Adventure Around the World

New Zealand was a great way to finish up the international portion of our trip (here we come Hawaii!!). While we have both been excited to get home, New Zealand presented us with so many things we wanted to see and do, that we barely even remembered what we're missing in the US (I am craving some Xmas music and cheer). After long debates, (some might prefer the term "arguments",) we decided to spend time on both the North and South Island.

We were warned in Australia that the Kiwis are "crazy", and in the extreme-sport sense of the word, we would have to agree. There are hundreds of things that you can pay for to defy death in this country where bungee and base jumping originated. And of course, Leslie and I hoped to take advantage of a few of them (and that's not even counting the drives through winding mountain passes)! Imagine the possibilities offered in a land where adventure sport guides don't have the threat of lawsuits influencing their decisions... yes, it's quite exciting.

On the North Island, we flew into Auckland, but went straight to Waitomo Caves for the glowworm caves that we had heard so much about. There, we spent the day bundled in wetsuits, rapelling into a cave, where we tubed down the black water (so aptly named since you're in the pitch black) marvelling at the thousands of bioluminescently-endowed magots on the cave ceilings, and then rock climbing back out. A pretty amazing experience, and it definitely sounds better using the word "glowworm" instead of "magot". We, or I should say "I", then went to experience Miori culture and view geysers and boiling mud pools in Rotorua, while Leslie slept in the car in a parking lot.

The next day we flew down to the South Island to partake in some high adreneline sports and a four day roadtrip taking in the scenic views. We went directly to the Franz Joseph glacier on the west coast, dressed in our winter gear and crampons (obviously borrowed), and went mountaineering on the ice. We saw amazing ice landscapes, crevasses and did some adventurous hiking. Our guide was quite a character, a glacier expert/ballet dancer who was definitely sporting some purple thong underwear for our hike. And though he was very skilled, after lunch as we were hiking around the glacier and climbing up a cave, while he leaned out to secure a hand rope for us to follow him, he took a 13 foot fall, including a hard hit to the head and an ice pick to the hand. That basically ended our day of mountaineering, but we have PLENTY of amazing pictures (as well as some gross mental ones). We then drove to Lake Wanaka, where Leslie attempted to satisfy her adreniline craving by skydiving, only to find out that the weather was not on her side. Instead, we spent about 5 hours at Puzzling World, where we raced through the life size maze (despite a rough start, I beat Leslie by a strong 3 minutes), went to various optical illusion rooms, and spent hours trying to work through various games in the cafe. After various attempts by the "puzzle professionals" to help us with certain puzzles, we caved in and requested hints, finished up, and headed back on the road up to Christchurch where a plane took us back to Auckland for our flight back to the US.

While we definitely enjoyed the adventure sports New Zealand had to offer (dodging birds on the highway included, I must apologize to the one bird less fortunate, but survival of the fittest stupid bird!), the scenery was even more amazing: snow capped mountains, glittering ponds and hills covered in sheep. It was almost surreal in its magestic beauty. Choosing New Zealand as the setting for sci-fi "Lord of the Rings" definitely didn't require a stretch of the imagination.

The last 10 days of our trip will be spent in Hawaii, back in the good old US of A. As Hawaii is part of the US, and as we are already way behind in updating the blog as it is, and furthermore as it is beginning to take on the feelings associated with homework, we have decided to leave that portion of the trip up to your imagination...

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! And Happy New Years! We look forward to communicating with you all by phone in the future!

Congratulations! You have read the novel that is our blog. You have passed the friendship test and will be quizzed at a later date!

The trip to Australia started out a little rough, with an 8 hour layover in New Zealand where we were exhaustively questioned in customs (who wouldn't think 12 countries in 80 days is sketchy?) and had our hiking boots washed for us by Quarantine. But thanks to the Air New Zealand Lounge, we spent the time reading free magazines, eating free food, and posting the Korea update on free internet. Yes, we are begining to realize that we have low funds and are entering "expensive" countries once again.

So we landed in Sydney and I fell in love - as I imagined I would. We arrived in Sydney late at night, and having had no sleep the night before on the plane (the movie selection was quite enticing), Meridith called it an early night while I met up with some fellow American travellers whom we had met earlier in China. During the days, we mixed sightseeing with just relaxing in the sun. We toured the Sydney Opera House, wandered around "The Rocks" area where Sydney was founded, sunbathed, hiked and burned on the beaches, and visited the local markets, of course. We also took in a day of soccer, watching the Australian women's team tie China, cheering on the Sydney FC team as it beat Melbourne and getting IDed for beer in a country where the drinking age is 18 (Mer was jealous they didn't stop her). After 5 hours, it was enough for even the most avid soccer fan.

For our evening entertainment, we attempted a "night lights" tour of Sydney Harbour, only to be drenched in a downpour getting there in time for our pre-paid tickets (just proof that planning ahead only leads to trouble), freezing the entire ride, and wondering if the lightning storm could electrecute boat passengers. It was... an expeience. We gave each other one night off (from each other that is), where I went to a choral performance at the Sydney Opera House and Mer dined on pizza at the beach. The Australian Girls Choir turned out to be a glorified recital and it was pretty funny being wedged between parents who were constantly searching for their daughters in the sea of hundreds of girls. And with a popular bar directly below our hotel room, nights out were convenient entertainment (considering that Mer and I have different expectations of a "night out").

After our 4 days in Sydney, we rented a car and started the 3 day journey down to Melbourne. (Yes, I too worried about Mer driving, let alone it being on the opposite side of the road and from the opposite side of the car. Thankfully, the extra insurance we paid for ended up being needless.) The highlights of the drive were Hyams Beach (which has the whitest sand in the world), Pebbley Beach (with kangaroos resting in the shaded areas), and Buchan Caves (an alienesque world of limestone stalagtites and stalagmites). Best of all were the wildlife sightings including kangaroos (the equivalent here of deer in New Jersey), wombats, giant lizards, tye-dye looking birds, big squirting sea blobs that looked like rocks (yes, that biology degree served Mer well), and a variety of interesting roadkill.

The most exciting part of the road trip were our small town adventures. (We thought Mendham was small, but Australia completely redefines the meaning of "small town".) By small, we're talking slow-down-on-the-highway-for-20-seconds-and-you've-just-passed-through-the-center-of-town. It did provide for interesting rest stops though. One night we spent about an hour driving around the town trying to find a hotel that was still open for business (it was 9 pm), finally questioning the locals that were still up and about (all two of them), and resorting to calling an after-hours number. The next night, learning from our previous night's adventure, we stopped before 8:00, only to discover, when questioning the attendant at the gas station, that the "town" written so boldly on our map consisted of what basically came down to the gas station, a tavern, and the rooms for rent above the tavern that came with a complimentary can of insecticide. Needless to say, we ended up hurrying to a hotel in the next "town", where we were greeted with a "have you eaten yet, because Chooky's is going to close in about 10 minutes?" Ahhh, yes... small towns. We practically peeled into the empty parking spaces in front of Chooky's and delighted in our choice of menu items that could be cooked on the one remaining burner that was still ignited. Yum.

Finally arriving in Melbourne, we met up with our friend from elementary school in northern California, Jessika, who has been teaching there for about 3 years. It was great to again have a place to stay and even though it had been over 10 years since we'd seen each other, the old camp songs and stories had not been forgotten. While Jessika was finishing up her school year (yeah - Christmas in summer is a hard notion to understand. "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" isn't the same when you're in a tank top), Mer and I took advantage of the absence of a check-out time and explored a little of the city. With Jessika on summer vacation, we spent the days picnicing at the beach, wine tasting in the vinyards (I have a nose for picking out "an essence of orange and perhaps a mild oak" while Meridith prefered the grape juice to the actual wine), watching the "Penguin Parade" where we got a "Discovery Channel"-like look at some frisky birds, and going out with Jess's Aussie friends.

With a few days of prepatory driving under Mer's belt, we set out to New Zealand to tour both the north and south island in record time.

Okay, I think I can officially claim that we are way behind on blogging. But since none of you can complain to us in person, you'll have to deal with it :) So I'll take you now back about 17 days to when we actually first arrived in Japan. Mer's friend, Josh, left his job to travel in Japan for two months so we joined up and spent 10 days visting Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nikko together. It was definitely a whirlwind train tour, where I gained full appreciation for my iPod.

We spent our first 4 days in Tokyo visiting a Hokusai art exhibit (of the "36 Views of Mt Fuji" fame - where we waited in line for 2 hours to then crawl through the museum in the most orderly line I've ever seen), tasting the culinary delights (including fermented bean paste and fried bird cartilige as well as tons of more-appealing dishes), playing with Sony's cutting edge technology, shopping for heated toilet seats as experienced in our hotel (unfortunately we return home empty handed - this particular luxury is quite expensive) and shielding our eyes from the neon lights. Tokyo was very fashionable, with a few styles I questioned but grew accustomed to: knee socks with high heels, micro mini skirts (or shorts of the Daisy Duke variety for the boys) as a part of school uniforms, and hair gelled in ways I would have thought only a team of professional stylists could create. Of course we remained in our well-worn jeans (a nice way of putting it) and fleeces. We discussed these clothing trends, as well as every other item of Japanese culture that surprised us, with Josh's Japanese friend, Gon. Gon showed us the Tokyo nightlife (with bars on the 7th floor of buildings, you definitely need a "tour guide") and planted the suggestion of karoke in our minds - later to be satisfied by a 2 hour sing-fest in Hiroshima.

We then took the bullet train to Kyoto and visted a multitude of Zen gardens/temples with amazing fall colors (including the Golden Temple, with gold foil covering the entire building), and made friends with traditional Japanese women in kimonos whom we spent the day with. As they were leaving, we learned they had rented the kimonos and had to hurry back to return them on time. So much for authenticity, but dang my pictures look nice! While in Kyoto we also took a day trip to Nara, a small town with historic temples and pagodas, where we took a tour with Yoko, a local woman. And no trip to Japan would be complete without stalking geisha. And although Josh thought any woman in a kimono was a geisha, our attmepts were unsuccessful. Other nightly activities consisted of intense Yahtzee games lasting well into the wee hours and arguing over whether we should spend 100 Yen to heat our room for 2 hours. We definitely appreciated Josh's patience with our bickering and celebration when one of us rolled Yahtzee. For "not being a game person", he certainly got into it.

We also confronted the language barrier in amusing ways. The highlight of these "confrontations" was in the 100 Yen Store (the equivalent of the dollar store in the US), where Meridith purchased a little container of hand lotion, as identified by the picture of hands on the tube and the fact that it was placed with the other lotions. A few uses into the cream, however, she started to notice that it didn't do much to relieve dry, itchy skin, but instead, to her horror, began to dye her hands white. Yes, it was hand whitening cream rather than hand lotion, as confirmed by a bilingual local. And while the bleach didn't do much to improve the condition of her skin, she was left with a lasting reminder of her experiences in Japan. Josh and I were both rather amused and had to commemorate the realization with photos of course.

On our way from Kyoto to Hiroshima, we stopped in Himeji, which claims the most important castle in Japan. After wandering through the amazing castle, dreaming of the Samurai times and taking plenty of pictures, we jumped back on the train to Hiroshima. In Hiroshima, the spirit of our touring changed slightly and we visited the A-Bomb Dome (one of a few buildings left in the same condition it was the day after the bombing), the Children's Peace Museum (where a little girl thought that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes, her leukemia from the radiation generated by the bomb would be cured - while she died before completing the 1,000 cranes, millions of visitors have continued the tradition in hopes of a nuclear-free world), and the Atomic Bomb Museum. I will definitely say that Japanese museums are extremely easy for English speaking tourists, as well as surprising in how much responsibility they take for past events (learning about world history through international eyes has definitely been interesting). Additionally, Hiroshima brought back some painful memories for Mer - not regarding the A bomb, but pertaining to roach bombs. After waking up with small insect bites (that did swell to some amusing sizes), Meridith re-lived her 2001 horror of "the bedbugs that would not die". This incident was nothing like the last, so instead of causing her intense pain, it was more about my mental anguish in hearing her recount the 2001 story for 4 days straight - but don't worry, we both survived.

During our day in Hiroshima, we also took a side trip to Miyajima where we saw the famous "floating red tori" which welcomed ships from the bay, avoided the food-hungry "friendly" deer, and visited some more temples. Once we had thoroughly explored Miyajima, we took a 6 hour train ride up to Nikko, a small historic town northwest of Tokyo. (We had hoped to spend a day hiking Mount Fuji but it didn't work out. We only got the quick glimpses from the bullet train.) After getting into Nikko after dark, we met an amazingly nice local man who spent 30 minutes directing us to our hotel (thank you - we would have surely ended up sleeping on a street corner without you). The next morning, we spent our 4 hours in Nikko running from one temple to the next, only to come to the conclusion that we should have just stayed in Tokyo the night before (I may only be speaking for myself here). We then raced back to Tokyo to make our plane bound for New Zealand.

South Korea, or at least Seoul, turned out to be very different from any expectations that we had for it. With our extensive preparation for this trip, plus our brilliant grasp of world history (note the sarcasm), all we really knew about South Korea was that we were involved in a war there against North Korea (aka notorious member of the "axis of evil"), that there were "Siberian-like winds" at this time of year, and that we'd heard Seoul was the shopping mecca of the universe. Basically, as you`ve hopefully realized, we really didn`t have much to go on.

Luckily though, our arbitrary, "Hey, let`s make that layover in Seoul last 5 days" decision turned out to be a good one. (Thank you again Lonely Planet.) While there, we were able to add much to our limited knowledge of Korea: the US was largely responsible for the tumultuous division between North and South Korea that exists today (imagine that!), the winds while freaking cold, weren't quite as "Siberian" as we'd dreaded, and the shopping was a bit too much for even the heartiest of travellers (I can't even handle the chaos of Marshalls or Ross - the food courts in Seoul however, we're something else entirely)! Adding to our expanding world knowledge, we also learned that Koreans love their heartthrobs (we've got the socks to prove it!), that you can pay $50 to stare through a telescope at a deserted town in North Korea across the demilitarized zone and trudge through a dripping tunnel dug by the North Koreans in an attempt to make a surprise attack on South Korea, and that there are such things as "love motels" that, besides for renting rooms by the hour, come complete with round beds, silk sheets, heating pads, ceilings with glow-in-the-dark stars and an interesting variety of items that can be purchased from vending machines. (We only stayed there one night, but it was an experience. And by "we", I mean Leslie and I of course.) South Koreans are extremely welcoming and friendly (just to stereotype them all), and the woman who owned the guesthouse we stayed at for the last few nights loved her dog so much that she had photos copied to give to guests (he is quite cute). In addition, on the culinary side, we learned that metal chopsticks are particularly slippery to eat with, Korean food comes second only to Indian in spiciness, and if you go into a restaurant not able to read or say a single thing in Korean, it is still possible to obtain a good meal with only the word "meat" (which we later found out, was Korean BBQ- I'd always wondered)!

As for the tourist route, we toured through several palaces (we've noticed a theme in Asian archetecture of buildings burning down every 50-100 years or so and then being rebuilt only to burn down again - perhaps the wood would have something to do with it...), visited a Folk Museum and War Memorial Museum (South Korean museums are informative and very organized with follow-the-arrows precision, which almost makes up for the fact that there's very little in English), walked through an "interactive" Seodaemun Prison (talk about graphic violence and anti-Japanese sentiment), and explored a Buddhist temple. For our nightimte activities, we hiked to the Seoul Tower at night for a view of the city only to find it closed for reconstruction and got lost in the dark on the way back down, as well as did the meet-up-with-friends-of-friends-you've-never-met-before thing in a desperate attempt to have someone other than just your sister to talk to (which was much needed and extremely fun). Yes, it all worked out for the best, and South Korea was surprisingly a fascinating city to visit.

Okay, so while we have the free internet at our hostel in Seoul, we may as well get you all up to date (so what if we've checked out already).

We had been pre-warned about possible communication issues in Beijing from Anthony and Laura, so we were equipped at the airport with directions to our hotel in Chinese. Beijing is very much a modern city, with many of the stores and restaurant chains you expect to find in the US. Our hotel was in prime location, on a pedestrian street surrounded by shops selling everything from stylish clothes to some of the most interesting food we've seen yet. (Judging by the sign on the stairs - "Night cat action need only pay for 2 hours" - other people liked our hotel as well). Our first night, we tried some of the local cuisine from the street stalls... who knows what most of it was. While we were adventurous, we did refrain from trying the starfish on a stick, scorpion on a stick, and multiple types of other skewered insects and sea creatures ("Was that really a seahorse???"). There were planty of tourists taking pictures, so I didn't feel too bad when I accidently let an "oh, gross" comment slip.

We spent our days in China seeing the sites (Tiannamen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City) and happily chatting with local students. Our firt day, we met Lilly, an English/Art major who showed us her school's art exhibition, took us to a lunch of Peking duck, joined us for tea tasting and gave us some contacts for acrobatic and kung fu show tickets. We were excited to have made a friend, until day after day, we met more English/Art majors who wanted to sell us art, take us to buy Peking Duck from their favorite restaurant and sell us show tickets. From 10:00 AM to midnight, it seemed these art students were everywhere. And while we helped them practice their English, Meridith drew the line at buying only one piece of art work. I would have to say that much of our time in Beijing was spent shopping. We had two good 3-4 hour trips to the Silk Market where we picked up plenty of knock-offs and honed our bargaining skills even more.

For our last day in Beijing, we had planned for a doozie. We were going with a guide to a little-visited section of the Great Wall to do a day hike, followed by an acrobatics show. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication in regards to pick up time (Meridith didn't read her own handwriting correctly) and the hotel conveniently told our guide that we were no longer staying there, and thus we missed the trip. Conveniently (note the sarcasm), the hotel's trip to to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs was leaving in an hour, so we joined that to salvage the day.

To let you all know, in most Asian countries (in our experiences), when you join a tour, you inevitably make a stop at some type of store. In China, we had already been taken to pearl store (where we learned how to tell a fake pearl from a real one) and a silk "museum" (they showed us how the silk was produced from silk worm larvea, then tried to sell us $1000 bedsheets). On the Great Wall tour we were first taken to a jade store (again learning to determine a piece of jade's quality) and then taken to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic (I don't know what else to call it).

So imagine this: A man in a lab coats sits everyone down in a room and begins explaining how Eastern and Western medicine are different. "Western medicine works quickly but does not cure the ailment, while Eastern medicine works slowly but cures a person for life". We were told that Chinese doctors can determine the health of all of your organs by taking your pulse. Okay, "pretty interesting that this is what they believe" you think. Then the Chinese doctor says something about a checkup for free, but you have to pay for treatment (a little hard to understand when he has a thick Chinese accent, so you try to be more attentive to figure out the meaning of his words). All of a sudden, a door opens and in walk 6 "doctors" in white coats, asking if you want them to check your pulse. It was like something out of a prison movie. A little freaky, so we decided to just have faith that our pulse was beating, and would continue to do so without their help.

So in the afternoon, we made it to the Great Wall, stretching over 6,700 km. We hiked the touristy section for a few hours, got some decent pictures (we really did TRY to get some without a 100 people in it) and enjoyed the scenery. We scrambled back to our hotel and booked a different acrobatic show on our own. It was by far the best thing we did in Beijing. It was 90 minutes of pure exhiliration. It opened with two contortionist women balancing 6 trays of glasses while they switched from one impossible position to an even more ridiculous one. Then there were women juggling umbrellas with every limb of their body, 5 and 6 year olds who bent in amazing ways while holding up themselves and 3 other people with one arm, men jumping through raised hoops, juggling, and a finale of boys climbing and jumping between vertical poles. Needless to say, we clapped for 90 minutes straight and I spent the rest of the night reliving my own childhood gymnastics career, wishing I had been in the Cirque de'Soleil (this was very similar).

Beijing was a very pleasant city, where we both enjoyed the culture (Acrobatics were #1), the sights, and the comforts of a modern city (yes, we did eat at the Outback... and we loved it). Meridith, in keeping with the tradition set in the previous countries, began talking about moving there for a little while. A trip back to Beijing and to see more of China could be in the future...

OK, so I'm sitting here in a crowded Internet cafe in Beijing surrounded by literally a dozen teenage Chinese boys playing some kind of interactive war game on the Internet, wearing headphones, and quite unaware of the volume that they are yelling at each other at. I'm wishing I had brought ear plugs. I guess the stereotype of the demure and quiet doesn't really fly here. Ahhh, the things you learn while traveling, I feel so insightful.

We've definitely got some updating to do. I could have actually added Thailand into the title of this one because we never even actually finished updating you all on our trip there. We left you with Leslie off to get her dream massage and me, Meridith, about to try out my bargaining skills at the local market... As it turns out, Leslie's Thai massage was a bit masochistic (sp?) which sadly took away from the joy. From the way she describes it, it basically consisted of a small Thai gymnast pulling at her limbs with all her might while Leslie tried to simultaneously hold back her tears and envision herself in her "happy place" (Leslie probably should have asked for a lighter massage, but she figured she was in the hands of a professional). In other words, she isn't really recommending it. I, on the other hand, despite Leslie's lack of confidence, did my best yet with bargaining at the local market. I might have gotten a bit carried away though when I learned that I do my best bargaining when I could care less about whether or not I actually walk away with the item. Later, upon our return to Bangkok, we actually spent our last morning at the grand "Weekend Market", a mass of stalls selling everything from clothes and housewares to fried bugs and squirrels on leashes. Needless to say, we had to ship a box of stuff home to NJ.

Singapore and Malaysia marked the half-way point of our trip. Singapore felt amazingly like a city in the US, just without all the Americans. My friend Laura and her fiance Anthony live there while she's attending an international business school and it was awesome to be able to stay with them and of course, have someone to show us around. We visited the Rodeo Drive-like Orchard Road, toured the city with a bus-load of folks who doubled us in age, kicked back on the island of Sentosa, enjoyed the Indian, Chinese and Malay cuisine offered at hawker stalls, and experienced the nightlife with the largest ex-pat community we've seen yet (and what limb-flying, foot stomping dancers they were - be warned!). The best part by far though, was being around friends. Not to say Leslie and I aren't company enough for each other, but that, for those of you who know us both, two months, 24-7 is a LOT. Amazingly enough though, we've managed to get along very well and have had no major disputes to date (knock on wood). Ours hosts, Laura and Anthony were awesome and we didn't even have a chance to do something without them anticipating our needs. Thanks guys!

Our relaxing continued in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we stayed with another wonderful pair of hosts, my friends Kim and Alex. Kim is teaching at an international school there and has a fantastic set-up which we were happy to take advantage of. Our timing, exquisite as always, found us in Kuala Lumpur for the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya, which for non-Muslims, basically translates to everything-shuts-down-for-four-days (conveniently, the exact amount of time we were there for). We went our first morning to do a canopy walk in the rainforest, wary of Kim's story of leeches that fall from trees "although I don't think they're in that rainforest". Besides for mild paranoia on that front, and for the fact that the canopy walk ended up being closed, we had a great hike, leech-free, through our first rainforest. (Our exciting wildlife spotting was highlighted by several millipedes that reached at least 8 in long!) The next day, having not learned our lesson, we woke everyone up really early to go to the top of the Petronas Towers, which also happened to be closed. (I know that is as big a shock to you as it was to us, but let's face it, who's really thinking clearly that early in the morning?) Luckily for us and our survivor instincts, we were more than happy for the rest of our trip wandering around the city, shopping (you can always count on the malls), eating at Chilli's (don't judge!), searching for the notoriously repugnant-smelling durion fruit, and lounging on the couch, watching DVDs and munching on nachoes. Despite Kim's unjustified sense of guilt at not predicting that everything would shut down, we had a wonderful time and in fact enjoyed the excuse to just relax. Thanks to you guys too, and your amazing DVD collection of course! (Oh, and you all have Kim, technology teacher extraordinaire, to thank for us actually getting our photos onto this blog. Yeah, don't hold your breath for any more photos until January, it was quite an undertaking to say the least.)

OK, we're going to save China for a blog on its own. It definitely merits it. Coming soon to computers near you!

On our whirlwind tour of Rajasthan in India, we realized that it was the first country where we could literally be entertained for hours just by looking out a car window, with the camera poised for all spur-of-the-moment photos. (Plus, with all the death defying driving - it seems to be an international theme - it was a bit hard to not be on the lookout!) You'll be happy to know that we succeeded in taking all of our "ideal" pictures, including a bus so crowded that 10 men rode in the roof rack, families of five riding single scooters, roadside barber stands, and cows roaming city streets. We took a zillion pictures of Jodphur, a city with all the buildings painted a light blue color and got a peek at Indian family life. But even with the fascinating world of everyday India outside the window, every 7 hour drive also means you'll be talking with each other, which is equally fascinating. Our driver, whom we called Guru (he didn't even attempt to tell us his full name) and who called us "maam" (names apparently weren't so important to him either), talked a lot about his life. (We've even got an invitation to his wedding next year, whenever his parents pick his bride.) We learned that, yes, he had once hit someone with his car, and that opium is quite prevalant in India - a truck driver offered some to us at a rest stop (not too many tourists there to say the least). Guru also suprised us in Pushkar by cutting his hair, which he had never cut before due to his religion. The turban came off and his stylish cut was his fascination for the rest fo the trip. And while he told us his father would probably not speak to him for the next 5 months, it was well worth it to look "smart" for the ladies. India blessed us both too, in our own special ways. Leslie, by one of the many local pigeons which had good aim, and Meridtih, by a roaming cow who left a present outside her car door. It brought new meaning to the word dirty.

So India ended much like our whole time there - we were feeling pretty dirty, in awe of the sights (the Taj Mahal really is more beautiful than in the pictures), and at the same time frustrated by the feeling of being scammed for money at every turn. India, while being a relatively inexpensive country, took our money. After 30 minutes of bargaining, we still spent 2-3 times more than other people on everything - point of development for us perhaps. After a small breakdown by Leslie ( I apologize to the postcard salesman somewhere out there), we enjoyed our last few days and headed off to Thailand. Indian food we will miss...

Marking somewhere near our halfway point for the entire trip, Thailand was a welcomed stop and we were all about the beaches. We spent the first 3 days in Bangkok visitng wats (Buddhist temples), a floating market outside the city, and seeing a Muai Thai match ( a cross between kickboxing and ultimate fighting). It was pretty interesting seeing 5'2" Thai men at 106 pounds kicking and punching each other, all the while thinking that I could take one of them down myself. This was until the round with the 160 pounders where with just 2 punches and kicks, one fighter was knocked out and carried off in a stretcher. Had we slept at all on the flight to Bangkok, it would have been more exhilerating, but we were fighting to keep our eyes open. (As a side note - we absolutely love Singapore Air, and not in an "I love ice cream" kind of a way, but much more deeply. Let's just say my United status got us into the lounge with food and drinks, and even coach class has movies, TV, and games on demand. Absolute English-speaking heaven and neither of us slept a wink for the overnight 8 hour flight).

So after the three days in Bangkok, we got tickets to Phuket, a island on the southwestern part of Thailand with a night-life very "active" in the red-light sense of the word. We got an amazing hotel room (a small luxury for the middle of the trip) and have spent our days on the beach, as well as on an organzed trip full of snorkeling, swimming, and visiting the nearby islands (where "The Beach" and "Tommorow Never Dies" were filmed). The relaxation was well needed, but I will admit that our bargaining skills have not improved, and we're spending way too much money here as well. Thai food has been alright (we're missing India in that respect) but Meridith has fallen in love with the watermelon shakes. Even after the escapade in Brazil, we have eaten a lot of the local fruit here and haven't been as cautious of the ice as we should be. But no problems to report on that front (that's something we do NOT miss about Indian food). So with our last day in Phuket, Leslie's planning on getting a 2 hour massage (so this will be ending shortly due to time constraints) and Meridith will be testing her bargaining skills (it promises to be a failure) and trying not to scratch her million and one mosquito bites. One more day at the markets in Bangkok (and getting Leslie's tailored suit) and off to Singapore. We're already excited for the flight - ahhh, movies on demand... (and about knowing someone in Singapore who can plan all our sight-seeing for us)!