White Nights in St. Pete's

May 27 - St. Petersburg

A long travel day, we took a 2am flight to Vienna where we had about a four-hour layover. Luckily we had the lounge pass, so we were able to read the newspaper and catch up on some email. When we arrived in St. Petersburg we were surprised at how sparse the international terminal was - not exactly a bustling place. There is some sort of taxi racket so we really got hosed on our trip into the city. Wound up with a $75 cab fare because we hadn't arranged for the hostal to pick us up - ouch! Of course, we soon found out that this was just the beginning as everything is expensive in St. Pete's.

It was raining when we arrived so we were only brave enough to venture out for some dinner. Then it was back to the hostal where we both crashed pretty early.

May 28 - St. Pete's

We lucked out and got a sunny day. The weather forecast had said there would be rain every day while were in St. Pete's! Since the weather was nice we scrapped our plan to tour the Hermitage and headed out on a walking tour. Our first stop was the beautiful Church on Spilled Blood, which was resurrected on the site of Alexander II's assassination. It is a fabulous church in that style of architecture that we associate with Moscow. Very cool. Then we crossed the Neva River (freezing our butts off as we did so) and headed to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The fortress was built by Peter the Great and marks the founding of the city. Inside we visited the SS Peter and Paul Church, where several tsars are buried. We also toured the Commandant's House which is now a great museum of St. Pete's history. We also visited the Engineer's House which has similar historical exhibits.

After all of that touring we had worked up an appetite so we stopped at a Russian eatery for some traditional food. I had duck and Matt had beef stroganoff and they were both delicious. We weren't sure what to expect from the food but so far it has been really good.

In the afternoon we stumbled into a parade after walking past the Admiralty (naval school) and the Hermitage. I'm pretty sure it was a military parade as there were a lot of men in uniform and also it was St. Pete's "birthday." Matt was hoping to see some tanks rumbling down the street but no such luck.

After that we headed to Mollie's Irish Pub to put our feet up - St. Pete's is a big city and we had covered a lot of ground. We saw a lot of interesting things too, like tons of people carrying beer around in the street. We even walked past a couple ladies pushing strollers and chugging a brewski! It definitely seems to be the norm to drink on the street as we've seen it every day we have been here. Smoking seems to be pretty popular here and most restaurants have cigarettes on the menu. Also, the "look" here is very 80's inspired. Sure they have their big sunglasses and low-rise jeans, but mullets and bad perms abound. There's also a strong contingent of punk fashionistas in the young crowd.

While we sat at the bar we lamented the fact that our journey will soon be coming to an end. The last two months have really flown by and it's hard to believe we only have one month left. We've seen some amazing contrasts over the past few weeks...traveling from China to Singapore to India to St. Pete's. Each country is so different it reminds us of how there are so many places out there to see. We hope that the traveling and exposure has made us more tolerant toward other people, and that we'll try harder to help people in our own country who are lost or unfamiliar with the language. We've had a lot of help from strangers along the way and it has made us appreciate how a very small effort can make a big difference in someone else's day.

May 29 - St. Pete's

In the morning we wasted an hour looking for a place to do laundry. The sad thing is that we had an address but just couldn't find the place. It's a real challenge to get around here as Russians don't use the same alphabet as us. I feel illiterate and trying to read all of these signs that don't mean anything to me gives me a headache. There is very little English here, which is a big contrast to both India and China. Yes, China was tough but in comparison it was much more user friendly! We gave up on the laundry and headed to St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of the city's landmarks. It was built in 1858 and during the Soviet era was converted to an atheism museum and remains a museum today. It was worth the hefty entrance fee to see the beautiful ceiling paintings and to enjoy the city views from the colonnade.

Afterward we walked down "Millionaire's Street," took in the Summer Gardens and Palace, checked out the Grand Hotel Europe (St. Pete's most fancy hotel). It started raining and was nasty cold out. When our feet got tired and we were done with the cold we did as the locals do and headed to a pub, where even though I couldn't read anything I could at least listen to Aerosmith! After a couple drinks we had sufficiently dried off and were warm again so it was time to head out into the miserable night. And miserable it was, we had a long walk back to the hostal. We were able to take the metro part way, which was interesting (all signs are in Russian) but still were soaked by the time we got back.

May 30 - St. Pete's

We have had some interesting breakfasts here. Lots of spam type meat and raw bacon is very popular. Pickled stuff is also very common. Quite interesting. I'm sticking to the yoghurt.

Since it was another rainy day we scrapped our plan to see a palace outside the city and instead headed to the Hermitage. It is a huge museum housing Catherine the Great's collections and other artwork from around the world. The building itself is magnificent with part of it made up of the Winter Palace. The architecture is amazing with lots of gilding, beautiful arches and quite a bit of Italian influence. The wood floors are like nothing I have ever seen before. Each room we visited was more spectacular than the last - it was pretty incredible. The art collection is not so bad either - da Vinci, Picasso, Rafael, etc. There is quite a bit of nakedness in the museum...statues, paintings, figurines, etc. - certainly Russia is not as modest as India was. I got too close to some of the nude statues and set off the alarm a couple times. Haha, well that's not exactly true. I did set off the alarm twice but I was trying to get a closer look at fabric and furniture, not nudies. After several hours at the Hermitage we were worn out and we headed to a Mexican bar for margaritas and nachos. Things got out of hand and we ended up staying there for quite some time....

One of the coolest things about visiting St. Pete's right now are the "white nights." It stays light out until about midnight. It's pretty crazy to look up at 4:00 in the afternoon and see the sun in the noon position!

May 31 - St. Pete's

We had to sleep in a little to recover from the night before but by late morning we were off to Peter the Great's castle on the Gulf of Finland. Peterhof is a beautiful palace but we were most impressed by the wonderful grounds. Everything is really green right now and the tulips have come up and are everywhere. I have totally fallen in love with them and have taken an abundance of pictures. I'm sure I'll have my "Spring in St. Petersburg" montage on the blog in the next couple weeks. We were lucky to have another sunny day as most of the time was spent wandering around outside checking out the impressive fountains and enjoying the flowers and fresh air. The palace was built by Peter the Great and was later expanded by Tsarina Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. It is beautiful and over the top in the manner we have now come to expect from a Russian palace. The only downer for the day was the expense of the excursion...St. Pete's is really expensive (this is coming on the heels of India and China so of course everything feels costly). The entire Peterhof trip probably cost us around $100. Foreigners pay two to three times the local's rate. I can understand that, but when I pay $40 to get in a museum and then you also charge me to use the bathroom there I do get grumpy. Food is also pricey....lunch for two in a restaurant can easily cost $75. We've been trying to stick to cafes or cheap eats and even then we usually spend $25. Oh well, I should probably get used to it as all of Europe will be expensive. Besides, it's not like we are unemployed or anything....

The trip to Peterhof took most of the day and when we came back we hung out in a cafe for a while, then did some interneting and had a quick dinner.

June 1 - St. Pete's

Today is our last day in St. Petersburg. It is another cold, rainy day. We spent most of it bumming around seeing the last few sights we wanted to hit, souvenir shopping and hanging out. We ordered hot chocolate in a cafe and it turned out to be a crazy pudding type thing. It was like what you might expect to see in the center of a chocolate molten cake. It was too much even for me! Still, very tasty in small quantities.

Tomorrow we head to Istanbul. We have a very early flight and have to leave the hostal at 4am. Ugh. Hopefully our connection in Frankfurt is on time as we need to hit the ground running - only 3 and a half days to take in all the sights in Istanbul!

Bye Bye India

May 24 - Jaipur

We started the morning with a very fun elephant ride at the Amber Fort outside of Jaipur. The Fort is from the 11th and 12th centuies while the palace was built in the 15th and 16th centuries. The palace there was very interesting in that it employed some slick engineering to keep the royal family comfortable and cool. There were drains built into all surfaces of the palace so that whenever it rained the water drained into three reservoirs. The first reservoir was for watering the gardens, the second for cleaning and the third for the family to use. Each tank had some sort of filtration system so by the time the water got to the third tank it was pretty clean and sediment free. Rain water also collected into a pool for the family's use and the water from there was also used to water the garden. On the top floor in the "summer palace" they had misting systems set up outside the main rooms to keep them cool in the hot India summer. The government plans to use the original water reservoirs to bring water to the city below as it has capacity to provide water for 10,000 people. Pretty interesting stuff considering when the palace was built. The palace interior is also stunning...the decorative painting is beautiful as are some of the rooms with mirrored and jeweled walls.

That morning we also stopped by the Palace of Wind, which Jaipur is famous for. It is pink just like all of the other buildings there (thus, Jaipur is known as the "pink city"). The Palace of Wind is actually just a facade and not a real palace. It was built for the concubines and other women of the palace so they could see how the common people lived. They took an interest in what the people did and how they acted during parades and other events so this gave them an opportunity to watch without being seen.

After the sight-seeing we went to some factories and showrooms to see some of the local handicrafts and trades. We checked out a couple gem stores, a blue pottery store and a textile shop. The textile shop was most interesting as we could watch the men doing the block printing, where they hand stamp patterns. They have large stamps that they use and one guy goes behind another with a different color - usually about 4 or 5 colors in total.

We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon and spent a couple hours hanging out at the pool. While we were there we got a good show from a couple of peacocks. One of the males was trying to woo a lady peacock and was flaunting his feathers and wiggling his butt. About 5 minutes into the show another male came running after him. We were hoping for a fight but Mr. Butt Wiggler just ran away. Anyway, we enjoyed the show.

In the evening we made our way back to central Jaipur to visit the local bazaar. It was an experience...lots of shoes and clothes for sale in tiny shops that lined the streets. Most of the items were things that the locals would buy and we weren't seeing too much that we wanted. After we had sweated enough we headed to an air-conditioned restaurant to get our fill of tandoori and naan for dinner.

May 25 - Jaipur to Delhi

We had a long car ride back to Delhi - about 7 hours so we headed out around 10am. On the way out of town we stopped to see a baby elephant. It would have been really nice, but the poor thing was chained up. Such a sad sight. As we were leaving town we saw the early stages of a protest. There were young men congregating to protest a system similar to affirmative action.

Right after leaving town we saw about 100 monkeys on the side of the road, including lots of babies, so we had to pull over and take some pictures. The babies had the most adorable little faces. Someone had been feeding them bananas so it was funny to watch them peel them just like a human would.

The rest of the ride back was less eventful, although we did pass a few overturned cargo trucks. We saw quite of few of them throughout our trip so I would guess that they are not well maintained and have mechanical failures, not to mention avoiding the tuk tuks could cause accidents as well. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and they had no beef. All of the sandwiches were fish, chicken or veggie and the Big Mac was a "Chicken Maharaja Mac" which was essentially a chicken curry sandwich. The french fries were darn good.

On the way back into Delhi we stopped at a silk shop and I finally found some silk that I like for bag making. I got a few meters for samples and we'll see if anything pans out there. The boys also decided to get suits made....never would have thought we would have done that but the price was right and they had nice cashmere fabric.

May 26 - Delhi

Rob and Ilsa left early in the morning to head to the Himalayas to go trekking. Matt and I were lazy and slept in, then did email for a while. The whole computer thing is pretty frustrating in India as the power goes out frequently and you lose any work that hasn't been saved. Not fun.

In the afternoon Matt had to have his fitting for his new suit and that went well. They delivered it later on to the hotel. I spent quite a bit of the afternoon working on the blog and trying to get more pictures posted - it's a big job, especially with the sloooow computers. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can get caught up on the pictures but it probably won't happen in St. Petersburg, where we are now, because the internet is expensive! In fact, I'm about to get kicked off now so I've got to wrap things up.

Hope all is well on the homefront. We miss everyone!

It's Hot In Here!

May 21 - Delhi
Wow. It's hard to even describe what it is like here. India is the most filthy place I have ever been. The poverty is evident by the people laying in the streets, idle men everywhere, trash strewn across the streets and beggars on many street corners. On top of the filth, it is so hot here - easily 100+ every day. There are frequent power outages and by government directive all A/C units have to be shut off between 6 and 9pm. And to top things off, we are stared at, sometimes leered at, to a ridiculous extreme. So its very interesting how we can be so hot and uncomfortable, harassed, dirty and still...we are having such a great time. It's all so interesting and strange and wonderful.

Our first day we started off early to do some sight-seeing with our guide and air-conditioned car (yea!). The city is pretty run-down and full of dirt roads. I had expected something a little more modern. I'm not sure why, because I was totally off. There are no skyscrapers and very few tall buildings. Everything is very basic, block buildings that look really old and run-down. Even the five star hotels don't look very remarkable. Anyway, it was good to see what Delhi was really like and we were off to see the India Gate, President's House and the Parliament buildings. We also visited the Quth Minar and Lotus Temple. Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the history of these places because I couldn't understand our guide, but hopefully you'll be able to check out the pictures in a couple weeks. We were stopped several times throughout the day as people wanted to have their pictures taken with the freaky Americans. One of these days I am going to have to start charging for this service! We had a great lunch that day and I am slowly learning that I do actually like some Indian food. This is good news since Matt loves it and I have never been a fan. I still don't like curry, but I'm digging the garlic naan, pineapple raita, dal makhani and tandoori chicken and mutton. Maybe I wouldn't do well in the south but things have been good on the food front in the north.

That evening we went to Connaught Place, a "nice" part of town and had dinner in a Chinese restaurant (the main criteria for selecting a restaurant was whether or not it had air-conditioning). Then we retired to our windowless room in Hotel Ajanta. Not crazy about the safety implications there but it seems like a pretty common thing in the area.

May 22 - Delhi to Agra

We headed to Agra in the morning and the roads were crazy. It was very chaotic, with everyone honking and changing lanes. Our driver was great though and he kept us safe and nice and cool - he had one of the nicer cars on the road (a Chevy SUV type thing). On the way to Agra we stopped at the Sikandra Temple. We picked up our Agra guide there and he showed us around. He was a bossy kind of guy who had very little patience for our picture taking. Rob and I made him mad as we dawdled along trying to take "artsy" shots. The Indian architecture is so cool with its ornate stonework and wonderful use of symmetry. After the temple we continued on to Agra where we checked into our much nicer hotel and were happy to see that it had a pool. We had a quick stop there to drop our bags and then headed out for a quick lunch of more Indian food. Tandoori chicken is a popular choice with our group and Matt can demolish a whole chicken himself if he is in the mood.

Then we were off to the Taj Mahal. We arrived there around 5pm or so and were hoping to catch a good sunset. Entering through the gate is amazing as you have a beautiful view of the Taj straight in front of you, framed by a beautifully arched doorway. Definitely good stuff. There were a lot of people there, but still the views were amazing. We did the required tourist pictures and then went to see the tombs. The Emperor built the Taj for his deceased wife and they are both buried there. After walking around for an hour or so and getting our fill of picture taking we grabbed a spot on the lawn to sit and take it all in. The Taj is truly an impressive monument and the artistry is amazing. Much of the decoration is stones inlaid in marble and the quality is excellent. I have a vague recollection that it took 20,000 people eleven years to complete it. It is truly a wonder of the world.

While we were sitting in the grass two boys were milling around obviously checking Ilsa and I out. They were carrying on and staring. Eventually they sat down on a bench behind us and by then we were tired of their gawking. Matt got up and walked toward the bench and you should have seen the look on their faces. When he sat down I thought they were going to cry, but the best thing was one of them looked at him and asked, "do you speak Hindi?" and Matt said "yes" and the kid nearly fell off the bench. Oh, it was very entertaining.

After our fun with the boys we decided to take off. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at an inlaid marble factory to see how the process works. It was interesting to see how it is done and of course they had a showroom full of stuff to buy. Although we had a piece in mind we decided not to buy but Rob and Ilsa found themselves a treasure.

Back at the hotel we did some night swimming and then settled in to watch Dodgeball on Star Movies. I think that movie is better the second time around or maybe I was just in the right mood because I was laughing hysterically. We had our first taste of the power outages in India...missed several parts of the movie as the power flickered on and off.

May 23 - Agra to Jaipur

We were back at the Taj by 6am hoping to see the sunrise. Unfortunately it was not meant to be as we missed the sunrise and then it started raining. The good news is that there weren't too many people around so we did get some soggy pictures of the Taj sans tourists. We were all pleased.

After we fed our bellies back at the hotel we went to see the Agra Fort. It is an impressive structure with more cool stone work, awesome arches and some amazing symmetry. We had some cool views of the Taj, just as the Emperor did after he was imprisoned there by his son. They say he died on a marble balcony that has the best view of the Taj, the monument to his wife.

After the Fort we headed to a carpet factory where we learned all about hand-woven carpets. We saw vegetable dyed wool, chemical dyed, hand-spun, machine-spun, you name it, we saw it. We watched demonstrations of the whole process from start to finish and it was actually pretty interesting. Rob and Ilsa were looking for a carpet for their house so we thought it would be fun to tag along. And then the vegetable dyed carpets caught our eye and before we knew it we were making more purchases! So we are now the proud owners of a very fine carpet.

All of the negotiating wore us out so we had to take a break at Pizza Hut. I can confirm that it's pretty much the same as everywhere else except that there are no pepperonis. It was good and we all needed a break from the local food.

We had a long trip to Jaipur ahead of us so we all settled in for the ride. It is amazing what you see as you drive down the "highway" in India....camels pulling carts, monkeys crossing the street, pigs, donkeys, peacocks, and of course tons of cows. Our driver told us that the cows know to go home at 5pm everyday and are very good at finding their way back even though they wander freely during the day. There are many types of transportation on the road - from elephants to rickshaws to cargo trucks. The tuk tuks were crammed with 10-15 people - a ridiculous number for their size - and people were riding on the tops of buses. We saw a lot of brick factories between Agra and Jaipur and there were thousands and thousands of bricks stacked up waiting to go to the kiln. We saw cow chips stacked everywhere drying in the sun so we guessed that people use them for fuel...that's definitely using your natural resources!

On the way we stopped at Jami Masjid, a Mughal mosque. It was another beautiful temple and we followed the local custom of tying a string near the alter and making a wish. We ran into a local family who asked me to pose in a picture. We took a group shot and then they started thrusting their babies at me asking for pictures with them. So we have a couple good shots of me with both arms loaded with kids.

We arrived at our hotel at 8pm and were excited to see a beautiful old mansion. The hotel is the former home of a royal family and it has been carefully converted into a small guesthouse. The architecture was really great and there were 20 foot ceilings in the room and cool antique furniture. Best of all, there was a pool.

The Day We Lived Like Dell Stock Was At $57

May 19 - Singapore

We're all entitled to a little splurge every once in a while, right? Well, this was definitely our day. We headed back to Singapore early and checked into our suite at Singapore's nicest hotel, the Raffles. It is an old colonial building with a stunning lobby and fabulous rooms. We arrived around 11am and our room wasn't ready yet so we had a couple of Singapore's signature "Singapore Sling" drinks on the house. (Don't worry, Mom, they were very weak.) Then we were shown to our amazing suite complete with four-poster bed and huge veranda. There was fresh fruit and roses in the room and we had our very own butler to attend to our every need!

After we got settled in we took a walk around the nearby waterfront. We had lunch and then headed to Chinatown to visit our old friend, Jerome. He is an antiques dealer and has a beautiful showroom full of cool old furniture from China. When we lived in Singapore we bought a few pieces from him and one of our regrets over the past few years is that we hadn't bought more before we left. Well, we weren't going to make that mistake twice! So a couple hours later we left the store with our credit card smoking (stock's at $57, right??) and feeling very pleased with our purchases. We got some very nice furniture pieces and also an old porcelain "double happiness" ginger jar with the lid intact, which is hard to find. My favorite thing is the child's barber stool...call me crazy but it's one of the coolest antiques I have ever seen.

That evening we were still living it up so we went to the bar on the 72nd floor of the Swissotel to take in the city. The lights were very pretty and we enjoyed the views before we set off for our favorite restaurant in Singapore, Lawry's the Prime Rib. Yeah, I know this isn't exactly local cuisine but it was by far our favorite place to eat in Singapore when we lived there. It was sooooo good. And who cares if we ate 5 times as much red meat as we should...we were leaving for India the next day and you can't eat cow there! Ahhh, it was a great day - one of the best ever.

May 20 - Singapore

We spent the next morning lounging around the room, eating breakfast on the veranda in our big robes and cute slippers. We ate lunch at the deli at the Raffles, which is where we used to sneak off for long lunches when we were having a bad day at work (there were a lot of those). Then I spent a couple hours at the rooftop pool while Matt chilled in the room. We had late check-out so were able to stick around until just a few hours before our flight. We checked out at 3pm, did a little last minute shopping and then headed to the airport for our flight to Delhi.

The flight was delayed getting into Delhi due to a huge back-up at their airport but was otherwise uneventful. I was sad it was our last SQ flight, I still wanted to play more Tetris and Hangman! We arrived until the hotel around 12:30am and met up with Rob and Ilsa. It was great to see them and who would have guessed we'd be traveling through India with them...it was very cool that it worked out.

What Day Is It and Where Am I?

I have officially lost track of time. I now measure it by the number of days we stay in a city and only know the day of the week by looking at my trusty watch. Since it has been 4 or 5 cities since my last update I know that it has been a long time! Here's what we have been up to:

May 11 - Singapore

The night before leaving for Hong Kong we went to Clarke Quay, one of our old haunts. Things have changed a lot since 2003. The area is situated on the river and is lined with restaurants and bars. They have upgraded and redone all of the restaurant facades. There is now a Haagan Daz cart where the cool independent ice cream guy used to be. He was great - did all kinds of crazy tricks with your cone while he scooped the ice cream. I guess he is a victim of the "out with the old, in with the new posh" philosophy they seem to have employed when they renovated. After dinner we had drinks at Cafe Iguana, but at Singapore prices you can only have so many margaritas before you break the budget!

There are a lot of other changes in Singapore too. There is a new MRT (subway) line. They are building huge new apartments in front of our old place and some swanky ones have gone in behind it. They have renovated the mall where we used to shop for groceries. Our little grocery store has been replaced by a nice new Carrefour. While things have changed much of the city remains the same. And some of those things that used to drive me crazy are still there.....but that's a whole different blog post.

May 12 - Singapore to Hong Kong

Another torrential downpour to start the day and another flight on Singapore Airlines. SQ is one thing about Singapore that I won't complain about - it is the best airline and here's why: NINTENDO. I can occupy myself for hours with Dr. Mario and Tetris. And movies on demand isn't such a bad thing either. And they always start the flight off right by passing out piping hot towels. When you combine that with flying out of Singapore's Changi Airport it makes for a good flying experience. The airport is phenomenol...when you land you can get through immigaration and collect your luggage within 10 minutes. And there is free internet all over the airport, an orchid garden and decent food. It's pretty impressive. They are building a new terminal to accomodate the new Airbus 380 and I am sure it will be spectacular. Anyway, thanks to Dr. Mario the flight went by quickly and we had no problem catching our shuttle to our hotel in Hong Kong.

That night we met up with Matt's former boss from Austin, Rob, and his family. They are living in the Phillipines and it worked out well for us to all meet up in HK.

May 13-14 - Hong Hong

We spent the weekend checking out HK, hanging out at the pool and catching up with Rob. We took the tram to Victoria's Peak to check out the views of the harbor and skyscrapers. We took a long ride on the trolley on HK island - it was a great way to take in the sights and you could ride for as long as you wanted for only 25 cents! We walked around Kowloon and checked out the Peninsula Hotel (nice bathrooms). We walked around the waterfront to take in the skyline as it lit up for the night. On Sunday we saw maids out on there day off - there were so many women congregated in open areas, sidewalks, and underpasses it was crazy. Sunday night we took a harbor cruise on the Star Ferry and had great views of both skylines and were able to take in the nightly light show. In a lot of ways HK is similar to Singapore with the huge emphasis on shopping and big brands. People were a lot more fashion conscious than in mainland China and there were man purses everywhere (still can't convince Matt to get one though).

It was a good weekend and we really enjoyed catching up with Rob, Cindy and the kids. It was interesting to hear about life in the Phillipines and we could relate to a lot of what they are experiencing. We also enjoyed seeing HK, especially at night. Though it was beautiful Shanghai still rates higher for us though.

May 15 - HK to Singapore

We took a mid-morning flight back to Singapore and then spent the evening hanging out around Orchard Road, which is the prime shopping street there. It's packed with Gucci and Cartier-type stores and there is a Starbuck's on literally every block. We had dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and I realized that we had really lowered our standards back then...the food was marginal.

May 16-18 - Bintan, Indonesia

The next morning we had to head to the embassy to get extra pages put into our passports. I am on my second set of extra pages and my passport now resembles a novel. Our passports have definitely become our coolest souvenier and we have lots of stamps and visas to show for the last five years of travel. We found out that Americans get to cut in the front of the line at the embassy so that was a nice perk - all those tax dollars are good for something!

After the trip to the embassy we headed over to the old apartment to do some more reminiscing. It looks pretty much the same on the outside, although we can tell it has been renovated because it no longer has a balcony - that has been enclosed to enlarge the living room. It's a really good thing they did some remodeling because when we left it there were no working lights in the bathroom (leaky ceiling shorted them out) and the guest bedroom was so "soggy" everything in there was molding. It was a real dump. They also went and got fancy on us as they now have a secure gate at the entry to the stairs. Anyway, it still looks like a place we wouldn't want to live....

After that we were off to our 2 1/2 days of relaxation at the beach in Bintan. We hitched a ride on the ferry and were there in less than an hour. We arrived at the hotel to fanfare that Asia is known for - men and women in traditional dress playing music and some nice cold drinks. Good stuff. We spent the next two days hanging out poolside, at the beach and wandering amongst the different hotel properties. It was nice to be lazy (yeah, yeah, I know what my friends at Dell are thinking right now...we've been lazy for the last 5 months!) and I was able to finish a couple books. We had good weather most of the time so that was a nice treat. The resort was pretty quiet since we were there during the week and we had a couple really nice dinners at the open-air beachside restaurant.

This is the Life!

Yep, this is it these days....total slackers :-) We're having fun and keeping very busy. Will probably spend a couple idle hours in the airport tomorrow so hopefully there will be time for an update then. Tomorrow (Saturday) we head to Delhi for a week and will be meeting up with Rob and Ilsa, friends from Wisconsin/Houston.

Jen & Matt

More Pictures Posted

I've posted several new sets of pics in the last couple days, including the infamous Yangtze River Cruise ones. Check out the Yangshuo ones for sure as that was one of our favorite spots.

We are in Singapore tonight and head to Bintan, Indonesia tomorrow for a few days of R&R. Hopefully I'll be able to blog at some point while there so I can update you on our weekend in Hong Kong.

Singapore Sweet Singapore

Silly me, I forgot to mention that we sent my parents and Giovanni home on the 8th. I have since learned that they have arrived safely with our treasures in tow. It sounds like there were piles of mail to go through and no food in the fridge but all else is well.

We've returned to Singapore after moving back to the US almost exactly three years ago. In typical fashion, it began storming ferociously as we checked into our hotel. Matt seems very excited to be back and I have to admit, it was fun reminiscing on the cab ride into the city from the airport. It definitely feels familiar after five weeks in China and it is really nice to see and hear English everywhere - like on the street signs, the taxi drivers, etc. We even listened to some Rob Thomas in the cab - woohoo! It's also nice not to stick out so much...there are lots of foreigners in Singapore. This is a big improvement over China, where Matt and I were oddities (even in the cities!). We gots lots of giggles, stares and finger pointings and we were even asked to pose for pictures with the locals several times. Maybe they thought we were movie stars? Haha.

We really enjoyed China but it is good to be moving on. It was time. Last night we took one last walk through Tiannamen Square, past the Forbidden City and down Wanfujing. We had our last Chinese meal in China for the foreseeable future. We got a much better sense on this trip of what China is really like compared to our business travel in China. We were able to see the progress in the big cities and also the simplicity of life in the countryside. We were thrilled to visit Yangshuo, the Pandas, Shanghai and Lijiang. We were disappointed to see all the pollution...and it expect that it will get worse before it gets better. We've learned a lot and as always, we are so glad we are able to do what we are doing.

Blue Skies in Beijing!

It's a miracle. We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies on a brisk day here in Beijing. Yesterday it rained like mad and the dirt, grime and pollution poured out of the skies. The streets and cars were filthy...but today we can see the sky and it is wonderful.

May 7 - Beijing
We visited the Great Wall at Simatai, which is a very steep area of the wall about 3 hours outside of Beijing. We got there early and the crowd was not too big. The only disappointment was the thick haze in the air which made for mediocre pictures. We took a cable car half-way up and then hiked up a steep path to get to the number 8 watch tower. Then we wandered around the wall for about three hours snapping pictures and taking in the scenery. What an amazing sight to see the Wall snaking around the mountain tops. Our visit was somewhat dampened by the farmers that latched on to us as we hiked up and would not go away. They tried to sell us postcards and books and although I know they need to make a living their presence was an unwanted distraction.

May 8 - Beijing

In the morning we visited the Summer Palace of the Empress Cixi. It's a huge estate set on a lake outside of Beijing. There are tons of buildings and temples, including Cixi's very own theater where she would listen to opera. We were a little tired of temples so Matt, Dad and I rented a paddle boat and took in the buildings from the water. Mom and Uncle John toured the grounds.

In the afternoon we did more (!) shopping. We bought so much that we had to buy a huge wheeled duffle bag to send stuff home in. I just can't pass up these bargains! And there is just so much cool stuff that I won't find back home.

May 9-10 - Beijing

Our last two days in Beijing are lazy days. Yesterday we did a bunch of laundry, email and got massages. Matt got a haircut and it included a shampoo and massage and cost $4. What a steal! Today we are going to get out and enjoy the weather. Next time you hear from us we'll either be in Singapore or Hong Kong. Ciao!

New Pictures Posted!

Check them out!

Shanghai is AWESOME

May 3 - Train to Shanghai

We were promised a deluxe train but it turned out to be not so nice. It was a dirty old thing but it did get us there safely. We had birthday cake and wine to celebrate Dad's birthday and then some Tylenol PM to knock us out (not enough wine to do the trick on its own).
May 4-5 - Shanghai
We had a whirlwind 30 hours in Shanghai and it was absolutely wonderful. Shanghai is a great city. When we arrived around noon we checked into our hotel and went to a local restaurant for lunch. The food was excellent - lots of yummy, sweet brown sauce. Mmmmmmm....good. After lunch we walked along the riverfront, which is called the Bund. It was packed with tourists but was worth it for the great views of the Pudong (new area) skyline. From there we walked to the Yu Gardens where we took in lots of cool rock formations, ponds, fish and pagodas. The boys weren't into flowers so they went back early. Mom and I shopped a little and then rickshawed back to the hotel. Rickshaw is a great way to travel since you go at a slower pace and can take more in. They drivers often take quieter streets too so you can see a lot of "backstreets" that you wouldn't normally walk through.

Back at the hotel we had to get cleaned up for our "big night in the city." First we walked along the Bund and took the tourist tunnel under the river to Pudong. It is a really dorky Disneyland type thing but fun anyway. You go through the tunnel in a little people mover with strobe lights and other bright lights flashing away. Pretty funny. Shanghai's Pudong area has all been built in the last 10-15 years and before that was farmland. It's the financial center of the city and is immaculate. When we got off the people mover we were near the Pearl Tower, which is the tallest TV tower in Asia and represents "Shanghai, the Pearl of the Orient." Then we walked over to the beautiful Jinmao Tower. It is the tallest building in China and third tallest in the world at 88 stories. It was designed by a Chicago based firm and was built in 1998. It is truly spectacular. The Grand Hyatt takes up floors 54-87. We had dinner reservations there and had time to squeeze in drinks at the bar on the 87th floor before then. We somehow managed to get a table near the window and the views were incredible. The city is gorgeous at night, with the old European style buildings on the bund lit up, skyscrapers everywhere, boats going up and down the river and tons of neon lights.

Dinner was at "The Grill" and was such a treat. We had a table near the window on the 56th floor and more great views. We had heard that the Hyatt had a cool 30-story atrium so we checked that out after dinner...it was intense. Going near the railing felt death-defying. Scary stuff looking 25 stories down. If anyone heads to Shanghai this is the place to stay. It's all very modern and swanky and tastefully done.

Since we only had one night in Shanghai we had to take advantage. We sent the old folks home in a cab and headed to a nearby bar. I was thrilled to find Patron on the menu. My Mexitini girls can just imagine how excited I was. So Matt and I had a good time there drinking margaritas (me) and Jack & Coke (him) and listening to an American band. It was practically like home :-)

The following morning we took a cruise on the Huangpu River. We enjoyed the different perspective on the skyline and seeing the river traffic up close but the views were not as good as the day before. The wind had switched direction overnight and a thick haze had moved in - we had really lucked out the night before.

After the cruise we visited the Pudong Development Bank, which was built in 1921 by the British. It is a domed building which is decorated with an amazing Italian mosaic. In 1949 the Communist Party took over the building as their headquarters and they painted over the beautiful mosaic with white paint as it was deemed "inappropriate." It was then forgotten and later re-discovered in 1997 when the bank was doing a renovation. Ironically, the mosaic was saved because of the white paint so it was not found and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

The clock was ticking and we still had a lot to cram in. We had all been craving some good Italian food so we went to a great little restaurant in the French Concession area of Shanghai. It was one of the best Italian meals I have ever had! Such luck. They even had Italian wine and great tiramasu. After our indulgence we had to hurry off to the Shanghai Museum where the rest of the group was. It is a very nice museum and I especially enjoyed the gemstone exhibit (what girl doesn't like diamonds?), the Ming furniture and bronze displays.

We capped off our time in Shanghai with drinks on the roof of the Peace Hotel. It is an old building (1906) along the Bund and is often compared to the Raffles in Singapore. The view was good and it was a great way to end our visit in Shanghai.

May 6 - Beijing

Back to Beijing on an overnight train. The rest of the group visited the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. Since Matt and I have already done these I opted to shop instead. And shop I did...'til I dropped. I had to head back to the hotel and rest my feet!

Tonight we are seeing the acrobats and we are looking forward to a great show. Then we'll have about four more days in Beijing before we head to Singapore. Tomorrow is the Great Wall - cross your fingers for good weather!

Mom's Latest Update

Here's my Mom's latest entry, for her perspective on the trip:

We are in Xian another city of zillions with more zillions visiting because it is the week long labor holiday. At least half of the them visited the terra cotta warriors with us yesterday and today they are all here inside the old walled city shopping.
We fooled them by getting up early and going to the top of the city wall, renting bikes and riding around the whole thing in 90 minutes before most of them were awake. It was a pretty neat bike ride - the top of the wall must be at least 40 feet wide. You can see really old stuff, demolished stuff, ugly stuff and new stuff all together.
Several days we have spent more time in buses than our hind ends have appreciated.
This evening we get on a sleeper train for Shanghai. We are hoping it is as nice as the last train we were on overnight.
The markets streets we walked down today really hit a lot of your senses. Have you ever passed at least 500 livers sitting outside on counters and seen butchers chopping up some of them?
The little kids are fun to watch - we continually get a laugh out of the little bare butts exposed through slits left open in the back of their pants for toilet training purposes.

Joan/Mom
The father got McDonalds for his birthday lunch - yesterday's light lunch had about 15 dishes to try. It's hard to tell what I'm eating sometimes.

Pandas Are Soooo Cute!

April 28 - Dazu

We got off the boat in Chongqing, which the Chinese claim as the largest city in the world with 31 million people covering 82K square kilometers. Not sure how they measure these things but I can say it was a big ass city. We drove out of the city to the Dazu Stone Carvings, which were completed 800 years ago by Buddhists. The carvings are extremely detailed and have held up remarkably well over time - many of them still have some of their original paint. The carvings depict the Buddhist beliefs of doing good deeds and the underworld where you will be punished if you are bad. There were some seriously scaring looking punishments so I recommend that everyone mind their manners.

Dazu city itself is not a touristy place. In the evening we took a rickshaw ride around and saw very normal things - hardware stores, laundromats, restaurants, etc. We walked along a pedestrian shopping street and received a lot of attention - giggles and stares and lots of "hellos." Most Chinese people do seem to know "hello" and they are very friendly about using it.

April 29 - Chengdu

After a four hour bus ride in the morning we arrived in Chengdu. It seems to be a pretty cool city as far as big cities go. There are a lot of people out and about and it is very bustling, but there are a lot of parks and it seems cleaner than some of the other cities we have been in. We walked to the People's Park and watched the locals singing and dancing. It was a Saturday and everyone was out enjoying themselves. There were several groups of people with instruments and singers putting on performances.

In the evening we went to an excellent cultural show. It showed off the costumes and music of the Sichuan province and was very well done. I could have done without the high-pitched singing but there was a great performance by a guy who did hand shadows (we're not talking Little Bunny Foo Foo here - this guy was incredible), really cool puppets and a fire and mask show that was great.

April 30 - Chengdu

We spent over six hours on a cramped bus to see the world's largeset stone Buddha. It is 71 meters tall and is carved from a rock cliff in a city called Leshan. In my opinion, it is highly overrated and my knees would like their six hours worth of bus ride back! Oh well, you can't win 'em all and sometimes this stuff happens. On a positive note, on the way back into town we spotted "Peter's Tex-Mex Bar & Grill." We consoled ourselves with beer, margaritas, chile con queso and fajitas. We all felt just a little better after that....and Matt and I miss Dos Equis and Mexitinis just a little more.

May 1 - Chengdu to Xian

We went to the Giant Panda Breeding Center and it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived early in the morning and beat most of the crowds and we were able to see the pandas when they are most active. It was so awesome - they were stuffing their faces with bamboo and rolling around, wrestling each other. We saw an 8-month old cub that was really shy. They look so cute and cuddly. This particular center has been the most successful in the world at breeding pandas and they have a nice facility. We saw about 15 Giant Pandas and also the Red Panda which has a face kind of like a wolverine and a body something like a raccoon. Check out the pictures because my words can't do the pandas justice.

On the way back to Chengdu we saw something very interesting. There were several blocks of buildings that had been torn down and the rubble lay in heaps. We came across one apartment building that was in the process of being torn down. It was probably still five or six stories high...and there were about 20 guys standing on top with sledgehammers taking each brick down one by one! There was not a wrecking ball or machine in sight! Can you imagine tearing down huge aparment buildings in the U.S. by hand? It's just so incredible how much manpower they have here.

In the afternoon we went to (another) temple. I'm just about templed out so am not sure what I will do when we get to Beijing, which is like the land of temples. After our vegetarian lunch at the monastery (the monks don't eat meat) we caught a flight to Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors.

May 2 - Xian

The Terracotta Warriors were built from clay by Emperor Qin Shihuang 2200 years ago. They were placed underground near his tomb where he believed they would protect his reign in the underworld. Amazingly, each warrior has a different face so they truly are life-like. Unfortunately, after the Emporer died some bad dudes from another Dynasty came through and trashed and burned the warriors. No one knew about the them until 1974, when a farmer was digging a well and came across the first one. To date, about 8000 warriors have been discovered, most of them in many little pieces. Much work still needs to be done to excavate all of them and then they have to be put together like puzzles by archaeologists.

The area where the warriors are is separated into pits. There are about five or six that we visited, with Pit 1 being the biggest. It contains about 6000 warriors in total and about 1000 are excavated and on display. There are also horses and some amazing bronze chariots. It's incredible to think about how old they are and what they survived. The only downer to the day were the bazillions of people (it's a Chinese holiday) and some of the exhibits were overly crowded.

On the way back to Xian we stopped at a small village where people's houses are built into the side of hills. It's a very simple village with outhouses that dump into a ditch alongside the road. The stench was overpowering. Many of the villagers kept pigs so that also contributed to the smell. The houses were very basic. The cave helps keep it cool in the summer and in the winter there is a fireplace under the bed that keeps it warm. Visiting a place like this definitely makes you count your blessings. Many people in China live in rural areas with similar housing and conditions.

May 3 - Xian

It's the old man's birthday and for a gift we are giving him a 16 hour train ride to Shanghai! Lucky him! We leave this evening on another overnighter. Hopefully when we arrive in Shanghai we can have a proper birthday celebration.

This morning we rode bikes around the old city wall. It is amazing - about 50 feet wide and somewhere in the range of 9-11 miles long. It was a great little trip and gave us excellent vantage points of the city.

I'm working like crazy to get some more pictures posted so check back soon.

We're Still Alive!

It's been a while since we've had access to the internet long enough to do a post but we are alive and well. We've done a ton of stuff since the last update and I will try my best to chronicle our adventures.

April 23 - Yangshuo

All five of us got foot massages in the afternoon before we left for the train - even Dad. He had to be coaxed into going and then the lady who did his massage beat the crap out of him. It was pretty funny. I think his shoulder was sore for a few days and I doubt we'll get him to go again. My massage was lovely :-)

We were pleasantly surprised by the berths on the train. It wasn't exactly luxury but was not bad. There was enough space for our luggage and we each had a bunk that was big enough to stretch out in. And the beds were the softest we've seen. Have I mentioned that the Chinese like really hard beds? It's awful. Anyway, we had a good night on the train and managed to get some sleep.

April 24-27 - Yangtze River Cruise

The train arrived in a city called Wuhan and then we had a five hour bus to Lichang where we had lunch and picked up some snacks for the boat. Eddie told us that the alcohol would be expensive onboard so we picked up a few bottles of wine. Ok, so maybe it was 8 bottles. We had to be prepared for anything and boy were we glad later! The cruise turned out to be everything I expected. For those of you who don't know, I dread cruises. I don't like being crowded with other people, don't like small rooms, don't like buffets and don't like being couped up. This cruise offered all of that and more!!!

We arrived at the dock to a dingy looking ship. When we boarded we were herded through the lobby, which tried hard to be spectacular but really looked old and tired, and into the dining room with it's low ceilings and stained table cloths. Our river guide, Spring, gave us an introduction to the boat and the schedule for the next day and things started to look up. There was an excursion the following day, lots of lectures and even a gym onboard. And, hey, we were there for the scenery anyway so who cares if the boat is a little old? We checked into our room, which was small but ok (we won't be in the rooms much, right?) and had a snack for dinner as no meal was served onboard that night.

The next morning we set sail. It was a pea soup kind of day and a bit drizzly. At 8am we left the boat for the excursion to the Three Gorges Dam. The dam is massive - over a mile long - but they did a good job of not letting us foreigners get too close. We had been hoping for a Hoover Dam kind of tour where you go inside and see the turbines but no dice. So we viewed it from a distance and then were taken to....the gift shop! Good grief. At least they had a nice model of the dam there. Anyway, there are some interesting facts about the dam: when the dam is completed it will be the world's largest hydroelectric dam; when finished, the rising waters above the dam site will displace over 1 million people (our local guides reported that the people were happy to leave their ancestral land and move to the new cities that were being built...do you think the government might have made them say that??); there are five locks to move boats up and down the river and they are building a "ship elevator" that will raise the boats up 113 meters in a speedier (but expensive) alternative to the locks. We hear rumors that international experts say the elevator will never work and we have also heard that the dam is built on a fault line. I can't back-up any of my claims on this as I have just tried to google the Three Gorges Dam and the Chinese goverment seems to have blocked any website with negative comments about the dam. Did you know they employ tens of thousands of people to censor the internet?? Ok, let me get down off my soap box and get back to the cruise.

When we got back to the boat we had our first of many bad buffet lunches. And thus began the downward spiral of the cruise. I don't want to bore you, so let me just say that the food was bad, the entertainment was bad and we were couped up in our room most of the time. The gym had two broken bikes but I was so desperate to burn off energy I used one. In one of the lectures the topic was pearls and we were told if we wore them it would bring us good health and get rid of wrinkles. This was coming from the guy who ran the onboard pearl gift shop...are you kidding me? There was also a talent show which we were forced to do a skit for (we were nearly booed of the stage) and a fashion show where they modeled clothes from the gift shop, including rain coats with the boat company's logo - I nearly giggled myself to death on that one. They had massage and manicures onboard but they were triple the usual price. They wanted $10 an hour for internet when we had been paying around fifty cents everywhere else. Ugh.

The one redeeming quality of the cruise was the scenery. The gorges were very pretty and you could easily spend hours watching the shoreline go by. We had passed the third gorge by the morning of Day 2 and after that it changed to mostly farm land. There are depth markers on the hills to show how high the water will rise and clearly many of these farmers will be out of luck when the dam project is completed.

We were glad when the cruise was over. The three day cruise had been about two days too long. But let's just be glad we made it safely - we had too much in common with the Titanic, our boat on the Yangtze was also an unsinkable double-hulled boat and it had only two lifeboats onboard. Each carried 17 people and there were 250 people onboard.......