it's been a while....

Hi!

Today is the last day of my trip, which is just crazy! The past 7 weeks have gone by way too quickly, but have been great. I would have loved to be travelling for longer, especially to have spent more time in Vietnam and Thailand, but a big part of me is longing for my shower, my bed, my family, seeing the people I've been missing, and a great Thanksgiving American meal tomorrow!

I'm in Hong Kong now, where I've been since Monday morning. It's a really great city for just walking around and exploring- definitely a lot like NYC in that respect. I've been on my own since yesterday afternoon, and besides the ridiculous torrential downpours that hit the city yesterday and all through the night, it's been nice. Chloe and I arrived here on Monday morning and had made a reservation at a hostel in the Kowloon section of the city. Lets just say it wasn't quite a hostel and wasn't quite what we were expecting. I was half expecting the building to collapse at any moment, taking down the 10 or so "guesthouses" that it housed, as well as many tailors and vendors selling everything from Buddha statues to sex toys. Interesting place to say the least! We really couldn't wait to get out of there, even though our room was perfectly fine the rest of it was quite scary! Our room wasn't even available for the second night here. Chloe decided to leave a day early as she wasn't feeling well, so I checked into a hotel near the airport where I knew it would be safe to store my stuff all day on the day I checked out (today), since my flight doesn't leave until just before midnight.

Before here, we were in Thailand for just under a week. After Vietnam and Cambodia, all we wanted was to go sit on the beach for a few days, not do any sightseeing, get massages, and just relax. We were both getting sick and really just needed to chill out. When we landed in Bangkok, our plan was to catch the first flight to Samui, an island in the south of the country. The flights there were a bit more expensive than we were expecting, and since it was just going to be for 2 nights, we decided it wasn't worth it. We flew to Phuket instead, which was a lot cheaper and probably almost as nice. On the recommendation of 2 of our guide books, we checked into a hostel, the Bazoom Hostel-top rated by lonely planet. One thing I have definitely learned on this trip is to not trust what a guide book says, or what's said online about a place- just judge for myself. This place was such a dump- we had to beg for what we hoped were clean sheets, and didn't even get a top sheet- just something to cover the mattress. The people working there didn't speak a single word of english, making it so difficult to even get this request across! We knew before we went to sleep that our first priority in the morning was to find a nice, clean, upscale resort or hotel and to splurge for the night. It was worth it! We finally checked into the Orchidacea hotel the next morning, and we couldn't wait to jump into the gorgeous pool! After a few hours there, I hit the beach and fried myself a little bit while Chloe sat under the umbrella at the pool. I'm feeling it still- peeling all over the place :( The water there is amazing-clear blue and warm with a few cool currents running through it. I could have stayed there for a long long time!

Phuket really amazed me- there is no trace of the devastation that hit the island less than two years ago. You would never know that a huge Tsunami wiped out almost a thousand people and all of the structures on the water front. It has definitely bounced back and there are some gorgeous spots. Our last night there we enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant sitting just steps from the sand.

From Phuket, we flew back to Bangkok, where we would be for the next 4 days. I was really excited to be there- first of all to see what so many people have been telling my about for soo long, and also to spend some time with my Uncle Ronnie and his wife Somsiri and son Josh. We took a cab straight from the airport to Khao Son road, which is the center of life for young travellers in Thailand. I had heard all the rumors, but couldn't believe it when I saw that there were even signs in Hebrew in the area. There were so many Israeli travellers, I was almost transported back to Israel just being there. We checked into our hotel and set out to find some dinner somewhere nearby. We ended up at a restaurant nearby that served everything from Thai food to Pizza, and sat at a table outside on their patio so we could enjoy the peoplewatching. Next thing I know, I had 2 extremely huge cockroaches crawling on my foot!!!! Definitely disgusted, we moved inside and hoped that they hadn't found their way into the kitchen!

The next day(Friday), after we moved hotels (we found a much better one just around the corner), we started to shop and we shopped and shopped and shopped, until we couldn't shop anymore! The area is full of really cheap stores and tents set up along the streets with everything a backpacker could want. Lets just say that by the end of my time in Bangkok, I have another bag full of stuff! I really restricted myself shopping on the rest of my trip, as my bag was so heavy and so full to begin with. Knowing that we only had one flight left before going home and wouldn't have to shlep around too much, I went a little crazy with the purchases! On Friday night we ventured to the Patpong area of Bangkok after dinner. Along with an outdoor market, Patpong is famous for the go go bars and clubs, where the women do a lot more than dance on stage. Every 5 seconds we were approached by a sleazy guy asking us if we wanted to see a show, where the women do extremely crazy things with their bodies. Pass!

On Saturday I spent the morning and afternoon with my family- which was great. We really just hung out, took my cousin to his acting/confidence class, saw the local mall, and ate a delicious Thai meal. After that, I made plans to meet a family friend, Jonathan Davis(Neil's brother), who was in Bangkok for work. We've never actually met so it was very random but awesome to be able to meet in such a random place. We met at this mall called Paragon Center. I haven't seen anything like it! The malls there and all over Asia were incredible. I was especially impressed by the gigantic market that was in the basement- seeing all the local foods and the locals shop was great.

Jonathan and I made our way back to meet Chloe at our hotel, and then we all went out for dinner to an area called Sukhumvit 33. My uncle had warned me that it was full of great bars and restaurants, if you can look past all the prositutes. I think it had been a while since he'd been there. There were a few restaurants and a LOT of prostitutes! It was pooring and we ran into the first place that we saw, a delicious Italian restaurant, where we dried off, had some wine and pizza, and waited for the storm to pass. We went back to our area, in what may have been the most insane cab driver's taxi that I've ever been in! We think he was on drugs- he was just insane and Jonathan was having a great time getting him to say the funniest things.

The next day, our last full day in Bangkok, we had an Israeli breakfast at one of the cafes in our area, and ran into Mirit, the Israeli girl who we had met in Hoi An. Small world! We set out for our final shopping day at Chatuchak market, the famous outdoor weekend market in Bangkok. It was really overwhelming but we both found some great stuff, and finally felt like we were done shopping for souveneirs on this trip! The cab drive back was even worse than the night before- we got a cab driver who had no idea where he was going, and was literally driving around in circles trying to find his way around. I was even trying to direct him on my map, but he still had no idea where to go. What took us 20 minutes going there, took an hour and a half coming back. I finally had to roll down my window and ask a tuk tuk driver to tell him how to get back to our area!

We went back to our hotel to pack and have dinner, and then decided that a last minute Thai Massage was in order! I had seen a cheap place earlier, and at 11:15 pm, we both loved our massages. I had to come back and figure out how to fit all the stuff I had bought into bags that I could take on the plane without any problems.

Our flight to Hong Kong was at 8:20 the next morning, so we hit the sack for a few hours and work up bright and early to get to the airport.

And here I am!

When I get home, I plan on spending a long time sorting through my 3,000 or so pictures, and I will narrow them down to a decent amount to post online for all to see!

In the meantime, I'm going to get dinner at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant recommended by a friend who grew up here in Hong Kong, then heading back to my hotel to go to the airport.

Next stop, LAX!!

Until next time........

angkor WHAT?

Hello from Siem Reap, Cambodia!

I know things have been a little sparse on here in the last week, but its not for lack of things to say, just lack of time to actually say it! It has really been an amazing week, starting where I last left off in Nha Trang...

We went to meet the photographer, Long, at the Sailing Club, a beautiful restaurant and bar/nightclub on the beach. Since we were planning on going there anyways, it worked out really well, if only it wasn't raining buckets! We had a great time anyways and he treated us to drinks all night, as well as went crazy with my camera and took some great pictures.

The next morning we left to fly to Hoi An, a little further up the Vietnam coast. It is a great little town, that has been overrun lately with tailor shops literally every other store. Besides a crazy experience getting from the airport and staying in a horrible hotel our first night, we had a great time, and got some clothes made ( I had 2 dresses made and Chloe had some pants and a shirt made). The turnaround time was amazing (less than 24 hours) and the quality was pretty decent. It is a cute little town on a river and close to the beach(which we didn't go to), but the river combined with the old town charm and cracking paint on the buildings makes for some gorgeous photography which was an added bonus! They have some really delicious local dishes there- a noodle dish called Cao Lao, shrimp dumplings called White Roses, and fresh fish barbequed in a banana leaf. YUMMM.....

We stayed in Hoi An for 3 nights, and although we decided we could have left a day early, we really enjoyed it. Hanoi was next on our itinerary, and from the moment we landed we couldn't wait to leave. The city was a little more crazy because of the APEC(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) convention starting the day we arrived, but we felt like we were being taken advantage of literally at every turn- ripped off for our hotel, for bottled water, attempts to charge us double to see a show at the Hanoi Opera house, just to name a few. On top of that the people are very pushy and a bit grumpy- we just got bad vibes and couldn't wait to get out! We did manage to go to the show at the opera house, the Hanoi Symphony with a Japanese conductor and famous Japanese Soprano singing a poem. It was a really interesting experience, starting with us arriving there and asking for the "cheap tickets"which were about $4. They told us there were none left and after a few minutes of pushing and threatening to leave, we were presented with tickets- miraculous! (We had an entire row to ourselves by the way)The highlight besides the cool experience was definitely the bat that decided to wake up and circle around this beautiful opera house for about 30 minutes during the performance!

We literally booked the first flight we could get out on Sunday afternoon to Siem Reap. It took some prodding because there is a huge monopoly by Vietnam Airlines in the whole country. THe travel agents will do everything they can to book you on those flights. We knew that there was a cambodian airline that flew direct, but she kept telling us there were no seats until Tuesday. All of a sudden, as we were about to pay for our (more expensive) flights, seats magically appeared on the cheaper cambodian airline. (Once again, we had whole rows to ourselves- there was no way the plane was full when she checked). We were just so happy to get out of Hanoi, the last straw was being charged more for the airport shuttle because we were foreigners! the nerve!!!

We happily arrived in Siem Reap yesterday, found a guest house ($8 a night!!) had a delicious dinner for $5 including wine at a restaurant that Mick Jagger recently ate at. We had grand plans to wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat today, but didn't sleep to well due to noisy neighbors and decided to go around 8 instead. We hired a tuk tuk- a motorcycle with a carriage on the back that seats 2, for $10 for the day, and arranged with the driver to drive us all over to the different temples and wait for us. It was an amazing experience to not only use this mode of transportation, but to actually be at Ankor Wat and see what the hype was all about (all true!)

We took a short break in the afternoon to go meet my uncle's former coworker at his hotel, the sofitel, which is 10 stars compared to our one star accomodations! Rooms were too expensive, but he treated us to fresh juices and lunch by the pool, and invited us for dinner tonight. Which is where i'm off to now! Photos later- and Thailand tomorrow! YAY!

good morning vietnam!

Hello from Nha Trang, Vietnam! I am writing this as three adorable small children look over my shoulder in the internet cafe, probably wondering what the heck I am doing!

The last few days since Chloe arrived and we spent the weekend in Tokyo with her brother Malcolm have been great. It was really nice to see Tokyo a bit from a "local" point of view, although we spent the days on our own just wandering around and shopping, not able to take our eyes off of the incredible fashion sense of the young Japanese generation. They really get away with anything, and take full advantage of that. In most other places, they might even be mistaken for prostitutes! (Although I'm sure there are plenty of those too!) Of the highlights of the weekend in Japan, one is seeing the transvestites on the streets of the Shibuya area, dressed in bright yellow reflective jackets, wandering around with brooms in their hands. They are not technically allowed to just stand on the street corners trying to solicit business, so they are forced to carry around brooms and pretend to be sweeping the street in order to strut their stuff in this vivid area of Tokyo. Another highlight was later that night, when Chloe, Malcolm, his girlfriend Keiko, and I rented a private room in a Karaoke bar and stocked up with Sake and drinks from the local convenient store, for a few rousing hours of singing everything from Tiffany to the Strokes, to Keiko singing Japanese pop. It was so much fun, we almost ended up staying there all night and going to the fish market at 5:30 the next morning, but sleepiness got the best of us and we crashed around 4:15. The next night Malcolm co-hosted a party meant to bring together English teachers and potential students. Chloe and I found ourselves surrounded by excited young Japanese people, very happy to be able to practice their English skills on us, but upset to know that we were leaving the next morning.

Speaking of the next morning, Chloe and I woke up at 4:45 am to catch a 5:18 am train to the airport for our 9:20 flight. We got up to the platform as that train pulled away and missed the train, and had to wait more than half an hour for the next one.More than 3 hours later we arrived at the airport with barely any time to spare. Our flight to Vietnam stopped over in Hong Kong (I think it was 4th or 5th time in the Hong Kong airport). We finally arrived in Ho Chi Min City after 6:00 pm and as soon as we pulled out of the airport were shocked to find ourselves in the taxi in a major minority on the streets. We were surrounded by thousands of motorcyclists! They are very brave there, carrying their entire families(often 4 or 5 people- even babies who can barely stand) on one motorcycle with no helmets! Crossing the street is nearly impossible, as we found out when we got to our hotel and got out of the cab with our luggage. It took a few minutes to work up the courage to just GO! We eventually got the hang of it, but we were continually amazed at the sheer numbers of motorbikes on the streets. After checking into our hotel and finding a delicious vegetarian restaurant across the street(I think our meal including fresh squeezed juices and 2 entrees cost about $4),we set out in search of a hotel for the next night -the one we stayed in the first night cost us $25 total, and around the corner we found an equally decent one for $13!). We stopped for a quick drink in a local bar, then headed back to our hotel to crash after our long and exhausting day.

We woke up yesterday and packed up, but left our stuff in the hotel room so we could start our walking tour for a few hours before we had to check out and could check into our new hotel. We checked out a few local markets and wandered around a little, then went back and put our stuff in the new hotel. After that, we stopped into a Vietnam Airlines office to book our flights for the rest of our time in Vietnam. Our itinerary: Nov 7: fly from HoChiMin to Nha Trang for the night, Nov 8-11: fly to DaNang then explore Hoi An and surrounding areas. Nov 11-13: fly to Hanoi and hopefully Halong Bay, and then on Nov 14th depart Vietnam for Ankor Wat (we still have to figure that part out). All of our internal flights in Vietnam came to a grand total of $124! We would have definitely seen more if we would have taken buses or trains, but the long distances take hours up to overnight, and we really don't have the time to waste here. Now that we were all organized for the next week, we continued our walking tour for a few hours, ending up at the extremely interesting War Remnants Museum. It is one of the most popular tourist sights in HCMC, and after being renamed (The War Atrocities of the Americans wasn't cutting it with the tourists), many people visit to see the other side of the Vietnam war. The most poignant part for me was a photo exhibit of pictures taken by foreign journalists during the war. Many died, just to 'get the story', but the results were amazing. Outside the museum are a few former US Army vehicles, tanks, and helicopters that were used during the war.

After this we were ready to lighten up our afternoon, and decided to take an adventurous ride on some cyclos! A Cyclo is sort of a backwards tricycle, where the driver rides over one wheel with a seat in front of him facing forward over 2 more wheels. Considering the traffic in Ho Chi Min City and the uncontrollable traffic of the motorcycles, it was quite a crazy experience. We negotiated a price and a route with the help of one of the museum employees and set out each in our own cyclos back towards our hotel for a 45 minute tour of the city. Luckily we made it back safe and sound, but the feeling of being in the middle of the chaos of the motorcycles was one I will never forget! After showering off all the soot that collected on our faces and bodies on that ride, we headed out for an "upscale" dinner at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. That upscale delicious meal cost us each $5- unbelievable! After unsuccessfuly checking out a few bars recommended in our tour book (way tooo cheezy), we had a drink at the bar around the corner from our hotel and went back to get an early night for our 6:45 am flight to Nha Trang this morning!

Since we decided to only stay overnight here in Nha Trang, we wanted to take the earliest flight possible to maximize what we saw here. We arrived around 8, and although our book said the airport is in town and walking distance to the main hotel area, it was actually a 45 minute ride outside the town. We took a $2 shuttle bus to the old airport, where our ticket got us a free cab ride to our hotel. We asked the driver to take us to the Sea View hotel and showed him the address in our book. He drove us 2 blocks and stopped outside a hotel across the street from the beach with a Vietnamese name. We have noticed that many places here have both English and Vietnamese names, and didn't think twice. Chloe went to look at a room while I stayed with our luggage, and came down to report the $15 room was great with a little ocean view balcony. We put our luggage in our room and set out in search of breakfast and a way to get to one of the main sights in town, the Long Son Pagoda and giant white Buddha statue that presides over it. (Its actually not the greatest time of year to be here in Nha Trang- it's still rainy season, and the rain clouds seemed to be coming in, stopping us from going to relax on the beach). After a quick breakfast we asked the waitress to help us organize a cyclo ride there and to another place mentioned in our guide book, the studio of famous Vietnamese photographer Long Tranh. The buddha statue was very impressive and the cyclo ride much less stressful than the last one, although this guy insisted that Chloe and I ride in the same cyclo and put a little wooden bench over the seat to create an extra spot to sit. After hiking up and down the 152 stone steps to the buddha, which had a great view over the town, we met back up with our driver to take us to our next destination. We rang the doorbell at the combination house and studio, and almost walked away thinking no one was there when the door opened and a petite Vietnamese opened the door to this incredible gallery. Long Tranh has been taking pictures since he was 13, and now, at 52, only interrupted by time in the army during the war, he has made photography his career. He is a purist, only taking black and white photography using a 60 year old German box-camera that once belonged to Ho Chi Min's official photographer. He came downstairs to greet us and we spent almost an hour there talking photography and hearing stories about some of his incredible photos, all taken in Vietnam. He was very curious about my camera which I had around my neck- he definitely doesn't use digital, and I set it to black and white and gave it to him to look at. He took an incredible picture of our cyclo driver, who was now crouching in the doorway to get out of the rain. Chloe and I both bought original prints from him, bargains at $95 each! He could be selling these works for thousands of dollars in NYC. He was very proud that the print that Chloe bought had recently won him 6 different awards internationally. It truly was a memorable experience and I am so excited to frame his masterpiece when I get home. We even made plans to meet him at his favorite watering hole tonight- the Nha Trang Sailing Club, where Chloe and I planned on having dinner anyways.

After stopping at a fruit stand on the side of the road on the cyclo to buy the driver some mangos as a tip (he was SO excited), he dropped us back at our hotel. It was a really amazing day and I can't wait to see what the rest of Vietnam has in store for us!

Still there?

xo
Kerri

seeing japan from a train window....

First, I had to just post this picture that I really love from my train ride back from Nikko to Tokyo yesterday:

On Wednesday morning I left Tokyo for a town called Nikko, about a 2 hour train ride away. It is a very populare time of year to go to Nikko, as the autumn leaves are changing, and there were mostly Japanese tourists on the train. The town itself is very small with not much to see, but it leads up to a beautiful and sacred bridge called the Shinkyo Bridge, which sits at the entrance to Nikko National Park:

The national park itself is absolutely stunning, with moss-covered trees bigger than i've ever seen before and beautiful, lavish temples. (Toshogu Shrine, Rinnoji Temple, Futarasan Shrine). Inside the park there are many old stone lanterns that are now green with moss, even mini shrines for the children to make a wish or a prayer to.

I stayed in a cute little lodge about a 20 minute walk out of town- I wish someone would have warned me not to go after dark, as it was pitch black and I couldn't have found my way alone- I ended up stopping a nice Japanese couple on the street who were out for a walk and headed the same direction as me to take me there. It was a very small and quaint lodge with only 3 staff members, and when I arrived they were cooking dinner for the guests who had pre arranged it. I had already eaten in town, so I just sat and chatted with a Japanese mother and daughter and an American couple who live in Japan and were visiting Nikko for a few days.

Yesterday I took the bus from the town of Nikko up into the mountain, up possibly the windiest road I have ever seen. I took a video on the bus because no one will believe me when I say that at each curve it felt like the bus was going to tip off the side of the mountain! The bus dropped me off at Lake Chuzenji, where I walked around the town there and went to see the beautiful Kegon Waterfall. It was very early still and there was a thick fog from the observation point, but I took an elevator that they had carved into the mountain and found myself with a great view of the beautiful waterfall!

After a very relaxing and different few days in Nikko, enjoying all of the beautiful nature, I hopped back on the train to come back to Tokyo, pick up my suitcase which I had left at my hostel while I was gone, and then hopped back on the subway all the way across town (transferred 3 times!) to go and meet Chloe and her brother Malcolm at his apartment. I'm so happy that Chloe arrived safely, and can't wait to continue my travel adventures with her!

Today we got breakfast near Malcolm's place, and then set off to see some areas of Tokyo that I hadn't seen yet. It is a national holiday today, so no one is working and the trains and streets were flooded with people enjoying their day off, dressed like they were ready to walk down a runway! People here really go all out dressing up and keeping with the latest trends, and I have felt way too casual going out for the day in my "travel clothes!"

We are relaxing right now and trying to decide what to do tonight, but I think it will include going to a traditional Japanese restaurant where Malcolm's girlfriend works as a waitress (dressed in Geisha clothes). Should be fun! Tomorrow is our last full day in Tokyo and then on Sunday morning Chloe and I leave for Vietnam.

thats it for now!!