND completely ruin G’s birthday celebration, because instead of being at the Buddha Amusement Park that she’s been excited about for weeks, we’d be sitting on a train instead.

Thank goodness for our spare bank debit card, and storing our access to money in different locations. G luckily had enough left in her B of A account to pay our outstanding bills, and within enough time for us to grab a madman taxi driver. For reference, normally the trip from Hoi An to Da Nang station takes 45 minutes. We left at 9:00pm and got there at 9:25pm flat.

Adrenaline and paranoia (Vietnam is known for fraudulent activity) coursing through me, I quickly logged on to the GPRS and iPad to request a new pin number for my debit cards, and effectively lock out any other potential use. Then I transferred money back to our safety net account to float us until we can get a new set of cards and pin. Couple that with the ongoing singing of the taxi driver’s horn and the sharp turns avoiding motorcyclists, and you have the perfect recipe for a bit of car sickness. Exiting the taxi with stars above my head and black spirals in my eyes, we waited 20 minutes for our late train. As Joel would say: TIA (This is Asia). It really sucks about that leg stash, and I’m left to still wonder what happened to it, but I’m very glad we caught the train. I write this as we are on our way to Ho Chi Minh.

It’s always an adventure traveling. There are ups and downs and you just gotta run with it.

At least we’ll still have the Buddhist Theme Park for G’s birthday.

Gotta run with it is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

But we’ve seen and done soooooo much already! It’s been awesome. Hanoi was cool, we saw and sampled just about everything we could there, the Halong Bay cruise was awesome and *almost* what it was promised (quite a feat in Vietnam!!!), the Sapa hilltribe trek was about 20 times more intense than I expected but at least 20 times more than I’d hoped, as well!

Now we’re down in Hoi An just for a quick couple of days thanks to a 12-hour flood delay stopping our train and making us lose the first day (and Joel’s only day) in Hoi An. Ray and I had a really nice day exploring though. Tomorrow night we’ll head on to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, lookin forward to it!

We’re in Vietnam! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Tabi Tabi on Tour 2.0

So we arrived to Hanoi, Vietnam, on Oct 6, pretty much no muss, no fuss!

Before we left, we had a great last week at home in Penang, I said goodbye to my beloved Korean kids, Ray got down to KL to get more pages added to his passport like I’d done in September (we filled up our whole passports on this trip already!!), and we both pulled a couple of all-nighters getting everything packed up and getting down to KL, 6 hrs from Penang by bus.

Visa Stuff

We did the “Visa on Arrival”, which is a bit of a misnomer, as actually what you do is apply and pay a fee online – Ray went with the one that is suggested by the Vietnam Embassy for $20 each, but our friend Joel went through hotels-in-vietnam.com for $14 and his worked fine too – then they email a letter with your name on it that you print and take with you, allowing you to pick up your visa on arrival. One of the sillier visa processes we’ve done, but perhaps there are reasons behind the scenes for it, and at least it meant we never had to send or leave our passports anywhere, unlike for India or China, pretty much the only other countries we’ve had to think about arranging visa stuff before showing up at the border or in the airport.

When you pick up your visa at the airport in Vietnam (the visa on arrival thing is only available for airport arrivals) you also pay an additional $25 stamping fee, or $50 for multiple entry. The letter part cost only $3 more for multiple entry so Ray thought it was a good idea to do that “just in case”. However, since it was then going to cost us another $25 each for the stamping fee when we arrived and we didn’t even need multiple entries, he had to write them back and have them change it. Fortunately, they were very obliging, no questions asked.

It still took about an hour at the airport to have it all processed, but overall if you don’t mind such things (which you really can’t when you travel), it was pretty smooth. I would go with Joel’s company next time to save the money since it seemed to work just as well. He’d chosen them because of multiple recommendations too, so it wasn’t just a fluke.

Getting from the Airport to Town without being told our Hostel burned down!

We managed to avoid all the taxi touts and no doubt subsequent scams that we read about, got pointed in 42 different (wrong) directions or told the bus was so far and you had to walk to it (suuuure), but eventually found it and spent a mere 35k dong for a ride into town – about $1.50. We then spent 70k (about $3.50) to get from where the bus dropped us off in town to the hostel, which may well have been vastly overpaying but for $3.50 we weren’t too concerned and thought it fair, especially when he actually took us to where we asked to go without any shenanigans like telling us our place burned down or taking us to an impostor.

Joel, on the other hand, had a much different experience, poor guy…….but we’ll get to that.

As for me and Ray though, we got to the hostel and checked into a beautiful, beautiful $10/person per night triple private room with bathroom, gorgeous beds and furniture, closets, TV, A/C…very nice! I tried to do some work but eventually gave in to the exhaustion from the past few days (Ray and I both pulled double all-nighters in the last week) and we crashed until our room phone rang with a poor exhausted Joel on the other end down at reception.

As Tabi Tabi-ers know, in typical fashion, simple things become an Adventure when it’s Joel we’re talking about!

Joel opted for the taxi from the airport and got the run-around once in town so got out but didn’t know where he was, had to find internet to get a map, walked to our hostel, was told we weren’t there by mistake for some reason (?), walked to their sister hostel quite a ways away (WITH all his bags) where there actually was another Ray from the USA staying, obviously not the right one, so walked back and fortunately finally they helped get him to us! Oh and apparently Facebook is blocked here, which is how we were communicating (not that it would have helped by that point), but to try to reach us he’d had to try to find a place where he could access it – some places can, some can’t.

But all in all, for meeting up in a new country, it wasn’t so bad. At least he had a nice room ready for him! We’re happy to be reunited with our snowboarding/beach hut buddy, and are looking forward to these next few weeks with him then also getting Andy, our 4th member of the Tabi Tabi on Tour fellowship, back in November for Laos and Burma!

Chillin in (Chilly!?!) Vietnam

Since then it’s been cold and rainy here (not what I was expecting at all!) and we’ve all had work we needed to take care of anyway, so we’ve been taking it easy and just enjoying being here and trying out the food and getting used to being in a new place. You can see some photos here of what we’ve done (eaten) in Vietnam so far.

We love being on a trip long enough to enable such a slow ease from one big part of a journey to another. I still feel guilt when we have a day or two of not doing much, when time – no matter how long or short that time is – is always so limited in a country anyway. But it’s good to have a few days of decompression between experiences I guess, plus it gives us a chance to earn the money to keep it all going.

Lots of fun stuff when we get rolling though…In Hanoi we plan to see:

Temple of Literature: founded in 1070 and established as the country’s first university

Water Puppet Show: “Live musicians accompany folk legends from Vietnamese history, told with wooden men, women and dragons, dancing and splashing on the face of the water.” – Wikitravel

Ho Chi Minh Museum: “Includes cars crashing through walls to represent the chaos of post-war American capitalism, soldiers charging around with electric plugs, a cave hideout re-imagined as the inside of Ho Chi Minh’s brain, and several other postmodern confections integrated with the main story of the man’s life and his country’s struggle. One of the more informative museums in Vietnam, and perhaps one of the oddest in the world.” – Wikitravel

The One Pillar Pagoda

Army Museum: “Vietnam’s military history extends back 2,000 years, and this museum covers it on four buildings with interesting pieces. On display outside are the ubiquitous MiG-21 jet fighter, T-54 tank and many bombs and articles captured on Indochina and Vietnam wars.” – Wikitravel

Probably some cafe-ing

Definitely more Vietnamese food eating

Hoa Lo Prison (The Hanoi Hilton): “This prison was built by the French at the turn of the 20th century, where they imprisoned and executed many of the Vietnamese freedom fighters. The museum exhibits the brutal French colonial regime and the struggle of the Vietnamese people against imperialism in chilling detail. The prison was also known as the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War as it held American POW’s shot down. Little emphasis is given to this period however, and the exhibits shown can be frustratingly skewed in propaganda, choosing to show solely propaganda photos of prisoners being treated well and playing basketball, playing chess, and other staged events. They also claim to have John McCain’s flight suit from when his plane was shot down.” – Wikitravel

and possibly:

Air Force Museum: UH-1 helicopter, Soviet-built MiG fighters, a huge Mi-6 helicopter, and other aircraft

National Museum of Vietnamese History: Vietnamese history from 1,000 years ago til 1945, antiques, etc.

Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution: a museum set in a 1932 colonial French building that blends colonial French and traditional Vietnamese architecture detailing the Vietnamese struggle against first the French (1858) and then the Americans (ending April 30, 1975).

Museum of Ethnology: culture and ritual practices of the various ethnic groups of Vietnam, includes houses of some of the ethnic groups, and even has inhabitants in costumes.

Since we found seeing Mao Zedong in Beijing such an interesting, if bizarre, experience, we REALLY wanted to see Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum…but apparently he’s in Russia now for his yearly trip for “maintenance”, damn!

After Hanoi…

Plans are still very flexible (read: not planned), but after Hanoi we’ll head out for a 3 day/2 night cruise through Halong Bay, which by everything I’ve read and heard should be a highlight not just of Vietnam but of the whole trip, which is exciting! Then possibly Sapa, or maybe just head down south.

Looking at the weather forecast though, it looks like it will be crap weather for perhaps our whole time here. This is a first, as we timed it to come during the not-hot season (success), but that hasn’t really meant rain and cold and overcast before. Apparently December is the best time to come to avoid both heat and rain. Oh well, it should be a blast anyway!

We’re excited to be here and looking forward to getting to know Vietnam. In truth, I felt a bit intimidated by Vietnam from afar (same with India and the Philippines, and this trip as a whole)…but now being here, not surprisingly I feel very comfortable, happy, and right at home right away! The people are incredibly nice, the food is delicious, and I’m sure the sightseeing will be fantastic.

To our experience, that’s how it’s been everywhere – the unknown is always much scarier and intimidating than the reality of it. Definitely a wisdom we have learned and apply to many facets of our lives now!

Vietnam!

Helloooo from Vietnam! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

But first, alas, we will have to say goodbye to this wonderful time period that has been 3 months living in Penang. We’ve got less than a week to pack up and prepare for the next part of the journey.

We’re finally truly hitting the road again, after pretty much 9 months “Off”.

Although we’ve still been to 4 new countries in that time, it’s been a much less frenetic pace in 2011 than it was in ’09 and ’10, thanks to several much longer stays (3 mos in Japan and 3 mos here in Malaysia, most notably) than we ever had in the 15 months before.

So, now that we’re rested and rejuvenated from the first year and a half of pretty intensive non-stop traveling, looking at a whopping 6 countries coming up in the next 3 months, two of which are entirely new territory, I’m feeling pretty stoked for the renewed adventure of seeing a lot of new places in one time period.

This week, things have started coming together for the next leg of the journey:

* We purchased our tickets to Vietnam this week, flying out of Kuala Lumpur exactly one week from today.

* We applied for our Vietnam visas.

* We booked our tickets to Japan to arrive in Tokyo on Dec. 20th to meet my little cousin Sam, whose trip to visit us in Japan was canceled last April after the earthquake and nuclear disaster, and travel with him for two weeks to the places we didn’t get to tour either when our plans got changed so suddenly, and Ray booked his return ticket as well.

* I confirmed with Tabi Tabi Lodge that I will be coming back.

* I secured my season ski pass for Goryu/Hakuba 47 at the early bird rate.

* Ray has been tending to all necessary hardware, business, and social arrangements for him to be set up and ready to get crackin on his big projects upon his return to Penang on Jan 4th.

* I’ve started polishing our itineraries of desired destinations for:
Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand
Laos
Burma
Japan

* I’ve started reading up on the need-to-knows for Burma, which is a rightly controversial place to visit, and I feel requires a great deal of quality research to do so as responsibly as possible.

* I’ve started learning as much as possible about first Vietnam, by starting with finally – FINALLY – starting to understand World War I, World War II, and ultimately segueing into getting some scope of the history and context of the Vietnam war, both from research reading, pop movie viewing (Platoon, so far), and documentary watching.

Hey, G + History + Understanding = Kind of a Big Deal!

I’ve never been very good with history, due to it being taught poorly, our system involving rote memorization (and subsequent immediate info dumping), me being uninterested, me having a shit memory in general, and/or because I slept through it, thanks to a lethal concoction of all these things.

So it is significant that I am independently and very methodically and passionately undertaking this self-education endeavor – and actually managing to “get” and retain some or most of the information I’m taking in. I’m not so much proud of myself as simply pleased with the opportunity to do so.

Getting to put history into a relevant personal context makes me really excited to learn about it all.

We will actually be standing in tunnels that were used during the war and once (not so long ago) had blood and explosions and gunfire going on in and all around those very spots; in school rooms that were used as prisons and horrific torture chambers.

We will be interacting daily with the people and families of those who were on the “other side” of an experience that completely traumatized and messed up so many people on “our” side both physically and mentally – and from everything I’ve heard, btw, those people are completely open, warm, and welcoming to Americans…Would we be?

And we will be living, if only for a few weeks, under a system and a government that stems from something that my own country so vehemently and adamantly opposed – and feared – that it went to a war so many didn’t want, and thus REMARKABLY shaped an entire generation (and thus my mother, and thus me).

Anyway, I’m glad and grateful I was able to experience a good (in its own way) basic education and higher education, even if for whatever reason it didn’t really teach me this stuff in a way that I remember it whatsoever at age 28. I’m really kind of glad I’m having to piece it all together this way, of my own accord and volition, on my own terms, for my own reasons, learned and internalized through my own real-life interpretations and analyses.

Maybe that’s why I forgot everything or slept through History class, so that I’d end up here, doing it like this.

Because I don’t think I’d prefer it any other way.

Almost time to pack it up! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

We’re back in Penang, Malaysia, workin our tails off for another 19 days to scrape together the last bits of fundage we can during our travel hiatus/work break to make the last leg of our trip happen just as we want it to. Ray’s putting in as close to 40 hrs/week as he can at his online job and I’m doing pretty much 30 hrs a week tutoring plus writing as many articles as I can, especially this past week when I had a boatload of assignments due.

It’s been crazy busy since we’ve been back from Indonesia (which was also crazy busy, as you can tell when we were able to update only once the entire 3 week trip), but we are very happy. We love our life in Penang as much as ever and enjoy our work, especially the freedom and flexibility of it.

With the kids back in school and seeing them M-F instead of just T, Th, F or whatever it was before, it’s quite a difference and much more like a job schedule-wise, but if I ever find work that is as rewarding and fun and enriching as it has been to spend time with these wonderful kids (well, now Teenagers – they’ve grown up right before my very eyes the past 3 months!!!), I will be very grateful.

I can only hope that when we hit the road Oct. 4, I will be immediately vastly distracted from the fact I’ve left life here – specifically them – because for as much as I’m looking forward to the traveling, ski season, and eventually then heading home and seeing Mom and friends and America again, I’m sure not looking forward to leaving them for who knows how long. I am pretty sure I’ll see most of them again, when they’re older for sure, but I sure love being with them here and now. I’ll definitely never look at Koreans, ESL learners, or teenagers the same again thanks to these boys (and now one girl, as of this week). In a good way!

Anyway the plans are coming together for the next 3-6 months. It is confirmed that our old ski lodge/beach hut buddies Joel and Andy are in fact going to be able to make good on our tentative discussions back in April to reunite with us and go travel together again! Pretty remarkable considering ALL of our plans were completely up in the air at the time, but for sure our respective plans were going to fling us to different countries, even continents in the meantime. After leaving us in Ko Lipe, Andy went to Australia where he’s been working and saving up travel funds ever since, and after Joel left us after traveling Malaysia with us and my old friend/Italy roommate Hillary, he went to Thailand again, Laos, and all the way down to his home in Australia then to spend a winter season snowboarding in my old beloved Queenstown, New Zealand. So it’s pretty awesome that we’re all 4 going to manage to reconverge after all!

The complete reunion will take place November 11 in Thailand, where we’ll then cross into Laos together, and go adventure and explore one of the few Asian countries that doesn’t see a whole lot of tourism. I’m excited to go now, as Laos only opened itself up for tourism in the mid-90s, so tourism is still in its infancy. Have you ever even heard of Laos? Probably not. I never had before I started planning this Asia trip a few years ago, and I’m relatively, you know, travel-map edumacated.

Laos is right between Thailand and Vietnam, below China and above Cambodia, also sharing a small border in the NW with Burma (Myanmar). It was ruled by the French for the first half of the 1900s, then got the shit bombed out of it by the Americans in the Vietnam War during the 1960s and 70s, and then basically totally disappeared from 1975-89 when a revolutionary communist government took over and forbade contact with the outside world. Can you imagine?

Regarding the bombing in the war, this is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The Guardian reported that Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bombload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the Second World War. Of the 260 million bombs that rained down, particularly on Xiangkhouang Province on the Plain of Jars, 80 million failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy.

The Guardian reported that Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bombload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. And 80 million were left still waiting to explode.

Suffice it to say, it is the most bombed country per capita in the world, and you don’t want to step off the roadside to take a piss.

Anywho, I’ll tell you more about Laos in another post as I learn more. But yes, that will be where we make our (bomb-free) reunion and first mobile adventures together as Tabi Tabi on Tour 2.0. Then we will proceed as a foursome to Burma, which also will get its own posts later.

But before Andy joins us, Joel will meet up with me and Ray as soon as we leave Penang, and travel with us through Vietnam from Hanoi in the top to Ho Chi Minh City in the bottom. He’ll then leave us again to go, in that mysteriously random sort of way that Joel does things, watch the F1 and Metallica in India and check out India for a couple of weeks. While he’s gone, Ray and I will travel Cambodia for about a week and a half and finally see the fabled Angkor Wat, make yet another visit to Thailand (I think this is #6 on this trip) and see several of the few main places we’ve not seen in Thailand (Ayutthaya, Sukothai, and Pai) before meeting the guys in Chiang Rai and heading to Laos and Burma with them.

After Burma, happily my 13-year-old cousin who had a ticket to come visit me in Japan in April will get to come still, and will arrive to Tokyo on Dec 20. This, in conjunction with the fact that our AWESOME friends Ange and Sarah graciously took our snowboards and have stored them for us at their place in Bangkok since March, making it super easy to grab the gear and head back to the snow again, means that we are headed back to Japan.

So basically it will look something like this:

Oct: Vietnam (3 weeks)
Oct/Nov: Cambodia (1.5 weeks)
Nov: Thailand (1 week)
Laos (3 weeks)
Dec: Burma (3 weeks)
Jan: Japan with Sam (2 weeks)

What happens after the trip with Sam is still pending. If I can get enough money together and providing there is still space in the lodge, I want to stay in Japan and snowboard for another season, while Ray wants to head back to Penang and work on his projects, set up the beginnings of a biz, and just enjoy the all-around awesome life here in Malaysia (did I mention we love it here?) for a few more months. Then, believe it or not, our 2.5-3 year trip will pretty much be at an end.

And what a trip!

Lil Update is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Ten years ago already.

I wish I had a journal from that day. If I did it would read something like this:

September 11, 2001
6:43pm
Flagstaff, Arizona

Jeff woke me up with a call from his dorm downstairs this morning at about 8:30a – or was it 6:30a? 7:30a?…today’s all been kind of a blur – saying to turn on the TV, that the World Trade Center had been bombed. I didn’t think too much of it at first, mostly because I didn’t know what the World Trade Center was and thus didn’t know where it was. Plus stuff gets bombed all the time, doesn’t it? And if I didn’t even know it offhand, it couldn’t be THAT important, could it? But he said, “Just turn on your news,” so I did and hung up.

The first thing I saw was that it wasn’t a bomb. Smoke and smoldering rubble, but the information ribbon below said that it was a plane. The rest happened quickly, like little clicks of information, and I could feel the sensation of the “dawning of realization” with each little click. A plane. Ok.

Then I saw “American Airlines”.

Oh, no.

Then I saw “a flight flying a route from Boston to Los Angeles.”

Oh my god. When had I last talked to Mom? Three days ago? Five? She was flying that route this month. On American Airlines. Was she flying a trip today??

I don’t worry much in life, not even about big catastrophes. It would be premature to assume she would be on THAT flight, on THAT day, just because she was a flight attendant on American Airlines, flying that route this month. But I got on the phone real quick just to double check, hesitating for only a second about the early hour. I figured she wouldn’t mind me waking her up to be sure. I wasn’t too worried when I called, just a little concerned. Wanted to check and be sure, you know.

But then I couldn’t believe it when the phone rang three times and the answering machine picked up. The phone’s right by her bed, surely it woke her up. I even left a full message, and she didn’t pick up in the middle of it.

Uhhhm…

K, no need to panic. She almost never gets up before 10a, but she might have today. Just wait and see what develops. I still wasn’t fully worried at this point. As I stared at all that was going on on the TV screen, I was just kind of like, “Wtf is going on?”

Then the phone rang. Mom on the other side, sounding groggy. “Hi honey,” she probably said. “I’m here, what’s going on?” I probably had to hesitate that half second again, wondering if I should tell her or just let her go back to bed. I’m not sure what I said, probably a downplayed version of what was on the TV (on all channels) and why I had felt it necessary to call her and see if she was working, then she could decide if that was worth getting up and seeing the news for now or if it could wait til later.

I don’t remember anything after those first few minutes of the morning, maybe it’s the same for a lot of people. The rest of the day like I said was a bit of a blur. But I’m pretty sure everyone remembers as vividly as I do exactly what they were doing and where they were when they first heard about what had happened.

That, fortunately, was the closest September 11, 2001, directly affected me as an 18-year-old college sophomore at NAU.

Aside from that, I was a Resident Assistant in the hall that year and had to swiftly turn my attentions to any counseling or order-keeping duties that might be needed of me that day with a hall of 422-some students from all over the country and world. I thought first of Jim, the proud New Yorker resident on the hall below me that I had to continually ask to quit throwing a baseball against the wall in the hall – not so much because, you know, you just shouldn’t throw baseballs down the hall, but because the wall in question became my wall at the 3rd floor and it made a terrible racket. What must he be thinking? Would he be freaking out? Would he be affected by this? Or the international students?

I don’t remember if I went to class that day. I don’t even remember if my boyfriend at the time, Mark, was with me when I got the phone call from Jeff, which is strange to not remember, since he almost always was with me. The only other thing I remember from that day is at some point, I switched off the TV, exhausted from all of it, and – feeling kind of silly for it when it seemed all the world was going nuts around me about this – F it, I took a nap. I have since discovered I have a great knack for this; if it all gets to be a bit much, I have an uncanny ability to just go to sleep. Ray has remarked on this many times during the trip: a sleeper bus ride from hell that he is going crazy from discomfort on? Zzzz. He is equal parts on thinking I’m insane and being extremely jealous.

I don’t collect newspaper clippings much (where would it end?), but I saved the whole front page section from The Arizona Republic the next day. TERROR, it read, with the ubiquitous image of the second plane behind the smoking building about to hit the second tower. I think the thing that makes the whole thing so horrifying is being able to see all those “just before” images, and how easily you can imagine the people contained within, or perhaps yourself, in those last seconds before everything changes and all hell breaks loose. Right this moment as I write this, it’s 6:46a in New York, exactly two hours before the first plane struck.

Ten years ago.

I’ve always given a nod, of course, to the date every year since. But ten years is a big milestone. Ten years is when it starts sounding like a long time ago.

In a strange way, right now it feels like it’s pre-9/11 again, for just this 2-hour window. At 8:46a, it will have been 10 years, which sounds so very long ago. But right now for this small last chunk of time, we’re still in the era where it’s fresh, just single digit years since it happened.

I’m not going to get into any of the discourse or editorializing about this event, its context, its implications. For all my traveling and experience and education, I still don’t feel nearly educated or experienced enough about any of it to speak to any part of it. I suspect I will always feel that way (and I think maybe that’s not such a bad thing, to not form a die-hard certain concrete opinion about things, then go spouting it off everywhere).

That’s not to say the traveling, experience, and education has amounted to nothing though. With September 11th and all the fears and mysteries and coverups and uncertainties on my mind as context, here are a few somewhat random things I can speak to that I’ve learned in the past 10 years of life, education, and travel:

• We are conditioned to think and believe things, and act in ways beyond our daily comprehension.

• Some of this conditioning makes us do or think pretty shitty, untrue and unfair things.

• Growing up thinking, believing or doing certain things does not necessarily make us bad people. (And that goes both ways, for our culture, country, people, religions, AND OTHERS.)

• Growing up thinking, believing or doing certain things does not necessarily make those things right, either. (Likewise.)

• Some (or many) of these things that we think, believe, and do are not always universally true, logical, or appropriate in a different context.

• Sometimes what works in one country would not be appropriate in America. Sometimes what is appropriate in America would not work in another country.

• People without a college education – or any education – can be a hell of a lot smarter and more useful than you.

• They can be a lot happier too.

• Differentiate between a country and its government.

• Differentiate between the history of a people/country and its individuals.

• Extremists and fundamentalists are not indicative of an entire country, culture, religion, belief. This applies to Americans, Arabs, Middle Easterners, Kiwis, Aussies, Brits, Christians, Mormons, Muslims, theists, atheists, polyamorists, feminists, vegetarians, hippies, Republicans, Democrats, rednecks, Pastafarians.

• Don’t be afraid to be wrong.

• Don’t be afraid to admit that you’re wrong.

• Don’t be afraid to say that you’re sorry for being wrong.

• Thank people for helping you, whether it’s to change your tire or change your mind.

• Be open to people to help you change.

• There’s no need to be an asshole.

• Muslims aren’t terrorists. Terrorists are terrorists.

• Terrorism is a tired word, and I’m starting to feel like it’s extremely loaded and misleading. Can we change it to “Asshole” instead? “Asshole threat” issued for New York. 34 people were killed in an attack by a bunch of assholes today. I think that would be much more accurate and to the point.

There’s a ton of other stuff I have learned over these years, but that seems like a good note to end this post on. Thanks for allowing me this self-indulgent post to reflect on this sordid day in history; it kind of sneaked up on me because for the most part, again probably like many people, I try not to think about it too much. Usually when I do I end up getting sucked into the stories, the conspiracies, the analyses, the images, and it’s tough to pull myself back out of it and re-engage with the present world.

But it’s too big a milestone to not give it some due reflection and thought this year, both in a personal context and a broader one…But mostly a personal one. I can’t purport to know much about what’s right for the rest of the world; nearly 29 years with myself and creating me, myself and I, is still proving to be plenty to handle and fine-tune – let alone trying to get everyone else to comply with an image that I think it should be, or that I think has some sort of universal “right”ness to it.

Sometimes I wish the rest of the world felt the same.

How to end this post. “Thinking of you, New York”? “Thinking of you, America”? “Thinking of you, World”? “Thinking of you, Me”? “Thinking of you, Past”? “Thinking of you, Future”? “Thinking of you, September 11th”?

Just…Thinking of you.

September 11, 2011: 9/11, Ten Years Later is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Here it is, exotic-sounding and certainly going to be exciting to explore…INDONESIA! And, mind-blowingly, Country #15, at that!

Ray, Sjoerd and I arrived to Jakarta today after a direct flight from Penang (and a night without going to bed, yeah that’s how we roll!) and even though all we’ve seen so far is the ride from the airport to our centrally-located hostel, we like it so far. Mine and Ray’s first impression was that Jakarta is like a mix of Bangkok and India (parts of Mumbai probably), with a touch of Manila thrown in there too. The people we’ve encountered are beyond nice and I don’t know why everyone always hates on Jakarta, it seems perfectly interesting for at least a day or two. If we had longer, I would happily hang out here for 2 days I think.

Today we got to the hostel at 5p and thanks to the all-nighter we pulled, exhausted, upon arrival we all promptly collapsed onto our beds for a 7.5 hour nap til we woke up at 12:30a – brilliant planning, eh!? Now it’s 4:30a and we need to get up in about 3.5 hrs to start our one day flash tour so I have to keep this short.

We only have one day here unfortunately before we book it to Yogyakarta but I’m super stoked to go to the Taman Mini park tomorrow, a supposedly massive and sprawling park that details all of Indonesia…in miniature. Though I think it’s not exactly miniature-scale, more like pavilions with full-scale models of buildings and exhibits of the culture (and food?) from all over Indonesia. Either way it’ll be awesome. You can check out more info at the Taman Mini Indonesia Wikipedia page and the TripAdvisor reviews. I’m excited to see the cable car over the lake with a miniature model of the entire Indonesia archipelago!

The overall goal for tomorrow is to see the cool ships…uh…somewhere (it’s been REALLY busy the past few weeks so this isn’t our most well-researched destination, I’m afraid)…tomorrow morning and take a gander through the National Museum before spending the rest of the day checkin out the miniature park.

The plan for our 19 days in Indonesia is:
Jakarta
Yogyakarta
Gili Islands
5-day Komodo dragon and snorkeling trip (STOKED!!!!)
Bali

It’s too short, and we’ve shorted ourselves 11 days from what the visa would allow, but it’s what worked best with Sjoerd’s visit and also enables us to spend the month of September back “home” in Penang. We are absolutely not ready to leave that life, we love it SO much! I do kind of regret having done Indonesia this way already, especially because it means 11 days less than we would have had, but hopefully it will have been the best decision.

It’ll be fun to explore a country with Sjoerd anyway, since last year when he came to visit, we just spend time in Bangkok and Ko Tao and focused only on hanging out, and this time there will be much more emphasis on the travel obviously, while also spending some really good time together.

And anyway I guess 19 days is still more than a lot of people would get – we’ve just been soooo spoiled with this trip, getting to spend more or less as long as we want wherever we want!

So chin up, this is going to be GREAT!!! :D

Details and reports on Indonesia to follow soon! Really excited to be here and looking forward to traveling, exploring and adventuring for the next 3 weeks with two of my bestest friends in the whole world! Life is good down under! (We’re “down under” now too!)

Hello from INDONESIA!!!! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Unbelievably, today marks 2 YEARS since Ray and I got on a plane in Phoenix and got off a plane in New Delhi, India!!

I believe it, in that we have certainly seen and done and experienced enough to fill not two years but two lifetimes since then.

I don’t believe it, in that speaking in “years” let alone multiples of years, away from home, friends and family, and traveling through foreign countries across the world where we didn’t know the language or understand the culture always sounded SO LONG when we were planning for it back home.

But here it is. Two years.

It’s been two years since I wrote this very first entry after our departure. It’s even been another year since all the incredible experiences I wrote about for the highlights of our first year backpacking Asia. And at this time next year, I’ll be home, writing about what it’s like to have been home for four months after 2 years and (hopefully) 8 months backpacking through Asia.

It’s all a bit amazing to think about.

In Year 1, we visited:

1. India
2. Nepal
3. Sri Lanka
4. Singapore
5. Thailand
6. Philippines
7. Mongolia

In Year 2, we’ve visited:
8. Taiwan
9. China
10. Tibet (including Mt. Everest, woohoo!)
11. Hong Kong
12. South Korea
13. Japan
14. Malaysia

In Year 3, this upcoming year, we will finish off our itinerary with:
15. Indonesia
16. Vietnam
17. Cambodia
18. Laos
19. Burma

That’s right, only 5 more countries to go (we decided to add Burma and omit Australia & New Zealand).

This year has gone even faster than the first year, probably because although we saw just as many countries (what we consider countries anyway – shh don’t tell China), we were stationary for much longer several more times than the first year, plus the countries were more similar to each other than those in the first year.

It’s continued to be even more incredible than we’d ever hoped or imagined, and we are still as happy on our journey as we have ever been.

I’m assembling a highlights post of the past year like I did last year, and will post it soon. Sjoerd just arrived a few days ago for his second visit of the trip (!!!) and the three of us will head to Indonesia in about a week, which should be awesome.

For now, to start with, if we were to choose the Top 5 things from Year 2 just off the tops of our heads, this would be them:

G

5. Seeing the Potala Palace in Tibet
4. Snowboarding in Japan
3. Seeing Mt. Everest
2. Seeing the Great Wall of China
1. Holding a Panda Bear on my lap (twice)

Ray

5. Hanging out and traveling with Joel and Hillary in Malaysia
4. Seeing the Great Wall of China and Terra Cotta Warriors
3. Going on the Yangtze River Cruise
2. Experiencing Taroko Gorge and Hualien with You-Yu’s Mom in Taiwan
1. Seeing Mt. Everest

These lists don’t tell a fraction of it and we look forward to including the rest for a more accurate picture soon. Certainly the people we’ve met on this trip are the biggest highlights, but it’s hard to mention any without wanting to mention all of them (as Ray discovered once he started mentioning people and then started listing all of the experiences with everyone but I made him choose these final answers, otherwise we’d be here all night).

It’s been a great second year on the road and an incredible two years altogether so far. Here’s to the next leg of a wonderful journey through Asia!

2 YEARS on the road, baby! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

I’ve been thinking a LOT about Mongolia recently, since I realized that – mind-blowingly – it’s been a year since our epic 25-day expedition through that most marvelous land.

This trip has been beyond description even to look at any singular part of it, any one day or even a sole moment. And when I try to zoom out and look at the entire picture, 14 countries, 23 months, and what those numbers actually MEAN, what they actually HOLD, it’s simply mind-boggling.

And if I had to choose a single experience or a single country from all that as what was the most incredible, what was the most unique, what was the most rewarding experience of all…I would choose that expedition through Mongolia. We still have another 6 countries and 7-10 mos to go on this trip but I can pretty confidently say at the end of it, that will still be the case.

Maybe if I show you what we were doing on THIS exact day, July 3, one year ago, you’ll understand.

But I should have started yesterday, really, or two days ago. So let me back up a little, for context.

A year and two days ago, we were camped out in our tent along a most idyllic crystal clear and clean river, beneath a most unreal sky.

At the right time, the view might look like this, as yaks crossed the river.

And later, horses…

There was even a horse nearby for us to visit.

…barefoot.

In the evening, Ray and our guide Jojo sat by the river and chatted for a bit.

Then we pulled our 2L plastic bottles of beer out of the river where they’d been cooling and had a nice, chill evening.

After two nights at this lovely camping spot, we were to begin our 2-day horse trek to a place and a people so remote and so special that cars can’t get there and you need a permit to visit:

The nomadic, teepee-dwelling Tsaatan (Reindeer People), in the far north of Mongolia, on the border of Siberia.

To put this trip and these people in perspective, consider this.

All of the rest of Mongolia and Mongolian lifestyle and culture is still incredibly uniquely wild and preserved.

The people are still very much nomadic and live in simple round gers (you may know them as Yurts), felt and wood affairs that can be constructed or dismantled in a day.

The ger and all its contents can then be put on a truck (or yak cart) and relocated, and just like that you’ve practically just moved from Arizona to Nebraska.

If you are a Mongolian, passing visitors, such as ourselves – two foreigners and two Mongolians loaded into a compact gray Russian Jeep, or perhaps fellow Mongolians on horseback – may see your lone ger from miles away, isolated against the impossibly huge skies and expansive empty landscape.

These visitors will stop and come by – unannounced, naturally – and you will have them come inside and set about preparing hot tea and biscuits and homemade cheese and hard yogurt, perhaps even dinner of homemade noodles and home-killed goat soup.

They will likely stay the night, and you will be as at ease with these strangers in your home as though they were visiting friends or family, these people who just dropped by out of nowhere to your home in the middle of nowhere.

This is NORMAL life in Mongolia!

That’s how exotic and wild and different it is from the culture we come from, where your own mother or sibling is expected to give plenty of advance notice if she intends to make a visit, and most certainly if she is going to stay longer than a cup of tea.

And there’s not a chance a stranger is making it in the front door, let alone to stay in the house.

Plus, nevermind the walls being made of felt and the floor of rug-covered dirt.

The toilet is that bush up there – no not that one…yeah that one. Walk around the horse skull and various bones laying about on the way, and try not to mind the 4,300 goats staring at you, baaa-ing away.

Yes, of all the places we’ve been on this trip, Mongolia was the most otherworldly.

So now that you have an idea of what normal life in Mongolia is like…

Now imagine our Mongolian guide, who COMES from this otherworldly place, being quite excited to go visit the Tsaatan and see them in person for the very first time herself, giddy for the mystery and the intrigue of these Shamanic and rare people.

That will give you an idea how unique and remote they are, how interesting their teepee-dwelling, reindeer-herding nomadic culture is.

We had to build in several flexible days for this extra journey to the north of the north, because sometimes it may take several days even just to FIND them, and if you don’t allot the necessary time you may not even get to see them or their way of life at all.

An excellent resource to get more of a feel about this unique people can be found at the Tsaatan Community & Visitors Center site.

To give you an idea, here’s what they have to say about things to consider if you’re thinking about planning a trip to the Tsaatan community:

Taiga trips are physically challenging and involve significant travel costs and careful logistics coordination.

The taiga is cold, wet, and far away. To reach the Tsaatan you will need to drive off-road through muddy, bumpy conditions for a minimum of 12 hours, and then ride by horse for a minimum of 3 hours [G's note: 2 days, in our case].

You will be sleeping on the ground while in the taiga. Flush toilets, running water, and electricity are not available anywhere…in the taiga. Visitors should be in good physical condition and adaptable in challenging conditions. All visitors should also allow for sufficient time for their trip.

You will need at LEAST seven days roundtrip from Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar, for a trip to reach the Tsaatan. 10-12 days is ideal.

To reach the taiga you will be traveling for 2 to 4 days each way from Ulaanbaatar, and will likely spend several hundred or even several thousand dollars just for transportation.

The Tsaatan live far away from any major transport routes, requiring travelers to be flexible, adaptable, and ready for all conditions, weather, and circumstances.

Pretty intense, huh?

And it was.

[To be continued...]

Tales from Mongolia: Going to the Tsaatan – the Reindeer People of Mongolia is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Gobi Desert Break Down is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

The cool thing about settling somewhere exotic is that no matter what, no matter how much you hole yourself up in your room and very purposely emerge as little as possible (so as to maximize $$ earning time and minimize spending temptations), it’s still somewhere exotic and exciting. Even when we’re in our little cave, the Muslims singing outside at the State Mosque 5 times a day always remind us of that, which we love!

We seriously almost never go outside our room, pulling 18-hour days sitting at the computer screen (which is why if you’re a Facebook friend of mine, you’ve been hearing from me a lot [grin]) working on various assignments or projects or jobs.

But that’s why having a roommate is awesome. Because not only is your roommate cool and does stuff on occasion, but he has friends who are cool and do stuff. So inevitably, once in a while you go to see the out-of-doors with them.

One of the fun times we’ve had with our roomie Zac and his Taiwanese friend James (we LOVE the Taiwanese!), who, by the way, is completely fluent in English and sounds like an American, was going recently for sushi – or more specifically, a sushi-eating contest.

(You can click the photo to read the text.)

Despite our love for sushi, we were pretty much dragged out to go with him because we knew it would be expensive to go to a “real” place for good sushi. But he had insisted for weeks we come to see the sushi-eating contest that a place near the mall puts on once a week, and we wanted to go see Super 8 and needed to TAKE A BREAK FROM THE COMPUTERS by that point, so we relented.

We staunchly refused to take part in the contest, not just for the entry fee which was 55 Ringgit or about $18 USD – which really is quite an amazing price for 100 pieces of sushi – but mostly out of being quite horrified at the very notion of scarfing sushi rather than enjoying it, SAVORING it, MAKING LOVE to the sushi.

Not…this.

But it was still interesting to see, and shake our heads at our crazy Asian friends who found this to be a good idea. They certainly got their money’s worth, anyway – I think James put away something like 56 pieces in 10 minutes. And they weren’t just tiny rolls or anything, these were real pieces of sushi, even the big cone handrolls!!!

After the guys were done with their contest (you “win” if you can eat 100 pieces, which none of them could) we all sat down so the rest of us could feast – at a reasonable pace.

And we got some GREAT stuff!! We had a huge variety plate, our favorite soft-shell crab handrolls, California handrolls which were delicious, tuna, salmon, all kinds of awesomeness.

And unexpectedly, after all this wonderfulness – James picked up the tab for us (not the first time, either)! It was really sweet of him, and much appreciated by us. Both he and Zac have been incredibly generous to us and we’re very grateful. One advantage to when I eventually have a place of my own and a steady income will be the opportunity to repay the kindness we have received from so many people. I really look forward to that, and to chipping in for other backpackers like ourselves who are just setting out on their own journeys or are in the midst of it and watching their precious travel pennies.

Life is good!

After the feast, it was time to get our movie tickets and see our show, so we rolled our way over to Gurney Plaza, the rather dizzyingly tall adjacent mall.

We were stuffed but did save just enough room for mine and Ray’s favorite – Big Apple Donuts. I’m not a donut fan but these things had me back in Langkawi. These aren’t donuts. These are Love. Zac and James aren’t fans though (weirdos) so they opted for a smoothie instead.

It was Free Smoothie Name Day, and as luck would have it – anyone named Zachary got a free smoothie! What are the odds!?

We also stopped to check out a game of live-action Angry Birds (awesome?).

Then we capped off the evening with our movie Super 8, which wasn’t bad. I’m not usually too big on going to the movies (though they are delightfully cheap here), but it’s been a nice activity to do here on occasion. We’ve seen Water for Elephants, Super 8, and Kung Fu Panda 2 (3D) together, and Ray’s also seen X-Men First Class and Transformers 3 (3D) since we’ve been here. Believe it or not, for 2 tickets to a brand new 3D movie evening showing, huge thing of caramel popcorn and 2 Large drinks, it costs $7.50 a person. Yeah.

We love living in Malaysia! And our new friends! :)

(Dim Sum Breakfast a different day at 7a – we still hadn’t gone to bed!)

Life in Penang: Friends and Sushi Contests is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Temples like this are SO rad!!

Temple Top in Tainan, Taiwan is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Oops. Looks like our Mongolian expedition driver bit off a little more than he could chew…

So did I. I’m a truly terrible blogger. I’m realizing this now.

But let’s try to fix that. I’ve kept not-writing because I want to write about all the great stuff but want to be able to do it justice which is going to take time, focus and energy, and when I have one I don’t have the others.

In other words, not unlike the picture above, I want to do more than I actually can, given all realistic factors (such as I’m not a boat – oh wait that’s the situation above), and become a self-paralyzing, self-annoying Type-A FREAK.

And then I just end up stuck and not going anywhere at all – instead of just doing it the slightly less (overly-)ambitious way and actually, you know, GOING somewhere.

So, lest we end up permanently like the photo above, let’s give up on the wonderful idea/terrible plan of giving the proper chronological, mind-blowing, richly-detailed, awesome catch-up for now.

Here’s the long and short of the past few months:

Jan 5-March 10 (should have been til March 30): Normal life in the ski lodge in Hakuba, Japan…awesome.

Friends, snowboarding, fire festivals, fluoro parties, crazy snowboard comps, snow monkeys, birthday party for Ray, etc. All of those get their own stories, and it was every bit as awesome as we’d hoped it would be.

We met some really great people and did some really cool stuff on and off the slopes. Ray learned to snowboard quite well in his first season off skis and, for my second season, I learned to do the freestyle stuff I always wanted to do like boxes, butters and jumps.

During this time I also did my first completed blog project, a season-long review of the freestyle DVD set I was using and a chronicle of my progress over the season. You can see my progress with pics and vids at www.SnowboardAddictionSeasonReview.com.

March 11-20: Earthquake. Tsunami. Nuclear plant. Disaster in Japan.

Then the 9.0 earthquake struck Japan.

We were far enough away at about 140 miles from the nuclear plant and the areas that were hit by the quake and tsunami to be spared any real major concern. But it was still tense, and life wasn’t the same anymore.

On the 4th day after the quake/tsunami, things were pretty out of control at the plant and everyone at the lodge – including the owners – decided to sadly cut our losses and clear out early.

Plans for the next month and a half in Japan now thoroughly derailed, we said “We’re going to a beach hut, who’s coming with us?” In an unexpected but welcome surprise, Andy from the UK and Joel from Australia answered the call and booked tickets to Bangkok with us.

March 20-23: Kyoto, Japan

We booked our flights out of Osaka in the south to stay away from the troubled areas, which gave us the opportunity to check out at least something in Japan other than Tokyo and the ski slopes, and in fact is pretty much the must-see place of Japan after Tokyo.

We even got to ride the bullet train down there with our friend Rich, who was also flying out of Osaka. Sadly he didn’t have the extra couple of days so from then on it was just me, Ray, Andy and Joel keepin it real with Tabi Tabi on Tour.

We got to see the cool 1,001 Buddha temple, a peek at some fortunately early-blooming cherry trees, the very cool Geisha District, the Manga Museum, the Silver Temple, a forest shrine, and some general wandering and snacking our way around the very cool city.

Though we weren’t really in tourist mode with all that was going on, we made the most of it and really enjoyed our time there and the opportunity to get to see more of Japan.

March 23-26: Bangkok, Thailand

When situations get tense and unpredictable, it’s always a comfort to be able to run to familiar surroundings where the routine is still the same. If there was ever any question before, arriving from Japan sealed the deal – Bangkok is like a second home to us.

It was great to know exactly where to go stay, who was going to receive us (the same lovely lady as always and the two most ridiculous dogs in the world), what we’d eat, what we’d do for a few days, and we even had “old” friends we’d get to see which always helps normalize and ground things again.

Some things had changed on Khao San – my kebab shop was now mobile and operating from a push cart, the always-disappointing pizza stand had moved around the corner in their place (but was still disappointing at least) and a KFC was being put in – but most everything else was the same as it had been.

Having been through Bangkok like 5 times already before: on our own several times, through red shirt protests, with Kevin, with Sjoerd…we’d had a lot of memories in this little corner of Thailand and it was good to go back.

As sad as we were to have left Japan and so unexpectedly and abruptly, we were excited to be “home”. We dug right into our favorite street Pad Thai, strawberry soda thirstbuster, spring rolls, skewers and fruit, and enjoyed being in familiar surrounds with old friends and familiar people as we sat down with our new friends and charted out the next move for the four of us.

March 26-April 21: Beach hut in Ko Lipe, Thailand

After much internet scouring, searching, and discussing, Andy and I settled on Ko Lipe for having everything we were looking for – beach huts right on the beach, good snorkeling right off the beach, and not a lot of people. We did well.

It was amazing and an absolutely charmed life for the rest of the 3 weeks we had together with the 4 of us from Tabi Tabi (on Tour in Thailand).

Beach dogs, porching, hammocking, reading, eating, drinking, hanging out, watching sunsets, playing guitar, snorkeling and enjoying our buddies – life there was definitely worth a few posts of its own so I won’t get too into it for now.

Andy had to leave us for his new job in Sydney on April 16. The 3 of us were sad to see him go, but fortunately he’s a great penpal and I’ve been in almost daily touch with him ever since which has made it much easier!

We stayed on and milked our beach hut life til the very last possible day that we could on the 21st, then headed to Langkawi, an island in Malaysia just an hour and a half away, to get out of Thailand on the 30th day of our 30-day permit of stay.

April 21-May 12: Malaysia with Joel and Hillary

Our timing happened to perfectly coincide with another of our trip’s random meetups with one of my old friends – this time Hillary, whom I knew from living with her in Florence, Italy, 7 years ago.

We’d not seen each other since then but fell right back into that rhythm of ease and familiarity in that way that only former roommates can really do. We thought we’d only meet up and say hey for a day or two but ended up traveling together the 4 of us for the next 3 weeks because we had such a good, chill time together.

The 4 of us spent time in Langkawi, Georgetown, Kota Bharu, the Jungle Railway, Taman Nagara (a rainforest jungle National Park), Melaka and Kuala Lumpur. Again, all their own great stories. For now, fortunately Hillary is much better at updating her blog so you can get a little sneak peek about them here: International Hillary – Operation Backpack Malaysia.

We really enjoyed the extra time with our Tabi Tabi peeps and were glad Joel was able to stay with us so long, and it was good to catch up with Hillary again. We were sad to see them go but happy we’d shared such an awesome time together, had so many fun experiences and made so many great memories.

May 12-present: Georgetown, Malaysia

So finally that brings us to here. Even in a nutshell, that’s quite a lot that’s happened, I’d say!

Things are plugging along as we work on our stuff here in Penang and we are very happy. I’ve landed a few writing gigs, including an article for The Expat magazine, which will be my first time in print in a magazine which is very exciting.

I’m also writing for several different blogs and websites and starting up a few of my own new projects on the side, as well as submitting various freelance one-off articles and generally just finally getting organized after nearly 2 years’ digital buildup.

I’m even managing to start to slog through some of the tons of footage we got from our new GoPros over the season and do some compilation vids, which is a lot of fun:

Additionally, my really good friend Sjoerd has booked his ticket and will come to visit us again this year for the entire month of August, which is awesome.

I’m still in almost daily contact with Joel and Andy who are off on their own adventures (or misadventures) now, and really looking forward to seeing them again in the fall when we meet up to travel together again through the rest of SE Asia.

Ray is also working diligently on his own work and projects to help earn us additional funding for the rest of the trip, including a collaboration with Andy’s graphic designer brother Ash to make his first iPod/iPad game.

He’s really hoping and trying to earn enough funds over and above what we need for the trip to get a new computer and/or iPad to help with his developing and really get going with that.

Ray really loves having the time and freedom of schedule and location to work and I think he’s totally suited to be an expat all around the world (well as long as he can get good internet!).

We are happy little clams, working on our various stuff and having the chance to finally, FINALLY have a chance to really start catching up with and processing all of what we’ve done these past incredible almost two years, and maybe even advance all the experiences into newer and wider territory than just our own brains.

A Good Reason to Get…Unstuck.

Besides it just being one of those things that I’ve been “meaning to do” for like 6+ months now, I wanted to finally get properly updated on here because I wanted to enter this round of “Travel Photo Roulette”, which is a fun and super cool idea that you can read more about on this round’s host blog at www.Destination-World.net.

Basically the owner of the previous round’s winning photograph chooses the next round’s theme, say “Animals” or “Road Signs” or even the abstract such as “Storytelling“, and hosts the game on their blog, judging the entries on an entirely subjective basis.

This week’s theme is “Transportation” and I thought I simply had to contribute that picture up top of the Jeep from our expedition through Mongolia because it’s just too classic.

Which reminds me I haven’t even gotten to tell you the story of what happened there with our Jeep yet. But alas, this is long enough. Another time.

At least for now the blog is “unstuck”, so I will now just start posting whatever random story from the past two years tickles my fancy, whenever I feel like it. It only took 2 YEARS (hey no one said I was a quick learner) but I’m finally freeing myself from my own expectations and desires with this damn site and liberating myself to the open road of whatever I want to talk about as it occurs to me! Because…chronology or organization? Psh, who needs it.

Oooh a Chance for a “Moral of the Story”!

Maybe that’s what the odd events of the past 3 months have shown me more than ever.

You can be organized and have a plan but then the world just decides to do its own thing, shit goes crazy, and within a matter of just a few days, instead of in the snow in Japan where you were “supposed” to be, you find yourself on the beach in Thailand. And you know…it turns out to be not so bad. Not so bad at all.

Being on a multi-year backpacking trip, we’ve dealt with plan changes, unexpected events and alterations before of course, and are perfectly fine with them. This time period since Japan is just the first time we didn’t even formulate a plan to intentionally diverge from.

I’ve never minded necessary or preferred changes in plans (I always view my meticulously crafted perfect “Plan A” as ACTUAL “Plan B”), but since one of my main tenets in life is to live purposefully, a formulated plan, as at least a starting point, is generally a key ingredient. Didn’t have much of a chance to do that this time.

The take-away? “Oh well!”

I still think it’s good to have a direction you aim to go. I do believe that “Goals are a compass. People who don’t make goals usually don’t get anywhere, because they don’t know where they are going.” (from Dave Ramsey).

But still, if your compass gets spun around in the meantime, well, take a look at the new direction it’s pointing you in and just go with it. That’s ok too. The point is the road too, after all, not just the destination. Keep that in mind and you can enjoy all of it for whatever it is…4-foot deep puddles and all.

Keep truckin!

Ever just get…stuck? is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

but for now I’ll get an update in here on current life.

So at the moment we’re living in Malaysia. That’s right, living!

We’ve been in several places for a fair while at a time during this trip (Varanasi, India for a month comes to mind, as we suffered through Indian pneumonia for 3 weeks and then just laid limp and twitching for 1 week afterwards, or on a much more pleasant note – El Nido in the Philippines for 6 weeks, loving life in our beach hut with our Porch Dog) but I’d say we’ve only “lived” in three places – Yangshuo, China for Tai Chi, Hakuba, Japan for the snowboard season, and now here in Malaysia working on our computers to replenish the travel funds and waiting out the hot/rainy seasons in SE Asia.

We’ve plopped down in long-stay-friendly Malaysia to try to live as cheaply as possible (we’ve spent $0 in more than a week by not leaving the apartment!) and work our butts off online to keep the savings up enough to finish our trip. We’ve only got Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma left to go! And I hope to have enough to get back to Japan for at least two weeks for my little cousin who was supposed to visit before the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster happened, so he can actually do his trip.

We got very fortunate to find a great “landlord” for our 2-3 month stint in Malaysia: Zac, a 24-year-old American freelance journalist and a really chill, nice, not-weird, scary or psychotic guy. (It’s always a gamble when you answer a craigslist ad!) The place is really nice, Ray and I share a room with AC that is nice and cozy and has a fixed desk that can fit us side by side on our computers.

The condo has two levels and up til today we shared the downstairs with another roommate who rather abruptly departed this morning after a very strange past few days that maybe I’ll talk about in a private message or when we’re out of the country…

So now it’s just me and Ray downstairs with our room, the bathroom, and his empty bedroom which has a sweet balcony that overlooks the trees and little river below, the island’s city skyline beyond, the state mosque to the side (and all the others in the area that are unseen but well heard 5 times a day and I love it!) and the wicked, wicked sunrises we get here that I am always up for. No I don’t get up for them. I’m just still up for them.

Anyway until the room is filled again I shall be using it (and the balcony!) as my new office from 3:30p-7:30a every day. Our natural rhythm is clearly vampiric. Funny thing is, all of us in the house now are on the same schedule. We rule!

Upstairs there’s a nice living room and a balcony with the same view, Zac’s room and office, a bathroom, dining room and kitchen (kitchen!).

The complex even has a decent gym, ping pong table, squash court, convenience store, and best of all a sweeeet swimming pool! The landscaping and mild weather down there totally reminds me of Hawaii. It’s awesome. I worked down there by the pool one day and it was beautiful. When it started getting dark out the bats came out and were super fun to watch – especially the little row of 6 of them hanging under a palm frond that I’m pretty sure was the little bat nursery! :)

One of my favorite things about living here is hearing the Muslims when they do their calls from the loudspeakers of the surrounding mosques. (Malaysia is a Muslim country, if you didn’t know – about 60% of people practice Islam, 19% Buddhism, 9% Christianity, 6% Buddhism, and 2-3% Taoism, Confucianism, and other traditional Chinese religions, according to the 2000 Census.) The other night when we were listening, we could pick out 4 or 5 coming from nearby and maybe as many as 3 or 4 more from out in the distance. You might not have ever heard it or know what I’m talking about – I certainly never had until we stayed in front of the Taj Mahal on my 27th birthday – but it’s one of the few sounds in life I’d ever describe as “haunting”. Since I’ve been up for it so much recently, I can say I find the one that occurs just before daybreak, when it’s still pitch-black dark, to be especially so.

This clip I took from the balcony isn’t the morning call to prayer but the nighttime one at 9p, but you can get the idea of what it sounds like.

One of the things I like so much about the morning one (other than the sound of it because it’s the same one that would wake me up in the “middle of the night” when the Taj Mahal was standing right outside our window which was awesome and it reminds me of that!) is that it takes place when it’s still pitch dark – but you know that in minutes the sun is going to poke its first tentative rays out from beyond the horizon, and then moments later will burst into this ridiculous daybreak which, balcony in Penang, looks like this:

Not long after that, all the world will be up and awake and busy as though it’s midday, and I’ll know that’s about the time I should probably read for a few minutes and then head to bed. Just like I’m going to do right now because it’s 9:30a and I’ve got a big day trying to earn some travel money tomorrow! :)

New home in Malaysia! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Umm…what blog that hasn’t been updated in almost two months?

Ok ok ok I know I’ve been really REALLY bad at this for the past, um, 5 months. Sorry. I’ve meant to write, really I have. The situation has now become dire though because look, just look what has happened to my facebook:

Yes that’s all that comes up when I try to access Facebook. Sometimes it’s a real pain in the ass having a computer programmer as a travel buddy, you know that? I tried to occupy myself with Gmail instead so he disabled that for me as well – and Google and YouTube too, for good measure. It’s like traveling with bloody China.

So I know a lot of time and developments have gone undocumented on here and there is tons to catch up on (like uh, we did actually go to South Korea for 3 weeks but that doesn’t seem to be reflected on here at all yet…). But I’ve decided that if I don’t acknowledge that I’ve left Japan and the winter season there, it didn’t happen. We’ve been gone from the lodge for a month and a half but the “Where R U” setting still says we’re at the “Snowboard Season in Japan” and so surely we are. Denial FTW!

But denial can only get you so far before your online entertainment and access to friends gets blocked, apparently. So let’s reacquaint and catch up on the immediate goings-on and how the trip ended up going from this to this in just a few days:

First we were busy snowboarding for the ski season, shredding the Japan powder every day, or else watching instructional DVDs and planning for the next riding day (and I have to confess – I was cheating on you with my other blog).

Then the world went crazy shit on us and earthquakes/tsunamis/nuclear crises suddenly went from stuff you see in apocalypse movies and episodes of 24 to things that happen very nearby, indirectly directly affecting us.

We thought at first it wouldn’t affect us and that we’d just keep an eye on the news. But we gave it a few days and as conditions at the nuclear plant deteriorated rather than improved and news we could count on was scant, the situation seemed too uncertain to continue on with our current plans.

The long-anticipated visit from Sam, my Japan-loving awesome little 13-year-old cousin who had a ticket to come travel with us through Japan in April for 2 weeks, was cancelled. Along with the rest of our lodge buddies, we bailed early on the lodge and the ski season and decided to get out of Japan until the nuclear situation stabilized and we could hopefully make it back there at some point later on to complete our travels.

To say the least, it was a very interesting part of our trip to have been in Japan for this terrible event. I covered what it was like from our perspective through all this on my snowboarding blog that I kept for the season, so if you’re interested in reading more about what it was like for us, you can read about when the earthquake that changed everything first happened, the nuclear crisis started but life was still fairly normal, and we stuck close to our friends as the nuclear situation worsened and we finally decided to get out of there early.

While all this did obviously alter our plans in some significant and disappointing ways, in no way did that compare or matter to us in the grander scheme of things with all that was going on elsewhere. Our thoughts always were and still are with the Japanese people who died on that terrible day or are still suffering the aftermath of it. It’s been nearly two months since the quake but I still check the news every single day for updates.

I joke but a large part of why I’ve not updated since this all happened was because even though we left, my heart and thoughts have not. They have been and still are with the people of Japan, who had been such incredible hosts to us, and the country that I definitely felt we left with much unfinished business between us.

In fact, probably the reason – Facebook block aside – that I feel ready to write here again and finally update our status and whereabouts to reflect that we’re no longer in Japan is because I have good news about it. The good thing about being flexible and having changeable plans is that sometimes they may be serendipitously changed for even better than you would have planned!

To be continued…

Denial! Time to get my head out of the snow I guess…. is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

The massive quake that struck this afternoon did move us around a little bit in Hakuba (Ray was at the lodge and they noticed when they saw the lights swaying and the walls shook a bit – but that happens sometimes when huge slabs of snow fall off the roof, too; I was walking back down from the day snowboarding but didn’t feel it…did catch the small aftershock about half an hour later when I was sitting back at the lodge though), but aside from that we had no problems, as it was pretty far away from us and obviously tsunamis fortunately aren’t an issue for us ski bums.

Still, we’re here for some serious history-making I guess. At 8.9, the quake is being reported as the worst in Japan’s history and according to the Associated Press, “Scientists said the quake ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than [the] one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.”

There was a second earthquake – not aftershock – at about 4a, in a different location and much closer to us, about 29 miles from Nagano, which is being reported as 6.2. I definitely felt that one for long and significant enough to unplug my computer and get up to go stand in a doorway or something (which I ACTUALLY still remember from my early grade school days in California!), but then it stopped. There was another little rumbling about half an hour later, but that was an hour ago and nothing now. Weird that the location was somewhere else entirely from the earlier one.

We’ll stay vigilant of course and brush up on our earthquake drills, but even with the one that was a bit closer, it was little more than a weird swaying and some swinging lights for about 10 seconds, and if it weren’t 6a right now I’d still be planning on going snowboarding tomorrow.

Will keep things posted if there’s anything new, but just wanted to give a shout out and let everyone know Ray and I are all good!

Earthquakes in Japan is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia