June 28-29: The Great Barrier Reef

No pictures could have prepared us, nor words described, the absolute beauty of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Early Sunday morning we boarded a catamaran at the marina. We covered the 20 miles or so to the reef in about an hour and transferred to a larger cat, 'Reef Encounter', our platform for snorkeling, eating, and sleeping for the next 24 hours. It was a sort of very small cruise ship focused on diving and snorkeling, with a friendly staff and some great hearty meals - these people really understand the kind of energy cooked off swimming 4 hours a day!

Over Sunday and Monday, we snorkeled seven different times at four reef locations including Saxon Reef, Norman Reef, Hastings Reef, and (we think...) Michaelmas Reef. We took so many pictures that we killed the camera battery after the first four swims; some are posted in this Picasa album . We also took a short video (the colors aren't true - our camera's 'underwater mode' doesn't work for video), but you can still get an idea of the number and variety of fish and coral (Insert Link). The Norman and Saxon reefs are on the "outer reef", at least relative to the majority of tours from Cairns, and they were the most colorful and lively. Our ship anchored at Norman reef for the night, and we snorkeled at dawn Monday morning. The reef was very alive as the fish welcomed the early light with a flurry of swimming to and fro across the reef.



We saw giant clams, the size of our dining table, which would retract parts of their photosynthetic surface each time we swam close enough to block the sunlight. The reefs were absolutely thriving with coral and fish of every shape, size, and color! To quote one of the crew who took us on a glass boat tour, the spectacular jumbles of coral build up because "It's an absolute war down there. A very, very slow-moving war"; in reference to the way each coral appears to fight for each ray of sunlight.

We hunted around for 'Nemo', the elusive true clownfish. At our fourth and final reef of the day, after seeing at least 3 other varieties of clownfish, we finally caught a glimpse of a 'family' of these guys in a very hairy anemone. We were able to dive right down close, within about 1 meter, and watch them play. The clownfish is orange, sometimes black, with semi-phosphorescent white stripes on it's sides. It has a symbiotic relationship with poisonous sea anemones (the method of avoiding/resisting poison is debated...), so we had to stumble across the right types of anemone and watch for the fish to poke their heads out!

We swam with schools of parrotfish, a turquoise-and-sometimes-pink reef dweller equipped with a beak-like mouth with which it eats the coral of the reef; diving underwater a few meters to clear the sound of the surface chop, we could actually hear them chomping away! Speaking of chomping, we saw a bunch of sharks over the side of the boat at night while the scuba divers prepped for their night dive (we didn't scuba). They hide in deep dark places during the day, and are attracted to waste heat from the ship's galley at night. This brand of reef shark is supposed to be non-aggressive toward humans, but we overheard the night-dive instructor briefing the divers on how to distract the sharks with a light when one is getting too close (something about shining your torch on a diver you don't like...).

We enjoyed meeting and learning about our fellow passengers, some of whom hailed from nearby in Washington and B.C., and many from Europe and the UK. After so long in places where very few people spoke English, it was really nice to get to know some other travelers (just a little bit, unfortunately), hear their stories, learn a little about their lives, why they travel, and to share notes on places we had been or have yet to visit.

We are pretty worn out from all the swimming and excitement, and are looking forward to "de-salting" and relaxing a bit, hopefully over a fine sunset and a glass of delicious Australian wine!

Is that a beached ghost or Sean and Margaret??

Yes we are actually so pale in comparison to the majority of the people here that I believe we may actually be frightening to some. However half the island of Ireland also seems to be in Cairns at the moment so the 'beach' (imported sand on non-crocodile infested pool) is full of people as ghostly as we are. We have enjoyed the last two days sleeping in, walking into town, laying in the sun, and eating ice cream. Tomorrow we head out to the great barrier reef, turns out our camera has an 'underwater' mode...excellent. We are doing a 2-day 1-night snorkeling trip, so we'll let you know how sleeping on the reef goes (pray for calm weather!). We're sneaking our own bottle of wine aboard for a little treat after dinner.

Margaret is still afraid of the water. But she has snorkeled before, so she will be fine once she sees the fish swimming around and gets that permanent grin on her face :)

June 25 - White Water with a side of Rain Forest

Sean and I had the most fun day today. We were picked up at our hotel at 6:30 and headed out to the Tully River Valley, the Australian rain forest for a fun class-4 rapids packed day. We joined a rafting expedition to explore the jungle, and just had so much fun. At one point our guide actually pushed us on purpose out of our boat...I was less than amused. Much like our feline overlords Trogdor and Zatoitchi I prefer to stay DRY when possible. But on the whole the experience was phenomenal. We had a couple from Ireland, and another couple from Germany in the raft with us along with our Australian guide. The jungle was infested with jewel toned butterflies, and beautiful flora including fern-like plants and trees growing straight out of the cliff walls. The area apparently had suffered a cyclone just a few years ago, so much of the forest was new growth where the old canopy had been knocked down.

We went to a wholly unremarkable 'Irish' pub for dinner because we were prowling for a cheap meal. It turns out you actually can gather the worst beers from every country on Earth and put them on the same menu! Oh well, it was refreshing after a day of rafting :) After word we wandered the town core a little, and (big surprise coming up...) rounded out the evening with gelato in a cone. mmm....gelato....

June 23 - Australia

We have arrived safe and sound in Sydney after a long day of travel from Hoi An. We went for an afternoon/evening walk of the city, and had kangaroo for dinner =). Tomorrow we leave for Cairns.

June 21 - Exploring Hoi An

We spent today enjoying Hoi An. Hoi An is a small little town on the coast of Vietnam with a very rich history. For centuries it was the main shipping port and hosted a variety of people from a variety of countries including China, Netherlands, and Japan. The entire city has now been preserved as a world heritage site. We enjoyed poking around the different sites, the picture above is from an assembly hall from the 1800's which was reserved for the Cantonese. I was amazed how colorful the art was, and how well it had been maintained. This picture is of their fountain in the courtyard of the hall.

Today we also discovered our favorite restaurant thus far on our trip called the Mango Rooms. It's an Argentinian and Vietnamese fusion restaurant, yum!

June 20 - Arrival in Hoi An

Today we took the Reunification Express train from Hue to Da Nang and then took a taxi to Hoi An. This smaller piece of railway than what we had originally took was absolutly stunning. The ski and the ocean were an impossible shade of blue, and the mountains were covered in glowwing green plants (Sarah, to you it could be described as tempting tourquise and green galore ;). The train wound along the coast and at times was only feet from the water. We passed several old war-time bunkers, but mostly it was just hill after hill of beautiful jungle.

Hey Hue - June 19th

Hue (pronouced Hway) is the home of the old Vietnamese imperial city. Today we caught this chair on a bicycle thing (picture right...self portrait)to the old imperial city and citadel for a look. Much of it has been destroyed by the french during the war, and what wasn't destroyed hasn't been well maintained. It's a spattering of things that have been nearly destroyed, and things which other countries have helped them rebuild.

The picture to the left is one of the only remaining standing buildings of the the "Forbidden Purple City", it's called the Thai Binh Reading Room. The Forbidden Purple City was the most inner part of the Citadel, were only the emperor and his direct family and servants were allowed. It was mostly burned to the ground in a fire in 1947.


Here is one of the gates to the Imperial City which has been restored, and a close up of what the detail is like. All three dimensional, mostly primary colors, just a ghost really of what this entire city must of have once looked like before the war.



And here is an example of what most of the other gates look like, not maintained, still beautiful, plants growing out of the top of it. We find it ironic that the French helped design the city, modeling it after the Chinese forbidden city, and then they were the same people that destroyed it decades later.







The flag tower shown here was originally constructed in 1807 and is considered to be one of the national mounments for the Vietnamese people.

Reunification Express - June 18

We had heard alot about the train that runs all the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh and decided that we wanted to explore this cultural experience. Here is the advise I found on the internet that I would give to anyone who ever thought about doing this 1) Bring your own TP, sleeping sheet, pillow, purell, food, and lots of water, and butt gaskets (for the toilet). 2) It's not clean or romantic, it's dirty dirty dirty, and is clearly very very old. 3) I have been told that it's considered 'rude' to book a 4-person cabin for just two people, but if we had to do over, that is precisely what we would have done. Other cultures don't necessarily have the same 'bubbles' that we do, and in many cars two or three people shared a bunk making a cabin meant for 4 turn into a cabin for 10. We shared our four person cabin with three other people, and clearly, other cultures don't have the same rules on what is considered to be rude when people are trying to sleep. 4) If you have heard rumors about them playing obnoxious war-era music over the loud speakers...it's all true. Now here is the MOST amazing part. The views of the Vietnam country side from our train car made every single bad thing we had to put up with completely worthwhile. Their countryside really is just that beautiful...it was breathtaking. And since we knew it was going to be dirty before we got there, we were prepared. No pictures this time, Sean and I have come down with a bug.

Ha Long Bay - June 17

Today we went on a junk boat on a tour of Ha Long Bay (descending dragon bay). It's a UNESCO site, and is made up of nearly 2000 islands. The legend is that a dragon descended into the bay, and made all the islands to protect the people, and they actually did lend a hand in several military defeats of invading armies.

I think the best way to describe it is to say that it's kind of like our own San Juan Islands, except they are smaller, steeper, and covered in tropical plants. We went to a beautiful cave and then went kayaking in the bay. I can see why so many people have recommended rock climbing here, maybe during our next trip! We also saw a spider as pig as the palm of my hand...yuck!

Tuesday June 16th - Walking Tour of Siem Reap

We had a low key day today. We started off by enjoying the breakfast at our hotel, and then after packing our bags and lounging around we checked out at around 11. We hired a tuk-tuk and got dropped off on the north end of town, and walked back into town along the river, stopping at small shops and restaurants along the way. We enjoyed seeing the way that the local people lived and used the river. Part way back into town we passed the royal garden, and went in for a look...and that's when we relized that the trees were full of thousands of squawking fruit bats...those things are huge! I estimate 2 feet across easily. After our walking tour we caught a cab to the airport and headed for Hanoi.

Angkor What? - June 15

It was a very early morning. We met our driver at 5 am for the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the symbol of Cambodia, it's everywhere, from their national flag, to their Angkor beer. Angkor Wat was absolutely stunning, the entire gigantic temple is covered in delicate carvings, bas reliefs telling famous Khmer stories.




We next went to Angkor Thom, which was the last capital of the Khmer empire. Khmer is to SE Asia what the Romans were to Europe, they went everywhere, conquered, built big stuff, and then got sacked. These statues guard the bridge into Angkor Thom.






Bayon is a temple within Angkor Thom, it is famous for all of the smiling faces. Very eerie, but strangely beautiful, it seems that no matter where you stand there are at least 8 faces looking at you.









We finished out the day by going to Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is a temple where they didn't remove all the jungle, so that visitors can understand the state at which these temples are found in. This was also the site where scenes from the movie Tomb Raider were filmed. It was strange to see such large trees encasing parts of these temples.



One of the things that is perhaps the most sad is the extreme poverty that faces so many. At least when you go to Mexico and tell a kid to quite selling gum and get back in school, you know that there is a chance. But here there is no public education system, we are struggling with seeing so many very young children in so much need.

Thailand Adventure Day!! - June 13

Sean and I had the best day today! We started off by going to a local butterfly farm. That is one of the things that is most beautiful about Thailand, there are colorful butterflies everywhere, they look like flying gemstones. Co-located with the butterfly farm was an orchid farm.

Next we rode on an elephant.





This is what an elephant looks like when you are on one and feeding them a banana:

We hiked into the jungle and made this waterfall our destination:


And then we went whitewater rafting. It was not as exciting as when I went with Marissa in Oregon, but was very interesting being in the jungle!



And to finish off the day we went down the rest of the river on a bamboo raft:

Caution: Gills in the Kitchen!

Before we left on our world tour I had heard from several folks "don't ride in a tuk tuk in thailand"...but at 9:16 this morning that is exactly where Sean and I found ourselves. However the ride was not scary, I don't think the Tuk Tuk ever went faster than I could ride my bike. The driver took us into town where we caught a van out to our cooking school. We started the day by learning the thai methods of vegetable carvings. That's right ladies and gentlemen, that's a carrot shapped like a leaf, tomato peel rose, a tomato lotus flower, and two tomato sauce cups. Please plan on seeing some very creativly carved sweet potatoes this year at Thanksgiving.

We then made spring rolls and got to use our sauce cups:


Our lessons were taught by the thai equivilant of Emerill, complete with his own tv show. Here is Sean at his work station:


And us enjoying our red curry duck and ginger chicken:


The gardens surrounding the cooking school are lovely, here is an unusual flower we found there:

We arrived back to our room in the afternoon and were so stuffed that we didn't even need dinner!

Chaing Mai...the anti-Bangkok

Well after our stellar reviews of our backpackers hotel in Bangkok it won't surprise you for me to say that on Wednesday morning we packed up our bags and got the heck out of there. In our humble opionion sitting in the lounge at the airport with free food, free drinks, and free wi-fi for a few hours was a much better use of our time than being in Bangkok. Here is a picture of Sean taking it easy in the lounge.

Our flight to Chaing Mai was uneventful and short. We took a taxi to our B&B and realized that we were in a wonderful place. The air here is saturated with the smell of the jasmine and flowers (that smell kind of like grapefruit) that grow in the gardens here. Our room is beautiful and huge. And perhaps the biggest difference is that the people here are outragiously hospitable. Their smiles could light up a room. We quickly made reservations for all the things we wanted to do, and got fitted for suits which will be mailed home after we depart.

June 9 -- Bangkok in a day

Our backpacking hotel was the most gross place I have ever stayed, I am completely baffled about it's good reviews on trip adviser and fully intend to add my own account shortly after posting this blog. The worst part was the lack of sleep due to the knowledge that every time I closed my eyes that I wouldn't be able to see anything potentially crawling/flying in our room.

We woke up early, and got ready quickly to site see while it was still cool outside. Our first stop was 7-11 for breakfast and water, and then we began our walk to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (co-located). The large Wat (temple) is covered in gold leaf, ceramic flowers, and color-mirrored glass tiles. I love the picture below of the mirror glass tiles that Sean took, look for him in the photo! This national treasure absolutely glowed in the morning sun. We hired a local guide to give us an hour tour, and were so glad that we did, his knowledge of the symbolism of the art, and the history of it made it even seem more special. We also saw a very famous Buddha, called the emerald Buddha. It is actually a large single piece of jade.

After the Palace and temple we boarded a longtail boat (a sort of skiff with a turbodiesel on a stick strapped to the back) for a canal cruise of the Chao Praya. Because our guide wanted a pack of smokes and ice, we went on canals less traveled, giving us an interesting insight into the daily life of the people who live on the canal, and the river. The main mode of transportation seemed to be a small flat bottem boat which could hold two people, but usually just one, about 7 feet in length. The boat driver dropped us off at Wat Po.

Wat Po is also called "temple of the reclinging Buddah" and has a buddah which is over 151 long and 53 feet tall. The grounds around the buddah are equally as stunning, covered in the same mirrored glass tiles and ceramic flowers.

Once our tour of Wat Po was completed we went back to Mae Kadiee's for vegetarian thai food for a late lunch (there is a reason that this is the only restaurnt in our area mentioned in Frommers). We walked back to our hotel, up to our room, and two minutes later the skies opened and the afternoon rain came pouring down. We took a short siesta, checked our email, waited for the rain to stop, and then relaxed the rest of the evening at a local open air restaurant. We even made a new friend there who was like an Austrian version of our friend Joel, the similarities were delightfully eerie.

Travel Day and Khao San Road

We woke up and somehow managed to coax a shower out of our pod bathroom (it was like the inside of a boat, a seamless fiberglass prefab bathroom – we are beginning to think Japan is the prefab country). We made it to the platform in time to get a couple pictures of the train approaching. The airport was a breeze, the lounge tasty (free soba noodles, drinks, and snacks!), and the flight to Bangkok comfortable and uneventful.

We caught a cab from Bangkok's airport into the city. Shortly after the driver put his foot on the floor, we discovered the lack of seatbelts! A gripping half-hour of the barely-ordered chaos they call driving, and our driver dropped us off in a narrow alley, next to the sign for our backpackers guesthouse at the entrance to an even narrower alley – actually, more of an outdoor hallway with awnings that overlap in the middle.

It's very hot here. It's about 95 degrees and what feels like 110% humidity – we're on the verge between the dry and rainy seasons. Soon after we dropped off our packs in our room and locked up our electronics, we donned our raincoats and headed into the street just in time for the skies to open and make our gore-tex worth carrying! We didn't realize until a couple hours later, while sipping a beer and people-watching on Khao San Road, why the other backpackers seemed to be chuckling at our raincoats. Everyone just takes siesta during the afternoon rain, then goes out to party in the evening. Whoops. No matter, we found the vegetarian curry joint from the Frommer's book and ate a delicious dinner – a little early by local standards, but we're still kind of on Japanese time. We walked by a lot of tailoring shops, junk shops, street vendors, tuk-tuk drivers, expats, backpackers, vacationers, and pretty much everything else you could imagine. Khao San is a dirty place – cheap, and probably a lot of fun – but dirty. Margaret kind of has this permanent 'blech' look on her face. Now we're hanging out in the guesthouse's veranda writing the blog, contemplating whether to crash early and see the sights before the day gets hot, or to go out and watch (or be) the nightlife. Probably the former, we're tired.

June 7 -- Shinjuku

This morning we awoke and packed our bags. Around 9:00 we caught the train to the Sanjo market in Kyoto to look for cloth and souvenirs – to our dismay, most of the shops were still closed or didn't offer what we wanted, and we could not find the two fabric shops recommended to us.

We came back to the temple, said our goodbyes, and hopped back on the train – this time to leave Kyoto. We were ready to continue our adventure, but a little sad to be leaving the peaceful surroundings of the past few days. Little did we know that around 4:00 in the afternoon, we would find ourselves lugging packs through Shinjuku, one of the busiest districts of Tokyo. When you see Tokyo in books or on TV they usually show a crazy intersection with huge neon advertisements and hundreds of people in the crosswalks – yeah, that was right outside our hotel. We dropped off our packs and wandered the insanely busy neon sidewalks and alleys of the district. We soon found ourselves deep in the rabbit hole of Japanese fashion, what seemed like a bizarre intersection of red-light district and Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter tea party – we actually saw someone in a dress that was almost a rabbit costume, and another with an 18-inch bow in her hair. Don't even get us started on the mullet-wielding women's pants-wearing quasi-punk men of Tokyo. We were too busy scooping our jaws off the floor to take pictures!

We shared nigiri and chirashi for dinner (nigiri is sushi, chirashi is a bowl of rice and sashimi), and toasted our accidental adventure in Shinjuku with a bottle of cold sake. We seem to keep finding these interesting spots by accident, or when we get lost – this time because we mis-planned our return to Narita airport from Kyoto – more evidence for Margaret's recent assertion that we have fun adventures because we can't seem to follow instructions! After dinner we wandered a bit more just for the entertainment of watching the people, found some fun desserts (pineapple on a stick, and a crepe filled with berries and whip cream), then returned to our hotel to sleep. After all, our train leaves at 6:30 tomorrow...

A Day to Catch Up - June 6

This morning we went and meditated with the monk who runs this temple, Rev. Taka. The room had sliding rice paper panels which were open to a stunning garden, allowing the cool morning breeze in on an already warm day. Following the meditation we took a tour of the grounds with Rev. Taka, learned about him, his life, and his family. The following is his inspirational story (and if pastor Jim reads this, you would really like this guy, he's your kind of person).

Vice Abbot Taka is descendant from the feudal-lord system which used to rule Japan. When the laws changed in Japan his family lost all their land and titles and they started this temple, and are still running it five generations later. After high school Taka went to the United States for college, graduated, and landed a job as a corporate event planner which took him all over the United States. On vacation back home to this beautiful temple one summer, and with a national push to increase tourism, Taka decided to leave the United States and become vice-abbot.

While in the United States Taka had the opportunity to be a TA for an undergraduate class at his university. There were 10 Japanese students in his class, 2 of which new about their Buddhist background. The other 8 while all raised in Japan, didn't know very much about their own history and their own culture. Rev. Taka shared that "when you know yourself, you are open to be able to know others" and that the 2 students who knew their background were able to mesh with the US culture, try new things and meet new people, while the other 8 students only hung out with each other.

Upon returning to Japan he blended his knowledge of event planning with his new status as Abbot and opened up a series of both Japanese style and Western style rooms for people to come and stay at his temple. His goal is to be able to lead Japanese young people back to their roots, and has a detailed plan on how to accomplish this, including opening a larger guest house so that entire school groups can stay here, as well as establishing ties with universtities all over the world and have international student groups come to stay here. At a more local level, teach classes on yoga, and other forms of meditation to bring both travelers and locals into the temple. This beautiful, peaceful place is clearly his passion, and we have no doubt that with his energy and enthusiasm he will be successful in his ventures.

The rest of the day we tried okonomiyaki (we knew it was going to be good when we had to stand in line outside, before getting to the line inside, before we could have a table), went shopping, and did our laundry.

Nara - June 5

Today (June 5) we traveled to Nara for the day. Nara, about 40 minutes south of Kyoto by train, was the original seat of imperial power in Japan. The first imperial court was established here from 710 to 794 (c.e.) by Prince Shotoku. In 794, the Imperial court was removed to Kyoto to distance it from the increasingly-influential Buddhist priesthood of Nara, but Nara remained an important place for Buddhism in Japan.

We arrived by train from Kyoto around 11:00. By the time we had visited the travel information office, found our bearings, and decided on an appropriate layering of Gore-Tex (it was raining), we were getting hungry and ducked into a noodle shop for lunch.



The first stop along our walking tour of Nara was Kofuku-ji Temple, famous for it's 5-storey 50.1m-tall pagoda. We continued into Nara Park, an expanse of forest, open space, temples, and museums filled with over 1,000 very audacious deer. We were pretty much dodging deer as we walked. Kiosks sell “deer biscuits” – low-grade bread rounds – which people then feed to the deer (though “bait” and “taunt” may be more fitting descriptions of the behavior of deer biscuit-wielding schoolchildren).

We crossed the grounds of the Nara national museum, though we did not stop in to see the artifacts. Turing the corner, we entered the long causeway leading to Todai-ji Temple's Great Buddha Hall, a wooden structure of truly shocking scale containing a bronze Buddha (“Daibutsu”, locally) of equally shocking scale. On our way out of the Great Buddha hall, we were accosted (ok, more of a gentle accosting) by a horde of schoolchildren who wanted to practice their English and take a picture with funny weird American people.



We wandered the park for a couple more hours, seeing various shrines, beautiful groves, manicured gardens, and plenty of deer. The entry courtyard to one shrine featured an 800 year-old wisteria. To be honest, at first I thought it was just vines for shade, because the many trunks of the tree were held aloft by a bamboo lattice. We tried a green tea soft serve ice cream, and the fact that we were the only adults in the entire park eating ice cream cones made it no less delicious!



All told, it was a nice slow day in the rain, and Nara was a wonderful place to visit. As I am sure will be a theme over the next few months, today was a powerful inspiration to delve into the fascinating history of this place. We returned to Kyoto, and decided we needed a meal with less fish and more veggies than recent fare, so we sautéed some vegetables in the kitchenette alongside some curried noodles and ate on the patio.

Higashiyama Walking Tour

Today we decided to do the Northern Higashiyama Walking Tour of Kyoto. After the first temple though we got really hungry, got lost, and ended up finding an 'American' diner. Margaret had shrimp fried rice, and Sean had an omlet stuffed with rice with ketchup on top. We decided that the reason we find these places, and get off the beaten path, is because we really may not always be so good with directions. Needless to say the locals were fun, the food was delicious, and a fun time was had by everyone. We went past many beautiful temples, and took a long walk along the "Path of Philosophy". Our tour ended at the UNESCO site of the Silver Pavilion. The Pavilion itself was under restoration, but we enjoyed walking in the beautiful gardens that surrounded it.


As we walked back into town we saw a geisha and her apprentice crossing the street. I have never seen a single woman 'own' the street, but she did, it was incredible.

We finished out the evening enjoying a traditional Japanese meal along the river that runs through Kyoto.