The Land of Zeal

We've arrived safe and sound in New Zealand. It is great to be back! This place is so gorgeous. I'm seriously debating whether to put it back on the top of my personal rankings of World's Most Beautiful Places. It was seated there for a long time, then got surpassed by Alaska last year. We'll see where it stands a month from now, but it is so so nice.

Unfortunately, it's also so so expensive. Erin and I are choking on the prices here, especially after getting spoiled in Asia. NZ is expensive to begin with, and we cried ourselves to sleep the other night after we saw on the local news that the US dollar is at a 20-year low to the NZ dollar. Ouch! The weakness of the US dollar is absolutely killing us right now. This performance couldn't be timed any worse for our travels. So to save some dough on transport, we actually bought a car. That's right, a car. Pretty wild to think about it, but it should actually work out to be cheaper than buses or renting a car long-term. It's an '89 Mistubishi Mirage (Lancer) with a guaranteed buyback arrangement from the place from which we bought it. We'll get a photo of it up soon. It should give us maximum flexibility for the least cost if it doesn't bomb on us. We have our fingers crossed.

The coast just outside of Sumner on the Banks Peninsula

After a long two days of travel from Bangkok via Melbourne, we arrived in Christchurch, a beautiful green city of churches and gardens. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in getting a visa lined up for Australia so we couldn't get into downtown Melbourne but instead passed eight hours couped up in the airport transfer lounge. In any event, upon arrival in Christchurch we knocked out a bunch of chores and trip preparations there and then made our way out to the coastal suburb town of Sumner which is gorgeous.

Lake Tekapo which we passed on the drive south

Now we've made our way down to Queenstown in the south. Tomorrow we set out for the Milford Sound area and then tackle the Milford Track and shortly thereafter the Routeburn Track. They're both world-renowned multi-day hikes in the Fiordland area so we are stoked to get out there. The weather's turned quite rainy which is typical but looks to clear a bit for our Milford trip. Our Kelty tent kept us warm and dry on our first night out in the rain last night, next to the scintillating blue Lake Pukaki.

Gratuitous Kelty product shot next to Lake Pukaki

We're also looking forward to our friend Aly from Boulder joining up with us in a few weeks. We'll catch back up with the blog in a week or so.

Drew

Ko Mak Daddy and Bangkok by Bus

We're in crazy Bangkok on our final night in SE Asia, and reminiscing about our travels here....

After leaving Cambodia, we made our way back to Thailand. It was a relief in a way to leave the hardships of Cambodia behind. Even until the last moment, people were begging for money while shoving cartons of cigarettes in our faces. These interactions are exhausting to me, as I never quite understand how to react. I want to be civil and yet any acknowledgment feeds the cycle more and more. I want to give something, but this too encourages that begging works. There's no simple answer, and I again am reminded to be thankful for all the opportunities and blessings in my own life.

The fat ride of Sunset Bungalow

We spent our last few days in SE Asia on a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, called Ko Mak. It happened to be a Buddhist Holiday, so the islands were full of Thais vacationing. Ko Mak is another beautiful island with white sand beaches and palm trees hanging over the sea. We stayed in a hip budget bungalow spot called Sunset Bungalows. Unfortunately, the coral around the island has been destroyed, so the snorkeling wasn't too good. But more than anything, we simply wanted a place to relax. It seems that traveling so much has worn us out, although we have a very warped sense of responsibility these days. We started to think about how it feels to go to work everyday, wake up every morning to an alarm clock, and decided we shouldn't feel overwhelmed by a few long travel days.

Our final bungalow in Thailand

The rest of the story is pretty boring... we just sat around each day reading our books on the beach. We swam when we got hot, and drank Beer Chang when we got thirsty. We did find one of the coolest rope swings of all time, though.

"The bomb" rope swing

Our last night in Thailand is in Bangkok. We're staying on Khao San Road, which happens to be one of the busiest, loudest tourist traps in the world (I personally hate it). Luckily, we came on a day when there is no drinking allowed, because there are elections here. I guess they don't want people to vote under the influence. It makes for a quiet evening, as far as Khao San goes.

Hectic Khao San Road

Off to the literally greener pastures of New Zealand tomorrow.

Erin

The Dichotomy of Cambodia

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Those opening lines to Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities are an apt description of what it has been like for us traveling in Cambodia.

Ben and Drew entering Angkor Wat

On one hand, we've rendezvoused with our good friends Ben and Casey here and had a wonderful time visiting the town of Siem Reap and exploring the magnificent ancient temples of Angkor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor) Angkor is a region in Cambodia that is filled with massive temples and cities that were built by the Cambodian people, or Khmer (as they call themselves even today) almost a century ago, between 800 and 1200 A.D. It's a spectacular place. I was struck by two things in particular. One, the structures are absolutely gargantuan. And two, they are amazingly detailed. Every inch of these temples and walls that are some times miles long (or in most cases, hundreds of feet long) are covered in ornate carvings of Hindu, Buddhist, or royal figures and stories. It's truly staggering to get your head around how their civilization pulled this off a thousand years earlier when the U.S. was not yet even a glimmer in anyone's eye and even Europe was primitive by comparison. It marks one of the greatest achievements of the human race up to that time.

Ben and Casey in the tuk-tuk

It was quite enjoyable exploring the temples, by bike and by tuk-tuk. (A tuk-tuk is a carriage that is pulled by a motorcycle.) And we had a wonderful, friendly, and cheap guesthouse in town. And the Khmer food has been delicious. And we're with friends in an exotic part of the world. That all sounds great. Where is the down side, you ask?

Drew, Erin, Ben, Casey at Ta Prohm ruins

The faces of Bayon

Too many temples!

Nature wins, Ta Prohm

The ornate stone carvings of Banteay Srei

Well, there is also another side to Cambodia which we witnessed full force today in the capital city of Phnom Penh. In the 1970's a radical communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge (or red Khmer, as rouge means red in French) took over the country and plummeted the country into the darkest chapter in the country's history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge) The Khmer Rouge led a radical social experiment in which they emptied the cities, marched everyone out to the country to work on farms, and tried to run a purely agrarian society. They ruled with an iron fist and eliminated all enemies of the revolution, real or imagined. The people lived in terror, even those who were part of the Khmer Rouge. They also ran the country into the ground, leading to massive famine and starvation. In the course of their five years in power, it is estimated that roughly 1.5 million people died from starvation, execution, or exhaustion - out of a population of 7.5 million. That's 20% of the population!

This morning we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which is on the grounds of a former top-secret prison of the KR security police known as S-21. It is one of the most morbid places I have ever been. It made my stomach turn to be there. During the KR reign, an estimated 14,000 prisoners passed through the walls of S-21. Only seven survived. The rest were detained, interrogated, tortured, and executed. A very grim place.

The memorial for the victims at the Killing Fields (Look closely if you dare)

Then this afternoon we visited The Killing Fields. The killing fields are the location, about 15 kilometers out of town, where the prisoners of S-21 and other enemies of the state were brought to meet their end. I'll spare you the details, but it is a memorial site whose grounds are covered with mass graves containing up to an estimated 20,000 bodies. Another very grim place.

It is in the shadows of this relatively recent history that Cambodia lives on and tries to recover. I'd argue that you can feel it in the air. The country suffers to this day. It is struggling to rebuild and heal its wounds and bring more prosperity and happiness to its citizens. As a visitor, I'm faced with it every day and around every corner. There are many beggars - children, mothers, victims of land mines that are missing limbs - asking for food or money. There are lots of signs of poverty where ever I look. We've seen a lot of poverty on our trip to Asia, but somehow it seems different here. Darker, more desperate somehow. It's been a challenging place to visit. I'm glad to have come here, but to be completely honest, I will also be glad to leave.

It has left a lasting impression on me, though, and will not soon be forgotten. It also has led me to think differently about events in the world today. Genocide, not unlike the one perpetrated on the Cambodian people, is happening right now in Sudan. Innocent men and women and children are being exterminated every single day, and I have done nothing about it, and the world collectively has done very little about it. I think 200,000 people have died there in the last three to four years. It's crazy. These human atrocities continue to happen through time and history. The visit to Cambodia brought the issue home for me.

It also makes me think differently on other matters - the U.S. prison and tactics at Guantanamo Bay, the past and current events in Kosovo, and more. But I'll spare you my opinions before I go too far astray.

Part of the The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

In any event, that's what it has been like to travel in Cambodia. Both the best and the worst of humanity have been on display. We're looking forward to spending some more upbeat and enjoyable days seeing the other sights of Phnom Penh with Ben and Casey before we go our separate ways. Then we'll head back to Thailand where we hope to find a beach for a day or two en route to Bangkok.

Cool fountain/statue in Phnom Penh,
Naga (or mythical serpents) with twisted tails

Be well.

Drew

A Millionaire in Laos

That's what I am! I never thought I would be a millionaire, but finally the day has come! Unfortunately, the only reason I'm a millionaire is because there are 9,000 Lao Kip to every dollar. So, when you change $150 you receive a huge stack of bills (over a million kip). There are so many bills, it's hard to fit them all into your wallet. Psychologically, it gave me the sense I was rich, which is a good feeling for once.... until I realized I spent my million in only a few days.

I want to tell you some of our stories from Laos and to sum up our trip there. But first I have to admit that I did something very dumb a few days ago...
I've been having trouble with our camera in internet cafes, where the computer doesn't register the file where our pictures are. This has been a problem since we began our trip, and while trying to figure it out, I erased our complete memory card and lost all of our pictures from Thailand and Laos! I know... I feel like a complete idiot and I've lost sleep over this accident. Luckily, we at least have a few pictures on our blog from Thailand, but now we have none from Laos. What's most upsetting is that I deleted all the pictures for an ebook I was writing for a village in Laos, and so that project is down the drain. Such a bummer!

So to see the story of Laos, you will have to use your imaginations, and a few pictures from fellow travelers that I put in here. Leaving off from Drew's last posting, we did have an amazing time making the ebook with the teacher from Ban Nam Chang. It's a great community to study because it is self-sustained, everything that is needed is produced and created right there. After a meal of strange foods and many shots of rice whiskey, we took a tour of the village with Somsey, the local teacher who spoke great english. We saw how the people made their own clothing, by first growing cotton, then picking it, turning it into yarn, weaving it, dying it with indigo plants, and making into clothes. Their clothes are distinctive of their culture, and the women are adorned with silver coins in their hair. The custom is also for the women to remove their eyebrows after age 15, so they have an interesting and unique appearence. We also learned about their spirituality which is mostly animism, where they pray to the earth and the spirits of thier ancestors. They also make their own paper, build their homes, and grow all their own food. The experience of writing an ebook with them, allowed us an inside view of their culture, which was quite fascinating. Although we lost the pictures, we will always have the experiences in our memories.

Next, we took a slow boat down the Mekong River. This boat is loaded to capacity with tourists, who are happy to pay too much and sit on uncomfortable seats for 6 hours, so they can have the experience of the Mighty Mekong.

It is worth it, and we enjoyed watching the landscape slowly slip by and we were amazed at how little development there is in Laos. Sometimes we'd see a small village on the banks, a few fishing boats here and there, but mostly we saw hills and jungle along the shore.

Along our trip down the Mekong, we decided to get off the "beaten track" by venturing into another village. We had the boat drop us off at one of the villages along the shore, and took an hour long sangthaew ride over a dirt road pocketed by huge pot-holes to a village called Hongsa. The trip was a bruising, bumpy ride, and one Italian lady in her 60's kept saying "mama mia!" at each curve in the road. Hongsa is a nice town, known for it's working elephants who help with the logging industry there. The local people have been using elephants for centuries to carry huge logs from the jungle into the villages, and now they also use them in the tourism industry to give rides to people. We never took a ride, but we enjoyed watching them stroll along the dirt roads of Hongsa. There, we found the quiet atmosphere, away from tourist trail, a perfect setting for us.

From Hongsa, we decided to rent bikes for a day and ride through the countryside. This was one of the best days I've had on our entire trip, simply because it was so refreshing to be in the "real" Laos. We rode to a nearby village, and while admiring a small wat, we were greeted by a group of women. They asked us to join them (all in hand gestures, of course) and we watched them make rice cakes by steaming rice flour over a fire pit dug in the ground, covered by a pot of water and wet cloth. They then dry these "rice tortillas" in the sun and finally cook them over coals to make them crispy. They fed us about 5 each, and while we couldn't speak to eachother, we could smile and laugh and had one of those conversations that happen without words. It was a simple exchange, but we loved it. The ride through the countryside, took us through villages where people stopped and stared at us, having seen very few "falangs" in their lives. I even made one young girl cry, because she hadn't seen someone like me before. But most people stared until we said "Sabaidee!", and then they would grin and wave. Some of the children would run along the road saying "hello!" while laughing, as we rode along beside them. I found at the end of the day, my cheeks hurt from smiling all day.

We next made our way to Luang Prabang, which is the former royal capital of Laos. It's a great city, full of lively night markets, picturesque wats, and interesting history. We spent our time there wandering the streets, and exploring the beautiful temples scattered around the city. It was a place we both enjoyed. After this we went to Vang Vieng, although beautiful in many ways, was somewhere we didn't like. The Lonely Planet says it's a place that has "sold it's soul to tourism", which we found to be true. The town is filled with "t.v. bars" where you can watch "Friends" epiodes and drink beer at the same time. It wasn't our idea of fun, and so instead of staying two days, we got out of there as quickly as possible. This meant taking a public bus to Vientiane, which was an experience in itself. The bus was full when we left the station, but public buses stop for anyone and everyone, and soon we found ourselves with three people on a two-seater, with a girl falling asleep on Drew's arms, and a man falling on top of him as he dozed off standing in the aisle. It was a sticky, hot, uncomfortable ride and Drew felt sick on top of all that. It was kind of a nightmare, but we made it.

Vientiane is Laos' capitol city. After a long bus ride, all we wanted was to get to a guest house and relax. But we found that the whole city was practically full, and it took us several hours of walking from place to place, until we found a place to sleep for the night. These are the times when traveling is NOT fun, when you're tired, hungry, sick, and you can't find a single place to rent you a room. We finally found a sketchy place above a karaoke bar, but we were just happy to have anything. On our last day in Laos, we toured around, and again went to temples. By this time, we were ready to move on from Laos. We had a great time in many ways, but also found ourselves exhausted from moving around so much.

We now find ourselves in the country of Cambodia, but that is a story that is yet to come...

The Land of a Million Elephants

Hey all. Hope you're still out there. We've had a marked decrease in comments, but we optimistically presume that's due to the winter doldrums or busy schedules rather than a drop in readership. In either event, if you're out there and following along, drop us a comment. It's a great boost for us on the road, and we love to hear from you.

We're now in Laos (pronounced like it rhymes with wow, s is silent). I had a chance to see and speak to my sister and mom and nephew by Skype a few days back which was a thrill. During the conversation, my sister asked something along the lines of "What the heck is the deal in Laos?", owing to the fact that it's a country that's off the radar screen for most people and therefore a mystery - me included, until this trip. To help clear up the mystery, check the destination info in the right margin for a link to the Wikipedia entry for Laos. But I'll give my quick take here as well.

Laos is a small country, sandwiched between Thailand and Vietnam, with China to the north and Cambodia to the south. It also borders Burma. It's a small, poor country with most of the country still living on subsistence agriculture. It also is scarcely populated with only about 6 million people total. It was a French colony for a long time so that influence is apparent in many ways. The government is communist, although now more and more in name than in economic system. Like China, it's gradually opened itself up to market practices, but the government still retains strong control and power over the country. Today Laos is a very safe country with minimal crime (sigh of relief, Mom). But its history has not always been so. It owns the dubious distinction as the most bombed country in the world. In the 70's, there was a covert war that took place here in the shadows of the Vietnam War. Laos was basically a fighting grounds for capitalism - led, armed, and supported by the U.S., although with full denial from the US government - and communism - with arms and backing from Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. Laos unfortunately paid the price. When the US left Vietnam, communists took over in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. And the communist government still retains power here, although they've evolved over the years.

On a more chipper front, Laos is super-laid back and pleasant. Even crossing the Mekong River from Thailand which is a mellow country, you could feel a palpable change in pace - slower, less traffic, less tourists (or "whiteys" as we call them), more rural. It's quite nice. The landscape is green rolling hills and forested small mountains. There are also lots of rivers and elephants. Oh yes, and Beer Lao, the national brew, a lager that costs about a buck a beer. Good stuff.

Our first full day here was sweet. We arranged a sangthaew ride to a local village where we happened upon their Lunar New Year's celebration. They immediately welcomed us and invited us to their party and started to toast us with drinks of their homemade rice whiskey - called lao lao. It was incredible. I'll let Erin tell you more as she arranged another ebook with the local teacher who was our liaison since he spoke English. And just now, we enjoyed a tasty meal overlooking the sunset on the Mekong River and Thailand to the west.

Tomorrow we start a two-day slowboat trip down the Mekong where we're going to try to reach a remote town called Hongsa which is supposed to have lots of wild elephants in the nearby area and should be off the beaten path.

That's our deal. Let us know what you're up to in your neck of the woods.

Cheers,
Drew