We're Home

The journey home was easy and our pets are happy to see us. (Brutus obviously did some emotional eating...) The trip was a fabulous experience so we thought a good way to wrap this up would be to recall the highlights (and a few low points as well).

Top 5 destinations were:
1) Luang Prabang (Laos)
2) Shanghai
3) Cameron Highlands (Malaysia)
4) Halong Bay (Vietnam)
5) Phu Quoc Island (Vietnam)

Top 10 sights/activities (couldn't rank these): Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, Cu Chi Tunnels (Saigon), Boh Tea Plantion (Cameron Highlands), Halong Bay cruise, Elephant-Owner-for-a-Day (Patara Elephant Farm; Chiang Mai), Red Bridge Cooking School (Hoi An), Killing Fields (Phnom Penh), Afternoon Tea at the Metropole Hanoi, Taikang Road shopping (Shanghai).

Best Hotel: Metropole Hanoi
Best restaurant: Tatonka (Phuket)
Other good ones: Peking(Hong Kong), The House (Chiang Mai), Red Piano (Siem Reap), Di Shui Dong (Shanghai), Utopia (Luang Prabang), Mango Rooms (Hoi An), Eco Valley Lodge (Pak Chong/Khao Yai)

Biggest Disappointment: Homestay experience on an island in the Mekong (Southern Laos). Nothing against the family--we never met them! Jungle trekking (aka Khao Yai Death March), Penang Island, and the Grand Palace (Bangkok) are other skip-ables for those planning a romp through SE Asia. In the interest of full disclosure, I will emphasize that heat was a major factor in all of these not-so-fun experiences.

Thanks for following us and giving us a good reason to document our adventure.
Rosemary and Melinda

Shanghai

Shanghai is a very exciting city where capitalism appears alive and well. The people were lovely (once you get past the spitting), and were very patient with our lack of Chinese language skills. They have gained many improvements in lifestyle over the last 20 years. This post is so late because there are no Internet cafes; I guess everybody has a computer.

Upon arrival we rode the MagLev speed train from the airport into town. It goes 430 km/h and felt like a ride at Disney. Our first dinner was an expensive, frightening, and generally disappointing ordeal at a place that served meat and seafood swimming in big bowls of duck blood. We were at a fancy mall and did not have time to make a better selection because it was getting late and we needed to buy coats. Subsequent meals were very tasty, particularly the General Tso's chicken at a Hunanese joint that played a lot of Peter Cetera and his cheesy brethren.

Our first full day was spent with Mira, a private guide our folks used during their visit to Shanghai several weeks prior to ours. She walked us through the Bund, Old Town (including Yu Garden and tea tasting), and the Shanghai history museum, and then showed us to Taikang Road, a network of small alleys in the French Concession filled with great shopping. She was awesome, and just about the only English speaker we encountered during our 5 days there. Other notable sites included the galleries of 50 Moganshan Road (met another bird), the Dong Tai Road Antique Market, and a huge model of the city at the Urban Planning Museum. We also went to a 3D IMAX theater to watch Avatar (with Chinese subtitles). Finally in a fit of "I-cant-go-home-like-this", R braved a hair salon. It had 60 chairs (59 of them working on Asian hair) and no one spoke English so she just pointed to a picture of Kimora Lee Simmons and actually got a decent cut. They shampoo you in your chair with a whole cup of shampoo and a few squirts of water, only rinsing at the sink. High marks for Shanghai.
Melinda

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

We had to make an overnight stop in Kuala Lumpur in our journey from Penang to Shanghai so we went to the KL Bird Park, the largest walk-in aviary in the world--basically a birds-only zoo (ok they threw in a few monkeys) with a huge net over it. The pictures say it all. Big fun for critter-lovers.
Rosemary

Penang

The "Pearl of the Orient" is not quite as charming as the travel magazines suggested but we have managed to find some bright spots. We have seen many of the mosques and temples in historic Georgetown and took a tour of the lovely Blue Mansion, home of a Chinese businessman in the late 1800s. Today we took a bus outside the city to the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in SE Asia. We have accomplished most of our sightseeing on foot, which has been treacherous due to the lack of sidewalks, ample traffic, and open storm drains. These 20-inch troughs on each side of most streets invite both public urination and broken bones.

Despite the range of food on offer here, Western lapses have been frequent and included tacos (accompanied by a couple of Chinese guys doing Elton John), burgers (in the pub at the Eastern & Oriental hotel), and pizza (in Chinatown). Shopping has also ramped up, as we are nearing the end of our journey and will not have to carry purchases much longer. During my consumer wanderings yesterday I was introduced to a new concept I will call "motorbegging." As I staggered along the street with sweat in my eyes (mid-90s here), a guy swoops up next to me on his motorbike and asks for 20 bucks. I might have given him something if he had offered me a freakin' ride!

Street food for dinner tonight. Back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow for our connection to Shanghai the next day.
Melinda

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Malaysia continues to get high marks for it's beautiful landscapes, diversity of activities, great food and high number of English speakers. We arrived in Cameron Highlands on Sunday. When the Brits were in charge, they came here to get out of the heat and so have we. Beautiful place, famous for tea production. We went to the Boh Tea Factory and Museum this morning for breakfast. We were up early because the mosque next door broadcasts the 5x a day prayer sessions over the loudspeakers in town so we can't forget to whip out our mats at sunrise.
Though this is definitely a top-3 stop on our trip, yesterday's "interpretive trail walk" gets worst tour. Apparently no one had taken this tour for quite a while and the guide didn't know the trail had washed out in a landslide. He helped build that trail 12 years ago and his sentimentality for it led to some pretty poor judgement as he led us through very rugged terrain until we all ended up ankle-deep in mud. At home this would not be a problem but given that these were the only real shoes we brought on the trip, it was definitely an issue. The best part was while we were cleaning up at the hotel I noticed a leech was snacking on my ankle. We carefully peeled him off, named him Leopold and played with him for the rest of the rainy afternoon before releasing him into the dense shrubbery around the parking lot.
On to Penang tomorrow, which promises more tasty Asian fusion cuisine. Oink.
Rosemary

Kuala Lumpur and Taman Negara

We arrived KL on a late flight Wednesday and settled into a 5-star room we got for a bargain on the internet. It had so many bells and whistles that a maintenance man had to come and remove the bulbs from several lights we couldn't (and he couldn't) find switches for so we could go to sleep.

Malaysia appears to lack the hookers, hawkers, and scam artists we regularly encountered in Thailand. The place is a blend of Malay, Chinese, and Indian folks, so the Asian fusion cuisine in KL was delicious. The Malay are Muslim so most women cover their heads. Many people speak English (yay!).

KL has a reputation for great shopping. The Pavilion KL has just about every luxury brand you can think of, but what really excited us was the Gap. You see, Rosie has needed new shorts for the last month, but it is difficult to find sizing that accommodates the Western bootie. (The ladies at the markets try to lure us into their stalls with "I have big size for you." Not big enough.)

Friday we travelled from KL to Taman Negara National Park. The trip required a 4-hour bus ride followed by 3 hours on the floor of a wooden longboat. Uncomfortable for sure, but the scenery was lovely. That night we went on a 4WD tour of the jungle to see nocturnal critters. Spottings included a couple of owls, wild boar, a tailor bird, and several lemurs and a wild cat in the distance. Yesterday we walked the Canopy Walkway in the park. Cool structure but disappointing because we did not see any wildlife, which I perceived as the whole point. The most impressive thing about this stop was the probably the sounds of the crickets. Just imagine the reverse warning on a garbage truck (beep-beep-beep) at full volume... all night.

Today we travelled all day by bus to Cameron Highlands, which smells of the tea leaves that grow here and has cooler temperatures.
Melinda

Phuket, part 2

You would never know the tsunami hit this place, except for the new evacuation route signage. Mickey Ds, BK, and Subway sure seem to like their chances and the locals say the wave made the whole world want to come here. We can't argue given the crowds, and the Chinese New Year doesn't help. We have enjoyed some good off shore adventures though. Brushed up our scuba skills on Monday with 3 10meter dives at Raja Noi and Raja Yai. Usual reef fish but the trip-maker was a 4.5meter Manta ray! We tried to get out of here sooner, but due to the flight restrictions on scuba divers and a lot of sold out flights, we're still here. We did move farther down the island to the less crazy Kata Beach (only a handful of Starbucks here), where we are hanging out til our flight to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, later tonight.
Rosemary

Phuket

Phuket greeted us with extreme heat, which I feel a little guilty admitting considering the conditions at home. (Congrats to Philly for smashing the record for seasonal snowfall.) We nearly roasted on a late-afternoon visit to Surin beach, but the water was a nice temperature for 3 Floridians. We had some of the best food of the trip at Tatonka, an outdoor fusion restaurant a few km from the hotel. Yesterday we joined an all-day sea kayak adventure involving lots of caves and lagoons where we watched mudskippers (what an odd little critter!), macaques, birds, bats, and huge lizards. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch and dinner on the boat, and after sunset, made offerings to the Goddess of Water. These were craft projects made from banana leaves, flowers, incense, and candles, that our guides helped us to create and float on the water. The caves at night are a little spooky but good places to see bioluminesc-ing sea life. Today we hired a long-tailed boat for some snorkeling 30minutes off shore. Decent reef with the usual suspects. Dhaval leaves us tomorrow (sniff), and Rosemary and I will take a lodging demotion to some little hole in Patong (sniff). Monday is the day it becomes painfully obvious how much of our PADI training we have forgotten.
Melinda

Chiang Mai

On Saturday, Melinda's friend Dhaval fom Philly joined us in Bangkok. We stayed in Silom this time and found the city more to our liking. We hit the Palace, Chatuchak Market and the Jim Thompson house, which was lovely. Sunday we headed north to Chiang Mai and have been impressed by the food and fancy cocktails.
Yesterday we hit the Patara Elephant Farm for our much anticipated "Elephant Owner for a Day" outing. We started out with a lesson on how elephants have contributed to Thailand's history and the mission of the farm, which is to increase their population in the wild. After signing our lives away and donning our "mahout" outfits, we were each assigned our own elephant and trainer. Mine, Nui, which means "Chubby," was 10 years old and pregnant, a former circus elephant. Melinda's was Maeboitong, a gentle giant at 35. Dhaval's was also a circus alum, an 11-yr-old named Ploy, which means "precious gem". We fed our elephants a huge basket of bananas and bamboo for breakfast. Then we learned how to check the elephant's health via examinations of skin, sweat, and...yes, poop. Next it was bathtime. We started by sweeping the big pieces off with a handful of brush. We learned how to tell him to sit down so we could get to his head and back. Then we went to the river to douse them with water and scrub them down with bathtub brushes. After their baths, the circus girls led the others in spraying water all over us for the ultimate photo opp. Then we mounted up for a ride to a waterfall for a lovely picnic lunch. After lunch the fun really started when Ploy ran Dhaval into the woods and started madly twirling around, scratching her up in the dense brush. Ploy did not listen to the trainer, but he managed to get Dhaval down. At one point he got his head stuck in between Ploy and a tree, and his clothes were all torn up by the time the beast calmed down. We quickly decided we were happy just being bunny and cat owners and were taken back to the hotel and given a large discount. In retrospect, we are grateful it didn't end worse and we got good pictures. However, I think we are forced to make a new entry on our "stupidest things I've ever done" lists.
Thai cooking school tonight then on to the Phuket tomorrow.
Rosemary