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We left Florence a few days ago. Florence is another city that is packed to the gills with lots of old, classical and Renaissance thingsto see... So much so you have to take it in small doses or you could find yourself looking at a Michelangelo sculpture and debating on where you are going to eat later on. The Duomo is in Florence which is this magnificient church built with green, white and pink marble with white sculptures and really breathtaking when you first see it. Michelangelo's David sculpture is here also which we saw earlier today. We completely lucked out because lines can be atrocious for the museum where he lives but for some reason there was absolutely no one in line and we walked straight in, bought our tickets and entered the museum. When we left the museum an hour and a half later the line was so long it almost went around the building. Not sure why but our timing was perfecto! The David sculpture was incredible to see in person like all these other masterpieces we have been blessed to see. We stayed for awhile and just looked at it from every angle. Dave took the time to do a sketch of "David" (the statue) which will be an awesome momento especially since you can no longer take pictures of it (even without a flash).

The day before we spent a large portion of the day in the Uffizi gallery. This gallery is really famous for its massive collection of works from the Rennaisance. It has a ton of masterpieces including two by Botticelli - "Birth of Venus" and "Spring." This is another museum where lines get really long but for this one we reserved a ticket so we could bypass the line which worked nicely. We also went to the Boboli gardens which has this gorgeous view over the Tuscan countryside from one side and then on the other side a view over the city of Florence. You can just imagine those rich people back in the day walking around those gardens and stopping for a chat or a picnic.

The place we stayed at in Florence was a "budget" accomodation in an old building right in the center of town. The first two nights we stayed at this hotel our room actually had a view of the Duomo. The hotel didn't have any double rooms available for the 3rd night but after talking to the hotel owner we sort of convinced him to convert a single room for us. He was kind of embarrassed to do it because he said the room was so small but he stuffed another single bed in there for us. Dave and I thought it must be the size of a closet from the way the hotel guy was acting but when he showed us the converted single room we weren't even phased since it was about the size of a hotel room in Hong Kong! So it was quite fine for us.

Italy has made us feel a bit underdressed however since fashion reigns supreme here. We are definitely getting tired of our worn old clothes over and over and they are definitely starting to wear thin in areas. Black is the universal color though. If you are in black you could pass for a local. Believe it or not, while in Rome, Dave and I were approached by an Italian girl in the subway who asked us for directions in Italian. When we said we were sorry in English she looked a bit embarassed. I'm not sure what Dave was wearing but I was wearing all black. Black never goes out of style.

Here is Dave with some photos.
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Hey, this is Dave with some photos.

This is the beautiful Duomo:

Some shots of the inside of the dome.

This is the view of it at night from our hotel room.

Lynette admiring the view from our elegant hotel room (before we moved into the converted single.)

Feeling a bit rebellious I let loose my long pent up artistic expression.

Here's the view from the Boboli gardens that Lynette mentioned:

Isn't this a beauty? And the landscape is pretty great too.

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We are now in Venice. It is very expensive here. I mean VERY expensive. Especially after we convert to the US dollar. We try not to think about it too much so we can enjoy ourselves but it can be hard. After the conversion a large Coke at a restaurant the other night would have cost about 15 dollars. - and no free refills. Needless to say I didnt get one. We are still debating on whether we should do the gondola ride since it costs 80 euros for 40 minutes which is about 100 dollars. The city is absolutely beautiful though and we've had some great food. We'll try to post some photos in the near future.

dave and lynette

We were recently in Rome, and of course we loved it. Who wouldn't? But man oh man did we stay busy. Everyday we went nonstop because there is sooo much to see and we were only there for 5 days. It was kind of strange for me (Lynette) since I visited Rome when I was in college many moons ago and I immediately noticed some differences when we stepped into the main train station. The first and most obvious was the lack of gypsies. When I was in Rome before they were everywhere. They were dressed in billowy gowns and travelled in packs with kids in tow and they would come right up to you and ask for money and pretty much nothing you would say would make them leave you alone. I think they are still in Rome but I didn't see them in packs like I remember in the train station. Maybe it was due to the police presence I noticed. The other thing that was different was the lack of cats at the Colosseum. I remember there being cats all over the place and this time we saw a few cats around the general area but absolutely none in the Colosseum itself. This is weird and kind of sad since I wonder what happened to all those cats, but not so sad about the lack of gypsies.

Here is a list of all the things we saw in Rome...

The Colosseum, The Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain (at night), Borghese Museum (please go here if you are every in Rome), Spanish Steps, Keats House, Trevi Fountain (daytime), the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the 3 fountains in Piazza Navona, about 5 or 6 churches that I don't remember the names of, various obelisks, lots of monuments and old buildings, Vatican City including St. Peters and the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, the castle near St. Petes, the Pope.

We saw the Pope! Every Sunday at noon he gives a blessing and a bit of an address to the people who gather at St. Peter's square if he is in town. Lucky for us the Pope was in Rome and so we actually went to St. Peter's and heard him speak - in Italian mostly but he did say a little bit in English. There were a lot of people there so we couldn't really see him well. He was about the size of a peanut to us but they had large screens up so we could see him better. After blessing all the people in attendance, he got into a little car - "the Pope mobile" - and drove through the audience but again not close enough for us to get a good look at him. We could make out the top of his hat basically. We greatly enjoyed the opportunity to see and hear the Pope in person and definitely something I didn't expect I would ever experience.

The Sistine Chapel was a major highlight of Rome also. Dave said it was one of the highlights of his life to see it in person. The thing about going to a place like Rome is that you get to see the actual painting, sculpture, and frescoes by people like Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Botticelli, Bernini, and on and on. It is hard to wrap your head around the concept that you are actually looking at Michelangelo's frescoes that he did with his own hands - things we studied in our classes in school, and are popular to most people in the western world. We are now in Florence and experience a whole new set of classical works of art. We hope to post some pictures of that in the near future.

---Hey this is Dave with a few photos:

Colliseum

The Sofie Star is still in one piece and it made its way all the way to Rome! (unlike the backpack that Lynette bought in Nepal and was forced to finally lay to rest yesterday) Here it is at the Colliseum. (For any newcomers who missed the Sofie Star explanation way back when- My niece Sofie made me this craft piece before we left on the trip and I thought it would be cool to take it with us and photograph it going around the world.)

I was particularly excited to see the Pantheon. Its amazing how old this thing is - from ancient Roman times. Centuries later, during the Renaissance the building was not looked on with much affection. At one point the Pope almost decided to demolish it but instead just melted down the Bronze which covered the coffered ceiling and used it for an emmense sculpture centerpiece inside St. Peters Church. The dome inside the Pantheon with the huge hole in the top is quite a sight to see in person. Here is a shot of the front of the building:

The Bronze sclupture for St. Peters Church was sculpted by Bernini. This is a guy I learned a bit about in art history class in college. But to me all those sculptors kind of blended together back then. However, to see the works of art in person I now have a great appreciation for Bernini's work. We saw three of his most famous marble works at the Borghese Museum in Rome. His "Rape of Persephone," "Apollo and Daphne," and "David" (not to be confused with the famous Michalangelo's "David") are some of the finest artworks I've ever seen in my life. I can't believe what this guy could do with marble. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos. But it doesn't matter because I've seen photos of them before and its just not the same as seeing them in person. My jaw actually dropped when I walked into the room and saw the "David" sculpture.

Here's some photos from around Rome:

Another artist I now have a greater appreciation for is Raphael. Lynette and I agree that his "Transfiguration" painting somehow goes beyond just being a painting, its an experience. You ARE allowed to take pictures of the artwork at the Vatican Museum but this piece was in such a dark room that the photos came out kind of blurry.

But I do have a photo of another Raphael painting that I was excited to get to see in person, "The School of Athens" fresco mural at the Vatican Museum. I've always loved this painting and to see it in person and actually be in the place where Raphael painted it was great fun.

Here's one of the amazing ceilings inside the Vatican Museum. this place was decked out with all kinds of ornate decoration and art works.

After the Vatican Museum we went over to St. Peter's Cathedral. Here's a couple shots of the inside:

Here's some shots of it the next day when we went back to see the Pope:

If you look close at the bottom of the large central doorway you can barely make out the Pope's white umbrella.

Here's a shot of the church at sunset.

That's all for now. Should have some stuff from Florence soon.
(Please excuse any type errors, artwork title errors, and historical errors. I was going by memory and didn't have time to look up to verify.)

Ciao!
-dave & lynette

It is hard to believe but true. Very shortly Dave and I will have been travelling for 9 months. We have had an incredible time and are full of new experiences and inspirations and are looking forward to more in Europe. My Mom asked me the other day when I spoke to her, if we felt it was worth it and to that I would say there is no doubt even without having officially completed the trip yet. We had been right in thinking that we would not regret this decision once we were on the road. The magnitude of what we have accomplished has really become clear as we spend time vacationing in the easy and laid back country of Greece. We feel as though travelling independently through Asia was the challenge of a lifetime. We had to use all of our patience, quick thinking, and instincts to make our way through those foreign countries. We also could not have done it without the help of - too numerous to mention - local people. I should also send props to the Lonely Planet people whose guide books were a major source of help as well.

Greece has been like something out of a dream for Dave and I. We had just come from China which was the biggest challenge of all of the Asian countries we visited but also the one we both will remember very fondly. It is where we took that "a bit too adventurous" overnight bus where they smoked and played loud Chinese music on the radio. It is where a little boy of about 8 years old asked us if he could help us when we were stopped at midnight at some rural restaurant where there was a pig stable next to the toilets and Dave and I obviously looked a bit out of it.

The most challenging in China had to be when we decided to go to the rural village of Pingyao. This was supposed to be the most well preserved walled village in China. The day started with a mad dash to the airport on a airport bus that we almost missed due to a story for another time. Our flight went fine but the airport we landed at was small and there was no information desk and we didn't see any bus station or taxi stand. We eventually found a group of people standing outside and realized that this was the makeshift taxi stand and got in line. We realized quickly since we had been travelling in Asia a lot that people were cutting in line. This is totally a standard practice in China. You can not let your guard down for an instant or someone will try and cut the line. The weird thing is that no one seems to get mad about it. It is just the way it is. Dave manuevered his way in front of a guy who was trying to cut us off and scored us a taxi! Go Dave! He actually has gotten really good at cutting and blocking, etc. We showed the taxi driver the chinese symbol for train station in our chinese phrase book and off we went. Our driver dropped us off in front of the train station although it took us awhile to actually find it since it isn't like it had a sign that said "Train Station" in English on it. We felt uncomfortable immediately since the town of Taiyuan is not a tourist destination and we have never felt more different in our entire lives since everyone stopped and stared at us. We had gotten used to some stares since this is extremely common in China. Little kids pointing us out to their parents. Teenagers elbowing each other and then knodding in our direction. But in Taiyuan, a dusty town where we were only in to catch a train out of, obviously really was not used to foreigners. After roaming around aimlessly for awhile I see a sign that has a question mark on it. We go up to the booth and we say "Pingyao." The person was very nice and wrote something down in Chinese and pointed us in the right direction.

Again with the help of some locals who could guess at where we wanted to go, we found our way to the ticket booths which were mobbed with people. Dave asks a guard for help and he proceeds to cut to the front of a huge line to help us. No one batted an eye. He helps us get our train tickets to Pingyao. Again, without his help I'm not sure where we would have ended up. We then are directed to the actual train station where we wait for our train. It felt as though everyone in the massive waiting room just stopped when we entered. It didn't take long after we set our bags down to draw a crowd. Groups of people were standing around us and one man had me take a picture with his young daughter several times. Most people just stood and stared at us. It got to be so bad that security had to intervene and break it up and we were moved to the VIP waiting room even though we just had regular ol' tickets. Pretty crazy experience.

We ended up on a crowded train sitting across from two extremely nice students. One of which knew a little English. We were so grateful to be sitting next to them instead of some old man who would have just sat and stared at us the whole time. They helped me buy water from the vendor and made sure we got off on the right stop and gave us some handy advice such as Pingyao was known for their beef. This turned out to be great advice because we tried it and Pingyao did indeed have really good beef. We arrived in rainy Pingyao exhausted with our nerves shot after a really trying day. We still had to make our way to our hotel and it was raining and dark. As soon as we left the train station there was a rickshaw driver that knew where our hotel was and took us there (for an extremely overpriced amount) but we just wanted to get there. We whizzed through the darkness and rain and at first the town was like any other dusty town in China but then the rickshaw pulled into the walled city portion and all that changed. It was incredible, like going back in time, and when he pulled in front of our hotel we were welcomed by the warm and incredibly hospitable owner. Dave and I were beyond thrilled. The hotel was an old fashioned Chinese courtyard house that had been converted into a guest house. The rooms had traditional Chinese beds and was full of character. It was like a little oasis and we immediately relaxed. We had made it through one of the most challenging and difficult travelling experiences we have had.

But now we are in Greece and all that is in the past. Greece is like a little heaven on earth I think. We are on the island of Mykonos right now. This is the most popular of the Greek islands and the most busy. It gets 1 million visitors a year and half of them come in August! We are visiting the Greek islands at a perfect time since visitors are few and prices have been slashed (but still expensive.) The Greek islands have been a great treat. We have loved every minute. We have stayed on three islands and each one is different than the next. But all have those adorable white washed houses and churches. We have spent a fair amount of time hanging out on the beaches and the beaches are also different island to island. On Santorini there was a beach with black sand and one with red sand due to the volcanic rock. Paros had beautiful beaches with clear calm waters with huge wind carved rocks jutting from the shore(my favorite beaches). Mykonos beaches are busy with bustling bars and restaurants and the most people we have seen. All of the beaches do have one thing in common however, you are likely to see someone either nude or without their top. It is not uncommon to see a Mom and Dad with their kids next to a couple completely in the buff next to people in normal swimming wear next to several topless sunbathers. Everyone just gets along fabulously. Those crazy Europeans (young and old) just do not care if you see all their bits and pieces, nor do they care if they may be a bit too plump for those speedos or that g-string bikini. We love their seemingly lack of body conciousness but being Americans it still does not stop Dave from pointing out every nude or topless sunbather and me going "where?" and looking.

Yep, life in Greece has been awesome and I am willing to say that there is not a soul alive who would not find something to love about Greece. Although, we do know that that something will NOT be Greek showers since they are small squares that leave water all over the bathroom floor and are not large enough to bend over and pick up the soap without sticking your rear out of the offical "square" that is the shower stall. But that aside it is incredible. Please, buy your plane tickets now. Book your hotel. Go to Greece. Go to Greece.

We have a few more days in this lovely place before we move on to Italy. We fly to Rome on October 8th and I would say that we are equally excited about going to Italy.
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This is Dave here. Just thought I'd throw in a few photos.

Here is Lynette at the beach. Those fleshy objects in the background to the right of her are two of those nude sun bathers she mentioned. But in case you can't tell Lynette decided to stay clothed.

And this is me at the beach. The water was absolutely freezing, (my arms were frozen in this up position) but I mean come on, this was the Aegean Sea, I had to.

Most of the churches in the towns are pretty small, the ones with the white walls and blue domed roofs like I showed in the last blog. But we visited this large and very old one in Paros that was beautiful.

This is a smaller room off to the side of the main cathedral. There's a creepy skull and cross bones carved on the floor toward the bottom, I'm guessing to mark someone's tomb. I've never been to a church before where there was a dead dude buried inside, at least not that I'm aware of. - Pretty eerie.

One of the things you see a lot of in the churches here are these tin artworks where the faces are cut out and painted.

Some of them look really strange because the faces are small and so dark from their age and a bit pushed in so it just looks like a bunch of holes where the heads should be.

Here's one of the many absolutely extraordinary sunsets we've had the pleasure of seeing here in Greece.

There are tons of cats on the islands. They are everywhere. Here's a tiny kitten that I heard squeeking softly from the bushes.

Here's one looking for lunch:

This one is into the art scene:

And this one greeted us at our guesthouse in the mornings:

Another animal you can catch strolling the streets here in Mykonos are pelicans:

Yes, I'm sorry, this is just a photograph of a bicycle but I loved the patterns of the stones in the wall and walkway.

Lynette at our regular breakfast spot here on Mykonos:

Me feeling stoic during our visit to the ancient ruins on the island of Delos:

Below is a shot from the dock on Paros. Our guesthouse was only a block from the water and since the air was cool and no mosquitos we left the balcony doors open at night to hear the wonderful faint sound of the waves washing in all night.

And here is Lynette just after being surprised by a big wave in the face as she tried to walk the rocks at the shore:

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Okay, that's finally it. I know its been a long one. You can go back to doing whatever it was you were doing. Take care.

Dave
dbuck242@yahoo.com
lynette
lschimpf@gmail.com

Lynette and I are in Greece. We started out in Athens where we visited a lot of ancient ruins, most notably the Acropolis. This was especially exciting to be seeing things in person that we had learned about for so many years in school or on tv. The Parthenon is not the biggest or most complete ancient Greek structure in Athens but for some reason it is the most impactful. There's just something about it. Even with the scaffolding around it, being used for repairs, it is a magnificent sight.

We stayed in a hostel in the area very near to the Acroplis. This was the part of Athens that still retains its old Greek charm with winding stone streets and charming architecture. Its therefore the most tourist busy area with lots of shops and restaurants. But its cool to stroll around, then turn a corner and find some site of ancient ruins, with the hill of the Acroplis always visible in near view.

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View from the Acropolis overlooking the ruins of an ancient theater. We were able to go down and actually sit on the old marble seats that real toga wearing Greek theater goers once sat.

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The Sofie Star has made it to the Acropolis in Greece! -- I'm saying, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm standing in front of the legendary Parthenon!!"

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Some shots around Athens:

From the temple of Zeus:

From Athens we headed off to the Greek island of Santorini. Our plane landed on the island around 5:30 AM, still dark. This is the sunrise view that greeted us when we arrived at our hotel near the beach:

The views on this island have been absolutely breathtaking. Like nothing we've seen in our lives. We highly recommend you consider the location for your next vacation.

We've had some spectacular food in Greece. There was a local place in Athens that served to-die-for gyros. Lynette has sampled musakas (sp?) and baklava from a variety of places, and loved them all. I had some stuffed tomatoes that brought tears to my eyes they were so delicious. (This at a place called Mama's where a woman called Mama greets you at the door with a hearty hello and a hug like you are family.) And the fried cheese in Greece is unsurpassed.

There's often massive crowds of tourists (mostly midday from the cruise ships that have docked) filling the streets snapping photos in every direction. Even when its slower in the mornings or evenings there's usually a good number of people milling about, but sometimes if you are lucky you can get some shots that make it seem like you are the only foreigners in town.

But there were also times when we would walk a bit out of town center and get away from the crowds. Like this one when we hiked down a long rocky path and found this wonderful lonesome church sitting on the side of the cliff overlooking the sea. No one else was around. We sat there for a while and just soaked in the amazing beauty.

After walking the town one day we stopped for some wine and watched the sunset:

Tomorrow we take the ferry to the island Paros for a few days, then Mykonos island.

This is Dave. We are in Beijing now, but we were not here during the Olympics. However, we found out that they do the Paralympics (the games for people with physical disabilities,) after the regular Olympics and in all the same venues. So we definitely wanted to try and get tickets to an event so that we could share in the Olympic excitement and see the incredible new buildings. You can see them from a distance from outside the Olympic Village but the view is not that great and is obstructed by other buildings, buses, lamp posts etc. So we wanted to get up close and isnide the buildings too if possible. We figured it would be pretty easy to get tickets to the Paralympics, I mean how popular could they be, most people in the US have never even heard of the Paralympics. But once we got to Beijing we learned otherwise. China has made about as big a deal with the Paralympics as they did with the regular Olympics. They are huge. And all the tickets were sold out. (Although, just like with the Olympics, many of the tickets are bought by corporate sponsors who don't even end up going to the events so there are tons of empty seats.) So we decided to take our chances with trying to buy tickets from a scalper. We took the bus down to the complex and walked around in the courtyard hoping someone would try to sell us tickets. We had met some people who had also bought tickets this way, but since then the police had arrested a bunch of scalpers. So we were trying to be on the down-low. But we were having no luck so I thought we might try to go down the street a bit, which ended up working. Immediately a guy approached us with tickets. Of course we were very suspicious that they were fakes, so we were standing there for a bit examining them and trying to feel the RFID tags that we heard were embedded inside the tickets. The guy could tell we were hesitant so he motioned us to follow him and he took us into the huge line of people waiting to get through the security check and into the Olympic grounds. He shuffled along in the crowd with us the whole way until we got to the turnstile. Once we passed through I slipped him the money. We were in!! A very exciting moment. Now I can understand the adrenaline rush thieves must feel when they pull a heist. But don't worry, this will not lead me to a life of crime. Anyway, we high-fived each other and headed for the porta-potties. (We'd been waiting in line for a while.) After that we headed across to the Bird's Nest. What a sight, I have to tell you. It was much bigger than I'd expected. And what an architectural marvel. Across the way was the Water Cube, also a spectacular vision, hard to believe its an actual building. Our tickets were for the track events so after enjoying the structures for a while and snapping some photos we headed into the Bird's nest. The place was packed! Given how little press and importance is given to the Paralympic games in other countries and in past years, the athletes must have been blown away. We were seated way up towards the top of the stadium but had a great view right near the finish line. We watched some running events, some wheel chair relay races, and some discus throwing. All the while the Olympic torch blazing above the stadium. It was a pretty amazing moment.

It would be a hard moment to beat but the very next day it was when we went to hike along the Great Wall. We got up early to catch our 6:00 AM tour up to where we'd start our hike. It was a cramped 3 hour drive with Lynette and I wedged next to two Chinese woman in the back row of the van, a seat built for 3. It was rather uncomfortable and my right butt cheek quickly fell asleep as did the rest of the occupants up front in their comfy seats. (I would make sure I got one of those seats on the way back.) As we got closer and closer to the site the air visibility got worse and worse, like we were driving into a big cloud. You couldn't see very far and I couldn't imagine the view for the wall could be much worse. We started the hike up and onto the wall. For the first 30 minutes or so I just couldn't enjoy the fact that we were actually walking on top of the Great Wall of China because I was too mopey about how bad the views were. I wanted picturesque photos! But after about 30 minutes the fog began to miraculously clear. I quickly snapped off some shots of the wall going into the distance in case this was a fleeting moment of clarity, but the fog just kept on lifting, along with my mood, and soon was completely gone, leaving a spectacular clear view of the wall and distant hills, and majestic blue cloudless sky above. It was like that for the rest of our 4 hour, 7 mile hike. Now I could not imagine a better day to have done the hike, especially after hearing from someone that it had been raining there the day before. The rest of the day was packed with one spectacular view after another and we had a great time. I guess it just goes to show you that you should get really upset and sulk when things don't go your way because it ends up making things turn out alright.

I have 2 Sofie Star photos this time. One in front of one of the oldest structures in China, The Great Wall.......

And one in front of one of the newest structures in China, The Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest!)

Lynette's leaping abilities continue to amaze me. Here she is showing her excitement for getting in with our scalped tickets:

You can find a few empty seats scattered throughout the stadium, but this definitely blows away any other Paralympic game attendance.

Wheel chair relay race at the finish line:

I'd like to recommend to any future Olympic/Paralympic games organizers that might be reading this to include more than just one McDonald's restaurant on the grounds. They had just one here which was about a mile away from the stadium. We had to walk really far and then found a huge line out front to get in. This photo shows what it was like once we got through the door - More long lines to get to the counters. Granted, they did have some other food vendor stands scattered around, but they were serving primarily Chinese items, and even in China, McDonald's proves to be most popular.

Here's some shots from our day on the Great Wall:

The rest of our time in China has been great as well. It started off rough with that crazy over night bus trip, but since then it has been splendid. A few highlights include our bicycle tour through the Yangshuo countryside, the cruise down the Yangtze River, our visit to see the taracotta soldiers in Xian, a full day of traveling by multiple modes of transportation which was stressfull but we got to experience the kindness of many Chinese people who helped us along the way, meeting a wonderful young Chinese couple on a train, seeing the sci-fi like skyline of Shanghai, and spending a few days in the wonderful ancient walled city of Pingyao.

The Asia chapter of our trip is at an end. Its been a good run. Tomorrow we will be off to Europe and our first stop is Greece. We are very excited! That is someplace I've always wanted to visit since I was a kid, ever since I wrote a report on the Greek gods in the 4th grade.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Dave
dbuck242@yahoo.com
&
Lynette
lschimpf@gmail.com

We've been in Hong Kong a few weeks now and really enjoying it. It is a big city and there is a lot to see and do so its nice to have over a month to take it slow instead of rushing around. It also gives us a chance to see a little more what its like to live here and not just see it as a tourist. Figuring out the transit systems, going grocery shopping, finding places for laundry, haircuts, and miscellaneous supplies. Which can be challenging because these places can often be on the third floor of some random building somewhere, never seen from the street. So its not a matter of just walking around until you find what you are looking for. Luckily, with Lynette's wonderful abilities and experience in the research industry she has been awesome at finding everything we need so far online.

Lynette also has this passion for figuring out maps and transit systems and city layouts. I unfortunately am lacking this particular passion. And when she is looking for something she's got a one track mind, with an ability to block out all other sensory input until she finds the place. So I know to just leave her alone when her radar is in high gear. And as she is navigating us through the city to find the destinations I'm aimlessly looking around and taking pictues of hundreds of things that strike my fancy. As she is reading the street signs I am looking at the interesting design of the street signs. I'm constantly thinking, "Wow that looks cool" or "Ooh, I might need that as a reference for a design someday" or "I bet the folks at home would be interested in that when we get back." So I end up having thousands of photos. Some of which I may someday think, "Why the heck did I photograph that?" But I figure its better to have too many photos than not enough. I will probably never be in these places again. Lynette and I will be walking down the street and I will say "Wow, hold on Lynette." and I'll stop to look up and photograph something. And Lynette will kindly wait for me even though she is thinking "Does he really need ANOTHER photgraph of a rickety old bamboo scaffolding?" or "Doesn't he have enough shots of blank rusty billboards?" I don't know, some things just look cool to me. But we understand eachother and our own personal passions. That's one of the reasons we make good travel buddies.

One of the things I like to photograph which might seem strange is people doing mundane things. Like sitting on a subway. I think its good to have shots of people doing everyday things and not just of skyscrapers and landmarks and things. The tricky part is trying to get these shots without people seeing you and possibly being offended. I'll casually position the camera down at my waist like I'm just holding it and will snap the photo. Pretty simple in a case like this:

I turned off the sound the camera used to make when a photo was snapped which made it silent. But there was still this little red light that would go on whenever I focus on something which brought attention to me. Such as was the case with this guy. He doesn't look too happy. I've since figured out how to also turn off the red light. Now I'm in complete stealth mode.

The subway system here is state of the art. Its really fast and easy to figure out. The subways are crowded but the trains are running all the time and never late so you always easily get to where you are going. Another form of transporation that is huge here oddly enough is the escalator. They are everywhere. No doubt because the city is in the middle of the hills. They even have the longest escalator in the world outside in the middle of the city. Its covered from the rain so this is a main form of transportation for daily commuters to get to and from work. It sure is a thigh saver let me tell you.

Right now the country is Olympics crazy. I didn't figure this would be the case until mainland China, but its pretty big here as well.

An Olympic countdown clock in the subway:

They've developed these really cute Olympics characters that are everywhere.

There was even a small Olympics street carnival the other night right outside our place. They had a street set up with some dancers and walk around characters and a couple tents set up with free carnival games where we won a couple Olympics souvenirs.

And we each got our official 2008 Olympics temporary tattoos!

The sky scrapers here are lit up to the hilt. The electric bills must be off the charts. And they also have countless amazing neon signs throughout the streets. Here's some shots for Tim and the guys back at WDI. Go graphics department!

The other night we went across the river to watch the nightly city lights show. The city looks pretty amazing before the show even starts as you can see here. But then as the music starts the lights on the buildings start to flash and dance in sinc with the music. Prety cool.

A few shots from around the city:

I thought it was cool how the sunlight bounces off the glass buldings creating some neat effects on others.

This building is a big mall.

They are pretty germ careful here. In many public places they have these signs posted informing that they disinfect the place every hour, such as with this library elevator button.

A few times we've been walking around the city we've caught sight of this guy who walks around dressed as Batman. I could not resist getting a photo with the superhero.

There are so many people here. Its maddenning just trying to walk around the city streets. Constantly having to bob and weave to get around the hords. And good luck trying to get a table at lunch time. We walked around for a long time the other day trying to find a place to sit down and eat. But the lines were really long and the tables all full. We finally found a KFC and while I was in line to order the buildings power went out (which is not common here as it has been in previous countries.) So we had to continue our search for lunch.

We visited a Buddhist temple where they have tons of spiral incense hanging from the ceiling. Its a pretty cool sight. Each one lasts for 10 days. There are trays underneath them to catch the falling ashes as well as signs to watch out. I'd hate to look up and get a burning cinder in the eye.


These pigs were not in the temple. I just put it here at random. Thought they were cute.

We still have not visited Hong Kong Disneyland which I'm really looking forward to doing, but we have made it over to the the Hong Kong OceanPark which is an amusement park with a few rollercoasters and such. You actually ride more escalators than anything because the park is built into the hillside. You take about 3 slow escalators to get up to each level where there's one or two rides. I thought it sure was a good way to build excitement for the next ride.

Hard to get a photo alone with so many people.

Unfortunately the one big coaster was out of commission. The one that was running was just okay from a ride standpoint, but just the view from it alone was awesome.

There were two animals I wanted to get to see while on this trip. One was the koala which we were fortunate to get to see in Australia. The other was the panda. So when we heard that OceanPark had some pandas I had to go. And it was a pretty cool experience. They were so cute. Here's a few photos. I love the way the one on the left is reclined back while he's eating the bamboo.

Here they are talking about which one of them has eaten the most bamboo today:

All they do is eat, poo and sleep....eat, poo and sleep. And we got to see them do all three!

Lynette and a baby seal. (Not a real one) Her sister Kirstine should appreciate this one.

We got to see the movie Kung Fu panda recently which is big here. We really enjoyed it. So we thought it was cool to see these photo-ops at the OceanPark.

With all the heights we've been experiencing I'm actually getting over my vertigo and extreme fear of heights. I would not have been able to ride this ferris wheel without freaking out before the trip. Now it was a piece of cake.

They had some pretty neat "streetmosphere" characters (as we call it in the biz.)

Except for this one:

The park is divided into to parks which are not within walking distance of eachother. We were surprised how far apart they actually were. You had to take this amazing cable car ride across the hillside to get there. It was a great ride with some great views of the ocean. And again, not afraid of the heights!

A few days ago we went up to the viewing tower on one of the hills behind the city. The view was breathtaking.

Another movie we've just seen here is the new Batman Flick. Pretty awesome. If you haven't seen it I recommend you go. I don't think its a spoiler, but one of the things we thought was really cool about the movie is that in it Batman goes to Hong Kong. And what made it even more surreal was that Batman even jumps off the very skyscraper that the theater is inside where we were watching the movie. Its the tallest building on the left in the photo above. And there were a few other spots around town we recognized in the movie. Pretty neat. The weird thing about the movie was that it was at 10:00 AM. I've never before had to set my alarm clock to see a movie. Now I can say I have. Movies are pretty expensive here but the early ones are cheaper.

-Dave

Hong Kong is a great city. It is compact, packed with people, friendly, clean, modern yet parts are ancient, has gigantic buildings and skyscrapers next to hiking trails and mountains. It is an unusual place indeed! Oh, and did I mention English is like a second language here? So getting around is a breeze since there is almost always an English translation from everything from street signs to announcements on the mass transit system. They even have an ultra modern library system which I'm using right now! We like it so much we decided to live here (for a month) before heading on to mainland China.

We are having a great time. It is nice to just chill out a bit and just explore one place for awhile versus hurrying through the sights before rushing off to the next place like we did in Vietnam. We are renting a small service apartment for a month which has a kitchenette where we can actually cook some of our own meals. This is nice not only because we get to eat some of the things we have been craving from back home but also allows us to save some money. HK is not exactly the cheapest city in Asia in fact it is one of the more expensive cities but as we have found, if you are willing to eat local food compared to western food then you can still dine rather cheaply. The exception here is McDonalds. You can get a value meal for $4 here just like in the states. We have dined at McDonalds twice already.

Here are some of the things we have done in Hong Kong...

We went to a movie. OK, that may not sound like a big deal to you but to Dave and me - big movie goers back home - it was AWESOME! The thing about seeing a movie in HK is that you get an assigned seat so you don't have to arrive early. Just walk in a minute before start time and your seat is waiting for you. The experience was not five star like what we experienced in Bangkok but was extremely nice. We saw the movie Hancock and agree with every critic and probably most people who saw this movie - the first half is great.

We dined on some delicious authentic Chinese food, which was surprisingly light and fresh. It wasn't heavy, deep fried, thick or saucy like much of the Chinese food we are used to back home.

On Wednesdays in HK, a bunch of museums offer free admission so this past Wednesday we made our way to the Hong Kong Museum of Fine Arts. They had ceramics dating back to 2000 BC - just gives you an idea on how ancient this civilization is. We walked around the waterfront taking in the views and enjoying the sites. There are a lot of Olympic decorations everywhere from the huge Olympic ring symbol on the museum to the Olympic mascot statues. There are also stickers throughout the city promoting the Olympics.

I got a much needed hair cut. It’s been six long months since my last. I went to this place I found recommended on an "expats in Hong Kong" website. It wasn't very fancy but the price was right. I had a shampoo, cut, and style for about $20 which is excellent in this town and also excellent compared to what I paid back home. The shampoo I had at this place was like no other shampoo I have ever had in my life. The woman scrubbed my head over and over to where I thought my scalp would start bleeding. When I thought she was done she scrubbed it all again. She would take her fingers and scrape up and down on all parts of my head fast and hard. I didn't say anything to her since I wasn't sure how much English she knew and I figured she must know what she is doing. After that shampooing I don't think my hair has ever been cleaner. I won't have to wash it for days. Of course, the first thing the hair dresser said to me after touching my hair was that he needed to thin it out - "too much hair." Boy did he ever thin it out - he went at my hair with scissors of fury. I ended up with a great cut and he took a massive amount of weight off my head. After he was finished he said "much better" and he was "glad he could help me out." It is a cool experience to get this sort of mundane task done in a foreign country.

We saw the Hong Kong Festival of lights. Someone came up with the great idea to do a light show every night to music using the massive amount of skyscrapers and buildings on Hong Kong Island. To see it you have to go to the other side of the bay - Kowloon - and just hang out at the harbor. It is a must see in HK.

We went to the HK botanical gardens and zoo and saw lots of primates and birds. This patch of green is definitely needed in the middle of this concrete jungle.

We still continue doing things every day - like today I'm in the HK Central Library which is the big daddy library. Since Dave isn't with me to remember to take pictures. I don't have any pictures but it is big and open. I also have been to several temples which are dwarfed in between the huge skyscrapers.

Here is a bit more info on HK...

Hong Kong is made up of islands and a tip of the mainland. Dave and I are on Hong Kong Island which is where the banking center is and is considered the center of Hong Kong. The service apartment we rented is on the 4th floor in an old Chinese Tenement building located in the happening Lan Kwai Fong area. We literally walk out of our building onto the street where there are hundreds of restaurants, bars, pubs, stores and people bustling about. There is both a Haagen Dazs and a Ben Jerry's within 30 seconds of our front door. Our apartment does not face the street so we hear very little street noise - thank goodness. We are only a 5 minute walk to the central transportation hub as well as hundreds of shops, several major malls, and on and on - it is really fun. Kowloon is a major part of Hong Kong and is located just across the bay from Hong Kong Island and is where most of the museums are located. To get to Kowloon it is short ride on the MTR which is the mass transit system here (subway). We bought Octopus cards (like the locals) which allow us a discount and to easily hop on and off most of the public transportation. You can take the MTR or you can also ride the Star Ferry across the bay which we did once. Hong Kong Disneyland, which we will visiting at some point, is actually on another island called Lantau. There are several more islands also. I hope to get to some of these other areas before we leave Hong Kong.

One unexpected thing about Hong Kong is the number of Philippine women who live and work here. Hong Kong has over 130,000 Philippines. A lot of the women are house keepers, care takers, and baby sitters. They work for extremely low wages so pretty much everyone in Hong Kong has at least someone who comes over once or twice a week to clean. These mostly women have one day off a week and it is Sunday. Since most live with the family they work for in a very small room, they head to the streets and parks of Hong Kong on Sundays to enjoy their day off. They are everywhere on Sunday. They spread out on blankets and eat, drink, sing, paint each others nails, play cards, just basically enjoy their day off. There will be rows and rows and rows of women along the sidewalks just relaxing and having a good time. It is quite a sight.

Dave will be uploading some photos soon. Hopefully sometime this week.

Till next time,
Lynette & Dave

lschimpf@gmail.com
dbuck242@yahoo.com

Hello everyone. It has been awhile since our last blog entry. We have been busy doing the travel thing and also have had some issues with slow internet connections. Besides, the internet cafes are not air conditioned and we haven't felt much like sitting in the sweltering heat long enough to write a blog. This entry has taken a few sittings to complete.

Dave and I took a bus from Phnom Phen, Cambodia to Sai Gon, Vietnam earlier this month. The bus trip was going well - air conditioning was working, seats were big enough, etc. All was well until we stopped at the mid point for lunch and when they tried to start the bus up again it wouldn't go into gear. We had to wait over an hour for a smaller bus to do two trips to drop us off at the Vietnam/Cambodia border which thankfully was only about 15 minutes away. The border crossing was a bit of a hassle with a lot of us standing around not knowing what to do but eventually we made it through (although this seems to be a common occurrence while traveling here). Then we were all jammed onto a smaller bus that had no air conditioning and not enough seats for everyone for the remaining 3 hours to Sai Gon. 3 people actually had to sit on Corona Beer boxes in the isle. We were thrilled when we finally made it to the city and into our hotel room. The no air conditioning thing wasn't too bad since we could open the windows and the breeze cooled us off enough. I also was dealing with a digestive issue in that I must have eaten something with bad bacteria in Cambodia and had spent the day before the bus trip just laying on the bed in the hotel room. I still wasn't feeling that great when we arrived in Sai Gon so for 2 days we really didn't do much except stay in the air con watching T.V. and eating at one of the many near by restaurants.

Sai Gon is a big city but instead of cars packing the roads here the scooter is king. So, pile up the kids, grab the kitchen sink or dog or whatever because they transport EVERYTHING by scooter! 5 people on a scooter is the most I have come across. For babies, we have actually seen high chairs strapped to the front of the seat behind the handle bars, but often we just see women holding their infants in one arm while driving with the other. Crossing the roads is a crazy experience here. You have to walk slowly and cautiously across the street and people will drive around you (hopefully). There are few lights and people hardly obey the traffic laws. This scares the living day lights out of me but I'm getting better with Dave's Cleveland city-boy help.

In Sai Gon there isn't a ton to see. We walked around a bit and went to the disturbing War Remants Museum which has a significantly different take on the "American War." Yep, that is what the war is called here in Vietnam. Seeing this perspective as an American is extremely strange to say the least. The museum has actual American tanks, planes, cannons as well as lots of pictures including pictures of victims of Agent Orange and other extremely disturbing war pictures. We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels which is about an hour or so outside of Sai Gon. The Cu Chi people used tunnels to fight against first the French and then against America. These tunnels were small but they widened one tunnel two times the size for westerners. Dave was brave and went through a portion of it but I opted out. He had to walk crouched over with bent knees though it - yikes can you say clausterphobia! His thighs were sore for 2 days after going through the tunnels. Before going into the forest where the tunnels are we were shown a video about the Cu Chi people and how they fought and killed many Americans. The video said that the Americans came to Vietnam "like a crazy batch of devils." They showed us the various guerrilla warfare traps that were used to hurt and kill their enemies. I can't imagine what it would be like for a Vietnam Veteran to return to this site where tourist are walking around talking and laughing looking at bomb craters and the devices used in battle and to be shown through the tunnel by an actual Cu Chi person. It was weird for me it must be flat out surreal for a Vet.

A non war related thing we did was visit a service at the Cao Dai temple. This religion is a combo of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. Victor Hugo is considered a saint! The temple is outrageously beautiful with tons of colors and decorative features like nothing we have seen and we have seen a lot of temples. All the worshippers walk in to the main temple area and they are all in white except for the chosen few representing the colors of Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism so it visually is stunning. Another thing we did in South Vietnam was take a two day one night trip to the Mekong Delta area. People here are extremely friendly. We spent the night and a day on the a boat and all along the river kids yelled hello to us and waived and smiled. The Mekong area was full of people who still depend completely on the river. Markets are on boats, people live either on boats or very near the river. It kind of feels like you are stepping back into time.

After returning to Sai Gon after our Mekong Trip we started heading north and flew to Nha Trang. This is a beach town and oddly enough is the location for the next Miss Universe pageant. They created a new road from the airport to downtown for "The Donald." I guess Mr. Trump will be staying at a 5 star cruise liner instead of a hotel in Nha Trang. All went well on the flight from Sai Gon to Nha Trang although we couldn't find our hotel and were hot and tired so we got on a bicycle taxi who didn't know where our hotel was either, even though he said he did, and kept trying to drop us off at other hotels so he could get a commission from the hotel for getting them business. He ended up dropping us off exactly where he picked us up. We eventually asked some women who were working for a restaurant for directions to our hotel and they were able to point us in the right direction. As we walked to our hotel this bicycle taxi guy walked right next to us saying something we couldn't understand. When we get to our correct hotel, the bicycle taxi guy tries to get a commission off our reserved hotel. Our hotel told him to basically buzz off. We know this because the receptionist who told him to buzz off spoke great English and told us what he wanted.

After Nha Trang we flew to Hoi An which so far is mine and Dave's favorite town we have visited. The town itself is a Unesco World Heritage sight due to its architecture. It was great just walking around the town and looking at the old buildings. Hoi An is also known for tailoring so Dave had a shirt made for him and I had a dress made. This took exactly one day and was pretty inexpensive when you consider that it was custom made for us. We also went to another Unesco world heritage sight nearby called My Son. These are ancient ruins of the Cham people. They actually were more intact before the Vietnam War but according to our guide, the VC used them to hide in and so therefore they were bombed by the Americans. There were several bomb craters and several bombs on display in this area.

After Hoi An we took a bus to Hue. Hue was ok but really not much more than a day is needed. It was the capital of the Nyguyen Dynasty until there was no more Vietnam royalty. It also is the site of the Tet Offensive. This took place in an area called the citadel that you can visit. The citadel used to have lots of buildings from the royalty days of Vietnam but unfortunately again war destroyed a lot of it. But, the ornate gates are still there along with several temples and buildings. Not far from Hue is where a lot of fighting took place during the Vietnam War. You can take a DMZ tour that will take you to the various war sites but we opted not to do this since we figured it will be a grassy hill where they would say - this is where a bloody battle took place. We talked with a man who actually did the DMZ tour and he said a lot of the bomb craters have been turned into rice fields.

After Hue we flew to Hanoi. We thought it would be cooler here since it is in the north of Vietnam but we could not have been more wrong. It is sooooo hot here. The heat is oppressive and draining. We really have to force ourselves sometimes to do things because all we want to do is sit in the air conditioned hotel room. And the stifling heat makes putting up with the little inconveniences and discomforts much more difficult, which there are a good amount of here in this very foreign country. But we keep stocked with bottled water and bought 2 of those fold-out Asian fans and went out to see the Hanoi sights. We took a city tour of Hanoi and visited "Uncle Ho's" mausoleum, various pagoda's, Vietnam's first university, etc. Ho Chi Minh's final will asked that they cremate his remains and spread them across Vietnam. However, because he was so revered by some they decided to ignore his wishes and embalm his body and put him on display for all to see. There was a massive line that we were in for about 45 minutes and when you go into the mausoleum you are sort of man handled along so as not to slow up the line. I know Lenin is also on display in Russia but this was just strange. What is it with communist leaders being embalmed and put on display?

One thing about Vietnam is that its beautiful country. Ha Long Bay is the perfect example of its beauty. We just took a 3 day 2 night trip through Ha Long Bay and to Cat Ba Island. There are hundreds of rocks jutting out from the water and it is stunning. We cruised around the bay and spent the first night on the boat. We were extremely hot during all of this as there was no air-con on the boat but thankfully there was a fan and I spent a few hours that night sleeping on the boat's top deck under the stars. The second night we spent in an air con hotel so we were in heaven and actually had a nice sleep. We slowly cruised back from Ha Long to the mainland earlier today and took a bus from the port to Hanoi.

Tonight our adventure continues with an overnight train ride to the hill station of Sapa. Our train leaves at 10:30 p.m. tonight and gets to Sapa around 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Not sure how much sleep we will get since we heard it was a bumpy ride but Sapa gets rave reviews from all the people we have spoken to that have been there.

We'll try to post some Vietnam photos when we get to Hong Kong in a week or so where they have air conditioning! We can't wait.

Till next time,

Lynette & Dave

lschimpf@gmail.com
dbuck242@yahoo.com

Dave here, coming to you from Phnom Phen. Our time in Cambodia is almost up. I had some spare time before our bus trip to Vietnam tomorrow so I thought I'd upload a few more photos of interest.

Here's a few more from the remarkable ancient temples:

There are hundreds of statues throughout all the temples, but they are all headless. Sadly, people with nothing better to spend their money on love to illegally buy up these ancient artifacts. Its too hard to sneak out and transport the whole body so they pay someone to sneak in and break off and steal the heads. This has gone on for a long time. If you do see any heads still there then they are most likely modern replacements. But those even often get stolen. You can see one headless statue here at this temple entrance:

Yesterday we spent much of the day browsing the Central Market here in Phnom Phen. It is a huge, yellow, domed, Art Deco building that looks like an old train station inside. There are counters and kiosks set up all throughout the inside and all around the outside of the building selling everything from clothes, jewelry, and electronics to fresh vegetables, meats and kitchen supplies. The place is mostly for the locals but there's a few touristy T-shirt shops as well. We loved just walking around and watching the locals go about they daily business.

This shot shows the center and just one of the four wings of the building:

This woman must have had a rough night. Actually this is not an uncommon sight. We saw many people napping in their kiosks. They must spend so much time there, with seemingly few customers, that sometimes they just need to get a few Zs.

There were so many stands with meats just haning out in the hot air with flies buzzing around. This rack doesn't look too bad but a lot of it looked really dried out. I can't believe they can let it sit out for so long unrefrigerated. It was gross to think about how long it might hang there collecting bacteria before someone buys it. Then we realized we are probably eating this stuff every time we go to a restaurant here. Yuk! It makes me think that since we haven't gotten sick and since they probably have done this for a long time with little or no problems, that maybe we are a little too germ crazy back in America. I don't know. And this woman looks like she just woke up from her nap and is still wearing her pajamas. But this is actually a fashion trend that Lynette noticed. Many of the woman wear these matching patterned outfits that look like PJs.

You always see these shrines outside the modern Buddhist temples where the locals go to "worship." (for lack of a better term). Sometimes there are several and they are very big and elaborate and sometimes they are smaller like this one.

This buidling across from our hotel looks pretty rough. It is not representative of the majority of the city. Most places are in better shape. I just thought these shots looked cool:

These photos give a better idea of what we've seen of the city:

Again, most massage places here are much nicer than this one. I just thought this was an interesting shot. I can't imagine going in there for a relaxing massage. Seems you might get a nice deep tissue massage in the gut with a rusty prison shiv instead.

We took a 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap back to Phnom Phen the other day. I was horrified when I got on the bus and saw the seats. There was only about six inches of leg room. Obviously not built with the comfort of larger foreigners in mind. I could not imagine being able to fit in there, let alone be able to sit there for 6 hours. But somehow Lynette and I wedged ourselves in. I could not move my legs one bit. They were wedged in one uncomfortable position, and my body was stuck in a very erect posture the entire way. When a leg went numb from lack of blood flow or my back got sore I'd stand for a bit. From the photo it may look like I could just swivel to the side and put my legs in the aisle, but there is a very solid, immoble armrest pressed against my right leg. The seats backs were very tall also. So I could not see over them to look out the front window. And looking out the side windows made me nausious. So I had a view of the back of the seat for the 6 hours. I don't know what it is about the buses in Cambodia but they have not figured out how to keep the ear wrenching noise of the horn blast on the outside of the bus. The driver blows the horn constantly as he passes the slower traffic, and it sounds like I'm standing outside with the horn up to my ear. That, along with my inability to recline meant no napping. So needless to say it was a long ride.

Here's a few shots from the bus of the countryside:

It is the rainy season here now, but it actually hasn't rained all that much yet. A few times in the evening we got a downpour. Like yesterday while we were sitting at this street cafe and I got these cool shots:

That's all for now. Next time we should be writing from Vietnam. Wow, Vietnam!!!

Dave & Lynette

dbuck242@yahoo.com
lschimpf@gmail.com

We can't believe we are in Cambodia. Dave and I have uttered that phrase numerous times since arriving here a week ago. It is just an odd place to be able to visit due to its turbulent history. It really only opened its doors to tourism in 1998 so this whole foreigner business is still a relatively new concept here. It has been full of surprises and destroyed assumptions for us. The cities of Phnom Phen and Siem Reap are full of hotels and restaurants and bars that cater to tourists. Dave and I ended up on our first day in Phnom Phen eating at the Freebird Bar and Restaurant. When we first walked into this place we immediately commented on how it looked like any bar and restaurant in the states and on further observation we realized it was completely decked out in American flags, pictures, and other memorabilia from the states. We had the nachos and they tasted just like back home. It is just a bit strange to eat at a place like this in a country where you would think wouldn't have restaurants like this.

The other thing about Cambodia is that they use the US dollar for pretty much all transactions. Their currency is called the Riel but we have hardly used it. Only for small transactions and tips here and there. The price for almost everything is quoted in US dollar - food, hotels, taxi service, merchandise, and on and on. This is the first country that we have visited that doesn't want to use their own currency (even in Nepal, the 2nd poorest nation in the world, uses their own currency). Cambodia also is not the cheapest place we have been either - maybe due to the use of the American dollar for everything!

Cambodia is a more conservative country than Thailand and clothing is of major concern here. It is all over the guide books, in the information supplied at hotels and even in restaurant menus that westerners need to dress appropriately. This means you should not wear shorts or short skirts or tank tops or spaghetti string tops. The guide books will tell you that Cambodians are way too polite to say anything to westerners if they are not dressed appropriately but you can count on maybe a prolonged stare or maybe a dirty glance. It is just considered disrespectful to show a lot of skin especially in sacred and ancient temples and religious structures. Can you imagine going to church wearing daisy dukes and a tank top? Well, that is basically the inappropriate equivalent of wearing a short skirt in Cambodia. Yet, everyday we see western women and men wearing the clothing that they specifically ask them not to. This really bothers me because here you are in a completely different culture that has a completely different set of values and you are a visitor yet you do not adhere to a simple request to cover up. I understand that it is really hot and humid here around 100 degrees but still, you are a guest so put on some pants!

We flew from Bangkok to Phnom Phen about a week ago and spent 3 days in Phnom Phen. This is the capital of Cambodia and the largest city. It doesn't take you long after arriving in Cambodia to learn about the Killing Fields, Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. The effects of this time still resignate throughout the country. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia in the mid to late 1970's. He declared it year 0 and was determined to build some sort of utopian society. At one point he announced in Phnom Phen that the US was going to bomb it and that everyone needed to immediately evacuate the city. So everyone packed a few things and left the city and ended up being forced to work in the rice fields only getting 2 spoon fulls of rice to eat a day. As you can imagine many people died of starvation. He had some idea that formal education was not needed only hard work was valuable and that the poor and uneducated peasants were the only viable citizens needed in Cambodia. With this philosophy he went about killing anyone who was educated, looked educated (meaning wore glasses), he didn't like, thought was against him, and on and on AND their families, children included. Him and his regime took children away from their parents to receive approved education by illiterate peasants. It gets worse. He created the notorious S-21 prison (in Phnom Phen) out of an old school where only 7 people out of 21,000 came out alive. Unspeakable acts of torture and murder were committed here. Then there was the Killing Fields (about 13 km outside of Phnom Phen). This is where people were brought to be executed and then tossed into mass graves. Both the S-21 prison called Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields can be visited. Dave and I went to both of these and to describe it as horrifying and unsettling would be an understatement. Although it is allowed, taking pictures of what we saw at both of these places just seemed completely inappropriate and disrespectful to those that died there so we have few photos. It was emotionally hard to visit these places and makes me emotional just thinking about it and writing about it, but I'm glad we did it so we could show our respect to those who suffered so greatly.

We are currently in Siem Reap. We took the "Mekong Express" from Phnom Phen 4 days ago. Unfortunately the "express" part didn't really apply because the air conditioning on the bus broke down about an hour into the trip and since it is brutally hot right now aircon is a must. So the bus pulled over on the side of the road in rural Cambodia and we waited for about an hour for another bus to arrive.

We just spent the past 3 days exploring all the ancient temples they have here including the most famous one - Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat gets all the attention and it is definitely the most well preserved out of the Wat's but there is this Wat in Angkor Thom called Bayon which is incredible. It is falling apart like all the temples but it has these pillars that have faces carved on all sides. It is beyond magnificient. All of the Wats were incredible - you could spend forever wondering through them and looking at the carvings. The whole experience of visiting these ancient buildings was one of the most magnificient things we have seen on this trip. Dave and I were blown away by what we saw. It was overwhelming looking at these temples, palaces, and buildings from an era so ancient, that are still full of intricate details and carvings. When we see things like this we truly feel blessed. This is the reason why we travel and seeing this is worth every effort we put into this trip.

The first day we went to the temples we had a guide who explained to us the meanings of the various carvings and architecture. He actually was pretty funny and made jokes about everyone from the King of Cambodia to Buddhist monks (What do you call more than one monk? Answer - monkeys) and he even had a joke about hunchbacks (how does a person with a hunchback sleep? Answer - Just like us, with their eyes closed. Here is another - Why does this deer carving only have one eye? Answer - I have no I dear. It was a fun day listening to our guide and his really silly jokes. He also was extremely informative not only about Angkor Wat but also gave us a run down on Cambodian history to its involvement in the Vietnam War to communism and of course about the Khmer Rouge. We liked Siem Reap so much we decided to stay another 3 days here.

After Cambodia we will head to Vietnam and then on to Laos. We are not sure of our exact day of departure to Vietnam but will be around the first week of June.

Dave has got some photos for you below.

-------Hey gang, Dave here. Once again I've got way too many awesome photos than I do time to post them so here's a small selection. The ancient Cambodia temples are absolutely extraordinary and I took hundreds of pictures. I picked several scattered below that I thought you would enjoy plus some photos of some other things we've been up to lately.

Here is one of the gateways to Angkor Thom (an ancient walled city)

The sculpted tower faces of Bayon were awesome. This temple complex was one of our favorites.

The Sofie Star rises above Angkor Wat.

Since Taj Mahal we've notice that the Japanese touritsts enjoy jumping in front of mounuments for photos. This is the first time we tried it and its actually fun. Here you can see that Lynette has still not lost her acrobatic skills from when she was a highschool cheerleader. Look at that perfect form! I did not include mine because I need to work on my flexibility a bit.

Here's the USA themed restaurant Lynette wrote about. It was like walking through a portal into a TGI Friday's. We felt at home for about an hour...

...Until I went to the bathroom. I've never seen pineapple slices used as urinal cakes in the states.

Here's two shots from the temple that they used in the movie Tomb Raider. Recognize?

Don't ask me how those trees grew so large without soil for the roots. I have no idea but it looks cool.

We went to a badly produced 41 minute movie last night that explained some of the Cambodia history. As you can see its a far cry from the theater we experienced in Bangkok.

Another exotic culinary experience to share. Last night at the Night Market a woman was selling bottles of liquor that had a dead scorpion and snake fermenting inside, and she offered me a taste. Well I couldn't refuse such an offer. I took a shot. It was about as harsh as a shot of tequila, so nothing I couldn't handle. But there was a distinct and foul aftertaste I had trouble with because it distinctly tasted reptilian.

You can see that the saleswoman was enjoying watching me cringe from the taste. When we asked if she liked the drink she winced and said,'''Eeeew, no, this is for men." I expected the next day to wake up with a fuller goatee or more hair on my chest or something. But it was not to be.

In case any of you are curious what the internet cafes look like in places like this here's a shot. I'd say the most primitive internet cafe we've been to was India. And one in Nepal is a close second. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of either.

The hotels here are really nice and very affordable. Here's what ours looks like.

More temple shots. We can't believe the complexity and quantity of all the intricate carvings.

Some shots from the Grand Palace in Phnom Phen, Cambodia.

It sure is nice to get off a plane or bus and have your hotel pick-up driver waiting for you so you don't have to worry about dealing with the taxis or tuk tuks. We've enjoyed this a few times but this has to have been the nicest sign yet. Usually they are typed very small or handwritten (and misspelled.) There is a huge crowd of men pushing and shouting with signs you can't read. You have to walk by slowly while they stare at you and look closely at all the signs to try and find your name. This one stood out in the crowd.

We've experienced something about the people here that we find unusual and refreshing compared to the previous places we've been in Asia. We've seen two different tuk tuk drivers and one waitress giving their own money to street beggars or crippled children. This was definitely not something we saw in India, Nepal or Thailand. It is usually an act left for us "rich" tourists. Cambodia has had a rough history and the people have been through a lot. You really get the feeling that the people have a strong sense of unity from this, and care for their fellow Cambodians. Even though they themselves may not have a lot they give to those who have less.

Thanks again to everyone for all your blog comments and emails.

Till next time,

Lynette & Dave

lschimpf@gmail.com
dbuck242@yahoo.com