11/20 Home again, home again

Back in Richmond, we were greeted with the cold, brrr, air! Fortunately, the last night on the Independence was chilly and it was a brisk morning in Ft. Lauderdale, so we were kind of acclimated to the temperature change....but what a shock to the system! One day blistering hot, the next red nose and blue fingers. It really is winter on this side of the world!

Our last nights on the largest ship afloat were very nice. The entertainment actually started before midnight, so we were able to hear a couple of sets from the great band aboard. Our last night at sea, we took our drinks back to the balcony, cuddled up in our robes and sat outside listening to the wind pick up, the water froth and slap the side of the ship as the clouds slipped silently by above us. The end of our odyssey - can't think of any other way I'd want to end our around the world adventure.

So, the bottom line? Was it worth it? As Ed's Dad was fond of asking "Would you go there again?" The answer: Hell yes! 62 days, 45 of those on a ship, 2 1/2 weeks in two countries that have no equal; sights and sounds like we've never experienced before; cultures that are so different from ours, and yet so intriguing; history and conflicts and legends and lores and Gods and religions and traditions. It's almost too much for the senses - and the memory. (That's why the blog was born.)

We'd do it all over again in a heartbeat - maybe some minor itinerary changes, longer in Thailand and Cambodia, less time in China and Japan. Heck, we'll probably just do a land tour next and stay in Thailand and Cambodia for a while. There's enough to see and do in those two countries alone to last a life time. Forget about the ship part...well...maybe.....

So, to all our bleaders, thank you for being so faithful and interested in our wanderings. We have had a wonderful time, but there's no place like home and we are happy to be here continuing all our wonderful adventures with all of you...in person.

Ciao per adesso.......

11/16 St. Maarten

We made it through the sea days – not that we had any fears that we wouldn’t. We still have no idea what we did those 5 days. Didn’t rock climb or play putt putt or anything. Who knows! That’s the beauty of sea days when it’s gorgeous outside (well – gorgeous being relative – it was actually way hot – so hot that a couple days I barely went out in the sun).

We’re on land now, and it’s a ½ and ½ day. Partly cloudy with brief little rain showers and partly sunny. But there is an awesome trade wind that keeps everything cool. We’re taking a tour (horrors!) – it’s a mountain biking tour with a beach stop – we figured – what the heck? We really didn’t want to rent a car again, and couldn’t think of anything else to do. We tried to see if we could rent bikes on our own, but that entailed getting ourselves to Marigot – and that was just too much of a hassle. So, ship’s tour, here we come.

Turned out to be a good decision – we only had 8 on the tour – a nice little group and it was fun. We got a tour of the island on our way to Marigot, then a pretty rugged bike tour. Really mountain biking – off road, through this teeny tiny trail cut through the scrub brush – weeds, grass and brambles swatting your legs and arms. Plus the added adventure of avoiding cow pile hazards everywhere. Man - those things can relieve themselves! Those piles were HUGE. We swore they were elephant dung piles! It really was a fun ride – and it was beautiful up inn the hills overlooking the bays.

Back on the pavement we cycled out toward the old sugar plantations to the base of the tallest mountain on the island. Very peaceful and lush – oh and hot. It’s heating up – when the sun comes out, you truly don’t want to be anywhere around, that’s for sure. We coasted all the way back downhill to Friar’s Bay Beach, where we had a welcome beverage and had ½ hour to swim. We waded around in the water to cool off, but didn’t go all the way in. Wasn’t worth getting wet and trying to dry off or change at that point – we weren’t all that sweaty. Drank our beer in the shade of a huge porch at the Friar’s Bay Beach club bar – really nice little place to relax and stare at the turquoise Caribbean waters.

Hopped back in the bus to go back to the ship. Got the rest of the island tour, past Orient Beach and the salt pond and then to Phillipsburg. We opted to get out in town and wander around. It’s easy to explore Phillipsburg – there are really only 2 main streets: Front street and Back street. That’s it, pretty simple! I like wandering without maps! We hit some of the souvenir shops, tried the Guavaberry liquor, the only thing actually made on St. Maarten, then walked down the beach side promenade for a while. By this time, though, it’s getting brutally hot with the sun out. We decided to duck into a bar for refreshments and chose the Blue Bitch Bar. The t-shirts say it’s “a great place to hang out when you’re in heat”. If they didn’t cost $25, I’d have bought one! Beer was cold, had Nachos to put something in our stomach – they were pretty good (hey, the starvation diet starts on Thursday – so live it up now!).

As the sun started to sneak up on us through the slats in the shutters, we made our way out of the bar and back onto the shady side of Front Street. As we were walking past one of the hundreds of jewelry sotre tha line the street, we saw the remnants of a smash and run! Glass all over the floor, display in shambles and a hammer laying right there on the floor as well. Can’t imagine anyone with enough gonads to do a smash and run right there in broad day light! On such a small island! But – there you have it. Pretty odd.

Had another beer and some water at another little bar on Front Street. It was completely in the shade, which was our criteria! Stocked up our onboard mini-bar and headed back to the ship. It’s really not a bad little walk, maybe 15 minutes on sidewalks. Walked off some of the excesses from the day and hopped back on the ship. It was so hot on the way back that we actually went upstairs and got in the pool! That’s how brutal the day had become! The pool was great – nice and refreshing and not a lot of people up there. A great end to our day!

11-10 Funchal, Madeira

This is one of my favorite places! We’ve visited here before and I just fell in love with the island – the geography, the people, the culture. It’s a beautiful, lush place with hills and craggy cliffs that drop off into the sea. Funchal sits right on the water and the town, with it’s little houses and windy streets, nestles itself in the hills that rise above the harbor. So picturesque!

The Captain gets us in early, so we have even more time to explore and hike the levadas today. Levadas are man-made waterways that were dug as irrigation ditches years ago. No longer used for irrigation, they have turned into walking trails of various intensity and can be found all over the island. Our original plan was to take a hiking tour. But our arrival wasn’t scheduled until after the tour began. The tour operator said he could arrange a taxi to take us to the tour (already in progress), then get us back to the ship, but it would cost an extra 100 Euros. Thanks, but no thanks! Instead, we decided to rent a car and hike the levadas ourselves. As the day drew nearer to arriving in Funchal, we started having 2^nd thoughts about the car. It’s hell driving in Madeira. The streets are all very narrow and windy, and its just treacherous to try to navigate. We started reading some more about the levadas and found some that were close to town. We also found the rental car office – in the opposite direction of Funchal – out by the beaches and hotel zone – and made an executive decision to ditch the car. Probably one of our smarter moves!

The day is beautiful, we can walk everywhere we want, so what the heck! We’re off to explore on our own without wheels. We take off down the dock (ignoring the $8 shuttle – its only a 20 minute walk into town!) and begin to explore. The main town of Funchal is really easy to navigate – in no time we find the visitor’s Information center, get info from the very helpful woman in the office, and make our way out onto the main street to find the bus kiosk for our day tickets and bus #20 or 21 to get us to Monte – which will lead us to the levada.

Easy-peasy! Instead of the 10 Euro Funicular ride up the mountain to Monte, we take the 85 centimo bus ride which is worth more than the 10 Euro cable car! The driver thinks he’s Mario Andretti (or Evil Kneivil, we can’t decide!) taking turns at breathtaking speeds and squeezing past parked cars and oncoming traffic like his life depends on it. Come to think of it, it does! And so does ours! We make up the mountain alive and are dumped out on the streets above Monte.

We are doubly glad that we didn’t rent a car, since we would be in competition with drivers like we just experienced.

Monte is a big tourist destination for it’s beautiful cathedral, excellent viewpoints of Funchal below and the famous basket sleds. Up at the top of the mountain, you can hire these 2 guys to take you down 2 KM in a big basket sled. They actually steer and use their special shoes as brakes while they take you down the twisty-turny little roads of Madeira. It looks really fun, but we’re on a levada mission, so after taking a few pictures and watching the tours take the baskets down the hill, we’re off in search of the levada.

Signage is really helpful and we have no problem finding the trail head. It’s actually a really pretty hike through the woods, nice cool day in the shade, and not a lot of others on the trail. We passed a fork in the trail with a sign to Curral dos Romeiros, but kept going straight in what we hoped was the direction of Levada dos Tornos Camacha. The trail kept going up and up – it was really steep and at one point we had to crawl through some downed trees. Pretty hairy hiking! Finally, the trail leveled out and we found the levada – it’s basically a cement trench about 4 feet wide and 3 or 4 feet deep filled with clear, clean cool running water.

The levada ran to the right and left. To the left was a tunnel, the right more mountain hiking. No signs. Shoot! We pulled out our little map (which had scarcely any detail on it, but did show a couple of trails!) and began to wonder about where we were. As we stood there looking perplexed, a helpful German couple came up and showed us their map. We had managed to not pay any attention to our end destination (yep, it was Curral dos Romeiros) and we were on a little spur that circled up above the trails and then back down to Romeiros. Well, there goes my map reading credibility! But thanks to the kindness of that German couple, at least we knew we could get to Romeiros the way we were heading and didn’t have to double back down the steep hill.

We began following the levada around. It was very scenic – we passed under a waterfall rushing down the steep ravines into one of the riverbeds way, way below us. As we rounded the curve past the waterfall, the hiking took a slightly terrifying turn – we were walking on the edge of the levada, mostly cement or rock, about 18” wide. At some parts, there was nothing on the right of the walkway – nothing that is but a 500+ foot drop off into that steep ravine I just mentioned. At one point in time, we couldn’t even look down it was so scary – we just kept walking – watching our feet and not looking at anything but the ledge in front of us. The “trail” would open up occasionally and provide a wider area to walk, but just as quickly it would go away again and we were on the edge of the precipice. The landscape was incredibly beautiful (when we could look at it!!!), and peaceful as we were the only ones walking, just a little bit on the exhilarating side of mountain hiking.

When the path opened up, we did have incredible views of Funchal way below us, and our gargantuan ship docked in the harbor. We could also see all the way back to Monte – tracing our path down from the cable car station, and up through the hills along the levada. After about an hour of walking from the waterfall, when we were just convinced we’d gone the wrong way and we’d have to go back along that damn ravine, we turned a corner and found the town of Romeiros! Yea! We made it. A bus was at the terminus stop – but we walked a little way around the town (which was really just a few houses grouped together on top of the hill) and when we went to turn around to go to the bus, it left. Tactical error! Had to wait another 25 minutes for the next bus. Not a big deal, since we had so much time ashore, and it was quiet and peaceful sitting there at the bus stop with absolutely no activity going on whatsoever.

Once on the bus it was a very quick 20 minutes back down into town. Evil Knevil #2 actually got us down the hill without incident, but I’ll never know how. Wow! They love to drive fast around here – I am SO glad we didn’t rent a car! We hopped off the bus at the market and wandered around the shopping area a bit. As I said before, it’s really easy to navigate downtown Funchal, so we just meandered here and there, window shopping, remarking on how expensive the clothes were – not as bad as Vigo – but still….mind boggling!

We strolled down up the tight little lanes with cars squeezing through and avoiding the pedestrians. At the center of the historic district is a walking pedestrian area where we sat at an outdoor café called the Centro Comercial da se, and had beer, wine and tried Espada = the local fish. Espada is a big really ugly looking fish – it almost looks like an eel with huge eyes– that is fished in very deep waters (about 3,000 feet down) only 2 places in the world: Madeira and somewhere in Japan. While Espada might win awards for the ugliest fish in the world, it could also win an award for the most delicious. We got a ½ portion and shared a large plate heaped with veggies and a big, breaded piece of fish. It was a very rich but flaky white fish that was all gone way to quickly for us! Yummy.

Next we walked off our midday repast by strolling back around the shops, looking at all the Madeira wine we couldn’t bring home (I’m not putting it in the checked bag – no way!), the baskets and straw wear and the expensive clothing. Restocked our beverage supply for the long ride home, then wandered back toward the ship. I had spied some umbrella’d tables tucked away down a little alleyway – so we went exploring and found an adorable café behind a car dealership. Very reasonable prices, good wine – it always pays to stay off the beaten track. We sat outside enjoying the sunshine and watching the goings on with the dealership (how they get in and out of that place is amazing – the entrance to what we think was the service bay had little more turning area than in a phone booth – cars on the side of the road, people backing up, maneuvering. Wow!).

Walked our way back to the ship – through the tourist district (where a meal at the McDonald’s cost more than our entire food purchases!) – and boarded with about an hour to spare. Hung out aboard, watching the other ships sail, and then watching our departure from the balcony. It was too dark to really get any good pictures, but it was a lovely sailaway. On to our 5 sea days in a row!

11/8 Vigo Spain

Our first of three ports of call is Vigo, Spain. We’ve never been here, but everything we’ve read sounds like it’s a great walkable town with forts and things to do and see. Since it’s our first time on RCL, we’re not really sure about the on/off process, so we get ready and just watch from the Promenade deck to figure out the deal. It’s just like everywhere else – you just have to go….so off we go!

We hit the ground running – it’s a gorgeous day, mid-60’s, so we head out with only our sweaters and umbrellas (as a precaution), hit the ATM (thank god the card is still working!) and aim for the fish market. After walking a while, scooping out potential restaurants for lunch, we head up into the hills to find the Fortaleza – a fort at one of the highest points of the city where we can get good scenic pictures.

We stumble on what we think is the fort, a little ways up the hilly, winding old town streets. But no, this isn’t the fortress, it’s only the Fuerte de San Sebastian, the ruins of a fortress wall that once protected the town. The maps aren’t the greatest, but Ed has found some walking tour maps online and we manage to figure out our way from them. And our way is up, up, up! Up stairs, around winding lanes and finally to the top of the large Fortress with 360 views of Vigo. It’s a nice strenuous walk (why did we exercise in the morning?), and it’s cool enough that it doesn’t slay us by the time we reach the top.

After taking a bunch of pictures, we wind our way back down into town, walking along broad avenues and then exploring off into little alleys and streets soaking up the Spanish culture. It’s Saturday, so the town is just walking up and it’s really nice to just stroll all around looking at architecture, people and places.

After walking through the old town shopping district, and meandering around, we head back to the commercial fish market area – but then decide we’ve seen enough markets and don’t feel like crossing this huge expressway to get there. We head back into town looking at a couple of restaurants as possibilities, but really searching for Pescaderia street – which is known to have restaurants with fresh oysters and clams out front – shucked fresh for you. We find the little street a block off the main avenue by the water, and sure enough, there are tons of restaurants, each with their own old Spanish lady out front tempting you with fresh oysters. It’s a great scene, but we are not eating raw oysters! Not here, not anywhere, so we pass on the action. Plus, remember, we’re just coming off Thailand and we are still in sticker shock. The prices for one meal are just astronomical – and we are sorely tempted to go back to the ship for free food!

But, as we meander down the street, we find a little place called Cerveceria Gril’s where they have beer and reasonably priced Polpi (octopus) tapas, which is what Ed wants. We plop down at a table and order the octopus and chorizo – it’s all very good – chorizo just the way we like it, actually in a wine sauce we can dip our bread into, and the octopus was grilled perfectly. Not the cheapest thing in the world (21.50 Euros), but nice to at least be eating our favorite Spanish foods without totally breaking the bank.

It’s such a pretty day, we end up just walking around more after lunch. The city is very easy to get around and it is fun soaking up the Spanish atmosphere. We stop at one of the many pastry and alcohol stores (we don’t get the connection, but we’ve seen 5 of these places so far) and stock up on our liquid beverages. We have a wonderful conversation all in Spanish (here we go again) with the proprietress. She’s a doll – and we think she was telling us to climb up the hill for the view (which we had done), but then also that a women’s clothing store was having a big sale? Not quite sure on that last part, but that was my interpretation of her Spanish and hand signs!

Next we salivated over some incredible looking chocolate pastries at another pastry shop. Finally gave into our salivary glands and purchased an éclair and this awesome chocolate covered meringue. Oh my gosh! The éclair was good- the meringue? Heavenly! Hard chocolate that broke apart in your mouth, the meringue was gooey and only partially set, and melted in your mouth. Add a crunchy little cookie on the bottom and I was in 7^th heaven! Diet be damned (don’t expect me to be eating anything but salads once we get off this ship - for at least the rest of year!).

Back down to the port, we join the long queue getting back aboard. Once again, we are faced with the jostling and lack of personal space protection that accosts you around all these Europeans and Brits. I have to literally shoulder some guy behind me so he will get off of me. He is leaning up against me with his big belly and pushing me – and it’s not like we’re in a close area – we’re on this huge wide concrete dock in a long line. Geez – that drives me crazy.

Finally he and his lady partner move to another line - huge sigh of relief – and we move forward in line to board. We have heard RCL is pretty strict on their alcohol policy – so we have taken our illicit beverages and tried to hide them as best we can in the backpack and a bag (where we’ve wrapped the cans in a jacket and put a box on top of them). We proceed through the scanning, Ed gets the extra wand (there is something that keeps buzzing every time he walks through the scanner) and I go to pick up the back pack and bag. As I’m turning away from the bag scanner conveyor, the guy watching the scanner says “wine, wine!” and another security officer starts shouting, “where? Which one?” “That one,” the first guy says. I shove the bag at Ed and hiss “lets go” and take off. Fortunately, there is a huge crowd clogging the hallway right at the elevators and we manage to evaporate in the crowd as I hear the security gal asking everyone – “do you have any wines? Show me your wines. Any liquors?” I’m up 2 flights of stairs and half way to the cabin with Ed trailing behind! Oh my gosh! Don’t know that it was actually us that set them off – we had cans – but still. Got our hearts racing! Guess they are serious about not bringing alcohol on board!

Safe in our cabin with our stash, we watch the sailaway from the balcony and get ready for another day at sea.

11/6 – The Independence of the Seas review (mini cruise review)

It’s cruise time! The following is a mini review of Embarkation plus a week aboard the largest ship afloat:

Embarkation is pretty smooth – the walk to the terminal was really easy, got our luggage tags (we never received the pre-printed ones before we left, so we needed them at the port), then headed to the departure lounge. Check in took no time, and we only had to wait for about 15 minutes before we were allowed to board. The entire wait was due to the fact that the “bing bong” machine (what we call the card scanner where you check in and out of the ship) was outside on the promenade deck and RCL didn’t want you standing outside in the cold on line for too long.

We were so early, that the cabins weren’t available yet. So first on the agenda – the library. We hit there while they still have books and checked out a few (it’s going to be a reading cruise with all these sea days, for certain!), then headed to the purser’s to see if there were any upgrades available. No such luck. Oh well – we didn’t care, just curious. Next we wandered the promenade a bit, then made our way to the Windjammer café for lunch, then hit the cabins at 1:00. Dumped our backpacks and struck out to explore this huge mega-ship!

So, everyone pretty much knows that we are not a big ship fans. Oh, we’ll sail them, but we prefer the smaller ships. Celebrity Galaxy (even though she SO BADLY needs a dry dock) is my personal favorite, the whole Oceania line of those little R-class ships are awesome. Mid-size to small is more what we like in a ship. But, let me tell you about this thing. First of all it is the biggest ship afloat right now. It is massive – and half the time you really can’t tell you are on a ship. That is good and bad.

The centerpiece of the ship is the Promenade which runs the length of the ship on Deck 5. It is set up like village street with restaurants, pubs, and shops lining each side of the bricked/cobblestone walkways. There is always something going on down there – they have parades at night, and parties occasionally (like the 70’s dance night party). The Promenade is 4 stories high, with inside cabins facing out onto the promenade – you could sit on your sofa in your window and watch the goings on at night! The pubs and bars have “outside” seating where you can sit and watch the world go by, which is terribly fun to do on a cold and cloudy crossing day.

The restaurant is 3 floors and beautifully outfitted with chandeliers, dark wood accents and a grand piano on a first floor landing. The Windjammer café, the buffet venue is down up in dark wood as well – it’s way too beautiful for a lunch time buffet on the pool deck. The downside is that there is absolutely no outside seating for the buffet. It’s kind of bizarre, but the café is all enclosed and the closest outside table is half the ship away.

The theatre is really big – 2 levels, but still not big enough. We’ve seen a few shows (yes, I know you are all shocked!), and if you don’t get there early – like ½ an hour early, you won’t get a seat. We had to stand for the Drifters show, but managed to find seats for the magician and the really great production show “Once Upon a Time”. They have an excellent cast, singers, dancers – and the show was really well written and choreographed. Took the Fairy tales and put them to modern music (like Cinderella – while she was sweeping the evil step sisters were singing “take out the papers and the trash, yakkity yak, don’t come back!”). Very cute and well done.

There is also an ice rink where they have open skating and special shows. The first skating show was really good. It is amazing what they can do on a very small rink! Of course this is Royal Caribbean (“get out there”), so there is the obligatory rock climbing wall, putt putt golf and the flowrider (the boogie board/surfboard pool). The pool deck is enormous with a monster childrens’ pool. It’s actually both children and adults because it’s pretty deep, but it is separate from the adult pool and has some really cool artwork that spouts water at you when you are in the shallow wading part of the pool.

Our cabin is great – really roomy, good storage space, lots of drawers and tons of closet space. Plus we’ve got the water heater pot with an assortment of teas and coffee in the room. BONUS! Morning coffee right there? It’s awesome. All in all, it’s really a fabulous ship. Ed isn’t as much in awe of it as I am, but maybe that will all change. For now, I just love walking through the promenade, sitting at the café having coffee, watching all the people. It’s great fun!

The gym is in the typical front of the ship location – and it’s equipped with excellent equipment, including a full size boxing ring. (Don’t ask – it’s there – never seen anyone use it, but it’s there right as you walk in.) There are tons of treadmills and ellipticals, plus bikes and rowing machines. The weight systems are fabulous – all the best stations (including my favorite – the adductor and abductor machines). It’s nice to finally be on a ship where you don’t have to fight to get on a machine. You do have to wipe down the machine before you start exercising though. One thing these people do not do on this ship is sanitize! They refuse to use the Purell dispensers in the dining rooms and they don’t clean off their exercise equipment after they are done using them. Ick!

And, because we are Elite members of Celebrity Captain’s Club, we transferred over to the Diamond level of RCL’s Crown and Anchor club. It’s a great feature the two lines share – but RCL is so much better with loyalty rewards – it’s truly pathetic! First off, we get the coupon book – so yeah, right – Celebrity gives you those too – but RCL’s has a TON of free stuff. Like free specialty coffees in the café, 3 free $3 spins at the casino (which equates into $9 each in cash), free bingo cards, free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream pop, free cocktail at the bar, free Johnny Rockets cover charge ($3.95) and tons of other casino, photo, spa and gift shop coupons. It’s really valuable –and we’re having a blast using them all. But the best thing about the Diamond status is that we have access to a Diamond members lounge in the morning for continental breakfast and free cappuccino, plus at night the concierge lounge is open with appetizers and free drinks from 5:30 to 8:30. You can’t beat that with a stick! The amenities are just fabulous!

Is there a downside? Well, sure. There are some differences. The staff is good, but they are nowhere near the quality of Celebrity or even Princess. They’re nice enough, but not overly friendly or outgoing. There are certainly exceptions, but as a rule, you can tell a huge difference in the staff quality. Also the food is ok. Just ok. You won’t starve (god forbid….no way to do that!), but you’re also not going to get outstanding food – preparation or presentation - mainly in the dining room. I mean let’s face it – the formal night surf and turf was a very small langoustine (read prawn) and sirloin steak. Yeah, no culinary prizes here.

The lunch buffet, however, has been very well stocked with a variety of different foods every day. Then the HUGE downside – or at least oddity about this ship – is that it is set up for the British market. That in and of itself isn’t a big deal until you get into the nitty gritty…like the buffet food, which is a lot of mushy peas, pies and an entire Indian buffet line. A huge complaint for us are the night club shows – they don’t even think about starting until 11 or 12 midnight, which, we are sorry to say, is way too late for us. Some of the entertainment is a little odd too, like pub night in the lounge. We actually thought it was cute, but we’re not sure how the American market will take all this when the Independence hits the Caribbean itineraries in another week.

Another negative, but just annoying, really, is the “screening room”. There are movies every day in the little theatre at the bottom of the ship – but the thing is so small, it only seats 60 people. If you want a seat, you have to be there one hour before show time or you won’t be watching the movie! Today, there was almost a revolt when people started bringing chairs in to sit in the aisle. A bunch of folks started getting all up in arms about the fire hazard, how they were blocking the aisles. Oy! Well, fortunately there was no fire, and we all got to watch the Bucket List comfortably without any hassles….after the lights were dimmed that is!

Overall though, it’s a great ship. And a fun time.

11/5 – THE flight and Southampton

We’ve been dreading this part of the trip since we first made the reservations. And now it is here. Yuk. We board on time, but then can’t leave because there is a ground hold or something. Finally, we push off and get in the air a little before 1 am local time. The plane isn’t full, which is very nice (and so not what we are used to in the states or flying to Europe), so there is room to move around and – we are very fortunate in that all the screaming tiny children are way in front of us….yes! Hopefully we’ll sleep!

Surprisingly enough, the flight is much better than either of us anticipated. Food is served, free drinks (another nicety we’ve lost on American airlines), individual video screens which means tons of movies and TV shows. I’m excited because I get to watch Get Smart, which I’ve wanted to see since it was released! After dinner, we both fell asleep for about 6 hours, which was really nice. First good sleep we’ve had on a plane ever. Breakfast is really good – very British and very ample. We’re stuffed. I manage to finish off the X-Files, I Want to Believe, just in time before they turn off the entertainment and we land.

Wow! That was easy! We’re in England! Pretty cool – literally that is! It is freezing here – and we’re still pining away for our hot and humid Thailand days! Oh well.

Through passport control, it’s a long line, but we go right through. Not so with quite a few folks who they have pulled out of line and made to sit in a waiting section while they check passports, visa’s, etc. First time we’ve ever seen that.

We get the first hint of the election returns while we are in the passport line. When we left Bangkok it was mid-day election day, no returns or even exit polls yet, and when we land at Heathrow 13 hours later the election is all over including the concession. We hear snippets of conversations while we are in the line saying that Obama’s victory was pretty strong.

We grab our bags and make our way to the train to hit the central bus terminal. We’ve booked a 9:50 bus to Southampton, figuring it would take us much longer to get through customs, passport control and baggage than it actually did. We’re fortunate though, there’s an 8 am bus that we can get on – so an extra 5 pounds sterling and we’ve got our tickets. Bought a very pricey cappuccino while we wait (oh the sticker shock from Thailand…..it’s begun already…..) and finally ran out through the cold (brrrr) and hopped on our bus to the south.

Our driver was in a mood – growling at everything and everybody. But he made it safely (after a couple of near misses and one time we thought we’d go over when he turned a corner) to Southampton in about an hour and a half. Not too shabby. From the bus station, we hoofed it over to the Novotel hotel – a quick 5 minute walk. The hotel is in a great location. It’s right outside the port entrance, so we can walk over there to board tomorrow, and it’s near restaurants and shops and within walking distance of the old town and walking mall area. All in all, a very nice choice – good bed, amenities, internet and TV movies for 9.99 pounds. We’re happy – even happier because we arrive at 10:45 and they have a room for us! Lovely!

We settle in and thaw out, then re-dress in heavier clothes and head out to explore Southampton.

It’s COLD here – and the wind! Ack! But we soldier through it, knowing we’ve hit winter after our long, long summer days in the Far East. We make a dry run to the port – a really easy walk. Then we head down into the old town and the main commercial district. We visited the Maritime museum that has a small, but nice collection of Titanic artifacts. After warming up in the museum, we hit the frigid streets again, wandering around the main street of Southampton, window shopping, people watching and looking for someplace to eat. After Thailand, no matter how much we have tried to prepare ourselves, we are just still in shock over the prices. England is pricey to begin with, but in comparison. You just have to stop thinking about it after a while.

We lucked into a pub that was having a special – hamburger and a drink for 4.90 pounds. Can’t beat that. Good burgers, beer for Ed, and wine for me. Not too shabby. We got back into the pub swing of things – go up and order at the bar, give your table number, take your drink and wait. It’s an odd process, but, obviously tried and true since all pubs work this way here. Who are we to argue!

Walked back to the hotel looking for a grocery store so we could stock up on our liquid refreshments for the cruise. Saw the grocery carts, but couldn’t find the store. Back at the hotel, the desk clerk told us where it was – we were within a stone’s throw, but didn’t realize it. So, back out we go to get our beer and wine – then repack and get ready for tomorrow.

Later we went out to another pub we had checked out for dinner. They were having problems with their food deliveries and their phone was out, so no credit cards, but scraped together all the Pounds we had and were able to scrounge enough for 2 fish and chips and 2 drinks. It was crazy busy in there, but really a fun atmosphere. A nice little British experience before we launched on our totally British cruise (the Independence has been sailing from Southampton since it’s launch and is totally focused on the British market, down to hot water pots in the cabins for tea).

Back at the hotel in a jiffy, warmed up under the comforter covers and ready for our sailaway home.

11/4--Last Hours in Siam

Hugs all around as we leave the Tulip for our flight to Bangkok. We wave goodbye to Nine as we hop in the Song-tao she’s waved down for us to take to the airport. She tried for a tuk-tuk, but none were available, so she negotiated with the driver of the Song-tao and off we go. There’s a level of trust in everything you do here – you just have to trust the guy is really taking us to the airport and not stopping along the way for other fares, trust that he knows where he’s going…..it’s funny how you do things differently here than you would at home.

All works well, we’re at the airport with plenty of time, through security and waiting for the flight with tons of time to spare. Flight’s fine, in Bangkok a bit late, through baggage claim and our name is right there on the sign for the Thong Tha. We meet our greeter and tell her we need to go pick up our bags upstairs before we can leave. She is a little put out, but agrees to 10 minutes. We haul upstairs, go through the left luggage motions and wait the required 20 minutes (it says 20 minutes on the receipt we were given – and they mean it!) to get our big bags. We’re convinced our ride will be gone and we haul back to the baggage claim – but there she is – still waiting for us.

Into the waiting car, we’re at the Thong Tha in 10 minutes. Checked into a great room – much nicer than the first one – and proceed to spread our luggage out everywhere. We had discussed not picking up our bags until right before we checked in for the flight tonight, but then figured it would be just as easy to have them with us during the day. What a blunder that would have been, if we’d waited! Oh man – the liquids we had in our small bags would have made every security sensor flash red from here to Chiang Mai! Since we had checked the small bags, we weren’t thinking about the carry on liquid factor on BA! Good move having them with us!!!

So, luggage prepared, computer work done, we still have hours to waste until we leave at 9:30. It’s a bit overcast with showers called for, but we decide to go out and look around to see if there is anything but restaurants around the hotel (we’re actually looking for a new computer mouse since both of ours are acting funny). We grab the big umbrellas from the hotel and strike out down the gravel path to the main street. As we approach the corner parking lot with the convenience store, we notice a barber shop. Ed needs a haircut, but every time he went to the barber shop in Chiang Mai, it was busy or closed. So he’s long overdue. We walk into the empty shop, call sawasdee caa (hello) and the stylist comes downstairs to greet us. We ask for a haircut for Ed and how much. She giggles and points to a price on the window (almost everyone has the prices listed on their windows – but this was all in Thai so we had no idea!). Turns out its 100 baht (less than 3 US). Ok.

Ed takes a seat and I watch closely as she gets our the electric razor – they do everything by razor here – barely ever get the scissors out. We had great fears that Ed would get a buzz cut like all the other Thai men we’ve seen, but she actually does a very good job – and there’s no complaints! (btw – she may have been a he – there is a huge population of katooeys – what Thai call transsexuals – here in Bangkok – and we’re kind of convinced this was a katooey). As the haircut is being finished, the skies open up and the monsoon begins! It may be the end of the rainy season – but man does it rain!

So – we’re stuck – it’s just coming down. We decide to go next door and get a couple of beers and sit on the steps outside the barber shop to wait it out. Even though the stylist is motioning for us to stay, we thank her/him and go to get the beer. When we come out of the store, we head past the stylist shop to sit on the dry area of the steps. She/he sees us and motions us in again! How sweet! So there we sit, in the middle of a torrential downpour, drinking beer in the barber shop while the stylist watches the TV in the back of the shop. You can’t make this stuff up!

After the rain lets up, we thank our host, and head out down the street. After walking a while, we decide there’s nothing out there and head back to the hotel. Much to our surprise and dismay – the gravel path is totally flooded! Great! We wade through the first shallow part, then get to the really deep part halfway down the alley. We’re getting ready to take off our shoes and socks and pray we don’t catch some deadly disease from walking through the water, when a couple of the guys from the hotel see us. They’re out at the end of the flood on our side as well, and they say – oh – wait just a moment! They motion for a guy on a scooter to come get us! Our first scooter ride! I tell Ed I’ll go first, but the scooter guy says – oh no – three! Here we go! All 3 of us on the darn motor scooter wading through 5 inches of water. For a wasted travel day – this has been totally fun!

Later, we head back out to the restaurants, eat in the same place we did the last time we were here, have the same fish (even better this time – we will for certain miss this great fresh seafood) and wander back to the hotel in time to shower and head to airport.

Again, check in is smooth as silk, we’ve now got 2 hours to wait. A drink at a bar, then we finally board and fly off to the West……..the end of our great Asian adventure – but definitely not the last time we’ll be here. We will be back for sure!

11-3 Thai Farm Cooking School

Our last day – we’re sad – will be spent all day at the organic Thai Farm learning first hand how to cook authentic Thai meals. The Song-tao (the little red trucks with the seats in the back) picks us up right on time. We’re first, and we see that there are 6 others joining us today. We make the rounds of the guesthouses and end up with a great group: a 20ish couple from New Zealand (she originally from Canada, he from Britain, traveling around until their money runs out, then going back to NZ to work); a 30ish couple from Slovenia; an older lady from Britain who’s son had just gotten married in a Buddhist ceremony at the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok and a young Belgium girl who had recently been in a motor bike accident and had stitches in her chin and a broken jaw (poor baby!).

The Farm cooking school is a Nine recommendation. We actually had another school booked, but Nine convinced us this one was better – and she gave us a good discount so it was cheaper. The promo brochure looks great and you get to pick and choose which items you want to cook. Ed and I decided to choose different dishes so we could try everything!

We get a copy of the brochure/menu in the truck and are told to choose our meals before our first stop at the market. When we arrive, we all give our requests to Sue, our guide/chef, and then follow her around the market, learning about the ingredients that will be used in our cooking, the different types of rice and herbs, as well as to wander around and look at the poultry meat and seafood available. The driver goes off to buy the meats and rice (which are the items they don’t have on the farm, just herbs there) and wealso have the opportunity to buy beer, coffee or soda because none of that is available at the farm. Only water and tea when we get there.

We wander around for a while, just looking at all the different food. They’ve got the fried bugs here too – but we’re not trying them! I guess I’m not as adventurous as I think – I’ll blame it on the fact that it’s the morning and I don’t want to eat anything too early! Yeah, right! Back in the Song-tao, we head off into the countryside for the farm.

The farm is a cute little operation with two “school” buildings, one covered rectangle deck with long tables, a toilet building and not much more. The school buildings are big open air facilities with cooking stations placed in a U shape around the inside and washing sinks on the outside patios. Our building is actually split into two school sections – but we’re the only ones in this building today. Another group is in the first school building. We have long tables on a covered patio wehre we can put our things and where we will eat. We get a tour of the herb garden, smelling all the fabulous fresh herbs and learning about the different Thai varieties and how we will use them in our cooking.

After the tour, we get ready to cook! We all choose a work station and line up facing each other. We each have plates full of herbs and meats according to what we’ve chosen to cook. Sue goes through the preparation with us and we begin. The first thing we do is ground all the herbs for the Curry Pastes, then we start on the soups, then move back to the curry. It’s a really fun way to learn and everyone is having a blast. Next we move onto the Papaya salad and the stir fried Chicken. The Slovenia girl and I are doing the salad, everyone else the chicken, so we have an audience as we mix up our salads with our mortars and pestles. I’ve become quite addicted to papaya salad and will be very sad when we get home since there’s no way we’ll ever find unripe papaya in the states. I asked about substitutions – cucumber, cabbage, and the like – but it still won’t be the same. I’ll try, that’s for sure, but nothing will beat the taste of that fresh salad made right there on the spot with fresh Thai herbs!

Now we get to eat! What a feast – there is way more food than we can even hope to finish! And we’ve still got another two courses to go! Oy! We have an inordinate amount of time for lunch – so we hang out in the shade, talking, getting to know everyone and stuffing our faces for an hour or so. Finally we’re ready for the next course – spring rolls, Pad Thai and for dessert, mango with sticky rice and bananas in coconut milk. It’s all fun and easy – and it is DEFINITELY going home with us! No way can we eat another morsel! But the fun part is, it’s dinner. So nothing wasted and we’ve got a whole day’s worth of meals plus the school. How fun.

The day is over way to fast and we’re back in the Song-Tao heading home. Last drop off and we waddle our way back up to our room with our dinner in the little plastic bags that are the Thai way of take away food! They even take drinks away in these things – and then drink them out of straws they insert into the top of the bags. Funny!!!

So – now we’re back at the Tulip, reorganizing the packing, working on the computer and trying to use up 8 hours until we can check in online for our nasty BA Bangkok to London flight. We wandered out around town to walk off some of the food, walked past the Garden, which was closed (odd!) and got Lemon and Watermelon juice smoothies from a juice place on the corner. Less than $1US each, and fresh juice! We watched them squeeze it right then and there. Oh, e are loving this place!!!

Back at the Tulip, we did more computer work, then after a couple hours we munch on the spring rolls (really good!!! Ed does a mean Spring Roll!) and decide we’re too full for anything else. We also decide to go out to see if we can find some wine for me. We love being at the Tulip – it’s perfect – the only downside is no white wine and we are not close to any of the bars and restaurants. Long story – but our original plans were to stay at another guesthouse that was right down the road. We had walked past it a couple of times and remembered that they have an “Aussie BBQ” so decided – Australian? Gotta have white wine! And they did! We settled ourselves into a comfy couch in their little outdoor garden seating area, and had a couple of beers and wine (accompanied by peanuts – yum!) as we wasted more time until our 12:10am date with BA online!

Finally, it’s time! And lo and behold – the “watch list” doesn’t defeat us! We can check in online and we even got the exact seats we wanted. Success! Now we can go to sleep with no worries for the morning and the long flight to England.

11-2 Doi Suthep and the Walking Market

We’ve listened to Nine and booked her Doi Suthep tour to visit a traditional Mao village and the Wat Phrathat Temple at Doi Suthep. The driver is late – we’re supposed to leave at 8:30 but end up leaving around 9. It’s no big deal as this is a half day tour and we have all afternoon free before the walking market around 7 or 8pm. The driver shows up with one other person in the van, a man from Israel. Nice! Almost private tour!

Doi Suthep is a mountain peak where, according to legend, a White Elephant stopped when carrying a holy relic – the arm bone of the Buddha. The story goes that the reining King in the 1300’s was presented with this relic and wanted the perfect place to lay it to rest and build a temple. He enlisted his white elephant, made a blessing, turned around 3 times and set the elephant free with the relic on his back. The elephant climbed and climbed and when it reached Doi Suthp, it turned in a circle three times then sat down and died of exhaustion. The King then knew this was the place for the temple.

We climb and climb up the mountain too, but fortunately we’re not on an elephant (hell no, not after Friday!), we’re in an old van that slowly makes it way up the steep switch backs. It’s cloudy and rainy, and as we begin our ascent, the guide tells us we will turn off the air as we go up the hill, but will open the windows. Ok. But as we climb we realize that the reason for no air is that the van won’t make it up the hill running the air! And sure enough a little ways up the hill, there is a terrible buzzing sound coming from the dashboard. The guide starts messing around with wires and fuses, looking at the fuse box layout. Finally he stops the car and gets out (all the while I’m asking Ed to make sure he knows how to get out of the van fast!), messing with wires under the dash. He asks if we have a torch light! And, well, we do. Ok, so I have WAY too much in the backpack, but hey, it came in handy, didn’t it? Finally fixed, we start out again, now without the annoying buzzing alarm sounding thing.

We pass the temple and head first to the traditional Mao village. This is where all the women dress in traditional garb – velvet jackets with little coins sewn on them along with headdresses with coins. We thought it would be fun to visit another traditional village, so you can imagine our surprise when we pull up to a traditional shopping village! It’s just a big market with all the typical tourist junk! Oh with the added intrigue of gem sales – every hawker and motor scooter driver have gems for sale. Yeah, like they’re real and we’re buying. Sigh. So we have 20 minutes here – ok – we wander, buy some little trinkets and are back at the van in 15 minutes. 20 minutes comes, 20 minutes goes. We buy Fried bananas to waste some time (they are sinfully good by the way). 25 minutes, 30 minutes, no Israeli. The guide goes looking for him. 35 minutes, no Israeli. For God’s sakes man – what are you doing? Turns out he’s looking at every freaking stall in the market! Not buying mind you, just looking around. Geez – we want to go to the temple – you want to wander – go to the darn Night Market….alone! Finally Ed and the Guide coral him and get him in the van almost 1 hour later. How rude!

Now we’ve got a 30 minute drive back to the temple and the certainty that we’ll lose him again there. Oy! We get to the temple and agree that we’ll meet at the bottom of the stairs at 12 noon. Yeah, right! We all go up together, buy our entrance tickets and go in. We wander off around the perimeter of the temple – looking at the carvings, the architecture, the bell that was forged out of old currency that was donated to the temple. One of the most stunning things about the temple location is the view of Chiang Mai. However, it’s way to cloudy/foggy for us to see anything today. So we just get a good look at the fog clinging to the trees below the temple walls.

Inside the main temple is beautiful – gold, statues, more ornate architecture. Unfortunately the main temple housing the relic is under reconstruction, so it is covered in scaffolding – they’ve painted the scaffolding gold, which is nice aesthetically, but does nothing for the photo ops!

We meet our guide at a little before noon and true to form, no Israeli. But he does show up a little after noon and we are pretty pleased. Of course we’ve had a great time people watching while we were waiting. Watching two little Mao girls getting their photos taken with tourists for a charge. You can tell the little one hates it, but you can also tell that it’s their family income.

Back down the hill, we stop at a scenic point and actually get to see a view of the city. Yay! Then we continue down to city level and hit the Tulip right before 1pm and decide to hang out for the afternoon. I had seen an advertisement for the women’s prison inmates who gave massages and pedicures/manicures as rehabilitation. I thought that would be good to do on a Sunday afternoon. I just wanted a pedicure/manicure – but after conferring with our scheduler, Nine, we decide I should just go to the salon up the road. Off I go to find the orange building near the end of the street. Two orange buildings later (the first was some huge office complex), I find this cute little salon where they barely speak English! With the help of a friendly customer, I manage to point and pantomime my way though a pedicure and manicure with color. Including tip, only $10US. Yeah, I’m loving this place!

By now it’s about 3:30 and we decide to go wander through a few temples and check out the setting up of the walking market to get our bearings. After a few of the larger wats – which are all so beautiful – we hit the Walking Street. Vendors are just setting up, so we scope out the wares on display so far and the street food that is available there. We figure tonight will be street food night then we’ll hit the Garden for the bands starting at 7.

Back at the Tulip we freshen up and finally head out to see the market. Oh my god! The street has been transformed into this hustling bustling retail mecca! There are thousands of vendors, stalls, lights, everything, you name it = and even more people (mostly Thai) shopping, bargaining and walking through. It’s easy over a mile long – and we don’t even cover half of it before we’re totally overwhelmed. It’s crazy! We do end up going to a street stall we had seen earlier and ordering 2 pork omelets and a fried pork with cashews dish –plus water and soda. While we eat, the proprietor’s little son – maybe 1 ½ or 2 at the most keeps up entertained by running by and shyly looking at Ed, then running back to Mom. He can’t say hello yet, but he can Wai us – and he does when we say hello and wai. Entirely too precious – my heart just melted! He ends up playing with us the rest of the time we are there – dancing and holding hands, playing with my newly painted fingernails. The bill is less than 100 baht (that’s less than $3US) – the wife is trying to give us change from our 100, but we won’t accept it. That’s too crazy.

After our exceptional dinner, we meander back toward The Garden. It’s early – only a little after 7, but fighting the throngs of people on the street is getting tiring and we definitely want to have a seat for the bands. Good tactical decision! It’s a decent sized little garden area, and the tables are jammed in there – but still, it’s almost full. We grab a great table right up by the patio where the acoustic chic (Cherry – she is on the web, youtube, facebook, as The bathroom girl – don’t know, she didn’t explain!) is currently playing and the other bands will be as well. Cherry is really good, great voice, nice personality. We sit back and enjoy the show – as well as the people watching, trying to figure out who everyone is. It’s all ex-pat in there – the only Thai face in the crowd are the Thai wives. Everyone seems to know each other and most also seem to be regulars. We’ve decided it’s Frisco’s of Chiang Mai! The wine is good, beer is good, bands are great (reminds you of 3’s to loud, oh I mean, 3’s a crowd, only better) and the crowd is fun to watch. We end up sitting there for a couple of hours just enjoying the atmosphere.

Out on the street, it’s close to 10 and the market is still going strong! It’s just incredible – and it’s a shame that we don’t have the camera – although there’s no way you could get the feel from pictures – it’s one of those have to be there things. Back at the Tulip we sack out, looking forward to our last day in Chiang Mai (boo hoo!) at the cooking school.

11/1 Bike Hike through the Chiang Mai countryside

It’s our big bike hike day today. 48 Km through the countryside around Chiang Mai with Click and Travel Cycling Tours. Nine has already chastised us for booking this on our own, but as we come down to meet our guide and leave for the day, she’s already grilling David (not his real Thai name), our guide, about what he does, the tour and any other opportunities for her to use him. She’s quite the businesswoman! What a pistol!

There are only 4 of us on the tour today, which will be nice and personal – just the way we like it. We hop in the truck with David and head over to the Empress hotel on the other side of town. There we pick up our cycling partners – a couple from Belgium – and try out our bikes in the parking lot of the hotel. We get a safety briefing and then we’re off! Out through the parking lot and into the Saturday morning Chiang Mai traffic. It’s actually pretty gridlocked today – there must be something going on at the schools to make this much traffic. We have to weave through stopped cars to slowly make our way out of the city. Once past the city traffic, we glide through the outskirts of town and begin our trip cycling through little villages and through back roads with rice fields and traditional houses on either side of us.

Our first stop is a really quirky Chinese temple – complete with a happy Buddha and a huge dragon that you can walk through. It’s kind of like a Disney World representation of a Chinese temple! We enter through the Dragon’s mouth and move through this fun house type tunnel with sloping cantilevered floors and wonderful murals on the walls explaining the Buddha’s progression from mere mortal, to royalty, to revered Buddha. It’s actually pretty cool- if not cheesy! We exit from the Tiger’s mouth and don our helmets (required!) for the next phase of our bike ride.

Through the country, along little lanes and busier roads, we wander aimlessly (not really, David has it all mapped out, but heaven only knows how he’s learned all these twists and turns!) watching the beautiful countryside and lovely local life pass by. We end up this phase of biking in the huge Leper’s Colony founded by a Christian Missionary named McKean when he came to Thailand in the early 1900’s. He initially wanted to convert everyone to Christianity, but after living with the locals for a while determined it was impossible to shake their Buddhist faith, so he turned to other good works, which led to the founding of the McKean Rehabilitation Center. It’s a lovely tract of land, landscaped beautifully with little cottages placed like doll houses along the 2 lanes that run through the village. We biked through most of the center – it was peaceful and scenic and surely a wonderful place to convalesce from a terrible disease. While under control now, there are still enough cases that the center seemed pretty full to us.

Next up – the rice fields! Oh dear! It was so picturesque – but it was also so muddy. Geez. We got completely dirty and it was awfully hard to keep the bikes up in certain sections. But it was worth it. Here we are, 4 farangs cycling through these beautiful rice fields with nothing and no one around. Just out of this world!

The trip went on, past more bucolic villages, temples and celebrations (we passed a funeral ceremony where the casket was incredibly decorated with a flowers, robes and a huge, ornate castle on the top of it. We also passed a crematorium where the caskets are taken after the funeral ceremonies. So interesting! And the water buffaloes or cows (who knows which) that were milling around the crematorium were just as interesting!

Lunch was at a great little restaurant in the Ban Tawai village wood craft market. The market is just huge with store after store of incredible woodworks. After a very filling lunch of pad thai and pork omelete (oh and peanut cookies!!), we got to wander around for about and hour. We were in awe of the crafts, the prices, everything there. We need a container ship! After 20 minutes, the rains came – it poured monsoon style. Our last half of the bike ride will be very interesting if this keeps up!

We dove into a little coffee café where Ed had a cappuccino and I had an iced mocha latte. All for 50 baht – or less than $2. Sinful! We later joined our cylce mates, donned our ponchos (provided for us by David) and headed back out to the rice fields. This time the road through the fields was more gravel than mud (yay!) and we made it through with little issues. We passed ruins of Wiang Kum Kam and a ceremony celebrating the end of Buddhist Lent – a procession with dancers and congregants bringing presents (including dollar trees! Or I should say Baht trees!) to the temple and the Monk who has been fasting during the lent.

We stop at a ltitle store on the back roads for refreshments – water and sodas. The proprietor treated us to a Thai snack – these little bitter berries that are sour and bitter and are dipped in salt then eaten after taking swigs of Rice wine or rum. We of course passed on the alcohol, but tried the berries. Yuk! Way to sour for me, but Ed enjoyed them. We all enjoyed the whole episode, trying normal Thai treats….things off the beaten path.

Once again we head out into the little winding lanes, through villages, small towns and just farmland. Finally we are heading back in to the city, way too soon! The only regret – as with yesterday – is that it all went by so fast that we didn’t have time to take a lot of photos. We were too busy riding and soaking in the beauty to stop and take photos!

Back at the hotel, we part with the Belgians and David drives us back to the Tulip. What a great day!

Tonight we’re laying low. We stay at the guesthouse, eating another great meal, and drinking all my wine. It’s a low key night and a good way to rest after our first big exercise day in a long time!

10/31 Trekking in Chiang Mai

Today is trek day – we’re going out into the mountains and doing a 1 day trek from the Lisu Lodge. We are leaving really early – 7 am – so Nine has gotten up early for us and given us the fruit platter breakfast! She said that’s all she could do at that time of the morning – we’re appreciative to have anything – especially the coffee – no complaints from us!

Our driver – Charlie – arrives and off we go. You’re out of the city in no time – it’s amazing how quickly you can be in the country. We drive for about an hour and then turn off heading toward Lisu. After about 10 minutes it’s apparent we’re lost! Charlie is stopping and asking people and calling people on his phone. We’re trying not to giggle in the back, but it’s kind of funny. Except that now it’s 8:15 and we’re worrying that we’re missing the tour. He finally finds his way to the lodge by 8:20 and there is no one there. The girl comes out looking at her watch and we are just certain we’ve been left, but she says we’re not going until 9:00 – phew! Charlie is relieved as well and sent back to Chiang Mai with instructions to pick us up at 3:30.

We’re sent to a lodge to relax and wait for the tour. The lodge’s are totally wild. Like a huge open air wooden veranda. A huge Lanna style roof covers the entire structure, there is a bar with refrig. and 7 rooms on the perimeter of the upper level – all basic – beds with mosquito netting and a little bath. It’s quiet and serene, beautiful lush country side everywhere you look. Ed has some coffee and we wait for our guide.

At 9 we are beckoned into the yard and meet our trek-mates – a family from Belgium with grown son, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend. We get fitted for our bikes (the first part of our trek) and off we go. We ride 23 KM through gorgeous Thailand farmland and valley. It’s so scenic and peaceful, rice fields, water buffalo, marigold fields, clean fresh air. If there is a down side, it’s that we’re cruising along and don’t really have the opportunity for pictures. It’s just so pretty, it’s a real bummer we can’t show you what it looked like!

After about an hour or so, through rough roads and paved, up hills and down, we reach the Elephant camp where we get to ride the huge revered Thailand beasts. I’m really excited – I love elephants (hefalumps!) – so I can wait. That is until I really get up close to them and remember they are wild animals, no matter how trained, and they can charge. Ok – so now I’m freaked out because these things are HUGE! One almost bumps me into the truck as it comes down the path – the driver and I turn around just in time to avoid it. Watch your toes!

We all climb up and on the giants anyway, and off we go. At first it’s really fun, bumping along the path, looking out at the pretty rushing waters of the river (where we’ll white water raft soon), we’ve bought bananas to feed the elephant, and she wants them a lot! She keeps reaching her trunk back to grab a banana – which was hysterical – we were judicious and saved a bunch for later – but it was fun while she thought we still had some left. Fun, that is until the whole ride took a turn toward the terrifying. Walking around on the path, through the trees, fine, nice, cool, we’re on an elephant. Then, in front of us, there’s this ravine, straight down, right to the river, all mud and rocks and tree limbs….and we’re headed straight for it.

Oh lord – this is freaky! The elephant in front of us is literally sitting down on the rocks to lower itself down the cliff. We start going down and we are virtually at a 90 degree angle looking straight down over the elephants head into the rocks. Get me off of this thing now! All I can imagine is the elephant losing its footing and rolling – over on us! Talk about smushed! We finally make it down alive, but now, we have to go back up! Help! This is scarier than the scariest roller coaster I’ve ever been on! Then as we’re on the home stretch, walking toward our destination on the road above the ravine, the damn elephant keeps straying way close to the edge of the cliff – she’s looking for grass and food – but she’s scaring the hell out of me! Here – we’ve got bananas – take the darn things why don’t you – get away from the cliff! Argh!

Finally, finally, we’re away from the cliff. The elephants are hoofing it (really fast – really!) toward this hut…oh…we see….it’s a banana selling hut! They know they’ll get more. Ha! We outsmarted them though – we saved some of our bananas! Came in handy to get the darn thing to go back to the platform and let us off. Sheesh. I have a whole new appreciation of hefalumps! Babar that thing wasn’t!

So – what’s next? Near death on the waters? This is turning out to be a great day! Actually – I was afraid of the white water rafting and it turned out to be totally fun. The water had gone down enough that the rapids were about a class 2 or 3 and they were just great. Had a great guide – we were in the raft with the son (Eddie) of the Belgiums. He’s about 28-30, beefy guy, and he paddled all the time. Cool! I don’t have to do too much work! I’m liking this. Got totally soaked (thank you Nine for telling us we had to bring a change of clothes before we left –we had NO idea!!!) and it was oh so fun. I was whipping around in the back of that raft, falling down to the bottom, sliding around, but it was great!

After the rapids, we floated down to the picnic area and were treated to showers, changing areas, towels from the resort, and an appetizing picnic lunch of hard boiled eggs, fried pork (we think), rice with chili sauce, cucumbers and bananas (now we’re the hefalumps!). We spent a nice hour relaxing and getting to know our trek mates. Took off out of the picnic spot and visited an Akha native village where we got to visit a traditional house with the shaman’s wife. She now sleeps next door in her son’s semi-modern concrete block house, but supposedly before he built it, she stayed here in this little almost lean to with two bedrooms (1 partition with beds on either side) and a cooking area. She also supposedly doesn’t ever change her clothes because water is evil.  We took pictures next to her and there’s no way she doesn’t change her clothes. She smelled way to good for that! Anyhow, fairy tale or not, it was fun to see the village and see how the people live there. Cute little kids, families setting up for a big celebration that night (fun except for the gun shots we kept hearing in celebration of whatever they were celebrating!).

We had the option to bike ride back to the lodge or truck ride. We all opted for the truck – although one of the guys had wanted to ride. When we left the village, Charlie, our guide seemed to have forgotten that! So back to the lodge we went, spending an enjoyable hour relaxing at the Belgian’s lodge (they were staying there for the night) before heading back down into town with Charlie.

We passed a supermarket and asked Charlie to stop. We were looking for wine, but a) it was really pricey and b) they couldn’t sell it between 2 and 5:30 pm. Weird! It was 4:30, so we left. We told Charlie what we were looking for and he took us to a whiskey store that had lots of wine! Success! I now have a bottle of white to enjoy at the hotel! And it was only $7. cool!

Back at the hotel – we tell everyone about the trek – and we show off our wine bottle. Stella immediately takes it from me and puts it in the fridge to get it cold for me. She says she’s charging for the refrigeration but she’ll let me use a wine glass! Too sweet.

Dinner was at the Green Tulip. Stella was cooking so we let her tell us what to order. It was all fantastic – pad Thai, pork and spicy soup. This food is too good to even describe. And of course, Douglas (the other Green Tulip mainstay) served me my wine flawlessly!

We then headed out and actually made it to the night market! It’s huge, monstrous and has all the stuff you’d ever want! Way too much, way to hot, we don’t need anything so we came, we saw, we’re outta here. Back down the street, we see a lot of foot massage places (they are everywhere here), but I’m looking for a leg wax. They point me to the salon across the street. Oh my gosh – it’s hysterical. The guys says sure, he can do it, but what he doesn’t tell me is that he doesn’t have enough wax to finish my legs. So he ends up using all the wax and then individually tweezering each hair! I’m in hysterics, Ed has come back from his beer and is giving us both looks! After over an hour, I’m done so I politely thank the guy, pay him his really cheap fee (even for what I got!) and head out into the pouring rain. We end up across the street at the Chiang Mai saloon for great beer, wine and popcorn! Yay! Popcorn – this is our kind of place.

After hanging out for a while, it’s still raining so we catch a tuk-tuk home. What a great day!

10/30 Chiang Mai

Off we go, in the pouring rain! Oh my gosh, pour Leng! Once again he’s going to be soaked, heck, we got soaked going through the puddles and the huge ponds that are the streets of Siem Reap. We get the airport in tact but totally soggy! TIC!

Smooth as silk – check in, departure tax, boarding area, get on plane, food – oh man – do they feed you on these flights. Every plane we’ve been on – and we’re talking all these flights are less than one hour – we get food – breakfast, lunch/snack – it’s great. Don’t have to buy a darn thing……no further comments…….

So anyway –we’re up and off – and back in Bangkok in no time, head to our transfer gates, we hop on the Chiang Mai flight and land in ex-pat land right on time. Bags and we’re out the door. We wanted to get a tuk-tuk to the guesthouse, but that’s a long story – so we ended up with a cab and were deposited at the Green Tulip 10 minutes later.

Quick, easy, and what a cute place! It used to be a garage of all things – and the remodeling they must have done! Now it’s a great, fun place to hang out in the restaurant/café area (with techno music when Stella – the owner – is there) and decent, clean rooms spread out over 5 floors of beautiful teak wood. We walk in and immediately are taken into the family by “Nine”, the defacto den mother of the Green Tulip. Nine (her real name is Nye or Nya or something, but she just calls herself Nine now for us farangs) is a hoot. She knows everything, sells tours like a true F&I manager, and generally just makes everyone welcome and feel at home.

She shows us to our room, which has a great little balcony looking out back away from the street, and immediately sets upon Ed for not booking all our tours with her. We settle in, then come back downstairs to begin our exploration of the place everyone just loves in Thailand – it’s supposedly got great restaurants, bars, shopping (way cheaper than Bangkok) and 15,000 ex-pats who have made this their home. As we leave, Nine is still selling tours, and we’re considering changing our cooking tour to take hers – we’ll see!

We head out into the heat – although everyone says it’s supposed to be cooler here, I’m not getting it. It’s still HOT! We get the feel of the place and find the Garden – which is the place to be on Sunday night when they have bands starting at 7. We head back to the hotel, cool off then head out for the evening.

Chiang Mai is made up of a few basic areas, with the old town and the close surrounding “sprawl” the major trading area. The old town (which is where we are staying) used to be enclosed within a wall (that you can see remnants of around the city) and has a moat all the way around. Immediately outside the old town are some high rises and residential areas, as well as the “hotel” zone and the night market. We’re on the exact opposite end of town from the hotel zone, it’s quiet and peaceful on our streets and nice to walk around at night.

The downside is that this place is bigger than it looks. We head out to get to the Night Market and it defeats us. Highly unusual, and only by a block because we didn’t go far enough, but it was still too much of a haul from our hotel. We had stopped for refreshments at the Beer Bar – which actually also had wine (yay!) – before continuing on our trek. When we finally turned back, we decided to hit the “beer bar” area to see what was there in terms of food and drink. The only challenge was getting across what we started calling the “zoom zoom” road. It’s the ring road around the walled part of the city – and it is crazy. You could stand there the rest of your life trying to get across. We made it twice – but we were ready for sustenance after our 2^nd time!

Ended up at this teeny little place called the S & T Bar/restaurant. 3 tables from polished oak tree trunks, a small bar, pool table and one huge TV. We had Pad Thai, Fried Pork and some sort of Spicy Pork (we think) with peppers. Beer and a big wine and we were at $10.50 US. Jeez! Oh – and did I mention the internet? Every bar, restaurant, guesthouse has free internet. Either big terminals or laptops available for anyone to use. It’s really a great feature of the city in general – you’re connected where ever you go.

Walked back to the Tulip, had another beer with Stella – although no white wine – she only drinks red wine, so I have to settle for beer here…bummer! Then to bed – we’re doing our Trek tomorrow – so we have to prepare!

10/29 Make A Difference tour

The owners of the Villa Siem Reap are very big believers of charitable works and giving back to the community. They are Australians, who have obviously found their niche and place in life here in Cambodia – and most of what they do goes back to the community. Most of their employees are graduates of the hospitality school two doors down, they sponsor water filters (a huge deal because so many children and older adults die each year due to water borne illnesses from drinking unpurified water) and they also run tours that showcase the NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations) and that allow you to spend a day with a country family helping them out with their daily chores/work. Unfortunately our schedule doesn’t allow us to do the helping out (A day in the life), so we choose go on the Make a Difference tour.

After another breakfast, we head out with a small group (just us and a mom and 2 grown daughters from Australia) to visit the different organizations and see the charitable work going on all over Siem Reap. It is pouring rain – just a deluge – and the roads are flooding and driving is a challenge. It’s just astonishing here – first the roads (mostly dirt, some concrete/pavement), second just the way everyone lives, and how cheap it all is. Our guide gives us a run down of Cambodia – the history, society and the money making industries. From a history perspective, war-torn doesn’t even begin to describe it. It seems like this place has been at war for virtually its entire existence. Whether fighting against other countries or factions who have invaded, or themselves (the civil war just ended in 1998 for heaven’s sake!), these people have just been through the wringer. We don’t know what Phenom Penh is like, but here in the country, it’s eye opening. Except for the “city” of Siem Reap, which is virtually new in an of itself, everyone comes from a village – either close by or way up country. There are 500 villages in the area, with anywhere from 100 to 500 families living in each. And everyone refers to their home as “the village”….as in “I came from the village”, “I lived in the village until 5 years ago”, etc. Wild.

Today, the economy here is run on tourism. They have found a niche with the temples and the government intends to exploit it. That’s good and bad – as it always is. The building is phenomenal in Siem Reap, and we can only hope it’s not over done, and that in the end the influx of tourist dollars will be spread out to the entire community and help more than just a few. Besides tourism, the #1 product here is rice – for consumption and export. So it’s still a farming, rural community – regardless of the tourism.

That’s one of the reasons this tour is so important – it shows how some very special people are trying to give back to a community that needs it so badly. So through the pouring rain, we visit our first stop - the Silk Factory where women are trained to handle all the processes involved in cultivating, dying and weaving silk. The women are from small villages with no other means of support or money generating. They work at the factory – or can work at home if that suits them better – the company gives them a loom and all the materials they need to stay at home and produce work.

On one level, it’s the same factory tour you always get on an organized tour. On another level it is focused solely on impoverished women, trying to make a difference with the poorest of the poor in Cambodia. The materials they use and produce are incredible – and the gift shop (while totally pricier than the market of course) has an array of beautiful items. And buying something here ostensibly goes to help these women raise their lifestyle, so you can easily justify the prices.

Next we head off to the water filter factory. It’s a national holiday (the King’s birthday) so the factory isn’t working, but we see how they make concrete forms, then sieve sand and gravel, layer it in the form and pour the water through to clean it. It’s an ingenious method – and only costs $45 US to create. The organization sells these filters for $3 US to the people of the village to get them use them for clean water. They villages are also taught how to maintain the filters so they will keep working properly. If we were staying longer we could volunteer half days to help build the filters, but that will have to wait until next time.

Back through the flooded streets, we visit a traditional local visit – which is totally muddy and flooded, but everyone is still there selling their produce, meats, fruits and seafood. Going about daily business. The tour is fun – we learn a lot about the different foods and what all these bizarre things are that we see all over the place. We buy some bananas (the girls didn’t get breakfast so they were hungry) and walk though the maze of people, sights and sounds.

Out from the market we head to the Caritas HIV home where the organization provides a home and medicine for AIDS victims. 10 years again, there was a 30% penetration of AIDS, now it’s only 1%, in large part due to the efforts of Caritas and others who have provided education and medicine to everyone who requires it.

After the home visit, we head back to the Villa for lunch. We were originally supposed to go to the Sola Boi (the training/hospitality school), but because of the holiday, they are closed. The Villa is a good alternative, and we get to sample different foods. We’re eating there again tonight, so we’ll get to try lots of different meals here!

After a long rest, we head off to our last stop – the COSO Orphanage. We were also supposed to visit a village to see how the community operates, but we can only assume that the rain and the floods have canceled that stop as well. Some of the roads can flood to 5” deep or more – and it’s already tough getting around town. As we head to the orphanage we pass one of the main local markets and it’s totally flooded, so missing the village visit is probably not so bad a thing.

So – get ready for your heart strings to be pulled. Yes, it’s organized, yes, these kids do this for every tourist who is brought to them, but none of that matters when your van pulls up and 47 little children (age 6 to 13) come running up saying hello, taking your hands, putting their arms around you, asking your name. Is it programmed? Yes. But when we leave, do these kids go back to their one room dormitory with beds that are shared and little lockers for their possessions, and get meals mostly or rice and 8 fish each day – to share between all 47? Yes – and are they happy? Yes, happier than when they were abandoned or orphaned for the 100’s various reasons.

After the initial shock of being overrun by a horde of children, we start to walk through their little home area. Literally – it’s 4 buildings – 1) Girl’s dormitory, 2) boys dormitory, 3) directors home, 4) little bathrooms. The kitchen is an open fire and propane outside under a tin roofed area that has picnic tables. And of course in the middle of the big dirt yard is a huge stage where they congregate and practice traditional Khmer dancing that the organization hopes will help them to learn and grow, and possibly find jobs later on. The older ones go to school in the morning, and then have English lessons in the afternoon back at the orphanage. Most of them speak better English than kids we know at home.

We stayed for about an hour – playing, talking, touring. The oldest boy there (around 13 or 14) latched on to me and wouldn’t let go. He toured me around – right behind Ed who had the director attached to him. My little guy – who’s name I couldn’t pronounce or spell if I tried – was smart as a whip. Understood everything, new what advertising/marketing was when I told him what I did – even gave me an example. He was just too much. When he found out we didn’t have any children he said he could come home with us and be our child. Yeah, I’m crying now!

Before we left, we got to watch while one of the other visitors there handed out school uniforms to all the kids. He had provided the money to buy the uniforms and shoes for everyone. We had brought little cookies and pads and pencils/pens with us – and the kids were just as grateful with us for the little gifts we brought. They then treated us to their dancing – which honestly, was just as good, if not better than the show we saw the night before. It was all very cute and heart wrenching at the same time.

As we left, they all followed us to the van, saying goodbye and wishing US good luck. Just being in Cambodia and seeing the daily lifestyle here is an eye opening experience, this day was way more than that. We came away wanting to do so much more – for these kids, for others here in Cambodia, for kids at home, just more in general to give back to others that aren’t as fortunate or lucky as we are.

Back at the hotel, it’s almost sinful. We hang out for a bit, I get my massage, and then we have dinner. Later we hit Pub Street again – end up at Angkor What?, get their Halloween shirt, get invited to their Halloween party (bummer, we’ll be gone!!!), then head home, already sad about leaving the next day!