Around the World trip updates

A long while ago, longer than I care to admit, we took a 4 month trip around the world.

Life got in the way and I never finished writing about the rest of our trip. I've had several emails about it (apologies!) and I'm working on getting it all up to date, which honestly is no small feat. I know there are worse problems to have.

Here are places we visited that I have written about:

New Delhi • Jaipur • Agra • Kathmandu • Bangkok • 

Kuala Lumpur • Penang / Butterworth • Singapore • Siem Reap • 

Phnom Penh • Kampong Phluk / Tonlé Sap • 

Ho Chi Minh • Củ Chi Tunnels • Mỹ Tho + The Mekong • Hong Kong • Macau

The remaining places I will be writing about include:

Beijing • Tokyo • Kyoto • Hiroshima • Miyajima • 

New Zealand's North Island + White Island • Cook Islands' Aitutaki

Oahu • San Francisco • California's Pacific Coast Highway 1 • Los Angeles • 

Las Vegas • Bryce Canyon • Antelope Canyon • The 4 Corners Monument

Albuquerque • White Sands • El Paso • New York City • 

Savannah • Hilton Head Island • Charleston

Past Travels + such...

I'm just about finished with editing all of our trip photos from our around the world trip. I never thought this day would come.

These are the places I've yet to finish writing about: Beijing, Japan, New Zealand, The Cook Islands, Hawaii, California + the Southwest US, New York City, Savannah + Charleston.

We have a few more trips already booked for the coming months and we're trying to decide what to do for our 5 year anniversary, which is going to be here before we know it.

I dug up these photos from my antique photo collection as to where we are heading next... Dubrovnik, Croatia!

Hong Kong Island

(This post is a follow up from our trip around the world. I will be writing a recap for each place we visited during our 4 month trip. Prior to Hong Kong we also visited India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam).

- Hong Kong is a very busy city. One of their solutions to dealing with the constant traffic is not only their very clean and efficient subway system and the trams.

- They also have the mid-way escalators. Right in the middle of the city they have the world's longest open-air escalator system that helps commuters make their way up and down the mountain side in a timely manner. During the morning it goes down, bringing everyone into town and after the morning rush it ascends the mountain side making the trek a bit easier. It's really helped to revitalize neighborhoods and help the flow of people, since it carries roughly 50,000 a day on the 20 escalators and 3 moving sidewalks! Wow.

- The views from Hong Kong Island are incredible.

- Our hotel on this side of the harbor even had a great rooftop pool high above the city and overlooking the harbor.

- There is also a neighborhood in this area called Soho, which is a large gathering area for the city's expats. It was fun to watch them all mingle and interact. It's a busy night spot and a great place to grab dinner or a drink.

- It's surprisingly green at the top, although the smog line is still visibly present. We spent quite a bit of time there.

- Our favorite place on Hong Kong Island was actually the Peak. It is absolutely breathtaking. The journey up is a bit more difficult. The tram is nearly at a 45 degree angle and it's ridiculously steep. Once again there is a shopping mall at the top, which is a good way to pass time in the afternoon before sunset.

- There is also a really beautiful shop at the Peak Galleria, called Goods of Desire (G.O.D.). It had these incredible fish made of paper floating above the store. I asked if they were available for purchase, which they were not. I'm not sure what I would have done with one, but they made me so happy. I don't think I will ever tire of the paper lanterns and bright colors. Another place we really liked was a restaurant called SML. You could decide the portion size for the entire menu, which is such a simple, but great concept. The food was great, too.

- Even the General Post office had some color - including this beautiful collage mural on the wall, aptly made from stamps. There is so much inspiration around every corner here.

- It was a tease to see ingredients for pumpkin pie, but I did later find a pumpkin cheesecake - complete with 'Happy Halloween'. It's probably due to the strong expat influence, but Halloween seems to have caught on with the locals as well. I've never seen a place outside the US that was so into the decor and costumes, but it was a lot of fun. Even the airport was decorated when we arrived.

- We're constantly reminded how small the world has become, between friends and family being spread everywhere, to the availability of products. Things felt so accessible.

- On the flip side sometimes it seems foreignness comes from the most unlikely of places. I was shocked to see a city of this magnitude using bamboo scaffolding. I also noticed skin bleaching cream in several ladies shopping bags and TV commercials promoting its usage. I guess the beauty market is universal, but still so unsettling.

- Other interesting things during our stay on the HKI side was a migrant worker sit in. One of my friend Jeff's colleagues, who we met at the Oktoberfest, is also part of a German - American marriage with 2 children. They were telling us how even people without children often have help. Evidently many of the apartments in Hong Kong have a room off the kitchen specifically for this. I wasn't sure what to make of that, because I'm sure many of these people (mainly women) easily become indentured servants. It was interesting throughout our stay we would see large groups of women gathered on the streets playing cards, giving each other pedicures, or plucking gray hairs for each other.

Next stop... Macau.

Kowloon

(This post is a follow up from our trip around the world. I will be writing a recap for each place we visited during our 4 month trip. Prior to Hong Kong we also visited India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam).

As a rather large city Hong Kong is split by Victoria harbor into two areas - Kowloon + Hong Kong Island. They are slightly different from one another, although both impressive. There are countless skyscrapers and it's an interesting mix of Chinese meets Western culture. It is densely populated with a very capitalistic mentality, which is so different from China.

- While many of the buildings do have lit ads on the top, it seems to lack billboards and ads that you'd expect to see in a city of this size. The building height in combination with the proximity to mountains and water make the city so visually stunning. It's been given the title of 'Most vertical city in the world', which is easy to understand.

- Something we enjoyed was staying in various areas of the city. For the first few days we stayed on the Kowloon side. We took a short trip to Macau and then came back and stayed on Hong Kong Island. It gave us a better idea of what Hong Kong was about by having a base in various areas of the city.

- Much of the city seems to be underground. Once again it's mall after mall and many of them are connected underground. It's a shoppers paradise, although I'm not sure who is buying everything. Many of the stores are higher end and after seeing our third Burberry store in 10 minutes we no longer batted an eye at it. Brands are evidently the way people here demonstrate their status. After seeing everyone plastered in Louis Vuitton and the like it felt rather trite.

- We ventured down to the Harbor / touristy area called Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). Of course a large mall was waiting in the midst. Thankfully they not only contain shops, but also restaurants and grocery stores. One quick walk through the grocery assured us that anything and everything we could ever want would be attainable.

- A few unexpected Autumn surprises came for us. We were able to meet up with my friend Jeff who was studying in Hong Kong and we celebrated at - Oktoberfest!

- We were a bit disappointed they were serving Löwenbräu, especially since there isn't a shortage of German beer... but that didn't ruin our fun.

- Their Oktoberfest is filled with more games and odd songs. Some of the band was from Rettenberg in Allgäu, while other members came from Munich. I'm not really sure what their streaker pot dance was about, but the crowd was certainly hysterically laughing.

- Although we are partial to Oktoberfest in Munich, we have to give it to Hong Kong for giving a full hearted attempt with one stunning background. It's funny to think I've celebrated Oktoberfest in Cincinnati, Chicago, Hong Kong, and of course Munich. This was said to be Asia's biggest Oktoberfest.

- The Kowloon side is busy with shopping, restaurants, and markets oriented towards electronics, gold fish, and jade.

-We even stopped by the night market to see the city awaken. All of our thoughts about being able to obtain virtually anything were reiterated. It's amazing how international the city is while still retaining it's Chinese spirit.

- The array of foods, goods for sale, and smells in the air is immense. It's a bit of sensory overload, but in a good way.

- If the smells and sights aren't enough stimulation there is also a spectacular light show along the harbor with lots of lights and colors every evening.

- The light show is most dazzling from the Kowloon side, but it's definitely worth checking out.

- Jeff gave us several tips that we took to heart, including a restaurant for dim sum, which was a really great meal. I was enamoured with their fish tank and all of the little ones that would come up to check out the fish.

- There were a few interesting things outside of the lack of ads, that we noticed around Hong Kong. One, was that the money was issued by different banks and had different apperances. There was even a $10 coin and a $10 note. Strange. Another thing was the free internet in the public parks, which we greatly appreciated.

Lucky Dog

This is an incredible commercial for the New Zealand Lotto.

I need a trip to India's blue city - Jodhpur and a dog like Wilson!

Mỹ Tho + The Mekong

(This post is a follow up from our trip around the world. I will be writing a recap for each place we visited during our 4 month trip. Prior to Vietnam we also visited India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia).

Our trip to the Vietnamese country side meant getting up at 6am and taking a bus 3 hours through the city and suburbs to reach the boat quay at the Mekong.

- This time our guide was named Hai. He informed us on why the motorbikes have become so popular. Evidently there is a 120% tax on cars, which easily makes even the cheapest cost $35,000 USD. The alternative motorbikes can be inexpensively knock off Hondas from China costing as little as $250 USD. Thankfully helmets are also easily accessible and cost $1.25 USD. He told us the helmets were very important, because they drink a lot of rice wine after work.

- Once on the boat to Mỹ Tho and Bến Tre (Bamboo Port) saw how active the Mekong Delta is. One of the biggest exports in the Mekong is actually sand, which has made the water as deep as 40 meters. They dredge the bottom and ship it to countries like Singapore. Many of the residents make roughly $1,000 USD annually and 90% of their income is from exporting rice. It costs $200 USD / year for children to attend school, so many families simply can't afford it.

- We stopped at one of the bigger islands, Unicorn Island. Here we got were able to visit a small bee farm where they make honey and sample a cup of tea. Stefan even held the honey comb and thankfully wasn't stung.

- We walked through small orchards to a tropical fruit tasting, which felt tailored towards Western tastes. A couple from New Zealand that we befriended sat with us and the consensus was that we all hate papaya. Many of their fruits are also served with a chili salt, which I enjoyed with my perpetual love of salt.

- After the island visit we boarded a long boat to Turtle Island. The canals along the mangrove swamps were very beautiful and all of the foliage made us feel very small.

- We arrived to the larger boat in time to get stuck in a major storm. When I say rain, I mean pouring rain as in “I feel like I stand in the shower with my clothes on” type of rain. We had been lucky so far with the rain, but it rained every day in Ho Chi Minh City. Somehow up until this point we were able to avoid getting wet, so I guess we kinda had that coming for us.

- Even though it was still was 90 degrees, we were happy not to have luggage with us to get drenched. It was even kind of fun. Definitely a moment where it is good to have a sense of humor and a good laugh. Getting off the boat we all knew there was a slim chance we'd have an inch of dry clothing by the time we arrived to the local coconut candy making area.

- There aren't too many industries around and it's evident the people of the area are resourceful. Coconut candies (Kẹo Dừa) are made on the island and many women gather around folding them into their paper wrappings with lightning fast speed. We bought some to support them and send back to family.

- At the final island of the day we stopped for a quick lunch and were startled to see this bull trying with all of his might to keep his head above water. Thankfully after we ate someone had tied him to a tree instead.

- The island lunch consisted for some 'Elephant ear fish' (Tai tuong), which is a local speciality. There were plenty of stray dogs doing speaking the universal dog language of trying to look sweet in hopes of getting some scraps.

- For the way back to Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to take the speed boat, which took about 3 hours. The trip was nice, we were able to see the sunset and all the things that people transport on the Mekong.

- Many of the families even live in their boats - complete with dogs, which is really difficult to comprehend. People on the banks would wave and children would get especially excited. I can't envision what our lives look like to them. We get bused in, we wave, and are probably seen as rich and unconcerned.

All in all, it was a funny day, not really what we thought it would be, but nevertheless a fun one.

Next stop... Hong Kong!

Củ Chi Tunnels

(This post is a follow up from our trip around the world. I will be writing a recap for each place we visited during our 4 month trip. Prior to Vietnam we also visited India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia).

The Củ Chi Tunnels are an experience. I think we were expecting more of a historical tour and it was anything but. Our guide was ‘John Wayne’, and he had a very cutting and dry sense of humor, but I guess that is typical considering he frequently visits a place like this and deals with the tourists it draws. We had an interesting mix of people on the bus, stretching from loud Australian girls in summer dresses to a Canadian professor. Entry for foreigners costed 75,000 Vietnamese đồng ($3.85 USD) and 15,000 (77¢ USD) Vietnamese đồng for those from Vietnam.

- Not long after we arrived people were buying ice cream and complaining about the heat. There was also the sound of gun fire in the distance, catering to the tourists that needed to shoot guns to make things feel more realistic. Somehow I expect more of people while visiting a memorial site where people lost their lives, but I just wondered what was going on around me. Everyone came for different reasons, but we were reminded of the voyeristic types places like this seem to draw, which is one reason I tend to avoid war related sites.

- At the Củ Chi Tunnels we were first shown the entry to the hidden get away tunnels in the ground. Typically the bottoms of the trees would be marked, so if enemy troops were coming after the Viet Cong they could essentially escape by disappearing underground.

- Watching several brave guys on our tour fit into these very small openings made me really think how the small stature of the Vietnamese people really proved to be an asset, because even if these tunnels were detected many included traps or were simply too narrow for Western bodies to fit into.

- The tunnel system was built from 1948-1954. While simple, they were also undoubtedly very sophisticated. Frankly many of the young American GIs never stood a chance. There were various levels to aid in escape and they were made out of the clay so if the area was bombed it would only make it stronger. Through the war 30% of the first level were bombed. Time and time again John Wayne stressed these tunnels were not for living. If enemy troops were coming they would slip into the tunnels and go under them in the opposite direction, thus evading capture or worse.

- It was a sweltering jungle and then there were rudimentary traps made from mundane and ordinary objects. Suddenly window boxes and folding chairs were made deadly metal stakes beneath.

- War is indeed harsh and it pains me to think of men dying slow and agonizing deaths as they struggled around the terrain. Their end would have been horrifically tragic, especially if they didn't immediately die.

- Some of the questions tourists asked were just ridiculous, especially because their concerns had been addressed, but John Wayne humorously put them in their place. After demonstrating various traps and allowing people to go into the tunnels, a rather loud girl asked where people would use the restroom.
They had gone through the tunnels as well, on all fours, and John Wayne said, "not eating, not bathroom, not bedroom, no living in tunnel!!"

- Another way they evaded US troops was to make sandals from thick mats, which hid their tracks and were able to get wet. As he showed them to us in the various sizes he said 'these for monkeys, these for children, these for Vietnamese, these for Westerners'.

- The strangest part of the Củ Chi Tunnels was what a tourist racket it is. They had the most ridiculous and kitschy mannequins - some that even moved. The worst part was the firing range. It seems particularly senseless to have something like that at an area that was so war torn where so many people died, but you could pay to shoot an AK47. There were even prizes for hitting targets. Unreal. We kept standing there thinking this cannot be happening.

- After the shooting range we watched a propoganda video detailing a young woman who was 'an American killing hero' and how 'Washington DC wanted to turn Vietnam into a dead land' and attempted to destroy the Củ Chi Tunnels, but didn't succeed because the Viet Cong had 'a riffle in one hand and a plow in the other'.

- There was a diorama in the corner that looked like it was made by school children. It was really strange and even showed families having dinner underground while bombs and destruction went on above. John Wayne didn't address that, although I do believe what he said regarding it being impossible to live in these tight spaces, despite what all of those elementary school history books say.

The entire day reminded me of the Comedy Central television show Strangers with Candy with Amy Sedaris.

This will probably go down as the most bizarre day of our trip.