WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE RAINEY AND ZOE

So long, farewell…

2011-10-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

Our last day on the road was a great – but bittersweet – day. It seemed unbelievable at the start of this event that we could actually make it across such remote areas and difficult roads driving on a lawnmower engine. But here we are!!

About an hour out of Trang this morning we stopped by a beautiful waterfall to take some photos and stretch our legs. I would have loved to dive into the pool and swim up to the waterfall… but I still have a strong fear of weird water dragons hiding in murky waters in this area of the world.

Southern Thailand is particularly pretty with rolling hills and odd shaped rock formations.It means that we have to go slow to get up the hills but the scenery is worth the struggle.

Today was our last day to have every car that passes roll down the window and try to talk with us or wave at us or take our photo.

Being a westerner in a weird configuration of Tuk Tuk makes us as unique as a blue alien and everybody wants to interact with us. It’s like being a minor celebrity.

We made it to Krabi (the nearest town to the resort where the finishing line is) by early afternoon and were ready for some drinks and lunch when– right as we were turning onto the last road of the trip – Kady blew her front tire.

Rainey man-handled her to the side of the road, we all groaned loudly and then looked up and saw that we had stopped right in front of a tire store. If nothing else… Kady has a great sense of humor. A young teenager came

out and within 30 minutes (and for $3) we were sorted out and on our way. It would have been sooner but the spare they gave us did not fit the front tire so the kid had to swap all the tires around and jerry-rig some stuff.

We made it to the finish line on our own steam and with Kady chugging along. I drove Kady in to the end and we were so sad to see the end of her. We have had a great adventure with her.

Last night was the farewell party and it was so

great to hear everyone’s stories and adventures from the roa

d. There was entertainment of a children’s band with traditional Thai instruments and Thai dancing girls and

Mai Thai boxers doing a demonstration.

There were even some Thai fire dancers (which were actually amazing). Everyone was so sad to say goodbye and head home.

Misery in Malaysia

2011-10-28T17:43:00.001-07:00

We got to the port in Butterworth early, to be ready for Kady’s dis-embarkation.

What a bad decision!!! Nothing ran on time and everything took 10 times longer than anticipated. We ended up spending hours and hours in the hot sun (I thoroughly sun-burned my face)

on the pier while this wooden row boat (not really, but the shipping boat was not far removed from an over-sized row boat) unloaded each Tuk Tuk - one-by-one - in a cargo net.

It took 15-20 minutes PER TUK-TUK and no-one even showed up to start the process until after 10 AM.We were all

standing around nervously waiting to see if any of the vehicles would even drive. Kady came through like a trooper … we reconnected the battery and she started straight up (which is real bragging rights because almost every other Tuk Tuk had to get a pushing start after the boat ride)

So we were feeling GREAT as all of the Tuk Tuks headed out of the port about 2:30 PM for the start of the trip up through Malaysia to the Thai border. We had a police escort for the first 30 KMs to get us out of the city.

About 19 of the 24 Tuk Tuks left (4 died - completely - in Indonesia and were left by the roadside) made it out of the port on their own steam (5 got left on the dock in various stages of mechanical failure). Then…. Less than 2 miles later as we were heading down a busy highway …. Disaster struck!!! All of a sudden, Kady would not go into gear. Since this was the first time Chris was driving we decided immediately to blame him (just kidding). We pushed Kady to the side of the road and Chris climbed underneath and discovered that the clutch cable had broken apart. He tried to jerry-rig it back together using some wire, duct tape and a keychain clip… but we still could not get her into gear. Chris and Rainey started pushing Kady down the highway (with me steering) to the next exit, which was over a mile away … sweating and cussing with every step.

We rolled into a rest stop and no-one had any idea how to find a Tuk Tuk mechanic. Malaysia outlawed Tuk-Tuks years ago and no such vehicle exists in this country. We had a nice stranger call a car mechanic, but he refused to come out and work on Kady. We were starting to feel desperate. We also realized that we did not have very much Malaysian cash to pay a mechanic so Rainey and I walked to the nearest gas station (while Chris stayed with Kady and continued to see if he could fix her). The woman attendant at the gas station got her father to take Rainey to the nearest bank with an ATM and then begged a man buying gas to drive me to the nearest garage. The first two body shop places refused to help. The poor man kept driving me on to new places as I got turned away. At the third place, I literally begged the man who ran the bike shop to come with me and at least look at Kady. I must have been very pitiful because he agreed …. And ended up working on Kady until after 9 PM to get her fixed. We had to tow her to his garage as the new clutch cable needed to be welded on. And then .. right as the work was done and we were finally about to get on the road….

The heavens opened and it started to pour. Not to be deterred, we put the luggage into black garbage bags, dragged on our rain jackets and headed out. Within 15 minutes Kady’s entire roof was leaking like a sieve with the water pouring in like a water spout. We were thoroughly drenched, the floor of Kady was 2 inches under water and the storm was only getting worse. I called “Uncle” and we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions to a hotel. If we had been inquiring about how to build a space shuttle to Mars we might have had an easier time. It took 6 people (including all attendants and several customers) to even come up with the name of a hotel within a 30 mile radius. My sense was that not a single person we were talking to had ever spent the night in a hotel, far less ever had a need for one. With great trepidation we headed off to the only name we got and - when we arrived - there was only one room left in the whole place so we had few to no options. Luckily the room had one queen bed and one twin bed so we could all fit and it was really not awful. Humble but at least clean. We went to the Kentucky Fried Chicken that was next to the hotel (the only place still open by this time), picked up the first piece of food we had seen since breakfast, and fell dead asleep.

This morning (Friday morning) we were up by 5 AM to try and make up some of the time we lost yesterday with our break-down. By 9 AM, we were in Alon Setar and having breakfast (odd but quite delicious French toast) and we crossed into Thailand by noon.

The scenery in the North of Malaysia was really pretty: thick jungle and hills

We saw four other Tuk Tuk groups at the Thai border… one Tuk was working. One Tuk Tuk was towing another one. And the last was on the back of a truck. Suddenly we felt quite lucky that Kady was doing as well as she is.

Right over the border we even found a decent restaurant with a single item menu (it served only fried rice) but it was good. We are going to do a long driving day today and try to get within a few hours of the finish line in Krabi. The run ends tomorrow night with a big party in Krabi. The organizers moved the finish line a few days ago to South of Bangkok because of the flooding so we are ending a day early.

Jerejak: A weirder island than the one in “Lost”

2011-10-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

We FINALLY met up with Chris Hunte, our third team member, in Penang. He had spent the last two days in Singapore waiting for us to cross out of Indonesia since they denied him a visa to join us there.

We managed to time it so that we are here for Deepvali.

There are amazing elaborate decorations made from colored rice everywhere. We even watched a woman create one of them and it was incredible. Such detail work and one wrong breeze and the whole thing is messed up.

Yesterday we took a boat out to a private island off the coast called Jerejak and spent the night at the only resort out there. We were also the ONLY guests as if everyone else knew how haunted and odd the island was - except us.

To be honest, the resort was very nice and we

had a great chalet… but everything else about the island was WEIRD and CREEPY . We went for a bike ride and then a long hike in the thick jungle across a very shaky suspension bridge (that about did me in) and it was nice to be outside and being active. But the island just got weirder and weirder as we went along. Odd sounds. Odd sights. No-one around. Weird things that popped up.

This island has been used as a leper colony and then a prison so there are broken-down buildings all over the island. The old prison felt literally doomed by ghosts.

Each cell was so small and dark and dank... can't imagine what it must have been like to be locked up in there for years on end. We all stood in the cells (which have only 4 inch slits at the top of the wall for light) and felt so grateful for our own lives.

At the end of the long hike - and after we had literally been climbing up and down small mountains - we came upon a deserted beach where we found a recently killed dog. Odd part of it was that the only tracks leading to the body were hand prints.

It took us a while to realize that there

were drag marks between the hand prints and that the dog had been killed by some giant, carnivorous dragon or water lizard.

The dragon-lizard has hands as large as mine. Chris looked out to the water and there it was ... looking right back at it.. and then the creature ducked underwater. I slept all night with one eye open waiting for the man-eating dragon to rip me from my bed.

This afternoon, after we got back from Jerejak, we went and got our feet nibbled on by fish at a fish spa. Chris was very brave and even put his feed into the big-fish aquarium where the fish bites don't just tickle.. they feel like piranha on the attack. Tonight we also got to taste a strange kind of ice-cream called Ice Floss. It is a similar texture as candy floss but with ice-cream and it melts in your mouth sort of the same way.

Tomorrow we pick up Kady from the port and start heading for Thailand. I hope she survived the crossing in one piece!!!

Northern Sumatra: Where the Orangutans still roam free

2011-10-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

We had our first WOW A+++++ moment today. We got up at

4 AM and drove almost 3 hours out to a huge national park / jungle where the

Orangutans still roam free. There are only 6,00 orangutans left in the wild and the largest population is here: in Northern Sumatra. We arrived in a village that is largely built on stilts on the banks of a river, hired a local guide and set out into the jungle

. At 8:30 AM every day the park rangers provide extra food and milk for wild orangutans. Mainly mothers with their babies show up as they need extra nutrition for breast-feeding. But the feeding platform is deep in the jungle. First we had to cross a pretty rapid current river in a flat-bottom boat that is dragged across the water by a series of pulleys and ropes. Then we climbed up-hill into deep forest until – after about 30 minutes – we got to a clearing where a wooden platform

is built into the trees. 2 rangers climbed up and hit the platform with a wooden stick several times (apparently the jungle symbol for “chow time”).

We immediately started seeing the trees around shake and rustle as the mommy orangutans (with babies in tow) came to get extra food. It was one of the most amazing experiences.

The orangutans swung by right next to where we were sitting

on the ground and – in one circumstance – right overhead. I could have reached out and touched them. They climb onto the platform, take a tin cup filled with milk and drink from it, then return it to the ranger for more, give their babies the tin cup (who hold it in their two hands and drink like children with a cup of cocoa) and then start eating the bananas and fruit that the rangers have. Every orangutan had to dig into the ranger’s backpack to confirm – for themselves – that the rangers had shared out all of the food and had nothing else. And one even hugged the ranger as she came onto the platform. Even after the feeding was over, the orangutans hung around and watched at us - watch them - and made you feel like you were in the zoo. After all, we had hiked our happy butts into the jungle to look at them in the wild. And they were looking right back at us. The babies were adorable, swinging around, hanging by one hand and generally just showing off.

After the feeding, our guide took us for a 2

hour hike into the jungle. It was so beautiful and it felt great to be outside walking around. That is us below a 300 year old gum tree. They literally just bore a hole in the gum trees and let the glue / sap trickle out into a hollowed-out coconut shell and then collect all the sap and sell it.

We ended our trek with a late breakfast at a backpacker inn built right on top of the river and then crossed back over the river on a shaky, very scary (mainly because

I am afraid of heights and things that sway back and forth) wooden bridge that is literally built on ropes tied across the river.

Update on our Tuk-Tuk, Kady. Kady was supposed to arrive late, late the night before yesterday. We stayed up watching TV waiting for her. Nothing. We had the hotel call the driver and he said that he would be here by 7 AM. 7, 8, 9 AM came and went.. no sign of Kady. Then the ransom notes started. First the driver called the hotel and said that he was stopped by the police and did not have the right paperwork and needed money for a 300,000 rupee fine. Since Rainey had gone to the police station in Jambi to get the correct paperwork, we refused the first bribery attempt. At 11 AM, we got the second ransom demand. The driver called and said that he did not have enough money to buy gas and he was 5 hours from Medan and needed 300,000 rupees (Funny how the money was identical). This time we felt like we had no choice. The hotel arranged for us to wire the money to him. Even though we had given in and negotiated with terrorists, it still took until 11 PM last night for Kady to get here. And then – she was broken. Somewhere along the line – whether in the loading, unloading or traveling process, a bar underneath her got twisted and locked up one of the wheels. Kady could not drive.

The hotel staff in Medan were awesome. When we got back from the orangutans today, even though it was Sunday, one of the bell men got on his motorcycle, disappeared for over an hour, and returned with a mechanic on his back. Every man in the vicinity came to help / watch. Several hours later and Kady is back up and running and ready for the trip tomorrow to the port. Phew !!!! I was starting to panic. We are now back on schedule.

We meet up tomorrow with our third team member, Chris Hunte (my niece's boyfriend). He has bee trying patiently to get an Indonesian visa but the embassy in Houston has stubbornly refused. He thus spent the last two days in Singapore and is going to meet us in Penang, Malaysia tomorrow instead.

Implementing Plan B

2011-10-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

We are still in Jambi after several long hard days on the road. Each day we have to make a certain distance to even reach civilization as between cities there is really no option of stopping because there are no hotels, restaurants or even rest stops … just miles and miles of jungle interspersed with poor, poor villages. We have taken to stopping on our way out of town each morning at a market and buying crackers, Pringles potato chips (all well past their expiration date) and bottles of water and we eat and drink those as we go along. Plus when we stop – even for gas –we are treated like minor-celebrities / aliens who have dropped from another planet. We are immediately mobbed with people who want to touch us or take our photo. This young woman insisted that Rainey give her his phone number and pose for over a dozen photos with her and every one of her friends. The fascination with us is a little disconcerting!!

Arriving here was to hard (to say the least). After nine hours of driving – and with still an hour to go - it started raining and then pouring (with lots of thunder and lightning)…. And we learned that our Tuk Tuk canvas top leaks like a sieve. I piled our back packs into black plastic bags that I had bought with me - and put on a rain jacket - but we were both drenched and our Tuk Tuk kept filling up with water like a leaking boat. We pulled into the Andari hotel (“the nicest hotel in town” according to a passing policeman) looking like drowned rats.We soon

learned that “nicest hotel in town” has a variety of meanings and none of them – in this context – means ‘luxury.’ The room did have beds with clean sheets and air conditioning so that’s a plus. For dinner that night at the hotel restaurant we both ordered spaghetti bolagnaise (because it seemed harmless) and got served boiled spaghetti with a generous helping of spiky Bar-B-Q sauce on top. Yuck!!!

The next morning we did the math and figured out that we could not make the boat in Medan if we carried on. Our Tuk-Tuk (we call her “Katie” in honor of the Blues Brother’s song, or at least what Rainey remembers of the song ….‘She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride’) is steady but VERY slow.

Seems like Katy’s gear ratio is wrong because we can literally start her in 4th gear and go up a hill in 5th and she tops out at about 25-30 Km per hour (whereas other Tuk Tuks are doing 50).

We calculated that we just cannot go fast enough to catch the boat and, since Katy’s lights are wired wrong, if you turn them on - within an hour – they go very dim and then kill the battery. Traveling any distance at night is thus dangerous. We had to drive after dark to get into Pelambang the other night and destroyed the battery which caused us to have to push-start Katy for most of the next day with Rainey running behind and me popping the clutch (we were quite a sight!!!)

This morning, we went to Plan B and started asking around about

shipping our Tuk Tuk to Medan on a truck. 5 million rupees later, seven men literally picked up our Tuk Tuk (no-one had thought to bring a ramp of any kind), strapped Katy to the back of a truck and took off. The trucker came with his very elderly father who was so enamored with Katy that he sat in the back inside the Tuk Tuk – moving the wheel from side to side – like a kid in a toy car as they drove away. I have wondered all day if he pretend-drove her all the way to Medan (a 23 hour trip by truck). Rainey had to spend an eventful morning at the police station getting official letters (with lots of embossing and signatures) that give the trucker permission to carry our vehicle. And then was returned to the hotel on the back of motorcycle – weaving in and out of the awful traffic!!!

The pressing question is whether we will ever see Katy again. We insisted on only paying half down in Jambi and the other half at delivery in Medan, which we are hoping ups the odds of a “Yes.” The Rickshaw Run is not really a race for time since every team has to be at the crossing in Medan at the same time and put the rickshaws on the same boat. It is more a test of nerves, adventurous spirit and ability to navigate your way through a part of the world that has seen very few Westerners in a piece of machinery that is guaranteed to break down at every turn. We have heard that other teams will be trucking their Tuk Tuks to Medan as well and several teams have already given up because their Tuk Tuks are no longer operational. So while we bitch about our Katy’s speed (which is not much above a fast jog), we cannot complain about her stamina. She has cranked out 10-13 hour days – day after day – without even getting hot or giving trouble (other than the full battery shut down).

After waving goodbye to Katy, we turned to the second puzzle: how to get ourselves to Medan. Again, not an easy feat. Jambi has an airport but there are no dire

ct flights to Medan and there were no flights available out of Jambi - at all - that whole day. We finally tracked down a travel agent who got us tickets for tomorrow morning where we can fly from Jambi back to Jakarta - and then literally fly over Jambi again on our way to Medan.

We spent the afternoon wandering around in the nearest market where the most popular item – by far - is various types, colors and kinds of head-dress.

Rainey

also bought a pair of knock-off Converse High Tops which – with no real attempt to be as similar as possible to the original – actually zip up the side.

Somewhere in the middle of Sumatra

2011-10-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

We are now in Jambi - just about half the way through Sumatra - but it has been long, tough days in a very cramped and uncomfortable Tuk-Tuk… I feel shaken,

rattled and rolled by the time we stop each night. My ears ring all night from how loud the rickshaw is and my hands keep shaking for hours after we stop.

What I have learned is that whatever money there is in this country is spent on Mosques and police. No matter how poor a village is, the mosque is beautiful and stands out in sharp contrast to the rest of the village. And there is police everywhere … lots of them. Must be the most popular job in Indonesia and clearly a large part of the government’s budget is to employ as many people as possible as policemen.

Despite the hardships, it has been a true adventure to see Indonesia this way. We go through the poorest and most economically depressed villages and yet everyone is sitting around with their friends… in the dust and grime ... telling jokes and laughing. Everywhere we go the people are so nice and friendly and genuinely astounded to see is rattling by in a Tuk-Tuk.
Rainey has done the lion’s share of the driving as he is masterful at dodging the giant potholes and avoiding the huge trucks which seem dead set on crushing us. Despite

Our Tuk Tuk has not yet broken down but we’ve been careful to take her in for service every other day and keep all fluids topped up. She is – however – VERY SLOW. We are averaging only 20-25 km per hour and it’s a LONG WAY to the top of Sumatra where we have to meet the boat to take us over to Malaysia. The boat that will take all of the Tuk Tuks across the Malacca straits leaves on October 24 so we have only a few days left to get to the port and over 1,200 KMs to go. Pretty soon here we are going to have to cut our losses and put our Tuk Tuk on a truck that can go twice as fast and get us there on time. It is really too dangerous to drive at night as our lights are barely functional and there is literally not enough daylight hours to drive the remaining distance.

Weird event: One the ferry from Java to Sumatra, they were

selling GUNS... Yes.. GUNS. Not sure how that is a safe idea but there you go. This guy was acting out Dirty Harry.. Indonesian Style as he tested the guns.
We have seen very few of the other teams but have heard some of the horror stories. A Dutch couple rolled their Tuk-Tuk (hit a huge pothole at the wrong angle and over it went – no serious injuries, just some bruises) and another couple’s entire engine blew out and they are stuck in a small town having it totally replace. We ended up leaving the British couple team that we had set out with because their Tuk Tuk kept overheating and could not go more than 10-15 Kms without breaking down and needing a cooling down period. They are now almost 2 days behind us.

And here is a new one for me .. selling in a gas station store yesterday... Seaweed Pringles !!!!

Clearly a taste that has not yet reached American shores.

On the road again..

2011-10-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

RICKSHAW RUN - DAY 1

We set off from Jakarta yesterday - on the South East Asia Rickshaw Run from Jakarta, Indonesia to Bangkok, Thailand - with great pomp and circumstances… a marching band, ribbon cutting ceremony, speeches from various dignitaries. Several teams came decked out in awesome costumes and really pimped out their rickshaws. The best was a 1- woman- 2 man team who had dressed in Chitty Chitt

y Bang Bang costumes and another team drapped their rickshaw in garlands of blessed flowers for luck. Rainey and I – on the other hand – were lame, lame, lame!!!! All of the rickshaws started and made it past the Starting Line following the police

escort out of Jakarta. Two street lights up, we lost the first one (the gear shifte

r broke off in their hand… and they were off pushing it back to the start line for some welding repairs). By mile 5, we had lost 6 ricksha

ws. By the edge of the city when the police left us, only 19 rickshaws were still running (out of 28). So we were feeling pretty cocky until an hour in, the other team that we are traveling with (an older couple from England) had a bad back-fire, black sm

oke flew out of their engine and the rickshaw died. We ended up spending 3 hours in the back yard of a village mechanic while he replaced all of the wiring (which had burned up because of over-heating). So rather than making the ferry for the crossing into Sumatra that night, we only got as far as the port town. Found a medium decent hotel (tepid hot water, grubby bathroom but what seemed to be fairly clean sheets) and ate some Nasi Goreng (fried rice) at a nearby local’s restaurant and went to bed.

Day 2

Day 2 had its own adventures. Rainey woke up in the middle of the night deathly ill. He got very dehydrated the first day and then added on to that some stomach issues and by the time we got on the ferry he was grey and sweaty and half dead. We met up with another rickshaw group on the ferry where both guys are doctors in England (one’s a psychiatrist and one’s an infectious diseases and kidney transplant physician). They did an exam and recommended that I get Rainey to a pharmacy as quick as possible to buy various things. Our Tuk Tuk is the slowest one in the group and we have a top speed of like 20 MPH so getting anywhere quickly is a joke. We managed to limp into Bandan Lampang (the nearest large town) with me driving and Rainey in a heap in the back. There is apparently no sight quite as hysterical to Indonesian villagers as a white woman driving a beat-up, half dead rickshaw. I was causing traffic jams and villagers were running out of the fields to check out the spectacle.

In Bandan Lampang I found a pharmacy - bought meds (not sure that I actually purchased what we needed as there was no English spoken and my skill at charades were being sorely tested) – checked into the fanciest hotel in town which is actually very nice and got Rainey into a clean, air conditioned bed with lots of fluids and mystery drugs. He went to sleep at 3 PM yesterday afternoon and by 5 AM today says he is feeling much better. We have to get on the road or we will miss the boat crossing in Medan in 6 days (a mandatory check-in spot) but I am giving him another hour of rest before we push on….

Last leg and into the end

2011-05-08T04:01:00.001-07:00

We ended the Iberian / European leg with an overnight in Lisbon, Portugal and then flew on for a day in New York city. We all came into the end of the trip despondent and so sad to see this trip coming to an end. Lisbon is a great city that is built on hills above the harbor. It is like a mix between San Francisco (narrow streets and steep slopes) and New Orleans (wrought iron balconies and color-washed buildings).

We walked around Lisbon on our one night there and had dinner at an open air café. A scavenge was to get a restaurant to let you pick up the fish hanging in the front window … and we did … and the fish burped blood all over my shirt (yuck!!! )

Look at this… When you live in a busy city with no parking… the key is to buy a Smart Car. It can allow you to turn the regular space between two parked cars into another whole parking space. So clever!!

In New York, we were up early because of the horrible jet lag. It was a beautiful day so we set out walking and hit the Flat Iron building (a scavenge). Ir is a neat building that starts every narrow and gets wider and wider. I always wonder what it's like to live in one of the skinny apartments that face the corner.

We also saw an artist in the park making large sand art. He was creating a multi-color flower by pouring sand onto the concrete. I wonder how long it lasted. One stiff breeze and his entire day’s work would be blown away.

Last night was the official end of the trip and the awards ceremony. I am proud to announce that Littlepage Booth-ers… took a clean sweep. Rainey and I came in first. This means that we get to go back again next year (FOR FREE). No better reward prize that that. I am already counting down the weeks. Natasha and David took second. Rainey’s daughters, Elizabeth and Emily, came in third. And we were all so sad to be going back to our real lives after this amazing experience. Home tomorrow…. We will be back in 48 weeks... stay tuned.

The Walled City of Fez

2011-05-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

We were initially sorely disappointed when we arrived in Fez -- as it looked like just one more dirty, North African city. What had everyone been talking about? What was so great about this place? Then we started asking questions and realized that the hotel that we checked into (which was the first one we came to) was in the new city of Fez and what we wanted was the old walled city of Fez or the Medina. The Medina is a labirynth of alleyways and narrow streets filled with thousands of open booth-like stores selling literally everything: from honey-sweetened dates to Calvin Klein underwear to fresh goat cheese wrapped in banana leaves to a vast selection of Caftans (a long, flowing gown that the Muslim women here where over their regular clothes whenever they are in public). We got lost in the Medina for hours... walking and walking and taking in the sites. It actually started to get a little claustrophic as the walls are very high on either side and the streets are very narrow. There are only 4 gates or openings in the walled city and they are HARD to find... so you feel like you are lost in a maze of epic propotions. There are lots of booths selling nothing but candies and sweets - just my kind of country. One of our scavenge challenges was to get a henna tattoo... so all of the girls lined up for their markings (a memory that we will apparently keep in plain sight for the next 4-6 weeks). Emily and Elizabeth got it all over their hands. Natasha and I have a hearing in front of a conservative federal judge the day after we get back from this trip so we had to get hidden tattoos: Natasha chose her leg and I got this intricate pattern on my shoulder. The wizened old woman - who did our henna tattoos - drew from her imagination and did not use any templates or patterns. It was fascinating to watch her.

Magical Morocco

2011-05-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Morocco.. a land with great and magical sounding cities – Marrakech, Casablanca and Fez. How can you not love a country that gives its town such great names??? I came here expecting to find a dirty, crowded place with limited rights for women…and, while all of my preconceptions were true,.. I also found a magical place. It reminds me a lot of Tunisia (another great North African country that we visited a few years ago). With the recent protests and trouble here, we were a somewhat nervous about visiting. As you may know, there was a terrorist attack in a tourist area of Marrakech in the past week. A terrorist group exploded a bomb at a popular café and killed over a dozens tourists. There is also some civil up-rest here as they are protesting the King of Morocco and rioting for democratic reform. Because of these developments, we saw a LOT of police in the streets – really at every street corner. However, we saw no Anti-American sentiment and, although the street vendors are pushy at trying to get you to buy their stuff, there was nothing threatening or scary. And David, an African American, got his wish to set foot on Africa’s soil.
We arrived by ferry in Tangers, a large seaport town, at about 1 AM this morning and grabbed some taxis to take us from the port to a hotel in the center of town. The taxi drivers took off at a VERY high rate of speed and we were all petrified as they drove dangerously fast on narrow, winding roads, barely missing donkeys and cows that were wandering in the streets. We went to a hotel recommended by the security guard at the port (which could have been a dicey affair) but ended up being very nice and clean. We had been traveling all day so we all fell asleep within minutes of hitting the beds. There are 3 ½ teams traveling together for this leg (me and Rainey, his daughters: Elizabeth and Emily, Natasha and David as well as James – half of the “Faster than Roadkill” team. James’ teammate has family in Spain so he dropped out of the competition for this leg so he could visit with them).

We woke up early this morning to start our trek to Fez, apparently a neat place about 5 hours from Tangers. But first we had some challenges to do in Tangers. We began in the Souk (or market) where we had to buy a traditional Arab hat or “Fez.” We also got suckered into buying some embroidered cotton shirts (mainly because they were clean and all of our clothes are grossly dirty by now). Next up was to have a drink at a specific café that ended up being in a neighborhood, down an winding alleyway. It looked like a shabby dive until we walked inside. What a surprise!! The café – while rustic - is built on a cliff overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar and the view of the sea and the passing boats is breathtaking. We had to drink mint tea (an odd tea concoction with chunks of mint branches and leaves stuffed onto the top of very sweet tea) and the owner insisted that we sit and share his “tobacco pipe,” a thin wooden carved pipe with flavored tobacco. Café El Hafa was an unexpected delight.
Next, the journey to Fez. IT TOOK FOREVER. Along the way we stopped in a small village to eat at what seemed to be the local hang-out restaurant. Hanging from the rafters were skinned cows in various stages of being cut up and cooked. Their entire tails (with fluffy ends) were still attached to the bodies. The menu consists of you going up to the counter and literally pointing to parts of the cow’s body that is hanging (dripping blood on the floor) right in front of you. The man behind the counter then cuts off a hunk of whatever area you select, throws it on an open fire and roast its up for you right there. The flies were buzzing all over the raw carcasses and the workers did not even bother to try and swat them away. At another counter, a different man was taking the cow’s brains, liver and kidneys and putting them into a grinder with hot chili peppers and making meatballs. We carefully avoided the meat balls (as there was no way that was going in my mouth) and ate “shank” (not sure what that actually means except that we pointed to the least fly-infested part of the cow and asked for that to be sliced and cooked). It came served with chopped up tomatoes, olives and bread. No rice, no potatoes, no knives and forks, no napkins. You just pick everything up with your hands and shove it into your mouth and use the bread to wipe your hands and mouth. We were awful at it and our table was covered with dropped food by the time were done. Amazingly, the food tasted great and it was served with very hot, heavily-sugared tea. We had asked for a beer but this is a Muslim country so the restaurants do not serve any alcohol – only tea and Coke.
Another funny story. We were sitting at the café when a shoe shiner came up and wanted to shine our shoes. Unfortunately, we were only wearing flip flops or sandals. Not to be discouraged, the boy whipped off Rainey’s flip flops, placed a decorated ceramic tile on the floor (for Rainey to rest his feet on while his shoes were being polished so his feet did not get dirty) and started polishing and wiping down Rainey’s flip-flops with great dedication to the task. We laughed so hard - and tipped him double - because of his earnestness at shining shoes that did not exist!!!
We just arrived in Fez. Our challenge for tonight was to find a hotel for less than 100Euro and it took some convincing to get the hotel manager to let us get rooms for 99Euro. But we did ... and we are here ... and are about to go out exploring...

Spain to Morocco: Frustrations and Obstacles

2011-05-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

After a great day yesterday, we had a surprisingly difficult – and frustrating - day today. It was like the travel gods just grabbed us. We had to visit the Alhambra in Granada so every team set off this morning on the 9 AM train to Granada. The Alhambra is an amazing palace complex in this really neat town called Granada in Southern Spain. We arrived by 1 PM and hauled ourselves and our luggage to the Alhambra – only to find out that they limit the number of visitors to the Alhambra each day… and all of the tickets for today were gone. URRRGGHH!!! Our options were to spend the night in Granada and line up at 7AM tomorrow morning in hope of a ticket (no guarantees) or head to the coast of Spain and cross into Morocco. The only thing that David has wanted out of this trip is the opportunity to set foot in Africa.. and to take some African soil home… so we decided to head out. This is obviously going to cost us a penalty for this leg, but if we stayed we would not be able to get to Africa.
The next train did not leave for a few hours so we then tried to eat at two different restaurants on the scavenge list.. no go. Both restaurants were closed because it was a holiday in Granada. I have no idea of the significance of the holiday but it involves every little girl in town dressing up like a Flamenco and every teenage girl was wearing red flowers in their hair. They were so cute.
We are now on our way to the South of Spain and hoping for a late night ferry to Tangers. We want to end up in Fez tomorrow but we’ve been told that the Moroccan trains are very unreliable.. so who knows. The countryside of southern spain is just beautiful. Reminds me a lot of Tuscany in Italy with hills and cute little towns all along the way.

Madrid

2011-05-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

-- Saint Augustine

We arrived in Madrid yesterday afternoon to discover that – starting today – we have to conquer Madrid and then move through Spain to Gibraltar – then cross into Morocco – and get back to Lisbon, Portugal by Thursday night. Talk about overwhelming!!! We started on Madrid early this morning. Just a few highlights:

#1: Find the statue of literary characters in Plaza de Espana: If any of you know Rainey at all, you know that he is crazy about Don Quixote. And when we arrived in Plaza de Espana, what did we find? A statue of Don Quizote and side-kick Sancho Panza. Rainey was happy for the rest of the day.

#2: Playing Dress-Up: OK – goofy as heck – but there you go.. there were points for dressing up as a Matador and a Flamenco dancer so we of course found ourselves posing in front of the Royal Palace. On this trip, there is very little that you would not do for points - including eating eggs with day old chicks inside.
#3: Segway tour: We had to rent Segways and take a tour of Madrid. They were much easier to drive than I thought they would be, but I was still a significant menace to all passerbys. And we unfortunately had major malfunctions. In the course of our tour, our group managed to hit one of the segways into a pole and two stopped working along the way. And it started to rain on us on the way back. But even with the mishaps, it was fun to be out scootering around town.
#4: Tapas: We had to try Tapas at various restaurants in this trendy area. Here we are – finally back in a totally civilized country - and they are carving up an animal’s leg (foot still attached) in a fancy restaurant. Gross, gross, gross. I feel no need to actually watch – on display - the full thigh of any animal that I am eating.

#5: Egyptian Library: And you are wondering why there is a 2000 year old Egyptian library in the middle of Madrid? Apparently it was a gift from Egypt. The structure was dismantled and brought brick by brick to Spain and re-assembled in a park in the middle of Madrid.
#6: Bullfight: And the highlight of today.. the bullfight. Before we went, we talked about the fact that – in America – there are cows slaughtered every day in horrific conditions in slaughterhouses and we happily eat hamburgers, so it is not for us to judge a culture that performs the act of slaying cattle in a ceremonial way. Fully intellectually prepared, we headed off to the bullfighting ring.. and came face to face with abject animal cruelty. The matadors were beautiful and the flapping of the capes was interesting until they started stabbing the bull, and the bull started bleeding, and they kept stabbing him and stabbing him… and the bull bled and bled… and did not die. Natasha had her entire head covered by her jacket. Elizabeth and Emily were crying. We were quite the spectacle of PETA supporters… and yes, we left as soon as the first bull was finally put out of its misery.

We leave tomorrow for the South of Spain and a crossing into Africa.. stay tuned.

Istanbul: Turkish Delight

2011-05-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Aaaahhhh… the country of Apple Tea and Turkish delight … hard to not love Istanbul. We spent almost two full days here and had a GREAT time. The weather was cool but sunny and – for the first time in two weeks – I did not feel like I was melting at every turn. We came to Istanbul with my mom and Ben on Great Escape 2009 and, everywhere we went, I felt their presence. Homesickness set in. I ended up staying at the hotel - for almost an hour after we got our scavenge book – so I could call the boys and just hear their voices. The time change between the US and Asia makes it virtually impossible to talk to them until we get this far west. It was so nice to just hear them, even though they were heading out to school and could not talk for long.
Some of our Istanbul scavenges:
#1: The Obvious: We had to visit the Haga Sofia and the Blue Dome – of course. I put my finger in The Sweating Wall in the Haga Sofia and made a complete turn of my hand while making a wish (apparently all the steps necessary to guarantee that my wish will come true)… Sure hope that the legend it true as it was a good wish.
#2: The Unexpected: We got stopped in the main square by two ten year old girls who were required to talk to strangers for their English homework assignment. We had to answer a long list of random questions (like: “What season do you like best?” and “What kind of pet do you have?”). Their English was great and they were so serious about getting all of the questions asked and accurately recording the answers. Very cute.
#3: The Grand Bazaar: The grand market was teaming with people so we wandered around for almost a hour, people-watching and getting the answers to various scavenger questions. For example, we had to find this particular carpet shop and get a list of famous people who had bought carpets there (Answer: Harvey Keitel, Elizabeth Hurley). This may not seem like a big deal but there are approximately 892 carpet stores in the Grand Bazaar and finding this exact one is somewhat of a Herculean feat. We also bought a set of Russian stacking dolls and “Evil Eye” blue-stoned key chains.
# 4: Smoking ChiChi: We had to spend an hour visiting with people at a specific Hookah bar in the middle of the trendy area of town (Cemberlitas). We tried apple tobacco upon the recommendation of our waiter but it burned the back of my throat and made me cough. We drank cup after cup of apple tea.
#5: Bonus trip to Ephesus: On the second morning, we took a bonus trip to Ephesus. I was dreading it because it involved a 4 AM wake-up call and I’ve had just about enough of waking up before dawn. But it ended up being a great day. The flight was short (less than an hour) and then an easy car ride to Ephesus. We ended up with lots of time so we wandered slowly through the ruins, took tons of photos and then sat and ate lunch in the market area at the end. The poppies are in bloom and the flowers grow all in-between the rocks and ruins making the whole place seem alive with color. Seems unreal that this statue had survived the elements for all of these years and still looks so great.
#5: Hammam: Traditional Turkish Bath: We had to go to a Turkish bath and take in the experience. So we found ourselves in this large marble-lined room with dozens of other half-nude women sweating out the toxins and getting scrubbed up – with lots of bubbles and soap – by muscled female attendants. A Hammam is like a giant public sauna and bath house where the women sit around on this marble circular stage in the middle of the room and gossip and giggle. The men’s section is separate. We came out feeling clean and exfoliated.
Good-Bye Asia: Hello Europe
Leaving Turkey was the end of the Asia leg. We are heading to Madrid now to start the Europe trek. In this part of the trip, we’ll be dumped in Madrid and have to make our way through several countries over 4 or 5 days doing scavenges along the way. We have to arrange our own transportation and figure out the best route to get the most scavenges done in the various countries. I’ve never been to Spain, so I’m looking forward to this leg. This is also the part of the trip where we have to travel with all of our luggage again – on planes, trains, buses etc. – and by the end I will likely be cursing every extra pair of socks that I have in my suitcase. I even threw away from clothes in Istanbul to try and lighten the load… but I’m still pretty much hauling around a body bag. I am dreading that part.
Observations from Asia:
1) Washing clothes in India: There is an area in Mumbai called the Dhoti Ghats: a large laundry area - or field of concrete squares - that is flooded with clean water once per week. Men work from dawn to dusk - standing thigh high in the water - scrubbing sheets, clothes and linens with blocks of soap and beating them on the concrete sides to get them clean and then hanging it all up to dry in the blistering sun. Apparently more than 50% of the laundry of Mumbai is done here, including laundry for some of the best hotels. It sort of goes without saying that the day that you send things out to wash in Mumbai is important as you clearly want to time your washing for “clean water” day instead of “6 days into dirty water” day.
2) This was my favorite quote from Gandhi’s house – and not just because I am a woman – but because it seems so true: “To call women the weaker sex is a libel, it is man’s injustice to women. If by strength is meant moral power then woman is immeasurably man’s superior…If non-violence is the law of our being, the future is with women.” Just being where he had slept and walked and studied was impactful and has stayed with me.
3) Trying to stay clean in the face of abject poverty: A little boy in the slums of Mumbai bathing in an old paint can half-filled with dirty water. All you can think is: “There but for the grace of God, go I.” How is it that I was luck enough to born into my life and this poor child was born into his?
4) Asian culture is are so vibrant with color – and color is such a part of their lives - that they even decorate their public transport (called Jeepneys). These were originally re-modeled US Jeeps that were left behind after the Korean war. Every Jeepney is a different artistic expression.
5) Dawn: Sunrise: Dawn: We have seen the sun rise almost every day of the trip as Bill usually has some scavenge - with lots of points – that occurs only at dawn. He is either a true sadist or he wants us up and out of bed (doing and seeing things) early every day. I have not yet decided which is true. But what is true is that there is an “out of this world” feeling about being on a Buddhist monument – watching out at the city of Yogykarta – while the sun rises.
6) It took us full effort to climb to the top of Mount Brumo for sunrise – and there were even horses available to carry the elderly or kids to the top – and this girl decided to hike it in heels!!!! Vanity is apparently the same throughout the world: a powerful emotion that overcomes all reason!!!
7) Our hotel in Bali was SOOOOO luxurious that they laid out rose petals each night on our bed and gave us fresh night gowns (of soft cotton) to sleep in. And best of all.. the nightgowns were clean and smelt like sunshine (which is not true of virtually every thing in my suitcase by now). We are hand-washing our clothes each night and, when you soak what you wore that day, the water is BLACK with grime. Even with multiple washing cycles, our clothes are not in great shape. And do not smell particularly good. I can’t wait to get home to machine washed clothes.
8) This was a staple meal for us throughout Asia: Nasi Goreing or fried rice. Except, here, instead of mixing the egg in with the rice, the egg comes on top (like an omellete hat)

9) I am having a serious chat with one of the orphans in Manilla . He is not understanding a word that I am saying… obviously!!!
10) This what many of our meals in Asia looked like: not a single recognizable thing on the table.

11) In the fish market outside of Seoul, there was a woman making fish cakes on an open fire … and pressing them into the shape of fish. Apparently fish tastes best when it looks like fish.

12) Emily and Elizabeth are doing well as team mates, no major fights although there have been a few minor meltdowns. Every team has been tested by the competition as each day is HARD, busy, exhausting and often frustrating. As expected, emotions can run high and there are tears from time to time.

India: Lessons in inspiration, poverty and death

2011-04-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

India- as always - was incredible: incredibly heart-wrenching, incredibly impactful, incredibly “India.” Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is a far more cosmopolitan, up-to-date city that some of the other parts of India that I’ve visited. And it has fantastic architecture left over from the British rule. But that is just the prettier backdrop for the same unbelievable poverty that is India. What a mass of humanity... everywhere you look there are people – and more people – and more people. It seems impossible to real impact any meaningful changes in this country in the face of that many people. Our three days in India brought powerful lesson on poverty and dying....Just a few of the scavenges we did:
#1: High Court: We went to watch court proceedings in the High Court. The lawyers still wear the English-style black gowns (like graduation gowns) over their suits but no longer wear the funny white wigs like the barristers in England still do. All legal proceedings are conducted in English and we watch a series of docket calls and argument on various motions. Very interesting. # 2: Inspiration: We also went to the house where Gandhi lived and where he was living when he was shot. His room is still exactly as it was when he lived there… his sleeping pallet, his spinning wheel, his books. All over the walls are photos from his life and some of his most inspiring quotes. There is also a copy of the letters that he wrote to Hitler and to President Roosevelt during World War II, begging both men to help avoid war and suffering. It was so inspiring to be right there: where Gandhi walked and slept and ate.
# 3: Dying ceremony No. 1: Cremation: We were supposed to observe a Hindu cremation ceremony. And.. unbelievably.. we did!! There is something miraculous about any event being listed as a potential scavenge in the book – because suddenly it becomes not only possible but actually do-able. Normally it would never occur to me to try and attend a perfect stranger’s funeral. But then Bill prints it as a scavenge and off we set for the largest crematorium in Mumbai. In the Hindu religion, once you die you are reincarnated. So a dead body is not very important as the soul has already moved on. The preferred method of burial is cremation and you can choose either an open air wooden pit or a furnace-like cremation. This crematorium offered both options. When we arrived, no-one spoke English and I have no idea who they thought we were, but they treated us like arriving royalty. We first got a tour of the open-air fire pits and then the owner of the facility took us into the furnace area. A funeral was in full swing. We were led right up to the front and told to stand right next to the body (the family members all smiled at us and made room for us to stand right at the front). It was very unnerving as suddenly we were an intimate part of this elderly lady’s funeral. Her body was laid out on a bamboo stretcher and two “priests” pressed what looked like un-leaven dough on her forehead and into her mouth, put flowers in her nose and between each of her toes and then poured thick cream on her face. Then her sons came forward and kissed her feet and a large clay pot of water was smashed on the ground. The pot breaking was the end of the ceremony and suddenly a door opened in the wall and her body was pushed into an open fire and burned. As a Westerner, I have to admit to being fairly freaked out… but it was also mesmerizingly interesting to watch a Hindu funeral up close.
# 4: Dying Ceremony No 2: Another scavenger was to visit the Tower of Silence which is an area in Mumbai where a certain sect of Hindus take their dead and leave the bodies for the crows to eat the flesh. You cannot actually go into that part but I took a photo of one of the circling crows because it seemed so odd to know that this bird had just been feeding on human bodies.
#5: Lessons in Poverty: The scavenge was to take a tour of the largest slum in Mumbai. Once again, since it was a scavenge, what would normally seem to be impossible, became a valid option. Natasha and David tracked down a very nice man who did walking tours of the slums and we hired him to take us the following day. We met Tessy at Café Leopold (which is a hip café in the center of Mumbai that still has bullet holes in the wall from where it was shot up during the terrorist attack in 2008) and he started the tour by taking us on the local train out to the slum. The train station alone was an experience. The slum houses 1.2 million people in an area that is the size of a large park. Each home is like a 10X 10 space in which 6-8 people live. They own nothing: no beds, no blankets, no pillows, nothing. We got to actually go into the homes, meet the people, walk through the streets (if you can call mud alleyways a “street”) and see exactly how the people live. There is one large garbage pile area and - since it is the only open area in the slums - it is filled with kids playing cricket and running around. Yes, you read that right… the kids’ playground is the garbage pit. And they play there without any shoes (as they don’t own any) and limited clothes. The average daily wage for the slum dwellers is less than $2 per day. It was an amazing and humbling experience.
We are now off to Instabul for two days... I have been to Instanbul before and really liked it. Also really looking forward to being in a more Western and modern city for change...and one with cooler weather than the sweltering heat of India.

Singapore fling

2011-04-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

By the time we cleared customs and checked our bags into Left Luggage, we had a total of five hours to conquer Singapore during our lay-over to India. We rushed out of the airport, figured out the subway system (with some solid assistance from several very nice strangers) and ran around Singapore at top speed, picking up points as we went. One scavenge was to ride the G-Max which is like a space capsule on a bungy cord. You get strapped in and then flung up in the air like a rocket ship. The pod bounces and spins in all directions on a bungy system. Being afraid of heights, this was one scavenge that Rainey had to do alone.. as there was NO WAY that I was getting on that thing. Emily and Elizabeth went with Rainey and I was the photographer.
Nasty food scavenge for Singapore: noodles with squid. You see a little one lurking in the front of the bowl… squidy legs afloat. I ate around it and the noodles were pretty good. Off to India.. stay tuned

Beautiful Bali

2011-04-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on this part of one's own earth. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Bali.. even the name is exotic.. and the place is even better. We got two whole days in heaven. There are no words to describe how GREAT it is to be in Bali after the train-ride, no-sleep trek across Java. The first morning we slept in late (which, on this trip, means we did not get out of bed until 8 AM….WOW). It was delicious. Then we set off to explore Bali. A few highlights from our adventures:
A. Sanur: a small seaside town with lots of westerners. We rented bikes and rode around the city. It felt great to be mobile even if the bikes did not have working gears or great brakes (and stopping meant putting down your feet and grinding your shoes on the pavement). We rode to a beach for lunch and then took a boat out to the reef and went snorkeling. There were so many fish that it was like swimming through a crowded Indian train station of fish. The fish were actually touching you because there were so many of them. Last stop was to a spa for a “fish pedicure” where we put our feet into an aquarium and little fish ate all of the dried skin off our toes and heels and sucked on the skin to bring blood into our feet. It is the oddest experience – part tickly, part sucking feeling, mainly bizarre. But it does make your feet feel better once it is over.

B. Katu: Another seaside city where we had to find the memorial for the 2002 bombing. You might remember than in October of 2002, terrorists bombed a popular tourist night club in Bali and killed over 300 people (almost a third of which were Australians). In that spot, they built a memorial which lists all of the names of the dead and people bring flowers and small mementos to the shrine. The day before, family of an Australian couple who died in the fire, had left photos and flowers in memory of this couple. It was very sobering.

C. Elephant Camp: We visited the elephant camp where a couple (husband from Australia and wife from Bali) went out and rescued almost a dozen sick and diseased elephants from the logging camps of Sumatra and brought then to Bali. They created a beautiful reserve for the elephants and you can visit to feed the elephants, ride them, take them into the pond for a swim… interact with them. It was fun.

D. Monkey Temple: We visited an Indiana Jones style temple in the middle of the rain forest in Ubud that is literally covered with monkeys. You buy fruit and bananas on your way into the forest and the monkeys clamber all over you to take (or steal) the food. In fact you have to put everything into your bag and zip it up of the naughty monkeys will steal your hat or sunglasses or anything in our hands. There were tons of baby monkeys playing and scampering about and they would come right up to you and hold your hand and take the bananas right from you.

E. Massage: And highlight of the trip… I got a massage at our hotel which was the most luxurious, elegant, unbelievable experience. Each massage table is in a private bungalow on the river where you hear the

waterfall and babbling water as the background to the massage. When I arrived they gave me sugar tea and a sweet cookie and then a beautiful and gentle woman poured warm oil all over me and gently rub out all of my aches and pains. It ends – 90 minutes later- with her putting me into a Jacuzzi, feeding me chilled fresh fruit and putting a cool clothe on my head… while I watched the river stream by in my own private piece of heaven. And the bill: $61. I am sooooo coming back to this island. It is wonderful.
Our next stop is Singapore for a 7 hour lay-over on our way to Mumbai, India. We are going to get the book of Singapore scavenges when we land and will have only limited time to get as much done as we can. Then off to India. I’ve never been to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) so really looking forward to it.

Observations from Indonesia
#1: On top of the volcano

(Mount Bromo), it is cold in the morning so we had to pile on the clothes. Nice change from the heat of Yogyakarta. While

the trip to get there is beyond awful (and actually

the worse travel experience I’ve ever had), the actual climb is very doable (nothing like Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka

which we had to climb last year) and the sunrise is memorable.
#2: Squat toilets are horrific and are the most likely cause of chronic voluntary constipation in South East Asia. Why does Korea have great toilets with heated seats and

a short flight away in Indonesia you still have to squat down over a hole in the ground?

#3: Unless you are Indonesian

it is hard to look anything but goofy in the temple sarongs that you must wear to enter any temple. Western men just cannot seem to get the hang of walking in a

skirt.

#4: The Balinese people are kind

and gentle. They truly welcome you to their island and they take the concept of service to a new level.#5: In every square inch – literally – of Bali is a sacred statue, shrine, temple or some piece of wood or stone that has been carved within an inch of its life into something creative, scary or beautiful.

It makes the whole island an adventure in sensory overload as everywhere you look, there is something incredible to see . Each year one country grabs my heart and this year, it is Bali.

Indonesia: Heaven and Hell

2011-04-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

Countries, like people, are loved for their failings.
--F. Yeats Brown

Indonesia: Love it.. Hate it.. in Equal parts. We flew into Yogyakarta on the island of Java and found out that the major points - in this leg - would go to the teams that travelled all across Java to Bali - using ONLY local modes of transportation (trains, buses, ferries, tuk-tuks)…by ourselves … hauling our body-bags of luggage with us... URGGHHH!!! Flying woudl cost a huge penalty. And just in case you are wondering, Indonesian local transport is NOT set up for Americans travelling with large suitcases and backpacks. It was 46 hours straight of nightmare and without sleep or real food.
The very first morning in Java we had to do a mandatory challenge (i.e. a challenge that you have to do or you lose all points for the entire leg) that involved us getting up at 3 AM to drive to an amazing monument (which we then climbed up in the pitch black) and watched the sun rise from the top. It was neat to be in the dark and feeling your way and then the sun starts to rise and you realize what an amazing ancient structure you are actuallyt sitting on. But a bitch of a wake-up call.
What made it even worse is that we then had to keep going.. from 3 AM .. for over 41 hours straight. If traveling by train, bus and bicycle tuk-tuk across Indonesia is not hell, it’s pretty close to it. Three teams went together: Rainey and I, his daughters (Elizabeth and Emily) and Natasha and David. We had the wildest experiences on this leg. At our first stop, we confronted abject corruption as we got stopped at the scavenge site and forced to pay a bribe for “parking fees.” Really pissed me off as the guy just extorted money from us. He would not let us go through until we paid him. The second train (or “the meat locker”) was FREEZING to the point that I put on layers of clothes and wrapped my head in a T-shirt and was still chilled to the bone. Rainey wrapped his legs in a rain poncho to try and curb the frostbite. The third train (or the “roach mobile) had no air conditioning and was overrun with cockroaches that desperately wanted to crawl on your legs. I was beyond grossed-out. I had to do yoga breathing to stop my sheer panic at the vermin. But, by then, we had been traveling for 11 hours straight in the heat so we all fell asleep and woke up - with a start - at a train station that we thought was the right one. We threw our luggage off the train and jumped out– only to discover that we had got it wrong and we were now stuck in the middle of NOWHERE. And clearly Americans are not a common sight at this village. Every single person at the train station was staring at us like we were the animals in a National Geographic After-School TV special. Emily had a mild panic attack and I honestly cannot blame her. Talk about being under a microscope. We had to wait for the next train which cost us time so we ended up getting into Probolingo late at night. When the train pulled away, we were the ONLY people in sight. No-one anywhere. No taxis. Nothing. So there we were… no idea what to do next.. except we knew that we had to try and get a few hours sleep before we started this big climb up a volcanic mountain to see sunrise from the top. But the power of the American Dollar won out. The word obviously got out in town that Americans were at the train station and the bicycle rickshaws started arriving from every corner. We had to take one rickshaw per person so we could fit luggage and the rickshaw gang leader told us that he could take us to “his friend’s house” who could arrange for a mini-van to get us to the foot of the volcano in time. With no other choice, we had to “trust strangers in strange lands” and off we set. Fifteen minutes of hard pedaling later, we arrived deep in a neighborhood at someone’s house. A lot of loud knocking and yelling and a sleepy woman and 2 children came to the door to say that the mini-van driver was out drinking (always a good sign) but she would call him. Thirty minutes of us waiting in a back alley of Probolingo with 6 rickshaws and drivers and luggage and the sweetest sight I ever saw showed up.. a man with a van who spoke English (even if he was a little drunk). He piled us all in the van, made some calls, took us to a flea-bag hotel for a shower and 2 hours of sleep (the shower was gross and mainly cold water but still fantastic after the cockroach train but the bed was overrun with little black bugs that scurried across the pillows), came back for us at 2:30 AM (which is the time you have to leave in order to get to the summit by sunrise) and we started our trek to the top of Mount Bromo. By this time we had been awake for almost 24 hours and had not eaten a meal in almost that long. And then… we made it... and stood at the top of Mount Brumo for sunrise and it suddenly all seemed worthwhile. I wish that I could upload some photos of the experience but for some reason by computer as decided to stop recognizing my camera chip. I am going to work on that.., but for now.. let me say that it was an awe-inspiring sight (even through the blurry vision of no sleep) to watch the sun rise over the volcanic cloud of ash from the active volcano.
After the climb down, it was another 11 hours by bus and ferry to Bali…. Where we finally found heaven at the end of the road through hell. Our hotel in Bali is THE NICEST hotel that I have ever stayed in. It gives 5 stars a new meaning. Double WOW. Can’t wait to get out and about in Bali as this place seems amazing. But first.. some sleep.

Thrilla in Manilla

2011-04-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Manilla in the afternoon and Bill did not open the leg until almost 3 PM. We decided straight off to do a bonus challenge of working with a charity called Hospicio de San Jose. The traffic in Manilla is AWFUL so it took us over an hour to find the place – which turned out to be a home for orphaned or abandoned children (they call them “surrendered” children) as well as a wing for old women and a wing of severely disabled children. What a humbling experience!! Working with a skeleton staff and a crew of volunteers, this group takes care of almost 300 babies, children and elderly who have nowhere else to go. They literally have babies left on their doorstep at night. The facility operates on a shoestring budget and are constantly begging for supplies, volunteers etc. Here is us with the head nun who runs the place. On the table is the powdered milk that we went to the market and bought as a donation (formula is very expensive and they are always running out of it ). We played with the kids and hung with out with them for almost two hours. It was heartbreaking. These kids have less than nothing. They do not have a single wordly possession and not even a family to share their misery This little boy got left by my mom at the home just a few days ago. When we came in, he was sitting in the corner by himself … his eyes say it all. He had an aura of sadness and abandonment that was palpable. The best hope for him is that he is lucky enough to get adopted out. Even so, that would take about 18 months of red tape.
Pansangjan Falls
The next morning we did a WOWWWW (or A+ + scavenge). First, we had to drive about 3 hours outside of Manilla in a cramped car with limited air conditioning… not great. But then we got to a small rainforest village by a river where we did this amazing rafting trip… very great. We were loaded into narrow, wooden canoes and taken up-river to an incredible waterfall. The canoes are just a few inches out of the water and VERY tippy. The movie “Apocalypse Now” was filmed here so you can just imagine the scenery: a beautiful ravine (with waterfalls and lush rainforest vegetation all along it ). But the real highlight of the trip were the boat men… They literally drag these canoes upriver and over rapids by pushing off from the sharp stones that line the river and half-running, half-climbing – like monkeys - on the sides of the ravines and then jumping back into the boat. It is ballet and gymnastics all rolled into one. The boatmen fit the canoes into narrow channels in the rocks, over rapids, through narrow spaces in the rocks and all without bumping the boats or scratching the pain. At the top of the river, you reach a blue lagoon swimming hole with a fabulous waterfall. You then get onto a bamboo raft and the boatmen take you UNDER the waterfall and into Devil's Cave. As you pass under the waterfall, the water is so strong and powerful that you feel like you cannot breathe and that your ears will rip out of your head.

Awful eating challenge for Manilla

And yes, this one is GROSS. We had to find a local "delicacy" which is a boiled egg that contains a 1-2 day old chicken inside. It is even more disgusting in real life than it sounds as I write this teally is an embryo bird cooked into the egg and you are supposed to crack it open and eat it. Just putting the one bite (that we have to eat) into my mouth may have scarred me for life.

We are NOW IN INDONESIA (Yeah - another country that I have never been to). Can't wait to see it all. I got sick today - some weird lump came up on my jaw line which is painful and makes it difficult for me to talk. It feels like a pocket of infection. I started an antibiotics regimen and am taking Advil but it has me feeling quite poorly. I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow because this is going to be a TOUGH leg with lots of over-country travel. And I can't imagine traveling through Indonesia using only "local modes of transportation" is going to be very efficient. But it will be BE GREAT fun.

Komments from Korea

2011-04-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

Some observations from Korea:
1. The Ritz Carlton Seoul (where we were staying) has the “fancy toilet” thing down. The bathrooms have toilets with heated seats and buttons that make warm water shoot up to wash everything and then another button makes hot air dry you all up. An odd feeling the first time - but definitely a keeper. The #1 question at our first breakfast when we saw everyone was: “Did you try the toilet?”

2. Under the rules of the competition, you have to have a photograph – with both team members - at every place you go to prove that you were actually there. You end up asking a lot of strangers to take your photo and - when no-one is around - you end up with lots of photos of your nose hairs, half of one ear, the top of your head, or an odd angle as you try to hold the camera as far away as possible to get the location in the background…
3. We learned that Koreans do not like to tell you “NO.” They are too polite and think that No is rude. So instead, when they cannot give you an affirmative answer, they just cross their hands to symbolize “no way.” We saw this a lot.

4. At the fortress on top of the hill, there was a fierce looking gargoyle spitting out water- about half way up. It's the Korean version of a water fountain. Next to it was a hanging cup for climbers to use to get a drink of water. I was too afraid of flesh-eating parasites to try it, but I liked the concept.

5. Everyone is doing well and is energized. Emily and Elizabeth have been great at plotting, planning, mapping… really taking on the challenge of the event. And there has only been one meltdown.. which was quickly overcome. Natasha and David are doing great. Only one major fight so far to report but there are several weeks left….

6. We had to go into various convenience stores and find the weirdest thing in there. My favorite was seaweed juice sold at 7-Eleven.

7. We had to do a Taekwondo demonstration - at this special park area - Elizabeth and I are particularly graceful at it.

Seoul: Second Day

2011-04-18T15:13:00.001-07:00

Seoul is a HUGE city with millions and millions of people. It is a little like an ant hill.... with busy ants moving in and out of buildings all the time. Here is Emily in profile sitting at the hotel window with Seoul all around her. Day 2 we headed out of town as soon as we got our scavenges. On a fast train to Busan. Korea put a new KTX express train system in about 7 years ago and it is awesome – comfortable, quiet, nice seats. We used the time to decipher all of today's challenges and to plot them on the map so we can be efficient at knocking stuff out when we get back into Seoul. We took a 3 hour ride down to a waterfront town where we had to visit the fish market. It is a huge, outdoor market with a smell that is beyond description. There is literally nothing that lives under the water that these people do not drag onto land and eat. Including squids and sea urchins and sea slugs and sting rays. URGGHHH!! It was quite a sight. Next stop was Lotte (a department store with a large food court in the basement). We had to buy random stuff to make a picnic. We bought all kinds of odd things and then two big orders of French fries to even out our food choices. Some was good, some was awful. We then took the train to Suwon (another town) where we had to climb to the top of a hill and visit a fortress. It was a steep climb up.. lots of groaning and sore legs.. but a fantastic view at the top. Back in Seoul, we found that the weather had not been great all day. Cold and rainy. We had to eat traditional Korean Bar-B-Q where you cook your food right at the table. A twist on fondue but the same general concept of communal eating. By the time we got back to the hotel last night, I was literally sleep-walking. I forget each year how tiring this trip is. WOW. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.. with all of my clothes on.

We are now at the airport… heading out to our next destination.. MANILA, PHILIPPINES. I’ve never been. Can’t wait to see what adventures await us there.

Hey Seoul Sista

2011-04-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

Day 1 in Seoul: Our first day here was hard, hard, hard. We were all very tired after the trip – even though the flight was great. The weather went from cold to hot to cold in a minute’s notice so I was consistently dressed poorly and we made a number of planning blunders that cost us points. We got back to the hotel last night somewhat discouraged by our first day’s efforts. The key challenge to yesterday was a hike up a pretty large hill in the middle of Seoul. We left that until mid-afternoon, hoping for a cool, clear patch of weather, but when we went to start the hike, the path was closed. Apparently hiking in Seoul can only occur between the hours of 10 and 3 PM (who knew???).

Second frustrating Seoul fact… virtually every temple, shrine and national monument can be seen ONLY as a part of a tour group and the tours are divided up throughout the day based upon the language spoken on the tour. There is a strict policy against allowing any interlopers into a different language tour. So your ability to see anything – as part of the English tour – is limited to twice per day and you better time all of those perfectly or you are out of luck. Rainey and I talked our way into one Korean tour for the Secret Garden by telling the ticket seller that our plane was leaving and we desperately needed to see the Secret garden before we left. But that was our only lucky break., Besides that one nice lady, we were consistently turned away. This is us at the Secret Garden... a neat, ravine type garden hidden literally in the middle of Seoul. And the Cherry Blossoms are out at the moment, which are so beautiful. Weirdest experience: We had to go to a place called Dragon Hill, Spa which is a large building in the middle of the city that has been turned into part gym (with indoor pool and work-out facility),

part Dave & Buster’s (with video games and putt-putt golf), part spa with treatments and saunas. Sort of a Disneyland for Adults. Yesterday, an estimated 4,782 Korean people were there (talk about crowded). It is divided into women and men floors and not a single one of them had ANY nudity issues. They wander the halls naked, they sit on the couches and chat naked, they blow dry their hair naked… Emily was totally befuddled by the sight of that much female flesh in one small area. We had to stay there for an hour and try out some part of the facilities, so I opted for a massage. What an odd event. I was led into a room filled with beds and naked women… butts in the air.. no sheet or covering. I dutifully laid down and then got pulverized (like chicken getting ready to be made into a chicken fried steak) by a stocky – and very well-muscled - woman. At the end of the pummeling, she started wiping me down with warm clothes (which felt pretty good) until I realized that she was scrubbing out under my arm pits and between the crack in my butt… she left no spot un-shined. At that point, I broke into the giggles. We had a panic attack late in the day because we had left one of our mandatory eating challenges to do over dinner. Then, as we went from restaurant to restaurant asking for this specific dish, we were told repeatedly that no restaurant served that dish on Sundays. If you do not eat your mandatory challenges, you get ZERO points for the entire leg. I was freaking out. We finally left that area and took a taxi all across town to another, very busy restaurant section of town and started again. There, we finally found a place that would sell us the very-yucky boiled chicken in dishwater soup that we had to have. I almost cried with relief when they brought it to the table. That one was too close for comfort. My new mission is to finish our mandatory challenges earlier in the day from now on as my old heart cannot take that level of stress. This is exactly what you feel like after a day on Great Escape....

See you in Seoul

2011-04-15T20:21:00.001-07:00

That’s right. We just found out. Our first destination is Seoul, Korea. I actually do not really even know where it is on the map. Can’t wait. A country that I have never been to and know nothing about. We leave in 3 hours. A 13 hour flight. We will wake up in the Far East.

Our day in Los Angeles was spent at Santa Monica – shopping for last minute stuff and enjoying the great weather. We had an incredibly efficient Target run where we got most of the clothes and things that Emily and Elizabeth needed for the trip. This afternoon, we had our official check-in at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles. Rampant upheaval in much of the world scared off a few competitors this year so we are heading out with a small – but solid – group of 6 teams.

For those of you new to this blog, here is a quick introduction to the rules and concepts of the Great Escape round-the-world scavenger hunt. First, we have no idea where we are doing: this event is a Blind Date with the World. We only find out our next destination an hour or so before we are leave our current position. We only know that we will be going west around the world and will visit 10-14 countries before we return to New York in 24 days. Whenever we land in a new country, we will receive a booklet of 150-300 scavenges, riddles, puzzles, competitions that we can do in that stage of the competition. Each item has a different point system (from 5 points for a simple “answer this question” scavenge to 500 points for a long, out-of-town trek to a remote destination). We have a specific amount of time in each country or region before the rally closes. The trick is to amass as many points as possible during that time frame. So strategy is everything!!! How many things can you do in a short period of time to get the most points possible.

The teams this year are: Lawyers without borders – That’s Rainey and me – back for our FOURTH year

Sister Act – Rainey’s daughters (Elizabeth, 25, and Emily, 20). They are excited but a little nervous.

Silver Surfers – Natasha and David. Natasha is our immensely talented young lawyer at Littlepage Booth and David is her boyfriend. They are also blogging and you can follow them at: http://natashaanddavid.blogspot.com/

The Drifters - April and Travis. April is our legal assistant and office manager and Travis is a former New York Knicks basketball player. (They attract a lot of stares in SouthEast Asia where Travis is double the size of every one else). And yes, we are all wondering if the entire Littlepage Booth office will implode with all of us gone at the same time.

Team Weathehawaki: Their team name stands for “Where the Heck are We?” This is a team of two doctors, David is a radiologist and Jan runs a bike shop that they own. They have competed in ironman races and tracked the Gorillas In the Mist in Uganda. WOW. They are going to be hard to beat. They bought as their luggage.. a back pack. I’m not kidding. I am hauling a body bag of junk around the world and they have … a back pack. Very intimidating.

Faster than road kill: A team of two friends from Canada – Mark and Chewie. They used to work together years ago but do not really know each other so it will be interesting to see how they do traveling under extreme condition.

At our Bon Voyage dinner tonight, Bill took us to an authentic Asian restaurant and ordered a sampler platter of crickets, bugs and maggots. We all were supposed to try some (and even Rainey choked down one of each). Emily and David refused but Natasha gagged down a cricket and Elizabeth was a trooper and tried one of the each. The crickets were not that bad… like a crunchy popcorn shrimp. The maggots popped in your mouth and oozed a goo that tasted remarkably like manure (although, to be honest I have never actually eaten manure before). YUCK!!!!

One of the happiest moments in life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off - with one mighty effort - the shackles of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine and the comforting cloak of Home, man feels once more alive. --Richard Burton, Journal

2011: The packing has begun....

2011-04-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, the time is here.... The day that I count down to for 365 days ... The day that starts the best three weeks of the year ... The day that marks the beginning of our annual Great Escape adventure. Check-in is on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles. And after that, it's all a mystery. Each time, Bill, the producer of this event, has a pool where all of the teams chip in $20 and we guess which 12-14 countries we will be going to. The person with the most places correct wins the pot on the last night of the event. I average 2-3 correct guesses and typically come in dead last. So don't look to me for insight on where we are going. I am truly off on a Blind Date With the World!! Littlepage Booth is well represented in 2011 with returning competitors April and Travis... plus newbies, Natasha and David (competing as the "Silver Surfers") ... plus Rainey's two daughters, Elizabeth and Emily (competing as "Sister Act").... watch out world... here we come!!! The burners are on their way.

The Littlepage Women Sweep the Medals!!!!

2010-05-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

With great sadness, our incredible trip came to an end last night in New York. We were all overwhelmed with deep depression and could barely bring ourselves to pack up all of our extremely nasty (and probably flesh-eating-virus infected clothes) for the trip home. It is so hard to go back to the real world after such an amazing experience. It seems like just a few days ago we were starting out in San Francisco ... and now it is all over. 40,000 miles traveled (and that does not include the uphill climbs), 11 countries, around the entire world!!!

And when the final scores were announced... it was a clean sweep for the Littlepage women (all three generations). In first place, and crowned "The World's Greatest Travelers for 2010" was Rainey and myself, in second place was Heidi and Lily and in third place came my mom and her partner, Barbara. I am so proud of my family!!!!

Thanks to everyone who has been following the blogs and giving us moral support as we circumnavigate the globe.... If you want to read more about the trip from other people's perspectives, please read any of the following blogs which will each provide a slightly different view of the event:
Lily’s bloggity blog is: http://lilygreatescape.blogspot.com/
Heidi’s blog is: http://heidililygreatescape.blogspot.com/
April’s blog is: http://greatescapescavengerhunt.blogspot.com/
Barbara (Mom’s partner’s) blog is: http://worldgrazer.blogspot.com/

Signing off....until next year....

Central Europe - Part 2 - Coming into Paris

2010-05-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Our trek across Central Europe ends....
I am soooooo sick of my luggage that I might just leave my suitcase by the side of the road and walk away from it forever…. This is by far the hardest part of this trip– mainly because you have to carry all of your junk from country to country. While most train stations have lockers, the subways in Paris were the final straw (with staircase after staircase after staircase). Next year I am bringing ONE change of clothes and nothing more (...or at least that is my sworn promise to myself today as I curse every extra pair of socks that I brought this time).

But it was a GREAT leg … West from Vienna to Linz to Strausborg to Munich to Freiburg to Basel to Paris …!!!! Some highlights from the second part of this stage:

In Freiburg we took a 6:30 AM steep up-hill hike to a look-out tower (which has 250+ stairs to the top… of course… it would not be a Bill scavenge unless it included stairs). But once up there, you get an amazing view of the entire city. And it is scary and a bit unnerving as the very top sways in the wind. We also had to uncover the legend of the Bachtle (which are these streams that run all through the town and were used to water the animals and put out fires). The folklore is that if you put your foot in one, you will marry someone from Frieburg and live there forever. I refused to put even my big toe in it: just in case the marriage part of the legend was true.
We timed the trains to have just over 2 hours in Basel: which was enough time to do all of the scavenges. Basel is a town that sits on the corner of Germany, Switzerland and France… you are constantly crossing streets and moving from one country to another. We took trams all over the city and hit several museums: one of which had an impressive collection of Picassos. This statue of a cat that spits water at y0u - that sits in the courtyard in front of the museum - tickled me.

Paris brought with it food scavenges of snails and duck liver pate. I love escargot… foie gras makes me gag.

We had to find the “Flame D’ Liberte” which is a statue that mirrors the top of the Statue of Liberty in New York. It also sits right on top of where Princess Diana died: the car accident happened in the underpass directly below this statue. People still leave things at the flame in memory of Diana and you can look over the edge and see the spot where her car hit the embankment.
And .. of course… the two best known Paris sites: the Eiffel tower: which lights up – every hour on the hour – with lights that twinkle all over it and a late-night show at the Moulin Rouge. It takes less than 15 minutes before you forget that the women are topless and just get caught up in the feathers, sequins, high kicks and false eyelashes. Lily LOVED every minute of it!!! At the end of the show, we had to get one of the showgirls to teach us some new dance steps and then we had to perform the new moves IN PUBLIC (no hiding from your own insecurities on this trip...). The video is hysterical - see below.
An interesting one… find the odd statue in Montmarte… which turns out to be an iron man who is literally walking out of the wall. He has one leg and hand out as well as his face. Someone has painted his fingernails hot pink, which gives the whole thing an even weirder twist. Honestly, this is one of those things that if Bill did not make you spend an hour looking for it... you would never find or see as he is in small square in the back end of a largely residential neighborhood. But I really liked it.

Central Europe - PART 1

2010-04-30T01:55:00.001-07:00

Austria to Germany: The Hills are Alive… with the Sound of Music

Yes, here we are… in Van Trapp country… with Edelweiss and snow-covered mountains. We started the central Europe leg in Vienna and then Bill dumped us with $200 in cash and instructions to spend the next 3 days making our way - through an assortment of countries - on a varieties of routes – to Paris. We have to check in at the Paris hotel on Friday morning… and along the way.. hit as many countries and scavenges as possible. No rented cars or taxis allowed between cities. We have to use buses or trains or ferries all the way there. There were close to 120 possible scavenges in the book - throughout half a dozen countries - and it was all totally overwhelming to start. There are so many different ways to plot this leg and the winner will be the one who strategized the time best. For this leg, we can only be with Heidi and Lily for 3 scavenges per day (instead of 5) so we decided to mainly just travel with them on each leg and make plans for meeting for meals and trains. We try and plan the one big thing that we are going to do together for first thing each day and then split up. It has made this leg even that much harder as no matter how well you plan it out, one team always ends up waiting at the restaurant or train station for another team (who has mis-timed how long it will take to get something finished). And yes, so far it has been Rainey and I who have come running in LATE each time.

We got a late start in Vienna the first evening and we only lucked into a few things before everything we needed closed. It was a low points night but the city is beautiful, clean and soooooo modern compared to Southeast Asia. We even rode the ferris wheel which gave a great views of the entire city.
Our inability to finish up Vienna generated a tactical decision: should we stay and do all of the stuff in Vienna the next morning or head straight out early the next day on our journey across Europe? We opted to stay in Vienna. And at the Globe Museum, which was the right answer to the scavenge: “ In the National Library of Austria, locate a great collection of useful things that would help a budding circumnavigator like you.” In Munich (the next day) we also had to find the oldest globe in the world, which is so old that it does not even have America on it – because it had not yet been discovered by Columbus!!!!

Our first stop – traveling west- was Linz where we had to find the town square. Not a scavenge – but very cool – was this art piece that covers one whole side of the square. It is done by the art students of the university and the entire eye is made up of just different colored T-Shirts. So clever.

My favorite scavenge from Austria: the salt mine outside of Salzburg. Bill put a bonus for taking a boat from Austria to another country. We figured out that there is an old salt mine outside of the city that has this amazing tour. First, you have to dress up in the Ooompa Lumpa suit (to protect your clothes from getting stained by the salt). Then you take a train and walk deep into the mountain before you SLIDE (and by that I mean … slide… on your bottom.. screaming all the way down – well, if you are me and scared of heights and roller coasters and everything that involves fast movement downwards) over 150 feet down into the depths of the mine. The next step is a BOAT across a salt lake where you cross from Austria into Germany (see – that’s where the bonus scavenge comes in) and then more walking, sliding and trains until you cross back into Austria and out of the mine again. It is probably the best organized and put-together tourist attraction I have ever seen with 4 different movies (at different spots) that explain salt mining in great detail. It took more than 2 hours so it cost us some time but it was such fun.
Because of our salt mine escapades in Salzburg, we did not reach Munich until late so we just checked into the hotel and called it a night. The next morning - in honor of Ben and Jordan (and to educate Lily -we headed for the Dachau concentration camp with Heidi and Lily in tow. Even though the Holocaust museum in Washington DC is actually better …and a more comprehensive depiction… there is something profoundly sobering about walking through the actual place where it all happened. We ended up spending almost 3 hours there as we got caught up in the mood and decided to go all the way through every exhibit– slowly. It seemed almost disrespectful to rush through it. Lily asked hundreds of questions and learned a ton of stuff that she never knew before.

Once we got back from Dachau, we went to the largest German Beer Hall in Munich for some German music, a beer taste test (Rainey had to try three different beers and compare the flavors), to eat some sausage for lunch (a food scavenge) and … the hardest challenge in Germany … to get a group of fellow revilers to teach us a German drinking song, sing it with us AND sing our national anthem with us (on video…!!!!). With the language barrier, it took us several false starts before we got a bunch of people (who had obviously been taste-testing beer most of the morning) to agree.

That afternoon, we rented bicycles so we could move through the city quicker. Everyone here rides bikes and there are dedicated bike paths literally on every street. Even so, I am a terror on a bike and was in at least a dozen near-miss collisions. It was a beautiful day which made riding along on a bike even more fun. We had to stop in a market area, buy the fixings for a picnic and then go the English Garden park and take photos of something from the East (a Chinese tower) and something classical (a Greek temple) in the park. The park was FILLED with people sunbathing, lounging on the grass and generally having a great time. Yet … it is a mid-week day… In Houston, on an average Wednesday, there would be 3 homeless bums and one single mother with child in a city park. In Munich, there were 8,000 people playing hookey from work and hanging out in the park at 2 PM. Does anyone work in this city???? I’ve decided to move here … I love the attitude towards work.

And here is a cute one. We had to find “the black footprint” which turned out to be an odd footprint in the foyer of a church in Munich which – according to legend – is where the devil lost a bet with the architect and stomped out of the church leaving behind a scorched footprint. Rainey (the true skeptic) decided that the whole thing was completely unbelievable since he doubts sincerely that the devil wears a Size 9 sneaker (which is the imprint)…!!!

Jordan

2010-04-26T06:14:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Amman, Jordan in the afternoon and went straight out to scavenge. First stop was a mosque where I had to put on the full-garb to even get in the gate. Besides how awful a fashion statement, I have no idea how the women here do it – the black robe is stifling hot and sticks to every part of you.

Next up was Jerash: an unbelievable archeological site with a complete amphitheater, elaborate temple and even a column-lined cobbled road. Lily was mesmerized by this group of girls … most not much older than Lily herself .. already in the full black robe (including the face piece).

Then we had to “try some hubbly bubblies.” And yes, we coughed our way through an apple-infused set of coals.

The next day I had to drop out of the competition and work all day. So we threw this leg of the trip… which will sorely impact our overall score … but I had no choice. IT SUCKS!!!
Rainey went out with Heidi and Lily so he could see the country, but we got no points because we were not together. His highlights were going to a Bedouin tent, wear an Arab head-dress and ride a camel into the desert.

Rainey also got to see Petra in all its glory … a city literally carved from the pink rock mountains.

Next up…. Vienna, Austria. This is another difficult, “full-of-points” segment and I suspect that we will get dumped in Vienna and have to meet Bill back in some other country several days from now. So we will likely be out of touch - and off blog - for a few days as we plot, scheme and track our way across Europe. This is also the leg where every pound in your suitcase comes back to haunt you as we will have to drag your luggage with us (over hill and dale) for the next few days.

Slow Travels in Sri Lanka

2010-04-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Sri Lanka to discover that this was one of the hardest legs of the trip because Bill wanted us to travel - by ourselves - throughout the island of Sri Lanka. Plus this leg brings with it a ton of points - and can make a real difference in team standings overall - so there is a lot riding on it. To say that travel within the island is difficult is a gross under-statement. Everything takes 5 times as long as you think it will. Every train is hours late, stops incessantly and travels at a pace just slightly faster than you could walk it. We have to switch taxis every two stops (that is one of the rules) so the logistics hurt your head to be sure that you do not end up stranded in some god-forsaken place with no way out of there . What is certain is that - in 3 days - we have seen, struggled with and conquered Sri Lanka. And what a beautiful and interesting country, that I would probably never buy a ticket and fly to see - yet have totally enjoyed.

The first day we went to a fishing village called Negombo where the fisherman use these very thin (like 8 inches wide) canoes - with an outrigger second canoe - and square sails - to fish. A very odd design and not a particularly efficient system. When we got to Negombo, the boats were all out on the water (which was very bad as we had to sail on one) so we drove around and had the taxi ask everyone we saw in town. Finally we met 4 men walking home - who had not caught any fish today and thus came in early. We persuaded them to turn around, go back to the harbor, rig up their boat and take us for a sail. Quite an ordeal but they were so nice and and thrilled to show us how everything worked.
We then took a LONG, SLOW, excrutiatingly hot train all the way up to Anuradhapura (a town in the North). It was crowded and did I already mention....hot, hot, hot. I sweated and sweated and sweated. We stayed in a guest house up there that was squarely in the yucky category but by then we were so tired we just fell into a coma. The next day, we were up at 5AM (yes, that is the start of each day for us as we are under curfew from 10 AM to 5 AM - no travelling between cities during those hours). We started with temples.. and one in particular which claims to have a sacred tree that is 23 centuries old. It is supposed to from a sapling from the actual tree under which Buddha gained enlightenment (seems far-fetched to me - but most religions have stores that seem remarkably unbelievable). Both Rainey and I had to buy scarves to cover our shoulders as you are not allowed in the temple areas with any part of your shoulder showing.. so we have the great Batman and Robin looks going on. Plus you have to take your shoes off at every temple and the ground is 100 degrees.... we burned the bottom of our feet over and over again. We also had to find "moonstones" which are the ornate semi-circular intricately carved stones that are at the bottom of the stairs leading into every temple here. They are true works of art.
Another scavenge: Find this giant dagoda (or temple that looks like a cake dish cover) that is held up by hundreds of carved elephants. No idea how long it took to carve all of them (and in such detail) or why they felt the need to carve them - but they are quite a site.

Adventure #1 sprung up on us on our way from one town to another that first morning. Our taxi started to smell like burnt metal, overheated and shut down. We were hours from anywhere and stuck. The taxi man said that he could call and get another taxi to come and get us but it would take 1-2 hours. In this competition, that kind of down time can be the difference between winning and losing a leg so we started walking and flagging down every passing car. Heidi talked a man into letting us ride in the back of his (covered this time) truck to the next town over. There we were able to get the one and only taxi in that town to take us on to a bigger town and got back on track.

Much of the Sri Lanka scavenges involved us climbing up hundreds and thousands of stairs since Sri Lankans apparently firmly believe that the bigger pain-in-the-ass it is to get to the temple, the holier the prayers. We have photos of us on top of every imaginable hill, mountain and rock in the country. My favorite was King Kassapa’s Sky Palace in Sigiriya… where a King decided to build an entire palace on the top of “Lion’s Rock” (because what could be more impractical than trying to haul every brick up this mountain to build an entire palace compound). Interesting issues with this scavenger: (a) we arrived in the midday heat… BIG mistake; (b) You have to walk through the paws of the lion that was carved into the mountain to take the last hard push to the top (the rest of the lion is gone now… but the paws are very cool); (c) You have to walk on these narrow metal skypaths which – for someone who has a real dread of heights like I do – was panic attack provoking. Finally at the top, we look like dying, heat-stroked paralyzed exhausted travelers.

Another favorite scavenge – Dambulla Caves. Ten gazillion years ago – when America was not yet even a twinkle in someone’s eye – there were sculptors and painters in Sri Lanka creating 5 caves (yes, high in a mountain and with lots of stairs and climbing to reach them) that are filled with statues and frescos and artwork dedicated to Buddha. Every inch of each cave has statues and all of the walls and ceilings are covered with paintings. Stand back Michelangelo – the Sri Lankans are whupping your butt on painting upside down in the dark of a cave. I like this reclining Buddha’s feet (which are patterned with henna) because they remind me of my feet after days of having to walk barefoot in temples with poker-hot stones from the sun.

A highlight was visiting the Pinnewala Elephant Orphange where they care for more than 80 elephants. They do not allow rides or make the elephants do tricks – they just care for them and let them roam on a vast reserve. One elephant in particular captured my heart – an old elephant who lost the lower part of one leg to a land-mine during the recent civil unrest. And I got to bottle feed one of the babies – who touched my hand with his trunk (gently) when I was finished.

And here’s an odd one. In the middle of Sri Lanka, some crazy Englishman decided to build an entire English town dedicated to growing tea. Nuwara Eliya comes complete with double-decker buses, red mail boxes, English countryside manors and a climate similar to the British countryside (wet, damp and slightly rainy). We had to take a tour of a tea processing factory (where we learned everything you would ever want to know about tea including that the highest caliber tea can sell for as much as $1000 per kilos… which begs the question, who would drink such expensive tea?) And whoever they are, they obviously need to take a trip to Southeast Asia to learn about poverty and what good some of that money they are wasting on useless fineries would do to curb it. Then we had to climb (another) hill through a tea plantation and finally have a well-deserved cup of tea in the “members-only” Hill Club (a snobby and overly-fancy club that Heidi talked our way into).

Bill – in a moment of insanity – put in a scavenger that asked us to get invited to a Sri Lankans house for a meal. So yes, we set about asking everyone we met if we could barge into their home and eat their food. And can you believe it… multiple people immediately said YES. We ended having dinner at a former Tamil Tigers’ house – with his entire family. Very modest home – no running water, an open flame to cook by, little furniture besides beds and one table with a few chairs…but the people were so nice and gentle and genuinely excited to have us there. They even brought out their 3 china plates (from some storage box under a bed) to serve us on. Restores your faith in humanity.

And last - but not least – the climax of our Sri Lankans experience – we climbed Adam’s Peak. It is a GIGANTIC mountain with a temple on the top that takes so long to get up that we had to start at 2:30 AM (yes, that’s AM). It took us 3 ½ hours of heavy climbing to get to the top and then almost 2 hours to get back down. My knees may never be the same again. At 4AM, Lily, my niece, started crying and was convinced that she could not make the top. Heidi started counting out the stairs in blocks of 100 and we would sit and rest after every 100 stairs – while I shoved sports beans into her mouth for a quick sugar high. We all made it to the top – which is a hell of an accomplishment. . And I have to be at least 7 pounds lighter (I have gone down two belt loops since the trip started… YIPPEEE!!!!).

And now.. we are in Jordan .. with scavenges to see Petra and read a newspaper while floating in the Dead Sea.

I am proud to announce that the Littlepage teams took a clean sweep of 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Sri Lankan leg putting us all in contention for the top spot. To date, Rainey and I are first in the competition, followed closely by Heidi and Lily and then Mom and Barbara. Not bad for the Bajan contingent.

"Wat" overload in Chiang Mai

2010-04-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

2 nights and 1 1/2 days in Chiang Mai, Thailand and I am in full "Wat" (or temple") burnout. This town is one temple after the other and there were scavenge points at virtually every one.. so from temple to temple to temple we went. They have all run together now for me... sitting buddhas, reclining buddhas, standing buddhas, jade buddhas, buddha as an old man, a naughty child buddha... each one different.

The absolute highlight of Thailand was the elephant art!!! And yes, this is one from Jordan’s bucket list ever since he and I watched the video on You Tube. Hard to believe but there actually are elephants here that paint pictures. And not just abstract blobs but real pictures of elephants and flowering bushes etc. Of course we had to take the trek out there to see and it turned out to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. They give the elephant a paint brush and an empty canvas… and before your eyes, he paints you a picture. Of course – the American suckers - we bought the highly over-priced painting (although how exactly do you price an “the elephant painted me a picture” piece of art). Truly fascinating.

When we walked out of the elephant place we realized that we had made a MAJOR error. The rules of the competition only allow you to take the same taxi for 2 stops (it is to stop people from basically renting the same taxi for a whole day and using them as a personal guide). So we let our taxi go when we came into the elephant conservatory… not realizing that everyone there had made their taxi stay… and there were no extra taxis… and we were now in the middle of nowhere… with NO transportation. The information booth lady told us that there was a bus stop about half a mile away but that the bus only ran “occasionally” on a Sunday (with no real explanation of what occasionally meant). By then it was over 100 degrees out and we were melting. We began to panic. Then Heidi came up with the brilliant idea of stopping everyone who was driving out of the elephant conservatory and asking if someone would give us a lift to the nearest town. An older woman and her daughter let us jump into the back of her pick-up truck and hauled us the 45 minutes into the nearest town… Thank God, or we might still be by the side of the street in the Thai countryside waiting on a bus that never comes. The motto of this competition is “trusting strangers in strange lands” and today was the best example of that.

Another scavenger was to go to the Mae Sa Valley to watch a snake show – which was a fascinating display of the interaction of men and snakes. Another WOW. The whole show scared the crap out of me (and yes, I hate snakes) as the snake handlers first taunt the giant, huge, unbelievably dangerous cobras, whip them into a frenzy and then KISS them…. Yes – kiss them – full on the mouth. I was fully expecting a rush-to-the-hospital emergency with every performance but there were only dozens of near-misses. I have seen snake charming in India before but nothing like this.

This morning we did a cooking class where we learned to cook Thai food and then ate our efforts. After the last few days, it was heaven as it was cool and slow-paced and gave you a very different perspective on the food we’ve eaten the past few days. And yes, that is in fact Rainey in an apron… so man-ly!!!

And the weirdest experience of Thailand… a fish spa treatment. Where you sit and put your feet into a fish tank filled with fish that eat off all of the dead skin on your feet and basically cleanse your feet by EATING you… Talk about a creepy feeling. It is hard to keep your feet in there as visions of piranha swarms fill your head.

We are off to SRI LANKA. I had to ask where it was on the globe, so that will tell you how prepared I am for this new country. Apparently - because of the Tamil Tiger guerillas - there have not been tourists in this country in a long time, so it should be challenging….!!!!

Lovely Laos

2010-04-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

So far, every year, one South East Asia country has stolen my heart … and this year it was Laos. It is a country of beautiful, gentle people with big smiles and kind hearts. I loved every moment. We arrived late one evening and had only one full day here. Luang Prabang is a small town right on the Mekong River with a decidedly French influence left over from the Indochine era (i.e. most restaurants serve fresh croissants and café au lait). As Lily put it best, "Oh my gosh... normal food.. at last!!"

Bill (the event producer) timed it perfect so that we were in Luang Prabang on the last day of the New Year’s celebration which is the Water Festival. Talk about GREAT!!! The whole city rejoices by throwing water on everyone... it is one giant water fight complete with water guns, hoses, water balloon bombs, plastic bags loaded with water, and pans,-pails-cups-or-anything-handy filled with water to throw on anyone passing by. We spent much of the afternoon in Tuk Tuks in the countryside going from one bonus scavenge event to another … and we were clearly targets in every village we went by. They would see us coming and fill up every handy bucket or pail. And our Tuk Tuk driver (the stinker) would slow down so that the villagers had enough time to aim and fire at us. We were DRENCHED to where I could pour water out of my shoes. We had stopped and bought giant water guns but we were no match for the hoses and buckets. Heavily under-armed we quickly realized that we had bought a squirt gun to a water hose party! Lily was fully engaged in the battle.

In the early morning, we had to go and give alms to the Buddhist monks. Rainey and I bought a tray of rice and a stew like stuff wrapped up in banana leaves, knelt on the sidewalk, and put our offerings into the monk’s bowls. Such a beautiful sight with their saffron colored robes.

We decided to do bonus scavenges basically all day because (a) we were told that much of the stuff in town would be closed because of the holiday and (b) we can only do 5 scavenges a day with Heidi and Lily and the bonus scavenges take a long time and let us spend more time together. So, first we headed out to the Pak Ou caves or the Buddha caves. (Yes, Ben, it is true – we ended up here, at the Buddha cave… one of the places on your bucket list …I promise to bring you back one day as it is amazing). You have to take a boat over the Mekong River to the caves. There are two caves and they are filled with thousands and thousands of statues of Buddha (all kinds, shapes, colors etc). You rent flashlights for the larger cave as there is no electricity. We burned incense, lit candles and - because it is the New Year festival - we also bought blessed water and ritually washed some of the statues.

On the river banks I got conned into buying a bird in a cage for $1 from a tiny Lao boy (mainly because I am a softy for cute little boys). You then open up the cage and let the bird go … which has some religious significance that was lost on me .. but seemed symbolic of freedom. I later realized that the boy probably catches that same bird back in less than an hour and sells it again.

Then we took a taxi to ride elephants in the teak forest. We stopped on the way to drink scorpion spiced rice wine… no, let me be clear… we stopped for Rainey and Brian (from another team called “the Camels”) to drink nasty alcohol flavored from scorpion… There was no way that I was touching any of that.

The elephants were amazing: a slow swinging ride through the forest.

Then we went to the KiangSi Waterfall. There were thousands of people there because of the holiday and stalls set up all over selling the oddest things. I have now found where all of the feet and claws of the chickens that we eat in America end up … on sticks and sold as a delicacy in Laos. Rainey is armed and loaded for action – even at the waterfall (Men and their toys!!!).

We got back to town in time to go into a monastery and watch (very quietly) the evening prayers which involve soft candle-light, chanting and dozens of monks kneeling. The best visual memory – one monk was deep in prayer in this thousand year old temple – and besides him on the is an I-Phone…. The far reach of civilization!!!
Laos was a lovely experience . We are now on to Thailand – but this time to Chiang Mai, the capital of Thailand. I have never been before but it should be great.

Good Morning Vietnam

2010-04-15T06:58:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Hanoi to find that we had a day and a half here. Hanoi was much busier, louder and more crowded than I anticipated and I ended up enjoying the countryside much more than the city/. But our hotel here was again FIRST class and we were in the thick of the action in the middle of the Old Quarter and right by the lake. You could not ask for a better location. We were able to walk to almost everything.

Memorable scavenges from Vietnam:
#1: When you get close to the Perfume Pagoda, take a boat up to the temple area.
This one was a WOW… well, after the almost 2 hours in a taxi on a bumpy road to get there… which was not that great. When you arrive in the village, there are literally hundreds of flat-bottomed metal boats and villagers who row you forehand (yes, forehand.. facing the way they are going) up river. The countryside is exactly as you would imagine: the air so thick with humidity that you are damp before you leave the dock, rice paddy fields on either side, misty topped odd-shaped mountains all around. And on the river, villager after villager setting shrimp and crab traps from their boats.

AMAZING ...I cannot get my brand-new I-Phone to pick up a good cell signal in the middle of Houston but our Perfume Pagoda guide (who jumps into your boat whether you wanted her or not) got dozens of calls in the middle of the Vietnamese bush!!!

When we got to the temple area, it was a steep, difficult climb up but at the top – the reward was – an amazing cave temple. The Vietnamese have literally given every rock, stalagmite, stalagtite and outcropping religious significance. There is the corner where you pray for fertility and the column that is wet with dampness where you must touch the wet and rub it on your face for luck. We bought $10 of “gifts for the gods” and offered them up to Buddha (along with the mandatory three sets of prayers) – so we are covered on that front for the foreseeable future The most repeated offerings were custard cakes and cans of Red Bull. The question is.. who likes those??? Buddha or the Buddhist monks???

#2: Visit Hanoi Hilton
We went to the infamous prison, expecting to see gruesome photos of tortured American pilots during the war. Instead, we learned first hand that the people who win a war get to write the history. And here, history – according to the Vietnam government – is that the Americans were treated graciously and with great deference. There were photos and propaganda videos of the American POWs reading scripted messages about how great the conditions were in the prison, how happy they were, how tasty the food was…. You get the picture. There are photos of John McCain being given “medical treatment” for his wounds and his entire flight suit that was taken of him when they pulled him from the water.

#3: Find the artistic part of town and interview an artist who is creating “reproductions”: There actually is a part of town where you find shop after shop of artists “copying” famous paintings. This one is some well-known Chinese artist and it’s a pretty believable replica.

#4: Visit the body of Ho Chi Minh (which really is all preserved and on display). Apparently they send him to Russia (no idea why Russia) every year for a face-lift where his body is re-preserved and then he is shipped back and put back in his case. He literally looks like he died last week (not 5 decades ago). Lily’s shorts were too short for the government clothes police so Rainey pulled out some of his gym shorts from his backpack and she pulled them on to create a skirt-shorts very-fashionable look.

Much of our Vietnam visit was permeated by weird food experiences:

(a) We had dinner the first night with several teams. Joanne (of the Mad Dogs) ordered chicken (a seemingly normal choice) only for it to turn up with a full chicken head on the plate – beak and all. You got to love a country that includes ALL parts, even the ones you cannot imagine wanting to eat. (2192)

(b) By the Perfume Pagoda (where the boats docked), we saw hanging corpses in front of restaurants that turned out to be dogs all cured and ready for eating. By the time we came back down, the dogs had been hacked into and eaten for lunch (YUCK, YUCK, DOUBLE YUCK).

(c) One of our scavenges was to find the weirdest food and try it. I selected what I thought was a slice of fish jerky from a woman selling stuff by the lake. It was a thin cross-section slice of an entire fish (eyes, bones and all). The vendor wrapped it up in a piece of paper and sold it to me for 12 cents. When I unwrapped it and went to take a bit, she and 7 other people in the near vicinity jumped at me yelling “NO” in Vietnamese. Apparently this is the ONE thing in this country that you have to eat cooked (who knew there was such a thing in Southeast Asia). So the woman whipped out a frying pan, threw some rubbing alcohol in the pan, lit it on fire, dropped my fish jerky into it and returned a char-broiled slice of fish to me in 84 seconds flat. And yes, the answer to your question is .. it did taste a whole lot like fishy paper dipped in lighter fluid.

(d) And this one takes the cake… for the ODDEST eating experience ever. Bill made us find the “O Sin snake restaurant” which is actually just a family’s home where they cook up some fresh snake for you. You know it is fresh snake because you first have to go in the backyard and choose your snake from bags of snakes waiting out there. Then you walk through Grandpa’s bedroom, through the kitchen where granny is hard at work chopping up your snake dinner and into a small room where 1 table and 4 chairs represents the entire restaurant. Lily took a series of wet wipes and disinfected all around her part of the table (thus the wet spot) in reaction to the far-les-than-clean conditions. We laughed so hard throughout the entire experience that the family probably thought we were crazy. The snake arrived as snake meatballs cooked with HOT pepper pieces.

We are on our way now to Laos, which is apparently celebrating its “water festival” at the moment. We are expecting to have water thrown at us by locals at every turn. It is currently 95 degrees in Laos so a little wetting might be great.

Hong Kong Hustle

2010-04-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

The 15 hour plane ride went by in a jiff (with help from Ambien and a 1 AM departure). I was drooling on Rainey’s shoulder by 1:20 AM and stayed in a coma for 8 or 9 hours. We arrived to find that Hong Kong “misty” (a local’s way to describe heavy fog and humidity so thick that your skin feels wet and moldy as soon as you walk out of the hotel). We are definitely in South East Asia.

Our hotel, The Harbor Grand, is fabulous, right on the water and our room looks right across the Hong Kong bay. Plus you got to love a hotel with a breakfast buffet that includes both an egg and omelet bar as well as a “we will make you a nice bowl of soup with ramen noodles and tofu and weird shaped and even weirder smelling mushrooms” for breakfast. Not a “yum” on my list.

We rushed out of the hotel for 1 ½ days of high paced scavenges … so many great things to see… so little time. How weird is this? They built an entire cruise liner ship in the middle of the city and turned it into a shopping center.

Fun scavenges…
(a) Proving that we were at the NoonDay Guns at noon (a tactical nightmare as you don’t want to waste one minute waiting around but we had to be there right at noon).

(b) Interviewing people on the ferry. We had to ask 5 strangers whether they would prefer for Beijing to rule Hong Kong or to become an independent nation… and yes, Rainey chose only pretty Asian women as his sample population..

Highlights of Hong Kong were:

(a) Lantau … where we had to take a cable car up to the Po Lin monastery. The weather was grey and very windy so the cable car was swinging wildly in the gale force winds. I am petrified of heights and I admit it .,. I was so scared I almost wet myself. I spent most of the ride with my eyes shut and my fingers in my ears (so I could not hear the howling wind) .. in a full out panic. Meanwhile, in a true show of solidarity and compassion, Rainey, Heidi and Lily laughed uncontrollably at me. At the monastery we had to walk up 10,484 steps (or so it seemed) - to the giant Buddha at the top. But how cool is this.. the weather was so foggy that the stairs led straight up into the clouds (our own private stairway to heaven) until we reached the top, and the skies cleared, and there was this majestic and gigantic Buddha smiling down at you. Awesome… it’s like Bill (the producer of the event) personally arranged the weather for maximum impressive effect.

(b) On the island of Macau, we had to find a hole-in-the-walls locals-only restaurant (yes, for the Bajans reading this.. it was like having to find Marshall’s restaurant). After stopping dozens and dozens of people, we arrived to a very basic, serve yourself place with GREAT food and chatty patrons. Not a place that has ever been mentioned in a guide book or even a phone book.

(c) We had to get our “chop” made … a Chinese seal. And yes, there is an entire alley of stores (one right after the other) whose only product is seals… who knew that in this world of emails and internet there was still a thriving industry for chops to seal envelopes or stamp the bottom of letters / documents?

(d) WOW .. we had to find the Foreign Correspondents Club (a members only place for all of the karmically blessed people who get to be foreign media based in Hong Kong .. talk about a cushy gig). Because it is private, we had to talk our way in, and get a photo of the original picture of the last US helicopter leaving Saigon. In that same room, was the originals of literally dozens of unbelievably famous photos from the Southeast Asia conflicts. I was stunned.

(d) We went to the High Court to see a trial. First, the woman on the elevator could not take her eyes of Rainey… not so much because he is so cute but because he was sweating so much from us running there that he was dripping onto the elevator floor (she had never seen such a thing in a government building). Second, the lawyers wore the British white wigs and black gowns… and spoke in Chinese. It seems so wrong to be all done up in the English garb and speaking in Chinese. Unlike our attempts to watch a trial in Beijing in 2008 … when we were firmly turned away… Hong Kong does have an open court system that even lets in very sweaty foreigners wearing shorts.

So long ...San Francisco

2010-04-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of the 2010 worldwide scavenger hunt started in San Francisco at 3 PM on Friday with a "rules and regulations" meeting followed by a "meet and greet" dinner. Once again there are new rules. This year, instead of just trying to amass as many points as possible, each rally leg becomes it own unique competition. If you win a leg – your score is then 1 (for being first) multiplied by the value of the leg (which is weighted according to how long, difficult and paralyzing that country is - anything from a 1 to a 6). To win, you have to get the LOWEST score at the end of the 25 days. It makes the trip harder because you cannot build up a lead and then slow down in one rally or even take a day off. You have to go out hard every day. It keeps the trip competitive for everyone until the last day. And it will certainly make all of us up our game.

There are a great group of competitors this year: Carol & Rebecca (Carol was in the 2002 hunt and came back this time with her grown daughter); Brian and Sammy (a very adventurous couple from Dubai who actually arrange adventure races for a charity called "Gulf for Good"), Kit & Joanne (a returning team from the 2008 Hunt who were great competitors last time), Barbara and Mom (who are both exceptional travelers),

Heidi and Lily (my sister and 13 year old niece who is so excited she has not slept in nights in anticipation).

And .. last but not least ...April and Travis (April, our office manager, and her 7 foot former-NBA basketball player friend who we all have bets will really turn some heads in the Far East). A nice sized group. And US... the most excited team in the group.

At dinner, we learned that we are leaving for Hong Kong tonight … YEAH…. I have never been to Hong Kong (at least not out of the airport)… can’t wait.

2010 - THIRD TIME IS A CHARM

2010-03-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Less than two weeks to go before we start our THIRD time competing in the Great Escape Global Scavenger Hunt. We can't wait !!!! And this time, we are bringing three extra teams with us: Heidi and Lily (Zoe's sister and niece from Barbados); Christine (Zoe's mom) who is back for a second time and is teamed up this year with Barbara (a great competitor from the 2009 Hunt) and April and Travis (April works for Zoe and Rainey and the office may well fall apart while she is gone as she is the true back-bone of our operation). Yes, we had so much fun the last two times that we dragging everyone we know with us this time.... Counting down the days now.... (P.S. The photo is us in the Nevada desert at the Burning Man festival last Labor Day - so that explains the odd outfits - which are far more colorful than the khaki and beige that we will be sporting every single day of the Scavenger Hunt).

Terrible – and terrific – day in Boston

2009-05-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

First, terrible – because after trekking all across the world, encountering every bacteria and germ known to man, and staying healthy as a horse - Rainey got deathly ill today on American soil. He has not been out of bed since breakfast, has fever and chills, headache, upset stomach – basically you name it and it is not working right on him. He is so sick that it breaks my heart. He made me go out and scavenged all day with Ben and Nanny – so I have great adventures to relate – but it was a beautiful day in Boston and Rainey missed out on all of the fun. Plus, you do not get any points unless both team members are present at every event - so, we ended up with ZERO points for the Boston rally.

Luckily, we did not need the points - because - on the terrific side – I am SOOOO proud to announce that the Littlepage Booth Penchas teams did a clean sweep of first and second place. Rainey and I won FIRST place and received the “World’s Best Traveler: 2009” medals and trophy this afternoon (he got his in abstention – but it still counts). In addition to the awesome medals, winning also means that we get to come back again next year – FOR FREE!!!! I can’t wait…only 364 days to go…!!!! Be ready for more blogs.

And, in SECOND place (surprising everyone with their travel skills, stamina and drive), came the Something Old, Something New team of Nanny and Ben. It was a great evening. For a recording of all of the scores for every team for each leg, go to: http://www.globalscavengerhunt.com/scoreboard.htm

Now – on to Boston. We started off with a Ride the Ducks tour of the city (100 bonus points) which was a great start as it gave us a good overview of the city and some landmarks for the rest of the scavenges. Then we video-taped Ben reciting a Longfellow poem while on the Longfellow bridge (which first required a trip to Borders to copy out a Longfellow poem as, for sure, none of us knew any by heart). Next on to Fanueil Hall and Quincy market for a food scavenge and where Mom “got in the act with a local street performer” and danced with a street musician (35 points). We got side-tracked watching a contortionist performer who literally fit his body through a squash racket (not an easy talent to describe on a resume). No points for that one but the train-wreck draw of his show kept us back almost half an hour

Our favorite other scavenges from today (like all days in this event, we do so many things each day that I can only choose a few to talk about or this blog would go on and on):

Scavenge # 1: At Boston City Hall, you will find a large outdoor Tea Kettle. What sits under it.
First, the kettle actually puts out smoke or steam all day (just like it is boiling) and second, can you believe it? Below it is a Starbucks… (they really are EVERYWHERE... except Cambodia and Tunisia as we learned on this trip).

Scavenge # 2: Near Paul Revere’s house, visit a triangle that is a square. What two things meet but don’t cause an eclipse?
Cute riddle. Right in front of Paul Revere’s house is a small town square that is actually shaped like a triangle. Two of the intersecting streets that make up the triangle are called “Moon” and “Sun”.

Scavenge # 3: Visit Widener Library.. what was the main condition of the benefactor?
This is Harvard’s library and the benefactor required that “no brick on the building ever be changed”. So, as times have passed and the university needed to expand the library, they could not change the structure, so they have had to dig down below it and expand downwards. Ben got a kick out of seeing the Harvard campus.

And so ends this second year of Great Escape Global Scavenger Hunt. With great sadness, we leave tomorrow for 12 months without the high pace and drama of traveling around the world ay a break-neck . We cannot wait to start again... next year. Thank you all, once again, for supporting us and following us on our adventures. It has been ANOTHER trip of a lifetime !!!

Copenhagen to Cold, Cold Iceland

2009-05-08T16:53:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Copehagen the night before our check in for this leg and hit the town running...trying to get as much done as quickly as possible.

COPENHAGEN:

Scavenge: Do a blind taste test between Carlsburg and Tuborg

We blindfolded Rainey – and then poor Ben (because Mom does not drink) - with my scarf and they took on the challenge. Rainey said that he could not really differentiate any difference between the two beers but Ben liked Tuborg better (not that he has much of a developed palette).

Scavenge: Find out what LEGO means and buy a small one.

Bit of trivia that you probably cannot imagine how you lived without knowing: The name for LEGO (the interlocking toys) comes from a merger of two Danish words: Leg Godt which means “Play Well”

Scavenge: Locate and visit the Black Diamond

The Black Diamond is this super-modern, high tech library in Copenhagen made totally from black glass. Against the backdrop of antique buildings and the canal, it is quite a nod to the 21st century.

Scavenge: Take in a session of Folketing at Christianborg Palace

The Christianborg Palace is the parliament house and “Folketing” is the Danish word for giving speeches on the parliament floor. There is a viewing gallery and we went this morning to see the politicians at their best. Very interesting. We watched both a woman and then a man give speeches on some issue (we had no idea since we don’t speak a word of Danish) while not a single person on the floor listened. It was exactly like you see on CSpan: While the speaker delivered his or her presentation, the other politicians milled around and talked to each other and hung out – paying little or no attention to the speech. (It felt a lot like when the jury falls asleep while you’re making some brilliant point)

We then set off for Iceland and, the answer to your logical question, is” “No, I did not pack appropriately for artic weather”. I packed for India. We arrived in Iceland about 4 PM and checked into our hotel in Rekjavik. The sun does not set until 11 PM (which is very disorienting because when it is 9 PM it feels like 4 PM with bright sunshine) so we had hours for scavenges last night. Although the tourist books say that Iceland’s weather is “milder than expected” that is clearly true only for people who did not pack for Southeast Asia. It is FREEZING here – especially when the wind blows.

Iceland is our last international scavenge leg - and we are all so sad that this unbelievable 3 weeks is almost over - that we are grumpy and irritable. It seems unthinkable that in just 2 days we will be back in our normal life with this adventure behind us. I so wish that we were now starting – instead of ending. I miss Jordan terribly and wish that he could have come with us as Ben has had one of the best, hardest and most educational experiences of his life.

Like Tunisia, I knew little or nothing about Iceland and had no reference point for whether I would like it here. Not surprisingly, Bill made us see the very best of this place and I was totally charmed (even though frozen) by Iceland.

Scavenge # 1: Take a dip by visiting one of the city’s public outdoor geothermal swimming pools
What seems like the most ridiculous idea when you are cold? Going swimming. But there were points involved so off we went with swimsuit in hand. And it was great! There are 11 public geothermal pools in Revjavik. The one we chose was big and had several swimming / lounging areas including large Jacuzzis and lay-down wading pools that are all warm and heated from the underground springs. It was so soothing and relaxing.

Scavenge # 2: Visit Perlan – for the view and the food
We ate dinner at the Pearl (or Perlan) which is a restaurant built up on the hill overlooking the city. Its architecture is similar to an observatory in that the entire roof of the restaurant (which also revolves for maximum effect) is glass. It has the most magnificient view that I have ever seen at a restaurant – and its 360 degrees. The food was average to not-great but the atmosphere rocked.

DAY 2 – ICELAND
For this leg – in a very unusual and unexpected move – Bill let us rent cars and navigate Iceland for ourselves. It felt so liberating to not have to find a tuk-tuk or a train or a bus, but to just be able to get in a car and drive away on our own timetable. Day 2 found us up at 5 AM to do some bonus travel. We had no idea what we would find but ended up with two back-to-back WOW experiences.

Scavenge: Take a team photo next to the mighty Gulfoss. Be careful!
After a long ride, we discovered that Gulfoss is a breathtaking waterfall and – unlike Niagara Falls – there is no security, barriers or safeguards. You can climb right up to the top of it and look down (while standing on slippery rocks covered with moss and being sprayed with mist from the power of the waterfall). Despite the cold, Ben, Rainey and I spent almost an hour climbing all over Gulfoss and I took dozens of photos. To be so close to something so powerful.

Scavenge: Visit Blaalonio and get covered in silica
This is a true WOW – the Blue Lagoon – and I am humiliated to admit that I had never even heard of it. It is a gigantic neck-deep pool carved out of the natural rock that is lined with a layer of smooth silica. The water is perfectly warm, opaque (almost white in color) with natural chemicals and a thick fog rises from the pool to where it is sometimes hard to even see around you. The drill is that you lather on this thick silica mud mask (that you get from wooden pots situated all around the pool), lay back in the warm water while it dries and exfoliates your face naturally and hang out in this cocoon of natural beauty and warmth. I had been cold since I set foot in Iceland (chilled to the bone) so the Blue Lagoon was like heaven. I felt every muscle warm up. We stayed for almost 2 hours and by the time we came out I wanted to just fall into a coma. It was our last scavenge before going to the airport (check in for this leg was at the airport) and I intend to sleep the entire way to Boston.

Tomorrow – in Boston – is our last scavenge leg and we go home on Sunday.

Nordic Europe: Viking Adventures

2009-05-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

WHAT AN AMAZING FEW DAYS. This leg is the best example of what is brilliant about this entire trip: it forces you to: (a) plot your way through multiple countries (without being able to ask any hotel concierge for help or jump on google); (b) strategize on the best (and most point-filled) way to navigate an entire section of Europe and (c) requires you to basically inhale entire cities within hours. We got dropped off in Frankfurt two days ago and were told to check-in with Bill and Pamela today at 11 AM in Copenhagen. We had literally hundreds of potential scavenges to choose along the way which gave us multiple options for seeing Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. We took off running as soon as the dinner was over, did our mandatory Frankfurt challenges and headed out of town on a very late night – early morning train in Berlin. The course we choose was to go from Frankfurt – to – Berlin – to – Hamburg – to – Kiel (all Germany) – to – Gotteborg (Sweden) – to – Malmo (Sweden) – to – Copenhagen (Denmark). And all in less than 40 hours…Yes, the answer to your first question is – we have not slept very much for the past few days.

PLUS – for this leg – we have to carry all of our stuff with us (into trains, ferries, taxis) and through every city. I bitterly regretted every extra pair of socks on this leg as my suitcase got heavier and heavier by the hour as I hauled it up and down stairs in train stations. Just the luggage alone makes this trip so much harder than the others.

We have done SOOO much stuff over the past few days that I could write an entire book just on this leg. I have tried to pick out a few fun ones…

BERLIN:
Bonus Scavenge: Visit the former site of Check Point Charlie in Berlin.
We schedule a 1 ½ hour lay over between trains in Berlin so we could rush to see the old Berlin Wall (they have preserved a section of it right where it used to be – graffiti and all) as well as Checkpoint Charlie (the transition check point area between East and West Berlin). It was so interesting to think that just a few decades ago this modern city was divided down the middle with fundamental differences in culture, socioeconomics and lifestyle between two sides.

HAMBURG:
Scavenge: Ride a balloon in Hamburg
There is this very awesome tethered balloon ride in Hamburg that takes you up above all of the buildings for a full view of the city. It does not sail away but it still seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, bad weather grounded it so the best we could do was a photo in front of it. SO sad, I have never been on a balloon and I would have loved to at least "pretend".

Scavenge: Stop a local on a bridge and ask them how many bridges there are in Hamburg.
We interviewed an 84 year old woman who said that there were more than 2000 bridges in the city (the guide book says 2500) but both of these numbers seem unbelievable. She was very sweet and her English was excellent.

Scavenge: Interview two tourists along the Binnenalster: ask where they are from and tell them about your adventures so far.
The Binnenalster is this pretty lake in the middle of town which has cafes and shops aong the edge. We stopped two women who thought that we were trying to either sell them something or scam them until we did the full explanation. Then they warmed us and told us all about what they had been doing in Hamburg. Again, an example of something that you would never normally do (unless there are points involved) and which ends up being a highlight of your day.

KIEL:
Bonus Scavenge: Take a ferry from Germany to Sweden
Not having any clue about these things, we envisioned that a ferry in this part of the world would be one step above a shrimp trawler and that we’d be lucky if we ended up with a wooden upright seat for the 14 hour crossing. What a surprise when we showed u pat the Kiel pier to find that “ferry” means cruise liner type ship with beds, clean sheets, a porthole, a fancy restaurant, gambling and even a man with a guitar singing Abba songs… This is me doing the “happy dance” when we realized that our night travel to Gotteborg was going to be GREAT instead of miserable.

GOTTEBORG
Scavenge: Take a stroll in the Gotteborg Botanical Gardens for one hour.
It was cold. It was raining. It was windy. But we had just come 14 hours to get the Gotteborg points so by golly we were going to “stroll” in the gardens if it killed us. Ben took a photo of his watch as we entered the gardens and we counted down the cold, wet minutes until we could leave. But – as with everything about this trip – just when you feel like grumbling, you turn a corner and see a patch of beautiful tulips that take your breath away and it makes the whole trek across 2 countries worthwhile.

MALMO
Bonus Scavenge: Take a swim in the Baltic Sea
When we got to the beach in Malmo (a small town on the South tip of Sweden – right across the bridge from Copenhagen) the wind was blowing so hard that you could barely stand up. But Rainey had set his mind to getting the bonus 100 points for getting into the Baltic – so in he went – freezing water and all. Ben refused because it was so cold and windy but then regretted it. So Rainey went back in again with him (to keep Ben’s company) as Ben dipped down into artic temperature Baltic sea. Our two brave men!!!! (Because, to be honest, this might have been 100 points that I left on the table – that’s how much I HATE cold water). Ben said that it was so cold that you went numb as soon as you stepped in.

We have now reached Copehagen... We did TONS of great things there ... stay tuned for my next blog.

Memories… like the corners of my mind

2009-05-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

We are now past our halfway mark in terms of countries with 6 of the 10 completed. Nanny got sick in Turkey (bad flu) and had a tough day or two. Then yesterday Ben got sick (bad headache from not drinking enough water) but he's better today. Fingers crossed that it not Rainey or my turn next as we are entering the hardest leg of the trip. We just arrived in Frankfurt and are having a big dinner party with everyone together tonight before we get our scavenge booklets. We all think that we are going to have to head out to other countries pretty quick - the real question is whether that will be tonight or tomorrow. Which begs the really important question: to wash clothes or not? Carrying dirty clothes is bad but hauling around wet clothes is even worse.

PLEASE WRITE COMMENTS - WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM EVERYONE. YOUR COMMENTS ARE OUR ONLY CONNECTION TO THE REAL WORLD. PLEASE, PLEASE WRITE....

A quick walk down memory lane from the trip so far (at least a few of the countries - I don't have time for all before dinner - but the high speed internet connection here is awesome (thank you Germany) so wanted to upload some pics quickly):

The whole group
A group photo of all of the teams as we set off from Seattle. We all look a bit different now – and lot like we have been rode hard and put up wet.

Seattle
Ben and I on the metro train in Seattle – on our way to the Space Needle

Taiwan:
Ben and Nanny have tea at the old Kamikaze Pilot’s Club teahouse outside of Tapei.
Thailand:

Ben feeding the elephant in Ayutthaya

Wat Po Temple’s amazing reclining Buddha. As much as I liked the face – I was really intrigued with the sheer size of the toes
Tiger Temple: Rainey with the tigers at Tiger Temple (this is just because April bet that Rainey did not go near the tigers…). But I have photo proof.

Cambodia:
Having a cold drink that this very unusual restaurant in Siem Reap called Butterflies – which is an outdoor place where you sit in these pagodas and the entire place is inside a large net and is filled with butterflies. They fly and land all around you as you eat and drink. All colors and sizes.

A food scavenge – thus Rainey is having NONE of it

India:
Ben rings the bell to send his prayer to heaven in the Monkey Temple in Jaipur – a long trek up a very steep cobbled path in the blistering heat (ah yes, the heat of India – something that you never forget) – to be rewarded by an amazing view of all of Jaipur.

Funny Taj photo of Nanny:

Surprising Tunisia

2009-05-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

OK - here is a VERY well kept secret - Tunisia is awesome - who knew??? I arrived with LOW expectations and discovered that Tunis is a mini-Paris with sidewalk cafes, open markets and lots of beautiful people speaking in French. I was so pleasantly surprised that I am almost without words.
We got in about midday yesterday and received scavenges for yesterday and today. For this leg, we can scavenge for the entire time with another team (if we want) – which makes planning much easier. We set out immediately to take a train to Carthage (yes, of Hannibal fame) which was only a short, standing-room only, mildly smelly train ride away. The ruins were really cool. We had to go to Tophet (an area that was used for human sacrifices – mainly children sacrifices). The stone on the left marks the sacrifice of a boy child (awful even to think about).
From Carthage, we went on to a truly captivating little town called Sidi Bou Said – which I have never heard of – and is one of the coolest place I have ever been. It is built on a hill by the sea and is a smaller- but equally romantic - version of Mikanos. Every building is white with blue trim – and the tradition is to do decorative and creative things with your door. The weather was cool and crisp and we drank mint tea (with pine nuts floating on the top – don’t ask me why, but that is the tradition here) at sunset at a restaurant that over-looked the sea.

TUNISIA - DAY 2

Today we were up at dawn to get the first train out to Sousse to see an old fort (not that impressive) and then on to El Jem to explore the roman coliseum that was used to film the movie Gladiator. Talk about impressive. And, unlike the coliseum in Rome, you can climb all over this one – and I mean all over - like down in the catacombs and up to the rafters. We stood in the middle of the coliseum and visualized what it would have been like to walk out there as a gladiator into a duel to the death.

Since today was Sunday, we also had to go to the Sunday Market – which we discovered was a locals market that sells housewares, clothes etc. (as opposed to the typical tourist trap souvenirs). My favorite was the cloth sellers who were selling head-scarf material by the yard (as Tunisia is a Muslim country, many of the women are scarfed).

Turkish Delight

2009-05-02T21:27:00.000-07:00

I was so sad to leave India. Clearly India is a place that either grabs your heart and stays with your forever - or you dislike every aspect of its poverty, heat and harsh conditions. I am clearly an India lover. Several of the teams could not wait to get out of there but I missed India as soon as we took off. It is a country that gets into your soul and humbles you with its needs. It has been an amazing experience for Ben to see the reality of that world first-hand: from the woman begging beside the road with a hard-dead, horribly mangled child in her arms to the woman in a aquamarine sari who stopped and gave a passing cow some of her lunch (a simple offering to her god). It is so hard to describe India – you have to really have to see it (and live it) to believe it.

ISTANBUL– DAY 1

We arrived in Constantinople (Istanbul) to 72 degree weather – perfect blue skies – and modern public restrooms…. Heaven!! I am hoping that I’ve seen the last of the hole-in-the-ground toilets for a while (but we still have not been to the continent of Africa --- so that may be optimistic).

Istanbul is like a trendy European city on par with Paris or Madrid. Lots of history and amazing sights but also hip and exotic. We went straight out to the Blue Mosque so that we got there before the nightly prayer session shuts it down from non-Muslims. Amazing mosaics.

Scavenge #1: Visit Erenler Nargile ve Cay Bahcesi and try some chichi.
A difficult scavenge because this is a very specific “tobacco café” in the middle of 1,430 other tobacco cafes in an area close to Istanbul University. It took us several false starts before we found the right place – a funky place behind a cemetery – where we drank apple tea and smoked a water pipe with another team (the Slayers) – two great guys from Seattle.

(979)

Scavenge #2: Walk through the Passage of Flowers
Another highlight - walking home down Cicek Pasaji (Flower Walk or Passage) – a pedestrian-only street of restaurants, shops and bars that was bustling with people. Lots of energy and laughter. We stopped and ate odd tasting (and textured) ice-cream which is more like taffy than ice-cream.

ISTANBUL – DAY TWO
Today is May Day – a public holiday for all workers – which has (in the past) been a day of protests, violence, arrests and even deaths. It also means that a lot of stuff was closed or working on a different-than-usual schedule. Bill had warned us of areas in the city that we should not go (because the government was expecting union marches in those places) but as soon as we left the hotel we found tanks in the streets and thousands upon thousands of police: at every corner, in every place. So we decided to spend the day out of Istanbul on one of the nearby islands. In the end, we saw no protests or issues at all.

Scavenge #1: Take the ferry to Buyukada, then a carriage to Luna Park, then walk up the hill to the monastery of St. George.
We took the 10:30AM ferry out the island (arriving just before noon) and hopped on a horse-drawn carriage that took us up a steep hill to a beautiful park. Because of the holiday, the park was filled with Turkish people having picnics and enjoying the great weather. From there it was a STEEP climb to the monastery – but the view was worth it – out across the bay and back to Istanbul. It was a longer than expected ferry ride so it ended up taking most of the day – but we were due a calmer, quieter, more peaceful day and we enjoyed every minute.

Ben lit a candle and got a blessing at the St. George’s Greek Orthodox monastery at the top of the hill.

Scavenger # 4: Enjoy a traditional public Hammam
Yes, that is a Turkish bath – with all of the expected ornate, 300 year old hot marble platform in the middle of a domed steam room that you sprawl on virtually naked, large burly Turkish women who lather you up and scrub you down with a vigor and buckets of warm and cool water that you pour over yourself. A fresh experience for us all – and Ben had a great attitude ab0ut it all.

Scavenge # 5: Locate and visit the historical monument where a significant part of a recent James Bond movie was filmed.
We totally blew this one as we thought it was the Haga Sophia that was in a James Bond movie from 1999 or 2000. So we trecked up there only to find out later that the answer was really the Maiden’s Tower island that sits in the middle of the straits between Istanbul Europe and Istanbul Asia (the city actually straddles the two continents). That island was where the bad guys imprisoned Em in the last Pierce Brosnan James Bond. Shoot. We lost a bunch of points on that one.

Observation # 1: Food: Obviously we had to eat Doner Kebabs and Turkish delight – but nothing yucky or gross. In fact, the food was really great everywhere.

Observation # 2: Markets: Istanbul is full of markets including the Grand Bazaar but my favorite was the Spice Bazaar – a smaller covered market with stalls filled with spices, scents, hundreds of different kinds of sweets (the Turks really like dessert stuff) – so colorful and fragrant.

OFF TO TUNISIA
We just found out that we are off to Tunisia tomorrow.. a country that I admit to not even know where it was (the answer is Northern Africa if you are as ignorant as I am). We fly into Tunis and most of the people on the trip have never been there so it should be fun. Ben did a unit in school on Carthage so he actually knows the most of all of us about the area. Stay tuned for news on Tunisia…

SCOREBOARD
Thank God, Rainey and I won the India leg - and got the 500 bonus points - so now we have a little bit of a cushion in case one of us gets sick or has to take a day off. It also allows us more flexibility to choose to do only the stuff we really want to do (even if those scavenges have lower points). The rules are that you can only do 5 scavenges a day with another team, so to spend more time with Ben and Nanny, we are choosing a lot of the bonus scavenges (which take longer to do but have bigger points and count as only one scavenge). We have also discovered that the bonus scavenges are often the biggest WOWs – even though they are often a real pain in the ass to get to.

India to Turkey

2009-04-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of India finds us in the middle of nowhere in Ranthambore National Park: a national park between Agra and Jaipur in Rajasthan.

Scavenge: Take a safari at Ranthambore National park.
We got up at 5:30 AM (as I am absolutely NOT a morning person – this trip is killing me with these early mornings after early mornings). But today it was actually pleasant to be up early because it was still cool outside and it felt great to be driving in a jeep in a national park at sunrise instead of cramped into a Tuk Tuk stuck in traffic in 100 degree weather. The national park has a lot of expected wildlife (deer, wild boar, peacocks) as well as some tigers. In fact, the advertised big draw of the safari is to see a tiger in the wild. We were not that lucky. But we did see hundreds and hundreds of monkeys that played all around us. And today was a special day where the villagers are allowed to enter the national park to pray at a small, very old shrine by the riverbank. So the dirt paths we were on were very crowded with playing monkeys as well as bare-foot villagers (the park is considered sacred)– with the women dressed in beautifully colored saris - hustling with their food offerings to the shrine.

As soon as we finished up the safari, we jumped on a train to Jaipur. We had a 4 hour lay-over in Jaipur – just enough time to hit some of the highlights – before a long, 5 hour train ride back to Delhi. My favorite spot in Jaipur is this century old tomb area where the monkeys are just calmly sitting on top of marble cenatophs – just hanging out!!!

Day 4: Delhi Scavenges
We spent our last day running around Delhi. We started at dawn (AGAIN – God I am sick of these early days – but there is 500 points on the line… so once again I see dawn break)….

Scavenge #1: Practice morning yoga with a yogi master in Lodi Gardens
We started the day with having to find a yoga instructor in a specific park and take a lesson from him. Rainey was laughing too much at me to participate so he was designated as the official photographer instead.

Scavenge # 2: Contact the folks at Salaam Baalak Trust and take a working tour of Paharganj with one of their special guides.
This non-profit group feeds and educates more than 5,000 “slumdogs” (ie street children) each year. One of the ways that they raise money is to have former slum kids (who have learned English) take tourists into the slums and show them – first hand – how these kids live. It is heartbreaking. You make a small donation to the trust in exchange for the tour. The poverty and living conditions are beyond appalling. These kids often have chosen to live without anything – on the streets – instead of with their families because their family life was so awful or abusive. Ben was totally shocked when he watched (before his very eyes) a kid pull down their pants, squat down and poop right there on the side of the alley. The Trust offers schooling for four hours each day to the slum kids. We were there for snack time at the school - and watched as the kids were given snack of a pinch of chickpea dust - no juice, no biscuits, no fruit - just a smidgen of dust.

Scavenge # 3: Enjoy the twin specialties of old and famous Jalebiwala in Chandi Chowk
This is a booth-type restaurant in the heart of the Old City of Delhi that sells only two things: potato samosas and chickpea samosas. Nothing else. They then put some VERY spicy sauce on the top which blew out our taste buds for hours.

Scavenge # 3: Do some good. Contact a charity and help.
We chose to volunteer our time for a group called Joining Hands – which is a charity that matches volunteers (based upon their skills or wants) to dozens of non-profit organizations. We volunteered to buy and take supplies to a slum school and then taught the kids there for an hour. We bought coloring books and picture story books as well as –pencils, paper, pens etc. When we arrived, we were amazed to find that the school (which is a word that I am using loosely since this place was merely a room with a teacher) had literally nothing – no desks or chairs (the kids just sit on the floor in rows); no books of any kind, no paper or notebooks or supplies – just a teacher and a chalk board and some chalk. The children come out of the slums and stay in school for a few hours a day before they leave to go to work (picking up bottles to take to the recycling place for money; digging through the trash dump sites for half-eaten food etc.). Even worse – these kids are all under the age of 9. This is a photo of me teaching the kids from one of the English ABC books that we bought for them.

Observations #1: The poverty is overwhelming. People live with literally NOTHING. This is ALL of the worldly possessions of this woman (and she has more than most). The thing above her head (which is making her roof and shade during the day) is her bed.

Observations #2: The colors of India touch your heart. Dusty, dirty fields with women in jewel-colored saris bent over tending to crops. At work, in the markets, walking by the streets - old or young, pretty or unattractive – the women sparkle with color. Even their trucks are decorated and colorful.

Observations # 3: India trains are disgustingly dirty. I had to just go to sleep or else my paranoia about germs and communicable diseases would have gone into over-drive.

SCORE BOARD: Without the results from the India leg (which could shake things up if we do not win as the 500 point bonus will make a big difference), the scores are: “Lawyers without borders” (which is us) in first place and Nanny and Ben (“Something Old, Something New”) in second place. It has been HARD work to be in those spots so I hope that we do not lose our ranking.

Incredible India

2009-04-30T02:54:00.001-07:00

We arrived in India three days ago and were told that this was an open rally leg – which means that we have a total amount of time to do as many scavenges (in various cities) as we can cram in. The last few legs have been timed events (meaning that we got a day’s worth of scavenges and had to check in by a certain time each night). In a timed rally leg, you are literally forced to rest and sleep (between like 10 AM and 6AM) because you cannot scavenge at night. Not true for India. We could work as hard as we wanted – and – very important –the winner of this leg will get a bonus of 500 points (which is HUGE). This was a huge incentive to really work hard in India and it has been an exhausting – but fantastic – few days.

Bill’s concept in India was to make us leave the city and travel between the triangle-located cities of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur. But, in order to force us to interact with locals, we were not allowed to just hire big, expensive, comfortable cars with drivers to take us there (as that would have been too easy). Instead we had to use the local trains (VERY unclean) and moped rickshaws (VERY hot). We also are not allowed to get ANY help from the hotel concierge or any employee of the hotel. So we literally had to just head out of the hotel (with no idea where you were going), walk into the street and start asking people how to find things.

Day 1:
As soon as we got our scavenge books, we discovered that this leg involved travel between various cities by train so we packed up 2 nights of clothes in our back packs and headed out to the train station to try and figure out schedules and options – what an eye opening experience. The Delhi train station is like a scene from Slumdog Millionare but with 2 million extra people. We finally got directed to a tourist bureau where we bought night train tickets to Agra. When we got back to the station, we hired a porter to get us to the right platform and train (thank God, because we would still be lost wandering around that place – stepping over sleeping and disabled children and pushing through crowds – if he had not helped). The porter was 115 years old and he immediately wound a piece of cloth on his head, picked up Nanny’s carry-on bag, plunked it on his head and took off at a trot. We were left to run along behind him all the way to the train. Luckily, we got a sleeper car – with air conditioning - and even though it was very low on the clean and sanitary scale, we all tried to get some sleep. We did not arrive in Agra until almost midnight. The train station tourist bureau had booked us a hotel in Agra that looked fine in the pamphlet that they showed us but was AWFUL in real life – no hot water, little or no air conditioning (it made noise but did not produce any actual cool air), spiders in the bathroom… GROSS. I actually contemplated sleeping in a shower cap to stop the infestation of crawling bugs that were obviously hiding in the pillow, but ended up just falling into a coma on the very much less-than-clean bed instead. (Have you noticed a recurring theme already – most of India is so filthy and dirty that it has an almost repulsive charm).

Day 2:
Scavenge # 1: Visit one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages and have your fortune told by a soothsayer. What does your future hold? Take a classic Team photo from the VIP bench.
We got up at 5 AM on Monday so that we could be at the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was stunningly beautiful – and so few people were there at that hour that we got awesome photos without throngs of tourists in each frame – including the VIP shot (from the bench before the Taj). Since it was not yet blisteringly hot, we could really linger and enjoy the Taj. The downside: there were no fortune tellers out that early, so we had to go to a nearby shop to get our palms read. It cracked me up because the palm reader had to use a magnifying glass to see our palms – getting old & poor-sighted is clearly a real career downer for fortune-tellers.

Scavenge # 2: Find a craftsman specializing in the exquisite pietra dura of Taj Mahal-fame.
There are still a few families left in Agra who have passed on (from generation to generation) the craft of inlaying marble with thin slices of semi-precious stone to make beautiful intricate patterns (exactly how the Taj Mahal was done). We went to one of those places and watched the entire process in action. They still use hand-turned lathes (the men pull a stick back and forth to make the stone wheel turn) to slice, shape and polish the semi-precious stones and then glue them into hand-grooved spaces that they have chiseled out of the marble. 1,000 year old technology that produces beautiful results.

We ended Day 2 by going to Bharatapur to visit a bird sanctuary (dry, hot and not many animals to see – I would not recommend this excursion) and then on to Ranthambore National park to spend the night. Ranthambore is 6 hours from Agra – through the countryside – in and out of small villages – so we arrived late at night – very tired and worn out.

Thailand to India

2009-04-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

We have been in a very tiring rally in India for the past 2 days - and without any access to the internet. I will write up our India adventures (which are AMAZING) as soon as this leg ends tomorrow night but here is info on our second day in Thailand (which now feels like a year ago because we have done so much since then).

Thailand - Day 2 - In a nutshell: "WOW, WOW, WOW"

Bill, the producer of this competition, always talks about trying to give us “wow” moments but I was definitely NOT seeing the wow-factor of Thailand yesterday. Then today came. I had slept well, was no longer heat stroked, felt great and – best of all - our travel karma got righted and things started to work. Today we did not miss every bus, train or Tuk Tuk or get to every site right after it was closed. Today – was a WOW.

We ended up doing tons of different things: but here are some highlights:

Scavenge: Pay an early morning visit (and give tribute) to the folks at the Marble Wat.
We woke up early to see the sunrise over a specific temple by the river so we arrived at the Marble Wat (Temple) about 6:30AM to try and figure out what this scavenge meant. When we arrived, it was immediately clear: this is a temple where every morning scores of Buddhist monks arrive– carrying gourd-shaped begging bowls – for the town to pay honor them by giving them food. Whatever people put into their bowls, is the monks’ food for the day. We bought some cooked dim-sum-like steamed dumplings from a street vendor and gave them as offerings to the monks. One monk stood out above the crowd: he was quite tall and clearly English. So we stopped him and talked for a while. He came to visit Thailand 23 years ago, got the Buddhist bug, became a monk and has never left. We had to figure out some scavenge clues that dealt with Buddhism - and the basic tenets of that religion – and he helped us out.

Scavenge: Employ those plying their trade at the back of Wat Po after passing through Marco Polo Gate.
We got to Wat Po about 7:30 AM to find that the temple (with its amazing reclining gold Buddha) does not open until 8 AM. So we started wandering around trying to find what happens at the back of the temple. In the temple complex is a series of low-roofed buildings which turned out to be the dormitory styled homes of the monks. A monk came out, saw that we were very lost and invited us into his home (that he shares with 8 other monks). He sat us down on the floor of his living room and served us breakfast (biscuits and sweet fig-like bananas) with water and tea while he chatted away (in very poor English) about visiting San Francisco once in the 1980s. As soon as 8 AM came, he blessed us and sent us on our way to visit the Buddha and to find that past the Marco Polo gate is a school that teaches Thai massage and the students have a training program where they give massages at a reduced rate to temple visitors. So Rainey and I spent half an hour getting stretched and rubbed and manipulated (a Thai massage is a stretching, kneading massage done with all of your clothes on – and without any oils). After the Ayutthaya Tuk Tuk experience yesterday, this was fantastic. I really wanted an hour long massage – but there were points to be made… so time cannot be wasted.

After the massage, we went to see the actual reclining Buddha – Although it was all impressive, I really liked his toes….

Scavenge #2: Bridge over River Kwai
One of the bonus scavenges was to go out to Kanchanaburi (west of Bangkok) and see the Death Railway (including the bridge over the River Kwai) that was built by English and Allied POWs during WWII. Like in the movie, the bridge was blown up by the British to stop the Japanese from easily being able to transport weapons and bombs down the railway – but it was quickly rebuilt. We also visited the War Museum which showed how terribly the POWs were treated.

Scavenge # 3- AND AN A++++++ WOW EVENT: Tiger Temple
In the middle of nowhere, 2 ½ hours from Bangkok is a Buddhist monastery that started taking in orphaned tiger cubs. Fast forward a decade and they have 19 pet tigers that you can come and visit, pet and play with…. And yes, I said TIGERS… not pussycats. So there we were: walking among the tigers, petting them, hanging out with them. The superstition is that the monks’ peaceful nature and unconditional love has worked “monk magic” on these wild animals (who have very large, sharp teeth and even sharper claws). I was convinced that the magic was going to wear off at the exact moment that I walked up and that one of these Kings of the Jungle was going to just munch off my arm. But instead (once you remembered to breath and forgot how terrifying it was), it was an amazing experience. Then Ben and I went into a caged area and got to play with 4 tiger cubs. I would call them baby tigers – but they were as big as my knee, strong and very playful. As we walked up they were biting the heck out of each other… and growling… and ripping apart a rope toy (leaving no doubt that they could also easily take off my foot). If Ben had not wanted to do it so badly, I would definitely have chickened out – but I did not want to disappoint him – so in we went. I was putting on the brave face until – right as we entered – the tiger trainer said “remember, never turn your back on a tiger, that makes it want to pounce on your back” – words which kept my butt firmly stuck to a wall at all times just so no tiger would have a chance to snack on my neck. Ben and I even got to feed the babies milk from bottles (which made me move away from my spot on the wall) but then a naughty tiger came up behind me and bit me on the back of my leg and that was the end for me - my heart skipped 17 beats and I high-tailed it out of the cage. Unfortunately it was only a little nip and not bad enough to even bruise because a small scar would have made a great story of: “Yes, I got this playing with tigers in Thailand”. Jordan would have LOVED this scavenge and would have been much braver than I was.

Scavenge # 4: Enjoy a meal at Cabbages and Condoms: a restaurant with a purpose
This is a fascinating – but very nice - restaurant (that is down a back alley that you would never find unless you knew what were looking for) run by an AIDS awareness organization. All proceeds go to sexually transmitted disease education programs. Every decoration in the restaurant is made from condoms (including lamp shades and full art statues) and every wall is covered with AIDS awareness and education posters. Very clever. The food was excellent (or maybe it just taste great because we had not eaten since breakfast).

Observations: The Children of Thailand
All over the world little people like to swing. This little girl was in a smelly, gross, dirty dark alley off a food market… smiling and swinging away in her home-made hammock.

These young monks are begging at dawn for food

Bangkok Blues

2009-04-25T08:29:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand to find that it is 1,000 degrees, the Tuk Tuks are so uncomfortable that your bottom is bruised after the first ride and …did I mention that it is hotter than the surface of the sun? Our first day here was as disaster in every sense of the word. We decided to start with a set of scavenges in Ayutthaya (a town north of Bangkok) and ended up blowing our whole first day in Thailand there. Everything that could go wrong, did. We made good points but every point was hard to come by.

Problem # 1: Bad transportation:
The competition required that we take a train at least one way –either to or from – Ayutthaya. We quickly learned that the right option was to take the express, air conditioned train up there and get a taxi back. Poor planning on our part had us in a taxi on the way up which meant that we had to train it back. But then we missed the mid-afternoon train and had to take the 6:05PM train – which did not arrive until almost 7 PM. That train had no air conditioning or open seats (it was standing room only – and by that I mean that every part of you was touching someone else), a strong smell of urine and it stopped at approximately 79 towns on the way back. It took almost 3 hours to get to Bangkok - by which time I had a raging case of heat stroke. I came very close to throwing up on the train but we were jammed in so tight that I would have up-chucked down some unsuspecting Thai person’s back (a thought too gross to permit).

Then in Ayutthaya – in a stroke of real stupidity – they developed a type of Tuk Tuk that is built for short 7 year olds: a low ceiling which makes you hunch over the whole time and you ride sideways (not facing forward) which really limits how much air you get. They are HOT and incredibly uncomfortable. Riding in these torture chambers for hours left me literally crippled up.

But there were some highlights

Scavenge # 1: Sam Po visited Ayutthaya in 1407. He has another famous name, what was it? And visit something that is associated with him here.
The Wat Phanan Choeng temple has a HUGE Buddha dedicated to Zheng He (a big time, Marco-Polo-type Chinese explorer). It sort of takes your breath away because you turn a corner and there it is – huge and gold.

Scavenge # 2: Take an elephant ride around Wat Phra Si Sanphet
You have to get on the back of an elephant (under a very colorful umbrella) and lumber through the temple grounds. Ben was tickled by the whole ride-an-elephant thing.

Scavenge # 3: Buy something interesting from Bang Sai Royal Folk Arts & Crafts Center for under $10.
While looks like it is around the block from Ayutthaya, this place is actually a VERY LONG 45 minutes bone-crunching Tuk Tuk ride away (did I bitch about the Thai Tuk Tuks already???). I was hot, sweaty and very bad-tempered by the time we got there. It is a government sponsored trade school center that trains poor and disabled people in various craft fields. This guy makes stain glass windows with no right arm at all (and his prosthesis is literally falling apart at the seams) and only a single finger along with a mangled hand on the left. OK, that alone put my heat exhaustion misery into perspective and made me feel petty for complaining. A clear reality check.

Observation #1: The Thai people are kind and sweet – with big, warm smiles. When Nanny and Ben got stuck at a temple at closing time – and could not find any transportation back to the train station – the woman who ran the ticket booth took care of them and got her brother to give them a ride. Amusingly, his only mode of transportation was a motorcycle. So Nanny, Ben and the unknown Thai boy (with a ruby in his front tooth) raced through town crammed together on a motorbike – quite a spectacle.

Observation #2: There were no benches on one side of the train station so everyone waits for the train by sitting on the train tracks with trains going by literally within feet of you….Definitely in violation of every safety regulation.

I am hoping for a better day tomorrow… our first day here was largely a bust – and I feel sick and grumpy.

…

Dawn over Angkor Wat

2009-04-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Siem Reap (very hot from a long non-air conditioned bus ride) yesterday afternoon and went straight out to do scavenges. Our hotel here (the Heritage Suites) is amazing…bungalow styled rooms with private gardens and an interesting mix of oriental and hip architecture. One of the nicest places I have ever stayed.

For those who do not know the details of this competition, a bit of catch-up information: each team has two members and we have 10 teams this year; during this trip we will visit 10-12 countries on 4 continents and we will stay in each country for 1-3 days; we do not know where we are going next until 4 hours before we leave; when we arrive at a new country we get a book of scavenges to do in that place and a check-in time. The trick is to amass as many points as you can during the set time frame that the particular rally is open. The book of scavenges that we receive always has way more challenges than you can get done in the time that we are in that country – and each thing is worth different points (easy stuff is 10-15 points; hard challenges that take a lot of time and efforts can be worth up to 300 points)– so part of the competition is strategizing what to do and in what order to best use the time that you have. In every country we have mandatory challenges that you have to do or you get no points for that leg. Most of the mandatory challenges are eating or food scavenges (sometimes lots of yucky stuff) but you don’t have to eat it all: just try it. I obviously cannot describe every scavenge that we do in each country, so I am trying to pick a few of my favorites each time to just give you all a flavor of what we are doing. You are only allowed to scavenge with another team for a maximum of 5 scavenges in a day – so we are spending only part of each day with Nanny and Ben.

Scavenge # 1: Obviously we had to visit the various Angkor Wat, Angkor Tom and Ta Prohm – and there were bonus points if we started at 5 AM and watched the sunrise on the temples – so we were up in the dark. They were all amazing. Truly a wonder of the world. My favorite was Ta Prohm where the trees have grown all through the temple walls. I got a great photo of where the trees have grown all over a sculpture – with only the face (miraculously) still visible. Sooooo cool.
Scavenge #2: Do some good: Either visit the Kantha Boptha Hospital and give blood or visit the Angkor Hospital for children and make a donation of some blankets, children and adult clothing, coloring books, crayons, pens and pencils or mosquito nets you bought in town.
I’ll be honest – despite my absolute fear of needles – I strongly considered the blood donation because, after all, it was for 100 points and it involved only one trip to the hospital (without having to first go and buy stuff) – that’s an economical use of time. But Rainey made sensible arguments about possible side effects of fainting from the needle prick (a real possibility with me), hitting my head and then having to actually be treated at a Siem Reap hospital. Rainey cannot donate because he had Hepatitis years ago. Good sense prevailed and we did the shopping trek instead. We arrived at the children’s hospital at dark with our supplies and the children were already asleep – sleeping in an open concrete-floored patio area. No beds, no blankets, no walls, no wards – just sick children all over the floor sleeping. They were all covered up with pink mosquito nets that were draped over benches - like a tent city of ill kids. (Not a great photo - but I did not want to do another as the flash could wake them up). I was sure that Ben would freak out and start talking about contracting leprosy and antibiotic resistant TB but he was so moved that he could not even speak. Heart wrenching.

Scavenge #2: Locate and visit Beng Mealea
Beng Melea is a sprawling jungle temple that has only barely been rescued from the thick foliage. It is almost 2 hours from Siem Reap and - after driving up here without air conditioning yesterday (did I tell you yet that it is 150 degrees here – in the shade), it seemed like nothing short of torture to decide to go out there yesterday afternoon. In fact, I cussed Bill’s (the producer of this competition) name for every kilometer. But then we got there… and it took my breath away. It was just like you stepped into an Indiana Jones movie, went on a jungle trek and discovered a hidden world all by yourself. There were no other tourists there because it is so remote so we had the place all to yourself. The jungle is all around you and it is a quiet world of tumbled down rocks and 1,000 year old carvings. The trees grow thick all around – and through - the fallen in temple walls. Ben climbed all over the rocks (yes, they actually allow you to climb up and walk on the roof of the old temple) like a monkey. It would violate every government inspection law in the US for us to just climb in - and on- every part of this fallen wonder - but it was great fun.

Scavenge #4: Visit the Land Mine museum, meet the owner/curator Mr. Aki Rai and listen to his story.
During the various wars here, land mines were heavily used. Aki Rai was orphaned at 5 (when rebels killed his parents) and he was taken from an orphanage by the army at the age of 14. His job for the Khmer Rouge was to plant land mines all over the countryside. When the war was over, and he was married with kids in his 20s, he decided to dedicate his life to de-activating land mines here and to helping children maimed by land mines (his karmic pay-back). He has taken in, and educated, dozens of land mine amputee children and spends a chunk of every month in the jungle finding and doing controlled explosions of land mines. His museum is simple but very moving…with even a short video about his work. And his "adopted" children work at the museum .. taking tickets, running the video. So amazing to see how one kind-hearted man can make a difference to so many.

And just a few observations about Cambodia.

Observation #1: People really can live with very little. Driving out to Angkor Wat yesterday, we passed through village after village: no electricity, water dragged home in a bucket from the communal hand pumped well, dirt floor wooden shacks… yet in front of every house there was a hammock hung up between two trees in the shade with a mother and some number of children - or an old man - swinging away in the 100 degree heat. In every market, there were groups of men sitting around talking and laughing. They clearly have no concern for the Dow Jones or the collapse of the subprime market. Ignorance truly can be bliss. Above all else, this trip makes you feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the fortune of your own life.

Observation #2: Yes, it is scary when this is the sign outside of one of the restaurants that we had to eat in…. I guess that it actually says more about the other restaurants than this one.

Phonm Penh, Cambodia

2009-04-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we flew from Taipei to Phom Penh in Cambodia. I have never been to Cambodia so I was thrilled that we were coming here. We are staying for one day in Phom Penh and then one day in Angkor Wat (Siem Reap) and moving on to somewhere new on the third day.

Favorite Scavenges:

#1: Find the glass stupa at Choeung Ek
This is the memorial at the “Killing Fields” just south of town. In the traffic it took us only slightly less than forever - in the searing heat and dust in a moped Tuk Tuk - to get there. But it was so worth the effort. This field was the execution area for the Khmer Rouge. From 1975-1979, Pol Pot ordered that politicians, doctors, professors and really anyone who did not agree with him or his politics be rounded up, imprisoned and often killed. Prisoners were brought by the truck load to the Killing Fields to be executed and thrown into mass graves. The glass stupa horrifyingly holds hundreds and hundreds of human skulls that were dug out of the mass graves. It is one thing to hear about atrocities. It is another – far more sobering thing – to actually come face to face with skulls piled one on top of each other: nameless, faceless reminders of a terrible time in this gentle country.

# 2: Visit S-21 Tuoi Sieng prison for a reality check
While in power, the Khmer Rouge took a high school and turned it into a prison. The prison has been left pretty much the way it was when Pol Pot was overthrown and you can actually walk through the old classrooms that were used as cells and torture chambers. There is also a large exhibit of photographs of some of the people who were imprisoned or killed there as well as some very graphic photos of tortured and very badly beaten political activists. We got there just before closing time so the place was pretty empty and downright creepy. It is like the whole prison is soaked with sorrow and suffering. In the 3 years that the Khmer Rouge took over, they killed 1.7 million people - more than 20% of the entire population of Cambodia at the time. The S21 prison is a scary reminder of what can happen – literally overnight – when cruel people seize power.

#3: Enjoy a foot massage at Seeing Hands Massage
OK – here’s a good idea – take a group of blind children and teach them to do massages. We had to find a Seeing Hands Massage parlor – where all of the employees are blind – and get a foot massage. To be honest, it was not the cleanest place (maybe because they cannot see the condition of the place) and the whole set-up scared Ben to death that he could contract some skin eating disease – but Nanny and I volunteered for the foot massages. Thank god that the scavenge was only for a foot massage because there was really little chance that I was getting undressed and laying down anywhere in that place. Although – on second thought – there is very little I would not do for points. In the end, my massage was odd, different and yet very touching. They do not soak your feet (maybe water is scarce) and my feet were caked with dust from walking so I was little grossed out to start. But they did do a rapid wipe down with a cloth before they started which helped a little. My masseuse was a young man who was both blind and facially deformed and he touched, squeezed and caressed my feet with such a soft and earnest concentration that he really touched my heart.

# 4: Buy a dozen bottles of shampoo, 20 tubes of toothpaste and large tins of cookies at Lucky’s Supermarket. Deliver them to a specific children’s home.
We had to find and shop at a particular local supermarket, load up a Tuk Tuk and head out to the orphanage. We got lost along the way, so by the time we got there, everyone was firmly asleep. We were considering throwing our goodies over the wall but the Tuk Tuk driver rang the bell and knocked and hollered out until two sleepy children came to the door and let us in. They seemed totally overwhelmed with our bags of supplies and cookies but the little girl woke up enough to hug us as we left. The Children’s Village houses 54 children and there is only a dozen or so shoes for them all to share (all piled up by the front door so that the kids just put on whichever pair are on the top of the pile when they head out). Heartbreaking.

And a few thoughts and observations so far about Cambodia.

Observation # 1: The poverty in Cambodia is some times gut-wrenching. I know that it will be worse in India but this is our first real confrontation with it on this trip. Whole families sleeping on the side of the road at night: mother, father and an assortment of little children lying on cardboard right on the pavement with no belongings or shelter. Most children are barefoot – even when walking to school in their school uniform. Our biggest fights this leg have been that Rainey absolutely refuses to bargain with the Tuk-Tuk drivers. Despite the unwavering Cambodian custom to negotiate every ride ahead of time, Rainey has decided that paying a Tuk Tuk driver $4 for a $2 ride will somehow right the karmic fates that gave him his life instead of these people’s. So yes, we have consistently and horribly overpaid for every ride. We are now down a whole $11 in overpaid fares.

Observation # 2: An interesting merge of cultures, Cambodia has fantastic, crusty baguette bread (left over from the French rule) alongside portions of skewered pigeon. On the bus ride out to Angkora Wat (where we are heading as I write this), the air conditioning on our bus stopped working so we had to stop at a small town / village to try and get it fixed (no luck). While there, we had a coke at a local restaurant which has beautiful, ornate ceilings with crown moulding and 200 year old chandeliers. On the table was half a cucumber turned over with 3 sticks covered in caramel stuck into it: a makeshift fly trap that had so many dead customers that you had to eat lunch watching the rotting carcasses of dozens of flies caught in the caramel. What a vision: dead flies on a caramel stick below crown moulding and chandeliers. Yes, we are in the Southeast Asia.

Three Teas in Taipei

2009-04-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in Taiwan started with a whole new set of scavenges. It rained on and off all day – which made the whole day even more challenging - because it was too windy for an umbrella but wearing a raincoat in topical heat turns every event into a full-fledged steam room experience. Nanny and Ben (being all stoked about their scavenge success from yesterday and with a little bit of smack talking) decided to scavenge without us. So Rainey and I choose to do one of the bonus challenges. So we did not even see them until check-in.

Favorite scavenges from today:

#1: High Speed Train: We had to take the High Speed Rail train from Taipei all the way down almost the entire island of Taiwan to Kaohsiung. The High Speech train is not just high speed – it is downright super-sonic. It goes like 298 KM/Hr – so fast that the world going by outside is out of focus. Yet, inside the train is quiet and a smooth ride. What amazing technology. In Kaohsiung, we had to find a specific set of pagodas on a lake: a tiger and dragon pagoda that you can walk into the mouth of the animals.

# 2: Teahouses: We had to visit two different tea houses and sample 6 different kinds of tea – using proper tea etiquette. We learned all about different teas: which ones have to be made with warm but not-boiling water (to not overpower the flavor), which ones have to steep longer etc. And we sat on little stools before a tea table and drank cup after cup of tea from little girl tea set cups on tiny saucers.

#3: Gross food scavenge of the day: We had to find a specific night market called “Snake Alley” and eat either barbequed rattlesnake, turtle soup or stir-fried mouse. I went with the turtle soup as it seemed, at first blush, to be the best option. What a mistake!! It comes on a combo-platter with a red glass of turtle tea (which looks just like a glass of turtle blood), a white shot glass of turtle egg drink, a green shot glass of who knows what and then, the granddaddy of all nasty food things, an entire bowl of cut up turtle in brown stew. The turtle comes in such big lumps that floating on the top of my bowl was a full foot (including flippers and toes) of a small turtle. Yuck!!!

And some quick observations from our time in Taiwan

Observations # 1: Ben’s first experience with a very fancy (5 star) hotel cracked me up. He wandered around for the first ½ hour dressed up in the white plush robe and slippers - like Hugh Hefner in miniature - trying out every free sample in the wooden box in the bathroom (he brushed his teeth twice with TWO free toothbrushes, used the free comb and even wiped down his face with the free cotton balls just to see what they felt like). But then the jackpot – the toilet had an entire console of add-ons: butt warmers, water that sloshes up (and you can choose any temperature for that water); dryers that then come in to finish up the job. Yes, luxury has a new meaning now…

Observations # 2: We had to sample some local ice-cream flavors at the Ice Monster shop. Not to be critical, but I have never been much of a fan of Mung Bean Grass Jelly Ice dessert (whatever that even is). And when its added to ice-cream, it looks downright stomach curdling.

Observations # 3: This is my first time in Taiwai – so first impression is: Taipei turned out to be a successful, efficient, surprisingly clean city filled with nice and gentle people. Despite the language barrier (have I already mentioned that NO-ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH here), they try very hard to help you at all times. And such polite and well-mannered people. You can be on the most crowded of subway platforms and no-one is pushing, or speaking rudely to the each other or being aggressive. Instead, everyone has a kind smile for you.

Lost in Translation

2009-04-19T17:20:00.001-07:00

The flight over was OK but long. We crossed the date line and lost all of Saturday in the blink of an eye– arriving in Taipei on Sunday morning. We got off the plane in Taiwan expecting that it was just a layover – only to find that all references to us moving on had been red herrings – and we are staying here for 2 days. Yeah – I have never been here before…

By the time we go to the hotel, showered and ate, it was 9 AM before Bill opened the first Taipei day. Part of his new rules is that we are given daily scavenges (instead of one book of all the scavenges for the entire region) and you cannot do scavenges (at least on some legs) from 10PM to 6AM (to force people to sleep and to not allow people who do not need sleep to get an advantage). There are 4 returning teams from past events: Bart & Steve, the BeachBoys, are back to defend their championship title from last year. One member of a 2005 competition team is also back - but with a different team member. And Andi from Dallas who competed with Shannon last year is back as well. Apparently Andi and Shannon conceived a Great Escapes baby in the Kingdom of Bahrain last year and Shannon gave birth a few months ago. So he’s here with a guy friend this time. Because of this, Bill has changed up the rules a bunch so that having been in the competition before is less of an advantage. And he has also made the rules about proving exactly what you did each day even harder. You have to provide 100% iron-clad proof for every challenge and every piece of proof will be checked – every time. You can also only scavenge with another team for part of each day and for a maximum of 5 challenges in a day. PLUS - the hardest new rule of all… you cannot even talk to the concierge or hotel staff at ANY hotel. Not even to ask a single question or to get directions. You have to use ONLY strangers on the streets, buses, taxis etc – no professionals – to help you. Does not sound that hard until you realize that NO-ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH (and by that I mean that every 1 in 18,367 people that you talk to actually has a rudimentary understanding of the English language – all the rest, smile politely and nod a lot to every question).

We hit the ground running as soon as we got the Scavenge books. Rainey and I and Nanny and Ben had decided to scavenge together at the beginning of the day and to split apart after we reached 5 events. We quickly learned that having the four of us together is pretty much chaos – everyone yelling at the taxi driver at once (to where he understands nothing), each of us thinking we should be walking in a different direction and raw nerves as people constantly wander off to ask strangers questions and then it takes time to get us back together. We figured out the metro system (not easy since did I mention that NO-ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH) and started moving across the city in an organized way.

Things were going smoother by the time we split up about midday. Rainey and I went as hard as we could all day and collapsed back into the hotel about 8:45 PM for a 10 PM check-in. Nanny and Ben showed up right before 10 and had whipped our butts. They out-scavenged us, they out-strategized us and they just flat out beat us (I guess apples do not really fall far from the tree). And they are beating us by quite a bit (in this competition EVERY point is hard earned). So the gauntlet has been thrown down now. The war has started. We are upping our game and taking no prisoners.

Four best scavenges from yesterday:

Longshan Temple – We had to find the temple, buy incense, burn the incense to a specific goddess (not as easy as it seems as the temple has dozens of goddesses) and then get our fortune told.

It was Sunday so fortune tellers were in scarce supply and the word “fortune teller” is not easily translated or acted out. It took us over an hour to find one and Ben and Rainey got their fortunes told.

Beitou – The scavenge was to: “Take your bathing suit to Yangmingshan Park in the town of Beitou. Take a dip in the hot springs”. So Rainey and I took the train out to Beitou and set off in a taxi for the park. After driving for 45 minutes straight into a beautiful rainforest mountain, we found the park but no hot springs. Somebody there told us to go back down the mountain and that the public hot spring baths were on the outer edge of the park there. So down we go to find that the word “public hot springs” means 2 buildings (one for men and one for women) with spring fed pools that are filled to the brim with NAKED people. So forget the bathing suit red herring, you have to strip down, put your hair in a special bath cap (I have inspected for lice and other creatures but none so far), kneel before one pool and splash water over your head in a special way with a specific bucket (I messed that one up to the full out laughter of more than 100 naked Chinese women) and then move on to another pool where you wash your hands and feet and then the last pool where you get in totally. The last pool is so full that to submerge yourself you have to wiggle in between hundreds of naked women – touching them all as you do. And across the yard, Rainey was having the identical experience…. Only on Great Escape 2009 would you even consider doing some of this stuff

Eat at a taxi driver’s favorite restaurant: Another scavenge was to ask your cabbie to take you to his favorite restaurant where only locals eat. We ended up above a shady looking food store in a restaurant where no-one has ever heard English far less speaks it. We both ordered soup as it seemed safe enough to then find out that it is a “make your own soup” place. They plunk a bowl of water on a hot plate in front of you and a big bowl of vegetables and meat that you are supposed to put into the bowl to make the soup. The vegetables were (and here I am not even exaggerating): cow hoof patties, jelly fish intestines wrapped in pea pods, lumps of gelatinous goo, slices of mouldy mushrooms with tumors growing on them…. Need I go on. Then Rainey made the whole restaurant explode into laughter when he dumped all of the sauces that they bought us into his soup pot (as they are supposedly just for dipping – not for cooking).

Shilin night market: We had to go to the night market and see gross and horrific food and then put some of the most nasty stuff ever into our mouth, chew and swallow. The people at the market were eating bugs on skewers, cow eyeballs, intestines soaked in sewage…. And loving it… Standing in line to wait to be served it. These people need some fast food in their lives. The smell alone was enough to make you run. Since Rainey will do not the food scavenges I had to put into my mouth - and swallow - some truly awful stuff. Plus, to hide how bad it all is – they add some amazing spicy stuff to the top. Blows the roof off your mouth.

Sunset on a ferry in Danshuei

Heading out...But to where???

2009-04-17T22:23:00.001-07:00

Arrived in Seattle last night for a 3PM check-in with the entire Great Escapes group. We spent the morning walking around Seattle and seeing some of the sites. We went to the Space Needle which has an observation deck that is 500 feet up. Amazing views of Seattle. I even saw the ferries that Dr. McDreamy takes every day to work on Grey's Anatomy.

At dinner tonight with all of the teams, the producers again stood up and told us all that we were flying out a few hours later - in the middle of the night - to Taipei. We all think that we are just laying over in Taiwan and actually are heading somewhere else. But who knows... and no idea where we will go to from Taipei if it is really just a stop-over spot. It is going to be a miserable time (on a plane for 20 hours) but when it is over we will be in the Far East... SO COOL.

2009 - Starting Again

2009-04-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Yes... it's almost time... just over a week before we start again.. going the long way around the world. We are just about finished shopping, organizing and getting ready for our second global scavenger hunt. And this time, just to up our game, we are bringing my 13 year old son and his grandmother. Should be quite a trip.

BACK TO THE REAL WORLD

2008-07-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

It has been a rough adjustment for Rainey and I to get back to the real world after the Great Escapes challenge and we are now packing up to move to Nevada to start another hormone therapy trial. The competition this year raised hundreds of thousands of dollar for charity including some earmarked funds for Unicef and Doctors Without Borders as well as specific micro-financing projects in Nepal. Thanks again to all of our sponsors as well as all of the other competitors who helped raise this money. As hard as it was to take time out of our lives to do this trip, the rewards are more than worth it. Everyone's efforts really will change lives.

On our way home...

2008-05-05T04:15:00.001-07:00

We are finally at a place where DSL works so I think that all of my blogs for the past few days should upload now. Sorry that it has taken me so long to get the last few days up here.

We are on our way home as I write. Tonight was the final Awards Dinner. We were so sad to say goodbye to everyone. We have met some of the nicest people on this trip. We (our team name was 'Lawyers without Borders') ended up coming in second ... which we felt was an outstanding ranking in light of how many teams were really competitive.

We have had such a great time - and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. There are really no words to describe what we have been through in the last month. Thank you again to everyone who supported us and contributed to the Great Escapes Foundation and made this trip possible.

SIGNING OFF FROM THE GLOBAL SCAVENGER HUNT 2008.

Toronto

2008-05-05T04:09:00.000-07:00

OUR LAST STOP... TORONTO.

We chose to spend the little time we had in Toronto rushing to Niagara Falls since Rainey had never been there. We ended up hitting traffic on the way back in the bus - and got back to Toronto only 28 minutes before we had to check in - and we still had not done one of our mandatory eating scavenges. (If you check in late you are penalized 100 points for every 10 minutes that you are late).

So we took off running... and ran from the bus station to the Dragon City Mall in Chinatown ... gobbled (and I mean - ate whole) a piece of Dim Sum and then ran all the way from there to the CN Tower. We arrived (very hot, sweaty and red in the face) at the CN Tower at 3:19 and 54 seconds (check in was 3:20). YEAH!!! Thank God for the half-marathon training....

The Hague

2008-05-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

We also took a train to the Hague to see the International Courts (where the war criminals are prosecuted). It is called the "Peace Palace" and in front of the building (which is a mganificient building looking more like a church than a courthouse) is the Peace Flame which burns 24/7. Around the Peace Flame is a pathway ringed with stones. Written on each stone is the name of a country in the world. You are supposed to walk around the Peace Flame (on the pathway) while reading each country's name and saying a word or prayer for peace in the world and that country. If peaceful thoughts and words count, Rainey and I have added our Peace Flame walk to the effort.

Windmills in Amsterdam

2008-05-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

On the second day in Holland, we choose to do some bonus scavenges which took us by train out of Amsterdam. First we went to Zanne Schans - a little town which still has a row of windmills. On the train ride out we saw fields and fields of tulips with the most vibrant colors - in fact colors that are so strong there is really no words to describe them. We are not allowed to use any taxis on this leg - so this excusrion required a train, a bus, a ferry and some walking to accomplish.

Amsterdam - Eating Scavenges

2008-05-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

One of the scavenges was to eat herring in Amsterdam prepared in a local way. We found it selling at a booth on the street - and since there was no way Rainey was touching it - I had to eat the pickled fish - covered in onions and pickles. And no, not a favorite...

Amsterdam

2008-05-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

We has a 3 AM wake up call today as our flight to Amsterdam was at 5:45 AM. SOOO tired.

But we got to Amsterdam to find a ton of scavenges waiting. First, we had to rent bicycles and ride them all over town (a very dangerous experience that resulted in several near misses of me either hitting a pedestrian or being mowed down by a bus). See Rainey in front of the Anne Frank house. Amsterdam is a beautiful city - very clean and organized and so different than the poverty we have seen in the past few weeks. What a difference money and education makes!!!

Bucharest

2008-05-05T03:41:00.001-07:00

We left Transylvania and arrived in Bucharest by train on Tuesday afternoon. We immediately got lost on the Romanian subway system as we tried to see the sites - including the People's Palace (a building with the second most number of rooms - after the Pentagon). What a testament to Communism that while the people of Bucharest were living in drab, concrete, government provided apartment building (very ugly), the government built this to symbolize the country's "prosperity".

We ate dinner at this really nice restaurant by a lake - right as the sun was setting. So much nicer than the 10,000 thousand hours we have spent in the last few days on trains... eating nothing by potato chips and flat Coke.

We found out tonight that our next stop is AMSTERDAM ... YEAH .... CIVILIZATION.

Dracula's Castle

2008-05-05T03:35:00.001-07:00

We got up early the next day in Brasov, Transylvania and were at Dracula's castle when it opened. Of course Dracula never really lived here - since Dracula is a fictional character - but it is the castle that Bram Stoker used as inspiration for his book. Dracula is loosely based upon a real Count Vlad the Impaler (a horribly mean and sadistic man) who actually spent some time at this castle. The countryside in Transylvania is so beautiful.

BALKAN PENINSULA

2008-04-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

We set off from Athens two days across to get ourselves across several countries and into Bucharest by tomorrow night. First stop was Meteora to the "For Your Eyes Only" mountain or column Very neat town.

After that we got as far as Thessaloniki (a seaside town in the North of Greece) by train - in time to have a very late dinner and sleep for a few hours. The next day we were up early doing the Thesssaloniki challenges before we headed out. We had planned to go to Macedonia (a very confusing place since it is what used to be Yugoslavia - and is now called Macedonia - but the Northern area of Greece is also called Macedonia so every question we asked was suitably muddled). After one phone call and a personal visit to the train station, we realized that because of the Easter holidays, we could not get to Stopje and on to Tetovo in Macedonia by the end of the day. So we ended up dumping that entire set of scavenges and headed out instead by bus to Sofia in Bulgaria. We arrived in Sofia about 9 PM - immediately hailed a cab and did some scavenges in Sofia - and then took an 11:30 PM night train all the way across Bulgaria to the Black Sea. We woke up the next day in Varna, Bulgaria. Despite our best efforts, we did not end up with a sleeper car so we had to spend the night laying across regular train chairs. The train was SOOOO cold that about 2 AM I got up and put on 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, my raincoat and wrapped my head in a T-shirt. The train conductor busted out laughing when he came in the next morning to wake us. We stayed in Varna less than 2 hours before we headed out again to Russe - a town on the Danube that is half in Romania and half in Bulgaria. There we went to this really cool monastery that is carved into the hills called the Rock monastery

From Russe we crossed into Bucharest and caught a late afternoon train to Brussov. This is where Dracula's castle (or Dram's Castle) is - and we are going there first thing in the morning. I cannot wait. It sounds creepy and interesting.

The main scavenge points for tonight goes to the team that stays in the the cheapest hotel. We took on the challenge and started asking at the train station for the cheapest hostel or pensione. We were directed to this old man who agreed to rent us a room in his hostel for 15 Euros plus 5 Euros for transport to it. We agreed and headed off in his car (with thoughts of the movie "Hostel" playing in our mind - would anyone ever see or hear from us again). When we arrived we realized that it is his private home and he rents out his second bedroom. It is beyond modest -and in to downright humble. The mattresses are bare and he loaned us one sheet and two hand towels. We share a bathroom with him. As soon as we arrived he broke out the alcohol and sat and talked to for us for almost an hour while he made Rainey drink shots of tuica (luckily a food scavenge anyway - so we killed two birds with one stone). After being on trains and buses for almost two straight days just laying flat will be a luxury but this may be a double Ambien night - if nothing else just to avoid my paranoia about flesh eating parasites living in the bare mattresses.

THE BALKANS

2008-04-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Now starts the really interesting leg of the trip. We arrived in Athens on Saturday afternoon, had a really fun dinner all together in the Platka and then - at 9 PM - got told that we are "on our own" for the next 4 days. In that time, we have to plot our way (hitting as many scavenges as possible) through Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania and end up in Bucharest by Wednesday night at 9 PM. We got handed an envelope of cash for trains and hotels and sent on our way. But the real trick... it's Easter in Greece and everything is either closed or working at 1/4 pace for the next two days. And you cannot use the concierge to answer questions - but NOTHING is open. Quite a challenge!!Rainey and I started out that night doing all of our Athens mandatory scavenges and doing the ones that were close to the hotel. Then we got up really early the next day and finished up what we could do in Athens (the Acropolis at sunrise is awe-inspiring) and decided to head out of Greece. Even that was a trick because only a handful of buses were running and very few trains. We set out for Meteora (an amazing and beautiful town in the hills). Buses to Meteora were cancelled all day and there was only one train in and out in the afternoon - which was the slow, slow, train (stopping at every little town). It took us most of the day to get there. And when we arrived in Meteora, we realized that there were no taxis and the left luggage spot was closed, so we had to haul our suitcases with us almost 3 miles through the town and up to the Meteora columns. This computer that I am on will not let me upload photos but I will try and get to an internet cafe later to show you how fantatistic it was. The clue for the Meteora scavenge was to photograph the Meteora columns that are for your eyes only. We had no idea what that meant and neither did anyone in town until Rainey recognized that the James Bond movie "For Eyes Only" was filmed in part at one of the monasteries on the rocks - which we took tons of photos of. (see photo below from the internet which will have to do until I can get my stuff up here)The excursion cost us some time but was well worth it. Its unfortunate that with the holidays no other team was able to see it (although I guess they were smarter to do quicker scavenges). In fact, there was literally NO-ONE on the one train with us to Meteora yesterday as everyone was home eating their Easter lunch. We managed to get out to Meteora and to Thessaloniki late last night, slept a few hours in a hotel here, and are now on our way out.... I will try and get photos uploaded later.

Observations from Asia

2008-04-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

i just realized I didn't publish this post the other day-- so it's a big out of order!

We had an amazing experience to see such a cross-section of Asia in just about 10 days: From China - to Malaysia - to Singapore to Nepal. Some thoughts and comments so far:

- Flush toilets are obviously a Western luxury. I have seen more holes in the ground and squat toilets than I ever need to see again.

- There are no diet drinks. Asians apparently really like the taste of sugar (works out good as i do too!).

- In Nepal, the cows are everywhere because it is an 80% Hindu country and the Hindus believe that cows are sacred. The cows literally are in the middle of every street (causing even greater traffic jams than usual), at every market (eating whatever they want from the stalls) and in every alleyway.

- Shoes are generally optional

- Mutton and very odd fish items are favorites

- The women are relegated to doing some of the hardest jobs – including carrying pounds and pounds of weight in grass on their heads each day from the riverside where they cut it back to their home for their water buffalo.

Grocery store has a whole new meaning when it is really just a woman in a beautiful sari sitting in a shack with some hanging items and 2 shelves of packaged goods (every piece of which has expired more than 6 months ago). And yes, out of sheer hunger, we have had our share of totally stale biscuits and almost moldy potato chips.

All and all-- just a great trip!! I miss everyone though!!! (Benny, Jordy-- this means YOU!!)