Lauren and Ural

Turkey: Istanbul and Ankara

2009-06-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from my third trip to Turkey and I can victoriously declare that this is the first time I've been there without feeling particularly culture shocked. That's not to say that nothing surprises me or that I no longer savor the hilarious moments that arise from time to time such as the nice young man in the Istanbul airport wearing a t-shirt in English that read: I'm a virgin.

The winning moment for me was the afternoon that Ural and I paid a visit to his Great Aunt and Uncle who are 86 and 92, respectively, and live in an immaculate apartment in Taksim, the heart of Istanbul. Although this was "just a lunch visit," it had all the components of a typical Turkish visit. We took the elevator to the fourth floor (the old school elevators that fit two adults on a diet and have that little door you have to close) and were greeted by Ayhan (the Great Aunt) and led to the "salon" (the formal living room) to say hi to Bahri (the Great Uncle). We sat around a circle of fine furniture and discussed how they were doing that day and how our travels had gone. Shortly after, we were invited into the dining room which was elegantly prepared with multiple dishes and utensils indicative of a multi-course meal to follow. Luckily, Ayhan and Bahri have some professional help (as most people do in Turkey) and she had helped Ayhan prepare all the food for the meal and would be serving us that afternoon. For me, it was my first time dining in her home and I was completely stoked: her food was something of a legend as Ural had told me of dining there in college and starving himself for days before a planned visit. Ayhan made a point of telling me that it was her food and her recipes even though she had had some help preparing everything. From start to finish it was a decadent meal that I will remember forever. It was all typical Turkish home-cooked food such as "wedding soup," slow cooked beef with eggplant, "Su boregi" which is a noodley-eggy multi-layered cheese (like a lasagna) thing that was incredible. You can be sure it was the best as Bahri insisted on silence as we ate it and only cheek-stuffed smiles were exchanged around the table. Several olive-oil dishes followed and then we were presented with the "tatli," the dessert, which was the Turkish speciality of "chicken breast with ice cream." OK, trust me, it's good. It's basically a thick custard seasoned by chicken breast "reduction" (just the flavor, no actual chicken) and topped with ice cream. You have to try it to believe it but it works!

The real victory of my cultural assimilation came when I wasn't the least bit surprised that we were being presented with a large bowl of fruit directly following this 9-course meal. The "old" me would have tried to resist and say no, insisting that I was "full." But now I'm wise and I know that resisting and saying no is a futile exercise in frustration. So, without hesitation, even as I felt my jeans cutting into my ever-expanding stomach, I reached for a peach and put it on my plate. As a final nod to my newfound comfort with all things Turkish I even grabbed my knife and fork and proceeded to carve the fruit in a way that I would never do at home.

So, there you have it I have graduated from "Eating a Large Meal at a Turkish Relatives House." I don't know what the next level of education will be but some potential course names could be: "Traveling with Small Children to a Foreign Country," "Preparing a Turkish meal for your Turkish Mother-in-Law," and the dreaded "Finally Learning Enough Turkish to Speak with your Grandmother." I have not yet completed the prerequisites for these upcoming courses.

The rest of our Istanbul adventure was nothing less than luxurious and regal. After a day of hanging out in Taksim, we moved our belongings to the other side of town to the Four Seasons Istanbul in Sultanahmet near the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia. We were checking in as the esteemed guests of Ural's best friend Basar and his fiance Lindsay from New York. Through a family connection, Basar and Lindsay had managed to throw together one of the most elegant and enjoyable weddings one could imagine in less than a few months. We had some time to settle in and take a much-needed nap before the evening's events and I can honestly say that the bed at the Four Seasons is simply the most comfortable I've ever been in my life. Hands down. I was "this close" to calling down to the front desk, giving them my credit card, and ordering a complete bed "set up" to be shipped to my home so that I could replicate this wonderful slumber experience. Now that I think of that again, I just might do it. One should not go a minute longer in their life without being that comfortable.

The Four Seasons is famous for their service and at first, for a humble Midwesterner, it can be a little "over the top" and even unnecessary. But, after a few short hours, one could really get used to this! The room had every detail you could imagine from automatic closing curtains to a huge flat screen TV. The fancy soaking tub in the bathroom looked out into the gardens and the flower bed outside our window was tended to at least twice while we were there.

The wedding ceremony took place at sunset on the terrace of the hotel. The setting was simply awesome. The Four Seasons sits directly between the two iconic Istanbul sites: the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia and these served as the backdrop to the wedding. Lindsay and Bas quickly signed the "book" to solidify their marriage (no vows or processions in TUrkey, just a couple of witnesses and a government authorized wedding officiator) and we got directly to the party! The meal was a highlight as the Four Seasons cuisine was spot on serving luxurious Turkish cuisine. One of my pet peeves is when a nice hotel in a country that is famous for its cuisine tries to do some OTHER cuisine like "Italian Fusion" or "Asian Inspired" when we happen to be in a country which has a cuisine worth celebrating. Unfortunately, a lot of TUrkish fine hotels serve mediocre versions of other cuisines when they could simply just do a great job at serving classic Turkish dishes. Point being: the Four Seasons did not disappoint and it was outstanding.

Lindsay and Basar struck the perfect note by a having a small wedding (52 people) and a beautiful meal that we could enjoy because they didn't insist on extraordinarily loud music that prevents one from conversing with your dinner mates. We actually got to catch up with all of Ural's old college friends and enjoy the evening. It was a special event that ended early enough to enjoy at least 10 hours of sleep in the best bed in the world!

We awoke to a phone call from Basar inviting us down to the garden for a Four Seasons brunch. Holy sh^%# is all I have to say about this brunch. Your have to go there and experience this brunch. All the words describing the food and their respective adjectives, synonyms, and antonyms could not properly relay this culinary treat. You should look at my pictures and that will help. The word "choice" doesn't describe how much food was on offer. From the cheeses to the sushis, the sashimis, and the made to order pasta meals...it was absurd. I was left being curious about how many people it took to create this brunch before it opened in the morning. It was a feat of great excellence and I suggest that you simply go to Expedia.com, buy a ticket to Istanbul, and dine at the Sunday brunch at the Four Seasons and fly home. Then you can die at your leisure.

As if the weekend couldn't get any better, we took a private boat trip on the Bosphorus (the body of water that divides Istanbul from the European side and the Asia side) in the sunshine with a small group of friends. It's the ONLY proper way to see the city. YOu can see all the palaces where the Sultan lived and the old castle ruins. You can get up close and personal with the fisherman and see all the local children jumping in the water. Fantastic....go....do it....now!

The day ended with a hedonistic adventure to the best baklava shop in town. We took a couple forms of public transport and walked several blocks until we arrived and got to savor the sweet, syrupy, goodness of the world's best baklava. Did you know they even have chocolate baklava???

By Tuesday, we hadn't slept much and had eaten way TOO much as we boarded our plane for Ankara. I had some kind of delusion of how I was going to exercise when I arrived home to my in-laws place but that didn't happen for several days. First of all, Ankara was oppressively hot AGAIN! Apparently it had been really nice and pleasant up until our arrival when the heat wave descended on the valley. Holy Jesus! It was hot. So, what do you do in Ankara when it's hot? You eat. You eat and lay and eat and lay. Try to stay cool and eat. I have great photos of Turkish homemade meals in my slideshow as I photographed most of our special meals. Because Ural hadn't been home in two years, we got the King's reception and there was enough food to survive any natural disaster or World War as Merih had amply stocked the house. I can't complain at all about the food because every single bite is absolutely amazing. But, by the time the trip was over, Ural and I could barely fit into our jeans....oh well! You only live once!

We enjoyed a few great restaurants in Ankara including my favorite: Iskender. There is no menu at this place. You simply walk in and say "bir" or "bir bucuk" which indicates whether you want a single portion or a 1 1/2 portion. Ural was the only one brave enough to order one and a half... It's a ridiculous platter of incredibly thin sliced seasoned beef set over a bed of pita-like bread, topped with tomato sauce and yogurt. It's insanely good and it would be one of the few dishes on the planet that would keep me from being a vegetarian. The meal is perfectly complimented by a salad, dolma, and little kebaps. Nothing here is an afterthought...even the salad is perfect. Lastly, and maybe the main reason you would come to this restaurant, is the dessert of kunefe (or kanafa which you may have had in Lebanese restaurants). It's a soft cheese, covered in some kind of flaky stuff, pan-fried and topped with a syrup. ohmigod it's insane. I don't even think I have a picture of the dessert because I was too busy dying while I ate it.

We had several family get togethers which included a Father's Day celebration at the beloved Tennis Club where I took lessons a couple of years ago. Sadly it was an oppressively hot day at 98 degrees F but we still managed to get both grandmothers out of the house and to the tennis club for a nice dinner. They were so happy and even though I can't fully carry on a great conversation with them yet, I can understand SO much more TUrkish these days and I was able to get the jist of most of the conversation. Either way, whenever I uttered something that indicated that I understood what was said, my grandmother got really excited and clapped her hands. It's nice to be appreciated!

We were sad to go on Tuesday as we enjoyed a nice midday lunch with Mom, Dad, and Gozde. It was bittersweet knowing that it might be a while before we see everyone again but that we had a great time during this visit. I think we were all happy that we didn't have to deal with a wedding for the first time in a couple of years! Remember family and friends, if you ever find yourself buying that plane ticket to Turkey, you better let us know as we will hook you up with a local Turkish friend who will most certainly show you at least a good meal and possibly a small tour ;)

Preponderance of Purple: A Spring Fashion Guide from Italy

2009-05-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Get out your grape, your lavender, your lilac, your violet, and wear it with purple pride! Purple is the hue of the season and the Italians are strutting their stuff. If you are thinking that purple is just for the ladies, think again! The proudest purple posers have been Italian men and we’ve seen it all forms: purple argyle sweaters, purple ties, purple suede loafers, purple belts, purple pocket scarves, purple jackets!

As if not to be defeated, the women have really shown their purple presence in purple glitter-trimmed jackets, purple jeans, purple trench coats, purple hair pieces—you name it! Check out my fashion montage that I’ve put together of Italians expressing their purple passion. And no, I did not ask for permission when I got these “purple action shots”….oh what we do for fashion…

Todi, Italia

2009-05-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

A highlight of this trip so far, in its third week, is that there are very few tourists (if any) in Umbria. There is nothing wrong with Umbria. It just happens to be Tuscany's little brother so no one comes over here and we have the whole place to ourselves.

I'm sure the restaurant owners and property renters wouldn't agree but the lack of fellow tourists has really been fabulous. We arrived in Todi, a VERY medieval hill town, last week and checked into our rental apartment. The idea was to really get a feel for "hill town" life by staying just a few hundred meters from the main piazza. Well, we definitely got a "feel" (in my glutimus maximus) for the hilliness as in order to go anywhere from our place we had to go severely uphill on foot to reach anything. I'm sure it did more good than harm for our health but WOW--when you get passed on a medieval hill by a medieval hill town elderly resident, it's humbling.

Puccini (our dog, for those of you who haven't met her) loved walking in Todi and getting her paws all dirty in medieval dirty streets. I'm pretty sure the dirt has been there since the 1200's. She took immediately to the "cafe culture" of Italy and would greet espresso drinkers as they passed in and out of the bars. Puccini really became "famous" in Todi throughout our stay and was welcomed into fine trattorias. This week, she was even allowed to roam around Carsolae, an ancient Roman site. She still isn't allowed into the butcher's shop...

Todi's medieval-ness would've been a lot more fun had it not been medievally COLD while we were there. Heating is a luxury in Italy and at 4 Euros an hour we were racking up quite a bill. Fortunately, through a friend of a friend, my Dad was able to land us a week at a countryside villa that is owned and rented out by an American expat. What qualifies a home to be called a “villa”? Well, it’s an enormous restored home, often with olive groves or grape vines, complete with swimming pool and furnished with all the creature comforts one would want. For my Dad, the highlight was the gourmet kitchen and try as we did, my Mom and I really weren’t the best audience for his food because we just don’t eat that much. Here we are in the land of cured meats and homemade sausages and we unfortunately brought our squirrel-like appetites that are usually satiated by grazing on fruits and vegetables paired with a starch: pasta, potatoes, or refined sugar. Pick your poison.

My Dad really could have used some male support to finish off dinners of fire-roasted sausages, breaded veal milanesa, and the daily plates of shaved prosciutto and melon. I’m sure he got his fill in the local restaurants as he jumped at the chance to order a meat dish. But, beware of what you wish for as this afternoon’s lunch left us feeling as though we’ve been tied to a salt lick for days.

We ventured over to a local restaurant serving organic foods for lunch after a brisk hike this morning. As today is the “labor day” of Europe, they were serving a fixed menu and would we enjoy just eating what was brought out? Why, yes! No problem. We were sure it would be good. It was---just really a lot of food--- mostly from the meat category and mostly heavily salted and cured. The antipasti began with a selection of prosciutto, cured beef, and cured wild boar. The pasta course was two heaps of starch: one was a crepe filled with local sausage and béchamel sauce, the other a fetticini with large chunks of gauncale (basically big ol’ bacon bits). As if that weren’t enough, 2 meat courses followed: roast pork with crispy skin, briefly interrupted by a salad to cleanse the pallet, roast lamb and more sausage. When the owner inquired about dessert, I’m sure I let out a groan, but luckily my Mom said something really polite in Italian like “no thank you it was really fabulous but you can’t be serious about dessert?”

After many multi-course meals overseas, you remember that the "slow life" is one of the reasons you bother to travel and if it takes 2 hours to have lunch---enjoy it. Savor it. If you found yourself in a two hour lunch in the US you probably wouldn't be leaving a tip. It's those small differences and special experiences that make the long flight and the jet lag worth it. Ciao for now, we'll report soon from Toscana...Lauren

Umbria, Italia

2009-04-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Buon Giorno!

Those pictures are just the antipasti! Keep reading as there are more photos later in this entry just like there are multiple "piattis" in Italy. As for myself, I have finally recovered from my lunchtime food coma enough to touch base with all of you! Let me start with a description of today's homemade lunch: proscuitto (carved by HAND by the local butcher, Ugo, who cures his own meat) and melon, bruschetta with fresh ricotta, thyme, oil and lemon, homemade artichoke spread, and I finished off the remaining portions of risotto with handmade sausage from Norcia (the most famous sausage location in Italy).

To pass the days here in the Italy, I've been picking wild asparagus like the locals. While my parents plan the next meal (Dad prepping all day in the kitchen, Mom turning our oranges into supremes and making sure to drizzle olive oil on everything), I'm off climbing terraced olive tree groves in search of elusive wild asparagus. If you don't know anything about asparagus (I didn't), it grows in the weeds and sprouts underneath dead bushes and thorny brush. So, you really gotta get in the trenches to find these suckers! I would say for about 2 hours of searching, I'll get about 1 pound for dinner. I first learned from our landlord here at Campello Alto that I was allowed to pick anywhere I liked and then once I got into the "sport," I realized that I wasn't alone. There are cars abandoned along the country roads like there has been a nuclear meltdown and you can be sure that its owner is knee deep in the brush clipping little asparagus. But seriously, there is competition for this stuff! Everywhere I picked I could see where people had snipped before. My mom, with her Italian, actually overheard whole Italian families discussing the finer points of asparagus hunting on Easter at a busy espresso bar. "You really have to know where to look! Yeah, Luigi came home with 2 kilos the other day!" You get the idea: this is WHAT they are doing out here in the countryside of Italy.

When we aren't cooking in our gourmet kitchen at our lovely home in the country, we are out exploring various hill towns in Umbria. We have to give "the award" to my Dad for Excellent Foreign Driving on Perilous Mountain Roads. For one thing, he's pretty good with the stick shift and on top of that, our house is literally perched 1000 feet up an extremely steep hillside. In exchange for the panoramic views, we have to cheer my Dad on every time we zoom up the hill and then come to a not-so-relaxing halt upon arrival on our parking pad. You must understand that the hill is about a 25% grade and that our "parking" is basically a ledge overlooking all of Umbria. We had a bit of a scare the first day when my Dad mistook the accelerator for the brake, but he's gotten better since...practically a professional (he's right here, I have to write that...you understand).

For me, it's my first visit to Italy. I'm lucky because I'm with two people who are Italy experts: one in Italian and one in Italian food. Without having to negotiate the language barrier or decipher a menu, I'm pretty much on autopilot and having the best vacation of my life. No need for a phrasebook, no need to experience a poor meal. Once you've conquered language and food, Italy is pretty simple!

I had one day on my own: Rome. Both my parent's and Ural have both "been there, done that" so everyone urged me to get there a day early and explore. Now, I'm normally a do-it-yourself tourist but I've got to say that the double-decker bus that takes you all around Rome in 2 hours is the way to go! St. Peter's and the Vatican, check. Colosseum, check. The Roman Forum, check. Rome is spectacular and should not be missed but it most certainly can be done in a few short hours. To view Rome only photos, click below...if you want to see hill town food, keep reading!

After meeting my parent's at the Rome train station and an unplanned sprint to our connecting train to Umbria (Dad appropriately booked our train tickets online leaving a very narrow window of time--what would a European vacation be without a sprint to a train?), we settled into our Italian lifestyle. Espresso and croissant for breakfast around 10 a.m. A long stroll through medieval hill towns until lunch. Lunch mainly consisting of homemade pastas topped with wild asparagus and olive oil, porcini mushrooms, or, if you are feeling particularly decadent, black truffles. The food is so rich and flavorful that it leaves you completely satisfied. At least until you get hungry for dinner...pizza anyone?

You'll see that most of my pictures are of, yes, FOOD. But aren't those the best pictures? However, don't discount the vistas from our house in Campello Alto or the intricacies of Umbrian hill town piazzas.

Buon appetito! Mangia! Mangia! Feast your eyes on our photos...

Argentina to San Diego to England to Italy....

2009-04-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Where in the world are Lauren and Ural? The quick answer: I'm in the countryside of Italy and Ural is working somewhere in a conference room in Los Angeles. Unfair, I know. But after 3 months of being back from our whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia and South America, our life is still in a relative state of flux and neither one of us can really get settled anywhere until we find out when and where we are permanently moving.

In the meantime, I figure I will blog about travel because, well, that's what I'm up to these days. Whereas Ural and I were doing "budget travel" for 6 months, I'm now doing what I've coined as "freeload travel." I've managed to get myself a free plane ticket to Europe with my accumulated AA miles program and piggyback on to my parent's trip to Italy and stop off in England to visit my friend Christina. Sadly, Ural couldn't come along as someone needs to work so we can maybe, one day, travel again :).

First thing's first: Buenos Aires, Argentina. The culmination of our 6 month trip was 3 weeks in Buenos Aires and a Christmas holiday rendevous with my parent's and brother. To sum up our time there, several titles have been considered:

Buenos Aires: In Search of a Bad Meal

Buenos Aires: How Many Art Museums Can There Be?

Buenos Aires: Why Must They Add Ham to Everything?

That's pretty much everything you need to know about BA. So, just go and eat. Make sure you are hungry and you are not a vegetarian. Sometimes, when I wasn't feeling particularly carniverous, I would ask to have a vegetarian meal, "pasta vegetenario" for example, and then they would ask me the requisite question: "would you like ham on that?" In Spanish, or course, but nonetheless a very curious thing to ask someone that just ordered something vegetarian. Basically, they just don't get it.

My only recommendation for those embarking on an adventure in Argentina and you want to have a good time: take a basic Spanish course before you go. It really just saves you a lot of undo stress if you can at least place an order in Spanish, read a menu, and tell a taxi driver where you want to go. Other than that, go and eat and be merry.

Here are lots and lots of photos from Argentina and most of them are of food. So, if you are viewing this before lunch, beware.

Now, dear reader, because it's been such a long time since Argentina, this travel blog needs to move expediently on to my most recent adventures. The lovely and historic English countryside has much to offer in the way of history but couldn't be more gastronomically challenged. Make sure you've had your fill of foodie photos from my Argentina pictures before you set your eyes on my England images, prepare yourself...food is scarce and so is flavor...or should I say "flavour."

Thank god Christina's husband, Thorsten, is a good cook! He saved us from starvation during my week-long visit to their home near the Lakenheath Air Force base 2 hours from London. In the bustling town of Feltwell, population 50, the motto should be "don't forget anything from the store!" While very quaint, the cute town of Feltwell lacks modern conveniences and I'm pretty sure the only ones in the world who could survive there are the very resourceful Christina and Thorsten. I've included pictures of their house and their beautiful backyard where the tulips were just starting to bloom and Thosten chops wood for the fire each night. Let's just say that the Nintendo Wii never served a better customer than the Zimmerman's in Feltwell. Luckily for them, they are spending the month of April in Holland where they'll be able to enjoy the famous tulip blooms which should be out any day.

We did, however, take a road trip to the coast of Southern England to check out Dover Castle and the famed white cliffs of Dover on a rare sunny day while I was there. We hiked along the Cliffs with camera in one hand and a Christina-made screwdriver cocktail in the other. Fun was had by all.

The next day we ventured on to Leeds Castle, reportedly the "World's Most Romantic Castle," by our trusty Lonely Planet guide and definitely did not disappoint. Surely for Christina and Thorsten the day couldn't have been that romantic with me in tow but we did manage to get ourselves signed up for a tour of the castle grounds on those silly-looking-Segway-people-mover-things. You've seen them: the two-wheeled machines that you stand up on and ride around with the little handlebars. We got sucked into taking this tour after we as so much as mentioned our interest to the ticket office. Before we were aware of it, we were being escorted off to the "training area" and were handing over cash and signing our lives away. A very enthusiastic Segway dealer announced that we were basically his second customers EVER and that we'd get the hang of things right away. Little did he know who he was dealing with. Christina immediately mastered the art of "doing donuts" with her machine and I had already sped off up the hill with my helmet falling off my head. We were rightly instructed to "watch the pedestrians" and make sure "not to spook the sheep" as the Segway instructor had brokered a deal with the local sheep herder to let him use his land for the tours. Apparently, and this is a little known fact, when sheep get scared they risk having a heart-attack which can kill them instantly. So, that wouldn't be good for business.

The Segway business at Leeds Castle is bound to fail for a number of reasons including what I'll term as "runaway Segway Syndrome." After safely dismounting our Segways for a short picture break, disaster nearly struck. Smiling for our photo, I hear "watch out!!!!" and we all simultaneously dove in separate directions into the dirt as we skillfully avoided the Segway coming at us at full speed. I don't know how, but the Segway apparently can drive itself, completely unprovoked! We were all cracking up having narrowly survived but I can't imagine any nice restrained British family finding that incident so funny. So, enjoy our photos from the trip and just imagine us wreaking havoc on the Segways.

Los Glaciares National Park, El Chalten, Patagonia, Argentina

2008-12-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

After our quick trip to the glacier, we were back on the bus to El Chalten, the most remote part of Southern Patagonia. Although the trip was supposed to be 3.5 hours instead of 5.5 hours due to recent road pavings, it was still over 4 hours and was a pretty rough ride. We arrived around noon to El Chalten and AS SOON AS we stepped off the bus, we got taste of local life: HUGE WIND. The town is situated in a flat valley directly at the foot of the mountain range that features the famous Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre peaks. The mountain peak landscape is probably THE most famous image of Patagonia and the day we drove into the region, we had sweeping clear views of the entire range. We didn´t realize what kind of luck we were having until we got to the national park office. They told us that we NEEDED to get into the mountain asap because this weather was not normal and that luck would most certainly run out eventually. Sadly, my feet were in no condition to run up the mountain the first day but we enjoyed the view from the comfort of our hotel (really more of a homestay). We checked in to the Hospedaje La Base and it´s run by this wonderful family that allow you to use all of their facilities including a spacious kitchen and a fun TV/movie loft where the owner has a huge collection of films for viewing on those not-so-perfect trekking days.

As I said before, it was windy when we got there. Ural and I figured that it was just windy that day and it was probably the wind we had to thank for keeping the bad weather from hanging around. We were wrong, though, as Chalten proved to be staggeringly windy every moment we were there. But, I think if you are there long enough, you become used to it. We never did. The first day we trudged out into the small grid of a town to search for a grocery store. They don´t really have one. They have like, a small market, which is only open for about 5 hours a day and on certain days, the shelves are bare. The town takes this HUGE siesta every day from NOON UNTIL 4. No kidding. So, good luck if you need anything during the day, basically. Again, it grows on you after a few days but when you arrive hungry and tired and can´t buy food, ugh. I suppose, however, that it led us to discovering the best bread and empanada joint in town and they are open all day...strangely. They obviously have more business savvy than the rest of the locals.

The second day was supposed to be our official ¨lazy day¨ until something really funny happened. I woke up to use the toilet and I peaked out the window. All I could see was blue sky and sparkling peaks. I got really excited and woke up Ural. I said ¨WHat time is it?¨ He looked at his watch and told me it was 6:30 a.m. I couldn´t believe it! I mean, we had been so exhausted so how could I have woken up feeling THIS GOOD!? I convinced him that I could bandage my feet enough to do the day hike to Cerro Torre and we got up. We ate breakfast, I bandaged my poor feet, and were ready to go. Then, Ural just looked at his watch and laughed. It was actually 11:00 a.m. He had been accidentaly looking at the alarm setting! Well, I was annoyed at first because anyone who knows ANYTHING about hiking to see peaks knows that you need to be at your destination by noon or you could be in for afternoon clouds and storms. But, we were already ready to go so we stubornly left the house.

Lucky for us! We practically RAN the two hours up to the Laguna Torre, the glacier and the peak. Mostly because I was a nervous wreck that the weather would turn and we´d end up staring at some storm clouds. We got there just, I swear, 20 minutes before the clouds rolled in for the rest of the WEEK! We got amazing photos of this elusive peak and I pretty much felt like I could die after seeing that.

So, my feet hurt a lot after that little mountain jaunt. We ended up taking a day off on the 3rd day and just hung around watching movies and eating empanadas. A much deserved day off, I have to say. The fourth day, we had this hair-brained idea to pack up our stuff and check out of the warm, cozy, hotel for a night up in the mountains. I figured since we had hauled our gear all the way from San Francisco that we might as well use it. Ural liked the idea of saving $60 on accomodation (El Chalten is NOT a place that´s easy to stay on budget) so he agreed to camp.

Again, I applied liberal bandages to my feet and off we went. Gorgeous weather carried us all the way up the mountain towards the Fitz Roy peak. Our plan was to hike a short 3 hours to the camp and just hang out and let my feet rest until the next day. The next morning we were supposed to get up for another sunrise at 4 a.m. and hike 1 hour up a very steep boulder field to an incredible viewpoint of the peak. It really didn´t happen that way at all though...

As I said before, the weather was awesome on our way up, which was cool because we had views of the peak the whole way. After getting to camp, we devoured our empanadas and set up the tent. Thinking all was well, we settled into our sleeping bags for an afternoon nap and reading. Then, rather abruptly, the dust storm started. I have never seen such violent bursts of DIRT and SAND get tossed off the ground by gusting winds. No matter how much Ural tried to block the bottom of the tent with rocks and wood, we got facefulls of sand and dirt all afternoon and well into the evening INSIDE THE TENT. All told, we spent 19 hours in the tent hiding from the storm. Sometime in the night, the dirt storm turned to rain (thank god!) but then in the morning rain turned to snow...cold!

As Ural says, it was character-building. We were a little stiff from hiding in our sleeping bags for 19 hours and we were very happy to pack up our stuff and basically run back to the hostel. When we got back to town, the weather was deceivingly pleasant and we saw a lot of day hikers ambitiously heading up the valley to the peak. I didn´t want to ruin anyone´s day but you could SEE the bad weather off in the distance and I tried to mention to passing hikers that it was actually SNOWING about a half hour into the hike. Can´t say they all listened to me...I just wonder how their shorts and t-shirts felt up in that valley...

So, back in the warm and loving hands of our hostel, we finally recovered and got to meet up with some new friends that we had met back in Chile near Torres del Paine. Thomas and Nicole are from Colorado and we hit it off with them from the start and ended up having tons of fun together (which is a nice break for all of us having traveled with our significant others for a couple of months each). We planned to stay at the same place and in the last few evenings we went out to eat and we even made dinner together the last night in our kitchen. Because all of us are so competitive and ambitious (they moreso than us as Thomas is a fierce cyclist and Nicole is a professional mountain guide), we ended up peer-pressuring each other to wake up at an INSANE 4 a.m. on the last morning to run up a nearby peak to watch the sunrise. Although there ended up being clouds, the colors were amazing and we felt good about making that last effort to see the famous red sunrise on the Fitz Roy peak.

We said our good-byes to the Patagonian mountains that morning and boarded our bus that would start our major BACKTRACKING all the way down Patagonia. One hour into our trip, the bus broke down in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE on a dirt road. The worst part was that the problem with the bus was that the luggage compartment wouldn´t open and the bus driver was worried that it would be more than a day to fix the mechanical system that would get our luggage out. Luckily, a team of competent mechanics rolled up with a new bus about 2 hours later and rescued us all! Even our bags! It was a hectic day which included a fellow American passenger having a crazy allergic hives attack while we were stuck on the bus. Thankfully, I had my Benadryl that I now carry for the same problem and I was able to help her out. It was kind of scary and she was convinced that she had to be rushed to the hospital. The drugs helped and she slept all the way back to Calafate. Whew! What an adventure!

Finally, yesterday was the super-duper long travel day where we did the stupid border crossing bus again PLUS another 3 hour bus all the way back to Punta Arenas, Chile (FAR away from the mountains). Tomorrow, we are off to visit a huge penguin colony down here where there are supposed to be over 7000 penguins. Guaranteed penguins and guaranteed great tourist watching! Looking forward to photos! much love and have fun prepping for Christmas! Lauren and Ural

Perito Moreno Glacier, El Calafate, Argentina

2008-12-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Ice Ice Baby...

Ural and I made the obligatory traveler stop in El Calafate, Argentina to walk on the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. FYI-Patagonia is full of glaciers but Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most accessible and it´s one of the only ones that is not receeding (yet) due to rising global temperatures. Anyway, it´s pretty cool but it sure is a pain to get there...

After the trek, I vowed to nurse my poor feet back to health and take a much-needed break from trekking for a few days. We boarded an early morning bus in Puerto Natales, Chile to travel via paved and dirt roads over the border (AGAIN) to the Argentinian side of Patagonia to see this glacier. Let me talk momentarily about these bus rides. OK, so this one was supposed to take 6 hours. They do it every day, so they should know. However, the big variable is the border crossing. If anyone has crossed the US/Mexico border this couldn´t be more UNlike it. There are like miles and miles of nothing and then all of the sudden, a little hut that either says Chile or Argentina. There are probably 3 employees for processing one bus. But, only one or maybe 2 of the employees will be working. The others will be diligently avoiding you and busying themselves with some mundane task or just blatantly watching Spanish soap operas.

You can probably guess by my ranting that our bus ride was not, in fact, six hours, but upwards of 9 hours because there was only one employee working at the Chilean border crossing. And that was for LEAVING their country---they shouldn´t have even cared!

I rest my case.

Now, the glacier. You will be much more excited by that. Upon arriving in El Calafate, a small tourist town in the middle of nowhere, we signed up to go on a day trip to the glacier and actually trek on the ice with some special spikes for your shoes called crampons. Early the next morning (all these early mornings are wearing on us!), we traveled, again, on a long bus ride to the glacier. It was super cool and not only because it was icy...

Check out the pics because it´s just a bunch of pictures of us on the ice and really close views of the glacier´s edge on the lake. The oldest part of the glacier is the part you see near the water. That ice is estimated to be about 300-400 years old. Throughout the day, as the sun bears down on the glacier, big chunks fall loudly into the water. It´s totally shocking at first and it doesn´t really get boring because each time it sounds like an avalanche of grand scale. Sometimes the chunks are so big they create big waves and mini-tsunamis on the lake´s shore.

The tour was a bit pricey but that´s because there is only one company that has access to walking on the glacier itself. A bit of a monopoly but hey, we are in Argentina. To our surprise, the ice walking tour ended when the guides set up a mini-bar with freshly chipped ice and freezing cold whiskey at the end of the trek. I´d have been more excited if it had been beer but it was still fun. We had excellent weather (becoming a trend with us) and so we had to lather on the sunscreen and make sure to protect our eyes from the sun. I made sure to apply sunscreen to Ural´s ears because he always forgets...what would he do without me??

We were only in El Calafate for 48 hours as the glacier is really the only reason to be there. The town itself is nice but SO touristy. It´s overpriced and the only grocery store in town is flooded with locals and trekkers stocking up and the lines are miles long. It´s just not a pleasant environment. We miss our little vacant town of Puerto Natales and are excited to head up to El Chalten, 4 hours north, for more trekking.

Torres del Paine Trek, Patagonia, Chile

2008-12-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

We are back from our 6 day trek in Torres del Paine National Park down here in deep southern Patagonia! We are healthy. We are safe. We have lots of blisters on our feet. Ouch.

I am going to make a concerted effort in this blog entry to limit the use of generic superlatives. BUT, you can only talk about Torres del Paine in superlatives because it´s insanely amazing and beautiful (that´s 2 right there). We had next-to-perfect weather with the exception of slight drizzling rain one day. Perfect weather in Patagonia is the exception, not the rule. It´s famous for its crazy weather changes, summer snow storms, and extremely high winds that have been known to knock trekkers off their feet. We didn´t really experience any of that except one day of big wind. But, I don´t even think that wind was the intense wind. It was intense for us...but not for typical Patagonia.

So, the pictures say everything. There are 170 photos and they are all great except for the one with my infected toe (sorry I had to put it there...it just sums up the trek so well). I will just tell you a little about how the trek worked so you understand how we pulled it off independently.

First of all, we brought all our camping gear from home and that was a very good idea. My stuff is top quality and renting down here is both expensive and time consuming. We spent two days traveling all the way down to Puerto Natales which involved a flight and long bus ride. Then, we had to prep our food and our backpacks for the hike. Finding all the right trekking foods down here is a major operation and I was happy to have my Spanish to find things like white gas at the hardware store and a good lighter. The traveler infrastructure here is very good due to a nice guy from Oregon who runs a hostel called Erratic Rock and gives a free ¨talk¨ about the trek everyday at 3 p.m. So, all these trekkers show up at the hostel and listen to him (he´s a former guide in the park) discuss routes, weather, packing, food, etc. It´s very helpful and we decided to do a 7 day trek instead of the 10 day trek due to a recent avalanche that made part of the park rather inaccessible. We wanted to have fun, not struggle and possibly get injured...that´s not what trekking is about. It´s about seeing beautiful things and trying to sleep dry.

Total we hiked 96 km over 6 days. We cut our trip 1 day short because we put two days together at one point. Our gear worked out great and Ural was the official Stove Master. He was really good at lighting our stove for dinner and I prepped all the food. What was great were the private campgrounds in the park that cater to trekkers who want to sleep inside at the refugios (shelters) and eat cooked meals. Campers who stay there can use the bathrooms and showers and even some indoor cooking shelters and sinks to do dishes if weather is bad. Most of the lower parts of the park can be accessed by boats so it´s easy for these refugios to stock lots of food and things to purchase. We decided to splurge and eat one, very expensive, meal prepared by a refugio one night. It was great to have hot, cooked food after a long day. But, I loved camping in our tent and being self-sufficient. We were lucky to be able to use the bathrooms and the SHOWERS at the refugios. WHO SHOWERS WHILE TREKKING???? It was the most POSH trekking experience I´ve every had at camp. I have to admit, we loved being semi-clean after some days (only semi-clean because the clothes were the same every day).

The trekking itself was actually difficult in terms of up and down and just plain long distances. We really pushed ourselves some days doing upwards of 20 km. The great weather was a blessing and a curse because the sun is very strong and it can wear you down after hours and hours. Also, the wind makes you very tired and keeping the granite flakes out of your eyes is pretty tricky.

The second to last day of the trek was ALL uphill for 8 hours and the wind in the pass was INTENSE. We don´t have photos from that pass because we were too busy shielding our eyes and making sure we didn´t get blown off the hill. I almost lost my sleeping pad down a steep valley when it came undone off my pack. Very scary moment. But, we made it to camp and THEN we were crazy enough to keep going up a 45 minute boulder scramble to see the famous Torres (the namesake of the park) in the sunshine. I was worried that our sunrise hike the next morning would be in the clouds since the weather was perfect the day we arrived at camp (a perfect day is usually NOT followed by another perfect day). I was SO hellbent on seeing these Torres with no clouds that I convinced Ural to make the 2 hour addition to our already 8 hour day. That was a bit insane and the wind was crazy but we were happy to see the Torres.

The next morning, our alarm was beeping at 3:45 a.m. to REPEAT the same 45 minute rock scramble in the pre-dawn light to see the famous sunrise ¨light show¨ on the Torres. It was SO HARD to get out of the sleeping bag at 4 a.m. when we had already seen the towers the day before. In fact, at one point, our headlamp actually stopped working when we were packing and I was silently praying we could use that as an excuse to abandon the morning hike and go back to sleep, but then we realized that it was actually light enough to hike without a light...darn! ha ha ha But, we came all this way to Patagonia and we peaked out of the tent and the weather was so perfect with NO wind. So, we got up and quickly packed our sleeping bags, sleeping pad (the rocks are freezing and you can´t really sit on them without getting very cold), and food. Ural, the dear angel that he is, carried the pack up the boulder field at 4:30 a.m. while I skipped up without a pack (we only needed one, so, really, he wasn´t going to make me carry it). He was a great sport and it was a REALLY tough climb. We arrived at the Torres just in time to see the first light sneaking down the peaks. It was incredible (that´s 3). THere are WAY too many pictures of these stupid Torres in our slideshow but they are really magnificant (4) and are the dream of any traveler to Patagonia. I´ve personally been dreaming about seeing them since I was a little girl. Similar to little girls dreaming of being princesses...I dreamt of seeing the Torres at Patagonia. Totally awesome.

So, that´s it for our first trek! We are regrouping today and traveling up to El Calafate, Argentina tomorrow. Another silly long bus ride over the border of Chile/Argentina (again). Ugh...we are tired of border crossings but we only have like 2 more or something. At least Argentina is cheaper than Chile...Chile is insanely expensive!!! We will be trekking on the famous Perito Merino Glacier in El Calafate this week. We will go with guides to this ice glacier and put on crampons to hike directly on the ice. It should be an adventure! We will report after that! Meanwhile, much love and happy holiday shopping! Lauren and Ural

Island of Chiloe, Chile

2008-11-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

We are reporting from the island of Chiloe, in Southern Chile and the weather today is well, very, Chilote! The rains and winds are gusting violently and we have only managed to venture out for a large meal of shellfish and sausage and then have recently retreated into a loud internet cafe. The good news is that we have been relatively fortunate while here in Chiloe as we actually had sunshine and clear weather for the last 3 days. The weather is notoriously rainy and voilent on this island which is located very far south and is facing the Pacific ocean on the west side. Darwin also stopped here in his voyage before going to the Galapagos. He probably liked it here too because there are over 150 species of birds. I think we´ve seen most of them by now and I´m pretty sure Ural is going to go work for National Geographic when we get back. If he doesn´t get a job with them photographing birds, I´m sure he´ll at least buy an expensive camera!

Where do I start about Chiloe? Well, first of all it was Ural´s idea to come down here. I had this week basically unplanned on the itinerary and he had read that it was supposed to be tranquil and have this special architecture, food, and culture. He also told me there would be almost constant rain. So, I humored him and we planned to spend the week here. I have to admit: we´ve both loved it! We started off by crossing by car ferry (30 minutes) to the island (there is no bridge, it´s basically a different country). It was rainy when we arrived and we made our way via dirt road about 15 km to a Eco-camping spot we had found on the internet. We were so lucky to have found this little corner of paradise in Chepu which is NOT in the guidebook yet AND the local bus only services the area 3 times a week. So, it´s essentially one of those hidden gems (although National Geographic had stayed there the week before and they think a guy from Lonely Planet had recently stayed there as well). The lovely owners, Fernando and Amory, are so welcoming and we were signed up for their kayaking at dawn experience within minutes of arriving. They have these newly built cabins with mattresses for a more protected camping experience. The cabins are even insolated so you don´t get too cold on those Chiloen nights! Everything is eco-friendly at the camp including a solar power shower! Fernando is an engineer so his new hobby is basically running this wonderful eco-camp and promoting eco-tourism to their area to protect the dead tree park.

The dead trees that you will see in our pictures span for miles along the inner-coastal river due to a tsunami that whipped through the area after the large 1960 earthquake off the coast of Chile. Officials believe it was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded at around 10-11 points. The dead trees are actually really beautiful and are especially scenic by kayak at dawn. Why at dawn???!! Well, when the sun comes up it connects with the mist over the water and makes for great pictures and a great ambiance. With over 150 species of birds in the national park, the bird music in the morning is pretty incredible! We also had the pleasure of seeing so many herons flying through the dead trees. Grandma and Grandpa--you would´ve loved it! We tried to get more pictures of the herons but they were really elusive and didn´t like when we tried to kayak towards them.

We loved Chepu so much we stayed for two nights. The second night, we got to stay up late (no kayaking at dawn again!) and have wine in the communal house with the family and other guests. It was so warm and inviting as well as good conversation. Anyone who bothers to make it to Chepu will not be dissapointed! It was one of the best places we´ve stayed on our trip...mostly for the incredible natural beauty and great hosts.

We also did a wonderful hike to the beach and a side trip to the penguin colony. We drove via many dirt roads to the Pacific coast and hired local fisherman to take us out on a small boat to see the penguin colonies. Unfortunately for Ural, they only speak Spanish but the guy spoke slowly enough so I could listen, understand, and then translate for Ural. We had to cross a small coastal river with our car to reach the beach and we thought--is this really where we should be for the penguins?? All of the sudden, a fisherman approached our car and told us for a few bucks we could take a boat and go--easy! We put on these funny fisherman outfits (also very useful for walking through freezing cold waves to the boat!) and off we went. We saw two types of penguins: Magellan and Humbolt, as well as little seals and other sea birds. The penguins were out in the water training their babies to fish and swim...it was really an awesome wildlife experience and all without any other tourists!!! amazing.

Finally, we had to move away from Chepu and on to the capital of the island, Castro. With a great recommendation from Fernando, we found a brand-new hostal on the water in the bay in one of the traditional ¨palafito¨ houses that are built on stilts. I can´t say enough great things about this place either: beautiful simple design with nice pillows and very warm new comforters. We have an amazing view from our balcony over the water and full access to the main kitchen downstairs. So, we were able to cook our own dinner and since we are the only guests--it´s like having a big new house! I love new hotels!

You will also notice tons of photos of churches from the area. Back in the 1600´s when the Jesuits settled the area, they built these fancy churches from local wood. The architecture is unique to Chiloe and you can´t find these churches elsewhere in Chile. So, we had a ¨church-mania¨ afternoon yesterday and saw like, I don´t know, 10 of them. The pictures are really cool and we took advantage of the good weather while it was here.

It´s not nice anymore and it´s back to typical Chiloe rain and wind. But that´s OK because it gave me time to write this blog. Plus, Ural and I just finished a big meal of the local speciality: Curanto. Curanto is a Chilote dish that is basically a mix of seafood (clams, mussels), sausage, smoked pork, chicken, and potatoes. All in one big plate and served with lemon. It wasn´t exactly my favorite meal but I tried it and it was very good. At least Ural is full! ha ha ha

Well, thanks for looking at all our photos and reading this blog! I couldn´t help myself because we just loved Chiloe so much that we took a million photos. ON that note, get ready for photo-mania for the last month of our trip. We are heading down south to Patagonia and it´s going to be very scenic. Hopefully you´ll enjoy. You might not see another blog entry until AFTER December 9th or 10th because on Tuesday morning, we are heading out onto a long trek in Torres del Paine National Park. We are trying to do the long trail which takes 10 days of hiking. However, we heard that a recent avalanche and late-season snow is blocking one of the important mountain passes. So, if that´s still the case, we will only do the 7 day trek (a shorter version for snowy times). Wish us luck! Love, Lauren and Ural

Bariloche, Argentina

2008-11-24T11:40:00.001-08:00

We just finished a week in one of the most scenic places I´ve ever been. If you haven´t seen photos or been to New Zealand, Bariloche, Argentina, looks a lot like the South Island of New Zealand. Ural hasn´t ever been to NZ, but I´ve been twice. I told him that for now, since we can´t get there on this trip, Argentina is a close second. The area of Bariloche sits at the top of the natural region known as Patagonia. The Lakes District (appropriately named because there are hundreds of lakes) is considered the northern most section of Patagonia. On this trip, we are working our way down through Patagonia between Chile and Argentina. The Andes mountain range doesn´t really care about country borders so part of Patagonia is in Chile, part is in Argentina. We have to cross several times to see all of it. Those darn mountains! How inconvenient!

The cabin that we rented in Bariloche is owned by a couple from Lake Tahoe, CA. They left the US after Bush was elected AGAIN (I still can´t believe that happened) in 2004 to start a new life in Argentina. Even though Obama has been elected, they think they´ll stay since it´s so nice here! Don´t blame them at all! They have a couple of rental properties and are starting a business writing an English language restaurant guide for tourists. There is so much wonderful food and wine in this area. Bariloche is also famous for it´s chocolate. The reason for the chocolate and the Swiss Alps architecture is that there was a huge German/Swiss immigrant population back in the early 1900´s. The influence remains and it´s not all that bad! Another fun fact: the Argentinian government also helped hide the Nazi generals after WWII near Bariloche...did ya know that?? I didn´t. Oh well, I didn´t let it get in the way of my fun in Bariloche!

So, the cabin was fully-equiped with kitchen and satellite TV. I happily purchased tons of food from the store to make our dinners. We only ate out twice in the whole week. It was very nice to eat at home and not decide on dinner every night. Plus, it´s more expensive here in Bariloche (it´s like the Aspen of South America...lots of rich Brasilians). However, we splurged one night and made reservations at the posh Hotel Llao Llao (you´ll see the pics of this palatial hotel) restaurant. Because Argentina is really not that expensive compared with the US, we managed to have a 5-star meal at a very reasonable price. The wine that I chose would not have cost less than $100 USD at home but was only $40 here. It was the kind of place where you drink your water from a wine glass...wowwww. No really, we had great service and it was overall a nice break from rough travel.

We also had a rental car and were able to drive ourselves all around the Lakes District. The distances were great (300 km one day on gravel road!) but it was a nice change to be able to get in the car and do things on your own schedule (vs. the bus).

Check out our pictures which are really Super Scenic and we´ll report back from Chile soon! Just as an FYI, we will be traveling this week (until November 30th) on the island of Chiloe which is the most western point of South America (except for Easter Island), about 600 miles south of Santiago. If you look at a map, it´s the island south of Puerto Montt. It´s very remote and is famous for nearly constant rain but good bird-watching. We will be camping tonight (it´s already raining) and then kayaking in the morning. Also, we will be taking a boat to see a penguin colony (yes, it´s cold here too!) Wish us luck! We have a rental car so if it gets too cold and wet, we will sleep in the car ;) love, Lauren and Ural!

Mendoza, Argentina

2008-11-24T10:34:00.002-08:00

After a doozy of a day from Santiago to Mendoza by bus (7 hours), we arrived in the adorable little town of Mendoza, which is famous for producing most of Argentina´s wine. The bus ride from Chile takes you up, up, and up over the Andes mountain range and right past the highest peak in South America: Aconcagua at 6,962 meters, or 22,841 feet. Of course, like the idiot that I am when I buy bus tickets, I purchased our seats on the wrong side of the bus for seeing the peak. Luckily, an Argentinian lady, who had already seen the mountain before, called me over to her seat when we passed and let me take pictures. She also pointed out which peak it was since you can´t really tell as you are passing.

Our hostel in Mendoza provided us with a double room (of course, the mandatory tiny matrimonial bed) which had a TV and a private bathroom! In South America, you don´t get the kind of value like you get in Asia. For $30 USD, you might get your own bathroom but don´t count on hot water :(. On the flip side, South America has really cheap good wine and cheap taxis. So, there are trade-offs, I suppose. So, let me talk about the whole ¨matrimonial bed¨ thing. It´s really funny because when you check into a hotel, they always want you to say whether you are married (hey, it´s a religious continent!). So, our hostel owner was blatantly ¨relieved¨(I determined this not from my extensive knownledge of Spanish but by his body language) when he let out a huge sigh and almost hugged both of us. I had booked it over the internet so you could tell he was itching to ask me if we were married when we arrived. It was hilarious. Too bad my Spanish isn´t good enough to explain that not only are we married, we´ve had 2 weddings!! Who does that!!??

So, in our cheap-traveler sort of way, we opted OUT of taking the tour bus to the wineries and instead chose to take a public bus out to the wine region and rent bicycles. Now, Lonely Planet (THE guidebook) has a little section about ¨biking the gourmet wine country¨ and they really hype it up, like it´s going to be super enjoyable and possibly even EASY GOING! Not so much. Now, first you understand that I LOVE cycling. So, what could go wrong? I´ll tell you: bad bikes, bad road, expensive wineries. ugh. I had high hopes that were immediately dashed when the bikes turned out to be ¨clunkers¨ that hadn´t been maintained in years and the seats were horribly uncomfortable! But, we are forever determined and proud world travelers, so we carried on with our mission to sample as many wines as possible in Mendoza. But, first, we rode 13 km, gradually uphill, to the first winery. We were dying when we got there. We were pleasantly surprised, though, as tt was adorable and the hosts were very welcoming. However, the tasting with a winery tour cost about $15 USD each! That´s very pricey in a country where you can have an entire restaurant DINNER for that much for 2 people. Alas, the fact that we were sweating and had very sore butts caused us to say yes anyway. So, nothing against the winery itself. The wines were nice as we sampled the classic Argentinian grape, Malbec, amongst others such as Torrontes (white) and Syrah. Then, we stopped by an olive oil plant and sampled their fresh bread and olives (yet another $10 USD). After that, although there were several more stops along the route, we just rode by and took a couple of pictures because it was getting expensive. And, our butts were really sore and I was worried about Ural´s future of having children. Anyway...it was a beautiful wine country but take my advice and don´t do the bike trip...as Ural says: a winery, is a winery, is a winery...at least that made us feel better at the time!

We enjoyed the city of Mendoza and I think in the end, I had more gelato ice cream than I did wine. I was absolutely ADDICTED to the gelato. I made Ural stop by there everyday. I loved it.

Then, on Saturday evening, when many other people were just sitting down to a fine meal and bottle of wine, we boarded a 20 hour bus trip to Bariloche, Argentina. They had already sold out of the ¨bed¨ seats in first class, so we had to opt for the ¨semi-bed¨ seats upstairs. Luckily, we managed to book the first row and had panaramic views of the countryside and the mountains. But, remember, our butts were still sore from biking and now we were sitting for 20 hours....ugh!

After arriving midday on Sunday in Bariloche (finally!) we were picked up by our rental car guy and made our way quickly to the wonderful cabin that I had booked many many months before. I had this sneaking suspicion, back in San Diego, before we had even left for our trip, that we would want a relaxing break halfway through South America. Thank GOD I booked this cabin because we were SO ready to settle down in a little house for a week. My next blog will be loaded with pictures from this wonderful private cabin and our times in Bariloche. Stay tuned! love, Lauren and Ural

Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile

2008-11-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

After a very long evening on the airplane from Lima to Santiago, we´ve arrived a bastion of civilization!! Wow, Chile! There are several reasons for us to be excited upon arriving in Chile:

1) You can drink the tap water. This is the first place we´ve visited where water is safe to drink. The benefits of this include being able to eat fresh, uncooked, veggies and not have to constantly pay for bottled water.

2) There is so much good, western-like food here. We have longed for menus that include easy-to-eat-and-identify items like sandwiches, salads, and simple side dishes.

3) There is toilet paper in bathrooms here. I don´t have to carry a large roll of toilet paper with me every time I get up to use the toilet. Phew!

OK, I know these things sound really basic but when you´ve been on the road for 5 months, it´s pretty exciting! On the surface, Santiago doesn´t seem THAT COOL. But, it´s a great city and in the right neighborhood, like Barrio Bellavista, there are many cool restaurants and just general hip-ness to everything. There is a lot going on here in Santiago. Tons of local art, music, and political action.

The political action thing actually got in our happy tourist way a few times. IN fact, there was a general workers strike in the city that included the garbage men. So, there was, unfortunately, garbage all over the streets downtown which made things look kind of ugly. But, we were able to look past that. Santiago is a very efficient city and has a great public transport system. We enjoyed zipping around on the Metro for a few days and things were overall easy to find and easy to explore.

The third day we took a 1.5 hour bus to Valparaiso on the coast. Valpo is famous for it´s colorful buildings and coastal port scenery. It was foggy like San Francisco in the morning but then the sun came out and it was really hot! We took the famous elevators up the cliffs to the artsy neighborhoods and enjoyed a lunch of really nice thin crust pizza. We were back in Santiago by the evening and left for Mendoza, Argentina early in the morning. We will be back in Chile many times over the next 6 weeks. It you look at a map, you will see the two countries sit right next to each over only separated by the large mountain range of the Andes. So, in order to get to different places of interest, you often have to cross over the back by bus over the ANdes. We will be in Argentine for about another week and then cross back down to Southern Chile in Northern Patagonia. So, keep watching the blog to keep track of how many times we pass over the border! Hopefully they don´t stamp our passports too many more times or I´m going to run out of pages!

much love for now! Lauren and Ural

Arequipa, Peru

2008-11-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

We´ve finally recovered from Machu Picchu and have made it all the way to Chile. But first, I need to update you on our final Peru adventures. First of all, there is an additional slideshow from Lima as well from the beginning of our trip. We arrived first in Lima and then went to Cuzco for MP. I didn´t have time to do that blog but I do have some nice pictures from the city of Lima. Check them out when you have time at the end of this entry.

After Cuzco, Ural and I boarded an all-night bus through the mountains to Arequipa, which is located sort of southeast of Cuzco. It is not at a high altitude, maybe only 2500 meters, so we felt a little better walking around town. Cuzco really takes a toll on the visitor if you aren´t acclimatized. But, after MP, we were OK. The plan in Arequipa was basically to see the beautiful churches of the city and to take a trip to the famous Colca Canyon. The canyon is supposedly the deepest in the world. Seriously. It´s no small canyon.

But, with the deepest canyon in the world, comes the fact that it´s really difficult to get there. ON the surface, when one arrives to Arequipa, it seems like it will be so easy to visit the canyon. There are tours offered everywhere you look in the city and one can choose from 1, 2, 3, day tours that include trekking into the canyon or you can just see it from the bus. Since we were still really aching from our trekking of MP, we chose the "lazy-man" tour to just sit on the bus. This was a good choice. However, we also chose to do the "impatient-man" tour and do the 1 day out-and-back canyon trip. This trip seemed like a good idea because we wanted to really just relax in the city at our nice hotel and not have to repack and haul our stuff overnight to the canyon.

The only problem with the 1 day trip is that it´s really more than 1 day. It´s like almost 24 hours. It leaves at 1:30 A.M. So, we happily accepted this fact and purchased our ticket. Every tour operator that told us about this trip told us it would be a little bit crazy and definitely uncomfortable. We sort of laughed and joked and were like "whatever, we can do it. I mean, we´ve traveled for 4 months and have endured really rough trips in Laos...blah blah."

It was exactly that: rough and uncomfortable. HOWEVER, it was really pretty and totally worth it in the end. And, it was so uncomfortable that we wouldn´t have wanted to do the 2 or 3 day either. It was good to get it over with. Our trip began at the horrible hour of 1:30 and although I tried to sleep on the minivan, it was super cold and super bumpy all night. We climbed over 3000 feet to this freezing Andean pass before descending to the canyon. I woke up at 3:30 in a daze and my legs were literally frozen. I looked at Ural and it was apparent that he had not slept a wink. He was pretty much frozed to his seat. Then, I had a horrible realization that I had to pee. It´s not like there are rest stops along. Check out the pictures. The road was this desolate expanse of cold, unforgiving, terrain. I was not getting a toilet anytime soon. So, we proceeded to freeze our way to breakfast. Breakfast was included (!, yippee!), but seriously included a very sad looking piece of crusty bread and an insufficient amount of jam. Luckily, there was hot tea. It saved us. We also made our tea with coca leaves (the derivative of cocaine but it really helps with the altitude). All the locals chew huge wads of it in their cheeks.

But, as the sun came up and we plunged through a horribly unpaved road, the canyon began to offer incredible views and really was amazing. So, the whole point in hauling to the canyon that early in the morning is to catch the flight of the famous condors. They are the world´s second-largest bird and they fly, every morning, along the warm winds through the canyon at a specific spot called, appropriately, the Cruz del Condor. Well, unfortunately, it was the off-season for the condors and we only saw one right after arriving. But, it was still a nice two hours of relaxing along the rim of the canyon and just enjoying the warmth from the sun. My body came back to life, sort of.

We kind of suffered through the rest of the day as we were, understandably, tired. I was also recovering from a lingering fever and cold so I was really struggling. We got some good photos and Ural got the chance to be photographed with a hawk and a sombrero!

So, if you´ve learned anything from this blog post: don´t try and take a one day tour starting at 1:30 a.m. in Arequipa...it´s rough. I hope you like the photos!

Also, photos from Lima when you have a chance!

Machu Picchu and Cuzco, Peru

2008-11-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone. First things first: GO OBAMA!!!! I´m writing this on the morning of November 5th after arriving back from the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu early morning on the election day November 4th. The only thing on our minds today is how excited we are to have a new president and that we don´t have to listen to Mr. Bush anymore. Whoooohoo!

OK, so you probably also want to hear about the famous Inca Trail and Machu Picchu. Where do I start? Well, after arriving in Lima from San Francisco without incident, Ural and I had two days to relax and explore the big city by ourselves. My Spanish was a little rusty the first couple of days which made for some funny incidents. At one point, I told a taxi driver that I wanted to pay twenty or thirty Peruvian soles for a taxi ride instead of the 15 soles he had offered. I thought he had told me 50. I get my numbers confused....anyway he was laughing and thought I was crazy but in the end, we got a ride back to the hotel ;) Either way, Ural appreciates my ability to speak Spanish, however rough it may be at times, and since then, it´s gotten much better. In fact, yesterday, I managed to get us a student rate, we think, because I approached the guy in Spanish. There are a lot of gringos here, us included, and I´m sure it´s nice when someone can speak Spanish to them once in a while. I should mention that Ural is a MASTER at learning new phrases and words. He´s already slightly conversational when it comes to doing simple transactions and his pronunciation is spot on (I´ve been hanging out with too many Brits).

We joined our group with GAP Adventures for a night in Lima and then the next morning, we flew on a small plane to Cuzco, the famous city that was the capital of the Incas before they were conquered by the Spanish. The elevation of Cuzco is about 12,000 feet. We had some difficulties flying into this mountain city because of the weather and our first flight actually had to abort the landing due to high winds and fly all the way back to Lima! So, our trip got off to a rocky start but since our group was so cool, everyone had a good sense of humor about it. In fact, the airline was so organized (and it´s so common that the flights can´t land due to weather), that they almost instantly reboarded us on a new flight and we were ultimately only 4 hours later than scheduled. We had just enough time between flights to eat at McDonald´s!! Yipee!

Upon arriving in Cuzco, we were exhausted AND everyone was dying from the altitude. WOW! We had to spend the evening packing for the Inca Trail and it was so difficult to do the simplest of things. We had a constant headache and no one slept very well the first night. Luckily, we recovered and acclimatized the next day and never had much problems after that.

A word about our group, Amazing Race style: Turkish/American couple, Retired Dating Canadians, 4 Obama-supporting Gay Canadians, 2 Traveling Irish girls, 1 Traveling Irish guy, 2 Crazy Sneaker-Wearing Australian Brothers, 1 Chicago Adventure Girl, 1 Sole Brit that Ditched His Friend in Brasil.

Everyone was super cool and totally AWESOME (that one is for you, Fiona!)! Everyone had had trekking experience and because of that, things went very smoothly and we managed to complete the Inca Trail in 3 days instead of the traditional 4 days. We met our valiant guide, River, from Peru, and the first thing he told us was that there would be a transportation strike by the local farmers on the day we had planned to arrive at Maccu Picchu (MP for the purposes of the rest of this blog). So, it was bad news at first since we had to hike the whole 42 km of the trail in a condensed 3 days. But, everyone was pretty fit and wasn´t too worried. The alternative included hiking 4 additional hours on day 4 after touring MP, then catching a 7 hour bus ride back to Cuzco. That didn´t sound like fun so we opted to hurry up and arrive at MP a day early to catch the final train back to Cuzco which is only about 3 hours. A much better choice.

However, we didn´t realize how DIFFICULT the Inca Trail would be. WOWWWWWWW! We´ve done a lot of trekking and I was shocked at the difficulty of the hike. Now, also consider that Ural and I have never been this OUT OF SHAPE because we spent 3 months sitting around Asia doing pretty much nothing. So, it was a rude awakening the first day when simply 90 Incan steps almost sent my heart into cardiac arrest.

But, our athletic backgrounds proved to be enough as we managed to slowly, but surely, arrive at our campsites at a decent hour. Our guide told us that even the slowest walkers in our group would normally be the fastest on other tours. So, overall, we were a very fit group. You must check out the photos to see this trail. The Incans built the trail from stone and we hiked the original path. These people were crazy!! The steps, thousands and thousands of them, either went directly UP or directly DOWN. There was no gradual sloping at all. It was heart-pumping StairMaster up or knee-breaking, permanent-damage-doing down. OUCH!

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and our support team was amazing. We had 21 porters for our group of 14 hikers. They each carry over 25 kilos on their backs including our duffel bags which have our clothes, sleeping bags, and sleeping mats. Meanwhile, we only had to carry our daypacks with snacks, rain gear, and water. Thank god for that because I would have died carrying anything else. The porters hiked at insane speeds! They would actually RUN down the steep Incan steps in nothing more than sandals. We made sure to put in a good tip for them in the end.

We also had AMAZING FOOD from our chefs. Seriously, the first lunch was in a covered tent with so many details down to our napkins folded like swans!!! Are we trekking? I wasn´t sure. It was 5-Star Service. We each had a hot bowl of water to wash our hands and a personal bar of soap before every meal and every morning and evening by our tents. We were served tea and coffee through our tent door at wake up call. Meals were incredibly balanced to include cooked vegetables, soup, carbs, and wonderful proteins like pink trout, beef fillet, and chicken breast-all cooked to perfection. I´m not lying! We always ate all of our food. Breakfast was usually 3 courses including breads, eggs, pancakes. Each afternoon we had a "proper tea" with fresh popcorn and other snacks. Wow wow wow!

Our guides were also great and they were forever patient with us. ON the second day, we hike 16 km straight up and straight down passing through a 1400 meter pass (13,900 feet) and decending for almost 2 hours at one point. Ural and I were very slow, sometimes breaking every 100 steps, but we finally made it. I´ve never been happier to end a day. It also rained heavily and everything we had was very wet and cold. Luckily, upon arriving at camp, the porters had managed to keep our duffels dry and we had lots of warm clothes to wear.

As for the final day, Machu Picchu did not dissapoint. The weather was completely on our side as we had a wonderfuly clear morning and a great afternoon arrival through the Sun Gates high above M.P. As we descended upon the site, we took some amazing postcard shots and it really felt great arriving after all that hard work. We spent a few hours touring the site and we were greeted by a FULL RAINBOW across the sky arching over MP with a storm lingering in the background. However, we never got hit by the storm as MP was always in the sun. Our guide told us he had never seen weather like that and a rainbow at MP. It was really special.

We had our final trekking meal in Aguascalientes town below MP and passed the time before our evening train by playing a good old-fashioned drinking card game called "shithead". Our group was so fun and we felt good celebrating after such hard work.

We spent election day in Cuzco yesterday and Ural and I managed to find an American-led Obama rally in the main square where they had made a special banner that said "Cuzco Votes Obama"! We joined at 3:30 with people from all around the world to celebrate and take photos with the banner that were actually sent directly to the campaign in Chicago. We also brought our tour group to an Obama election party last night as the votes got counted and it looked more and more promising for Obama.

We went to sleep feeling hopeful and knowing that we are going to have a great 4 years ahead of us!

much love from MP and Cuzco, Lauren and Ural

Thai Islands: Krabi, Koh Phi Phi, Phuket

2008-10-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

A beach is a beach is a beach.

I may sound a bit jaded and YES, maybe I've seen one too many beaches, but seriously, Thailand is a little overrated.

While trying to enjoy our final days in SE Asia, we were torn between deciding whether tourism was indeed bad for the Thai people or whether Thailand was actually better off no matter how badly the area has been ruined by tourism. I mean, it's GOOD that we bring our tourist dollars here after the horrible tsunami of 2004, right? It's good that we buy trinkets and cheap flip-flops from the locals, right? It's good if we stay in local hotels run by Thai people, right? It's good if we gather by the hundreds around some wild monkeys and feed them bananas and nuts and take thousands of photos, right? Ok, maybe not that last one. More on monkeys later. And by monkeys, I mean bad tourists.

Anyway, we put on our "tourist" blinders (and by blinders, I mean sunglasses and beer) and tried to enjoy the scenery. Indeed, no one would say Thailand's beaches aren't beautiful. That would be crazy. But, there isn't a good Thai dish to be eaten south of Bangkok if you are close to a beach. I mean, you can TRY to find some good Thai food but everything is toned down for tourists and that means catering to the weak European palate (sorry Europeans but you think Mexican salsa is spicy...). I had a plate of fried noodles that tasted like spaghetti mixed with soy sauce and canola oil AND I paid at least $3 for it.

You gotta go with the pizza. No one screws up pizza. So, that's what we had, which is why you won't see photos of food from the islands.

We actually enjoyed ourselves immensely (I know, you don't believe me) but you can't go wrong with a little pool time. We found a great "ship wreck" style beach bar which we had Singha beer every night at sunset. We took a great-value snorkel trip to Koh Phi Phi Leh which was the island featured in "The Beach" (yes, Leo again) and it was literally breathtaking. We swam amongst the coral reefs in the national park at sunset looking for reef sharks (only saw the tail). I mean, it was nice. I just couldn't do it too long and this was the LOW season. The place was still swarming with the worst kind of tourists: bad fashion, bad sunburn, no taste buds, too much rolling luggage...you get the picture. Am I a snob? Maybe. But I've never denied that. One of my favorite things is to smugly nudge my way by a struggling couple wielding 3 bags too many along a path of deep sand, while only toting my 35 litre backpack strapped neatly to my back.

Come on, a backpacker has to have their moments!!

So, on to PHuket. We dreaded PHuket from the beginning for the same reasons as I mentioned above. But our flight was due to leave from there down to KL so it was a must. I was dying to leave Koh Phi Phi because it was BLOODY hot and getting very cramped with tourists (there are no cars and the street are like 2 feet wide). We hopped a ferry to the mainland and got a minibus to the nearest quiet beach. I picked the beach that was "most devastated" by the tsunami with hopes that we could both help the local community rebuild and avoid the rebuilding progress all at the same time. Does that make sense? No? OK. Bear with me.

So, I fell dead asleep on the table in a cafe when we arrived at 11:00 a.m. because I had taken many Benedryls after suffering one of my allergic hive attacks on the boat (maybe it was bad karma for all of my tourist trash-talking--this is a Buddhist country after all). Ural was kind enough to set out on the hunt for a good hotel. Within an hour, he was back announcing that we could score a great deal at a NEW luxury hotel which had opened not 3 months earlier. They gave us about 75% off a 2-bedroom with a kitchen and a free mini-bar. Included breakfast and the rest of the meals were 50% off. I am not lying when I tell you we were two of 4 PEOPLE staying there. All day long we had the pool to ourselves. We had the restaurant to ourselves. IN fact, I would go as far as saying we had the TOWN to ourselves. But, all the locals were smiling and were even THANKING us for smiling (I think they see too many Russian tourists---oh I'm terrible!!!). Anyway, I indulged in cooking our own meals (I could only find imported dried pasta and sauce, but hey). We also bought knock-off DVD's and played them on our new flat-screen TV in our sparkling living room. I'm telling you we were the FIRST people to use the towels and sheets. We played a fun game during the day called "count the employees." There were about 20 employees "working" throughout the day and I couldn't tell you what they were doing. But, when I got out of the pool, there was always a guy right there, literally handing me my towel. We actually felt bad for the pool bar guy because although we were getting a good deal, his cocktails were still well over our budget and I know he was dying to do a Tom Cruise style bottle toss (he was practising behind the bar all day) for us.

Blah blah, can you believe I can say this much about a beach vacation??? Check out our pics and we will be back in the U. S. of A. on Wednesday! We are in our home-away-from-home Kuala Lumpur until then while we take care of final Asia business. Ural has to try the famous stinky fruit: durian. We'll see if our guesthouse allows him back in after he gets all stinky. It's actually against the law to eat that fruit on public transport and indoors. Hotels will kick you out for it.

That's IT for now. much love, Lauren and Ural

Bangkok, Thailand

2008-10-20T02:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we hope you like food because all the pictures from Bangkok are related, in some way, to the food obsession that drives me and Ural. We had been looking forward to sampling real Thai food on the streets and Bangkok sure has plenty of options to choose from. The first photos are actually from our overnight train trip from Northern Thailand in Chiang Mai down to Bangkok. We boarded our first class car around 5:30 p.m. and arrived at 7:00 a.m. We paid a premium ($45 per night p.p.) for the first class car thinking it would be as nice as the Malaysia/Singapore train---no. If you are reading this and might take this train, don't spend the money. Sit in second class seats or sleeper. First of all, we didn't even have our own bathroom and THEN I discovered that the toilet for everyone was a freakin' SQUAT toilet on a MOVING TRAIN! OK, if you haven't used a squat toilet, congrads. But, if you have, you know that using one while a train is MOVING is not wise. Nuf' said.

So, off the train and into a small tuk tuk that Bangkok is famous for. Holy moley! Our tuk tuk driver was a Nascar driver in another life because it was a hair-raising ride to say the least. Luckily, Ural and I like to walk a lot, so we don't often have to use tuk tuk's and taxis. It's just not our thing. Plus, we're cheap.

Now, here's where you will stop feeling bad for us. Yeah, squat toilets. Yeah, crazy drivers. But, when you arrive after a long trip in the lobby of the Hilton Millenium Bangkok, it's not so bad. We were greeted in Thai-style with ice cold towels and a "welcome drink" (we've gotten so many of those on this trip!). We were then hustled up to our high-level room with a sweeping view of the city and right on the famous Chao Praya river. In fact, in order to reach our hotel, you actually have to take the "Hilton boat" that picks you up for free from various spots along the river.

The hotel was free from points, if you are wondering. And, if you have recently tuned in to this blog, you will find that we stay at a lot of nice hotels---it's all free. That leaves more money on the table for us to explore. But, in Bangkok, you don't need money. We had the lowest budget days while here because we simply roamed neighborhoods and night markets for food. Eating costs about $4 for dinner for two on the street. That might include one stir-fry noodle dish, one fried appetizer item, and possibly a stick with various meats (Ural is the only one daring enough for that). If you're lucky, you can pick up fresh pineapple on a stick, my favorite.

Bangkok also has a lot of temples and it almost killed us to try and see them. It was SO HOT AND HUMID. I clearly remember standing outside the big famous temple (name forgotten due to intense heat) and telling Ural that i didn't think I could walk any further. But I did because the next stop was lunch....priorities...

So, check out the photos and you will see all the food and the markets. It's really fun wandering the crazy streets and just checking out the people and food. But, if you come to Bangkok, stay in a nice hotel because there is nothing like returning from some scruffy, dirty, street hikes to your AC deluxe king-bed room with crispy sheets and chocolates on the pillow. Oh, and there was an awesome pool....

P.S. if you are thinking that we are weak travelers, check out the final few photos which show our IMMEDIATE fall from glory as we rode 2nd class NON-AIR-CONDITIONED seats overnight from Bangkok to southern Thailand. 2nd class was the lowest possible and we were seated about 10 feet from the food car which provides the Thai people with very pungent curries and soups ALL NIGHT LONG. Oh, and there were TONS OF MOSQUITOS in the train car AND it was the bumpiest train I've ever been on. So, THERE! We're not that weak...we can go from glamour and glitz to a train seat that I had to clean off with wet paper napkins in just a matter of hours. When you are backpacking, you got to remember where you came from...;)

with love! Lauren and Ural

Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

2008-10-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

We sadly waved good-bye to Laos from our little prop plane on Lao Airlines and have landed in Thailand. Our stomach's have been anticipating good Thai food for the whole trip. Not to say we haven't eaten well, but Thai food is personally one of my favorite cuisines. I've just always wondered if what I'm eating in the US has anything to do with what they eat in Thailand...

I was pleasantly surprised to find that within the first few meals in Chiang Mai that I actually know quite a bit of Thai dishes. The most annoying thing about being a tourist here is that the menu is in English but they don't put the Thai names of the food in phonetic terms. Let's take, for example, laab beef, which is a salad of minced beef heavily seasoned and spiced with lots of mint and basil. It's eaten with sticky rice (with your hands!). You want to have this dish but the problem is the menu doesn't say that. There will be Thai characters (you can't read them) and then this description: beef mince salad

If you don't know what you are looking for, beef mince salad doesn't sound too good or just weird if you aren't familiar with Thai food. But, if you say to the waiter "laab beef"-you get exactly what you want. So, the key in Thailand is to know how to SAY the names of the dishes and just ignore the menu. You will get better food. YOu want to avoid items on the menu that say "various boil meat with steam rice." That sounds more like something you order when you have a bad case of stomach trouble...which you just might GET if you order something out of the ordinary. Just because it's on the menu doesn't mean you should order it. Like I've been wondering why every Western menu in Asia includes pepper steak and french fried (that's what they call french fries...I'm sure you got that though)...is that a favorite unseasoned, tasteless, British dish??? Must be.

Enough about my theories regarding tourist restaurants. Let's move on to the Thai cooking class. We had so much fun taking this one day course with a local chef that teaches cooking courses from his home. He goes around town picking up tourists in a pick-up truck and then we go to the market where he explains all the Thai produce, rices, and spices. Then, we are shuttled off to his home and set up with our very own cooking station. I can't say anything bad about this course. It was amazingly tasty, clean, and well-paced. There was never a dull moment as he skillfully timed all the dishes (we made 14 dishes in about 4 hours) and we got to eat every few minutes. We were so stuffed after the course! Check out the photos but make sure you aren't too hungry when you do. It was so yummy and if you have never had Thai food you should go out very soon and eat at a Thai restaurant. Don't order fried rice, get something else...curries are a good bet (not too spicy when they have lots of coconut milk) and the tomyam soup (spicy and sour) with shrimp. The best part of our cooking day was when we got to fry our noodles and the chef helped us create a HUGE fire with our fry pans. He put water on the meat so it would flame up. Wow! I almost took my eyebrows off but the result was just good food.

We'll report soon from the rest of Thailand as we also will be in Bangkok and the islands. For now, enjoy the food photos!

much love Lauren and Ural

Ode to Ural: Our Accountant

2008-10-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

This is a short blog entry to officially thank Ural for being the best budget-keeper in all of travel history. I have attached a few photos of Ural at his best: budget book, Diet Coke, a pen, and a stack of local money. Several times a day, pretty much any time we return to the hotel, he diligently sits down on the bed and sorts through our spending for the day and balances his budget book to our stack of money. Most days, he's within 50 cents of the money in his pocket. He accounts for every bottle of water, every minute on the internet, every tuk tuk ride, every rented towel, you name it. Our budget is about $100 a day overall. So, some days we spend around $40. Other days, we spend about $120 if there is an activity or we had to travel a long distance. So, in the end if we come under the $100 average, he is really happy.

So far, so good. We are well under $100 a day and so we are in the plus as we head into the second half of our trip. We have gotten more savvy on how to save money and where to splurge. I hope we can continue saving cash as we head to South America.

But for now, I just wanted to tip my hat to Ural and let everyone know what a special guy he is (but, you already knew that, of course!)

love, Lauren!

Laos: Luang Prabang

2008-10-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

I could have stayed in Luang Prabang for another 2 weeks. In all of our travels, it was the one place we really, truly loved from start to finish. It should have been obvious from guidebook descriptions and the fact that the town itself is actually a World Heritage Site. That's right: the whole town. When we first arrived, we were exhausted from a 7 hour journey from Vang Vieng. We had signed up, optimistically, for the VIP minibus which promised AC and faster transport (b/c it's smaller). So, it was really poorly misnamed as it had no AC and I'm pretty sure we never reached over 30 km per hour the entire way. The whole journey from VV to LP is 200 km and it's 7 hours. Pretty telling I'd say.

But, we survived. We arrived in LP and were immediately entranced (yes, entranced) by the beauty of the Mekong River dotted with little cafes serving Beer Lao for under a $1 at sunset. We settled into a hotel which offered us the biggest and probably the best value for $35 dollars a night. We splurged because after seeing probably 10 rooms ranging from $20-$40 a night, this was the clear winner. You can see pictures but I just want to say that we had a rainshower shower head and you could literally pace around the bedroom-it was that big. We had a comfortable bed with nice clean sheets and a great TV and fridgerator. The next morning, we discovered they have the best breakfasts in all of Asia when we had the choice of 5 meals including homemade pancakes (thick and fluffy), french toast, bacon, and even potatoes with cheese and grilled onions. I already miss that place...

The streets in LP are lined with Buddhist temples (Wats) and French colonial architecture. There are few cars and the primary way of travel is on foot or in some sort of poorly constructed pick up bed that holds people and is carried loosely by a badly maintained motorbike. But, since you don't have far to travel and you really aren't in any kind of hurry to get anywhere, it's all rather charming...even if the brakes don't work well!

In LP we spent the majority of our time sitting around and relaxing at a cafe enjoying coffee or strolling through the calm night market looking for souvenirs. I actually BOUGHT something in the market because it was so pleasant to shop there. No obnoxious haggling. No crappy products. It was fantastic. Even the food stalls set up at night were inviting and tasty. Both local Lao people and tourists gather in the back alleys to buy grilled fish and noodles from street vendors. Ural and I also saved money by eating at the vegetarian buffet every night. 50 cents for one plate that you could pile high with rice and veggies. Beer was also less than a dollar.

We rented bikes and toured the Wats and we also chartered a private Mekong river boat to take us to the other side where we got a personal tour of some Buddhist caves and temples from at least 15 young monks. Speaking of the monks, which LP is famous for, we woke up one morning at 6 a.m. to gather in the street to help give alms (sticky rice) to the passing monks. Old local women cook sticky rice in the morning and as hundreds of monks pass by, they hand out a chunk of rice to each that the monks collect in a bucket for later. They eat twice a day when they are studying as monks and their last meal takes place at 11 a.m. So, by 6 a.m. the following day, they are probably pretty hungry-no matter how enlightened they are!

The final day we took a ride out of town to some seriously awesome waterfalls. Laos is crazy because no one even KNOWS how amazing this place is! If people knew, this place would be a zoo of tourists. So, you can come if you are reading this but don't tell anyone else! I mean, we spent $3 for a ride out to the jungle to hike and swim the waterfalls and I've literally never seen falls like that, even in Hawaii. We had a great swim and even met up with all the fellow travelers we'd been hanging out with in town the previous days. There are so few people traveling, you keep on running into the same couples and you end up becoming friends after a few days. It really feels like a little community.

Anyway, I could go on and on but you get the point. We love Laos. But, if you want to love it too, you need to come now. Pretty soon the word will get out and this place will be another SE Asia circus full of Starbucks and tasteless Italian food (that's what happens when you get to Thailand!)

We are in Thailand now. We flew one hour to Chiang Mai, north of Bangkok. It is like another planet. It's hard to think that Laos is just a few hours east of here. I'm sure we will grow to love Thailand too but we will have to look at it from a different point of view. There is great food here and the people are friendly but you really have to fight to avoid bad tourists and bad restaurants.

For now, we will let the Laos memory linger and I hope you enjoy the photos. Love, Lauren and Ural!

Laos: Vientiane, Vang Vieng

2008-10-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

Before arriving in Laos, I was running many errands in Kuala Lumpur anticipating 10 days of remoteness and inaccessibility. I bought washing powder, lotion, even cookies and crackers for fear that these wouldn't be available in this little-known, little-traveled place called Laos.

I was dead wrong. Upon arrival in Vientiane, we immediately set out on the streets for lunch. I was hot, tired, and a bit worried that it would take too long to find something familiar or appetizing. Within 10 minutes, we stumbled upon JOMA Cafe which looked more like it belonged on a trendy street in Santa Monica than on a dusty main road near the Mekong. We walked into the cafe and everyone was a foreigner but not tourists. They were dressed in nice trousers, button up shirts and nothing was wrinkled (no tourist can avoid this, no matter the budget). It hit us: expats. We should have known. Laos is a country currently supported by over 80% foreign aid money and countless organizations are based in Vientiane to help run them properly. We heard mostly French being spoken but English language courses are also very popular.

So, in a nutshell, Vientiane looks more like France probably did 100 years ago (there is even a Champs Elysee-looking boulevard) and you don't have to go 5 feet without seeing an amazing French, Italian, or upscale Lao cuisine restaurant. We ate like kings for 2 days. We had lettuce and tomatoes that had been washed in mineral water for our health. We ate wood-fired pizzas and came in contact with more olive oil than I've seen in months. All for under $10 a meal.

They also use a lot of USD here. They are trying to use KIP, the local currency, but US dollars are still king. As for Lao culture, it wasn't until we got out of Vientiane that we got to experience that. I will talk about Lao culture in the next blog entry. So, have a look at our pictures and you can see how I was indulging in the foreign foods available to us. You never know when you will come across blueberry cheesecake again in Asia, so I made sure to have more than 1 piece!

After two nights, we felt full of foreign food and were getting way too comfortable in our little villa hotel with our own pool (the place was dead besides us). We dutifully watched the presidential debates over a hot coffee and chocolate coissant and headed out on our first real Lao adventure: the VIP bus to Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng has recently become a must-stop on the young (18 year olds) backpacker circuit famous for its tubing on a river. THe scenery is absolutely nothing short of spectacular and for this reason, we decided to stop here. Laos has 1 main highway running through the country south to north. Even though it's dubbed as the "main" highway, do not let this fool you. The road is paved but because the rainy season is coming to an end, it's full of potholes and washed out in places. Our VIP bus was not really that. It was OK, but that fact that the TV on the bus was blaring Lao pop music videos (they are terrible) and that the AC wasn't working both made the 3.5 hour trip pretty unbearable.

By the time we disembarked in Vang Vieng, I was ready for tubing. We checked into an adorable bungalow on the scenic river and put on our suits right away. Within 15 minutes, we had purchased baguette sandwiches to go and boarded a little pick-up truck with other travelers to go to the river for tubing. The tubing is specifically famous here for being a big, floating party. You start tubing and every (I swear) 50 meters, some Lao guy throws you a line or bamboo stick and pulls you into their riverside bar. usually these places are ramshakle wood structures designed only to serve cold beer and cocktails from childrens beach buckets. If you dare, you also can attempt a rope swing at each bar, some of which are really precarious!!! Some of the swings definitely swung back over areas with exposed beach and rocks. I'm sure there are countless injuries and even drownings considering the fledgling development and general lack of oversight by Lao officials. On the other hand, that's what makes the place fantastic. If you are smart enough not to get smashed on Beer Lao and swing yourself into a cliff, you will have fun. Like we did!

I finally DID do a rope swing at the last bar and it was really a blast. I determined that this swing only went over deep water and really there was no way I could have hurt myself. So, I swung over the water and it was an amazing experience. I'm not normally that brave but Ural told me to do it! Ha ha ha.

We don't have pictures from the tubing b/c that would've ruined our camera as everything was wet. I managed to ruin Ural's favorite t-shirt by placing my hot pink sarong in the bag with his white shirt. You can see his new pink tie-dye in the pics.

The following morning after tubing, since there wasn't really anything else to do in Vang Vieng, we set out for a huge day of travel to northern Laos: Luang Prabang.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Angkor Wat Temples

2008-09-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a long time, Ural and Lauren did NOT get templed-out in Siem Reap, Cambodia. For those of you who are thinking "Cambodia? Why would anyone want to go to Cambodia? Doesn't Angelina Jolie have a kid from there or something?" (yes, she does...)

Anyway, Cambodia is between Thailand and Vietnam (get out your maps, children) and is an amazing place to visit. While the country, like Vietnam, suffered from decades of war and destruction, it has recently (last 20 years) become a huge tourist mecca for those coming to visit the world's largest religious site: Angkor Wat. The word "wat" means temple and there is not just one here in SIem Reap. There is the major one but it's more a whole LAND full of temples dating back from around 700 A.D. until about 1300 A.D. when the region was ruled by kings (still is actually, Cambodia is a kingdom) and dominated first the Hindu religion brought from India and then the Buddhist religion, which remains the primary religion today.

Ural and I flew specifically to Cambodia to visit these temples. I know, I know. I told you we ranked ourselves very low on the "cultural sophistication scale" (see Bali templing) but we heard these temples were mind-blowing and a "must-see." So, we flew directly to Siem Reap (Air Asia, of course) after spending the night sleeping on the plastic benches outside the Kuala Lumpur airport terminal. There are very funny pics of us camped out with the rest of the world sleeping in the airport and gorging on McDonald's. We decided to sleep there after arriving at 10 p.m. from Vietnam and departing at 7 a.m. for Cambodia. A great opportunity to save money on hotel and just suck it up for a few hours. Actually, it was kind of fun!

Sadly, we had all these extra Sheraton hotel points from an old credit card and we UNFORTUNATELY HAD TO check into Le Meridien Resort Hotel for 4 nights. (Can you hear my sarcasm!?) Yes, we suffered. We toiled. There were 6 PILLOWS in the room and we made sure to relax by the luxurious swimming pool after templing every day. Outside the hotel, we still stuck to our budget and opted for the "self-guided" tour of Siem Reap. Armed with a knock-off copied version of a detailed Angkor Wat guidebook ($3 USD), we set off on our rented bicycles ($4 a day) to cruise the vast temple land of Siem Reap. For two days we set off on our bikes and did each day, about 20 km of biking. But, it was so wonderfully relaxing and it was a great way to feel connected to the locals. Every local without a motorbike rides a bicycle. So, the streets are packed with bikers and there is plenty of room to share with the vehicles so it's very safe. We would just stop where we wanted and hang out with children selling us stuff and offering to provide "security" for our bikes if we promised by a cold drink from them after exploring. Ural was impressed by my skills at haggling with small boys ages 6-10. I don't let them pull the fast ones on me. ONe boy threated to "cry" if I didn't buy from him and I told him to suck it up. He knew that wasn't going to fly! My resolve crumbled, however, when one small boy selling postcards went as far as running up 200 temple steps with a flower for me. At first, I refused, but who doesn't buy a stupid postcard from a boy who brings you a flower AND he remembered my name...I got suckered ha ha! He was cute and hopefully one day he'll actually go to school.

As for the temples, we tried to select a few great photos from the lot (Ural shot 400 photos, easily). I figured even though you are probably bored to tears sometimes looking at our pictures (;)) you didn't want to die of temple photos. So, consider yourself spared.

Photos cannot express the enormity of the temples themselves nor the vast area of land that is occupied by these structures. It was absolutely unreal and I would not hesitate to recommend a trip to Siem Reap to anyone. Even a "non-templer" like me enjoyed every minute (ok, except the LAST temple where there were unending stairs!)

As for the town, Siem Reap, I was shocked at the level of sophistication. The downtown "pub street," as it's called, looked like Austin, Texas' 6th Street. It was hopping every night with tourists and offered every cuisine you could imagine at great quality and low prices. We loved Cambodian food (mostly curries and rice, meal deal with beer about $3.75 per person), but we also indulged on Western delights such as BURGERS AND FRIES! No, not McD's this time but a special place called "Burgers Without Borders." The expat who owns this place imports beef from South America and the blue cheese burger was amazing at $4.50. There is a photo of this monumentous event. Actually, we ate there twice! All that biking made us hungry!

Also, I can't go without mentioning the little garden Italian restaurant hidden by our hotel. L'Oasi Italian (owned by Italian expats) was so authentic and inviting! We just rolled up on our bikes after templing and were greeted by cold wet towels for our faces and hands. Then, we had mouth-watering bruschetta (amazing olive oil and capers!) and fresh pizzas with imported ingrediants!! ONly a little more expensive at $6 a pizza. Amazing!

Lastly, on a cultural note, I should mention that it was very weird to use United States dollars in Cambodia. I mean, it's been two months since we've used US currency so it was kind of like play money! You want to bring lots of $1 bills with you because everything is about $1-$2. A short tuk-tuk ride: $2 One knock-off Lonely Planet guide: $1 Two Diet Cokes on the road: $1...easy!

Hope you enjoy the photos I picked for the blog and we'll write again after we return from Laos! We are heading to Vientiane, Laos tomorrow by plane and then we stay 11 days traveling the interior of the country. From Luang Prabang, Laos (in the north), we fly directly to northern Thailand. Then, we spend about 20 days working our way down Thailand by train, through the islands, and lastly, to KL where we will return to the US. Then, off to SOuth America! But first, Laos....

much love, Lauren and Ural

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam

2008-09-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Guidebook descriptions of Saigon are 100% accurate: hot, humid, and millions of people going everywhere on millions of motorbikes. Wow. It was a good thing that Ural and I had already spent over a week in Vietnam when we arrived by plane to Saigon. When our taxi arrived near our guesthouse, we got out into a massive rainstorm. So, frantically, we put on our bags and looked up to cross the street. NO WAY! No way. There was an amoeba about 4 lanes wide (NOT four lanes, lanes don't exist) of motorbikes, bicycles, city buses, mini buses, cars, someone pushing a food cart...you name it! So, before I just started crying in despair, a random local guy offered to help us cross. He said "OK!" and we started inching across the street. You think you'd be waiting for an opening and then run for it---no no--you'll get killed doing that in Vietnam. So, you, very slowly, inch your way across the highway of vehicles. Because you are moving slowly in a compressed unit of a few people (power in numbers!), cars have time to ooze around you. But, this takes guts! There is nothing short of terrifying about all these vehicles, including loud city buses, just scraping by you while you stand in the middle of the road. And so our 9 days in Saigon continued just like this...very slowly across the streets.

We are professionals now. I arrogantly scoff at the other tourists, recently having arrived, as they grab each other and run for their lives, only to have to retreat to the original side of the street after too many blaring horns scared them to death. But, they'll learn soon...

You also learn to bring your umbrella everywhere with you. If caught in a sudden downpour, you will have taken a shower, in every sense of the word. Even with umbrellas, our clothes took 2 days to dry after one incident.

In a distinct effort to keep our budget in line, we basically chilled out all week walking the streets and exploring. In Saigon, watching daily Vienamese life can be done by sitting at one of the "street cafes" with little plastic chairs and tables. You can sit there with a book and a Diet Coke or a cheap Saigon beer (cheaper than Diet Coke, actually) and watch the action. In the morning (6-9) the streets are full of women selling produce from little bicycles and traditional shoulder-carrying-thingys (see pic). Also, the butcher "shop" is open on the streets (make sure to see this pic!). It's basically a couple of people and a metal street cart with pounds and pounds of meat (no refrigerator, to be sure) and a HUGE cleaver!!! Actually, a woman is usually doing the chopping and the men are haggling the prices. I got a photo of a bucket of pig legs, toes and all. Pig legs were really popular...

I could go on for days about the street life here but the most exciting thing is finding a place to eat. So much choice! Ural and I ate Pho Bo, the traditional bowl of soup with rice noodles and tender strips of beef. We ducked into a small joint on a corner near the park and discovered that it was the Pho place that Bill Clinton had eaten at when he made his famous visit in 2000. The place was barren except for photos of the Bill Clinton with the Pho 2000 staff (I think they named the place after the incident).

Lastly, my blog entry wouldn't be complete without a reflection on the Vietnam War and why everyone should visit Saigon at least once. Born in 1980, I have only a fragmented knowledge about the war mostly derived from books and movies (not school, god forbid, they never had time to get to the recent history from 1950). Everyone agrees, in retrospect, that the war was ill-fated and poorly conceived. But, the extent of the damage that was caused cannot be underestimated. For me, and probably what would be a similar experience for anyone that visits the war sites here in Vietnam, it became evident that there is a great difference between knowing something intellectually and seeing something for yourself in real life. I knew about the famous Viet Cong (Ho Chi Minh's side) and their ability to out-wit the US forces with their extensive tunnels and brutal booby-traps. But when you see how they lived underground and constructed weapons from materials left in the fields by the US, the experience becomes much more vivid. We paid a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels yesterday on a half-day tour with a Vietnamese guide who had fought with the US (he had been in the US Navy) and reported to Senator John Kerry, who had fought in the area. After the war, he wanted to stay in Vietnam, which meant that he had to go to Ho Chi Minh's re-education camps (read: prison) to learn about Communism (read: brainwash) and to clean up thousands of land mines previously planted by the US (read: lots of people got their legs and arms blown off at these prisons). Declaring himself "lucky," as he had not lost any limbs, he has been a tour guide to the tunnels for 18 years. His story was tragic: brother died fighting for the US, mother died, father died, and he had been directly responsible for collecting dead and wounded US soldiers from the field and placing their dog tags into their mouths for identification. Needless to say, this guy has seen a lot of bad stuff and after a 2 hour lecture to the tunnels and a 1 hour lecture from the tunnels, the day could only be described as sobering.

The tunnels were fascinating and it was strange to think that we were standing directly in the jungle facing the rice paddies where so many people had died. We actually got to go through 120 meters of underground tunnel to get the Viet Cong experience. Holy SH**! It was really hard to move down there, almost bent over completely, and incredibly dark. The Viet Cong spent years underground and because they were clever, the US had a very difficult time penetrating this area and ultimately led to us not being "successful" in Vietnam.

We also made a brief toilet stop at an arts and crafts center for handicapped victims of war. WOW. There were hundreds of disabled young and older people alike. Some were victims of Agent Orange (birth defects, skin problems); some had clearly been victims of land mines. However, they were all smiles for the tourists and are reportedly very happy to be employed and have the opportunity to earn a living and not have to beg in Saigon. Regardless, it was a painful sight to see the effects of the war.

The War Remnants Museum is fascinating and it contains THOUSANDS of photos of US destruction during the war. This museum was not easy for me to handle whatsoever. Aside from hundreds of photos of children who had been injured by the Napalm bombs, there is an interesting room dedicated to the photos taken by journalists who had died in action. There are many shots that were reportedly the last photo left in the camera that was found with the body. The images are staggering as you can see the angle of the camera faced upwards out of a rice field admist other dead bodies. There is even one photo with a bullet hole in the lens.

I don't write these things to upset you. I'm writing them because this was an integral part of our Vietnam experience. You can't come here and enjoy the scenery without taking in the history of the war (and all the wars before THAT, which were many). The French had colonized this area for 200 years before the US involvement and so as a result, these people have suffered for a long time. There are just more photos of the US war...they didn't have as much photography when the French were here enslaving people to produce rubber in the 1800's. You can be sure that wasn't pretty either.

Both of us are so glad to have had the experience of coming here and to gain special insight into what took place between the US and Vietnam not so long ago. Outside of the war museums and the war sites, you will see no evidence of destruction. The people are welcoming and locals, including our tour guide, have mostly "forgotten and forgiven" the past. At least this is the Vietnamese cultural way of moving on. So, there is no problem coming here as an American. As in any developing country, they are happy to have your dollars, Euros, Pesos, Lira...whatever! It only helps to come and spend money. That's all I'll say about Saigon for now (phew, thanks Lauren!). Enjoy the photos.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

2008-09-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Mekong River Delta. Fabled to be the "heart of South East Asia" and any tour shop that goes there promises an authentic experience for tourists.

As a full-time skeptic, I was less than convinced that an attraction that lies only 3 hours south of Saigon and reachable for $14 a day including lunch, could be without the enemy: other tourists. So, with my full glass of pessimism, we opted out of the 3 day in depth tour which included sleeping on wood slats with a foam mattress in the open air (mosquito net included!) and chose the 1 day Mekong Delta Experience for $14--perfect!

Promptly at 7:15, we arrived at Delta Adventure Tours office, flanked by 7 or 8 other tour offices. This tour company had been highly recommended but later we came to realize that all the tour companies just book people on the trip and then herd them across the street to a massive tour bus where everyone gets on for the consolidated tour. So, if you come to Vietnam...it doesn't really matter WHO you book with. So, snuggled into our seats aboard this 80-person bus, we set out for a 3 hour drive to the Mekong Delta. As I prepare my I-Pod and get ready for a little shut eye, I hear a blaring microphone "GOOD MORNING, MY NAME IS CASPER!" I am dismayed to learn that "Casper" (okay, he obviously has a Vietnamese name that is damn-near impossible for any Westerner to pronounce), will be telling us interesting facts about the tour, the Mekong, Vietnam, and a long speech about motorbikes and which brand is the best value and which bike will get you the hottest girlfried.

So, no sleep and really already tired of Casper, we unload at the Mekong for another transfer. We board a smallish boat on the river (quite comfortable and after Indonesia, everything seems to be luxury). We tour the famous Cai Be floating market where, as promised by Delta Adventures, there are ACTUAL Mekong people trading ACTUAL products on the river. So, I feel satisfied in my tourist experience so far...

We make the obligatory stop at a local "village" whose sole existence is aimed at "wowing" tourists with their traditional methods of producing a variety of useless products. Casper is strangely THRILLED by these processes as he loudly explains how the woman is making rice paper. Casper: "See, this is my SISter, PaRIS HILton, and she retIRE now and make RICE PAPER!"

You get the picture? So, after sampling some tasteless rice paper we are offered a number of trinkets for sale and hustled over to the coconut candy making process. Apparantly, Paris Hilton was above the cononut candy process but Casper was nonetheless very enthusiastic about this.

So, after yet another demonstration of how to make the world's-largest-rice-crispy-treats-in-a-huge-cauldron display, the most entertaining aspect of the morning came when a small local naked baby ran through the demonstration wearing one of the bright orange life vests from our boat. He disappeared into the jungle behind the "village" and we didn't see him again.

After arriving at our lunch stop we actually enjoyed cycling around the Mekong area for an hour through really small paved paths (not roads) and looking at the real, actual, villages. Let me tell you that there were some very opulant homes in this area. Behind high gates, you could see houses worthy of the California coast decked-out with marble entry ways and beautifully ornate balconies. While there are poor people in the Mekong, a lot of families are doing quite well. At the lunch place, which is just a family home basically, we were given the chance to hold the family pet: a massive python snake. I had already seen the snake through it's cage and was really content with that experience. However, Ural insisted that I should "hold it!" so I did. I was terrified and just as I started to not enjoy the experience anymore, the snake (I swear!) started to tighten it's muscles around me like a big uncomfortable hug from a creepy uncle....finally, the owner lifted it off of me. There are pictures to commemorate this event.

Our favorite part of the day (aside from saying good-bye to Casper) was rowing in small little wooden boats through the small canals. It was really fun and everyone got to wear the traditional Vietnamese rice hats. Because they are only for women, it was funny to see the boys wearing them and you could see the local children sort of giggling about this.

Well, after a gruelling 3 hour bus trip back to Saigon, we skipped off the bus and wandered over to a local Indian restaurant and after seeing that there were ACTUAL Indian people working there, we sat down. It was the best Indian meal I've had in a long time. We love Mumtaz Indian!

Halong Bay, Vietnam

2008-09-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

We just returned from visiting Halong Bay, Vietnam, which is another World Heritage Site and probably the source of most photos you see from Vietnam. The iconic limestone "islands" dotting the northern coast of Vietnam have protected the coast from invasion for as long as..well...a long time. The only way to see this site is to book a tour and get on one of the boats. All the boats are exactly the same from what I could determine but our tour was really upscale. More upscale than we really needed, but it was nice and relaxing nonetheless.

Check out the photos to get an impression of the bay. Not much to note in this entry as far as "culture" goes because we were basically cruising around on a boat looking at the scenery. I will report, though, that the most interesting experience on the tour actually took place on the 2 hour drive back from the Bay to Hanoi at Vietnamese rush hour. Ural and I were glued to the windows of our minibus watching in awe as local people went about their commute. We passed through the industrial area outside of the city where there were lots of manufacturing facilities and specifically, many garment-making warehouses. I was able to catch a clear view of the typical packed sewing room stuffed to the gills with female workers frantically constructing clothing probably meant to be shipped to the West. What's important to note is that I could SEE them. Meaning the door was open; meaning is wasn't air-conditioned; meaning it was a probaby a sauna in there. It was fun to see everyone pouring out of the buildings as their shifts ended on thousands of motorbikes and regular bicycles. People seemed full of energy and were carrying all sorts of things along with them on the bikes: other people, a sack of fresh ingrediants for cooking, possibly an entire sack of rice, maybe a recently killed animal. Ural spotted an ENTIRE pig (dead, of course) strapped to someones motorbike, precariously balanced.

As for our tour, we were taken from one beautiful spot to the next and it was seamless. We enjoyed cruising in the boat and on the second day, kayaking the bay. Ural captained our boat and did a great job steering a double kayak (yippee! my husband can finally steer a kayak properly!). My work here is done.

ONe note about the food on the trip....it's for seafood lovers ONLY. And you really have love entire PLATES of steamed shellfish (prawns, clams, whole crabs, squid) then followed by a whole grilled fish (not usually seasoned at all, ugh) and white rice. That's it!! I was dying from lack of sugar so the purchase of Oreos on the first day saved my life. I'll eat the shellfish in moderation but I can't take it over and over again. I'm pretty sure they were doing their best with what they had considering we were floating around in a bay where the primary job of the locals is fishing. We gobbled up the first beef that was available at the resort!

The resort was ridiculously nice and we enjoyed just sitting around. Back to Hanoi today and off to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in the south via a cheap flight. Gotta run to the airport! We'll report from southern Vietnam soon!

much love, Lauren and Ural

Hanoi, Vietnam

2008-09-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

We love Vietnam so far. We flew from KL to Hanoi on Air Asia and it was a little culture shock at first! After a month in Indonesia, Vietnam is really different and in fact, much farther away! What was even more interesting is that we arrived on Vietnamese National Day-the annual celebration of their declaration of Communist independence! There were flags everywhere with September 2 1945-2008. I had this great plan to be cheap and take the public bus into town from the airport. It would only cost 50 cents each! However, about halfway through the VERY crowded ride, I realized that there were two children behind us and one in front of us actually throwing up into plastic bags. Their mothers were attempting to clean it up and keep them from puking all over everyone but it was only a matter of time until we would be soaked in vomit. So, I suggested to Ural that we move to the left. About 20 seconds later, vomit literally FLEW through the bus and landed just shy of our feet and bags. Phew! But, immediately, in the middle of Hanoi, our new huge city for which I didn't have a map yet, we got off the bus. Then, we realized that we were probably no where near our hotel and got into a cab. At least it was only $5. That's a good trade-off to being covered in puke! Ha ha! Needless to say, we enjoyed our two free days at the Hilton (4 pillows!) but now we've moved over to a really nice 3 star hotel. Yes, we did indeed stay at the Hanoi Hilton, but not the same one as John McCain. This one has homemade ice cream ;) The thing is here in Vietnam, you don't have to spend $120 a night at the Hilton to have every comfort. The only thing the Hilton adds is a nice lobby with 4 in-house restaurants (all way too much for our budget anyway) and a lot of nice, English speaking staff. While it was nice to pretend to be rich, it's much more fun to be in the heart of the budget backpacker area where all the action is!

In our new hotel (Prince Hotel I, there are 4 of them in the area, do not confuse!), we actually have FREE internet and included breakfast. These are two things we did NOT have at the HIlton. So there! The nice thing about staying in the Hilton was that we explored the area around the hotel and now we are in a different part of town. So,it's like being in a new city. We got some exercise this morning when we decided to trek with our packs across town instead of hire a taxi. It was about 30 minutes and we avoided a lot of taxi touts by taking a path through a nice park. It was fun!

So, the food is GREAT here. I haven't craved anything Western yet. However, the lingering French influence makes for beautiful bakeries with exquisite pastries and baguettes. They also import a lot of cheeses here and I had the pleasure of having a sandwich with creamy goat cheese and marinated red peppers for lunch the other day. It was really tasty! We haven't found a way to self-cater yet but it doesn't matter as eating is very cheap.

We splurged and went to a famous authentic Vietnamese restaurant the other night and the total bill came to $17 USD. There were numerous photos of the eccentric owner with all kinds of foreign Prime Ministers and Presidents. We figured, this must be good. Our $17 included two beers, an appetizer of special spring rolls, Ural's main course of fried soft crab (whole), and my sauteed beef tenderloin with sate sauce and rice. We were so full and it was really satisfying.

But, the other nights we've found that we can eat similarly at nice sit-down restaurants for no more than $10 USD total (including beer). That's really affordable. In Indonesia, if you went to a place with A/C and nice tables, etc., you would be at least $20 for a nice meal. One of our best meals was at a fine dining restaurant called Hoa San. It is a training restaurant for aspiring young Vietnamese chefs who were previously disadvantaged youth or street kids. The waitstaff was meticulously careful about the service and the food was delicious! An entire fine dining experience for about $10 USD. We left a tip to promote the training of these young restauranteurs.

The other nice thing about Vietnam is that actual Vietnamese people are dining here too! So, it's not all for tourists. You are actually just BEING in a city where life is happening outside of you being a tourist here. If you can fend off the touts for a taxi (or tuk-tuk or 3-wheel cylco), you will feel totally relaxed. Ahhh, you also have to have no fear when crossing the streets. Imagine Turkey times 10. It's pretty tough but we worked out our system already. If either Ural or I yells "go!", then we just take off running! It's pretty funny but we haven't been hit yet! THe streets are just jammed packed with motorbikes and regular bicycles. People have no fear and apparently, there are very few rules. In fact, the local English newspaper ran an article today titled "27 Accidents Caused by Pedestrians in Ho Chi Minh Last Week" I thought: you would never see an article blaming pedestrians in the US!

We also visited a couple government museums yesterday that were fascinating. There was the Vietnam National Museum which included the history from prehistoric times until modern day (not including war stuff). Then, we wondered: where is all the war stuff? Ah ha! It was across the street at the aptly named "Revolutionary Museum." So, we took about an hour to walk through the incrediby detailed museum. It was very interesting to read the Communist Vietnamese side to the story. The displays were luckily in Vietnamese, French, and English so we could read the explanations. There were many photos of American troops being captured (in exciting terms like "villagers successfully shoot down American planes with morters") and lots of scenes of victory for Ho Chi Minh's troops. Conversely, there were a lot of photos of the devastation that was caused by the American soldiers. Specifically, very gory photos of women and children and burned villages. Sorry to bring up such a depressing story but you would not see this side of things in a history museum in the US. I didn't feel there was too much propaganda; it was just the other side of the story. Very interesting.

Tomorrow, I think we will be sure to hit the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Also, we need to eat at all the wonderful places we've passed by! Today was a bit of a business day as we did laundry (yippee!). I hope it dries by the time we leave on our tour of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is in Northern Vietnam and you've most likely seen photos of it before, even if you don't know that. It's a bay, duh, with lots of little islands rising sharply out of the water. We booked a rather upmarket tour which includes a PRIVATE bathroom and shower aboard the boat. Also, the second night is at an island resort on Cat Ba Island and it looks very nice. The second day of our boat trip is actually a kayaking day. We will be exploring the beaches and coves as well as kayaking to floating markets where they make noodle dishes on little boats! It should be really fun. Then, next Tuesday, we have a flight directly to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), in the south. We will be exploring the city as well as arranging another tour to access the Mekong Delta area. It should be flooded this time of year so the best way to tour is by boat.

We'll be sure to add photos to this entry when we get some time but for now--cheers! We are off to eat more great local food! Love, Lauren and Ural

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2008-08-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, luckily we haven't been all business here in KL, Malaysia. We have spent 3 days in KL before heading to Vietnam. This is a great place to launch your SE Asia operations from. There is every convenience here as well as a plethora of amazing ethnic foods. KL competes with Singapore in offering the quantity of food. There is food EVERYWHERE. You can't walk more than 10 feet without seeing an outdoor or indoor eating plaza. It's really truly amazing. I have never seen anything like this outside of Asia.

So, besides sitting on the internet and hanging around our hostel. We basically went out on trips for food. Just looking at the food is an activity in itself. On Saturday night, we visited the famous Little India Night Market. You could probably buy anything in the world there. I was thinking we'd eat there but the food was just very mysterious. I really couldn't identify which things were savoury and which were sweet. But, the smells were interesting and it was fascinating to watch. We have good pics from there. If anyone knows what those sausage things are....let us know!

Saturday was also the night before Malaysian Independence Day. It's just like the 4th of July, they have concerts and fireworks. The city streets were so full of people. It was really vibrant and we wandered around for about 5 hours until we couldn't walk anymore! Then, on Sunday morning, there was a parade but we didn't bother to wake up for it. Our hostel staff didn't seem too excited!

Sunday we traveled by public bus with a very fast driver to Batu Caves. This is the largest Indian Hindu temple outside of India itself. There were some major things happening when we arrived. First of all, there was a special event where hundreds of disabled people were going to be carried by children in plastic chairs up the 272 steps to the temple entrance in order to answer their prayers. We arrived during the ceremonies speeches and never actually saw them carrying people because I think we would've waited forever. We DID, however, see a large cow all dressed up in bows and ribbons walking up the 272 steps. As you may or may not know, the cow is very sacred to the Hindus and so upon arriving at the top of the stairs, they poured milk on it's back and lit a small fire next to it. All the while, the cow was relieving himself on the pavement which was a little bit humorous for those of us who are relatively insensitive to odd religious practices that we are too lazy to understand (I am talking about Ural and myself....a little lazy sometimes). As typical conversation by your worldly friends goes like this:

Ural: "hey, check it out, they are pouring milk on it's back"
Lauren: "wow, that must have something to do with the cow being sacred and it's milk being important...but I dunno."
Ural: "why are they lighting a small fire by it...whaddya think that means?"
Lauren: "I don't know. That's weird. maybe we should read about it somewhere."
Ural: "nah."
Lauren: "yeah."

As you may already know, we are way more interested in food. We think this much better represents a culture in it's modern form. So, please find nice food photos in our slideshow. Last night, we had Indian street food next to our hostel as they have a guy who makes fresh roti with cheese and banana (not together). The banana roti is amazing. Roti is a dough that is cooked on a hot surface like a pancake but its most similar to naan, the traditional Indian bread. Then, we moved up the street to one of the hundreds of Chinese outdoor restaurants and had veggies, rice, and some garlic pork...mmmm tasty! Ural declared that last night was his fullest night yet!

Tomorrow morning early AM we depart for Hanoi Vietnam. We have booked two FREE nights at the Hilton there whoohoo! I hope they have good pillows. I'm all about pillows.

We will post, who knows when, from Vietnam. I don't think they are famous for fast internet! Much love, Lauren and Ural

p.s. Ural has taken it upon himself to build a "travel reading" section of the blog. We are reading some really good books and it's so nice to be able to curl up with books and not have to do anything else!

Gangga Island: The Diving Adventure

2008-08-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

After writing a blog entry about yesterday's traveling and posting and labeling all of the pictures, Lauren has had enough with the computer, so I will be doing the Gangga entry!

Gangga Island is located north of Sulawesi Island. It is not quite on any maps, due to its size, -there is the resort we stayed at and two local fishing villages, maybe 700 people total- however, the google map attached to the photo album will give you and idea of the location.
To get to Gangga, one takes a flight to Manado, which is the one large city in North Sulawesi, (In our case, about 8 hours total travel time from Bali) and gets picked up by a local driver to make the 1.5 hour long journey to an isolated jetty, rented by the resort from the local university's marine biology department, and gets to the resort via a 20-minute boat ride. Not the easiest place to get to, but we have seen worse.

The resort is owned and run by a Dutch lady named Hanna, who manages an entirely Indonesian crew of 85 seamlessly. While it is largely geared for divers, the resort also provides wonderful white sand beaches and an excellent pool (Lauren claims it is one of the best she has ever seen) for non-divers as well. The rooms,the facilities, (they even have e-mail!) and the food (with an a la carte menu every lunch and dinner and a buffet breakfast)were all great. However, as we came to expect from Indonesia over the past month, the staff made all the difference. Everybody was so genuinely nice and hard working and attentive, it really allows for ultimate relaxation and feelings of never wanting to leave.

For the diving, I showed up not knowing what to expect. (I got certified in San Diego in very cold water and zero visibility in 2005 and never dove ever since)

Diving in Indonesia is fantastic!!

After a short refresher course in the pool, (Lauren didn't need it but she came along anyway for support) I managed to do 13 awesome dives, including a night dive!
Our dive master Eddy, a local with 20-years of experience, was the best dive master ever (per Lauren), pointing out to things under the water that me especially would have never seen on my own. He made my first real diving experience an absolute blast.

When we were not diving, we hung out by the pool, having afternoon tea, and listening to the band formed by an ever changing selection of employees, singing traditional Indonesian songs. I kept taking lots of sunset and palm tree photos; they are just too beautiful to pass up on any opportunity.

At the end of our 7 days, - the highest cost per day of the entire trip - we felt it was worth every rupiah. We hope to get back to Gangga and explore the rest of the reef one of these days.

A Day in the Life of Travel

2008-08-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

Before I bother to write our blog entry for the entire week of diving in Gangga Island, I want to take a few minutes to walk you through a DAY-IN-THE-LIFE of Lauren and Ural. Some people think traveling is all about being "on vacation." This is true sometimes. Other times, it's simply exhausting and it's a lot of work. To stay on budget, it takes forethought and planning to keep a day of travel and transport down to a minimum while still being comfortable. I was particularly inspired by yesterday as we traveled from Bali, Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a big day and our goal was to keep it under $100 (including the previous night's accomodation).

8:05 Wake up, order breakfast, choice of pancake (Ural) or toast (Lauren), fruit juice, and Bali coffee

8:20 Discuss daily business with Ural, decide we will miss Indonesia

8:45 Start repacking bags. Lauren finds necessary paperwork for the day; airplane tics, hostel reservations and directions.

9:15 Call my parents with the last minutes on our Indonesian phone card (friggin' expensive!) Got cut off mid-sentence...sorry guys!

9:30 Discover that our all Indonesian TV channels will be broadcasting the Obama speech live (in English) We hunker down for the speech

10:03 Become mesmerized by Barack, plus it's just fun to watch TV

10:40 Crap-Barack is still talking and we need to get Ural a haircut!

10:42 Head out on foot in search of a haircut

10:44 The first salon tells us they can't cut his hair because the boss is not in today (?)

10:46 We find another place to cut his hair for $2 US-great!

10:47 I join the family in their living room where they run a laundry service (in addition to a salon) to watch the rest of Barack's speech. I am offered a seat by the father who is busy separating some traveler's little pink thong underwear with his fingers...very ackward...

10:50 Ural looks marvelous!

10:55 We start a hunt for knock-off Ray Ban's for Ural. We start combing the tourist stalls. First stop: weirdly-shaped glasses that are bargained down to $4...no...keep looking...We find another pair across the way, not warped, for $5. "good for me, good for you..." and the deal is sealed.

10:57 Ural looks even more fabulous...new hair cut and new shades!

11:05 Lauren is derailed and sidetracked into a women's clothing stall. I found a cheap Bali retro-looking t-shirt that is good for sleeping. 30,000 rupiah! No way! That's $3! We move on...

11:07 Ural tells me to go back and negotiate for 20,000. Hands me cash. Goes to the room to shower.

11:09 I am the owner of a new shirt for 20,000 Rupiah or $2

11:15 Back in the hotel for final packing. "Passports Ural?" "Check the Green Card?"

11:25 Buy 2 litres of water.

11:30 Pay the bill for our hotel and get in our taxi for the airport

12:05 Arrive at Denpasar, Bali airport...we are STARVING!

12:09 Ronald McDonald saves the day! There is a McDonald's conveniently located outside the terminal. Cheeseburger and fries please!

12:30 Now suffering from a very high level of sodium (probably much needed anyway) and recovering from a full sugar soda (no Diet Coke to be found in SE Asia!--NO ONE is on a diet!) We check in to our Air Asia flight. Pay a small fee to check our bags

12:31 Realize from the ticket agent that we can't bring our stragically-bought cheap water from town into the terminal! We now set on the task of drinking 1 litre each in a few short minutes

12:55 FULL of water...we are ready to go through Immigration

1:00 Proceed to gate and pay departure tax of 150,000 Rupiah each, about $15

1:15 Wander endlessly through the aisles of Duty-Free (who BUYS this stuff?!) OK, I bought a bar of chocolate...I think it's a reaction to the McDonald's!

1:45 Pass through the final security check only to sadly discover that right before boarding they THROW AWAY your drinks you bought IN THE TERMINAL!!!! So, our expensive litre of water was wasted...

2:20 Air Asia flight departs 5 minutes EARLY! I love Asia...that makes 90% flights on time so far...

5:00 Air Asia flight arrives in KL 30 MINUTES EARLY! Amazing...

5:10 Get bags

5:15 Get Malaysian Ringgets from ATM

5:20 Change existing Rupiah to Ringgets

5:25 Upload new minutes to Malaysian SIM card for cellphone at kiosk in airport

6:00 Board cheap bus from airport to KL City Sentral. $3 each.

7:00 We disembark after a very bumpy trafficky ride to the city with an annoying fly buzzing in my face!

7:15 Board the Monorail for less than $1

7:25 Emerge at our stop and realize that's it's POURING RAIN! Stop to dig out umbrellas...of course they are at the ultimate BOTTOM of my bag...didn't really need them in Indonesia!

7:30 Realize that I don't have a map to find the hostel from the train station...ask a Police stand for the right way...very easy

7:36 Stop again at a Chinese food stall to ask for further directions. Local man is very excited to help Ural...draws detailed map on his newspaper.

7:46 Spot the hotel! Whoohoo! Ural is realizing that his umbrella is not as good as mine :(

7:48 Greeted by Mac, the proprietor, at Red Palm Guesthouse, voted in the Top 10 Most Popular Hostels by travelers. We soon find out why. I see all the guests huddled around a table taking photos. Mac lets us in from the rain.

7:49 Mac asks "are you hungry?" "YES!" We answer.

7:55 We are selecting from a large buffet of local Malaysian food...looks amazing! I have no idea why this food is being offered yet.

8:15 We are really full and have met several other travelers. Actually, even some Americans. We find out the dinner is not normal. Three of the guests are having birthdays! So, it was a special occasion but it saved us from having to set out again in the rain and find food!

8:45 Tour the facility

9:20 Hot shower! Good pressure!

10:05 Writing in my journal...happy the day is done...Successful I would say

10:45 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bali, Indonesia

2008-08-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

After the serious deprivation of cheese and bread on the islands...we have slowly crossed back into civilization. We left the islands on Thursday, the 14th, and had a long day of travel. At 7 a.m. we took a small boat to the mainland of Lombok Island. Then, a 45 minutes bus ride to the bigger boat to Bali. But, I should tell you how we board boats here in Indonesia. There is no peir! YOu stand on the sand with the little waves in your Chacos and a little dingy comes to the shore and several random guys help to hold it straight into the waves as someone lifts your bag in first and then you, sinking in the sand, try and jump on the back of a bobbing dingy. So, you've definitely gotten wet and now there is tons of sand in your shoes. So, from the beach, we took the dingy to the big boat to Bali. It took them 4 rounds on the dingy to load the boat. Then it was 4 hours on the big boat (included breakfast and lunch!! whoohoo!) and then transfer to a 2 hour bus to central Bali. Thankfully, the staff on the long boat ride put on some Justin Timberlake music videos in the cabin for our entertainment. Who knows what they think we like to do in our free time! But who doesn't love Justin!

We are now in Ubud. This is supposedly the mecca of all things Balinese and cultural here. It's also where all the artists and expats live. Hence, great food, great resources, and wonderful internet cafes. We have been indulging in all kinds of Western foods this week. I can't have any more fried rice with egg right now. I can't. I'll make a few comments about our guesthouse in Ubud. Wow. I booked it over my cellphone two days ago because things are busy here in the high season. I wanted to get something with A/C because we've been roughing it for several days. We also calculated that we hadn't had a warm shower or fresh water for at least 5 days (neither were available plus on an island, who cares if it's warm). So, our guesthouse's rooms run from $20 a day to $30 a day. We booked the $30 a night place with double bed and A/C. It's a freakin' castle! Literally, we climb these stairs and these two Balinese crafted woods doors open to a 4-poster bead, new A/C unit, an amoir, a beautiful bathroom with a tub!!! There was a balcony where they brought us tea on arrival and we had breakfast delivered each morning (we now have a choice of pancake, banana OR pineapple). There was a wrap-around balcony overlooking the pool (yes, a pool) and it's just immaculately Balinese decor everywhere. It's a little gaudy but beautiful in the authentic setting (would look tacky in say, Traverse City). So, we debated whether we NEEDED to stay in the $30 room b/c it's quite cool enough here not to have A/C. However, the fan rooms were significantly less lavish so we stayed in the pricey room!

In short, we did the tourist thing for one day simply because it was the easiest way to see all the obligatory temples and view points in one fell swoop. We had a minibus and driver with 4 other budget-minded foreigners like ourselves and off we went. After the first or second Balinese Hindu temple, we were completely "templed-out." I don't think Ural and I are cut out for a lot of "templing" (yes, it's a verb, students). We did go to the "mother temple" in Bali and hired a guide with our new friends who took us through an actual Balinese offering. Yes, we had to actually "offer" our money ;) but it was a fun experience and this old woman blessed us with "good Karma" and put sticky rice on my forehead. PLease see pics in the slideshow to get more than a taste of the temples. I tried not to put too many temple pics in, but that's it for a while! I promise!

The most special Ubud thing we did was pay a visit to the famous roasted pig restaurant from the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations show. So, the method of roasting the pig is special to Bali and it's called Babi Gulung and the famous place to eat it is Ibu Oka. Ibu Oka started as a small street stall selling one standard dish of roasted pork with spices on rice until Anthony Bourdain got there. After his show, she got so busy, they had to move operations to her home! Then, in 2007, they managed to open a larger outdoor eating area to accomodate the crowds. They roast the pork with over 20 spices inside for 8 hours, constantly turning it and basting with coconut milk. Then, you get rice, a piece of skin, a lean piece of pork, and a fatty piece. As an extra bonus, they fry up the liver and other sweetbreads and put little fried pieces on the side (Ural loved these!) I tried the skin and actually really liked it. A new pig arrived while we were there and I watched as the woman cut it's head off and I have a cool picture of that.

We have now moved into our new, posh hotel in Ubud that is part of our pre-paid scuba diving splurge of the trip. We've been here for 3 days and it's amazingly posh. THe breakfast that's included is more food than we've been eating in an entire day. I think we will gain the weight back now ;) We haven't been doing much here except drinking free ginger tea and enjoying the nice hotel facilities. Our hotel neighbors a sacred monkey forest with over 300 monkeys. THey are loud and cute but also like to steal things from tourists. Christina, you'd feel at home here ;)

We leave tomorrow for scuba diving in Sulawesi, an island north of Bali almost exactly on the equator. I can't wait. I will send a report about diving in a week or so! Until then, eat some nice Mexican for us as we are starting to miss burritos!
much love, Lauren and Ural

Perama Boat to Komodo Island and Gili Islands

2008-08-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

Ural and I were "rescued" from the island of Flores on Monday, August 4th. Literally, we were fed up with the noisy, dirty streets and lack of facilities. Plus, Ural was getting cranky because the water wasn't good enough to confidentaly drink the coffee AND there was no Diet Coke whatsoever. He was suffering from a lack of caffeine. I was suffering from a lack of sugar (I resorted to eating large chocolate bars).

The Perama boat is run by THE major tourist organizers in all of INdonesia. I think Perama OWNS a lot of this country. They run an amazing service of "collecting people and connecting people." Over the last three weeks, we've spent hundreds of dollars with them and I don't regret of a moment of that. They cater to budget tourists, mostly backpackers and completely simplify moving around the islands. I have never done anything easier! They have an office in each town and they make FLAWLESS connections between little boats, little buses, big boats, you name it. Simply amazing. We joined their big boat to take us from Flores via Komodo (Rinca) to Lombok. It was 3 days and 2 nights. We boarded the boat where we were joining several other passengers who had already come from Lombok (they were making a round-trip) and they had a big party for us on the boat to welcome us to the group. We had to break our way into several cliques but befriended a wonderful couple from the Netherlands. After a long speech from our Caption (Thom) about the upcoming program the crew of very small INdonesian men proceeded to do a "welcome dance" for us. I was expecting some kind of traditional moves but then the music started and I recognized the tune from my early days in Chicago attending many Bar Mitzvahs: the Electric Slide. But oh no! This was no average electric slide...these guys had practised different VERSIONS they did on each verse and I think I recall Thom calling out move #10 at one point. They were shaking it on the dance floor for us! It was hilarious and wonderful all at once. Hours of terrible rap and R&B followed at blaring volumes but Ural and I were too tired to care and passed out at 9:30 in our upstairs cabin. We needed to be fresh for the Komodo dragons the next morning.

On the island of Rinca (next to Komodo but actually has MORE dragons on it) was arrid like the Australian outback and I wasn't sure what to expect. We were being guided on our 2 hour walk and within minutes of docking on the island, we saw over 10 Komodo dragons. These things are BIG! Up to 3-4 meters! They seemed to prehistoric but they weren't interested in us tourists much (phew!). We snapped photos and had a nice hike through the island. The next two days were all about getting sun on the deck and reading books. Perama was so wonderful the whole time as they expertly served 3 meals a day JUST as you were starting to get hungry. The meals were amazing compared to Flores and no one understood what we were so excited about except the Dutch couple who had also suffered for days on Flores. It was mostly rice and veggies and eggs but there were also fried noodles which were a new twist! We didn't have Diet Coke yet but Ural was resorting to drinking regular coke. I think that was keeping us hydrated as water was the only option.

GILI ISLANDS (Trawangan, Meno, and Air)

From the Perama boat, we traveled the next morning from the west coast of Lombok (island just east of Bali) to 3 little islands called The Gilis. The pics included in this blog posting include the boat and shots from the islands. You are getting the highlights in the slideshow as I'm certain Ural took over 100 sunset photos. While they are all beautiful, they threaten to shut down this internet cafe while he tries to upload them and if he were successful, most of you would probably never speak to us again. There is such a thing as Death by Sunset photos.

While trying to minimize jealously, I will tell you that the Gilis are fantastic! Apparently, the Europeans, specifically the French, are already aware of that fact and have mobbed the place. Despite being the only Americans (Ural is basically an American for the purposes of this trip) around, we had a great time! Actually, I guess that's a good thing. But, you'd be suprised how much you miss Americans when you are surrounded by French people...wait I should stop...there are Europeans reading this! (you guys know I'm JOKING!!!!)

The Gilis have a wonderful feeling of nothingness to them. More than any island I've ever visited. There are NO cars or motorbikes and everything is cheap and great! We busied ourselves with private DVD rentals on the beach. They have these little wood bungalows for two, cushions and all, set up with a small TV and a wide selection of pirated DVD's. You pick your flick and order up a cocktail and fresh popcorn! Ural and I couldn't believe these benefits after days on Flores with nothing! We had amazing imported foods (the French also have started cafes on these islands) like Parma ham and French cheeses. Oh, and there was fresh bread and baguettes!! I also had spagetti!!!! I can't describe how exciting this was.

We moved very slowly each day wandering from swim spot to swim spot and then pondering whether we should move out the next day and take a boat shuttle to the next island or just simply retire now and never return...

After a total of 7 nights in the islands, we were ready to move back to Bali. Enough sun, sand, and reading. My butt actually HURTS from sitting too much in the beach bungalows eating and reading. Ural doesn't believe me! Now, we are in Ubud, Bali's cultural center and hopefully we'll post something cool and Balinese by the end of the week.

For those of you wondering about our health and happiness: we are VERY healthy! We haven't had a single stomach ache (we are being very cautious) and we've been applying sunscreen liberally. We are also very hydrated as water is cheap. We are sleeping more than one probably should (can't seem to stay awake past 9 p.m.) and our clothes are relatively clean. That's the health report and we are very happy thus far!

much love, Lauren and Ural

Bikram Blogging

2008-08-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do a brief post entitled "Bikram Blogging" so that my efforts to communicate with all of you could be fully appreciated moving forward. If you've been checking our blog, you will notice that everything is being posted on one day. That's because I've been partaking in a new sport called "Bikram Blogging" recently. Between Flores and Bali, it is just simply remote. There are "internet cafes" but seriously? I waited 20 minutes for my hotmail to upload and then I couldn't simply "reply." I'm labeling it Bikram in honor of the type of yoga you many know as "hot" yoga where it's in a room set at 42 degrees celcius (friggin' hot). That's how most of these internet cafes feel. There is usually one fan that is stratigically place directly on the owner of the place and is not serving anyone else. You sit and SWEAT while your email and blog fail to upload. Ural sat for a good hour the other day trying to post at least 5 photos with utter, complete, failure. My Mom told me not to get "blogged down" (she HAD TO!) and we aren't.

I believe that Bikram Blogging will become the norm as we pass through Southeast Asia. It's not getting any colder-that's for sure! Today, I'm sitting in the relative comfort of Ubud, Bali and we are doing hours of back-logged work. I'm putting together my scribblings of the past two weeks and hopefully you aren't getting bored! Please keep reading our blog and send us email if you like! We are so happy when we hear from people! much love, Lauren and Ural

laurenzetti@hotmail.com
uralyal@yahoo.com

Island of Flores, Indonesia

2008-08-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

After our touchdown in Bali WAY back on July 28th, we stayed two nights at a nice hotel. This was a fantastic idea. We also celebrated our second wedding anniversary on July 29th with a nice meal, live music (Cuban music!), and a huge hot tub in the room. Ahhhh, those were the days. They were wonderful but they were brief. We took a quick flight farther east of Bali over several islands and landed on Flores. Flores (do you have your map?) is located somewhere halfway between Bali and Papua. This place was super remote. Luckily, I had done some research prior to traveling and learned that the best way to cross the island is by a private guide and driver. ALthough this is a little more money, it is certainly the best choice. The problem with public transport is that the small, overcrowded bus drives around a town until it is full and then it leaves. Sometimes this takes hours. Also, you are not imagening the right type of bus. Imagine an old minibus (70's), barely functioning, carrying not only people but also goats, chickens, lots of buckets of fish and sea water...everything. Apparently, the buses provide people with little plastic bags to get sick in along the way. There is only 1 road in Flores and it travels east to west. Imagine a road like a snake with about 200 feet one way, round a tight corner (5 mph), and snake another 200 feet: THE WHOLE WAY. It's 350 km across the island and takes almost 4 days by car. Seriously insane.

Alas, we got off our little plane and were happily greeted by Franco and Sipri, our guide and driver. I thought the guide and driver would be one person doing both jobs....oh no.....we got two people. We were shocked at the quality of the vehicle. It was a 90's model Lexus SUV. It had nice leather seats, A/C, and a tape player. About 10 minutes into the ride, Sipri started singing the Eagles. I was so excited! I love singing the Eagles on road trips! Once they learned that I knew all the words, we did NOT STOP listening to Hotel California for the next several days. We would have listened to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" because that was also one of Sipri's favorites but we didn't have the tape (darn!) So, in the evenings over dinner, Sipri and I would rap the song aloud to see who knew more of the words (I did). Sipri, who didn't speak a ton of English, would belt out the words at the top of his lungs. It was awesome. Our guide, Franco, could not have been more proud of his island of Flores. Clearly practised in this journey, he would yell "photo stop!" and Sipri would halt the vehicle in the middle of the highway and we would get out for photos. There were times we'd be sleeping or nodding off and we'd be shockingly awoken to "PHOTO STOP!" It was terrifying but great. He knew every corner of the island. They also had a joke about every animal that crossed our path in the road. They would yell "security!" for everything from a baby goat to a small kitten. There were so many animals in the roads but the whole traffic would stop for them. You could tell everyone had respect for the villagers few possessions, including any animals.

A little about Flores: everything is made of bamboo and hard wood (teak, mostly). Almost nothing on this island is mechanized. Outside of a few towns, there is no electricity at all. When you do have electricity, it's only for a few hours in the evening. The first day we drove to Moni, way high up in the mountains. There are lots of volcanos in Indonesia, some active, some not. This one was inactive but is famous for its three lakes that are all different colors. You will see the pictures. Moni is a very remote village where they live very traditionally. There are no restaurants except for the one right next to the "hotel." We arrived at dusk and luckily Franco had made a reservation for us. Apparently, Flores is getting 80,000 visitors this year vs. the 40,000 it got last year. So, as you can imagine, during the high season, rooms are at a premium. There are probably 20/30 rooms in the whole town. We opened the door to our room (looked MUCH better from the outside), and it was less than spartan. But, hey, we had a double bed and a western toilet!!! Much to be celebrated here. I was shocked by the western toilet. THere was also running water sometimes and electricity from 7-10. It was really upmarket for the area. I assure you NONE of the locals have any of these amenities. The entire town was dark except for our hotel. Ahhhh, the restaurant. I was starving after the first day and we showed up on this little porch with a few tables. THere were two lightbulbs hanging overhead. I immediately spotted the LARGE spider above me. WOW! There were also huge cricket-like things you see on those specials about Africa, yeah, they have them in Indonesia too! And, as an added bonus, in the middle of waiting for our steamed rice with vegetables, a huge rat charged right across the floor of the "restaurant." That was pretty entertaining. Everyone was in the mood for some adventure so all the tourists were chuckling. Our rice was simple and plain but there were vegetables and we got an overfried egg which provided the much needed protein.

The next day was a long day of driving and village visiting. We saw all kinds of traditional villages including a random celebration that was happening for a new priet into the town. Franco was so excited that something authentic was taking place (not for tourists) that he ran out of the car and asked permission for us to enter the party and watch. We have photos of the whole village drinking, eating beetlenut, and dancing. They were dressed in traditional outfits and were dancing the new priest around while singing. However, when we showed up, there were hundreds of people staring. Luckily they were smiling too. Franco had gotten permission and we were all good.

That evening we arrived in Bajawa, in the mountains of the island. It was surprisingly cold but we had a MUCH better meal that night. I tried the traditional Indonesian dish of Gado Gado, which is cooked veggies with a spicy peanut sauce. Then you eat it with plain rice. It was the tastiest thing I had on the island. Our restaurant that night was called the "Merry Christmas" restaurant and had tons of Christmas lights. I should also mention that this was the ONLY restaurant in town which had a generator and produced electricity. It was a pitch black walk back to our hotel.

The final morning of driving was beautiful with full views of volcanos and rice terraces. There is a picture of the special rice terrace that is shaped like a spider web. They did this on purpose to evenly portion the terrace per family. It creates equal sections. We also learned about their wedding traditions from Sipri and Franco. Sipri has 3 girls and Franco was jealous because when his girls get married, he will receive many buffalo for them. It's all about how many pigs and especially buffalo you can give for the bride. Franco, on the other hand, only has 1 boy and there were persistant jokes made about "where are your buffalo?" heh heh

Finally, we arrived in L. Bajo (west side of the island) on the fourth day. Phew! There was much more electricity (at least generators) on this part of the island. There is also an airport that brings tourists. The reason they come here is because you can catch a short boat to Komodo Island (Komodo dragons live there). Before we joined up with our boat trip, we had 3 days to kill in L. Bajo.

We were initially excited about the prospect of internet and a grocery store but soon learned this was all a front. Internet often barely worked and the grocery store stocked nothing but biscuits. I ate an inordinate amount of biscuits over the following couple of days because we had no bread whatsoever on that island. I was a bit tired of poorly cooked rice and no sugar.

We finally discovered what would be our saviour the next couple of days: THe Lounge. This place was a "pizza" restaurant and I didn't believe it until my pizza was in front of me. I hadn't seen bread, or even toast of any kind so I was puzzled about how one could make pizza. Turns out that a British expat had just opened the place 3 weeks before with her local boyfriend. Her name is Zantie and she is one of those "artist-types" from Bali and she was on a mission to bring olive oil, pizza, and gays to the area. Yes, gays. She surmised that all a town needed was gays and olive oil and it would be a bustling hub for all things cultural and tasty. I don't think she's been on Flores long enough. First of all, it's a Catholic island....

She was an eccentric to say the least and she got really excited upon hearing Ural was an engineer. Because Ural is too nice to say no, she had him wrapped up in drawing plans for her new second floor terrace with Roman arches made of bamboo. She is SO artsy people that she wasn't even remotely aware that one needs rebar to pour concrete and Ural was kindly giving her dimensions and advice all the while praying she will never actually try to build her "vision."

Anyway, he had plenty of good Indonesian pilsner during these meetings and I enjoyed gorging on the pizza (she imports cheese, wheat, olive oil, tomotoes, everything).

We hired a private boat to take us to a private snorkeling island the second day. It was all very picturesque and surely no one will feel bad for us every again. If you were jealous about our trip before this posting...don't read on. We spent the next 3 days bopping from one private island to another basking in gorgeous setting and utter silence and privacy. Even when there were people, everyone was so quiet we just pretended they weren't there.

All in all, I highly recommend Flores. Without the seeing how the local people really live and not seeing tourists for days, we were much more able to appreciate the tourists facilities as we moved farther west. Every new addition of civilization was relished in the days to follow (Diet Coke, cheese, toast!) If we didn't go to Flores, we would have had no idea...I hope you enjoy our photos...they speak for themselves.

Touch down in SE Asia!

2008-07-27T01:18:00.000-07:00

Lauren's Side of the Story:

We have touched down into what some would call the "baby pool" of SE Asia. As easy as it is, I'm happy to splash around here for awhile. As you will see in our pictures, Singapore is all about culinary adventures! Our inspiration has been Anthony Bourdain's TV show "No Reservations" and we've made sure to seek out his spots from the show. (see it if you haven't!)

Quick facts on Singapore: Official Language is English but it's ethnically 70% Chinese, 10% Malay, and 20% other including Indians and many other Asian countries. So, the food is amazing b/c of all these cultures and when they come together here in Singapore..you get awesome food combos! We started our adventure here after the overnight train from KL and walked directly to Little India in search of a cheap cellphone and good naan (Indian bread). In the evening, we hit the Taiwanese food festival across from our hotel and we ate things such as fried veggie crisps, pork and bun, and octopus balls. The last few days have been all about tracking down Singapore's famous food centres which are called "Hawker Centres." THere are many stall in each center serving up all kinds of crazy foods from around Asia. We indulged at the Golden Mile Food Centre from Bourdain's show and Ural tried the famous "chicken rice" and I vowed to eat whatever was being served where the line was longest. I ended up having fried noodles with crispy anchovies and spinach. It was great! We also visited one food centre twice due to my naan cravings. ON the second day, the guy recognized me and said "same?" What?!! You mean you don't normally get white girls from California at your stall two days in a row? I felt special ;)

Don't get me wrong: you can come to Singapore and you won't have a tough time finding Starbuck's, KFC, or Coffee Bean. The more gentrified areas near the water look more like San Fran than Asia (or you could argue the opposite). Luckily, our budget hotel was located on the "outskirts" of town and very near where actual people live and eat actual food. It was walking distance to all things amazing. THe hotel was basic but very clean and our A/C worked a little too much (I'm not complaining!) I should mention our overnight train from KL to Singapore exceeded all expectations! It was so comfortable and the shower was hot and refreshing! We even got 2 pillows each! We slept like babies after our long flight as it was our first night in a bed for like 36 hours or something.We will board the same train tonight back to KL so we can fly to Bali, Indonesia tomorrow. We will be getting out of the "baby pool" and jumping into deep unknown waters where there are no ATM's, no electricity after 7, and certainly no Starbuck's. We will miss Singapore but it's time for some REAL adventure! Check in about a week and a half for another great posting...I'm not sure about internet between now and then!

Much love, Lauren and Ural...read on for Ural's side to the story!

Ural:

Few additions to our Singapore days:
Food: The Japanese Octopus Balls are a favorite, yummy fried goodness...Please notice Lauren's excitement on the donut picture, very exciting times for fans of bakery items...
Friday night we had beers at a street festival where of all things, a live latin jazz band was playing... Locals were listening with curiousity...We also took advantage of the free art museum, which was fun...
The Singapore Zoo's "Night Safari" was the Staurday night activity. Although we spent 3 hours round trip on the road, it was worth it, with leopard and Giant Flying Squirrel (Yes that is correct, flying squirrel) sightings...

Cheers...

Tour de East Coast: Stage 2: John and Megan's Wedding

2008-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Words cannot detail the amount of fun we had between Fred and Laura's house in New York to John and Megan's wedding in Maine. I can say that Ural satisfied his craving for all things "American" on this trip. We climbed the monuments at the battlefields of Saratoga and Bunker Hill from the Revolutionary War. We followed 100% of the Freedom Trail through Boston. If the government threatens to take Ural's Green Card, I'm sure we could get it back after showing his patriotism from this trip!

As for the marriage or John and Megan: we ate very well. The beach setting was amazing and we were treated like royalty by the newly-weds. The quote of the wedding was Megan when asked about children: "better later than sooner!" So, we'll see about that. For now, they are enjoying themselves following a crazy weekend of lobster and BBQ. Congrats John and Megan!

Tonight we are off to Malaysia and then on to Singapore. We will post again after a couple of days in Singapore!

Tour de Michigan: Stage 1: Abby's Wedding

2008-07-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

The great thing about the Michigan trip was that Ural and I got to see our entire Brown/Ference family in one fell swoop! Abby's wedding was amazing and everyone was shamed by their dancing skills!

Check out our photos of the wedding plus "footage" from the Traverse City Spa a.k.a. Gail and Jere Brown's house. We had tons of great food and make sure to request my Dad's Thai cooking when you visit! Our Tour de Michigan ended at Grandma Ference's house and dinner at Portafino's. We ate way too much in Michigan but we pressed on to continue our wedding adventure on the East Coast. See next entry for continued wedding chaos...

Hometown

2008-07-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

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Here is our hometown for the past four years, Solana Beach, California, where our belongings currently reside.

Move into Storage!!

2008-07-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

July 3rd, 2008 - Here is how our life fits into a storage unit for a while...

We depart for Asia on July 21st but we are going to two weddings first in Michigan and Maine. Click on the slideshow below to view more pictures of our move.