And we saw the quasi- Arc de Triomphe in Vientiane, Laos:

But neither were quite as awe-inspiring as finally seeing the real thing:

Paris was the final destination on our round-the-world travels, and—despite initially feeling a bit burned out —it’s hard not to feel energized by the sights of Paris. Incredible buildings and sites are seemingly around every corner, and we had a great time wandering through the city’s various neighborhoods (in addition to visiting the requisite landmarks and museums, and eating the fantastic cuisine).

We also were pleasantly surprised to discover that the French Open was going on during our stay in Paris. Roland Garros is only a short subway ride from the city center, although we had to wait in line for two hours in order to snag an evening grounds pass. This was Amy’s first in-person experience with professional tennis, and we both had a blast wandering from court to court to watch a few games or a set from various singles and doubles matches---usually sitting less than fifteen feet from the court.

You can check out all of our Paris pictures by clicking here. Hard to believe, but Paris is the LAST STOP on our four-and-a-half month, round-the-world trip. The adventure has come to an end... We have definitely had an incredible time these past several months, but we are both quite excited to be back in Seattle again. We will try to post a few wrap-up blogs soon…

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Our hotel was built on a steep cliff overlooking the Caldera, which is the water-filled volcanic center formed by one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history. The nearby picturesque villages of Fira and Oia are similarly built on cliffs, with narrow pedestrians streets and whitewashed buildings perched above the deep blue waters of the Caldera. Very unique. Very cool.

We spent three full days on Santorini, spending our time exploring the island on ATVs, taking a sunset sailboat cruise through the Calderra, hitting wineries, and hanging out by our hotel’s pool and enjoying the incredible views. Three days is enough time to adequately see and enjoy the island, but we could have easily spent several more days there…

You can see all of our Santorini pics by clicking here. From Santorini, we spent just over 24 hours in Athens, which was enough time to spend an evening in The Placa and tour the Acropolis and Parthenon. Our next and final stop: Paris.

Santorini remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It all started when we finally, after 4 months of emails, phone calls, and sometimes even tears, met up with my sister and Rob (with their son Ethan and nanny Jen in tow) on the island of Rhodes. I couldn't have been happier to see them (as much fun as Kevin and I had touring Turkey for two weeks -- meeting up with my sister was all I could think about!). Kevin and I caught a quick ferry from Marmaris, Turkey to Rhodes, Greece, which is where our journey with them began.

Our plans for the itinerary included a visit to three different islands: Rhodes for 3 nights, Crete for an additional 3 nights, and then finally Santorini for 4 nights. Then we would be flying to Athens for a one night stay and that is when we would part ways. In addition to meeting us in Greece, Jenny and Rob also planned this entire leg of the trip – including picking up the hotel accmoodations and transfers. And these weren’t just any accommodations – they were five star hotels and suites. When we arrived at our first hotel we knew we were in for an amazing two weeks (check out these pics of our Rhodes hotel -- the last one is of our private pool

RHODES

The island of Rhodes was a lot of fun and a worthy visit. Outside of being the site of the hotel (which, in our opinion was enough of a reason to visit alone), Rhodes is is one of the most popular islands of Greece and the capital, Rhodes Town, is surrounded by stone walls of a very well preserved Venetian castle. It is one of the biggest and best preserved medieval settlements in all of Europe. And like any proper European castle district, this one didn't disappoint with its narrow cobblestone streets filled with restaurants, shops, and sites that are restricted to pedestrians. (In fact, the streets are so narrow I don't see how cars could ever fit).

Most of the buildings in this part of the city date from Italian rule and are thus adorned with neo-Gothic and Venetian architectural style. This adds much charm to the city and is evident in the types of restaurants -- we definitely had a lot of Greek and Italian food!

Another must-see of Rhodes is a visit to the village of Lindos. It is located south of the capital, on the eastern coast of the island. It is dominated by a magnificent and imposing acropolis, which can be visited either by foot (quite a steep hike to the top) or with the aid of a donkey. Initially, Jenny and I were psyched about the opportunity to ride a donkey up the hill. However, our better sense won out when we learned via our guidebooks that donkeys should not be ridden by persons over 115 pounds. It was quite disheartening to learn and observe the amount of weight that these small animals bore over gruelling conditions -- apparently the Greeks apply no restrictions on who can hire them. Donkey or no donkey, the hike to the acropolis was well worth the effort. It rewarded us with ancient ruins and amazing views of the town of Lindos.

CRETE

After a few sun-filled days touring the island of Rhodes and spending lazy days sunbathing in our private hotel-room pools, we set off for our quick flight to Crete. Once in Crete, we ended up at a resort town called Elounda, and at a resort we will forever fondly refer to as "The Palace." The actual name of the resort is "The Blue Palace," and it is like nothing we have ever experienced before. I know I sound a bit like a broken record, but believe me when I say that this made the resort on Rhodes feel like a DoubleTree. (Oh, am I really back to the "hotel-snob Amy" that I was before I left on this trip? And here just a week ago, I would have reveled in the thought of staying at a DoubleTree. Wow, what a little 5-class resort treatment will do to a person!).

Unfortunately, with just two full days in Crete we did not have adequate time to see much of the island and were focused on just those areas close enough to our hotel. (I would recommend dedicating at minimum 5 nights in Crete...it's just too big of an island to do in 2 days). However, we did manage to visit Knossos, which is a must-see for those interested in ancient history (you're welcome, Kevin and Rob).

But truly the highlight of Crete for me is probably swimming in the Mediterranean Sea at the Blue Palace hotel. After a day spent kyaking and paddle boating out to a nearby island with ruins to check out, we returned to the comforts of our resort. Rob and Kevin convinced my sister and I that we needed to join them in the sea, as it was probably our only opportunity to actually swim in the Mediterranean. We were convinced --- and the feeling of floating through the crystal blue waters of a sea on the other side of the world from Seattle -- well, it never gets old. And retiring to the terry-clothed comfort of our bathrobe and slippers with glass of syrah in hand - I just don't think it ever gets better than this...

Rhodes and Crete have blown us away. And now we can't wait to see what is in store on our final Greek island stop: Santorini.

Greece: Rhodes and Crete remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Overall Impression: Turkey was easily one of our favorite destinations. (Of the countries visited so far, Amy ranks it third behind only New Zealand and Vietnam. Definitely a top spot.) There is a ton to see and do in this country, and we could have easily spent another week here.

Food & Drink: The food in Turkey is fantastic, often very simple but expertly spiced and marinated. We frequently had amazing lentil soup, enjoyed delicious kebab sandwiches on pita, and ate ridiculous quantities of bread at every meal. For beverages, we pretty much drank tea, tea, and more Turkish tea (with the occasional beer thrown in). Sorry, no more tea, please. I need a break.

The People: The Turkish people are exceedingly friendly and outgoing. (I’d rank Turkey and Laos as the two friendliest countries we’ve visited.) Shopkeepers routinely invited us in for tea, even when they knew that would not be buying anything. Restaurant owners would come chat with us during our meals and literally shake our hands when we said goodbye. And,on a slightly different note, Amy couldn’t stop talking about how attractive Turkish men are. (Enough already!)

Cost: Turkey is by no means cheap (not like Southeast Asia, for example). But good accommodation is reasonably priced, and the food can be very inexpensive---especially if you get slightly away from the tourist centers. For instance, at a small restaurant in Feyithe, Amy and I ordered lentil soup, Turkish pizza, a dip platter with pita, and beer---and our total bill was only 8 liras (about $6). And fantastic kebab sandwiches are widely available for less than $2 each.

Night Buses: We took night buses from Istanbul to Goreme and then, later, from Goreme to Olympos. Both of these buses left late in the evening (usually around 10 or 11 at night) and arrived at 8 or 9 in the morning. The buses are modern, air-conditioned and quite nice---but they are still only as comfortable as buses can possibly get. (Thank goodness for sleeping pills.) The photo below is from a shuttle bus (not a night bus) where the bus was overflowing, and I had to sit on the floor. (Thankfully, it was a relatively short ride.)

Istanbul: Turkey’s largest city is as fascinating and memorable as any European city we’ve seen. Our three days here weren’t enough. (We wanted to stay at least four nights, but we couldn’t find accommodation beyond our three nights.) Highlights included the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and just aimlessly wandering the winding, cobblestone streets of Old Town.

Cappaddocia: The Cappadoccia region was probably my favorite part of Turkey. The rock formations here look like they are from a different planet; incredibly unique and often flat-out stunning. Much of the town of Goreme is built into these rock formations, and our hotel was actually a “cave hotel” with the rooms dug out of a rock chimney.

For activities in Cappaddocia, we hiked through canyons, toured an ancient underground city, and floated over the rock formations and canyons in a hot air balloon. Very cool place.

Olympos: Our next stop was the tiny town on Olympos, a small backpacker hangout located in southern Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea. We hiked the surrounding mountains, wandered through ruins, hung out by the sea, and generally did a whole lot of nothing at our bungalow. Very relaxing. Very nice. We also did a night hike to the Chimera Flames (a natural phenomenon that produces everlasting flames from the ground), where we had a bit of a scare---Amy fell and sprained her ankle. Fortunately, the sprain was slight, and it didn’t restrict it her much. And what better means of recovery then to spend four days relaxing on a boat? (That is exactly what we did next.)

Boat Cruise. From Olympos, we boarded a sailboat and spent four days and three nights cruising the Mediterranean coast until we reached Feyithe. There were 11 guests total on the boat, and--aside from several stops to explore coastal towns or ruins--most of our days were lazily spent sunning, swimming, and playing cards. (Luckily, the weather was fantastic.) The water here is crystal clear, and the mountains rising up out of the sea are extremely scenic.

Feyithe. Our boat cruise ended in the coastal town of Feyithe, where we spent two more nights. Throughout our trip, we had been reluctantly resisting the urge to buy many souvenirs (since we had almost no room in our suitcases and didn’t want to carry heavy souvenirs around for months on end)----but, here in Feyithe, we finally broke down and bought a few items. (For better or worse, we’ve visited 17 countries so far and yet most of our souvenirs and gifts will all come from a single country. Oh well.)

Marmaris. From Feyithe, we took a three-hour bus to the coastal town of Marmaris, which is a popular destination for Europeans. Very touristy. We had barely an evening in Marmaris before we caught an early morning ferry to the Greek island of Rhodes.

In Rhodes, we met up with Amy’s sister, Jenny, and Jenny’s husband, Rob. (Plus, their baby, Ethan). The plan is to visit the Greek islands of Rhodes, Crete, and Santorini before spending a short time in Athens. Greece is one of the final countries on our trip (only Paris remains), and we are definitely going out with a bang. More soon…

Turkey: Wrap-Up remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We woke up very early on Sunday morning (5:30am!) to catch the first ride of the day (sunrise). When we arrived at the launch site, the excitement started; just in seeing the 10 – 15 incredibly massive balloons getting inflated in preparation for the morning’s first launch was a sight to be seen. The day couldn’t have been better for ballooning if hand-painted by a master artist herself – the sun was just starting to rise over the hilltops and blue sky engulfed us. We waited as our balloon was being inflated and several others launched before our eyes; the anxious passengers filling into the baskets and then the balloons slowly floating into the sky. Our balloon wasn’t even inflated yet and already my camera had taken nearly 100 photos. I couldn’t wait for our turn!

Finally, the 9 of us in our group were told to get in the basket, which was partitioned into 5 sections. Kevin and I climbed into one of those sections. Then, with the massive, fully inflated balloon dominating the sky above us, the pilots ignited the torches that sent our balloon aflight. The feeling as we left the earth and started to float is indescribable. It’s not a scary feeling – nothing like a roller coaster or other thrill-seeker’s adventure – but rather a peaceful and surreal feeling as you slowing float away into the sky. The view was incredible – the Cappadocia region in Turkey itself is uniquely beautiful – built upon incredible rock formations as far as the eye can see. The ancient people that settled in this land made shelters and homes out of the rock caves, which can be seen everywhere . In fact, even the hotels and hostels are mostly built within these ancient caves (including our hotel room!).

Floating in the sky gives you an incredible view of the caves and rock formations all throughout this region. And the feeling of being in a hot-air balloon is amazing – it is such a peaceful and romantic experience, with the occasional adrenalin rush. A few times the pilots descended us deep into a canyon made by the rock formations to get an up close and personal view of the caves and landscapes. This was an incredible feeling – the expertise that they needed to have in order to keep us floating deep in the canyons without hitting any of the rocks amazed me. (Isn’t at least some of the direction and speed we move based on the current wind pattern and out of the control of the pilots??). At any rate, Kevin and I agreed that the most exhilarating part of the ride was when we were descended deep into the canyons, and not, as I would have expected, when we were flying hundreds of feet into the air.

At one point when we were deep within a canyon, the pilots changed our direction to have us head toward a rock tower (or what they call cave chimneys since they are tall, long, and usually inhabit a cave within them that was used in ancient times for shelter). The view was great, and kept getting better as the pilots moved us in closer and closer. I kept thinking that they must be planning on turning us around soon. But we weren’t changing directions yet. And we were getting closer and closer to the point that if we didn’t turn around now, I thought for sure we would hit. So I peeled my head away from the chimney to look at our pilots – what were they thinking?? They just had this calm look on their face with a slight smile. I quickly looked back at where we were headed. We were definitely ascending now in an attempt to get above the chimney, but it was going to be close! Nearer and nearer to the chimney we got while we continued to ascend higher and higher, but not yet enough to clear the chimney. Now everyone in our basket was on the edge of their feet and starting to squirm – a few people called out worries. We saw the pilots staring intently ahead concentrating deeply on this maneuver. Finally, we had reached the chimney and ascended to the top of it, but all of the passengers held their breath (or closed their eyes) as we moved up over it, uncertain whether we would clear it. You could see all our heads (well those of us who kept our eyes open) lean over the basket (including our pilots!) to ensure that our basket cleared. It did! Whew…that was all the excitement I needed for the one flight. Everyone cheered and I found the pilots smiling, clearly proud of their efforts. I couldn’t help wondering how they practice these moves – it certainly leaves you no room for error!

After about an hour and 15 minutes of flying, we slowly descended to the ground. Our ride was over. And what a ride it was! We celebrated with glasses of champagne and were each issued certificates of our achievement. I wasn’t exactly sure what our achievement was, unless it was keeping our breakfast down while they succeeded in the trick moves. At any rate, Kevin and I were all smiles as we toasted each other to another amazing experience overseas. Hot Air Ballooning in Turkey? Who would have guessed (though I hear Luxor, Egypt has amazing hot-air ballooning...)!

Holy Hot-Air Balloon Ride! remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s was especially difficult for Mostar, and the scars definitely still remain. The town was a center of an ugly (and bloody) three-way war between Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, with neighbors, friends, and even relatives sometimes taking up arms against each other. Much of the town was left in ruins, which---roughly fifteen years later---is still quite evident.

We planned on spending one night in Mostar, but ended up staying two. We spent our time lazily wandering through the Old Town, which can easily eat up a day without doing much of anything (other than eating, drinking, shopping, and aimless walking). As a bonus, the town is quite cheap---everything seemed about half the price of Croatia.

You can check out all of our photos from Mostar by clicking here. From Mostar, we took a bus to Sarajevo and boarded a plane to Istanbul, Turkey. The rough plan is to spend three or four days in Istanbul, followed by ten days split between Cappadoccia and Turkey's Mediterranean coast. More good times ahead....

Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The town of Dubrovnik is usually the top destination of anyone visiting Croatia, and, after spending several days there, it was easy to see why. Dubrovnik's center is the impossibly charming Old Town surrounded by a stone castle wall and made up of entirely pedestrian-only cobblestone streets and very narrow alleys. We took the bus to Dubrovnik and all along the way were entranced by the beautiful coastline views. When Dubrovnik finally came into view, we knew we were in for a treat: Dubrovnik looked like a sparkling amber jewel, with its red clay rooftops set amongst the deep blues and greens of the coast.

Dubrovnik was so much fun to explore -- certainly helped by the wonderful sunshine that made for such pleasing days of meandering the narrow streets and stopping frequently for chatter over coffee and tea. However, Dubrovnik wasn't always the sleek and perfectly cute place that it is today. In fact as recently as 1991 it fell under attack by the Yugoslav army and was badly damaged and destroyed. The Croatians repaired most of the damage to the city in the original style so that today, very little evidence of the massive destruction is visible.

Highlights of our visit in Dubrovnik would be the boat cruise we took to nearby islands and the wall walk around the city. The wall walk is easily a must-do in Dubrovnik anytime of year. It has probably the most impressive city wall of any European city. And walking the walls involves climbing a long set of staircases to get to the top of the wall (there is a fee to do this) and then there is a small track that literally takes you around the entire city on the top of the walls! If you walk the whole thing (which we did) it is over 2 kilometers and takes several hours. The views are magnificent -- this is easily where we took a large portion of our photos.

While the island destination themselves on the boat cruise could have been missed (they were more targeted for summer tourists who might sunbathe on the beach at each island stop -- there wasn't much else on the islands), the boat ride itself was very enjoyable and a great vantage point for seeing the city and the surrounding landscape. In fact, when my mom and I got a little cold, the captain invited us into the helm and even asked my mom to take over steering when he went to run another task!

Dubrovnik ended up being the perfect place to end our Croatia leg. It has such a relaxed and carefree pace that encouraged lots of ice cream eating, tea and coffee stops, and plenty of time to converse and catch up with my parents after being gone for so long. A day after my parents left Croatia, we learned about my grandfather's passing. It's hard to be away from home during this time, and I know it must have been difficult for my dad to know that he was away as well. But I'm so thankful that they came out and were able to spend the time with us seeing part of the world. Thank-you, Mom and Dad. We had such a great time and hope you did, too!

You can find all of our Croatia pictures by clicking here. Next up: Bosnia-Herzogovina

Dubrovnik! remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From the beginning, my parents told us that they wanted to travel our way... I think my dad even said it something like "essentially doing whatever it is that you would be doing had you been traveling by yourselves, with minor adjustments when necessary to meet our standards" (in other words that meant no hostels). Well, those are the words we essentially lived by -- accommodations and activities were made as we went, which didn't always go as smoothly as would be desired. But then again, that just makes for the experiences you remember and laugh about years down the road, right? :-)

One such experience occurred when we arrived in Split, a coastal city on the Adriatic Sea. Previously, from Zagreb, we went to the Plitvice National Park for a few days--which was great fun, but lacked internet connections (it also lacked sunshine for that matter, not to mention fog and rain, which doesn't make for the best combination when trying to see the scenery, but alas I digress). Due to not having internet connection in Plitvice, we were unable to book our hotel accommodations for Split (our next stop) in advance. We weren't too concerned about this since we were taking a 3-hour bus to Split that should have had us arriving late afternoon in plenty of time to look for accommodations. Also, our trusty Rick Steves guidebook told us that Croatia is famous for "sobes," which are similar to bed & breakfasts in the US. The owners of these accommodations are usually found in hordes at all the train and bus stops waving signs with advertisements and photos of their places, trying to get the tourists to stay at their particular sobe. At the very least, in the bus and train stations you can find sobe booking agencies where, for a small fee, they can show you pictures of all available Sobes and book one for you immediately upon arrival.

This, however, didn't work out to be the smooth operation we had hoped. First of all, our intended 3-hour or so bus ride ended up taking over 7 hours! When we asked the hotel receptionist in Plitvice the length of the ride, maybe she assumed we meant "if we traveled via Concordé jet." When we FINALLY arrived in Split, it was after 9pm, raining, and we were starving, tired, and had no place to stay. And to our bad luck, the expected masses of sobe owners were not to be found (probably due to the late hour and the weather) and the booking agency had closed for the night. Luckily (or so we thought), one little old lady who couldn't speak English approached us with her sobe advertisement sign. After several minutes of my mom and I trying to communicate with her via sign language, charades, and even the use of a random bystander for translation, we finally confirmed that she had two rooms available in her sobe located in the middle of the Old Town (downtown area), each with its own bathroom. Our luggage getting a unwanted free wash from the rain, we decided to follow her.

After a painfully slow walk through the rain, we finally reached her sobe. We walked into the lobby of a large apartment building and all stared towards the winding staircase that went directly up. Kevin and my dad decided to wait with our luggage on the bottom floor, while my mom and I followed her to check out the rooms. After a couple flights of very steep stairs, the lady stopped on the landing. Whew! Well, two flights is manageable wıth luggage we thought (though barely!). "Which room is ours?" I asked. She giggled quickly with her hands on her knees taking in several large breaths. "Up, up" she said between breaths and pointed further up the staircase. "Rest," she said next as she moved to the handrail to support herself as she tried to steady her breathing. My mom and I just looked at each other. More stairs? Finally we climbed the remaining flights of stairs and reached her sobe apartment. When she opened the door it was chaos. A scraggly dog came running over. An older man was watching TV in the next room over. Junk was everywhere. My mom and I later reported that it felt like we walked into someone's cramped, very busy home without warning -- nothing was picked up and this didn't appear to be a business that they regularly entertained. "Where are the rooms?" I asked. So she led us to two bedrooms, moving furniture and items out of our way as we followed her. We saw the rooms and immediately knew we couldn't stay here. It smelled thickly of tobacco smoke, among other (and more glarıng) problems. We didn't find the promised attached bathrooms and asked where they were (I whispered to my mother that this was our excuse to flee...since she had promised attached baths). The older man who spoke great English said that the bathroom was just down the hall; we'd share the bathroom and they would use a different one. The gentleman took us across to the other end of the apartment to a bathroom, moved some furniture out of the way and said it was all ours. We peered inside. Then we looked at each other. We knew there was no way we could stay here. No chance. We felt terrible (it obviously wasn't easy for the older lady to walk so far and up so many flights all for a wasted effort), but we politely declined and walked away. (Once we were outside, my mom and I couldn't help but crack up laughing. The place was so awful and just plain strange, the only thıng we could do was laugh about ıt.)

So now the four of us were outside with our luggage in the rain, still starving and getting wetter and colder. We needed a game plan. We saw an overhang from a convenience store and quickly huddled under it for protection while we looked at our map and discussed our next steps. To our good fortune, the woman who runs the convenience store overheard our conversation and asked if she could help us. We quickly explained our predicament and she promised to have someone over soon that could show us some good rooms (and with attached bathrooms she confirmed). We thanked her profusely when Jane arrived and followed her several blocks to another sobe.

There were two bedrooms to choose from: one was on the second floor and was nice enough, though extremely homely. The other is what Bepo (Jane's son) liked to call "The Love Abode." It was decked out in hearts and mirrors and clearly decorated to "get you in the mood". Though the room was extremely large and clean, I couldn't help but laugh out loud when we saw it. The advantage of these rooms, however, is that they did have their own attached bathrooms and felt like separate apartments or hotel rooms.

We decided to check out a nearby hotel before agreeing to book the sobe -- while the rooms were nice enough, there was a funny vibe that we got from Jane and Bepo. So we left Kevin and my dad back at the sobe while my mom and I checked out some nearby hotels. Of course, these didn't work out as they were unbelievably expensive compared to what you get. (Hotels in downtown are ridiculously priced -- there are very few in the Old Town, so they charge a premium.) So, fighting the rain and cold, we headed back to find Kevin and Dad to let them know we'd agree to stay in Jane's Sobe. Unfortunately, that wasn't as easy as it sounds. The streets of Old Town are the tiniest, most narrow and winding cobblestone streets you've ever seen. It's literally like wandering through a maze. After several turns and efforts at trying to retrace our steps, we realized we were lost and couldn't find our way back.

Eventually I started calling out Kevin's name hoping he'd hear me. Nothing. I soon remembered that Jane had given me her business card so I pulled it out and showed it to some Croatian guys I found smoking in the corner of one of the streets. They tried to show us, taking us down several streets until finally arriving at a hostel we had never seen before. With big smiles on their faces they pointed and said "there!". Mom and I sadly shook our heads and said that wasn't it. They kept insisting "yes, yes". Clearly our language barrier wouldn't enable us to explain that we had already been to our sobe on the card and knew that the hostel wasn't what we were looking for. So we just walked away apologizing. Finally, a block down, I see Kevin turning the corner! He came looking for us with Bepo, and was able to track us down.

So, in the end we stayed a few nights at Jane's Sobe. Was it okay? Yes, it turned out to be fine, except for the smoke that reeked in our Love Abode. (It is usually Bepo's room, who is a heavy smoker). And Jane and Bepo WERE very interesting people, to say the least. We'll have to tell you more about our conversations with them (and other people regarding them) another time.

All in all we ended up REALLY loving Split. And the sun returned the next day making the rest of our stay very enjoyable. The city is gorgeous and we had so much fun just walking around the Old Town pedestrian-only streets and the bustling promenade. The accommodations were something else, but we learned our lesson and made certain we had advance reservations for our next stop --- Dubrovnik. (In fact, we spent several hours at a local internet cafe picking and booking the room). And while we (my parents included) are laughing about this experience now, it definitely was an adventure we hope not to repeat!

Next stop: Dubrovnik. The adventure continues....

It's Time to Split! remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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During our week tour through Slovenia we visited the capital city of Ljubljana for 2 nights, then rented a car to head to the little coastal town of Piran for 2 nights. On the way to and from Piran, we stopped to see the Skocjan Caves & Pedjama Castle. Finally, we ended with 3 nights in the mountainous town of Lake Bled. Whew!

Ljubljana. Ljubljana (say it by pronouncing the j’s as y’s) was our first stop in Slovenia. We arrived on Monday to Crystal already waiting (she arrived the day before we did). However, it worked out well (for Kevin and myself, I guess) since she had not yet seen much of the sites – apparently Croatia shuts down on Sundays to observe as a holy day – so most shops and all museums were closed that day.

We spent our only full day checking out the city. Ljubljana is a large, picturesque city, but, like many other European cities, feels much smaller than its actual population. The life of Ljubljana is its lazy Old Town which is built around the Ljubljana Castle that resides atop a small mountain (or hill to those of us from the Northwest). This castle floats over the city like a watchful guardian.

We enjoyed the pathetically-small daily market (but getting Crystal’s and my favorite bottle of wine from the trip – at a bargain-basement rate of 2.5 Euros-- made it one of our favorite markets!), several stops for tea and beer, and marveled at the architecture of the late Joze Plecnik – apparently he alone is responsible for the design of 90% of Ljubljana's city center. We even toured his last residence….apparently he was quite the introvert and wasn’t that popular with the ladies – but whatever he lacked in social graces, he made up for in his talent and eye for design!

Skocjan Caves. On our way to Piran we tried to stop at both the Predjama Castle and the Skocjan Caves – highly recommended sites from Crystal’s Rough Guide book. The Pedjama Castle ended up bweeing closed that day (which we discovered quite humorously by driving several miles to the castle even though we passed numerous “CLOSE” signs trying unsuccessfully to warn us – I guess we took our English too literally and just assumed we didn’t have much further to go!).

Luckily, we did make it to the Skocjan caves, as these were easily a highlight of our trip! Slovenia is known for their caves -- they have over 7000 of them! The Skocjan cave system is one of the largest in Europe and it houses the largest underground canyon in the world (that we know of), which includes 5 kilometers of passages and many waterfalls. They are now part of the UNESCO world heritage sites and when you venture down 200 meters underground to explore them, you can really appreciate why this amazing and unique natural beauty must be preserved.

Entering through a narrow tunnel you are immediately thrown into a crazy and extraordinary landscape where stalactites and stalagmites drip down from the ceiling and grow up from beneath your feet. Or so it looks, as they actually grow at the impossibly slow rate of 1 cm every 100 years, giving some idea of the many thousands of years it has taken for the caves to assume their present form. The best is yet to come however as the roaring of the underground Reka River reveals itself at the bottom of an awe inspiring gorge that drops 100m below the bridge we carefully cross, and stretches the same distance over our heads. Words cannot describe the awe-inspiring beauty of these magnificent caves.

After exploring the giant canyon-within-a-cave, we take one last look at the gushing waters below and return to the surface, with a mind full of dramatic images stored in our heads, but none on our cameras. Photography is not permitted in the caves, and although this annoyed me at the start, I quickly understood the reason for it – the light from the flashes can damage the natural coloration of the rocks. In fact, the guides even turn off the lights in the cave behind us as our group left to minimize this impact. So instead, Kevin and I retrieved these images from our good friend Google Images. (You’ve met him before, though you may not have realized it at the time).

Hvala, Crystal! Without you, its unlikely Kevin and I would have seen this gem. And what a miss it would have been!

Piran. We rented a car and headed to the South end of Slovenia to a tiny town called Piran. After questionable weather in Lubljana, we were looking forward to some sunshine. And we were not disappointed! Piran was impossibly bright and sunny and the most charming little coastal village – right on the Adriatic Sea. It resembles a large open-air museum with medieval architecture, narrow streets, and compact houses. No cars are allowed in this old town -- the streets are way too small (in fact, some were so small no more than 2 or 3 people could fit side-by-side). In Piran we enjoyed exploring the castle, and lazy days eating and drinking al fresco – at outdoor cafes. But probably our favorite thing about Piran was watching the sunset sitting outside and drinking our favorite 2.5 Euro bottle of wine from Lubjana.

Pedjama Castle. Since we missed Pedjama Castle on the way to Piran, we made it a priority to visit on the way back from Piran. This time, to our delight, the “CLOSE” signs were removed and we were able to take a look. The castle is one of my favorites for photographs -- it is built literally into a rock wall. We decided not to tour this castle -- were a bit castled out. But the pictures were great. All in all, it was a bit off the beaten track to get to for just a few photos. But if you are passing by anyway, it is definitely worth a look.

Lake Bled. After visiting Piran and the Pedjama Castle, we made our way to the town of Lake Bled, where we spent 3 nights. Lake Bled is a mountain resort town, built around its Lake Bled, which is a medium size lake with a small church propped on a tiny island in the middle of the lake. And it wouldn't be Slovenia if it didn't have a castle perched high on a hill overlooking the lake as if in a fairy tale. While the town of Lake Bled left a little to be desired, it was the amazing natural wonders and hiking around Lake Bled that makes this area so worth visiting.

From Lake Bled, we took a quick side-trip to nearby Lake Bohinj. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and cut our visit a bit short, but what we saw in the rain and clouds still made for some unbelievable sites.

The rest of the time in Lake Bled we spent hiking nearby gorges (which was so much fun with its network of footbridges built over the rushing rivers making it easy to get very close to the scene), taking a boat gondola ride out to the island and, of course, hiking up to see the castle.

Too quickly our 7 days together came to an end and we had to part ways with Crystal. I am so glad that we got to share this time with Crystal and were able to meet up. You can check out all of our Slovenia pictures by clicking here.

Now we are off to Croatia to meet up with my parents...can't wait!

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We didn’t waste any time in getting to a spa, which are found all over the city. (There are over two-dozen, government-owned thermal baths there.) Upon arriving in Budapest, we immediately joined three guys we had met on the train and set out for the Szechenyi Baths, which are naturally heated by two thermal springs. The baths are basically like a gigantic swimming pool (or three) at home---except the water is about 100 degrees (or more), there are plenty of jets and whirlpools, the surrounding structure is ancient, and speedo-clad Hungarians are everywhere. More specifically, the Szecheny Baths has three huge outdoor pools (all of different temperature) and a slew of indoor hot tubs and saunas (again, all of different temperature). Very, very cool.

The next day, we met up again with our three friends from the train (Chris, Rob, and Dan) and joined a bike tour of the city. Highly recommended, especially for a sprawling city like Budapest. (We’ve rented a bike in every European city so far except Prague… Always a good time.) You can check out all of our Budapest photos by clicking here. After four nights in Budapest, we head to the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where we meet up with our friend, Crystal. (Crystal is from Seattle, but she has been teaching in Aberdeen, Scotland for the past two years.)

We are planning to spend six days in Slovenia with Crystal before moving on to Croatia. More soon…

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The emotional power of walking through Auschwitz (and the adjacent camp, Birkenau) is jarring. The sheer scale, organization, and effort that the Nazis undertook to exterminate innocent men, women, and children is unspeakably shocking to see in person. Words cannot express the feelings of profound sadness—and anger—that overwhelmed us while seeing the remains of the camps (such as the crematoriums and gas chambers), the belongings and pictures of many of those who perished (including mini-mountains of their hair, shoes, and luggage) and hearing the gruesome, tearful descriptions of the function and purpose of each structure and area of the camp.

So, you may be wondering: Why visit a horrible concentration camp on your vacation? Well, as put by the travel writer Rick Steves, Auschwitz is “one of the most moving sights in Europe.” He further explains why this site is a must-see for all travellers:

"Auschwitz survivors and victims’ families want tourists to come here and experience the scale and monstrosity of the place. In their minds, a steady flow of visitors will ensure that the Holocaust is always remembered---so it never happens again. Auschwitz isn’t for everyone. But I’ve never met anyone who toured Auschwitz and regretted it. For many, it’s a profoundly life-altering experience—and at the very least, it will forever affect the way you think about the Holocaust."

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Krakow is one of the least touristy “big” cities that we’ve visited. Many people who do a tour through Europe or even Eastern Europe seem to leave this city off their itinerary. While Kevin and I enjoyed the fact that it didn’t feel overly touristy, we don’t imagine that it will last long. More and more tourists are hearing how great this city is and adding it to their itinerary (like we did). So we are glad that we got to visit Krakow before it becomes the “next Prague”.

The heart, soul, and life of Krakow lives in its Old Town, which is a very cool downtown center that is easily walkable and filled with cobblestone streets, museums, old cathedrals, theaters, shops, restaurants, and the famous castle. Many of the streets are pedestrian-only streets, which makes it so much fun to wander around aimlessly and stop in the many cafes or street vendors for a quick bite or drink.

The food in Krakow did not disappoint. It is very similar to the food we have enjoyed in other parts of Eastern Europe, most notably the Czech Republic. We really enjoyed the doughy, bagel-like roll offered from the street vendors at every corner (you couldn’t find a street that didn’t have some vendor selling these, not that you would want to). Other favorites included their soups (like borscht or zurek) and pierogi (ravioli-like dumplings with various fillings inside).

As we have been experiencing elsewhere in Europe, Krakow is not exactly cheap. But, probably due to not being as popular as other places we’ve visited (and also not being on the euro), it did provide a bit of a price break compared to Prague and Amsterdam. (Again, we are still in a bit of price shock in general after spending so long in Southeast Asia)!

One day during our stay we rented bicycles and rode out into the country-side, leaving Krakow behind for the day. It was a gorgeous ride along secluded bike paths the entire time. Our destination? An ancient monastery.

We spent three full days in Krakow---and would have spent another day if our small hotel had rooms available for another night. Considering how much we liked Krakow, we’re a little bummed we didn’t get to spend more time in Poland. We met some guys who had just travelled through the small Polish town of Poznan, which they raved and raved about. (Maybe next time…)

You can check out all of our Krakow pictures by clicking right here. From Krakow, we are visiting the nearby Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps and then taking night train to Budapest. More posts soon!

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For our very trip next trip (a three-hour bus ride from Prague to Cesky Krumlov), drama returned yet again. We arrived at the bus station in Prague only be told, in broken English, that all buses that day to Cesky Krumlov were totally booked. Seemingly without any way to get there, we toyed with the idea of ditching Cesky Krumlov altogether and just catching the train to Krakow instead. But, first, Kevin decided to see if he could find a different ticket window that could somehow find us another way there. While waiting in line, Kevin struck up a conversation with a native Czech named Martin who spoke good English. Martin agreed to talk to the lady at the ticket window for us (in Czech this time) and learned that, while all buses were indeed booked from that station, we could catch a bus from a different station in Prague that left in just a few hours. Great! Martin helped us buy the bus tickets and even showed us exactly how to get to the other bus station via the metro. (Martin: If you’re reading this, a huge thank you again…)

So we ended up making it to Cesky Krumlov after all… and we’re so glad that we did. Cesky Krumlov is a town in southern Czech Republic with an extremely well-preserved medieval center and a huge thirteenth century castle. A very, very cool place. Wandering the narrow, cobblestone streets amidst row-after-row of renaissance and baroque buildings, it’s easy to get lost in roughly 750 years of history and feel like time has stopped here.

The month of April in Cesky Krumlov is definitely a low period for tourists. At first, we were a bit bummed by our timing, since many of the restaurants are closed and some of the activities we wanted to do (such as floating down the river) are not available yet. But we quickly became thankful for the lack of crowds. Wandering near-empty medieval streets is far more captivating than when the streets are filled with hordes of tourists. (Our experiences in both Prague and Cesky Krumlov would have probably been much different in high tourist season.) Plus, we signed up for the night walking tour, and we were the only ones to show up for the our---so we essentially had our own private guide to show us around the town (which was fantastic).

You can see all of our Cesky Krumlov photos here. After two nights in Cesky Krumlov, we caught the bus back to Prague (no problems this time!) and immediately got on the night train to Krakow. More soon…

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Prague has a huge medieval center that, from one medieval neighborhood to the next, feels like a giant step back in time. The city is full of winding cobbled lanes, walled courtyards, huge cathedrals, countless spires, and a varied mix of stunning, ancient architecture. (Plus, it arguably has the best beer in the world… What’s not to love?)

Whatever Prague lacks in blockbuster activities, it makes up for it with incredible ambience. We spent our days aimlessly wandering from one neighborhood to the next. From the Old Quarter to the Castle Quarter to the Little Quarter to the Jewish Quarter to the New Town---each neighborhood has its own unique character, history, architecture, and charm.

You can check out all of our Prague photos right here. We’ve fallen a bit behind in our blog entries (sorry!), so we’ll try to catch up with several mini-entries in the next few days. Up next: Cesky Krumlov and Krakow.

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From the moment we stepped foot in Amsterdam, we were transfixed. It was shocking how different the city looked to anything we had seen yet (especially after coming from Southeast Asia). Amsterdam has stunning architecture and scenic canals that crisscross the city. And I’ve never seen buildings, let alone entire neighborhoods, as old as those in Amsterdam. In the U.S. a building is considered old if it was built a hundred years ago. Here, in much of Amsterdam, that would be considered relatively new. (Most of the architecture is dated 500 years ago, and many buildings are even older!)

After the architecture, what probably hit us the hardest was the climate. During our stay in Amsterdam, it was generally in the low-to-mid 40’s. Coming from the tropical climate of Asia, it was definitely a bit of a shock. (And we had to buy warmer clothes.) We also were unlucky to have rain during our first two days, which definitely hampered our sight-seeing.

Some highlights of our visit to Amsterdam include:

[*]The Anne Frank Haus – This is the house that contained the business Anne’s father ran, which later became her family’s hideout during the Holocaust. The house is open for tours of the “Secret Annex” (the secret attic rooms where her family and one other family lived for 2 years while they hid from the Nazis). I recommend anyone going on this tour re-reading her book as a refresher, as the tour itself doesn’t give much information.

[*]Van Gogh Museum –An entire museum dedicated to Van Gogh and his life. It was incredibly informative and educational, and they have a enormous collection of Van Gogh’s works. Just getting to see the originals of some of his most famous paintings, such as The Starry Night and The Sunflowers, was worth the ticket price in itself.

[*]Cycling the city on single gear beach cruisers – on our final day Kevin and I rented bikes for the day. No gears and no hand breaks – you stopped old-school style by pedaling backwards. Most of the locals seem to cycle in Amsterdam – it’s a common alternative to a car and most roads have separate bike lanes or even separate bike paths. This is probably the reason that helmets aren’t required for cyclists (of the thousand cyclists we must have seen, not one was wearing a helmet – in fact it wasn’t even an option from our rental agency). Cycling around town was easily the highlight of our trip.

Amsterdam is probably most famous for two things: Its “coffeeshops” and the Red Light District. Coffeeshops are everywhere – and these aren’t any cafes that Starbucks will be putting its name on. (In fact, I’m not sure if they even sell coffee!) Coffeeshops in the Netherlands are pubs selling marijuana with display cases showing various joints or baggies for sale. The minimum age to purchase is 18 and coffeeshops can sell up to five grams of marijuana per person per day. Holland has a nationwide smoking ban – but the law pertains to tobacco smoke and not marijuana smoke. So as long as the coffeeshop is selling pure marijuana, they’re safe. We learned, however, that many shops mix their marijuana with tobacco, and when these shops get busted it’s because of the tobacco and not the marijuana! I did learn that the Dutch are not necessarily pro-marijuana, but that they believe that the outlawing of marijuana would cause more problems than it would solve. Statistics show that the Dutch have fewer hard drug problems than other countries. And shockingly, after 10 years, the Dutch have found that their drug policy does not result in more pot smoking – actually statistics show that Americans smoke twice as much pot as the Dutch, per capita.

The Red Light District is a fascinating (somewhat shocking) couple of blocks that literally lights up in red at night. Of course, the Red Light District is famous for the sex industry, where prostitution is legal. However, we read that there was an effort that began a few years ago to clean up this area, requiring permits for legal businesses, attracting new and trendy restaurants, and luxurious hotels and lodging options. This effort must have worked because our impression was a much cleaner, more sophisticated area than we had expected with theaters, shops, restaurants, and bars in addition to the sex businesses. That being said, it was quite the experience walking down the street and window-shopping the red-lighted windows in which scantily-clad women put themselves on display in order to solicit their services. It was a bit awkward-feeling, and I can definitely say that I never got used to that.

All in all we were very pleased with Amsterdam and could have easily spent more time here. The city feels much smaller and relaxed than its true population, and—perhaps due to unfair preconceptions—Amsterdam is far more charming (and cleaner) than we had expected. I’m definitely excited for our remaining time in Europe. Our next stop is Prague!

Amy earning her place in the local brewery tour

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Anyway, here are some notable tips and tricks for international travel:

Get a No-Fee Credit Card: Many credit cards charge a so-called “currency conversion” fee for international purchases, often set at 3 percent. Be mindful of the fee charged by your credit card and, ideally, find a card that does not charge such a fee, or charges a low fee. Capital One credit cards, for instance, charge no fee at all. (This is the credit card that we have used exclusively during our travels.)

Get a No-Fee or Low-Fee ATM Card: The same also holds true for ATM cards. Many banks charge a standard fee (often $5) plus a currency conversion fee for all ATM withdrawals. (This can add up fast.) Consider moving some money to a bank with lower fees, or no fee at all. After some research, E-Trade seems to offer one of the best combinations of high interest rates and low fees for international ATM withdrawals.

Budget Airlines: Travelers can save a lot of money by booking budget airlines for intra-region flights. Most of these airlines are not listed on Expedia or Travelocity, so you have to go direct to their websites to check out fares. We’ve found that a flight on a regular airlines can be double, or sometimes even triple, the cost of a budget airline flight. In Southeast Asia, we used AirAsia and JetStar several times. We used the budget option Virgin Blue in Australia, and we just recently flew on SkyEurope in Europe. (Europe has a slew of budget choices.)

Obtain Multiple Credit Cards & ATM Cards: While travelling in New Zealand, our E-Trade ATM card was deactivated due to so-called “suspicious activity.” (No idea why.) In order to get it reactivated, E-Trade required that I mail them a signed letter notarized by a notary public. Totally ridiculous. And next to impossible considering we were in the Middle of Nowhere, New Zealand at the time. Fortunately, we brought along a second ATM card (from a different bank) that we used until the E-Trade card was reactivated.

Call Your Bank and Credit Card Company Before You Leave. Make sure you tell them where you’re going to be, so they don’t deactivate your account once you start ringing up charges in strange countries.

Packing Cubes. We pack all of our clothes and items into several different packing cubes, which then fit easily into our suitcase. We'll never again take a trip without them.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks. We’ve purchased guidebooks for every place we’ve been, and they’ve been worth every cent. For New Zealand and Southeast Asia, the most popular (and revered) guidebooks seem to be Lonely Planet and the Rough Guides. But here’s a word of warning for using Lonely Planet in Southeast Asia: the books are great, but just about EVERYONE uses them throughout the region. So if there’s a hotel that Lonely Planet strongly recommends, it will probably be booked up. If there’s a restaurant they rave about, it will probably be packed and the prices will likely be jacked up. The books are definitely a bit too popular. (I have not used the Rough Guides before, but this reason alone would probably make me look strongly at using them instead.)

*****

On a related note, we’ve heard from a few of you that trips to New Zealand are now in the works. Very cool. We’ve had a blast everywhere so far, but our favorite overall spots have probably been New Zealand and also Vietnam. (Amy keeps raving and raving about Vietnam...)

Of the places that we didn’t go (but we wish did, if we had more time): In New Zealand, we heard good things about the Bay of Islands up on the North Island; and several people raved about whale watching and swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura. In Southeast Asia, we really wanted to go see Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia---but we ran out of time. We also heard people rave about the crystal clear waters and fantastic diving on the Perhentian Islands in Malayasia. (One person described the Perhentians as “like the Maldives, with less crowds and at a fraction of the cost.”) We also heard great things about Borneo, also in Malaysia. (Maybe next time…)

Anyway, we just spent the last week split between Amsterdam and Prague. More soon...

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So, here’s the crazy route we ended up choosing instead: After arriving in Saigon at 10:00 a.m., we had a 10-hour layover before catching an evening flight (in the opposite direction from Hong Kong) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ($90 per ticket). We stayed at an airport hotel in Kuala Lumpur before catching a very early flight to Hong Kong the next morning ($110 per ticket). Far from ideal, but it gave us most of a day to explore Saigon and saved us over $500.

While in Saigon, we weren’t sure exactly what to do with our luggage during our 10-hour layover while we explored the city. But, on our flight there, we met a fellow traveler who recommended a cheap, $15 hotel in downtown Saigon where we could drop off our bags for the day and get in a shower before our flight. (The temperature was over 90 degrees.) This worked out well and gave us plenty of time to check out the city. The streets of Saigon were even crazier than in Hanoi (the streets are an enormous, chaotic sea of motorbikes; we witnessed two motorbike accidents) and the vendors were even more aggressive (they would literally grab your arm and try to pull you into their stall). And, as we found all over Vietnam, the motorbike often doubled as the family mini-van:

Neither of us were particularly thrilled with Saigon (we liked Hanoi much better), although the American War Museum in Saigon is fascinating (and a bit disturbing and depressing). Quite interesting to see Vietnam’s perspective on the Vietnam War, which they call the “American War."

But, yes, we did finally make it to Hong Kong, although we had less than 48 hours there. We found it to be a terrific city, with a very Manhattan-like vibe. Hong Kong has a unique mix of past and present, modern and traditional, luxury and simple. Very cool. (And, day or night, the skyline is flat-out incredible…)

Hong Kong has a unique array of transportation options. During our short stay there, we took ferries, buses, subway, and trams. But perhaps the most interesting form of transportation we took was the series of outdoor, covered escalators and moving walkways (the longest such system in the world, in fact, at over 800 meters long) that 45,000 Hong Kong residents use to get to work each day. The escalators run downhill during the morning rush hour. And then uphill in the late afternoon and evening to get them up the hill after work. (Wow, I need these in Seattle to get me up Madison Avenue each morning…)

Hong Kong was our last stop in Southeast Asia. From there, we fly overnight to Amsterdam to begin our stretch through Europe. (You can find all of our Hong Kong and Saigon photos here.)

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Dalat is a mountain town of 188,000 people, popular among the Vietnamese as a weekend and holiday destination. Known for it’s cooler climate, as it’s a welcome reprieve for the locals to get away from the humidity and heat. This was evident when we arrived to see all the locals were wearing pants, long sleeves and coats. For Kevin and me, the climate was perfect – warm enough for tank tops and shorts, yet cool enough that we didn’t overheat as we did in other Vietnam cities.

The city itself isn’t that much different from other Vietnam cities we’d visited – motorbike traffic is still the preferred transportation method, although perhaps slightly less congested than other major cities. But it wasn’t the downtown city that made us fall in love with Dalat. It was the gems we found once you ventured past the urban walls into the countryside: lush green valleys, hills (mountains by Vietnam standards) and all the activities and sports that any outdoor enthusiast could want. We had four nights in Dalat and we didn’t waste any time filling them up and getting ourselves outside the city to where the real beauty lied.

We had discovered in our research on Dalat that canyoning was offered there. After our introduction to canyoning in New Zealand (and based on how much we enjoyed it) we knew we would have to try it here in Dalat. And Dalat didn’t fail – it was so much fun! We weren’t sure how it would stack up to New Zealand’s -- but we found ourselves discussing afterwards which country had the better canyoning. In the end we couldn’t decide – they both were so much fun. One thing is for sure – Dalat offered the most challenging and tallest waterfalls that we rapelled. The largest being 82 feet and the water pressure unreal. We were literally rapelling down the waterfalls with the water crashing over us – it took everything we had in concentration, well-timed breaths (when we found an opportunity to grab a much-needed breath) and all our strength to fight the waterfall and make it down to the bottom. To say the least – it was exhilarating!

Dalat is also well-known for its mountain biking. We decided to spend one of our days on a guided mountain bike tour. This turned out to be the most physically demanding activity we have completed so far on our trip. We ended up in a private group with just the two of us and two guides – Ming and Kahn. They were great, but I don’t think Kevin and I realized what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up for the “easy” tour. The ride was a full day that started with some city riding (which was a bit nerve-racking initially – remember the crazy motorbike traffic we’ve been telling you about? Well now imagine riding a bicycle in that traffic – and trying to cross intersections with no traffic lights. Scary!). Luckily, the city riding was minimal and very quickly we were riding through lazy country roads. The scenery was beautiful – mostly farmlands. However, this riding didn’t last long before we went off-road and into their single track mountain-riding. I’ve never rode through a more beautiful area, but there was nothing lazy about this style of riding. It was insanely difficult and challenging – we were true mountain bikers! (And whoever called this the “easy” ride had to be out of their minds!) At any rate, Kevin and I were exhausted by time we stopped for a much needed lunch break. After lunch we still had a couple hours of riding before we returned back to Dalat for the end. What a ride – I don’t think we’ve ever slept as well as we did that night.

Finally, on our last full day in Dalat we decided to take a break and hire a couple “Easy Riders” for a motor-bike tour of the area. The Easy Riders are a group of 60 or so motorbike guides who offer tours of Dalat and the surrounding countryside to tourists. Our guides took us outside of the city and into the country. We got to visit some minority villages, meeting some of these locals, seeing where they live and visiting their schools. But the best part had to be riding on the back of the motorbike and seeing the beautiful mountains (and a gorgeous waterfall) of Dalat. It was great fun.

After three quick days it was time for us to leave Dalat. Like the rest of Vietnam, we easily fell in love with this town. There was something very different about Dalat – it didn’t look like any other city in Vietnam – while mountain biking we felt like we could have been in central Orgeon; the farms and valleys could have been a scene from Europe. Yet there were the many similarities that made this country most certainly Vietnam – the motorbikes, the food, and the great people. Each new city that we visit in Vietnam reinforces for me how much I love this country. As our time in Vietnam comes to an end, I know that I’ll miss it. And yet, I know that Kevin and I will be back someday. This is a country in Asia that I definitely want to return.

You can see all of our Dalat picks here: Click Here

More soon (I promise!) on our remaining days in Southeast Asia.

Cheers!

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Amy and I spent three days and two nights on a “junk” boat cruising through the bay. (The term “junk” refers to the Ancient Chinese style of vessel that is found throughout the bay, not the age or quality of our boat. Our boat was anything but junky.) Fitted with multiple private bedrooms, our boat “Bai Tu Long” had ten other travellers onboard. We spent our days sailing amongst the limestone islands, exploring and rafting through caves, visiting floating villages, and doing a bit of kayaking. Tough to beat.

Of the people onboard for our first night, we were the only ones who were staying two nights on the boat. (The rest were either returning to Hanoi after one night or spending their second night at a nearby hotel.) On the morning of our second day, while our boat took the others to their next destination, a different boat picked Amy and I up for the day… and we had the entire boat to ourselves. It was a gorgeous boat with a crew of four---and we were the only two guests. We felt like we were living a life of luxury---if only for a short day. (We returned to our original boat later that evening.)

The kayaking in Halong Bay is incredible; we paddled through several different caves and emerged in lagoons surrounded by huge limestone peaks. Very cool. The downside, however, is that the water in Halong Bay is far from clean. It’s obvious that many of the junk boats (and perhaps the floating villages) dump a lot of their waste into the water. Definitely a huge shame, and it kept us from swimming in the water.

You can see all of our Halong Bay pictures here, along with photos from the rest of Vietnam. After Halong Bay, we had originally intended to take the night train to Sapa (in Northern Vietnam). But we changed our plans last-minute and are headed instead to the mountain town of Dalat, where we intend to bike, hike, and abseil in the surrounding area there. Will fill you in soon...

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THE BEST

Food: The food in this country is fantastic, probably the best so far of our travels. From the fresh spring rolls, to the various dipping sauces, to the soups, to the vegetables, to the noodles, to the seafood… it’s been consistently good (and very cheap). There’s definitely a lot more to Vietnamese food than just pho. (And, when we return to Seattle, we will definitely be seeking it out...)

Tailors: Hoi An is world-renowned for its inexpensive, made-to-order clothing shops. The center of town is overflowing with these shops; on one block, I counted ten such shops in a row. These shops can make or duplicate just about anything that you show them (they all have samples or fashion magazines in order to pick out designs), all done and tailored within 24 hours, if needed. The shops differ widely in price, but, in a typical shop, a men’s dress shirt will cost about ten or twelve bucks, while a suit will cost about $50 to $110 (depending on quality and the type of fabric). Amy had two coats made (the gray one below only cost only $25) plus a dress, while I had a suit, a coat, and three shirts made.

Domestic Air Travel: Vietnam Airlines and JetStar offer extremely cheap fares throughout the country. While sleeper trains (and even sleeper buses with bunks instead of seats) are available and widely used, it’s hard not to just fly from place to place. Our flight from Saigon to Hoi An on Vietnam Airlines was only $37 per ticket, while Hoi An to Hanoi on JetStar was about the same.

Cooking Class: We took a great cooking class in Hoi An that involved a trip to an outdoor food market (where we sampled bizarre fruits and vegetables) and then prepared various Vietnamese dishes. I wasn’t exactly a top student. The chef shook his head at the results of my labor several times, including the “decorative” vegetables below that were supposed to resemble flowers. (See if you can guess which plate is mine and which is Amy’s.)

Beer: The beer here is very good, but its best feature is its price. A bottled beer in a restaurant is typically fifty or sixty cents, which is cheaper than a soda. And, even better, a freshly-brewed pilsner known as bia hoi or “fresh beer”, when available, is even cheaper.

The Gecko Hotel: Amy found us a fantastic place in Hanoi. Located in the heart of the Old Quarter, this hotel is almost brand new, has modern rooms, free wireless internet, a free laptop for use in the rooms, a large television, over-the-top service, and free breakfast... for $32 per night. Not too shabby.

Copycat Businesses: To our amusement, we often encounter businesses that are clear copy-cats of successful businesses from the Western world. For example, see if you can tell what coffee franchise this clearly resembles, right down to the green, circular logo…

THE WORST

Motorbikes: Motorbikes are the predominant means of transportation—by a huge, huge margin. The streets are a chaotic mass of motorbikes. On our taxi ride from Danang to nearby Hoi An, the taxi driver honked about 800 times and nearly took out about 50 bikers.

Crossing the Street in the Old Quarter: Most of the busy streets in the Old Quarter of Hanoi do not have stoplights or meaningful crosswalks---which can make it quite daunting to cross the street and evade the sea of motorbikes. Here are the three rules and tips for crossing the street, as far as we can tell: (1) Don’t wait for a significant break in the traffic since it will likely never come; (2) Walk at a constant, steady pace across the street and the traffic will move around you; (3) Do not suddenly dart for the end or stop abruptly; (4) If you get lucky and see other people trying to cross the street, join in with them; and (4) Cross your fingers and hope for the best. (Yikes.)

Motorbikes, Part II. For pedestrians, the motorbikes make it a bad idea to carelessly “stroll” down a street. The streets of Hoi An and the Old Quarter of Hanoi (where we stayed) have very narrow streets and alleyways (often without sidewalks), and the motorbikes will seemingly roar through any and all spaces, no matter how narrow it may be. To make matters worse, even when streets have sidewalks, such sidewalks are often impassable since they are filled with parked motorbikes or vendors. (Fortunately, both Hoi An and Hanoi offered street markets or promenades in the evening where certain streets were closed to motorbikes.)

Aggressive Salespeople: It’s rare to walk down the street in Hanoi and not be constantly approached by aggressive and insistent vendors or drivers about buying certain products or using a particular service. (This also makes it difficult to simply browse through items in a market.) And a simple “no” or “head shake” is often not enough. (Very annoying.) In light of the absurdity of what was sometimes often offered to us, it’s clear that these salespeople think nothing of being rejected a thousand times in a row before someone will finally say yes.

Tailors: This one belongs within both the “best” and the “worst.” I’ve described the positive aspects above, but I was basically dreading and loathing tailors by the time we left Hoi An. First, it’s completely overwhelming. Unless you arrive with a solid idea of what you want, the decisions in what tailor to choose and what you want them to make (and what type of fabric to use) can make your head spin. Definitely too many choices. Second, it’s just too time consuming. Every piece of clothing you have made requires several trips to the tailor for fittings (since it takes several times to get it just right) and, depending on the shop, may lead to some push back from the tailor about whether changes need to be made. Even Amy (who loves to shop) was exhausted and a bit disillusioned by the process (although she loved the end result). Third, it’s easy to get carried away with this. We ran into many travelers who had planned on having a few simple items made… and ended up staying for a week and having a thousand dollars worth of clothes made.

Hanoi's trash: While Hanoi and its Old Quarter definitely has its own charm, be prepared for streets littered with trash.

Haggling: Everything is negotiable here, and—especially in the street markets or touristy shops—you will often get ripped off if you don’t haggle a bit. One traveler wisely advised that the initial, suggested price is probably about forty percent higher than it should be—and that our counteroffer should be roughly sixty percent less (with the aim of eventually getting it for forty percent less). It all gets a bit tedious and makes you (often unreasonably) suspicious of all prices you see.
…

Anyway, Hoi An and Hanoi are extremely different cities with a completely different vibe and charm, but we enjoyed them both very much. We'll post a link to our pictures once we get them all up on Flickr.

Up next, we head out on a three-day boat trip through scenic Halong Bay. More soon...

Hoi An & Hanoi: The Best & Worst remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our original itinerary for Southeast Asia didn’t have us stopping in Singapore, due partly to time constraints but also because we had heard from other travelers that it’s just “another big city.” However, friends of Kevin’s family, Steve and Alice Early, live in Singapore and got in touch with Kevin when they found out that we were in the region. Well, how could we turn down a few days in a real home with real home-cooked food? After 2 months on the road, eating 3 meals a day in restaurants and lately having to question the safety of everything we consumed (down to the water and ice), it sounded like heaven to our ears.

We planned on staying 3 nights, but three nights easily turned into four (and we wish we could have spent several more if our schedule would have allowed). We were immediately enamored with Singapore and our hosts. Steve is the son of Kevin’s first-grade teacher from Prosser (and he occasionally babysat when Kevin was very little). Steve and Alice both grew up in Prosser, and they are both schoolteachers in Singapore. They have two bright and delightful children – Charles and Kathleen. And our stay wouldn’t have been the same without Raema – their live-in help who cooked us our meals, and looked after the house. Raema – your cooking was such a treat for us – thank-you!!

Singapore is a beautiful city; very lush, green, and impossibly clean! I’ve never seen a city as clean as Singapore. (Not coincidentally, Singapore has strict penalties for littering and graffiti. You might remember the caning of an American several years ago. And, yes, chewing gum is still illegal here.) In many ways, Singapore was in stark contrast to all the other Asia countries we had visited so far; while Malaysia, Laos, and Thailand felt a bit like we were stepping back in time, Singapore almost felt like a city from the future – it is very modern, clean, and, well-run. The downtown, central Singapore area was especially fun and charming. There is a river that runs through the downtown, with several waterfront neighborhoods lining the river. Restaurant after restaurant is set up al fresca to dine outside while meandering boats float by. We hopped on one of the boats to enjoy a sunset ride, and it was amazing to see the city from that viewpoint – we were stunned by the beauty of Singapore.

The country of Singapore is extremely small – the island is 26 miles wide, and 14 miles long, certainly not much bigger than some cities. Singaporeans seem naturally friendly and courteous. Everyone we encountered, from our taxi driver to a fellow river boat passenger, were clearly proud of their city and eager to share it with us. The majority of the population is Chinese, with large contingents of Malay and Indian people. English, however, is a national language in Singapore and seems to actually be the predominant language. Almost everyone speaks English here, and all signage is in English--so navigating the city is quite easy.

The number one attraction of Singapore is easily the culinary delights. We’ve never seen so many restaurants and cafes block after block. Singapore is a very international city and offers a wide range of food types with any of the Asian specialties, including an abundance of Chinese, Malay, and Indian options. The food here is delicious and –even more important after our bouts with food poisoning in other Asian countries – it’s safe and clean. Even the street vendors that offer endless options for cheap food are equally safe for tourists to consume.

After eating, shopping has to be the next favorite pastime for Singaporeans and tourists alike. It reminded me a bit of Malaysia when it came to the shopping malls – so many shopping malls that it was hard to decide which ones to frequent (there was no way we could fit them all in, and nor would I even bother trying to convince Kevin that we needed to). The prices aren’t a bargain here though. Cost of living is definitely closer to US standards than anywhere else we’ve visited in Asia, so, to Kevin’s relief, we mostly limited it to window shopping.

Other must do’s in Singapore include the Singapore Zoo. Steve said it’s more like an animal resort than a zoo – I have to agree. This was one of the best and most well run zoos, I’d ever seen.

Steve and Alice’s home is right up against a rainforest, the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Kevin and I did a hike through this rainforest that Steve recommended. It ended up being far more challenging than we counted on – with the heat and humidity and the steep climbs (it included a climb to the highest point in all of Singapore), we were exhausted! Afterwards we learned from Steve that he never does both the trail trek and summit climb together – he picks one or the other. And here we thought the trek included both! It was worth it though, especially in seeing probably 50 monkeys at the visitor center just before we started our summit climb – here’s some pictures of the climb and the monkeys…aren’t they adorable??

We left Singapore and the Early’s home on Tuesday morning. We were extremely glad that we ended up including Singapore in our itinerary – it would have been a shame to miss this city. We’ll now be telling fellow Southeast Asia travelers that a visit to Singapore should definitely be included. (Then again, they won’t be staying with Steve, Alice, Charles and Kathleen, so sadly their visit will be lacking!) We had such a great stay and hope we’ll be back another time. Thanks again to Steve and Alice for taking us in, and especially to Kathleen for letting us use your room! We look forward to seeing you in Seattle soon.

Next stop: Good morning, Vietnam!
[NOTE: We had some technical difficulties with our earlier Thailand blog post. If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, it’s posted below…]

Singapore remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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What We Did: We spent five nights on the island of Koh Lanta and then three nights on Koh Phi Phi, both of which are accessible by ferry. Both islands are located in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand, near Phuket. The water here is ridiculously clear and warm, with temperatures around 85 degrees. (Feels like a warm swimming pool.) You can check out all of our pictures right here within the "Koh Lanta" and "Koh Phi Phi" folders.

Activities on Koh Lanta: We spent most of our time on Koh Lanta doing little else but lounging on the beach, reading books, watching the monkeys near our balcony… and getting healthy. Our resort and the adjacent beach were incredibly quiet and peaceful, which we loved. We had planned on scuba diving here but decided not to due to our health and the expense. (Diving here is much more expensive than we had expected.)

Activities on Koh Phi Phi: On two occasions, we joined Mike and Heather to hire out a long boat to explore the island and hit various snorkeling spots. Huge, towering cliffs and turquoise waters make the island among the most scenic areas we’ve ever seen. The highlight is probably Maya Bay, which was made famous by Leo Dicaprio’s movie “The Beach.” Very cool.

Costs: Food was not cheap on either island, especially in Koh Phi Phi. After becoming accustomed to five dollar meals in Laos, it was a bit of a shock to routinely face $25-$30 bills (or more) for meals. This was not the Thailand that I remember from two years ago, as far as cost goes. (Although I’m sure it varies considerably within Thailand based upon the place and even which beach you pick.) However, our hotel on Lanta was extremely reasonable. We had a fantastic room, a great property, and a gorgeous, near-empty beach for only $65 per night (including breakfast and free internet). Koh Phi has some reasonably priced hotels and restaurant near the main town center, but we had been warned that this area is extremely crowded and over-developed. (And not particularly attractive.) So we decided to splurge a bit more and stay at a hotel on a much more secluded part of the island. (Definitely money well spent.)

Up Next: Although we did not include it on our initial itinerary, we’ve decided to stop for several days in Singapore before continuing on to Vietnam. We have some family friends who live there , so we’re looking forward to not staying in a hotel for a change and having home-cooked meals. More soon….

Thailand: Koh Lanta & Koh Phi Phi remains copyright of the author amyandkev, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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