Boston Can Wait

A New Addition to the MacKenzie Clan!

2008-02-24T18:23:00.000-08:00

Introducing Louis MacKenzie!
Date of Adoption: January 28, 2008
Weight at Adoption: 10.5 lbs
Length at Adoption: 12.5 inches
Parentage: questionable at best, we're told Lab/Poodle mix.

In the times of our peers percolating their second children (or even third in some cases), we finally feel old enough to get a puppy!

Louis is pronounced the French way, as in Louis XIV. He is 1/2 French, you know.

We adopted Louis from a rescue, his whole litter was dropped off at a rescue in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Apparently, spaying & neutering has really caught on in New England, so there are no unwanted puppies. The organization we adopted him from transports a whole load of puppies up to New England every few weeks.

We've had him 4 weeks now. He's managed piss all over our house, wake us up at all hours, mess up our social life...who needs a baby when you can just have a puppy? Nevertheless, we have absolutely fallen in love with him. Which is good because in 4 weeks, he's gained 13 pounds and grown 6 inches longer. All of a sudden, we're having person after person ask us if he's a Newfoundland. Yes, the enormous dog known for vicious seasonal shedding and flinging slobber 20 feet. We'll have to wait and see but we are praying he does not end up weighing 150 pounds!

Here are a few pictures:

Adoption Day:

Favorite Toy:

First Bath:

Eating Laying down (our own roman emperor!):

Contortionist:

Sleeping:

On his Big Boy Bed:

Playing in the Snow:

Playing in the Snow again (it snows A LOT in Boston):

With his big friend Mason (a Shar Pei mix):

With his little Puppy Kindergarten friend Luda (a Yorkie puppy):

With his Daddy:

With his Mommy:

His favorite spot:

Other than Louis, our life is pretty boring! We do intend to keep the blog updated on a more regular basis now though. Stay tuned!

All moved in

2007-10-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

A quick update - we moved in last Friday 10/12. It was a frantic day unpacking and directing movers. The movers unpacked us, but that meant putting everything on the floor or nearest flat surface, so you can imagine the chaos. With Kate working and Don busy at school its going to be awhile before we get everything organized! Once we've spent some time working on the place we'll post more photos.

We are getting used to dealing with handyman type things too. In the past we just picked up the phone to call the landlord! Don will be getting a tool belt for Christmas.

We had new living room furniture delivered today. It's the first time either of us has had new couches and not hand-me-downs. We feel so grown up!

So now that we are moved in we've opened up our calendar for visitors...Any takers?

A Home!

2007-09-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

We're happy to say that we've had an offer accepted for the purchase of a condo in Somerville, which is a small city wedged in between Boston's Charlestown neighbourhood to the east and Cambridge to the west. The condo is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath unit occupying the top two floors of a 3-story building. The house was built in 1890 and the ground floor contains one other unit. It's a 5-minute walk to the Orange line of the subway, which in about 12 minutes will drop Kate off very close to her office downtown. It's less than 3 miles from MIT, so Don should have about a 15 minute bike ride to campus. Last weekend we went for an inspection of the property, which turned up a few minor issues, but nothing of too much concern. So, here are some pictures of our new home (well, it'll be ours after Oct 10).

Front door:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Master Bedroom:

(the original staircase of the house has been covered over with hardwood - that's the rectangle you see on the ground)

Master Bathroom:

Deck:

(we expect to spend many a fine night barbequing on the deck!)

There are two other bedrooms & another bath so everyone is expected to come and visit! We look forward to finally having our own place and being out of the tiny apartment we are in right now.

Back to School

2007-09-06T04:48:00.000-07:00

First day of classes yesterday:

It wasn't really that bad. But it's amazing how you can be so busy with only 3 hours of class time. Throw in a workshop and a couple of meetings and all of a sudden the day's pretty full.

The report so far:
Intro to technology & policy = ok
Economics = uh oh

Quintessential Bostonian Weekend… Already

2007-09-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we took care of some business, getting ourselves library cards for the Boston Public Library, etc. But it was that evening that we really became citizens, when we attended our first Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Making the evening more exciting still, Sox rookie Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter against the O’s. The place went NUTS!

The final strike of the game:

On Sunday we got up extra early and stumbled over to Cambridge for sailing lessons at the MIT sailing pavilion. The Institute has about 50 boats available FREE to students and their guests, including 35 “Tech Dinghies” for novices. They gave us a few basic pointers, a couple of long-winded demonstrations of how to rig and unrig the boats, and turned us loose on the Charles River.

We can’t wait to get back out there some more!

Sunday night we met a couple of Kate's friends from Georgetown, Emily and Tommy. We went for dinner in the North End, Boston's historically Italian district. The food was great!

Monday we went to Revere Beach, which is just northeast of the city, past Logan airport. It was no Thailand, but a nice way to spend Labour Day all the same. The sand was fine and reasonably clean, and the water was, shall we say, “refreshing.” So refreshing, in fact, that we only needed about one minute to feel completely refreshed and ready to get out. The best part was that it was only half an hour away, and accessible by the T (subway).

Boston Update

2007-09-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

Kate’s been settling into her new job well enough. She's having fun meeting coworkers and making big, important MBA decisions. She has also learned Rule No. 1 of meeting with their ad agency: No Starbucks Allowed. The reason? The agency also has Dunkin Donuts as a major client. Apparently some yahoos from, well, Yahoo came in for a meeting, Starbucks in hand, unaware of Rule No. 1. They were quickly ushered into a back room and out of sight of prying eyes.

Don’s classmates are all a good lot, though many of them are very young. We’d post the pictures to prove it, but there are laws against that. Ok, they’re not THAT young, but they’re a bit younger than we expected. Class registration was today and classes officially start tomorrow. Don has been meeting with potential thesis advisors, and has been making good progress. He'll be attending one research group's meeting tomorrow to see how they all work together.

We’ve also been looking at condos, a task which has enabled us to meet all manner of interesting characters, like Martin here:

Love the hair, Martin!

We're also happy to report that today we had an offer accepted on a condo in Somerville, which is next to Cambridge. It's about 2.5 miles to school for Don, and a 5 minute walk to the train for Kate, making for very manageable commutes. We're hoping to close on October 12.

Boston can wait no more.

2007-08-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Boston last Friday after connecting in Seattle and Chicago. After a minor issue locating our bags, we took a taxi to our temporary apartment in Boston's South End neighbourhood. Before leaving, the taxi driver managed to slam the rear door of the van on Don's head. Nice guy.

We knew our apartment would be small, but we weren't expecting this:

Yep, that's the whole place, and yep, that's a murphy bed. But we don't fold the bed up because we have all our stuff stored under it.

On Saturday we worked on getting settled and on Sunday we met with our realtor and began checking out some more permanent places to live.

On Monday, Kate had her first day of work:

As you can see, there were a lot of tears, but I managed to convince her that she'd be fine, it would be fun, and that she'd make lots of new friends.

I also had my first economics "review" session on Monday, although there was not much reviewing since I've never done much in the way of economics before. More of a crash course. I also got to meet many of my classmates, and boy do I feel like an old man. Most of them seem to have one year or less of work experience. What a fresh-faced bunch they are!

Last night we met up with my old roommate, Moz, from UBC. He finished his PhD at MIT last year and is now doing a post-doc there. It was good to catch up, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him.

My orientation kicks off next week, and classes begin the week after. We hope to have a place to live soon, though it probably won't happen overnight. Wish us luck!

-Don

Murtle Lake, BC

2007-08-18T18:54:00.002-07:00

The morning after we arrived back from Tofino, we met with a couple of former colleagues of Don's, then started driving northeast, to Blue River, BC. Blue River is about 2.5 hours north of Kamloops, and 6 hours from Vancouver. Don's mom, Peggy, and her partner Garnet joined us that night, and on Saturday, we all drove another 15 miles up a logging road and portaged our canoes 1.5 miles in to Murtle Lake, the largest canoe-only lake in North America.

Our progress the first day was hampered by strong winds, but we managed to find a sheltered spot to wait it out:

The next day, we made it to the end of Murtle's West arm, and set up camp. No sooner had we done so than we were pummelled with hail:

In the evening, the weather improved and we went fishing just offshore from our camp. Kate caught her first fish before Don could even get a line in the water. We kept three nice rainbow trout, which made for a tasty dinner that night:

The next day we did some more fishing. Here are Don and Peggy near the outlet of the lake:

And the day after that we hiked to McDougall Falls on the Murtle River:

On our way back to camp, we saw this family of river otters:

It was time to start heading back out, but the fun wasn't over. We were treated to more incredible scenery:

And on our last day, just as we were getting back to the take-out, we saw a cow moose with a calf, and a few hundred meters away, a young bull moose.

All in all it was a great trip and a wonderful chance to soak in BC's natural wonders!

Hotsprings Cove, British Columbia

2007-08-18T18:54:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday August 7, we drove from Maple Bay to Tofino, on the West side of Vancouver Island. It was about 4 hours from Maple Bay. We checked in with Tofino Air and prepared for our flight to Hotsprings Cove. Kate was excited for her first trip ever in a float plane:

Imagine! Something travel-related that was new to Kate but old news to Don!

Our aircraft was a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, probably the most revered and storied bush plane in Canadian history. Although production ceased 40 years ago, hundreds of Beavers remain in service today, and are much sought after for their reliability and ruggedness. Very cool:

Once at Hotprings Cove, we set up camp in the campground across the cove from the village. The springs themselves were a 30-minute walk away along a good boardwalk through the forest. There are some great views along the way:

The springs were crowded during the middle of the day, but we were still able to enjoy them.

An especially neat feature of these springs is that you can soak in them right where they flow into the ocean, which means that you get an invigorating hot-cold-hot cycle as the waves surge in and out of the lower pools.

On the way back to Tofino, we were lucky enough to spot a humpback whale. Our pilot circled a few times at about 500 feet so we could watch and snap a few photos:

Once we were back in Tofino, it was just a 4-hour drive across the Island, a 4-hour ferry wait, and another 2 hours on the ferry and driving through Vancouver, before we could rest again. But we didn't rest long!

BC Day - Welcome Home

2007-08-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

We flew from Tokyo to Vancouver via San Francisco, and promptly hopped on a ferry to Vancouver Island. We arrived at Don's dad's & stepmom's place in Maple Bay on the evening of Sunday Aug 5. We sat out on the deck and visited with cousin Margaret, and Nathan:

That's the BC flag in the background, in case anyone was wondering.

On Monday, which was BC Day, about 15 members of Don's family came over for a mini-reception and "welcome back to the continent" party.

We were fortunate to visit with Don's grandma, Donnie, whose health had forced her to miss the wedding at the last minute. She is doing better now and was in fine spirits:

It was also wonderful to see her consort, Ray, and Don's great-aunt and great-uncle, Joan and Joe:

Also present were Neil's brother, Andy, his wife Cathy, and their sons Connor and Jamie:

As well as Mary Beth's kids. Brent, Brooke, and Lee:

It was great to see everyone and to enjoy some fine BC summer weather!

Mt Fuji

2007-08-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we flew from Singapore to Tokyo, and took the train to Zama City to stay with Kate's friend Trisha and her new daughter, Ainsley.

On Tuesday morning we took a bus to the Kawaguchiko Fifth Station, at 2,300 m (7,500') on the North side of Mt Fuji.

We started hiking and a little less than 3 hours later we arrived at the Taishi-Kan hut, our home for the night at 3,020 m (10,000').

We went to bed early and made an alpine start at 1:20 AM yesterday. After making good time for most of the remaining distance to the summit, we ran into a little congestion:

It wasn't so different from the commuter train at rush hour:

We arrived at the summit a little before 4:00 AM:

and got front row seats for the sunrise. As we waited, the parade of headlamps continued its steady creep up the mountain.

The sunrise was one of the most spectacular we have ever seen, with the sun appearing to rise directly out of the cloud layer:

And still the parade continued up the mountain:

After the sun was up we grabbed some hot drinks and began walking around the crater.

On the west side, we were afforded a remarkable view of the mountain's shadow, cast across the countryside:

The hike up was a cakewalk compared to the descent, a 4-hour ordeal of blisters and pounding toes.

We made it back to Zama in the afternoon, and Trisha took us for some of the best sushi we've ever had. Better yet, it came on a converyor belt:

Singapore Slings

2007-08-01T04:40:00.000-07:00

We stopped in Singapore for a couple of days after leaving Thailand. The biggest attraction in Singapore (as far as we could tell) is shopping...too bad we don't have money to partake in the attraction! We did manage to visit with Kate's Uncle Bill:

And we also got together with Don's family friends Karen and Christer, who took us out for the requisite Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel:

Phra Nang

2007-07-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

On Monday we traveled by boat from Ko Phi Phi to Phra Nang, which is a peninsula with a group of bays including East and West Railay and Tonsai. Although it is on the mainland, the area is only accessible by boat, and the bays are flanked by towering limestone cliffs:

Yesterday we took a short walk to Phra Nang Beach, the most spectacular of the many beaches here:

At the end of the beach is Phra Nang Cave, which has in it a collection of carved, wooden phalli, offered by local fishermen to a goddess to ensure a healthy catch:

As you might expect, the area is also something of a mecca for rock climbers, so Don managed to get out for a couple of half-days with one of the local guide services:

The view from the cliffs was fantastic:

On the second day, after proving his worth, the guide even let him lead a few routes:

Afterwards, we watched yet another fabulous sunset from West Railay Beach:

The only thing lacking here is the food. We're putting this creation in the "What the hell were they thinking?" file:

A visit to the hospital

2007-07-22T05:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning we took an early walk from our bungalow on Hat Yao into the main village here on Ko Phi Phi. Crossing some slippery rocks, my foot skidded off one and my leg slid along some sharp shells adhered to another rock. It wasn't painful but Kate soon noticed a stream of blood and we noticed that the gash was actually gaping a bit. So we went to the hospital and got it cleaned up, since there's no other clinic on the island. I felt like less of a baby when the did say I could have it stiched if I wanted, but that then I wouldn't be able to swim. However I felt like more of a weenie looking at the guy next to me getting his scalp stiched back together. In the end they just cleaned it up, taped it shut, and sent me off with some antibiotics and materials to keep it clean.

If I had to get one hospital visit in SE Asia out of the way, this was a pretty painless way to do it.

Beautiful Koh Phi Phi

2007-07-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

After the night boat from Koh Tao, we had a distressing time getting over to Koh Phi Phi even though we bought a through ticket. However we did arrive - only 6 hours late! The island is beautiful and we elected to stay at a less popular beach a short boat ride (or 45 min walk) away from the main town. Hat Yao (Long Beach - as it's called) is beautiful and we have enjoyed our bungalow just 20 meters from the beach.

The island in the background is Phi Phi Ley - the island in the movie "The Beach".

Yesterday we went into town to enjoy the sunset from the highest point on the island.

The climb was well worth it because in addition to the beautiful sunset it gave us a view of the two beaches just meters apart that connect the two mountainous sides of the island. Unfortunately these two beaches were the site of 2000 deaths during the tsunami in 2004. A 5 meter wave came from the left and a 3 meter wave came from the right, tragically meeting in the middle and destroying most of the town.

In the evening we decided to test out the party scene on the island, and visited a few bars. At one beachfront place we watched a fire show - all the rage on the island. It was oretty cool:

We also met some drunken Irishmen who thought it was hilarious that we were on our honeymoon, and proceeded to chant 'hon - e - moon' all the while thrusting their hips suggestively. Humourous hon-e-moon indeed.

Today July 22, we hiked just 10 minutes from our beach to find a deserted beach, with the most crystal clear water either of us had ever seen. We spent the whole day here and only had to share the entire beach with a few people the whole day.

The 'keeper' of the beach has interesting feelings as to the type of tour groups he allows to visit though as evidenced by this shocking sign:

Exploring Koh Tao

2007-07-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

As beautiful as our beach was, we wanted to explore the entire island. One afternoon we rented a motorbike and discovered Freedom beach - very small and isolated. The trees provided natural shade for Don's pale skin!

The next day we ventured further afield, and discovered Hin Wong Bay. A beautiful bay (no beach though) with crystal clear water. It looked strikingly like Maple Bay, British Columbia where Don's Dad & Stepmom live, only WARM!

As we walked out to the end of the rickety peir we noticed a natural fish nursery. The shallows around the boulders were home to thousands of guppies. We can't seem to upload the video but will when we get a chance.

That evening we left Koh Tao (sadly) on a night ferry, that had basically a huge bed on the middle deck with assigned places. Thankfully it wasn't full so we could spread out more than the small slots dictated.

Is this thing on?

2007-07-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

We've noticed we have about 3 loyal followers who post comments (you know who you are - thanks!) and a couple people who have emailed that they've been following our exploits, but we wonder how many other people are listening. Our email boxes are mostly empty these days, so we haven't been visiting the internet cafes frequently - hence fewer posts! Let us know if you are out there - kateanddon@hotmail.com - or post a comment here!

Bangkok --> Ko Tao

2007-07-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

We traveled from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok on July 12. It was a mostly dull and not unpleasant journey, despite the heinous reputation of the road from Siem Reap to the Thai border ("boulevard of broken backsides"). However we did get one flat tire enroute:

We spent a couple of days seeing some of the the sights we had missed on our first stop in Bangkok, including one culturally sensitive hamburger clown:

On the night of the 14th, we took an overnight bus and an early ferry to reach the island of Ko Tao, one of Thailand's premier dive centers. The east side of the Malay Peninsula is sheltered from the southwest monsoon, making for relatively good weather this time of year. We've spent the last two days diving on the reefs near the island

sitting on the beach,

eating the day's fresh catch,

and watching sunsets from waterfront restaurants.

The diving visibility isn't perfect, but the water is WARM and the coral is beautiful. We will try to post some pics if we take our camera diving or snorkeling at some point.

The Children of Cambodia

2007-07-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

We had heard horror stories about the mobs of children around the temples trying to sell everything from cold water to scarves. Mostly we heard from everyone about how annoying they were. We found them incredibly amusing and not that annoying. We devised some strategies in dealing with them.

1) Ignore them or politely say a firm "No, thank you". This was no fun though.
2) Run away. Don discovered this technique which was fun for him as well as great fun for the children, who gave chase giggling. Even several hours later the children remembered him as "the Mister who ran away" and flocked around us to talk.

3) The children try to strike up conversations. One technique is to ask your name. After telling them our real names a couple of times, Don told one girl that his name was Steve Jobs. She proceeded to follow us yelling "Mr. Steve Jobs, Mr. Steve Jobs" much to our amusement:

4) Another conversation technique was to ask where we were from. The conversation typically went like this:

Kid - "Where you from, Mister (or Lady)?"
Kate/Don - "America" or sometimes "Canada"
Kid - "Canada. Capital Ottawa", if the kid was particularly ambitious we got "Canada. Capital Ottawa. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax..." and went on to list all the provinces and ended with "C-A-N-A-D-A". We even once got "Canada. Capital Ottawa. Population 33 million"

With this sequence repeated endlessly we decided to throw them a curveball.

Kid - "Where you from, Mister (or Lady)?"
Kate/Don - "Yugloslavia"
Kid - "You lie!"

These kids are good, so we decided to use a country that still existed:

Kid - "Where you from, Mister (or Lady)?"
Kate/Don - "Luxembourg"
Kid - "Parlez-vous Francias?"

Wow.

One kid trying to sell us 10 postcards, counted the 10 cards in 4 languages.

Our last morning, we were at a temple shortly after sunrise. Three boys approached us on top of a temple and proceeded to hand Kate a small flower and then put a palm leaf ring on her finger:

Then asked for money to help them attend school:

It can be disconcerting to be approached by so many children begging or selling things but the small amount of money we gave them is small to us but means much to their lives. We heard that 1/2 of the population of Cambodia is under 20, as a result of the Khmer Rouge and the massacre of a generation in the late 70s.

Temples of Angkor

2007-07-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

We've spent the past three days exploring the Temples of Angkor outside Siem Reap, Cambodia. Often collectively referred to abroad as "Angkor Wat," Angkor Wat per se is but one of scores of religious sites in the immediate vicinity. Most date from the 9th - 13th centuries, and are in varying condition.

If anything, Angkor Wat's reputation is less than it deserves. It eats Chichen Itza for breakfast, and its glaring omission from the "New Seven Wonders" clearly illumintes the idiocy of this recent hoopla.

We visited Angkor Wat three times, including once for sunrise:

The entire city is a symbolic representation of the Hindu universe, centered around the five peaks of Mount Meru. The outer wall of the central temple is decorated with 600 meters (2000 feet) of bas reliefs, 2 meters (6 feet) high, that illustrate important Hindu beliefs. The 90-meter illustration of the 30-odd Hindu hells is particularly vivid:

Other sites have even more intricate reliefs, like this pediment from Banteay Srei, 30 km NE of Angkor Wat:

We visited about 2 dozen different sites over three days, in the comfort of this trailer, towed behind a Honda motorbike, by our driver Nan:

Some sites included harrowing climbs to the top:

Many of the temples had "Halls of Dancers" with dancers carved into the walls. We had fun trying to imitate the dancing positions:

The last site we visited had some very unusual carvings, including one that looks strikingly similar to a stegosaurus (how did they know what a stegosaurus looked like 1000 years ago??):

And this fellow, carved in intricate detail:

We saw many amazing sites, too many to share photos but here are a few:

We fueled ourselves with delicious food and drink, like fish amok:

It is the Khmer national dish, consisting of fish, coconut milk, and spices cooked in banana leaf.

We enjoyed freshly squeezed sugarcane juice, perfect for that mid-morning energy kick after a sunrise start:

And when we were done, the good folks here were kind enough to provide us with clear illustrations of how to do our business:

Laid up...

2007-07-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, it's not as bad as it looks. I believe the following should help explain:

Turns out my blood type is in heavy demand here, so I rolled up my sleeve this afternoon. I checked that it was a new needle of course, and I was done in about 5 minutes. They only draw 350 ml here - about 2/3 as much as a unit in the US. I almost said, "Take two!"

2007-07-07T05:00:00.001-07:00

Fair Warning: Vietnamese Massage

I held off on posting this until I had mostly recovered, but I wanted to give a little heads-up to anyone who happens to find himself considering a massage in Vietnam: I suggest avoiding the treatment with herbal oils on the back. I don't know which chemical warfare agent those sadists smeared on me, but here is what it did to my back:

Here I am, 9 days later, with the marks mostly gone:

2007-07-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Killing Fields

Yesterday we traveled by bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

We went today to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, about 14 km from Phnom Penh. Nearly 20,000 people were murdered there between 1975-1979, and buried in mass graves, about half of which have been excavated:

A stupa at the site contains the skulls of more than 8,000 victims, a stark memorial to the terror visited by the Khmer Rouge on their own countrymen.

Many of the remains show evidence of blunt trauma, as the victims were beaten to death in an effort to save bullets. These people were killed for crimes such as speaking to foreigners, wanting to flee the country, and wearing spectacles.

Ho Chi Minh City

2007-07-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Saigon on the evening of July 4th, with one site that we wanted to see: The Cu Chi tunnels. We went on a day trip there on Thursday.

Our tour began with a stop at the Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is an interesting religion that worships Confucious, Mohammed, Moses, Jesus, and Budda, along with some other interesting choices such as Victor Hugo (the 2nd Saint, apparently), Joan of Arc, and William Shakespere.

Apparently their pope and arch bishops have all died out, and the communists are keeping such a close eye on them that they cannot conduct a seance to determine the new pope and arch bishops...

We continued on to Cu Chi, site of an extensive network of tunnels used by the Viet Cong to help them evade US and South Vietnamese troops and bombs, which pockedmarked the landscape with craters this one, about 50 feet across and 15-20 feet deep.

The tunnels enabled the VC to maintain control of the area, which is just 70 km from Saigon. The original tunnels were a very tight fit:

The "tourist" tunnels have been enlarged to double their original size. Hard to imagine going through something half this size!

There is also a shooting range on site, and visitors are able to buy ammunition for various rifles and handguns. What the heck, we figured. It's not every day you get the chance to fire an AK-47:

Happy Independence Day, Hoosiers (and everyone else!)

2007-07-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning of July 4th at My Son ruins near Hoi An and then flew to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in the afternoon. In honor of America's Independence Day we ate dinner at KFC. A restaurant neither of us had eaten at in years seemed absolutely mouth watering after weeks of rice and noodles. Amazingly the gravy tastes exactly the same! But the chicken strips were pretty puny, just like the live chickens running around everywhere...Seemed more like Col. Kurtz than Col. Sanders...

However we throughly enjoyed our meal:

We even had hot fudge sundaes!

Happy July 4th everyone!

Hoi An, Vietnam

2007-07-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

We spent 5 nights and days in Hoi An. The ancient city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is really charming. After the trauma of Hanoi, we needed some down time.

Hoi An is the center of the cloth trade in Vietnam, meaning more tailors! These tailors were much cheaper than in Thailand, so we had some more clothes made. And even commissioned custom shoes to be made. Again we had to ship a box home...

The historic city is very quaint, with centuries of history:

We were absolutely enamored with the carved wood furniture with mother-of-pearl inlays sold here and came very close to buying a set for a steal (would go for 3 times that much in the US we were certain) except we got spooked by the possible customs duties as well as some sneaking suspicions about the prohibition of Ebony importation...

There is a lovely beach nearby where we spent Canada Day (July 1), the next day we rented a moped (here's a self-portrait):

to head up the beach to famous China Beach (of the TV Series in the 90s, and also the real life beach where US GI's had R&R during the 'American War' as it is called here) The beach was beautiful and deserted except for the fisherman and their basket shaped boats:

We woke up early on July 4, for a 'sunrise' tour of the My Son temple ruins. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a warm up for Angkor Wat in Cambodia which we will visit in a few days. In true Vietnamese fashion, the trip did not exactly live up to its billing, as we arrive at the ruins 1 hour after sunrise, but still half an hour before the site opened. Nevertheless, the site was interesting and lovely:

A large part of this ancient site was bombed during the war, the bombing stopped only after an prominent French archaeologist wrote a letter to Richard Nixon requesting that the cultural heritage sites be spared. They are still finding bomb shells from the war even to this day, this large shell was found in May of this year in the jungle and is on display:

The war has left quite a mark on this country that lingers to this day. It is unfortunate that the US did not learn it's lesson over 30 years ago...

Happy Canada Day, hosers!

2007-07-01T04:50:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Canada Day with a little sightseeing, visited the Fujian Chinese Community assembly hall here in Hoi An:

Each of those coils is a piece of incense that burns for about 1 month.

Then we went to the beach:

Hope those of you back home have as good a Canada Day as we did!

Knight Bus!

2007-06-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

We took a sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue. It made us giggle with the similarities to the Knight Bus in Harry Potter books. It had three rows of 'bunks' about a foot and a half wide, and sized longways for a Vietnamese person. Here are some pictures:

Don had a bottom bunk but had the privlege of having an old man's elbow on his lap (the locals tend to cram into the bus in the aisles, presumably for a lower price):

Kate had an upper middle bunk:

It was an interesting ride, definitely not as comfy as a sleeper train, but much better than an overnight regular bus. After a half day checking out the Citadel in Hue, we continued on to Hoi An. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site, has beautiful beaches, and more tailors! Stay tuned...

Beautiful Halong Bay

2007-06-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

We spent 2 nights and 3 days in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. Halong bay is an UNESCO world heritage site and is incredibly beutiful. After driving from Hanoi we boarded a 'junk' for our cruise through the bay.

This is a popular tourist spot so the bay was full of the old styled junks. After enjoying a 4 hour cruise through the gorgeous scenery we got off on Cat Ba island, the largest inhabited island in the bay. We spent one night here hanging out with some other travelers, drinking Bia Hoi (20 cents in this case per draught), and enjoying the interesting sights along the street, such as the live scorpions for sale, which the locals cook up to eat:

The next morning we went for a hot and strenuous trek into the interior of the island, but were rewarded with beautiful views of the bay and mountainous interior of the island. (we forgot the camera though!)

In the afternoon we went kayaking in the bay and enjoyed the small islands and deserted beaches. That evening we boarded the junk for an overnight stay on the boat moored in the bay. We enjoyed more beautiful views:

and took a sunset swim. Some people, including Kate, were brave enough to jump off the top of the boat for their swims:

This trip was definitely worth the small amount of money we paid for it. Halong Bay has proved to be one of the most beautiful places either of us have ever had the privledge of seeing.

Hanoi in dirty detail

2007-06-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

Promises made
Assurances given
Deception

Taxi scam
Hotel scam
Tour scam

Liars
Cheats
Crooks

Filthy
Dreadful
Den of thieves

We arrived in Hanoi from Luang Prabang by air last Saturday. We took the 'official' Vietnam Airlines shuttle into the city. We told the driver our hotel and he took us there, however before we even got out of the van a well dressed man came up to the van and said "I'm very sorry, this hotel is all booked up, did you have a reservation?"

When we informed him that we did, he offered to have the van take us to another hotel owned by his company. We made the mistake of not going into the hotel ourselves, and the van took us to the other hotel, where they tried to convince us they were owned by the same company and the facilities were the same. They did not look the same as the picture we had seen on the website! So we told them that we had to go to the ATM before registering and we left to seek out our original hotel. No surprise but when we found the correct hotel, it was not affiliated with the other hotel, and did indeed have our reservation. We promptly marched back to the other hotel, grabbed our things, and left without paying. What a rip off! It's a common enough scam, but it was a little more involved than we'd ever heard of before. Our original hotel though was lovely and we derived an inordinate amount of satisfaction from having caught the scam before we had handed over any money.

The next day, we traveled by motorcycle taxis through the Old Quarter to visit Hoa Lo Prison, better known in the West as the Hanoi Hilton, where American POWs were held during the Vietnam war.

Senator John McCain's flight suit is on display, along with displays explaining how well the American POWs were treated despite their crimes against the People.

Shortly thereafter, we learned another popular Vietnamese scam - the rigged taxi meter. While metered taxis are supposed to take the headache out of arguing over every fare, at least some of the drivers in Hanoi have tampered with them so that they run much more quickly than they are supposed to. We caught on when we noticed a fare meter notching up kilometers about twice as fast as the car's odometer.

The scams continued from there, as did the pushy vendors, touts, and taxi drivers, to the point that it was all but impossible to trust anyone in the entire city.

Hanoi is not without its charms, however:

Hoan Kiem Lake is located next to the Old Quarter. It is home to an ancient and important temple, erected in memory of the man who drove the Chinese out of Vietnam.

We finally determined that the best way to tolerate the noise and ignore the con artists was to drink a dollar's worth of beer:

So we spent an evening sitting at a busy intersection in the Old Quarter, drinking 12-cent beers and watching the mayhem.

The next day, we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. His preserved corpse is stored here nine months of the year, despite his explicit request for cremation. (He makes an annual pilgrimmage to Russia for "maintenance" during the other three months).

Here is the Mausoleum, in all its Communist architectural glory:

That evening we went to the water puppet theatre. Water puppetry is a Vietnamese art form originally performed in rice paddies during the wet season. It is hard to explain, so here is a picture, and a video.

Hanoi

2007-06-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

We have much to write about the armpit of Southeast Asia, but we are rushed so stayed tuned.

Elephant Training

2007-06-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

Kate spent 2 days and 1 night at "mahout" training. A "mahout" is an elephant trainer. The program was put on by Elephant XL a group that rescues elephants that were formerly used for logging. Because of the influx of Chinese machinery into southeast Asia, elephants are no longer needed in the logging industry. There are many out of work elephants. We've seen many in the cities being paraded around by their owners - it is very sad. Elephant XL takes in elephants that have been abused and overworked and gives them a much better life. There are 4 adult female elephants (the males are more unpredictable and dangerous) and 1 baby male elephant. They run the mahout training everyday, but only have 4 people at a time so you can get to know your elephant 1 on 1. The morning began with riding one of the adult elephants in a traditional 2 person platform saddle. Another girl and I took turns riding on the bare neck of the elephant. After lunch we returned and were assigned 'our' elephant. My elephant was Mai San. She was used in logging but was abused. She was forced to haul loads way too heavy for her and did not get adequate rest. Also, at some point in her life she was blinded in her right eye - probably from being forced forward into a bamboo stick. In addition when they rescued her they had suspicions that she had been given 'ecstasy' to make her work harder. Even after her terrible history she was very gentle.

First we learned how to climb onto the bare back of the elephant. The mahout tells the elephant to bend her leg and then hanging onto their very strong ears you step on their leg and haul yourself up. It was tricky! With my short legs, it wasn't very graceful:

After than we rode them to their jungle home to put them to bed for the night.

On the way we learned how to sit on their bare necks and how to instruct them where to go. After putting the elephants to bed, we went back to the lodge and bathed the baby elephant. He is so cute!

It was fun to get into the water and scrub him:

After a relaxing evening & night in the lodge, we woke up early to go get our elephants for their morning bath. Elephants toss dirt onto their bodies to help with the heat and bugs, so they are very dirty after being left alone! I rode Mai San to the river and with the help of the mahout scrubbed her clean:

After breakfast we kayaked back to Luang Prabang, along the Nam Khan river.

The 2 day adventure was very interesting, exciting, and rewarding. It was wonderful to get to know an elephant and know that my money was going toward rescuing other abused elephants.

Luang Prabang

2007-06-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

After the beautiful river trip, we arrived in Luang Prabang on June 19. Called the 'crown jewel' of Laos, LP is surrounded by mountains and is at the confluence of the Nam Khan and the Mekong rivers. The city is full of crumbling French provincial architechure and pointed temples. We found a lovely air conditioned guesthouse:

and set about exploring the city. The handicraft markets are amazing here in LP, we've enjoyed shopping - so much so that we fear we might have to send another box home! We enjoyed some traditional dance and music at the former Royal Theatre. The women are so graceful, and the men's costumes so fierce!

Last night we sought out a highly recommended restaurant in our Lonely Planet guidebook: Maly Lao Food for some traditional Laos cuisine. It blew us away. Basically there was a hole in the table where they placed a pot of hot coals. On top of that they placed a combination soup pot and barbeque. Our helpful waitress showed us the ropes (thank goodness, as we didn't know what to do!):

Into the surrounding soup pot we put water, egg, morning glory greens, green onions, noodles, mushrooms, and tomatoes. As that stewed, we put pork fat on the top of the grill as lube and then placed thinly sliced chicken and beef to grill. The end result was absolutely delicious! We, of course, partook of the Laos traditional drink, Beer Lao, but this time they served it with ice cubes as the bottle was not chilled. We hope they were made of bottled water!

Yesterday morning (June 21) we headed out to do some sightseeing. We visited an old Wat (temple) with some figures in front that looked just like the dancers from last night! After one stop, we decided to find some shade and ordered breakfast. The temperature here is in the mid-90s on a daily basis. Kate's mango lassi arrived in lovely presentation, complete with a bamboo straw:

Post breakfast we were ready for the climb up the water serpent steps to another of LP's temples, this one on top of the mountain in the center of town.

The views were lovely from the top of the mountain:

And Don got to play with an old Russian anti-aircraft cannon. Watch him return to his youth!

Today Kate went to elephant wrangling school and Don went kayaking. Kate took the camera so no photos yet!

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi.

Best,
Don & Kate

River Trip!

2007-06-20T22:44:00.001-07:00

We left Luang Nam Tha on a morning bus, connecting with another bus and then a sawngthaew (a pickup with a covered bed containing two benches along the sides) to reach the town of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou (Ou River). It was a full day's travel but the scenery was beautiful and the trip was broken up by several stops.

Nong Khiaw's setting is dramatic, and it is very remote - it only received 24 hour electricity in the last couple of years.

We had dinner on a deck overlooking the river, shadowed by the nearby moutains with their sheer limestone walls.

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Yesterday, we took a slow boat from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang. Once the main form of human and cargo transport in Laos, and indeed much of Southeast Asia, they have lost much of their market share to buses and trucks as the roads have improved. However they are still a great way for tourists to get around while seeing the countryside from a whole new perspective.

The scenery along the way was mind-boggling and we took far too many pictures to post here, but here is a small taste:

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The ride was exciting enough, as even the slow boats move pretty well, especially going downstream. Here is our perspective riding through one of the many rapids on the trip.

It was about 5 hours in total. Some people ride the slow boat two full days from Huay Xai to here, but we think that would be a bit much.

More on Luang Prabang later...

Trekking

2007-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

The morning of June 16, we met up with our guide, Tho, at the trekking company (Green Discovery) office. It was just the 3 of us for the next 2 days on the trek. We piled into the back of a pickup truck (a standard mode of transport in Laos) and were dropped off 40 minutes up the road.

We hiked to a small village in which two tribes live together, the Lantan and the Khmu. While there we saw our first opium smoker.

Opium is apparently a huge problem in Laos and many of the elderly are severely addicted. After leaving the first village we truly began the trek. The scenery was breathtaking:

We hiked for about 3 hours in the blazing heat and humidity of the jungle before we came to our lunch spot, a small clearing in the jungle. Our guide had picked some huge banana leaves to be our table cloth and laid out our lunch: bananas, peanuts, stir fry noodles, sticky rice, and pork. A feast!

As we were sitting and eating, Don felt something creeping up his leg...turned out to be a leech, a common problem during the rainy season. He was lucky enough to have caught it before it latched on, but was disconcerted nonetheless. A few minutes later, Tho noticed a bloody patch on Kate's upper thigh...she was not as lucky and a leech had latched on. After eschewing modesty and stripping her pants, it was determined that only one leech had made it. This was an omen of things to come...

After lunch we came to another tribal village of Khmu people. Here we saw a woman pounding rice to remove the shell, pigs scratching themselves, and children picking mangos. Watch the video!

We had 2 more hours to hike before we got to the village where we were going to spend the night. The rest of the hike was through the forest and rice fields:

Unfornately, both of these areas are infested with leeches. Tho had us roll our pants up to our knees because it is easier to see if you've been had by a leech than if your pants are rolled down. As we discovered earlier, the leeches can get up the pant legs without you knowing. They can also suck through clothing. Don finally discovered what made Kate hike fast! After narrowing avoiding leeches for 2 hours, we arrived in the Lanten village of Ban Nam Goi, where we spent the night in this lodge:

There was also a patio overlooking the river:

The children loved seeing their pictures on the digital camera screen, so we have plenty of photos:

We bathed in the river, like the locals, and ate village food that a family prepared for us. That evening we slept in the lodge in mosquito nets. The next morning we ate another local breakfast before heading off for the second day of trekking. This day we had 3 uphills to contend with and 2 river crossings. Unfortunately the first 2 hours were in leech infested areas. So back to the legs of our pants rolled up and constant vigilance to avoid being sucked. Kate got bitten again though, this time through her socks. It was a stressful, sweaty, disgusting experience to fight off leeches. Here is a video of the terrible creatures.

We came to a river, which we crossed by bamboo raft. After crossing the river the leeches were supposedly better, but there were still some to be fought off. The jungle on the other side of the river was much thicker. The humidity was amazing. We both had sweat dripping off us constantly. Here are some more photos of the trek:

We finished the trek in another Khmu village, but this one was connected to civilization by a dirt road, so the children knew some english phrases such as "What is your name?" and "I love you". The latter of which they scrawled on the beach for our arrival from across the river. This river crossing was done in a small canoe. The 2 fat americans made the canoe sit very low in the water -- we both thought we were going for a swim!

In this village we saw the village boys playing a typical Lao sport, Kataw. It is similar to volleyball, but the rattan (or plastic) ball is only touched with the feet and the head. See for yourself!

In all the villages were were struck by the close proximity the people lived with their variety of animals and by the fertility of all! In every village we saw pregnant women as well as young babies of all varieties: human, water buffalo, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, dogs, cats, and goats. We have tons of photos of children running around but because most of them were naked or semi-naked we don't want to post them for fear of being labeled child pornographers!

The final leg of our trek was a 1.5 hour pick up truck ride on a muddy dirt road. Some of the mud holes were enormous and quite nerve racking to get through, especially since the road was 4 feet from the edge of a 300 foot cliff!

We made it back to Luang Nam Tha and finished the evening off with some rice whiskey, homemade by our guide.

After 5 shots we had to excuse ourselves! We bought some rice wine, which was handed to us in a plastic baggie. Apparently it is BYO container...we decanted the baggie of whiskey into an empty water bottle. Now we have fortification for the next 7 hour bus ride.

Chicken Bus!

2007-06-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we traveled from Huay Xai to Luang Nam Tha, a 195-km (120 miles) trip that took us in the neighbourhood of 6 hours. Worth bearing in mind is that the travel time on this route has been vastly reduced by a thorough upgrading of the road over the past couple of years - formerly it was 8-10 hours, sometimes stretching into two days in the rainy season.

Laos is a good 50 years behind Thailand in terms of development. The bus station was a simple affair - a mud lot with some wooden benches.

The bus ride was an interesting if somewhat uncomfortable experience.

It became more interesting still when a family boarded a bus with their dinner for the next two days - in the form of a bag full of live chickens.

We stopped for a lunch of MSG soup with chicken and noodles. Instant headache. MSG is a popular ingredient in Laos, as explained on the "Food Guide to Luang Nam Tha," available at our guesthouse. For more on the perils of Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, see Wikipedia.

We finally arrived in Luang Nam Tha and set up a two-day trekking excursion to the Nam Ha National Protected Area, to leave the following morning.

A popular form of transport in and around Luang Nam Tha is these Chinese-made contraptions. I'm not even sure what they're called, but they are noisy and look uncomfortable as hell.

Finally, we found this sign pretty funny:

The sign has something to do with a program for distributing books to kids in remote villages. What that has to do with a mouse, we have no idea.

Into the wilds...Laos

2007-06-19T22:22:00.000-07:00

Let's start with a map of the region:

Laos is a landlocked country in the middle of the Indochina peninsula. The country is considered to be the "most bombed country on earth", suffering mightly during the 'Second Indochina War' (same conflict that the US got involved with in neighboring Vietnam). In fact there remains a problem with UXO's - unexploded ordnances. 130 people per year (half children) still die from these unexploded bombs.

Because of the remoteness, and lingering communisim, the country is still being discovered by tourists. We put it on our itinerary for the eco-friendly, community based treking to be found here, as well as the colonial town of Luang Prabang. But first we had to made the long journey from Thailand, beginning on Thursday, June 14. The journey involved:

Leg 1 - a VIP bus (nicest bus either of us had ever ridden on) for 3 hours from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai in Thailand. The bus had 2 attendants serving snacks and a nice bathroom. As well as first class lounging chairs with footrests:

Leg 2 - a 'local bus' for 3 hours to Chiang Khong, a town right across the Mekong from Laos. This bus was certainly a step down from the VIP bus, but we were kept entertained by the mirrored ceiling with oscillating fans:

Leg 3: exiting Thailand and taking a 'long-tail' boat across the Mekong river to the border checkpoint in Huay Xai, Laos:

We overnighted in the border town of Huay Xai, Laos. We sought out the 1 air conditioned guest house in town, which was well worth the extra $2. As an added bonus, the guest house had a small veranda where we enjoyed the view of Thailand across the river, watched the street life and sunset as we sampled the national drink, Beer Lao:

We finished the night by having some Laos cuisine at a lovely restaurant right by the river. The next day we continued our journey...

Tailor-made Suits!

2007-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

One thing we neglected to blog about from Chiang Mai is our experience purchasing tailor made suits. Don's friend Paul recommended his tailor "Fashion King" in Chiang Mai. We went in with Paul and were quite impressed, so we returned the next day and ordered Don 2 suits, 1 sport coat (in tweed, naturally, in light of his burgeoning academic career), and 5 button down shirts. And then Kate started her order...5 suits and 8 shirts. We spent more in that clothing store than either of us had ever spent in one setting for clothes...but the end result is quite worth it! Imagine a suit tailor made for you - for cheaper than an off-the-rack number? Kate's pretty happy with the tailor made shirts, the first button down shirts that fit her correctly! And since she will have to wear a suit every day at her new job, this investment was quite worth it. Right now all of our suits are being shipped via Thai Post to Boston, cross your fingers that they make it! Check out a fitting photo:

Heading up the river

2007-06-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

We're leaving Chiang Mai today and heading for Laos - either Muang Sing in the far north, or the French colonial town of Luang Prabang. Some of the places we may go have "electricity between 6 and 10 pm," so we may not post again for a while.

All the best!

Don & Kate

Cooking school.

2007-06-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a Thai cooking class at a school here in Chiang Mai. It started with a trip to the local market, where we learned about Thai ingredients and sampled mysterious Chinese beverages.

We prepared a variety of tasty dishes, including fried cashew nut chicken, spicy noodle salad, chicken and coconut milk soup, tom yum prawn soup, and red curry (including making our own curry paste!).

Here are a couple of our creations:

And Kate in the kitchen, working hard like a good Thai wife, as our teacher kept saying.

Of course, we had to eat everything we prepared. So tough!

Elephants!

2007-06-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

On Monday we went on a "safari tour" that included a number of interesting stops, but the main highlight of the day was definitely the elephants:

We started with an elephant show that included elephants kicking balls, elephants moving logs, and even elephants painting pictures. Here is one of the pictures they painted:

It may sound exploitative, but the general consensus seems to be that these elephants have it a lot better than they did in the days when they were used for logging, as war machines, etc.

There were elephants of all sizes. Big elephants, medium elephants, even little baby elephants:

We also watched the elephants take a bath in the river.

Next we got to ride an elephant through the jungle for about an hour. It doesn't sound like much, but it was more than enough. For full effect, we enjoyed a monsoonal rain for about half the trip.

Next we rode a bamboo raft a couple of kilometers down a river. They even let us each drive for a while:

Next stop was the monkey school, where they train monkeys to collect coconuts, and
to perform stupid tricks. Apparently a good monkey can collect 800-1000 coconuts per day.

But the monkeys are mean. Here is Kate right before the monkey bit her:

And here she is right after:

In the evening we went and watched some Thai boxing - a must-see in Thailand. They start them young in Thailand, here is one of the fighters from the 65-lb class. Note that he is wearing his lucky Batman trunks for his big fight.

Chiang Mai

2007-06-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon we flew to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. Don's friend Paul Rushton from Vancouver has been living here since last August, and knows his way around the city well. So it's like having our own personal tour guide to take us to the best eateries in town:

Paul is teaching at a school for Burmese refugees:

Most of his students are in their 20's and though they didn't look like what I had expected refugees from a camp near the Burmese border to look like, they have certainly been dealt a pretty lousy hand.

On Saturday, we went with Paul and his students to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a temple a few kilometers outside of Chiang Mai. It is in a very scenic location, perched on a mountainside, and we walked up a long set of stairs to reach it:

The stairs were flanked by dragon statues:

Note the detail in the workmanship:

At the top there is a beautiful temple with a spectacular view of Chiang Mai.

There was a monk leading a service, some kind of blessing that involved splashing water over the faithful.

When we came back down, there was a man with his elephant across the road from the stairs. We bought some vegetables and fed them to the hungry cow. Here is a video on google video. We would have used youtube, but the Royal Thai Police has blocked it, because of obscenity and other risks to national security.

We drive back to town in a songthaew, a popular means of transport that literally translates as "two benches" and is a pickup truck with two benches in the back.

They are invariably diesel powered, so you have your choice of sitting inside and breathing fumes, or hanging out the back and getting some fresh air.

Monks

2007-06-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

Everyone and their dog is a monk here.

Literally.

It's normal for every Thai male to spend at least 3 months as a monk. Some spend longer, or even their whole lives. So we're seeing a LOT of monks here.

On Friday, as we were eating lunch, we saw someone with their dog dressed in a monk's robes. I'm sure the dog loved it. Sorry to say though that we were too slow on the draw with the camera and didn't manage to get a photo.

Oh Thank Heaven

2007-06-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

7-Eleven.

It's everywhere here, and it is great. There are very very few garbage cans in Bangkok, so we are constantly finding ourselves carrying trash around for hours. Enter 7-Eleven. It's always air conditioned to about 15 C and invariably has a garbage can. Made a believer out of me.

On Friday we went to the National Musuem. An okay collection of artifacts and a good history of Thailand over the past 300 years or so. The country seems to have a strong rivalry with Burma, reflected in the museum exhibits. ("And then we kicked Burma's @ss again" seemed to be the common theme).

On the way out of the museum, we were bombarded by a passing bird. It's like we're magnets for bird poop.

Grand Palace and Wat Pho

2007-06-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we visited the Grand Palace, former residence of the Thai royal family and still used for important functions. It is also the site of Wat Phra Kaew, the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, one of the most important religious icons in Thai Buddhism.

Somehow the name "Emerald Buddha" and its great importance had us expecting something 15 feet tall and studded with brilliant green stones. The outside of the chapel is beautifully decorated:

And the entrance is well guarded:

In reality, the little guy is just 18 inches high, perched high atop a huge altar. You can just about make him out in this photo (cameras are not permitted inside the chapel, but you can take pictures through the door).

It is taboo to wear shoes inside a temple here, so we were walking barefoot. On the way out, Don managed to step in some nice fresh bird poop. That really made his day.

We also toured the temple and palace grounds, home to many interesting figures:

After lunch we headed to Wat Pho, home of the reclining Buddha, all 45 meters of him, in all his glory:

That is one big Buddha.

Wat Pho is known as Thailand's first university and it is still the leading centre in the country for the study of Thai massage. We both went in and had a couple of frighteningly strong little ladies twist and pull us in an assortment of ways for a full hour, for just 12 dollars each.

Bangkok

2007-06-06T03:53:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Bangkok late last night and made it to our guest house in the backpacker mecca of Banglamphu, a neighbourhood just north of the Palance. It's hot here and we're tired. Today we sorted out our visas for Vietnam, the one place we're going that requires us to have them in advance. We went to a travel clinic and got Kate her second Japanese encephalitis shot - for less than $20, versus $120 at home. We both should have waited and got them here!

We then toured the house of Jim Thompson, an American WWII veteran who is credited with reviving Thailand's silk industry in the 1950s, and who disappeared mysteriously in Malaysia in 1967.

On the way back to the guest house we passed this temple:

Traffic here has a well-deserved reputation for being awful. To get across town, we took a water taxi down the river and connected to the Skytrain system. To get home, we took another water taxi down a narrow canal. The water's nasty - keep your mouth shut and try not to get splashed!

On Friday we're heading to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and visiting with Don's friend Paul, who is working up there.

-Don & Kate

World's biggest hot dog.

2007-06-06T03:40:00.000-07:00

Immacualtely preserved at the Henry Ford Museum.

There was something about Lincoln's chair, and a bus ridden by some lady named Rosa Parks, but I was really there for the weenie.

-Don

Detroit

2007-06-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

We're in Detroit for Kate's friend Meredith's wedding. We're staying here:

Nice view, but our choice of hosts is a bit funny.

Downtown Detroit is a strange place. Literally no place to buy so much as a bottle of water after 6:00 on a Friday. It's like a ghost town.

We went to the Henry Ford Museum today. Fun. Will have a pic to share soon.

Tomorrow we head to Indianapolis, and Monday we fly out to Bangkok.

Thanks

2007-05-31T09:21:00.001-07:00

Kate and I wanted to thank everyone who came to DC last week, from near and far, to celebrate our wedding with us. We were so pleased to have you all here, and we hope you had as much fun as we did.

We are hoping to post some pictures as soon as they are available. Sadly I downloaded many from our camera to my computer, which I no longer have with me.

The past week has been crazy as we have been working just as hard as we were in the lead-up to the wedding, trying to get bags packed to send to Vancouver, Tokyo, to take with us to Detroit this weekend, and getting everything else ready to be moved to Boston.

Movers came yesterday, and we just turned in our keys. It's a strange feeling being homeless - it's been a while since either of us had that feeling!

We hope to post more regularly, now that the vacation is really starting!

-Don & Kate

Y'all are a bunch of lushes!

2007-05-31T09:14:00.001-07:00

Well the final count is in from the reception, and among 90 people, we managed to consume:

2 bottles of whisky
3 bottles of gin
3 bottles of rum
5 bottles of vodka (!)
5 cases of Sam
2 cases of IPA
2 cases of Miller Lite
23 bottles of shiraz
18 bottles of merlot
14 bottles of riesling
8 bottles of chardonnay
11 bottles of bubbly

No wonder people were feeling a bit green.

Good news regarding the bus: nearly a week later and no mention of a cleaning bill!

Countdown

2007-05-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Less than five days to the big day. Parents have begun arriving, more people start coming on Wednesday.

Lots to do yet. Living room looks like a tornado hit it. I pity the appraiser who has to come and inspect the condo tomorrow.

-Don