z world travelers

Europe

2007-07-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

With ten days remaining in our around-the-world adventure, we began our dash through European cities. Please pardon the poor quality of this blog as it has been hastily written and posted in our final hours in Frankfurt. Two days in each city has not given ample time for much reflection and yet we know that when we get home tomorrow, blogging will drop lower on the to-do list, somewhere behind seeing friends, buying groceries and rebooting our "regular" lives.
ZAGREB
We left Dubrovnik on the southwest coast of Croatia and spent a night in Zagreb. What a stunning European capital this is. Large boulevards with expanses of grass and tall trees. Seized by the urge to do cartwheels in the grass, we reflected that we haven't seen big trees and grassy areas since leaving Istanbul. Musicians peppered the streets of Zagreb, from a youthful, thrash metal band performing in a square to a mature man belting show tunes in a gazebo, one can find it all here. How wonderful to see this city so vibrant and prospering after first being introduced to Zagreb by CNN's Christian Amannpour during the civil war. Here we validated our Eurail Pass and headed for Hungary.
BUDAPEST PHOTOS
From our hotel window on the Buda side of the city, we watched the Danube River flow past Parliament and under the Chain Bridge. Comparisons to Paris abound when one walks the streets of Budapest: the soaring architecture, excellent shopping, sidewalk cafes and a vibrant art scene. Every weekend a pedestrian market takes over the Chain Bridge, so we got to hear loads of musicians and peruse artists' wares.
We spent six hours walking around on the Pest side of the river, moving from one stunning building to the next, from the Parliament to St. Stephen's Cathedral to the enormous Synagogue. We spent a few hours in the National Museum studying Hungarian history. Especially intriguing was the resistance of the Hungarians to the Germans and then the Soviet occupations. When the Austrian-Hungarian empire cleaved apart after WWI and then the Soviets controlled the territory between Berlin and Moscow, Hungary was separated from their western european bretheren by an iron curtain. Now reunited in the EU, Hungary is thriving.
VIENNA PHOTOS
While sitting at a sidewalk cafe, Brian Wilson walked right passed us! You know, the genius behind the Beach Boys. He was singing (to himself) as he strolled along. It was quite a highlight, as was our dinner with Annette's cousin, Conny and we got to have great conversations with her (unlike Brian Wilson). In fact, we visited a Versaille-like chateau called Schloss Schoenbrunn and ate a delicious meal together. Thanks Craig and Annette for introducing us to this lovely lady! The weather turned pleasantly cool while we were here, a relief from the 40+ degree celsius we had in Greece and Croatia.
SALZBURG PHOTOS
What fun to revisit the land of Maria and Mozart with the girls. A bus tour took us through the rain to various scenes from the Sound of Music while we sang along to the soundtrack. It was like the Magical Mystery Tour bus in Liverpool, only really, not nearly as good. Wearing gansta' hoodies and matching trousers, we headed below ground into the land of "white gold", the saltmines. Sliding down wooden slides at 20mph and taking an underground boat ride made this an outstanding adventure.
MUNICH PHOTOS
On safari in Kenya, we met an amiable German couple, Birgit and Dejan who live in Munich. Now, a month later, we met for dinner in their hometown at a great local beer hall and restaurant. The last time we saw them they were pushing the back of their safari van, mired in the mud leaving the Masai Mara. How fun to hear the rest of their adventure and share photos and travel stories. With images of Disney and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang dancing in our heads, we took the train to Fuessen to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. The weather cleared as we explored the castles and the dramatic mountains that form the backdrop. Over dinner we toasted the last field trip of world school and the final sightseeing adventure of our trip.
HOMEWARD BOUND
It's hard to believe that 131 days has already passed. We fly home from Frankfurt in the morning. Hopefully in the coming days we will write a final blog about what this journey has meant to us. On the other hand, that will certainly require four blogs, one from each of us. Thanks for traveling around the world with us. See you soon.
The Z Family

Dubrovnik, Croatia

2007-06-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

Dubrovnik is called the "Pearl of the Adriatic" for good reason. Looking out our apartment windows at the white marble city walls, against the clear azure waters of the sea, it seemed like a Hollywood set for a pleasant fairy tale or pirate movie. We marveled at the contrast between the present beauty and the damage of the war, that scarred the architecture and the hearts of the Croats we met.

One man told us of his experience during the eight month siege without electricity or water. At one point the women and children were allowed to leave and his family went to America. He fought in the Croat army and did not see them again for 2 and a half years. Now that peace has returned, the Croats seem happy with their lives and their country. Many people we talked to will vote against EU membership because they don't see how it will benefit them. The referendum is 2008 so we shall see.

Here we vacationed from our travels for a week. What fun to cook our own meals, do laundry (a task well overdue), check emails in our apartment and watch DVD's. We got a lot of exercise, walking around town, sightseeing, swimming and climbing the many stairs in this terraced city. Often we conducted gelato taste tests in the evenings.

During a day trip to the island of Mljet, we met an engaging family from Seattle. We passed a memorable day together exploring this national forest and swimming in the saltwater lakes. The girls thoroughly enjoyed having other young people to play with. We met again for gelato that night and hope our paths will cross again.

Now we make a sprint to the finish line, visiting Zagreb, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Frankfurt in the next ten days.

Enjoy more photos of Dubrovnik!

Meteora, Greece

2007-06-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Enjoy more photos of the stunning monasteries and convents of Meteora.

Our jaws dropped at the sight of monasteries and convents perched at the zenith of natural stone towers. A prehistoric inland sea carved these formations; a lot of human labor created edifices atop them. Meteora is first and foremost a holy center for prayer and study. Photography inside the buildings is prohibited, visitors are limited and the monasteries are open on a rotating basis to limit interruptions. In fact, when the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only," was filmed there, the Church insisted they completely camouflage the monasteries so they didn't appear on film. I may just have to watch a James Bond movie, just to see how they pulled off that feat.

Ladies must wear skirts and gentlemen long trousers to enter the premises. Appropriately attired, we explored the chapels with their elaborate frescoes. Martyred saints: beheaded, eaten by lions or stoned to death, were common motifs and somewhat disturbing to the children. We studied the two headed egret, symbol of the East/West schism dividing the Church. Besides the enthralling views and welcome breezes, the old elevator captured our imaginations. Before there were stairs to reach the monasteries, monks sat in cargo nets and were hoisted up by their bretheren, a first test of faith perhaps....

We knew we'd reached a convent when we smelled the gardenias. The nuns have enchanting gardens at the convents and it reminded me of visits to Bethlehem, Connecticut as a child. My mother took us to visit a cloistered nun she knew from college. It was there that I first smelled gardenia and honeysuckle perfumes, ate hand-churned, vanilla ice cream and joined the Latin masses. Indeed it made an enduring impression as did this visit to the holy communities in Meteora.

Thank you Melissa and Ken for recommending Meteora. It was definitely a highlight!

Athens and Delphi, Greece

2007-06-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

At right: Girls at the ruins of Delphi, north of Athens.

GREECE: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
By Maya
THE GOOD - Greece is truly a lovely, wonderful place to be. The people are kind and always willing to help and 60% of the time it's NOT to sell you something or to take you to their 2nd cousin, twice-removed's store or to spend the night at their uncle's hotel etc. The beaches in Greece are marvelous, with water seemingly made to cool you down after the heat of the day. Though not always soft sand, the water is positively cool and crystal clear. The monasteries placed on the top of sheer cliffs, white washed buildings with blue windows, centuries old columns like at Delphi and the Acropolis, you name it, Greece has it. The food is delicious. Greek salads are truly fantastic in Greece. (The tomatoes are so yummy!) As a vegetarian I tend not to eat animals, but supposedly the fish is delectable. Clothes, shoes and accessories are in abundance in Greece. Most aren't utterly repulsive and the majority are cute. Lastly the ice cream is really yummy. Plus, they have many sweets you haven't heard of before such as sesame cookies or twists, and honey dippers (big crunchy rolls smothered in honey).

But, no person or country is perfect so we proceed onto THE BAD. Unfortunately not only pleasant people go to Greece. Now, I'm not saying that these people are bad at heart, but in my opinion, if you are a man with a really big belly, you should not be wearing a speedo as you will cause "speedo trauma" to the children who see you. Topless bathing is just gross. Also, there should be a law against obnoxious, self-absorbed tour guides, like the one we had at Delphi. It really is easier to walk around by yourself and spend time where you want to and avoid the expensive, repulsive food you're served on tour.

But none of this is as awful as THE UGLY. It is so bloody hot in Greece! With temperatures reaching up to 40+ degrees celsius, it's almost unbearable. Especially because there are large amounts of white everywhere, reflecting the heat right up in your face. Also, Greeks can bare grudges that last for eternity. Don't mention Turks, Turkey, Turkish architecture or Greek made buildings that reside in Turkey unless you want a sharp telling off and/or a piercing stare. Plus, there is no falafel in Greece! Don't go to Greece with the expectation that you're gonna get a great falafel. No, apparently though the falafel and pita sandwich made it across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to North America, it hasn't managed to get from Egypt to Greece. What's up with that?

All in all, Greece is truly a wonderful place, just don't go expecting a falafel.
To enjoy more photos of Athens and Delphi, click here.

Patmos, Greece By Skylar

2007-06-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

We are staying in a house in the Hora. (It is the top of the island.) It is beautiful! When you walk in, you walk into the kitchen. The next room in front of you is the living room. Then if you go back into the kitchen, there are stairs. You go up the stairs to the balcony with a table. Inside the blue doors are the three beds. One is a loft and below it is a single bed; one is a double bed. All of the houses in Patmos have blue doors and white stone walls. Our house was built in 1604!!!!!

One day my Mom found a way to the roof and we watched sunset. It was fun. We brought drinks and we made brownies that day so we had brownies too! The sunsets were beautiful! Another good place to watch sunsets is at the windmills. We go to the windmills and look over Patmos. It is very beautiful and windy.

Ireni Gouras is really nice. She is our landlord. She gave us 2 chocolate bars and invited us to her house for a sweet called Honey Dippers. Another day she gave us cherries. She is like a grandma. Two other friends on Patmos are Robert and Christopher. They are very nice and showed us a lot of good places to go on the island. Robert's sister works at my school so that's how we learned about Patmos.

Lampi Beach is my favorite beach on Patmos. It is full of beautiful rocks(see picture above). Some of them look like shiny marble. I saw so many colors: all different shades of blue, brown, green and more. It was fun to collect rocks and swim there.

I got leather sandals with flowers on them. They are pretty and so comfortable! I even got the next size bigger so I can wear them for longer. Even though I have to wait until next year to get my ears pierced (when I'm 10), I got gold hoop earrings. They are so pretty.

WHAT I DO IN PATMOS
I get up and get dressed. My mom and dad go for cappuccinos while Maya and I have breakfast. We either go to a beach and swim, go shopping, check email, get ice cream or take a car ride around Patmos. We come back for lunch, read, do stuff, have dinner and go to bed. Patmos is fun and beautiful.
Click here for more pictures of Patmos!

Ephesus, Turkey

2007-06-14T03:23:00.000-07:00

Click here for more of Jeff's awesome photos of Ephesus.
We arrived in Selcuk by night bus from Istanbul. (The drive bore no resemblance to the night bus in Harry Potter.) The bus had airplane style service and at midnight, unexpectedly drove onto a ferry to cross the Dardanelles. Oddly, men were not allowed to remove their shoes on the bus, though women and children could.

A bit weary from only napping on the bus, we arrived in the ancient ruins of Ephesus, built by the Greeks, it grew to 200,000 people at its zenith. We walked the marble roads and climbed across all kinds of old rocks, marble carvings, ancient latrines and amphitheaters. The girls became Greek goddesses atop unoccupied pedestals. (Most of the high quality statuary and mosaics can be viewed in the British Museum or the Louvre.) Occasionally we would follow an English speaking tour to hear a fact or two, then continue our self-guided tour. The library is really cool with its two story facade still in tact. The library windows frame trees, hills, blue sky and clouds, like a portrait hall in mother nature's home.

While sitting on a fallen column from the first century, eating a macaroon, Skylar lost yet another tooth. She has added a Turkish tooth fairy to her pantheon of U.S, Hawaiian, Japanese and Kenyan fairies. She writes letters, asking questions about their country and collecting cash and self-portraits from them.

As we left the ancient city, among the newer cars, a fabulous 1964 Chevy Impala taxicab was waiting to take us back to town. Riding in this blast-from-the-past was a highlight for Jeff whose mom owned one back in the day. We explored the center of Selcuk, dining at Erjun Restaurant at the base of the Roman Aquaduct. The Selcuk storks now reign atop the columns, raising their young in Big Bird-sized nests.

Traveler's Note: Arrive early to Ephesus and go directly to the library. By 10:00 the tour groups arrive in a steady stream and photography without large groups of people becomes impossible.
Second Note: It was so difficult to get ferry timetables and reservations, it seemed that we were the first tourists to attempt a trip from Turkey to Greece. Internet sites are unreliable; travel agencies are the best bet and they will need to make several phone calls. Even then, the 8:30 ferry from Selcuk to Samos left at 9:30 and the 15:30 ferry from Samos left at 16:30. When traveling, don't ever be in a hurry.

Istanbul, Turkey

2007-06-14T03:16:00.000-07:00

Istanbul, ancient Constantinople, its location on the waterways connecting Europe and Asia made it a target for conquests of every Empire. This crossroads blends cultures, religions, foods and languages into a unique flavor as deep and rich as their coffee. Turkey is a nation of Turks. After saying, "Shukran," (Arabic for thank you), we were quickly corrected. They do NOT speak Arabic. They speak Turkish. "Thank you" in Turkish sounds something like a tea-sugar-a dream, but our awkward tongues settled for "Sow," meaning "thanks." It's a beautiful Mediterranean nation, not unlike Italy or Greece and our family experienced warmth and kindness at every turn during our stay.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast in the heart of Istanbul's old city, Sultanahmet, where each morning we gladly climbed to the rooftop for breakfast overlooking the Bosphorous. Savory olives, feta cheese and tomatoes graced the daily buffet, along with fresh yogurt, breads and jams. We looked forward to fresh Turkish bread and meze for dinner each night. It's like an antipasta plate with stuffed grape leaves, garlic spreads, hummus, eggplant, ratatouille, mushrooms and more. One night we tried to eat like the Turks, ordering meze starters and a main course, but we were too stuffed. So, the rest of the time, we just confused the wait staff by ordering only meze.

Turkish people are charming and there is a constant patois from business people on the sidewalks, particularly in the labyrinthian Grand Bazarre:

Hey, can I help you spend you money?
How many for dinner? (Even when you have no intention of dining in their restaurant)
Are you looking for my shop?
You look like rug buyers!

After four days in the city, as silly as a pack of middle schoolers, we decided to alter our route to the hotel to avoid a few folks: the rug salesmen we continually refused, the man who wanted Skylar to have apple tea in his shop and the restaurant owner who was moving to SanFrancisco. If we lived in Istanbul, we would soon be unable to leave the house for fear of offending someone :-)

The soaring architecture of Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace gives Istanbul a stunning, minaret-studded skyline. However, we were a bit disappointed visiting the Church of Divine Wisdom (Aya Sofia); the famed "floating" dome was held up by a mile-high scaffolding, wrecking the illusion. It was like seeing Notre Dame while the stain glass windows were being cleaned. Shoulders covered in our borrowed wraps, we sat on the carpets of the Blue Mosque and observed the goings on. The vibrant blue tiles wear a wide array of patterns. It would be a bold homeowner to decorate a kitchen with this scheme. As for Topkapi, we enjoyed walking through this palace museum, picturing where brutish rulers exhibited their enemies' heads on tall standards. The monuments felt slightly familiar as Jeff and I had both recently finished The Historian, a fun work of fiction spanning centuries and roaming from France to Istanbul, while searching for vampires.

Istanbul continues on the other side of the Marmara Sea. To get a panoramic view of the city, we took a local ferry to Karacoy and back again. Of course, we stopped at the original turkish delight candy shop and stocked up so we could sample these chewy sweets on the boat ride. Aside from Edmond in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we'd not really heard of it, but it's mighty tasty. We particularly recommend the lemon and pistachio flavors.

Beneath Istanbul, we walked along the raised boardwalks of a roman cistern, finding carved Medusa heads awkwardly placed at the bottom of two columns, one upside down and one sideways. Why did they bother to decorate a room that would be filled with water? Were there slacker builders who finished the columns and then said, "Oh snap, we put her head upside down!@#! Leave it. No one will ever notice."

Whirling dervishes or "semazen" are Sufi Muslims who follow the teachings of Rumi: love and tolerance, a refreshingly simple creed. We watched them whirl for an audience of tourists at the train station on Wednesday night. How can these guys walk a straight line after spinning for 30 minutes? It's a graceful and yet dizzying way to pray.

Mr. Mustache squeezes the best orange juice in Istanbul. His righteous facial hair, kind eyes and tasty juice earned him loyal customers in our family. When we stopped at his hole-in-the-wall shop, he had changed to a gray fez and was praying on the floor. Instead of leaving us to stand on the sidewalk, he invited us to sit on a couch in his tiny shop while he pressed the oranges.

Each night, we waited to sleep until the al-mu’azin's final prayer call at 10:30. It seems a bit late to keep a whole city awake, as the melodies to Allah broadcast from multiple minarets. No one climbs the towers any longer to chant across the city; they employ loud speakers and amplification systems now.

Traveler's Note: Beware the travel agents of Istanbul. They are not all travel agents. If they don't have Grade A certificates on the wall and computers on their desks, they will probably be ripping you off. We compared prices among travel agents for bus and ferry tickets and found that one such "travel agency" attempted to charge us $300 US over the actual cost of tickets. Needless to say, he didn't get our business. Also note that the DHL shipping company bargains the cost of packages. There are no fixed prices in this country.
To enjoy more photos of Istanbul, click here.

Masai Mara, Kenya

2007-06-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

Caption: Walking along the Mara River (with an armed guard) to see hippos and crocs!
Masai(named for the indigenous people) and Mara(meaning spotted hills because the trees dotting the landscape make it appear so)

You have likely heard of athlete's foot and tennis elbow, but there is a lesser known affliction called safari butt. One contracts this ailment from lurching, bouncing and otherwise careening along the highways and dirt tracks of Kenya for eight hours a day, eight days in a row. When our Toyota van broke, it was a relief not to drive for a day. The girls caught up on schoolwork and interviewed Professor Dickson who answered all of their questions about animals and ecosystems. We met a German couple who invited us to visit them in Munich at the end of our trip and an intriguing British family who has found homes for street children in Uganda and Kenya for the last twelve years.

Jeff and Maya took a nature walk with the camp host, Elly a 26 year old self-taught Kenyan. They returned contented in a downpour after two hours of walking the red clay roads of the area and climbing a ridge to see the Serengeti in Tanzania. They sipped the sweet nectar of an orange, brown flower and saw a Masai elder herding 1,000 cows. Each of his four wives has an additional 200 cows each. Elly and Jeff share an interest in history, politics and religion so they traversed these topics while Maya silently predicted what would happen in the final Harry Potter novel.

Grass, grass and more tall grass waved across the Masai Mara awaiting the hungry hoards of wildebeest and zebra who will migrate here next month. These immense grasslands yielded little in the way of game for our viewing, but the Mara River provided an adventure. It's one of the few places tourists can escape their vehicles in the Mara, albeit with an armed escort. We walked the shores of these hippo and crocodile infested waters, learning that these odd companions have a truce. Crocs only try to eat baby hippos and adult hippos use their powerful jaws to crush crocs that try. Did you know that when hippos converse, it's like the deep snort of several Harley Davidson motorcycles trying to start? A crocodile resident of the river has reached the length of our safari van over the last hundred years. Thankfully he basked on the opposite bank of the river.

We visited Kenya at the end of the rainy season, which produced little rain. However, on our last night, it rained in earnest through the night and into the morning. Dickson had "repaired" the van so we could limp back to Nairobi, a five hour drive that would take nine hours this day. For those of you who understand cars, the rear, left leaf spring had broken loose. (For those of you who don't, that's the part of the car that fastens the axle and the suspension to the car.) It's really important and ours was now tied on with rubber tubing and baling wire. It needed welding, but that wasn't available in the Mara. With the conviction that Dickson had led us safely thus far, we got back in the car.

Rain had turned the dirt roads and minor stream crossings into muddy batter and major rivers. The slick slime, one-foot deep in many places, spun tires, mired buses and the tractors that tried to rescue them. Smart, patient, experienced Dickson doubled his tip as he navigated the roads like a Hollywood stunt driver. We are certain he was the only driver not to become stuck at least once on the road between Nairobi and Masai Mara. When I told him this, he said, "Yes, I think I am the only one. I have a four wheel drive mind." We agree that he does. Like a chess master he strategized several moves ahead. At times he left the so-called road, jumped the embankment and fishtailed along the grass instead.

We watched impotently as our former cook, Dominic and the kind German couple pushed on the back of their trapped van. Impossible to stop and attempt a rescue; we would have been undone by our own heroics. Car loads of Korean and Japanese tourists stood marooned at the side of the road while their guides attempted to free their vehicles. Local buses offloaded 100 passengers while Masai chopped small trees to lay under the bus wheels. These are some of the things we witnessed on that wild ride to Nairobi. That night, the 43rd anniversary of independence in Kenya, we learned that extra police arrived to guard the forty safari vans, full of tourists, who spent the night stuck in the mud without facilities or extra food.

Finally back on partially paved roads, we stopped at a curio shop to purchase souvenirs. Simon relieved us of many shillings and a few pens. His son offered us 100 cows and two donkeys to marry Maya when she finished high school. Unable to negotiate for more livestock, Maya remains available to decide at a later date whom she will marry.

To us it was an extraordinary day. To the people of Kenya, it's called daily life.
Enjoy more of Jeff's amazing photos in the Masai Mara, our last stop in Kenya.

Lake Nakuru, Kenya

2007-06-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

After roughing it at Amboseli, even the basic guesthouse at Nakuru with its indoor plumbing and electricity, warranted five stars from us. Zebras welcomed us, grazing along the driveway and on the front lawn, a sight that Dickson had never witnessed.

This fragile park is an island, separated from the town by a high voltage fence. Nakuru has experienced extreme hardships in recent years, such as the flamingo die-off and diaspora when sewage polluted the lake. 1.8 million of these boldly decorated birds are back, significantly fewer than the 3 million that lived here in 2004. Five years ago, a lion began eating pedestrians who wandered into the park, so an official ordered all of the lions eliminated and imported new prides. The endangered black rhino have made a home here and are slowly increasing their number.

Within fifteen minutes of starting our early morning game drive, we heard alarmed monkeys calling through the canopy. Dickson shut off the engine and whispered, "Look, in the road, a leopard." There it was: muscular, silent, spotted and walking straight toward our open-topped van. "Mommy, I'm scared." Dickson didn't blink in this game of chicken so we trusted too. After many minutes of awe-inspired silence, with a leopard five feet from us, the big cat disappeared into the tall grass. Later, when we asked how he knew the leopard wasn't a threat, Dickson explained how you can read an animal's tail. If the leopard's tail is curled up, it's not hunting. Down between the legs, it's another story. (FYI Rhinos curl their tails before charging.)

Another twenty minutes and we stopped again to observe forty Anubis Baboons parade cautiously passed us, within three feet of the van. Mothers held babies on their backs or tucked underneath them. The alpha male, last in line, sat on a log to make sure his troupe had safely passed before following them. Later in the day, we enjoyed another troupe grooming each other while juveniles played king of the branch, often comically tumbling into the grass.

In West with the Night, Beryl Markham writes of her adventurous life in Kenya from 1910-1940. I read her autobiography in Kenya and found some of her observations described Kenya in 2007!

There were no subtle strokes in the creation of Nakuru....as long as the day lasts, Nakuru is no lake at all, but a crucible of pink and crimson fire - each of its flames, its million flames, struck from the wings of a flamingo,(Markham, 161).

The image of Lake Nakuru is inextricably linked to its flocks of flamingoes. No matter how many times we saw their images on National Geographic or Animal Planet, walking on the muddy shores among these pink and black birds was incredible. The noise is deafening as they all talk at once and beat their wings in the water. As the only creature with a fixed LOWER jaw, flamingoes must eat their blue-green algae upside down! "Why does a blue-green food turn them pink?" we asked. The high keratin content in the algae does the trick. Take away that food source and they return to their original all white color.

In Nakuru, we saw all of the "Big 5." In the days of big game hunting in Kenya, the Big 5 were the most dangerous to hunt because they would always fight back: elephant, rhino, lion, cape buffalo and leopard. The five lions lazed under a distant tree surrounded by an unconcerned herd of cape buffalo. They stood after a while and moved farther away to enjoy the abundant shade of another tree.

Now and then the whimsically fashioned figure of a rhino has moved along the horizon like a grey boulder come to life and adventure bound,(Markham,33).

The black rhino has anger issues and lives alone. That's one of the reasons they have trouble reproducing. Our fortunate group saw three of them, one wounded from a recent fight, bleeding from his neck and leg. The other two, a courting pair, wallowed in a mud hole that is a necessary part of each rhino's territory.

After such a comfortable night and abundant game drive, we wanted another night at Lake Nakuru, but with the Masai Mara separated from us by ten hours over rough roads, we had to move on. The main highways would be deemed impassable and closed in the US. French and German companies are currently building new roads, but for now, bouncing along them is just part of daily life in Kenya and according to Beryl Markham, that's the way it's been for decades.

The more traveled roads were good and often paved for a short distance, but once the pavement ended an aeroplane, if one were at hand, could save hours of weary toil behind the wheel of a lurching car- provided the driver were skillful enough to keep it lurching at all,(Markham,6).

Thankfully Dickson proved very skillful in this regard.

Click here for more photos of Lake Nakuru.

Amboseli National Park, Kenya

2007-06-02T06:11:00.001-07:00

Resting at the base of cloud-covered, Mount Kilimanjaro, Amboseli National Park was the first stop on our "safari" (Swahili for journey). Thanks to the Rogan's recommendation, we traveled with the best guide and driver in Kenya, Dickson and a kind, talented cook named Dominic. As Dickson says, "Game drives are like fishing; you never know what you'll catch." Surprises lay around every turn in the wildly bumpy road. As the animals are most active in the early morning and early evening, we rose at sunrise most mornings and retired to our tents at dark. It is low season, before the summer crush so we enjoyed cool temperatures and saw few vans on the dirt tracks. We mostly had the animals to ourselves.
Some of the most transcendent snapshots included:
-Sunrise in with large herds of elephants moving majestically across the grasslands toward the swamp. Mothers and babies, all have their tusks, as Kenya has eradicated poaching.
Something about a "shoot to kill" order and a special paramilitary unit protecting the animals.
-Smelly army tents and squat toilets did nothing to stifle our enthusiasm (OK, the accommodations were a bit surprising, but we adjusted our expectations.)
-Groups of giraffe striding elegantly toward the next acacia tree and then disappearing into the forest.
That's something that never failed to awe us. Everything can disappear so quickly, no matter how large. An elephant into scrub bushes, a hippo into the swamp, giraffes behind acacia trees.
-An enormous bull elephant strode silently passed our van, at a distance of ten feet.
-Male wildebeest, gazelle and elephants clashing horns resolving some unspoken dispute.
- Five cheetah, camouflaged in the tall grass, wrestling each other like overgrown house cats
- Spying a rare African wildcat that looked like a domestic cat until it stood to its full height and turned into the grass.
- Dr Seuss like birds live here including the Crested Crane, Maribou Stork and Helmeted Guinea Fowl.
- Running zebras, outrageously painted, each with a unique striped pattern like a fingerprint
- Maya and Skylar standing up with their heads out the roof of the van, wind in their braids, straining to spot another beast.
-The soft light of sunset, brilliantly lit the snowy peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
We have eight days and two more parks to visit. The people we meet adore Barak Obama and definitely think he should be the next President of the US. While electricity is rare, there is cell phone reception across the country, including the game parks. Kenya is full of surprises.
For more photos of Amboseli National Park, click here.

Masai Village: Amboseli, Kenya

2007-06-02T03:42:00.001-07:00

Skylar kicked her soccer ball with a Masai man, moments after arriving to our campsite in Amboseli National Park. Over the next few days, John (as he called himself), returned to visit us, teaching the girls Swahili and Masai words and telling us about his village. Perhaps he does this with all the foreign tent campers, but the invitation to his village felt authentic and personal. We had shipped school supplies and needed a recipient; his village had recently built a school. We had a match.
John roused the village from their afternoon siesta to greet our family with songs, the men holding down the rhythm section with their voices and bending from the waist. Jeff joined their chorus as the women invited us to join their dance. The Masai have a presence with their red robes, impressive height and noble bearing. Surrounded by these friendly strangers from such an ancient culture, we couldn't stop smiling and exchanging quizzical glances. A very young (approx. 27), English-speaking, Chief Ipetek, welcomed us to his village with a warm smile and kind eyes. He explained that we could take as many photos as we wanted and ask as many questions as we wanted. Jeff thanked him with a Masai "Ashe" and
Thorny acacia branches encircle the village, providing some protection from wild animals for the 180 residents. The inner courtyard holds additional acacia corrals to hold the cows, sheep and goats at night. Until they reach six months in age, the domesticated animals spend the night inside the Masai huts. Gender and age roles are clearly defined in this polygamous culture. Men carve wood, make fire, protect the village, govern and herd animals. Women do everything else including building the huts, cooking, caring for the children and beading. In fact, girls by the age of 12 can build the low, stick, dung and mud huts.
We stood in the gray/red dust of the courtyard under a lonely tree to see a demonstration of the vertical jump of the Masai men. They can jump straight up as high as their own heads. Holding John's walking staff, Jeff made a sporting attempt as well. Three men then taught us how to make fire without matches. Two took turns spinning a stick between their open palms. Lodged in a piece of flat wood, the friction created smoke and ash. A third man dumped the ash onto elephant dung and blew on the cinders, igniting a fire most efficiently.
Leaning against his grandmother's hut, John diplomatically answered our questions about polygamy. "A man must have enough cows to afford more than one wife; he must pay each wife's family 8-9 cows. It's not good to have the wives in the same house; that can be a problem so each wife must have her own house." We ducked low to enter the dark, cool hut. It's built low because the wind would topple a taller structure. Our eyes adjusted to the dim light, our minds settled on the idea that we were sitting in a real Masai mud hut. John gestured for us to sit on the edge of the stick and cow hide beds, "No mattresses he pointed out." Chief Ipetek joined us and talked about the Masai diet, only three things: meat, blood and milk from their domesticated animals.
The Masai creation myth explains that first God created the cow, then the Masai, then everything else. There never was a time without cows. They never eat wild game and only hunt the lion as a rite of passage to manhood. To us vegetarians, it was particularly surprising to hear that on a diet, void of veggies, the Masai live to be 90-100 years old. Of course, they walk everywhere and don't appear to own chairs, so they get a lot of exercise. "Masai men have gorgeous white teeth," we remarked to John. He explained that they brush several times a day with the shredded end of an acacia twig.
Outside again, we joined the school children gathered in the courtyard to give them school supplies. They sang in Masai then broke into the familiar Alphabet Song. Skylar stood head and shoulders above her Masai age-mates. No one could believe our children were nine and twelve, "They must eat well." This tribe had a meeting three years ago and decided education was more important than their nomadic lifestyle. So they built a school with the help of a Los Angeles Rotary Club and only the men wander with the animals seeking water and grass. The children and women remain in the village year round to attend school. Bic pens caused the biggest excitement as the ones available here are of inferior quality.
Finally, we visited the improvised marketplace where the Masai displayed their beadwork and wood carvings for us to purchase. Jeff, Maya and Chief Ipetek surveyed one aisle while Skylar, John and Michelle walked the other aisle. Despite our protests that our money supply was not endless, we were instructed to choose one item from each family's "booth" and we would bargain later. What a cornucopia of gorgeous items: carved animals, beaded bracelets, necklaces, baskets, wooden clubs and more. One man removed his ankle bracelet to sell it to us. Raindrops came to our rescue, but not soon enough. We'd accumulated 38 items which the men arranged on a blanket to inventory. The bargaining began at a shocking $550. After much back and forth and a bit of discomfort on our part, we put a few items back (making sure we kept the Chief's wooden hippo) and arrived at a fair price. What gracious and likeable people (though they do practice polygamy and female circumcision). What a memorable experience. It certainly gave us all a lot to think about.

Traveler's Note: Ink pens and digital watches can be used to barter for Masai trinkets. At the very least, the many schoolchildren asking travelers for pens and money will not leave empty handed.

For more photos of our family's visit to the Masai Village, click here.

Phi-Phi and Phuket, Thailand

2007-05-22T07:08:00.001-07:00

Click here for more photos.
The ferry from Phuket, had only one engine working, so the two hour trip lasted four hours. During that time, however, we got acquainted with a delightful family from Bombay/Mumbai and spent much of the next three days in their company. They taught us a great deal about the rapid changes happening on the subcontinent. We hope to see them in India one day.
The pace of life shifts to lazy-island gear on Koh Phi-Phi (pronounced co-pee-pee followed by inevitable giggles). There are no cars here, only boats. Shallow water at low tide keeps the ferry at a distance from shore. So in a downpour, we climbed into a local long boat. When we got near shore, we took off our shoes, jumped into knee high surf, walked to a waiting truck and drove the final hundred yards up to the hotel. Staff greeted us with towels and a tasty fruit drink. It was made the most memorable arrival to any hotel yet on record. We spent three days on Phi-Phi boating, snorkeling, swimming and otherwise staying cool in the heat. We woke one day at sunrise in order to take a boat to Maya Bay. Our able captain had to surf the long boat into Maya beach and we had the place to ourselves. Leonardo DiCaprio filmed the movie "Island" in this idyllic and well-named setting.
Each evening we climbed to the top of the island to witness the sunset. It was here that the staff, guests and local sea gypsies spent two nights after the tsunami in December 2004. The isthmus across Phi-Phi was submerged and the main harbor destroyed, but now life has returned to normal and people don't talk about it much. After three nights in our beach side bungalow, we left for Kenya, rested and revitalized.

Traveler's Note: If you must go to Phuket Island, don't stay long and definitely don't stay on Patong Beach. While it's one of the few safe swimming beaches, leaving the hotel is like facing a gauntlet of touts. "Hello. You want a (fill in the blank) tuk-tuk? taxi? tailored suit? massage? t-shirt? just looking in my shop?" At night, Patong becomes a seedy cross between Bourbon Street and spring break on a Florida beach. We did finally find a travel agent here who could issue Eurail passes for that leg of our trip, so it wasn't a total loss.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

2007-05-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

More of Jeff's photos of Chiang Mai

What is beauty? Footbinding for dainty feet? Eating disorders for slender supermodels? Among the Karen Tribe, it means having an elongated neck. In fact, locals refer to them as the long-neck ladies. They begin extending girls' necks at birth, adding gold rings at intervals throughout life. To our American eyes, it was like visiting a circus freak show as the women resembled giraffes with whiplash. We didn't understand the leg bands just below the knees, but it seemed to impair the use of that joint as well. It was difficult to walk through the village, suspending judgment and not running crazed along the dirt paths removing rings from the baby girls' necks.

Elephants as work animals is another unusual concept for our culture, but one must ride elephants in the north of Thailand. Find a good hand hold, rest a foot on the massive neck below you, engage those core muscles and with each rocking step you have a fighting chance of staying aloft. How do royalty in Thailand and India maintain their dignity atop these grand beasts? We don't exactly know, but it was a lot of fun trying.

Meeting Peppe Stokes was the highlight of our time in the north of Thailand. She's an amazing Thai woman who runs an outstanding B & B, cooks delicious meals and supports a local orphanage (see Maya's blog about serving dinner there). She named her hotel Golden Cupids, not to attract honeymooners, but because she thinks love is the most important thing in the world. We enjoyed her hospitality for a week and she personally delivered us to the airport. We will dream of Peppe's banana pancakes for a long time. If she read this, she would say, "Oh, dahling, you make my head too big." Read below for Maya's account of her cooking class with Peppe.

Thai Cooking Class with Peppe
By Maya
So today my dad and I took a Thai cooking class with Peppe, one of the owners of the hotel. First we decided what we were going to make. I made sweet and sour veggies and spring rolls. My dad made Phad Thai and green curry. We then went to a local Thai market. There we bought all the stuff we would need plus some things for the hotel and snack food, (not for us!) such as dried crickets and fried frogs. (I'm not kidding; the other guy who cooked with us tasted them and said that the cricket tasted better than the silk worm.) We chopped all the stuff into certain shapes; to make the spring rolls we had to cook all the stuff and then wrap the cooked veggies in a crepe like pastry and seal it with egg before deep frying it in a wok with LOTS of cooking oil. For the sweet and sour veggies, we chopped and then cooked them with ketchup and chili sauce and sugar and vinegar. After five hours of shopping, cutting and cooking, we ate and the four of us couldn't eat half of it. So we ate it for dinner too.

Maya's Account of the Wat Donjon Temple/Orphanage

2007-05-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

To see my tabblo of photos from the Wat Donjon Orphanage, click here.

Chiangmai, Thailand
Before going to serve dinner at the orphanage we (meaning our family and the Australians that were with us) were all blessed by the Father Monk. He was sitting cross legged several feet above the ground clothed in the same orange fabric I will forever more associate with monks. Surrounding him and all around the room was a amazing variety of statues. There was everything from British soldiers to statues of Buddha to Ganesh. The most remarkable of the statues however was not elaborate nor placed so it would stand out more than anything else, yet the carving was remarkable. It was made out of some sort of light wood and depicted a elder monk. Though he seemed to be looking straight ahead when I looked directly into the wood carved eyes I could have sworn he was looking at me. The wrinkles surrounding his eyes were amazingly realistic. Anyway back to the blessing. Skylar went first walking on her knees (as you aren't suppose to be taller than a monk when being blessed). He wrapped an orange, yellow, white, red and gold cord around her wrist twice and than tying it so both loops were in the knot said a few things in Thai I could not understand (this is very common) and cut the end of the cord still attached to her wrist. After a few seconds silence Skylar placed her hands together and bowed her head. Father monk than placed a large white oval shaped fan on her head and said a blessing in Thai which I also could not understand. Then it was my turn with the same process which only differed in that it had a slight pause in the beginning as Peppe told him I was twelve and he did not quite believe it. The rest of our group did the same and then we were off walking through a not very nice scenery to get to the area where 500 orphans ate, slept, went to school and carried out their daily lives.

The walk was very muddy due to the fact that that it had been raining heavily every evening as it was the start of the rainy season. The ground to the side strongly resembled that of a garbage dump. But unlike in the U.S. there were several hogs chowing down. The boys and girls eat in separate areas the girls closer to the temple ate on picnic benches. The boys on in a cement covered area. But kids don't change and though i wanted to help the girls they needed absolutely no help what so ever. The boys had more atmosphere however as line by line they went up to receive a very nice meal by their standards of steamed basmati rice and a sort of soup mixture of vegetables, spices and chicken. As they did this, they sang and chanted. The discipline was absolute. The lines were perfectly straight and no one started eating till everyone else had their meals. When they started eating it was absolute silence. The only sounds were the clanking of silverware against their tin plates and the occasional scuffle if someone got up to get seconds. After many rounds of this it was time for the real treat of the day... ICE CREAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The most popular flavors didn't differ much from the most popular flavors in the U.S. the hits were Strawberry and Chocolate. I think I'll take a moment here to describe the attire of the orphans. They had obviously been sent and brought clothes from all over the world as the T-shirts bore logos from spider-man to Converse all stars to soccer jerseys with advertisements for Emirates. These kids usually were fed just rice and veggies for dinner so we had provided a special treat. On any given day the orphans consume 100 kg. of rice. After every speck of food was gone we were sung good-bye in Thai that I couldn't understand except for the end when they said in English "Thank you very much." I left feeling good to have done something but a tad guilty that while I was traveling the world these kids were living parentless in an orphanage. I'm going to take a quote from J.K. Rowling here by saying "They looked reasonably well cared for but, there was no denying this was a grim place in which to grow up."

Siem Reap, Cambodia

2007-05-15T01:37:00.000-07:00

Click here for more photos of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia.
These two history teachers have wanted to visit Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom for twenty years, to explore the ancient capitol of the Khmer people with its unique pyramids and temple complexes that mapped constellations 1,000 years ago. We stood where the Khmer King watched elephant fights, like a Roman Emperor at the Coliseum. Tomb Raider popularized the ruins and enshrined Angelina Jolie in the hearts of the Cambodian people and sparked her commitment to them.

Lonely Planet assured us we could navigate the ruins on bicycles, but who wants to wander the muddy jungle roads in the torrential rains trying to decipher Cambodian? So, Sum became our guide for three days in a car with A/C and kindly shared his personal story so we could better understand this culture. At the age of five (1986) he had sole responsibility for five cows grazing in a rice paddy. He couldn't go too far to the west because of landmines. Sometimes when the civil war raged near his village, he couldn't go to school. As the youngest of six kids in a poor, rural family, he joined the Buddhist monastery at twelve to further his education and get a free room and two meals a day. He learned English and left the monastery in his twenties to become a tour guide. His English occasionally took a poetic turn. Pointing to a hill, he explained, "That is where we climb to visit the sunset."

The girls and Jeff scampered, like billy goats, up the narrow, steep steps of Angkor Wat. Sum stood at the bottom of the steps and said, "Oh my Buddha," and waited for us down below. I followed them up, calling out, "Choose your footing! and Be Careful!" at regular intervals. The view, the breeze, the architecture and carvings made the climb worth it. On the steps, going down, the Cambodians, had installed a more-or-less stable handrail. A Japanese woman burst into tears and became paralyzed on the stairs below us. So, thankfully, we could really take our time and return safely to terra firma.

Exploring the Jungle Temple of Angkor Thom, in a torrential downpour, we climbed atop 1,000 year old carved rubble to get out of the mud. It's amazing that the sandstone buildings have resisted the ravages of weather and roots for a millenium. The Spung Tree sends massive tentacles over and under the stone, trying to return temples to the jungle.

When asked about the time of Pol Pot, Sum said that while the movie, Killing Fields is widely available, the truth about the war time is still secret. Some of the current leaders were in office between 1975 and 1979 so full disclosure may incriminate some of them. Reading the current issue of Time Magazine, we met Youk Chhang, a Cambodian who has documented the four years that claimed the lives of 1.7 million Cambodians under Pol Pot. Because of his efforts, a trial on genocide will start this year. Hopefully Cambodia (following South Africa's example) can confront its demons and begin healing.

Traveler's Note: Don't bother changing money into Cambodian Riel. Their currency is actually the US dollar. Restaurants, hotels, guides, children selling postcards, all prefer US dollars. Carry a stack of $1's and $5's with a few Franklins in reserve. Credit cards are useless except for the hotel room and higher end restaurants. Also, ignore the CDC advice about anti-malarial meds for Siem Reap. There aren't any malaria mosquitoes here unless you're camping in the countryside. None of the tourists we met were taking them.

Tonle Sap, Cambodia

2007-05-12T01:58:00.000-07:00

Click here for photos of Tonle Sap floating villages.

We spent the afternoon on Mars; it was like visiting another planet, in a boat instead of a spaceship. Tonle Sap, an inland sea, near Siem Reap is only 1km from the city during rainy season, but now, at the end of dry season, it's more than 7 kms away. We drove slowly down a dusty isthmus that will be covered by water come June. Naked children gathered around the water pumps to bathe. Women nursed babies in thatched roof huts, National Geographic passed just beyond our car windows. We boarded a boat that labored through a man made canal to reach the lake.

It was absolutely surreal; people live and die in these cramped, fragile, wooden islands. They played cards, floated gardens, raised hogs (those were some hefty rafts), corraled fish, did laundry and raised children all in little houses floating on cafe au lait water. Residents embraced at least one modern technology; fishermen and women precariously perched on dugout canoes talked on cell phones!

When our boat slowed down, a platoon of children approached us; some in canoes, some rowing small tin buckets. "Please madame, one dollah," they called plaintively, turning their previously giggling faces into pitiful, pious ones and displaying a basket of 5 cm bananas or an upturned palm. We decided not to reward the begging here or near the temples, but to support the entrepreneurs. So we have a few bracelets, pictures and carvings to ship home.

The men took great pride in their boats. In spite of how muddy the water was from dredging the arteries, the boats were all clean and painted bright shades of teal, red and yellow. All the boats had eyes painted on their fronts. In a land where Hinduism and Buddhism are rolled up in a unique crepe, they accept blessings from all traditions.

The floating school was hot. Not a single fan or cross breeze abated the heat in the 15'x15' classroom. Still, the children's watercolor paintings cheered things greatly. Cursive Cambodian is beautiful so a math lesson on the green slate chalkboard was art to our eyes. The students in their blue and white uniforms seemed impervious to the heat as they pulled notebooks from their plastic, waterproof folders. These containers make sense given the way they get to and from school.

Cambodia provides free school for only four hours a day from Kindergarten through high school. Students must pass competitive exams in grade six in order to continue formal education. Talk about high stakes testing. The teacher told us that the children in his class were all in second grade, but ranged in age from 7 to 12 because they attended so erratically. He attended university to complete a teaching degree and now earns $30/month. Our guide completed primary school and English classes and makes that much in a day. There are one or two reforms needed in the Cambodian education system to move this impoverished country toward prosperity.

Life in Tonle Sap seemed like a lot of hard work. Perhaps it's easier during the rainy season when boats don't get stuck in shallow water and the fish are more plentiful, if only we could have checked out that assumption with the locals. Maybe it's like a lifelong vacation to them, fishing, playing cards and boating whenever they want. To our eyes, running water, electricity, hygiene, medical care and supermarkets appeared to be in short supply in this neighborhood.

It was a powerfully moving experience. I realized that I am a greatly privileged girl who needs to stop complaining. - Maya

It's amazing that people can live that way. -Skylar

Bangkok, Thailand

2007-05-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

Photo of 1950's lobby of the Atlanta Hotel. The girls meeting British journalists.

Click here for photos of Bangkok.
"Bangkok's Bastion of Wholesome Tourism: Zero tolerance and sleaze free zone. No sex tourists, junkies, louts and other degenerates. No bar girls. No catamites," stated the large sign outside of the Atlanta Hotel. Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. And we have a lot of explaining to do to our young traveling companions. Actually, the signs around the hotel were the only indication this family had of the icky side of the city. The Atlanta Hotel is the coolest, funky 1950's hotel with run down rooms, no hot water (who needs it in this heat?) and wireless internet. The honest staff, excellent restaurant and intriguing guests make it a must-do landmark. We met British photojournalists and Canadian geologists who had travelled the world and freely shared their stories of Burmese refugees and prison in the Congo.

After introducing us to her wonderful friends in New Zealand, Joanne W. came through a second time, connecting us with Fritz, a resident of Bangkok for the last six years. Visiting the Grand Palace and walking among the murals, we learned so much from him about the Ramayana, an epic tale of good and evil, similar to the Odyssey in Greece. The mischievous monkey character, Hanuman, would surface frequently in our travels around southeast Asia as would images of the creation myth, Churning of the Milky Sea.

We admired the meter tall, seated, Emerald Buddha and the massive, golden, Reclining Buddha. With Fritz's guidance, we didn't offend too many Thai people by pointing our feet at Buddha or talking badly about the King. How fun to sit at a riverside coffee shop and dine at a local hole-in-the-wall where we couldn't even place an order without a fluent Thai speaker. He also taught us to navigate the sky train and the water taxi systems so we were ready to negotiate Bangkok alone the next day. What a fun introduction to bustling Bangkok where there are 10 million people and 9 million cars.

Thai people love their king. Bridges, shopping malls, buildings and monuments boast his photos and banners cheer, "Long Live the King." A Swiss tourist just began serving ten years in Thai prison for drawing a mustache on the king's image. Thailand has banned YouTube in the country and sued Google because they would not remove a video that insulted the King. This is not a cultural value to take lightly.

Skylar celebrated her birthday in Bangkok and decided how to spend it: sleep in, shop, no school work, shop, get her hair braided, see a dance show, did we mention shopping? You'll have to read her blog about it, but suffice it to say, she'll be telling her college roommates about her Birthday in Bangkok.

Traveler's Note: Carry instant oatmeal packets for an inexpensive breakfast in the hotel room or when the plane food is bad or if you have a child growing 2 cm a day who is hungry between meals. There is always boiled water available.

Japan and China are Different! By Maya

2007-05-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

(Japan on the left China on the right.)

A lot of people think Japan and China are relatively the same thing and in some ways they are. Such as the architecture is a lot alike and both eat lots of curious foods with chopsticks. But I've been to both places and am here to tell you they are more different than the same.

Like take cleanliness for instance. Cleanliness is really big in Japan, not so much in China. They seem to be the two extremes on the scale of clean. Japan is so clean no one eats in public, in China spitting is kind of a trend.
China also has much worse air because of all the pollutants (cars, factories etc.) Japan's air is nice to breathe and all the skies are blue instead of a gray-black color. Except when it rains which it does - often.

China's government is really strict with almost everything such as the internet and movies. One thing they are very lax on how ever is traffic laws. It pretty much comes down to, lines and lights are only a suggestion. Where as I never had any problems getting on websites in Japan and all the cars stop and let the pedestrians go at the appointed times. When the little red guy comes up J-walking is almost unheard of.

This is only a fragment of the differences between Japan and China. Next time some idiot says, "Japan and China are the same thing," at least I will be able to prove them wrong.

Birthday in Bangkok

2007-05-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

It's my ninth birthday and we saw a traditional Thai puppet show about the turning of the Milky Way and how the gods got the elixir of life. There were three people to puppeteer one puppet. When the puppet moved, all the dancers moved the same way. The puppets are beautiful. One of the puppets is Hanuman. He's full of mischief.

Maya and I got our hair braided with blue and purple beads at the end. It took four hours for them to do our hair, but a little longer for me because one lady made the braids too fat and another lady had to start over.

I had so much fun and it's a birthday I'll remember.
For pictures of my birthday that I made into a tabblo, click here.

Li Jiang River and Yangshuo, China

2007-05-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

A river cruise on the Li Jiang River from Guilin to Yangshuo proved the perfect way to spend Labor Day. This is the landscape of traditional Chinese ink paintings. Ping and Daisy Comes Home are two children's book set in this river valley. Water buffalo grazed along the river banks. Cormorant fishermen floated on bamboo rafts, sending their birds into the water to catch the fish. With each dive the collared birds must think, "This time I'm gonna' swallow the fish."

"This is as good as it gets in China," Skylar commented relaxing in the Le Ciu View Gardens of Yangshuo. For this family, accustomed to clean air, green mountains and solitude, China has been a challenge. In this lovely place, we could exhale, away from the tourists and insistent shopkeepers of the bustling market town. We wandered the paths, napped in a gazebo and stumbled upon an artist making ink paintings. Meeting our local guide later, we told her how much we loved the gardens. "Maybe to you it's beauty. To me it's just another holy mountain." As always, it's in the eye of the beholder.
For photos of our river trip and day in Yangshuo, click here.

Guilin, China

2007-05-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

International Labor Day, May 1st, is one of three "golden" weeks in China. Guilin was packed; it felt like the Fourth of July with families strolling, bands playing and fireworks. Flagging down a taxi to take us to Reed Flute Cave, we soon discovered we had a guide for the day, a lovely, honest, lady taxi driver who just wanted to wait for us and shuttle us between sites. Under ground, the colored lights added drama to the stalactite and stalagmite formations. At Elephant Hill Park, we climbed to the top of the hill to get a good view of the city and all the surrounding mountains. These unique, white and green mountains stand alone with rounded peaks. Every formation has a name, though sometimes one must have an active imagination to see the shapes.

"Go with the flow" moments come often in China. For example, we asked a driver, "Why are we stopped?" "The road is closed." "Why is the road closed?" "No one knows." Or in a restaurant, we asked, "Do you have spicy sauce?" "Yes." The waitress brought us forks, then napkins and finally we had exhausted our pantomime skills and gave up. Our number one, go with the flow, moment came during the taxi ride to the airport when the taxi got a flat tire. "Ten minutes," the driver said shooing us out of the taxi and onto the side of the road. As we stood there feeling vulnerable and annoyed, he got to work, changed the tire in six minutes and got us to the airport in time for our flight.

Other awkward moments were avoided because our neighbor wrote in Chinese, "We are vegetarian" on an index card. Thanks Mardi! It was priceless. Showing postcard pictures of places we wanted to go and having the hotel clerks write directions in Chinese also worked well. Tourism in China is set up for tour groups and people with bilingual guides.
For more photos of Guilin, click here.

Xi'an (pronounced shee-ahn), China

2007-04-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

For more photos of Xi'an click here.
We fell out of the five-star cocoon we had wrapped around us in Beijing and found ourselves in Xi'an, where an ancient walled city meets an industrial wasteland. Like most Chinese cities, the air here hangs in a thick, particulate haze, giving visitors head colds within two weeks and residents a smoker's cough when they travel to cleaner climates. Gone was the veneer of the up and coming Olympic city. The typical Chinese beds give as much as sleeping on linoleum; the front desk offers bed boards why? Few people, even at our hotel, spoke English. Credit cards were useless and western loos, few and far between. It was like we were in a foreign country with a different culture or something.

If Italy is in a constant state of 'merge', Chinese traffic is a constant game of 'chicken'. Moving into oncoming traffic to pass a vehicle is common practice. Cars do not give way to bikes and pedestrians. Red lights, crosswalks and lane lines are mere suggestions that are as often ignored, as are no smoking signs. Sometimes, in the back of a taxi, it's the better part of valor just to close your eyes. Crossing the street, our strategy was to position a group of locals between us and oncoming traffic. When they went, we didn't hesitate.

There to soften the culture shock, was Ken, a friend of a friend who speaks fluent Chinese and is teaching English at a teacher's college in town. Lucky for us he had a few days off while his students attended compulsory sporting events. How fun for Jeff to talk with another guy after weeks of being with just girls! We thoroughly enjoyed his company and learned so much about the city and the culture from him. Ken knew the best restaurants, proving that Lonely Planet is no match for local knowledge. His "go with the flow" attitude proved contagious and necessary, especially when our taxi got a flat tire on the way to the airport.

Skylar says, "Xi'an is interesting. It has a lot of fun stuff like: The Terracotta Army," that farmer Yao found when digging a well. The warriors were in pieces and have largely been glued back together. We enjoyed viewing them and wonder why they are so far (1.5km) from Qin's Tomb. We climbed to the top of Emperor Qin's tomb, a mound with over 100 steps, but we lost track of the exact number. High levels of mercury contaminate the mound. Some think he had a gold and silver model of China there, complete with mercury rivers.

We arrived at the Bell Tower, in the center of Xi'an, during a traditional music performance. This edifice was the alarm clock for the whole town while the Drum Tower indicated the end of the work day. Our favorite sites in Xi'an were the park around the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Great Mosque and the Taoist, Eight Immortals Temple. In these places, we found beauty, relative quiet and relief from the crush of humanity.

Traveler's Notes: Taxis and food are incredible bargains in China, just a few dollars to get anywhere in a city and the whole family can feast on noodles for $4. Thanks to Tricia for the grapefruit seed extract! At the first sign of a tummy ache, we take that and feel right again. Finally, the current Lonely Planet China is unfortunately years behind, therefore, riddled with errors.

Blonde in China

2007-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

It feels interesting to be blonde in China. They think I'm exotic and want to touch my shoulder and they stare a lot. They want to speak Chinese to you and it usually means, "Can I take my picture with you?" They point and stare a lot and they smile. They pretend that they are taking a picture of their friends when they're really taking a picture of me and it's not convincing. I'm getting used to it and I saw two ladies with blonde hair today, but no children.

Mommy said I had to be a good ambassador so I had to get pictures taken with two shy twins who ran around the Bell Tower because they didn't want their picture taken and their grandma was crazy about me. They took pictures of me and their kids. In the end, their dad took a picture of my dad with his palm pilot, phone camera. They like him too because he's got red hair.

Beijing, China

2007-04-26T06:27:00.001-07:00

Beijing Blog
By Maya and Skylar
Grand Hyatt Beijing
The hotel swimming pool was so much fun. It was like a tropical oasis at midnight with lights on the ceiling like stars. It had fake palm trees and coconuts and two hot tubs. It was inside and underground. We went there every day.

Tian'anmen Square
There's a lot of historical significance about this place, but today, there were just lots of people trying to sell you stuff. We mispronounced boo-yow as boo-jow and so they laughed a little, but left us alone. It means "I don't want it, no thank you." It's really big and open with a lot of concrete. It has an obelisk in the middle so it reminded me a little of the Washington Monument, but a lot shorter. There were some really cool statues of people who looked really depressed; my parents said they were revolutionaries in a struggle. Lots of people were flying kites.

Beijing gets to host the Olympics in 2008 so they are very excited and making a lot of construction. They are putting on their best face for everybody. There are drills going at the airport and they are definitely making it look pretty which was nice for us. They're trying to make people obey traffic laws, but it's not really working out so you're more likely than not to get run over by a bus. In Tian'anmen Square there is a countdown clock until the Olympics start.

Forbidden City or Palace Museum
The Forbidden City is really a city, like, it's HUGE. You enter under a really big picture of Mao. This picture is on the money and everything. You walk through a long stretch filled with people who:
A Want to be your guide
B Want to sell you something or
C Are hideously deformed and would like money.
After this, you buy tickets and enter the haven of the Palace Museum with none of A, B or C. It's now called the Palace Museum because it's now filled with the treasures that were not stolen by the British or the French. This place is really Mulan, except the big palace steps that they come down were under construction which kind of ruined the look. The roof reminded me of Mulan fighting the top Hun and Mushu saying, "I'm your worst nightmare."

The last emperor, Puyi was crowned when he was three and he cried at his crowning ceremony. He had a lot of hardships being the last emperor. Then you walk 15 billion miles through scenery and beautiful buildings to get to the Imperial Gardens, but by the time you get there, you're too tired and hungry to go much further so you go back to your hotel.

Chinese words
There are a whole lot of Chinese characters. To read the newspaper, you have to know at least 2000. We don't know any and we only know how to say four words which have pretty much gotten us by. We don't know how to spell them either.
They are:
1. Ni How, pronounced knee- how, meaning "Hello"
2. Boo-yow, meaning "I don't want it/no thank you"
3. Dui bu qi, pronounced doi boo chi, meaning "Excuse me/sorry"
4. Xie xie pronounced shi sh, meaning "Thank you"

Katerina
Katerina was my mom and dad's student in Switzerland. She is very nice and we got to meet her. She's half Chinese and she speaks Chinese and she's bound and determined to learn 2,000 characters. She took us out for lunch to a really great vegetarian restaurant called Pure Lotus where they served watermelon over dry ice. The place mats were banana leaves and you ate out of hollow gourds. The chocolate fondue was really good. They had lots of fruit with melted chocolate. She's really lovely and we highly recommend her choice of restaurants.

Acrobats
So the #1 Top Acrobatics class was AMAZING! They ranged from ages 10 to 20, but looked much younger. You see, it's harder to flip your body head-over-heels gracefully the taller you get. There were 13 amazing acts but the one that sticks out most prominently in my mind was their signature bicycle finale. It starts with three girls pedaling in helmets (a novelty in China) around and around and doing various one person stunts. Then they all get on one bike and do amazing things, such as one lying in the middle part of the bike by the chain, one standing and one being held up and them going around and around on momentum. Then more and more girls come out as does a trick bike with more pegs and two teachers which gives one a feeling of forboding. Through an amazing sequence of events they manage to all get on the bike, all 13 of them, gracefully. With one arm out, all standing, they go around and around with no one pedaling. The other stunts are just as amazing especially with the really young kids. If you are ever in Beijing they are a must see.

Great Wall
The wall is on top of mountains and it goes up when the mountain goes up and down when the mountain goes down. Instead of hiking up, we took a ski lift up and we saw all the trees and flowers below us. There was also a donkey and lots of touts trying to sell you things. It was fun running down the really steep stairs. There were lots of stairs. The guard houses had doors and lots of windows. It only took one man to send a message on the wall. They could light warning fires and could be easily bribed. Towards the end, I hear they took the latter.

On the way down, we went tobogganing. I sat with my mom and she let me drive. When we got down, I said, "Can we do it again and can I go really fast by myself?" I don't think they had that in Mulan's time.

For more photos of Beijing, click here.

CD Release

2007-04-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

We're so excited, we have to take a break from travel writing to let everyone know that Jeff's bandmate, Eric vonRadics has just released a CD. It's awesome and here's a bonus, we sing backing vocals on Mexican Lebowski and helped write Nothing Dear during a trip to the Oregon Coast. You can hear the CD (or even buy a copy) at CD Baby.