TravelStream™ news feed for member candyandray on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/candyandray en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:29:16 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236382020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236382020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236382020/tpod.html Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:29:16 -0400 Adventures Around the World

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia

We flew into Perth, the capital of Western Australia (WA) late in the day from Singapore. Candy studied just outside Perth for six-months in college, so we had a pretty good idea of what to do and where to stay. Candy had told Ray that Western Australia is kind of the like the 1950s. Her description was spot on. The storefronts and streets look very much like the neighborhoods in U.S. from that era--just more vibrant and well maintained. Even with Candy's forewarning, it was still difficult to adjust to shops, grocery stores, and cafes all closing by 5 PM. Even people from eastern Australia can't believe a place like this exists.Candy's birthday began on the train from Perth to Fremantle. Fremantle (Freo) is a really cool harbor town about 15 miles from Perth. Candy reminisced about places she had visited in college while we loaded up on familiar fruits and vegetables at the Fremantle market. She had strawberry cake before we watched the sunset over the Indian Ocean. Ray's pretty sure her favorite part of the day had to be when she found the custard section in the dairy department. People aren't too surprised that Ray is keeping a beer journal on his travels. Australians have been shocked by Candy's custard consumption (Ray has had a fair share, too). Not so much by the volume, but her methods of consuming it. Australians pour it over stuff for dessert. Candy drinks it straight (you get a bit of a headache pulling it through a straw) or in hot tea in lieu of milk. We took a day trip by ferry from Freo (long words in Australia are typically abbreviated to end in a vowel) to Rottnest Island. Rotto was named by a Dutch explorer who thought the island was inhabited by giant rats (rotts in Dutch). These small marsupials called quokkas are pretty tame and roam throughout the island--one even licked the salt water off Ray's toes. Candy thought the island (and much of Western Australia) had become a lot more developed in the last 10 years. Now, there are lots of families spending their holidays in cottages on the beaches and biking around (cars are not allowed on the island). We rented a car to drive approximately 150 miles south of Perth to the Margaret River wine region. Neither of us had driven in a while. Candy had some experience driving on the opposite side of the road, so she took one for the team and served as our skipper (designated driver in WA-speak). As Australia has very restrictive drink driving laws (not a typo--it's not drunk driving here), this was a particularly generous sacrifice as we planned to visit a few wineries. Candy mostly handled with grace Ray's laughter each time the windshield wipers came on when Candy wished to make a turn. (Candy will hopefully only be amused, and not terrified, when Ray gets behind the wheel of our "Spaceship" in New Zealand). http://www.spaceshipsrentals.co.nzWe had a great time in Margaret River. The wineries were great fun (as they seem to be almost everywhere). We  tasted wines we've never tried before and learned remarkably new things. For example, it was harvest time during our visit and we learned about MOG (matter other than grape) that goes through the wine press! Despite MOG, Margaret River wines are generally thought to be among the best in all of Australia. Because few of the vines are irrigated, the concentrated flavors of the wine were amazing--particularly with foods we hadn't enjoyed in a very long time. Although Ray nearly purchased dog food instead of hamburger at the grocery store. Luckily he noticed the package had a picture of a dog on it and said that can't be right. Margaret River isn't known only for its wine; it also has cheese and chocolate factories. The area is also famous for it's surfing, caves, and the karri forests. You could (and should) spend a very long time in Margaret River; for us, however, we only had a brief time to spend in Western Australia before heading onto Melbourne.There is a bit of a rivalry between Australia's biggest cities -- Sydney and Melbourne. When we've met travelers from Sydney and told them we were going to Melbourne, and not Sydney, they tried to convince us to change our minds (we thought for a moment they were going to buy us plane tickets). We had a great time in Melbourne and the nearby attractions.Candy's flatmate from university (Uni) in Perth moved to Madison, Wisconsin a couple of years ago. Laura's mom (Marie) and some of her sisters live in Melbourne. Laura's youngest sister, Hil, picked us up at the airport with some of her friends from Uni. They had just come from a party where everyone had painted their faces. As we tried to figure out which of the people outside the luggage bay we were meeting, Ray said to Candy, "she kind of looks like Laura, but do you think she'd come to the airport painted?" Candy said, "Laura and I would have in when we were in Uni."Painting was the early theme of our time in Melbourne. On our first day we set out to explore the area around Marie's house and get some Greek food. While we ate, dozens of naked bicyclists under police escort (the police were clothed, but also on bikes) pedaled by. We later found out that this "largest naked protest in the World" is an annual event to highlight how vulnerable bikers are to automobile traffic. This year was the first year where police allowed men to go bottomless, unfortunately. Most of the riders painted their bodies for the ride, as well.Melbourne is a great city for walkers from our experience (and the lack of naked pedestrians protesting confirms it, one presumes). Staying with Marie was wonderful. She lives very close to downtown, parks, lots of cool neighborhoods and the Victorian market. We visited the market often. We also hopped on the tourist bus to travel around the city one day to see all the sites and make our plans. We spent a lot of time with our friends, Kate and Brian, that you've already heard about from Turkey and Thailand. On their first weekend, they took us camping on the Great Ocean Road. We spent Ray's birthday on the Great Ocean Road. The scenery was stunning. So was the food and drink. As some of you know, for each of our birthdays growing up, we coincidently requested the exact same birthday cake every year--Cherry Chip. Sadly, they stopped making that cake mix a few years ago, so we're looking for a new tradition. Kate made Ray a chocolate tart topped with strawberries soaked in dessert wine. It was amazing. Ray said to Candy, "I think I've found my new favorite birthday cake." Brian remarked, "That's quite a compliment, Kate, when you consider how many birthdays he's had." Along the Great Ocean Road we had delicious fish and chips (made out of a type of shark--"flake") and a "Parma"-a sort chicken parmesan with ham but no pasta. As we couldn't finish our portion, we inquired about a take-away bag only to find out that doggie bags are forbidden by the health department in Australia. You can order takeaway meals as they presume you will be eating the food soon. But leftovers might be stored improperly, so no doggie bags.We were very fortunate to view many of Australia's unique animals. We saw kangaroos and emus in the wild. Along the Great Ocean Road, Candy found Ray a koala in a tree that looked like it was waving at us (it was probably scratching)!!! We were able to meet many of Laura's family members--two other (non-painted) sisters, grandmother, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces--and family friends. We really enjoyed getting to know everyone. We've encountered many Australians on our travels. Still, we never fail to be amazed by the exotic travels that Australians have made to such places as pre-Soviet invasion Afghanistan, Nepal, and St. Cloud. Ray even got to cook kangaroo on the barbie at one of these gatherings!We went fishing one day with Kate and Brian. The next day, our personal chefs prepared us several dishes from the catch as well as some Banana Prawns from Queensland, Australia. We were barely able to move for our next adventure--lawn bowling. People in Melbourne were a bit surprised that we wanted to try lawn bowling as one of our "Australian Experiences." It turns out that lawn bowling is the new hip thing. The local club has one night for beginners with a BBQ and beer included. Candy and her randomly assigned partner took home first prize! She was more surprised than anything. Tune in next to hear about our 22 days living in a spaceship named "Yuri" in New Zealand. We post soon after our return to Minnesota on April 17th.Candy and Ray
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236083460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236083460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1236083460/tpod.html Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:13:06 -0400 Adventures Around the World

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Singapore, Singapore

A connecting flight through Singapore was our best option to get to Australia from Vietnam. We both wanted to see the city state, so we left an extra couple of days before we would head on to Australia.The differences from all other places in southeast Asia were apparent to us. Immediately apparent. To start, the immigration counters in the Singapore airport have candy dishes to welcome you to Singapore! And, it seemed to us anyway, that there were signs and posters alerting people to avoid everything from some minor danger (the 2 inch gap in the handrail on the side of the stairs) to public service announcements about drunk driving, etc. As we left the building, we encountered cross walks. Crosswalks where drivers stopped (and not just after they hit you, but so that they wouldn't hit you in the first place!).Needless to say, we enjoyed walking in Singapore. We spent a bit of time on housekeeping duties such as getting our clothes washed (and dried!) and mailing our last package of accumulated stuff back home. We fit in a visit to the Singapore Museum and spent a good part of another day at the Singapore Zoo.The Singapore Zoo was quite impressive. The entire zoo is cage-free. Several animals have even been conditioned to roam freely among the guests. Needless to say, Candy, with her monkey phobia, wondered what she had gotten herself into when greeted by this primate at the front gate. We enjoyed seeing animals that we didn't see on our travels (pygmy hippos, orangutans, and mandrils). We also enjoyed being able to identify and learn about animals we had already encountered on our trip ("Ah, so that's what we saw in South America..." or  "that's the jerky we ate in South Africa..."). The primate habitats were especially enjoyable. From watching chimpanzees use tools to get food, orangutans slowly swinging through the trees, or the brightly colored male mandril "dancing" as a little girl described it, the day was a blast. Singapore is definitely worth spending a few days in if you ever have a connecting flight through the airport. Heck, the Singapore airport is worth a few hours by itself! Tune in again to hear about our birthdays in Australia and much more.Candy and Ray   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1235206200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1235206200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1235206200/tpod.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:43:39 -0400 Adventures Around the World

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We took a bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as, and it seems increasingly so again, Saigon), Vietnam. This, hopefully, last land border crossing of our travels, was just as chaotic as nearly every previous land crossing (non-European, anyway). Immediately after entering Vietnam, we noticed the increased standard of living. Even though Vietnam's average income is only $800/year higher than Cambodia, the 33% increase was apparent to us.Saigon was sadly just as hot and humid as Malaysia was. Once again we needed to hide out for the hottest hours of the day before setting out to explore. This was unfortunate as we had limited time in Saigon before catching our flight to Danang on the central coast.  Our flight over the Mekong delta and the central highlands was quite enjoyable. It appeared that many of the Vietnamese passengers were flying for the first time (the guy next to Candy looked a lot like Ho Chi Minh!). The airports in Saigon and Danang appeared to have lots of quonset huts and abandoned equipment from the war (the huge oil stains on the tarmac were, hopefully, remnants of the war as well). Below us we could see what seemed an infinite number of shades of green. After landing in Danang, we immediately caught a van heading to Hoi An. Hoi An is a really enjoyable town. The architecture in the old quarter is unlike anything we've seen. Motorbike traffic has been almost eliminated in the old quarter, making it very pleasant to stroll around. Hoi An is a well known destination for tailoring and cobblering. Candy designed the two pairs of leather boots she purchased as well as a winter coat.  The cafes and street stalls on the riverfront were also really nice. We repeatedly tried two of the dishes Hoi An is known for: boiled white dumplings called "white rose" and fried wontons topped with stir fried vegetables. These "secret" recipes are somewhat of a mystery as every menu in town has a slightly different version--but claims that only one family in town makes them. In Hoi An we also tried our first glass of bia hoi---draft beer sold at street stalls for about $0.20/glass. It was like we were back in college again... From Hoi An, we took a four hour bus north to the former imperial city, Hue. Candy, unfortunately, picked up a cold virus and needed to rest in Hue. So, Ray joined a tour group to see the Citadel and the royal tombs rather than hiring a driver as we would have done if Candy had been able to venture out in the heat. Taking the tour was fortunate in that Ray had lunch and got to talk quite a bit with an Australian man on the tour who was born in Hue. He left Vietnam just after the Tet Offensive. This was his first trip back to Hue. It was amazing to hear how much detail he remembered of the war.The tour itself was quite nice. Although the Citadel was mostly destroyed in the war, most of the other sites survived. We visited two of the tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty. The first tomb was a beautiful lake with structures built on islands (it reminded Ray of Mirror Lake in Bend, Oregon). The second was a highly ornate concrete structure. The tour also stopped at a Pagoda which served as the home base for the Buddhist monk who famously set himself on fire in 1964 to protest the Catholic government's treatment of Buddhists. Finally, we took a dragon boat down the Perfume River into the city. Ray was a bit apprehensive about this as he could imagine no river in southeast Asia deserving of the name "perfume" (eau de toilette, sure, that would work). However, the boat ride more than exceeded expectations. After the tour, we stocked up with some comfort food-- peanut butter sandwiches (We haven't seen peanut butter much on our travels. Strangely, we felt safer eating the peanut butter from China than if it had come from the US!) and hopped on the overnight bus to Hanoi. Even after all our travels, we still see something amazingly new most days. Some of the people on this sleeper bus left their cramped seats to sleep in the aisle! One guy even had a hammock that he hung from the arm rests. We paid the extra $1 for the chaise-lounge like seats. We got to know the couple across the aisle from us, a Pittsburgh couple considering grad school in Minnesota. They said that this happened on their other two night buses in Vietnam as well. We decided we REALLY enjoyed the flight from Saigon to Danang at that point.In southeast Asia, buses take their rest breaks at isolated spots presumably to earn a commission from the monopoly food provider. Typically, the food can be scary. In Vietnam, Ray ventured into the unknown a couple of times. On the bus from Hoi An to Hue, he ordered the squid soup. We've said that squid has always been smart choice. However, this squid still had the feather bone and beak in it (and god knows what else). Candy was giving Ray a look as he ate. The look could have meant several things. First, when Ray slurps noodle soup with chopsticks, there can be some "friendly-fire" casualties. Ray didn't think that was the issue, so, he asked, "Would you like some?" She responded, "It's 8 AM."The late night stop on the bus to Hanoi proved even more interesting. Ray order Pho Ga (chicken rice noodle soup that you add herbs and spices to suit your taste). When it arrived, it clearly wasn't chicken. We tried to resolve our concerns with the wait staff. Using increasingly primitive English to get our point across--"This no Ga."  Well, at this stage Ray knows Bo (beef was only other protein on the menu) and "this no Bo". Suffice it to say that chefs in northern Vietnam take to heart the first part of Bob Barker's closing line on the Price is Right.Our morning arrival in Hanoi was one of our more difficult mornings. We slept very little and needed to find a place to crash. Our first option suffered from 8 power failures in our first 15 minutes in the room. Also the linens were really wet (This turned out to be common in the north). Most hotels in Vietnam have nice refrigerators in all the rooms. Nevertheless, a hotel with a clothes dryer for their linens seem to be uncommon. After asking for dry linen, the staff hooked up a clothes iron to make our towels hot (and still wet). So, we walked to find another place. This walk was not pleasant. The streets in the old quarter of Hanoi are very narrow. And, most sidewalks are filled with motorbikes and food vendors, so you have to walk in the street. Well, Vietnamese drivers use their horns a lot. (To amuse himself on a later bus ride, Ray tried to predict when our driver would use his horn. While Vietnam Horn Hero isn't easy to play, it seems you use the horn whenever: passing on a curve, passing a pedestrian, passing a motorbike with more than one person on it, and whenever you blink or exhale.) Walking down the street everyone honked at us and every other moving, and sometimes stationary, object. Some cars brushed up against us (while going slowly). After checking into a slightly less damp room, we visited Hoa Lo Prison-- aka the Hanoi Hilton, and booked a trip to Halong Bay for the next day. While most of the museum was directed at the abuses of the French colonial days (including one the guillotines used in the prison), the propaganda regarding the treatment of US POWs etc. was a bit much. We headed to Halong Bay first thing the next morning. The limestone carst islands, while more pronounced, reminded us a lot of Lake Vermilion and the Boundary Waters Canoe Areas.We stayed the first night on a junk in Halong Bay and the next night on Cat Ba island. Taking tours in developing countries requires patience, persistence, and other attributes. As we watch other travelers expressing their frustrations to the staff, we try to remind ourselves how hard the people in these countries work and that they've likely never had the kind of "vacation travel" and customer service that we experience at home. That said, this tour was particularly chaotic. We would start a conversation with someone, only to be brusquely and repeatedly separated--"you move to this bus/boat/hotel RIGHT NOW."  We generally figure things will work out and that we'll still see something interesting. However, wherever you stay in Vietnam, they demand your passport and return it upon checkout. Given the random passenger exchanges on the side of the road or on the high seas, we had trouble imagining that our passports were taking the same tour as we were. We did win this round of passport roulette and got ours back at the end of the tour. Upon our return to Hanoi, our hotel didn't honor our room reservation, so we had to move to their "sister" hotel. After persistently insisting on the same rate as our original hotel, we confirmed our car reservation to the airport at 5 AM the next morning. We then asked for our passports back immediately as we would be checking out so early in the morning. We were told that our passports were at the Indian embassy and that our visa wouldn't be ready for 3-4 days. We tried to explain that we had just given them the passports twenty minutes ago, that we weren't going to India, that this wasn't Bo, etc. So that we weren't talking over each other, Ray sat down with some other travelers who had just arrived in Vietnam. The other couple remarked how surprised they were regarding how calm and polite we were and were a bit scared when Ray, perhaps meanly, said this is nothing compared to what you have to look forward to on the night bus tonight!As you might be able tell, Hanoi helped us become ready to leave southeast Asia. Despite the fact that Ray couldn't stomach the incessant horn honking to enjoy the bia hoi on the streets of Hanoi, he still found his creative muse one night via the cold virus that eventually found him. Here are the first couple of verses of his song: 1-2-3-4What are you honking for?I don't give a damnI'm stuck in Vietnam5-6-7-8I don't know what the hell I just ateI don't give a damnI'm stuck in Vietnamand his haiku:hello, where you from?hello, tuk-tuk/motorbike?air conditioningThe next day we woke up early to catch our flight to Singapore. We've gotten used to seeing interesting shrines to ensure safe transportation in places like Argentina and Thailand. However, this one in the Hanoi airport's departure lounge is a worthy cause we can all get behind as we prepare to board our flights.  Tune in next to hear about our brief stop in Singapore.     Candy and Ray  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234791720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234791720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234791720/tpod.html Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:48:53 -0400 Adventures Around the World

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

We came to Siem Riep primarily to see what has been called the 8th Wonder of the World--the Temples of Angkor on our way into Vietnam. Cambodia is among the poorest countries we've visited on our travels with an average income of about $2,100/year. By comparison, that's about 1/4 of neighboring Thailand's. Like Laos, Cambodia was drawn into the Indochina/Vietnam wars. At the conclusion of those conflicts, Cambodia suffered from the genocide of its Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s which killed nearly 2 million Cambodians. This was followed by 10 years of civil war after the Khmer Rouge was removed by an invasion by the Vietnamese.Given this tragic history, we weren't sure what to expect. We found the Cambodian people to be extremely nice and thoughtful. The staff at our hotel were incredibly wonderful to us. We even found the tuk-tuk drivers to be refreshingly trustworthy, if not always knowledgeable of the cities as they were often from places far, far away and had migrated for the work.Personal travel in Cambodia has three classes:-motorbikes upon which we've seen as many as 4 full sized people travel as well an amazing variety of cargo, -tuk-tuks (motorbikes with an attached carriage for passengers), and -lots of pretty nice SUVs (Lexus or LandRovers). Ray has often found this high-end/low-end split to be a pretty good sign of a corrupt government.In Siem Riep, foreigners aren't allowed to rent motorbikes (we've had no desire to do so). You can hire a motorbike driver and ride on the back (we've had even less desire to do that--beyond the risk of falling off or crashing, we've seen so many people with exhaust burns on their legs and large bandages all over their bodies). Instead we hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day to take us to the various temples. Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples, is as impressive as advertised. After spending a few hours exploring Angkor Wat, Ray climbed a smaller temple, perhaps indicating that his fear of heights has decreased (or been transferred to Candy). The most impressive temple was Ta Prom which has been left in it's "original" condition. That is, not restored with much of the jungle having been left the way it was after the temple was abandoned. This temple has been used in many movies, including Angolina Jolie's "Tomb Raider."  Candy was reminded of Jenelle's "Laura Croft" Halloween costume.  Around the temples, there are many people selling things. Throughout our travels we've become accustomed to these pleas. As we carry our belongings on our backs, we don't even buy things we really like and that we would buy if we were on a traditional vacation. That said, we both felt a desire to buy things from Cambodian sellers (as we similarly felt in Mozambique). Whether to buy from children is always a bit of a dilemma for us. We try not to buy during the school day (although in some places the schools run on shifts either due to space constraints in the building or so the children can work on the farm or selling things). Furthermore, we've learned that children often need to raise money to pay for school books or uniforms. In addition, if they don't sell trinkets or food stuffs, they might end up selling something far more tragic. While Candy was making purchases, (And, once you buy from one child, the pleas of the others "why don't you buy from me, you buy from them" can be difficult to resist.)   Ray had some time to talk with our tuk-tuk driver. He was one of 10 children---a very large percentage of the population of Cambodia is under 15 years of age. Interestingly, we found that the level of English proficiency in Cambodia was higher than in more developed countries like Thailand. However, Ray hopes that our driver had some difficulties with English numbers. He asked Ray how old he was. When Ray responded, he said "wow" (as most people would to the guy paying them money), but then said he would have guessed Ray was in his 50s. As if to confirm Ray's suspicions about our driver, on the way into town he stopped and bought a bottle of scotch. He then poured the light yellow liquid in the bottle into the gas tank. Along almost all the roads in Cambodia were sellers of gasoline in various volumes (1/4 liter bottles from pepsi, 1/2 litres from beer, and liters from scotch) We liked the town of Siem Riep so much that we stayed an extra day. We then took a bus to the capital, Phnom Penh. As in other countries, the moment our bus stopped we were swarmed by touts for hotels and taxi/tuk-tuk drivers. Like most travelers cramped on a bus, this is the last thing we want; we want our bags out of luggage storage, space to breath, a drink, and a toilet (that's Ray's hierarchy anyway).Despite both the heat and humidity, we simply weren't going with any of these pushy guys and headed off on our own. Around every hotel in Cambodia are dozens of tuk-tuks and motorbikes waiting for you to come out (or go in). As we entered what ended up being the hotel we selected, yet another tuk-tuk driver approached us, but said, "I know, after you get a room and drop your bags, you want to relax for a little bit, then go to the Killing Fields and the Genocide museum."We've talked a lot about this tuk-tuk driver's comments and the sad reason that people come to Phnom Penh. He clearly knew his target market but we wonder what Cambodians think of the fact that this is the reason that we (and it appears other travelers) were in Phnom Pehn.We (and, likely the other travelers as well) felt we should try to learn something about those sad and horrible places. We hired the above mentioned driver for the morning to drive us to Tuol Sleng Prison (aka the Genocide Musuem). In this former school, the Khmer Rouge tortured and interrogated the former leaders of Cambodia and, eventually many members of the Khmer Rouge itself. Currently, the former leader of this Prison, known as Duch, is on trial in a joint international/Cambodian court. He, and only two others currently on trial, may be the only ones tried for Cambodia's genocide. Many of the leaders are already dead. And, others, after they defected from the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, have ties to the current government.Our driver also took us outside the city to the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek. In this former orchard, many of the prisoners of Tuol Sleng (and often their entire families) were executed and buried. It was very disturbing to see the dozens of excavated mass graves. It was even more humbling to see the memorial stupa (an obelisk-like structure common in Buddhist countries) made of glass and filled with the skulls of some of the victims.While we were glad that we could learn more about Cambodia's tragic history through our visit, we still haven't come to terms with how to feel about the tourist infrastructure (including gift shops) built up around the events. Clearly many, many Cambodians need an opportunity to make a living. While the events in South Africa are not the same, we didn't feel this same level of discomfort around tourist destinations like the slavery/Apartheid museums and Robben Island in South Africa.For many different reasons, we won't be forgetting our visit to Cambodia. Tune in soon to hear about our next stop: Vietnam.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234700340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234700340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234700340/tpod.html Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:58 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Our trip through Malaysia was a brief detour from our originally planned route. Those of you who've looked at the map of our travels have seen that we seem to spend more time traveling north-south than east-west. (When we tell travelers from other countries our route, we seem to confirm their suspicions that Americans don't know a lot about world geography.) We always had valid reasons for our north-south routes, in this case our reasons were:-We wanted to enjoy the southern beaches of Thailand.-We wanted to avoid backtracking to Bangkok and avoid the rough road to Siem Riep (there's a conspiracy theory that a Thai airline bribes certain officials to make the road bad!)-Candy had been to Malaysia previously, but our friend Kate really got us intrigued by things Candy hadn't seen.So, we booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Siem Riep, Cambodia and headed down the Malay peninsula to catch our flight.We took a mini-van from Krabi, Thailand down into Malaysia to Penang. Penang is an island about 5 miles off the mainland reached by bridge or ferry. We stayed in the oldest part of Penang--the Georgetown area.Georgetown, like much of Malaysia, is a melting pot (checkout the Malaysian flag at the top of this entry to see if it reminds you of anything). We visited the Penang Museum and read about how the various ethnic groups came to Malaysia. The museum's displays were very careful to accurately describe the history of the migration while trying to avoid ethnic stereotypes that would appear to "type-cast" people into the same occupations today. It would be like a US museum stating that Irish and Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads while taking great pains to say that people of Chinese and Irish descent work in many industries today. The only time we observed a lack of positive references to immigrants in the museum were regarding Japanese women. The legacy of the Japanese occupation during WWII (Penang was occupied the same day as Pearl Harbor was attacked) may live on a little bit, despite positive references to the contributions of Japanese companies today.In Penang, we went to see a movie to escape the mid-day heat (it's always hot and sticky in Malaysia). At the blissfully cold theater we watched a movie--- set in the winter----in Minnesota: "New in Town." We loved it and plan to make it required viewing for the new friends we've met on our trip before they come to visit us in Minnesota. After all, if a movie needed to be made to explain the arguably odd things we love about Minnesota to the rest of the U.S., our foreign friends must be warned! The Malaysian melting pot strongly influences the cuisine. Our friend Kate gave us a list of foods to try in Malaysia. Our extended time in Thailand may have lulled Ray into forgetting one of his cardinal rules: Asian desserts-just say no. After all the delicious Thai desserts, we decided to try a Malaysian dessert called "ABC." Our guidebook made us curious by describing it as the "shepherds pie of desserts." While it looked interesting, closer inspection and tasting suggested it would be better described as a train-wreck between a Fourth of July picnic and a bait cooler.  The first layer is crushed ice to keep everything cool. Then there's a scoop of ice cream (that tasted very garlicky). Then a generous layer of baked beans. Then some corn niblets along with some black and green worm-like strands. We don't know (and don't want to know) what the other toppings were. We haven't been hungry for asian desserts since. After Penang we headed to Malaysia's capital city- Kuala Lumpur (KL). Along the highway, we saw quite a few monkeys that apparently came out to greet Candy (she was surrounded by "aggressive monkeys" on her previous visit to Malaysia). On this visit, however, the #1 threat faced by Candy was...Bears! We arrived in KL at sunset and had a 7AM flight the next morning. Over a mug of beer (A&W root beer that is), Ray made the suggestion that we just head to the airport instead of spending a few hours in a hotel and figuring out how to get to the airport 70km away before mass transit was running. We've only spent one other night at an airport this trip. That time was a similar early morning flight in Peru at Candy's suggestion (and the advice of the tourist information people who book hotels on commission!) that Lima wasn't safe. This time, the reason wasn't about safety (during our brief visit, we found the Malaysian people to be some of the nicest we've met among our travels). It was about pancakes.You see, in the Penang mall where we watched the movie, Ray saw a flier that said McDonald's serves pancakes from 4-11AM (we hadn't seen proper pancakes available in other countries). Ray argued (successfully) that we could only get pancakes if we left for the airport the night before. Ray found a website--www.sleepinginairports.net (gotta love the Internet!)--that reviewed the airport and confirmed there would be a McDonald's open 24 hours!. So, after pancakes we hopped on the plane to Siem Riep. Tune in soon to hear about Angkor Wat and our travels in Cambodia.Candy and Ray
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234057800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234057800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234057800/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:21:01 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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Ko Phi Phi Don, Thailand

After crossing the Lao-Thai border (by bridge this time!), we took the night train to Bangkok. Once again, we had a little culture shock from sudden immersion into a modern city. We adjusted more quickly this time--Ray soon found himself waving his hands at paper towel dispensers expecting them to shoot out another sheet for him. In hindsight, we have determined that our bodies were craving certain nutrients after three months in southeast Asia. Ray must have had a calcium deficiency as he wanted to eat a cheeseburger every day--which he did for the first 14 days straight we were in Bangkok. Candy quickly became sickened by the sight of burgers, so once again, one of us wouldn't eat red meat. Later on in Bangkok, Candy bought a bunch of bananas. Not the 5 or 6 in a bunch you see in grocery stores--the entire bunch of 18 to 20 bananas as it grows on the tree. Somehow, we polished those off in less than a day and went looking for more. And, while we can't say the days of the week in Thai, Candy can tell you about any and all of the "subs of the day" at Subway. We really love Bangkok. You can walk two blocks in any direction and always find some crazy or new experience. Each day we found new street foods/beverages (unfortunately, you could never count on the vendor ever coming back; we never did get to try to break our banana consumption record). Almost daily we spotted some curious translation of Thai into what is sometimes referred to in Asia as "Engrish." One night we saw a crowd of people walking straight through a wet cement sidewalk. Later on, we saw a guy walking a baby elephant down another sidewalk. And, Ray will always regret not carrying a camera the morning he watched a Buddhist monk playing "Guitar Hero" at an Internet cafe. Spending an extended period of time in Bangkok also allowed us to experience a bit more of Thailand unique traditions. Here are just a few examples: -Stores can't sell alcohol on election day; -The national anthem is played at 6 PM in public places. Everyone stops, is silent and stands at attention; -A tribute to the King is played before any movie. Everyone stands at attention; and -One day we noticed police blocking all the stairs to the pedestrian overpasses. One of the members of the royal family was going to pass by and it would be a dishonor for anyone to be "above" royalty. Candy asked a local if she could photograph the event and was told she could. We think the police may have wanted to stop her but couldn't leave their posts at the stairs to intervene! We think the member of the royal family wanted to shop as a portion of one of the malls was cordoned/roped off. (Ray was nervous he wouldn't get his burger fix, but was able to get a rice-burger at a Japanese chain. It wasn't exactly what he expected, the "buns" were hot rice circles and he had to hold the burger in the insulated wrapper to avoid steamed rice burns...) As we mentioned in an earlier post, we spent New Year's in Bangkok. On New Year's day, Candy decided to test Sizzler's "All Day Salad Bar." We played a lot of backgammon so that we kill enough time so that we could try all the interesting items on the buffet (we wrote down at least five recipe ideas from this Thai version of a smorgasbord). We weren't exactly pressured to leave, but the "unlimited" refills on our beverages stopped at about Hour 2. Ray enjoyed catching up on the news by reading Bangkok's English language papers. Typically, reading our horoscopes isn't as amusing for us as most people because we share the same astrological sign. So, we can't say to the other something like "you should do housework today." Thai horoscopes were even less enjoyable. At New Years, a very detailed, month-by-month horoscope describe the events that are going to happen to you. These events aren't always as positive as horoscopes at home. For example, we are predicted to have dental problems in 3 or 4 months of the year! Candy got to experience one of Ray's favorite things to do when not in Minnesota--watch a Coen brothers movie ("Burn After Reading"). Ray has found that Minnesotans who lived elsewhere particularly loved "Fargo" when it came out. Besides meeting Candy, one of Ray's other highlights from working at Eschelon was that his office overlooked the parking garage where Steve Buschemi gets shot in the face in "Fargo!" Candy also got to relive one of her favorite memories. One day we took one of Bangkok's lesser used forms of public transportation--boats through the canal system. These boats practice safety-- to an extent. The boats don't really seem to stop at the pier/dock as much as slow down. After jumping in, attendants pull a cord to raise tarps up the side so that you don't get splashed by water (or at least a lot of water). These attendants are hooked into the cable holding up the tarp as they run along the gun whales collecting money (they wear helmets, although if we fell into the canal, we would want to suffer a head injury so we couldn't remember it). Candy said it reminded her of Venice--until she opened her eyes and her nostrils. We both found it fascinating, and of course, would ride it again. We stayed in Bangkok a bit longer so that we could meet up with friends we made in Turkey. Kate and Brian are chefs from Australia who learned to love backgammon at the same time we did. We loved showing them our favorite food places (Ray---a duck noodle soup stall; Candy--Dairy Queen) and playing backgammon against  new opponents. At this stage, Candy and I know each other's playing style so well that we really don't need to play each other; either of us could predict 98% of the moves the other would make for a given roll. Strategies weren't the only difference. Candy and I play on a travel backgammon board the size of an open paper back book. Kate and Brian travel with a full size board that seems the size of surfboard to us. Kate complained that our pieces reminded her of chocolate chips and made her too hungry... We visited the royal palace and a few wats (aka temples), including the reclining Buddha, with Kate and Brian. We also took a larger public boat up the Chao Phraya river (our guidebook refers to the river as a "mountain stream" compared to the canals) and a walk through Chinatown while we continued to learn the other's version of English. For example, one night we we hit the pub full-on, drank heaps of stubbies, nearly a slab of be-ahs. We then got so hungry we went to Mackers for a late night snack. We later met up with Kate and Brian in southern Thailand on Phuket and Phi Phi. We traveled to Phuket by night bus from Bangkok. In the coin-toss that is public transportation in southeast Asia, we got a winner thanks to Kate and Brian's advice (the bus next to ours at the bus terminal was stocked with what appeared to be life-vests!). Sometimes, "winner" is a relative term. Our bus had plush, spacious seats. Of course, the movie selection had the most interesting English subtitles we've seen. We not sure exactly what happens in the English version of "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." However, we are quite confident that the actors, in this or any other movie, do not say "chicken mites" multiple times. After the movie, the bus stopped for the complimentary toilet-stop/meal. Sadly, the free toilet was more enjoyable than the free meal of salt dried "minnows", deep fried pork fat, and room temperature soft boiled eggs. Phuket (Patong Beach) was not our cup of tea. Candy sort of wanted to see how it had changed since the tsunami. We found the food bad and expensive after Bangkok (and other Thai cities, villages, and homes). The incessant sales pitches made walking the streets unpleasant. There are likely nice places around the island, but from what we saw, we were glad we only stayed a half-day. We took a short boat trip (through calm seas!) to Koh Phi Phi. Phi Phi is beautiful. We stayed in one of the few buildings that survived the tsunami. The rebuilding seems to be going slowly for a variety of reasons. Our building used to be the spa rooms for a luxury hotel. The (former spa) rooms had amazing showers; but no toilets. The view of the cliffs surrounding the lagoon from the infinity pool made this a minor inconvenience. In addition to lounging around, we hiked to several of the more remote beaches on the island. They were all wonderful, but we think "our" beach was the best. On our final night together (and Kate and Brian's penultimate night of their 8 months of travel), we had a seafood feast overlooking the harbor. Kate and Brian selected heaps of green tip mussels, a couple of squid (eat squid and cuttlefish if you are ever in Thailand), crabs, and a whole fish for the cooks to prepare. We spent a lot of the evening planning what we will do together if/when we visit Kate and Brian in Melbourne. We hopped the boat across the remainder of the Andaman Sea to Krabi the next morning. We didn't spend much time in Krabi, but liked what we saw (particularly compared to Phuket). On the way to our hotel, Candy saw several monkeys on the side of the road. This may be an omen as we head to Malaysia the next morning, where many of you may remember Candy's run-in with the monkey community on a previous visit.   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1229758920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1229758920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1229758920/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:00:54 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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luang prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

We last talked to you from the northern Thai city of Chiang Khong (Thai for "land of the horrific massage"). Chiang Khong is a popular point to enter Laos as there are very few official border crossing points. We were very much looking forward to our time in Laos. Other travelers we've made friends with have spoken very highly of Laos. Perhaps we were hit by the curse of high expectations. It seems that some of our most favorite travel memories are of things we never expected to be impressive (such as the ocean in Mozambique or the fireworks in Iceland). Often when we get our hopes up, we end up disappointed ("Honey, this restaurant has hummus"--only to find out they make it with kidney beans and carrots or some other scary thing). We had hoped that with a bit of time, our perspective of Laos would change. Sadly, we still view our time in Laos as a bit of a disappointment. That said, we did have some experiences we won't forget. The border crossing into Laos is made by walking down a steep mud embankment (we can only imagine what it's like in the rainy season) and hopping into a long canoe outfitted with a car or truck engine mounted at a 33 degree angle in the back. The drive-shaft from the engine is connected to a propeller that barely goes below the surface of the water. Once travelers get to the Laos side of the Mekong River, they typically hop immediately on a boat downstream to Luang Prabang after clearing immigration. The immigration points in Laos have a perhaps "official" shakedown of travelers by charging an "overtime" fee on weekends or during the lunch hour. Not the best first impression for a county. There are generally two ways downstream to Luang Prabang. The first is by slow boat. The slow boat makes the trip in two days. We've been told the wooden benches are cramped and the stop that night is nothing special. The other method is a one day trip by speedboat. Our guidebook said the speedboat was equally unpleasant and somewhat dangerous. After seeing people in crash helmets crammed into these tiny speedboats with gunwales about 3 inches above the waterline, we're really glad we didn't take that route. (If you've got some time to kill, enter "speedboat" + "Luang Prabang" into Google and read some of the jaw dropping travel blogs that pop up. Here's a couple to get you started: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/82908.html OR http://withoutbaggage.com/essays/61101/ Candy found out that if we stayed in Chiang Khong for a couple of days, we could join a comfortable boat that made the trip in one day. After killing time with lots of backgammon, "interesting" Mexican food, and the last massage we've had for quite some time, we hopped onto a charter of Thai medical professionals heading to Luang Prabang on holiday. We were thrilled to be the only non-Thais traveling on the boat. Almost as soon as we left shore, the karaoke started. While this briefly made us apprehensive about our choice, we really enjoyed the trip. Candy bonded with many of the women on the boat. She learned a lot about the foods served for lunch and we got to try some of the very interesting Thai snacks that people bring on road trips. The men weren't as outgoing. They did offer Ray beer and whiskey, confirming Ray's belief that men inherently understand each other despite language barriers (Ray would like to note that none of the men sang karaoke despite the fact that the whiskey bottles in Laos often contain a scorpion or cobra head to increase our "vigor"). We arrived in Luang Prabang just after sunset. As we hiked through town to find a place to stay, we saw most of the street food stalls and the night market that the guidebooks rave about. Perhaps because we spent so much time in northern Thailand, we really felt like we had done this already. To add to the disappointment, in Laos, we were doing it with other tourists instead of with locals. One of the more interesting things about traveling in poorer countries (Laos' GDP per capita is $1900/year--about twice the level of Mozambique--the poorest country we've been in.) is how much more expensive it is for travelers. The hikes to visit mountain people were 2-3 times as much as in northern Thailand. One possible explanation is that the staffers sent by charitable or multinational organizations to help poorer nations have very generous budgets (Ray's organization in Bulgaria in the 1990's certainly did) and drive the prices up. While these staffers create enough demand for hip expat hangouts (and really nice croissants and Eggs Benedict), the traveling experience is different. We found ourselves applying the Thai phrase "same-same" to Laos with the other version of the Thai phrase ("same-same, but different"). The difference seemed to be much higher prices and less authenticity. From Luang Prabang, we traveled to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, by bus. We weren't sure how long the bus trip would take. Some agents said 8 hours, some said a few hours longer. Our trip turned out to be a lot longer. On the map, the road (we use the singular form as we think there might just be the one road in Laos) from Luang Prabang to Vientiane looks misleadingly straight. This road was extremely bad (we read that up until a few years ago most cargo traveled this route by boat along the Mekong). As all the passengers were handed an empty plastic bag at the beginning of the trip, we knew this was going to be a long day on the bus. Using our Romanian maxi-taxi index of bad transportation, this was a 0.98 "Maxi." After we made it to Vientiane, we knew we were not going to travel by the road through Laos to Vietnam as we had planned. We spent a few days soaking up the city while consider our next steps. As we mentioned in an earlier map-pin posting, we spent Christmas in Vientiane. Our hotel really tried to make the lobby and restaurant festive for the holiday. Candy surprised Ray with many little presents on Christmas morning. The nice staff at our hotel really enjoyed watching how Candy wrapped the presents and helping her hide them. The locals seemed really excited about Christmas, but they're still not sure how it exactly works (kind of like the British were as they have tried to import America's Halloween celebrations!) Ray really liked the gifts for many reasons. First, things like gummy bears, pistachios, root beer barrels, and dried apricots are the kinds of "luxury" goods we don't always have access to. Second, it reminded Ray of stories his grandparents told him about how Christmas used to be when they would get gifts like an orange in their stockings.   Candy remembered Ray telling her these stories, so she stuffed our socks with bananas. We were able to talk with our families on Christmas. Afterwards, we went to one of the expat hangouts which made a turkey bagel sandwich (with chestnut stuffing, unfortunately) and pumpkin pie for our Christmas dinner.  One of the major sources of tourists in Vientiane seems to be expats in Thailand making a visa run. By leaving Thailand, expats "living" in Bangkok can add at least 14 days to the time they can stay in Thailand.  As Candy and I were playing backgammon while enjoying an awesome mango smoothie with a scoop of banana sorbet/ice cream, we noticed a guy at the next table eyeing our game. Backgammon led to one of our most memorable encounters in Laos. It turned out that he (Ghir) was an Iraqi Kurd who has lived in Saudi Arabia for many years. He was visiting his daughter (Lana), who worked in Thailand to help refugees (primarily Hmong, Burmese, and Afgani). She was on a visa run. We learned a lot about the difficult refugee situation in Thailand (a relatively prosperous country surrounded by countries with very traumatic histories). As we became comfortable, we even got to talk about the Iraq war. This chance encounter was really wonderful. The conversation was so enjoyable we forgot to play backgammon with Ghir. We really hope that we will meet again someday to have that game!  Soon after Christmas we decided to take the overnight train to Bangkok. Tune in next to hear about our second, and what turned out to be a much longer stint in Thailand (Ray refuses to leave until he sees a Siamese cat). We'll tell you about Candy's siege of the "all-day" salad bar at Sizzlers and Ray's Morgan Sperlock-esque craving for cheeseburgers.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234537200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234537200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1234537200/tpod.html Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:03:01 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia

ds
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1231595040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1231595040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1231595040/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:53:39 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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Bangkok, Thailand

Actually, we're doing a bit more than working on our resolutions. In case you're wondering though, here are some of them:Ray:-Continue abstaining from Diet Coke in 2009 (he's been "dry" almost 9 months)-Learn the secret of noodle soup Candy:-Organize all our travel photos by December 31, 2009Ray and Candy:-Spend more time with family (this one should be a bit easier given what we've been up to the last 9 months!)Happy New Year,Candy and Ray 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1226388480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1226388480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/candyandray/1/1226388480/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:01:30 -0500 Adventures Around the World

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Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived a bit tired from a red-eye flight to Bahrain before arriving in Bangkok late in the evening. As we left the plane for the jet-way, we immediately knew we were somewhere new; Candy said, "welcome to one of the many smells of Thailand." We took an aircon bus into the area of the city where most backpackers stay. Despite our fatigue, we stayed up several hours devouring street food (amazing pad thai and sticky rice with mango that night--and the next few nights as well). The variety, quality, and price of the street food kept us very busy in Bangkok. We had an unusual fruit smoothie most mornings (Banana-avocado was the most unusual we've tried so far. If we get back to Bangkok we plan to try the beet root-mango option!). This was quickly followed by something at our two favorite stands (Mr. Yim's for vegetarian curries and a stand run by several lady-boys for stir fries). We were in Bangkok for two interesting events. The November full moon is celebrated by Thais by launching flower-filled circular disks, krathongs, in the river from one of the temples near where we stayed. The purpose of releasing the krathongs is to receive forgiveness for any bad thoughts or deeds during the last year and make your wishes for the next year. We purchased our float, lit the incense and candle, and managed to launch it in the river despite the huge crowd. Amazingly, on our way out of the crowd we ran into friends we made on our Galapagos cruise. We spent the remainder of that evening catching up with Mark and Maureen over several bottles of Leo (a local beer), and more street food. The cremation ceremony for the King's sister (who had died in January) was held during our stay in Bangkok as well. Huge crowds lined the streets near our hotel for the events. Thousands of Thais (mostly in black clothing) lined the streets and parks to watch the ceremonies. We can't say we understood a lot of what went on. However, we could clearly see the importance of the Royal Family in Thailand. It was quite warm in Bangkok with occasional downpours. As we were a bit jet-lagged and spent some time watching movies and catching up on Season 2 of "Big Love", we managed to be inside for most of the rain. We did get caught in one downpour during our water taxi trip down the river one evening. The rain didn't diminish the enjoyment of seeing the palaces and wats along the river at night time. (Plus, Ray was able to take his first tuk-tuk ride back to our hotel!) On another day, we visited the world's largest covered market (over 15,000 vendors) in the northern portion of Bangkok and, as a counter-point stopped in Bangkok's largest mall complex (mostly for the air conditioning, although we did enjoy a couple of "New York" pretzel dogs). The heat and humidity in Bangkok, while nothing like Abu Dhabi, was unpleasant. We enjoyed air conditioning when we found it and even tried the Thai process of covering your body in talcum powder. We may not be performing the process entirely correctly, but at least we didn't end up with a pair of paste-pants like Ross on "Friends." We had planned to head to an island near Thailand for a few days. However, a typhoon was causing 10 meter waves in the area, so we headed north to Chiang Mai on the night bus. After a long night, the bus dropped us well outside the city. Luckily, a hotel representative was there to greet us with a complimentary songthaew (a pickup truck with covered benches in the bed that serves as a taxi/bus in most of Thailand). Chiang Mai was mercifully cooler. Near our hotel we visited a huge night market for tourists. At the nearby market for locals we were able to try more fruit shakes and Ray had some interesting fried chicken at "KFG"-- Kentucky Fried Gai (Chicken in Thai). Candy took a week-long intensive yoga course in Chiang Mai (Ray explored the city during her class and found a rare treasure--a Reese's peanut butter cup, which we gleefully licked from the wrapper. Now, if only we could find some red licorice...). We both took a Thai one-day cooking course where we think we've perfected our Pad Thai and curry recipes. We hope the cookbook we received and the many videos we took will allow us to duplicate the results when we return. We've already posted about our Thanksgiving and the protests in Thailand. As we mentioned, the protests weren't visible to us in Chiang Mai, although we understand there was at least one fatality in the area. As with the cremation ceremony, we can't say we understand all the dynamics of the protests (For example, a previous prime minister had to step down because his popular cooking show on television violated the constitution!). We could clearly see that Thailand's standard of living has increased remarkably in the last decades. We hope that the tensions based on how these gains in standards of living are distributed can be resolved without more bloodshed and damage to the economy.  After thanksgiving we headed out on a 3-day trek into the mountains. The hiking wasn't terribly strenuous as we stopped every few hours for lunch or to swim under a waterfall. In the evening we stayed in traditional huts in a Karen village. It was very cold at night in the mountains, so we really enjoyed sitting around the campfire sharing a bottle of Hong Thong rum and some village moonshine. During our trek we took an elephant ride. The locals sell bags of bananas so that you can feed the elephants during the ride. We learned not to place the bag of bananas between our legs so that we could use our hands to hold onto the "saddle." When Ray made this mistake, our elephant's trunk managed to get to second base with Ray. At the end of our ride we were were offered a nicely framed picture of us on our elephant. The frame, however, is made of elephant dung. So, we're not sure where exactly that photo will end up. Sex tourism in Bangkok is still alive and well. A more positive addition to the tourist trade is medical tourism. It's quite easy to get dental work completed by western-trained dentists really cheaply (a routine exam and cleaning is about $15). Many other types of the elective procedures are offered in the bigger cities. We did go to the U.S. consulate in Chiang Mai to get a list of recommended dentists. Going through the extensive security process at our consulate was interesting. Instead of going to the dentist, we enjoyed massages for $3 to $9 an hour. In one case Ray received an experience in torture called a Thai massage. His masseuse, Nam, drove her rigid fingers into pressure points into his leg until he begged her to stop. The next day, Ray's thigh was completely covered with yellow bruises. He still suffers from flashbacks from Nam. From Chiang Mai we headed northwest towards the Burma border to a town called Pai. While Pai is only 80 miles away, the road contains 762 switchbacks. So, the trip took about 4 hours. Thankfully, we had a good driver and, amazingly, there were guard rails on the side of the road! In Pai we stayed in a guesthouse run by a wonderful woman, Nu. Our bungalow reminded Ray a lot of the little cabin used by his family for many years. Pai was a busy place during our stay. The town was holding it's first film festival and 1000s of Thais were in town for a long weekend to celebrate the King's birthday (also known as Father's Day in Thailand). This is the second time during our trip that towns catering to western tourists were completely taken over by locals (Olympos in Turkey was the other). While this raised all the prices for us, Ray saw this emergence of a large middle-class as a really good sign for Thailand's future.  The King was ill on his birthday and did not deliver his anticipated speech. As we mentioned earlier, the King is so revered in Thailand, that we think that the people decided everyone should become ill in sympathy. Almost everyone we met in Pai had a nasty 24 hour stomach virus. While we've both enjoyed eating Thai food for almost every meal, Candy needed some comfort food. She taught Nu how to make a baked potato in the microwave. Nu was very excited to add this dish to her list of foods she could cook for westerners! In Pai, Candy took more yoga classes. We hiked out of town to see the countryside and a rural wat (buddist temple). Candy took a fruit and vegetable carving class on our last day in Pai (Ray was still recovering from his illness). Then we spent a very long day traveling back to Chiang Mai and north to Chiang Khong on the Laos border to continue our travels. Tune in next to hear about our journey down the Mekong river and our adventures in Laos.Candy and Ray  
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