on the other side of the world….

Hello from Cambodia,
We’re in Siem Reap, home of the Temples of Angkor, for one more night then off to Bangkok and Paris!  We’ve been here for 4 days and have enjoyed exploring the ancient temples and cities (and the great food).  We haven’t had much chance to upload any more photos but trust me, we’ve taken a lot and they will be up someday soon

A very quick update: Since we last wrote…
The overnight Bus was not comfortable and we didn’t sleep much…
Hue was interesting and the Nguyen Dynasty tombs were really great…
The train to Danang was beautiful!  Coast on our left, mountains on our right.  Reminded us of Korea…
Hoi an was unfortunately pretty forgettable.  Mostly attributable to our poor planning, but it was reallllly touristy and mostly consisted of shopping and eating (which we like, but weren’t in the mood for just that).  Our hotel was great though and we had a nice bike ride through the country-side…
Booked the wrong day train tickets to Ho Chi Minh City so our Hotel in Hoi An had to help us rebook them.  All we could get was a Soft Seat (but we ended up on a better train, time-wise) and we didn’t loose any extra money…
The train ride was uncomfortable but an experience …
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was busy and crowded but not as much as Hanoi.  We enjoyed about 36 hours there and visited the War Atrocities museum about the Vietnam War.  Not the best museum but still eye opening.  They had a large exhibit about Agent Orange victims…
Took a bus over the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia…
That same day we visited the Killing Fields and S-21 (a high school turned “security center” where the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed over tens of thousands people before sending them to the Killing Fields).  So, a long and depressing day…
The next day we took another bus to Siem Reap…
Rode bikes to the Temples of Angkor and toured Angkor Thom in the morning and Angkor Wat in the afternoon.  It’s realllly hot so we take a siesta around noon :)  …
Hired a Tuk-tuk to drive us around the “grand tour” temples (further away than the day before).  Started at Sunrise – 5AM!! …
Visited the Ruluos Temples (the oldest in the area) and were back to our hostel by 10:30am…
Took a cooking class and learned to cook some Amazing Khmer recipes! Can’t wait to share…

That brings us up to date!

We’ll spend one night in Bangkok then fly to Paris at 5:20 the next evening.
More when we get to Paris…  hopefully with more pictures…
Chad

Hello all!
We’ve had some great adventures since our last update but little access to internet (at least internet with a real keyboard). We’re in the least planned part of our trip so most of the time when we have wifi or a computer we use it to plan our next move.
Since our last update…
We finished at Biofarm and headed into Shanghai for one night. Stayed at a great hostel called the Mingtown for less than 10 dollars! The next afternoon we took an overnight train to Hong Kong. The train was great although we were on the top bunk which was a bit cramped. We met some nice people and arrived without a hitch.
Hong Kong was great! A nice breather before we jumped back into full-on Asia. We ate great food, listened to Asians with Brittish Accents and had some great conversations with our fantastic Couch Surfing host, Kirk. We also got to spend a good amount of time with my friend Marc from the Recording department at IU and his girlfriend Hanni. We went to their apartment on Lamma Island and wandered around Hong Kong. Marc plays with the Hong Kong Symphony so he’s knows the ins and outs and showed us around.
After a few days we headed off again towards Vietnam…
We took a train to Guangzhou (2 hours) and from there, transfered to the other train station and boarded another overnight train to Nanning, China. We arrived at 5:30am and transfered over to a bus station and took an 8 hour bus over the boarder to Hanoi, Vietnam! So, exhausted an icky we quickly found our Couch Surfing host’s apartment and settled in. Heidi, a Unesco employee from Finland hosted us and showed us around the CRAZY Hanoi. She was wonderful and really made us feel welcome (on her first time hosting!). Hanoi was crazy but a lot of fun. Motorcycles everywhere, lots of haggling with merchants, and some great food. We even bought a piece of art! Pictures will follow someday
Now we are in Ninh Binh. This town is the hub for a number for famous sights such as Tam Coc and some temples. We took a day tour from Hanoi this morning and are staying here until 9pm when we get on an overnight Bus down the coast to Hue. Exausting…
The plan as of now is…
Hue for 1 night, to Hoi An the next day, one night in Hoi An, then the train to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), a day there, then off to Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a day, then on to Siem Reap – home of Angkor Wat!! We’ll stay there for 3 days then off to Bangkok for a night and then… PARIS!!

Here are a few more pictures… I’ll try to keep uploading more as soon as possible….

Enjoy and we can’t wait to see you all soon!
-Chad

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Hello all!
After a brief outage, I think the site should be up and running again. Our host was having some issues yesterday. We’re in the middle of our spring trip home and are currently in Shanghai, China. Right now we’re working on an organic farm outside of Shanghai for about 10 days. We work for 6 hours a day doing farm work or administrative help (with their website and art projects) and in exchange we get a place to stay and 3 meals a day! It’s amazing! We’ll post more about that when we have more time but just wanted to update quickly with some pictures from the first 2 weeks of our trip! We’re going to put a hold on posting the rest of our Philippines trip pictures, sorry but we didn’t have a chance to get them uploaded before we sent our computers home. But don’t worry we’ll upload them soon enough.

A quick update of what we’ve been up to…
We frantically left our apartment on the 26th of February after being told we had to leave a day earlier because the new teachers were coming! We stayed with some friends in Samcheok then left for Daegu for a Temple Stay. We stayed at Haeinsa Temple for one night and had a great experience with the monks there. Next we headed to Busan (southern Korea City) to visit two friends from IU who just moved there to start teaching English! After a few days there we headed up to Seoul for a day on the high-speed train then flew to Beijing!

I developed a nasty cold while in Korea so we took it pretty slow the first few days in Beijing and stayed in a great hostel just north of the forbidden City. We visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, A few parks in Beijing, The Great Wall, and saw a Peking Opera. The last two nights we stayed with some lovely Couch Surfers named Prometheus and Lucy and went out for a great Hot Pot! Beijing was really a lot of fun and we definitely will go back at some point. (Kate found a number of galleries that have great residency programs!)

Next we took the high-speed train to Shanghai where we are now. As I said above, we’re working at the Biofarm in shanghai and having a great time. This morning we transplanted seedlings and now we’re designing some icons for their new website. (What a vacation!) We’re enjoying getting to know the farmers and staff and having a more intimate Chinese experience – and we’re learning a thing or two about organic farming too!

I’ve uploaded a few photos to flickr so take a look at this gallery for a sample of what we’ve been up to! Check back here as we upload more photos.

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