Photos!

Pics from the last two weeks.  

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/NortheastWhirlwind#

Nature 3, Alperts 0

Maine day one was beautiful.  Blue skies, clear ocean, scenic mountains, and hot dogs at our campsite.  What else is there in life?  Day two is when my dad bothered to mention "Yeah, that's why we stopped vacationing in Maine.  It always rains."  The rain came overnight, so that didn't bother us.  But the wet rocks that couldn't dry under cloudy skies, the thick fog that covered the island all day Friday, and the choppy seas in advance of the hurricane pretty much nixed any of our nature plans.  No rock climbing, no hiking up steep trails, no kayaking, and no diving.  Score one for weather.  Instead we walked around a pond we couldn't see despite standing 12 feet away from (though the picture we saw later did look nice) and drove to the top of the "mountain" (1500 feet?  come on)  in the park to watch the fog swirl around us.  Still pretty, just not in the conventional way.  For Shabbat we grilled our chicken, put an entire bundle of logs into the fire and watched them burn until we fell asleep.  In the true spirit of our vacation we rested most of the day on Saturday, playing cards, reading, napping, and making fun of Adina for reading silly vampire books.  Saturday night we really did the camping thing right, grilling our hot dogs on skewers over the fire then making fresh smores for dessert.  Then we hunkered down the tent to get ready for Hurricane Bill, what we hope will be this vacation's last bout with bizarre natural phenomenon.

Some of you may have seen my facebook status the other day minimizing the power of nature.  The hurricane was a bit farther out to sea than originally feared and passed by overnight and early Sunday morning giving us some rain but not much else (at first).  Gone before we even woke up, so naturally I made fun of it a little.  As it turns out, that was a bad idea.  You'd think I'd have learned a thing or two about karma this summer, but I'm actually kind of slow.  First the hurricane showed its true force by crashing enormous waves onto the island.  It was all well and good from our vantage point near our campsite early in the morning watching the huge swells break into the rocky shore.  We only got splashed from head to toe once.  But then we headed into the park itself to check out the main surf gazing spot on the island, a little group of rocks on the shore called thunder hole where strong waves supposedly crash, splash, and echo loudly when the seas are stormy.  On our way we decided to stop at the farmers market in town, then Adina decided it would be nice to walk through the town for a little while and check out some of the shops.  I told her I was ready to go very quickly, but she insisted we walk all the way down Main Street and back, setting us back about 35 minutes.  During this delay, right exactly at the time I had planned on standing at thunder hole watching the waves, an oversized wave crashed into the viewing area at the site and dragged 20 people into the ocean.  We were on our way over by this point and were passed by the emergency vehicles going to and from the spot where it happened.  By the time we got there the road had been closed and we were sent back into town.  A little scary that if the day had gone as I had planned, we would have been there, too.  Knowing me, I'd also have been about as far out on the rocks as I could have been, as is my way.  Weather strikes again.

With our plans yet again scrapped, we decided to head back towards the mainland and find something to do.  We tried a movie theater, but seeing as we couldn't get through two sentences of the synopsis of The Time Travelers Wife without cracking up we decided that trying to watch the whole thing was a bad idea.  Friendy's was of course delicious, but only lasted a few minutes.  After a failed attempt to get Adina to join in I took a ride in a glider, an engineless aircraft that is towed behind a single engine plane until about 4500 feet where we cut the chord and glide around for half an hour until gravity finally wins.  Apparently she learned her lesson after the hang gliding incident in Wyoming and the helicopter fiasco in Hawaii.  It was totally cool, and the pilot even said I wasn't the worst on the controls he's ever seen.  Turns out it's not so easy to turn without it becoming a headfirst dive.  Though he possibly could have given better directions than "steer it like a ship, not a fighter plane."  Thanks, bucko.  He pulled us out of it just fine, and I'm sure I'll get better next time.

Mother nature had already shown us all that the hurricane was not something to laugh about, but apparently she was still upset about the facebook thing so she came back Sunday night and decided just to make life suck for a bit.  See, on Thursday and Saturday nights it had rained while we slept, and that is all well and good.  Yes, it wakes you up a bit in the middle of the night, but the rain fly is over the tent so we stay dry, and it's pretty much gone by the time we're up in the morning.  It's a whole different story when the downpour starts before you actually get ready for bed.  Because now it means you're wet, and you've climbed into the tent making it wet, too, and you have no chance of really getting dry until the sun comes up.  There are no space heaters in camping, even when there is wifi.  As an added bonus, it was our last night at the site so we had to pack up a wet tent in the morning on the still muddy ground.  Nature 3, Alperts 0.  So we were a bit cranky heading out of Maine today.  A bit of sunshine and some antiquing (I wish I had a garage full of old junk I could call antiques and slap a price tag on) later, not to mention a slightly scenic detour for lunch, we were in better spirits.  Just in time for it to pour again, but this time we were safely in our car on the Maine turnpike.  Though I'm not sure you can really call it "safely" when the rain is so heavy you cannot see the lane markers or the car in front of you.  There was also some slow going in MA, since every 20 feet there was another road construction project funded by stimulus money.  Even though it did get annoying, I guess it is perfect timing since so few people are on the roads commuting nowadays.  Eventually we did make it safe and sound to Boston, where we'll be until heading to Albany (three state capitals in three days, baby!) on Wednesday.  Appetizer at Ta'am China, check.  Dinner at Ruben's, check.  What else is there to do in this town?

Less than a week until I'm back at work and Adina is back on the couch.  We are really starting to feel the end of summer. 

Camping in Maine: Call-Waiting of the Wild, or Return of the Mozzies

Today's post comes from the wild backcountry of Desert Island, Maine.  Adina is sleeping next to me in our tent, and I'm here on her Mac wondering why there was no wi-fi at the campgrounds we went to when I was a kid.  We arrived at Acadia National Park this afternoon and did some drive by sightseeing around the park before pitching our tent, grilling our hot dogs, and heading out to play mini-golf.  I guess some things are still just like the old Alpert family vacations.  I think Saturday night we'll hit up the Friendly's to make it official.  There is tons to do here, but we're not sure what we're going to be able to get to in an entire weekend of rain.  After the bizarre rains in Chiang Mai, the earthquake, the tornado, and the typhoon, we kind of thought coming back to the states would ease up the weather a bit.  We weren't counting on the first hurricane to threaten New England in Buddha knows how long.  They say they're expecting wave swells of up to 24 feet for coastal New England, so maybe sea kayaking isn't a great idea.  Does any one know if rock climbing in a thunderstorm tends to have good results?  Right now we're assuming our little tent can withstand the wind and rain, but we'll let you know if we could use a life preserver or something.  Luckily we enjoyed the super pretty scenery in beautiful weather today (nice break from the heat in NY), and we're not spoiled enough to expect much more than that.  We also hope the rain will scare away some of the mozzies, who are far more vicious here than anywhere in SE Asia.  We stepped out of the car for two minutes and had half a dozen bites on our arms.  Though I suppose not carrying Malaria is considerate of them.  

Since our last update we've been hopping around NY, NJ, and even RI seeing some friends and their new apartments and/or babies.  If we missed you the first time around don't worry, we'll be back next week.  We're especially excited to return to Tova and Steve's, who always deserve special mention.  On an unrelated note, I met an old student of mine who works in Hollisters on Broadway and Houston.  If you happen to be around there, it is worth peeking in to witness the absolute absurdity that is their store.  I can't even describe it well enough, I'll let the boys dressed as lifeguards outside the store or the teenagers in bikini greeting you inside do that all on their own.  Suffice it to say that the only way I could explain it to Adina was that the place was ridiculous to the point of being stupid.

Aside from catching up with a parade of friends, and playing softball in central park for the first time in 2 years, the big activity in NY was a trip to Citi Field to see the Buffalo Bisons play in Mets jerseys.  We didn't mind that the entire roster is on the DL because really we were there just to check out the new field, which I thought was fine but did not stand out above the other new generation parks of been to.  It's lower concourse level is great (except for the section behind the plate where you are removed from the field because of the luxury suites - something that also pisses me off about Nationals Park), the food we can't eat seemed creative and plentiful, and I kind of like the quirky dimensions and large field.  My problem though is with the upper concourse.  You can't see the field well while walking around, it is a VERY steep view to the field because of the vertical middle levels, and it's not so easy to get up and down between there and the main concourse.  Oh, and ALL FOUR kosher stands were out of hot dogs by the seventh inning.  Since they still had dozens of buns, I'm pretty sure they still had hot dogs in there somewhere, they just wanted to be able to shut down and start cleaning up early.  Jerks.  Overall it really didn't measure up to Citizen's Bank Field, which is still my favorite.

On tap for the next few days could be hiking, climbing, whale watching, perhaps scuba diving (we found a dive shop and really want to know where they dive here), or maybe a slew of backup indoor plans.  We'll see.  

Then it's off to Boston, Albany, back to the city and home.  Only 10 more days!!!  

Sunrise is going to wake me up in a few hours (ah the great outdoors), so I better get some sleep.  Plus the laptop battery is running low and I wouldn't want it to run out before we check the weather forecast in the morning.  Ah, the great outdoors?  

Tokyo Photos

Here are our pics from Tokyo. 

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/Tokyo#

 

 

I'm also putting up a couple of the diving pictures on the Koh Tao album.  They didn't come out that great, but what are you gonna do?

 

 

Tokyo Day 2 and 3: Too much to do, not enough time to do it

**Note - This one seems to be kind of long.  Here's the summary of our days in Tokyo.  This way if you see us soon you can at least pretend to have read parts of it.  Temple, shops, park, museum, electronics on Tuesday.  Fancy stores, super modern buildings and a baseball game on Wednesday.  Fish market, a flight, and a burger on Thursday.**

 

 

Woke up today, to everything gray.  Again.   Tuesday morning was just as dreary as Monday, but once again we were not going to let that stop us from doing everything we planned on doing.  Except our first planned stop, the Ryogoku Sumo district.  We found out it was pretty unlikely to be able see any sumo practice, and wandering the streets in the rain hoping to catch a glimpse of some fat guy in a dress (if we're lucky) didn't really seem as exciting.  Instead we headed out to the Senso-Ji temple complex.  The story goes that some time in the 7th century two dudes fished a gold statue out of the river.  Naturally, they though "Woah, this must be holy.  Let's build a massive shrine in its honor."  So they did.  There is nothing wrong with this temple, and perhaps we'd even be impressed if it was one of the first few dozen we have seen over the last month and a half.  Unfortunately, it turns out we've hit our temple saturation point.  Other than the massive gate in front guarded by two of the most buff statues you'll ever see, we tired of it quickly.  Oh well.  Luckily the whole street leading up to the temple is a massive crafts/souvenir shopping district, so we kept ourselves entertained for a while.  It was around this time that we saw our first sunlight of the week and realized we probably should have put on sunscreen.  Oops.

 

Our next stop was Kappabashi Dori, a street lined with cookware, knives, restaurant wholesale shops, and ceramic serving pieces, but most of all fake food!  This little district is the city's headquarters for unbelievably realistic plastic food that the restaurants all use to display their dishes.  Both the detail work to make the food look real and the specialization to make each piece look exactly like the food served in the restaurant is amazing.  Our favorite was the gravity defying spaghetti plates with a forkful hanging in midair with a few strands of past connecting it to the plate.

 

We then head over to Ueno Park and explored for a bit.  When I say explored I mean walk from one map to the next one 40 meters away, checking each time to make sure we were still on the same straight path.  I do love that there are maps EVERYWHERE in this city, and that each one has a very helpful "you are here" marking which even shows which direction the map is facing.  What I can't stand is that most maps don't face the same way!  On one map north can be up, but on the next map they've turned everything around and north faces diagonally down and a little to the right.  I think this inconsistency is why so few of the Japanese people who tried to help us by looking at a map (which was a pretty sizable sample of the population by the time we left town) had so much trouble using it.  I blame the school teachers.  By now there were actually patches of blue in the sky, which made us very happy.  We walked to the zoo and were told the giant panda exhibit was closed, which made us very sad.  Instead we learned about various forms of Japanese art at the national museum. 

 

Our next stop was the bustling neon Akihabara electronic district, including the massive 7 story electronics store in the Akiba building (go cougars).  Definitely some cool toys to play with, though we probably would have gotten more out of it if we a) knew more about electronics or b) could read Japanese.  We still had fun playing with the cameras, ooo-ing and ahh-ing over both the gorgeous massive LCD monitors and the tiniest little laptops you've ever seen, walking through row after row of stalls of shops selling electronic pieces I'll never be able to identify, and trying out the new wii controller (which, as it turns out, has been released in the states since we left, making me feel much less special). 

 

Tuesday night was not fun.  We will not go into detail, but let's just say that many of the aforementioned helpful but map-illiterate Japanese passersby and convenience store clerks were involved, as was a restaurant called Thanks Nature that was not vegetarian, super sore legs, and some very steep hills.  Also an actual vegan place kind of in the middle of nowhere and the best pumpkin salad we've ever had.

 

The original plan was to wake up around dawn to go to the fish market on Wednesday.  After a very tiring day Tuesday, we scrapped that plan and slept all the way until 8!  Our first stop was the Ginza district, which is most comparable to 5th Avenue in New York.  Block after block of trendy shops and huge fancy department stores.  Since they don't open until 10, we had a few minutes to walk around and watch the crowds form at the door.  The store opening was surprisingly quite a site to see.  First the clerks unlocked and opened the doors, but no one went in, which I thought was a bit odd.  It turns out they were all waiting for the clock tower to ring at exactly 10 oclock.  At the very last chime of the bell, all the clerks in the door bowed and the very orderly mad rush began.  What was really cool about this was walking through the first floor (cosmetics and perfume), the girls at every counter were waiting along the main aisle, waiting to bow as each shopper passed them by.  It was sort of like a backwards stadium wave, and it certainly felt like I was getting more respect in those 45 seconds than a week in the classroom.  This store had some terrific kimonos which we thought about buying, but were sort of turned off by the $850 price tag.  On the sale rack.  It's crazy how quickly we went from being the rich guys in town in SE Asia to looking at price tags and being caught somewhere between laughter and tears in Tokyo.  It's all relative, I suppose.  It really is amazing how our own habits from home determine what we think of a place we visit.  We go to Thailand and wonder how people deal with running water they can't drink their whole lives and toilets that don't flush.  I wonder if Japanese tourists come to America and think, "What type of subhuman barbarian would want to use a toilet without an electronic seat warmer and bidet?"

 

Lunch was over at the fish market for some of the freshest sushi in the world.  I'm not such a sushi person (I'll eat it, I just prefer stronger flavors, i guess), but Adina enjoyed her $6 bite of tuna.  We then took the monorail (what's that word?) across the bay to Odaiba, a super modern and very touristy neighborhood with some crazy architecture and futuristic museums.  They're very big into buildings with large holes cut out of the middle over there.  They also have a huge Ferris wheel (just like the Millennium Eye) next to a Roman style indoor mall whose ceilings replicate the sky at different points of the day (ahem, Caesar's?), a replica statue of liberty, and good views of the Tokyo Tower, a bigger and redder version of the Eiffel Tower.  For a city filled with ingenuity and creativity, they sure like to copy other people, too.  Apparently there was some kid oriented anime festival going on in Odaiba, which made the area super crowded and really hard to get around.  Despite that, some of the design and technology was really cool, as was some of the stuff in the giant Toyota showroom.  Since we didn't have 3 hours to wait on line, we decided to skip the automatically steered electric car system they were letting people test ride.  Maybe next time.

 

Then, we headed back to town to catch a baseball game.  The mighty Tokyo Yakult Swallows were hosting the Yokohama BayStars in a true clash of the titans.  Or not.  It turns out the Swallows are Tokyo's version of the Mets.  Every one knows and most people love the crosstown Giants (If you've ever heard of a Japanese baseball team, I'm sure it was the Yomiuri Giants) who play in the famous stadium (Tokyo Dome), have won more championships than any one else in the league, and always manage to lure the big names.  The Swallows, on the other hand, exist in the Giants' shadow as they struggle to fill their much smaller and dinkier park, are not televised every day like the Giants are, and do not have the big names.  Though one former Swallow is Charlie Manuel, World Series winning manager (that's for you, Tali), and Babe Ruth played an exhibition game here.  The game was just as exciting as any other baseball game (I'll let each of you interpret that as you see fit), but what makes it totally different are the fans.  Constant cheering from the bleachers, and each batter gets their own chant (which were hard to join in on seeing as we don't know the words they were singing.  We tried yelling English words that kind of sounded like the Japanese we hear.  The best we came up with was "Goya, Goya, Makes me Fart!")  the Canadian on the team gets dozens of Canadian flags around the stands for each at bad, as well as Oh Canada once or twice.  If only he wasn't 0-3 with RISP and two outs.  There are also some great rituals, like the fifth inning fireworks show, the 7th inning "cheerleader" dance, the pre--game fight song singalong (we'll have that video up on facebook eventually), and thousands of umbrellas popping up and being waved in the stands after each home team run.  According to the Google, this is meant as a sign to the opposing pitcher that it is time to hit the showers.  Also, the visiting team also had a huge section of fans in the left field bleachers, but I couldn't tell if that was always the case or just because the BayStars happen to be from nearby.  There's also a pep band in the fans, just like a college basketball game.  Sadly, there was no kosher concession stand but we did find perfectly spherical pre-packaged baskin robbins cones.  And, of course, the big news of the night was for the first time in our lives we made it onto the jumbotron (a super crisp and super big HD screen)!!  It pays to be the only whiteys in the joint.  The Swallows lost (so sad), but luckily not until the 12th inning, after we were long gone and eating one more veggie Indian dinner.  Seriously, I can promise you our little food tour of NYC will NOT include Curry Hill. 

 

Wednesday night #1 we only got a couple of hours of sleep before waking up at the crack of ass on Thursday morning #1 to make it to the actual market part of the morning fish market (not just the sushi lunch section).  It really was a crazy scene.  Evetry one was in a rush, there were little refrigerated trucks and fisherman on these motorized carts zooming in all directions.  There were men running up and down the aisles looking for what they need and the tourists in rolled up pants were taking pictures while trying not to be run over by a speeding vehicle or splashed by a fluttering fish.  And all over the place there were fish, shrimp, prawns, crab, octopi, squid, and many others I can't even identify being butchered and sold at breakneck speed.  We found one large room that looked like a giant morgue of huge (probably 6 foot long and super fat) fish lined up in rows and tagged with numbers from the auction.  The efficiency with which these guys could grab a live fish out of the tub, plop it on the table, slice off the head at just the right angle to cut it perfectly (which must be tough when the fish is still twitching), then take a good whack at the tail, wait for the fish to give one last shudder and throw it on the pile with the rest. 

 

After hauling ass to the airport, we were ready for a click of the ruby slippers and a little time travel.  A quick negative 25 minutes (and about 6 movies on our individual screens) later, we were in JFK looking for meat.  One cool moment on the flight was when I realized it was midnight (local time) and we could still see the sunlight out of the left side of the plane.  I suppose this still doesn't count as having visited the land of the midnight sun, but it's as close as we're going to get for now.  We took a bus to town which conveniently stopped at grand central, leaving us enough time to grab the most anticipated burger of our lives.  The staff at Mendy's didn't understand why we were crying and thanking Buddha for his bounty.  We knew we were home when, about a minute and a half off the bus, we run into our old roommate Ari waiting in line to buy a hot dog.  It took a minute before we realized that we were back in the real world and that sort of thing isn't so crazy anymore.  <Sigh>

 

This weekend is Shabbat at Adam's and then Amy's wedding, followed by the Met's game with Mike and Rebecca on Monday and probably heading up north on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Seriously, if you're in the area and want to hang out, give us a call.  We'll also be back in NY in 2 weeks.

 

****Note Again  -     Wednesday morning we woke up at 8 to start the day.   Wednesday night number 1 we woke up super early to get to the fish market.  3 hours of sleep.  Wednesday night # 2 I managed about 45 minutes on the plane.  It is now 11:30 AM Tokyo time on Friday.  So in the last 51 and a half hours, I've gotten less than 4 hours of sleep.  This is just a means of explanation of any unusually high level of length and incoherence of this post.  *******

Holy Crap, We're Flying Home Tomorrow

Where has seven weeks gone? 

 

More on the last two very busy days in Tokyo once we're back in the states.  I'm a little confused about the date line, but I think that will be either tomorrow night or yesterday. 

 

Our destinations over the next couple of weeks are NJ, NY, Boston, Albany, and Maine.  If you will also be in any of those places, let us know if you want to spend a few hours looking at pictures OR eating meat.  That's pretty much our plan for the next two weeks. 

 

L'hitraot Asia!!

Tokyo Day 1: Two Country Yokels Marveling at Modern Technology

The day began with an existential crisis.  Actually, it began with Coco Krispies (we owe so much to Choice Hotels).  But then, we walked out onto the street and nearly into oncoming traffic AGAIN, because we find ourselves in yet another country that drives on the wrong side of the road.  But then it occurred to me - maybe we drive on the wrong side!  I used to think it was Britain vs. the rest of the world on this one, but we've spent weeks in more places this summer that are afflicted with the same disease.  If the car capital of the world chooses the left side to drive on, maybe it's the way to go.  Then I remembered exactly who dropped the bomb on whom, so I guess to the victor go the spoils.  We're right, they're strange.  I know I feel better about myself.

 

Our first destination on the day was Shinjuku train station, the busiest in the world (according to Eyewitness Travel, which we believe simply because it is not Lonely Planet).  We were sad to discover that the automated voice on the subway did not introduce it as the real crossroads of the universe, but we both informed every one on the train that they could, in fact, transfer here for everything.  Voices on the subway aren't that new for us, but that is just the beginning.  Everything here talks to you.  The elevator tells you when the door is closing, the train doors warn you to step back, we even came across an alarmingly vigilant "Do Not Enter" sign.  The station itself wasn't as busy as we would have expected because we luckily came a bit after rush hour, but the food court had some of the coolest desserts we've ever seen / been scolded at for photographing.  I can't tell you if they were good or not, but they managed to make a cake look like a cup of fresh squeezed mango juice, complete with a straw and gelatin ice cubes.  Genius.

 

After hunting down a Citibank (very tired of ATM fees) we strolled in the rain through one of the main business centers in town.  We were politely told that no, we could not just sit for a while in the 52nd story restaurant atop the Grand Hyatt (as seen on Lost in Translation) without ordering a $65 brunch, but that's ok since the view was completely grayed out by clouds.  We know because we went to the free observatory three blocks away and the view was, in fact, completely grayed out by clouds.  We were satisfied just imagining what Mt. Fuji would look like in the distance.

 

As it turns out, Tokyo in the rain is less interesting than one might think.  I don't know if it's because people can get whatever they need in the malls at the bottom (or top) of every office building and therefor stays indoors, or because this week is some sort of holiday (kind of like Easter, except more about death, less about rebirth), but we were just about the only suckers out there.  Good thing the fine people of Comfort Inn lent us an umbrella in the morning.  We wandered aimlessly until it stopped raining, then checked out a shrine and its surrounding park.  We weren't overwhelmed by either one, but that might have been just rain related crankiness talking. 

 

Tonight we paid $50 dollars to eat brown rice and seitan (any one in NY want to meat us for lunch at Kasbah on Friday (the typo was deliberate)), then walked around what turned out to be a bit of a Japanese teeny-bopper hangout.  Cafes, bars, and Pachinko parlors with neon lights lined both sides of the street for an entire neighborhood.  Major sensory overload.  If some one can read that link and explain it to me, that'd be great.  If any one can get me my 10 bucks back, that'd be even better. 

 

Tomorrow is a busy day of Sumo wrestling (who thinks I can take them?), templing and museuming, and shopping for electronics and elaborately designed fake food.  More on all that later (free internet in the lobby!!).  

 

Goodnight! 

If the building is a rockin...

For those who have read about it, yes we did feel the earthquake yesterday, not long after we got to our hotel.  We shook, we rattled, we rolled, then we waited for the building to stop swaying back and forth.  Good times were had by all, except perhaps Adina who has still not quite gotten over the "many earthquakes of her youth."   She made me take out my next comment.

 

Off to town!  Goodnight America.

Arriving in Tokyo

It didn't take long to figure out some key differences between Bangkok and Tokyo.  First is the airports.  While Narita airport (the closest international airport to Tokyo) is not the nicest or newest airport, it at least makes a mild amount of sense, which puts it head and shoulders above Bangkok.  Considering all the hard sale techniques we encountered in Thailand, we were sort of under the impression that they like when we give them our money.  That being the case, we were quite confused when we discovered that the duty free shops are ALL before the security check heading towards the gates, which means you can:t buy any liquor or perfume because it won't make it through security.  Perhaps other airlines allow it to be delivered to the plane, but not United.  It was bad enough that Adina lost her nail scissors to the guards (oops), we weren't about to buy some scotch only to lose that, too.  The other part we couldn't figure out is why they have two security checks leading up to the gate, and why they are separated by a sterile bathroom free zone with far too few seats.  First you go through the standard x-ray and metal detectors, then you wait for 50 minutes on an empty concourse for them to open the ramp to a second checkpoint where they actually empty your bag and check all the contents, then wand you (a bit too thoroughly).  They did this for every passenger on the plane.  I just don't get it. 

 

Narita, on the other hand, was fast and efficient, just like everything else here.  The lines moved quickly, our bags were coming out just as we got there, there were plenty of carts, and transportation to town was simple (though far from fast.  You'd think they could build an airport less than 80 minutes away by train.)  Our hotel is nice and conveniently located right in front of a train station on the same line as the airport.  Sadly, the tracks were washed out today and we had to take a different company's line to a different place.  The best contrast to Bangkok was when the woman by the ticket machines of the first company told us the train wasn't running, she sent us to the right place without trying to sell me a suit!  I'd forgotten that that could happen sometimes. 

 

One of my favorite things about Bangkok was their fast and clean metro system.  But it doesn't compare to the well oiled machine that is the Tokyo Metro.  For starters the service here goes everywhere, while in Bangkok they conveniently leave out the touristy areas so suckers like us are forced to take cabs or tuk-tuks.  (Speaking of cabs, did you know that in some cities cabs don't honk at every pedestrian they pass by?  Brilliant!)   After getting off our train from the airport we had to connect to a subway line, which was very reminiscent of the 14th street transfer from the 2-3 to the F.  Except replace the smell of urine, pirated CD hawkers, loud banging drummers, and the homeless guys and replace them with some potted plants. 

 

Our hotel is exactly what we were told a Tokyo hotel would be, but that doesn't stop it from being amazing.  It's　both extremely cramped and luxuriously high tech, sort of giving the impression of a prison cell on a very fancy cruise ship.  The TV is flat screen, the bed has a built in alarm clock and light switches for the whole room, and the toilet has a soothing seat warmer and refreshing bidet (calling to mind the age old question of which is worse - a dirty butt or a wet one?).  It's a little sad to have a gecko free wall, but we're quite glad to be rid of the goddam mozzies. 

 

Our neighborhood gets a bit deserted at night, as we discovered on our nightly quest for food we can eat.  Unlike Bangkok, the people who know English here know it very well.  But most people don:t, and almost none of the restaurants around here have English anywhere.  We decided to play it safe and have 2 tuna maki rolls and a couple of pieces of salmon nigiri.  Safe, but also more expensive than the fanciest meal we ate in all of Thailand.  Good thing we still have more Oreos. 

 

Tomorrow we start exploring the city.  We'll try our best to fit in, but since we pretty much still just have our Thailand clothes, I don' know how well that is going to work out in this uber trendy town.  We plan to go to the big neighborhoods and be wowed by how busy it is, all the while making sure to appreciate how incredibly high tech every little detail is.  Like the wireless pdf ordering system the sushi place had.  The waitress pressed a couple of buttons on her handheld pad and before she even left the table the grey haired sushi-chef that I'm pretty sure I heard call me Daniel-son had started rolling our tuna.  Hopefully we'll manage to take in a national sporting event.  There are no sumo tournaments this month, so we're planning on catching their other big ticket here.  It's this funny version of cricket I'm pretty sure they call baseball.  These countries come up with the darndest ideas.  Our first attempts to buy tickets online were thwarted by a lack of an English website, but I'm sure if we just show up at the stadium it'll all work out.  There are also a couple of big Buddhist temples in town, which will be a nice new experience for us.  Maybe tomorrow night we'll go to the entertainment district and check out some empty orchestras.  I hear they are hauntingly beautiful. 

 

Our schedule is filling up fast, we'll be sure to let you know how it all goes. 

 

By the way, is anybody in NY free around noon on Thursday?  Dov? 

Photos

Photos from Tao -  Hopefully we can put up the diving pics when we develop the film.  Gotta get one of those underwater digital cameras.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/KoTao#

 

 

Bangkok is a whole different place when you're actually trying to spend money.  And when you're taken around by a local.  I really wish I knew what it is that is different about us now, but we're approached differently by the touts this time around.  Do we really look that much more impatient now?  Or did we really look that clueless back then?  I'm guessing a bit more of the latter.  Not to say they completely leave us alone - we should be so lucky.  There are just fewer that bother with us and they seem to give up a bit earlier.  Whatever it is, I'm not going to complain.

 

Shabbat in Bangkok seemed to explode since the last time we were here.  There were hundred more people this time and they even ran out of challah rolls by lunch!  We never did quite figure out why that one Israeli backpacker was walking the halls in just his boxers, but it didn't seem to phase the staff too much.  Perhaps it was not his first time. We ran into some nice Israelis (seriously) that we had met in Chiang Mai and compared stories for the rest of Shabbat.  More importantly, we finally had ourselves some meat!!  Vegetarians claim they feel so much better than when they ate meat.  I don't see it.  Now we're just counting down the days until we can eat some good meat.  Seriously, Adam.

 

Flight leaves at 6:30 AM for Tokyo, so I'm waiting around while Adina naps.  I may go back and fix up/add captions to some of the older albums on picasa, so give it a look.  Or at least pretend you did when we ask.

 

We've got three days to explore Tokyo before heading back to the states on Thursday (and traveling back in time as we do.  Take off at 11, land at 10:45 -  amazing!!)  Don't worry though, we've still got two more weeks of fun after that before heading home.  Do they have internet cafes in Acadia?

 

 

Full Moon Party

We're up late tonight.

 

For those of you that are not aware of this phenomenon, some places in Thailand have what is called a full moon party.  Each month, masses of people gather to party all night long, try out new kinds of music and drugs, stumble home semi-conscious at 7 AM and start figuring out what happened to their pants.  The biggest of these parties takes place on Koh Phangan, one of the three islands in the Samui archipelego where we have been for the last 10 days.  So as the hordes of people left our beach on Koh Tao to be ferried over to the party, what else were we to do but pack up our bags and bust ass in the opposite direction?  Tempting as the party may have been (which, as it turns out, was not all that tempting), we had to get back to Bangkok before Shabbat in order to catch our flight at dawn on Sunday.  So while the boats heading south were busting at the seams, we took a nice empty ferry and overnight bus back up north.  Well, it was supposed to be an overnight bus, but when it arrives in Bangkok at 3:20 in the morning, it should probably call itself a middle of the night bus.  Since the guest houses will charge us an extra night if we check in before 5 (because some one else may show up in the next hour and pay them for the empty room.  Really.) , we've got some time to kill. 

 

Our last 24 hours on Koh Tao were eventful.  We started with our first night dive, which exactly half of us really liked.  I liked the feeling of floating in the dark and watching the fish come in and out of the light from our torch, but Adina got a bit frustrated because she kept missing the cool things floating around us.  I saw a couple of spotted rays, some skittish shrimp, a HUGE crab, and when we shut off our lights and ran our hands through the water we churned up tons of neon green glow in the dark plankton.  The full moon shining through the waves above us was also pretty cool, as was the boat engine passing overhead in the dark.  Even though you know your 45 feet underwater, it's a bit weird to suddenly hear a loud roar encompass the space all around you.  Despite the fact that I'm pretty sure our guide was doped up on something, we managed to come out of the water alive.

 

Thursday we spent our time back in the water, albeit at the surface this time.  We went to Koh Nangyuan, a privately owned mini-island just of the coast (privately owned by jackasses who like to overcharge for everything) and climbed a small lookout point, then snorkeled in the water.  The island was gorgeous and the snorkeling was terrific.  Not the same as being under the water, but close enough.  After leaving the island (then discovering we were on the wrong boat, heading back to the island, finding the right boat, and leaving the island again) we packed up our bags, bought the requisite magnet, and caught our ferry.  After 10 days in the islands we've relaxed a bunch, taken in the beautiful scenery, learned to dive, and downgraded ourselves from blindingly white to startlingly pasty.  All in all, I'd call it a pretty successful leg of our trip.

 

Now if only the minutes would tick away a bit faster so we could get into Chabbad and get ourselves some meat.........

 

 

1800 Centimeters Under the Sea

Congratulations are in order -- Adina and I are now certified open water divers!!  (All that's left now is a pilot's license.  What are the odds that Adina lets that happen?)  We finished our four day class today with two more dives in the ocean.  Tomorrow we're doing our fist adventure dive, the next step towards and advanced open water license.  We'll try out a night dive where we get to see rays, glow in the dark plankton, and more cool stuff that doesn't come out much during the day.  We're also hoping the weather gets better so we can go to the west side of the island where the diving is a bit more interesting.  So far choppy waters have kept us on the east.  Not that we're complaining, we've been blown away and especially since we have no basis for comparison we think it's been amazing.  Our first two dives I did have a bit of  trouble equalizing my ears (getting them to not feel like they're being squeezed into my head), but today I woke up with a funny feeling in my ears.  It turns out that funny feeling was the feeling of being clear of congestion, something I really haven't experienced in about 10 years.  Since it's the congestion that gets in the way of clearing the pressure, today was a breeze and we got as deep as 18 meters (we really need to pick up the metric system back home) which is as much as we're allowed to until we get deep water certification.  Some highlights of the dive include triggerfish (which we avoided because they have a funny way of snapping at fingers when they feel threatened), sea cucumbers, (holy) barracudas, fully grown hammerhead sharks (only kidding), juvenile sweetlips (not kidding), boxfish, some cool dude with a beak whose name I don't know but assume involves the word beak, pointy sea urchins, and coral.  Lots of coral. 

 

In other news.....there is no other news on this island.  It is all diving, all the time.  Other activities include swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, or sitting on a pier watching people dive, snorkel, or swim.  Of course there is also hiking to a dive site, renting an ATV and driving to a dive site, or riding in a boat to a dive site.  And bowling.  We did finish up our free stint in the bungalow/sauna, so we moved into the attached hotel with gorgeous AC rooms, albeit slightly strangely arranged,  Adina keeps asking why they bother having a door to the bathroom if the wall separating it from the bedroom has a giant square cut out of it.  Hopefully Borne Supremacy will be on HBO again tonight so we can really enjoy it.  The rest of our time here has been spent hunting an elusive veggie restaurant which apparently used to stand in that spot where all the cinderblocks are now.  D'oh.

 

After tomorrow's night dive we may do one more Thursday morning before another overnight journey, this time back to Bangkok.  There it's Shabbat at chabbad, shopping till we drop (or run out of money), then head to the airport in the middle of the night for our flight to Tokyo.  We're trying to prepare ourselves for a giant culture shock, but then again maybe the busiest and fastest city on the planet won't be all that different from Thai beach island paradise that we've gotten used to.  Here's hoping.

 

Oh, and in case it hasn't become apparent yet, we were not on the Thai airplane that crashed today. 

 

Till next time...we'll say hello to Nemo for you.

 

 

Photos!!

We've had some time to update photos (mostly courtesy of nothing better to do on a fast day), so by all means, enjoy!

 

Siem Reap

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/SiemReap#

 

Phnom Phen

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/PhnomPhen

 

Ko Samui

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/KoSamui

 

 

We spent Shabbat this week at a nice new resort connected to our dive place.  The resort has beautiful rooms with great air conditioning and LCD HDTV.  Sadly, we're in the bungalows nearby without tv (or hot water, but it's pretty hot here anyway so perhaps we'll get used to that).  They are called fan rooms, which is the nice way of saying there's no AC, but a weak fan that blows hot air around the room and squeaks all night.  The ambient noises of the garden and nearby beach are pretty soothing, though kind of broken up by the dueling Australians coming home from a pleasant night out at 6 AM.  I'm not sure what they were arguing over (Adina thinks it was a girl), but I did get a good idea of exactly what each one felt the other can fucking do to himself.  It was like getting caught between Danny and Tali Stein, circa 2001.  The price of the room is right, though, since we get the room for free with the diving course.  Since we couldn't bear to stay in the room all day, we had a much more active shabbat than usual, we managed to walk up and down the beach.  A lot.  And we finished our reading assignment for the diving course, making us perhaps the first people ever to do so.

 

We head back to the classroom, then to the pool tomorrow for more learning.  Then Monday and Tuesday it's into the ocean we go!!  Wish us luck!

 

 

 

PS - I fogot to mention one of the coolest things we've ever seen on my last post.  On our second night on  Samui we were sitting on our beach waiting for a non-existent sunset (turns out the beach faces the wrong way) but we did see a tornado form over water a few miles off shore.  Apparently this is called a waterspout (thanks, wikipedia) and was pretty harmless because it moves really slowly and stays offshore.  Though I'm pretty sure if I were captain of the idiot yachts that were getting really close I would have stepped back a bit.  Pictures are in the gallery.

 

 

Ko Samuai, or Living it Up (mournfully) in Freakin Paradise

As per Adina's instructions, I begin this post by mentioning the fact that I am a heathen and should not be blogging right after hearing Eicha (the reading of Lamentations, or the saddest point of the Jewish calendar.) 

Last you heard from us, we were stuck in an airport praying to make it out on time.  Thanks to the help of the fastest taxi driver we've ever seen (and the only Thai person I've noticed rushing anywhere) we got from the airport to the bus in record time.  Then, since our bus was late we even had time to stop in and get some dinner while we waited (again.)  Then it was an overnight bus and a high speed catamaran hop, skip, and 15 hour jump to the shores of Ko Samuai.  We got there Monday a bit after noon.  On the way we caught a gorgeous sunrise and a few hour of off and on napping.  Guess which we appreciated more. 

When our taxi (no tuk tuks on the island!!  Not that that means there's no peddling or constant requests, but it's a start) dropped us off in front of our 'resort' we got a little worried.  It was on some loose gravel on the side of the road nowhere near any of the other fancy looking resorts.  It also was just a few trees covering up a shabby entrance to a restaurant with a broken sign that even in its best day would never have attracted much attention.  Uh oh.  BUT, when we walked through the shabby entrance and small little restaurant we were greeted by a tiny, isolated little beach on a secluded bay with turquoise blue waters, gentle waves crashing on the white sand shores, and picturesque rocks dotting the horizon beside the cliff of a penninsula to our left.  Un-effing-believable.  After setting our eyes on this place, I'm not sure we're even allowed to refer to Margate as a beach anymore.  Lucy the Elephant be damned.  To our right was the neon lights of the Samuai Yacht Club, but its pretty easy to just face the other direction.  About eighty seconds later we were in our bathing suits and up to our waists in warm ocean water.  We probably should have taken off the backpacks first, but whatever.  They'll dry eventually. 

That night we explored a bit on foot (despite every pickup driver on the island honking the hell out of their horn at us as they drove by) and came across a few great little finds.  One was an ice cream store with an overly friendly scooper that insisted on giving us free tastes.  Of everything.  We had 16 little plastic spoons each by the time we walked out of there with our $1 scoop of sorbet (made out of some fruit i've never heard of).  Then, in the shopping center attached to a ritzy new boutiqe hotel we found a western grocery store with dozens of things that belong nowhere near this country.  Like Amy's frozen dinners.  (for $9 each).  Or a propane grill, or Athenos Hummous (though I do feel dirty spelling it that way, I've got to go with the label).  It was weird.  Our favorite stop was some beachside bar where a bunch of kids were setting of fireworks, including a whole box at once.  That was one hell of a grand finale, which we really appreciated since we mostly missed them on the fourth of July.

Tuesday we spent on a tour of Angthong National Park, a little archipelago of 42 of the prettiest limestone cliff islands jutting out of sparkling blue waters you can find.  It reminded me of the scene in The Incredibles when Flash discovers he can run on water.  Our guide fashioned himself as quite the comedian, though jokes about leaving people stranded in the middle of the ocean do get old after a while.  I do feel a little bad for him having to make the same jokes every day of his life.  We really only made two stops on the tour.  The first was at one of the islands with an emerald grean saltwater lagoon in the middle of it, completely surrounded by limestone cliffs.  Apparently there are underground caves linking the lagoon with the ocean and feeding it salt water.  Quite pretty, especially the part before the little British boy in front of us started whining about how steep the steps were.  The same boy later cut his foot a little and very unappreciatively used one of our plasters.  (Bandaid.  One more Britishism we've picked up.)  Ingrate.

The main stop of the day was at another island whose name I don't remember but translates to "Sleeping Cow Island", though there were no cows to be found.  Instead there was a 500 meter climb up to a platform perched atop the jagged (and hot) stone with a birds eye view of all 42 islands (though I only counted about 18) and one frightened wife.  Though to her credit she did a great job climbing up the last 20 meters using just a rope on the rock and did not have a freak out on top like she did on Huayna Picchu last year.  We also hiked up with two of the nicest people we've met anywhere on this trip, which was fun.  We were lucky enough to be the first ones of the boat and up the trail so it was just the four of us all the way up.  Until the top when the Operation Magic Carpet reunion tour seemed to drop off about 25 Israelis on our little platform.  Though it was nice when the one we asked to photograph us used his Israeli personality to clear away about 10 others to free up some space for us.  It took us a lot longer to get down and we barely had time to snorkel at the bottom.  Luckily that was fne because there was no visibility, the "reef" was rubbish, and Adina got stung by something about 35 seconds in.  Don't worry, she pulled through.  Such a trooper. 

When we got back we were pretty tired so we rested a bit and caught most of what I'm pretty sure is the best movie ever.  Has any one ever seen Hot Fuzz?  I vaguely remember dismissing it after about six seconds of the trailer, but I promise it is worth your time.  Even Adina decided it was more important than dinner, though her rumbling stomach felt otherwise.  It is British humor at its best, every little detail was priceless.  Thankfully the restaurant at the 'resort' was still able to give us some plain rice and ice cream for dinner. 

Today we woke up for sunrise, but ended up at a beach facing the wrong direction.  Maybe we'll try again tomorrow, since as it turns out our beach faces the perfect spot.  Oops.  After napping we spent the day on Chaweng beach, the main touristy spot on the island.  Even though it is sort of in our nature to avoid crowds when we can, we've also found that there is usually a reason that one spot becomes the favorite, and this beach definitely earns it.  We sat, we swam, we played paddle ball (though not nearly as well as the other guys playing nearby), and we had some corn.  Without a doubt the recipe for perfection. 

Tonight was Tish'a B'av, so we headed to the madhouse that was pre-fast Chabbad.  It's amazing how rude some of those people were to the staff.  Argh.  Tomorrow should be another lazy day of air-conditioning as we fast, then we're off to Ko Toa on Friday to start the classroom part of the diving course.  yay!!! 

Hopefully photos of the last few days will comoe tomorrow, this computer is being stubborn and I'm being kicked out of the computer room.

Have an easy fast!  (To whom it may concern.)

Phnom Phen

Our Saturdays are all starting to sound the same.  We arrived in town a bit earlier on Friday, so we were able to walk the scorching streets a bit and visit the National Palace and Silver Pagoda (though why any one would have a temple covered with 5000 silver tiles and decide to keep them covered all the time is beyond me).  Then we got some food and hid out in our bunker for most of the next 25 hours (ok, 24, we may have gotten a bit of a late start.  We really should start checking sunset times.)   In between reading a napping a lot we did trek out during the afternoon where we found what we've been looking for all week.  I'm not so sure why it took until yesterday to find, but we came across some fresh copies of the new Harry Potter on DVD!  I mean come on people, what took so long??  Sadly it was Shabbat still so we could not actually buy it.  Foiled again.  After dinner and a quick look at the way overpriced menu at the apparently famous Foriegn Correspondents Club on the river (damn those fellas at the freakin FCC), we decided to call it a night.  Luckily our hotel got some great TV channels, so we got to watch an English movie with (didn't get the name) with English subtitles.  That provided loads of entertainment, my favorite mistranslation being when they turned "my business associates" into "the business of no shit."

 

Today we went through the usual T'sha B'av activities - just a few days too early and kind of focused on a different group of people.  We visited the Killing Fields and the museum of Tuol Sleng on the site of the former torture/prison camp on the site of a former high school.  Parts of it were well done, parts were sort of falling apart, but we did learn a bit about what went on here in the 70's (and afterwards for about 20 years, which is the part that I still don't understand.)  Adina was struck by how stupid/ignorant some of the people signing the guest book came off as, as if they had never heard of any of this, or as if this type of thing doesn't go on in the world.  We also liked how several of them compared George Bush to Pol Pot.  Seemed a bit harsh.  I'm not sure Adina should be so judgemental, after all it was her who actually laughed as we walked through one of the prison cells.  What kind of person does that?  My joke wasn't even that funny! 

 

I suppose I'm glad we did this today, though it really served to reinforce my determination never to visit Poland, especially the camps and ghetto sites. 

 

Phnom Phen in general neither of us were such big fans of.  It's a vibrant, growing city, it just doesn't have a particularily pleasant atmosphere.  Perhaps if the rivers it was built around actually looked blue every once in a while.  It's also a bit too chaotic for our tastes, though you have to admire how easy it is for locals to drive a motorcycle into two lanes of intersecting traffic knowing that somehow they'll make it through.  That's courage.  And a good portion of the tuk tuk drivers were less persistant than the ones in Siem Reap, which I appreciated (for the record I still say "No, thank you" instead of  ""Really?  You think I'm going to get into your tuk tuk right after you saw me say no to three other guys?  Do you have some sort of magic tuk tuk that I should know about?  Get out of my face!" So I think I should be commended for that). 

 

Right now we're waiting for our delayed flight back to Thailand and hoping we still make our night bus to the islands later tonight.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  We'd hate to have to delay paradise for another day, I know you'd all feel very sad for us.  After traveling for four and a half weeks, we're definitely ready for the vacation part of our vacation to start. 

 

 

 

Around Siem Reap, Where the Mud just Keeps on Flying

I didn't really expect to be back on the blog for a few days, but our room is being cleaned now and the internet is free.  Who am I to say no? 

For a while today I thought I had finally gotten used to the heat (whoever said it takes two weeks was so full of crap), but it turns out it was just surprisingly cool this morning.  By the time the sun came out in the afternoon, I was again dripping in sweat.  So it turns out we are not, in fact, used to the heat.  Or the bugs crawling on us all the time (red ants really sting when they walk on you.)  Though on the bright side we are totally used to the giant geckos climbing on the walls, so that's something.

Having finished off our three day pass to the temples yesterday with another non-sunset (what is with the clouds?) at ruins atop a large hill (Phnom Krom, right on the enormous brown, murky lake called Tonle Sap), today we decided to branch out a bit.  We woke up early for a change and spent the morning driving ATV's (actually one ATV, and only one of us drove) through the countryside.  Since it poured for most of the night, the country side was extra muddy, special just for us.  We were warned by the French expat owner that we may get a little dirty, but I think he underestimated just how puddle happy I tend to be.  Adina said I had to stop saying "oops" when I drove through a mini lake of mud when I took deliberate aim and sped up right through it.  It's ok, they happily hosed us off once we got back.  By the end of the morning we were completely coated in multicolor mud and were laughed at by most villagers we passed, though I'm sure they were laughing with us, not at us.  Before we left the manager explained we didn't have to worry about other moto drivers or bikers, since the basic rule of the roads in Cambodia is to always yield to anything bigger than you.  Which explains why the dogs all scurried out of our way but the cows were more likely to stay put and stare us down.  We did have a couple of good runs of cow slalom out there, which was new for me. 

On the trip we visited the orphanage school partially funded by the company's manager where we were warmly greeted in chorus by each class.  "OH HELLO!  GOOD MORNING, VISITORS.  HOW ARE YOU TODAY?"  They sort of didn't know what to do with it when I said "Fine, thank you.  How are you today?"  I got a lot of mumbling and looking at their shoes from the younger classes(which was nice and familiar to me), but the older kids were able to keep up the show a bit longer.  Then they taught us how to say "How are you today?" in Japanese, which we have since forgotten. I was shown more respect and appreciation in 25 minutes there than an entire month back home.  I made sure to tell them to listen to their teacher before we left.  One English class told us they were learning about General Hospital, which I'm pretty sure meant medical English vocabulary.  Word like doctor, operation, please stop the bleeding, etc.  Our guide told us that at most schools here students had to bribe the teacher each day to be able to come into class, the type of thing I could really get used to.  On the way back we drove through several little villages and were enthusiastically waved at by dozens of little kids, most in various stages of naked.  One was in a very specific stage of squatting.

There's something drastically different about the attitude towards life here as compared with Laos.  There things and people were very laid back, which we loved.  Here there is such a drive towards development and success, though it is funded entirely by foriegn donors and NGO's, not the Cambodian government.  Perhaps this is why it is much more common for people in this region to know English than it was in Laos.  We've heard a lot of people in our generation say their parents (or other caretakers) instilled a strong sense of duty to advance in the world, especially to overcome everything that was lost to the Khmer Rouge starting in the 70's.  To me it felt a lot like what I know of our grandparents and great grandparents- both the generation of survivors from the Holocaust and the children of turn of the century immigrants. 

Back in town we took a short cooking class.  Since we were the only people working with the cook, we tailored it to exactly what we needed.  We didn't know how to explain that we ate no fish except for some kinds (and I'm not sure how to say fins and scales in Cambodian), so we stuck to only vegan.  We'll adapt it to actual food when we get back.  This stuff was similar in style but featured totally different flavors from what we learned in Thailand.  It was nice to learn some new things and we'll try to adapt them to what we can find in America, but I did like the Thai food much better. 

The plan is still to head to Phnom Phen tomorrow for Shabbat, then make our way the the Thai islands in the beginning of next week.  We get to fly again, which was especially fun the other day because we had some one waiting for us with my name on a sign for the first time in my life.  I wouldn't say it was a limo that we climbed into, but the cushions of the tuk tuk were soft enough to absorb the shocks of the dirt road, which is about all you can hope for.  We'll let those of you in NY figure out who gets to be there waiting for us at JFK when we get back.  Just let us know and we'll send you our flight details.

Four weeks down, three (plus two) to go! 

Disney Wat Day 2 - Epcot and MGM Studios

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/AngkorTemples#

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/Vientiane#

 

We spent Tuesday at some of the more far flung temples of Angkor.  We began the day with our horn happy tuk tuk driver, Mr. Nyen.  Seriously, he honked at everything, all day long.  Every single tuk tuk, moto, and biker we passed, a good half of the cars that passed us, every truck he felt was taking up too much space, dogs lying in the road, dogs standing too close to our side of the road, dogs standing too close to the other side of the road, naked babies playing on the curb, naked toddlers playing on the curb, and even a good handful of naked 6 year olds playing on the curb.  He honked every once in a while when no one was around just for fun, and I'm pretty sure he honked once at a bushel of bananas. 

 

Our first stop was at the pharmacy, shortly after we left.  Though we've managed to keep on our feet for several days in a row now without falling once, health issues still plague us at every turn.  At the moment, our problems have taken an opthamalogical turn.  My glasses lost a screw yesterday, then today Adina developed some (wikipedia-diagnosed) bacterial conjunctivitis.  That's right, she's got her first ever pink eye.  Ew.

 

Our first real stop was Banteay Srei, a temple known not for its splendor so much as its detailed carvings in the walls, floors, doors, etc.  It was very impressive, but we weren't enthralled.  Perhaps we were bothered by the crowds too much, or maybe it was too early in the morning.  It also could have been the musicians playing (sounded like damn Peruvian pan flutes all over again - no wonder we haven't seen any guinea pigs) wretched sounds that carried through the entire place.  Neither of us really got into this place so much, but don't worry, that didn't stop us from taking a buttload of pictures.  We again were able to wade through the throngs of peddling kids, but I did almost buy an Angkor guide book for $1.  Then the kid tried to change the price to 1000 Baht ($30), so I didn't like him much anymore and kept on moving.

 

After a bit of negotiating with our driver (turns out there was some miscommunication with bizarro Ari last night at the guest house), he agreed to take us a bit farther down the road to the river carvings and waterfall of Kbal Spean.  Here we had a nice hike up a rocky hillside (no mud!  woo hoo!) to the river carvings on the top.  What are river carvings, you ask?  We had the same question.  They are very similar to all the other stone carvings of various gods (mostly Hindu) that are found all over the temples of Angkor on doorways, walls, stairs, etc.  Only these were carved out of giant stones that were still in the river, some of them completely submerged.  Sort of like they paved a cobble stone street for the water to flow over.  The waterfall was less impressive, though it was nice to cool down a bit in the spray.  After following a very slow but giggly Korean family down the slopes, we eventually made it back to our driver.  He of course had to be sitting in the very last food stall in the long string of stalls, so we again had to ward off many women trying to get us to eat.  We didn't really know how to explain that pig on a stick really wasn't going to work for us. 

 

Then our trip got interesting.  The next place we wanted to visit was pretty far out of the way, but that was no problem for our super-driver.  He said "Some tuk tuk no take, but I bring you.  Not impossible."  Not impossible isn't exactly the ringing endorsement you want to hear, but whatever.  So we started driving pretty fast to get there in time, but that didn't seem too bad.  Then, about 50 km before we got to the temple, we hit the end of the road.  I shouldn't say that, there was still a road.  It just wasn't pavement.  It was one third dirt, one third rocks (we still don't know which is better), and one third pothole.  Giant potholes.  Everywhere.  Luckily, our dirt bike racing expert of a driver was pretty good at stearing his bike around them.  Less luckily, the two wheels of the carriage were spaced wider than the single wheel of the bike he was driving, so all those narrow misses for him were straight on hits for us.  After Adina's first ride on a bike in three years yesterday, her ass was in no position for such a bumpy ride.  Especially one that lasted 45 minutes.  Other than almost being run off the road a few times, and being whipped by branches of the trees we narrowly missed, we had a blast. 

 

This was all to get to our third stop of the day, Bang Maelea, which we were told was the crown jewel of Angkor temples.  And $5 extra.  It really was fantastic.  A lot like the jungle temples we went to yesterday, but bigger and far less crowded.  This was the first place we've been to where we weren't overrun with other tourists, and only a couple of peddling 7 year olds.  There were even a small gaggle of cute NON-peddling kids, which is always a fun surprise.  They had fun sliding their way down the staircase that Adina was barely comfortable walking up.  Her sasquatch feet were not meant for the narrow stairs of khmer life.  This temple was dark, green, and crumbling all over the place.  To view it, you need to scramble of large piles of boulders that used to be towers, crawl through small openings that are all that's left of doorways, and trip over roots of giant trees that are choking the ruins and taking over everything.  We were certainly not alone in the place, but we were able to walk through it without feeling like we were constantly in some one else's picture.  Not stumbling over other people definitely adds the the mystique of the place, or as stupid Lonely Planet likes to say, it was very atmospheric. 

 

For dinner we went to yet another too expensive (but actual khmer food) veggie place, where we got our last meal before giving up fake meat for the nine days. It's gonna be rough. 

 

Wednesday was a bit of a lazy day, having sort of run out of desire to see the temples.  We considered sunrise, but decided it would be too cloudy.  Which it was.  Instead we got out of bed a bit later to try and see the eclipse, though we were worried it would be too cloudy.  Which it was.  There will be another one just like it in a century or so, so no big deal.  We've spent most of the day wondering around Siem Reap itself - the market, the artist colony, a butterfly garden (which turned out to be a restaurant with butterflies in it.  They didn't seem too upset that we just took pictures and left.)  The market was filled with more types of seafood (some of it fresh enough to still be moving) than I've ever seen, but we were again forced out by the smell pretty quickly.  Most of the things we've thought about doing today and tomorrow are too pricey ($100 dollars to go to another temple??!!), but we'll figure something out.  Later today we're planning on seeing the sunset over the lake, and maybe tomorrow we'll try another cooking course if we can find one veggie enough for us.

 

Then Friday we're off to Phnom Phen for Shabbat and a nice downer of a day at the killing fields Sunday before heading back to Thailand and the islands. 

 

 

 

Disney Wat, Day 1

Yesterday we loaded into our tuk-tuk and headed out to Angkor Wat for sunset.  Though we didn't actually go to Angkor Wat, instead we went to Phnom Bakheng, a smaller hilltop temple where every one and their mother goes for sunset.  It was a little absurd to see the number of people on the top, (including what appeared to be a Korean boy band) and we also didn't get much of a sunset as the dastardly clouds got in the way.  They weren't kidding about the whole rainy season.  We did see some nice colors in the clouds, though not until we got down from the temple mount.  Or am I not supposed to use that phrase?  The Norwegians we've been running into everywhere since Chiang Kong and I decided to blame Adina for making us come down a bit early, but she blames the guy in uniform who told us the site was closing.  It's always about finding the scapegoat with her.  On our way up (and down, for that matter) we were hounded by locals selling various pieces of crud beyond belief.  Even more than what we got in Bangkok, though at least here they do take no for an answer eventually and you don't get the feeling that they are trying to trick you into something.  They also speak WAY more English here than any other place we've been, so they understand when you explain that you don't want a magnet because you've already bought two on the day.  They just don't care. 

 

Back in town we were pleasantly surprised by the veggie options, and had some more Indian food.  3 days in a row turned out to be not a great idea, but it was definitely delicious.  We then went to the night market (after warding off about 80 guys trying to get us in their tuk tuk) and browsed through some of the same old stuff we've seen everywhere.  The downside of their increased English is they are able to call after you much more emphatically.  And frequently.  And loudly.  "Buy something Madam!"  "You want to buy something?"     "You think, maybe change your mind later."  "BUY A SCARF!!" One guy even managed to sneeze, raise his arms at us, start hacking and coughing, then, while keeling over and almost dying manage to eke out in a weak voice,  "tuk tuk sir?"   At least he was polite.  One guy actually jumped off the sidewalk right in front of us and yelled "TUK TUK?"  Scared the bejesus out of Adina, but he was nice enough to apologize.  One crazy thing we saw in a few places at the market was a fish massage - dip your feet in a pool with little tiny fishes inside and let them nibble away at your toes.  Apparently it tickles therapeutically, or at least the handful of very white people we found actually doing it seemed to believe.  We did stumble upon some guys playing a form of Khmer chess.  Apparently there are two different kinds, and this one is the version that is less like international chess.  They were playing pretty fast so it took a while to catch on, but the rules are, as it turns out, actually pretty simple.  I'd be happy to play with you, Josh, as long as you don't get crabby if I win. 

 

Today we slowly got out of bed a bit later than we wanted to (noticing a trend here) and rented bikes to head out to the main circuit of temples.  We rode around and didn't fall all day!!!  Slightly less impressive considering they were actually bicycles this time, but Adina hasn't been on one since our honeymoon, so we're proud of her all the same.  And we did get to use our fist aid kit (of course we bring it along on the days we stay healthy) when a little Cambodian girl got her foot stuck in her moms bike.  The bikes were our 20th different mode of transportation on this trip.  I'd be happy to share the full list with any one curious enough to ask.  (You have a lot of time to think when Adina is in the shower, you smell too badly to leave the room until you've showered, and the only thing on TV is 13 going on 30  (on three channels).)

 

We jumped right in and started the day at Angkor Wat itself, the so called "Mother of all temples."  We were again accosted in the parking lot "Buy cold drink?"  "Buy my postcards?"  "I watch your bike, you buy my bracelet?"  We had a nice little chat with a few Cambodian boys, one of whom claimed to be named Spider Boy.  The men sitting around nearby got a kick out of that, but the kid wouldn't tell us his real name.  Instead he said, "When you come back, maybe you buy my book?" 

 

The temple itself manages to be simultaneously more and less impressive than I had expected.  The most impressive part is the detail work and intricate carvings that are absolutely everywhere.  When something is absolutely everywhere in a ginormous complex, there must have been a lot of work put in.  Nearly every visible stone is etched or carved in some way.  The sheer scale of the place is also a bit numbing.  The temple is in the middle of a huge walled area surrounded by a very large moat.  There are pools all around, along with smaller structures dotted here and there.  Then you get to the actual temple (after walking half a km up the causeway), and it is both larger and taller than anything else we've seen here.  On the other hand, in a lot of ways it's quite ugly.  Perhaps it was because we were there at the wrong time of day in bad light, but the coloring of the stone isn't as pretty (and it looked more scorched) as I had expected.  But as it turns out, I think the size, scale, and detail work are kind of the point.

 

We then got back on our bikes (Spider Boy did come running after us when he saw us heading through the parking lot.  He said we promised we'd buy something when we came back, we tried to gently remind him that it was, in fact, he who said those things.  At first I was impressed that he remembered us, but then I realized he probably says the same thing to every one who locks up their bike, which saves the trouble of having to remember who he tried his little pitch on) and headed out towards the next temple area.  We did stop along the way to have lunch on the banks of the moat, where we thought we could be left alone for a while.  That was silly.  About two minutes into our delicious lunch of Tuna B'Sakit (our bread went moldy overnight - I hate humidity) two more local boys rode over and started chatting us up.  On the bright side they did not try to sell anything (they even gave us their real names), but they did kind of ruin our nice quiet lunch.  Even the Oreos we gave them weren't enough to shoo them away.  Though I suppose the goodbye hug he gave us made it all better.

 

Our next stops were Banteay Kdei and Ta Prohm, two jungle wats that have been pretty much left to the elements.  Aside from all the restoration work, that is.  Ta Prohm is the one some of you may think of when you picture Angkor Wat, it's got loads of trees growing out of the ruins, with the roots wrapping around whole buildings and moss covering most of the stones.  It's also the site where they filmed part of Tomb Raider, as Lonely Planet loves to point out.  It was dark, eerie, and beautiful, though still overrun with people.  I think they need to start charging higher admission.  I also don't understand how whole families come here - there is no way kids can appreciate this.  I say put them all in pop-up trailers in the Adirondacks, let them learn what a family vacation really is.  The crowds aside, these two were our favorites of the day and both exactly as we imagined and incomparable to anything we've seen before. 

 

We also rode through Angkor Thom, the huge city which they say housed up to a million people over 600 years ago.  All that's left standing are more temples and fragments of the royal palace. The highlight of that leg of the day was the Bayon temple, which has a few dozen towers scattered around the grounds, each with four giant faces looking down over you.  We rode back to town just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset along the way.  Unfortunately, we saw it from the street, right over a dirty construction sight.  It was a little sad that we didn't get to see the pretty sunset from our hilltop wat yesterday, but no worries.  Or, as Adina said, "That was BULLSHIT!"  You can take the girl out of the Steins (sorry, Gary), but you can't take the Stein out of the girl.  Dinner tonight was in a fancy veggie place which was delicious but out of our price range- our meal cost $13!!!!  We could have bought 110 meals (plus five extra spring rolls) at our vegan buffet in Luang Prabang with that kind of money.  This town is expensive. 

 

Tomorrow we're headed farther afield to some of the other more isolated temples, which should be a nice break after the hordes today.  We've booked a tuktuk with our guest house's receptionist who, by the way, is Ari Moskowitz's long lost Cambodian twin.  It's uncanny.  Well, only a little in appearance (same shaped head), it's more of a demeanor/attitude/hand gesture thing.  I'm still waiting for ideas for something to do on Thursday.  (Wednesday should be more temples in the area, including a sunrise at Angkor Wat at what is apparently the exact time of a nearly complete solar eclipse.  What are the odds?) 

 

Pictures from today will have to come some other time, I don't think the free computer at our guest house can handle that.  It's already shut itself down once tonight, though that may have been because I kicked the plug.  Whatever.  Till then, keep watching the skis.

Vientiane. Sort Of

Our stay in Vientiane consisted of arriving, dropping off our laundry, veggie Indian food, sleeping, waking up, napping, reading, napping, back to the same veggie Indian place, picking up our laundry, sleeping, and leaving.  The funny part is I'm pretty sure we did manage to see everything worth seeing in town.  I now understand what they mean by "charmless".  Oh, and we saw Bourne Ultimatum on HBO.  Twice. 

I suppose the highlight of the trip was our ride to town, which was four hours on the back of a pickup.  Way cheaper than a bus, and who needs AC when you're being rained on, anyway?

Today we flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia, right on the doorstep of Angkor Wat.  We're heading there for a "free" sunset at the temple (by free they mean the $40 entrance fee for three days doesn't start counting until morning) in a bit.  Our faces are set to stunned.  We're here for a few more days to see more temples, but we were sad to learn today that the famous temple sweeper in the jungle has retired.  Sad for us.  We'll let you know how it all goes. 

Luang Prabang Photos

This is a bit out of order, but here are our photos from earlier this week in Luang Prabang.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/LuangPrabang#

Trekking the slippery slopes of Vang Vieng

Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lapert/VangVieng02# (Once they are done uploading)



After our short stroll through town Tuesday night (by the way it turns out I was wrong about those all night Friends TV bars. It turns out they are in fact all DAY Friends bars, as well), we emphatically decided we did not want to go tubing with all the drunk 19 year old backpackers (my earlier estimate of 22 was way off.) Instead we signed up for a two day trek/kayak adventure to a self billed "secret Eden." Before signing up I looked through the forms of the four people who had already signed up. They were all between 27 and 29, so I knew we were good to go.

The people in our group were certainly great to trek with (mostly) but nowhere near as bizarre as the last group. There was a pair of very friendly Canadians, two Brits on their way home from Australia, and two American girls from San Fran. Most of them were great, though one of the Americans left something to be desired in the ways of friendliness. What can you do. We hung out most with the Canadians, Rob and Laura. Rob is sort of a cross between more subdued Alon Cohen and less talkative Jonah Lowenfeld. Though since not a whole lot of you know both of them, I'm not sure how much that helps. Our guides were of course a bit on the crazy side, though thoroughly entertaining. One of the things I like most about the people here is how playful they can be all the time, even when sitting on their asses after falling down a muddy hill inside a cave. Though I'm not sure why Yong (the main guide) decided that Adina and I were two "researchers." I think it was his way of calling us dorks.

Day one of the trek was a long hike up and down a couple of very slippery limestone karsts. Which is apparently what one calls a cliff when they want to sound different. We got lucky and saw almost no rain, but the path was still a giant mudbowl from start to finish. Our trek in Chiang Mai was squeaky clean compared to this. It turns out it's pretty fun to slide your way down muddy boulders on the side of the mountain. This time, though, we were well prepared and did not forget our first aid kit. Which was good, because neither of us could stay on our feet for very long. Plus it's nice to put on a bandaid after the leech is removed. Those suckers really make you bleed. In the middle of the morning hike we explored a very cool cave in the side of the mountain, which is what this area is most known for. It went on forever inside the mountain and had some pretty spectacular stalactites/mites and really cool wavy rock formations all over the place. And bats. Lots of bats.

After our second big climb/descent we were carted off to our 'resort' for the night. Now, considering I was expecting to sleep on a mat on the floor like our last trek I shouldn't complain, but Adina was right to point out that having massive bugs crawling over the place is ok when you're outside, but the same bugs inside just feel gross. We were especially unhappy when our gigantic spider friend that had been parked on our ceiling was suddenly not there anymore when we got back to the room. And when we discovered the ant colony - though probably better described as an ant civilization it was so big - inside our shower. Cool thing about ants, though. When you try to rinsed them down the drain, they cling to each other in some sort of death grip and become too big to get rid of. I was impressed. Unlike our last trek, the food situation wasn't great. Vegetarianism doesn't mean quite the same here. Our guide was pleased to bring us out a dish described as "vegetarian, with a little pork." So, after a less than satisfying dinner of sticky rice dipped in soy sauce, we played some cards (I tried teaching asshole, but we ended up with too many people and played shithead instead), had some Lao-lao (rice whiskey/moonshine) and headed off to bed.

Today we very lazily awoke and headed out to spend a day kayaking on the river. Considering neither of us have kayaked in a long time, it was nice to be on a river that could really do all the work for us when we needed a break. We made a few stops, including another terrific cave. This one flows with water all the time, so we had to swim through before climbing up some more mud (because Adina's ass wasn't muddy enough already). It was around this point in the river that we started running into the tubing bars. The kids who tube here get in the river, then maybe 50 meters later they are pulled into a bar on the banks where they order their beers and their buckets, zipline/trapeze into the river, and head on their way. Until they are pulled into another bar 50 meters after that. Then about 7 more before the trip is done. It was still early, so not too many drunks were out, but that didn't stop the nonstop soundtrack of American rock (with lots of bass) from blaring itself though the beautiful scenery. We did stop at the last one of these bars to use their swing and jump into the river (even Adina did it, from about 30 feet above the water! I of course had fun, though I learned I may need to improve my backflip technique a bit. Don't worry, making it halfway around and getting the wind knocked out of you on impact with the water isn't so bad. It's trying to keep up with the current dragging you downstream with said lack of wind that gets tricky)

All in all, it was a terrific trek, one of our favorite things so far (though Angkor Wat, tropical paradise, and diving are still to come!). For any one thinking of coming through here any time soon, Green Discovery is worth using. They are a bit more expensive, but the guides are terrific and the company really knows what they are doing. Oh, and they claim to help local people or something like that.

It looks like we're heading out of town tomorrow to Vientiane for Shabbat, then flying to Siem Reap on Sunday. Our time in Laos is winding down, but we both totally see why every one is so crazy about this place. Aside from the natural beauty, (which frankly is not better than anywhere else **Adina disagrees**), you can't help but feeling good when every one around you is relaxed and laid back all the time.

Next update will probably be next week from Siem Reap, unless something noteworthy happens in Vientiane. But I wouldn't count on that.

So no one told me Laos was gonna be this way

After one more trip to the market and contributing our own little stimulus package to the Laos economy, we left beautiful Luang Prabang this morning.  We got to Vang Vieng this afternoon after a looong minivan ride.  When they advertise as AC, they should probably try to remind the driver to turn the AC on.  Oh well, no worries.

This place is stunningly beautiful, but absolutely crawling with idiot 22 year old backpackers.  They get drunk in an inner tube on the river all day, then come back to town to get high on pot, shrooms, etc., and drink happy shakes while sitting in a TV bar watching nothing but old episodes of Friends all night.  At least some of the bars have recently wised up and started showing Family Guy instead.  Apparently Stewie is hysterical after a little bit of E.  I'm afraid I won't be able to tell you about that, though.

On the other hand the valley is gorgeous and it looks like Adina and I will be doing two days of trekking/kayaking before heading out of town.  Though we may not.  It appears we have commitment issues.  We'll let you know when we get back.

For those of you keeping count at home, Adina is winning Zitch dog, but I have the lead in Zitch Wat (Buddhist temple).  The score is 7532 to 5672. 

Luang Prabang

Sorry, no photos today.  In what you'll soon see is a running theme on the day, we forgot to pack the USB cable.  Our bad.

 

We got to town Friday before Shabbat and headed to our guest house.  We had decided to splurge a bit and get the nice place, even though it cost three times as much ($25 instead of $8).  We figured we were only in town for a couple of days, and we knew we'd be spending a lot of time lying around over Shabbat, so what the hell.  The problem is we didn't count on liking the place so much that we stayed for an extra few days.  Since we're both too lazy to pack up and switch guest houses just to save a bit of cash, we're still paying the exorbitant rate.  I wonder if we can get a discount because of the loud sex our upstairs neighbors had all afternoon on Saturday.

 

Luang Prabang is a great town, I can see why so many people find themselves here longer than they expected.  Their town marketing slogan is "Stay Another Day."  I don't think I've ever seen a more successful campaign, though people would probably be lingering with or without the posters all over the place.  The town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which, in addition to making everything a wee bit more expensive, forces the character of the place to be preserved as much as possible.  Which is remarkable considering how much construction is going on all over town.  The tourist part of town is pretty much three long, parallel streets along a peninsula in between two rivers.  One street runs along the Mekong and is lined with cute little outdoor cafes and bars on the banks of the river.  The middle street is the main tourist center, with tour agencies, shops, guest houses, etc. everywhere.  Some of them are super fancy, and we've been amazed by how much older the crowd is here than anywhere else we've been.  There certainly are plenty of backpackers (though not in our posh little neighborhood) but there are also families, elderly couples (like our parents age), and the never before encountered elderly lone traveler.  The third street is mostly filled with private homes and the fancier guest houses (like ours) and hotels (significantly more expensive than ours).  Most of the buildings in town are survivors/remakes from the French colonial time, so everything is very pretty.  And we're told the wine and cheese bars are very good.

 

We got to town with just enough time to buy some essentials and get food ready before Shabbat started (we assume - there was no magnet with candle-lighting times on the fridge).  We had our take-out vegan buffet dinner (the only one in town, so they're quite familiar with us by now) accented with some challah and dirty Israeli kiddush wine we picked up in some random store in Chiang Mai.  (Chabbad).  We relaxed and were in bed by ten, which is all the more impressive due to the fact that I didn't get out of bed until 12:30.  That felt nice.  I think Adina got out of bed to get some fruit salad from breakfast or something, but I'm not sure.  We took a walk around town in the afternoon, but the oppressive heat brought us back to our AC pretty quickly.  The locals were saying that the heat was quite unusual, but people in Chiang Mai said the same thing about the two solid days of rain we had there.  Either we bring freak weather everywhere we go, or locals here really have no concept of what happens here on a regular basis.  I suppose a third option is they had no idea what I was saying when we were discussing it, or vice versa.  One of these days we'll vacation in an English speaking country.  Like Israel.  In the evening we made it to the market where we didn't spend any money (hooray!) and then stayed out until the wee hours of the night drinking in a bar.  Except bars here close around 11 by law.  And we had one beer and a lemon shake.  I told Adina she didn't need the shake, but she's been pretty wild and out of control lately.

 

Today we had a busy, exciting, and memorable day.  I certainly won't be able to forget about it at least until my wounds heal.  We woke up super early to watch the monks make their rounds collecting alms.  A lot of sticky rice in a bowl is pretty much what it comes down to.  ***Adina would like to add that it is also beautiful display of the generosity of the common man, and a testament to the reverence in which the Monks here are held.  Even if they are twelve year old boys.***  It's a whole line of orange gowns walking down the street receiving donations, sort of like a mobile version of the gates.  Perhaps tomorrow we'll wait in the line and donate something, also.  Since Adina convinced me it would probably be a bad idea to try and collect the rice.  Even though I reminded her my REI super absorbant towel was orange, she correctly pointed out that it wouldn't cover much of me and would probably be pretty conspicuous.  After a nap and a quick packing job (you'll see why that was a problem later on) we headed to town to rent a nice smooth riding automatic motor scooter like we did in Sukhothai.  Shame they don't rent those here.  Instead we got on a very overpriced (which we later learned from some backpackers that was due largely to increased insurance rates after a recent spate of tourist accidents) manual motorcycle.  We even had to keep our feet on the side!  Given, it was on the small side, but since my gear changing instructions were not in any language I could decipher, we had a bumpy start.  The ride was only an hour, and as we got close we got to some pretty steep hills.  In retrospect I'm pretty sure she did say something about hills before we got on the bike, but who bothers to pay attention to details like that?  On the bright side, I learned how to pop a wheelie going uphill on a bike (having a passenger with a heavy backpack helps).  Unfortunately, I have not yet discovered how to land a wheelie going uphill on a bike yet.  Some nicks and scrapes later, with the help of a passing Lao biker (they really are as nice as every one says) we were VERY slowly back on our way.  We did make it to the waterfall park we were headed to and had a great day there.  It's the first time we've seen blue water on this continent, a pleasant change from the mudbowl that is the Mekong we have grown accustomed to.  Though I'm pretty sure the blue is some kind of algae which probably shouldn't have been allowed into my cuts, but whatever.  That's what neosporin is for.  Which is why it would have been helpful to have packed the first aid kit today.  We've brought it absolutely everywhere else we've gone, I'm not sure why motorcycle to a waterfall park did strike us as another appropriate time to bring it.  Some nice Americans on their way out helped us a bit and shared their generic neosporin with us (Duane Reade brand baby!  They are both Math teachers in NY, live on the upper west side, having just finished teaching fellows, and even did their masters at CCNY.  Small world) so we were fine.  Actually, Adina was fine already, since she managed to land on me in the fall she had barely a scratch. 

 

The park was terrific.  We hiked up the mountain, feasted on peanut butter sandwiches, swam in the pools, jumped off the waterfalls (well, one of us) and headed back home.  Gingerly.  The problem with gingerly is you kind of run out of steam heading back uphill.  which is when one may find themselves teetering off the side of the road.  Technically we only fell once on the day, since I don't think you can call it a fall if you remain upright the whole time.  But we were certainly not on the road anymore.  Kind of in a ditch, actually.  Adina is going to say that this reaggravated her hip, but I know it's really because she hasn't been doing her stretches lately. (Dana, can you scold her about this?)  Again, though, a whole team of Lao drivers pulled off the road and helped us out of the ditch and back on our feet.  They also were kind enough to bang our basket back into shape.  Once we popped the mirror back into place, the rental place didn't even notice.  Back in town, despite AGAIN forgetting to pack something - this time our handy little calendar and notes, we managed to plan out the next two weeks of our trip (sadly, Pakse and the rest of Southern Laos had to be cut because neither of us wants to spend the extra 30 hours on a bus.  That's what airplanes are for.)  So if any one has good ideas for what to do with our extra couple of days in Cambodia (preferrably between Siem Reap and Phnom Phen), please let us know. 

 

Meanwhile, we'll be heading out of Luang Prabang on Tuesday (another slow day of this unbelievably peaceful town is too tempting to resist).  From there the plan is Van Vieng for tubing and/or caving, then Vientiane for Shabbat, then a Sunday flight into Cambodia.  We hope.  We'll let you know how all of that turns out.  Stay tuned!