Rockin’ the House: In Vietnam and Laos!

It’s starting to feel more like home in Southeast Asia. It must be because our host parents ROCK! Here in Vientianne, Laos, Bob has an amazing guitar collection and his wife Jiangping even gave our beat-up whiteboard a complete makeover (with stylish fabric and shoulder strap included!).

It hasn’t always been so comfortable though. To recap on our adventures in Vietnam, we knew we were in for a battle when we had to move trains at the 3:00AM border crossing AND our first room had been “temporarily closed”. No problem, we moved to an open one next door only to discover that a couple had literally moved in first, packing boxes and all. Upon arrival, we discovered that our original “closed” room was for good reason. The light bulb may have burnt out – OR maybe the giant hole in the shattered window would have made it too breezy.

Speaking of breezy, we literally had to dodge a sea of motorbikes as we first made our way through town from the Hanoi train station. We were impressed, however, with the locals’ ability to carry a full family on a mo-ped; while others managed to transport refrigerators and even 3 mattresses on more supped-up ones. We stayed mainly in the Old Quarter where we were introduced to a traditional Water Puppet Show. Yeah we saw some water, but on our way home we were hit by what seemed to be a tsunami. Apparently we missed the memo that this is the rainy season but good thing we had our whiteboard along for cover. The motorbikers didn't need any help as they zipped by in their massive superman ponchos (only the driver being allowed to see).

We were planning on booking a 3-day tour to Ha Long Bay for some kayaking and climbing, but we decided to blaze our own trail after meeting an experienced climber named Nina who offered to show us…well, the ropes on Cat Ba Island. To start off our 7-hour journey, we were led onto the wrong bus—our bags were thrown on as the wheels were turning—and were taken only two hours instead of the whole way. We did manage to land on the island before dark after an adventurous cab-bus-cab-bus-bus-walking-kicking the dirt-motorbike-ferry-bus combination.

Deep Water Soloing, or as our travel companion put it, “soiling”: the act of rock climbing so high without a rope you “soil” yourself knowing the only way down is falling off into deep water. Luckily we didn’t have that problem; pulling ourselves onto the rock was hard enough. However, it was awesome watching experienced climbers scale many meters up, as well as enjoying the beautiful scenery.

We did get a second chance at rock climbing—this time it was sport top-rope climbing where someone belays below. Our journey to the rock in “Butterfly Valley” went something like this: Rent motorbikes, teach ourselves how to shift, try not to fall over, get lost in circles, push bike off legs after falling over (Kristin), get bike out of ravine (Justin). Finally, we made it to the end of the dirt road to find a pasture with cows and unspoiled natural beauty to climb on. We avoided the cow land mines, ventured through the jungle, and even shimmied by rope over a swamp. We both mounted a challenging climb, and it… ROCKED.

ON TO LAOS!

Our first destination was Luang Prabang—a quiet city with an amazing night market of authentic goods and pleasant people. We also enjoyed a day at a nearby waterfall—the scenery was great, but jumping off one of the waterfalls into chilly water made the trip even cooler.

Sitting in the very back on our overnight bus to Vang Vieng, Kristin woke up in the middle of the night to find she was sitting next to a man with a gun. Shocked and confused, she said a prayer and inched her way up the isle to another seat, not taking any chances. She later found out he was there to protect us; an English explanation rather than a smile would've helped. Yikes.

Vang Vieng is known for its crazy tubing down the river, and we soon found out why. There were over ten makeshift bars along the way— many equipped with fun music, drink specials, and trapeze-like swings and slides for water fun. We watched people fly off left and right into the river like acrobats…some were more graceful than others. OUCH!

Vientianne – along with ROCKING out and fixing up our whiteboard, Bob and Jiangping took us to his work where we toured the US Embassy and even got to meet and whiteboard with the Ambassador to Laos. If that wasn’t enough, we had our first “Hashing” experience (it’s not what you think – there were no potatoes involved). It was, however, a running event meant to “work up a thirst”. We followed the flour-scattered path through jungles and over rivers and were rewarded afterwards with an “initiation” of drinking beer and sitting on ice. BRRR!

Up next: THAILAND!

Back to China—For Mud Pits, Marriage, & a 2-Hour Trip Around the World!

Let’s fast forward through Hong Kong for a minute. The mud pits and luring village women in rice fields were calling our name, so here we are in Yangshao, China! We were immediately awed by the huge hilly formations stretching aside the Li River, while bearded men on bamboo rafts leisurely paddled by. It’s been a great transition from the bustling cities we’ve recently experienced, but needless to say, we couldn’t pass up new adventures.

First stop: Mud Bath Water Caves. We ventured past the air-conditioned tour buses to a van that took us on a dusty bumpy ride to the backside of a cave. We put on our newly purchased one-size fits all swimsuits ($2) and hopped into a small canoe. The cave ranged from a 1 meter opening to a room the size of a football stadium. We learned how to make out turtles, Santa, and The Great Wall from cave formations. The coolest part was climbing the “snow mountain” and floating in the mud pit. We were like chocolate-covered buoys, unable to swim or sink. We did manage to bring in the whiteboard, however there’s permanent damage to its squeaky clean image.

That evening, we went to Impression Lui Sanji—a performance produced by the same man who created this year’s Olympic opening ceremonies. There were over 600 local farmers and village people in the show, displaying the beauty of Yangshou while using the river and mountains as a natural backdrop. We must say, we were Impressed.

The following day, Justin got married! We were touring the terraced rice fields a few hours north of Yangshou, and were guided to a small village for a “long haired show”. Before we knew it, Justin was on stage to help demonstrate the marriage process for this town. His “new wife” sang to him and he was asked on the spot to sing back to her. The entire audience then heard, “We built this City…We build this city on Rooooooock And Roll!”. Not to be outdone, the next Westerner did his rendition of, “Ohh Canada”. The brief ceremony continued with an exchange of gifts, shots of rice wine, many pinches to the butt (that’s how they flirt here), and a sprint around the audience while carrying her on his back. Although he may never see his “bride” again, he found out that he can always just look her and her girl friends up in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest head of hair.

Flashback to Hong Kong: the trip was brief, enjoyable, and diverse. Once we crossed over from the Chinese border, we saw the overpowering city skyline of Hong Kong Island. We were just in time for the “Symphony of Lights” at Victoria Harbor; the World’s Biggest laser light show incorporating over forty riverfront skyscrapers.

With our bags on our backs, we ventured to The Disney Deluxe Hotel— which was neither Disney nor Deluxe. Seeing how it was late at night and our hotel options were limited for this costly city, we made the cringing choice to stay. Like two prepared combatants, we emptied our remaining cans of bug spray, layered ourselves up and away from the visible bed bugs, and attempted to sleep. That next day, we took full advantage of seeing the city before heading back to China. One of the most amazing features of Hong Kong is that it’s as if the whole world is in one place. In the building we stayed at, over 120 different nationalities were reported to have come through those doors just last year.

Speaking of the whole world being in one spot, Shenzhen, China (where we headed next) had just that. This huge park called Windows of The World included the Eiffel Tower, The Pyramids of Egypt, Dinosaurs, New York City, Windmills of Holland, you name it. Although we only had two hours to “see the world”, it was fun racing around the scaled-down versions of must-see international places.

Up Next: We’re heading to ‘Nam. Vietnam.

Water Happy Balls. 'Nuff said.

Fuzhou, China. Where's that? We didn't know either. But we got there as the sun came up after an overnight train and as usual everything was in Chinese. Remain calm. Look inquisitive. Act in charge. Apparently this worked because a local quickly came to help us book our train tickets to Hong Kong, as well as found us an Internet café and told us the must-see sights in Fuzhou. These sights consisted of, well, one local park. Since it was only 6:00AM and we had fourteen hours until our train was to leave, we began to doodle on the whiteboard outside the train station.

Little did we know, blonde foreigners in Fuzhou are a very rare occurrence. It was as if the loudspeaker had just said,“ATTENTION all Fuzhou residents: Two foreign exhibitionists have been sighted with a mysterious, erasable slate. Report to the train station immediately to see them and discover what this“white box”is all about". Sure enough, people came and people stared. Within five minutes of Kristin's palm tree sketches, there was a crowd of at least 30-40 inquisitive onlookers. Unsure of how to keep this group entertained, we did our best by exhausting sketches of trees, suns, boats, and flowers, and had them try their own creations.

This was successful for almost an hour, but we were hungry so we ventured to the nearby store for something that resembled food. Justin found a pre-packaged "pizza" that turned out to be vegetables on bread, and Kristin found mini "ham sandwiches" but had to laugh at the false advertising of empty rolls with a sliver of ham sticking out to make it appear full. We checked our map to find bus routes to the nearby park. A local named Tiffany came to practice her English and became our new friend and free tour guide for the day. To our surprise, the nearby “park” was on steroids for National Day. We had to try the Water Happy Balls on the lake, which made us feel like we were hamsters rolling around on water—best $3 spent yet in China. Exhausted from our "workout", we headed next to the duck paddleboats. "Too big" for the fun animal-shaped ones, we still had a fun adventure interacting and white boarding with the locals.

To recap on our adventures before Fuzhou, in Shanghai we had another memorable holiday experience. Somehow we ended up at The Hensheng Peninsula—a four star hotel in the center of the city. A place that's spotless, luxurious, and way out of our price range; except the apartment-style rooms on the 19th floor for $20/night. Yeah, we don't get that either. Highlights from our three day visit to Shanghai included eating rice and beef dishes for breakfast—from KFC, bargaining with local street vendors, playing intense games of ping pong in the hotel rec room, and watching a beautiful firework display over the river and city from the rooftop.

Up next: HONG KONG!

BEIJING: Our Scoop after the Birds have Flown the Coup

If that didn't make sense, we're referring to The Olympics, and even though they're over, there’s still much to see!
First stop: The Forbidden City. Highlights included a lesson on Chinese Art by students selling their works, some temples and a statue that everyone took pictures of (including us), oh…and Justin’s purple ice cream. It all started to look the same, but it didn’t deter us from seeing the Summer Palace. We hiked around this gorgeous lake for hours; climbing on a super-high arch bridge, and meeting a woman who practiced her English with us. She didn’t know much, but we had to smile when she proclaimed “white box” after seeing us holding the whiteboard.

These two days of sightseeing prepared our legs well for hiking over 4 miles of the Great Wall of China. We signed up with a small group that led us 3 hours north of Beijing to a secluded part of the wall. It was breathtaking seeing how towers snaked across peaks of land for miles. The “hiking” turned out to include vertical climbing where there were once steps, balancing bravely over a huge rickety bridge, and a finale of zip lining down through a valley with a boat waiting to take us on a short ride for lunch. What was even more impressive was watching a 75-year-old lady chase us down steep steps to sell us ice cold beer and water. We decided on the bottle of ice. No really, the thing wouldn’t melt.

The next day we followed the crowds to the Temple of Heaven. We got a couple minute good look before herds of tourists flooded the place; most of which were in groups distinguished by matching bright-colored visors and t-shirts. We were then instructed that an important officer was coming to see the temple, so everybody had to file out immediately. We decided to head to a grassy area to play “Taichi Rouli Ball Racket”—the new game Justin bought off a local there. Before we knew it, people were standing around to watch and some took pictures. Ironically, those were the matching outfit tourists that we took pictures of earlier!

Oh that’s right, The Olympics! A trip to Beijing wouldn’t be complete without seeing the venues so publicized on TV just a month ago. First stop, The Birds Nest…well from across the highway anyways! Apparently after the birds are gone, the nest is closed. However, we were allowed into the parking lot of the Water Cube. Too bad there wasn’t a lady to bottle it up for us.

After a fun filled few days in Beijing we hopped on an overnight train to Shanghai. We shared a cozy double, triple-bunked cabin with 3 boisterous Irish travelers and one reluctant, non-English speaking local. The two tallest guys were on top…literally two feet from the ceiling. We thought it was funny, until this happened to us on the next overnight train!

Next up SHANGHAI!

Goodnight from the Bus....all 48 of Us.

The wheels on this bus are going to Beijing! We planned to be there a few days ago, but it seems our most memorable experiences have been when we haven’t planned at all. The bus isn’t as bad as it seems though—we’re over halfway there, and everyone seems to be reclined in their beds…well, the people who have beds that is. The rest are all crammed on mats in the narrow isles. Yeah, real comfy.

A lot has happened in the last few days as we’ve moved from Korea to China. We spent our last day in Korea hiking up a mountain to see the Seoul Tower. On our way up, we came across a hotel where a huge group of Koreans were outside in matching outfits (apparently, this isn’t uncommon!). They were all in their late 50s doing choreographed danced moves to hip hop music—it was quite the site! When we made it to the top of the mountain, there were thousands of different locks on the fences surrounding the Seoul Tower. Everyday, love-struck couples put on a lock together and throw the key over the edge. I think we saw one guy keep his key. Just kidding.

Time to head to China! We took an overnight ferry from Korea with a group of women with larger than necessary visors and their husbands who got to drinking their 2L of beer before the ship had even left the harbor. We ended up catching up on sleep and waking up to find ourselves in Qingdao, China with no plan of staying. Luckily we met two Colombians who informed us of the International Beer Festival taking place that weekend! It was a good thing too because they knew the language and took us to a traditional Chinese meal where everything is shared and nothing is off-limits on the menu…Pigs tongue anyone? I don’t know about you but I don’t want to eat anything that tastes me back.

Full from our lunch we headed to the beer festival only to find opening night consisted of music, but no beer. Beer festival. No beer. We don’t get that either. Not to be deterred, our new Colombian friends showed us a good time with their classmates. We became very familiar with the term “Ganbei”—meaning finish your glass.

We did stay in a couple cool guesthouses--one was in an Old Observatory on the top of a hill, and the other an Old Church turned into a cool, hip lounge. Besides the festival, we found two other ways to really appreciate Qingdao. We strolled the boardwalk where the sailing events had taken place for the recent Olympics and stumbled upon a live show. Two scalpers reeled us in with cheap tickets from their pockets of what looked to be “O” (like Cirque de Soleil) but later found out it was “Q”---Ohhh, the mermaid’s fin, I get it. To our surprise it was AMAZING—acrobats, ballerinas, martial artists, rock violinists in latex, rollerbladers, scuba-divers coming down from the ceiling, dancing starfish, you name it…all in an attempt to celebrate the city of Qingdao.

Oh, how we love the unexpected! We’re currently in Beijing and up next is, well, we’ll let you know when we get there! Ganbei!

A Night at the Water Park...

Our impromptu stay in Busan, Korea ended up more interesting than we could’ve ever imagined. Our first night came with gold embroidered pillows that read “Hotel Dong Shin”. There was also a rather large complimentary can of bug spray—needless to say, we didn’t stay a second night; the mosquitoes were hungry. In need of a new location, we headed to the Aqua Palace Hotel where we were introduced to our first “JimJillBong” (sp) experience. We were given matching uniforms and swimcaps, a day pass to the indoor water park and spa, and a night stay for under $9 in….well, the water park. We spent the day in the techno wave pool, trying the 3 story water slide, the ice room, the hot pebbles and hot salt spas. We can't forget to mention the "onsens". These are basically many hot tubs and soaking baths where being naked is not optional. For lunch, we decided on prepackaged Ramen-esque soup bowls and chocolate chip cookies since that’s all we could make out from the menu.

As the evening came, fireworks began to go off outside of our hotel; after all, it was the celebration of Thanksgiving across Korea! Our hotel sat on the beach, giving us a gorgeous panoramic view of a cove that connected the city skyline by a giant color-changing bridge. Upon seeing the lively atmosphere outside, we convinced a younger staff member to let us go out for “food”. We ended up lighting off fireworks on the beach and a seeing a fish market, but we did make it back in time for our curfew… apparently, $9 a night comes with some unforeseen restrictions. When we did get back, we were obligated to put back on our gender specific pink & mustard-yellow striped uniforms…which became matching pajamas. Heading to our room, we discovered our room was really everyone else’s room too. Put simply, it was a huge open floor. Don’t get us wrong though, it was a clean, marble one. And there were movies going on until 1AM. Ok so they were in Korean but Justin kept himself busy by giving geography lessons on the location of Iowa. When it came time for bed we opted for the “soft pebble spa” over the floor, so we spent our night in the rock ball pit with a few other locals.

Apparently we couldn’t get enough of being on the floor because when we got our train ticket to Seoul everything was booked except standing room only. We took the tickets anyways and opted for the handicap corner where we could sprawl and lay out. Good thing it was near the bathroom and the floor only flooded once (thank god it was just the furnace). However, we did meet a lot of interesting locals on this 6 HOUR ride and two little girls drew funny pictures on our Whiteboard.

Our search is over…we made to SEOUL. Up next Beijing!

Seoul Searching...

Greetings from Pusan, Korea! Oh, and we mustn’t forget Happy Thanksgiving here at Hotel Dong Shin! Apparently we missed the memo that it’s holiday weekend across the country and all trains, planes, & automobiles are booked until Tuesday. Here’s to an unplanned adventure—more on that once we make it to Seoul!

Recap on Japan—Although we weren’t able to get past “hello” & “thank you” in Japanese, it’s been a blast having the locals and other travelers write messages on the whiteboard. From geishas near the historic temples, to the owners of traditional restaurants and the amazing world travelers we’ve met along the way, the photos sum up the trip perfectly.

Kyoto is definitely known for its elaborate pagodas, but we also found a monkey park at the top of a huge hill. These happy creatures have quite the set up looking out over the city, and Justin even tried out their long mountain slide.

Next stop was Hiroshima! The local cuisine was amazing. Sushi and ice cream from 7-eleven often hit the spot but it couldn’t compare to the okanamiaki at midnight surrounded by boisterous locals. We also saw the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. It’s astounding to see a city so vibrant when just 60+ years ago it was wiped out by the first Atomic bomb.

Our last day was spent on the island of Miyajima —where the low and high tides crash in and out of a popular gated temple. This small city is also known for having the worlds largest rice scooper and chocolate filled treats…mmm, delicious. That evening we couldn’t make it to South Korea and didn’t reserve another night at the hostel so we ventured out for a place to stay (DUN Dun dun...) We stumbled upon the Aster Plaza “Youth Hostel”. After receiving the room key we made our way upstairs to find giant chandeliers and a private corner room with views of the city skyline and riverfront. We quickly put on the complimentary kimonos and took action photos while jumping on the beds...

Great finale to Japan!







NEW People Whiteboarded!

SEE PHOTO ALBUM TOP RIGHT OF PAGE

Mt. Fuji & Kyoto!

We arrived in Mt Fuji Sept. 7. We rented bikes to tour around a gorgeous lake, but shortly into our trip it started to rain. We made a quick turn-around for town. We found a supermarket where Justin’s dinner consisted of free samples. Oh yeah, and a corn dog, sushi, a donut and ice cream. How he came up with that combo, no one knows. When it came time to check-out, the lady kept talking to us in Japanese. Luckily I was giving Justin the play by play on what it all meant which went something like this… “Corn dog. With donut. How creative. Soy sauce for sushi? This needs a price check. I love price checking. Hold one minute. Time me while I check!"

…On another note, our hostel that night was great. At the door, we had to take off our shoes and they had cool bamboo slippers for us to wear. We didn’t end up seeing Mt. Fuji because of the cloudy weather, but let me tell ya, our post cards look amazing!!

Next stop Kyoto! Within a few minutes of getting on the bus, the bus driver flies by an old woman at the next bus stop. Someone shouts something in Japanese and the bus driver stops in the middle of traffic, gets out, and zig zags through cars & two parking lots. He and the old lady run together back to the bus! What a Kodak moment.

We later realize after being in Kyoto and having to ask for directions several times, the people are always there to help. Locals literally biked blocks for us to find the right bus stops; what a cool part about Japanese culture.

Kyoto has been an amazing place. We’ve had fun seeing traditional temples, hiking up hills to shrines, trying on kimonos, seeing Giant Buddahs, and of course whiteboarding with the locals & travelers alike!

Up next: Nara & Hiroshima!!

NEW WHITEBOARDED PEOPLE: