Laos is awesome

Wow! We stepped off the plane from Vietnam into another world. First of all the airport was just a paved field with a small building. Second, no one wanted us to buy anything and the prices were fixed, not made up. The best part of getting into Luang Prabang in the north of Laos is the food is back on the street and cheap. We have been eating at the night market, pictured above, every night this week and love it. They have great sandwiches and vegetarian buffets. Plus fun coconut ball things in a bag. I am in heaven.
We went for a three day trip into the mountains and villages of Laos. It turned out to be a triathlon. The first day was mountain biking along a nice dirt road and river. Every person we passed said Sabidee (hello) and we said Sabidee back and waved. It was really fun and good exercise. That night we stayed in a village and played soccer with the local high school kids. The next morning we started hiking straight up a mountain with full packs. I thought the whole day would be like this and I would die. We backpack in the states, but we are out of shape travelling and we were going straight up. The funny part was the three local boys walking with us. They would go ahead and behind and run up and down. After four hours of serious trekking and lots of beautiful mountain views, we arrived at a very remote village. The kids were just getting out of school and I had brought some pencils and paper to give to them. It turned out to just be enough for one pencil per kid. So I felt bad, but at least tried to do something besides just take their picture. We played with the kids some and showed them pictures from Vietnam. Also Clemens made a bamboo didgeridoo and played it for them. That night we stayed at the chiefs house and for dinner we ate sticky rice with our hands by candle light. Very unique and local experience. The village had three different ethnic groups so I learned hello and thank you in three languages.
The next day we hiked another four hours back down to the river, warding off leeches, and then kayaked for three hours. Clemens and I dumped twice just ten minutes before the end. So we were wet, cold, exhausted, but very happy. Our trip was very special and worth all the effort. Laos is a unique place and I hope it doesn't get swallowed up by tourism. Of course I write that while typing away in an internet cafe.
I hope you are all well and eat a lot for Thanksgiving. We will probably have fried rice and spring rolls, but maybe find some coconut dessert in a bag. :)

Halong Bay

What a beautiful spot! We just got back from Halong Bay in northern Vietnam and it was a highlight of our trip to say the least. We had a three day boat cruise and two days on an island just hanging out at the beach and being very much in love. tee hee.
We are heading to Laos now and will go hiking for a few days. Also I found a Lao bookstore for kids books published in Lao and will bring some to remote villages. I am excited to give back in a very useful way. Oh, and we are wearing pants! It is cold enough for pants and a fleece. I am very happy about it. Seasons actually exist if you go far enough north.
Hope you are all well.

Burger or Life saver

We are in Vietnam still and completely tired of eating out after so many months. In Thiland it was great to eat anything at anytime, but here in Vietnam it is harder. There is less of our favorite street food and most things have meat in them. Also the food is less exciting to us.
We had a long tour day and I was tired, hungry and tired of being a consumer all the time. So a grumpy Erika grumpily orders a veggie burger, like an American. What came was a ball about 2 inches tall, on a bun with tomatoes,letuce,and cucumber. The ball was mostly made of potatoes and carrots. But the woman offered me mayo, and they actually had ketchup, and all be told, it was one of the best mash-potato burgers ever! It satisfied my cravings and left me very full and very happy. My outlook was turned 180 after that and I went from being very grumpy to being very happy.
Yea!

Vietnam

We headed to south Vietnam on November 1st to meet up with my Dad and stepmom in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. It was great to have time with my family. We just walked around the city, talked and ate. It was relaxing and fun. One of the best parts was the cheese that Dad and Kay bought.We were in a fancy western food store and they had a cheese counter to rival, well, QFC. We have not had cheese since Singapore, and when Dad saw my mouth watering he bought me some. It's really nice to have parents around sometimes.
Now we are in Hoi An and the river is almost up to the floor in our hotel. The town is not flooded, but some streets are cut off unless you want to wade to dinner. The specialty here is tailored clothes. They all look so nice and I really want a custom winter coat for when I get back to Germany, but I also don't want to carry it around for another month. Oh well, maybe in Bangkok.
Tomorrow we head to Hue and then onto Hanoi and Halong Bay. I think it is a rule in Vietnam to start all tourist destinations with an H.

Halloween in Cambodia

After the temples at Angkor Wat we had some extra time scheduled in Cambodia. So we decided to take a break from our vacation and lie on the beach for two days. We went to the south of Cambodia to Sihinoukville and got an expensive ($20) bungalow on the beach. We read, slept, ate, and relaxed. It was most needed. Moving your home, travelling, and eating out every meal gets tiring, we're not woosies. :)
Then we headed to Phnom Penh for a few days to take in some culture and history. There was a festival along the river and it was like a state fair. Food everywhere, crappy toys for kids to break, and music stages with fireworks at night. Really fun. The nextday we went to the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng Prison from the Khmer Rouge. It was really not fun. I can speak more to that on a more personal level if any of you desire.
That night was Halloween, and after all the gouhlish-ness of the prison we needed some treats. So we ate, on the street, dessert in a bag: mangos, sweet rice, tapioca pudding, shaved ice, coconut milk, and condensed milk. It was soo sweet, but also so good.

Disclaimer

Hello everyone,
Sorry it has been awhile, the internet has not been around lately. So I will write a few posts to catch everyone up. I would also like to say that I think about all of you and would like to have a more personal emails with you, but do not have the capacity at this time. So thanks for reading this. I miss you and our individual conversations.

Angkor temples

We succesfully made it to Cambodia after many hours and many buses. Today we saw most of the temples at Angkor Wat except for the big one actually named Angkor Wat. We are saving that for tomorrow.
We hired a tuk tuk driver to "speed" us around and we ended up seeing most of the temples in a 26km loop. It was really nice and we did not get too tired out after walking around for six hours because we got to rest in the tuk tuk after each one. The first picture above is from the Bayan temple. It is multistoried and has four of those faces on all the towers. Really cool looking. The second picture is from another temple we saw today that is getting eating by the jungle in a really cool way.
Tomorrow we are going to do about 25km on bikes and see more temples. It is really cool here if you can avoid all the tourists. :)
Now we are off to have a massage by a blind person and hopefully lots of sleep.
All is well in Asia.

Sukhothai

This place is amazing. It is ruins from an old city and there are giant Buddhas everywhere. We spent the day biking around and enjoying the large world heritage site while finally getting on a bicycle again. That was a little freedom that we haven't had for awhile. It was nice not to depend on other people for getting places.
Here are a few pics of what I saw today. The Buddha with the gold hand is huge. I am the size of his hand. I was with him all alone today, no other tourists and it was really special.
Hope you are all well and happy.

Truck or Bus?

At 7am tomorrow morning we are going to get on the back of a truck and ride for ten hours. Awesome. This picture is an example of what I mean. I bought expensive pringles as consolation. Wish me luck.

Pai

We headed to Pai on the minibus which was quite curvy for sure. The road is like getting to a ski resort on a mountain but for four hours. Tomorrow we also have a four hour bus ride planned. Ugg.
In Pai we found this great place with little huts on stilts and we got the nice one with a bathroom and a hammock. It was super swank and relatively cheap too. Clemens was sick then so he just stayed in the hammock for two days and I ran around town checking things out, getting food, and booking tours. We splurged on pizza because clemens wanted it and it was supposed to be the best in Thailand. It costs about eight times our standard meal. Oh well. It was good. Also in Pai we went elephant riding for an hour. It was kinda cool, but also a little disappointing. We just got there and got on top of the elephant and started walking. So no meet or play with the elephant, and once you are on top you can't see anything of it. But then we got the the river after a little bit and we walked in it on the elephant and then the elephant dumped up in the river. I mean falling off the elephant into waist deep water. That was fun and suprising, but then we got back on and the guy dumped us like ten times. It got a little old after awhile. But then I got to ride on the head of the elephant, and that was cool, and we fed it later after we were off it, and they liked me then. :)
The next day we went on a two day rafting tour with some stops built in. We walked around a multi-tier waterfall and went under the fast part, we went to a hot springs with mud treatment, swam around the river and I jumped off a seven meter overhang into the river. So it was quite active in addition to the rapids. We stayed the night at a jungle lodge and had fun playing with the resident four year old. The second day had the best rapids and Clemens even fell out of the boat during one the biggest ones. So that was cool for him on his first trip, but the rapids were nothing compared to what I am used to.
Now we are in a small town called Mae Hong Son by the Burmese border, and we are very tired from rafting and swimming today. I am also very full from all the good food we were fed on the trip and what we had for dinner. It's amazing how much rice one person can eat. Tomorrow we think we are going to climb the hill to the big temple and then catch a bus for four hours to the next town to do some trekking. Right now I am just so tired that thinking about that is overwhelming. We just keep doing so many things, but really we can't Not go see all that is available to us. So it is interesting to find a balance between travel and rest. I try to compare my real life and think about how little rest I usually get and days off, but for some reason this just seems more tiring than real life even though I don't have a job and responsibility. Oh well. I will just wait until I get sick and then I can rest. :)

Chiang Mai

Clemens is sick with a cold so we are taking it slow today. We slept in and had a slow breakast. Then at 1pm decided to go for a massage. So for six dollars we had a one hour massage that started with tea and a foot scrub and included fun silk pajamas to wear and another tea at the end. It was nice and relaxing. Also today Clemens got his suit fitted and he looks really good in it. We are also going to get one in Bangkok in December.
The best part of the day was the walking market. It is just on Sunday night and the main road in town closes down to just vendors and walkers. It is seriously packed solid with people and stretches for ages. I went through most of it without stopping much and it took three hours. Oh, and for dinner which costs only 50 cents tops, I ate fried sticky rice, chocolate ice cream on a stick, and crickets! The crickets were so tasty just like I hoped. They tasted like oily fried crunchyness. That's all. I liked them and wanted more, but we were already past. There were also lots of worms and grasshoppers etc to eat.
So now I am lying in bed, the last night in Chiang Mai, unable to use my overused ear plugs and hoping the neighbors will stop talking much less all the traffic noise. Tomorrow we pick up the final suit and then head into the mountain town of Pai. That will be nice. We plan to ride and elephant and take a two day rafting trip to our next town for three days of trekking and village stays.

Climbing

So far Clemens and I are doing really well to be together in all things 24/7. We agree with each other and in what we want to do and how much to spend etc.
Yesterday we went climbing for three hours with guides and renting equip. It was great. We climbed six times and the routes were easy but fun. I was tired by the end of it though and sore today for sure. Also I was the most experienced and beat climber in the seven person group and that felt good, even though I was no where near the guides ability. :)
So that was great and then we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and walking in the water. Then they set up a full soccer field on the beach and we watched four local teams play. It was a really great day. Only slightly ruined by an annoying Aussie who haggled our collective boat ride back to the mainland. She did a bad job and when we protested the price she explained that she had been here five times and that was how it was done here. Really condicending. And she almost ruined our evening. Annoying. But then we went to the same place we have eaten for three nights. The people there recognized us and and asked if we wanted our regular. So that felt really good. Like we had a place in the world. And that we knew how Thailand worked, not like annoying woman. The sad part was when we were done eating they said "Tomorrow?" like they did everynight and we said no, we were leaving. So sad. The food was so very good.
So now we are in krabi and taking a plane to Chang Mai up north for two weeks before we head to Cambodia.

Today we are just reading, playing card games, and sending emails. Oh and eating. It is nice and relaxing and we can do it for hours. We are also planning our next adventure and what we want to do up north. So many things. We have two weeks, but will still only see a fraction of the things and places. And that is just one part of the country. We could travle our whole lives and not see the world. Crazy huh?

Thailand

So we went by air to Phuket Thailand to get a longer visa than if we went by road or boat. We got to Phuket, without any plans, and then we not satisfied with any of the options there, I know it's supposed to be paradise. So we decided to split and head to Phang Nga, which is about 40km north of there and actually where all the tours from Phuket go. We go there at noon, booked a tour for four pm, and enjoyed the town. It was totally nice and we were the only white people there. Everyone smiled at us and all the kids said hello. It was fun and authentic. We then stayed the night at a fishing village on stilts. Again, only white people, but this place was primed for tourists from Phuket, it is where all the tours lunch. But we got to see it in another light. We watched a soccer game on a cement field on stilts, follwed the tsunami evec. route to a little cliff side, and watched the sunset over the water. It was very special. We felt so happy about what we ended up doing. Then the next day we toured the waters of the area to caves and mangroves and cliff paintings. It was all the things the Phuket tours we doing for a quarter of the price. Absolutely lovely.
Now we are down in Ao Nang in Krabi province. It is touristy, but nice, and the trips we have planned are exciting; kyaking, climbing and snorkelling etc. We also have a nice hotel room for six euros aka nine dollars. Oh and the very best part: the food! We eat on the street for one dollar a dish and it is great. The phad thai for dinner and it was awesome! Tops! Most tourists here eat at the restaurants for five times the price. We have not looked at a menu in weeks, we just point and say "no meat?" and get awesome food! I am going to the same woman for phad thai after kyaking tomorrow night.

SE Asia weather

Despite what you have read in the news we are still alive and not flooded or anything. We saw some strong winds and rain yesterday on the east coast of Malaysia but are now in Phuket Thailand. Hopefully we will not be caught in any weather. We might have to alter our plans because of flooding in Cambodia and Vietnam. I just wanted to let people know we are okay since we are not using email or Internet much.
On the other hand I went snorkelling for the first time and loved it! We saw lots of fish and corral and also I spotted a shark and we saw four giant sea turtles. Super awesome!

Tanah Rata

Okay bring charged by the minute, so...
We went from Singapore to KL and just stayed the night there. Saw the twin towers and had a meal and then got the heck out of there. We are so done with cities. So now we are in a town very similar to Aqua Calientes in Peru and staying at a cool bungalow just outside of town. It is quiet here with lots of flowers and we can walk into town in five minutes. It used to be a British military hospital. So that is really nice. We are planning on staying here for three nights and doing tours and hikes during the day. Tea plantations, strawberry farms !!!, temples in the mountains etc.
Next we are going to go to Perentian Kecil; an island on the east coast of Malaysia and hang out in the water and go snorkelling. Cool huh?

So that is what I am up to.

Leaving Singapore

So Sg was cool and all. The best part was having time with my cousins, who are great people and fun to hang out with. We also went on a few hikes in town and went to the zoo today. That was all fun but I am ready to really dig my teeth in. I want to be dropped off in a jungle town for a week with a map and one bottle of water kind of stuff. Not really, but I want to go and do. So on that note we are leaving my cousins, maybe too soon in some ways, and heading on to Malaysia and KL in the morning.
Hopefully we are going to be in the jungle or on the beach very soon.

Singapore

First day in Singapore/On our actual trip. We are staying with my cousins in Singapore.

Today we had a sleep in, slow breakfast kind of morning, then by 1pm we finally got everyone out of the house, only an hour late, and headed out on the train. The Ryans place is really nice and big and the apt complex above the mall is also awesome. We walked around Chinatown and went into a Hindu temple and Buddhist temple within three blocks. The Buddhist temple had a ceremony today and everyone was chanting really loudly. Then we walked around a few areas, they had a Starbucks, but we had cheap PB toast around the corner, and Heidi and Jim went off for dinner at their friends place.

Then it was just me and Clem and the girls. It was really fun. We walked to a thai place by their home. We never ran out of things to talk about and then after dinner we walked home and rented a movie from the place downstairs. Oh, I also forgot, before dinner we played in the pool at their place. It was the only time I was even close to cool this whole time. It is going to be a long trip. :)

Singapore is americanized, but it has it's different hotspots of culture. I would call it modern rather than american. The cool thing here is that you see all different type of people all together, and all the religions too, but everyone is content. Today I saw a mosque, Buddhist temple, and a Hindu shrine on the same street. Also in the train stations everyone is crowded on together, in all forms of religious dress, and everyone is cool with everyone else. People seem pretty happy here.

Munchen

Okay. That's it. I found the best place in Germany to live. Munich is totally my city. You can walk to the river from anywhere and once you are there the city disappears. Also there are markets and fresh veggies everywhere. Bier Gartens and shopping for you people who like that kind of thing. And best of all for me, people were wearing jeans and rain jackets; so I fit right in!
I just felt so happy and fulfilled and excited when I was there. You can bike everywhere and jog forever in nature. I think it will be a really good fit for me. And did I mention that you can take a train to go hiking. Yeah. Screw you cars. Unless you want to drive to Italy for dinner, then you might use it. :) (Sorry, too much? Well just come visit. We will have a place starting in February)

Woo Hoo for feeling good about our decision.
But don't worry everyone, I still like Seattle better.

Okay everyone, here it goes with my attempt at blogging. I apologize in advance.

We are in Frankfurt now. It was quite the experience getting here. The plane out of Seattle was late, so we got to Chicago with only an hour to change planes and it took us that long. They had to hold the plane for us. We were those people who were running through the airport and everyone who worked there was looking for us and pointing us the right way. Like in a movie. So I am glad we made it, but unfortunately our luggage did not. Hopefully we will get it soon.
It was sad leaving but it is fun to go places.

Hannelore and I are going to head to the bank, market, and her garten today so that will be busy. I am keeping up with the German better than I expected, at least with the forgiving parents. We will see how I do in the real world.

Okay, those are my stories for now. Always more to come!